The animosity
hovered thickly in the air. "What exactly did you say?" Lita
tried not to clench her teeth.
"You know what I
said," Kasumi said innocently. "Sage is mine. He
deserves someone as sweet and lovely as me."
"What makes you
think you deserve Sage?" Lita snarled, clenching her fists.
Pikachu watched them apprehensively. It tried to protect Seiji
and Makoto from the hordes of women, it appeared to be too late in
preventing Kasumi Tendo from daring to make a claim. Makoto
would have to handle this one.
"Because I'm the
perfect woman that every man desires," she said
fluffily.
"I'm sorry, but
the last time I saw Sage which was not too long ago, he desired
nobody. You haven't done anything to prove yourself worthy of
Sage anyway. Perhaps, I just might be more worthy of him than
you."
"Very well then,"
Kasumi took a step back, but still standing strong. "We'll
have a cooking test. Tomorrow. The woman who cooks the
food that Seiji likes best will be the one most deserving of him,
deal?"
"Deal." And
so, the day passed and another came.
"Come on,
Ranma. You have to do this," Nabiki prodded him emotionally,
camera in hand. "Sage needs someone to practice with for the
big fight with Kuno."
"I don't know
anything about Kendo swords!"
"Just pretend
you're in martial arts gymnastics and that the sword is a weapon
you're using." Ranma scowled with his arms crossed and
looked away, but Nabiki got him to look her straight in the face
again. "Anyway if you want to make your presence known as a
bishounen across the Realm, you'll have to get your picture taken
with Sage and you might be even more popular if they thought you're
also into Kendo."
"Why would I want
a bunch of brainless women chasing after me, hm? I already
have enough of that in my own territory," he scoffed.
Suddenly, cold water was splashed onto Ranma, drenching him and
magically
turning him into
her due to the Jusenkyo curse.
"If you don't help
me, I'll make sure you don't feel hot water forever."
"Fine," the female
Ranma grumbled in his/her female voice. "Can I at least be a
man when I
Akane, knowing
that when Lita and Kasumi start cooking she'd be the one to wash the
dishes, decided to
watch the two men practice.
Everything was
peaceful in the goddess territory. Keiichi and Belldandy sat
across from the other at the table, enjoying their breakfast and
gazing lovingly into the other's eyes. If only Belldandy's
sisters weren't there...
Urd walked out of
the bathroom after taking her shower and walked into her own
personal room. Belldandy suggested waiting to start breakfast
until after her eldest sister's shower, but Urd was against
it.
Urd shuffled
through her boxes of various potions and medicine, looking for
something to get rid of her headache when suddenly she realized
something was missing.
"All right, Skuld,
where is it?" Urd threatened her youngest sister, backing her
up against the wall.
"My potions!
That's what!"
Keiichi intervened
from where he sat across from Belldandy. "What's going
on?"
"Someone stole my
potions," she snarled.
"They're not those
potions you used on me that one time, are they?" Keiichi
questioned.
"Over a hundred of
them. And someone stole every one of them!"
Belldandy spoke
up, "A friend of yours came by the other day."
"Who was she and
what did she do?" Urd was fuming.
"I believe she was
Lina Inverse and she said she wanted to borrow something from you
and that you wouldn't mind."
"Lina?" Keiichi
questioned and suggested. "She's probably the one who stole
those potions."
Instantly, Urd
zoomed out of the house.
"She's not gonna
fight Lina Inverse, is she?" Skuld was suddenly hyper and
cheerful.
"Cool! I
wanna watch!" And so Skuld zoomed out of the house, leaving
Keiichi and Belldandy to themselves.
Pikachu wandered
around the Tendo household, wondering what to do. Lita and
Kasumi were busy preparing to cook all day long. Even though
it was hungry, it didn't want to bother the two eccentric
women.
Suddenly, it saw a
little black pig in the hallway! Pork was the other white meat
after all... Pikachu gave chase and the piglet ran
swiftly. P-chan led the pokemon into the washroom where the
almighty Tendo father was relaxing in hot water. P-chan
promptly jumped in the tub, transferring himself into his orginal
form.
Pikachu upon
seeing the transformation fled, being chased by and angry and,
oblivious to the chaser, naked Ryouga.
"I'll kill you,
you accursed pokemon!" Ryouga shouted as they ran past the kitchen
and outside.
Pikachu had to
find a safe haven; someone to protect it! Pikachu ran towards
the dojo and inside.
Ranma messed up
with those wooden Kendo swords and Sage ended up whacking him across
the head. Akane was cheering for Sage and Nabiki was taking
annoying pictures. That was the sight Pikachu recieved when it
first entered. Sage! Pikachu jumped on top of his
head.
"Sage!
Sage! Please protect me from this madman who's chasing
me!"
Ryouga entered the
building to see Nabiki and Akane. They were two women and he
was a naked man. Ryouga turned red and fled.
"Now, Kento,
brother," Yun spoke cautiously, "Remember this is something that
will make Kousei think you're perfect. Flawless. It'll
fix up all of your problems with Kousei." He was leading his
eldest brother through a strip of forest.
"Well, I'll leave
you here. Lina should come soon."
And so he waited
for Lina to arrive. He didn't wait too long when she did with
a full sack over her shoulders.
"Are you the
customer that Yun told me about?"
"Yes..." Kento
nodded. He was unsure about buying anything from her, but
hoped that whatever she had would stop Kousei from being angry at
him so much.
"So, you want a
love potion, right?"
The Ronin Warrior
nodded again.
Lina reached into
her sack and pulled out a small bottle. "This is it.
Urd's own special recipe. Any woman who drinks this and sees
you will be yours forever no matter what. This isn't free
though. It only costs, um, ten million gold
pieces."
"Nope. With
this any woman you want will fall passionately in love with you and
no other. And it's permanent. She'll be your love slave
forever. All you have to do is get the woman you want to drink
this and you have to be the first man she sees. If she sees a
different man directly after she sees this..." Lina let the sentence
hang.
I guess that isn't
that bad of a price if it's permanent... "Do you accept yen?"
"Hm, okay, I guess
that'll do instead."
Kento paid the
sorceress and held the potion delicately in his hands.
With this, Kousei
will believe I am flawless; perfect. I just have to be the
first man she sees after she takes this... Does he have any idea what he just got himself
into?
The first trial of
the day was breakfast. Rice and noodles. Lita was
fumbling around in the kitchen, not knowing where anything
was. The Sailor Senshi was too proud to ask Kasumi where
anything was and everyone else was outside. Kasumi was smiling
sweetly to herself as she set the rice to boil. Even though
Lita would never admit it, she watched Kasumi's actions to learn
where the stuff was. Soon enough, there were two pots of
boiling rice.
Then, came the
noodles, all plain and traditional. Lita, however, fixed a
sauce to put in it, turning the breakfast into a type of
pasta.
"Do you think
Seiji would like that?" Kasumi asked an innocent question, but Lita
knew better.
"Yes, I'm sure he
would."
"My meal is very
traditional. A traditional man deserves a traditional
meal."
Lita scowled
inwardly and felt like choking someone, perferably
Kasumi.
Everyone sat
around the table, ready to eat. The two pots were set in the
middle of the table.
Sage picked up his
bowl although it was a little too heavy... It was two bowls
stacked on top of the other! "Excuse me, but I'm going to put
this extra one up." Sage started to rise when Kasumi and Lita
snatched a bowl each and personally filled it with their own
cooking. Then, they handed it back to Sage. He picked up
his chopsticks and looked at the two full bowls. That was
twice as much as everyone else. He was the only one with two
bowls. What was going on?
Sage had a sudden
feeling that a supreme act of courtesy depended on which bowl he ate
first. Food is FOOD!! He just wanted to eat food without
placing any symbolic importance in it. If Sage ate one bowl
first, then the woman who's cooking he ate last would be
offended.
He scooted both
bowls to him and scooped some of the noodles from the pasta dish and
some noodles from the traditional dish and ate them together in one
bite.
"So what do you
like?" Lita asked impatiently.
"It is good," Sage
answered noncommittally.
"But
what exactly is good?"
Lita insisted.
"The breakfast is
good," He said evasively and repeated the process of picking up
tidbits out of the bowls with his chopsticks and eating them in one
bite.
When all the
others finished their breakfast, Sage was only half done. So,
being traditional, they waited at the table for Sage to
finish. Sage ate it all, but his mouth movements grew slower
the longer he ate.
He stood up a bit
unsteadily. He felt as though something was trying to expand
his stomach unnaturally and the stomach walls were struggling to
compress it all.
"So, you want to
practice some more?" Ranma asked, standing up. Nabiki also
stood with a camera in hand.
The first few
steps Sage took gave him a headache, but the passed very
quickly. The pain was subsiding with every step.
"Sure. Okay."
Sage was groaning
the entire way up to the dojo. Nabiki followed them.
"How can you handle it?" he asked Ranma.
"Them." he
motioned his head a little in Nabiki's direction.
Ranma knew what he
was referring to. The hordes of opposite gender. "I
should probably ask you the same thing!"
"But you were
created to be chased by women. Me? I was just supposed
to be a quiet character. The rules were only suspended on me
when I needed to wear my armor and fight."
They resumed
training. A few quick and athletic movements later, Sage
dropped his sword. His face contorted in pain as his stomach
clamped up and he ran as fast as he could towards the nearest
bathroom.
Ranma and Sage
didn't practice for long because Ranma and Akane had school to go to
and with those two gone, Ryouga strolled around the Tendo household
freely.
"Um, Ryouga-san?"
Pikachu asked timidly.
He looked down at
the furry pokemon who was holding a loaf of bread to
him.
"I'm really sorry,
do you forgive me?"
Magia Yogenchi sat
down comfortably in her chair in her wagon. She hoped to relax
and take a break from her worries and leashing the cultists and
extremists away from the other for a week. She believed that
she deserved a tranquil week without any problems. Curiosity
perked up inside of her, but she tried to shove it away to the back
of her mind. She assured herself that everyone was alright,
but she was still concerned. So she set a few cards on the
table for an augury. Sage, Lita, and Pikachu were safe
considering the kind of Anime they were in.
Yogenchi took a
deep breath. If anything was wrong with them, the cult would
most likely be involved and she didn't want to fix anything at the
moment.
Then, she cast an
augury for Kousei and felt like jumping up and throwing stuff in a
fit of anger. Kousei had left again, not to mention
she was going to get into alot of trouble with a certain type of
potion...
Yogenchi grumbled,
gathered up her cards, got all of the stuff she needed and
left. Her tranquil week was ruined!
Sage attempted to
take a peaceful walk and it went by perfectly. Now, finished
with the walk, he headed towards the Tendo house.
"Is Akane close
by?" Ryouga, fully clothed, asked him as he passed by the small
pool.
"Yes." Sage
saw her returning home eariler. "She should be here
soon."
Ryouga put aside
the bread that he was previously munching on and hopped into the
pool. P-chan came out a moment later. Shortly after that
Akane arrived and cuddled the pig in her arms.
Sage shuddered,
"Strange Anime."
The first trial
ended in a tie. Sage showed no preference in cooking.
The second trial was lunch and they expected lunch to be bigger than
breakfast.
Kasumi spoke up,
"Lita, Sage cannot mix his food like he did eariler
today."
"I agree, but
what's to stop him from doing that again?"
"Our meals were
too similar so they were easy to mix up. We need to fix
something that everyone has to eat and that must be kept
separate."
"Like one of us
cooks corn and the other cooks eggs? It would be very gross if
someone combines those two."
"That is a good
example," Kasumi nodded. "But we probably shouldn't fix
that."
They went into the
kitchen and pondered what to cook for lunch. Kasumi suggested,
"Rice and fish?"
Lita shrugged,
"Sure. Fine."
Then, she zoomed
over to the freezer, pulled out a packet of fish and grabbed a bag
of rice out of the cabinet. Kasumi tried to take the stuff
from her and offered to fix both of them.
"No, I'll cook one
and you cook the other."
"No, let me,"
Kasumi used an innocent tactic. She grabbed the rice bag and
tried to pull it away from her "You shouldn't cook. You
are the guest after all."
"No, I want to
cook!" Lita pulled on the bag.
The two
sage-obsessed women started pulling the bag of rice harder each
turn.
"It's going to
break and spill!" Kasumi shrieked at one point.
"Well, let go of
the bag!"
The bag broke
suddenly causing both women to scream as little strands of rice
scattered all
over the
floor. Sage and Ranma ran towards the kitchen upon hearing the
commotion and
peered
inside. When the rice bag exploded, Lita accidentally dropped
the pack of fish which
also exploded upon
hitting the floor.
"What just
happened here?" Sage asked the women who were standing ridged with
shock.
"You don't want to
know," Ranma whispered to him. Sage nodded. They feared
dinner.
Needless to say,
Lunch was nonexistent for them today.
Kento took her to
a private restuarant and made sure they would absolutely be alone
and that the majority of employees who worked at the time would be
female. He poured the potion in her drink while she looked at
the salad bar. I can't believe
this, he thought
nervously, eager for her to take a sip of her now toxic drink,
this is too good
to be true...
"Tristan, I can't
believe you chose such a great place," Kousei said, sitting down
with her plate of food. It was so much better than boxing and
this was slightly fancier than the more common restuarants, plus he
was gonna pay the bill! "Very impressive. Did you think
of this place or did your friends help you out?"
"It was my own
idea." which was true. Kento appeared very pleased with
himself and smiled contentedly.
"You're getting
better, Tristan." Kousei smiled her most adorable kawaii
little smile. He finally did something right! "You know,
I think I finally learned something at the capital."
"Like what?"
He was finally getting his steak and he was starving! Kento
cut off huge pieces and swallowed them whole.
"The group of
scientists at the capital was formed after the Great War, not before
like popular belief. And there's some connection between Osamu
who is the first capital scientist and the first Magia, but I'm not
sure what. It's strange though considering that the scientists
and the Magia absolutely hate each other." Kousei reached over
with her fork and snatched a bite of Kento's steak.
"Ick. That's a little too dry." She took a sip of her
drink!
Kento held his
fork with its piece of meat still intact in his mouth, watching her
eagerly. Soon, in her eyes, he will have no faults. How
long until the potion goes into effect? He held his
breath.
"That tasted
strange too." She continued eating. "Tristan? Are
you okay? You have food; you should eat."
Kento pulled the
meat off the fork and began to chew. "Oh, I'm
fine."
"I hope so."
They both continued eating. "I actually made a few friends at
the capital. They're a little too intelligent for you
though. You wouldn't like them."
'love slave
forever'? she doesn't seem any
different... |
