"Oops."
WHAM
"Ow."
scramble
"Oops."
WHAM
"Ow."
*Um, Kodora?*
scramble
"Hold on, I think I've got it...Whoops."
WHAM
"Ow."
*Kodora?*
*Yes?*
*You're SURE you've skated before?*
*YES.*
*So, why-*
*I never said it was recent or a lot, Ranma. I told you to expect to get a lot of lumps from this.*
*Wonderful.*
**************************************************************************** *************
Passenger Chapter 29: This Isn't The Next Chapter
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by Selene Starblade Dedicated to all you flakes out there. You know who you are.
Disclaimer: Why bother? You already know anyway, especially if you've read this far.
English and sound effects are in . Japanese is in " ". Jusenkyoo Cursed Signs are in [ ]. Chinese is in { }. Mental conversations between Ranma and Kodora are in * *.
**************************************************************************** *************
"Here, let me help you with that, Imooto-chan."
Kodora looked up at Kasumi.
"I still don't see how you can skate in a long skirt like that. How do you keep from tripping yourself up?"
Kasumi just smiled pleasantly and slid in a lazy circle around her sister, who was sitting splay-legged on the ice.
"Practice, of course. How do you keep doing all of those twists with your neck?" Asked Kasumi, currently behind Kodora, who had twisted to face her without moving her own legs.
Kodora grinned sheepishly. "I know, I'd just expected to get it back right away, like riding a bike."
Souun slid by, looking unsteady. "Look, Kasumi-chan! I'm moving!"
Kasumi kept smiling. "Of course you are, Otoosan. You might want to watch where you're going, though."
"Eh?" Souun managed, before falling over the short wall on the edge of the rink. "Oof!"
Kodora giggled. "Rule one of skating, 'Toosan. Don't focus too much on any one thing at first, you'll trip yourself up."
Souun popped up from behind the wall. "Of course. I knew that."
Kasumi managed to help Kodora to her feet without both of them falling over. "You're forgetting that yourself, though, Imooto. You're concentrating too much on the memory of skating."
Kodora blinked. "Ano... I see what you mean, Oneechan."
"Here, just let me lead you around a little, maybe it will come back to you."
Kasumi took her sister's hands and slowly skated backwards , drawing the much smaller girl along with her.
*Hey, Ranma, why so quiet all of a sudden?*
*Uh? Oh, nothing.*
*You sure?*
*Yah. Say, where'd Ryoga go? I know he wasn't too good when he first stepped on the ice, but I thought he was gonna stick with the rest of us?*
******
"Martine!"
Ryoga blinked. The little girl in the ice skates and excessively cute clothing was running towards him across the padded area near the entrance to the rink. Figuring she meant someone else, he continued his sulking.
He was sure, with all the time he'd wound up spending in the mountains, that he would be a natural for skating.
Instead, he hadn't even managed to put both feet on the ice for more than half a second at a go. He knew he wasn't extremely good with his balance, but that had been ridiculous and embarrassing.
GRAB
Ryoga absently looked up at the girl clutching one of his bandannas.
"Martine! Mart- Jeanette! Jeanette!"
GRAB
"Jeanette! Martine! Jean-"
Azusa looked again.
Bandanna in right hand: check.
Bandanna in left hand: check.
Boy with no bandanna on: no check.
?????
******
"Here we go."
*Hey, this seems like it would be pretty easy.*
*Yeah, it's actually pretty easy, but the way it works is kind of deceptive.*
*Hm. Kinda fun, too.*
*Yup. You just have to be careful not to get out of control, because then you usually can't get it back without running into something.*
*So, how do you get out of control?*
*Well,* Answered Kodora, making a wide u-turn, following the wall of the rink, *You can run into someone, or you can make an instinctive movement that wouldn't work, or*
Someone passed by in front of her, FAST. She reacted by jerking back, but that changed her direction, causing her to slide out of control.
*CRAP! OR YOU CAN PANIC!!!*
"Whoaaaa! A little- whoop- help here!! Aaack!"
KATCH
Piku-piku.
"Nan da?"
Kodora looked up, to see a the face of a fine-featured young man looking down at her from behind her.
"Are you alright, little girl?" Asked Mikado Sanzenin, turning the small girl to face him as he set her on the ice.
"Ano... I'm fine, thank you." Answered Kodora. *LITTLE?*
*Remember what Touhuu-sensei said, Imootochan? Eleven or twelve?*
*Oh, yeah...*
"Kodora-chan! Are you alright?"
Kodora smiled up at Kasumi. "I'm fine. This nice boy caught me. Say.." She turned to the tall young man. "..what's your name?"
Mikado bowed. "I am Mikado Sanzenin of Kolkhoz High School." He turned to Kasumi. "Miss, if you would like, I would tutor your daughter in ice skating so that she does not have any more accidents like this."
Kasumi smiled, but her eyebrow twitched slightly. "No, thank you, sir. My IMOOTOCHAN and I can do just fine for ourselves, thank you."
Kodora and Mikado both winced, for different reasons.
"Come along, IMOOTOCHAN, let us go see if we can find Ryoga-san." So saying, Kasumi took off for the gate, dragging Kodora along behind her. Mikado just stood there, looking embarrassed.
Then again, he really didn't think a woman like that would have encouraged her own daughter to do such strange things to her hair. What on earth was the girl using for shampoo? Crazy glue?
******
*What an annoying- what the?* Ranma cut off.
"And Jaques and Charlotte and Francoise and Michelle and..."
Ryoga was sitting there watching passively as Azusa kept removing and naming the bandanna from his head. She was already waist-deep in pieces of unevenly checkered cloth.
Ryoga looked up. "Hey. How are you doing?"
"Ano- Ryoga? Are all of those off of your head?"
"And Jeannie and Michi and Karine and..."
"Yep."
"Oh, my. Doesn't it hurt your head to have all of those on at once?"
"I only wear one at a time, Kasumi."
Kodora blinked. "Run that by me again?"
"And Cleausseau and Gabri and Andrea and..."
"Have you ever heard of a book called 'The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Bates'?"
"By an American man? Name of Dr. Seuss?"
"Yeah. I happened on a cursed version of it. Some wizard or sorceror with too much time on their hands, I think."
"And Kalinka and Russa and Anna and Mishka..."
"So what does that mean?"
"Well," Ryoga sighed. "It means that no matter how many times I take off my bandanna, I'm still wearing one."
"And Bowie and Sarah and Chester and Jaha..."
"That must come in handy sometimes."
"I suppose. But just once, I'd like to take it off and wash my hair. Do you know how hard this makes it to get haircuts?"
"And Vyse and Aika and Fina and Drachma and..."
"Is that why your hair's like that?"
"Actually, I just like my hair like this, but a little shorter than it is now. I haven't had a haircut in a few weeks. That's how long I've had this thing."
"And Mag and Chain and Pepper and Linear and Gre and WHY AREN'T YOU CHASING AZUSA?!??!"
Ryoga looked over at her. "What's the point? I don't need those anyways."
Grumbling, Azusa Shiratori stalked off, which was pretty impressive until she left the padded area, forgetting that she was still wearing her skates.
TRIP-WHAP
"Owwie!!!!"
The man behind the skate-rental counter leaned over it. "HEY! I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY OF THOSE LYING AROUND AFTER YOU LEAVE!"
Ryoga blanched.
"What am I going to do with all of these things?"
"Try putting them back on."
Ryoga looked at Kodora like he thought she was insane. "Are you insane?"
Kodora shook her head. "No, think about it. If you always have ONE on, and you put another one on, what will the spell that's making you always have one do?"
"It will.... overload and expire?"
Kodora rubbed her temples. "No, Ryoga. It will remove the extra one, since you're supposed to always have ONE on, not two."
Ryoga brightened. "I get it!" He immediately grabbed one of the bandannas, still tied into a loop, and placed it on his head around the one he was currently wearing, which disappeared. "Hey, you were right!"
Kodora shrugged. "It just made sense, you know? What sort of a curse would it be if you could undo it that easily?"
Ryoga nodded, rapidly replacing bandannas. "I'm lucky she didn't untie these."
Kasumi frowned at the pile. "At least, not after the first hundred or so, she didn't."
Ryoga froze, then slumped. "Aw, man, I'm gonna be here FOREVER."
Kodora smiled. "No you won't. We'll just tie them and hand them to you. Right, Oneechan?"
Kasumi smiled back and nodded. The two immediately set to retying the bandannas they could reach, while Ryoga kept putting them back on.
Akane walked up. "What the....."
Kodora replied, without even looking up. "Ryoga's putting back on an infinite number of bandannas."
Akane just sweatdropped.
**************************************************************************** *************
You may be wondering about the name of this chapter. I called it that because, as you may have noticed, I have failed to have anyone trying to beat up Mikado Sanzenin.
Yet.
I decided to delay that to next chapter.
MORE REVIEWS! MUST HAVE MORE REVIEWS!
By the by, I am STILL looking for someone willing to host my fanfictions and companion artwork, since the esteemed FF.net DOES NOT DO PIX. Please? Some response of one sort or another would be nice.
And I can't say it enough times. My Email is 'Selene Starblade@AOL.com'. If your mail system does not support addresses with spaces in them, just ignore the space and it should be okay. If you mail me at Whirledpeas3@aol.com, it may get deleted accidentally, as I am not the only person using that Screen Name for Email. I only supplied FF.net with that address because it wouldn't accept my real one at all.
So, Next Chapter: What I promised I would have in THIS chapter!
And for those of you also reading Out Of My Hair- sorry about the delays on the next chapter. Inspiration has failed to perform it's routine strike to the head, and I'm still waiting. The chapter is actually about half-done, but I'm not going to post it in that condition. 'Coz stuff still might change.
To the understandable aggrievement of said Tatewaki, he was now also known as the Puce Wombat, the Lavender Toothpick, the Mauve Pantyliner, the Beige Sparkplug, and Ranma's personal favorite, the Tartan Electric Massage Unit With Sunlamp Attached. In a mere forty-eight hours, the Furinkan talent for distorting information had tagged Kuno with some seventy-nine new and increasingly ludicrous names-- and most people assumed that he'd chosen them himself. -"Girl Days"
WHAM
"Ow."
scramble
"Oops."
WHAM
"Ow."
*Um, Kodora?*
scramble
"Hold on, I think I've got it...Whoops."
WHAM
"Ow."
*Kodora?*
*Yes?*
*You're SURE you've skated before?*
*YES.*
*So, why-*
*I never said it was recent or a lot, Ranma. I told you to expect to get a lot of lumps from this.*
*Wonderful.*
**************************************************************************** *************
Passenger Chapter 29: This Isn't The Next Chapter
A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by Selene Starblade Dedicated to all you flakes out there. You know who you are.
Disclaimer: Why bother? You already know anyway, especially if you've read this far.
English and sound effects are in . Japanese is in " ". Jusenkyoo Cursed Signs are in [ ]. Chinese is in { }. Mental conversations between Ranma and Kodora are in * *.
**************************************************************************** *************
"Here, let me help you with that, Imooto-chan."
Kodora looked up at Kasumi.
"I still don't see how you can skate in a long skirt like that. How do you keep from tripping yourself up?"
Kasumi just smiled pleasantly and slid in a lazy circle around her sister, who was sitting splay-legged on the ice.
"Practice, of course. How do you keep doing all of those twists with your neck?" Asked Kasumi, currently behind Kodora, who had twisted to face her without moving her own legs.
Kodora grinned sheepishly. "I know, I'd just expected to get it back right away, like riding a bike."
Souun slid by, looking unsteady. "Look, Kasumi-chan! I'm moving!"
Kasumi kept smiling. "Of course you are, Otoosan. You might want to watch where you're going, though."
"Eh?" Souun managed, before falling over the short wall on the edge of the rink. "Oof!"
Kodora giggled. "Rule one of skating, 'Toosan. Don't focus too much on any one thing at first, you'll trip yourself up."
Souun popped up from behind the wall. "Of course. I knew that."
Kasumi managed to help Kodora to her feet without both of them falling over. "You're forgetting that yourself, though, Imooto. You're concentrating too much on the memory of skating."
Kodora blinked. "Ano... I see what you mean, Oneechan."
"Here, just let me lead you around a little, maybe it will come back to you."
Kasumi took her sister's hands and slowly skated backwards , drawing the much smaller girl along with her.
*Hey, Ranma, why so quiet all of a sudden?*
*Uh? Oh, nothing.*
*You sure?*
*Yah. Say, where'd Ryoga go? I know he wasn't too good when he first stepped on the ice, but I thought he was gonna stick with the rest of us?*
******
"Martine!"
Ryoga blinked. The little girl in the ice skates and excessively cute clothing was running towards him across the padded area near the entrance to the rink. Figuring she meant someone else, he continued his sulking.
He was sure, with all the time he'd wound up spending in the mountains, that he would be a natural for skating.
Instead, he hadn't even managed to put both feet on the ice for more than half a second at a go. He knew he wasn't extremely good with his balance, but that had been ridiculous and embarrassing.
GRAB
Ryoga absently looked up at the girl clutching one of his bandannas.
"Martine! Mart- Jeanette! Jeanette!"
GRAB
"Jeanette! Martine! Jean-"
Azusa looked again.
Bandanna in right hand: check.
Bandanna in left hand: check.
Boy with no bandanna on: no check.
?????
******
"Here we go."
*Hey, this seems like it would be pretty easy.*
*Yeah, it's actually pretty easy, but the way it works is kind of deceptive.*
*Hm. Kinda fun, too.*
*Yup. You just have to be careful not to get out of control, because then you usually can't get it back without running into something.*
*So, how do you get out of control?*
*Well,* Answered Kodora, making a wide u-turn, following the wall of the rink, *You can run into someone, or you can make an instinctive movement that wouldn't work, or*
Someone passed by in front of her, FAST. She reacted by jerking back, but that changed her direction, causing her to slide out of control.
*CRAP! OR YOU CAN PANIC!!!*
"Whoaaaa! A little- whoop- help here!! Aaack!"
KATCH
Piku-piku.
"Nan da?"
Kodora looked up, to see a the face of a fine-featured young man looking down at her from behind her.
"Are you alright, little girl?" Asked Mikado Sanzenin, turning the small girl to face him as he set her on the ice.
"Ano... I'm fine, thank you." Answered Kodora. *LITTLE?*
*Remember what Touhuu-sensei said, Imootochan? Eleven or twelve?*
*Oh, yeah...*
"Kodora-chan! Are you alright?"
Kodora smiled up at Kasumi. "I'm fine. This nice boy caught me. Say.." She turned to the tall young man. "..what's your name?"
Mikado bowed. "I am Mikado Sanzenin of Kolkhoz High School." He turned to Kasumi. "Miss, if you would like, I would tutor your daughter in ice skating so that she does not have any more accidents like this."
Kasumi smiled, but her eyebrow twitched slightly. "No, thank you, sir. My IMOOTOCHAN and I can do just fine for ourselves, thank you."
Kodora and Mikado both winced, for different reasons.
"Come along, IMOOTOCHAN, let us go see if we can find Ryoga-san." So saying, Kasumi took off for the gate, dragging Kodora along behind her. Mikado just stood there, looking embarrassed.
Then again, he really didn't think a woman like that would have encouraged her own daughter to do such strange things to her hair. What on earth was the girl using for shampoo? Crazy glue?
******
*What an annoying- what the?* Ranma cut off.
"And Jaques and Charlotte and Francoise and Michelle and..."
Ryoga was sitting there watching passively as Azusa kept removing and naming the bandanna from his head. She was already waist-deep in pieces of unevenly checkered cloth.
Ryoga looked up. "Hey. How are you doing?"
"Ano- Ryoga? Are all of those off of your head?"
"And Jeannie and Michi and Karine and..."
"Yep."
"Oh, my. Doesn't it hurt your head to have all of those on at once?"
"I only wear one at a time, Kasumi."
Kodora blinked. "Run that by me again?"
"And Cleausseau and Gabri and Andrea and..."
"Have you ever heard of a book called 'The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Bates'?"
"By an American man? Name of Dr. Seuss?"
"Yeah. I happened on a cursed version of it. Some wizard or sorceror with too much time on their hands, I think."
"And Kalinka and Russa and Anna and Mishka..."
"So what does that mean?"
"Well," Ryoga sighed. "It means that no matter how many times I take off my bandanna, I'm still wearing one."
"And Bowie and Sarah and Chester and Jaha..."
"That must come in handy sometimes."
"I suppose. But just once, I'd like to take it off and wash my hair. Do you know how hard this makes it to get haircuts?"
"And Vyse and Aika and Fina and Drachma and..."
"Is that why your hair's like that?"
"Actually, I just like my hair like this, but a little shorter than it is now. I haven't had a haircut in a few weeks. That's how long I've had this thing."
"And Mag and Chain and Pepper and Linear and Gre and WHY AREN'T YOU CHASING AZUSA?!??!"
Ryoga looked over at her. "What's the point? I don't need those anyways."
Grumbling, Azusa Shiratori stalked off, which was pretty impressive until she left the padded area, forgetting that she was still wearing her skates.
TRIP-WHAP
"Owwie!!!!"
The man behind the skate-rental counter leaned over it. "HEY! I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY OF THOSE LYING AROUND AFTER YOU LEAVE!"
Ryoga blanched.
"What am I going to do with all of these things?"
"Try putting them back on."
Ryoga looked at Kodora like he thought she was insane. "Are you insane?"
Kodora shook her head. "No, think about it. If you always have ONE on, and you put another one on, what will the spell that's making you always have one do?"
"It will.... overload and expire?"
Kodora rubbed her temples. "No, Ryoga. It will remove the extra one, since you're supposed to always have ONE on, not two."
Ryoga brightened. "I get it!" He immediately grabbed one of the bandannas, still tied into a loop, and placed it on his head around the one he was currently wearing, which disappeared. "Hey, you were right!"
Kodora shrugged. "It just made sense, you know? What sort of a curse would it be if you could undo it that easily?"
Ryoga nodded, rapidly replacing bandannas. "I'm lucky she didn't untie these."
Kasumi frowned at the pile. "At least, not after the first hundred or so, she didn't."
Ryoga froze, then slumped. "Aw, man, I'm gonna be here FOREVER."
Kodora smiled. "No you won't. We'll just tie them and hand them to you. Right, Oneechan?"
Kasumi smiled back and nodded. The two immediately set to retying the bandannas they could reach, while Ryoga kept putting them back on.
Akane walked up. "What the....."
Kodora replied, without even looking up. "Ryoga's putting back on an infinite number of bandannas."
Akane just sweatdropped.
**************************************************************************** *************
You may be wondering about the name of this chapter. I called it that because, as you may have noticed, I have failed to have anyone trying to beat up Mikado Sanzenin.
Yet.
I decided to delay that to next chapter.
MORE REVIEWS! MUST HAVE MORE REVIEWS!
By the by, I am STILL looking for someone willing to host my fanfictions and companion artwork, since the esteemed FF.net DOES NOT DO PIX. Please? Some response of one sort or another would be nice.
And I can't say it enough times. My Email is 'Selene Starblade@AOL.com'. If your mail system does not support addresses with spaces in them, just ignore the space and it should be okay. If you mail me at Whirledpeas3@aol.com, it may get deleted accidentally, as I am not the only person using that Screen Name for Email. I only supplied FF.net with that address because it wouldn't accept my real one at all.
So, Next Chapter: What I promised I would have in THIS chapter!
And for those of you also reading Out Of My Hair- sorry about the delays on the next chapter. Inspiration has failed to perform it's routine strike to the head, and I'm still waiting. The chapter is actually about half-done, but I'm not going to post it in that condition. 'Coz stuff still might change.
To the understandable aggrievement of said Tatewaki, he was now also known as the Puce Wombat, the Lavender Toothpick, the Mauve Pantyliner, the Beige Sparkplug, and Ranma's personal favorite, the Tartan Electric Massage Unit With Sunlamp Attached. In a mere forty-eight hours, the Furinkan talent for distorting information had tagged Kuno with some seventy-nine new and increasingly ludicrous names-- and most people assumed that he'd chosen them himself. -"Girl Days"