I'm back!
Well, I suppose I ought to keep this story moving, since it's my longest, most complete Ranma story.
"[English.]" OR "[Walkie Talkie Talk]" (Use your judgement to figure out which)
"Chinese."
"Japanese."
"(Todrogan.)" (Don't ask...)
There is probably going to be a bit of name-dropping going on. Don't worry too much, that's just me expressing my likes. .
Right.
FURY OF FATE
Tatewaki Kuno was sitting in his room at his family's expansive estate. At the current moment, he was trying to do two things at once. His homework, and thinking about his pig-tailed goddess that still proved so elusive. In other words, nothing was really getting done.
The manic laughing echoing through the halls didn't bother him, he was used to it. Kodachi was often like that.
Rather, he wanted to know exactly why his pig-tailed goddess disliked him so. There was, in his mind, no reason for her to continue disliking him, especially after he had treated her so generously.
The beauty she had displayed on that night was still having an effect on him. Not only did she display her natural beauty; but every fiber of her being shouted to the heavens, capturing the hearts of angels and the eyes of gods. Her beauty was of nothing on this Earth; every graceful step and every look was that of one who's heart was so pure that even that dark sorcerer Saotome shouldn't have any kind of hold on her.
And yet she continued to evade him. Every time he saw her, she was in casual dress, and did not appear broken.
Somehow, sometime, he had freed her! He was sure of it!
He was so inspired by his revelation that he felt like he could go join his sister in her laughter.
'Hey, wait a minute... Kodachi is with her lover Saotome...' Poking his head out of the door to his room, he listened more intently to the laughter echoing through the Kuno mansion.
It definitely wasn't that of his sister. It held a deeper intone, and the tune of it was far different. Where Kodachi sounded like an actress playing a part, this sounded like a truly insane laughter. The choked, manic laughter most often heard echoing through the halls of a mad-scientists laboratory.
Determined to find the source of the unnatural laughter, Kuno roamed the house following the sound to its source.
After a short while, he ended up in a large ill-used room with many books, the library.
Moving from isle to isle, he eventually found the one from whom the laughter was coming forth. Standing atop a table in the middle of one of the pathways was a man of medium height. He wore a black cloak and was standing completely motionless, save for the small twitching movements caused by his laughter.
"Say! Villain! Who is it that dares to trespass on Kuno property!?"
Noticing the boy behind him, the man's laughter stopped. Slowly, he turned around. The smile on his face matched the laughter he had been emitting to a 'T'. His smile held no malice, nor did it reflect hostility, worry, or any kind of discernible emotion. All it held, was a kind of cruel confidence, the kind that would make even the best trained warrior think twice.
"You may call me... Omega."
Tatewaki smiled knowingly. "Ah! Omega! The last symbol in the Latin alphabet, often used to represent the end, or final. Is that your purpose? To be the end? Haha! Do not make me laugh." Kuno unsheathed his bokken and waved it confidently at the intruder. "Leave now these premises before I make you leave."
The man in black seemed to smile even more darkly as he lowered his head. "Hehe... you intend to make me leave? It is to laugh." He then proceeded to laugh aloud in that same inine laughter that had lured the teen into the library to begin with.
"PREPARE YOURSELF, VILLEN! HAA!!" Kuno charged the man with his bokken held above his head, ready to come down on the man's head.
Snatch
The man barely moved as Kuno was suspended in the air for a moment. His attack had been stopped by a single hand, and now he was being held there by that one hand on his sword!
The hood of his cloak hiding his features, the man spoke as he pulled something from inside his cloak. "This is no place to hold a fight. So many books and each one of them helpless. So why don't we take this fight elsewhere? HYAA!" As the man let Kuno's sword go, he threw something at his feet, spreading a fog throughout the room as his voice echoed around him. "Find me in your largest, emptiest room. And I speak not of your head. AAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Tatewaki Kuno was angry. He had been caught by surprise, but he would not make that mistake again.
On the Kuno estate, there were several rooms that counted as 'big'. But being of samurai lineage, they held a lot of importance in their practice-space.
Rushing to the gymnasium, Kuno prepared himself to face the coward. 'If he doesn't show up here, then that coward truly doesn't deserve my time...'
Stopping in the large underground room, he looked about. The lights were on, which meant that someone had turned them on, since it was late at night by now and there was no sunlight to speak of.
Walking cautiously into the middle of the room, he looked around. Seeing no one, he called out. "Come out, coward, and face me!"
A voice came from behind him. "Oh? You're challenging me? I thought that was my job? Of course, I suppose this isn't a dojo, so I accept your challenge."
Turning around, Kuno swung his bokken in a vicious crescent, hitting nothing. "Where?"
"Here. And you had probably better start trying harder, or you'll never be able to win." The man wasn't moving. Even his cloak stayed motionless around him, despite that he had obviously moved very quickly to evade Kuno's blade-swing.
"Villain, I shall punish you. ON GUARD!!" Moving with force and speed, Kuno swung his weapon around his side and straight up through where the man had been only a moment before.
"Haha... faster, Kuno."
"You... do you think that I have truly tried yet? HA!" Turning around, he began striking with his sword, following the man's movements with each hit.
"STRIKE!" - -- "STRIKE!" -- /- "STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!" - /- "STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!" / "STRIKE!"
"STRIKE!"
(A/N: A little text art. .)
As each hit missed, a small part of the room was struck, sending plaster into the air, clouding the vision of the Kuno boy. As he looked around for his target, he had his mouth and nose covered with his sleeve. 'Ugh, perhaps I shouldn't have done that...'
The man seemed unaffected, however, as he walked up behind Kuno. "Ah, air-pressure eh? Not too bad. I suppose the purpose of a sword is to give range where there is little, but you've found a way to extend it farther!" Coming up behind Kuno, he patted him on the shoulders, each shoulder twice. "Not bad!"
As he did this, Kuno noticed something. With the first hit, his hands each opened of their own volition, and with the second they clamped themselves closed. "What!? I cannot extend my fingers!"
"Haha! Just a little pressure point. Now I will give you a moment to try to retrieve your sword. Go ahead, try."
Kuno looked down at his sword, which lay unceremoniously beside his feet. 'This... could be a problem.' Being of strong will, he tried to command his fingers to open.
After some experimentation, he found that he could not make them open, even if he used his teeth.
Looking back down at his sword, he tried another approach. Reaching down with both hands, he managed to pick up the sword at the handle between his two fists. "Ha! There! What do you say to that!?"
Kuno was put into shock when the man simply grabbed the sword, and slipped it right out of his grip. "I say, that I want to see what you can do with your fists?" Throwing the wooden weapon behind him, the man stood at ready, still wearing that tell-tale smirk.
Kuno scoffed, throwing his nose into the air. "The use of fists is a method for barbarians! Not the samurai!"
The man chuckled lightly. "Well then, barbarian, you had better get started?"
"Augh! Villain!" Moving with a new speed, Kuno pursued his target, anger present on his features.
At first, each strike missed badly, as he was still trying to use his sword. But with time, he began to adjust his aim to accommodate for the missing weapon.
"HAHA!! That's right! Keep going, boy! And maybe I'll let you know what it's like to acutally hit me!"
Kuno heard the comment and stopped. "I do not accept free hits, I take my hits! HYAA!"
As Kuno charged him, the man in black frowned.
THWAM
In response to the hit, Kuno cringed while trying to massage his hand. The man slowly put his arm down, having blocked the elder Kuno sibling's hit.
"Wearing armor beneath your cloak? Such a low blow!"
The man didn't change his expression as he walked toward Kuno. "No, Kuno. I am not wearing any armor. Normal cloth only. What you felt was pure muscle. The reason it hurt for you, is that you are not used to hitting bare-handed, are you?"
Kuno continued to hold his throbbing hand, but remained silent for once.
"But... the truth is, that despite your downfalls, you could indeed be useful." The man put one hand to his chin. "Yesss..."
The anger in Kuno's voice took a lower tone as suspicion creeped into his mind. "What is this?"
"Haha! Tell me, Kuno. How would you like to know the true nature of the red-haired, pig-tailed girl?"
Kuno was so surprised by the mention of his pig-tailed goddess, that he was suddenly shaking the man by the shoulders, and completely disregarded the fact that the pressure point had worn off. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF HER!? TELL ME!"
Ranma suddenly fell off his bed, awakening in a cold sweat. "Oh man, what was that about?"
Looking up at the edge of the bed, he shrugged. He felt more at home on the floor anyway.
Yawning, he rolled over and went back to sleep, completely without a pillow or blanket.
Not too soon, he was asleep deeply enough to not notice the sound of a lock being picked.
That morning
I woke up to the sound of an alarm going off right beside me. Reaching over, I lightly touched the snooze button in order to end the annoying noise.
There was barely a stir from anyone else in the room. Akane was simply too heavy a sleeper, and the others... I dunno. I guess they just didn't want to wake up either.
Jet lag sucks.
Of course, if there was anyone still left asleep after all the alarms had gone off, that peace was fairly well shattered when Ranma suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.
"AAAHHH!!! KODACHI! WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"
"Oh Ranma darling! Your manly allure is just too much for me! I must have come here in my sleep!"
"AH! There's a girl on the floor with Ranma!"
"Way to go Ranma!"
"What do you think you're doing Ranma!? Akane's your fiancee!"
Akane stretched and yawned upon hearing the noise (which, by the way, was more than a floor away). I too managed to crawl out of bed as the others simply looked scared and confused.
Noticing their looks, I smirked. "Hey, just be glad his father isn't up there. Or else they'd be..." CRASH "out the window by now... nevermind."
Akane looked out the fifth story window to see the two Saotome's falling next to the building along with a window's worth of glass.
About a split-second later, reports of a large man breaking into Ranma's room and kicking him out the window overshadowed the screaming that had ensued only moments before.
That is, until Kodachi went after them. "AH! That crazy chick just jumped out the window!"
SHWWWIRRRR!!
Looking out the window, I noted a rope around Kodachi's waist, and a pair of roller skates on her feet. She was using the roller-skates to roll against the building, and the rope slowed her descent. "Hmm, not too bad. She thought ahead."
Akane waved it off. "Yeah, whatever. Look, I'm gonna get a bath, or shower, or whatever it is they do here."
Most of the class was somewhat surprised at what was, to the rest of us, a morning routine. But something that most didn't realize was that this was Hawaii, Honolulu in fact, and definitely not Nerima, where the people are a little more tolerant of the weird. And when the people at the hotel's front desk were treated to the sight of a girl in a wet, white sleeveless shirt dragging an equally wet, and unconsious panda, they really didn't know what to think. And when Kodachi came in only moments after, carrying a ribbon that she could use like a chain and wearing nothing but her leotard, a number of the older managers turned in for the day, and some of the younger ones decided to go somewhere else entirely.
"Oh Ranma!?" Kodachi's voice could be heard through the different floors, supposedly coming from Ranma's apartment/room again. "YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!" Strangely enough, Kodachi still hadn't made the connection between Ranma's two forms.
Ranma's frantic voice could also be heard trying to get the crazy one to go away. "ACK! Kodachi! Let me get dressed for Kami's sake!"
"What are you doing in Ranma darling's room!? I'll kill you!"
Hinako's youthful voice also disturbed the silence of the morning. "You! Miss Kuno? I'll drain your delinquent energy! Eight treasures of the deadly 5 yen piece!" FSHLOOOM
I then realized why Nabiki was so adament about having Principal Kuno send Hinako along. Hers was the only attack that wouldn't cause property damage (other than the return), and yet would stop the fights.
Ranma's tired voice came a few seconds later. "Uh... thanks teach."
Hinako's grown voice came next along with a dragging sound. "From now on, Saotome, do try to wait until you're out of the building to start fighting."
"Haha, I'll try."
After a minute or so, the noise had been absent for long enough for everyone to simply start their morning routine (sped up in an attempt to get out of the building).
One of the other girls, one with shoulder-long brown hair, turned to me with worry on her face. "Is it like that often in the morning?"
I nodded. "Yeah, pretty much every morning. You'll get used to it." I then pulled my head out of the suitcase I had nearly buried myself in. "But then again, I hope they decide to start taking it outside from now on. And I wonder how long it'll take to replace that window? Hmm, oh well." As I went about 'business as usual', some of the others were starting to get nervous.
But, being Nerimans, and from Furinkan no less, the students eventually got over it. Of course, it was mostly the adults that had the hardest time dealing with it.
Waiting for Akane to finish in the restroom, I eventually got bored with going through what little stuff I had. So, instead, I turned to the other two in the room. "So what's your names? I'm Lila Dilas."
"We know." It made me feel kinda special to be recognized in stereo. But it was still kinda disconcerting.
"Um, okay. Then... I don't know your names?"
The girl with shoulder-length brown hair answered first. "Kiina Tyouna. Class E."
The other girl, whos hair was done in a big 'rabbit-tail' as I had come to calling it (flattened somewhat from the night of sleep) answered next. "Higumi Tsuna."
Akane came out of the bathroom rubbing her hair dry. Just now noticing the two girls opposite me, she blinked in what looked like recognition. "Hey, aren't you two in the Tea Ceremony club?"
The first girl smiled. "Ha! Why yes! How astute of you to notice!"
The second girl first nodded her head, and then glared at the two of us before walking into the bathroom. "And we would appreciate it if you could keep your freinds away from our ceremonies?" Shut
It took me a moment to realize that I had missed my chance at the restroom. "Oh..." Plop So, I just relaxed on the bed. They couldn't take that long, could they?
Two hours later
I had pulled out my wooden ball about ten minutes into the wait, and by seven o'clock, I had gotten to the point to where I had started making it glow slightly. It wasn't taking monumental amounts of concentration on my part, but since I had nothing else to think about, it went just a bit faster.
And within the next hour, I had gotten it to glow with quite a bit more vigor. It now looked like some kind of wooden crystal-ball.
"Hey blue. Your turn."
Nodding, I kept most of my attention on the ball I had balanced on the tip of my finger. Keeping it lit, I did a balancing act as I gathered my things and went into the small room.
As compared to the two 'club members', it only took me about twenty minutes to be completely ready and out of the restroom.
Of course, by that time, everyone else was already gone. "Sigh I wonder where Akane is..." As I left the room, I started the wooden ball balancing and glowing on my finger again.
Downstairs the hotel was still serving their breakfast. I wasn't too hungry, so I just caught myself an orange and looked around to see if there was anyone I knew still sticking around.
Not seeing anyone there, I figured that my little two-hour wait had held me up a bit too long. 'I'm gonna hafta figure something out for that...'
Deciding to just go outside and enjoy the day, I... went outside. (A/N: Was that really that hard to figure out? O.o'')
Every once in a while I looked up at the skyline, expecting to see someone flying through the air for one reason or another.
All around me there were people milling about and talking amongst each other. But I didn't pay any attention to that, I was more worried about finding someone with whom I could talk or spend some time.
It took me a while, but I eventually found someone. It was Miss Hinako, who had somehow managed to get herself an ice-cream cone. "Ah! Miss Hinako! Hey!"
"Mm?" When she looked my way, I could tell that she had ice-cream all over her mouth.
Jogging over to her, I smiled as I greeted her. "Hi there!"
"Hi Miss Dilas! What are you doing? Lick"
"Um, yeah. Say, have you seen Ranma anywhere?"
"No. Lick Say, what's that?" Hinako pointed at the wooden ball I still had balanced on one finger.
"Oh, this? I made it. Wanna see?"
"Yeah!"
I smiled as I handed her the ball.
Holding it in one hand, she looked at it suspiciously. Lick She then tried to balance it on one finger, which failed miserably.
She then tried to balance it on three fingers, and frowned as she had immense trouble with that.
Losing interest, she gave it back to me. "I'm sorry, were you looking for someone?"
"Uh... yeah. Have you seen Ranma? Or maybe Akane or Shampoo?"
Hinako shook her head no as she licked her Ice-cream again.
Dropping my head, I tried to come up with some kind of ploy to see if I couldn't think of a way to locate them.
"Ah! Then do you know where Kodachi is?"
"Oh! Miss Kuno?" I nodded my head, expecting an answer in the positive. "No, sorry!"
"Ugh..." Balancing the ball on my pinkie, I scratched the side of my face in frustration and thought. "Sigh Oh well. Thanks anyway."
"Lick You're welcome! Goodbye!" Miss Hinako walked off cheerfully heading for... somewhere. Where exactly I really didn't think to find out.
Looking around, I was at a loss as to where I should go. 'Great, I'm stuck in the middle of a really small island and I'm lost...' In Nerima I knew all of the places that Ranma and his hanger-ons would most likely be found, but here I was totally lost.
"Well, I may as well just walk around for a while..." So I... started walking around aimlessly.
An hour later I had explored nearly half of the entire island, both the beaches and inland areas. Yet I had not seen head nor tail of Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, or even Kodachi.
I did find a few attractions I thought might be interesting (tourist traps), and noted them for later.
When I strolled into a small little coffee shop with glass windows (complete with fabricated view of the beach), I saw Nabiki sitting at one of the tables with some sheets of paper in front of her and a walkie-talkie beside it.
Thinking for a moment or so I came to the (correct) conclusion that Nabiki was using the walkie-talkie, along with her nameless and faceless informants to keep track of the Saotome Crew.
I didn't even get the chance to fully open my mouth before she spoke. "2000 yen."
"... uh?"
"Just that much more you'll owe me, should I write you down?"
I was confused, but not surprisingly I had enough mindpower left to connect money to information. "Uh, sure?"
"You'll find Akane at the Ice-Cream bar not 400 meters south of the hotel. I'll charge you later."
"Um, okay, thanks. I'll see you later?"
"Whatever."
"[Squaqk (A/N: That's supposed to be a Walkie-Talkie sound. --') SuperGhost 7 to Ice Queen. Come in Ice Queen. Squaqk]"
"Click Ice Queen here, ten seconds SuperGhost 7. Click" She then shoo'd me away and went back to what she was doing.
Strangely enough, I managed to miss the fact that Nabiki had somehow hired enough of our classmates (as most of her class was still back at Furinkan) to have at least seven people tracking us.
Sighing, I simply let it go and ran off to where Nabiki said Akane would be. Considering that the buildings weren't an obstacle for me it didn't take long. And I likely lost anyone that would have most likely been tailing me.
"Akane!"
"Huh? Lila! I've been waiting for you!"
Akane was sitting at the counter with a half-eaten banana split and a chocolate stain on the collar of her shirt. She was there with a couple of friends of hers, Yuka and Sayuri I believe. "You've been sitting here that whole time?"
Akane took another bite of her ice cream and swallowed. "Well, not exactly here, here. But around, yeah."
I sighed in response, "You know, it would be a whole lot easier to find you guys if you weren't hiding your auras..."
"[Can I get you something?]" The man behind the counter got my attention before Akane could think of a response.
Akane, for some reason, started digging around in her handbag (something that took Kasumi a long while to convince her to drag around with her). Shrugging, I looked up at the menu. "[Uh, how about a Blizzard(tm) with the M&M's(tm)? Extra Large.]" (BTW, this is in an outdoors Dairy Queen(tm).)
The man looked confused for a moment, but shrugged whatever it was off and went to making me a Blizzard treat. (A/N: Yum! .)
"Lila?" Akane stopped me in mid money-pull (that little thing where you search around for the right amount).
"What?"
Akane was looking me in the eye with a half-angry expression. "How come you didn't tell me you knew English!?"
"I, uh...? Well, it never really came up?"
"And just when did you figure this out!?"
I thought back for a moment as I put the rest of my cash away. "Um, I think it took about a week to figure it out. It came so natural that I didn't notice right away. Kinda like when I figured out that I could speak Japanese too!"
One of the other girls leaned over to the other one (I think it was Yuka leaning over to Sayuri) and whispered in her ear. "I think she's just weird..."
"Yup!" I suprised the both of them by leaning my arms over their shoulders and smiling brightly. "I'm about as weird as they come! Haha! But then, aren't we all? We are from Nerima after all."
Akane tapped me on the shoulder. "Technically, you aren't from Nerima."
I shrugged as I took a seat next to Akane. "Hey, I wanted to live there. So I've got my own problems!"
The other three simultaneously nodded their heads.
"[$12.24]"
I handed the cash over, pocketed my change, and took the cup in both hands. (It was big!) I took the spoon provided me and proceeded to dig in.
"Hey, is that any good?" I didn't even bother to swallow as I nodded my head the affirmative. "Can I try?"
In response I took her spoon, wiped it off, and dug out a decent sized spoonful, making sure to get some of the m&m's(tm) in with it. She took the spoon, put the morsel into her mouth, and smiled. "Yup! Pretty good!"
"Can I try?" "Me too!"
The lot of us were blissfully unaware that hearing explosions weren't normal for Hawaii.
There was another in that building (under the roof with no walls) who took no notice of the explosions going off in the distance. It was a girl. She was wearing typical clothing for an American Tourist, which was odd only because she was from Japan.
She had bright blue eyes and raven black hair that lay straight against her head in a back-swooping cut. Her curious eyes were dead-set on watching the four girls at the counter.
She didn't notice when the eyes of the general people of the building went from her table to the west. She really didn't care whether anyone noticed how much ice-cream she had.
She had in front of her four gallons total of different kinds of ice-cream, from toffee-almond with thick syrup to several varieties of swirls and shakes. There in front of her was enough ice-cream to feed an army (of sailor senshi), and so far she was the only one to show up. This alone was enough to warrant the stares she was recieving.
But she didn't mind. No, instead, she dug-in like no one was watching. Every scoop of her spoon was awarded with large portions of whatever she stuck it into. It would seem, to most people, that any normal person would have immense trouble simply fitting those giant-sized portions into their mouth; but she managed it as if it was perfectly normal, like it was the only way to eat it. Those things that were in cups didn't fare much better, as they were simply gulped down as if nothing more than glasses of water.
As she watched the girl SuperGhost 4 wondered two things: 1. Where she was putting it all. 2. And why she insisted upon waging a silent war on the helpless confections before her.
SuperGhost 4 got up from her seat to find a place excessively out of ear-shot, tracking the oddly-hungry girl with her eyes.
Once satisfied that no one would hear her, she pulled out her military-style walkie talkie. "SuperGhost 4 to Ice Queen. Come in Ice Queen."
"[Go ahead SuperGhost 4.]"
"No problems nor changes with Angry One. However, found new target of possible note..." SuperGhost 4 (A/N: Who will remain nameless.) began shaking, and it showed in her voice. "It was horrible! She ate the entire table!! Uh, I mean! Not the table, it's just!"
"[What are you talking about SuperGhost 4?]"
SuperGhost 4 took a moment to regain her composure. When she was sure that she had calmed her breathing, she continued, "There is a girl in the shop that recently consumed nearly four gallons of frozen ice cream in under forty seconds. I recommend we tag her."
A response didn't come for a while, as it seemed a bit like Ice Queen (Nabiki) was thinking about something. "[Alright. You tag that girl and SuperGhost 5 will tag Red Eyes and Angry One. Will alert all RoboCops to changes.]"
"Confirmed." SuperGhost sighed as she started back to the ice cream shop. Nabiki had thought rather far ahead. In order to allieviate as many problems with local authorities as possible she had warned them far ahead of time and set up a system to keep the two forces working together.
Nabiki's team kept tabs on the possible dangers out of sheer skill and experience, while the authorities had the legal grounds to do something if it came down to it.
Ranko ducked behind a tree, "MOUSSE!! HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET HERE!?"
"Love knows no bounds Ranma!" Mousse threw a series of claws on chains at Ranko.
"RED HAIRED DEVIL!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY RANMA!?"
Ranko turned her head around to see Kodachi coming down on her with a gymnast's club, which revealed a sword coming out the end.
Thinking fast, Ranko jumped just high enough to be over the path of Mousse's claws. She then used her foot to push the bottom of the newly-severed tree trunk so that it would strike Mousse in the chest. As a kind of bonus that one action caused the top of the tree, which was laden with entangling branches and long leaves, to land right where Kodachi was coming down on her.
'Kodachi'll be out for a second or two, but it'll take more than that to stop Mousse.'
"Stupid Duck Boy!!! Leave Shampoo's Ranma alone!!!"
"Shampoo!! I do this out of love for you!"
"MY Ranma wouldn't think twice about going anywhere with a barbarian like you!"
"Take that back! Dear Shampoo is not a barbarian! She is the most beautiful woman in the world!!"
As the others fought among each other, Ranko managed to crawl away unnoticed. 'I should probably stop them, but I'll bet that if Mousse's here, that means that' Bonk Bonk 'the old ghoul's here too.'
"I thank you, shrivelled witch, for assisting me in vanquishing my foe. However, I do believe that I could have handled the barbarian on my own."
Cologne narrowed her eyes at the braggart girl. She had stopped Shampoo and Mousse only out of concern for the locals, but that Kuno girl was a danger as well, in her own way. Why, she could very well singlehandedly cause a plague that would infect the entire island if not kept in check!
Cologne did notice Ranma-chan crawling away, still dripping with saltwater from when she had been trying to relax in the ocean, but decided to let her have her vacation. "Miss Kuno, I need to speak with you..."
"Eh? What could you have to speak with me of?"
"I have... a proposition."
Ranko heard this and made a mental note to become extra wary of anything suspicious. She did notice that Cologne hadn't attacked her, and decided to confront her about it later, when she wasn't standing so near to Kodachi.
End Chapter 16
Sorry people. I had to cut this chapter short. Technically, this isn't actually all that short, but it (to me) just doesn't feel quite like a full chapter. So if you want to say it, the next chapter will be the finish to this chapter. (If I ever get it done.) There was something I really wanted to get to in this chapter, but it'll have to wait till the next update.
Also, I've been having some trouble managing my time. You see, I've been playing Diablo II almost obsessively over the past couple of weeks. I've been trying to catch up with where I should be in online play, but so far I've been running against walls. I'm going somewhere, but not very far. T.T
Not that I haven't been thinking about writing. Heck, I have now developed the entire idea, story, and combat system for Diablo III and even StarCraft II, as well as started three additional stories since I last updated.
Gawd, it sucks having such a short attention span... U.U
Well, anyway, I gotta go.
Alex Ultra: Creator of Eternal Realm
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