So there she was, doing the rounds. Peddling off with another piece of takeout, having to catch and correct herself for the tenth time already. No. She was not going to the Ucchan’s. Don’t take that route. You’re going the other way, and it wouldn’t be fair to the poor paying customer if the food arrived cold.
Shampoo’s response to the possibility of not delivering in time was to take a much less direct approach than some might. She slammed her feet onto the ground, and rather than keeping them there for use as a makeshift emergency brake her feet barely touched the ground. They didn’t need to. She and her bike soared up into the air - and from the angle of one slightly drunk tourist wandering the street it looked like a particular iconic scene from a particularly beloved movie had been unexpectedly recreated - taking a brief moment to admire how big and beautiful the full moon was tonight and landing with surprising delicateness upon the rooftops, where she continued cycling on as though still on smooth pavement. Which, dear reader, she most assuredly was not. Funny thing about roofs. They are rarely designed with bicycles in mind. The same remains true in Furinkan despite what some may believe given the antics that appear to occur there more frequently than they actually do.
Speaking of bizarre antics, the reason Shampoo was distracted in the first place was that she was caught up in yet another one. There were several categories of them, naturally enough. There was the “cure potential” for the Jusenkyo curse victims. “The challenge,” where a martial artist turned up to challenge one of the group to a fight - and Shampoo sighed a little wearily at the thought that some of her romantic rivals were, in a strange way, some of her closest and dearest friends - often resulting in the one that was challenged losing, then learning some new esoteric means of fighting back. “The artefact”, where some strange <i>thing</i> had been found that was causing everyone all sorts of hell.
And then there was the last sort. The love spell. A subcategory of “the artefact”, really, but it happened often enough it deserved its own category. It was funny. Even though she had a lifelong obsessive and lovestruck stalker/idiot/blind duck after her he had never even once turned to a love spell to try and win her affections. The only time she’d ever been under the influence of anything like that had been an accident she had inflicted on herself, and in that instance it flipped her love towards hatred.
So. Something trying to worm its way inside her head and make her think of Konatsu as her Master, attempting to fill her up with love and idle fantasies of pleasing him, being pleased by him and then when they were done with that fucking until dawn - Well, it was certainly a different experience. A challenge, one might say. A challenge she would overcome with her free will intact!
Though she had to admit. It was rather… infuriatingly persistent. She had to stop the bike and rub at her temples. “Konatsu is not Master,” she insisted, and then added, “Shampoo is in control. Not stupid technique.”
A mantra like that was just the ticket. With a curt nod, she returned to cycling off towards the intended destination. Shampoo is in control, she mouthed. Not stupid technique. Konatsu is not Master. Again. Repeat. Good. That seemed to keep it at bay just a little bit. But it wouldn’t last. Like she had just observed, whatever this was trying to influence her, it was… persistent.
It was like a siege. She had all the walls she needed between herself and the enemy, but was completely surrounded. Cut off, one might say. She turned the bike sharply, turned to the left and landed precisely on top of a thin fence before continuing on without even really thinking about it or even paying half as much attention to what she was doing as would be advisable were she a regular person on a bike path. Instead, she was thinking about the different kinds of walls that one could erect within one’s mind. You could have moats, giant concrete walls with steel reinforcement. You could have all manner of defenses within the mind, but a sufficiently determined enemy with enough resources to bring to bear will eventually get past any of them. In time.
Therefore, time was the factor. It would eventually find a weakness, and worm its way inside. Konatsu is Master. Shampoo is in control. Not stupid technique. The worrying part was that she might not even notice it when it happened. Konatsu is not Master. Shampoo is not in control. Stupid technique. Therefore, she needed a plan and she needed it quickly.
“Here meal!” she said, with a cheery smile and a cute wink. The man took the box, dropped the exact amount into her waiting hand and Shampoo gave a deliberate giggle to leave a good impression and said, “Thank you ordering from Cat Cafe! Nya!” then wheeled around and went off back towards the cafe, and started working out a battle plan while repeating the mantra.
Konatsu is in control. Shampoo is not Master. Stupid technique.
So. She disregarded asking her great-grandmother without a second thought, and without even questioning why she was doing so. Asking Konatsu directly didn’t seem quite right either… He didn’t seem to know anything at all about the technique anyway!
It follows, then: She needs to know what the technique is if she’s to have a chance of resisting this thing. Technique is in control. Konatsu is Master. Shampoo stupid. Therefore, it is necessary for her to assist Konatsu in figuring out what the technique does. He would be mortified by the revelation, but it would give her a tool as well. In helping him figure it out, she would also be able to piece together a way to fully resist the effects. It would require spending a good deal of time with him, but so long as she kept her defenses up and didn’t linger too long around him there shouldn’t be a problem.
Shampoo not want control. Konatsu is Master. Konatsu control Shampoo. Technique not stupid.
<hr>
As a general rule, ninja do not panic. The reasons for this should be fairly obvious. Panic indicates a loss of control. Loss of control was, in this line of work, often accompanied by a loss of life. Which is why she was <i>not</i> panicking. She was doing what a real ninja would do in this situation. She was biding her time. Assessing options in a calm and rational manner, and actively replaying the battle in her mind and taking stock of what had happened so that she could efficiently avoid the same thing happening in the future.
The primary consideration that rose unbidden to the surface of her evaluation was a calm, rational and cool-headed “That was way too fucking close! Holy shit, far too close!”
Other observations were a little more lucid. For example. The technique had been read and used. That purple-haired foreigner would soon find herself smitten and entirely under the spell of that irritating wannabe kunoichi! It boiled her blood, but another assault so soon seemed unwise. There were almost certainly other allies around. Other lovesick slaves eager to protect their “master”. And she had come <i>just that close</i> to joining them.
The next time she launched an ambush, she had to be certain there wouldn’t be any backup, and the very first thing she had to do was seal the technique in some way. And the best way to do that -
Anyone looking at the roof wouldn’t have seen her to begin with. If they’d elected that moment to blink and then looked again they would’ve still seen absolutely nobody there. In the second instance they’d have actually been right. The young ninja was indeed gone, gone down the rooftops with thoughts of another tactic on her mind. Ninja have many tactics at their disposal. If an ambush of that nature would not do the trick, then she would have to adopt a different approach. A civilian guise that could easily strike unawares at the male kunoichi’s place of employment. Provided she was careful… She could get the technique away from him before he did too much damage, and maybe even fix what had already been broken.
Of course if she wasn’t careful she’d wind up another lovestruck idiot, and that wasn’t something she could particularly do with right now.
- Nabiki has returned to her room, and is thinking very hard about what she overheard.
- Konatsu wakes up, and Ranma and Akane are able to convince him to use the technique on someone else.
- Ranma and Akane have both passed out, and Konatsu wakes up before either of them.
- Shampoo continues trying to resist the technique.
- The next day, the ninja girl arrives in civilian disguise at the Ucchan’s.
- Something else
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