Alright, so her initial plan had been to get someone else - say Kasumi - to deliver these to Akane, then jump out and use this opportunity to humiliate her. Unfortunately when it came to Ranma Saotome plans don't tend to last all that long. Shampoo had lied to Kodachi to try to get rid of her, but it seemed as though the annoying, crazy gymnast had turned that lie into a truth through her interference.
But oh well! Here she was, so she might as well get to offering him the food. Then, in front of all of these witnesses who don't know about hypnotic effect, she'd have him smooch her right on the lips! He'd stumble and flail about and try to make excuses, then she'd repeat the trigger and make him do it again!
That was a good plan. Except...
"Oh my, those do smell quite yummy!" Kasumi said, smiling serenely and innocently down at Shampoo. The eldest Tendo sister then neatly and immediately set about lowering Shampoo's arms to her side, taking away her chui and storing them... Somewhere.
At the same time, Nodoka was disarming Kodachi and setting her posture into a much more refined and ladylike one. "Please, no fighting in the dojo. We wouldn't want a repeat of what happened to my house, would we?"
Looking at these two, Shampoo felt a pit of unsettling dread settle in her stomach. It felt like those times she had been scolded in the village by her mother for beating up other girls but letting them get in a lucky hit. The aura was towering, terrifying, yet also warm and soothing.
"Ohohohoho!" Kodachi cackled, that same weary way she did that set shivers down the spine. "No, but of course not! Ah, how is that new home progressing? I do hope that construction team I recommended is proving adept to the task?"
"Oh my, yes. That was most appreciated," Nodoka said, beaming at the psychotic gymnast. "Their price was quite reasonable, and they seem to be setting about their work rather quickly. They should be done in the next few days, I should not wonder."
"Yes, that was quite surprising," Kasumi nodded. "Ranma's paramours certainly did quite a lot of damage. It's a wonder it's being repaired so quickly. Thank you, Miss Kuno. Your help is most appreciated."
Shampoo's eye twitched on hearing this. Especially on noticing the sidelong glance towards her! "She just as responsible for mess!" Shampoo complained. "Crazy gymnast just want sneak way into Ranma's bed! That why playing nice nice!"
"When one points a finger, three point back..." Kodachi innocently sang. Right then! Shampoo didn't need a chui to throttle the life out of someone, and it would be so much more satisfying!
"Ahem!" Pantyhose Taro coughed loudly into his hand. "Entertaining as this soap opera is, we're kind of in the middle of something!"
Shampoo shut up for the time being. This was entirely sensible, as Taro was carrying a bucket of water in his other hand. Though she might be a warrior, a warrior knows better than to pick a fight that 1: Has no point and 2: They wouldn't win.
"What is Pa- What is Taro try do now?" Shampoo asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.
"It's a seance," Ranma said while lighting a candle. "Listen, this is kind of important. If you girls are just going to cause trouble, could you please leave?"
"Ohohoho! Not at all! Not at all!" Kodachi cackled. "As it happens, I know a little about this matter myself. Let me see here, your candle arrangement is a little askew, permit me to adjust -"
And then she just so happened to bend forward in such a way that it thrust her ass right into Ranma's face. Shampoo stormed forward and whirled Kodachi around, and pushed her back. "Shampoo think candles fine," she said quite firmly. "If not careful, with that configuration you could summon evil presence, cause much trouble!"
"Actually we are trying to summon Happosai," Ranma pointed out.
"Oh, then configuration not evil enough. Need more salt to contain evil presence - Oopsie, spilled all over gymnast, clumsy Shampoo!"
Irritatingly, she seemed to be more amused than annoyed by that development. Kodachi brushed the salt Shampoo had 'accidentally' spilled off her leotard and out of her hair with an irksome half smirk, as though she were having the time of her life just now. Why that troublesome little -
"Seriously Saotome, is this your life?" asked a skinny little shrimp of a boy that Shampoo hadn't even noticed until now.
"Yeah..." Ranma sighed wearily.
"You get to watch two hot girls fight it out over you on a daily basis! I'm so jealous!"
"Perhaps you should take up gymnastics," Kodachi teased, lifting up her leg well above her head. "It would help your co-ordination and limber you up. Maybe teach a foreign girl like you some discipline for a change, ohohoho!"
To that, Shampoo deftly clipped Kodachi's grounded leg. But the Kuno girl simply stuck back her hands and performed a picture perfect backwards cartwheel, winding up back on her feet. Nodoka and Kasumi applauded this, but Shampoo rolled her eyes dismissively. They thought that was impressive? She hopped a little in place and then performed a standing somersault, landing on one hand and then crawled forward on her fingertips towards Kodachi.
"Shampoo already limber enough," she said. "No need to learn how to..."
She trailed off as she noticed three things at once. Three very important things that absolutely seized hold of her attention, and she honestly didn't quite know which to react to first.
Number one: She noticed that the salt circle around the seance zone was, at one point... Broken.
Number two: Ranma, Taro, Kasumi and Nodoka were all munching on the prepared pork buns.
Number three: The skinny boy was getting on with the seance, and going about it all wrong.
"Uh oh..." Shampoo mumbled. A sudden feeling of dread piled onto her, dwarfing her earlier concerns about the motherly auras put out by Kasumi and Nodoka earlier on. The sky above them grew dark though it was mid-afternoon and there was no cloud in the sky or eclipse predicted. The air grew chill and as still as the grave. "This not Happosai... This something else!"
She flipped back onto her feet and slid into a combat ready position. Ranma, Taro and even Kodachi followed suit next to her. Something was coming. Something big, something powerful, something...
Small, round and goofy looking with stick arms, stick legs and tiny little horns popping out the side of its head. What in the world was -
<hr>
Oh, but Akane was starting to wish she'd brought an egg along with her. Then again, that was kind of the reason she had not done so: The temptation would be too much. This was a scouting mission, to make sure things were safe before she took any further moves. Unlike Nabiki, Ukyo was an actual martial artist who would be more than capable of defending herself. Not to mention Konatsu...
"What do you think?" Akane asked her spellbound sister. "I think we need to get Ukyo on team, which means egging her as soon as we can."
"Yeah..." Nabiki conceded. "But on the other hand, Konatsu is a mite protective of her. He might be a bit of a problem."
Right, of course. Konatsu was a genius kunoichi, who could be hiding absolutely anywhere. At the wedding she'd even caught sight of him hiding behind a word bubble - which really made her head hurt when she tried to think of the metaphysical ramifications of being able to see and hide behind word bubbles, but <i>anyway</i>!
Nabiki continued. "Still, there's no chance of her leaving Ranma alone at this point. Which means we may need to start by distracting Konatsu in some way. It's a shame that you don't have any more eggs, we could have hit Konatsu first and then got Ukyo as well."
Yeah, that was a shame. With more eggs she could have easily put them both under her thumb. Maybe set them up as a cute couple to get them away from Ranma. They would be really useful allies... But then again, if they got just Ukyo that sort of thing could happen anyway. There were just two questions to worry about. The first was how to distract Konatsu long enough to get Ukyo under control. As for the other:
"What happened to the sun?" Akane asked, looking up at the now pitch black sky.
"I think the real question is: 'What has your future husband gotten himself into this time?'" Nabiki mused. Akane gave her The Look, and Nabiki actually winced away from it for once. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it! I just meant he's bound to get himself involved somehow, you know how much he attracts trouble!"
"I know," Akane said. "I just don't like hearing other people saying it. He's my man. Sometimes my girl. I'm the only one that gets to criticise him. Her. Whichever form it is! Got it?!"
- Akane arrives back home to find someone possessed by the troublemaking Oni.
- Same as above, but nobody is possessed by the Oni yet.
- The Oni has noticed the hypnotic dimsum, and instills a command in all of them before possessing anyone.
- Ukyo is extremely suspicious, and decides to investigate Nabiki's weird behaviour.
- Something else
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