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Finished:
2002-09-25 Standard
disclaimer: You know the drill. I don’t own anything, you don’t own
anything, they don’t own anything, and nobody owns anything. Rumiko
Takahashi do but let’s keep her out of this discussion, ok? Timelines:
This fic start about a week after the cat spirit incident (Chapter 7 and
8, book 20.) Age rating: If you can understand all the crap I’m spouting then you are definitely old enough to read this fan fiction. |
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Kenneth
Lönnberg aka Macross_VF1 proudly presents: Curse
on New Year’s Eve Prologue ***
- - - - *** Shampoo
sighed as she sat at a table. She had been doing that a lot lately. Right
now there was a lull at the Nekohanten with almost no customers present.
Shampoo usually loved this time before the lunch break as it meant she
could do almost whatever she pleased. Thinking about Ranma for instance.
However the pigtailed wonder martial artist was not helping her right now.
On the contrary, he was the reason for her present depression. Cologne
sighed as well when she saw how down Shampoo was.
She knew the reason very well. A week back Shampoo had been out making a
routine delivery to a shrine when something unexpected happened. A spirit,
a cat spirit to be exact, captured Shampoo and tried to turn her into his
bride, quite literally. If she did not receive a kiss from her true love
she would be turned into a cat for the rest of her life. Suffice to say
this was not something the amazon girl had planned and consequently a
worried Mousse, together with Akane and Ranma came to her rescue. Not
that it was easy mind you. The shrine was dedicated to all things feline
and Ranma’s almost ridiculous fear of cats, courtesy of the Neko-ken
training, interfered with all rescue attempts, as well as a jealous Akane
and a possessive Mousse. In the end, Shampoo had managed to steal a kiss
from Ranma, just before she was completely turned into a cat and therefore
escaped the curse placed upon her by the cat spirit. At
first she was ecstatic, but the happiness was soon changed to depression.
Ranma avoided Shampoo like the plague, probably as a consequence of the
harsh reminder of her Jusenkyo curse. Cologne could not blame him for that
though, she knew from experience the lengths a person trained in the Neko-ken
could go to, just in order to escape a single housecat. Many went insane
with time and/or killed themselves. Many others lived their life in
complete solitude. A scant few through history had been able to live
somewhat normally in society and it was a testament to Ranma’s skill and
willpower that he even dared go near Shampoo. Shampoo
on the other hand did not have Cologne’s considerable experience and
therefore felt terribly rejected when Ranma avoided her. She heard
Cologne’s stick behind her, and she prepared to get up. A hand on her
shoulder stopped her. “Sit
child.” Cologne softly said. With a sigh of gratitude Shampoo complied.
She really didn’t want to do any work right now. “What
is bothering you?” Cologne asked although she already knew the answer. Shampoo
forced a smile. “Nothing wrong, great-grandmother.” Cologne
fixed her old and wise eyes on the girl. “Do not lie to me
granddaughter. Something is on your mind and it is disturbing you
greatly.” Shampoo
dropped her smile and sighed again. “Great-grandmother only too, too
right. Shampoo want to know why Ranma act like afraid of her.” “You
already know the answer to that one.” Cologne pointed out. Another
sigh. “Yes, is stupid curse.” She said somewhat irritated. “Still,
Arien should be able to deal with it as husband and wife do with
everything.” She angrily declared. “While
I do agree with you on that, there’s a tiny detail that you forget.”
Cologne admonished. Shampoo only stared blankly at her. With a tired sigh
Cologne continued. “He does not recognize, or rather refuse to
recognize, you two as married.” This
did not get the reaction Cologne predicted. Instead of getting angrier
Shampoo started sniffing and it was clear she was on the brink of tears.
“W-why does Ranma not want Shampoo? Is Shampoo not strong or skilled
enough or does he think Shampoo is ugly?” Cologne
gathered up Shampoo in a hug just before she began crying. She knew just
what the girl was going through as she had had the same thoughts herself
when she herself was young. Among the amazons, skill and strength was the
foremost attributes when seeking a mate. Appearance, while important, was
a secondary consideration. Still, for an amazon woman to start doubting
herself, especially her looks were dangerous. On many occasions, skilled
warriors in doubt of their own looks fell into a deep depression and
immersed themselves into martial artist studies in an attempt to make up
for the ‘flaw’. Mostly this ended with them being isolated from the
rest of the tribe, making the them think they were even more ugly and
falling into an even deeper depression, thus completing a very destructive
circle. “It
is not like that Shampoo, and you know it. No, I don’t think ‘want’ has
anything to with this.” Cologne said soothingly. “What
do great-grandmother mean?” Shampoo managed between sobs. “Well
let’s start with the current situation shall we?” Cologne said as she
let go of Shampoo. The purple-haired girl wiped away her tears and nodded
for the old woman to continue. “Ranma is stubborn. While I find this
trait highly amusing, it has caused son-in-law countless troubles.” Shampoo
couldn’t help smiling a little at that. “Is too, too true.” “What
this means is that Ranma will fight against anything and anyone trying to
force his hand. If Ranma is to do as one wants to, he has to want it
himself.” Cologne fixed Shampoo with a hard gaze. “For us, this means
we might have to take some drastic measures.” Shampoo
didn’t like the sound of that. “What great-grandmother mean?” “You
may have to give up the kiss of marriage.” To
say that Shampoo was stunned was like saying the Kunos were eccentric. Her
great-grandmother, the matriarch of the Joketsuzoku amazons, was actually
telling her to break one of the most important and sacred laws in their
society. It couldn’t be true! “But, but, but, Shampoo l-love Ranma. No
want to give him up.” She stuttered. Cologne
held up her hand to calm the young girl. “I’m not saying that you
should give him up. However as I already stated, if Ranma feels forced he
won’t do it. Removing the kiss of marriage might be the thing needed to
make him ease up around you. Of course I’m well aware of the risks
involved, so let’s just keep it under consideration for now.” Shampoo
nodded and felt very relieved she didn’t have to release Ranma from the
kiss of marriage, yet she could understand her great-grandmothers
reasoning. She and Cologne had already tried forcing Ranma into accepting
the law several times and despite their best efforts nothing good had come
out if it. “Secondly,
Ranma is too honourable for his own good.” Cologne continued. “This is
where the other two girls have a slight advantage over you. Both are
engaged to Ranma on a matter of honour and if he chooses one over the
other, he destroys not only his own honour but also the honour of the girl
he leaves behind.” Suddenly Cologne looked as old as her years. “I can
only imagine how he must feel. No matter what he does,
his and someone else’s honour is destroyed in the process.” “Why
this talk about honour? Honour is important but the Japanese
ridiculous.” Shampoo said somewhat confused. Cologne
shrugged. “What can I say? The Japanese are strange yet they have some
good sides as well.” Cologne got up from her seat and started for the
living area of the Nekohanten.
“But,
what do with Ranma?” Shampoo hurriedly asked, as she knew what her
great-grandmother was about to do. Cologne
turned, irritation clear in her movements. “Do not worry child, I do
have a plan. Just for the record it involves the saying ’If you can’t
beat them, join them.’ Now if you excuse me, I have to meditate.” She
quickly headed to the back of the restaurant. Shampoo
did not understand what her great-grandmother had meant by the saying but
she knew one thing. Never disturb her when meditating. The last time she
missed a Sailor Moon episode, she was grumpy for a whole week… *** - - - - *** |
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BTW
the name of this fic is a direct reference to the actual chapter where the
cat spirit captures Shampoo. I hope the nice people at ‘The New Ranma ½
Project’, http://www.techserv.curtin.edu.au/ranmascan/index.html,
won’t mind me using (aka stealing) their translation. Anyway it is my hope that this fic will satisfy all Shampoo fans out there, because I know you exist somewhere out there…
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works will be available at: And
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