Since I'm currently making good progress on this story, I'll send it
first. This story chronologically follows "A Deadly Choice", but you
will not need to have read that story in order to understand most of
this one. (Be warned that this story may spoil elements of ADC,
however.) If you would prefer to read the earlier story first, it is
complete and can be found on my webpage. The URL is in my signature.
I've also fixed (I hope) those nasty control characters and smart
quotes. If anybody actually notices a change, I'd like to hear about it,
but private replies only to that request! C&C, public or private, is
always welcome.
Shampoo stared at the paper in the stranger's hand. "Is real? This
true marriage contract?"
"That's right," said the man with the contract.
"If Ranma sign contract, then he have to marry Shampoo?"
The man hesitated. "It's not a signature as such..." He drew a knife
from his voluminous robe and drew a quick slash across the back of
Shampoo's hand in an eyeblink.
"Aah! What you doing?"
"It's all part of the procedure," he assured her. He calmly took her
wrist and held her hand over the contract. A drop of her blood fell onto
the paper and resolved itself into the characters of her name. Shampoo
gasped.
"Is... blood contract? Shampoo not want!"
"It's too late. Your - " he paused for dramatic effect
"-'signature' - is already on the paper." He handed the contract to
Shampoo. "Whoever sheds his blood on the contract first will be your
husband, for better or for worse."
Shampoo's shaking hand gripped the paper, slightly crumpling it.
"No! Shampoo destroy contract!"
The man shrugged. "Suit yourself. But I don't see why you would want
to give up your only chance at marrying Ranma."
"This paper dirty! Shampoo not want!" She gripped the paper in both
hands to tear it.
"Shampoo? What have you got there?" Shampoo turned to see Mousse in
the doorway. She quickly hid the contract behind her back.
"Is nothing! You seeing wrong again, stupid."
"Oh well." Mousse took off his glasses to clean them. Shampoo turned
back to the strange man, but he was gone. She looked down at the
contract in her hand. The man was right. She couldn't just tear up the
paper that would assure her a happy marriage to Ranma. But how could she
get him to sign it? He'd suspect something if she brought it to him
herself...
"Say, Shampoo," said Mousse. Shampoo quickly hid the contract again.
"Have you seen the bowl of ramen I left here for lunch?"
Shampoo furtively pushed the empty bowl away from Mousse as he ran
his hands across the tabletop, feeling for his lunch. "No, Shampoo not
see." Actually, that much was true - she hadn't seen the man eat the
ramen, but by the time he had produced the contract as payment, every
last drop was gone.
"What's that?" asked Mousse, finding the empty bowl at last. "Oh,
this can't be my bowl. Mine had ramen in it." He took the bowl into the
kitchen, leaving Shampoo alone.
"No can give contract to Mousse. Him too stupid." The door opened
again. Shampoo hid the contract, but it wasn't Mousse who came out of
the kitchen this time. It was a tall red-haired Amazon man wearing a
knife in his hair and twirling another in his hand. "Razor? What you
still doing here?"
Razor bowed slightly, bending backwards. "To your family indentured
being I. To Japan my passage paying did Cologne."
"Great-grandmother pay for you come to Japan?"
"Correct. Her serving must now I, for my debt repaying I."
"Serving?" Shampoo considered this. "You serve Shampoo too, yes?"
"Of course," replied Razor with another backwards bow. "Of Cologne
of family being you."
Shampoo smiled. True, the Kunos' servant Sasuke traditionally
screwed up every assignment he was given, but Razor was very good at
getting things done, provided the orders were given backwards. Besides,
Razor's skill with knives could come in very handy for getting Ranma's
signature. "Okay, Shampoo have job for you." She handed him the
contract. "You read this, and sign in own blood, okay? Take far away
from Ranma, and use knife for get his blood on paper." That was tricky;
if Razor used a knife, he'd do exactly what he'd been told rather than
the reverse. "Then take far from here."
"Understood." Razor stepped out of the restaurant. Shampoo held her
breath as she watched him go. If everything went well, she and Ranma
would be married at last. If something went wrong... of course nothing
could go wrong! She'd been very careful when giving Razor his
instructions. Shampoo smiled to herself and began to wipe down the
tables, preparing for the next customer.
Out front of the Cat Cafe, Razor reviewed his instructions. "Paper
reading must I, then in own blood it signing must I." Razor glanced at
the page, noting the large blood signature on it. "This being of paper
what kind?" He started to read from the bottom, but a word at the top of
the page caught his eye, and he began to read the document quietly to
himself, from the top. "By the purity of the knife that draws my
blood..."
Ranma 1/2 -- The Contract
------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to "Whose Line is it Anyway?" where we make things up as we go
along, whether they make sense or badger.
JOHNNY BRAVO: *sigh* The only woman I ever really loved... and she's
gone. I wonder if I'll ever get over - Hey! Nuggets!
JACKIE CHAN: Oh, sorry. I broke your spy camera! (pause) SPY CAMERA?!
My webpage: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~katinamp