Spoiled Brats, Chapter 36

[DarkFyre99]

Spoiled Brats

Disclaimer #1: Kyon-kun... denwa.

Disclaimer #2: For some reason, my spell checker in open office quit working, so you folks at fukufics dot com get to see what my spelling is like when it's not augmented by technology. My thanks in advance for any errors you all catch. If anyone has suggestion to get it working again (and yes, I have the option on) I'd greatly appreciate it.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Rehersal

Ranma flipped her mane of auburn hair away from her ear, and placed her cell phone to her ear, as she watched the streets go by in her taxi. "Col. Anderson?" She asked in English. "It's Takeda Megumi... Thanks, I've been getting a lot of practice with my English lately... My doctor's grounded me, so I'm afraid I'll have to reschedule tonight's meeting..." Ranma looked at her vibrating right foot. "Believe me, I am well aware of how much time I saved, verses 'humping it like you mortals...' That won't be necessary. I'm stuck in traffic, so I've got plenty of time to call Prince Herb and Shampoo. How's Kiima doing?... I guess it's for the best. No matter how tempting it is, we shouldn't negotiate with Kiima when she's doped to the gills."

By the time her phone calls were complete, including checking in with her girls, the taxi had stopped in an unremarkable section of Roppongi, well off the main streets. She was not surprised at all to see that there was a small crowd standing respectfully away from a flight of stairs leading down. Despite still being in a killing mood, Ranma put on a pleasant smile, payed the taxi driver, stepped out, and waited for the squeeing to begin before she waved to the crowd.

"Takeda-sama!"

"Megumi-chan!"

"I can't believe she's here!"

"I'm sorry, but could I trouble you for your autograph?"

Ranma stepped up to the crowd, "Good morning ladies, and gentleman. How are you all?"

It took about ten minutes of pictures, autographs, handshakes, and pleasantries before she politely excused herself and walked down the stairs, and entered the Cosplay Cafe. The pub didn't have any sign on the street advertising it. It didn't advertise in the papers or magazines, and it didn't even list its address and phone number in the phone book. What attracted full capacity crowds each night was live entertainment and cute waitressess, all dressed in outfits from popular anime programs. Rumor had it that the pub was in the basement because the other five floors of the building was filled with costumes. Ranma knew the rumor to be false: the ground floor held the apartment for the owner's family, the pub's storage areas, offices, workshops for the tailors and seamstresses who made the costumes, and a store that opened onto a busier street in Roppongi for people who were willing to pay top yen for high quality costumes.

A brown haired woman in her late thirties was taking inventory behind the window that separated the entrance from the entrance. "Takeda-san! I didn't think you'd be coming in today, given what I saw on the news."

"Takayama-san! I'm surprised to see you here. Shouldn't you be at the bar, watering down the drinks?"

Takayama Minami, who really reminded Ranma of Tendo Nabiki, laughed wickedly. "'Gumi-chan," she said haughtilly. "I'll have you know that I don't water down the drinks, even for your concerts." Her expression turned impish. "Instead, I buy the really cheap stuff, and charge 2000 yen a glass."

After the two shared a laugh, she took Ranma's hands. "'Gumi-chan, I can't thank you enough..."

Ranma waved off her thanks. "And I wouldn't have a career if you hadn't introduced me to the right people. Plus I can't thank you enough, or your band, for putting this together on such short notice."

"Are you kidding? The fact that you frequent my little establishment is the only thing that brings in half my customers." She sighed. "And the other half are male otaku who are here for the cute girls in short skirts." She shook her head. "It's a real shame that most of your fans are lesbians. I see way too many guys with too little self-esteem get shot down here." The older woman turned more serious. "The news said that your apartment took some damage? Is your little fiancee alright?

Ranma sighed. "Her and one of her friends got hurt, but the doctor thinks they'll be out by Friday at the latest. I asked her if she wanted me to stay, but she kept throwing wadded up paper at me." Seeing her questioning look, Ranma added. "She got hit in the throat. She can't talk, and she's can barely breathe right now."

Minami winced. "And she's a singer... if that doesn't heal right, it could ruin her career before it even begins."

"She's in good hands, 'Nami-chan. Could I get some hot water?"

"Why? Your 'brother' can't carry a tune in a bucket, 'Gumi-chan."

"I've got my reasons."

- + - + -

A few minutes later, a male Ranma silently walked up behind the tall, blond foreigner who was the lead male English singer in the band of ten musicians. "Sorry I'm late, everyone." Ranma said in a falsetto.

The blond turned around, a somewhat lecherous smile on his face. "Megumi! Babe... oh, it's you." He finished in disappointment. "Will you stop doing that? It's creepy. Go... do whatever it is you do to summon your hot sister."

The Chinese-American lead female English singer shook her head at her husband's antics. "They're the same person, you lech."

"Allison! If she looks like a babe, walks like a babe, feels like a babe, and she's got the plumbing of a babe, then she ain't no man."

Ranma shook his head before summoning a mist of water in his face, and turned female again.

"Okay, everyone," Takayama Minami said as she climbed onto the stage. "Since our star attraction didn't let a little thing like a monster attack keep her away, I'd like to see if we can finally get the choreography of the opening number down, finally." There were several groans from the assembled group. "That's enough of that. Vic?" She asked, looking at the tall blond, "Do you think you can keep on rhythm this time? And don't forget, your character should look like he's at least pretending to have fun..."

- + - + -

"It's a partial transformation," Sailor Jupiter, also known as Kino Makoto, read. "I get the full physical abilities, but not the full range of magical attacks. Not to mention that the 'Sailor-V' fuku doesn't protect nearly as well as the the one I'm wearing, nor does it accelerate my healing abilities as much as the full transformation does."

"But why didn't you tell us about it?"

Sailor Venus, also known as Aino Minako, thought a second before writing, "Sorry. We got so used to keeping secrets, that it's become a bad habit. I mean, we need to keep secrets, but not from each other." Venus looked at the clock. "It's almost lunch. I'm afraid you'll have to do the talking." The girl removed the page from the pad she was writing on, folded it into a paper airplane, and sent it flying to the girl in the other bed.

Jupiter rolled her eyes and summoned her cell phone. She waited until after classes should have finished before setting the phone to conference mode. On the other bed, Venus repeated her actions.

Usagi's cheerful voice came over the phone. "Hi, Mako-chan! What's wrong, you can't make it to lunch today?" She paused. "Minako-chan? You can't make it either?"

"We can't talk freely right now, Sailor Moon," Jupiter said carefully. "We're at Juuban General Hospital right now. It turned out that Kiima had brainwashed Tendo-san. She waited until Takeda-sensei took Sailor Mars to her school, and sensei was distracted, before she took us all out. We weren't transformed at the time, so we were hurt pretty badly, but Doctor Ono said that if we keep our transformations up, we'll be fully healed in a couple of days."

"We'll be right over!"

"No, Sailor Moon. We'll be fine for a few hours. You finish class, get our assignments, and then come over. Oh, and Sailor Mercury? I think you should inform a mutual friend of ours that her mother has certain suspicions, and want to have a very long conversation about her after-school activities in the near future." Sailor Jupiter hung up, followed by Sailor Venus.

- + - + -

At Juuban Junior High, Tsukino Usagi also closed her cell phone, looked over at the extremely pale Mizuno Ami, and asked, "Ami-chan? Are you alright?"

- + - + -

"What I'd like to know is if these techniques of yours are so effective," Mizuno Saeko said to her college Ono Toufuu over their lunch in the hospital cafeteria, "Why aren't they a part of the general practice?"

"There's several reasons. First and foremost, for maximum effect, both the patient and the healer have to have 'the gift.' The healer needs 'the gift' to properly read the ki pathways, and a patient with 'the gift' simply has a lot more resources to work with. That pretty much kills any possibility for a double blind study. Second, it's only been in the last hundred years that those with 'the gift' have been accepted by the public in general. Those who practice the warrior arts have never had the same problems as those of us who practice other disciplines, and we in the East haven't faced nearly as much persecution as those in the West, we're used to keeping things in the proverbial family. Finally, these techniques work primarily by boosting the body's natural healing abilities, which is absolutely worthless when it's the body that's causing the problem. There's nothing we can do with autoimmune disorders, for example, and in the case of cancer..."

"What's wrong?"

"Dammit, why didn't I think of that before?" Toufuu got up and moved as quickly as he could through the crowded cafeteria.

Dr. Mizuno struggled to keep up with the man. "Think of what?" As soon as he reached the corridor, he began to run. "Think of what?"

- + - + -

The two Sailor Senshi were eating lunch (technically, one was eating lunch, and the other's lunch was entirely liquid) when Doctor Ono Toufuu burst into their room.

"Ono-sensei, what's wrong?"

"Minako, drop your transformation!"

"What?"

"Drop it now!"

- + - + -

Ranma held the final pose for a few seconds as the last few chords faded away. After she regained her breath, she beamed a big smile at her friends as their audience of one began to applaud.

"I'm not sure how your fans will react to it," Takayama Minami said as she stood, "But whatever they think, I'm sure it'll knock their socks off."

“Does this mean you won't be needing our services anymore, Takeda-san?” The violinist Asami Yuuka asked impishly. Beside her, the pianist Takagi Nao rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

“Don't worry. As long as you're willing, you'll always have a part to play here,” Ranma reassured the younger woman. “Just don't let it interfere with your own careers. You'll do me no favors if you turn down your big break when it comes.” She looked around the stage. “You guys worked through lunch, so how about I treat you all to an early dinner?”

As the crowd began cheer, Ranma felt her cell phone vibrate. “Hi, this is Takeda Megumi!”

On the other end of the phone, Ono Toufuu said, “Megumi-san, I need to remind you not to teleport.”

Ranma rolled her eyes. “Don't worry, Doc. I'm taking it easy. I'm not even roof hopping everywhere.”

There was a pause on the other end. “That's not why I called. I need you to come back to the hospital, right now.”

The cheering on stage died when they saw their friend stiffen and pale. “What's wrong?”

“It's Minako-chan...”

- + - + -

Author's Notes: Asami Yuuka and Takagi Nao are two of the actresses that played Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus in the Sailor Moon musicals. When Ranma's signature music style turned out to be rather heavy on the violin and piano, I couldn't resist the temptation. ^_^

I'm a little over 20,500 words right now, and there's only 12 days left of the challenge. I seem to write at about 600 words an hour when there's interesting distractions around (like the internet, Wikipedia, tvtropes, or my computer) and with effectively three hours a day to write on workdays, and the busiest week in retail, plus Thanksgiving, coming up, it's going to be tough to make it. Either that, or I need to lower my standards a bit more.

[Dumbledork]

Excellent.

[J. St.C. Patrick]

Your spelling is quite good. only a couple of errors.
Alas I cannot suggest anything to get spell check to work again.

A good chapter even though not much takes place.
Nice use of the names of Uranus & Neptune's voice actresses.
Are the blond male and the Chinese American female references too?

Another cliff hanging ending!

Chapter Thirty-Six: Rehersal

Rehearsal

Ranma flipped her mane of auburn hair away from her ear, and placed her cell phone to her ear, as she watched the streets go by in her taxi.

suggestion:
hair out of the way as she placed (so you don’t have the repetition of ear)

Despite still being in a killing mood, Ranma put on a pleasant smile, payed the taxi driver, stepped out, and waited for the squeeing to begin before she waved to the crowd.

paid

What attracted full capacity crowds each night was live entertainment and cute waitressess, all dressed in outfits from popular anime programs.

waitresses

Rumor had it that the pub was in the basement because the other five floors of the building was filled with costumes.

were

Takayama Minami, who really reminded Ranma of Tendo Nabiki, laughed wickedly. "'Gumi-chan," she said haughtilly.

haughtily

Ranma sighed. "Her and one of her friends got hurt, but the doctor thinks they'll be out by Friday at the latest. I asked her if she wanted me to stay, but she kept throwing wadded up paper at me."

She

Seeing her questioning look, Ranma added. "She got hit in the throat. She can't talk, and she's can barely breathe right now."

she

Not to mention that the 'Sailor-V' fuku doesn't protect nearly as well as the the one I'm wearing, nor does it accelerate my healing abilities as much as the full transformation does."

as the one (extraneous the)