Mouse wrote:
The house of the crying man and his daughters:
"Put me down old man! I'm going back to China!" two angry male
voices rang out.
"Ooh! That must be them!" said the middle daughter, Nabiki.
Nabiki and Soun eagerly ran to the door, wanting to see Genma, and
his (hopefully) cute son. They ran back, fear and shock on their faces.
Following them came two identical looking young men, who were in turn
followed by a gigantic panda. The young men looked up from their study
of the floorboards, and in perfect unison said, "I'm Ranma Saotome-
sorry about this."
"You were both named Ranma?" Kasumi asked.
"Ooh, they're both handsome," Nabiki nearly squealed with obvious
delight.
"Ah, here's the problem!" Mouse said as his eyes lit up, glowing
the same shade of red as his remote control. "After the grand larceny
charge that was filed against one Nabiki Tendo, during an investigation
into the disappearance of Kuno's cloak, the APD did a complete background
check on her. She's had two dates in her life, and thinks most guys are
morons. She ended up with a three day rehabilitation period with Mikado,
although that was successfully appealed on the grounds that it was a cruel
and unusual punishment, but that's beside the point. We've got an imposter
here!"
Both Ranmas blinked dully at him. "Huh?"
"Ahem. She's not acting like herself."
"Oh, right." The two of them scratched their heads, in thought.
"Must be a leftover plot element."
The Mouse scribbled in his notebook, beginning a list of charges
against the author: "Leftover plot element..."
Actually this is consistent with how Nabiki behaved at the beginning of
the manga. She and Soun were both eagerly awaiting Ranma's arrival and
only turned cold to him when it was found out that he turned into a
girl. She was quite angry about that also. I like this exploration of
a different sort of beginning between Ranma and the rest of the Tendos.
"Which way to the dojo?" he asked.
"This way, just follow me," answered Akane curtly.
"I think I'll watch. This could be interesting," mused Nabiki.
The trio made their way to the dojo, Akane in the lead, and Nabiki
with her arm around Ranma's... purely to steady him, of course.
"Ranma," Mouse began, "is your sister always like that? After
guys, that is?"
"Well, no..." said Blue.
"That is, she's not _usually_..." Red added.
"Usually?" asked Mouse.
"Well...maybe we should ask the author if he meant to do that,"
they replied lamely.
Mouse nodded. "I'm beginning to think this is a bit more than a
leftover plot element..."
In the beginning, all that was needed to get Nabiki interested was if
Ranma was cute or not. Twins is not as much of an aversion to her as
turning into a girl. In fact it would probably have been Nabiki who
would have become the fiancee if Ranma didn't change genders or have
other less desirable curses.
Comments to myself or to Mr. Lewis would be appreciated. ^_^