Carth's magical adventure, ROUND TWO, MOTHERFUCKERS!

[Anastasia]

"You're back at the hotel, Carthrat," Rachel reassures you. You find you are on your bed, and she is sitting on a chair perched nearby. "You got rather disorented after that tornado attack." she shakes her head.

[Carthrat]

"Ah.. yeah, I remember now. Dammit. I was off-centre.. ah well, martial arts was never my thing anyway," replies Carthrat, chuckling. "What time is it? Who drove?"

[Anastasia]

"Ukyo did," she replies. "And it's nearly midnight. You were out of it for quite awhile. Are you sure you didn't suffer any brain damage or serious imparement?" she asks. "You kept muttering about Setsuna and Yuki and Shizue and all sorts of other people."

[Carthrat]

Carthrat freezes up. "Please tell me Ukyo and Ranma didn't hear."

[Anastasia]

She frowns, thinking. "Well...we were in the backseat while they were up front. It's possible they didn't hear much, if any, because you weren't that loud. Is it..." she says, frowning deeper, "an issue?"

[Carthrat]

"Nothing that matters now," replies Carthrat. "It's all ancient history. That's all.

I don't *think* I'm brain damaged. Any more than usual, anyway."

[Anastasia]

"Well, that's good," she says, laughing lightly. She changes moods quickly, doesn't she. "I'm turning in. Do you need anything light before that?"

[Carthrat]

"Naw, I'm fine," replies Carthrat. "Don't worry about me too much, Rachel," he continues, jokingly. "I'll sleep and I promise you I'll be back to normal tomorrow."

Even he isn't sure if he's talking about his mood or his body.

Dammit, that tornado *hurt*.. but he'd crawled out of a collapsed building and kept on tankin', right?

Maybe it was the fight itself.. been a while since he'd been in a fight like that..

It's surprisingly easy to get to sleep sometimes..

[Anastasia]

And thus, another day passes.

The week goes by, surprisingly, without incident. You spend the days working on the Plasma weapon for your trip, and the nights taking Rachel to see the sights of Tokyo.  

The media is fairly quiet this week, and after a few days even the child brothel story has faded away.  If it wasn't for the fact that the Yazuka probably has a death warrant on you, things would be peachy.

[Carthrat]

With a satisfying *click*, the final section of the P. Acellerator's case is snapped on, leaving only the finished weapon, ready for use.

"Finally! I was scared I was gonna take another two days.." Carthrat says, happily. "I'd say it was a cause for celebration, Rach, if we hadn't been doing a bit of that every night."

[Anastasia]

"And just a day before it's due," she says, leaning back on her bed. "I was afraid we'd miss it and be sitting ducks for whatever the Yazuka is going to throw at us..." she says that, but frowns halfway through. "Wait. You said that they were from space?"

[Carthrat]

"They won't follow us out of space," says Carthrat, shaking his head. "The reason that they're running a crime syndicate on Earth is because it makes them untouchables. The only reason anyone comes here is to get away, or because they're from here and they have a desire to see their homeland."

[Anastasia]

"You know, I've been meaning to ask you that. Is Earth really that big a backwater?" she queues, still laying on her bed.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat blinks. "Good question.

If Earth was a complete backwater, like, say, during the 1400's, nobody would come here. But it's not. It'd be like us going back to the beginning of the 19th century. There'd be a fair bit that's the same, yes. You could probably survive there. But you'd also see a lot that's very dated by comparision.

Because your generation is smarter and more analytical than that generation, it'd be much easier for you to survive, if you could make a planned attack on it, say.

Understand? I'm not really sure I do myself, sometimes. Maybe a better way of putting it is that it's backwater enough to be noticable, but not so backwater to be a complete write-off."

[Anastasia]

"It's like a space ghetto, instead of a house or outright wilderness?" She asks this, trying to get a grasp on what you said. "It's servicable, but dingy and unpleasant by standards?"