A Butterfly in China
By: Kevin 'Stormwalker' McHorney
Note: Tenchi Muyo, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku, Kimagure Orange Road, Ranma 1/2 and Bubble Gum Crisis all belong to others.. as if you didn't already know that.
******
Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Every action, no matter how insignificant will have an effect on something else. Sometimes the effects will be small and unnoticeable, and other times they spiral far out of proportion from the original action, the proverbial butterfly in China flapping it's wings and starting a hurricane in Florida. For example, take the events happening in Washu's lab.
Washu scooted her chair from console to console as she checked the status of her experiment. "Hmm," she mumbled to herself, "beta rays are a little low in block 14." She fiddled with another console, then felt a presence behind her. "Please don't let it be..." she trailed off as she turned around, then with a sigh said, "Mihoshi. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, uh Sasami wanted me to tell you that dinner's ready and," Mihoshi's head swiveled around, trying to look at everything at once. "Wow, what's that?" she asked running up to one of the monitors.
"No!" Washu screamed, don't touch that," Mihoshi's hand came down right on a big red button as she looked closely into the monitor. "Button," Washu forlornly said as she heard one of her generators revving up.
The generator sent a pulse of energy along a conduit and out of Washu's lab. It raced to a transmitter then up into space, striking a satellite. The satellite adjusted itself and fired the beam back to Earth, hitting a young, female android named Emi. Emi picked herself up off the ground and looked across the street at where her rival Nuku-Nuku was looking in a shop window. She marched across the street and spun Nuku-Nuku around. "You did that on purpose, didn't you," Emi accused.
Nuku-Nuku scratched the back of her head, "Did what on purpose Emi-chan?"
"You know what you did," Emi growled and tackled Nuku-Nuku.
"Yay, Nuku-Nuku hasn't played all week," the semi-feline android said and knocked Emi fifteen feet away, through a parked car. Several people ran for shelter, but some just stood and stared. Emi jumped up and pulled a missile launcher out of her backpack. She fired at Nuku-Nuku, who easily dodged the assault.
Kyosuke looked up at the missiles coming straight at him. I knew I shouldn't have come to Nerima he thought to himself, then, with a burst of intense concentration he disappeared out of the path of the missiles and reappeared several blocks away. Just in time to get grabbed by the back of the shirt and pulled out of the path of a bus.
Kyosuke looked at the bus, then at the fanged boy who saved him and turned a little green.
"Are you all right," Ryoga asked, "you know, it's kind of dangerous to practice marital arts maneuvers like that near busses.
Silently Kyosuke thanked his ancestors. He thinks it was only martial arts, my secret's safe, he thought. "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. Thank you for saving me. Well, I'll just be going now."
"Wait," Ryoga said. Kyosuke tensed to run, then Ryoga said, "do you know how to get to Furinkan High?"
"Huh?" was Kyosuke's eloquent reply. Then he looked around to get his bearings and pointed, "Yes, Furinkan is just that way and left. You can't miss it."
"Thank you," Ryoga said, and headed 90 degrees of where Kyosuke pointed.
Kyosuke shook his head and said, "No, it's that way." Again, Ryoga started off in the wrong direction. Kyosuke sighed, "Why don't I just take you there.
The look of gratitude was immediately apparent, "Thank you. I'm Ryoga Hibiki, what's your name?"
Kyosuke paused for a moment, then held out his hand and said, "Kyosuke Kasuga." He led Ryoga to the gates of Furinkan high then said, "I have to go, thanks again for the help with the bus."
"It was no problem, thank you for helping me get here." Ryoga watched as Kyosuke walked away, then focused on the front of the building and the students that were just now beginning to come out.
From the doorway he heard one call out, "Ranma, looks like that umbrella guy's here again."
"Huh," Ranma said as he leaped out of a second floor window and landed next to the student. In response he just pointed at the charging Ryoga.
"Ranma, prepare to die," Ryoga screamed as he threw a kick at Ranma.
Ranma dodged and said, "Hey Ryoga, it's been three months man, I was starting to get worried. Who knows what happens to little piggies out in the world these days." Then Ranma ran to the school wall and leaped over.
Ryoga turned bright red as he charged after Ranma, "Ranma, you bastard, I'm going to kill you for that."
Ranma snickered, "So what were you going to do before, just maim me?" He dodged two flying bandannas as he accidentally bumped into someone, then leaped over another wall into traffic. Without a second thought Ryoga followed.
Urd groaned from where Ranma had knocked her to the ground. She shook her head to clear it and said to herself, "I came this far from home to stop this sort of thing from happening." Then she looked down at the empty vial in her hand. "Oh no," she said, "my love potion." Nervously she looked over the hedge and saw two young children. From the look of their clothes and faces they had been fighting a few seconds earlier. Now they were hugging.
"C'mon Takashi, let's play house."
"Ok, Hikaru, I'll do whatever you want." A drop of sweat formed on the back of Urd's head as she creeped away.
Several years later, 2013
Hikaru lay back, exhausted as she watched her husband Takashi hold their new baby for the first time.
"Do you have a name picked out yet?" the doctor asked.
Hikaru smiled and said, "Priscilla. Priscilla Sayoko Asagiri."
Takashi smiled at his daughter and cooed, "Priss, welcome to the world."
*****
So one could almost say that the butterfly Mihoshi is directly responsible for the hurricane Priss.
The End.
