=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Richard Lawson -- Ranma slammed the bowl on the table. He opened a box of cereal and tilted it over the bowl. Nothing came out. He glared at the man sitting across from him. "You ate it all, didn't you?" The man across from him smiled widely as he put the last spoonful in his mouth. Ranma threw the box across the table. "Dammit, Ataru, I swear - you need to start paying double your share of the food expense. You eat enough for two dozen people." "And you don't?" Ataru said lazily. "Seems to me you ate a whole bag of rice before anyone else knew it was there." "Hey, at least *I'm* a martial artist working on perfecting my body. All *you're* working on is becoming a Happosai-wannabe." "Boys, boys," Urd said as she glided into the room. "Can we hold down the arguing until after breakfast? You have all day to insult each other." She went over and turned on the little black-and-white TV on the counter, watching it in rapture as she absently began making some tea. Ranma snorted and looked like he was about to say something, when Nuku Nuku staggered into the room. Ataru raised a bored eyebrow. "What's wrong, catgirl?" "Processors... have destroyed my brain." She fell to her knees, clutching at Ranma. "Losing... coherence. Couldn't... tried to fight it off. Every day... brain got worse. Can... cannot... compensate anymore. Only moments left." She looked up at Ranma, her eyes half as big as her face and full of tears. "Tell them for me! Tell Papa-san I love him! Tell Ryunnosuke I love him. T-tell Mama-san... oh, I'm dying. Death comes is death." She fell so that she was lying on the ground. "Mind dying shutting down oh I don't want to die want love want LOVE!" She convulsed once, then closed her eyes. Mamrou stepped over her as he entered. "This doesn't mean you're getting out of paying your share of the expenses, Nuku Nuku. It's not our fault you keep eating all of those fish pastries." Urd glanced over, then reached over and pulled out an elaborately mechanical wind-up mouse with "ACME/SKULD" stenciled on the side. She gave the handle a couple of turns, then set it on the floor. The mouse ran frantically around the room. Nuku Nuku's nose twitched once, twice. Her cat-ears popped out of her head, and then she finally sprang up. "Mouse!" She chased after it on all fours, passing by a startled Kyosuke as she ran out of the kitchen. Kyosuke looked around. "Was she playing dead again?" Ranma nodded. "She comes up with the weirdest excuses." Ataru sneered. "Better then the 'I need to save money for my unborn child' excuse someone game up with a while back." Ranma blushed and tried to eat something from his empty bowl. ~*~