Last upgrade: 04-May'02

All synopsis are by Zahara Medina, and cannot be used anywhere else without her permission. As she is just a student of Japanese, any help, comments or corrections are more than welcome! ^^;
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Chapter 8

Happy new Year! Morli realizes during the festivities that there is something wrong with Ranze while Sheera is just delighted that Ranze and Aron are together. Rinze also thinks that Ranze doesn't look like herself. At the temple(*) Shun and his mother, Youko and her father and Ranze and her family coincide. Youko is very happy to see Ranze attached to Aron's arm and thinks that she no longer has a rival for Shun's attentions! (Of course Shun doesn't really care much... ^^; ). Shun takes another look at Ranze and then leaves with is mother. Youko and her father (who has a crush on Shun's mother) go with them. Shun wonders what is wrong with Ranze, and then thinks that he doesn't understand women. Back at the Etou household, Sheera tells Morli that Ranze doesn't need to go to school in the human world anymore, since she will be returning eventually to the Makai world. In his studio, Morli remembers all the happy and excited expressions on Ranze's face everytime Shun was involved and realizes that the dreamy, stupid-like face she now has is not the face of somebody truly in love. Morli goes to Ranze's room to talk to her. He asks her if she likes Aron, which she says she does. Then he asks her if she likes him enough to marry him, to which she agrees again. Is she for real? She is, Ranze replies. Morli then says that then she doesn't have any feelings left for the Makabe boy. Ranze looks up wondering about that name... Morli says that he understands... but then is shocked to see that Ranze seems to be crying without realizing it! Behind Morli, somebody starts crying... Sand! Morli goes to confront Aron about what Sand told him (the potion) and eventually Aron agrees to restore Ranze to her normal self, provided Morli gives him Ranze's most precious thing: Shun's life. Morli gives Ranze a potion to drink and she returns to normal, having no memory of what she did while in the trance! Sheera appears with Ranze's wedding dress and the poor girl panics. Morli tells them that Aron gave Ranze a potion. Sheera fights with Morli because she still thinks Aron is the way to go, but they are interrumpted by Ranze, who yells at them that she is not a doll, and then runs away into the first door of the secret basement. Ranze finds herself in a room full of doors. A talking clock behind her explains that the doors go into the past. Ranze chooses to go 10 years back, and finds herself in her own home! As she looks around, she sees her parents saving a little Ranze from a nasty fall, but she decides to go take a look around. Eventually Ranze runs across a little dark-haired boy, who turns out to be Shun! A very young Youko is not far and the three of them end up playing games (Youko and Ranze hate each other on sight even now... ^^;; ). After a while, all the kids in the park return home with their parents until only Shun is left. Ranze and Shun look at the sunset together from a special place he shows her, and Shun then leaves to run back home. She decides to return home as well. When she arrives to the Etou mansion, she overhears her parents talking to her younger self as she sleeps. Ranze is very impressed at how much they love her... unfortunately, the talking parrot discovers her and she has to bite him... Back in the present, the whole family and Aron are waiting for Ranze. Rinze discovers the two parrots, and one of them sneezes itself back into Ranze. Her parents don't know very well what to say, so she just goes up to her room. Aron says he is sorry, and Ranze just tells him to forget it. Rinze goes to talk to Ranze and tells her that the boxing gym's tournament is the following day, then asks her if Shun is the guy she likes... (Ranze is definitely back to her normal crazy self... ^^; ) Next day, Sand visits the King of the Makai, and he sends another creature to the human world with him: ET (almost literally ^^; ), who can go through solid objects. It and Aron in an invisibility make-up (literally ^^;;; ) follow Ranze to the boxing gym after she has made come cookies for Shun. On the way, ET puts some potion on the cookies that will anger whoever eats them. Shun is surprised and happy to see Ranze back to normal, but Youko is definitely not! Youko eats all of Ranze's cookies for Shun in a fit and becomes really angry at Ranze, daring her to a boxing match! To Shun's horror, Ranze readily agrees! Ranze is really bad at it, while ET's attempt to help her following invisible Aron's order only tend to make it worse. At the end, Ranze is happily knocked out. After she wakes up, Shun walks her home and makes her feel better about the fight, her bruised face, and her cookies. In Etou Mansion, Aron reminds Morli of their agreement. Aron wants Shun's life.

All images © Ikeno Koi (except backgrounds).