Rei regarded the pervert boy who caught a peek at her nude form while violating this sacred place and the sacred rite being performed within. Her personal fury and her religious outrage aroused, she debated what she should do with this creep.
Rei once more called a red nimbus around her hand again. "Frying you where you stand seems like a good way to deal with you," she hissed.
"Hey! Don't I get a fair trial or sumtpin'?!" Ranma asked, somewhat alarmed at flame gathering in the priestess's hand, with him as the likely target.
Rei's smile was predatory. "You snuck in to violate a poor, defenseless temple maiden, then when help arrived, you dove at Usagi-chan, clearly screaming your intent to take her hostage," she said confidently. "Clear-cut case of defending my fellow temple sisters."
'Defenseless, my left foot!' Ranma's teeth were almost chattering in fear, but managed to ask, "A-And they'll back you up on that story?"
Rei was about to answer in the affirmative and let lose, but paused. She looked back at Ami and Usagi, the former with a reproachful look on her face, and the latter that had large weepy eyes ready to burst into tears. Rei sweatdropped. "Probably not," she murmured, dispersing the angry red flames harmlessly.
Ranma let out a relieved breath.
Rei crossed her arms in thought. "Hmm... what in the world should I do with you?" murmured Rei as she ran through her options. As she just determined, frying the little bastard would just get her into trouble, since she didn't trust her two compatriots to back up a claim of protection. That left basically two choices. The first was to wake up the high priestess and let her deal with the matter. She didn't like to be woken up from her beauty sleep (not that the Old Fossil had any beauty left), and that meant that any punishment she would deal would be swift and harsh. Perfect for the fool that dare violate this holy place.
Unfortunately, waking the high priestess to deal with the problem had big problem. Namely that she would be waking the high priestess and thus expose herself to her somewhat capricious wrath. Sure, the ultimate blame might lie with the peeping boy, but it would be Rei that woke the beast up. This would be especially true given that Rei, being an advanced study as she is, knew exactly the kind of punishment such people deserved.
There was also the option of letting him swim in the Holy Spring. It would judge him and then rinse him of all sin, imposing the appropriate penance for that sin in its place. This method had the advantage that any judgement rendered onto him would have the backing of divine edict. The problem is that the goddess's judgement was somewhat unpredictable, and Rei wouldn't have the option of dealing her own punishment onto him.
That meant that if the goddess let the boy off light, she would be without remedy. Goddesses didn't take kindly to their servants second-guessing their judgments.
That, in a nutshell, was the choice: the capricousness of divine judgement, or entering the lion's den of the old troll venerable elder priestess. Rei shuddered. Truth be told, she feared the high priestess more than the goddess.
At last, Rei spoke, a crafty smile spread across her face. "Yes, I know what to do now," she said. "You shall bathe in the Holy Spring and let the Goddess judge you."
Ranma, sensing danger if he opened his mouth, anxiously waited for Rei to elaborate.
Rei turned face to the pool, and Ranma found himself in a struggle to concentrate on her words and not on her rather... distracting backside. Not that her frontside was any less distracting, mind you, so concentration became easier. Rei took a reverent step towards the Holy Spring. "Do you see this pool, boy? It is the Holy Spring of the temple, dedicated to the Moon Goddess herself." She knelt to the surface of the pool, tenderly touching the surface, disrupting the tranquility of the pool and sending glowing ripples from her hand across the surface. "She judges all who enter these holy waters, rinsing their sins away like the dirt it is. If you consign yourself to Her judgement, and let her cleanse you, then I shall let you go; if not, we shall consult with the high priestess on this matter. The choice is yours."
"Ooo! Choose the spring!" Usagi advised, "I've seen the High Priestess in a tiff an' believe me, she ain't pretty!"
"'It's not pretty', you mean," Ami corrected.
"Yeah. That too," acknowledged the dizzy blonde, the nodding of her head like a giant bobble-head toy.
Ranma swallowed nervously and noisily. He realized that this nude priestess (must banish evil thoughts!) was not particularly powerful as far as this temple priestesses go, considering her compatriots. The prospect of facing a high priestess if this young woman was an example of the bottom rung didn't seem to him a pleasant one. He recognized the blonde one with the two ponytails streaming with two buns on her head as the real idiot of the group, but wasn't dumb enough not to learn from her mistakes.
On the other hand, there was that water. The priestesses obviously held it in high regard, and given the power of the priestesses that probably meant that the spring had power too. That was just the way this world worked. That meant that something nasty might happen to him. On the other hand, it might be just that the spring was harmless. It could go either way.
Ranma had to chance it. Chances were high that the high priestess would be powerful and pissed, which equaled not nice things happening to him. On the other hand, the pool might be the real thing, but it might not. In the former case he might be in big trouble, but in the latter case it would be just a refreshing swim.
He took a step toward the pool.
"Stop," Rei said. Ranma obediently did. "Take off your clothes," Rei continued.
"WHAT?!!" squawked Ranma, bouncing back from the nude priestess.
"Ooo! You're gonna get nekkid together!" Usagi called, suddenly excited.
Rei's eyes flashed fire. Not literal fire, of course. She wasn't quite that skilled at fire magic. "WE ARE NOT!!!" roared the fiery priestess.
Usagi started prancing about the room singing, "♪Rei and Hunky-san, sitting in a tree! N-A-K-K-I- and -D!♪"
Rei grit her teeth. "Ignore the ditz," she said, closing her eyes and recalling the words of the old battleaxe known as Lady Kaede, "You enter the sacred waters as you enter the world. Without shame or vanity." Rei popped open one eye. "Right?!" That last question was sent directly at the blonde scatterbrain with her hair in two bunned ponytails, in an abrasive tone.
"Huh?" Usagi asked, suddenly brought to attention. "Oh. Yeah. That's it exactly!" She slid up against Rei. "An' makin' bacon's kinda hard with your duds on as well!"
Rei glared at her. Usagi backed away, vacuous smile on her face and sweating a bit.
Ami raised a finger and said sagely. "Usagi-chan's quite right in that regard. Enjoyable romantic foreplay and sexual congress requires unimpeded access to the—" Rei's killer glare fell upon Ami now. "—but you couldn't possibly be interested in that right now." Ami fluttered away to regain her strength.
Ranma's eyes were wide with worry.
"That means git nekkid, Mr. Hunky!" Usagi chirped, having sneaked up behind him. That was when she pounced on him, latching onto Ranma's belt. "Take it off! Take it all off! *Da-da-duummmm! Da-da-duummmm!*" she said in her best imitation of a sultry voice, and hummed out a riff that certainly didn't belong in a temple of an respectable goddess.
"Where the heck did you come from?!" yelped Ranma as he was manhandled by Usagi. He blinked. "HEY! GET AWAY FROM THAT!" came his shout of protest.
Ami coughed. "Usagi-chan, that meat's Rei-chan's," she admonished the blonde priestess, "You shouldn't be putting your little mitts on him."
"Don't you start up with that, Ami!"
Ranma's eyes went wider. What did this priestess (apparently called 'Rei') have in mind for him? Was he really about to receive some sort of ab... absel... forgiveness? Or was he about to be turned into this man-eater priestess's boytoy? (Although truth to tell, he thought as he stole a look at Rei's fine form, it wouldn't be a horrible fate.)
"Enough of this!" Rei said with a great deal of finality in her voice. A long, elegant, well-manicured finger stretched out toward Ranma. "You. Strip. Or do you want to be judged by the high priestess?"
Ranma let out a small squeak of fear and began to divest himself of clothing as fast as he could without ripping them to shreds. Before long he was as naked as Rei, standing before the three girls with all his goods on display.
Rei raised an eyebrow.
"Oh my!" Ami gasped with eyes wide, clamping her hands across her mouth and cheeks burning furiously.
"Catcall! Catcall!" cheered Usagi.
Ranma blushed and covered his shame.
"So, the peeping tom is awfully modest about his attributes," observed Rei. "I assure you, however, that you have nothing to be ashamed of."
Rei smiled with satisfaction as she watched Ami and Usagi's jaws drop to the floor. Ranma, for his part, just went into turbo hyperblush.
"Step into the pool now," Rei commanded.
Ranma gingerly dipped his toe into the pool. An involuntary shudder crawled through his body at the feel, caused not so much by the chill of the water —he had stepped into colder streams than this pool— rather that the water had a vaguely... alive feel to it.
Ranma steeled himself and pressed on, submerging up to his knees, then his hips, then his chest, and finally to his neck. He remained that way, the water lapping against his chin.
Rei stared at him from the edge of the pool. He stared back. Obviously, he didn't figure out the last part. "Submerge fully under the water," instructed Rei.
Ranma took a deep breath and dunked his head underneath the water.
The three young priestesses watched the bubbles rise for a few seconds. Then the blue-haired priestess, Ami, turned to Rei. "I think it is cruel to leave your boyfriend to take the goddess's divine punishment alone, Rei-chan," Ami said disapprovingly. "You share some of the blame yourself, you realize."
Rei's forehead throbbed in anger. "He's not my boyfriend, dangit!" she protested, "he's just a pervert who snuck in and peeped on me!"
Usagi tilted her head curiously. "And how does this explain why you were still naked in front of him?" asked the ditzy priestess curiously.
Rei realized she had forgotten about her state of undress; too angry to be embarassed, she figured. Belatedly, her hands went to her naughty bits. "Shaddap and get my toga..." she growled, flushing beet red.
Usagi saluted and rushed out the doors to fetch Rei's robes. She was gone only a few seconds before she came running back, Rei's robes in her hands and a smile on her face.
"Usagi-chan! Don't run around the sacred pool! You could—"
'Slip' was the word about to come out of Rei's mouth. And Usagi just performed a perfect example of the action going with it. "WAH!!" Usagi screamed stumbling headlong into Rei, knocking Rei back and into the pool. Usagi landed safely on the hard marble floor. Rei
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