Carrying a steaming pot of sukiyaki into the dining/living room, Kasumi looked up at the ceiling and the growing crack in the plaster. “Oh my. You wouldn’t even think to guess that Akane wasn’t here.”
Suddenly, there was a loud “BWEE!” From upstairs, followed by the sound of something heavy falling. And thus another piece of plaster fell from the ceiling, this time nailing panda-san on the head. As the panda-baka rubbed his head, Soun was then moving a few pieces around on his own.
“Oh my, you definitely wouldn’t think Akane was gone,” Kasumi said again.
“True enough Kasumi,” Soun said as he placed more of his own Go pieces back onto the board. “True enough.”
The middle Tendo sister, namely Nabiki Tendo, looked at her elder sister with an unreadable expression on her face. “No, you wouldn’t,” Her voice was dry as usual, especially when concerning possible damages to the house she’d have to repair. “I’m going upstairs to do some damage control, sis,” With that Nabiki stood up and started climbing the stairs, not waiting for an answer.
“Okay Nabiki,” Kasumi said. Seeing Nabiki going up the stairs, she called out, “And tell Kassy that dinner is almost ready!”
“Will do, sis!” Nabiki called back and grumbled about the cost of the repairs this time. Why did she have to put up with another house destroyer? Getting to Akane’s door, the noise seemed to taper off a bit. Good. Maybe the damage wouldn’t be as extensive as she originally thought they would be.
Nabiki silently walked to the door and knocked gently on it...
...And then she had to step back as the door slammed open inwards and Kassy literally rushed out threw the familiar black piglet down the hall. “AND LEAVE ME ALONE NEXT TIME, YOU DEMENTED PIECE OF BACON!” She shouted as she saw the scared little piglet run off.
Shaking her head, Nabiki made a mental note to talk to Ryoga when he returned, (he was probably in Brazil by now) and looked inside the room to inspect the damage.
And, surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as she expected. Only a three holes in the floor, as if someone punched their fist into it, and the desk was completely turned over. But otherwise, nothing worse than Akane’s ever done before.
The middle Tendo sister nodded to herself and turned to give Kassy a hard look. One that made everyone in Furinkan fear her. Of course, since Kassy was unfamiliar with the fabled, ‘Ice Queen of Furinkan High’, she wasn’t nervous... Much. Still, Kassy knew she was in the right here, and managed to say. “Don’t look at me like that! You should have warned me you had an attack pig!”
Nabiki continued to stare at Kassy. “You didn’t pay for that little bit of information, did you?” She then pointedly looked at the damaged floor. “But you ARE paying for the damages.”
Her eye twitching, Kassy frowned. “Everything’s money with you, isn’t it?” She asked, starting to catch on.
“And the price will go up with an attitude like that,” The middle Tendo girl answered with her patented Ice-Queen smirk.
Rolling her eyes, Kassy sighed. “Okay, I’m paying for he floor this once, since I’m a guest here and should behave better,” She answered begrudgingly. She took out her wallet, which as already starting to thin out in contents, and pulled out a few more ten thousand yen notes. However, before giving them to the middle Tendo, she asked, “Anything ELSE I should be warned about while we’re at it?”
Nabiki raised an eyebrow. “How much are you willing to pay for that information?”
Kassy’s eye twitched further. “Depends. How life-threatening is this place?”
At hearing that question, Nabiki’s smirk turned downright frightening. “Can you outfight a demon from Hell?”
“Been there, done that, it wasn’t that hard,” Kassy said outright. Boy, it had been a pain in the ass when the demon Stanley came after her and her brother Lexus just because of some stinking family curse that allowed it to attack the first-borns of the Feeple family.
Nabiki nodded, inwardly smirking by the information she was getting for free. “Can you throw energy blasts capable of destroying an entire mountain or at the very least create a fifty feet crater?”
Shaking her head, Kassy said, “No, I’m not a martial artist like grandma or uncle Ricky.” Smirking, she then added, “But I can bench-press 1,400 lbs.”
Nabiki nodded again, unimpressed. After being so close to all of Ranma’s (mis)adventures it was hard, if not impossible, to shock her. “Can you swim in lava or resist a fire blast strong enough to melt rocks?”
“Uh...” Kassy began. Not wanting to answer that, she decided to try the girl’s own maneuver on her from earlier as a deterrent. Holding out an open palm, Kassy asked, “One thousand Yen, please.”
“Nice try,” Nabiki took the yen bills from Kassy’s hand and made a point of counting them in front of the girl. “This little tidbit is for free. All those things I said have already happened around here. If you want to know more I have detailed files and video coverage of most of them,” She then smirked more. “But those ARE expensive.”
Sighing, Kassy shook her head. “Forget it for now. You just cleaned out most of my allowance for the month and I do need something to live on until next month...” What she didn’t tell the Middle Tendo sister was that she would ask Ranma later, and hopefully get the information for free.
Nabiki shrugged and walked away. “Your funeral.” With the money Nabiki had in her hands she could keep food on the table for a couple of weeks.
A shiver going up her back, Kassy got the distinct creeping feeling that her mother had literally signed her death certificate by sending her here.
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(Posted Mon, 21 Jun 2004 02:40)
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