She could make out Ranma getting mobbed by their classmates, but whatever it was that had happened was over by that time and Ranma was only telling the boys about it.
Ukyou would have to try to get Ranma to tell her what happened later or she would be reduced to having to pay Nabiki for information again. Hopefully it wouldn't be anything big like when she had first learned of Shampoo's existence. It was really very inconsiderate of her fiancee that he never bothered to tell her anything. Getting left out of the loop was embarrassing.
She did not have time to talk with Ranma or Akane before the start of the lessons, because they and most of the other students only arrived shortly before the teacher. She had almost resigned herself to having to wait until the break to find out about the latest developments when Akane asked the teacher to make an announcement.
Standing in front of the class and blushing heavily Akane announced that her master Ranma had taken her as his slave and she was now his.
Ukyou's head whipped around to stare at Ranma who was only smiling stupidly. She stared at him willing him to at least look at her or failing that to burst into flames from the sheer intensity of her gaze, but he only had eyes for his Akane.
Distantly she could hear the other classmates reacting to the announcement. Most of them seemed to already have known. They were congratulating both Akane and Ranma some of the boys slapping him on the back in encouragement, but Ranma did not appear to notice.
Ukyou turned back to Akane. She was enjoying the victory and smirking in triumph. When she answered some questions by her classmates she gloatingly referred to Ranma as her master while fingering the collar she wore in ostensible absentmindedness.
The sheer gall of that gal!
But Ukyou would not further humiliate herself by causing a scenes now during the lessons. She would corner them alone during the break and get to the bottom of this.
During the break Ranma and Akane were mobbed by schoolmates who wanted to learn more about their new relationship or thought they already knew everything and wanted to express their opinions about it. Ranma was eventually forced to flee with his slave into the branches of a tree. With Akane sitting in his lap he finally could relax and turn his attention to more important matters like his lunch.
It was a bit difficult with Akane having to hold onto him because of her bad sense of balance and him having to hold onto her because she was his. They ended up feeding each other from the lunch, that Kasumi had made. But this was honestly not that bad in Ranma's eyes and the minor discomfort was small price to pay for finally getting some peace and quiet in a place that no one except perhaps a fellow martial-artist could reach.
They were promptly interrupted by Ukyou, who had jumped up on a neighboring branch and rammed on of her spatulas into the tree-trunk as a handhold. The entire tree shook angrily.
"Er... Hello, Ukyou," Ranma attempted to make conversation but the girl ignored him completely rounding Akane instead.
"So it is true," she observed.
"Yes, it is true, my master has taken me as his property," Akane admitted and then since there had already been several misunderstandings about this enslavement she added to clarify. "I freely offered myself to him and he accepted me as his slave."
"How could you?" she demanded. "I knew that you must have been desperate, when you almost forced my Ran-chan into marriage, but this? I did not think that you would think so low."
"Ukyou," Akane tried but she was cut of.
"I thought that we were friends. I thought that although we were rivals that you were somebody that I could respect, but doing something like this?" Ukyou told her. "Just because you couldn't win him by fair means did not mean you have to do something like this. You are as bad as the cheating panda who will kick over the entire board when he sees no more chance of winning by any other means."
Ranma was dumbfounded. He wasn't entirely sure what Ukyou was talking about. He only knew that for his father cheating was part of the game and knocking over the board was as good as admitting defeat. It was part of the Saotome Anything Goes school: strategic escalation. If you couldn't win than you changed the game. He just couldn't see how it had anything to do with Akane being his slave.
"But you just wait. I could see from Ranma's stupid grin and your bow-legged walk that you have one this battle thanks to your underhand maneuver, but the war is far from over. By starting this whole slavery thing you have given me a huge opening and don't you think that I won't dare to use it. Ukyou Kuonji won't be defeated this easily!" she vowed loudly before turning her back and jumping down.
"What was that all about?" Ranma wondered out loud.
Ukyou had almost been as bad as Kunou normally was and she hadn't even looked at him as she had issued her declaration of war to Akane.
"I think Ukyou is jealous of me for becoming your slave." Akane told him.
"You think, she wanted to be my slave, too?" Ranma asked, confused.
"I think that she just wants you. And I think she has some sort of plan," Akane observed.
"A plan," Ranma wondered. "But I already have a slave!"
He hugged Akane close to him possessively.
"I think that what Ukyou meant was that having a slave is different from having a wife like that. Just because you already have a slave doesn't mean that you can't get another one or even a normal girlfriend or a wife. Ukyou probably is still technically your fiancée at the moment," Akane speculated.
"But I am your master," Ranma protested. "Ukyou knows that."
"A slave can only have one master, but a master could own more than one slave," Akane explained.
"And the slaves don't have a problem with that?" Ranma wondered disbelievingly.
Akane stiffened and blushed in his arms. She seemed to wrestle with herself about the answer for a moment before she finally replied.
"It is not a slaves place to be jealous," she said flatly. "Only the masters wishes are important. A slave has to follow whatever decision a master makes. If the master decides to take another slave or even a free partner, then the slave will have to accept that."
Ranma considered this answer. Akane had always been hitting and getting angry with him if he only so much as looked at another girl. Did Akane really mean that she would no longer have jealous fits like that?
"So no more jealousy?" he asked hopefully.
"Yes, Master. I understand. I will no longer express any jealousy. If my master wishes to enslave other girls I will gladly share him with them," Akane answered grudgingly.
Distractedly Ranma noted that she had answered his enquiry into her feelings almost as if he had given her an order, but he paid it no mind. Akane had said that she would tell him everything important that he needed to know and she would surely tell him if he a problem with anything. Instead Ranma focused on the implications of what Akane had said.
Other slaves. Ranma could not see it. He tried to picture Ukyou as his slave, but his mental image of her in her boys-uniform just would not fit with the image of her on a leash. Maybe without the boys-clothes...
He also could not imagine Shampoo as his slave the way Akane was. No matter how many times she tried to climb into his bed he always saw her as a combination of the proud and determined Amazon warrior who had chased him all the way from China and the terrifying beast that was her cursed form. He could not see her accepting a collar, but even if she did it would take a lot more than a leash and a few flimsy bindings to make Ranma feel truly safe enough to approach her in that way....
And what about the crazy Kunou sister? He could imagine her in a collar. Ranma thought that Kodachi would go along with anything for the fun of it, but it would take a lot to make her something like a master-slave relationship serious....
Other girls appeared in his minds eye, but somehow he could never quite picture having the same relationship with them as with Akane.
But still it was good to know that Akane would no longer try to bash him if he looked at another girl.
"That is very good of you, my slave," he told her gratefully and hugged her to him.
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(Posted Sat, 26 Feb 2005 12:06)
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