And Ranma had shown no fear of grasping Kodachi where he had to. Now Kodachi was again trashing and twisting in his hold. Ranma was getting a bit disoriented from her mad laughing and the rolling around on the lawn, but he would not let go of her. It was only a matter of time until he would finally have subdued her.
Ranma was a bit worried about what to do then. Normally he would have knocked her out or tied her up with her ribbon or used her own paralyzing powder on her to keep her in place until Nabiki or a Kunou servant could take her back home.
That wouldn't work today. Kodachi's ribbon today was razor sharp and unsuitable for tying people up and he was sure that her flower-bouquet today did not contain the usual knockout or paralyzing agent either. There had been several occasion during the fight where Kodachi might have used her roses if that had been the case. Considering the general lethality of her other tools today Ranma had to conclude that they contained something that she was reluctant to use against him.
That left hitting her on the head. It would be a bit difficult the way they were currently entwined and Ranma did not relish in hitting an opponent after he had beaten her.
Ranma was interrupted in his thoughts as Akane came running out of the house.
What was the girl doing here? Ranma had told her to stay inside where it was safe. Even now she still could get herself hurt by one of the many dangerous gymnastic tools that littered the ground. What if she stepped on an unexploded gymnastic club in her clumsy tomboyish obliviousness?
She had said that she would obey him and Ranma had ordered her to stay where she was. He felt angry and betrayed.
"Ranma!" Akane called out.
There on the ground was Ranma holding down a naked Kodachi. And from the mad laugh she was giving off she was most definitely enjoying some of the places Ranma was touching to keep her in place.
"Akane, what are you doing here?" Ranma demanded to know as he wrestled with the violently gyrating nude girl.
"I just came to help. Would you prefer that I leave you alone with your girlfriend instead, Master?" Akane countered icily.
Really the nerve of him. She had just meant to see if he needed any help with the crazy Kunou girl.
"Akane, you said that you would obey me and do as I say," Ranma whined.
Ranma was again taking things too far. There was a difference between ordering her around for kinky bedroom games or erotic public humiliation and expecting her to sit idly by when he obviously needed his help with that floozy Kodachi.
"I don't think that in the middle of a battle is the right time for something like this, Ranma" Akane told him.
"Slave-girl Akane, this is your master and owner speaking: I order you to return back to your room and wait there for me!" Ranma thundered.
Reluctantly Akane agreed.
"Yes, Master," she acknowledge his order.
"Good, and while you are up there throw me some cuffs and bindings out of the window so that I can tie Kodachi up, would you," Ranma ordered more gently.
Akane was already on her way, but now she saw a good way to make up for their earlier confrontation. There was no need for Ranma to use on of his mother's gifts on Kodachi. Who knew if they would ever get it back? There was a far easier way to get Kodachi to hold still until she could be escorted back home.
"You don't need to waste on of your mom's gifts on her, Master," Akane told him, "You can simply use her own knockout-bouquet to put her out of commission."
Quickly she marched over to where Kodachi had dropped her black roses.
"No Akane, don't!" Ranma shouted.
Akane ignored him. She bend down to pick up the roses and said, "Don't worry Ranma I...."
At this point everything went black for Akane.
Ranma watch in horror and rising panic as Akane made to pick up Kodachi's black roses. He screamed and tried to get to her, but Akane wouldn't listen and he was so entangled with Kodachi, that he could not have got to Akane in time even if Kodachi had cooperated in the disentangling.
At the last moment he spied Kodachi's discarded gymnastic ball and kicked it from where he was lying on the ground at the back of Akane's head. Even in his panic he made sure not to kick it to hard as he just wanted to stop Akane not take her head off.
He needn't have bothered to carefully regulate the force of his kick. The ball turned out to be electrically charged and tasered Akane unconscious on impact. It also shocked Ranma through his shoe and even Kodachi through Ranma's hands.
Kodachi gave a high-pitched (but not necessarily one totally of pain) shriek before going limp and falling silent. Ranma himself was less affected by the sudden surge of electricity through his body.
He had become somewhat resistant to such things during a special training his father had thought up. The resistance to electricity was the only good thing that had come of it, since no matter how much Ranma charged up he had never been able the elusive legendary Super-Saotome-Stage-One that his father had told him about. At least with the pig-tail he now wore his hair hadn't stood up on its ends and become all spiky again.
Ranma stood up rolling the limp Kodachi gently to the side. He brushed himself of and went to check on Akane.
Akane was unconscious, but otherwise fine. She hadn't even lost control over her bowels like Ranma had in the beginning of his training with electricity. Ranma picked her up and gently laid her next to Kodachi away from any dangerous fragments and debris of the battle.
The noise they had made had attracted attention. A friend of Nabiki glanced out of her window but quickly dismissed the scenes as being less interesting than what was going on in the room. Akane's oldest sister also had heard and was standing on the porch.
"Is everything all right, Ranma?" Kasumi called out in concern.
"Yeah, everything is under control," Ranma assured her. "Just don't come out in the yard right now, there is still some dangerous stuff lying around."
"Okay, Ranma," Kasumi replied, "but remember to clean up after you are done playing with your friends."
Kodachi was already stirring at Ranma's feet.
"Kasumi could you throw me some rope or something?" He quickly asked before the eldest Tendou again wandered out of earshot.
Within in moments Ranma held in his hands a long piece of soft white rope and Kasumi was safely back inside the house never having put herself in danger. Now why couldn't Akane be more like this? He would have to have a word with her when she woke up.
But first he had to deal with Kodachi. Belatedly Ranma realized that he had a long continuos piece of rope and no handy way to cut it into smaller pieces for tieing up his captive.
It was lucky that Ranma had earlier, when he had waited for Akane to return, read about a technique that was perfect for this sort of occasion. Well he had mostly looked at the pictures and diagrams, and he hadn't had a chance to actually try it out but Ranma was confident that he had grasped the important ideas about this shibari stuff.
It was designed to work with one long piece of rope and would even give Kodachi back a bit of modesty if he chose one of the variant that covered her crotch from view. Who would have thought the books his mother had given him would prove this useful this soon.
Ranma quickly went to work.
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(Posted Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:50)
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