The 'lesson in mastery' so far had been nothing at all like what he would have expected. His only previous experience with such things had been his encounter with the Nekomi S/M-club and the people here were nothing like the characters in that club. For one thing no whips or tight leather clothing were in evidence and everyone here seemed to be younger than him. It looked more like a couple of kids playing instead of the adult kinky sex-games he would have expected.
Nabiki, the girl who had done most of the organizational stuff at the beginning, had seemed mature and level headed enough for her age. And Ranma the instructor was nothing at all what he would have pictured a slave-master to look like. The boy had an air of confidence and cheerfulness around him that was infecting.
"No you won't work with real slaves in this course and especially not with Akane!" Ranma fielded a question from the students. "You are nowhere near ready yet for that sort of responsibility. You first have to learn how to treat a slave right. We will simulated this part first before you are allowed to work with a real girl. It will be part of your practical training before we move any further."
"Simulated girl?" one of the students asked confused.
"Yes, why don't we start with this part now. Practical lessons are easier to learn than dry theory."
Ranma stood up and went behind a screen that had been put up in the back of the doujou. A splash of water and the rustle of clothing could be heard before a girl emerged. The red-head had a very curious resemblance to Ranma and wore a rather skimpy outfit that could only be meant to be a slave girl dress.
Her appearance was greeted with cat-calls and cheers. Keiichi was confused. Where did Ranma go and who was that girl? Had this been some stage trick or perhaps even real magic?
It couldn't be! He looked the other students, but it seemed that he was alone in his surprise. Michiru nodded thoughtfully to herself as if she had almost expected it. The only other person who seemed thrown was the dark-haired girl in the gymnast outfit who was frowning in confusion.
"Any volunteers?" the red-head in the front asked coquettishly.
A small forest of arms went up from eager boys.
"Nabiki have you seen my spare slave-girl uniform?" Akane asked entering her older sister's room.
Yeah, right. Nabiki so yearned to be a slave-girl that she was now secretly borrowing her sister's slave outfits. She wouldn't touch one of those things with a ten-foot pole. If Nodoka ever saw her even looking at one with interest Nabiki would be collared in no time.
"And what would I want with that?" she demanded angrily. "I think Ranma took it for his demonstration."
"Demonstration?" Akane wondered.
"Yes, he even complained that the top was to small for his girl-form. I think he wants to play slave-girl for his students or something like that," Nabiki explained. "Something about practical lessons and hands on training."
Surprisingly enough Akane did not get angry at Ranma's alleged disparaging of her chest-size. Either she was serious about her not getting angry at Ranma anymore or their nightly activities had helped her with getting over her extreme insecurity about her figure.
"You don't think that my master is letting those boys taking any liberties with his female body?" Akane asked worriedly.
She was answered by a reassuring cry of pain coming from the doujou
"And what did we learn from this?" asked Ranma pleasantly.
At least Michiru assumed that the red-headed girl was the same person as the boy from earlier. They booklet had mentioned something about a curse and both forms, but it had been written from the perspective of someone who was already familiar with the fact that Ranma apparently could change genders. She wasn't really to concerned about that. She had seen stranger stuff.
What had her slightly concerned was the boy currently moaning in pain on the floor. Personally she had learned from this not to volunteer and that the little red-head was cute but dangerous and not above hitting below the belt. Another boy raised his hand somewhat fearfully.
"Yes, Daisuke?" Ranma encouraged him to speak.
"We learned that grabbing her tits is not a good way to try to comfort a crying slave-girl?" Daisuke guessed seemingly a bit unsure about the answer despite Ranma's rather blunt demonstration.
"Almost correct. What we learned here was not let our desires guide us and keep our lust from blinding us to what was going on. You have to observe your opponent, I mean your slave, and react to what she is doing. Just living out your perverted fantasies will lead you to much hurt. You have to carefully adapt your own behavior to that of your slave-girls. There might even be times when grabbing a girls breasts will be the right thing to do to cheer her up. You just have to recognize when those times are and when they aren't," Ranma explained at length.
She then smiled somewhat predatory.
"So lets try that again," she declared. "Since you answered the question it is your turn Daisuke."
Then Ranma suddenly teared up and began bawling like rabbit that had dropped its ice-cone. She flung herself at Daisuke who very carefully put his arm around her and patted her on her back.
"There, there," he said in a strained voice while handling the girl with all the care he would use when dealing with an unexploded grenade.
After a fearful moment for the poor boy Ranma dropped her act and stepped back.
"See, that wasn't so hard!" she told them cheerfully. "Any questions?"
"Yeah, I got a question," a boy replied without raising his hand and waiting to be called up by Ranma. "What's the point of all this then? I thought that was what having a slave was all about. That you could do to her whatever you wanted and didn't have to watch your every step anymore. If I wanted to feel her tits she would let me cause I'm her master."
Ranma shook his head sadly and the boys standing next to the speaker were fearfully backing away in case another object lesson was imminent.
"You have the completely wrong idea," Ranma told crestfallen. "I see, I will have to go over the absolute basics before we move any further. Yes, part of being a slave is giving the master control and letting him do whatever he wishes, but that doesn't mean that you can let yourself go and do whatever you want to her. Being in control is what a master is all about. And before you can be in control of anybody else you have to be in control of yourself. If you just want to let yourself go you are in the wrong course, cause that's what a slave does."
This explanation was greeted with sounds of general dismay, but it seemed to Michiru that there was more than a ring of truth to it. In her relationship with Haruka she was always the one to keep Haruka in check. Haruka was the impulsive one who did whatever she felt like at the moment and she had to rein her in.
"Are you saying, that the slave can do whatever she wants?" a boy wondered confusedly. "I thought she had to do whatever the master told her to do. In the booklet it said that her own wishes were unimportant and that she only served her masters pleasure. Are you saying that that is wrong?"
"No, that is right," Ranma answered. "The Slave doesn't have to hold back anymore and trusts her master to do that for her. She trusts him enough to surrender herself and give him almost complete control over her. She also trusts him to use her as he sees fit. But that means a lot of responsibility for the master. He has to be in control for both of them. Since a slave won't say no, the master has to decide when to stop."
Michiru had to admit that this made sense. Perhaps not in the bedroom, but it seemed to apply in many everyday situations like fighting monsters. Since Michiru was always the one who objected when something was to dangerous or ethically questionable, Haruka had come to rely on her as a sort of external conscience and voice of common sense. When Michiru remained silent, Haruka would take this to mean that her course of action was all right. That could be a lot of responsibility at times as Haruka would do a lot of thing, that she should have known to be wrong, as long as Michiru told her to.
"So as a Master you will have to exercise good judgement," Ranma made much the same point. "That is one of the things that you will learn in this course. How to correctly analyze a situation and to read your slave. You will learn that and you will have to learn self-control. Later we will have lessons on when and how to discipline your slave and then we move on to the advanced stuff."
Ranma looked into the round to see if there were any questions or objections. When nobody spoke up she smiled evilly and rubbed her hands.
"So, any volunteers for our next demonstration?" she asked expectantly.
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(Posted Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:58)
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