After only a minutes of meditation, Akane felt it when he stopped and before she even opened her eyes she knew. Despite not having been physically touching, she had felt his presence. Opening her eyes and seeing his face confirmed her fears, that whatever he had discovered hadn't been good.
Still wearing the somber look, Ranma stood and stepped towards the doors leading to the veranda before partilally turning back to her, "uhm, How about we step outside and enjoy a little fresh air?"
Nodding and feeling a bit somber herself, the tigress followed him outside, closing the door behind her in a not-so-subtle sign for privacy.
For a moment they meandered through the yard, ending up out of sight from the living room doorway and quite a ways away. Despite the obvious reluctance on his part, he had apparently waited long enough to begin, though with a question instead of answers, "Could you tell me about your relationship with this Kuno guy that did this?"
The tigress for her part snorted at the mention of relationship and Kuno in the same sentance, "There ain't one. He's been obsessed with me since my freshman year, always proclaiming stuff about how I'll love him or be his. He lives in a delusional fantasy samurai world and I want no part of it."
Still not looking pleased with the situation, he hesitated, asking, "Are you ready to hear this?"
Despite being miffed about the situation herself, Akane nodded curtly for him to continue.
Unwilling to drag this out any longer, he spoke up once again. "You would have to be 'tamed' to the life of a sexpet. If you aren't, then eventually your sex drive will ramp up, your body will become more bestial and your instincts may even become those of a wild beast."
Seeing that she was taking this harshly but quietly, he gave her a moment to accept what he told her before offering a bit of hope. "My power, if you consider being changed into a demon a curse, can only curse you further or change that curse. If you don't want to be someone's sexpet, I can trade the removal of those compulsions with removing your human form. Since you'd have to be a sexpet to change into your human form, you're not really losing anything if you'd rather not belong to someone."
That gave her a little bit to consider, with her mood brightening up to moderately dismal. "So, it doesn't have to get worse? It just won't get better?"
Attempting to lighten the mood, he shrugged carelessly, telling her, "It can get better. If you have a boy you like, then it'd basically just be giving yourself to him and then you can access your human form."
Becoming a bit somber, the tigress reluctantly and quietly responded, "I..don't really have anyone like that."
Attempting to lighten the mood, Ranma replied a bit flippantly, "Well, it's not like you have to decide now. It'll be a while before that bothers you and you have to make a decision."
Looking around for something to distract her with, he figured out a perfect change of subject. "Hey would you like to meet some more friends of mine?"
Just as anxious to get her mind off her numerous worries, she quickly nodded.
Nodding once with a smirk, Ranma called out quietly, "Kunoichi."
Within seconds a pony-tailed girl landed before Ranma, kneeling with one hand palm down on the ground. Shortly she was joined by two more girls, a shy, nervous one with short hair and possessing mirror like silver eyes and the other a tall laid back girl.
Pointing, Ranma introduced them in order. "This is my kunoichi squad. They'll be guarding the house tonight. That is Konatsu, the shy one is Hinata and the tall one is Kaede."
Bowing, the tigress introduced herself. "I am Akane Tendou, pleased to meet you all."
In response the kneeling ninja continued awaiting orders, the shy ninja shied away and the tall one waved back casually.
Akane blinked at them, confused by the various responses.
Ranma coincidentally ended the awkward moment by launching into another short tale, "With my power, here in Japan I transform a lot of people in hospitals who are in bad shape and modern medicine just can't help. The other type of person I tend to use my power on are the various warriors. Konatsu took advantage of the offer to transform and empower kunoichi in return for a treasure or service. Konatsu gave me her life in service and all she wanted in return was to truly be a girl, instead of the boy she was born as."
The named kunoichi spoke honestly and sincerely, "My service shall show my eternal gratitude to my Lord."
Akane looked on in amusement as Ranma blushed and reacted shyly from embarrassment. Trying to move on and save himself further embarrassing praise he hurried to continue. "Uhm, yeah, well the moral of that story is one kitten's curse is another kunoichi's blessing. So try not to be too sad, okay?"
Despite herself, the amused tigress wore a wry smirk, though it was mostly due to his sudden cute shyness. "Look on the bright side, eh?"
Turning around, Ranma called out again lightly, "Hey Rika, you mind coming out for a bit?"
With a rustle of leaves a fourth figure abandoned her perch within a tree to land before Ranma, though this new arrival showed some cold annoyance in her reply of, "Yes Onimusha?"
Akane was suprised by the new arrival, mostly because other than standing on two legs and speaking, there was nothing human about her. The assumption the creature was female was based only on the kunoichi pattern and the creature's voice. It was simply put a large golden fox built to stand on two legs and with a minimum of human features. The legs looked like they had reversed knees, though Akane could spot the shortened calf in the knee area, and 'her' hands were more like paws.
Then a question finally percolated in Akane's brain as she turned to the young man the kitsune had addressed, "Huh? Onimusha?"
Looking in surprise at Akane, then turning a frown to the smirking kitsune, Ranma prepared himself for a short explanation. "Ah yeah, it was the former Onimusha that rescued me. I just got the position because of my power as the first to have it naturally. The Oni usually choose their next champion."
Glad that Akane seemed unaware of what being Onimusha meant, Ranma decided to switch subjects before she got curiouser. "Ah, now you see Rika here is kinda your opposite. She was hospitalized for being sickly and essentially sentenced to waste away and die. When she got the offer, she wanted nothing more than to cast her human form aside and become a strong beast...though the real reason I'm showing her to you is to let you see what a less human form looks like."
Looking the kitsune over in a new light, Akane gave it a little thought.
Mildly irritated at being used as a mere example, Rika decided to return the favor by meddling in Ranma's affairs. "Of course Onimusha, you could just solve her problems by taking her as a pet. The girl might like to join your harem and be among her kind."
Mildly curious, the tigress raised an eyebrow at the blushing young man. "A harem?"
Unsure how to explain the strange practices of the Joketsuzoku to a mostly normal Japanese schoolgirl, Ranma blushed as he tried to figure out something to say. "It's not like that. I promised I wasn't going to make you a pet, so don't look at me that way."
Blinking in confusion, Akane finally figured out what he was referring to. "You mean when I was in my room? You said I'd make a cute pet."
Finally considering it, the tigress didn't find the idea to be that bad. It might have been her new height, but he seemed pretty cute and had been very nice so far. There wasn't anyone else, and without being someone's pet she couldn't turn human. Also she suspected she would be traveling with him anyways as she couldn't see herself staying in Nerima as an Oni tigress. Either way she would end up with him.
Her introspection was ruined as Ranma spoke up, making her aware of his bashful fidgeting. "Uhm, I'm gonna go inside, okay? You can stay out here and think or talk to the girls if you want."
Puzzled at what was up with him, the tigress watched cluelessly as he went inside.
Almost as soon as he stepped inside, it was obvious the Tendou father was upset with him. "Ranma, what is this nonsense about not obeying your father's wishes?"
Completely clueless to what the current discussion was about, Ranma muttered a half-aware, "Huh?".
Nabiki looked completely amused with the situation, helpfully giving Ranma a clue. "Wow, you have an Imperial Writ against your father? What did 'Uncle Genma' do to deserve that?"
Still fairly clueless, Ranma at least had enough of an idea to ask a question. "A lot, and you have to be more specific, there's more than one writ against him."
Quietly and gracefully, the dark skinned Anthy interjected her answer into the flow of the conversation. "That thou are not bound by honor through blood."
Figuring out which writ that referred to, Ranma had an easy time guessing what would upset the girls' father. "Ah yeah, look, whatever he took from you, you'll have to take it up with him. I don't have it. He knows full well I'm not going to honor a promise he made in my name, so he just outright tricked you."
Boiling for a second, Soun looked sternly at Ranma. "Now see here, my old friend took nothing from me. We promised our children to marry to unite the schools."
Surprised but happy to know what was going on, Ranma spoke up with a bit of cheer. "Ah, I was going to guess it was a dowry. With daughters involved he's usually selling engagements. If I was honoring those I'd be married already...but what schools are you talking about?"
Shocked at the boys ignorance of the schools and their honor, Soun took on a wise lecturing cast. "Why the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts. We trained long and hard under the dread Master, and once we stood on our own as proud men, we promised to unite out schools."
Full comprehension dawning, Ranma was actually impressed that his old man seemed to have an actual friend he wasn't trying to cheat. "Oh, I didn't know. Unfortunately, I don't practice my father's school of martial arts, so I couldn't unite the schools anyways."
Taking advantage of the slight break in the conversation, Nabiki butted in to satisfy her curiosity. "So then Saotome, how did you get an Imperial Writ?"
Chuckling nervously, Ranma modestly replied, "Hehe, it's not that big of a deal."
Curious at what the young man was hiding, Nabiki gamely raised an eyebrow to let him know she wasn't so easily fooled.
Staring up at the stars, the golden kitsune suddenly spoke up. "I suppose I messed things up. I think the Onimusha was looking for a friend."
Curious, the tigress turned to regard the fox demon. "A friend? Well I mean the harem thing is weird, but I guess it must be a demon thing."
Looking sadly at the tigress, Rika somberly corrected the girl. "It's a human thing. To Ranma, you are still a normal girl, unlike the rest of us. You can still see him that way."
Blinking in confusion, the white furred girl asked of the golden furred girl, "What?".
Looking at the tigress for a moment longer, the kitsune turned her gaze to the stars once again. After a long stretch of silence as the fox demon chose her words, she spoke up once again, softly. "As a demon, your become bound by the spirit world. We have our own ruler, like the Emperor of Japan or perhaps Shogun. As this ruler is part of the spirit world and not the human world with it's national boundaries, all demons in south-east Asia are under that dominion. Our ruler cooperates with the Emperors of Japan and China, where in we cooperate with the government to keep the evil demons quelled, and the government treats us well in return. You have a demon neighbor for instance who reported your incident, which in turn brought us here to help you and set everything right."
Looking sideways at the tigress, the kitsune continued. "It's quite a responsibility to be the Onimusha, to have so much power. Ranma has had the title since he was eight years old. I suppose when you looked at him, he saw something he liked in your eyes. To us, he is the Onimusha. My eyes have seen him kill a god, redeem foul demons, and raise the dead. He took my crippled body and made me beautiful and strong. Hinata over there was blind before she met him, now she sees better than any human."
Gazing directly at the stunned tigress, the kitsune gently inquired, "So, what did he do to make you look at him so?"
Swallowing nervously at being on the spot after hearing such a tale, Akane considered what had happened. Thinking back to when he came to her room, she suddenly understood at least part of what was going on. "He wanted to be friends."
Nodding to herself, the kitsune hummed as she came to her own conclusion. "I suppose that explains why he left when I turned the topic to you being a pet, joining his harem and him being the Onimusha. If you got it in your head that you'd have to be his pet first, or a love slave or servant girl or whatever, you wouldn't be able to develop a normal relationship with him."
Still puzzling out how that precluded being friends, the assembled girls were interrupted by a robe clad figure standing prominently on the compound's wall.
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(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:39)
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