With most of the girls reluctant to strip and curious about these magic and hopefully not cursed costumes in the mix, the assembled watched Nabiki as she went about putting on her costume.
Nabiki expected this and went about finishing her outfit with a grin, looking forward to a chance to show off. First she pulled on the opera length gloves which had the traditional bunny-girl outfit cuffs placed around her bicep. Then over that a thick black leather bracelet went on at each wrist to act like a brace. Capping things off was a hair band with the attached bunny ears, which the bunny girl seated carefully within her hair so that it would look nice.
Now down to the metal collar, Nabiki once again solicited Ranma's help. "Hey Saotome, come help me put this on."
Sighing but happy that at least no one was blaming him yet, the lone young man in the dojo came over to help out. Following her instructions he pulled the silver apart just enough to get the opening over her slender neck before carefully letting it go to rest around her neck. Then he pushed the ends of the silver portion together while Nabiki attached the golden medallion, sealing the metal collar around her neck seamlessly as the magic fired up once again.
At that point, Nabiki's hair did turn a dark silver, with her skin tone darkening a few shades to well tanned. Even her eyes changed, surprising the girls as they saw them become a glowing golden color. Nabiki ignored their stares however as she fished a small box out of the bottom of her bag. Several of the girls were startled when they remembered Nabiki had dumped the bag out earlier, meaning nothing else should have been in it.
Turning around where she was sitting so she could face Ranma, Nabiki offered the box to him, beckoning him to sit down and accept it.
Wanting to get it over with, he took the box and opened it, finding a flat folding cellphone with an attached key chain ring in the case. Wondering what the hell was going on, Ranma was further confused when Nabiki slipped the key chain ring on his ring finger. The amused bunny-girl helpfully explained, though it didn't help much. "The ring is to keep you from losing the phone. It'd suck pretty bad if you lost the controller. Now we just need to set up my character."
As the bunny-girl sidled over and opened the flip phone so she could navigate menus while Ranma was still holding it, he was justifiably confused. "What the hell is going on here?"
Nabiki didn't pause in playing with the phone, which kept her close to Ranma as it was attached to his finger currently. "Well, it's kind of a game to help you get along with your fiancées. I'm wearing a character costume and this is your part in it. See here, these are my stats, my moves, our bond and so on. If I help you out and we get along well, I get experience here, you can give me new skills and moves, and the costume makes me that much stronger or skilled."
Pausing to look up and see Ranma was completely uncomprehending, Nabiki tried rephrasing it. "Uhm it's kind of like a real life video game. I'm a fighting girl character with this costume on, and you get to choose how the costume upgrades. See here, these options, if you put experience points here you could buy the maid outfit and then change my costume into a maid one if you wanted."
Slowly, a thought percolated in Ranma's mind. "So, with this thing, I can...change you?"
Seeing the speculative look, Nabiki came back with a quick reply, "To a degree. You should end up with several girls with different roles, and you get to shape the girls a bit, plus spend time with them helping them learn new abilities. That should help those four try to have a relationship with you and Kasumi and me get to have some fun for once. It should have other features to help out, like being able to find us and I think there's a communication feature."
Remembering that she had an audience besides Ranma, Nabiki turned around to address the five staring girls behind her. "It'll be fun, it's kind of like becoming a magical girl team but not as tacky. If you like it, keep the costume, if not toss it in a closet later. The whole team concept means getting along and you not only get to spend time with Ranma, but with the extra powers might be able to help him out more, 'cause you know he gets into lots of trouble. I'm not saying I expect to take on Ryouga the next time he attacks Ranma, but it'd at least be nice to keep up with them instead of being a bystander."
Blinking, Nabiki turned around, thinking of something. "Hey Ranma, can we spar for a second? I want to see what I've got."
Seeing Ranma nod absently, Nabiki surprised the girls by slipping into a credible kick-boxing stance. Despite the fact that Ranma casually blocked her attacks with his left hand, apparently ignoring Nabiki in favor of playing with his phone, her attacks impressed the girls with just what the costume could do.
Then came a bit of surprise as Ranma stopped the match, then punched a button on the phone, making Nabiki glow briefly. Smirking, Ranma beckoned the bunny-girl to try again. "Alright, now show me what cha got."
Nodding curtly, Nabiki slipped into stance again, finding the way she flowed into it surprising. Finding herself switching to sweeping acrobatic moves, she was impressed with herself and whatever Ranma did to her. To the formerly normal school girl, being able to chain a back-flip kick into a sweeping roundhouse while wearing three inch heels was both impressive and exhilarating. Stopping on her own, Nabiki decided to assuage her curiosity the old fashioned way as there was a strip-poker game waiting. "What did you do? That felt much better."
Grinning, Ranma glanced at his phone again, taking a fair amount of pride in figuring it out so quick. "I changed your fighting skills. Ya had a bunch of junk styles that didn't suit ya, so I trashed those and put the points into creating one good style for you."
Smirking at Ranma, Nabiki gladly congratulated him on that as this would be a lot more fun if he enjoyed himself and could handle his end of the deal. "Impressive Saotome."
Turning around to face the girls, Nabiki smirked at finding some of them still wearing clothes they should have discarded. "Alright now girls, you got a game to finish. If you don't want to play the next 'game' with Ranma, then just ignore your costume and stay naked for all I care. I'll just use the extras to give myself free class upgrades."
Anticipating on starting the next game with Ranma, Kodachi completed her part of the round, pulling on the tabi socks of her outfit. As she continued pulling them up past her ankles and all the way to her thighs, the girls were once again reminded these were magical costumes. Now clad in panties and a pair of white split-toe stockings, Kodachi favored Ranma with a smile.
Shrugging, Shampoo removed her panties and walked over to the pudding barrel herself to stuff them in. Ranma was apparently learning how to use the device Nabiki had given him, and since it would be a bad thing if he didn't know what he was doing, the amazon let him be. Checking out the four remaining costumes, she settled on one after a little internal debating. Then snorting in amusement, she pulled a fresh pair of panties from her chosen bag and put them on.
Taking her place back in the card game circle, Shampoo laid out her character display card for everyone to see, though she announced it triumphantly all the same. "Shampoo is choosing Wolf Samurai Nakoruru."
Curious, the four remaining girls checked the picture out, some of them recognizing the 'Dark Nakoruru' from the Samurai Showdown games. Other than having dark purple hair and a katana instead of a kodachi, Shampoo was apparently going to change into an almost exact copy of that video game character.
Catching a look from Shampoo, Ukyou swallowed her shyness and slipped off her kimono top. With that off she began unwinding her already loose breast bindings, leaving herself dressed in only her plain panties. Surprisingly it was Nabiki who came by and took her clothes away to the pudding bath.
After disposing of Ukyou's clothes, the bunny-girl squatted behind her older sister, speaking to her from over her shoulder. "Do you want to quit and have Ranma take you inside, or are you gonna stick with it and try out a costume?"
After a moment of quiet, the eldest girl sighed and relaxed a bit, then simply reached back and undid her bra, handing it over her shoulder to Nabiki while modestly covering herself.
Unconcerned with her breasts being in plain view, Kodachi shuffled the deck, ready to begin the next round.
The actual dealing and rearranging of hands went without protest. As this version of poker didn't have bluffing or betting, poker faces weren't in play either. Seeing the frowns on the four other girl's faces, Akane smiled in turn, confident that she wasn't going to lose her bra any time soon.
When the cards were down and the bunny-girl was ordering their hands into four scoring tiers, it became apparent to Akane that things hadn't gone her way. Ukyou and Kasumi had both turned up trash and her own two pairs should have done well. Her hand had however been trumped by Shampoo's straight which in turn lost to Kodachi's flush. Disbelieving her own luck, the youngest Tendou sister turned on the dealer and winner. "Hey, you cheated didn't you? I don't believe you drew a fair flush when the safe bet is to stick with pairs and hope for a full house."
Still looking disappointed at her hand, Kodachi was unperturbed by the accusations. "I know, I was trying to lose actually. I didn't think I'd actually get what I needed for a flush."
Nodding in agreement, the amazon spoke up. "Is too true, Shampoo try lose too and get stupid straight."
Staring in disbelief, Akane reacted like they were crazy. "Trying to lose? Why should I believe you'd do that?"
Shrugging, Kodachi passed the deck along to Kasumi, answering as she did so. "I wish to try on my costume, not to play cards."
Still disbelieving, Akane continued her tirade. "But..but...if you lose next, you have to be Ranma's plaything for twenty days. The only way to get out of that is to win."
Finding something amusing, Kodachi smiled at the frustrated girl. "Oh, my Ranma-sama may do as he wishes with me. To imagine a costume would do so much, it's really quite thrilling. Twenty days matters little when I would give myself to him for a life-time."
With a sparkle of mischief in her eyes, Kodachi turned to her sudden companion in this, handing the conversation off to her. "Why wouldn't you agree, ah, Miss Shampoo is it?"
Taking Kodachi's statements at face value and missing a chance to rub it in on Akane, the amazon answered honestly. "If not turn into cat and be with Airen, Shampoo no care if must put on silly outfit and play game. Shampoo want be with Ranma."
Unfortunately for Akane, the determination the amazon spoke with did little to comfort her.
For the time being at least, Nabiki roused Akane from thinking about it too much and getting depressed by announcing the results. "Okay, Kodachi wins and..."
Seeing the girls alternating between staring at her in shock or trying not to laugh outright, Nabiki innocently asked, "What?"
Doing her best not to laugh, Akane pointed at the bunny girl's head. "heh, your hair."
Picking up a lock of her hair to examine it, Nabiki found her bangs were now a bright pink. Quickly surmising the reason, she turned to find Ranma playing with his new toy. "You enjoying yourself Saotome?"
Caught off guard and unsure how to respond, he hesitantly answered, "Uhm, yeah?"
Nodding once, Nabiki surprised everyone. "Well good, but how about something a bit darker and richer?"
Seeing her hair turn a nice rich rose color, Nabiki turned back towards the girls, clipboard in hand. "As I was saying, Kodachi won. Shampoo gets to put on her next costume piece. Akane loses her bra and a pass, meaning her panties are next. Ukyou and Kasumi are now both tied and must strip, pick out outfits and put on one piece each."
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Wed, 28 Jun 2006 20:13)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.