On the third afternoon of their freedom, the girls finally had the dreaded occurrence of visitors.
Unwilling to live in fear in her own home, Akane eventually went to the door, flanked at a distance by her two sisters.
Seeing the two figures waiting in the doorway gave them little clue as to whether this was a bad or good event, though the presence of travel packs made them unlikely to be Yakuza.
Both were fairly tall, the woman the older of the pair and from her black hair and medium complexion, likely Okinawan in origin. The statuesque woman held herself with both poise and pride, decked out in a green brocaded silk Chinese long dress.
The boy beside her Nabiki immediately placed as looking like Cloud Strife from Advent Children, only with dark red hair and sporting a long thick braid of hair down his back. Almost as tall as Kuno, his sparkling blue eyes and even his outfit reminded Nabiki of that hot piece of bishounen fantasy tail.
The woman spoke up with a rich sultry voice, bringing Nabiki slightly out of her boy-hunger. "Hello, you're the Tendou girls right? It's good to see you're home this time. I'm an old friend of your father's, is he around?"
Hearing that question brought Akane out of shell, hesitantly answering, "Ah, no, our father isn't around anymore..."
As Akane trailed off, the young man before her picked up the conversation. "We thought there was trouble. When we didn't find you the first time we went looking and didn't like what we heard. Please let us know what we can do to help."
Hearing the his voice and tone, Nabiki was in lust at least. His voice was soft and rich, faintly feminine but possessing a definite strength with a hint of warmth.
Akane for her part accepted the business card he presented to her, reading it aloud for the benefit of her sisters, as well as giving her time to process the information. "Ranma Saotome, Professional Bodyguard. Krieger Rank of the Panzer Kunst school..."
After trailing off again for a moment of quiet thought, the busty girl looked up in sudden realization before having an unexpected reaction.
Jumping forward, she latched both arms around his waist while nuzzling her face into his chest as much as her squished boobs would allow. "You're the one that came looking for us! Thank you!"
A touch confused for a moment, the young man hesitantly hugged her back, still not quite clear what all had happened despite their search. "Ah yeah, could you tell us what happened?"
Blushing in shame at not being a better hostess, the busty maid released the young man and stepped back. "Ah, please excuse me, where are my manners. Come in, please."
As the five made their way in, Nabiki took the opportunity to question her sister. "What was that all about sis? What's so important about him?"
Surprised that Nabiki hadn't figured it out already, Akane was a touch hesitant to answer. "Well, do you remember why we were released? People were looking for us, and it wasn't Kuno that scared those people it was someone else...and they mentioned 'Panzer Kunst' and some guy named 'Wolfgang'."
Nodding his head, Ranma followed along behind them. "Yeah, pretty sure that was me, I battled Wolfgang Krauser to a draw two months ago and was given the rank Höher Krieger. Guess I need to get new cards and stuff. Glad to hear my reputation worked in your favor this time."
At the table inside, introductions were made, with the woman introducing herself as Setsuna Saotome, Ranma's mother, though the young man kept insisting that calling her 'pops' was a private joke of theirs.
The girls in turn told their story, with Setsuna and her son patiently listening.
Then Setsuna told her story.
"You see girls, I met your father long ago. He had had the ill fortune of choosing an old perverted ninja by the name of Happousai as a martial arts master to learn from. His evil nature was hidden from your father until it was too late due to his petty nature, which makes most of his schemes fairly pathetic. Under his foot, your father endured the shame of stealing women's underwear, the beatings from helping Happousai peek in bath houses, and even helping the old troll in his petty schemes for revenge."
"Happousai is a long time enemy to our family, mostly an annoyance though. Despite everything your father was a good man with a good heart, so I helped your father free himself and deal with Happousai. Your father gave up the style he learned as penance, returning to the basics of martial arts and rebuilding himself."
"We did however make an arrangement when you children were little, that one of you would be trained in the basics as an heir, then engaged to my son who would teach you a new family style."
Akane almost shouted something to the effect of having a fiance, but instead felt that impulse die, allowing her to solve the issue on her own. "Ah, well I don't really practice martial arts any more."
Looking the girls over, particularly the embarrassed youngest sister, Setsuna decided not to push the issue. "Well, be that as it may, consider Ranma engaged to all of you. You don't have to commit to anything, just put up with my son for a while."
Nodding to her son, the woman fished into his pack, pulling out two scabbarded blades and placing them on the table before him. "Until I get back, you protect the girls."
Apparently getting the message, the young man tucked his swords away. "Sure, but you going to be okay Pops?"
Smirking at her son, the sultry woman turned a warm smile to the three girls who had experienced so much ill fortune in so little time. "I'll be going to look for your father then, so don't give up hope. Just take care of my son, alright?"
So saying, she ruffled his unruly dark red hair affectionately, effectively spoiling his bad boy image. "You call your kunoichi squad, you may as well have back-up."
"Ah, cut it out Pops."
The somber mood lightened, Setsuna hefted her pack, bidding the girls farewell as she left.
The pessimistic one of the bunch, though she liked to think of herself as pragmatic, Nabiki voiced the concerns of the three sisters. "Is she really going to mess with the Yakuza? Is she going to be alright by herself?"
Shrugging slightly, the young man didn't seem worried in the least. "Just the silent thief, noisy thief tactic. With my reputation among the Yakuza here, I'd just scare them into hiding, but here playing bodyguard it'll serve to prevent any foolish attacks. Pops is pretty unknown to them, but she can take care of herself."
Grinning openly at their guest, Nabiki was finally able to ask a question that had been bothering her. "So, what the hell did you do that has the the Yakuza pissing their pants?"
Waving off the concerns, the young man answered modestly, "Ah nothing to them. Do you know Howard Geese, King of South-town, criminal syndicate leader? Well Wolfgang Krauser is his big brother and the stronger of the two. Geese even has a bit of an inferiority complex to him. Anyways, like I said earlier, I fought Krauser to a draw in my test, and Krauser can kick Geese's butt, and Geese probably scares the bosses of the people that took you silly. In short they were small fish and I'm not just a shark, I'm a killer whale to them. Well, something like that. I'd just rather be an Orca than a shark."
A long time martial arts enthusiast, Akane was thrilled when she finally pieced it together. "You mean Wolfgang Krauser, the former King of Fighters champ before Terry Bogard took the title?"
Nodding in confirmation, the young man explained a bit more for her since she seemed interested. "Yeah, Wolfgang is a bit odd, but Terry is a nice guy. I developed my Verschlag after Terry taught me his Burn Knuckle which I combined with Krauser's Power Wave. If you're into the tourneys, I know quite a few fighters."
Lighting up in glee as only a true fan could, Akane was quick to ask, "What about Chun Li and Sakura?".
Frowning in thought for a moment, Ranma answered with a bit of hesitance. "Well, I've met Chun Li, but I didn't really get to know her. As for Sakura, we're good friends, so if you're a fan you're in luck. Part of the agreement in learning Shotokan Karate was I was engaged to Sakura, so as long as you're a fiancée too, you're kinda like sisters."
At that point Nabiki butted into the conversation as Akane hesitated to be so offensively direct. "Wait, so you're engaged to another girl already?"
Raising his hands defensively as the girls took understandable offense, Ranma rushed to explain. "Hey, it's not my idea. My blood-line is important to the village, so instead fighting over which girl from which family I marry they decided to give the girls special fiancée status. It basically means you can have the rights of a wife, or just be acquaintances. Mom engaged me to a girl from every style I learned. Rei Ayanami from my Village Hidden in the Mist, Asuka Sohryuu Langley of the Panzer Kunst, and Sakura Kisono of the Shotokan Karate school."
Staring in shock, Akane proved she was still perfectly capable of jumping to conclusions. "You mean I have to compete with Sakura?"
Obviously unhappy with the idea, bearing a grimace of disgust, Ranma was quick to put a stop to that idea. "I should hope not. Asuka has some kinda beef with Rei and they're always going at it when they're together, which is a major headache. Asuka doesn't know the meaning of restraint, especially with that damn Titan Blade of hers. Unless you don't like her or something, ya should just be friends with Sakura."
After that, silence reigned for the moment, allowing Ranma to assess the girls. The youngest and bustiest seemed to be fairly shy. From the comments Nabiki had made, he wondered what kind of girl she used to be, Ranma briefly imagining Asuka from the picture Nabiki had painted. Of the three sisters, she seemed to need the most help in rebuilding her courage and initiative. From the smalls frowns she attempted, it was obvious her meekness grated on the youngest sister.
The middle sister, from what Ranma had been told, seemed to have been changed the least. Other than in looks, she had always apparently been more of a bad girl than a nice girl. Mostly though Ranma got the impression from the looks she was giving him that she'd like to have a private meeting in her bed.
Unfortunately for Ranma, her make-over hadn't really affected the kind of boy she liked, and Nabiki liked them with a bit of girlishness, either really cute or the delicate bishounen types. When it came to the bishounen types like Ranma, she liked them strong but gentle, a far cry from the hormone plagued idiots running amok at her school.
For unknown reasons, it was Kasumi that worried Ranma. The oldest yet smallest sister by far, the cute girl seemed to stare at him with sparkly eyes while lost in a daydream.
Had Ranma known Kasumi was fantasizing about being happily married to him and thinking of ways to prove she was a good wife despite her current body to him, he might done something about it. Unfortunately ignorant, he was instead planning to treat her and the other girls kindly, proving in turn that he was prime grade A husband material worthy of Kasumi going all out for.
No, unfortunately Ranma was only slightly wary of Nabiki's hungry look.
He was even less aware that Akane was wrestling with herself over actually wanting to have sex with him and satisfy her numerous new kinks and fetishes. The girl had found her self control easy before because every male she'd met since then had been detestable. Ranma on the other hand was nice and she'd developed a small tentative crush already just based on his exploits as a warrior. As such the busty maid found herself having serious trouble controlling her new urges for the first time.
Alas, poor Ranma only saw the obvious hunger in one girl, and so was left completely unawares that the other two girls might be much more serious.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:45)
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.