Looking around the old wooden building, Ranma turned to regard Akane as the maid had gotten an odd look on her face after entering the dojo. More worried about the girl and only using the tour as an ice breaker, he tried learning a bit more about her. "So, could you tell me why you're not practicing any more?"
Frowning, Akane felt herself hesitating on her impulse to shout that it was none of his business. Her second impulse of dismissing it died a gradual death in the face of the concern he was showing. In the end, left with no other options she crossed one arm under her breasts, lifting the shelf of cleavage up while blushing. "I can't. These things are too big and get in my way. I don't even have any bras that fit, so they bounce all over."
Frowning thoughtfully for a moment, the young man seemed to dismiss her predicament. "Ah, is that all? I was worried it was something worse."
Hearing that, Akane actually managed to get angry and express her outrage, though her expression came across as only a forceful pout with a quivering lower lip. "Is that all? These things are horrible! My clothes don't fit, I look indecent, I lost my friends, everyone at school thinks I'm a pervert, and they're heavy and always in the way!"
Raising his hands in surrender, Ranma tried to salvage the situation. "That isn't what I meant. I was about to say I could help."
Having bought himself a moment of thought, he tried again to soothe the upset girl. "I'm not saying it's not a problem for you, I'm just trying to say it ain't hopeless."
Watching from the doorway, Nabiki marveled at how easily her little sister was mollified. The little tomboy had always been very passionate, with a notorious temper that wasn't easily quenched. Nabiki had found it dicey at best to try and argue Akane out of something in that mood, with only Kasumi having much success by using a more empathic tact.
Of course Akane was no longer much of a tomboy in any regard and the increasing submissive streak was beginning to worry Nabiki. It hadn't manifested with the trouble makers at school, but that could change. So far it had only manifested between the sisters and with Ranma, which made Nabiki wonder if there was some significance to Ranma, like some sort of latent slave-girl programming settling in.
Frowning to herself, Akane assumed a sad version of her cute pout, shamed at losing control of herself like that. It was not her old fire returning which shamed her, but instead blurting out such embarrassing intimate things about herself. If that little meltdown had occurred at school, she would have been truly mortified.
Continuing to frown, she felt the fire leave her once again, leaving her feeling meek and vulnerable. With that came a new shame in losing her temper and shouting at someone nice for trying to help her. Speaking up in a barely audible voice, Akane internally winced at how soft she sounded. "I'm sorry. I should have let you finish. Please forgive me."
Blinking at the drastic turn around, Ranma was really beginning to worry about the girl. After seeing a glimpse of her old passionate self, it had put her situation into a new perspective for him. Trying to counter the suspicious submissive streak, he aimed for an as supportive mood as he could. "It's okay, don't worry about it. I was probably being an insensitive jerk anyways."
Getting a small hopeful smile from the girl, Ranma decided to throw caution to the wind and continue forth boldly. Pulling a bolt of cloth from his left sleeve, he spoke up disarmingly. "Well then, I'll get right to it. Could you remove your top?"
Biting her lip, Akane quelled her instinctive anti-pervert response, having already been burnt once by it. She didn't know what exactly had happened, but realizing she'd been wrong had brought up the strongest submissive streak she'd had so far. Not wanting to risk that again, she decided to let him proceed and see what happened, promising herself to not hold back if he was up to no good.
Blushing faintly, Akane reached up and began undoing the collar of her dress, surprising Kasumi and worrying Nabiki. Once the leather collar was unbuckled, she undid the lace edged satin collar to her outfit. With that out of the way, she shrugged her arms out of the short puffy sleeves. As she slid the collar down her back, the cups of her outfit finally slid down, revealing her breasts.
Looking away shamefully, the busty girl turned back in curiosity as Ranma began holding the cloth up to her breasts and folding it. After folding it to a foot wide strip, he placed a length of it modestly over her nipples, speaking up absently as he did so. "Can you hold your arms out a bit for a sec?"
Suspicions momentarily forgotten, she obediently held her arms up.
Nodding briskly to himself, Ranma spoke up absently, working the cloth once again. "Good, just hold on for a moment."
Not waiting for a reply, he leaning in close, working his hands behind her back. After looping the fabric back around front, he nudged her breasts into a more compact shape before beginning an uplifting loop that went under her breasts and then over her shoulders, criss-crossing in the back. Returning to the front again, he checked the fit one more time, tightening the bindings before looping around once more to her back. Stopping there and leaning in close, he deftly tied the remainder into a large bow resting between her shoulder blades.
Stepping back a moment, Ranma finally released the cloth. Hands moving suggestively to the sides of her breasts, he stopped before actually touching her. "Do you mind if I check it out?"
Seeing her wordlessly nod, he placed his hands on the sides of her breasts, gently pushing them side to side to test the tension of the binding. Still checking the pull of the cloth, he looked up from her breasts to ask, "Is that good? Not too tight right?"
Surprised at how comfortable it was, Akane gave a little jump, happy to see her chest only perform a likewise small jump. That it could restrain her breasts yet be more comfortable than her old bras amazed Akane. "It's great. How did you know how to do this?"
Smirking slightly, Ranma stroked his chin, highlighting the delicate curves. "Well, with a sizeable rack I can pass as a girl, which is good for certain missions. Like say for instance I had to put on a kimono to break into a brothel to rescue some girls, just grab some nice round objects large enough to distract the idiots acting as guards and boom, instant female figure. Until you get some bras that fit, I can do that for you every morning."
Smiling at the funny tale and happy to finally have some support, she slipped the top of her maid outfit back on, fastening her collar back into place. "I think I like this better than bras. If I got one for these things I think the straps would cut my arms off."
Smirking at the mental image, the young man slid playfully to his side. "Heh, okay. Well, part two will be teaching you martial arts."
Not understanding what martial arts was supposed to be helping in the topic of her chest, Akane cluelessly responded, "Huh? Martial Arts?".
Smirking widely, Ranma stepped back towards the wall behind him. "Of course, if you master your chakra, anything is possible."
While talking, the young man casually placed one foot on the wall, before continuing on to stand on the ceiling. "Most martial artists only learn enough to put more muscle into a blow or taken a punch better. It's not so limited however, the same energy can easily be focused in less obvious ways. I've heard of girls with chests your size using them as chi batteries of sorts. With that technique, not only is their chakra pool increased and kept close to the heart, but controlling the bounce of their chest or the effect of gravity becomes a simple thing."
Casually flipping down from the ceiling, Ranma offered an encouraging grin to the stunned girl, only to be surprised by applause.
Looking over to the doorway, he found a smirking Nabiki and a still clapping Kasumi.
Bowing to his audience and making Kasumi giggle, Ranma straightened up to regard Akane with a lop-sided smile. "Well, you ready to learn now?"
Nodding eagerly, the still stunned maid slipped into a basic karate horse stance.
Seeing Ranma's flowing movements, she had a moment of confusion as he told her to follow his lead. Getting over the surprise of him teaching her a completely different style, she tried to copy his flowing kata movements with limited success.
Taking a moment to correct Akane on the basics of the form and give her some encouragement, Ranma decided to enlighten her as to why he chose the soft flowing style. "Now, this is a type of T'ai Chi Ch'üan. It might not be good for your fighting style, but it's low impact and great for building chakra and control. So you're going to learn this until you get the basics down, then I'll see if you want to learn Mauser Panzer Kunst."
Now that she knew how the style was supposed to help, Akane relaxed and tried to get into the groove.
On their second slow circuit around the dojo, Kasumi stepped in after Akane. Then the little brunette took to the kata like a duck to water, easily flowing along behind Akane.
Half a circuit later, Nabiki shrugged and stepped in behind Kasumi. It wasn't the same as her aerobics, but it was also a far cry from Akane's brick-smashing karate. Of course doing kata in a miniskirt while wearing glittery stockings was no where near proper attire for a dojo, but Nabiki didn't care much for 'proper attire' anymore.
Two hours later, the Tendou girls were tired and sweaty, but feeling quite good. The issue of bathing had come up, and Kasumi had insisted their guest go first.
As the only one not sweating, Ranma insisted the girls went first.
While Kasumi was still insisting Ranma go first, Nabiki settled it by heading for the bath. After suggesting Ranma might get to the bath quicker if they all shared one, Akane got the idea and convinced Kasumi to join her. To Nabiki's disappointment, her hint that Ranma should join them as well had been missed.
On the plus side, there was much laughter and splashing in the bath, returning some much needed joy to the household.
Part way through the bath, having surmised their clothing situation, Ranma dropped some clothes off in the changing room. After briefly announcing what he was doing, he slipped out just as quickly before anyone accused him of being a pervert.
After drying off and checking out the clothes, Nabiki got an idea for what she'd like to add to her new wardrobe. While the Chinese pants and shirts were made of nice silk, they were far to modest for her current tastes, though it did give her some ideas for some looks involving Chinese dresses.
Akane quickly surmised that silk didn't stretch and there was no way one of those shirts was fitting her.
Kasumi on the other hand found them to be a bit large on her, but not too large. Picking out a pale green shirt and dark green pair of pants, she eagerly went about adjusting the ties to fit her better. As she'd been stuck wearing her own hand-me-downs that were in Akane's closet, new clothing was well appreciated. As she was seriously considering getting Ranma's attention as a woman, it had the added bonus of giving her an additional connection to Ranma.
That he called her cute and approved of her outfit might have had something to do with Kasumi glomping Ranma's waist in glee.
Still, Ranma refused to go ahead and take a bath, instead opting to help Kasumi in the kitchen. To his surprise neither Akane nor Nabiki could cook, though he was once again reminded by their conversation that Kasumi was supposedly the oldest.
Initially thrown off by having someone else in her kitchen, the petite housewife eventually saw how nice it was to have someone there that could reach into the cabinets without using a step-stool. Unlike Akane, Ranma instead casually hovered in the background, acting mostly like a helpful big brother by watching over her to help when needed. It definitely wasn't how Kasumi imagined impressing him with her womanly charms, cooking included, but the situation did have its benefits. Besides the simple fact she had a thing for older men, the big brother presence was quite comforting to a girl that grew up taking care of her family.
Supper went with little incident, and the rest of the night was even less remarkable. None of the girls were particularly keen on being alone if they had too, so everyone stayed in the family room. For the most part the night passed with Nabiki and Akane discussing manga with Ranma as he'd missed a few issues, while Akane also brought up the subject of the martial arts world.
Eventually bedtime came, Kasumi showing Ranma the second floor. Seeing his surprise when she suggested he sleep in Akane's bed, Kasumi blushed hotly while explaining that Akane had been sleeping with her recently. This in turn caused the busty maid a severe blush at the shame of being reduced to sleeping with her 'big' sister as she found herself unable to deal with the idea of sleeping alone anymore.
Sensing the mood in the air, the young man soothed the girls by accepting Kasumi's offer so they could drop the subject.
He also deftly ignored Nabiki's invitation to sleep in her bed.
Finally seeing the girls to bed, Ranma simply explained that he'd be up a bit longer to get his bath in and deal with some other stuff.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:25)
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.