"Oh we haven't decided just yet. We're going to do a line-up and let the boy choose. May as well let him choose his own guardian."
Eventually, Ranma got tired of playing in the tub.
Currently he and his slave were playing on the bed, which while not quite as cozy as the small tub, it was a lot more comfortable.
Of course what was making Ranma a lot more comfortable with the situation was the fact that they'd been able to get at least partially dressed. He had donned his boxers and muscle shirt, while at his prompting, Rei had donned a pair of plain white panties.
With at least a little modesty restored, he resumed discovering the mysteries of his new slave girl. Her lack of emotion may have made him more comfortable, but it also dulled his own affections. After holding her for a moment, he'd switched to a more obvious exploration of her body.
He eventually wound up with her left leg hooked over his shoulder while he examined the calf of her other leg. Without the waters of the tub distorting his vision, he was able to trace the pattern of her scars, discovering that she lacked any noticeable scars below her knees.
More importantly the light blue haired albino girl proved to be very sensitive in that region. The back of her knees, the back of her calves, the front of her ankles, all spots he noted made the girl squirm slightly. The success wasn't very perceptible, but she was giving herself away in the way her body squirmed ever so slightly. There was also a certain something to her eyes, something he didn't understand, but he was sure he was on to something.
Had he been aware that he was being watched, he would have been considerably more self-conscious and shy of playing with his girl. He wasn't, so the researchers were trying not to laugh as Ranma exaggerated his own expressions in an attempt to eek a reaction from his play-toy.
While Ranma did find her little toes to be interesting, there was only so much attention he felt right to paying to any one part of her. Other than the few bits he wasn't ready to explore with a girl yet, her toes marked the end of his little exploration.
Placing her legs down on the bed, he crawled up the bed to lay his head on a pillow. Staring into her eyes, he was gratified to find her blushing faintly.
Smiling her turned over to lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. Breathing in deeply, he gave a contented sigh. While he suspected it had been pleasant for her, he found it had been surprisingly pleasant for him as well. It was a new feeling to him, but there had been something simple and pleasant about the contact, about the exploration of both her body and the depths of her eyes.
Stretching, the young man reached over idly and rubbed the back of her neck.
It was strange to have a girl that would allow such a touch, let alone quietly welcome it, yet Ranma found it a new sensation to want to touch a girl and explore all there was to her.
Then she surprised him by getting up momentarily, only to turn over with her small hands on his chest, nuzzling her face into his shoulder. Wrapping his arm around her delicate back, he was pleased to note a contented murmur coming from her that dispelled all doubts as to her feelings on the matter.
His only regret was that with her face buried in his chest, he couldn't see her smile.
In the observation room, there was a man panicking and running around while holding his head. "I am going insane!"
His companion proved a little bit harder to ruffle. "Aww, you're just a little hysterical is all. You're no where near half as crazy as you should be."
"The 'You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.' poster is a joke. It's not an official memorandum on office policy!"
"If you say so."
"...You can't take that seriously?"
"We thought it would help the newbies fit in."
"That's not funny!"
"Then why are you the one freaking out?"
Voice tinged with amusement, the female official tried to settle things down a bit. "Now now gentleman, it's not such a big deal. I mean it's no real big secret that girls like to cuddle."
Unfortunately, the sane one started to get hysterical at that point. "Cuddle? The Angel of Death is not 'cuddly'! She's a heartless killing machine that has been bathed in a sea of blood! She'll kill us all!"
"There you go buddy, now you're getting into the mood. Just let it all out, then we'll go for some beers."
"Arrrgghh! We're all dead I say!"
Curious, Ranma had an idea, though something about it triggered a memory that made him feel momentarily confused, almost like he'd said it before. "Heh, you're cute when you smile."
Tensing for a moment, Rei looked up at him in surprise, a faint pink blush still tinging her cheeks.
Then her Master smiled at her as if he'd just found something special. "Definitely cute."
Her blush tinging into the a rosie pink, she bashfully hid her face back in the comfort of his body.
Hearing a wailing screech followed by the thump of a body, the researcher rolled his eyes at his fainted compatriot. "What a wuss."
Humming thoughtfully, the administrator gingerly stepped over the fallen body to get a better look at the monitors. "Like seducing a car engine, eh? I suppose there must be something special about him to find something special in her."
Hearing the phone ring, Ranma eventually picked it up on the fifth ring. Still grumpy from having his little nap interrupted, he listened as the woman on the other end spoke. Before hanging up the phone, he reluctantly agreed to the request. "Alright alright, this afternoon. Yeah, wake up call then would be good. Yeah yeah, later."
Setting the phone down, Ranma spied Rei's face, noting she was slipping back into her former mood.
Her emotionless demeanor lasted for all of three minutes as her master rubbed the back of her neck.
Now fully awake, Rei's Master turned a predatory grin to her, feeling up for a new round of fun.
As the phone rang once again, Rei reached over to pick up the offensive device.
By the time she was done with her quiet half of the conversation, Ranma was almost awake.
Sitting up on her Master's stomach, the albino slave girl stared dispassionately back at him. "Master, it is time to prepare for the meeting. Shall I dress now?"
Blinking, Ranma chalked it up as another slave-girl maid quirk. "Uh yeah. I'm not going to have to tell you to do everything am I?"
Opening her closet, the slave-girl turned to face Ranma to remove her panties. "I am capable of independent thought Master. In the absence of your desires, I will try to anticipate your desires."
Turning to pick out a fresh set of lingerie, she once again faced her owner before speaking as she slowly slipped on her stockings and garter belt while standing. "As your slave, I will wear whatever you wish. Without knowing your wishes I might not please your properly."
Watching as she pulled on her black satin G-string, the newly minted slave owner tried to puzzle out what her dry formal speech meant. "Uhm, you're saying you wanna make me happy, but you don't know how?"
Nodding to her Master, she turned to the closet to pull out a black camisole. Turning around, she slipped the garment on while still maintaining eye contact with her master while they were speaking. "Yes. I wish to please you, to be useful."
At that point, Ranma was new to a number of concepts. A slave girl that wanted to please him, even just a relationship with a girl. Learning about such things while being naive with an emotional dysfunctional Rei model was dicey at best.
Luckily, Ranma got it mostly right after chewing on it for a while, as it was a very novel concept to him. "So, you want to make me happy? I mean, you want to do stuff for me, you just want to know what it is right? So, if I want something, I should just tell you. Then I teach you how to do all the little stuff like I like it so ya don't have to ask questions, right?"
Smiling faintly, she nodded again. "Yes, please do so Master."
Stepping away from her wardrobe, she presented the maid dresses within to his inspection. "Is there a dress you would prefer me to wear?"
Looking at the closet, Ranma noticed there were five colors of dresses represented; black, red, blue, pink and white. They were grouped by color, but they also came in three lengths and cuts, with duplicates of each except for the medium length blue that currently lay discarded in the bath.
Seeing the outfits presented suddenly made Ranma aware of the ramifications of what they were talking about. "Wait, so you would just wear whatever I want? I mean what if I told you to go out as you are or naked?"
"Then I would do so."
"...But, I mean, what about what you want?"
"I have no desires in that regard. Being nude or dressed makes no difference to me other than having a place to conceal my weapons."
"So...you just don't care? Is that why you're a slave-girl?"
"Before I was yours, I was...bored. Such ennui is unpleasant. I am now yours. You make my existence...pleasant."
Unfortunately, that was the point where Ranma's brain threw in the towel on trying to understand the girl. "Uhmm, okay. That's uhh, good I guess."
Realizing she was still standing in her lingerie waiting for him, he made a decision. "Okay, then how about the short black dress?"
Nodding in confirmation, Rei answered before turning to take out the dress. "Of course Master."
Up in the observation room, having recovered from his faint, the emotional technician was now crying while having his second nervous breakdown.
His co-worker was duly ignoring him. "Wow, she's helpful and talkative all of the sudden. I've never heard such exposition from that girl. With us we were lucky if she answered the question literally, but with him she's telling him what he actually needed to know."
Turning to his co-worker, he noted with disgust that he was still crying and babbling. "That boy is pretty damn lucky. What do you think Miss Administrator?"
Humming thoughtfully to herself, she was glad she had stayed to watch Ranma until he left his room. "It would seem he formed a connection with her. Did you notice her mention of boredom?"
"Yeah, but if we could just get the Rei series to talk to us, we could properly diagnose them based on their feedback. I have to know how he did it!"
Smirking in amusement, the official decided to keep her amusement to herself. She had a feeling they would never come close to touching the mysteries of a young girl's heart.
Once Rei was dressed, Ranma had a chance to admire her form.
The outfit was definitely small, instead of having a short thigh length pleated skirt, the skirt on the new outfit was held up by the white petticoats underneath. Those same petticoats were easily visible as high as they lifted the black skirt and were also responsible for hiding her panties from view. Even though her black stockings rode high on her thighs, the small mini-skirt showed tantalizing glimpses of the decorative tops where the garter belt attached to her stockings.
Curious, Ranma made an offhand comment and stared in surprise as his slave grabbed her toes.
With the back of the G-string barely visible, and her skirt above and her stockings below nicely framing the view, Ranma admired his first female rear. While it was a lovely view and further proof of what kind of slave-girl she was, he was also a tad uncomfortable with the thoughts it brought up.
It did however prove that her skirt was indeed that short.
Flustered, Ranma eventually turned around so he could regain his composure without such a distraction. "Uhm, Rei, you can quit that."
Standing up and turning to regard her master, whom she noted was still as of yet not fully dressed, she made a quiet inquiry. "Master, shall I dress you?"
Surprised by the question, Ranma actually considered it. As he couldn't fathom why she wanted to dress him, he decided to see why she suggested it. "Uhm, okay I guess. Can't hurt to try, right?"
Not bothering to acknowledge his answer other than a nod of acceptance, Rei retrieved a pair of clean clothes from his pack before proceeding to dress her master.
With a startled squawk, Ranma managed to get a hand on his boxers before his slave managed to get him butt-naked. "Hey, just pants and a shirt, these are clean."
Pulling his boxers up, Rei shifted intent as soon as his wishes were made clear. Thereafter Ranma was actually able to relax in her embrace as she fiddled with each button on his shirt in turn. Her fiddling with the waistband of his pants inner tie had been a bit embarrassing, but the rest had been rather pleasant. It might have been a little embarrassing, but having a pretty girl pay so much careful attention to him was a pleasant new experience.
Opening the door, Ranma immediately noticed someone was waiting for him beside the door.
Looking over, he noticed she was a fairly severe looking woman. She was definitely pretty however in a rather exotic way with her dark skin and long blond hair. The black skirted business suit she was wearing made her look rather professional, though the amused grin she bore hinted that she wasn't there on just business."Hello young Master, will you accompany me to the meeting hall?"
Stepping back to get some room in between him and the woman, Ranma maneuvered his slave to a safe position behind him. "Who are you?"
Placing an arm across her breast in salute, the blond woman bowed. "Please forgive me. I am Administrator Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. You may call me Integra-chan if you wish."
Blinking, Ranma was more wary of the small grin she had rather than his getting defensive with an official. "Uhm, okay, what's all this about then?"
Smiling faintly, she waved them onwards, falling into step beside Ranma. "Shall we talk on our way there? I've taken a rather special interest in your case, particularly the research being gathered on your slave. Are you aware that your father has tried to sell you several times in the past, though they were mostly fraudulent deals?"
"Well, yeah. I kinda wish he'd cut that crap out, it's a big pain in the ass."
"True, now that you have Rei, such a thing can not be allowed. As such I wish to gift you with a legal guardian of your choice."
"A what? I don't need no guard."
"No, right now your legal guardian is your presumably natural parent Genma Saotome. If you wish however we can have him ruled unfit, and give you a young woman to be both your slave and legal guardian."
"Uh, what?"
"As a minor, you can't make legally binding contracts. That is for instance why a minor can't have a slave contract continuing past the age of majority, when the child would no longer be a minor and thus free to choose whether to be a slave or not. A legal guardian is someone with the right to make those choices for you, but one that is a slave must also have your agreement, thus you could not be unwillingly forced into anything even as a minor."
"You mean, I get to pick a woman to replace Pops so he can't pull that stupid shit?"
"Oh yes. Even better, I chose young pretty ones for you so you could get all the joys of having a nice mature slave-girl."
"Uhm, yeah, so why all of this?"
"Well, your relationship with Rei is intriguing, so I wish to place other girls with similar problems with you so that they may be happy."
"Huh? What problems? There ain't nothin wrong with Rei lady!"
"Indeed, that is exactly why you intrigue me. The Rei series is extremely popular with average boys because their lack of emotion and responsiveness is too strange. They're only popular with people that want living dolls, or quiet robot-like servants. You completely missed all of that, thus you are most special."
"Uhmm...okay."
After walking from the dorm building over to the administrative building, they eventually found the meeting hall they were heading for.
Stepping into the conference room, he found it rather large and lacking furniture, which turned out to be troubling.
The reason it was troubling was because each side of the room held a line of women kneeling submissively on the floor. All of them were mature women, and some had girls with similar looks kneeling behind him.
Growing up with Genma trying to sell him, Ranma had learned to assess such situations quickly. His first thought was that the women were there to make arrangements with their daughters, but if that was the case, the seating arrangements should have been reversed.
Remembering that he was supposed to be picking out some kind of guardian, he dismissed it for the time being.
Fortunately, she didn't leave him waiting in suspense for long. "In light of your father's attempts to sell you and make various questionable decisions about your life, we've decided to allow you to choose an older woman to be both your slave and legal guardian."
Looking at the older woman, Ranma was glad she was the direct type. "Well, I guess Pops can be kinda bad at times, so thanks I guess, but why?"
Nodding her head, Integra understood the true meaning behind his question easily enough. "Of course, while your father is an unfit parent, no one seems to have bothered to step in before. The reason we care however is that you have your new slave girl there."
Blinking his eyes in shock for a moment, Ranma glanced over to his cuddly-but-cold new pet. "Rei? What's this have to do with her?"
Grinning at her own private joke, Integra continued. "Of course, you probably don't even know this, but the Rei Ayanami series is just a bunch of vat grown clones. They lack initiative, personality and many of the things we humans take as granted. As such, they are decidedly unpopular choices as personal slaves as I explained earlier. As such they're typically either in the military as cannon fodder or in the work force as drones."
Turning her grin towards Ranma now, the blond continued a bit more intently. "Of course, that alone is bad enough, giving a Rei unit with military training to a civilian is a big no-no, as any Rei unit obeys orders without much consideration for morality. Your's on the other hand is even more special in that she's not just a clone, she's the original model. Where her clones have no survival instincts as soldiers and often die after only a few battles, your's has come through each battle with only those scars. She is in effect Rei Zero."
Unfortunately, that proved to be a little too much information at once for the young man.
Seeing his obvious confusion, Integra decided to simplify things for him while testing Rei's maturing personality. "Rei, if Ranma were to tell you to kill everyone in this building, what would you do?"
Suddenly getting the idea, Ranma stared apprehensively at his gun and knife toting slave girl.
Showing no reaction, the blue haired albino answered without any noticeable concern for the issue at hand. "I would kill whomever made my master say such a thing."
Staring in surprise herself, along with the waiting women who were familiar with Rei units, Integra tried to regain her composure. As Ranma had never discussed such things with Rei, the only possible explanation was the girl having an amazingly keen insight that had been previously unrecorded. The only reaction one expected a Rei to give that question was along the lines of killing them all or perhaps asking if she should start the killing right then.
Despite it not quite proving her original point, Integra was impressed. "That's the other reason we've taken an interest in your case. You've shown a surprising amount of kindness and affection to her and seemed to have formed a bond of some sort. It's generally considered impossible to get such reactions from a Rei unit, particularly the original unit which is considered to be something of a sociopath, even compared to her clones."
For a moment, Ranma stared at the grinning blond woman before reaching a shocking conclusion. "Wait, you were watching us?"
Grin widening into a smile, Integra wondered if this was the guilty pleasure parents enjoyed when they embarrassed their children. "Oh of course, you two make such a cute couple. I especially liked the part in the bath when you called her 'cute', it was just so adorable."
"Gah!" ineloquently stated Ranma as he drew back and made warding signs while blushing furiously. "You were watching us?! In the tub? For how long?"
Chuckling softly, Integra enjoyed the moment. "Oh yes, the part where you were playing with her toes and made her blush was just precious. Unfortunately I had to leave once you two were finally getting dressed, but they promised to tape it for me."
Flinching suddenly, the statuesque blond felt her good humor wither and die away as she caught the look Rei was leveling at her. It wasn't an obvious frown, more like a glare in that it was all in the eyes, but Integra got the distinct impression the unreadable albino was only pondering how to properly desecrate her corpse and if she could be kept alive long enough to 'enjoy' the festivities.
Taking a step back, the administrator decided to change the subject and drop the teasing. "Ah, anyways, just pick whichever woman you want, she'll be yours for free, we'll be picking up the tab."
Taking a moment to regain his composure and glad for the change in topic, Ranma began looking over the girls.
To his surprise, he recognized the first girl on the right side of the room. "Kasumi? Kasumi Tendou?"
Putting her hand to her mouth in polite surprise, the pony-tailed brunette in the house-dress stared up at him in confusion. "Ara, have we met?"
Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, Ranma decided to spill the beans since several girls here were looking familiar. "Uhm, sorta, not in this world at least. I come from a world like this, but we didn't have slavery there, at least not the legal kind. Thing is I kinda sometimes remember stuff from that world. Like in both worlds, we just got back from training in China. In that world I got cursed at this place called Jusenkyou, in this one I was cautious and got all the details from the guide and avoided getting cursed. Sometimes it's the same, sometimes it's not, so don't be upset if I guess wrong."
Still feeling a bit shy with everyone staring at him Ranma decided to press on. "You got two younger sisters, Akane and Nabiki?"
Receiving a nod, he continued on, reading her nods as he went. "Your dad is named Soun? About this tall, long black hair, mustache, wears a dark brown gi around the house? Dojo is opposite the garden, and ya got four rooms on the second floor? Is there still that loose floorboard in the guest room up there?"
The last question surprised her so much, Kasumi answered instead of simply nodding. "Why yes, I've been meaning to get that fixed. That's amazing."
Looking away bashfully, Ranma tried to suppress the eagerness he'd felt at confirming so many things were the same. "Uhm, yeah, in the other world, there was this agreement to engage me to one of you girls to unite the schools and I kinda stayed there a while."
Blinking momentarily, Ranma realized he hadn't introduced himself yet as this Kasumi didn't know him. "Ah sorry for jumping the gun, I'm Ranma Saotome."
For someone being told her potential master had stayed with her family in an alternate reality and perhaps been engaged to her, Kasumi took things surprising well. "Oh, how nice. I always did like cute younger men."
Blinking slightly at her smile as it seemed to jar with his memories slightly, Ranma shrugged it off. Of course Kasumi would have been the one he was engaged to, as not only was she the oldest daughter, but the other two definitely weren't his types. Nabiki after all had seemed to cheat him worse than his dad, and the other had been the dreaded righteous tomboy type.
Moving on down the line, he found an older red-headed woman in a kimono that seemed quite familiar as well, but unlike Kasumi she produced a lot of conflicting painful memories.
Skipping on down one more woman, the third proved to be a familiar looking woman in a Chinese dress with long magenta colored hair. While he didn't have any memories of her specifically, she did spark some familiar memories. "Uhm, you wouldn't happen to be from the Bankanyala mountain range in China would ya?"
Looking a little surprised that he knew of her despite his earlier mention of Jusenkyou, the pink haired woman nodded. "Yes, my village resides near Jusenkyou, I'm from the Joketsuzoku."
Figuring out that she did indeed remind him of the amazons there, he decided to poke a little further, even though he didn't have anything solid to go on. "Uhm, you wouldn't happen to know Cologne, Shampoo and Mousse would ya?"
Now smiling at the young man, the woman answered warmly, "Of course, Shanpu is my daughter's name, and Koron is my grandmother. Musu was a young boy when I left. I am Sopu, pleased to meet you."
Now really interested, Ranma squatted down to be more level with her. "You're Shampoo's mom? I never really met you in my original world. No offense, but I skipped your village since last time there was something about beating Shampoo in a challenge match and a whole bunch of trouble afterwards. Not too sure what exactly happened, but I didn't wanna risk repeating it."
Taking on a slightly mischievous grin, Sopu was already wondering just how much her daughter might like the young man before her. It might be a good idea to get in touch with her daughter finally and arrange for her to meet him.
Taking note of her grin, Ranma moved on to next woman. Not recognizing her in the slightest, he skipped on to a woman he remembered, or more specifically, he knew her daughter. "Hey Ami, what are you doing here?"
Her mother turning to look back at her over her shoulder, the blue haired exam ace started fidgeting. "Uhm, well, it was my mother's idea. I didn't think you'd be here sensei."
Turning back forwards, the elder Mizuno looked up at the squatting young man. "You know my daughter Saotome-san?"
Nodding his head, Ranma decided to explain his relationship with her daughter considering she was a potential slave girl at this point. "Uhm, yeah, it was a few years ago. Ami was tutoring me so I could catch up on my subjects and I was teaching her some soft martial arts to help her get in shape for PE."
Placing the timing of the event, Ami's mother nodded as she finally understood what had perked up Ami around that time. It had been odd for that girl to suddenly start putting so much time into martial arts lessons at the park from a wandering sensei.
The memories of the red-head still nagging at him, Ranma moved back towards the woman in the kimono. Very unsure of himself, he hesitantly asked, "Your name wouldn't happen to be Nodoka would it?"
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