As the light show finally came to and end, Ranma was left dumbfounded with the girl he had rescued kneeling before him, nuzzling his hand to her face.
Giving her a chance to give him a clue by doing something else, he took a moment to examine her in the hope it would help him figure out things.
Overall she had a slender long legged body with breasts that were even larger and perkier than Shampoo's. Her face was cute with the largest most expressive eyes he'd seen. On her forehead was an odd triangular mark that seemed to be a warning indicator for trouble. His biggest clue was that she had pale green hair bound by metal hair ornaments, which coupled with her unnatural red eyes made her look exotic.
She also happened to remind him of the Shampoo's tribe, which would explain a lot of things. It was possible she only understood a little Japanese if any and like Shampoo had probably been mastering that one phrase at the end. He wasn't sure, but maybe rescuing a girl got a different reaction from defeating her in battle.
Of course he'd also learned a few things from his encounter with Pink and Link, particularly that Shampoo didn't get along with other girls from her area as well as one might think. As such, unless he needed a translator, he wasn't taking her to see the Amazons lest Shampoo take offense and start trying to kill the girl or something.
Taking a clue, Ranma tried some of his limited Chinese on the girl. "Nihao."
Trying again, Ranma stared back at the girl as she gave no sign of understanding. Unfortunately, that ruled out his idea about her being from China, though from experience he felt rescuing her was probably the cause of all of this. That was after all how he had ended up with Kodachi's 'loving' attention. "Ah man, I wish you would just talk to me. I'd really like to know what's going on."
Seeing the warning indicator on her forehead light up, Ranma watched as the girl started glowing and floating upwards again. This time however he stayed grounded, acting as the girl's anchor as she once again switched to holding hands. Still wondering what the light show meant, Ranma stared as it ended. Once she settled back onto the ground, the girl settled back into her kneeling position, kissing and nuzzling his hand again.
Hearing a delicate female voice, Ranma stared around wildly trying to locate the source. Then realizing the obvious he stared back at the kneeling girl. "What was that? What just happened?"
That was odd even for Ranma. Several jumbled thoughts bounced around in his mind in a whirl of emotions, but one in particular was more important. "You grant wishes?"
Hearing what he was pretty sure was a confirmation from the girl, Ranma immediately jumped to one of his central desires in life. "So, can you cure my curse?"
Blinking for a second, the girl tilted her head to the side.
Disappointed at having another chance at finding a cure turn up empty, Ranma sagged to his knees. Almost as soon as he did, his head snapped up to look the girl in the eyes. "Wait a minute, does that mean you can after you get stronger?"
Blinking at her, Ranma filed that little hope away for later. "So, do you have a name?"
Instead of a sourceless voice echoing in his head, the girl simply shook her head to the negative.
Seeing her shake her head, Ranma was really beginning to believe she was really strange, like some kind of defective genie. Even if she had her quirks, she was nice and no one deserved to be without a name at least. "Uhm, alright, how about I call you Ren?"
Seeing her the triangle on her forehead light up again, Ranma prepared himself for another light show. Instead nothing happened other than the light blinking off and the girl smiling blissfully before jumping forward to wrap her hands around his neck.
Blushing, Ranma tried to gently disentangle her from him, while starting to realize this was getting to be a bit of a sticky situation. "Uhm, do you have a home? You know, a place to go?"
Sighing, Ranma let the girl nuzzle happily into his shoulder. Taking her home would be a ton of trouble, but he couldn't see any other way about it. Even if she might not have a cure to his curse, it was becoming obvious that he couldn't just leave her behind. As far as he understood it, she was like a pet genie, and he had just adopted her.
Hungry mainly from being freshly awakened, Ren's stomach growled, making her hunger known.
In reply, Ranma's stomach growled warningly at the intruder on its territory.
Hearing her Master's stomach, Ren's stomach growled a meek apology to the alpha stomach.
Ranma stared as their stomachs growled, almost in symphony as if they were complimenting each other. Sighing loudly, he stood up, pulling the girl to her feet, then picking her up in his arms again. "Alright, I'll probably regret this, but I'll take ya home with me."
Sighing once more, Ranma gathered himself and jumped from the rooftop into the sky. After a few moments of enjoying the breeze, Ranma realized something was yet again going wrong today.
He wasn't falling back towards the ground.
Remembering the two light shows, he spared a look towards the passenger in his arms. "Hey, are you doing something funny?"
Staring at her for a long moment now that it was clear that he wouldn't have to worry about landing anytime soon, Ranma's mind raced with the possibilities. "You did what? You mean we can really fly?"
Not waiting for a reply to his questions, Ranma looked upwards at the distant clouds. "Sweet!"
Moments later, they were in the clouds.
Washing vegetables in the sink, Kasumi looked up in surprise as Ranma alighted in the yard.
While long used to seeing Ranma land in the yard, even with an armful of pretty girl, she had never seen him float down while glowing and sparkling.
She had had daydreams like that however, except he wasn't holding her right now and they hadn't just returned from some fantastic magical adventure.
Shortly after passing from view in her window, Ranma came in the kitchen door, leading the girl in by the hand. Noting that Ranma was in just his undershirt, Kasumi spent a short moment admiring the view. Looking over the girl beside him, it was obvious something had happened. The girl was wearing a large collar, dressed in Ranma's shirt and clinging to him as if she were scared to lose him.
For his part, Ranma put a finger to his lips as a sign for Kasumi to keep quiet. "Uhm, sorry ta bother you, but she's kinda hungry. Could we get something to eat?"
Smiling warmly at the sight of Ranma playing the hero again, Kasumi bustled over to the pantry to get some snacks out. "Of course Ranma-kun." Coming back with a few sweet buns to tide them over, Kasumi decided to assuage her curiosity. "Who is she Ranma-kun? Is she in trouble?"
Accepting the bread, Ranma glanced back and forth between the girls, wondering how he was going to explain this. As Kasumi was pretty much the only person that would really listen to him at the house, if he didn't explain it right to her he didn't have a chance with the others. "Uhm, yeah, her name's Ren. I kinda saved her from a couple of uhm, bullies. I didn't know what else to do with her, so I brought her home, even though I know it's gonna be trouble. Oh yeah, I need to get her some clothes too."
Noting the shy behavior, the lack of clothes other than the shirt off of Ranma's back and the large collar, Kasumi had a feeling Ranma was telling the nice version of the story.
Watching the girl further proved to be amusing as well as prove that something more serious had happened. When Ranma handed her a bun, the girl looked at it as if she were hungry, her stomach even growling. Then she bashfully presented the bread back to Ranma like a gift.
Sighing, the young man took the bun back from her. "Yeesh, I give up. Just open your mouth and I'll show you."
As the aqua green haired girl dutifully opened her mouth, Ranma placed the bun to her lips. "Alright now, eat already."
As the girl to a bite out of it, followed by another hesitant munch, Ranma patiently fed her the entire bun. He didn't know why, but she kept insisting he was hungrier for some reason, though at least she was eating now, even if he did have to go as far as hand feeding her. At least considering Kasumi's lack of reaction to Ren's voice, Ranma was pretty sure it was in his head, something he was grateful for, otherwise the girl constantly calling him 'Master' would have had him in trouble with even Kasumi.
Taking the next bun in hand, Ranma broke it in half, handing part of it to the strange girl. Taking a bite from his piece, Ranma showed her how to eat just to get his point across. "See, just like that. Now you do it."
As the girl placed her half of the bun to his lips, Ranma sighed and took a bite. The girl apparently had some very strange ideas about how to act with him because of that 'Master' thing. Giving in if it meant getting this over with, he tried to feed her his half of the bread.
To his surprise, she shook her head and refused to eat, then presented her bread to him again to eat while making the first sounds he'd ever actually heard from her. "Uhnn, uhnn!"
Giving in, the young martial artist took large bites out of the bun, making ir rapidly disappear. Ren in turn beamed a bright smile at him, obviously pleased with herself.
Kasumi beamed a smile of her own, the sight both amusing and heartwarming. "How cute Ranma-kun."
Hanging his head in shame, Ranma fed the girl his half of the bread, glad that she was at least cooperating again and eating.
When the bread was gone, Ren was apparently not done nibbling. Onwards she continued, licking crumbs from Ranma's fingers, occasionally sucking on the tip of one. When she was done, she once again kissed his hand before nuzzling it against her face.
For her part, Kasumi smiled warmly at how much the girl obviously loved Ranma. Right now, after all she'd been through, Ranma obviously meant the world to her. Her previous life must have been horrible if she had even forgotten how to talk. That the girl could feel something as innocent as love and affection gave Kasumi a sense of hope for her.
Ranma on the other hand stood stock still with his pig-tail sticking straight out with a deep blush on his face.
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(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:30)
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