Poking around the house, Akane was searching for her big sister to have a talk with her about being so trusting with that playboy slave owner.
Unfortunately, the house and grounds were rather deserted at the moment, though she did bump into her other sister. "Nabiki, do you know where Kasumi is?"
Keeping her face perfectly neutral, Nabiki gave her a simple straight answer. "Well, she's taking a bath right now is what I was told."
Lighting up in surprise, Akane decided that was a perfect opportunity to be alone with Kasumi to have a nice heart to heart with her. "Thanks sis!"
Smirking once Akane had her back turned to leave, Nabiki held in her reply lest she start laughing and give herself away. It wasn't her fault however that Akane hadn't asked where Ranma was as well.
Noticing Kasumi's carefully folded angel dress in the hamper, Akane put her pajamas aside and began taking off her own dress. It was unfortunate that Kasumi had fallen for that playboy's act, but once she had her alone, they could have a nice talk and sort it all out. After that was sorted out, they could figure out a way to get that boy out of their house.
Steeping into the bath however, Akane was violently jarred out of her plans.
While her sister was in the bath, their spacious soaking tub was almost filled to capacity as Ranma and his four slaves were also in the bath with her. Most jarring however was that everyone was just having a nice leisurely soak despite the fact there was a pervert boy in the bath. "Kasumi? What are you doing?"
Blissfully unawares, Kasumi turned to smile at her upset little sister. "Oh, how nice Akane-chan, you decided to come join us."
Balking at the idea, Akane backed up with her bath towel still held modestly in front of herself. "Me? With that perverted playboy?"
Backing up further, Akane was surprised as the door to the changing room opened behind her. Turning around, she was greeted to the sight of Nabiki with only a similarly held towel preserving her modesty. Unfortunately Akane completely missed the fact that holding her towel in front of her completely exposed her rear, a common tactical error. "Nabiki?"
Grinning while shrugging negligently, Nabiki flippantly responded, "What? So he's cute, shoot me."
Unable to comprehend how both of her sisters were now involved in this lunacy and growing aware that she was exposing herself to the very pervert she was trying to avoid, the short haired girl suddenly squeaked and bolted from the room.
As everyone else stared with varying degrees of surprise, Ranma broke the tension with a warm chuckle. "Hehe, she reminds me Asuna back when we met."
Fuming, the named girl crossed her arms over her chest in protest. "No way, I'm nothing like her."
Of course, Nabiki didn't help any with her comment. "Heh, that's just like Akane. You even fume like her."
Taking a moment to sit on the stool and begin washing herself, Nabiki cast a sly glance back her way. "Heh, a little fireball like her must be a handful, even with the slave imprinting process."
Losing her steam, Asuna blinked for a second before starting to blush. "Uhm, no, we're just legally his slaves. This is uhm, by our own...well, free will."
"Whoa, seriously?" Nabiki was impressed by that one. While slaves weren't unheard of by any means, it was pretty much standard for a slave to undergo the imprinting process to make them compliant and obedient. A guy like Ranma having four slave girls was pretty impressive by itself. That he had four willing girls that were slaves of their own free will, that was really impressive. That did however bring something else to mind. "So, how are you girls taking this marriage thing?"
With Asuna and Nodoka both blushing shyly, Kaede reluctantly spoke up. "We were rather expecting Lord Ranma to return home with us. From what I understand there are several parties there arranging o-miai for when he returns. It's really not our place to worry about whom he wishes to marry."
Blinking again, Nabiki was once again impressed. With the new modern slave system, it was sometimes easy to forget that Japan had a long history of a complex caste system with what amounted to slaves serving the their lords. That tall girl with the empty headed smile just had a personality that screamed 'servant girl', which made understanding why she might be a slave easy.
Of course, due to that misconception, it was understandable that Nabiki might forget to question that Ranma might literally be a Lord instead of it just being a term of respect.
Finishing up her scrub down, Nabiki quickly rinsed off before joining the party in the tub. Sinking down into the tub, she sighed pleasantly as the heat helped her relax. Of course, having company was a bit odd, but it worked since everyone was pretty comfortable with the situation, creating a relaxed atmosphere.
Stretching her arms over her head to get the kinks out of her shoulders, Nabiki hoped to attract a little attention from Ranma. While he did glance at her, no one seemed to make the slightest fuss about it. Receiving a distinct lack of reaction there, Nabiki decided to be companionable and share a bit of wisdom with her new house-guests. "Well, if you guys are going to be going to school with us, there's a few things you should probably know."
"Does it have a big library?"
Briefly staring at the shy blushing girl in surprise, Nabiki shook the shock off. "Uhm, not really. Yeah, anyways, ours is a kinda oddball martial artist school, so it kinda has some different rules from other schools. If you're a martial artist, you don't have to wear a uniform, and you can have your duels and challenges on school grounds."
Ranma was of course happy with that news. "Cool."
Nodding in turn, Nabiki continued at a more somber pace. "Yeah but this is where it gets weird. Kasumi set a trend where girl martial artists might wear costumes to school. She wore stuff like kimono and miko outfits to school. In our time though, things have changed a bit, which is why Akane and I will be in costumes tomorrow. Further there is a gauntlet to run each morning, where all the guys gather to mob the martial arts girls. The trick to that is making it through with your clothes still on. Then of course the girls sometimes challenge each other. The thing to know though is, if you girls don't show up in Furinkan uniforms tomorrow, you might get attacked."
Nodding in all seriousness himself, Ranma gave the issue a little thought. "Alright, thinks for the heads up, but it shouldn't be a problem."
Frowning for an entirely different reason, Nabiki picked back up on her warning. "Don't take it too lightly. I can take my little sis in a match with pretty good odds, but when it comes to the hentai horde, I have the worst odds. My kick-boxing doesn't do well in a mob like that. Akane on the other hand does some simple kempo, but she's spirited to put it mildly, so she cleans house."
Nodding again, Ranma decided to offer a bit of help. "Well, I'll see what I can teach ya to cover that. If you don't mind, I'll watch you go at it in the morning and see what'll help."
Blinking in shock, Nabiki was surprised to realize she hadn't though of asking him for help. If Kasumi was to be believed, this guy was technically her martial arts master. Considering that he had been all of twelve at the time, and had only been with Kasumi maybe a month, that was quite an impressive resume if one believed in it.
...and quite frankly, Nabiki believed Kasumi.
Relaxing a bit and enjoying the hot soak once again, Nabiki answered in a warm change of tone. "Thanks, I'd appreciate that."
Long since bored with all of the talking, the dusky skinned little Chinese girl glanced between her tub-mates with a grin.
Then the splashing and giggling commenced.
Sitting down on his futon, Ranma made sure his yukata was decent before relaxing.
Kasumi unfortunately was fretting. "Ano, Ranma-kun, shouldn't you sleep inside? We can share my bed again."
Waving her off as Kaede and Asuna finished setting up the futons, Ranma smiled up at her, never once doubting the innocence of her offer. "Nah, it's fine 'nechan. Sleeping out here in the dojo with the girls is just fine."
Fidgeting for a moment, Kasumi tried to come up with some excuse to join the little sleep-over in the dojo. Unfortunately her earlier assertions that it wasn't right to let a guest sleep in such poor conditions would fall flat if she abandoned her own bed to join him.
To her dismay, everyone else just wanted to stop her from worrying so much. To that end, Kaede finished the bedtime operations. There was the large futon Ranma was sitting on, flanked by two thin bedrolls. Her Lord and two other girls would be sleeping on the good bedroll, and there was no doubt in Kaede's mind about who should sleep where. "Alright, Nodoka, Asuna, you two will be with Ranma-dono."
Still showing her tomboy spirit, Asuna objected loudly to that idea. "Me? Why do I have to sleep with him?"
Her smile unfazed by the outburst, Kaede's reply was simple. "Because it's the warmest and most comfortable spot."
The innocence of that reply knocked the wind right out of her sails. Once her mood had shifted to introspective, she realized she needed to behave herself. As a willing slavegirl, she was perfectly capable of saying no, perhaps a little too capable. That she had realized was her test, as a kunoichi after all existed to serve her Master. With that in mind, she was trying her best to behave herself.
Sucking it in, she took a seat on the central futon by her master, making sure her own yukata was decent before pulling the covers up over her legs.
Waving Kasumi away one last time, Ranma tried to get her to go on in and stop worrying about them. "See, everything's alright. Just go to bed 'nechan."
Sighing, Kasumi caved in. "Alright Ranma-kun. Goodnight everyone, sleep well."
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(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:16)
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