Going through her journal and other documents, Nabiki tried to find any info she had on this 'new' Ranma. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to have any contact with him that she could find. If it had been the old Ranma, she'd have film, developed pictures and notes about him in several places as he'd been practically as interwoven into her life as Kuno and her little sister.
Speaking of her little sister, she was still at the door waiting to talk to her. Since Akane was interrupting her research, she decided to answer her questions so she could get some peace and quiet.
Opening the door however, Nabiki got a surprise in that the Akane that greeted her was different than what she remembered. Most noticeably, her figure was actually fairly trim and curvy, meaning that she didn't have the sort of dumpy tomboy figure she'd remembered. A little less surprising was that Akane's hair was hanging straight and loose all the way down to her rear.
She was no less fiery however, as she demonstrated in her demands. "That certainly took you long enough! What was the big idea blowing me off like that?"
Frowning at being clueless, Nabiki attempted to verbally disarm her sister. "I had some stuff to deal with. What's the big fuss about anyways?"
Taking a moment to step into Nabiki's room and close the door to have some privacy, Akane turned on her mercenary older sister. "Whaddya mean what's this about? You had him in your room! What was Ranma doing in your room?"
Hearing that name from her lips surprised Nabiki, which obviously slipped through her self-control. "You know him?"
Surprised by the sheer inanity of the question, Akane sputtered for a moment before expressing her incredulity rather forcefully. "What the hell kind of question is that? I had to pay you just to know what little I know about him!"
Taking a moment to stare at her irate little sister as she worked out the situation, Nabiki moved to get some money from her stash. To her dismay however, her stash as she knew it was empty, so she moved on searching all her likely spots until she found some cash. "Alright sis, how much did I charge you?"
Now confused, Akane answered absently, "A thousand yen, family discount." (~$10)
Frowning at the idea of paying Akane for information, Nabiki handed over a thousand yen note nevertheless. When Akane stared at her for a moment longer, she gave her another note. "Alright then, tell me what you know about him."
Taking a moment to come to grips with the absurdity of the situation, Akane sighed and decided to go with the flow. "His name is Ranma Himura, he practices his family style of kenjutsu, the Kamiya-Kasshin school and the Hiten Mitsurugi, though one is a bokken school and the other requires a blade. About a year ago, he had a challenge match with Kuno and I bumped into him while he was all dressed up in a hakama like Kuno. I thought he was part of the pervert brigade, so I attacked him and got my ass handed to me. Then when I showed up at school with bruises, I proclaimed I'd been defeated and now had a boyfriend and ended that stupid morning 'ritual' of Kuno's. That's when I paid you for what you knew about him."
Of course, to Nabiki that only raised more questions, like why Akane would she was so interested in a guy she barely knew. As it didn't give her much useful info, she sat down on her bed in frustration.
Picking up on this, Akane was starting to get both worried and frustrated. "Hey, what's going on here?"
Not bothering to glance up, Nabiki stuck out a hand. "Standard family rate."
Finding this almost comfortingly familiar, Akane returned one of the bills to her sister's hand.
Heaving another sigh, Nabiki prepared to be miserable at admitting how little she knew. "Alright then, he got a genie that would grant him one wish and paid me to help him make a good one. Since having Genma Saotome as a father was the source of pretty much all of his problems, I wished that Genma wasn't his father any more. Now I don't have a clue what's going on."
Not quite catching up fast enough, Akane's mouth ran faster that her thoughts could catch up. "Wait, Uncle Baka doesn't have a son!"
Grinning ruefully, Nabiki agreed, "Not anymore he doesn't."
Taking a moment to digest what she'd been told, Akane eventually caught on. "So, you know Ranma as Genma's son, but you've never met Ranma Himura?"
Glad that they were on the same page now, Nabiki decided to clarify things. "...or you really. You didn't have long hair or such a trim waist last time I saw you."
A touch confused again, Akane asked, "Huh? Why would Ranma changing have an effect on me?"
Shrugging, Nabiki decided to level with her sister in the hopes of a fair trade. "He was here for the last year is why. Daddy has an agreement with 'Uncle Baka', that they'd unite the schools by marrying their kids."
Seeing Akane's eyes light up at that prospect, Nabiki realized there might be something special to her little search for Ranma. "Look, I need a rundown on the major events of the last year. If you can fill me in on that, I'll help you track down Ranma."
Blinking as she thought back, Akane wondered where exactly she should begin. "Okay, we talking about when Kuno made the announcement, the Rythmic Gymnastics match, the Takeout Race, or the Dojo Destroyer?"
Putting things in place, Nabiki surmised the changes should only go back as far as when Ranma should have arrived. "After Kuno and before the match with Kodachi by about two weeks."
Nodding, Akane started doing highlights in the hopes of saying something that would spark Nabiki's interest. As she didn't know what might have changed, there was no telling what she or her sister would actually consider important. "Uhm, let's see met Ranma and ended the morning stupidity, lost the match to Kodachi, got second in the Takeout Race, our sign got destroyed, a friend of mine named Shinnosuke died, I had to live with the stupid Chardins for about two months before they gave up on me, and uhm...that's about all I can think of off-hand unless you wanna ask about something. Oh yeah, Kasumi's applying for some kind of maid scholarship to get into college."
Thinking about everything that happened, Nabiki would have to ask more questions to make sure none of it turned out to be a big deal. Glumly, she figured she'd have to apologize for Shinnosuke as the Orochi had probably won due the to the absence of Ranma and Ryouga. Heck, Akane was probably lucky to be alive after that. That aside though she decided to go with an obvious change. "Alright, how did you get so fit? You never had a waist that trim."
Smirking ruefully, Akane's amusement at Nabiki being so clueless was only tempered by the bad memories it brought up. To illustrate her point she pulled her shirt up, revealing the plain white satin corset beneath. "I had to wear a steel corset for almost two months while I was Picolet's fiancée. Some of my muscles atrophied, but I'm almost rehabilitated now. Heck it's nice to finally wear a boneless corset and be able to bend at the waist again."
Feeling a bit disturbed by that little bombshell as Ranma had come out that incident no worse for the wear, Nabiki decided that getting in touch with Ranma might be more important than she'd thought. Luckily she had a name to go by, plus the strong possibility that Nodoka was still his mother.
Sighing, Ranma stood up to take a look at the view while he thought about his problems at hand.
The thing at the maid's dorm had definitely been out of hand, not to mention he'd only gone to check it out. That in mind he turned to his rescuer from that mess. "Uhm, would you mind carrying me to my apartment?"
Despite how absurd he felt asking that question, the red-head in the blue and white maid outfit didn't seem to mind. "Oh, okay."
When she moved to pick him up however, he backed away so he could clarify a bit. "How about a piggy-back ride instead?"
Rubbing the back of her head and laughing nervously, Eiko seemed to realize how undignified carrying him around in her arms was. Of course, he was completely unaware that Eiko considered it a more romantic and intimate gesture. "Hehe, alright."
As she squatted, Ranma climbed onto her back and allowed her to hook her arms under his knees with no small amount of embarrassment. To his further embarrassment his right hand ended up dangerously close to squeezing her left breast in the only way he could comfortably wrap his arms around her shoulders. To his relief however, she didn't seem to notice, so he let it drop. "Uhm, can you find Juuban from here?"
Nodding, Eiko started roof-hopping in that general direction without waiting to further discuss things.
After what had been one of the most interesting nights of his life, Ranma concluded that riding Eiko's back was definitely fun much to the surprisingly shy girl's embarrassment.
Going in through the main entrance, Ranma treated her like a lady by opening the doors as way of thanks, though this only served to deepen her embarrassed blush. Once inside his apartment, he set about preparing supper as it was getting to be late in the evening.
To Eiko's further embarrassment, she had to allow her new master to cook for her as he insisted she was a guest. If she'd actually been confident of her own skill as a cook, she would have insisted a bit more firmly, but as it was, she was left idle waiting. "Ah, Himura-sama, do you live alone here?"
Not turning from his cooking, Ranma answered almost absently. "My mom allowed me to get this apartment to be closer to a dojo I was studying at. She said it was 'manly' for me to have my privacy and live alone a little. I still visit her of course, but most nights I just come back here and cook myself supper."
Blushing at the thought of being alone with him, Eiko was happy that he approved of her odd powers as much as he did. If it was as she was told, that Ranma would be staying on as manager for while, she'd be perfectly happy to remain his maid instead of working for the house if any of the main family finally moved back in. He was pretty much everything she'd been hoping for when she'd joined as a maid, even though it was partially to be in a place that accepted an odd girl like her.
For his part, Ranma was just glad Eiko wasn't as boy-crazy as those other maids...
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(Posted Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:41)
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