Sighing happily, Kasumi continued tweaking Ranma's profile, trying to get him just right. While Ranma had to actually okay the changes she made, he still allowed her to have pretty much free play in setting up his character. The only point where he'd said no to her was in getting Ebony and Ivory so he could play a bit of Dante for her.
Still it reminded her of when they first started playing together on the old Super Famicom she used to keep the boredom away when she was out of Romance novels. For him she'd chosen Seiken Denetsu, the Secret of Mana. Ranma of course got to play the male lead, the hero that was an excellent fighter with no magic of his own. She happily played the part of the princess, the pretty female lead with the support magic and decent combat skills.
Even though Ranma used that chance to catch some peace and quiet in the sanctity of her room, he never got as many chances to do so as they liked. Despite the fact they never actually finished the game, spending the quiet time together had been pleasant.
Then Ranma had brought home that strange game system, which he gave her as a gift. For her, the U-Play Station 2.4 had been a godsend, allowing her to play the newer games when she could get a hold of some. More often than not however, it was Ranma that somehow brought home new games for her to play. The most thrilling feature however was the Immersion Engine, allowing Kasumi to not only explore the worlds within the game to her heart's content, but get in more playtime through the usage of time dilation.
That of course had the important notion of being able to make the absolute most of her time available with Ranma.
There were downsides to the immersion feature, particularly the choice of characters. Ranma didn't like playing girls at all, nor wimpy guys or goody two-shoes guys. Generally speaking, despite how overly nice he could be, Ranma liked playing the bad boy type characters, or the anti-hero. He wasn't much for being brooding and dark, but he could do cheerfully evil and have fun.
Admittedly, she had her own preferences for characters she'd play, and they happened to mesh perfectly with Ranma's. A recent favorite had been Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, with Ranma playing the part of Soki, while she took a liking to Ohatsu. Ranma as the strong male lead and her as the pretty girl at his side had become a disturbingly happy pattern for Kasumi's choice of co-op immersive games.
It was just a game though right? There was no reason to feel naughty for enjoying spending a little time with Ranma. It wasn't like Akane would go for such a thing, she'd never settle for such a 'lesser' role, likely turning it into some sort of competition like in real life.
That brought about her current set of thoughts. The world Nabiki and Ranma were in wasn't just an immersive game, but a fantasy world created in the image of a naughty story called Dragon Pink. The computer game was just a a portal for not only getting people into the world, but adapting them to the world via the character creation process.
What happened there was for real. If Nabiki died, she would be reincarnated in that world, possibly even worse off than before. She wasn't playing an elf sex-slave, she was one, and would likely remain so unless she worked with Ranma to improve her new lot in life.
On a more personal level, what would this mean for her when she joined Ranma in that world?
Sighing with a put upon expression, Nabiki got a close up view of the cat-girl's black satin thong. Not that she particularly minded the view, but it mostly made her envious that she wasn't wearing something as comfy.
Of course, she was also putting up with the minor amount of humiliation it involved because the little kunoichi was picking the lock that held her chained to the wall.
In short order the red-head was done with the lock, hopping down to deal with Nabiki's chains. To her surprise however, the cat-girl simply walked over to Ranma and put the end of Nabiki's chains in his hands. As the neo-slave-girl was staring at Ranma, his pet went back to stuffing coins and valuables into a purse while sorting the rest into a chest.
Forcibly overcoming the strange feeling that coursed through her at seeing Ranma holding her chains, the elf spoke up with her more typical voice of superiority. "Very cute Saotome, you think you can just keep me like that?"
Staring at her for a moment, Ranma eventually heaved a put upon sigh. Rescuing Akane was always a hassle for that reason, but he'd thought Nabiki had more sense. "Do you know what kinda situation you're in?"
Sighing, Nabiki decided to cut the lug some slack, heaving a tired sigh herself while once again crossing her arms. "A very annoying one. I'm a frigging prize to a dungeon."
Nodding thoughtfully, Ranma continued getting in contact with Kasumi for reports on his situation. Almost absently he spoke to Nabiki, obviously dodging the subject. "Look, you're stuck as a non-combatant. The only way you've got to improve is to use your skills, and healing is a slow road. I know, we found that out in Makai Kingdom. Anyways, as long as you play the part of helpless slave, ya won't be attacked, and as long as ya pretend to be mine, no one should be trying to claim ya."
A little bit mollified by his attitude and blunt appraisal of the situation, Nabiki instead stuck her hands out, jingling her chains at him. "So do I really have to put up with this junk too?"
Frowning, Ranma nodded his head. "If we get out and to a save point, I can buy some better slave bracelets for you. I was kinda hoping I wasn't gonna actually need them." Reaching behind his back, he pulled a small bundle of white cloth from nowhere, presenting it to the elf. "Here, I got you a nicer outfit at least."
Unbundling the cloth, all she found was a simple pair of white panties and a plain white sundress. Normally she wouldn't be caught dead in something so plain and cheap looking, but considering her current outfit it was a definite upgrade. Despite that, she was distinctly lacking the privacy to change, though that thought suddenly struck her as utterly silly considering that her current outfit was basically transparent.
Looking away, Ranma had some peace and quiet to determine how badly this was going to screw up his life. The whole thing with Nabiki would be a hassle, that much was becoming obvious. He'd probably end up catching hell from both Nabiki and Akane over this.
That was of course assuming he could actually make it out of this dungeon. This whole thing was a bit too much like Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for his taste, a survival RPG where dying meant starting over from the beginning. It wasn't too horrible as the character ended up reincarnated with some of the stuff carrying over, but it certainly made for a tense experience. Due to the Disgaea element Kasumi had introduced, if he died here he'd be able to reincarnate himself using transmigration as long as he had the mana to fund that. His current incarnation had cost a considerable chunk of that, so he was risking quite a bit unless he could survive long enough to at least recoup that mana.
Of course, Nabiki just had to get herself stuck in a relatively high level dungeon. As powerful as his current incarnation might be, he was actually facing monsters with higher stats here, and that was always a bad thing in Disgaea terms, as unlike other games, characters and enemies used the same damage formulas. His true ace in this whole mess was the impressive number of skills he had available, the combined magnitude of his previous experiences plus some rather nice ones from his new incarnation. Even better, he still pretty much had his old movement ability, which meant he could out maneuver pretty much anything here.
Kasumi's advice had been to go kick the doors in at a beginner dungeon and quickly grab a few levels. Ranma had considered it, but he'd at least wanted to test the waters at Nabiki's dungeon.
So he'd introduced himself to the first monsters he came across, who apparently found a first level character allowing them to surrender peacefully amusing.
Pleasantries out of the way, he'd proceeded to blow his SP with his biggest dark magic sword attack, Dark Sky Crush. The results had been fairly pleasing. From then on in he'd mostly used a special attack that drained health from the enemies, unleashing one more big room clearing attack. As he was busy getting all the attention, Luan Ko quietly scouted for him and dealt with stragglers using surprise and poison weapons.
In the end, it was quick, dangerous, and fairly rewarding, yet by the time he located Nabiki using the most direct path according to Kasumi, he had needed a rest break. Darkening his horizons, he had likely blown through the easiest creatures in the place, so he'd likely be facing tougher odds when he stepped out. Also on the bad side, his little rescue party lacked a healer, with Nabiki being no where near sufficient in that regard.
Blinking in surprise, he finally got the message he'd been waiting for from Kasumi, quickly okaying her setup.
As the cheesy congratulatory music played, Nabiki was apparently able to hear the female voice that chimed in. "Character Generation Complete. Welcome to the World Ranma."
Frowning at her situation in general, despite being in much more comfortable clothes, Nabiki groused at Ranma. "What was that about Saotome?"
Folding up into a more meditative pose, Ranma glanced at the disgruntled elf out of one eye. "Kasumi wanted to create a custom character and stuff for me. We just now finished settling all the details is all."
Closing his eyes, Ranma noted his class title was now Onimusha, fitting in better with his suggestion that Kasumi theme him after Soki, the Oni of Ash. The most important of the final additions was the new Over Drive stat, allowing him to trigger the enhanced Onimusha form from that game. While it was a power boost of extremely limited duration, it had the extra use of acting as a safety net in case of serious injury, capable of triggering to prevent an untimely demise and giving him a little extra time.
Satisfied with his refreshed familiarity with his new form, the young man suddenly stood, examining the the collection of potentially useful items his kunoichi had gathered. Unfortunately he realized this world was the type where he couldn't tell if a random sword was enchanted or cursed.
Sighing, he closed the chest, preparing to move on. Looking over at Nabiki however, he realized he had a slight wrinkle in his plans. Deciding it was for the best, he stepped over to Nabiki and started popping the pins out of her iron manacles. "It's a bit risky, but we're best off making a break out of here with you being able to run. Just stay behind me and out of trouble okay?"
Stunned into silence by his casual removal of her irons, the elf mutely rubbed some feeling back into the places where the iron had been digging into her flesh. Sensing the growing seriousness of the situation, she simply nodded her assent to him.
Glancing over towards the cat-girl, he gave her the signal to go stealthy, something the red-head did immediately as she crouched near the door, fading in the shadows.
Smirking, Ranma drew the demon sword Lamentation from his back before taking a deep breath. Feeling himself slip into the proper attitude, the young warrior prepared to reintroduce himself to the presumably waiting monsters outside.
Grinning a bit wider, he simply kicked the large door off its hinges, the massive slab crashing to the floor with a deafening thud. With a suitably evil grin, he planted one leg on the fallen door before leaning forward, sword casually resting on his shoulder. The dust cloud and noise from the door obscured the little ninja as she slipped into the room, leaving Ranma to make a suitably malevolent impression upon whatever was in the room beyond.
Fanning herself, Kasumi watched raptly as Ranma got into the whole bad-boy attitude. Seeing him grin like that, she couldn't wait until she could get into the game herself.
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(Posted Sat, 09 Sep 2006 11:06)
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