Instead, she had been brought up to be a bodyguard. When the decision had been made as to what to do with her, it had been noted that she was showing talent in combat skills. As there was a role that was uniquely suited for such children, she was placed into an 'academy' of sorts, and had been started on the path to becoming a mamluk-yojimbo.
That wasn't to say that this was one of the illegal schools where children were raised, and brainwashed, to become the obedient weapons of whomever brought them. Rather, this was a place where children were brought up with a lesson plan involving honing skills, teaching certain morals, and protecting the students' health, both mental and physical. The idea was to slowly train them in the methods that would be needed in their future roles, so that by the time that they were sold, they were skilled and professional soldiers who could do their jobs quite well.
She had come up through one of those schools, and had done pretty well for herself. Growing up as she had was something that she knew was different than a free girl might have had, but she didn't mind. In its own way, it had been a pretty good childhood, as it was more of a military academy than a 'soldier factory'. During that time, she'd had friends, rivals, and the occasional unusual happening, but nothing major had come up that she knew about.
Now she was the property of Ranma Saotome as his mamluk-yojimbo, which almost amused her at times, since he didn't seem to need one. He was strong enough to do a lot of his own fighting, and it had impressed upon her that she was dealing on a whole different level than him. Had she followed what she knew would have been her original path in life, she was sure that she could have been more like him, but she didn't believe in whining about the past, and was pleased that she had this opportunity to reconnect with her family's style.
As it was, she was a trained soldier, and as such, she was not merely limited to the martial arts. She'd been trained to fight using multiple weapons, including the .45 that she carried in a shoulder holster. Usually she used a Glock, but she preferred an M1911 for regular use, though her experience with guns was a little varied. Her preference was towards heavier, solid ones that she could draw quickly and get some serious stopping power with. Combat knives, tonfa, brass knuckles, and other weapons were all at her disposal. Oddly enough, she was pretty famous during her training days for being a girl who tended towards solid and heavy weapons, like shotguns, than some rifles.
Not that she had missed the other parts of being a soldier in between learning how to use a taser and such. First aid was taught to her, though it wasn't her best subject, and her ability to do most of what would be needed to live off of the land was pretty good. Some training in using highly technical equipment had been thought to be useful to teach to her, and she was a pretty okay driver.
Of course, the 'marital arts' had not been part of those lessons as it was not seen as something that was good to teach young children, nevermind soldiers. That wasn't to say that they didn't think that it would be impossible that the owners would be intimate with their mamluks, but they were only going to teach them what would be in the basic health class. A number of people, including some of the slave bodyguards themselves thought that it would be not welcome to be too emotionally involved with their masters, as it might make it so that the focus that the slave might need in a fight could be eroded. Some of those individuals suggested that sex without emotional closeness could be allowed, so long as it would be seen as the mamluk's 'duty'. On the other hand, there were those who thought that allowing the mamluk to feel an emotional bond with her master, perhaps even personal loyalty, was the way to go. No one was going to complain all that much if a slave chose to sleep with her master, as it was a personal decision.
Akane just wanted an acknowledgement that her own Master found her to be an attractive young woman. It didn't have to go to the point where she would be winding up in bed with him after some melodramatic scene out of a romance novel, or a pornographic video. She only wanted to have some sign that he particularly liked her looks, and might even have the feeling of considering her to be a good possession as a cute girl, not only a trained soldier.
His father was someone that she could leave behind. The two of them had an... odd relationship, as he seemed to want to be the final authority on everything, and she considered him to be an obnoxious jerk who tended to get a lot wrong in his decision making. Being as she couldn't be sold, and he was her owner's father, they had to tolerate each other for the time being.
But, all in all, she knew that she was doing better than some of her 'classmates', including the more 'curvy' ones, while:
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(Posted Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:19)
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