Princess Nina of Windia was sitting inside her chamber, carefully preening her shiny, black wings.
She was glad that finally, the residents of her kingdom were accepting her in spite of her black wings. As for that old granny who had spread the rumor that her black wings would one day bring misfortune for the royal family... well, her father had her fired.
Still, she was a bit sad, as the reason she had to learn so much about what it meant to be a princess, was that her younger sister, Mina, was not able to fill the part of the crown princess anymore... as she had sacrificed her humanity to become the Big Bird.
True, she kept her human mind, and she only did so because the heroic group of friends Nina was a part of needed some sort of transportation to the island where Evrai, the main headquarters of the deceitful St. Eva church, was situated.
Still, the original plan had been that it was Nina who wanted herself to be turned into the Great Bird... but as Mina didn't want her older sister to suffer more than she already had by the results from being banished from the castle, she took her place.
Well, at least she was in good hands with the royal caretakers... and she got to enjoy the freedom of flight.
Nina's thoughts got interrupted, when someone knocked at her door.
One of her chambermaids looked into her room. "Princess Nina... your friends have arrived!"
Nina smiled as she stood up from the stool in front of her mirror. She had been looking forward to this visit for weeks.
"Please, let them in."
The chambermaid bowed, her own white wings almost knocking over the vase that was standing next to the door. "Right away, my lady!"
Shortly after she vanished, two familiar faces appeared in the door.
Katt grinned as she stepped into the royal bedroom. "Heya, Nina! How's our favorite princess today?"
Nina chuckled. Her best friend's cheerful manner always managed to improve her mood. "Hello, Katt! Patty, it's been a long time!"
The dragon-winged girl stepped in behind her feline friend. "Well, we had nothing better to do, so we just had to make a tour around the world to visit our friends, right? Hey, nice dress!"
Nina looked down at the pale blue dress she was wearing. "Well, yes... my mother insisted I should wear at least sometimes some garments that are befitting a princess..." She sighed. "I still prefer my old wizard robes, though..."
"Well, I like it," Patty said approvingly. "It suits your black wings."
"Th-thank you," Nina blushed. "Um, and what do you think, Katt?"
"Well, I'm no expert," the Woren replied. "But I think it looks good. Still, I would never wear it myself..."
Patty giggled. "Yeah, you're more the tomboyish person, I know."
"Hey, a dress wouldn't do any good in the coliseum, right?" Katt asked impishly.
"Weeellll, I don't know..." Nina said with amusement. "Maybe not a dress, but what about a short skirt? Just the right thing to distract your male opponents, right?"
"Oh, ha ha, very funny!" Katt grumbled as her two winged friends laughed.
"Okay then, shall we go downstairs?" Nina asked. "We have prepared a big banquet just for your visit... and I still haven't introduced you to my parents, Patty!"
"Um... you really think the king and queen are willing to meet a person like me? I mean, I am known as 'Phantom Thief'..."
"Oh, they know that you are Ryu's sister, as well as my friend, so they would treat you as they would any visitor to the castle. Don't be so shy now, they won't bite."
"Um, okay... if you say so..."
Katt snickered as she followed Nina and the reluctant Patty.
But just as they were going to leave the room, a strange noise was heard behind them.
Patty blinked. "That somehow sounded as if... someone just flushed a toilet."
"What's going on here?" Nina asked as she turned around. Then she gasped. "Oh no, my bed!"
On top of her bed, a tangled mass of bodies was squirming, as the four people up there were trying to get free from each other, and the silky bed sheets that had wrapped themselves around their limbs and torsos.
"Ack! Ryoga, you're heavy! Get off me!"
"I would like to, but - GARGL - whatever has wrapped itself around my neck is choking me..."
"Ukyo, get your spatula out of my face!"
"I can't! Shampoo is clinging to my leg!"
"A-HEM!"
The loud cough made the four teenagers turn around their heads in confusion.
The blonde, attractive girl that was dressed in an elaborate, pale blue gown, and had black wings sprouting out of her backside, was standing in front of them... and she didn't look to amused.
"May I ask who you are... and what you are doing in my bedroom?"
"Um, sorry about that," the boy with the spotted bandana around his head muttered as he freed himself from the bed sheets. "We appeared her by accident..."
"With your sense of direction, I wonder we didn't end up in Antarctica, sugar," the girl with the strange tools strapped to her body murmured, while a lavender-haired girl was clinging to her leg. "Shampoo, let go of me already!"
"We shouldn't have brought her with us..." the short-haired girl grumbled as she stood up from the bed. "I mean, as soon as we find Ranma, she will hang all over him again, I'm sure."
The lavender-haired girl looked hurt, but she didn't reply, instead, she just let go of her friend's leg and sat down on the bed quietly.
"Excuse me, but you still haven't answered my question!" Nina said in an irritated voice. "Who are you?"
"Well, I'm Akane Tendo, this is Ryoga Hibiki, and over there are Ukyo Kuonji and... Shampoo."
"Okay, but what are you doing here?"
Ryoga scratched his head. "Well, as I said, we came here by accident... Actually, we are looking for a friend of ours, Ranma..."
A dull 'thud' suddenly made them all look over to the other side of the room, where a certain girl with red hair and a tiger-striped tail had just collapsed on the ground. Her finger was pointing right at the four strangers and was shaking uncontrollably, while tears were appearing in her eyes.
"A... A... Akane...? G... guys...? How... how are you...? I thought..."
Akane and the other looked past the winged princess and saw the miserable cat-girl sitting on the floor.
Akane frowned. "Do we know her?"
Ukyo laughed. "Oh, come on! How many cat girls have we ever met in our life?"
Ryoga looked closer. "I don't know, but... guys, just imagine a pigtail attached to the back of her head, and think away the fur and tail... who do you see?"
Akane gasped. "RANMA!"
After hearing that name for a long time again, the young Woren suddenly pulled back and crouched in the corner of the room. "I'm... I'm not... I'm not who I used to be, Akane... I can't... I can't turn back..."
Now Patty and Nina were confused. Turn back into what? Who were those guys? Why does their appearance seem to frighten Katt that much?
"Ranma, please, look at me!" Akane pleaded and took a step closer. Katt winced and shuffled even further away.
Patty had seen enough. "Hey, I don't know who you are, but can't you see you're scaring her? And why are you calling her 'Ranma'? Her name is Katt!"
Akane stared at the blue-winged dragon girl. "I just happen to be her fiancee, and we haven't seen each other for two years."
"Her FIANCEE?" Patty shouted in surprise. She looked over at her friend. "Katt, you never told me you were a lesbian!"
"I'm... I'm not," Katt said in a quiet voice. She seemed to calm down a bit more. "Well, I... it's a long story, Patty..."
"I don't get it..." Ukyo said while shaking her head. "If that is Ranma, why... Why does she look like a cat?"
"Ukyo, you didn't listen to what Cologne told us, right?" Ryoga groaned. "Somehow, when she came here, she got turned into THIS! And on top of that, she lost her male form."
"It doesn't matter," Akane said. "I finally found you again, Ranma... you can come back! We... we will find a way to cure you, don't worry! C'mon, let's go!"
She stretched out her hand, but before she could touch the flinching Woren, Nina stepped in front of her. "Excuse me, but whatever your reason to be here is, you can't just come and take her with you. I want to hear the full story behind this, understood?" Nina was now in full princess-mode.
Akane frowned back at her. "And who are you? Another new fiancee hussy? Listen, girl, I'm already fed up with those two pieces of excess baggage back there..." ("Hey!" Ukyo shouted.) "...and I'm not going to let you take away my Ranma!"
Nina gasped and stuttered: "H-hussy? HUSSY?" She was downright shocked, no one had ever talked to her like this, even back when nobody knew that she was of noble birth.
But this...
"Listen up, I am the crown princess of Windia, and your behavior within my very own chambers is an OUTRAGE! Apologize, or I will have the guards escort you out of my castle... or into the dungeons, if you prefer!"
"Why you little..." Akane snarled.
She was going to take another step towards the black-winged princess, but Shampoo quickly stepped in-between them and shook her head.
"What do you want, Shampoo? Out of the way!"
Shampoo again firmly shook her head and spread her arms. Her message was clear: No fighting!
Ukyo decided to intervene: "Listen, sugar... Um, I mean, your majesty... we didn't mean to insult you. My friend here is just a bit... edgy, that's all! I'm sure this is all just a big misunderstanding."
"What are you doing, Ukyo?" Akane hissed. "Are you going to listen to that bi..."
"Akane, insulting a member of royalty within her own castle is not what I consider a wise thing to do... Besides, maybe we really misunderstood something... It's not as if we know about the whole story here."
"Very well, you seem to have more common sense than your... friend," Nina sighed, glad that she didn't have to call for the guards. "Okay then, tell me your story!"
"They're... old friends of mine..." Katt's small voice suddenly spoke up from the corner of the room. "Friends I never... never expected to see again."
"Oh... I see," Nina said. "But what was that about a fiancee? Is it common practice in your home country to engage two members of the same gender?"
"But she's a boy!" Ryoga tried to explain.
Patty and Nina looked at their feline friend, then they gave Ryoga weird looks.
"Ryoga, it has been nice of you to come along as our bodyguard, but please leave this to me," Ukyo sighed. "Listen, Ranma..."
"Her name is KATT!" Patty snapped.
Ukyo grimaced. "Okay, KATT... isn't really a girl. She was born as a boy. He just has been changed by... a curse."
"A curse?" Nina looked at Katt. "I've never heard of a curse that has changed a person's gender..."
"She... she is right... kinda..." Katt sighed.
"Okay, NOW I'm curious," Patty said. "And confused..."
"It is a long story, as I said," Katt sighed as she stood up. "Nina, can your parents wait for a while until we start with dinner? This might take some time..."
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(Posted Sat, 05 May 2007 12:49)
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