“Really, Master,” admonished Nabiki, as she poured the blood into a cup. “We can’t afford to waste this stuff. I have to be careful in acquiring it.”
“Really?” asked Ranma.
“Well, it’s not like I can go out and bring some people for us to feed on as needed,” she responded. “It attracts too much attention, thank you. And I’m sure our lives would be a lot longer if we didn’t have people after us.” She shuddered slightly, recalling some of the close calls she had with some military-grade thugs during her earlier exploits.
Ranma just blinked as he sat down his now empty glass. “We can’t?” he questioned. “Then how’d you get all this?”
“I run several companies, Master,” she explained, glad he hadn’t pressed for more details about why hunting humans wasn't an option. It wasn’t so much that she was ashamed of it or her past—she did miss her sisters somewhat when she calmed down and focused on acquiring a solid life—but that her Master tended to lose himself in in-depth explanations. “So, with special bonuses, once a month I get the employees to volunteer for some blood drives. I send what we don’t need to the local blood banks and bring the rest here. If I needed more, I can request excess blood that they deem ‘expired’ and use it as well.”
“And they just send you the blood?”
“I have a licensed subsidiary listed as a medical firm. It doesn’t really exist much off paper, but it works well enough.”
Ranma just nodded slightly as Nabiki refilled his glass.
“Even so, I’d prefer if we didn’t waste a drop of it,” she continued. “The less we waste, the less we need, and the less chance of someone noticing something and prying into our lives.”
“Fine,” he grumbled.
Nodding, Nabiki returned to her seat. “So Master, will you at least meet with Diva?” she asked.
Ranma paused to think a bit. He’d barely been awake for a day and already he was beginning to feel as if nothing had changed. “She ain’t someone the baka panda already promised me to, is she?” asked Ranma.
Nabiki shook her head. “From what I gather, she tends to … hibernate for a period of thirty years at a time,” she responded. “Before that, she would have been more likely to have considered your parents as food rather than in-laws.”
He released a breath he hadn’t even known he was holding. Fiancées were bad enough; vampire—sorry, chiropteran—fiancées were probably a lot worse. He just hoped whoever this Diva was; she wasn’t some insanely powerful loon out for his special bits.
Why did a shiver just go down my back? he wondered, before looking up and spotting an air vent above his head. Shrugging, he put it out of his mind.
He didn’t even notice that the AC wasn’t even on at the moment.
“So all I have to do is meet with her, talk about it, and that’s it?” he asked.
She struggled not to blurt out the plan. After all, certain aspects would probably send her Master out the door and trying to swim the sea again to get to China. “It is hoped you will agree, Master. At the very least, we can see what issues need to be worked out and you two can become familiar with each other. Though there is some pressure that this can be successfully concluded before either of you needs to hibernate again.”
“And they ain’t going to try and freaky stuff with my girl side?” he asked.
“No,” she said, remembering a very detailed conversation with Amshel. “But to be on the safe side, you should probably spend the rest of the day practicing.”
“Oh?” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t trust them, Master,” she said, her face emotionless.
“Then why are we meeting them?” he asked.
Her face soon turned into smirk. “For one, I want a little payback, even if nothing comes out of it.” To be honest, she’d rather have Ranma to herself than share him with those … beasts.
“I thought they kicked your ass last time,” he said bluntly.
“I didn’t just make money and take care of you all these years,” she replied, motioning to a few weapons placed along the wall. “Anything Goes is something they'd never expect. My last encounter showed me that they prefer brute force to actually skill, replying too much on their enhanced abilities to win.” She was also a little curious if they could regenerate a torn-off head and a crushed brain.
“So you got some training,” said the smirking Saotome, wondering how she stacked against him now.
Nabiki just shrugged. Unlike say Akane, she’d prefer to have someone give her an honest assessment of her skills, something that she didn’t trust her instructors to do, considering she’d have to hold a lot back not to attract any undue attention.
“So what?” said Ranma. “We’re meeting them so you can pay them back,” he started, shivering a bit as he remembered how somewhat vicious Nabiki’s paybacks tended to be, “and see if we can ‘save the species’?”
“They didn’t tell me everything about what we are,” she said. “They were holding some things back from me, things I’d like to finally know before it bites us in the ass.”
He nodded, taking a sip of his glass, noticing that the hunger he had before was now greatly muted. “So, payback, … engagement,” he said with a shudder, “and getting the full story… Anything else?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not for the moment, Master. But for now, allow me to contact them to inform them of your waking. If you wish, you can use my training room over there,” she said, pointing to a door off to his left, “to warm up and see what changes being a chiropteran has done to you, I shall go make the call and schedule a meeting tomorrow with them.”
Shrugging, Ranma emptied his glass and headed towards the door.
Sighing, Nabiki stood up, gathered the glasses and headed towards the kitchen. She wouldn’t put it past those guys to try and ‘force’ them to attend early. And while she had attained some skills with the physical arts lately, she still didn’t like her chances against them. If her Master’s form had suffered due to his hibernation, their chances were even lower.
But she lived up to her bargain. She was making contact when her master awoke; she was bringing him to ‘meet’ Diva. And for now, she’d just have to hope things worked out for the best.
“Bastards probably won’t even allow me time to get … reunited with Master,” she grumbled as she headed towards the phone.
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(Posted Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:01)
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