They were free because of this girl, but apparently Kasumi had done something to her before dying. And they couldn't think of what it might be. Nor did they feel like getting close enough to check.
They were still enhanced, yes, but Kasumi had certainly given herself more power than she'd ever given any of them, and they had all seen what had happened to Kasumi. It was better not to aggravate the girl.
Nabiki, meanwhile, read through Kasumi's spell books, resisting the temptation to rip them apart. After her years spent under domination, she had no desire to dominate others, and the spellbooks were not, in and of themselves, evil. She was seeking a way to reverse whatever was wrong with Ranma, of course, it wasn't in any of the books.
"What do we do now?" Akane asked, completely at loss for what to do.
"Should we go to the police?" Kodachi asked.
"I'm sure that will go over well," Nabiki said grimmly. "I'm sure they'll believe we were only killers and hookers because our big sister put a spell on us."
"We have to do something," Akane said. At that moment someone crashed in the front door, drawing Ranma's attention and causing the three other girls to stand up.
"KIMIKO!!" an enraged woman shouted. 'Give me my child, NOW!!!"
A tall woman with a severe traditional haircut burst into their room carrying a sword. She instantly saw the four girls standing there.
"Where is your, mistress," Nodoka growled angrily. The sword in her hand seemed to glow in response to her anger. "I've spent the last twenty years arming myself against this possibility."
"Dead," Nabiki said quickly. She didn't doubt the idea that Nodoka could handle herself, and, no matter how much she had resisted, three or four years of domination had given her a healthy respect for authority. "The new girl killed her."
She pointed the cat-like Ranma that was looking curiously at Nodoka.
"The new..." Nodoka repeated, and she looked to Ranma and the wings. "Is that...Ranma?"
And at that the cat pounced, to the combined horror of all those there. Until the motion stopped and Nodoka was merely forced down to the ground with a large purring, winged girl in her lap.
"What is she doing?" Akane asked.
"She's...sleeping," Nodoka said, relieved. She looked up at the three other girls. "Can you introduce yourselves, girls?"
"I'm Akane Tendo," Akane started nervously. Nodoka's eyes narrowed significantly at the name Tendo.
"Tendo?" She said. "You're a Tendo? Daughter of Kimiko Tendo I assume? Did Kimiko sink to the level of enslaving her own child?"
"No," Nabiki said. "Our older sister sank to level of enslaving her sisters. After she killed mother."
"I...see," Nodoka said, looking down at the still slightly bloody girl in her lap. "And you are?"
"Nabiki Tendo," Nabiki said. Nodoka turned to look at Kodachi.
"Kodachi," she answered softly. "I was cast out of my family when they sold me, I have no surname."
"We'll have to see about that," Nodoka said. She sighed. "Sit down girls. I suppose I'd better tell you about how this all started."
The girls took seats around her.
"It started as something of a lark while your mother and I were in college," Nodoka said. "Us and a few other girls put together a brothel for the thrills. We all decided that Kimiko should set things up for us and handle the money, she was always more traditional than the rest of us. It was very foolish"
She sighed and shook her head, idly stroking Ranma's head. Her former son was very beautiful. She just hoped that Ranma would snap out of this cat dementia soon. She turned back to the other girls.
"But the position went to her head, and she started wanting more power," Nodoka explained. "I don't know when she started researching magic. But then she started handing out these 'power drinks' and afterwards we'd all feel kind of light-headed and very prone to doing what Kimiko wanted us to do. She apparently found something more firm in the way of control sense I left." Nodoka eyed the tattoos on all four of the girls.
"You could say that," Nabiki said.
"Then I met Ranma's father, he was a client, and I fell in love, I suppose," Nodoka cracked a smile. "More likely it was just that I saw a way out. I confronted your mother and told her that I wanted out. I had to threaten her with exposure, those potions of hers didn't last long enough, and she knew I'd do that. She got one thing out of it though, she managed to cast some spell over me to sign that bloody contract, itself a spell."
"Contract?" Akane asked.
"To sell my first-born daughter for a year and a day to the Tendo Brothel," Nodoka said. "I've had two daughters besides Ranma. But they were given up for adoption before they were born, so they were not born my daughters, and so the spell was fooled."
"And, Ranma?" Kodachi asked.
"Was born my son," Nodoka said. The girls recoiled. "Then my husband took him to some cursed training ground and changed him into her, and decided to take Ranma to you to fulfill my debt...without speaking to me."
Ranma came to wakefulness slowly.
"What happened," she muttered. "Where am I?"
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Thu, 02 Jan 2003 00:45)
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