"Well, it's getting late..." Nabiki yawned and stretched. "I guess I'm gonna take a bath before going to bed, though..."
"Oh, I'll join you, Nabiki," Akane said. "I'm all sweaty from today's workout."
Ranma sweatdropped. "You call that a workout? You chased me and Kodachi through half of Nerima..."
Ranko jumped up. "Oh, can I join you? Pretty please? It's been so long since I took a nice and proper bath..."
"Three days, to be exact," Nodoka sighed and raised three fingers.
Nabiki frowned and moved close to Ranko. She then took a deep sniff.
"Strange, you don't really smell like you haven't taken a bath for such a long time..."
"Cleaning Spell," Nodoka explained. "Gets the job done, but isn't nearly as relaxing as a real bath..."
"See? That's why I wanna join you," Ranko said. "Can I? Please?"
Akane shrugged. "Well, I don't mind... as long as certain bakas don't enter the bath unannounced again!" She glared at her fiance.
"Hey, just remember to put up the 'occupied' sign, will ya?" Ranma grumbled.
Later, the three girls were soaking in the hot bathtub.
Ranko sighed. "Oh, how I missed this... you know, as a witch-in-training, I don't get much chances to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Either I have to sit down and study all the time, or Mom and I are always on some trip to train my abilities or find some old tome with ancient spells..."
"Did you ever find one?" Akane asked with interest.
Ranko shook her head. "No, it's Mom's dream to find one, but until now, we've been out of luck... and to be honest, I don't really think we will find one."
"Will you keep your voices down? I'm trying to relax here..." Nabiki murmured. "Damn, that feels good... right now, the only thing better than this would be if we'd be lying on a warm beach, under the warm rays of the sun, the vast sea in front of us, a cool drink next to us..."
Akane chuckled. "You can't wait until the summer vacations, can you, sis?"
Ranko tipped her finger against her chin. "You know... if you want, I can conjure up a real beach."
The two Tendos blinked in surprise, then looked at Ranko. "Come again?" Akane asked.
"You... you're not serious, are you?" Nabiki asked.
Ranko smiled. "Sure I am!"
"A... a real beach?" Akane wondered. "Complete with an ocean and palm trees? Here in our bathroom?"
"Of course!" Ranko grinned. "A simple pocket dimension spell... um, how did it go again? Ah, I know: Hcaeb dna neaco, remmus nus dna mlap seert, emoc htrof!"
She clapped her hands, and in the blink of an eye, the Tendo bathroom had disappeared, and the three girls were clad in swimsuits and were sitting on a wide beach with the finest, whitest sand they had ever seen in their lives, the wide ocean in front of them, and the clear sky with the warm sun above them. A couple of palm trees were growing nearby, and a small table with cooled soft drinks was standing next to them.
The only familiar object around was the bathroom door, which was curiously embedded in one of the bigger palm trees.
Nabiki and Akane blinked. Then they blinked some more. Akane hesitantly touched the sand below her, then picked some up and let it run through her finger. "It's... it's real..." she whispered. "How...?"
Ranko chuckled. "Magic, what else? This is a little pocket dimension I created, in case Mom doesn't have enough money to afford a real vacation. We really aren't allowed to conjure up money, you know..."
"Heck with it," Nabiki grinned. "Illusion or dream, whatever, as long as I'm here, I'm gonna enjoy it." She spread out on the blanket she was lying on and closed her eyes. She then giggled. "Imagine: It's September and I'm working on my tan."
"I'd rather go for a swim," Akane smiled. "You wanna join me, Ranko?"
Ranko smiled. "Sure!" And together, they ran to the water.
Suddenly, they heard a knock on the bathroom door. "Girls, may I come in?" the voice of Soun shouted. "I think I forgot my mustache clipper in there... I'm not going to look, I promise!"
Neither of the girls heard him. Nabiki had fallen half asleep under the warm rays of the sun, while Ranko and Akane were giggling loudly and splashed each other with water.
The door then opened, and Soun came through the door. He had shielded his eyes with his hands. "I'm not going to look..." he murmured as he tried to find his mustache clipper.
But then, one of the long palm leafs brushed against his hair. He blinked in surprise and looked up. Then he looked around and saw the ocean and the beach.
He rubbed his eyes. "Um... either I have to tell Saotome that I won't be joining him on his weekly bar tours anymore, or something very strange is going on here..."
When Akane saw her father standing on the beach, she said: "Oops! Ranko, you better turn everything back to normal."
Ranko nodded. "Hcaeb dna neaco, remmus nus dna mlap seert, raeppasid!"
And then the beach was gone, and the girls were once again sitting in the bath tub.
"Um... can you pass me the soap, Akane?" Ranko asked.
Akane grinned. "Why, sure! Here you go!"
Soun blinked and shook his head. "Um, girls... did you just see the ocean over there?"
Akane giggled. "Daddy, don't be silly! I doubt you can see the ocean from our bathroom. Honestly, I really think you shouldn't visit the bar on Thursday evenings anymore."
"I... I think that would be the best..." Soun muttered. "Sorry, girls... didn't want to bother you..." And he left the bath, with a baffled expression on his face.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Akane and Ranko broke out into giggles. "That was priceless, Ranko!"
"Yeah, I know! Did you see his face?"
Nabiki slowly opened her eyes. "Aw, over already? What a bummer..."
This evening, Ranko was sleeping with Akane in her room. Akane was willing to sleep on the floor and let Ranko take the bed. In spite of having been turned into a rabbit by the youngest Saotome, she couldn't help but feel a certain amount of affection towards the red-head. She was like the younger sister she never had.
"Too bad you're not old enough to be a student at our school," Akane sighed as she lay down on her futon. "Imagine all the fun we could have... and I could introduce you to my friends, Sayuri and Yuka."
"Well, maybe I can visit you during the lunch break," Ranko suggested. "On Kamikaze, I can be there within a couple of minutes."
"Must be nice to have your own broomstick," Akane said. "Oh well, I shouldn't complain, after all, I still have P-chan."
"P-chan?" Ranko wondered. "Who's that?"
"My little black pet piggy," Akane smiled. "He's just too cute, and he always wears this yellow, black-spotted bandana around his neck... ah, there he is! P-chan, come over here!"
Ryoga had just been wandering around the neighborhood, when he was splashed by the most common way of getting wet in Nerima: The old ladle lady. But even though he was annoyed that he was forced back into his little pig body again, he was content when he found his way to the Tendo Dojo (merely by accident, he had been trying to go to Shinjuku).
"Bwee?" Curious about the little girl in Akane's bed, that looked so much like a younger, female Ranma, he trotted over to Akane, who picked him up.
Ranko crawled over to the edge of the bed and looked down at Akane and her pet. "Awww, he's really a cutie," she giggled.
Akane smiled. "Yeah, isn't he?" She hugged him against her bosom, ignoring the nosebleed P-chan was getting.
"Saayyyy... did you ever want to have some other sort of pet?" Ranko then asked in an impish voice.
Akane frowned. "Huh? Well, now that you mention it... I always wanted to have a kitten when I was your age."
"Well... what would you say if I turn P-chan into a little kitten for a while? Not forever!" she quickly said when she saw the concerned look on Akane's face. "Just for a moment... so you know how it would be if you had a cat instead of a piglet."
Akane thought about it. "Well... I don't really want to confuse poor little P-chan, but... if it's really just for a short moment... you CAN turn him back to normal anytime, can you?"
"Of course!" Ranko grinned. "Turning little animals into other animals was the basic training for all my other transformation spells. It's basically my specialty!"
Akane then grinned and looked down at her confused little pet. "What do you say, P-chan? Would you like to be a kitty for a while?"
"Bweee?" P-chan's eyes widened, and he shook his head, which was ignored by the two girls. He didn't know where this strange girl had come from, but if she wasn't all crazy, and she really was able to do such things, he would prefer not to be changed into yet another form. He was troubled enough with his current curse.
But since he had nothing to say about it, he really had no other choice but to struggle and to await his fate.
"All right then, here goes nothing!" Ranko grinned and wiggled around her fingers. "Elttil yggip, nrut otni a yttik!"
P-chan didn't even have the time to blink, before he was transformed into a much more furry animal.
Akane hugged the black-furred kitten to her chest again. "Awww, P-chan, you're sooo CUTE like this! Almost makes me wish you could stay like this forever..."
"Meow..." was Ryoga's response while he struggled in Akane's grasp. While he now knew how Shampoo felt in her own cursed form, he was getting worried whatever such spells would do to his Jusenkyo curse. Would they change it, so that he now turns into a cat every time he gets wet... and what if he couldn't become a human again at all?
"You wanna try something else?" Ranko grinned. "I have dozens of animal spells I could try out."
"Well, fine... but don't turn him into anything too big or small, okay?"
"You got it!" Ranko nodded. "Yttik, nrut otni a kcud!"
And Ryoga the cat turned into Ryoga the duck.
Ranko giggled. "I had this idea because a poor duck became entangled in my broom today..."
Akane laughed. "He nearly looks like Daffy Duck with all those black feathers. But I don't really like ducks, so what else do you have?"
"Kcud, nrut otni a revaeb!" Ryoga transformed into a beaver.
"Revaeb, nrut otni a okceg!" Ryoga transformed into a gecko.
"Okceg, nrut otni a xof!" Ryoga transformed into a fox.
"Xof, nrut otni a yggip!" Ryoga turned back into P-chan.
By now, his little piggy head was spinning, and he was almost thankful that he was back in his familiar pig body. If only he had some way to tell the two girls that he couldn't take any more of these transformations...
"I think we overdid it," Akane chuckled. "Poor P-chan... he's all confused."
"Wait, I have one last idea," Ranko grinned. "What would you say... if we try to find out what your little pet looks like... as a human?"
Ryoga nearly got a heart attack when he heard that.
"A... human?" Akane wondered. "I... I dunno... that's kind of weird. And besides, P-chan is a boy, and I don't think how Daddy would react if he found me with a naked boy in my bedroom..."
"Just for a moment," Ranko pleaded. "For the fun of it. C'mooooonnnn, please?"
"Oh well, I guess it can't hurt to try it out... and you know, I'm kind of curious myself. I've never seen P-chan as anything but a piggy..." She smiled down at him. "You know, that's going to be an interesting experience for both of us."
P-chan couldn't agree. If Akane found out who he really was... he didn't want to imagine what she would to do him. He tried to escape with all his might, but Akane's grip was like steel.
"Now, now, P-chan, that won't hurt a bit. Okay, Ranko-chan, do your stuff!"
"You got it!" Ranko grinned. "Yggip, nrut otni a namuh!"
'I'm dead!' was Ryoga's last thought, before he transformed...
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(Posted Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:07)
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