Ranma was just about to start third period when he suddenly arrived at work, thankfully in a chair. It seems that Mr. Fetish wasn't much for that particular brand of humiliation.
"Good morning, Ranma! Ready to start your job training?" asked Mr. Fetish cheerfully. The man hardly noticed that Ranma wasn't exactly used to being plucked out of class on a moment's notice, at least non-violently anyway.
"Um, yeah. I guess so," Ranma replied distractedly, looking at the invitingly decorated store.
"Glad to hear it, lad." enthused Ranma's boss with a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Now then, here's your price list; I'll recommend you start with the clothing section, that should be easy enough for starters. Try not to dawdle though, I'd like to see some decent headway before we break for lunch.
"Oh, and be sure to read the entire label on everything, it simply won't do to memorize incomplete product information, very costly to fix too," instructed Mr. Fetish as he handed Ranma a clipboard filled with products and their proper prices.
"Y- yes, sir. " Ranma replied numbly, taking the clipboard more out of reflex than understanding. "Um, boss," started Ranma after a moment, he wasn't too comfortable with the name his boss used. "Uh, you don't really expect me to memorize everything on all the labels in one day, do you?" he finished his question nervously.
Mr. Fetish just smiled brightly at his new employee as he answered, "Why of course I do, Ranma. It' would be awfully hard for you to do your job tomorrow if you didn't. That's why I added a memorization spell to your summons today. You'll memorize anything you read today, flawlessly, and recall it perfectly for years to come." He told Ranma with infectious good cheer. "I wouldn't be much of a wizard if I couldn't do at least that much for my new store clerk, now would I?" added Mr. Fetish conspiratorially.
"Good point," admitted Ranma with forced casualness as he headed off to find his assigned work section. Ranma's boss smiled appreciatively at the ready answer as Ranma got to work.
The 'clothing' section would be better described as the 'costume' section, Ranma thought as he looked over the gathered apparel. The costumes were all helpfully segregated by gender, 'orientation', and theme, in exactly that order. Ranma started with the 'male, heterosexual, modern' section hoping it would be the least disturbing to him.
The first costume on the rack was a business suit who's label read:
Dominating businessman, the very essence of professional power.
Become the businessman you always knew you should be. Watch as others 'jump' to follow your instructions at the office. Watch as your co-workers fall all over themselves to gain your approval in the work place. Revel in the power of your office as men grovel at your feet and women battle for your exclusive attention.
WARNING: manufacturer is not responsible for acts of jealousy preformed by co-workers or angry spouses. Use with caution.
Shrugging at the deceptively simple proclamation, Ranma slapped the 150,000 yen price tag on it and moved on to the next costume. However, if there was a female version of that suit, Ranma prayed to all the powers that be that Nabiki never found out about it.
The Next outfit in line was similarly unassuming in its description. The noticeably lesser quality suit read as follows:
Cherry Buster Teacher, the school girl's favorite mentor.
Become every little lady's favorite teacher. Watch as every little lady in the class fauns for your attention. Revel in the youthful love of dozens, as your school students try desperately to be the girl to win your heart. Cherish those lovely little ladies as you teach them what it is to become a woman.
PLEASE NOTE: this costume is also compatible for college teachers as well, but the occurrence of virgins will be noticeably less frequent. Also, while this costume is aimed specifically at virgin students, regardless of actual age, the effects are not limited to virgins.
WARNING: In accordance to the inter-dimensional wizard's code, this magical artifact will not effect pre-pubescent sentient beings. Those with magical experience are warned not to attempt tampering with these protections. The consequences of such actions will be both severe and permanent.
Okay, so maybe it was a little more blatant than the last one was. Ranma tried not to cringe as he placed the 60,000 yen tag on it. He didn't even want to consider the possibility that any of Furinkan's teachers would buy such a thing.
The 'Teeny Bopper Magnet' was just as disconcerting to Ranma as the last two, possibly more so considering there were six different versions of the outfit. All told there were two formal, three casual, and one business-casual version of the series.
The labels of each described well endowed girls from sixteen to nineteen homing in on the wearer like Ranma's fiances did him. Only these girls would all be as ready to go, and as uninhibited, as Shampoo usually was. However the costume series held the same warning as the 'Dominating Businessman' costume; and Ranma knew all too well how much damage a few jealous girls could do. Each costume in the series priced at 48,000 yen.
The future, medieval, and fantasy themed costumes in the male, hetero section followed reasonably similar lines with various adjustments for their concepts. All in all, the wording of these descriptions were actually milder than the locker trash talk Ranma sometimes had to endure before and after gym class.
Then Ranma got to the submissive section of the male, hetero costumes, they were an intimidating sight for Ranma, considering his prideful nature. A significant portion of Ranma's mind hoped, without much faith, that his employee immunity included such costumes.
Nevertheless, Ranma hurried though this lesser nightmare as quickly as he could manage. Incidently these costumes had noticeably more warnings on them than the other section did; specifically warning buyers of the dangers of using these on others than themselves. Ranma certainly knew that He would react as the label predicted if he were victimized by someone with this stuff and then eventually got out of the costume. Of course 'severely violent reactions' would be putting it mildly in Ranma's case.
Ranma tried not to picture the results of anything he read when he got to the male, bi and the male, homo sections. Ranma didn't even care if he understood what he read at that point or not as he rushed through those sections. Sadly, Ranma would later discover that his speed reading did nothing to diminish the horrors that he’d just been made aware of. On the plus side of things though, he'd just completed the scariest, for him, part of his current task. Not even the female, hetero scared Ranma as much as the male, homo, dom section just had.
Ranma did notice however that the female section was easily triple the size of the male section, 'hardly anything new about that,' he thought to himself. Ranma also noticed that the concepts for girl's costumes were considerably more creative as well. Themes ranged from tittles like the dreaded ‘Dominating Businesswoman' to 'Zealous Milk Maid’, and that was just the modern section of female, hetero.
Ranma wasn't sure how long all this took him, but he was very relieved to put back the freshly re-priced 'Zombie Slut' from the female, homo, fantasy, submission section. He eyed the tattered looking rags of the costume warily as he checked it off his list. Then almost jumped out of his skin when he noticed his boss, Mr. Fetish, looking over his shoulder at the clipboard.
"I presume you read all of the garments' tags thoroughly and completely before signing them off?" Mr. Fetish asked after an uncomfortably long silence.
Ranma shuddered but nodded positively at the loaded question. "Then you're doing much better than I'd anticipated, my boy. Congratulations! I'd honestly expected to find you barely half finished with the task, you did seem quite the squeamish type yesterday," Mr. Fetish responded happily, the only way he seemed to do anything so far. Even if there were a few kinds of happy Ranma didn't care to see today.
However, before Ranma could accidentally voice any such feelings, he was relieved of his clipboard and given a pat on the back. "Don't be so shy, lad. Be proud of a job well, done! Now go on out and get you some lunch. Don't worry about a time limit, I'll pull you back in if you take too long," Mr. Fetish smirked at Ranma as he gently pushed Ranma in the direction of the door.
(Posted Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:34)
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