While Ranma was preparing for an event that would make him a legend among law enforcement—or at least along every lonely Officer Jenny with access to a computer—Nabiki was ignoring the glares from the Salusian Princess and her own sister—a fact that didn’t surprise her considering the last few days of new facts about Kasumi Tendo she had learned, she made her way over to the facets to begin her own scrubbing.
“That wasn’t very nice, Nabiki,” admonished Kasumi.
“Do you know why I acted like that?” asked the middle Tendo, as she upended a bucket of cold water over herself, momentarily glad for some sensation that made her current predicament feel like home.
“Because you’re a bitch?” asked Asrial, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
“No,” Nabiki said, offering no response in her own tone to Asrial’s accusation as she began to scrub herself. “Because he needed to keep his date and if I didn’t get him out of here now—and by here I mean the Pokécenter—then odds were that a couple of the staff would have jumped him before his date. It appears Ranma has made himself a local celebrity.”
The two angry females could only look on in confusion at that statement, giving Nabiki time to finish her scrubbing, as she filled a basin with some water to rinse off.
“Did you know that the staff here has cameras … in peculiar places?” Nabiki hinted, as she dumped the bucket over her head. As the water finished empting over her form, she turned to spot the two girls beginning to grasp what she had hinted at.
“Oh my/fuck!” came the replies from the recently satiated inter-dimensional duo.
“Yes,” murmured Nabiki, as she began to lather her hair. “Needless to say, I am seriously questioning the skills of the local males if they’re this hard up, or wondering if Ranma’s other self had a reputation. Either way, I’d rather not piss off dear Officer Jolie if I can help it, agreed?”
Her slight turn caught the numbly nodding forms of the duo, bringing a smile to her lips.
“Other self?” asked Kiiro.
“Later, Little One,” said Kasumi, patting the Peekabu on the arm.
Glad to have headed off one argument and hoping that her earlier actions had secured their privacy in the bath for the moment—assuming enough of the staff saw Ranma leave for his date and had no desire for a yuri-scene—she rinsed out her hair and stood up, walking towards the tub. The shock that their activities had been viewed by others had been enough to stymie their earlier anger for her treatment of Ranma.
“Still,” muttered Kasumi, as her sister sat in the waters across from her, “you should treat Ranma a bit better.”
“I didn’t make a joke about asking if the water was clean or cloudy, did I?” shot back Nabiki, causing the non-pokégirls to blush once again. “And as much as I like the stud, I’d rather not have to play Professor to his Gilligan.”
“Who?” asked Kiiro once again.
“I always thought of you as one of the Howells,” replied Kasumi innocently, before turning towards Kiiro. “And she’s talking about an old television show.”
Kiiro nodded uncertainly, not really sure how to react, but decided to just go with what her Mistress and Alpha did. Besides, she was still riding a high from her taming and she hadn’t cared a bit if others had watched her get tamed. Her old master had done a bit worse, but she didn’t understand why someone watching was something to cause embarrassment with the others.
“Ah, this is good,” muttered Nabiki, as the hot water worked on her stressed muscles. “They did mention Akane should be up tomorrow morning, so I took the liberty of asking for some precautions.”
“Like no video?” muttered Asrial, still lounging on the side of the tub with Kiiro. She still wasn’t certain if a soak would be good for her, what with the fur and all. At least Kiiro had a good excuse: electric pokégirls were probably a bad idea to bathe with.
“Like no males and no telling her that Ranma had ever been in the room,” replied Nabiki. “Little sister still has some issues with sex, namely bashing anything male that catches her nude.”
“Even when she’s the one that walks in on them,” muttered Kasumi tiredly, as she leaned her head back.
Asrial blinked at that. “Huh?”
“Oh, she’s walked in on Ranma several times,” answered Nabiki. Honestly, Nabiki had only removed the sign on two of those occasions; the rest was simply Akane not paying attention. “But she’ll claim it is different if a girl sees a guy nude, so she’ll act like it is Ranma’s fault.”
“Maybe she needs a good taming,” offered Kiiro, her tail wagging slightly.
Nabiki and Kasumi snorted at that, leading Asrial to believe that Kiiro hadn’t been the first one to make that particular suggestion.
“So what’s her story?” asked the skunk-girl. “I mean, something had to happen to make her that messed up.”
Nabiki shrugged. Sure, she had been part of the problem, but she had only provided the occasional instance for her little sister to act out, not directed her to … usually. “Well, Akane was always a tomboy. Add to that the fact that a certain boy in our school declared she could only date the man who defeated her and add in the fact our fathers dumped the engagement on her when Ranma arrived—something they pressed for no matter what, she is somewhat justified in being wound so tight.”
“Engagement?” asked Asrial in shock. “Oh God, I slept with an engaged man.”
“Well technically,” said Kasumi, hoping to head off a panic attack from Asrial, “Father left the decision up to Ranma about which of us he chose, we just dropped it on little sister at the time. We were kind of … shocked about his curse.”
Nabiki snorted at that. “Shocked is putting it mildly, down right terrified is a better term. First impressions mean a lot and Saotome didn’t put forth a very good one. Besides, considering how often Uncle Genma pawned him off as a credit chip, I think it’s safe to say the arranged marriage is not an issue anymore, so don’t go thinking you broke up a happy little home, Asrial.”
“Okay … what?” asked the Salusian.
Smirking, Nabiki lowered herself a bit more into the water. “Well my dear, prepare to learn the twisted tale of the two students of Anything Goes and the stupidity of their actions.”
“Father isn’t that bad,” feebly offered Kasumi.
“Father has a breakdown if his Saturday cartoons are interrupted,” replied Nabiki in a deadpanned voice.
“Anyway,” she said, turning back to her audience, “how about a quick rundown on the craziness of Nerima since I don’t want to turn into a prune from soaking too long. I assure you, you’ll never believe half of it.”
“I don’t know,” muttered Asrial, sitting up a bit and dangling her feet in the water, “you haven’t been to Quagmire. Hell, I know some stuff that goes on in Atlanta that would really freak you out.”
“Wanna bet?” murmured Kasumi.
Half an hour later, the girls were preparing to exit the bath. Even Kiiro had managed to slip in for a bit, before she exited the water, as certain parts of the story were starting to anger her, and she didn’t want to accidentally electrocute her Mistress.
Asrial could only blink, eyes wide, as she retrieved several towels for the girls. During her rush to give Kiiro a bath, she had forgotten to bring a fresh change of clothes—provided by Kasumi from her earlier shopping trip and a second-hand store—for either of them. Kasumi and Nabiki were the only ones who had brought a change into the bathroom with them. “Oh … wow,” she murmured.
“So,” smiled Nabiki, “got anything to beat that.”
Asrial scratched her chin, thinking of some of the adventures she had been a part of, as well as a few stories the Digger Sisters had told her. Were they more dangerous? Well yeah, a force of utter annihilation from space was a sigh more dangerous than a sad demon that couldn’t make Kasumi too evil. Stupid? No, some of the stuff from Nerima was definitely a bit higher in the Stupidity of the Week section of her mind.
Personally, she wondered with so much magic in Nerima and all, why hadn’t the Diggers’ father ever been dragged there. Magic was supposed to be his thing after all. “I’ll give you this: that does rank pretty high on the Weird-Shit-O-Meter,” she said.
Her face instantly fell as her comparison brought back her memories of her two missing friends.
“They’ll be okay,” murmured Nabiki, catching on quickly to what had changed the woman’s mood. “I read up on them. If they try and turn them into pokégirls, they’ll discover they’re one hundred percent human. If anything, they’re probably being treated as royalty.
“Captured and illegally held royalty, but royalty all the same. If they had caught you,” she finished, tapering off.
Asrial nodded, her hands going back to her towel-covered rear, as she remembered her earlier treatment that day.
“Don’t give up hope, Asrial,” said Kasumi, wrapping the woman in a tight hug. “We’ll find them, you’ll see!”
Nabiki stayed silent. She didn’t think they’d find them, she figured Team Rocket would find them. After all, they would have hopefully a tame chat with the captured humans, which would either send them looking for the alien princess, or send them looking around the area for anymore possible humans that were dumped in Buggy Woods. For the most part, Nabiki considered keeping their secret from those outside of the Pokécenter Staff a very good thing. With any luck, they would be long gone before a Rocket Grunt—making her briefly have the image of Ranma firing a chi blast and hearing “Looks like Team Rocket’s blasting off again!” appear in her mind—appeared to ask about possible humans being cared for in Pewtit.
Frankly, she wouldn’t feel completely safe until their transport was repaired and they were on their way—preferably in the opposite direction of the NERV Gym. “I took the liberty of having some study material sent to our room,” she added, as she finished drying off. “You saw how Jolie reacted to trying to say Asrial was Ranma’s pet. I want us as above-the-board as possible.” I’d also like to have a few powerhouses with me in case we get a massive assault to try and capture us, she thought. But she decided it best to keep such thoughts quiet for the moment.
She briefly giggled at the thought of Akane trying to become a Tamer as well, most likely from the youngest Tendo’s own competitive nature working with her own foot-in-mouth disease. Yes, Little Sister was in for enough shocks after she recovered, best to keep them limited while she was recovering.
“Sister,” said Kasumi, as the foursome made their way to the assigned room at the Pokécenter, “you really should tell Ranma about your—”
“I’ll tell him when I’m ready, Kasumi,” spat Nabiki, her mood instantly ruined by Kasumi’s words about the Ice Queen’s first serious relationship. “So I’d appreciate it if my secrets stay that.”
The eldest Tendo nodded sadly. She knew how much the incident had hurt her sister; Nabiki had become a bit colder after it, and to be honest, except for her few dates since the arrival of the Saotomes, she had all but written of Nabiki’s dating life. Granted, those dates had been ploys or challenges of some type, but Kasumi held out hope that maybe her sister was thawing a bit.
Nabiki forced herself to calm down as they shut the door behind them. The place was still too bugged, she had no clue just who could be watching them here, so informing the girls about the bad Evangelion fusion that existed here was out, more so than any possible secret that the Tendo sister had. She’d rather wait until they were on the road and the mobile home had been swept for bugs. That didn’t take into account what demands Akane would make to deal with Gendo now or Ranma’s own hero complex when the former issue was revealed.
The latter would stay buried until she felt ready.
Until they got stronger—or until some half-baked plan to retrieve them arrived from Nerima to extract them—they had to play it safe.
Looking around the room, she spotted the three girls once more. Kasumi was doing the dishes from Ranma’s snack as well as making a snack with the help of Kiiro—damn, the name was starting to grow on her, and Asrial was messing around with some purchased electronics—most likely upset that Saotome had taken his PokéDex thus preventing her from trying to ‘fix’ it from reading her as a pokégirl.
Shaking her head, she went over to the table near the couch, spotting several pamphlets about tamer licenses and test-prep materials. Shaking her head, she sat down on the couch, humming a tune in her head as she went over the information. “A three hour tour, a three hour tour,” she murmured.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by The Demented Redhead
(Posted Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:48)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.