The next few days were very surreal to Ranma. The hentai hoard started up with their attacks again, which did little to improve Akane’s mood. By now, he must have talked to everyone in the school! There were many congratulations, some came to him with their condolences, and yet, others just wanted to hear the gossip.
He was also getting tired of trying to get Akane and Nabiki to make up. Unfortunately, with his interpersonal skills he wasn’t really sure if he was making things better or worse. To say the least, he wouldn’t bet his last rice cake on them smoothing things over anytime soon.
On top of that, Nabiki had been pulling some line about always being in love with him. He was pretty sure that she was kidding by the way she was acting, but she seemed so sincere and honest at the time. He could never figure girls out, never mind one as difficult to read as Nabiki.
Thank Kami, the closing school bell was signifying the end of a very long week, all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and ignore the world for a few months. As he made his way to the school’s front gate, he saw a couple of guys surrounding his newest fiancée.
“Hey Nabiki. What’s going on?” Before she can answer, an upperclassman interrupts,
“We rented you for an hour to be the martial arts club training dummy. Come on the clock is ticking!” Ranma cracked his knuckles and gave the much taller boy a look that clearly said who would be filling the role of punching bag. “But we paid…,” the cowered boy weakly said.
“Nabiki…,” he warned as he confronted the source of the problem.
“What? A fiancée has to look out for her intended. So, I’ve signed you up for a few clubs.” Bursting into tears that Ranma knew was faked, he KNEW it, but it still panicked him (and all the lessons from a few nights ago completely deserted him) as she sobbed, “Oh how cruel. My ungrateful fiancé doesn’t appreciate all the hard work I do for his benefit.”
“OK. OK. I’ll go.” To his dismay, her tears dried up in an instant.
“You’re renting out Ranma?” A random guy said.
“We want in!” “Great! Have him join our game!” said various sports club members. Nabiki was in her element and had a look of pure bliss as she was surrounded again. He felt a gentle tug on his sleeve and saw the martial arts club president. The boy took a step back, but looked hopefully at him. With a resigned sigh, Ranma followed the boy listlessly.
“Can we rent Ranma too?” he heard a passing female student say, “I bet our bake sale would be totally super great if we had him serving customers.”
“Don’t know,” another girl answered, “I think Kaminari has our funds.”
“I do not think we will be renting Ranma. I do not even know if we have enough to get all of our baking supplies,” said a girl he assumed was Kaminari. “I guess we don’t need Ranma then,” the first girl said sadly, “What we need is a member who is a super accounting, and a super organizer, and super smart with money. Oh wait that would be three students. Wait,” the somewhat ditzy girl, said as she held a finger,”It would be one student it was Nabiki that was helping us.”
“Yeah,” agreed Kaminari, “but, she always avoids all the clubs on membership day.” Ranma stopped walking and thought this over while ignoring the groans of the entire marital arts club. They had all ended on the floor after they bumped into him. A stray thought came to his mind. If she can sign him up for some clubs then why can’t he? He ignored the protest from the martial art club as he walked over to the girls.
“I’m SURE that Nabiki would be glad to help you with your accounting.”
“Oh? How much?” Kaminari asked. He didn’t think of that. Time for a quick solution!
“Um…well I guess the same rate as me…1000 yen an hour!” OK, so he was just copying Nabiki, but it worked for her.
“Oh,” Kaminari said slowly, “we can’t afford that much. We have most of our money tied up. At least I think we do.” Ranma wracked his brain for a solution, but he was beginning to suspect that he had used his scheming quota for the day. Well when in doubt, copy what worked for someone else.
“How about a couple of those cakes or dishes as payment instead?” OK maybe pops wasn’t the best person to copy, but it was all he could think of. The girls huddled a bit and then they all turned and said,
“It’s a deal!” Suddenly he was surrounded by girls from various clubs.
“You’re loaning out Nabiki?” asked a girl with a French accent. “You may count us in! The fashion club will offer a matching silk Chinese outfit for each of you in exchange for Nabiki providing her financial expertise.”
“The flower arrangement club will offer a special marriage flower arrangement and will give her pointers on other womanly arts!” Other groups chimed in vowing goods and lessons in feminine behavior to his most recent fiancée. The way the girls enthusiastically mentioned bridal training, several times, sent chills down his spine, but he still agreed to each request. Gee, maybe this worked too well, he thought to himself. Nabiki approached with a bounce in her step and a fist full of yen.
“Oh Anata! There are other clubs that you need to attend.” Her skip slowed to a stop when she saw all the girls around him.
“Funny,” he said flat tone, “I was just going to say the same thing to you. These girls need help with their books, money, and stuff like that.” Nabiki looked at him for a bit then back at the roll of yen in her hands, then back at the girls and once more at the money. In a rare moment of clarity, he could tell from her expression exactly what her thoughts were. She was thinking if she refused to go along with the girls then he might refuse to go with the other clubs, then she would have to give back everyone’s money. Her face became calculating again, when she reluctantly said,
“I’ll negotiate my fee,” but was interrupted by several girls who protested that the deal was already made. Her face became livid when she heard that she was rented for food. Ranma grabbed the martial arts president by the scruff of his shirt and ran toward their club house while he yelled back,
“Well can’t let the hour go to waste. Come on.” The rest of the club soon followed, leaving, for once, a speechless Nabiki.
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(Posted Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:51)
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