“Oh, so you’re not alone then, young man? Who all came with you, and may I meet them as well?” Nova asked in his usual excited manner.
Ranma had to swallow down a sudden lump in his throat as he belatedly realized his mistake. ‘Oh, man, I forgot that the girls were even here! Akane’s probably going to tear my head off for half of what I just said about her!’ Ranma mentally groaned to himself in sudden panic.
“Eh heh heh, oops,” Ranma laughed nervously, silently cursing himself for the verbal slip. “Um, girls, you can all come out now!” he called out in a strained shout, dreading what would come next.
“Nice of you to finally tell the coast was clear, Ranma. Enjoying a light snack, were we?” Nabiki noted all too sweetly as she reached Ranma and the professor first. There was no doubt in Ranma’s mind that Nabiki would be making him pay for this later on.
“It’s about time, Idiot! Just how long were you going to make us hide behind all those bushes anyway, Ranma!” Akane demanded irritably, with Cassandra unhappily in tow. The Pokégirl looked warily at Akane as she followed along, as if she were afraid to stand too close to the girl right now.
“Heh heh, sorry about that, you two. I guess I got carried away and forgot to keep to the short version of things for a while there. Um, there’s still some snacks left if you want any,” Ranma apologized, scratching the back of his pigtail nervously.
“While your timing could have been better, Ranma, I don’t think that the wait was all that bad,” Kasumi scolded and defended him simultaneously. The eldest Tendo girl looked oddly flushed though while Cyan looked just a little dazed for some odd reason. If that wasn’t weird enough though, Alice and Cassandra looked suspiciously jealous of the spotted blond girl.
“Eh, sorry Kasumi,” Ranma apologized again. He was also trying to keep his distance from Alice and Cyan without actually looking like he was trying to keep his distance from them. Sure they seemed nice enough, but there was no telling when their demonic cat side would take over and make them try to eat Ranma.
“Well, well! The Tendo sisters I presume? And it seems you’ve acquired some Pokégirls of your own already as well. Most impressive considering that you’ve only been in this world a little more than two hours now,” Nova greeted the six girls as they walked up from different directions.
“And you are?” Nabiki replied, hinting at more than she actually said.
“I am Professor Desty Nova. I’m what you might call a scientist I believe, or a researcher perhaps, Ms. Nabiki Tendo. Ranma here has already told me quite a bit about each of you, and the world you all come from. So now I think it only fair that I tell you all just what sort of world you’ve just arrived in,” Nova introduced himself for the girls’ benefit.
“Oh, that would be most helpful, Professor Nova,” Kasumi replied happily as the color flushing her face slowly receded. Behind her Cyan’s dazed look melted into a smug grin as she noticed the looks she was getting from the other Pokégirls, including the girls with Nova.
“Indeed, since this world is quite different from how Ranma has described your own world. There are few if any humans, barring those with heavy Pokégirl ancestry who can duplicate many of the feats Ranma has described for me. Yet several types of Pokégirls can do much of that and more. I won’t lie to you, children, this is a cruel and dangerous world for the unprepared. Most people who travel away from the relative safety of cities or towns without capable and loyal Pokégirls to protect them often do not survive very long.
“Pokégirls, which apparently do not exist where you come from, have become an integral part of both survival and prosperity in this world. The law, and society at large, classifies them as property to be bought or traded at will. This is largely due to an ancient resentment for decimating humanity some three and a half centuries ago under the command of Sukebe, their creator.
“To put it rather bluntly, they are sentient, living weapons left over from an ancient war that very nearly wiped out all of humanity. They are also genetically engineered slaves who can only retain their sanity through a process we called taming. We call it that because most breeds of Pokégirl will lose their grasp on sanity become violently dangerous if they are not tamed regularly.
“The need for taming engineered into Pokégirls also makes them dependant and, in many cases, very loyal to the human who preforms this act for them. With good reason too, since most Pokégirl breeds can only go a single week, at most, without a proper taming before going completely feral. Some of them can’t even go that long without Taming, and all of them will begin to show signs of going feral long before that point,” Nova explained forebodingly.
After hearing the somewhat long explanation, Ranma felt his heart go out to the poor girls. Being treated like property because of something their ancestors did had to suck. Then to top it all off, they couldn’t just blow it all off and escape because they’d all go crazy if they did. No wonder those three were so grateful to get away from that jerk, Gary, it was because they couldn’t leave him without someone else to go to first.
“So, um, what exactly is it that humans have to do for these Pokégirls to keep ‘em sane?” Ranma asked, feeling positively terrible for the girls. Nova hadn’t gone into any details yet, but this going feral stuff sounded pretty bad to Ranma already if it drove the girls insane like he’d just been told.
“Physical intercourse,” Nova replied simply, ignoring the giggles from all the girls, minus the Tendo’s who gasped in shock at the answer instead.
“Physical inter-whatsis?” Ranma asked in complete bafflement, having never heard the word before. Which quickly turned to embarrassment as everyone gasped at him in shock except Nova, who merely looked puzzled instead.
The Pokégirls looked almost horrified and a little bit offended by Ranma’s ignorance, yet not at him for some reason. Kasumi and Nabiki gave him these weird pitying looks mixed with surprised shock. Meanwhile Akane on the other hand had a completely different reaction. “What the!? How in the world can a pervert like you not know what that means?! I’ve seen how you fool around with those hussies of yours back home, always trying to do perverted things with them!” Akane accused him indignantly.
Around her, Kasumi and Nabiki simply shook their heads in embarrassment at their little sister. Yet every Pokégirl there looked unexpectedly relieved by the accusation, which made Ranma very nervous for reasons he didn’t even understand. It was like they were all suddenly part cat or something like that, only slightly different at the same time.
“Hey, what the hell do you mean by that? They’re the ones who keep getting all grabby with me! I always try to stop ‘em, but you never give me a chance, never mind let me explain anything, Akane. You just start pounding on me and calling me a pervert and stuff instead!” Ranma defended himself angrily.
“Ranma?” Kasumi asked him gently, before Akane started her usual rant about him being a liar and a pervert. “Do you know how babies are made?” she asked him softly when Ranma turned to look at her.
The whole group went silent for a moment as they waited for Ranma to answer Kasumi’s bafflingly easy question. As if it were some ultimate secret of the universe that he was about to share with him. “Well, the stork brings them of course. Who in the world doesn’t know that? Pops told me all about it when I was about six or seven,” Ranma told her incredulously after hearing that particular question from the nice but sometimes spacy Tendo girl.
The last thing Ranma was expecting to happen when he answered Kasumi’s question was for everyone else there, including Kasumi to fall painfully to the ground in shock. “You can’t be serious! If the stork brings babies, Ranma, then how come us poor girls get all fat when we get pregnant?!” Akane yelled as if Ranma were a complete dunce.
Little did she know that Pop had explained that part to Ranma all those years ago too. “Well duh, Akane. It’s because the Stork’s gotta get something out of it for carrying a heavy ol’ baby all that way, you know. He gets to eat all the fat the momma builds up while waiting for the stork to get there. That’s why she always has to run off to the hospital when they find out the baby’s on its way; it’s so that the doctors there can get that extra fat out of her in time to feed that poor, worn out stork,” Ranma told her, wondering why Akane didn’t know that herself already. She was a girl after all, didn’t they kind of need to know these things?
“Um, Ranma, that’s not quite how it works,” Kasumi corrected serenely, though there was a slight stammer as she said it.
“What’s with all this beating around the bushes and stuff? Come on, I’ll just give him a nice little demonstration instead. Then he’ll know exactly what we’re talking about,” Alice purred, suddenly behind Ranma.
The Pokégirl had both of her arms around Ranma before he’d even realized she’d snuck up on him. Ranma froze stock still as he tried desperately not to panic at the cat-girl’s sudden proximity to him. Meanwhile, one furry, black hand tugged playfully at the top button of Ranma’s shirt while the other one pulled tauntingly at the drawstring holding up his pants. Then Ranma heard the hungry purring just behind his right ear and the terror truly started. . . .
The next thing Ranma knew, there was a loud bang, and he was looking up at a cloudy sky, framed by trees, girls, and that Nova guy from the ground. Oh yeah, and his face hurt like hell too, that really had his attention. “Ow~, what the hell did Akane hit me with this time,” Ranma groaned irritably from the ground.
“Nothing, you dolt, you bolted straight into the side of Professor Nova’s RV,” Akane huffed back, kicking some dirt at him. “Serves you right too, if you ask me. It’s barely been a few minutes since we were told that these poor girls actually have to have sex to stay sane, and you’re already throwing yourself at one of them. Honestly, Ranma, just how shameless can you be?!” the stupid tomboy accused him in the following breath.
“I wish he had been throwing himself at me . . . ,” Alice complained sourly, holding a short rope in one hand and a small, familiar length of wood in the other. Both of which used to be a part of Ranma’s clothing, incidentally explaining why his shirt and pants fit so loosely now.
“Or me,” Cyan echoed just as unhappily.
“Tee hee, hey Zwolf, what do you say we make sure he’s alright,” one of the two look-alike girls giggled at the other one with a wink.
“Ooh~! Let’s!” the other look-alike girl cheered back at her apparent twin.
Ranma suddenly found himself backing nervously away from two identical faces, and that blond girl named Lou while trying to hold his pants on. Then his back thumped against something solid that absolutely refused to budge when Ranma tried to keep backing up anyway. It took Ranma a few seconds to figure out he needed to find another escape route to avoid the three, make that four, weirdly smiling girls closing in on him.
A screeching whistle pierced the air, forcing Ranma and his stalkers to a halt as everyone covered their ears to block out the painful noise. “Ladies, please! While I’m sure that every one of you would really enjoy demonstrating a taming to Ranma personally; I really recommend that you wait on that a bit. Otherwise some wild Pokégirl might get that particular pleasure while we’re all busy looking for him in a couple of minutes if you keep this up. Either when Akane belts him for all the attention he’s getting, or when Ranma bolts for exactly the same reason,” Nabiki chastised all of them.
Ranma opened his mouth to protest. “Not a word, Saotome. We all know the truth now . . . well, everyone but you that is. So just do yourself a favor and keep quiet for a bit, and I’ll try my best to see to it that you don’t get jumped in your sleep tonight. Got it?” Then shut it again as he nodded sullenly at the command.
“Oh please, Nabiki. You know that he’s probably just faking ignorance to get them all fawning over him,” Akane protested defensively. Ranma noted that Akane didn’t exactly deny that she’d hit him again if the girls didn’t leave him alone.
“I actually doubt that, Ms. Tendo. Thanks to those snakes I had Elf and Zwolf give him, Ranma has been quite incapable of lying in any fashion since nearly the beginning of his story. I would apologize, but I did need an accurate basis to found my initial research on. I hope that you can forgive me for the minor deception. The effect should wear off in two or three days however, so there’s very little to worry about, I assure you,” Nova defended Ranma unexpectedly. Then again, Ranma wasn’t entirely sure he was grateful to the man or not after hearing what he’d done to him.
“As if it would make a difference with him,” Nabiki drawled, eyeing the pastry near her mouth warily before setting it back down untouched.
“Yeah, are you sure that whatever it is you gave him is even working, mister?” Akane seconded skeptically, glaring distrustfully at Ranma.
“Quite certain. If you desire proof, try asking Ranma any question you believe he would never answer truthfully. Ranma can refuse to answer at all of course, but anything he does say will be the complete truth, as he sees it,” Nova countered Akane with a smug grin.
“Have you ever masturbated as a girl before?” Cassandra asked in a rush, as if to test out Professor Nova’s claim.
“Yeah, I’ve gone fishing as a girl before, kind of hard not to with my curse and all. But mastering what kind of bait to use isn’t all that hard if you already know what you’re trying to catch,” Ranma told her with a confused shrug. After all, why would he want to lie about fishing? It was practically the only way to get anything to eat in some of the better training spots.
“You mean he doesn’t even know what that means either!” one of the twins complained forlornly. Both of them looking a bit shaken for some weird reason.
“What? I answered the question didn’t I?” Ranma retorted, baffled by the weird reactions.
“Ranma, what are you most afraid of?” Nabiki asked neutrally, like she didn’t even care that she already know the answer to that.
Ranma just laughed at the question and gave his usual answer to old trap question. “Cats, really grabby people, liking being a girl, and people not liking me,” he told her nonchalantly. And then he froze stiff when Ranma realized what he’d actually said.
“Okay, I’m convinced!” Nabiki declared in a rush, loud enough that everyone’s attention suddenly snapped to her, including Ranma’s. “But I’ve got just one more question for you, professor, and I hope that you’ll do us the courtesy of answering honestly. Why do you want to know about us so badly that you were willing to drug us to make sure we spilled our guts to you?” she half growled at Nova. It was like she’d taken personal offense to Ranma’s condition.
“It’s really quite simple, Ms. Tendo; I can hardly study the vast intricacies of karma itself if I can’t determine the truth of things as they are. If you were all from this world, I could find out as much I need to about your pasts through more conventional means. But since you are from another world altogether, I cannot reliably discover the secrets of your pasts through less direct methods. It is as simple as that, Ms. Tendo,” Nova countered with a dismissive flick of his hand.
“Maybe you’re right. But that doesn’t give you the right to drug us into telling you those secrets against our will,” Nabiki countered hotly, glaring daggers at the man. Beside her, Akane nodded in agreement and glared at Nova as well.
“Despite your accusations, Ms. Nabiki Tendo, I have neither forced nor coerced Ranma into telling me anything he did not choose to share. You, however, used your knowledge of Ranma’s psyche to trick him into revealing some of his darkest secrets! I may have created the situation, my dear girl. But you are the one who abused it, knowing what might happen!” Nova countered Nabiki’s accusation menacingly, smiling madly as he spoke.
“Hey! That still doesn’t make it right you know! You tricked us first!” Akane shot back in her sister’s stead when Nabiki suddenly went quiet for some reason.
“What exactly is right or wrong, Ms. Tendo? What exactly makes one act good and another act evil? Humans make up rules and laws, believing that it makes them noble or superior, yet commit unspeakable acts of evil despite them. Are the beings of your world any better, Ms. Tendo? Are you?” Nova countered Akane’s retort with the same mad glee.
“What exactly do you want from us, Professor Nova?” Kasumi suddenly asked Nova, in a tone that Ranma couldn’t quite read. The gaze Kasumi leveled at the man was carefully measuring and focused, yet still serene as well.
“I want you to Survive this world, Ms. Tendo; you, your sisters, and Mr. Saotome there, free and unfettered to do as you will! Make no mistake; this world’s karma will grind you into nothing if you let it, and I can’t learn anything from any of you if you’re dead or broken by it! Which is why I came to find you all in the first place, to prepare you for the horrors you will undoubtably face in this world!” Nova replied manically. The man was like a Kuno he was so crazy, yet Ranma couldn’t help noticing that the man made a scary sort of sense some of the time.
“What exactly do you mean by, ‘prepare us’?” Ranma heard someone ask Nova, and was a little startled to realize he was the one who said it. The man had Ranma on edge; there was no denying that. Yet even so, it was hard not to believe most of what the guy said.
“That depends on you and your companions, my dear boy. At this very moment I can give you enough basic survival equipment and supplies to last the four of you and your Pokégirls a month or so. Or I could invite you all back to my lab for a significantly better offer. There I can provide you with any information you may wish to know about this world. I can also register you all as legal Pokégirl Tamers, acquire new Pokégirls for you, or even enhance the abilities of these three here, if you like. It’s all up to you and the Tendo Sisters, Ranma; all you have to do is choose,” Nova replied with his ever present glee.
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(Posted Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:17)
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