“I should have known,” said Nabiki, palm covering her face.
“… What?” asked Ranma. “Is dinner over?”
“Saotome,” she growled out, eyes peeking from between her fingers, “do you realize what you just did?”
“… Asked about dinner?”
If it wasn’t for the girl still clinging to his back, she would have tested out how well her katon techniques worked. “You kidnapped a clan heiress,” she replied quietly after checking that her window was shut and no shadows peeked out from under her door.
“I did not,” replied Ranma, affronted at such an accusation. “She came on her own.”
“I did,” came the quiet reply from Yakumo, her pale face peeking out further over Ranma’s shoulder. “He … he said you might be able to help me become a ninja,” she said, looking on with hopeful eyes.
Nabiki sighed, rubbing her head now. “We were hoping to see if we could before we approached you. True, Saotome probably knows more about internal energy flows than anyone aside from a Hyuuga, but we didn’t want to get your hopes up,” she said diplomatically.
And it was true. Even if the series left Yakumo's fate open, the last thing Nabiki wanted to do was offend those in power, especially those that had psychotic inner demons with reality-altering abilities.
“Please try!” pleaded Yakumo. “I … my family is really counting on me becoming a ninja,” she spoke, her voice growing softer.
“Did Ranma explain the ways to check you energy flows?” Nabiki asked suspiciously.
Yakumo blinked as she released her grip on Ranma, standing up. “Well … the same way he was apparently going to do it without me knowing,” she answered.
“That was the original idea,” Nabiki said, a familiar smirk—one familiar and frightening to Ranma—appearing on her face. “Saotome, tell her how Tofu did it.”
Ranma’s mouth opened to reply, before it shut with an audible click, his face flushing.
“Put simply,” said Nabiki, “most examiners would run their hand slightly above the area they were checking, with nothing between the two. In other words, Ranma would have to exam you without clothing.”
Yakumo’s eyes went wide, before her blush soon matched Ranma’s, an amazing feat considering her pale skin tone. “But … boys and girls shouldn’t be doing things like that,” she sputtered out.
Splash!
“Problem solved,” said the smiling Nabiki, as she set down her glass.
Ranma just sent a dark glare her way as Yakumo stared in shock, as her ride’s hair went from midnight black to cherry red. “Wait … you’re that boy with the water-based gender bloodline!”
“It’s a curse!” cried Ranma-chan, before her face took on what would have been considered a cute pout.
“See, nothing to worry about,” said Nabiki with a forced smile. “You don’t have anything Saotome here hasn’t seen on him…er…herself,” corrected Nabiki, as she moved towards the door. “I’ll go get some food while you two get to doing whatever Saotome needs to do. And with any luck, we’ll either have some answers or some good ideas of what to try before curfew.”
Actually, she was hoping they would be done well before ANBU most likely busted into her home and found Ranma doing what could be considered fondling of a clan heiress. At best, they’d be known as sexual deviants, which would probably put them below Naruto in a Konoha Popularity Poll. At worst, they’d be meeting the real deviants in what passed for a prison in this world.
Right now, she just had to sneak some food past her mother and sisters, hope to the Kami that they would not insinuate anything from ‘studying with some friends from school’—let alone suggest a chaperone since Ranma was there—and leave them in peace with the hope Ranma could do something for Yakumo.
And all of this before a manhunt was sent out to find the missing heiress.
As the door shut, the blushes didn’t dim a bit.
“So … when activated … um … you’re fully a girl?”
“… Um, yeah.”
“… Oh,” Yakumo replied, before her hands shakily went to the knots in her kimono.
“You … you aren’t a pervert are you?”
WHAM!
“What was that?” asked Kimiko Tendo, as she looked at the ceiling.
“Some taijutsu practice,” said Nabiki quickly, as she loaded up several plates. But she recognized the sound of a face-fault when she heard it. Must have asked if he was a pervert…
“Well, don’t do that in your room with your friends,” admonished Kimiko Tendo. “We have a Dojo for that practice,” said the woman. “Now, are you sure you and your friends wouldn’t rather eat down here?” asked the matriarch.
“Nah,” said Nabiki, hoping her skills of deception were enough to fool her mother. “We’d rather just settle in my room and study. We wouldn’t want to disturb you.”
“Big sister, is there a boy in your room?” asked Akane suspiciously.
Nabiki’s head tipped forward, barely maintaining her balance and not spilling the food. “Akane, I can say for certain there is no boy in my room, it is just us girls.”
“Can I study with you?” asked Akane excitedly.
“Maybe tomorrow,” Nabiki said. “We’re working on final-year stuff at the moment.
“Well, better get back up there and keep them in line,” she said quickly, darting upstairs as fast as she could to avoid anymore questions.
Sighing, Kimiko looked up, casting her senses outward. Definitely two people in the room right now waiting for Nabiki, and they did have feminine auras about them, though one’s seemed to have more masculine energy than expected. Perhaps she’s helping No-chan’s child…
She decided to keep that last little bit quiet. If she spoke aloud, Akane wouldn’t give them any privacy and she’d have to deal with No-chan’s grandmother fan dance … again. She’d bust her daughter on it later when they were alone.
When will my girls learn they can’t sneak anything past me? “Akane, get back to the table this moment! You will not disturb your sister’s study group.”
“But I can help!” Akane pleaded.
“Would you like to practice with me after dinner?” asked Kasumi, diverting her sister’s attention.
“Sure!” happily chirped Akane, as she dug into her meal with gusto.
Kimiko just shook her head. So much like her father…
As Nabiki slowly entered the room with hands full, she took note of any and all changes.
The outlines of the human form were partially covered with blue lines, most likely the result of Ranma’s work to chart Yakumo’s energy flows. She did note that the partial ones on the heads seemed to be much thicker than the ones anywhere else. Makes sense, I suppose. After all, if her body is spending all its energy on her genjutsu skills, they would be defined better than the ones in her lower body.
Setting the plates on a nearby desk, she turned to the figures on her bed. Yakumo was laying face-down on the bed, her face buried in the pillows, blankets bunched around her and her nude, pale form. Ranma was sitting beside her, eyes closed, hands glowing blue as they barely moved above the nude form, eyes closed, as Ranma slowly ran her hand up and down the body, mapping out the energy flows in the her mind.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by The Demented Redhead
(Posted Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:30)
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.