[Episode 218353] [Episode 218353]Kasumi frowned, "Well, I suppose I could get us some tea, and perhaps some clothes for miss demon?"
Ranma scowled in confusion, and Nabiki groaned in irritation.
"Kasumi, this is Ranma, she is, as far as I can tell, a nature spirit, not a demon, they are incapable of wearing clothes, or touching things that aren't alive, so any clothes would just pass right through her, and she wouldn't be able to touch them, but I suppose she can sit inside the bed so only her head is visible for now." Nabiki explained, causing Ranma to jump at the idea, and quickly drift to such a position, winding up looking somewhat like a severed head sticking out of Nabiki's covers near the corner of the bed closest to the door, looking between the two sisters. "Also," Nabiki continued, "hot water seems to dismiss her for some reason, and I don't think nature spirits eat solid food, since they can't even touch it, so don't bother bringing any for her, although perhaps you should leave some water being kept warm, so that she can get dismissed easier later."
Ranma looked like she was considering saying something about this, but Kasumi just smiled somewhat awkwardly and disbelievingly, and left, and after a few minutes of awkward silence where Nabiki seemed to examine Ranma in a way that left Ranma feeling a bit awkward, but with a slightly vacant expression that indicated she was reviewing memories and gathering her thoughts, Kasumi returned with some tea.
"All right Nabiki, let me here your explanation about miss 'Nature Spirit'." Kasumi said, once they were both seated with teacups in hand.
Nabiki blew on her tea a bit to encourage it to cool, "Well, the first time I summoned her it wasn't particularly specific, and I thought she might be a bit suspicious as well, she started talking about being a 'boy' who was cursed or something, and a 'father' who taught her, some sort of fighting skill apparently, and insisted she was a human, but sometimes turned into some sort of 'ghost girl', and that she could prove this with hot water. I wound up making a contract that she wouldn't try to do me harm, and in exchange, got her the hot water, and she was instantly dismissed. After that, for a while, half the time I tried a summoning something would mess it up and I'd get her instead, I was a bit freaked out, because most of the time when I got her the containment circles got messed up by weird circumstances, seeming coincidences, but as hot water dispelled her, I soon found it not too much of a worry, although I was confused.
"A few attempts to summon her specifically failed, but later I managed a long term week long summoning, and I tried to demand to know what she wanted from me, as I think she may have been arranging the messed up summons on purpose, or at least something about her and how I'd summoned her earlier caused them, and she revealed that she wanted to be friends, which I basically agreed to, relieved that she didn't have some weirder or more dangerous intention. My research at this point had indicated she seems to be some sort of young nature spirit, and she was dismissed with hot water again, only to start to appear sporadically right near me, apparently when she gets hit with 'cold water' until the next time she is exposed to hot water, which dismisses her again, which will last all week until the summoning is over, it seems that hot water somehow temporarily makes her immune to summoning, and sends her back wherever she came from, but 'cold water' ends this immunity and sends her back to me while this summon is under effect."
Nabiki paused a bit for emphasis, "She'd just appeared in here while I was asleep right before you came in." she explained to Kasumi, "And I realized that the misunderstandings could get complicated if I didn't explain things to you now. I'm not 'paying' anything, except maybe a tiny amount of spiritual power to activate the summoning and being her friend, as requested. She seems really young, and as she is a bit confused and immature, and doesn't seem to know what sort of spirit she is and says some weird things, but she doesn't seem to be dangerous or have any ill intentions. Also, I'm _very_ careful whenever I summon demons, and all the imps demand is that I use the information they gather for me, and they are the only sort of demon I have summoned so far. Do you have anything you want to ask?"
Kasumi frowned thoughtfully, "While I don't approve of you summoning demons at all, I know you have been summoning more than just imps too so..."
Nabiki shook her head and held up a hand to interrupt, "The other things I summon are nature spirits, things that represent elements, or types of flora or fauna on the spiritual plane. They're normally invisible and most of them aren't even humanoid, but like little animals or sentient plants that aren't physical. They are sort of congealed manifestations of energy living beings release into the spiritual plane. They are invisible to most people, but occasionally someone is spiritually aware and able to see them, like you, or innocent children, and most animals can see them as well, but also summoners like me can see them. Demons are evil spirits from another dimension, and while usually invisible to those who can't see spirits, they tend to also exist on the physical plane."
Kasumi nodded reluctantly, not certain if she wants to believe this, but decides that it is best to give her sister the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. She frowns slightly and turns to Ranma, who has begun to look a bit antsy.
"Do you have anything to say Miss Nature Spirit?" Kasumi asks. Ranma gestures wildly and stands up, her breasts showing above the covers, although by her level of her head, her feet are still below the floor, "I'm a guy! Really! That hot and cold water stuff, It's a curse, see, and when I get dismissed or whatever by touching hot water, I'm really turning back to a human boy and going back to wherever I was when I got hit with cold water last.
"Ya see, a month or so ago I was traveling with Pops, and we came to this weird training grounds, off in China, and there were a bunch of pools of water all around in this misty valley, with a bunch of poles sticking up out of them. We didn't think it was weird or nothing, and were ignorin' the guide there 'cause he didn't speak Japanese too well and we could hardly understand him, although he seemed to think we were weird for some reason. We thought it was just some training ground for balance practice, you fought atop the poles, and if you fell, the water below was real cold, and that would be good motivation not to fall. Pops an' I jumped up there and started fighting, and the guide started yellin' at us. I kinda wish we'd listened...
"Anyway, I wound up knockin' pops into a spring, and out pops this giant panda, an' I was pretty freaked, because there is a huge panda! And then I notice it's attacking me and it's got pops' gi on, but badly and kinda torn, and his glasses off one ear and the bandanna he uses to hide his baldness off the other. I was so surprised I might have forgot to put up my defense, but pops is also pretty good, even as a panda, and he knocks me into another pool, and I'm kinda shocked, and I come out like this.
"The guide winds up tellin' us after a while how these are the CURSED springs of Jyuusenkyo, and when you fall in a pool, you turn into whatever drowned there. Pops had fallen into the spring of drowned panda, and I'd been invisible to pops and the guide I think and flyin' and everything was weird at this point, and the guide says how I'd fallen into spring of drowned ghost girl, least, I think that is what he said and meant, but maybe it was weird nature spirit girl, but there was some kinda translation mistake. Anyway, it turns out that the curses are permanent, but you can temporarily reverse them with hot water, returning to your birth form, so we changed back, 'except whenever we get splashed with cold water, we turn to cursed form again! And not to long after that, pops an' I are traveling, and suddenly I'm here with Nabiki, and she 'splained most of that.
"Anyway, when I get hot water here, I go back to my real form back wherever I was summoned from, and recently, 'cause of this week long summon thingy, whenever I get hit with cold water, suddenly, BAM, I'm right next to Nabiki, or even touchin' her! I don't mean nothin' perverted by it, 's just an accident 'cause Nabiki's summon thingy."
There was a few moments of silence, as this registered to Nabiki and Kasumi, and Ranma finally noticed that her breasts were above the bed, promptly blushed, and dropped down again, looking at them somewhat nervously.
"Oh yeah, and my name is Saotome Ranma, sorry about this..." Ranma added.
"Oh my!" Kasumi exclaimed.
Nabiki shook her head in shock, "Wait, you mean you were serious about all that stuff about curses and being a boy? I thought it was some weird spirit thing that doesn't translate well to human terms, or metaphorical."
"Metawhatsit?" Ranma asked.
Nabiki groaned, "Metaphorical, a metaphor is where you describe something by calling it something else similar."
Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I'm really a guy, sorry if ya misunderstood." she looked kind of depressed and worried, and Nabiki realized she was probably expecting some sort of rejection.
"It's all right Ranma, we're still friends. Now that I think about it, this actually explains a lot. I don't see how it is possible to change from a human to a spirit and back, it defies all sorts of theoretical laws of magic I've read about, not to mention the power requirements for such a transformation, I've got no clue where they come from, but it definitely doesn't come from water...
"Anyway, humans aren't able to be summoned, at least not normally and with the sort of summoning spells I use and know about, so when hot water de-activates the curse, the effect that translates your location to here is canceled, as when you summon something it doesn't 'really' leave wherever you pulled it from, it is still tied to it's 'home' or whatever, the place that it came from before being summoned, it is more that the summoners energy allows it's presence to be here instead, even while it is meant to be there. Initially I was just summoning you with temporary spells, which got dispelled when you stopped being a spirit, but when I got you with a long term summoning, it stuck with your cursed form, so whenever you get changed to cursed form right now, you find yourself right by me, as I'm the summoner, and you pop back as soon as you get hot water." Nabiki explained.
Ranma's eyes were slight wide in understanding, but also slightly vacant, as if she understood the meaning, but the way it was said was a bit beyond her, then nodded, obviously pretending to understand better than she really did, "Yeah, that is what has been happening. And I'm not a demon, or at least if I am right now, I'm not all the time, and I'm a boy usually."
Kasumi nodded thoughtfully, "I suppose that if one can summon demons and spirits, curses might exist too. I'm really sorry that you've been cursed like this Ranma-kun, and I hope Nabiki's hobby hasn't caused you too much trouble with your father."
Ranma grinned and shook her head, "Naah! It's good to get break from pops once in a while like this. Nabiki's cool, I've never had a friend like her. She gets me hot water without complainin', and don't blame me for everything, like when I accidentally touched her breasts, she didn't go poundin' me and callin' me a pervert like what happened to pops the last time he accidentally did that to a lady, or how pops always tells me how everythin' going wrong 's my fault! It's kinda weird being in China one moment, and here the next, but right now it's great, because I can get away from pops whenever I want just by touchin' some cold water. And if the old fart don't like it, he can screw himself, 'cause he deserves it after taken us to Jyuusenkyo from that dumb guidebook without bein' able to read Chinese and see the warnings on the damn thing, and knockin' me in after he'd gotten cursed."
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(Posted Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:58)
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