Ranma's morning routine, the nordic art of stav this time, came to an end and behind her, all three of her children did as well. Unlike her father, she found the morning was best suited to light exercise meant to awaken the chi and body cleanly and completely, bringing the mind into a clear and alert state.
She took in a deep breath and looked about at her kids.
Eija was predictably easing out of a deep meditative state as she came to a graceful end to the kata. Naiki had a less graceful end to her kata, some seconds after Eija, and a rather light and fractured meditative state. Deimosu had a physically perfect performance with even a spice of his own personality to the kata, but Ranma doubted he'd even bothered to try to enter a meditative state.
"Okay, that should be it," Ranma said. "I'll get started on breakfast. Dei-chan collect the axes please. Eija make the lunches and Naiki, set the table. That should settle the shower schedule, so no bickering."
"Hai, Okaasan."
"Hai, hai."
"Right, 'kaasan."
As Ranma turned to their kitchen area, she handed her norse axe to Deimosu and watched as Naiki went to take her shower. As the woman reached the counter, she flinched to watch the butterfly land lightly in front of her and transform into a message.
"What's that an exorcism? Rogue demon? Haunted house?" Deimosu asked, eager for a story of adventure.
"They need a feng shih," Ranma said with a grumble.
"Boring," Deimosu said.
"I'll have to get out the monkey suit," his mother said in grumbling manner of agreement.
"But you've always told us Feng Shui is very important," Eija said as she opened the fridge.
"Feng shui is important. Acting as a feng shih to clueless executives or superstitious newlyweds is boring," her mother said. "At least it pays well. And its a cover."
Naiki came out of the shower and moved to her room to collect the last of her things for school. Deimosu went to take his turn in the shower.
Ranma finished the breakfast and carried it out to the table as Naiki started setting the dishes.
Deimosu finished his shower, and, after setting out the bentos, in went Eija.
Talk was light at the breakfast table, mostly reminders of what was happening later that day and individual plans for the most part. The last bit before the day began and the kids went to school while Ranma attended to her job was always discussing what sort of training each would get that afternoon.
"This afternoon, Eija, situational awareness training. Don't flinch like that. You should be at least situationally aware enough to note someone planting an explosive charge in the same room as you."
"Deimosu, meditation. Contemplative meditation, not active, no katas. You're slacking off on the internal again and don't think I don't notice the difference between a meditating aura and concentrating one."
"Naiki, I think I've already told you what you need to do. I'll expect an answer."
"Hai...okaasan," Naiki said glummly.
"Watch your backs," Ranma said, kissing each of her kids on the forehead before sending them off.
When they'd been kids the kiss before she left them had been to reassure them. Now, as teenagers, it was mostly to get a rise out of them.
It was fun watching them get embarrassed sometimes after all.
And maybe it still worked for a little bit of reassurance.
After that it was time for her to get ready for her own day. Checking the clock she had plenty of time before her meeting, so time to get some shopping in first.
****
Ranma wasn't in the best mood to be an acting feng shih after that gaijin had started to hit on her in the supermarket.
She'd gotten used to that on occasion and was usually more polite, however, some people just set her on edge. The type that felt that success of their mission was a foregone conclusion fell into that category.
Those people needed putting down in a hard and humbling manner.
Still, here she was, in her red business skirt and jacket combination, hair pulled back into a conservatively mystic bun, and looking out of a fashionable pair of John Lennons, waiting for her client to come down to the lobby and meeting her.
One of these days she was going to ask why her preferred sunglasses were called "John Lennons."
"Satomi-san," a voice called out, attracting the red-head's attention.
Years of battling demons were all that kept the red-head from reacting to who the client had sent down to meet him. If she'd seen this name on the job contract, she'd have turned it down.
The woman stepped forward and bowed politely to the woman in front of her.
"I'm Nabiki Hibiki," the woman said.
That brought a bit of a reaction from Ranma, but fortunately his one-time to be sister-in-law misread it.
"Yes, a mouthful, I know, I should have thought harder about who I married," she said with a smirking laugh. "Anyway, I'm glad to see you. Usually, I'd ask my brother-in-law to handle this sort of thing, but he's unavailable and time is important here."
"Is this for a business location or personal?" Ranma asked coolly.
"A bit of both," Nabiki said, looking over her feng shih very carefully. "My husband and I are looking to start a family soon and moving out of the family home and there'll be a dojo on site."
"Shall we take this discussion somewhere private then?" Ranma asked, keeping her best professional attitude on.
"Yeah, that might be a good idea," Nabiki agreed vaguely. "I've got the files on the prospects in another room."
"Is there something wrong?" Ranma asked.
"No..." Nabiki said quietly. "Just, when I saw the name, it reminded me...of an old friend, but you're obviously not who I was thinking of. Should have known, you use completely different kanji."
"That would be a great coincidence, wouldn't it," Ranma said with a smirk as Nabiki lead her to a private conference room. "Now, how soon is your family coming?"
"A little more than seven months," Nabiki said with a flush. "Our first."
"Congratulations, Hibiki-san," Ranma said with a bow. "Now, what sort of work do you do. I assume your husband is a martial artist given the dojo?"
"Yeah, and he...travels...alot," Nabiki said, as if hesitant to explain. "I work in advertising, I'll be transferring to this branch in five months."
"When you talk about travelling," Ranma said. "Is there something to that that's a concern?"
"Well..."
Ranma never imagined she'd see Nabiki at a loss for words, or looking so hopeless and coming to him for help. It was all she could do not to add about fifty percent to her normal feng shih prices.
"Is there anything you can do to keep a person from getting lost?" Nabiki finally blurted out in a rush.
"Let's look at your sites and files and see what's best," Ranma said with a smile.
*****
Mao watched as the red-head waited until another thirty-something met her in the lobby and moved to another room to discuss things. A brief trip to the lobby of the office building found three advertising firms, a law firm and several investment companies.
"She's starting to look like a high-priced fortune teller all right," Mao noted quietly to herself.
Of course, that could just have been a cover.
She sat silently out of the way as Ranma came out with her client and both prepared to head out into the city.
What followed was four hours of travelling to three different places around the country, spots of land ripe for some sort of development.
"Feng shui," Mao muttered as she noted some of the books the red-head brought out. "That's a self-sufficient cover, almost a gold mine."
*****
"This is the ideal site for your situation in the long run. Properly developed it will be a resevoir of creativity and prosperity, as well as being as easy to find as it can be," Ranma said, wondering if the last was enough to deal with the Hibiki curse. "But the problem is, there are several elements working against a construction here, but they are not insurmontable. The cost is more in time than money given a reliable contractor, but that seems to be your concern."
"How long are we talking about?" Nabiki asked.
"I'd estimate ten months in total, but again, it depends on your contractor," Ranma said. "Will you need me to work with your architect?"
"I think my brother-in-law will be available for that," Nabiki said. "Isn't there any other way to make this work?"
"This other option would be ready much sooner," Ranma said, pointing to another one. "But it isn't the best for your needs. It isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. This first choice, your family prospers. The second choice, in respect to your family, is in mostly in repose. A brief period of instability and then a long term of happiness."
"I'll see what I can do," Nabiki said, thinking hard about it. "What about the third option?"
"It is in a dangerous site for a home," Ranma said firmly. "It makes people and spirits curious. That's good for restaurants or entertainment places, but not for family homes."
"Gotcha," Nabiki said. "Well, thanks for your help. I assume I'll be contacted for a bill."
"I wouldn't worry too much about that Hibiki-san," Ranma said with a smirk. "I can be a bit generous for a newly growing family. I'm a mother myself."
"Now you're making me suspicious," Nabiki said with a laugh.
"If there are any problems, Hibiki-san," Ranma said. "Do not hesitate to call. I will come as soon as able."
"If there's something we need you for, I'll ask for you," Nabiki said. "Same contact?"
Ranma shook her head and handed over a mostly blank business card with only a phone-number in black, simple print on the front.
"You can reach me there," Ranma said. "Perhaps next time I can meet your sisters."
"That'd be interesting," Nabiki said. "At least one of them would get a bit more paranoid than me."
Ranma bowed politely with a smile and then walked out of the building, breathing a sigh of relief for having lasted so long in Nabiki's presence without giving herself away.
She checked her watch and noted there was still some time before school ended, maybe some lunch would be a good idea.
****
Mao grabbed her tray and looked about, relieved that the KFC her target had chosen was so full.
It made things very easy.
She came up beside the red-head in the business dress and looked about in consideration before seeming to look down at Ranma and just noticing her.
"Oh! Excuse me," Mao said. "Do you mind if I sit here? I can't seem to find any other seats."
The red-head looked around for a moment before shrugging.
"Fine with me," she said. "Sit 'er down."
Mao grimaced as she felt a brief flush of uncertainty look over her face.
Intellectually, this should have been just the same as seducing a man she wasn't particularly attracted to, but it was quite a bit different. And apparently that difference was telling, because where the red-head had originally just gone back to eating, now she was staring at Mao.
"Is something wrong?" the mercenary asked non-chalantly.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "You're trying to look at me like someone attracted to women, but you're reacting like a straight woman."
"Damn, this woman is sharper than I thought," Mao thought.
"Did you lose a bet or something?" Ranma asked, looking about. "Some college friends out there watching you make a fool out yourself?
Mao released a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, something like that," she said.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:07)
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.