Nabiki and Akane turned the corner toward the school gates, Nabiki with her arms full of damp clothing and Akane glancing around nervously, her eyes passing unseeing over the cute naked red-haired girl floating on the other side of her sister.
“I can’t believe that old lady got me again!” Ranma complained, and Nabiki grinned as she caught Akane’s flinch out of the corner of her eye.
“What’s wrong, sis, you’re not afraid of spirits, are you?” the pageboy-styled girl jibed, and Akane growled.
“Of course not!” she insisted, turning and looking almost directly at the nature spirit she couldn’t see. “You just better stay out of the girls’ locker room!”
Ranma unconsciously shifted so that Akane would be looking at her if she could actually see her, as Nabiki smirked. “Why do you care? Ranko’s a girl, after all, just like you.” Ranma flinched, and Nabiki frowned slightly.
“Yeah, and I feel sorry for her, being stuck with that pervert, but you said he remembers what she sees and I don’t want him remembering us girls changing!”
Nabiki sighed. “Look, Akane, Ranma might have startled you that first night, but he couldn’t help appearing in front of you naked. That was Ranko’s fault, and doesn’t make him a pervert.”
Akane hesitated, then scowled. “Maybe not, but it doesn’t matter — he’s a boy, and all boys are perverts! Speaking of which ...” she added as they approached the gates, and broke into a run, dashing through the gates at full speed shouting her mantra.
Nabiki sighed as shouts and the sound of combat immediately broke out. “Okay, now it’s official. Watching little miss perfect get attacked every morning has been fun, but now I’m getting worried.”
“Why?” Ranma asked as the two turned into the gates to see the Tendo sister with the long black hair plowing through the usual mob of would-be dates. “It’s not like any of ‘em can lay a hand on her.”
“True,” Nabiki agreed with a frown, “but it’s twisting her, making her hate boys. If she didn’t have such a crush on Dr. Tofu I’d be really worried about her future prospects, seeing how she hasn’t shown any attraction to girls. But still, if this keeps up one of these days little sis is going to lose control and really hurt someone.”
The busty nature spirit gazed out over the scattered clumps of groaning and unconscious boys, and nodded — bruises, abrasions, but no broken bones. “So ya just have ta think of a way ta get ‘em ta stop. Shouldn’t be that hard, as smart as ya are.”
“Thanks, Ranko, but I expect you to come up with your own ideas, too,” Nabiki said with a smile, then frowned as Ranma flinched again. “Okay, what’s wrong with the name? You came up with it yourself, and it’s too late to change it now!”
“Nothin’,” Ranma muttered. Then, under Nabiki’s stern gaze, reluctantly added, “I just don’t really like the story ya came up with.”
“I know,” Nabiki said, “but it’s the best we can do — Akane’s entire class heard your shout — your very feminine shout — when Kuno grabbed onto you. And even if they hadn’t he would certainly know that your spirit form is female — no way to hide those oh-so-luscious mounds he latched on to,” she added with a leer, then sobered when Ranma stiffened and crossed her arms across her generous chest. “Sorry,” Nabiki said contritely, and after a moment Ranma relaxed.
“Not yer fault,” she muttered. “I just don’t like rememberin’ that pervert grabbin’ my ... me ... there. And yeah, I know I don’t want anyone ta know I turn inta a girl, so we hafta go with havin’ me trade places with a girl instead—and yeah, that’s my fault. But couldn’t we have stuck with the ghost story? I don’t want anybody knowin’ I’m a nature spirit, either. What if they guess what kind?”
“No,” Nabiki said firmly, shaking her head. “Two of Akane’s classmates are Awakened, and from their shocked faces yesterday they’re powerful enough to actually see you. They’ll know you aren’t a ghost the first time you get close to them in spirit form. Ghosts ... feel different.”
“If ya say so,” Ranma said with a sigh, then turned her attention back to the fight and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Nabiki asked. Nothing seemed out of place to her — the usual gang brawl was over, and Kuno had made his usual flowery oration and was currently getting his ass handed to him, like always — although the “Blue Thunder” label was new to her.
“He’s holdin’ back,” Ranma muttered, and Nabiki froze.
“He’s what!?”
“He’s holdin’ back, lettin’ her win,” Ranma said more loudly, and Nabiki shook her head.
“I’ll take your word for it, but why?” she asked as Kuno slammed into a tree and slumped unconscious to the ground.
“I dunno, but he is!” Ranma insisted.
“I believe you, it’s just ...” Nabiki’s voice died off as she stared at the unconscious kendoist for a moment, then shrugged. “We’ll deal with that later, let’s get you some hot water and get to class.” Sighing, she added, “We’ll both be getting a lot of questions today.”
Nabiki sat under her usual tree and opened her lunch bento, then smiled as her black-haired fiancé sat beside her. “I hope your morning has been better than mine,” she said, and Ranma shook his head.
“I kinda doubt it,” he said. “Ya wouldn’t believe some’a the questions the guys have come up with. It’s makin’ me think yer sister could be right about boys.”
Nabiki winced. “And she was right there to hear every question, of course, just great. Okay, your morning was worse than mine. At least my reputation is useful on occasion, Kuno was the only one brave enough to ask about what happened yesterday, so after I recited our cover story all I had to put up with was him ranting about ‘the evil sorcerer enslaving a fair bud of a maiden’ and undoubtedly using her to ‘satisfy his bestial lusts’ while ‘pursuing the glorious Akane’ — with my help, of course, out of jealousy and envy.”
Ranma growled and started to stand up, looking around for the tall upperclassman, but stopped when his fiancée shook her head and pointed back down beside her. “Sit!” she loudly demanded, and Ranma dropped back down beside her, then flushed as a group of girls sitting close enough to hear Nabiki’s shouted order laughed. Nabiki frowned at the girls, and the laughter choked off as the girls suddenly decided to eat their lunches elsewhere and got up and left.
“Look. Ranma,” Nabiki said, “you can’t go after Kuno for every little thing he says — he’s such an obvious nutcase that nobody believes him, and beating on him won’t change anything, he’ll just wake up and spout some more nonsense. So just ignore him unless he attacks you, right?”
She glared sternly at the pigtailed boy until he reluctantly nodded, then her expression softened and she grinned. “Yes, I know, you want to beat your chest and prove who’s toughest. But some problems can’t be solved with your fists, and this is one of them.”
“So, how do we solve it?” Ranma asked, and Nabiki grimaced.
“I’m still working on that part,” she admitted reluctantly, and Ranma chuckled.
Hastily changing the subject, Nabiki asked, “You haven’t forgotten that we have a trip to make after school?”
“Naw, ‘course not,” the martial artist replied. “Where we goin’, anyway?”
“Just to see someone about paying for your schooling,” Nabiki said nonchalantly. And I sure hope the fact that the sepukku contract is torn up is more important than that it exists.
Gosunkugi stared thoughtfully at the pair from where he sat across the lawn, ignored by the rest of the students as usual. Ranma’s questioning by the boys (and a few of the girls) at the beginning of school and between classes before the teachers demanded the students’ attention had been interesting, to say the least. The budding Adept had been reluctantly impressed by Ranma’s self control — he had actually managed to keep himself from attacking any of those idiots. He’d even talked Akane into not letting go of the fool she’d hung out the window — unfortunate, that, but maybe it showed a weak streak Gosunkugi could take advantage of instead of just a practical one.
Still, there was something about the whole situation that was off, something wrong—and then the pasty-skinned boy had it. Ranko had been around well before Ranma, from what he’d overheard Akane telling her friends, Ranma and his father had only shown up at the dojo two nights ago! So how had Ranko ended up with Nabiki at least a week back? And if Ranma had been in China while Ranko was in Nerima, how had they gotten linked? And they were linked, Gosunkigi had managed to be in the first row at the windows when Ranma took his plunge into the pool, there was no mistaking what had happened yesterday....
Coming to a sudden decision, Gosunkugi quickly finished his lunch and headed back into the school. As much as he enjoyed school, there was no way he was going to be able to concentrate on the lessons, so taking an afternoon off for research in the family library was in order — he was easily a good enough student, and normally unhealthy-looking, that the teacher would believe a sudden illness. Ranma hadn’t mentioned any place names in his little story, but there couldn’t be that many cursed springs in China....
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(Posted Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:45)
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