Nabiki did her best to not to snarl as she walked between Ranma and Akane, all of them in their school uniforms and headed for another wonderful day at Furinkan High — though Nabiki’s dress was somewhat less ... decorous ... (not to say, shorter) than usual. Six days, and not even a hint at who tried to break my shields! she thought yet again, teeth grinding despite her best efforts, only to be interrupted by a huge yawn. Four hours sleep again, yeah, today’s going to be fun.
Suddenly, Ranma dropped and rolled, springing to his feet, and Nabiki tried to stop — too late, and the water aimed for Ranma soaked one side of her school uniform. Just behind her, Akane’s laughter dropped her to her knees as she clutched her sides, as Nabiki turned to glare at the Ladle Lady. The old woman just shrugged with a slight smile (and an inward touch of delight) and turned to go back inside, and the middle Tendo turned her glare on her fiancé. Ranma tugged at his pigtail, an abashed look on his face.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said sheepishly.
Nabiki took a deep breath, let it out as she resumed walking, then said, “Not your fault, I should have been paying attention.”
Ranma turned to walk beside her while Akane forced her laughter down to chuckles as she climbed to her feet and hurried to catch up. “Yeah, you normally stop there, is something wrong?” the youngest Tendo asked.
Nabiki shook her head, then yawned again. “No, just tired from trying to find who hit my wards.”
Akane nodded, looking away uncomfortably, but Ranma shot his fiancée a concerned look. Yes, I know, you’ve been picking up my worry when in nature spirit form, Nabiki thought to herself, carefully keeping her expression even. I’m almost grateful for whoever attacked us, it makes a good cover for what’s really on my mind the most.
Then the three turned through the school ground gates, and Nabiki peeled off while the other two got their additional morning exercise beating Upperclassman Kuno unconscious. Nabiki smirked at the sight while pulling out her cell phone and hitting a speed dial number. Well, at least that much is still going right — there hasn’t been a gathering of the Hentai Horde since the second day Ranma joined in. I guess even those jocks can recognize reality when it beats them into the ground two days in a row.
“Hello, Nodoka? Nabiki here ... yes, I’m doing fine, mostly, just a little tired ... no, Ranma isn’t keeping me up nights, something’s come up. Will you be home tonight? ... Yeah, we need to talk.”
Nabiki and Ranma walked towards Dr. Tofu’s office, Nabiki ignoring the now familiar imps trailing them. She occasionally glanced toward the bandage taped to the side of Ranma’s face, large enough to completely cover one cheek, and did her best not to giggle. Stop that! The Ice Queen does not giggle, so keep control, you’re in public! “So, Ranma,” she said, slightly breathless from the effort to keep her voice steady, “just what were you thinking about that distracted you so much that you didn’t notice the baseball coming?”
“Nothin’!” Ranma almost shouted. “Just some stupid questions from some a’ the guys in class.”
“Oh? About what?”
“Nothin’,” Ranma said shortly.
Nabiki glanced at him again, and managed to turn her giggle into a chuckle. “You might as well tell me, I’ll just find out from one of your classmates. Or — I could test how ticklish you are again tonight, compare one form to the other,” she added with a whimsical grin.
Ranma blanched. “Okay, I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Anything but that!” He grinned back, then shrugged. “They were just askin’ about ... about us.”
“Us? What about ‘us’?” Nabiki asked when Ranma failed to continue.
“About things that are none a’ their business,” Ranma growled, blushing and radiating angry embarrassment.
Wonderful — I’ve managed to catch the right kind of attention from the wrong people, Nabiki thought, suppressing a sigh.
Just then they turned the corner to the clinic, and Nabiki’s eyebrows rose at the sight of a cluster of people at the front door. “Okano-san what’s going on?” she asked one man at the back of the pack.
“Oh, hello, Tendo-san. Your sister’s inside with the doctor,” Okano-san said. “It might be worth your life to go in right now.”
“Kasumi, here?!” Nabiki exclaimed, then grabbed Ranma’s arm and pulled him through the mob to the front door. “Hurry, Ranma, I want you to see this!”
Once in the waiting room, Nabiki pulled Ranma to a stop and hastily opened her book bag. “Come on, I know it’s in here — got it!” She pulled out a thermos and twisted off the cap.
“Nabiki, what’s goin’ —” Ranma got out just before catching a splash of water in the face. Instantly, his clothes dropped through the now redheaded nature spirit to the floor, followed by the bandage that had been taped to his cheek. “What was that for?” the now red-haired natur spirit demanded.
“You’ll be safer this way, and I want to see if you notice anything, come on,” Nabiki said, pausing for a brief moment to run appreciative eyes over the full frontal view offered by the lack of clothes, then grabbing the other girl’s arm and pulling her toward the door to the examination room. “When we get in there, focus on the doc — well, that won’t be hard, but see if you can sense anything wrong with him.”
The two stepped floated into the room to find Kasumi and Dr. Tofu, the dark-haired man with a checkered towel tied around his neck and ... taking bites out of a plate full of cookies!
Kasumi turned to look at the newcomers, her usual look of placid cheerfulness firmly in place, and both Ranma and Nabiki slammed to a stop as a wave of bitter despair from the older Tendo mixed with manic happiness from Dr. Tofu washed over them. “Whoa!” Ranma gasped, actually floating back a couple of feet.
The sound of her voice drew the attention of the doctor, and he stopped taking bites out of the plate and turned toward them. “Oh, I have patients!” he exclaimed. Turning to the skeleton he’d used to frighten Ranma the week before, now on its stand by the wall, he said, “Betty, please fetch some tea.”
“No need, thank you,” Nabiki managed to get out. “This is Ranko, a new friend of the family. Ranko, this is Dr. Tofu.” Leaning over to Ranma, she hissed, “Check out Tofu!”
Ranma started and shook herself out of her shock from the emotional assault and looked closely at Tofu, and her eyes narrowed. There was something odd about him, something that seemed to surround him, to reach out and ... the nature spirit followed it and her eyes widened as the whatever-it-was mixed with a similar something radiating from Kasumi! And whatever it was, it felt ... ugly, slimy.
“Well, if you don’t want any tea, let’s see what I can do for you,” Dr. Tofu continued, stepping forward and reaching for the busty redhead floating in front of him.
Ranma flinched slightly at the worry that suddenly spiked from both Tendo sisters, and Nabiki grabbed her fiancé’s arm and hurriedly pulled her out of the doctor’s reach. “Actually, Dr. Tofu, we’re just here to collect Kasumi, we thought we’d walk home with her.”
The manic happiness that had been assaulting Nabiki and Ranma ebbed as it mixed with growing sadness. “Oh, that’s too bad,” a suddenly calmer Tofu said, turning to the older sister. “But please come again, Kasumi. I enjoy your visits.”
Kasumi forced a smile and nodded. “Of course, Dr. Tofu, I would be glad to,” she said, and hurriedly joined Ranma and Nabiki. With a quick round of goodbyes, the three were on their way.
For a time, the three girls walked/floated along in silence as the despair radiating from Kasumi slowly ebbed, replaced by resignation. Finally, Nabiki quietly said, “I didn’t realize how badly you were taking the doc’s little problem, big sis. I’m sorry.”
Kasumi gave her sister a wan smile. “No reason you should have, little sis — I did my best to keep anyone from knowing, after all. I hoped ... well, I guess it doesn’t matter what I hoped, he isn’t getting any better, is he?”
“Doesn’t seem like it,” Nabiki agreed. “Ranko, I know you were shocked but I couldn’t tell if it was just the Doc or something else. Did you sense anything?”
Ranma frowned thoughtfully. “Yeah, I did,” she said, “but I don’t know what it means. There was ... somethin’, I’m not sure how ta describe it. It was like he was ... shinin’ ... with some sort a’ ... I can’t say what, just that I didn’t like it. But whatever it was, Kasumi had it, too, an’ the two ... whatevers ... were reachin’ out, mixin’ together.”
The Tendo sisters had slammed to a stop and were now staring at the red-haired spirit. Then Nabiki’s eyes narrowed. “So, does Kasumi have that ... aura ... right now?” she asked intently.
Ranma shook her head. “No, it faded as soon as we left Dr. Tofu’s.”
“Okay ... now I have something to work with,” Nabiki said as she started walking again, the other two hurrying to catch up. “Ranma, I’ll bet that what you sensed was a curse — but a two-part curse, that only activates when both victims are close together. That would be why I didn’t find anything when I checked out the possibility, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Dr. Tofu missed it for the same reason.”
Picking up the pace to a near-trot, she tossed over her shoulder, “Come on, let’s get home, I want to check out some things before I leave this evening!”
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(Posted Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:37)
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