Ku Lon looked up as she heard the front door to the Cat Café open, and carefully didn’t react at the sight of the brown-haired girl with the pageboy haircut looking at her from where she stood in the entrance.
Not good, she thought as she pogoed toward her latest customer. It’s never good when this one comes around.
Stopping before Nabiki, the Amazon matriarch bowed slightly. “Welcome, Nabiki Tendo. What brings you to the Cat Café this afternoon?”
Nabiki returned Ku Lon’s bow. “Elder Ku Lon, we need to talk,” she said, and her eyes flitted to Mu Tse cleaning up a table a few yards away, then to the doorway to the back.
Ku Lon smiled inwardly even as her tension went up a notch. It is nice to deal with someone that uses her brain instead of her fists to think with, for a change, she thought, as she said, “Of course. Mousse, put up the closed sign, then get started on cleaning the pots.” Turning back to Nabiki, she added, “Would you like some tea?”
Nabiki’s face tightened ever so slightly, then relaxed and she nodded. “Of course, thank you.”
A few minutes later, Ku Lon finished pouring tea for the two of them and sat down across the table from Nabiki. “So,” she said nonchalantly, “what does the ‘Mercenary Girl’ want with an old woman?”
Nabiki smiled slightly, took a sip of her tea, eyes widening at its quality, then carefully set the cup aside with a sigh. “Much as I would enjoy a conversational duel, I’m afraid I don’t have time,” she said regretfully. “Shampoo will only be gone on her delivery for so long.”
“Eyes sharpening, Ku Lon also set aside her cup and leaned forward. “And what has that girl done to annoy you enough to bring you here?” she asked.
Nabiki shook her head. “Herself, nothing. But she did pay a visit to Ranma and Akane a few nights ago with some interesting information you left out of the story you told them about Alanya.”
Ku Lon’s eyes narrowed slightly even as a knot at her core relaxed for the first time in over a year. “I see,” she said calmly. “I’m surprised that you were invited to their discussion.”
“I wasn’t,” Nabiki said with a tight smile. “But I listened in, anyway — I thought anything Shampoo wanted to talk to them about secretly was likely to be important to the family, and I was right.”
“So, just what did Shampoo tell them?” Ku Lon asked, and Nabiki shrugged.
“Not much,” she replied, “just that the Champion that is somehow involved in whatever ritual Ranma’s using to get her off his — her — back was a demon, and so Ranma risks becoming one as well.” Nabiki grimaced. “Ranma’s still going through with it, whatever the risk, which might be why neither she nor my sister thought to ask just what kind of demon she’ll turn into if the odds go against her.” Then, her eyes turning hard, she asked, “So, just what kind of demon is Ranma risking?”
Ku Lon gazed at the middle Tendo for a time, testing her patience. When Nabiki’s gaze failed to waver, Ku Lon sighed and nodded. “Very well, I suppose if I failed to tell you, you would probably be able to convince Ranma not to go through with it until I did.”
“Alanya was a succubus—a real one, not the ludicrous myths the Europeans built up around the type out of fear, ignorance, and superstition.”
“Meaning … ?” Nabiki asked.
“Meaning, she isn’t an incorporeal spirit of hideous appearance that feeds on people’s dreams. Succubae are Earth Demons, their breed has no separate realm in the spirit world and cannot be summoned. The succubae’s natural form is a winged and tailed female but they can hide the wings and tail, take male shape if they choose, and modify their appearance as well. With practice, they can look like anyone they choose. They do not need to eat or drink, but can in order to preserve appearances. They feed off of human life force, absorbed at the point of climax for the human partner during sex, with the amount of life force able to be absorbed determined by the length of time they are in physical contact, and are able to use that absorbed life force for any number of effects — Alanya wrote that no one mature succubus had exactly the same abilities as another. Also, their natural prey is men—they can absorb the life force of women, enough to handle daily needs without harm, but if they take too much at one time and are independent, they risk turning the woman into a succubus bound to her ‘mother’.
“It was the bond especially that Alanya was concerned about. So long as that bond exists, the subordinate succubus cannot create her own ‘children’, has feelings of love for her ‘mother’ imposed on her, and has great difficulty in disobeying any direct order her ‘mother’ gives her. The bond cannot be broken, except by the death of the ‘mother’, though it can be voluntarily relinquished.”
Gazing at the wall hangings decorating the café, Ku Lon mused, “I suspect its original purpose was to bind a new succubus to her ‘mother’ long enough for her to grow accustomed to her new state and prevent her from creating more succubae by mistake, but that purpose was perverted by the succubus Alanya only called the Bitch Queen in her writings. Apparently, that succubus refused to free her ‘children’ after they’d adjusted, and set out to kill all succubae that weren’t her minions — you can hardly call them her children, since she couldn’t care less about their welfare. It must have taken centuries, but Alanya believed she’d succeeded — at least, Alanya never encountered any that weren’t her sisters in her wanderings after her rebellion failed. With her modifications to what became her pool at Jusenkyo, she hoped to someday create a succubus independent of the Bitch Queen, able to defend herself from the moment of her ‘birth’ and eventually able to challenge her Mistress and free her sisters, but one that wouldn’t abuse her powers the way the Bitch Queen did.”
Nabiki nodded thoughtfully. “But if Ranma was to become a succubus, she would be instantly independent, able to create new succubae.”
“Exactly,” Ku Lon agreed. “Worse, her energy reserves will be nonexistent so she will be very hungry.”
“So we need to make sure there’s a man available, just in case,” Nabiki said, and Ku Lon chuckled.
“ ‘Men’, actually — and of no great endurance when it comes to sex, or Ranma would risk killing her ‘dinner’ by mistake.” Ku Lon waved her hand dismissively. “No need to worry, child, along with the elders needed as witnesses and their accompanying warriors will be several men of that description. They are an integral part of the ceremony for just that purpose.”
Nabiki mostly hid a relieved smile, and nodded respectfully to the Elder. “Good, I don’t have to figure out how to supply them myself without letting them know why I need them, not to mention trying to learn their sexual endurance — not something my own network is really set up for. I should have known after three hundred years you would have already worked out the details.”
Ku Lon studied the teenager thoughtfully. “You don’t seem to be very upset with me because of my deception, child,” she said neutrally, but Nabiki waved off the comment with a snort.
“If I tried to act like I was I would be doing just that — acting — and you’re too observant to be fooled for long.”
“But if you care about what happens to Ranma at all — and you apparently do or you wouldn’t be here — why aren’t you upset?” Ku Lon asked.
“Actually, it’s Akane I really care about, emotionally at least. But Ranma has chosen to accept her offer to become her mate and that makes her one of my people,” Nabiki corrected. ‘Family is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you.’ Caring about someone doesn’t enter into it.
“As for why I’m not upset, I may act hypocritical from time to time, but I try not to be a hypocrite — that can lead you into misjudgments, possibly serious ones. So you’re a barbarian — you take care of your own, and the rest of the world can go hang for all you care. I’m the same way, I’m supposed to be angry that someone acts just like I do?
“Now,” she continued, leaning forward, “I’ll need to know just what this ceremony entails....”
“I’m back!” Xian Pu cheerily called out as she bounced into the Cat Café, then frowned slightly. Why was the closed sign up?
“Xian Pu, please join us,” Ku Lon said from a table in the back, and Xian Pu’s felt her heart turn to ice at the sight of Nabiki sitting with her great-grandmother.
“What Mercenary Girl do here?” she asked suspiciously as she walked toward the pair, and Ku Lon chuckled.
“Not so mercenary this time, seeing how she’s looking out for her family. She told me of a little visit you made to the Tendo dojo a few days ago, and asked for more information of what Ranma and Akane might be facing.”
Xian Pu blanched and stumbled. “G-grandmother, I … I …”
Ku Lon simply shook her head gently. “You simply couldn’t accept not letting Ranma know what she was risking, whatever it cost you, correct?”
Xian Pu bowed her head contritely. “Yes, Great-grandmother.”
“And you’ve decided to give up your dream of becoming an Elder and become the War Leader instead, correct?”
“Yes, Great-grandmother. Becoming an Elder is great honor, but not honor Shampoo want if must give up own honor.”
“Good!” Ku Lon said, breaking out into a large, happy smile, and Xian Pu raised her head to stare at her in shock.
“G-great-grandmother?” she stammered, and Ku Lon’s smile softened.
“Child,” she said softly, “If you had chosen to continue your quest to become an Elder I would have supported you. In spite of the necessities of the office it is an honorable calling. But the truth is that you will be happier as War Leader than you would ever be as an Elder. However,” Ku Lon continued as Xian Pu relaxed in relief, “that doesn’t excuse your decision to go behind my back in warning Ranma — a War Leader that undercuts the Elders is a danger to the village. So, consider yourself grounded. You are not to leave the restaurant except to make deliveries until the other elders and their entourage arrives.”
“Yes, Great-grandmother,” Xian Pu meekly agreed, careful to keep her confusion from showing on her face. That’s it? That’s all the punishment for flagrant disobedience? I … I suppose she must truly agree with my decision....
Nabiki had been watching the conversation with a cynical smile on her face. Now she stood up, clapping lightly. “Well, thank you for the floor show, it was very entertaining. But now, I have to get back to the dojo.” And with a jaunty wave goodbye, she headed out the door.
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(Posted Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54)
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