The entire household had gathered by the table, cursed freeloaders in their human forms. Nabiki held her Ice Queen facade in reserve in case things got out of hand.
"Boy! How could you let this happen!? My own son, a weak little girl!"
'Out of hand' being an entirely relative condition, in this case.
Ranma punched his father gently. "Shove it, oyaji. You were the one that dumped me in the spring, remember?"
"Oh what suffering to have such a disrespectful son!"
"At least I don't turn into a panda woman!"
Genma's tirade ended abruptly when a great many things about his panda form started to make sense. Genma's archnemesis, Reality, reared its ugly head. As he had trained to do his entire adult life, Genma reacted to this enemy the only way he knew how. With cunning, deviousness, and The Hide In Plain Sight Technique.
The household ignored the panda playing with a beachball and turned to the more important matter of Ranma's curse. "So, 'Ranko' is?" Akane asked, voice trailing off suspiciously.
"Ranma," Nabiki confirmed with a shrug. "Same person, different boddy, just like Panda-baka."
Akane growled and speared Ranma with an angry stare. "And you lied because?"
"Hi, I'm Ranma, an' when I get splashed with water I turn inta a naked busty redhead," Ranma replied sarcastically. "I can't imagine why I'd wanna hide that."
Akane was showing that nervous tick that said she wanted to pound a pervert into low earth orbit. "So when you showed up naked on our doorstep..."
Ranma prepared for pain that didn't come. "Now Akane," Nabiki said icily, "you've already punished him for that. And Ranma's been a perfect gentlemen during your sparring, right?"
Akane shot a glare at Nabiki, then at Ranma, then relented...slightly. "Fine. But if I ever find out that 'Ranko' is in the girls' locker room!"
Ranma prayed Akane never found out that spirits could see through clothing.
Soun tried very hard to process everything. "Ah, well, it seems that your situation is no worse than we thought. Especially since Nabiki seems to have known already." He frowned slightly at Nabiki. Akane joined him.
Nabiki sighed at the attention coming to her. "Where do you want me to start?"
Akane blinked. "The truth?"
"Akane, I love you, but if we were to go over everything I know to be true that you don't, we'd be here for months."
"You sound like some kind of all-knowing sorceress," Akane scoffed.
"Okay, good a place as any to start. I am a sorceress of sorts." Nabiki smiled cutely and snuggled a bit against Ranma as Akane, Soun, and Genma processed that in stunned silence. The confusion rolling off them was...she wouldn't call it pleasing but there was a satisfaction at having so halted their emotional processes.
"You're WHAT!?" Akane shrieked. Soun just fainted.
"I went through what's called "Awakening" a few years back," Nabiki said calmly. "I've only been seriously practicing for a little over a year."
Akane looked like a deer in the headlights as she added this information to her worldview. "Are you, um, well, can you," she stammered.
Nabiki sighed and held up her fingers. "I'm not trained enough to really do much of anything, but from what I've read, tested, and been told I'm near the high end of the mystic powerscale."
Akane shivered as an image of Nabiki leveling Furinkan in a blaze of fire, riding a broomstick, and cackling madly crossed her mind.
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Akane, I get enough fear at school. Whatever you're imagining, I really have no idea how to do anything spectacular. My studies have been in spirits and wards, not mass destruction."
"Wards?" Akane asked. "You mean like protections from demons and such?"
Nabiki nodded. "Yeah. Also summoning circles, defensive barriers, banishments...when you learn what all is out there, being able to defend yourself is very important."
Akane looked thoughtful. "Could you ward the house like that?"
"Did that six months ago."
Akane facevaulted nicely. "You what?"
"If you look at the outer wall closely you'll see where I etched a warding circle into it. It's the strongest one I can safely put up."
"How can a ward be unsafe?"
"If I blocked nature spirits, the lawn would die, the pond would stagnate, and my favorite redhead would be horribly inconvenienced. Likewise if I blocked entry to anyone who was Awakened, or wards that would interfere with my own activities...as it is I've warded everything I knew we wouldn't want, plus a less powerful ward against malicious intent to try and plug up some of the holes. It's not perfect, but they haven't broken yet."
Akane whistled. "That's a lot of effort. Just what all is out there?"
"Well a band of imps has been watching Ranma ever since he arrived," Nabiki said off-hand.
Akane twitched at the idea of imps watching any of them. She looked around wildly. "And they didn't get in?"
"Didn't even try," Nabiki corrected. "It would have been extremely unpleasant for them."
Akane settled down a bit. "Ne, Kasumi? Why are you taking this so well?"
Kasumi smiled her patented Kasumi Smile. "Oh, I knew Nabiki was summoning things for a while now. She was always so careful, I decided not to worry over it."
Akane blinked. "Wait. Summoning?"
Nabiki groaned. "Thanks, sis." So much for keeping that secret. Do I have any left? "Yes, summoning. Mostly nature spirits. It's safer. I get a flower spirit to deal with someone harassing me, I plant a new flower garden as payment."
"But what if you summon the wrong thing?" Akane asked, then frowned as Ranma and Nabiki both collapsed into giggles. "Did I say something funny?"
"Well, I was scared of that for a while," Nabiki said seriously, fighting a smile. "When a summon goes wrong, it calls the spirit most attached to the summoner. Which means promises I've made, family has made, friends, masters, apprentices...it's basically impossible to predict how a botched summon will go without knowing exactly what promises have been made in the past thousand generations."
Akane nodded. "Okay, makes sense. But why the giggles?"
"Well, dear sister, a while back I was in a summons when a piece of cinderblock hit me on my head, botched the summons, and tore the protection circle that was the only chance of keeping us alive through such a catastrophe."
Akane and Kasumi both blanched, although Akane paled more given that it was her who had indirectly put them in that danger. "What happened?"
"Well I was pretty sure I was going to die. I later found out that the spirit closest to me was through a promise made by Daddy."
Soun recovered at this. "I never made a promise to a spirit!" he declared, thinking back to any spirits he may have met.
Nabiki smiled warmly and hugged Ranma to her."You engaged me to one," she reminded him.
Soun fainted again. Kasumi gasped and started laughing. Genma played with his ball.
Akane blinked and slowly let it sink in. "You mean, Ranma was"
"Popping in and out of our house for over a week before you met him, yes," Nabiki said before dissolving into laughter herself.
Ranma managed a wry smile at Akane. "And it was the best week I had that whole China trip," he said sincerely.
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(Posted Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:51)
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