However, this left Ranma alone in the room with her new owners.
“Oh, do look up, girl! I don’t wish to spend all day staring at the top of your head!”
Ranma looked up at the obvious tone of command in that voice, to look at her new owners...her new masters....arrayed around her.
The first young man, the one who’d first ordered off the doctor, was about Kuno’s age, but dressed more modernly, and with slicked-back hair, held himself with the same straight and arrogant carriage as Kuno, and the same expression of haughty superiority, right down to the boken slung at his side.
And there was Mikado Sanzenin, who she already knew; blond, handsome, and very full of himself, the adored and self-adored idol of figure skating in the Empire.
There were two tall, professional-looking women; one with tan-dark skin that Kasumi might have described as cinnamon in color, and long hair of the most emerald-green Ranma had ever seen. She was also dressed in a most expensive-looking business suit that fit her like a glove. Her eyes, which looked crimson-irised from where Ranma was standing, seemed to measure her from head to toe, before, apparently satisfied, flicking away to regard her fellows.
The other woman was no the less striking, less for her brunette hair, though she too was very attractive, but for the intensity she carried herself with, like a martial artist ready to strike. Like the other woman, she also clearly came of money; her tailored clothing was likely worth more than Ranma’s entire wardrobe in his previous life. She reminded Ranma of an older, more successful, Nabiki Tendo. Judging from the scrutinizing look the woman was giving her, she was the one who’d just commanded her.
The final person in the room was an older man in priest’s robes, with long hair, a mustache, and glasses...He immediately reminded Ranma of an older Soun Tendo...kamis rest the deceased man’s soul...but with a wiser, more reserved cast to his expression.
“She’s very beautiful...But I prefer green hair...” The first young man lecherously grinned at the only green-haired woman in the room.
The subject of the first young man’s leer didn’t bat an eyelash, but replied with a smile; “My dear Mendo, have you ever taken up spelunking? Caving? Quite an experience; like being born again; the darkness, the close quarters, the sound of your own heartbeat...”
“Ah...no, thank you...” Mendo hastily demurred, backing up from the woman’s question.
“Hummpp....If you’re not too busy playing little games, I’d like to see about setting a schedule for testing?! I would really like to see if these martial artists are as effective as claimed, especially against my new MHI semiautonomous security system prototypes!Or the advanced personal exo-augmentation equipment! I do wish to get my money’s worth from this little business!” The brunette with the raptor-eyes huffed.
“You’ll never get those toys to work, Natsume. Why do you bother?”
“Because the Americans are ALREADY getting such ‘toys’ to work, Mendo?”
“Cartoons and toys are what the Americans are good at, Mishima...not the tools of Empire!”
While the two industrialists bickered, Mikado Sanzenin sidled up in front of Ranma and put his finger under her chin, tipping her face up...His eyes glittered with malicious merriment at her.
“You know, I’d be well within my rights to claim your lips, my dear...and a lot more.” He smiled as he brought his mouth closer to hers, one hand caressing her jaw, the other hand moving along her shoulder.
...Oh, I know...I know...Already her body was betraying her as she felt a rising heat inside her, and a tingling where she was being touched through the thin fabric of her robe....
“Ladies, Gentlemen.....let us not argue, when we have accomplished so much, and STILL have much to accomplish ...and Sanzenin? We agreed; hands off.“ The priest...that must be Katsuhito Masaki, spoke up. His voice, though quiet, had a definite undertone of command in it.
That brought everybody’s attention back to the slavegirl. Two feminine glares in particular focused on Mikado.
To her dismay, Ranma found herself actually feeling disappointment, when Mikado backed off, taking his hands off her.
“Agreed” Mendo scowled in disgust at Sanzenin’s forthrightness. “I wouldn’t be averse to having her services as a hostess, or on my arm, where our beloved Kuno can see her in my service, but I’d not paw a woman whose affections are forced. Especially not this one.”
“Might I suggest that it would do her some good to spend some time in a quiet country setting while she recovers from the...intensity of her recent experiences...and while we see how our common acquaintance reacts to this development?” Masaki asked.
“And you just happen to have a country estate? Oh, right, a country shrine. I’d rather have her secure behind the walls of Sanzenin Manor...She will, inevitably, be spending time there as it boasts the best skating facilities in the country, and I do wish to see if her skating abilities have improved with her beauty and her attitude....”
“Open country? The better to see your enemies coming? I rather approve of the idea.” Mendo interjected, clearly eager to shoot down Sanzenin’s self-serving proposal.
“Good...I can provide transportation up there. I’ll call my limo.” Meioh offered.
“A Mishima copter can have her there much sooner than overland.” Natsume sniffed at the idea of so pedestrian a form of transportation as merely DRIVING someplace.
“Ah...but we WANT our good ‘friend’ to see his prize borne out of the city in style...somebody ELSE’S style.” The emerald-haired fashionista and stockmarket sorceress purred.
“Just think, Natsume...if he follows, we can always see good his minions are. Unless your much-vaunted ariel surveillance equipment can’t keep up?” Mendo challenged with a smirk.
”Hah! Better and more quiet than those armored shamblers you insist on driving around.” Natsume retorted.
“The Type Eighty-Four MBT is a proven and respectable fighting vehicle, unlike---”
“Then it’s agreed? The Masaki shrine while we work out a schedule for our new ‘employee’?” The old priest smiled as he refocused the discussion.
Ranma was feeling more and more like a piece of raw bait....She had a sudden image of herself bound and naked, being suspended over a leaping, grasping, Kuno, while above her the five people holding the lines bickered with each other... Five lines and one hook, and I’m being dangled on it....kuso!...
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(Posted Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:43)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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