"A key?" Kodachi asked, blinking. "Oh, yes, of course. The winner's prize!" She pulled a small key from her leotard and threw it to Nabiki. "A key for my oath! And now, commiserations for the dearly defeated! Ranma-sama!! Where are you my love!?"
Nabiki's body stared as two stunned minds watched the deranged gymnast hunt for her "love." 'Nabs, ain't you good at makin' people do what ya want?'
Nabiki sighed silently. With the end of battle, Ranma's focus vanished like so much smoke. 'The first rule to manipulating people is to know their limits. I don't know Kodachi that well, but her fixation is obvious. nothing short of a death threat is going to make her just give you up.'
'So what do we do?'
'We get some plans on paper and worry about her later,' Nabiki said confidently.
"Nabiki!" Akane hissed.
"Hm?" Nabiki asked, walking over to her sister.
"You've been staring into space for nearly a minute now, and the ref is freaking out."
Nabiki looked over her shoulder at the woman and noticed that she had a small trophy and a confused expression. "Oops."
'Enjoy your first challenge victory, Nabs.'
"Wait, you aren't leaving!?" Nabiki yelped aloud. The ref looked even more nervous.
In answer, Ranko pulled away from Nabiki. The spirit's body stepped out of the human shell and floated a few inches over the ring. "Oh that is so much better!"
she exclaimed, going through a series of stretches that would leave lesser bisexual women drooling."My unseen goddess?" Kuno wondered at the voice. "She has noticed my esteemed presence! Come to me spirit girl!"
He didn't notice Gosunkugi a few rows over, running through a full roll of film and drowning in his own saliva.
"Okay, that may have been a mistake," Ranma muttered as the ref stared wildly in her general direction. Ryoga stared at Ranma for a few heartbeats before trying to attack, only to be held back by the chain in Nabiki's hands.
"Ya think?" Nabiki drawled.
"I should leave?"
"Couldn't hurt."
Ranma quietly floated out the wall.
Akane looked Nabiki over as she left the ring. "As down payments go, that was great," she said with a smile.
A few hours later, Nabiki and Ranma were sharing a cup of tea with Nodoka at her home. Nabiki was lying down on the tatami mats, Ranma was gently massaging the knots out of her back. "Well well well. I wish I had been there to see your fight. I don't think I've ever heard of something quite so roundabout."
"And I doubt you will again," Nabiki groaned. "I haven't been this sore since Mom died."
"Yer mom was hard on ya?" Ranma asked, frowning as he worked his elbow into Nabiki's spine.
"NNNNaaaaahhh! No, nothing like that. When she died, Daddy stopped training us."
Nodoka nodded. "That makes a certain amount of sense. Sad though it is."
"So, Nodoka," Nabiki groaned out, "have you managed to track anything down?" Ever since Nabiki's wards were assailed, she'd had every Awakened or better she knew and could trust working on some piece of the puzzle. It burned through a lot of her "favors" which pleased the karmically unbalanced girl.
Nodoka frowned. "You could say that," she said darkly. "Demonic presence across Tokyo is at the lowest it's been in centuries, as far as everyone I know can tell."
Ranma blinked. "Isn't the absence of demons a good thing?"
Nodoka smiled bitterly. "Ranma, imagine Genma not trying to steal your food for a month."
Ranma's brow furled. "He's up to something, or he's dying."
"I don't think the world is lucky enough for that many demonic funerals," Nabiki said drolly. "So I've gotten Hell's attention?"
Nodoka shook her head. "Information on 'Hell' is vague enough to be useless, but at worst you've got a classed demon interested in you for all that summoning you used to do."
"Classed demon?" Nabiki asked. She was a prodigy, but that didn't make her knowledgable.
"Archfiends, the elite of the damned, the princes of darkness, the maidens of decay," Nodoka ran off to Nabiki's growing pallor. "Modern demonology just tosses them in numbered classes and ignores the overblown titles. The bosses of the imps you summoned."
"But she stopped summoning!" Ranma insisted.
"Which is why they're interested," Nabiki surmised, scowling. "A loyal customer goes elsewhere, you find out why."
Nodoka nodded gravely. "This is all guesswork, of course. This might have nothing to do with you. And the ward imprint you provided was clearly not demonic, besides."
Nabiki nodded slowly. "Still. Ignoring this is probably a bad idea."
Ranma sighed. "Well, I can fight them if they show up, right?"
Nabiki frowned and thought about the recent fight. "No imp could stand a chance against you, that's for sure, but a classed demon is out of your league."
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(Posted Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:50)
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