Some people, she knew from watching such interrogations, responded to threats and pain. Some people were less responsive to such things, having grown used to it or having backgrounds and motivations which were specifically insulating against such measures. She'd never actually had to conduct an interrogation herself, but had been present as a tool to inspire fear.
Ranma Saotome, her Master, was (as noted) very open in expression and body language. Some of the women were of more interest than others. When he read those sheets on the women involved, she'd also put the same details together.
The ones he'd shown the most interest in were the blue-haired physician and her daughter, the brown haired girl wearing the house-dress had also sparked his evident interest, and there had been mention of this other worldly engagement. Likewise, the Chinese woman with the magenta hair had drawn some interest from him - but some discomfort as well. The mystic abilities of the woman with the long dark-green hair, and the ninja status of the one woman all seemed to draw flickers of interest.
"Master, if I may?" asked Rei.
"Huh?" asked Ranma, who considered her briefly before nodding then watching curiously as she drew the Integra woman to the side.
"You want him to select more than one," said Rei quietly as soon as the two were off to the side.
"Whatever do you mean?" asked Integra, curiously. Not the least of which was because Rei was initiating this action instead of passively waiting for orders.
Rei turned that unblinking emotionless gaze towards Integra for a few moments, not speaking.
"Would you explain?" asked Integra.
"You have deliberately engineered a situation where he would feel sympathy towards several of those present," said Rei. "The number of those he seemed to recognize preclude a random assortment."
"Ah, you picked up on that," said Integra.
"As this company researches skill downloads, genetic engineering, cloning, and other specialized fields, it seems likely that not all of these are the originals," stated Rei dispassionately.
"Now there you are incorrect," said Integra. "Please go on though, I'm quite interested to see how much you actually have figured out."
"If these are the actual originals," said Rei, pausing as she analyzed these conditions, "then you are testing other developments with these. You have also made the statement that you wish to monitor my Master and his relationship with me."
Rei considered the look from Integra to mean that she was mostly correct so far. Well, she HAD observed soldiers like Master Sergeant Haytham who were reputed masters of the Art Of The Deal. Time to put her lessons to use.
Ranma tried not to fidget, but listened to the occasional snatch of conversation that he could hear and concluded that Rei was doing something he'd seen a LOT of since coming to this world. The time-honored tradition of haggling over price.
It was something that every female in this society did, and almost no men did. Dickering over price was seen as a feminine role, where more masculine individuals either bought the item in question or did not. The sole exception to that activity being auctions where EVERYONE fought over the price. It was a cultural thing, and it made little sense to him, but he noted its existence nonetheless.
Since he didn't have much else to do, he merely flipped through the various sheets again. They had a lot more detail than at first glance, but it was mainly information he'd tend to ignore anyway. Measurements, height, weight, blood type, and such - of darn little value here and now.
There were other details that he supposed would make sense if he was really into the whole technical aspect sort of thing. Some of the terms there made no sense to him at all, and were either acronyms or contracted words that made little sense.
There were SOME items that made sense to him that he was actually a little curious about. Chakra and Mana were listed values, for example. Chakra was something like chi, which was an aspect of martial arts beyond the simple art of pummelling. He'd heard of it used that way before in martial arts tournaments and knew enough to read that aspect.
Kasumi Tendo had fairly high values for someone who didn't practice martial arts herself. 8/10. From what Ranma had seen elsewhere, 5/5 would be typical for someone on the street while a 20 or 30 stat would indicate a master-level of something to do with that ability.
Sopu was a higher level, as he'd expect from someone who was a practitioner of martial arts AND came from a long lineage of martial artists. 25/10 - so not so good at magic, though still double the hypothetical person off the street. Her chi level though was 25 - and if he remembered the scoring system right that meant she had really good reserves of chi. Ten was double of five, fifteen was double of ten, twenty was doubled fifteen, so that meant that Sopu was up in the higher ranks of martial arts as far as chi was concerned. Not a full Master level, but pretty darn close.
Ami and her mom though were the opposite. Both of them had above-average chi, but high scores on mana. If they didn't know any magic, getting them some training was a good idea.
Nodoka had average scores. 5/5.
Setsuna had another huge mana score, with above average chi.
Ritsuko had average scores like Nodoka, but Misato had 8/8. Not as good as Kasumi, but better than average. Might be able to train her up some.
Tsunade on the other hand had 30/15. Which meant that she had four times as much mana as a normal person, but a full mastery (64x) in chi levels.
That was, of course, if nobody deliberately tested low in order to not get worked into the ground by a new owner. Ranma HAD heard of that happening.
"Done then, and done," said Rei, grabbing a hand of the stunned and out-bargained Integra, demonstrating that she HAD been paying attention in the field when bartering had taken place. The ritual was now concluded.
Ranma glanced at Integra and wondered what had gone on, the woman looked shell-shocked or at least dazed.
"Master, I have managed to acquire clothing, backpacks, training materials, and more than one of these choices before you," said Rei in her normal soft voice. "Do you approve?"
"Uhm, sure," said Ranma. "Who'd we end up with?"
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(Posted Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:30)
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