Ranma went over to Nabiki and began examining the manacles. Like she had, he tried pulling them open, and feeling around the inside edges. Nabiki did her best to ignore the heat in her caused by having Ranma so close to her and occasionally touching her arms.
After a minute or two, she asked, "Well?"
"There aren't any keyholes or anything."
"So I noticed."
"So how am I supposed to get them off of you then?!"
"I don't know. I thought since they were put on me by magic, they might change when my so-called 'Master' wanted to get them off. Or you might be able to use some strange martial arts skill to get them off - I've lost track of all the tricks you know at this point."
Ranma frowned, "Well, if I got a good grip on them I might be able to tear them apart if they're not made of too strong a metal..."
Nabiki frowned as well. "I suppose that would be cheaper than contracting a metal smith to cut them off, and safer than involving someone like Cologne in this. First though, did you find any keys or anything you didn't recognize in with your stuff? Maybe a magnet?" She knew magnetic locks could be made, though if it were that simple there still should have been seams and hinges in the manacles. More likely the key was some magical object, but what it would look like she had no idea,
Ranma scratched his head. "Well I found some clothes I've never seen before, and there was this one key... I don't see what good it would do, though - there's no keyhole to put it in."
Nabiki shrugged. "Maybe the keyhole is hidden? Just to make sure why don't you go get it and we'll see what happens."
Ranma said sceptically, "If you really think it might help." He rushed back to his room to get the key.
While Ranma was gone, Nabiki forced herself to resist the urge to start rubbing herself through her shorts - she knew he wouldn't be long, and she didn't want him to see her doing it.
A minute later, he came back, holding a brass key in his hands.
"Let me see that," Nabiki requested. Ranma handed it to her, and she looked it over. It was an old-fashioned key, comprised of a bow to hold on to, a shaft, and a set of long metal teeth at the end. It was about five inches long, with a shaft not quite as thick as a pencil. The bow had a meaningless abstract pattern, with no indication of what the key was for.
Nabiki held the key near her left manacle for a moment, then when no keyhole magically appeared, began experimentally tapping the manacle. When that did nothing, she repeated the actions on the manacle on her right wrist.
She frowned. "It might not work for me because I'm supposed to be the 'slave"." She handed the key back to him, and said, "My thought was that the key might cause a keyhole to apper, or that the a keyhole might not be required. Why don't you try?"
"Okay," Ranma said doubtfully. He tried poking her wrist cuffs in a few different places with the key, but nothing happened.
"Maybe you need to wave it around, or say some sort of magic word?" Nabiki speculated weakly.
Ranma looked at her strangely and said, "I don't know any magic words."
"I know, I know," Nabiki said, sounding a bit stressed.
Ranma humored her by waving the key around near her manacles, but nothing happend.
Nabiki sighed. "So much for those ideas. I'm going to look through my room to see if that genie left me anything that might help. If I can't find anything by dinner time, I'll want to try your idea of tearing them off - I'd rather not have to answer questions from the family about where these manacles came from and why I'm wearing them."
"So ya want me to come back just before dinner?"
"Yes, please," she said in a distracted voice as she walked over to her desk. She turned to look at him as he started to leave, and said with a wink, "If you do a good job, maybe I'll even give you a reward!"
"Er..." Ranma decided the best response was to leave the room as quickly as possible before she started acting even stranger. "AlrightthenI'llseeyoulaterbye!" The door slammed shut behind him.
Nabiki started to scold herself for trying to flirt with Ranma, then remembered she had occasionally done that even before the wish. Nabiki blinked in confusion. "So what was his problem?"
As he headed down hall and down the stairs, Ranma scratched his head. While the part at the end had been strange (Nabiki offering to give him something instead of trying to get money from him?!), it was even stranger to have come away from an encounter with Nabiki without either being lighter in the pocket or having made a commitment he didn't like. He supposed it was because for once they both wanted the same thing - to hide any and all traces of the incident earlier.
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(Posted Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:46)
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