Mara kept her gaze fixed on the face of the naked, and incredibly cute, redheaded nature spirit floating in front of her — however much the demon would have normally enjoyed the sight on display, now would be a very bad time to let her eyes wander. Likewise, she kept her smile firmly in place in spite of the two words Ranma had just used that had her seething: “stink” and “smell.” Remember, this offensive little hottie might be the key to Nabiki, do not mess this up!
“What kinda offer?” Ranma asked her, suspicion reflected in every move. “Just what can ya do for me — get rid of the Jusenkyo curse? And just how will that help me now? It’s too late!”
“No, I can’t remove the curse, it’s too powerful — a set part of your destiny,” Mara replied with a shake of her head. “But I wouldn’t remove it even if I could. Without it, you’re just one more mortal, however skilled a martial artist you might be for your age. With it, the combination of your martial arts skills and the capabilities your cursed form gives you make you a unique, versatile agent, able to go places demons can’t with a broad range of options when you get there. Besides,” she continued, ignoring Ranma’s confused look, “you’re right that as things stand there’s no point — you’d still be incapable of having sex in your human form.”
“So if ya can’t get rid of the curse and ya can’t fix me, what have ya got ta offer?” Ranma asked despondently.
“I didn’t say we couldn’t fix you, just that removing the curse wouldn’t do it,” Mara said. Gotcha! she thought as the succubus brightened. “We can — and if you swear loyalty to me, we will.”
“How?” Ranma asked eagerly, drifting slowly toward the demon, but Mara shook her head, her smile turning into a grin.
“That would be telling,” she said, her smile broadening. “If you join me, then I tell you about it.”
“Alright, alright, what do I gotta do?” Ranma asked.
Mara offered her hand to the succubus. “Just take my hand and repeat what I say,” she instructed.
Ranma was reaching out her hand when they heard a high-pitched voice. “Ranma, there you are!”
The succubus and demon whirled, and Mara felt her heart sink at the sight of the tiny insect-winged naked blonde sprite hovering a few yards away. Not Cherry Blossom, not now! she wailed silently to herself in the back of her mind even as she carefully put on a cool, disinterested expression.
“And Mara!” the sprite continued. “And being naughty, too. You know the rules, demons leave nature spirits alone and nature spirits leave demons alone.”
Making a serious effort to not grind her teeth, Mara replied calmly, “Ranma isn’t a nature spirit, so the truce doesn’t apply.”
“Oh, really?” Cherry Blossom responded cheerfully, and flew toward the Ranma. She slowly circled the redhead, starting at the feet and spiraling upward, flicking a red nipple in passing and giggling when Ranma blushed and jerked backward, and finally coming to a stop a few inches from Ranma’s nose. She giggled again when Ranma went crosseyed trying to look at her, then crossed one arm under her pert breasts and tapped on her lips with the fingers of the other. “I don’t know,” the tiny blonde mused thoughtfully. “She sure looks like a nature spirit to me. Feels like one, too.”
“You know very well Ranma’s a human cursed to turn into a succubus,” Mara growled, tempted to simply blast the little annoyance into oblivion. She could explain it to Ranma somehow, no one else needed to know how the sprite died ... and then she caught sight of several other sprites out of the corner of her eye, watching the proceedings from a dozen yards away. Damn!
“Oh, so she’s both a human and a nature spirit!” Cherry Blossom burbled, circling Ranma’s head. “Goodie, that means we both get to play!” Then, settling on Ranma’s shoulder, she said in a stage whisper, “You know, you’re awfully cute when you blush.
“Anyway,” she continued in her normal bubbly tone, flying off Ranma’s shoulder to again hover in front of her fellow nature spirit, “I’m not actually just passing by. Nabiki and Nodoka summoned me and sent me looking for you. They’re really worried about you, and Kasumi will be, too, when she finds out how you took off. We don’t want to worry Kasumi, do we?”
Ranma soundlessly shook her head.
“Good, so why don’t you finish up your business here, and we can head back and brighten her day.” The tiny sprite waved toward Mara, and Ranma turned back toward the demon, her mind whirling under the sprite’s verbal onslaught. There had been something in the middle of that torrent of words that had rung an alarm, something about Kasumi ... and even as she reached out a hand she felt — something — brush across her, something ... slimy ... like she had felt from Kasumi at Tofu’s clinic.
Yanking her hand back, Ranma glared suspiciously at Mara. “And just what would I hafta do, if I sign on? A martial artist protects the innocent and weak. Is that what you’d want me ta do?”
Mara suppressed a wince. Dropping her renewed smile, she said soberly, “No. We demons feel that the best defense is a good offense — we seek out those deserving of punishment and see that they get it.”
“People like Kasumi?” Ranma demanded.
“Kasumi? You mean Tendo Kasumi?”
“Yeah, that Kasumi,” Ranma snarled. “Sure, she doesn’t really like what me and Nabiki are doing, but she’s treated me great anyway. An’ Doc Tofu’s a good guy, too. She an’ the doc don’t deserve ta be cursed by some demon so he acts like a maniac whenever she’s around. If that’s what ya consider ‘seeking out those that deserve punishment’, then ya can kiss off!”
Mara stared as Ranma spread her wings and began to fly away, stunned by how abruptly everything had fallen apart. Shaking herself free of the shock, she called out to the angry succubus. “Ranma! If you change your mind just call my name, I’ll answer as soon as I can!” There was no reply, as the Mara watched Ranma disappear into the night sky.
She stared at the empty sky for several minutes, then shook herself and walked across the park to a grove of trees. As she approached, Calise stepped out of the treeline. “Well, that could have gone better,” she said sympathetically.
“No kidding!” Mara snarled. She paused and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and holding it for a long moment, then sighed. “I didn’t really expect Ranma to agree, not at first,” she admitted to her friend. “I was just laying the groundwork for later, I hadn’t realized just how important Ranma’s manhood is to him ... her ... whatever. But it was going so well! And then that blithering, crafty little bitch had to go and stick her nose in....”
“You do have to admit this ... situation ... doesn’t fit our truce with the nature spirits very well,” Calise pointed out, then hesitantly continued, “You really didn’t know about Kasumi and Tofu?”
“No, I didn’t. You did?”
“Yes, it was in his file,” Calise admitted, then suddenly stiffened. “But it wasn’t in Kasumi’s file! Oh, shit, someone screwed up the cross-referencing, and I missed it! I’m sorry, Mara —”
“Not your fault,” Mara said, waving off her apology. “Or at least not your job, you’re just helping out in your off-hours. I can’t read the file for every person Ranma meets, but I should have read Dr. Tofu’s after Ranma visited the second time at the latest — he is an old friend of the Tendos, after all, and he’s mentioned in both Akane’s and Kasumi’s files especially. Just too many cases, I guess, maybe I should hand some of the less important ones off.”
She shrugged, winced, and rotated her shoulders, trying to loosen up stiff muscles, then sighed blissfully when Calise stepped behind her and started to massage the back of her shoulders. “Ohhh, that feels good. Anyway, taking a look at my caseload’s for later. Did Jalok follow her?”
Calise nodded as her hands worked their magic. “Yes, it took off like a bat out of hell —” She broke off, chuckling. “I’ve always liked that phrase, however did the English come up with it? Anyway, when Ranma flew off it followed her. But I don’t know if it’ll catch her, a couple of sprites took off after it when it left.”
“Wonderful. Just ... wonderful. Sprites aren’t the most stable of nature spirits, who knows what they’ll do if they catch it? I really hope this doesn’t blow up into another war, we really don’t need that right now.”
Regretfully, Mara stepped away, breaking off her friend’s attentions. “Let’s head home, it sounds like I need to report Cherry Blossom’s interference, and then get some more files to read while waiting for Jalok to report in.”
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(Posted Fri, 13 Aug 2010 06:21)
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