Had Ranma been Nabiki, she would have hovered over the furo for several minutes, agonizing over the ‘moment of truth’ she faced. Would she regain her manhood, her humanity? Would she be trapped in this body that wasn’t her own? Would she miss the powers afforded her by the spiritual form? Was she inexorably drifting from human and male to succubus and female? Was she ready to have sex just for fun? It was a profound moment of self-reflection and contemplation of her being and her future.
Ranma is not Nabiki. “For my manhood!” she screamed as she shot through walls and floor to impact the furo. The water geysered as if struck with a large rock as Ranma shifted to the male, his suddenly solid body not losing its momentum. Which didn’t help when his skull impacted the far side of the furo.
It was a dizzy, unsteady Ranma who stood up in the cracked bath in a flooded room, one fist in the air. “Yatta,” he whimpered, eyes rolling up into his skull. Nabiki rushed in just in time to see Ranma fall backwards into the water.
She smiled briefly at the well-toned male body on full display for her when Akane rushed in. “What was that…noise…someone in this room is being extremely perverted.”
Nabiki rolled her eyes. “It’s hard to be perverted and unconscious. Help me get him into his room.”
Akane flushed beet red and pointed at Ranma. “I AM NOT TOUCHING THAT THING!!”
Nabiki leered down at Ranma. “More for me then.”
THUD.
Nabiki sighed. “Maybe Kasumi can help. She’ll need to call the repairman anyway.”
Ranma opened his eyes slowly and groaned. Everything felt weird. There was a pressure on his chest and his ears were clogged or something. There was something over him. Slowly, Nabiki’s face came into focus. “Welcome back.”
Ranma propped himself up and tried to figure out his surroundings. He was in Nabiki’s room, on her bed. The strange pressure…Nabiki’s blankets. Oh yeah, gravity. Solidity. Human. He looked around the room and marveled at not seeing through the walls. “It’s good ta be back, Nabs,” he said.
“Disoriented?” Nabiki asked. Ranma nodded. “No surprise. You’ve never been a spirit that long.”
Ranma rubbed the back of his neck. “An’ that’s why everything doesn’t look right?”
“I guess. It shouldn’t last too long; after all you’ve been in this body a lot longer. And it is a very nice body.”
Ranma flushed, pleasantly surprising Nabiki with the carnal desires buried in his fading confusion. “Er, thanks. Nothin’ compared to you, of course.”
This time it was Nabiki’s turn to blush.
Shampoo pouted. “Airen not marry Shampoo?”
Cologne shook her head. “Not this time, granddaughter. Amazing.”
Dao peered over Cologne’s shoulder. “I thought you placed a relocking layer over that curse.”
“I did,” Cologne retorted.
“A mere Initiate broke through a relocking barrier?” Dao asked dubiously. “You’re losing your touch, Cologne.”
Cologne frowned and turned to her fellow elder. “I assure you I am not. The Tendo girl could not have broken my spell without help.”
“Your scrying would appear to indicate otherwise.”
“The girl’s wards are impressive. All I can confirm is that a spell that I cast was broken somewhere within her home. Since I have only cast the one spell on this island, we can eliminate much of the guesswork and say with certainty that Tendo Nabiki broke the curse I placed on son-in-law. I have no idea how, but surely she had help.”
Dao frowned and looked over Cologne’s work. “Hmm. This may put the Saotome child beyond our laws, if mages of such caliber are aiding him.”
“No!” Shampoo objected quickly. She blanched. “Shampoo means, please no, honored elder. Shampoo find out how smartgirl break curserock. Shampoo show you Ranma still airen.”
Dao smiled slightly. “If you can win him, child, you will have my blessing. But this is no small task.”
“And Shampoo no small warrior. Shampoo always win.”
The next day, Ranma arrived at Furinkan to a whirlwind of questions. Where had he gone? Where was Ranko? How had he been locked? What was it like being a spirit for so long? Was Ranko really a different person? How was Shampoo in bed?
That last question earned Hiroshi a trip to Doc Tofu. The rest, Ranma just ignored as best he could. Kuno’s rantings about the ‘foul sorcerer showing himself at last to face the mighty and righteous Kuno’ sent the delusional boy to the nurse.
Inevitably, each question crossed Nabiki’s desk. The Ice Queen rubberstamped Hiroshi’s trip to the land of pain and crafted appropriate replies to the rest of the questions. “Ranko” was the first casualty.
The second was her credibility. “You lied?”
Nabiki sighed. “Ranma didn’t want anyone to know he turned into a girl. I did my best to accommodate.”
“Why the about-face?”
“The Amazons wrecked it. They were not in on the lie and by their actions exposed the truth enough for it to become an issue. Now, when you sell this information, pass it off as a clarification. I’ll put together a booklet on Ranma’s curse that’ll be ready for distribution in a few days. Use that to distract from questioning our credibility.”
“Not a problem, boss. What about the new magic club?”
Nabiki blinked. “Brief me.”
“About a third of the students who had direct contact with ‘Ranko’ have asked about magic. About a dozen of them have decided to form a club to actually research the subject.”
Nabiki pursed her lips. “Why haven’t we heard about this before?”
“They’re trying to keep it quiet. They believe that you have been covering up the real truth and will try to stop them if you find out about them.”
“Great,” Nabiki groaned. “And now they have evidence they can spin to grow their numbers. And if I do stop them they just go deeper.”
The girl frowned. “We want to stop them?”
“You know as well as I do that the only way to make actual yen in this trade is to control information, but in this case I’d simply rather not see amateurs try to turn lead into gold and end up making the walls bleed.”
“Ow. Okay, fair enough. Plan?”
“For now let’s just get ears on them. After all, what are the chances that they’ll stumble on real magic?”
Mara smiled at the report. “The Amazons are thwarted, making Shampoo that much more aggressive. Furinkan is slipping from Nabiki’s control. A new occultic group is forming for us to prey on…eventually. And Nabiki is open to dealing with us on ‘her’ terms.”
Gorash nodded. “Your orders?”
“Compile a list of second class demons I ordered out of Tokyo, especially any that operated in Nerima. Pick out the best three for quiet longterm recon. The more we know about this magic club, the easier it will be to control them once Nabiki is properly corrupted.”
“Yes, mistress.”
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(Posted Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:53)
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