[Episode 241094] [Episode 241094]“Ranko, we’re here.”
Ranma jerked at Nabiki’s voice, looking around frantically for a moment before relaxing. She didn’t recognize the street, but she couldn’t see any immediate threats, either.
Nabiki chuckled at her companion’s reaction. “You know, Ranko, I’ve seen you pretty out of it before but never this bad without the help of drugs or getting hit in the head. You’d better pay better attention when we head home, because I’m not bringing you out here myself again and you’ll need to know the way. Was the news that you have soul sight really that surprising?”
“I ... well ... yeah. I mean, why would a sex demon need ta see the shape of people’s souls?” Ranma asked bemusedly.
Nabiki shrugged. “Think of the job you’re going to be interviewing for,” she replied. “Lots of prostitutes are abused by their customers, even murdered sometimes. And for those succubae that aren’t professionals, there are going to be a lot of one night stands with the same dynamic. Knowing how good or bad someone is, and how, can go a long way toward telling you if you can safely climb into bed with them.”
Ranma looked at the mercenary Tendo skeptically. “Considerin’ how powerful a succubus can be, I don’t think that’s exactly a problem,” the redhaired girl rebutted.
“Let’s see if you still think that after you learn all the ways a guy can stick it in a girl,” Nabiki said seriously. “A lot of them leave the girl pretty vulnerable.”
“Whatever,” Ranma said nonchalantly as she looked over the building they were standing in front of. There was nothing about the four-story, block-length building that was out of the ordinary, to draw the eye. The first floor was even taken up by shops and fast food places. “This is it?” she asked in surprise.
“What, you don’t think a brothel is going to have big flashy lights, do you? They have other ways of advertising — the people that come here looking for your type of good time know where it is. Come on, the side entrance is this way.”
As Ranma followed Nabiki toward an unlabeled door between a clothing store apparently aimed at teenage girls and a hole in the wall ramen outlet, her soul sight kicked in and she again found herself looking at the translucent blacks, greys, and occasional white swirling about the older girl — a rather disturbing amount of black, now that the newborn succubus knew what it meant. “Nabiki, if ya knew I can see what people’s souls look like, why haven’t ya asked me ta describe yours?” Ranma asked.
Nabiki shrugged again as she opened the door to reveal a flight of narrow stairs leading upward. “I don’t need to ask, I know what I am,” she replied. “Now come on, Ayano-san is waiting.”
The cute teenage girl in a maid’s uniform that had answered the door at the top of the stairs from the outside knocked on an office door. “Miura-sama, your guests are here,” she called.
“Thank you, Teruyo-chan, send them in,” an even high-alto voice replied. Teruyo opened the door and stepped aside, and Ranma and Nabiki walked in.
Ranma quickly glanced around, making a quick check as always for any surprise threats and not finding any. The office was Spartan — no windows, a half-full set of bookshelves with none of the knickknacks the female of the species seemed to favor, a watercolor print, a desk with a desktop computer, a docking station for a laptop, and a desk in the middle of the room with two wooden chairs in front of it. Rising from the office chair behind the desk was a small woman. Her hair had gone white with age and her eyes were surrounded by smile-lines. She was slightly overweight, but Ranma could see hints of muscles and her movements were smooth and sure.
“Nabiki, it’s good to see you again,” the woman said with a welcoming smile. “And is this the Saotome Ranko you called me about?”
“Yes, it is,” Nabiki replied, bowing. “Miura Ayano-san, this is Ranko.”
Ayano’s eyebrows rose at the lack of a last name, and she stepped out from behind the desk as Ranma bowed. “Strip,” the elderly woman said.
“What?” Ranma asked confusedly.
“Take your clothes off, let me get a look at you,” Ayano clarified.
Ranma gazed at the elderly woman for a moment and suddenly her soul sight was back again, mostly whites and light grays, a little shading into dark grays and a rare black. Almost like Kasumi’s, she thought as she glanced at a suddenly expressionless (and much darker) Nabiki. With an effort the redhead forced the translucent shades to fade away, shrugged, and quickly ran her fingers down the fasteners of her Chinese-style shirt, shrugged it off (Nabiki caught it before it hit the floor and draped it over a chair), loosened and pulled down her pants along with her boxers (Ayano’s eyebrows going up again at Ranma’s choice of underwear), and leaned down to loosen the ties around her ankles and step free. Straightening, she gazed calmly at the madam, ignoring her faint blush.
Ayano walked around her, eyes running over the teenager’s smoothly muscled body. “Hmmm ... from the muscle tone definitely an athlete, rather small, very cute but not too young looking, especially with these,” — she reached out to heft one oversized breast, Ranma twitching when a thumb rubbed across a crinkling nipple — “good, even at your cutest you won’t be mistaken for a child.” Noticing Nabiki’s lifting eyebrow, Ayano added, “I don’t cater to pedophiles, Nabiki.”
Focusing back on Ranma, she gave the breast in her hand a slight squeeze. “Interesting, these are real — I thought at first that you’d been stupid enough to get implants while you were still growing. And firm enough you don’t really need a bra, except for heavy exercise.”
Releasing the breast, her hand dropped to run fingers through the bush of hair at Ranma’s crotch. “And your red hair doesn’t come out of a bottle,” she mused as her fingers slid lower. “Gaijin blood?”
“Not — eep! — not that I know of,” Ranma responded, twitching again and blushing furiously as Ayano’s fingers ran down one side of the outer edge of her nether lips and up the other, then brushed across the redhead’s nub beginning to poke out of its hood.
“I see.” Ayano stepped back and ran her eyes over Ranma’s nude body once more, then turned to return to her seat. “Get dressed and have a seat,” she said as she sat back down. As Ranma picked up her boxers and pants from off the floor and began slipping them on, Ayano asked, “You are starting your last year of high school?”
“No,” Ranma replied as she finished fastening her pants around her ankles and picked up her shirt from where it was draped over the chair. “I would be, but I’m dropping out.”
“I see,” Ayano replied, then sat and stared at the two teenagers for a time as Ranma finished doing up the fasteners on her shirt and sat next to Nabiki. Finally, the madam sighed. “Why?” she quietly asked.
Ranma and Nabiki exchanged confused glances. “ ‘Why’, what? Why am I droppin’ out a’ school?” the redhead asked. “High school doesn’t really leave much time fer workin’, even if it permitted it.”
“No, why are you doing this?” Ayano clarified. “I’ve seen a few girls stupid enough to think this would a glamorous life, the oh so romantic courtesans and geishas they’ve read about brought to life — they can actually get giddy. But from your reaction to my little examination, you don’t seem the type. And you haven’t been abused and are running from home, either.”
“My sister is pregnant,” Nabiki said quickly. “Our household expenses have been a bit high lately, and babies are expensive. I don’t want to cut into the college funds for me and Akane. Ranko’s agreed to help out.”
“And what is Akane to you?” Ayano asked Ranma, her gaze sharpening.
Ranma hesitated, then replied, “My lover.”
Ayano’s eyes widened. “And she’s okay with you selling yourself to support her?” she asked.
“She ... isn’t exactly happy about it, but she understands why. She’s goin’ along,” Ranma said carefully.
Ayano leaned back in her chair and gave Ranma a searching look before nodding. “All right, that’s remotely plausible. And I suppose I owe Nabiki a favor for the opportunity she gave me. Speaking of which ...” She glanced over at the other girl. “Were you able to come up with someone to replace you, now that you’re moving on to college?”
Nabiki shook her head. “No, there’s no one who both has the brains to keep it up without getting caught and that you could trust.”
“Damn,” Ayano muttered, “being able to give those girls a decent first experience and pass on some safety tips for the ones stupid enough to keep it up was nice. The money wasn’t bad, either. Anyway,” she continued, straightening in her chair and turning back to Ranma, “Ranko, has Nabiki told you anything about my setup?”
“Just that ya specialize in teenagers an’ cosplay,” Ranma replied.
“That’s true, but far from the full story. I specialize in girls that have run away from home, or have been thrown out by their parents, and are living on the streets — the girls that are almost certain to end up selling themselves, anyway. I give them a choice between working as servants for room and board and a little extra spending money or as prostitutes for a larger weekly stipend with much more invested. If they choose to become prostitutes they get protection from abusive clients and good medical care plus the earnings I mentioned. When the girls turn twenty, they’re on their own to make room for more street kids, though I do try to steer them toward job opportunities, and college for the ones with enough savings.
“Normally, the girls all sleep here in dorms I’ve set up, you’d be the only girl commuting. Also, I’ve made arrangements with a local school. You don’t need to attend classes, but you do need to study and pass tests — any test you fail means less time earning money and more time studying. For work, you can refuse particular acts, but must do so generally, for all clients. Nor can you refuse a particular client — any man that is acceptable as a client has the choice of all the available girls. So, Ranko, is this acceptable?”
Ranma and Nabiki exchanged glances and Nabiki gave a discreet nod. “Sure, that’ll be fine,” Ranma said.
Ayano gazed at the two for a moment longer, then nodded. “All right, did Nabiki mention the nightly training for the next week?” At Ranma’s nod, she continued, “It starts tonight at eight o’clock, but you need to be here a few hours earlier than that so the doctor I retain can examine you — not that you need it, from the looks of you, but that’s the routine — and have you measured so we’ll know which costumes will fit and which new ones we need to make. So be here at six.”
As Ranma nodded again, there was a knock on the door. “Miura-sama, I’m sorry to bother you, but Hisamatsu-san is here to see you.”
Ayano glanced at the clock. “He’s early,” she murmured, then raising her voice continued, “Thank you, Teruyo-chan, please escort him to the Blue Room, I’ll be right there.” Turning to the two teenagers with her, she said, “It looks like I’ll have to cut this short and finish it later.”
Ranma and Nabiki rose, and Ranma bowed. “Thank you for accepting me,” she said as she would have for a sensei accepting her as a student.
Ayano snorted softly. “Don’t thank me until you’ve been trained and working for a week. Oh, Nabiki,” she added, waving the girl toward her as the teens turned toward the door. When Nabiki stepped up to her, the madam murmured too low for Ranma to hear, “If I find out you blackmailed Ranko to get her to do this, you will regret it. Clear?” Nabiki simply nodded and rejoined a curious Ranma by the door and the two left.
Ayano returned to sit behind her desk, reflecting for a moment on the just-finished interview. She didn’t doubt that what she’d been told was true enough, and it did make sense — women had been selling themselves to feed their children, and sometimes those of other women, for all of human history. But she couldn’t escape the feeling that there was something more going on. Finally, she shrugged to herself, picked up the phone and quickly typed in a number. “Isoruko-kun, hello ...” ... “Yes, I’m doing fine, thank you. I don’t have time to talk long, I have someone waiting for me. I’m calling about the new recruit I spoke to you about yesterday.” ... “Yes, I’m taking her on.” ... “No, she isn’t a glamour-struck fool like I thought she might be, but she isn’t one of the broken-winged sparrows, either — this one is going to be different for you. Anyway, her training starts tonight, at the usual time.” ... “Of course, I always have time to gossip afterwards, I’ll look forward to it.”
Ranma and Nabiki walked toward the train station in silence, the younger girl paying more attention to her surroundings this time. Finally, Ranma asked nonchalantly, “Do you think Ayano-san is like that with all the girls she recruits?”
“You mean the inspection?” Nabiki asked, and shrugged at Ranma’s nod. “I don’t know — she wasn’t with me, but I was a one shot.” Thinking about it for a moment, she added, “I doubt it, considering that most of her girls start out as abused, scared, or both — just off the streets. I think she was testing you. So, were you okay with it, getting groped by a stranger?”
“Yeah, I was,” the redhead said thoughtfully. “Kinda excited, actually. I think I’m lookin’ forward ta the job.” And it helped that Ayano-san had so much white in her soul, almost as much as Kasumi, she added silently to herself.
“Should I mention that to Akane?”Nabiki asked, grinning sardonically, then laughed when her companion blanched and began to stutter a denial. “You’re too easy, Ranma. Relax, I won’t mention it — I wouldn’t be able to hear myself for all the shouting, and I need the peace for planning for college.”
“Ya aren’t gonna demand a cut a’ my earnings? Are ya sure you’re feelin’ all right?” Ranma asked suspiciously.
Nabiki waved off the redhead’s wary glare. “I told you, Ranma, Akane’s happiness is important to me, I’m not going to mess it up.” Besides, there’s another way I can get a cut, she thought, suppressing a smirk as the two girls boarded the trains and found a pair of seats . Leaning back, the middle Tendo closed her eyes in contemplation. Let’s see, how long should I wait before I sell Kuno the location of your new job? You won’t actually be available for at least a week, but he usually drops by around once every couple of months looking for redheads....
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(Posted Wed, 03 Nov 2010 06:25)
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