Caught in discussion between Kasumi and Kodachi about how to best update Kasumi's character, Ranma was doing his best to ignore Akane and Nabiki. Kasumi wasn't particularly adept at rapidly hitting buttons on her controller, which meant their efforts were proceeding at a slow but pleasant crawl. Somewhat distracted by looking through the class options for Kasumi, Ranma heard something from Nabiki that made him frown a bit.
"Who said I was a virgin?"
The abruptness of the statement took several of the girls by surprise, though Ranma didn't notice anything was wrong until the silence pervaded the atmosphere and even Kasumi stopped to stare at him.
"What?"
The rhetorical question was so bold that Nabiki along with the rest of the girls were having trouble wrapping their minds around the possibility of Ranma not being a virgin. Even in the case of someone like Akane that often railed about his supposed sexual exploits, to hear him say something so bold in regard to such was shocking. Nabiki however proved the most mentally agile as she was the first to voice her thoughts. "You're joking, right?"
Looking between the girls, Ranma eventually figured out the problem after remembering the incident that resulted from mentioning Uncle Jiro. "Oh, you wouldn't know about it, it was back before I got cursed. Heck, it was back before I met Ryouga."
Hearing that it was something before they knew him changed the tone quite a bit for Nabiki from something troublesome to something to be curious about. Of course the fiancees were still likely to take exception, so she was careful direct her tone towards mischievous curiosity in the hope that learning more would win out over outrage. "Oh? Do tell."
Realizing an inkling the situation, Ranma frowned thoughtfully at the trip down memory lane. "Well, she was a older girl. Ya know, mature and real nice, plus she baked good cookies."
"Ooohhhhh. So someone like Kasumi then?"
"Mhmm, well... I mean sure, Kasumi is older, but she isn't, ya know, really mature."
"Oh-ho-ho, so you mean to say you don't like younger girls because they're just so... immature?"
"Well... yeah."
Looking between a smirking Nabiki and embarrassed looking Kasumi, Ukyou had to surmise it was some inside joke between them and possibly Ranma. "I don't get it sugar, why are you looking at Kasumi that way?"
Nabiki was relishing the opportunity to tease Kasumi by turning her words around for the delicious irony. "Oh, you don't know? When we were settling the engagement deal the first day, Kasumi passed over Ranma because younger men 'bore' her."
Leaving Akane where she was, Nabiki strutted over to Ranma, and slinking both arms around his neck she settled firmly into his lap while grinning brazenly at him. Her grin didn't waver the least at his measured lack of reaction as it instead drove her curiosity further. The sudden bout of calm wariness made him seem much more mature than his normal self, leading some credence to the idea of him actually being experienced. "So, you like them... mature. Mhmm, so you haven't gotten any since then? I guess that explains your reactions. All these younger girls in your face, and a bit after Shampoo arrives you start over-reacting in avoiding sexual situations."
"So?"
The wary reserved stare that met her smoldering gaze easily enough drove the naughty bunny to grind her ass into his lap just to see even a hint of reaction. "Well it's just most guys in this situation would take advantage and have sex, so you had to have a reason not to mess around with the girls here. Innocent and uninterested was what I thought, but it seems maybe it's previous experience making it not such a big deal. Am I right?"
Subtly shifting uncomfortably, Ranma managed to continue the contest of wills despite the impromptu lap-dance. "Ah, like how the guys at school are always obsessed about sex. Yeah, I just don't think it's worth all the bother here, ya know?"
Pissed off for a number of reasons, Akane struggled just to remain kneeling upright while glaring at the pair. "What the hell are you perverts talking about?"
Smirking at her dear tomboy sister, Nabiki grinned as she pondered what more she could do to Akane to get her to behave. Apparently being bound in a skimpy harem-slave just wasn't enough for her. "You don't get it sis? You remember your crush on Tofu? Just imagine how much more laid back you'd be if you'd actually had a relationship with him before meeting Ranma." Pausing thoughtfully and looking between the two, Nabiki decided it was kinda fun to defend Ranma. "Speaking of which, if you're upset about Ranma having a past girlfriend, I imagine it wasn't much fun for Ranma to meet the older man you had the hots for and seeing your pathetic bout of puppy love."
That had the effect of mollifying Akane on two fronts, though that left Nabiki in a somewhat tenuous position still. "Sure it means one of you girls won't get to be his first, but that has a silver lining, because it means no competition over who gets to be his first. Instead it's all about whether you want Saotome here to be your first... presuming all us girls are virgins as well of course."
Turning back from addressing the assembled girls in general, the pink-haired bunny turned a curious look to her target. "Mhmm, so Saotome, what's kept you from banging Shampoo or Kasumi?"
Ranma looked in surprise from Nabiki to her older sister. "Kasumi?"
Having put her older sister in the spotlight, Nabiki gave her a saucy grin intended to throw Kasumi's mind into the gutter with innuendo. "Well, she's close to your preference, only you'd have to bother to train her the way you like."
That finally caused Ranma to consider the issue instead of just giving flat replies. "Mhmm, seems like a lot of trouble. If she'd been set up as my fiancee, maybe, but as it is it'd be way too much fuss and bother."
Seeing the gears turn into his mind and catching an inkling of his thoughts made Nabiki a very happy bunny. With the fiancee squad and even Kasumi so far out of the running it was apparent she might get to have more fun than she had hoped. "Ah, even Kasumi isn't good enough?"
Ranma glanced over at Kasumi, seeing the older girl was a bit bothered by the subject. "Nah, that's not really what I mean."
Nabiki could tell he was thinking of something else, and this information might be very valuable to the girls present. "So, then what do you like in a girl? You know you have six potential girlfriends in the room that might be interested."
Ranma glanced around the room and noticed he did have a lot of attention but at the moment everyone seemed willing to listen. "Alright." Thinking about it, Ranma considered what to say. "Well I guess it's like what you say you're doing here Nabiki, with the harem thing. Maybe. I've never gotten to spend much time around girls, so I don't really know what to do, even less so back in junior high. She knew what she liked and how to do things, but she kinda left me in charge of actually doing something. Uhm, that help?"
Nabiki stared at Ranma intently, attempting to figure out what his sometimes tortured words meant. These words were clearer than usual, but that didn't mean she couldn't read a little extra from between the lines. "Mhmm, so basically, she made things simple to understand? Like if Kasumi tells you she made cookies and asks if you want some, it means you can have cookies."
Ranma blinked at the bunny-girl in his lap. "Yeah, like that."
Nabiki looked around at the girls, knowing they couldn't stay quiet for long. Easing herself out of Ranma's lap, she stood up, giving a glance at Kasumi. "Could you keep him company? Us girls need to go have a talk."
With Kasumi nodding to her, Nabiki led the rest of the girls to go sit around Akane to talk.
See other episodes by Valor Phoenix
(Posted Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:34)
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