Ranma looked down at the girl, her red hair hanging loose over her tired blue eyes.
After being rescued by Miko, they had to bring along the two Tendo girls. Nabiki herself was a wreck, the potent juices of the demon causing irreversible changes on the untrained girl's body. Her libido was now increased up to five times, and it would be awhile before she could wear anything other than silk, as her tactile sensitivity was boosted far too much for her to be comfortable. Indeed, she would be unable to wear anything for the next few days, as even silk would set her off.
Akane though was the real issue. After bringing her back to the Mido base, Miko had called in some experts to run an aura scan on the tomboy. It was worse than they feared.
The human body was a mixture of yin and yang, light and dark, male and female. Males normally produced a small amount of female ki to keep themselves balanced, and the reverse was true for females. To keep it balanced, the body would also absorb small amounts of chi from the environment, mostly that produced by the opposite gender. From early on, probably about when her morning encounters with the hentai brigade, her aura had slowly started rejecting all external male ki. To counter this, her own body started producing more male ki, but only enough to keep her aura from tearing itself apart. It was possibly what caused her emotions to be so unstable, causing her to strike out against anything that even irritated her, and also her abrupt changes in attitude.
Normally, this would be understandable. However, during this period the girl had also developed an aversion to the boys in her school, which was exacerbated by the imbalance. In the end, it had altered how she considered things. Akane may not have been lesbian, but her imbalanced aura and her sudden fear of perverted males had shut down her ability to feel attraction to males. Any sexual stimuli coming from a male would be nonexistent for her, and this would in turn magnify anything she felt about the female form and/or touch. Her sexual leanings, in other words, were a survival mechanism, created in order to keep her sane.
Had they discovered this before yesterday, the Miroku clan could have offered treatment, allowing her to reverse her imbalance. However, the demonic rape had made things worse. Now, her aura was violently rejecting any infusion of male chi from the outside. Any attempt to force it on her, or even to touch her with male hands, would result in her breaking out in blisters. Indeed, there was a spot on her arms where they appeared, when they had tried treatment.
And that wasn't even the worst of their issues right now . . .
Ranma started as she felt a hand on her shoulder, and then smiled as Miko sat down next to her. "Hey."
"Still keeping watch, eh?"
"Kind of have to. After what happened, I don't think either of them would be happy to deal with strangers. Is Nabiki ..."
"Still out," replied Miko, "You do know that there was nothing we could have done. We didn't even know that there was anything wrong, and we were only going on what we had observed."
Ranma snorted, "You don't have to worry about me blaming you or myself for this. Aura reading is an art in itself; not even Tofu can do it well enough to figure out what's wrong, and even he didn't catch this. How could a clan of injutsu users and a muscle headed martial artist figure this out."
Miko relaxed, the nervous tension that she was trying to hide seeping out of her, "Then what's wrong?"
Ranma sighed, "We both no that this couldn't have started naturally. Kuno and his lackeys could only cause her to be skittish of males, and she might have just gotten curious about the other side. The whole aura reaction though? Would have had to start back when she was about six or so to get this far. So if everything was normal, and Elder Shifu was right about when it started . . . "
The bluenette winced, "The others are still gathering info, but we know what might have caused it. A set of pressure points that were meant to correct homosexual leanings. If the subject was treated early enough and isolated from any external sources of chi, it was thought to work. To be honest, all it did was cause the victim to lose part of his or her sanity, as well as passing that mental instability on to his sons or her daughters. We think it happened to one of Tatewaki's ancestors."
Ranma nodded, and then perked up, "Wait, if it could only be passed on to descendents of the same gender . . . "
"Kodachi acts insane just because her father and brother are. She gets a kick out of it, to be honest, and nobody expects it of her. We can't get any footage of it around Nerima because of Sasuke, but NinNin has some footage of her sneaking down to Otaku hangouts under a false identity. We think she also has a secret online identity, but we can't be 100% sure yet."
The redhead giggled, "Wow, who'd of thunk it?" She stopped suddenly, and glanced over at Akane, "You know, if you wanted to act like you were still asleep, you should have kept your breathing even. You were doing good, but you got to keep it up to pull it off."
Akane just snorted softly, "You giggled . . . "
"Not everything is how it seems, eh?"
Silenced reigned for half a minute, until the dark haired girl asked, "How long...?"
The redhead shrugged, "Since I found out you and the other two were going around my back? Five months." She ignored the wounded girl's wince. "How long since I met Miko? About six months, roughly. How long since I realized that you were strictly lesbian? Last night, to be honest. Had to have an aura seer take a look at you, me, and Nabiki to make sure that the demon hadn't succeeded in enthralling any of us, and according to her, you stopped being able to feel anything for a guy at least a couple of months before I moved in. Can't exactly fault you for that."
Miko rolled her eyes, realizing that Ranma was trying to let bygones be bygones at this point, but she couldn't help but notice the miserable look on the other (full-time) girls face. Sighing and calling herself three kinds of sappy fools, she moved towards the younger girl. "Wanna talk about it?"
Akane stayed silent for a few minutes, and just when she was planning to pull away, she whispered, "I had been ... noticing things since about a month after Kuno started the morning attacks. Before, I could at least look at pictures of male models and feel attracted to them, but suddenly they didn't really, well, do anything for me. I liked Doctor Tofu because he was nice and all, but in the end, I even lost what I physically felt for him..."
"I used to be able to at least claim that I wasn't a lesbian, 'cause I wasn't really attracted to anyone at school. Maybe it just felt too weird looking at classmates like that, I don't know ... but then I came across some ecchi pictures in a magazine I found in Nabiki's room, and it hit me. I felt nothing for guys and there I was almost masturbating to images of naked girls .... I spent the rest of the night crying in my room. Still couldn't bring myself to feel attracted to anyone at school, especially when they started ostracizing me for suspecting that I was attracted to them."
Akane then looked at Ranma, and both the redhead and the bluenette were struck at the emotion that shown in her eyes, "Then a gorgeous redheaded girl showed up in our house, and I was just ... struck. It was all I could do not to freak her out and act nervous. She was beautiful, a great martial artist ... and apparently into me, if the fact that her eyes kept straying to my chest every now and then told me anything."
Ranma blushed and muttered, to Miko's amusement, that Akane's gi was pulled rather tightly that first day. Akane blushed, but moved on, "I thought I might have found a kindred spirit, someone who I could actually discover what I was missing ... and then the redhead turned into a macho guy with hot water. I was pissed off, humiliated, and terrified out of my mind that I'd be found out that night, but you just blew it off and insulted me, and my family just ... ignored it as me having another anti-pervert fit."
Her aura of depression was palpable, "It was like nobody noticed what I was going through. Dad was all for the engagement, either playing with the Panda, drinking to Uniting the Schools, or freaking out that we weren't getting along. Kasumi was busy trying to ignore the world ... I think she's trying to get into Med School behind Dad's back, though. Nabiki ... could I honestly go to her and feel like I wasn't about to be sold out at that point? But there you were, standing up for me, trying to keep me out of trouble ... just when I thought I was pissed off at you, next thing I know you were a redhead with big boobs, and I'd have to back peddle just to keep myself from doing something perverted. Then you'd open your mouth and I had my cover story ..."
Miko nodded thoughtfully, "And where does Shampoo and Ukyo come into this?"
Akane winced, "A couple of days after Ranma broke that brainwashing thing Shampoo did to me, when we finally got rid of her the first time, I woke up in the middle of the night. I wasn't in my bedroom, and I had been stripped of clothing. Shampoo had apparently caught me ... reacting to her treatment. She figured out I was a virgin, and since she couldn't bring back your female head, she wanted at least a little bit of payback. My first lesbian experience, and it was by force, tied up by a crazy Chinese Amazon. Woke up the next morning and almost thought it was a dream, except that she never bothered to return my pajamas." Akane was blushing furiously now.
She kidnapped me the night after she surprised you in cat form. Before she brought me back home, she made me promise to return on my own power, or else. I was terrified about what she would do, and I couldn't exactly come out and say what the crazy Chinese girl was doing to me, so I showed up. After about a week of this, I started going just because it was fun; she's apparently kind of a slut back in her village, and she knows how to drive other girls crazy."
"Did you ever try and NOT show up?" Ranma asked, slightly irritated.
"Once," the Tendo Tomboy confessed, "It was during winter break, and I was busy with homework at the time. That night she ended up kidnapping me again ... but this time, I woke up to feel a whip on my back, and not, well ..." she trailed off, "she had this kind of carrot and stick thing going on back then. Do what she says, and you get the carrot, don't and you get to find out how hard Amazons get during bondage play."
Ranma swallowed, glad that she was never caught by the Amazon in either form, "And Ukyo?"
"She came in after I started visiting Shampoo just for fun, because she knew how to make me forget the fact that there was a certain redhead living under my roof that I had a crush on." Ranma blushed again, "Really, considering all you did for me it was easier to think of you as a girl sometimes. I just couldn't bring myself to act on what I felt because I thought you were too into your Man Among Men schtick to try and do anything as a girl, even for me."
"Anyways, one day I came in to find Shampoo and Ukyo ... trying to out-seduce each other, I guess. Whenever Ukyo felt a girl was attractive in the past, she'd lay on the pressure and trick them into asking her out. Half the time, the other girl backed off when they realized that he was actually a she. The other half, well, Ukyo has this thing with dildo play, I guess. At first, I was kind of ticked off with Shampoo, but then they decided that they needed a third party to figure out who was better. Me? I didn't really have much of a say at the time. Still, Ukyo knew how I felt at the time, and was more than willing to show me the Yuri Underground, as she called it. Sometimes I'd say I was going to hang out with Sayuri or someone else, and then go visit different places with Ukyo. For the record, she's bisexual enough to be into Ranma-kun, but has enough issues with the past still that she'd like to break some of your ... manly attitude. Last time I saw her she was creating this entire session for you with Shampoo. They dragged me into it at first, but I wasn't into dominating you enough for their tastes."
"Thanks, I think," Ranma grunted.
Miko, however, was more circumspect, "And when did you realize that what you felt for Ranma was more than a crush?"
Ranma sputtered in shock, but Akane just looked depressed, "How'd you figure it out?"
"The bluenette just shrugged, "I'm majoring in psychology."
The nearly prone girl just seemed to shrink into herself, "I'm not sure when, but one day I woke up and couldn't think of a life without her. It struck me right before she left to go fight Herb, I think. I was terrified that she wouldn't come back that I was ready to spill everything and ask her to just run away with me, together. But she was so dead set on regaining her manhood that I just couldn't do that to her. Spent the rest of the day crying in my room, and the rest of the week at Ukyo's trying to make myself forget."
Before Ranma could comment, Miko tapped her on the shoulders and said, "We have some things to discuss before we move on with this session. Ranma and I will be back in twenty minutes after we arrange a few things." She then dragged the redhead back out of the room.
Akane just sighed and laid back down, wondering idly where her clothes were this time.
Thirty minutes later, Miko and Ranma returned. Both had convened with Yuka and Fubuki, and discussed what should be done with Akane. Ranma was mostly silent, neither offering excuse nor damnation for the girl, unable to trust herself to be impartial. On one hand, she had a lot of issues with the Tomboy still, but to be honest, most of what Akane did was due to his own actions and her inability to find a shoulder to cry on that wasn't already planning on turning Ranma-chan into their playtoy.
Yuka and Fubuki was all for railroading the girl, but Miko, oddly enough, was for giving her a second chance. The path would not be easy, but with what had been done to her, they couldn't just toss her out.
In the end, both the redhead and bluenette returned to find Akane eyeing the blisters on her arm. "What happened here?"
Ranma sighed, "After your ... experience, your body has become allergic to foreign male chi. All it takes is a touch, and you get ... well, that. Miko's servant was up here earlier with breakfast, but he tripped and ended up causing that."
Akane paled and swallowed. "So I guess I have no choice but to come out to Dad then."
"Actually, considering that he was the one to do this to you, I think we have grounds for child abuse, and enough blackmail material to keep him from throwing you out of the clan," Miko retorted. At Akane's horrified look, she explained, "Your aversion to male chi started from a pressure point we believe he used during the Hentai Horde fights. We just received conformation from Doctor Tofu stating that he had nothing to do with it, and we are inclined to take him at his word."
Akane shuddered, and started to weep. Ranma sat down and held her, trying to comfort her for a bit. "It's not that bad; considering how he treats you and your sisters this has been a long time coming. Plus, we have a few options for you."
"O-options?" Akane sobbed out, trying to stem her tears.
"Ranma smiled gently, "You and I have issues right now, but if you are willing to be honest and to work on your temper, I'll promise to try and not insult you. Can't say the same for Ukyo or Shampoo, but they'll get theirs soon enough."
Miko knelt down beside them, "However, Ranma and I made a deal when we discovered what you three were doing, and we can't just drop it. My clan is dying out. We provide a barrier between humans and the Shikima, trying to keep them out, but most of the guys my retainers and I date don't have what it takes to stay on for long, and the only one who could has his own clan that we are reluctant to marry into. Ranma's father is a dishonorable bastard, and his Mom is ... less than stable," she glanced at Ranma but the redhead shrugged and nodded, knowing that Saotome Nodoka had her own issues.
"Anyways, due to a ruling from the Emperor, I have the ability to allow any retainer that serves me to participate in any marriage that I undertake. The process allows my retainers more rights than a mistress would possess, and any children born under this bond would be legitimate. I currently have two female retainers who are more than willing to join us in this arrangement. And," she continued, despite Akane's brokenhearted face, "If you can prove yourself, we might be willing to sign you on as our third retainer and co-wife."
Akane looked up, shocked, "You mean you'd-"
"After you PROVE yourself!" repeated Miko, causing the girl to flinch. Yuka and Fubuki don't really trust you right now, but I am willing to allow you a second chance, as is Ranma. We have some financial issues preventing us from living as comfortably as we'd like to. I'm looking to get a job as a psychiatrist, but even with me and my sister working, we still have a lot of debt to clear up. A school of martial arts that we can publicly teach and a martial artist who can teach it would help us out."
"B-but I'm nowhere good enough! I'm still learning myself!" Akane cried.
"You're good enough to teach the early stuff," Ranma told her. "All I know about how to teach, I learned from Pops, and I ain't putting anyone through that if I can help it. If you are willing to start things off at the beginning though, I think I can get you up to where we can convince the old pervert to give you a teaching license and a mastery, and he owes the Miroku clan a few debts, so we know he'll do it."
"If you can create a viable school and run it, I will be willing to make you a retainer to the Miroku Clan. What happens between you and Ranma will be up to you two, but as the Primary Wife, I would have first call as to marital duties. Ranma will be male for a large portion of it, and you will have to deal with it. What form he or she is in with you is up to you two. As for kids, well, we have a couple of options you could use, but that will be discussed if and when you prove worthy. We are also willing to give you time to decide on what to do."
"Again, stuff to discuss later," Ranma interrupted, "We need to talk about what's going to happen now, anyways."
The serious look on her face gave Akane pause, "What do you mean?"
Miko put her hand on Ranma's shoulder, showing her support as the petite redhead replied, "We're pregnant."
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(Posted Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:48)
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