"Are there any other weres out there?" Ukyo asked. "Or did the lamp just create…this?"
Ranma and the Tendos traded glances. "Well, come to think of it, I don't think we did ever get the full story of where lycanthropy came from."
"I knew I forgot to ask something," Nabiki grumbled. "What we know is that there are three types of weres on earth. Werewolves, wererats, and werecheetahs."
"So there are other werecheetahs?" Ukyo asked, looking Ranma and Akane over.
"Only one," Akane said solemnly. "Bell-sama said they were hunted to extinction by the other two."
Ukyo blanched slightly. "So you two have some new enemies, don't ya Sugar?"
Akane nodded.
"Well, what else is new?" Ukyo worked at the fastenings on her shirt. "Bite me, Ranchan." She bared her shoulder for his inspection.
Everyone stared for a moment.
"Mind your place, chef!" Kodachi declared. "Ranma-sama should not pollute his clan with your pedestrian blood when the prestigious Kuno family offers its heiress instead!" She threw off her clothes, revealing her ever-present leotard (and a whirl of black rose petals). Smiling coyly she went into a stretch that presented her thigh to Ranma.
Akane facepalmed."Must not pound the pervert. Must show restraint. Must not pound the pervert."
"I ain't done nothing!" Ranma yelled, pulling his face away from the fiancées asking him to bite them to the one that…wasn't holding Mallet-sama?
Akane pointed at Kodachi. "I was talking about her."
Ranma's brain stalled for the second time that minute. "Uh, you were? Um. Okay then." He glanced back at the two girls offering themselves and then back to Akane.
Akane looked Ranma in the eyes, glanced at the girls, back to Ranma, and nodded once. "Yeah. This is what you're supposed to do, Ranma."
Ranma nodded in turn. "Well, Ukyo asked first so I'll start with her," he said calmly. Well, he tried to say it calmly. He was sure his voice cracked somewhere in there. This was weird even for him!
Ukyo felt a shiver as the huge figure of Ranma came closer. He actually had to kneel down to get his head close enough to hers. She felt light headed – Ranma, on his knees before her, about to change her life forever…somehow she didn't think Akane's bite had been so romantic. Well, then I win this contest, at least, she thought, closing her eyes.
A dull ache blossomed in her shoulder as wicked canines pushed into her flesh, and then they were gone. The pain ebbed. She collapsed to the ground, grasped her shoulder. "That…was a bit hard…Ranma," she gasped. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it felt like it should have, but for some reason she had expected something feather-soft and tingly, like a kiss. She pulled her hand away and saw blood, not enough to be worried about, but still blood.
Nabiki came over with a handkerchief and put it to Ukyo's shoulder. "It'll close in a minute or two," she assured. "Your hair will take a few hours to change color. By the time school lets out, it should be done."
Ranma turned to Kodachi, who had adjusted her split to present him with an acre of creamy inner thigh. He scowled at this. "Kodachi, no."
Akane blinked. Ranma was refusing to bite Kodachi? She couldn't blame him, but still they needed her garden!
Kodachi straightened up and pouted. "But Ranma-sama…"
She never had a chance to finish. Ranma grabbed her arm, pulled her close, and bit her just below the elbow.
Akane and Ukyo had trouble wiping satisfied grins off their faces. Werecheetah or not, Kodachi was out of the fiancée race for good after that.
Kodachi yelped, part in pain and part in surprise, and then her expression turned…confused.
Nabiki looked to Kodachi and carefully pocketed the plant clippings they needed. "Belldandy also said your transformation would help you think more clearly," she amended. "If you need help dealing with it, I think our sister Kasumi might be more supportive than your brother."
"Say, what does Kuno know, anyway?" Ukyo asked.
"He saw Ranma in hybrid form talking to an Egyptian cat goddess that has taken werecheetahs under her purview," Nabiki said calmly.
Ukyo blinked. "There's more that we should know, isn't there?"
"A little," Ranma said. He held up his amulet and pushed it to Kodachi's forehead. "This is a gift from her. It makes it so your clothes change shape with you. It also makes it impossible for you to bite anyone an' turn them into werecheetahs."
"Why would I want that sealed?" Ukyo protested. "Isn't the whole point to increase the size of the clan?"
"Ranma's bite is special," Nabiki explained. "Any other were would cause a 'thrall' enchantment, making the new werecheetah a slave to the biter."
"Slave?" Kodachi asked. Ranma was glad her bite, at, least, was already sealed.
"The book described it as a kind of obsessive love," Akane started.
Then the small room was filled with small explosions and a great deal of smoke.
"What!?"
"Who?"
"Akane!!"
"Ranma!!"
Ranma lashed out at a small figure that bounded into and out of his range at incredible speed. Was that Happosai?
"Ranchahgk!"
"Ukyo!"
Finally the smoke settled and Ranma could see again. Akane, Kodachi, and Nabiki were okay. Ukyo, however…
Konatsu was standing in front of Ukyo with a severe expression on his usually pretty face. Ranma felt a slight chill; the genius kunoichi was an uncommonly dangerous opponent, at least at Shampoo's level when he got serious, and that face was a level beyond serious. But that chill was nothing to the outright shock of the rest of Konatsu's position: he had his hand firmly wedged in Ukyo's mouth, his palm impaled by her teeth.
Ranma waved Akane forward and the two werecheetahs calmly, slowly pulled the two fighters apart. With lycanthrope strength behind Anything Goes conditioning, it didn't take much for the weres to be an inexorable force. Ranma held Konatsu in a light but complete joint lock, while Akane held Ukyo more supportingly.
"Don't worry," Akane told Ukyo. "Sealed or not, you have to choose to bite someone, and you have to be in hybrid or animal form first."
Konatsu sagged in Ranma's grip, utterly dejected. Ranma didn't let him go, though.
Ukyo felt a bit of relief, but her eyes didn't look away from Konatsu. "…why?" she whispered.
"I think that's our cue," Nabiki told Kodachi. "C'mon, Kodachi, you'd better get back to St. Hebereke."
Kodachi allowed herself to be herded (mostly out of indifference towards the chef and her servant) and soon it was just Ranma, Ukyo, Akane, and Konatsu.
"Why?" Ukyo asked again.
Konatsu looked at Ukyo from the lock Ranma had him in. "To be with you always," he said simply.
Ukyo loved Ranma. There was no escaping that. But that simple, honest statement would twang anyone's heartstrings.
Konatsu picked up his karaoke mike. "Alas my tale grows darker still!" he sang.
Ukyo's expression fell flat and she lobbed a couple spatulas at the gender-confused kunoichi. "Oi. No singing."
Ranma looked at Konatsu and then down into his own arms. He was holding a chunk of wood in a joint lock. "How did he do that?" he asked no one in particular.
"Practice?" Akane suggested.
The genius kunoichi continued to sing his tale of woe, ignoring the spatulas sticking out of his head.
"Maybe I should bite him and be done with it?" Ranma suggested.
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(Posted Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:44)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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