Nabiki counted herself lucky, as someone who wanted to try to join the corporate world after high school she had few illusions about the possible mobility that she would have. She was well aware of the glass ceiling in a country as patriarchal as Japan, yet this other version of her was from a place that was even worse for women (or those that were female) than Saudi Arabia.
Soun of course still viewed these girls as rivals who threatened his daughter’s happiness and his potential retirement; then again, it didn’t appear that any of his daughters were taking his opinions into account. He was currently busy trying to wake the stoned and sleeping Genma, sadly no one ever told him that when a cat is deep asleep that they are pretty much comatose.
Now as for Akane her mind was still reeling as the magnitude of her promise sunk in and she had time to think. She had promised to marry Ranma and enter into a relationship with these six other girls, most of whom considered her to be family, and try to make this work. A relationship between eight people, the possibility of just how this would work was overwhelming especially since she wasn’t certain about how she felt about her potential fiancé let alone six other girls two of whom looked and in some ways acted a lot like her own sisters.
This was going to take a little time to work out, the name situation alone was confusing, and still this was something that would affect the rest of her life even if she took things slow she would have to approach this in a mature manner. Of course no matter how maturely she took this the other students at school were another matter entirely, she hated to think how this situation would look to Sayuri and Yuka let alone everyone else. Of course there was also her pain in the backside to consider, no matter how she tried to handle the situation, her delusional stalker would make the entire situation even worse.
She needed to make an informed decision about how to approach this situation; fortunately, this harem of Pokégirls appeared to have a leader who could help her work out this situation. Akane was certain about her needed course of action, she had to talk with this catgirl version of Nabiki and then get some time alone to talk with the rest of this group one at a time, besides it was clear that Ranma had other things that he had to occupy himself.
While Akane was contemplating just how to approach Nabiki the Cheshire, Ranma was meeting with her native analogue and their older sister. "So you understand, I kind of need some help finding my mom, especially given everything that's happened."
"Are you certain that she's still around," Kasumi suggested in a pained voice knowing personally what that kind of situation was like. "I would think that your father would have contacted her when your group arrived back in Japan."
"Kasumi I doubt that he can hold a pen very well at the moment," Nabiki commented. "Besides imagine trying to buy the correct postage without any money."
"I doubt that he would have put up the yen for the stamps before he got turned into a cat," Ranma grumbled before getting back to the main subject. "Besides I know when he's hiding something and why, if it was bad news he would have just told me, he only hides things when he knows that it would get him in trouble.
"Certainly we'll help," Kasumi chimed in to Nabiki's dismay. "Do you happen to know where she lives?"
"Kasumi he's not five, if he knew that all he'd need would be a train pass or a phonebook." Nabiki remarked in embarrassment. "Well if you don't know where she lives then I might need some compensation to help in the search, of course it might be cheaper if you at least know her name."
"Try Nodoka Saotome," Ranma said remembering the name of his doppelganger’s mother and hoping that everything else remained consistent. "And I don't have much money, but I think that the Stamina+ recipe should cover this."
"Go on," Nabiki commented as her eyes narrowed. "I'm listening."
"Alright," Nabiki said as she extended her hand to Ranma, "We have a deal, you give me the recipe and in return I'll help you get in touch with your mother."
Meanwhile out in the dojo Akane had successfully pulled aside the Cheshire known as Nabiki, to discuss how they were going to handle their living situation. Now despite being a psychic-type pokégirl Nabiki was no mind reader, but if this Akane was anything like her Vixen sister back when she was a Tomboy then Nabiki had a few ideas about just what this discussion was about. Now the Akane that Nabiki-P knew was a massive prude very typical of her breed, to most Tomboys tamers were all perverts only interested in one thing until they proved otherwise.
Of course, back in the pokégirl world this was a combination of the law of averages and deductive reasoning. Back there most boys wouldn’t pass the Tamer’s Exam unless they were perverts, and even then they’d only fail if they were mouth breathers that had the collective IQ of a wet burlap sack and among that group the rate of failure was only twenty percent. The reason that it was so easy to become a pokégirl trainer was that society needed to get the young men outside the safety of the cities; once they were in the unclaimed wilderness, the powers that be counted on the wild pokégirls would help them weed out the weak, the stupid and hopefully the kind as well. Nabiki was glad that she left that madness behind as well.
"So- Akane," Nabiki-P said as she thought about how weird this was addressing an entirely human version of her sister, now she knew how Master Ranma felt when he met that mean local version of himself that had been turned into a Tigress. "You wanted to talk about something."
"Yes- Nabiki," Akane replied just as awkwardly, even more so since she was not separated from her sister in another reality. "We need to talk about more than a few things if we are going to try to make this work, but the first and most important thing that we need to do is get to know each other. Well that and think up giving you and your sister new names, with your permission of course."
"Yeah," Nabiki-P said somewhat sheepishly. "I can understand how that can get confusion, however you have to understand that as our tamer only Ranma has the right to give us another name."
"I see, I'll talk with him after I talk to each member of your group." Akane deflated as a good deal of her earlier tension was released, she didn't want to start off on the wrong foot, especially since the being in front of her was the descendant of a group of bioengineered weapons.
"Okay well after we're done, Kasumi should be in the kitchen maybe helping your sister whip up something for dinner. Shampoo and Raine should be in the storage area, those two like to fix things although Shampoo is more inclined towards vehicles while Raine likes to tinker with smaller devices and electronics, the two of them have been vibrating with excitement since they got here. Usagi and Rei should be in your Nabiki's room, she told them that she had a manga collection so Usagi went to check it out and Rei went with her."
"I thought that those two didn't exactly get along?" Akane asked somewhat puzzled since she remembered the blue-haired angel malleting the floating blonde earlier.
"Oh they get along just fine," Nabiki the Cheshire snickered. "In fact out of all of us Rei is closer to Usagi than anyone- not including Ranma of course. You see Rei might have spent a good deal of time at our Ranch but she isn't related to us biologically, she was created in an illegal breeding lab near Viridick City. She was bred because one of the hardliner groups that wanted to try to create an Angel without the intervention of a Megami, which is what Usagi is by the way. The experiment didn't exactly work as intended and the pokékit was born an Icemaiden, they experimented on her for a number of years to try to force her to evolve into an Angel, when that didn't work she was discarded as a failed experiment and sent to the nearest Ranch and Breeding Center- my father's. Now all those experiments really took their toll on Rei's personality, she was cold and withdrawn even for an Icemaiden, of course that lead to our half-sister Usagi making Rei her pet project and get her to open up."
"Now before she evolved Usagi was a Bunny, don't laugh it's true I have pictures of everyone here as they used to look in a scrapbook that we made for Ranma, she did everything that she could usually including Rei in with her little clique with Makoto and Ami. Eventually Rei was adopted by a tamer named Shinji shortly after Ranma adopted Kasumi and myself, when we were almost through the Buggy Woods to Viridick Shampoo came and got us to tell us that our home was under attack, like I told you earlier as a reward Ranma for his actions Ranma got to keep Usagi and Shampoo."
"This was about the time that Kasumi and I evolved from Kittens into our current forms, on our way out from Professor Stroak's lab we were challenged by Shinji Rei's tamer. Usagi evolved into a Megami while Ranma was taming her after we acquired Rei (after he kept her from accidentally bouncing out of the tent), and while we were in Dogpatch Rei evolved into an Angel when Ranma finally succeeded in taming her."
"What happened to Usagi's other friends Makoto and Ami? For that matter what kind of- um, pokégirls were they?" Akane asked out of curiosity now that the Cheshire's story of how their group got together was done.
"Oh they were adopted by a nice tamer from Stone Town named Mamoru, we talked with them a few times before we left and they've appeared to have settled down in his hometown." Nabiki said answering Akane's questions. "Well Ami was a Mareen, just like Raine, although she's more of an intellectual and had medical training. Makoto was a Pia, sort of an electric mouse girl I'll show you some pictures of her later, she was a great cook and had a heck of a green thumb."
"So what would you say you plan to do now that you're in this world?" Akane asked trying to throw Nabiki a curve-ball, after all this world was bound to have opened up new doors for her that she hadn't considered before.
"Well for now seeing if all of us can go to school is enough of a goal," Nabiki began to say as she mulled things over in her mind. "Of course if you and Ranma do get married I'll help you with the dojo, I'm pretty good with money and equipment management since as the team's alpha I have to help keep everything organized. As for what else I want to do, I guess that I'll just have to see but for right now that's pretty much all that I can think of."
Akane began to chew on this particular tidbit, Nabiki was experienced as a team manager and of course, that would help big time with running the dojo when she inherited it from her father. Still it was sad that Nabiki didn't have too many dreams right now outside of that, maybe she could help the pink and lavender catgirl find some.
Still first things first, now it was time to go and talk to...
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(Posted Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:49)
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