"Where?" Ranma asked.
"Jade is another world," Theo explained. "At the end of the Age of Magic on earth, most werecats and mages and such left Earth for Jade."
"They largely abandoned technology," Gina added. "Sociologically the culture is intensely interesting, not only the magical predominance but also the strong tradition of nonmagic armed and unarmed combat."
Everyone perked up at that. "There are martial artists on Jade?" Ranma pried. "Are they strong?"
Britanny grinned. "They'd wipe the floor with you, kid. Mom's the Armsmaster – the best of the lot. I can't even touch her."
"I thought you said you were the only werecheetah until now," Akane objected.
"Julia is human," Theo said. "And no, for all Britanny's strength and speed, she can't lay a finger on her if Julia doesn't want her to."
"Sounds interesting," Ranma said with a grin.
Akane sighed. "You just triggered the 'Ranma Saotome doesn't lose' reaction. He'll be challenging Mrs. Diggers within the week."
Britanny looked Ranma over and wondered if there would be anything left of Georgia after he and mom went at it.
Akane shook her head in resignation and grimaced when a bit of hair floated into her vision. "Well it's nice to be furless again," she said, although she didn't have a lot of strength behind the sentiment, "but there's no way our hair is going to go unnoticed."
"It's worse than that," Ranma grumbled.
"How?" Gina asked.
"Ryoga?" Ranma called. "Akane and I have identical tattoos."
Akane blinked. "I don't have any-"
"RANMA!" Ryoga bellowed. "What did you do to Akane!?"
Ranma held Ryoga off and looked to Akane. "I was kidding, bacon breath. This is why it's worse. Everyone is going to assume that something happened to the two of us, together, and blame me. Except Kodachi."
"Who will blame me," Akane gulped. "Kamisama, this is going to get ugly. We'll need to get Nabiki on our side this time."
"Nabiki?" Gina asked. She looked at Akane with renewed interest. "You know Nabiki Tendo?"
"She's my sister," Akane confirmed. "How do you know her?"
"I don't know her, but I know of her. All the explorers working Southeast Asia have read her papers on the Chinese Amazons, ancient princedoms, and other hazards to be avoided or negotiated with. She's been nominated for a few awards for the obvious effort and hardships she went through to gather that information."
Ranma stood there twitching for a few moments.
Brtianny looked at Gina. "I get the feeling you just set off a powder keg."
Nabiki typed a few more lines and read her work. She was going to graduate from Furinkan next year, and unlike the rest of her family she had plans. Plans that needed money. Nerima was profitable enough for day to day expenses and pocket change, but in the long term she needed deeper pockets to fund her ambitions. The Explorer Society was perfect. A bunch of nerds and enthusiasts who would pay exorbitant fees for anything unique and potentially related to their interests, whose interests happened to include the kinds of people that Ranma ran into every other week, and who had a lovely tendency to find ancient treasure of unfathomable value.
She wasn't entirely sure why she was writing papers instead of selling salvage from Ranma's misadventures, but the funding she received (ostensibly to support her expeditions) was more profitable than selling most of the junk Ranma left behind.
"Nabiki!" Kasumi called from outside. "Phone!"
Nabiki blinked and picked up the phone by her computer. "Hello?"
"Hello, Nabiki."
Alarms went off in Nabiki's mind. "Akane? I thought you were out on a training journey."
"I am. We ran into a new friend; Gina Diggers."
Nabiki winced. She knew that name. "Is she the American Uncle Saotome wanted to stop?"
"We know about the journals, Nabiki."
Damn. "Okay," Nabiki said, all business. "Ten percent."
"You can keep the money," Akane said.
Nabiki felt a chill. She ignored it, as the Ice Queen is wont to do, but that didn't mean she didn't recognize it. Akane letting her off the hook that easy was not a good sign. "What happened?"
"Nabiki, you'll need to see it to believe it. Is anyone else home?"
"Kasumi," Nabiki said. "Daddy's off with the panda at the bars."
"Okay, well Kasumi should see this too." Akane's voice grew faint. "Are you sure about this? If anyone sees anything…well if you're sure. Nabiki? Um, he's with us."
"Who is with you?" Nabiki asked.
"I am," came a voice behind her.
Nabiki would always be grateful that she was in full Ice Queen mode at that moment. Anything less than an iron-clad grip on her emotions would have forced her to do something very embarrassing, like scream, turn around, and fall all over herself. Instead she blinked, turned around slowly, and looked the man over. "Old American guy in spandex?" she asked.
"That's him," Akane confirmed. "See you soon." Akane hung up.
Theo nodded politely. "We should collect your sister. I'm here to teleport the two of you to the ruins."
"Oh my, that sounds exciting."
Theo jumped and spun to stare at the beatifically smiling Kasumi. "Hello," he said quickly. "My name is Theodore Diggers."
"A pleasure to meet you. Do you have time for tea?"
"Um, no," Theo said apologetically. "I'm afraid there is a time issue."
"Is this going to be dangerous?" Nabiki asked.
"Not at all," Theo assured. Then he started glowing and ripped a hole in the air. "That's it."
Nabiki bit back the sarcasm and walked over to the rift. "You're sure this is safe?"
Kasumi walked right on through without hesitating.
Nabiki sighed. "Why couldn't Akane have just taken the money?" she muttered, then walked through.
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(Posted Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:04)
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