Ranma looked out over the city. He was up in a rather tall tree, the claws of one hand embedded in the trunk for stability. He looked to Akane, who was in an identical pose. “Ready to go home?” he asked.
Akane nodded and offered a grin full of teeth. “The question is, is Nerima ready for us?”
Ranma pulled free a cellphone. “I guess we'll find out,” he said.
Akane waited for Ranma to get Nabiki on the phone, and her mind drifted over the past week. They hadn't actually left the mountain; with so much uncertanty in their enchantments, Dr. Diggers wasn't willing to risk a teleport. That hadn't stopped Ryoga from getting lost; the werepig vanished within an hour of Nabiki's departure. Good riddance. Akane wasn't in a murderous rage anymore, but if “P-chan” showed his face with anything less than a formal apology of some kind, things would get ugly. Maybe not even that; Akane's feelings were still too tangled to make a decent guess at her reactions.
In any case, Dr. Diggers had brought another werecat to them, a jagwere named Gar. He'd performed the tests he wanted, which as far as Akane could tell was just making them glow a bit, and reported that Ranma and Akane had a lycanthropy-like enchantment. As far as he could tell it was identical in nearly every way, except one part of it was...he didn't like the word “missing” but compared it to a bit of fabric that was a undyed instead of striped pink and green. A blank, a piece that completed the pattern but didn't actually do anything. And his supposition...Ranma and Akane couldn't create thralls anymore than they themselves were Britanny's thralls. Other than that, anything that applied to the werecheetahs of old, so it was for these two. In theory.
It was a fascinating, hopeful result to the archmage. To Ranma and Akane, it was a burden they didn't know what to do with. There was a chance that they had the power to restore a lost clan with a proud, dignified history and traditions. The martial artist's code didn't exactly cover such things, but it was certainly in keeping with the idea of defending the defenseless. Unless, of course, the archmage was wrong, and instead they had a slave-making bite. That was rather against the code. And it wasn't like there was such a thing as an “acceptable” test case.
Theo's observation that Ranma and Akane had other ways of creating new werecheetahs was met with a mallet. Not that Akane was denying her feelings for Ranma, but to have such a new acquaintance speculate on their future sex life sounded perverted, so he deserved it.
Most of the rest of the week was with Britanny. The older werecheetah had taken it upon herself to teach them everything she knew about what their bodies could do. They were joined by Brianna, who took a moment to explain her strange history and got down to walking them through the differences between being a human and a werecheetah from the unique perspective of a woman who had been both.
They'd kept Nabiki up to date, of course. Cell reception was a hit or miss in the mountains, but that's what super-genius friends are for.
Ranma hit the speakerphone button. “You're on speaker,” he announced.
“Good,” came Nabiki's voice. “You there Akane?”
“I'm here,” Akane confirmed.
“Bad news. I'd tell you to stay away, but this isn't going to get better until they get it out of their system, and I bet on you handling it now more than the house surviving it later.”
“What happened?” Akane gasped. “I thought they were buying the story!”
“That you had been captured by a hair stylist prince?” Nabiki asked drily. “Sadly, yes they bought that. But last night Ryoga came into town.”
“Oh no,” Ranma groaned.
“It turns out his curse just locks him out of his human form now,” Nabiki continued.
Ranma nodded. His own curse was unchanged; he had all three forms of a werecheetah under full control, and his gender was decided by the whims of thermodynamics in each form. “So he can have hands in cursed form, as long as he stays away...from...oh no,” he groaned.
“Right. He got lost and walked right into Furinkan in full werepig hubrid form.”
“Then what happened?” Akane asked, sounding pained.
“Kuno attacked the pig demon, who defeated him effortlessly. Then Ukyo faced him. Ryoga managed to find some hot water. Then he told her, and the rest of the school, that you were werecheetahs.”
“Which Kuno and Kodachi have heard by now,” Ranma said dully.
“Shampoo was delivering a Hawaiian ramen to the principal at the time,” Nabiki continued.
“She went back to the old ghoul and asked her what a werecheetah is,” Ranma concluded in the same deadpan tone.
“And Mousse was listening,” Akane agreed in her own monotone.
“And Cologne wants to talk to both of you as soon as you get back,” Nabiki said, not disagreeing with the entirely correct predictions of the mess that was their lives.
“What's the fallout?” Akane asked after a moment.
“Well, like I said, Cologne wants to talk to you. And she must be keeping Shampoo and Mousse under control because I haven't heard anything from her. Ukyo is scared about her chances, and desperate. Kuno is convinced you're a demon, Ranma, instead of just some sorcerer or whatever his delusion was. He might step up to genuine lethal force now. Kodachi, same to you, Akane. Probably a good thing that they don't know what is actually lethal to weres.”
“Are you sure Sasuke isn't hiding in the house?” Ranma asked. “Or Gosunkugi?”
“Yes they are, which is why I'm in the dojo,” Nabiki replied. “Daddy wants to talk to you both, but Kasumi has convinced him that you're...mostly normal.”
“Mostly?”
“You are Ranma Saotome,” Nabiki noted.
“Fair enough. So what happens now?”
“When you get here, the spies spread the word. I give us a minute and a half before the first wave. Half the outer wall and three doors as casualties. I already have the contractor on standby. Try to get the fight out of the house as fast as you can, though.”
“We'll try,” Ranma said tiredly. “Okay, we'll be there soon.”
“Not too soon,” Nabiki said. “Human forms only, remember?”
“Of course I remember,” Ranma lied.
Akane ducked her head and blushed under her fur. Weird how this body felt like her own more than her human form did. Freaky werecheetah enchantments messing with her head.
Ranma hung up the phone and shifted back to human. It was easy after as much practice as they'd had, and the night under the full moon had helped soak up 'lunar energy' or whatever it was their enchantments fed on.
Now, to face the music.
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(Posted Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:47)
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