After listening to his brief tale of the craziness inheriting the dorm had entailed, including fighting the cookie monster along side a group of short-skirted urban legends, Nabiki was rather impressed.
Life definitely wasn't boring with Ranma around.
"Alright then Saotome, let's go back to your new place and get all this sorted out. Lose the stupid disguise though."
Frowning slightly, Ranma none-the-less complied, slipping into his typical Chinese clothes after picking out a blue silk shirt. While it would be extremely nice to have Nabiki helping him, he knew to suspect her motivation. "So, you're just going to help?"
Grinning, the short haired girl replied mirthfully, "Of course, my powers can be used for good ya know. That aside, you'll have to stop letting them have their way though or they'll just keep walking all over you. If it's like you said, and I'm sure it is, you stand up to them. I'll be there to poke holes in their accusations until you get the hang of it."
Finishing packing up his stuff, Ranma shouldered his pack while casting a curious gaze at Nabiki. In his experience with her, this meant she was setting him up for something else, perhaps trying to get him to sign over the property or something. Be that as it may, he'd just keep an eye out for that and let her play out her hand.
Of course, the perplexing part was her wanting him to keep their family's agreement in mind. This didn't seem like a plan to set him up with Akane, so maybe she just wanted to be engaged to him again and start running business deals or something.
Getting back to the house, they found it once again deserted, much to Ranma's relief and Nabiki's evil delight.
Taking a moment to look around the place, Nabiki turned to her extremely fit 'boss'. "Alright Saotome, how about you whip us up something to eat, and I'll see what I can sort out from the office's papers about this situation."
Seeing Ranma look askance at her, the wily girl turned him a grin. "Hey, you know I can't cook, and I'll even whip up a No Cats Allows sign for you."
Blinking a few times at the girl in surprise, the martial artist finally shook his head and headed for the kitchen.
Feeling quite happy with herself, Nabiki started raiding Ranma's new office.
About half an hour later, the search parties returned to the house to regroup. To their surprise they found a few new signs out front.
Ripping one particular sign down, Rei stared at the crumpled paper in her hand. "No Cats Allowed? Vacancies? What the hell?"
Looking fairly calm about things, Haruka eyed the notices. "I'd say we have a hard working manager. I guess they found out about Luna and Artemis."
Acting like a herd of buffalo, the inners stormed the entrance, intent on saving the poor kitties from the vile pervert.
Instead they found a fit guy in Chinese clothes eating dinner with the Tendou girl from earlier. That same girl was busy reading over a stack of messy ledgers while absentmindedly stuffing food in her mouth.
As he wasn't in a rush to attend to dirty dishes in the kitchen, Ranma was for once taking his time, treating the girls to a rare show of manners.
The reluctant fore-woman of the group for inn matters, Haruka spoke up for the upset group of girls. "Alright, Miss Tendou was it? What's going on here?"
Pausing to chew her current mouthful of food, Nabiki spared the assembled tenants a glance. "Going over these books. It looks like the rent has been very ill-managed in the past."
Working up to a mild frown, Haruka was still playing it cool. "...and what gives you the right?"
Sighing, Nabiki reluctantly put down her dear financial tomes, bookmarking her place while preparing to give eating her full attention. "Because I've been hired on as administrative assistant and financial manager for the place. By the way, good food Saotome. You can do stuff besides stir-fry right?"
Shrugging, the pig-tailed young man didn't pause long in eating his over sized portion. "I suppose, just as long as you don't make any cracks about it."
In the back rank of the assembled girls, Makoto elbowed Minako while whispering to her, "Doesn't that sound like unmasked guy?"
Their hushed conversation was lost in the flames of Rei's passion. "Are you saying this guy is supposed to be our manager? Then who was that geeky little pervert?"
Casually reaching behind him, the young man pulled a pair of Mousse's glasses from nowhere. Placing them before his eyes, he took on the squeaky voice of his ronin disguise. "Ya know, this costume sucked. I can't see a thing through these stupid specs."
Glancing over at Ranma, Nabiki took a moment to respond, the revelation stunning the senshi just enough to keep them quiet for a moment. "You weren't wearing those during the bath incident were you?"
Shrugging, Ranma put the glasses away. "Yeah, I kinda forgot to take 'em off. I guess trying to disguise myself as a normal guy was doomed to fail as soon as I got splashed."
Forcing Rei to present the crumpled sign about no cats being allowed, Ami took her turn speaking for the group. "What's this about vacancies and not allowing cats in the house?"
Sighing at being forced to abandon surprisingly good food, Nabiki considered fresh ways to deal with these girls. "Well, the finances are shot to hell thanks to all the skimming off the rent from before, and the place is in shambles, so we need new tenants. Of course, Ranma hasn't given me a decision on whether you girls are going to stay or not. Personally I'd go for kicking you guys out since you've been cheating on your rent. As for the cats, you don't want to know."
Shifting into full on water-works, Usagi took center stage. "But why are you being so mean to the kitties?"
Rolling her eyes, Nabiki ate a bit more food before pushing it away, figuring she was about to lose her appetite anyways. "When Ranma was about six, his father tied him up and covered him in fish paste, then tossed him into a pit of starving cats. When that didn't work, he tried fish sausages. When little-Ranma became afraid of cats, he tried again under the pretext of curing Ranma of his fear of cats. That my dear girls is why Genma Saotome is an idiot." — "Damn straight."
Most of the senshi were rather stunned by that little tale.
Most isn't all though, which is why Rei wasn't fazed in the slightest. "What a load of bull! And what was that about wanting to evict us? What the hell gives you the right?"
Unfazed in the least, Nabiki leveled a slight but stony frown right back at the irate girl. "Because when Ranma arrived here and found the house empty, he decided to take a bath. When you girls walked in on his bath, one of you blocked him from getting to his clothes. When he tried to get away from the psychotic girls that came in to attack him, he bumped into a girl with a laundry basket. As we just found out, the dorky glasses in his disguise made him practically blind. Then you girls teamed up to kick him out and incidentally trashed this place into even worse condition."
Rei's reply was as simple as it was incredulously angry. "And you honestly believe that load of bull?"
Still not fazed in the least, Nabiki coolly stared the angry girl down. She had a lot of experience in that field after all. "Yes, because Ranma couldn't lie if he wanted to. Because the first day he showed up at my house, my older sister told him to go take a bath. Then my little sister walked in on him in the bath, ran outside screaming about a pervert and ripped out the stone lantern in the yard intent on drowning him in the tub. I love my dear little violent sister to death, and that's why I put up with her. You girls though, I quite frankly don't give a damn about, so if you're going to stay here, you're going to behave yourselves."
Her steam finally running out in the face of Nabiki's cool facade, Rei crossed her arms in a huff and looked away.
Taking the opportunity, Nabiki turned to Ranma for his pronouncement. "So Saotome, going to let them stay? I'm pretty sure I can have you all new tenants within the month."
Shrugging his shoulders, Ranma was glad they were focusing on Nabiki for the moment. "May as well give them a second chance. I wouldn't feel right just coming in and kicking them out."
Nodding, Nabiki turned to the assembled girls. "Alright, you girls get a reprieve. Clean up your mess and try to stay out of trouble."
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(Posted Sat, 26 Aug 2006 11:10)
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