[Episode 28711] [Episode 28711]"Ranma, please listen seriously to me. I would like to marry you. Now. If you'll have me. And that's my intellect speaking, not just this outrageous body's lusts. You've been a better gentleman about this whole situation than any other guy I know would have been. I trust you completely. And I don't care about your curse."
"I sincerely apologize and regret my treatment of you in the past. You're a better person than I have been. Money has been more important to me than anyone's feelings since soon after mother died. I kept our family from landing in the street, but I wasn't very nice, and I was very lonely. I certainly wasn't happy like that."
"I'm tired of that, Ranma. And I can finally leave that life behind. Our back wall is now gold. I won't ever need to grub money for fear of keeping our family afloat again."
"Our families would both be satisfied and quit hassling you. My younger sister would stop trying to beat you to death for every imagined slight or crazy thing that happens around you."
"I can satisfy your honor too, Ranma. With that gold, I can return dowries, damages, and interest to all the people your father made promises to. There might even be some left.", she added with a small smirk.
"The amazons will leave you alone once you're truly married. You know that."
"Our skills would complement each other. We can each grow a lot by learning what the other has to teach. You can't say that about any of your current fiancées."
"You know that I can be trusted to hold up my end of a bargain. And marriage is the ultimate partnership. If I tried taking advantage of you, I'd only be indirectly hurting myself worse. You could even say it was the ultimate way to protect yourself from me. It's not like you need protection from anyone else."
Nabiki then adopted a used-car sales-pitch lady persona as she struck a sexy pose. (In that body, when she *tried* to act sexy, she could just about cause heart failure.) "And if you act now, I'll throw in this extra special limited-time offer: a honeymoon with me in *this* body." She added a bit of a sexy flounce. She shifted to more of a 'revealing a confidence onstage' act, and continued. "But this is a very limited-time offer, because I'll wish for my own body back rather than fight to stay celibate in this body much longer."
At that, the previously spared side of Ranma's feminine nose began leaking a trail of blood.
"Please marry me now.", Nabiki concluded.
******
Ranma was on the edge of facefaulting. Nabiki, his erstwhile tormentor, and new friend and business partner had just made a serious, well-reasoned, blood-boiling proposal of marriage. He was stunned speechless for several moments, but then he seriously considered her logical supporting arguments. She made a whole lot of sense. She really did. But there was just one problem.
"If we married, would you listen to what I wanted and felt, instead of railroading me where you wanted me to go like everyone else around me tries?", Ranma asked pointedly.
Nabiki responded, "You know perfectly well how persuasive I can be. I can't say I won't get you to do things. But I would listen to you. And I would take your desires and feelings into serious consideration and talk things out with you. I might even abandon something because of your thoughts. And I'd expect the same consideration from you."
That was a whole lot more than any of his fiancées were offering. And that was the most significant thing Ranma was missing anyway.
"And you won't try to rent me out to the others?", Ranma asked, somewhat hesitantly. Even he knew this wasn't a very tactful way to bring that up, but he didn't know how to sugarcoat it and he *had* to make sure.
Nabiki looked wounded. Somehow it was still cute. "I should be offended, but considering how badly I've abused you in the past, I can't complain. Ranma, I'm sorry about how I treated you. I never took you being my fiancé at all seriously. Or your feelings, for that matter. Again, I'm sorry. I was trying to make Akane jealous so she'd want you back again and was less likely to renounce you again."
Nabiki continued, "No Ranma, I wouldn't dream of using you as horse-trading stock ever again, even if you turn me down. If you marry me, our romantic interests will only be for each other, and not for sale at any price. But if you marry me or not, I might well try to get you to agree to legitimate employment."
Still, he needed to throw in another test.
"And if I waited until tomorrow to make the decision?", Ranma asked.
"Then the offer is still on the table, Ranma. The only difference is I'll use a wish and get my old body back if you make me wait more than an hour or so. You have no idea what this body is like. You'd just have to honeymoon with the real me instead. But I'd still make you deliriously happy.
"I won't pester you and persistently try to trick you into marrying me. I do ask that you don't try to keep me hanging indefinitely like you have with the fiancée brigade.
(Posted Fri, 14 Feb 2003 18:47)
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