Ranma jumped to her feet and flexed her new bat wings, preparing to follow Mariko, but Kasumi held her back.
"No, Ranma," she said. "You already know where she is headed, and you just went through a very painful experience."
Ranma nodded ruefully. "Yeah, that hurt."
"Actually," said Nabiki, reading a Kitsune Beauty information leaflet that the dutiful Mariko had left behind, "it says here that the pain of a cellular restructuring would be far too great for an unanaesthetized human to bear."
Ranma immediately feigned nonchalance. "Feh, I've had worse. Nothing can finish Ranma Saotome!" she said, puffing out her chest, which looked slightly more substantial in contrast with her new, slighter build.
"Is that so?" asked Nabiki, surreptitiously snaking her tail up behind Ranma and tapping her lightly on the back.
Ranma immediately toppled, landing on her face, with index finger and pinky of both hands extended.
"Nothing except, perhaps, a light breeze," said Nabiki sarcastically. She curled the end of her tail around Ranma's waist and marvelled at the effortless way she was able to lift her. There were definite advantages to this form. She carried the semi-conscious Ranma to the bath.
"Nabiki, what are you doing with Ranma?" Akane said.
"Just testing a theory. Won't take a minute." Nabiki said with a smirk.
In the bathroom, she sat Ranma down on the bathing stool and drew a little hot water, which she up-ended over Ranma's head. To her delight, Ranma turned back into his normal, male, and entirely untransformed state. "Perfect."
"Wuzzat?" Ranma asked, coming to. He looked down at himself. "Hey! I'm back to normal."
"Yes," said Nabiki. "The transformation appears to have affected only your female side." She threw a glass of cold water at Ranma's face.
"Hey<Glub>" Ranma immediately turned back female, into the 'Darkfire' form that Mariko had given her. "You could have just asked, ya know," said Ranma sullenly. But then she turned to the mirror and studied her new form.
Akane arrived at this point and she watched as Ranma took in the changes that had been wrought.
The most obvious changes were the large, black bat wings, which had torn two holes into the back of Ranma's shirt. Ranma's skin had turned dusky, and her entire build had become more slight and thinner, if not any less tall than before. Her bone structure appeared more delicate and elegant, and her ears had grown much larger and pointed, visibly poking out of her hair. The hair itself, though, was what drew the eyes in the most, apart from the wings. It was now a chaotic swirl of black and fire-red streaks, which almost seemed to move of its own accord, like a flickering fire in the dark. Her eyes, too had acquired a mesmerizing quality, akin to dancing flames. Whoever had named this transformation template 'Darkfire' had chosen the name aptly, and it fit Ranma's fiery temperament to a T.
Ranma stared at herself in the mirror, wide-eyed, without moving. Akane was about to say something commiserating, when Ranma finally reacted to her new form.
"Cooool!"
Akane was taken aback. "What?! She turned you into a demonic-looking dark-elf creature, and you think it's cool?"
"Sure! If I gotta turn into a girl, I'd rather look real dangerous like this than like a cute li'l girl. I mean, yeah, it was useful for foolin' idiots like Kunou or Ryouga, and for scoring stuff to eat - but it really sucks sometimes that guys don't take a cute girl serious as a fighter."
Nabiki coughed politely, while Akane near exploded. "What?! Oh, that's rich, you telling me that it's annoying to be underestimated."
Ranma, of course didn't get the point. "Huh?"
Luckily she was saved by the bell. The door bell to be precise. A few moments later Kasumi was at the bathroom door, calling, "Nabiki? There are some people here to see you."
"Ah, right," said Nabiki. "That'll be the people from Kitsune Beauty. Why don't you send them in here, Kasumi? I have something to show them, before we talk business."
Soon they were joined by three girls, wearing the same uniform as Mariko had done. Nabiki pressed a video camera into the hand of one, saying "You may want to record this for your employer."
As soon as the camera was running, Nabiki turned to it, saying, "Hello. My name is Tendou Nabiki, and this person next to me is Saotome Ranma. Until this morning, she looked like this." she held up a photo of Ranma, which was rather risque. Ranma was starting to protest, but Nabiki continued. "Then she was attacked and transformed against her will by an employee of your company, who wished to discredit her by giving her a more 'demonic' look. However, what said employee was apparently unaware of: Saotome Ranma already had a pre-existing transformative condition."
Nabiki poured a glass of water over Ranma's head, turning her male. The unexpected and rapid transformation startled the Kitsune girls, even though they were used to transformations as such.
"Saotome Ranma was born male and acquired a shape-changing curse some time ago. As you can see, the chimera treatment affected only one of his forms. While this is no direct proof yet, it is a very encouraging sign that I may be right in my assumptions. I hope to be able to prove that a recipient of the Kitsune Beauty treatment, if given the appropriate 'curse', will be able to remain in their true gender, while gaining the ability to 'turn on' their beauty enhancement at will and 'turning it off' when needed. The addition of such a feature would, I believe, expand the potential customer base of Kitsune Beauty to a multiple of its current size. While many might appreciate the beauty of a form, like my current one-" She flexed her snake body, letting the light play over the pattern of her scales. "-not everyone can afford to look like this all the time."
Nabiki smiled at the camera, until the girl filming her got the hint and ended the recording. "Very well," she said with a predatory grin. "Now let's talk business..."
(Posted Thu, 21 Nov 2002 11:21)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.