"You know, you guys, if you're going to be open about this, don't you think you could hold off until morning?"
Akane and her visitors gasp as the door to her room opens, revealling a smirking Nabiki. Realizing that the middle Tendou daughter is alone, Ukyou and Shampoo breathe out in relief while their lover gives her sister an annoyed glare. "Don't you believe in knocking?!"
"Not while my just-out-of-the-closet younger sister is trying to instigate something that can blow up in all our collective faces if you make the wrong move," Nabiki walks in, closing the door behind her. "You can relax. Right now, Dad's so torqued over Ranma-kun's walking out of here like that, I think you three could have an all-out orgy and he wouldn't begin to notice. So..." she sits on the end of Akane's bed. "I take it you three aren't going to sit around and let Nodoka get away with this, ne?"
"What do you think?" Ukyou snarls. "That bitch's husband stole my dowry and totally fucked up my whole life. If she thinks she can keep her family clear of the repercussions of that, she's on drugs!"
"This one agrees with Ukyou," Shampoo nods. "Ranma, even if Council of Elders no want him to come to village, is still this one's airen. This one will not renounce her bond to Ranma, especially because of Ranma's stupid mother. Ranma no deserve to have mother like that."
Nabiki gazes on the warrior-maiden, then smirks. "Well, funny you should mention that."
"What do you mean, Onee-chan?" Akane perks.
The middle Tendou daughter's grin turns feral. "Well, remember when I told you about all the information I collected on Genma that forced him on the run from the police today?" Seeing the younger girls nod, Nabiki's smile then turns feral. "Well, along with that information, I made a very strong hint about the seppuku contract, indicating how much Nodoka terrorized her own son with it. I even indicated what sort of 'man above men' Nodoka wanted Ranma-kun to be. This place has put up to the likes of Happousai long enough, ne? I don't think anyone wants to have a second Happousai running around the place. So..." she waves her hands in a "ta-daa" motion, "...come tomorrow morning, Ranma-kun's mother is going to be in for a hell of a shock."
The younger girls exchange looks, then nod understandingly. "That seems just right for her," Ukyou muses.
"This one thinks it's fitting," Shampoo adds.
"Could she still try to strike back at you, Onee-chan?" Akane wonders.
Nabiki shakes her head. "Nope. It's pretty much too late now. The garbage I've acquired on Genma is SO bad, anything Nodoka tries to do would be automatically seen as a desperate attempt to keep her family's reputation out of the dungheap. Granted, I've done my fair share of illegal and quasi-legal things to keep this house over our heads, but I've insulated myself from that sort of retaliation by contributing some money from my earnings to a special trust fund for police widows and orphans." She takes a deep breath. "And even if the police don't press an investigation on Nodoka all the way to sending her to court, the chances are very good that the authorities will sever all parental links between Ranma-kun's parents and Ranma-kun himself. Once that happens..." she holds up a finger, "...then technically, Ranma-kun would have the legal right to renounce all the engagements made on his behalf by Genma (and Nodoka just in case). Once that happens..."
"Ukyou and your family has honour restored," Shampoo finishes.
"Exactly."
Eyes lock on the okonomiyaki chef. A thoughtful look is on her face. "Well, I could go along with that, as could my dad," she nods.
"Well, that deals with the homophobe once and for all," Akane sighs. "But what about Ranma?"
The four girls exchange looks. "This one thinks that as soon as Ranma's stupid mother is done away with, he realize right away that Nabiki was involved," Shampoo gazes on Nabiki. "And this one thinks that Nabiki's usual threats to hurt Ranma only invite retaliation."
"Ran-chan isn't as stupid as many people like to think he is," Ukyou warns.
"And I would certainly wager that the whole 'Ranma-kun doesn't hit girls' belief will no longer apply to you three," Nabiki warns.
The younger girls pale as the idea of facing a Ranma no longer bound by his chauvanistic code of honour sinks in. They knew that, despite all their skills in the martial disciplines, they were no match for the likes of Ranma Saotome, even in a three-on-one battle. Further, in spite of his gross lack of experience when it came to dealing with other people, he was no idiot by far. And thanks to what happened earlier in the day, whatever trust Ranma had in his former fiancees had been flushed down the tubes. "You got a point," Ukyou nods.
"This one has an idea."
Eyes lock on Shampoo. "Being?" Nabiki probes.
"What does Ranma want?" the warrior-maiden from Joketsuzoku muses. "Ranma want to be full man. He no want girl-curse, right?"
"Yeah," Ukyou nods.
"What does this one and this one's airens want?" Shampoo gently squeezes her lovers' hands. "We want Ranma as girl, yes?"
"Of course," Akane nods, then sighs. "Shampoo, if you're thinking of using those herbal shampoos of yours..."
"No, no, Akane no understand," Shampoo shakes her head. "Tribe live close to Jusenkyou for many, many years. We have cures for Jusenkyou. Ones that take very long time or have to happen in unique ways, but still effective cures. This one proposes we offer one to Ranma."
"That one being?" Nabiki asks.
"Is same type of magical incense lantern old pervert has," Shampoo reports. "But this one work much better. Old pervert stole defective one, but what can one expect from a stupid male like that?" a chuckle escapes her. "So this one uses lantern on Ranma..."
"And we split his girl-side from his guy-side!" Ukyou finishes.
"Hai. This way, Ranma get what he want and we get what we want. Girl-Ranma created by lantern will be girl in heart as well as body," she points to her chest. "And with some persuasion, we make girl-Ranma love us."
"Thus you could return to your village with not only your honour intact, but bring to the village a version of Ranma Cologne's fellow elders would find a lot easier to accept, right?" Nabiki's eyebrow arches.
"Hai!"
The others exchange looks, then nod. "Let's do it, then," Akane smiles...
Unseen by any of the girls inside the bedroom, a white duck with coke-bottle glasses peeks in, his webbed feet firmly planted on a branch of the large cherry tree in the Tendous' front yard. It was fortunate that the window hadn't been locked after Shampoo and Ukyou had gone in to see Akane; with just a nudge of a wing, Mousse had been able to open the window enough to listen in on the conversation without drawing any attention to himself. And after hearing what Shampoo was now proposing concerning Ranma...
Shampoo, have you gone insane?! If you do that, you'll kill us all!!
Backing carefully away from the window, Mousse hops several other branches to get to the front fence, then he takes wing for the Nekohanten. Were he still human, a determine grimace would be now etched on his face. If Shampoo carried out her scheme of separating Ranma's female self from his male self, the potential rewards could potentially be grossly limited...
...especially if boy-Ranma was able to trace down his killers before he himself died.
For there was the one thing one just could NOT do with Jusenkyou curses save for the most unique circumstances: splitting the curse-body from the birth-body. Doing that under normal circumstances would invoke a terrible magical imbalance.
Or, as some people in Joketsuzoku would put it, Jusenkyou will not be denied THIS way!
Put to Ranma's situation, once the split occured, his male body, over a period of one to three months -- it depended a lot on the victim's own physical conditioning, which would place Ranma at the long end of the scale -- would grow steadily weaker and weaker until the point where he would simply die. Even more so, once he had died, his body would disintegrate, leaving not even ashes for his mother to bury. And for someone like Ranma, who had constantly lived with pain and injury, noticing what was happening to himself would be quite easy.
In a way, Mousse could understand where Shampoo was now coming from. That Ranma had continuously and constantly denied her advances must have driven the warrior-maiden, a person used to obtaining sexual favours from ANYONE who crossed her path, right out of her mind. That, tacked onto the pressures Cologne's presence put on her, had grated on Shampoo since the day the Nekohanten was formed. And now...
No!
Despite the traditionally lower status men had in Joketsuzoku, Mousse loved his tribe and his people. He loved Shampoo with all his heart and soul. And yes, he loved her to the point where he could and would gladly share her with other lovers, especially those he respected very much. And he did respect Ukyou Kuonji and Akane Tendou, though he was disappointed that they hadn't come forth and admitted their own true feelings to Ranma before he literally caught them in the act. And...
And yes, Mousse respected, even liked, Ranma very much.
Perhaps all the way to saying that he loved Ranma...?
It all stemmed from the battle with Herb over the Kaisui-fuu. That Ranma had gone so far to unlock his curse had impressed the weapons-master very much. And that didn't even begin to express Mousse's awe at what Ranma had recently done to Saffron. Oh, yes, Mousse had gladly harassed Ranma whenever he saw the other man reject Shampoo's advances; after all, Shampoo was someone to be respected. And yes, Mousse would gladly do anything to be rid of his own Yaasuniichuan curse, hence his anger at Ranma over the incident at Toma's island. But then again, didn't Ranma destroy that spring to save Akane from being cursed herself...?
Akane.
Mousse shakes his head as he glides through the open window of his small bedroom over the Nekohanten, then waddles over to the portable stove where he kept a kettle of hot water ready. Dousing himself to restore his manhood, Mousse quickly dries himself, then dresses, ensuring that his glasses are over his eyes before he heads out of his room. Damn, how could Akane keep up such a lie, such a hideous deception after all the things Ranma had done for her? Protecting her from getting cursed, KILLING to save her life, rescuing her from being kidnapped by those idiots from Nekoron...! And what did she do to him in return? What did her FAMILY do to him in return?
No...
Mousse heads into the kitchen. For his village's sake, for Shampoo's sake -- and yes, for Ranma's sake -- this HAD to be done...
(Posted Sun, 02 Mar 2003 04:59)
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