Ranma grew increasingly more alarmed as he browsed the stores wares; virtually everything here was hentai stuff and way more than he could afford. 'No, no, no, no! This isn't happening to me, this just isn't happening! There's No way I'm trapped in some perverted magic shop without enough money to buy something; with some dirty old wizard ready to do who knows what to me if I don't buy something, and quick,’ Ranma mentally screamed at the injustice of it all.
As Ranma hurriedly browsed the store's large selection, he couldn't help growing more and more panicked by his inability to find something to buy. Of course Ranma had no way of knowing that he had been specifically targeted and set up for this little 'meeting'. Or that the reason behind the owner's growing amusement was because he was looking forward to a new EMPLOYEE instead of a new VICTIM; not that the clerks running the old man's other, older, store locations would believe there was much difference between the two.
In fact the store Ranma was hunting through right now wasn't even officially open for business yet. But once it had a clerk to run the register, and to entice the customers, Opening day would commence. During which, the item selection currently holding Ranma captive would be sold off, at discount prices, while it's new sales clerk fumed silently in the background.
Twenty minutes later, not that Ranma realized he'd taken that long, the cursed martial artist cracked under the pressure. "Aah! There's nothing here I can afford!" Ranma yelled in frustration. Then turned on the store's owner from twenty feet away, "Hey! No fair, Mister, you can't keep me in here forever! It's not my fault I can't afford anything in here, I didn't even know what you had for sale till I got in the door!" Ranma bellowed at the old man standing behind the counter.
"And I had no way of knowing how much money you'd bring with you when you came in. So what's your point child?" asked the unnamed shop owner with feigned innocence. The old man hid a smile as Ranma began to burn under the loaded question.
"As if anybody but Kuno could afford the prices you're charging in here! So what happens if half the mall comes in here? You gonna keep them all locked up in here until each of them buys something anyway? They won't be able to afford anything either!" Ranma argued logically, for once.
This time the nameless owner faked shock. "Oh, dear, oh dear! Are the prices really all that high?" he asked in pretend dismay. Ranma nodded authoritatively at the practiced act. "I must have over compensated for inflation again, I'm so sorry lad. Unfortunately my own spells won't allow me to lower the prices on any of my merchandise until I've run something through the register. Or unless I . . ." he trailed off, pretending to remember something.
Ranma snatched at the baited opening like he normally did food. "'Or unless you,' what?" the martial artist asked, convinced he'd found some means of escape. Little did Ranma know just how fully he'd caught himself in the old man's trap.
"Oh, did I say that out loud . . . ? I'm sorry lad, the only other way for me to change the advertised prices without triggering my own anti-theft spells would be to officially hire on a new employee. I was assuming you wouldn't want the position, though. But I suppose I could allow you to remain, risking the activation of the 'no loitering' spells, until someone who might be interested in the job to walks in," replied the owner with a convincing show of false concern.
Ranma didn't want the job, but he REALLY didn't want to find out what those anti-loitering spells did. The end result, coaxed by some mild magical prompting, was that Ranma asked a few intelligent questions about the job, giving the old man a chance to 'convince' him. "Any benefits? How's the pay, when and how often will you need me?" Ranma asked in a rush. Showing that the compulsion spell hadn't worked quite as subtly on the boy as it should have done, even in his current state of panic. That would just make employing this particular teen all the more enjoyable for the store's owner.
"Well . . . there is a fairly standard package I give all my employee's, plus I give the store clerks at my other locations a few added perks. The standard package includes a respectable, but not impervious, immunity to permanent magical alterations to their person. I'm afraid that locks in any pre-existing conditions like your own; but at least you wouldn't have to worry about getting permanently 'stuck' anymore.
“You'll only work 'as needed', there may be a little over lap before and after though, usually no more than twenty to thirty minutes or so. Image concerns you know. I personally arranged the medium for this so that you'll never have to worry about your work interfering with your personal life though; you'll always arrive where you were taken from approximately ten minutes before you left there. Standard pay is ten thousand yen per hour, plus commissions for clerks like yourself.
“You're friends and family will all be rated a five percent discount and a small line of store credit. This is in addition to your own ten percent discount plus personal immunity to the anti-loitering protections. You'll also receive triple pay for any holidays you might have to work. I also provide free dental and medical for all my people as well, and that includes a lot more than most policies provide. All in all, I think I offer a rather nice working package," finished the old man, sounding reasonably proud of what he was offering.
Ranma thought it sounded too good to be true, or at least too good not to have some kind of trick attached to it. On the other hand though, Nabiki would probably never let him hear the end of it if she found out he didn't take it; not that Ranma really had a choice in the matter. Just how little choice he had in the matter wouldn't be revealed to him until later either.
"Sounds great," Ranma cautiously admitted. "But where's the catch?" he asked, largely against his better judgement. But his curiosity, and some more compulsive magic, had gotten the better of him; the owner of the shop liked for his people to know most of what they were getting into before they hired on, it made employing them all that much more fun.
"Oh, nothing much. Just lifetime employment. But you'll be glad to know that I have no objections to my workers having second and third jobs. You might even become eligible for the occasional pay raise as well, depending on your performance and time in position.
Ranma thought about it deeply for a moment, but still couldn't see the barb on the hook, or a way out. So with a certain amount of resignation he finally decided to accept the job. "Okay, I'll take the job," Ranma managed not to mumble as he accepted the offer.
"Excellent! I just need a little blood from you and I can enter you into the employee side of the spell matrix!" exclaimed the shop owner happily. Ranma didn't even get the chance to protest the idea as a small, marble sized glob of blood darted from his undamaged forehead to a waiting jar next to the register.
"Excellent, excellent! Everything's checking out beautifully. Now then, young Ranma, I'll need most of today to calculate the new prices. Then tomorrow I'll need you here to re-price everything, so I'll be shutting the store back down until we've finished with all of that. But I seriously doubt that anyone but yourself even noticed we were open today anyway.
"I'll summon you at some point tomorrow to help me re-price the inventory, and to train you up for a more official grand opening the day after; such events always go better with a likeable face behind the counter," rambled Ranma's new boss excitedly.
"Er, um, thanks for doing this for me and all, Mr. . . .?" Ranma was forced to trail off as he realized he didn't know his new boss's name yet.
"Oh, how rude of me! The name is . . . , well my professional name is Mr. Fetish," Mr. Fetish told his latest employee. Honestly surprised for a moment that he'd forgotten such a imple thing as to introduce himself to his new employee.
"Ah, right. . . . Um anyway, thanks for helping me and all. But, um, I still need to find a present for somebody, and since I can't afford anything here . . . I was wondering if I could go now?" Ranma asked, hesitantly.
"Oh, of course lad, of course. I do need to be getting busy after all. But here, take this for your lady friend, it's a gift certificate for our store, I'm sure she'll appreciate you giving it to her. You can consider it a sign-on bonus," Mr. Fetish offered graciously. Although Ranma didn't like the way his boss stressed the word 'our', just then.
"Thanks!" Ranma said, happily taking the offered certificate. The man's acting skills momentarily beating out Ranma's well ingrained distrust of all things magic. Thus Ranma happily left his new job with present in hand. He wouldn't realize the repercussions of his dealings this day until he was summoned to work tomorrow. Meanwhile:
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(Posted Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:36)
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