To Nabiki however it was a gold mine just waiting to be plunderred. For the minor cost of airfare to the island she could become the owner of all that wonderful prize money. Even better would be if she could con some of the others into putting up that money too. 'All the proceids and none of the expenditures..' Nabiki thought with a bit of a sparkle in her eyes. Now all she needed to accomplish was to get the local crazies willing to fight for her and let her keep whatever cash that was won.
And of course to make sure that money was all hers she'd stack the odds a bit.. after all she knew her sister and the other girls were pretty strong fighters but this was too important not to hedge her bet in case of some surprise competition.
Luckily for her there was always Ranma and his insane luck when it came to beating the odds. 'God bless jusenkyo!'
Ranma had been easy to hook. All it had taken was word of the free trip to anywhere in the world for the winners of the tournament to hook the cure-hopeful Saotome.
Akane had been a bit tougher but she had agreed just as Nabiki had planned when she saw how much Ranma was looking forward to that free trip to Jusenkyo and his cure. Of course it hadn't hurt any to nudge Akane's pride as a martial artist either.
Ukyou had been both a sucess and a failure to the middle Tendou girl. On the one hand she had readily joined the team upon hearing about Ranma being on it and how Akane was going too. Naturally Ukyou would not let Akane have Ranma all to herself that way. Her plans to get Ucchan's to help sponsor the team's trip had fallen through though. It seems that Ranma had received a few too many freebies for her restaurant to afford the advertisement.
Shampoo had of course agreed to follow her 'airen' anywhere he went and her tribal pride had her quickly joining the team to show other women in the world how strong the women of her tribe were. Cologne's sponsorship had been a tough sell however. Eventually she had agreed in exchange for the team bearing the name of her restaurant and special team uniforms to advertise her sponsorship.
Nabiki had considerred leaving the team as assembled but in the end decided to add one more girl just to stack the odds further in her favor. Her mind had been upon Ms Hinako when she made that decision but the teacher had turned out to be away at a teacher's conferrence. Instead she settled for bringing in Kodachi instead. The girl was already rich so wouldn't want the prize money and all it had taken was reassurance that her Ranma-sama would be in attendance.
The team that had set out was a strange one to be sure. An old woman who bounced on a stick, an exotic looking girl in a chinese dress, a girl who looked like she had just arrived from gymnastics class without changing, another one trying to use a calculator and an abacus at the same time, yet another girl in a yellow gi, a girl dressed like a guy with a kitchen utensil strapped to her back, and a final girl who had clothing too big for her that was plasterred wetly to her and a pout on her face.
Naturally, Nabiki had been quickly under the gun upon arrival when it was found out to be a beach volleyball tournament instead of one for fighters. Due to the fight that had broken out, after that detail being found out, the 'girls' had quickly wasted their allowance and then some from the damages incurred.
In order to even be allowed off the island they would have to 'work off' the debt they now owed. Upon hearing the alternative, all had quickly agreed to participate in the the volleyball tournament instead.
A choice had to be made however about which group they would be playing in. The tournament was broken into groups of 2, 4, and 6 players per team.
Nabiki had of course wanted the 2 player team to consist of Ranma and one other but that had quickly acrued even more damages to work off. The 4 member team wouldn't work because none of the 'fiances' were willing to stay out. Akane, Shampoo, and Ukyou because they refused to let the others get closer to Ranma, while Kodachi refused to let 'the peasants' represent her as if they were her betters. And Nabiki was adamant that Ranma must play, over Ranma's own wishes to the contrary, in order to keep her bets hedged.
Unfortunately the rules disqualified Cologne from playing as she was too old and Nabiki had failed to bring any of the others such as Azusa along feeling it would be too much of a bother. Nabiki had gotten a very bad feeling when the other Nerimans had turned to look at her with evil grins.
This of course had absolutely nothing to do with Nabiki being responsible for their being at this fake fighting tournament, no of course not..!
Their 6-girl team volleyball match was quickly scheduled for the next afternoon and Nabiki had smartly remained scarce until then to avoid the wrath of certain discontents.
A huge crowd had gatherred around the beach to enjoy what was to be one of the first matches of the tournament. The first team of six players had just been introduced by the loud and boistrous announcer and everyone was waiting for the arrival of the other team who were late to make an appearance. In fact the crowd had begun to murmer amongst themselves about whether or not the other team had forfeited.
Suddenly a loud voice cried out, "No way! I ain't going out there like this and you can't make me ya old ghoul!"
Briefly there was a loud cracking sound of something wooden slamming into something else before a body hurled itself out of the other team's dressing area and into the volleyball court.
Immediately the murmers turned into appreciative whistles from the crowd that was almost entirely male.
The redhead that stood up was certainly attractive but her hair color and contours were not the only reason every male and a good portion of minority female audience had become so attentive, but rather what it was the redhead was wearing. Cologne had sponsorred the group's trip to the island in exchange for the team being named after her restaurant and the team uniform being of her choice. Cologne knew that the words 'cat cafe' alone would not necessarily give proper advertising for her restaurant so had instead settled on a theme.
As the other players walked onto the field with embarrassed blushes it was apparrent that the theme was a sucess, as well it should be. It's not every day after all that a team of girls at a volleyball tournament are dressed up like catgirls with each girl wearing a different color of fur to match their natural coloring.
The girls were barefooted of course but around their ankles to mid-calf were furry leg-warmers. They all wore the traditional bikini except each was furry and the bottom piece came complete with a tail extension sticking out behind them. From the wrist to about halfway to the elbow were furry leg-warmers as well but alterred to the contours of their arms. Around each of their necks were cute little collars along with a little bell hanging from each. And atop each of their heads a pair of little cat ears finished the look.
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(Posted Sun, 22 Jun 2003 14:58)
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