Project A-Ko Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Vampire Hunter (Darkstalkers) Fan Fiction ❯ Nabiki 1/2 (A Very Scary Thought) ❯ Kodachi's Secret... ( Chapter 59 )

Nabiki 1/2

(A Very Scary Thought)

Written by Jim Robert Bader

Proofread by Shiva Barnwell

Based Upon the Altered Destinies Storyline

Inspired by the works of such fans as

Wade Tritshler

Richard Lawson

James Jones

And Many Others

Standard Disclaimer: This is inspired by the work of Takahashi Rumiko and is not my original creation. All characters belong to her. This is only a fanfictional work, and is not intended to compromise the rights of the original owners, distributors and publishers of the Ranma series. I have no money to spare and would very much appreciate if no one tries to sue me.

"Tell me, Shampoo-san," Natsume said with some caution, "Just who is this Kuno person currently sleeping it off in our back yard?"

"Him very stupid boy," Shampoo snorted her contempt, "Him rich, stuck-up snob, think he man because he good with wooden stick. His sister even worse, Stupid Rose Girl," she started chopping and dicing the carrots in front of her with greater vigor, her knife flashing as it sliced the vegetable into tiny little pieces.

"You don't like him very much, eh?" Kurumi asked from where she was stirring the Miso soup, avoiding looking at her older sister as she added, "He sounds like real trouble."

Natsume gave Kurumi an annoyed glance before saying, "Still, it might have helped if you had let me settle the fight for myself. I would have taken him down more gently, then perhaps gotten to hear his side of the matter."

"Hmph," Kurumi sniffed in evident irritation.

This was very bad indeed from Natsume's perspective. She was the one who normally had to restrain Kurumi's impulsive behavior, especially when it concerned food. It was definitely not like her sister to be this defensive over whom Natsume chose to associate. Rather than press the matter, however, Natsume chose to take a different tact by changing the subject.

"Tell me about this husband of yours, Shampoo-san," Natsume asked, "What is he like, this cousin Kaneda-sama?"

That brought about a noticeable change for the better in Shampoo's disposition. She at once brightened up as though her face were the sun coming out from behind a cloudbank. Her smile warmed the room as she said, "He very great fighter, very strong, very handsome. Come to Shampoo's village and defeat her easy. No one ever defeat Shampoo before, yet he very nice man…very gentle, show great kindness to Shampoo, no think her weak girl for losing."

"All the women of your tribe are great fighters?" Natsume asked.

"Yes," Shampoo said, "Amazons great fighters. Three thousand years we train to be best, and Great Grandmother is best of Elders, help raise Shampoo since she very small. Shampoo become best warrior in village until Airen come and best her in contest…" she paused to give the two girls helping her prepare a meal a sly look, "Husband also very sneaky, use strategy to outthink Shampoo, take advantage of fact Shampoo fight all day in contest and so very tired when make challenge. Shampoo…very foolish to make challenge when no rest. Could have made better opponent if I had rested, still no change outcome."

"I don't know about this law of yours," Kurumi said carefully, "I mean…fighting to prove you're the best is one thing…but doing it to get a husband seems…well…kind of going a little far, don't you think?"

"There more to it than just fighting," Shampoo winked at them meaningfully, "Also series of tests that challenge victor to see if he good man, not just good fighter. Airen pass every test, then we have big celebration and wedding feast and husband take bride to bed…" she glanced down at her belly with an even more meaningful leer, "Husband pass other test as well, make Shampoo happiest girl in all village…."

Her tone drifted away as though a memory clouded those happy reflections. She went back to dicing up vegetables and would not continue for a long, drawn out moment.

"How do you like living in Japan?" Kurumi lamely asked her to break the sudden chill she felt all around them.

Shampoo finally sighed, "Is nice to be in homeland of Airen…just not the same as Joketsuzoku. Shampoo no used to living with so many people, but it becoming easier with time. Language still give problems, but Shampoo…I get better with practice."

"You sound all right to me," Kurumi said in what sounded lame even to her ears, though she meant it sincerely, finding Shampoo's odd manner of speech very easy to adapt to the more she was around her.

"Thank you," Shampoo smiled, "Is not easy living far from place Shampoo call home. Come to Japan to be with Airen, make home with new family, very hard adjust to new life, but Airen make Shampoo feel…very special…almost worth effort."

"Perhaps we can spar together sometime and you can show us your Amazon techniques," Natsume said, "After you have your baby."

"Why so long?" Shampoo turned to glare, "You think Shampoo get weak because she have Airen's baby? Shampoo still best fighter of Amazons, take you both on with only one Bonbori…"

"Ah, that's all right, Shampoo-san," Kurumi said hastily, sensing another of a series of dramatic mood-swings, "We believe you. This Kaneda-san must be very proud of you, it's just that…well, when will we get to meet him?"

"Very soon, I hope," Shampoo turned away to hide the worried look in her reddish-brown eyes, "Shampoo know Kaneda-sama do everything she can to be with bride…"

"She?" Natsume repeated in confusion.

"He," Shampoo hastily corrected, "I mean he. Very hard language Japanese, Shampoo still need to work on tenses. Sometimes get confused with gender pronouns…"

"Okay," Kurumi murmured faintly, sensing that there was something their new in-law was not telling them, but knowing better than to press the issue.

Natsume also noticed the nervousness in Shampoo's hasty self-correction but could see no reason for it. She sighed to herself and said, "Would you excuse me, please? I will be back shortly. There is something I must tend to."

"Oneechan?" Kurumi asked in puzzlement.

"It's all right, Kurumi," Natsume smiled, "I won't be long. Please continue to help Shampoo-san prepare Otosan's dinner."

Kurumi looked faintly disturbed at her sister's manner but could think of no good excuse to follow her, so she returned to her work with the Miso as Natsume headed towards the laundry room, then did a quick detour and headed for the garden.

A moment later, Kuno Tatawaki sputtered back to life as a pail of cold water was dumped onto his head. He looked up in bleary-eyed confusion to see Natsume smiling down at him in an overly friendly manner.

"Kuno-san," Natsume said pleasantly, "What do you know about my cousin Kaneda-san?"

"Kaneda-san?" Kuno bristled at the name and launched into his standard diatribe about the much-accursed Tendo wizard that would take fifteen minutes to relate (and Natsume at least an hour to accurately re-interpret), after which time she would be left with even more questions than ever…

Keiko was deeply troubled as she waited for her Mistress to come fetch her. This reunion with her former owner was not going entirely in a manner that she would have liked, not least for the fact that all of her closest friends were currently in deep distress as was--not coincidentally--her father.

She had a fairly good idea of what was going on around her. She knew Madam Lao and her ways, knew her policy regarding outsider women who wound up on board her vessel, and knew that Lao would set about methodically breaking down their resistance so that they might better fit in with the women who constituted the crew on board the Piece Of Junk. Some would be conditioned to be slaves, a few might be recruited as potential crewmates, while anyone resisting this program would be treated to a very harsh ordeal that would either turn them into passive-submissives or would break them all together, most likely the latter.

The men would not have much to worry about, at first, as Lao had her own agenda concerning the male of the species, and some men might even enjoy it. At first. Keiko did not like to think of the implications of that for her father and his teammates. Lao was methodical and diabolical in ways that few besides Keiko could appreciate, and the means at her disposal left little doubt of her ability to carry out her schemes. This all had the appearance of one of Lao's masterful strategies at work, and it did not seem likely that she would have gone to all this trouble without a specific plan in mind to deal with the men in their group in such a way that it would turn a healthy profit…

"Ah, there you are, little one," she heard Lao coo as she turned to greet her Mistress with an automatically submissive posture.

"I await to serve you, my lady," she said by rote phrase, having uttered those words so many times before now that they came to her as second nature, along with her deferential pose, standing in the corridor with her leash dangling from a hook, barely giving her enough slack to bend down or sit had she so wanted.

"Indeed," Lao said approvingly, "I am glad that you still remember your training. I half-feared that you would need to be reconditioned after so long a time off your leash. Many others in your position would revert to their wild, uncivilized state."

"You taught me to respect the terms of my conditions," Keiko replied, "While I was on my own I lived by my wits and relied on nobody but myself. I know that with you I need not want for anything. The circumstances change but I remain essentially the same person."

"So I can see," Lao cooed as she stroked a finger along Keiko's jawline, tracing the familiar contours of the redhead's delicate features, "You are to be commended for your resourcefulness, but I thought by now you would at least have tried to find yourself a new owner."

Keiko allowed herself a slight smile at that, "I nearly had when all of this started. She is someone very special to me whom I…was bringing around to my way of thinking…"

"That Kodachi woman," Lao mused, "An interesting choice, you being one year her senior. Still…there is something very raw and unfinished about that woman. I have not yet managed to put my finger upon it, but I believe that she does need more of an education before she can become your Mistress."

"My lady," Keiko said delicately, "Kodachi has…problems…of that I am aware. I wanted more time to study her, to learn how best I could help her. To bring her in now…"

"Yes, I am aware of the risks," Lao assured her, "Perhaps we should go check on her now to see if I may have acted a bit prematurely in her case. She certainly shows great potential from what I have seen of her so far…"

"Ah…my lady," Keiko hesitated again, "About my friends…and my father…"

"Oh yes," Lao nodded, "I know you are concerned for their welfare. A very interesting lot they are, and very talented, especially that Nabiki woman of whom you are so fond. She is the one who liberated you in my absence, no? For that I do owe her a favor…after I have softened her up into a more receptive mental state."

"That may not be…very easy," Keiko paused, wondered how to best phrase her concerns that Lao would go too far this time. She was certain that Nabiki would resist conditioning and was reasonably positive about the others as well. She did not want her friends broken into the harness the way Lao normally treated people in her captivity, she liked them just the way they were, but to say so aloud would have been an unacceptable show of defiance and would have gained her nothing. Best to play along and regain the trust Lao once had in her judgement, then see what could be done to help free them.

"Perhaps not easy," Lao smiled, "But I like a challenge, and I suspect she may prove very much worth the effort. I suspect that even she does not know how much of a submissive she has within her, but the rest is pure fighter. Perhaps I may even one day give her to you as a pet. I rather think that you would like that."

"Ah," Keiko blushed, knowing that Lao could read her like a book and knew her well from their previous time together. The fact that she had changed in over a year was not something she wished to advertise just yet, so she permitted herself a forbidden fantasy of having Nabiki at her mercy, a scene of domination and submission very unlikely to occur, but still highly arousing. She hoped her reaction would be enough to convince Lao that it was something that she sincerely hoped for.

"You are still worried about your father," Lao surmised after a silent pause in which the air seemed to fairly hum with the poignancy of the moment, "You think that I might contemplate some mischief regarding him and his friends. Well…I must say that in regards to his friends I am strongly tempted, and your father is a very manly sort who has more than his share of attractive qualities…"

"My lady!" Keiko came very close to expressing her shock and disapproval, but the smile Lao gave her showed that this was hardly an unexpected reaction.

"You need not fear, my pet," Lao assured her, "I will honor your father…and your mother when we have at last regained custody, and I won't do anything…too extreme in regards to either parent. For the time being it will be necessary to keep your father under restraint, and his friends along with him, if only so that they do not wind up hurting themselves in foolishly going up against me."

"They may…try an escape, my lady," Keiko said cautiously, half-dreading the answer.

"Would it assure you if I give my word that no harm will come to your father at my hands?" Lao asked, "I want very much to see him and his friends upon their way at the end of this expedition. They are agents working for a highly classified inter-governmental service that I would rather not have coming down upon my head even if their chances of catching me are a bit less than sterling."

"You mean to let them go?" Keiko asked wonderingly.

"Wouldn't be much point in reuniting your parents if I didn't mean to get them together," Lao replied, "I suspect Akiko will need special handling, judging by the treatment that you received at the hands of that bastard. I will do as much as is needful to repair her psyche, but then the decision will belong to her, not me. As for your father, I believe it will be enough to erase his memories of me so that he and his people will never remember ever having been on board this vessel…and as for you…well…that's still open to negotiations. I rather like having you back under my care, where you have always belonged. I may not even wish to risk you again in the arena…though I suspect your skills as a Kickboxer have sufficiently improved that you could once again regain your title."

"I have been…practicing what you taught me, my lady," Keiko replied, "My skill is greater than what you may remember."

"Good," Lao purred, taking the leash in hand and tugging on the chain to encourage Keiko to follow her down the corridor, "Then let us see how much progress your two friends are making. I am more than a little bit curious to see if what I suspect is true of this Akane and Kodachi."

Keiko obediently followed her Mistress, finding it easy to hobble her steps to the length that her ankle chains permitted. With her hands still cuffed behind her back she entered an adjoining chamber two steps behind Lao and found the very thing she both expected and half-dreaded. Akane and Kodachi were hanging by their wrists side-by-side with their ankles held apart by spreader bars, but presently they were undergoing a special kind of conditioning that was unique to Lao's parlors.

Namely there were water elementals flowing over and around their bodies, more of the Undine spirits who loyally served whoever was the master of this vessel and who comprised roughly two thirds of the normal crew compliment. Currently, those Elementals were in their semi-liquid state, flowing eel-like over the naked skin of both young women, yet somehow not activating the Jusenkyo curse for Kodachi as they probed and stimulated their flesh with a tactile facility far beyond anything that was remotely human.

Keiko could not help but feel a sympathetic stirring in her loins as she watched her friends writhe and suffer the indescribable pleasuring and torments that only an Undine was capable of bestowing. With their ability to mold their bodies into any shape that they could imagine it was childsplay to form prehensile digits with flexibility and suppleness beyond anything that might be achieved by a human phallus. By controlling the surface contact made between themselves and their skin they could stroke and fondle human flesh in ways that simply could not be put into words or description. The experience was unearthly and capable of inducing mind-shattering heights of arousal and pleasure, and with three Undine working together a piece on either girl they had the instant coordination of their mutual assaults to drive both women to heights of unimaginable pleasure.

Lao smiled as she watched for a time, unable to help but finger herself as she watched the quivering display of elemental flesh stroking human. Before too long she reached out and began to play with Keiko's own bared bosoms, removing the nipple caps to pinch and fondle her sensitive tips until they began to swell with her own heightened arousal. Keiko made no effort to resist this, simply watched the show as members probed Akane and Kodachi from all three openings, aware of how far along they were by the throbbing pulse and glow that shimmered over the surface of the Undines. Their victims were sending back waves of pleasure the more they were stimulated inside, driving the Undines onward to expanding the degree of their ravishment. Keiko knew that those tubes probing the girls' mouths were in actuality processing air into lungs so that they did not drown while covered in water. She did wonder how the Jusenkyo curse was held at bay, though, as she would have thought the mere contact of the elemental was enough to trigger the transformation from Kodachi to black ferret.

Lao's breathing intensified as the elementals glowed a bright pink, as if forming battle auras. At last, however, the Pirate Queen regained control over herself and said, "That is enough, my servants! Ease back then withdraw and allow these two to recover their bearings."

Almost instantly the Undines began to flow away from the two girls as the glow finally left them. The Undines resumed a human appearance, then all six bowed down to Lao on one knee with faces humbled, though they seemed to still hum a bit with the aura of mutual savor.

"Report," Lao said, "Selke?"

"My lady," said the leader of the six, her voice having that slightly quavering effect Elementals had when attempting human speech, "We have done as you asked in preparing these two for the next stage of reprogramming. They have both been rendered more susceptible to your influence, as requested."

"Tell me what you know concerning these initiates," Lao instructed her lieutenant.

"It is as you have suspected, my lady," the leader replied, "The small one proved to be very responsive to the suggestions we implanted in her mind. She has a strong preference for her own sex, but she is not exclusively that way, like your favorite pet over there," she did not look up as she indicated Keiko.

"So," Lao mused, "I was right…Tendo Akane is strongly same-sex oriented. Small wonder she has little interest in most members of the opposite sex. I could make a very fine lady out of this one…"

"Perhaps so," the leader replied, "But we have also discovered that she is strongly motivated by a sense of her own independence. She has grievances deep down that have never been addressed, a strong sense of self-protection and latent paranoia that boarders on extreme overreaction. She may prove difficult to fully condition as her self-identity is that of a person who does not need others to provide her with her own strength."

"She is insecure and in need of affection," Lao replied, "That is something I can work with. And what of the other one?'

"My lady…" the Undine hesitated, "She…"

Before the elemental could fully voice her thoughts Kodachi herself seemed to revive, only she did not look at anyone or anything, just closed her eyes and shuddered for a moment before throwing her head back and crying out, "I'm sorry! I'll be good! Please don't hurt me, Mother!!!"

The elementals flinched while Lao raised both eyebrows. Keiko was shaken out of her momentary arousal by the disturbing sensations brought about by the sound of pain and desperation in Kodachi's voice. The girl was sobbing in almost hysterical terms while thrashing against her bonds, crying out with a small keen as though wracked by pain from all corners.

"What is happening?" Lao demanded, surprised at a reaction to sensory overstimulation unlike any she had previously witnessed.

"My lady," the lieutenant replied, "This is what we wished to inform you about. Our probes uncovered strong mental blocks buried deep within this one's inner psyche. We penetrated the wards by insinuation of our probes and discovered the inner demons this one has kept so well hidden. She is currently suffering memory flashes and has not yet managed to repair the walls of her ruptured psyche. We were about to construct new wards when you disturbed our efforts."

"Mother--No!" Kodachi cried out as her body wracked in pain, and now a visible welt was appearing upon her skin that had not been there before, the ones Lao had left earlier having long since been healed by the elementals.

"Sacred ancestors," Lao breathed in her surprise, "She is suffering sympathetic reaction to her memories, you dolts! I thought you knew better than to provoke this type of reaction!"

"We know, lady," the Undines groveled, "Please forgive us and allow us to return to our work…"

"One side!" Lao gestured with a hand and the six elementals dissolved into puddles that immediately flowed through the cracks in the floorboards, "I will summon you back when I have dealt with the mess you have left me. I simply cannot permit this one to damage herself psychosomatically with these stigmata."

She snapped her fingers and the chains binding Kodachi popped open, causing her to begin to fall like a limp dishrag, but Lao was quick in crossing the space between them and caught the Black Rose up into her arms then held her aloft as Kodachi continued to keen like a small child, unconsciously throwing her arms around Lao's neck as though the gesture had actually been meant to ward off an attack. Lao turned and carried Kodachi to one end of the room where a table was set, then laid the Japanese girl out and took steps to position her body into a relaxed state, using pressure-points to render Kodachi insensate.

"Is she all right?" Keiko asked, so frightened by the behavior of her friend that she momentarily forgot to phrase her tone in a deferential manner. Fortunately for her Lao was too distracted to notice at that moment.

"I don't know," Lao replied, "I have never experienced a case this extreme. This child is being torn apart from within by her own memories. I am going to have to join with her and discover for myself the true cause of her afflictions."

"Is there anything that I can do?" Keiko asked as she came to stand up beside the table.

"Yes," Lao replied, giving the girl a quick study, "It is a good thing I used the gold chains and not cold iron. That will make things easier. I want you to stand and monitor us both…you have enough training to do that, I trust?" Keiko nodded so Lao smiled back at her grimly, "Then wish me luck, as this will be a tricky matter of some delicacy, I suspect. You care a lot for this girl."

The last part was not phrased as a question but an observation, and Keiko swallowed a bit as she nodded in the affirmative. Lao gave her a look that as much as said what she already expected then turned back to Kodachi and placed her fingertips along the young girl's temples.

"Steel yourself and control your reactions," Lao said as she began taking deep breaths, "I will need your presence for an anchor if this gets complicated."

So saying she closed her eyes and relaxed, her body assuming an automatic state with the ease of long practice. Lao's spirit flowed and merged with that of Kodachi and at once found herself plunged into a psychic maelstrom the like of which only Keiko perceived as a swirl about both of their bodies.

Lao floated through this storm as if gliding, resisting the pull of the currents until she found what she was after and followed the dark thread that was spiraling out from the center of Kodachi's being. At once Lao was assaulted by the torturous sensations of raw pain and guilt, which she ignored as best she could, treating these impulses as the illusions that they were, seeking not the pain but the cause of the real torment, which flooded over her while Keiko felt the echo in her own mind, recording images as though through a camera remote.

With a suddenness that was beyond description Lao felt herself merging completely with Kodachi's Id and experiencing a time when the girl was no more than eleven years of age. She was standing before a body laying upon the floor in a pool of crimson, a lady who looked very much like Kodachi as an older adult, only laying quite still while Kodachi stood there, mouth agape, staring fixedly at the knife in the woman's throat.

A knife put there by the woman's own hand, a knife used in ritual seppuku by a woman driven over the edge of sanity and desperation.

Memories flooded through her of other times when the woman had been a living, breathing presence, some memories were happy, others--far too many--were saturated with scenes of mental, emotional and physical violence so ugly and depraved that to merely witness them was to recoil in horror. The girl recalled horrible experiences of gross physical torture, of being locked away and starved in a closet until she promised to behave, of being whipped like an animal and beaten for minor infractions. The mood swings of the elder Kuno woman had been so extreme that there seemed only a pendulum's space away from one incident or example of parental cruelty separated from the next, increasing in tempo the longer this went on until the girl's memories seemed like one long, endless torture.

Other images of the girl's father came to mind, a remote and distant man who sometimes smiled at her but never stayed long enough to make much of an impression. He would miss dates and appointments, break promises and fail to show up for birthdays and special occasions, heap faint praise on those few times he even happened to notice her at all and sometimes--very rare but cherished memories--he would do something truly parental to endear himself in her heart, then walk away and leave her once more to the mercy of her mother, whom he neglected even worse in his endless pursuit of financial empire.

The girl looked down at her mother's corpse as it started to cool, then reached out and dipped her fingers in the blood, staring at it fixedly without fully understanding the significance of what she was seeing. Then her brother showed up and found them this way…and she remembered the look of abject horror on his face. He stared at her without seeming recognition, then said something that made little sense to her but triggered a most unexpected reaction.

At first it was something tiny, small, almost unheard of, then it grew in strength as she slowly realized that the pain and torture were over, that her torments were done and would never be repeated. The servants would come and clean up the mess, and then the strange person lying on the floor would no longer be a memory and even the blood would be wiped away until no trace remained of what had happened.

And as this became fully clear in her mind she opened her mouth and began to laugh…a laugh that would make her brother back away and gaze at her in horror.

But the blood still remained in her mind and on her hands, the blood of that stranger whose identity she could no longer remember. The mere color of red now upset her worse than she could ever remember, a red so deep that it could stain the world. Better to never see red again than to experience such disturbing emotions. Black was a far better color, the deep nightshade of the roses in her garden, to which her father had often compared her. Those roses had special properties that she had learned about by accident and would later refine through chemical extraction. These roses could be used to distill a powerful narcotic that could numb the flesh and ease the pain. Put into a tea it would render memory hazy, which could be used to help her sleep at night.

It would take time and several years before she would learn the right dosage, but her Black Rose garden was an endless supply of raw material from which to harvest the powders that became her stock and trade when she began to near adulthood. She would share her discoveries with Tatawaki, helping her brother to ease away his own demons so that they both could go on and never have to fear again for the strange woman that had died upon their floor. Anytime she felt the memories return she knew what to do to keep the memories at bay, and she would laugh at her own cleverness.

She did wonder why Tatawaki still preferred the color red, however, but perhaps he saw things differently. Red still meant other things beside pain and death with him, but Kodachi knew that every red rose had thorns, unlike the smooth stems of her black ones…

Keiko gasped as the link was severed and Lao returned them both from edge of the insanity that they had each witnessed. She was shaken to her core by what she had seen in first-hand memory, of the pain Kodachi had carried inside her all these years, of the demons that drove her to be an exceptional gymnast.

Her mother had tried to mold her psyche, to make her an object of her own ambitions, to live vicariously through Kodachi to make up for her own failed ambitions in the Gymnastics world. Kodachi had tried every way she could to please her mother, but the elder Kuno had suffered a progressive mental disorder that was enflamed by the neglect she suffered from a career-obsessed father. Her mother had tired to love her children, but the pain she had endured was so great that she wound up hurting what she loved, and then finally when matters had become intolerable she had taken her own life both to end her suffering and to bring an end to the suffering she was inflicting on her children.

But still the ghost of the pain remained within Kodachi, the memory of every terrible thing she had ever experienced, every unkind word or thoughtless comment, the sense of never being good enough to please her mother or to win the attentions of her father, all of which Kodachi had tried to bury and suppress, both with drugs and her compulsive behavior. In her heart she knew that what her mother had done to her was wrong, but now it was guilt that kept the memories buried, a guilt so deep that even she had never suspected its existence.

It all made perfect sense now! That was the reason for Kuno Tatawaki's psychotic belief in himself as an invincible samurai warrior. His mother had sought an honorable death to protect her children, now he had to be the strong one in their family to protect himself and Kodachi against the demons of his own nightmares. Elder Kuno also had been driven over the edge of insanity by guilt and the realization of how his negligence had driven his wife over that selfsame edge. He went on a self-destructive binge of denial and dissociation that culminated in his extended sabbatical when he had been shipwrecked on a deserted island. When found and rescued his convalescence in Hawaii had helped him shape a new personality matrix that currently took the form of a deranged Principal at a certain High School…

Keiko heard a gasp and sensed that Madam Lao was regaining full consciousness over her own body. Lao took several deep breaths as she regained her focus, then removed her fingers from the temples of Kodachi and said, "I've done what I could to repair the damage, but her defenses have crumbled and cannot be easily rebuilt in the same manner. I am afraid she is going to be plagued by memories when she fully recovers, and when that happens she will be torn apart inside by the twin demons of pain and guilt unless someone is here to give her the strength she desperately desires."

Keiko looked down, seeing Kodachi was already stirring. She had just witnessed the Hell that her friend had kept hidden so long from others. Of a certainty Kodachi would be overwhelmed by her memories, only this time she might not be able to retreat into the comforting bosom of psychosis.

Lao looked hard at Keiko and said, "How much do you care for this woman?"

Keiko blinked, completely unprepared for that question, but when she met Lao's steady gaze her words were surprisingly steady, "I love her."

"Then it seems you are elected," Lao half-smiled before coming around behind Keiko, and a moment later she removed the handcuffs, "Do whatever it takes to calm her down. Tell her whatever is in your heart and make her believe it. It is important that she knows that someone is here to care for her, to assure her of her own worth as a person. We both know what it is like to need another in a moment of human weakness. I will trust you with the mental safety of your friend. When I return we will all three have a long discussion about this."

"Yes, my lady," Keiko replied even as Kodachi began to flutter her eyes, then looked up at Keiko. Keiko reached down and lost herself in the ebony depths of the other woman, and then Kodachi reached out to her and Keiko drew her into her arms, the two of them hugging as Kodachi began at first to spasm then wail again like a lost child. Her keening broke Keiko's heart and caused even Lao to feel the stirrings of her maternal instincts.

Lao turned away with great effort and left the two of them there, went over to find Tendo Akane was staring at all three of them with a wide-eyed expression. Lao paused to consider her, smiled at last then turned and left the chamber. As an afterthought she posted two Undines as guards over the chamber with the instruction that none were to disturb this trio until further notice.

It was not often that a Pirate had the chance to play therapist, but Lao was pleased by the results nonetheless. She forced herself to think practical once more then remembered Tendo Nabiki and smiled. There was more unfinished business to tend to, but she was reasonably certain that the Kodachi matter was in good hands for the moment.

Keiko might not fully realize what she had done but Lao knew imprinting when it happened. The Black Rose had just given herself into the hands of Lao's apprentice, and a more competent kind of therapy could not be imagined. With two such vibrant souls amerced in the grief and joy of living it would only be moments before Keiko's solicitude turned to something more erotic. Lao could imagine the scene in detail from that point onward and was assured that Kodachi would shortly be past her crisis forever.

Where to go from there was the only real question, but Lao had time to work on that. With a little retraining, and Keiko at her side, Kodachi could become quite formidable in the arts of pleasure, and Lao could always find room on her ship for another talented and aspiring dominatrix.

If only the men were as easy to mold to her desires, she mused as she headed back towards her office and Nabiki. Men were more trouble than they were worth at most times, but when it came to the thing that they were best at it was hard to find a reasonably good substitute.

As fortune would have it, in this instance, there was one on board this vessel who knew the perspective of both genders. It was time to exploit that particular asset, and Lao knew just the way to employ that asset to very good usage…

Continued

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