Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Chained World: The Fall of the House of Kuno ❯ One Commoner's View ( Chapter 17 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi.

This chapter was originally written by Tman.

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By Tman

Word hit school of the sale.

What a bummer of a week. First the continuing near-celebration (tempered with respect for the dead) that the Whacked Macadamia Nut of Furinkan had passed on to that big luau in the sky, then word that the Tendo sisters' father had died, committing seppuku. Then word that Ranma Saotome, ah, `Ranko Tendo', had sold herself as a full-service slave to the man she habitually and regularly beat the snot out of, Tatewaki Kuno, the self-appointed Blue Thunder (and locally known Lesser Macademia Nut of the district), in order to bail out the Tendos who, it turned out, had been floundering in debt for years.

Hiroshi sighed. Yeah, it was a popular teenage male fantasy: buy a hot-looking full-service sex slave who was conditioned to be loyal to you, to do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it. There'd even been a lot of locker room speculation (out of Ranma's earshot, of course) of what Saotome's female form would be like as a slave. A lot of the smaller-minded boys thought it would be a cool thing. He'd had similar fantasies, he admitted, who wouldn't, seeing a body that hot-looking?

Some of them still did, once the news had broken, especially those who'd been followers of Kuno, had been part of the Date Akane Challenge Fight Brigade, and those jocks who had felt slighted by Ranma's superhuman athletic prowess. They were loudly crowing their thoughts on the subject for days now. It was a reality; female Ranma was a full service sex slave. Done deal. There was even some trade in the nude auction pictures of `Ranko' going on. Daisuke had droolingly and enthusiastically ranted about them when Hiroshi had run into him on the way in to school in the morning.

Hiroshi decided then and there that Daisuke was a jerk.

Looking around though, Hiroshi noticed, there was a lot less talk than one might have expected. A lot of the earlier locker room speculators were curiously quiet. There were a lot more thoughtful looks going over people's faces.

Hiroshi knew why.

For all the difference in background and ability between the two of them, Ranma had been Hiroshi's FRIEND. He'd been the friend of a lot of other people too, even if he wasn't particularly close to any of them. It wasn't that he was standoffish or class-conscious, or mean-spirited; it was just that he was a roaring fire; warm to be around, but you couldn't stand too close or you'd get burned by all the energy around him. Although he had an ego the size of the Moon, he wasn't arrogant or malicious, nor even condescending; he was a guy just very sure of himself. He was fun to be around, and he could be counted on for excitement. He was also, Hiroshi suspected a lot of people were just now realizing, a whole hell of lot more honorable and true to his word than a lot of supposedly better-bred people of circumstance.

A lot of people were also realizing that Ranma had drawn a lot of attention and a lot of flak that might have otherwise gone in their direction. Oh, sure, Saotome was the CAUSE of a lot of the trouble, but he didn't go looking for it; it came looking for him, and he inevitably got out in front of it to stop it, usually in spectacular fashion. School troubleshooter and one-man spectator sport, he'd served to curb the worst excesses of the established troublemakers, student and faculty alike, of the school. He'd done more good than harm.

And with the word of what happened to the Tendos spreading, the situation was taking on new meanings. Dumb old Kuno had sprung a mean-spirited trap that cost the Tendo girls their father. Who knew what else Kuno, now that he had the full power of his family name, might pull, and against who?

No, Hiroshi could never think of his good friend as a sex slave, at least not as those loudmouthed locker room jerks did. Ranma was a prisoner, a hostage, a victim of obsession.

But what could he do about it? The rumormongers were right in their whispers; if Kuno could finally entrap Ranma Saotome and fend off the bids of a dozen of the biggest Houses in the Empire, what could one college-bound teenager do? Dumb old Blue Thunder Kuno could be hoodwinked, avoided, ridiculed behind his back; LORD Kuno on the other hand demanded respect and he could destroy people's lives until he got it.

He supposed he could make some small gesture, go over and offer what in effect might be his sword to the Tendos in support, for all it would be worth. He'd heard some of Akane's female friends talking about doing just that.

Yeah. Hiroshi decided he'd do that.

It seemed like the right thing to do.