Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Featherbrite's Tale ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet.
by Gregg Sharp

DISCLAIMER: Take two cups "Ranma 1/2" by R.Takahashi. Add one cup of faerie dust. Lightly sprinkle with other characters and situations. Stir briskly and pour into a 1024 x 768 resolution, some browsers may vary.

4: Another New Complication
OR... "Kasumi's New Friend"

"Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him well, Horatio. I told him not to mess with that explosive PU-238 explosive space modulator, but nobody ever listens to me." -B. Bunny

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. Especially when Genma Saotome is involved." - J. Ornstead

"I'm so glad this discussion is taking place on such a mature civilized level." - L. Inverse

------------

Featherbrite awoke to find the tall girl checking on her. Another quick probe penetrated the mortal's flimsy mental defenses.

These really were flimsy. Worse than the average mortal. Hmmm. Started with the death of her mother? Adjust there. Good.

Kind, nice, polite, quite intelligent, though there were restraints and barriers in place. Featherbrite snapped to full wakefulness and felt sympathy for this mortal. She'd accidently put in a compulsion that would have her treating Ranma's father like a low-grade moron. (Not that he wasn't, in Featherbrite's opinion, but it might cause further friction if this girl acted like that before Featherbrite was ready to exploit it.) (1)

Worse, this girl had some odd compulsions and self-imposed restrictions on her behavior that the faerie couldn't quite understand. Still, there were some things that Featherbrite had learned after 9,500 years of intermittent observation of the Big Folk. One of these was that some of these humans suffered from odd diseases like "shyness" and "insecurity" and other insanities.

She'd also learned that some restrictions were self-defined, others culture-defined, and still others traumatically defined in the psyche. This last category was almost always something she could mess around with and not get the individual she was helping in trouble. If it was tagged under a "Moral" heading, then removing it would have bad repercussions. If a restriction was under "Survival"- this also would be bad.

In some ways, Featherbrite decided, this girl was even better as a potential mate to Ranma than the Amazon. It wouldn't take much, either. A little tweak here, a little push there, a tiny adjustment behind those chestnut colored eyes and the girl would be seducing Ranma within the week.

Featherbrite sighed. It was SO tempting. She knew Ranma had some odd ideas about this right/wrong thing, and probably wouldn't approve. It was so hard not to do _something_ though. This "Kasumi" put on a happy face but that was just on the surface layers. From what the faerie could see and interpret, if she got this girl and Ranma together, there was a fair chance of a deeper happiness developing. All it would take was a little nudge.

Featherbrite restrained herself, but it was a close thing.

She did cut a few of these odd restrictions that the girl had put on her own behavior referencing her intelligence. For some odd reason, this girl thought that showing off her own talents and intelligence (other than necessary domestic skills, an area where no one sought to compete with her) would "upstage" her sisters and cause them emotional hurt. Humans did some pretty strange things.

Kasumi was talking about making the little guest a little bed when Featherbrite remembered she'd left an Amazon sleeping on the roof.

---------

Ranma grabbed one end of the whirling chain and realized immediately that this wasn't a good idea. She would have dodged but there had been people behind her, and it was only a whirling length of steel with sleeves of a darker metal on the links. It wouldn't have been any problem if she'd been in the uncursed male form. However, in the half-faerie form...

Nabiki was moving before the first involuntary scream from Ranma, reaching into the flames in order pull the chain weapon away from where it had wrapped first around Ranma's hand, then the other end around the faerie-girl's neck.

Akane was rather surprised that Nabiki had beaten her to the rescue. Not having read the same stories as her sister, Akane thought that Kuno must have done something really odd. Incendiary charges seemed out of character for the kendoist. A quick glance at Kuno confirmed that he hadn't expected this sort of thing either. The samurai was standing there still, in shock at what his own actions had just wrought.

"Akane," Nabiki said as she stuffed the chain into her bookbag. "Give me a hand here. She's gone into shock."

Akane lifted Ranma, amazed at how light the cursed form was. "Hot water?"

"Nurse's office first," Nabiki replied as she opened the doors to the school. "Those are third degree burns."

Akane glanced down at bloody charred flesh and nearly dropped the victim. She merely clenched her jaw at the rising nausea, particularly from the smell, and began moving.

Kuno continued to stare at the place his winged goddess had stood. His plans had crumbled away, and even his usual delusions had trouble putting a positive spin on this development.

----------

The "fishing" vessel landed at a small dock that was conveniently not on any maps, patrol routes, or official lists. A deal had been cut ages ago (literally) that as long as certain types of cargo weren't shipped/sold, then the dock would
remain open and a secret.

Several Amazons of the Nichieju exited the ship, not having to pay for passage as this was part of another agreement. As long as the ship was of use to the various groups who made use of its services, it was neutral ground. The male Amazons and the "Washouts" were a little nervous about the passengers, but others took it in stride.

Parcels were loaded into a haycart, and the ship was quickly and efficiently unloaded. Just as quickly, the ship was loaded and set out again. The Mainland China-Taiwan-Japan route had been established long ago. One of the crew could remember
before the "People's Revolution" and the closing of Chinese society. Another could remember being present when Marco Polo decided to take a long trip while problems at home cooled.

Nathan Brazil, owner of the Myou Na Maru, was in one of his phases where he was _not_ the Captain. He watched the Amazons leave and remembered the plains of Scythia and the horse-riding spear-toting women that they had been well over 3000 years previously. They had been a fading legend in Homer's time, but nomads were notoriously hard to pin down by the later groups of archaeologists and legend seekers.

Oddly enough he could remember one hugging the ground and offering praise for the end of the sea voyage back then as well.

"Well," came a basso grumble from a squat seaman even shorter than the Wandering Jew, "whatever you can say about it, it's gotta be different. I mean 'Chinese Amazons'?"

"Last time they had crossed the ocean and had been located in what's Nevada this time around. The time before that, they were in South America. Every time the universe gets reset, it's just a little different. If it weren't a little different each time, I don't think I could handle it." Nathan watched the Amazons try to get their bearings. Heck, the Amazons had become a significant force in American politics during the last Universe. This time they seemed to be a secret society.

"Hmph. Still don't know how you do it. I mean, I'm only 900 years old, and I still feel like going to sleep and somebody wake me up when someone's actually doing something new." Tolkein snorted. The old dragon still spoke with an English accent despite his years of seperation from that land. He'd taken the name of a writer from that land as a joke to any who knew his real nature.

Nathan grunted softly. Despite appearances, maybe something major different WOULD happen. Certainly he didn't remember dragons and faeries showing up in the 20th Century the last time.

--------

Ukyo Kuonji's head snapped up. Somewhere. Somehow. She knew. Ranchan was hurt.

"I have you now, Ukyo!"

*WHANG!*

Tsubasa's leap was redirected towards the sky via application of a spatula.

*CLANG!*

As he came back down, Ukyo redirected the Master Of Tacky Disguises in a manuever very similar to spiking a volleyball.

*WHAM!*

The distraction dealt with momentarily, Ukyo looked around but could not tell where the odd feeling was coming from. "Ranchan..."

--------

"Something's happened to Ranma," Featherbrite was buzzing along like an unhappy hummingbird. "He's hurt."

"Oh dear. He's probably at school by now."

Featherbrite didn't think that Shampoo would wake up, but she didn't want the warrior to cause problems in her absence if she did. There was also the unexplained matter of the scent of supernatural evil lingering in the yard.

The faerie sent a structured command into the amazon's mind. (*This is Kasumi. She is a friend but not a warrior. You can trust her. Because she's not a warrior, she may need your protection.*) She sent a similar set into Kasumi's mind. (*This is Shampoo, a foreign warrior. She needs a friend and someone to look out for her in noncombat situations.*)

It was due to the extreme hurry to find out what had happened to Ranma that Featherbrite hadn't anticipated the sort of problems that these two sets of instructions could cause in the future.

In fact, by the time she remembered casting this spell again, the effects would have snowballed.(3)

Shampoo smiled in her sleep. A friend. She had always wanted one of those. Mousse had always chased other potential friends away. With the exceptions of Rin Rin and Ran Ran. It could be nice.

Kasumi looked down at her sleeping friend. She was needed, and this gave her some immediate fulfillment. Yes, she'd have to take care of this girl. Maybe some hot tea when she awoke.

--------

Dina hugged the tree. "Land, beautiful wonderful land!"

"For someone whose ancestor was an internationally known 'sailin' man' - you don't seem to like the sea," observed Tigar. "Do you want me to sing his song?"

"NO!"

Vanilla nodded at this. "We should immediately try to find this 'Takeuchi' who knows so much of our current problems."

Dina nodded. "That's right."

"That way we can finish this quickly and efficiently and return to the ship," continued Vanilla.

"Erk!" Dina's face managed to acquire a sort of pale green color at the thought.

"No hurry, is there?" Tigar put in. After all, there was shopping to do and if she was out here she didn't have Elders yelling at her.

Bane wasn't too thrilled with the idea of accomplishing the mission too fast either. "We have to hurry. To Azabu Juuban in Tokyo!"

Shammi sighed. Maybe she could meet some cute guy around here. It couldn't hurt.

Vanilla came up with another thought. If this was going to take awhile, then other preparations should be made. "Suppose we split up when we reach Tokyo. One team checks in with Shampoo and her new airen. The other team safeguards this writer woman. After team one makes contact, the two can rejoin but then we'll have local support for an extended stay."

Sugar and Spice nodded. Sounded like a plan.

"Okay, I know Japanese and something about Juuban." Bane was sure of it. If a menace occurred, sooner or later it would show up at the Tokyo Tower. Find that and you can find everything else. "So I'll lead the team to Juuban."

Vanilla nodded. "Tigar is the best tracker. We have a better chance of finding Shampoo and her airen with Tigar's assistance."

Shammi thought that if Shampoo's airen was a martial artist, there ought to be other martial artists around him. Therefore- "I'll go with Tigar and Vanilla."

Sugar and Spice looked at each other. Spice shrugged. Sugar smirked. "Sounds like we're with Bane then."

Dina pursed her lips. She didn't care, but... "Guess I'll go with the Juuban group."

"Besides," Bane put in, "it's traditional for a Fellowship to break up into two forces before rejoining again to beat the main villain."

Dina was rather blunt. "You're an idiot. You know that, don't you?"

---------

China

Cologne set down her tea, ready for the explosion.

"COLOGNE!"

"Why hello, Mee Gar, lovely day isn't it?"

"Don't you 'lovely day' ME, Elder! Why are my two daughters off on a mission to JAPAN! I leave for a few days and when I come back..." The swordmistress made a gesture to indicate something too large to simply point to one thing.

"Mee Gar. Shut up. Sit down. Listen. Learn." Cologne glared at the younger Amazon, finally getting a measure of respect.

Lilac passed the newcomer a cup of tea. "Now, dearie, I often disagree with Cologne but that's part of my duty as an irascible old Elder of the tribe. She *does* have some reasons for this particular group."

"Oh?" Meager turned a questioning glance towards the Matriarch.

"Two of them were not born of the tribe, but were adopted for one reason or another," Cologne said, sipping at her tea. While she had a number of differences between Lilac and herself, she would admit that Lilac was one of the better teamakers in the village.

"Spice and Vanilla," said Meager. "Spice was the grandchild of an Amazon expatriate, while Vanilla was found as a child in the mountains near Jusenkyo."

"Yes. Is this a taste of lemon in the tea, Lilac? Where did you get lemon in this season?"

Lilac made a depreciating gesture but smiled. "Oh here and there. I have my sources."

Meager was about ready to yell again when she caught Lilac's subtle shake of the head.

"Hmmm. Then there's Shammi whose school of martial arts is not terribly well thought of among the more purist groups," suggested Cologne.

"Though whenever something needs cleaned up, repaired, rebuilt, or there's cooking to be done - it *is* a handy system," pointed out Lilac. "Martial Arts Housekeeping *was* developed by women during the Unification period here in China by women whose menfolk had gone off to fight for Lu Bu and some of those other rowdies."

Cologne harrumphed, being one of those purists. "In the case of all three, accomplishing this mission will prove that they are capable warriors despite certain factions."

"That leaves my daughters and Bane and Dina." Meager pointed out.

"Dina is... difficult." Cologne said politely. "She tends to overestimate her own abilities. Having to rely on others will help her in the long run. Bane (Bai Na) is the one who wanted to go in the first place. Sugar has a tendency to be too trusting and too nieve. Whereas Tigar is..."

"Put it this way, it'll be the first time she hasn't gotten scolded by Cologne there since she could walk," said Lilac with a smirk.

Meager couldn't argue with *that.*

----------

Japan:

Mister Hisakawa, biology teacher, adjusted his belt and tried to get his attention back on his class. He was failing miserably.

A few more photos had been added to his collection of Ranma-yousei. He had borrowed the Physics Department's high-speed camera and caught a number of shots of the flying martial artist. His friends in Tokyo University's faculty would be
intrigued by his sudden interest in special effects, until they saw the wing sample he'd managed to get from the patient in the nurse's office while her "guardian" was occupied elsewhere.

Once they actually saw this Ranma, well, Hisakawa still had some dreams. Being stuck at a minor Senior High School in a Tokyo suburb was not what he had planned for his future. Fame, fortune, girls, essays, girls, money, public recognition, wealth, the lecture circuit, girls, these were the things that were rightfully his and that he might yet claim. All he wanted was his due, that wasn't so bad, was it?

A pity about the boy, but exploratories would have to be performed. What were the musculoskeletal connections for the wings like? Were the internal organs more suggestive of mammals, or was the insectile nature of the wings indicative of the internal anatomy?

Hisakawa knew he couldn't count on much help among the faculty at Furinkan. The physics teacher, Keiko Nagai(4) would especially be against any of his plans. Nagai was planning on having Ranma carry a few instruments aloft on her next
flight. Nagai wanted to explore how the faerie could make 90 degree turns at high speeds, or float weightlessly above the school. Nagai was already (having seen the reaction of metal to Ranma and paid for information from Nabiki) redesigning equipment to minimize the use of metal in the testing devices.

Likewise Keiko Tomita was already waxing quite eloquently about crushing the competition from the other schools if she could get that flute player to sign up. Seeing the 4'10" Tomita laughing maniacally and talking about the utter
humiliation and destruction of other High School's music programs had been quite amusing. One would never have guessed that she had taken the school's poor performance over the last six years so personally.

Sighing to himself, and putting his dreams of the lecture circuit to the side, Hisakawa-sensei returned to the lecture of ATP to ADP and how muscles worked. The fire never left his eyes, however, with the thought that he might not have to do
this again NEXT year.

-------------------------

Ranma awoke to find that he was a he again, and that he was alone in the Nurse's office. A quick check revealed that Nabiki's scent (an inexpensive but vaguely flowery-spicy perfume) was still fairly strong in the air.

Bandages at wrist and neck covered the worst of the burns. Ranma could feel a small injury in his back, a gouge or something.

Getting up proved to be somewhat more difficult. Years on the road had taught Ranma a number of things. The sensation of being poisoned was one of these and he gave both sets of burns a tentative label of poisonous. The act of catching
certain black chains was filed under "things you want to avoid in the future."

As the dizzy spell passed, Ranma got up and rinsed his face off in the sink, remembering at the last minute to let the water warm up before doing so.

Sitting back down, he began the task of drawing ki from the environment into himself - speeding up his already quick recoveries from injuries. Necessary because the degree of burned tissue was enough that a normal person would likely be crippled by this.

A tiny figure glowing and sending off sparks, shot into the room.

----------

Concern prompted a certain short-haired young girl to excuse herself from class early. As Keiko Nagai-sensei had her *own* concern about those events, and under the pretext of letting a fiancee check on her beloved's condition, the physics teacher promptly excused that particular student.

Besides, there was betting going on. Third degree burns around the neck and hand, sufficient that many of those present were still in shock. The ones who were sufficiently unrattled enough to bet were betting on whether the injuries would be permanently crippling or not.

Many of those, rattled or not, were of the opinion that the only reason Nabiki Tendo would go check on her fiance was to fix the odds properly.

So it was that in the silence of nearly deserted halls, one Nabiki Tendo heard a voice talking before she entered the nurse's office.

"So, cold iron is a BAD thing. What the heck is cold iron anyway?"

Nabiki listened but couldn't hear another voice. She delayed her entry, wanting to know what she was stepping into before she got there. One of the differences between herself and her younger sister.

"Iron that's been refined by other methods than heat? If you say so. It doesn't make much sense to me, though. I mean that stuff BURNED." Ranma's voice sounded tired. "Okay. What did you learn? Was that baka oyaji of mine telling the truth for once?"

Nabiki crept up to the doorway and peered in. Ranma was sitting on the bed, addressing an empty chair. He was listening to it apparently, too. It wasn't so bad to talk to yourself, but having a dialogue with a chair. Bad.

"He did WHAT?!" Ranma was incredulous. "Why did he do that? She seemed like a pretty nice girl."

Nabiki blinked. Was Ranma talking to his "imaginary friend"? She couldn't see or hear anything but at this point wasn't completely willing to believe Genma was right about this. Too many other things had blown her mind lately. At this
point, Nabiki thought that if she were to see a unicorn trotting through the streets of Nerima, she would probably just start a betting pool on whether it would find a virgin. Hopefully *before* it came up to her. She'd die of embarassment
otherwise.

"Nabiki-chan?" Ranma looked puzzled. Nabiki flattened herself against a wall and tried not to make any noise. Had he seen her?

"She's my fiancee. My father and her father arranged it. She seems a bit cold and uncaring..." Ranma paused.

Nabiki closed her eyes. Her image as the Ice Queen remained intact. Even when people had seen her reaching into a flame to pull the chains away from her iinazuke, they had merely supposed it was to protect a potential source of profit. She felt an ache in her chest that people thought *that* poorly of her. She'd maintained her "ice queen" "profit uber alles" image, necessary for some of the things she'd done. That it had escalated to this level was news, and unwelcome news at that.

"...but that's just her defense against the world. She's walled off the world to keep from getting hurt, but there's a caring heart in there. I'm sure she can be nice and kind and warm when she's given half a chance."

Nabiki's eyes weren't the only thing that opened in shock, her jaw was currently hanging loose. Her? The legendary mercenary Ice Queen of Furinkan?

"Well, pops and Mister Tendo made some sort of arrangement that I'd marry one of Tendo's daughters. Family honor kind of thing, y'know. No, she's got two sisters. Actually, I'd like you to look at them and see if I'm interpreting their auras right."

Nabiki's mind started to run on high speed. Auras? He was reading auras? (K-CHING!) This could be one heck of a business tool if she could learn how he did it. Just speculating on the uses during negotiations caused her to miss Ranma's next comment. She tuned back in when she heard Kasumi's name mentioned.

A slightly longer pause, then Ranma started again. "Well, Kasumi looks like she could use a friend, someone to unburden herself on. She's sorta retreated from the world so it can't hurt her. Nabiki's erected walls of ice around herself, and is really into money as a method of control of her environment. Akane has a nasty temper that seems to relate violence to release. Underneath all that, all three seem to be really nice girls." Another pause. "At least that's what little I've been able to read from their auras."

Another long pause. "Well, you did say that Sidhe faerie nature tends towards nurturer/healer as opposed to warrior. Look at my cursed form, I've got a lot more of that stuff in me than I thought. 'Sides, I can be good at more than one thing. Something else YOU taught me."

"She's here?"

"Candidate #3? Maybe..."

Nabiki looked up, startled. That voice had not been heard with her ears. It had been a girl's voice, much higher and softer than Ranma's cursed form's voice.

She caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye, but couldn't see anything when she turned her head.

Nabiki had always taken pride on her mind. One of the things she'd always felt was that the three daughters Tendo had a different focus, and that hers was the intellect whereas Akane was more freely emotional and Kasumi more spiritual.(1)

(Over the last three days, Nabiki felt that she was on an emotional rollercoaster that would have given Akane a run for her money.)

Nabiki took a deep breath. What if Genma had lied? Since he'd come across as quite sincere, he would have had to be lying to himself as well, but she didn't think that was beyond his abilities. He was a much more accomplished liar than Ranma, that was for certain.

Nabiki looked at this dispassionately. Ranma had demonstrated magic, had demonstrated skills that his father didn't have and actively discounted the values of. The father also had no idea where Ranma had picked up these skills. Therefore, Nabiki decided that she was faced with one of two possibilities. One, Genma had been lying about no tutors and Ranma had been coached in music and magic (among other things) during his training journey. Two, his "imaginary friend" was not imaginary.

The first of these Nabiki decided was the most likely but unsatisfactory for several reasons. The outright contempt that Ranma's father had for those musical talents especially was quite apparent. The other was impossible.

That particular word was something that Nabiki felt considerably less certain of after the past two days.

Nabiki's eyes flicked to the doorway of the nurse's office. Ranma was leaning out of it to look at her in concern. She found she... rather liked that. Not that she wasn't quite capable of looking after herself, but that someone besides Kasumi was concerned for her well-being. It gave her one of those warm and fuzzy feelings, which had been one of those concepts that had eluded her for many years.

Nabiki's mind continued to churn over the possibility that faerie were real. Science taught that one came up with an idea, tried to find evidence for or against, and thereby prove the theory. How to determine the validity of this theory, that was the crux.

"Featherbrite says your mind's all a-tangle," Ranma's voice interrupted her train of thought. "She wants to know if you really want to know. A wise man once said that most people would choose a comfortable lie over an uncomfortable truth."

Nabiki frowned. Mind-reading? She was most uncomfortable with that notion, unless (of course) she was the one doing it. Still... "Yeah, Saotome. I don't back down from a challenge either." Nabiki tried to sound flippant but didn't quite make it. "I'll accept the truth."

There was a sudden feeling of warmth and a laugh like little bells ringing.

Nabiki blinked. That was *her* body over there, she was looking through Ranma's eyes! Perched on her own head was...

A laughing six-inch tall woman with wings that resembled the wings of Ranma's cursed form. The pixie stopped laughing long enough to say something that sounded like "Candidate number three!" The little figure looked extremely pleased with this declaration.

The dislocation ended and Nabiki carefully brought her own hand up to where she'd seen the figure from the vision. She frowned as her hand just didn't seem to want to go where she wanted it to.

The thought that there may be a lot of things going on all around her that she couldn't perceive was intolerable to Nabiki. She WOULD find a way to get past this. There was also the thought of what it would be like to have an invisibility like this, the secrets she could uncover...

She WOULD learn how this was done.

"Brite," Ranma said in a quiet voice, "what exactly did you mean by 'candidate #3' and why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Nabiki wanted to know that herself, but felt she had enough on her plate for now.

-------

Unsidhe:

"Gammon."

"Yes, my liege." The skeletal knight dropped to one knee. Among the UnSidhe court, the more powerful and the more ruthless dominated everything else. Not showing obeisance had better have good reason.

"I have heard something interesting muttered on the wind," Golderon paused. "In the Mortal Realm where you have recently been active. A sylph has weathered the touch of cold iron."

"Impossible," began Gammon, then thought better of it, "coming from any but you, my lord. A sylph is not of Earth nor Fire, but of Air. Cold Iron should disrupt her energies immediately."

"Cold Iron is poisonous to most of our kind," admitted Golderon. "Of the seven elements - Light, Dark, Wood, Air, and Water - find metals painful and Cold Iron to be a most deadly poison. Earth finds Cold Iron distasteful. Fire can cope with the metal - given time. Yet the wind speaks of riddles. A mortal faerie? Essences combined? A sylph who has been wrapped in Cold Iron - yet even now recovers? Strange is it not?"

"Most strange my liege."

"It is not the nature of most UnSidhe to be subtle. To hide and to make mischief, to feed on the hates and terrors of mortals, to show off their inherent superiority through magic. Yes. Do you have someone capable of spying, yet powerful enough that if this sylph be found - can bring her here for further investigation?"

Gammon considered. "I have one who might do, my lord. One who was long interested in the Mortal Realm and who informed me of the vampire."

"Good. Use that resource then." Golderon hadn't looked at Gammon during this interview, though his attention hadn't been far from his subordinate. Now his full attention wandered, feeling to the General as if a heat beam had moved past and was focussed elsewhere now. "Strange. The Mortal Realm has always been a land of little consequence with natives who were entirely playtoys for the UnSidhe. It has never been worth attention before. Perhaps that too should change."

--------

Japan

Genma moved a piece on the shogi board and tried to ignore the purple haired Amazon having an animated conversation with Kasumi in the kitchen. He'd thought he'd seen the last of the girl. "Curses, foiled again!"

"What was that, Saotome?"

"Oh, nothing, Tendo." Genma frowned, this was not going anywhere near according to The Plan. The only positive point in this was that from the discussion, it sounded like dinner tonight would be quite spectacular.

"So, Saotome, your son plays the flute." Soun's opinion mirrored that of his friend. Time spent on such useless pursuits detracted from the Art. However, as Soun had not gone through years of frustration, he wasn't nearly as negative about these other skills. "He can cook, and he has some...odd techniques."

Genma nodded. "Such a disappointment. I had such hopes for him. He refuses to STEAL, Tendo! Even when we were training hard on the road, and we could have stolen food and run away like WE did in the old days. Boy has no priorities."

"Hardly the training we went through, eh, Saotome? Still, he appears to be a skilled martial artist despite such a lack of focus." Soun moved his own piece. That the future husband of one of his daughters had more moral character than his old friend Genma wasn't nearly as much of a downside for him as it was for Genma. A good husband for one of his daughters didn't sound like an entirely bad thing. Still, whatever you could say about it, Happosai's training HAD been effective.

"His skills, pah! Pretty pathetic, if you ask me." Genma made an off-handed gesture that tried to encompass years of failed efforts regarding his training of Ranma. Years of frustration where Fate herself seemed to mess with the vast majority of Genma's plans. "Why, the boy has no killer instinct. He doesn't duck work, he refuses to lie most of the time, talks to an imaginary friend, won't steal, and makes references to a Code Of Honor. Truly, Tendo, I don't know where I failed."

Soun glanced up from the board, sarcasm lightly inserting itself in his words. "Well, if he's that bad, maybe we should consider annulling this engagement. He clearly isn't a worthy heir to the founder of our school." Clearly Genma was so
upset about all this he wasn't even paying attention to all the pieces Soun was moving.

Genma sighed. "It's tempting, but he's still one of the best I've seen. I think the problem started when he got too close to a gi... I mean a boy named Ukyou. It got progressively worse as time went on. Especially after the failure at the
Catfist training."

"Catfist? The legendary Nekoken?"

Genma nodded again. "The same. The training is deceptively simple. Wrap the young trainee in fish sausages, then throw them into a pit of starving cats. I did it when the boy was ten, as I wanted him to get over the imaginary friend stage before putting him through this."

Soun was aware that the two girls had stopped talking. Probably just busy with preparations. "So, was it effective?"

"No," Genma studied the board. How had he put himself in such an indefensible position? "Like many of my plans, it failed due to unforeseen events. Unfortunately, the manual's next page warns that it tends to leave the trainee permanently insane as a result. I didn't stop the training in time, obviously."

"Ah, hence the imaginary friend and insistence that he's working magic and not merely manipulating chi." Soun frowned a bit. Maybe insanity was in the Saotome line, the father for using such a training method.

"That and the boy's ailurophobia."

-------------------

"Big sister Kasumi, does mean what I think it mean?" Shampoo whispered from they were listening to the conversation.

"No, Shampoo, it means that he's afraid of cats." Kasumi smiled at the young Amazon. It was amazing how well they got along, yet were so different from each other. Kasumi realized that their differences were complimentary, however. That was
probably it.

"Aiyaa. That no so bad. Shampoo worried for moment."(2) After all, she was already going to get even with Ranma's father for one thing. She had to make sure she was running up the tab correctly.

--------

Unaware of the whispering in the kitchen, or that Ranma's dislike of cats hardly counted as a fear, Genma continued. "It's truly terrible, Soun, but my son is nearly worthless. Maybe one of your daughters can be the True Heir?"

"A girl, the Heir? I think not, Saotome. Though Akane is quite skilled, would she have gone through what we did? Would she have made the same sacrifices for the Art?"

"Hmm. Probably not." Genma thought about this. "Of course, if one of them gives us a grandson early..."

"It'll be a chance for us to raise a child to be the True Heir of Anything Goes," Soun nodded. "I can't really see Akane going along with this. Underneath all the violence, she tends to adopt stray animals and is quite kind-hearted. Kasumi would never agree to the sort of deal your wife did. Nabiki..."

"I've heard Akane speak of her as a heartless mercenary. If that's just not typical sibling sniping, would she sell her own child if you give her enough money?" Genma grinned. "A woman after my own heart."

-----------

Nabiki sneezed and shuddered. "Damn, I hope I'm not catching a cold. Sneezing and sudden chills..."

==========

(1)- For the most part, as always, Anime continuity. The catfist training was
pushed back from five to ten due to Ranma's perceived mental state. In the
manga, however, Kasumi is seen several times wearing a cross. As she doesn't
appear to wear jewelry for other reasons, there is a distinct possibility of her
wearing it due to a religious belief. This is the basis of the "Closet Catholic
Kasumi" concept. Certainly her obliviousness could be a deeply spiritual nature,
not focussing on material concepts.

(2)- Fill in the blank however you want.

---------

Kuno put the tape into the machine and pressed play. The Video Club had been putting together tapes of Akane fighting the morning group with the result that Tatewaki Kuno had bought a few of the tapes himself. They didn't gouge him nearly to the extent that Nabiki did.

This had been going on for some time. Nabiki's candid shots and the Video Club's films were all of great value to the noble Blue Thunder.

There was Akane and her usual fight sequence. Such ferocity, such grace! There was Kuno's own entrance, flawless as usual.

If he postured a little for the camera, well it was his right and privledge, was it not? The joining of the Tendo and Kuno lines, two proud lines of noble samurai blood. What could be more natural? And Akane was the very essence of that proud samurai heritage. No doubt when he had tamed the falcon to accept her jesses, she would make a fitting bride for one such as himself.

Then there was this...Saotome person...who had DARED suggest that he was engaged to one of the Tendo daughters and living under the same roof as Akane Tendo!

There had been rumors about Nabiki being the one engaged to this Saotome Ranma, but Kuno well knew that there was only one of the Tendo daughters worth courting. That this base knave was getting closer to Akane Tendo under false pretenses made the situation even more intolerable.

Rather than let this travesty continue, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High attacked this interloper. Like smoke, the target of his righteous wrath evaded the blows that should have taught the cur the error of his ways.

Being worthy of his Samurai ancestry, Kuno would not admit defeat. He knew his skill was supreme. His weapon, the bokken, reflected the finest sword design ever produced in the world- the katana. Since it was impossible for him to be defeated by other means, Saotome MUST have used the black arts.

Or so ran his thoughts usually. Normally his train of thought ran with all the fabled precision of the Japanese rail system. Today it was running more like Amtrak, and the events of the morning were the cause.

Kuno continued to watch as the tape cut to the next series of images, taken from this very morning's events. The crowds ready to pounce upon the fair Akane Tendo in what had become a ritual combat. The normal events fell to the wayside as an
airborne arrival served to disrupt the very events that Kuno had proclaimed necessary. He watched Nabiki arrive in the arms of the pigtailed sprite, as she shot down from the sky in time to do her usual mercenary work.

Kuno continued to watch, though he didn't want to see this. The Video Club member was quite skilled, Kuno noted. Well worth the price he had paid. The video had tightened on the winged girl, showing the flames and other details that Kuno had dreaded seeing. He saw the image of himself throw the chain, the flames erupting where it touched the skin.

There had been many that morning who had been quite ill from just the sight and smell of the burns.

Today something monumental had occurred. He had made a mistake. The old folk tales of putting horseshoes and nails over windows and doorways to keep the faerie folk away DID have a basis in fact, as he had thought. Instead of containment, though, the use of cold iron had produced a rather different result than he had expected.

The old stories and myths were often contradictory, and it appeared that some of those were rather more accurate than others. Cold iron was a poison to the faerie folk, but did not instantly slay them as SOME accounts had held. Kuno was
still trying to determine if that had indeed been the case.

In trying to capture the beautiful young winged maid, he had quite possibly destroyed her. He had not seen the girl since then. Nor was anyone willing to talk to him on the subject. Even Nabiki, who would normally sell information on ANYTHING given enough yen, had merely shot him a disgusted look and departed. Worse, she had gone to check on her fiance who had somehow become injured that very morning. Ranma Saotome actually *was* engaged to Nabiki Tendo. How anyone could pursue that soulless moneylender when they could pursue Akane was beyond Tatewaki Kuno's grasp. Or, as it appeared, it was the soulless moneylender who was pursuing Saotome.

Had he been wrong somehow about them? Misled through no fault of his own, of course!

This brought Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School, the rising star of the Kendo world, to an entirely unfamiliar activity.

He was thinking. More, he was considering that if, indeed, he had made one such grievous error...

Might he not have made others? And, if this all but unthinkable event WERE true, was it not the duty of a samurai to correct those errors? To right any injustices that he may have (however unlikely) committed?

Which would make him even more perfect, of course, but that was a burden he could well shoulder.

----------------

"Nihao, Ranma!" Shampoo flew (not literally) out of the house to perform a near perfect example of the Amazon Glomp(tm) upon an unsuspecting Ranma. His gasp of pain was enough to tell her that this wasn't really a good thing to do.

"Who is this, Ranma?" Nabiki's voice went cold. Wasn't he HER iinazuke? Then, of course, she realized that she wasn't really supposed to care. After all, it was her father's arrangement. Nothing SHE really wanted, after all.

"Urk." Ranma managed, wincing.

"Looks like she knows him really well," Akane was torn between being angry at Ranma tolerating this girl's hug, enjoying seeing her sister with boy troubles, and some sympathy for how pale Ranma had gone when the girl had put pressure on the bandages on his neck.

The skin didn't look black and blistered anymore, but that still looked like it hurt. Akane was actually surprised that Ranma was still mobile after that sort of injury, trained martial artist or not. The skin had been blackened and cracked and smoking even after the chain had been removed. To Nabiki's disappointment, injuries in one form carried over to the other form.

Featherbrite merely sighed. None of the girls here could see or hear her normally. She could try a mental link in order to communicate, but mortals had funny ideas about things like that. Especially Ranma, for some reason. Maybe he'd never forgiven her for the "Man Among Men" thing...

"Uhm, Miss..." Nabiki paused as she noticed the color her iinazuke was turning. Maybe he _wasn't_ doing this deliberately. The way his eyes rolled up in his head was a definite clue.

"Aiyaaa." Shampoo felt the groom collapse. "This no good. Husband lose strength somehow?"

"Husband?" Nabiki spoke the word in such a way that one could readily imagine ice crystals forming in mid-air.

"Husband?" Akane smiled. Now there was proof of what she had suspected all along. He *was* a pervert. Now this stone-age engagement nonsense would be ended.

"Girl's at least got taste," Featherbrite noted, even though only Ranma, Shampoo, and the recent arrival of Kasumi could see and hear her. "Honestly, have things changed that much since Sultan Whatshisname?"(2)

"Oh, Shampoo, you might want to let them get ready for an early dinner."

"Ah! Big sister Kasumi is right!" Shampoo began dragging Ranma into the house. "Airen eat much, get strength back fast!"

"Oh, and Shampoo," Kasumi held up a hand. "By our laws, he isn't your husband yet. He's also got that engagement to Nabiki."

Shampoo nodded. "Which one Nabiki?"

"I'm Nabiki." Nabiki grabbed Ranma away from Shampoo. "What do you mean 'husband'?"

"What do you mean 'big sister'?" Akane wanted to know.

"Shampoo, Nabiki is my sister. Promise me you won't hurt her." Kasumi's voice was firm and there was a long moment of silence.

Shampoo looked from Kasumi to Nabiki and back again. "Shampoo promise. Shampoo no kill sister of Kasumi. Shampoo show appreciation by washing friend's sister's hair with special shampoo?"

"Why that would be quite nice, Shampoo." Kasumi nodded happily.

--------------

In a recording studio, a manager smirked at the nerve of some high school girl sending him a tape of flute music. It wasn't like he didn't receive dozens of tapes from would be singers and starlets all hoping to make their big break.

He idly put the thing in, preparing to eject it a moment later and toss it in the pile with all the idol singer wannabe tapes.

Five minutes later he was still standing there.

Ten minutes after having put in the tape there was a small crowd listening in the office.

It was just a flute with some odd percussion. That was all. No singing. No sappy lyrics with the occasional English phrase thrown in for coolness factor. No modern backbeat, techno flair, hip hop music scratching. Just the flute and what sounded like percussion from thumping on roof tiles.

The tape went to the hiss that indicated the rest of it was unrecorded.

"...by all the kami..."

Nobody was quite sure who had spoken to break the spell, only that-

only that cynical hardbitten executives and workers, who had seen the production and choreographed rise and fall of the interchangable and disposable musicians of the mass production industry, had just encountered something with the power to touch their very souls.

"There is no way in the Buddha's hells we can market this," said the manager eventually. He knew what sold - what sold was light and cute and imminently forgettable. The Japanese pop market was an exactly tailored one and mysterious flute music that somehow snaked past the numbing drudgery of day to day existence and spoke of light and life and...

There were many nods to that. People were used to mediocrity. They demanded it. The eye and ear candy of the moment, the popular disposable culture. This was not that.

"Make me a copy," said a secretary.

Mumbles of assent.

No, they couldn't release *this* commercially.

This would, however, go into their private collections. Never to be spoken of again among strangers. *This* was special.

-------------

Tokyo University was many things to many people. To some - the goal set since youth. To others - merely a step along the way. To still others - a prey field.

"Hisakawa's really flipped out this time."

"What? That loser?" Kuniko made a depreciating gesture. "What's he got this time, did he sight Gojira? Mermaids?"

"A sylph," Isao fed the tape into the machine. "Even sent a tissue sample."

"Yeah, right. I always knew ol' Buzzard Face would flip out." Kuniko blew a smoke ring towards the ceiling. "He's scum, you know."

"Everyone has to have their dreams." Isao Nusumu hit play. "Even if..."

"The special effects are pretty good," conceded Kuniko Kumo. "I didn't know he was into that sort of thing."

"He isn't." Isao watched the tape as camera angles switched and another scene played. "Look at how jerky he is with camera. That's Hisakawa's all-thumbs work all right. I think we need to go to Nerima."

"You're serious?" At Isao's nod, Kuniko's eyes went to slits. "And if this is for real?"

"We'll cut Hisakawa out of the loop before he knows what's hit him. Why let him drag the rest of us down when THIS could set us up nicely for years to come?"

Kuniko and Isao grinned at that, each visualizing how they could use this sort of thing to further their own agendas. Of course, each would betray the other as soon as the opportunity arose.

Honor among thieves only applied to the more organized varieties. With everyone else it was feed or be fed upon.

---------

The two fathers sat at one end of the table. Ranma and Nabiki were at the other end. Akane, Kasumi, and Shampoo listened in on the sidelines.

Genma pushed his glasses back up his nose, looking as stern and fatherly as he could manage. "How to begin?"

"So what is this big news bulletin?" Nabiki was openly suspicious. She'd had to deal with her father's bizarre schemes before. From "Get Rich Quick" scams to "magic potions" sold by kids in the neighborhood, Nabiki had wondered when she was younger if her father had some "Gullible" sign marked on his forehead.

Soun crossed his arms in front of his chest and regarded the two children directly in front of them. "Now that Shampoo will be staying here, there will be some changes in the sleeping arrangements."

"She is NOT staying in my room," Akane glared at everyone trying to find someone who would disagree. She wanted it clear at the beginning that this was not negotiable. She didn't want any more weirdness in her life than she already got.

"Shampoo can stay in big-sister Kasumi's room or in room with airen. Is no big deal." Shampoo smiled and nodded her head politely. Either was acceptable for her.

"Which is not fair to Kasumi," smoothly interjected Soun Tendo. "So, Ranma, you will move into Nabiki's room as well."

"Hey, I'm already sleeping with Pop in the room!"

Genma looked disapprovingly at his son. "Show some gratitude, boy! We've been sharing the same tents and campsites for ten years! It's high time I exercised my rights as your father and got a little privacy!"

"Privacy! What about Nabiki? What about HER privacy?"

Nabiki nodded. The whole thing smelled of one of her father's schemes. She valued her privacy, though with vampires running around she also valued the protection value having Ranma at hand would provide. Now if she could just figure out why the phrase "Ranma at hand" brought a brief blush to her face.

Genma adjusted his glasses again. "That's not a concern, boy. Just show some gratitude for once and listen to your father on this."

"You ARE a guest here, you know," Soun reminded Ranma of the cultural obligations of a guest in a Japanese home.

Kasumi spoke from where she stood. "Father, are you really sure that this is the best idea? I don't mind having Shampoo share my room. We also have another guest room."

"Shampoo can stay in the other guest room. There is no reason for you to burden yourself unnecessarily, Kasumi. As for Ranma, you needn't worry about him. I'm sure he'll be a perfect gentleman. Besides, he and Nabiki are already engaged to
be married. It is only right that they learn to live together in harmony. Sharing space is a big step in that direction." Soun nodded and looked thoughtful as if this was all just occurring to him.

"A *brilliant* solution, Tendo," chimed in Genma.

"Thank you, Saotome," said Soun with a nod of the head.

"Oh man," Ranma rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. "Couldn't I just sleep in the living room or the dojo or something?"

Soun looked as if he was going to manifest his demon head at any moment. "WHAT!? And have someone cluttering up my home like a vagrant? That is absolutely out of the question. Appearances are vitally important to the future of the Anything
Goes school."

Nabiki folded her arms and gave her own stern look towards her father. "Actually, daddy, if appearances are what concern you, consider what it looks like to have me share my room with a boy." She was NOT happy about this.

Soun and Genma spoke in an eerie unison. "That's why we'll pretend he's just a girl!"

"Excuse me?" Ranma blinked. Just the chorus indicated that they had rehearsed this. If so, they were pretty well set in their course.

"What?" Nabiki felt like facefaulting. She came to the same conclusion as Ranma.

"Oh my."

"Yeah, right," Akane offered, "and pigs will fly."

"Everyone speak slower. Shampoo not finding all words fast enough!" Shampoo was flipping frantically through her translation dictionary. "Vagrant?"

Genma ignored the amazon. "That's right. He'll just have to stay in girl form for the evenings. That way there's no question of modesty."

Nabiki facefaulted, noting that she had beaten Ranma to it by several seconds.

Much later:

"Are you sure about this, Saotome?"

Genma leaned forward. "Trust me, Tendo. The boy hates being a girl for any length of time. He'll soon disobey us. And when your daughter finds she has a handsome young man sleeping in her room..."

Soun grinned. "We let nature take its course! Oh, my friend, this will work. Then we'll have grandchildren and you can train one to be the True Heir of the Anything Goes fighting style. What a grand day."

Genma nodded with a satisfied smirk. "It's Soun and Genma's 'Operation Shacking Up'!"

Shampoo edged away from the roof. It was as she had expected. Now, how to foil the plot? She might just have to wash that man right out of someone's hair after all.

-------------

(1)- As Nabiki stated earlier, these are Third Degree Burns. It has been stated that Ranma has had worse. The neck and one wrist were completely wrapped. So figure that's about two inches surface coverage of both areas. He didn't faint from the pain, he went into shock. This is a pretty severe trauma. I'm not exaggerating about the sort of reactions you get on these kind of injuries. The smell kinda lingers too. Even with Ranma's recuperative powers, the poisonous effects are gonna keep
him a little woozy.

(2)- Featherbrite's lived a long time (12,000 years) and has seen a lot of human history (9,500 of those years, usually at the outskirts) during that time. She couldn't tell you who the ruler was, but his harem had such delightful gossip... She'd probably drive any number of historians nuts. But then, so would Nathan.



OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE OMAKE

"Uhm, he hasn't been done as a prospective father, has he?"

"No, I'll admit that," agreed the dragon. "But then we haven't seen Ranma raised by Peter Pan for that matter. Doesn't mean I want to see it."

"Actually that was done," said Exe. "It was disqualified because he never came back and met the Tendos, just stayed a Lost Boy with the Lost Boy. Hibiki, I mean."

"Well, what about it then?" Com asked.

-----------

WHAT IF NATHAN BRAZIL RAISED RANMA?

-------

The ship was drifting with the current, and *might* have been dismissed as abandoned.

The smell of barbequed shrimp would have indicated that abandoned was not necessarily applicable. The radio playing a corroboration of that fact. Nobody was visible on deck, however.

"Are you sure about this, Nabiki?"

Nabiki fixed her gaze on her father coldly. "You wanted me to find 'Ranma Saotome'. You paid the bills accumulated during the search. You listened to the report I compiled."

"Yes, well, my old friend Genma may have committed some poor judgements, but that's besides the point. He *is* a guest and I would thank all three of my daughters to remember that fact!" Soun wasn't happy about the treatment his old friend had been getting of late.

Kasumi looked disapproving but held her tongue. Genma had shown up a few years ago, telling a tale of evil gypsies stealing his son away. Once Nabiki had started the process of uncovering where his son had gone, more and more details of what had actually occurred had been unearthed.

Torture. Theft. Engagements made and broken. The pit of cats. Insanity. Given into the care of a Doctor Mizuno in Juuban, with another engagement made as promise of reimbursement, followed by stealing the child back and breaking another promise. Finally a deal with a ship captain named Nathan Brazil, and a failure to steal the child back.

Akane glared at the portly fellow throwing a grappel across to link the ships. She didn't like boys. Not at all. That didn't mean that torturing kids sat well with her either.

Nabiki finally relented, wanting to see this through. "There's the ship name - Twilight II. A small 'fishing vessel' registered to Nathan Brazil of New Caledonia."

"Then where's the crew?"

*clik-KRAK*

Nabiki, Akane, and Kasumi had all seen "action" movies and knew what particular sound was.

"Keep your hands in plain sight, no sudden moves." The voice was young but not particularly amused.

The three girls complied immediately and slowly looked up. Where each of them could *swear* nobody had been a moment ago, there was a tall young man standing on a section of mast. He also had a gun in his hands. Nabiki could have identified it as a some kind of submachine gun, but was currently unable to get her mouth working.

"Are you Ranma Saotome?" Soun asked the youth, moving to the rail nearest the other ship, knowing that was a gun and therefore this was not a true martial artist.

"Maybe," said the boy, looking decidedly unhappy. "Might of heard of him."

"He's supposed to be on this boat," said Akane, estimating her ability to jump from one boat to the other, cross the intervening yardage, climb up the mast, and take that gun away from the boy before he could shoot her. None. Nil. Nada. Zip. The Big Goose Egg.

"Don't know anything about that," said the boy. "All I know is, I gotta ship with three girls and two old guys come pulling up to my ship and start making accusations."

"You're Ranma," realized Nabiki.

"If you're here about some engagement, bills yer owed, or something like that, git going." The boy with the gun made a slight gesture with it. "You got some other kinda message, I might know how to relay it."

Soun started forward again, he could leap the rail and be on the other boat. A gunshot chewed up the rail in front of him.

"I don't see any reason for you five to get involved, yer pilot there's put up a white flag anyway."

Flinches and the group turned to see that the pilot whose boat they'd rented had a hankerchief on a pole.

Genma saw one chance. "Demon Vaccuum Blade!"

The mast exploded as the chi attack shredded a section. Genma rushed forward to subdue his wayward son.

*Pum!*

Genma slowed down considerably as bullets slammed into his leg and turned bone to fragments. Genma started screaming.

"That was dumb," said the boy, landing lightly on the deck. "Impressive, but dumb. I don't know who you are. I don't know where you came from. I don't care. I'd suggest you get pudgy there to a hospital before he goes into shock."

--------

"Well, *that* went well," said Akane, her voice dripping with sarcasm. At least with Genma Saotome under sedation they wouldn't be having to deal with his blubbering alternated with blustering for awhile.

"Daddy, you have to keep in mind that Ranma has been raised mainly in international waters and not in what we could call polite society," explained Nabiki. "He's used to hanging around with roughnecks. I told you going in that it would be better to wait until he came into a Japanese port even if it took a few years."

"...but to wait years..." Soun began.

"It would be better than getting your head blown off," said Nabiki. "I'm not sure what kind of gun that was. Maybe a custom made. He managed to hit Mister Saotome while he was falling and Saotome was going at a full run, and precisely targetted the right knee with a burst. Three shots from a .45 caliber *machine gun*. Saotome will need that knee to be completely reconstructed at this point. We got off *lucky* because he apparently decided we weren't a credible threat even with whatever happened to that mast."

"...but..."

"Coming alongside and forcefully trying to board his vessel in international waters without some form of legal authority? That's piracy, Daddy. The plan was to come alongside, maintain a distance, and *talk*, remember?"

"...but..."

"Daddy, when a guy points a large firearm in your direction and tells you to move, you don't go arguing with him!" Nabiki rolled her eyes. "I don't see where the honor agreement is going to make a lot of difference to him. He's not a casual killer - or none of us would be here now. However he's not going to be someone you can browbeat into taking over the dojo."

"...but..."

"I don't see why we need some guy to take over the dojo anyway," said Akane reasonably.

Soun seemed to lose himself in thought for a few moments. "It looks like I'll have to go to Plan 2."

"Plan 2?" Nabiki didn't like this. "What 'Plan 2'? If it's a worse idea than 'Plan 1' I don't want to even think about how bad it is."

--------

"I hate it when I'm right," grumbled Nabiki seventeen hours later. "Great going, Daddy."

"...b-b-but they seemed like such nice pirates!" Soun wailed from his cell down the hallway.

Nabiki decided that she really ought to investigate her family tree better. She could *not* be related to that man. "Kasumi, is Akane conscious now?"

"She's still unconscious," came the reply. "They weren't very gentle."

"They're slavers, Kasumi. They don't put up with the merchandise trying to start a fight." Nabiki sat back on the cold metal of her floor and wondered what next they'd do. Probably do their best to break them. Well, there had to be some way out of this prison and she'd find it!

------------

The boy looked down in the cells and thought for a minute. "Oh. You're those pirates from earlier. Have a falling out?"

The girl didn't answer. Her head had come up to look at him, but her eyes were blank.

Ranma debated briefly. On the one hand, he'd have no problem killing pirates. Problem was, that group hadn't struck him as being experienced enough or adventuresome enough to be pirates. They *had* tried to illegal board and attack him. On the other hand, most of 'em had just given up without a struggle. Still, he couldn't let people who *might* be innocent suffer, could he?

The others he found and likewise freed. Oddly enough there was no sign of the two older guys.

----------

Soun Tendo continued swimming. Ah, it brought back memories. They'd thought chaining his arms and forcing him to walk the plank would kill him.

Fat chance. This was just a refreshing swim compared to some of the things the Master had put him through.

He'd bring back friends and rescue his little girls and then he'd *never* set foot on a ship again.

--------

Ranma had quickly determined what had happened to the girls. Any guilt he'd felt about killing all those guys on the ship had quickly vanished. Not that there had been much in the first place. Looting their little ship had just been sauce for the goose.

They hadn't been sexually violated. Too much money for virgins probably.

However, they *had* been "prepped" for work. All three were so strung out from drugs that it'd take a week just to get them lucid again.

Ranma wasn't happy. This wasn't how he wanted to spend his time. Now he was involved though. Oh well.

Once they were "dry" again he'd be able to turn them loose without any longterm effects.

-----------

Nabiki twitched as the boy came by the improvised cell. "Dinner already?"

"Nah. You haven't been as much trouble as that one sister of yours, so you get some time on the deck today." Ranma opened the door and gestured to the stairs. "That older sister of yours already got her sunning and stuff in. That younger one's still clamoring for the juice."

"Akane is... self-indulgent," admitted Nabiki. The craving didn't seem as strong as it had been. The knowledge of the opiates and where that lifestyle led, plus that they'd only had three days of the injections, were enough to strengthen her resolve.

The sunlight outside was almost blinding after her confinement and the fresh air was enough for her to hang over the railing and dry retch until she got used to both.

Seeing one other item set out drove all other thoughts out of her head. A shower?!

"It's a good thing it's just you two, after your sister used it we'll run out of water soon."

Nabiki realized she had stripped and was fiercely scrubbing even as she realized that the boy was still watching. A glance revealed nothing hentai, he was barely watching her. That concern eliminated, she went back to scrubbing, occasionally pulling the cord to wash off the suds as another layer of grime came off.

"Fresh clothes over there," indicated Ranma. "Just another old pair of boxers and an old t-shirt, but I figured you wouldn't want to put the old one back on."

Nabiki shuddered at that thought. Another glance towards her newest captor, this time with gratitude.

"We'll be setting into port near Kobe in two days. Just a small dock near one of the local parks. I can let you and your sisters off there and be gone before you can reach a phone. By then all three of ya ought to be over the effects. There was an opiate and some other stuff they used. Had to consult with one of my contacts. Nasty stuff. You've probably figured out some of the more permanent side effects."

Nabiki winced. "I thought they were temporary."

"Nope." Ranma picked up a book by a strap and waved it at her. "Made sure I had gloves on when I was reading this. It's in Chinese. They made yer father walk the plank. You three were gonna be sold as prostitutes after ya were 'hooked'. Some of the other stuff was to help ya get trained. Nasty people you decided to hire. Hope ya learned not to trust people like that. There's a dark and nasty underside to the world, and yer better off not getting too chummy with it. I'll leave the book with ya, if you file some report ya might be able to get someone to listen if ya got evidence. That'll help that sister of yours get further treatment and not just arrested."

Nabiki nodded, still dealing with the horror.

"Yer young yet, you'll get better," said Ranma. "The ones who did this are all dead. That don't mean there's not even bigger fish out there, cause there is. Just a little advice. Go home, get over this little adventure, and count yourself lucky."

--------------

It took Ranma three years after that before he visited Japan again. It was a big world and he wanted to see most of it. His father, Nathan, kept in contact every so often - and off they'd go on another adventure dealing with some problem or just kicking back with a few six-packs and enjoying some exotic locale.

It wasn't a lifestyle that'd suit everyone, but it offered a measure of freedom darn few had.

He'd almost forgotten the girls and those two stupid guys.

He'd only been in port a day when a familiar-looking woman showed up at the berth, looking over his old battered fishing vessel and raising an eyebrow at the new scars on the paint.

"Well, hello, again."

===END===