Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Fugue ❯ Chapter 4

Nabiki gazed out the window of her almost empty classroom and watched Ranma running off the school grounds with Akane in hot pursuit. “Hmm... looks like Saotome's given up on direct surveillance and is moving onto 'Plan B',” she quietly mused to herself.

“Did you say something boss?” asked one of her subordinates, and the only other person in the room.

“Just thinking out loud. It looks like our cash cow has taken flight, so we may as well call it a day.”

“Got it. See you tomorrow, then.”

“Sure. I have some business in the morning, so I may be late. Cover for me and make a copy of your notes.”

“Will do,” said the girl as she left with a wave.

Nabiki idly waved back and went to get her book bag before leaving, herself. As she picked up the bag, she frowned. Something felt ... wrong. She shifted the bag around a bit and decided that it was a couple of kilos heavier than it should be, and from the way the balance shifted, a single object, about the size of a large grapefruit was responsible. Cautiously, she lifted the bag higher and placed her ear to it. As the sound of soft breathing reached her, her frown slowly changed to a smirk. After a moment of deliberation, she raised the bag to shoulder height and let it fall. Nabiki almost laughed aloud at the aggrieved squeal that followed the clatter of the book bag hitting the floor.

As a dazed black piglet staggered out of the bag, Nabiki put a concerned expression on her face and exclaimed, “Oh, my! How did you get into my book bag ... Charlotte?” At the pig's fear-filled stare, she shook her head. “That crazy girl must have really done a number on you if just hearing that name frightens you. Hm... Akane already left and I don't feel like going home just to drop you off, so I guess we're stuck together for the afternoon. Ok, get back in the bag and don't even think about making a mess.” The last was said as she held the book bag open and gave the piglet a stern look. For his part, the pig swallowed nervously and carefully walked back into Nabiki's bag.

*

Ryouga was not having a good day. Then again, what could he expect from going along with one of Ranma's plans? Let's see... He'd managed to remain undetected in Nabiki's book bag for almost an entire minute before being discovered when he was somehow dropped from a great height. After that, he'd suffered a moment of sheer terror that he was about to be sold back to Azusa before being stuffed back into the bag for easy transit. He'd then nearly gotten sick when said transport included being vigorously swung back and forth as Nabiki walked. Fortunately, his queasy squealing had stopped the swinging and even resulted in the bag being opened enough for him to get some fresh air and a look at his surroundings—for the few minutes it took them to reach the café where Nabiki was meeting her customer. Since most cafés frowned on people bringing live pigs into their dining areas, it was back into the bag for him. Now, as her customer had turned out to be Kunou, who insisted on reciting poem after poem exalting his pigtailed goddess, the nausea was back in full force. At least things couldn't get any worse.

Ten minutes later, Ryouga was wondering why he couldn't keep his stupid mind shut. (Not that anyone would ever accuse him of not having a closed mind.) Once business with Kunou was finally over, Nabiki had left the café and given Ryouga a precious taste of light and air. And then she had cheerfully uttered the words that struck terror in his heart. “Hm... It looks like we have some time to kill before my next appointment, P-chan. Let's go try on some clothes.”

As Ryouga was pushed back into the bag, he desperately hoped that Nabiki meant they were going to go look at cute little outfits for his piglet form. With a shudder, he offered the heartfelt prayer, “Please, God—let that be what she meant!”

*

Ryouga sat in the corner of the dressing room, intently studying the wall. It appeared to consist of patterned wallpaper over plaster. The paper was grayish-white and had a pseudo-random pattern of darker and lighter blob-like patches. He noticed, with some interest, that an edge of one of the wallpaper strips was peeling slightly, marring the wall's appearance. Now, usually his interest in walls extended no further than wondering how hard it would be to break through one and whether doing so would end up bringing down the entire structure the wall was part of. Right now, however, he was focusing his attention on the one before him as if life depended on it.

“Damn it. Why can't this brand just go along with everyone else on how big each size is instead of getting creative? I swear—I'm literally falling out of this top...” grumbled Nabiki.

Ryouga trembled slightly as he forced his attention back onto the wall, trying very hard not to picture Nabiki in (or mostly in) the top. Let's see... the paper looked like it had an interesting texture. He imagined how it would feel—warm, smooth, and soft, slowly rising and falling in time with her—No! Bad imagination! This was all Ranma's fault, damn him! He'd get his! Yes, Ryouga would make him pay—and he knew just how to do it! He'd attack Ranma in the bath and when the bastard chased after him, he'd trick him into charging naked into Akane's room. As Ryouga imagined the violence and destruction that would follow, he broke into peals of evil laughter.

Suddenly Ryouga found himself being gently picked up and turned around. “Are you all right, P-chan?” asked Nabiki with concern in her voice. Ryouga stared at her with wide eyes. Fortunately, she'd taken off the mis-sized top; unfortunately, she hadn't gotten around to putting another one on after that. The piglet immediately succumbed to a massive nosebleed and passed out.

*

Nabiki walked through the park toward her second and final appointment of the afternoon, a revived P-chan hanging out of her book bag. Every so often, she glanced in the piglet's direction to make sure he hadn't died—or worse, bled on her schoolbooks. “Don't worry, P-chan, this meeting's outside, so you can stay out for it. Ah, and here we are now.”

Ryouga watched with mild interest as they approached a picnic table near a fast food cart. The boy who was sitting at the table stood up, bowed, thanked Nabiki for coming, and asked if he could get her anything. Nabiki returned the bow, looked bored at the pleasantries, and remarked that a bowl of soup and a cup of ice water would be nice, before sitting down and putting P-chan on the table. For his part, 'P-chan' was thinking that the middle Tendou girl sure ate a lot, considering that Kunou had bought her something earlier. As his stomach growled, he thought it would be awfully nice if someone would buy him something.

“Um, do you know there's a pig on the table?” the boy asked as he returned with Nabiki's order.

“Yeah, he's my sister's—I'm stuck pigsitting him for the day. So, I understand you need information on another school's soccer team?” As Nabiki took a sip of her soup, Ryouga decided this meeting didn't have anything to do with the girl's long-term plans and lay down, trying to ignore his lonely stomach.

“That's right—anything you can find out about each member's capabilities and mannerisms, along with strategies the team tends to employ.” The boy grimaced and added, “And I'm afraid we need the information within two days.”

Nabiki gave the boy a long look before answering. “Well, it's doable, but it'll be expensive with that time limit. It was my understanding that your team would normally handle this sort of research itself, however.”

The boy flushed. “Yes, that's true. Unfortunately, there was an ... incident recently that, well, let's just say we lost what information we had and can't spare the team members to reacquire it in the time we have. And quite frankly, from what I've heard about you, I expect you'll do a better job in two days than we could in a week.”

Ryouga tuned out the rest of the conversation as he started to doze. A minute later, he awoke as something landed in front of his snout with a soft plop. One eye focused on the fallen object—and was quickly joined by the other when the object was identified as a large mushroom slice. He jumped to his feet and sniffed at the mushroom before looking up at Nabiki with a questioning glance. When he received a quick wink in response, he wasted no time in attacking the food.

As Nabiki finished negotiations with her customer, Ryouga savored the meal he'd been given. That had to be one of the very few good parts of his curse—a little food went a long way when he was in piglet form. Strangely enough, another good point was that mushrooms tasted so much better to him as a pig for some reason. He didn't understand why, but he wasn't complaining. As his hunger pangs subsided, he thought to himself that maybe Nabiki was a lot nicer than she let on. Sure, she didn't come across as warm and cuddly, but she'd given some of her own food to a hungry pig, and even though she made people pay her for her efforts, when all was said and done, she did help a lot of people. At that moment, he resolved to get to know Nabiki better as a person.

*

Nabiki watched her client walk out of sight, then looked around to make sure the vendor had moved on, too. No one around: perfect. She gazed down at the deep-in-thought piglet on the table for a moment, then smirked and dumped the rest of her soup on him.