Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Mist ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Started 12/01/2007 Completed 12/01/2007

Chapter 6

Nabiki watched the video camera she had placed in the Saotome's room, in the hopes of capturing some sexy, candid shots of `Ranko', but what she got instead brought a gasp from her mouth before she could stop herself.

“From Lightning is birthed Fire, which consumes all!”

“What the hell is Ranma doing, playing with fire inside the house? He could have burned us out of house and home!” she shouted quietly. The lights from her PC monitor fluttered crimson and yellow hues on her face as Ranma's recorded exercise displayed his forest being burned to cinders.

“Leaving behind… Nothing.”

Nabiki began to worry now, had Ranma actually sounded depressed? That could spell trouble, especially if he decided to lash out at someone. The only person on the planet who she could think of that was capable of taking a Ranma-level beating was Ryoga, and there was no way she would be able to get a hold of him.

“Dammit, Ranma, just hold on a few more days, then I'm sure P-Chan will show up,” Nabiki prayed, hoping to have her wish granted.

“Can you tell me the answer, Silence? Can you, Dark?” The screen had gone completely black, signaling Ranma having released whatever kind o Ki ball that was.

“Hold on a moment,” Nabiki pulled the play bar back a smidge, far enough to rewind forty seconds.

“Ranma dispersed the ball of Light and stared around the unlit room. “Darkness, it is the beginning, it is the end… But what lies between?” Silence reigned. “The eternal partner of Darkness and Death is you, Silence. Can you tell me the answer, Silence? Can you, Dark?” Silence again. “Tick-Tock? I didn't know anyone had a clock, maybe I should get one too?”

“”TIME!!” Nabiki blurted, realizing she now held the key to Ranma's greatest question. Had you asked her yesterday, or even ten minutes ago, she would said “Dinner's at eight.”

A predatory smirk returned to her face, now she had a new piece of leverage, all she had to do was dangle it in front of Ranma's eyes, and let him carry her where she wanted.

 

Ranma leaned back on grass field of Furinkan High, as the girls played softball and the took turns doing pull-ups. Normally he would do his best to feign interest in the clouds, this time was different and his two closest friends (in their opinions any way), Hiroshi and Daisuke knew this.

Daisuke nudged Ranma with an elbow bringing the thinking boy back to reality. “You should have learned by now, Ranma, thinking is bad for you and only you.” He kidded.

Hiroshi wrapped an arm around Ranma's shoulder when he sat up. “Yeah, the smoke comin' from your eyes is killin' us!” he pretended to cough and wave away a cloud of smoke.

Ranma narrowed his eyes and looked into his two friends faces, seeking the usual signs they reflected, lust and fantasies. Sure enough he found them, but he also saw genuine concern in their eyes. “Don't worry about it, I've just been trying to get the answer to a question I had since I got off work last night.”

“Whoa, Ranma, when did you start working?” Daisuke questioned, dollar signs in his eyes. “You are buying lunch today right?”

“Wait, I didn't think Furinkan allowed its students to work?” Hiroshi asked, remembering the troubles he had to go through when he sought a part-time job.

“This one's for you Ranchan!” Ukyo called from the dug out and flung an Okonomiyaki all the way to Ranma.

Silence as the wind blew.

“Well, Ukyo's a special case!” Hiroshi tried to argue. “After all, its not like the Principal Kuno call her folks or even beat her up,”

“We get the idea, `Roshi,” Daisuke offered, trying to save some face for his friend. “Any way Ranma, tell us about this job you've got?”

Ranma smiled weakly. “I've been in training since about four months ago; I didn't actually start `til about a week ago, the night of the failed wedding,” Ranma explained.

“Hmm,” Hiroshi noised as he though back, “four months ago? That's about the time you and Ryoga were changed into kids right?”

“No way, Hiroshi! It would have to be right after that, cause no one would let a toddler work for them!” Daisuke corrected.

Both turned to face Ranma. “What, do I got somethin' on my face?”

One double face fault later, “When did you start training for your new job?” Daisuke insisted.

“Yeah, who was your major foe of the time?” Hiroshi demanded, giving Ranma noogies.

“Ranma tried to hide the sweatdrops on the back of head. “Um, it actually started on the second day of that week of peace and no fighting.”

“Whoa! That was only a couple days after you became a teen again!,” Hiroshi exclaimed.

Daisuke suddenly remembered something. “Wait, if you starting your training then, what about all those times we saw you staying up late, trailing Mousse?”

Hiroshi's face brightened. “Yeah and what about those training trips and the nights you stayed with your mother in Tomobiki? You can't expect us to believe you came all the way back to Furinkan from the West end of Nerima?”

Ranma was sweating like Ryoga in a room with Akane surrounded on all sides by water. “I… went… to a different location! Yeah, they've got several locations!” Ranma broke off into a maniacal chuckling session.

The two boys exchanged glances and shrugged it off; only Ranma wouldn't be able to read through his facial expression. “So, what is it that you do?'

Hiroshi suddenly found himself short of breath and pointing at Ranma in complete disbelief.

“What? You alright, Hiroshi?” Ranma asked, waving a hand in front of his face. If not for their friendship, he would have started drawing on his face with permanent ink pen in his pant pocket.

“Y-Y-You.. You're a…”

Ranma tensed, not liking where this was headed, especially since it seemed Hiroshi had actually figured out that he was a ninja.

“A what?' Daisuke demanded.

“A… MALE STRIPPER!” Hiroshi thundered, aiming a shaky finger at Ranma.

Facefault. “Ite…” Ranma groaned as his face was buried into the ground with Takahashi hand signs.

Like photographers chasing a drunk celebrity, the female half of the school surrounded the three guys, asking questions of which club he worked at, even going so far as to recommend certain places for better staff management.

 

Nabiki smirked, taking the last wad of cash, “Not bad, Nabiki, two thousand yen a piece,“ Ai exclaimed, placing the bills in separate folders according to their value and condition.

“So what bit of information were you planning to sell them, Nabiki-sensei?” asked a young, first year boy, wearing thick glasses, even thicker than Mousse's; though it was speculated that Mousse didn't wear real glasses just thick disks of glass.

Nabiki looked over her shoulder at her fiancé (unofficial as only Nabiki knew this at the moment). “Don't worry Umino-chan, I'll take of this on my own this time.” Nabiki raised a hand, halting Umino before he was ale to speak. “I know you like helping, but how would it look if I stopped interacting with customers?”

Umino conceded the point and wandered off, doing some fact finding on his second favorite subject, Sailor Moon and her Senshi. Since being surreptitiously transferred here after Nabiki pulled a few strings, he bumped Ranma up, from just a rumor to his favorite subject. It seems that no one in Furinkan used the Internet for fear (justified, of course) the telephone wires would be ripped out. Already that had happened twice at his apartment, and the school year had only just started a month ago. He had been forced to purchase a direct data link expansion pack for his laptop that connected him to the Cell phone satellites.

He picked up the tail end of Nabiki's announcement to the gathered customers of knowledge. “Come by in one week, and I'll set up a week's worth of shows for you. If you miss the meeting, no refunds cause I told you when and that's my policy.”

Umino shook his head, surely Nabiki didn't believe those unfounded rumors, right? So what was she playing at?”

 

As lunch hour began, Ranma was hard pressed to get, and stay, away from his four very pissed off fiancées. Somehow word had gotten to St. Hebereke, the Nekohaten and even the Tendo Dojo, which was why Ranma had a heads up about the fiancées demanding an `explanation'.

It didn't help they were celebrating Golden Week; how they managed to synch up on a monthly basis was beyond Ranma's comprehension, but he knew the signs. It always started with a bucket of cold water waking him, which happened today.

Someone would misinterpret something Ranma was saying, usually it Hiroshi and Daisuke, but that was because he spent most of his free time with them; at the moment the trigger for their anger was this unfounded rumor that heard was verified by Ranma.

Somehow the Old Man would catch wind of it, get Tendo-san all riled up and lead a charge to the school; both were now incapacitated, his father by KO and Soun bawling over his best friend about something or another.

Shampoo would stop by to give Ranma his lunch and stick around, usually keeping quiet and just watching Ranma. Rumors usually did nothing for her, but eating Ukyo's “Burnt Pancakes” set her off. Mousse usually came along a few minutes later just there for the familiar feel of the ride, long ago he had realized Shampoo wouldn't be his, so he remained in character for the familiarity of it all; only Ranma and Cologne knew this though.

Kodachi would be heading over to visit her `Darling Ranma', and would overhear the two old men, or she was coming to confirm a rumor spread by the extended gossip mill to St. Hebereke; the latter was her cause this time, as she bounced about, laughing a little less maniacal today. That was the flip side to Golden Week; Kodachi became semi-sane and controlled her assault patterns better.

Akane would go into a tirade about what she heard and take it upon herself to “set Ranma straight,” usually with a sneak attack by mallet. If she wasn't able to land the blow than she would start trying harder for the rest of the day.

Ukyo didn't show much of a change, except she would feel like cooking a bit more, to calm her nerves. When Ranma would turn down the forty-fifth Okonomiyaki or Akane interposed herself into Ukyo's business, Ukyo would snap and she go into hit something hard mode; since he was the only one capable of taking her full anger, that meant Kill Ranma Mode was in full effect for the rest of the day.

So his day went, Ranma spent two periods dodging Bonbori, ribbons, mallets, spatulas weighted chains and angry shouts from old timers past their prime. Ranma returned to seat after losing the girls on the third lap around the building.

“Mr. Saotome,” Hinako threatened. “Delinquency will not be tolerated.”

`Damn,' Ranma thought ruefully. `I forgot about Hinako's last day of Golden was he first for the others. Well, at least I can have some fun with this.' “Hinako-Sensei? Have Ki-drained someone recently or is child body catching up with your adult form?”

Hinako blushed like a schoolgirl and shuffled nervously, not thinking anyone, let alone Ranma, would pick up her three and a half centimeter growth spurt. “You're embarrassing me,” Hinako whispered and fled the room in search of a victi- `Delinquent' to gain her adult body so she can flaunt it for Ranma. Before she returned the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day.

Ranma leapt from the window and landed an inch from Nabiki's cool face. “I figured you'd try running off like you usually do Redzone Week.” Redzone Week was what she called the week when the four strongest females in Nerima went wild, only a child or idiot couldn't put two and two together (give Ranma some credit!).

Ranam sighed, his eyes drifting over Nabiki's shoulder at freedom.. “What do you want Nabiki-chan?” The `chan' was added to get riled up.

Nabiki smirked, `It seems the great Saotome is learning a few of my moves too.' Darkness is the beginning, it is also the end, but what lies in between?” Nabiki quoted, watching Ranma's eyes widen to the size of saucers. “If you want the answer to your question, you'll have to do me a favor, Ranma-kun.”

Ranma weighed the options. One the one hand, he was no closer to finding the answer than he was two nights ago; but then again, Nabiki has never asked him to do something simple and easy, like killing or beating someone up. Nope, she always asks for things like dating a flock of girls, posing lewdly as a girl and even that one time she had made him give head action to a visiting school's team and coach as a girl. “What are you offering?”

Nabiki smirked, she knew she held all the cards and it only a moment before Ranma folded, even if he bluffed his to a million yen. “Next week, starting on Sunday you will be performing for the girls of Furinkan, so start practicing your strip routine.”

Ranma looked rather nervous, understandably so since the fiancées were just coming from around the corner, and threw a set of mental dice. “Do I have to have sex with them too?” He really didn't think he had the stamina for the entire female population of Furinkan High's student body, he had nearly died a few months ago when he was the center of the graduating girls' orgy. It had been nice, but scary when they just kept coming back.

Nabiki smirked. “You know I told you that was a one time thing; I had a three million yen debt to one of the girls and that's what she wanted in compensation. Since she didn't want to be singled out, she asked for all the girls to join in.”

“Which they did,” Ranma added glumly.

“Relax, Ranma, it's up to you if you want to go that far or not. Besides when I found you three days later, you couldn't wipe that silly grin from your face; it's a good thing I told them you went on a training trip for an opponent out of the city.”

“I'm not some whore, Nabiki, I don't appreciate being pimped out, even if that one time was kinda nice.” Ranma chastised.

“Take it or leave it, one week of stripping for the answer to your greatest question,” Nabiki took three large steps back, allowing Ranma to get pummeled by four seriously whacked out fiancées, two deranged fathers and a myopic duck-boy.

“SAOTOME RANMA, FORSTRIPPING FOR STRANGERS WHEN YOU HAVE AKANE!!! PREPARE TO DIE!” Make that two hormone-driven stalkers.

While Nabiki had wanted Ryoga, she could wait until he was a little black piglet before seeking his help. With that thought in mind, Nabiki stalked off, leaving the school grounds along with the many other students.

 

 

LWH (laarcae@laarcae.com)