Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/610159.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M
  Fandom:
      Ranma_1/2
  Relationship:
      Saotome_Ranma/Tendou_Nabiki
  Character:
      Saotome_Ranma, Tendou_Nabiki, Tendou_Akane, Nodoka_(Ranma_1/2), Tendou
      Kasumi, Gosunkugi_Hikaru
  Additional Tags:
      Supernatural_Elements, Alternate_Universe_-_Canon
  Series:
      Part 3 of Ranma,_the_Naïve_Succubus
  Stats:
      Published: 2012-12-26 Completed: 2012-12-28 Chapters: 10/10 Words: 36206
****** Sea Change ******
by Narsil
Summary
     The interesting times continue, as Ranma and Akane both learn more
     than they wanted to, Gosunkugi tries again, and the Lost Boy returns!
***** Broken Dreams *****
Ranma spiraled down toward the Tendo dojo under a cloudy sky, her newly-
discovered red-furred wings spread wide and a big grin on her face.
It had been a long day. After the confrontation with her father, her mother had
spent time getting reacquainted with the Tendo sisters, then helped Kasumi
prepare lunch. (That lunch had been very tense, with Genma leaving the table as
soon as possible.) Then Ranma (in his human form), Nabiki and Akane had helped
Nodoka move as much of her furniture as would fit in the room Ranma and Genma
had been sleeping in (not much), along with those possessions important enough
to her mother that she didn’t want to leave them in an empty house.
One thing that hadn’t migrated to Nodoka’s new home, however, was the little
shrine she had created in honor of her son, and Ranma still felt a bubble of
joy when she remembered her mother’s comment that she didn’t need a shrine now
that she had the real thing. But while the shrine had remained behind, there
was one thing missing from it — an envelope with a torn up seppuku contract.
That, Nodoka had burned in the kitchen sink as soon as she entered the house.
And then, no sooner do we get everything set up in Mom’s room, then Nabs
suggests that since she’ll be studying somethin’ with her magic, I should find
out what my new wings can do. Interestin’ how it works — I can go alotfaster,
but there’s a new top limit and I’ll bet it’s the same as the old limit, an’ no
matter how I push I won’t go faster. An’ it’s the same speed whether I go
straight up or straight down. It’s like the wings aren’t grabbin’ the air at
all. I’ll hafta ask Nabs what she thinks, if she can learn anything.
Ranma frowned at the thought of her fiancée, her joy in her newfound flight
evaporating. She’s worried about somethin’ — somethin’ she isn’t tellin’ me.
Maybe it has ta do with when someone, how did she put it, ‘rang her bell’?  The
winged redhead slowed as she swept through the hazy barely-there roof of the
dojo on her way to the furo — it wouldn’t do to be moving too fast when she
reached it. I trust Nabs, I just wish she trusted me as much as she loves me.
Ah, well, she’ll tell me when she’s ready. And at least I got a chance ta find
out what I can do and have some fun while I was at it, an’ more fun ta look
forward to!
                                      /\
Nabiki stiffened where she knelt in the middle of a meticulous circle made out
of chalk pasted to a large sheet of paper spread out on the floor of Nodoka’s
new bedroom as she felt a nature spirit pass through her wards. Closing her
eyes, she reached out with her empathic sense, relaxed as she felt the familiar
mix that meant it was Ranma in a happy mood, only to freeze as she caught the
threads of anticipation and nervousness mixed in. Opening her eyes, she looked
over at her companion inside the circle. “Ranma’s home,” she announced.
Nodoka nodded. “Yes, I felt the nature spirit pass through the wards as well.
Were you able to recognize Ranma when she passed through, or through your
empathy?”
“Through my empathy,” Nabiki replied. “I think it’s getting stronger, walls
used to block it. That could be a real problem down the road,” she added with a
worried frown.
“Were you actively using your empathy when you sensed Ranma?” Nodoka asked.
Nabiki nodded.
“Have you ever picked up someone in another room without trying?” the older
woman continued.
“No, I haven’t — not as individuals,” Nabiki said slowly, thinking back over
the past week plus. “I’ve been picking up a general feel of an area — a mix of
the emotions of everyone around me, but not individuals. Though that general
feel can get pretty intense sometimes, I had some serious headaches before I
learned to dial it down a few notches, and it still gets overpowering
sometimes.”
“I wouldn’t worry yet,” Nodoka said. “When you start picking up specific people
in other rooms rather than simply a general sense of the emotional environment
it will be time to be concerned. Have you tried teaching your new emotional
control to Ranma?”
“I ... no, I haven’t,” Nabiki admitted, shamefaced. “I’m not really sure how to
teach it because I don’t really know how I did it, I’ve been busy with other
things, trying to track down who attacked me, dealing with Genma, the Amazons
—”
“There are always excuses, child, though I can understand the need to
prioritize,” Nodoka broke in to say. “But you might consider taking time to
pass on what you’ve learned to your fiancé even if you aren’t sure how it’s
done. Ranma was hammered badly by the emotional currents of our confrontation
with Genma this morning, and it probably won’t be the last time he — she —
finds herself in such an emotionally charged atmosphere.”
“I will, at the first opportunity,” Nabiki agreed.
“Good. And with that, I think it’s time to help Kasumi with dinner,” Nodoka
said, carefully rising to her feet to avoid tearing the paper she’d been
sitting on. “Now that Ranma’s finally home, he and Akane will be having an
abbreviated training session so we’d best get started.”
Nabiki hesitated for a moment at Nodoka’s assumption that the middle Tendo
would help, then shrugged and rose to her feet as well. “I suppose we’ve
accomplished enough for one afternoon,” she said, then after a moment added,
“Nodoka ... thank you for showing me how to modify my wards to detect entities
coming through them instead of just stopping a few types.”
“It was my pleasure,” Nodoka replied as she stepped off the paper to allow
Nabiki to start rolling it up. “What you do know, you know very well, and what
you don’t know you pick up quickly — not to mention some interesting
innovations like this circle glued on paper. It will be a pleasure to have you
as a student. Besides, you permitted me to integrate with those wards, it would
be rude not to return the favor.
“But Nabiki, it’s ‘Mother’, not ‘Nodoka’. Or was your use of that title this
morning a fluke?”
Nabiki stopped rolling up the circle for a long moment, before finally shaking
her head. “Of course I let you integrate with the wards — this will be your
home, how could I not? And no, it wasn’t a fluke ... Mother. But I’ve been
alone so long — Kasumi’s tried, but ...” Her voice trailed off.
Carefully not mentioning how Nabiki had struggled to offer her access to the
wards, Nodoka mused, “But you’ve been independent long enough that it’s hard to
open up to others, right?” She smiled softly when Nabiki nodded jerkily, and
the teenager shivered at the bittersweet joy radiating from the older woman.
“Thank you for trusting me enough to make the effort. Now, let’s go help
Kasumi.”
                                     /oOo\
The dim light of an overcast evening sky came through the window of the bedroom
Nabiki and Ranma would now share, falling across the nude bodies of the two
teens on the bed. The muscular black-haired Ranma lay stretched out on his
back, eyes closed as Nabiki crouched over his legs, her nipples brushing his
legs as her mouth worked at his manhood. Even as she sucked on the limp member,
her tongue caressing, her fingers were busy at her cleft between her spread
legs, slurping deep into her sheath.
Finally, she sat up, resting her ass on her fiancé’s legs, doing her best to
ignore the growing fear hammering at her from Ranma. “This isn’t working,
love,” she said softly.
Ranma’s eyes opened, and the pageboy-haired girl winced at his fear-filled
gaze. “This is what you’ve been scared of, isn’t it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Yes ... yes, I was afraid this would happen,” Nabiki reluctantly admitted, a
deep breath thrusting her perky breasts up and out — not a hint of lust from
Ranma at all, damn. “With my empathy I noticed that you weren’t reacting —
weren’t attracted sexually — to anyone when you were a guy. I’d hoped that it
was simply because of the way you can see through clothes when you’re a nature
spirit, but it looks like I was wrong. I think — I think when you’re human you
miss something you pick up as a nature spirit.”
“So what now? How do we fix it?” Ranma asked desperately.
“I ... I ... I don’t know if we can,” Nabiki whispered, leaning down to lay
herself along his body, her breasts pressed against his chest, his arms
instinctively circling her back. “It might be because of your empathy. If so,
if you ever become an empath when human, that might fix it — but I have no idea
how to make that happen, or even if it’ll help if it happens naturally.”
Feeling the muscular form beneath her beginning to shiver, she hastily added,
“Ranma, listen, eventually you’re going to get the ability to change into a guy
when you’re a succubus. I know it didn’t work out this morning, but it’s
inevitable.”
“When? How?” Ranma demanded bitterly, his shivering increasing, and Nabiki
froze.
There’s no way I can tell him — “When your nature drives you to collect some
man’s sperm and use it to get a girl pregnant, probably me.” If he hears that,
what’ll hedo?!
She stiffened at a sudden thought, then pushed herself erect, once again
sitting on Ranma’s legs. “Ranma, I have an idea. Close your eyes, and think
back to our last feeding session,” she instructed. “Remember how you suckled at
my tits, how your finger pumped up inside me, how much you enjoyed the taste of
my juices when your mouth played with my pussy, how all my muscles locked up
and it was all I could do to keep from screaming when I orgasmed....”
Ranma closed his eyes, and Nabiki held her breath as a slight smile appeared on
his face. His manhood twitched, straightened, began to stretch and expand....
Yes! It worked! she exulted. Hastily, she lifted her ass off his legs, shifted
forward to position her cleft over his hardening rod. Sighing with relief as
she felt the tip of his manhood caressing her still-wet folds, she reached down
to position it then slowly sank downward, hissing in pleasure as she felt his
rod sink deep into her depths. Slowly, she began to bounce on the pole that
filled her like her fingers never had, her speed increasing as she moaned at
the pleasure bursting through her with each lift and drop of her hips.
Ranma opened his eyes, smiling with relief and happiness at the sensation of
wet heat tightly gripping his rampant manhood as he gazed up at his sweating
fiancée’s pleasure-glazed eyes. But as he did, his memory of the previous night
slipped away, and Nabiki mewed protest as she felt the rod filling her begin to
soften and shrink. Desperately, Ranma clenched his eyes shut and fought to
bring back the memories he had been enjoying. But the panic filling him
disrupted his thoughts and soon his manhood slipped out of his lover’s cleft to
flop onto the thick patch of curly pubic hair just above his legs.
Nabiki simply sat on Ranma’s hips for a long minute, eyes closed and quivering
with the need for release, until the rising tide of despair and self-loathing
filling her lover broke through her disappointment. Her eyes flying open, she
looked down to find tears trickling from under Ranma’s eyelids and running down
the sides of his head into his hair. “Ranma, I’m sorry, we almost did it, we
can try again, I’ll try harder —” she babbled.
“That’s it, I’m never gonna be a man, be yer lover, be a father — nothin’ but a
leech,” Ranma murmured, showing no sign that he even heard her attempts at
reassurance. He opened his eyes and reached up to gently lift Nabiki off of his
hips and set her to the side. She fell silent as he swung his legs over and sat
up, then stood up and strode toward her desk. She shot upright when he picked
up the glass of water beside the pitcher they had taken to keeping on her desk.
“Ranma, wait —” Nabiki shouted desperately, but the pigtailed boy ignored her
and dumped the glass over his head. As she shrank and her hair flashed red
before Nabiki’s horrified gaze, her new wings flashed out from the back of her
shoulders, spread out, and even as Nabiki dove toward her the succubus shot
through the ceiling and was gone.
                                      /\
Behind the rosebush across the street from the Tendo compound, Gorash and its
fellow imps settled in for another long, boring night. Its fear of unremitting
boredom on first receiving the assignment from Mara had proven somewhat
incorrect — ‘Ranko’s’ outing by Kuno in the school swimming pool, the fight
with the Lost Boy, and first Xian Pu and then more Amazons showing up, the
little chase that had happened just that morning (and a good thing Ranma had
returned right away carrying her father, since the appearance of her wings had
taken the imps completely by surprise) had all added some spice to things. 
Still, surveillance was what it was, very long stretches of time where
absolutely nothing was happening but the spies had to be constantly alert
because that could change at any time. Like now.
Suddenly, light flashed at a spot toward the top of Nabiki’s and now Nodoka’s
wards as the now very familiar naked busty red-haired nature spirit came
through the dojo roof to flash through the wards at high speed, wings held in
tight. She leveled off and turned east, heading away without slowing down.
Gorash nodded to one of the two imps with it. “Jalok, go, keep her in sight,
let us know when she goes to ground.” The imp sprouted its own bat-wings and
shot up after Ranma, as Gorash turned to the other. “Gishul, alert Mara that
Ranma is on the move as she predicted.” The second imp stepped into shadows and
vanished, and Gorash turned back toward the dojo. And that will probably be all
the excitement tonight — at least out here. I wonder what’s going on inside?
                                      /\
Akane quietly paced back and forth outside Nabiki’s bedroom. Pausing in front
of the door, she lifted a hand to knock, hesitated, then dropped her hand and
resumed her back-and-forth.
They’ve been lying to me all along, I know they have, they owe me some answers!
Even if they’re doing something perverted right now, she fumed, her mind again
going over all the little niggling details she had done her best to ignore: the
way Ranma and Nabiki (Nabiki, of all people) had just clicked and become
practically inseparable, the moments that ‘Ranko’ had confused herself with
Ranma. And then there was the showdown with ‘Uncle’ Genma this morning (Akane’s
lips curled back in a snarl for a moment) when Ranma’s mother had clearly
referred to ‘Ranko’ as Ranma — Just how longhasRanma been hanging around?
Unbidden, the memory she had managed to suppress from days before Ranma and his
father had arrived out of the rain rose in her mind, of a naked Nabiki sprawled
on her bed, one hand pumping a dildo up between her spread legs, the other hand
massaging a breast and the other breast palpitating on its own!
Whirling, she reached for the door, but froze with her hand on the knob at the
sound of someone running up the stairs and down the hallway toward the girls’
rooms. Turning and stepping to the side, the youngest Tendo gaped as ‘Auntie’
Nodoka (she just couldn’t bring herself to refer to the dojo’s newest resident
as ‘Mother’, whatever Kasumi did, not yet) came barreling into the T-
intersection, yanked open Nabiki’s door, and charged through.
“Nabiki, was that Ranma I just felt go through the wards?” she heard the older
woman demand.
“I ... yes, we tried to ... Ranma couldn’t perform, and he didn’t take it well
when I told him he probably wouldn’t ever be able to. He activated the curse
and flew out,” Nabiki responded.
“I thought you weren’t going to explain that until I was present ... Nabiki,
that’s a summoning circle, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m calling Ranma back.”
“No, you aren’t. Considering why Ranma flew out of here, summoning her back
might be the worst thing you could do — make it even clearer that she isn’t
human anymore, not entirely. Give her some time to herself to calm down.”
“But Nodo — Mother — Ranma’s out there alone, it’s getting dark and maybe
dangerous for her, and she’s hurting so much....”
“If Ranma’s not back by morning, then we can summon her. But you have a point
about the possible danger,” Nodoka agreed in a thoughtful tone. “Normally,
between Ranma’s nature as a nature spirit and her martial arts training I
wouldn’t worry — now that she has her wings, what she couldn’t outfight she
could probably outrun. But as distraught as you say she is ... do you know any
sprites?”
“Sprites? ... Yes, Kasumi’s friend, Cherry Blossom,” a confused-sounding Nabiki
replied.
“Cherry Blossom? Good, I know her as well. Let’s offer to summon her and ask
her to find and keep an eye on Ranma for us.”
“But why a sprite?” Nabiki asked. “They aren’t exactly combat monsters.”
“ ... But they do have some sort of — not a group mind, they’re distinct
individuals — an awareness of other sprites, they can pass messages to each
other. So, Cherry Blossom can pass the word to the other sprites around here,
and once they find Ranma they can let us know right away. That way we can keep
an eye on Ranma without invading her privacy.”
For a moment no sound came from the bedroom, then Nabiki said uncertainly, “I
guess that’ll work ... okay, let’s do it.”
Akane stared at her sister’s still-open door, her anger snuffed out, replaced
by worry for the sensei she had reluctantly come to respect — some of the time,
at least. That did not sound good, she thought, and stepped forward only to
pause, the familiar queasy feeling at the thought of the supernatural filling
her to mix with her concern. Yeah, and just what do you think you can do to
help? It sounds like they’re doing what they can, leave them to it. She turned
away and quietly slipped down the hall to her own bedroom. Anyway, they’re too
busy to give you straight answers right now, you can ask them tomorrow, she
thought as she pulled out some schoolbooks from her bag and set out to distract
herself with her weekend homework assignments.
***** A Crossroads Deal *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
From her shelter on a grassy embankment underneath a bridge, Ranma stared out
at the pouring rain, her arms pulling her legs against her oversized breasts
and her wings curled around her for comfort. The rain wasn’t pounding down, but
it was the kind of rain that can go on for hours and had emptied the park
beside the bridge of what few people the arrival of night would have left. Now,
the only signs of life were a few tiny nature spirits that had flown past her
spot underneath the bridge several minutes ago — she could still see their
distinct nature spirit lifeglows now aimlessly wandering around the park
grounds, apparently unconcerned about the cool wet.
Not that Ranma would normally have had any more concern than they had, the
first of the rain had passed harmlessly through her before she had taken
shelter. And while she could sense the coolness of the night, delight in it
even, she couldn’t really feel it. She idly thought that she wouldn’t have felt
it if the rain was replaced by a raging blizzard.
No, her instinctive search for shelter, the way she was curled around herself,
had nothing to do with the elements and everything to do with the turmoil
roiling in her heart.
Not a man. Not a man. Not a man.... The thought continually echoed through her
mind, disrupting and overriding every other thought that tried to form. Then,
another thought struck her: If I’m not a man, what am I?
Her eyes left the wandering nature spirits still flitting about and lifted up
to search the night sky for any hint of the moon and stars — a hopeless task,
of course, her old and until recently only real friends were completely
obscured by the clouds. Disheartened at her failure, she dropped her face down
against her knees. A thing, that’s all. I’ve just been pretendin’ since
Jusenkyo, good enough that I actually fooled myself — Nabiki and Mom, too. And
Nabiki said I can’t act! Her bark of laughter was choked off by sobs, and tears
ran down her cheeks and soaked her knees. Are they real tears, or as fake as
the rest a’ me? The idle thought passed through her grief and was gone.
“You look like you could use this.” The female voice jerked Ranma’s head up.
Beside her was a tall (at least compared to Ranma, but who wasn’t?), young
blonde woman with red elongated slashes tattooed on her forehead and another
two red triangles on each cheek under her eyes. She was dressed in red leather,
and in her outstretched hand was a handkerchief.
Without thinking Ranma reached out and took the handkerchief and wiped at her
cheeks. “Thanks,” she said shakily, then froze — the cloth wasn’t alive, not a
hint of life energy, no ki infusing it like Royga had with his thrown bandanas,
and she was holding it! Her eyes shot back to the stranger and widened as she
realized she wasn’t able to see through her clothing, either. And the woman was
completely dry!
Forcing herself to relax, Ranma handed the cloth back, then nonchalantly rose
to her feet to hover a few inches above the grassy embankment and focused the
senses she was still learning to understand on the stranger that had intruded
on her angstfest. Again, her eyes widened for a moment before she fought her
expression back under control, because she sensed — nothing. Nothing at all, as
if the person before her didn’t exist. But she had to, she’d handed her the
handkerchief, the one Ranma had been able to touch!
But while Ranma couldn’t sense anything substantial, she was catching a hint of
... of something, almost familiar ... just an echo, but it made her feel like
she needed a bath. Where had she sensed this before ... ? And then her mind
flashed back to Dr. Tofu’s office, the manic doctor taking bites out of a plate
brought by a despair-ridden Kasumi, and the dark, ugly, slimy aura linking the
two.
Ranma found herself taking a step back and forced herself to stop. Casually
clasping her hands behind her back, she bluntly asked, “Who are you? What are
you?”
The woman’s eyebrows rose. “And why do you think I’m anything but what I
appear?”
“ ‘Cause ya handed me a piece a cloth I could touch; I can’t see through yer
clothes; other than my eyes, I can’t tell you’re even there; and ya stink.”
The woman stiffened for a moment, tattooed cheek twitching, then she relaxed
muscle by muscle and pasted on a smile. “My name’s Mara, and I’m a demon,” she
said cheerily.
“Yeah, I thought so. Good ta know what demons smell like. So what are ya doin’
here?”
Mara’s smile stiffened, just short of a snarl, and a deep indrawn breath hissed
between her teeth. She paused for a long moment, exhaled, then finally said,
“Why, I’m here to make you an offer, of course.”
Mara kept her gaze fixed on the face of the naked, and incredibly cute, red-
haired nature spirit floating in front of her — however much the demon would
have normally enjoyed the sight on display, now would be a very bad time to let
her eyes wander. Likewise, she kept her smile firmly in place in spite of the
two words Ranma had just used that had her seething: ‘stink’ and ‘smell’.
Remember, this offensive little hottie might be the key to Nabiki, donotmess
this up!
“What kinda offer?” Ranma asked, her posture screaming suspicion. “Just what
can ya do fer me — get rid a’ the Jusenkyo curse? And just how will that help
me now? It’s too late!”
“No, I can’t remove the curse, it’s too powerful — a set part of your destiny,”
Mara replied with a shake of her head. “But I wouldn’t remove it even if I
could. Without it, you’re just one more mortal, however skilled a martial
artist you might be for your age. With it, the combination of your martial arts
skills and the capabilities your cursed form gives you make you a unique,
versatile agent, able to go places demons can’t with a broad range of options
when you get there. Besides,” she continued, ignoring Ranma’s confused look,
“you’re right that as things stand there’s no point — you’d still be incapable
of having sex in your human form.”
“So if ya can’t get rid a’ the curse and ya can’t fix me, what have ya got ta
offer?” Ranma asked despondently.
“I didn’t say we couldn’t fix you, just that removing the curse wouldn’t do
it,” Mara said. Gotcha! she thought as the succubus brightened. “We can — and
if you swear loyalty to me, we will.”
“How?” Ranma asked eagerly, drifting slowly toward the demon, but Mara shook
her head, her smile turning into a grin.
“That would be telling,” she said, her smile broadening. “If you join me, then
I tell you about it.”
“Alright, alright, what do I gotta do?” Ranma asked.
Mara offered her hand to the succubus. “Just take my hand and repeat what I
say,” she instructed.
Ranma was reaching out her hand when they heard a high-pitched voice. “Ranma,
there you are!”
The succubus and demon whirled, and Mara felt her heart sink at the sight of
the tiny insect-winged naked blonde sprite hovering a few yards away. Not
Cherry Blossom, not now! she wailed silently to herself even as she carefully
put on a cool, disinterested expression.
“And Mara!” the sprite continued. “And being naughty, too. You know the rules,
demons leave nature spirits alone and nature spirits leave demons alone.”
Making a serious effort to not grind her teeth, Mara replied calmly, “Ranma
isn’t a nature spirit, so the truce doesn’t apply.”
“Oh, really?” Cherry Blossom responded cheerfully, and flew toward Ranma. She
slowly circled the redhead, starting at the feet and spiraling upward, flicking
a red nipple in passing and giggling when Ranma blushed and jerked backward,
before finally coming to a stop a few inches from Ranma’s nose. She giggled
again when Ranma went crosseyed trying to look at her, then crossed one arm
under her pert breasts and tapped on her lips with the fingers of the other. “I
don’t know,” the tiny blonde mused thoughtfully. “She sure looks like a nature
spirit to me. Feels like one, too.”
“You know very well Ranma’s a human cursed to turn into a succubus,” Mara
growled, tempted to simply blast the little annoyance into oblivion. She could
explain it to Ranma somehow, somehow explain to Hild how the sprite died so it
wouldn’t be a violation of the truce ... and then she caught sight of several
other sprites out of the corner of her eye, watching the proceedings from a
dozen yards away. Damn!
“Oh, so she’s both a human and a nature spirit!” Cherry Blossom burbled,
circling Ranma’s head. “Goodie, that means we both get to play!” Then, settling
on Ranma’s shoulder, she said in a stage whisper, “You know, you’re awfully
cute when you blush.
“Anyway,” she continued in her normal bubbly tone, flying off Ranma’s shoulder
to again hover in front of her fellow nature spirit, “I’m not actually just
passing by. Nabiki and Nodoka summoned me and asked me to look for you. They’re
really worried about you, and Kasumi will be, too, when she finds out how you
took off. We don’t want to worry Kasumi, do we?”
Ranma soundlessly shook her head.
“Good, so why don’t you finish up your business here, and we can head back and
brighten her day.” The tiny sprite waved toward Mara, and Ranma turned back
toward the demon, her mind whirling under the sprite’s verbal onslaught. There
had been something in the middle of that torrent of words that had rung an
alarm, something about Kasumi ... and even as she reached out a hand she felt —
something — brush across her, something ... slimy ... like she had felt from
Kasumi at Tofu’s clinic.
Yanking her hand back, Ranma glared suspiciously at Mara. “And just what would
I hafta do, if I sign on? A martial artist protects the innocent and weak. Is
that what you’d want me ta do?”
Mara suppressed a wince. Dropping her renewed smile, she said soberly, “No. We
demons feel that the best defense is a good offense — we seek out those
deserving of punishment and see that they get it.”
“People like Kasumi?” Ranma demanded.
“Kasumi? You mean Tendo Kasumi?”
“Yeah, that Kasumi,” Ranma snarled. “Sure, she doesn’t really like what me and
Nabiki are doing, but she’s treated me great anyway. An’ Doc Tofu’s a good guy,
too. She an’ the doc don’t deserve ta be cursed by some demon so he acts like a
maniac whenever she’s around. If that’s what ya consider ‘seeking out those
that deserve punishment’, then ya can kiss off!”
Mara stared as Ranma spread her wings and began to fly away, stunned by how
abruptly everything had fallen apart. Shaking herself free of the shock, she
called out to the angry succubus. “Ranma! If you change your mind just call my
name, I’ll answer as soon as I can!” There was no reply, as the Mara watched
Ranma disappear into the night sky.
She stared at the empty sky for several minutes, then shook herself and walked
across the park to a grove of trees. As she approached, Calise stepped out of
the treeline. “Well, that could have gone better,” her friend said
sympathetically.
“No kidding!” Mara snarled. She paused and closed her eyes, taking a deep
breath and holding it for a long moment, then sighed. “I didn’t really expect
Ranma to agree, not at first,” she admitted to her friend. “I was just laying
the groundwork for later, I hadn’t realized just how important Ranma’s manhood
is to him ... her ... whatever. But it was going so well! And then that
blithering, crafty little bitch had to go and stick her nose in....”
“You do have to admit this ... situation ... doesn’t fit our truce with the
nature spirits very well,” Calise pointed out, then hesitantly continued, “You
really didn’t know about Kasumi and Tofu?”
“No, I didn’t. You did?”
“Yes, it was in Tofu’s file,” Calise admitted, then suddenly stiffened. “But it
wasn’t in Kasumi’s file! Oh, shit, someone screwed up the cross-referencing,
and I missed it! I’m sorry, Mara —”
“Not your fault,” Mara said, waving off her apology. “Or at least not your job,
you’re just helping out in your off-hours. I can’t read the file for every
person Ranma meets, but I should have read Dr. Tofu’s after Ranma visited the
second time, at the latest — he is an old friend of the Tendos, after all, and
he’s mentioned in both Akane’s and Kasumi’s files especially. Just too many
cases, I guess, maybe I should hand some of the less important ones off.”
She shrugged, winced, and rotated her shoulders, trying to loosen up stiff
muscles, then sighed blissfully when Calise stepped behind her and started to
massage the back of her shoulders. “Ohhh, that feels good. Anyway, taking a
look at my caseload’s for later. Did Jalok follow her?”
Calise nodded as her hands worked their magic. “Yes, it took off like a bat out
of hell —” She broke off, chuckling. “I’ve always liked that phrase, however
did the English come up with it? Anyway, when Ranma flew off it followed her.
But I don’t know if it’ll catch her, a couple of sprites took off after it when
it left.”
“Wonderful. Just ... wonderful. Sprites aren’t the most stable of nature
spirits, who knows what they’ll do if they catch it? I really hope this doesn’t
blow up into another war, we really don’t need that right now.”
Regretfully, Mara stepped away, breaking off her friend’s attentions. “Let’s
head home, it sounds like I need to report Cherry Blossom’s interference, and
then get some more files to read while waiting for Jalok to report in.”
                                     /oOo\
Jalok desperately scanned the wet steel and concrete jungle that surrounded it
as it slowly flew down the street through the steady rain several stories above
the ground. Not a hint, not a sign. When the imp had flown off after the angry
succubus that had blown off Mara, Jalok had quickly found that it wasn’t as
fast as Ranma at full speed. Still, it had been pretty close and had been
losing ground slowly while keeping her in sight — until the succubus reached
the taller buildings of downtown Tokyo. It had lost sight of her immediately,
and almost worse the way that it had to slow down to search meant its pursuers
—
Sensing the next attack run coming in, Jalok desperately spread its wings,
braking hard, and a sprite flashed across in front of it, slightly below where
it would have been. Then Jalok was desperately rolling to the side and dropping
and a split second later the second one streaked through where it had stopped,
missing it by a hair. That was close! Jalok thought even as it plastered itself
against the side of a skyscraper, eyes trying to follow two circling sprites at
once. He wasn’t trying to hit me so it probably wouldn’t have been a violation
of the treaty if he had, but still ...
Keeping against the wall, Jalok resumed its flight along the block, eyes
scanning the buildings on the opposite side of the street while simultaneously
keeping an eye on the two sprites keeping pace with it.
Chapter End Notes
     The chapter title comes from the old folklore about the natural place
     to make a deal with the Devil, referenced in the third verse of one
     of my favorite songs, "Sugar Cane" by Ray Wylie Hubbard. The relevant
     lyrics are:
     I heard it told, I ain't seen it myself,
     I guess it could be a lie.
     Come to believe it's the gospel truth,
     So help my hope to die.
     If you want a little more of what this old world's got
     And you don't care what you lose,
     Go down to the crossroads and make a little deal
     And get you some delta blues.
***** The Voice *****
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Ranma slashed through the rainy night, wings tucked in close for speed, quickly
leaving the low, translucent houses of Nerima behind along with the faintly
glowing naked people that occupied them. Thatbitch! How dare she offer ...
offer ... and try ta get me ta be her enforcer! I’d be no better than those
thugs that were always with the guys that would try ta get Pop ta work for ‘em.
Ranma reluctantly chuckled as she remembered one time several years before when
a crime boss had tried kidnapping him for leverage against his father. That day
had been one of the more fun ones of his life, as he’d led hopelessly
outclassed thugs and punks on an impromptu game of hide, seek and ambush.
Though Genma had decided to move on rather abruptly after he’d learned about
it.
Whoa! Ranma’s wings snapped open as she hastily rolled to avoid the skyscraper
that suddenly loomed up in front of her. Even as the building flashed past her,
Ranma was shaking her head. Idiot! You’re a succubus — you’d have gone right
through. Solid isn’t solid to ya anymore, remember? Though that one wasn’t as
see-through as the buildings in Nerima, must be the concrete an’ steel.
She threaded her way among the other tall translucent buildings abruptly
surrounding her, a quick experiment reaching out a hand as she skimmed past one
building showing they were no more solid to her than dead wood and plaster
board.  Still, it didn’t feel right to just blow through them — and especially,
Ranma steered wide of the occasional glowing wards indicating someone that knew
something of magic.  None of the wards felt ... uninviting, but the last thing
she wanted right now was to deal with people that might be able to see her nude
body, however cute Nabiki might tell her she looked. Especially considering how
cute Nabiki told her she looked. Especially since the people she could see
indicated that at least some of the buildings, almost all the ones that were
occupied, were apartments.
With the need to do something besides fly in a straight line combined with the
shock of her near non-collision having interrupted her seething inward rant,
Ranma found her anger fading — Mara was a demon, after all, Ranma was supposed
to be upset that she acted like one? And with her anger fading, the melancholy
from earlier came rushing back. With a sigh, she found an empty apartment far
from any of the wards. It was several stories up with a small tree on the
balcony and a wonderful view of the city. Pulling in her wings, Ranma settled
down on a branch to contemplate her bleak future.
“Wow, now that was a ride!”
Ranma was out of the tree and five feet away floating over the drop to the
street, facing the apartment and in a defensive stance that would have been
effective, if she’d been on the ground multiple stories below, if she’d
actually been able to touch the ground, or had any weight when she did.
Sitting on a branch of the tree was the nature spirit that had interrupted
Mara’s attempt to recruit her, a broad smile across her face. The tiny nude
blonde slipped off the branch, holding on with one hand, and flipped back up
and around so that she was dangling below the branch with her legs across the
top, again facing Ranma with the smile still firmly in place. “You can really
pile on the speed when you want,” she enthused. “And the way you flipped around
when you almost hit the building, wheeeeeee! Good thing you did, too — you
might have gone right through, I wouldn’t have. Perhaps hitching a ride wasn’t
the smartest thing, after all,” she finished, her smile slipping into a
thoughtful look.
“You ... you said Mom and Nabs sent ya,” Ranma managed to get out. Noticing her
stance, and how much it revealed, she blushed and nonchalantly shifted to one
she thought would work with her succubus body. “Who are you?”
“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself, bad girl! I’m Cherry Blossom. Want to be
friends?” Dropping free of the branch without waiting for an answer, the sprite
flew over to circle around Ranma, then settled on her shoulder. “You know, any
empath worthy of the name that met you just now would have doubts about your
nature spiritness — at least, any that knew nature spirits. I’ve never known
one to be as depressed as you were, or depressed at all — humans, gods, demons,
sure, but not nature spirits. So tell Auntie Cherry all about it, maybe she can
help!”
Even through the grey despond settling on her yet again now that she was over
her shock, Ranma couldn’t help chuckling at the sheer bubbly cheerfulness
Cherry Blossom brought to everything she said. Drifting back over to the tree
she had just vacated, the succubus once again settled on her earlier branch and
looked out across the lights of the nighttime city. Why not? Cherry Blossom was
a friend of her lover and mother so she probably knew a lot of it already, it
couldn’t hurt. “Well, I guess it started when my idiot of a father decided to
take a training trip through China with a guidebook over a century old....”
                                      /\
“... and so that’s it — no kids, no future, just a parasite suckin’ off a’
people,” Ranma finished up.
Cherry Blossom, once again hovering in front of Ranma on the tree branch, shook
her head, actually somewhat sober. “No kids, no future, a parasite? Wow, being
‘manly’ must be really important to you, if you can just ignore everything the
Voice is telling you,” the sprite mused, one hand’s fingers tapping her lower
lip.
“What voice?” Ranma asked.
Cherry Blossom froze, dropping when her wings stopped buzzing. Recovering
within a few feet, she swooped back up to hover a few inches away from the
succubus’s face. “You can’t hear the Voice?” she asked, suddenly dead serious.
Ranma shook her head.
“But that doesn’t make sense!” the sprite objected. “Every nature spirit hears
the Voice, it’s the first thing we’re aware of when ... when we’re born. But
you weren’t born as a nature spirit, were you?’
Ranma shook her head again.
“Wow ... oh, wow. No wonder ...” Cherry Blossom flew over and once again
settled on Ranma’s shoulder, sliding an arm under the succubus’s loose hair.
“All this time you’ve been dealing with a succubus’s needs and instincts and
the wrong body, and you don’t even know what it’s all about ... no wonder
you’re depressed, I’m surprised you’re still sane!” She leaned her head against
Ranma’s ear, rubbing her hand up and down along the back of her neck.
After a few minutes, the sprite bounced off the shoulder, flipping around to
hover in front of Ranma’s face and trying to stretch the redhead’s mouth into a
smile. “Well, it’s an easy enough problem to fix,” she cheerily asserted. “We
just need to get you in contact with your outer self!”
“Okay, how? What’s the Voice?” Ranma asked.
“The Voice is ... well, it’s ... it’s ...” Cherry Blossom shrugged. “I really
don’t know how to explain it — it’s everything. It’ll be easier to get you to
hear it than for me to explain it. You’re a martial artist, aren’t you? Don’t
martial artists go in for all that meditation stuff?”
“Well ... some, yeah, but Pop never ... well, why not?” Pulling her feet up
into something resembling the lotus position and keeping just enough of a grip
on the branch to hold herself in place, Ranma closed her eyes and tried to
follow the instructions from the last sensei that had taught him meditation
techniques. At first, her worries consumed her, images of the dark future she
had imagined playing across her mind’s eye. But the hope Cherry Blossom had
offered gave the succubus strength, and eventually she managed to set them
aside, to seek out the peace of no-thought. Slowly, the noises of the nighttime
city faded and time seemed to fade with it.
“RANMA!”
The redhead jerked, losing her hold on the branch and drifting away. She shook
her head a little. How could such a tiny ... person shout so loud? Sure, her
mouth must have practically been in the redhead’s ear, but still — “What?”
Ranma asked, exasperated, turning to find the little nuisance recovering from
where the succubus’s jerk had thrown her. “I was doin’ what ya suggested —”
“Yes, and quite nicely, too, Nabiki’s got you well trained,” Cherry Blossom
replied with a saucy wink, then giggled when Ranma blushed. “But it wasn’t
working.” Hastily, she asked, “Just what were you doing? Something was
happening, I had to almost shout out a lung to get you to wake up!”
“The usual stuff,” Ranma replied, “not thinkin’ of anything, losing personal
awareness, shutting out outside distractions —”
“That’s it!” the sprite enthused. “You were shutting out any chance of hearing
the Voice — it isn’t inside you, it’s all around you! So what you need to do is
lose that personal awareness, not think of anything, but embrace the outside
world, not shut it out!”
Ranma moved back yet again to ‘sit’ on ‘her’ branch, and looked uncertainly at
her self-appointed friend. “Okay-y-y-y ...” she said slowly. Once again pulling
her feet up into a semi-lotus, she closed her eyes.
“Wait!” Cherry Blossom shouted.
A now increasingly frustrated Ranma opened her eyes and glared at her
diminutive companion. “What?” she half-snarled.
“Ranma, I really think you need to do this, but be careful,” an abruptly
serious Cherry Blossom replied. “The Voice is really ... seductive. Remember
how I said it’s the first thing every nature spirit is aware of?” Ranma nodded.
“Well, a lot of newborn nature spirits get swept away and never break loose.”
“Uh ... what happens to those that can’t break loose?” Ranma asked hesitantly.
“They starve to death if something doesn’t eat them or a dark Initiate doesn’t
grab them for potion components,” Cherry Blossom said, her abruptly grim face
somehow out of place on a nude little package that Ranma was suddenly aware was
very cute even as it shone with life. “Oooh, your aura just got some pink,” the
sprite added with a giggle, then struck a very sensual pose, spoiled only
slightly by the way she bobbled while hovering in place. “And now it’s red, how
nice, you like me! Too bad you’re so big, and Nabiki would probably object. Ah,
well ... now onward!”
Shaking her head in bemusement, Ranma closed her eyes. Okay, how do I do this?
Gotta let go but stay aware ... Again, she released her worries — the original
fears more easily this time, the newly acquired fears with more difficulty —
and sought no-thought. But this time, instead of seeking to block out awareness
of the outside world, she embraced it, melded with it, let each individual
noise, moist rain-scent and sensation mix together, until they merged into an
indistinguishable chorus.
Suddenly, the chorus swelled, bursting, ballooning into incomprehensible
complexity, and Ranma felt her awareness explode outward to become a part of
all around her — the weeds springing up through cracked concrete reaching for
the sun as they sank their roots into the earth, competing with the other
plants for light, water and nutrients; the insects, arachnids, lizards, birds
in a dance of predator and prey as they instinctively fought for life and
continuance; the smaller mammals, rats, cats, dogs, pampered pets in warmth and
comfort or ragged survivors of the streets finding shelter where they could;
the larger animals in sea and on land, loving, hating, being born, competing,
birthing, dying.
And the people, everywhere — angry, happy, sad, content, blissful, courageous,
fearful, lustful, those drifting from day to day and those dream-driven,
striving ever for more, driving up and out.
And through them all, the nature spirits moved, nurturing the growing things
and nurtured in turn, delighting in the energy-filled life all around them and
driving it on to greater heights even as they competed with each other for
place and strength.
Even among the humans the spirits of life flourished, feeding on the power of
intelligence-back dreams and passions and pushing them on in turn, thrusting
humanity ever higher until even the stars were not too high a mark to strive
for as the mingled chorus of all that lived drove them on and up, up and
outward ...
... and Ranma slammed back into a body that suddenly felt much too limited, too
constricting, too ... small. She opened her eyes to find herself with arms and
legs wrapped around the branch she had been sitting on, desperately drawing in
shuddering breaths she didn’t need. Slowly, she forced herself to relax and sat
up. “Wow!” she gasped, “that was ... was ...”
“Indescribable?” the cute blonde sprite suddenly hovering in front of her again
asked. For just a moment Ranma thought she caught a hint of relief before
Cherry Blossom’s face lit up with its usual saucy cheerfulness.
“Yeah ... I mean, the whole world ...” Ranma fumbled for words, and the
sprite’s face softened.
“Yes, I know ... I know,” she murmured. “And you can still hear it, can’t you?
Like a constant echo in the back of your mind, a chorus that never ends and
never repeats, and that will never leave you.” At Ranma’s slow nod, Cherry
Blossom perked up. “Good, welcome to the World! And in all that, did you learn
what you are, why you are?”
“No, I didn’t —” The succubus broke off, gaping, as she realized she lied.
Somehow, in the midst of everything she had picked out her own kind, followed
them, the tens of thousands born yearly only to flicker out like wind-blown
candles, the very few that survived to flit about among the sea of people in
Europe and wherever that continent’s children had settled, haunting dreams and
making them wonderful, pushing people together, giving them courage to seek the
companionship they thirsted after, holding them together in ties of passion
through good times and bad, occasionally through the borrowed seed of men,
infused with the succubae’s nature, giving humanity men and women of power and
sometimes wisdom to provide leadership and guidance.
“Yes, I see you did, good,” Cherry Blossom murmured. “Whatever happens, that’ll
never leave you. So, now that that’s settled ...” The sprite flew over to hover
by the ear she’d blasted with a shout earlier. “Nabiki,” she whispered. “She’s
back at home, and scared for you. Don’t you think it’s time you did something
about that?”
“Nabiki! Oh damn, I didn’t even think ... the way I just blew out of there, I
gotta get back! Um ...” Ranma looked around at the semi-translucent buildings
surrounding them. “Where am I, exactly?”
Cherry Blossom giggled again. “Come on, I’ll take you home.” With that, she
buzzed up and away into the soft, misty rain, with Ranma quickly following her
unique life spark into the night.
Chapter End Notes
     The chapter title, and initial inspiration for this aspect of nature
     spirits, comes from the song by Celtic Woman. The Voice is the
     counterpart of Yggdrasil and Nidhogg for nature spirits, to put them
     on something like equal standing with Asgard and Nifflheim without
     requiring a central organization. And yes, it has a number of
     limitations that will be explored later on.
     I hear your voice on the wind
     And I hear you call out my name
     "Listen, my child," you say to me
     "I am the voice of your history
     Be not afraid, come follow me
     Answer my call, and I'll set you free"
     I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
     I am the voice of your hunger and pain
     I am the voice that always is calling you
     I am the voice, I will remain
     I am the voice in the fields when the summer's gone
     The dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow
     Ne'er do I sleep thoughout all the cold winter long
     I am the force that in springtime will grow
     I am the voice of the past that will always be
     Filled with my sorrow and blood in my fields
     I am the voice of the future, bring me your peace
     Bring me your peace, and my wounds, they will heal
     I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain
     I am the voice of your hunger and pain
     I am the voice that always is calling you
     I am the voice
     I am the voice of the past that will always be
     I am the voice of your hunger and pain
     I am the voice of the future
     I am the voice, I am the voice
     I am the voice, I am the voice!
***** First Time *****
In the middle upstairs bedroom of the Tendo home, a pageboy-haired girl dressed
in T-shirt and panties twisted on her bed, trying to find a comfortable
position. She failed miserably, and sat up with a sigh, knowing full well that
the problem wasn’t inside her mattress but inside her. Nabiki turned in the
dark to stare out her window into the rain-misted night, fighting the near-
panic that rose again at the sight. Come on, ‘Nabs’, youknowRanma isn’t
bothered by weather when she’s a succubus. You know she rejected whatever offer
that demon made her, Night Flower told us as much! Cherry Blossom is with her,
the way that bubbly sprite acts it just isn’tpossibleto stayed depressed around
her, Ranma will be fine, she’ll be here in no time, back to her usual
optimistic, I-can-handle-anything self.
But it had been hours since Night Flower had told them about Cherry Blossom
finding their lost sheep — before the sprite had gotten distracted by Kasumi’s
garden — and Nabiki had found it impossible to concentrate on schoolwork, on
reviewing her threat files (her blackmail files, before she’d had to explain
them to Ranma), or her manga.  She’d finally given up and gone to bed, and now
that wasn’t working out, either.
Suddenly metaphysical light visible only to a few flared outside her window,
and Nabiki whirled, looking up at the dark ceiling as she felt two nature
spirits pass through her wards above the house.
                                      /\
Ranma barely noticed the flare of light as she and Cherry Blossom passed
through her lover’s and mother’s wards, and didn’t notice Cherry Blossom
pealing off toward the side of the house at all — all the succubus’s attention
was focused on the earth-haired girl that had whirled to look up toward her
through the translucent roof. Then Ranma was passing through that roof and the
ceiling beneath it, only to falter for a moment, blanching, as a wave of
relief, guilt, joy, fear, anger and love slammed into her. Recovering, pushing
through the emotional onslaught, she dropped toward Nabiki’s widespread arms,
and her lover pulled her into an embrace that would have had her gasping for
air if she needed to breathe. Her own arms circled the Tendo and for several
minutes the only sounds in the room were Ranma’s murmurs of comfort and apology
and Nabiki’s gasping, shuddering breath.
Finally, the shudders traveling through Nabiki’s body slowed, then vanished,
and her breathing and grip eased off until one arm dropped to circle Ranma’s
waist while the other reached up to stroke her lover’s loose scarlet tresses.
“Enough, Ranma,” she murmured, breaking into the succubus’s continued
monologue. “I’m fine, and you have nothing to be sorry for, you didn’t do
anything wrong. Well, except for charging off into the night, that is,” she
added, pulling back enough to look into Ranma’s brilliant blue eyes. “The next
time you get like that, at least let me hold you while you work it out!”
Now that the emotional tsunami had receded, Ranma felt the sheer joy and awe of
her vision bubbling up to the surface again on a rising chorus. Grinning, she
said, “There isn’t gonna be a next time.”  She tilted her head up and pulled
Nabiki into a kiss that had the Tendo gasping for breath. Breaking off, Ranma
laid her head back on Nabiki’s shoulder, giggling at the stupefied lust Nabiki
was now radiating.
Suddenly, the lust vanished to be replaced by worry. Nabiki put her hands on
Ranma’s shoulders and pushed them apart to arm’s length, staring into the
redhead’s face through narrow eyes. “Ranma, what happened?  What’s wrong with
you?” she asked. “I mean, you aren’t just reconciled, you’re positively giddy!”
“I’m fine, really, I feel great!” Ranma caroled. Breaking away from Nabiki’s
grip, she lifted off into the middle of the room and pirouetted in place.
Stopping her spins, she giggled at Nabiki’s wide-eyed stare. “Actually, I think
I’m drunk,” she added conspiratorially before rolling into a head-over-heels
twirl, dancing to the chorus sweeping through her.
“Ranma, get down here, please,” an increasingly concerned Nabiki requested.
When the redhead stopped spinning and settled down in her lap again, she asked,
“Drunk on what? You can’t drink.”
“On life,” came Nodoka’s response from the doorway.
In a flash Ranma was out of Nabiki’s lap and across the room, her arms around
her mother. “I’m sorry I scared you, it won’t happen again,” she said softly.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, dear,” Nodoka retorted softly.  She
ignored the feel of skin on skin where their breasts pressed together to return
the hug with a smile and a kiss on the cheek, and a brush of love across her
daughter’s soul. “All children frighten their parents on a fairly regular
basis. Now, why don’t you rejoin your fiancée? I suspect she could use your
company more than I.”
Ranma obeyed, snuggling down in Nabiki’s warm lap with a soft sigh as she
luxuriated in the aura of love and lust radiating from her lover. Nodoka seated
herself in the chair by the desk. As Ranma made herself comfortable in Nabiki’s
arms, the older girl looked up at her new sensei in the occult. “You said
Ranma’s drunk on life? How is that possible? Is it a succubus thing?”
“No, Nabiki-chan, it’s a nature spirit thing,” Nodoka replied, and gave a quick
explanation of the Voice and its impact.
As she finished her explanation, Nabiki stared down at her snuggling companion
in awe. “You saw everything?” she demanded.
“Mhmm, though I can’t remember it all, just too much. But what a ride!” Ranma
replied with a giggle. “But I remember one thing — why I couldn’t make myself
change inta a guy.”
“Why?” Nabiki asked after a moment when Ranma seemed to drift off.
“Why? Oh! It’s ‘cause a’ how succubae are made — born without a grown-up
succubus around ta teach ‘em anything. Means it’s all instinct-driven. It’ll
show up when I need it, just like the wings.”
Nabiki stiffened in shock, and Ranma shifted uncomfortably at the fear and
guilt suddenly radiating from her fiancée even as Nabiki’s grip tightened.
“Ranma ... you know what you’ll have to ... how new succubae are made?”
“Ya mean the whole get the sperm from a guy, add my own bit ta the mix, then
get some girl pregnant? Yeah, I saw it all.”
“And you’re all right with this?”
“Sure — it’s what I am,” Ranma replied, looking up quizzically at Nabiki’s
intent gaze and adding, “though ya can forget the part about abandonin’ my kids
ta mostly die, not happenin’.”
Her fiancée gazed down at her for a long moment, then looked up worriedly at
Nodoka. “Mother — sensei — as happy as I am that Ranma isn’t freaking out about
this, is this ... this giddy complacency ... normal?”
“No, Nabiki, it isn’t — not most of the time, at least,” Nodoka replied. Rising
from her seat, she knelt beside the two sitting on the bed. “Ranma,” she said
softly, “I know it’s wonderful, what the Voice gives you. But do you remember
what Cherry Blossom told you about how many newly-born nature spirits get swept
away by the Voice and never recover?” When Ranma nodded, she continued,
“There’s another danger — the Voice is seductive, addictive; the urge to
constantly let it wash through you, to dance to its music is always there. But
there are dangers out in the world for nature spirits as much as for humans,
and if you are constantly focused on the Voice without a care for your safety,
you will soon be dead. So please, for Nabiki and me, push the Voice into the
background — turn down the volume.”
Ranma hesitated, and Nabiki’s arms tightened at the near-panic that swept
through the redhead, displacing the giddy delight. “But ... but Mom ... if I
block it out, what if I can’t find it again? I can’t lose this, I can’t!”
Nodoka shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. The most you will be able to
do is reduce the Voice to a whisper — always there, but in the background. And
you don’t need to always keep the volume that low.” Glancing up at Nabiki, she
said, “Student, since you didn’t know about the Voice, I assume you don’t know
why Kasumi’s gardening has become so popular with nature spirits?”
Nabiki frowned in thought, thinking back over the last months, then her eyes
widened in realization. “You’re right, there have been a lot more nature
spirits hanging around, how did I miss that?”
Ranma giggled. “Ya were too busy makin’ real enemies by blackmailin’ maybe-
enemies,” she said.
Nabiki’s eyes dropped as Nodoka chuckled.  “Well, yes, there is that,” the
Tendo sister muttered.
“Yes, anyway,” Nodoka said, forcing down her chuckles, “after our meeting a few
days ago I asked around, and the reason why so many nature spirits are stopping
by here now is you, student — or rather, your wards. They know from experience
that you have no interest in binding nature spirits into servitude or killing
them for potion ingredients, and within your wards they’re safe from others
that will. So they come here to — I believe the phrase is ‘cut loose’, let the
Voice sweep them away for awhile, dance to the full chorus.” With a laugh, she
added, “I’m afraid that thanks to you, the Tendo Dojo has become Party Central
for fun-seeking nature spirits!”
The two teenagers joined in the laughter. When it eventually died down, Ranma
said, “So you’re sayin’ ta save the full experience fer when I’m home, an’ tune
it out when I’m away?”
“More than that, dearest — only let yourself go when you aren’t doing anything
else. You still have Akane’s training and your own studies, both the Art and
school. And then there’s your time with Nabiki — it’s hard to have a real
connection with someone when most of your attention is somewhere else.”
Eventually, Ranma reluctantly nodded. “Okay,” she muttered, and closed her
eyes.
Outwardly nothing happened, but Nabiki felt the giddiness radiating from the
girl in her arms slowly fade, morphing into an almost serene soft joy that she
could barely sense. When Ranma again opened her eyes, Nabiki smiled down at
her. “Welcome back, love,” she whispered.
Nodoka smiled wistfully as the two teenagers lost themselves in each other, and
rose to her feet. “I think we’ve talked about this enough tonight, and it’s way
past this old woman’s bedtime. We’ll discuss the demoness who propositioned you
tomorrow.” Waving aside the instant protests that she wasn’t old, she headed
for the bedroom door. In the doorway she paused, turning back for a moment.
“But while I may be old — or at least older — you two aren’t. And tonight isn’t
a school night — enjoy.” Then she was gone, Nabiki listening to her footsteps
receding down the hall toward her room as Ranma watched her through the barely
visible walls.
Finally Nabiki sighed in contentment, then smiled down at the red-haired cutie
cuddling in her arms. “So, ready to call it a night and meet me in my dreams?
Or should we take your mother’s advice and feed you first?” she asked softly.
Ranma stirred, then turned to smile up at her fiancée. “Neither,” she said. “I
got a better idea.” Reaching over, she took one of Nabiki’s hands from around
her waist and lifted it, guiding it up to place it over a large, firm breast.
“Why don’t you ‘feed’ for a change?” she whispered, then giggled at the sudden
uptick in the lust radiating from her lover.
The hand Ranma had placed on her breast trembled slightly even as Nabiki sucked
in a breath. This was not a good idea, when Ranma went human he wouldn’t have
the Voice for support, she was under the Voice’s influence right now, if only a
little. But the Voice wasn’t going to go away and Ranma had to adjust to the
demands and impulses of his nature spirit form sometime — and the cute, sexy
bundle in Nabiki’s arms wasn’t the only one that got ‘hungry’ sometimes. After
a moment, the breath gusted out. “Ranma ... are you sure?” she asked softly.
Ranma simply nodded, then tilted her head up to capture her lover’s mouth with
her own, her tongue running along Nabiki’s lips, seeking an entrance that was
eagerly given. Hell with it, Nabiki thought, I’ll deal with any fallout in the
morning!
As the two girls’ tongues dueled, probing and circling, Nabiki began to stroke
the breast Ranma had placed her hand on, running her fingers along the
underside, up and around, then inward to circle the nipple crinkled tight in
arousal. Ranma sucked in a breath, and Nabiki’s lips curved up around the two
tongues as she felt a surge in the pleasure and lust radiating from her
companion. She idly wondered if this was what it had been like for Ranma, all
the times their positions had been reversed.
But the thought was fleeting, as she lost herself in the succubus’s rising
pleasure and need. Breaking the kiss, her hands gripped Ranma by the waist and
lifted, turning her lover so that those bounteous breasts were level with her
face, and Ranma gasped, grabbing on to Nabiki’s shoulders as the other girl
leaned forward to gently suckle a nipple, playing with it with lips and tongue
while a hand took ownership of the other.
With Ranma holding her shoulders this left one hand free, and it roamed along
the soft buttocks Nabiki had admired so often, then slipped around a thigh to
probe up between the redhead’s legs. Ranma moaned as fingers ran along the
outside edge of her cleft, up one side and down the other, then slipped among
her rapidly moistening folds. “Wow, this wet already,” Nabiki murmured. “You
are a hot little firecracker, aren’t you?” She slipped a finger up into Ranma’s
sheath and began to pump even as she sucked on the nipple her tongue had been
playing with, chuckling throatily as Ranma’s pleasure and joy ticked up even
higher.
“Yesssss,” Ranma managed to hiss. “I ... I’m your little ... little
firecracker. All ... all yours ... all a’ me ...” Her voice faded away as her
hips began to buck on their own. Nabiki chuckled again and stopped her own
pumping, leaving it to Ranma’s hips. She added a second finger and only moved
her hand to keep pace as her lover’s weightless lower torso tilted higher and
higher into the air with each undulation.
Eventually, Ranma’s bucking hips had risen to the point that Nabiki was finding
it difficult to keep her lips wrapped around their captured nipple, and she
slipped her fingers out of the succubus’s sheath and let go of a breast to
grasp Ranma by the waist. “As wonderful as your body feels, I want a taste,”
she murmured, lifting Ranma higher and pulling the red-haired girl’s hips
toward her face.
She paused for a moment to slip her lover’s legs over her shoulders, then Ranma
gave out a strangled shout, clutching at Nabiki’s head as the Tendo’s mouth
covered her cleft, tongue busily slipping along her folds and probing into her
sheath. Nabiki pulled away for a moment to look up at Ranma’s face as she
luxuriated in the waves of pleasure coming from the panting succubus. “Keep it
down, Akane and Kasumi are next door, we don’t want to wake them up!” she
whispered with a devilish grin, then dove back into her feast, hands holding
the spasming nature spirit in place.
Ranma gritted her teeth against another shout at the resumed sensations washing
through her from Nabiki’s attentions, fighting to keep her moans down. Okay,
two can play at this game, she thought shakily. Letting go of Nabiki’s head,
she dropped her hands down along the outside of her thighs and ran her fingers
along the bare skin of Nabiki’s chest through the T-shirt she wore, along the
swell of her lover’s breasts. The redhead spasmed for a moment when Nabiki
moaned into her cleft, then her fingers resumed their travels until they rubbed
across the rosy tips she knew so well, now crinkled tight with passion. Nabiki
moaned again, but this time Ranma was prepared for both the effect on her folds
and the wave of pleasure washing out from the other girl. Her hands went to
work, tweaking nipples and massaging flesh, and it was her turn to luxuriate in
her own physical pleasure mixing with the sensations now radiating from the
attentions she was giving her lover.
But Ranma’s own rising tide of pleasure was rapidly outpacing what her
attentions were giving Nabiki, and her competitive nature awoke. Releasing
Nabiki’s twin mounds, she put her hands on her lover’s head and pushed away
floating out into the room.
“Ranma, what’s wrong?” Nabiki whispered, concern breaking through the pleasure
high she’d been riding.
“Nothin’,” Ranma murmured back. “Spread yer legs.” Nabiki looked down at her
bare legs, pressed together where she sat on the edge of the bed, then back up
at her succubus. The mouth coated with Ranma’s juices broke into a broad grin
as she spread her legs as wide as she could. Ranma darted forward to run her
tongue around Nabiki’s lips, savoring the new taste of her own juices as her
tongue roamed around and then into her lover’s mouth, then she flipped around
and pulled herself down along Nabiki’s body. She paused for a moment to savor
the intoxicating scent rising from the soaked panties Nabiki still wore, then
closed her eyes as the top of her head sank into the bed she could barely see
and her mouth fastened on Nabiki’s wet folds.
Nabiki sucked in a breath, then pulled Ranma’s hips toward her and buried her
face between her lover’s legs, tongue again playing along the folds there and
brushing across Ranma’s clit.  Now it was Nabiki’s turn to suppress a cry,
burying it in Ranma’s pussy as Ranma moaned into her own. The two girls
clutched at each other, each driving the other to greater heights and each
feeding on the emotional feedback those heights delivered.
In the end it was Ranma that lost their impromptu race, unable to make up the
lead that the attentions from Nabiki’s mouth and fingers had gained as they had
first played with her. Her whole body tried to whiplash as her orgasm flashed
through her, and she muffled the scream ripped from her throat in her partner’s
cleft. It was all Nabiki could do to hold on to the spasming girl, even as the
tsunami of pleasure smashing into her from the nature spirit set off her own
orgasm and she locked a scream of her own behind clenched teeth. The pleasure
and energy from Nabiki’s orgasm pushed Ranma’s own climax to even greater
heights, and her world went dark as the wave of sensation smashed her under.
***** Education of a Princess *****
Ranma slowly awoke to again find herself held tight in Nabiki’s arms, the blurs
in front of her eyes turning into the concerned faces of Kasumi, lover and her
mother looking down on her. As her eyes focused, Nodoka sat back on her heels
with a sigh of relief and Nabiki’s death grip loosened. “It looks like she’ll
be all right,” the older woman said, looking up at Nabiki.
Ranma scooted herself up in Nabiki’s lap and looked around, surprised to find
herself in the room that had until that morning been his and Genma’s. “What ‘m
I doin’ here?” she asked faintly.
“When you collapsed, Nabiki was afraid she’d hurt you and brought you here,”
her mother explained.
“When I collapsed? Why would ...” Then she remembered the last moments before
losing consciousness, and blushed as red as her hair. “Oh, right ...” she
muttered as she tried to tug on her ponytail, only to find her arms trapped by
Nabiki’s embrace. Not that it mattered, since his ponytail went away whenever
he was hit by cold water — the leather tie ended up on top of the pile of
clothes.
“ ‘Oh, right’,” Nabiki repeated with a relieved laugh. “No more sixty-nines for
you, kiddo — they’re too much. Succubae must not be designed to actually have
humans for lovers.”
“Does that mean we can’t —” the nature spirit started to say, then broke off as
she glanced at her mother and Kasumi, her blush actually deepening.
“Oh my, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen quite that shade of purple on a person
before,” Kasumi teased gently, making the other three chuckle — even a
reluctant Ranma.
“And no, that doesn’t mean we ‘can’t’,” Nabiki said. “It just means we have to
take turns, instead of going at the same time. It was probably the feedback
loop we found ourselves in that did you in.”
“Oh, good!” Ranma replied in relief, then winced at a spike of resigned
disapproval from Kasumi. She glanced worriedly over at the older Tendo. “Kasumi
... ?” she asked even as Nabiki’s arms around her tightened.
It was Kasumi’s turn to wince at Ranma’s worried tone and Nabiki’s glare. She
closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, then opened them to smile
gently at the redhead. “I’m happy you’re all right, Ranma,” she said quietly,
and two lovers relaxed as they felt the truth of her words. “Now it’s late,
even if tomorrow isn’t a school day, and today was a long and hard one. Let’s
all get to bed ... or back to bed, as the case may be.”
“Right!” Ranma enthused. “Let’s get ya ta sleep, Nabiki, ya aren’t gonna
believe what I got ta show ya!”
“What you saw in your vision?” Nabiki asked, an eyebrow going up, and Ranma
nodded enthusiastically. “Sounds like a plan,” Nabiki said as she rose to her
feet with the succubus still in her arms, and turned to Nodoka. “Thank you ...
Mother, for your help. I’m sorry we’ve kept you up so late.”
“Think nothing of it,” Nodoka said, waving off the apology even as the two felt
a flash of joy from her. “Please feel free to come to me whenever you need my
help, whatever the time.”
                                      /\
“I’m happy you’re all right, Ranma. Now it’s late, even if tomorrow isn’t a
school day, and today was a long and hard one. Let’s all get to bed ... or back
to bed, as the case may be.”
Out in the hallway, a fuming Akane quietly slipped away, back into her dark
room and closing the door. The need to barge into ‘Auntie’ Nodoka’s bedroom, to
rant at the two people that had lied to her (even if she couldn’t see one of
them), to demand to be told how much ‘Auntie’ Nodoka knew roiled in her gut,
tensed every muscle. But she couldn’t — not with Kasumi there. She knew just
what would happen if she did: her eldest sister would look at her with
disappointment in her gentle eyes, and all Akane’s anger would drain away to be
replaced by guilt. So however hard it was, she’d wait — the morning would come
soon enough. As the angry Akane paced back and forth, she failed to notice the
soft red glow that flickered around her clenched fists.
                                     /oOo\
Nabiki opened her eyes to morning sunlight spilling through the window, then
sat up and stretched. Even as late as she’d been up and the ‘exercise’ she’d
gotten before going to sleep, she felt rested — at least, compared to the way
she’d used to feel on first waking up before she’d picked up a bedmate.
And speaking of bedmates, just whereisRanma? Nabiki thought to herself as she
got out of bed and pulled on her robe. She opened her window and looked out at
the yard below, but couldn’t see any sign of the nature spirit, so she walked
out of her room to check the open window in the hallway that looked down on the
dojo.  Still no Ranma. I know she said she had some thinking to do about the
katas she’s been working on after she showed me her vision, but that should
have been hours ago and I think I’d better be there when she becomes a he
again.
And what a vision it had been. Nabiki shivered in awe as her thoughts wandered
over that all-encompassing view of life, from the smallest weed and insect to
the largest whales — and the future that stretched out before the human race
was breathtaking. And the part nature spirits played, and the sheer joy and
fortitude of the Voice! Though of course, there was a danger there, as well,
especially for Ranma ...
“No, I’m not ready to start my training, you lying perverted FREAK!”
As a string of invective followed the opening shriek, Nabiki whirled from the
window to for the stairway down at a run. That was Akane! And it came from the
dojo!
                                      /\
Nabiki reached the entrance to the dojo just in time to hear her older sister’s
voice override Akane’s: “Akane! What do you think you are doing?” Stepping
through into a firestorm of jealousy, angry betrayal, fear, shame, and angry
amazement all mixed together, the middle Tendo saw Akane whirl away from a pale
Ranma to face Kasumi.
“Kasumi, this pervert and Nabiki have been lying to us all along — there is no
‘Ranko’!” Whirling back to the ponytailed boy, she shouted, “Have you and
Nabiki been laughing at us while you were rutting like — ?”
“Akane! That is quite enough, young lady!” Kasumi yelled.
Akane froze, then slowly turned back to her sister. “But Kasumi, they’ve —”
“I know, Akane,” Kasumi said, cutting her off. “I’ve known since I first met
Ranma.” As Akane gaped, she continued, “Come to the house, we’ll explain what’s
going on.”
Nabiki glanced over her shoulder at the sound of someone hurrying toward them
and saw Nodoka approaching the dojo, the fathers behind her ducking back into
the house. Turning back, she walked over and hugged her fiancé, suppressing a
wince at the tremors she felt running through his body. “No, Kasumi, you and
Mother take Ranma up to the house,” she said. “I’ll stay here and have a long
overdue talk with the Princess. And Ranma,” she added, breaking the hug to look
him in the face, “no running away to the Voice.”
“But, Nabs —”
“Please? For me?” After a moment Ranma nodded jerkily, and Nabiki smiled even
as she fought to keep her anger off her face and gave him a gentle push toward
her older sister and future mother-in-law. “Go on, I’ll join you in a minute.”
And it’s a good thing you aren’t an empath when you’re human.
Akane stared in shock as Ranma was pulled into a one-armed hug by his mother
and led out the door. Kasumi shot her youngest sister another disapproving
glare before following them. The raven-haired girl turned back toward her other
older sister — and right into an open-handed slap heavy enough to twist her
half around again.
“I’m trying to keep Ranma sane and halfway human, and you are not helping!”
Nabiki ranted as Akane stared at her in shock, one hand raised to her throbbing
cheek. “What’s wrong, Princess, having trouble dealing with not being the one
the household revolves around anymore?”
“What? ... No, of course not! What do you mean, keeping that ... Ranma sane?”
“Do you think it’s easy to suddenly find yourself turning into a completely
different species, with its own abilities and instincts?” Nabiki said with a
sneer. “And to find himself turning into that! He’d have a lot easier time if
he just turned into a human girl, or even some animals.”
Akane just stared for a moment, then whispered, “Nabiki, I have no idea what
you’re talking about.”
At the wave of confusion from her younger sister, Nabiki closed her eyes and
took a deep breath, then gently blew it out, slumping a bit as she forced tense
muscles to relax. Opening her eyes again, she gave a sigh. “All right, let’s
try again. Remember that nature program about lions we saw a few years ago, how
upset you were when the first thing the male lion did after driving off his
predecessor was to hunt down and kill the pride’s cubs?”
Akane nodded, looking a little sick at the memory.
“Remember what Kasumi said to you at the time?” Nabki continued.
Akane nodded again. “She said I couldn’t get upset with a lion for acting like
a lion,” she responded.
“So, how would you like to turn into a lion, have your instincts pushing you to
act like a lion when you do, but still remember that you’re human, or will be
again?  Remember what you did when you revert to human?”
Akane’s face took on a greenish tint, and she bolted for the doorway. Seconds
later, the sounds of the raven-haired girl vomiting onto the lawn came back
through the door. Grinning, Nabiki sauntered out to join her sister, leaning
against the wall. When Akane finally finished and sat back on her heels, wiping
at her mouth with her sleeve, Nabiki softly said, “So now you know what it’s
like for Ranma. And to make it worse, he’s learned that he’s never going to be
fully human, or at least a man as he defines the term. To tell you the truth,
I’m surprised he — she — didn’t suggest last night that she just stay a nature
spirit full-time. I’m really hoping he doesn’t suggest it now — as much as I’ve
been enjoying my nature spirit lover, I’d miss my human friend ... and fiancé.”
“But ... but what about you sleeping with Ranma?” Akane mumbled, blushing.
“Isn’t that perverted — two girls in the same bed?”
“You mean two girls having sex?” Nabiki asked, then grinned as Akane’s blush
deepened even as she hesitantly nodded. Nabiki shrugged. “Maybe you could argue
that I’m playing the pervert, but not Ranma — succubae don’t care one way or
the other. Whatever combination of sex, gender or number you care to name, food
is food. Actually, that’s not quite true,” she added thoughtfully. “Ranma has
been acting perverted for a succubus — she’s been limiting herself to just me,
awake, rather than haunting the dreams of you, Kasumi, Father, his father, the
neighbors, whoever. Monogamy is a human concept she isn’t willing to let go of,
thankfully.”
Nabiki gazed at the still-blushing girl in front of her, now staring at the
ground, then straightened. “So Akane, why does Ranma scare you?”
“What?” Akane shouted, her eyes shooting to her sister’s face.
“I asked, why does Ranma scare you? When I got here you weren’t just ranting at
Ranma out of anger and jealousy, you were scared. Why?” Akane began to puff up
in apparent anger even as Nabiki caught a spike of shame, and the middle Tendo
simply smiled sardonically. “Don’t try to deny it, I’m an Initiate — I know.”
Akane deflated, her eyes again dropping even as Nabiki caught another spike of
shame, mixed with fear this time. “It’s just ... it’s just all this ... this
weirdness, this magic, it isn’t natural!”
Nabiki stared at the slumping, downcast girl, stunned at what she sensed. And
was Akane actually shivering? The middle Tendo thought back over what she had
sensed before from her younger sister, and when, and had to keep herself from
slapping her forehead. She had been such an idiot! “Akane, would it help if you
could actually see Ranma when she’s a nature spirit?” she asked with studied
nonchalance.
Akane brightened immediately. “Can you do that?” she asked eagerly. “It can be
a little ... frustrating ... how he — she — he could be hanging around and we
not know it. I mean, sure, he’s seemed all right, but he’s still a boy! And who
knows what else he can do when he’s a succubus?”
Make that ‘scary’ and that sounds about right, Nabiki thought sardonically.
Still, she does have a point. As well ... “Perhaps I arrange that — making it
so you can see her,” Nabiki said slowly. “Ranma won’t like it — she never
reacts well at first when she meets someone that can see her, she doesn’t like
people seeing her nude,” — Akane blushed again — “but she’s been having a
problem with the katas she’s been trying to develop for her new body. She needs
someone she can spar with.
“As for what she can do,” Nabiki continued, stepping forward to grasp Akane by
the arm, “you’re getting a visitor in your dreams tonight. No, it won’t be for
anything sexual,” she added hastily as Akane stiffened with anger and disgust,
At least, not so far asyou’reconcerned — perhaps this’ll broaden your horizons
a little. “Just a vision she had last night. It’s ... really spectacular.”
Akane’s gaze had shot to her sister’s face at the mention of a dream visitor,
and her protest died at the gentle smile on the face of the sister whose
nickname of ‘Ice Queen’ she had privately thought a perfect match. “A-All
right, Nabiki. But if she tries anything she’s going to regret it!”
“Right ...” Nabiki drawled, smile gone sardonic, then pulled her sister toward
the house. “But right now, you have an apology to make.”
                                      /\
Kasumi had thought fast as she followed the shaking ponytailed boy and his
mother out of the dojo, and once in the yard motioned to Nodoka to guide Ranma
to the kitchen entrance. The fathers weren’t going to be any help with this,
and the kitchen was a private domain that didn’t involve a bed. Hopefully, that
would help.
As soon as the three stepped through the doorway into Kasumi’s private kingdom,
Ranma looked around, then headed for the sink and turned on the water.
“Ranma, you promised your fiancée!” Nodoka said firmly when she realized what
Ranma was doing.
“Yeah, an’ I’ll keep it. I just wanna be able ta feel again!” Ranma said as he
stuck his hand under the running faucet, and sighed with relief as her clothes
dropped through her to the floor, the surrounding non-living materials went
translucent, the Voice was suddenly a faint whisper in the background, and a
wave of emotions washed over her from her mother and future sister-in-law —
love, concern, love ... and a great deal of anger. The now red-haired succubus
floated around to face the two, her shoulder-length hair floating free, too
upset to be even faintly embarrassed at the naked bodies now on display through
their almost invisible clothing. “Um ... Mom, Kasumi, why are ya angry? I mean,
Kasumi, I know ya don’t really like me an’ Nabiki sleepin’ together, but ya
seemed mostly alright with it last night. And Mom, you’ve never seemed ta
care.”
The two women glanced at each other and Kasumi sighed, then forced a smile as
the anger from the two seemed to drain away. “It’s Akane I’m — we’re — angry
with, Ranma, not you — you don’t get angry with a lion for being a lion. Yes,
if you were human and I found that you were sleeping with Nabiki I’d insist you
find another place to live until the two of you married. But you aren’t — I’m
just having a little trouble accepting that. Apparently, Akane’s having an even
harder time.”
Ranma began to shake, her eyes dropping, as the memories of what Akane had
shouted at him returned. “She c-c-called me a ... a whore and ... and a ...”
Suddenly, she found herself hugged from both sides, Kasumi’s breasts pressed
against hers through the Tendo sister’s housedress and her mother’s against her
back as their arms circled her.
“You just ignore what she said,” Kasumi murmured. “She may be acting the
ignorant, bigoted idiot but we know better.”
“And by the time your fiancée finishes dressing her down, so will she,” Nodoka
added.
Ranma didn’t reply, but her shivering eased and vanished under the wave of love
radiating from the two older women. She sighed in contentment, then broke the
hug long enough to make it a three-way embrace.
She didn’t know how long the three simply stood there, before Nabiki’s voice
came from the doorway from the kitchen into the hallway. “Ah, there you are!”
Ranma immediately broke away from Kasumi and her mother, blushing furiously.
“I’m leavin’ the Voice alone, just like I promised!” she shouted as she turned
toward her fiancée, then froze at the sight at the youngest Tendo standing
beside her.
“Sure, I know,” Nabiki assured her, waving off her declaration of innocence.
You aren’t acting giddy, for one thing. Pushing forward an Akane staring at the
floor even as she radiated guilt and fear, she continued, “Now, Akane here has
something to tell you.”
***** Meeting Again for the First Time *****
Nabiki sighed with relief as she saw Ranma exit the school and walk across the
school lawn toward where she sat at the base of what she had come to think of
as their lunch tree. Just seeing him was enough to ease her pounding headache.
Of course, part of that might have been because as soon as she’d seen him she’d
stopped trying to extend her empathic sense. No, you’re not getting more
paranoid, not at all, the middle Tendo thought sarcastically. She had been
growing increasingly frustrated over the past four days at her failure to
narrow the list of Awakened she’d gotten from Nodoka down to a manageable
number — she’d even gotten desperate enough to ask for any information her
blackmail victims might have, with the promise of an end to all payments for
anyone that came up with anything useful.
And the Amazons haunting the dojo and following Ranma wherever he went (one of
them always Shampoo) hadn’t helped. She and Ranma had managed to corner Shampoo
and demand to know why, but the purple-haired Amazon had refused to say. All
she’d been willing to tell them was that Genma was no longer her husband, and
that she wasn’t pursuing Ranma.
And then there’s Akane, Nabiki added as she saw her sister notice Ranma from
where she sat with her friends, and the way the youngest Tendo’s eyes flinched
away from her sensei — Nabiki hadn’t had any luck yet coming up with a
practical way for Akane to see ‘Ranko’ yet, either. The result was that, even
though her apology the morning Nabiki had given her a dressing down had been
sincere, and she was really trying to accept Ranma, she just couldn’t — not, at
least, when Ranma wasn’t actually teaching her in the dojo. So the two avoided
each other as much as possible. At least she’s agreed to maintain the pretense
that Ranma and ‘Ranko’ are separate people, that’s something, Nabiki reassured
herself. Yeah, right, grasping at straws much? Maybe you should try the one
idea you’ve had so far tonight instead of this weekend — it’s useless for
sparring, but it would at least let Akane see what ‘Ranko’ looks like. Maybe if
she’s able to attach a face to the name she’ll relax a little. That idea seemed
better the more she thought about it — it would get it out of the way before
they tried to break the combined curse on Kasumi and Dr. Tofu.
Ranma plopped down beside her, and Nabiki gave her fiancé her first smile since
arriving at school. “So, are they still out there?” she asked.
“Yeah, they are — Shampoo and two others, the same two from this mornin’,”
Ranma grumbled. “I’m gettin’ a little tired of this. But at least they still
don’t seem ta be able ta see Ranko like the old crone, that’s somethin’.”
And at least it gave you some more time in nature spirit form, didn’t it, love?
Another problem she’d actually managed to forget for a few minutes — the way
Ranma was spending as much time as he could manage as a succubus, practically
all the time he wasn’t in school, eating, studying, or training Akane. She felt
like the young man she had met and come to love in her dreams even before he’d
arrived at the dojo was slowly slipping away and she was powerless to prevent
it.
Stop it! Nabiki scolded herself, glad that Ranma was human at the moment and
couldn’t sense her growing depression. You’re a smart girl, you’ve always come
up with answers before, and you will again. Just give it some time. She firmly
ignored the quiet voice in the back of her mind telling her that time might be
something she didn’t have.
                                      /\
“Go on,” Miyo encouraged her long-time friend, nodding toward Nabiki and her
fiancé sitting several trees away. “She doesn’t really eat people for
breakfast, you know. Look, she’s even got a smile on her face.”
“Sure, but she’s with Ranma,” Maki responded. “She’s always smiling when she’s
with him, and never when she isn’t.”
“So now’s a good time, when she’s in a better mood,” Miyo riposted, then sighed
when her friend continued to stall. “Look, do you want Nabiki off your sister’s
back, or what? Just go, tell her what you told me and ask her to apply the
reward to the payments your sister has been making.”
“Are you sure the information’s good?” Maki asked hesitantly as she watched the
Ice Queen finish her bento then lie down with her fiancé’s stomach for a
pillow. “I never knew you were into all that magic stuff, and I’ve known you
all my life!”
“I know, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but the real Initiates don’t let
other people know what they are if they can help it — people that don’t believe
think you’re weird, it can make it harder to get a job. And you aren’t even
lying, really. You really have been keeping an eye on Gosunkugi, and you really
did notice him using the storage shed — you just didn’t realize what it meant
until I told you.”
“Well, okay, if you’re sure....”
                                      /\
Alerted by the nervous fear of the first year, low powered Awakened girl
approaching, Nabiki looked over from where she was lying on the grass with her
head on Ranma’s stomach, his hand stroking her hair. She frowned for a moment
before carefully putting on the nonthreatening version of her Ice Queen face
even as she suppressed a sigh. Come on, I’m notthatmuch of a monster, am I?
“Yes, what can we do for you?” she asked coolly when the younger girl stopped
by the couple.
“Uh ... I ... that is ...” The girl broke off, took a deep breath, and tried
again. “I’m Konishi Maki, you know my older sister Aiko.” Nabiki nodded,
recognizing the name from her list of monthly payments. “Well ... you sent out
an email a few days ago asking for information?”
Nabiki nodded again, abruptly sitting up. “Yes, I did. I’m a little surprised
your sister took it seriously enough to show it to you. Isn’t she the one
that’s still insisting that Ranko is a prank of some kind?”
Maki blushed. “Yeah, she thought it was some kind of prank, and she ... well,
she went off on a rant about how you were playing with her. If I give you the
information instead of big sis, will you still stop her payments?”
Nabiki nodded instantly. “Of course, I’ll be happy to consider you an agent for
your sister, have a seat. So, what do you have for me?”
“It’s Gosunkugi,” Maki started as she carefully sat. “He really creeps me out,
so I keep an eye on him whenever he’s around. A few times, I’ve seen him go
into the storage shed by the wall over there.” She pointed along the wall that
surrounded the school grounds from the corner they were sitting in. Nabiki
started in surprise when she noticed it. “I wondered what he was up to, so once
I snuck up after he went in and heard some sort of chanting — there was a weird
smell, too. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he really doesn’t like you.
He glares at you whenever you’re around him. Maybe ... maybe he’s doing
something about it? I guess if nature spirits really exist magic might work,
too.”
“Gosunkugi ...” Nabiki said slowly. “You mean Gosunkugi Hikaru?”
Maki nodded vigorously.
“Interesting, I hadn’t considered him ... he isn’t in my year and always seems
to just fade into the background.” He isn’t on the list Nodoka — Mother — gave
me, either ... but his father is, and as a demon summoner. And he was one of
the two Awakened in Akane’s class strong enough to actually see ‘Ranko’ when
Ranma and Kuno took their dive into the pool. Nodding, she said, “I’ll look
into it and see what I come up with. You’re in Ranma’s and Akane’s class,
right?” Maki nodded again. “Then one of them will let you know what I find, and
whether it’s worth enough to stop your sister’s payments.”
Maki waited, but when Nabiki didn’t say anything more, she murmured her thanks
and stood up to scurry away. Keeping her Ice Queen mask firmly in place, Nabiki
watched with interest as Maki rejoined the other Awakened that had been there
that first day Ranma attended.
“Uh, Nabs,” Ranma asked, “What shed was she talkin’ about?”
“The one right over there,” Nabiki replied, discreetly pointing along the wall,
then stiffened as she watched Ranma’s eyes slide right over it. “You can’t see
it, can you?”
“No, I can’t.” Ranma said absentmindedly. “There’s a spot that’s blurry, that
my eyes don’t want to see.” His eyes narrowed and sweat beaded on his brow as
he fought to focus on the blank spot, and suddenly something seemed to snap and
it sprang into focus. “There it is, cool! How did he do that?”
“I don’t know,” Nabiki mused. “There’s a ritual you can cast on a person or
something like a piece of jewelry that would do the same thing, but it requires
intent — the person under the ritual has to want to not be noticed. I have no
idea how you would cast that on a place.
“Anyway, now that we know the shed is there, we’ll check it out once school
starts again. I think you’ve been doing well enough in school and this is
important enough that you can miss a class. Until then ...” She lay back down,
putting her head in her fiancé’s lap and smiling up at him. “Where were we?”
                                     /oOo\
The quick and dirty ritual complete, Nabiki glanced over at her fiancé, her
eyes wandering over the nude form of the succubus floating by the sink in the
high school custodian’s storage room, her smoothly muscled legs, the small bush
of red hair where they joined, bountiful, red-tipped breasts, her red hair
floating loose around her shoulders.... Ranma shivered at the attention, a
faint blush mounting her cheeks.
“So, can you see me?” Nabiki asked, suppressing a sigh of regret at their lack
of time as she walked over to turn off the sink’s faucet.
“Not really,” Ranma replied. Her eyes were continually sliding off to one side
or the other as she tried to focus on her lover. “I know exactly where ya are —
I can feel ya, but my eyes don’t want to focus.” Brow furrowing, she forced her
gaze to center on the out-of-focus area around Nabiki. Again, she felt a sudden
shock as the middle Tendo sprang into view. “There ya are!”
“So the glamour works on nature spirits’ sight, but not on other senses — just
like humans. I wonder if Cherry Blossom would still be able to see my aura?”
Nabiki mused as she gathered up Ranma’s school uniform and tucked it into the
oversized book bag she’d started using since the Saotome men’s arrival. “Worth
checking out later, let’s get moving. Anyone in the hallway?”
Ranma looked through the almost completely transparent walls, marked off where
the walls for the classrooms were, and shook her head. “Looks like everybody’s
in class.”
“Good, let’s go.”
                                      /\
Nabiki paced a half-circle around the outside walls of the shed that weren’t
flush with the brick wall surrounding the school grounds, frowning at what she
found — or rather didn’t find. “Nothing, not a single ward, just the glamour,”
she muttered. “Is he that confident in his ability to handle anything he might
attract, or is he just that stupid?” And now that I’m close, this magic
definitely feels familiar. Glancing over at the succubus floating beside her,
she asked, “Can you sense anything? See any traps inside?”
“Just the — what did ya call it? Glamour? — just that,” Ranma replied as she
tried to see if there were any barely visible shapes within the confines of the
shed. Doubtfully, she added, “I’m not seein’ anything that looks like a trap —
some shelves, I think, maybe a desk.”
“Good enough,” Nabiki said, and carefully tried the doorknob — unlocked.
Chalking up one more to Gosunkugi’s stupidity, she took a deep breath and
yanked open the door while stepping back and to the side — nothing. What an
idiot. Though now that I think about it, the obscurity glamour he somehow cast
on the shed would work on any nature spirits or demons around without the
emotions or auras all living beings have. And without the feel that wards would
have, the shed should be overlooked by pretty much everyone but the most
powerful Awakened and more powerful demons.
Shaking herself clear of her musings, the Tendo Initiate stepped into the shed,
followed by her succubus fiancé, and strolled around, examining the room’s
contents. A smooth cement floor, washed clean, perfect for ritual circles;
shelves with clear glass jars full of various colors of chalk, incense burners
and boxes of various types of incense to burn in them; candles, some scented; a
stack of books on the small table, some of the titles making her flinch.
And now that she was inside the obscurity glamour’s boundary, her sense of
recently performed magic was shouting at her — unusually so, if she didn’t know
better she’d have thought there was an active ritual being performed. I wonder
if the process of attaching the obscurity glamour to a place somehow locked in
the power raised, kept it from dissipating? And that power has averyfamiliar
feel, too. I wonder why Gosunkugi targeted me? I don’t think we’ve exchanged
three whole sentences.
She took one last look around the small room, then turned for the door. “Come
on, Ranma, there’s nothing more to learn here, let’s get back to school, get
you changed back.”
“So what did ya learn?” Ranma asked as she floated alongside her fiancée. “Why
would Gosunkugi have all his magic stuff out here?”
“He doesn’t,” Nabiki replied. “The supplies in the shed are the basics, not
enough for most rituals. He must just bring whatever extra he needs for
whatever ritual he’s planning on.”
“Oh.” Ranma waited for a few moments, then asked, “And did he do it?”
“Yeah.”
                                      /\
From the roof of the school, Gorash watched as the two teenagers passed below
it and disappeared into the school, then turned to the imp that had recently
joined it and the other two imps Mara had set to spying on Ranma. “So, Geresh,
are you going to tell Gosunkugi that Nabiki and Ranma have found his secret
clubhouse?”
Geresh shook its head with a toothy grin, before putting on an innocent air.
“No, I’m afraid when my Great and Powerful Master summoned me, he only told me
to alert him when Ranma spends time as a succubus outside Nabiki’s wards when
they aren’t in school. He somehow neglected to mention reporting anything they
do that might interest him. I’m sure that was just an oversight on his part,
but he was very insistent that I follow his instructions to the letter.”
The two imps chuckled, then settled down for the long wait until school got
out.
                                     /oOo\
Nabiki walked into her and Ranma’s bedroom with a roll of paper as long as she
was under her arm, closing the door behind her. Her lover, still dressed in his
school uniform, looked up nervously from where he was sitting cross-legged on
their bed, arms propped on his legs holding his yawn-inducing biology textbook.
“Akane’s home?” he asked, then sighed when Nabiki nodded.
“Yes, her school club got out a little early. Ranma, if you really don’t want
to do this —” Nabiki started, worried about the wave of discomfort coming from
her fiancé, only to break off when Ranma shook his head.
“No, you’re right, we need ta do somethin’ about how nervous Akane’s been
around me — it’s affectin’ her training.” Closing the textbook (and reflecting
ironically that he’d finally found something he wanted to do less than
schoolwork — or at least biology), he swung his legs over the edge of the bed
and stood up. “So, we doin’ it here?”
“Yes, less chance of the fathers walking in on us. Akane’s getting changed
right now,” Nabiki said as she took the roll of paper out from under her arm
and held it horizontally. “Why don’t you help me get the circle rolled out?”
“Sounds good,” Ranma agreed, stepping over to carefully take one end of the
roll of paper.
                                      /\
School uniform exchanged for shorts and a T-shirt, Akane nervously knocked on
her sister’s bedroom door, then pushed it open and stepped inside. She really
wasn’t sure about this — the vision Ranma had shown her the night after Nabiki
had taken her to task had been like nothing she’d ever imagined, literally
mindblowing, and she’d been in a daze for hours the following morning before
she finally managed to shake it off and look at the world through the eyes of a
human again. But it had been too different, too weird, and she hadn’t been able
to keep herself from being nervous and resentful around her sister and sensei,
no matter how hard she’d tried. Her world had been mostly ordinary and
predictable, and being shown a larger, magnificent, dangerous world she lived
in but couldn’t even sense, much less touch, had not been a welcome gift. Now
she found herself half terrified and half exhilarated at the thought of
experiencing more of the world of magic Ranma had shown her, and feeling very
small.
Akane found most of the bedroom floor covered with one of Nabiki’s large sheets
of paper covered by a complex circle of various shades of chalk pasted on, the
four corners held down by schoolbooks. The Tendo Initiate was on her knees at
one edge, glancing between the circle and a sheet of paper in one hand as red
sand trickled down from her other hand to form a fresh line. Ranma glanced over
at his student from where he stood to the side, and after a few moments
carefully cleared his throat to get the attention of the apparently oblivious
kneeling girl. “Nabs, Akane’s here, are ya about ready?”
“Almost done,” Nabiki mumbled without lifting her eyes from her work, carefully
moving around the circle to add more thin lines of the colored sand. A few
minutes later, she leaned back and dumped the remaining sand in her hand into
an open jar by her bed. “Okay, that does it,” she said with a satisfied sigh,
and looked up at her sister and her lover. “So, Ranma, does this circle look
familiar?”
Ranma’s brow furrowed, his hand rising to scratch his neck underneath his
ponytail as he looked over the patterns at his feet. He could hardly claim to
be an expert, considering that it had been less than two months since his — or
rather her — accidental summoning after Jusenkyo. But he hadn’t seen very many
of Nabiki’s creations, either, and he cast his mind back over the few occasions
that he had. “It looks kinda like the circle ya used ta summon me, only more
complicated,” he finally said.
“Got it in one!” Nabiki agreed, smiling as she stood up. “This is simple
enough. You switch forms, I summon you into the circle, and the extra touches
I’ve added ought to allow Sleepers outside the circle to see you.”
“Sleepers?” Akane asked, face tightening as she fought to keep her nervousness
from exploding into anger.
“Uh ... yes, that’s the term the mystic community uses to describe the
unAwakened,” Nabiki explained, glancing nervously at her younger sister, then
hurriedly continued as she motioned toward the empty glass next to the pitcher
of water on her desk. “Ranma, get changed and let’s get started.”
Ranma nodded and walked over, filled the glass, and offered it to Akane. “No
reason ta risk breakin’ a glass, or disturbin’ Nabs’s circle,” he explained.
“No kidding!” Nabiki exclaimed, then glanced slyly at Ranma out of the corner
of her eye.  “Nasty things can happen if summoning circles are disturbed.”
Akane nodded nervously, ignoring her sometimes-sensei’s chuckle as she took the
glass from him, and dumped it over the raven-haired boy’s head. In spite of all
of times she’d seen the effect cold water had on Ranma, she still couldn’t
avoid gasping slightly as he vanished from sight and his empty clothes dropped
to the floor.
Nabiki pointed to a spot next to her on the floor. “Akane, you stand here,
facing the circle,” she ordered. Akane walked around the circle-covered paper
to join her, and Nabiki started chanting. Her voice started out low but quickly
crescendoed, and suddenly floating in the middle of the circle facing the two
Tendos was a teenage girl: loose red hair floating around her shoulders;
slightly shorter than Akane; too cute for words; and very naked, her hands
covering her breasts and crotch.
Akane stared, wide-eyed. “Ranma, is that you?” she gasped.
“Who else would it be?”
“But you’re shorter, and your hair’s red, and your naked!”
“Mom says I look just like she did when she was a girl — and a’ course I’m
naked! Ya think I whip up new clothes outta thin air when I get splashed and
whatever I’m wearin’ falls through me?”
“I ... well ... I didn’t ...” a furiously blushing Akane sputtered.
Nabiki laughed. “Didn’t think, little sis?” she jibed.  “Or listened?  I said
Ranma didn’t like people seeing her like this because she’s naked.” She reached
out a foot to break up one of the lines of sand on the paper. Instantly, Ranma
vanished from Akane’s sight.
“Now ya know why I wanted ya ta think that ‘Ranko’ was a different person,”
came ‘Ranko’s’ voice from apparently empty air. “Big, tough, manly Ranma, and
with a splash a’ cold water I turn inta ... this. A’ course, it does have its
good side,” she continued, and Nabiki flushed as, invisible to her younger
sister, Ranma struck a ‘come and sex me’ pose. Ranma giggled at the sudden rush
of lust from her fiancée, then her voice turned serious. “I’m sorry we lied ta
ya about it, but ...”
Her voice trailed off, and Akane stared thoughtfully at the empty space where
she’d last seen the redheaded cutie. Suddenly, an image flashed into her mind
of herself in that spot, breasts gone, new equipment between her legs (rather
hazy, that — the only naked male she’d seen was Ranma the night he’d arrived,
and then only briefly), naked to the world, unable to even touch clothes — she
blanched, swaying slightly, lightheaded, the world suddenly gone hazy and
surreal. Beside her, her sister grabbed her by the shoulder even as she heard
an “Owww!” from the circle.
“Akane, what’s wrong?” Nabiki asked, a note of concern in her voice that warmed
Akane’s heart even as she tried to force her mind away from the thought of
herself in Ranma’s place.
Shuddering, the youngest Tendo drew a deep breath. “I’m fine,” she asserted,
trying to make herself believe it. “Is Ranma all right?” she asked, half
concerned, half looking for a distraction.
“She’s fine, just forgot she was inside a circle and tried to grab you when you
almost fainted,” Nabiki replied. “Hold on a moment while I reverse the
summoning.” Akane glanced over at her sister to see the pageboy-haired girl
face the circle. “Begone!” Nabiki ordered.
Akane shivered as she felt a faint hint of something wash over her. A moment
later she felt a soft hand touch the shoulder that her sister wasn’t holding,
and she shivered again as she realized that she was feeling it, warm skin
against warm skin through her t-shirt. “Akane, you all right?” Ranma asked,
concern in her voice.
Akane nodded, impulsively reaching up to cover the hands on her shoulders with
her own. “I’m fine,” she said again, then straightened, steeling herself.
“Ranma?”
“Yeah?” the invisible nature spirit replied, voice suddenly wary.
“I ... I’m ... I’m sorry,” Akane managed to force out.
“Sorry? For what?”
“For ... for everything. For what happened to you, for hitting you with a
table, not trusting you — everything.”
For a moment there was only silence, then Ranma said, “Hey, don’t worry about
it, everyone screws up sooner or later — ‘cept Nabs, a’ course, she’s perfect.
Just ask her.” As Akane snorted, glancing over to see her sister rolling her
eyes, Ranma continued, “An’ don’t be feeling sorry for me. Sure, there are
parts a’ this I don’t like — a lot — but I hate ta think of what would a’
happened if Nabs hadn’t summoned me by accident that first time. If not gettin’
the curse would mean not havin’ Nabiki, I’ll take the curse.”
Nabiki brightened, her eyes suspiciously shiny, but before she could say
anything there was a knock on the door. “Ranma? Nabiki?” Kasumi said hesitantly
through the door. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but dinner will be
ready soon. Have either of you seen Akane?”
“She’s here, too,” Nabiki replied, her voice a little husky. “We’ll be right
down.”
As they heard Kasumi’s acknowledgement and retreating footsteps, the middle
Tendo looked over the circle on the floor. “Screw it, I’ll clean up tonight,”
she muttered. Then in a louder voice said, “After dinner, why don’t we go to
the park? I can do the homework I’ve been ignoring all afternoon, and you two
can get your evening spar in then do your own studying.”
“Sure, sounds good,” came Ranma’s voice. “I’ve been wantin’ ta get in some
trainin’ fer Akane in an area that’s not just an empty space.”
Akane grinned at the thought, almost feeling like she could float like the
nature spirit she had seen in the circle, with the weight of her nervousness
and distrust gone. “Yeah,” she agreed, “that sounds like fun.” And for the
first time in too long, it really did.
***** Too Big a Fish *****
From where she lay propped up against a hilltop tree, Nabiki subtly glanced
over the top of her textbook at Ranma-sensei and his student below her. Ranma,
his back turned to his fiancée, was slowly backing up the hill toward her as he
cheerfully taunted his student. Akane was struggling to catch up as she fought
for footing on the rain-damp grass from the earlier drizzle. Nabiki shook her
head with a sigh — in his pleasure at the happy outcome of their little
revelation to Akane that afternoon, he had slipped back into old training
habits. The middle Tendo briefly considered calling him on it right then and
there, and was in the middle of reluctantly rejecting the idea to avoid
undercutting his authority as sensei in front of his student when the question
was taken out of her hand.
“C’mon, Tomboy, my ancient aunt can move faster than that,” Ranma called with a
grin at his huffing student. “You’ve been speed-practicin’ for weeks now, ya
can do better — whoops!” As he took a step back, his foot came down on a piece
of slick mud and for just a moment his arms pinwheeled for balance before his
training reasserted itself and he started to let himself drop. For just that
split second his attention was off his student, and Akane lunged forward up the
hill, striking forward even as her own feet slipped out from underneath her —
which meant that when her fist slammed into his descending groin, half her
momentum was gone and Ranma only curled around the blow as he fell over his
student and rolled down the hill instead of being lifted off his feet.
“Ranma!” Nabiki shrieked even as Akane sprawled full-length and slid down the
hill after her teacher. Tossing her book to the side, the pageboy-haired girl
started to run down the hill only to find herself slipping and rolling head
over heels after the other two, fetching up a few yards away from them.
“Ranma-sensei, are you okay?” Akane asked, lifting herself up from where she
lay against the ponytailed boy.
“Good ... good hit,” Ranma managed to gasp out as he forced himself to uncurl.
Sucking in a deep breath, he slowly got to his feet. Nabiki and Akane each took
an arm, and the three slowly moved up the hill to the tree Nabiki had been
sitting against.
Ranma sighed with relief as he settled down against the tree trunk and the two
girls sat on each side of him. “Like I said, Akane, good hit. That would win ya
a fight for real against almost all guys. Now, what did ya do wrong?”
“Wrong?” Akane asked. “What do you mean, wrong? It worked, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, it worked,” Ranma agreed, “but what if it hadn’t? What if I’d managed ta
twist just enough ta take it on the leg, instead a’ the balls? You would a’
been sliding down the hill on yer stomach, and I would a’ been waiting fer ya
when ya got ta the bottom. An’ if you’d been fightin’ more than just me, ya
would’ve been helpless even if ya tagged me. Never commit everything ya got ta
an attack unless ya have no other choice. Ya didn’t do that when ya were
fightin’ the Horde, did ya?”
“Nobody in the Horde was as good as you,” Akane riposted, but with a thoughtful
look on her face. “But that just means I have to be even more careful with you,
doesn’t it?”
“Ya got it,” Ranma agreed, then glanced up as the sound of the renewed drizzle
pattering gently on the tree’s leaves drifted down to them. “Cool! Now we get
ta try somethin’ else I’ve been thinkin’ about,” he said even as Nabiki made a
face and scrabbled to get her textbooks safely in her bookbag. Standing and
hobbling out into the soft rain, he forced himself up straight and soon
vanished from Akane’s sight, his empty clothes dropping to the grass.
“Ranma?” Akane asked, glancing around, then gasped and whirled at a warm, soft
touch against her side through her gi.
“Ranko-sensei, Akane, don’t forget,” came Ranma’s voice from the other side,
and the youngest Tendo jerked away from another soft touch tickling her ribs.
“I want ya ta try and stop me from taggin’ ya.”
“But how am I supposed to stop you if I can’t see you?” Akane demanded, then
shrieked and spun away from tickling fingers running up her spine even as her
backfist flashed through the space Ranma should have occupied.
“Give it yer best shot,” Ranma replied even as her fingers ran along Akane’s
stomach, then grunted as Akane felt her side kick graze along her mentor’s
smooth skin. “Good, like that, try ta figure out where I am by how I’m touchin’
ya.”
                                      /\
From a row of bushes at the foot of the hill, Gorash watched as the red-haired
succubus danced on air, circling around her student and darting in every minute
or so to tickle a rib or brush an arm, Akane spinning in place, kicking and
striking out in an attempt to tag her tormentor. Turning to Geresh it said to
its fellow imp, “It looks like he’s going to be staying this way for awhile,
let your so-called master know.” Geresh nodded without a word and flew off,
keeping low to the ground with the bushes between it and the Awakened and her
part-time succubus fiancé on the hilltop.
Turning back to watch the dance, it muttered to one of the two imps still
beside it, “Jalok, be ready to seek out Mara at a moment’s notice. That idiot
Gosunkugi might actually be able to pull it off, this time.”
                                      /\
Gosunkugi Hikaru looked up from the equation he was puzzling over as the door
to the former high school tool shed was pushed open slightly.  The sickly-
looking boy’s eyes widened as the imp he’d summoned a week earlier slipped
inside. (At least, he assumed it was the imp he’d summoned — he’d never
bothered to learn how to tell them apart, but what other imp would even be able
to see his little hideaway?) Since it wasn’t the appointed time for its report
and the budding Initiate hadn’t summoned it, that meant ...
“Master, Ranma is currently in his succubus form and outside of Nabiki’s
wards,” the imp reported as it bowed and scraped.
With a triumphant shout Gosunkugi shot up from the desk where he’d been
studying. “Begone!” he shouted, not noticing the imp roll its eyes as it
vanished while Gosunkugi whirled to grab the matches from their place on the
shelf beside the candles. “At last, I have her!” he exulted as he circled
around the summoning circle he had already drawn on the smooth concrete floor,
carefully lighting the candles already at their places at the cardinal points.
The last candle sporting its spike of flame, he lit the incense in the burner
to the side, waited impatiently for the scent to permeate the tiny room, then
closed his eyes, fought his mind clear, and began to chant.
                                      /\
Ranma grinned happily as she dodged Akane’s swinging backhand fist, then the
follow-up kick — neither any longer wild strikes at empty air. She knew it!
Akane had been sensing things, the succubus had been picking up hints of
spiking discomfort — even fear — from her student for days, but she hadn’t
realized why. Then he’d had his suspicions, but didn’t see any way to confirm
them, considering how antsy his student had been when he was a she. But now ...
... Now, she’d better call off the sparring before the rising frustration
boiling off her student tipped over into explosive rage. “Break!” the redhead
called out, then, “Whoa!” as she twisted to the side and dropped, Akane’s fist
flashing through the spot her head had occupied a split second earlier. “Break,
break, enough!” she yelled as she quickly flew back and up out of the youngest
Tendo’s reach.
Akane stared at the empty air Ranma’s voice was coming from, chest heaving, and
her fists unclenched as the fury slowly faded from her eyes. “Good job!” Ranma
caroled as she cautiously approached the raven-haired girl. Outside of almost
losin’ yer temper in a sparrin’ session, we’re gonna hafta work on that. But
first ...
“Good job? But I didn’t hit you!” Akane protested as she stretched muscles gone
tense with anger.
“No, ya didn’t, but only ‘cause I was dodging ya. That’s just it, I had ta
dodge ya, you knew where I was!” As Akane’s eyes widened, Ranma turned toward
her fiancée. “Nabiki, get over here!”
Nabiki rose from where she had been watching the one-sided sparring and walked
forward until she was at the edge of the protection from the light drizzle
provided by the tree’s canopy, eyes bright with interest.
“Nabs, I think ya said earlier that ya can sense Awakened, right? D’ya feel
anything from Akane?”
Nabiki shook her head. “Yes, I did, and no, I don’t. But you’re right, Akane
was definitely aiming for you toward the end.”
“But ya don’t sense anything from Kasumi, either, so maybe Akane’s like her,”
Ranma replied.
Akane stiffened. “Like Kasumi?”
Unseen by his student, Ranma blushed as Nabiki rolled her eyes. “Good going,”
the middle Tendo muttered, then turned to her sister. “Yes, Kasumi can see
nature spirits, apparently she always could. And Ranko’s right, I don’t sense
anything unusual from her, either.”
“So let’s test it out,” Ranma said eagerly. “I’m gonna shut up an’ circle you,
movin’ up an’ down, an’ when Nabiki says ‘mark’ I’ll stop an’ you try ta point
ta me.”
Akane nodded, her expression an odd mix of uncertainty and eagerness, and Ranma
started to slowly fly around her, moving up and down like a wave. “Mark!”
Nabiki called out, and Ranma froze directly behind her student. Akane closed
her eyes and slowly turned, passed up her invisible sensei, paused, reversed
the turn, then pointed directly at the floating redhead. “There!” she announced
firmly.
“Ya got it!” Ranma enthused, and Akane opened her eyes with a broad grin.
Nabiki smiled at the happiness radiating from the two younger girls, then
frowned speculatively. “This does sound something like what big sis has,” she
mused. “I’m going to have to ask her if she went through a period where she
could sense spirits before she could see them — though she might not remember,
considering how long she says it’s been.”
“Sounds good,” Ranma agreed. “If she did, that’ll mean that Akane should be
able ta see me soon, and I could use a sparring —” She broke off, frowning, as
she felt an odd tugging sensation, one that felt familiar.... Then she felt the
tug again, stronger than before — as if there was a rope attached to her guts,
pulling — and her eyes widened as she remembered when she had felt it before,
the night when she had first merged with Nabiki, during the attack on her
fiancée’s wards. Nabiki hadn’t been the target, she had! The succubus
frantically looked over at Nabiki, but from the ever-strengthening pull she was
too far away. That left ...
Ranma whirled back and dove toward Akane, only to feel the tug turn into a
yank. Just before she could reach her student, the raven-haired girl vanished
from her sight as the world flashed white.
                                      /\
Akane slowly spun in a circle, eyes closed, stretching out the extra sense she
hadn’t even known she had. Then she felt it, the same thing she’d been feeling
off and on since Ranma had arrived at the dojo — something she’d felt at times
all along, but never been able to put a name to, link to anything she could see
in the real world. Straining, she tried to tighten it, localize sensation
tickling the edge of her mind. The ‘scent’ seemed to shrink, center even as her
spin took her past it, so she stopped, backed up ... there! “There!” she
announced firmly.
“Ya got it!” she heard ‘Ranko’-sensei say excitedly, and opened her eyes to
stare at the spot of empty air that she somehow knew held her sensei, a broad
grin breaking across her face. She was so caught up in the moment of exultation
that her sister’s voice became unintelligible background noise. Maybe she was
no longer the best martial artist around, maybe she had no idea what her older
sister was capable of, or of her oldest sister’s apparent secret life, or just
how large the world really was, but she still had a place in it!
And then she felt the point of something that was Ranma suddenly rushing toward
her in an attempt to catch her off guard and felt laughter bubbling up as she
shifted slightly to the deceptively laid back stance her sensei had taught her,
from which she could strike without warning. Oh, yes, Akane was going to prove
to him — her — that she was still paying attention ... and between one
heartbeat and the next all sense of Ranma vanished.
Akane spun in place, stretching out her new sense, searching for the least hint
of Ranma — nothing. Turning to Nabiki, she found the pageboy-haired girl
staring at where she’d last sensed her sensei, eyes wide and face pale. “What
just happened?” the suddenly frightened youngest Tendo asked.
“Oh, crap, I wasn’t the target, Ranma was,” Nabiki whispered, then whirled to
grab her book bag and began to run — too fast for the rain-slick grass, and she
slipped and slid to the foot of the hill. Ignoring the wet green grass stains
on her legs and shorts, she bounced to her feet and raced for the border of the
park.
Akane gaped at the sight for a moment, then raced to catch up to her sister.
“Nabiki, what happened?” she demanded again as they ran.
“Ranma was ... was summoned,” Nabiki got out between breaths. “I think I ...
know where, but ... have to get there before ... they move.” Then she fell
silent as she somehow managed to force a little more speed from her pumping
legs.
                                      /\
Ranma’s vision cleared and the succubus hastily glanced around, to find herself
floating in a newly-familiar room — concrete floor, shelves and desk full of
books, candles, incense, chalk, check. It was the shed she and Nabiki had
visited earlier that day. The sallow-faced, sunken-eyed boy she recognized from
school was new, though.
At the sight of Gosunkugi, Ranma threw herself forward only to recoil painfully
as she collided with an unseen barrier. Right, the summoning circle she was
inside of was new, too. “Gosunkugi, just what the hell d’ya think you’re
playin’ at?” she growled as she rubbed stinging hands. When she got out of here
...
Gosunkugi grinned viciously as he stared at his prize. “Finally, I did it!” he
exulted, ignoring the angry nature spirit. “Now I’ll show that puffed up new
blood her place. So, should I take my new acquisition to school tomorrow, or
stash her in my room for a few days and break her in first and let Nabiki
wonder what’s happened to her fuck-toy? Yes, I think that’s the way to go....”
“Yeah, right, like I’m gonna let ya touch me!” Ranma shouted, ignoring the
sinking sensation in her gut — the Initiate in front of her seemed very sure of
himself....
“Oh, you won’t have a choice,” Gosunkugi replied dismissively as he placed a
lid on the incense burner and began snuffing out the candles placed around the
circle. “I summoned you, and you are mine to command. If I tell you to follow
your former owner around all day to show off what she can’t have anymore,
you’ll do it. Actually, that’s not a bad idea, but it’s not enough. Let’s see
... why don’t I have you whisper a description of the sex we have in her ear
each morning, let’s see how well she does in school with that in her head! I
suppose once I get tired of you I could let some of the servants have some fun
and have you report that....”
Ranma felt her heart freeze at Gosunkugi’s words, hazy images of just what he
was threatening crowding into her mind despite her best efforts to force them
away. As the teenage Initiate’s tirade continued, piling image on image, each
more perverted and degrading than the last, the Voice whispering in the back of
the succubus’s mind rose in response to her gathering despair and a shuddering
Ranma fought desperately not to let it sweep her away — however much she was
tempted to leave Gosunkugi a next-to-mindless husk, but, No! Nabiki will be
looking for me, she’s probably on the way to the shed right now, Akane will be
with her. Nabiki ...
Suddenly, the echo of the Voice resonating through Ranma’s mind crescendoed and
the room around the nature spirit vanished in a blazing kaleidoscope of light,
washing her away. When her vision cleared, she was stunned to find herself
floating in a summoning circle in the room she shared with Nabiki, her stunned
fiancée staring at her with wide eyes. Ranma tried to shout her relief, but
what came out was, “What happened? Where the hell is this?”
“Who are you?” Nabiki asked.
Who am I? I’m Ranma! Ranma tried to look down at herself, but her head refused
to move and she found herself saying, “Don’t freak out, I’m not a ghost or
anything like that.”
“Of course not,” Nabiki replied, shock fading — and was that fear? “You’re a
nature spirit, and from your human shape, probably represent an emotion or
other thing associated with man.”
“Ah! You can see me?” Ranma yelled as embarrassment flashed through her and her
hands moved to cover her groin. “I’m naked!” Wait, this is the first time I met
Nabs! Ranma managed to think through her shock and the Voice sounding through
her, distracting her from what was happening. She watched as the first meeting
continued playing itself out — her demand for hot water, Nabiki’s deal, her
return to China — and tried to smile. That had been a good day, certainly a lot
better than today was turning out to be — Nabiki was no Gosunkugi.
At that thought, Ranma mentally frowned to herself. Why had it been such a good
day? Certainly Nabiki wouldn’t have dreamed of the kind of sickening things
Gosunkugi had been ranting about, but she was no saint — she would have had no
compunctions about demanding the obedience summoning mandated. So why hadn’t
she, why had she bargained instead of simply demanding like he was? Maybe,
because there is no obedience mandated. Did you actually feel any urge to
kowtow to that sick bastard?
Even as she considered the thought, the Voice slowly faded back toward its
earlier whisper, the China landscape broke up into a swirl of colors to reform
into the school shed, and the red-haired succubus found herself again staring
at a still-ranting schoolboy, spittle actually spraying from his lips. Okaaay
... so, let’s test this out. Ranma turned her thoughts inward, testing her
freedom and found ... nothing — not so much as a hint of anything restricting
her in any way. Hopefully, that meant there wasn’t any instead of simply not
being in use. Next step, get out of the circle.
As Gosunkugi finished his latest description, Ranma broke in. “I can see why ya
don’t have a girlfriend. But as entertainin’ as you’ve been you’re wastin’ yer
time — Nabiki’ll be here any moment, and that’ll be that.”
“Right, as if she knows where we are, she’ll never find us,” Gosunkugi sneered.
“Sure, she does — we’re in the shed at the high school where ya keep yer
basics,” Ranma riposted with a nonchalant shrug.
Her summoner blanched and looked around wildly. “I have to get you home —” he
started to say.
“Yeah, right, does yer pop know what you’ve been up to?” Ranma tossed out, and
grinned viciously when Gosunkugi flinched. Gotcha! Just like Akane was, all
self-teaching an’ arrogance.
“Okay, the school, then,” Gosunkugi hastily decided. “I’ll just have to stash
you in one of the storerooms and deal with your education later. You can think
about what you have waiting for you until I can smuggle you into the house
tomorrow. Follow me.” Scratching a break in the multi-colored lines of chalk,
he turned toward the shed door.
“Yes!” Ranma flashed through the break in the circle and past her self-declared
‘master’. Whipping around the boy, she grabbed an arm and jerked him along with
her as she passed. As Gosunkugi spun in place, staggering, the redhead flew to
a corner of the shed, twisted around, and dove back toward him with her fist
extended to bury it in his gut with all the force her speed allowed. Gosunkugi
doubled up, and Ranma grabbed an arm to lock the elbow and used it as a brace
to spin around and crack a heel into the back of her summoner’s head, driving
him face-first into the floor. She flew to the ceiling, then back down feet
first to smash into his upper back, feeling ribs crack under the impact. She
was flying toward the ceiling again when Gosunkugi rolled onto his back and
stared up at her as she twisted around for another dive.  He ignored her
normally fascinating exposed nakedness to focus on her rage-twisted face. “B-B-
Begone!” he stammered out, and the world whited out.
When her vision returned, the succubus found herself floating in the park where
she had been training Akane. She looked around wildly, but the park was empty
in the early evening drizzle, the only sign that anyone had been there her
soaked clothes still lying on the ground where the Tendo sisters had left them
in their haste. Choking back a sob, she manifested her red bat-like wings and
flew as fast as she could toward the dojo and Nabiki’s wards.
***** Taking the Masks Off *****
Nabiki leaned against her and Ranma’s tree on the school grounds, gasping for
breath as Akane looked around, her breathing only slightly raised. (Nabiki
grimaced as she again resolved to start exercising again — darn it!) “Soooo ...
Ranma’s around here somewhere?” the youngest Tendo asked, confused.
“Shed ... against school ... grounds wall,” Nabiki gasped out between pants.
Akane looked around again, her eyes passing unseeing over the storage shed.
“What shed?” she asked in bewilderment.
“Magic ... give me a moment,” Nabiki got out, and Akane nodded and waited,
fidgeting, as Nabiki’s breathing slowed down to close to normal. Finally,
Nabiki straightened and opened a pocket on her book bag. Pulling out a couple
of cheap rings, she checked the kanji carved into them, dropped them into one
of the pockets of her shorts, and latched onto her sister’s upper arm as she
handed her the book bag. “This way,” she said, guiding Akane toward the shed in
the middle of the stretch of school grounds wall. They were six feet away when
she felt her sister tense.
“Wha — !”
Nabiki whirled to slap a hand across Akane’s mouth. “Shhhh! We don’t want him
to know we’re here,” she whispered in her sister’s ear.
Akane nodded, then when Nabiki removed her hand, whispered, “Who?”
“Gosunkugi,” Nabiki replied distractedly as she quickly thought. “Okay, here’s
what we’re going to do. I’m going in, and you’ll stay out here — I have
defenses against magical threats you don’t, yet.” Nabiki decided that
mentioning the minimal defenses she’d long since placed on all of her family
and regularly renewed could wait until later — like when she strengthened them,
she would want them present for the final stage of that, anyway. “But if you
hear anything that sounds like fighting or I shout for help, come running. Got
it?”
Akane nodded without saying a word, the worry radiating from her saying all
that needed to be said, and Nabiki turned to tiptoe up to the door as Akane
slipped forward to plaster herself against the shed wall beside it. Pausing,
Nabiki pressed an ear to the door but couldn’t hear anything but a faint
whimpering moan. Shrugging to herself as she glanced at her sister, she stepped
back and with a single solid kick smashed in the door, snapping the hinges, and
charged through right behind it only to freeze at the sight of the sunken-eyed
underclassman on his knees with his arms clutching at his chest and moaning in
pain. Tears streamed down his cheeks and blood was running down his face from a
flattened nose.
The Tendo Initiate glanced around the shed at the knocked over candles and
smeared chalk, eyes narrowing at the still-visible line drawn through what was
left of the summoning circle, then began to giggle as she looked back over at
the Gosunkugi scion. Her giggles quickly turned to laughter, until she was bent
over clutching her sides. Through her laughter she heard Gosunkugi growling and
her guffaws choked off instantly when she glanced over to find him glaring at
her even as malevolent hatred like she’d never felt before beat against her.
Not even her blackmail ‘clients’ that she’d met since becoming an empath had
hated her so much. “You sick bastard, just what did Ranma ever do to you?” she
snarled.
“Nothing — what do I care about some world-blind jock?” he managed to force out
through clenched teeth, hatred undiminished as he forced himself to his feet,
legs spread to brace himself, one hand on the wall.
“So it was an indirect attack on me, then? What did I ever do to you?” When he
failed to respond, Nabiki finally shrugged. “Not that it matters, since it
looks like you just got an easy lesson in what happens when you summon someone
you can’t control. Of course, you were stupid enough to think you could control
Ranma, weren’t you?” A vicious smile spread across her face. “Not a chance —
not that man! He’s worth a dozen of you. But then, you already know that now.
Still, just to cement the lesson....”
Stepping back, she raised her hands as she fought to bring her own burning
anger under control. Let’s see, how do I do this? I want to leave him wondering
for a little while, at least ... right! Early in her study of her new Art, she
had read that performing the rituals in a mystical language could heighten
their effectiveness, and she supposed it could — if it helped put the Initiate
in the proper frame of mind by heightening the otherworldly feel of the
performance. But when she’d eventually learned that in truth, any foreign
language would do, so long as it was connected in the caster’s mind to
mysticism, and that Japanese would do just fine for well known rituals, she’d
decided to mostly drop her language study to focus on the magic itself. Still,
she’d kept up the study on a casual basis since even if she didn’t really need
it to enhance her usual rituals, she could easily imagine times that being able
to perform her magic in a language few people could understand would have its
uses — like now, as she pulled up in her mind’s eye the image of the circle for
the Journeyman’s Curse, and Gosunkugi blanched as she began to chant in a
distinctly Western language where the only words he recognized were his own
full name.
Within seconds it was done, and the boy staggered as he felt the mystic
currents within the room contract and wrap themselves about him. He stared at
his nemesis, wide-eyed with shock — she had actually cast the ritual without
any preparation, on his consecrated ground, in seconds! “Wh-wh-what did you
do?” he gasped.
Nabiki shrugged. “Just something to make your life ... interesting. Enjoy — and
don’t forget that I’ll be keeping an eye on you. If I can do this here and now,
just think of what I can do if I take the time to do it right.
“Oh, and one more thing, just so you don’t get the idea Ranma’s the only one
that gets physical ...” Stepping forward, a leg slammed up into Gosunkugi’s
crotch hard enough to lift him up onto his toes, and he shrieked as he
collapsed to the cement floor. He curled into a ball and desperately clutched
at himself, sobbing from the new pain added to the renewed pain of his cracked
ribs and broken nose. “See you at school, maybe,” Nabiki said with a jaunty
grin, and picked up the door before turning to walk out of the shed.
As soon as she was through the doorway and propped the door back in place she
spun to the side where Akane was still plastered against the shed wall, grabbed
her sister’s arm, and pulled her around the corner to the side against the
school grounds wall. Pulling out the rings she’d earlier put in her pocket, she
handed one to the youngest Tendo and slipped the other on her own finger. “Put
on the ring, and concentrate on the thought that we’re hiding, nobody can see
us!” she hissed. Akane stared at her for a moment in confusion, then nodded and
slipped the ring on as her confusion vanished into determination.
A few minutes later, they heard the shed door thump down onto the grass,
followed by Gosunkugi’s breathy gasping. A few seconds later he hobbled around
the corner, still bent over. His eyes passed over the two girls as if they
weren’t there, and he turned and hobbled back around out of sight. A minute
later they heard the sounds of the door being propped up again.
Nabiki crept to peek around the corner of the shed, then motioned Akane to
follow as she slipped along the school grounds wall toward the gates.
The two girls slunk through the gates, and Nabiki straightened with a sigh,
slipped the ring off, and held out her hand for its partner. Akane slipped off
her own borrowed ring and handed it over. “What was all that sneaking about?
Were we invisible?”
“No, we weren’t,” Nabiki replied as she started down the block, Akane quickly
catching up. “The rings are enchanted with an obscurity charm — wear them and
try to hide or sneak somewhere, and they’ll make it harder for people to notice
you. To Gosunkugi it looked like I vanished on an empty field.” And he doesn’t
know you were there at all. “You heard what went on inside the shed?”
Akane nodded with a grin. “It sounded like Gosunkugi got Ranma, and wished he
hadn’t.”
“Right in one. I think Ranma broke some ribs — I know she broke his nose.
Gosunkugi revoked the summoning before we arrived.”
“And what did you do to him? What language was that?”
“Esperanto, and I cursed him with a variation of bad luck — if he doesn’t
manage to guess what the variation is and revoke it sometime in the next few
weeks, he’s going to have a very interesting month at school.”
“He summons a naked girl who’s really a guy to ... to play with and that’s it?”
Akane growled, hands tightening into fists.
Nabiki shrugged. “Besides the kick to the nuts I gave him, yes, for now — even
if I was willing to try to kill him, I wouldn’t want to risk the backlash from
failure by casting one of those rituals without extra preparations. Besides, I
shocked him to his core, believe me — very few Initiates can do what I just
did, and I very much doubt he’s one of them.” She stopped at the corner of the
block. “Okay, Ranma will have bounced back to the park and probably will have
either decided to wait there for us, or headed for home. Why don’t you go home
and call me if he’s there, while I head for the park and see if he’s waiting? I
need to collect his clothes, anyway.” And it’ll get you behind my wards that
much faster.
Akane nodded and broke into a run toward the dojo while Nabiki crossed the
street as she headed for the park. As she did, she caught a hint of motion out
of the corner of her eye. Turning her head to apparently watch her sister, she
focused behind herself with both her sight and her Sight, and ... yes, there
was an imp following her. Nabiki focused on Akane and the block behind her
sister ... no, no imp — though some sprites were buzzing along behind the
running girl. Must be on the way to Party Central, Nabiki thought
absentmindedly as she faced forward again and started to jog. If the imp was
Gosunkugi’s spy there was nothing she could do to keep it from knowing about
Akane now, and if it wasn’t she’d worry about it later — one crisis at a time.
                                     /oOo\
Akane was gasping when she arrived at the front gate to her family’s compound,
just like when racing Ranma home. Sprinting, it seemed, wasn’t the same as
jogging — at least when she wasn’t being slowed down by her older sister. (She
carefully didn’t consider the way Ranma’s breathing at those times was as easy
as hers had been back at the school.)
Without pausing to catch her breath, the youngest Tendo hurriedly opened the
gate, stepped through — and froze in place, stunned. There, moving along the
flowers Kasumi had planted along the walkway to the front door, she could sense
little points of ... something. They had the same feel as Ranma in spirit form,
but were much, much smaller. And there were more among the flowers along the
compound walls, and when she walked around the side of the house, more skimming
the surface of the koi pond, and ... a whole flock of them circling around
another, human-sized patch of ‘presence’ circling and spinning in mid-air. The
bigger one was human-shaped, as well as human-sized, and female, and felt
tantalizingly familiar.
Is that Ranma? Akane thought, staring at the empty space that her ‘new’ sense
was telling her wasn’t empty. Then, staring around at all the other tiny
‘presences’, added, And where didtheseall come from? Were they always here and
I just didn’t know it? Is this what the world is like for Nabiki and Kasumi,
full of life nobody else can see?
After a moment Akane shook herself free of her contemplation of the scene and
headed for the entrance into the family room, ignoring the two fathers at their
eternal game of shogi as she called for her oldest sister as soon as she was
inside the house.
An answering call came from the kitchen, and Akane dashed down the hall and
into the room to latch onto her sister’s arm and pull her towards the kitchen
door leading to the outside lawn. “Kasumi, come here, quick, I need you to look
at something!” she urged. Kasumi allowed herself to be pulled out and around
the house, until the two sisters stepped around the corner to look toward the
koi pond, and all the dancing lifes around and above it.
Akane pointed toward the spot where she could sense the human-sized life. “Is
that Ranma?” she asked. When she didn’t get a response, she turned to find
Kasumi staring at the scene, mouth agape. “Kasumi? Kasumi!”
Jolted out of her shock, Kasumi turned to her youngest sister. “Yes, Akane?”
“Is that Ranma?” Akane demanded, again pointing.
“Yes ... yes, it is.”
“Good.” Akane pulled her personal cell phone out of her school bag, and typed
in a speed-dial number. “Nabiki, Ranma’s home —” ... “I can’t really tell, he’s
still in his nature spirit form.” Turning to Kasumi, she asked, “Does Ranma
look all right to you?”
“You can’t see her yourself?” Kasumi asked, surprised. When Akane shook her
head, she held out her hand for the cell phone. “Nabiki, as far as I can tell,
Ranma’s fine.” ... “No, I can’t ask, Ranma doesn’t seem to really be aware of
her surroundings, and she’s dancing over the koi pond, I can’t reach her.” ...
“Yes, dancing — and she’s surrounded by sprites dancing with her. I recognize
some of them, but most —” ... “I haven’t tried yet, give me a minute.”
The brown-haired girl walked over to the koi pond and around the edge away from
the house, some of the points of life that Akane assumed were the ‘sprites’ her
sister had mentioned swirling out of her way and about her legs. One flew up in
front of Kasumi’s face, keeping pace with her walking, and Kasumi said
something too low for Akane to understand and smiled at the equally
indecipherable response.
Stopping about a quarter of the way around the edge of the pond, she looked up
toward Ranma. “Ranma!” she called softly, then when she didn’t get a response
tried again more loudly, then shouted, then shouted again while jumping up and
down and waving her hands over her head. Nothing — the human-sized and -shaped
‘presence’ that was Ranma stayed where it was.
Akane took a deep breath, and walked forward to join her sister, wading through
what seemed like a sea of lifes, fighting the urge to spin in place as some of
them swirled around behind her. “ ... didn’t work,” she heard her sister say
into the cell phone as she walked up. “Peach Fuzz, one of the sprites I know,
says that Ranma is ‘dancing to the rhythm of the Voice’, and that the sprites
dancing with her are ‘keeping her grounded’, whatever that means.” ... “No,
Mother Nodoka isn’t home, someone called and she said she had to go out, not to
wait up.” ... “Right, we’ll be waiting.”
Closing the cell phone, Kasumi handed it back to her sister. “Nabiki says that
she’s going to finish collecting Ranma’s clothing before she comes home, to
just leave Ranma alone until she gets here. Come on, let me fix you a snack
while we’re waiting.” She circled around the koi pond toward the house
entrance.
Akane hesitantly followed, pausing before entering the house for a last
wondering look at the dance she couldn’t see but knew was there.
                                      /\
Nabiki sighed with relief as she hit the disconnect button on her cell phone,
then resumed her walk through the park toward where she had been enjoying the
evening while Ranma and Akane sparred, such a short time before. Well, at least
she’s safe behind my wards, and now I can probably stop worrying about her —
him — wanting to go succubus full-time, she thought in an attempt to find a
silver lining to their cloud of misfortune as the small hill came into view,
still scattered with Ranma’s clothes.
She was walking up the hill toward the clothes when a tanned, blonde woman
stepped away from the tree Nabiki had been sitting under earlier. Nabiki
paused, eyes widening at the sight of the elongated diamonds on the newcomer’s
forehead, the triangles on her cheeks — the complete absence of any sense of
her presence other than sight, not even the hint of stench that Ranma had
mentioned — then resumed walking. Bending down to scoop up Ranma’s shirt, she
said, “Mara, I presume?”
“Ah, Ranma told you about me,” the demon replied dryly.
“Yes, he did,” Nabiki agreed as she gathered up the rest of the clothes.
Straightening, she continued, “He told me about the offer you made him. Are you
thinking that this evening’s little adventure will change his mind? Or that I
should help you change it for him?”
“No,” Mara said with a shrug. “No, Ranma’s much too stubborn to allow even this
to change his mind. Actually, I’m here to talk to you.”
“To me,” Nabiki repeated. She glanced up as the faint drizzle from earlier
resumed, then walked up the hill past Mara to the tree. Putting her school bag
and the clothes she’d collected down on the grass, she turned to lean back
nonchalantly against the trunk and asked the demon now downhill from her,
“You’re here to make me an offer?”
“Yes, I am,” Mara agreed, suppressing a grin at Nabiki’s unconscious play for
the upper position. At least, she thought it was unconscious — not many people
would have the chutzpah to play dominance games with a major demon, but she
wasn’t trying to recruit the girl because she was like most people. The demon
walked up to join Nabiki under the tree (and coincidentally place her on the
same level as the mortal girl). “Basically, the offer is the same as what I
offered your fiancé, only moreso — a troubleshooter and lieutenant in my
service, both as a single operator and as a team leader and manager, as the
situation warrants.”
“Why me?” Nabiki asked, frowning. “Sure, I’m more powerful than most Awakened,
but I’m hardly unique. And I’m only seventeen years old, seriously
inexperienced and self-trained with all that implies, no powerful patron,
hardly what I’d think you’d be looking for in an agent.”
Mara shrugged again. “If I was talking about a short-term relationship, you’d
be right. But I’m talking about a relationship that would outlast your mortal
life, and for that your potential and character are more important than your
current capabilities.”
“Outlast my life? My character?” Nabiki squeaked, shaken out of her calm,
disinterested front. “What about my character makes me attractive to a demon?”
“Oh, nothing you’d find too terrible I think,” Mara replied nonchalantly. “Your
innate competence, ruthlessness and intense loyalty to your family and now your
fiancé combined with a lack of devotion to larger causes and any hint of sadism
or power-hunger, basically. And yes, it would continue into the next life —
you’d essentially become a demon yourself, when you die.”
As Nabiki just stared at Mara in stunned amazement, the blonde woman sighed.
“Nabiki, demons are rather misunderstood. Yes, we seek to corrupt people,
foment all the nastiness we are accused of, but what few realize is that we are
testing — sorting the evil from the good, seeing to it that people’s true
natures are revealed and that they receive what they truly deserve. What would
the world be like if we weren’t out here, stirring things up? If we left it to
the gods?”
“I ... it would be a utopia,” Nabiki said hesitantly. “No crime, no wars ...”
“Really? Would those tendencies be eliminated? Or just suppressed until they
broke out?” Mara asked. “And even if you’re right, what kind of life would that
be? Would you enjoy living in such a peaceful, unchanging, unchallenging
passive world? No, the world is a better place, the human race stronger,
because we are here to test its quality.”
Nabiki stared at Mara for a time, then shook off her shock. “What about Kasumi
and Tofu-san? How are they being ‘tested’ by being cursed? What’s the point?”
she demanded.
“They aren’t the ones that were tested,” Mara disagreed. “Ono-san rejected the
advances of a woman with more power than sense, and she summoned a demon — one
rather more powerful than your imps — bound it and ordered it to curse him, so
that he would experience true love but never be able to enjoy it. As you can
imagine, she will be ours when she dies.”
Nabiki winced, but soldiered on. “And what’s in it for me? If my lack of
devotion to abstractions is a plus, you can hardly expect me to just sign up
for the good of the human race!”
“True enough,” Mara agreed instantly. “What’s in it for you is security for
yourself and your expanded family. In Gosunkugi you’ve made a bad enemy, and as
soon as he gets some medical attention for the beating Ranma gave him he’s
going to dive back into those books he borrowed from his family’s library with
new eyes. He’ll soon be cursing himself for a fool and looking for a way out
from under the debt he now owes us for the services he’s demanded, but he could
also just turn out to be dangerous.
“And then there’s his father — that man may choose to back up his son when he
finds out what he’s been up to, he may not, but he’s a patriot and he’s
definitely going to be after your fiancé once he realizes just what Ranma’s
succubus form represents. If you agree to serve me, you won’t have to worry
about him, or any other threats to your family at all — we take good care of
our people.”
“What Ranma represents? What are you talking about? Succubae aren’t exactly in
huge demand except as sex toys, and I can’t imagine a nature spirit more
dangerous to use for as a sex toy against its will than Ranma. He’s learned a
lot that no natural-born succubus ever would have.”
“Ah, you missed it, interesting,” Mara mused, arching an eyebrow. “I think I’ll
leave it to you to puzzle out as an exercise for the student.” Gazing at the
middle Tendo searchingly for a long moment, then turning to gaze out at the
faint misting the drizzle had turned into as they talked, Mara added, “There’s
no need for you to make up your mind right now. Do your research, think it
over, and if you decide to take me up on my offer you know my name — use a
summoning circle to alert me, and I’ll drop in to see you when I’m free.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a corporate mover and shaker in China I need
to look in on. I wonder how much longer those idiots will take to create the
popular uprising that’ll sweep them away? Some free advice — if you have any
investments in Chinese companies, you might want to consider redistributing
your portfolio in the next few years.”
With that, the Mara started to stride down the hill, then paused. “One more
thing to consider,” she said. “Ranma’s immortal, now — half of him, anyway —
and you aren’t. As it stands, when you die you’ll move on, either reincarnation
or your final reward, and will be leaving Ranma behind. If you accept my offer,
there’s no reason the two of you couldn’t continue your relationship into
eternity.” And then she was off toward the edge of the park, leaving behind a
confused and deeply worried young woman.
***** Aftershocks *****
Nabiki stared up at the beautiful naked body that had become so familiar over
the past weeks, illuminated in the dimming light of dusk, as an oblivious Ranma
continued to spin and tumble in the air over the koi pond, surrounded by a
loose cloud of sprites spinning in orbit around her. As she watched, the middle
Tendo could feel herself relaxing under the soothing wave of serene, happy
peace radiating from her lover and, to a lesser extent, her diminutive dance
partners. Glancing over at the slim, brunette sprite hovering in the air by her
shoulder, she asked, “You’re sure there’s no danger?”
“No, no danger,” Peach Fuzz assured her, smiling up at the scene. “So long as
we are with her, she won’t get lost in the Voice — we’ll make sure she finds
her way back.”
Nabiki frowned slightly. “But the ... the vision Ranma had, when she first
discovered the Voice ... some newborn succubae get lost,” she said
questioningly.
“True, but Nabs, they’re born alone — nobody around to help them. Even just one
may not be enough. But this? No worries at all.”
Nabiki shot the sprite a stern look. “Nabiki, not ‘Nabs’,” she said firmly.
“Why? Ranma calls you that.”
“Yes, he does, but he’s permitted. He’s ... special,” Nabiki replied, her gaze
softening as it returned to the busty redhead.
Peach Fuzz followed her gaze, and the two simply watched together for a few
minutes. Finally, the sprite murmured, “You know, I think I envy you this.”
“ ‘Envy me’ what?”
“Envy you your love for each other,” Peach Fuzz replied. “We sprites form close
friendships, have ... what was that phrase I heard recently? ... ‘friends with
benefits’, from what I’ve seen I think the sex is as good for us as it is for
you, but no sprite has ever fallen in love. We don’t really need it, of course,
if we did we’d have it. But sometimes I wonder.”
Unsure what to say, Nabiki was silent for a minute. Still watching her fiancé,
she finally murmured, “As a little girl, what I wanted for my birthday more
than anything was a pair of wings — hawk wings, not the flimsy bug-type pair
you have,” she added, flashing a grin at the sprite. “I would dream about being
a bird, soaring over the city, dancing on the wind....” Her voice trailed off,
and Peach Fuzz chuckled.
“I guess it’s what we don’t have that we want.” Abruptly perking up, the sprite
whipped around to hover in front of Nabiki, a happy smile spread across her
tiny face. “Enough of this maudlinity! Now, you just go ahead and do what you
need to, we’ll keep an eye on your lover girl.” And with that, she spiraled up
to join the others around Ranma, trilling laughter as she went.
Nabiki watched Peach Fuzz join the festivities, a thoughtful frown on her face
— the sprite had been a bit too serious and, well ... deep for what were
supposed to be flighty, live-for-the-day types. Finally, she shrugged. Think
about it later, you have more important things to worry about right now, she
told herself, and turned to head toward the house. It was getting too late to
start strengthening her wards and protections yet again, that would have to
wait until tomorrow after school, but she could begin researching ways to
protect her fiancé from summoning. Both of the two alternatives she knew of at
the moment, the link for a familiar and a binding for a particular purpose, had
serious problems — at least when one considered their target (not to say
victim) as a person rather than a tool. She did her best to suppress thoughts
of Mara’s offer, as it once again played back in the back of her mind.
She stepped through the panels that opened on the corridor, scowled as she
glanced into the family room at the two fathers playing yet another game of
shogi, then shrugged wryly and went in search of her sisters, especially
Kasumi. People are what they are, and the sisters needed to discuss plans and
schedules for the rest of the week. They were probably going to have to put off
their first attempt to break the curse on her older sister and wanna-be lover,
Nabiki reluctantly decided. She would have to stop by on the way to school and
give the good doctor the bad news.
                                     /oOo\
Nodoka gripped the hilt of her katana tightly as she stepped through the door
into the bedroom of the newlyweds whose plight had been passed on to her. The
couple had been almost pathetically happy to see her — they had already signed
all the paperwork for buying the apartment and didn’t think ‘we’re afraid of
the ghosts’ would be an acceptable reason for voiding the contract. They were
waiting down the short hall in the main room, ready to run at a moment’s
notice.
For a moment the Scout couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the light
from the streetlights outside the window, then a barely visible, translucent
young woman holding an infant in her lap slowly appeared. The two were by the
window, apparently sitting on empty air, the woman gazing fondly down at the
smiling girl she was bouncing on her knee. The woman looked up, a smile of
welcome on her face that suddenly transformed into an expression of sheer
horror. She shot to her feet, baby in her arms and mouth opening in a silent
scream, only to have her head rock back and bounce off the wall. She crumpled,
child falling with her, but the two vanished from sight before they could hit
the floor. For a few minutes the room was empty, then the woman and little girl
reappeared, again sitting on empty air.
Nodoka sighed with relief, releasing the grip on her katana, and stepped out of
the bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she walked down the short hall to the
front room to join the waiting couple.
The two young people sitting on a couch (not all that much older than Ranma and
Nabiki, she thought wistfully) rose to their feet at her approach, Eriko
clutching her husband Keiji’s arm. “Well? What do you think?” Keiji asked
eagerly.
“You can relax, Sasaki-san,” Nodoka reassured him, “you aren’t being haunted by
an actual ghost. Instead, what you have is an echo.”
“Would you like that drink now?” Eriko asked, releasing her husband and turning
toward the open kitchen area. “And what do you mean, ‘an echo’?”
“Yes, thank you, I will have that drink,” Nodoka agreed.
A few minutes later, the couple back on the couch and Nodoka in a chair, all
with drinks in hand, she continued, “Sometimes an event will be powerful enough
that the people involved will actually leave an imprint of what happened ... a
‘recording’, you could say ... that constantly repeats the event over and over
when in the presence of the living. Usually it is much too faint for most
people to see, but occasionally, during the right time of year — often the
anniversary of the event, but sometimes other times — it’ll strengthen enough
to become visible to everyone. On rare occasions, even sounds can be heard.
Echoes can be frightening, but they aren’t dangerous unless you have a weak
heart.
“Now for what that means for you, in a day or so the echo should again weaken
to the point that you can’t see it. You could simply spend a few nights at a
love hotel, and everything will be fine when you come back — until the next
time that it strengthens. And no, I can’t say when that will be. I can give you
some likely dates, but some times will be unique to the people that made the
echo. Or, for a small donation you can arrange for a priest to come and bless
the room. If he is a true priest, the power of that blessing should wash away
the imprint left behind.
“And now,” she continued, rising to her feet, “it is late, and I have an early
morning to look forward to.”
The relieved newlyweds hastily rose to their feet, expressing their heartfelt
thanks for the older woman’s help and promising to make a sizeable donation to
the nearest shrine at the earliest opportunity. A few minutes later, Nodoka was
smiling happily at the night around a yawn as she walked towards the train
station. It was always a joy to be able to help the young ones, and this had
been an easy one. Then her smile disappeared as she thought of the echo she had
seen. One thing she hadn’t mentioned to the couple and doubted they’d realized,
seeing how from what they’d said neither had stayed in the room long enough to
see the full cycle, was that echoes most often involved violent deaths — and
that looked to be the case this time. She was going to need to do some research
about that apartment, find out who the woman and child had been and what had
happened to them.
                                     /oOo\
Gosunkugi tried not to move his torso as he closed the heavy tome on his
bedroom desk, but despite his best efforts a stab of pain from his cracked ribs
shot through him, and he drew a shuddering breath as he reminded himself that
he had been very, very lucky. For some unknown reason, perhaps out of instinct
because he was a human that turned into a succubus, Ranma had stayed within the
confines of the shed as she maneuvered for the strikes against him — if she had
treated the wall and roof as ghosts instead of obstacles and gone for more
distance, the doctor would have probably been extracting broken ribs from the
young Initiate’s lungs. If you lived long enough to make it to the hospital,
that is, he thought grimly. Fortunately, his father had apparently bought his
story about a pack of bullies and had agreed to leave retribution in his son’s
hands as practice in what he’d officially learned so far of the Art. And yes,
there was going to be retribution, indeed!
And you’re thinking about this to avoid yourotherproblem, aren’t you? The
pasty-faced underclassman glanced again at the book on summoning his father
didn’t know he’d ‘borrowed’ from the family library, and fought to keep from
shuddering. He could not believe how badly he had misunderstood what he had
read — how his belief in the superiority of his blood had blinded him to what
that superiority meant. He had completely missed the fact that the quality of
his descent was in the gifts and opportunities it gave him, and come to believe
that it was a power in itself. Now, his idiocy had resulted in debts owed to
the demons he had summoned that would sooner or later come due — though the
fact that he’d only dealt with imps for spying and petty harassment should keep
the damage from being too bad, and his young age meant he should have a few
years before anything came due.
Which meant that, for now at least, he could concentrate on Nabiki ... and
Ranma.
                                     /oOo\
Nabiki groaned as she forced her eyes open and lifted her head to look at the
clock on her desk past the red hair of the succubus curled against her, then
groaned again. She’d never been a morning person to begin with, considering how
late she’d finally given up on her research for the night and called Ranma in
to bed her normal wake-up time would have been bad enough, and it wasn’t close
her normal wake-up time.
Ranma stirred in her arms as the knock on their bedroom door sounded again.
Opening her eyes, the succubus looked toward — and through — the door. “Huh, I
wonder what Mom wants,” the redhead mused as she slipped out of Nabiki’s
embrace and floated up into the middle of the room.
“Only one way to find out,” Nabiki grumbled as she sat up and rubbed at bleary
eyes, blanket pooling about her hips to reveal the T-shirt she normally slept
in. “Come in!” she called out more loudly, and after a moment the door opened
to reveal her future mother-in-law and sensei in the mystic arts, looking
refreshed and wide-awake in a worn keikogi and hakama, a bundle of clothes in
one hand and a bokken in the other.
Nabiki groaned at the sight. “Nodo — Mother, I know you didn’t get home until
after we went to bed, and that was too late! Why aren’t you still in bed?”
Nodoka shrugged, one eyebrow rising. “I didn’t want to put off your first
morning of training, so I used a refreshening ritual. Why were you up so late
on a week night?”
“Refreshening ritual? Training?” Nabiki asked, focusing on the part of Nodoka’s
comment that mattered most to her at the moment.
“Yes, you don’t ... ? Well, obviously not or you wouldn’t ask. Yes, it is
possible for a sufficiently powerful or skilled Initiate to put off the effects
of fatigue for a time. They’re only delayed rather than eliminated, though, so
it isn’t something you can do very often without hurting yourself. And as for
training, not all threats to an Initiate are mystical, some are very physical —
and even some of the mystical ones can be handled by a properly prepared
katana. While I don’t expect you to become a competition-level practitioner, I
do expect you to achieve basic competency. So, why were you up so late last
night?”
“Damn, I could have used that,” Nabiki muttered, grimacing as visions of all
too many way too early mornings to come passed before her eyes. Well, girl, you
wanted someone to train you instead of this catch-as-catch-can self-study
you’ve been doing so far, and you got it. She waved toward the seat at her
desk. “For why I was up late last night, Ranma, Akane and I had an ...
interesting evening after you left.”
Ranma had perked up at the mention of training and even more when she heard it
would be with the katana (Genma had included some weapons training, but only
enough that Ranma could use them without embarrassing himself — which put him
ahead of most practitioners, considering his skill in unarmed combat), but now
Nabiki winced at the disgusted angry fear suddenly radiating from the cute
redhead. Looking up, she spread her arms. “Get down here, Ranma,” she ordered.
Ranma quickly obeyed, and Nabiki hugged the stiff succubus, fighting her own
burning anger. She’d insisted they review in their shared dream what had
happened when Ranma had been summoned, and now she ached with her own need to
rend and destroy like she hadn’t felt since her best friend’s betrayal that had
led to her Awakening.
But that wasn’t what Ranma needed to be sensing right now after reliving the
whole ugly incident, and she throttled back her hatred and focused on the joy
her armful had brought into her life. “No ducking into the Voice, this time,”
she whispered in Ranma’s ear, running her hands up and down along Ranma’s
sides. Ranma nodded jerkily, and the middle Tendo and Nodoka waited until Ranma
slowly relaxed under the gentle caresses and waves of love and concern washing
over her from her mother and lover.
Nabiki waited until Ranma was practically limp and purring in her arms, then
quickly ran through their separate run-ins with Gosunkugi. By the time she was
finished, Nodoka was on her feet pacing back and forth, hand gripping her
bokken’s hilt so tightly her knuckles were bleached white. Whirling to face
Nabiki, she growled, “I don’t care if that idiot is a Gosunkugi, this cannot be
allowed to go unpunished!”
Nabiki shook her head, smiling wryly at the role reversal. “Isn’t it the
student that’s supposed to be calling for immediate action and the mentor
counseling patience?” she asked with forced lightness, feeling Ranma beginning
to tense up again under the onslaught of her mother’s anger. “Gosunkugi didn’t
actually do anything, Ranma at least cracked the idiot’s ribs if he — she —
didn’t break them, I did my best to emasculate him, and he’s due some serious
bad luck in school from my Journeyman’s Curse. Leave it, if he didn’t learn
anything from this fiasco I’m sure he’ll give us further opportunity to let him
know what we think of him. But what did you mean, you ‘don’t care if he’s a
Gosunkugi’?”
Nodoka broke off her pacing, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths as she
fought her anger under control. Finally, she resumed her seat and did her best
to review what Nabiki had told her with a clear mind. “This is bad, very bad,”
she finally said. “The Gosunkugi family aren’t people you want for enemies —
their name is on that list of possible demon summoners I gave you earlier. And
while they aren’t as traditional as I used to be, they are firmly stuck in the
past. They think our major mistake leading up to the last war wasn’t adopting
the ways of the fascists, but that we didn’t invade Siberia instead of hitting
Hawaii and taking southeast Asia, that we should have put off a war with the
United States until after we’d consolidated our conquests in China and had
developed the Siberian resources. But why would they be attacking you? Why
would this ‘Mara’ say that it’s because they’re patriots?”
Nabiki closed her eyes and reviewed what she’d tasted of Gosunkugi’s emotions
the previous evening as well as what she could remember of their few previous
face-to-face encounters. Finally, she shrugged. “I don’t really know,” she
admitted. “Considering that Gosunkugi didn’t know what he was doing yesterday I
don’t think the rest of his family is involved, yet. But I can’t think of
anything I might have done to offend him, and I think what I sensed mixed in
with his hatred yesterday was jealousy. I just can’t imagine why he’d be
jealous of me.”
Nodoka simply gazed at her for a long moment, then shook her head. “You really
don’t understand, do you?” she mused. “For you, magic must just be a tool or a
threat. But for the Gosunkugi family, it’s what they are — without it, they’re
nothing, their history revolves around it. Much like Saotome-san and the
martial arts, now that I think of it, we’ll have to make sure Ranma’s more
well-rounded.”
Ranma grimaced, relaxing again as the supercharged emotions faded into
intellectual consideration. “That means payin’ more attention in school,
right?”
“Well, paying attention, anyway,” her mother responded, smiling at her child
for a moment before looking back up at Nabiki. “I suspect that your own level
of initiation outstrips his by a wide margin, and considering that they believe
themselves to be among the elite, perhaps he didn’t take it well. But why did
this keep you up so late last night? It sounds as if everything was over by
sundown.”
“It was, but I spent hours after getting home looking for some way to protect
Ranma from being summoned.”
Ranma straightened, twisting out of Nabiki’s hug to hover a few feet away. “Did
ya find anything?” she asked eagerly.
Nabiki shook her head. “No, I didn’t — or rather, nothing beyond the three ways
I already knew of, and none of them are exactly optimal.”
“So, what are they?” the red-haired succubus demanded. “Maybe we can use one a’
them until ya think a’ something better.”
“Well, the first you already know, it’s how we first met.” Nabiki paused for a
moment, smiling fondly as she remembered the day a busty redhead with a cute
smile showed up in her broken summoning circle instead of the ugly death, or
worse, that she’d feared, before refocusing on Ranma. “If I cast a summoning
and go for as much time as I can, it should last for up to a week. With that in
place, anyone else trying to summon you would have to overcome the strength of
the ritual as well as your own willpower. The problem is that that would mean
you’d bounce to me whenever you get splashed — not the worst thing that can
happen, but not exactly convenient if, say, you want to spar with Akane as a
succubus. Also, if someone was attacking someone you were trying to protect
other than me, all he’d have to do is splash you with cold water and you’d
instantly be somewhere else, maybe miles away or more.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t work so good,” Ranma agreed. “Kinda hard ta protect the
weak if a splash a’ cold water sends ya on yer way.”
“Right. Now, the second two ways are more permanent, but both have serious
problems — the familiar bond and the purpose bond.”
Nodoka winced, and Ranma looked confused at the disgust she felt suddenly
radiating from her mother. “I take it they’re bad,” she said.
“Oh, yes,” Nabiki agreed. “Well, actually, the familiar link isn’t so bad, so
long as it’s limited to an animal. It forms a bond between the target and the
Initiate that lasts so long as they both live. Through the link the master will
always know where the familiar is and can use any or all of its senses — see
through its eyes, hear through its ears, smell what it smells, feel what it
feels. The master can also draw on the familiar’s energy to stay alert during
long castings. The familiar cannot even consider harming its master, and must
follow any orders it’s given as best it can. This is all fine — so long as the
familiar is an animal or nonsentient nature spirit. If it’s a sentient nature
spirit or demon, you might as well use the term ‘slave’ instead of ‘familiar’ —
not what I want our relationship to be like.”
Ranma grimaced. “Ya got that right,” she agreed, then blanched at a sudden
thought. “Could Gosunkugi summon me an’ do that to me?” she asked, looking
sick.
A suddenly uncertain and concerned Nabiki glanced at Nodoka.
“Yes, but not easily,” Nodoka reassured her ‘daughter’. “One problem with using
the familiar bond on sentients is that it can be resisted by the victim. That’s
why almost all familiars are either animals or very weak demons — the animals
can’t resist, at least not effectively, and low level demons usually don’t want
to resist. They’ll use the period of servitude to encourage their ‘masters’ to
become more and more corrupt. Nature spirits are another matter — they’ll fight
the forming bond, and so for a nature spirit with any real strength of will,
the Initiate will need an extended casting time to strengthen the ritual, help
from other Initiates or quite a few supporters, some way to weaken the will of
the victim first, or more likely some mix of the three. If this Gosunkugi scion
is working alone as Nabiki thinks, he is very unlikely to be able to do any of
that.”
Ranma sighed with relief, color returning to her face. (Nabiki wondered for a
moment at how closely succubae mimicked humans, seeing how they didn’t have
blood, or anything like it, and most humans couldn’t even see them.) “So,
what’s the last way?” the succubus asked.
“That one’s nasty,” Nabiki said with a shudder, and Ranma winced at the disgust
her mother was again radiating. Her fiancée continued, “The purpose bond is
where a spirit or demon is bound to a task rather than a person. The task can
be anything from as simple as ‘guard this treasure’ to as complicated as ‘look
after this family’s well-being’. This type of bond is only used on demons or
sentient nature spirits, because the nonsentient spirits will usually be so
bound up in the task that they starve to death — the ones that ‘eat’, anyway.
And unlike the familiar bond, this one doesn’t end when the Initiate that cast
the ritual dies — if enough people are involved in the ritual, it can take
centuries, even millennia for it to weaken enough for the demon or nature
spirit to break free.”
Pausing for a moment as she thought over what she’d said, Nabiki added, “I’ve
wondered how nature spirits bound to one room keep from going insane, I figured
the stories of the djinn trapped in centuries in bottles were examples of that.
But I suppose the Voice would be a big help in keeping trapped nature spirits
mentally stable.”
“Okay-y-y ... so neither a’ those will work, so what will?”
“I don’t know,” Nabiki admitted. “I’ve gone through all the books I’ve managed
to pick up again and didn’t find anything new. You, Mother?”
Nodoka shook her head. “No, nothing I can think —” Breaking off, she thought
for a moment, then actually grinned. “Actually, there is something we can do
... or I can do, rather. Am I correct that Gosunkugi knows Ranma’s name?” The
two teenagers exchanged glances and nodded. “Good, that means he’ll be using it
in any attempted summonings. But I’m the one that has official custody of
Ranma, and the only reason I kept the Saotome family name when I divorced
Saotome-san was so that Ranma would have an easier time finding me if he ever
looked. Now that we’re together again, there’s no reason I can’t go back to my
maiden name — and Ranma, as well.”
Nabiki grinned viciously at the thought. “Oh, that’s beautiful. We can keep
‘Saotome’ as Ranma’s use name, and Gosunkugi can try summoning after summoning
and get absolutely nowhere! And he’ll have no idea why it suddenly isn’t
working....”
“Yes, a pleasant thought,” Nodoka agreed, then glanced at the desk clock.
“Well, it’s gotten too late to start your training this morning, Nabiki, we’ll
just have to put it off until tomorrow. Why don’t you two head for the furo,
and I’ll go help out Kasumi.”
***** Someone that Feels Like Home *****
Naked and lying on her stomach on the blanket-covered floor of their bedroom,
Nabiki groaned with pleasure as Ranma’s broad, male hands worked over the sore,
tense muscles of her upper back and shoulders, gently massaging away the tight
knots left over from her afternoon training with Nodoka. “Oooohhhh,” she
moaned, “a world-class martial artist and a masseuse, too. Is there no end to
your talents?”
Ranma chuckled. “Yeah, well, Pop may have done his best ta kill me from time ta
time, but he did his best fer me when I failed ta die, an’ that best wasn’t too
bad. That’s why I wasn’t too surprised when we found him workin’ fer Dr. Tofu.”
“Well, I was,” Nabiki muttered, remembering how her shock had reduced her to
stuttering when she and Ranma had walked into Dr. Tofu’s clinic the morning
after Gosunkugi’s summoning to find a giant panda greeting the patients. Ranma
had ended up being the one to pass on the message that they wouldn’t be able to
try to break the curse on Tofu and Kasumi that weekend, after all.
“At least Mom decided ta do yer kenjutsu trainin’ in the afternoon instead a’
the mornin’,” Ranma continued, and Nabiki thought she could feel his grin in
the amused affection caressing her as gently as his hands. “She muttered
somethin’ about a livin’ zombie when I asked her why.”
“Right, do you know how disgusting it is, the way you and your ... and Mother
are so alert and cheerful that early?”
Ranma just laughed as he continued working his way down along her body until he
reached her toes, then ordered her to roll over and worked his way back up her
front. She was practically purring by the time his hands moved from her breasts
to her shoulders, down along her arms, then cupped her cheeks as he leaned down
to gently press his lips to hers — not exactly professional behavior, but she
definitely had no complaints.
Okay, so it isn’t sex, but I could definitely get used to this. It might
actually make Mother’s training worth it, she thought through her pleasure-haze
as he carefully picked her up and laid her on their bed. Scooping the blanket
from the floor, he spread it across her, turned off the light, then slipped
beneath it and pulled her against him.
“My turn ta hold you, tonight,” he whispered in her ear, and a happily much-
loved Nabiki faded into sleep with his breath on her neck, a smile on her lips,
and the sound of falling rain on the roof.
                                     /oOo\
Ranma’s eyes shot open, instantly alert. Normally, he was a sound sleeper, but
he’d found sleep difficult to come by and uneasy when achieved this first night
since Gosunkugi’s summoning that he’d spent in his human form. Now he listened
intently for some hint in the sound of the rain still falling for whatever had
awoken him. Then it came again, the faint scuffle of careful footsteps of
someone looming over the bed — someone male, by the slightly darker outline in
the room’s general darkness.
“Wake up, Ranma-kun, it’s me — Ryoga,” the dark form demanded.
Ranma’s eyes widened. Ryoga, here? But the way he’d attacked him without
warning at the school, and Nabiki in bed between him and the Lost Boy....
Without a word, Ranma’s hands shot out, grabbing onto the front of Ryoga’s
shirt, yanking him forward even as Ranma’s legs bunched to catch him in the
gut, and with a twisting grunt Ranma threw the larger boy over the bed, through
the closed window and out into the rain. Even as a groggy Nabiki was lifting
her head from her pillow, the pigtailed boy rolled to his feet and dove through
the broken window after him, dropping to land feet-first on the narrow strip of
lawn that ran between the compound wall and the house under the Tendo sisters’
... and now his ... bedrooms. Even as a growling Ryoga climbed to his feet and
shrugged his backpack into a more comfortable position on his back, Ranma felt
her rain-soaked boxer shorts and T-shirt drop through her now-insubstantial
body to the wet grass she was abruptly floating a few inches above. The night
suddenly became lighter, and Ranma winced as the hatred and anger radiating
from Ryoga rolled over her.
“Ryoga-kun, it’s the middle of the night! What are you doing here?” the nature
spirit demanded.
“Silence, does revenge know night or day?” Ryoga shouted, his eyes searching
for the origin of the now-female voice.
Ranma rolled her eyes. “That, again? What did I ever do ta make ya hate me that
much? It can’t just be fer beatin’ ya ta the bread at our old school.”
Glaring at the empty space that as best he could tell the female voice was
coming from, the fanged boy ground out, “I’ll say one thing, before I send you
to hell. When you ran out on our duel, I followed you ... all the way to
China!”
“To China! How did you ... ?” Ranma broke off, staring at the naked boy in the
hazily translucent clothes and thinking furiously. Considering the cool rain
she could feel (she was finding it hard not to giggle at the sensation of
scores of tickling fingers slashing through her) Ryoga couldn’t have visited
Jusenkyo, he must be soaked. But what else ... ? “You got Kissed, didn’t you?”
she hooted, instinctively clutching at her sides as she broke into gales of
laughter.
“Silence!” Ryoga screamed, and Ramna’s laughter cut off as she found herself
squinting against the sickly-green glow of the ki the Lost Boy was suddenly
radiating. “Because of you, I can never know peace! If I must know hell while
alive, you will know it in death!” he shouted, and leaped straight toward the
supposedly invisible succubus in a flying kick. Ranma spun up and over the boy
as she instinctively tried to leap up out of the way and knock his forward-
thrusting leg safely down and sent herself flying instead.
                                      /\
Nabiki stared helplessly through the broken window down into the yard, ignoring
the rain on her face as she watched her lover bring her spin under control and
whirl where she floated just in time to dodge another flying kick, her own foot
slamming into Ryoga’s stomach as she twisted out of the way and instinctively
counterattacked. But instead of Ryoga folding over her foot, the redhead was
sent flying backwards, carried by the boy’s momentum until Ryoga grabbed the
leg offered and threw her at — and through — the dojo compound wall.
Behind her, her bedroom door slammed open as Akane and Kasumi rushed in, Akane
in her nighttime T-shirt and panties and Kasumi holding her nightgown closed
with one hand and a dumbbell in the other. Akane snatched up the bokken leaning
against the wall by the door, and was quickly followed through the door by
Nodoka in a night gown with sheathed katana in hand. The middle Tendo glanced
over her shoulder long enough to verify the identity of the newcomers, then
turned back to the window just in time to see Ranma flash back through the
wall, flying level with her fists thrust forward like a movie Superman. The
succubus lost a bit of momentum to the need to adjust her direction as her
opponent tried to dodge, but was still moving fast enough for her fists
smashing into Ryoga’s jaw to twist his head around and send him stumbling to
the side, dropping his umbrella.
Nodoka and the other girls joined her at the window, her sisters on either side
as Nodoka stood on tiptoe to look over their heads. “Oh, my!” Kasumi gasped,
her free hand over her mouth in dismay at the sight of the part-time nature
spirit swinging up wide into the air, then swooping back down toward the large
boy only to get hammered to the side by a twisting kick.
“How is he doing that?” Nabiki all but yelled. “In the last fight he couldn’t
see or sense Ranma in nature spirit form, and now he’s nailing her every time,
how?”
“It’s the ki,” Akane said suddenly.
“What?” the other three chorused, looking at her.
“He’s radiating ki ... he’s making it stick to the rain, somehow. It must be
like the way he was able to make his bandanas hard when he threw them at Ranma
last time, when Ranma kicked one away from him ... her. I asked Ranma later how
he did it when he can only touch living things, and he said Ryoga had put some
of his ki in his bandanas to make them stiff and hard, it made them glow. I
think Ryoga’s doing the same thing with the rain, and —”
“And that’s turning the rain into a detection system from the way Ranma pushes
it out of the way when she flies through it, if it doesn’t just outline her
from sticking to her,” Nabiki finished, turning back to the fight just in time
to see Ranma charge in, wings now visible and pulled in tight for extra speed,
only to plow face-first into the lawn as Ryoga whirled out of the way and
smashed an elbow down into the small of her back. Ranma shook her head, then
frantically rolled toward the wall as Ryoga’s leap brought him smashing down
where she’d been a moment before.  The succubus shouted in pain as one of her
wings didn’t make it out of the way and was ground into the grass under the
boy’s feet, leaving her pinned in place, lying face up on the grass and staring
up at Ryoga’s fanged face.
“Okay, that’s it,” Nabiki snarled, “time for us to break this up.”
Ranma tried to block Ryoga’s follow-up punch only to have it hammer through to
smash into her gut, and Akane winced as she watched the faint greenish glow-
speckled female-shaped something that felt like Ranma curl around the strike
with an involuntary mew of pain. “But ... it’s a duel ...” she said
reluctantly.
“Does my broken window look like it’s a duel?” Nabiki demanded. “He crept into
our room in the middle of the night! He’s no different than Kuno and the
Horde.”
Nodoka nodded, dropping off her tiptoes and drawing her katana from its sheath.
“You’re right,” she agreed, turning to stride toward the door.
Akane started to follow, bokken still in hand, only to stop as Kasumi grabbed
her shoulder. “Wait, it’s too dangerous,” Kasumi asserted, and handed her
youngest sister the dumbbell she’d brought with her. “Here, use this.”
Akane stared at the dumbbell for a long moment, then grinned viciously.
“Nabiki, out of the way!” she ordered. Nabiki watched yet another punch slam
into Ranma’s chest, glanced up at her younger sister, eyes widening as Akane
held up the dumbbell, then hastily stepped out of the way as a grin to match
her sister’s spread across her face. Akane stepped into the space in the middle
of the window, hefted the dumbbell as she watched another blow hammer home,
then threw.
                                      /\
Ryoga snarled as he smashed another blow through Ranma’s weakening defense,
viciously twisting his feet on the trapped wing, exultation washing through him
at the breathy shriek from the semi-amorphous female figure framed by softly
green-glowing drops and rivulets of rain. It had worked! It had worked, and now
he finally had the arrogant coward that had run out on their fight all the way
to China where he could repay him for every moment of self-loathing, every
sleepless night, every replay of the nightmare that had haunted him since
China, every ...
Pinwheeling stars exploded across his vision, his chin smashing into his chest
as the hurled dumbbell slammed into the back of his head. He stumbled forward,
tripped over the succubus lying at his feet, and smashed head-first, backpack
and all, into the compound wall and flopped at its base. Groaning as he rolled
onto his side, he shook his head and instantly regretted it as pain exploded
behind his eyes. He sat up and clutched his head, then looked toward his
nemesis to see the glow-speckled and -streaked form rising, the wings vanishing
into the humanoid torso ... and the glow was flickering. He realized with
dawning horror that his ki was no longer radiating, and fading from where it
had lodged. Time to go.
Forcing himself to his feet, the Lost Boy looked around for his umbrella ... it
was behind and to the side of an increasingly invisible Ranma, he’d have to
recover it later. Turning and leaping to the top of the wall (and suppressing a
yell of his own at what the effort did to his throbbing head), he dropped to
the sidewalk beyond (a not-so-suppressed groan) and started to run across the
street, only to freeze as half a dozen women ghosted out of the night into the
light of the streetlights, forming a half-circle in front of him.
A girl stepped forward, a chúi in each hand ... the same girl that had
interfered with his last duel with that coward Ranma. She smiled broadly. “So,
you have finally returned ... Husband.”
                                     /oOo\
Ranma gasped with relief as the grinding pressure on her wing vanished, along
with the almost incapacitating, all-encompassing pain that came with it.
Distantly, she felt an impact against her side, then heard the crunch of
something slamming into the compound wall. Turning to focus pain-filled eyes,
she watched as her nemesis flopped to the ground, leaving a small, barely-
visible crater behind in the translucent wall.  Ryoga slowly rolled to a
sitting position as he clutched at his head even as the green ki he had been
radiating vanished.
The nature spirit tried to roll to her hands and knees and found herself
bobbing up into the air as she retracted her wings, leaving a red-hot bar of
pain in a vertical strip along one shoulder blade that reduced the pain in her
gut, chest, and the small of her back to faint aches. Note to self: never keep
yer wings out in combat. I haveneverfelt pain like that, she thought as she
rotated her shoulder, then ran a hand along her chest between her breasts.
Okay, so there’s some good points ta bein’ a ... how did Nabs put it? ... a
bundle a’ energy shaped like a human. If I’dbeenhuman instead a’ just lookin’
like one, I’d have cracked ribs at least, and probably ended up pissin’ blood
for awhile. Instead I ache, but nothin’s stabbin’ me when I move or hurtin’
worse.
Abruptly the Lost Boy rose to his feet, one hand on the wall for support. Even
as Ranma had been examining herself she’d been keeping an eye on him, along
with her empathy, sensing the hatred, and ... was that guilt? ... and something
else overpowering the rest the nature spirit didn’t recognize that she’d been
picking up from her father sometimes, and a few times from her mother....
Whatever it was, as he stood up the mélange of emotions suddenly shifted into a
mix of reluctance and determination, and the change instantly had Ranma’s
undivided attention even as she straightened and turned sideways, one arm
cocked to grab any punch. This time, she was going to remember her practice,
and ... and the Lost Boy leaped upward with a grunt of pain, almost seeming to
hang for a moment in empty air where he balanced on top of the wall, then
dropped to the outside sidewalk and started to run across the street.
Well,thatwas a surprise, Ranma thought as she stared at the back of her rapidly
retreating opponent. Good riddance.Nexttime I’ll be ready, and we’ll see — And
suddenly the Amazons that she’d gotten so used to seeing hanging around her
that they’d become part of the background moved out of bushes, away from trees,
around corners of barely visible houses, and stepped out into the street to
intercept the fleeing martial artist.
Ryoga slammed to a stop, dropping into a defensive stance for a moment, before
suddenly stepping to the side, hand knocking aside a chúi sweeping through the
space he’d vacated. Ranma’s eyes widened as the girl that had interrupted their
last fight came into view beyond the large boy, spinning in place, second chúi
swinging for the side of his head. Ryoga dropped into a crouch beneath the
swing, beginning a leg sweep only to clutch at his head and sprawl to the side
as his backpack overbalanced him.
Then the first chúi swept back, clipping the Lost Boy’s temple and bouncing his
head off the hard roadway. Ryoga went limp, and Ranma found herself in motion,
flashing through the wall toward the women in her ‘Superman’ pose only to curve
away and into a hover above them as the girl ... Shampoo? ... aborted her next
strike.
As Ranma watched, four of the other women moved in and lifted the unconscious
teenager to their shoulders, backpack and all, and started carrying him away,
Shampoo taking the lead and the last Amazon falling in behind. Okay, looks like
Ryogadidget Kissed in China, the hovering succubus thought. At least, maybe ...
I mean, sure, it’s embarrassing ta get chased outa China by a bunch a’ girls,
but he hates me that much fer just that? What if it’s somethin’ more serious?
She watched them move away down the street for a long moment then flew to catch
up, circling along above the little procession.
                                      /\
Turning around the outside corner of the house, Nodoka’s bare feet skidded on
the wet grass and for a moment she hung suspended, flinging out her hand
holding the katana to avoid cutting herself in a highly embarrassing fall even
as she cursed herself for her haste — she knew better, damn it!
Just as her center of balance was tilting past the point of no return, a hand
flashed out to catch her upper arm and pull her upright. “Easy, No-chan, Akane
has it handled. The girl ought to consider a career in baseball,” Genma said
absentmindedly from where he stood out of the rain under the narrow overhang
around the house, his eyes fixed on the combatants on the narrow strip of lawn
under the girls’ and Ranma’s bedroom windows.
Ignoring the unwelcome familiarity for more important concerns, the former
Saotome focused on the lawn beneath the broken window. She caught sight of the
large teenage boy her son ... daughter, at the moment ... had been fighting
leaping to the top of the compound wall in spite of the large pack on his back,
but ignored him as he dropped down out of sight on the opposite side to focus
on her daughter. The naked redhead was floating upright, relaxing from one of
the new stances that Nodoka had watched her practice, staring at ... no,
staring through the wall. Even as Nodoka stepped toward her daughter, Ranma was
suddenly in motion, flashing through the wall.
Nodoka bit back a shout — she didn’t know what was on the other side of the
wall. Striding over underneath the broken window, she called up softly,
“Nabiki, can you see what’s going on out there?”
“It’s the Amazons,” Nabiki called back. “They took down that stalker and now
they’re carrying him off, I figure back to their camp. For some reason that
completely escapes me, Ranma’s following them.”
“Where from what you said there’s at least one Awakened that can see her, of
unknown but substantial power,” Nodoka added with a sigh, and turned. “Saotome-
san —” she started, only to find herself alone.
                                     /oOo\
Ryoga groaned as he slowly became aware of the world around him. He was lying
on his back, on blanket-covered ground, from the sound of the rain still
falling he was under canvas, and his head was pounding hard enough to threaten
to bring tears to his eyes. What had happened? He’d been giving that honorless
coward Ranma what he deserved, and something had hit the back of his head,
given Ranma the chance to recover, he’d decided to leave to try again later,
and ... those crazy girls from China!
His eyes shot open to find a blurry face inches away from his own, and he
realized there’d been hands on both sides of his head when they released him
and the face withdrew. A soft, clear, lovely voice said something in what might
be Chinese.
“Speak in Japanese, child,” another voice said, rough with age.
“Of course, Honored Elder,” the first voice said. “Husband truly has a hard
head. Besides First Wife’s love taps, he’s taken another blow to the back of
the head. He has a moderate concussion, but no internal bleeding. He should be
fine with a little rest.”
Ryoga sat up and carefully looked around, finding himself in what looked like a
park, as best he could tell in the nighttime rain; he focused on the people
talking. The aged voice turned out to belong to a tiny gnome of a ... well,
with the long white hair and the voice she was probably a woman ... balancing
on a staff. And the young voice was — he froze, eyes widening in shock as he
found himself staring at the face that had haunted his nightmares for weeks.
“Y-Y-You ... you ... you’re alive!” he gasped out.
“Of course, I’m alive,” the young woman said, brow furrowing. “Why wouldn’t I
be?”
“I thought I’d ... I’d ...” Ryoga broke off and fought to hold back the tears
he could feel threatening to fill his eyes and spill down his cheeks.
“You thought you’d killed her?” the gnome asked, then chuckled when he nodded
wordlessly. “I will admit you gave it an honest effort. Pa Fum, perhaps it’s
time you stop training in the martial arts — I suspect your husband, here, saw
the way you moved at first and assumed a higher level of skill than you
actually have in a true fight. Leave the fighting to your second wife.”
“Wait, husband?” Ryoga asked carefully, shifting slightly as he tried to look
around surreptitiously for his backpack.
“Yes, ‘husband’,” the wrinkled gnome repeated. “Twice over, actually, your
second wife, Xian Pu, is behind you.” Ryoga twisted around to find the purple-
haired girl that had knocked him out sitting there, a chúi on each side. She
smiled sweetly and bowed in place. “Good evening, Husband,” she said, then
picked up the chúi and rose to walk around and sit again beside her co-wife.
Ryoga stared at the two, wide-eyed, too stunned to even notice the pair’s
healthy beauty, then turned to the gnome. “Who ... what ... how ... ?”
The gnome smiled sympathetically. “I am Ku Lon, an Elder of the Joketsuzoku,
and I’m afraid you’ve run afoul of one of our ... quirkier traditions.” She
quickly explained the two Kisses used for powerful outsiders, and how he’d
ended up with two wives instead of the usual one. Her explanation didn’t do
much to calm the Lost Boy.
“So you expect me to just go back to China with you?” he demanded
incredulously.
Ku Lon glanced up over Ryoga’s shoulder for a moment, then refocused on her
guest. “If you were of the normal variety of man that defeats one of our
warriors, yes,” she said with a shrug. “We have many centuries of experience in
keeping such men with us at least long enough for a few children to be born.
Beyond that some adjust, some never do. Those ones, we usually let escape
eventually if they wish — they roil the tribe. You, however, are a special
case; with your wandering curse, there is no possible way to hold you for long
against your will. All you need to do is walk down a street, turn a corner, and
you’re gone.”
Ryoga had tried to keep his eyes on the ancient woman during her explanation,
but found his gaze kept wandering back to the two girls. No, not the two girls,
one in particular — and not the breathtaking beauty of the warrior, but the
cute attractiveness of the girl he’d thought he’d murdered. Shampoo watched him
with a growing grin, then leaned over and whispered something into Perfume’s
ear (had he actually heard their names right?) that had the other girl blushing
bright red, her eyes dropping demurely.
Tearing his eyes away from her even as he felt his heart skip a beat, Ryoga
looked back at Cologne (he had to have heard that wrong!). “Hard to believe my
family’s curse is actually good for something,” he growled, mood darkening as
he thought of all the long, lonely miles he’d wandered. “But if you can’t hold
on to me and you aren’t going to kill me, why am I here?”
Ku Lon had been watching the little interplay, smiling, but now she sobered and
leaned forward. “To make you an offer,” she replied. “While it is true that we
cannot hold you, you are not the first Wanderer to grace the tribe with your
presence and as a result we have created an exception to the laws. As things
stand now, the focal point of your wanderings is your rival, Ranma. So long as
you are focused on beating him, you will find your path crossing his anywhere
from weekly to every few months.
“However, if you will accept Pa Fum and Xian Pu as your wives, truly accept
them so that the focal point shifts to them instead of Ranma, you will find
that wherever you wander, you will have a home to return to, and the tribe to
look after your children. It will be a much less lonely life.”
Ryoga found he no longer had any problem keeping his focus on Cologne, thoughts
of the difference it would make in his wandering running through his mind,
knowing that sooner or later he would return home — a real home with his family
there, always happy to see him, children racing to greet him. Then he suddenly
thought of what would be entailed in creating those children, and even as he
tasted the blood trickling from his nose he fought to drive the image from his
mind of the two girls on a bed, soft lighting, not a stitch of clothing....
                                      /\
The three Amazons stared in shock at the suddenly unconscious teenager, blood
running out of his nose. Pa Fum moved over to kneel next to him and cup her
hands on each side of his head. “He seems all right,” she reported after a
moment, puzzled. “But the blood —”
“He’s fine, probably just had some pervy thought ‘cause a’ yer offer.”
Xian Pu jerked around, looking for the source of the disembodied voice, but Pa
Fum simply turned toward it, looking up at a point above head height several
yards away. “Why do you say so, Ranma?” she asked.
“You can see me?!”
“No, but I can sense you,” she replied. “Now, what’s wrong with my patient?”
“Well ... he doesn’t get around girls much, and ... when he gets ta thinkin’
about ... some things ...”
Ku Lon had fought not to laugh at the way the boy turned nature spirit’s hands
had shot to cover her bountiful breasts and mound berlow with its curly patch
of red hair, then relaxed when informed she was still invisible to most of
them. (Teenagers are so sensitive about looking ridiculous — adults, too, come
to think of it.) But now the Elder lost it, clutching her sides as she started
cackling with laughter. Pa Fum and Xian Pu turned to stare at her, and her
laughter increased at the sight of their bemused expressions until she lost her
balance on her staff and fell over.
Finally, she fought her laughter from peals down to chuckles and sat up. “What
our guest is trying to say is that your husband, here,” nodding toward the
unconscious boy, “is inordinately affected by thoughts of naked girls and what
he’d like to do with them. Correct?”
“Uh, yeah, pretty much,” Ranma agreed.
The two younger Amazons turned to stare at Ryoga. Pa Fum was blushing again,
but Xian Pu frowned thoughtfully. “That too too big problem,” she mused. “Point
of Kiss of Marriage to make strong babies.”
“Oh, I’m sure it isn’t anything that time and exposure won’t take care of,
assuming he’s willing,” Ku Lon said nonchalantly.
Ranma laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure he’ll enjoy that. Well, if ya guys aren’t gonna
kill him I’d better head back home. They’re probably wonderin’ what’s happened
to me.”
Ku Lon picked up her staff and hopped up onto it. “I will accompany you part of
the way,” she said. “Xian Pu, Pa Fum, when your husband awakens, he will
probably wish for some time to think about our offer. Show him where we’ve
stowed his backpack, so that when he inevitably wanders halfway around the
world he’ll have it with him.”
The two girls nodded. Ranma shrugged. “Sure, why not?” She dropped down beside
the diminutive crone and the two floated/bounced toward the edge of the park
through the easing rain.
“Are you aware that you are being followed around by several minor demons?” Ku
Lon asked quietly.
Ranma shot her a sharp look, before facing forward again. “Yeah, I know,
thanks. Not a problem, we got it handled.”
“Good, then you don’t need your mother to escort you the rest of the way home,
after all.”
“What?”
A wry laugh came from ahead and to one side and Nodoka stepped out from behind
a tree, her rain-soaked nightgown plastered to her smoothly muscled body, feet
bare, bare katana in hand hanging at her side. “How long did you know I was
there?”
“Since you arrived,” Ku Lon replied. “You’re very good, for a city dweller, but
not at the same level as warriors facing enemies or hunters that have others
depending on them to put food on the table.”
                                      /\
The Elder quickly made her farewells and Ranma watched as she bounced away back
to the camp, then looked over at her mother, focusing as much as she could on
the face that looked so much like an older version of her own — in spite of the
fact that she had already seen her mother’s naked body any number of times,
thanks to the way nonliving objects were next to invisible in this form,
somehow the way the rain-soaked night clothes she could barely see were
plastered to her mother’s body made it worse, and she really didn’t want to
deal with the kind of dreams that could give him.
Then Nodoka’s body was wracked by a massive shudder and she sneezed, and Ranma
winced. She’d forgotten that, just because the wet cold didn’t bother her, her
mother couldn’t say the same. “Come on, Mom, let’s get ya home an’ in the
furo,” she said.
Nodoka nodded. “An excellent idea,” she agreed, then yelped as Ranma swept her
off her feet.
“No need ta bruise yer feet any more,” the redhead said, lifting to just above
head height and floating off toward the street.
The two made their way through the rain-slick streets back to the Tendo
compound without a word until Ranma set her mother down in front of the front
door. Nodoka reached for the latch, only to pause when Ranma grabbed her elbow.
“Hold up a minute,” the young succubus said, and closed her eyes for a moment
to reach out with the senses she was still getting used to. Yes, there were her
fiancée’s and mom’s wards, full of power and the comforting touch of their
inner light and determined love; there was the relaxed joy of some sprites
dancing to the rhythm of the Voice, and others more alert but just as relaxed;
and there, behind her and to the side, just as she’d felt all the way back from
the park ... she turned to look at empty air. “Alright, Pop, nobody’s watchin;
ya can come out now.”
Nodoka glanced between her daughter and the direction she was staring, brow
furrowed in confusion ... until between one second and the next an equally
soaked panda was suddenly standing on the wet grass. “How?” she gasped — it
wasn’t magic, she had sensed nothing! “How long were you following us?”
“Since I met ya at the park,” Ranma answered for him, smirking a bit at the
panda — the female panda, remembering the prank she and the guide had played on
her pop back at Jusenkyo. “Dunno how ya did it, Pop, but ya don’t hide yer
emotions — I can’t see ya, but I can feel ya.”
The panda held up a sign, her eyes avoiding Nodoka’s. #A ki technique I
developed.# flip #Your ki reserves aren’t large# flip #enough for you to learn#
flip #yet, but they’re close.#
“And what else can you do that you haven’t told us?” Nodoka asked, voice hard.
Genma flinched, but before she could respond her former wife held up a hand.
“Wait, not tonight — it’s late, and I’m soaked and freezing. But tomorrow,
we’re going to talk.”
Genma sighed, eyes dropping. #Yes, Nodoka-san.#
Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed
their work!