By Jim Robert Bader
(Standard disclaimer: Takahashi's creations, yadda, yadda,
this story set in the main timeline of canon)
Nabiki Tendo was walking home from school one day with her mind on her usual pursuit of making money. Most girls her age might have their minds on dating or schoolwork, but Nabiki's interests were more primal and basic, having to do with Yen signs and balance sheets. She had a family to support after all, and it took a lot of energy to keep their finances solvent.
Some days petty cash was easy to come by, but on other days it was like pulling wisdom teeth to scrape enough to pay for food on the table. People always thought that it was easy for Nabiki to make money off of various betting pools and schemes, but those people never had to balance their accounts against the cost for food needed to feed seven hungry mouths, not to mention to pay for the utilities and other living costs that left little enough to cover the property taxes, which in Japan were confiscatory and outrageous.
Small wonder that she never had time for anything else in life, she reflected rather morosely. It was so unfair at times that everyone called her the heartless mercenary when the real cause of all her family's problems was...
"RANMA!"
That sounded familiar. Nabiki would recognize the dulcet tones of her younger sister, Akane, anywhere this side of Tartarus, nor was the homicidal tone all that unusual either. Hardly a day went by when she did not hear her sister going off like that for one reason or another, and always the cause was the same: something done or said by their resident, ever-reliable sex-changing martial artist.
Nabiki glanced up, looking over her shoulder at an all-too-familiar sight in the province of Nerima, of Ranma Saotome being chased by half the town's population, which included both fianc es and his usual band of enemies and well wishers. Nabiki had seen this parade on many an occasion, unfortunately for her she had never quite seen it from this close up as the fast-moving parade was bearing down at her with the speed of a charging herd of rhinos.
Nabiki took one look and knew that she was as good as dead if she remained standing where she was, so she turned and picked up her heals, going from a dead halt to flat out in all of two seconds, not enough time to avoid the stampede but hopefully enough to keep from being immediately trampled.
All at once an arm went around her waist and she found herself being propelled airborne, the ground fading fast from underneath her, leaving behind her nerves, composure and stomach in that order.
The next thing she knew she was being deposited on her rump by one out-of-breath Ranma, whose labored panting was only exceeded by the skipping of Nabiki's heart. She looked at him and started to voice a question but instead he just shook his head and said, "Don't ask. You wouldn't believe it."
Nabiki blinked her eyes, discovering that they were sitting on the roof of a building with only a vague memory of how they had arrived there. Quite obviously Ranma had picked her up and carried her during one of his incredible superleaps. The question foremost in her mind was then the one she did ask, "Why?"
"Huh?" he looked at her in confusion, "Why what?"
"Why did you save me, Ranma?" she replied for his and her elucidation.
"Well Geez," Ranma shrugged with his usual defensiveness, "Why do you think I did it? You were in the way and would have got hurt if I hadn't."
"I know that," Nabiki replied, composing herself in a sitting position so that her knees did not knock together and betray her emotions, "What I meant was...why did you save me? It's not exactly like I'm your favorite person, Ranma-kun..."
"Huh?" he blinked his eyes and looked at her again, then he actually seemed to think a moment before saying, "Well...it's not really that hard to figure out, Nabiki. I mean, you...well, I don't want to see you hurt, even if you sometimes do stuff that makes me angry at you. Why shouldn't I save you? I mean...it's not like we're family or nothing, but it wouldn't be right if you got hurt on my account."
Nabiki just looked at him with a strange, unreadable mask that covered the depth of her emotions, but underneath she was a mess and wanted to have more time to regain her composure. Aloud what she said was, "I appreciate that, Ranma, thank you."
"Ah, don't mention it," Ranma smiled a bit lopsidedly, "Besides, I'm sure you'll think up some way to charge me for it or turn it into a profit. I'll bet the other girls will wonder why I did it, too, and you can keep 'em guessing until they pay you enough so you could tell them some story..."
Nabiki actually smiled at that, "Why, Ranma-kun, that's actually clever! You don't mind if I borrow that idea, do you? It's not like your fianc e brigade won't be wondering right now what evil purposes I have for luring you off all to myself, and I'll have to tell them something to dissuade their jealous wrath."
"Huh?" Ranma said again, then after a moment of figuring it out he said a little more hesitantly, "Uh, yeah...I guess it would be better for you if they thought that..."
"AHA!" a voice cut into their reverie, "At last I've found you, my boy! Now prepare to feel my wrath for you spoiling my fun in the girl's gym locker!"
"Ah Geez," Ranma turned to regard the perverted little master, Happosai, "Can't this wait until we get back home? There's people still chasing me because they think I was helping you!"
"MY vengeance waits for no man!" Happosai cried, pulling out one of his portable bombs in preparation for his trademark Happodaikarin attack, "Now feel my wrath!"
"Wait, you old fool!" Ranma frantically cried out, "Nabiki's here with me and..."
"Nabiki?" Happosai's eyes got wide as he suddenly took in her presence, then glanced at the shrinking fuse on his bomb and said, "Uh oh..."
That was when Nabiki's world exploded and her perceptions went white as consciousness left her. She was not aware when the roof collapsed out from under them as Happosai's bomb proved to be more powerful than even he had estimated, coupled with the structural weakness of the dilapidated structure leading to one very unpleasant mess of wood, brick, cement, steel and mortar, all coming crashing down on their heads as they went plunging down into the sub basement...
"What was that?" Akane gasped as she looked up from her search for Ranma.
"Sounded like a bomb went off someplace," Ukyo said, "Think it might be Ranma?"
"Aiyaa!" Shampoo exclaimed, "Airen always in middle of unusual events...Shampoo go look for Ranma."
"HOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Not without me you strumpets! My Ranma-sama might have need of my assistance where all you three could only make things worse, not better."
"Oh please!" Ryoga growl, "I just ate, don't make me sick to my stomach."
"Saotome better not try anything with my Shampoo..."
"Or my sister!" Akane insisted.
"What needs would that foul wretch have of bothering the fair Tendo Nabiki? Surely even he is not enough of a cad to brave her wrath?"
"You might be right, boy, but it bears investigation," Cologne observed dryly, "This way, I believe that I do see smoke, and it smells like one of Happy's explosive devices."
"My poor little girl!" wailed Soun, "She had better be all right!"
"I'm sure she is, Tendo-kun," Genma assured him, "But we'd better go see what sort of trouble the boy's gotten himself into this time."
The rest of the assembled throng that had been chasing Saotome Ranma milled around for a few moments then blindly followed these others on the general principles mobs use everywhere of following the herd. A few did drift off to seek their own personal affairs, but they were the odd, contented lot who found satisfaction in their lives and therefore had no reason to chase anyone save from simple boredom, and thus they matter not in the greater scheme of this story...
The first thing Nabiki was sure about her head was that it was still attached to her shoulders. Beyond that she wasn't placing any bets, especially in light of the odd ringing in her ears that came from having an explosion go off at close range. She took her time doing a mental inventory then silently resolved that all body parts were equally attached and in reasonable working order.
Then she became aware of a weight laying atop her and slowly forced her eyes open, ignoring the protest in her skull that said that keeping them shut was far less unsettling to her digestion. For a second she thought maybe the advice had been sounder than going ahead with her efforts since it was dark wherever she was laying, but the warm body pressed against her felt familiar so she hesitantly guessed by his scent that it was probably Ranma.
"Ranma-kun?" she asked, then when he did not reply she called out a more insistent, "Ranma!"
"Nnmph?" she heard a warm breath reply against her shirt, then he began to stir with a heartfelt, "Geez...you think you could wait a minute, Akane, until you hear my side of things..."
"Excuse me?" Nabiki asked, both relieved and annoyed that the first thought he had would be about her little sister.
"Uh...Nabiki?" Ranma slowly pushed off of her then looked down, "Oh...sorry...didn't mean to land on top of you. I...ow...my back hurts!"
"Not surprising," Nabiki replied, "You took the brunt of that explosion. You sure you're all right, Ranma-kun?"
"I guess so," Ranma groaned as she sat up, rubbing the back of his head while looking around, "So...where's the pervert, and where are we for that matter?"
Nabiki's eyes had adjusted more to the dim lighting but all she could make out was the wreckage of steel and plaster all around them, "I guess maybe that bomb blew a hole in the roof and sent us to the basement. It was a pretty old building..."
"Lower than the basement is my guess," Ranma looked around, "Looks more like some kind of a cave or pit or something. Looks pretty deep, I can't even make out the floor above us. How much did that old fool put in his grenade this time?"
"Quite a lot I guess," Nabiki said as she started to try and sit up only to gasp in pain and lay back, dismayed to find her left foot was suddenly throbbing, "Ow!"
"What is it?" Ranma was instantly concerned, "Are you hurt?"
"My...ankle," Nabiki replied, indicating the leg that she dared not move.
Ranma had to clear away a number of objects to find the foot in question, then he winced, "Geez, looks like it's swelling. I guess you must have sprained it or something. Here, let me take a look."
He used as gentle a touch as he could to pull off her shoe but Nabiki still gasped as renewed pain flooded her senses. Without thinking she growled, "Be careful, you clod! Were you raised by wolves or something?"
"Try Pandas," Ranma said, sounding unconcerned by her anger, "Yep, looks like you twisted it pretty bad down there. Good thing nothing appears to be broken, even the tendons are in place. You got lucky this time, Nabiki..."
"Lucky?" Nabiki said between clenched teeth, but a second later she thought more clearly about it, then she gave a stifled laugh and said, "I guess maybe I am...if that's the only thing wrong with me...everything else considered."
"You mean like getting blown up and having a building collapse on your head?" Ranma's smile could barely be seen in the dim lighting, "Happens to me all the time. I thought you were immune to this stuff, though. Nothing like this ever happens to you..."
"First time for everything I guess," Nabiki winced, "I'm thinking of having my lawyer take up a suit with the Kami, either that or I need a word with the author."
"You'll be all right," Ranma said, "I just wish I had something cold to help with the swelling. You really are a clumsy girl, you know that?"
"Clumsy?" Nabiki reacted.
"Sure," Ranma said, "Nobody ever tell you how to land when you fall? I never even break a nail when I get buried under a mountain."
"Why you..." Nabiki growled, but in reality she was cheered by his attempt at humor. Ranma always had something he could either say or do that would amuse her, and if she had to be buried with anyone, she could think of a lot less amusing or interesting people...
"I think they're down there," Cologne remarked as she stared at the smoking pile of rubble.
"What make you say that, Great Grandmother?" Shampoo asked.
"Call it a hunch, child," Cologne surveyed the firemen and pararescue people who had arrived first on the scene, then turned to regard the crowd that followed her and the others, "We need to find a way to get them out of there. Unfortunately the ground around the blast sight is unstable, and if any of you were to walk out there you might collapse more rubble on top of my Son in law and the middle Tendo girl."
"We have to do something!" Soun declared with sober resolution, "My child is down alone there..."
"Alone with Ranma you mean," Akane growled, "That pervert better not try anything with her while he's down there."
"Why do you think he'd do that, Akane?" Ukyo asked, "Seems to me more likely that your sister will be busy fleecing him of all his money."
"You right," Shampoo nodded, "We must save Ranma from sneaky Mercenary girl."
"Is there no limit to your perfidiousness, Saotome?" Kuno growled with a heartfelt appeal to the heavens, "To threaten the innocence of a chaste, unsullied maiden is one thing, but to go after Tendo Nabiki? You must surely be desperate!"
"No one's that desperate, brother dear," Kodachi declared flatly, "And Ranma is not foolish enough to fall for her schemes while trapped down there with that harlot..."
"What are the odds that they're about to make things worse?" Hiroshi murmured to Daisuke.
"Twenty to one against they're causing worse damage," Daisuke murmured back, "And that's allowing for the police and rescue people here to restrain them."
"Excuse me, sir," said Kasumi to one of the firemen who looked to be in authority, "Is my sister trapped down there with one of my houseguests?"
"Too soon to tell, Ma'am," the Fire Captain replied, "We're doing everything we can to see that any survivors are well cared for. What is the name of the possible victims?"
"Saotome Ranma and Tendo Nabiki," Kasumi answered promptly.
For some reason the Fire Captain got a peculiar look in his eyes before he turned to one of his lieutenants and said, "You think she means the same Tendo Nabiki that we owe money to for that bingo game the other day?"
"The one at the carnival?" his assistant replied, "Sure is. That's her older sister, Kasumi."
"Saotome Ranma," the Captain's expression darkened, "He's on our Ten Most Wanted Lists for walking disasters. If anything should happen to him..."
"We might actually get some time off to see our families?" the lieutenant asked hopefully.
"Time off," the Captain repeated the words as if he had never heard them before in his life, and he got a very strange expression on his face that he instantly banished before turning back to the girl and saying, "As I said everything is being done that can be accomplished Ma'am. Now, if you will excuse me," he turned and cupped his mouth before calling out, "Back to the Firehouse, Men! We'll let the City Work crews handle this one."
"But..." Kasumi started to protest.
"I'm sure they'll be all right," the Captain called over his shoulder as he headed for the firetruck while his men piled in with the speed of a precision drill team, "Lots of people walk away from these things ever day."
"Tell me about it," one of the Pararescue people grumbled, seeing a singed old man crawling out from the rubble, to which he just shook his head and said, "Unfortunately."
Kasumi looked surprised as she turned to the others and said, "I don't think they want to help us."
"Never mind them," Cologne replied, "We have more than enough manpower here if everyone will listen up and obey my commands to the letter..."
She stopped talking because she found the herd had thinned out to little more than a few of the regular suspects. A few students were saying prayers over the rubble as if to wish the dead a safe journey to the after life but other than that the only ones who stayed were the ones who either most loved or hated Ranma. The thought of doing honest work had all but scared away the others.
"Oh well," she sighed to herself, "Might as well make the best of what's available..."
"Any thoughts on how to get out of here?" Nabiki asked Ranma, who was standing up to survey their surroundings.
"Not a clue," Ranma replied, "It's too dark to make stuff out, and I don't want to risk bringing more stuff down by climbing up on the wrong rubble. Guess we'll have to wait for them to find us then we can dig our way out of here."
"Dig," Nabiki said faintly, "Oh yeah...I can be a big help in that department..."
"What's wrong?" Ranma looked down at her, "We'll get out of this. Have a little faith..."
"Faith is not something I'm long on, Ranma-kun," Nabiki replied, "At the moment all I've got is vague hopes and general pessimism."
Ranma squatted down and tried to look at her in the gloom, "What's the matter, Nabiki? Don't you think we've got enough air down here? Don't tell me you're giving up over a little thing like this."
Nabiki managed a faint chuckle before replying, "Obviously your definition of a little thing isn't the same as mine. I'm sorry, Ranma-kun, but I just don't have your boundless optimism. It's a character flaw, I know, but to me this place just reeks of a tomb that's going to bury me alive."
"Not with me here it won't," Ranma assured her, "You've got me to look after you so nothing can go wrong, you got it?"
Nabiki's smile was faint as she said, "I'm not worried about you, Ranma-kun. Nothing stops you for very long, you'll probably wind up living forever. I'm the one who's not immortal, I break easily, and if more stuff collapses on us I don't think you'll be able to shelter me like the last time."
"I'm hurt," Ranma sniffed, "I said you're going to be all right and now I'm giving you my word on it. You ought to know by now that I never go back on a promise."
"True," Nabiki replied, "I just don't understand why you're being so nice to me all of a sudden. I can't think of anything I've ever done for you to deserve this."
"Sure you have," Ranma said, "You do lots of stuff for me."
"Such as?" she asked.
"Uh..." Ranma tried to think a moment, "Well...because of you we still got a roof over our heads. You put a lot of money into the finances..."
"Some of the money comes from your father in the form of rent," Nabiki said, "Although you might call it blackmail. He is the only one of us with a regular source of income..."
Ranma sniffed, "Yeah, because of his job with Doctor Tofu, but you're always reminding us that we eat more than he makes, and the hot water bills alone..."
"All right," Nabiki said, "So you guys are more of a burden than a help. Are you happy?"
"I guess," Ranma replied, and then a very awkward silence fell over them both, huddled up as they were close together in the near impenetrable gloom that surrounded them on all sides.
After a moment the silence got too much for her and Nabiki said, "Ranma-kun?"
"Yeah?"
"You know any word games?" she asked.
"Uh...why do you ask?"
"I guess I'm just...a little bored is all," Nabiki lied to cover her nervousness, "This waiting around to be rescued is kinda monotonous, I need something to pass the time, you know what I'm saying?"
"I guess," Ranma's response held a reluctance that was the near-equal to her own hesitation, "So...what do you wanna play?"
Nabiki was strongly tempted to say, "Strip Poker," but instead she elected for a far milder game by saying, "Think of a number between one and ten..."
"What?" she could almost heard the boy's eyes blinking.
"Just humor me," she urged, "It's the game I want to play, all right?"
"Okay," Ranma said, "Six."
"You're not supposed to tell me the number aloud, dummy," Nabiki chided, "You're supposed to keep it to yourself and let me try to guess what it is."
"Oh," Ranma paused before saying, "You want me to try over?"
"By all means, pick a new number," Nabiki smiled in the dark, knowing he would no doubt choose the same number, being a creature of odd habits, "Okay, now...multiply that number by seven..."
"How is it going so far?" Kasumi asked as she began serving tea and refreshments to the overtaxed rescue party.
"We are gradually making headway," Cologne replied, "But it is time consuming work made complicated by the way the rubble has settled since we began the excavation. We must use caution to avoid collapsing the entire mess down upon the heads of those we are attempting to rescue. If we go too fast we court disaster, but if this takes too much time..."
"Then Ranma and Nabiki might run out of good air to breathe," Happosai concluded for her, "Assuming they didn't uncover a gas main, in which case we could be too late already. Oh, if only this hadn't happened to that poor sweet girl and my ungrateful apprentice..."
"If only you knew how to mix your explosives better this would never have happened," Cologne shot back, "So don't just stand there gawking, fool, get in there and help them!"
"I am helping them out," Happosai declared as he produced a set of fans and began waving them in the air before cheering, "YAY TEAM, GO! LET'S DIG THAT EARTH AND HAUL THAT DEBRIS OUT OF THERE-!"
Cologne gingerly moved to the side, urging Kasumi to do likewise, and three seconds later the little man got covered over in dirt and rubble as the parties doing all the work shifted to include him as a target for a landfill. The parties continued piling it on until there was no trace of the little man in evidence, then Ukyo snorted and said, "That old guy is nothing but trouble."
"Aiyaa," Shampoo murmured, "Spatula Girl got that right."
"Come on guys!" Akane urged, "Let's not quit now! Put your backs to it and keep digging!"
"We're digging, Akane," Ryoga insisted, "No way is Ranma going to die down there...not until I've had the chance to kill him for myself!"
"How dare Saotome risk his life when I haven't had the chance to crush it out of him," Mousse declared, "I'll prove that I'm a better man than him if it kills me..."
"No give Shampoo ideas," the purple haired wonder grumbled under her breath, being careful to aim some of the dirt that she was shoveling in his direction.
"Hang on, Ranchan," Ukyo declared, her own bakers peel proving to be a very handy spatula with twice the scooping power of any other, "We'll get to you soon enough, just hang on until we get there!"
"Curse you, Saotome!" Kuno growled, achieving surprising results though he was using a bokken instead of a shovel, "None has the right to defeat you but Kuno Tatewaki! I shall not permit you to be defeated by a mere building full of debris! The Blue Thunder will have his revenge only after I have freed you!"
"Thank you for that most stirring speech, dear brother," Kodachi remarked in barely concealed sarcasm, "But I know that my darling Ranma-sama will survive...he has taken worse and come through it without undue bodily damage. Your beloved Kodachi will effect your rescue...if you would just put more of your back into it, Sasuke!"
"Yes Mistress," the little Ninja replied meekly to his glowering employer, "I'm shoveling as fast as I can, just like you told me..."
"We can't let it end like this," Soun averred as he picked up and tossed huge chunks of rubble to the sides, "Our schools will never be united if we cannot free your son, Saotome!"
"I know, Tendo," the normally lazy Genma replied as he pushed a large chunk of the flooring to one side, "The boy can be such an ingrate at times, forcing his father to have to sweat like this just to spare him from his own carelessness with the Master."
"You guys are pathetic," Akane growled as she noticed that one group seemed to be filling up some of the holes that had been dug out by others, "Try working together for once and stop canceling out each others' efforts!"
"Now there's a novel suggestion," Cologne remarked, lowering her voice to a dull murmur as she added, "But considering the source..."
"What was that?" Akane demanded.
"I think we should pool our resources, dear, into a more cooperative effort, just as you suggested," the old woman responded shrewdly.
"I would agree that we should be united in our efforts to free my poor Ranma-
sama," Kodachi allowed, "But there really is no cause for us to act in haste. We know that Ranma-sama has survived much worse in his time, whereas the fates would not dare to owe that mercenary strumpet any favors, so most likely she has survived the worst of the matter, and besides...it's not like she would take advantage of poor Ranma-sama the same way that any of us would if we were trapped with him under similar circumstances, don't you agree?"
There was a brief pause as Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo and even Kodachi paused to chew that one over, and then panic replaced the calm demeanor that the Black Rose had meant to instill by her own words, as signified by the frantic way she started shouting, "WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? KEEP DIGGING! WE HAVE TO FREE MY POOR RANMA-SAMA!"
And so frantic was her desire for this that even Kodachi consented to get her own hands dirty by borrowing another shovel from her ever-faithful (but hard pressed and underpaid) manservant...
"Gin!"
"Rats!"
"That's five out of five games, Ranma-kun," Nabiki grinned, "Even you can't be that bad a player. Are you sure you're really trying?"
"Yes I'm sure," Ranma growled, "I just need more time to look at my hand that's all! You don't have to go rushing through every hand..."
"I'm sorry," Nabiki replied with surprising softness in her voice, "But I am a little surprised that you can keep up with me as good as you are doing."
"Hah, didn't think I had it in me, did ya?" Ranma challenge.
"Frankly...no," Nabiki admitted, "Remembering an entire deck of cards in your head isn't exactly something that a lot of people can do without seeing the cards themselves in front of them. You really do have a photographic memory...and that implies that you're a lot smarter than you let on most of the time."
"Gee thanks," Ranma's voice dripped sarcasm.
"I'm serious," Nabiki insisted, "It's like the way you can come up with some of the more ingenious strategies that you do on the spur of the moment and in the heat of a major battle. Turning a Hiryu Shoten Ha into a lateral blast from mid-air to beat Kirin, for example...Cologne used to go on and on about that, and you know how hard she is to impress. You really do have to be some kind of combat genius to do things like that."
"I don't know about the genius part," Ranma shrugged invisibly in the near-total darkness, "But I've always known I could beat just about anybody when I get serious about fighting. Living in this town doesn't exactly give me a lot of options about resting on my laurels and all that..."
"Good point," Nabiki replied, "It's just that I find it amazing that you don't put that intellect to use on anything else. If you did, then you could be at the top of your class in no time straight..."
"What would be the point?" Ranma asked, "It's not like I'm gonna get to use any kind of formal education stuff, and Pop's always insisted that if it ain't related to martial arts then it ain't important..."
"You honestly listen to your father?" Nabiki asked.
"Ah...yeah, I see your point."
"Then you ought to see that being a brainless jock won't always serve you quite so well," Nabiki noted, "If you wanted to teach classes like Daddy used to, then it wouldn't hurt to at least have a High School diploma, otherwise other instructors might not take you seriously, to say nothing of the people who might hire you out or pay to attend classes."
"I don't do the art for money," Ranma quietly insisted.
"And now there's a major difference between us, Ranma-kun," Nabiki insisted, "You have a major gift, but it's likely to be wasted, and unlike you I have to live in the real world where there are bills to be paid and I can't go living off the charity of others. If you got even moderately serious about helping out with your talents we could make a real killing and insure that our families never have to go hungry ever again. At the very least you could get Daddy to open the dojo to accept new students."
"Tried that once," Ranma shrugged, "Only Kodachi put us out of business."
"She wouldn't object if you wouldn't keep playing up to her ego," Nabiki countered, "I know you don't like having her around, and I can't blame you if you find her a little scary, but as long as you don't tell her off once and for all..."
"What the hell good would that do?" Ranma asked, "She's a Kuno! You know she'd never listen!"
"She might if you managed to penetrate that aura of madness and just explain things to her in terms even she could understand," Nabiki insisted, "There are limits even to insanity, you know..."
"You can say that after growing up in a place like Nerima?"
"Er...okay, so maybe you do have a point there," Nabiki growled, "But if you want the truth, Saotome, I think a part of you likes having a rich girl fawn all dewy-eyed over you. It's a nice sop for your ego."
"Hey, that ain't true!" Ranma protested, "I'd be happy if we'd never even met! She's completely out of her gourd with all those drugs that she's been taking, and if her family wasn't keeping her out of attending rehab..."
"True enough," Nabiki's voice softened again, "It's the same thing with her brother...Tatewaki-kun might actually turn out to be a halfway decent guy if he were sober."
"Yeah?" Ranma growled, "I'll believe that when Ryoga admits he's P-chan to Akane."
"Ryoga is P-chan?" Nabiki mused, "Interesting..."
"URK!" Ranma gasped, "I didn't mean-"
"Don't worry," Nabiki replied, "I already knew all about his curse. I've been watching him for quite a while now, just to make sure he doesn't try taking advantage of my sister."
"You mean you actually let him sleep in her bed and stuff?" Ranma asked, "You never even thought about telling her about him?"
"Of course I've thought about it," Nabiki answered, "But I've let it go on the way I have for the same reason you have...if Akane knew the truth she'd kill him! And besides...this is Ryoga we're talking about, the boy who can't even look at a semi-nude girl in a catalogue without getting a nosebleed. There's as much likelihood of him taking advantage of his place as her pet pig as there is of me winning first place as Altruist of the year! Besides...it's such a convenient handle that I can use on the guy for blackmailing him into doing what I want..."
"Figures," Ranma sniffed, "You always have an angle."
"And that's a bad thing?" Nabiki asked, "What about all those free meals you work out of people using your girl-half? What about those okonomiyaki that you scarf off of Kuonji, or those Ramen meals that Shampoo provides free of charge? Don't try kidding me about you never taking advantage of people, Ranma-kun..."
"That's different," Ranma insisted, "I don't force anybody into giving me stuff..."
"That is true," again Nabiki softened, "You're no bully, Ranma-kun...if you were then you could even force Kuno to give you his lunch money. Sometimes you're just too nice a guy for your own good, that's why you ought to have someone like me as your manager to keep you out of trouble..."
"Keep me out of trouble?" Ranma snorted, "Who's the one who likes to stir things up so she can arrange all kinds of fights for me to get into, all so you can bet on how long it takes for me to win?"
"Well...I wouldn't have to resort to these means if I really was your manager," Nabiki reasonably countered, "I admit I do take advantage of you...once in a while, Ranma-kun...but in a way it's your own fault. Nobody will even bet against you anymore, it's hard enough for me to make an honest yen with your string of successes."
"Honest yen?" Ranma repeated.
"Well...as opposed to other ways that I could be making ends meet..."
"True enough," Ranma chuckled softly, "It's not like you're selling me into slavery or prostitution by taking all those photos..." there was a brief pause before he added, "Right?"
"Hmmmm..." Nabiki purred, "Such interesting...suggestions. Ever consider being a Gigolo, Ranma-kun? You could charge top dollar with all the girls in our class who are just dying to date you...and the boys too with your girl half. Heck, I could even raffle you off to some of the girls that I know who're into other girls..."
"That ain't funny, Nabiki!" Ranma growled.
"Well, I think it is," Nabiki smirked in the darkness, "And you're so cute when you get angry."
"Why do you always do this?" Ranma asked.
"Do what?" she replied in confusion.
"Make a joke and push me away at arms length?" Ranma answered, "You afraid of just letting it drop and acting like a real human being once in a while? What's the matter, you scared I'm gonna find out the truth about you?"
"And what kind of truth is that?" Nabiki's tone dipped to frosty levels.
"That underneath that cold, mercenary exterior you're really a pretty nice girl," Ranma said, "When you want to be, that is, and you're not being such a pain and a nuisance."
"A 'Nice' girl?" Nabiki sounded shocked, "You take that back! I'm not a nice girl, Ranma! I'm as nasty as they come, I've got money in my veins and I don't take crap from anybody, least of all you, Saotome!"
"Yeah, you can make my life a living hell sometimes," Ranma countered, "But underneath it all I think you are a pretty nice girl. You ain't exactly rolling in the lap of luxury with all the yen you keep raking in, and I know for a fact that you've wanted to buy some nice things for yourself instead of always borrowing clothes off of Akane."
"I don't know what you mean," Nabiki unselfconsciously looked away, even though she knew that her face could not be seen in the relative darkness.
"Sure you don't," Ranma sniffed, "Like all those times we've nearly starved to death, and the way the bills somehow manage to get paid off on time, and all those other times when I've heard Kasumi say how much you've sacrificed for the family, even dipping into your own college funds so you'll probably have to postpone going on to business classes for another year. You graduate next month, after all, but you ain't even checked out a list of schools yet after filling out your entrance exams. You think I didn't notice?"
There was no response for several very long seconds, so Ranma filled the gap by saying, "You talk about me worrying about my education...well, you've got a lot better chance of going somewhere than me! You could get away from it all and go on to major in business, but instead you're still here, like you're afraid that if you leave that we'll all go broke or something. You ask me, Kasumi ain't the only one who's put her future on hold for the sake of others."
"And what makes you think I'll even be accepted anywhere, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked softly, "Maybe my grades won't be enough to earn me a scholarship...did you ever think about that?"
"You?" it was Ranma's turn to drip sarcasm, "Please...if there's one guy who's got a brain of her own in that house, it's you. Heck, Akane's pretty good in her test scores, but next to you she's about as clueless as Ryoga."
"All right," Nabiki softly conceded, "So what if I did get accepted into some college or university...what's going to happen then to Kasumi and Daddy?"
"I dunno," Ranma sighed, "What's gonna happen when Akane becomes the head of the house, or if Kasumi and Doctor Tofu ever manage to get it on together? I don't worry about stuff that ain't happened yet...it's a waste of time. No matter how good you plan it'll all get ruined, believe me."
Nabiki noticed the hint of sadness in the young man's voice and said, "Growing up with your father must have been a lot harder than I thought if you can't even imagine yourself with a future, Ranma-kun."
"Well, it sure taught me never to make any long-term plans," Ranma huffed, "The old fool could wreck up anything if he puts his mind to it..."
"Your father doesn't have a monopoly on foolish behavior," Nabiki said sadly, "And he's invested everything into your engagement to Akane."
"Yeah...and what's the deal about that?" Ranma huffed, "Why's he so insistent that I marry the Tomboy in the first place?"
"I don't really know, Ranma-kun," Nabiki admitted, her tone forlorn and wistful as she considered the rather miss-matched pairing of the boy sitting next to her and her insecure and often violent-tempered younger sister and wondered (far from the first time) why Akane could never seem to appreciate how lucky she was to be engaged to a boy like Saotome Ranma...
"Oh dear," Cologne remarked, "It seems we have hit something of an obstacle here."
"What obstacle?" Ryoga replied as he contemplated a tangle of girders that were in their way, "I'll just use the Bakusai Tenketsu to clear a path..."
"That mainly works on stone, Boy," Cologne retorted, "I haven't taught you the variation yet that works primarily on metal. You do it the wrong way and it will be like placing charges of dynamite in the wrong place. You could bring this entire pit crashing down not only on us but on the people that we are trying to rescue. No...we need to bend these girders out of the way rather than shatter them, and to do that we need something hard and unyielding to hammer them with in a precisely focused manner."
"Something hard?" Ukyo asked.
"And unyielding?" Shampoo added.
"It would have to be nearly unbreakable in order to be effective," Kodachi
"But where are we going to find something like that on short notice?" Akane added.
"Truly it is a most ponderous dilemma," Kuno nodded sagely.
All four girls, plus Mousse and Ryoga, turned to look at him with a particular shared gleam in their expressions, and then before Tatewaki knew his peril he found himself being rudely seized by many hands that swiftly put his head to employment battering away at the girders and thus increasing the rate of their progress.
Nodoka, who was standing beside the others, noticed the pensive way that the Amazon matriarch was staring at the pit and asked, "What is the matter, Elder?"
"This goes not well," Cologne sighed, "We need to speed things up without risking a cave-in. They could run out of air long before we are able to reach them in all this rubble. If only there were time enough to put a call in back home...this situation is desperate enough that I would almost risk seeking the assistance of one whom I know has the power to help us."
"My poor little girl," Soun began to weep once again, "If only there were some way that we could get word that she and Ranma are all right..."
"There, there, Tendo," Genma patted him on his shoulder, "Things are bound to work out in the end. They always do work out when the Boy gets serious about things..."
"Gets serious?" Kodachi turned a mildly smudged face in their direction, "You can't be serious!"
"We don't want Ranchan getting serious!" Ukyo protested.
"Especially no when is trapped with Nabiki," Shampoo concluded.
"Hey, come on, guys," Akane countered, "This is Nabiki we're talking about! What do you think she's going to do down there?"
There was another brief pause as even Kasumi turned a questioning look in the direction of her little sister.
"WHAT AM I SAYING?" Akane blinked her eyes, then did what came natural to her and got angry, "RANMA, YOU BAKA! YOU BETTER NOT BE TRYING ANYTHING WITH MY SISTER!"
"Odds are it's more like the other way around," noted Daisuke from where he stood back with the other non-martial artists.
"You've got that right," Hiroshi nodded, "And I'll bet she even charges him for it."
"Ordinarily we'd be calling you two a couple of pigs," noted Yuka.
"But since this is Nabiki we're talking about," added Sayuri, "You're probably right...poor Ranma..."
"Ah...look," Ranma hesitated, sensing a withdrawal from the conversation in his companion, "If it's about me calling you a nice girl...I'm sorry about that. It won't happen again. I don't know what came over me to call you names like that..."
"Forget about it," Nabiki said in tones of indifference, but then her next words contradicted this altogether, "Ranma-kun...can I ask you a personal question?"
"Like what?" he asked her.
"Just what do you think about those girls you call your fiancees?" Nabiki answered.
"Huh?" Ranma blinked, "Well...I'm not sure just how to answer that. You know that Kodachi is a loon, something she shares in common with her brother..."
"She still considers herself a legitimate fianc e," Nabiki countered, "Especially after your father gave her his blessings."
"He only did that when she came over to bribe us with food!" Ranma reacted, "And you already know what I think of the old man's opinion on engagements!"
"But still," Nabiki insisted, "She does seem to genuinely care about you, and she's very pretty you know...and intelligent, and she's even willing to lower herself to what she considers a 'common domestic' level by playing the part of your housewife..."
"Oh sure," Ranma said, "She'd be great fun to have around...if you feel like having your every meal tested for its drug content. Look...I know Kodachi's got this weird obsession about me, and I guess maybe she's really a pretty nice girl when she ain't acting all stuck-up and crazy, but...well...she's just not my type, know what I mean?"
"No I don't," Nabiki replied, "Just what kind of girl is your type...or are you even into women?"
"Huh?" Ranma reacted, "And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Only that I sometimes wonder about you, Saotome," Nabiki softly sighed into the darkness, "You have such incredible luck with the ladies and yet you never want to take advantage of it. You even have my boy-hating little sister all hot for you, but you never even look at a girl like she's a sexual being. Hell, I can't even imagine how you could have any male hormones and not turn into a drooling leach at the way Shampoo is always throwing herself at your feet..."
"More like she aims a bit higher than that," Ranma snorted, "Like on my head for one thing."
"But don't you like her even a little?" Nabiki asked, "You sure went to a lot of trouble to win her back during that business with the Reversal jewel, and I can't believe that was entirely about ego."
"Hey, it ain't something I'm proud about, y'know," Ranma growled, "Yeah, I do like Shampoo...when she's not being all violent and possessive and talking about marrying me and stuff. She's pretty a good cook and she can actually be pretty nice when you get down to it. Most of the time I don't really mind having her around...but if it even starts to turn into that marriage stuff...well, let's just say I'm not too keen about having Cologne for an in-law."
"Then you do like her after all?" Nabiki wondered.
"Hey, I got eyes in my head," Ranma huffed, "I know she's a great looker, and she can be pretty cute when she's not even half trying. I just don't think I can get serious about her in a marrying sense...I mean...who wants to have to go to China and be her love-slave, or whatever it is they do with the men in her village."
"But think about it," Nabiki reasoned, "That could be the best way for you to find your way back to Jusenkyo..."
"Hey, I never thought of that," Ranma mused, then sighed, "What's the use? Sure, maybe I could get to like Shampoo that way...I mean...there's gotta be feelings there after the way she's tried to help out sometimes, and I could even ignore all those times she's tried to threaten, drug or bribe me into going out with her on dates. I guess just about any guy would feel flattered having a girl like that hanging around sometimes, but if I were just looking for somebody who could keep up with me, then I'd probably be dating Ucchan."
"And what about our most redoubtable chef Kuonji?" Nabiki asked.
"Hey, she's my best friend," Ranma said, "We get along great together, and as long as it ain't about her being engaged to me or nothing I can almost think of her as one of the guys. I still think of her like that, even though I know she's definitely a woman..."
"Is it her being a cross-dresser that offends you?" Nabiki asked.
"Get real," Ranma snorted, "Like I can hold a thing like that against her? Naw...she's no where near as much of a Tomboy as your sister, and while maybe she is a little too quick to use that spatula of hers, for the most part she's really a pretty nice girl. I sure hope someday she finds herself a guy who's worthy of love, but as for it being me...well...I'd really have to think about that."
"You mean you haven't already?" Nabiki asked in shock and consternation.
"Seriously? Nope," Ranma replied, "All she really cares about besides me is making Okonomiyaki...that's her whole life, working out in a restaurant. I can't really see myself taking second fiddle to a pancake, and I won't come between Ucchan and her life's ambition. I don't know why she is so hung up on me, but even if I weren't in the picture...she'd still have her okonomiyaki."
"But what do you think of her as a woman?" Nabiki persisted.
"Honestly?" Ranma said, "She's cute, definitely sexy, and she can be pretty outgoing and friendly most of the time...but she's just as likely to use drugs and blackmail to get her way as either Shampoo or Kodachi. I like Ucchan a lot, but I just don't think I can trust her that much farther than the others."
"Okay," Nabiki sighed, "So...that brings us to Akane."
"Akane," Ranma sighed, "Why doesn't she ever listen to me when I try explaining things to her? Why does she always go flying off the handle and getting all violent and stuff? She can be so cute one minute than turn into this...this...wild thing that just doesn't take no for an answer!"
"Did you mean to say Wild-Cat, Ranma-kun?" then smirked as she heard him involuntarily shudder.
"Whatever," Ranma fought down his Neko-phobia and continued, "Most of the time Akane can be a pretty nice girl, and she's very thoughtful towards others...but when she makes her mind up about stuff...hooboy!"
"I see," Nabiki mused softly, "So...in other words you've got problems with all four girls, and here I thought maybe you liked Akane the best..."
"Yeah, right," Ranma growled, "Like I've got any choice about it. If it wasn't for your Dad and my Pop always trying to push us together...well...maybe Akane and me would get along a whole lot better. To tell the truth I don't even feel like getting married to anybody right now...I mean, what's the damned hurry? Can't we just wait a few years to see if me and Akane really could work things out? Heck, she might even learn how to cook if you gave her time enough to work out the basics..."
"And how long do you suppose that would take?" Nabiki asked.
She almost feel Ranma shrugging his shoulders, "Dunno...until hell freezes over or something? I mean...it's not like that's the only reason to pick somebody to be a wife, just 'cause she can cook and clean for you. If I wanted that, then I'd probably marry Kasumi."
"I'd think that it was very important that you didn't need to worry about food poisoning in the comfort of your own home," Nabiki reasoned. "Sooo...what exactly is it that you're looking for in a woman?"
"I dunno," Ranma replied, "Maybe somebody with a great sense of humor? I mean...seriously, she'd need to have one just hanging around me!"
"A good point," Nabiki admitted, "You do seem to be a magnet when it comes to attracting all sorts of trouble."
"Yeah," Ranma admitted, "And what girl in her right mind would want to step into a hornet's nest like my life's become lately? She'd have to be desperate or crazy."
Another awkward silence fell over them both as they each stared off into the darkness as if allowing those words to filter down into their conscious recesses, then Nabiki casually remarked, "Or both."
"Yeah," Ranma agreed, allowing the silence to once again settle around the both of their shoulders...
"RANMA NO BAKA!" Akane declared as she struck an offending block of concrete that was impeding their passage, shattering it in twain from the sheer force of her anger.
"Good one, Tendo," Ukyo remarked, "That block will never offend you again."
"Shut up and keep digging," Akane growled, "We have to make more progress than this if we're going get any closer to rescuing that Hentai and my sister!"
"Akane no have to shout to make point," Shampoo declared as she employed her bonbori to finish off the two halves of the concrete, shattering them into so much powder, "We is going as fast as Great Grandmother say we should."
"Well, obviously that isn't fast enough, you harridans," Kodachi turned to her brother and said, "We should have contracted a professional demolitions unit to extricate these impediments from our path, dear brother. It ill behooves those of our station to sully our hands with such menial labor, that's why we have Sasuke."
"Yes Mistress," the little Ninja said with perfunctory obsequiousness, "We are close to being through...we only have another fifty feet or so to go before we break through to the next level."
"Just you wait, Ranma!" Ryoga snarled as he manhandled blocks of rubble that weighed considerably more than he did, I'll make you pay for worrying Akane...!"
"The same goes double for doing that to Shampoo," Mousse averred in sullen temper, only to halt in-mid stroke of the pick-ax that he was using and with a start declare, "WHAT AM I SAYING?"
"Oh dear," Cologne remarked, a hint of real worry creeping into her normally inscrutable expression.
"Is something wrong, Elder?" Kasumi asked in the process of pouring another cup of tea for the fathers.
"I just had the oddest sensation," the ancient Amazon murmured, "Something is shifting in the air...a hint of change most ominous..."
"Well it wasn't me," said Happosai with a patently false profession of innocence.
"You're right," Nodoka remarked, "I feel it too. Could something be happening to Ranma."
"It had better not," Ukyo growled, "If he knows what's good for him!"
"You say it," Shampoo agreed, and with renewed energy they bent their backs into the labor at hand and began clearing out rubble at a rate that far exceeded that of a large industrial steam shovel...
"Hey, do you hear that?" Ranma asked, "Sounds pretty faint...but I think somebody's trying to dig their way to us."
"I can't hear anything," Nabiki shivered slightly, "Must be mice...or something..."
Ranma could barely make out the faint outline of the girl beside him but he did hear the chattering of her teeth and asked, "Are you cold, Nabiki? Can I get something to warm you?"
"Thanks...but I don't think we have time for that," Nabiki said with a faint smile, intending it as a joke, though also wanting to see how he would react to the implied innuendo.
"Huh?" Ranma said, "Uh...well...whatever...here..."
"Huh?" Nabiki reacted with a start as she felt his arm go around her shoulders, and then Ranma drew her in closer to him so that the heat of his body could counteract the chill that she was feeling.
"You shouldn't try to act so tough all the time," Ranma cautioned, "You could go into shock if you got too cold, and that ankle of yours is still a little swollen. I did what I could to help relieve that with some Shiatsu techniques I learned from Tofu-Sensei, but what you really need is to soak it in some cold water."
"Thanks for the diagnosis," Nabiki replied, all the while finding herself in a different state of shock at being held so intimately by Ranma. She could feel his pulse beating against her arm and shoulders, smell the faint aroma of his manly scent and was all too aware of the strength within his body. Resting her head against his shoulder she found it hard to actually relax as the very strangeness of their setting implied that it was all a dream and that she would wake up at any second.
"Don't mention it," Ranma said as he felt the softness of Nabiki settle against him and took notice of a peculiar hint of perfume radiating from her body. It felt...nice to hold her like that...and she really did smell very different from Akane. There wasn't as much of a sense of separation between them either, as if they'd each relaxed their guard and had agreed by mutual consent to be more open and honest in their intentions.
Well...that was almost true, but in fact there was one remaining issue that needed to be resolved, which prompted Ranma to say, "Hey...Nabiki?"
"Yes, Ranma-kun?" his companion asked.
"How come you don't have a boyfriend of your own?" Ranma asked, "Is it just because guys are scared to ask you out?"
"Why would they be scared of me?" Nabiki asked, though she already knew the answer to her own question.
"Come on," Ranma chided, "Everybody's scared of you on some level. You're the one who likes to fleece everybody for their pocket change...but I can't believe that's the only reason you never go out on dates."
"Who says I never date?" Nabiki countered.
"Lots of people we both know," Ranma replied, "Back when you and me were engaged..."
"Oh no," Nabiki groaned, "Not that again..."
"Hey, I'm just wondering out loud," Ranma said, "Bear with me here. You sold me out on dates with Ukyo and Shampoo, and even once with Kodachi, but you never really wanted to date with me in the first place...am I right?"
"That's not true," Nabiki replied, "I...I did want to date with you, Ranma...but..."
"Was it because of Akane?" Ranma asked, "You kept trying to sell me back to her after you said that you wouldn't...it's like you never really were serious about the whole thing, like it was all a big joke to you, or...that's what I thought at the time...but lately...I've been thinking..."
"Don't strain yourself," Nabiki said indifferently, "You might hurt something."
"Ha-ha," Ranma snorted, "You must think you're quite the little actress, but I overheard you talking to Kasumi that one time...and...I don't think you were really acting."
"You're delusional," Nabiki said flatly, "No way did I mean any of that."
"Like the part where you said that you were lying?" Ranma asked, then waited for a response, which was not forthcoming, "You were lying about lying, weren't you? You meant what you said the first time when you told Kasumi..."
"You think you know me?" Nabiki flared, "You think you can tell me what I mean and what I don't mean, Mister Ego?"
"I think I can tell when somebody's avoiding the question," Ranma said, then paused before adding, "It's kind of a shame, really. You were asking me what kind of a girl I might want to be with? I was just thinking...I met this really nice girl once, a long time ago...but things didn't turn out like I thought they would. It was all just a big mistake, and I really wish we had the chance to do it all over."
"Who was she?" Nabiki asked, not wanting to sound as if the issue had any significance for her.
"I think you know her," Ranma said, "She was wearing a kimono when we met, and I thought she looked pretty wearing it, and she seemed to like me...or that was the first impression I had, only it turns out I wasn't what she expected."
"I..." Nabiki faltered, reliving the events in her mind of well over a year back.
"She wasn't what I expected either," Ranma continued, "And she foisted me off on her kid sister the first chance she got, which was pretty damned disappointing, like she was a consolation prize or something. I tried to make it work, but somehow everything I do gets met with hostility and suspicion. Meanwhile I saw the girl I thought was pretty turn out to be a pretty hard girl to get to know. She wants everybody to think she doesn't have any feelings, but I've seen her laugh, cry and smile, and I keep wondering why she's so lonely."
HE KNOWS! Nabiki felt a chill run down her spine that had nothing at all to do with the temperature of their surroundings. She tried to push him away but found Ranma's arms unyielding. She wanted to say something nasty, to tell him to drop it or that he was out of line to suggest such a thing about her, but instead she found herself waiting for him to continue, which he did after a suitable pause in which a lifetime seemed to elapse between them.
"I still think about her sometimes," Ranma said, "I'm not even angry anymore about the stuff she sometimes does to me, like it was all a great big joke to her or something. I still remember that girl in the kimono who poked me in the chest and called me cute, and I feel real bad about disappointing her. She says she's disgusted about my having my curse, but that doesn't sound like the real her talking. I get the strong feeling sometimes that there's another level to her that nobody else knows anything about. Am I right about that?"
"I...Ranma...where is this leading?" Nabiki asked.
"I don't know," Ranma replied, "I was hoping you could tell me. You're the one with the brain here, I'm just a dumb jock and a cross-dresser, remember?"
Nabiki stared down at the floor and for a moment started to gather her thoughts, then she spoke aloud again and said, "You're not...a dumb jock to me, Ranma. I know you better than that."
"And the cross-dressing part?" Ranma asked.
"Well..." she allowed, "You have to admit that part is pretty weird...but I guess I'm used to it by now...like you're really two people rolled up into one and the female half of you is as much fun to know as your male half. I...guess I have said some things I regret about that...but it's not like I want to be in the middle of your fiancee wars, caught in the crossfire between the other girls...including Akane."
"Then you're saying that you like me?" Ranma asked.
"Ah..." Nabiki wondered why it was warm all of a sudden and tried to dismiss the implication that she was blushing. She could not believe that Ranma of all people had just talked her into such an admission! Any other time she would have been furious with the sex-changing boy, but instead she found herself staring off into space and wondering just how she was going to explain any of this to Akane.
"So," Ranma said at last, "That's why you were so eager to dump me, huh? You didn't think I was worth all the fuss and bother."
"You mean would it have been worth my life being scalped by the other girls?" Nabiki replied, "I'm not a fighter like the rest of you...I solve my battles by using my brains, not my fists. You can't protect me all the time if Kodachi or Shampoo were to get serious about...eliminating the competition...and besides, I don't need those kinds of hassles."
"Hey, I've managed to pull Akane out of some tough scrapes," Ranma said, "You think I'd try any less with you?"
"Ranma," Nabiki said, "I only got engaged to you so I could needle Akane into admitting she wanted you. I didn't intend to be serious about it from the start...but if I were serious...I'd have to think of a way of having you that could get the other girls to leave us alone, and I'm not sure that's possible. Ukyo and Shampoo both care for you a lot more than you seem to realize, and Kodachi..."
"Kodachi doesn't mean anything to me," Ranma said, "Ucchan's my friend, and Shampoo's got a curse that scares me silly. Maybe Akane'll learn to handle that temper of hers eventually, but...I want somebody I can rely on right now. I mean...somebody I know who ain't out to hurt me just 'cause she's feeling bad about the mess our lives are in. It's not really my fault things got this crazy, but there are times when I wish I could ask her for advice and not have to worry that she's going to charge me for it through the nose...somebody who could maybe be friends with me and not try to push me to marry her or...or...well..."
"Somebody who can understand you?" Nabiki ventured, "Who won't run away or push you away or try to hold you at a distance, call you names and stomp on your feelings? Where you going to go to find somebody like that, Ranma-kun?"
"I don't know," Ranma said, "But I thought I'd ask you first...since neither of us seems to be going anywhere at the moment."
Nabiki could not help herself as she chuckled softly, "You're growing up, Ranma-
kun...at the rate you're going...I think I could almost like you."
"Guess that'll have to do for now," Ranma sighed, "But...you know something? Being buried under a ton of rubble aside, I'm glad we had the chance to talk like this. It's...nice to just talk about stuff...it really helps clean you out inside."
"I know exactly what you mean," Nabiki genuinely smiled, "I do feel a lot better. Thank you."
"Hey, that's my line, remember?" Ranma said as he felt the girl in her arms shift her weight and began to move around until their faces were nearly touching, "Ah..."
"You know," Nabiki's breath was teasing on his chin, "You really are cute when you get flustered."
"Ah...?" Ranma started to say when he felt something soft press up against his lips, and to his amazement found his own were closing about those lips to form a kind of suction a she responded automatically to the warm embrace of her face against his. The kiss was so unexpected that it literally took his breath away, but once he recovered enough to give back as good as he was getting he found he was enjoying the moment far more than he ever would have imagined. Her lips were warm, so soft and inviting that he could not resist their attraction as she pressed on, further emboldened. He was a little surprised when her tongue darted into his own mouth, but his tongue reacted to the challenge and soon the two were writhing against one another in their mouths while their arms drew them closer together and the pulsing of their hearts seemed to echo and reply in kind to the rush of unexpected emotions...
"Oh my," Cologne spoke again, feeling the waves of energy pouring out over her skin as she felt the rise of a massive Chi level gathering strength and forming like a bubble underground in an area not too far from where the shaft was being dug. The increasing strength could mean only one thing, so she called out a warning to the others, "GET BACK NOW! CLEAR THE SHAFT! SON-IN-LAW IS USNG HIS MOKO TAKABISHI TO FREE HIMSELF!"
"What...now?" Ukyo responded, but nonetheless heeded the warning as she, Akane, Shampoo, the Kunos, Mousse and even Ryoga cleared the way just seconds before the Chi-bubble burst like a miniature supernova.
"WHOAH!" Happosai said as he braced himself against the shower of debris that sprayed out of the hole in all directions, "The boy's really outdone himself this time!"
"Incredible!" Soun remarked, shielding his eyes as he peered past the settling dust and debris into the resulting crater, "Ranma has accomplished more in mere seconds than what we've been able to do in over an hour!"
"That's my boy," Genma said in prideful approval, "I knew it was just a matter of time before he got his act together."
"Ranchan!" Ukyo called out as soon as she and the others could see the pit that had just been created.
"Ranma, you is all right?" Shampoo seconded in equal distress.
"Ranma-sama," Kodachi declared, "You have once again defied the grim reaper in order to leap into my-WHAT IN THE WORLD?"
"Oh my," Sasuke blinked his eyes, seeing before them the cause of real trouble.
Ranma was hardly aware of what he had just accomplished, having found the swell of emotions churning up from inside him far too overwhelming to pay heed to matters of a less consequential nature. It did surprise him, though, to find that they were now surrounded in light after becoming accustomed to the darkness, and he could see Nabiki's face now as plainly as the sun, so that when they parted lips and could stare at one another it was as wondrous as if seeing her for the very first time, as if he had never truly seen her at all, and vice versa.
"Wow," was all Nabiki could say after another long silence that had gone on for all of several seconds.
"Yeah," was his only reply, finding no words adequate to account for the intensity of his feelings.
And then came the inevitable, "RRRRAAAANNNN-MMMMMAAAAAA!"
"Uh oh," Nabiki reacted as the two of them turned their heads to see the line of angry faces now arrayed against them.
"RANMA-WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE DOING?" cried a livid Akane.
"RANMA!" Shampoo snarled, "You is under spell or something?"
"Has to be!" growled an equally incensed Ukyo, "No way could something like this be happening!"
"Ranma-sama...how could you?" Kodachi wailed while managing to simultaneously rival the other girls for sheer outrage.
"I cannot believe this!" Tatewaki declared, "Such a thing is beyond rational description! No way could the foul Saotome debase himself with the money-
grubbing mercenary sister of the sweet and chaste Akane...therefore this thing cannot be real! I declare that it never happened!"
"Ranma...!" hissed Ryoga between clenched teeth, "You cad!"
"Shame on you!" Mousse declared, "On both of you, doing something like this in front of my Shampoo..."
"Oh my," said an uncharacteristically flustered Kasumi, "Ranma-
kun...Nabiki...this...this isn't...proper behavior..."
"RANMA-ARE YOU CHEATING ON MY AKANE?" cried a demon-headed Soun.
"Boy, are you courting trouble for both of us?" asked Genma.
"I think they make a lovely couple," smiled Nodoka.
"Ah," Genma thought fast, "On second thought...I suppose it does help that she's also a Tendo."
"Glad we have that much sorted out," Cologne mused with a curious detachment in her expression.
"This looks bad," Ranma swallowed.
"I don't suppose anyone would care to hear a perfectly reasonable explanation?" Nabiki asked aloud.
"NOOOOOOO!" was the universal and unequivocal answer.
"That's what I thought," Nabiki sighed, seeing that even Kasumi was inclined against her.
"Ranma..." Shampoo flashed her bonbori and cried, "Men who deceive Amazon go to very bad place!"
"And we'll be the ones to send you there!" declared Ukyo as she brandished her trademark spatula-type weapon.
"Stand back!" Akane declared, "She's my sister and fiancee, so if anybody gets to kill them it's going to be me!"
"Not if I get to them first!" Kodachi flashed her trademark ribbon in an imperious manner.
"This definitely does not look good," Nabiki winced, turning to Ranma, "May I suggest running?"
"Saotome Special Final Maneuver?" Ranma suggested.
"Exactly what I was thinking," Nabiki agreed, and then endured to be scooped up into Ranma's arms as her newly declared boyfriend took off at a dead run, managing to somehow outrace three spatulas, two bonbori, a black ribbon and a thrown hammer as he took to the rooftop level and kept right on running until they were well away beyond the vengeful reach of their irate pursuers...
Continued? (Well...maybe...)
Comments/Criticisms/Unexpected Twists of Fortune: shadowmane
This started out as one of my earliest attempts at a fanfic and sat languishing in an unfinished state for the better part of two years-plus, but now I have finally managed to dust it off and complete this one-shot exploration into the characters of Ranma and Nabiki. I've long been intrigued by the Mercenary Tendo Sister and her potential for a relationship with a certain sex-swapping martial artist. I set out to test the waters that I later explored in more detail in my ATOTW series, but I felt I could summarize my feelings on the fianc e issue while having a little fun teasing the whole Ranma cast in a purely good-natured ribbing. At present I have no thought of continuing this premise, but that could always change should I find a plot worthy of a second chapter. For now I hope you enjoy this fanfic, and if you have any thoughts about how I've handled the characters or have presented them in a fair light, feel free to write me with your comments and I will seek to reply in a diligent and forthright manner. Until then...be seeing you!
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