Insert funny rabbit related note here.
Chapter 4: Some Annoyance Acquired.
"Well, don't you look beautiful this morning?" Xander Harris observed, as he, Willow and Buffy approached Ranko, the Japanese redhead slumped in one of the chairs in the school's common area.
"Shut up," she muttered, rubbing at the large, discolored bruise on her chin as she kept one eye open through a force of will.
"Are you all right?" Willow asked. "You didn't look nearly this bad when we finished up last night."
"Bruises can take a while," the other girl replied.
"And maybe she's not quite used to staying up until three in the morning fighting Vampires," Buffy offered. "Pro tip, that never happens."
"Yeah, just not used to it," the martial artist said, thankful that she was so tired that her face couldn't give the lie away this time, and deciding not to mention that she'd spent entire nights fighting other martial artists before.
"Hmm, maybe you shoulda called in sick?" Xander offered. "I mean, you've actually got a good excuse, and I can so rarely say that."
Ranko shook her head. "Don't wanna worry Mom," she explained, before hauling herself to her feet. "I'll head off to class now."
"Um, should we tell her that classes don't start for another ten minutes?"
Buffy shrugged, as the other two tracked the town's newest Slayer down the corridor. "So, did you walk into walls like that?" Xander asked, curiously.
"I'd... rather not talk about it," Buffy muttered, quickly producing a book and starting to make a show of reading half way through it. Unfortunately, she forgot to make sure it was right side up.
"A Slayer's life is full of peril," Willow replied, nodding sagely. At Xander's odd look, she shrugged. "Read something similar on a fortune cookie once."
HR.
"Cordelia!" The brown haired girl turned as she heard her name being called to see Aura walking quickly to catch up to her. This wasn't particularly unusual, as all of her sheep usually gravitated to her at some point during the day, but the look of worry on the other girl's face was new.
"What's up?" She asked, turning back forward and walking, as she heard Aura's footsteps falling in behind her.
"Um, look, this could sound a little strange, but, were you kidnapped yesterday?" The dark skinned girl asked, causing Cordelia to stop and rotate slowly on one heal to look at her with one of her best surprised and shocked expressions.
"Excuse me?" She demanded, putting one hand on her hip.
"There was this girl out front of the Bronze last night, and she said that Summers girl mentioned you were kidnapped," she explained hurriedly. Tilting her head, she added. "Oh, and you might want to yell at that drama coach."
"That obvious, huh?" Cordelia asked, sighing. When her friend nodded, she shrugged. "It was nothing to worry about, some guy thought he could get money from my family or something, and Buffy and her thug friends busted me out."
"Willow Rosenberg, a thug?" Aura asked, incredulously.
"Okay, so MOSTLY thugs," Cordelia corrected.
"And Vampires had nothing to do with it?" The other girl asked, probingly.
Cordelia twitched, violently. "No! They were perfectly human kidnappers! I mean, it wasn't like they wanted to sacrifice me and three other people to bring back the master vampire that Buffy fought last year or any... I'm ranting again, aren't I?"
Aura nodded.
"Note to self, stay away from Harris, it's catching," the brown haired girl muttered to herself, right before she bumped into someone, as she was too busy giving her conversation companion a side-long glance to really pay attention to who was in front of her.
She cursed as she lost her grip on her books, but was surprised not to hear them hit the ground, and looked up to see the Asian girl who had been hanging around with Willow and Xander two days before kneeling on the ground, holding three of her books in her open hands, and one balanced on her head. "What exactly are you doing?" She asked, looking down at the girl.
"Oh, sorry," the redhead muttered, standing without letting the book on her head fall off. "Wasn't payin attention."
"Some not paying attention," the haughty girl muttered, still staring fixedly at the book on the other's head, which was now conveniently at eye level.
Next to her, Aura grinned, the expression seemingly very suitable to a certain mercenary that the redhead knew well. "Hey, you're new in school, right?" She asked, brightly.
Ranko nodded, and Cordelia continued tracking the now moving book.
"Well, I wanted to ask you this before, but you were with the freaks, so it wasn't a good time. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the mall with my friends and I on Saturday," Aura asked, causing Cordelia's eyes to move from the book to give her friend an incredulous look.
Aura moved her hands in a sort of 'trust me' gesture, and Cordelia narrowed her eyes in return, but kept her silence.
"Um," the shorter girl replied, blinking at the other two. "I gotta go," she finished, as the five minute warning bell rang.
"Wait, will you come, or not?" The dark skinned girl called, as Ranko started to turn away.
"Yeah, sure," the martial artist responded, not really thinking. As she started off, Cordelia yelped and plucked her biology book from the top of her head, somewhat surprised that it hadn't somehow been glued there.
Once the sophomore was out of easy hearing range, she whirled on her friend, giving her a look. "What was that all about?" She demanded. "She's one of Buffy's friends, why on earth would we invite her anywhere?"
"There's something I want to know about her," Aura replied. "It could be really important."
"How important are we talking?" Cordelia asked, raising one eyebrow.
"I'm thinking abject humiliation for her, a new boyfriend for me, or something else," Cordelia looked oddly at her friend, as she started to giggle to herself a little crazily.
"You know, I think you really need that second one," the brown haired girl quipped, before turning and heading for her own classroom.
HR.
Buffy yawned as she, Willow and Xander walked down the hall towards the library. "Now, the sociopolitical environment, blah blah blah blah blah," she said, waving one hand. "I don't think I've been that bored since the presentation we had on snails in the sixth grade.
"Ooh, you did snails? All we got were flatworms," Willow grumbled. "Besides, I thought it was interesting."
"Right, miss geography queen," Xander responded, grinning at the red haired girl teasingly.
"Yup, still got the crown," Willow shot back with an equal grin.
As they reached the library doors, the three saw someone else walking towards them, looking much more coherent than last time they saw her. "Hey look, it's the Slayer zombie," Xander said, waving.
"You look a lot better," Willow commented, nodding at Ranko as she joined them in front of the doors.
"Yeah, sleeping through half my classes'll do that," the Japanese girl replied.
"Bad idea," Buffy remarked. "They just love catching you with tests while you're not paying attention."
"Apparently having a new exchange student's inspired the teachers," Ranko disagreed. "We've been going over the intricacies of the mysterious 'n hard to understand Japanese for the past couple days in history and geography."
"Learn anything interesting?" Xander asked, genuinely curious.
"Yeah, it's amazing how few people 'round here can hold a pair of chopsticks," Ranko said, the four students turning to enter the library, where Giles was sitting at the central research table, his nose deep in a book.
"Hey, watch this," Xander whispered, slowly walking towards the Brit, and doing his best to make as few sounds as possible.
"Hello, Xander," Giles said absently as the brown haired boy got within a few feet of him, causing him to jump several feet into the air.
"Don't do that, G-man!" The American demanded, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Then don't call me G-man," Giles immediately responded, putting his book down and turning to see that everyone had arrived.
"Ah, hello," He said, taking his glasses off for a moment to rub them on his shirt.
"Hey Giles," Buffy replied, "And Xander, that was really impressive."
"I almost had him!" The brown haired boy objected, irritably.
"So, what were you reading?" Willow asked, curiously. "We don't have to worry about another demon or something, do we?"
Giles shook his head, holding the volume up so that the younger people could see it, the title 'To Serve Man' written on the front in crisp golden lettering. "It's a cookbook," he explained.
"Oh, I think some creepy French guys I ran across a while back had that one," Ranko observed, causing Giles' eyebrow to rise.
"Was the food any good?" Xander asked, inquisitively.
"Dunno, they were starving me at the time," Ranko said, before the three young people took seats around the table.
"Starving you?" The librarian asked, confused.
The Japanese redhead shook her head. "Don't ask,"
"Well, you'll probably be glad of that, actually, given what some of the recipes entail," the man continued, before rubbing his forehead. "There is very little happening at the moment, so perhaps you and Buffy would like to train together for a while?"
"Oh! This should be fun, anybody got popcorn?" Xander asked, excitedly.
"How 'bout you practice not breaking your hand next time ya punch somethin, funny guy," Ranko interjected, and the brown haired boy flinched.
"Yeah, that's actually probably a good idea," Willow contributed. "With all the times you get in fights, and stuff."
"Hmm, very good idea Ranko, Willow, would you please help him with that?" Giles asked, before picking up his book and starting to flip through it.
"Thanks for signing us both up for the firing squad, Willow," Xander muttered, as the two stood from the table and headed off, shortly followed by Ranko and Buffy.
HR.
"Okay, so how do you wanna do this?" Buffy Summers asked, as she squared off against her red haired counterpart in a large, clear space hidden among the stacks.
The other girl shrugged, settling into the signature casual 'I don't care' stance of the Saotome school. "Start whenever ya want," she answered, a cocky grin spreading over her face.
Buffy frowned. "What's the smirk all about?" She asked, holding up one fist, and getting no response from her opponent. She stood, waiting for the other to make a move for a moment, before seeing that she was steadfast in her resolve to remain perfectly still. Letting out an exasperated sigh, the blonde ran for the other girl, starting the match off with a quick leg sweep.
Ranko jumped over the attack with seemingly no effort, returning her own straight punch which Buffy blocked with an upraised arm, before moving into a quick series of blows and guards that eventually caused the American Slayer to miss a block, her opponent's hand slipping through, and the fist abruptly extending one finger to poke her in the shoulder.
Her eyebrow twitched. "What the hell was that?" she demanded, her irritation beginning to grow, especially as her opponent still stood there, as calm as ever.
"That's it, I'm going to beat that smirk off your face," she resolved,
A few minutes later, that resolve was fading, as she was going as fast as she could, and her opponent was bouncing around more than that tennis ball she'd accidentally hit too hard in gym this morning.
"Would you stand still already?" She growled, springing off of one of the book cases in order to try and catch the other in mid-air and by surprise. Much to her own surprise, the girl somehow managed to pivot on nothing she could see, causing her leg to go flying past her.
As the sixteen-year-old continued on her arc, her eyes bulged as she realized where she was heading. "Oh joy," she muttered, as she rapidly pulled her arms and legs back in, crashing headlong into, and through, a bookshelf.
As she pulled herself out of the wreckage and dusted herself off, the Slayer grimaced down at what was left of the shelf. "Giles is going to kill me," she groaned.
"Wanna know how ya screwed up?" Ranko offered, from where she was leaning against the bookshelf across the cleared out area, trying not to show that she was trying to regain her breath.
"I didn't," Buffy grumbled. "You were just too fast to catch."
"Not really, at the moment I'm actually probably slower than you," the redhead explained, then grimaced. "I'm just a lot better trained, 'n I don't let myself get pissed in the middle of a fight and forget ta look around."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Buffy asked, narrowing her eyes.
Her opponent shrugged. "It means that, when yer fighting, all ya care about is hitting your opponent, 'n ya don't think about your surroundings, or how they could effect the fight. Hell, ya don't even bother checking your opponent's actions ta see if they're showin any weaknesses you can exploit."
"You got an awful lot of information about me from one fight," the taller girl observed, skeptically.
"Not one, two," Ranko corrected. "A friend of mine got beaten up by you yesterday."
"They did?" the Summers girl asked, blinking in confusion.
"Guy in the Bronze?" Ranko reminded.
"Oh," Buffy said, flatly. "Oh," she repeated, as she realized, and looked down at one hand, which was holding a piece of the shelf she'd smashed. "Is he, um, is he all right?"
Ranko shrugged. "He'll live," she answered.
"I was going to call an ambulance for him as soon as I got to the library and made sure everyone was all right," the blonde said, quickly, "It's just that everyone wasn't all right, and then I forgot."
Ranko shrugged. "That part I get, I mean, I wasn't really the pinnacle of control last night either. The part I'm talkin about is that it took your vampire boyfriend to make you figure out the guy was human."
"That was totally justified," the blonde Slayer replied, quickly. "He was the only guy around, I was expecting vampires, and when I grabbed him to try and do the whole intimidation thing he started fighting harder than any normal human could. What else was I supposed to think, someone'd chosen yet another new Slayer and they got the gender confused?"
Ranko winced visibly.
"Wait, that's not what happened, is it?" Buffy asked, incredulously.
"Not exactly," the redhead denied. "Still, you didn't notice that the guy was asking you to stop and talk the whole fight, never went all yellow eyed and scary looking, even after ya almost broke his jaw, 'n never tried to kill you rather than just beat you up?"
""Okay, so maybe you have a point..." The resident Slayer said, wincing. "I've really got to apologize to that guy next time I see him."
"Nah, don't worry about that, he's used to it," Ranko replied. "Just be careful not ta pull the same crap on someone who ain't."
"Okay, point," Buffy nodded. "So, Master Yoda, how do I make myself more aware of my surroundings?"
"I ain't a master yet," Ranko said, and her face split into an evil grin, "but I got my ways."
HR.
Intrigued by the sound of flesh hitting both flesh and pads, Jenny Calendar made her way into the library, as it made the place the most likely to contain her objective. Buffy and Ranko were obviously sparring somewhere back in the stacks. Having never seen Ranko fight, she could not be sure which Slayer was doing better, but it sounded as though Buffy was fighting harder than she ever had while practicing with Angel.
As for Xander and Willow, it was obvious what they were supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, learning how to punch wasn't meant to draw blood. It was slightly impressive, however, that both were still working at it, despite the blood still dribbling from their mouths. Well, working through the pain might just keep them alive someday.
After observing what she could of the kids' activities, her eyes rested upon her main reason for coming to the library. Casually walking over to where Giles was sitting, she stood slightly behind him and read over his shoulder.
"Hm, maybe this one?" the Watcher mused to himself as he briefly paused to look over a page. After a moment of consideration, he shook his head, saying, "No, that glaze would never work."
"Hey, English," the computer teacher asked, causing Giles to jump in his chair, "what're you doing? Especially with a book like that?"
"Oh, ah, Ms. Calendar, how pleasant to see you," the Brit greeted with a bit of stumbling. "I'm planning a meal for this Saturday, and I wanted to try a new recipe." He received a rather leery look from his fellow faculty member. "I, I don't intend to use human flesh. That would be morally reprehensible. No, I am going to be using mere pork."
"Ah, a wonderful substitute," Jenny agreed. "You were thinking about using this glaze, right?"
"Well, yes, I was, until I realized how much the recipe would waste," Giles explained.
"Oh," Jenny replied with a bit of thought, "is that all? Well, in that case, I know a stuffing recipe that would take care of any of the drippings. I can show it to you on Saturday morning, if you'd like."
"Hm, yes, I suppose that may be for the best," Giles agreed.
"Perfect," Jenny said, grinning like the proverbial cat. "I'll be over then."
"Do you, ah, need my address?" Giles asked, wishing he had rewritten the information after giving the card to Nodoka.
"Don't worry, English," the teacher said. "Web directories are a wonderful thing."
"Yes, o-of course," the Brit nodded, and Jenny turned, heading for the library entrance. As she left view of the door, walking down one of the halls, the older man blinked. "Wait, did she just ask me on a date?" He shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous, she would never do that."
"Wow, and I thought you were the only sane one here. Going schizophrenic G-man?" Xander's voice came from right behind the librarian, actually causing him to jump.
"Xander, please don't do that," he rebuked, turning to see that the brown haired boy had a black eye, and blood running down his chin from a split lip. Next to him, Willow didn't look much better, as she had a similar lip injury and was rubbing gingerly at her left breast.
"Told you it went well, Will, I managed to sneak up on him this time," the younger man proclaimed, causing his best friend to snort.
"I bow before your leet Ninja skills, believe me," Willow said, rolling her eyes.
"Yes, well," Giles started, "Buffy and Ranko have been unusually quiet, so..."
"Maybe they've killed each other," Xander interrupted. "I told you we should have watched them."
"I hate cleaning up blood," Willow grumbled, only half joking, as the three started through the stacks to where the other two had set up their little sparring session.
As they rounded the last shelf of books, Xander and Willow both blinked, as Giles went rigid, his face locked into the expression it had worn before he'd seen the sight before him.
This horrifying tableau was an only slightly destroyed section of shelves, with Buffy standing in the middle of it, her sweat shirt tied over her eyes. Ranko was at the side, with a pile of books next to her, and casually picked one of them up as they watched, chucking it at the other Slayer at high speed.
Buffy started to move to intercept the flying projectile, but was too slow as it passed her outstretched arm and smacked her in the side of the head. "That's the fourth one you've missed," Ranko observed.
"Don't remind me," Buffy grumbled, "My head's doing a good job of that already."
Ranko was about to say something else, when Giles suddenly broke out of his frozen state, choking out in a barely audible voice, "What the hell are you doing with my books?"
Willow and Xander both started to back away, as Ranko, who hadn't heard this, picked up another projectile.
"I said," Giles continued, his voice rising to a much louder register as he reached up to remove his glasses, "What the hell are you doing to my books?!"
HR.
"Oh, that was smart," Buffy Summers grumbled, as she and her redheaded counterpart walked down the hall towards the front entrance of Sunnydale high. "I don't think I've ever seen Giles that pissed."
"Didn't know the old guy had it in him," Ranko admitted, rubbing the side of her head. "That punch was half way impressive, and the battle aura," She whistled. "I think Akane'd be impressed."
"Akane?" The blonde asked, curious.
"Akane, she was my," Ranko started, before clamping her mouth shut and wincing.
"Hmm, seen that look before, usually on Xander," Buffy observed. "Went south, huh?"
"Hard to explain," the shorter girl replied, "and I don't wanna try."
Buffy shrugged. "Suits me fine," she decided, "but, just so you understand, I am officially blaming you for what we're going to be stuck doing for the next three days."
"Hey," Ranko objected. "It was you who smashed the shelf."
"And who thought it was a good idea to use books as projectiles?" Buffy countered.
"Oh yeah, and who let me?" Ranko shot back, getting into the rhythm of an old habit.
"Okay, you got me there," Buffy admitted, taking the wind out of the other girl's arguing sales. "It still sucks, though. We're going to be stuck repairing the shelves, and I've got homework and Slaying too. I'm going to have no free time until the weekend."
Ranko flinched. "Well, um, I guess I could take the graveyard shift a couple times, if ya want. Could give ya some time to relax," she offered.
"Relax?" The blonde asked, "I do not understand this word of which you speak." Shaking her head, she continued, "Thanks for the offer, though."
Suddenly, Ranko stiffened, as though remembering something she'd forgotten. "Aw, damn," she muttered, stopping and turning to smack her head into a locker.
"Okay, I know that's not normal," Buffy observed.
"I forgot, ya just reminded me. This morning, when I wasn't thinkin straight, I agreed to go shopping with a buncha girls."
"That doesn't sound so bad," the other girl said, confused. "Could be fun."
"But I hate shopping," Ranko wined. "It's so boring."
"Yeah, definitely not normal," Buffy nodded to herself confidently. "But maybe I can come with you. Who asked you?"
"Cordelia and her friends," the redhead said, and Buffy winced.
"Okay, NOW I feel deeply sorry for you. Never mind those graveyard patrols." She patted Ranko on the shoulder. "Be strong."
"Gee, thanks," the shorter girl muttered, sourly.
HR.
"And remember class," the science teacher said, as Ranko sat at the back trying to pay attention to a presentation on force deflection that she already knew most of, at least on instinct. "The principal has declared the science fair a mandatory activity this year, so please try and come up with a project." The man grimaced.
"Given the fact that the science faculty will be expected to judge over a thousand entries, may I suggest 'The difference between a fruit and a vegetable,' or similar topics for entries?" He suggested, hopefully.
The red haired martial artist blinked slowly, and muttered "crap," as she stood from her desk, collecting the few notes she'd bothered to take, and heading for the door.
She recalled Furinkan's last science fair. It had involved the science club, a twenty foot tall mecha, and large explosions. Given that fact, she held out no real hope for this one, but she'd promised Nodoka that she would try harder in class after the older woman had found out about her GPA several days before.
Sighing, she looked up to the clock over the classroom door, noting that at least classes were over for the week.
Of course, this meant that Saturday, and her doom, was that much closer, but also that she had some free time since the library repairs were almost done, and Giles hadn't been quite as ready to glare holes in her the day before.
As she walked up to the doors to the place, however, the pigtailed martial artist heard something that gave her a moment's pause. "Is that Giles... singing?" She asked, cracking the doors open and peeking in to see the older Brit sitting at his desk, singing to some music on a Walkman that she couldn't quite identify.
"Um, hello?" She asked, as she stepped into the room, letting the door close slowly behind her.
"Hello Ranko," the normally rather stuffy older man greeted her cheerfully.
"Are you all right?" the redhead asked, looking between Giles and the book cage, and wondering how difficult it would be to lock the clearly mentally unhinged man in.
"Oh yes, I'm fine, why do you ask?" The Watcher questioned. "Buffy asked the same thing when I talked to her earlier."
"Right," Ranko said, slowly. "I'll just go get the construction supplies and finish up the repairs."
"Oh, don't worry about that, I asked principal Snyder to call in contractors to finish it up, you can go home and enjoy yourself," The tweed clad man proclaimed, and Ranko immediately began backing slowly from the room.
As she was walking down the hall towards the exit, she muttered, "Kami, that was creepy."
HR.
"Ah, that looks perfect! And it goes great with your hair!" Harmony Kendell squealed, as she walked around Ranko, who was standing perfectly still and staring into a mirror, trying not to provoke the ditsy blonde into rummaging through the racks again.
"Huh, I guess this one's better than that other thing," the redhead conceded, tugging at the right sleeve of the green shirt she was wearing. "It's a bit tight, though."
"A bit tight?" Harmony objected. "Well, you do go around without a bra, I thought you wanted to show off, and a tight shirt is good for keeping your chest supported, too."
Ranko's eyebrow twitched. "I don't wear a bra for a very good reason, and it ain't 'showin off,'" she snapped.
"I dunno, you did buy that black shirt with 'Bite me' written across it," Aura teased from behind the other two, coming in with an armful of things she'd selected for the annoyed martial artist to try on. "You're sending some serious mixed signals here, girl."
"Oh man, you didn't get more, did you?" Ranko moaned, catching sight of the pile of clothes. "We've been hanging around here for forty minutes already."
"Come on, you're on a shopping trip with three of the best dressed girls in school, and we're helping with fashion tips. It's got to be the most fun anyone could have!" Aura said, slapping the pigtailed girl on the back.
"Yeah, if buying even half of the stuff you guys already picked out wouldn't drain my bank account, and if I actually liked shopping," Ranko griped.
"Oooh! This is cute, check it out!" Harmony exclaimed from where she was rummaging through Aura's selections. As Ranko turned to see what she was talking about, she flinched violently.
"No." She said, deadpan, surprising the other two. Normally, she would either sigh, grumble and put something on, or make much more verbally complex objections.
"Why not?" Harmony asked, looking down at the cute white shirt with the picture of a curled up black cat on the front. "It's kind of kiddy, and you're short enough to pull off the cute innocent look."
"No cats," Ranko objected, firmly, thanking whatever was up there that the language barrier allowed her to say an equivalent word to the fuzzy demon beasts from hell without stuttering. "I'll never wear anything with a cat on it."
"Some girl, doesn't like cute little kitty cats," Aura commented, holding the shirt up to Ranko, who flinched away from it.
The redhead sighed. For some reason, the dark skinned girl had been sliding jabs at her femininity all through the trip, and though she wasn't usually one to defend it, unless someone actually insulted her looks, it was getting kind of old.
"I was dropped into a pit of starved cats when I was six years old. This was done several times, until my mind snapped and I went insane. I am, and have been ever since, terrified of the damned things. NO CATS!" She said, starting off in a flat recitation, before bursting out with the last two words as loudly as she could.
"Oh..." Aura said, completely taken aback. "I'm... sorry?"
"Wow, that one hits about as far down the suck-o-meter as the time I broke a nail during cheerleading practice!" Harmony exclaimed, getting incredulous looks from both Aura and Cordelia, who was just entering the room.
"I don't think even I'd say something that belittling," the brown eyed girl said. "Now, are we finished getting the newest freak something she can be seen with us in?"
"Yeah, probably," Aura said, gesturing at Ranko's current apparel of the green shirt and a set of white slacks.
Ranko nodded, and put one other shirt into a bag before grabbing her normal clothes and starting to the change room.
"Nu-uh!" Cordelia said, raising a hand. "You keep wearing those, we'll cut the tags off and scan them through."
The redhead grumbled, but nodded as she scooped her old clothes into the bag with the 'bite me' shirt. "This is gunna take most of my money," she observed to herself, before following the others to the cash register, and then outside.
"All right, so can we leave now?" The redhead demanded, as the group of four stood in front of a fountain in the middle of the mall.
"Nope," Cordelia said. "We have only begun to shop!"
Ranko sighed.
"All right," Aura proclaimed, and then pointed a hand towards a store across from the one they had just exited. "That is our next target."
Ranko followed the dark skinned girl's finger, and gulped. "There?" She asked, worriedly, looking at the lingerie shop, and violently trying to keep the thought of shriveled old men out of her head.
"Mmhmm," Aura replied, and the redhead rolled her eyes.
"What kami did I piss off, exactly?" She muttered, as she reluctantly followed the other three into the store.
HR.
"Did you just sneeze?" A large, red-skinned man asked as he leaned one arm against a bar, sipping a liquid that looked disconcertingly like blood.
"We can't sneeze," the woman across from him snapped in her gruff voice, setting her own drink on the bar top and straightening up. "You're insane."
"I dunno," the red skinned man countered, "I heard from some Japanese fear demon that whenever he's invoked he sneezes."
"Do I look like a Japanese fear demon to you?" The female asked, leaning towards him to reveal a grey face with sunken dark eyes and dark markings.
"Um, no?" He asked, uncertainly.
"Didn't think so," the female demon proclaimed, and then frowned. "Damn it, why did you have to remind me of Japan?"
"Something wrong with Japan?" The red skinned male asked, taking another sip of his blood.
"Damned old fool," the female grumbled, almost too low to be heard, before striding from the demonic bar where she had been relaxing, "Reminding me of my job."
"Hey!" The bartender demanded, "Where's my payment!?"
HR.
"This really isn't a good idea," Ranko commented, as she was being tugged by the arm into a changing stall.
"Just be quiet and help me out with this, all right?" Aura replied, holding a white, lace covered garment in front of Ranko's face, which was staring resolutely into a wall. "C'mon, now get that top off. No matter what Harm says, going around without something underneath it isn't really a good idea. It screams 'hey, I'm easy!'"
"Easy?" The redhead asked, confused.
"You know, this would be easier if you were American," the other girl complained. "Just get changed, all right?"
Ranko sighed, knowing that by this point there would be nothing gained by arguing with the other girl, and quickly and efficiently began changing clothes. As she strained, trying to line up five tiny hooks simultaneously behind her back, Aura said, "Damn, are you stubborn or what?"
"I've managed to do this before," Ranko grumbled, crossing her eyes.
"Of course you have," the taller girl replied, "but it's annoying, and I'm here to help." She quickly reached out and deftly secured the hooks, and then began to get changed herself.
Ranko slipped her shirt back on in record time, and was about to crawl under the changing room's door, when the other girl looked over her shoulder at her and asked, "And where are you going? I hook your back, you hook mine, that's the deal."
Ranko internally cursed, resolutely facing one corner and muttering about how much it was likely going to hurt when Ukyo, Shampoo or Akane inevitably heard about this.
"Well?" Aura demanded, after a few moments of irritably staring into the mirror in front of her, where Ranko's turned back was reflected.
The redhead winced, and turned rapidly while keeping her head facing the side. For a brief moment, she found the full speed of the Amaguriken, and performed her task before sliding under the stall door, this time successfully.
Aura blinked. "Um, okay," she said, slowly.
HR.
"I can't believe you did that," Cordelia grumbled, as she stared holes in the side of Harmony's head.
"What, Ranko did it too," the blonde objected.
"I scammed ice cream, you went and got a pair of shoes for free," Ranko objected. "There's a difference."
"I don't really see one," the blonde replied.
"Just trust me, there is," Ranko said with complete conviction, before looking at the much taller girl, curiously. "And why did you go into the back room with the manager, anyways?"
"Trust me on this, if you don't know, you don't want to," Cordelia advised, still giving one of her best friends a truly disgusted look.
"So, um, can I go now?" Ranko asked, though the hopefulness that had previously laced the question when she'd first asked it was now almost completely gone.
Cordelia shot a look to Aura, who nodded and turned to the redhead and led her a short distance away from the others. Digging around in her purse, the dark skinned girl came out with several bills and handed them to the shorter girl. "Thanks, Ranko. Yeah, we're done," she confirmed.
"Um, what's the money for?" The pigtailed martial artist asked, though her Saotome instincts were screaming for her to take it and run like the wind.
"Oh, well to be honest," Aura explained, "I wanted to know something about you, and that's why I asked you on this trip." She shrugged. "I know it, now."
Ranko looked nervous. "Um, you know..." She asked, and tried to think of a way to say it without actually saying it.
"About you and water, yeah," the dark skinned girl replied. Seeing Ranko gulp, she continued, "Don't worry, you're all right, for a weirdo, anyways. I won't tell anyone."
Ranko looked relieved. "Um, thanks," she said, not entirely sure what was going on, but not inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth.
As the martial artist walked off, Cordelia looked at the friend who she wasn't currently completely disgusted with. "So... what was that all about?" She questioned. "And don't give me that 'I won't tell' line. You've got to tell me."
Aura frowned for a moment, and then shrugged. "Sorry, but I actually meant it this time." Cordelia sputtered, irritated, but was unable to get her friend to say anything more on the subject, in spite of bothering her for the rest of the day.
End.
Cordettes not gossiping? It's another Apocalypse!
