Dragon Ranma
Chapter two: Adjustment, and meeting Dad.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, nor do I own Dungeons and Dragons. Both are the rightful property of their respective owners, and I am "creatively acquiring" them for the purposes of this story. Any attempts to gain any monetary compensation for this will result in drastic punishments including, but not limited to, horrible acts of perversion involving chickens, rubber gloves, and a very, VERY, depraved badger. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Disclaiming addendum: The badger's batteries have run out, so I'm subbing a hyperactive mongoose for this chapter. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Morning came, as mornings do, to the sounds of one Akane Tendo smashing bricks and making loud 'Kiya!' sounds. The occupants of the house were performing their morning routines; Kasumi was making breakfast, Nabiki was resurrecting herself, and Soun was reading the morning newspaper. Ranma, however, was nowhere to be found. This, quite naturally, saddened the besmitten elder Tendo sister as she was hoping that he would be there to keep her company during the day. In spite of herself, a small, wistful sigh escaped her lips.
"Why so glum this morning, Kasumi?" Ranma's voice cut through her melancholy like a hot knife through soft butter. Startled, she whirled around to find him with standing in a pair of sweat pants, and nothing else. He had a playful smile on his lips and what looked like a wooden sword and shield combo in his hands.
"Ranma!" she gasped, "you startled me! I thought you had left!"
The smile vanished and a soft look came over his eyes. "I would never leave you, unless you wanted me to."
Kasumi blushed prettily at that. "Breakfast will be ready soon, will you be joining us?"
The smile came back, and Ranma responded eagerly. "Naturally! I wouldn't miss one of your meals for anything."
Kasumi smiled back, and asked him if he would set the table.
Breakfast went much as one would expect, Akane glared a lot, Nabiki seemed not to care, and Soun made small talk with Ranma. Yes, all was proceeding normally until a loud voice started yelling outside.
"AKANE! Hark, mine lady of raven-tresses, for I have come to whisk you away to our nuptial bliss!"
The whole family groaned.
Ranma looked up curiously.
"What on earth is that? Whatever it is, it needs to stop mangling old English like that; it's hurting my ears…"
Akane sighed… "That would be Tatewaki Kuno, one of the richest and stupidest people here in Nerima. About two or so years ago he made this stupid speech that had every guy in the school thinking he had to beat me up in order to take me on a date."
"It's also part of the reason Akane has trouble with boys her age." Nabiki chimed in.
"Only part?" Ranma asked in confusion, "What's the rest of it?"
Everyone else at the table made a sort of 'dunno' gesture and went back to breakfast.
"O Akane, my fierce tigress, let us venture forth into the days warm embrace! Let us journey out into the wide, wild world with naught but each other and a prayer for good fortune! Let us ELOPE!"
"That guy is beginning to get annoying…" Ranma said.
Akane shook her head and heaved a sigh. Kuno would never learn it seemed. "Pardon me for a moment," she said, "I'll be right back." Hefting a mallet she pulled from seemingly nowhere, she walked out the front door muttering darkly under her breath. Ranma managed to catch the words 'baka' and 'hentai' two or three times, though.
"Akane, my love! Let us away- where didst thou acquire such a monstrous thing? My love, enough games, let us be off and- what are you doing? 'Twould seem that thou dost wish to spar with mine self! Very well, I shall- "
"FORE!"
A loud smacking noise was heard, and then what sounded like someone screaming 'date with thee!' retreating at a rapid pace.
"I swear, Akane," Nabiki said, "One day you are going to give that boy some serious brain damage."
"Honestly, Nabiki," Akane replied, "I think he's already got brain damage. At least he graduated and isn't hounding me at school anymore."
"True, true…" Nabiki said, "Now he's at my school and hounding me twice as bad. Always he wants 'Pictures of his fierce Tigress'. One day, I'm going to have to do something about him, I swear…"
Ranma seemed deep in thought. Did this… buffoon's actions violate his code? So far, he seemed a rather harmless sort of irritant, but the part with the pictures had him worried. Obsessions like that very often turned dangerous, and fools that seemed harmless enough could become deadly with the right pressure.
"Myscale," he whispered, "could you go ask father about this? I'm a little unsure of what to do."
Myscale nodded and took off, flying in a generally north-westerly direction.
"So, son," Soun began, "what are your plans for the day?"
Ranma frowned a bit in thought. "To be honest, Mr. Tendo, I hadn't given it much thought. I suppose I'll look around and get my bearings, maybe visit my father. Maybe, If Kasumi is willing; I'll ask her if she'd like to come along with me. After that, I haven't really got anything in mind."
Nabiki piped up then, "I'd like to meet your father, too, Ranma. Could I come along as well? I'm guessing you're not referring to Mr. Saotome."
Ranma smiled at her. "Indeed not, Miss Nabiki. I mean Glalihern, my true father. Mr. Saotome may have been responsible for my birth, but he is no father of mine." There was an unmistakable air of finality to that statement. One which left Soun pondering what exactly had transpired during that ill-fated training trip.
Akane stood up and thanked Kasumi for the meal, citing that she needed to get to school, or risk being late. She said her farewells, and gave a parting glare to Ranma, warning him not to do anything …improper… while she was gone. Ranma pointedly ignored the look and continued to make small talk with Mr. Tendo.
About thirty minutes passed, and Ranma stood to take his dishes into the kitchen, ignoring Kasumi's protests that she would get them. Upon his return, Ranma gave her a gentle look.
"Kasumi," he began, "You cooked last night and did the dishes. You set up the bath, prepped and cooked breakfast. At the very least, let me get the dishes from this morning. I'm sure that you have things you would rather do, than wait on my scaly backside all day." With those words, he gently, but very insistently ushered her into the living room and sat her in front of the television.
Well, faster than you can say "rerun", she had a cup of tea and a plate of sliced strawberries on the end-table next to her and the remote in her hand. Kasumi, needless to say, was shocked. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the house had ever, ever, ever done the dishes for her. Let alone forced her to take a day off from cleaning. She wasn't too sure what to do, so she clicked on the TV and was soon engrossed in an animated story of a girl that used magic and her talking ferret side-kick.
Soun was surprised, Nabiki more so; and both of them felt like absolute heels for not thinking to do this earlier. Nabiki walked up to Ranma and took a breath.
"Ranma?" she began, "Can we talk about a… delicate matter?"
This instantly had Ranma's full attention. Delicate matters usually fell into three catagories: emotions, finances, or sex. Ranma's nose told him that with Nabiki, it could be any of them. Drying his hands on a dish towel, he poured two cups of coffee and gestured at the table.
"What is on your mind, Miss Nabiki?"
"First," she said, "just Nabiki is fine. Although, if you play your cards right, Biki-chan could work too." she added with a saucy wink. "But that's not what I need to talk to you about. The brass tacks are, we, as a family and a business, are broke. As much as I –I mean we- want you to stay, we can't afford another mouth to feed. So, we need to work out an arrangement for rent, or something. What do you say?"
Ranma regarded her for a moment before standing up. "Wait here a moment, please." he said. Ranma walked up to his room and came down a moment later with a small pouch. Ranma sat down at the table again and looked directly at Nabiki.
"This is from my own, private, horde. I'll need some help exchanging this into paper money, but be advised: I don't part with my hoard for less than a full-blown 'Oh, crap, we're all gonna die!' emergency. Understood?"
Nabiki nodded, her curiosity peaked. What was in that bag?
Ranma opened it and poured out a handful of gems. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds scattered across the table; all of them flawless and glittering in the electric light of the kitchen. Nabiki had a miniature orgasm from her avarice jumping to the front. Ranma, of course, knew it the instant it happened. He smirked and looked her in the eye.
"Like what you see, Nabiki?"
Nabiki could only gape in astonishment. This guy was LOADED!
"Goddess, Ranma! There's enough here to buy the house and property three times over! Where did you get this from?"
Ranma smirked a bit. "I told you, it's from my personal horde; and I do mean PERSONAL, Nabiki."
Wiping the smirk from his face, he counted out three diamonds, two rubies, and five sapphires.
"I want these turned into cash money, half of that is my contribution to the household expenses. The other half I would like in my hand." He moved over another ruby. "That one is yours. And this one," he moved an emerald over, "is for Kasumi. This one," here he moved a smaller diamond over "is for Akane. Those are for personal enjoyment, and NOT to be liquidated, understood?" seeing Nabiki nod in understanding, he carefully raked the remaining gems back into the bag and closed it. He then took the emerald and stood up from the table, right before wiping it off with a damp cloth. "I'm going to give this one to Kasumi, and then get dressed. We'll be leaving for my father's home in about twenty minutes, so I'd take this time to get a heavy coat and some long pants, father's home can be quite… drafty." He chuckled a little to himself as he walked back into the living room.
Nabiki, for her part, was still trying to get her hormones under control after that casual display of wealth. Granted, she didn't do the mercenary thing anymore, but she still placed high value on money. And seeing all of those valuable gems just got her going. Without thinking about the fact that she was still in her night shirt and not a blessed thing else, she whipped it off and raked the small pile of gems into it. She then walked, somewhat unsteadily, back to her bedroom to try and figure out what to do with all this wealth.
A few minutes later, Ranma was standing in the living room, watching Kasumi nibble on the strawberry slices. He was trying to figure out how to present it to her, without seeming to forward.
[I could just walk up to her and say 'here you go!', but that's not very appropriate…]
Ranma's musing was cut off when he felt two slender arms around his chest and a female voice saying thank you into it. Somehow, Kasumi had gotten up from the couch and hugged him, without his noticing. Smiling, he hugged her back and told her she was welcome.
"Kasumi?" he started.
"Hmm?" she mumbled from his chest.
"I want to give you something. Before I do, I just want to say that I'm not trying to buy your affections, I just want you to have this, okay?"
Kasumi looked up at him with curiosity in her eyes. "What, Ranma?"
He then carefully handed her the emerald, and watched with delight as she gasped.
"Ranma! Where did you get this? It's so pretty…"
"It's from my personal horde; and don't worry, I have more. That one is for you and you alone. You can do whatever you'd like with it, so long as you don't sell it. Also, since we're going to meet my father, I think you will want to put on some long pants and a heavy coat, Father's house is a bit chilly."
Kasumi rarely acted on impulse, she always tried to maintain an air of quiet dignity and proper reservation, but she just couldn't help herself this time. Without a thought to the consequences, she threw her arms around Ranma's neck and kissed him soundly, full on the lips. She let go and skipped off to go and put her treasure away and find something to wear.
Ranma, for his part, stood there with a glazed expression on his face and a goofy smile. That had been his first kiss, and it had knocked his metaphoric socks off.
Soun smiled. Ranma was turning out to be a god-send for his children. But, what should he do about the agreement to unite the schools? He'd need to call Genma and talk to him.
[Best to wait until they're gone for that…] he thought. [No telling how Ranma might react to seeing Genma again.]
A short time later, Ranma and two thirds of the Tendo Trio were standing outside the house, ready to depart. Nabiki and Kasumi were both rather uncomfortable in the long pants and coat, seeing as it was early summer and rather warm.
"Alright," Ranma began, "hold onto me and get ready, this is going to feel… odd."
Both girls latched onto an arm and braced themselves for anything.
What they got was a momentary feeling of displacement and nausea, and then it was gone. As soon as they opened their eyes, however, they saw an expanse of clouds and a large medieval European castle, seemingly made of white stone.
"Ladies," he began, "welcome to my father's home, the Cloud Castle. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to him."
A few moments passed as the trio walked through the halls, the girls asking about this trinket or that knickknack and Ranma explain how and where his father got them. It was exceptionally interesting to see the girls react to the statue of the troll in the corner, especially when Ranma explained that his father had turned that troll to stone, in order to stop it from terrorizing a small village in what later became Germany. Eventually, they came to the main hall, and there lay Glalihern, in all his draconic glory, observing his scrying pool.
"Father!" Ranma called out, "I'm back, and I brought visitors!"
Glalihern turned and regarded them with an amused look.
"Welcome, ladies. I, as I'm sure you've heard; am Glalihern, Ranma's father. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Myscale told me about you, though she glossed over how beautiful they are."
Glalihern chuckled a bit.
"Ranma, you certainly have good taste in females."
"Daaaaaad…" Ranma sighed, embarrassment coloring his tone.
Kasumi dipped into a low curtsy, not sure of how one greats a dragon. Nabiki did the same, after seeing her sister do so. Nabiki's nervousness was obvious, and kasumi seemed more in awe than anything else.
"Umm… Sir?" Nabiki began, "You're not going to… eat us, are you?"
Glalihern looked at her for a moment before laughing, full throated.
"Ranma!" he said, "What have you been telling these girls? No, dear, I'm not going to eat you. I don't eat sentient beings of any species. Matter of fact, I was just about to have breakfast, would you care to join me?"
"No thank you, Father. We actually finished breakfast not too long ago. I just wanted to introduce you to the girls and ask you a couple of questions."
Glalihern looked at Ranma for a moment.
"No, son, we've been over this already. You can't borrow the car."
Everyone face-faulted then, even Myscale.
"No, dad, I wasn't- wait, do we even have a car?"
That was when Glalihern face-faulted. It's an interesting thing, seeing a very, very large dragon with its face in the ground. Kind of like watching a large dog drag something out of a hole, only to find it's too big to pull out. Very funny looking, when you think about it!
"At any rate, I trust Myscale told you about the idiot that we encountered this morning?"
Glalihern nodded after righting himself. "Yes, she did mention something like that. Has this… biped… actually tried to assault the young Miss Tendo?"
Well, he issued a challenge in her sophomore year of high school," Nabiki began, "it pretty much declared that he'd only let someone who could beat her at fighting date her. I still don't know why the rest of the guys in school would agree to such a thing, but they were there the next morning and every morning after that trying to fight her for a date. Once she'd handled all of them, Kuno himself would po out from the tree and challenge her to fight him. Somehow, she always managed to win."
Glalihern nodded.
"Yes, son, this goes directly against one of your founding principles. He's trying to rape her before the fact."
Nabiki and Kasumi's eyes got huge when he said this, and Kasumi had to put her hand in front of her mouth to keep from crying out.
Ranma, for his part, was waiting for the rest of it.
"You see, once he'd beaten her, and felt that he was entitled to her, he'd feel that he could take her any time he felt like it. And, Akane would only be able to resist him for so long before he felt he needed to use force to get what he wanted; namely, Miss Akane's virtue."
Ranma's aura was dong a slow crawl up and down his body, showing to the girls just how truly angry he was.
"I see." he said.
Somehow, in spite of the cold air at their present altitude, everyone was chilled by that simple statement.
"Well, Dad; thanks for the tip, but I need to get these two home and get ready to meet this Kuno and …talk… about a few things. Yes, defiantly going to need a long …chat… to help him see the error of his ways."
The three watching would have been fooled if the energy playing across his arms and chest didn't make him look more draconic than he already did.
"Ranma," Glalihen began, "calm down. First, you need to try to talk to this guy and try to get him to understand what he's doing, he might not be aware of it. Second, you know perfectly well that Miss Akane is not Little Miro. "
Ranma's head snapped around and his expression hardened. He shot a flat stare at Glalihern and walked off, without a word.
"Umm…" Kasumi said, "Pardon me for asking, but who is Little Miro?"
Glalihern sighed.
"Little Miro was Ranma's semi-adopted sister with the Moonscale tribe of lizard-folk. I say semi-adopted, because they made Ranma an honorary member of their tribe when he was fifteen. We were making a trip into the Realms to further his training when we came across them. Ranma saved a group of them from a Cambion with a combination of his breath attack, magic, and martial skill. They adopted him on the spot, and Miro was the youngest member of that tribe. She sort of became his unofficial sister, as I said. The problem is that an older member of the tribe wanted to take Miro as his mate, forgetting that she was barely old enough for such things. She said no, he insisted, and when Ranma tried to get the guy to back off, he attacked. Ranma fought him off, but left him alive. The male in question decided that if he couldn't have Miro, than he certainly wasn't going to let some, and I quote, "warm-blood outsider" have her. So, in a fit of jealous rage, he poisoned Ranma with something that paralyzed him and proceeded to rape Miro, repeatedly, right before cutting off her head and dropping it in Ranma's lap."
Glalihern sighed and continued.
"Ranma, quite naturally, snapped and attacked that male as soon as he could. He quite literally tore him limb from limb and then let him bleed to death in front of him. Ranma has never let the shame of not being able to save her go, and blames himself for her death."
"That's horrible…" Kasumi breathed.
Nabiki was just too stunned to say anything.