Chapter Ten
by Skysaber
aka Jared Ornstead
During the mushroom incident events diverge from normal and enemies try to take advantage of our pigtailed hero. Unfortunately for them, attempts to get rid of him often go disastrously wrong.
OoOoO
Nabiki liked to be seen as a borderline dangerous girl, appealing to those that liked to think they were taking risks or breaking the mold, in other words your typical rebellious teen, a group that just happened to compose most of her peers and social contacts. But to make such an image work, a girl has got to show glimmers of possibly being that way just because she didn't have someone to depend on - and that the moment such a someone showed up and wormed his way in past her defenses, that she'd miraculously turn around to become the sort of girl you could love and trust unconditionally, that you could take home to show to mom and dad before starting a fairytale life together.
That was the dream people had, so by adhering to that image she appealed to that dream and got an effective bait, drawing sucker after sucker into her unforgiving trap.
The truth was she was mean. She hurt people just because she found it amusing, a proof of her power and superiority over them. In actual fact she wasn't all that smart, most of her schemes being shallow and short-sighted, sometimes to the extreme. She actively worked to upset her customers because she liked the feelings of being in control she got from seeing their impotent fury rail uselessly against her.
But that wasn't the way to build up any long term business or client base. It was like setting fire to your house to keep warm, sure, it worked - for a little while, but it was stupid and in the long run terribly self destructive, destroying alot more value than you gained.
Worse still, for her, was that she was proud enough to feel that these destructive habits were her divinely granted privilege, or something like that, never admitting to herself they would guarantee her failure in the business world later in life. Sure, she could conceal her thorns long enough to get hired, probably at a very nice place. But it would not be long before that company discovered her real character (or lack thereof) and not only would they fire her, but with the reputation she'd gain from it, no legitimate place of business would ever hire her again. Not even the Yakuza would trust her, because really she's transparent, and only gives off the appearance that she's subtle when contrasted to the people around her who wore their hearts on their sleeves.
Nabiki was in actuality shallow, narrow-minded, and blind to all but her obsession (which was making a quick yen) nor did she care anything for the consequences.
In other words, she was your average Nerima resident.
However, even Ryoga would notice a mountain being dropped on his head. In the short space of a few weeks, Nabiki had been privy to any number of eye-opening shocks and experiences that she could have happily lived all of her life without even imagining.
It all started with Ranma breaking into her bedroom and shoving a sword through her gut. That was bad enough all on its own to warrant special mention, but in hindsight it wasn't all that horrible. If she'd had a choice between going through that one again instead of being sent back in time to this era as she'd been, she would have bared her midriff cheerfully and asked Ranma if he preferred to run her through from the front or back, then smiled while he'd done it.
At least, she would have if she'd known how terrible the experience of going back in time was going to be.
Ranma's sword thrust, while dramatic and frightening in the extreme, hadn't even hurt until she'd forced him to make it do so. It had also been mercifully brief, and left no lasting consequences. Contrasting that with the situation she was now in, and she'd take the sword thrust any day of the week. She'd take it two or three times and then ask him if he wanted to set up weekly appointments.
Nabiki had been successful in all of her schemes because she had become master of her environment. She'd known every loophole and weakness and played up to them, developed a set of skills based on exploiting them, then ruthlessly taken advantage of everyone around her without pity or remorse.
But that had been as a highschooler in Nerima.
Outside of that environment she was as well adapted as a fish out of water.
Back in ancient Japan, everything she'd tried to do so far had failed.
Nabiki hadn't felt the slightest qualms about dipping into her family's martial arts tricks (as exemplified by their founder) and try to live by thievery. After all, she'd reasoned, she was already effectively an outlaw anyway, why not enjoy the benefits?
Well, the main reason was people in the future were unbelievably wealthy by local standards and as a direct result of that, had grown lax in protecting their goods. Her father's training mission consisted largely of grabbing stuff and running, with the occasional beating to convince him it was not a good idea to get caught, and so push himself to greater speed and agility while pursued by angry crowds.
You couldn't train like that in the local environment because they didn't arrest thieves, or simply beat them, they killed them. A person caught wasn't pounded on until bruised and then let go, but was summarily executed on the spot as often as not.
Nabiki learned that the hard way while getting caught stealing a bag of rice, when she found that she couldn't run as fast with the rice in her grasp as the man who owned it could run without. She'd gotten caught and beaten, which she'd almost expected, but it hadn't stopped with that. The guy didn't give her a few bruises, then walk away with his reclaimed goods. No, he'd kept on beating her until she could barely even groan, wondering if she wasn't going to die. Then he had to remove all doubt by taking a sharpened bamboo stake and preparing to drive it through her heart. But, in placing its tip against her chest, he'd noticed her breasts for the first time.
It had been lust that saved her then, as the guy apparently decided a little rape was in order before killing her. She hadn't been in any shape to resist , so he'd gotten her pants off and was marveling at her lacy panties when a surge of panic filled adrenaline gave Nabiki just enough energy to grab his own discarded stake and kill him with it, stabbing harshly in a frantic thrust while he was still distracted by her embroidered underwear.
It hadn't been pretty. It had been messy, and miserable, and she'd thought that she might die anyway because at first she couldn't move her battered and bruised body out from under his dead weight, and the corpse had nearly crushed the life out of her.
Then she'd had to come to grips with having taken her first life, and it was lacking all of the usual trappings of nobility, honor, war or duty - the excuses crafted over millennia to make the horrible experience of taking a human life slightly easier. There came an injury to the soul from killing that those who had never done it couldn't understand. They could hear about it, even accept that it was there, but it wasn't something they could comprehend until they'd done it. And it was one of those soul-deep miseries that could make otherwise stoic and hardened men both cry and puke their guts out the first time it happened.
There's a reason soldiers often drink.
For all of the callousness she'd thought she'd had, Nabiki wasn't prepared to be a murderer. She also found it hard to excuse to herself the circumstances under which she'd taken her first life; she'd stolen a guy's food and he'd chased her down, caught her, and beat her almost to death for it.
Then she'd killed him.
Yes, he would've killed her. Yes, he was trying to rape her. Those were generally good excuses, but she'd provoked that encounter in the first place by stealing from him. It led to a tangled morass without easy resolution and left her feeling surprisingly sick of herself and her behavior.
Emotions are rarely ever logical, but in this instance she found herself reexamining all she'd ever done with her life up until that point, trying to justify her existence by exposing some good deeds to make up for having committed what felt like cold-blooded murder, and she sadly concluded that she hadn't been a very nice person.
The rice had been strangely unappetizing after all that, but she ate it anyway, having nothing else.
That entire experience was miserable enough to sour her on thievery for a time.
Still, after she'd stripped the body and washed the blood off of her new clothes, she did gain an authentic outfit for the period, instead of her 'okay from a distance' pajamas.
One of her previous 'clients' in Nerima had, while otherwise meekly paying up on a completely unfair debt, asked her what she thought of ethics. Nabiki's rather flippant reply had been, "Never heard of them." Sick of herself and all she'd done with her life up to that point, as she washed the blood out of her new clothes she resolved to find out.
But she still had to support herself while she tried to find a way to learn.
Her next try at making a life for herself came in the form of the Nerima classic tradition of crossdressing, trying to pass herself off as a boy, feeling that by doing so she'd gain the greater rights of a male, and by doing that gain some slight measure of security.
Unfortunately, that was just as spectacular a failure in its own way. Her speech and mannerisms were way too feminine even after she did her best to conceal them. She didn't have the encyclopedic knowledge of how to act as the other gender that Nerima's finest so effortlessly displayed, and her figure was way too female to conceal without expert skills in that department; Skills she did not have.
The fact of the matter was, she sucked at crossdressing. She hadn't been practicing it all of her life, starting from childhood where it was easier, nor was she a genius at reading body posture or even acting.
Even Ranma, at his tomboyish best, made a better girl than she did a boy, and a large part of that she had to attribute to his skill at reading postures and motions that came from his insane martial arts ability. He didn't have to think about a kendo stance when he was using kendo, and somehow he'd automatically adjusted so that, unless he was trying not to, when that boy was a girl he just automatically moved and stood like a true girl would.
It was maddening to have been surrounded by true experts at this, then to realize you'd picked up next to nothing just when that skill could be a lifesaver.
The men who found her out went to set a trap for exposing her. A group of them set up a bathing opportunity for Nabiki, her first in a long time, then all walked in on her when the crossdressing girl been led to believe she'd have privacy.
There, in all her naked, sudsy glory, they'd tried to pounce on her with plans no less lecherous than Happosai would've admired. In fact, the old man left off at groping and a bit of underwear theft, where these men would've gone all of the way, and most probably used her until she died from the experience.
But she'd learned a thing or two from having Ranma as a houseguest, and that was walls are only another form of door when you're really motivated. She'd smashed some wood planking and got out of there as fast as her two bare legs could carry her. She'd lost her period outfit, having to leave it behind as there was no way to retrieve it without getting caught by those men, but in spite of that damaging loss, counted herself lucky to have gotten away with her life and virginity intact.
All the way out, as she darted across fields and reeds slapped, stinging, against her naked feet, she was blessing herself for having resumed what she could recall of her martial art training, even as she cursed herself for having made so little of that precious opportunity when expert training was available to her, free for the taking. But it had taken this sort of experience, the helpless need, to convince her that she really wanted it.
It was humiliating to realize you'd been THAT blind and short-sighted.
Just like living in a house with one of the best cooks and homemakers in all Japan, then realizing when it came time to take care of yourself that you couldn't order fast food anymore, and that Genma's 'Secret Cooking Technique' of camp rice was, pathetic as it was, better by far than anything you'd ever achieved in that department.
It was endlessly frustrating to know, just when you need it most, that you'd lived your whole life next to a true expert, and used none of the near-endless opportunities to help out and, by doing so, receive that expert's tutoring in her skill.
For free, even. No cost at all.
It would have taken nothing but a little of her time to have helped out in the kitchen here or there, and by doing so gain a portion of that skill and be endlessly better prepared to live out on her own, as she was now.
But Nabiki could not be bothered to pick up even the slightest hint of Kasumi's domestic genius back when she'd had the chance, or her father's (admittedly degenerated from his prime, but still useful) martial arts ability.
Either one of those could have saved her endless troubles where she was now.
Even Akane, who could barely look at a skillet without setting it on fire, and who'd put poison in her meals all without meaning to, would be better suited to this environment than Nabiki was. Akane could become some sort of warrior nun or something, and have some small amount of respect... until she died on some nameless battlefield somewhere with a spear stuck through her guts, as she'd never bothered to listen to Ranma about tightening those holes in her defenses (and the goons around here were a bit more skilled than the students of the Furinkan Soccer or Dancing clubs had been, in those mobs she'd defeated).
Kasumi, however, would fit right in to this place. In fact, with the notable absence of a few modern labor-saving devices, she'd feel right at home. She might even like it better than Nerima, as there was no way she'd stay unwed even a single week around here, and given how kind and gentle and considerate she was, not to mention respectful, skilled and beautiful in a way that was nearly off the charts by local standards, her dear older sister would certainly land the best possible marriage in the whole entire region.
After one or two little wars were fought over her, of course.
Actually, if both of her sisters had come back, Kasumi could arrange for Akane to be her personal female bodyguard, and thus the fiery tempered one could survive a lot longer than just another nameless body on a forgotten battlefield, providing Kasumi sent her ever-temperamental youngest sister away on some errand or other before each of her husband's visits, that is. It wouldn't do to let Akane lose her temper and provoke the guy who paid the bills or had tons of other loyal guards with sharp, pointy swords on hand, after all.
Maybe, in that case, Nabiki could arrange to be her sister's live-in nanny, or some other unskilled role. Frankly, what she'd WANT to do, if her older sister was here, would be to instantly prostrate herself at Kasumi's feet and beg for her to teach her how to be even half as good as she was on the domestic side of things.
She was tired of eating burnt rice. Nor could she get a comfortable bath and her pajamas stank and itched because she didn't have any soap to really get them clean.
Nabiki shook herself back to her present situation. Glad as she would be to mooch off of her dear eldest sister's generosity for the rest of her life, or clutch her feet pleading for instructions, she wasn't here, and that wasn't an option.
She had, after her brief attempt at going at a life of crossdressing, returned to thievery for a time, but she approached it in a more intelligent way, going for stealth and burglary rather than a simple snatch and run.
It wasn't the way she'd wanted to live her life, but she had, by that point, run low on that initial bag of rice and wasn't aware of how to get another set of period clothes. So, she'd taken to sneaking around at night looking for opportunities.
While she wasn't particularly good at that, either, she'd had one innovative idea, and used her cell phone to provide a bit of light. It wasn't much to see by, but it was enough. The most dramatic thing was the spot of blue glow was a very unnatural color for lights in the dead of night, so superstitious peasants steered very clear of her when she had it out.
Using a ringtone here or there aided her substantially in the 'spook' act, and let her get away with a fair amount of larceny that the locals all blamed on unfriendly spirits.
The trouble with that was her battery life was limited, very limited in fact. Oh, it had seemed more than generous in the future, when it was a phone and all she was going to do was make calls on it. There recharging it had been easy, trivial really. Back here, in the past, when every second of glow was a "Spooky thing going on here, stay away" sign that kept potentially violent and dangerous locals away, it was not just a phone, it was life.
In that circumstance, a few hours of battery power was just not enough. Even carefully hoarding each and every second, using it only at need and never a heartbeat more than necessary, it could never be enough because it must eventually run out.
That made her face the fact that that lifestyle just wasn't going to work out long-term. So she had resolved again to make a try at ordinary, honest work.
It looked for a time as if her second attempt at leading an honest life was going so much better than her first, and it had, really. Between the resources she'd been able to lift doing her 'spirit of the night' act, and the conversations that she'd overheard from spying on people evening out several of the more notable flaws in her accent, she was able to make a far more presentable go at being an accepted, if not respected, member of society.
That was all due to two things, the first being her carefully choosing a town with a fair amount of traffic, large enough so that no one could know the names and faces of all of their neighbors, somewhere to blend in, in other words.
The second was that she had a fair amount of skills that were rare among the locals. For one, she could read and do figures among the best of them. Once she'd gotten a good set of clothes she was able to play the part of an educated person whose family was stuck in hard times, and so went out to join the work force as a productive citizen.
That had gone over surprisingly well for a few months. Her disguise had held. She didn't speak much for fear of revealing how little she truly fit in, but that had all seemed very proper and feminine for the time period. So she got herself a job as a bookkeeper doing accounting for a modestly prosperous merchant, where things went along fairly pleasantly. She even achieved a certain degree of comfort, able to afford baths, her own clothes, and a decent enough place to sleep that was neither dangerous nor nosy.
All of that ended when she'd gotten greedy.
In a way she could hardly help it. Nabiki had held greed to be her own special virtue for the longest time, and always imagined that she was smart enough to get away with it. In that, she was wrong.
She was very nearly dead wrong over it.
The merchant had noticed her embezzling, which she'd felt she'd hidden so cleverly, and had hired a couple of tall, ugly thugs to beat out of her the location of all of the money she'd stolen. Naturally, she'd known nothing of this until she made the walk from the pleasant home of the family she was boarding with and opened the door to the merchant's shop to see the first thug already making a grab for her.
She'd gotten away, but only after a chase that resulted in her being marked as a criminal who could never go back to that town again. And, without a horse or the ability, like Ranma had, to traverse long distances on foot, that meant her reputation as a thief spread much farther much faster than she could travel. So, no more honest jobs doing accounting for merchants for her.
However, she had been careful enough that her former employer did not know the family with which she stayed, so Nabiki was able to sneak back, before that family had learned of her crimes, and collect her belongings.
It humbled her how the work of a few months could still be comfortably fit within the confines of Genma's spare backpack.
The few coins for which she'd traded a comfortable existence and not unpleasant future she didn't want to just stuff in any old pocket. For one thing period outfits did not come with pockets, and for another she had no desire to advertise her small fortune to any thieves who may try robbing her. It was bad enough carrying all of her worldly belongings on her back, but owning cash that could tempt anyone running into her to steal was almost worse.
At first she considered hiding her small fortune inside of her feminine cavity. After all, she'd inserted tampons in there, this couldn't be much different. However, she was told by the kindly mother of her host family, who'd noticed that she was about to depart, that any person who was at all likely to rob her was also probably going to rape her, too. Hiding things inside of herself was a secret best used by old women who no longer attracted any such attention, and that for anyone else it was an exercise in futility.
In fact, those few times a fortune was discovered hidden in such a manner the tales spread and it only encouraged more rape of female travelers.
Faced with such disheartening news, Nabiki could only sigh and miss her home.
Then it was off to yet another attempt at forging a life for herself in this time period. She had noted that, while there were some small stirrings of discontent, no revolution had yet started. So she wasn't in the Meiji at all, or at least not yet. The girl had managed to learn during her short stint of doing figures what the approximate date was, and they were still far short of the time when Admiral Perry came and opened Japan to Western culture and influence. Well, far on a personal scale, anyway. If she recalled her dates right (which was something she could not be sure of - this had all seemed so trivial back in a classroom), the actual revolution wasn't going to start for another half a dozen years.
Which, frankly, seemed an eternity away to the poor girl. And even then, that wasn't going to be a fun period to live through. Civil wars always got more ugly and involved more homes and sheltered areas than anyone desired going into them.
What she truly wanted was a way to go back to Nerima and her family and home.
OoOoO
A very good reason why time is not to be tampered with without a great deal of knowledge (and more than your fair share of luck) was that ripples, once started, could (as anyone might expect) travel forward very easily. But under the right circumstances they could also travel backward.
Just like the ripples on a pond would go first out from the splash of a thrown stone, but then rebound off the sides and go right back to the center again, occasionally passing over themselves going different directions, leading to a cascade of seemingly contrary effects bouncing around like pinballs. That made the whole thing very complicated.
Thus, manipulating the time stream was not for the faint of heart.
One of those rippling timeline changes arose from a shift no one may ever identity, using a trigger based on the fact that Genma Saotome was a very stupid, as well as a very boastful, fellow who liked to get drunk. So, in what was now officially the true story of Ranma prior to his time jump back to feudal Japan, the one where he was now the kidnapped son of a very popular film star, a new change developed.
All it took was one night in a bar when the subject came up on the news in a report and the incredibly vain, and more drunk than usual, idiot got to loudly proclaiming that those police would never find Nodoka's kidnapped son, because they'd never get the secret out of HIM! And then Genma had followed this with other obvious ramblings that made it even more inescapably clear he was the one who had the boy.
Now that would have been a bad enough boast to make in any case, but worse if there had been any sort of cop present. However it was far, far worse that Genma didn't associate in the kind of bars that would tolerate police when he could avoid it, and so this was a bunch of seedy, underworld figures who overheard his bragging.
Well, one thing led to another, and a few of those types investigated, then reported to their bosses, who liked reward money as much as the next crook, and who liked even more stomping on independent operators as much as possible and, well...
Genma Saotome fled Japan with Ranma as soon as he'd gotten over his hangover. To this day he still had scars from the bullet wounds. There was one hidden under that cloth he wore over his head from a bullet that had only narrowly missed detonating his skull like an exploding melon. An act that, unhappily for Genma, would have troubled no one but himself had it actually happened.
Unfortunately for the proto-panda, some mobsters spotted him leaving Japan, and they had contacts in China (which was the place he'd tried running to), so as soon as Genma and his kidnapped child had pulled themselves up onto the beach after swimming the Sea of Japan they'd been confronted by some Triad thugs in dark grey suits who felt that if they had Nodoka's son they could exchange him for favors with their communist government, who could in turn perform some minor amount of arm-twisting with the Japanese embassy over trade concessions. The communists would probably get even more mileage out of publishing the fact that it was a Japanese man who'd done the actual kidnapping, and they'd just apprehended him crossing their borders.
One chase across the rurals of China later, getting shot at by goons on both sides of the law, and Genma decided that China wasn't a great place to train like he'd thought it was. The pair had somehow managed to smuggle themselves into a cargo boat and somehow managed to pick one that happened to be going to England.
Not Genma's first choice by any means, but while not a martial arts mecca, it was far enough from those Yaks and Triads for the heat to die down.
He'd almost changed his mind that first night when, upon breaking into a store to steal some booze, his behind had gotten lit up by a Venus Meteor Beam, sending him off to the prison hospital where he'd turn out to be very popular with the other inmates.
Ranma, on the other hand, was too busy laughing at his father's predicament, beaten up by a 'weak girl', to get involved until a pair of shapely red boots stepped into his field of vision, cutting off his laughter. The masked blonde had a smile on her face as she'd looked down upon him, hands perched on perky, blue-skirted hips.
Much like the event that had started this flashback, which was why it served as a good trigger for the onrush of those new memories.
However, just then cascading ripples crossed each other yet again, and somehow suddenly that was not the first time Ranma had met the beautiful Sailor V, proving how very confusing this whole time ripple thing could be.
No, tampering with time was definitely not for the faint of heart.
So, back then in England, the pretty (and first activated) Sailor Scout gushed forth to the prone with laughter martial artist in shocked recognition. "So... Hey! I know you!" Sailor V kept rushing on, "I met you on my first night as a soldier of justice. Right after I beat that one Dark Syndicate guy you two were there!"
Ranma had blinked up at the sailor suited soldier for love and justice just as a completely new set of echoed-in memories struck him. "Mina-chan?"
Instantly the perky blonde had scooped him up off the floor and was hugging his arm. "Ranma! Oh! I was right that first time. This world is still full of cute boys! But you and your dad are the second plot I've taken down already tonight. What's going on?"
"Hehehe," Ranma chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Well, pops isn't really a Dark Syndicate anything. Like I told you the last time, he's just a moron, and a thief, and a..."
"HEY!" The excited (and lovely) soldier of justice shouted, bouncing up and down against his arm. "Why don't you join me? I know from before that you're a really powerful martial artist. I could use your help against the Dark Syndicate!"
"But, I..."
"Couldn't he, Artemis?"
Instantly freezing at the appearance of a cat, Ranma got paralyzed while that feline spoke, considering, "Well, Mina, the Scouts did once have powerful knights to defend them. But..."
"Great!" The enthused warrior of justice shouted. "Ranma, from now on you can be my Knight!"
"Hey, wait a minute Venus!" Artemis objected, "You can't just do that! There's..."
"But Artemis, you said I'm a princess, with my own planet and floating castle, right?" The plucky and ever-popular Sailor V gushed.
"Yes, that's right Venus. Mazeran Castle. It floats over the land of Aphrodite. It's your castle. I'm glad you remember." Her feline advisor nodded.
"And the Queen of the Moon is dead, and we haven't found the princess, right? That's why I'm posing as her, to draw the enemy's attention away so we can find her before they do, right?" The Moon-costumed Scout of Venus pressed.
"Yes, Mina... but that's not information you should be sharing in front of just anyone." Artemis eyed the young man in her arms and sweatdropped.
"Aw, c'mon Artemis, you know he helped me before on the brainwashing TV thing! We saved all of Japan together!(1) He's trustworthy, even if his dad is a slimeball." The girl blushed, casting a sidelong glance to the incredible hunk now filling her arms as she argued successfully with her cat.
Ranma winced, but was unable to refute the honesty of her statements.
Mina posed triumphantly, two fingers making a 'V' over her eyes (while the other arm stayed around the cool guy she was drafting). "So, as a princess, until we find the Moon Princess that makes me the highest Moon Kingdom authority around, right? So I hereby adopt Ranma into our kingdom and accept him as my knight!"
To both of their surprise, a thousand motes of starlight coalesced onto Ranma from all different directions, getting him to glow and pulse briefly before turning back to normal.
As Artemis sweatdropped, Venus began giggling, inwardly congratulating herself on sidestepping her curse against finding love. 'And with her Venus Knight, Venus might have a Venus night!' (images of hearts and kisses floating around. the nubile and ever-plucky Sailor gave the boy an inexplicable shudder).
"Huh?" Ranma blinked, suddenly unafraid of the Moon Cat and coming out of his state of paralyzation to see the wonderful yet scary visage of a possessive female grinning down on him like a cat that had caught her own canary.
"So, you will help me fight, won't you?" Cue puppy dog eyes as she glomped him and directed a gaze of earnest yet innocent longing up to him, pleading for his help.
"Uh, sure." Ranma's will melted before this assault.
So, between the two of them, they'd cleaned out England of the Dark Syndicate in a matter of months, allowing Mina to return to Japan quite a bit early. Her parents would again move out of country for their jobs, though, and Ranma would get snagged by Genma to go off and resume their training journey, separating the duo.
Thus Artemis would still teach Mina how to do a Sailor Teleport to return to Japan in response to that Moon Kingdom alarm to thwart that 'So You Want To Be A Star' scheme of Jedite's, where she, along with Serena as her partner, would still win that contest to become a superstar idol singer after defeating a minor Youma attack on the pageant, altering that timeline just enough so that Mina's parents were no longer concerned over how she'd managed to obtain a film contract in Japan while they were still abroad. As that excuse was now covered by a memory of a 'weekend trip' back to her homeland that Artemis inserted into their minds, now being much more proficient at that power from having used it so often to keep Genma running around on strange errands so that his son could fight alongside of the feline's charge without the overweight elder noticing.
Although Venus was majorly bummed to have had her knight dragged off by his scumbag of a father just as they were doing so well together, she went on to deal crippling blows to organized crime and spy rings in mainland Europe.
And, back to the present, Ranma once again found himself swept up into the delighted embrace of the Sailor of Venus. "Ranma!" she cried out in utmost delight. "Why didn't you tell me you were back from whatever that place was your dad dragged you off to?"
"Oro?" the decidedly hugged martial artist mumbled into her breast, as it had been a subjective number of years or so since he'd even seen this girl, and he'd forgotten all about his Moon Knight powers, not having been able to activate any of them without her present.
(1) This refers to an early adventure in the Sailor V comics, involving her own Dark General, and does not relate to a separate and very similar event sponsored by Jedite and occurring to Sailor Moon.
OoOoO
Author's Notes:
Yes, I know. The last part is a bit confusing. But every so often you come across the question 'To post or not to post', and the answer to that had better be 'yes, post'. It gets you over those rough parts and off to writing again in smoother territory, at least it does for me.
Also, I know any sort of matchup starring Nabiki is... well, for lack of a better word: tired. She's the single most popular match for Ranma after Akane, to judge by the sheer volume of fanfics that do so. So, yes, it's a bit hackneyed and overused, and I might not end up actually doing it, but if I do she's at least going to be tenderized a bit first.
And the School of Hard Knocks is far from pleasant, but there are some lessons some people just refuse to learn any other way, and Nabiki strikes me as far too sure of herself to pick up humility in any other classroom.