Ranma-chan: Genie of the Ring
by Disruptor
Disclaimer: All characters that are used belong to their respective creators. I do this for fun and do not take any money off of it. Please don't sue me. The stories are mine, so please don't use them without asking me.
Chapter 11
Sitting in shocked silence after hearing Kasumi's startling revelation, Soun and Genma looked at each other. Nabiki used a stopwatch to count the seconds and gazed at her father. The digital stopwatch displayed 18.79 after it was stopped. Kasumi noticed that her sister wasn't surprised by her announcement.
"WHAT!" the two martial artists cried in unison.
Nabiki rolled her eyes and answered for Kasumi. "Akane moved out, because of those flyers you posted earlier."
"B-but that was for the good of the family," Soun stuttered.
"Don't try and convince me, Dad. Convince her, if you can find her."
"She's right, Father. Mr. Saotome's and your actions drove her away," Kasumi interjected. "Don't worry. After she cools down, she'll probably move back. She just needed to get away for a while. She'll be all right."
Nabiki narrowed her eyes as her older sister reassured her father. Knowing exactly why Akane moved out, she doubted that her younger sister would be moving back any time soon. She wanted to talk to Kasumi about the situation, but knew she had to find someplace private to talk to her. She snapped out of her reverie as she heard her father talking.
"Come, Saotome. We have to search all the apartments in Tokyo for my little girl," Soun stated confidently.
Genma nodded.
"When I think of my daughter in such a place. It makes me...," Soun bawled, before bursting into tears.
The two martial artists hurried off to begin their search. Nabiki just shook her head as she watched the two men rush off.
"Those two will never learn," Nabiki muttered, before she turned to see Kasumi staring at her.
Nabiki hesitantly said, "Er. Sis, there are some things I think we both need to catch up on. And, since Dad and Mr. Saotome are gone..."
Kasumi was about to reply when a noise coming from outside caught her attention. It sounded like a bunch of screaming women. The two sisters went to the front door and looked out. The girls saw a man running with a large group chasing him.
"Oh my. Isn't that Principal Kuno?"
Nabiki squinted at the man and replied, "Good eyes, Kasumi. It looks like he finally came back from his latest vacation."
"I wonder who those girls are that are following him?" Kasumi said, while rubbing her neck.
The younger girl took a closer look at the crowd chasing after her Principal and saw that the group was composed of mostly women.
"If those girls weren't bald, I would say they were Chinese Amazons," Nabiki replied. Where's that beeping coming from?
"Well, it has nothing to do with us," Kasumi said, as she headed back towards the kitchen.
Before closing the door Nabiki heard Principal Kuno state, "Ooo, I'm a baaaad kahuna. Maybe I shouldn't wen' shavin' all dey heads when dey asleep, yeah!"
The middle Tendo shut the door and ran up to her room. Once inside, she collapsed on the bed laughing. She wanted to shake the hand of the person who set up Principal Kuno like that.
Inside the ring Ranma just finished up practicing the moves for the Kami-sen-ken and Umi-sen-ken. She felt there was something missing from the Umi-sen-ken. That thought sent her back to look through her book again. The genie flipped to the Umi-sen-ken pages and noticed that some of the pages were stuck together. She carefully pried open the stuck pages, while noticing that it was the gilding on the top of the pages that caused them to stick. Once Ranma had opened the pages, she saw that there was a third technique that her father had devised, the Yama-sen-ken.
"Three styles?" Ranma asked aloud, while scanning the moves.
She saw that these moves perfectly complemented the Umi-sen-ken. And, it left her with a puzzle about the Kami-sen-ken. She tried to figure out what her father had made that style for. A tug throughout her body forced her to give up that idea for the moment. She closed her eyes and let herself enjoy the feeling of being pulled out of the ring as smoke. Ranma's mind went into a trance state as she reformed outside the ring.
"What is your wish, master?"
Walking around her new home, Akane felt a bit scared. The fear came from being away from her home and family. After storing her clothes in a closet, she looked around her barren home. Thinking on what Kasumi had suggested, Akane sighed and knew that her sister was right. She turned her hand so she was staring at the ruby. The faceted gemstone sparkled as it was tilted to catch the light. The central facet was cut in hexagon shape. The six triangle facets leading from the edges of the hexagon were done in sharp detail. She didn't know how long she gazed at the gem. But, she finally started rubbing the gemstone. Red smoke billowed from the center of the gem and poured to the ground. The smoke took a humanoid shape and then coalesced into Ranma-chan.
Akane flinched as Ranma said in a monotone voice, "What is your wish, master?"
The Tendo girl waited until the genie snapped out of her trance. Once she saw Ranma regain her senses, Akane started talking.
"Ranma, I am going to be making some wishes if you don't mind," Akane stammered. "You did say you wanted some practice, didn't you?"
Ranma looked at Akane strangely and replied, "Yeah, Akane. I do want to get better at magic."
The Tendo girl nodded and said, "We're going to start with this house. I want to furnish it with everything to make it a home."
The genie just nodded.
"Ranma, do you want to change your clothes before we do this?"
Ranma closed her eyes for a second and then shook her head.
"Naw. I might as well look the part while doing this. I'm stuck wearing this costume while in the ring anyway."
Akane glanced at Ranma startled. The fact that Ranma wasn't demanding to be out of the clothes surprised her. After a second she regained her composure and led Ranma around the house. As they entered each room, Akane made some wishes on how she wanted the room to look. For the most part, the wishes turned out okay. But, there were some exceptions. The foyer being the worst with its wallpapered floor, carpeted walls, and bathroom tiled ceiling. After an hour of using Ranma's magic to furnish the house, Akane stopped and wished up some food for Ranma and her to eat. The two had some small talk while eating.
"Ranma, what have you been doing in the ring?"
"I finally looked through that book you wished up for me. It seems Pops has been holding out on me. He developed three powerful styles and never even bothered to tell me. I don't think I'll ever forgive him for the cat incident, when he could have taught me these styles instead."
"Will you teach me these styles?"
Ranma closed her eyes and nodded. "I'm going to have to. You're going to need the protection if anyone attacks you while I'm inside the ring."
Akane almost said something , when she noticed that the genie was about to slip into unconsciousness.
"Ranma, you had better return to the ring. I think I wore you out with furnishing my house."
"Er. Yeah," Ranma said as she allowed herself to discorporate into smoke and be drawn back inside the ring. I'll have to ask why she left later.
At the Tendo home, laughter echoed throughout the house. Curious, Kasumi knocked on her sister's door.
"C-come in, Kasumi," Nabiki managed through her laughter.
The door opened slowly and the elder sister entered, with a stern expression on her face. Seeing Kasumi's face, Nabiki stifled her laughter over the principal's predicament.
"Nabiki, what do you know about Akane moving out?"
Nabiki at first thought of ways to evade the question, but her concerns about her little sister pushed that thought away.
"I saw what happened last night after Dad and Mr. Saotome left. I understand perfectly why Akane had to leave. I hope Akane can deal with that kind of power. Is that what you wanted to know? Oh. Please try and speak evasively, Kasumi. You never know who might be listening."
"Yes, it is. Nabiki, please try and keep that to yourself. Akane's life is at stake."
"I'm already working on ways to protect her. I want my little sister to trust me again."
Smiling sadly, Kasumi shook her head and said, "That is going to take a lot of work on your part, Nabiki."
A quiet whisper came from Nabiki, "I know."
The ringing of the phone stopped any replies that Kasumi was going to make. The phone was picked up by the eldest sister.
"Hello. This is the Tendo residence."
"Hello. Is a Miss Akane Tendo there? This is the Veterinary Clinic," said a male voice on the other end of the phone.
"I'm sorry. She's not here at the moment," Kasumi replied. That's right. Akane took P-chan to the vet.
"Well, can you give her a message?"
"Yes. What is it?"
"We are having problems with her pet pig. It'll be another two days before she can pick him up."
"Problems?"
"Err. Yeah. The pig's skin is very resistant to puncture. We will be able to give the animal the proper shots, but its tail end is going to be sore for weeks. The extra days is to allow the medication needed to ease the pig's pain to arrive."
"I'll be sure to tell her. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Kasumi hung the phone up and relayed what that was about to her sister. Nabiki sighed as she heard what was going on. She felt that the best place to regain the lost trust was to tell Akane of the link between P-chan and Ryoga.
This has been one weird Saturday.
Sitting in a thatched hut in China, a robed man gazed in the direction of Japan.
"Soon. Soon your influence shall spread across the land as it should have done then."
The robed man clutched his head with his hands and collapsed to his knees.
"My burning pain shall also be gone as your influence spreads."