Chapter 3: Murder starts with M
Oh god it was horrible, it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever eaten. He wanted to spit it up but instead he reflexively swallowed. He instantly regretted it. He looked down at the corpse and noted that blood was pooling on the hardwood floor. Not believing that his new family would believe that the old fart died of natural causes, he picked up the carcass and scurried around the back of the dojo making sure that he was not in sight of the house at all times and kept to the shadows. He took off his shirt and wrapped the old fart up in it to minimize the amount of blood that seeped out onto the grass. He then stealthily crept back to the dojo.
It was a good thing that the varnish on the floor was still intact or else this would have been more difficult. It was rather surprising considering the fact that the family itself was quite poor. He just surmised that the reason was that the dojo was important and that their father would insist that it be kept up at the expense of all else. Shrugging this off he started rummaging around in his stuff space and pulled out his grandmother's spell book. Unlike his grandmother Ranma could never remember the correct words for the spells so he had to constantly refer to the spell book. Quickly chanting the correct words, there was a brief flash of crimson light, and the blood disappeared. Putting the spell book away he crept back outside.
Creeping over towards the fence he noticed that somebody was coming in the front gate. Quickly scooping up his cargo he jumped over the back fence and took off running.
Kasumi Tendo had just gotten back from her second job as an exotic dancer. It had been a long day today. First her job as a waitress at the Cat Cafe. It was by far the hardest of her two jobs, that old woman was a slave driver but at least she paid well. Another bonus of working there was the fact that ever so often the old witch would throw out a morsel of martial knowledge. Kasumi prided herself on her abilities as a martial artist.
Ever since Genma had come to their house the three sisters had to throw themselves into their training just to survive. Of the three sisters she was the best martial arts, Akane was second and Nabiki was last. That wasn't to say that Nabiki couldn't take care of herself, but in Nerima just having a black belt was considered bottom of the barrel. Against a normal person or a common thug she could take care of herself but against any of the martial artists like Shampoo or even Ukyo she'd get creamed.
Akane was a different story, she was technically better than Ukyo but her skills were mainly geared towards stealth and evasion, because of her little sisters, umm... other activities. That was one of the reasons that she and Mrs. Saotome were working so hard was so that Akane wouldn't have to steal anymore.
As for herself she was close to Shampoo's level of skill. Of course close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades. She could only win against Shampoo one out of every ten times and that was only sometimes by pure luck. Of course knowing some special techniques didn't hurt either. Some of the ones she knew were the Katchu Tenshin Amagouriken, a speed healing technique and some rudimentary ki knowledge that allowed her to boost her speed, agility and strength.
Even though the job at the cafe paid well it still wasn't enough to support the household with three totatly non commitant members so she was forced to take another job as a dancer at a local strip club. The manager was extremely nice and the club had a very strict "No touching " policy. Some of the customers who had tried to violate the rule and cop a feel had less to fear from the bouncer than they did from the dancer herself. Seeing a girl with writhing red flames coating her body was enough to make even the bravest of perverts take a second thought before trying to take a freebie. That wasn't to say that they didn't find other ways of getting off. She shook her head as she remembered that one pervert who kept insisting that she do high kicks and roundhouses in his area. Oh well at least he paid well. She entered the house and kicked off her shoes and went up to her room.
Her room, Nabiki's room, Akane's room. They were all the same except for the clothes and the single poster on the far wall. Her poster was that of a small kitten looking very cute with a large cheetah behind it. Kasumi thought it was ironic when she bought it that this one poster summed up her personality in a nutshell, all cute and cuddly on the outside but vicious when she needed to be. She sighed as she stripped off her clothes and crawled into bed. She'd have a bath tomorrow morning but for now sleep was the higher priority. She had to be up tomorrow at 8 am to get to her waitress job. As she drifted off to sleep she couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was a slight difference in the aural pattern of the house. Deciding that it was of no consequence she promptly rolled over and went to sleep.
Juuban ward, some park
It had taken some time to get from Nerima to Juuban but that was because he was actually trying to be extra stealthy. It just wouldn't do to get caught with the body of an old pervert under his arm. He was guessing that the local police wouldn't believe that he was just taking 'grandpa' out for a walk. Along the way he had to dodge several patrols but of course all they ever noticed was a slight breeze as he passed by.
When he arrived at the park he made note to keep to the shadows and headed to a clump of trees near the koi pond. Quickly checking to make sure that there was nobody around his area he stashed the body in a small hollow. Taking off the old man's clothing he noticed several items that had fallen on the ground. Taking a quick survey of the items he noted that only a couple of them would be dangerous to the general public. Magical items were usually like that, kinda like leaving a gun where children play.
When he was sure that he had everything ready he strained his senses to the maximum trying to detect anything out of the ordinary. Of course there was nobody in the park at this time of night but of course it was always better to be safe than Bubba's buttery corn hole in jail. Tensing for a second he exploded running full speed towards the koi pond. Around three meters from the edge of the pond he tossed the old man's body into the air and jumped up after it.
"Wind cutter." He whispered as his hands flashed out in a criss cross pattern. The old man's body exploded in a shower of bits no bigger than a dime. Without looking back he sped towards the cover of darkness, where the rest of his stuff was stored, as the bits and pieces rained down on the koi pond. By tomorrow morning there should be no evidence left, and whatever was left would only be dime sized or smaller. Even if under the rare chance that someone identified the remains as human the chance of them identifing the corpse let alone connecting him to the murder was so small that the chance of him ever getting caught was virtually nil.
"Perfect crime." He whispered to himself as he went about retrieving his belongings. He tossed the items that Happosai was carrying with him into his stuff space. He just hoped that the old man didn't have anything dangerous in his stuff space. If he did have anything hopefully it wasn't too dangerous as it may come out at some later point in time. Praying that nothing more dangerous than a simple light torch would be unleashed he made sure to hide the blood stains on the grass with some dead leaves. Satisfied with his work he took off at top speed out of the park towards a more secluded area.
Arriving at a more run down area, he found a large oil drum that had at one time been used by some homeless people as a fire pit. Quickly stripping off all his clothing he tossed them into the barrel along with Happosai's shredded clothing. Using a little bit of ki he lit up the clothing and watched it burn. When he was satisfied that they were basically burned beyond recognition, he changed then set off for his new home, intent on making sure that no evidence was left. What's the use of killing somebody if you're just going to get caught?
Since he was no longer burdened by an old dead man he was able to really cut loose with the speed. Making it back to the dojo in record time he slowed down a touch and jumped into a shadow and changed back.
Extending all of his senses again he made sure that everybody was still sleeping, however that could change at any time since it was now only a couple of hours till sunrise and he didn't know the habits of the people that he now lived with.
Quickly jumping over the wall and rolling into the shadows ensured that he stayed concealed. He silently thanked his good night vision and sense of smell as he made his way over to the corner where he'd left the body. Sure enough there was a small patch of blood on the grass. Even though it was small any red blood on green grass would stick out like a sore thumb.
Creeping over to the garden shed he silently thanked the kami that somebody forgot to put the bucket away after they used it. Gliding over to the koi pond he filled the bucket, noting absently that there were no koi in the pond. Going back to the bloodstain he poured the water gently over the grass being careful not to mat it down too badly. He did this several times until he was satisfied that the blood had mostly all been washed away. He put the bucket back in more or less the same spot that he found it in he crept back to the dojo.
Just as a precaution he decided that smelling like pond would be infinitely better than smelling like a dead old man so he carefully slipped into the pond and quickly scrubbed anything that might have blood on it. Since using soap in pond water would only be cleaning the water he decided that a proper bath would have to wait for later. He hoped that he could bluff his new family long enough to clean up properly
Seeing the sun start to creep slowly over the horizon he decided that sleep now would be counter productive so he crept back into the dojo and dug out a fresh outfit from his pack. Quickly putting it on he rushed out of the dojo and jumped over the front wall and headed towards the market area.
About an hour later he arrived back at the house. Still nobody had woken up. His new family would most probably be hungry since the old pervert ate most of their food last night. Originally Ranma had felt bad about killing the old man, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that the old man had wanted to kill him so it was ok. Of course his new family may not see it that way so he'd come up with a story that was quite believable given what he knew of the old man and his habits.
He pulled out his precious cargo two fair sized salmon. Oh gods did he love salmon. He quickly went to work cleaning the fish taking special care to keep the innards, bones and heads in a separate container. Sighing he noted that they would probably want rice or something and they wouldn't eat the salmon raw like he would.
One whole salmon quickly became a large plate of raw salmon slices. He put this into the fridge to keep it cold. Next he sliced up the other salmon and set it aside. He grabbed all the bones etc from the container and set to work filling a pot with water. Once this was done he put the parts into the pot and then set it on the stove. Grabbing another pot he started making rice.
Just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon he started to grill the salmon filets. It was then that he noticed that somebody was waking up. Well two somebody's to be exact. The first was 'Aunt' Nodoka. Why she insisted on being called aunt when he was in no way related to her he had no idea. The second he couldn't place. He went back to his cooking removing the fish parts from the stock and disposing of them. He didn't want to but he knew that that's what they would have done.
As almost everything was finished auntie Saotome came around the corner.
"Good morning Ranma." She said obviously too happy for her own good.
"Good morning Auntie. Could you set the table please breakfast will be ready in a few minutes." He smiled back.
"Breakfast?" She asked.
"Yes you and the girls must be starving since you didn't seem to get much to eat last night, I thought I'd make you all breakfast." He said finishing off everything and putting them into bowls or onto plates.
"I'll be right back I've got to wake up Nabiki and Akane." He said as he bounded over towards the stairs.
"Breakfast?" Nodoka asked again.
As he bounded towards Nabiki's room he noticed something different. He wondered why he didn't notice it before there was another room. This was probably where that other person lived. He knocked on her door. There was a muffled sound, which he took for 'come in' so he did.
On the mat was an older girl about 19 or 20 years old she had long brown hair and brown sleepy eyes. The fact that she was totally naked and only covered by a sheet was a minor bonus. She looked up at him and her eyes became wide as saucers.
"Wake up it's breakfast time." He said cheerily. Just before he exited her room he took a quick scan of it and noticed it was just as bare as Akane's room. He caught site of the poster on the far wall and gave a quick smile. She was a cat person. They would get along well together because so was he.
Next on his list was Akane. Unlike what he thought was her older sister she was still asleep. Oh the ways to wake a person. He decided on the direct approach.
"Hey Akane wake up it's breakfast time." No response. Oh well she asked for it can't blame him he did try.
It's a good thing they don't have koi.
The last person on his hit list was Nabiki. If she were anything like her younger sister it would be hard waking her up. On entering her room however he noticed something was different. Sure it was just as threadbare as her sister's rooms but something seemed amiss. He couldn't put his finger on it so he decided to just let it be and wake her up.
"Nabiki wake up breakfast time." Unlike her younger sister Nabiki did get up.
"Whuzu?" Automatic response.
"Breakfast." He said again.
"ZZZt?"
"Yup now come on."
She staggered out of bed not quite noticing that there was a boy in her room and she wasn't wearing any clothes. Ranma smiled and closed her door just as an angry wet Akane came storming up the stairs in full battle mode.
"What the HELL do you think you're doing!!" She screamed.
"Waking everybody up for breakfast." He replied putting on his best 'I'm innocent' look.
She huffed and then stomped off to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
"Yup that was cold water." He chuckled slightly as he walked back downstairs towards the dining area.
Five minutes later a bleary eyed Nabiki trudged into the dining room and boggled at what she saw. Sure it wasn't a traditional breakfast, far from it but it was food. This is something that she hadn't had in quite some time. She sat down at her usual spot and noticed a nice breakfast being served towards her general area. Something was definitely wrong here.
Two minutes after Nabiki came down Kasumi joined her. She too was unsure of the food. Usually the family only ate one or two meals a day because of their situation. Breakfast was just something unheard of. She sat down in her usual place and was promptly served.
Akane was the last one down and had time to cool down from her 'bath' she was only slightly on the warpath. When she saw the food on the table her anger disappeared and her hunger came forth with a vengeance. Forgetting manners she attacked her food like it would disappear at any time. In the past this was true however recently the danger had passed. Old habits die-hard.
Ranma for his part was attacking his food. It was a controlled fury that seemed like he was in a hurry for something while still seeming like he was polite. For the most part nobody questioned why he was having sashimi for breakfast; they just chocked it up to the fact that he was a bit eccentric. Provided that he made food for them they really couldn't give a damn. During the quick furry between bites Nodoka decided to start the questioning. He told her how he'd met Nabiki and how he was searching for his parents but had no idea where to start. It was quite a story but when it was over Nodoka looked at her watch and gave out a small squeal.
"Oh my god I'm going to be late!!" she yelled as she scurried around trying to get ready for her job. When she was at least semi presentable she dashed out the door. It was this little display that caused the other girls to burst into action as well claiming that they too were going to be late for work/school. After the flurry of activity died down Ranma was the last one sitting at the table.
+ That was weird. Sigh. I guess it's time to get to work then. + He rose from the table and took all of the dishes to the kitchen to be washed later. He then went up the stairs towards Happosai's room. When he opened the door he almost lost his breakfast. The smell was overpowering. He'd been told of the master's perversions for stealing underwear but he never thought it would be this bad. There were piles and piles of ladies undergarments everywhere. Most were clean but some had been plucked right off their owners.
An hour later he'd managed to clean out the room. The underwear he'd temporarily stored in the living room. He'd sorted them into two piles. Clean and dirty. He then set about washing the dirty ones. It was a lot of work but three hours later he had a flag garden in the back yard consisting of drying panties and bras. He then went into the living room and quick sorted the clean ones by size. Using his general knowledge and from what he'd seen of the four women's forms he guesstimated their sizes and put the appropriate piles in their rooms. The remainder he put in the unused master bedroom. Strange that this was the only bedroom that actually had a bed.
He went back to cleaning the guest room he came upon several items. The first was a trunk filled with various objects. Some were magical while others were just childish crap. During his cleaning he managed to come across the old pervert's stash of treasure. It was only about 15 gold coins. A quick calculation later and he came to the conclusion that it was worth quite a sum of money. He'd need every last yen if he planned to pull this off. He quickly pocketed the coins and rushed out of the house towards the bank.
3 hours later
Ranma smiled as he put the finishing touches on his masterpiece. He was right it took every last yen but it had been worth it. His new family would be surprised when they got home. Problem was that he hadn't gotten any sleep in the past day and a half, and to top that off he'd been working pretty hard all day. So it really wasn't his fault that he was attacked from his blind side. It was his greatest nemesis after all and it was using its strongest attack on him.
Warm sunbeam attack.
He really didn't have a chance.
15 minutes later
Nabiki and Akane were coming home from school. It was a normal day except that Akane had blasted through her morning suitors in record time today and both of them seemed to have more energy than they'd had in a long time. It's strange what actually eating good food can do for a young body.
As they opened the door to the yard they immediately noticed that Happosai must have been doing his laundry because there was a massive quantity of clean underwear on the lines. That was the first of their shocks however; the second came when they entered the house. Furniture. Yes there was actual furniture in the house. The living room had two new couches and a brand new entertainment system with a large widescreen tv and game system. Going into the kitchen they noticed that the table had been replaced with an actual table. Used of course but it was a table. The fridge they found stocked with all sorts of foodstuffs as well as the cupboards.
Fearful of the changes the two girls decided to go upstairs and see if the changes extended to the upstairs rooms. Nabiki was first as she opened her door. Compared to her room before she wondered if she'd just stepped into the twilight zone. Sure it wasn't much of a change there was now an actual bed and desk, a couple of plants, and a poster where there wasn't one before. On her bed there was a pile of bra's and panties that looked like they might almost fit her. A quick check of her closet noted two brand new uniforms and various other clothes. Getting a better look at the poster it was Ranma wearing a pair of speedos and a smile.
"Oh my" Akane managed briefly forgetting that she really didn't like Ranma all that much. Nabiki nodded slightly.
"He sure isn't shy is he?" She shook her head.
"I wonder if it's digitally altered?"
"Wanna find out?" Nabiki finally got her voice back.
Now it was Akane's turn to blush.
"Nabiki you pervert!" she hissed.
"How can you think about that?"
"How can you not little sister." Akane was stumped, sure she had boys literally fighting for a date with her but then all boys were perverts weren't they? Ok there was Ryoga but even he had girls hanging off him. Seriously the things Shampoo tried to get him could be considered illegal in many countries.
As she thought about exactly how Ranma was trying to get into her panties (now that she had panties) she failed to notice her big sister sneak out of the room and down the stairs searching out her prey.
She found him on the floor of the tearoom curled up in a warm sunbeam looking like he was enjoying a nice catnap. She quietly crept up until she was within striking distance. When she thought the time was perfect she pounced.
Unfortunately her prey was nowhere to be found and she hit the floor face first with a thud.
"The hell?" She said as she looked around for Ranma. It was like he was there one minute and the next he teleported to somewhere else. When she finally looked up she barely had time to let out a small 'eep' before being knocked to the floor again by Ranma. His face was inches from hers. She could feel his hot breath on her face and his weight pressing down on the rest of her body. It was then that she made the fatal mistake of looking into his eyes.
Now unlike most anime where if two characters of opposite sex look into each others eyes and immediately fall in love and live happily ever after. That didn't happen here but it's a start.
"Well now exactly what were you trying to do Nabiki-chan? Sneak up on me and ravage my poor little body hmm?"
Nabiki was of course flustered but those new subroutines she had installed prevented a total system crash. That was until she felt something hard press up against her inner thigh. Of course as the universe works that was when Akane decided to interrupt.
"What are you doing to my sister you pervert!!!" She screamed and charged. For the first time she summoned her mallet of happiness and Ranma got a nice aerial tour of Nerima.
Several long seconds later Nabiki finally came to her senses. A boy was coming onto her, maybe even coming to like her. Now the evil mercenary lifestyle may be good to keep her family out of the poorhouse but it was hell on dating prospects. As it was all of the boys at school avoided her like the plague and those that didn't were either fat, ugly, or stupid. It was a mix and match. Now her little sister, bless her little lesbian heart, decided that Ranma was a threat and automatically lumped him into the pervert crowd. Needless to say Nabiki was less than thrilled. She decided to 'voice' her opinion of her sister's little idea.
Amazingly enough the mule kick that she launched from her prone position connected and promptly put Akane on her ass. From her position on the floor Akane just looked up at her sister as though she'd grown a new head.
"What the hell did you do that for Akane!" Nabiki yelled. Oh boy was she mad.
"He was going to rape you! What the fuck was I supposed to do let him?" Akane screamed back.
"Akane he would never have done that." Nabiki lowered her voice, "All I had to say was no and he would have gotten off."
"Yeah right, he's a boy they're all the same."
"Oh gods Akane is that what you think. You obviously don't know what he thinks of rape do you? You should have seen what he did to those guys that almost raped me yesterday."
"What did he do? I thought you told us that he just beat them up." Nabiki then proceeded into gruesome details. By the time she was done Akane was a little green.
"And that psycho is living here!"
"Of course I am. And who are you calling a psycho? I just think that they got off easy considering what they were going to do to your sister."
Akane did a nice imitation of teleportation. Ranma stepped out from behind the doorway.
"Sorry did I scare you. Didn't mean to. I thought you were a martial artist or something? Shouldn't you have been able to detect me or something?" He said smiling the whole time.
"You jerk!" She screamed then stomped up to her room. Ranma just chuckled a little.
"If you'll excuse me I've got to go out and take those panties and bra's off the lines now." He walked off outside. Nabiki followed him a few seconds later.
"Don't tell me the old freak actually got you to do his work for him?"
"Oh you mean Happosai? I haven't seen him since last night. No I decided that since I'm paying I should get the second guest room. I had to clean it up. I noticed that none of you girls had any underwear so I took some of the nicer ones and gave them to you girls. The rest I washed and am going to haul them to the local women's shelter or give them away."
Now Nabiki was scared.
"But but but what if the master comes back. He'll be furious we'll all die!"
"If he has a problem with it he can take it up with me. Don't worry I'm more than capable of protecting myself."
Nabiki just gave him a look like he should somehow know better. Her father and the fat ass never stood up to the master and they both had decades of fighting experience between them. If they were too afraid what chance did Ranma have against that kind of evil power? She shook her head. It just wouldn't do to get her new tenant killed because of his own stupidity.
"Well just watch out he's a tricky old fart." She started making mental funeral arrangements.
"I'll be careful, don't worry about me. Now if you'll give me a hand I'd like to get these undergarments to those who need them most."
"Hey why don't we sell them?" Nabiki commented. Ten years of strangling every last drop of blood out of the yen she could get her hands on, had ingrained in her the need to make as much money as she could since they didn't know when they would get more.
"We could do that but think of all those women out there that can't afford bra's. Oh to think of them walking around with absolutely no support!" Swooning like he's aghast of the situation, Ranma puts on quite a show as he rants and raves about it. Near the end Nabiki is doing her level best to keep from hurting herself she's laughing so hard.
"Ok ok you win we'll take them to the women's shelter."
"I knew you'd see it my way." He said as he hefted the large sack of undergarments over his shoulder.
As they walked Nabiki kept wondering to herself what it was about Ranma that just seemed a bit odd. Sure most normal people were afraid of the master, after all he was quite powerful Cologne would only stand up against him if absolutly neccisary. Yet Ranma seemed unafraid. She also wondered where the master was. It was unusual for him to just up and leave for no reason. What if Ranma had actually killed the old man! Was that why he was unafraid? It couldn't be, Ranma wouldn't do that.
Ranma was walking along without much of a care in the world. Sure he was tired as hell because of his late night activities but he did his best to hide it. It was in this state of mind that his brain wasn't functioning at peak efficiency and was therefore prone to make mistakes in judgment that he would normally have never made.
"Ranma did you kill Happosai." Nabiki blurted out sure of the answer.
"No why do you ask?" He responded.
Tired as hell does not always mean stupid.
Of course that left Nabiki the one holding the bag both litteraly and figuritavly. What do you say to someone you just accused of murder?
"So do you have any idea where to start looking for your parents?" she decided that this topic at least would be relatively safe.
"No not really."
"Isn't Ranma Shinkara a good start. Shinkara is not a very common name." she replied.
"Well that's the problem Shinkara was my grandmother's name, she uhh found me when i was really little and i don't really remember much. The first name that popped into my head was Ranma when I woke up for the first time but even then I don't know if that's my name or if it's just something that was made up. For all I know Ranma could be my father's name I just don't know. "
"So you have absolutely no idea where to start, you have no clues, and you don't really care if you do find them. You really are in a pickle aren't you?"
"Yeah it seems like it doesn't it. In all truth I never expected to really find my folks, I mean I've got some means of finding them but the work involved to do that is really more than I think it's worth."
"But if you could don't you think that you'd like to see your parents again I mean even just to tell them that their son is doing fine and is alive? I know that if I could I'd like to see my mother again even just for a little bit." Nabiki said as she hung her head and looked at the ground. she seemed a little sad by this.
"Why not your father as well?"
"My father," She spat out "tourtured his family by not caring and ignoring us for ten long years, personally I couldn't care less if he never comes back. We've gotten along just fine without him so far, we can do just fine without him. Besides with Mrs. Saotome here now we've finally got a mother, well sort of, and I know she does love us."
"I'm happy for you. I don't really know if I want to find my parents though, when grandmother found me I was pretty beat up, if my parents did that I don't know if they deserve to be found."
"I guess I can agree with that, our father never hit us but when the old master came he never did anything to help or protect us either. We were always fearing that he'd come and rape us one night. It never happened of course but just the fear of it... well it was enough."
If Ranma had any misgivings about killing the old freak they pretty much evaporated upon hearing that statement. The old freak needed to die for the good of all people.
As they approached the women's shelter they were greated by one of the workers. Quickly stating their intent they were ushered into a small room where they dropped their loads. The worker thanked them for the generous donation and said that if they ever had anything else to donate that they'd be more than happy to accept it. Nabiki of course was slightly nervous, usually they would have to go to the local hand out centers or steal what they needed, the idea of giving stuff away that could have been sold grated on her nerves. The only thing holding her back was the fact that Ranma had generously bought her family a fortune's worth of stuff. Repaying that kind of kindness would not be easy. Hell it could almost be kind of a dowrey, not that she'd mind much of course.
As they made thier way back to the dojo Nabiki was deep in thought about what tomorrow would be like. Ranma would be going to Furinken with them. She had no doubts that every available girl there would try to snap him up as a boyfriend. Since almost all the available boys were after Akane because of Kuno's proclimation that to date her you had to beat her in combat. Glancing over at Ranma she noticed that he really wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Oh well she could do much much worse.
"Ranma."
"Yeah?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked hopefully.
"Not really at the moment no."
"Umm can I be your girlfriend?" Now was the time to really turn it on. She sidled up to his side and turned on the puppy dog eyes.
"Uhh I guess so." He replied a little warry. It wasn't like he'd never had a girlfriend but... oh well at least she was cute.
Inside Nabiki was crowing tomorrow at school she'd finally be somewhat popular. Well at least it couldn't hurt to see everybody's faces when she walked in on Ranma's arm. Heh Kuno would have a heart attack. Of course it would hurt her business at school but of course with her sister and Auntie Nodoka working now and no more mortgage to worry about she could afford a little dip in business.
Ranma was trying to figure out what she was thinking, of course he wasn't having very much luck at it. Yes she was good looking, intelligent, and preditory but sometimes one must be the prey in a relationship. Oh well if things didn't work out there were always two other daughters.
When they got to the gates they were greeted by the smell of Nodoka cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It had been quite some time since she was last able to go all out for a full house. Sufficed to say she was extremely happy to finally be able to doing the motherly things that she had been denied of for so long.
When they got into the house they heard her call from the kitchen. "Welcome home you two supper will be ready in a little bit, why don't you two go and clean up a bit?"
After cleaning up they decided to wait in the living room until supper was ready. When they got there they found Akane infront of the TV playing the latest version of Street Fighter vs Gainax 2. She was playing a wimpy Shinji Ikari who was trying his best not to get smashed by an angry Zangief. She'd already won the first match and was very close to winning this one as well. Just as Zangief got close she slammed all of the buttons on the controller and jammed the controller in a seemingly complex left right up digonal pattern. Onscreen Unit 01 appeared and started third impact thereby winning the final match with a super hyper mega finishing combo. She got the special cut scene of the world ending, but oh well at least she won.
"Hey Nabiki this is great! You gotta try this."
"I'm not really one for the fighting games you know that Akane."
"Not a problem we've got tons of other games here as well. Let's see here we've got corporate takeover, missile command, frogger, generic racing game, 300 in one old games that nobody's heard of, and Petz the cat one."
"Uhh let's try frogger."
After a while Kasumi came home and joined in until dinner. It was a great dinner fit for a king. Unfortunately everything was cooked so to Ranma it tasted like crap. After supper everybody retired to their rooms for the night. Tomorrow was of course another day well sort of. Tomorrow was the day that Ranma started school.
God help us all.
Authors Notes
Wow that's done. Finally. Really I mean it. Sorry to all that I haven't written lately but I've got a full time job and the rest of my time I would rather spend doing other things like reading fiction or doing housework so that our house is not a sty. What changed you ask? Well I got a handheld (sony Clie) and a keyboard. I work at an inbound call center and can type inbetween calls. I can now update more frequently than every once per year. Ha ha hahah. Now I can get on with revising Shinji 1/2 and writing demon kind and other crazy ideas that i've got.
any comments/criticism are to be mailed to nealharris@otakumail.com
Oh god it was horrible, it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever eaten. He wanted to spit it up but instead he reflexively swallowed. He instantly regretted it. He looked down at the corpse and noted that blood was pooling on the hardwood floor. Not believing that his new family would believe that the old fart died of natural causes, he picked up the carcass and scurried around the back of the dojo making sure that he was not in sight of the house at all times and kept to the shadows. He took off his shirt and wrapped the old fart up in it to minimize the amount of blood that seeped out onto the grass. He then stealthily crept back to the dojo.
It was a good thing that the varnish on the floor was still intact or else this would have been more difficult. It was rather surprising considering the fact that the family itself was quite poor. He just surmised that the reason was that the dojo was important and that their father would insist that it be kept up at the expense of all else. Shrugging this off he started rummaging around in his stuff space and pulled out his grandmother's spell book. Unlike his grandmother Ranma could never remember the correct words for the spells so he had to constantly refer to the spell book. Quickly chanting the correct words, there was a brief flash of crimson light, and the blood disappeared. Putting the spell book away he crept back outside.
Creeping over towards the fence he noticed that somebody was coming in the front gate. Quickly scooping up his cargo he jumped over the back fence and took off running.
Kasumi Tendo had just gotten back from her second job as an exotic dancer. It had been a long day today. First her job as a waitress at the Cat Cafe. It was by far the hardest of her two jobs, that old woman was a slave driver but at least she paid well. Another bonus of working there was the fact that ever so often the old witch would throw out a morsel of martial knowledge. Kasumi prided herself on her abilities as a martial artist.
Ever since Genma had come to their house the three sisters had to throw themselves into their training just to survive. Of the three sisters she was the best martial arts, Akane was second and Nabiki was last. That wasn't to say that Nabiki couldn't take care of herself, but in Nerima just having a black belt was considered bottom of the barrel. Against a normal person or a common thug she could take care of herself but against any of the martial artists like Shampoo or even Ukyo she'd get creamed.
Akane was a different story, she was technically better than Ukyo but her skills were mainly geared towards stealth and evasion, because of her little sisters, umm... other activities. That was one of the reasons that she and Mrs. Saotome were working so hard was so that Akane wouldn't have to steal anymore.
As for herself she was close to Shampoo's level of skill. Of course close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades. She could only win against Shampoo one out of every ten times and that was only sometimes by pure luck. Of course knowing some special techniques didn't hurt either. Some of the ones she knew were the Katchu Tenshin Amagouriken, a speed healing technique and some rudimentary ki knowledge that allowed her to boost her speed, agility and strength.
Even though the job at the cafe paid well it still wasn't enough to support the household with three totatly non commitant members so she was forced to take another job as a dancer at a local strip club. The manager was extremely nice and the club had a very strict "No touching " policy. Some of the customers who had tried to violate the rule and cop a feel had less to fear from the bouncer than they did from the dancer herself. Seeing a girl with writhing red flames coating her body was enough to make even the bravest of perverts take a second thought before trying to take a freebie. That wasn't to say that they didn't find other ways of getting off. She shook her head as she remembered that one pervert who kept insisting that she do high kicks and roundhouses in his area. Oh well at least he paid well. She entered the house and kicked off her shoes and went up to her room.
Her room, Nabiki's room, Akane's room. They were all the same except for the clothes and the single poster on the far wall. Her poster was that of a small kitten looking very cute with a large cheetah behind it. Kasumi thought it was ironic when she bought it that this one poster summed up her personality in a nutshell, all cute and cuddly on the outside but vicious when she needed to be. She sighed as she stripped off her clothes and crawled into bed. She'd have a bath tomorrow morning but for now sleep was the higher priority. She had to be up tomorrow at 8 am to get to her waitress job. As she drifted off to sleep she couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was a slight difference in the aural pattern of the house. Deciding that it was of no consequence she promptly rolled over and went to sleep.
Juuban ward, some park
It had taken some time to get from Nerima to Juuban but that was because he was actually trying to be extra stealthy. It just wouldn't do to get caught with the body of an old pervert under his arm. He was guessing that the local police wouldn't believe that he was just taking 'grandpa' out for a walk. Along the way he had to dodge several patrols but of course all they ever noticed was a slight breeze as he passed by.
When he arrived at the park he made note to keep to the shadows and headed to a clump of trees near the koi pond. Quickly checking to make sure that there was nobody around his area he stashed the body in a small hollow. Taking off the old man's clothing he noticed several items that had fallen on the ground. Taking a quick survey of the items he noted that only a couple of them would be dangerous to the general public. Magical items were usually like that, kinda like leaving a gun where children play.
When he was sure that he had everything ready he strained his senses to the maximum trying to detect anything out of the ordinary. Of course there was nobody in the park at this time of night but of course it was always better to be safe than Bubba's buttery corn hole in jail. Tensing for a second he exploded running full speed towards the koi pond. Around three meters from the edge of the pond he tossed the old man's body into the air and jumped up after it.
"Wind cutter." He whispered as his hands flashed out in a criss cross pattern. The old man's body exploded in a shower of bits no bigger than a dime. Without looking back he sped towards the cover of darkness, where the rest of his stuff was stored, as the bits and pieces rained down on the koi pond. By tomorrow morning there should be no evidence left, and whatever was left would only be dime sized or smaller. Even if under the rare chance that someone identified the remains as human the chance of them identifing the corpse let alone connecting him to the murder was so small that the chance of him ever getting caught was virtually nil.
"Perfect crime." He whispered to himself as he went about retrieving his belongings. He tossed the items that Happosai was carrying with him into his stuff space. He just hoped that the old man didn't have anything dangerous in his stuff space. If he did have anything hopefully it wasn't too dangerous as it may come out at some later point in time. Praying that nothing more dangerous than a simple light torch would be unleashed he made sure to hide the blood stains on the grass with some dead leaves. Satisfied with his work he took off at top speed out of the park towards a more secluded area.
Arriving at a more run down area, he found a large oil drum that had at one time been used by some homeless people as a fire pit. Quickly stripping off all his clothing he tossed them into the barrel along with Happosai's shredded clothing. Using a little bit of ki he lit up the clothing and watched it burn. When he was satisfied that they were basically burned beyond recognition, he changed then set off for his new home, intent on making sure that no evidence was left. What's the use of killing somebody if you're just going to get caught?
Since he was no longer burdened by an old dead man he was able to really cut loose with the speed. Making it back to the dojo in record time he slowed down a touch and jumped into a shadow and changed back.
Extending all of his senses again he made sure that everybody was still sleeping, however that could change at any time since it was now only a couple of hours till sunrise and he didn't know the habits of the people that he now lived with.
Quickly jumping over the wall and rolling into the shadows ensured that he stayed concealed. He silently thanked his good night vision and sense of smell as he made his way over to the corner where he'd left the body. Sure enough there was a small patch of blood on the grass. Even though it was small any red blood on green grass would stick out like a sore thumb.
Creeping over to the garden shed he silently thanked the kami that somebody forgot to put the bucket away after they used it. Gliding over to the koi pond he filled the bucket, noting absently that there were no koi in the pond. Going back to the bloodstain he poured the water gently over the grass being careful not to mat it down too badly. He did this several times until he was satisfied that the blood had mostly all been washed away. He put the bucket back in more or less the same spot that he found it in he crept back to the dojo.
Just as a precaution he decided that smelling like pond would be infinitely better than smelling like a dead old man so he carefully slipped into the pond and quickly scrubbed anything that might have blood on it. Since using soap in pond water would only be cleaning the water he decided that a proper bath would have to wait for later. He hoped that he could bluff his new family long enough to clean up properly
Seeing the sun start to creep slowly over the horizon he decided that sleep now would be counter productive so he crept back into the dojo and dug out a fresh outfit from his pack. Quickly putting it on he rushed out of the dojo and jumped over the front wall and headed towards the market area.
About an hour later he arrived back at the house. Still nobody had woken up. His new family would most probably be hungry since the old pervert ate most of their food last night. Originally Ranma had felt bad about killing the old man, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that the old man had wanted to kill him so it was ok. Of course his new family may not see it that way so he'd come up with a story that was quite believable given what he knew of the old man and his habits.
He pulled out his precious cargo two fair sized salmon. Oh gods did he love salmon. He quickly went to work cleaning the fish taking special care to keep the innards, bones and heads in a separate container. Sighing he noted that they would probably want rice or something and they wouldn't eat the salmon raw like he would.
One whole salmon quickly became a large plate of raw salmon slices. He put this into the fridge to keep it cold. Next he sliced up the other salmon and set it aside. He grabbed all the bones etc from the container and set to work filling a pot with water. Once this was done he put the parts into the pot and then set it on the stove. Grabbing another pot he started making rice.
Just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon he started to grill the salmon filets. It was then that he noticed that somebody was waking up. Well two somebody's to be exact. The first was 'Aunt' Nodoka. Why she insisted on being called aunt when he was in no way related to her he had no idea. The second he couldn't place. He went back to his cooking removing the fish parts from the stock and disposing of them. He didn't want to but he knew that that's what they would have done.
As almost everything was finished auntie Saotome came around the corner.
"Good morning Ranma." She said obviously too happy for her own good.
"Good morning Auntie. Could you set the table please breakfast will be ready in a few minutes." He smiled back.
"Breakfast?" She asked.
"Yes you and the girls must be starving since you didn't seem to get much to eat last night, I thought I'd make you all breakfast." He said finishing off everything and putting them into bowls or onto plates.
"I'll be right back I've got to wake up Nabiki and Akane." He said as he bounded over towards the stairs.
"Breakfast?" Nodoka asked again.
As he bounded towards Nabiki's room he noticed something different. He wondered why he didn't notice it before there was another room. This was probably where that other person lived. He knocked on her door. There was a muffled sound, which he took for 'come in' so he did.
On the mat was an older girl about 19 or 20 years old she had long brown hair and brown sleepy eyes. The fact that she was totally naked and only covered by a sheet was a minor bonus. She looked up at him and her eyes became wide as saucers.
"Wake up it's breakfast time." He said cheerily. Just before he exited her room he took a quick scan of it and noticed it was just as bare as Akane's room. He caught site of the poster on the far wall and gave a quick smile. She was a cat person. They would get along well together because so was he.
Next on his list was Akane. Unlike what he thought was her older sister she was still asleep. Oh the ways to wake a person. He decided on the direct approach.
"Hey Akane wake up it's breakfast time." No response. Oh well she asked for it can't blame him he did try.
It's a good thing they don't have koi.
The last person on his hit list was Nabiki. If she were anything like her younger sister it would be hard waking her up. On entering her room however he noticed something was different. Sure it was just as threadbare as her sister's rooms but something seemed amiss. He couldn't put his finger on it so he decided to just let it be and wake her up.
"Nabiki wake up breakfast time." Unlike her younger sister Nabiki did get up.
"Whuzu?" Automatic response.
"Breakfast." He said again.
"ZZZt?"
"Yup now come on."
She staggered out of bed not quite noticing that there was a boy in her room and she wasn't wearing any clothes. Ranma smiled and closed her door just as an angry wet Akane came storming up the stairs in full battle mode.
"What the HELL do you think you're doing!!" She screamed.
"Waking everybody up for breakfast." He replied putting on his best 'I'm innocent' look.
She huffed and then stomped off to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
"Yup that was cold water." He chuckled slightly as he walked back downstairs towards the dining area.
Five minutes later a bleary eyed Nabiki trudged into the dining room and boggled at what she saw. Sure it wasn't a traditional breakfast, far from it but it was food. This is something that she hadn't had in quite some time. She sat down at her usual spot and noticed a nice breakfast being served towards her general area. Something was definitely wrong here.
Two minutes after Nabiki came down Kasumi joined her. She too was unsure of the food. Usually the family only ate one or two meals a day because of their situation. Breakfast was just something unheard of. She sat down in her usual place and was promptly served.
Akane was the last one down and had time to cool down from her 'bath' she was only slightly on the warpath. When she saw the food on the table her anger disappeared and her hunger came forth with a vengeance. Forgetting manners she attacked her food like it would disappear at any time. In the past this was true however recently the danger had passed. Old habits die-hard.
Ranma for his part was attacking his food. It was a controlled fury that seemed like he was in a hurry for something while still seeming like he was polite. For the most part nobody questioned why he was having sashimi for breakfast; they just chocked it up to the fact that he was a bit eccentric. Provided that he made food for them they really couldn't give a damn. During the quick furry between bites Nodoka decided to start the questioning. He told her how he'd met Nabiki and how he was searching for his parents but had no idea where to start. It was quite a story but when it was over Nodoka looked at her watch and gave out a small squeal.
"Oh my god I'm going to be late!!" she yelled as she scurried around trying to get ready for her job. When she was at least semi presentable she dashed out the door. It was this little display that caused the other girls to burst into action as well claiming that they too were going to be late for work/school. After the flurry of activity died down Ranma was the last one sitting at the table.
+ That was weird. Sigh. I guess it's time to get to work then. + He rose from the table and took all of the dishes to the kitchen to be washed later. He then went up the stairs towards Happosai's room. When he opened the door he almost lost his breakfast. The smell was overpowering. He'd been told of the master's perversions for stealing underwear but he never thought it would be this bad. There were piles and piles of ladies undergarments everywhere. Most were clean but some had been plucked right off their owners.
An hour later he'd managed to clean out the room. The underwear he'd temporarily stored in the living room. He'd sorted them into two piles. Clean and dirty. He then set about washing the dirty ones. It was a lot of work but three hours later he had a flag garden in the back yard consisting of drying panties and bras. He then went into the living room and quick sorted the clean ones by size. Using his general knowledge and from what he'd seen of the four women's forms he guesstimated their sizes and put the appropriate piles in their rooms. The remainder he put in the unused master bedroom. Strange that this was the only bedroom that actually had a bed.
He went back to cleaning the guest room he came upon several items. The first was a trunk filled with various objects. Some were magical while others were just childish crap. During his cleaning he managed to come across the old pervert's stash of treasure. It was only about 15 gold coins. A quick calculation later and he came to the conclusion that it was worth quite a sum of money. He'd need every last yen if he planned to pull this off. He quickly pocketed the coins and rushed out of the house towards the bank.
3 hours later
Ranma smiled as he put the finishing touches on his masterpiece. He was right it took every last yen but it had been worth it. His new family would be surprised when they got home. Problem was that he hadn't gotten any sleep in the past day and a half, and to top that off he'd been working pretty hard all day. So it really wasn't his fault that he was attacked from his blind side. It was his greatest nemesis after all and it was using its strongest attack on him.
Warm sunbeam attack.
He really didn't have a chance.
15 minutes later
Nabiki and Akane were coming home from school. It was a normal day except that Akane had blasted through her morning suitors in record time today and both of them seemed to have more energy than they'd had in a long time. It's strange what actually eating good food can do for a young body.
As they opened the door to the yard they immediately noticed that Happosai must have been doing his laundry because there was a massive quantity of clean underwear on the lines. That was the first of their shocks however; the second came when they entered the house. Furniture. Yes there was actual furniture in the house. The living room had two new couches and a brand new entertainment system with a large widescreen tv and game system. Going into the kitchen they noticed that the table had been replaced with an actual table. Used of course but it was a table. The fridge they found stocked with all sorts of foodstuffs as well as the cupboards.
Fearful of the changes the two girls decided to go upstairs and see if the changes extended to the upstairs rooms. Nabiki was first as she opened her door. Compared to her room before she wondered if she'd just stepped into the twilight zone. Sure it wasn't much of a change there was now an actual bed and desk, a couple of plants, and a poster where there wasn't one before. On her bed there was a pile of bra's and panties that looked like they might almost fit her. A quick check of her closet noted two brand new uniforms and various other clothes. Getting a better look at the poster it was Ranma wearing a pair of speedos and a smile.
"Oh my" Akane managed briefly forgetting that she really didn't like Ranma all that much. Nabiki nodded slightly.
"He sure isn't shy is he?" She shook her head.
"I wonder if it's digitally altered?"
"Wanna find out?" Nabiki finally got her voice back.
Now it was Akane's turn to blush.
"Nabiki you pervert!" she hissed.
"How can you think about that?"
"How can you not little sister." Akane was stumped, sure she had boys literally fighting for a date with her but then all boys were perverts weren't they? Ok there was Ryoga but even he had girls hanging off him. Seriously the things Shampoo tried to get him could be considered illegal in many countries.
As she thought about exactly how Ranma was trying to get into her panties (now that she had panties) she failed to notice her big sister sneak out of the room and down the stairs searching out her prey.
She found him on the floor of the tearoom curled up in a warm sunbeam looking like he was enjoying a nice catnap. She quietly crept up until she was within striking distance. When she thought the time was perfect she pounced.
Unfortunately her prey was nowhere to be found and she hit the floor face first with a thud.
"The hell?" She said as she looked around for Ranma. It was like he was there one minute and the next he teleported to somewhere else. When she finally looked up she barely had time to let out a small 'eep' before being knocked to the floor again by Ranma. His face was inches from hers. She could feel his hot breath on her face and his weight pressing down on the rest of her body. It was then that she made the fatal mistake of looking into his eyes.
Now unlike most anime where if two characters of opposite sex look into each others eyes and immediately fall in love and live happily ever after. That didn't happen here but it's a start.
"Well now exactly what were you trying to do Nabiki-chan? Sneak up on me and ravage my poor little body hmm?"
Nabiki was of course flustered but those new subroutines she had installed prevented a total system crash. That was until she felt something hard press up against her inner thigh. Of course as the universe works that was when Akane decided to interrupt.
"What are you doing to my sister you pervert!!!" She screamed and charged. For the first time she summoned her mallet of happiness and Ranma got a nice aerial tour of Nerima.
Several long seconds later Nabiki finally came to her senses. A boy was coming onto her, maybe even coming to like her. Now the evil mercenary lifestyle may be good to keep her family out of the poorhouse but it was hell on dating prospects. As it was all of the boys at school avoided her like the plague and those that didn't were either fat, ugly, or stupid. It was a mix and match. Now her little sister, bless her little lesbian heart, decided that Ranma was a threat and automatically lumped him into the pervert crowd. Needless to say Nabiki was less than thrilled. She decided to 'voice' her opinion of her sister's little idea.
Amazingly enough the mule kick that she launched from her prone position connected and promptly put Akane on her ass. From her position on the floor Akane just looked up at her sister as though she'd grown a new head.
"What the hell did you do that for Akane!" Nabiki yelled. Oh boy was she mad.
"He was going to rape you! What the fuck was I supposed to do let him?" Akane screamed back.
"Akane he would never have done that." Nabiki lowered her voice, "All I had to say was no and he would have gotten off."
"Yeah right, he's a boy they're all the same."
"Oh gods Akane is that what you think. You obviously don't know what he thinks of rape do you? You should have seen what he did to those guys that almost raped me yesterday."
"What did he do? I thought you told us that he just beat them up." Nabiki then proceeded into gruesome details. By the time she was done Akane was a little green.
"And that psycho is living here!"
"Of course I am. And who are you calling a psycho? I just think that they got off easy considering what they were going to do to your sister."
Akane did a nice imitation of teleportation. Ranma stepped out from behind the doorway.
"Sorry did I scare you. Didn't mean to. I thought you were a martial artist or something? Shouldn't you have been able to detect me or something?" He said smiling the whole time.
"You jerk!" She screamed then stomped up to her room. Ranma just chuckled a little.
"If you'll excuse me I've got to go out and take those panties and bra's off the lines now." He walked off outside. Nabiki followed him a few seconds later.
"Don't tell me the old freak actually got you to do his work for him?"
"Oh you mean Happosai? I haven't seen him since last night. No I decided that since I'm paying I should get the second guest room. I had to clean it up. I noticed that none of you girls had any underwear so I took some of the nicer ones and gave them to you girls. The rest I washed and am going to haul them to the local women's shelter or give them away."
Now Nabiki was scared.
"But but but what if the master comes back. He'll be furious we'll all die!"
"If he has a problem with it he can take it up with me. Don't worry I'm more than capable of protecting myself."
Nabiki just gave him a look like he should somehow know better. Her father and the fat ass never stood up to the master and they both had decades of fighting experience between them. If they were too afraid what chance did Ranma have against that kind of evil power? She shook her head. It just wouldn't do to get her new tenant killed because of his own stupidity.
"Well just watch out he's a tricky old fart." She started making mental funeral arrangements.
"I'll be careful, don't worry about me. Now if you'll give me a hand I'd like to get these undergarments to those who need them most."
"Hey why don't we sell them?" Nabiki commented. Ten years of strangling every last drop of blood out of the yen she could get her hands on, had ingrained in her the need to make as much money as she could since they didn't know when they would get more.
"We could do that but think of all those women out there that can't afford bra's. Oh to think of them walking around with absolutely no support!" Swooning like he's aghast of the situation, Ranma puts on quite a show as he rants and raves about it. Near the end Nabiki is doing her level best to keep from hurting herself she's laughing so hard.
"Ok ok you win we'll take them to the women's shelter."
"I knew you'd see it my way." He said as he hefted the large sack of undergarments over his shoulder.
As they walked Nabiki kept wondering to herself what it was about Ranma that just seemed a bit odd. Sure most normal people were afraid of the master, after all he was quite powerful Cologne would only stand up against him if absolutly neccisary. Yet Ranma seemed unafraid. She also wondered where the master was. It was unusual for him to just up and leave for no reason. What if Ranma had actually killed the old man! Was that why he was unafraid? It couldn't be, Ranma wouldn't do that.
Ranma was walking along without much of a care in the world. Sure he was tired as hell because of his late night activities but he did his best to hide it. It was in this state of mind that his brain wasn't functioning at peak efficiency and was therefore prone to make mistakes in judgment that he would normally have never made.
"Ranma did you kill Happosai." Nabiki blurted out sure of the answer.
"No why do you ask?" He responded.
Tired as hell does not always mean stupid.
Of course that left Nabiki the one holding the bag both litteraly and figuritavly. What do you say to someone you just accused of murder?
"So do you have any idea where to start looking for your parents?" she decided that this topic at least would be relatively safe.
"No not really."
"Isn't Ranma Shinkara a good start. Shinkara is not a very common name." she replied.
"Well that's the problem Shinkara was my grandmother's name, she uhh found me when i was really little and i don't really remember much. The first name that popped into my head was Ranma when I woke up for the first time but even then I don't know if that's my name or if it's just something that was made up. For all I know Ranma could be my father's name I just don't know. "
"So you have absolutely no idea where to start, you have no clues, and you don't really care if you do find them. You really are in a pickle aren't you?"
"Yeah it seems like it doesn't it. In all truth I never expected to really find my folks, I mean I've got some means of finding them but the work involved to do that is really more than I think it's worth."
"But if you could don't you think that you'd like to see your parents again I mean even just to tell them that their son is doing fine and is alive? I know that if I could I'd like to see my mother again even just for a little bit." Nabiki said as she hung her head and looked at the ground. she seemed a little sad by this.
"Why not your father as well?"
"My father," She spat out "tourtured his family by not caring and ignoring us for ten long years, personally I couldn't care less if he never comes back. We've gotten along just fine without him so far, we can do just fine without him. Besides with Mrs. Saotome here now we've finally got a mother, well sort of, and I know she does love us."
"I'm happy for you. I don't really know if I want to find my parents though, when grandmother found me I was pretty beat up, if my parents did that I don't know if they deserve to be found."
"I guess I can agree with that, our father never hit us but when the old master came he never did anything to help or protect us either. We were always fearing that he'd come and rape us one night. It never happened of course but just the fear of it... well it was enough."
If Ranma had any misgivings about killing the old freak they pretty much evaporated upon hearing that statement. The old freak needed to die for the good of all people.
As they approached the women's shelter they were greated by one of the workers. Quickly stating their intent they were ushered into a small room where they dropped their loads. The worker thanked them for the generous donation and said that if they ever had anything else to donate that they'd be more than happy to accept it. Nabiki of course was slightly nervous, usually they would have to go to the local hand out centers or steal what they needed, the idea of giving stuff away that could have been sold grated on her nerves. The only thing holding her back was the fact that Ranma had generously bought her family a fortune's worth of stuff. Repaying that kind of kindness would not be easy. Hell it could almost be kind of a dowrey, not that she'd mind much of course.
As they made thier way back to the dojo Nabiki was deep in thought about what tomorrow would be like. Ranma would be going to Furinken with them. She had no doubts that every available girl there would try to snap him up as a boyfriend. Since almost all the available boys were after Akane because of Kuno's proclimation that to date her you had to beat her in combat. Glancing over at Ranma she noticed that he really wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Oh well she could do much much worse.
"Ranma."
"Yeah?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?" She asked hopefully.
"Not really at the moment no."
"Umm can I be your girlfriend?" Now was the time to really turn it on. She sidled up to his side and turned on the puppy dog eyes.
"Uhh I guess so." He replied a little warry. It wasn't like he'd never had a girlfriend but... oh well at least she was cute.
Inside Nabiki was crowing tomorrow at school she'd finally be somewhat popular. Well at least it couldn't hurt to see everybody's faces when she walked in on Ranma's arm. Heh Kuno would have a heart attack. Of course it would hurt her business at school but of course with her sister and Auntie Nodoka working now and no more mortgage to worry about she could afford a little dip in business.
Ranma was trying to figure out what she was thinking, of course he wasn't having very much luck at it. Yes she was good looking, intelligent, and preditory but sometimes one must be the prey in a relationship. Oh well if things didn't work out there were always two other daughters.
When they got to the gates they were greeted by the smell of Nodoka cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It had been quite some time since she was last able to go all out for a full house. Sufficed to say she was extremely happy to finally be able to doing the motherly things that she had been denied of for so long.
When they got into the house they heard her call from the kitchen. "Welcome home you two supper will be ready in a little bit, why don't you two go and clean up a bit?"
After cleaning up they decided to wait in the living room until supper was ready. When they got there they found Akane infront of the TV playing the latest version of Street Fighter vs Gainax 2. She was playing a wimpy Shinji Ikari who was trying his best not to get smashed by an angry Zangief. She'd already won the first match and was very close to winning this one as well. Just as Zangief got close she slammed all of the buttons on the controller and jammed the controller in a seemingly complex left right up digonal pattern. Onscreen Unit 01 appeared and started third impact thereby winning the final match with a super hyper mega finishing combo. She got the special cut scene of the world ending, but oh well at least she won.
"Hey Nabiki this is great! You gotta try this."
"I'm not really one for the fighting games you know that Akane."
"Not a problem we've got tons of other games here as well. Let's see here we've got corporate takeover, missile command, frogger, generic racing game, 300 in one old games that nobody's heard of, and Petz the cat one."
"Uhh let's try frogger."
After a while Kasumi came home and joined in until dinner. It was a great dinner fit for a king. Unfortunately everything was cooked so to Ranma it tasted like crap. After supper everybody retired to their rooms for the night. Tomorrow was of course another day well sort of. Tomorrow was the day that Ranma started school.
God help us all.
Authors Notes
Wow that's done. Finally. Really I mean it. Sorry to all that I haven't written lately but I've got a full time job and the rest of my time I would rather spend doing other things like reading fiction or doing housework so that our house is not a sty. What changed you ask? Well I got a handheld (sony Clie) and a keyboard. I work at an inbound call center and can type inbetween calls. I can now update more frequently than every once per year. Ha ha hahah. Now I can get on with revising Shinji 1/2 and writing demon kind and other crazy ideas that i've got.
any comments/criticism are to be mailed to nealharris@otakumail.com