"Kasumi?" Akane enquired firmly, growing impatient with the situation.
"You've been running amok long enough, young lady," Kasumi stated with a tone that brooked now dispute, as she marched into her sister's room. The zealots courteously stepped from her path, subtly rubbing whatever flesh had been exposed to eerily burning aura that the young woman was emitting.
"Seems like she's been getting away with murder, if ya ask me," Ranma commented, idly, earning a glare from the eldest Tendou daughter.
Akane narrowed her eyes in challenge, "Since when have you gotten in the habit of telling me what to do?"
Kasumi folded her eyes, and smirked haughtily, "Since the moment I gave birth to you, young lady."
Ranma, Akane, and the decuples blinked in unison.
"I wonder how she kept herself looking so young?" one of them commented.
Akane's face recovered from her shock back to anger, "Y-you think this is funny?"
"Well, I personally don't think it's 'ha ha' funny."
"SHUT UP!" Both Akane and Kasumi both demanded, causing the pigtailed boy to take a step back.
"INFIDEL! You have no right to speak to our messiah in such a way!" proclaimed one of the zealots, gaining hearty cheers of agreement from his brethren.
Kasumi turned and bowed, "Forgive me if you find my hospitality lacking..." She rose back up with a no-nonsense expression, "But in this house, I may talk to him as I see fit. If you have difficulty accepting that, then accept my apologies AND GET THE HELL OUT!"
"Geez, she's pushy," the quelled robed man mumbled, as he and his kin in worship turned to leave.
Ranma looked on, surprised to find his admittedly overzealous servants begrudgingly giving ground, but shrugged it off. He didn't REALLY want Akane dead and her corpse repeatedly violated, after all. Kasumi snorted distainfully, mumbling about ingrate houseguests, before turning back to the task at hand, "As for you, Akane-ducky, I... Akane?"
"Man, that woman's something of a bitch, isn't she?"
"Yeah, but I bet she's a real demon in the sack. Women like that always are."
"How would you know? You took a vow of chastity."
"I... I heard talk."
"Jerks," one of the shorter white garbed figures mumbled, as they left the Tendou grounds.
"What, like you weren't undressing her with your eyes, too!"
The indignant decuple jerked, as if finding the very notion disturbing. She was relieved of that mental picture, by the distraction of the white bed sheet she had been using as a cover was ripped from her.
"I believe this is one of the good linens you were using as a disguise, Akane-ducky," Kasumi stated in an unimpressed tone.
Akane baulked, finding the nick-name Kasumi called her by extremely disturbing, before her brow furrowed in anger, "That's not funny, Kasumi! Quit calling me-"
"THERE SHE IS, THE DEMONESS!!!"
"Can'ttalkgottarunbebackintimefordinnerbyeKasumi!"
"Don't you run away when I'm talking to you young... lady, sigh," Kasumi shook her head, when she realized she was only talking to a dust cloud in the shape of her youngest sister.
Akane was rather glad for holding the record for the hundred meter dash in her school, and it wasn't often she got a chance to prove it. From the distance left between her and Ranma's faithful covenant, they were probably impressed too.
Finding a nice, concealing wall to hide behind, Akane slumped against it, working to catch her breath, "Lousy jerk, taking away Nabiki's cell, she let me borrow it, fair and square! And where does Kasumi get off calling me by-"
"You know? That was an impressive sprint. Who woulda thought such a chunky girl like you was capable of that speed?"
Akane growled audibly, and looked up to see her pigtailed nemesis sitting on the wall, "You."
"Glad to see you too, Akane," Ranma greeted, leaping from the wall, "Quite a busy day, don't you think?"
"You..."
Ranma ignored the way Akane's hands were flexing for something to claw into, as her nostrils flared, "How long have you had this speech impediment?"
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU JERK!"
"I thought I taught you better than to place blame on others, Akane-Ducky."
"AND WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME-eep!" Akane didn't so much 'eep' because Kasumi was behind her, but for the fact that she was actually...
"Your sister's floating six feet off the ground," Ranma nervously stated the obvious, "Why is she doing that?"
"COME ON!" the youngest Tendou daughter demanded, grabbing Ranma's hand and making a mad dash.
"You are SO asking for it, Akane!" Kasumi shouted out, highly irritated by Akane's behavior.
"THERE! THE BEAST REVEALS HERSELF YET AGAIN!"
"Guess you shoulda shaved your legs before leaving the house," Ranma observed, "And why am I being dragged along with you?"
"Shut up, this is your mess, so you're gonna help me out of it!" Akane jerked Ranma around another corner, evading an intercepting group of zealots.
"Oh, so I have something to do with Kasumi levitating, and you being hunted by a legion of crazed religious acolytes."
Akane glared sharply at the pigtailed boy.
Said pigtailed boy shrugged, "Alright, I did have a little hand in that, but at least this keeps them out of trouble."
"Quick, give me Nabiki's phone!"
"No!" Ranma retorted, "Who knows what nefarious plans you have for it! What you plan to do, make expensive long distance phone calls?"
"DON'T. TOY. WITH. ME! The excitable girl grabbed Ranma with both hands by the front of his shirt, at the end of her patience.
"Sheesh, you're pretty violent, too," the youngest Saotome quipped, favoring the girl with a flat gaze, "I gave it back to Nabiki, she seemed to want it a little more than me, anyways. Not like I have many people I want to call."
"DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!!!" Akane seethed, before she began to think, "Quick, give me a hundred yen!"
Ranma rolled his eyes, "Sorry, I don't loan money to friends."
"I DON'T EVEN LIKE YOU!"
Ranma pouted, as if his feelings were hurt, before he gave Akane a disdainful look, "All the more reason not to lend you money."
"DO YOU HAVE A DEATHWISH?!?" Akane lifted Ranma off the ground, to emphasize that said wish was about to come true.
Ranma thought about it, "Well, there's a twelve foot minotaur that I like to call 'Pantyhose', a three hundred year old martial artist, a walking charbroil and cutlery, an obsessed direction-challenged guy with the strength of a monster, and a full village of man-hating, bloodthirsty warrioresses all out to mutilate and violate my corpse..." Ranma smiled cheerfully, "Now why would I want to die with all this going for me?"
"You're... you're just not sane," Akane said with some resignment, also realizing she needed his help at the moment, "Come on, we gotta find a poor smuck to con a coin from and find a payphone."
"If he was poor, he wouldn't have any money to spare, I would think," Ranma logically retorted, as Akane let him down. He was definitely glad that he 'decided' to help the girl out; he really didn't have anything else to do that day, and she was definitely livening things up.
Several yards above them, Kasumi observed them with her arms folded across her chest and legs dangling together below her, much like those blond haired fellows in that one show Akane-ducky used to watch when she was younger. It also helped that she had a cute but dazzling blue glow around her. If the dear girl below wasn't so busy running for her life, she might have thought it was pretty cool.
"Akane-ducky, what am I going to do with you?" Kasumi sighed, watching their frantic trek.
Nabiki shifted through the keys on the keychain that had been hidden under the umbrella stand for several years, before recalling which one was the one she needed. Racing, she made it to the back yard, and looked around. With a whimper, she realized that Kasumi had planted a garden over the entrance, since it was believed that after Akane had been calmed down, they no longer needed it.
"Sorry, Kasumi," with the apology, Nabiki rushed to the back yard shed, and pulled out a shovel. After several nanoseconds of fierce digging, she found the round trap door she had been looking for that lead to the underground bomb shelter. It wasn't going to matter much soon, since the land on the surface would be totally barren. Kasumi's precious garden was a lost cause.
She quickly unlocked the door, and dropped into the hole, before shutting the door securely behind her. Once she had secured herself inside the dark, nuclear proof cellar, she realized that the water that had been stored inside with her was probably stale, and the food rations were assuredly spoiled. Too bad she didn't have time to go grocery shopping before Akane brought forth the end of the world in a temper-tantrum.
"Nabiki-dear, is that you?"
"EEEYYYAAAHHH!!!" Nabiki jumped; terrified that she was locked inside with Akane. When you're stark mad with terror, everyone's voice tends to sound the same.
"It's me, your father," Soun quickly identified himself before his daughter broke down.
"Daddy? How did you get in here?" Nabiki asked, surprised to find her remaining parent inside with her.
"The basement entrance," the Tendou Patriarch explained, "I didn't want to disturb Kasumi's garden." Once they had both calmed down, Soun broached the subject, "So, I overheard her asking for your phone..."
"Yes..." Nabiki responded, as if that was the only confirmation she needed to give.
"I see," Soun replied, wishing he was allowed to smoke in his current location.
"Daddy?"
"Yes dear?"
"Hold me."
"Only if you hold me."