I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi

I'm back! I know it's been awhile, but working on the latest chapter of Lemon FLu: Aftermath (almost done, finally!), Thanksgiving, and helping my best friend get his latest book published, all got in the way after I finished Phoenix Rising. But the final installment of my "Ranma, the Naive Succubus" series is finally started! One word of warning, I was so eager to get started that I've jumped the gun a little, I'm still rereading the previous stories in the series. If you notice something that conflicts with anything in previous stories, please let me know.

The chapter title is just some fun with the way Snoopy always started his attempts at writing.

Three months later:

Nabiki sighed contentedly as she stepped into her bedroom and closed the door. Her (currently) nature spirit fiancée was right behind her but unfazed, simply ghosting through the door, her fiery-shaded hair drifting about her head as if she were floating through water rather than air. They both giggled at the sound of Kasumi out in the hall, admonishing her younger sister that it didn't matter if Ranma could barely see the door and pass right through it anyway, it was still impolite to shut a door in someone's face!

"You did that on purpose," Ranma murmured.

Nabiki shrugged, not bothering to deny it. There wasn't much point, with the impish delight in her emotional mix that Ranma had to be sensing. Instead, she asked, "Are you going to be joining my dreams tonight?"

"Nah, I'm gonna be meeting with Nerima, get in some more practice with the techniques we've been developing with Cologne and Pop."

"Awww, Umeka was about to get rescued by Naoki before her pirate captors could ravish her," Nabiki complained, then grinned at the addition of shame and disappointment with the anticipation Ranma was radiating—they had found that while they both could control their shared dreams, they had rather different expectations ... and those clashing expectations mixing could produce some delightfully surprising results. "Don't worry about it, we can catch up with the pair tomorrow night. Have fun."

"Uhmm ..." Ranma fidgeted (which looked a little odd on someone floating a foot off the floor), a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

Nabiki shook her head as lust joined Ranma's anticipation (or increased, rather—as she'd grown accustomed to her nature as a succubus, Ranma always had a hint of lust adding a bit of spice to her emotional mix these days). She sighed, sounding much put upon even as amusement bubbled at her core for her lover to sense. "Don't tell me, you want a snack."

" ... Yeah."

Nabiki's gaze sharpened—there was too much shame adding to the strengthening of the ever-present lust. But she continued her put-upon act even as she allowed her amusement full rein. "Oh very well. But remember, it's a school night." She pulled the t-shirt she'd put on when they came home from school off over her head, reached behind her back to unhook her bra and tossed it onto her discarded t-shirt, sensing yet another jump in Ranma's eager lust. (They'd figured out, when she'd noticed the sex spirit unconsciously avoiding looking toward the furo when her mother was bathing and asked why, that though clothes might as well not exist when it came to keeping Ranma from seeing everything, the mere fact they were being worn established some sort of odd subconscious boundary that helped her ignore her constant 'appreciation' for the fit, nubile, young—and not-so-young—bodies around her.) Nabiki teasingly turned toward the full-length mirror on her door instead of the bed as she pushed her shorts and panties down her legs and stepped out of them.

She liked what she saw. While the past three months' training under Ranma's mother had included studying the theories and symbology of runes and ritual circles—at which Nodoka swore she was a natural—most of their time had been taken up with the katana, both the enchantments that could make it as deadly for supernatural threats as mundane ones and the practice that would make those enchantments useful. Now as her eyes swept up the form in the mirror, she could add to the neatly trimmed patch of brown above nether lips already dampening at the thought of what Ranma was about to do to her; smooth, clear skin; and pageboy-styled earth-toned hair that shone in the room's light framing her happy brown eyes, she could add arms and legs firming up nicely and a faint washboard pattern beginning to show below her firm, perky breasts.

Ranma floated up behind her, resting her chin on Nabiki's shoulder as her arms circled her waist. The redhead smiled as her own blue eyes swept across the visual feast, and Nabiki softly smiled herself, luxuriating in the love liberally mixed with Ranma's growing lust. It was really too bad that she hadn't figured out yet how to photograph the supernatural beings and creatures usually invisible to the eyes of Sleepers. Not that she'd be able to share this scene with anyone but Kasumi, Nodoka, and maybe Akane—with her own nude body on full display, no one else would be paying any attention to their expressions.

:You two are too sappy for words, now are you going to bed, or what?:

Nabiki giggled at the 'voice' in her head of Peach Fuzz, the sprite that had volunteered to become her familiar. The little brunette cutie had become more inured to the blast that she got through the familiar link to Nabiki—of lust, pleasure, and, especially, the love she had essentially become a slave to experience—to the point that it didn't knock her out. She didn't even really need the simultaneous physical distraction of a good fucking from one of her many sprite friends to avoid that now. (Her association with Ranma and Nabiki had apparently made her something of a much sought after celebrity.)

But that didn't mean Ranma and Nabiki's lovemaking wasn't distracting and there were things out there that could eat sprites, so as always, Nabiki asked, :You're safe?:

:Yes.: Nabiki felt a slight, indescribable mental 'push' that she'd come to mean Peach Fuzz was offering to share her own senses, and looked through her familiar's eyes to see the koi pond and beyond it the wall surrounding the Tendo home and dojo. Good, with the wards she'd put up and then strengthened under Nodoka's tutelage Peach Fuzz would be safe, and with the other sprites she could see flitting about up in the nearby tree have no problem getting fucked if she wanted it. :Good enough, enjoy yourself. I know I will.:

A flash of amused anticipation, and Nabiki closed her link to Peach Fuzz's senses as her familiar flew up toward a tree shouting for Hazelnut—a new name to Nabiki, so she didn't know if that sprite was male or female ... though Peach Fuzz did seem to have a preference for males, if only slightly.

"Peach Fuzz is safe," she said, gently pulling Ranma's arms away from her waist and turning away to her bed to pull down her blanket and top sheet. (She'd made the mistake of just lying on top her bed before, and Kasumi had not been happy with the results.) She paused a moment to mutter some quick phrases in Esperanto (the one area where she had been the teacher and Nodoka had been the gifted student) and sketch several symbols in the air, then turned in place to review the wards she'd inscribed along the edges of floor, walls, and ceiling now glowing to her and Ranma's Sight—if those worked properly, the couple wouldn't be sharing the vocal results of Ranma's 'feeding' with the house's other residents. Only one way to find out. She lay down on the bed and spread her arms wide. "Come here, lover."

Ranma floated over, rotating as she came to stretch horizontally along Nabiki's body, and Nabiki reached up to place a hand over free-floating red hair at each temple to pull Ranma's face down to hers. Lips met in a soft kiss that rapidly grew stronger, parting to allow dueling tongues access to the other's mouth. Even as the duel went on, Ranma's fingers slid between their press-together breasts to find Nabiki's nipples, and on one breast her own as well. Nabiki moaned into the succubus's mouth as fingers pinched and twisted, back arching to press breasts even more firmly together, her own hands roaming along Ranma's back.

The breath of Ranma's own moan mixed with Nabiki's, then she floated down, her breasts brushing across skin as her lips trailed along cheek, neck, and upper swell of breast. Ranma was careful not to leave hickeys where they wouldn't be covered by Nabiki's blouse this time. (Nabiki had commented on the number of knowing smirks she'd gotten from schoolmates unable to hide their amusement, and Ranma had taken the hint—helped by her lover's amused exasperation.)

But no care was needed when those lips and teeth reached nipples crinkled tight by pleasure, even as roaming fingers slid across a clit protruding from its hood and rubbed back and forth between moistening nether lips. Then fingers slid up inside her sheath and twisted just so, and Nabiki tensed and shuddered at the pleasure gently pulsing through her. After all these months the two had been sharing nights, Ranma knew exactly where to aim. Of course, thanks to the empathic sense they both shared, the same applied to Nabiki, but tonight wasn't about Ranma. Just a snack.

Then Ranma stopped playing with one nipple then another. But instead of floating away or back up for a shared kiss, she trailed fresh kisses down along a smoothly tight abdomen until her lips captured Nabiki's engorged clit as her fingers began to rhythmically thrust and twist and Nabiki's hips bucked. She bit back a shout as her second orgasm ripped through her, stronger than the first, leaving her clutching at the bedsheet and gasping for air. And from the sensation of her fiancée's eager anticipation as tongue continued playing with her clit, Ranma wasn't done yet.

Nabiki tried to lift herself up on her elbows, looking down between her heaving breasts at the red hair that was all she could see of the head between her widespread legs—at that angle, Ranma's bottom half must be dangling through the ceiling of the room below. "Ranma, I have—oooohhh!" She fell back onto the bed as a third finger joined the pair plundering the depths of her sheath ... and a fourth, spreading her almost uncomfortably wide.

Then there was no 'almost' about it as Ranma slowly pushed her entire hand up into Nabiki's sheath. It wasn't a very big hand—the succubus that had become Ranma's primary form over the past three months ('her' male form mostly abandoned except for sparring and meals) was definitely on the small side—but that hand was still wider than any of the dildos Nabiki had used before Ranma had come into her life. Pain mixed with the pleasure washing through her from Ranma's plunging thrusts and the lips and tongue playing with her engorged clit, more than she'd ever experienced so far.

But at this point Nabiki was so lost in the sensations crashing through her that the pain actually gave an edge to her pleasure, lifting her to heights she'd rarely achieved before in their lovemaking, and never at home. The shriek ripped from her throat when she came a third time was the reason why.

When she finally became aware again of the world around her, it was to the feel of Ranma's lips and tongue still playing with her clit and hand plundering her depths. Levering herself against her bed's headboard—pulling Ranma through the bed along with her—she reached down to caught her lover's head, gently pulling it away from her. "Ranma, enough," she managed to gasp out. "I'm done. I'm a wreck, and I have training with your mother in the morning and school after."

Ranma looked up, a slightly dazed look in her eyes that Nabiki didn't like fading into the redhead's usual alertness. "Oh, right. Sorry 'bout that." Nabiki winced slightly as Ranma's hand popped free of her cleft, and her lover winced as well. "Sorry 'bout that," she repeated.

Nabiki just sighed at the remorse she felt now coming from her lover and pulled Ranma up to cuddle against her, head pillowed on her still-heaving breasts. When her breathing settled back down to something more normal, she sighed. "Well, at least we know the wards we put up around the bedroom to muffle sounds worked, or Akane would have been hammering on the door. Even Kasumi might complain in the morning."

Ranma giggled—more from relief, the middle Tendo thought, as she sensed Nabiki's resigned amusement. "Mom would'a been making jokes."

Nabiki chuckled ruefully. Ranma was right, her sensei would have done just that, though not so much lately. Of course, what Ranma didn't know was that the teasing had a serious purpose—helping Ranma get more comfortable with 'her' sexual nature. And it had been largely successful, which was why Nodoka had been cutting back—however mischievous she could be (and she really was mischievous, there was no hiding that from the empathic sense Ranma shared with Nabiki), Nodoka would normally have been much too well-mannered to engage in such 'improper' behavior. "Well, I'll just have to hope Nodoka-sensei goes easy on me in the morning. So what brought that on? You were just supposed to grab a snack after Kasumi's dinner, not go for a full meal."

Ranma mumbled something, her warm breath ghosting across Nabiki's sweat-beaded breast making her shiver.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you."

"I said, I'm still hungry."

Over the months, Nabiki and Ranma had been in something of an arms race. As much as Nabiki had come to love her 'fiancé', and enjoyed the closeness that their shared empathic senses permitted—and especially the trust it allowed someone that had learn there were very few people in the world she could trust—she had always been a very private person that kept her own counsel. So even as Ranma had learned to read her every mood, now often able to guess what lay behind her ever-shifting emotions, Nabiki had learned—somewhat—to bury some emotions, to hide them in the constant shifting mix that they both could sense.

The fact that she had been expecting something like this made it easier to hide her abrupt worry under her amusement at Ranma's shamed confession. "So now you're turning into as gluttonous a sex spirit as you are a human?"

"Hey, I'm not as bad as Pop!"

"Ranma, nobody is as bad as your father—his familiarity with field medicine and ki manipulation is why Dr. Tofu agreed to hire him as an assistant, it had nothing to do with why he asked for his hours to be increased. If Kasumi hadn't threatened to only feed him once a day if he didn't contribute to the household budget, he'd still be spending most of the day playing shogi with Father."

Ranma giggled again, undoubtedly remembering the instant panic her father had felt when the household matriarch had made her ultimatum, and Nabiki had her breathing under control enough to giggle as well. It really had been funny, how that panic had clashed with the faux outrage Genma had put on.

Finally mostly recovered from her assembly-line orgasms, Nabiki pulled Ranma up away from her breasts (hiding a smile at Ranma's flash of disappointment—the Tendo's natural pillows might not be as bounteous as her lover's, but they were enough to capture keep her attention), gripped a handful of fiery hair to hold Ranma in place for a breathtaking kiss, then gently pushed away the now-panting succubus. "Well, you've gorged enough, go have fun with Nerima, I'll see you in the morning."

Ranma grinned, her anticipation jumping, pecked Nabiki on the lips, and was through the wall, flashed through the wards over the compound, and was gone into the night.

Nabiki shifted down to lie flat on her bed, beginning to shiver at the feel of the cool night air on her sweat-slicked skin. After a few minutes when she was sure Ranma wasn't coming back, she pushed herself to her feet and hobbled over to her robe on its hook. (She'd gotten more blasé about nudity at home for awhile—having a lover that could barely tell your clothes existed while mostly hanging around other girls/women (Kasumi seemed to flip back and forth these days) could do that to you—until her father had accidentally walked in on her in her sitting at her bedroom desktop computer when she didn't have a stitch on; since that embarrassment she'd been more careful.) Pulling on her robe, she started hobbling for the stairs and the furo below.

:Wow, you really got hammered.:

Nabiki grimaced at Peach Fuzz's comment, but couldn't disagree. :And how many guys did you take on?: she asked instead. from the aftershocks she was sensing through the familiar link, now that she was mostly recovered herself and paying more attention, the sprite hadn't gotten off much more lightly.

:Just one, but he was surprisingly energetic about it. Good thing, too, I didn't think I'd need more for what was supposed to be a snack.:

:Ranma was still hungry when I shut her down.:

: ... Oh.:

Her familiar fell silent, and Nabiki didn't say anything else while she made sure the 'occupied' sign was up, shucked her robe, and washed herself down before easing herself into the furo's steaming water with a hiss through her teeth at the feel of wet heat on sore skin.

Finally, Peach Fuzz spoke up again. :So Ranma's going into heat. Do you want me to let Elder Ku. Lon know?:

:Yes, but it can wait until morning. Ryoga seems to hang around for a few days whenever he shows up and he wasn't there when I dropped by the Cat Café today, so there's no rush. Besides, right now Ranma's only peckish instead of starving—I doubt I'll be able to convince her to go along with it for a bit, yet. So there's no point in you risking your life out there in the dark.:

Nabiki felt Peach Fuzz's agreement with her instructions and let her link with her familiar drop to its usual barely-there level as she sank neck-deep into the furo. She let the heat of the water ease her soreness as she reflected on her fiancé. It was odd, how the human (and not-so-human) mind could adjust to new situations—the boy who had wanted so badly to be celibate—not prudish, his attitude had had nothing to do with distaste and everything to do with determination not to be like his father—had long since gotten over her reluctance to 'feed' on Nabiki's happily offered body. (As a boy he had no interest in sex at all, and that still bothered him sometimes, in a wistful sort of way.) And the succubus that hadn't really wanted to let Nabiki 'play' with her because it wasn't 'properly masculine' was now more than happy to let her lover make love to her when they had the time and privacy. But any hint of sex with a guy and Ranma started to shut down, even though since the night Ranma had used the Voice to possess the memory of an Amazon warrior getting thoroughly fucked by her husband Nabiki had sensed Ranma's growing attraction to the guys they encountered daily at school. When she was there as a succubus rather than a boy, at least, which lately had been whenever there weren't tests scheduled—Akane was beginning to chafe at having Ranma constantly reading over her shoulder and borrowing her notes. But whenever Ranma was human he tended to spend as much time looking around as he did focusing on whatever he needed his human form for ... training with Genma in unarmed techniques and with Nodoka and Nabiki in kenjutsu, and schoolwork with Akane, mostly. And meals, of course, even a succubus had to agree that Kasumi's cooking was almost as good as sex.

What a mess.

But now it was time to get out, change the bottom sheet on her bed, and get some sleep ... and hope that in the morning Nodoka-sensei was understanding about Nabiki's request they focus on the mystical uses of their katanas rather than the physical.

/oOo\

In the small basement room of the equally small Gosunkugi mansion, the chanting Hikaru focused intently on the tiny raven-haired sprite stretched out spreadeagled on her back in a frame in the center of the circle the budding Adept had spent the last several hours drawing, her terrified eyes staring at the equally tiny blade of the guillotine above her head. He ignored how the flickering candles around the circle danced, the shadows of the room's only light—other than the soft glow of the circle visible only to those with the Sight—cast on the ancient, rough-hewn walls of natural stone making them seem to move almost as if they were breathing. He ignored the way his breath misted in the cold air. He ignored the perfect female form of the sprite's naked body on display, fully human in appearance other than the insect-like wings crushed between her and the cement floor. All his focus was on the effort to dominate tiny being that the last lines of his incantation opened to him.

For a long moment he thought that he would fail in this as well, as he strove to smash through the metaphorical walls defending the sprite's mind—her soul—from his assault. But as poor as his own efforts were the sprite's defense—weakened by starvation and terror—was even worse, and he seemed to hear a massive crack as those mental walls collapsed and he found himself looking through the sprite's eyes, staring up at the suddenly seemingly huge blade held in its frame over her neck, her exhausted terror hammering into his mind. He staggered back, blanching, to be caught by the shoulder by his father.

"Did it work?" Ogai demanded harshly.

"Yes, I did it," Hikaru gasped, free now to wipe one hand somewhat ineffectually at the sweat coating his face.

"Finally." His father stepped forward and reached out a foot, ready to break the 'circuit' in the complex diagram that held up the guillotine blade.

Hikaru instinctively grabbed his father's arm. "Wait!"

Ogai stopped and stepped back, turned to his son. "Why? Surely you don't want to have one of these weak, useless foreign pests that have infested our homeland bound to you as your familiar."

For a moment Hikaru's mind blanked, then he found himself saying, "It's not useless. None of the imps we've summoned have been able to get through the Tendo wards, or the wards around Tatsuno's antiques warehouse. But we know that for some reason the Tendos allow these invaders to live on their grounds, welcome them even. Perhaps it will be able to get in where the imps couldn't, and I can use its senses to spy."

Ogai gazed at his son for a long moment, then stepped back. "That is a fair point. We shall see if your plan works, we can always kill it later if it proves useless. And once we are done with Tatsuno and the Tendos we will have no more need for it in any case. Now, these conditions for binding a sentient being were ideal—physically weakened, emotionally devastated by grief for its predecessors it watched reduced to potions ingredients and fear of its own impending death, and one of the weakest of beings. How much effort did you require to bind it?"

As much as Hikaru would have liked to ... enhance ... his performance, he had learned over the past three months that his father would accept nothing but the unvarnished truth and seemed to have an infallible 'bullshit detector', as he had heard a schoolmate crudely describe one of their teachers. So he he told honestly and plainly of his struggles to impose the bond, how he had seemed to make no progress at all until the sprite's resistance failed just as he was on the point of collapse himself.

When he was done, Ogai frowned thoughtfully. "You are still having difficulty imposing your will on the rituals you cast. It seems I erred in instructing you to focus on computer programming. I thought it might aid you in the precision of your circles, and it has," he added, waving to the circle still containing the sprite whose blossoming hope Hikaru could sense through the link he'd forced on it. "That is as precise a circle as I have seen, and you clearly understood each symbol's function and how they all interact with each other. Yet you cannot seem to cease treating these rituals as so many computer programs, needing only the proper drawings, props, and incantations to take effect. Until you truly understand that the power of an Initiate lies as much in his Will as his skill with a brush and a well-spoken phrase, you will be a danger to those around you and especially yourself."

"Yes, father," Hikaru replied with a shallow bow, trembling with mortification.

His father stepped over and laid a hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Do not despair, it will come. And when it does you will be truly powerful—the strength of the backlash when you first attempted to summon Tendo-san's slut proved that, it would not have been so strong if you had not come close to overpowering her wards." He smiled as Hikaru's shoulders straightened, then nodded to the circle. "Now get that cleaned up and see to the needs of your ... familiar."

Hikaru suppressed his wince at the derision in his father's tone—a derision at least partially aimed at him, or his father wouldn't have allowed him to hear it. Ogai might have been convinced by his son's arguments, but he clearly didn't believe they had been behind his reflexive intervention. Then a thought occurred to him. "Father, how am I to get the sprite out of the circle without dropping the blade?"

"You will have to modify the circle without breaking it."

Hikaru waited for a moment, and when no more was forthcoming, braced himself and asked, "How?"

"Consider that an exercise for the student."

With those words, Ogai turned and strode to the doorway to the stairs leading up to the rest of the mansion, flipping the light switch as he passed. With the bright light wiping away the shadows cast by the candles, the room suddenly seemed ... small, motionless. Solid.

Hikaru stared at the stairs his father had ascended out of sight, and slumped. Ogai definitely hadn't bought his son's excuse for sparing the sprite's life—now that Hikaru had demonstrated that he could force a familiar bond, if he failed to save the sprite Ogai would probably consider requiring him to do it again to gain another spy to be good practice. It wasn't as if they were pushed for time, after all, as of last week Nabiki still hadn't been pregnant. The longer it took, the more Hikaru thought it might not happen at all.

Putting aside thoughts of being a disappointment to his father, Hikaru turned to one of his chief joys in life, playing with ritual circles—a joy he had been denied over the past three months, as his father had forbidden him to work with them unsupervised until all the gaps his self-education had left in his understanding of magic had been discovered and filled. He looked over the circle. "Let's see, if I add connected circuits here and here on either side of the circuit holding up the blade ... I'll have to link them to the circle simultaneously ... then..."