I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.
The next morning, and Nabiki and Akane turned the corner toward the school gates, Nabiki with her arms full of damp clothing and Akane glancing around nervously, her eyes passing unseeing over the cute naked red-haired girl floating on the other side of her sister.
"I can't believe that old lady got me again!" Ranma complained.
Nabiki grinned as she caught Akane's flinch out of the corner of her eye. "What's wrong, sis, you're not afraid of spirits, are you?" she jibed, and Akane growled.
"Of course not!" she insisted, turning and looking almost directly at the nature spirit she couldn't see. "You just better stay out of the girls' locker room!"
Ranma unconsciously shifted so that Akane would be looking at her if she could actually see her, as Nabiki smirked. "Why do you care? Ranko's a girl, after all, just like you." Ranma flinched, and Nabiki frowned slightly.
"Yeah," Akane acknowledged, "and I feel sorry for her, being stuck with that pervert, but you said he remembers what she sees and I don't want him remembering us girls changing!"
Nabiki sighed. "Look, Akane, Ranma might have startled you that first night, but he couldn't help appearing in front of you naked. That was Ranko's fault, and doesn't make him a pervert."
Akane hesitated, then scowled. "Maybe not, but it doesn't matter — he's a boy, and all boys are perverts! Speaking of which ..." she added as they approached the gates, and broke into a run, dashing through the gates at full speed shouting her mantra.
Nabiki sighed as shouts and the sound of combat immediately broke out. "Okay, now it's official. Watching little Miss Perfect get attacked every morning has been fun, but now I'm getting worried."
"Why?" Ranma asked as the two turned into the gates to see the Tendo sister with the long black hair plowing through the usual mob of would-be dates. "It's not like any of 'em can lay a hand on her."
"True," Nabiki agreed with a frown, "but it's twisting her, making her hate boys. If she didn't have such a crush on Dr. Tofu I'd be really worried about her future prospects, seeing how she hasn't shown any attraction to girls. But still, if this keeps up one of these days little sis is going to lose control and really hurt someone."
The busty nature spirit gazed out over the scattered clumps of groaning and unconscious boys, and nodded — bruises, abrasions, but no broken bones. "So ya just have ta think of a way ta get 'em ta stop. Shouldn't be that hard, as smart as ya are."
"Thanks, Ranko, but I expect you to come up with your own ideas, too," Nabiki said with a smile, then frowned as Ranma flinched again. "Okay, what's wrong with the name? You came up with it yourself, and it's too late to change it now!"
"Nothin'," Ranma muttered. Then, under Nabiki's stern gaze, reluctantly added, "I just don't really like the story ya came up with."
"I know," Nabiki said, "but it's the best we can do — Akane's entire class heard your shout — your very feminine shout — when Kuno grabbed onto you. And even if they hadn't he would certainly know that your spirit form is female — no way to hide those oh-so-luscious mounds he latched on to," she added with a leer, then sobered when Ranma stiffened and crossed her arms across her generous chest. "Sorry," Nabiki said contritely, and after a moment Ranma relaxed.
"Not yer fault," she muttered. "I just don't like rememberin' that pervert grabbin' my ... me ... there. And yeah, I know I don't want anyone ta know I turn inta a girl, so we hafta go with havin' me trade places with a girl instead—and yeah, that's my fault. But couldn't we have stuck with the ghost story? I don't want anybody knowin' I'm a nature spirit, either. What if they guess what kind?"
"No," Nabiki said firmly, shaking her head. "Two of Akane's classmates are Awakened, and from their shocked faces yesterday they're powerful enough to actually see you. They'll know you aren't a ghost the first time you get close to them in spirit form. Ghosts ... feel different."
"If ya say so," Ranma said with a sigh, then turned her attention back to the fight and frowned.
"What's wrong?" Nabiki asked. Nothing seemed out of place to her — the usual gang brawl was over, and Kuno had made his usual flowery oration and was currently getting his ass handed to him, like always — although the 'Blue Thunder' label was new to her.
"He's holdin' back," Ranma muttered.
Nabiki froze. "He's what!?"
"He's holdin' back, lettin' her win," Ranma said more loudly, and Nabiki shook her head.
"I'll take your word for it, but why?" she asked as Kuno slammed into a tree and slumped unconscious to the ground.
"I dunno, but he is!" Ranma insisted.
"I believe you, it's just ..." Nabiki's voice trailed off as she stared at the unconscious kendoist for a moment, then shrugged. "We'll deal with that later, let's get you some hot water and get to class." Sighing, she added, "We'll both be getting a lot of questions today."
/\
Nabiki sat under her usual tree and opened her lunch bento, then smiled as her black-haired fiancé sat beside her. "I hope your morning has been better than mine," she said.
Ranma shook his head with a scowl. "I kinda doubt it," he said. "Ya wouldn't believe some a' the questions the guys have come up with. It's makin' me think yer sister could be right about boys."
Nabiki winced. "And she was right there to hear every question, of course, just great. Okay, your morning was worse than mine. At least my reputation is useful on occasion, Kuno was the only one brave enough to ask about what happened yesterday, so after I recited our cover story all I had to put up with was his ranting about 'the evil sorcerer enslaving a fair bud of a maiden' and undoubtedly using her to 'satisfy his bestial lusts' while 'pursuing the glorious Akane' — with my help, of course, out of jealousy and envy."
Ranma growled and started to stand up, looking around for the tall upperclassman, but stopped when his fiancée shook her head and pointed back down beside her. "Sit!" she loudly demanded, and Ranma dropped back down beside her, then flushed as a group of girls sitting close enough to hear Nabiki's shouted order laughed. Nabiki frowned at the girls, and the laughter choked off. The girls suddenly decided to eat their lunches elsewhere and got up and left.
"Look. Ranma," Nabiki said, "you can't go after Kuno for every little thing he says — he's such an obvious nutcase that nobody believes him, and beating on him won't change anything, he'll just wake up and spout some more nonsense. So just ignore him unless he attacks you, right?"
She glared sternly at the pigtailed boy until he reluctantly nodded, then her expression softened and she grinned. "Yes, I know, you want to beat your chest and prove who's toughest. But some problems can't be solved with your fists, and this is one of them."
"So, how do we solve it?" Ranma asked.
Nabiki grimaced. "I'm still working on that part," she admitted reluctantly, and Ranma chuckled. Hastily changing the subject, she asked, "You haven't forgotten that we have a trip to make after school?"
"Naw, 'course not," the martial artist replied. "Where we goin', anyway?"
"Just to see someone about paying for your schooling," Nabiki said nonchalantly. And I sure hope the fact that the sepukku contract is torn up is more important than that it exists.
/\
Gosunkugi stared thoughtfully at the pair from where he sat across the lawn, ignored by the rest of the students as usual. Ranma's questioning by the boys (and a few of the girls) at the beginning of school and between classes before the teachers demanded the students' attention had been interesting, to say the least. The budding Adept had been reluctantly impressed by Ranma's self control — he had actually managed to keep himself from attacking any of those idiots. He'd even talked Akane into not letting go of the fool she'd hung out the window — unfortunate, that, but maybe it showed a weak streak Gosunkugi could take advantage of instead of just a practical one.
Still, there was something about the whole situation that was off, something wrong—and then the pasty-skinned boy had it. Ranko had been around well before Ranma, from what he'd overheard Akane telling her friends, Ranma and his father had only shown up at the dojo two nights ago! So how had Ranko ended up with Nabiki at least a week back? And if Ranma had been in China while Ranko was in Nerima, how had they gotten linked? And they were linked, Gosunkigi had managed to be in the first row at the windows when Ranma took his plunge into the pool, there was no mistaking what had happened yesterday...
Coming to a sudden decision, Gosunkugi quickly finished his lunch and headed back into the school. As much as he enjoyed school, there was no way he was going to be able to concentrate on the lessons, so taking an afternoon off for research in the family library was in order — he was easily a good enough student, and normally unhealthy-looking, that the teacher would believe a sudden illness. Ranma hadn't mentioned any place names in his little story, but there couldn't be that many cursed springs in China...
/oOo\
Ranma frowned grumpily from where she floated alongside Nabiki as her fiancée walked through the park in the failing light of evening toward the line of houses across the street. Glancing around to make sure there wasn't anyone in earshot, she complained, "I can't believe that water fountain broke just as we were passing by! What is it with me and water, anyway?"
"I'd say we're seeing another aspect of your curse," Nabiki said sympathetically (hiding an appreciative smile even as Ranma lightly blushed from the mild lust radiating from her fiancée). "It must want you to change if you stay in your uncursed form long enough — or perhaps it's both forms and there's simply more cool water around than warm."
"That's just great," the cute red-haired nature spirit grumbled, and Nabiki just shook her head — Ranma's reaction seemed a little forced.
"You sure you aren't just trying to distract yourself from meeting your mother?" she asked gently.
Ranma sobered. "Well, maybe," she said. "What if she doesn't take me turnin' inta a spirit so well? I mean, I haven't had the best a' luck with Pop over the years, why should she be any better? And why are we tellin' her the truth instead a' the cover story, anyway?"
"Because it's a bad idea to lie about something this important to someone important to you, it can lead to hurt feelings down the road when the secret comes out — and it will come out sooner or later, I know that better than most. I've made a lot of money from that fact over the past year or so, after all."
Ranma grimaced, then flinched at Nabiki's spike of unhappiness at her reaction. Hastily, Ranma said, "But we didn't tell Pop, or yer dad, either." Then Ranma gasped as a wave of intense, though somehow old and worn-feeling, anger and pain from Nabiki rolled over her.
Nabiki stopped and sat on a bench beside the walkway, Ranma floating down beside her. "I don't have a father," she whispered, "not really. There's just a legally adult permanent guest in the house that used to be Dad before he died along with Mom."
Ranma fidgeted at Nabiki's side for a moment, then awkwardly hugged the taller girl. "I'm sorry," she whispered as a couple of tears rolled down her face, and Nabiki patted the arms wrapped around her and sniffled, then straightened and took a deep breath.
"It's all right, Ranma, just old news," Nabiki lied, then hastily continued. "Anyway, Genma can't be trusted with a single yen, and my father is too impulsive and emotional to be trusted with anything important, but your mother's different. She has a rock solid reputation for honor as well as skill in two worlds where honor is important — business and the kendo tournament circuit. She can probably be trusted, and if you want to avoid hurt feelings later you'll lay everything out first, before she finds out on her own later." At Ranma's doubtful look, Nabiki added, "Trust, me, when it comes to secrets I'm an expert."
With a reluctant nod and a worried look, Ranma floated up from beside Nabiki. "I guess yer right, so let's get this over with."
/\
The tall, auburn-haired middle-aged woman sitting at the kitchen table glanced at the clock on the wall for the third time in five minutes, the tenth time in twenty minutes, the thirtieth time that hour ... Stop that! Nodoka told herself yet again. Tendo-san will get here when she gets here, and not before, and she isn't late yet. And you don't want to get your hopes up after all these years — after all, just what do you think a high school girl is going to be able to tell you that your private investigators couldn't? Still, after her telephone call yesterday it's a good thing you didn't go to work today, you might have given away the store!
But yet again, she found her eyes drifting to the wall clock, and sighed in exasperation. Rising and walking to the stove, she had just picked up the tea kettle on the burner and started to pour when she heard a knock on the door and her hand jerked, spilling hot water along the counter. She ignored the spilled water and put the kettle back on the burner before rushing to the front entrance. She threw open the door to find on her doorstep an attractive pageboy-styled earth-haired girl carrying some damp clothes of slightly above average height that radiated the power of a high-level Awakened and ... a smaller, cute red-haired nature spirit floating at her side!? And the nature spirit looked so familiar, where had she seen her before?
Nodoka stood there, frozen in surprise, and after a few moments the earth-haired girl bowed and said, "Saotome-san? I'm Tendo Nabiki, I called yesterday with information about your son?"
Nodoka shook herself out of her shock and returned Nabiki's bow, ignoring the sudden weight of disappointment threatening to crush her. So it was just an excuse to meet me about my side job without revealing anything to the neighbors. "Yes, I am Mrs. Saotome. My apologies for my rudeness, I was surprised. Please, come in." She led her two guests to the parlor and excused herself to fetch the tea. As she poured, she said with a smile and a bow to the cute redhead, "My apologies that I can't provide a snack of whatever you feed from for you."
To Nodoka's fresh surprise Nabiki choked and jerked, spilling the tea cup she had just lifted to her lips, and began to laugh as the nature spirit blushed and immediately covered her breasts and crotch with arm and hand. "You can see me!?" the spirit shrilled, and the other girl's laughter intensified.
"Ranko, I swear, you have a reflex stuck in your brain somewhere, you always say and do the exact same thing whenever you run into someone else that can see you!" Nabiki managed to choke out.
Ranko's blush actually deepened and she studied the floor, mumbling, "Well, yeah, it's just always a shock, an' bein' naked all the time doesn't help."
A now thoroughly confused Nodoka glanced back and forth between her two guests, as hope once again sprang to life in her heart. "You mean you weren't aware that I'm a ... that is, that I can see the supernatural? You really did come with news of my son?"
"Yes, we did, I didn't realized you were an Initiate until I sensed your wards," Nabiki replied, then glanced down at the tea spilled across the table. "Sorry about the mess."
"Think nothing of it," the older woman responded distractedly as she rose to fetch a towel. Once the spill had been wiped up, she again sat before her two guests and for once eschewed polite small-talk. "What can you tell me of my son?" she asked eagerly, and the two teenagers (or at least one teenager, no telling how old the nature spirit was) exchanged glances.
"Ranma and Genma are now living at the Tendo dojo," Nabiki started, hesitated, then sighed. "Saotome-san, Genma has made your son an outstanding martial artist, but ..." Her voice trailed off, and Nodoka stiffened.
"I have had private investigators tracking Genma and my son for years, up until they left for China, so I know all about my former husband's ... activities — the petty thievery, the con games, the multiple fiancées," she ground out, then also hesitated. Finally, she screwed up her courage to ask, "My son ... didn't turn out like Genma, did he?"
"No!" the nature spirit shouted. "I didn't ... I mean he didn't ... I mean ..."
Nabiki laughed again, shaking her head at her companion. "Oh, that was very smooth!" Then, as her companion (still shielding her chest and groin, oddly enough) once again blushed, Nabiki turned back to Nodoka. "Saotome-san, your son is as fine a person as I've known" — neglecting to add that that didn't mean much — "and I'm proud to have him for a fiancé. But ... your wards against demonic entry are strong, do you know much about the supernatural world?"
"A bit," Nodoka admitted cautiously, "Why?"
Nabiki chuckled and nodded to the still-blushing redhead. "Saotome-san, may I present your son, Saotome Ranma?"
/\
A short explanation and long hug later, and a still somewhat stunned Nodoka stared at the currently nonhuman daughter she was holding by the shoulders at arm's length, tears streaming unnoticed down her cheeks. "So that's why I thought I recognized you when I first saw you at the door," she mused. "You look just like I did when I was your age."
"Ya believe us? Just like that?" Ranma asked, reeling from the tsunami of love, grief, happiness, anger, and more thundering into her from her mother.
Nodoka nodded. "Yes, I met a Jusenkyo-cursed Hunter, once. He'd turned his curse into quite an advantage when it came to scouting — people don't really notice songbirds flying around."
Nabiki stilled. Hunter? Later, we have other things to discuss. "Saotome-san," she said, "earlier did you describe Genma as your former husband?"
"Yes," Nodoka agreed. "A few years after he stopped visiting during the training trip like he was supposed to, after the police and lawyers and families Genma scammed started showing up looking for him, I got a divorce for abandonment."
"Wait, we were supposed ta visit?" Ranma demanded.
Nodoka nodded again. "Yes, and you did — three times, the last about a year after the training journey started."
Ranma frowned thoughtfully. "Huh, that was around the time a' the Cat Fist trainin', I wonder if that had anything ta do with it?" she mused aloud, staring off into space.
"The what?" the other two asked, and Ranma jerked and looked at them, then chuckled nervously and tugged at her braid.
"The Cat Fist trainin'. It's a martial arts technique," she mumbled.
Glaring at her fiancé, Nabiki asked, "And just what does this technique consist of?"
"W-Well, ya dig a pit and fill it with c-c-ca-ca-little furry demons, don't feed 'em fer a few days, then tie fish sausages on the kid you're trainin' and toss him in, an' repeat until it works," Ranma explained.
The two suddenly pale women just stared at her for a long moment. "You mean cats?" Nabiki asked.
Ranma shuddered and nodded.
"And Genma really did this to you?" Nabiki asked, and at Ranma's second nod turned to Nodoka. "Where's your bathroom?" she asked, and on being told by a barely coherent Nodoka bolted from the room.
Ranma and Nodoka stared after her until the sound of retching echoed down the hall, then Nodoka rose and also left, to return with a katana strapped to her back just as Nabiki also reappeared in the doorway. "We're going to go have a long talk with a child-abusing bastard that tried to kill my child, right now!" Nodoka growled out as Ranma shuddered from the anger and hatred hammering her.
Nabiki glanced at the white-faced, shaking nature spirit floating back away from her mother, sighed, and walked over to put a comforting arm around her fiancé's waist. "I hate to say it, but I don't think that's a good idea right now," she said softly. "You'll kill him, and for some reason that escapes me completely Ranma still cares for that monster."
"H-H-He's a waste a' space, b-but he's my p-p-pop," Ranma stuttered in a barely audible voice.
Nodoka looked at her child and froze. "You're an empath in this form, aren't you?" she asked.
"I-If ya mean I can feel what other people feel, yeah, that's what Nabs called it," Ranma said with a jerky nod.
Nodoka closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and held herself still, and after a long moment Ranma relaxed as the emotional storm subsided. Nodoka opened her eyes again, and walked over to hug the two teenagers. "I'm so sorry to inflict that on you, child," she whispered.
Ranma wordlessly hugged her back, basking in the love now radiating from her mother.
Finally, Nodoka reluctantly stepped back and sighed, stamping firmly on the anger that still burned at her core. "I suppose I will simply have to wait until I can control myself to tell him just what I think of what he's done," she said reluctantly.
Nabiki grinned. "Actually, there is something you might be able to do to frustrate Genma right now, even if you don't see him," she said. "You see, Genma's opposed to Ranma attending school and refusing to pay for it, even if he could, and ..."
/oOo\
On a tree-covered hill out of sight from the walkways of the now dark park, Nabiki, her blouse unbuttoned and bra unclasped, moaned softly as Ranma, still in her nature spirit form, suckled at one of her pert breasts, one hand massaging the other breast and the other hand down between Nabiki's spread legs. Nabiki's skirt and panties were no impediment to the redhead's questing fingers, and Nabiki gasped as she shook. "It's a good thing I started wearing heavy duty pads," she murmured, then reluctantly pulled her fiancé's hand away through her clothes and then pulled Ranma away from her breast and up into a searing kiss that left Ranma gasping from the equal measures of the warmth she now recognized as love piled on top of the pleasure and lust her attentions had caused Nabiki to radiate and fill Ranma's core.
"As much as I'm enjoying giving you a little snack," Nabiki said as she reclasped her bra and buttoned up her blouse, "we need to get back — Kasumi knows we're going to be late, and that I'm not in any real danger wandering around in the dark as long as you're with me, but she's going to worry anyway."
Ranma pouted but nodded, then surprised Nabiki with an only mildly self-conscious leer. "Well, if I can't touch I c-can always l-look," Ranma got out.
Nabiki laughed and struck a pose that had Ranma blushing furiously. Relaxing and grabbing Ranma's hand, Nabiki carefully scanned around as the two started back for the dojo and nodded slightly as she sensed the same imp she'd noticed following her around days earlier. I thought it'd pick us up again after we left Saotome-san's wards. But it's out of earshot, good. "So, Ranma, now that you've met your mother, what do you think of her?" she asked nonchalantly, and smiled at the happiness she felt radiating from her lover floating beside her, then froze in place.
Ranma jerked as Nabiki's shock hit her. "Nabiki, what's wrong?" she demanded, looking all around for anything threatening coming at them, then relaxed as Nabiki's shock faded and transmuted into bemused joy.
"Nothing's wrong, Ranma, just a very pleasant surprise," Nabiki said, then felt back and sensed the imp creeping closer. "I'll tell you about it when we get to the dojo. You want to spend the night with me?" Nabiki felt Ranma's happy acceptance like sunlight on bare skin even as she heard Ranma's eager agreement and her smile stretched so wide it felt like her face would split. She was an empath, too! I can definitely get used to this, she thought, but simply said, "Good, that means tonight I get a good night's sleep."