The original form of this chapter was written by Bastet's Chosen and Doronron and posted at Anime Addventures for anyone who pleased to add to.
I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi.
Popular culture is filled with stories as to what happens when a careless summoner flubs her invocation. Contrary to popular belief, the nearest Prince of Hell does not use the open-ended summoning as an excuse to enter the world and bring forth destruction. Unfortunately, the summoner usually ends up dead anyway.
While a summoner that mispronounces a name may well end up with some other demon or nature spirit with the name given, most incorrectly performed summonings will instead call the supernatural creature that is spiritually closest to the summoner. While for some luck people this may be an imp or a dryad, most are not so lucky.
Any creature under contractual obligation to the summoner has the strongest ties, the exact strength varying by contract. As many summoners prefer to banish demons before paying them, such a summoning is usually fatal. The next strongest tie is that of death. A demon that killed an ancestor or fellow apprentice of the summoner's master would have such a bond. Other bonds likely exist, but those who found the bodies were unable to ascertain the relation between the deceased and the demon that killed them.
As one cannot know what promises have been made on one's behalf by parents, distant ancestors, or masters, it is impossible to anticipate what will respond to an open summoning. The only way to be absolutely certain is to marry, or promise to marry a spiritual creature, binding it closer to yourself than any other could become. While this course of action does reduce the danger of open summonings, it is not undertaken lightly. Marriage or promises of marriage, once invoked by magical act, are difficult to break. It is almost as if there were some ultimate spiritual force that seeks their enforcement.
From How to Survive Your First Year as a Summoner
Blackmail was so easy now. Since Nabiki began using demons to spy for her, the money had come rolling in. Originally she had used nature spirits, but they often wanted to be paid in labor — cleaning parks, mulching shrubs, etc. — while the imps she summoned only insisted she actually use the information to blackmail people. Apparently evil was its own reward.
Nabiki had no intention of losing her soul to demons; she was smart. She only summoned imps, and only to observe targets. Spirit summoning played no part in enforcement. Nabiki had also found ways of reducing the risks of the summoning itself. Magic circles still had to be drawn in chalk dust, but Nabiki glued those circles to sheets of paper, eliminating any chance that a stray step or errant wind could destroy its protection. Nabiki didn't take chances.
It was a pity that she could not have anticipated that a fragment of a cinder block her young sister destroyed acquired enough energy to fly out of the dojo, through the kitchen window (where she'd decided to perform the summoning to enjoy the scent of the flowers just outside, while her sister was shopping), and strike her on the face. It was even more unfortunate that Nabiki had been in the middle of summoning an imp, and the sudden blow made her pause mid-syllable. It was the utmost bad luck that the fragment rebounded off Nabiki's face and through the paper she'd draw her circle on, destroying one of the myriad lines that protected her from whatever appeared inside.
Staring at the tiny shard that most likely had killed her, Nabiki vowed that she would somehow take Akane with her.
At this point Nabiki's bad luck ran out. Instead of a hideous demon out to devour her body and drag her soul off to hell, a busty redheaded nature spirit appeared. Things were looking up immeasurable, she might only end up dead.
"What happened? Where the hell is this?" the redhead asked, settling into a ready stance familiar to anyone that had practiced martial arts — which looked a bit odd, considering she was bobbing in the air.
"Who are you?" Nabiki asked. She doubted the nature spirit would give her true name, but if she was lucky it would help her to research exactly how this spirit was connected to her. If she was unlucky, she'd recognize the name right off, just before she was punished for speaking to one of the beings whose names she knew right off.
"Don't freak out," the spirit said, "I'm not a ghost or anything like that."
"Of course not," Nabiki said. This was good; the spirit appeared to be friendly towards humans. "You're a nature spirit, and from your human shape, probably represent an emotion or other thing associated with man."
"Ah! You can see me?" the spirit yelled. "I'm naked!" The spirit moved to cover her groin
"Of course you're naked," Nabiki said with a touch of exasperation, "you're a nature spirit." This was wonderful! The spirit didn't even know about summoners if she thought Nabiki shouldn't be able to see her. Nabiki would just claim ignorance of how the spirit got there and hopefully get out of all this scot free.
"No I'm not!" the spirit protested. "I mean, I am, but not really. Pop threw me into a stupid cursed pool, and now I turn into this when splashed with cold water. I'm Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome school of martial arts, and if you get me some hot water, I can turn back."
This was just too rich. The summoning circle had been placed in the middle of the room, allowing Nabiki to maneuver if she needed. Now she was circling her new acquisition. The nature spirit, Ranma, it called itself, turned with her, trying to keep Nabiki in sight. Nabiki smirked as the spirit continued to maintain her useless stance even as she bobbed around in a circle.
"Well?" the nature spirit asked, exasperated.
Nabiki hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter and placed her chin in her hand. Her smirk grew, just a little.
"So, you're a normal human?"
"That's what I've been telling you!"
"Then how do you explain my summoning you? This only works on demons and spirits, you know."
The busty redhead nervously looked down at the circle. "No. That's not possible! I'm human!" she blubbered. She looked up to Nabiki with pleading eyes. "Get me hot water. I'll prove it to you! I can't be some female ghost permanently!"
"You big baby!" Nabiki hopped down and turned to open a cabinet for a glass. "Fine! I'll get you your glass of water."
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank — OWW!" Nabiki spun in time to see the redhead suck on her fingers.
"You tried to leave the circle, didn't you?"
"Umm ... yes?"
"How do we know if a glass of water will work?" Nabiki leaned against the counter.
"Just get it!" Ranma yelled.
Nabiki shrugged, "Think about it. I was able to summon you. You can't pass through the barriers of the circle without my permission. Only humans can. If you're really cursed as you say you are, just about anything could happen if I splash you with hot water." Hook ...
"Get me the water, please!" Ranma begged.
Nabiki locked eyes with the redhead. "Are you really sure you want to risk it?" Line ...
"Yes!"
"Okay, then. First we have to make a deal." And Sinker ...
"What!?" Ranma howled?
"How do I know you're not lying? How do I know you're not some foul creature from beyond looking for a light snack? Before I help you, you will promise me—"
"Anything!" Ranma cried.
"I wasn't finished yet!" snapped Nabiki, "Will you promise that you will do as I ask and never let any harm come to me, by your hand or any other's?"
"Yes! Just make me be human again! Besides, it's a martial artist's duty to protect the weak."
Nabiki smiled as sweetly as she could, causing a cold shiver to run up the redhead's spine. "I'll get you your water," Nabiki said.
Did it suddenly just get a little cold in here? A quick check of the nature spirit's breasts let Nabiki know the redhead was most certainly feeling it, too. To hide her rising blush, Nabiki spun on her heels, and opened the cabinet again to grab a glass, then filled it with hot water from the tap. If that didn't prove hot enough, well, she'd have to boil some water. She'd fulfill her part of the contract for sure, then — water just didn't get hotter than that. "Here you are," Nabiki said. Since the rip in the circle might be repaired, Nabiki didn't want to drench it beyond saving. She reached inside, grabbed Ranma's hand, and pulled the spirit out through the hole her sister had inadvertently made in her protection.
"Hey! You mean I could have gotten out at any time?" Ranma demanded, hands on her hips.
"Looks like it," Nabiki agreed sweetly, keeping her eyes fixed on the spirit's face. Well, mostly.
"Great," Ranma grumbled, "so pour it."
Nabiki tipped the glass over the nature spirit's head, and suddenly she was the only occupant of the room.
"How did she manage that?" Nabiki asked herself. Theoretically, since she hadn't ordered Ranma to remain there, the spirit could leave whenever she wanted to. Practically, Nabiki had never heard of a spirit teleporting like that. Well, there was a simple solution to this. Nabiki fixed the tear in her summoning circle and set to work.
Three tries later, she gave up. This was very frustrating; she was unable to compel Ranma's presence. That meant that 'Ranma' couldn't be the spirit's true name. Spirits normally gave out use names, but this one had been so naïve that Nabiki was a little surprised she'd used even that much caution. More ominously, it had to mean that their contract was not in effect. A spirit summons implied an order; while a spirit summoned by a use name could choose to decline the invitation, it still knew it was being summoned and by whom. If Ranma was under contract and got her summons, then she should have gone along with it.
What could have voided the contract? Nabiki brought the hot water and, damn! The spirit insisted on Nabiki making her human. Worrisomely, Nabiki couldn't recall the exact wording the spirit had used. There were at least two possible flaws in the contract. It might be impossible for Nabiki to turn Ranma human, thus preventing the contract from forming in the first place. Alternately, Ranma's wording might have implied that the contract only began once she was human, and Ranma was under no obligation to allow Nabiki to perform that transformation, assuming she could find out how. That was subtle, very subtle of the spirit. Perhaps it was best she got away after all. A tricky spirit could find ways around even the best written contracts, and Nabiki really didn't need to deal with that sort of creature.
The duration clause is one of the more controversial parts of summoning contracts. Some feel one should never be added, that spirits should be forced to return to their homes when the summoning ends. This provides safety in case of a poorly worded contract; keeps the rest of the world safe should a spirit slay their summoner, and gives the spirit less time to think of ways to subvert the contract it is bound by. Proponents of the clause note that many tasks take more time than even the best summonings force a spirit to remain. Two different camps offer two different answers to the other's objections. The first line of thought is that those concerns are far less important when summoning nature spirits and doing a little work is a fair price not to worry about such things. The other camp says that if they die, they don't really care about what happens to the rest of the world.
When used, a duration clause changes the nature of a spirit's stay within our realm (or that part of the realm, for nature spirits). The spirit's true location ceases to be where it was summoned from and becomes the place it was summoned to. Essentially, the spirit can no longer be considered summoned. To compensate for this, most duration clauses include conditions (sometime several) under which the spirit must return to where it was summoned from, often in the form of time limits, completion of a task, or a command by the summoner. Even without these conditions, a dismissal ritual will send the spirit back. Note that unlike demons, many nature spirits consider this a favor, as traveling back to their preferred location under their own power could take some time.
From Common Spiritual Contracts
Nabiki frowned. She'd heard rumors about this sort of thing, but never really expected it to happen to her. The redheaded nature spirit had decided to 'play' with her. At first, Nabiki just thought it was bad luck. A book falling onto the summoning circle at the wrong time, startling her in mid-chant. Saliva getting into her lungs, making her cough at the wrong time. It could have been luck. A number of her summonings went off without a hitch. Only occasionally did Ranma appear, walk out of the inevitable break in Nabiki's protections, and ask for hot water. Nabiki didn't like that she tended to get flustered those times, but mistakes in these rituals were the sort of things that made you nervous — and for good reason. She didn't want to find out what Ranma could do when upset, and as the water seemed to dismiss the spirit, Nabiki had complied each time.
Her second rationalization had been carelessness. Let's face it, when the consequences of getting a ritual wrong were no longer a painful death but instead a cute redhead with a thing for hot water, you weren't quite as careful about dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's. However, no matter how careful she was, Nabiki kept on making mistakes. It had to be Ranma teasing her.
Well, she'd see about that. Nabiki was prepared this time. Instead of the normal paper base, Nabiki had started this circle with a plywood platform. Two different protective circles had been carved into it, filled with the appropriate powders, then sealed with shellac. This spate of problems went a long way to show Nabiki why stone floors with protective circles etched into them and filled with metal was considered the optimum setup. Still, this was the best Nabiki could manage, and to use it she'd have to take over the dojo.
Nabiki was tired of this. She would start using the smaller, inner circle from now on. If Ranma ended up appearing, hopefully the outer circle would still hold the redhead. Nabiki would offer a bribe to be left alone and, after mulching a park or something like that, would hopefully be back in top form.
/\
Ranma had gotten pretty inured to his curse. Being invisible was great for surprise, as was attacking through solid objects. Weapons were really useless against him as a ghost. The temperature didn't bother him, and he didn't get hungry, which was good, because his fat slob of a father figured out that splashing him was a good way to keep him from getting at the food. Sure, there were problems. He still slipped through the floor of buildings at times, and even diligent practice hadn't raised his flying speed. Seeing everyone pretty much naked sucked, but he'd gotten used to it. Even turning into a girl wasn't so bad since nobody could see him.
Well, there was that one girl, but she was nice. Nabiki didn't hit him or yell at him, even though he was always naked and could see her naked. She always stopped whatever it was she was doing and got him hot water. Ranma had gotten to like their little visits, even if he had no idea what caused them. Nabiki was a lot nicer to look at than his Pop and the Guide. Also, seeing Nabiki meant he'd get hot water, something his father rarely could find in the middle of the Chinese wilderness, except at the end of the day, and there were serious advantages to sleeping as a ghost, not the least of which was his father having to find him to start training each morning.
So, when Ranma felt that little tug that meant she'd be visiting Nabiki again, she'd say something like "See if I talk to you again, Old Man." Pop never figured out that Ranma was sometimes gone; Ranma started throwing in comments like that to explain her sudden silences. Not that he thought the idiot would figure it out; the dumbass still hadn't realized why his panda body insisted on squatting to take a leak.
When the world faded in around her again, Ranma didn't see the bedroom she expected. Instead, she was inside a dojo, floating over a big piece of wood with a crack in it. Nabiki was stomping on some bugs, muttering under her breath. "Hi again," Ranma said cheerfully. She could see a bunch of the bugs inside the wood. "Want some help?"
"No," Nabiki sighed, "just a little frustrated with the termites." The girl straightened her shoulders, which did interesting things to her breasts, then continued. "Look, Ranma, this has been happening a lot. Each time it does, you ask for hot water, then leave. What else is it that you want from me?"
Ranma blinked. What did she mean? Of course she just wanted hot water; she'd never asked for anything else. Was she asking why it was happening? No, she asked about what she wanted since she came over so much...
Of course! Nabiki wanted to know if she was just using her for the water, like her stupid father would do. She didn't mean what did she want like what could she get for her, she meant what did she want between them! "I want to be friends," Ranma replied.
The answer was nothing like Nabiki expected. Could that have been it? Ranma hadn't been taunting her, but trying to show that, even when she held every advantage, she wasn't hostile? Had Ranma been, well, courting her? Courting her friendship, of course. It made a certain amount of sense. Having a spirit as a friend would be extremely helpful. Nabiki wouldn't have to worry about proper contracts at all when dealing with Ranma. On the other hand, betraying that friendship could have severe consequences. Nabiki didn't have friends, not since they all turned on her in middle school. People turned on you or let you down. Still, Ranma wouldn't think Nabiki was strange, or a freak, and there was no crowd of other girls to poison Ranma's friendliness. Besides, they could always invoke a contract to ensure they'd remain friends...
"I'd like that," Nabiki answered.
/\
Well, what did you talk about with a spirit you'd just agreed to befriend? For that matter, what did you talk about with anyone you'd just resolved to befriend? Small talk would work until Nabiki could think up something better to talk about. Let's see, 'nice breasts you've got there; your nipples crinkle so attractively' probably won't go over well. Ranma wasn't from around here, so the weather was out. How about ...
"I'll show you around the house," Nabiki offered, standing on one of the inner circle's lines. Ranma nodded and floated through the gap in the barrier. "This is our dojo. Dad doesn't really keep up with his training anymore, so Akane's the only one who really uses it. Normally I summon spirits in my room, but I needed the extra space for this one."
"Who's Akane?" Ranma asked.
"She's my younger sister," Nabiki replied briefly. She'd rather not talk about Akane with a new friend.
"What's it like?" Ranma asked. "I don't got any sisters or brothers. At least, none I know about."
"Be glad," Nabiki answered. Fine, they'd talk about Akane. Everyone wanted to talk about Akane. Well, maybe Ranma was more curious what a sibling was like than Akane herself. "Akane's my younger sister and the baby of the family; everything she wants, she gets. When Mom died, Dad focused on Akane. We're pretty well off, so he stopped working and just trained her all the time. Of course, with only investments bringing in money, sacrifices had to be made. So I ended up wearing hand-me-downs and Kasumi started making her own clothes. Akane still got new clothes, of course. When my birthday came around, I got a cake for a present. Akane got whatever toys she wanted for her birthday, of course. Hell, she got whatever toy she wanted when it wasn't her birthday.
"She always has to be right. When we were little, she'd run to Daddy and he'd always take her side, just because she's younger. When she got good at martial arts, Akane started threatening to hit me if she didn't like what I was saying or if I proved her wrong. She's good looking and everyone likes her and she expects everything to just fall into her lap. And it usually does, courtesy of Dad or one of her admirers."
"I think I know the type," Ranma said. "Always focused on themselves and what they can get."
"Not really," Nabiki admitted. Her sister wasn't some sort of paradigm of selfishness, after all. "She can be nice to people; it's just that she thinks she's the center of the universe and entitled to everything." Wait, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense. "It's hard to explain," Nabiki admitted.
"Okay," Ranma cheerfully agreed. "I know you're wrong about at least one thing," she added.
"What?" Nabiki asked.
"Well," Ranma responded, "people aren't doing stuff for her 'cause she's pretty, because there's no way she's better looking than you."
Ranma smiled. There, that cheered Nabiki up; girls always liked being told they're pretty. Besides, Nabiki was good looking in a way that would have really made Ranma nervous before she got used to seeing everyone nude.
It took a few moments for Nabiki to speak again. "Well, you haven't seen my sister yet," she eventually said.
Ranma shrugged; what did that have to do with anything?
"I'll show you around the rest of the house," Nabiki continued. It was only when she stepped on another line that Ranma realized they were inside a big magic circle. Nabiki obviously was worried that whatever she was doing might hurt others, so she put the second circle in. That was really nice of her; she just hoped that her new friend didn't have to do dangerous stuff like that a lot.
"Now, I can't keep talking to you if someone's in the room," Nabiki warned, "so you'll just have to wait for me to talk about it once we're alone again." Nabiki showed him the yard, main room, and the ofuro before they encountered her older sister in the kitchen. Nabiki grabbed an apple, then led Ranma upstairs to her room. "That was Kasumi, my older sister," Nabiki explained, sitting on the western style bed.
"So she has to put up with Akane, too," Ranma joked.
"Yeah," Nabiki replied, "but I don't think she minds it. Kasumi took over all the cleaning and cooking after Mom died."
There was the death of her mother, again. Ranma didn't want to push on a sensitive subject. Sure, his mom was gone, too, but that happen before he could remember and if she told Nabiki that, she might think she was saying she should be grateful for the time they had together. Which she should, of course, but getting lectured sucked and she wasn't going to do that to her new friend. "So Kasumi took over being mom?" she asked.
"Pretty much," Nabiki confirmed. "I used to get so angry at her because she could make anyone do whatever she wanted, even me. Then one day, I figured out that Kasumi doesn't make you do anything. She just assumes you're going to do it, and most people won't disagree with her. Then, if you argue with Kasumi, she talks about how you've disappointed her and puts you in the wrong. I've figured out that you should just not do whatever Kasumi suggests then zone out on the guilt lecture you get afterwards."
"That never worked for me," Ranma muttered. His father would just attack as soon as Ranma became inattentive.
"Well, I bet your sensei is willing to pound on you," Nabiki offered. "Kasumi just wrings her hands ineffectually. So what about you?" She'd been doing most of the talking, after all. What was Ranma's life like? What did she like, what did she hate, what was her favorite color?
"Well," Ranma responded, "I've been wandering around the world with my Pop for as long as I can remember. We go to dojos and training grounds, learning the Art. That's about it, really. Pops is lazy and selfish, but he knows his martial arts."
Well, that was pretty uninformative. It didn't even let Nabiki know something new about the origins of spirits! Ranma father could be an actual father, an asexual parent that budded Ranma, or even just an unrelated spirit that was a mentor to Ranma like a father. The rest of the conversation was about various places Ranma had visited. The redhead had been all over Japan, and Nabiki enjoyed hearing about some of the out of the way training grounds she'd been to. Eventually, Ranma asked for hot water, and after Nabiki pointed out she could use the furo, the spirit left. Actually, it was a pretty good thing that hot water dismissed Ranma, even if the girl thought of it as a curse. Nabiki had used the strongest summoning spell she knew, one that she didn't have a dismissal ritual worked out for. Ranma would have been stuck with Nabiki for a week without that little quirk.
/oOo\
Nabiki was eating lunch with her family when Ranma abruptly returned. One second Nabiki was reaching for the tempura, the next moment Ranma was in the middle of the table and Nabiki's hand was full of the spirit's breast. Nabiki froze, unsure of what was going on. Ranma managed to swallow whatever response had almost been startled out of her, and shot up to the ceiling.
"... so Yuka needs to do better on the next test or her mom will ground her," Akane continued, unaware of the family's sudden visitor, "and I promised to help her study. She needs me to help her. Can't I stay over for dinner?"
"I though you were mad at Yuka," Nabiki commented, reaching again for the tempura now that Ranma was out of the way.
"That was about clothes," Akane explained. "This is important."
"I suppose it's okay," Soun said. "Just be back by ten."
Nabiki tuned out her father as he went on about an old friend and how they helped each other. She quickly finished the meal, keeping an eye on Ranma out of the corner of her eye as the redhead circled around the youngest sister. Of course Ranma wanted to look at Akane. Nabiki rose and walked back to her room, smiling to herself when Ranma followed. Nabiki was about to ask the spirit what she was doing here, when Ranma spoke.
"She's not better looking, you know."
"What?" Nabiki asked.
"Your sister," Ranma replied. "You're better looking than her. I mean, you've got bigger boobs and a nicer face and she's concentrated so much on strength training that her muscles are kinda bulky, not nice and toned like yours. Besides, I like short hair."
Nabiki blinked. She hadn't expected Ranma to suddenly come back and compliment her looks, especially not with such a blunt compliment. Well, seeing through everyone's clothes probably made one very comfortable with people's bodies. She smiled suddenly, that meant that Ranma's interest in Akane wasn't admiration; Ranma had been critiquing her sister!
"Well, I doubt you came here to explain how I'm the best looking of my family," Nabiki said warmly.
"Nah," Ranma answered, "I just noticed it when I remembered what you said before while I was waiting for you to finish. I don't know why I'm here."
"You don't know?" Nabiki asked, worried. Unexplained supernatural events rarely had positive outcomes, and Nabiki had already beat the odds once with Ranma's first appearance.
"Nope," Ranma replied, far too calm. "I just got splashed with cold water again, my curse activated like normal, and suddenly I was pulled here."
"And you've never been summoned when uncursed?" Nabiki asked.
"Nope." Nabiki started to have an idea of what might be going on, but it would be pretty fantastic.
"If you don't mind answering, what kind of spirit are you?" Nabiki asked.
"I don't know; I haven't been one very long," Ranma answered. Well, that confirmed it. Ranma was a young nature spirit, probably the youngest she'd ever summoned — they always knew what they were, at least. Young spirits must have a natural immunity to summoning, and either a real curse, or natural maturation, removed the redhead's immunity when exposed to cold water.
"I think I know what happened," Nabiki said, talking aloud as she reasoned. "When you're not cursed, you're immune to summons; when you're splashed, you're not. Before, I used short-term summons, so they wore out before you got splashed again. But I used a week-long ritual last time, so when your immunity is removed again you return to my side."
"So I'll come back here whenever I get wet this week?" Ranma asked.
"Yes," Nabiki admitted weakly.
"Cool!" Ranma's exclamation was not what Nabiki expected. "Whenever Pop gets all windbaggy I can say 'bye old man, I'm visiting someone interesting'."
"I'm glad you don't mind my little mistake," Nabiki said.
"Mind? If this week is nice, I might ask you to do it again."
/oOo\
"Forget it Old Man," Ranma said, upending a glass of water over his head. He immediately changed genders and the world changed around her. Ranma wasn't the one who agreed to fix that furnace, and she wasn't going to let the Old Man get her to do it.
When the world cleared around her, she was in a classroom. Some teacher was droning on in front of the class, and Nabiki was taking notes. When she didn't immediately notice Ranma's presence, she floated in front of the girl. Nabiki paused in her note taking for a second, then continued on, shooting Ranma a glance that she was pretty sure meant something. What it meant, Ranma had no idea.
Ranma had no interest in math, but she floated up near the ceiling, hoping the class would end soon. No such luck. She then investigated the other classrooms, but, unsurprisingly, all the teachers at the school were boring, too. Ranma returned to Nabiki's class. At first, she just made bunny-ears behind the teacher's head. It got no response from Nabiki. Ranma then floated behind the teacher, pretending to speak. Ranma wasn't sure, but Nabiki might have smiled. That kept Ranma amused for a couple minutes, but she got bored again. She didn't come here for school; even fixing that furnace would have been better than school. Ranma wanted to talk with Nabiki, and she was barely reacting to Ranma. Well, she could change that.
Ranma floated near Nabiki's foot. She reached through the floor and slippers and began to tickle the bottom of Nabiki's feet. For half a minute, Ranma thought that Nabiki wasn't even ticklish, but then the girl twitched a little. That was all the encouragement Ranma needed. She began to tickle Nabiki all over her body, but Nabiki clamped her arms to her sides and the soles of her feet to each other, not giving Ranma easy targets. Well, Ranma would show her!
/\
Nabiki was surprised to see Ranma in class, and tried to warn the redhead not to cause a scene. Things had been fine, amusing even, when Ranma was exploring or mocking the teacher, but now the nature spirit was out of control! Nabiki did her best not to laugh at Ranma's assault, and managed to deny her the easy tickle spots just in time. Once Nabiki really got started, she became ticklish all over her body; when they were very young, Kasumi had taken merciless advantage of this weakness.
Then Ranma started tickling the spot where her butt met her leg. Another hand started in on Nabiki's ribs. It wasn't long before Nabiki began twitching, then finally convulsing. It was all she could do to keep the laughter in check. Nabiki's wiggling displaced Ranma's hands, but that just made things worse. Ranma was lightly stroking her crotch and breasts, and it felt nice but she was a girl and it was still tickling which was horrible and if Ranma didn't stop she was going to pee in front of all her classmates...
As the school nurse rushed in, Ranma finally let up. Nabiki managed to regain control of herself as the nurse helped her to her feet. As they walked to the infirmary Nabiki explained that she had never suffered fits before. Ranma trailed along, looking contrite. Eventually the nurse let Nabiki go after a promise to consult their doctor about epilepsy. Nabiki quickly made her way to the roof.
"Never do that again!" Nabiki shouted as so as the door closed behind them
"Sorry," Ranma muttered.
"Don't be sorry; don't do it again."
"I was bored."
"So you decided I needed to look like a medical emergency?"
"I was just teasing."
"Look," Nabiki said with a sigh. "If we're going to be friends, that means we don't screw with each other, got it?"
"I ..." Ranma paused a moment, then continued, "I didn't think it would be so bad. I got kinda carried away." Nabiki stared at the spirit. She was looking at the ground, even twisting her foot nervously. Well, if Nabiki was right, Ranma wasn't especially old.
"Fine," Nabiki relented. "I've got the rest of the day off, what do you want to do?"
/oOo\
When night caught the Saotomes, they were between towns. As the weather looked clear, they ate some dinner, made camp, and went to sleep. A few hours later, a brief misting of rain fell. It wasn't much moisture, but it was enough to activate their curses. Ranma disappeared from the Chinese countryside and reappeared, still asleep, next to Nabiki. In her bed.
Neither girl awoke. Soon, without the grass under her, Ranma began to sink through the bed. Subconsciously she reached out and wrapped herself around the only thing she could use to keep from sinking further: Nabiki.
Another big chapter, and one that finishes up almost all the material that wasn't mine to begin with. This one did have some modifications beyond the usual spelling/grammar, because when Bastet's Chosen wrote the episode for Ranma's first summoning he didn't consult a blueprint—Nabiki's bedroom is not only on the second floor, it's on the opposite side of the house from the dojo. Makes it a bit tough for Akane's brick-breaking in the dojo to send a shard through her window, so I shifted the action to the kitchen. I also eliminated a reference to Shampoo attacking Ranma and Genma during their flight from China, since later I have the two escape without seeing another Amazon until Nerima.