"There's an opening for a waitress," Nabiki noted playfully, looking across the table at Ranma.
The black-haired martial artist looked up from his meditation with Midori to give his wife a hard look. She snickered at the response and looked back down into the paper and read a little further.
"Exotic uniforms," she said with a raising tone, twisting the knife a little deeper. "Right up your alley, Ranma-baby."
Ranma's mouth twitched briefly in response.
"Do you still have the bunny suit?" Nabiki asked.
"Bunny?" Midori asked suddenly, opening her eyes from the "meditation" she modeling off of her father's. "You have a bunny suit, Daddy?"
"No," Ranma said, finally. "That got left in Nerima."
Nabiki continued snickering as she sipped a cup of coffee and continued reading through the retail jobs.
"Awww," Midori said. "Can I have a bunny suit?"
Nabiki and Ranma's images of a "bunny suit" were extensively different from the fuzzy-soft cuteness that filled Midori's and her comment brought an immediate reaction.
Ranma fell backwards to the floor as Nabiki spit out the mouthful of coffee that she'd tried to swallow just a bit too quickly at her own surprise. Midori was up on her little feet and at Nabiki's side patting her firmly on the back in a moment.
"Are you okay, Mommy?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Nabiki said, coughing her throat clear of the rest. "Let me get a towel."
Ranma stood up, shaking his head and pulling the newspaper out from the spilled coffee in an attempt to save it. As he shook it out, he paused, seeing one of the advertisements hidden among the others.
"Here's one for security," he said.
"For what?" Nabiki asked while walking back from the kitchen, Midori following behind her.
"Looks like a club," he said. "The Lunar Pools."
"I didn't see that one," Nabiki said, uncertainly, moving from where she'd been cleaning the table to look at the newspaper. "I'm still having trouble seeing it."
The young goddess frowned as she focused and slowly, the ad came fading into view in a place she'd previously had thought to be just a wasted blanks space. As she looked closer, she noted a glowing series of symbols around the border of the small ad.
"What the heck?" she said. "It's…a magic ad?"
She reasoned quickly that the only reason she could see it now was a combination of Ranma's noticing it and her own magical nature as a goddess.
"Ooo!" Midori said, moving in between her parents to look at the paper. "Where is it? I don't see it."
Ranma frowned and crossed his arms, getting more than a little suspicious at this point. He looked towards the window and noted a pair of cats looking into the building. The fighter flinched briefly out of habit, but he hadn't been afraid of cats since his, what was the word Belldandy had used, deification?
He looked back down at the paper.
"I should at least check it out," the martial artist said. "See what's going on."
"Be careful," Nabiki said, she glanced at the rest of the paper and sighed.
"I want to see the magic ad," Midori said, bouncing up off her feet again.
"Here you go kiddo," Nabiki said, handing it down. "Right there."
"What, there's nothing there," Midori said, disappointed.
"That's the magic," Nabiki said. "Look hard."
"Look…hard?" the little goddess said, squinting almost painfully hard. "Ohhh! I think I see it, there are dancing little dots."
"Umm, you're looking too hard, Midori," Ranma said, sweating a little.
"Huh?" Midori said, confused.
"Try to concentrate on this spot and you'll see it," Nabiki said, pointing. "You don't need to squint your eyes into diamonds. That's how I saw it anyway."
Midori stared at the paper unblinking as she patted the little girl on the head and looked back up at Ranma, a bit seriously.
"Well, I saw it right away," Ranma said. "So, maybe I'm supposed to see it."
"That's sort of what worries me," Nabiki said. "Still…could be good."
"I SEE IT!" Midori said triumphantly.
"That's good, Midori," Ranma said smiling down at Midori as she pointed at the ad.
"Anyway, the rest of this paper is useless," Nabiki sighed. "I think I'll go look at the college and see about financial aid options."
"But aren't we getting classes from you know…" Ranma pointed up.
"Doesn't mean I can't look into things," Nabiki said. "Might be useful."
As they spoke, the door opened up and Ranma and Nabiki both silently turned away from the magic and gods-related discussion.
"What the hel….err…what's going on out there?" Megumi demanded as she came in, changing her wording as she noted Midori reading a coffee-soaked section of want ads.
"Out there?" Nabiki asked as she started walking to the door to see what Megumi was talking about. Glancing over her shoulder and seeing Ranma covering his face, she had a suspicion, which was confirmed as she opened the door.
Cats, cats and more cats. All over the yard and near the street.
"Ranma!" Nabiki called out. "The neighbors are here to talk to you."
Megumi looked over at Ranma, who was flushing bright red at this point. It was obvious that he knew what this was about, but the idea that Ranma could be responsible for a…pilgrimage of cats was…odd, to say the least.
"Cats like Daddy," Midori said.
"Anytime we're in the same place for more than a week or two," Nabiki called out. "They come out like groupies at an idol's hotel."
"Oh kay," Megumi said.
"Do you see the magic ad?" Midori asked then, pointing at the coffee-stained paper.
"Ummm, what?"
Tentatively, the martial artist started to walk to the front door, keeping to the side to stay out of eyesight of the visitors even though he could hear them all whispering at each other.
Nabiki stood at the doorway, waiting with an amused look on her face as Ranma crept to the edge of the door and peeked over the edge.
"For goodness sake," Nabiki said, grabbing the martial artist and pulling him into the doorway. "You don't suffer the neko-ken anymore!"
"That doesn't mean that this is my favorite thing," Ranma whispered through a toothy, nervous smile at the small host of cats. "Hey…"
There was a titanic simultaneous "meow" in response.
"Yeah," Ranma said. "There's…a lot of you…umm," Ranma fumbled with what to say.
"Is the registrar still open at the university?" Nabiki asked Megumi as Ranma was trying to be diplomatic in asking the cats to not congregate in huge numbers all the time.
"I think so, are you thinking of enrolling?" Megumi asked.
"Just checking on financial aid," Nabiki said. "Midori-chan, you want to come to the college with me?"
"Hai!" Midori said happily as she set down the coffee-soaked newspaper…or dropped rather.
Nabiki pointed at the paper and arched an eyebrow.
"Gomen, Mommy," Midori said, picking up the paper and setting it on the table.
"Okay," Nabiki said, leaning down to pick up the little girl. "Let's go!"
Carrying the three-year-old seeming child, Nabiki walked past her husband and then gingerly stepped through a small host of rather confused cats.
"So…you know, people kind look at…what I'm saying is…" Ranma was still fumbling over what to say.
"Just say, 'hello, nice to meet you and see you guys later'," Nabiki suggested.
"Umm…hello…nive to meet you all….see you guys later?" he tried.
The cats sort of glanced at each other and then meowed to each other a bit, talking over what Ranma had said for a bit. Talk of dinner time and "thank goodness he actually started making sense" came to the embarrassed martial artist's ears and then they started meowing at him again and slowly dispersing to their various haunts and homes.
"Okay, that worked," Ranma noted.
"Told you," Nabiki said cheerfully. "I'll be back in a little bit."
"Be careful," Ranma warned the two most important girls in his life.
"We're not going to apply for a security job," Nabiki reminded him playfully.
"You…talk to cats?" Megumi asked, coming up next to Ranma.
"Not willingly," he responded.
****
Nabiki was sitting and waiting for her turn to come up watching as Midori played around in front of her. She was watching the plastic flower display cautiously, real flowers had an uncanny way of appearing spontaneously from such displays when Midori was playing around.
"I don't know what's wrong…" the woman at the counter was saying to the student in front of her. "…the computer says you were granted financial aid."
"But, it's not in my account," the student said. "And I haven't gotten a check. My parents filled out those forms a month ago."
"The computer says that you have…" the woman said, shrugging helplessly.
Nabiki frowned as she watched and, looking again toward Midori, she walked to the counter as the conversation continued.
"Did you check the account the aid was sent to?" she asked.
"The account?" the woman asked.
"Are you thinking someone stole my money?" the student asked.
"You said your parents filled out the forms right?" Nabiki asked, as the woman started checking the account numbers and information.
"Oh, I see," the woman said. "She means that your money was sent to your parent's account. You'll have to speak to them for access."
"There you are," Nabiki said, smiling and turning back towards Midori, but stopped after a moment as she passed another table. "Ah, don't go for the Kyoto Loan…in your situation, I'd try the Shinano Grant, its more money and you invalidate yourself if you take the Kyoto."
"Umm, thank you," the student said, looking toward the financial aid worker helping her.
"No problem," Nabiki noted with a smile.
The Goddess of Provision turned again toward Midori and flinched as she noted that, yep, roses and daffodils were growing out of the fake display. Quick stepping her way over she bent down and smiled at Midori.
"Are you having fun?" she asked.
"Aren't the flowers pretty, Mommy?" she asked.
"Yeah, they are," Nabiki agreed. "Hey, why don't I read you a story while we wait."
"Hai!" the little girl said cheerfully.
Nabiki was leading Midori away from the suspiciously appeared flowers when she found herself nearly walking into a tall man staring at her curiously.
"Excuse me," he said. "Are you a student?"
"Well, I'm thinking about it," she said, picking up Midori cautiously. "As soon as I get a job."
"Would you mind working here?" the man asked hopefully.
Nabiki thought about it….briefly.
"I think I could do that," she said, nodding.
****
Ranma looked from the coffee-soaked slip of paper to the small collection of apartment buildings in front of him. They were fairly small, more a small collection of houses in wall than the towering apartment complexes he was familiar with. There was also a high wall around the small area and the gate to get inside.
Looking around, he walked to the small building marked as the office, he watched as a small family walked out of the gate. He paused as he turned to watch them, there was something…strange about them. And it wasn't something visible.
There was a husband, a wife and a ten-year old son. All of them looked like nothing special on the surface. Something, however, told him there was more to them than there seemed.
Thinking back, he remembered how Nabiki had seen the hidden ad after he'd told it was there. She said that she'd concentrated on the spot he'd shown her and it eventually showed itself.
Concentration and focus was something Ranma understood, especially after the Hiryu Shoten Ha training.
Slowly, the fox-tails came into view. Three of them, two on the woman and one on the boy.
Kitsune?
Now a little more curious, Ranma scanned about the grounds and found a woman in a swimming suit with a shark swimming around her. Further on, he saw man getting mail who had, to Ranma's focusing eyes, a wolfish face and thick fur coat. Next, practicing yoga in front of one of the town-houses, was a red-skinned young-woman in modest exercise wear that belied her horns and tail.
Ranma frowned and walked into the office.
Sure enough, the entire staff inside appeared to have those second images.
"Yes, may I help you?" the grey-skinned woman in front of Ranma asked cheerfully.
"I was answering the ad for a security guard," Ranma noted.
"Oh?" the secretary asked, surprised. "One moment please."
The grey-woman stood up and walked to a door on the far wall and knocked politely.
"What is it?" a woman's voice asked from inside. Ranma was certain he heard a hiss in the voice.
"There's someone hear about the job," the secretary noted.
"Show them in," the woman inside noted.
"You may go in now," the grey woman said, opening the door for Ranma.
The woman he saw behind the next door had greenish look to her and, to Ranma's eyes, a long serpentile body extending from behind the desk she sat behind. The martial artist figured, however, that physically she had a pair of lags, though.
The woman looked up at him and frowned in confusion.
"You came about the security job?" she asked, doubtfully, looking him over.
"I'm tougher than I look," Ranma said, used to the reaction some people had to his youth.
"I'm sure you are," the snake-woman said. "But that is not the issue. The majority of our tenants come from a certain…type of person, and I'm not sure you'd fit in. I'm really not sure how you got here, the ad should have dissuaded…inappropriate individuals."
Ranma frowned at the rather blatant prejudice and was on the verge of commenting on that, but stopped and thought things through for a moment. Something he'd started working on since spending so much time with Nabiki.
"Oh, I know what's going on here," he said. "I have a jusenkyo curse. Had, I control it now."
The woman looked at him blankly, obviously wondering what he was talking about.
"It's uh…" Ranma paused and sighed. "Let me just show you."
The woman quietly gestured for him to go on with it, obviously a bit disappointed and uncertain of what was going on with this person. As Ranma shifted from a tall, black-haired young man into a short, red-haired young woman, her eyes widened as she watched.
"Well…th…that explains how you saw the advertisement," she said, surprised. "But how did you know what sort of place this was?"
"Umm," the God of Change said. "I just…saw the kitsune family and the daemon-girl and the werewolf…and you and the secretary…and…I just have a, umm, sense about…umm…changes."
"Well," the woman said sitting up and taking the interview suddenly much more seriously. "I apologize, let's get on to discussing the job then. Can I have your qualifications?"