Chapter 5: The Last Act

Tomo sat on the floor of the bathroom breathing hard. Above him was a sink full of extremely cold water that he had nearly drowned himself it. He was young, but not that young - he knew where kits came from. He had seen many different species coupling (including his own), and he knew how the mechanics worked. He even understood the emotions (and hormones) that fed into it. There were young vixens that he was attracted to and even some young humans (he happened to think Ranma was a lucky man). However, what was happening with the "lap dances" occurring in the club room was causing his brain to short out.

"Cripes! Only humans could take something as simple and natural as sex and crank it up!" the little Kitsune thought with exasperation.

Takara stayed with the trio through the lap dances, sitting sedately on Mousse's lap. Every now and then, one of the Bachelor Party members would glance at the brothers and decide that there was enough "action" at the table (the attention spans of the troublemakers were short for obvious reasons). Because the sound system speakers were a little distance away, the four were able to talk with only a small amount of shouting. Takara was amused to see that she had correctly guessed their ages and admitted to only being three years older. She was also amused by their edited stories of the Bachelor Party so far (the young men left out some of the more mystical references).

"Do you know what will happen after here?" she asked curiously.

"Yes," answered Ranma, "And we plan to stay in the lobby with the more sane people, drink cola and eat bar food."

"It will have a lobby?" she asked again. "And colas?"

"This one will," Mousse said confidently. "It will also have sake for those that want it."

"Interesting…" she said speculatively. "You're not school kids then …" she added prompting them.

"I am," Ranma admitted. "But I'm also trying to start a dojo with my partners and I work a few hours a week at a medical clinic with my brother. Ryoga works on a farm raising livestock and crops with his partner…"

"Soon-to-be partner," Ryoga cut in. "I should have the money together to buy my share before Akari and I get married."

"And Mousse is a waiter and an apprentice chef," Ranma finished

The other two nodded their heads in agreement, but Ryoga also added: "Apprentice chef and soon to be full- time chef." Ranma nodded his head at the qualification.

"We've all done an unhealthy amount of traveling too," Mousse supplied. "Those two more than me."

Ryoga gave a little snort. "Says the man who spent time with a traveling circus as the magician," he drawled.

"Carnival, not circus," Mousse corrected firmly.

Takara's eyes became very wide. "Really?" she asked while looking at Mousse and sounding much younger.

Ryoga smirked as Ranma leaned forwarded and tapped the table. "C'mon, do some tricks for the nice lady. She's bailing us out of a bad situation," Ranma urged.

Mousse threw a dark look at Ranma and Ryoga, but smiled for Takara and put on his 'carnie' persona. He then proceeded to produce a deck of cards and ran through some standard tricks. He also made a small ball with some jacks appear/disappear and drew lines on the table cloth (which was actually paper) without a pen or pencil. He was forced to do all the tricks one-handed as his other arm was about Takara's waist and she wouldn't let him have it back.

Finally, a bouncer came over to the table and said firmly: "Sorry gang, but you have to wrap things up. This is the last song. Give the little lady her money and let her go." There was no warning in his voice; the man was just stating a fact as he had decided that the young men were not a problem.

Takara threw a pout at the bouncer, but the trio just nodded their heads. Takara then resumed her flirty personality and forced Mousse to give her the 7500 yen by having him roll it up and insert it between her breasts (she had placed her hands about his back neck again). The Chinese gentleman's face became extremely red (much to Ranma's and Ryoga's enjoyment) as he accomplished the task without actually touching Takara's chest. Takara then cooed at Mousse until he wrote his phone number on her upper arm – she teased him about his choice of location when other attributes were readily available. Ranma made sure the number was correct (it was). Finally, she gave Mousse her number on a card the bouncer supplied.

Takara looked at the bouncer and gestured for the man to turn around. The bouncer smirked and did so. Takara tightened her grip and gave Mousse an extremely solid kiss. Then she got up, kissed Ranma and Ryoga on their foreheads and tapped the bouncer on the shoulder to tell the man she was done. The bouncer nodded to her as she left down a side hallway, nodded to the trio, and went back to his station.

Ranma turned to Mousse and said: "If you used disappearing ink on her arm, I will kill you." Mousse just shook his head.

"If you don't call her, you're already dead and there's no hope for you," Ryoga added.

"No fear," was all Mousse said as he put her number away carefully.

True to the bouncer's word, the lap dancers strolled back on the stage to a departing song, stripped out of their tops and bottoms without turning around, threw the items into the crowd, and strutted off the stage. All three lads let out a breath as the house lights came on and the Emcee announced last call for drinks. Hideo and Tofu both got up from their table and looked over at the trio who returned 'thumbs up' signs.

After a restroom break, the three young men sat down again and the bouncer came back to ask if they wanted any last beer or sodas. "One the lap dancers start, the waitresses are done – they don't get hazard pay," he explained. The young men saw that all the bouncers were taking last orders.

"You have sodas?" Ryoga asked.

"No, but the employee lounge does, and people who behave themselves get perks – this applies anywhere you go. If you have 100 yen on you, I'll get you a soda." Mousse quickly found three 100 yen coins. "Back in a second," the bouncer told them.

Ojima sat down again and surveyed the room. He was the last one back to the table. The three boys were at their table sipping bottles of cola. "Now, where did they get those from?" he wondered. He was also surprised that they seemed so at ease; he would have bet any amount of money that they would have to be carried out of here in shock. Any time he glanced their way, there had been a woman at their table. He knew the mercenaries would have sent dancers their way to see how the lads handled the situation – alcohol was one thing, women were another.

"They did better than I did," he thought ruefully. As a policeman, he had seen the worst humanity did to each other, but this hadn't been the horror show he had been expecting (or had seen in the past). He had half-expected that he'd need to call a raid in, but the bouncers kept everything in line – you paid them a fixed amount for a lap dance and they stayed with you as a young woman came over. You were told upfront what the boundaries were. You crossed them and the bouncers ended the dance then and there and chucked you out. Several people were missing from the room – but none from the Bachelor party.

"I'm actually disappointed I didn't see anything illegal," he finally decided. "I saw a whole bunch of men having a rowdy and immoral time – just not illegal. And I'm disappointed that I could not join them either." A couple of the men had bought lap dances for him (he'd have to get even with Mausu), but he could not relax. The women had done everything they could, but they eventually gave up. One woman went so far as to tell the bouncer to return the money – that had been the last attempt; the bouncers refused to place him in the queue after that.

"I've spent too long outside the crowd," he thought. "I don't fit in, even with the Sight shut down."

"Are you all right?" Tofu asked.

The Inspector straightened up immediately – last thing he was going to do was bring the guest-of-honor down. "I'm just tired, Doc," he lied. "Maybe I should call it a night."

Tofu looked at him for a moment and said: "Not yet. We are almost done here. The last act will be short. Our bus will be waiting for us at the last stop, and not everyone will want to go inside the Tea Room. You can just get on-board, recline the seat and get some rest – you won't be the only one. Hold on a little longer." Ojima just shrugged and then nodded his head.

Tofu looked like we was about to say something more when the Emcee came back on stage and announced the next act. Two women acrobats came on stage wearing flesh-toned leotards and proceeded to run through a set of yoga-like positions. The contortions cause both arousal and out-and-out shock that the women's backbones did not explode and their hips collapse. Eventually, the shock beat arousal. "The perfect cool down act," Ojima thought.

When the acrobats finished, the Emcee came out and announced the final act of the night: "Gentlemen! It gives me great pleasure to welcome a true legend to our humble stage!" He made a show of placing ear-muffs on his head, much to the confusion of the audience. All the bouncers did the same. Ojima saw that Tofu sat up like a shot with a concerned look on his face. The announcer finished: "I give you, THE SIREN!"

Several things happened at once. First, Tofu grabbed a glass of water from the table, spun around, and threw the contents at Ryoga. Instantly, the young man was replaced by a small pig. Tofu's shape also changed; he grew fox ears on top of his head and a fox tail appeared on his backside. Three of the other Kistunes also changed shape. Fully half the mercenaries turned pale and slammed their hands to their ears while humming loudly; Daran and Mausu were among them. Hideo began to chant loudly. Olaf stood up in surprise. A second after that action, a beautiful clear voice sang out, completely overwhelming the room without a need for a microphone or an amplifier, submerging out even Hideo's chanting, despite the fact Hideo was sitting next to Ojima.

The voice was familiar, but also like none Ojima had ever heard. To call it beautiful would have been an insult - it was so far beyond that. The voice contained every longing a man ever had. Ojima felt it wrap around his soul, echoing his own buried needs. The note the voice sang changed half an octave, and then broke into the words of a song. As the song started properly, a blond woman stepped out onto the stage wearing a diaphanous silver gown that did nothing to hide her beautiful figure. She was an athletic woman. Her breasts were modest, but stood proud and firm, every nuance showing through the dress. Her backside and hips were full and perfectly proportioned, marking her as one who could easily bear children - the dress clung perfectly there as well. Her legs were long and fit. The blond hair flowed down her back all the way to the start of her legs. The inspector felt his body stiffen in response to the goddess.

But it was her face that shocked and surprised Ojima the most. He knew that face, although it never struck him until now how beautiful it truly was. That's because the face had always been angry, sad or worried. In fact, he had seen every emotion on it but happiness or contentment. The closest the man had ever seen to a smile on that face was a smirk or nasty grin, usually after the owner's sharp tongue had teased or taunted him – something it had done at least twice a week since its owner arrived in Nerima seven months ago.

At last he had an answer to one of the questions that had perplexed him though. Like Olaf and Tofu, Ciren Blake was not fully human. Half her spirit was another species and he could never figure out what it was – only that it was perpetually hungry and sad, almost like a gaki. "She took the English pronunciation and changed the first letter," he thought. "Or her parents did that. I wonder why?"

"The Sirens," his thoughts continued. "The Greek singers of doom whose voice caused men to shipwreck themselves against a rocky island." Ojima remembered from one literature course he had ages ago that there were many conflicting stories about them. Some stories likened them to birds, others to bird-headed women, and still others to normal women. "Shape-shifters I wonder," he thought again. Other stories said that they may have eaten the men they trapped, but others just insisted that the men had wasted away listening to the wondrous voices. "Or they fed on something else other than the bodies," Ojima thought.

Ciren continued to sing her song on the stage. It moved from subject to subject, promising the listener the secrets of the universe if he continued to listen. Indeed, there were many interesting stories and subjects woven in the song – secrets of the Air and Sea, wonders of Physics, things women wanted from men and men wanted from women, descriptions of the different races of men – and elves, on and on. "A lifetime of knowledge that can never be completed over several lifetimes," thought Ojima. "The song never has a proper ending and the listener can never escape once he's caught."

After five minutes of this, Ciren stepped off the stage and approached the closest table while still singing. She bent down and lifted her hand to the nearest man and cupped his right cheek. The man seemed to shudder and collapse, but she caught his head and guided it to the table. She repeated the action with the next man who also collapsed. The third man didn't collapse though; he just blushed. Ciren smiled gently at him and let him go. The fourth man collapsed like the first two. The fifth man fled the room; Ciren didn't stop him and moved to the next table.

Ojima heard Tofu sigh next to him and move away from the table. Ojima watched him approach Akio who was caught in the song. "Wake up, Akio," Tofu told him tapping him on the shoulder. "The song is not for us. You'll only get hurt."

Akio shifted to his Kitsune form and snapped out of it. "Gods!" the liberated Kitsune exclaimed. "I almost rather stayed!"

"It's a song for humans," Tofu said firmly. "They will be fine. Kitsunes get hurt badly at her touch, and Ciren doesn't really want to hurt anyone. All of her bargainers will recover within the hour – some within minutes. She has to do this though, or someone will really get hurt – she can't stop being a Siren. If she doesn't feed, she becomes like a gaki."

"Have you ever…?" Akio asked.

Tofu nodded. "A long time ago. I'm human enough that it is an interesting experience. If I didn't love Kasumi, I might volunteer, especially after having watched this show. Olaf has several times, but he's a special case. Hold on a second." Tofu leaned over and tapped Ayumu on the shoulder. Ayumu's form shifted to his Kitsune state and he sat back in his chair trying to clear his head. Tofu addressed the two: "Stay put. I need to go help anyone still fighting the song."

Akio stopped him. "What do I have to do?"

Tofu looked surprised and then grinned: "Am I forgiven then, old friend?"

Akio snorted: "Yes, jackass. You just evened the score. What do I have to do?"

"Muffle the hearing of anyone still covering their ears," Tofu instructed. "Don't try to wake up the ones who are caught – the results may be violent. If someone turns and looks at you, offer to block their ears – some may say yes. If they flee, stay out of the way and let them."

One of the Kitsunes, Jak, who had shape-changed and not been caught, called out to Tofu: "So this is Ciren. Very lovely, very lovely indeed."

"And lots and lots of trouble," Tofu called back as he returned to the table where Ojima sat. To the inspector, Tofu said: "Are you all right? Do you want me to block your ears?"

"No, don't block them," Ojima said. "I want to hear." Tofu just nodded and tapped Hideo on the shoulder. The tall man stopped chanting with relief. The doctor then tapped Mausu who dropped his hands and Tofu went to check on Ranma and the others.

Meanwhile, Ojima watched as Ciren worked her way from table to table repeating the process she had started at the first table. It became obvious that many of the men were hopelessly caught in her song. Most of these men shuddered when she touched their cheeks, and she guided each head gently to the table, but there were a few that just blushed. Ciren just caressed the cheeks of the men that were aware of the room (and who didn't run), but those men all just blushed.

"What's happening?" Ojima demanded of Hideo who watched as well. But, Hideo just tapped his ears to indicate that he couldn't hear.

Mausu tapped Ojima shoulder. "I can read your lips," the spy said. "You can talk to me."

"What's happening?" Ojima repeated. "Why are some men lost and others aware?"

Mausu shrugged and said: "The ones enraptured by Ciren's song are non-virgins. She cannot bargain with virgins. The men who blushed when she touches them are either virgins or those who passed on Ciren's offer. The sleeping, or rather exhausted, are ones who accepted Ciren's bargain. Ciren's touch can make you re-live your most passionate sexual encounter, from beginning to end - if you get my drift - in exchange for the energy she pulls from you."

"Oh damn," the Inspector muttered as the little thief's meaning became clear. "She's stealing their life-force."

Mausu's eyes hardened. "If she was, I'd love to see you prove it," Mausu challenged. "None of the exhausted men would ever press charges against her – they will recover fully. Many will line up again to bargain with her – after they take certain pre-cautions. She's not forcing the men to re-live events against their will. There's no real crime here. You can't get her on a prostitution charge – she's not selling herself. You might get her on unlawful imprisonment for holding the men using her mother's song long enough to propose the bargain except these men all paid to hear her sing in the first place. She can argue she's just carrying through on the agreement. Of course, that's provided you could convince the judge that she was actually imprisoning the men with a song – this is not Judge Sanu's territory." (1)

Mausu continued: "And if you do charge her, will you lock her up for it? If she doesn't "Hunt" as she calls it, her hunger will begin to strike 'will she, nil she'. She was once captured for 60 days and held against her will. When she was finally liberated, her deaf captors were on the point of death themselves. She cried for ten days straight at the damage her hunger had done."

Ojima looked a little stricken, but recovered to challenge back: "If it's all so benign, why did you cover your ears and why did Tofu force Ryoga to change?"

Mausu shrugged. "Ryoga's underage despite his extracurricular activities and Ciren didn't know he was here. For that matter, I don't think she knew we were here until after she stepped on stage. Otherwise, she wouldn't have sang, because it would have become tantamount to a mercenary's challenge – us against her. Which is exactly what did happen – several of us won, and several lost."

Mausu stopped to watch Ciren for a minute and then finished by saying: "Now that the battle is over, watch the men when she approaches. Some who fought the hardest will willingly accept her trade; others who fell to her song will just say 'No' so they can save themselves for something later tonight."

Ojima didn't know what to make of all of this. So he just watched with the rest of the group as Ciren finished with all the other tables and stopped in front of the Bachelor party. She continued to sing as she looked challengingly at the men. The mercenaries that could stand, did stand. Ciren nodded her head to them and then she motioned them to step aside. They did so and she went to each of the enraptured man and cupped their cheeks. Most of the men blushed and stood up swearing. Some sank down exhausted.

Ciren opened her hands wide to the rest of the group and some of them sat down again. She went to each of those men and cupped their cheek, immediately exhausting them – all except one that is. She went to Olaf last and he kissed her hand as she tried to cup his large cheek, then he let her touch him. He closed his eyes for a moment, but gave no other sign. She shook her head as if amused. Ciren then dropped her hand and turned to wink at the three brothers in the back, all staring in fascination at her (Ryoga was human again and deaf). She turned once more and left the group to stand up on the stage again. She continued the song for ten more minutes and ended her song with a promise to sing again. Then she fell silent.

Every man who had their head on the table seemed to wake up. Slowly, they stood up and began to applaud. Tofu and his group stayed standing and saluted quietly. Ciren curtseyed to them all and then left to go backstage. Once more, Ojima did not know what to do. Finally, he ran forward only to have Olaf stop him by stepping in the way. "There's no law broken, Inspector," the giant told him. "They paid to hear her sing, and she sang. Besides, you are out of your jurisdiction, something she counted on."

Ojima looked at Olaf and said the first thing that came to mind: "I have to talk to her – this is the first time I ever saw her genuinely smile." Olaf seemed taken aback by the statement so the inspector tried to dodge around the big man. Unfortunately, Olaf was fast and grabbed Ojima's shoulder.

"Olaf! Let him go!" Tofu called out. "This is between the two of them!" Olaf looked at Tofu for a minute and then released Ojima. The inspector tore off after Ciren. One of the bouncers tried to get in his way and Ojima held up his badge causing the man to back up quickly. Ojima jumped up on the stage and ran backstage, flashing his badge to make people get out of his way.

One man refused to move, but Ojima shouted: "Unless you want a raid, I want to see the Siren right now!"

"There's nothing illegal here!" the man protested. "I run a clean club!"

"Doesn't matter!" You'll still be shut down for days! Where is Ciren Blake?" Ojima yelled.

"She's done nothing wrong!" the man protested again.

"Last chance!" roared Ojima.

"It's all right, Mattan," Ciren said from behind the club owner. "I'll talk to him." Ciren had thrown a cloak over her dress. "Stop threatening him, Ojima. He treats his employees well."

"You're sure, Ms. Blake?" Mattan asked.

"Yes. Believe it or not, he's a friend. Despite his lack of social graces, he'll behave himself," Ciren answered. "I'll grab my things and he and I can leave, so you can close up on time."

"If you're sure…" Mattan said, obviously not sure himself. At her nod, he continued: "Will you come back for Friday?" There was a slightly pleading note in his voice.

"Yes – I'll work one night a week. We can discuss the schedule later, but Friday is fine for now," she replied. Mattan nodded his acceptance and left to supervise the clean up. Ciren addressed Ojima: "All right, let me get my bag. We can talk on way to wherever."

A/N – Footnotes:

(1) Judge Sanu is the lead judge of Nerima and was introduced during "The Destruction of Ranma Saotome." He is well acquainted with the unusual people and circumstances of Nerima by now.

A/N: Next up - Kunoichi