Engagement
Tears of joy ran down Soun Tendo's face as he held the postcard in his trembling hands. It wasn't anything fancy, just a cheap postcard with a panda eating bamboo on the front. On the back, in roughly printed characters was a simple message:
"Bringing my son, Ranma. Will arrive by evening. It's time for the engagement."
"Oh, how I've waited for this day! Girls! Oh, girls, where are you? I have something very important to tell you all!"
He waited patiently for a few minutes, but there were no replies. Sighing softly, he placed the postcard on the table, before standing up to investigate.
'Things just haven't been the same around here recently... Kasumi, going out to who knows where for hours at a time; it's so unlike her! Akane's been throwing herself into her martial arts practices with a fervor I can't remember, which would normally be nice, but she's just so angry all the time now! And then there's poor Nabiki... she used to be such a lively, outgoing girl. Now she coops herself up in her room all the time with her Dreamcast and her computer... It's not healthy for a girl to spend so much time indoors! Even if she did have that little...accident...'
Even as he had been musing, Soun had made his way to the second floor of his home, where his daughters bedrooms were located. He went immediately to the door for Nabiki's room and opened it.
Sure enough, his daughter was inside, laying on her bed; her fingers flashing across her Dreamcast's control pad, her eyes locked onto the screen and a set of earphones fixed firmly over her head. She was so firmly locked into her own little world that she didn't even realize Soun was there until he walked over and pulled off her headset. She paused her game and looked up at him.
"What is it, daddy?"
"I need to talk to you girls. Where are your sisters?"
She shook her head, "Akane went to the dojo to practice, and Kasumi went out - she didn't say when she would be back, except that she didn't think it would be until after sundown."
Soun sighed softly and shook his head. "Whatever has gotten into that girl? Oh, very well, we'll just have to proceed without her - this is too important to delay..."
Ten minutes later...
"Fiancé?! You expect us to get married to some random jerk that we've never even met?!" Akane howled indignantly, eyes burning with righteous fury as she glared daggers at her father, who quailed back from the venom in her gaze.
"Oh, come on, Akane, lighten up; you don't even know if he'll be a bad guy. Maybe he'll be nice - and really cute," Nabiki smiled wistfully, staring off into space as she did.
"Akane, it's very important - it's for the continuation of the Anything-Goes School!" Soun protested mildly.
"It's ridiculous! It's not 1906 anymore, dad! I am perfectly capable of carrying on this school by myself!" Akane barked back, if anything madder than before.
Soun flinched, unable to meet his youngest daughter's gaze, hanging his head meekly. "...Of course you are, Akane, but all the same-"
"No way! I'm not getting married to some stranger! Forget it! Ugh - I'm going out for my run, this is stupid!" Akane slammed her hands on the table and shot to her feet.
"Akane? Akane!" Soun called, trying to sound authoritative, but Akane simply ignored him and stormed off, the front door slamming distantly behind her.
"Oh, why does that girl have to be so stubborn?" Soun lamented, shaking his head forlornly before casting a hopeful look at Nabiki. "But you'll stay and meet him, right, Nabiki? He should be here any minute now..."
His middle daughter rolled her eyes, but as she'd switched from her earlier attire of a sleeveless shirt and tight, legless shorts (which Soun had never approved of - those shorts were far too skimpy for his little girl to be wearing!) into a far more alluring and appealing yukata, Soun felt hopeful about her reaction. Her words briefly intensified that hope, before crushing it again.
"I'll stay... I've got nothing better to do. But I wouldn't get your hopes up, daddy; Akane doesn't want him, Kasumi probably won't want him - you know she's always been a stick-in-the-mud. And I certainly doubt he'll want me! Not with my 'condition' and everything..."
"Oh, Nabiki - you have to stop being so hard on yourself! It's not such a terrible problem, and I'm certain that Ranma won't mind it at all!" He assured her.
She just scoffed and folded her arms over her chest. "Yeah, right; what guy in their right mind is going to want a girl like me?"
Soun simply stared at her, a rare wave of pity for his middle child welling up within his heart. 'She was always so confident before - cocky, even! She really has been taking this hard...'
Before he could formulate something to say to try and bolster her spirits, the sounds of strange voices echoed out from the garden, coming up to the front door, and Soun's face lit up with delight.
"That must be them now! Saotome, my old friend! We've been waiting!" He cried, rising from his seating cushion and hurrying to the front door.
Behind him, Nabiki sighed softly, but rose to follow. 'Well, suppose I might as well at least see who this Ranma Saotome is... maybe he's cute? ...Oh, who am I kidding? Even if he is cute, he's never going to pick me. He'll pick Kasumi; the guys always liked Kasumi, even though she never paid them any attention. Or maybe he'll pick Akane; she's cute enough, and guys seem to go ga-ga for that wild tomboy routine of hers. Me? Nobody ever picked me, even before I turned into a monster...'
Meanwhile, outside...
"That was a cheap trick, pops! Put me down! I don't want any part of this!" Ranma shouted, trying to make his father loosen his grip via repeated elbow strikes to the back of his head.
"Oh, hush up, boy! We're here now, so you're going to meet your fiancée, and that's final!" Genma snapped back, continuing to stride the remaining distance up the front walkway and into the front door. As he stepped through it and into the genkan, he swung Ranma off of his shoulders and slammed him into the ground as if he were a bale of cheap, low-grade rice. The impact knocked some of the fight out of the teenage martial artist, who simply glared up at his father and got a cool, firm stare in response.
They held their staring contest for the better part of a minute, before Ranma loudly scoffed and sullenly kicked off his shoes and stepped up onto the walkway proper. As he did, Genma permitted himself a triumphant smirk and went to kick off his own geta.
'Such luck we had when that strange purple meteor blew apart those clouds; if it had started raining before we got here, that would have made this ten times more complicated!'
Oblivious (and largely indifferent) to his father's thoughts, Ranma sullenly stalked down the hall, lost in his own brooding - until he heard the sound of feet pounding down the hallway. He looked up, and saw Genma's old friend - Mr. Tendo, he vaguely remembered his father saying - coming towards him. The man was speaking, but Ranma's attention had already moved past him to what was obviously his daughter, and suddenly Ranma couldn't hear him.
'She's my fiancée?! ...Oh, wow, she's cute...!'
The girl leisurely following her father was a beautiful young woman - perhaps a little older than Ranma. She was clad in what even Ranma could recognize as a lovely pale green yukata with blue lower portions, offset by designs of flowers and a pink decorative sash tied around her waist, its bow-like tie visibly bobbing behind her back. Her heart-shaped face had what Ranma couldn't help but think of as fox-like features, with dark brown eyes that matched her chestnut-brown hair, which had been cut in a pageboy style. She smiled at him, and Ranma tried to swallow that damn lump from nowhere again.
At the same time, Nabiki was studying Ranma...
'This is Ranma, huh? Wow, he is cute! Probably younger than me, but... damn, looking good! I need to see if it's more than skin deep, but... yummy. He's not going to pick me, but, hey, I'll have some fun before my sisters get home...'
She was so lost in thought that she nearly started when her father's hand fell affectionately on her shoulders, hastily forcing herself to keep her cool.
"Ranma Saotome, this is my daughter, Nabiki Tendo. She's seventeen years old. She has sisters, but they're out at the moment, I'm afraid," Soun politely explained to his future son-in-law.
"Oh, ah, that's no problem, Mr. Tendo - I'm sure we were a big surprise," Ranma politely replied back, before throwing a dark glare at his father, who was simply grinning a genial smile at his old friend.
"No matter, no matter! They'll get here in time - why don't the two of you go and get to know each other? Your father and I haven't seen each other in ages, after all; we've got a lot of catching up to do ourselves..." Genma declared, placing a hand on Ranma's shoulder.
"Excellent idea, Saotome! Nabiki, why don't you show Ranma around the garden, and to the dojo? I'm sure he'll want to see them both!"
The two teenagers rolled their eyes at one at their fathers' unsubtle "hints", then caught each other doing so. Nabiki smiled confidently, whilst Ranma blushed and looked away, a shy hint of a smile on his lips as he tried to sneak a glance back at her. That just amused her all the more, so she beckoned to him with one hand before wordlessly turning and walking away. As Ranma hurried after her, their fathers shared knowing smiles.
...Though Soun would have been a little less happy with the coy wiggle of her hips that Nabiki made once she was safely out of his sight, especially with how Ranma blushed at the sight of it...
Ten-Fifteen minutes later...
"Wow, you really swam to and from China?" Nabiki asked, with utterly sincere amazement.
"Yeah - pops called it training, but I still say he was just too cheap to get boat or plane tickets," Ranma chuckled.
"But even so... All over Japan, and into China as well? You've traveled such a lot..." Nabiki marveled.
"Well, it's all I've ever known - pops an' me've been roaming since I was just a little kid. Never stayed in any one place longer than a few months or so," Ranma elaborated for her. He tried not to stare, really he did, but as the slowly sinking sun began to increasingly dye the landscape in pinks and oranges, it only seemed to highlight the natural beauty of his companion.
'Never really talked to a girl like this before... but it's kind of fun. She seems really nice... maybe she won't mind if I choose her? I still hate this stupid engagement... but with her, maybe it won't be so bad...?'
"So, if you've been wandering for so long... I bet you've got lots of girlfriends, hmm? Any you're gonna miss in particular?" Nabiki asked sweetly.
If Ranma had been eating or drinking anything, he probably would have choked on it. Horrified, he hastily spluttered in defense, waving his arms for emphasis, hands curled into warding gestures. "Wha - No! No, I swear, I'm not that kind of guy!"
Nabiki giggled in amusement. "Oh, come now; you're telling me a cutie like you didn't leave a few broken hearts in his wake? No Chinese beauties pining for their foreign lover?"
To her surprise, Ranma actually shuddered. "Believe me, there ain't no girls from China I ever want to see again!"
Nabiki pouted at him, affecting a hurt tone. "You wouldn't be lying to me, would you? Telling me what I want to hear?"
"No!" Ranma yelped in horror. "I swear, I wouldn't!"
Nabiki couldn't hold it in anymore, and she burst out laughing. "Oh, relax, Ranma! I'm only teasing! You already told me you weren't told about this engagement any sooner than I was - I'm not going to hold it against you if you had a girlfriend or two before we ever met."
Now it was Ranma's turn to pout as he mumbled, "That wasn't funny..."
'Oh, my kami, you are adorable! Not rich, sadly, and not exactly a pillar of education, but you're hot, you're one of the most genuinely nice guys I've ever met, and you're honestly pretty fun to talk to - and even more to tease. It really is a shame...' Nabiki pondered to herself.
She opened her mouth, ready to resume her verbal play, only to scream in agony. She pitched to the ground, uncaring of the dirt she was smearing all over her yukata as she clutched desperately at her back, face contorted with pain.
"Nabiki?! Nabiki, what happened?!" Ranma yelled in shock, concern written on his face as he threw himself down besides his fiancée, who was curling and thrashing on the ground.
"My back! Oh, my back! I-Ah! I hurt it - ohhh! - Several weeks ago and it - yiii! It keeps flaring up! Puh-Please, take me back to my room," She pleaded with him, tears of equal parts pain and humiliation rolling down her cheeks.
"Oh-Of course! No, wait, let me help first!"
"Wait, what? Ohhhh!"
Without waiting for permission, Ranma reached out and placed his hands on Nabiki's throbbing, spasming back. With fingers and palms he began to knead and massage, pressing, pushing and manipulating at twanging tendons, spasming sinews and misaligned muscles through skin and fabric. Initially, she bucked and writhed, but Ranma refused to be daunted, continuing with his well-intentioned manipulations.
"AH! AH-ah-ahOOOOOOH! Ohhhh! Ugh-ugh-ugh! Yyyeessss! Ohhh, that feels wonderful! Oh, kami, how are you doing that?!" Nabiki panted, oblivious to the fact she was making noises she previously would have said didn't exist outside of the pages of a bad hentai doujinshi.
"Pops and I were on our own in the wilderness for, like, ever! Naturally we had to learn how to take care of ourselves! I'm no proper doctor, but I know enough basic acupressure and chiropractic to treat spasms like this... Actually, just the hell did ya do to yerself?! I treated a Martial Arts Lumberjack once, an' he wasn't half this bad!"
"It's - oh-oh-oh-OH! - A long - right there right there! - A long storyyyyesyesyes! AAAA-ugh!"
Nabiki flopped bonelessly into the ground, and Ranma hastily scooped her into his lap. She opened her eyes, staring up at him, and smiled dreamily. "...Cute, kind, and you give the best damn backrubs I've ever had? Where have you been, huh?"
Ranma blushed beet red and swallowed hard. "I - um - that is..."
He stopped suddenly; his instincts had begun screaming at him, and in a surge of motion he leapt forward, somersaulting through the air despite the not-inconsiderable burden of a startled and uncooperative teenage girl clutched in his arms, landing nimbly on his feet, turned 180-degrees and with a stunned Nabiki cradled in his arms in a bridal carry.
"Look, Mister Tendo, it wasn't-! ...You're not Nabiki's dad..."
The would-be assailant let out a bestial hiss as it wrenched the tip of a kodachi out of the inches-deep hole it had driven into the ground. It looked almost like a ninja, or at least a stock anime parody of one, complete with the black kuroko outfit that had become synonymous with the ninja character. But its bodily proportions were too off; shoulders too broad, legs and arms long and spindly, like a cross between an ape and a spider. It wore a conical head-covering like a pointed helmet made of cloth, a v-shaped visor glowing with blood-red light the only feature. Its exposed fingers were ash-gray, and twice as long as they should be.
It chittered like a spider, hunching its gangling limbs in an obvious precursor to pouncing. Ranma narrowed his eyes and cautiously lowered Nabiki to the ground, the girl stumbling slightly as he stepped protectively in front of her.
"Get back to your dad - I'll hold him off!" He hissed to her, never taking his eyes off the stranger.
"I can't just leave you here to die!" She protested passionately.
"You won't, just - woah!"
The very instant Ranma's eyes flicked to Nabiki, the ninja-creature attacked Ranma, turning into a veritable blur of blackness in motion as it swept towards him, blade scything out to pluck Ranma's head from his shoulders...
Only for Ranma to duck below the attack, seize his assailant's wrist, and then kick it in the stomach so hard that it flew through the air a good three or four meters. It backflipped, bleeding off momentum and preventing itself from landing on its back, but now it was Ranma's turn to surge forward on the attack. It parried, dodged and blocked as he lashed out with a ferocious combo of jabs, thrusts and kicks, the two trading positions repeatedly as they circled around each other, trying to find a superior position.
Nabiki watched from the sideline, frozen in a mixture of shock and awe. She watched as Ranma bent and swayed like a reed in the wind, her spine tingling in sympathy as he contorted it impossibly to avoid the edge of its razor-sharp blade.
'Where did it come from?! Who sent it?!' She wondered frantically to herself. Then she stopped and glared, lip curling back to bare her teeth as she focused on the shadowy figure wrestling with her new fiancé.
'...And why does any of that matter? It broke into my home - my home! It attacked Ranma - it attacked me! ... It's DEAD!'
Ranma slammed his palms together, catching the blade before it could bisect his skull. The ninja-thing hissed like a giant snake, shoving forward, and Ranma found himself legitimately struggling to hold it back. He could feel the movement sawing shallow cuts into his palms, blood starting to dribble down his wrists, but he blocked out the pain.
'Damn, this thing's strong! Putting up more of a fight than that crazy Chinese Amazon did! Nabiki, please, be safe; I don't know how much longer I can hold it back!'
There was a noise. Wet, sticky, underlaid with crunching. Something damp splattered against Ranma's shirt, and the fierce pressure of the creature trying to outmuscle Ranma suddenly faded away. The noise repeated, mixed with an awful squelchy, slurping sound, and the ninja-thing's arms went slack, falling by its side as it fell to its knees.
'The fuck?' Ranma wondered, blinking.
Suddenly, flames engulfed the creature, setting it off in a roaring pillar of fire!
'The double-fuck?!' Ranma mentally yelped, springing back instinctively, the sword falling to the ground with a clatter.
The burning ninja crumbled to ashes within the blink of an eye, allowing Ranma to see the cause of its demise...
"Nabiki?!" Ranma breathed in disbelief.
And well might he be confused! Glowering fiercely at the smoking pile of char and soot, a wisp of flame disappearing behind her pouting lips, Nabiki stood there with a still-beating heart clutched in the fingers of her right hand, inky-black blood running down her wrist to puddle on the ground. Somehow, the girl had put on at least half a foot in the span of seconds, going from slightly shorter than Ranma to notably taller than him. Her eyes were green as emeralds, with slit pupils, and her hair had gone from chestnut brown to platinum blonde. But those changes were just the tip of the iceberg; two nubs of horns now graced her forehead, whilst a whip-like, serpentine tail writhed sinuously behind her. Her tabi had torn, revealing scaly, taloned toes, and a pair of small, bat-like wings now fluttered in an almost relieved fashion upon her back.
The transformed Nabiki sneered contemptuously and crushed the heart in a single sharp squeeze of her fingers, causing it to burst like a water balloon and leaving black ichor dripping from her fingers. Then she seemed to remember that Ranma was present, and she flinched away, that almost feral rage melting away to be replaced with naked dismay.
"I... um... I didn't know how to tell you about this - I was going to, believe me, I just..." She stammered, eyes flickering away from Ranma's face, her prior confidence evaporated like a snowflake before a forge.
'Great, Nabiki; way to make a first impression! He's going to know you're a monster now!' She chastised herself sourly.
"...An' I thought you were cute before..."
Nabiki blinked in surprise as the words sank in. '...What did he just say?!'
She looked over at Ranma, who was staring at her, visibly stunned, which she expected... and with a distinct trail of blood seeping from one nostril, which she wouldn't have expected in a million years.
"...You don't think I'm a freak?" She asked, unable to hold the words back.
"Why would I?! That was awesome! How'd you do that?" Ranma asked excitedly.
Nabiki blushed, unable even to be annoyed at herself for letting her vulnerabilities show. "...Do you believe in curses?"
To her surprise, Ranma let out a dark, bitter laugh, "Absolutely. Trust me, I can understand completely..."
"Well, it's a long story, but it happened a few weeks ago. I can change back to normal, but I can only hold it for so long before the pain builds up in my back and I have to change into this... thing," Nabiki's tail lashed and her wings flapped, her nose screwing up as she stuck her tongue out in disgust, causing Ranma to realize it was forked like a snake's.
"Believe me, I know the pain... Do you have any idea what that thing was? Do shadowy ninja-things normally just drop by and attack this dojo?" Ranma asked, kicking at a particularly solid clump of ashes.
Nabiki shook her head, then shrugged. "They've been a real nuisance around town in the last week. Nobody knows where they come from, just that they appear, cause some random act of mischief, and then vanish again. The town council has asked daddy to look into it, but he hasn't had any luck yet..."
Ranma nodded in understanding, glancing again at the ashes, already beginning to blow away in the gentle breeze. "Should we tell him about this one attacking us?"
"Can we not? Daddy's... a little overprotective. If he learns about it, he'll be unbearable for days, maybe even weeks," Nabiki shuddered at the very thought, and Ranma nodded in fellow-feeling.
"Yeah, my old man is best kept in the dark sometimes too. Sure, I'll keep it a secret... but we should probably get back to them, before they wonder about us and come looking..."
He was about to turn back towards the house when Nabiki suddenly spoke from behind him.
"You...think I'm cute, Ranma?" She asked quietly. Had he looked back, he would have seen she was nervously interlacing her fingers and watching the dying sunlight glitter off of her elongated, claw-like nails.
Ranma blushed, but nodded and grunted in affirmation, slowly turning back to face Nabiki. The dragon-girl, whom he was reassured to see was blushing as well, gingerly stepped closer towards him. The look of vulnerability in her eyes made his heart skip a beat as she cautiously looked him in the eyes.
"Then... would you pick me? For the engagement?"
'...Kami, I sound like the fluff-brained girls at school, simpering after their first crushes. How embarrassing...'
'But I don't want a fiancée! But... pops ain't gonna drop this, is he? An' let's be honest, I could do a lot worse... but what about my curse? It ain't fair to her - she deserves a whole man...'
"I - I want to say yes! But... you see...Gah!"
Ranma yelped in shock as a bucket of cold water suddenly poured over his head, Nabiki flaring her wings and recoiling instinctively in surprise.
"Ranma, what are you doing, starting a fire in Soun's backyard?! I thought I taught you better than to play with matches, boy!" Genma bellowed angrily, still gripping the fire bucket in both hands.
"Stupid old man, I oughta-! Ah! Nuh-Nabiki! I-I-I can explain!" Stammered the voluptuous little redheaded girl, who was staring at Nabiki with a look of equal parts shame and terror.
Nabiki blinked slowly, mouth moving without consulting her brain - something it had been doing repeatedly that evening, and which was really growing rather annoying. "No wonder you said you believed in curses..."
Dinner time...
"So, Ranma, which of us are you going to choose?" Kasumi asked politely, even as she finished serving up the meal.
"The pervert better not even think of trying anything with me," Grumbled Akane, glaring daggers at the newcomer to the family dinner table.
Ranma glared right back, and opened his mouth, about to let her have it, only to shut it with a sharp 'click' as Nabiki looped her arm around his.
"Mine!" She announced, happily, but with an undertone of firmness that suggested she would very quickly become very unhappy if there were any disputations to this claim. Her tail curled itself around Ranma's hips, causing both teens to blush softly, but neither commented upon it, nor did she try to remove it.
"Uh, yeah, I pick Nabiki," Ranma added, somewhat weakly.
Soun beamed in delight, nodding his approval. "Splendid! Now, let's have dinner..."
None of them noticed Kasumi give a fox-like smirk, hidden behind her hand, as she looked towards Akane. Things certainly weren't going to be boring now…
