This story is a work of fanfiction. As such, it owes a great debt to the creators of the characters used herein: Rumiko Takahashi, Matt Bozon, Erin Bell Bozon and the creative teams of Kity Films and WayForward.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Chapter 14
That's what she said
"I knew it! It was you, Risky Boots!" Shantae pointed her accusing finger at her nemesis.
The pirate shrouded in shadows on her skull-encrusted throne just smirked, her legs crossed languidly. The eyes under the pirate hat were glinting, burning, grasping like those of the guys in the dance parlor. But unlike those of the fans and admirers, this gaze — an undressing one — wasn't stirring her blood but instilling dread instead.
"You w..won't get away with this!"
Her accusing finger was trembling treacherously, as well as her voice. The smirk on the shadowed face crept wider.
The half-Genie made an involuntary step back covering herself with her arms. Wait, were the shadows so deep and the throne so tall?
The queen of seven seas' gaze — predatory, ravenous — was sliding across her body, hot like rays of mid-noon sun. Disturbed and unnerved, the dancer girl moved to attack — only to feel unfamiliar weight settle on her hair. Viscous amber streams were dripping slowly from above making her hair heavy, sticking to her body in tacky rivulets.
Honey!
Disarmed and helpless, her hair glued to her back, her sight obscured by honey in her eyes, Shantae turned to flee. But the floor gave under her feet, being the same honey. She stumbled, stuck fast, sinking in the thick, viscous sweetness as Risky kept advancing on her with predatory laziness.
Then came a sudden, horrified realization she was completely naked in front of her opponent! Struggling with all her might, Shantae managed to tear out of the... tangled bed covers?
Blinking disorientation away, she saw familiar ceiling beams overhead. She was sweating bullets, her jammies soaked and yucky. Akane cuddling against her side like a warm oven and the general stuffiness of the closed room weren't helping either.
"Rotty, you pest," the half-Genie slurred trying to slow her breathing down. Her heart was pounding. "Who asked you open your mouth? Now because of your ill fantasies I wake up all hot and sticky!"
After a few seconds her brain caught with her mouth. The dancer girl's eyes flying wide open, her ears flaming, she cast a harried look around the room dreading to see someone awake.
False alarm. All the other girls were still fast asleep.
Breathing out in relief, even more sweaty now, Shantae began cautiously untangling herself from Akane. It wasn't easy. First herself, then her hair.
Finally she could get up, tiptoe to the window and open it quietly letting pre-dawn sea air in. It wasn't cool, the weather was quite hot, but it was at least fresh.
Shivering in revulsion at her night attire stuck to her body, Shantae decided she urgently needed to freshen up. A dive from the cliff, what a great start of the day! Climbing out quietly, she jumped down. It's so nice to have a personal diving cliff!
After a quick run across hanging bridges to that specific rock, the pointy-eared one looked around thievishly, making sure no one was nearby. She then quickly pulled her sweaty top and pantaloons off, donned a striped bikini and dove from the cliff.
The cool sea embraced— Crash! Stars in her eyes! What? A shallow? How?
It wasn't a shallow, it turned out. She collided against someone, head to head.
Panicking, dazed by the blow, Shantae twisted around, kicking and windmilling, trying to get away, still unable to tell top from bottom.
The one she had collided against did likewise. Their awkward fumbling resulted in two manes of floating hair getting tangled until the half-Genie was pressed firmly against someone's body. A feminine one, thankfully.
Still horribly awkward!
As one the girls pushed to the surface. Shantae took a breath, going to apologize...
And stared, face, to face, into the grayish-blue eyes of a pressed against her, rapidly reddening Ranma.
But she's a boy‼！
Squeaking in embarrassment, flushing rapidly, Shantae jerked to get away... Only making the tangled hair tighten.
When the firmly tied together gals could, finally, climb onto a rock shelf below the cliff both were wishing to die. Their ears were aflame. But they had to untangle yet: Ranma's mane wasn't as long as Shantae's but it was still rich.
They were found in this position when Akane came, awakened by the fresh air and lead by her sense for vulgarities that tended to stick to Ranma like iron filings to a magnet.
"I didn't mean to!" Shantae screeched. "It just happened!"
With a heavy sigh the youngest Tendou walked up to them. Both cringed squeezing their eyes shut.
Bonk!
"Stupid Ranma." Akane stated flatly rubbing her fist hurt against her fiance's bony head. "Stop squirming, let me help you."
With outside help it went much quicker. Soon Shantae and Ranma weren't pressed against each other even as they remained connected by their manes. And then they hit a snag. Or, more precisely, a lot of snags, twists and knots. Even with four free hands they barely managed to undo a couple locks. Akane offered to fetch them a comb.
Of course, just then the three were joined by Ukyou, still wearing a similar striped bikini she slept in, and Shampoo whose outfit wasn't that different from one.
Ukyou immediately began "helping" idling around Ranma and thus closing the redhead all angles not showing either barely covered skin or her stormy-faced fiancee.
Shampoo began needling Akane if she was clothed too warmly for such kinds of fun.
The youngest Tendou clad in her dogi was huffing and frowning, her fists tightening. A charge that could only be released by pummeling someone was building up.
"Wait!" Shantae interrupted this clown show. "Let me try the monkey dance!"
It wasn't working at first: Ranma attached to her by the head was getting in the way of her dance. The redhead had to stop averting her eyes — her sense of embarrassment was honestly burned out at this stage — and repeat all the motions after the dancer.
Poof! Two monkeys fell from the burst of lavender sparks, one purple, another red. One striped bikini set fluttered to the ground.
"Ah, you can transform others as well?" Shampoo was curious.
Poof! Turning back into a girl, Shantae pulled her traditional outfit on with exceptional speed. Only her hair remained loose.
"Well, this only happens with the monkey dance... If I perform it wrong or the onlooker is, how to phrase it, very excited. But they usually transform with their clothing."
"Ki?" Ranma was studying her tail with fascination twisting it this way and that.
"How do we transform this fool back?" Akane asked with worry. "He won't remain like that forever, won't he?"
"It would fade in a couple hours on its own," Shantae replied, unconcerned.
"Ki-kikiki!" Ranma proclaimed merrily as she dashed up the rock, then across the bridge onto the adjacent islet.
"Ran-cha?" Ukyou laughed running after her. "Are you going to climb a tree?"
"Ki!" Reaching the nearest palm tree, the red monkey climbed up to hang upside down from the crown on her tail, immensely pleased with herself.
"Where is his clothing?" Akane grumbled as she grabbed the dropped bikini from the ground.
"I don't know," Shantae admitted carefully averting her eyes. "I jumped from the cliff and hit him right away, he was already swimming underwater."
Her ears were still red.
All together they combed the surrounding islets finally finding Ranma's trousers, vest and towel.
"When that naked simian gets down from the tree," Akane promised vengefully as she gathered the clothing up.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Hastily leaving her friend to deal with her fiance, carefully not looking back, Shantae almost flew to the lighthouse where she climbed upstairs. Only there did she breathe out, relaxing.
"So you haven't yet chosen which hero to let catch up and defeat you?" Shampoo inquired in an innocuous voice.
The half-Genie started, her ears reddening again.
"Well, that's an important aspect of the marriage rituals," the amazon explained. "How would you know without testing that the one you chose has enough stamina?"
"Eek! Enough, enough!" Shantae waved her arms. "Let's discuss that at another time!" Taking a suspicious look around to make sure there were only girls with her in the room, she undressed throwing her outfit onto the hammock. She then produced a wooden tub from her ki-pocket, followed by the dirty jammies she threw squeamishly in the tub and a big jug. "I'm not ready for such relationships yet! But what's worse, it was Akane's fiance..." Stepping into the tub she begai oiling herself dripping from the jug onto her palm.
"Don't worry about Little Sis," Nabiki reassured her while dressing slowly in awkward, wooden motions. "Things like that happen to Ranma all the time. Just give her a little time to cool down."
"What's the mix?" Shampoo asked curiosly as she unceremoniously rubbed her finger across Shantae's shinny shoulder. She then sniffed at that finger and even licked it. "Feels like plant oils only."
"Because it's pure olive oil!" The dancer was glad to move away from the awkward topic. "Ideally you should oil yourself after bath but they don't allow it because it's likely to cause injury. Also, you'd have to wash your bed more often. So I do this in the mornings, after a swim." She twisted to work on her upraised leg while effortlessly balancing on her other one.
"I'm late!" Ukyou shouted emerging from the hole suddenly like a jack-in-the-box, making Shantae shriek covering herself with her arms and upraised leg. "The edge is showing already!" Grabbing her usual garb she changed so swiftly the bikini was still falling to the floor when she disappeared downstairs with a parting clang of her spatula against the edge.
"Don't go scaring people like that!" the outraged home owner yelled after the okonomoyaki chef.
"What was that, just now?" Shampoo asked rhetorically. "The edge of what?"
"Is the oil only for skin care?" Nabiki asked. "Or does it add sun protection as well?"
"It's sun protection first and foremost!" Shantae exclaimed beginning to work on her other leg. "Doesn't keep the fair ones from tanning completely, unlike the sun screen. But that stuff is terribly expensive while the oil is abundant and so much cheaper!"
"Got it," the middle Tendou replied pigeonholing the pieces of knowledge in her mind. She strove to learn and remember well which things were luxury items here.
Because she had a vague suspicion she could get stuck in this world forever. You could only go back via wish. What if that does not work? Be wary of your own wishes and stuff.
When the half-Genie finished, the Chinese girl shamelessly wheedled the oil out of her. She gladly obliged.
Nabiki hurried to leave the room overabundant with oiled skin. Sliding down the rope, hissing from the pain in her legs, she envied those able to wear something more airy than her climate-inappropriate attire. If only... Yeah, in her dreams. Unlike the martial artists with their tough hides, any climbing or tumbling posed the risk of cuts or abrasions to her. Abrasion and infection walking hand in hand, she was dreading to imagine how backwards was the medicine of this world and worse, how much did it cost. While wasting an insta-heal potion worth two hundred bucks on a mere scratch... Her inner Scrooge Mc Duck was having apoplectic fit from the thought alone!
The company that went to have breakfast in the cafe consisted of two merry, scantily-clad purple-haired girls and one vitriol-leaking, woodenly-walking, bundled up warmly brunette in a hat.
Shantae, instead of her missing tiara, donned a purple bandanna adorned with a white skull.
Sitting at a table with a magnificent sea view Nabiki relaxed a bit, contemplating with satisfaction that such lifestyle — and such dishes, mmm! — weren't that different from a tropical resort. Everything being simplistic and rustic wasn't detracting from the pleasure. Back in the Big Tokyo she wouldn't be able to dine in restaurants every day. There weren't enough chumps, also you have to find one, lead him patiently on, wait until he bites then keep reeling him... But here she was a guest, everything was hassle-free freebies.
The sight of Shantae's coppers slipping away rapidly spoiled her mood reminding her that every good thing comes to an end while she still had disgustingly little knowledge of the local ecosystem. Where are the places the local chumps frequent? How do you tell one? What sort of bait do they respond to? What sort of bullshit would fly and what would be considered legally binding marriage proposal?
Ranma as the backup choice was out: he had whole empty pockets of the local money. Besides, she had a hunch he would be busy all the time. Distracting him from saving the world... The past Nabiki of a week ago wouldn't have thought twice. But that was before a passing Shinigami patted her on the shoulder patronizingly.
No, her own hide held too much nostalgic value to her. Surviving amidst an end of the world requires tons of luck and even then it would not be pleasant.
Ideally, I should learn dancing then work part-time in that "dance parlour" of theirs as a half-price apprentice while my sensei ir running around the land.
Yeah, as if.
Standing up from the table, Nabiki grit her teeth holding her poker face with an effort of will. She had to wait until these ropes of coiled pain become muscles again, then train for a few weeks, as painfully.
She could only hope that either Shantae's savings hold til that time — unrealistic, but this was a magical land of full wonders — or someone finds a fat loot in the dungeons.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
After the breakfast they met Ranma on the wharf, back in his male form and holding hands with Akane.
"Akane!" Shantae exclaimed in joy heading towards them. "You two made up!"
And then she remembered the earlier... close contact. In all its unnecessary graphic detail. Feeling heat rising to her ears she forcibly averted her eyes that began wandering towards the pigtailed martial artist on their own.
So awkward!
Coughing in embarrassment, she proclaimed it was time for her to go hunting: there was jam in the dungeons awaiting to be collected, squids on the trees awaiting to be saved and lots of other urgent tasks...
With a heavy sigh Akane surreptitiously elbowed Ranma making him bow and begin a long-winded, convoluted apology. There won't be repeating of this, he wasn't himself, never again!
"Uh, let's conclude we need more swimsuits and forget about this, allright?" Shantae proposed hastily, itching to run away from the awkward problem. "All right, I gotta go!" She began some dance.
"Your wish is my command!" Ranma saluted. "Where did we put that fabric roll?"
Poof! The cloud of lavender sparks dispersed revealing a powder blue bird girl. Purplish blue skin, dense trouser-like powder-blue feathers below her waist, scaly chicken legs with two fingers. Her top had transformed into something barely there the same color as her feathers, supported with strings attached to the golden ring that migrated to her choker. Her hair became powder-blue feathers forming something akin to a hairdo slicked back and up, her ears gone. Her arms below the elbow were feathered wings of the same color.
"Wow!" Akane gushed with a hint of envy. "You can transform into a bird too!"
"A harpy," Shantae corrected unfurling her wings. Each was as long as she was tall.
Everyone began studying her with curiosity. She twirled showing off. Her back was covered with feathers completely, there was a sizable fan of a tail growing from the small of her back.
"And you are able to speak in this form," Nabiki noted.
"The only one, alas," Shantae replied. "Speech should be available to all my hybrid forms but the mermaid could only speak underwater. In the air it comes out as gurgling..."
"How do you deal with the backwards knees?" Akane was curious.
"These are not knees, these are heels!" Shantae corrected her merrily. "Look!" She straightened her legs suddenly becoming two heads taller than her friend. "I kind of walk on the balls of my feet while half-crouching. Also, I have to lean forward while walking because this form is very light while the wings catch the wind, I have to push against the air when I'm running."
She demonstrated this by running away and back in a mincing gait. From the back her human parts weren't visible, one could mistake her for a huge light-blue bird.
"You have problems with balance," Ranma commented critically as he noticed how slowly she was stopping and gaining speed.
"There's that," Shantae agreed stretching her wings and making a few testing flaps that buffeted everyone with wind. "Human and bird are too different to make a well-rounded hybrid. The center of mass is too high for usual acrobatics, the wingspan is too small for gliding. I can only keep in the air by flapping non-stop.
She demonstrated by jumping up and hovering. Each downward flap was bouncing her upwards, then she was dropping again. The rhythm was quite ragged. She lifted up by flapping faster, then folded her wings behind her back and descended quickly. "As you can see, I don't fly much more elegantly than a hen. But the flight is so incredibly useful for getting into various hard to get places! If I wasn't so lazy I forgot this dance after my first big adventure, I could have avoided so much difficulties!"
"I always wondered," Shampoo injected, "How do you deal with wings?"
She meant Mu Su as well but only the Nerimans understood that.
"It's easy!" the bird girl was glad to elaborate. "This form is closer to human than even the monkey. Look," She stretched the bend of her folded wing forward. "This is my wrist, with two fingers coming out of it. My thumb," she wiggled a talon almost unnoticeable among dense, fluffy feathers, "and my looong index finger." She unfurled her wing, feathers rustling. "It's just one finger, as long as my forearm, with a fan of feathers on it. Moving the feather would be strange, but it feels like bending that finger. It's really not, it is stiff and solid, it just feels like bending my finger." She demonstrated by adjusting her flight feathers. "The only unusual thing about this form is the tail. But after the monkey I am used to having a tail."
This demonstration couldn't go on any longer: Shantae was shying Ranma's scrutiny: "All right, gotta go!" She made to lift off but then Shampoo alerted everyone to a large robed and hooded individual approaching them.
"Umm, who is that?" Akane asked, puzzled.
The dark blue, gold-trimmed robe and a matching cape with a deep hood were concealing the stranger's figure. In the unnaturally deep shadows inside the hood, two yellow eyes were glowing like lanterns.
"Meet Hypno Baron," Shantae introduced him turning back into a girl. "My friends Akane, Ranma, Shampoo, Nabiki."
"Greetings, Guardian Genie of Scuttle Town," a voice from the hood rumbled. "I don't believe we've met before... But I have to ask: have, by any chance, Risky Boots attacked you as well? It seems the self-appointed queen of seven seas went all sorts of rogue."
"Well, it's..." Shantae stuttered awkwardly. "We are... It's a long story. We both did, kind of, return from the future and agreed to a temporary truce to prevent one bad thing. But we had to collect the three magic seals, it was urgent...!"
"So that's why!" Hypno Baron exclaimed throwing his arms up, which let the Nerimans see his sleeves were empty, filled with the same unnatural darkness.
"Didn't she ask?" Shantae inquired cautiously. "She only had to ask... Squid Baron did not listen, though. We had to pummel him. But—"
"No, she didn't," Hypno Baron replied with vitriol. "She just went through my dungeon with her horde of tinkerbats like bulls through china shop. So many things smashed...! But if I had a choice I would not relinquish the seal anyway. Do you have any idea how dangerous is the thing sealed with it?"
"Ah, don't worry, I know it all to well." Shantae said. "That lamp is a terrific thing. But we urgently need it to collect the scattered dark magic and prevent the Pirate Master's awakening. You see, I had one willain sucked into the lamp, but when—"
"The Pirate Master?！" the hooded one interrupted her. "The seal has weakened, after all...? I knew it. Well, it was nice knowing you." Turning around hastily, he started floating away, not touching the ground.
"Have you remembered something urgent?" Shantae asked after him, puzzled. "Are your toasts burning?"
"Let's say..." He stopped for a moment turning to face her. "Seqin Land was a wonderful place but I have a castle in Lapland that needs dusting up. I'll go... perform general cleaning, plow snow drifts."
Saying that, he departed.
"What's with him?" Shantae wondered in puzzlement, still not getting it.
"Rats, from a sinking ship?" Nabiki hinted.
"That's legging it if I saw one," Ranma said with confidence. "As soon as the Pirate Master was mentioned, he lost his nerve. So weak...? I don't get it. I thought being able to fly requires some badassery. Of the martial artists I know none can fly."
"He isn't weak, he's a pretty strong dark sorcerer," Shantae affirmed. "He can turn into anyone, fly, throw heavy things with his telekinesis and cast lightning bolts. Why is he fleeing then?"
"His use of the past tense doesn't inspire optimism," Shampoo remarked. "We haven't lost yet, nothing is decided. We can still stop the awakening. Right?"
"Maybe he is wayry of the.. howzit.. Morpheus Law?" Shantae thought aloud.
"Or does know something we don't", Nabiki portended ominously. "Like, the awakening cannot be stopped once it had begun."
Shantae started like she was reminded of something frightening. "Let's not talk about bad things before they happened, all right?"
"This reaction of yours... is not encouraging," Nabiki noted.
The half-Genie began the harpy dance again.
"Wait," Ranma reminded her. "If Risky Boots already has the seal it means we have all three. We should only wait for her and then start right away!"
Poof!
"She had it yesterday!" the bird girl retorted indignantly. "And she is still somewhere at large! Instead of waiting I'd collect goods across the dungeons instead, pre-knowledge is a one in a lifetime deal... Don't worry, I'll be back quick like. If she comes, let her signal me with a Pirate Flare."
Jumping up, she flapped rapidly to rise above the rooftops then flew away toward the hills.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Flappy harpy is suffering... (ur toob avokue9wKBw?t=526 ) But so nostalgic for those who loved that last tower in the "Pirate's Curse"
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Nabiki was wandering the city sweating in her buttoned up clothing, aching all over but stubbornly observing the locals. On one hand, the population here was largely unsophisticated. On the other hand, the population had roughly the same size as that of the Furinkan school. No armor of anonimity for you, unlike the Big Tokyo: everyone if not knows each other then at least seen each other in passing. All cliques and circles are accounted for. Rumors envelop the entire volume at lonce like flame a stack of hay.
So either she had to accustom, adapt and gnaw out place for herself and then only con outsiders with silent consent from the townsfolk, which would require months of toil before first profit. Or any noticeable scam should culminate in a thoroughly planned escape. Which was problematic at best while she was depending on Shantae, who was sort of a part of the local law.
It seemed like a dead end. But if she was bold enough, if she could rope Ranma in reliably and play on the knowledge of her home world... She had to refresh her memory of the life and deeds of Barnum. Whom she admired, by whom she was inspired... But, sadly, had read about him long ago when she was just a kid so she did not remember the important parts well.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Ranma, Akane and Shampoo brought their roll of fabric into Mimic's workshop: there was a table big enough to unroll it as well as tools for working it. Ranma quickly cut himself a suitable stripe and began sewing one-size-fits-all girl underpants with side-straps for tying them on. He was doing everything on his own: cutting while using his eye sight measurement only, sewing, stitching the edges with speed and accuracy that would make an overlock sewing machine envious.
Shampoo tried intruding using an excuse of trying the finished product on, making Akane fume. But the pigtailed one weaseled out by secluding himself behind some big invention together with a glass of water. After jumping around a bit and making several flips through standing splits and handstands, the redhead confirmed that the panties were well and good. She then continued producing them pair after pair.
"Here, take this." Mimic handed the remaining two girls a worn magazine spread of cutouts. "Sky brought it this morning."
These were cutouts of the outfit Sky was wearing yesterday, all covered in pencil marks, with a couple lines corrected. Armed with chips of soap, both began copying the cutouts onto the fabric, one from the right and the other from the left.
When they met in the middle, Xian Pu sneered: "What's this, a decorative jellyfish ornament?" She pointed derisively at the fruits of Akane's labor. "Or is it modern art? I bet you wouldn't wear this yourself!"
The youngest Tendou frowned as she kept doodling. But Mimic loomed suddenly over her shoulder. His beard was twitching in outrage: "Young lady! How could you treat the results of human labor so carelessly!"
Akane froze, confused, glancing at him uncertainly.
"Erase everything and do over!" the old man commanded. "I know, it's always hard for the first time, but that's no excuse for such neglect. Would I tinker like this I'd beggar myself a long time ago, a laughing stock for everyone!"
Akane looked at the magazine spread, then at her handiwork, then at the spread again. Shot a glance at the smug and condescending Xian Pu. Froze in balance.
"Just like Shantae when she was learning to cook pilaf." Mimic sighed straightening his glasses. "How old was she back then...? Eleven or twelve... Hmmm..." He was frowning, seemingly lost in thought.
Her ears flaming — the hint she was behaving like a brat was laid on thick — Akane let out a noisy breath, erased all her lines and began drawing the cutouts from the start, slowly, with her tongue poking out in concentration, constantly referring the magazine spread with a measuring tape in hand.
"Do you think hard work could balance crooked hands out?" the amazon quiped.
Akane was squeezing her chip of soap so hard it was crumbling in her hand but was stubbornly refusing to rise to the bait.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
The clothing had been made in double numbers and tried on. Risky wasn't coming. Shantae too. Ukyou was still out to parts unknown. The tropical sun moved past noon, the air was so warm no one wanted to move. The locals have wisely disappeared in their houses and under awnings.
Incited by Nabiki, Ranma had brazenly borrowed some olive oil in the lighthouse. Now four girls in identic dark red side tie bikinis were lazing in the shade under palm trees sipping through straws.
So what if the straws were actual straw instead of plastic? It was just closer to the nature.
The idyllic noon lazing was interrupted by the mayor who made effort to come to the beach with two town guards in their red half-shirts and funny hats. The rotund shorty was huffing, sweating, fanning himself with a large fan but kept demanding for Ryouga.
Their attempts to talk their way out of this by explaining the futility of catching water with a butterfly net did not work:
"You promised," the mayor remarked acidly, "that he won't go anywhere! It's on your word that he helps fixing what he broke as recompense."
"There's no helping it." Nabiki sighed theatrically as she put her hand on the redhead's shoulder and pushed her forward. "You have to do it, Ranma-kun. We can count on you, can we?"
"As if I had a choice," the martial artist grumbled pouting. Then, an impish spark glinted in her eyes. Raising her head towards the sky, Ranma bellowed: "Ryouga‼！ It's all your fault‼！"
Akane and Xian Pu trailed the pigtailed girl but they couldn't participate in time. The hole in the town wall was fixed very quickly, the longest part was waiting for a snappy old man who was making mortar, slapping at the hands of anyone trying to help him. Half the prepared stones were left unused: with Ranma's help repairing the wall resembled gluing a broken cup back together. She was moving pieces effortlessly, even those weighing hundreds of kilograms, placing them back in their place on mortar.
Everyone was left satisfied except the guy whose job was dragging the unused stones back to the warehouse.
When repairing was done and everyone was going to go back to the beach, Shantae landed neraby dropping suddenly from the sky.
"My arms are killing me!" the half-Genie complained merrily rolling her shoulders. "It feels like I flew all over the forest from here to the very Mermaid Falls.. I've never seen so much magic jam at once...! That's not counting the lot of stashes I missed that time... Ah! I see sewing was a success!
Discussing their parts light-heartedly — Akane practically bloomed, in Xian Pu's company she had only been suffering barbs and stress — they went towards the beach.
When they were rounding the corner of the last house, Ranma felt a prick of something akin to killing intent but not exactly. More like inexorable female righteous fury...? Puzzled, she did not have time to figure it out. Risky Boots was waiting for them beyond the corner, so enraged her eye was twitching.
Why didn't my danger sense work? both Ranma and Xian Pu thought taking combat stances.
"Here you are, you parasitic brat!" Ignoring them, the pirate lady stomped up to the half-Genie, grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and began dragging her back in the direction of the pond. "Let's go have a talk!"
Shantae was wheezing and kicking, turning gradually blue: there was nothing but her choker to grab there. The strip of black fabric was demonstrating exemplary sturdiness, not even hinting at ripping.
"Hey! Hey! You'd strangle her!" the friends of the dragged one rushed after them.
Casting a side glance Risky realized she could really strangle the purple-haired dancer. Grabbed her by the ear instead and kept dragging fiercely. Into Mimic's workshop, it tirned out.
"Ow! Ouch! Leggo!" Shantae was struggling, choking. "We have a truce!"
"Then how would you explain this!" Risky barked releasing her only to direct her towards a huge glass jar with a kick at her derriere. There was someone dark inside the vessel.
"A tinkerbat?" the half-Genie stumbled back. "But why...? Uncle shouln't have...!"
"Oh, it was me who stuffed him in there," Risky said dismissively. "And look closer!"
"You..." Shantae began but fell silent. Because while the creature beyond the class was resembling a tinkerbat, it wasn't one. It wasn't a cacklebat either. No wings, no eyeless toothy maw, it looked like a regular tinkerbat in red baggy pants and red headscarf pulled town to its eyes. But its shape was wrong, like it shrunk and shriveled. Its face was sporting something akin to a wrinkled beak-like lip. Wait, this was reminding her of someone...
"Sweeto‼！" the creature yelled, heard even through the thick glass, and jumped at Shantae with such vigor it made the giant jar wobble.
The half-Genie gasped making an involuntary step back.
"Now be so kind to explain," Risky growled with barely restrained rage, "what sort of vile stuff did you have in the lamp that my men began turning into this instead of cacklebats?！ And why the devil did they steal all my underpants, EVEN THOSE I WAS WEARING!"
"Happoubat," Ranma whispered while Risky was venting by laying into stunned Shantae.
"Happoubat," Akane agreed, shivering.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Canonic cacklebat: (ur toob gsqbhyMDCxc?t=130 )
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Author's reminder to those readers who look at Shantae with lowly thoughts like "I'd tap dat ass": first, superstrength. Low tier, but it's there. Second, stamina that'd make marathon runners envious. Her fitness is on the level of a wild human, an endurance predator able to run all day non-stop. So... you are looking at death by snu-snu, gentlemen.
..but your answer is "Yes" anyway, isn't it?
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
P.S. Erin Bozon, who first envisioned Shantae, had her hands in designing Futurama characters as well.
( ｡◕ シーンブレイク ◕｡)
Published in Russian: September 26, 2019. Translated to English: January 28, 2020. Edited October 27, 2021