Author's Notes: Finally! I wanted to have this out by September 12th at the latest, but real life just kept on piling shit in my way... But, it's finally here, and hopefully it won't take so long for the next update. With at least two other crossover projects needing updates, it's hard to juggle this... But, hey, the fandom for this one is definitely on the small side... And now, a disclaimer:
I wish to make this clear. The writing team for T3 do not hate Kasumi. They resent some of the fanon portrayals of Ranma 1/2 characters, but they don't hate Kasumi. In fact, the person who suggested her as the antagonist was the same person who suggested she appeared in Love Opens Many Doors, and also adores foxes and kitsune.
Within the fandom, she's portrayed as someone who has never done anything wrong, when she was the one who pushed the engagement onto Akane, she is the true source of the infamous 'Mallet-sama' and she has done some very spiteful things in the series...
But to some fans, she's Saint Kasumi, and does nothing wrong. Her portrayal in this story is to subvert that overarching flanderization. Not all flanderizations are cruel.
Episode 3: School Daze
'Y'know... I think I might almost prefer to be in class right now...'
A sudden sharp spray of freezing cold water caught Ranma squarely in the face, snapping him back to reality. He bit back a shriek of complaint as the frigidity of the fluid registered on his largely bare skin, sluicing generously down over his bare torso even as stinging droplets forced themselves between his lips and up his sinuses, causing him to spit in disgust the instant the water shut off.
"That's salty! And whatcha do, freeze it?!" He snapped, glaring through the glass at the implacably neutral Doctor Kei. He was so worked up he even managed to ignore the fact that three very interested teenage girls were also on the other side of said glass and visibly enjoying the sight of him stripped to his boxers and being repeatedly drenched with water underneath intense light, resulting in his hair clinging to his scalp and a certain glistening quality to his skin...
Doctor Kei simply nodded in absent-minded response, even as she began to launch into a full-blown scientist's spiel.
"Water quality and negative temperature level must both be tested to their limits. Sudden and drastic alterations in metahuman attributes-"
"I keep tellin' ya, it's a curse! Not a meta-whatsit! C'mon, maybe it just broke!" Ranma protested, gesturing in only marginally exaggerated exasperation.
"There. Is. No. Such. Thing. As. Magic!" Doctor Kei clipped out, eyes hard and sharp as flints and tone even colder than the water that had just recently drenched Ranma.
Shampoo spoke up then, talking briefly but confidently in her native language. Blackfire glanced in her direction, nodding as she listened, before translating for the rest of her newly minted team.
"Shan Pu says that none of the stories in her village ever say anything about Jusenkyo just... letting go of somebody who fell victim to it. But then, there aren't that many stories about the valley anyway; it's mostly just a forbidden place," The Tamaranean translator thoughtfully told them.
"Well, what else could it possibly be? All these tests are doing is just making me cold," Ranma declared, the others musing that it was doing something, and they'd approve as many tests as needed to get more of a look Then another jet of water sprayed over him, this one from an overhead nozzle, and he sulkily glared at the unrepentant Doctor Kei.
"...It could be that first supervillain we faced? The shadow-weaving fox-woman?" Blackfire pondered. That got the attention of the others, who all turned to her as one.
"What evidence do you have for such a hypothesis?" Doctor Kei demanded - not necessarily in a challenging tone of voice, but simply in a professional fashion.
"Well, just the fact that of the four of us, we have one beautiful alien princess and three victims of magical curses - sorry, 'unusual meta-human manifestations', one of whom explicitly says she fell victim to two evil witches when it happened. It's not exactly a hyperspatial navigation calculation to say there's probably magic involved in the sudden alteration of Ranma's curse," Blackfire said, somehow maintaining a sweet, innocent, almost Starfire-esque tone despite the underlying insult in her words.
Then what she'd said registered and she frowned for the briefest moment in self-reprimand. 'X'hal Rek'ht! Watch it with the insults! You only just started sinking your claws into these pfliirs, don't go scaring them off now!'
"...That might explain why Ranma being cured made him so sickly..." Nabiki mused quietly, glancing at Ranma as she did.
Ranma squirmed at the sight of concern in his fiancée's eyes. "I'm feeling a lot better now, Nabiki, I swear!"
Now it was Blackfire's turn to focus her attention on Ranma, tilting her head as she studied him intently. "Hmm... you do look a little pale still, but that could just be the lightning here. And I can't tell if you're sweating anymore after all the impromptu showers the good doctor provided..."
"Readouts indicate a depletion in vital elements and increased fatigue, comparable to the effects of a severe cold... but his levels have been returning to baseline values over the course of my studies," Doctor Kei absently commented, glancing over her bank of computers.
"C'mon, I promise, I'm all good - can ya let me get dressed already? I'll be late for class!" Ranma protested insistently.
'I cannot believe I just said that...' He wryly marveled to himself.
"Oh, very well..." Doctor Kei declared, although if any of them had been paying attention to her, they might have seen a vein throbbing at her temple. "One final test..."
She jabbed at a button on her control panel and a veritable cannon-blast of water drenched Ranma from head to toe, wringing an indignant scream that only his father's lessons in politeness (don't laugh) kept from turning into a profusely profane denouncement of Doctor Kei's appearance, sexual history, mental health, and family lineage going back at least seven generations.
"Honestly, I don't understand why you're even attempting to uphold this ridiculous farce of being normal high school students anyway. You're superheroes now, what if you're needed in the middle of a test?" The dubiously sane doctor griped, eyes never leaving the inscrutable array of readouts she was observing.
"I don't think the school board would agree with you, especially since we only just started our careers," Nabiki dryly pointed out, tail flicking in unconscious emphasis of her words.
Doctor Kei frowned and looked over at Blackfire. "Surely you must have an opinion on this foolishness? You are part of the original Teen Titans, after all."
Blackfire nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I will admit that my...darling sister and her friends have chosen to live as superheroes twenty-four seven, but that is their decision. Besides, even then they aren't training or fighting crime all the time; if Ranma and Nabiki want to use their downtime to attend class, let them. If things get serious enough, then they'll consider going full-time, right? Also, consider the fact that their headquarters is the school grounds…"
She directed her best winning smile at the half-dragon, who simply gave her a politely neutral nod in response. Shampoo snorted (everybody present insistently avoided comparing the sound to a bull), rolling her eyes and letting out a string of Chinese that caused everybody to immediately turn to their resident translator. Blackfire bit back a sigh, and dutifully clarified for them.
"She says at least you have the choice to pretend to be normal, she can't even go out in public until the good doctor whips her up some real clothing."
Indeed, it turned out that amongst the many things that Project Sentai's underground base was lacking was clothing suitable for a girl of Shampoo's new proportions. So Doctor Kei had solved the problem of Shampoo's lack of any shirts or bras by the simple expedient of cutting a hole in the middle of an old bed sheet and draping it over Shampoo like a poncho. Functional, sure, but not exactly something that most girls would feel proud of wearing out in public. Even Doctor Kei seemed to feel a little embarrassed, if only for how underwhelming a solution it was, given she quickly spoke up.
"Fresh wardrobe items are being prepared and should be ready in a few more hours; do you have any idea how hard it was to program appropriate fashion into these useless drones? Especially for dealing with proportions like yours? I couldn't even contact my consultant, her number was not recognised. I even remembered the dialing code!" Doctor Kei declared in clipped tones, glasses catching the light in a way that caused them to momentarily glimmer, blotting out her light in an oxymoronic shadow of light.
Shampoo simply huffed, arms folded under her cleavage as she muttered something to herself.
"Anyway, we had better get going or we're going to be in so much trouble for being late to class, excuses from the principal or not. Come on, Ranma," Nabiki said, eager to be out of the rather dungeon-like depths of their still incomplete superhero base.
She began heading for the exit, Ranma hot on her heels, only for Doctor Kei to suddenly speak up from behind them.
"You'll both be reporting back here for combat practice directly after school ends."
Ranma and Nabiki exchanged confused looks, the puzzled Ranma wearing his uncertainty on his face as he glanced back over at their "team scientist". "Uh, we will?"
"You will. Since your presence in Project Sentai is officially taking the role of school club activities, you'll be expected to spend club hours here at the minimum. Considering the recent... developments, you all need some remedial combat practice."
As one, all four teenagers fixed very unamused looks on Doctor Kei, but their collective disdain at the aspersions on their skill (plus Nabiki's indignation at being told what to do) rolled off of her like water off of a duck's back. She simply stared calmly back at them, until they realized they weren't getting any reaction from her and went their separate ways.
In the elevator...
Nabiki inhaled deeply, closed her eyes and concentrated, reaching inwards as she toggled the metaphorical switch that allowed her to pull her draconic physical features back inside her body... or wherever it was that they actually went. She grimaced at the immediate tingling sensation that washed over her shoulder blades and hips, pins and needles mixed with a feeling like ants crawling over her skin.
"Why does going back to normal always itch like this?" She grumbled, wriggling her shoulders and craning her arms to scratch irritably at the base of her spine.
"Because transformation curses suck?" Ranma suggested, the disdain dripping from his words despite his own recent miraculous cure.
Nabiki glanced over at him, but couldn't hide the amused smirk that her fiancé's words inspired in her. "Well, can you name any kind of curse that wouldn't?"
She giggled softly to herself as Ranma seemed to genuinely take her teasing words seriously, frowning as he touched his pigtail before shaking his head before he declared "Nah, not really."
'Weird reaction. And why'd he touch his pigtail when he said that?' Nabiki wondered to herself.
Before she could think to press on that thought, Ranma distracted her by saying, "Then again, I'd rather have had your curse than mine any day. Dragons are cool! And you can at least turn back more or less whenever you want - you've never had ta worry about being stuck in a body you don't want just because you can't get to hot water..."
Nabiki shivered in only slightly playfully exaggerated disgust at the very idea. "I can see where you're coming from. Being stuck as a dragon-girl forever would be awful. Though, as bad as it was... are you sure you're not going to miss your curse, just a little?"
"What?!" Ranma yelped, turning an expression of equal parts confusion, shock and hurt on his fiancée, only to be disarmed at the mischievous grin she was sporting.
"Well, lack of control aside, it can't have been all bad to turn into a smoking hot busty girl, hmm? I'm sure a lot of red-blooded teenage boys would have found ways to... take advantage, of having a sexy girl right at their fingertips that would never say no..."
Nabiki trailed off there, letting her words and, more importantly, her tone paint the picture in Ranma's head, and then she grinned like a shark as Ranma went so red she thought for a moment steam was going to start pouring out of his ears like one of those old Western anime.
"I wouldn't - I didn't - I'd never - I'm not a pervert!" Ranma spluttered desperately, blushing and unable to look Nabiki in the eye even as he tried frantically to deny the implication.
Nabiki watched her fiancé's antics with equal parts fondness and amusement, drinking in his mortification like a fine wine. "So, no regrets about losing your own personal pair of breasts, then?"
Ranma promptly fell flat on his face, too shocked and embarrassed to keep his footing. Nabiki promptly lost it, giggling with delight.
"You are so easy to tease, Ranma-baby!" She playfully chided, waving a finger in mock reproach.
There was a lurch as the elevator came to a halt, its doors opening to reveal one of the more out of the way corridors of Furinkan High. Nabiki strutted confidently out, jokingly warning Ranma over her shoulder, "Hurry up, or you'll really be late for class! See you later, Ranma!"
Ranma finally shook off his shock and scrambled after her, narrowly getting out before the doors snapped shut behind him with surprising speed, almost catching his butt between them. He threw an unthinking irritated glare at the now virtually invisible doors, but by the time he looked back, Nabiki was gone and he was all alone. He sighed, stuck his hands in his pockets, and set off to find room 1-F for homeroom class.
'...Wonder what she'd have done if I'd told her I'd rather play with her boobs?'
Ranma stopped dead in his tracks as the realization as to what he'd just thought sank in properly. Then he blushed again and shook his head furiously, trying to banish the thought, before hurrying off with a sheepish look on his face.
Back in Project Sentai...
'This place reminds me of the bunkers under the palace where we hid when the Gordanians attacked... Useful, in times of need, but hardly the place I want to spend all my time...' Blackfire observed to herself as she drifted silently through the passages of the still-developing subterranean base. Not because she had any particular destination in mind, but simply because it beat just sitting in her room and staring at the ceiling.
She was so lost in her own thoughts that she nearly bumped into Shan Pu as she rounded a corner. The mutated Chinese Amazon was clearly agitated, and that would have been easy enough to tell even without her tail twisting from side to side with almost whip-like cracks of motion, a story told in the tendons visibly rippling along her clenched knuckles, the narrowed eyes, the ears that had pressed themselves flat against her skull.
Shan Pu spun to face Blackfire, fists instinctively rising into a fighting position, causing the Tamaranean to do the same, her own fists lighting up with starbolts. Then the Chinese Amazon recognized who she was facing and she lowered her hands, cheeks turning red as she looked away sheepishly.
"Shan Pu sorry... This place... Shan Pu no like. Is like tomb, where dead things still move..." The mutated Chinese girl explained in her broken Japanese.
"While I can completely understand the sentiment, you do recall that I speak your language?" Blackfire asked even as she likewise re-absorbed the energy that had been preparing to discharge itself from her hands, pointedly speaking in Shan Pu's native dialect as she did so.
"Shan Pu know, but Shan Pu need practice. Shan Pu no like sound like stupid... people think that of Shan Pu already, before this..." She sighed and shook her head, a delicate wave of her hand indicating her distinctly nonhuman body.
"You know what they say about people who think a girl is dumb just because she's beautiful?" Blackfire asked, guided half by ploy and half by impulse.
"No; what?" A confused Shan Pu replied, turning an intrigued look on Blackfire.
The Tamaranean grinned wickedly as she explained, "It makes it all the sweeter when you show them who the real moron is!"
Shan Pu laughed in vindictive delight, her obvious glee and ability to understand the insinuation making Blackfire's grin widen in approval.
'Easiest way to get minions on your side; intimidation and manipulation. That old clorbag varblernelk may have been the worst tutor, but I'll admit, she knew what she was talking about there. It's all a matter of knowing which to use, when, and how far to push it...'
Emboldened by her success, the Tamaranean pushed forward. "But I hear you on this place being uncomfortable. I spent enough of my childhood in places like this; I'll admit it's functional, but it's not exactly homey. The Teen Titans in America get a private island and a bright, airy skyscraper shaped like a T to call their own, and we get this glorified hole in the ground?"
Shan Pu frowned... but surprised Blackfire with what she said next. "Blackfire live in place like this?"
'Oh, k'vark, that wasn't the part she was supposed to focus on! Do I wave it off, or do I tell her... Well, the strongest chains are those you place around your own neck...'
"When I was a little girl, my homeworld, Tameran, would often be attacked by slave raiders from the planet Gordania. When that happened, the children would take refuge in the bunkers beneath the palace, whilst the adults fought off the Gordanians. I would sit down there in the dark, listening to the sounds of battle... I swore that one day, I would become the greatest warrior that Tamaran would ever knew, and I would drive the Gordanians wailing back into the depths of space!"
Blackfire's eyes lit up with amethyst flames, her right hand clenching unconsciously as real emotions slipped out past her carefully cultivated veil. She realized what had happened almost immediately and hurried to put her metaphorical mask back up, but it was obvious that Shan Pu had seen it.
Not that she seemed bothered by it. Indeed, the Chinese Amazon was looking at Blackfire with impassioned awe, and for a second, Blackfire would have sworn Shan Pu's triplicate eyes were literally shimmering with stars.
"Is like story from great-grandmother!" She sighed rapturously, and before Blackfire could blink, Shan Pu's hands shot out and clasped Blackfire's own right hand between them, the mutated Chinese Amazon looking the Tamaranean right in the eyes.
"You is strong, proud warrior - you no lie to Shampoo before! Shampoo be proud to fight at your side; maybe we be shield-sisters?!" She suggested, the prospect clearly exciting her given the way her tail was swishing like a happy cow's and the grin on her lips.
Blackfire stared blankly back at her in surprise, desperately trying to mentally reboot in the face of this very unexpected response to her little story. Fortune smiled when a very distinct and very loud noise emanated from Shan Pu's guts, the mutated Chinese girl releasing her grip on Blackfire's hands and covering up her midriff instead, blushing with embarrassment.
"I thought you were hungry for battle, but it sounds like you're just hungry, hmm?" Blackfire giggled, the response actually not played up at all, only for her own stomachs to suddenly chorus their own desire for nourishment.
"Eh-heh... guess I'm one to talk, huh?" She laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head in that way everybody seemed to think was so cute when Starfire did it. "C'mon, let's see if we can find something to eat, shall we?"
Shan Pu nodded her head, ears absently flicking in emphasis as she declared, "Sound good to Shan Pu! Am so hungry, could eat whole roast ox!"
Sharing a genuine laugh of mutual amusement, the two teens set off on their self-appointed mission, wending their way through the gloomy, half-shaped tunnels of Project Sentai.
Grade 1 Music class...
'So this is what a music class looks like! Never saw one back in Junior High...' Ranma absently marveled to himself, even as he took his seat - this being one of the few classes where a Japanese high school student was expected to come to a designated classroom like an American one, instead of the teachers moving between the homerooms as was normally the case.
"Saotome? Tendo? Would you kindly bring out the instruments so we can begin selecting?" Asked Furinkan High's music teacher; Caspar Slesinger, an elderly German man who looked a little like he should have been off directing in some European opera, with his long, hawk-like nose, high arching eyebrows, skeletally thin fingers and almost bird-like darting mannerisms... if he hadn't styled his long, white hair into an anti-style that looked like he'd stuck his finger in a power socket and didn't insist on wearing a sequin-studded greatcoat decorated in fiery reds, yellows and oranges.
"Sure thing," Ranma flippantly replied, his words interspersing with the more polite, "Right away, Mr. Slesinger," coming from Akane Tendo, their chairs scraping softly across the floor as they stood up simultaneously.
He let her lead the way, as much from practicality as in hopes of prolonging the delicate truce that his role in ending her much-hated morning duels seemed to have engendered. Akane threw open the double-doors to a large cupboard built into the classroom wall, and Ranma marveled at the array of instruments contained within.
'Man, I don't even recognize half this junk! Wait... that one, I do!'
"Hey, Akane, what's the deal with this electric guitar? Why's it all plastered in ofuda?" Ranma asked curiously, even as he absently reached out to take the instrument by its neck.
"No, don't!" Akane suddenly cried, her hand shooting out at what even Ranma would admit later was impressive speed and latching onto Ranma's wrist, stopping him before he could touch the guitar.
Ranma twisted to face his technically-kind-of-sort-of-future sister-in-law, indignant protestation already mounting the tip of his tongue, only for it to die stillborn as he caught sight of Akane's face. Instead of the usual hostility (with undertones of resentment) he had come to expect from Akane, there was genuine concern - maybe even a hint of fear - and her attention was fixated squarely on the guitar.
"What's wrong?" He asked gently, eyes flicking warily from the cautious girl to the seemingly inert instrument.
She seemed not to hear him at first, but then reality kicked in and she hastily let him go - not angrily, but embarrassed.
"I...I wouldn't normally overreact like that, but after you showed up, and what happened to my sister, well, better safe than sorry, right?" She quietly said - almost blustered, but her tone was too soft and uncertain, tinged with embarrassment, compared to the defensive gruffness that Ranma was used to.
"What is it? What's so scary about a guitar?" Ranma asked her, trying to pitch his voice low so they couldn't be overheard.
Akane grimaced, but as she opened her mouth to speak, another voice interjected itself loudly from behind.
"What's keeping you guys? Whoa! Is that Musashi's Guitar?! I thought that was only a legend!"
Ranma seemed to blink, and then they were surrounded by classmates, gasping and marveling and talking over each other in their excitement. Ranma stared dumbly at the crowd of boys and girls, trying and failing to make sense of their jabbering, then looked pitifully over at Akane, who seemed just plain embarrassed.
"Will somebody tell me what the deal is?!" Ranma finally exploded in irritation.
"You ain't heard the legend of Musashi's Guitar? It's only one of the seven wonders of Furinkan High!" Boggled one guy, whose black hair was parted in the middle.
"C'mon, Daisuke, he's a transfer student - how's he supposed to know?" Rebutted another boy, this one with shaggy brown hair, before he turned to Akane and said, "C'mon, Akane, tell the story! We all know you're great at this sort of spooky stuff!"
A chorus of excited agreements rang out from the other kids, causing Akane to blush and look away, as if trying to escape the attention. But since none of them showed any sign of relenting, the self-declared heir to the Tendo Dojo took a deep breath and began to recite.
"Long ago, in the 1980s, there was a girl at Furinkan High called Kogane Musashi, who dreamed of being a rock and roll guitar star. But her parents absolutely refused to let her pursue her dream, forcing her to join the music club and supposedly work to become a member in a classical music symphony. But Kogane wouldn't let their old-fashioned views hold her back! She spent her hours at the club practicing the electric guitar in secret, dreaming of the day when she could make it big!"
Akane smiled absently to herself, clearly sympathizing with Kogane's vision on some level, before she shook her head and continued.
"But then, at the end of the year, there was the big music club talent show, and her secret came out. A big thunderstorm had been brewing ever since the talent show started, and as she came out on the stage for her play, it got really heavy. Her parents were so mad at her that they ran up to the stage and started arguing with her - they were screaming, and she was screaming right back, declaring that rock and roll was her life, and that she'd rather be dead than give it up. Even as they cursed her for a wicked, ungrateful daughter, she started to play... but, right as she was in the middle of her composition, hand raised to strike the ultimate power chord-!"
Akane suddenly clapped her hands, the retort of flesh-on-flesh echoing around the classroom like a gunshot and causing everybody - Ranma included - to leap in shock.
"A lightning bolt struck her dead! They say that when the smoke cleared, all that was left of her was a blackened skeleton... still clutching an immaculate guitar."
The other students 'oohed' and 'aahed' appreciatively at Akane's storytelling, a few girls making murmurs to the tune of "So creepy!", but Akane wasn't done yet.
"Ever since that day, Musashi's guitar has haunted Furinkan High School. They say that, on stormy nights, you can hear the sounds of somebody practicing on an electric guitar echoing through the empty halls. And anyone who has ever tried to use the guitar has been haunted by Kogane's ghost - angry that somebody would dare to take her precious guitar from her!"
"So, why don't they just throw it away?" Ranma asked, unable to help but feel a little skeptical at the story Akane was telling.
'Haunted guitars; yeah, right! ...Then again, who am I to be skeptical about that...?'
"They've tried! According to the stories, they tried everything from just putting it out with the rubbish to giving it away to burning it or feeding it into a woodchipper... but every time, the guitar returned the next morning, immaculate as always. Eventually they just hired a local priest to place sealing wards on it and forbid anyone from ever using it," Akane insisted passionately, although for once without the hostile edge that Ranma was used to hearing when it was just the two of them speaking.
More excited mutterings and murmurings from their classmates filled the air, before being drowned out by an enraged bellow from their teacher.
"That's enough, all of you! Back in your seats!"
"Yes, sensei!" Came the immediate chorus, and as quickly as they had gathered, the crowd dispersed, returning to their seats.
'Yeesh, is there an American base missing its drill instructor somewhere?' Ranma wondered, but quickly joined Akane in grabbing the non-haunted instruments and dragging them out into the open.
As the class started, Ranma took advantage of an opening to lean towards Akane and whisper, "Hey, thanks; that could've gone really bad."
"Yeah, well... even you didn't deserve that," Akane muttered back, but she was smiling as she said it.
Lunch time...
'Ah, man, worst thing about racing to Doc Kei's lab was that we forgot to grab lunch! Damn, I'm starving - hope I can scrape up enough pocket money for somethin' to eat, then - whoa!'
Ranma found both his train of thought and his progress through the halls of Furinkan High arrested as a figure suddenly loomed out of seemingly nowhere, causing Ranma to stop dead on the spot lest he run them down. The human roadblock twisted around Ranma, causing him to instinctively pivot to face them, until his back was against the wall. That was when the stranger's hand suddenly shot out, slapping against the wall with an audible thud just next to Ranma's head, forming an impromptu semi-prison.
That was when Ranma's mind caught up with his instincts, and he recognized who he had just been caught by.
"Sh-Shampoo?!" He blurted out, staring in genuine shock at the mutated Chinese Amazon.
The makeshift dress was gone, replaced by a girl's uniform - albeit very much not the Furinkan High uniform. It was black as sin, save for twin bands of white around the collar and wrists, a crimson scarf knotted into a loose bow that flopped down over her impressive bosom the only splash of color in the ensemble. Her new skirt trailed almost the floor, and if it weren't for the little details, she could have passed for just any other schoolgirl.
Ranma fought down the urge to swallow nervously. Even with their...uh... "rocky" history, and her new monstrous makeover, Shampoo was still quite the beauty. And even if he was engaged, that growth spurt the Chinese Amazon had undergone, combined with her slightly forward-leaning position, meant he had a perfect view of where else she'd grown since her transformation. Neither the glimpse of fangs as she smiled, nor the bovine horns jutting from her head, could really spoil her beauty as she grinned seductively at him.
"Nihao, Airen. You want come eat?"
Ranma blinked up at her, feeling an awful lot like a mouse caught by a snake. "Um-wha-how-you got clothes?!"
Shampoo's warm, flirtatious expression faded like a snowflake in a blast furnace into one of equal parts surprise and disappointment; evidently, that was not the kind of response she'd been hoping to elicit. "Crazy doctor finally get Shan Pu clothes, yes. No thrill with look, but better than be nude. Now that settled, Ranma come join Shan Pu for lunch?"
Ranma wracked his brains, trying to figure out the appropriate response, only to be cut off by a loud groan of hunger from his stomach.
Shampoo giggled musically, the dainty sound a reminder of the cute little girl she had visually been before her arrival in Japan. "Sound like Airen's stomach agree!" She chortled... And then her own stomach growled - no, roared in hunger, three times louder than Ranma's had.
The Chinese Amazon blushed, sheepishly covering her midriff with her free hand as she angrily muttered something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like Chinese profanity to Ranma. He smiled in unconscious amusement, then nodded slowly.
"Okay, Shampoo, we'll go - but only if we take Nabiki an' Blackfire too! We'll make it a team lunch, okay?" He suggested brightly.
'An' that way, it won't look like I'm actually letting you break me an' Nabiki up - we may be teammates, but that don't mean I agree to this stupid marriage thing!'
Shampoo visibly brightened at Ranma's response, beaming happily... until his ultimatum sank in, whereupon she rolled her eyes and blew out an irked snort. "Blackfire one suggest we go. She getting Nabiki now."
Ranma blinked in surprise, but smiled happily. "Well, alright then, let's go, shall we?"
Shortly afterwards...
The roof of Furinkan High wasn't exactly the most scenic part of the campus, but it did at least have a decent view, and it was certainly private. Which was all the better for the quartet of teens currently sitting on it, huddled out of the wind as best they could. After all, it would have been rather awkward to explain why two of Furinkan High's regular students were just casually hanging out with what were clearly two members of the Teen Titans Tokyo.
"You know... when Shampoo invited me to lunch, I kind of pictured somethin' different," Ranma idly observed, taking in the barren concrete on which they sat in a rough circle around a small mountain of junk food.
"And not that I'm complaining, but why Western junk food? Wouldn't something like Yoshinobu have been cheaper?" Nabiki added, taking in the two family-sized buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken - one regular, the other hot & spicy flavor - and the pair of family burger meals from WcDonalds that made up said 'lunch'.
"Blame our supposed patron; apparently, they want us to wait until they've 'arranged matters with the authorities' to have us publicly and officially sworn in as local superheroes before we go out in public for non-mission purposes. As for why the burgers and fried chicken... I thought you three might appreciate something a little more exotic. Besides, Kuno was paying," Blackfire declared flippantly, even as she reached out, snagged a burger and bit into it with gusto. A soft moan of delight escaped the Tamaranean's mouth, her eyes fluttering shut as she savored the wash of greasy beef and exotic human seasonings on her tongue.
'Okay, little sis was right; Earth food is worth the trip!'
"Say no more," Nabiki chuckled, even as she delicately took a handful of chips from the pile.
"Hey, only time I ever got to eat this stuff was on Christmas, I don't mind!" Ranma added, grabbing a chicken drumstick and stripping it with his teeth.
Shan Pu, meanwhile, had already denuded three pieces of chicken and was now wolfing down a burger, alternating it with mouthfuls of fries. In barely a minute she had finished both off, and then she immediately began guzzling one of the bottles of soft drink they had bought.
"Wow, somebody's clearly enjoying this," Ranma marveled, watching in amazement as the Chinese Amazon tucked into her food with a fervor he normally associated with his father.
Shan Pu finished draining the bottle, wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist, then blushed sheepishly as she realized that all three teens were looking at her. "Shan Pu sorry... Shan Pu just so hungry. No eat since before get turned into this..."
"Wait, Doctor Kei didn't even try to feed you?!" Ranma blurted in shock, an unexpected surge of indignation rising up at the thought.
"Apparently, our resident mad scientist is of the 'nutrition before taste' school of culinary opinions," Blackfire noted darkly, crunching into a piece of hot and spicy chicken, absently devouring it bone and all.
"Not a very good cook?" Nabiki dryly asked, before delicately consuming some more chips.
"All she has in the supposed kitchen down there are American military surplus MREs and instant ramen. Cheap instant ramen," Blackfire growled at the very notion, grabbing a bottle for herself.
Ranma groaned in emphatic disgust, shaking his head, "Ugh, yeah, I've had that stuff before... I've eaten old boots that tasted better."
"Wait, what?" A dumbstruck Nabiki interjected at that little revelation, with Shan Pu and even Blackfire joining her in staring at Ranma in naked shock.
Ranma glanced between them, cheeks turning a faint red with embarrassment before he finally confessed, "Pops wasn't always the best at managin' supplies 'n' junk..."
He promptly stuffed some chips into his mouth and grabbed a burger, an obvious signal of his disinterest in exploring the topic any further than that.
Nabiki's eyes flicked across her new fiancé's face for a moment, before she casually observed, "Daddy was always saying that the path of a martial artist is fraught with peril, or something like that. So, China girl; you have any little stories like that to share?"
Shan Pu looked up at Nabiki, as shocked as it was possible to look when her mouth was so full of hamburger and chicken she looked like a squirrel gathering nuts. She mumbled something in an instinctive response, then hastily swallowed in a series of massive gulps, hastily washing it down with another deep swig from her purloined bottle of soft drink.
"Pffah! Nabiki no question Shan Pu when eating! Shan Pu nearly choke!" The Chinese Amazon scolded her, wiping her mouth on the back of her wrist again. Then she looked embarrassed, blushing faintly as she added, "But great-grandmother be too-too mad she see Shan Pu eating like this. Shan Pu sorry; was too-too hungry. What was question?"
"I asked if you also had stories of problems with food, but I think you just answered my question," Nabiki sweetly replied, deliberately taking as dainty a bite out of a drumstick as it was possible to take as she did.
Shan Pu's eyes narrowed at Nabiki's words. All three of them. "What dragon lady mean by that?"
"Dragon lady?" Nabiki repeated, more amused than insulted, an eyebrow quirked to emphasize her questioning tone.
"What? Is true," Shan Pu rebutted, but there was a hint of jest in her voice. "Besides, Shan Pu is good cook! Shan Pu make airen too-too delicious Chinese food, once stupid doctor let Shan Pu buy real ingredients, yes?"
She smiled flirtatiously at Ranma, who blushed faintly and squirmed, flashing a guilty yet pleading look at Nabiki. His Tendo fiancée glanced at him in response, and favored him with a quick, clearly amused smirk and a lightning-fast wink before casually saying, "Gee, think you're up to cooking enough to feed all of us, China girl?"
Shan Pu looked straight at her, defiance written on her face. "Shan Pu help cook for whole family back home. Cook for you two be no problem."
"Oh, I don't know; our little dragon lady seems to have a pretty sizable appetite," Blackfire playfully interjected, a mischievous grin on her own lips before she sank them into her latest burger.
Both Ranma and Shan Pu looked at their alien dinner guest with matching confused expressions, then looked as one at first the heavily diminished pile of fast food, and then over at Nabiki and the pile of detritus that had gathered next to her, which was easily comparable to their own. Nabiki stared back at them unashamedly, smiling and giving a dismissive little shrug at their surprise.
"Hey, if somebody else is footing the bill, then you should always try to eat your fill!" She chirped brightly.
"...That sounds like something pop would say," Ranma unthinkingly commented.
Nabiki poked her tongue out at him, only to recoil as nearly six inches of fork-tipped flesh flicked through the air. Swallowing hard, she tried to recapture the mood, teasingly proclaiming, "Well, even your daddy has to have some good ideas, doesn't he?"
Ranma chuckled softly in response. "Yeah, I guess, he's had a few good ones... especially recently."
The faintest hint of a blush brightened his cheeks, but he was more interested in Nabiki's reaction. Her eyes widened a little in surprise, and then she smiled, with just the faintest hint of a blush on her cheeks as well.
"That's right, you two live together, don't you?" Blackfire idly observed, licking a stray gobbet of sauce from her fingers even as she reached out for some chicken, her eyes never leaving Ranma and Nabiki as she did so.
"Yeah... so much for secret identities, hm, Ranma?" Nabiki asked, and there was just enough bite in her tone that Ranma lowered his head, appropriately chastened.
"Secret identity sound confusing to Shan Pu," the Chinese Amazon commented, in between demolishing a burger stuffed with deboned chicken pieces. "You is you, and you is doing good thing. Why pretend it not you?"
"Easy for you to say; I have a family to worry about. How would you feel if some big ugly brute wanted to get back at you by picking on your great-grandmother?" Nabiki retorted.
"Hope he at least amuse her for five minutes. Last ones no last even ten seconds," Shan Pu immediately quipped in all sincerity.
Ranma and Nabiki both stared at her, only to shift their attention when Blackfire let out a short, sharp laugh and some commentary of her own.
"Ha! Sounds like my great-grandmother. She was a tough old bird," The alien proclaimed, a wistful smile on her face as she looked off into the distance for a moment.
"Heroing a family trade, is it?" Nabiki asked.
"Mm... You could say that. Our planet was attacked all the time, so we Tamaraneans have a long, proud history of martial strength and prowess. Starfire's little jaunt to Earth was... unusual, but not... disreputable," Blackfire explained, her smile growing just a little bit tense as she spoke. Then it passed as she turned to Ranma and asked, "So, what about you? Long history of martial artists in your family?"
Ranma blinked slowly, then furrowed his brow, deep in thought. He grabbed some of the very last chips and slowly munched on them before answering, "Y'know, I'm actually not sure? Pops never has talked much about our family..."
And on that note, the bell suddenly rang, the electronic chiming much louder than usual thanks to their being on the roof instead of the ground. Ranma, Nabiki, Shan Pu and Blackfire all started as one, looking around wildly.
"No way, lunch is over already?!" Ranma blurted.
"Time flies when you're having fun," Nabiki quipped, before grabbing a few extra pieces of chicken. "C'mon, we better get back to class - superheroes or no, there's no way they'll let us get off with being late."
"But I was still eating! Oh, alright, c'mon then," Ranma declared, pausing to grab a few choice bits before he hurried after her, both teens eating as they went.
Shan Pu and Blackfire watched as they were left behind, and once the door had slammed shut after them, Shan Pu hung her horned head, sighing forlornly as her tail swished behind her. "Well, that lunch no go how Shan Pu envision..."
"Baby steps, girl, baby steps. You have only known each other for barely a day yet. Boys like him need a gentle touch, or they tend to bolt just when you're getting good at it," Blackfire half-chided, half-encouraged her.
"Blackfire speak from experience?" Shan Pu asked dryly, her third eye glancing over at the alien even as her normal eyes affected that she was staring off into the distance.
"Oh, I've had a little experience," Blackfire assured her with a flippant wave of her hand, unable to resist a smirk as she added, "Certainly more than you seem to have..."
"Stupid Musi..." Shan Pu grumbled, tail swishing rapidly in irritation.
'Easy, easy, you're supposed to be making nice with your potential new minions!' Blackfire mentally scolded herself.
Outwardly, she put on a smile as she said, "Oh, yeah, the clingy ones are just the absolute worst! So, what do you want to do now? We've got nothing else to do until it's time for combat practice..."
"Hmm... finish food, then go to school library? No expect much, but it better than just sitting up here watching birds go by..." Shampoo said, still a little grumpy, but brightening up at the thought.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Blackfire said, picking up a bottle of cola that was still half-full. She held it out to Shan Pu, a smile on her face, playfully suggesting, "Cheers?"
Shan Pu smiled and picked up her own half-full bottle of soda, jestingly 'clinking' it against Blackfire's own with an answering quip of, "Cheers!"
Science class...
'Two non-homeroom classes on the same day. What're the odds?' Ranma mused to himself, tugging a little at the labcoat he'd been assigned.
"Why do I keep getting assigned to work with you?" Akane muttered next to him, but the question lacked the heat it would have had yesterday.
"Maybe because we got neighboring seats? Honestly, you're probably way better at this stuff than me - I ain't been in one of these classrooms since Junior High," Ranma admitted before adjusting his safety glasses.
Akane visibly perked up at that admission, glancing over at Ranma with an actual smile on her face. "Ohh! Mr. Bigshot Martial Artist isn't the best at everything, hm?"
Ranma frowned, glowering at her, but before he could say anything - which would have probably put them both back at openly fighting with each other - the door swung open and the teacher stepped inside.
"Good afternoon, class. I hope you're all happy to see me as I am happy to see you. Seiko, that bomb you placed in my desk was hilarious. I enjoyed defusing it," A familiar voice declared, as Kei walked into the room, surprisingly having replaced her school uniform with something that vaguely looked to be smart casual.
"Good afternoon, sensei!" chorused the students obediently... all of them save one.
"Wh-what are you doing here?!" A dumbfounded Ranma blurted, pointing accusingly at the unmistakable labcoat-wearing form of Doctor Kei.
"Ranma! Show some manners! She's our new science teacher; started work only a month ago!" Akane scolded him.
"She's a child!" Ranma protested unthinkingly.
"I'll have you know that I am qualified to teach this class. More than qualified. Now, if you don't want to have to do a test where you tell me the scientific properties of twenty random elements of the periodic table, you will please be quiet, K?" She offered sweetly, with a grin that wouldn't look out of place on a shark.
Ranma obediently shut his mouth and began doing what he was told, carefully mixing chemicals from one beaker into another. He watched in genuine fascination as the liquids and crystals dissolved together, creating a rainbow of color changes.
"Huh, this is pretty neat, don't'cha think?" He idly asked his lab partner for the class.
"Oh, no!" Akane declared, her voice filled with an uncharacteristic panic. A baffled Ranma glanced over at her and nearly dropped his own beaker at what he saw: a frightened Akane holding a beaker filled with a dark, ominously red fluid - very different to the pale blue chemical cocktail in everybody else's flasks. More importantly, it was bubbling madly as if it were being held directly to a burner turned as hot as it could possibly get instead of being waved in the air by a desperate teenage girl, plumes of acrid smoke spewing from its long tip.
Instincts immediately screamed alarm bells in his mind and Ranma quickly turned to the head of the classroom. "Uh, Doc Kei?! Little help over here!"
The alarmingly young mad science teacher simply nodded calmly. "Pay close attention, class. This is why it's so important to do things in the proper order and to pay attention that you are using the correct ingredients. Miss Tendo is about to demonstrate what happens if you skip the stabilizer before adding the magnesium..."
Even as she said this, her hand darted out and stabbed what Ranma realized was not some kind of small abstract sculpture, but was in fact a large, heavy-duty button. Pressurized gasses hissed and mechanical servos began to whir as the roof tiles rippled like the wave of the ocean, parting to reveal concealed slots from which large slabs of very thick-looking transparent plastic began to slam down.
Pure instinct engendered by a lifetime under Genma "Run For It!" Saotome kicked in at once. Ranma dropped his own flask, which shattered on the floor, and leapt into action. Not straight backwards to save his own skin, which is what his father probably (he tried to squash the treacherous "certainly" that automatically popped into his forebrain) would have done. Instead, he tackled Akane out of the way... well, he tried to do that. When she saw him leaping at her, Akane screamed in panic and caught him mid-air with a two-fisted shove that sent Ranma flying through the air, just underneath one of the descending barriers, until he crashed into a wall.
Which meant that when her unstable chemicals exploded seconds later, Akane was at ground zero.
"Akane!" Ranma cried in dismay, staring in horror at the huge cloud of purple smoke filling the impromptu cell that had surrounded her.
'What am I gonna tell Nabiki!?'
"Keh-keh-keh-kahk! Keh-ack! Man, that stuff stinks!" Akane spluttered, waving desperately at the smoke as fans suddenly hummed into life in the ceiling, sucking it away from her little cellblock. Her face was covered in soot, her labcoat was scorched and a few stray locks of hair were singed, but otherwise she was intact, and Ranma sighed in relief at the sight of her.
"And that, class, is why rule one of chemistry class is...?"
"Always follow instructions," came the dutiful answering chant from everybody in the room.
"Very good, class. Now that our little impromptu demonstration is complete, let's resume, shall we?" Kei asked, the question clearly rhetorical as she toggled the button on her desk again, causing the transparent panels of plastic to slowly and steadily rise back into the ceiling.
Ranma took his position back at Akane's desk with some reluctance. Even as the rest of their classmates returned their attention to their work with newfound focus, he couldn't resist whispering to Akane, "So, this sort of thing happen to you a lot?"
"Just shut up," She growled sourly back.
Ranma obediently bowed his head and went back to his schoolwork. Thus, he missed Doctor Kei muttering to herself from her position at the front of the class.
"...I'll have to double-check and recalibrate the emergency deployment system... stupid girl... Still, at least the internal barriers deployed as expected..."
After school...
"You're kidding; she blew up the science lab!?" Nabiki laughed uproariously in delight, rotating her stiff shoulders and stretching her now-exposed wings, tail flicking in emphasis of her amusement. The sounds of her mirth echoed off of the walls of the small elevator that she and Ranma had found disguised as part of a wall and were now riding down to their new secret base... and wasn't that a trippy concept!
In contrast, Ranma hung his head and moaned softly in dismay. "Man, I think we were finally starting to cool it with this enemies thing, too! It wasn't my fault she didn't follow the doc's instructions!"
"Oh, relax, Ranma; Akane will get over it eventually," Nabiki assured him. "She would have been more embarrassed at herself than angry at you! She'll cool down, I know she will."
As if on cue, there was a soft 'clunk' sound and the faintest jolt as the elevator finally reached its destination, the doors swinging open.
"I hope you're right, Nabiki," Ranma sighed, even as the two of them stepped out into what was supposed to be the command post... and right into an ongoing conversation (well, argument) between Tatewaki Kuno and Doctor Kei.
"-Blast it all, I thought you were supposed to be a genius! How is it that you can build all manner of hidden doors and lifts and other contraptions around my school, yet you can't put together a simple camera device to reliably oversee the zord maintenance bay?!" Tatewaki snapped fiercely, gesturing passionately as he spoke - not at anything in particular, more because he seemed unable to keep from such dramatic movements.
"I let you know a week ago that your cameras work on the same frequency as the control frequency for the zords," Dr. K rebutted in an icily calm tone of voice. "It's not my fault if I keep ending up turning them off when I am doing a diagnostic cycle while I grab some lunch, certainly not when you've had a week to replace or update them."
Tatewaki hissed, brow furrowed in irritation, then sighed softly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're right, it should have been taken care of. But it wasn't, and that means somebody saw something they shouldn't have. Still, so far, we seem to be lucky - I certainly didn't hear any gossip about giant robots at the school..."
"Why would there be gossip about giant robots? What are you guys talkin' about?" Ranma asked loudly, having slipped up right behind Tatewaki by this point.
Nabiki giggled to herself in amusement as Tatewaki nearly leapt out of his skin, fingers curling into a strange gesture as if to ward off evil spirits before he realized who had spoken. Desperately, the elder youth tried to reclaim his dignity, straightening the collar folds of the uwagi that he normally wore instead of the usual boy's uniform.
"Nothing, Saotome, nothing of interest to you. It's good to see that you both arrived promptly, though."
"Oh, yes, and we're sooo happy to be here. It's not as if we couldn't have been doing anything else... like enjoying our first actual date as a newly engaged couple," Nabiki drawled sarcastically as she stepped up into the impromptu gathering.
Ranma had the good sense to look guilty, even though Nabiki wasn't actually looking at him as she said that. Unfortunately for Nabiki, her discontent rolled off of the bulwark of Tatewaki's ego like water off of a duck's back.
"If I had the option to keep you from being involved, Nabiki Tendo, I would happily take it. If only because you clearly have no formal training in combat and would be placing yourself in danger whenever you took to the field," Tatewaki shot back immediately.
"But since she already cemented herself as a founding member of the Teen Titans Tokyo on live television, her ducking out now would attract some very unwanted attention, so she'll just have to play catch-up!" Blackfire quipped gleefully as she lazily floated into view from one of the other doorways, Shan Pu hot on her proverbial heels.
"Nihao, airen! Shan Pu eager to spar!" The mutated Chinese Amazon cheered, hand raised in a gesture that was half wave, half salute as she saw Ranma.
"So, where is this training room, anyway? I've been waiting for this all day - seriously, we really need to talk about improving the entertainment options around this place," Blackfire observed, idly folding her arms over her chest as she addressed Tatewaki.
"I'm sorry, there's already a hundred and eight other vital tasks that need to be completed before this operating station is properly brought online - is setting you up with cable television or a Gamestation 2 really the optimal use of our time?" Tatewaki asked her dryly.
"Easy for you to say! You don't have to live in this X'hal forsaken dungeon when you're not on a mission!" Blackfire hissed indignantly, her eyes lighting up with amaranth-colored flames and her hair seeming to wave in a non-existent breeze.
Everybody stiffened, a veil of tension dropping over the room. Ranma unconsciously stepped so that he was between Blackfire and Nabiki, and all of them held their breath...
But Tatewaki moved first, hanging his head in reproach. "I hadn't considered that... I am sorry."
The luminescence enveloping Blackfire's eyes guttered out in an instant, and she smiled warmly. "I knew you'd see reason! Now, where's this training room?"
Moments later...
"...I know you're still setting things up, but I was honestly expecting more than this," Blackfire idly commented as her gaze swept across the training room.
In fact, using the term was being rather generous. Like the rest of Project Sentai's chambers, it was basically a man-made cave, carved from the rock by unthinking robots and lit by clearly temporary lighting attached to the roof. The only things really distinguishing it from the rest of the rooms was its sheer size - easily three times taller than any standard room, and wide enough to match - and the fact that thick padded sports matting clearly pilfered from the school's old gym supplies had been laid down to cover the entire floor.
"It would be useful if you could get in contact with your sister's team and acquire some schematics for designing superior facilities," Doctor Kei's voice suddenly boomed over the intercom.
Blackfire's eye twitched, just once, but she smiled lightly. "Yeah, I'll get right on that..."
'Hmm... who do I know who I could call on a favor for? Gotta be somebody who can give me some tech I can pass off...? I might still have a data file with some of the old schematics from the palace training room...'
"Eh, I've worked with less," Ranma declared confidently, before that certainty visibly melted away and he sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Not sure what we're gonna do to help Nabiki, though..."
"Shan Pu help! Shan Pu often help cousins train back in village; be happy help Nabiki figure new training regimen!" The Chinese Amazon interjected, grinning widely in delight, the effect slightly spoiled by her new fangs.
Ranma frowned thoughtfully, then glanced over at Nabiki, who simply nodded in agreement.
"Great! That means you and I can go a few rounds, Ranma - I've been wanting to get up close and personal with you!" Blackfire chirped, grinning mischievously as she did.
'Oh, that had to be deliberate; I'm almost impressed she said that with a straight face,' Nabiki thought to herself. Then she noticed Ranma was looking her way, visibly hesitant about the idea, and she bit back a sigh and the urge to roll her eyes.
'Sheesh, Ranma baby, I'm glad you want me to know you're not a sucker for any pretty girl who bats her eyes at you, but you don't need to treat me that gently! I know I didn't train in this martial arts stuff my whole life the way you did, but I was out there fighting off that supervillain yesterday too...'
So it was with a mixture of minor irritation and more than a little mischief that Nabiki playfully waved to her new fiancé, adopting her best innocent smile as she sweetly said, "Have fun, sweetie; don't let her bruise you up too badly!"
"Wha? Hey!" Ranma protested indignantly, but Nabiki simply walked past him and over to Shampoo. The two half-humans headed for their own little slice of the training room, leaving Ranma and Blackfire behind.
"Don't worry, handsome; I'll be gentle... I promise," Blackfire cooed, even as she slowly and purposefully cracked her knuckles.
"Don't worry, I can take care of myself," Ranma warned her back, already sinking into a proper defensive stance.
Nabiki/Shan Pu
Trying her best to dredge up long-forgotten memories of practicing with her father when she was younger, Nabiki gave Shampoo a clumsy bow. "Please be gentle with me? It's been a long time since I practiced martial arts."
"Nabiki no worry; Shan Pu know what she doing," The Chinese mutant assured her, grinning in a way that actually did look friendly for once. She tapped her chin thoughtfully, her own bovine tail swishing idly behind her before she added, "Shan Pu think she know good style for Nabiki start learn. Is Lung Ying style. Watch Shan Pu, then Nabiki do, okay?"
Nabiki nodded her assent, and watched intensely as Shampoo gracefully took up a pose. She was about to do her best to imitate the pose when she stopped as long-dormant memories began to stir. She took a moment to reach into the dark recesses of her mind to grasp them as they darted about in quicksilver arcs, like small fish in a dark mountain lake, then turned an unamused look on her would-be instructor.
"Really? You want to teach Dragon Style Kung Fu to the dragongirl?" She asked, her voice as cold and dry as the winter wind over the Gobi desert at midnight on the solstice
"Shan Pu think it perfect! Is fitting theme, no?" The Chinese Amazon cheerfully chirped back, completely unbothered by Nabiki's chilly reaction. Then she added, "Besides, Nabiki clearly have instincts. Dragon Style maybe play off those instincts; be easier for Nabiki to follow."
Nabiki opened her mouth, intent on protesting Shampoo's chain of logic, then shut it as, in a rare turn of events, she found the arguments failing to come to her. She turned Shampoo's words over and over in her head, pondering them, and then slowly, reluctantly, she nodded.
"I want to say that argument is wrong... but I can't. Well, I suppose it's better than nothing. Okay, show me that stance again..."
Shan Pu patiently assumed the position, waiting for Nabiki to imitate her. The weredragon obediently copied the cursed cowgirl as best she could, obeying as her Chinese counterpart quietly guided her on how to modify her stance. Once Nabiki had it perfect, Shan Pu began to slowly demonstrate different strikes and counters, with Nabiki doing her best to imitate each movement.
And as they worked, time seemed to fade into the background, Nabiki finding herself swept up in the rhythm of motion that Shan Pu was patiently guiding her through.
'Strangely... soothing. I wonder if this is how Akane feels when she practices?' A part of her mused absently, even as the rest of her focused on practicing what she had been shown.
"Nabiki doing well; even better than Shan Pu hope!" Her tutor suddenly spoke, pulling Nabiki out of the near-trance her exercises had thrown her into.
"What? Really?" She looked skeptically at her self-appointed trainer, who simply smiled back at her and nodded.
"Is true! Nabiki sure she no practice before?" Shan Pu gave her a quizzical look, head tilted inquisitively.
"...Not for long years. After mom... well, I found other interests, and so did Kasumi. Akane was the only one of us who stuck with it," Nabiki confessed, looking uncomfortably off to the side.
"Shan Pu see," The Chinese Amazon noted, a knowing look on her face. "Well, then; Nabiki want try sparring?"
Nabiki's head immediately snapped back around to face Shan Pu, shock written on her face as she blurted out, "Going a bit fast, aren't we?!"
"Is okay! We go slow, let Nabiki feel flow. Even Ranma start out as beginner," Shan Pu assured her.
Without thinking, Nabiki glanced over in the direction of her fiancé, and her eyes went wide. "It's a little hard to remember that sometimes..."
"You no is kidding..." Shan Pu breathed, all three eyes showing her shock as she followed Nabiki's gaze.
Minutes earlier...
Ranma stared calmly at the alien girl smirking confidently back at him from across their little corner of the training room. Even as she lazily stretched her arms above her head and rolled her neck, joints softly popping as she loosened them up, her gaze never wavered from meeting his own. All of a sudden, he remembered something his father had once told him when he was much younger...
"Ranma, my boy, always remember; there are four types of women in this world. The first type have never studied martial arts, they have no interest in learning to fight; they are weak and innocent, and you should not fight them. The second type are those who have defied natural inclination and chosen to pursue the path of the warrior; they should be respected. Third are those women who know they cannot fight, but who will use their helplessness as a weapon - avoid them. And last are those women who can fight, but who will pretend they cannot in order to deceive and manipulate you - beware them!"
'...Pops gave me some strange lectures when I was growin' up... But I do think I get what he was tryin' to say. I don't like fightin' girls, but I better not take Blackfire lightly - oh shit!'
In the brief seconds Ranma had spent lost in thought, Blackfire had evidently decided to seize the initiative, because she was rocketing towards him like a human(ish) bullet! Ranma snapped up his arms barely in time to block a punch that otherwise would have caught him squarely in the face, and the impact rattled through even his battle-toughened flesh and training-thickened bones. The pain was short-lived, but sharp enough to rattle him, that split-second delay allowing Blackfire to follow through with a picture-perfect spin kick to Ranma's ribs that launched him backwards through the air.
A double backwards roll, and Ranma had regained control of his momentum, hitting the floor feet-first, his feet scraping inches across the padded material before he fully arrested his movement. His arm instinctively curled protectively around his aching chest.
'Shit! Damn, my ribs haven't hurt this much since that time I tried to show off to those kids we met on school camp by proving I could also wrestle the local bears... Oh no ya don't!'
Without mercy, Blackfire rocketed towards Ranma, but this time he was prepared for her. He dodged her punch, sidestepped around her follow-up kick, and countered with a haymaker that caught her right in the face.
Now it was Blackfire's turn to be lifted from her feet, though she barely flew back a foot or two before she suddenly stopped dead in mid-air as her ability to defy gravity kicked in. With exaggeratedly slow motions, she turned her face back to look Ranma in the eye, letting him see the very faint bruise on her cheek left by his blow. She smiled coldly at him, her eyes slowly disappearing behind a dark purple glow.
"My little sister hit harder than that when we were kids," She taunted him.
'But not bad for a human! I actually felt that!' She mentally noted to herself with a mixture of amusement and intrigue.
"Then I'll just have to hit you harder," Ranma declared, eyes narrowed and a dark smile on his face as he cracked his knuckles, then launched himself back at Blackfire.
The Tamaranean obligingly lowered herself closer to the floor, but flowed fluidly around Ranma's attack, grabbing his arm and turning his own momentum against him, sending him flying through the air with such vigor that he hit the mat face-first and skidded a good meter across the floor before he finally toppled over onto his back.
"Learned that move from a Ven-Zo master on Tyrus Three. Impressed? Robin thought it was pretty cool," Blackfire boasted, buffing her nails against her chest and making a show of examining them.
An impossibly fluid twist, and Ranma flipped back to his feet, indifferent to the visible streak of red on his face from his little slide across the mat. Instead, he was grinning with delight.
"So, you can fly, you're super strong, and you know martial arts?! Oh, this is gonna be fun!"
"Somebody likes a challenge, hm?" Blackfire immediately quipped back.
'Oh, you are adorable... let's see how long that confidence lasts!'
The two exploded into motion, rocketing towards each other as if magnetized. Strikes, blocks and dodges flowed from both of them in a dazzling display of mutual martial arts capabilities. Blows that could have shattered concrete into dust were evaded by a hair's breadth, the wind of their passage slicing papercut-thin gashes in the skin of whoever was on the receiving end. The slightest mistake was punished mercilessly, each attack landing with force that rippled bruisingly through even their augmented frames.
Blackfire lunged for Ranma in a grapple, only for Ranma to ward her off with a perfectly timed elbow thrust to the solar plexus and then weave out of her grasp with an eel-like sinuous twist of his torso.
Ranma spun around in a sweep-kick so fast his leg left a trail of afterimages in its wake, but Blackfire hopped over it with a single levitation-aided motion and retaliated with an overhand punch that barely missed Ranma's head. He grabbed her arm and swung her around, slamming her into the floor so hard that even through the thick foam matting provided to cushion the blows, the solid beneath her was reduced to powder.
Blackfire lay stunned for just an instant in the newly made crater, but as Ranma tried to leap onto her in order to pin her into place, she regained her control and countered, catching him in the stomach with a foot and launching him at the ceiling with a single-legged kick.
In a surge of purple light, she exploded upwards, but to her shock, Ranma twisted like a leaf in the wind and rolled out of the way of her uppercut, her fist slamming into the roof and sending a shower of pulverized stone raining down onto the floor beneath them. Even as she pivoted to face Ranma, he was attacking her, undeterred in the slightest by the fact he was upside down in mid-air. A one-two-three combo of punches slammed into her ribs, followed by a spin-kick across the face in the instant that she was stunned by the assault.
In the seconds it took for Blackfire to regain control of her levitation, Ranma had dropped back to the ground, rolling at the last second and landing with cat-like agility on his feet. But he didn't stop there; his legs folded with the impact, sinking down into a crouch, before explosively leaping straight at his flying opponent.
Blackfire struck at him with her fist, only for Ranma to grab her wrist and swing around on her arm like an acrobat on the parallel bars, shooting up and over her before grappling her around the waist as she instinctively twisted to face him. Blackfire blinked in confusion as she found herself unexpectedly face to face with her sparring partner, who had locked himself against her like a space barnacle.
"Nice moves! But what now? Unlike you, I don't fall!" Blackfire taunted Ranma, completely oblivious to the playful grin that had stretched itself upon her full lips.
"Then I'll just have ta improvise!" Ranma shot back, then suddenly twisted forward into a veritable handstand atop Blackfire's torso, bracing his legs against the ceiling and then thrusting with all his might.
The sheer strength of that single surge of motion overrode Blackfire's levitation ability, and the two of them streaked back to ground like a living missile, slamming into it with such force that matting tore and a fountain of pulverized rock dust and shredded foam rose into the air.
Blackfire coughed and then sneezed as dust went up her nose, blinking dopily as her brain tried to reboot, the alien having taken the full brunt of the impact. She looked up into a momentary hazy blur of human flesh-tones that promptly resolved into Ranma's face. He was sitting on her, his hands at her shoulders and pressing her into the ground with all his might, chest heaving with exertion.
"I...win..." He panted, but he was smirking as he said it.
"Not - yet!" Blackfire growled, summoning her strength and zapping him squarely in the chest with her plasmic eye beams, the mark of a mature Tamaranean royal. The attack burned a hole the size of her head in Ranma's shirt and launched him backwards off of her, causing him to collapse back-first onto the matting at her heels with a cry of shock and pain.
'X'hal damn it! Nice move, lurdo! You're supposed to be seducing this p'flir, not killing him!' Blackfire reprimanded herself viciously, a stab of anger cutting through her exhaustion. 'So what if he just pushed you harder than any human has any right to do, you're the one in charge here! How're you going to spank Starfire's perky little morflorps if you lose control over yourself so easily?!'
She swallowed air hard, and grit out, "Ranma? You still alive?"
A rare surge of relief flooded her mind as Ranma let out a pained groan and complained, "You have eye beams?! You never told me that!"
"You never asked," Blackfire dryly replied, before groaning in only somewhat feigned exhaustion. She heaved herself up on her elbow, then upright, staring across to see that Ranma was doing the same.
She swept her gaze across the only non-altered (officially, anyway) human member of her little impromptu team, taking in the scuffs, the bruises, the scrapes... and the complete lack of any anger, shame, regret or fear. He grinned cockily back at her, and she realized she was in just as bad a shape as he was. And yet... she didn't feel angry. In fact...
Blackfire snickered to herself, completely involuntarily. The sight and sound of her fledgling amusement seemed to set Ranma off, and he too began to chuckle. And then, as if a dam burst, both of them burst out laughing in delight. The sounds of their amusement echoed off of the rocky roof before they finally got themselves under control enough to speak.
"Wow... just... wow. I ain't ever been pushed so hard-"
"By a girl before?" Blackfire cut Ranma off, a sincerely amused smile on her lips as she did.
"Hell, by anybody! Whoo, I can't remember the last person to give me that much of a fight - even Shampoo ain't as strong and fast as you, not even with her transformation! Man, it was awesome - you have got to teach me some of those cool alien moves of yours!" Ranma passionately proclaimed, a metaphorical fire burning in his eyes as he stared into Blackfire's own.
"You didn't do too bad yourself. Never thought a human would push me like that," Blackfire admitted as she rose to her feet, a few shards of stone clattering into the pit beneath her even as she stretched her arms and bent from side to side to limber up her spine. "You even took my eye beams! I mean, I was taking it easy on you with them, but look at you; you're barely scratched!"
"Well, I wouldn't say that... my ribs're gonna be tender for days," Ranma confessed, but even as he gingerly touched the scorched spot on his midriff, he was grinning.
"Think of it as a lesson in not underestimating your opponent," Blackfire teasingly mocked him, brushing herself off.
"Well, if you think you got any more lessons in ya, I'd be happy to learn, 'teach'," Ranma jokingly proclaimed, even as he tried to stretch the cramps out of his arms.
Unbeknownst to the two of them, this little interaction was being watched by Shan Pu and Nabiki, the two half-human girls' tails swishing irritably behind them as they did.
"Shan Pu starting to feel challenged..." The three-eyed Chinese Amazon rumbled darkly.
"You and me both... What do you say, China doll? Truce?" Nabiki suggested, never taking her eyes off of her fiancé and her team leader... well, her temporary team leader, if she had any say in the matter. She didn't trust her, especially that close to Ranma…
"Truce," Shan Pu agreed, likewise not taking her eyes off of the other two members of their team, who were still joking around in the rush of post-spar hormones.
That evening...
"Takeout for dinner?" Ranma asked idly, looking at the bowls of delivered ramen with only minor curiosity.
"Yes... poor Kasumi said she wasn't feeling well, so I thought it was only appropriate," Soun sighed, nodding to himself even as Kasumi calmly picked her own bowl off of the table.
'Funny, she looks alright to me,' Ranma and Nabiki thought in near-perfect unison.
"But anyway, how was your new little club, Nabiki? Did you have fun?" Soun asked, turning a paternal smile on his middle daughter.
"Well, I definitely got my workout for the week done, let's leave it at that," Nabiki chirped brightly, before she took her first bite of noodles from her bowl.
"That's good; I'm glad to see my little girl getting back to normal. Ranma's been a good influence on you," Soun proudly announced, still smiling even as he began to eat from his bowl.
Ranma and Nabiki gave him simultaneous and matching unamused looks, which Soun ignored due to being deep in contemplating his bowl's contents. Then they realized what they were doing and Ranma blushed and looked away, whilst Nabiki smiled fondly.
"Say, boy, did you figure out how you got cured?" Genma asked hopefully, his burning desire for his own miraculous end to his water-borne transformations even edging out his usual appetite for food.
"Nah; Doctor Kei insists there's no such thing as magic. She didn't have a clue," Ranma scoffed sarcastically.
Genma's hopeful expression morphed almost instantly into a despondent scowl. "Bah! What kind of fool woman are you working with, boy?! 'No such thing as magic', my hairy black and white rump..."
The Saotome patriarch's words trailed off into bitter mutterings as he began eating with a vengeance, stuffing noodles and toppings down his throat with loud slurps and smacking chews.
Silence fell upon the dinner table as the six of them concentrated on their meals. Ranma was just hunting for a particularly tasty morsel in his bowl when Akane suddenly spoke up.
"Ranma...? I wanted to say... thank you," She declared, her tone soft and conflicted, and she refused to look him in the eye as she said it.
"Huh? What'cha talkin' 'bout?" Ranma asked around a mouthful of noodles.
"Don't make me say it, stupid! You know what I'm talking about... in science class today?" Akane grumbled, blushing and pointedly refusing to look at Ranma.
"Hu-oh! Oh, yeah, it was nothing. I just wish I'd managed to get you out," Ranma quietly confessed, actually stopping in his enthusiastic devouring of his ramen as he spoke.
"Wh-Well, it wasn't your fault, so... thanks. Maybe you're not so awful... I guess Nabiki could do worse," Akane said, as diplomatically as she could.
And with that, the meal resumed. Nobody noticed the way Kasumi's gaze slipped between Ranma and her sisters, her brow furrowing into an uncharacteristically cold expression...
"Excuse me, I think I'm going to have dinner in my room... I don't feel well, daddy," Kasumi suddenly announced, standing up and walking away with her bowl of ramen before Soun could even reply.
Ranma blinked in confusion, and looked first at Nabiki, then at Akane, but both of Kasumi's younger sisters simply returned his confusion and shrugged in nonverbal admission of their ignorance.
In the midnight hour...
The wind howled through the streets of Furinkan Town as thick storm clouds blotted the moon from the sky. Thunder rumbled as the first bolt of lightning cracked over Furinkan High School. Not a soul walked the halls, but if they had, then they may have heard the faintest sound of a power chord screeching from an electric guitar, followed by two words and a cackle of mad delight, all delivered in a feminine voice...
"It's showtime!"
Chapter End & Closing Notes
Well, our heroes are going to be grateful for their little bit of rest and relaxation, because things are going to start heating back up soon. Kasumi is scheming, they've got to get ready for their official big debut as superheroes, and whatever could be going on in the halls of Furinkan High? Would have been nice to have the next chapter ready before Halloween, but sadly I don't think that's gonna be the case... sure more folks are into Voyages and K 1/2 anyway...