The Amazon and the Moneylender: Episode 11, Part 1:
The Morning After
Ranma glanced at the line of approaching dawn far
out on the horizon. Not even Kasumi usually got up
this early, he should have plenty of privacy. Just to
be certain he had moved to the vacant lot.
He took in a deep breath, released it, and took
another. After so many near-misses and temporary cures
he hadn't been about to get excited about another
apparent cure until he was certain the cure was
permanent. Fortunately, having to keep an eye on Ranko
had made it fairly easy to keep himself calm on the
matter, not to mention the repeated attempts to start
training Akane in the Amaguriken. Now it certainly
appeared that his miserable life as a half-man was
over, for good.
He released another breath, and ignored the
shimmering red aura that was building up around him.
He took in another breath.
"YES!!!" the shimmering red aura blazed,
momentarily bright and festive, as he rose his arms to
the sky. "I'M NEVER TURNING INTO A GIRL AGAIN!!!"
"Ranma," he turned to see Akane looking at him with
that cute smile of hers. She rushed forward and
hugged, not glomped, the surprised martial artist.
"You're finally free." She let him go and they stared
at each other for a long moment before either of them
spoke.
"Uh�hi Akane�what are you doing up this early?"
"Baka," Akane laughed. "Is that all you can ask?"
"Hey, I'm not good at this stuff," he said
blushing, then looked past Akane and sighed. "Great
just what I need."
"So am I some sort of ordeal then!" Akane demanded
angrily.
"Huh? What? NO! Look over there." Akane turned to
see where Ranma was pointing.
"That's were he went," Akane said. "That just
leaves Ranko to find, hey he's carrying something."
"Wait a minute, why is Pops heading to the canal?"
Kasumi sat up and looked out the window, daylight
was just barely streaming in from the half-risen sun
outside. She stretched and yawned before standing up
and walking to her dresser drawer. Yesterday had been
a little hectic for her taste. Though everything
seemed to have settled down by the time dinner came
around. Akane and Ranma for once sat on either side of
the self-proclaimed "Ranko," for which the nervous
Genma was extremely grateful. Ranko, for her part,
refrained from attacking Genma constantly. Though the
presence of Akane and Ranma to keep her from doing so
might have had something to do with that. Soun read
his paper as usual, probably for the fifth time that
day. Kodachi sat opposite from Soun at the other end
of the table and ate while glancing at Ranma
questioningly. Nabiki had eaten in silence, paying
nominal, for her, attention to the discussion.
"Well, it had to be said," Kasumi hmphed. Nabiki
couldn't go on dwelling on that�untoward fantasy.
As long as Nabiki was convinced that Shampoo did
not reciprocate the feelings nothing more would happen
along that path. She would eventually forget about
that and find a good husband as was proper. Kasumi
dressed quickly and efficiently, she had already
wasted enough time this morning sleeping in. Even if
the rest of the family slept through until noon she
had things to do. The eldest Tendo girl paused at
Nabiki's room to check on her sister. She found it
locked.
"Nabiki," Kasumi called quietly, and not hearing
anything. Kasumi couldn't sense much past the various
charms she had placed about Nabiki's room. Last night
she had thought there was almost something, but it was
finished almost before she completely woke up. She
remembered at the time wondering if perhaps Nabiki had
tried the astral barriers.
Now, however, she considered other possibilities.
Extreme emotion could have produced the same straining
effect. Recently, Nabiki had, in her opinion, failed
her family, the person she thought she loved, and
generally had her ego smashed many times over. Despair
had been the dominant emotion in her mind. That was
not good. Kasumi quietly scolded herself for not
checking on her sister immediately. She knocked
solidly.
"Nabiki, are you in there?" Kasumi yelled a little
louder. Nabiki wouldn't do anything rash, not while
she thought it possible to fix some of the damage.
Besides she was a rather untraditional girl in many
ways, ritual suicide was too impractical for her
tastes. Despite these self-assurances, Kasumi breathed
a heavy sigh of relief as she heard movement in the
room.
"What is it Kasumi," she heard Nabiki call out.
"Its early and no school for two more days." There was
some more motion behind the door. It sounded almost
like a flurry of motion actually. Kasumi stepped back
and straightened, considering this, her eyes narrowed.
"Your door is locked," Kasumi said, calmly. "I was
concerned."
"Concerned about what?" Nabiki asked evenly from
behind the door.
"I thought perhaps that you had�.done something
rash," Kasumi admitted. There was a long moment of
silence.
"I'm going back to sleep Kasumi," Nabiki said
firmly. Kasumi did not fail to note that Nabiki had
not moved to open the door at all during the
conversation.
"Breakfast will be ready soon," Kasumi said by way
of slight apology as she moved downstairs.
"Do something rash," Nabiki hmphed as she slipped
her pajamas on. "I wonder what she means by that?"
"Maybe she think you seppuku?" Shampoo asked
quietly, pausing in her search for where her pants had
ended up. Nabiki looked up and the comment on her
tongue died as she saw the worried expression on
Shampoo's face.
"I was bad enough you BOTH thought I'd do that?"
she said, in a shocked voice. Shampoo sat down next to
her again and gingerly circled her arms around
Nabiki's shoulders, and kissed her cheek.
"Not now?" Shampoo asked quietly, and then snuggled
closer kissing Nabiki's neck. "You fine now?" Nabiki
giggled quietly and turned to kiss Shampoo in return.
"I'm fine," she agreed, smiling. "But if we try
this now, we'll get caught."
"Shampoo need get back home," the Amazon nodded.
They made no move to separate, though, just staring at
each other for a long moment. Then Shampoo reluctantly
let go of Nabiki and glanced to the pile of gathered
blanket, finally seeing her pants.
"We'll need to talk about things," Nabiki
whispered, finishing her redressing. "But right now,
you have to get out of here before anyone notices."
She paused, considering each person's probable
reactions. "Too much could happen."
"Be soon, before Great-grandma say time to kill
girl-type Ranma," Shampoo noted. "Park on my lunch?"
"I'll get there, and bring the water of drowned
girl," Nabiki said.
"Duck-boy drink his," Shampoo said. Nabiki looked
at her in disbelief, too bad for Mousse that Genma had
managed to destroy most of her extras.
"Somebody was bound to get stuck," Shampoo helped
her stand up from the bed, and held her as she grabbed
the crutches. "Thanks." Shampoo waited until she was
settled on the crutches before letting go, and kissing
Nabiki again. After a long moment she pulled away
again.
"Go now, before she comes and checks on me again,"
Nabiki whispered, smiling and almost giggling. Shampoo
smiled and dropped quietly from Nabiki's window.
"Nabiki, could you come downstairs please?" Nabiki
froze, Kasumi's voice had come from�she hobbled to her
window and looked down to see a Shampoo staring to a
spot on the walkway that passed beneath Nabiki's room.
The amazon's face looked mildly shocked to say the
least.
"How she get there?"
Nabiki found herself sitting next to a nervously
fidgeting Shampoo, while Kasumi came as close as she
could to a glower. Anybody who didn't know her would
assume that she had burnt a cake or something
similarly trivial. This being because they would not
know that Kasumi burning anything, that she didn't
want burnt, would be a sign of the end of the world.
Kasumi, for her part, noted that Nabiki was much more
like her normal self, and she reluctantly admitted
that she was glad of that. She was not glad of the
apparent source of the recovery.
"Breakfast is going to be late," she sighed with
what sounded like mild frustration. "Excuse me,
Shampoo, I would appreciate it if you were to leave."
"Shampoo no leave yet," the Amazon insisted,
glancing protectively at Nabiki. Nabiki glanced back
and smiled.
"Very well," Kasumi said, folding her arms into her
laps. "I am not going to ask what was happening in my
sister's room last night, but it is not going to
happen again."
"I told you yesterday, this is none of your
business," Nabiki insisted. Kasumi blinked, she'd seen
Nabiki's back up before, but never against her. Then
again, she'd only rarely been in a situation where she
had to put her foot down. There really wasn't anything
she could do, not legally anyway, and she wasn't about
to tell her father about this. She certainly wasn't
going to provoke anything between Akane and Nabiki by
mentioning that incident.
"I suppose this means that you'll be giving up on
Ranma?" Kasumi asked calmly as she poured a cup of
tea, perhaps this would work. Shampoo flinched, and
Nabiki watched her cautiously.
"Is law," Shampoo admitted. "Shampoo need marry
boy-type Ranma."
"And what is my sister then?" Kasumi asked calmly,
taking a sip of tea. ~Sorry, Nabiki, you have to hear
this.~ Nabiki glared at her sister.
"Nabiki think of something," Shampoo said with all
confidence. "Besides, amazon womans often have
girlfriend aside from Airen, mens is for babies."
Nabiki and Kasumi both looked at Shampoo a little
confused, every time they thought the amazons couldn't
get any stranger, one of them did or said something to
change their mind.
"I see," Kasumi said, taken aback. "And if it came
down to a choice between Ranma and Nabiki?"
"Nabiki," Shampoo said, without pause. Kasumi noted
that her sister's face lightened up considerably at
the choice. "Ranma no like Shampoo, is fun to tease
though."
"I could always find my own place," Nabiki said
idly. Kasumi blinked at the suggestion. One of her
family, outside her care? It was unthinkable, at least
while they were all so young. And then she wouldn't be
able to convince Nabiki to give up this�oddity she had
picked up from somewhere.
"That won't be necessary," Kasumi said. She
couldn't stop this now, but if she kept Nabiki around
then maybe� "There will be no�.activity where anybody
else can see you though. And I'd appreciate it if you
would refrain from troubling me with it as well."
Kasumi stood up, ignoring the victorious expression
her sister only thinly veiled. "Now I have breakfast
to make, and�she should probably be getting to work."
Kasumi had her back turned but she heard the quiet
kiss as Shampoo stood up.
Nabiki smiled as Shampoo waved goodbye and left.
She hadn't wanted to upset Kasumi, but she had been
left with little choice in the matter. Kasumi might
not like the situation, but she wouldn't hurt anybody,
much less someone her sister cared about. Nabiki was
expecting to see Kasumi play matchmaker though.
Nabiki schooled her face into a normal bored
expression as she heard the door slam open and then
closed. She heard the door open twice more as Genma
flew through the main room out into the courtyard.
Nabiki blinked, what was he doing up so early?
"Get back here Pops!!" Ranma shouted. Close behind
him was Akane, mallet in hand.
"How anybody could be so low!"
"It�s a legitimate training technique," Genma
claimed as he rushed down through the dining area out
to the pond.
Nabiki was about to ponder what the idiot had done
now, fortunately the answer presented itself in the
form of a sopping wet Ranko. The girl was trying to
hop through the living area while venting a vitriolic
sounding stream of angry Chinese. The reason for her
hopping being the ropes that encircled her several
times. Nabiki wrinkled her nose as Ranko passed by, it
smelled like she had been dumped in the canal.
"Yeah, teach her to swim without hands and feet
right?" Nabiki smirked as Soun came down, it suddenly
seemed like just any other day.
"Where have you been granddaughter?" Cologne
demanded as Shampoo entered the Nekohanten.
"Tendo dojo," Shampoo said without hesitation. She
had two very good reasons, as far as Cologne was
concerned, to be there. Ranma and Ranko.
"And did you learn anything?"
"Girl-type Ranma not like panda-man," Shampoo said,
she had caught enough of the activities before people
went to their beds to know that.
"The groom's fool of a father excels at alienating
people," Cologne noted. "That is hardly a surprise."
"Violent-girl and Ranma keep water-girl from
attacking Genma," Shampoo noted. "And crazy-girl
learning from Akane."
"Has the groom taken part in the Kuno-girl's
tuition at all?" Cologne demanded as she took a moment
to examine her great-granddaughter.
"He watches," Shampoo confirmed.
"This is not good," Cologne narrowed her eyes.
"They have taken a student and both take part in her
teaching. This cooperation is not good for our cause.
They seem to share responsibility for the twin girl as
well. Is there any indication of�other activities
between the two?"
"Ranma too big prude," Shampoo waved that one away.
"Don't be too happy about that," the elder amazon
snapped. "If the boy had grown up in a normal society
he would be much easier to entice." Cologne admitted,
however, that he might not also possess his natural
talent for martial arts if that were the case.
"Yes, great-grandma," Shampoo said cheerily.
Cologne glanced at her curiously as she stepped to the
back to get dressed for work.
"You seem quite satisfied with yourself this
morning," Cologne noted.
"I guess so grandma," Shampoo shrugged as she came
out again, dressed for work. "Is good day."
Cologne narrowed her eyes.
"Are you still conscious?" Ryouga asked nervously.
Ukyou's muffled groan came from somewhere in between
her face and the rock she was swinging with. "You're
getting the hang of this quicker than I thought."
"Huh?" Ukyou blinked, and peeled her head off of
the rock. "Eh? What?"
"How many fingers?" Ryouga asked. Ukyou focused, or
tried to.
"Two," Ukyou said. Ryouga always held up two
fingers, it was no great trick to convince him that
she was fine. Besides she'd almost figured it out that
last time.
"Nope, sorry," Ryouga said.
"What?!?" Ukyou snapped. "You always hold up two
fingers."
"I didn't hold any up this time." Ryouga said
simply as he held the rope Ukyou dangled from and
unworked the ropes tying the boulder into the
contraption.
"That's NOT fair!" Ukyou snapped as the boulder
tumbled to the ground. "I almost had it!"
"Well, when the concussion clears we can start
again," Ryouga said.
"I was close," Ukyou growled as she was lowered
down to the ground. "Now I'm going to have to start
from scratch again." Ukyou looked around as she hit
the ground worked her way out of the bindings. Now all
she had to do was stand up and she'd give that
overprotective pig-boy a piece of her mind. Which is
when she found out that standing up wasn't quite an
option.
"Just..sit down," Ryouga said as he landed next to
the boulder. "Try to clear your head."
~Yeah, I'll clear my head,~ Ukyou thought,
considering that it was rather difficult to come up
with clever retorts at the moment. "How many times was
that anyway?"
"That was the twenty-sixth time," Ryouga said. "You
started to get dazed around nineteen."
"I was close right," Ukyou demanded. "I know I was
close."
"No�you were concussed," Ryouga said. "But it took
a lot longer for you to start really getting hurt.
Besides you need to do this part too."
"Huh? This part?" Ukyou blinked. "What's 'this
part'?"
"I asked about that after the old ghoul finally
admitted what the point of the technique is," Ryouga
said. "She said something about accelerating the
body's healing processes to keep up with the enhanced
endurance and durability."
"And if I didn't do this part?" Ukyou asked.
"Imagine that black eye taking a year to heal."
Ukyou blinked, and shook her head.
"Oh�" she noticed that things had stopped spinning.
"Clear your head, focus on just clearing your head
and letting the pain fade."
"Oh and how do I do that?" Ukyou demanded. ~Just
wait until its my turn to do some training.~ She
smiled mischieviously.
"You can channel battle aura right?" Ukyou nodded.
"Same thing, just concentrate on healing instead of
fighting." Ukyou rolled her eyes, but went with it
anyway. She closed her eyes and took a moment to
translate the instruction into action. Surprisingly
enough the dizziness seemed to fade rather quickly,
well quicker than she expected it too anyway.
"Hey, that actually works," Ukyou said cheerfully.
She looked up to see Ryouga giving her that shy smile
of his.
"I guess the chi exercises while on 'vacation'
worked a little too," Ryouga said. "That only took an
hour."
"An hour!?!" Ukyou face faulted.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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