% Why it's... QD. Yay!

Hi all,

I'm almost done with this chapter, so I thought I would post the first part
tonight.

Steve



*** Earth  0.000,0.000

A soft breeze blew gently from the east across the grassy, sunlit
plateau as Shampoo thrust her foot up into the air, the cloth of her
pants rustling crisply at her kick.  She held that pose for a single
moment, her body perfectly poised as she balanced on her other foot,
holding her right leg at nearly full extension.  The blow would have
shattered a ribcage, if there had been a foe at the receiving end.

% And it had a ribcage. In the Ranmaverse, this is not always a given. ^_^

Finishing the exercise, Shampoo came to a rest, bringing the palms of
her hands together as if in prayer, her head slightly bowed.  Her own
mother

% Don't think 'own' is necessary there.

 had taught her the core movements of the exercise many years
ago, back when she had first learned to walk, for it was the way of her
people to begin training children how to fight from a young age.

% They also made the children wrestle with the family dog over food to help
as well. :)

 Such
traditions kept the village strong.  Shampoo often used it to find her
center whenever she felt troubled by anything.

% Think you can drop the 'by anything.' Unnecessary.

A short distance away, Ensign Shan Pu sat on a smooth boulder, having
watched Shampoo go through the exercise.  It was identical to one she
had once

% 'one' and 'once' awful close together. Maybe drop the second or reword.

 seen used before at a martial arts demonstration given at the
Academy by some of the Joketsuzoku Sisterhood, an all-female order of
warrior-mystics founded some three thousand years ago, back when the
Matriarchy first flowered on her Earth.  It saddened her a bit, to

% unsure if you need that comma

 see
the Joketsuzoku here reduced to little more than a feeble remnant of
the Matriarchy's greatness that she remembered, sidelined in favor of a
male-dominated paradigm

% Ohhh. YOu used 'paradigm' and it's not a Big O fic. :)


"<About what?>"  Shampoo began another combat exercise as she spoke,
one that brought in techniques from the many styles she had come into
contact with through her time in the Arena.  She managed to seamlessly
flow them

% perhaps 'blend' rather than 'flow'?

 together, a sign of how far her skills had improved since
leaving her village and learning more about the martial arts than she
had ever before imagined

% parses awkward. I'd either remove the 'before' or shift the sentence
around.

% You can tell how much I like this by how anal I am with the grammer. Pity
I'm not that way with my own stuff. :)

"<I suppose I'm feeling guilty for stealing your life.>"  Ensign Shan
looked down at her hands folded in her lap.  They were strong hands, a
skilled warrior's hands.  At the Academy, she had been the very best
barehanded fighter in her training class, but she knew in her heart
that her skill was barely a quarter of that possessed by her analog.
Now those abilities were hers, and she felt like a thief.

% Well, in Ensign Shan's defense, she doesn't have to fight for survival in
front of millions every week. :)


Ensign Shan was stunned at the ease of Shampoo's acceptance.  It took
her a few moments to find her voice again.  "<As soon as I can locate
the source of the resonator technology on this world, I can contact the
Matriarchy and guide them here.

% Oh, the Empire is just going to love that one. :)

 They should be able to extract my
memories from you and put them back into my original body.

% Or the vapor floating in space that used to be her body. :)

                    ******************************

Shampoo woke to a rolling sound of thunder, hearing rain slashing wetly
at the window.  For a moment, she thought she was back in the village,
and she wondered why her great-grandmother had let her sleep in so late
in the morning.  Then she blinked quite suddenly and sat up, her silk
negligee falling open in front a bit as she turned back her covers and
rolled out of her bed into a sitting position on its edge.  Her bare
feet came to rest on the smooth hardwood floor of her modest apartment,
with a view overlooking Tokyo's fabulous Imperial Battledome.  It was
on a floor far above the dormitory levels where most fighters lived and
shared quarters, a courtesy of the Arena for one of her high status in
the rankings.

% Shampoo: Shampoo is 'The Game,' here. :)


She sat there, feeling confused.  She wasn't Shampoo, a Joketsuzoku
amazon warrior.  Or was she?  Her awareness seemed oddly split between
two parallel points of view, and she struggled to remember if this was
normal for a resonator-induced merger of two consciousnesses.

% Yes. And odds are it'll get better as you merge.


Shampoo stood up, shaking her head slightly.  She still remembered once
being Ensign Shan, but the memories seemed less important to her, less
vivid than those of her life here.  Her analog's life, she very quickly
amended, blinking for a moment as a slight case of vertigo assailed her
once again.  Merger was always an uncertain process, she recalled from
one of Ensign Shan's classes, and the human mind was a very complex
instrument.

% Yep. Given time I'm assuming it will be like it was for Ranma and Nabiki.

Stripping off her negligee as she headed for the bathroom, Shampoo
tossed it into the hamper basket by the door, pausing for a moment next
to it to slide off her panties and drop them in as well.  Standing up
straight, she flipped her long hair back out of her eyes with a hand,
thinking to braid it today for a change of pace, especially since she
had a match to fight tonight.  The crowd loved it for some reason
whenever she wore her hair in a braid, since she sometimes used it to
taunt her opponents.

% Especially the women that were already going bald. :)

another brief flutter of vertigo at the sight and decided that a hot
shower would help her put things back into proper perspective.  She
reached into the shower stall and twisted the knob over to the right,
stepping under the steaming stream when it reached the temperature she
liked.

% 48 degrees. She was a 'cold weather' person.


After all, her own mother had found such a man in her own father, who
was acknowledged as the strongest man in their village, earning her
mother great honor and respect for having taken such a good husband to
father her children.

% True, at first he was reluctant, railing about how 'I didn't know I'd have
to marry the chick if I beat her. I'd have thrown the fight if I knew that.'
But he warmed up to the idea eventually. When Shampoo was about two, if she
remembered her mother correctly.

^_^


  That being said, she hoped she found him soon, so she could
finally end her nights of sleeping alone.  She had managed to hold off
her frustrated sexual desires up until now by maintaining a rigorous
training regimen,

% And her 'Super Deluxe Five Speed Vibrator'

While she rinsed the soap from her body and hair with jets of hot water
from the sprayer, Shampoo's hand brushed across the tiny bump of the
contraceptive implant on the inside of her upper arm.  She had ceased
noticing it some time ago, and only noticed it now because of her new
awareness of even the smallest aspects of her own life.  Such implants
were a mandatory birth control method in the Empire for all unmarried
persons, starting at the age of thirteen, slowly dissolving away over
time and requiring replacement every three years.

% Hmm. Interesting.

With Ensign Shan's memories now mingled with her own, Shampoo now knew
better what she had been denying herself.  Before, she had only known
about the pleasures shared between a man and a woman in an abstract
sort of way, through the occasional stories that some of the other
girls had told her about what it was like to have intimate relations
with a man.

% Running Deer: Most consider a kiss foreplay, finish in under three
minutes, and roll over and go to sleep right afterwards.

 Even back home in her village, some of the older girls had
bragged about their experiences with the local boys, leaving a younger
Shampoo to wonder about what it would feel like to bed one.  And while
her mother had told her the mechanics of what to expect,

% Which was what Running Deer had told her, except that after the first
year, it goes to about once a week rather than twice.

Such thoughts of home and her mother caused her mind to drift off into
pleasant imaginings of her eventual triumphant return to her village,
hopefully with her new husband in tow.

% I do approve of QD Shampoo being the primary viewpoint again and that she
wasn't consumed by Ensign Shan, though obviously ES will still have an
influence from now on the way Ranma and Nabiki's counterparts did.

 In her brief fantasy, he was a
handsome trophy of her time spent in the outside world,

% Although perhaps casting him in bronze would be a bit extreme.

 and every other
amazon in the village would be envious of her success in finding such a
man,

% For about ten minutes before everything went back to normal. ^_^


However, even if such a one

% I'd rephrase as 'such a man'. Sounds less vague.

 appeared and somehow managed to defeat her,
her return to the village would still have to wait until after she had
managed to deal with the Musk agents, wherever they were lurking.

% Heh. Ensign Shan coming to the forefront again.


Shampoo sighed happily at the pleasant thought of having children, and
of having a strong husband to love her and be loved by her.  Every
night after they were married would be spent enjoying long hours of
sweaty, amorous exertions with him as they each learned how to satisfy
the other's every carnal desire.

% Shampoo's mother. Yeah, right. Like it ever works that way. Enjoy the
honeymoon, because sexually it only goes downhill from there.

As she showered, Shampoo began singing a song she had heard on the
radio the other day.

"Yap-pap-paa yap-pap-paa 1

% Stray one.

 shanten..."

% Heh. Cute. Nice touch.


What has gone before in this story (or at least what will help you
understand what is going on):

% Yes, best to qualify that.

On a parallel Earth that diverged from the standard Ranma timeline over
five hundred years ago, the Empire of Japan rules almost half the world
and has done so for almost a century.  A young scientist named Ranma
Saotome, through a device of his invention, is now possessed of the
skills and memories of a martial artist version of himself.  Ranko has
become a girl cut loose in time.  Akane learned the secret of Nabiki's
engagement to Ranma and plotted her revenge.  Genma was reunited with
his best friend, promising further complexities on both timelines.  His
scheme attracted the attention of a few new players, and they have come
looking for Ranma's resonator technology, one of them wearing a face
very familiar to him.  Finally, Ryoko Masaki brought home a guest, as
the cast of players drew closer together.

% Yep. That will do it.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 20 - Of Cats and Women

          Men always want to be a woman's first love.  Women
          like to be a man's last romance.

                                   - Oscar Wilde

% Nice quote. It certainly bodes ill.


A shadowy personage watched Ranma pass by while remaining well-hidden,
one of the Kuno Family's numerous ninja retainers.  The hand that had
drifted to grasp the hilt of a sword moved back to a neutral posture,

% not sure if you need that comma.

when another bright flash of lightning revealed the face of the young
intruder to the guard's sight.  That face was known to them all, and
strict and explicit orders had been given by the young mistress to
allow him access to the manor at any hour, day or night.

% Kodachi: Especially at night. It is the best time for passion.

Ranma paused near the guard's position, sensing danger for a moment,
but then it seemed to pass, and he continued on his way to the main
house.  He leaped up to the trees after taking several squelching steps
on the muddy ground of the enormous lawns that surrounded the mansion.
Leaping from tree to tree, he advanced towards his goal, Kodachi's
bedroom.  He hoped she wouldn't misinterpret his sudden appearance,
remembering her teasing words from the last time he had visited her.

% Kodachi: Take me now, you awesome piece of man flesh!

% Ranma: So you're saying... what, exactly?

But he needed to use the resonator, and he would not have time after
school,

% Again don't think you need the comma

because of his scheduled date with Nabiki then.

% Can drop 'then'


The window to Kodachi's bedroom was unlocked and opened easily at his
touch, swinging inward quietly.  He shed his outer garb and shoes on
the small balcony, not wishing to tread mud and water into the finery
of Kodachi's bedroom.  Gloom cloaked him as he stepped in quietly

% Already used 'quietly' earlier. I recommend dropping it, but you can use
silently instead

 and
looked around, pausing a moment to shut the window behind him, unable
to make out very much in the darkness cast by the heavy curtains that
covered the windows.  He remembered the general layout of the room from
his last time visiting,

% would reword '...his last visit,'

 and he slowly made his way to the bed, hoping
to wake Kodachi quietly, without waking

% would change one of the wakes to rouse or something similar.

Something snapped Kodachi awake from the pleasant dream she had been
enjoying, and she opened her eyes into thin slits to behold a menacing
figure lurking in the dark shadows of her room.  It drew towards her,
but she could not make out who it was in the darkness.  Rain slashed
against her window, and there was a distant rumble of thunder.  Fear
briefly gripped her, and she pulled the covers up higher over her face.
But then Sukeban-Kodachi's bravado awakened within her.  Without making
a sound, she slipped from her bed, on the far side from the intruder's
approach.  She would deal with whoever had dared invade her chambers by
herself, feeling no need to shout for help.

% What? She doesn't think an intruder would notice the lack of a lump under
the covers now?

Ranma froze, sensing a sudden danger in the room.  His eyes had still
not adjusted to the nearly nonexistent levels of light.  He scanned the
area around him, seeking to penetrate the gloom while he also listened
for the faintest scraps of sound, clues that would reveal the location
of the danger.  A desire to protect Kodachi filled him, as he slowly
turned in place, wondering who else was in the room with him and the
young noblewoman.  As a noble, Kodachi could have made enemies.  Ranma
had heard stories of the vendettas that occurred between noble houses.

% Nobleman: I tell you constable, I did not kill that rival of mine. He
obviously fell on the arrows that are sticking out of him.

%Policeman: How exactly did he manage that? One's in his back and the
other's in his chest.

% Nobleman: Obviously he was incredibly clumsy.

Kodachi made her way quietly behind her assailant, her body clothed in
nothing more than her silky black negligee.  She wondered who had dared
to violate the sanctity of her bedchamber like this.  It could not have
been Ranma.  He was too much of a gentleman to show up in her room at
such an early hour, even if they were engaged, especially after how he
had responded to her teasing the last time he had visited her.  It was
likely either that perverted Ukyo or one of those thuggish Tendo girls,
intending her some mischief.  It might even be that treacherous Asuka
Saginomiya, finally attempting to exact revenge for the last beating
that she had received at Kodachi's hands.  But still, what sort of a
dishonorable wretch would sneak into someone else's room at night and
attack them while they were lying in their own bed?

% Sukeban Dachi: A smart wretch.

% QD Dachi: Couldn't you at least pretend you have some concept of honor?


Her initial surprise attack having been thwarted, Kodachi shifted her
weight and flipped backwards, but her backwards

% use 'backwards' twice. I'd reword to ditch one or change one.

somersault kick was
deflected by a block, skillfully executed by her unseen opponent.  A
wolfish smile lit her face as she leaped back on the offensive with her
adversary, wishing she could see their face as she unleashed attack
after attack.  All she could make out with her eyes was a vague shadow,
but her ears were sharp.  Her mother had been training her in the skill
of blindfighting.

% By hitting her with a dose of mace and then attacking. It was effective,
if a bit brutal, method of teaching.

 A momentary breath or a whisper of cloth moving was
all she needed to target her opponent with deadly accuracy.

Whoever was attacking him was good, Ranma quickly realized, narrowly
dodging aside from another kick.

% would shorten to 'dodging another kick.' Less wordy than the other
version.

 A quick series of side and backflip
kicks flashed out at him from the darkness as his adversary maneuvered
agilely around him, and he silently cursed at being hindered like this

% drop 'like this'. Sentence reads fine without them.

by the dim lighting, even as he evaded and blocked them.  His foe
seemed much better able to fight in such conditions than he was.

'seemed much better able to' is awkward. Again I'd reword in some way.


Kodachi finally scored, managing to hit her foe across the face with a
blow from her fist.  She had been keeping her distance by relying more
on kicks to maintain her range, but they were proving to be too slow to
deliver effectively against her unseen opponent.  A quiver of emotion
akin to arousal ran through her as she felt her fist striking solidly
into flesh, and she could feel something begin to stir in the back of
her brain, like a sort of buzzing.  It swiftly seemed to fill her whole
head, and moments later she abruptly boosted, feeling her muscles tense
and a godlike feeling of invincibility enter her.

% Ah. She finally boosted as well.

  She swiftly moved in
close to her suddenly much slower-moving adversary and began delivering
several punishing body blows while her opponent was still off-balance,
striking hard into the floating ribs and stomach.

% Bad day to be Ranma.

Ranma revised his adversary's abilities upwards even as he struggled to
get the initiative in this fight.  Unable to connect with his elusive
foe with punches or kicks, he shifted over to grappling maneuvers when
his adversary suddenly drew closer and began punching him in a powerful
hailstorm of blows.  They rained into his torso with enormous force,
and one just missed his solar plexus.  He managed to get a hold of one
of his foe's arms, and he was puzzled when he only felt bare skin.  Was
his opponent naked?

% Would make for an interesting fight. :)

Her arm caught, Kodachi suddenly shifted in and delivered a brutal knee
strike low into her foe's gut, narrowly missing the groin area, hoping
to free herself.

% 'hoping' seems out of place in the sentence. Perhaps have it after gut and
end things with 'narrowly...'

Her ears were rewarded with a sharp gasp of breath,
but the off-center blow didn't take as much fight out of her opponent
as she had been hoping.  Then, before she knew what had happened, her
other arm was caught.

Pain ached fiercely in his belly as Ranma tried to catch his breath,
angry now after nearly losing his manhood.

% It wouldn't have been lost. It would have been flattened against his leg.
:)

  If his unseen foe's last
attack had struck much lower, the fight would have been all over at
that point, likely leaving him utterly helpless and retching up the
contents of his stomach on the floor.  No longer caring about fairness,
he boosted, and the added

% I'd make this into two sentences. "...boosted. The...

that there was something familiar about the shape that kept nagging at
the back of his mind.  But in his current mental mode he was unable to
get his thoughts together enough to figure out why, the boost driving
him to an aggressive state that precluded other concerns.

% Again I think I'd restructure this sentence since the first part is almost
like the last part of it.

Eventually, after a fierce struggle, he managed to muscle his adversary
down and pinned to the ground,

% make it simpler. "struggle, he muscled..." and you need something after
pinned. Probably 'her'

 and both of them paused to catch their
breath.  Ranma felt an intense thrill of excitement coursing through
him at his apparent victory, surging past the veil of semi-controlled
savagery that he was coming to grow

% he was growing used to.

used to, that the boost cast over
his thoughts whenever he unleashed it.  He savored the sweet feeling
for a few brief moments, a visceral sensation that bordered on sexual
arousal.

% Oh, I'd say it more than borders. :)

Kodachi panted softly for a few moments as her lungs scavenged oxygen
from the air, readying herself to renew her assault.  Whoever she was
fighting with was a bit larger than she was, which ruled out either of
the two villainous Tendo girls or even that cross-dressing barbarian,
Ukyo.  There was something nagging at the back of her mind about the
identity of her foe, but it refused to resolve into clarity while her
mind was caught up in the boost, briefly contemplating her position and
how best to escape it so that she could savage her adversary for this
indignity.  Her wrists were pinned to the ground by a strong grip and
her body was weighted down by her foe's weight resting on her hips.
Her legs were spread apart, leaving her unable to work a knee up in
between her opponent's legs to deliver a disabling blow to the groin.

% Is she on her stomach or back, BTW?

A quiver of arousal was surging through her at the position she found
herself in, and the shock of embarrassment somehow managed to penetrate
her awareness, even though it still remained in thrall to the effects
of the boost.  After all, despite the recent change in her relationship
with her mother, and the new candor they were developing with each
other, she had been brought up to believe that well-bred young ladies
were not supposed to become aroused from wrestling around on the floor,

% think you can ditch the comma

like some kind of plebian tramp.

% and how would Dachi know plebian tramps become aroused by that sort of
thing? :)

 She nibbled guiltily at her lower
lip, wondering what her mother would say if she ever found out about
this.

% Kensaiko: If he's hot, do him.

She tensed her body, preparing to throw her foe off her.

% can drop 'her' at the end.


Kodachi's emotions grew even more confused, now that she knew it was
Ranma she had been struggling with, grateful that he was unable to see
her blush blazing in the darkness surrounding them.  She whispered, in
a very soft voice, "S-Saotome-kun."  What was she supposed to do in
this type of situation?

% Kensaiko: Do him.

 She tried to think, but it was difficult with
him still lying on top of her like this.

% Kensaiko: Let your body do your thinking for you.

 The weight of his hips still
rested on top of hers, pinning them down and maintaining her arousal.

"I-I'm sorry," he continued to stutter.  "I d-didn't know it was you."
He really should be getting off of her,

% for a moment, I almost read that as 'getting off on her.' ^_^. It sounds
fine, I just have a perverted mind.


Another flash of lightning illuminated the room, and Ranma could not
manage to identify the odd expression that had appeared on Kodachi's
face.  "I- I-" he managed to babble, and then his brain abruptly seized
up on him again as his hormones went wild within him.

% can drop 'within him'.

  She didn't look
angry with him.  Instead, there was an oddly needy expression on her
face, from what he had seen of her face

% two 'faces' close together. Perhaps reword 'Insted she bore an oddly needy
expression, from what..." or something along those lines.

in that brief moment of
illumination.

"It's all right, Saotome-kun," Kodachi whispered, her voice taking on
more coaxing tones as instinct seemed to take control of her.

%  Oh, I'd say it's more than 'seemed'. Perhaps you should say it did take
control and drop the seem.

 Her arms
slowly went up around him, where her fingers briefly toyed with the
length of his pigtail,

% Heh. I would have wagered they would have headed for somewhere else.


When their lips touched,

% Almost expected someone to interrupt them before that happened.


Bright light from the hallway suddenly spilled across them both as the
door was flung open with a loud crash, and Ranma glanced over at the
doorway, startled and momentarily blinded.

% There we go.


"I understand quite well, dear sister," Kuno snarled, taking another
vicious swipe at Ranma.  "This foul, iniquitous beast shall feel my
righteous wrath for attempting to prey upon your tender innocence to
slake his brutish cravings for your maidenly charms."

% Kodachi: Even I couldn't follow that one.


"Man, I wish I didn't have to do that every time I see him."

% Kodachi: I'm rather glad you do. He can be quite the boor.

Quickly realizing what he was looking at, Kodachi demurely and speedily
covered her bosom as best she could with one arm and sidled over to
grab up

% can drop 'up'

 her robe from off the bed.  Her face practically glowed red in
the light coming in from the hallway,

% most likely because the bulb was red.

and she cursed herself for acting
so shamelessly earlier with him.  She had kissed him so brazenly, and
things could have gone even farther.  What must he think of her now?

% Probably, "She's a keeper." ^_^

"Uh."  Now freed of the mesmerizing display of Kodachi's bust, Ranma's
brain stuttered back into activity.  He put his hand behind his head
and chuckled nervously.  He was frightened about the intensity of his
feelings during the kiss, so he chose to change the subject into
something safer.

% Ranma: So, what kind of condom do you prefer?


Calmly, she stepped right

% can drop 'right'


For example, it displeased her that he chose to spend time with that
horrible Nabiki Tendo or those two mannish, cross-dressing freaks, Ukyo
Kuonji and Utena Tenjou,

% Well, unless the misunderstanding was cleared up, she should still think
he was sleeping with Utena from overhearing that conversation outside his
bedroom door.


Turning her thoughts away from the utterly unpleasant matter of her
rivals, she mused that it would serve Saotome-kun right that she had
decided to accept the invitation from Kaoru-kun to the dance at Ohtori.
An evening spent in the pleasant company of her childhood friend would
be a most welcome tonic to her ego.  She found herself looking forward
to speaking with him again.  She wondered, yet again, why Ranma could
not be more like her old friend, instead of the insensitive young man
that he kept acting like.

% Miki: He can't help it. He's not bishonen, like me.

"You could have waited until a more civilized hour, Saotome-kun," she
said in cross tones.

% Ranma: It's noon.

% Kodachi: Oh. My bad.

 Grabbing up the key from her nightstand, she
thrust it at him.  "Here.  Take it.  You know the way, I'm sure."

Ranma noted her angry posture, and he was at a loss at what to do,

% Run. That's always for the best.


Standing with her back to the door as she stood in the quiet darkness,
Kodachi leaned heavily against it.  Why did he have to make things so
difficult between them?  Why did he not see how strongly she felt about
him?  He had not even asked her out on a date yet, even though he knew
they were engaged to be married.

% Hmm. Does he know about it, though? Or is it an assumption on her part?


Well, she would show Saotome-kun.  She would get all dressed up in a
beautiful new gown and accompany her oldest and dearest friend from her
childhood to Ohtori Academy's dance and enjoy herself.  It was going to
be a perfect evening, and she swore she would not let herself even
think about a certain pigtailed boy while she was there.

% Which of course means she will. :)

Then, if Kaoru-kun happened to ask her out again afterwards, not only
would she accept but she would also make very sure to let her reluctant
fianc� know about it.  That would show him that Kodachi Kuno's feelings
were not to be trifled with, and that there were other boys she could
be spending her valuable time with.  It helped assuage her conscience
that she was certain she could trust Kaoru-kun to not take advantage of
the situation, since they had been such close friends as children.
Despite the strong feelings for Miki that she had been discovering
within herself lately, she kept telling herself that she was only doing
this to teach Ranma a lesson.  But Sukeban-Kodachi's vivid memories of
many pleasurable couplings with his analog on her own world kept rising
unbidden in her mind, flustering her a bit at their erotic vividness.

% Sukeban Kodachi: He was a musician. They always have wonderful hands. And
his sure knew how to play a tune on my body. Oh yes indeed.


Out in the hallway, Ranma leaned his forehead against the heavy door,
thinking.  His aches and bruises were relatively mild concerns compared
to the sudden heaviness he felt in his heart over Kodachi's abrupt
brush-off towards him, since

% 'especially since' perhaps?


She was not his fianc�e in this world.

She was not a girl he should feel any sort of desire for.

This Akane Tendo was nothing more than a vicious thug, and he was most
decidedly _not_ interested in her.

% Ranma looked down at his groin. "And you're not either, Mr Happy. So stand
down."

% Mr. Happy did so, but with obvious reluctance, since he thought Akane
Tendou was just fine from where he stood.



Averting his eyes from the scene, Herb stared at the console display,
seeing what looked like a report of an interrupted upload sequence for
a moment before the screen abruptly flickered and died.  He wailed in
rage when unseen figures appeared behind him to drag him away from the
scene.  He reached out for Sage's body, and one of its arms flopped
down, the hand appearing to beckon to him.

% My. How grim.

Sleep had proven to be of limited comfort, offering up a confusing and
troubling melange of images, both from her old life as a man as well as
this unwanted new existence she now had as a woman.

% Hmm. But a cursed man, or a whole woman, is the question.

 Life for this
analog had been a fairly simple affair repeated in an endless cycle of
sleeping, eating, and exercising, with occasional breaks for bathing
and taking care of life's other biological necessities.  This analog's
mind had been oddly content with such a dull routine, and one devoid of
any significant memories prior to three years ago, apparently from some
kind of amnesia.  It was a quiet, sheep-like existence, and it offered
annoyingly little usable information on this world and what it was like
beyond the walls of this place, seemingly a cross between some kind of
a hospital and a prison.

% Well, he should realize the captors are men, which would be a good sign
from Herb's POV.

There had been one benefit of such an existence though, at least as far
as Herb's own needs were concerned.  Beneath the enticingly feminine
curves of this body were sleek, tautly powerful muscles, the result of
countless hours spent in rigorous conditioning and weight training, for
reasons this analog did not know or even seem to care about.  However,
combining this body's surprisingly capable physique with the well-honed
martial arts skills of a battle-trained Musk warrior should enable her
to escape from this place, wherever it was.  Then she could pursue her
quest to find the source of the resonator technology on this world
wherever it led her, and, hopefully, to at last find Sage.

% Hmm.Wonder if Sage is really here.



"I'm lonely," she said coquetishly, attempting what she hoped was a
seductive smile.

% "Geez, she's coming onto me like she was a guy," the guard thought to
himself.


"Yes."  Kado tapped his cane on the ground as he made his way up the
steps to the front door.  "It will be interesting to see what the boy's
been up to while we've been gone."

% Kinno has been busy, to be sure.

Nana nodded in agreement, moving the umbrella aside and folding it back
up when the pair were finally underneath the font

% front


"Come, Nana," he commanded mildly.  "Let's go see how the boy is."  He
looked at the other waiting servants.  "The rest of you, return to your
assigned duties."

In the dining hall, Kinnosuke was in good spirits.  Today was going to
be the day when he finally laid claim to Nabiki Tendo, as well as
giving a demonstration of his physical superiority to Ranma Saotome, by

% think you can drop that comma


Tiger, Lynx, and Panther quickly nodded, following Nana's lead.  All
four of them then smiled innocently at Kinnosuke.

"Anyway," said Kado, tapping his grandson on the shin gently with the
tip of his cane.  "Tell me how you're getting along at the Academy.  I
trust things have been going well."

% Kinnosuke: I'm about to crush my enemies and claim my woman in one fell
swoop.

% Kado: Ah, good for you. I was doing that frequently at your age.


Kado raised a finger and waved it from side to side.  "Ah, but Genom
has finally cracked that flaw, boy, and that's where those three come
into play."  Kado pointed proudly at the trio of young catgirls.  "Each
of them is designed to be as naturally fertile as any mere human woman,
but the ovums they produce can only combine with human sperm to form
human male children, thereby ensuring Genom remains as the only source
for future liliths.

% Yeah, right, until someone modifies a few males models to overcome that
problem.

 Think about it, boy!  Our market share will grow
to crush that of all of our competitors, now that we can provide any
man who can afford one with his own beautiful, perfectly loyal and
loving, tailor-made lilith, who can now even give him human sons.  No,
mankind no longer needs women, now that Genom can provide an improved
alternative."

% He'd better be careful. That wouldn't fit at all with the Empire's desire
to create a perfect race through better genetic engineering, which is what
the Phoenix Project is all about. The Emperor might shut him down for that.


"Well, they were each given a four-month contraception implant before
they were decanted," Kado replied with a smile, then lightly elbowed
the boy in his ribs in a conspiratorial manner.  "That was so you could
enjoy your 'honeymoon' with them without any unexpected surprises.  But
they've been fully capable of getting pregnant for at least a few weeks
now.  Its

% It's


"But my father, my mother..."  A horrible thought was occurring to him.

"Your father died when he was a teenager, Kinnosuke," Kado said sadly.
"But I saved enough viable genetic samples from him to create you.  As
for your mother, she was simply a donor, but she was a woman of good
genetic stock.  I had the portraits and pictures made up to give you a
sense of family while growing up."

% Heh. What a cold man.


"I'm fine, Grandfather," the boy replied.  He stepped away from Nana
and gave her an inscrutable look before turning back again to face his
grandsire again.  "Certain things have just become much clearer to me
now."

% Hmm. But what would that be, I wonder.



"Yes, Kinnosuke-sama," said all three catgirls, feeling a new spring
entering their step as they happily trailed along behind him, looking
forward to committing some mayhem upon the one they hated above all
others in the world: Nabiki Tendo.


(to be continued in part 2 of 2)

% Cool. Now get on with it. :)

% DB Sommer






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