Alex V Morgan
21st January 2003, 01:15 AM
Ranma Nibunnoichi : Reflections
By: A. V. Morgan (avmorgan27@attbi.com)
A continuation of the Two Ranmas manga story arc (V35 P1-4). Sexual
humor and innuendo, nudity and violence. Consider yourself warned.
Disclaimer: Ranma Nibunnoichi, and the associated cast and concepts are
the property of Rumiko Takahashi and those publishers and distributors
to whom she has given official rights. This work, in no way intends to
infringe upon those rights. The ideas explored are those of the author,
and should not be construed to express the opinions or intentions of
the creator or associated agencies.
BOLD Emphasis
~Italics~ Thought/Flashback
*SoundFX* ^_^;
[Sign] O.O [Arrrrgh! Panda's can't TALK!]
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Part Thirty-Seven: It's More Than Just Sex?
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Even though many would scoff at the idea that Ranma Saotome was an
intellectual genius, anyone who had watched him master a new and
difficult martial arts technique in record time would concede that
the necessary brilliance resided in his keen, analytical mind. The
simple fact was, few things really prompted him to think. Following
the bomb his mother had dropped on him, the boy in a girl's birthday
suit was at an even greater disadvantage than normal as his entire
brain seized up. At first, the only thing he comprehended was that
the choice he faced, even before Nodoka made it official, hurt.
Ranma had realized, even before coming out of the mirror trap, that
his heart was torn between his unnatural love for Ryouga--built more
on the understanding reached between them at dinner the previous
night and the confidence that those feelings were returned in full--
and a very difficult and uncertain love for Akane. When she stood up
for him and denounced all the arguments for why Ranma had to be a
girl, she had revealed that she actually cared for the person cast
adrift between genders. There were so few people in Ranma's life who
had ever stood up for him that he responded to those people with an
unyielding love.
Ranma was a creature of simple, uncomplicated passions. For the way
they had reached out to him, Ryouga and Akane had claimed his heart.
Unfortunately, that love was as honest and uncomplicated as he was,
and was a far cry from the romantic kind of love that existed
between lovers. His awakening experience had proven what Cologne had
tried to explain to Copy-kun, that sex was not a prerequisite for
love. Sex had almost instantly been associated with martial arts in
Ranma's mind, as a way of expressing himself physically, and that
was what the prodigal son was best at. "Ranko" had made love to
Ryouga to express feelings that words were inadequate to express.
Direct and desperate, she gave herself to him to say goodbye. It was
pure irony that the same act had allowed Ranma to say hello. The
experience had been an epiphany to Ranma, the true meaning of
friendship demonstrated in laying back naked and vulnerable,
penetrated by pleasure so intense he could not even think
coherently. What rivalry could survive such a perfect surrender?
Sex with Ryouga had healed their friendship, and yes, it had made
them more than friends. In hindsight, the worst possible thing that
could happen to the boy Ranma had been, because of the curse, had
been the best possible thing that could happen to the girl Ranma had
become. Where Ranko had been burdened with Ranma's personality and
the resulting aversion to the curse, Ranma first confronted
womanhood with total abandon and discovered it gave him an advantage
over most men. Because it was such a common taboo that it was wrong
for men to embrace each other in love, they were doomed to embrace
each other in war. By sacrificing his manhood, Ranma had ended a
long, bitter and stupid conflict that could one day have claimed one
or both their lives. If not for all the other complications in his
life, the female young man would have thought himself in the best of
both worlds. Instead, the belief that it would be fatal for Ranma to
confront his mother in his present form had prompted his father to
restore his manhood, and the desire to be a man once more had caused
Ranma to spurn his new lover.
Ryouga had hated him for it immediately, and Ranma could hardly
blame him. Ranma could not understand how Ryouga managed to forgive
him enough to answer Nodoka's challenge without hesitation--at least
once he was focused enough to hear what she was asking. Ranma
doubted the lost boy had heard Ranma admit to his mother that he did
love Ryouga, so he had feared the boy's response. When Ryouga hugged
him and declared his love, Ranma had felt such intense relief he
could not hide it. He had melted into that protective embrace
without any shame. In fact, it was a guilty pleasure, since Ranma
was painfully aware of the shock and rage consuming Akane after
seeing Ryouga's secret exposed. It was the worst time and the worst
way for Akane to discover that betrayal of friendship. Ranma had no
intention of resisting her wrath, and did not expect Ryouga to
either. Ranma could not forgive either of them for keeping this
secret from Akane. Only the fact that P-Chan had avoided Akane in
the mirror trap convinced Ranma that Ryouga was sincere about not
using that form to take advantage of Akane any more, but, of course,
the damage had long since been done. Ranma was not going to make
excuses for his silence, either by pointing out the promise or the
fact that Ranko had made it for him. However, Nodoka had pulled the
rug out from under Akane's wrath.
Not surprisingly, Ranma had been so shocked and enraged by his
mother's declaration that he had forgotten Akane, and everything
else, as his mind seized up. First, there was the surprise that some
how Happosai had convinced Nodoka that Ranma needed the curse, the
ability to be male, in order to remain sane as well as to help heal
Ranko. It was good that Nodoka had vowed not to interfere in that
before she continued and made it clear that she could only recognize
Ranma as a son or a daughter. Not both. This meant that Ranma did
not have to worry about that as he focused on the really damning
part of Nodoka's statement. As far as she was concerned, Ranma had
to be a boy or a girl entirely. This, because if Ranma chose to be a
boy, he had no honor as a girl and would be married to Akane, but if
he chose to be a girl, he had no honor as a boy and would be married
to Ryouga. Ranma loved his mother desperately, but with those words,
he had realized he hated her too. It was a no win situation, an
uncompromising, unforgiving insult to one of the two people Ranma
truly loved.
For a long time, Ranma simply refused to accept it. He was free to
assume the nanniichaun curse, to be--what a year of inherited
experiences had done to redefine as "normal" for him--more than a
man. He could be better than a man and his mother would not accept
it. He could only be a man by rejecting Ryouga and trying to hide
the shame of what was now his true form from his mother's eyes.
Unless Ranma was completely wrong, only Akane raving about how Ranma
was "hers" and the need to satisfy the honor of the Saotome and
Tendo clans through their marriage compelled Nodoka to even consider
recognizing Ranma as her son again. Ranma could only refuse that
honor by shaming his male side beyond his mother's ability to
recognize him, but if he did honor the arrangement, he shamed his
girl side just as bad. It was horrifying, but worse, the implication
that there was no way to win struck him as a grave insult. With
complete detachment, Ranma had sunk into a sea of anger and
resentment over this.
He just could not accept it. For one thing, he was still too much a
man in his own mind. True, he was a girl in all other respects, and
whatever the circumstances responsible for that, what the curse and
Ryouga had done to him had made it possible for him to accept being
female. With the opposite curse, and the belief that Ryouga would
feel the same about Ranma, male or female, and felt it strongly
enough to consider becoming as much a girl, Ranma knew he could live
with marrying him. Ryouga was not going to deny Ranma's need to be a
man. Akane had already endorsed Ranma's manhood, though she had
admitted, when Genma challenged her, that she had also defended his
choice to be female when the Togenkyo transformation had been
discussed in his absence. The problem was Nodoka's strict beliefs.
Yes, it was obvious that Ranma could not be with both Akane and
Ryouga, but was it necessary for her to rub it in all their faces?
Now that the man-among-men contract was invalidated, did she think
it was necessary to find some other way to hang the sword of honor
over Ranma's head? It was not as if Ryouga had gotten Ranma
pregnant, and it was necessary for them to get married for the sake
of the child. At least, that was the risk she had implied when she
thought Ranma was "Ranko Tendo" and she was trying to discourage the
girl from engaging in unprotected sex.
Ranma frowned inwardly. Maybe that was it. Ranko Tendo was a very
different prospect from Ranma Saotome. That was obvious when Nodoka
insisted that marrying Ryouga was necessary to protect "her
daughter's" honor. Even though it was not Ranma's fault, Nodoka was
ashamed of the fact that "she" had sex with Ryouga. Why was she more
compassionate and understanding of "Ranko's" feelings than she was
of her own child's? As a girl, Ranma was not in the least ashamed of
what she had done. As a boy, it did not occur to him to be ashamed
until the girl's memories put the act in perspective, and he
realized how unnatural and perverse it would seem to a normal
person. But, before waking up and embracing the memories, he had
been a normal boy, as far as sex and gender went. He experienced sex
as a girl before finding out what sex was supposed to be and mean.
Without knowing what people thought, he had no reason to think sex
was demeaning, and having been a girl at the time, everything he had
done was appropriate to his form. As a martial artist, he was a
strong believer in "form follows function" so being a girl, you had
to have sex like a girl, and if that was the defining difference
between male and female, proud, manly Ranma saw no reason to deny
that he was a girl.
Ranma's fist tightened, crushing the black silk wad in his hand. 'My
hand,' he thought. 'A girl's hand. I am a girl. I've had sex with a
boy, and I liked it.' She took a deep breath and relaxed her grip.
'I love him. I don't see anything about that I need to be ashamed
of. After all, wasn't I supposed to be a girl to begin with?
Shouldn't I be more ashamed of the fact that everyone, including me,
tried so hard to make me something I wasn't in the first place?' She
smiled faintly. Then she thought of Ranko. Ranko was a lot more of a
girl than she was. Ranma, even as the projection of Ranko, had
needed Ryouga to make her understand being a girl. If Ranma chose
Ryouga, and became Nodoka's daughter, what would happen to Ranko?
Would she be forced to marry Akane and live as a boy? A man? If
Ranko slept with a guy she liked, would Nodoka force her to marry
him or disown her? Was that, any of that, fair to Ranko? Ranma
scowled. The idea of Ranko being treated the way she was being
treated brought her anger back to the surface. It was not fair. It
was not honorable. Or, to be more precise, it was an insult to her
honor made to repair a perceived insult to Nodoka's. Happosai was
right. Nodoka's mind was too rigid, her sense of honor exaggerated
and fragile.
Rubbing her fingers over the soft, slippery silk of her panties,
Ranma paused thoughtfully. Nodoka's honor reminded her of a certain
boy's ego. Ryouga had done an excellent job of puncturing that boy's
ego. Maybe it was time someone did Nodoka the same favor. To begin
with, she intended to reject the notion that Ryouga had dishonored
her. Ranma had not dishonored herself, in spite of her own
confusion. She had done a good job coming to terms with a situation
that nothing she had ever experienced as a boy could have prepared
her for. She could not take responsibility for the sex, which she
refused to regret, but she could take responsibility for the first
conscious decision she had made afterwards. She turned her hand over
under Ryouga's and pressed the panties into his grasp. She had
decided to let him keep his little trophy, hiding the flush of
pleasure his demand to keep them had aroused, so it was appropriate
to return them to him. That done, she proceeded to seriously ask
herself if her mother was justified in judging her by the actions of
others. Her consent to having sex had been usurped by "Ranko".
Ryouga had done his best to resist her temptation, and eventually
crumbled, so he was hardly at fault. He'd remembered to use
protection, so even there he had done the honorable thing. Nodoka
certainly had no right to impose her little declaration on him!
Further thought was interrupted by a burst of motion at the corner
of her eye, and a sharp shrill of danger ringing in her skull. Ranma
blinked, reflexes springing her into action, as her cognitive mind
refused to let go of its train of thought. Without thinking, Ranma
surged forward, her fingers threading through Akane's clawed hands.
Unprepared for the murderous strength in Akane's arms, Ranma's arms
were spread wide, her wrists bent painfully backwards, as her body
was painfully sandwiched between Akane and Ryouga. All three toppled
over, with Ryouga pinned on his back, his arms trapped between Akane
and Ranma. Akane rested with her nose centimeters from Ranma's, when
the red-head blurted out the last thought to cross her mind.
"What if he raped me?" she challenged.
Akane, already primed to kill, did not grasp the argument behind the
words, and took them literally. "WHAT!!!? H-he RAPED you!?" she
shrieked, rearing back and staring into Ryouga's eyes, over Ranma's
head. "You disgusting PIG! How DARE YOU!?"
"Wh-what...?" Ryouga stammered in cold disbelief.
"NO!" Ranma shouted, straining to keep Akane's hands locked in her
grip, as the other girl strained to reach for Ryouga's throat.
Wrapping her legs around Akane's hips and applying pressure to the
other girl's lower spine, she tried to keep her immobilized long
enough to listen. "I said 'what if?'. Ryouga tried to say no, but
'Ranko' wouldn't have it. She wanted it, and Ryouga couldn't resist.
He was a complete gentleman and used a condom and everything. By the
time I woke up, everything felt so good I couldn't even think! The
point is, I didn't have a say in it!" she yelled into Akane's face.
Hearing this was not exactly calming Akane down, but the shock and
embarrassment did choke off anything she might have said, or yelled,
in response. Ryouga had to ask the question for her.
"What are you talking about, Ranma?"
"I'm sayin' 'Why do I hav'ta marry you just because we had sex?' How
can it be a stain on my honor when it wasn't even my fault!? It's
like, I was asleep when you started. Don't you remember, Akane,
there was that guy who slept with a girl at a party after she fell
asleep? That's rape, right? Isn't that sort of what happened to me?"
Ranma pointed out, bringing up a rumor that circulated when a
certain couple stopped coming to school. "So, I'm askin' would Mom
want me to marry a guy who raped me?" Ranma was fishing, trying out
ideas she had never fully understood. Rape was something guys talked
about in relation to sex, sort of the dark side of sex. She knew
rape was a crime, and in some countries it was considered as bad, or
worse than murder. "Does that sound like a way a girl can keep her
honor?" Ranma challenged, when neither of them spoke.
Akane could not speak.
"Ohgod. Ohgodohgodohgod," Ryouga babbled. The way Ranma had put it,
it suddenly felt like he HAD raped Ranma. Yes, Ranko had said yes.
She had demanded they have sex. Ranma, however, had not even
understood what was happening when he woke up. It took a long time
after it was over for Ranma to even be able to think, by that time,
the memories had flooded his mind, and he had clung to the female
personality they came with. Ranma could remember saying yes, but the
truth was, she had never been given a choice. "I am so sorry, Ranma.
So, so sorry," he twisted, dumping the girls off to the side, and
proceeded to run out the open shoji, carelessly closing the yukata
around his naked body.
"Ryouga!" Ranma tried to untangle herself from Akane. "Wait!"
Akane, still overwhelmed with anger, stunned by Ranma's words and
the weird logic that said she had been raped at the same time they
tried to say she had not. Ryouga's retreat, his parting words, made
it obvious that he had reached a similar conclusion, but the horror,
the shame and guilt, did not belong in a man who had so maliciously
betrayed Ranma and Akane. "Damn you, Ryouga! Hurry! Run! Don't EVER
come back!" she shouted, trying to keep Ranma from following. Akane
wanted to chase the boy, hit him, hurt him, break him into tiny
pieces and... she was so glad he was going away. Away from her, away
from Ranma. She was grateful that Ranma had intercepted her before
she could complete her attack. Grateful that the girl had been too
preoccupied to realize that Akane would have torn through her to get
her claws into Ryouga. She was grateful that it was easier to hold
onto Ranma for all she was worth than give in to the urge to chase
Ryouga.
"Let me go, Akane!" Ranma struggled, but this was not a stand up
fight, this was a contest of muscle and leverage, and Akane was both
bigger and stronger than her, or her longer limbs gave her the
leverage to foil Ranma's uncanny strength. "Please, Akane!? He'll
get lost!"
Akane ignored the pleading, "Good. That's the best thing he could do
right now; get lost."
"No! Akane! Why are you doin' this!?"
"Don't you understand? Don't you know why he left?"
"What are you talking about!?"
"He... he realized that he did," Akane exhaled into Ranma's ear, half
hugging the red-head while keeping her arms pinned behind her back,
fingers still twined through hers. Ranma was not following. "Ranma...
he... he thinks he raped you." And why did that upset him, unless...?
Akane scowled. She did not want to see a good side to him at the
moment. Ranma had gone stiff in Akane's arms.
"No. No, I'm not going to believe that," Ranma moaned in a dead
voice.
"You pointed it out yourself! You said you didn't have a choice!
That IS rape, stupid!" Akane shouted, the tide of anger swiftly
shifting to sorrow as Ranma became a victim in her mind. Someone who
had been betrayed even more deeply than she had by Ryouga.
Ranma found the strength to throw Akane off at that. "NO! Ranma
Saotome is NO ONE'S victim! It was an ACCIDENT! Yeah, so I got in
the middle of somethin' I didn't understand, but I wasn't hurt!
You're sayin' Ryouga tried to hurt me!"
"How can you say you weren't hurt, Ranma?" Akane sat up in
disbelief, brushing tears form her cheeks. "Maybe it wasn't just
Ryouga, maybe it's the other Ranko's fault too, but can you honestly
say you would have wanted this to happen? You were a boy, Ranma!
Could you have even thought about having sex with another boy if you
had a choice? Don't you see what this has done to you?"
Ranma had been about to sprint out of the room as soon as Akane was
off of her, but first she had tried to defend Ryouga, and then Akane
had said things she could not ignore. She rose to her feet and
approached the other girl, staring down with anger and hurt, "Change
hurts, Akane. It makes everything different, and sometimes the pain
makes it hard to see if things have been set wrong or right. Before
I woke up, I didn't even know what sex was, so I could not have even
made a choice. I'm glad I didn't have to chose, because if I'd been
given the chance, the decision would probably have been made by
someone for me, like always. If I'd made the right decision for a
man, I'd have made the wrong decision for me," Ranma declared.
"Are you saying you want to be a girl? That you want Ryouga?"
Ranma looked out over the yard. "I am a girl, Akane. I am a girl and
that doesn't make me any less of a man. I want to go find my friend
and make sure he's okay. I don't like losing my friends."
"What about me?" Akane asked in a voice growing smaller by the
moment. She looked up, waiting to see if Ranma would look at her.
"Do you want me?"
Ranma turned and studied her. "Well, that's the problem isn't it?"
"What?"
"I should be asking you the same question," Ranma gave her a sad
look and then raced out of the house, across the yard, and bounded
over the wall in search of Ryouga. Akane blinked in confusion for a
moment, before she understood what Ranma meant. With sudden
determination, she jumped to her feet and raced out of the house,
out through the genkan and the front gates, then down the streets in
search of Ranma and Ryouga.
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Kodachi Kuno slipped out from behind a tree in the Tendo yard. She
had been in a bad mood since she confronted Akane Tendo the night
before. After returning to the park and finding her lackey, Hikaru
Gosenkugi laying unconscious at the base of the tree they had hidden
in to ambush Akane and Ranma, she had returned home to contemplate
the fight. There was no way to deny she had been defeated, since her
intention had been to capture her lover and Akane had succeeded in
thwarting her. It was a little harder to consider that she had
failed because Akane had beaten her in combat. Being hammered over
the horizon did not really count as a defeat in Kodachi's mind,
since the only real damage had been to her pride. However great her
pride, she was well acquainted with the way her brother denied Ranma
regular triumphs over him, and did not wish to be considered as
delusional as Tatewaki. The only salve to her bruised ego was seeing
him return empty handed as well. Neither spoke of their failure
before retiring for the night. Neither slept very well either.
Kodachi took a more constructive approach to dealing with her
disappointment, going to her lab to cook up some additions to her
arsenal to improve her chances of successfully capturing Ranma and
the Pig-Tailed-Girl. The work always served to calm her nerves and
allow her to think. Thus, she was able to admit that Akane had
defeated her in the technical sense. It was a vindication of her
long practice of confronting her opponents outside of competition.
The strategy itself made it obvious that she did respect the ability
of those lower than herself, who made up for their low birth by
training their bodies and minds with a desperate devotion beneath
one of her natural ability. It had been a long time since she risked
facing opposition when something she valued was at stake, and now
she saw how her strategy for assured success had failed her. By
controlling the situation so that she always won when she wanted to,
she had led herself to believe she would always win when she
desired. She had forgotten that the competition for Ranma's heart
was very different from her Rhythmic Gymnastic Martial Arts. There
were no written rules, no judges, and the entire world was the arena
of battle.
This meant, her opponents were primed to fight at any time, never
dropping their guards and assuming they were safe until the day of
the match. Oh no, the girls Kodachi was fighting understood it was a
war and they lived it. Her ambush had failed because she never truly
held the element of surprise. Expecting Akane to be caught of guard,
Kodachi had unwittingly relaxed her own and was surprised when Akane
went all out, saving nothing for some future contest. Well, Kodachi
understood the rules of the game now, and she had armed herself
appropriately. Assured of success in her next venture, she slipped
easily to sleep. When she awoke, there was a message from Gosunkugi
waiting for her. Before letting him go home the night before, she
instructed him to watch the school and report on the actions of her
various targets. When the boy's message revealed that none of them
had come to school, including the mannish Ukyo and the mercenary
Nabiki, she knew where to seek out her prey.
With the time necessary to bathe, dress and arm herself, Kodachi
estimated she would arrive at the Tendo compound just before lunch
time. When she arrived, she had spotted two of her enemies sitting
in the Tea Room apparently deep in thought. She had concealed
herself, settling in to observe as the others assembled for the
midday meal, gathering intelligence before planning her eventual
attack. From the way the boy, Ryouga, was holding the Pig-Tailed-
Girl, it was obvious that her brother had been rather soundly
defeated in the war for her heart. It had pleased Kodachi as well,
since her straying affections would certainly diminish her chances
with Ranma-Sama. It had pleased her far more that Akane sat alone.
In spite of her date with him, the Tendo girl had apparently not
succeeded in her coarse efforts to seduce him. No doubt the girl had
repulsed him with her cooking or driven him away with her abuse once
more. When Akane had suddenly attacked the red haired girl, Kodachi
had been rather surprised. Then, when Akane shrieked in disbelief
and accusation, Kodachi had almost fallen out from behind the tree!
She could hardly believe it, but Akane had clearly accused the boy
of raping the red-haired girl. Quite obviously, there had been much
more going on than Kodachi observed, while the trio sat
motionlessly. In retrospect, Akane had been trying to get through
the girl who called herself Ranma to attack the boy, and "Ranma" was
trying to defend him. Even after the boy fled, and the red-haired
girl chased after him moments later, Kodachi was asking herself what
kind of girl defended the boy that raped her! Only when Akane fled
from sight did Kodachi emerge from hiding.
"How peculiar," she commented, sneaking towards the house. She was a
girl, and she had felt instant sympathy for her former rival at the
word "rape". It was the only part of the exchange she had heard
clearly. The aura of rage that had enshrouded Akane attested to her
depth of feeling and conviction in attacking, so there was no
question that Akane believed her own accusation. Maybe the other
girl defended the boy and protected him in the interests of keeping
the matter a secret. Given the general indifference of Japanese
authorities to the crime of rape, it certainly was more to her
disadvantage to reveal the truth. Accusing the boy would just stain
her honor, while he would most likely never face prosecution or
imprisonment. The best she could hope for was for her men folk to
track him down and beat him to death, if she could not do it
herself. Of course, that was a crime the authorities would not
ignore, and it would not repair her honor. It was more likely, if
the crime had not been brutal, if it had been just date rape, for
the families in question to settle the matter with a rushed wedding.
"Perhaps I showed up after the 'engagement'?" Kodachi slipped into
the house on silent feet. She was quite unsettled by the overheard
accusation, and the actions that made it seem more believable. Only
the guilty run, she reminded herself. No honorable man would
tolerate an accusation like that, and the last thing he would do was
run from it. Kodachi snarled. Akane was a rival, so Kodachi had made
the effort to learn about the girl. Kodachi had known of the girl's
reputation as a champion of the weak even before their first
confrontation. Akane was no doubt determined to punish the boy,
despite whatever arrangement "Ranma's" family had made. An ill
feeling was forming in Kodachi's gut, as she felt herself believing
in the crime. For a long time, she had dreamed of putting the red-
headed rival in her place, savoring the shame she would endure when
Kodachi stood victorious over her with Ranma-Sama on her arm. But
rape was too much. An insult, a horror Kodachi would never wish on
her enemies. She choked with unwanted sympathy for her rival, even
as she noted that the shame would certainly end the girl's hopes
with Ranma-Sama.
Her own plans for revenge had to wait until she confirmed the
accusation, she realized. Thus, she pressed into the house, seeking
the person in whose ears all dirty secrets eventually spilled,
Nabiki Tendo. It was hardly surprising that she was standing just
outside the door to the Tea Room, positioned to listen to those who
had raced out of the house, and the shock on her face told it's own
story. Nabiki stared at Kodachi for a moment, before blinking and
focusing on her face.
"How long have you been here?" Nabiki instantly demanded.
"Long enough to hear the foulest accusation," Kodachi answered
grimly.
"It would be best if you forgot you heard that," Nabiki warned.
Kodachi stared at the mercenary girl. "I believe it is best to
clarify some things before making any promises. Before you speak, I
do not find this a matter over which money should change hands.
Simply tell me, is there any truth to the accusation? Am I correct
in assuming that the matter is to be covered up by an engagement
between my rival and that... that... despicable boy?"
Nabiki, who had heard the entire exchange quite clearly, having been
drawn by the first sound of movement from where she had been in the
kitchen, paused in thought. She might have simply refused to speak,
no matter how dangerous Kodachi could be. However, her declaration
that she would neither buy, nor did she condone the selling of, this
kind of information, it seemed possible that the deranged girl did
understand the need for discretion. Hardening her gaze, knowing that
Kodachi already overheard the most dangerous part of the exchange,
she spelled out, very carefully, "There is reasonable suspicion that
Ryouga did not have Ranma's full consent to engage in sex during
their date. To my knowledge, she does not bear him any resentment,
and they claim to be in love. However, her mother did insist she
must marry him to retain her honor. For other reasons, Akane feels
Ryouga has betrayed her trust, and that this arrangement could
threaten her own engagement. I am sure she wants to beat the hell
out of him right now, but that would only make things worse for
everyone concerned."
"This will not please my brother," Kodachi commented, faintly
relieved by the implication that the "rape" was more technical than
literal.
"Kodachi, you don't want to repeat this, believe me," Nabiki warned.
"As a woman, you should not think that I would seek to take
advantage of this," Kodachi sneered disdainfully, insulted by
Nabiki's assumption and unvoiced threat. "However, I believe it
would be best for my brother to learn the simple fact of this
conquest from me. It is sure enough he would assume rape of any man
who managed to seduce the object of his obsession. If he is the
first to scream it out loud, certainly no one else will listen
thenceforth."
"And then Kuno'll spend the rest of his life trying to kill Ryouga
and rescue his 'Pig-Tailed-Girl' from his clutches," an angry,
familiar voice intruded. "Forget it, Kodachi. Until the wedding
itself happens, and there's still a chance it won't, no one outside
the family is going to know about the engagement."
Kodachi looked over Nabiki's shoulder to see Fa Shen and Ukyo
marching toward them from the stairs at the end of the hall. Kodachi
blinked, surprised to see the red-haired girl had returned home,
changed into appropriate feminine clothing and let her hair free of
it's pig-tail. That was all she needed to see, to believe that the
girl had finally given up on her Ranma. "You look nice like that,"
Kodachi smiled. "It's about time you stopped pretending to be my
beloved Ranma-Sama."
Fa Shen growled, clenching her fists in annoyance as the gymnast
tried to change the subject. "Did you hear me, Kodachi!? I said, you
aren't going to tell anyone about this!"
Kodachi sneered, "Even though we were rivals, what has happened to
you strikes pity into my heart. I was actually trying to protect
your reputation, you ignorant little slut! I know the ways of gossip
in and out, for I have grown up attending girl's schools. You should
trust me when I say, the truth from my brother's mouth is the best
kept secret in Nerima."
"It's not a bad idea," Nabiki tried to interject, but Fa Shen was
simply unequipped to trust Kodachi in the slightest. Seeing the
amazon smirk and tense, while Ukyo took a step back and unharnessed
her giant spatula, Nabiki dodged into the kitchen to get out of the
way. "No one ever appreciates free advice," she complained, as Fa
Shen rocketed down the corridor, foot extended in a kick.
Kodachi sighed, back-peddling and producing one of her new weapons.
Naturally, it looked like one of her usual paralysis bombs, and the
effects would include partial paralysis. The big difference was
obvious as she chucked it right in to Fa Shen's face when she was
too close to effectively dodge it. As expected, Fa Shen took a deep
breath and held it, before the bomb hit her and exploded, but
instead of a cloud of gas, she was doused in a body drenching fluid,
the paralytic/hallucinogenic drug almost instantly soaking into her
bloodstream through her skin. "I can see I am not welcome here
anymore," Kodachi smiled, as the girl stumbled and collapsed to the
floor. As she turned on her heel and fled, Ukyo chased after her,
making note to be VERY careful of anything Kodachi threw at her.
"D-dammit!" Fa Shen mumbled, straining to pick herself up.
"Are you okay?" Nabiki squatted down, not sure if it was safe to
touch the damp girl. Fa Shen struggled to her feet, blinking hard
and shaking her head. Nabiki sighed in relief to see her moving, but
decided not to touch her when she saw how weak and disoriented Fa
Shen looked. "Kodachi's crazy, and uses drugs, but she's not stupid
enough to try anything lethal. At least not in front of witnesses.
If you can make up upstairs, you might want to sleep off whatever
she hit you with."
"Sure. Great. Good thing too," Fa Shen mumbled, supporting herself
on the wall and heading back toward the stairs. "Since she used
drugs, it doesn't count as a defeat."
"What?" Nabiki's eyes widened.
"I hate giving the Kiss of Death," Fa Shen explained.
Nabiki made a quick note to spread the word, high and wide, not to
attack any of the triplets. Thanks to Fa Shen, Ranma and Ranko were
bound by amazon law, and Nabiki did not want to find out if they
were going to take those laws seriously. Things just were not
getting any better.
-------------------------
When Akane started screaming at Ryouga downstairs, Fa Shen and Ukyo
had traded a look before springing to their feet. No one in the
house could fail to hear her accuse Ryouga of raping Ranma.
Obviously, she had just figured out what the two had done on their
date, and instantly assumed the worst. Though the two girls acted in
haste, they did not move fast enough to keep Ranko from grabbing
hold of them and clinging as they raced from the room. This was the
first time that Fa Shen and Ukyo realized that, while Ranko's spirit
was weak, her body was still strong. She told her hands to hold on,
and they obeyed that command to the fullest. As with most of her
impulsive moves, it left her without the energy to send further
commands, which she tried to explain as Fa Shen and Ukyo tried to
break her death grip and leave the injured girl upstairs in relative
safety. Fa Shen was surprised to note that pressure points did not
work, since they manipulated the underlying ki of the body, and
everything Ranko had to spare was locked up in the muscles
maintaining her grip. It did not take long for the ki to drain out
of her arms, since it was needed elsewhere, and her fingers relaxed
on their own. With that, the girls were able to make their delayed
exit.
Ranko had been deposited on her futon, carefully positioned sitting
upright, grumbling at herself in irritation. If she just took it
slow, she could control herself pretty good now. She could stand and
walk even, as long as she took her time. She had more than enough
control to keep her balance, and that was the hardest part of
walking. With just a little support, she could move about the house
freely. It was trying to bound about in her normal fashion that
locked her up and paralyzed her until her ki settled back in her
center.
"This really sucks!" she griped.
She closed her eyes and meditated, trying to will herself to
regenerate ki at a faster rate. The frustration she felt quickly
derailed her focus, and she found herself hoping that Ranma and
Ryouga decided to indulge themselves again soon... and often. She was
blushing and chewing herself out for thinking such a selfish thing,
and trying to convince herself she was not actually jealous of
Ranma, when Fa Shen stumbled to a halt at the door.
"What happened to you? You look as bad as me!"
"Kodachi," Fa Shen moaned, slipping into the room, cautiously, a few
slow, carefully balanced steps enabling her to cross the open space
until she could collapse safely onto the futon beside Ranko. "She
doped me with one of her ball bombs. Ukyo's chasin' her off."
Ranko examined her, noticing the damp blouse. "Not her usual gas
attack, huh? What'd she hit you with?"
"A mild paralytic, a hallucinogenic and no doubt an erotic
stimulant," Fa Shen tabulated with a drunken smirk.
"How do you know that?" Ranko wondered, faintly impressed.
"Well, mostly experience. Ergot tried everything on me at least
twice. I'm just glad that, well, a fate worse than death awaits a
man who takes an amazon warrior in an, ah, 'unsportsman like' way,"
she grimaced. Seeing Ranko stare at her in faint incomprehension, Fa
Shen decided to short cut her memory search. "The Kiss of Marriage
is only given to a victor in hand to hand or armed combat. Drugs
aren't exactly forbidden, nor are poisons, but they have to be used
openly. Using them to prevent or end combat, especially by surprise,
is considered disengagement, withdrawal from combat. So, you use
drugs, you can't claim victory. If a man 'took' his bride that way,
she's free to kill him," Fa Shen pointed out. With a more vicious
grin, she added, "She's encouraged to take as long as she pleases."
Ranko shuddered slightly. "So, ah, you probably didn't much like
Akane screaming that Ryouga raped Ranma," she guessed.
"It's not good for a man's health to suggest an amazon's been raped
where other amazons might hear. He could find himself missing a lot
of important bits before he could convince anyone that he was
innocent," Fa Shen sighed. "See, the only thing we could imagine
that would keep the girl he wronged from taking her own revenge is
if he did something so terrible to her she was unable to face him."
Ranko blanched. The only fear she could compare that to was her fear
of cats. She did not want to think what a man would have to do to
inspire that kind of mindless panic. She was about to try and change
the subject when she noticed that Fa Shen was on her hands and
knees, facing her from quickly diminishing centimeters away. "Fa
Shen? What are you... mmmmph!" she was cut off as Fa Shen's mouth
closed on her own. With widening eyes, she realized that Fa Shen had
not been joking about the aphrodisiac effects of Kodachi's drugs.
The pressure of the kiss quickly overcame Ranko's precarious balance
and she tipped over backwards with a faint squawk as their mouths
parted. "Waaah! F-Fa Shen! Wai..."
Fa Shen simply kept crawling forward, her hands and knees sliding up
the futon on either side of Ranko as she leaned forward to recapture
her mouth. Ranko struggled limply, feverishly reminding herself if
she did anything too abruptly, she would be paralyzed entirely
before this amorous assault. She braced her hands against Fa Shen's
shoulders and slowly tried to push her off, but she almost lost
control when the other girl's hand slipped inside her pants, and the
urge to throw her off with all her strength hit. Somehow, she
ignored the impulse, and continued applying gradual pressure,
building up the strength. It helped that after the initial shock,
the probing hand and tongue provoked no particular response.
It took Fa Shen a moment longer, straining against the mounting
resistance of the girl under her, to notice she was getting no
response to the kiss and no signs of arousal anywhere else. With a
frown, she pulled back and looked into the other girl's eyes,
surprised to see the alarm there. "What's wrong?" she asked, shaken
out of her erotic mood.
"What's wrong!? Get offa me! Do you even realize what you're doin'?"
Fa Shen blinked and sat back on Ranko's thighs. She reached out and
pinched her nipple, tweaking it expertly and stroking her other hand
between her legs in a way she KNEW should get a response. Ranko
flushed and complained about being pinched and 'tickled' but fell
silent as she noticed the perplexed look on Fa Shen's face. Ranko
lay back for a moment, straining her patience as the girl tried to
get a rise out of her. Then it struck her, Fa Shen was really
trying. She was familiar enough with her own body to know it should
have been doing something, but sure enough, it was not.
"Uh, I think somethin's wrong with me," Ranko finally commented.
Fa Shen stared at her, ceasing her movements. Through the haze of
drugs, she struggled to figure out why her attentions were having no
effect on Ranko. It was like her whole body was numb, but if she
could not feel, she would not have complained about the tickling.
Then it hit her, Ranko was not feeling any pleasure. Sensation, but
no thrill, nothing erotic. She blinked. "Oh, I'm such an idiot!" she
almost yelled. "If sex generates ki, you can't have sex without it.
You have to have ki to spare."
"Oh, I suppose that makes sense," Ranko made to sit up. She paused
and frowned, "Wait, I do have ki. How much ki do you have to have
for sex?"
Fa Shen smiled at her and purred, "Do you want to find out?"
Ranko gulped and glared, "Down, girl! I was just thinkin'... maybe
there's somethin' else. I mean, I'm so drained that I'm not getting
worked up, but if I put my mind to it, I can do things at full
strength. If I go slow, I have full control. I think, if I worked at
it, I could get aroused, and that would make it possible to have
sex, right?" Fa Shen nodded eagerly, liking where this was going.
"Stop drooling, I'm still just thinkin' here! What I'm wondering is,
it takes some energy to get aroused, but, once I'm having sex, I
might be able to generate new ki. I might be able to regenerate ki
on my own, er, well, with just me and uh..."
"Uh huh! Go on!" Fa Shen beamed.
"Well, I assume there's have to be a boy, and..." Ranko did not want
to finish. Rather than continue this discussion, since Fa Shen was
in rather the wrong frame of mind for it, she carefully straightened
her clothes. "I guess I need to give this more thought. Like, after
lunch," Ranko suggested hopefully. That was one thing she still had
an appetite for, and if she was lucky someone would be up soon to
bring her down to eat. "So, ah, if you don't mind letting me up..."
Fa Shen sighed. Rolling off of Ranko, she tried to pull her head
together. Through the haze of drugs, she was conscious of what she
had been doing, and hated it. The attraction was a legacy of her
awakening, and the drugs weakened her to the point where she was
acting on it. There was no question she was worked up, and eager,
but if Ranko could not enjoy it, if she did not want it too, it was
not worth indulging in. "I'm sorry, Ranko. I couldn't stop myself,"
she apologized, looking away.
Ranko sighed, "I know how you feel. We're going to have to do
something about this, but... not like this, okay?"
"That's fair," Fa Shen breathed. "Could you... can you go, please?"
"Sure. Sorry..." Ranko got on her hands and knees and crawled out of
the room. The whole time, Fa Shen held herself tight and tried not
to look at her. Ranko slid the shoji closed after she passed through
the door, and made it to the top of the stairs before Kasumi
appeared at the bottom.
"Oh, Ranko, wait, let me help you," she rushed up and offered the
girl her arm. Ranko took it thankfully and asked if lunch was ready.
"Cologne just called and said they were headed over with food.
They'll be here in a little while."
"Good, I am starved!" Ranko smiled and Kasumi smiled back.
------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Part Thirty-Seven
------------------------------------------------------------------
By: A. V. Morgan (avmorgan27@attbi.com)
A continuation of the Two Ranmas manga story arc (V35 P1-4). Sexual
humor and innuendo, nudity and violence. Consider yourself warned.
Disclaimer: Ranma Nibunnoichi, and the associated cast and concepts are
the property of Rumiko Takahashi and those publishers and distributors
to whom she has given official rights. This work, in no way intends to
infringe upon those rights. The ideas explored are those of the author,
and should not be construed to express the opinions or intentions of
the creator or associated agencies.
BOLD Emphasis
~Italics~ Thought/Flashback
*SoundFX* ^_^;
[Sign] O.O [Arrrrgh! Panda's can't TALK!]
------------------------------------------------------------------
Part Thirty-Seven: It's More Than Just Sex?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Even though many would scoff at the idea that Ranma Saotome was an
intellectual genius, anyone who had watched him master a new and
difficult martial arts technique in record time would concede that
the necessary brilliance resided in his keen, analytical mind. The
simple fact was, few things really prompted him to think. Following
the bomb his mother had dropped on him, the boy in a girl's birthday
suit was at an even greater disadvantage than normal as his entire
brain seized up. At first, the only thing he comprehended was that
the choice he faced, even before Nodoka made it official, hurt.
Ranma had realized, even before coming out of the mirror trap, that
his heart was torn between his unnatural love for Ryouga--built more
on the understanding reached between them at dinner the previous
night and the confidence that those feelings were returned in full--
and a very difficult and uncertain love for Akane. When she stood up
for him and denounced all the arguments for why Ranma had to be a
girl, she had revealed that she actually cared for the person cast
adrift between genders. There were so few people in Ranma's life who
had ever stood up for him that he responded to those people with an
unyielding love.
Ranma was a creature of simple, uncomplicated passions. For the way
they had reached out to him, Ryouga and Akane had claimed his heart.
Unfortunately, that love was as honest and uncomplicated as he was,
and was a far cry from the romantic kind of love that existed
between lovers. His awakening experience had proven what Cologne had
tried to explain to Copy-kun, that sex was not a prerequisite for
love. Sex had almost instantly been associated with martial arts in
Ranma's mind, as a way of expressing himself physically, and that
was what the prodigal son was best at. "Ranko" had made love to
Ryouga to express feelings that words were inadequate to express.
Direct and desperate, she gave herself to him to say goodbye. It was
pure irony that the same act had allowed Ranma to say hello. The
experience had been an epiphany to Ranma, the true meaning of
friendship demonstrated in laying back naked and vulnerable,
penetrated by pleasure so intense he could not even think
coherently. What rivalry could survive such a perfect surrender?
Sex with Ryouga had healed their friendship, and yes, it had made
them more than friends. In hindsight, the worst possible thing that
could happen to the boy Ranma had been, because of the curse, had
been the best possible thing that could happen to the girl Ranma had
become. Where Ranko had been burdened with Ranma's personality and
the resulting aversion to the curse, Ranma first confronted
womanhood with total abandon and discovered it gave him an advantage
over most men. Because it was such a common taboo that it was wrong
for men to embrace each other in love, they were doomed to embrace
each other in war. By sacrificing his manhood, Ranma had ended a
long, bitter and stupid conflict that could one day have claimed one
or both their lives. If not for all the other complications in his
life, the female young man would have thought himself in the best of
both worlds. Instead, the belief that it would be fatal for Ranma to
confront his mother in his present form had prompted his father to
restore his manhood, and the desire to be a man once more had caused
Ranma to spurn his new lover.
Ryouga had hated him for it immediately, and Ranma could hardly
blame him. Ranma could not understand how Ryouga managed to forgive
him enough to answer Nodoka's challenge without hesitation--at least
once he was focused enough to hear what she was asking. Ranma
doubted the lost boy had heard Ranma admit to his mother that he did
love Ryouga, so he had feared the boy's response. When Ryouga hugged
him and declared his love, Ranma had felt such intense relief he
could not hide it. He had melted into that protective embrace
without any shame. In fact, it was a guilty pleasure, since Ranma
was painfully aware of the shock and rage consuming Akane after
seeing Ryouga's secret exposed. It was the worst time and the worst
way for Akane to discover that betrayal of friendship. Ranma had no
intention of resisting her wrath, and did not expect Ryouga to
either. Ranma could not forgive either of them for keeping this
secret from Akane. Only the fact that P-Chan had avoided Akane in
the mirror trap convinced Ranma that Ryouga was sincere about not
using that form to take advantage of Akane any more, but, of course,
the damage had long since been done. Ranma was not going to make
excuses for his silence, either by pointing out the promise or the
fact that Ranko had made it for him. However, Nodoka had pulled the
rug out from under Akane's wrath.
Not surprisingly, Ranma had been so shocked and enraged by his
mother's declaration that he had forgotten Akane, and everything
else, as his mind seized up. First, there was the surprise that some
how Happosai had convinced Nodoka that Ranma needed the curse, the
ability to be male, in order to remain sane as well as to help heal
Ranko. It was good that Nodoka had vowed not to interfere in that
before she continued and made it clear that she could only recognize
Ranma as a son or a daughter. Not both. This meant that Ranma did
not have to worry about that as he focused on the really damning
part of Nodoka's statement. As far as she was concerned, Ranma had
to be a boy or a girl entirely. This, because if Ranma chose to be a
boy, he had no honor as a girl and would be married to Akane, but if
he chose to be a girl, he had no honor as a boy and would be married
to Ryouga. Ranma loved his mother desperately, but with those words,
he had realized he hated her too. It was a no win situation, an
uncompromising, unforgiving insult to one of the two people Ranma
truly loved.
For a long time, Ranma simply refused to accept it. He was free to
assume the nanniichaun curse, to be--what a year of inherited
experiences had done to redefine as "normal" for him--more than a
man. He could be better than a man and his mother would not accept
it. He could only be a man by rejecting Ryouga and trying to hide
the shame of what was now his true form from his mother's eyes.
Unless Ranma was completely wrong, only Akane raving about how Ranma
was "hers" and the need to satisfy the honor of the Saotome and
Tendo clans through their marriage compelled Nodoka to even consider
recognizing Ranma as her son again. Ranma could only refuse that
honor by shaming his male side beyond his mother's ability to
recognize him, but if he did honor the arrangement, he shamed his
girl side just as bad. It was horrifying, but worse, the implication
that there was no way to win struck him as a grave insult. With
complete detachment, Ranma had sunk into a sea of anger and
resentment over this.
He just could not accept it. For one thing, he was still too much a
man in his own mind. True, he was a girl in all other respects, and
whatever the circumstances responsible for that, what the curse and
Ryouga had done to him had made it possible for him to accept being
female. With the opposite curse, and the belief that Ryouga would
feel the same about Ranma, male or female, and felt it strongly
enough to consider becoming as much a girl, Ranma knew he could live
with marrying him. Ryouga was not going to deny Ranma's need to be a
man. Akane had already endorsed Ranma's manhood, though she had
admitted, when Genma challenged her, that she had also defended his
choice to be female when the Togenkyo transformation had been
discussed in his absence. The problem was Nodoka's strict beliefs.
Yes, it was obvious that Ranma could not be with both Akane and
Ryouga, but was it necessary for her to rub it in all their faces?
Now that the man-among-men contract was invalidated, did she think
it was necessary to find some other way to hang the sword of honor
over Ranma's head? It was not as if Ryouga had gotten Ranma
pregnant, and it was necessary for them to get married for the sake
of the child. At least, that was the risk she had implied when she
thought Ranma was "Ranko Tendo" and she was trying to discourage the
girl from engaging in unprotected sex.
Ranma frowned inwardly. Maybe that was it. Ranko Tendo was a very
different prospect from Ranma Saotome. That was obvious when Nodoka
insisted that marrying Ryouga was necessary to protect "her
daughter's" honor. Even though it was not Ranma's fault, Nodoka was
ashamed of the fact that "she" had sex with Ryouga. Why was she more
compassionate and understanding of "Ranko's" feelings than she was
of her own child's? As a girl, Ranma was not in the least ashamed of
what she had done. As a boy, it did not occur to him to be ashamed
until the girl's memories put the act in perspective, and he
realized how unnatural and perverse it would seem to a normal
person. But, before waking up and embracing the memories, he had
been a normal boy, as far as sex and gender went. He experienced sex
as a girl before finding out what sex was supposed to be and mean.
Without knowing what people thought, he had no reason to think sex
was demeaning, and having been a girl at the time, everything he had
done was appropriate to his form. As a martial artist, he was a
strong believer in "form follows function" so being a girl, you had
to have sex like a girl, and if that was the defining difference
between male and female, proud, manly Ranma saw no reason to deny
that he was a girl.
Ranma's fist tightened, crushing the black silk wad in his hand. 'My
hand,' he thought. 'A girl's hand. I am a girl. I've had sex with a
boy, and I liked it.' She took a deep breath and relaxed her grip.
'I love him. I don't see anything about that I need to be ashamed
of. After all, wasn't I supposed to be a girl to begin with?
Shouldn't I be more ashamed of the fact that everyone, including me,
tried so hard to make me something I wasn't in the first place?' She
smiled faintly. Then she thought of Ranko. Ranko was a lot more of a
girl than she was. Ranma, even as the projection of Ranko, had
needed Ryouga to make her understand being a girl. If Ranma chose
Ryouga, and became Nodoka's daughter, what would happen to Ranko?
Would she be forced to marry Akane and live as a boy? A man? If
Ranko slept with a guy she liked, would Nodoka force her to marry
him or disown her? Was that, any of that, fair to Ranko? Ranma
scowled. The idea of Ranko being treated the way she was being
treated brought her anger back to the surface. It was not fair. It
was not honorable. Or, to be more precise, it was an insult to her
honor made to repair a perceived insult to Nodoka's. Happosai was
right. Nodoka's mind was too rigid, her sense of honor exaggerated
and fragile.
Rubbing her fingers over the soft, slippery silk of her panties,
Ranma paused thoughtfully. Nodoka's honor reminded her of a certain
boy's ego. Ryouga had done an excellent job of puncturing that boy's
ego. Maybe it was time someone did Nodoka the same favor. To begin
with, she intended to reject the notion that Ryouga had dishonored
her. Ranma had not dishonored herself, in spite of her own
confusion. She had done a good job coming to terms with a situation
that nothing she had ever experienced as a boy could have prepared
her for. She could not take responsibility for the sex, which she
refused to regret, but she could take responsibility for the first
conscious decision she had made afterwards. She turned her hand over
under Ryouga's and pressed the panties into his grasp. She had
decided to let him keep his little trophy, hiding the flush of
pleasure his demand to keep them had aroused, so it was appropriate
to return them to him. That done, she proceeded to seriously ask
herself if her mother was justified in judging her by the actions of
others. Her consent to having sex had been usurped by "Ranko".
Ryouga had done his best to resist her temptation, and eventually
crumbled, so he was hardly at fault. He'd remembered to use
protection, so even there he had done the honorable thing. Nodoka
certainly had no right to impose her little declaration on him!
Further thought was interrupted by a burst of motion at the corner
of her eye, and a sharp shrill of danger ringing in her skull. Ranma
blinked, reflexes springing her into action, as her cognitive mind
refused to let go of its train of thought. Without thinking, Ranma
surged forward, her fingers threading through Akane's clawed hands.
Unprepared for the murderous strength in Akane's arms, Ranma's arms
were spread wide, her wrists bent painfully backwards, as her body
was painfully sandwiched between Akane and Ryouga. All three toppled
over, with Ryouga pinned on his back, his arms trapped between Akane
and Ranma. Akane rested with her nose centimeters from Ranma's, when
the red-head blurted out the last thought to cross her mind.
"What if he raped me?" she challenged.
Akane, already primed to kill, did not grasp the argument behind the
words, and took them literally. "WHAT!!!? H-he RAPED you!?" she
shrieked, rearing back and staring into Ryouga's eyes, over Ranma's
head. "You disgusting PIG! How DARE YOU!?"
"Wh-what...?" Ryouga stammered in cold disbelief.
"NO!" Ranma shouted, straining to keep Akane's hands locked in her
grip, as the other girl strained to reach for Ryouga's throat.
Wrapping her legs around Akane's hips and applying pressure to the
other girl's lower spine, she tried to keep her immobilized long
enough to listen. "I said 'what if?'. Ryouga tried to say no, but
'Ranko' wouldn't have it. She wanted it, and Ryouga couldn't resist.
He was a complete gentleman and used a condom and everything. By the
time I woke up, everything felt so good I couldn't even think! The
point is, I didn't have a say in it!" she yelled into Akane's face.
Hearing this was not exactly calming Akane down, but the shock and
embarrassment did choke off anything she might have said, or yelled,
in response. Ryouga had to ask the question for her.
"What are you talking about, Ranma?"
"I'm sayin' 'Why do I hav'ta marry you just because we had sex?' How
can it be a stain on my honor when it wasn't even my fault!? It's
like, I was asleep when you started. Don't you remember, Akane,
there was that guy who slept with a girl at a party after she fell
asleep? That's rape, right? Isn't that sort of what happened to me?"
Ranma pointed out, bringing up a rumor that circulated when a
certain couple stopped coming to school. "So, I'm askin' would Mom
want me to marry a guy who raped me?" Ranma was fishing, trying out
ideas she had never fully understood. Rape was something guys talked
about in relation to sex, sort of the dark side of sex. She knew
rape was a crime, and in some countries it was considered as bad, or
worse than murder. "Does that sound like a way a girl can keep her
honor?" Ranma challenged, when neither of them spoke.
Akane could not speak.
"Ohgod. Ohgodohgodohgod," Ryouga babbled. The way Ranma had put it,
it suddenly felt like he HAD raped Ranma. Yes, Ranko had said yes.
She had demanded they have sex. Ranma, however, had not even
understood what was happening when he woke up. It took a long time
after it was over for Ranma to even be able to think, by that time,
the memories had flooded his mind, and he had clung to the female
personality they came with. Ranma could remember saying yes, but the
truth was, she had never been given a choice. "I am so sorry, Ranma.
So, so sorry," he twisted, dumping the girls off to the side, and
proceeded to run out the open shoji, carelessly closing the yukata
around his naked body.
"Ryouga!" Ranma tried to untangle herself from Akane. "Wait!"
Akane, still overwhelmed with anger, stunned by Ranma's words and
the weird logic that said she had been raped at the same time they
tried to say she had not. Ryouga's retreat, his parting words, made
it obvious that he had reached a similar conclusion, but the horror,
the shame and guilt, did not belong in a man who had so maliciously
betrayed Ranma and Akane. "Damn you, Ryouga! Hurry! Run! Don't EVER
come back!" she shouted, trying to keep Ranma from following. Akane
wanted to chase the boy, hit him, hurt him, break him into tiny
pieces and... she was so glad he was going away. Away from her, away
from Ranma. She was grateful that Ranma had intercepted her before
she could complete her attack. Grateful that the girl had been too
preoccupied to realize that Akane would have torn through her to get
her claws into Ryouga. She was grateful that it was easier to hold
onto Ranma for all she was worth than give in to the urge to chase
Ryouga.
"Let me go, Akane!" Ranma struggled, but this was not a stand up
fight, this was a contest of muscle and leverage, and Akane was both
bigger and stronger than her, or her longer limbs gave her the
leverage to foil Ranma's uncanny strength. "Please, Akane!? He'll
get lost!"
Akane ignored the pleading, "Good. That's the best thing he could do
right now; get lost."
"No! Akane! Why are you doin' this!?"
"Don't you understand? Don't you know why he left?"
"What are you talking about!?"
"He... he realized that he did," Akane exhaled into Ranma's ear, half
hugging the red-head while keeping her arms pinned behind her back,
fingers still twined through hers. Ranma was not following. "Ranma...
he... he thinks he raped you." And why did that upset him, unless...?
Akane scowled. She did not want to see a good side to him at the
moment. Ranma had gone stiff in Akane's arms.
"No. No, I'm not going to believe that," Ranma moaned in a dead
voice.
"You pointed it out yourself! You said you didn't have a choice!
That IS rape, stupid!" Akane shouted, the tide of anger swiftly
shifting to sorrow as Ranma became a victim in her mind. Someone who
had been betrayed even more deeply than she had by Ryouga.
Ranma found the strength to throw Akane off at that. "NO! Ranma
Saotome is NO ONE'S victim! It was an ACCIDENT! Yeah, so I got in
the middle of somethin' I didn't understand, but I wasn't hurt!
You're sayin' Ryouga tried to hurt me!"
"How can you say you weren't hurt, Ranma?" Akane sat up in
disbelief, brushing tears form her cheeks. "Maybe it wasn't just
Ryouga, maybe it's the other Ranko's fault too, but can you honestly
say you would have wanted this to happen? You were a boy, Ranma!
Could you have even thought about having sex with another boy if you
had a choice? Don't you see what this has done to you?"
Ranma had been about to sprint out of the room as soon as Akane was
off of her, but first she had tried to defend Ryouga, and then Akane
had said things she could not ignore. She rose to her feet and
approached the other girl, staring down with anger and hurt, "Change
hurts, Akane. It makes everything different, and sometimes the pain
makes it hard to see if things have been set wrong or right. Before
I woke up, I didn't even know what sex was, so I could not have even
made a choice. I'm glad I didn't have to chose, because if I'd been
given the chance, the decision would probably have been made by
someone for me, like always. If I'd made the right decision for a
man, I'd have made the wrong decision for me," Ranma declared.
"Are you saying you want to be a girl? That you want Ryouga?"
Ranma looked out over the yard. "I am a girl, Akane. I am a girl and
that doesn't make me any less of a man. I want to go find my friend
and make sure he's okay. I don't like losing my friends."
"What about me?" Akane asked in a voice growing smaller by the
moment. She looked up, waiting to see if Ranma would look at her.
"Do you want me?"
Ranma turned and studied her. "Well, that's the problem isn't it?"
"What?"
"I should be asking you the same question," Ranma gave her a sad
look and then raced out of the house, across the yard, and bounded
over the wall in search of Ryouga. Akane blinked in confusion for a
moment, before she understood what Ranma meant. With sudden
determination, she jumped to her feet and raced out of the house,
out through the genkan and the front gates, then down the streets in
search of Ranma and Ryouga.
-------------------------
Kodachi Kuno slipped out from behind a tree in the Tendo yard. She
had been in a bad mood since she confronted Akane Tendo the night
before. After returning to the park and finding her lackey, Hikaru
Gosenkugi laying unconscious at the base of the tree they had hidden
in to ambush Akane and Ranma, she had returned home to contemplate
the fight. There was no way to deny she had been defeated, since her
intention had been to capture her lover and Akane had succeeded in
thwarting her. It was a little harder to consider that she had
failed because Akane had beaten her in combat. Being hammered over
the horizon did not really count as a defeat in Kodachi's mind,
since the only real damage had been to her pride. However great her
pride, she was well acquainted with the way her brother denied Ranma
regular triumphs over him, and did not wish to be considered as
delusional as Tatewaki. The only salve to her bruised ego was seeing
him return empty handed as well. Neither spoke of their failure
before retiring for the night. Neither slept very well either.
Kodachi took a more constructive approach to dealing with her
disappointment, going to her lab to cook up some additions to her
arsenal to improve her chances of successfully capturing Ranma and
the Pig-Tailed-Girl. The work always served to calm her nerves and
allow her to think. Thus, she was able to admit that Akane had
defeated her in the technical sense. It was a vindication of her
long practice of confronting her opponents outside of competition.
The strategy itself made it obvious that she did respect the ability
of those lower than herself, who made up for their low birth by
training their bodies and minds with a desperate devotion beneath
one of her natural ability. It had been a long time since she risked
facing opposition when something she valued was at stake, and now
she saw how her strategy for assured success had failed her. By
controlling the situation so that she always won when she wanted to,
she had led herself to believe she would always win when she
desired. She had forgotten that the competition for Ranma's heart
was very different from her Rhythmic Gymnastic Martial Arts. There
were no written rules, no judges, and the entire world was the arena
of battle.
This meant, her opponents were primed to fight at any time, never
dropping their guards and assuming they were safe until the day of
the match. Oh no, the girls Kodachi was fighting understood it was a
war and they lived it. Her ambush had failed because she never truly
held the element of surprise. Expecting Akane to be caught of guard,
Kodachi had unwittingly relaxed her own and was surprised when Akane
went all out, saving nothing for some future contest. Well, Kodachi
understood the rules of the game now, and she had armed herself
appropriately. Assured of success in her next venture, she slipped
easily to sleep. When she awoke, there was a message from Gosunkugi
waiting for her. Before letting him go home the night before, she
instructed him to watch the school and report on the actions of her
various targets. When the boy's message revealed that none of them
had come to school, including the mannish Ukyo and the mercenary
Nabiki, she knew where to seek out her prey.
With the time necessary to bathe, dress and arm herself, Kodachi
estimated she would arrive at the Tendo compound just before lunch
time. When she arrived, she had spotted two of her enemies sitting
in the Tea Room apparently deep in thought. She had concealed
herself, settling in to observe as the others assembled for the
midday meal, gathering intelligence before planning her eventual
attack. From the way the boy, Ryouga, was holding the Pig-Tailed-
Girl, it was obvious that her brother had been rather soundly
defeated in the war for her heart. It had pleased Kodachi as well,
since her straying affections would certainly diminish her chances
with Ranma-Sama. It had pleased her far more that Akane sat alone.
In spite of her date with him, the Tendo girl had apparently not
succeeded in her coarse efforts to seduce him. No doubt the girl had
repulsed him with her cooking or driven him away with her abuse once
more. When Akane had suddenly attacked the red haired girl, Kodachi
had been rather surprised. Then, when Akane shrieked in disbelief
and accusation, Kodachi had almost fallen out from behind the tree!
She could hardly believe it, but Akane had clearly accused the boy
of raping the red-haired girl. Quite obviously, there had been much
more going on than Kodachi observed, while the trio sat
motionlessly. In retrospect, Akane had been trying to get through
the girl who called herself Ranma to attack the boy, and "Ranma" was
trying to defend him. Even after the boy fled, and the red-haired
girl chased after him moments later, Kodachi was asking herself what
kind of girl defended the boy that raped her! Only when Akane fled
from sight did Kodachi emerge from hiding.
"How peculiar," she commented, sneaking towards the house. She was a
girl, and she had felt instant sympathy for her former rival at the
word "rape". It was the only part of the exchange she had heard
clearly. The aura of rage that had enshrouded Akane attested to her
depth of feeling and conviction in attacking, so there was no
question that Akane believed her own accusation. Maybe the other
girl defended the boy and protected him in the interests of keeping
the matter a secret. Given the general indifference of Japanese
authorities to the crime of rape, it certainly was more to her
disadvantage to reveal the truth. Accusing the boy would just stain
her honor, while he would most likely never face prosecution or
imprisonment. The best she could hope for was for her men folk to
track him down and beat him to death, if she could not do it
herself. Of course, that was a crime the authorities would not
ignore, and it would not repair her honor. It was more likely, if
the crime had not been brutal, if it had been just date rape, for
the families in question to settle the matter with a rushed wedding.
"Perhaps I showed up after the 'engagement'?" Kodachi slipped into
the house on silent feet. She was quite unsettled by the overheard
accusation, and the actions that made it seem more believable. Only
the guilty run, she reminded herself. No honorable man would
tolerate an accusation like that, and the last thing he would do was
run from it. Kodachi snarled. Akane was a rival, so Kodachi had made
the effort to learn about the girl. Kodachi had known of the girl's
reputation as a champion of the weak even before their first
confrontation. Akane was no doubt determined to punish the boy,
despite whatever arrangement "Ranma's" family had made. An ill
feeling was forming in Kodachi's gut, as she felt herself believing
in the crime. For a long time, she had dreamed of putting the red-
headed rival in her place, savoring the shame she would endure when
Kodachi stood victorious over her with Ranma-Sama on her arm. But
rape was too much. An insult, a horror Kodachi would never wish on
her enemies. She choked with unwanted sympathy for her rival, even
as she noted that the shame would certainly end the girl's hopes
with Ranma-Sama.
Her own plans for revenge had to wait until she confirmed the
accusation, she realized. Thus, she pressed into the house, seeking
the person in whose ears all dirty secrets eventually spilled,
Nabiki Tendo. It was hardly surprising that she was standing just
outside the door to the Tea Room, positioned to listen to those who
had raced out of the house, and the shock on her face told it's own
story. Nabiki stared at Kodachi for a moment, before blinking and
focusing on her face.
"How long have you been here?" Nabiki instantly demanded.
"Long enough to hear the foulest accusation," Kodachi answered
grimly.
"It would be best if you forgot you heard that," Nabiki warned.
Kodachi stared at the mercenary girl. "I believe it is best to
clarify some things before making any promises. Before you speak, I
do not find this a matter over which money should change hands.
Simply tell me, is there any truth to the accusation? Am I correct
in assuming that the matter is to be covered up by an engagement
between my rival and that... that... despicable boy?"
Nabiki, who had heard the entire exchange quite clearly, having been
drawn by the first sound of movement from where she had been in the
kitchen, paused in thought. She might have simply refused to speak,
no matter how dangerous Kodachi could be. However, her declaration
that she would neither buy, nor did she condone the selling of, this
kind of information, it seemed possible that the deranged girl did
understand the need for discretion. Hardening her gaze, knowing that
Kodachi already overheard the most dangerous part of the exchange,
she spelled out, very carefully, "There is reasonable suspicion that
Ryouga did not have Ranma's full consent to engage in sex during
their date. To my knowledge, she does not bear him any resentment,
and they claim to be in love. However, her mother did insist she
must marry him to retain her honor. For other reasons, Akane feels
Ryouga has betrayed her trust, and that this arrangement could
threaten her own engagement. I am sure she wants to beat the hell
out of him right now, but that would only make things worse for
everyone concerned."
"This will not please my brother," Kodachi commented, faintly
relieved by the implication that the "rape" was more technical than
literal.
"Kodachi, you don't want to repeat this, believe me," Nabiki warned.
"As a woman, you should not think that I would seek to take
advantage of this," Kodachi sneered disdainfully, insulted by
Nabiki's assumption and unvoiced threat. "However, I believe it
would be best for my brother to learn the simple fact of this
conquest from me. It is sure enough he would assume rape of any man
who managed to seduce the object of his obsession. If he is the
first to scream it out loud, certainly no one else will listen
thenceforth."
"And then Kuno'll spend the rest of his life trying to kill Ryouga
and rescue his 'Pig-Tailed-Girl' from his clutches," an angry,
familiar voice intruded. "Forget it, Kodachi. Until the wedding
itself happens, and there's still a chance it won't, no one outside
the family is going to know about the engagement."
Kodachi looked over Nabiki's shoulder to see Fa Shen and Ukyo
marching toward them from the stairs at the end of the hall. Kodachi
blinked, surprised to see the red-haired girl had returned home,
changed into appropriate feminine clothing and let her hair free of
it's pig-tail. That was all she needed to see, to believe that the
girl had finally given up on her Ranma. "You look nice like that,"
Kodachi smiled. "It's about time you stopped pretending to be my
beloved Ranma-Sama."
Fa Shen growled, clenching her fists in annoyance as the gymnast
tried to change the subject. "Did you hear me, Kodachi!? I said, you
aren't going to tell anyone about this!"
Kodachi sneered, "Even though we were rivals, what has happened to
you strikes pity into my heart. I was actually trying to protect
your reputation, you ignorant little slut! I know the ways of gossip
in and out, for I have grown up attending girl's schools. You should
trust me when I say, the truth from my brother's mouth is the best
kept secret in Nerima."
"It's not a bad idea," Nabiki tried to interject, but Fa Shen was
simply unequipped to trust Kodachi in the slightest. Seeing the
amazon smirk and tense, while Ukyo took a step back and unharnessed
her giant spatula, Nabiki dodged into the kitchen to get out of the
way. "No one ever appreciates free advice," she complained, as Fa
Shen rocketed down the corridor, foot extended in a kick.
Kodachi sighed, back-peddling and producing one of her new weapons.
Naturally, it looked like one of her usual paralysis bombs, and the
effects would include partial paralysis. The big difference was
obvious as she chucked it right in to Fa Shen's face when she was
too close to effectively dodge it. As expected, Fa Shen took a deep
breath and held it, before the bomb hit her and exploded, but
instead of a cloud of gas, she was doused in a body drenching fluid,
the paralytic/hallucinogenic drug almost instantly soaking into her
bloodstream through her skin. "I can see I am not welcome here
anymore," Kodachi smiled, as the girl stumbled and collapsed to the
floor. As she turned on her heel and fled, Ukyo chased after her,
making note to be VERY careful of anything Kodachi threw at her.
"D-dammit!" Fa Shen mumbled, straining to pick herself up.
"Are you okay?" Nabiki squatted down, not sure if it was safe to
touch the damp girl. Fa Shen struggled to her feet, blinking hard
and shaking her head. Nabiki sighed in relief to see her moving, but
decided not to touch her when she saw how weak and disoriented Fa
Shen looked. "Kodachi's crazy, and uses drugs, but she's not stupid
enough to try anything lethal. At least not in front of witnesses.
If you can make up upstairs, you might want to sleep off whatever
she hit you with."
"Sure. Great. Good thing too," Fa Shen mumbled, supporting herself
on the wall and heading back toward the stairs. "Since she used
drugs, it doesn't count as a defeat."
"What?" Nabiki's eyes widened.
"I hate giving the Kiss of Death," Fa Shen explained.
Nabiki made a quick note to spread the word, high and wide, not to
attack any of the triplets. Thanks to Fa Shen, Ranma and Ranko were
bound by amazon law, and Nabiki did not want to find out if they
were going to take those laws seriously. Things just were not
getting any better.
-------------------------
When Akane started screaming at Ryouga downstairs, Fa Shen and Ukyo
had traded a look before springing to their feet. No one in the
house could fail to hear her accuse Ryouga of raping Ranma.
Obviously, she had just figured out what the two had done on their
date, and instantly assumed the worst. Though the two girls acted in
haste, they did not move fast enough to keep Ranko from grabbing
hold of them and clinging as they raced from the room. This was the
first time that Fa Shen and Ukyo realized that, while Ranko's spirit
was weak, her body was still strong. She told her hands to hold on,
and they obeyed that command to the fullest. As with most of her
impulsive moves, it left her without the energy to send further
commands, which she tried to explain as Fa Shen and Ukyo tried to
break her death grip and leave the injured girl upstairs in relative
safety. Fa Shen was surprised to note that pressure points did not
work, since they manipulated the underlying ki of the body, and
everything Ranko had to spare was locked up in the muscles
maintaining her grip. It did not take long for the ki to drain out
of her arms, since it was needed elsewhere, and her fingers relaxed
on their own. With that, the girls were able to make their delayed
exit.
Ranko had been deposited on her futon, carefully positioned sitting
upright, grumbling at herself in irritation. If she just took it
slow, she could control herself pretty good now. She could stand and
walk even, as long as she took her time. She had more than enough
control to keep her balance, and that was the hardest part of
walking. With just a little support, she could move about the house
freely. It was trying to bound about in her normal fashion that
locked her up and paralyzed her until her ki settled back in her
center.
"This really sucks!" she griped.
She closed her eyes and meditated, trying to will herself to
regenerate ki at a faster rate. The frustration she felt quickly
derailed her focus, and she found herself hoping that Ranma and
Ryouga decided to indulge themselves again soon... and often. She was
blushing and chewing herself out for thinking such a selfish thing,
and trying to convince herself she was not actually jealous of
Ranma, when Fa Shen stumbled to a halt at the door.
"What happened to you? You look as bad as me!"
"Kodachi," Fa Shen moaned, slipping into the room, cautiously, a few
slow, carefully balanced steps enabling her to cross the open space
until she could collapse safely onto the futon beside Ranko. "She
doped me with one of her ball bombs. Ukyo's chasin' her off."
Ranko examined her, noticing the damp blouse. "Not her usual gas
attack, huh? What'd she hit you with?"
"A mild paralytic, a hallucinogenic and no doubt an erotic
stimulant," Fa Shen tabulated with a drunken smirk.
"How do you know that?" Ranko wondered, faintly impressed.
"Well, mostly experience. Ergot tried everything on me at least
twice. I'm just glad that, well, a fate worse than death awaits a
man who takes an amazon warrior in an, ah, 'unsportsman like' way,"
she grimaced. Seeing Ranko stare at her in faint incomprehension, Fa
Shen decided to short cut her memory search. "The Kiss of Marriage
is only given to a victor in hand to hand or armed combat. Drugs
aren't exactly forbidden, nor are poisons, but they have to be used
openly. Using them to prevent or end combat, especially by surprise,
is considered disengagement, withdrawal from combat. So, you use
drugs, you can't claim victory. If a man 'took' his bride that way,
she's free to kill him," Fa Shen pointed out. With a more vicious
grin, she added, "She's encouraged to take as long as she pleases."
Ranko shuddered slightly. "So, ah, you probably didn't much like
Akane screaming that Ryouga raped Ranma," she guessed.
"It's not good for a man's health to suggest an amazon's been raped
where other amazons might hear. He could find himself missing a lot
of important bits before he could convince anyone that he was
innocent," Fa Shen sighed. "See, the only thing we could imagine
that would keep the girl he wronged from taking her own revenge is
if he did something so terrible to her she was unable to face him."
Ranko blanched. The only fear she could compare that to was her fear
of cats. She did not want to think what a man would have to do to
inspire that kind of mindless panic. She was about to try and change
the subject when she noticed that Fa Shen was on her hands and
knees, facing her from quickly diminishing centimeters away. "Fa
Shen? What are you... mmmmph!" she was cut off as Fa Shen's mouth
closed on her own. With widening eyes, she realized that Fa Shen had
not been joking about the aphrodisiac effects of Kodachi's drugs.
The pressure of the kiss quickly overcame Ranko's precarious balance
and she tipped over backwards with a faint squawk as their mouths
parted. "Waaah! F-Fa Shen! Wai..."
Fa Shen simply kept crawling forward, her hands and knees sliding up
the futon on either side of Ranko as she leaned forward to recapture
her mouth. Ranko struggled limply, feverishly reminding herself if
she did anything too abruptly, she would be paralyzed entirely
before this amorous assault. She braced her hands against Fa Shen's
shoulders and slowly tried to push her off, but she almost lost
control when the other girl's hand slipped inside her pants, and the
urge to throw her off with all her strength hit. Somehow, she
ignored the impulse, and continued applying gradual pressure,
building up the strength. It helped that after the initial shock,
the probing hand and tongue provoked no particular response.
It took Fa Shen a moment longer, straining against the mounting
resistance of the girl under her, to notice she was getting no
response to the kiss and no signs of arousal anywhere else. With a
frown, she pulled back and looked into the other girl's eyes,
surprised to see the alarm there. "What's wrong?" she asked, shaken
out of her erotic mood.
"What's wrong!? Get offa me! Do you even realize what you're doin'?"
Fa Shen blinked and sat back on Ranko's thighs. She reached out and
pinched her nipple, tweaking it expertly and stroking her other hand
between her legs in a way she KNEW should get a response. Ranko
flushed and complained about being pinched and 'tickled' but fell
silent as she noticed the perplexed look on Fa Shen's face. Ranko
lay back for a moment, straining her patience as the girl tried to
get a rise out of her. Then it struck her, Fa Shen was really
trying. She was familiar enough with her own body to know it should
have been doing something, but sure enough, it was not.
"Uh, I think somethin's wrong with me," Ranko finally commented.
Fa Shen stared at her, ceasing her movements. Through the haze of
drugs, she struggled to figure out why her attentions were having no
effect on Ranko. It was like her whole body was numb, but if she
could not feel, she would not have complained about the tickling.
Then it hit her, Ranko was not feeling any pleasure. Sensation, but
no thrill, nothing erotic. She blinked. "Oh, I'm such an idiot!" she
almost yelled. "If sex generates ki, you can't have sex without it.
You have to have ki to spare."
"Oh, I suppose that makes sense," Ranko made to sit up. She paused
and frowned, "Wait, I do have ki. How much ki do you have to have
for sex?"
Fa Shen smiled at her and purred, "Do you want to find out?"
Ranko gulped and glared, "Down, girl! I was just thinkin'... maybe
there's somethin' else. I mean, I'm so drained that I'm not getting
worked up, but if I put my mind to it, I can do things at full
strength. If I go slow, I have full control. I think, if I worked at
it, I could get aroused, and that would make it possible to have
sex, right?" Fa Shen nodded eagerly, liking where this was going.
"Stop drooling, I'm still just thinkin' here! What I'm wondering is,
it takes some energy to get aroused, but, once I'm having sex, I
might be able to generate new ki. I might be able to regenerate ki
on my own, er, well, with just me and uh..."
"Uh huh! Go on!" Fa Shen beamed.
"Well, I assume there's have to be a boy, and..." Ranko did not want
to finish. Rather than continue this discussion, since Fa Shen was
in rather the wrong frame of mind for it, she carefully straightened
her clothes. "I guess I need to give this more thought. Like, after
lunch," Ranko suggested hopefully. That was one thing she still had
an appetite for, and if she was lucky someone would be up soon to
bring her down to eat. "So, ah, if you don't mind letting me up..."
Fa Shen sighed. Rolling off of Ranko, she tried to pull her head
together. Through the haze of drugs, she was conscious of what she
had been doing, and hated it. The attraction was a legacy of her
awakening, and the drugs weakened her to the point where she was
acting on it. There was no question she was worked up, and eager,
but if Ranko could not enjoy it, if she did not want it too, it was
not worth indulging in. "I'm sorry, Ranko. I couldn't stop myself,"
she apologized, looking away.
Ranko sighed, "I know how you feel. We're going to have to do
something about this, but... not like this, okay?"
"That's fair," Fa Shen breathed. "Could you... can you go, please?"
"Sure. Sorry..." Ranko got on her hands and knees and crawled out of
the room. The whole time, Fa Shen held herself tight and tried not
to look at her. Ranko slid the shoji closed after she passed through
the door, and made it to the top of the stairs before Kasumi
appeared at the bottom.
"Oh, Ranko, wait, let me help you," she rushed up and offered the
girl her arm. Ranko took it thankfully and asked if lunch was ready.
"Cologne just called and said they were headed over with food.
They'll be here in a little while."
"Good, I am starved!" Ranko smiled and Kasumi smiled back.
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End of Part Thirty-Seven
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