Jedi Kasumi18 Jedi Kasumi (A Ranma/Star Wars Crossover) by Jim Robert Bader (Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi & George Lucas, with further inspiration provided by Brandon Kelley & Bill Guiroff) Episode Eighteen. (Under Seventeen Not Admitted) A Shard in the Mind's Eye! WARNING---ADULT LEMONY MATERIAL! CONTAINS SCENES OF A HIGHLY SUGGESTIVE NATURE! BE WARNED! Having cut his losses for the moment. the dreaded Sith Lord named Dark Purge has left Ukyo and Ryoga in the custody of the Tendos, but the Jedi suspect ulterior motives lay behind this seeming act of generosity on his part... The Amazon Elder named Cologne of the Joketsuzoku has offered to give shelter to the Sith- trained martial artists, and so Ukyo and Ryoga find themselves sharing lodgings with both the Elder and her beauteous great-granddaughter, Shampoo, the Amazon Force-Mistress... Meanwhile Ranma, having learned a hard lesson from his previous encounters with the Sith, has resolved to intensify his own training under the Jedi-Sisters, Kasumi and Nabiki, who also are contending for the right to be named his future iinazukes... Meanwhile the junior Force Mistress, Akane Tendo, has not forgotten about Ukyo, a girl for whom she is developing strong feelings... "This is it?" Ukyo asked blandly, "This is the place where you're going to set up your restaurant?" "I know that it doesn't look like much as yet, Child," Cologne replied, "But with a bit of elbow grease, and some hard work on our part, it should be fit for business before you know it." "It...doesn't look too bad," Ryoga reluctantly admitted, scanning the darkened interior of the building's main floor, which did seem roomy enough to have lots of places for diners to sit down within in moderate comfort." "Aiyaa," Shampoo said brightly, "This is more than adequate, Great-Grandmother...this one would like the chance to explore this new place that you have purchased..." "You mean you want to pick out a room for yourself, Child," Cologne said in some amusement, "Go right ahead and indulge yourself..." "Hiyaa!" the purple haired dynamo cried with girlish enthusiasm, vaulting forward with great energy for the stairway near the back, and taking them four steps at a stride she was soon out of sight and up on the second floor before anyone else had time to blink. "Kinda cheery about this, ain't she?" Ukyo asked with a lifted eyebrow. "The child has always been open to new experiences and possibilities," Cologne said in dry humor, "And I am rather certain that she is welcoming the excuse to stay close to her friends and oath-sisters in the Tendo clan. Growing up in a small village as she has, I fear she had felt rather limited by her upbringing. The change to a different climate in the big city is no doubt for the better..." "I wouldn't know about that," Ryoga said listlessly, "To me one place is as good as another..." "That's because you can never find your way to the same place twice," Ukyo said tiredly, "So...where are we gonna hang our shoes?" "Wherever you like, though you might decide to argue the point with my great-granddaughter," Cologne answered, "I'm sure she would like nothing better than to assign your new quarters to you..." "Oh no!" Ukyo made a deflecting motion, "I'm not going anywhere near the big-boobed sex fiend great-grandkid of yours...she's got grabby hands, and I don't like the way she practically drools on me whenever we're together..." "Then would you rather accept the hospitality of the Tendos?" Cologne asked in some amusement, "I'm certain that their youngest member would be happy to welcome you into her bedroom..." "Ah...on second thought," Ukyo blanched. "What do you mean by grabby hands?" Ryoga asked in obvious confusion. "Ah---never mind," Ukyo looked away, not wanting to let her fellow Sith Apprentice get a good look at the way her cheeks were flushing crimson. "Feel free to settle in and make yourselves at home," Cologne called out to them as she pogoed forward on her staff, vanishing behind the counter as she added, "We'll discuss arrangements on how you can best put your own cooking talents to use when we get this restaurant up and running. I assume that you are at least passably competent with cooking your school of okonomiyaki?" "Hey, I'm at least as good as my Pop ever was," Ukyo frowned, "And you can test me on that if you like..." "Very well then, I will," Cologne replied, then vanished from the counter as she headed towards the back kitchen part of the restaurant. "I got a bad feeling about this," Ukyo grumbled half to herself. "Huh?" Ryoga asked, "Why do you say that?" "Just speaking out loud," Ukyo sighed, "Come on, let's find a room upstairs before the good ones are all taken...and if that purple haired ditz makes a grab for you, feel free to belt her." "Uh...all right," Ryoga said dubiously, wondering just why he should be concerned about what some weird girl with funny hair would do since he was reasonable confident that he could take her in a straight fight, if one were to be forthcoming. "Why do I even bother?" Ukyo murmured faintly as she sensed that her warning was wasted on her fellow Sith student, since Ryoga was more the type to blunder through something without first looking where he was going...which meant--- around someone like Shampoo---that he was all but asking for trouble, as Ukyo could well testify, remembering a little too vividly how she had been tricked into feeling up the odd, cutesy-talking girl, who seemed ready made like a fantasy dream for some really perverted guy, and yet just as quick to take advantage of a girl as any guy who might want to take his chances, and tough enough as a fighter that she did not have to take no for an answer. All of which made Ukyo feel strange about accepting hospitality from her withered old great-grandmother. If Shampoo put the moves on Ukyo and she refused her...would that mean risking giving offense to her host? And what exactly was Ukyo to do if Shampoo did press the issue? Hell, Ukyo's record so far to date did not inspire confidence, and if it was not the purple haired girl she had to watch out for in the near future, it was that even more perverted girl, Akane, whose self-professed interest in Ukyo was clearly undiminished... "I don't get it, Boss," Taro frowned as he studied the low campfire that he was nurturing with some twigs, "Why'd you let them go? I thought for sure you'd at least punish the frail for going soft like that..." "Sorry to disappoint you," Purge remarked in mild humor, "I am quite certain you would have enjoyed watching me chastise Ukyo for her failure. All the better for you to rise up in the ranks of our little circle, eh?" "Hey, I'm not saying nothing like that, Boss," Taro hastily reassured the lizard man, "Though, if you want the truth of it, I wouldn't mind doing it myself..." "You'd never survive the experience," Mousse spoke up, "You try forcing yourself on Ukyo and you know she'd break you in half even in your cursed form." "Hey, who said anything about me having my way with that She-male Tomboy?" Taro hastily growled, daring the other boy to make something of the implied accusation, "I wouldn't even know which end to stick it in her anyway. You keep your filthy mind to yourself and..." "Or what, Horn-Head?" Mousse flashed weapons from his sleeves, "You think I'm afraid of anyone with a name like-- -!" "That's it!" Taro threw down his stick and rose to his feet, "You're as good as plucked, Duck-boy!" "Bring it on!" Mousse declared, only to go flying backward as he was struck in the chest with enough force to bruise one or two of his ribs long before he impacted with a nearby tree. Taro hardly got off any lighter as Purge used his tail to smash the older boy into a nearby boulder, then he stood a moment with the Dark Force within him bristling in his towering anger. He waited to make sure that both boys had sufficiently recovered from their traumatic shock before at least hissing out the words, "Now then...do I have your undivided attention?" Both young men nodded weakly, so Purge elected to continue. "Now then," Purge allowed his battle aura to subside, "You will remember that you are both students while I am the Master. Forget that again and I will not be so lenient." "Guh...yeah...right Boss," Taro winced, feeling his bruises as he attempted to stand upright. "No problem, Seifu," Mousse grunted. "Secondly, you will fight only when I tell you to and not before," Purge growled, "I am tired of watching you witless Mammals go off by yourselves to fight your own petty, personal battles when neither one of you is anywhere near to the full potential of your training. Taro...you challenged the one you called Happosai and lost, and in so losing you inadvertently led him to our base camp and risked our exposure." "Hey, I could've...!" Taro started to protest, saw the gleam in Purge's eyes and immediately thought the better of it. "You were bested by a superior fighter," Purge resumed, "Your training to date has not yet made you the unstoppable terror that you imagine yourself to be, and as I have fought with this Happosai myself, I well know how strong and resourceful he is, far more than his puny appearance. From now on your training will be intensified as you must take up the banner that Ukyo---at least momentarily---has forfeit..." "Boss?" Taro blinked. "And you," Purge gave a sidelong stare at his other apprentice, "You challenged one who is almost a full Jedi Knight and actually managed to wound her slightly. That alone is the reason I have taken you back as an apprentice after your otherwise pathetic showing. There is still some potential in you, but not if you continue to act like a brainless, love-starved hatchling, especially as the one named Kasumi could have easily finished you had it been her intention to fight more aggressively. She was holding herself back out of soft-hearted deference, but you cannot count on such an indulgence in the future." Mousse glared down at his feet and sulked, "I would have had her anyway...she has no right to stand in the way between me and Shampoo..." "I thought you wanted to claim both of 'em as prizes?" Taro asked with a raised eyebrow. "Huh?" Mousse blinked, "W-What made you think that? I thought..." "Never mind what you thought, Boy," Purge scornfully dismissed, "The point is that you will not go off on your own again and risk further humiliation. You will only fight when I tell you that you are ready, and only when I judge that you can hold your own in a battle without stumbling or losing sight of your real opponents." "I haven't lost sight of my goals, Master," Mousse reassured his "Seifu." "Yeah," Taro agreed, "He ain't like Ryoga, who loses his way to the bathroom, he just loses his glasses, then mistakes a tree for his sparring partner..." "That's enough," Purge said as he saw the two boys glower hatefully at one another, inwardly smiling as such intense feeling was exactly what he wanted to provide proper spark and motivation to their training, "Until such time as Hibiki and Kuonji return to our fold, you two will conduct yourselves as proper Sith or be punished for failing the high standards that I have set for you both..." "Huh?" Taro said. "What do you mean...until they return to us?" Mousse blinked. "I said that I have merely released them for a time," Purge clarified, "They are not dismissed from our ranks entirely, merely...given a sabbatical to renew their kinship with the Dark side." "Renewed it?" Taro repeated, "But didn't you just turn 'em over without a fight to the Jedi?" "Won't the Jedi be working to undo the effects of your training, Seifu?" Mousse wondered. "I have no doubt that they will try to teach them the ways of the Light side of the force," Purge replied, "And only time will tell if they truly can be turned or not, but I am betting that the darkness in both of their hearts will prove stronger than the maudlin sentimentality that has been holding them back in their training. Ukyo has been reluctant to turn her rage outside of the box in which she has tightly focused all of her feelings of betrayal and desertion, and the same is true---to a lesser extent---for Ryoga. They are not truly Sith as yet, they still are plagued with irrational moments of integrity and compassion. I am hoping that direct exposure to the Jedi will convince them of the foolishness of such weak and febrile thinking..." "But what if it has the opposite effect and turns them nice?" Taro wondered. "Then...there is an old saying concerning such matters," Purge smiled, "If you catch a wild thing and hold onto it, it's yours. If you let it go and it comes back to you, then it belongs to you forever. If it never does return...then hunt it down and kill it." "Oh...I get it," Mousse said with a much-surprised expression. "Pretty smooth move, Boss," Taro actually sounded impressed, "But...just in case Kuonji doesn't come back willingly..." "Then we will discuss methods by which you may teach her the folly of her ways," Purge remarked with all the subtle charm of a snake hidden in the bushes, waiting to strike at its intended victims, and at the sight of that his two human proteges felt an understandable shudder, feeling a collective sense of pity turned towards their absent colleagues...for all of the time it took to be replaced by a gleeful sense of opportunity in gaining more advanced training to rise above them... "A hundred yen for your thoughts, Ranma-kun," Nabiki teased. "Huh?" he said, "Oh...ah...well..." he glanced at the short haired girl beside him as they walked through the schoolyard gates together, "Guess maybe I'm just being jumpy, but I'm half expecting to see the usual horde of hentai come charging down at us. After all the excitement yesterday..." "Yes, I know exactly what you mean," Nabiki agreed, "After fighting against the Sith it does feel odd doing something fairly normal like go to school in the morning. I can hardly believe the way the last two weeks have been going..." "Heh, tell me about it," Ranma softly grunted, "Well, unless that Kuno guy is looking to cause trouble, it looks like we may get to classes on time for once and..." "Don't say that, you'll jinx it!" Akane urged, "Can't we just have a nice, normal morning for once without anyone tempting the fates to cause a little excitement?" "Huh?" Ranma glanced at the more annoying of the two Tendo sisters, "You looking for peace and quiet, Tendo? Thought you were the type who looked for trouble..." "Go off in a corner and die, Saotome," Akane said sweetly, "Just because I like to have some fun doesn't mean that I can't enjoy a day of rest like anyone else. And besides...I was hoping to meet Shampoo and Ucchan, they said they'd be here today, and I was hoping to see if she'd dress in a girl's uniform or the boy's..." "You really are hung up on that Sith-trained cross-dresser, huh Sis?" Nabiki asked, "What do you see in her anyway? I mean...I know she's pretty and all that, but I can't forget that she buried one of those throwing spatulas of hers in my shoulder shortly after we first met..." "Yes, but at the time she considered you her rival," Akane countered, "And she was under Darth Purge's influence, so give her a chance, Nabiki...give her enough time and she'll surprise you." "I'm not sure I can survive many more surprises around her," Nabiki frowned, "And I'm sure she hasn't given up on Ranma-kun just yet, so as far as I'm concerned the rivalry is still in effect..." "Did you say rivalry?" someone said from directly over their heads, causing Ranma and the others to look up with a start as a figure came plunging out of the nearest tree, alighting with athletic poise and striking a pose as if to display herself off before Ranma. "Huh?" Ranma did not relax his automatic posture of defense, but he stared at the dark haired, pony-tailed girl standing before him wearing a green leotard and said, "Who...?" "Kodachi," Nabiki spoke the word with obvious wariness in her tone, "What are you doing here?" "I came to see for myself this striking example of manhood who seems to have so vexed my brother of late," the dark haired girl said in a lilting tone that displayed a fairly aristocratic accent, "And to see if the rumor is true or not that you have finally found yourself a boyfriend, Nabiki-chan." "Nabiki-chan?" Ranma repeated. Nabiki relaxed a little and said, "Ranma-kun, this is a...friend of mine from middle school, named Kuno Kodachi..." "Kuno...Kodachi?" Ranma's eyes got round in amazement. "Yes," the dark haired girl flashed an amused look that set her purple eyes to flashing, "I am indeed the younger sister to Kuno Tatewaki, whom you have obviously met, and no, I do not share his peculiar obsession for stirring up trouble whenever he likes. I am here as a friendly observer, and I can see for myself that you are indeed a rather interesting package, albeit rather common of speech and rough around the edges." Ranma relaxed a little and said, "Ah...well...I'm Saotome Ranma..." "Yes you are," Kodachi curled the words over her tongue as if savoring them, even as her eyes seemed to look him up and down with speculation. "Kodachi..." Nabiki growled. "Oh relax, I am not here to poach on your clearly marked out territory," Kodachi grinned in a mischievous manner, "Although I will admit that there is temptation in the idea...after all, one does not find such a specimen of manhood everyday in these parts..." Ranma had not been aware of it until now, but Akane had been unusually silent, even taking a position behind Nabiki as if to hide in her sister's shadow. Now, however, she chose to step into full view, smiling with a leer that matched the one that Kodachi was turning on Ranma, and then in her most sultry tone she said, "Hello Kodachi..." The effect on the dark haired girl was striking. All at once Kodachi's eyes got very round and she took a half- self-conscious backstep away, saying in a voice slightly pitched higher than before, "Oh...A-Akane...oh my...I didn't see you standing there..." "What've you been doing with yourself lately?" Akane purred, "Love your hair...you still work out doing gymnastics?" "Ah, yes, well..." Kodachi backed further away, "I'm still team captain, but now that you mention it, I need to head over to school, I have my limousine double-parked and all that. Can't be late, so...goodbye now!" With that she produced a stick with a ribbon attached to it, then swung it high to catch an overhead branch and used it to swing away, vaulting over the nearby fence with such fluid grace and haste of motion that Ranma was left blinking. "Ah..." he said aloud, "What just happened?" "Believe me, Ranma-kun," Nabiki said, "You wouldn't believe it if I told you." "Try me," Ranma said blandly. "She didn't have to leave like that," Akane pouted, "We could have talked a bit and caught up on stuff together..." Nabiki glanced at her sister then leaned closer to Ranma, "You'd have to know Kuno Kodachi like I do to know what she's really like. On the surface she's all refined and lady-like, but in reality she shares many of the more...disturbing tendencies of her older brother, Tatewaki, including an obsession with being the best at Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics..." "Martial arts what?" Ranma blinked. "It's Kodachi's specialty," Akane answered, "Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, a combination of acrobatics and weapons use fought in an arena where the object is to force your opponent out of the ring without physically touching her. Of course, I tend to be more of a hands-on kind of person..." "Any-way," Nabiki drawled, "Kodachi has trained under her mother for years, but she's never quite gotten a handle on completely mastering the Force the way my sisters and me have done. Like her brother she's only learned to harness a mere fraction of her potential, but that tended to make her impatient and caused her to take short-cuts. Without her mother's knowledge she started ambushing rival teams before her matches, thus winning by default when she might have risked losing..." "What, she cheated?" Ranma reacted with disgust. "For a time anyway," Nabiki sighed, "Then she made a really big mistake and went after the Furinkan team, took our three best competitors and whipped them so bad that they had to drop out and choose an alternate...and three guesses who they asked to take up the banner of becoming our school champion?" "Uh...you?" Ranma asked. "Guess again," Akane chimed, "After all, I am the best athlete in our school, so who better to stand up and be counted?" "What, a clumsy girl like you?" Ranma replied, "Fight a match that requires skill in acrobatics?" "Dry up and blow away, Saotome," Akane glowered, "I did all right, even won the match..." "That you did," Nabiki confirmed, "Of course it helped a lot that Kodachi made the mistake of targeting you the way she did, laying in ambush for you in your own bedroom." "She what?" Ranma's eyes goggled. "Hey, it wasn't that bad," Akane protested, "In fact I couldn't have planned it better if I'd given her an open invitation. I mean...imagine if you went to bed feeling tired from a hard workout, trying to master the basics of rhythmic gymnastics weapons combat, only as I lay down on my back I get a sense that I'm not alone, that someone is trying to mask their presence, so I open my eyes and look up and---guess what I see hanging there above me...a beautiful girl with a black rose clenched between her teeth and wearing nothing but a green leotard, and about my own age to boot..." "You mean she attacked you?" Ranma blinked. "Biggest mistake she ever made," Nabiki sniffed, "Akane turned the tables on her by catching her in her bedsheets, then knocked her cold with the club she intended for Akane. And that's just the start of what happened...a night Kodachi to date has never had the nerve to tell me about in any detail." "Huh?" Ranma blinked again, "Ah...what happened?" "Let's just say that 'Dachi had to borrow one of my dresses to get home the next morning," Akane leered, "Her leotard got...kind of torn up by me to make strips that I used to tie her down to my bed and...you don't really want to hear the details on this, do you, Saotome?" "Ah..." Ranma turned a questioning look towards Nabiki. "Trust me," the older girl said, "You are definitely better off not hearing those details." "Ah...so...after that, Kodachi left you alone?" Ranma blandly wondered. "She's been avoiding me," Akane pouted, "I mean, is that fair? She tried to ambush me and scare me off from our match, so what if I took advantage of the situation? A pretty girl drops into my bed in the middle of the night, what am I supposed to think, huh?" "Personally, Sis, I think she's afraid of being alone with you," Nabiki said in droll humor, "She's even been avoiding me, which is guilt by association. I think she's heavily in denial about what happened, you could see it in the way she fought during your match, like she was afraid of letting her guard down..." "I don't see why," Akane huffed, "I only want to play with her some more, it's not like we did anything so traumatic..." "What means traumatic?" a familiar voice inquired. "Shampoo?" Ranma turned around in time to see the trio that was approaching, headed by the purple haired Amazon in question. "Nihao Ranma!" Shampoo cheerfully called out, "And Akane...is this one's honored sister enjoying the morning?" "I sure am now," Akane brightened as she looked warmly upon the other girl, then turned an even more delighted stare at the right off to Shampoo's right and said, "Ucchan...nice to see you again." "Urk..." Ukyo checked her forward motion by a half-step upon being greeted by the other girl, and the predatory smile on the dark haired girl's lips was hardly reassuring. "Ranma," the growled greeting by Ryoga was as chilling as Shampoo's smile was sunny, and the way he balled his fists showed that he was barely restraining the impulse to start something on the spot, which caused Ranma to shift his focus away from the baffling behavior of the women towards the far more familiar territory of potential martial arts mayhem. "Hi Pig," Ranma scowled back, "What are you doing here? Get lost looking for the bathroom?" The lost boy bristled and seemed ready to start something when Nabiki intervened, saying, "That's enough, Ranma-kun. Don't provoke him or we'll be late for our classes. Shampoo...I take it that there's a good reason why you brought these two here?" "This one is following the instructions of her great- grandmother," Shampoo replied, "As Ukyo is already enrolled here, this one has been told to accompany her, and to bring Hibiki so that she might keep an eye on both of them and see they keep out of mischief. Great-grandmother is busy setting up the restaurant and will be preoccupied for most of the day. This one also confesses curiosity to learn what they consider worthy of teaching here in Japan. May Shampoo accompany her little Brother and sisters to your class after she has spoken to the one who is in charge of admissions?" "Oh, sure," Ranma replied, "Be glad to have you around...be interesting at the very least..." "I suppose that is one way of putting it," Nabiki noted dryly, still eyeing the Amazon and Ukyo with wary appraisal, but not viewing them as enemies so much as potential rivals. "Great!" Akane said cheerfully, "You guys can sit next to me, I'd love to show you around and give you a grand tour of the place." "I'll just bet you would," Ukyo grumbled with a particularly sour expression, silently resolving not to go anywhere with either of the two amorous Force Masters that might leave them alone with her for more than a minute. "Hey, Ryoga," Ranma said with a nod to the glowering Lost Boy, "Be just like old times with you around, huh?" "Shut up, Ranma," Ryoga balled his hands into fists again, "Because of you I haven't even been inside a school room in close to two years..." "Because of me?" Ranma blinked, "Hey, wait a minute, how do you figure that? I didn't ask you to follow me and get lost, you did that all on your own..." "That's it, Ranma!" Ryoga cried as he drew back a fist, "Now you die!" His hand started to move forward, but all at once Nabiki thrust herself into the path of the oncoming haymaker and raised a hand of her own, calling up her own power to catch and repel the angry fist while dispelling the negative Force energies that backed it. She then began humming in an oddly sing-song, trilling tune before thrusting two fingers of her right hand forward, reaching out to touch the astonished Ryoga on the forehead right between his brows, which caused him to sag slightly as his face drained instantly of all emotion. "Now be a good boy and don't cause any more trouble," Nabiki instructed in a confident tone that was oddly compelling. "Yes..." Ryoga responded automatically, as if he had just been turned into an obedient robot. "Whoah," Ranma said, "What did you do to the guy?" "Just a little trick I learned to do from watching Oneechan," Nabiki replied, "It's like auto-suggestion. The one part of the technique dispels the anger and negativity that's fueling an attack, then the second part renders him highly suggestible and openly receptive to outside instructions..." "In other words Force can have strong influence on weak minded people," Shampoo happily translated, "And stupid Pig-Boy is most suggestible one that this one know about." "You got that right," Akane said, "From what I can see he commands the Force on a purely emotional level, but he's not really in charge of it, it's more like he's a slave to his own emotions." "It figures," Ukyo scowled, "That Baka always was like a wild boar in a China shop, especially during training. But don't think a little mind trick like that's gonna work against me..." "I wouldn't think of it," Nabiki smiled blandly, "For you I'd reserve my more advanced techniques." As Ukyo was chewing that one over one of Akane's friends called out to them, "Hey, Akane...what are you guys standing around for? You're gonna be late!" "Right Sayuri," Akane acknowledged, making a point of taking Ukyo by the arm and drawing her forward, "Come on, Ucchan...I assume you like sitting by the window?" "H-Hey!" Ukyo protested as she sought to free her arm without much success, leading to many passing students favoring them with curious and speculative glances. "Shampoo think that this one should find office first," Shampoo said as she took Ryoga by an unresisting arm and smiled, "Which way for admission?" "Oh, no problem," Nabiki said and promptly waved to a passing student, "Ryo-chan...mind if I call in a favor?" "Sempai?" the brown haired girl said brightly, then immediately assented to the assignment. As Shampoo dutifully dragged Ryoga along after Nabiki's curly haired assistant, Ranma found himself alone once again in the presence of Nabiki, who made a point of walking him towards his morning classes. "Ah..." Ranma looked for a safely neutral topic as he studied his companion's profile then said, "Mind showing me how you did that trick sometime?" "Be glad to, Ranma-kun," Nabiki smiled a sultry smile that raised more than a few eyebrows from those Furinkan students whom they passed in the hallways, "Just remember...sometimes a kind word is better than a fist in ending a conversation. You really must do better about needlessly provoking Hibiki. He may be a few bricks short of a full wall but he's a blunt and blundering force of mindless destruction when you get him aroused, and the last thing this school can afford is effect repairs from you two going at it in the hallways." "Ah...yeah, well..." Ranma forced himself to look forward, feeling strange about the presence of her hand upon his arm, "...I've...never run from a fight, and most of my training's been about standing up to challenges and stuff..." "Yes, and your father taught you to use insults as a weapon," Nabiki noted, "I'll admit that the tactic of provoking your enemies into a state of rash anger can be highly effective in most cases, but when it comes to someone who can suck up as much damage as that Ryoga, I'd think a better tactic would employ more discretion on your part, and besides...anger is definitely the way of the Dark side." "I'll try and keep that in mind, Nabiki," Ranma said, then paused before adding, "Thanks." "Oh?" she cocked an eyebrow, "For what?" "Ah...y'know...for everything," Ranma said uneasily, "You've put up with a lotta stuff on account of me, and...and I wanted you to know..." "Hey, friends stand up for each other and sometimes share the same problems, right?" Nabiki replied, adding after a brief pause, "And so do iinazuke." Ranma found words beyond this point utterly failed him as the enormity of that statement began to settle in, leaving him strangely confused and yet somehow feeling an enormous closeness to the girl walking beside him, who in many ways confused and vexed him and yet also made him feel strange inside just being near her. He was not certain what any of this had to do with furthering his training, but he did know for certain that he was starting to like it... Unknown to him, or even to Nabiki, one figure in the hallway was studying their passage with more than a passing curiosity to his expression. Kuno Tatewaki would have denied that he was spying on the boy and his budding relationship with the Tendo mercenary, but he had to confess that there were mysteries surrounding this Saotome Ranma that intrigued him. For a young man who prided himself as a fighter it was a novelty to encounter one whom he sensed had a potential far greater than any other prospective opponent, and while they might not be rivals seeking after the same romantic pursuits (in truth he rather pitied the boy for his puppy-dog infatuation with someone as coldly heartless as Nabiki) there was every prospect that they would come into direct conflict in the very near future. "Sasuke," he murmured aloud. All at once the little ninja appeared from behind a set of lockers, "Yes, Master Kuno?" "Follow Saotome Ranma and observe his affairs discretely," Tatewaki instructed, "My twisted sister, Kodachi, appears to have taken an interest in the peasant, and besides...there is something else about him that I sense bears for a closer observation." "It shall be as you command, Master Kuno," Sasuke bowed at once and faded back into the shadows. Kuno smiled then ran his fingers through his hair as he mused aloud, "Truly such a one as I do not have rivals as such, but I fear that my poor sister may be overmatched if she makes a rival of her former friend, Tendo Nabiki. Alas, the one whose fair hand I wish to claim has moved on beyond her senior year, but one day soon I shall come visit you, my lovely Kasumi, and on that day you will know that Kuno Tatewaki is a warrior well worthy of your affections..." And---elsewhere in Nerima at that moment---a certain older girl was meditating felt a slight ripple disturbing the rhythms of her thoughts, but tried to dismiss it as it did not mesh in well with the air of melancholy that was presently affecting her meditations... Kasumi sighed, feeling strangely wistful. Of late she had been feeling that way a lot, as if the absence of her recent charge, Saotome Ranma, were affecting her peace of mind far more than she would have ever imagined. "Try not thinking about it, Padawan," Trieste gently urged as the two of them sat side-by-side in meditation, "Your emotions are a natural part of you, but they can be distracting if you let them destroy the harmony of your mind and body." Kasumi silently nodded to this then mentally projected, **I apologize, Mistress...I know that it is important to always stay in the center of our being...** **We live within the center of all creation,** Trieste mentally replied, **Our every action, however trivial, must flow from within our very being. Remember that we are luminous beings of energy, not the crude matter that comprises our bodies. We must breathe the Force and flow with the tides that churn all around us. Feel the sun and the moon in their orbits, the harmony of the planetary bodies that circle the star that forms the center of the System, and know that we all orbit the galactic hub at the center of this galaxy. The Force is limitless and without measure, and as we are a part of all things, so too are we connected to the wonder of all creation.** **I well remember this, Mistress,** Kasumi answered, **I feel the Force flowing through all things, and I find my heart is still not centered. I yearn...I have feelings...I do not fully understand them...** **I would be rather amazed if you did,** Trieste mused with inward humor, **For you would be the first humanoid that I have ever known to fully comprehend the mysteries of men and women and how they respond to one another. You feel for this young man, yet you are afraid of approaching him because he is such a raw, untamed enigma, very much worthy of his namesake...** **That is a part of it, yes,** Kasumi admitted, **But more than that...there is also my sister...** **Yes,** Trieste sighed, **Nabiki has been surprisingly bold in setting down her claim early, has she not? And without meaning to the both of you have become rivals for Saotome Ranma's attention...** Kasumi gave an inward sigh and said, **I love Nabiki dearly, and I should be happy for her that she has found a man who can make her happy. I would not wish the world of ill upon her and the joy that being with Ranma so clearly brings into her life, but...** **But your own emotions refused to be compartmentalized or dismissed,** Trieste divined for her, **The attraction you feel towards him is too strong, you cannot resist falling into his orbit, even if that puts you at odds with your own dear sister. A classic dilemma, really...two loves in conflict, the heart telling you one thing, your head telling you another.** **Please,** Kasumi urged, **Instruct me. How am I to conduct myself when my own heart tells me that I must be with him, no matter the consequences?** **I cannot advise you on the correct path that you must take, Child,** Trieste gently informed her apprentice, **But I can tell you that matters are not so bleak as you may imagine. There are always...possibilities to be explored, and you should remain open to considering other way in which you and Nabiki might resolve this dilemma.** **Oh?** Kasumi asked, **How so?** **For one thing,** Trieste replied, **The fact that you do love each other as sisters means that there is no automatic conflict for you sharing the same house together. Japan today may frown on relations taking place between more than two persons, but in the past your country had traditions that allowed for women to share the same man in all domestic relations. That is certainly one option to be considered, and I would strongly urge you not to dismiss it without due considerations.** Kasumi was silent as she mentally thought that over, then projected the thoughts, **You mean...share Ranma-kun? Is such a thing even possible, Mistress?** **For both your sakes I most certainly hope that it is,** Trieste answered, **I have spoken on this subject with your mother, and as you know we are very...close to one another...just as we are both close to your father...and for us it has been a most...satisfying arrangement.** Kasumi thought longer on that one before she said, **But would Nabiki agree to such a thing?** **You would have to ask her, Child,** Trieste mused softly, **But I confess that I would like to see her reaction to the thought of claiming you for a co-wife. Legally only one of you could marry him in public, but what matters is that you love each other and keep the truth of your relationship within your heart. Where I come from there are a great many cultures that have civilized the process and ritualized it in great detail, and I could describe some of their marital practices to you sometime so that you may decide if it is the path you wish to pursue...** All at once Kasumi became aware that there was something wrong in her environment, something more than a bit off, which was disturbing her Wa as she went from a meditative trance to full awareness of her own body. Very slowly she opened her eyes and looked down, finding that her sash had been undone and that her chest was now exposed with the small, withered form of Happosai pressing in to fondle her naked breasts while clutching her brazier tightly to his own tiny bosom. The flash of a lightsaber startled her, then all at once the intense beam of Trieste's weapon sliced the air very near to Kasumi. Happosai wisely let go of his coveted perch and darted back out of reach, grinning wickedly as he taunted the Jedi with a lecherous, "HAH! Too slow by half! You'll have to move faster than that if you intend to keep me at bay, you old Witch!" With that he skipped merrily away, taking Kasumi's brazier with him. "Disgusting, perverted old jawa," Kasumi heard Trieste grumble under her breath before releasing her anger and allowing her self-control to reassert herself, "Mark me well, there is a Demon inside that one, and while he may seem fairly harmless, his obsessions darken this family's fortune even worse than the Sith ever did. Oh...and Kasumi-chan, I think you had better tie up your sash." Kasumi glanced down at herself with mild surprise, then hastily did as her mentor instructed with a faintly murmured, "Oh my..." as her cheeks became more rosy. "Now then," Trieste said as she put away her lightsaber, "As I was saying, you may consider raising the issue with Nabiki directly rather than allow the matter to fester unspoken. The longer this goes on without being resolved, the harder it will be for the both of you to come to any sort of peaceful resolution, and believe me, most people can be driven to the Dark side by the negative emotions raised by unrequited love than by any deliberate act of evil." "I will try and remember this, Sensei," Kasumi acknowledged, wondering why she had this very odd sense that the matter of their impending relationships would be even more complicated than she or her mentor could suspect in the present... Ukyo grunted as she tried to escape from her present circumstances, but she was overpowered and too off-balanced to put up much resistance to her formidable opponent. She blamed it on herself for allowing a moment of carelessness to provide the opportunity they needed, but her two assailants had been quick to press their advantage, and for all that she might have seen this coming, Ukyo still found herself at their mercy before she could offer even token protest. It had all begun around recess time, when everyone in their class was dismissed into the schoolyard to enjoy their lunch and refreshments. Shampoo and Akane had at once tried to press on Ukyo their desire to share lunch with her, but she had quickly dismissed the notion and insisted that she could fare well for herself without their supervision. Besides, those two had Ryoga to keep an eye upon since the boy tended to get lost at the first opportunity, so while her fellow Sith colleague was running interference she had skipped out on her two-girl mutual admiration club and sought to find Ranma and Nabiki, the former to cosset out, the latter to annoy as much as humanly possible. Unfortunately for her she had taken a wrong turn and found herself wandering behind the gymnasium, where she found not Ranma but an entirely different set of Furinkan students. Instinctively she had sensed the Wolf Pack closing on around her without giving off the least hint that she was in any real danger. She marked around about two dozen young boys, most in school uniforms though a few wore the athletic gear of their various clubs. She sized them up and then dismissed them out of hand as being beneath serious attention, then turned her gaze towards the one whom she sensed was the true threat in this encounter, the tall boy known only as Kuno Tatewaki. "What's up, Sugar?" Ukyo asked of the Hakata-clad Kendoist. "Kuonji Ukyo," Tatewaki smiled, "We meet again. I trust you remember our previous conversation?" "Yeah?" Ukyo asked matter-of-factly, "What about it, Sugar?" "I gave you fair warning of what would occur if you were to give challenge to my fair flower, Kasumi," Tatewaki replied, "And I hear that you have caught the fascination of the sweet Akane, so it seems that we have issues to resolve here, you and I." "Yeah?" Ukyo asked, "And what about these guys?" "These are but a few of those who have admired Tendo Akane from afar," Tatewaki barely acknowledged the other boys presence, clearly viewing them as socially beneath him, "A few of them have sparred with her regularly during her morning practice sessions. They have expressed a great deal of concern and resentment concerning a new student on our campus who appears to have made greater progress with her than any other. I have tried to dissuade them from seeking to confront you on this directly, but...well...you understand how some things are, I trust. After all, when a handsome boy puts the moves on a popular girl..." "HEY!" Ukyo snapped, surprised to be called a "boy" by the older student, especially in light of the fact that Tatewaki knew full well what her true sex was, regardless of how she was presently dressed. "...It's only natural that some would care to test you out to determine if you are worthy," Kuno continued with an arrogant smile as if not interrupted. "Sugar," Ukyo growled, "If you think any of these clowns is a match for me, you've got another think coming." "Maybe not individually," Kuno mused, "But together, they might still prove capable and lucky, At either rate it should make for a most amusing encounter." Ukyo's battle senses alerted her to the looming menaces of the boys presently ringing all about her, and instinctively she realized that most were not even aware of her true gender, being under the delusion that she was a boy, a misconception that clearly Tatewaki was encouraging by his carefully worded taunting. Of course she did not perceive any of these boys to be a serious problem, not even collectively as she unslung her combat spatula and extended her senses with the Force in all directions. She could *feel* the position of each and every one of these less formidable boys, but the Force was strongest around Tatewaki, and that tended to drown out a lot of the lesser battle auras, which confused her senses more than slightly. Nonetheless she felt confident of her ability to withstand this horde of wannabe-Akane-lovers, but with her mind of the fight she failed to sense the presence of two observers standing atop the gymnasium looking down with evident disapproval. "Damn, I should have known Tatewaki would pull a stunt like this," Akane fretted, "It's the same crap he's used on me, letting the horde wear me down to improve his odds against me." "Aiyaa," Shampoo remarked, "Spatula girl against so many boys who want conquer her, is almost like Amazon challenge back home when girl want select strongest male in village." "You mean you actually let them fight you in groups?" Akane asked. "Is no same as challenge match," Shampoo assured her, "No prize if win, but if warrior decide one boy good enough to make husband then she can pick him even if lose. You no think we only marry mens who are stronger?" "Makes sense," Akane shrugged, smiling as she added, "But I like your tradition that lets two girls marry even better. C'mon, let's go down there and give Ucchan a hand..." "No so fast," Shampoo urged, "Is too soon interfere, let Spatula girl decide if she need rescue..." The horde, meanwhile, attacked Ukyo, who fought back automatically, employing her favorite weapon to knock four boys out cold before the rest even had time to close on her position. With a speed and strength that vastly exceeded the fighting prowess of the other boys she set to work methodically demolishing their attacks, laying waste to their offensives and crushing their puny attempts to work in tandem to overpower her by weight of numbers. With kick and punch she added to the devastation, laying boys out like clockwork and whittling down their numbers before they even realized just how badly outmatched they were pitting their puny talents against her Sith battle skills. "She's good," Akane said appreciatively, "Even better than me..." "She has good control of power, speed and strength," Shampoo noted, "And the Force flows through her motions, allowing her to detect patterns and counter them, but still she not have total control over battle. See how confident stick boy is? He no mind that minions losing." "That's because he's confident that he'll be able to take her," Akane sniffed sourly, "But I think he's way out of his league with her since I could easily take him..." "But that not real problem," Shampoo warned as she frowned in concern, sensing a moment of crisis, "This one thinks Spatula girl leave opening she no intended..." Indeed, Ukyo had been careless, for while she was clearly the Mistress of this battle, she had gotten overconfident, expecting all of her opponents to be as easy to defeat as had the ones who had rushed forth early on and gotten swatted. The more cautious and skilled fighters were the ones who held back and looked for an opening, and one now lunged in as she finished off the Sumo wrestler, his fencing foil---a blunt-tipped object with a metal edge--- cutting through the buttons on her outfit as she instinctively moved to dodge the thrust, only to that find her shirt was now opening up around the front. At the same time as this realization was being impressed upon her, yet another foe---a wrestler---took advantage of her slight hesitation to throw his arms around her and attempt to grip her in a full Nelson. Ukyo countered this with an automatic elbow-slam to his stomach, but as the larger boy went staggering away he kept his grip upon her shirt, tearing it away from her body before Ukyo had time enough to stop him. "What the...?" one of the boys nearest to her gasped in surprise as those still conscious enough to do so ogled in amazement at the exposed Ukyo, who belatedly discovered that her wrap had also been a casualty of the fencer. "Hah?" Ukyo froze as she felt a draft all around her, then looked down with rounded eyes as her wrap fell away, leaving her totally exposed from the waist up to the full view of all the boys currently present. "Aiyaa..." Shampoo murmured faintly. "You said it," Akane agreed in awe and amazement. Tatewaki himself was staring with eyes as large as saucers, not having anticipated such a development as his intentions so far had been merely to gauge the fighting strength of the crossdressing girl, not leave her open to such total exposure. "Hey!" one of the more observant boys said, pointing at the obvious evidence sporting from Ukyo's magnificent chest, "It's a girl!" "A girl?" another boy stupidly remarked, "No way! Are those things real?" "Look real enough to me," said yet another potential Einstein, "But...I thought Ukyo was a guy..." "Yeah...what gives here?" a forth walking victim-to-be wondered aloud, "You think she might be one of those She- male hermaphrodites or something?" "Could be," said another prospective glutton for punishment, "Think maybe she's got a cock between her legs?" "Maybe we should check," proposed yet another would-be kamikaze Ukyo had heard enough about that point, her shock, surprise and humiliation giving way to the familiar, comforting sensation of rage, which built up within her and soon surrounded her with a towering battle aura that magnified her presence tenfold and made those boys nearest to her give back a step in dreadful anticipation. "YOU---JACKASS!!!" Ukyo cried, and slammed her combat spatula down at the ground with force enough to cause a massive explosion of dirt and kinetic energy in all directions. "Whoah!" Akane cried as she and Shampoo both threw up mental shields to deflect the chunks of dirt and gravel that flew in all directions. "Aiyaa..." Shampoo murmured as the shrapnel subsided and the cloud that formed around Ukyo gave way to one heavy- breathing semi-nude chef who presently stood at the bottom of a crater that she herself had created, everything within a five meter radius having been thrown about in all directions. "YOU---!" Ukyo raised her bakers peel again as she saw a single figure still standing amid the rubble, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU---!" "Wait, I did not intend for things to go this far!" Tatewaki protested. "That's too bad," Ukyo cried as she lunged forward in a strike, "BECAUSE I'M STILL GONNA KILL YOUR ASS!!!" Tatewaki---although surprised at the suddenness of the enraged girl's attack---was still quick enough to employ his bokken as he deflected her attack and easily side- stepped her. They broke apart and turned to face one another, Ukyo not even pausing to take stock of her foe as she laid out with slash after slash with her weapon, forcing Kuno to give ground as he used his bokken to turn aside her attacks while looking for an opening, which same Ukyo---in her reckless state of mind---soon provided. A single pass and Kuno stepped away as Ukyo staggered and went down on one knee, sporting a bruise along the side of her right kidneys as Kuno assumed a pose of defense and held his ground rather than press home his advantage. "I bid you to calm yourself, Kuonji-san," Kuno urged, "Your rash state of mind is making you heedless of the danger..." "Get stuffed!" Ukyo snarled, feeling her side as she forced herself to stand, leaning heavily on her baker's peel as she sought to overcome the shooting pains passing through her body. "I salute your courage, but you cannot continue," Tatewaki said, "In your state you would be no challenge at all for me, and I wish to face you when you are at your best to test your real potential..." "You don't even know what my potential is, Asshole!" Ukyo glared while clenching her teeth, "You think I'm beat just because I'm a little winded?" Once again she tapped into the Force, allowing her own negative emotions to churn and amplify her rage, to transform it into a weapon that she could use to swat down the annoying pervert who had staged this whole fiasco that had led to her denuding. From where they stood Akane and Shampoo saw the towering black flame of Ukyo's anger and were understandably appalled, never having suspected the cross-dressing girl capable of such a wellspring of bottomless anger. It was like a thing alive coiling above her head, like an angry serpent or a vengeful god from either down below or from the heavens. Yet against this monstrosity stood a resolute Tatewaki, who raised his bokken and faced the rage of Ukyo without hesitation or flinching. His very air of calm further deepened her rage as he defiantly stood his ground and waited for her attack, which was not long in coming. Again Akane and Shampoo braced themselves for the backwash of the assault, but when it came and the dragon of rage descended it encountered a field that shot out from Kuno's body to surround him, forming a protective shield even as he stabbed with his bokken up into the angry black mass and disrupted it completely. The shockwave that they had been expecting fizzled out even as Ukyo's rage evaporated like the smoke it had seemingly been made from, leaving an astonished Ukyo to stare in disbelief and gasp, "But...how...?" Tatewaki lowered his bokken and said, "Did you think you were the only one who knew how to harness your Ki? I have been training all of my life to be the master of the blade, and yet a weapon is of little more than an extension of your own spirit, and with your spirit as tainted with anger as it is, I had only to match it and cancel it out as it was not properly directed towards me. You need a purer spirit if such an attack as that is to be truly effective." All at once Ukyo felt her body begin to sag inward, the failure of her attack causing her to suddenly feel both naked and vulnerable. Even as her knees began to give out on her, however, hands gripped her rudely and held her firmly aloft, several rude male hands that groped and fondled her even as her arms and legs were pinned to prevent any defensive movement. "HEY---WHAT???" she gasped. "We got you, Bitch!" a coarse male voice hissed into her ears. "Stop struggling or we'll hurt you!" another just as angrily declared. "After the way you beat us up, we won't even hesitate to do it either!" yet a third declared with absolute resolution. "What is the meaning of this?" Tatewaki demanded, "How dare you manhandle her that way!" "Back off, Captain Kuno!" one of the boys said as he produced a switchblade from seeming nowhere, "This ain't about you anymore! This is about paying back this Hermaphrodite for roughing us up so bad!" "Yeah, we only wanted to find out how good she was and what she wanted with Akane," yet another boy demanded, "She didn't have to be so rough with us, the Pervert!" "Yeah, it would serve her right if we had a little payback of our own, right?" another said to a chorus of coarse laughter. Ukyo---held captive by the combined strength of at least a half a dozen guys---suddenly had a mental flash that revealed to her just what was intended by the word "Payback" in that statement. The image of herself caught and helpless as rude hands touched and probed her body was followed by far more intrusive images of them forcing her to bent over while they took their turn going into her, ravaging her, causing her to scream as if they literally were raping her on the spot. It was the most terrible image that she had ever known to date, and the fact that it could well happen drove her to increased efforts at freeing herself before this could happen. "I give you one warning and one warning alone," Tatewaki growled as he again readied his bokken, "Release her or suffer the consequences!" "Don't come any closer, Kuno," the boy with the switchblade said, and suddenly Ukyo found the metal edge pressing up against her neck, causing her to momentarily desist in her further struggles, "We all know we wouldn't stand a chance in hell against you, but we're not letting this go, not until we're---OOOOWWWW!!!" "Shampoo think you say enough," the Amazon said as she pulled the boy's wrist away and forced it back against the joints, "In this one's village boy who threaten womans no last very long, and you no last either." The boy dropped his knife and fell to h is knees screaming while the rest of those presently holding Ukyo captive were systematically knocked unconscious by an furious Akane, whose wrath laid them out before they even knew that their idol was upon them. "Tendo Akane?" Tatewaki blinked, "And the purple tressed one? But..." "Back off, Kuno," Akane growled, "We're not in the mood to hear it. You set this whole thing up, it's your fault things turned out the way they did!" "But...I never...!" Kuno protested. "You no take credit for own handiwork?" Shampoo scowled as she tossed the unconscious boy with the fractured wrist to one side, "What think would happen when you have boy gang up on girl this way? No mens who threaten woman is to be trusted..." "I..." Kuno allowed his bokken to droop and he stood in a more relaxed posture, "I never intended for it to go as far as it did..." "Well, that's just fine," Akane snorted, "Fat lot of good that does for Ukyo now. C'mon, Ucchan, let's get you to the showers..." "Don't touch me!" Ukyo snapped as the dark haired girl attempted to do just that. "You is being stupid, Spatula-girl," Shampoo said insistently, taking Shampoo by the arm and refusing to allow herself to be shrugged off as she urged Ukyo forward, "You no stand out here and give free show to boys who hurt you." "Yeah, let us help you help yourself, Ucchan," Akane urged, taking Ukyo by the other arm and disdaining the fallen members of her former fan-club with a shrug of her shoulders, "You don't wanna be out here, you need to get showed and covered up, and we're the ones who can help you." Ukyo knew that she should have refused their aid, should have protested that she could take care of herself, but she was too shaken by her experience to put up any more resistance. Something had been broken in her when Kuno shattered her image of the dark and destructive dragon, a sense of her own invincibility, leaving her with a stunned awareness of her own fragility and vulnerability, quite at variance with her mental self-image as a an indomitable Sith Lord. Which was how she wound up in her current predicament, her face pressed up against the wall of the showers while Akane and Shampoo worked her over with hands and other body parts. It was really odd that it would come to this, however much she might have expected such treatment from this pair, because when they had brought her to the showers and stripped her down naked there was absolutely nothing sexual in their handling of her. In fact they had insisted on getting her under the water without a care that the first cold spray would trigger her Jusenkyo curse. Somehow transforming into her cat-girl self did something to trigger the release of her pent-up tension, because by the time the water heated up enough to revert her to full human she had already started puking her guts out. She was that out of herself and in need of a good, hard vomit... "You take time and let it all out, Ukyo," Shampoo had urged, "No rush you self, is good to let cry out, even for warrior..." "I don't cry," Ukyo had weakly protested as she finished her latest heave, "I'm not that girlish..." "No, you're just too stubborn to admit that you could have been raped out there," Akane growled, "The nerve of that jerk, Kuno, stirring up trouble for you like that. I should have pounded him when I had the chance..." "There always next time," Shampoo agreed, "We stay here with you until you all right. No go out there until you get it all together." "You talk like you've done this before," Ukyo coughed. "Seen before with other warrior," Shampoo replied, "No forget this one's mother is tribal Healer, help her with other womans who no want to face up to way some men act around woman, and no only men do this to some womans..." "What," Ukyo had weakly joked, "Like the both of you want to do with me?" She had meant it to be an insult, but she had regretted saying it almost at once as Akane had said, "If you think that would help, you only half to ask?" "W-What?" Ukyo had blinked, the water pouring over her body helping the shakes subside so that she almost thought that sounded like a serious proposal. "Sometime that best way to get over serious crisis," Shampoo assured her, "Otherwise maybe flinch when even Ranma try touch you." "What are you...?" Ukyo had started to say when she felt hands playing over her body, fingers running up and down her spine and sending little jolts of electricity sparking along her nervous system, and before she knew it the shudders had vanished completely, to be replaced by an entirely different physical reaction. So now she was caught up in a scene straight out of a pornographic movie with Akane and Shampoo going at it with Ukyo's body in the mix. She was in a mildly euphoric state that made the whole thing seem unreal, and yet more real than conscious awareness. All she could do was spread her legs wide while her breasts were fondled and her loins were fingered, causing Ukyo to groan not in complaint but in surrender. As both girls moved their hands with surprising skill and dexterity to stroke and stimulate her hypersensitive nerve endings she felt her body shake with spasms of a very different kind, her empty stomach no longer heaving as the rest of her clenched and trembled, the pleasure of being caressed drowning out the weak protests her mind had to offer. When the first touch of fingers entering her vagina began to swirl around in search of hidden nerve clusters in need of stimulation Ukyo lost all that remained of her inhibitions. She could not tell which girl was fingering her, only that it felt so NICE to be touched in such a way that she could forget for the moment that it was a woman's hand that was causing her such pleasures, and with that last concession she let herself totally go and simply clung to the wall as her groans became more heartfelt. The pinching and stroking of her breasts were also very nice, and when Shampoo at last began to suckle her there was not a bit of her old resentment as Ukyo reached out with a hand and pressed the hair of the purple girl to encourage her to continue. But that was as nothing compared to what was next to follow, for Akane let off on her finger-probing of Ukyo's sex and got down on her knees to put her mouth into play, and with the first touch of soft lips against the even softer lips of her labia, Ukyo shut her eyes tightly and gasped at the unbelievable pleasure of it all. She stood on tip-toes and leaned further forward as the Amazon and the Tomboy took her to places that she had never dreamed of before. When Akane pressed her mouth and probed with her tongue as deep as it would go into the chef's most intimate depths it was all Ukyo could do to not fall over as disbelief gave way to ecstasy and overwhelming consummation. The most amazing thing occurred shortly after this and she experienced her very first orgasm ever, a sensation not unlike being washed over by sun and sea as she lay naked on a beach, her mind going blank as all thought and awareness became one thing entirely...the overwhelming desire for these sensations to go on forever! This double session of pleasure would last for over twenty whole minutes before the trio was discovered and chased out of the showers by one of the female team captains, a friend of Akane's named Ai, who promised not to spread rumors of the event so long as Akane confided to her later the details about the chef and the Amazon, to which Akane would agree with wholehearted enthusiasm. It would take Ukyo the rest of the day before her mind would settle down into some sort of rational coherence, and even then she was aware that something fundamental had changed within her, that she was fundamentally not the same person any more. Some shadow of darkness had left her soul, washed clean by the warm shower water and the heady sex that had helped her to forget her near-tragic encounter with the guys who wanted to do something similar to her, but with far less intent towards mutual pleasure. It was certainly something to think about, and she knew now that she no longer resented either Akane or Shampoo, though she doubted that she would trust them like that again in any private, intimate locations. After all, she might not be the Bad Girl she had long imagined herself to be, but that did not mean that she was easy, and just because she had discovered something about her own capacity for pleasure with members of her own sex did not mean that she was ready to totally give up on men forever. All of this was totally unknown to a boy named Saotome Ranma, who still held a place in both her heart and destiny, yet who presently was spending time in the company of Tendo Nabiki, who also sensed that something was going on with her little sister, but---having more experience in Akane's multiple affairs---wisely chose not to inquire, deciding that there were some things that even the most concerned sibling did not want to know about, especially if it also concerned a potential rival. Such things were matters to be resolved in the future, and at the moment it was only the present that truly concerned Nabiki, a present revolving around a boy named Saotome Ranma, whose story she knew was only just beginning... Continued. Comments/Criticisms/Collective Guilt Complexes: shadowmane@ridgenet.net Has Ukyo met her match in Akane? Will she pose a threat to Ranma's relationship with the older Tendo sisters? Will Ryoga get to attend regular class sessions? Will either of them ever return to the Dark side as Purge intends? Be here next time for the answer to this and other questions in: "Nihao, My Lovely," or "My Brilliant Career in Okonomiyaki!" Be there! X