With her headphones on, Nabiki had missed most of the racket, but still heard it. The thumping and bumping had gotten particularly loud towards the end, but since there was no screaming and shouting in the aftermath, she reckoned that things went well enough and focused on the task at hand–watching the video of a fight in the dark confines of a nightclub setting.
While the quality of the camera was excellent, the lighting was bad and there was just too much noise from the crowd to hear what was being shouted–in English no less–between the combatants.
One was a tall girl wearing a black suit and matching tie, but any evidence of her hair’s length was tied up in a fishtail milkmaid style braid. The other was a much smaller Japanese girl, dressed in a cream-colored cocktail dress and a white fur-lined jacket, with long curly brown hair, and she was swarming all over the taller girl with punches and kicks, forcing her to turtle to defend from her incessant barrage.
She’d seen this video enough times to recognize the girl on the offensive: Shiratori Azusa, one half of the legendary figure skating duo known as the Golden Pair. Cute as a button, but a dangerous martial artist off the ice rink and on it, she was demonstrating her fantastic agility and striking skills all over the monolithic figure that, until very recently, Nabiki didn’t have a name to go with her.
A violent kick collided with the tall girl’s crossed arms, and she staggered backward across the flashing dance floor. Azusa didn’t let up, closing the distance in a dancing fashion to throw off where she was going to attack from while building up incredible speed for the blow. As the taller girl’s arms came down, Azusa zigged left, and then zagged right, and landed a right cross directly into the tall girl’s cheek.
Like she’d just hit the face of a mountain, Azusa’s punch did not budge the tall girl, who stood stock still, staring back down at her before Nabiki froze the moment.
“Huh.”
The frame didn’t hold too much detail, but even in the poor light Nabiki could make out the unmoved girl’s pale, pretty face against the stage illuminating her from below. No wonder Katie didn’t talk much to anyone at all until today–the girl had some baggage, and cleaning Kuno’s clock with an actual clock was going to attract trouble once word got around.
How problematic, Nabiki was going to have to stay ahead of this, if for her own comfort. Leaning back in her chair, she raised her hands above her head and stretched. She stopped, when a new implication loomed.
Oh, that is going to be a thing, too, isn’t it? I should put my ear to the ground first thing tomorrow. No doubt the peanut gallery is going to be all a-twitter over Furinkan losing its shooting star… She thought.
Whatever further musings she had on the matter at hand were shelved, when her phone lit up with Kasumi’s text. Dinner was ready.
Leaving her room, Nabiki kept her mind on what she knew now of Katie and the impression she had when she was a mystery girl in a leaked video. The American had kept to herself enough that it really did seem out of character that she’d suddenly become a stereotypical transfer student shaking up the status quo. But it wasn’t like Nabiki had gone out of her way to talk to her, which was why this annoyed her right now.
Not that it mattered, if Katie was going to be friends with Akane, there was plenty of time to learn about her.
She reached the bottom of the stairs, her mind fully made up on what to do for now.
When she entered the sitting room, that went out the window.
What is she doing here? Nabiki thought upon seeing Kodachi at the table.
Kodachi was in the middle of speaking with her hosts. “I’ve been curious about the girl who has bewitched my brother’s heart, between the constant ravings, the poetry, the pictures, the shrine, the body pillows…”
Katie did a quick double take while Akane looked downright horrified. “Wait, body pillows…?”
“I was beginning to wonder if you were a celebrity,” Kodachi revealed.
“Oh no, she’s just the most popular girl in school,” Kasumi praised, to Akane’s embarrassment.
“I’m not that popular…” She muttered as she came down from her revulsion.
“Yes, you are,” Katie and Nabiki said in unison.
Katie looked up at her. “Oh, howdy.”
Nabiki gave a casual nod to Katie as she took her spot at the table.
Akane grumbled. “Well, I’m not popular anymore now that those idiot boys know I don’t want anything to do with them.”
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Kodachi hummed. “Not a single one of them?”
Akane nodded. “Those desperate dweebs may as well be dead to me.”
“They’re dead to pretty much every girl in the whole town after what they did,” Katie said.
Kasumi was blithe about it. “Well, I don’t really care for younger men, so it’s no loss to me.”
Katie glanced over to the eldest Tendo. “Really? W-what sort is your type?”
Put on the spot, Kasumi brought a hand to her cheek, as her face tinted pink. “Oh my, it’s kind of embarrassing really. It's not dinner table conversation for me.”
Kodachi rested a finger on her cheek, she was contemplating something. “So all of those young men are burakumin in the eyes of the women at the school?”
Akane nodded. “That’s about it.”
“Fascinating, I will be visiting your school in the coming days to take a tour of this phenomena myself; would you be so generous as to show me around?”
“As long as you don’t plan on taking your brother’s place as the resident lunatic,” Akane offered.
Kodachi laughed, sending a shiver down Katie’s spine. “Ohohoho! Tendo-san, as a token of my forgiveness, you needn’t worry about me. I swear upon my family’s honor that I, Kuno Kodachi, will be your friend and confidante for life. I’ll do what I can to make up for my boorish buffoon of a brother.”
That had Nabiki lifting an eyebrow. “Wait, huh?”
Kasumi clasped her hands together. “That’s so kind of you!”
Akane was stunned. “That… really?”
“Truly!” Kodachi said before turning to Katie. “And to you as well, Izurando-san. I don’t want any bad blood between our houses. Let us let bygones be bygones.”
Katie didn’t hesitate. “Sure, that sounds good. Long as you keep your brother out of our hair.”
“You have permission from me to deal with him as you see fit, short of actually killing him of course.”
Katie nodded. “In that case, next time I’ll break his legs.”
“That will be fine by me, but you may have to wait a while for another opportunity!” Kodachi said with another powerful laugh.
Her generosity was unexpected, suspicious even. It was as if she was getting something pretty big out of this and Nabiki wanted to know what it was.
Soun, quite impressed by Kodachi’s vow–and seeing the possible financial benefits–was more than happy with this new development. “Akane-chan, your friend Kodachi-kun is more than welcome in our home.”
“Just so long as her brother isn’t,” Akane again affirmed.
“I’ll keep him out when you can’t,” Katie said.
“So you’ll be coming over more often?”
“Whenever you need me. We’re friends, too, right?” Katie asked.
Akane let out a small laugh, as she beamed right back at Katie. “Yeah, we are!”
She said to Kodachi. “You, too!”
Kodachi was quite taken by the happy girl’s smile, just as every other hopeless soul who saw it tended to be and returned it in kind. “It is an honor.”
Nabiki’s gaze darted between Akane, Katie, and Kodachi. In one day, in less than one, everything just got flipped on its head and there really was no telling what was going to happen next.
“Well, dinner was fabulous, Tendo-san, but I must be on my way,” Kodachi said as she finished her plate and rose. “I have class in the morning and homework to complete.”
She produced from nowhere a stack of yen and set it on the table right in front of Nabiki. “A token of appreciation and gratitude for the lovingly crafted meal.”
She bowed politely to them, before going outside. “I will see you soon, Akane-san, Izurando-san!”
Laughing that laugh Katie found so incredible, Kodachi took off into the night, leaving Nabiki staring blankly down at the stack of 100,000 yen casually tossed down by the younger of the Kuno siblings.
That was 100,000 yen. Right there. In front of her eyes.
“She really is generous,” Kasumi said, surprised as well by the amount of money offered.
“I’ll say!” Soun said as he reached for it, only for Nabiki to move faster than she ever moved to snatch it up herself.
“Mine,” she said impulsively, earning pointed looks from her father, her younger sister and her beastly friend.
Recoiling, she tried to look less money grubbing and forced a crooked smile. “Er… as in… I will make sure that this is safely deposited.”
The stares cooled off, and Nabiki looked down at the tremendous amount of money with no small amount of giddiness. The status quo was gone, and there was no telling what to make of this new beginning–but it was going to be interesting.
|Meanwhile, back in China|
Everything went wrong.
First, in clear defiance and disregard of the warnings, Genma and Ranma leapt into action, to train atop the bamboo poles of the Jusenkyo Springs. Everything was fine and dandy, with no sign of anything going wrong–aside from the protests of the guide–but then Ranma kicked his father into the Spring of the Drowned Panda. An apt name, because instead of his father, what emerged from it was a grizzly bear-sized and indignant panda which promptly batted Ranma straight into the Spring of the Drowned Young Girl.
As expected of its description, Ranma emerged from the spring in the body of a short, buxom, and unbelievably cute redheaded girl.
With a scream of horror, and then of rage, father and son–rather panda and daughter–spent the next few hours with the former being chased and pummeled by the latter.
At some point during this chase, Ranma may have knocked someone else into a spring, but in his rage, he did not see who or what spring they fell in. He wasn’t even sure if it actually happened, and he was angry about that, too.
Now he was a girl, his dad was a panda, he was tired, angry, hungry…
“ACHOO!”
… And actually coming down with a cold now, too. Today was the worst day ever and he was not sure how it could get worse.
“Hey, tour guide, you've been walking us down this path for hours. How can you be sure that there’s a place that can help us here?” He asked the man.
“There place, yes. Village with ancient history! Wise, wise elders who know very much of curses, yes? You get good cure here.”
“Can I get a warm bed and a meal, too? Because I’m tired and I’m starving!” Ranma moaned, his panda dad agreeing with a growl right as a modest-sized but walled-off and heavily guarded village came into view.
“Mr. Customers, you need not worry, we is here,” the tour guide revealed. “This village of Women Warriors, they fix everything. It all be a-okay one hundred percent.”
Ranma looked with relief at the village and sighed. Though the words weren’t exactly what he’d go for in terms of reassurance, it sounded like this nightmare was finally coming to an end.