Nabiki rounded the top of the stairs and headed straight for Akane's room. She yanked her younger sister's door open and found the room filled with billowing dust. She shouted again in a more panicked voice, "Akane?! WHERE ARE YOU?"
"DOWN!" She heard Ranma yell from behind her right before he tackled her to the floor. Something sailed over her head and crashed into Akane's room from a direction from outside the house. As she lay stunned on the floor with Ranma laying protectively over her, she was relieved to finally catch sight of Akane. Her younger sister was laying unconscious on the floor right next to her and she could see the rise and fall of her chest proving she was alive. There was a small scraping sound from the other room, and then a rustle of a breeze, and then silence. Ranma jumped to his feet and ran through the hole in Akane's wall that led to her room.
Wait, hole in the wall? What the hell?! She thought to herself as she raised herself up to her elbows and looked in wonder at the new hole in the wall. Ranma had run through it to her room and was looking out of an equally large hole in the outside of the house that led into her room. The room was a shambles.
She got up and ran to him just as Daddy made it up to Akane's room and fell to his knees next to Akane and started weeping in his usual over-the-top histrionics. She knew Akane was all right; she wanted to see what Ranma had found. She arrived next to him and looked around for herself. "See anything?" She asked.
"No." Was all he said, without looking up, as he stood in front of the hole. He was flexing his muscles in anger and looking for something to fight. She looked as well, and saw a couple of footprints in the grass below her room, and a broken tree branch in the tree nearby. Ranma said in frustration, "I thought I heard something moving out there, but it was just a whisper of something. Whatever it was, its gone now."
"It was Shampoo." She said in a deadpan.
He turned and stared at her in amazement. "How can you tell?"
She smiled tightly and thumbed over her shoulder at her bed, which was collapsed and almost split in two. Resting atop it was a large metal ball on the end of a stick. One of Shampoo's signature weapons.
Ranma grimaced in shame at missing that. "Oh ... yeah ... I guess that would explain it..." He said as he walked over to it and picked it up with an angry scowl on his face.
She then pointed into Akane's room and the twin of the weapon sticking out of the wall. Ranma nodded and went to retrieve it. She looked out the window a while longer staring at nothing. She hugged herself uneasily and waited for him to return. A moment later Ranma came to stand next to her and just stood looking out of the hole in the wall clenching one of the weapons in each of his hands so hard his knuckles were white.
She turned and put her hand on his shoulder briefly as she looked him in the eyes worriedly. He nodded. She smiled and left him there standing watch for a moment as she went to check on Akane. She walked over to where Akane was still laying on the ground. Akane had a bruise over her left eye where a piece of wall must have hit her. That made her angry. These crazy girls after Ranma were out of control, especially the Amazons. She was glad she was going to help Ranma deal with them.
Kasumi was hovering anxiously just behind Daddy, waiting to take care of Akane. She knew that Kasumi wouldn't shoulder him aside, so it was up to her to do it. She tapped him on the shoulder and said gently, "Daddy..." When he didn't even look up, she swatted him on the shoulder and ordered him to move more forcefully. "Daddy! Move! Kasumi can't take care of her with you in the way."
She rolled her eyes at him as he looked up at her with his big puppy dog eyes and wailed, "Akaaaaneeeeeeee." But he did indeed scoot out of the way. That taken care of, she walked back over to the window and stood next to Ranma again.
"How is she?" He asked worriedly.
"She'll be all right, just a bump on the forehead." She replied confidently. Akane had been hurting herself way worse than that long before Ranma and the rest of them showed up in town.
"I am so tired of all of this." Ranma said in a strained voice.
"I know. I am too." She replied. Then she added, "Kasumi will need help moving Akane, can you do it?"
He looked at her, then back out the window and clenched the weapons in his hands even tighter. "But ... what if Shampoo comes back?" He asked in a worried tone.
She smiled tightly and said, "I suppose I can tell you why I asked you to bring Doctor Tofu out here now." She then turned and faced out the window and stuck her fingers in her mouth as she blew out a sharp long whistle, and then two short whistles.
Across the street, Doctor Tofu stepped out of the shadows and waved at them cheerfully. Then in the blink of an eye he disappeared again.
Ranma's jaw fell open in shock. He stuttered, "I-I have been standing here looking for someone out there..." he trailed off in disbelief.
"Doctor Tofu is very good. Very, very good. I think he's a pacifist, or at least, I don't think he would ever kill anyone, but he is very good. If he doesn't want to be seen, he won't be." She said with a quiet confidence as she hugged herself tightly against the cold air starting to come in from the window as night settled in outside. She looked outside with a mixture of gratitude and unease on her face that came from knowing Doctor Tofu was out there watching over the house. She didn't plan to tell Daddy about it, because she knew he would try to help and frankly probably just get in Tofu's way.
Ranma was looking at her in open shock. "So ... so ... what's he doing out there?" He asked.
"This was one of the plans he and I came up with." She said simply. Ranma looked at her with raised eyebrows, so she elaborated. "I have been afraid of Shampoo since she came into town. She is wild, violent, dangerous, and ruthless. She isn't like Ukyo or even Kodachi. She doesn't seem to have limits. She also doesn't seem to have any respect for any law that isn't her tribe's law. I think she had been willing to just leave you alone after you rejected her when she first came to Japan. The old crone she came back with obviously is the one pushing for her to continue to pursue you. And Shampoo quite clearly cannot stand up to the old crone. I don't know how brutal they are in that tribe of hers, but I can tell when someone is being controlled, and Shampoo is being controlled by that old lady. I am frankly amazed that she hasn't done something like this before now." She said in quiet anger.
"So ... what was the plan?" Ranma asked.
"Oh, right, well, because so many people seem to be so interested in this house and everyone in it, and we seem to constantly have people eavesdropping, Doctor Tofu and I worked out some code words to describe the plans we would use."
"Oh, so when you said, that it was the plan with the first option, but not the second..."
She laughed at that. When Ranma looked at her in confusion, she explained. "He actually just made that up on the spot. It was very clever of him. I just went with it. I think he was just trying to see how much you were following, and what you would do, and I think he also threw it up just to confuse anyone who might have been listening."
Ranma just looked at her crossly, so she elaborated. "The code words I said were, 'talks ... three... and seven.' That told him I was worried about the Amazons and I was asking for him to try to protect the house."
"But ... he said he had to get back to the clinic for a late appointment." Ranma said, confused.
"Yes, that was code too. The code words he said were, 'care ... clinic... and appointment.' That was the code telling me that he would start patrolling right away."
"But ... the house was attacked ... " Ranma said worriedly.
"Yes, that worries me too. It was probably Shampoo and the old crone, or maybe that boy who is always following her around. I don't know. But if they were able to get past him, they would have had to distract Doctor Tofu and attack from two different directions at the same time." She said as she puzzled it out as she analyzed everything she knew so far.
"So ... was it Doctor Tofu I heard in here when I was on the ground with you?" Ranma asked. "I heard someone moving very fast in here right after I knocked you out of the way of Shampoo's weapon; it sounded like it might have been a fight, but if it was, it was over before it began, and he took Shampoo with him when he left."
She shrugged. "Probably. I'll have to ask him later. But whoever it was, was obviously struggling." She commented as she pointed to the broken tree branch, and the multiple sets of footprints below.
She then paused and grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes with a small smile on her face. "And that now makes three times you've saved my life in the last week. Thank you, Ranma." She said in a very quiet and very sincere voice.
He blushed and looked away as he put a hand behind his head in embarrassment. "It was nothing, Nabiki. I just wish I could have prevented Akane gettin' hurt too."
She smiled tightly at that and said, "I know you do. Speaking of Akane..." She looked down over at Akane then up at Ranma and he nodded and quickly walked over, bent down and gently picked her sister up. He was really very kind when people weren't pushing his buttons. Kasumi smiled at him and pulled on the sleeve of his arm to guide him where she wanted him to take Akane. She watched Kasumi lead him across the hall to her own room. It figures. She'll probably put Akane up in her bed. She thought to herself with a touch of anger. She knew Akane could take the hit she'd received, but it still bothered her that she had taken it at all.
Ranma returned then and stood next to her again, but she was done standing by the cold hole in the wall. What she really wanted to do was sleep. She looked forlornly at her bed and sighed. She hated sleeping on the guest futon downstairs. But she didn't see any other options available to her tonight. Her bed was salvageable, but with the hole in the wall, it would be freezing in her room, and Akane's room.
Ranma put a hand kindly on her arm and pulled her attention away from her broken bed. "Hey, would you like to sleep in my bed tonight?" He asked quietly.
She blushed furiously at that and actually smacked him lightly on the arm in a scold and leaned in and whispered to him. "If I am not letting you kiss me again until you keep your promises, can you imagine how I feel about sleeping with you before then?"
Ranma went white as a sheet and actually took a step back from her in panic. When she didn't continue, he summoned his courage and stepped back next to her as he waved his hands back and forth and shook his head rapidly side to side. "T-that's n-not what I meant! I meant ... you could take my room and my bed ..."
She rolled here eyes at her own foolishness. Of course he only meant that. What kind of idiot am I? It isn't like the boy is going to suddenly be Mister smooth-with-the-ladies, for only me. She thought sarcastically to herself. If he hadn't been able to summon the courage to do anything with Akane except for the rare hug or hand holding, then he wasn't going to magically be able to do more with her either. Frankly, I'm amazed he had it in him to kiss me... she thought wistfully.
"Thank you, Ranma, I accept." She said with a smile.
Daddy stood up at that point and stumbled over behind Ranma, gathered himself for a moment, then shouted at him. "RAAAAAAANMAAAAAAAAA!" Ranma jumped a half meter into the air and spun around and backed away from Daddy as he made warding gestures. "W-w-what? What'd I do?" He asked in a panic.
She wondered if Daddy was using some aspect of the Art to intimidate people when he did that. To her, he just looked like Daddy, if a bit more upset. She could tell Daddy was concentrating on something as he yelled, though. Ranma looked absolutely terrified as he looked back at him; and he wasn't looking where Daddy's head actually was, but about a meter or so higher. Regardless, she wasn't going to stand for Ranma being bullied by Daddy tonight. She stepped forward to stop it as Daddy continued. "This is all your fau—"
She stepped in between them and held her hands out protectively in front of Ranma and put a stern expression on her face. "No, Daddy! It wasn't Ranma! Ranma saved me! Someone threw a weapon at me, and Ranma protected me! You will not blame this on Ranma!" She could see him warring with the words she had spoken, and he opened his mouth to shout at Ranma again, so she yelled again, even louder, "DADDY! I SAID NO!"
At that, he deflated, nodded, and stepped back away from Ranma. "So, what did happen?" He asked in a calmer voice.
"Those crazy Amazons attacked the house." She said as she thumbed towards the weapons Ranma was still holding in his hands. Daddy's face grew angry at that. Good. She had no problem with him directing his anger at the proper target. She even prompted him. "And what are you going to do about it, Daddy?"
To his credit, he stayed focused on the right thing for once. "Tonight, I am going to sit by my little girl and make sure she is all right. Tomorrow ... tomorrow ... I am going to talk to my old friend and maybe the Master, and look into dealing with those people once and for all. Enough is enough." At that, he raised his voice and yelled downstairs, "Saotome, get up here!"
Ranma's dad ran into the room a moment later. He was in his human form, and had a serious look on his face. The man was mostly useless, but even he knew when it was time to stand up and be counted, and she could tell he knew this was one of those times. Before he and Daddy could get into their war plans, she interrupted them. "If anyone needs me, Ranma has offered me the use of his room, and I've accepted. I'm going to head to bed now." She announced then stepped back to leave the room.
Daddy called out behind her. "No, stop." She raised an eyebrow and turned around to find out what his objection was. She wondered if he was going to offer her his bedroom? He looked at Ranma, and then as her, then over at Mister Saotome and then nodded as he turned back to her. "I don't think its safe for you to be alone tonight. Ranma will stand guard in the room with you." He declared.
"Daddy..." She tried to argue, embarrassed.
"No, Nabiki, it isn't safe. Someone needs to be there with you in case there is another attack." Daddy replied sternly. "Besides, Saotome is going to be walking the house tonight standing guard, so there will be an extra bed in there anyway." He added.
"But, aren't you worried about Ranma in the same room as me while I—" she started to ask as she blushed furiously. She couldn't look at Ranma right now. He could read through her masks, and she was thinking decidedly embarrassing thoughts right now.
But, before she could finish her question, Mister Saotome cut across her. "That's an excellent idea, Tendo. They are engaged now, after all. It's high time they spent some quality time together."
"Saotome, my thoughts exactly!" Daddy replied as he turned and grasped his friend's arms and they both did their weird fake crying thing.
She rolled her eyes at their antics and chided herself silently. Of course they aren't worried about that. Hell, they'd probably be thrilled if they found Ranma and I actually in bed together. We'd probably be married that morning. She had forgotten about all the times they had tried to force Akane and Ranma together. She sighed and shrugged. "Fine, come on Ranma, I'm tired." He nodded nervously and followed her with a bewildered look on his face. She would have to work on his instinctive desire to be complacent in these sorts of situations. Still, at the moment, she had to be honest with herself and admit that she was a little bit excited that she would be sharing the same room as him to sleep. She had no intention of doing anything with him, but it would still be new and exciting.
They entered his room and she shut the door behind them as she followed him. He pointed quietly to his neatly made futon and stayed rooted in place after that. He refused to look at her, but she could tell he was blushing just by looking at the back of his neck. She couldn't help herself, she walked slowly up behind him. He flinched with each step she took. She smiled at how nervous he was. She leaned right up behind him and breathed warmly on his neck and whispered in her best sultry voice. "Take me, Ranma, take me now!"
He jumped a good meter at least in the air and spun around and away from her as he waved his hands back and forth rapidly and protested in a panicked voice. "What?! No-no-no-no, we can't, Nabiki, we can't, we can't!"
She grinned predatorily at him as she advanced towards him quickly as he pressed his back up against the wall and continued to plead. My, but how shy he is now, she observed as she grinned. It was sweet how sincere he was. He had absolutely no filters when it came to women, unless it involved fighting.
She continued to grin her predator grin as she leaned in and put her lips right up to his ear and whispered, "Ranma, don't you want me?"
He gulped and said in a shaky voice, "N-Nabiki, it's ... I-I..."
She leaned back and put a pouty face on as she summoned her fake sad voice. "So, I'm not pretty enough for you then, is that it?" He might be able to read through her acting, but he clearly had a hard time doing it when he was flustered and rocked back on his heels by something that embarrassed him. She filed that handy information away for future reference and grinned.
He stopped waving at her and narrowed his eyes as he got that she was joking. She stuck her tongue out at him and then smiled at him. She was tired, but this was fun. She thoroughly enjoyed playing with him.
He leaned towards her with a half-hearted scowl on his face. "That was mean." He locked eyes with her. She blew a kiss at him and winked before she leaned in and looked him in the eyes as well and whispered back. "No, that was fun." Then she quickly kissed him on the nose and leaned back again. He was still glaring at her, but she could tell he wasn't actually angry at her.
"Wait here, I'll be right back." She announced as she spun on her heel. He nodded as she jogged out of his room to go grab some pajamas from her room, and then dashed across the hall and quickly brushed her teeth. She thought about bringing the pajamas to his room and making him turn around while she changed, just to test him. She was pretty sure he would be honorable and not look, but she also had to admit that she kind of wanted him to look. Still, she had already played with him for the night, and she didn't want the poor boy to stroke out. She'd save that little test for another night. So, she quickly changed into her pajamas and left her street clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor, then jogged back to his room. He was standing exactly where she had left him.
She rolled her eyes as she entered the room and closed and locked the door. "I didn't mean for you to stay exactly there, Ranma." She said, exasperated.
"Oh." Was all he said as he smiled sheepishly. She had to admit, Akane had him trained. She was going to have to undo some of the responses he had built up from her. She didn't think he was actually afraid of her little sister of course, but he was obviously afraid of upsetting Akane, and by extension, herself. She didn't want him to be afraid of upsetting her. If anything, she wanted him to want to push her a bit. She liked to be challenged. Oh well, that was something to work on another day. She climbed into his bed and was already getting sleepy. Ranma walked over to the light switch and turned the lights off, and then took up station in front of the door, hands behind his back, like a sentry.
She rolled her eyes. "You can sleep, too, Ranma." She said.
He responded without turning around. "No, I can't, I have to guard you. My dad and your dad said so."
She thought about that for a moment then asked a followup question. "Can't you tell when someone enters the room, even if you are asleep?"
"No. I'm not good enough yet. Ryoga's sneaked in and attacked me while I was sleepin' before. I fought him in my sleep, but that was because he was attackin' me." He said over his shoulder.
She thought about it again, as she tried to figure out a way for him to satisfy his honor, and still be able to sleep. "So, what if you were sleeping with me, would you be able to tell if someone was in the room and attacking me?"
"I-I ... sure, I guess... but, Nabiki..." He said nervously.
"I told you, Ranma, until you keep your promise, you don't even get to kiss me. When I say sleep me with me, I mean sleep." She said firmly.
He turned around and looked at her and blushed. "But ... I've never slept in the same bed with anyone ... not even Pop..." He trailed off as his eyes slid away from her in embarrassment.
"There's a first time for everything." She said with a smile.
"But ... what if I touch something ... when I'm sleeping?" He asked with a nervous gulping sound.
She considered that, then smiled as she came up with the solution. "How about this? What if you go turn into a girl, and sleep with me as a girl? If we're both girls, nothing counts, right?" She blushed a bit as she said that.
Ranma nodded as he listened and actually smiled as she finished. "That's a great idea, hang on, I'll be right back!"
He ran out of the room, and left her alone to think for a few moments. She was really too tired to be all that excited about sleeping in the same bed with him, but this would be interesting. If she was being honest with herself, she was fairly excited about the idea though. Even with him sleeping with her as a girl, this would still be a new step for her. And, even when he had the body of a girl, he was still himself inside. Sleeping with Ranma, no matter what body he happened to be wearing, would still be sleeping with him. She hoped he wasn't a kicky sleeper. She smiled softly to herself. So much for taking things slowly. She thought. It was a good thing Daddy was watching Akane sleep, she really didn't want Akane to find them in bed together until things had been settled and Ranma had made his final decision.
Ranma ran back into the room then. He had changed into a girl as promised. And he had taken the extra step of changing clothes into a smaller set of the Chinese clothes he liked to wear that Kasumi had got him for when he was a girl. His head was still wet, and the red hair was clumped together, but he had obviously tried to dry it with a towel first because it was all frizzy. He was clearly going out of his way to avoid getting into bed dripping wet. Probably a problem he had frequently.
She had never really thought about it before, but it occurred to her that she usually thought of Ranma as male, even when he was in his female body. That would probably make him happy. She wondered idly if she would start thinking of Ranma as female if he stayed in his female body long enough. Probably, she guessed.
Ranma interrupted her thoughts as he came over and stood next to the bed and looked at her uncertainly. She held the blanket open and invited him to crawl in. He nodded hesitantly and moved very slowly, taking great care not to touch her. She rolled her eyes and dropped the blanket back down, reached out and encircled his tiny female waist, and pulled him closer to her. He didn't have sisters, so he clearly didn't know how to do this. He stayed hunched together in a little ball as she tried to pull him closer. She got him to unclench a little and could now feel his breath on her neck and his legs touching hers.
She reached out and her hands found his hands, and she held them in her own. Ranma's girl hands were so much smaller than her own. She breathed in deeply as she tried to relax and realized that Ranma also smelled like lotus blossoms when he was female. Ranma never smelled like lotus blossoms when he was male. The heady sweet smell was subtle but powerful. She breathed him in more deeply and started to relax as sleep crept up on her.
Like when he was male, Ranma as a female was warm. In that way, he wasn't like most of the other girls she knew; like a guy, Ranma stayed warm in his extremities, even when he was being a girl. She held Ranma's hands in her own and pulled him in closer to her. He let her pull him in closer, but she could tell that he was still holding himself very rigidly.
She sighed, and pushed on the top of his shoulder while pulling on the bottom of his hip to spin him around. With that done, she pulled his tiny girl form into a classic spooning position with her as the big spoon. She used to do exactly the same thing with Akane less than five years ago, when Akane had still been little.
She felt Ranma relax in to her after a few more moments of holding himself nervously rigid. She smiled as she drifted off to sleep with his warm body helping to relax her even faster than usual. She wasn't worried about being attacked during the night. With Doctor Tofu outside, and Ranma inside with her, even the best ninja on earth didn't stand a chance of getting to her.
Tomorrow ... tomorrow she would start taking care of the crazy girls. Enough was enough. She vowed to herself as she fell asleep, I will not let them harm my sisters!