Nabiki was not a morning person. In fact, if she wasn’t worried that she’d miss something important she wouldn’t wake before two in the afternoon on most days. And, five on the days she felt particularly lethargic. So it was with no surprise that she didn’t descend the stair until ten a.m., a full two and a half hours after breakfast on the one day a week students got off. What was strange was that in stead of only being a half asleep zombie, she looked like she dead on her feet.
“Where the hell is he?” was all she could keep thinking, over and over again.
“Good morning, Nabiki. I’ll reheat some breakfast for you and get you a cup of coffee,” offered a young, woman with brown hair in a conservative house dress and apron.
“No need, Kasumi. I can do it myself, just enjoy your show,” Nabiki responded with a small smirk through the dead tone.
Fidgeting Kasumi asked, “any luck?”
Nabiki froze mid step, and with a sad expression that her sister couldn’t see she shook her head.
As she entered the kitchen there was a loud slamming and the sound of wood splintering. From the hallway came a shout, “if I ever get my hands on that perverted bastard I gonna kill him.”
A girl with short dark blue hair walked into the living room sat down hard. She had a leg in a cast and an arm in a sling. Her clothes were torn and ragged, her hair was frazzled and messy, and she was sporting the start of a swollen black-eye, in all, she was in shambles. As she sat, she began to glow as a blood red aura started pulsating around her.
“Ran into Shampoo and Ukyo, again?” asked the walker from the kitchen.
“It’s not my fault the perverted coward ups and runs. Probably doing something perverted with all kinds of floozies and sluts,” ranted the girl like a tea kettle releasing steam.
“Maybe, those comments and opinions are why they keep beating you up, Akane?” came the ominous tone of the dead.
“Ha, ha, ha! Even more dead than alive she’s smarter than you,” came the voice of Happosai from the hallway as he entered.
“Says the perverts master,” pointed out Akane a smug look on her face.
“I’m just an innocent old man who only has his equally innocent hobbies. Speaking of my ungrateful heir where is he?” Happosai called to the kitchen.
“Not hide nor hair,” came a slightly less dead response as Nabiki enter with a coffee.
As they went on and on about the missing martial artist as being the perverted, ungrateful, and lazy, courtesy of his own father Genma Saotome, Kasumi and Nabiki ignored them, vehemently. Nabiki because she was at her limit with dealing with these idiots. Kasumi on the other hand was worried that if they saw her worry they would further blame the young man who has gone missing. She didn’t want the person who has become a brother to her and her family to suffer. To avoid the others’ attention she watched the screen with one of her favorite shows on, but she wasn’t listen to it. Instead, she listen to them and quietly seethed. “Maybe, I’ll let Akane cook tonight,” she thought darkly.
The arguing and insulting was broken by a sudden and loud, “OH, my!”
Every head turned as one to the eldest Tendo sister as Nabiki asked, “what’s wrong, Kasumi?”
“I’m sorry, it just that it almost looks like one of the characters has a Jusenkyo curse.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and a single thought ran through Nabiki’s mind, “it can’t be, dear god, it can’t be.”
The pink pony on the screen turned to face them and said, “you don’t know the half of it.”
The same thought occurred to both Kasumi and Nabiki, “of coarse it is. But, how did he do that?”
“She’s quite something, isn’t she?” asked a sultry velvet voice.
“It’s about time,” said Happosai a smug and content smile on his face.
As a dark skinned woman with voluptuous curves, long platinum hair, magenta eyes, and a star symbol on her the center of her forehead she began, “yes, Happi, it is. Long past time, even.” The predatorily grin on her face unnerved everyone in the room.
“Why Hildie, are you here to fulfill our little deal,” her grin took on a little bit of a bemuse quality.
“Oh, most definitely, Happi.”
“Well, where is my heir?” Happosai demanded a little irritably and with great impatience.
“Now Happi, miss Tendo here has pointed it out to all of you,” Hild stated the grin never wavering.
As they all turned to Kasumi and then the television, the pink pony stated to no one in particular, “yes she did, I saw her.” Nabiki’s eye started twitching. Kasumi was worried.
“So I’m not the only one she has that effect on,” Hild thought with great humor.
“But I thought we were friends,” came a voice in her mindscape. Hild smile dimmed every so slightly.
“Oh, hell no!” Hild screamed in her mind. “OUT! Get out, right now, do you hear me?”
“Okay, I’m leaving,” said the voice dejectedly. Then, it suddenly brightened, “but, we are good friends, right?”
“Fine! Whatever just leave me alone!” Hild declared.
“Okay!” Hild could hear the voice’s smile as it began to fade. Then it popped right back without skipping a beat, “but, I’ll see you one way or another in two hundred thirty-seven, I’ll have a wonderful birthday present for you.” And, then the voice gone. At first Hild sat there in her mind and then, what the pony had said sunk in. No one saw the tear run down the cheek of her inner self.
Hild missed the conversation the rest had as they worked out what was going on. Happosai turned to her and demanded, “what is the meaning of this?”
“Well,” Hild began in a sugary sweet voice. “According to the deal you made a week ago, you want him to see what it’s like to have to eat emotional ki, and then to be taught in every aspect of your school to the point of grand mastery, correct?”
“Yes,” was all Happosai could say, as everyone turned to him in shock.
“And how do you determine mastery in your school,” Hild asked innocently.
“Ha, to become a master in my school, one has to be able to def…,” realization crossed Happosai face and donning horror as well. “But, but, he’s a pony how does that have to do with eating emotional ki,” he declared triumphantly.
“True, but a miss Tendo can testify Ranma was originally a changeling.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Happosai’s temper was getting the better of him.
“Changeling on the show eat emotions, especially love,” answered Kasumi.
“But, he’s was a pony?” asked Nabiki.
“Well, Jusenkyo is a divine curse and refuses to be denied,” the predator grin was back in full force. “Which, means that thanks to the way a certain someone in this room taught him,” she glanced at Genma. “All we have left to do to fulfill our end of the deal is deliver the knowledge of all the techniques of your school and a few others, for reason I can’t go into, to him. So, I’m here to collect the techniques of all the branches of your school, and your payment,” the grin turned into a smile with far to many teeth.
“But, we have a deal you can’t take my soul or my immortality,” Happosai desperately wailed.
“Quite right. And, thanks to that spear of yours we have made quite a bit of mischief over the last two millennia,” Happosai breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wait!” exclaimed Nabiki who stared wide-eyed at Hild and Happosai. “A spear of great importance from two thousand years ago? You don’t mean the Spear of De…”
Hild held a finger to her lips and Nabiki found herself unable to speak, “spoilers!” she said with an infuriating smile.
“That’s right. So what are you going to claim as payment?” Happosai asked triumphantly.
“Your life and your soul, you horrible little monster,” Hild answered matter-of-factly.
The look on his face nearly made Nabiki laugh, Soun, and Genma weren’t so reserved and started a celebratory dance. “But, you just said…” Happosai began.
“I know but the deal you had with the spear was made with Niflhiem. Ranma on the other hand, especially after the Saffron incident and a few other reasons falls squarely in the jurisdiction of Asgard. So, to make a long story short in order to pull off the deal you requested required a Divine Damned Contract. Or, in this particular case a Damned Divine Contract. Basically, because this deal requires an agreement on both sides it supersedes any previous agreement made on either side. You made it easier by requesting the deal yourself. Not to mention, Niflhiem would like to thank Tendo Kasumi. If it weren’t for you liking that show we may have never gotten him. As such we will offer you a wish no strings attached at all.”
“Wait! You made a world simply to get rid of him,” Akane shouted while pointing at Happosai.
“Don’t be silly. Some of the greatest artist can quite simply see other worlds. No work require, just a minor teleportation,” Hild answered. “I’ll give you a day to think what you want. As for you two,” she said to Kasumi before she turned towards Genma Saotome and Soun Tendo. “I leave you a choice volunteer your entire collection of techniques or follow your teacher.”
There was a bright flash and she was gone.
Kasumi had been sitting in her room thinking what to wish for. The fathers wanted her to wish Ranma back and to have him marry Akane. Akane in her rage shouted she should leave her alone and do whatever else she wanted with the wish. Nabiki hadn’t said anything.
There was a knock on her door. “Come in,” she called.
Nabiki came in and only said five words, “please, take me with you.”