Story: Demon's Test: Starting School

Here's Demon's Test! I don't think I got things as perverted  as I might have liked, but the story is definitely pushed forward a little bit. I've also given a direction or two to latch onto for myself or any other contributor that is interested in doing so.

Please suggest improvements if you see anything that really needs it.


Morning at the Tendo house was a rather interesting affair to observe unfolding from a fresh perspective. Kasumi would make breakfast, Soun would sit and wait for it to be brought to the table. Then Akane would leave on her morning jog, returning in time for the Saotomes to start their spar and Nabiki to awaken. Both the youngest sisters would get dressed and then they would all sit down and have themselves a little breakfast. The two freshly affianced martial artists pointedly ignoring each other, save occasions when the unnoticed demon inserted little remarks about the physical attractiveness of the other.

“Mister Saotome, please stop stealing Ranma’s food!” Kasumi admonished. “After all, if you intend to send him to school it would be best if he arrived for his first day on a full stomach, don’t you think?”

Good sign there, Nalidiel thought. The pampering thing appears to have taken root. An occasional push here and there regarding the nature of that pampering, and the results should hopefully speak for themselves.

“What’s this about school?” Ranma asked.

“Didn’t your father tell you?” Nabiki said. “It’s the same one Akane and I attend. Sis can show you the way, since she is your fiancee and all.”

Nalidiel ignored the steamy look the two gave each other and concentrated more on the middle Tendo for now. It would be easy - trivial, even - to use this first school day to break down the will of the two main characters and make their lustful urges take charge. But Nalidiel was thinking long term, and had been thinking it all night while the others slept. Sure, he’d certainly be successful here and there and sure he might even get a few of them to surrender to temptation, but if he continued diving around the heads of every other character on a constant basis without a plan he was going to get exactly nowhere.

What was needed at this point was a single focal point. Sure, dance around the other’s minds as and when needed but focus largely on one character and whittle away their resolve until they were left beholden to his every whispered suggestion. He’d already seen evidence that the more he concentrated on a person the more eagerly they succumbed to his influence, but what might well make this endeavour much easier would be a more physical presence. Particularly someone with a devious, ruthless mind. Someone intelligent and cunning who would do just about anything to get what she wanted and simultaneously managed to be hot as hell.

Since Shampoo wasn’t here yet, Nabiki would do quite nicely.

Oh yes, Nabiki was perhaps the perfect candidate for what the lust demon in training had in mind. Well. Not that he had particularly much in mind quite yet; the plan was still forming and would probably become more concrete as time went on, but <i>still!</i> Nabiki was the perfect candidate for any of a dozen different directions. She lived right at ground zero, interacted with Ranma and Akane regularly, played both like harps and felt absolutely no remorse over that fact. Nabiki would be the first domino set up in a row. Once she fell over, the others soon would go.

That was perhaps a little optimistic, but even that realisation didn’t act as a deterrence. Not at all! Quite the opposite in fact. How else could he expect to test the limits of his control? How else could he determine what would happen if he relentlessly whispered in one person’s ear until their will bent to his? Nalidiel knew he might be tested, but perhaps the real nature of this setup was to help him test his own abilities in his own way?

<hr>
Speaking entirely from a disinterested perspective - which Nabiki knew she really wasn’t but what the hell, she’d give it a go anyway - Ranma might very well be the exact thing Akane needed at the moment. Sure, she’d have chucked that hot potato onto her just to get away from the arranged marriage if that whole “half-naked wrestling match” hadn’t taken place. Sure, she’d cop to that. Her reasons would have been entirely selfish. But after the fact? Oh, after the fact a few realisations came crashing in about how Akane should be treating the situation.

First of all, if Akane had been remotely rational she’d be trying to make nice with Ranma under the realisation that he wasn’t The Enemy. Their fathers were for pushing the engagement. The poor boy/girl didn’t really want it every bit as much as Akane herself didn’t. Anyone with eyes could see that. If the two of them worked together they could fight out of it much more effectively.

Secondly, again dependant on Akane being rational, she could use this engagement to get the boys at school to back the hell off. If Ranma really was as effective a martial artist as all that, he’d plow right through the boys and maybe even give Kuno a fair shake. That was the girl’s problem, really. Not taking advantage of a problem to create a solution!

But then there were the advantages that would almost certainly take place. Kuno would inevitably find out about the engagement. He’d probably have to pay through the nose to do so, but he’d find out! Then the two would fight it out, and all of a sudden Akane finds she’s got two of her problems directed at one another anyway. The other big advantage? New sparring partner, dummy! She’d been complaining about that for years now!

Which is all part of why she’d left the two of them together on the walk to school. Let her show the way while Nabiki herself ran ahead to watch the chaos unfolding from the best seats in the house. The middle floor of the school, windows facing the gate! Kuno was bound to notice Ranma accompanying Akane, and that was a first confrontation she wouldn’t miss for anything! Especially not when it would help her set the odds on future encounters. Which there would almost certainly be once certain facts were released to a certain idiot, and probably by a certain beautiful moneymaking genius with certain entrepreneurial skills.

<color = blue>Could probably make money off Ranma’s girl form too.</color> Oh yeah, easily. The boys would love pictures <color=blue>of that sexy pigtailed girl with the big, soft boobs.</color> They’d line up in droves for a glimpse of her cute face, perfect curves and cleavage you could suffocate in and die happily in so doing.

“Uh, boss? Are you okay? You appear to be drooling.”

“I’m just thinking about all the money we’re about to make,” Nabiki said. “Something very interesting happened yesterday, and… it looks like you’re about to find out a few of the salient details firsthand.”

“I hate boys!” the now familiar cry echoed through the air, announcing the approach of her little sister on the warpath. <color =blue>Look at her. Even pissed off she’s the prettiest thing you ever did see.</color> Which was the weird thing, really. After all this time the boys had all reacted in the exact same way.

“If I beat you, I can date you!” one boy cried and charged forward. The sentiment was soon followed by the ten to twenty others that charged forwards in a mob just as they were in turn plowed into by <color=blue>one of the hottest pieces of tail in school</color> and an irate martial artist.

It was easy to see why they called it an art. Though Akane’s limbs looked slender and feminine, they packed as much punch as a sledgehammer. She had charged in like a rampaging bull, but each blow struck home like a scalpel strike that left the idiot boys reeling. They all fell one by one, just like dominos. One hit each was all she needed. One hit each, and she was left standing as the boys crawled away to nurse their fresh bruises so they could try again tomorrow.

<color = blue>Look at her, standing there like that. You know what they say about power being a turn on, and boy does she have it in spades! You can see it in the way she stands! You can see it in the way she controls her breathing while scanning her surroundings for more enemies. Somehow, she pulls off the strong, sexy tomboy look perfectly. Is it any wonder they pursue her so?</color> No. Not really. What was it Kuno had always said about her? She’s got spirit! Which she does. To spare.

“For pete’s sake, every morning!” Akane wiped away a sheen of sweat from her <color=blue> sexy</color> forehead. “What a drag!”

“Such a boorish lot,” said the main event. Oh boy! Here it was! Nabiki could see it in the way Ranma was getting ready to hop off the wall. The inevitable confrontation had arrived! Now, let’s get a good look at how good that <color= blue>complete stud</color> was in a fight.

“Man, you’re popular, aren’t you?” Ranma asked, hopping down right next to Akane. Look at how clueless he is! <color=blue>Makes him look even cuter!</color>

“You there! You are being rather familiar with Akane Tendo! Identify yourself! Ah! But wait! It is customary to give one’s own name first! I am Tatewaki Kuno, captain of the kendo club! I am known as the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School!”

<color = blue>It’s such a shame he’s an idiot. Someone that rich and handsome and rich would be worth having a little fun with.</color>

“Okay…” Ranma said, still quite thoroughly adorably clueless. “I’m staying at the Tendo training hall, and - “

<color = blue>And I’m just going to go mess with Akane for a little bit, be right back!</color>

<hr>
Oh, you have got to be kidding. After all the bullshit of yesterday, after all this engagement nonsense Ranma goes and gets himself involved in the whole mess with Kuno as well? Could her life get any more complicated than this?

<color= red>Answers on a postcard to the Tendo training hall, ladies and gentlemen. Entries will be accepted under the subtitle “Dramatic irony.”</color>

Huh? Weird thought that, but never mind. She hadn’t really gotten a good chance to see what Ranma was capable of in his male form, but if he was half as good there as he was as a girl… <color=red>Let’s be fair, though. As a boy, he’s a stud. As a girl, she’s a knockout!</color>

Well, yeah. That was part of the incessant annoyance that was Ranma Saotome. Such a great big <color=red>handsome, cute, sexy</color> showoff that kept making her feel all weird whenever they talked.

“Staying under the same roof as Akane? I cannot permit it!”

Then again, she’d rather spend the rest of her life duct taped to Ranma than go on an hourlong date with Tatewaki Kuno. This had ceased to be her battle, so she’d step out of it and let the two arrogant brats do their thing. Maybe they’d even hurt each other. Serve them both right if they did! Though she’d at least give Ranma something to soothe the pain a little because he wasn’t quite that much of a jerk. <color = red>Maybe kiss his injuries better.</color> Yeah, maybe kiss his inju- No way! No, no, no!

The very next thing anyone even knew, Ranma was in the air backlit by a thunderstrike. To Akane’s slack jawed amazement, he descended on the “blue thunder” like an eagle after its prey at the very same moment that the heavens themselves opened and unleashed a mighty rainfall. No! His curse!

<color=red>Um, step to the right a little. There’s a good girl.</color>

She stepped to the right, wondered why she did that, then marvelled at her danger instinct when a familiar-looking panda barrelled right past her to grab Ranma and bring him inside the building. Kuno appeared to be more than a little bit stunned, giving Akane a brief look of confusion… And then she broke out into laughter at the sight on his forehead. Kuno began to rub at the forming bruises and stumbled off inside.

<hr>
“Boss? You’re drooling again!”

“So much money!” Nabiki gurgled, not being entirely honest with herself.

1.     Nabiki is pushed by Nalidiel throughout the day, and eventually breaks to his complete control.
2.     Same as above, except she starts to wonder where these weird thoughts are coming from.
3.     It turns out that Nalidiel’s manipulations are having effects on other characters that he’s not aware of yet.
4.     Nalidiel takes a brief break from Nabiki to mess with Ranma a little bit.
5.     Kuno of all people notices something is amiss.
6.     Something else