My original plan was a little different, but then I had another and better idea. So I went with that instead.
Nodoka was rather surprised at how easily Ukyo’s slender form was able to lift the intruder into the house unaided. It was difficult to remember that this girl was a martial artist whose weapon of choice was an unwieldy, oversized spatula, or at least it was difficult to remember that when said weapon was left at home. Without it there wasn’t the slightest clue about her that she was capable of self defense. All anyone would ever see was a cute chef with a friendly smile.
“Where would you like me to put her?” Ukyo asked. Nodoka snapped out of her consideration and gestured over towards herself, where she was sitting on the floor. Ukyo seemed to understand completely and approached, giving Nodoka the chance to observe. Yes. Far more naturally feminine than before, but there was still some work needing done if she was to be truly worthy of her son.
“Who is this delightful young girl?” Nodoka asked. The girl’s slumbering head was placed upon her lap and she was snoring quite adorably. She stroked aside the brown, curly hair. She looked like a doll in a big pink dress.
“Francine…” the girl mumbled in her sleep, nuzzling against Nodoka as she began to gently rub the girl’s temple.
“Her name is Azusa Shiratori,” Ukyo replied. “She is a bit of a local celebrity. One half of the Golden Pair.” Ukyo frowned slightly as if remembering something else. “I met her when she tried to take one of my customer’s pens. It is my understanding that she has a tendency for extremely blatant kleptomania, which puts a lot of people off.”
Nodoka nodded. Alright then. That was a little bit, ahem, quirkier than she expected from such an ordinary looking girl, but it might be something she could work with. She rubbed at the girl’s temples, and nodded towards the hypnotic incense. Ukyo dutifully retrieved it.
“Watch carefully,” Nodoka whispered. “One day, I shall be teaching you and Akane how to do this.” In a louder but gentle and motherly tone she began to speak. “Azusa. For now you are asleep, but there is a part of your mind that can hear me. I am now addressing that part of you. There is a wonderful odor surrounding you.” Nodoka carefully adjusted her breathing to match Azusa’s as she slept, a deliberate act to create a sympathetic response. “You feel safe. You feel secure. You feel comfortable. Let that safety in. Let it soothe your mind and seep into your dreams….”
<hr>
A pair of big and cutesy eyes blinked open, and the owner of those eyes sat up and rubbed at them with a completely over the top to the point you’d think she was deliberately overdoing it adorable yawn and stretch. Azusa looked around at her surroundings in mild confusion.
“Are you feeling better?” a kindly, trustworthy voice asked her. Azusa effortlessly bounced onto her feet with the grace and poise one would expect of a figure skater of her caliber. She whirled around and realised she’d been resting on the lap of a strange woman that she didn’t even know!
“Azusa feels…” she considered for a moment. “Pretty good! Thank you, nice lady!” she gave a cutesy twirl in place and curtsied. “Have you seen my darling Pierrette? I saw her come in here, and she looked so, so, scared! I need to take her home where she will be safe with Azusa!”
“Pierette?” the woman said. “I am terribly sorry, but I do not know anyone by that name.”
“I’ve brought refreshments!” a girl said, stepping into the room with Pierette tied up in her hair as if she was some kind of ribbon! Which she was, but that was hardly the point in Azusa’s eyes. It was cute and therefore it was hers! She skipped right on over towards the girl -
Then somehow found herself sitting calmly in place sipping a nice and tasty cup of tea with her good friends Nodoka Saotome and Ukyo Kuonji. For reasons entirely unrelated to this, her head felt a little bit funny.
“Tell me, Miss Shiratori,” Nodoka said. “Do you know my son Ranma at all? Or his fiancee Akane?”
“Ranma?” Azusa said. She searched through her memories. That name didn’t ring any bells, at least not immediately. It was kind of a cute name, so she thought it might have been something of hers at first but… The name Akane, on the other hand, most certainly did raise her hackles a little bit. But Azusa’s normal reaction to a bad memory wasn’t to get angry. It was to pitch a fit like a spoiled child.
“Wah!” Azusa bawled. “That mean girl Akane took my dear sweet piggy Charlotte!”
And then something amazing happened. Usually when she behaved like this, people might get annoyed at her. Tell her to stop or try to ignore her. Instead, Azusa found herself swept up into Nodoka’s arms in a genuinely warm and comforting embrace. In that moment Azusa felt immeasurably safe and secure in a way that she never could have expected.
“Shh, my dear,” Nodoka said. “It’s alright. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding. Please switch off for a moment, I need to discuss something with Ukyo briefly.”
Switch off? What did she mean by - Azusa fell back out of the embrace and sat completely still in a seated position staring blankly into space. This might not seem completely out of the ordinary for this girl, but it really wasn’t. It was weird. It was like… She could see and hear everything around her but it was all sort of through a pinkish filter.
“She has no romantic interest in Ranma,” she heard Ukyo say. “Are you going to make her -”
“No,” Nodoka replied. “It is hardly practical to make every girl my son encounters fall madly in love with him. My expectations are great, but not quite that unrealistic. I am satisfied in training the girls that are already attracted to him to be satisfactory wives, and no more than that.”
“Then what are you going to do with her? If you’re not going to train her -”
“Apologies for interrupting you, my dear. I said I would not train her to be Ranma’s wife. That did not mean that I would not train her. It would be such a tremendous waste to let a girl like this retain such a thoroughly relationship-destroying quirk.” Nodoka moved into the girl’s vision, meeting Azusa’s glazed eyes with her own, moving closer until they seemed to fill all of her vision. “Yes,” Nodoka said. “She will serve as the perfect distraction for my son. We can make use of her and assist her at the same time.”
And for reasons she wasn’t anywhere near intelligent enough to explain, a part of Azusa felt oddly happy about that.
- Azusa’s training begins well.
- Or it could hit a speed bump.
- Ranma was being distracted by Akane training in a leotard. How is he faring to her blatant seduction attempts?
- Ranma’s distraction is interrupted.
- Someone else has noticed Akane and Ukyo’s strange behaviour, but haven’t gone anywhere near Nodoka’s for now.
- Something else
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