Having ditched Shampoo, Akane began her first day at work at this stupid cafe with the weird spell that supposedly made a girl's breasts bigger. The staff greeted her in a friendly enough way. The longer term staff (whose chests bounced in an obscene manner) welcomed her, then instructed her on how to serve customers with a smile.
As for the actual cooking, they didn't want her newar that yet. Fair enough. If it was Ranma telling her, he would have said something mean spirited, but in their case they were not willing to hand a new employee the vital and complicated task. It made sense to her. You'd want someone working a while before you did anything like that with them.
Now, the uniform itself was a little embarrassing. The blouse was a little more low cut than she liked, and while she didn't have problems with shorter skirts than this The problem was that it was a <b>maid</b> outfit. Black and white, with a frilly cap. A submissive cute girl meant to obey the customers every whim, or at least that was the fantasy. So the cleavage, skirt, and garters clearly was meant to put the boys in a perverted state of mind.
"Here is your drink, please enjoy!" she said with her brightest, sunniest smile. Oooh, it was tough being this cheerful when she was on a mission. Akane turned away to move on to the next table - when all of a sudden the customer reached out and patted her on the butt.
Now, that sort of thing had a habit of flipping Akane's switch from 'nice' to 'violent' in a hurry. She turned, she shot daggers at the man, but he already had his hands away.
"Hey, that angry face of yours is really cute," he said, licking his lips. Looking her over like a piece of meat. "Definitely my kind of thing."
"Oh, Mister Mukuroji has taken a shine to you, that's nice," one of the other staff said.
"He -" Akane began, but the other maid kept on barrelling through.
"He's a long term regular, and has a knack for noticing a girl's cutest points, you'd do well to pay attention to him."
Grr! Nobody had seen him do it! Normally she'd punt him to the heavens for that sort of stunt, but... Breathe, girl. Breathe. You're here on a mission. Ignore the fact that he's waving you away with creepy wiggly fingers. Punt him later, after you've finished your stint here. Or if he gets so unbearable it's plain not worth it anymore.
A minute later she returned behind the counter. Everyone had been served already, so this was the perfect chance to get a little investigation done. She turned her attention to a girl in a pink version of the uniform, whose bust was practically spilling out of her top - hard evidence in favour of the spell if you can say any exists. Not conclusive, but it would be a start.
"So, how long have you worked here?" Akane asked.
"About a year now," the girl airily replied.
"Oh," Akane said. There had to be a tactful way to approach the subject. How best to go about it?
"You want to know about the spell, right?" the girl said. "You've been staring at these puppies for a while now."
That remark was exactly the thing to say if you wanted Akane to stare at the wall instead. Or turn bright crimson. Or both at once.
"I'll make you a deal," the girl said, patting Akane on the shoulder and handing her a tray with assorted food on it. She wasn't really paying much attention. "If you tell me about the boy you're trying to impress, I'll spill my guts too!"
"Th-The boy I'm trying to impress?" Akane stammered out.
"Yeah, I mean why else would a girl as pretty as you want bigger - Oh! Is it a girl? No judging! It's your life. We're pretty progressive like that here."
P-Perverts! A whole bunch of perverts run this place! Which makes sense, I mean, maid cafe, why else are the clientele coming here if not to gawp at pretty girls in cute outfits. Akane went out with steam billowing from her ears. The idea of talking about the boy she liked -
"Your guard is down," a low voice whispered, and then a hand brushed her thigh. The same jerk as before! Akane looked around - but all the other maid had their backs turned. This guy - he must be a martial arts groper! Or merely practised enough to get away with it when nobody else was watching.
"Here you go!" Akane said to the next table over, through grit teeth. "Please enjoy."
"Many thanks!" the group said. Akane turned to leave, at least some people have - "Man, check her out. Those thighs could probably crush a man's head."
"She could suffocate me between them anytime. Shame about the chest though."
Right. Alright. Time to take a trick from Ranma. Soul of ice. Soul of ice. Soul of <i>not wrecking their shit.</i> Ugh! Alright! Fine. The fastest way to get this over with was to pretend to like some boy or other. She could talk about Doctor Tofu, her first crush - but that felt a little out of place, her feelings for him had all but vanished lately. Plus she hadn’t actually seen him in some time. Like, around that mess with the Weakness Moxibustion point? It was like he had vanished off the face of the earth.
Which left her with her default option. Talking about Ranma. It wasn't like she could talk about anyone else she knew. Ryoga was a friend with absolutely no romantic interest between them at all, Mousse was... an acquaintance that Shampoo would easily try to dump on her at the slightest hint of anything like that. Ranma’s friends at school were perverts, and she was pretty sure that lying about Ukyo would inevitably be found out about and lead to worse questions.
By process of elimination it had to be that jerk. She scoured the cafe for signs of him. Knowing him, he'd be in girl form hiding as a customer, or something like that, in one of his lame disguises. Or worse, actually dressed up as a maid and flirting with a customer.
No sign of him. Not hiding on the ceiling or something stupid either. If he said something later, she'd deny everything anyway.
"His name is Ranma," Akane said to the same employee as before. "We first met because our fathers arranged to have us married."
"Oho? An arranged marriage? How old fashioned," the other girl said. "If you're wanting to bust up for him, he must be something special."
"He's a stubborn jerk who can't keep himself from saying the wrong thing!" Akane said. "But he'll go out of his way to help someone if he notices they're in trouble. He won't give up, no matter what. He's brave. He's strong. He's really, really strong and... and..."
Woah, did someone turn up the temperature in here? Actually, this wasn't normal heat. It wasn't spread out across her whole body. It was more like it was focused in one place in particular. All this warmth was gathering into her heart, making it pound faster and faster in her chest.
In her <i>chest</i>.
"W-Wait a minute, is talking about Ranma...?" she mumbled to herself.
"Oh wow, you must have it bad," the other girl said. "I'm sooooo super jealous! He must be amazing."
"Amazing...?" Akane muttered.
"Most girls take a couple of days before they notice the spell affecting them. That means you must really, really like him! He's super lucky, and so are you!"
Wh-what?! So it was true! Talking about Ranma was making her feel this way? What did that mean? Akane looked down at herself. Were her breasts going to grow or something...?
"Hark! The rumours are true!"
"Oh no..." Akane groaned, recognising that voice immediately.
"The fair Akane Tendo has decided to work for some extra pocket money!"
Tatewaki Kuno got closer into Akane's personal space than she happened to enjoy. Which meant 'within a mile'. He grabbed her hands and peered deeply into her eyes, ignored the endless abyss of total disgust within and began his usual routine.
"Fair Akane, do not demean yourself with such labour. Come, take yourself to my estate, and I shall take care of all your needs," he said.
"The only thing I need is for you to leave me alone!" Akane yelled. "No touching the staff! I'm allowed to kick him out, right?"
Several maids were suddenly surrounding Kuno. “Sir, are you harassing a staff member?” One of them said, it was the pink haired girl who had just been talking to Akane about boys and magic breast growth from something involving said boy.
"If so, we will have to ask you to leave," said another.
"Back, fiends! Stand not in the way of true love -"
Akane had just about had enough of this. She slipped behind him, focused all her energy into her fist, then whalloped him right out the door.
"And stay out!" she yelled, dusting her hands.
Meanwhile, at the back of the cafe, the other staff were watching her with great interest.
"She's perfect," one of them whispered. "Exactly what we need. That kind of violent attitude in such a cute outfit provides such gap moe, don't you think?"
"Akane was asking questions about the spell," the pink one said. "I think she's one of those Investigator types."
"Oooh, that's fun," said yet another. "I love watching the moment Investigators break. They're the most fun... and kinky, too. Once they get past their prudish attitude."
- Meanwhile, Ukyo tries to use her new magical statue to figure out a way to seduce Ranma
- Akane's not the only one investigating the cafe. Shampoo's looking into things as well.
- Ranma's looking into what Akane is up to now.
- The next morning, Akane finds her breasts are a size bigger.
- Something else
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