Normally, this is where things would wrap up. Right? Shampoo had brainscrubbed Mendo, making him forget all about Shampoo and Ukyo, while the contest he'd set up had fallen into chaos, which would create all manner of confusion about what was going on and ultimately lead to the Mendos leaving Ukyo and Shampoo alone. Right?
If that is what you thought then you had forgotten to take into account one particular agent of chaos by the name of Ryoko Mendo.
"Hello brother, how is the contest going?" Ryoko sweetly, innocently asked.
"Contest"? Her idiot brother tilted his head - and then she rang a bell. In that instant Shutaro Mendo immediately zipped off and returned with some takoyaki on a dish, ready for her consumption. "Your dish, madame."
At which, Ryoko took the dish and emptied it over the top of his head. "How uncouth, a Mendo acting as a server," she tsked. "Whatever would mother say?"
"How strange, I felt this powerful compulsion to -" he began, only for Ryoko to cough, and shortly thereafter a certain purple haired foreign beauty appeared behind him yet again to scrub his brain clean. "Oh, Ryoko. When did you get here?"
All of a sudden, one must feel a certain sense of absolute fear. One of Ryoko's servants had already bagged the dumplings, and Nabiki, her new... friend had been quite forthcoming about the effects they had. Why, she even had a few ideas of what to do with them. Quite... insidious little suggestions.
Apparently the effects were temporary. Yet during that time frame they would ultimately repeat. Say, for example, the instruction to Shutaro - her stupid, stupid big brother - to force him to serve someone at a simple audio command. At the same time, that foreign girl was under a compulsion to specifically use a memory altering martial arts technique on Shutaro - and only Shutaro - under a different audio cue, which she was easily able to set up through the use of her servants.
"By the way, what were you doing today?" Ryoko asked. Shutaro tilted his head and looked around. "This contest was of your design, remember?"
"Ah yes!" Shutaro replied. "I was trying to put that Ranma Saotome oaf in his rightful place, by... By... Holding a cooking contest, which would - "
Ryoko decided to save his poor memory by ringing a bell. He darted away, and returned almost immediately with some ramen, which she promptly poured down his back.
"Really now Shutaro, the servile look suits you better," Ryoko chuckled into the back of her hand. "Have you considered forgoing inheriting, and instead opening a restaurant?"
"Something very strange is going on," Shutaro said. "My body reacted without my input! Clearly, some form of hypnosis has -"
Ryoko snapped her fingers. Her servant, not too far away, took advantage of a certain audio cue and Shampoo was promptly right back to scrub Shutaro's brain once again.
"You stop that," Shampoo warned. "I run out of shampoo soon."
Run out...? Oh yes, that's the thing that happens to poor people. They run out of things when they use them too much. "Bottle," Ryoko commanded. The girl hesitated. "I am his little sister. I could easily pick this up from where he left off."
The girl winced and handed the bottle of shampoo over. Now, this was rather less useful to Ryoko. It clearly required some level of martial ability, which she wasn't certain her servants could replicate before she became bored.
"Ah, Ryoko. Who is your friend?" Shutaro asked. Then he blinked and apparently that was enough to make him forget all about her because he repeated the question. In exactly the same way. Three times in quick succession. Which was amusing, but was now becoming quite boring.
"You will be reimbursed for your shampoo, in lieu of providing me with entertainment," Ryoko smiled. "How much longer will the dumpling's effect last?"
"Couple of hours," Shampoo replied. She crossed her arms and scowled, clearly unhappy at the implications.
"Very well," Ryoko said. "I estimate... fifty or so bottle will do before this runs out."
"He be lucky to remember how tie shoes by then," Shampoo said. "You really subject brother to that? He be dumber than Mousse by then!"
Ryoko did not know who or what Mousse was, but judging by their naming conventions it was probably someone especially dumb. Given the people she played with on a regular basis, Mousse was probably extremely stupid.
"It's the guy that likes her," Nabiki whispered, appearing out of nowhere to hug Ryoko from behind. The older girl nibbled playfully on Ryoko's ear. Mmm, yes, how nice. Ryoko turned and gently kissed Nabiki on the cheek. Ah~ How strange, she'd never had this degree of affection for anyone before. Not to mention that her servants had let Nabiki through without asking any questions.
"You there, who are you to my sis-" Shutaro asked, only for Nabiki to produce her own bell and ring it. This time, he returned with a nasty looking plant. "For your pleasure - Huh? Why do I keep doing that?"
"You lost a bet," Nabiki said. "Now you have to serve anyone that rings a bell."
"Lost... a bet?" Shutaro muttered. "No, no, that can't be right. I never lose a wager. Unless!"
He stood up straight, a look if fiery determination in his eyes. "Moroboshi! I just know he's responsible for this - This humiliation! I'll have my revenge upon him, mark my words!"
The three girls all watched him stomp off, revenge on his mind towards a target who - just this once - absolutely did not have it coming.
"You no stop him?" Shampoo asked.
"No, this will be more fun," Ryoko titered, leaning back into Nabiki's embrace. Feeling... very nice. So strangely comfortable, it felt like she didn't want to leave. At last she had found something money could not buy her! "Then again, you will likely wind up having to track him down yourself every time you hear a certain noise, and scrub his brain again, and again, and again."
"And it would be a terrible shame if, say, Ataru Moroboshi learned that all it took to humiliate your brother was to make a certain sound," Nabiki said. "Come on. Let's head out there and mess with the heads of those idiots. I've especially got plans for that Kinnosuke jerk. Do you know some people actually think we'd be a good couple...? Just because he's kinda handsome, we have a lot of common interests, and I occasionally fantasise about... er, never mind. Forget I said anything."
At some level Ryoko knew what Nabiki was up to. Trying to play into her jealousy to make her lash out at this... Kinnosuke Kashao. To be quite honest? It sounded like fun. So she was all in on that.
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