Ranma sat in the bathroom, staring at the mirror topless in girl form, and wore a distinctly unimpressed expression upon her pretty face. Yep. Thoroughly unimpressed by this turn of events. No questioning it. What a thoroughly dumb thing to happen, and for really dumb reasons.
It was kinda annoying, really. How Akane had been able to replicate the hiryu shoten ha like that. Granted, she'd seen him do it enough times and understood the underlying principle - but she wasn't at the right skill level to pull off his <i>signature attack</i>. And yeah, that was kinda betraying the actual problem Ranma had here, that Akane pulled off his <i>signature attack</i> via a roundabout way, which... Come to think of it was also pretty much a staple of Ranma's fighting style, what the hell?! Akane wasn't even the tier below him, she was the tier below that! Competent. Can handle a mob of ordinary people, but has to break a sweat to do it. So yeah, that rankled. Though in comparison to the problem Ranma was staring at right now it was nothing at all.
"How the hell do these monsters still fit inside all my shirts?" Ranma asked aloud, not expecting or receiving an answer. "That magic doesn't make se- Yipe! Sensitive! Ooh, those perverts, of course they'd make 'em sensitive..."
To say that Ranma's bust had gone up would be an understatement. Most girls would be happy about that, right? A permanent enhancement to cup size. Yay! Well, not Ranma. Because Ranma wasn't actually a girl. Just, you know, cursed to be one about half the time. 'She' didn't want boobs in the first place! Heck, Ranma didn't even care about boobs before the curse, either!
Well, nothing else for it. Ranma pulled her shirt over her head, grateful it covered her still and then left the room to get on with her day - only to run right into a camera flash, because of course Nabiki was hanging out waiting for her to leave. Of course she was.
"Nabiki!" Ranma warned. "I'm not in the mood today!" She went for the camera, and this time Nabiki let her have it. The reason for that was then made apparent when her other hand pulled out a photograph of the television, which showed an event that <i>had not happened</i>.
"You know the deal by now, Saotome," Nabiki said, cool as ice. That same coolness let her punch way above her weight class. "I want a photoshoot of you with that splendid new body of yours - and while we're at it, you can tell me all about how it happened."
Or else their fathers see a thing that did not happen. Right. Of course. That was the way Nabiki always played it. Gotta sell those pictures on to the perverts at school, huh? Of course, she'd already hidden the negatives somewhere he wouldn't find them, probably had a few dozen copies scattered all over the damned place, and on top of that probably had a couple other contingencies that Ranma couldn't currently guess at.
"Fine, fine, let's get this over with," Ranma rolled her eyes. "But I'm not wearing anything too girly."
To which, Nabiki held up another picture, one of Akane. "Oh, Ranma! Your lips taste soooo good! We should smooch more and more, right where everyone can see! Seductive wink!"
That wasn't a typo, she actually did say the words 'seductive wink'.
"Feh, was that meant to be an impersonation of Akane?" Ranma scoffed. "Way too cute, not angry enough, zero out of ten."
Cue Akane, walking by them in the hall, slapping the back of Ranma's head, then grabbing her pigtail and hauling her off down the corridor.
"Nabiki, don't blackmail my fiance into taking gravure photographs! I need this idiot for something anyway, so -"
"Oh, Akane, you're soooo much cuter than I thought, here kiss me again outside the ruins of this maid cafe~" Nabiki said using the exact same voice she'd used for her 'impersonation' of Akane.
Akane stopped her furious stomp down the corridor, and let out a weary sigh. Dear reader, have you ever wondered why Nabiki never tried her blackmail routine on Akane? Surely, with as popular as she is, she could get away with more than sneaky photographs of her. It wasn't familial respect, for she did sell pictures of Akane that she took without permission. So why not force her into it the way she did with Ranma?
The answer was quite obvious. Akane had grown up with Nabiki.
"Nice photo edit you got there," Akane said. "What, did you cut out some negatives to make it look like us? Please, as if Ranma would be caught dead wearing a stupid maid outfit like that."
"Hrmph, nice bluff little sis," Nabiki replied. "But I can easily get witnesses to back me up."
The two sisters locked eyes, and sparks formed between them. One of blazing heat, the other ice cold. In the middle, Ranma Saotome suddenly feeling very sorry for herself. Also kinda... turned on? No, that couldn't be right, why would she be turned on by this situation, it would mean that she had a thing for strong women!
Ever have that moment where someone is so close to having the epiphany and they just don't want to reach that last step?
"Don't push me on this, Nabiki, I'm not in the mood," Akane warned. "We have this mess to sort out too, you know."
"Fine then," Nabiki replied. "Then how about this? I'll give you twenty four hours to come up with something better than a photoshoot with Ranma. If not, your dear fiance will have to wear a cute maid outfit again. Deal?"
Akane wasn't happy with it, but... "Deal!" it seemed like Nabiki was going to be stubborn about this, and she really didn't want to waste any time. "Come on, dummy. I'm going to talk with Doctor Tofu about... this, and you're going to the Cat Cafe."
Of course, what Akane failed to realise is that she'd just taken up yet another quest. Oh well.
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