Chapter 8
Ranma sat down at his usual computer Monday morning and sighed. He was tired and, looking up at the front of the room, he could tell Shay was tired as well. They had stayed up very late last night, talking. In fact, they had pretty much spent the entire weekend together, not actually doing much, just being together and they both resented the real world of school that was intruding in on them.
He logged into the system and brought up pine, passing by the administrative messages and junk mail when he saw an address that brought him up short: tendo_n@utbs.edu.jp ‘Nabiki? Why is she sending me email? Wait a sec, how did she get my address?’ Knowing that Nabiki had her ways of getting information, he opened the email, surprised that it was written in English. Very good English, in fact.
The letter read: "Ranma-kun (What, no ‘dear’?), This letter may come as a surprise to you, but I thought I’d give you some warning (Warning? For what?). As you probably know, I have finished my undergraduate studies here in Tokyo and I wish to pursue a graduate course in business. To come to that end, I have decided I will study in the United States (Good for her, she’ll like it here in the states). Specifically, I am coming to your school for my business degree (What? Nabiki coming HERE?)."
Ranma stopped reading and looked up in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that after his life had finally settled down, Nabiki was coming to stir it up again. He read on: "I will be starting in the spring semester and will be coming to the United States on January third to get my room assignment and get settled in. I look forward to having you show me around! Ja ne! Nabiki."
Ranma sat back in his chair, feeling like a load of bricks had been dumped on him, staring unseeing at the computer screen. ‘That’s it, my life is over,’ he thought, not noticing Nathan sitting down at the computer next to him.
"Ranma? Hello?" Nathan snapped his fingers under Ranma’s nose, hoping to elicit some response out of his dazed friend.
"Nathan, ohayo," Ranma said, shaking his head.
"What’s wrong? You were just sitting there. Is everything okay?"
"Nabiki’s coming."
Nathan waited for further information. When none was forthcoming, he said, "Okay, I’ll bite. Who’s Nabiki?"
"Nabiki is the sister of my ex-fiancée," Ranma explained in a monotone. Nathan knew about the whole fiancée mess and was the only one who knew about the curse he had suffered.
"Well, okay. Why is that so bad?"
Ranma turned to fix Nathan with a stricken look. "You don’t know. The horror, the horror," he moaned, shaking his head slowly.
Nathan raised his eyebrows and blinked several times, wondering what was so awful about this girl that could turn his normally self-confident friend into this fearful wreck he saw in front of him now. "Tell you what, have you had breakfast yet?" Ranma slowly shook his head no. "Let’s go get something to eat and we’ll talk about this Nabiki person, ok?" Ranma slowly nodded he head and mechanically logged off and picked up his backpack.
They left the lab, waving to Shay, and headed down toward the cafeteria where they both piled their plates generously. Sitting down at an empty table, Ranma plunked a teabag in the mug of hot water he had waiting and slowly stirred it. "Okay, now what’s the big deal about Nabiki coming here next semester?" Nathan asked.
"You don’t know her." Ranma took the bag out of the water and drank deeply of the tea, feeling calmer.
"Well then, explain." Nathan insisted, taking a bite of toast.
Ranma took a deep breath and said, "Okay, remember me telling you about that curse thing, where I turned into a girl?" Nathan nodded. "Well, what I didn’t tell you was that there was a guy totally in love with my girl form." Nathan choked on the toast he was swallowing and Ranma whacked him on the back. "I know, pretty much how I felt too. Anyway, he was also in love with Akane and made a big deal out of deciding between the two of us, even though everyone tried to tell him his ‘Osage no Onna’ was really a guy."
"Uh, what’s ‘Osage no Onna’?"
"Pigtailed girl. He refused to believe the object of his affection was really me in my cursed form and named Ranma Saotome as well." Ranma shook his head. "Man that guy was dumb!"
"Okay, so what does this have to do with Nabiki?"
"Me and Akane used to fight a lot and we caused a fair amount of damage to the house and grounds. . . and neighborhood. Nabiki was kinda like the person who took care of the finances around there, so she told me that I was responsible for recouping the cost of the constant repairs to the house and stuff." Here Ranma paused and Nathan nodded to encourage him to go on. "And so she would have me pose in my girl form in these. . . ‘outfits’ and take pictures and sell them to Kuno, and anyone else who would buy them."
"Woah. But why did you do it? What could she do to you?"
"Blackmail. This girl could give the yakuza lessons. All she had to do was take a few pictures of me in totally set up compromising situations with one of the other fiancées and threaten to show them to Akane and I was hers. She owned me. I felt partly responsible too, but there were other ways I could have made money." Ranma stabbed angrily at his sausage, as if it were some foe he could overcome. He looked at Nathan who was thoughtfully chewing his food.
"Well, the way I see it, you have nothing to worry about," he stated, taking a sip of coffee.
"Nani? How do you figure that?"
"Let’s look at the facts. Number one, you no longer turn into a girl. Number two, you no longer have 4 fiancées. Number three, you are not fighting with Akane anymore and therefore not causing any property damage and if you were, it would not be Nabiki’s responsibility. I’d say you have nothing to worry about from her." Nathan sat back in his chair and popped a grape into his mouth, waiting for his friend’s reaction.
Ranma thought for a moment about what Nathan had pointed out. It was all true, he realized as he began to relax. Now that he didn’t have to worry about her extorting money from him at every turn, he felt that having a familiar face around would be refreshing and comfortable, even if it was Nabiki. He smiled at Nathan. "You know, you’re exactly right."
"As always. I wish you’d get that straight."