And here is the last part of Chapter 5. This finishes up the first arc of the story-- aside from possibly an epilogue. Not sure when I'll write that up though and this makes the story fairly self-contained.
Just barely made my arbitrary deadline of 1/16-- here's to procrastination in all its many forms.
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When Kasumi offered to allow her to lie down on the bed while she waited she had been only too glad to get off her feet. She barely noticed the tape measure being used.
The occasional thrum of the sewing machine as the young homemaker fixed the numerous tears and other damage in her suit was a kind of counterpoint to the song and Ranma soon found her eyes drifting shut as it lulled her to sleep.
...
"Oh, my."
Ranma almost walked into Kasumi, who had stopped just inside the door, then abruptly stopped as he made it into the dojo himself. "Oh, my." There wasn't really anything else that summed it up quite like that.
"Oh, my..." Nabiki stared at Kasumi in disbelief after she bumped into Ranma and caught a glimpse inside herself. "...how did we even...?" Her voice trailed off and she abruptly pulled out a calculator, punching buttons furiously.
Ranma looked around the veritable mountains of panties, bras, and other women's undergarments that filled the dojo. Some of those, significantly less than half he thought, had been here the previous day. Happosai was sitting on the largest of the piles and cackling to himself while a small table had been set up in the exact center of the dojo with Michi Yasuda sitting at it with what appeared to be ledgers or notebooks in front of her.
The last few days had been... hectic, to say the least. On the fourth night, Kasumi had him take her out again despite an extremely full day of processing emergency laundry runs by desperate women. He had done a shorter run as the masked ninja panty thief, then disappeared and he had taken Kasumi to a completely different part of town to minimize the chance of her being spotted.
Needless to say, this had not been completely effective and he had been forced to protect Kasumi from someone who had been visiting a friend earlier in the day in the area where he had made his fake panty run. While not quite up to one of the runs, trying to keep a non-combatant out of harms way without revealing himself had stretched his skills to the limit.
Kasumi, of course, had simply been a little flushed and quite keen to try it again the following night, but he had put his foot down. And given that the stream of customers coming to the dojo had been even greater than the previous day, he thought she would be exhausted enough just taking in the "laundry". He had certainly been tired by the end of the day.
Unfortunately, he had forgotten that she learned from Happosai. There had been a vague hope in the back of his head that the glut of panties would burn her out, for lack of a better word, but by the end of the day Kasumi was so energized that she could barely sleep. Nabiki was almost as energetic early on and had apparently worked out something about cross selling dojo lessons too, which meant that Soun was kept busy and distracted from what was going on.
By the time the end of the sixth day rolled around though, Ranma and Nabiki could only stare at Kasumi in disbelief as she continued to greet the women who came by with cheerful enthusiasm. And the seventh day, when Happosai was actually operating.... Well, that was pretty much a blur at this point.
Luckily, they had about a twelve hour break before the judging, so rest had been possible.
Shaking himself and coming back to the present, Ranma heard Happosai say, "I have to say Kasumi dear, when I saw how well you did. Well, I don't mind saying it brought a tear to my eye."
Eyes widening, Ranma quickly pulled Nabiki back. He could see where this was going and he really needed to get her out of here.
"Nabiki. Hssst. Nabiki!" Pulling herself away from the calculator, the middle Tendo sister looked up at him with a dazed expression.
"So much yen..."
Grabbing her by the shoulders, he leaned forward and hissed, "It's not all ours!"
Blinking, Nabiki glanced to each side at the piles of undergarments. One side was neatly stacked and organized, the other a haphazard pile. She glanced back at Happosai again and her eyes widened. "What the-- are all these his!"
"I don't know, maybe, maybe not. Maybe he got jealous or something," Ranma said levelly, "but you can't let Soun and Akane in here. You have to go distract them."
"Why?" Nabiki glanced at Kasumi. She had been asking more questions lately and Ranma suspected she might have some suspicions, or worse, about what was actually going on. They had been able to avoid the discussion so far, but... well, they could deal with that later.
"Why do you think? Akane will be so angry she'll probably level the dojo and your Dad...." He dug around for a moment, flailing for a reason and finally stealing one from the Tendo's mother. "He'll probably have a heart attack if he sees this."
Scowling, Nabiki said, "Fine. I will be back though!" She pointed a finger at him. "And I expect some straight answers after this."
Slipping out the door, Ranma sighed in relief. Behind himself, he heard Happosai still talking about the contest with less than perfect restraint. "And to think. You actually got them to bring their silky darlings to you!"
Shaking his head slightly as he saw Kasumi blushing, he was about to move towards the group when he was abruptly jerked backwards and out the door. It took him only a few moments to break the hold, but by that time he was already by the side of the dojo and he took in his father looking furtive. Well, more furtive.
"What's up, Pop?" Ranma took in the backpack strapped to Genma's back and frowned. They had missed their annual get away, but this was a crappy time to bring it up. "I can't leave right now."
"Shh..." Genma glanced towards the interior of the dojo, then said, "Boy, I've never tried to deny I'm weak. I make mistakes like any other man. I've always been honest about that."
Ranma snorted. "Yeah, you have. What do you want, Pop? It's a bad sign if you're not trying to blame someone else, just spit it out."
"I... may have made a mistake. With the Master." Glancing around nervously again, he hefted the backpack once. "Look, the... the details aren't important, but..."
He leaned in, gesturing Ranma close and said, "Make sure you make the Master and that woman count properly. Just know I did what I could-- it wasn't much, but... just make sure they check them."
Ranma gaped at the implication that his Dad of all people knew about Kasumi and the contest. He barely even moved when the old man gasped and pointed at something over his shoulder, but he was so out of it that his dad was able to physically spin him around instead to get his eyes off of him.
By the time he turned back, Genma was gone. Ranma frowned and looked around for a minute, but finally decided it wasn't important at this point. He'd track him down later, for now he wanted to get back into the dojo.
As he entered, it appeared that Genma's warning wasn't going to be necessary, because Kasumi was already answering in the negative about just conceding based on the relative sizes of the piles. He sat back a little ways, cross-legged, and watched the event. For the most part, it appeared that Ms. Yasuda was just going to be a glorified secretary, because all the actual judging was done by Happosai and Kasumi in tandem and the lawyer was essentially just writing it down.
The two were currently going through Kasumi's results. Due to her organization, largely a result of the fact that she needed to actually return these to the correct owners and it would be easier if Ranma and Nabiki could actually identify who they belonged to, it went pretty rapidly.
In the entire collection, not a single bra or panty was disqualified. Which wasn't to say that they hadn't had items that were disqualified over the course of the week. Nabiki had had several friends deliver their undergarments to her before Kasumi somehow convinced her that it was more appropriate if she took care of that. Kasumi, however, was meticulous and they were sorted out long before they reached the dojo when the it turned out the laundry room wasn't large enough.
They hadn't even tried to include the ones he had picked up in the little runs through Nerima that he was trying to forget.
As Ms. Yasuda worked on tabulating the results after they finished, Ranma turned his attention to Happosai's pile and sighed. He had no idea how the old goat had managed to put together as many as he had, but it was pretty clear that he had far more panties and bras present than Kasumi.
Frowning slightly as he remembered what his Dad had said, he wondered for a moment what he had meant as they started in on the other half of the dojo. Only for a moment though, because the third pair of panties that Kasumi had picked up to examine triggered a surprised expression from the girl.
Looking over at Happosai, she said, "I believe these were handled by Uncle Genma before you, Grandfather."
At his frown, she handed them over and he blinked as a moment later and said, "Well, that's true, I guess." Setting them aside, he patted them briefly and then pulled another pair himself only to frown again, this time with a bit more suspicion. He set those aside as well, this time without saying anything and the pair of Anything Goes experts got through perhaps another three dozen without doing more than idle chatting.
However, every third panty or bra appeared to be disqualified and Ranma was finding it hard to fight down a grin as Happosai's expression became more strained. Then Kasumi blinked and said, "Oh, my. These were handled by Father." At that point, Ranma realized exactly what had happened and jumped up to point an accusatory finger at the Grand Master of Anything Goes Martial Arts.
"You didn't collect all these on your own, you forced my and Kasumi's pops to help you!"
Jumping to his feet, Happosai scowled and yelled, "So what if I did, it's in the rules!" He then grinned slyly at Ranma. "Not like you weren't helping Kasumi here."
"She isn't even a martial artist!" Ranma yelled, "You knew she was going to need help. This contest was rigged." Then he remembered something and pointed at Happosai again. "Ha-- and you did cheat, they didn't sign the contract you made me sign!"
"Oh?" Happosai cackled and held out an imperious hand to Michi. She rolled her eyes, but leaned down to her briefcase and pulled out the thick bundle of papers to hand over. Happosai quickly started flipping through it, squinting at the pages and mumbling and giggling to himself. "When did we add that... wait, really? That was a great idea, I impress even myself. Where was it though... Aha!"
Holding out the page, he displayed a signature that Ranma recognized with a groan. "Damnit, Pops!"
"That wouldn't be binding under duress." Jumping, the pig-tailed martial artist whirled and saw Nabiki leaning against the doorway, arms crossed and a small knowing smile on her lips.
Ms. Yasuda smiled in response and nodded to the girl. "We meet again, Miss Tendo. You are correct, in fact. But I'm afraid this was a case of quid pro quo."
Nabiki frowned and said, "Happosai paid them?"
This prompted a shake of the head by Ms. Yasuda. "I believe the offer was officially being exempt from being designated as Master Happosai's heir."
"Wait a minute...." Ranma thought back to his Dad and his eyes widened. "They sold me out!"
Nabiki looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "And this surprises you for some reason? They tried it within five minutes of the old goat showing up again."
Michi coughed and looked slightly embarrassed. "I'm afraid that isn't precisely right."
"What?" Nabiki looked from Happosai, who was grinning expectantly at Ranma and was literally holding his mouth shut, to Ranma himself who had started growling at the old master. When his eyes flicked to Kasumi to check on her reaction, he heard her breath catch and he cursed to himself for not having better control. "Kasumi!? Happosai's heir is Kas--"
Ranma moved as soon Nabiki started yelling and he hoped that whatever she had done to Soun and Akane was keeping them far from the dojo, because he was pretty sure that could have easily been heard from the house. "Quiet," he hissed.
When she stopped yelling into his hand, she turned around and kicked him in the shin, but then she took a deep breath and said, "Thank you. Dad and Akane are out, but... well, we probably don't really want the neighbors..." She stopped and then looked at Kasumi, who returned her gaze with a somewhat nervous smile.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Nabiki massaged her temples with her fingers and Ranma heard her muttering under her breath. "10 yen, 20 yen, 30 yen, 40 yen..." He shrugged. Whatever it took, they could deal with Nabiki later.
"Let's finish-- it's not over yet," he growled. They still might pull off a win by Kasumi if his Dad's sabotage made a difference. A good third of what they had gone through so far had been put aside. If that held true through the whole pile they had a shot.
The pace after that seemed agonizingly slow to Ranma, particularly after Nabiki snapped out of it and started grilling him on why he of all people knew about this. She didn't take the terms of the wager particularly well, though he suspected it was less Kasumi's reputation and more her own she was thinking about. Just as they were getting into an argument about that, they heard Kasumi say, "That's everything."
With those words, the dojo fell silent, everyone but Happosai appearing tense. After a few minutes, Ms. Yasuda finished tallying her numbers. Eyebrow raising, she stared at it, then went back to calculating again and finally shrugged. "It's a tie."
Ranma blinked. "What? What happens then?"
Happosai cackled. "Tiebreaker! Same time next week!"
"No!" Ranma and Nabiki shouted together. The exhaustion, trials, and tribulations he had faced this week flashed through his mind and he stared sightlessly into the distance. Beside him, he heard Nabiki whisper in a tone of utter horror, "There probably wasn't even a Dai Ichi small business program, it was all for nothing...."
"Perhaps something else then, Grandfather?" Kasumi asked, tilting her head slightly at Ranma and Nabiki as they slumped against each other.
Plopping down into a cross-legged sitting position, Happosai stroked his mustache and appeared to be thinking. "Well, this was a test of sorts. Tell me, Kasumi dear, did you ever get the Treasure Box of the Three Priestesses open again?"
"No, I'm afraid not." Kasumi's expression might have been slightly cross, if you squinted and tilted your head the right way.
"There you go then." Happosai's pipe was abruptly in his hand and he spun it, then pointed at Kasumi. "You have one hour to open it. If you succeed, I'll let you add it to your total. If you fail, it gets added to mine."
Kasumi's eyes widened and Ranma sat up, breathing for the first time in what seemed like ten minutes. He nudged Nabiki and she looked at him blankly for a minute then caught up on the conversation.
"We're saved!" Nabiki almost cheered, then she turned to him and asked, "What's the treasure box of the three priestesses? It's no problem, right?"
"Uh, well, Kasumi opened it when she was 4, so it should be possible?" Ranma winced as Nabiki's eyes narrowed at him. It was possible he shouldn't have ended that with an interrogative. "It did take her like 6 weeks last time though. With clues."
"Great." Slumping back down, Nabiki watched the clock on the wall slowly tick away the time and Ranma did the same for lack of anything better. Happosai had vanished somewhere when he wasn't looking, which struck the martial artist as odd, but he figured now was as good a time as any to check on Kasumi.
Leaving Nabiki behind, Ranma walked over to the eldest Tendo sister and asked, as casually as he could, "How's it going, Kasumi."
"Hmm...? Ranma?" Looking up from the puzzle, Kasumi smiled at him and patted the ground next to her, so he sat down. Looking over the puzzle, he didn't see how this was going to work. There was... well, nothing at all that he could see to provide any indication of how to get into it.
"I'm afraid I still don't have any recollection of how to open it," Kasumi said after a minute. "I've been trying for two weeks and it just won't come to me. I've tried meditation like Sensei Ito suggested, reviewed my journals, I even tried looking in the fire like Master Hino used to do. All I saw was panties though."
She giggled at that and then leaned over to whisper to him. "Master Hino used to see those too and he would usually ask who they were on when I told him."
Ranma grinned, wondering how Kasumi's Mom had found all these characters. Looking up at the clock though, he noticed it was over 30 minutes into the hour they had for opening the box and it wiped away his smile.
Thinking, he finally said, "What if you don't try to remember? Have you tried just starting over?"
"Not really," Kasumi said after a moment, her tone hesitant. "I didn't think there was much chance of it working. I'm not really very good at puzzles."
"Here's the thing though," Ranma said after a minute. "I don't think Happosai is either. And he got this open the first time, right?
"So how'd he do it?"
Kasumi blinked. "That is a good question."
Leaning forward, Ranma pressed his point. "When you were a kid, you didn't have any skills really, so you had to muddle through it. But look at this--" Ranma gestured to the piles of undergarments on either side of them, the perfectly equal mountains of lace, silk, and satin with a smaller hill between. "Your skills are pretty darn close to his now. So try usin' 'em."
He rolled up to his knees and put a hand on each of Kasumi's shoulders, catching her eyes with his own. "You have the greatest pair of panties ever made in the history of the world in that box and they're from _your_ collection. If you can sense the precise location of a bra through three walls and across a street you can do this."
Ducking her head slightly, Kasumi gave him a shy smile, then turned back to the box. If he focused, he thought he could almost feel the delicate wisps of chi that she was using as they turned upon the box and sought out hidden crevices and secret channels in the engraving.
...
Happosai strolled in five minutes before the hour was up, somehow dragging a panda that was at least ten times his size. Ranma couldn't muster up much sympathy for his dad, even if was instrumental in foiling the pervert's plans.
What he got a real kick out of though was seeing Happosai's jaw drop when he saw Kasumi kneeling in the center of the dojo with the open box sitting in her lap.
Her smile was several orders of magnitude more brilliant than usually though and the old goat finally burst into a cackling laugh. "And here I thought I was going to have to give you a last minute clue just to really ratchet up the tension and give it a proper ending.
"Ahh well, you win some, you lose some." He tossed himself back to lie on the pile of panties he had collected. "She's still my heir, I'll turn her around on the publicity thing later."
"What! You can't do that, she won, old man!" Ranma jumped to his feet, incensed by the backstabbing little troll. He clenched his fists.
Happosai cackled again and pulled out the contract he had gotten from Ms. Yasuda earlier. "It's right here in the contract. If you wanted to be my heir though, you shoulda said so, my boy."
||Don't do it, boy! It's a trap!|| The beaten panda had jumped up and pulled a sign out. After he was sure he had caught Ranma's eye, he flipped it around. ||Take your freedom and run! Let the girl go, better her than us!||
"Shut up, you!" Ranma realized that he and Happosai had both pounded Genma moment's after the panda collapsed again, growling and clutching its head.
"Fine!" The pig-tailed martial artist pointed at Happosai. "I challenge you-- if I win, you take me as your heir!"
Happosai's eyes gleamed and Ranma gulped slightly, recalling the overwhelming aura from the first serious fight they had. With the mountains of panties around, it wasn't likely that his go to move for beating the old pervert would work either and he couldn't expect the girl's volleyball team to come marching past this time.
"Michi?" Ranma blinked for a moment at the non-sequitor, then turned and watched as Ms. Yasuda pulled out a fresh piece of paper. With commendable speed for a non-martial artist, she sped through filling it with line after line of writing before pulling out a straight edge and swiftly adding several lines.
Pulling out a stamp, she carefully inked a seal of some kind at the bottom, then turned and presented it to Kasumi. "Would you mind witnessing, Miss Tendo?"
"Umm, I suppose?" Kasumi carefully signed where indicated and then the lawyer made the rounds of everyone else in the room. Genma had to be helped up to sign and scarcely seemed to know what he was doing and the paper ended with Nabiki, presumably as another witness.
"Are we done yet?" At Happosai's nod, Ranma jumped backwards and entered a cautious martial arts stance. He didn't have much chance at this, but he had to do something for Kasumi. As Happosai's aura built up again, he felt that same overwhelming paralysis start to seize hold of him again.
There was no way that he was letting that old goat win though. With a roar, Ranma staggered forward, fighting through the miasma of power and lust and threw a wobbly punch right at his opponent. Who was just standing there for some reason.
Ranma felt his fist contact the pervert's wrinkly head, nudging it slightly, and then the little geezer just collapsed, clutching his face and yelling, "Ack, I am done in!" The miasma of power disappeared and the younger martial artist just stared, not quite understanding what had just happened.
"The horror! The pain!" Happosai twitched and writhed for maybe a minute, then appeared to fall unconscious. Looking around the room, Ranma saw Michi looking at the wall clock while Nabiki was apparently still reading the damned contract and Kasumi had started clapping slowly for him.
"What just happened?"
The clock ticked over to a minute past and Ms. Yasuda said, "Apparently you have won the match. Congratulations, you're one of the heirs to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts."
Kasumi clapped again and said, "Congratulations, Ranma!"
"What?" Ranma was pretty sure he was missing something. Particularly, as... "Wait, one of the heirs?"
"Hmm?" Michi looked up from where she had started packing up her belongings. "Oh, yes. I'm sure your sister-in-law to be can tell you about it. She looks like she's just about done."
Ranma glanced at Kasumi, then Michi waved her hand and pointed to Nabiki. She was indeed just finishing up with the contract and handed it over when Michi asked for it. Still feeling like he was missing something, Ranma said, "Well? What did she mean?"
"Ranma." Nabiki started, then stopped. Apparently trying to figure out how to put this. "Did you even read the damn thing before you signed?"
Ranma blinked. "You saw me, didn't you?" She continued to stare at him levelly. "Fine." He rolled his eyes. "No, I didn't really read it. Why would I need to do that? I knew what it was about."
"Because the contract was about being 'an' heir to the School." She paused expectantly.
"Right."
"No, not 'right'." Nabiki's voice rose and she walked forward, poking him in the chest. "'An' heir, not 'the' heir."
Ranma's eyes widened. "What?"
"There was also yet another marriage contract." She rolled her eyes. "Though given how many of those you have pop up around you, I suppose I should have expected that."
"What."
Kasumi also chimed in this time. "Marriage contract?"
Nabiki looked torn between impressed and frustrated, possibly at Ranma himself, because he was pretty sure his brain was just not engaging. "Well, more a confirmation of a previously executed agreement based on the language."
"Who?" Kasumi started to ask, then stopped as she saw Nabiki raise an eyebrow at her.
A low, evil giggling sounded behind Ranma and he turned slowly to see Happosai climbing back to his feet and dusting off his hands. "And it's done! Mwahahaha! The perfect coupling of martial and panty power! The Anything Goes School is secure for another generation!"
Genma leaped up and Ranma wondered absently where he had gotten hot water. "But Master, what about the agreement between Tendo and I? Akane is the boy's fiancee there!"
"What do I care about that?" Happosai snorted. "Switch it to Kasumi, leave it be and let the boy have a harem, or scrap it all together. The important thing is that my two heirs are getting hitched and their kids will be perfect!"
His laughter filled the dojo as he cavorted around, literally kicking his heels together, and Ranma turned to face Kasumi with wide eyes that appeared to be matched on her side.
.oOo.
Giggling to himself, Happosai watched from a closet as Ranma and Kasumi glanced at each other while cleaning, then hurriedly looked away again. He'd give them a little time before he really started in on the training. Let them get lovey-dovey first, maybe face some challenges together like he and Cologne had. Give Kasumi a little time to work on Ranma.
He had been almost as impressed by the boy as he was Kasumi. Well, not really. It was hard to beat convincing people to just hand their silky darlings over to you of their own free will. She was a once in a lifetime lingerie lover such as he had seldom seen.
Still, he almost hadn't recognized Ranma. If it weren't for the fact that she still wore boxer shorts rather than proper panties he might have missed it entirely.
Genma's kid certainly knew his stuff though and he'd shown a commendable skill at panty snatching for a novice. He'd train his children up right on that bit. Kasumi he was afraid probably wouldn't be able to get into the spirit of things for a good rumble any longer. He'd met buddist monks who had meditated on the meaning of peace for forty years that were less centered than that girl. Still, she got the important bits.
Noting that the pair had moved on from the room, Happosai considered following them but decided that he could give them a little privacy. Ranma had been muttering to himself about his damned promises and rewards, which was intriguing, but he had a certain apprentice to teach a lesson. He grinned lecherously and decided he'd let his imagination fill in the details later.
Popping out of the closet, he stretched briefly and started a leisurely stroll around the dojo. Genma would be around somewhere. Thinking back to yesterday's excursion, he scowled to himself. It had been the perfect plan, he just hadn't accounted for his apprentices actually growing spines.
He should have known something was up after Genma pulled him aside after Soun had enthusiastically signed the contract abandoning his parental rights. He could almost hear it again.
Genma had pulled him away to talk privately. "You're really going to have him help put his own daughter under your control, Master? That is beyond cruel."
"Oh?" he had said, "And who hasn't told his best friend about Kasumi yet, eh? Don't think you fooled me into believing you were unconscious and just put it together now, you old fraud."
The widened eyes and ridiculous exclamations of innocence should have let him realize it then and there. The fact that Genma even brought it up, revealing he knew what was going on should have told him to leave his rotten apprentice behind. Just as well he was starting from scratch.
As he walked out onto the clothes line, peering about for a lazy panda, he spotted the kid who turned into a pig walking in the door and grinned. Looked like that reward session was going to be cut short if he was any judge. Bouncing down, he followed along behind Ryoga then abruptly stopped as a bolt of inspiration struck.
Laughing, suddenly and loud enough that the Hibiki kid actually jumped into the pond in startlement, he turned and bounced out of the Tendo house. He knew exactly what he needed to do now.
The boy had a proper amount of rivals and love interests to keep him growing properly. Kasumi though. Kasumi was certainly missing anything of the sort. That needed to be fixed post-haste. Cackling again, he bounded across Nerima. He thought he'd start outside Nerima... Tomobiki maybe? Juuban? He was sure he had a few acquaintances around that could do the job. If not, well, he'd figure something out. He had plenty of time after all.