When he saw the girl gracefully striding along to him, Ranma's jaw dropped. He knew that there had to be a reason for her being there, other than the obvious, but he couldn't figure out what that was. But then again, this whole thing was rather... odd, and he wouldn't have expected it right up until he'd followed Akane. Yet, the lithe body that he was seeing was no illusion, and he could see it in all its admitted beauty.
Then again, given Kodachi Kuno's rather strange mindset, he could actually see her doing something like this. Just why she would was something that escaped him at the moment, but then, a lot of the stuff that she had done never seemed to make sense.
"Lemme get this straight," Ranma muttered. "Kodachi is my slave too."
"Completely and totally. Like Akane, she chose this for herself. In fact, she was so eager that we had to hold her back a bit."
"Figures that she'd just do it."
"You really shouldn't knock what she wanted to give you."
"Well, I can accept that she was tryin' ta be as generous as she could, since she couldn't give me anythin' more personal then herself, but...."
"That's not all," Kuroda told him.
"Eh?"
"Before she was processed into a slave, she signed over every bit of wealth that was in her name to you. So, every part of the family holdings that were hers, or would come to her, will now be yours."
The pigtailed boy turned to stare at the nude gymnast who looked happy to simply stand proudly there, with her breasts pushed out as if she were displaying them for him. "She did?"
"Yes, she did. And because of that, you can get your other slaves."
"How's that?"
"You couldn't afford them otherwise. Take Nabiki. She was likely to be sold to an company office that would use her for... recreation for its workers. Kasumi might have wound up as the caretaker and plaything of an elderly, yet very wealthy, individual. Akane and Kodachi paid for their own, but with the wealth that you now have, you can pay for a hundred slaves, and not even have to dig into the accounts."
"I.... What I'm gettin' here is enough slaves. I don't need ta go out and look for more right now."
Kuroda nodded. "That is your perogitive, and likely a good idea."
"It is?"
"Certainly. After all, you do have to get used to all this."
"Ah.... I see."
"But you're fortunate. Now you can have all your slaves without concern."
"I wouldn't exactly say that."
"True. And I think that we should get on with it, before time becomes an issue."
"What's next?" Ranma asked.
"It's really simple," Kuroda told him, and:
Mon Oct 10 18:30:54 2005