They get away free and clear

“Wow. You were right, boss!” Ranma said with some surprise as she watched their former boat flounder and go under in a small localized squall. The same squall had only served to push them at a higher speed toward their destination, wherever that was. From across the water the three pirates who were clinging to the wreckage directed epithets at them. Ranma had no sympathy for them. Pirates were scum, and Ranma was under no illusions as to what they would have done to Nami if she hadn’t been there to make sure it didn’t happen.

Nami just laughed at them as she pulled up her shorts before turning away and started examining their new ship.

“Pathetic! Ranma, get up there and adjust those lines. We’re not getting half the speed we should be getting.”

“Okay, boss. Just a few questions. What lines, and how?” Ranma asked, looking up at the rat’s nest of cordage above her.

Nami slapped a hand to her forehead, and then pointed at one particular line. “Undo that line and shift it over to there,” she instructed.

A rather frustrating hour later their stolen ship was re-rigged and was making good time toward Nami’s destination. “So, now that we have time, Ranma, where the hell did you come from?”

***********************************************

Ranma had been dreading this. Not because she didn’t want to give the information to Nami, but because she was dreadfully afraid of what the conversation would confirm.

“I’m from Japan,” Ranma said.

Nami frowned. “I know every island in the east Blue and that’s not one of them. Which sea is it in?”

And there it was. There was no way someone as smart as Nami would not have heard of Japan, not if this was the same planet. Part of Ranma had already known she’d been spirited away, to somewhere. But expecting it was not the same as knowing it. She felt like she’d been punched in the guts. Akane, Ukyou, Shampoo, Ryoga, Mousse, the old Ghoul, her pop, even the dirty old man, she was never going to see them again, never fight them again. A few hours ago she’d been wishing for this very thing, now to her shame her eyes itched with the first sign of impending tears.

Ranma dashed a hand across her face. Men don’t cry, she told herself. She was Ranma Saotome. She would get back home, somehow.

“Hey, Ranma! I’m talking to you here! And don’t deflect. You know damn well I was talking about where the hell you came from, as in how did you fall from up there?” Nami yelled as she pointed a finger straight up at the sky. “Even if I believed in fairy tales like Sky Islands there isn’t a cloud in sight.”

Ranma paused, considering. She hated lying, she wasn’t good at it, and it was so hard to keep track of what you had and hadn’t said. She preferred just not saying anything. That was how she’d kept Ryoga’s secret for so long. She decided to mix her two best bets. She’d tell the truth, but would not go into detail. “I don’t know, boss. One moment I was there, and the next thing I knew I was falling.”

Nami looked anything but satisfied with the answer, but she let it drop, to Ranma’s relief. Instead she started pawing through the treasure that had been on board the ship they had stolen, giggling out loud every now and then as she admired this or that bit of shiny. Ranma sweated a bit at how much like Nabiki she was at that point. She even sort of had the same build. B-cup breasts and an ass you could bounce yen off of.

Eventually, with a **** sigh, Nami dumped a couple handfuls of shiny coins into a drawstring bag and held it out to Ranma.

“Here, this is ten-thousand berries. Your share of the loot. We should make landfall in a few hours. Once we get there I have things I need to do. You can try and find someone who can help you get settled. Just tell them you were shipwrecked and got a ride on a passing boat. Leave my name out of it.”

Panic filled Ranma. Nami was literally the only person in the world she knew. The idea of having to make personal life choice decisions filled her with dread.

Outside of fighting Ranma didn’t do well without someone to tell her what to do. Her father had directed every aspect of their lives for as long as Ranma could remember. He told her they were going to China, and leaving all her friends behind, well, one friend, and she went. He told her that Ranma needed to jump into a pit of cats wrapped in fish sausages. Well, Ranma had to be tied up and thrown in, but she hadn’t run away. They were going to his old friend’s house because Ranma had to marry one of his daughters. Well, she raised hell, but in the end she went. In short, while Ranma might protest and argue, she would much rather follow than lead.

Ranma clutched the bag of coins Nami had given her as she argued, “You said that I was salvageable. That I belong to you! You can’t just leave me on my own!”

“That’s salvage, and it was a joke. People haven’t been considered salvage under the law for over two hundred years. Ever since legal slavery was outlawed. I don’t have time to babysit you! I’m going to be dealing with some dangerous people and the last thing I need is you blowing my scam.”

“I can fight! I can protect you! Didn’t I do good when we fooled those three idiots?” For a moment Ranma considered revealing her curse. Nami would surely accept her if she learned that she could change into a kick butt male martial artist. The thought was fleeting. Being a guy had been at the root of all the chaos she had wanted to escape. The last thing she wanted was to start that all over again. If she revealed her guy side to Nami the first thing you knew something would happen and Nami would decide they were married, or engaged to be married. No! She’d had her curse for over two years. She was comfortable living as a girl, mostly. She would keep her curse a secret for as long as possible.

Nami had been oblivious to Ranma’s train of thought. She was too busy thinking of ways to boot the girl to the curb once they reached land. “You lay there looking cute and ****. You were a great distraction I will admit, but that was all you were. I had **** but to include you,” Nami retorted. “You’re going to have to go it on your own eventually, and believe me, the island we’re heading for is a much better place for you to do it than some others. I don’t need the guilt over you losing your virginity because of me.”

“Pfft, as if,” Ranma snorted at the very idea. It never even occurred to her to deny her virginity. It might have if she’d been male, there was a certain amount of ego involved there, but there was no positive spin you could put on an unattached girl not being a virgin.

“You see, right there is why. You think you're tough. I have news for you. There is always someone tougher.

Ranma fumed at the look Nami was giving her. Ranma knew she was tiny, and cute, in this body, and looked about as dangerous as a kitten. Normally she’d happily work that for all it was worth, but right now she needed to prove to Nami that not only could she take care of herself in a fight, but that she could protect Nami in one. She really wished she hadn’t gone along with Nabiki… Nami’s scheme in regard to the three losers they’d conned. She could have taken them easily, but she’d fallen back on old habits. Fooling guys with her cursed body was the only good thing about being a girl that looked like her. Well, that, and getting to eat stuff that no macho guy would ever be seen dead enjoying, like ice-cream parfaits. Oh, and using the first reason to get guys to pay for the second one.

Ranma had never, in all the time she had known the girl, won an argument with Nabiki, Akane’s older sister. She assumed that the same was likely to be true of Nami. Ranma tucked the bag of coins inside her pants, outside pockets were an open invitation to pick-pockets, the weight caused the oversize trousers to sag to the side and Ranma had to tighten the draw string that kept her pants from falling off. With her curse wearing anything that wasn’t oversized on her girl form was out of the question. The few times she’d worn form fitting clothing as a girl she’d regretted it like fuck. Snug panties were not a good choice when you were as well hung as Ranma was as a guy.

While she worked on this Ranma gave Nami her very best sad eyed look, but all she got in return was indifference as Nami busied herself doing incomprehensible things with the various ropes and tackle that festooned the sailboat.

“What if I really was your ****? Or at least your vassal? I would have died if you hadn’t risked your life to save me. I owe you my life. I’m willing to swear myself to your service. I’ll obey your orders. I’ll put my body between you and danger.”

Nami rolled her eyes. “Get it straight. You’d be a liability, not an asset.”

Ranma moved, quicker than Nami’s eyes could follow. One moment she was several feet away, the next she was right up in Nami’s face. She hooked a foot behind the taller girl’s ankles and swept her legs out from under her while cupping the back of Nami’s head with her hand. The next moment Nami was flat on her back with Ranma laying on top of her. The smaller girl gripped Nami’s wrists and pinned her hands to the deck. “Still think I’m a liability?” Ranma asked.

“Let me go!” Nami demanded, bucking under Ranma.

“If you were my master I’d have to obey that order.” Ranma replied with a grin. “But you don’t want the job so maybe I should be the boss. Seeing as how you’re too blind to see real talent.”

Nami looked up at him in anger, but then her expression shifted to smugness as she said. “So you think you have me over a barrel?”

“Sure looks that way,” Ranma said.

“The only problem with that is that you don’t want to be in charge. For some reason you need a master.”

“Fuck if I do!” Ranma retorted. She was a stranger here. She just needed a guide, a connection, someone to teach her the ropes. She was blind to her own **** need for someone to tell her what to do, where to go, to direct her life.

“Really?” Nami said in a sceptical voice. She lifted a leg and shoved her thigh between Ranma’s legs, pushing against her crotch. If she’d dried to drive her knee into Ranma’s sex the martial artist would have countered, but the slow movement with no lethal intent behind it caused Ranma to be taken by surprise.

“What are you doing?” Ranma squealed as Nami rubbed her leg against Ranma’s groin, grinding the fabric of her wet boxers into her hairless cleft.

“You really are a virgin,” Nami teased as she continued rubbing Ranma’s sex.

Ranma fought the urge to jump away from Nami, even as spikes of pleasure accompanied the pressure against her pussy. Ranma wasn’t used to that feeling. She’d gone out of her way to avoid experimenting with her girl side after the first week. Once she realized how good it felt, and that she was starting to think that being a girl maybe wasn’t all that bad. Well that, and she almost never had the privacy needed to really explore her sexuality. But now it was just her and Nami. No one else was around to interrupt them. Akane wasn’t going to stumble across them and bash Ranma for being a pervert. Shampoo wasn’t going to bust through a wall and try to kill Nami.

Ranma tried to push Nami’s leg away with one of her own legs, but that just increased the friction. And then the feeling peaked and Ranma had her first female orgasm, and while she shuddered from the unfamiliar feeling Nami rolled them over so she ended up on top of Ranma, their breasts pressed against each other.