'To Saotome Ranma, care of the Tendo Dojo,' the box had read.  "Well, I care about everything that goes on in the Tendo Dojo," Nabiki said as she glanced around outside her room, then returned inside and opened the box.  Opened it carefully, pointing it away from her face.  It had no return address, a Tokyo Central postmark, and someone had addressed it to Ranma.  Reason enough for caution, Nabiki thought as she awaited an explosion, a cream pie, cold water.  When none of those, and no previously unknown fiancees popped out, Nabiki shook the box once, hard, when the room didn't fill with dehydrated ninjas, or the latest master of anything goes self-origami, Nabiki looked inside.

Under the shredded paper.  Hmm . . . not newspaper, she noted, But white paper, was a mask.  A plain, rubber mask that a craftsman had painted and molded to look like Ranma's female form.  The rubber was thick and the eyes, while tinted blue, were clear enough to see through.

Nabiki slipped the mask over her face and found the mask did not impair her vision, although everything took on a bluish tinge.  The way the mask clung to her face worried her a little.  Facehugger! she thought as she carefully peeled it off.  "Aghh!"  Nabiki managed to get the mask off without leaving her face attached to the inside.  "Okay, one reason someone sent this, they think Ranma-chan would look cute with no eyebrows.  I certainly won't need to pluck mine for a while."  She rubbed her face.  "Yes, my nose is still there."  She glanced at her mirror, nothing else was missing.

"Silly to make a mask with no nose or mouth holes, you could only wear it as long as you could hold your breath."

She repacked the mask, carefully resealed the box and placed it in the room Ranma and his father shared.  Placing the box next to Genma's futon, so if it accidently opened, it would appear the panda had opened it, instead of someone else.

She smirked to herself as she headed back to her room.  Figuring out who sent it will be very useful.  I can probably get Ranma to jump through quite a few hoops before I tell him, she thought as she closed the door to her room behind her.

---

Nabiki dragged herself through the darkness to the bathroom.  It was still early morning, barely past midnight, and all her clothes were suddenly ill-fitting, as if they'd shrunk, and she felt bloated.  Doesn't make sense, Kasumi made dinner, she thought as she groped through the darkness.  The last time she'd felt this way, was when Akane made her `special` lemon curry.  It had been palatable, yet somehow she'd managed to make it so gassy that the entire household belched and farted uncontrollably for days.  Poor Kasumi, so unladylike.  And poor, little girl-Ranma, Nabiki thought and smiled at the memory, Ranma had stuffed himself, with Akane's, for once, edible cooking.  When cold water changed his gender, and size . . . Ranma kept proclaiming she was going to burst.  She even swelled up enough to be paunchy, or pregnant, which mortally offended both girl and boy Ranma.  Nabiki smirked at that.  "The Panda should have kept his mouth shut," Nabiki said, as she trudged down the stairs and towards the bathroom.  The kick he'd gotten in his swollen gut nearly rocketed him to the next district, Nabiki recollected, Of course Akane then kicked girl-Ranma into the next prefecture for insulting her cooking.  Even though it made Akane sick too.

Nabiki put the occupied sign on the bathroom door, closed it behind her, flipped on the lights and walked to the mirror.  She hated how she looked in the morning.  With some effort, a great deal of squirming and extremely deep exhales, she got the pajama pants off.  This is worse than my jeans, she'd thought as she struggled, she stared at the pants, What made these shrink all of a sudden?  This weird stuff is only supposed to happen to Ranma and Akane.  I'm neutral.  Getting her pajama tops off was a very different experience.  It took all her concentration not to yelp as the incredibly taut flannel rubbed against her nipples.  This is definitely not supposed to happen, she thought as she felt the cloth rubbing across her, Might as well get turned on by Akane's admirers.  This is just embarrassing.  She looked in amazement at what stared back at her from the mirror.  She'd always been proud of her figure.  I always was much better built than Akane, but this -  she thought, My hips and bust were slightly and significantly larger, respectively, and my waist was a good deal slimmer than 'Gorilla Girls's'.  It gave me an hourglass shape that poor lil' sis could never match.  Not that anybody besides me ever really noticed.  Of course not that I wanted any of these idiots to notice.  But this - this is - is - oh good grief!  All that was still very much the case.  Her waist hadn't changed, or perhaps it had increased a centimeter or two, but her hips were nearly half-again as wide as they had been.  She didn't like the little pot belly she had, she'd worked hard to keep her stomach flat.  Well, it's not as bad as some of the girls at school, she thought as she pressed, and the resilience amazed her.  Well, I'm not fat, she thought.

Her bust was beyond impressive and bordered on immense.  The only thing that kept each breast from being bigger than her head was that they weren't spherical, but parabolic.  Coming straight out of her chest then slowly curving to the red-brown aureole and the nipples, which were large and poked straight out.  Oh, no, my arms aren't long enough, she thought as she reached out and tentatively touched the hard nipples.  She had to clench her legs together and clamp her mouth shut to keep from shouting.  Just a little rubbing and a pinch on each had nearly given her an orgasm.  Why would someone make them that sensitive? she asked the Rubenesque creature in the mirror.

"Okay . . . this stuff normally only happens to Ranma . . . the mask," she realized, bowed her head to rest it on her impressive, new chest.  Oh, good one, Nabiki, she thought, Only you could do this by being `clever`.  "Now.  Who'd want Ranma-chan to go into throes of ecstasy on getting her chest rubbed - Happosai," she answered her own question quietly.  It had to be the work of that little pervert, she thought, Turn 'Ran-chan' into . . . this.  "Happosai!" she shouted as she made a makeshift covering out of several bath towels.

---

The entire family had arranged themselves in their typical places around the dining room table.  Happosai shook his head sadly.  He glanced hungrily at the box that contained the rubber mask.  Kasumi held it, perhaps the only person Happosai wouldn't assault to get it.  "I think it would be cute if you tried it on, Grandfather," Kasumi-the-oblivious gently spoke what would have been a threat from anyone else, a threat that made the old pervert's blood run cold, and kept him on his best behavior.

Recovering, the old Master pronounced, "I didn't send it here."

Nabiki's sighed deeply, her anger deflated, and so did a few other parts of her.  "Do you know who did?"

Happosai gave her a mad grin.  "If I did, wouldn't I have used it before?"

Nabiki was shocked as Happosai sprang.  She wasn't the only one shocked when the old pervert struck her immense breasts and bounced off.  Nabiki felt herself flying through the air as Happosai rolled to a shocked stop.  Nabiki landed about 4 meters away, she landed far more gently from her sudden flight than she could have expected.  She rearranged her covering, gritting her teeth as the terry cloth ran so marvelously roughly over her nipples.  Smooth cloth, next time, she silently reminded herself.  She stood on her tiptoes, lowered herself to flat feet and sprang up using just her toes.  It was enough to bounce her off the ceiling.  As she landed smoothly, she saw the looks on the others' faces.  Soun and Kasumi were horrified, Akane was revolted, Ranma and Happosai seemed equally shocked, she thought she actually saw sympathy on Happosai's face.  She discarded such impossibilities.  Lastly, she saw the smirk on Genma's face.  Okay Panda, I finally got bit by the craziness, she thought, Big deal.

"What's happened to me?" she asked, hoping somebody would have an answer.

---

Her new, abundant figure reduced Nabiki to wearing one of her father's old shirts, and a hastily made skirt.  "Thanks, Kasumi-chan," she told her seamstress sister, who beamed at her.  Nabiki was glad at least her shoes still fit, she hadn't seen her feet, except in a mirror, all day.

"You aren't going to school?" Akane asked in a reproving tone as she stood in the doorway.

"Looking like this?" Nabiki asked incredulously, "I'm going to see Cologne."  She tapped the package under her arm.  "I need to see if she knows anything about this, especially a cure."

"What makes you think she didn't send it, or Shampoo?"

What's got you so upset? Nabiki wondered before answering.  "Two things," Nabiki said, then touched her embellished breasts.  She smiled at her frowning younger sister.  "They might turn Ranma into an oversexed Adonis, but I don't think they'd want this to happen."

Akane sniffed and left, shouting for Ranma, who arrived a moment later.  "You okay?" he asked.

Before she could answer, Akane grabbed his arm and yanked him away.  Is that what's gotten into you?  You're afraid I'll steal Ranma?  He was looking at my eyes.  He's just feeling sorry for the latest member of the 'I've got a curse' club.  It's real cute, but I don't need a valiant protector, unlike you, I can take care of myself.  That's one thing that hasn't changed, Nabiki thought as she headed out the gate and towards the Nekohanten.  The spring in her step was only partially due to her light as air condition.  Inevitably, everyone called Ranma's Amazon fiancee busty and bubbly.  Now, 'Mercenary Girl' has her beat in all those categories, she thought, And all those admiring looks, stares, walking-into-streetlights by men; and the 'if looks could kill' glances from some women.  They aren't so bad either, she thought, then caught herself smiling at one couple who were both giving her apprising stares, What AM I thinking?

Hey!  You want to look like me? she silently asked them, Come over here, let me put this mask on you for a few moments.  She frowned at that.  This isn't funny.  What would have happened if Ranma or his father had put on this mask? she wondered about the parcel under her arm.

She soon arrived at the Nekohanten.  Shampoo was sweeping off the walk, wearing one of her painted-on cheongsam and pants combinations.

"Na - bi - ki?" the - once - bustiest teenager in Nerima asked, her eyes nearly the size of Nabiki's breasts.

"You like?" Nabiki asked as she took a pose that showed her 'new and improved' assets to their best advantage.  Eat your heart out `Sham-chan`, she thought as she threw her shoulders back, her father's poor shirt nearly gave up the ghost right there.  "Ranma seemed very interested."

"I - see," Shampoo said through gritted teeth and narrowed eyes.

Before the Amazon could finish painting the bullseye on the Tendo girl, Nabiki did her psychological `judo` flip.  "Good, then you'll be willing to help me go back to the way I was," Nabiki replied, "Where's Elder Cologne?"  Nabiki enjoyed the shocked look on the Amazon's face.  Shampoo gestured vaguely inside.  Nabiki gave Shampoo a quick peck on the lips as she walked by, flustering the Amazon completely.  Ah yes, there are some advantages, she thought, But I still want a cure.

Nabiki had the advantage of catching Elder Cologne, who actually stared in amazement.  "I have a slight problem, and I think it might be in your best interest to help me with it," Nabiki said.

Shampoo blurted out something, Nabiki only caught the word 'Airen', but she had the feeling that the opportunity to remove another rival in the `Ranma Sweepstakes` would appeal to the older Amazon.

"This came for Ranma," Nabiki said as she opened the box, "Don't touch it, besides taking all your hair off.  It's what did this to me."

"It's obviously magic," Nabiki explained, "Happosai seemed as shocked as anyone, so I'd tend to rule him out.  Not that he didn't want to take advantage of the change."

"I bet," Shampoo said, "Ranma not too interested?"

"Other than there being a curse even scarier to him than yours or his?  No, not really."  And why would I want to get into the middle of that mess? she asked silently, Not that I couldn't have taken him away from all of you, even without this change.  None of you ever pay attention to him.

"That leaves you, Elder Cologne, or someone playing with your equipment - "

"No one plays with my equipment anymore," Cologne said dryly.

"Then I have exactly what you need to make everyone want to play with your equipment," Nabiki replied, miffed at being interrupted, "The only other candidate is Gosunkugi Hikaru, but that seems like a long shot.  He'd love to do this to Ranma, and he's always carrying a pin or two."  She chuckled nervously at that thought.  Relax it's not as if someone were going to stick you with something like that.

"I take it 'this' is more than a mere `enhancement`."  Cologne peered at the mask.

"Oh yes," Nabiki said as she ran a finger over her arm, eliciting a rubber-like squeak.  Both Cologne and Shampoo drew back.

"That's right," Nabiki said.

"I will have to - " Cologne gulped, and continued, "We did not do this, this is obscene."

Nabiki nodded.  "I know I - "

"No, for a warrior to have this happen," Cologne explained, "She would cease to be a warrior."  "Shampoo!" Cologne commanded.

Nabiki could see how shaken the old woman was.  She knows something about this, she realized, Something that strikes a little close to home.  An Amazon trick?

"Find this boy and bring him here, alive and able to speak," Cologne continued.  Shampoo nodded and left suddenly.  "Would you care for some tea?" Cologne offered.

"Just where would I put it?" Nabiki asked.

"Ah," Cologne tried to sound sage, and only managed to sound lost.

Gosunkugi was the obvious choice.  Shampoo soon arrived back, carrying the terrified would-be spellcaster, bound hand and foot.  She dropped the boy unceremoniously in front of Nabiki.

"Hey Gos, I want to know all you know about this," Nabiki said in her usual threatening-friendly manner.

"You . . . you're a doll?" Gosunkugi blurted out.

"Yes," Nabiki struggled to keep her temper, "Yes I am.  If you don't want to become one too . . . you'll tell me all you know about this mask, then you'll forget that this meeting ever took place."

"You're a doll?" Gosunkugi repeated.

Nabiki was getting the sinking feeling he was referring to her new figure, not what it was constructed of.  Her confirmation came when she looked at his face.  Normally people look at my face, she thought, Or anything except me.  But Gos here is locked on something a little lower than my face.  She grabbed his chin and raised it.  When his eyes drifted down a bit, she raised it again.  "Unless you want to go through life with your forehead stuck to your shoulder blades, you'll answer my questions," she threatened, holding the mask where he could see it, "What do you know about this?"

"It's a rubber mask," he replied desperately.

"You didn't send it to the Tendo household?" she asked.

" 'Tendo household', no I would have sent it directly to my - " then he seemed stuck.

He's trying to figure out whether he would have sent it to Ranma as revenge, or Akane 'to enhance her beauty,' Nabiki realized.  She dropped him on the floor and returned to the Amazons.  "Well, as addlebrained as he is about it," Nabiki admitted, "I don't think he's the one who sent it.  Normally one of Ranma's enemies would have arrived to gloat over his downfall, but none of them are in town.  Although with Ryoga, that may mean precisely nothing."

"Ranma!  No, Akane!  No, I'd never do that to Akane.  Ranma!  But what if Ranma started . . . like her?!"  Gosunkugi's hands were describing shapes in the air that were all too easy to guess at.

"I think we should repeat the warning and let him go," Cologne said.  Nabiki shivered at what Gosunkugi was obviously fantasizing about, and was horrified it was her who was the subject.

"We erase memory?" Shampoo asked, raising one of her bonbori maces.

"No, just knock him out," Cologne said, "Let him believe it was a dream."

Shampoo administered the metal anesthetic and left with the boy.

"Okay, Happosai's out, Gosunkugi's out.  None of the outside world's nuts have shown up.  No prince from a recently rediscovered martial arts kingdom has emerged to practice marital arts on Ranma or Akane.  So what do we do now?" Nabiki asked.

"With your permission, I keep it here and study it," Cologne suggested.

"That's not what I meant, I mean isn't there some magic herb or secret technique to restore me to normal?"

"There are the waters of Jusenkyo.  However, they only affect living beings," Cologne said sadly, "You may be able to think and feel, and move, but are you alive?  As we have always defined it.  I cannot see how you survive.  You have few openings, and none are for food or waste.  You simulate breathing, but that doesn't affect the gas inside you.  How does it get in, what happens it gets out?"

"The last I know.  If I lose all the gas inside me, I'll die.  Don't ask me how I know.  I just do," Nabiki replied.

"Do you wish to stay here?  The Nekohanten is less likely to be the scene of major battles than the Tendo compound."

"Well, Ranma and Akane do fight occasionally," Nabiki admitted.  Shampoo came through the door at that point.

Before Nabiki could comment further, the door flew open behind Shampoo, and Ukyo, in her school uniform, stormed in.  Shampoo leapt clear and drew her swords.  "I heard what you were trying to do to Ran-chan!" Ukyo shouted, and hurled a barrage of her minispatulas.

Nabiki was no martial artist, but there was nothing wrong with her survival instincts.  She dove over the counter and took cover behind it, while Shampoo and Ukyo screamed insults at each other.  I wonder if Gosunkugi talked, she thought, How else did Ukyo find out . . . Ranma?  Or Akane?  I'll have to `talk` with both of them, after school.

Cologne pogoed around the counter and settled next to Nabiki.  "As I was saying, there are aspects you haven't considered," Cologne told her, "Beyond that you will be unable to reproduce."

"You mean I'm not going to have a whole pack of little balloons?" Nabiki asked, earning a smack on the head, which actually managed to set her entire body quivering.  The continuing vibrations had a very strange effect on Nabiki, it felt surprisingly, unbelievably good.  She didn't react as strongly as she had to the rough cloth on her nipples.  Unnerving, she thought as she came back to herself.

"It seems any serious contact with your skin is perceived as pleasurable," Cologne explained, "Not a good thing in a warrior's life, neither is an inability to pass on your genes, even our enemies are as obsessed with that, as are we.  So I doubt it's from one of them, such knowledge would be too dangerous in the wrong hands."

"What does - " Nabiki's question was cut short as one of Ukyo's mini-spats ricocheted off the ceiling and scratched Nabiki's arm.  Nabiki watched in horror as the opaque flesh crawled, changing to striations of translucent and opaque.  I felt it tearing, she thought, I can feel the weak parts stretching to contain the pressure.  She watched, mesmerized, as the wound stabilized.  But it felt . . . nice too, Nabiki thought, Am I going crazy?  Now I'll have dreams about popping myself?  The image of what would have happened if the spatula had scratched a little deeper focused her thoughts, on her skin, which was a lot thinner and more fragile than she'd previously speculated.  This can't be happening, this can't be happening! she insisted to herself, unable to tear her eyes away from the ugly trauma to her skin.  She barely heard Cologne's enraged roar at the two combatants, forcing them to withdraw.  When Cologne returned, Nabiki displayed the wound.  "Is this what you meant?" Nabiki asked shakily, "That I might pop, that I might die?"  Nabiki felt on the verge of hysterics at the idea of being popped, by being killed, by accident or on purpose by the combatants in the daily `Nerima Wars`.  How do I get control again? she demanded of herself, How do I avoid that: all the fighting, all the collateral damage?

"Yes, but even if you were . . . thicker skinned, you could still be - pierced and deflated," Cologne said, patting Nabiki's hand reassuringly.  "I'll tell Shampoo, Mousse and Miss Kuonji that you are to be left alone and avoided.  Or I will be very upset."

"Thank you," Nabiki said gratefully.  That still doesn't cover the Kunos, Ryoga who chopped off Akane, his `love's` hair, or any other random wandering martial artist, she gibbered silently, clearly remembering that awful, crawling, tugging, tearing feeling as her flesh was cut.  Could a kick or mallet pop me? she wondered, Am I that diaphanous now?  What do I do?  Wear armor everywhere?  Heh, the armor's too heavy, or chafes through me and I pop anyway.  Hee hee, she shook herself loose from those thoughts, I've got to get a hold of myself.  There has to be a cure, she insisted.

"Your violent death would turn Ranma instantly against anyone who slew you, as well as anyone who merely stood by."  The twinkle in the Elder's eye told Nabiki that it wasn't all `just business`.

"Thank you."  Nabiki was having trouble focusing her thoughts on anything except the odd, striped area on her arm, and what might happen to her.  "Should I . . . leave the mask with you?"

"Considering what Happosai has already said, and Ranma's luck with magic?" Cologne said, "It will be better here, yes.  I give my word as an Amazon Elder I will not use it without your permission.  As much as a guard on Shampoo and Mousse, as myself, if they break my promise, the sentence is death.  I think you can guess the means I will choose."

Nabiki shuddered but nodded.  Cologne called Shampoo to escort Nabiki home after she'd informed both Mousse and Shampoo of the promise and the consequences.  Neither of the two younger Amazons could take their eyes off the `wound` on Nabiki's arm.  Both understood that Cologne might not dispatch them quickly, perhaps the death of a thousand cuts.

---

Shampoo walked next to her, Nabiki glanced back at the dazed Amazon.  "Does it . . . hurt?"

"A little, when it cut me," Nabiki explained, "But it also felt kind of good, how sick is that?"

"Ranma like you like this?" Shampoo asked quietly, she kept glancing at Nabiki's new frame, and then with some disenchantment, at her own.

"No, but he was concerned.  You know him, he worries about everybody," she told the Amazon, she needed an ally now.  Suddenly she was vulnerable now, she couldn't outthink an accident, she couldn't negotiate with the debris of combat, she couldn't blackmail errant shrapnel.

The Amazon smiled, nodded.  "How is Violent Girl thinking?"

"How do you think?" Nabiki said.  Akane probably thinks I did this to steal Ranma, she thought, I need the dojo and my family to survive, that means her and especially Ranma.

"At least you mallet and kick proof?" Shampoo asked, "Maybe she feed you poison cooking."

Nabiki stopped.  "I haven't been hungry.  Or thirsty, isn't that interesting?"  She started walking again.

"Is very strange."  Shampoo nodded, giving Nabiki more strange looks.

---

Nabiki was sitting on the furo.  Everybody else had already gone to sleep.  She had wanted, had needed a long, hot soak to relax and unwind.  Unfortunately, she wasn't dense enough.  So she sat dejectedly atop the warm water in the furo like a pool toy.  Only her bottom and a small part of her legs were wet, the rest floated in the steam above.

This is ridiculous, she fumed, This is disgusting!  She slapped at the water.  I can't even sink into a hot tub.  What about all my dreams of becoming a businesswoman?  'A real lightweight,' I can hear the jokes now.  I'd never be respected, or even taken seriously.  She looked at her radical curves, from her rounded bottom to her inflated breasts.  Even if this were flesh and blood, she thought, No one would look past it.  They'd assume it was just the body, someone else must have the brains.  Even if I married some rich, old man.  Yeah, find a wealthy old coot who always wanted a living blow-up doll!  Even if I could get control of his money, I'd have to run everything from behind the scenes.  Play trophy wife in public, and whatever other games and roles from the shadows.  Nobody would ever know I did any of it.  She ran a wet finger across her skin, heard the squeak as it resounded through her whole body.  That is, if I can control myself, she thought disgustedly about her ruminations at the dinner table earlier tonight, I kept looking at each of them as if I was picking out a meal, kept thinking about being with Ranma, or Kasumi, or father.  She shivered in loathing and fear, how she'd looked and thought about Kasumi bothered her especially.  I just wanted to crawl up to her and give myself to her, she thought, Is that just because she always made me feel safe, or because . . . because I was lusting after my own sister?  Or my father?  Maybe I should paint my hair red and go visit Kuno, I suspect he'd never know the difference.  Later, he might not even care, ha!  "At least I'm not thinking of Gosunkugi.  I've still got some taste," she whispered, "Then I would have to end it all."

She glanced again at the `wound` that Ukyo's throwing spatula had inflicted.  It was still a noticeable pale spot on her otherwise uniform skin.  She carefully ran her finger over the irregularity, and found she'd lost herself in the sensation of tracing the pattern over and over again.  The feel of the roughness against her smoother finger.  Great, playing with my own wounds turns me on, she thought, Whoever designed this thing has a real sick sense of fun.  Everyone who looks at me halfway nice turns me on, girls or boys.  I've got a figure most girls would kill for.  But for what?  I'm only good as a toy, not a human being.  "Some kind of Karmic justice?  I played with Nerima, now I think about people `playing` with me?  Fine, I repent my evil ways, change me back," she said and waited, "Figures, you wouldn't know a good deal if it bit you."

I'm a balloon in the middle of a tribe of homicidal maniacs, she thought, terrified at the thought of getting caught in the `Ranma Must Marry!  Ranma Must Die!  Derby` crossfire.  She sighed as she floated there.  It's hopeless, unless the Amazons have a solution, she considered.  She wanted her life back.  Akane had been particularly weird, calling Ranma a pervert and hit him if he so much as looked at Nabiki.  She never bothered to notice Ranma kept looking directly at my eyes, Nabiki thought, she smiled, Although he did glance at the rest of me.  Even Shampoo gave me a good once over . . . as a matter of fact, so did Cologne.  She shook her head.  Poor, dumb, innocent Ranma trying to comfort another cursed individual, not thinking of ogling or petting the sex toy.

She heard the bathroom door open and close quietly.  She glanced at Genma who'd entered wearing a robe.  "I had the 'occupied' sign up," she told him.  I don't need to deal with the Panda, she thought exasperatedly, he'd been acting weird too, looking at her and smirking, Probably just here to rub it in, 'You're just like us.'

He grabbed her arm and threw her to the bathroom tile.  She didn't hit hard, and bounced.

"If you wanted the furo - " her clever quip died on her lips as she looked up at Genma.  He normally reserves that look for trying to seem concentrated and driven when lecturing Ranma on family or a martial artists' duty, she thought as she backed away across the tile floor, Normally that's laughable, now it's anything but.  He discarded his robe, he stood naked over her, staring down with that odd, serious expression.  Nabiki glanced around worriedly.  What's he going to do, he's not going to . . . to - it can't be! she thought desperately as she scrambled back into the corner of the bathroom while he followed her, staring down at her.  Then he began to squat down on top of her breasts.  I should charge him, she thought, as his thigh touched her breast and compressed it, For copping afeel.  She felt her lip curl into a snarl of disgust at the contact.  No, he couldn't be - not in my own home - not with everyone around -? she couldn't believe it, He wouldn't -!  But he didn't stop, putting ever more of his weight on her chest.  He settled his scrotum on her breast's nipple as he settled almost to the floor.  She felt her body and other parts strain and stretch to contain the air within her.  Being stretched like this sent hundreds of tiny thrills through her whole body.  Yet it also terrified her.

Oh no!  Please don't pop me! Please don't pop me!  Don't try to pop me! ran through her mind as he bounced up and down on top of her.  She felt the tile digging into her back with each bounce as her skin strained and drew back.  This can't be happening, she denied, This can't be happening to me!  His cock growing as he got off on her resilience, as her hardening/softening, growing/shrinking nipple dug into his scrotum.

She was panicking, with each bounce she felt her skin straining, she tried to twist or scramble out from under him, but his bulk trapped her.  That's how you break a piece of metal, she thought, By bending it back and forth.

Please don't!  Please stop! she thought with growing panic, You'll pop me! She shook her head 'no'.  She opened her mouth to scream, for help, for mercy, for Ranma, and was instantly corked.  She gagged as Genma shoved his cock into her open mouth.  She bit down as hard as she could, but her air-filled rubber teeth didn't have any affect.

She tried to shake her head 'no', but Genma had grabbed her head to drive it onto his cock as he rocked his hips.  The tip of his engorged cock whacking into and stretching the back of her head as she pliant body squeaked with every thrust.  This can't be happening, this can't be happening, she thought in despair and astonishment as each thrust pumped air into her.  With Genma crushing her chest flat on the floor prevented the air from going anywhere except her arms, head and breasts.  Please stop!  You're hurting me!  Please don't pop me!  I don't want to die!  Please don't hurt me any more! she pleaded silently.  The little cricks across her arms increased as the pressure within her skin stretched and bloated her.

Nabiki tried to beg Genma not to pop her, as her arms and shoulders grew and grew, but she couldn't speak with his cock thrusting in and out of her mouth.  Please don't pop me! she pleaded silently, tears running down her face, but Genma kept mindlessly thrusting his cock into her mouth and her head onto his cock.  His grip on her head had tightened, her stretched sensitive skin felt every hard, sharp callous on his hands.  Oh kamis, his hands are so rough, he's scratching me! she thought in terror, If I get too thin and that scratch goes through or he just scratches me up too bad someplace . . . I'll pop for sure!  I don't want to die, why are you hurting me? she silently beseeched as Genma pumped unmindfully.  Even opening her mouth to deny him contact was no longer an option, the tremendous pressure stretching her once-opaque skin to translucency had also crushed down on the sides of her mouth gripping Genma's cock more and more tightly.  His grunts of pleasure showed he approved of this treatment his body was receiving from her.  I hate this, she thought.

Her muffled pleas, he ignored.  He probably thinks they're moans of pleasure, Nabiki thought, she felt sick, the fear made her physically ill.  My hands are already transparent as glass, she thought, My forearms are close behind.  My head should be the size of a basketball, except Genma's digging his fingers in so desperately, he's actually crushing my head smaller than it had been.  A normal woman would have had her skull crushed by now.  All I can do is cry and pray to whoever or whatever is listening that I'll survive.

Finally, he released, firing his seed into her as if he wanted to blast it out the back of her head.  He made several more thrusts, much more savage, slamming her face into his body, as if forcing her to take every last bit of his seed.  Then he withdrew his softening penis and stood up off her, leaving her alone.

Nabiki lay on the cold bathroom tile, shivering from fear and nervous exhaustion.  This can't have happened, not in my own house, not with my family all here, she tried to deny the reality.  Once Genma had stood, the terrible pressure in her upper body had equalized.  I'm in no danger of popping now, she thought, but her breasts and her stomach had swelled to compensate.  As she lay there panting, her lingering, growing terror left her weak and wrung out.  I feel like I've run a marathon, Nabiki thought as she looked at her exaggerated body, Why?  What did I do to deserve this?  Why did he hurt me?  She laid her head on the cool tile, gathering the energy to scream and alert the entire household to what was happening.  What have I become? she asked herself.  She heard Genma at the sink, washing himself off, eliminating the traces on him of what he'd done to her.  Why didn't anyone hear and come rescue me? she asked silently, Did they hear?  Did they care?  They must have heard!  Then they left me here.  She felt herself start to cry.  I am alone, she thought miserably, unable even to raise her head.  She only saw her distended belly, swollen bust, corpulent arms and legs.  Her upper arms were as big around as her thighs had been before Genma's assault.  I was pretty . . . once.  Even when I changed.  I was still pleasing. Maybe some might have called it a parody, she thought, But I left and saw the admiring and jealous glances when I walked to and from the Nekohanten.  What am I now?  A glob, bloated.  Does he think the others won't notice . . . or does he know they won't care?  'Ah, Nabiki's finally got what she deserves, good ole' Genma finally had the guts to put her in her place.'  Besides, I'm a balloon, what would the charge be?  Littering?  If inflation were a crime, the government couldn't print money.

I'm just a blob now, she thought sadly, I can't claim I'm pregnant.  I can't have a child.  Maybe they could use me as a beach ball, between using me as a fuck toy.

She was surprised when Genma hauled her off the ground, so even her feet weren't touching the floor.

"Exhausted?  I did all the work."

I don't even have the strength left to tell him what an arrogant, self-centered bastard he is, Nabiki thought dully, then she caught the hungry look in Genma's eyes.  He wasn't staring at her breasts, which were nearly the size of rugby balls, but at her beach ball stomach.  The paroxysm of lust that lit his features disgusted and petrified her.  She turned away, not wanting to see.  She felt him set his flaccid cock against her swollen belly and begin to grind his cock and belly into hers.  The taut resistance of her air-filled belly excited him more.  His grin became more savage as he drove deeper into her.  She squeezed her eyes closed.  I don't want to see this, I don't want to feel this, she thought, revolted by him, and herself, I could scream, but it would probably turn him on.  She tried to ignore what she was feeling.

Tremors and tingles from the rest of her body told her that as he squeezed the air out of her tummy, it found few other places to go.  Her breasts swelled, but even the rubber piece that simulated her hair was stretching now.  Genma seemed ready and eager to crush her flat against the tile of the bathroom wall, grinding his slowly hardening cock mercilessly into her.

Nabiki couldn't even fight back, her exhaustion had sapped most of her strength and she had almost no mass to speak of.  I'd never have much of a chance against Genma anyway, she thought despondently, I'm as big a coward as my father.

"Please no!" she pleaded softly, hoping to reach some part of the man's humanity.  He never did this to any of the other girls, she remembered.

"No?" he replied with mirth, "It's what you're for," he said resolutely, "It's what all women are for.  Just because my stupid son doesn't realize that, don't think I haven't taught him."  Genma redoubled his efforts.

With each more ferocious thrust, Nabiki felt the skin on her back stretch and retract, sliding over the wall as it moved.  If it catches on a rough spot on the wall . . . I'm dead, she thought in horror, There's no reasoning with him, there's no appealing to his better nature.

"Tendo," he said.  She turned to face him, he was holding a pencil.  Nabiki felt the entire world contract to that single object.

Just an ordinary wood pencil, it isn't even particularly sharp, she thought in growing terror, trying to back away, but trapped against the wall, But my skin's so stretched, I can see through it in parts.  Just thinking about it frightens me.  Me the Ice Queen, such a simple object scares me so much.  A dull, wooden pencil could be a murder weapon so easily.  And after what this bastard already did to me, he has every reason to eliminate his victim.  He's had his fun, now he can make up any story he likes, Nabiki thought with horror, If I scream, he'll just plunge it in right now.  "Please no - " she began, Genma's expression turned ugly.

"None of that," he hissed, "No more whining," he told her as he dimpled her tense skin with the pencil point.  Then he twisted it around until there was a small knot of her skin wrapped around the end of the pencil.  Nabiki watched it with petrified concentration.

"You're a smart girl," he said in a pleasant sing-song tone, in rhythm with slithering his fully-erect cock against her firm belly.  Now he pulled her skin out.  As she opened her mouth to cry out, he crushed himself into her.  "None of that!"

More than his warning, the tautness of her body, the sudden stretch and the protest from her body over the mistreatment warned her not to act, not to protest.  I'm alive.  If I just go along, nod, smile, be a good girl, she thought, I might stay that way.  Whining, cowardly, little girl with no courage, 'Ranma save me!'  I've become as pathetic and useless as the rest of them.  Maybe I should just let him pop me.  It has to be better than living like this.

She nodded diffidently, and he pulled the skin out, making a cone of stretched skin.  "There are so many sharp things in this world."  The cone was mostly translucent, the small opaque patches becoming smaller and fewer as he pulled it out more, pulled it out slowly so she experienced it slowly, felt every change in her skin as it stretched from opaque to translucent.

Next is tinted transparent to colorless transparent, she remembered from all the balloons she'd seen and popped in her life, Like those balloons, then I'll go pop.  I . . . I don't want to die.  I'm frightened to die.  I want to live.  Please let me live, I won't scream, I won't say anything.  I won't tell anybody.  Please don't kill me.

"Nails, broken glass."  Most of the cone was transparent, the few spots of translucency and opacity were nearly gone, she'd seen enough balloons to know the bursting point was imminent.  He moved the end of the pencil this way and that, dragging the cone of skin with it, Nabiki followed it with a terrified gaze.  She would relax slightly when he moved it in, and her tension peaked as he stretched it out.

He's in total control, and there's nothing I can do about it, she got his message loud and clear, And he knows it.

"So, are you going to be quiet, or are you going to need a gag?"  He let the skin off the pencil.  The sound of it, of her skin, snapping back in place, and the discolored rings from the abuse, drove from her mind any illusions of defending herself, or any resistance.

"Gag," she admitted meekly.  And he takes this as a great compliment, she thought of his expression.  She relaxed slightly as he eased the pressure against her, and within her.  I might make it out of here, she thought.  Then he shoved her roughly against the wall.  This time part of her twinged, a definite warning that part would not take much more rough handling.  Just what I felt when Genma stretched that area, and a very slight tearing sensation, she realized, But not as much as when Ukyo sliced me, but a clear warning of what's to come.

"And pandas - "  He shoved his cock into her stomach again.  "-have -" and again, "- sharp -" and again, "-claws."  And again, then he pulled back.  Letting her sink to the floor, making a few gentle bounces in mocking counterpoint to the roughness of her handling by Genma.  He returned and stuffed a rolled up wash cloth in her mouth.  She rolled on her back and spread her legs apart.  I don't want to be punished anymore, she thought despondently, This body won't take another demonstration of Genma's displeasure.  I've lost my humanity, he's taken my honor and any scraps of self-worth I might have had, all I want now is to escape with my life.  When I decide to die later, she thought, I will do so at a public seppuku ceremony and I will denounce this bastard properly.  She knew it was a feeble revenge at best.

He wriggled to get inside her.  You could have taken a little time to get me ready.  Or used some soap or other lubricant, she thought, the only protest she allowed herself.

"So tight," he said in a mixture of admiration and complaint, "Saved yourself for your first love."  He chuckled at that.

I am glad of the gag, Nabiki thought, So I can't launch all the foul epithets that come to mind about you.  Crap, but this is going to hurt.  And you'll take it out on me, that you screwed up again.

I'm more glad of the gag, so I can't laugh at you, Nabiki thought as he struggled, As you wriggle like a worm to get inside.  If it didn't TICKLE! so much, you'd be pathetic.  Now if you'd started off tickling . . .  she thought as she felt herself changing, Maybe I'd be slippery enough for you to get in.  Instead of struggling like getting on an old boot.  She tried not to obviously laugh at him, she knew he'd hurt her.  But you're stuck now, she thought between giggles, This is hysterical, and I'll bet the old panda thinks I'm appreciating the quality of his `service.`  She shook her head.  This is not funny,  It's my body he's doing that to, she reproached herself, It's just funny and it TICKLES!  She stifled another bout of laughter.  He's going to get mad, and violent, soon, she reminded herself.

He slowly slipped in further, she braced herself for the pain of her hymen breaking.  I hope nothing else breaks, well, maybe not nothing, she thought evilly, That, the old panda would deserve, although he'd probably kill me.  He finally got her lubricated enough he could squeak in and out in a rhythm.  Damn!  Why does this body have to be so . . . accommodating? she wondered, It's like I don't care anymore.

He's ballooning me again!? Nabiki realized in dread.  She felt herself expanding, the air inside dragging out the boundaries of her skin.  Just like when he was pumping in and out of my mouth, she realized, Now he's pumping from the other end.  I'm swelling again . . . Why is he slowing down?  She looked at his face as he rubbed it on her expanding belly, she felt the scratches from his stubble.  And he's drooling on me! she noted with disgust, He's turned on by that?  I could have given you money for a blow-up doll.  As he lay on her expanding belly, he reached forward, and took a distending breast in each hand and began mauling them, crushing them until his hands closed, letting them expand and stretching them, then crushing them again.  She felt his rough skin and the thinning and increasing sensitivity of her breasts.  Damn you that HURTS! she screamed into the cloth as he remorselessly scratched her bosoms with his callouses and nails.

Please, please, please, I'm giving you what you want, she thought desperately at the pain of her abused skin, shaking her head and tears flowing down her cheeks, Why do you have to keep hurting me?!  She felt the sharp, poorly-trimmed nails cutting into her already overstressed flesh.  As he drives up the pressure, she thought desperately, I'm more likely to pop.  Is that what he's trying to do?  Blow me up until I blow up?  Hurt me until I pop?  Why threaten me?  She tried to scream again, It HURTS so much!  I can feel it, all the pangs, all over I can't hold all this air!  Please stop!  It HURTS!  You bastard, you don't care!  Do you?  Stupid!  I should have seen this!  After the way you treat your son, is it any wonder how you'd treat a 'worthless girl'!? she cursed her own stupidity at allowing things to happen like this.

The worst part was the other sensations her body sent her.  The rough callouses against her nipples, the warm hardness sliding through her love canal, the dangerous and sensuous thrill of her skin stretching, expanding, the marvelous feeling of fullness and tightness that the pressure brought.  That's revolting! she thought, loathed those sensations, How can any of this be `fun` or enjoyable.  It's not like he cares.  If it was someone who cared . . . .  Someone who wasn't trying to hurt me . . . it could be so wonderful, she brooded silently, But he wants my pain.  He wants to hurt me.  I've done what you want!  Why do you have to hurt me too?!  I could make it better, make you feel good, if you'd let me.  Please let me make you feel good if you just stop hurting me!  Her silent plea would have fallen on deaf ears, and she knew it.  Already she felt the faint feeling of tearing.  An itch here, a twinge there.  If I get too many,or too many in one place, I'm done for, she realized.  She tried to give Genma a warning look, but he was clearly elsewhere.  I doubt he knows or cares who he's raping anymore, he's just fixated on who he wants to be violating.  I'm just an object, a place holder, I don't matter.  Not to him.  All he cares about is my belly and my pain.  He loves both of them.  Her breasts were her greatest worry.  The twinges increasing as they expanded and even Genma's powerful hands couldn't crush them flat anymore.  Parts squeezed out between his fingers and the feeling of tearing ran through those stretched parts.  Thank the gods it's good for something, she thought of her expanding belly, now so stretched it looked like a pane of hazy glass.  It's so big he can't reach my breasts anymore.  She wanted to laugh.  AH!  Do they hurt, she sighed, the scratches his callouses and claws had inflicted itched and burned, like infected wounds.  I wish that was a pane of glass separating us.  I wish it were a stone wall really separating us, she thought.

At least he's stroking my belly, instead of mashing and mangling it, she thought, trying to find something else, anything else, to focus on.  She closed her eyes.  Who am I kidding, any calm is just a presage for violence.  He wants to hurt someone, and I'm the one handy.  He'll be hurting me soon enough.

"Have you ever seen my wife?" Genma said in a far away tone of voice.

Nabiki nodded, she'd seen Nodoka.  A dignified, tradition-minded loon, Nabiki couldn't say aloud.

Genma neither noticed nor cared about her nod.  "Scrawny little bitch," he growled and began pumping faster and clawing at her belly.

NO!  NO! NO! she silently screamed as she felt herself tearing under his fingers.

He mastered himself before he could puncture her.  He went back to the same slow, mechanical pumping of his cock into her love canal.  It HURTS! Nabiki could barely focus through the sensations assailing her, Pressure feels so good, but the skin HURTS!  She was over a meter in diameter now.  That bastard isn't slowing or losing interest.  I'm going to pop!  Even if he stops, it's too much!

Damned martial artist stamina!

"Her mother and her sisters were proper women," Genma said as he put his arms around Nabiki's swollen belly.  "Plump, round," he said warmly.

He's drooling on me again, Nabiki thought disgustedly.  Then his expression turned ugly.  No, please!  I can't take any more!  Please! she screamed silently.

"Not Nodoka, not my wife, not the bitch they stuck me with!"  He squashed inward, squeezing her belly until it was like an hourglass, a sphere above and below his arms.

NO!!! the cloth muffled her yell.  She felt the rents, hundreds of them, like biting ants all over her body, but especially her distended belly.  She wailed in agony at the tile floor, her screams muffled and ignored.  Her horror grew as she saw sections of her belly where bits of thicker material were surrounded by much thinner material, or alternating lines of thicker and thinner.  Eyes wide, she realized, That isn't light shining through!  Those are breaks in my surface!  She felt the pressure within her skyrocket, as Genma clamped down as hard as he could.  She felt her love canal respond to the jump, and clench down on Genma's penis.

"Just like a woman!  Crush your balls," he gasped as his seed spurted within her.  He leaned back after releasing her, pulling himself out lethargically.  Without his weight pressing down on her, without him steadily adding air, the twinges of tearing faded.  She still felt an occasional one.

That makes deflating a top priority.  If I don't . . . I'll still be destroyed, she thought desperately, But there's no way I can reach it!

Genma seemed content to lean against the bathroom wall, caressing her distended belly with one hand, occasionally flicking it with his index finger and watching it wobble.  "The only time she ever looked decent was when she was carrying my worthless son.  Her belly was round and full and hard," he said wistfully, "Her tits were like watermelons.  I had to get so drunk to get her that way, she actually refused me.  Refused me, her husband.  However, family duty is more important than personal pride."

In other words, you raped her, Nabiki thought, Like you raped me.  Maybe that's why she carries that idiotic sword everywhere.  Happosai's disciple, but he's never raped, he's `just` a pervert and a thief.  She glared at him, at her belly overinflated to the point of helplessness.  I can't even reach my mouth to remove the gag.  I wonder, if I asked for help, would you give it?  Or just laugh at me?  Laugh at the toy you used up and broke?

Genma stood up, Nabiki hoped he was leaving.  Instead he got a bath bucket full of warm soapy water and a wash cloth.  "When she was so glorious, I could have made love to her every day."

Then he grimaced.  No more!  PLEASE! she pleaded as she cringed, it satisfied him and he didn't hurt her this time, for which she was profoundly grateful.

" 'I'm fat, I'm ugly, how can you stand to look at me?'" he asked mimicking Nodoka, badly, "I should have told her it was the only time she did look decent, and just taken her every day to prove it."

But with that katana of hers always in arms reach, you didn't dare, Nabiki thought, Coward, you were afraid she'd remove your `taking` gear while you were asleep after.  If I can fit through that door, that's not a bad idea.  She was glad of the gag, so she wouldn't accidentally say that, or anything else that would set him off, In my condition, a good punch would finish me.

"Then she lost all that weight she gained during pregnancy.  I couldn't stand to touch her after that."  He began gently running the soapy washcloth inside her love canal.

She didn't care that he was erasing any evidence of what he had done.  That feels so good! she arched her back and tried to scream in ecstasy, as if a huge pressure had been vented from her, that she could respond and give voice to her body's sexual release.  You idiot, she thought amid the haze of sexual pleasure, If you'd started this way . . .

Genma carefully rubbed her clitoris with the soft cloth, sending her hips bucking and her hands thrashing.

"When I saw Akane, I knew she was the one for my son.  Muscular and lazy, once she's been cured of this nonsense that she's actually a martial artist, she'll sulk and let herself go, then my son will have a proper wife, round and soft."  Now he ran the cloth deep into her love canal, setting off another round of thrashing and muffled screaming.

Why couldn't he have done that first?! she lamented, Because this wasn't about you or even about him.  It was all about Nodoka, and what he'd hoped to do to her.  I don't know who's more pathetic, the balloon or the wimp, she thought.

"Of course, women are so vain, dressing and farding to impress other women, 'Oh what a lovely dress.'  It looks like a sack of millet!  'Oh what wonderful eyeshadow.'  It looks like someone punched you in the face.  You proudly ignore what your men want.  Of course Akane is vain too.  So I'll have to eliminate them too," he commented and caressed her swollen belly almost lovingly, "Do you suppose they'll enlarge as nicely as you have?  The other fiancees.  I'll have to get them out of the way.  Akane will never be able to compete with them.  The gymnast or maybe Shampoo, I'll let Akane pop her.  Just blow her up slowly, slowly, until she can't take anymore."  He slapped his hands together, simulating the fate Nabiki knew was creeping up on her.  "Show my son that women are always after revenge for every little slight.  I have to thank you for being such a vindictive bitch to my son.  It was an important lesson about women I never could properly teach him.  It's so much better he learned it on his own.  With your help of course.  Never let it be said I never give credit where credit is due.  You truly are a master, and I don't want you to change how you treat him.  I overdid it with the 'girls are weak' stuff, but he was too young to understand where your strengths were.  You taught him.  It's exactly what he needed.  I hope you will remember."  He dropped the pencil on her belly.  Nabiki felt it roll down and rest on her chin.  "It will be good to have a properly built woman around.  Too bad Kasumi didn't wear that mask, I'd have thrown Nodoka out and fulfilled the pledge myself," he chuckled as he headed towards the door.

Okay, I'm still alive, so that could have been worse, Nabiki thought, Kasumi might have had to live through this.  Nabiki had doubts that Kasumi would have survived, either by suicide or lack of will.

Genma left the bathroom in his robe.

Nabiki closed her eyes and listened to the panda's footsteps up the stairs.  She lay there a while after he was truly gone, she didn't care how long.  "As long as he's really gone," she murmured quietly around the washcloth.  Even with the pricks steadily reminding her that time was running out.  I have to warn Cologne that Genma's after the mask, she thought, trying to rouse herself, And warn Shampoo and Ukyo that the panda is after them as well.  That also couldn't rouse her to action.  And warn Kasumi that she's in danger too.  That gave her the determination to roll into a sitting position.  Funny, she thought, This time, Akane's got nothing to worry about.

Kodachi, Nabiki considered, No, Azusa on the other hand, I'd almost be willing to help the panda with her.  She lay back, exhaustion and despair settling in on her.  I want to scrub every square centimeter of myself with a wire bristle brush, I don't think I'll ever be clean again.  But as damaged as my skin is, I'd never survive anything except a soft cloth and he already cleaned the area that most needed it, she thought as she managed to work the wash cloth out of her mouth and took a survey of herself.  What she saw appalled her.  This morning I was an exaggerated hourglass, she thought, Now I'm a pear.  I look more like a pink Godzilla than a beautiful girl.  Striations, stretch marks marred her everywhere, her arms, her breasts, her belly.  Her legs were so huge she knew she wouldn't be able to walk.  I look like I weigh 200+ kilos, she thought, But I know I'm practically weightless.  She lay down for a long while, unable to even cry, her tears were long used up.  She huddled there on the tile, feeling cold and very much alone.

He's going to do it to me again, and again, until he either pops me, or somebody stops him, she realized and broke into quiet sobs.  She lay there, miserable and feeling completely desolate.  No one's going to rescue me, she thought, Because they'll all figure I'm getting what I deserve.  I'm finally someone's helpless toy.  To cherish or break, according to their character.

---

Nabiki didn't know how long she lay there.  She hadn't slept or passed out, she just hadn't cared about anything as she lay there, not moving, not thinking, just feeling abused, in pain, guilty for allowing it to happen.  She raised her head to look at the door, then down at her oversize body.  I can't even fit through the doorway, she thought disgustedly, I can stretch and compress, but can I take much more punishment? she wondered, she briefly considered her father's razor.

No, she told herself, If I do die, it'll be in a way that makes that bastard pay.

She managed to maneuver upright and bounce to the door, her legs were useless for walking normally.  She opened the door carefully, and checked the door and the doorjamb for splinters, hidden nails or anything else sharp or pointed.  I might as well get used to it, she lamented silently as she examined, No more, Nabiki Tendo, Ice Queen of Furinken, I'm now the slave of anyone with anything sharp.  A sextoy to anyone with a pin.  She nearly broke down again at that thought.

I will not give in, I'm alive, that is enough, she thought, For the moment.  She managed to crawl through the door, she had to crawl, there was a nail higher up that terrified her.  She got her bust out, which surprised her.  Getting her belly out proved to be an exercise in agony and ecstasy.

I can't just exhale and get out of this,  She pressed her belly in as far as she could without feeling the telltale twinges that indicated she was tearing herself, then she'd creep forward.  Oh!  OH!  OH!!! she thought as she desperately tried to keep from crying out in rapture as the door frame scraped her hypersensitive skin.  She lay there panting, but even that sent new tremors through her.  I wish I could tell the panda that the wood of the door jamb got me off in seconds, and he barely managed at all with his wood.

A dozen such episodes, each one more intense than the last as she abraded her increasing girth through the doorway.  She got up as soon as she could, the thought of Kasumi's meticulously kept hardwood floors rubbing across her tumid body set off images of terror and elation.  But there were occasional twinges that told her the air inside her was still slowly tearing her apart, these pains gave her the determination to continue.  Confronted by the even narrower doorway to the kitchen she hoped what she wanted was easily within reach.  I'd bought those as a joke, a veiled insult, she thought, But Kasumi thought it was 'Wonderful, useful and thoughtful,' shaming me right back.  It was a simple set of plastic chopsticks, basically a long U-shape, to make using them easier.  The few times Akane or Ranma have been too hurt or too weak to use regular chopsticks, we had these, so easy even an untrained gaijin could master them.  I'll have to tell Kasumi to wash them thoroughly when I get done, she thought with a smile.  She didn't consider using a regular chopstick, even though she could have gotten one easily, I don't even want to think about getting a sliver down there! she thought as she shivered, Even if it wouldn't pop me..

"Got it," she exulted, she'd even found their little stand.  I will never complain about Kasumi's obsession with things being organized and in their correct place again.

Okay, now what?  The air got in there, so it should be able to get out the same way, a valve or something, she thought, Except I can't bend my arms enough to get it to my mouth.  She rolled onto her belly, with the chopsticks on the floor sticking straight up in their stand.  "Now I rock over and -" she said as she tried to move, "I - just - I can't move.  I'm perfectly balanced up here."  She rocked back and forth several more times.  "This isn't going to work."  She used the wall to help rotate herself back onto her feet.

Well, there's no other choice, she thought as she got a dishtowel to stuff in her mouth to avoid waking the whole neighborhood.  This is ridiculous, she thought as she lay on her side and tried to dangle the towel to catch it in her teeth, I don't even think I could talk my way out of this if someone walked in on me.  She stood astride the simple piece of plastic, for the first time she really noticed she was naked.  She'd thought how hideous she looked and it hadn't mattered.  Now I'm going to stick a kitchen implement where the sun doesn't shine.  Now would really be the time to be found doing this.  No, the whole mad bunch couldn't have charged in when Genma was doing this to me, but when I'm trying to save my life, then they'll show up, she thought, trying to bring herself to simply lower herself onto the upraised prongs, Well, if that happens, I'll denounce Genma to all of them, warn them about his plans for the mask, then pop myself after a touching soliloquy and death haiku.  She snickered at that, the first thing she'd felt like laughing about since she'd returned home from the Nekohanten.  I have to stay focused, or I'll never get this done, she thought as she forced herself to stop laughing.

She lowered herself down, and sprang back up with a muffled yelp, bouncing off the ceiling.  Bad aim, bad aim, bad aim! she thought, This is asinine!  Just brushing down there sets me off.  Genma pumping away didn't.  I wish I could tell him.  This is going to be harder than I thought.  She aimed much more carefully.  Okay, calm down.  You enjoyed it, admit it and move on, she sternly told herself, I am running out of time.  And worse, once they are actually inside me, it's going to get better - I mean worse.  Oh, I don't know what I mean anymore.  She paused and tried to center herself.  I am going to do this because if I don't, I will die, and that is that.  But when I do this, maybe I won't even be able to think, she considered as she aimed and dropped.  She lost some moments to the waves of euphoria that followed.  She stood there panting, the vibrations of the chopsticks in rhythm with her breathing made it difficult but not impossible to think.

Okay, I'm not even going to be sentient when I drive them in deeper, she thought, she glanced at the ceiling, at her rubbery body, and smiled, Well, if this goes awry, I'll die happy, heck, I probably won't even notice I'm dead.

She stretched her legs as high as they would go without pain, and braced her arms to punch upward as hard as she could.  She released her legs and shot into the ceiling, hitting it and punching it with all of her force.  Landing told her she'd completely miscalculated, the pleasure of that slow, hard penetration drove any thought from her mind.  She wasn't even aware how many times she bounced from ceiling to floor, each time driving those rods deeper and deeper within her, there was no fear now to dull the edge of the bliss she felt.  It crashed over her in relentless waves.  She couldn't think, she couldn't move, she could only experience that rapture that took her in its jaws and refused to release her to any other concerns.  Even life itself.

She couldn't even differentiate the feel of the chopsticks striking the top end of her love canal, or the start of her next bounce.  She did feel the end of it, because of the click as the valve opened, and the release that filled her with a pleasure so profound it almost hurt.  She felt the warm air jetting out of her love canal, but she felt nothing else.

Gone was the fear and pain of her overstretched body.  Gone was how hideous and deformed she looked.  Gone were any earthly concerns, all washed away on a warm wind.  Nabiki felt it all fall away as she floated in that cloud.  Is this how Kasumi always felt? she idly wondered, Somehow above it all?  Shrouded in a cloud of peaceful oblivion from the cares and concerns around her?  Feeling like a divine being drifting among others with their worldly concerns?  Soothing them by giving them a few moments of the universe she inhabited?

Slowly, another thought troubled her, she tried to drive it away, but it kept returning, If too much air is bad, wouldn't too little also be bad?

How could anything that feels so wonderful be bad? she thought in defense, but it had still planted doubt in her mind, spoiling paradise for her, forcing her to examine and analyze.  She found the truth in the statement 'examining literature is like dissecting butterflies.'  Paradise retreats, when you think too much, she grumbled to herself.

She dropped back into the mundane plane so fast she thought she'd bounce.  She looked around the room and down at her belly, she was almost seduced back into that joy when she realized her belly was flat, as it had been before the transformation.  Shit!  I'm running out of air! she thought as she groped around and yanked the chopsticks out, mercifully, the hissing and the flow stopped.

Nabiki sighed and suddenly felt the extreme deprivation, the loss of the fullness and joy she'd felt.  The loss of all that wonderful pressure and air.  It wasn't wonderful, she angrily countered, It was pumped in with no more concern than by a compressor or gas tank.  It blew me up, if that meant inflated or exploded, it was all the same to him.  It didn't do any good, the feeling of emptiness and loss overwhelmed her, she slumped over and wept, fingering her yielding belly.

"Nabiki?" came the quiet voice as the blanket covered her nakedness, "Nabiki?" as Ranma repeated her question, "Are you all right?"

"No," Nabiki told her truthfully.  She was glad it was girl-Ranma, she wasn't sure how she would have reacted to the son of her rapist, or the most lusted after male in Nerima.  I can't believe it.  His father just raped me.  And I want to give myself to his son?  What is wrong with me? she was disgusted with herself as she added, Genma violated me, I think of Ranma and should remember that.  But I can't get the memories, of how Ranma kept looking at me, out of my head.  What did that mask do to me, besides changing my body?

Ranma moved around into Nabiki's field of view, she was dressed in her usual red and black ensemble, she knelt in front of Nabiki, staring down at her.  "Pops dumped a cup of cold water on me and told me we were going to skip practice tomorrow.  But with my futon all wet, I could hardly go back to sleep.  I went looking for dry bedding and heard you . . . well, squeaking."

Nabiki felt her eyes widen.

"I didn't look," Ranma said gesturing wildly as she cringed.  Nabiki's silent gaze elicited another desperate retreat.  "Maybe I did, when you started bouncing off the ceiling . . . But I - " Ranma cringed again as Nabiki reached out to the girl.

"Don't run away," Nabiki whispered, afraid of what Ranma would do if she heard.  I'm cold and I'm frightened, and so terribly, terribly empty, she thought as she caught Ranma's sleeve, Making Ranma freeze and fall silent, I won't hurt you, I won't denounce you.  I just can't stand being alone.

Nabiki couldn't manage the will to offer her usual 'You owe me.'  On the other hand, she had no problem with the tearful girl look, she tugged on Ranma's sleeve, she didn't even have the strength to drag herself over to the redhead, Ranma obligingly moved closer.  Still Nabiki tugged.  "I'm so cold," she pleaded, "Hold me."  She stared at Ranma's eyes, filled with something she normally hated, pity.  Then she said something she almost never meant, and Ranma so rarely heard, "Please."

Ranma carefully gathered her in.  "You are cold," she commented as she draped Nabiki over her, then pulled the blanket over the larger balloon girl.

Nabiki felt the warmth from the body she was lying on and against.  She gently rubbed the smaller girl's back, silently encouraging her to do the same to her.  Ranma did, tentatively, fearfully.  Nabiki wondered what had put the fear of Heaven in Ranma over even touching a girl, but she needed the warmth more than answers, both the heat and the emotional glow the girl simply radiated.  She felt the softness of the sometimes-girl's hair, her skin.  Nabiki raised her head, looked into the girl's eyes and saw the lingering fear in them.  As hurtful and as deep as my own, Nabiki realized, But Ranma wasn't just assaulted that way . . . the way I was, Ranma would have fought, the way I couldn't bring myself to.  Don't be afraid of me, I need you.  I need . . . someone . . . warm . . . right now.  I couldn't stand coldness right now.  Nabiki desperately wanted to erase the fear she saw, and the fear she felt deep inside herself.  I guess your fear isn't so laughable, Ranma.  You would be assaulted for being caught like this.  Don't be afraid of me now.  You being afraid of me . . . isn't as useful as it was, Nabiki thought.  She couldn't bear to leave this beautiful girl frightened of her.  Not just because I need a defender later, she thought, Right now, I need an intimate.  Right now, I need someone just holding me.  Right now, I couldn't survive being alone.  Right now -  She leaned against Ranma, she brushed her lips against Ranma's, and when the other girl didn't pull back, deepen it into a full kiss.  Nabiki luxuriated in the feeling of Ranma's resistance and fear dropping away, as no attack landed on her, no cry of outrage shook the rafters.

Suddenly Ranma pulled away, a look of fury twisted her adorable face.

No, no, no! Nabiki cursed herself silently, Ranma's senses - he can taste what happened.

"That - that - " the fury shook the small girl's frame.

Nabiki slid her head into Ranma's lap, holding the girl's leg.  "Please don't leave me alone, just to get vengeance," she said quietly.  I can't be alone, I can't be alone, she thought in terror at the concept, Don't leave, don't leave me alone, the idea frightened her more than anything else.

"Don't abandon me, don't abandon me."  She felt Ranma's hand on her shivering shoulder.  She knew she wasn't alone, that someone cared about her, someone hadn't deserted her.

---

Nabiki came down to breakfast hours after Ranma had put her to bed.  She was glad she could again fit in her clothes, everyone except Ranma was surprised.  He should have acted surprised, she thought as she caught Akane's dark look at him, then at her.

"Are you cured?" Akane asked eagerly.

"No, sorry," Nabiki said, noted Akane's expression.  Now she's gone from worried to angry.  "I just sort of leaked," she said.

"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped.

Who didn't see that coming? Nabiki thought as she rolled her eyes and sat at the table.  She also surveyed all those present for any sign they knew what else happened last night.

"Are you all right, are you still leaking?" Kasumi asked.

Nabiki had especially tried to watch Genma, without appearing to, for any sign or flicker of emotion.  Nothing, again not unexpected, she thought.  "Relax, I got it patched up, but I shrank a bit."

"So, are you going to school?" Akane asked neutrally, her eyes hooded and hostile.

Nabiki shuddered at the thought.  Yes, I'm going to walk into the middle of the major battle ground of Nerima, she thought, Not to mention sitting in a room all day with twenty-plus people with sharp pencils, all manner of grudges, and no reason to love the Ice Queen of Furinken.  Does that include you, little sister?  You'd feel bad later, but if you think Ranma's not been attentive enough to you, what would you do to me, that normally I could shrug off?  "No, I think I'll check in with Doctor Tofu.  Maybe he knows something, and with Cologne.  Maybe she found something."  She got the same hooded, hostile glance from Akane.  Soun and Kasumi looked concerned, but Soun wasn't crying.  Ranma looked incredibly nervous.  As nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, Nabiki thought, but didn't say, Ranma's under enough pressure, she thought, I've had some recent experience with what happens to people under too much pressure.  She also wondered, Why am I not hungry?  Inhaling the scent of Kasumi's delicious food seemed more appetizing, filling and satisfying than the idea of actually eating it.  Strange.

---

"Doctor?"  Nabiki poked her head into the doctor's waiting room.

"Hello, Nabiki," the chiropractor greeted her, "Akane and Ranma stopped by.  They told me of your . . . condition, I must say I am looking forward to asking and answering questions."

"Great, I go first," Nabiki said, "Got a cure?"

He smiled at her and ushered her into the office.

---

She told him about the transforming mask, how she'd initially appeared.

"It's not funny!" Nabiki protested the young doctor's smirk, as he continued to palpitate and probe.  Temperature, reflexes, but the blood pressure cuff was useless, so was an examination of her chakra, she didn't seem to have either, blood pressure or chakra.

"I was thinking about all the new . . . weapons . . . in your arsenal," Tofu commented, covering his smile with his hand.

"It would be funny.  Except when I got scratched during a fight between Ukyo and Shampoo, I nearly popped," Nabiki countered, sobering Tofu.  I also blow up like a blimp, which encourages rapes by pandas, she thought, Would that be a `weapon in my arsenal`, Doc?  Do I dare tell him? she wondered, And what happens next?  He can't protect me.

"I'm sorry.  I didn't realize.  I would have thought you'd have a tougher skin."

Nabiki stood up and leaned towards the young doctor, giving him an unrestricted look down her shirt and what swelled beneath, enjoying his discomfort.  "Just what would you know about love dolls?" she asked huskily, flustering the doctor almost as much as Kasumi's presence did.

Tofu grabbed his tray of instruments to interpose it between them.  "Uh - that's - I just -!" he stammered.

This is something to look into, Nabiki thought.

"Hello!" called out a pleasant voice, a welcome, gentle voice, and here: a voice of doom.

"Kasumi!" the doctor delightedly chirped as he stood up.  Kasumi appeared in the doorway holding her shopping bags, she bowed.  Doctor Tofu held the tray over his head and began doing his usual idiot-happy-dance.

Normally, Nabiki would have ignored it, and the instruments spilling off the tray.  Today, Nabiki suddenly realized something, Medical instruments in the hands of a professional are a way of easy suffering.  In the hands of a dancing maniac raining them down on a room -  She watched in horror as they fell, and some fell towards her.  - they are metal, and pointed, sharp, or both.  A forceps landed point-first next to Nabiki, then something with a sharp edge bounced off her chest without scratching her.  Nabiki froze, she couldn't see a safe way out.  Kasumi, rather than just letting out an 'Oh my!' as her eyes widened, dashed through the metal rain, grabbed Nabiki and dragged her out, shielding her younger sister with her own body.

Once outside, Kasumi set her down.  Nabiki was hyperventilating and shivering.  Ranma's fear of cats isn't so funny anymore, hee hee hee, Nabiki gibbered with fear, Maybe he's right, she thought, What are they?  Hee hee, soft-furred bags full of sharp points, hee hee hee.

"Oh, Nabiki-chan, I'm so sorry," Kasumi told her, her hands clasped together in front of her.  Nabiki focused on her, but couldn't dredge up the words or actions to tell her it was all right, before her older sister ran off sobbing.

After several minutes, Nabiki mastered her fear, sighed, picked up the forgotten grocery bags and trudged home.  I'll go see Cologne after lunch, maybe tonight after they close, she thought as she called out a greeting on entering the house.  She got no answer as she stripped off her shoes and put the groceries in the kitchen.

"You deflated yourself," Genma said from behind her.

She nearly jumped.  I didn't even hear the panda's approach, she thought.  She turned, intent on telling him it was none of his business, then she saw his wrathful expression.  She decided on a more conciliatory approach.  "I couldn't fit through the doors.  I didn't think you'd mind."  Genma shook his head.  Nabiki glanced around.  She couldn't see or hear anyone else, she also knew, The neighbors completely ignore everything that they hear coming from our house, so screaming for help is useless.

"You didn't listen, I wanted to be able to look at you.  You put your vanity above what I told you.  You didn't listen."

I thought you'd want to inflate me yourself, her thought didn't become words before Genma hit her across the mouth.

It stung, and it shocked her.

"How?!" he demanded as he caught her by the throat as she rebounded off the wall.  "There's a valve, isn't there?"

She nodded numbly.  He grabbed her lower and upper jaw, and pulled, turning her head inside out so he could look down her throat.  Nabiki couldn't even scream.

"There it is."

Nabiki felt herself gag as Genma fingered the valve at the base of her throat.  Her condition completely disoriented her, she couldn't see, and no one had ever turned her inside out before.  The combination horrified her, although she knew it hadn't harmed her.  Yet.  I'm completely at Genma's mercy, she realized.  She tried to imagine a direction to run to escape, since she couldn't see.

"You need another lesson.  I hate repeating myself."

Nabiki couldn't see anything, except the back of her own head.  Someone, probably Genma threw her to the floor.  Genma pulled her head back to normal, she felt the panda claws close on her legs, pulling them apart, Genma had taken his cursed form.  The panda smiled at her dismay as he knelt between her legs.  She tried to knee him in the side or head, even she knew it was a pitiful attempt.  The panda growfed in laughter and slowly drove his claws against her skin.  Her skin dimpled as the sharp claws pressed in.

"Please no," she whispered, "Please don't."  She looked up at the panda's expectant expression.  "I'll be good," she added fearfully.

The panda withdrew his claws and released her legs, she couldn't get away, he saw he'd trumped her and that she knew it.  She couldn't relax, because she knew what happened next would be worse.  He isn't gentle with his playthings, she thought, Look at what he did and still does to Ranma.

The panda held up one finger, long enough for her to focus on it, and the sharp claw at the end, then he moved it towards her love canal.

"Not in there!" she screamed.  The panda growfed laughingly as he rubbed the back of his furry finger against her clitoris.  She lowered her head back on the floor and clamped her mouth shut.  I will not scream, I will not scream! she thought as the waves of pleasure beat against her resolve.  Let him think he can only give pain! she changed tacks as the soft fur teased and tantalized her, tempting her to cry out in joy at the sensation flooding her, draining her reason.  She clung to the memory of Genma hurting her over and over last night.  Where is father, where is Kasumi?  Where are any of the parade of distractions and invaders? she wondered.

Suddenly she felt the clawed finger slip into her love canal.  Now she did scream, in terror at the thought of being ripped open, especially there.  However, Genma was careful, this time.  The faint scratching of the sharp tip only heightened the sensation of something warm and hard sliding in and out, the fur tickling her in ways that made her squirm and thrash despite her best efforts not to react.  He's only preparing to hurt me, she forced herself to think, How can I relish what he's doing to me now?  I know what's coming next.  Only the panda's laughter at her silent antics kept her from giving free vent to her rapture.  She couldn't suppress her body's reaction to the pleasure as her love canal suddenly clenched down on his finger so hard she feared the claw would burst her by accident.  She covered her face and lay there panting.  "Why can't you be gentle?  I can give you what you want, I can be so nice," she pleaded breathlessly as Genma-panda withdrew his clawed finger.

He didn't respond, a moment later a human finger probed within, stretching her.  Now she screamed her pleasure, as the tightly stretched skin suddenly became hypersensitive.

Then his fingers probed her valve, she couldn't hold back a long warbling cry of elation as his fingers traced around it.  Then he pressed in and air rushed out.  Irresistible impulse suddenly demanded she wrap her legs around his head to keep it there, at the entrance to her love canal.  His head suddenly became wet, then larger and furry.  Then the warm breath flowed through her love canal and into her.  Her eyes and mouth opened wide as she cried out in joy as her back arched and her grip on Genma's head tightened.  Don't react!  Don't react!  It's part of a conspiracy! she told herself as she fought against the rising tide, her fury at her body's almost-eager betrayal gave her strength, but not enough.  Her body was reacting despite all her conscious thoughts as the penultimate joy of being filled overruled her knowledge of who was doing it, and that it had to lead to something bad, but the mask redesigned her body to give and take pleasure.  The joy ebbed as the valve closed, Genma-panda was taking a deep breath.

Given a moment of clarity, Nabiki considered, Why is he doing this?  Why isn't he just brutalizing me like last night?  Why -?  Her mind was again blown away on that warm breeze, she was dimly aware of someone loudly moaning.

When reason returned this time, she saw her belly ballooned up, she barely had time to realize it had split her clothes and it was nearly as big as it had been last night.  But it's still opaque? she asked herself, then Genma got his breath and blew her mind away.

When she came back to herself, she couldn't feel the panda at her love canal.  There were little thrills of pain from all over her overstretched skin.  She couldn't see anything except two pinkish, translucent beachballs tethered to her chest.  She turned her head and saw a hint of her translucent belly.  I've got to be two meters across, she thought, I can't think clear.  All full.  Air go in and stay.  So nice full.  Like drug, she realized, So nice.  But danger, what danger?  Focus.  It took her a moment to focus on Genma the man.

When he saw she was aware of him, he stepped out of sight.  She felt a hand worming its way into her love canal.  She dreamily moaned in appreciation of what he was doing.  You know who is doing it, she thought muzzily, trying to focus, Danger soon.  Center! she thought as more pleasant sensations kept her in fluffy clouds away from any Earthly concern.  She moaned and shifted in appreciation as his fingers brushed her valve.

The wrench he gave it, lacerated her lethargic state of fulfillment.  She mewled from the pain and the heartache as air rushed out of her.  As she shrank, she felt the emptiness and despair begin clawing at her consciousness.  She also felt her reason fighting its way back to the forefront.  I doubt the panda will seal that valve.  I have to, she thought as she began to bend around to reach it.  Her breasts and belly kept her away as she circled on the floor.

"I thought you didn't want to be so fat," Genma said mockingly.  Nabiki ignored him as she scrambled first for her love canal, then to get her hand down her love canal to reach the valve.  Almost there, almost there, she thought, ignoring the panda's chuckles, I feel like a dog chasing its tail.  Almost, NUTS!  Almost had it.  Got it, I - AEIIH!  Orgiastic pleasure tried to distract her from simple self-preservation, as her deflating fingers and hand probed deeper.  Once she got her entire fist in, she stopped the air from leaking out of her body.  Yet she hadn't closed the valve.  Her hand squeaked forward and her fingers probed, she got perhaps two centimeters before her entire body shook with an orgasm.  As she panted in the aftermath, she steeled herself to continue.  Terrific, she thought as she panted, I'm fighting for my life, and Panda-san has the giggles because I'm fisting myself.  Well it answers one question, I'm only that sensitive when I'm stretched, she concentrated on her `mission`, Unfortunately.  I'm going to have to  keep stretching myself, to get that valve.  Or I go through the rest of my life with my fist halfway up my -  The progress was the same, she'd edge her fist forward until another orgasm shook her entire body.  Each left her weak and wrung out, only Genma's mocking laughter gave her the determination to continue.

She finally touched the valve, and the tremor of pleasure at feeling it shut was masked by her utter exhaustion.

I did a better job than you did, she thought as she stared hatefully at Genma, who just smiled at her.

"I am interested in how you are going to get your hand out.  Maybe you should have deflated more.  Say, stick your fingers of your other hand down your throat."  Genma laughed as she realized how trapped her hand was, and the series of climaxes she'd go through removing it.

And you're loving every second of this `lesson`, she thought as she glared weakly at the man who'd done this to her.  You knew I would choose `dishonor` before letting you kill me.  So you get to humiliate me, like this - repeatedly.  I will make you pay dearly for this, she thought, but her lassitude wasn't just physical exhaustion.  The lost air depressed her, made her feel vacant and jittery.  She lay her head on her now normal-sized breasts above her flat belly, as her head rose and fell, she wondered why she simulated breathing, she really didn't take in more gas.  Just to make me more lifelike, she thought.

Finally she had enough strength left to pull her fist out in one go.  As she fell back to the floor, she felt the tremors passing through her.  She closed her eyes, exhausted almost to death.  She felt the furry muzzle at her love canal.  "No, no, no, no," she groaned weakly, "Not again," as she began to steadily reinflate.

---

The wrench brought Nabiki back to full wakefulness.  The air rushed from her, Genma hadn't filled her as much as the first three times.  Through her haze of exhaustion, she wondered why this was.  Just the idiot ritual of me crawling around in circles until I can fix the leak, she thought blearily, While the panda laughs himself sick.  What's he doing?  Why has no one come home yet?  She saw Genma-panda standing between her legs, then he fell forward.

She didn't get her scream out before the pressure clamped her throat shut, even her `hair` swelled as her belly flattened under Genma's bulk.  It HURTS!  It's tearing me up! she silently screamed, Don't hurt me anymore!  I've been good!  Please!  The air rushing out of her became painful, dozens of tiny tearing sensations bit at her from all over her body as the air in her immense belly tried to go elsewhere.  She cried and screamed in pain, cried out for mercy, offered apologies and promises, anything that came to mind to stop the abuse and mounting damage.  The panda merely growfed happily rolling around on her belly.  Like he was rolling out a lump of dough, or a steamroller flattening a patch of asphalt.  She still had enough gas pressure, so he wasn't flattening her against the floor.

I can't get past him to get to the valve this time! she suddenly realized.  As she scrabbled for the valve, the panda kept crushing the air out of her.  She deflated below her normal size, she felt a terrible weakness mounting, preventing her from putting up any struggle.  I can barely move! she felt a growing panic superceding the pain and depression, I won't be strong enough to move, even if he lets me!

As what seemed the last of her air was seeping out, Genma-panda bent down and began blowing into her.  Her fear kept the air from having the euphoric effect this time.  Why hasn't anyone come home?  Where are the others? she wanted to ask, but she couldn't make any noise, she could only helplessly watch the panda blow her up again.  When he'd inflated her to his satisfaction, he pulled his mouth away, air rushed out.

He didn't reset the valve! she thought in panic.  Then he rolled on his back and lifted her up.  I've got enough air to hold my shape, she thought, But that's about it.  I can't speak and I can barely move.  I thought you liked larger women, not half-deflated wisps.  She felt only despair, and not only from the lack of internal pressure.  Genma plugged the hole, sliding his cock into her, thrusting his cock in and out, a little air was forced in and some escaped with each squeaky stroke.  Nabiki was too tired to be anything except disgusted.  So that's why he's always playing with that tire, he's really playing with himself, and none of us even noticed, she thought, He really put one over on us.  Put one over on me.

The panda chuffed happily until he fired his seed into her.  When he withdrew, no air departed.  He set her aside.

Must have sealed when he `fired`, she worried.  He stood by her head, back in human form.  Nabiki was too emotionally and physically exhausted even to insult him.  He's beaten me, maybe even broken me, she admitted to herself.  She still hungered for revenge, but she doubted she'd have the strength to do anything for several days, And if he does something like this to me each day, I'll never be able to fight him.

He picked her wilted body up and brought his mouth to hers.  Oh CRAP!  He's going to kiss me?! she thought disgustedly, but his grip on her head prevented her from evading.  He blew into her mouth.  You make a mess down below and you have to go somewhere else? she thought as the air rushed in.  "Why are you doing this?" she asked feebly, while he was taking a breath.

"I told you, you have to be disciplined.  Ranma demanded many such lessons."  He continued to inflate her.  She didn't fight when he inflated her to and past her earlier maximum, by then it was too late as he continued.

"You'll pop me!" she said desperately.

"That bothers you?" he asked before he blew into her again.

She knew tears were useless, she still shed them as her entire body passed into translucency, then transparency, at that point Genma seemed to take interest in her reactions.  "It hurts, it hurts," she breathed, flickers of pain coursed over her body, even as they had last night.  She was much bigger now, but that brought her no pride.  He'd only use it to hurt her.  He let her drop on her back, and walked between her legs, she could see him through her distended belly.  She braced her self for the wrenching sensation.

Her eyes shot open as he didn't wrench her valve.  "YOU TORE ME!!" she screamed as the air screamed out of her, the force pushing her slowly across the floor.  "I'LL DIE!  YOU TORE ME!  I NEVER HURT YOU!" she howled desperately, whether he cared or even heard her over the noise of the escaping air was lost as she was driven away from him.

She was too big to even reach the leak right now.  And Genma will keep me from it when I'm small enough, she thought, then the hissing stopped.  She could still feel the awful tear in her body, but Genma had plugged the hole.  He murdered me and now he's fucking me again? Nabiki felt too haggard to even be disgusted by Genma lovingly muzzling her swollen belly, while he pumped away.  Think! she silently commanded, but no answers came, no clever tactics, no cunning distractions, no brilliant blackmail schemes, that wouldn't end up with her slashed to bits on a panda's claws.  Ranma and Akane would tear him apart the minute they found out, but I'd still be dead, she silently added.

All too quickly, it ended, and the terrible hissing continued.  Nabiki couldn't keep her spirits up.  I've given up, she recognized, Me, but I've lost.  I always thought losing would kill me, guess I was right.  But the tranquilizing effect of all that air passing through and out of her, and the certain knowledge of Genma's viciousness sapped her will and determination.  Maybe he'll wrap me in sausages and throw me into a pit of cats, she thought morosely.  Her deflation was confirmed when Genma finished and lay atop her deflating belly, rubbing his deflated cock on it.  To get aroused again? Nabiki thought, too weary to be disgusted by it, Before the end.

"Going to have one last go?" Nabiki asked.  I'll never be able to get past him, she thought.

"You really think I'd let you die, after all the promises you made?" he chuckled, the rumble trembled through her deflating form.

He's going to hold me to those? Nabiki thought frantically, trying to remember all she'd promised to avoid being killed, I thought he wasn't listening!

"You will keep them, this is part of your punishment for disobedience."

"Except I'll die, I can't hold air anymore!" she cried, her voice fading as the air streamed out, "You killed me."

"I seem to know more about this than you do," he said as he stretched her love canal over his fist, and dragged her to the kitchen.

The cold water he poured into her was uncomfortable, the half a liter of souring milk she considered a calculated insult.  But her horror and punishment were not complete.  What are you doing? she couldn't voice the question as she felt him lay her out flat, Please don't rape me again, please don't hurt me anymore, please I'll be good.  She felt him carefully roll her up.  What are you doing? she asked mutely again.  He wasn't rolling her up tight enough that it forced the liquid out.  Without enough air in her, she couldn't make her loudest screams heard.  When he rolled up her head, she lost the ability to hear well or see at all.  She was almost certain that her love canal was on the outermost part of the coil that was all that was left of Nabiki Tendo.  Showing off my goodies to the world, she thought despondently.  Then the cloth surrounded her.  She wasn't sure what would happen next.  He wants me unsure, she thought, trying to curl around the liquid inside her, trying to hold on to life that this extra mass represented.  She heard something rummaging, then someone picked her up and a moment later set her down.  All she could see was a little light.  There were more rummaging sounds, the light faded slowly as if it were being blocked out.  The creeping cold began clawing at her.  Suddenly, it was dark, and she was left alone with her growing feeling of emptiness, and the gnawing cold.  Slowly she felt the water and the milk send out ice crystals, some lancing into her much abused flesh.  In the cold, her mind wandered, remembering times with her family, remembering her plans and dreams, things she could never do now.  I wonder . . . with this body's weird responses . . . how it reacts, she thought lethargically, What would it do . . . what would I do with a real lover.  A warm body and a warm mind.  One who could appreciate what I offered . . . with my body, and my mind and emotions.  Wish for the moon and all the gold in the world while I'm at it.

Alone, slowly freezing, and deeply wounded in body and spirit, she had a clarity she often strove for.  The transformation made me into something to please others, she thought hazily as the cold and emptiness continued to work her over,  The old saw that the ultimate aphrodisiac is an enthusiastic partner.  Even the most inexperienced or inept could still elicit my enthusiasm.  I barely was able to hide it from Genma, yet Genma hasn't realized either fact, she thought as the cold, the darkness, and above all the emptiness eroded her will and self, Or he doesn't care.

---

The sudden light and noise woke Nabiki from her somnambulance.  She listened carefully to the voices.

"Have you seen Nabiki?" a voice asked.

"She was crying quite a bit," a male voice, gruffer, answered.

"I didn't mean to frighten her that way," the first voice said bleakly.

Kasumi!? Nabiki thought, Talking to Genma.  Damn cold making me think so slowly.  KASUMI! Nabiki tried to shout, but only the sound of boxes being moved came to her.

"It was my fault," Kasumi said sadly.

"I'm sure you did your best," Genma answered.

"And what did you do?" Kasumi asked.

Kasumi!  He put me in here!  He rolled me up and stuffed me in the freezer! Nabiki tried to shout, I'm in here!  I'm cold and I'm frightened!

"I put away the groceries, and I needed some ice," Genma said placatingly, seemingly full of fear.

Don't believe him! Nabiki tried to speak, I'm here behind everything else.

"The bowl is full of ice cubes," Kasumi gently accused.

"I refilled it.  I didn't want you angry with me.  The milk also was bad, I got rid of it."

Liar!  Liar!  Bastard! Nabiki thought hotly, Kasumi!!  Ranma!  Daddy!  Her only answer was darkness.  Her anger kept her warm for a few more minutes, but the cold of the freezer and her own despair soon overwhelmed her again.

---

Cologne sat up from her desk and the scrolls laid atop it.  I hate this, she thought, I maintain my aura of near omniscience, as a way to awe these others, especially son-in-law.  I sought to make, 'Let's go to Cologne,' the cry when a difficult problem, especially one involving magic, was encountered.  Except my real understanding of magic comes from a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of Chinese, Amazon, Musk, Phoenixi, Japanese, Korean and another dozen races' folklore, she thought as she stood and stretched, I'm no real sorcerer, and have only a smattering of alchemical knowledge.  This mask is of a power rivaling Jusenkyo itself.  That alone had driven her to find answers.

She was exhausted, and getting nowhere.  She walked over and carefully sealed the box in which Nabiki had brought the mask to her.  Both Shampoo and Mousse had been warned what would happen if they so much as touched the box, let alone what would happen if they tried to use it on any of their rivals.  As she entered her room, she glanced around.  Something . . . even if that something is only frayed nerves, she thought as she scanned the area with her eyes, ears, and senses she hadn't even mentioned to the young martial artists, to enhance her mystique.  She knew if she took long enough, her opponent would do something foolish.

The young, who have their entire lives, lack patience, the old, who feel each second passing away have it in abundance, she thought, Somehow that is not right.  Nothing revealed itself, so she climbed into bed, putting her concerns down to frazzled nerves and frustration.  After she was asleep, a faint breeze passed through the Nekohanten.

---

The hiss of gas and the feeling of tugging, almost snapping, woke Nabiki.  The gas coming in was cold, but it was staying in.  She groggily opened her eyes.  It was twilit, some light.  What she felt was uncomfortable, she felt pressure building in small parts of her, then a feeling of fracturing, and the pressurized areas increased.  She realized, The pressure is breaking the ice crystals' hold on my skin, by breaking the ice, or tearing tiny pieces out of my skin.  The stiffness of her still frozen skin didn't help her reinflation.  She began to unroll.  It was a steady anguish as she inflated.  There is no joy in this, she thought as she unrolled and inflated, Only a vague lessening of the emptiness.

She finally unrolled enough to see Genma and a gas tank, the line leaning into her love canal.  Her surface was a malignant network of bulges and flat spots.  Slowly the pressure would exceed the strength of the ice and a bulge would increase in size with a snap or pop.  Nabiki would have winced at that, if she could have moved.

Genma watched it all from a chair, trying to look wise, she was in her room, unrolling on her own bed.

He could have at least warmed me up, she thought, Melted the ice.  She remained silent as she inflated.  Genma would occasionally reach over and probe her naked belly, gauging its size and firmness.  He said nothing to her, although he was well aware she was awake and aware.  When she was `acceptable` he shut off the gas.  She looked like she was nine month's pregnant, or she'd swallowed a beachball. There was no hint of a narrowing of her waist, she was vaguely pear-shaped.  She despised looking like this.  Now what?  You left me in the cold, so empty all I wanted to do was die.  Which of all my promises are you going to extract from me, she wondered of Genma, I can hear the others.  So you can't do anything too loud.  What's to prevent me from walking down there, denouncing you and just slitting myself open?

"You can fit through doors, as you requested," Genma said, smiled, "And if you think to make yourself a scrawny wisp again. . . . "  He smiled widely.  "The gas within is propane.  Let out too much, and you'll burn the house down.  If you don't just blow it up, and yourself."  He rolled the tank out of the room.  "Too bad I can't leave you out in the sun, bake you a little so this is your natural size.  But after stretching you out, you should come to this size naturally."

Nabiki closed her eyes.  He's been one step ahead of me since this started, she thought, How do I get ahead of him?

---

The order was simple, 'Get Nabiki Tendo and return her here alive!'  So many curses rained down on the head of Genma Saotome, accompanying the order, that neither Shampoo nor Mousse needed any further encouragement to leave quickly.  Both feared the fallout of those curses more than anything else, both had daily proof that curses were very real, and the gods might grant the Elder one of her `requests`, just to get her to quiet down.

Mousse had only delayed long enough to get his glasses and a load of tools sufficient to burgle or dismantle an aircraft carrier.  Shampoo got an amazingly gentle reproach to take her bonbori not her swords.

"Has Elder been so mad before?" Shampoo asked as she pedaled her bicycle, Mousse riding where the takeout boxes usually sat.  Great grandmother's fury is so great he's not even trying to take advantage, Shampoo thought, as Mousse held onto the bicycle and not her.

"Only one time in history, an Amazon warrior warned a man and he committed suicide, rather than face the Elder's wrath," Mousse commented, lost in thought, "The mask - "

"Don't think it!" she warned.  Mousse is irritating, but even the Kitchen Destroyer doesn't deserve what Elder Cologne promised as punishment for touching the box it is in, she thought, I don't want to think about touching or using the mask.

"No, who sent it?" Mousse continued, "It would be the perfect weapon against Saotome."

Shampoo growled at that, but didn't disagree.

"But I didn't send it, so who?  Kuno?  Then why hasn't he been around?  Ryoga?  You saw how fragile Nabiki was that first day, can you imagine him getting his hands on a balloon Ranma?"

Yes I can, and I can think that if he'd decided to do this, he'd destroy my beloved's manhood before destroying his body, maybe both at the same time, Shampoo thought, her shudder of fear and fury nearly spilling her off the bike.  "So who?" Shampoo asked.

"Happosai's out.  Does Kodachi like girls?  She seems to hate girl-Ranma.  Her father, the principal?  No again."

"You running out of candidates," Shampoo replied, "Next you say Kitchen Destroyer to get out of marriage, or Kasumi to get Ranma herself.  Is insanity, both."

"I can't think of anyone who would have the means and the will to do it, and who wouldn't have shown up already."  He hopped off the bike as Shampoo parked it.

"Maybe Mercenary girl target all along," Shampoo said.  Mousse didn't answer, they were sneaking into the Tendo compound.  I miss these times, Shampoo mused, The valiant and noble Amazon and her intrepid servant like out of the old chronicles.  Before Mousse decided he must marry me and he could not be just a friend.

They heard the two fathers cheating at shogi and discussing Ranma's latest `outrage` that they would have to overcome if the Schools were to be joined.  Shampoo stifled an involuntary growl.  His `crime` was fornicating with Nabiki the night after her transformation.  I no more believe that, than I would that Kitchen Destroyer became the champion Okonomiyaki chef of all Japan, Shampoo thought, Mercenary girl probably cried, and Ranma did all he could to make her stop.  Shampoo wished wistfully that he would come and comfort her.  Maybe I'll force Mercenary Girl to tell me how, she thought as they slipped across the roof to the window of Nabiki's room.  She was much fatter than she had been, and lay staring at the ceiling.  The shirt covered her breasts, a blanket her loins, her massive belly was bare, she looked like she'd been crying.  Shampoo exchanged a glance with Mousse.  He's as surprised as I, she thought.

Mercenary Girl cries like a human? Shampoo thought in utter amazement, she didn't know how the rubber girl could still cry and that anything could make Nabiki cry for real.

Shampoo slipped through the window and landed soundlessly next to the bed.  "We take you out of here."

"How?" Nabiki responded despondently, "Out the door past the idiots, I'm too big to fit through the window?"

"Valve," Shampoo said as she pointed at her crotch.

"No," Nabiki whispered sharply, "The panda filled me with propane, I'll blow up.  Besides, he damaged it.  You open it, it might never close again."

How did he 'damage' such an intimate part of you? Shampoo wondered, Ah.  Violent, Pervert Girl thinks she heard Nabiki and Ranma - she heard Nabiki and panda - I'm going to be violently sick now.

"Hand her up here," Mousse whispered, "I've prepared for this."

"You're going to hide me in your robes and sneak me out?" Nabiki asked.

Good to hear Nabiki's acid tongue, Shampoo thought in relief, `Mercenary Girl` passive and defeated is extremely disturbing.  Only worse, was Elder Cologne spitting mad and cursing.  And the other impossible thing.  Too many such shocks, and the world will spin off its axis, Shampoo thought as Mousse pulled down Nabiki's shirt, baring her back, she was halfway out the window, her belly would never fit through there.  Shampoo watched Mousse put several strips of tape on Nabiki's smooth, transformed flesh.

"How does this help?" Nabiki asked quietly.

Shampoo was basically listening, she was concentrating on the cheat-shogi game going on below.  If the Panda or waterfall man come up here -  Shampoo thought as she readied her bonbori, They'll not be sorry, they'll be dead.

"It's an old magician's trick.  Shampoo can you help me?" Mousse asked.  Shampoo, her curiosity aroused, stood next to the rotund gut of Nabiki.  "She's going to scream, cover her mouth," he told her quietly, in the Amazon dialect of Chinese.

And no one understands but us, Mousse is taking no chances, she thought, she nodded.  As soon as she had her hand clamped over Nabiki's mouth and her other hand holding the back of her head, Mousse drove a pin into the center of a piece of tape.

Nabiki screamed and kicked, Shampoo used her leg to trap Tendo's thrashing limbs.  Mousse took Nabiki's head in his hands, to look into her eyes, "You didn't pop, you aren't going to pop.  Magicians use this trick on balloons all the time."

Nabiki calmed slightly.  "I'm going to make several more pinholes.  Yes I am!" he responded to her frantic headshakes, "Elder Cologne wants you at the Nekohanten - alive.  If I don't do that, I'll wish I could pop, because what she promised she'd do to me is . . . too terrible.  Besides, this will let the gas out slowly.  To protect your home."

Shampoo removed her hands from Nabiki's mouth.  She seems calm, Shampoo thought, But I'm ready to put it back.

"I'm going to make a few more holes."

"No.  Please."

Her voice was so soft, Shampoo almost missed it.

Mousse replied equally gently, "Do you want to protect your family?  Right now you are a walking bomb."

Staring determination and a resolute nod, then Nabiki dropped her head to give Mousse easy access to her back.  Shampoo took the opportunity to silently collect a few changes of clothes from the closets and drawers.  Nothing that would be obvious.  Enough she'd have some clothes, Shampoo thought.  She also formulated another plan.  When Nabiki had deflated enough to get her through the window, Shampoo closed and locked it behind Nabiki, then slipped out, down the hall and out the open window of Kitchen Destroyer's room.  She briefly considered doing something there, but decided against it.  Secrecy, she reminded herself.