Credit to Chris Willmore for his idea((Ten commandments))


Seven Sins

Avarice(part 1 ).

by David Houghton

Nabiki wondered when Ranma would admit he sometimes thought of himself
as  female after all why else... would he call Akane a sexless tomboy
unless he feels that's what he is. And that would only make sense if
he saw himself as female. Nabiki shook her head at that Ranma was 
definitely male.

Nabiki considered blackmailing Ryouga for money then decided against
the tack she was trying. Akane just had to know that Ryouga was P-chan.
So revealing it wasn't going to be much of a threat. Ryouga must be
playing dumb, and with Ranma and  Akane both covering for him - scratch
that. 

Her father - A good source of money but he was approaching his manic 
phase again She did not want to see his demon head. That frightened even
her. Not that she'd ever let anyone know that of course. If he was pushed
in that state she was not likely to get anything for the next month. 
Anyway she'd prefer something with less risk and bigger gains.

Genma -  definitely out, he was far more cunning than anyone gave him
credit for. It was only when she saw what Nodoka's beliefs about what
a man was, that she thought there might be method in Genma's madness.
The second thing is that it was no fun extorting Genma. He surrendered
too quickly and then if you  pressured him he would eat your meals.

Nabiki had been deceived by Ranma when he first came, twice in fact.
First Nabiki had thought 'she' was a boy and then he turned out to be
a male. A little  voice,  both familiar and strange as if from long 
ago, piped up 'Are you  certain that  he tricked you? Perhaps you didn't
want to admit...'

Nabiki shut it up quickly. It was not that either of the Ranma's was 
unattractive more that he made a great fantasy but his reality she found
grotesque, so she was surprised he had as many 'fiancees' as he had.
Suddenly she got an idea. No strings attached A film of him transforming
when naked would be a start. She smiled. This would be the best profit
yet, no matter what happened.

She knew the reason that Ranma was easy to get money off was his pride.
She picked on Ranma because if he ever used his noggin that would be a
challenge. The problem was he didn't and she was getting bored with the 
ease of which she got money off him. Now she needed to wait for Cologne
to try something on. Not that she'd have to wait long, especially if she
got Akane into the kitchen. That would guarantee an attempt by Shampoo.

Shampoo was in the Neko-hanten. Then she spots a spice on which the 
label  says 'Truth Spice. Danger. NEVER EVER USE. Truth CAN KILL.'
Next door to it is Merlin's Inhibition remover on which the label has 
'use 1 tsp.  every 20 years. Warning: Only works on females.' Shampoo
shook her head, but then remembered that Ranma was a female some of
the time. She picked up a serving spoon and put it in the inhibition
remover.

Cologne appeared and smiled. "This should catch son-in-law. But are you 
prepared to be kissed by a female."

Shampoo pointed to smaller print.<Once active stays so even if sex 
changes.> Cologne nodded at Shampoo. That was what let them down 
before. Not reading small print. This time son-in-law would not escape
them.

Nabiki went out looking for someone powerful to hire to trash the dojo
since that was usually the time Ryouga turned up. After all she needed
a back up  plan in case the first one failed. It took a long time before
she found a person powerful enough to risk even going into Nerima. Somehow
she looked  familiar but Nabiki  couldn't place her. She then decided
against hiring her it would be far too expensive but she might have 
what she wanted. She needed some

'Passion Spice?' the woman asked.

'Yes, how did you know?' asked Nabiki.

'You'll know. Passion Spice never works as expected, Nabiki, I'm surprised
 you have forgotten that.'

'But this is my first...' Nabiki tried to point out.

The woman has gone before she finished speaking, leaving a jar of passion
spice and having emptied Nabiki's pockets. Nabiki looks sad. All that was
needed was to get it into food. Problem was how to get Ryouga to eat it
as well. The only thing they both ate was Akane's food. Now that was 
another problem. Looking at the instructions on the passion spice jar
Nabiki breathes a sigh of relief. It should hide the flavour to some
extent. She decided to dilute the spice. After all she didn't want it
instant There was no way of setting up the  cameras in that case. She
headed off wondering what  the woman had warned her for. After all 
she was going  to take precautions. Anyway passion spice needed to be
swallowed. Checking the book for precautions she saw that she would have
to swallow some of Akane's cooking. Was it really worth it?

Once Nabiki walks home she considers  what to do. Every alarm bell in
her head is ringing. She forced them down. This would net her a lot of
money. No, she'd have well lets say beyond imagination and Nabiki can
imagine a fair bit. Okay not quite that much but pretty near her limits.

Akane is at the moment trying to cook dinner (and was failing as usual).
She was muttering a mantra. 'He'll like my cooking even if it kills him.'
Once she has finished, Shampoo sneaked in and put in inhibition remover.
Nabiki smiled because this played right into her hands. Once Shampoo had 
vanished Nabiki ate some of Akane's cooking and poured in the passion spice.
This should work well. Now time to set up  her camera-in her own room.
After all no-one would use Kasumi's. Definitely not Akane's. Genma would
be in the guest room and where would you not  expect Nabiki to set up
the cameras. She was ahead of them all.

Time to head to the kitchen. This would be fun. Nabiki then realised a
flaw in her plan. Akane never ate her own cooking. Deep down she knew 
it was bad but refused to admit it.

Nabiki was wondering what had possessed her to come up with such a mean
plan all for the sake of money. She beat the voice down again. But it
returned stronger.

'The inhibition spice couldn't work on me. I don't have inhibitions.'

'Oh yes you do' replied the voice, 'just a different sort. How many 
times have you refused love, and taken money,. How many times..'

The voice went on for a little while and then stopped as if it knew her 
patience was  wearing thin. Nabiki realised she was hearing her conscience.
She didn't have one, this was blatantly impossible. It was time to take
pictures.

'You'll feel guilty you know.'

She wished the bloody thing would shut up. There was no way she'd feel 
guilty about this hit. After all it would get Ranma to fight harder with 
her. Oh she'd still win but this way it would be fun again. Yes, here
came Ranma-chan and Ryouga. Oh perfect blackmail material on both of 
them.. Brilliant. She didn't believe it. The plan had worked better
than she thought. Three photos.

Damn, no Akane but still she could wish. Suddenly something seemed to
be  happening Ryouga and Ranma were separating. Nabiki cursed, if Ryouga
got lost as usual. Ranma looked to the left, the right and promptly 
went catatonic. Ryouga had started to nosebleed and fainted. Nabiki swore. 
This was not as good as she wanted.

Ryouga would recover first, Nabiki thought, and  if she didn't vanish
Ryouga would beat her up if he found out what happened, that was if he
didn't beat up Ranma first. Definitely time to cut her losses. She forgot
how ingrained their attitudes  were and how Ryouga reacted to beautiful
girls. Better move out. Oh well at least she'd got some good blackmail
material. Everybody would want to get  their hands on it but how to
get everybody  buying it without anyone being tipped off?

End Part 1.

Comments: If you want to know what's on the picture- Wait.
          Plenty of time yet.

          
Authours notes: seem to have lost pre-readers over the summer.
anybody interested e-mail me at houghtod@dcs.kcl.ac.uk