Chapter 3: Kasumi Tendo

Dramatis Personae:
Frank _____ - Lead character, inventor of Alpha
Alpha - First A.I. in existence
Kasumi Tendo - artificial woman based on character from Ranma 1/2

Kasumi Tendo is a character from the manga and anime series, Ranma 1/2. She is the eldest of the three Tendo sisters and is basically the mother-figure of the series. Amid the chaos of the series, she is the calm center to the family. If Ranma was a Disney movie, she would be the one calling woodland creatures to do the housework.

Although she probably had some martial arts training early in life, her skills lie in her cooking and household management.

She is probably around 20 years old by the end of the series. She has beautiful long brown hair and wears a near constant smile. Although she normally wears fairly conservative dresses, she has displayed a beautiful figure on the occasional trip to the beach.

Out of all the characters in the Ranma cast list, she is the only one who is not likely to cause major household destruction. And she is the one who deserves something better in life than just cleaning up her family's messes.

One of the reasons I chose her to be my first character incarnation is that if Alpha is able to pull this off, I will need someone like her to help manage the odd cast of characters who will be appearing over the upcoming months. Plus, I have a great story to explain her appearance here and why she cannot return to Japan. (Well, "great" in this case is a relative term. Let's say it's a story that fits in well with the Ranma-verse.)

I gazed at the unconscious figure floating in the transparent goo of the nanite assembly pod. The pod looked a bit like a Bacta Tank from Star Wars, but turned on its side and shaped like an egg. Actually, that's not much like the Bacta Tank, so never mind.

Her hair was long and dark brown, swirling gently under her lithe naked form. Her face was partially covered by a breathing mask. She had long smooth legs leading up to a thin waist. Her breasts were probably about a B-cup, young and firm with small dark nipples. I couldn't see her pubic area due to her body position, but Alpha and I had decided on a small bush with bare lips.

"Is she ready?"

"Almost. Animation was successful and she has been breathing on her own for the past 1 hour and 8 minutes. We have a 90% evacuation of the nanites from the chamber. Evacuation should be complete in 2 minutes."

I squinted at the fluid, as if I would be able to see the nanites with my naked eyes.

I had already opened the unit and dipped gloved hands into the goo twice before, once to rearrange the limbs which weren't growing in the proper directions and once to cut and tie off the psuedo-placenta -- and let me tell you that was "fun", but there's no way she could pass for a normal human without a belly button.

"Good." I went and got the towels and prepared the wash-down spray, setting the temperature to lukewarm. "How long until she wakes up?"

"She should not be able to wake up until I send an activation signal, which must be sent within 48 hours of her initial animation to avoid neuron degradation. This gives us 46 hours and 23 minutes from now until she must wake up or we risk the possibility of brain damage."

"And all the background memories are loaded? Were you able to test them?"

"A full test will not be possible until she is conscious, but there is a 93% probability that our memory implant methods worked properly."

A moment later the goo started draining from the pod. When it was pretty much clear, I opened the latch and reached out to touch her. Warm, soft flesh and a beating pulse met my probing fingers.

"Wonderful," I muttered happily. I turned the water spray on her, washing the remains of the goo off. I paused to rearrange her form so I could have easy access to her hair, feeling vaguely dirty and invasive doing this to a sleeping woman in my care. After a quick shampoo and rinse, I carefully dried her off and carried her upstairs.

I dressed her in simple pajamas and tucked her into bed. I had only purchased one outfit for her, which matched her normal house clothes from the anime, and hung it up in plain view of the bed. I put a note next to a hand bell on her bedside table. It read: "You are safe. Please ring the bell when you are awake and dressed."

I went back downstairs and started preparing a nice breakfast for her. Alpha had pointed out the previous day that she would probably be ravenously hungry when she woke up.

"Alpha, where's our letter from Mr. Tendo?"

"I believe you left it in the library."

I darted back upstairs, quickly found the letter and returned to the kitchen.

"Good. Okay, breakfast can be put together within a minute or so, just keeping the eggs warm ... all right! Wake her up."

"Waking. Do you wish to listen?"

"Sure. Actually, can you pipe the video to the kitchen monitor?"

"Displaying now."

Kasumi was yawning and stretching. She blinked a few times and looked around in confusion. She didn't look even a little bit afraid at being in a strange bedroom, which fit in well with her character which could take almost anything in stride. Eventually, she noticed the note and bell. I should probably point out that we made her bilingual - English and Japanese - with the memories of taking English courses in school.

She read the note again. I think I heard a faint gurgling, and her hand moved to her stomach. "Oh my." Her voice was almost a perfect match to the original Japanese voice actress. Beautiful.

She moved out of view of the camera, towards her clothes. At this point, I started collecting breakfast and putting it all on the tray, including the 'letter from her father' we had cooked up.

A moment later, she was dressed and rang the bell.

"I'll be up with breakfast in a minute," I yelled.

Checking my appearance in the hall mirror, I quickly moved upstairs to her room. I knocked awkwardly. The door opened, revealing my vision of animated loveliness. Her breathing seemed to quicken slightly.

Upon seeing me, I knew that the pleasure center of her brain was being noticeably stimulated by Alpha. This would happen every time she saw me until it became a natural response for her.

"Kasumi Tendo?"

"Hai, I mean, yes, I am Tendo Kasumi."

"I am honored to meet you. My name is Frank. My father was a friend of your father, Soun, many years ago. He asked for my help when your situation arose. I have a letter he left for you. You can read it while you eat breakfast, if you like."

I moved inside the room and set the tray down on the small writing table.

"I understand that this situation is probably strange and unexpected. If you have any questions after you read the letter, I will be happy to try and help answer them. You are probably very hungry now. Please join me downstairs when you are ready."

I gave a polite nod of the head and respectfully backed out of the room.

She no doubt devoured the eggs, bacon, toast, yogurt, juice and fruit quickly. Probably not a traditional Japanese breakfast, but it should be tasty. I'm no chef, but I am a decent cook.

The letter itself read (in Japanese):

My dearest Kasumi,

I have been told that you will have no memory of the events that transpired yesterday, so let me transcribe them for you.

Shampoo recently discovered a forbidden Chinese Amazon cloning technique and tried to use it to create her own copy of Ranma. Unfortunately, you touched the cursed bundle first and fell victim to it. Her Great-Grandmother Cologne arrived too late to stop it.

It turns out that the cloning technique is forbidden because, while the clone is perfectly normal to begin with, if the clone sees or hears the original person, it becomes suicidally violent and tries to kill the original in any way it can, even at the cost of its own life.

This means that there are now two Tendo Kasumis in the world. There is no way to tell you apart and you must be kept separate from each other forever, lest one of you kill the other.

I have sent you to the son of an old American friend of mine, Frank, who has promised to keep you safe.

Know that we love you, but you cannot return home or even call.

It may help to view this as a new start in life, free of the burdens you took upon yourself when your mother died. I know that I have not always been the best father since that terrible day. I fell into myself, shutting out most of the world and letting you and Nabiki take over my responsibilities as head of the household. Please view this as the opportunity to live the life you would want to, free with the knowledge that you are still here in Nerima, caring for your family.

Tendo Soun

For those readers who are unfamiliar with Ranma 1/2, know that this would constitute a normal day for them, except that the curse probably would have fallen upon Ranma ... or maybe Akane.

Twenty minutes later, Kasumi came downstairs, looking at the large house around her, carrying the tray of dirty dishes.

"Soun told me what happened and asked for my help."

"That was very kind of you. I ... I'm not sure what I'm going to do..."

Taking the tray from her, I said, "Well, today what we're going to do is go buy you a new wardrobe. There was only one set of clothes for two Kasumis, so one of you gets to go shopping!"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly impose on you."

"Don't worry about it. We'll get you a good selection of casual and fine quality clothes, along with any toiletries you need. We'll just tell anyone who asks that you're an exchange student I'm hosting. Here, you might need these."

I handed her a fake passport and visa. Alpha assured me they would easily pass everything short of a full background check.

I was generally not a big fan of shopping for clothes, but since I had become wealthy, at least I knew where to shop. I enjoyed the look on her face as we piled up the purchases, with me never checking the prices or reaching a spending limit. (The bill eventually came to almost $6000 for the day.)

When we took a break for lunch, her emotional distress became more apparent. She occasionally paused during the conversation, her eyes going misty, probably remembering Akane and Nabiki or even Ranma. I tried to avoid mentioning her family, but the subject couldn't help but come up more than once.

I did my best to steer the discussions back to topics such as what else she needed or wanted and was she enjoying herself. I wasn't trying to buy her love ... from my perspective, she was already bought and paid for.

That's not quite right. Makes me sound a bit creepy ... making her a slave. I suppose her free will wasn't quite as free as a normal person, but I wanted a friend and lover, not a servant or slave.

And now that sounds pathetic instead of creepy. How about, I wanted a lot of friends and lovers ... she just happened to be the first. (Is that fair to them? No? Well, neither is life.)

The point is, I wanted her to be happy. For that to happen, she needed to accept that she had 'moved' to America permanently.

This brought up a problem that I had thought of but apparently not thought through completely. For her to be Kasumi Tendo, she had to have her 'memories'. But that meant she didn't naturally belong here, especially not without her family. I would have to wait for a natural grieving process to complete, but I didn't want to wait.

I decided that I would have to make sure she was focused on other things, keep her occupied so that she wouldn't drown in grief or self-pity. None of her programming prevented natural human reactions, but it would make it easier to have her focus on me instead of her lost family.

The shopping trip was a good start. It let her begin building a new identity, free from physical reminders of her 'previous life' in Japan.

Knowing she was programmed to receive a spike of pleasure every time she saw me or I paid attention to her, I had her start modeling her new outfits for me. Between the shopping itself and the approval and attention she was getting from me, her pleasure center was pumping out lust and happy feelings throughout the afternoon. I think it helped her immensely to be distracted from the "fact" that she could never go home again.

On the way back to the house that evening, I offered to pay for her to attend college or whatever school she wanted to attend. We spent some time discussing her interests and talents (nursing and cooking seemed to top the lists).

I had dinner delivered and we both sat and watched TV while we ate. Our conversation started to run down around 8pm, when the stress of the day seemed to wear her down a bit. When I suggested she retire for the evening, she sat up straight and clutched at my arm.

"No, please. You've been so wonderful to me, and I don't know how to repay you. And ... and I don't want to be alone right now."

I reached across and gave her a sideways hug, moving my face near hers but not moving to kiss her.

"Kasumi, I am happy to help you in any way you want me to. But know that you do not have to do anything in this house that you do not want to do. There are no strings attached to you staying here."

She lowered her eyes respectfully, and saw a bulge straining to escape my pants. "You have been so kind, and today has been ... I have no right to ask for even more of your attentions, but I do not wish to be alone tonight."

"Kasumi ... Look at me." I touched her chin, gently pushing her head up slightly. I could almost feel her implant driving her crazy with lust right now, but her self control remained amazing.

"Kasumi, you are a very beautiful woman, and I would love to spend the night with you. But you have been through a great trauma today, and if you wish to simply be in the same room or hold someone tonight, that will..."

I was cut off at this point when she crushed her lips against mine. I mentally shouted a huge 'YES' and took her in my arms. Implants and programming were working fine! I gently parted her lips with my tongue and started exploring her mouth. We continued on this way for a good 10 minutes.

Pulling back, I looked her in the eye while my hand trailed down her arm, gently grabbing her wrist and bringing it to my mouth. I began to kiss my way back up her arm while my hands moved around to caress her back, searching for a zipper.

"Please be gentle. I've never ... There was never time to date since I had to take care of Father and ... so, I've never had any actual experiences with men. Not like..." She blushed and looked away.

I paused. "I'm honored." Yes, I already knew she was a virgin, but I couldn't let her know that I knew. "We should do this properly. In a bed."

"Don't be rude aaaaahh". Her polite reprimand was ignored as I picked her up bodily in my arms, mentally thanking Alpha again for the muscle tone.

Keeping my eyes fixed on hers, I carried her upstairs to the master bedroom and set her down on the bed. She gasped slightly upon seeing it. I had really splurged on the bed, dreaming of orgies to come. While the bed in her room was a standard Queen size, mine was custom. Twelve feet wide and nine feet long with adjustable firmness.

"Welcome to the room of many future orgies ... hopefully."

I stood her up and moved my hands lightly over her body, tracing her curves but avoiding her breasts and groin for now.

"Kasumi, you are a polite and reserved young lady, and this is a wonderful thing because you are a wonderful lady. But you are also a gorgeous young woman entering the prime of her life. This too should not be ignored, especially tonight."

I reached behind her and started unfastening her dress.

"The ... the lights..." she stammered as I pulled the dress forward, removing her arms from the sleeves.

"No, the lights stay on. I don't want either of us to be denied the view of your beautiful form."

"It's not proper. You shouldn't say or do such things."

Despite her protestations, her torso was now bare except for her bra, her dress hanging from her waist. I trailed my fingers in a spiral around one of her breasts, feeling her hard nipple pointing at me from under the bra.

"Do you want me to stop?" I asked as I rubbed the nipple. Again, not a fair question. With her implants and stimuli, she could no more want to stop me than she could successfully negate gravity by will alone.

"No," she gasped. "But it would be more proper if the lights were off."

I kissed her left nipple through the bra. "But then I wouldn't be able to see you clearly. You understand the difficulty."

Standing up straight, I gently tilted her face upwards and kissed her lips. "Kasumi, inside the bedroom, we decide for ourselves what is proper. And no one can say we're wrong. And no one will know unless we tell them."

My hands fell to her hips, where I urged the dress downwards.

Her face was now a bright red. Her eyes desperately seemed to try to avoid mine, but kept coming back to look at me, pupils wide with Alpha-induced fascination and lust.

Now that she was reduced to bra and panties, I stood back and hurriedly pulled off my own shirt and pants. I had wanted to have her remove my clothes, but was feeling a bit rushed. I realized this and forced myself to take a breath and slow down. I removed my earbud communicator and slipped it into its charging station. At her quizzical look, I said, "It's like a phone. I'll explain some other time."

She stood about 5' 6" with flawless Asian skin and features. I'm not sure when her shoes had been kicked off, but she stood on bare feet. Even from a couple feet apart, I could practically feel the heat radiating from her blush, which had now apparently spread to cover her entire torso.

I pushed her back so she was sitting on the edge of the bed and knelt before her in my obviously tented underwear.

"I need to taste you." I applied light pressure to her knees, trying to spread them. They snapped shut.

"No, that's not..."

"Kasumi, you are a young virgin who MUST experience more than one very large orgasm before you go to sleep tonight. The best way to start this is with cunnilingus."

"That's dirty. You shouldn't put your ... your mouth where it's so ... unclean."

"It's not dirty, it's..." and I stopped. There was no way I could ever let myself force anything sexual on Kasumi, and she seemed very firm on the subject. (There's a huge difference between feigned reluctance and actual refusal.) I had to work within her own desires.

I thought for a moment, then grinned widely. "Maybe you're right. If I shouldn't eat off a dirty plate, then perhaps we should clean it first."