David Lerman wrote:

At 03:45 PM 8/1/97 -0400, you wrote:

trying to.  So let her thoughts wander over to some other profitable
business enterprises.  So it was that she was completely surprised with
what came next........

  A first.  Nabiki caught completely unawares.

      The three men put away their weapons and stepped back into the
car and drove away.  They had done what they had been told to do, and
that was give a warning.  As the flames grew high in Uchanns, you can

  In Nerima, use of guns isn't a warning, it's an act of war.

      She never knew what hit her, for she never expected it.  For who
in their right mind would attack Kodachi Kuno on her home ground?  So it
was the two figures laid into her beating her soundly only the grunts
and the occasional crunch as a bone was broken could be heard for
Kodachi was not one to scream in pain.  Leaving her unconscious and
bleeding body on the gymnasium floor with all her weapons; her ribbon,
her clubs, and bunches of black roses filled with paralysis power,
laying about her.

  So much for the belief in a criminal mastermind.  A criminal muddlemind
is more like it.  How many fingers does the gang leader have left?  The
"warning" consisted of shooting Ranma's oldest friend, and seriously
injuring a member of a Nerima family that is rich enough to underwrite a
small war.  I suppose that for their next trick, they will harm Shampoo and
incur the wrath of Cologne and the entire Amazon tribe.

  Are these dunderheads purely small fries, or are they supposedly
affiliated with some larger Yakuza group?

Well, they're moving in on a teenager's gambling and shylocking
operation.  Sounds like small fry to me.  I mean c'mon.  Nabiki
might be the Wilson Fisk of Tokyo in five or ten years, but if 
you just look at the kind of bribes she takes, it's obvious she
isn't yet major leaguers.