Waters Under Earth

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum - harnums@hotmail.com

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first
published by Shogakukan in Japan and brought over to North
America by Viz Communications.

Homepage at:  http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/9758

Commentary welcomed.  I'm now subscribed to the list, so, public
or private, whatever your cup of tea.  

Chapter 23 : Those Left Behind [1 of 3]

Now that lilacs are in bloom
She has a bowl of lilacs in her room
And twists one in her fingers while she talks.
'Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know
What life is, you who holds it in your hand';
(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)
'You let it flow from you, you let it flow,
And youth is cruel, and has no remorse
And smiles at situations which it cannot see.'
-T.S. Eliot

     Mousse stood and read the sign on the boarded door of the
empty restaurant once more, then turned away with a sigh and 
began to walk.

     A small part of him wished that they at least would have
kept the building intact, but the new owner had put up a
demolition notice.  Within a few weeks, there would be nothing
left of the place.

     It had been his home, though, and there were memories there.
Most of them were painful now, few of them were good, but the
destruction of that which helps you remember is never easy.

     Staying with the Kunos was strange, given Tatewaki's odd
behaviour and Kodachi's distance.  It seemed to him sometimes
that the two of them did not quite live within the same world
that everyone else did.

     But they had offered him a place to stay, and they had
offered him a purpose for a time, and he was at least grateful
for that.  

     This was not where he had seen himself when he had first
come to Japan.  He had never imagined it would come to this,
waiting to serve as a guide to the most legendary and 
time-shrouded place of his home, Jusenkyou.  He had seen Shampoo
in his arms, and marriage, and a home.

     But all dreams are dreamt only to be awoken from, and there
was a vast gulf between what you wanted to be and what would be.
He had never truly realized that before.  You couldn't make a
thing happen simply by desiring it enough.

     Mousse stopped for a moment under the shadow of a store
awning and let out a deep sigh.  Wallowing in depression wasn't
his thing; it was the sort of behaviour Ryoga indulged in.  He
himself had generally forged blindly ahead or cut his losses.

     Thinking of Ryoga made him think of Ranma, and then of
everything else that had happened.  He had wanted, intended, to
go with them to China, to search for Ranma.  He had been among
the first to raise the idea that Ranma would be near Jusenkyou.

     And then so much else had come along and got in the way.

     "Yo, Mousse."
     
     He slowly turned and nodded a greeting.  "Nabiki Tendo."
     
     The middle Tendo daughter stood with two other girls, 
contentedly taking slow bites out of an ice cream cone as she
stood in a patch of sunlight between store awnings.  "And how are 
you doing today?"

     Mousse narrowed his eyes and pushed his glasses up the
bridge of his nose slightly.  Nabiki had been a background figure
to him for the most part, neither of them ever really seeming to
acknowledge the existence of the other.  "Fine, thank you."

     "Take a walk for a few minutes, girls," Nabiki said, waving
her hands vaguely at the two girls standing behind her.  "I've
got to talk for a bit."

     The two girls skittered away; Mousse saw something that
might have been relief on their faces.

     "So," Nabiki said, stepping under the shadow of the awning
with him.  "Why didn't you go to China with Shampoo?"

     "Because I didn't," Mousse said, feeling a scowl begin on
his face.

     "Shouldn't block the door to this store," Nabiki said,
putting an arm on his elbow and urging him into a walk.  "So
level with me, Mousse.  What happened?"

     "What happened is none of your business," he replied darkly.
"And I don't see why you're so interested in making it yours."

     "Don't hate me because I'm curious," Nabiki said with a
shrug.  "I was just wondering why you didn't go along with
everyone else."

     Suddenly, she tripped and stumbled against him, catching
herself by grabbing his shoulder.  For a moment, her body was
pressed close to his, and then she moved away, tugging slightly 
at the collar of her blouse.  "Sorry about that.  Tripped on my 
own feet."

     She looked sideways at him and smiled.  "Sure you don't want
to tell me?"

     Mousse blinked and shifted his glasses again.  He had never
really realized how pretty Nabiki Tendo was before, but when she
smiled like that, her whole face seemed to light up.

     "Uhh..." he said.  "Well..."
     
     Nabiki nodded, still smiling.
     
     Mousse looked at her eyes, and saw that they didn't match
the warmth of her smile.  Seeing it in perspective like that, he
realized how calculated a smile it was, how calculated everything 
had been since she'd fallen against him.  

     Like a battle, he realized.  When direct attacks didn't 
work, you went for a distraction, and then went for the winning
blow.  He began to feel a slow anger rise in him, realizing how
many times Shampoo had treated him like this.

     And how many times it had worked.
     
     "As I said before," he said icily, "it is none of your
business."

     Before Nabiki could respond, he vaulted to the top of a lamp
post, then to the roof of a building.  He did not desire anyone's
company right now, particularly that of anyone who wanted to pry
into his feelings.

**********

     "Darn," Nabiki said, snapping her fingers as she watched
Mousse take off across the roofs.  No one paid it much attention,
the sight having become fairly routine, at least before Ranma had
disappeared.

     Almost as soon as he was gone, the two girls appeared at her
shoulder.  

     "Do you know him, Nabiki?" one of them asked, brushing at 
her hair with one hand.  

     "Yeah," Nabiki said.  "He used to try and kill Ranma from
time to time."

     "He's really cute," the second said.
     
     "I suppose he could be," Nabiki said neutrally.  "Want me to
see if I can do anything?"

     The girl blushed.  "No.  He wouldn't go out with me anyway."
     
     Nabiki knew that was true, but it didn't mean she couldn't
make money out of the other girl's attraction.  "Whatever."

     "So you'll see what you can do about Shunzo?" the first 
asked.  

     Nabiki nodded.  She also happened to know that Shunzo
wouldn't go out with her, because he was interested in another
girl.  But she could still try.  And still get paid.

     "Thank you," the girl replied.  "I'll have the money for you
tomorrow."

     "Right," Nabiki said.  "And you?"
     
     The second girl shuffled her feet.  "I can give you half
today.  The end of the week, when I get my paycheck..."

     She handed over a wad of bills to Nabiki, who took them 
while staring at her languidly.

     "Usual interest rates," Nabiki said.  "That will be all,
ladies.  Pleasure doing business with you."
     
     She turned and walked away without another word, already
dismissing the two from her mind.  School was cancelled for the
day; some teacher's conference or something.  She was using the
time as best she could, collecting stipends and payments,
arranging deals.

     Beginning to walk with no particular destination in mind,
Nabiki wondered vaguely why she bothered.  All the little schemes
she handled were nothing, not next to what she had been doing
behind the backs of her family since Ranma had arrived.  The
yakuza had always paid her well, despite the fact that she
wondered often why they wasted their money; Ranma would never
have done any work for them.  

     She shrugged and sped up her pace a bit.  It wasn't her
responsibility what was done with information she passed on; 
whoever her clients were, they got what they paid for, no more
and no less.

     Perhaps the little schemes were in anticipation of someday
getting out of what she'd been doing, the work for Yoshiyuki and
whatever syndicate he represented.  More and more in recent 
times, she'd begun to think that it had all been a mistake, all
of it.  But then again, there had been no other way she could
have seen at the time.

     She was scared these days, though, as much as she tried not
to admit it to herself.  There had been more and more hints that
she could not ever stop what she was doing, not without a great
deal of consequence for herself.  

     Turning a corner, she finished the last of her ice cream and
wiped the few sticky traces from her fingers with the paper
napkin, before tossing it into a trash can.  The crowds passed 
by, the murmur of voices filling the crowded sunshine of the
streets.

     Thinking about it, about the sheer vastness of the yakuza in
comparison to her, the situation became absolutely terrifying to
her.  She was only one person, and they were like a great 
machine; she had to go along or she would be crushed.

     Sometimes, she thought about getting away, taking the money
she had invested and saved and going to somewhere far away, maybe
Europe or the States.  Her English was good, and she was sure 
she'd be able to find work.

     What wasn't sure of was how far the yakuza might go to find
her.  She also realized that if they couldn't find her, they 
could still easily find her family.

     And that thought, despite how she tried to dismiss it, had
always left a strange, unfamiliar coldness in the pit of her 
stomach.  

     "Climbing the mountain," she whispered to herself, brushing
some stray hairs back into place.  "Safer to keep on climbing
than go back down."

     That gave her thoughts some peace, at least, and she kept on
walking, a destination in mind now.     

**********

     The blade whistled through the air, a shimmering blur in the
sunlight.

     It was a clean blow.  The upper part of the body sheared off
from the lower half and fell to the ground, gently as a leaf.

     Kuno placed his bokken against his shoulder and sighed.  He
was going to need to buy some more practice dummies soon.

     Walking over to the pile on the porch nearby, he picked up
one of the wrapped straw bundles and replaced the destroyed one
with it.  He found this relaxing, with none of the intensity of 
what he did in the underground training hall.  

     But that, that was private, and this was something that
anyone could see.  Only Upperclassman Kuno and his wooden sword,
and his dreams of samurai glory.  No more than that.

     He absently began to make slashes with the blade, his mind
on other things.  Quick as lightning, never touching the dummy
itself; he could hear, on the edge of his senses, the sound of
air screaming.  

     A few seconds later, he stopped again, letting the tip of
the weapon rest on the ground.  

     The dummy, and the post it had been placed on, fell into
several dozen pieces.  

     He thought of the first book of the Go Rin No Sho, the book
of the earth.  Musashi had said that using a sword with two hands
was not the true Way.  He didn't believe in absolutes himself; 
what should be done depended on circumstance and situation.  

     But he knew that a man with two swords, who knew how to use
them well, was more deadly than a man with one sword who knew how
to use it well.  He had begun his sword training with the same
eventual goals as why he had done anything in the past ten years;
the ultimate culmination of his efforts would make every 
sacrifice worthwhile.

     He plucked up another dummy from the ground, and tossed it
spinning erratically into the air.  He swept up the sword in his
one hand, a seemingly casual motion.

     He trisected the spinning form of straw, then bisected each
piece, then again.  Straw scattered on the grass before his feet.

     A slow clapping made him turn his head.  
     
     "Very impressive," Nabiki said from where she sat on another
part of the long porch that extended out from the glass-doored
walkway that looked out into a part of the expansive backyard of
the Kuno house.  "Learn how to do that on a moving target and
you'd be even more impressive."

     Kuno frowned inwardly.  He had not been paying attention,
and had missed her when she first appeared.  "Salutations on this
fine day, Nabiki Tendo."

     Nabiki stood up and stepped off the porch onto the grass.
"Got some information you might be interested in, Kuno-baby."

     He raised an eyebrow.  "Indeed?"
     
     "Ten thousand yen," Nabiki said.  
     
     "I am afraid that I do not have any money on me right now,"
Kuno replied.

     "So let's go inside and get it," Nabiki said.  "I could use
something to drink anyway.  I think you could too."

     Kuno nodded.  He was feeling rather parched, truth be told.
     
     "Might I ask how you entered my estate?" he asked as he
opened one of the glass doors and stepped into the walkway that
went around the back of the house, Nabiki following.

     "Your sister let me in," Nabiki replied.  "She seemed a lot
calmer, and didn't laugh once.  She on some kinda new drug or
something?"

     Kuno felt a stab of anger deep into his soul, but kept his
reserve.  He had taken worse from Nabiki Tendo before, would
likely take worse before the ultimate culmination of his part in
things.

     "If she is, it has escaped my knowledge," he replied.       
     
     Nabiki shrugged and fell silent until they walked into the
kitchen, at which point she sat down at the kitchen table as if
she owned the place and looked up at the ceiling.  "What have you
got to drink, Kuno-baby?"

     "I shall see," Kuno replied, turning his back on her as he
opened the refrigerator.  He had always found it both admirable
and mildly frustrating that Nabiki treated him the way she did;
not that he could think of any reason she should treat him
otherwise.

     She thought he was a relic, a thing of the past, and a
gullible fool.  Everyone else did as well, but Nabiki Tendo had,
for all her quickness of mind, been drawn even deeper into that
layer of his persona than any other.  

     She could think what she wanted, he reflected silently, as
could anyone else.  He did not care what she thought of him.  It
amused him, most of all, to think of how she would respond if she
knew half of the things that he knew about her.  

     He smiled to himself as he removed a pitcher of iced tea
from the fridge.  In time, perhaps, after he had achieved his
ends, he would find a way to make her see.  

     "I hope this shall serve," he said, putting the glass 
pitcher on the table and going to the cupboard.

     "It'll do," Nabiki said vaguely, leaning back in the chair
with one arm draped over the back.  She crossed her legs and
began tapping her heel against one of the chair legs.  

     The glasses in the cupboard clinked together as Kuno took
out two of them and sat down at the table to pour.  "I trust this
day of respite from our educational duties finds you productive?"

     "Yup," Nabiki said, taking her glass and sipping from it, 
the ice cubes rattling.  

     "I myself was refining my skills with the blade," he added,
drinking from his own glass and feeling the cool liquid dispel
some of the heat of the day.

     "I noticed," Nabiki said drolly.  "So where's my money?"
     
     Kuno drank the last of his iced tea and rose from the chair.
"I will return with it shortly."

     Nabiki nodded and smiled slightly, eyes half-closing as she
sipped her drink again.  "Good."

**********

     Nabiki poured herself another glass of iced tea while she
waited, then relaxed back into the chair and looked around the
spacious, airy kitchen of the Kuno house.  Kasumi would have
loved this place; everything was modern and gleaming, and it had
to be about twice the size of the Tendo kitchen.  

     She wondered sometimes what it would be like, to simply be
born into money like this, to not have to work for it.  From what
checking she'd done, the Kuno siblings received a regular and
generous stipend from the various companies owned in their
father's name.  They would never have to work a day in their
lives, and they could live in more luxury than nearly anyone
else.  If Nabiki believed in fairness, it would almost have been
unfair.

     She shook the nearly-empty glass in her hand, listened to
the rhythm of the melting ice cubes hitting against each other
and the sides, and then drank the last of it down and put the
glass on the table.  

     The sound of footsteps alerted her of Kuno's return, and she
looked up with feigned casualness as he entered the room, raising
the empty glass as if to toast him.  "Welcome back, Kuno-baby."

     She exalted inwardly at the momentary twinge of annoyance
that passed across his face as he sat back down in silence,
counting off a roll of bills from his wallet.  "Ten thousand 
yen."
     
     Nabiki tucked it into the pocket of her jeans.  "Thanks."
     
     "And the information you had to tell me?"
     
     Nabiki told him about Akane's departure for China.
     
     Kuno sighed when she finished, steepled his fingers and
looked into the empty air.  "Ahh, noble Akane, still called to
seek the demon Saotome even after his fortunate disappearance.
Firmly bound must she be to him, like the maiden to the rock,
awaiting inevitably the arrival of the monster."

     He put a hand over his face and drew a long breath.  "Alas
that I cannot follow!  Alas that I can only wait here, trusting
in the goodness of her spirit and the protection of the gods to
see her through!"

     Nabiki watched him, trying to keep a smile from her face.
Kuno's dramatics were always entertaining.  "Don't sweat it,
Kuno-baby.  I've got some new photos that you can remember her
with."

     "Eh?"
     
     "Check 'em out."
     
     Nabiki extracted a manila envelope from her purse and opened
it up, pushing out a spread of photos across the table.  All of
them had been taken since Akane had come back from the mountain,
and managed to capture the melancholy state her younger sister
had been in since then.  Akane staring out the window, shot from
behind, shadow draped across her body.  Akane by the backyard
pond, chin in her hands, the sunlight frozen sparkling gold on
the still surface of the water.  Akane packing her suitcase in
her room, a fiercely determined look on her face.

     And the last, Akane following behind the others through the
boarding gate towards the plane, shoulders slumped wearily.  

     "Only four?"
     
     "They're good shots, Kuno-baby."
     
     "Aye."
     
     "Five thousand yen."
     
     "A bargain at twice the price."
     
     "Really?"
     
     Kuno paused in peeling out bills from his wallet.  "Allow me
to restate..."

     "Don't bother," Nabiki interrupted, waving a hand 
flippantly.  "Same price."

     "Thy generosity of spirit is matched only by thy beauty,"
Kuno said, in a voice that she would have called sarcastic had it
come from anyone else.

     "Why thank you, Kuno-baby.  You can't imagine how flattered
I am."

     She added the folded bills to the others in her pocket and
stood up, plucking up her purse by the strap and slinging it over
her shoulder.  "I'll be going now, I'm afraid, delightful as it
would be to remain in your company."

     "No doubt," Kuno replied.  He pushed back his chair and 
rose.  "I will see you to the door."

     "How gentlemanly."
     
     He walked with her through the expansive hallways of the
house, till they came to the foyer, where he stepped in front of
her and opened the door, beckoning towards it once with his hand.

     "Bye, Kuno-baby," Nabiki called as she walked out the door.
     
     "Fare thee well, Nabiki Tendo."
     
     As she walked out between the tall, iron-barred doors of the
estate, Nabiki shook her head.  Kuno could be so charmingly
imbecilic at times.  

     She paused at an intersection of streets to move the money
Kuno had given her from her pocket to her purse, than kept on
walking.  Glancing at street signs, she realized how close she
was to Ukyou's restaurant.  It was nearly lunchtime, and she
might be able to scrounge some free okonomiyaki before she headed
home to whatever Kasumi had made.

     When she arrived, though, she found the place shut and
locked.  The sign on the door informed her that the Ucchan would
be closed until further notice.

     Nabiki frowned, tapping her index finger to her chin.  She
knew that Ukyou hadn't gone to China with the rest of them.  In
all that fracas, she must have missed the reasons for this.  

     Her frown deepened.  She hated being ignorant of the reason
for things; not knowing something in time often proved 
disastrous.  If you didn't know what was going on, it could eat
away at you, an unseen illness, and by the time you saw the truth
it would be too late.  

     Nabiki felt a strange tightness in her chest, and turned 
away from the dark and empty restaurant, the thoughts causing
memories to rise that she did not desire in the least to 
remember.  Thrusting her hands into her pockets, she walked away 
from the Ucchan, anger rising in her at the sudden dampening of 
her good mood.  

     "Why, hello Nabiki."
     
     She looked up from staring at the ground passing by beneath
her feet, the cracked pavement of the sidewalk.  "Hey doc."

     Tofu smiled down at her pleasantly, a bag of groceries 
hugged to his body.  "How are you today?"

     "Okay," Nabiki said non-committally.  
     
     "And how is... how is... how is..."
     
     Tofu grinned, eyes going slightly unfocused.  "Kasumi..."
     
     "She's good," Nabiki said.  "Been shopping, huh?"
     
     "Why yes," Tofu giggled.
     
     "Bachelor food, right?  Canned soup, instant ramen, that
kinda thing?"     

     "Naturally.  I am a bachelor."
     
     He threw back his head and laughed, as if it were the
funniest thing in the world.  The people passing by on the
streets began to detour around them.

     "So level with me, Ono.  You interested in my sister or
not?"

     If his eyes had been unfocused before, they were glazed now,
utterly blank.  "Oh, my, why, oh, dear me, you see... ha ha 
ha..."

     His laughter trailed away.  He took a very deep breath, and
stared directly into Nabiki's eyes, so intently she almost backed
away, before realizing how silly that was.  Tofu was harmless, as
long as you stayed away from him when he was around Kasumi.

     "Why yes, a little."

     Then he laughed again, and began to hum softly under his
breath.

     "Tell you what," Nabiki offered.  "For five thousand yen,
I'll see what I can do."

     "Money well spent," Tofu said, chuckling slightly.  He
reached into a pocket with his free hand and extracted a wad of
crumpled bills.  "That should cover it."

     Nabiki took the cash and thumbed through it.  "There's over
twenty thousand yen here, doc."

     "Keep the excess," Tofu responded merrily.  "Consider it a
bonus.  A tip.  Put your best effort into it."

     "I always do," Nabiki said.  "But you'll get better than the
best for that kind of money."

     "Delightful!" 
     
     Turning, he began to skip down the street, whistling happily 
and forcing people to get out of his way or be bowled over.  

     Nabiki shook her head and began smoothing out the money he'd
given her.  There certainly was something there between Tofu and
Kasumi; she should have started getting an angle on this sooner.

**********

     Soun dabbed at the corner of his mouth with the napkin, then
put it down beside his chopsticks on the table.  "You outdid 
yourself again, Kasumi."

     "Thank you, father," Kasumi said, a blush faintly tinging
her face.  "That's very kind of you."

     "Yeah," Nabiki said, letting her chopsticks drop against her
plate with a clatter.  "Good lunch, sis."

     "I'll do the dishes, then," Kasumi said, rising up from the
table and beginning to gather up the dishes from the table.

     Soun nodded absently and headed over to the cupboard to get
out the shogi board.  It had become such an automatic ritual
after meals that he had pulled it halfway out before he 
remembered there was no one to play with.

     He slid the board back into the confines of the cupboard and
closed the door.  He could hear the sound of water running in the
kitchen, and Kasumi humming softly.  

     With Genma around, there had always been something to do.
Sitting on the back porch with a drink or two, discussing the
future of the school, playing shogi or go, planning ways in
which they could bring Ranma and Akane closer together.  

     Now his old friend was gone, and for the first time in ages, 
Soun found he was not sure of what to do with his spare time.  

     He leaned around the kitchen door and rapped on the frame
with his knuckles.  "Kasumi?"

     Kasumi looked up from her position at the sink.  "Yes,
father?"

     "Would you like some help with the dishes?"
     
     "That's okay, father.  I'm fine by myself."
     
     "Oh."
     
     Kasumi turned back to the dishes, beginning to hum again, a
soft, pure sound.     
     
     Soun bowed his head slightly and rubbed at his moustache.  
"Anything you need done?  Shopping, maybe?"

     "No, I went two days ago," Kasumi replied.  "We're alright
for food for a while, especially since there aren't so many
mouths to feed."

     "I see," Soun said heavily.
     
     His eldest daughter glanced back at him.  "If you'd like 
something to do, you could work in the yard a little.  I've been 
neglecting the trees and bushes, and they could use some 
pruning."

     "Good, good," Soun replied, surprised at his own enthusiasm.
"I'll get started right away."

     "Thank you, father."
     
     Turning away, he walked out through the doors in the dining
room that led to the back yard, and walked the roundabout route
leading around the front of the house to the small shed that lay
near the wall.  

     Opening the door, he stepped inside and looked about the
crowded shelves of martial arts equipment and yard tools for the
hedge clippers.  Locating them on a shelf near the front, he
stepped in, wedging the door open with his foot to let the light
from outside break the darkness, and took them off the shelf.

     Moving back outside, he let the door bang closed behind him,
and examined the green-stained blades of the clippers, reminding
himself to oil and clean them after he was done.

     Then he moved on to the slightly overgrown bushes by the
wall nearby, figuring he would start from here and move on about
the yard.  It felt good to have something useful to do about the
house; he'd gotten out of the habit of working in the yard in the 
time the Saotomes had been here.

     A few quick snips sent tiny branches and green leaves
falling to the grass about his feet, and he entered into the
pleasant routine of the work quickly, thankful for the shading
branches of a tree overhead that kept the sun out of his eyes and
off his back.

     He had resolved himself not to worry about Akane, and to his
astonishment, had even managed it fairly well since she'd left
yesterday evening.  Despite the fact that she was quite possibly
going into danger, she was among some extremely powerful martial
artists, who he hoped would keep her safe.  

     The green began to gather around his feet as the time went
on, and he realized that the grass of the yard could probably use
some cutting as well.  

     Pausing for a moment, he wiped his hand across his forehead
and let out a deep breath.  The day was not cool, with the sun
hanging high in the nearly cloudless sky.  

     "Hey daddy, can I talk to you for a minute?"

-Continued in section 2


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