Attached here are Scenes 52 and 53 of Spreading Wings
C&C is welcome. I have finally solved a major problem with the scenes I
am now working on. Even though this rather sticky issue has been
resolved, the writing remains difficult and I still may miss posting a
day or two over the next several weeks. In any case, I will not be
posting anymore until Monday.
Scenes 50 & 51 will be added to the web site today, along with some
minor corrections and changes recommended by those of you who offered
C&C on other scenes.
Thanks in advance for your time and attention,
Don Granberry.
Most of the characters in this piece and the setting for it, were
conceived of by Rumiko Takahashi for her Ranma1/2 series of Manga. All
such characters and the setting are the property of Takahashi-san and
her licensees. All other characters in the piece are purely fictional
and any resemblences to actual persons living or dead are purely
coincidental.
Spreading Wings
Part I: The Burning Ring of Fire
Scenes 52 & 53
Hiromasa Ozawa had been the scion of a wealthy family. Before he
could inherit, his father had through ill considered investments or
outright gambling depleted the family fortune while Ozawa was still in
college. Ozawa did not take this very well. Ordinarily the upper
echelons of society would have made certain, discreet allowances for an
unfortunate such as himself, allowing him an opportunity to recover his
family's fortune and honor. The problem with such an ordinary turn of
events in such cirmcumstances turned out to be Ozawa himself. He had
been spoiled as a child, and like most such childern, did not appreciate
what he was given, even as he assumed the world owed him whatever he
wanted as quickly as he wished for it.
His descent had been precipitous. His only saving grace was that
he worked at his natural inclinations towards meanness until they
reached the point of viciousness. This made him useful to the
organization. He served them well as both enforcer and inquisitor. Even
so, everyone in the organization hated him. The bosses despised his
constant wining and often unreasonable demands. To them he was merely a
tool and an expendable one at that. Ozawa understood this. He hated it,
but he understood it. When he had been told to settle in Nerima he had
done so with a minimal amount of complaint. Living in Nerima beat
starvation, or what would have surely been worse, being given to the
mercies of someone such as himself.
He hated Nerima before ever setting foot in it. He hated counting
the stupid, innocent jerks coming and going from the produce market. He
hated the silly rubes trying to make a living selling vegetables there.
It was a stupid way to live. Who needed vegetables anyway? Look at 'em!
Ozawa thougt to himself. There are so many of them milling around I may
as well be trying to a school of sardines or a cloud of mosquitoes. He
knows we can't count these fools! He just wants to keep me and Sato busy
until we have some real work to do. Like that night at the banker's
house.
That memory made Ozawa shiver with delight. He and Sato had tied
the banker up in his living room, then made short work of his wife right
and front of him. Then he and Sato began bringing in the man's
daughters. There had been three of them. They spent a lot more time on
each of them. Ozawa smiled remembering how furious Sato became when they
got to the youngest daughter. She had lacked something Sato had been
expecting. Ozawa got to finish off the old man by himself because of
that. They left him tied to the chair and called the police themselves
using the banker's own telephone. The pictures made it onto the front
page of every paper in Japan. Money simply poured into his pockets for
the next three years.
Ozawa's smile made the crowd flinch and move away from him. Just
like a school of sardines he thought, made for the eating. Ozawa
sneered at them in disgust, wishing he could go back to terrorizing
bankers.
---------
Nabiki felt out of place in the open air market despite her
borrowed ensemble. Worse, she never dreamed that choosing potatoes could
require the level of expertise Kasumi was trying to teach their youngest
sister. It was simply unbelieveable. Bored to the point that she was
afraid she may never want to eat anything with potatoes in it again,
Nabiki cast about for something a little more interesting.
"Well, let's see," she whispered to herself, "There are tomatoes
over there, that will probably be worthy of a much more detailed lecture
than the potatoes. And then there are...Oh, shit...there must be fifty
different kinds of squash! Then there's the the kale, the daikon, and
onions and carrots and lettuce and cucumbers..."
Nabiki started back towards her sisters, deciding that potatoes
were not such a boring topic after all. Maybe, just maybe the potato
lecture would last long enough they would have to hurry through their
grocery buying. Then they could go do some real shopping.
"Good morning, Nabiki Tendo," Kuno said, startling Nabiki. What
the hell is he doing here?
"Hello, Kuno-baby," Nabiki said. Thinking that her ensemble
greatly reduced the effectiveness of her body language, Nabiki put a
little extra effort into it. She could not have been more wrong about
the effects her attire was having on Kuno.
"What brings you here?" Nabiki asked.
"I saw you get off the bus...and...well..."
"You've been stalking me?"
"Well no, I uh, just wanted to ask..."
"Ask?" Nabiki inquired innocently as she fluttered her eye lashes
at him, "Ask what?"
"If you were all right."
"Oh, I'm fine," Nabiki said coyly, "Why should I be otherwise?"
"Well, Sasuke told me you were being chased by...that...that..."
"Gaijin?"
"...fiend," Kuno said faintly.
"He caught me you know," Nabiki said letting stars show in her
eyes and trying her best to look awestruck, "Thank heavens he was
gentle. It turned out to be a wonderful evening."
Kuno's face reddened with fury.
"A...a...a...gaijin!" Kuno stammered, "and...and...you..."
"It could have been much worse, you know."
"Worse?" Kuno's voice cracked.
"Uh-huh. Ranma was going to send the pig-tailed girl, but the
poor little thing was afraid to let Biru-chan even see her, so I talked
him into paying me to go instead of sending her."
Kuno's face went blank as he stared off into the distance.
"One of us has to go there every Wednesday."
"Ev...er...y...Wednes...day?"
"It was Ranma's idea," Nabiki said, mustering an air of
profoundly wounded innocence, "He said Biru-chan needs regular company
or his training suffers."
"Ranma!" Kuno's eyes were now completely red,
"Sa...o...to...me-e-e-e!"
"I think I'll ask her go next time," Nabiki said. She added few
notes of pain to her voice, as though weeping for things forever lost,
"Biru-chan made me so terribly sore this last time."
Smoke began to pour from Kuno's ears.
"He's so-o vigorous, you know," Nabiki said covering her mouth
with both hands as she added a faint touch of whimper to her voice, "I
don't know if I can take it two weeks in a row."
"Fiend! Despoiler of women...foul sorcerer!" Kuno's voice faded
into the distance as he sprinted away in search of Ranma, waving his
bokken as he went.
"Saotome!" Kuno bellowed in the distance, "I shall smite thee!"
"Flame on!" Nabiki said softly to her self. She knew that Kuno
would not rest until he found Ranma. The knowledge made her smile. Kuno
deserved it.
"Was that Kuno, Nabiki?" Akane asked.
"Yes," Nabiki said sounding exasperated, as Kasumi led them
towards the tomatoes.
"What did you say to him, Nabiki?" Akane asked sounding
aggravated.
"Oh, don't worry Akane. I didn't tell him anything he wouldn't
have found out and gotten muddled on his own anyway."
They reached the tomato cart and Kasumi waxed positively lyrical.
This was too much, even for Akane. She and Nabiki edged away until they
neared the cucumber cart so they could observe Kasumi from a safe
distance.
While being careful to fix an attentive smile upon her face and
never taking her eyes off Kasumi, Nabiki gave Akane a gentle nudge with
her elbow.
"...are native to South America and a member of the
nightshade..."
"What?" Akane asked out of the side of her mouth. She was doing
the same thing as Nabiki.
"...in the summer, when night time temperatures stay above..."
"Check and see if one of those is about the same size," Nabiki
said out of the corner of her mouth. She loved flustering Akane.
"...a fall crop in some areas with mild winters..."
Akane cut her eyes over at the cucumber cart. Her puzzlement
lasted only seconds and Nabiki got what she had been after. Akane was
very flustered indeed.
"...they can be grown in tropical regions..."
"Nabiki!" Akane hissed as her face turned a little pink.
"...a second crop can be grown..."
"Inquiring minds want to know!" Nabiki said in a low growl but
her eyes danced with amusement.
"...cuttings can be used for a second planting, but..."
"Okay,"Akane hissed, "anything to shut you up."
"...close relative to the tobacco plant so you never..."
Akane examined the cart several times out of the corner of one
eye.
"...can have problems with the mosaic virus..."
"Well?" Nabiki hissed.
"...too much water during the fruiting season..."
"Give me minute, I'm looking!" Akane hissed back.
"...of course green tomatoes are excellent when you..."
"Here, " Akane mumbled, holding a yellowing cucumber in her hand.
She looked perturbed.
Nabiki's eyes widened with shock as she gave out a quiet gasp.
"You are kidding me," Nabiki said softly.
"...vine ripened tomatoes come on the market sometimes in the
winter but..."
"Nope," Akane said, sounding grimly determined.
"...I like to use vine ripened tomatoes, whenever I can get them,
for..."
"Oh, Akane!" Nabiki said in devestated tones, almost too loudly.
"...and these pear shaped ones are the Roma variety. They are..."
"It's not the end of the world, Nabiki," Akane said with a hiss.
"...in all sorts of sauces, that go with many things..."
"Well, there are ways to deal with it," Nabiki answered softly.
"...sauces, pastes, ragu's and salsas..."
"Oh, yeah?" Akane asked in a whisper, "Know where I can find out
about them?"
Kasumi noticed where they were standing and stopped talking for a
moment.
"That one will have seeds in it, Akane," Kasumi said reprovingly,
"put it back."
Akane sheepishly complied. Nabiki began to choke and cough.
"Now where was I?" Kasumi asked, "Oh, yes..."
"We were talking about dinner, sweetie," Ozawa said to Kasumi as
he oozed up beside her. Kasumi's face did not register shock, what did
register was more akin to the dark cold of an antarctic winter.
Akane and Nabiki had never been away from their eldest sister for
any significant length of time during their entire lives. They thought
they knew everything there was to know about her. When angry for
instance, the worst thing Kasumi would ordinarily do would be to simply
withdraw any sign of her love for you. This, if you have a single decent
bone in your body, is a very special kind of hell in its own right.
Kasumi, so far as either of her younger sisters knew, had never, ever
raised her hand in anger towards anyone. She had proffered one small,
physical punishment on one occasion that they knew about, but that had
been so mild as to be physically inconsequential.
"You," Kasumi said in a quiet voice that was cold enough to make
the planet Pluto seem a lush, tropical paradise, "are a very naughty
man."
Ozawa, not being nearly as astute as Tatewaki Kuno, did not
recognize Kasumi's tone of voice as the portent of inevitable doom that
both Nabiki and Akane immediately understood it to be.
"Yes, I am!" Ozawa said cheerfully, "You need a naughty man in
your life, baby!" He tried to put his arm around Kasumi's waist.
Kasumi reached back and up into the air with her right hand. A
tiny little mallet, not quite six inches long, appeared in her grasp. As
Ozawa's arm began to encircle Kasumi's waist, the tiny little hammer
whipped around at a speed approaching mach one-point-five, colliding
with Ozawa's skull just above his left ear. He slumped onto the street
looking for all the world like Akane's first batch of gelatin desert.
Nabiki recalled that it had been licorice and cream flavored. Ozawa lay
on the cold asphalt twitching. Two heavily muscled dock workers walked
up and apologized to Kasumi for not having prevented Ozawa's
misbehavior, then drug him away. Kasumi twirled the little mallet around
the index finger of her right hand and it disappeared.
Kasumi turned and looked her youngest sister in the eye.
"It is not the size, but the technique which matters most, Akane,"
Kasumi said sweetly, "Always remember that."
Nabiki and Akane's mouths hung open.
"Oh, dear!" Kasumi said, "I suppose we should talk about that when
we get home, shouldn't we?"
Akane and Nabiki made no answer. They simply stared at their eldest
sibling in stupefied awe as their faces slowly reddened with
embarrassment.
"Now, where were we?" Kasumi asked as she put a hand to her cheek
and looked at her sisters, "Oh, yes! Tomatoes are..."