"You heard me," Nabiki said, voice filled with ice.
"Tatewaki Kuno, call in all his debts.""
"B-b-but Miss Tendo," the man on the other end of
phone started. "You said it yourself, he's worth more
as a source of income than merely taking in all his
property."
"This isn't business," Nabiki informed him. "This
is personal."
"Personal?" suddenly the man was terrified. It was
best not to get in Nabiki's way on anything even
remotely resembling a personal vendetta. "I'm right on
it Miss Tendo."
"Good," she answered. Outside the blast of Ryouga's
Jigoku Hi Hono'o flared against the night sky before
fading away to nothing. "Excuse me I have to go now."
"H-Hai," her minion on the other end hung up
nervously.
"Oh my," Kasumi said quietly. Soun and Genma chose
this moment to return home from another "training
session" at the local sushi bar's all you can eat
special lunch.
"What was that?" Genma shouted.
"It appears to be have been a spiral of flame,"
Soun noted technically. "It bares a remarkable
similarity to Ranma's Hiryu Shouten Ha."
"You're right Tendo," Genma agreed. "It's
spiralling outward, and the fire bares a marked
resemblance to battle aura."
"I guess that means Ryouga finished Kuno," Nabiki
said. "Good."
"Nabiki, Kasumi, what is going on here?" Soun
asked.
"Well we don't have all the details," Kasumi said.
"But it seems that Kuno attacked Ukyou and chased her
here. Ryouga then chased him out the dojo while Ranma
and Akane took Ukyou to Dr. Tofu's clinic."
"I see," Genma said. "The samurai finally snapped
then?"
"Excuse me." Nabiki was shaken, this was directly
her fault. Unfortunately for her she couldn't tell
anybody, or else it might do more damage. Also, there
was the possibility of a threat to her own health as
well. She'd tell them about the picture later, but
play it up as a mistake, an accident.
Then she realized, there was one person that she
could talk to about this. Not that Shampoo would be
any help, but at least she already knew the truth of
the situation. She also wasn't likely to turn around
and spread the story all over town. She picked up the
phone and dialed the Shampoo's number.
"Xie Xie," she heard Shampoo's voice on the other
end.
"Shampoo could I...talk to you?"
"Money-girl?" Shampoo asked. "Talk fine, what
about?"
"Not over the phone," Nabiki said. She thought for
a moment. "How about that vacant lot, it always seems
to work for Ranma and Akane."
"Okay, see you there, bye." Nabiki hung up the
phone and started walking for the door.
"I'm going somewhere for a little while," Nabiki
told her family and Ranma's dad. "Be back soon."
"What happened to this girl," Dr. Tofu asked as he
applied bandages and medicines.
"Kuno," Ranma told him, saying the name with a
great deal of venom and anger.
"I was afraid something like this might happen
someday," Dr. Tofu nodded grimly.
"Is she going to be okay?" Akane asked nervously.
"The injuries are extensive," Dr. Tofu admitted.
"But she should effect a complete recovery."
"Oh good," Akane breathed a sigh of relief. Then
Ukyou snapped awake, she tried to sit up, but found
that excessively uncomfortable and let herself lay
back against the bed.
"Where is he?" Ukyou asked, a little nervously.
"Kuno's gone," Akane assured her.
"No, not Kuno," Ukyou corrected them. "Where's
Ryouga."
At that point the night sky outside the clinic was
lit by a huge pillar of flame that must have been
about three miles away.
"He went after Kuno," Ranma answered unnecessarily
as the light through the windows faded. "Why'd Kuno
attack you? He usually just bugs girls."
"It was the next logical step in his delusions,"
Dr. Tofu said. "Considering his belief that Ranma is a
black sorcerer it was only a matter of time before he
came up with the idea of dopplegangers copying his
'loves'. And there are certain...other events...in
his history that I've been able to do anything about."
He turned to Ukyou and admonished her. "Don't try to
sit up again."
"Don't worry, I won't," Ukyou answered dryly. She
relaxed against the clinic bed, trying to ignore the
mine of breathing past a pair of broken ribs. Ukyou
noticed Ranma and Akane watching her very cautiously.
Ukyou hoped she didn't sound as shaken and terrified
as she felt. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep
for a little while."
"Perhaps you should let her sleep," Dr. Tofu
suggested.
"What money-girl want to talk about?" Shampoo
asked, curiously. The amazon was somewhat worried
about Nabiki, she wasn't acting normal at all. The
usually arrogant and cynical girl seemed almost
contrite even.
"You were right about Kuno," Nabiki said, sitting
on an old lawn chair someone had thrown out.
"What that mean?" Shampoo asked. "What Shampoo say
about sword boy?"
"He..." Nabiki faltered as she considered repeating
the events of the day. Shampoo leaped from her tree
perch and performed a cursory examination of Nabiki.
"What are you doing?"
"You okay?" Shampoo asked as she ascertained that
there were no visible bruises or marks. "He not do
anything to you?"
"No, not me," Nabiki said indignantly. "Ukyou! He
hit Ukyou!"
"Oh," Shampoo said, neutrally. "What your problem?"
Nabiki half growled, she should have known that
Shampoo wouldn't understand things.
"It's my fault!" Nabiki shouted. "I set him up to
'fall in love' with Ukyou."
"So spatula-girl in fight with sword-boy," Shampoo
shrugged. "She martial artist, she handle bruise or
two. Not like he fight you or nice-girl."
"How about a broken leg?" Nabiki asked. "Or a
dislocated shoulder? Or broken ribs?"
"What?!?!!!?" Shampoo responded in disbelief, then
she started walking away. "Excuse me, must go kill
sword-boy now."
"Don't bother," Nabiki said. "Ryouga already got
him."
"Oh, problem solved." Nabiki blinked as the amazon
returned suddenly to her normal cheerful demeanor.
"I wish I could do that," Nabiki said, smirking a
little.
"What you mean?" Shampoo asked, confused. Nabiki
laughed, an actual full laugh, not her usual snide
giggle. "What so funny?"
"Never mind," Nabiki said. "Thanks Shampoo, I
needed to talk to some one."
"No problem, but go back to work now. Bye bye!"
Shampoo leaped away in standard martial artist
fashion.
It was three days later when Ryouga finally reached
the Tendo dojo. By this time Kuno had been
hospitalized, bankrupt and under police guard. He
looked like he normally did after returning from being
lost. That meant that he was tired, bruised, covered
in a variety of twigs and leaves, and leaning heavily
on his umbrella.
"Oh, Ryouga," Kasumi said as she answered the door.
"We were wondering what happened to you."
"Kasumi?" he asked nervously. "I'm there?..er...I
mean, I'm here? Where's Ukyou? Is she all right?"
"Ukyou? I believe that she is still at Dr. Tofu's
clinic," Kasumi answered him.
"Right!" Ryouga started to turn around and leave,
but then thought better of it. He turned back around.
"Are Ranma or Akane around?"
"Don't worry, lost-boy," someone said from inside
the dojo. "I can take you there." Ryouga narrowed his
eyes as Nabiki appeared.
"I want to talk to you anyway," he noted darkly.
Nabiki paused in her stride and looked at him
curiously. Ryouga thought he noted a crack in the
girl's normally glass smooth demeanor.
"Really?" she asked dryly. "What about?"
"A photograph."
"I see, let's walk and talk," Nabiki said as she
passed the obviously angry martial artist. Ryouga
followed behind.
"Have a good walk you two!" Kasumi called out to
them before returning to the chores that seemed to
fill her life.
"Kuno had a picture of Ukyou," Ryouga told her a
little bit later after they were. "How did he get it?"
Nabiki stopped and sighed.
"From me, of course," Nabiki answered. "Something
Tsubasa wanted, Kuno saw it by accident and went nuts
over it." She started walking again.
"So all this is your fault!" Nabiki winced at the
accusation.
"I know my responsibility," she assured him. "Kuno
is quite finished here." Ryouga glared at her, but the
tone of Nabiki's speech made him cautious about
further insulting her.
"I'm keeping an eye on you," he told her.
"I would be insulted if you didn't," Nabiki said.
"Here we are." Ryouga turned to look at Dr. Tofu's
clinic.
"Thank you, Nabiki," he said, grudgingly. They
walked into the small building, watching each other
cautiously. It didn't take them long, with Nabiki
navigating, to find the single patient room that the
small clinic possessed. Ryouga peaked into the room
nervously and saw a bandaged Ukyou chatting with
Akane, who was sitting in a chair to the side of the
bed. Oddly enough he didn't even notice Akane at
first.
"Ukyou?" he asked as he stepped into the room. The
okonomiyaki chef turned to face him. Her eye was still
bandaged, her left arm was in a sling, and she had a
cast on her left leg as well. Most of the bruises had
visibly improved, however, and she certainly seemed to
be her normal self when she was talking with Akane a
moment ago.
"Ryouga?" she responded back. He walked forward to
within a couple feet of Ukyou and bowed low in
apparent shame. "What is it?"
"Gomen nasai," he said. "I was...too slow."
"Ryouga, please," Ukyou said frantically. "It
wasn't your fault. How could any one know what he was
going to do." Nobody, not even Ryouga, noticed Nabiki
flinch. Ukyou reached out with her good arm and forced
him to look into her face. "This all Kuno's fault,
nobody else's." She hugged him with her one good arm,
and he gingerly returned the embrace, fearful of
hurting her.
"I'm sorry about yelling at you," Ukyou suddenly
admitted, tears rolling down onto Ryouga's shoulders.
"I know you weren't after Shampoo."
"Who cares about Shampoo?" Nabiki's eyes narrowed
at that.
"Umm do you guys want to be alone?" Akane asked.
"Huh?" Ryouga blinked. "Akane?"
"Did you say something?" Ukyou asked.
"I'll take that as a yes," Akane said, quietly
leaving the room and dragging Nabiki with her.
"How dare he dismiss Shampoo like that!" Nabiki
grumbled as soon as they reached the lobby. "She's
twice the martial artist Ukyou is, and much more
honest at that!"
"Uh, Nabiki."
"What is it Akane?" she demanded irately.
"Why are you defending Shampoo?"
"Uh...I don't know," Nabiki admitted, suddenly confused.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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