The Amazon and the Moneylender: Episode 10, Part 1:
Investigations
-------------------------------------------------------
"Great-Grandma why you make me wait if you want me
kill girl-type Ranma?" Shampoo asked irritably as they
were opening the next day.
"It is unwise to just charge into a situation that
you have no knowledge of," Cologne answered. "If this
is like the other times that the son-in-law's girl
side has been split she could be much more dangerous
than she seems. It was not wise of the Tendos to send
us away last night."
"But if she just normal girl, why wait?" Shampoo
asked, turning on the stove.
"We shall need to see how the Tendos and Saotomes
react to her," Cologne answered. "Not to mention just
how much of the son-in-law's prowess she has."
"If the Tendos and Saotomes accept her?"
"Acquiring the son-in-law's strength for the tribe
is a priority," Cologne said after a moment's thought.
"But she must die eventually. Can you provide any
information on how Nabiki would treat the girl?"
Shampoo blinked and looked at her tribal Matriarch.
"Nabiki see herself responsible," Shampoo said
after a moment. "If girl, threat, she'll help kill. If
not, she'll help girl."
"It would be to our benefit for the girl to be a
threat then," Cologne smiled. "I think we can arrange
that." Shampoo looked at Cologne nervously. If anybody
could actually trick Nabiki, Cologne could, but Nabiki
would find out about it eventually. She didn't want to
know the results of that discovery, that blank
expression on her face last night was bad enough.
"Kasumi?" Ukyou blinked as the eldest Tendo entered
Ucchan's. This was unusual, but she had some questions
to ask about last night. Like what happened with that
half-Chinese version of Ranma-chan, not too mention
how she Ryouga ended up passing out within a hundred
feet of home. "What are you doing here?"
"I've never gotten the chance to see your
establishment here," Kasumi said smiling nicely. She
walked to the counter and sat down demurely on one of
the stools, maintaining a perfect lady-like serenity.
"There are also some things we need to talk about,
where's Ryouga?"
"Good question," she looked around. "Ryouga!"
"Almost there," the muffled shout came from a room
in the back somewhere.
"How interesting," Kasumi said. "Where's he trying
to go?"
"He thinks he dropped something in the closet."
"I see."
"Did you give Nabiki that money yet?" Ukyou asked.
"I really don't want to cheat that poor girl out of
her commission."
"Nabiki is still asleep, actually." Kasumi answered
cheerfully.
"Oh that's right," Ukyou glanced at Kasumi
carefully. "She had an meal to herself."
"Oh dear, you used it on both okonomiyakis, didn't
you?"
"We're lucky we didn't catch a cold."
"I'm so very sorry about that," Kasumi apologized.
"But I needed to get her to sleep, and she would watch
for it coming from me."
"But she'd already slept half the day."
"Well, it looked like that anyway," Kasumi sighed.
Ryouga appeared behind Ukyou looking somewhat
confused.
"How did you move the dining room into the back of
the restaurant?" Ryouga asked. Then he saw Kasumi.
"Uh, hi Kasumi, what are you doing here?" The eldest
Tendo sister set a flask on the counter.
"We never got the chance to give you your cure,"
Kasumi smiled as Ukyou and Ryouga sweatdropped. "Or so
you hope, and if I were you, I'd have a talk with my
little sister."
"Soon." Ukyou added, recovering from her surprise
that Kasumi would know about P-chan.
"Uh, thanks Kasumi," Ryouga said, sitting down
shame-facedly. Kasumi stood up to leave, and then
seemed to remember something.
"Oh, that's right," Kasumi turned towards
gracefully. "My sister said something funny while she
was falling asleep last night."
"Really, what was that?" Ukyou asked, not
understanding how this could involve them.
"She said something about being in love with
Shampoo," Kasumi continued looking on serenely while
Ukyou and Ryouga face faulted. "I was wondering how
much you two know about this?"
"Uh, why would we know anything about it?" Ukyou
asked, suddenly concentrating strongly on her cooking.
"Well, I had been wondering why you've been so
jumpy around her and Shampoo," Kasumi noted. "Which
would have been easy to understand if Ryouga hadn't
continuously had to remind you 'we promised not to
tell,' over the past month or so." Ryouga and Ukyou
stared at her blank-faced.
"Are you sure that you're Kasumi?" Ryouga asked
finally.
"My sister is spreading herself dangerously thin,"
Kasumi noted. "It would be nice to understand why."
"We caught them�on a date," Ukyou explained,
editing certain facts out. She could tell by Kasumi's
face that the Tendo had assumed some of what was left
unsaid.
"I see," Kasumi noted. "Nabiki doesn't seem to
think Shampoo feels the same way."
"Nabiki said as much to Ukyou," Ryouga agreed.
"Yeah, right," Ukyou hmphed.
"You disagree?"
"When I told her Nabiki had tried to fight Ken, she
dropped a platter," Ukyou explained. "She certainly
hasn't given up on Ranchan though." Ryouga looked at
her cautiously.
"Ranchan?"
"Hey, he's my oldest friend," Ukyou noted.
"She came to check on Nabiki early yesterday as
well," Kasumi noted. The Tendo wondered a moment if
the amazon knew how much pain she was causing her
sister. "Then you don't think she's using my sister?"
"No more than anybody else that pays her fees,"
Ukyou sniffed.
"Hmm, this is an uncomfortable situation, perhaps
you could continue to keep quite about it?"
Ryouga shrugged, it wasn't like he didn't have his
own secrets. Though, then again, they were about to
make him give one of those up. Still his situation and
Nabiki's were somewhat different. He'd dug his own
grave, unlike the reportedly heartless Nabiki.
"I won't promise anything if Shampoo keeps getting
in my face about me and Ryochan," Kasumi glanced at
the blushing Ryouga and blinked before smiling
serenely.
"Yes, well we'll do what we can then, won't we?"
Kasumi said. "That black eye looks much better by the
way. I did warn you and Akane to be careful." Ukyou
took a moment to consider whether Kasumi really knew
about that, and decided not to chance it.
"It's healing nicely, thanks," Ukyou mumbled.
"Akane usually hits harder than that, though,"
Ryouga noted. Ukyou and Kasumi sweatdropped. "Weird."
"Well, I should be getting back soon," Kasumi stood
up and bowed on her way out.
"Hey, Ryochan, why don't we spend the next couple
of days training?" she asked. "I want to get the
Baksai Tenketsu down before we get your weapon skills
up."
"I'm fine with weapons," Ryouga muttered. It was
already becoming an old argument. He knew what was
coming by the smirk on Ukyou's face.
"Yeah," Ukyou agreed, she flipped her okonomiyaki.
Before the dish could land again she had drawn her
battle-spatula slashed over Ryouga's head and sent a
salvo of six mini-spatulas scraping past Ryouga into
the wall across the room. Ryouga didn't blink as Ukyou
replaced the battle spatula and caught the okonomiyaki
with the cooking version of the same tool. "But I'm
better."
"If only you knew how to throw a punch."
*CLANG*
Nabiki woke with a headache, this was quick
becoming an uncomfortable constant in her life. She
ticked off the variety of headaches she experienced
recently. There was the concussion from the fight with
Ken, the exhaustion headache when she "woke up" last
night, and now this. She was fairly certain what the
cause of this was. She turned to the clock and gave an
irritated sigh.
"They let me sleep for fifteen hours?" Nabiki
blinked. She took a quick survey of her condition. The
shoulder was still tender, but whatever healing
techniques the Amazons had used were holding, and the
arm was usable despite the fall she had taken last
night. Her ankle hurt though, she had twisted it in
keeping enough of a stance to get the water towards
Akane when Genma rushed her. Other than that she had
the headache and a mass of other annoying injuries.
She stood up and limped to her desk, and picked up
a mirror. Carefully undoing the bandage on her face
she examined the slash. It had been shallow and was
healing nicely, a thin, scabbed line ranging from the
outer corner of her eye to her chin. She couldn't tell
yet, but she hoped it wouldn't leave much of a scar.
She could do without distinguishing features.
"I should not have tried for confirmation," she
muttered. "Too much risk." Everything she had done
recently had been risk heavy.
Nabiki glanced at her door, hearing the sound of
angry Chinese, as she replaced the bandage on her
face. It was the girl the spring water had created. If
she had brought home more spring of drowned twins
water, she could have, perhaps, tried again. Though
she was fairly certain that she couldn't splash Ranma
a second time. She sat back on her bed and examined
the floor. "What are you? Some kind of pervert?"
"You can't just run around beating on people,"
Nabiki heard Ranma insist.
"You don't know what that jerk has put me through!"
Nabiki stood up carefully wiping at her eyes, and
schooling her expression to its normal bored
appearance.
"Actually he does," Nabiki said as she walked out
of her room. Ranma was holding the red-haired girl up
off the ground by her shirt. "I assume you're talking
about Genma?"
"That damn panda-man's name is Genma?"
"Good Morning, Nabiki," Ranma said cautiously. He
noted how Nabiki held herself a moment and then spoke
in a more concerned tone. "Should you be out of bed?"
"I'm fine Ranma, sore, but fine," Nabiki insisted.
"Now, I missed much of what happened last night, I
hear when it sounded like you were using Genma for a
tent peg though. Something Ranma should have done long
ago actually."
"Hey, she agrees with me," the girl noted. Ranma
smacked his free hand into his face.
~Time to see how much damage I've done and can
undo,~ Nabiki sighed, she would prefer to get the girl
alone, but that might not be a good idea. Still, Ranma
would make a decent chaperone. "I'm going to walk to
Dr. Tofu's for a check up, perhaps you can come along
and we could bring�" she looked at the girl
expectantly.
"Ranko," the girl snapped.
"Of course, bring Ranko along with us," Nabiki
said. "Considering the circumstances of her�arrival,
it is only prudent."
"Yeah, it'll keep her out of trouble anyway," Ranma
mumbled, indicating the girl with her arms crossed and
hanging by her shirt from Ranma's grip. Getting Ranko
to Dr. Tofu's had always seemed a good idea to him,
and of course he realized that Nabiki meant to use him
as a bodyguard.
"How did I get here anyway?"
"We spilled what suppose was water of drowned twins
on Ranma," Nabiki answered, ignoring Ranma's glare.
"You were the result."
"Huh?" she blinked.
"Can I put you down," Ranma asked. "Or will you
just run off after the old man?"
"I couldn't find him now anyway," she grumbled. She
started pouting and mumbling in chinese.
"Good, then let's go," Nabiki declared. "I want to
catch up on what happened last night anyway." She
started toward the stairs, trying not to limp. Looking
back and Ranma and "Ranko," she decided it wasn't a
very successful attempt. She frowned and continued
walking. "I'm really feeling much better." Ranma
disappeared into his room for a minute and returned
with his post-malleting walking stick and tossed it to
Nabiki.
"Hey, I don't want your father doing that demon
head thing because I let you hurt yourself," Ranma
protested at Nabiki's insulted look.
"Well, are we ready now?" Nabiki asked. Ranko
mumbled something in Chinese before following after
the limping girl. They had walked nearly half a block
when Nabiki started asking questions. "So who named
you Ranko?"
"She�"
"I was asking her," Ranma shrugged irritably, but
kept quiet. "Where did you get the name?"
"I've always had the name," she blinked. "What were
you saying about spring of drowned twins, what's
that?"
"Do you know what Jusenkyo is?"
"Sounds familiar�" she answered, still pouting. "I
remember almost drowning though�" Nabiki blinked and
examined the girl's chi, comparing it to Ranma's,
quickly coming to the same conclusion everybody else
had last night.
"Does anything seem familiar to you?"
"We're going to a healer right?" she asked. "And a
sifu too?"
"Doc?" Ranma asked. "Yeah, but no trick there, we
told you as much."
"There's a sifu-healer in the village and you walk
the same direction from An Kai's home that we're
walking now to get there," she scrunched her eyes in
confusion, well aware that she was being watched.
"Great healer too, unless An Kai's sister is around,
then he's dangerous."
"That sounds like Dr. Tofu around Kasumi!"
"Interesting," Nabiki commented. "And how did you
recognize Genma?"
"It's him all right," Ranko growled. "He got fat
and bald, but its him, I can't even look at a
c..c.c..cat now! Its his fault I missed my trials
too!"
"Trials?" Ranma asked. "What trials." He glanced at
Nabiki, but couldn't see anything there to answer his
questions. Then they were in front of the clinic.
"Well, here we are," Nabiki smiled. She glanced at
Ranko, the girl looked confused, scared and a little
ill. It was hard to tell as of yet, but Nabiki didn't
think she would prove to be a problem.
=====
"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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