Ranma 1/2 Fanfic "Ranma Gets a clue"
Written by Asayogure
Last modified (11/2/1999)
Chapter 5, "A warriors duty."
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Begin.
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"Do you agree to the terms set forth in this final
contract?"
"Yes, with the provision that my company will retain
the rights to the returns on the stock options listed in
sub-paragraph eight title nine."
"Ah. Yes, yes. That can be arranged, let me make a
notation here . . . all right, now your provision is in the
contract, provided that you agree that the dividends for
the joint venture capital supplied as outlined in section
four, sub-paragraph three, title twelve are met and
accounted for."
"Agreed, my company sees no problems within that
regard."
"Then our negotiations are done Mr. Ikisando. If you
would be so kind as to sign here . . . and here . . . and
initial here . . . and there. Thank you Mr. Ikisando, it
has been a pleasure doing business with you."
"You are quite welcome. Mr. Nakahara, would you show
our honored guest to the door please."
"Before I go Mr. Ikisando, there was the small matter
of your companies down-payment. Will that be cash check or
charge?"
"Ha ha ha. I had quite forgotten about that, you are
very astute. Yes, yes of course. Mr. Nakahara, the
briefcase please. I trust you would like to count it?"
"No need for that Mr. Ikisando, if there is a problem
my people will be in touch. Now if you would be so kind as
to show me the door?"
"Certainly. Mr. Nakahara, would you escort our honored
guest out please."
"Yes sir. Come this way please." The very large Mr.
Nakahara beckoned the honored guest and set off down the
dim hall way. His footsteps raising miniature dust clouds
as he lurched along his way.
The "honored guest" was nervous. At the last minute
this business meeting had been re-located to this shabby
warehouse in the outskirts of the Akihabara district. This
was NOT standard operating business procedure. But no
matter, the money was in hand, and soon this would be all
over. Lost in thought the "honored guest" almost collided
with Mr. Nakahara as he abruptly stopped and opened the
door. Bowing he wished the "honored guest" a good day and
a speedy trip back.
Leaning against the door frame he stood with arms
folded across his massive girth and watched the "honored
guest" depart. The sky was over cast and the sun was
trying it's hardest to peek through. The wind was soft but
chilling, and the scent of decaying dust permeated the air.
As soon as the individual with the briefcase was around the
corner Mr. Nakahara spoke into a small transmitter sewn
into the lapel of his very expensive pinstripe suit-jacket,
which had to have been tailor made to fit his large frame.
"The target has left the premises, proceed?"
"Go," was all the answer he got, it was enough.
Nodding his head ever so slightly, three young men gathered
obstenateously at a bus stop across the way, sitting and
reading newspapers or standing and looking bored, rose as
one, straightened their very expensive looking suits, and
donning mirrored sun glasses, started off after the
departed "guest."
Sensing that something was wrong, the departing
business partner clutched their briefcase tighter and
picked up their pace, searching for that infernal subway
entrance, where was it?! Practically jogging now, the
search became frantic, dodging around other pedestrians and
stepping over or around objects on the sidewalk the
"honored guest" wracked their brain trying to recall which
block the subway station had been on. There, there it was!
Up ahead next to that news-stand.
Breathing a sigh of relief the "honored guest" risked a
glance over their shoulder, seeing nothing but the main
sights one would normally see in a densely populated city
area, trash, people and even a stray dog picking at the
meager offerings of an overturned garbage can in a nearby
alley. Sighing with relief the "honored guest" headed down
the immaculate steps to grab the next train out of here.
Preferably a bullet train.
"Where in the hell am I now?!" Ryouga muttered to
himself as he walked along the city street. He knew this
wasn't Akane's city, the buildings were smaller there, and
everything was cleaner. The buildings here were large and
close together, and this area was looking rather dirty and
run down. Looking around at the rough looking people on
the streets, the groups of young men clustered at the
entrances to alley ways and the numerous people dashing
here and there with nary a kind word exchanged between
strangers, he made a decision that he did NOT want to be
here when it got dark. And what in the heck was making
that smell?!
Jingling the few coins he had in his pocket, that he
had made doing odd jobs for farmers and the like as he
traveled, he decided to take a subway train out of here.
"I wonder if the information booth could give me directions
to where Akane lives?" He thought idly as he walked down
the street looking for a subway entrance. This train trip,
would actually be a small relief, and a chance to rest his
weary legs and backpack sore shoulders.
He had been walking for what, three . . . four days?
Ryouga finally saw an entrance up ahead on the other side
of the street, and quickly crossed. He was in such a hurry
that he almost ran over three guys in very nice looking
business suits. All of them were about his height but with
slighter builds. Their hair all had the look of
professional stylists and expensive up-keeping. Smiling as
one they fell over each other apologizing to a bewildered
Ryouga.
"A thousand pardons young sir, we should have been
watching where we were going!" They all quickly apologized
and bowed, then practically leapt down the steps." They
were obviously in a hurry.
'Hey, what nice guys.' Ryouga thought to himself.
'You wouldn't expect to find anyone with manners in an area
like this, I wonder why they were all wearing those
sunglasses though . . .' the sun wasn't even out, the sky
was very overcast. Looking up he saw the sun peek through
a gap and just as quickly get swallowed up by the
foreboding clouds.
Shrugging his shoulders, Ryouga walked down into the
train station, sniffing slightly at the irritation the
fumes from the underground tunnel were causing his nose.
He was already composing a small speech for the information
booth, to ask for directions to someplace he couldn't
remember very well and couldn't name, in a location he
wasn't sure of . . . without sounding like an idiot, he was
very good at that.
Nervously and with a growing sense of dread, the
"honored guest," clutched their briefcase close. Where was
that damn train?! Standing on the loading platform felt
too open and vulnerable, instincts were demanding a safe
defensible place to hide in when these kind of emotions
were being felt. Looking at their wrist watch for the
fifth time in as many minutes, the "honored guest" who was
starting to feel like an "honored chump," decided to get a
cup of coffee to help pass the time, and turned and headed
toward the snack area. Taking deep breaths in order to try
to calm themselves. 'I refuse to be afraid . . . I refuse
to be afraid . . .' they repeated while they walked.
Ryouga stood with right hand behind head, elbow
crooked, in the classic stance of embarrassment. Nervously
he asked the clerk on duty if she had ever traveled around
Japan, and if so to describe the various districts she had
been in, seeing as he was fresh off the farm and looking
for "adventure" as he had put it.
The young female clerk smiled shyly at him and
patiently told him that she had never traveled outside of
the immediate Tokyo area, but had been to almost all of the
districts, and so she started to describe all the districts
that she had been too. One of the distinct features Ryouga
remembered about Akane's town was that stupid water canal
he kept getting knocked into, or falling into. Ryouga kept
steering the conversation in that direction.
"Kansai sounds lovely, but I love to be able to sit and
stare at water for meditation and relaxation purposes, do
you know of any place like that." The clerk replied in the
affirmative and promptly started talking about beach-front
properties and the beauty of the Kyushu island, which she
was quick to point out she had never BEEN to, but had heard
great things about. Ryouga had to keep steering her in the
direction of land locked water without sounding like he was
impatient or a complete idiot. Finally in frustration the
clerk said,
"Well the only other place I know that has water, that
isn't an ocean or a lake or a river or even a large pool
would be the Nerima district, which has that grubby water
canal. But that is just a small district, mostly
residential. Surely you would rather see something more
exotic in your "adventures", than a water canal?" She
raised an eyebrow at him. Ryouga smiled and asked her to
continue, silently repeating the name of 'Nerima' over and
over in his mind, lest he forget. A sudden very female and
very terrified scream pierced his thought process and
stopped the clerk's intonation cold. She immediately
picked up a red telephone and spoke rapidly into it.
"Security to gate four of the poetry platform now! I
have a code nine emergency in progress, hurry!!" Looking
up to calm her guest the clerk found herself gazing at a
blank wall. 'I wonder where that nice young man went to
. . . ' she thought to herself as she got up to go meet the
security team and point them in the right direction.
Ryouga sprinted in the direction he had heard the
scream. Listening for anything that would help him find
the person in trouble, silently praying he could find her
in time to help her, furiously he cursed his inability to
go in the direction he wanted to, especially in times like
this. The scream he had heard had most definitely sounded
like a woman's scream. Ryouga had received very strict
upbringing where women were concerned. "Protect and
serve," just like a police officer his father had said,
when he had been around anyway, the curse was hereditary.
Those instructions were inscribed on his brain, he could
NOT ignore this, like many Japanese would do in this
situation, their excuse, "best not to get involved," just
wouldn't cut it for him.
"Get away from meeeeeee!" There it was again.
Skittering around the corner which led to the snack area
Ryouga saw a young woman dressed in a business suit, being
lifted off the ground from behind with both her arms locked
behind her back. As he watched and ran a briefcase fell
from her left hand. Recognizing who was holding her,
Ryouga ran faster. She was being held by one of those,
apparently, not so nice guys Ryouga had almost trampled
earlier, now he wished he had.
Running as fast as he could, he knew he couldn't stop
what was about to happen, but gritted his teeth and ran
faster all the same. Another of the well dressed men
stooped down and grabbed the briefcase and promptly ran in
the direction of the exit. The other pulled out something
small and black out of his suit jacket, and swinging hard
brought the object down on the young ladies head. Her
struggles jerked to a stop as a sickening *thud* knocked
her unconscious. The man holding her, dropped her and she
fell ungracefully face first into the ground.
Ryouga was beyond pissed. Sprinting like he had never
sprinted before, he screamed as he ran, shrugging off his
pack about ten steps away from the men, he was hell bent on
showing these goons, you do NOT hurt girls.
Hearing Ryouga's scream the two remaining guys looked
up startled, and saw a crazy person charging them.
Grinning the man who had been holding the young lady
reached into his left armpit area under his coat, and
brought out a very large and powerful looking hand gun. It
was a colt .45 he had taken from an off duty army officer
he had robbed, on leave in Yokohama a few months back.
Ryouga noticing the gun, switched game-plans and
directed his charge to the goon holding the gun. Grinning
the man pulled the trigger.
The *Crack!* of the hand guns report in the ceramic
tiled underground tunnel was deafening. At the last
possible second as Ryouga's eyes studied the muscles in the
man's gun arm and hand, and most importantly the trigger
finger, he knew a split second before the goon pulled the
trigger. Spinning to his left in a 360 degree turn that
few could follow with mortal eyes the bullet whizzed by his
face with inches to spare. Finishing the spin he made
contact with the gun man.
Slapping the outside of the gun mans right hand and
wrist area with his left hand, he drove his rigid fist
pinkie side first, hard into the nerves of on the opposite
side of his wrist. Paralyzing his hand. At the moment of
impact with his right hand he slide his left hand up the
mans wrist to the top of the gun barrel and wrenched the
gun out of the surprised mans hand. Breaking his trigger
finger in the process. The entire disarmament took less
than a second.
Continuing the force of the spin he had started disarm
him, Ryouga spun with enough force to turn any male ballet
dancer green with envy. Completing the spin he caught the
very surprised man with a close fisted hammer blow to the
area just under his ear along his jaw line. He was out in
a split second. Anything harder would have snapped his
neck. This took place in the total elapsed time of two
seconds.
Dropping the hand gun Ryouga leapt on the back of the
other man trying to run away in the direction of the exit.
Tackling him, the other man tried to squirm out from under
him and Ryouga shifted his position to straddle him.
Trying to pin the mans arms behind his back. The man in
the suit grabbed Ryouga's ankles and using an incredible
strength kicked his own legs out from laying behind
himself, to in front of himself. Then twisting violently
he pushed up and back on Ryouga's ankles, effectively
breaking his grip and throwing Ryouga off of him. Ryouga
was shocked, no one could wrestle with him and win, it
wasn't possible.
With his grip broken, Ryouga threw his body weight
backwards into a half hand spring, then with his palms
firmly supporting his momentum and weight, reversed his
motion to land quickly on his feet, using a martial arts
technique many know as a "Chinese get-up." Not pausing for
a second Ryouga jumped in suit-boys direction throwing a
viscous snap kick at his head, aiming for maximum damage
with the ball of his foot for the bridge of his nose. The
man in the suit jerked his head to the right, just barely
missing the brunt of the blow, but taking a mean graze
across his left ear, which was now ringing. He was
out-classed and he knew it, desperately the man turned and
ran again.
Ryouga was not about to have any of that again.
Jumping over the mans head he landed a few steps in front
of him, and even as the man tried to reverse or re-direct
his momentum, Ryouga spun on his left crouching leg,
supporting the sweep with his left palm he pivoted his body
weight and caught the man on the right knee-cap, the front
right knee-cap. The knee snapped under the force of the
blow and the man went down in a heap, crying out in agony
over his shattered knee, he wouldn't be running anywhere
any time soon.
Getting up heavily, winded but otherwise none the worse
for wear, Ryouga walked calmly over to the man he had just
seriously damaged. Squatting down next to the mans head,
he reached down with his right hand and grabbing a fistful
of hair, jerked the man into a half sitting position.
"Now . . . you and I need to have a little talk . . .
about why men should never, ever, ever hit women." To
punctuate his point Ryouga slapped the man's broken knee
with his other hand. Groaning, and suppressing a sharp
intake of breath the man spit in Ryouga's face. Without
breaking eye contact with the man Ryouga calmly unwrapped
one of his bandannas from his forehead, and wiped his face
off. Throwing the bandanna in a corner, he recoiled his
hand from the toss, and slapped the man across the face,
hard. Keeping his voice calm and his face expressionless
Ryouga continued.
"That was not very polite. Didn't your mother teach
you anything about manners? First I catch you picking on a
girl, who better not be dead right now, or I swear you will
wish you died first, then you go and spit in my face?
That's very naughty." Clucking his tongue at the man
Ryouga waved his index finger in front of his face, as a
father would do to scold a disobedient child.
"So . . . tell me Mr. Manners, why exactly did it take
three of you to beat up on one little girl? Afraid she
would out muscle you?"
"I am not going to tell you anything. You might as
well just kill me and get it over with. You can tell who
ever sent you though, that my boss does not like double
crossers, whoever sent you will pay, I swear it." The man
hissed through clenched teeth, his breathing labored.
"Oh no you have me mistaken suit boy. I aint gonna
kill ya. No no no. That's too good for someone that beats
up on girls, no . . . I'm going to turn you into the
police, after I drag your gimpy ass over to that girl and
make you apologize to her." Terror raced across suit boys
eyes at Ryouga's mention of the police, he had strict
orders NOT to be captured by the police. He had been
assured that if he was ever captured by the police, that it
would be a short stay. Ryouga continued unfazed.
"However I don't want you to give me any trouble while
I carry you over there, so I am going to knock you
unconscious for a few seconds. Say night night suit boy."
As Ryouga cocked his hand back, flexing the fingers he
would need to use to render the man unconscious, the man
locked gazes with him, and smiling, bit down on something
in his mouth, hard enough to make a loud cracking sound.
Holding Ryouga's gaze, the man's eyes glazed over and he
gradually went limp in Ryouga's hold.
Taking the fingers he was about to use to press the
man's knock out centers in his neck, Ryouga felt for a
pulse. There was none. Shrugging, Ryouga dropped the
corpse on to the tile floor, it's head bounced once. As
far as he was concerned, he got off easy. 'Strange time
for a heart attack though.' He thought as he jogged his
way back to help the girl, a minute later after too many
wrong turns, Ryouga finally found the girl. Running to her
side he picked her up and held her in his arms as he knelt
on the floor, quickly he searched for a pulse, it was there
and quite strong. With relief he saw her chest rising and
falling with her breathing. Brushing her hair out of her
eyes, his heart stopped for about two beats. It was
Nabiki!
In name of all that was holy, what on earth was Nabiki
doing in an area like this? Alone! Sitting there dazed
Ryouga felt a tap on his shoulder. Talking over his
shoulder Ryouga droned,
"Nice of you guys to show up. You didn't miss any
donuts or anything on your mad dash over here did ya?"
Smiling sarcastically Ryouga glanced over his shoulder and
froze. About six uniformed security guards were standing
there, none of them smiling, all of them with their weapons
drawn and pointed at him!
"Um, hi guys." Ryouga said in an icy tone of voice.
Is there a reason you are pointing your guns at me?"
Ryouga snapped. Pushing her way to the front of the crowd
the information clerk shouted,
"Wait wait wait! Put those damn things away. I vouch
for this guy, he didn't do it. He was talking to me when
she screamed. He must have gone to help her... right sir?"
The pretty lady asked, while checking his eyes for the
honesty of his answer, she was very good at judging these
kinds of things. Ryouga nodded an affirmative. His
attention back on Nabiki.
The guards bowed as one mumbling apologies. Then the
one in front snapped an order to go look for the real
perpetrators. "Move it you slugs, go go go!" Off they
went charging after their captain. The clerk stayed
behind. Surveying the damage, and noting the bullet mark
on a concrete pillar in front of where the damaged suit boy
was laying, and the gun at his feet, she raised an eyebrow.
"You did all this huh? Against this guy? With a gun?
I'm impressed." Taking over his shoulder without looking
at her Ryouga continued to tend to Nabiki,
"I didn't do it to impress you or anybody else, I did
it because it was the right thing to do. I have to get her
home! I'm sorry miss, please excuse my manners, I'm
worried about her. What was the name of that district with
the water canal, I... I forgot." Ryouga blushed, ashamed
that he had to make a fool out of himself, again!
Perplexed the lady asked, "you planning on taking her
with you on your 'adventures'?" Looking at him doubtfully,
she started to wonder about his sanity.
"No no no. She lives there."
"Oh well, in that case . . . come with me." Motioning
with her hand towards her booth the girl started to walk.
Rapidly Ryouga stood with Nabiki cradled in his arms,
scanned the ground for anything of hers she may have
dropped, then set off after the pretty young clerk, he was
not about to get lost again.
Reaching her booth the clerk typed a few commands into
her terminal and the faint buzzing of a printer could be
heard from under the counter. Smiling she slid two all day
passes across the counter. They read, "unlimited passage:
all rail lines, all destinations." Startled Ryouga looked
at the clerk doubtfully.
Answering his unasked question, "because the rail
company has a policy to make passengers feel safe after
something like this, because you did a noble deed and . . .
blushing as she spoke, because you're cute." Pushing the
tickets towards him she blushed even harder. "Take them
silly. Take her home. Go on." Grinning like a five year
old who has just been told he can have a cookie from the
cookie jar, Ryouga grabbed the tickets with his right hand
as he shifted Nabiki slightly so she was resting further up
on his arms.
Smiling shyly at him the clerk watched him go. When he
was around the corner, her knees finally collapsed and she
sunk ungracefully into her chair. Sighing dreamily, she
had to take several deep breaths to calm down. 'They don't
make them like that any more.' She thought. 'Oh shoot! I
should have gotten his phone number or something.' She
berated herself.
Ryouga boarded the next train leaving for the Nerima
district. At least that is what the ticket taker told him
as he handed back his tickets. Taking a seat against the
wall he watched the doors and the people as he cradled
Nabiki's still limp form. Her head was lolling in the
crook on the left side of his neck and shoulder, his left
arm supporting her shoulders and his right draped over her
knees and holding her firmly. Holding her, he cradled her
like a giant infant. He received several stares, but true
to Japanese form, no one said anything, and almost all of
them stopped staring when he glared at them.
Time passed and Ryouga had to fight to keep himself
from relaxing and letting the soothing rocking motion of
the train and the rhythmic clicking of the tracks lull him
into unawareness. Akane would kill him if he let her
sister get hurt.
Sitting up straighter, Ryouga played a mind game to
keep himself awake and sharpen his senses. He studied
everything with his eyes. The small tear in the seat over
there, the slightly dimmer bulb in the ceiling across the
way, sending flickering light to it's section. The small
corners of dust in the window pains the cleaning people had
missed. The blend of human smells wafting from the
enclosed space. Grocery bags and old shoes and perfumes
and colognes. Diligently he cataloged everything in his
mind. It was one of his favorite mind exercises. He hoped
that one day he would get good enough at this, that he
would remember places, and wouldn't get lost anymore.
The controlled hiss as the train's hydraulic brakes did
their job to stop it, and the polite clipped tones of the
conductors voice announced his stop. Gratefully Ryouga
stood and stretched his leg muscles. His arm muscles were
starting to feel a little worn, but he would endure.
Stepping off the train he walked along the boarding
platform, looking for the exit sign and promptly ran into
something. Taking a step back he found himself looking at
a uniformed police officer, who was now eyeing him
suspiciously.
"Hey, you there. What's going on here?" The police
officer demanded. Ryouga realizing he was carrying a
beautiful unconscious young woman in his arms, dressed in a
business suit, and he was dressed in his dingy traveling
clothes with a grubby backpack strapped across his
shoulders. Of course this would look bad. Instantly he
came up with a plausible cover story.
"My uh, my sister here tripped and fell at the last
station boarding the train. I have to get her to a doctor.
I am afraid I have never been to this town before, is there
a doctor near-by?" Eyeing the shabbily dressed young man
doubtfully, the police officer decided to buy the story.
"About half a block away. I'll take you there. Come
with me." With that the officer abruptly turned and
marched to a door marked in large red letters, "forbidden,
police only!" Ryouga hurried to catch the door before it
closed. Stumbling for a second he started off after the
officer, in the well lit, dust free passage. As he walked
he noticed that unlike all the other tunnels and walkways
through subway stations, this passage did not have any
turnstiles or other crowd controlling devices, and was
perfectly straight. 'This must be one of the passages the
police use when they are chasing someone.' Ryouga idly
thought.
Opening the door at the end of the passage, the police
officer looked over his shoulder to judge the young mans
progress, noting that he was easily keeping up the officer
started to jog. Law abiding citizens courteously stepped
out of the obviously hurried law officer. They had no
desire for trouble. Ryouga followed in the wake the
officer left. In no time they came to a squat modest
office building, it's signs proclaiming a doctor with a
general practitioners license, as well as skills in the
herbal and shiatsu area's. Opening the immaculate glass
door for Ryouga, the officer watched as Ryouga went inside
and asked for a nurse. Satisfied that this was on the up
and up, the officer started back to his patrol.
Ryouga called for help again as he lay Nabiki on the
couch in the waiting room. She had been out cold now for
about twenty minutes, long enough to be a symptom of a
concussion, a condition he was very familiar with.
"Well now, what seems to be the trouble? I was just
sitting down to eat my lunch . . . do you have an
appointment?" A pleasantly polite male voice intoned from
behind Ryouga, accompanied by the sharp sliding sound
only Japanese shogi doors can make. Looking over his
shoulder Ryouga sighed a sigh of resigned acceptance, 'it
would just have to be one of THOSE days,' he thought as he
watched Doctor Tofu entering the room, wiping his hands on
a cloth towel. His ever present glasses gleaming with the
reflected light of the brightly lit waiting room.
"Of course I can make an exception if it's an emergency
but . . . " his words trailed off as he noticed Nabiki
lying unconscious on his couch. "Oh my word, Nabiki!?
What on earth has happened to you. Oh hello Ryouga. Do
you know what happened to her?" Tofu asked as he rapidly
knelt beside her and checked her pulse and gently pried her
eye open to check the dialation of her pupils. They were
dialated, but not fixed. A good sign. If they were fixed
and dialated, then most doctors would give up on the spot.
Picking her up like his own child Tofu started to walk
into his examination room with her, continuing the
conversation over his shoulder.
"So Ryouga, do you know what happened to her?"
"Yes doctor. She was struck on the head by some guy
that was trying to rob her. I was running to help whoever
had screamed, I saw the guy do it. I didn't get there in
time, didn't get there when she needed me. I'm sorry
doctor, I should have run faster. I didn't even know it
was Nabiki. Will she . . . will she be all right doctor?"
Ryouga choked out.
"There there Ryouga, it's okay. She will be just fine.
Why don't you go pour yourself a cup of tea and have a seat
in the waiting room? Calm your nerves okay?"
"But doctor can't I stay here? Make sure she's all
right?"
"Well Ryouga, I will have to undress her to examine
her, and make sure she is all right, would she object if I
allowed you to stay? Are you two an item now?" Backing
quickly towards the door, blushing mightily, and willing
away a nose bleed, Ryouga stammered,
"No no, that's . . . um, never mind . . . I'll, um . .
. be waiting outside . . ." he quickly slid the door closed
and leaned against the wall trying to catch his breath.
Smiling to himself Tofu chuckled at the boys almost
indecent amount of modesty. He had only been kidding. He
didn't need to undress the young lady for a head wound.
Sighing to himself the doctor worked rapidly and
professionally with a skill few could even hope to match.
Cleaning and examining her wound, he washed away the
small amount of blood on her scalp and in her hair, and
rubbed a pre-made salve he kept on hand for minor
abrasions. Massaging her neck muscles and stimulating
several key pressure points he slowly brought her closer to
consciousness. The pain would be excruciating, so before
he brought her out of it. He pressed a few leaves from
some very potent pain relieving plants between her lips and
waited while the needed chemicals and nutrients soaked into
her blood stream, he gently bandaged her head as he waited.
A few minutes later he tapped the final pressure point on
her neck.
Nabiki's eyes snapped open. Her first facial
expression was one of terror. Throwing her arms up in
front of her face she cringed. Not feeling the blow she
expected to come she peeked out from under her arms.
Seeing the welcome safe sight of Dr. Tofu broke her final
wall. She wailed. Crying out in terror she hugged herself
and rocked side to side on the table. Helping her into a
sitting position he held her while she cried. Ryouga in
the waiting room, winced at her outcry. Blaming himself
for her pain he made several promises to himself at that
moment, mostly about what he would do when he caught the
rest of the guys responsible for this.
Nabiki clung to the doctor like a drowning man would to
a life raft. Finally minutes later her world stopped
spinning, and reality started to invade again. Realizing
what she was doing she violently commanded her body to
behave itself. Shutting her tears off immediately was not
possible, but she did manage to slow them to the occasional
sniffle. Sniffing the antiseptic environment around her,
she winced at the bright lights needling her sensitive
eyes, trying to sit up straighter brought a gasp of pain,
and she slumped back into the doctors arms.
"What on earth happened to me doctor? How did I get
here? I wasn't even close to home when this happened."
She whispered to the doctor, probably the only man outside
of her daddy she would allow to see her cry. And even
worse have to hold and comfort her, she was supposed to be
stronger than this!
"Well I don't know the whole story, but from what
Ryouga tells me you were attacked by at least one man, and
he hit you on the head with something. From my examination
of the wound I would say a black-jack. Quite a nasty
little illegal weapon."
"Ryouga? What do you mean Ryouga? Where did he come
from? He wasn't with me."
"Well like I said, I don't know the whole story, you'll
have to ask him, but I do know he carried you in here."
Nabiki's heart swelled, as she blushed. 'How sweet.' She
thought.
"I should probably go thank him." Sitting up and
hopping off the table quickly, her legs abruptly buckled
and if Tofu hadn't been expecting it and caught her, she
would have fallen, hard.
"You need to rest young lady." He said in the
concerned tone of a worried parent. You lie here and try
to go to sleep, I'll go talk to Ryouga for you. Without
waiting for an argument he walked to the door and shutting
off the light switch on his way out, opened the door to go
talk to Ryouga.
As the door opened Ryouga hopped to his feet, a worried
look in his eyes. Upon seeing the doctor smiling he sank
back into the couch. His worry leaving him. The doctor
sat and talked with Ryouga and listened as Ryouga told his
version of the story, leaving out the parts when he had to
ask for directions and got lost of course.
The doctor as he listened to Ryouga's story felt his
biceps clenching as his hands made fists. It had been a
long time since he had felt the need to strike someone,
back in his training days he had always been more
interested in techniques such as shiatsu and Aikido. Brute
force martial arts had never appealed to him. But he did
know how to punch and kick, very well according to his own
sensei whom he still went to see every Saturday. Oh how
badly he wanted to have been there, to have been able to
strike out at these cowards who preyed upon women!
Ryouga completed his accounting of the incident, and
nodding the doctor told him to wait there while he
telephoned the Tendou residence, to inform them of Nabiki's
whereabouts.
Picking up the phone in his anteroom he dialed,
silently praying that if Kasumi answered he would be able
to, for once, act like a normal person. Whatever gods were
up there decided to smile on him. Akane answered the
phone.
"Hello, Tendou dojo." She said in a sing song voice,
she sounded happier than she had been in a long time, but
that was neither here nor there."
"Akane, I am afraid I must be the bearer of bad news.
Nabiki is here at my office, she was assaulted."
"Nabiki?" A sharp intake of breath followed by a
muffled shout as Akane covered up the mouthpiece and
shouted the news to the family. A mad scrambling noise was
heard in the background, and Akane said breathlessly,
"We'll be right there." Then she hung up. Nodding to
Ryouga Tofu went back into the examining room to check on
Nabiki.
Sitting back in the soft fabric of the couch, Ryouga
tried to relax. Letting his eyes fall halfway closed, he
started to hum to himself as he usually did when he was
anxious and needed to unwind.
Therefore he heard the door opening to the office, but
since his mind judged this to be a safe place, he ignored
it. He did however feel it when a weight was introduced
near him on the couch, as his body due to gravity,
automatically sank towards the dip being introduced in it's
immediate area.
Cracking his left eye open Ryouga found himself looking
at a very striking young lady of about sixteen or so. Dark
hair a slight shade of bluish black, more blue than black,
long and silky cascaded down her back and recklessly over
her shoulders.
Her skin looked pale and soft, her legs were long and
slender and she was neither plump nor a waif. Her eyes
were what drew him though, they would be the most striking
shade of green if it wasn't for the fact that they were
blood shot and all around her eyes the skin looked puffy
and red... like she had been crying. She sat there sunk
into her own little world on the couch, looking absently at
the far wall, not really seeing anything.
Ryouga doubted she was even aware of his presence.
Clearing his throat to get her attention had the
desired effect, she noticed him all right, and screaming a
shout of surprise jumped all the way across the couch.
Breathing heavily she stammered,
"You . . . you scared me . . . sorry I screamed . . .
it's been one of those days ya know?" Scooting back
towards Ryouga on the couch she held her hand out in the
western style and said,
"My name's Midori, what's yours."
"Ryouga... Ryouga Hibiki... how do you do." Smiling
shyly the girl ran her eyes up and down his body, her gaze
lingering on his ample biceps. Ryouga was starting to feel
uncomfortable.
Leaning forward she started to speak . . .
"Wanna know a secret..." she began. Ryouga sat frozen
praying for divine intervention, he didn't know how to talk
to a girl! Especially a gorgeous one! That was Ranma's
thing. Before he had a chance to reply the examining
room's door slid open and Tofu backed through the door
carrying a tea tray.
"Hey Ryouga I noticed you didn't take me up on my offer
of tea, would you like some now?" Turning around the
doctor's very astute eyes took in the situation and he came
to Ryouga's rescue. Setting the tray on the coffee table
he sat in between the two, and while pouring out three cups
of tea casually asked the girl,
"So Midori how are things going for you, have things
gotten better since we last talked?"
"Well not really doctor. My dad has to go and drag me
over here after mom died to, 'get back to your roots,' as
he put it. I have no friends, my Japanese is terrible
compared to the other girls I go to school with, and I'm
just, well I'm just so lonely!" She wailed slamming her
fist into her thigh to punctuate her statement. Her eyes
suddenly watered and she winced as she sucked her breath in
sharply. She had forgotten about her injury.
Ryouga was making himself busy examining the beautiful
lacquer work on his tea cup. Polite people did not
eavesdrop on young ladies conversations. They were both
ignoring him for now.
"But Midori I thought you said you were working on
getting a boyfriend. What happened to that?" Tofu watched
her eyes over the rim of his steaming tea-cup as he took a
small sip. The tea was awfully sweet today.
"Yeah well . . . things haven't quite snapped into
place yet . . . to be honest I doubt he even knows my name
yet. I only have one class with him, home room, and he
usually sleeps during that class . . ." She trailed off,
looking embarrassed into her cup as she realized she wasn't
alone with the good doctor.
"Ryouga, could you do me a favor please?" Ryouga
jumped at the chance to get out of this awkward situation.
"Sure doctor anything."
"Could you go outside and change my business sign to
read closed, I have the feeling I am going to the my hands
full tonight as it is." With that the doctor turned back
to a whispered conversation with the pretty girl. Sighing
with relief Ryouga walked out the front door, his only
reminder of the girl was her lilac perfume that was wafting
around the room, and trailed out the door after him.
Finding the business sign hanging from a slender chain
on a hook in the wall, Ryouga flipped it over to read,
"Closed." His mind still in a daze he hopped up onto the
nearest wall pillar and sat hugging his knees to his chest.
Rhythmically he started to control his breathing, and to
force his jumbled mind to relax. As he sat there the
disassociated sounds of the city washed over him and helped
bring on a kind of peace.
The rising pitch and fall of shrill children's voices
as they played. A dog barking in the distance, and the
chirping songs of the birds as they basked in the afternoon
sun. Sun? Looking up Ryouga saw that the sun had indeed
forced it's way to the fore-front of the cloud bank. As he
watched he could see the clouds dissipating as the sun's
dominance asserted itself and it shined down benevolently.
Everything was finally right with the world again.
_______________________________________________________
End.
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