Assassination of Nabiki Tendo
A Ranma � Continuation of sorts
By KPJAM


The characters and situations in this short work are mine except for the
characters and situations I borrowed from Ranma � which is the work of
Rumiko Takahashi, and owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Shogagukan, Kitty and Viz
Communications.

Many thanks to Merc and Michael Chase for having patience and helping me out
with this story.


Chapter Three: Nabiki's Loss

<_><_><_<>_><_><_><_><_<><_><_<_<_><_>_><_><_><_><_><_>

Nabiki continued to cry, tears trickled down her face, no matter how hard
she tried to hold them back.  Her little sister was gone, the baby of the
family.  Life at the dojo, and therefore their family, seemed to center
around her.

She picked up her hand, a little steadier now, and wiped away the tears.
She focused on Kiyoshi, fighting back the water that continued to cloud her
vision.

He was just standing there, stoic and uncaring.  A light touch of curiosity
crept onto his face.  Her life had been ruined two days ago and shattered
yesterday, and he was untouched.  A killer, she had decided a few moments
ago.  No different from the bastards that killed her baby sister.

He was a lightning rod; she decided then and there.  Her life had been going
well until his return.  She had a good career, was making plenty of money,
and her life had been what she wanted.  Her family had been safe, as stable
as it had been since the death of her mother, and then he had returned.
Even more disruptive and chaotic than the first time. This time he brought
chaos and confusion, misery and suffering, without any hope.  All in the
span of a few days.

She looked at him just standing their examining her and wondered.  Did he?
Could he have?  She felt her body begin to tremble in rage as that awful
possibility swirled around in her head.  Maybe Mr. Yamada was a false trail
he had left to cover up his real activities?  Did he leave the folder out on
purpose?  In order to confuse her?  Did he leave evidence of one crime in
order to absolve himself of another?

He frowned at her, as she began to shake with rage.  Her mind long gone down
the tunnel of blame, her body followed it swiftly.  She grasped the paper
that was still under hand, she felt it crumple as she whipped it at him with
all her might and followed it after him.

She ignoring the kitchen doors as they banged open and then shut behind her.
His hands were at his face, trying to knock the paper away as it had
scattered around him.  She swung wildy at him; her vision was obscured by
the water still present in her eyes and the pages of the newspaper strewn
around his face.


She felt her right fist land against clothed flesh as her left arm descended
to strike him again.  Before she could connect, both her wrists were
captured in a grip that could easily break them both.  The kitchen spun
around her for a moment before the breath was knocked out of her when her
back collided against something hard.

Her eyes had closed instinctively on impact, she blinked to clear out the
water from the tears that had begun to flow again, from pain both physical
and emotional.

"You!  It's all your fault she's dead!" she shrieked, as she began thrashing
around against her restraints.

"What are you talking about!?!"  She felt his hot breath on her face as he
spoke back to her firmly, raising his voice slightly.

"Akane!  My sister's dead."  She was lashing out at the most convenient
target, the one right there, the symbol and catalyst for all that was wrong.

"I'm sorry," she heard him say calmly.

That statement stunned her, derailing her anger slightly.

"You're sorry,"  she spat out.

"Yes.  Death is an unfortunate occurrence."  The words sounded hollow,
belief without feeling, or maybe it was acceptance of the unacceptable.  She
could only gape at him as he looked at her.  His face was calm and immobile,
but his eyes looked sorrowful, she wasn't sure if they were filled with
sympathy or pity.

She noticed how his eyes focused on her, like he was looking inside her.
She noticed the proximity of their bodies and began to feel uncomfortable
under his gaze.  She didn't want his sympathy or compassion, and definitely
not his pity.  He wasn't human; he was a killer.  Somewhere there was Mr.
Yamada's sister that was feeling the same things she was, and he was
responsible.

She felt the anger rise again as thoughts bombarded her brain.  The thought
process that had been recently set aside began to reemerge.  She embraced
it, she was used to it, maybe not to this degree, but she could focus while
angry, something she couldn't do while sad or scared.

And maybe he was the cause of her grief as well?

 "Did you do it?"  She accused, putting as much venom and ice in her voice
as she could muster.  Her voice sounded weak to her, scratchy also, but it
was much better than she felt.  She needed the answer, needed it now.  She
needed some clarity to this situation, to help navigate her through this
nightmare.

"What.?  No."  He sounded surprised at the question and unemotionally
attached to the answer.  He didn't show the outrage of one wrongly accused,
or the even the outrage of the justly accused.

She had stopped struggling against his hold on her, but he still held her
fast against the refrigerator.

"You are a killer, aren't you?  You killed Raneko Yamada.  That's where you
had to go last night!"  Her voice continued to slowly regain its strength,
as she focused on her anger and allowed it to give her strength.

He didn't answer right away.  She watched as his eyes drifted off to the
side and felt relief flood her body as the strange intimacy of the situation
fled.

"Yes."  She almost missed his soft reply as she was retreating into her own
thoughts, trying to retreat from the world.  She focused her eyes on the man
that still held her.

She felt numbed by his words; assumption and truth were seldom the same.
She wondered if there was any of 'Ranma' left in this person.  She had
expected his reply but found that she wasn't prepared for it.

"You can let me go now," she said, marshaling her nerve and trying to sound
as composed as possible.

"Only if you promise to behave,"  he said.

She felt her anger returning from his condescending tone.  "Just let me go."
She re-started her struggles, trying to break her wrists free of his grasp,
while she stared him down.  Finally he released her and her momentum sent
her across the room into the sink.

She propped herself up on slightly wobbly legs and turned to face him,
fighting down tears and thoughts of anything other than this discussion.

"So you are an assassin,"  she said.

"Yup."

"And you killed that guy, Raneko Yamada, last night?"

"That was me," he replied calmly, not a shred of remorse or shame.  His
demeanor only stoked the flames of her anger.  His callousness in the face
of her grief, and his causing such grief to others.

"God damn you!  What happened to you? Akane is dead. killed by someone just
like you!  It could have been you!"

"I don't know."

"You don't know!" Nabiki felt her eyes tear-up again, as she began to shake.
He was walking towards her.

"You loved her.  God dammit.  You would have killed anyone who tried to hurt
her and now you don't care."  Her words were losing fury, as she began to
sob.

"What happened...  What's happening..."

"Shh," she heard as she felt his arms come around her.  She stiffened at his
touch squirming to get out of his grasps.

"It's okay.  I don't know what's going on either.  It'll be okay."  His
voice was soft and soothing, she felt all the emotions drain away from her
through her tears as he held her gently.

She struggled against his hold, against the world that had been turned
upside down.

"Shhh," he soothed again.  His grip tightened slightly, but made her feel
safe, something she hadn't felt in days.

She broke down then, crying for what seemed like hours.  After a while,
minutes, hours, she didn't know, and didn't care, she sniffled for the
thousandth time and broke away form him.

She started to stammer something out, embarrassed by her break-down, when he
shushed her.

"It's been a rough couple days.  Just go relax.  Go back to sleep, use the
bed."

She didn't know what to say, couldn't say anything, so she left, trudging on
weak legs to his bedroom and threw herself atop it, squeezing the pillows
tight as her tears erupted again, the fear and pain of the last few days
overwhelming her.


\\_____________ ___
/ ___________{===============================
/ /_`/
/__/


Soun Tendo laid on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.  His tears
wouldn't come anymore, the ducts had been dried out from the endless bawling
the previous evening and earlier this morning.

The police had called and talked with Jiro, informing him of the details.
Soun only remembered a little of the relayed message, his world shattering
after the part about his Akane being killed registered in his mind.

He felt Nabiki was gone too, the shame of his past catching up to him now.
He hoped to die, maybe with his death, the Kami would spare his last
daughter, and his grand-children.

He had outlived his spouse, surviving her as a broken man.  She had been his
light, his redemption.  If someone as wonderful and loving as she had been,
could find worth in his worthless soul, maybe he could be worthy of that, or
so he had thought.

With her death, his self-doubts returned with a passion.  He never voiced
them, but they essentially crippled him, using his daughters' strength and
his own fear of death to keep moving, if at an altered state.

He wondered if the sins of his past had taken her as payment, payment on an
overdue account.  He stopped using the dojo, a reminder of his mistakes,
although he allowed others access to it, it was dead to him.  He had sinned
greatly to earn it and hoped that his ignoring it would preempt any further
payments from its use.

It had been too good a deal, the deal that had made him wealthy, that had
allowed him to purchase this property and find the confidence to support a
wife and children, but had it cost him those same things.

A warrior shouldn't outlive his wife.  A man should never outlive his
children.  So he was neither man or warrior.

"Father.  We're here."

Soun heard Kasumi's voice from downstairs.  "My only daughter left," he
thought to himself.  He had cried himself to sleep last night in front of
the family shrine.  Praying to the Kami and the spirit of his dead wife to
take him so he could join her.

"Father...  How are you doing?"  Kasumi asked, as she opened the door to his
room.  He turned his head to face her direction and tried to meet her gaze,
failing even in that task.  He made it to her chin and imagined the sympathy
in her eyes, before breaking down in shame and anguish.

"It's my fault," he whispered.  His voice cracking with emotion, barely
audible as he began to weep anew.

"There, there, Father.  It will be alright."

Kasumi had walked up to the side of his bed, sitting on the edge she placed
a hand upon his shoulder that he instinctively grasped.

"I should have...  I should have protected them."

"You did your best, Father."  He heard the strain in his daughter's voice,
and wondered if she would believe that if she knew...

"They're coming for me... it's my punishment.  First Nabiki, now Akane.
Kasumi, stay here, I have to protect you."  He had made the choices he made
in life, it was a warrior's duty to protect those he loved, something he had
failed to do since he made that deal.  That stupid deal he helped his friend
make. A deal he had little to do with, but his life had been haunted by
making it.  It was past time he fought back.

He climbed out of bed, putting his robe on as he started for the door.

"Father?"  Kasumi asked, placing a hand on his shoulder again.

He stopped at her words, the worry he heard in her voice affecting him
further.  Everything would be alright, he was going to see to that, and he
was going to start now.

"Everything will be fine, Daughter.  I'll make sure of that."  He pressing
his hands atop hers to steady himself and appear to comfort her.  He had
failed his other daughters, his wife, and his grandchildren, he wouldn't
continue to fail them.  A fire had been lit in his belly, sparking amidst
the emptiness that had consumed him.

He made it downstairs to the phone, walking past both his sons-in-laws,
knowing that they would take up positions with his daughter and follow him.

He picked up the receiver with a certainty of purpose that was lacking
moments before, lacking for ages and dialed a number he knew by heart but
had never used.

"Hello?"  A voice he knew well answered the phone.

"Saotome.  They killed my babies," he wailed.  His resolve destroyed when he
heard his dearest friend's voice.


\\_____________ ___
/ ___________{===============================
/ /_`/
/__/


Sato Fujiyama sat quietly behind his desk as detective Yamamoto seated
himself in the chair across from him.

Sato really didn't have the time nor desire to worry about the whereabouts
of Miss Tendo, and the death of her sister concerned him even less, but
appearances must be kept.

"Thank you for seeing me, Mr. Fujiyama.  I'm sure you're very busy.  I'll
try and keep this brief."

"No problem.  I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say how concerned we
are about Ms. Tendo and how tragic the incident with her sister is.  If
there is anything I or my firm can do to help the police or Ms. Tendo's
family, we will of course do it," he spoke sincerely, reflecting the gravity
of the situation through his words and voice.

He practiced his sympathetic and understanding tones constantly.  Sympathy
and grief played a major role in lawsuits.  He prided himself on coming
across as sincere and trustworthy, two attributes that weren't a part of his
personality, but extremely important to his success as a lawyer.

"That's very good to hear, sir.  I just have a few questions that shouldn't
take up too much of your time."

"So...  No one from the office called the police yesterday when Ms. Tendo
failed to show-up for work?"

"Not to my knowledge.  While it was strange and out-of-character for Ms.
Tendo to be negligent of her job; I don't think anyone considered it a
police matter."

"Did anyone try and contact Ms. Tendo?"

"I assume her secretary did."

"Was Ms. Tendo working on anything extra sensitive?  Anything that might
prompt actions such as these to get rid of her?"

"No, Inspector.  Ms. Tendo wasn't working on anything extraordinary to my
knowledge.   She was leading up a small case that was headed towards
arbitration, and she was second or third on a few others.  All of those
cases are extremely straight-forward, and undistinguished."

"Do you know if Ms. Tendo had any enemies, or people who would benefit from
her disappearing?"

"No.  I don't know her personally, and I can't think of anyone here that has
anything but the highest regard for her.  She had a very bright future here,
she had handled herself with distinction and everyone appreciated her
efforts and abilities.  It really is a large loss for our firm, someone of
her caliber doesn't come around too often.  I feel there really is little I
can help you with."

"You've been most helpful.  Is it possible for me to obtain a copy of her
cases?"

"I'm sorry, detective.  Cases are extremely sensitive.  It would be possible
for me to provide you with public summaries of them, but that would be all."

"That would be acceptable for now.  Thank you for your time," he said when
standing.

"My pleasure, Detective Yamamoto.  If you need anything further please call
my secretary," Mr. Fujiyama said, as he watched the detective walk out of
the room.


The intercom buzzed as soon as the detective walked out of the door.  "Yes,"
he said immediately after he depressed the button.

"Mr. Mori on line seven."

"Okay."  He picked up his phone and pressed the necessary buttons to receive
the call.

"Mr. Mori, so glad you could return my call."

"Yes.  What can I do for you?"

"Everything is going according to plan.  We should meet and officially close
this deal."

"I'm pleased to hear that, how does dinner sound?"

"I can have the paper work drawn up and ready on our end."

"Wonderful, bring an account and I'll have both transfers completed in the
morning, we can then put this unfortunate situation behind us."

"Everything will be ready."  Mr. Fujiyama placed the receiver down.  He
needed to get a lot of paper work settled by dinner, and there were also the
plans for his much needed vacation, first class, thanks to the generosity of
Mr. Mori.


\\_____________ ___
/ ___________{===============================
/ /_`/
/__/


Nabiki woke later in the morning feeling like crap.  Although the bed was
much more comfortable than the couch, she felt drained.

She made her way out of the bed, exiting the bedroom to an empty apartment.
"Ran... Kiyoshi," she called, silently berating herself for the slip.

She walked around the apartment, curious of the silence, until she spotted a
short note on the table.  All it said was that Kiyoshi was out running
errands and would return shortly.

She sat down and began eating some fruit and drinking her coffee, wondering
what was going to happen to her.  Someone killed her sister, and it wasn't
Kiyoshi, or at least she didn't think it was. If it was him, then her being
alive made no sense, why hadn't he killed her?

He must not have killed Akane, that was a certainty, or as certain as she
could be about anything.

So whoever killed her sister was trying to kill her, that was the most
logical assumption.  The same people who tried to kill her the other night,
but why?  What had she done that warranted her death?

She thought back to the folders she had seen on her birthday.  Ranma had
been Alpha, the e-mail she had been shown confirmed that, but what she didn'
t understand was what it was doing in Homohato's computer system.  Her
second question was what was in the other folders?

She didn't consider herself paranoid, or that life was filled with too many
coincidences, but could she know the others also?   Shampoo, Mousse,
Cologne, Ukyo, Konatsu, and Ryoga had all disappeared shortly after Ranma.
Did they share the same fate?

What was Ranma's fate?  He was currently living as an assassin, without
memories of anything more than a few years ago.  What happened in the
intervening years?  Most importantly, what did he know about the people who
had tried to kill them?  He had told her little, but that meant less than a
one-yen piece.

The door opened and Kiyoshi walked in carrying a couple of shopping bags.
She nodded to him, not sure of what to say when he dropped off both bags on
the counter.  He reached inside and produced two boxes and walked over to
her.

She looked at both boxes, her curiosity piqued.  They were hair-dyes, good
quality dyes, one red, one blonde.

"We need to disguise you, sooner rather than later.  I can do it for you, if
you want?"

She took both boxes from his hands.  She had forgotten about disguising
herself.  She considered each box, weighing them in her hands while trying
to picture what she would look like under either color.

She grabbed the blonde dye, neither one would be inconspicuous, but there
were a few more blonde women in Japan then red-heads, and she felt the color
looked less trashy.

"Tomorrow after it sets completely we can go get some pictures taken for a
new set of  IDs and passports, before we take a trip."

Nabiki's mind worked hard to catch-up with the man.  He constantly withheld
information and now he was spewing it out in a rush.

"New ID and passport I can understand, but a trip?"

He reached into the bag and produced another folder, dropping it on the
counter in front of her.

She looked at it curiously for a second before she picked it up.  She almost
gasped when she saw the name on the top of the folder, "Ukyo Kuonji."

"There are two ends to every story, a beginning and an end.  I've had little
luck finding out the end of my story, I though we might start at the
beginning."

She thought for a second, skimming through he folder.  She found a current
address in the outskirts of Kyoto, apparently she lived alone.

"Why her?"

"Other than your family and Mrs. Saotome, she was the first that could be
located.  I don't believe your family would know any more than you do, the
same with Mrs. Saotome."

"Do you really believe Ukyo would know anything?"

"Not really, but it's worth a shot.  It should be an easy assignment, maybe
not the most important, but it's the one we're most able to handle right
now, and I have a few free days to kill."

She blanched at his reference to his work, and the unintentional pun, but
considering the few things she knew about the situation it wasn't that bad
of an idea.

"What about my sister's killer?"  Kyoto would only be a day trip, she wasn't
complaining per se, but if he had already forgotten she would make sure he
didn't.

"I did a search for contracts out on you or her.  It came up empty.  Either
they placed a contract directly with a person or they went through a central
database."

"You searched for contracts?"

"There are a few places where contracts are floated, usually for the simpler
jobs.  People just starting out usually take those, they don't pay as well
and because they're posted, security is a problem.  For people starting out
it a good way to get known, until they can set up there own system of
contacts and informants."

Nabiki just blinked, this was something she was completely unaware of.

"The listings are small and hard to come by.  The contractors are anonymous,
and so are the people contracting unless a job is matched, which is done
through a central location.  The people who run the operation are low-level
members of various organizations trying to prove themselves."

"But back to your sister.  I can only assume they were trying to hit you and
made a mistake.  So it has something to do with you, and the only thing you
were suspicious about is this Homohato company.  You can use the laptop
tomorrow to continue your looking, otherwise there's no reason that we need
to stay in Tokyo right now.  In fact, it's better that we do this now, when
we are free to move, as opposed to a time when we might need to stay in
Tokyo."

She couldn't dispute any of his arguments so she nodded her head and headed
to the bathroom intent on making herself look like a different person.



\\_____________ ___
/ ___________{===============================/ /_`/
/__/


Genma Saotome walked out of his office building, he had been blissfully
ignorant of the happenings to the Tendo family until Soun's phone-call.
They had talked for hours until Soun had berate him into visiting and coming
up with a plan.  If they hadn't so much history together he would have
refused, he was going to refuse until Soun had mentioned his wife Nodoka.
If nothing else he had to keep his whereabouts a secret from his wife.

He walked across the plaza in front of his building towards the street,
intent on making his way to the train line to catch a train to Nerima, a
place he hadn't been in over ten years.

There was a limousine with tinted windows parked in front.  The driver was
walking around the front of it towards him.  He paid little attention to it
until a hand was placed on his shoulder and the driver leaned into him to
whisper.

"Genma Saotome, Mr. Abe wants to speak with you."

Genma stopped dead in his tracks.  Being called by that name, something he
hadn't been called in years, scared him almost as much as the fact that Mr.
Abe had summoned him.

He bowed his head in resignation and allowed himself to be escorted to the
limousine, looking in he saw the face of the man that ruined his life.

"I hear you're on your way to Nerima.  I though I'd give you a lift.  It's
only proper for us both to pay our respects to Soun."

Genma shivered as he stepped into the car.


\\_____________ ___
/ ___________{===============================
/ /_`/
/__/


Soun Tendo was busy being a grandfather, he had taken out his old game board
in anticipation of his friend arriving.  He was passing the time teaching hi
s grandson how to play, trying to refocus his mind with this action.

Though he didn't have a concrete plan yet, he felt that it would come down
to murder.  He didn't like the idea, but it was for his family.  He had to
protect the pieces that were left.

He was still agonizing over Nabiki, lost as to what he needed to do.  The
police had no leads and Nabiki was the person in the family that would
normally take care of these things.

Hopefully Genma would provide some answers there as well.  Just then the
doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," he cried out, as he hopped from his seat, telling his
grandson he'd be back in a minute.

He rushed past a startled Kasumi as he hurried down the hallway to the front
door.  He flung the door open, a big grin was plastered to his face,
anticipating seeing his long lost, friend.  His grin changed instantly to a
snarl when he beheld the person standing there.

"You!!!  How dare you defile this doorway.  Have you no shame!?!" he spat at
Commander Abe.

"I have merely come to express my condolences for the loss of you daughter,"
the man said gently, confusing Soun greatly.

"I take it she was your sister," Abe said to Kasumi, who had walked up
behind her father.

"Yes.  Thank you for kind words, Mr. Ah?"

"Abe, Shissio Abe.  And I assume you're, Kasumi?"

"Yes?"  She replied questioning.

"I'm an old acquaintance of your father's."

"Yes. One who was just leaving."  Soun said rudely.

"Father!  I'm sorry, Mr. Abe.  You'll have to forgive my father."

"I understand the situation.  Although I must ask Soun to come with me for a
short time.  It concerns a phone call he made this afternoon,"  He said
apologetically, while he turned slightly, pointing at the black limousine
parked in front of the house.

Soun was about to protest when he noticed the man standing in front of the
car.  When Shissio Abe pointed, the man casually reached inside his coat
pocket as if he were grabbing for something.

Soun nodded, reluctantly acquiescing.  "I'll be back shortly, Kasumi," he
said without looking and walked slowly towards the car.


He walked through the front gate straight to the door that the man
indicated, stopping momentarily only when he saw Genma sulking in back seat.


\\_____________ ___
/ ___________{===============================
/ /_`/
/__/


Nabiki fired a shot at the imaginary figure, imagining it was the person
responsible for all this trouble.  She couldn't believe she was at a
shooting range, practicing with a real gun.

Kiyoshi had said he was going to practice, and asked her casually if she
wanted to try.  She surprised herself when she agreed, curiosity about where
he was going mixed with a desire to protect herself and her family.  A
desire of retribution.

She absently flicked a strand of blonde hair out of her eyes.  It looked
strange in the mirror, and even stranger looking at it directly.  She had
also styled her hair slightly differently, perming it to add more waves and
then feathering it off to one side.  Hopefully anyone who looked at her
would have to look closely to recognize her.

Kiyoshi had been surprised, and she felt a small amount of satisfaction at
that.  It was probably the first thing she had done on her own since she had
met him.  It was a small step, but hopefully important in her struggle to
regain control of her life.

She wondered what she was becoming, as she put the gun down and pressed the
button that called back the target.  She knew she wanted revenge, but doing
physical things directly usually wasn't her style, but now she wanted blood,
she wanted to find the person responsible and watch him die.

She looked at her marks, one heart shot, and three of the other five hit,
she was getting better.  She smirked at her success.  A final though raced
through her mind as she set up a fresh target, "I want to pull the trigger
on this operation."


-----------------------------------------------------

Author's rant:  It's still a lot of fun, but it's getting complicated.  Also
heavy emotions are difficult to write, in my opinion so any constructive
criticisms about the first two scenes will be especially welcomed with much
gratitude.

So, the questions are should Ukyo die?  And if she should, who should kill
her.  I already have my ideas but I thought I'd throw it out to the masses.

Currently my favorite anime is Scryed!  It rocks and I have very little idea
of what story I'll work on next so opinions will count.  Ja

Email: noirchloe@nyc.rr.com
webpage: http://kpjam.anifics.com






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