I forgot I was supposed to be numbering this thing. Silly me. I guess
this would be the seventh chapter. Sorry for the inconvenience.
As usual, I'm saying this is a DARKfic up front. It's labeled dark for a
good reason. A VERY good reason. If you don't like seeing people tooled
with or put in VERY painful situations (i.e.-dark and gritty and NOT the
usual Ranma-esque violence), then STOP READING HERE.
Otherwise, go read something else. Kasumi and Spice perhaps? Preludes
and Interludes? Hearts and Minds? Something uplifting from Keener or
Key? Whatever the choice, if you don't like Darkfics, don't keep reading.
I may be redundantly repetetive, but it's for a good reason.
Well, on with the show.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The wise learn many things from their enemies."
-Aristophanes, 450-385 BC, Birds, 414 BC
"Today's top story is the grisly murder of a local entrepreneur.
Police found the body of the owner of the Cat Caf late this afternoon.
Details have not been fully released, but it appears as though this was a
calculated murder. Police have discovered an unspent bullet with the word
'horse' inscribed on the casing. Police are currently mystified by the
slaying, but note that yakuza activity in the area has recently increased,
making this a possible yakuza attack on the community"
Ranma stared at the TV. He couldn't believe his ears, but Ukyou
had called him before, telling him about it. Cologne was dead. Her head
was blow off in a rather messy and grotesque way. He hadn't believed it
when Ukyou told him. Now the news report made it all too clear. Someone
was out there, and they wanted to get him. The bullet with part of his
name on it clinched it. Ranma knew he could he dense about things, but
this was possibly life threatening. It made him think long and hard about
things.
"Ranma, dear, what's the matter? Is there something you're not
telling us?" his mother asked gently.
Ranma turned at looked at her with confusion.
"I dunno, Mom. I've never done anything with any yakuza before in
my life! I have no idea what's going on. Cologne's dead, Shampoo and
Mousse are missing, and there's a bullet with part of my name on it," he
said, worry evident in his voice.
"Now dear, there must have been something you did. We're not
blaming you-"
"He's the one that got Nabiki kidnapped!" Akane interrupted.
Ranma cringed under his fiance's glare.
"How do you know it wasn't just some random thing!" he protested.
"You always cause trouble here," Akane noted harshly. "If there's
a problem, you're the one that caused it!"
"I didn't do nuthin' with any yakuza!" Ranma shouted.
Nodoka put a hand on her son's shoulder, making his anger fade
slightly.
"Now, Ranma, nobody is accusing you of anything. I'm sure
Nabiki's disappearance wasn't your fault. I don't think any of this is
your fault, but you must try to think of something that you might have
done that could be related to this situation," she admonished gently.
Ranma shook his head.
"I dunno. I didn't do nuthin' at all!" he protested a second
time.
"Just something to get people who chase you around killed," Akane
snorted.
Suddenly, Ranma snapped to attention.
"Ukyou," he whispered, and ran out the door.
Akane sat and glared at the spot Ranma vacated.
"That stupid, insensitive jerk!" she hissed. "What about me?"
Nabiki sat on the chair staring numbly at the giant raising door.
Genjuro had walked in carrying two small metal cages. One had a rather
dead looking cat and the other a similarly unmoving duck. This is all
Ranma's fault, she mused irritably.
"You were right," he said with a chuckle as he neared her.
Nabiki glared at him.
"Aren't you going to let me go?" she asked.
"That's a stupid question," Genjuro said condescendingly. "You
have information I want, you haven't given it all to me, and you want me
to let you go?"
"I told you everything I know!"
"No you haven't." Genjuro said flatly. "You knew about this form
changing bit. I still find it crazy that this actually happens, but
that's beside the point. It just makes keeping these two in line a lot
easier for me."
"So?"
"So you must know something more. There's no way you could know
anything so detailed and not know anything more than who Ranma is, what he
does and the names of the people you think he knows. You know more. I'm
guessing you know exactly who he knows in this little hole, and you know
exactly how I can get to them."
"I don't!" Nabiki protested loudly.
Genjuro simply looked at her emotionlessly.
"Do you know what the yakuza do to people that fail to do things
right?"
"Do you cut off their fingers?" she asked sarcastically.
Genjuro stared at her without answering.
"What? I don't know!" she shouted.
Nabiki stared at him half in fear, half in doubt. It completely
turned to fear as Genjuro took a cigar cutter out from his pocket.
"I told you everything I know, I swear to you I already said
everything," Nabiki insisted.
Genjuro looked at her patiently, and without emotion, again.
"I'm not lying!" Nabiki shouted, tears of fear beginning to form.
Genjuro simply looked at her silently again. He pulled a capped
needle and syringe filled with clear liquid. The needle looked far too
big to be anything less than horrendously painful.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked quietly.
Nabiki could only look at him numbly. He patiently waited for her
to answer him. She slowly shook her head.
"It's sodium pentathol. It's known as a truth serum. Effective
use of the liquid requires injection directly into a vein. From there, it
is distributed throughout the body and interacts-" he said calmly.
"Shut up!" Nabiki shouted.
Genjuro looked at her impassively.
Nabiki trembled and shut her eyes tightly, squeezing a few tears
out.
"Please don't hurt me," she whimpered.
"Do you know what I'm going to do?" he asked.
Nabiki shook her head.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you. It's rude," he said quietly.
"Look at me, Nabiki."
Nabiki slowly opened her eyes.
"I'm going to inject this in you, and then you're going to talk.
If you lie to me, or tell me information that's bad, I'll cut off a
finger. If you want to keep your hands intact, you'll talk now. Do you
understand?"
Nabiki nodded slowly.
Genjuro wordlessly put the needle and syringe into his pocket
again. He still held the cigar cutter in one hand.
"I thought you said you wouldn't hurt me if I talked!"
Genjuro simply stared at Nabiki.
"You said you wouldn't hurt me!" she insisted.
Genjuro simply reached for a hand and opened the cigar cutter.
Nabiki let the words flow out of her mouth in a deluge of
information. The entire time, her eyes were fixated on the slow, sharp,
shearing motion of the cigar cutter in Genjuro's hand.
Ukyou stared out the dojo with a worried look on her face. Ranma
had spent the entire afternoon with her. He'd been so worried for her
safety after seeing the news report on the television. Frankly, it scared
her as well. It scared her enough to make her too paranoid to sleep. In
the end, she'd taken him up on his offer to stay in the dojo. Ranma had
offered even though he knew Akane would protest. Now he was sitting
outside of the dojo, his back to her, pacing the grounds, horribly
paranoid.
Konatsu had sworn to protect her from any homicidal maniacs, but
her confidence in him was less than stellar. In fact, even Ranma's offer
to stay with her only made her feel slightly safer. After all, Cologne
was one of the best, if not the best in Nerima. She was dead. Was
Konatsu or Ranma truly going to make a difference? A small part of her
said no, and she put every effort into drowning it out with the part of
her that shouted yes. Ranma was outside and she was safe with him. He'd
never let anyone do anything to hurt her before, so why would he start
now?
She tucked her hands under her pillow and rested her chin. She
closed her eyes and let her exhaustion overtake her.
Genjuro sat on the rooftop, a block away from one of the public
baths in town. Nabiki said this spot was his favorite, but that activity
was low. On the other hand, the girl described a fairly regular pattern
of activity with regards to the old man's panty-stealing habits. Genjuro
guessed the old man had a preset route he took every night, changing to
allow people to become secure at his old hot spots. Genjuro'd seen Yukiko
watching documentaries where wild cats in Africa did that. Hunt in one
spot, then leave so the animals would return, then come back to hunt
again. The old man was smart enough to not exhaust his resources at one
spot.
He raised a small cup of coffee to his lips and sipped the last
bit of it quietly, patiently waiting for the old man to come. Genjuro
adjusted the sniper rifle against his shoulder. Being partially covered
by a thick blanket with a silenced sniper rifle wasn't the most fun thing
in the world, but fun wasn't exactly on his list of things to worry about.
The group of women inside the bathhouse was what mattered to him right
now. All of them were happy when approached by a courier bearing news
that the old lecher was going to get his dues. Genjuro hoped that they
would chase the old man out of the bathhouse and down the street towards
the building on the corner. They were instructed to return to the
bathhouse after that. He hoped that all of them would listen.
A scream from the building snapped him to attention, his senses
completely alert. His eye went to the scope instantly, his gaze locked on
the street in front of the bathhouse.
"It's a rapist!" a voice screamed.
"Get back here you pervert!" another yelled.
"Die old man!"
"Stupid pervert!"
Genjuro smiled. His calculations and conjectures had paid off.
Now one of the people responsible for his ruined life was going to pay.
It was too bad the old man was such a good martial artist. Genjuro wanted
to exact every horrible minute of pain and torture possible, but that
wouldn't happen. If the man was nearly as lethal a force as Nabiki
described, then baiting him like he was baiting Ranma was out of the
question. Even baiting Ranma was risky, but it was a risk Genjuro was
willing to take for the sake of vengeance.
He watched the old man jog down the street, just out of harms way
from the women. He didn't even really care that they were chasing him,
only that he derived some kind of sick amusement from taunting them. It
made Genjuro sick. He'd enjoy plugging the old man like he enjoyed
killing the four thugs that took Ami and Yukiko away from him.
"Come and get me!" the old man laughed jovially.
He bounced from place to place before jogging in a line again.
"Ah! What a haul! What a haul!" the old man cried out.
The women threw rocks and anything else they could find at him as
they herded him down the street. It was amazing how easy the old man kept
right out of range, but it didn't matter as Genjuro primed himself and the
gun for the job.
Happosai paused when he heard the sound of footsteps stop behind
him. Was it him, or were the women less fit than they were a few decades
ago?
"Where are you all going?" he asked as he turned around.
The women were all filing away.
"We're sick of chasing you and we're sick of your stupid jokes and
your thievery, old man!" one shouted out as they started to walk away.
"If you want the panties so bad, then just take them. This is
ridiculous!" another women shouted out.
Happosai stood dumbfounded for a second. In his entire life, no
women had ever simply stopped and then decided to give him their panties
for free. It disturbed him. Something was definitely wrong. It was
unfortunate that he couldn't think about it for very long. Not long at
all, since his brain was suddenly scattered in a thousand different
directions at once, all of them being out.
* * * * * * * * * *
Ethan Tsai
1 N. College Street
Northfield, MN 55057
TSAIE@Gridley.ACNS.Carleton.edu
http://public.carleton.edu/~tsaie/ethan.html