Reprisal
By katz
Ukyo watched as the rain fell from a blood red sky, and wondered if it was reasonable to blame someone for the weather. The weather started acting up halfway to the Tendo’s, the sky turning a deep crimson hue and then boiling over with ominous clouds flickering with barely contained lightning. She had Ranma’s battered form slung over her shoulder, sprinting the way to the dojo, thinking the entire way that the redhead was going to die if she couldn’t go any faster. The dojo wasn’t the first place she would have taken him. After Mousse left she immediately scattered the gawkers standing over Ranma with a swing of her giant spatula. Her first instinct was to take him to the nearest hospital, but surprisingly enough Nabiki stepped in. “No, take him to my house,” she had said, calm as ever. Before Ukyo could object, Nabiki said, “The nearest hospital is at least fifteen miles away. You don’t know if he’ll still be alive when you get there. Besides, I’m not sure if they’ll keep him when he wakes up.” Ukyo had no choice but to agree; if Ranma did wake up, he would still be a cat in a human’s body. So it was a few minutes later that she found herself vaulting over the gate to the Tendo compound and kicking in the front door to collapse in a wet, exhausted heap in front of the Tendo and Saotome families. Once over the initial shock, their reaction was predictable. Even now, sitting on the patio and shivering in her wet clothes, she could hear the sobs of Nodoka and Soun, with Genma and Kasumi respectively trying to console them.
Ukyo drew her knees up against her body and wrapped her arms around them.
She didn’t know how long she sat there, brooding over the bloody rain when
something warm and soft was draped across her shoulders. She looked up to
see Nodoka, her eyes still red and puffy from crying, holding out a steaming
cup to her. Ukyo took it gratefully and drank. It was honey sweet,
with an underlying sharpness that surprised her. Ginger root, she
thought. When Nodoka knelt beside her, silently staring at the rain, she
didn’t know what to say. What can I say? That I let your son get
mauled by some freak of nature and that when I tried to stop him he just yelled
at me for using a spatula? Tears stung her eyes and her own sobs
threatened to come out, so she couldn’t answer Nodoka’s question.
“Ucchan, what happened?” she asked gently.
She tried to answer, but nothing would come out except a choking sound.
Then she started weeping in earnest. “I couldn’t stop him,” she
cried. “He was too strong and when he hurt Ranma I couldn’t do anything
and when I tried he…” She trailed off in sobs. She won’t want me
for a daughter, she won’t, I couldn’t protect her son and now he’s going to
die. She felt Nodoka’s hands touch her shoulders and gently wrap
around to hold her in an embrace. Nodoka rocked back and forth, murmuring
soothing sounds, while Ukyo cried the day’s fears and frustrations away.
When Ukyo finished, Nodoka pulled away and smiled softly at
her. “Do you feel better now, dear?”
Ukyo sniffed and rubbed a sleeve across her eyes. “Yeah,”
she said. She looked sheepish. “Thanks.”
“It’s all right Ucchan. Sometimes you need to cry,” she
replied, dabbing at her own eyes with a sleeve of her kimono. Her face
took on a more serious look. “Now, what happened? Who hurt Ranma?”
Ukyo clenched the hand not holding the cup. An image of boy
with long black hair and jade eyes grinning mockingly at her flashed through
her mind. “Mousse,” she hissed. “His name was Mousse.” A gasp
from Nodoka made her look up. “What’s wrong?”
“Mousse...” There was a look on Nodoka’s face that Ukyo
didn’t like, something between horror and disbelief. “Are you certain?”
she asked in a way that Ukyo knew she wasn’t going to like the answer.
“That’s what he called himself,” she said. “You know him
don’t you?”
Nodoka sighed at her question that wasn’t a question and looked
resigned. “He seemed like such a nice boy when he helped me out of the rain.
So courteous. I thought it would be nice for Ranma to have a friend like
that so I invited him to the house.”
A chill went up Ukyo’s spine at that. He was
here? She looked around as though searching for hidden
assailants. She wasn’t normally a superstitious person, but after seeing
all she had today, she wouldn’t be surprised if Mousse’s very presence had
somehow tainted the house. She focused her attention on Nodoka again as
she continued.
“…and he left.” She looked up at Ukyo. “Why would he do
such a thing? Why would he want to hurt my son?”
Why? Ukyo thought bitterly. Why
does anyone want to hurt Ranma? There are so many people with so many
reasons that there’s no point in asking why. “I don’t know,” she
replied. A knock at the front door made her look over her shoulder
through the den, and she saw Kasumi going to answer it. Even Kasumi
looked troubled over what happened. Ukyo turned back around. It was
probably Nabiki coming back. Nabiki may possibly be the most coldly
intelligent person she knew (she always had the suspicion that maybe it was her
who took care of the family finances), but she was still only human in regards
to physical performance. It would take her at least fifteen minutes to
get back here. A darker thought forced its way into Ukyo’s mind. Or maybe it’s Mousse coming back. Coming back
to pay a visit. It sent a thrill of fear through her and she
shivered.
“Ucchan, are you cold?” Nodoka asked. “You should go
inside.”
She shook her head, both as a negative response and to clear
it. “I’m all right. We probably should go inside.” She stood,
clutching the blanket around her shoulders in one hand and the now cold tea in
the other. Mousse wouldn’t come back here. There’s
no way, the shape he was in. He looked almost as bad as Ranma.
A shriek from the furo made her jump. She saw Kasumi backing away from
the door, hands to her mouth and eyes wide with fear. The fear came back
tenfold. He’s here. He’s come back for Ranma.
She dropped the blanket and the cup, scattering shards of porcelain and cold
tea everywhere. She gripped the handle of the giant battle spatula
strapped across her back in a white-knuckle grip and ran to the door, ignoring
Nodoka’s cries.
She saw him stepping out of the furo, dressed all in black, like
when he first came to eat at her restaurant. He wore a poncho with the
hood up to keep out the rain so she couldn’t see his face, but there was no
doubt in her mind that it was him. She eased the spatula out of its
sheathe and brought it over her head, reaching up with her right hand to join
the left in its grip. Then she was flying through the air, leaping up
with her weapon raised, edge down. In spite of what he said about her
spatula, it could split his head open just as easily as any battleaxe if it hit
with the edge instead of the flat. And she was going to give him a first
hand account of its effectiveness. She let out a battle cry as she
brought it down. Time seemed to stretch out as she hung in the air for an
eternity as he turned his head around and up to stare at his impending doom in
surprise. She grinned fiercely as the spatula came down…
…and was stopped as he clapped his hands around the blade a bare
centimeter from his face. She hung for another eternity, staring
open-mouthed in disbelief. He twisted his wrists so that the spatula was
turned sideways and stepped out of the way as she came crashing down. She
scrambled to her feet only to find her own spatula held up under chin.
She glared at him defiantly. She was not going to give him the pleasure
of seeing her cower before him. She waited for the jab at her throat that
would end her life. So she was surprised when he lowered the spatula and
pulled back the hood of his poncho to reveal his face. And it wasn’t his face. This one was older, maybe in his twenties,
though the hard, weary look in his eyes made him well beyond that. A pair
of spectacles sat on the bridge of his nose and his shoulder length brown hair
was pulled back into a loose tail. She barely had time to wonder who the
hell he was before she heard someone gasp behind her.
“Doctor Tofu?”
***
So this is the infamous Dr. Tofu Ono, Ukyo thought. From what she had heard, he was something of
a legend around the Nerima area before his mysterious disappearance. A
master chiropractor, he first appeared five years ago to open a small clinic
just a few blocks from the house she was in now. It was said he could
cure for what was ailing you, a broken bone, a common cold, and everything in
between, by a simple touch. He was also said to be a highly skilled
martial artist, able to paralyze opponents with that same touch. However,
the stories she heard also mentioned his inability to act like a normal human
being when around Kasumi. Whenever she was around he would do anything
from eat furniture to dancing around with a skeleton he kept at his clinic
named ‘Betty.’ If so, then he was showing some incredibly remarkable
restraint; he only looked a little tense kneeling beside Kasumi at the
table. In fact, he barely looked at her at all. Ukyo wondered if
maybe he was Kasumi’s ex-boyfriend, or even lover. She discounted the
thought quickly. Kasumi looked happy to see him, and stories were just
stories after all.
Introductions were made around the table for those who did not
know the doctor and an uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Ukyo was
sure he was confused, not arriving to what he probably assumed was going to be
a warm welcome. Instead, he clasped his hands together on the table
and said, “Tell me about him.”
Ukyo shared a confused glance with Nodoka across the table.
“About who?”
“The one who fought with Ranma,” he replied.
Silence fell across the room again, this time stunned. He
looked up. “He did fight with Ranma, didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did,” Soun replied. He cleared his throat
nervously. “But tell me, how did you know?”
Tofu just nodded, staring at his hands. “Just a
hunch.” He looked up. “Is Ranma all right?”
“Ranchan’s upstairs. Sleeping.” Ukyo replied tersely before
anyone else could answer. She stared at the doctor with open
suspicion. He knew far too much for someone who had just arrived.
“You didn’t answer the question. How did you know?”
He looked calmly at her. There was something about him she
didn’t like. Something that reminded her of Mousse. He shrugged,
and said, “Like I said, a hunch. I assumed my quarry would have some sort
of contact with Ranma as soon as he got here.”
“Your quarry?” asked Nodoka. Something about the word seemed
to worry her. “What do you mean by that?”
Tofu sighed, looking weary and impatient of all the
questions. “I have been hunting him for most of the past year. He
is my quarry.”
Ukyo frowned. Something didn’t smell right. Why does
he want to stop Mousse? What reason could he have to leave his home for
almost a year to hunt someone whose name he didn’t even know? A sudden
earsplitting yowl cut through the air, popping any other bubbles of suspicion
that rose in her mind.
The doctor was on his feet instantly. “What was that?”
The cat’s cry came again, followed by a heavy thudding that came from the
ceiling. His eyes locked on Ukyo, and for a moment she saw his hands dip
down to his hips. As though he were reaching for something that should
have been hanging there.
“Ranma.”
She nodded, up only a moment after him. She was aware of the
rest of the people scrambling to their feet. “Upstairs,” she said.
“Second door on the right.” And then he was gone, disappearing in a black
blur.
***
They had tied up Ranma and wrapped her as tightly as they could in
a heavy blanket, and then tied over the blanket. The binds were made of
silk cords Soun used to tie together the pieces of samurai armor that was the
Tendo family heirloom, and so were extremely strong. In spite of this, when
Ukyo reached the entrance to the room she saw that Ranma was convulsing
violently in her cocoon, flopping her body like a fish and had almost wrestled
an arm out. Ranma hissed and spit the entire while in her struggles to be
free while Tofu stood there, looking down impassively.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Ukyo demanded.
“Yes,” he replied absently and began moving. He looked lost
in thought as he stared at Ranma. Ukyo had the impression he was studying
Ranma with the same concentration as a doctor would a particularly unwilling,
violent patient. As he neared Ranma, she grew still, glaring at him and
growling back in her throat. He squatted down next to her, arms resting
on his knees. For a moment all was perfect stillness, and then suddenly
he lashed out with an arm and grabbed hold of her head under the chin.
Ranma tried to hiss at the doctor, but his grip was firm. He pushed back
her head until her neck was exposed and jabbed a finger from his other hand
into a place just under her ear. She convulsed once, back arched and eyes
wide and staring at the ceiling. He released his grip on her jaw and
gently pushed on her stomach until her back was on the floor.
A cry of “Ranma!” went up in unison among the household and
they rushed to her side as the doctor stepped away. Ukyo was the first
there. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t the sight of Ranma
peacefully sleeping.
“He should be alright now,” said Tofu, moving toward the
exit. “I’ll be back to check on him.”
Ukyo tore herself away from Ranma long enough run after the doctor
as he was walking down the hall. She still had questions. “Wait!”
she cried. He stopped and turned as he was going down the stairs.
He stared at her, and for a moment she lost her voice. The resemblance
she thought she saw between him and Mousse was suddenly stronger. It
wasn’t a physical resemblance; the two didn’t look like they could even be
distantly related. It was more of an aura around them both, something
that she couldn’t put a name to. “Why are you here?” she finally got out.
“To stop him,” the doctor replied.
“Why?” she pressed.
“Because he is my responsibility,” he said as he went down the
stairs. “Because he is family.”
***
Nabiki found Cologne back at the Nekohanten, seated at one of the wide tables and brooding over her long tobacco pipe.&nbs