Ranma no Kagakusha.
Ranma one half does not belong to me.
This Introduction is dedicated to all the good writers who have discontinued my favorite fanfics, and Kuno-Baby, for being the only person with enough balls to seriously flame me on my first fic, which truly did suck.
This is set after jusendo, during the summer break.
(S) This is a scene change.
A rather portly, middle aged, Caucasian man was walking down the streets of Nerima, whose very existence seemed to be challenging Genma Saotome's reign as fattest non sumo in the ward. He ignored the stares of the locals in favor of closing his eyes while he walked, although they didn't stare long. At first they thought he was a tourist, very uncommon in Nerima, they soon saw he was vaguely heading in the direction of the Tendo Dojo, which explained everything to the curious Nerimites.
Nabiki Tendo was tracking this man ever since he entered the ward, she had long ago learned to cover all of her bases when dealing with Ranma's "visitors" and Ranma attracted all kinds of trouble, which usually meant keeping a tight watch on everything coming to and going from the ward's limits.
Currently the stranger had stopped at a small sushi yatai and ordered the largest item on the menu, to go. When Nabiki crept past the booth the man working there addressed her.
"Excuse me, Miss Tendo?" the sushi chef asked politely.
She jumped slightly at that, but quickly regained her composure. "Yes?" she asked haltingly.
"The man you are stalking asks that you stop, and told me to give you this." Said the chef, leaving out the fact that the man had just paid him a large amount of money to do this errand, and then he handed her an enormous bottle of high grade sake and a small red box tied shut with a thin, black silk ribbon.
The bottle had a small card tied on with the same black ribbon, which said simply, "For your parent and your nuisance." In some of the worst kanji she had ever seen.
She set that in her bag and started working on the knot in the boxes ribbon while she walked down the street. She knew she had lost the man in his ploy to distract her, but she resolved to take a shortcut to reach her home before the older man could.
She had finally taken a pocket knife to the ribbon and she hurriedly opened the box to discover a neatly folded note resting on top of a small mound of silk that took up most of the box, when she opened the note it was more of the hastily scrawled kanji, saying, "For your expenses and leisure." And taped to the other side of the note was a foreign check made out to Kasumi for the equivalent to five million Yen in American currency, down to the penny, Nabiki noted, before she passed out with a shocked smile plastered on her face. The check remained in a death grip that she wouldn't relinquish until she woke up an hour later in the hospital, deposited there by her lackey that she paid to make sure nothing happened to her.
(S)
The same man arrived at his hotel, a shabby thing that happened to be the only hotel that managed to stay serviceable after Ranma came to town. He contacted his associates to assure them that he had arrived safely, and then dropped his sushi into the mini-fridge, opened his briefcase and laid out his plans on the small coffee table to go over everything one more time before zero hour tomorrow.
(S)
Meanwhile, Nabiki had been quite shocked arriving home that night, she had first gone straight to Ranma's room to pump him for information, but found him already asleep, knocked out by a particularly hard malleting and then tucked into bed by Kasumi. She then went downstairs and asked Kasumi if anyone had come looking for Ranma.
"Kasumi, did anyone odd come to the door today?" Nabiki asked as she absentmindedly put away the sake.
"Well I don't think so." Kasumi replied from the kitchen, "It has been pretty quiet today, and we didn't get a speck of mail, not even a bill. Isn't that odd?"
"Really? That is odd, maybe there was a problem down at the post office again." Nabiki mused, remembering the time Ranma tried to mail P-chan to Antarctica. When Ryouga managed to find some coffee to dunk into he ran, naked, through the post office, smashing everything in sight.
"Well, if Ranma wakes up tonight, tell him I need to talk to him, okay Kasumi? By the way, where's Akane?" Nabiki asked.
"She went out for a jog, but she should have been back by now. Why don't you check the dojo, and if she's there tell her that dinner will be ready in a half hour and remind her it's her turn to set the table." Kasumi told her.
"Thanks sis." Nabiki replied hurriedly on her way out the door.
(S)
Nabiki entered the dojo to find it empty, but she didn't have to wait long before Akane ran into her at a full tilt, dressed in a yellow gi and with a towel around her neck, the expression on her face told Nabiki, when she raised herself off the ground, that Ranma must have really done something bad this time to get her sister this angry.
That expression immediately changed from anger to guilt as Akjane saw what she had done to her sister.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry Nabiki, here, let me help you up" said the chagrined sibling.
Nabiki had a smile that put a Cheshire cat to shame, "Don't worry about it little sister." She said in a sugary sweet tone custom made to raise your chances of diabetes, "I'll just add my dry cleaning bill to your tab. Now, what did Ranma do this time? I find it hard to believe you've put up with him this long."
"Oh Nabiki, I knew you would understand. First he wouldn't eat the Bento I made him, and then he started flirting with those hussies and wouldn't stop, and then Kuno attacked him, and he started picking on Ryouga and, and…" Akane ranting broke down into an unintelligible babble as she sunk to the floor and cried into Nabiki's shirt.
"Its okay sis, I'll double his tab tonight to make up for it all. Nobody gets away with making my sister cry." Nabiki continued to comfort and encourage her sister's actions. After all, people are more easily manipulated when they are emotional, especially when they think you're on their side. Besides, any reason to double Ranma's tab is a good reason.
(S)
The portly man sat on the edge of his bed, hunched low over his maps, charts, and plans in general and smiled, tomorrow certainly would be eventful. He always did long for excitement.