'In Her Sorrow'
A fanfiction by Krimzonrayne
"The sun came up her eyes; and it sets in her sorrow,
Waste another night away, regretting the day short of tomorrow,"
'In Her Sorrow' property of Ameno Kurenai.
…
"I really must protest,"
The photos moved slightly, flashing brightly from where they sat, basking the radiant afternoon rays.
"Why, last time they were merely fourteen thousand yen – a contemptible price but nothing compare to the amount you're asking now,"
The photos shifted again, revealing the ones that were hiding underneath – these ones showing a lot more skin than the previous few.
Kuno gulped loudly; was it just him or did it just get a lot hotter.
"I despise you; youdo know that, do you not?"
Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High said gruffly as he counted out a handful of bills from his wad of cash he carries around in his pocket before thrusting them ungentlemanly toward the greedy hands of one Nabiki Tendo who began counting them herself, obviously not trusting his ability to count. Either that or she did not trust him not to shortchange her.
Kuno snorted derisively; as if a man of absolute virtue such as himself would stoop so low as to try to take advantage of a damsel no matter how nefarious that damsel maybe.
"Yeah, yeah- whatever, see you next time Kuno-baby," the Tendo girl mumbled back absentmindedly as he stood up and left. She knew he would be back when the next batch of photos comes out; he always had.
'What a moron,' Nabiki shook her head in disgust, 'when would he ever learn that he has not a chance in hell with either of them?'
She looked down that the photos that he did not pick and sighed ruefully. For a man of oh-so-much class, Kuno has no taste regarding quality of photos. She began rearranging them in two neat piles: one of Ranmas and one of Akanes. She paused when she moved to grab the last photo.
"Ah," she intoned, allowing herself a brief but pleasurable smile, her finger fondly tracing the edge of the photo.
It was one of her better ones. This one was a shot of Ranma-chan while she was doing her warm up. The fire of determination that was burning in her eyes while she was stretching made the already provocative photo that much more alluring. While this one did not exactly showcase Ranma's healthy complexion like most of the ones Kuno took, it spoke much of her character and personality – a rare Kodak moment indeed.
"What a moron," she said once again.
Nabiki Tendo was a very easy person to understand. She was no saint and she never pretends to be one. (Except when charming people to part with her riches, of course, but that's a bit different) She was very much an easy-going party girl. Growing up, she knew right away that her family's income would not allow her a life of luxury and indulgences she so crave. Not willing to just settle for less like Akane; she chose to be a genuine modern-day working class Japanese; she works hard and play harder.
Her questionable sources of income are well spent, at least in her opinion anyway. She shops when she want, enjoys delicious imported chocolate now and then and she pursues her long-time hobby.
Which hobby you ask? Why, photography, of course.
Despite what the masses may have chosen to believe, taking photos of her sister and sister-in-law to be/fiancée was something she did for fun as much as profit. Sure, there was fun in being sneaky and having blackmail material readily available but it went a little deeper than that.
Every since she had stumbled upon her Grandpapa's old 1936's Canon 35mm Rangefinder she have had this obsessive passion for camera. The perfectly preserved, first generation Canon was like the proverbial magic window for her younger self. Armed with it, she roamed the street of Nerima with a new sense a purpose and a changed view of the world; a little girl with a chunky old camera dangling from her tiny neck and a predatory smile that made everyone flinched a little on the inside.
That was until she ran out of film.
But the casing of the old film that the Rangefinder takes was outdated – the only place she could find them were either antiques-shops or the museums. Oh well, no matter, she would simply get a new camera. But that would mean money. Besides that, what if her new camera ran out of film? She would need to buy more films, and that means even more money, money that she did not have.
Much to the worriment of her parents, the seven years old would pace about her room with her cute little eyebrows etched, looking as if she was contemplating the meaning of Life, Universe and Everything.
Oh, she has had it figured out eventually, but that is another story altogether – one which we shall not delve into at the moment.
Because right now - she have potential customers.
…
"Oi Nabiki," a boy with halfheartedly combed, dark brown hair called out as he and his ever-present counterpart approached her.
"Morning Hiroshi," Nabiki said with a nod before turning to regard the other. "Daisuke. Now, what can I do for you?"
"You know that photo pack you gave us yesterday," Hiroshi said looking a bit ill at ease. He sought her eyes, as if looking for a confirmation on something. "It was a pack of twelve, yeah?"
"Yes," the older girl said slowly, recalling the boy's antics. "Was there a problem with it?"
"Well, there was only eleven in the envelope you see," Hiroshi reasoned, "So we thought that-"
"That I might've made a mistake and given you one photo short," Nabiki finished for him, smiling pleasantly all the while.
"Y…yes," the boy stuttered. He was freaking out – why was Nabiki smiling? She never smiles. Ever. This was bad, really bad. Maybe she was pissed off at something and he accused her of shortchanging; she was going to kill him off.
"I find it unlikely that I'd make that kind of mistake," she continued in her sugary sweet tone. "However, since it's only the start of lunch I'll double check for you."
The two boys nodded; too afraid to move, less the she-lion changes her mind and decided to eat them after all.
Nabiki smirked as she delved a hand into her carry bag; sometime her reputation was a source of amusement as well as income – the reaction on those two's faces were priceless. If it had occurred in one of her moodier moments then she would have been slightly sadden by the fact that they were surprised at her being nice, but for today, it was all good.
"Here we go," she said as she pulled out a thick brown paper parcel. She opened it up to reveal several thick folders. She grabbed one that was labeled 'photo sales' and flicked it open to the page with yesterday's date on it. "F, g, h… Haruhi, Heisuke…, ah ha, Hiroshi," she said pausing her finger on that row and drew it across the columns.
"Hiroshi, you bought the five thousand yen, twelve pieces, 'Ranma's afternoon's workout' pack," she continued calmly before turning up from the folio to look at the boy. "Show me the photo so I can see which one was missing."
Hiroshit and Daisuke shared a troubled look before giving each other a slow nod; this did not go unnoticed by the brown haired girl.
Hiroshi pulled out a dusty looking envelope with one side ripped opened and passed it over to Nabiki. She poured out the photos and found that they were all tapped back together after having been ripped in half and some – the slightly less conciliatory ones – shredded.
Suddenly, it all began to click in her mind.
"You couldn't even wait a few hours to open it at home, could you?" she said, noticing for the first time the bruises on Daisuke's arm. He winched and Hiroshi turned away, looking as guilty as sin.
Nabiki shook her head – boys will be boys, and sex obsessed teens will always be sex obsessed teens.
She turned back to her brown parcel and took out another folder, this one containing all of her negatives of the films that she had already developed. She pulled out a strip labeled 'Ran-072' and held it up to see. After a moment of comparing she had found the one that was missing. She turned back to the two boys who were watching her attentively.
"Did one of you get a chance to look at the photos before Ranma took it off you?" she asked.
"Yeah, but only for just for a minute or so," Daisuke answered. "Why?"
"Did you see this one?" Nabiki asked, holding the strip high and pointing at the one she wanted them to look at.
Hiroshi recognized that one instantly; it was the first he saw.
"Yea," he said. "But what does it mean? Did Ranma take it?"
Nabiki did not know and she did not want Hiroshi asking questions either. If her instinct was correct – and it usually was – then she could be onto something big. Bigger than the 'Cat Fist', even. But first, to shut the two idiots up…
"I don't know and I don't particularly care," she said, interrupting the boys' trains of thought from getting to wherever they might be heading. "But by your own admittance, this proves that I have given you the correct amount of photos. And that I own you nothing."
The boys opened their mouths to protest – all thoughts regarding what Ranma might have taken and why vanished from their minds.
"However," Nabiki said loudly, interrupting them once again. "I am willing to print you a new copy for only two hundred yen - to cover the cost of printing and nothing more. Do we have a deal?"
She smiled in amusement as she watched the two of them practically falling over themselves in order to do just that.
'Oh yeah, I still have it,' she thought.
…
The two lessons Nabiki had that afternoon were boring, but no more so than usual. But it had given her the time to think of a few things – for example, the whole Ranma having taken the picture mystery she has stumbled upon while she was with the two stooges during lunch time.
What she meant was; really, what did it actually signify. Sure, Ranma might have taken photo on purpose, but so what? It was not like there was a lot more to it. That photo might have pissed her one time prospective fiancé so much that he tore it into its molecular component for all she knew – he was capable of that, she was sure.
Having decided to just forget about the whole thing; she looked around her classroom in such of one of her lackey that might get the film processed for her.
"Kanao-chan," Nabiki called out, beckoning to her classmate and part-time employee. Kanao detached herself from her friends and approached the famed Ice Queen of Furinkan, still hugging the books from hers and Nabiki's last class to her chest. As Kanao navigated the maze of tables and chairs that got shuffled around when the students left, Nabiki finished gathering her school things and sat waiting upon her desk.
"Kanao-chan, I need you to take this photo and develop it for me," she said pulling the strip of films that she had shown the two stooges earlier and pointing to the picture that she presumed Ranma has taken – the one missing from the pile of ripped photos. "Now I know I normally take care of these kinds of things myself but since it has already been developed once, it's not as likely to get damaged as usual. I need another copy; do you think you can do that for me?"
The pony tailed girl hesitated for a second before reaching out with her hand. Nabiki frowned and did not give the film to her.
"Is there something I should know, Kanao-chan?" she said carefully. It was unlike Kanao to have second thoughts or even reservation when Nabiki asked something of her. "Do you have some plans you'd rather not postpone?"
"No, no!" Kanao said quickly, too quickly.
"…," Nabiki gave her the Glare, quickly ending her moment of indecision.
The other girl sighed; there was no winning with Nabiki Tendo, she should have known that already. It was better that she has come clean right then and there rather face the mounting wrath of her boss.
"Well, Nobita-kun, my boyfriend, has been complaining that I've been ignoring him lately – which is totally not true by the way, I mean, it's not our false we have to prepare for exams a little bit earlier than everyone else 'cause we want to go to a good university, right?" she spouted out in one, really ran-on sentence, leaving her face looking a little flush.
Nabiki smiled; she has heard a lot about this 'Nobita-kun' of Kanao. Ah, what she would not give to be young and foolish again. But then again, was she ever that young or that foolish?
'Wait, what am I talking about? I'm only just eighteen,' Nabiki thought suddenly.
"Anyway," Kanao began again after having caught her breath and calmed down a bit. "I kind of promised him that we'd go out for a movie and maybe dinner tonight."
Nabiki smiled reaffirmed as she spotted the happy look on the girl's face. Kanao looked up and their eyes met. She turned away, blushing slightly at having been caught fantasying about her boyfriend. She opened her mouth to offer her excuse but Nabiki held up a hand and cut her off.
"But—" the girl tried one more time.
"No buts," Nabiki said firmly, still smiling. "You've worked hard all year round and you deserve a break. I'll go develop this myself,"
"Are you sure, Boss," Kanao asked. "I mean, I can still call him and we can always do it later…,"
"Yes, I'm sure. Now scoot, you have a date and a handsome boyfriend to bedazzle, so go enjoy yourself; that's an order," she finished in a mock imperialistic tone, jokingly giving her a salute as she did so.
Kanao grinned cheek to cheek and bowed a few times before running off.
Nabiki gained a matching grin as she followed the girl's footsteps out into the corridor. She began humming Tchaikovsky's 1812th and stepping to the rhythmically to the beat as she made her way out of the school.
She only got to the stairs when someone ran into her.
"Offtp," she cried out as she felled down a couple of steps and landed on her forearms The rough concrete couple with the added weight of the person who ran into her on her back, it had hurt quite a bit.
Nabiki crawled down to the landing and pushed herself into a sitting position. She examined her arms, gingerly feeling around the bright red spots swelling on her forearms. Darn, they will definitely bruises. She prepared her trademark glare and turned to the guilty party but her intended retaliation failed as she identified the person responsible to be someone she was familiar with. Her look of surprised was quickly replaced with one of annoyance.
"Saotome," she regarded him, who was currently her, with a scowl. "To what do I own the pleasure of being rammed into?"
"Heh, heh, heh," the redhead laughed nervously while slowly edged away from the girl she has accidentally angered.
Nabiki was not in a particularly chirpy mood to begin with so the sight of a powerful, though petite martial artist subconsciously backing away from a weaker and untrained girl and its humor was lost on her, but I am sure we could appreciate it.
"Whatever," the Tendo girl said; she was not exactly feeling up to confronting Ranma at the moment. "I'll let you go with a warning this tim— fuck!"
Nabiki bit her lip to stifle off another curse. The sudden jarring sensation she had felt when she supported her whole weight on those poor, abused arms was blinding. She dropped back down, momentarily overcame by the pain.
"Nabiki!" Ranma almost yelled, her sheepish impression changed to one of concern. Nabiki never swore; at least if she has then Ranma had not heard so far. She practically hopped over and offered her a hand to help her up. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm just effing fine and effing dandy," Nabiki said as she batted the proffered hand away while fixing another scowl onto her face to cover the marks of anguish that was written all over it. She scooted closer to the wall and quickly stood up all on her own accord.
The so-called Ice Queen of Furinkan did not say another as she plodded down the stairs. Ranma, who was doing her impersonation of a whipped puppy, followed closely, a step or so behind her with a look of apprehension and guilt marring her face. The odd looking pair reached the school gate in silence, it was then that Nabiki could not take it anymore.
"I wasn't just being sarcastic, you realize," she said with obvious disdain. "I'm fine; you don't have to follow me around anymore. It's not like I'll fall over and die or anything,"
Ranma did not say a word; which was rather odd considering her usual track record in keeping her mouth shut.
Nabiki shrugged, walking down the street to the photography studio she frequented; fine, if that was the way Ranma wanted to play it then she was more than happy to oblige.
…
'But still,' she thought suddenly as she remembered something. 'Do I want Ranma knowing my interest in photography?"
Nabiki turned back to the skulking form of Ranma Saotome, still dutifully following her. She was alternately staring between Nabiki and their surrounding, as if anticipating an attack to come from any direction in any form at any time.
'Or a spy,' Nabiki noted, thinking back to a certain ninja/retainer of the Kuno.
"Seriously, Ranma," she insisted one more time. "There's really no need. Now you're just being stubbornly stupid – or stupidly stubborn, whichever you prefer."
A brief moment of hesitation on the redhead's face was all it took. She quickly capitalized her attack.
"Say, didn't Kasumi say something about cooking 'sukiyaki' today?" Nabiki said offhandedly, mentally smiling at the subtle shift in Ranma's eyes and what it entailed. "Well, there's no club activity so Akane's going to home a little early tonight."
Ranma froze.
"She'll also want to cook."
She flinched.
"It'd be an awful shame for all that good beef to go to waste simply because you weren't there to distract dear little sister."
'And she buckled! Score one hundred and forty for Nabiki and score nil for Ranma,' the Tendo girl enthused.
Ranma had a far away look in her eyes for a moment before turning to her once again. She gave Nabiki one last glance before wordlessly slipped away, jumping onto a nearby fence and somersaulting her way up to a rooftop before flitted away into the setting sun.
Nabiki shook her head at the odd exchanged. Something was definitely going on with Ranma.
She filed the thought away for later use and continued on her path to the studio to get the film developed. She quicken her steps a bit, it really was getting late. Otaki-san, the owner of the place, was a good friend of her and she would not mind chatting to him outside of the normal schedule.
She reached the place about a minute later without further incident. She stopped on welcome mat and cast a last cautious look about before stepping inside.
"Nabiki-chan!" a loud yet warm and grandfatherly kind of voice greeted her.
"Otaki-san," Nabiki responded in a more commonplace tone. Too bad commonplace have no place in the house of Shinichi Otaki, one of the – if no the – most vocal and outspoken man in the dying field of film photography.
"Ek-" Nabiki squeaked as she felt her lungs groaned under the weight of Otaki's bear-hug.
"Now, now," Otaki said, still not releasing her from his strong arms. "There's a delightful girl you must meet. She's normally only here today, and because you've only been coming on the weekends, you two haven't met. Since you're here today, such travesty shall not continue, we shall rectify this horrid mistake!"
Nabiki could do nothing but nodded her accent. Darn, was she or was she not glad Ranma was not there to see this?
Unbeknownst to Nabiki, only two hundreds meters away, Ranma was sat perched on an errant rooftop staring at her intently, and situated in the redhead's hands was a satchel of clothing and a single seemingly innocent photograph.
And she was not exactly smiling.
…