Author's notes:
Again, to all Nabiki lovers, forgive me.
I've made a small amendment to Chapter 9 where Kasumi's mum expresses concern about Nabiki's current character.
Chapter 12: The Ice Queen's Hell
Nabiki and Neji were silent as Kagutsuchi carried them back towards the coast of Japan. Neji tried to read the girl's emotion but Nabiki wasn't broadcasting her thoughts. Her mind was calm and closed and Neji couldn't see what she was thinking without a direct telepathic contact with her mind. When they reached the shore, they dismounted Kagutsuchi which Neji gave a pat on the head. It made the beautiful whale song before fading into nothingness. Nabiki looked unperturbed and indeed, if it were not for her alert eyes, Neji would have though Nabiki had become catatonic.
He prepared a teleportation spell which after 5 minutes, teleported them into the Nerima Dojo.
"Why didn't you do this while we were in the submarine?" Nabiki asked.
"The process takes five minutes. Herb would have sensed immediately and come down on us. The teleportation spell is very risky and cannot be interrupted. I couldn't risk it," he said.
"Fine Captains you all are," Nabiki said as she walked out of the dojo.
She walked to the dining room where Kasumi, Ranma and Akane were seated along with another man she had never seen before.
"Nabiki!" the two Tendo sisters cried as they rushed forth to hug their sister. Nabiki returned their hugs mechanically, something that raised the eyebrows of Andy and Ranma. Both of them by sight and smell already deduced what had happened to her but her current reaction was even more disturbing than Kasumi's after her ordeal. She was practically emotionless but her aura was now like Ryoga's deep red depression.
"Nabiki?" Kasumi released her embrace and finally looked hard at her sister. She then became disturb by Nabiki's aura as well.
Nabiki pushed Akane away from her. "I'm going to take a bath. Then I will rest. Please do not disturb me, I do not wish to talk for the rest of this night."
"Nabiki…" Neji started.
"Especially those who call themselves captains but fail to do anything to prevent this when they are so powerful. Now leave me be," Nabiki said coolly before entering the bathroom.
Kasumi looked in the direction of the bathroom. "Oh God, what have they done to her?" she whispered.
Neji walked into the room. "Suffice to say they stripped her off everything including her dignity and control. These Musk are as sadistic as the Dark Eldar from Cypher's universe."
Kasumi put her hands to her mouth. She ran to the furo and knocked on the door. "Nee san, please, are you OK?"
"Which part of 'I don't want to be disturbed' did you not understand Kasumi? Did you head become full of grey mist all of a sudden? Or did the dumb act finally become your true character?" a cold voice answered.
Kasumi was shocked. Nabiki normally wouldn't speak this way to her this way. "Nee san…" she whispered.
"Go away. Your presence is not needed."
Ranma stepped up to the furo door. "Nabiki, I need to do a medical check up of you. I need to learn exactly what they did to you."
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! AND RANMA, YOU BETTER SCRAM BEFORE I REVEAL ALL YOUR SECRETS TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER!" Nabiki roared.
Ranma sighed and then he transformed into his woman form. Kasumi and Akane asked, "Uh, Ranma, why are you changing?"
"Nobody says no when I say a medical checkup is needed," Ranma said before she opened the door to the furo.
What Ranma, Akane and Kasumi saw tore their hearts from their body. Nabiki's body was dirty and now the smell of men hung around her whereas Neji's taichou coat had suppressed the smell. Numerous rope marks cut into her hands, legs and body, especially her small breasts. Virtually every other areas of her flesh was red and swollen, some of which bore scars which did not look like rope marks.
Nabiki screamed, a long piercing scream as the now tall and beautiful redhead entered the bathroom. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING! GO AWAY! HENTAI, BAKA, ERO JI JI, RAPIST, PEDOPHILE!" she started throwing the limited items in the bathroom like the wooden hand bucket, soap, shampoo, detergent bottles, and even Genma's rubber ducky. All of which Ranma caught deftly and set aside. He then took a towel from a rack and approached Nabiki.
"Please Nabiki, let me help you. You've been through a terrible ordeal and I just want to check your body for injuries," Ranma said with surprising tenderness. Akane thought she was imagining things but from the female Ranma, she felt a gentle aura almost like Kasumi's.
"No, go away! I don't need you or anyone! Martial Artists, Jedi, Captains, Space Marines, ALL OF YOU ARE USELESS! So much power, so much knowledge, yet you refuse to do anything but your own pathetic love lives! You were a useless freeloader and you still are a useless freeloader…." Nabiki ranted hysterically. Then as if Nabiki being hysterical wasn't enough, she launched herself at Ranma and with her long fingernails, clawed at Ranma's beautiful face.
Ranma didn't even flinch but tackled Nabiki so that in the end, she (Ranma) held her from behind while Nabiki kept on screaming, "Useless sons of bitchs, I hope you go back to whatever cursed universe you came from so that you can keep on playing soldier! Curse you all! Let me go, let ME GO!"
Kasumi rushed forward and she enveloped Nabiki in a hug, tears running down her face as Nabiki continued releasing her pent up rage and frustration. She understood now. Nabiki had always had control over her life. The last time she lost control like this was when Kimiko Tendo died. And ever since then, she took every pain to make sure that nothing in life was out of her expectations. Even if it meant blackmailing everyone in Nerima.
"Nee san, please stop! We love you and we want to help you," Kasumi cried.
"Cut the bull shit Kasumi! The only people we can rely on are ourselves. These guys are supposed to protect us, they deceived us into thinking they are so powerful yet they failed to protect us! To protect me!"
"Nee san please! We can't expect them to be perfect! Nobody is! Please, whatever they did to you, don't keep it in. It'll will eat you and make you suffer even more than you are now!" Kasumi tried to tell Nabiki.
"Get away from me you air head!" and with that she slapped Kasumi who fell to the floor in a shock.
This was the last straw for Akane. She went up to Nabiki and slapped her back. And it was such a powerful slap that it left a bruise on Nabiki's left cheek, shocking the girl.
"If I slapped my sister every time Ranma failed to protect me, Kasumi would be dead ten times over. I may not be in a position to talk since I was not nearly raped today but I have seen Sayuri and Yuka bleeding in my arms as well as seeing bits and pieces of friends around campus today. But do you see any bruises on Ranma indicating that I malleted him into the sky? Because of Ranma, he saved so many lives that would otherwise have gone in the aftermath. And I know if not for Andy Wong, Ranma's master, that Kasumi would be taken from us now!"
Nabiki's eyes flashed in anger at her younger sister lecturing. "Don't you dare talk to me bitch until you feel what its like to be blindfolded, gagged, stripped naked and then promptly have your body used as a fuck toy! Do you want to know exactly what they did!" she hissed so venomously that Kasumi and Akane were taken aback.
"Breast torture using nipple clips, crabinas, clothes pins, tweezers and electro torture. They also whipped you with leather belts, horse tail whips and spiked whips. They then violated your vagina but did not penetrate them, using various metal objects, some of which have caused cuts which I MUST look into right now. They also used electro-torture on it as well. All this done while you were suspended or otherwise so tightly bound that the rope marks have cut all over your body. And to top it all of, in the whole process you were blindfolded and gagged weren't you?" Ranma said quietly, without a hint of emotion or embarrassment.
Akane and Kasumi's eyes widened as Ranma stated Nabiki's ordeal as though he had been there. Both felt sick in the stomach as they finally began to have an idea of what Nabiki went through.
"That is not all, you were told that you would be spared of the treatment of your sisters wouldn't you? Or rather that you and your sisters would not be part of the chaos that would follow. He even signed a contract with you didn't he? And when all was said and done, including verbal promises that would protect you and your sisters, he asked his men to violate you in every conceivable way short of taking your virginity," a voice from outside the bathroom said.
Nabiki's eyes flashed in anger as she spat out, "Yeah, everything you said was true. Shall I add that I was forced to suck and drink the cocks of so many men that I lost count? Oh what fine dirt you have on me now! Go ahead! I'm at your mercy. The Ice-Queen of Nerima has fallen. I can never blackmail anyone again because now the dirt on me supercedes everyone else. Go ahead! Take me and be done with it! I may as well find what is the big deal about sex since those bastards did everything but go all the way with me!"
"Onee-chan, it isn't about your abuse isn't it?" Akane said quietly.
The middle Tendo glared at Akane.
"Your life is filled with business and contracts. Its been that way ever since mother died. Nothing is gained without being lost. Profit and Loss. Revenue and expenses. Financial Control. Emotional Control. Control of destiny," Akane said.
"What the hell are you talking about? And what the hell do you know about how I feel."
"Because what you feel now, Ranma and I have been feeling for years since he came to our dojo."
Nabiki's eyes were actually lost and she became puzzled.
"You tried to strike a deal with Happosai to protect yourself and all of us. You met Herb instead and tried to bribe him with probably most of mum's investment accounts and bonds which amounted to at least 5 million yen. If you had met Happosai, you probably took most of Kasumi's underwear with you. I know how much Happosai craves Kasumi's underwear. And Herb agreed with you. Just when you feel you were safe and secure, the rock crumbled and you found yourself deep in the darkest pit that you've ever been since Mother died."
"You're not suffering because of the loss of your dignity Nabiki. You're angry at your loss of control."
"How do Ranma and I understand this? Do you know how many times we've tried to get along and even to confess our love in the two years we've been together? DOZENS OF TIMES NABIKI! And every single damn time something would come up that disrupts our moment or cause Ranma to put his foot in his mouth again. Even when the wedding came, YOU had to bring in every other fiancée in Nerima to crash it. We've always loved each other but everything and everyone in this world kept getting in the way. I'll tell you now that I've had my nights just crying myself to sleep because I was this close to telling Ranma my feelings."
Ranma then spoke, "I may not have cried myself to sleep but once I ran several laps around Nerima to get rid of my frustration. My mind would always make up some excuse that I did it because of the fiancée dilemma but I realise now it was because, like Akane, we were so close to making our love real. It took two years of those disasters before we finally got our quiet time and by then, we were both worn out. We couldn't continue our relationship as it was, filled with chaos and disorder that would make any relationship difficult let alone marriage. Having your life disrupted and not being able to do anything about it: that is why you are here before me, angry at life and everyone who could have prevented this but didn't. I needed to leave so that both of us can properly think for ourselves without the constant interference."
"Oh great, now the dumb jock is spouting philosophy. So just how am I supposed to be healed, great guru Ranma? Running away for two years and find myself bodyguards who couldn't protect him or his family? Not to mention studying under a teacher who could do everything but not protect his student's interests?" Nabiki said sarcastically.
"Don't talk about Master Wong like that. You know nothing about him," Ranma said without a hint of anger.
"Nee san that is why Ranma and the Captains are here. To train us to control our lives again. Not to control our lives for us. If they did protect us from anything and everything, then it would be they who would be controlling our lives, not us. And although they are Jedi, they are still human, not gods. They can't think of everything," Kasumi said.
Kasumi took a deep breath and said, "Please don't alienate yourself Nabiki. Mother wouldn't have wanted that."
"We will never know won't we? Mother has already left us!" Nabiki screamed.
"I just saw her Nabiki. If it weren't for her and Andy Wong, I wouldn't be here talking to you now," Kasumi said quietly.
Akane, Nabiki and Ranma were shocked. "What?"
Kasumi stood up from the ground. "Andy, Neji, I was wondering it you could be so kind as to leave us for awhile?"
"Very well Kasumi," both said.
"I will leave too," Ranma started but Kasumi said, "Stay Ranma and please check Nabiki while we talk. Should we go to my room?"
"No, let me do my examination here. I can clean her as I examine her as well."
"Don't you dare touch my body!" Nabiki shouted.
"Onee-chan, if I can stand him doing a full body examination on Kasumi naked, I'm sure you can as well. Please use your superior intelligence and remember that Ranma is NOT A PERVERT!" Akane said.
Nabiki looked as though the whole world had gone upside down, which actually happened to her today. Akane letting Ranma look at a naked girl's body? It was like Kasumi ruining a good dinner.
Ranma then suddenly realised something. "They know that I'm in Nerima now. If they aim to hurt anyone else that I care about…. MOTHER!" she shouted. She then keyed in her communicator. "Yoruichi, come in, come in."
"Yes Taichou?" Yoruichi's voice answered.
"I need an escort to be arranged immediately to protect my mother, Saotome Nodoka. You are to bring her to Nerima where she will be under our eyes and guard. I leave it to you to determine the guard detail. I'll prefer if you included Space Marines but ask Cypher first or 3rd Seat Officer Ardias of the Fallen Angels for permission. Please hurry Yoruichi. Kasumi isn't the only one who suffered today. We just rescued Nabiki and if I were them, I would take revenge against any other family member or friend."
"Acknowledged Taichou. What is the last address of hers?"
Ranma told her. "You will see your mother in 2 hours. Yoruichi out."
Ranma then laid down a few towels on the bathroom floor. He also took out his Captain's coat and made a pillow out of it. "Please lie down Nabiki. I'll be as gentle as I can but I'll have to disinfect some of your scars and it will hurt. Please be brave, as you have been today. I don't know if you realised this but in the end, you survived and are now in the loving care of your sisters. If you were Andy Wong, he would be praising God right now."
Nabiki was silent as the strain finally showed and she became very very weary. Ranma laid her on the towels and then took out the first aid kit that he had used earlier with Kasumi. He also took another metal box from stuffspace and opened it, to reveal dozens of vials of odd chemical liquids that would have made Kodachi green with envy. Kasumi sat beside Nabiki on her right while Ranma was on her left. Akane leant knelt beside Ranma prepared to help him in anyway.
To be continued.
Sorry guys. I promised that Nodoka would show up in this chapter but I found so many things to write in this chapter about nursing Nabiki's mind. Somehow, I regret making her go through a perverted hell that could only be conjured up by my pervert mind so in recompense, she's going to get a few chapers focused on her. Believe me, I never thought I would be writing about Nabiki when I started this fic since I didn't like her. Now I've woven her as part of the plot.
Anyway, flames and reviews are welcome. I'm prepared to be flamed to hell now. I just hope you all will forgive me, especially PPMKatie, who has already expressed concern concerning the stuff I read and see.