To everyone who posted their ideas and reviews, thank you so much for your encouragement and support. So without further ado:
Chapter 24: Ice-Queen's Revenge
Tokyo Trains were notoriously crowded during the early morning rush hour at 7am. People were jam packed like sardines in trains and there was little room for anyone to move to the next station. For some people, these provided a golden opportunity for crime, pick pocketing at best, groping at worst.
One such pervert's back was currently pressed against another girl's back. He had caught a glimpse of her front and couldn't believe his luck as the rush of people pushed him right against her. The middle aged man did not waste this opportunity to grope for the girl's buttocks. Unfortunately, so engrossed was he in getting his free pass, he failed to notice that at the girl's side was a 2 meter tall giant.
He suddenly felt sharp and excruciating pain as something heavy dropped on his feet. He could feel his feet bones cracking and opened his mouth to scream but an enormous hand covered and smothered his screams. His eyes followed the gigantic arm and beheld the battle scarred face of Vice-Captain Ardias. Ardias' face was emotionless but his eyes spoke volumes.
Try again, and you will die.
Fortunately for the pervert, Ardias did not completely cripple the man's foot when he stepped on it, only enough to make him feel plenty of pain. The man nodded painfully and Ardias released the pressure on his foot. The man started crying but did not dare to voice out in front of Ardias. Other passengers looked at him and sneered, wondering why a full grown man was crying in the middle of the train.
Nabiki looked nonchalantly over her shoulder. "Problem Ardias?"
"The ways of your countrymen are despicable. A simple journey to earn one's bread is used instead to satisfy ones desires. Even worse, most of these souls do not know what they want and simply drift through life working for the sake of work."
"Hey, you're the one whose upbringing was assured the moment you became a Space Marine. You didn't have to worry about food or even your weapons production, which was handled by someone else. All you had to do was kill the enemies of your Emperor and worry about nothing else," Nabiki said.
"It isn't as simple as you think. I worry for you Nabiki, you push yourself too hard in your training that your studies have suffered. You seem to be wrongly analysing many aspects of our history, both of the Fallen and the Jedi Guard. When we go back to Destiny's Forge, we shall go through your analysis again and I will tell you exactly what's wrong with your interpretations. It is easy to analyse a battle from a textbook but you have to put yourself into the situation where there is normally not much time to think."
The ice-queen of Nerima coldly said. "Even within your context all your regard about honour has resulted you in living a damned life with redemption being a very small possibility. And frankly, Ranma has nearly gotten himself killed numerous times due to his stupid honour and sense of misguided moral values."
Ardias sighed. In this matter Nabiki won a point. He himself had betrayed his Emperor and Primarch despite being bound by oath and duty when he became a Space Marine. A lifetime of duty forever stained by lies and deceit sown by the great knight, Luther the sworn brother of the Lion El Johnson. Until the arrival of Andy Wong and Cypher which caused the former Fallen Angel to be reborn into the Chaplain of the Fallen Angels, the first Chaplain not anointed by his Chapter master and moreover, trained in the arts of war by an alien, being Andy Wong.
"Take my word in this case Nabiki. Giving in to revenge is the first path to damnation. You can even ask Captain Saotome regarding this matter."
The train then started slowing down and eventually came to a stop. Nabiki and Ardias quickly disembarked. Only then did the pervert finally howl in pain, resulting in many looks of contempt from the passengers as the train left. Nabiki smirked and asked Ardias, "Don't seek revenge huh? So what was that?"
"One word Nabiki, justice. For the Jedi, there can be no vengeance, only justice," Ardias answered.
The two exited the station and immediately Nabiki hailed a bus to stop. They boarded the bus and rode the bus all the way to what looked like a university campus. It was a Wednesday and countless students were walking here and there, studying, eating breakfast, walking, even dating early in the morning. Nabiki took in her surroundings and started walking through the campus, her ice-queen face back in her face. Most of the students who looked at her quickly moved away. Ardias would have thought it was because of his presence but now, back home and in her element, Nabiki was in control of the environment. Here, on campus albeit a different one where she usually went, Nabiki was the Ice-Queen once more.
Eventually they came to what was more or less the centre of the campus, where a large library was situated next to a cafeteria. The Tendo sister immediately spotted a group of girls giggling and laughing while surrounding a single guy. He was smartly dressed in a business suit and wore shades that made him look wealthy and influential judging by the crowd of girls surrounding him.
"Hey Ardias, time to make yourself scarce. Don't suppose you know how to watch from a distance without your target knowing you are there?" Nabiki asked.
"Very well, but keep your communicator on at all times Tendo Nabiki. We are privy to all your dealings now and I will not tolerate any dishonourable behaviour," Ardias said sternly.
Nabiki mentally frowned. She nearly threw a tantrum on Destiny's Forge knowing that she would have no privacy except for her thoughts now that she was a Jedi padawan but knew it would do her no good. She had to do what she did best: work within the rules.
"Fine Ardias, just remember what you told me earlier," Nabiki coolly replied. Ardias' eyes narrowed. If she was about to do what he thought she was about to do…. Ardias saw Nabiki move off and inconspicuously put some distance between himself and Nabiki while still having her within sight.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"…….. and that stupid senpai actually believed me and ran into the women's side of the hot spring thinking his girlfriend is in trouble! Too bad he walked into the wrong side and into a congregation of Japan's Dominatrix Club!" the man said prompting another collective sounds of giggles and disgusts as the girls imagined a half naked guy running into a crowd of sadistic women.
"Oh gross, so what happened them Aoshima-san?" more than one of them prompted. The man was about to continue his story when suddenly, he noticed a short haired girl standing right in his path. His jovial mood toned down a great deal and he seemingly forgot about his story as he leered at the girl in front of him.
"Still wasting your days around with the skanks are you, Toshiyuki?" Nabiki responded to the man's leer with a sneer of her own. All the other girls were glaring daggers at her but even they felt uncomfortable at the exchange between their idol and what seemed to be a strange freshman.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Tendo Nabiki from Nerima. I must admit that this is a pleasant surprise. Could it be you have need of my services again? I hope the help I provided the last time was, well, helpful."
Her eyes narrowed. "Oh they were helpful, more than helpful. Today is more than business though. May I propose somewhere a little more private to discuss it?"
"Certainly. Do you prefer somewhere noisy or somewhere quiet, away from the crowd so to speak? I can arrange for a place with plenty of witnesses if you do not trust me," Aoshima Toshiyuki said
Nabiki then flashed a wide grin, a grin that somewhat unnerved the campus playboy. "Somewhere private, away from prying eyes. As always, have your wallet ready. We're going to have a long talk."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ardias tried to blend in with the crowd, an effort that he was failing miserably as there was no one else as big as him. Fortunately, the Space Marine was not entirely untrained in the art of espionage. The fact that he stood out couldn't be helped, all he could do was make sure that all attention was directed at him, and not Nabiki. He kept a careful distance from Nabiki and eventually saw her enter a chemical engineering building. Once he entered, Nabiki was no where to be seen but Ardias had planted a tracking device in Nabiki's handbag inside her mobile phone. His bionic eye which was now the same colour as his other black eye registered Nabiki's presence in on of the chemistry laboratories. He decided to stop at the café inside the building and have a cup of coffee as well as read a book on Japanese culture. But his right eye never left the tracking device and many viewed Ardias as an odd combination of being scary and funny as one eye was staring at the book while the other was trained towards the labs.
He became concerned when the two entered a room where his eye could not penetrate. Instead of following her, he instead stretched his mind through the Force, and amid the throng of minds that assaulted his now open conciousness, he focused on Nabiki's unique life force, which all living beings had, akin to a soul's DNA. Noticing her calmness and practically emotionless state, he waited.
Meanwhile down in the basements, Nabiki and Aoshima were inside a blast room, where experiments of explosive nature were performed behind reinforced steel walls. One wall had a reinforced glass display where there was a small lecture room. The room was also soundproof.
"So what is it…." he began before something hard knocked into the back of his head, making him see stars and at the same time, stumbling forward to the ground. He reacted quickly and scrambled to a wall to face his attacker. He was shocked to see Nabiki with her fist outstretched where his head had been.
"What, how…" he began before Nabiki began the process of beating the shit out of him. The petite girl seemed to have gained the strength of a full grown man, and Aoshima prided himself for his physical prowess and stamina, which was essential in his wooing of women and subsequent seduction. First she kicked him in the solar plexus. As he double over gasping for breath, her knee met his face and he fell backwards on to a table. Immediately, she jumped onto the table then his upper torso down by straddling him at his chest. Then she proceeded to punch his face. He tried to throw her of with his hands but she kept deflecting them away with a martial arts technique that was unknown to him.
"Do you have any idea what your henchmen did to me?" she said softly amid her punches. This contrasted with her furious barrage which represented her inner rage.
The campus playboy then used his right leg to kick Nabiki's back. The girl flinched as the kick connected but steeled herself to stand the pain. The girl cracked a smile which chilled Aoshima's soul. "You know, I thought I would let you pay your debt with a beating, but it appears that your debt to me now has compound interest."
To his surprise and horror, Nabiki reached her left hand back then unzipped his pants. She promptly gripped his balls and with her middle finger, stabbed her long finger nail in between them. He howled with pain and in desperation, swung a vicious left hook at Nabiki. She used her left hand to catch the incoming punch and promptly twisted his wrist.
"Ah ah ah," she chided him as though he was a child and promptly dug her nail further until Aoshima was mortally afraid she would literally pierce his manhood.
"Whh……whhhhh…. Why? what… what what do you want" he gasped as he tried to resist the urge of moving in spite of the numerous injuries he now sported. Nabiki smiled. Now she understood the meaning of controlling someone by his balls.
"This is just a taste of what your henchmen put me through," satisfied with Aoshima's continued confusion, she elaborated "They practically set me up to be a fuck toy to me enemies. And since they are within your payroll, whether or not you meant it or not, you are responsible for my torture." She continued to talk calmly as though she was explaining about the weather even as her grip at his balls tightened. He gasped, "I …. don't... understand …….I ……. didn't know!!!"
"It doesn't matter. I needed someone to test my training. And it appears it paid off more than I expected." She smiled almost seductively as she lay beside him on the table, careful to pin his left functional arm beneath her. But she did not release her right hand grip. She then dipped her hand in his jacket and promptly fished out his cheque book and placed in it his still functioning right hand.
"OK, if anything else, I've also been taught the concept of mercy and kindness so I may as well be kind enough to enlighten you about what I went through. I'm sure you've seen the hentai Bondage Mansion don't you? Well, boys made me go through it after they guaranteed my protection. Apparently, the 100,000 yen I paid them wasn't enough. They even signed a contract with me and after drinking sake to close the deal, promptly proceeded to do everything the contract said NOT to do with me. And not just me, my sister has also suffered. Since she refuses to collect payment from you, I'm doing it on her behalf," she said.
She was surprised when Aoshima chuckled. "What do you expect from those lowlifes? They would break your word over anyone giving them a bigger payoff. Actually, we all do, not just the young punks in our organisation, its just a matter of being ahead of your enemies to make sure your payoff is always bigger then theirs. Face it Nabiki, if anybody is at fault, its because you refused my suggestion to pay more for my connections."
Aoshima had decided that if he could beat her physically, he would defeat her psychologically. But Nabiki's expression never changed.
"So there are no set rules huh? Even in business? That anything goes in this world?"
"That's right," he said.
"Then you certainly can't blame for doing this," and with that, she reached into her handbag and promptly extracted her pepper spray which she then sprayed into his eyes. His howl was audible and when he tried to punch her with his remaining right hand, she merely deflected it but did not break it. "Sadly, I need your right hand to write your cheque. About 10 million yen for starters."
"ARE YOU INSANE! YOU BITCH, WHEN I GET OUT…. YEOWWWW!"
Nabiki shook her head. "Careful Aoshima, as much as I hate to admit it, you have a fine piece of tool down there, and it would be a shame to permanently damage it. By the time you're in any condition to take revenge, I'll be long gone and your cheque will be cleared into my secret bank account. Now be a gentleman and agree to sign the cheque will you?"
He was mortally afraid but despite his humiliation, burned with a desire to strike back. He realised that now he was completely powerless, Nabiki was not only as strong as him but far more skilful in the way she had attacked him. He nodded his head and Nabiki promptly slid off him to stand on the floor but maintained her grip. She placed the cheque book and a pen on his left side and allowed him to slowly raise himself to a sitting position. Seeing that she never stopped looking at him, he sighed, bent over to his left and used his right hand to write the cheque of 10 million yen. After looking at the cheque intently for any trickery, she smiled with satisfaction and placed it into her hand bag.
"Now that wasn't so hard wasn't it? Now be a dear and stay out cold until I leave campus," she said as she released her right hand from his balls and promptly released a right hook into Aoshima's face, knocking him off the table unto the floor. He lay face down on the floor unmoving. Satisfied she left the blast room.
On the floor, Aoshima moved and struggled to move his right hand into his pocket. He pulled out his handphone and pressed a speed dial button. At the answering voice, he whispered, "kill Tendo Nabiki NOW!!!"
To be continued…..
