Tattoon Ranma

by Hung Nguyen

[Rated for V & L] Ranma decides that girls are nothing but trouble and tries to get away from his fiancee problems in Nerima. However, one last fiancee comes onto the scene... and she's definitely different!

6. Chapter 6: Another Solution?

Tattoon Ranma

Disclaimer: Aw Mom! I don't want to disclaim!

: Thoughts

Chapter 6

Another Solution?

"LOOK OUT!" Eric shouted as he dove to push the innocent bystanders out of the way. Unfortunately, Mousse was unconcerned with such insignificant details as he continued to fire with the submachine gun in his hands. His hatred for the one who still held his beloved's heart was so great, that he no longer cared about such petty concerns such as pride, honor or any other aspect of civilized thinking. He just couldn't believe that after all the years of devoting himself to Shampoo; after countless rejections; the sacrifices he had made; even after Ranma had flat-out rejected and left Shampoo, his intended bride was still determined to win that jerk and ignored her loyal Mousse! Life was just so unfair!

No. The only way for Shampoo to finally forget about Ranma was to remove him from the equation... permanently! Only then would she truly realize that only he, Mousse the Master of Hidden Weapons was the only man that was worthy of her! And if anyone got in the way, then they were obstacles. And in accordance to Amazon Law, obstacles were meant for killing! To the myopic Mousse, Ranma was the biggest obstacle of them all! And if that meant that he had to destroy all other obstacles to achieve his main objective, then so be it!

The crowds began screaming and ducking for cover as the enraged Amazon tried to gun down the agile martial artist. Many students fell over themselves as they pushed and shoved to get out of the line of fire. When the deadly barrage was about to hit the first of the innocent bystanders, it seemed like it was the end.

Eric gritted his teeth as he threw himself in front of the crowds. He knew that his fellow students would not be able to avoid being hit and decided on a sacrificial move by placing himself between Mousse and the crowds. It looked as if he would be killed along with his peers, as he saw Mousse take aim and pulled the trigger.

"NOW YOU DIE, RANMA SAO... WHAT THE?!"

However, in that instant, a sudden hurricane blast of wind was swept up in front of Mousse, causing him to be carried up into the air like a leaf. His shots went wide and he soon lost his grip on his weapon as he was tossed about by the gale force winds. He was sent flying off into the distance as Eric watched him with shock.

Eric turned around and saw Balla standing with one arm extended and her feet spread apart. He clearly saw the mystic tattoos on her forehead and the backs of her hands glowing brightly as winds whipped around her. She then relaxed and let her tattoos fade away as the air currents died down.

"Are you all right, Eric?" Balla asked as she rushed to her beloved.

Ranma nodded as he realized that the Tattoon Priestess must have summoned up that wind to throw Mousse away before a stray bullet hit anyone. "I'm fine Balla. Thank you."

"I'm so glad that you're all right!" Balla said as she jumped up and tightly embraced him.

Ranma gently pushed her back as he looked in the direction where Mousse had been thrown. His eyes narrowed, as he knew that his old rival would return. He couldn't afford to wait for that to happen. If what had just occurred was any indication, more innocents would be endangered. No... just as he had done with Ryoga, Ranma knew that he would have to have it out with Shampoo's suitor, once and for all.

"Balla, make sure that everyone is all right. I have to go."

"Eric! Wait!" Balla called after him as he quickly leapt up to a nearby rooftop and ran in the direction of where Mousse had been thrown. He was gone in an instant, leaving only a shocked crowd and a very concerned girl, who was soon joined by another.

"Who the HELL was that?!" Lisa demanded as she ran up with her longbow drawn and an arrow notched.

Balla could only shake her head sadly as she continued to gaze in the direction where her beloved had disappeared. It had begun again.

A few blocks away...

Mousse landed hard in a garbage dumpster behind a shopping center, making a loud, crashing noise and sending refuse scattering everywhere. He moaned as his entire body ached from the impact. Though he did carry an insane amount of metallic and sharp weapons, he also had a fair amount of padding in those robes, which was probably what saved his spine from shattering from the landing. He gritted his teeth as he struggled to haul himself from the trash.

Damn you, Ranma! Mousse fumed as he dragged himself out of the metal trash bin. Where the HELL did that wind come from?! Then the Hidden Weapons Master incorrectly assumed that Ranma had caused that sudden tornado. That dried-up mummy Cologne had taught his rival the Hiryu Shoten Ha, so that had to have been how he had been thrown into the air. The near-sighted Amazon male let off a scream of rage as he got up and threw off the bits of refuse that now soiled his formally white robes.

"RANMA! YOU WILL DIE!"

At that moment, the object of Mousse's anger and frustration came onto the scene, leaping down from the top of a nearby store and taking a ready stance some twenty meters away.

Ranma growled at his old rival with disgust as Mousse returned the glare. His mouth curled into a snarl as he saw the Hidden Weapons expert take a stand, though he was a bit shaky after his abrupt flight and landing. However, now that he had finally found his arch-nemesis and biggest obstacle to his beloved Shampoo, the myopic teen was unconcerned with minor nuisances such as physical pain.

"I thought I left all my troubles behind when I abandoned Nerima, but I guess I was wrong. First Ryoga, and now you! What the FUCK did you think you were doing back there?! You could have killed someone! And what's with the gun?!" Ranma gritted.

"Nothing is going to save you this time, Ranma!" Mousse declared as he pulled out a pair of handguns from his sleeves and fired.

However, with no innocent bystanders to worry about this time, Eric didn't have any problems with using his superior speed and agility to dodge the bullets. The shots whizzed by and spattered harmlessly against a nearby wall. The Hidden Weapons Master screamed out as he felt his hands being crushed along with his guns as his opponent grabbed hold of both his weapons and squeezed. There was a sickening sound of popping tendons along with snapping plastic and bending metal. When he looked down at his opponent, he saw his eyes glowing with rage.

"Resorting to guns now, Mousse? You really ARE PATHETIC!" Without letting go of Mousse's hands, he pulled back and swung him around, slamming him into a nearby lamppost. Mousse went sprawling, but he stubbornly got up and looked down at his hands. Though they were aching and cut, they could still move their fingers as he dropped his broken weapons.

He then reached into his robes, brought out a wicked set of brass knuckles, and swung hard at Ranma's face. However, Ranma made no attempt to block or dodge the blow as his red aura glowed once again, and this time, with the mark on his forehead glowing as well. The punch hit him squarely on the chin, but the maddened martial artist didn't even register the hit as he simply turned his cheek, then glared back at his foe. For Mousse, it was a different story altogether as more pain shot through his hand from the impact.

"AARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!"

Now there were some broken bones in that hand.

Ranma growled dangerously as a small bruise formed on his cheek. "You maybe good at hiding weapons, Mousse, but your Hidden Weapons style has some serious drawbacks!"

WHOMP!

The punch that Mousse received in his gut hit like a speeding bus, doubling him over and causing him to reflexively open his hands. His brass knuckles dropped to the ground and made a dull clattering noise.

"You depend too much on your weapons to do the job, so your punches and kicks don't pack NOWHERE NEAR as much force as mine do! Preschoolers have hit me harder!"

With lightning speed, Eric grabbed the brass knuckles and fitted them around his own hand. He then launched a haymaker at Mousse's teeth.

WHAMMO!

There goes about a dozen teeth out of Mousse's mouth and splattered on the pavement.

"Weapons can be taken away and used against you!"

WHOMP! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! BOOT! CRASH!

A savage five-hit punch and kick combo sends Mousse flying back toward the dumpster.

"You may be good at long-range, but when it's close-quarters, you're too slow and your defense sucks!"

Ranma then grabbed his opponent by the front of his robes and slammed his forehead against Mousse's.

WHOP!

"All those weapons don't mean SHIT when you're too dazed and not given enough time to use them !"

"I'm not finished yet.." Mousse gasped as he tried to pull out another weapon.

However, Ranma wasn't going to have any more of it. "SHUT UP! To me, you're done, BUT I'M NOT!" He then delivered another brutal combination, this time with nine punches, one knee to the abdomen and another kick to the chest. This made Mousse cough up some more blood. Eric continued to pummel away as he ranted and raved.

"BUT YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH YOUR FIGHTING STYLE IS THAT YOU LET YOUR WEAPONS DO ALL THE WORK! YOU CAN'T TAKE A TENTH AS MUCH SHIT AS YOU DISH OUT! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH SHIT I HAD TO TAKE?! HUH? EVERY DAY I HAD TO TAKE RYOGA'S SHIT, KUNO'S SHIT, YOUR SHIT AND AKANE'S SHIT, ESPECIALLY WITH THAT FUCKING MALLET OF HERS! YOU NEVER HAD TO TAKE THAT KIND OF SHIT! WELL THE SHIT STOPS HERE!"

Mousse was quickly learning that going after Ranma had NOT been one of his better ideas. Furthermore, Ranma was right about one thing. The myopic Mousse had nowhere near as much endurance for pain and injury as his foe or Ryoga. He had always let his weapons and equipment do the job for him and take the brunt of an attack. During the course of his bid to beat Ranma and win Shampoo, Mousse had been hit by the Amaguriken Fist, the Hiryu Shoten Ha, an assorted array of kicks and punches and even had a time bomb blow up in his face.

However, Mousse had never taken punishment on a regular basis and not nearly as intense as Ranma had. His rival had been attacked daily and taken more punishment that would have killed a normal person a hundred times over. Blunt objects of various shapes and sizes, (but most were in the form of large mallets), had impacted against Eric in Nerima. He had been subjected to the Neko Ken training, shiatsu attacks, potions, poisons, bokkens, fists, feet, sports equipment, foodstuffs, magical items of various kinds, explosives, scalding water, and most of all, the abuse from being Akane's fiancée. As a result, one might say that Ranma had undergone a kind of endurance training every day that made the Backusai Tenketsu seem like a weekend vacation. With his battle aura now adding to his power, Ranma was now approaching a kind of endurance that may as well makes him invulnerable.

Mousse now knew what a high-speed punching bag felt like and attempted desperately to fight back. He tried to pull out another gun, but Ranma growled in disgust and knocked it out of his injured hands.

"AGAIN WITH THE GUNS?!" Eric roared as he sent a hard straight into Mousse's nose. This caused his glasses to be knocked off. It didn't matter that Eric's foe was severely nearsighted as he could only see stars at that moment. "ARE YOU SO DAMNED PATHETIC THAT YOU'RE USING A COWARD'S WEAPON NOW?! I THOUGHT YOU HAD SOME HONOR, BUT NOW I SEE YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A FUCKING COWARD!"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Mousse gets five RBIs. (Ribs Bashed In)

"NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT, YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN A COWARD!"

SMASH! WHOMP! CRUNCH!

Hidden Weapons Style depends heavily on the use of the hands and Mousse won't be able to use his for at least six months. That is, provided that he survived this day.

"YOU COULD NEVER BEAT ME IN A FAIR FIGHT, SO YOU ALWAYS HAD TO RESORT TO TRICKS, TRAPS AND ATTACKING ME WHEN I'M DOWN!" Eric remembered when Mousse had attacked him when he was weak from the Moxibustion Point. Whatever respect he used to have for the male Amazon was long gone.

CRACK! WHOP!

Mousse gets a very nice concussion.

"YOU COULD NEVER FACE ME ONE-ON-ONE WITHOUT PULLING SOME STUPID SHIT FIRST!" Eric also remembered when Mousse tried to use the Spring of Drowned Duck water on him, and when he got Ryoga to gang up on him. Not once did Mousse ever fight with honor. He was nowhere near what was considerered a martial artist! He may think that he's fighting for some just cause, (ie: for Shampoo's love), but to his opponent, Mousse was an even bigger hypocrite than the Pig Boy!

POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!

Broken nose broken cheek broken jaw several more teeth = Well, you can pretty much imagine that mess!

"BUT MOST OF ALL, YOU'RE A COWARD, BECAUSE LIKE ALL THE OTHERS, YOU DIDN'T TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ALL YOUR TROUBLES AND JUST DECIDED TO PIN THEM ON ME!"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Add some more internal bleeding to the mix.

"I NEVER WANTED SHAMPOO, BUT DID YOU EVER LISTEN?! NO! WELL I'VE HAD IT WITH HAVING TO DEAL WITH YOUR MESSED-UP LIFE! CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESSES!"

Mousse was coming close to slipping into a coma from his injuries as he went limp and collapsed to the ground. Eric cocked back his fist and was about to pound Mousse some more, but then he realized that his foe wouldn't feel it in his current condition. His clenched hand shook as he began to take slow, measured breaths to calm his rage. His body relaxed as he let his hands fall to his sides. At that moment, he felt a slight breeze suddenly come up behind him. The mark on his forehead glowed and Ranma knew just who it was behind him. He turned around and saw that Balla was standing behind him with an apprehensive look on her face. Beside her was Lisa, who also had a look of shock on her face as she gazed down at the beaten battered form of the one who had attacked Eric with firearms.

"Eric? Are you all right? Is he...?"

Eric took a deep breath and shook his head. "Don't worry Balla. He's still alive, but it would have been better for everyone if I did put him out of MY misery!"

"Please Eric... not again. You're letting all those feelings of hate and frustration take over. I don't want to see you tear yourself up like this." She slowly approached him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Lisa approached him as well with her longbow held at her side. "Eric, just who the HELL is this guy?!"

Eric glared down at the unconscious Mousse and said, "He's one of the main reasons WHY I left Tokyo. Him and a bunch of other assholes kept on attacking me, for one stupid reason or another."

"And no one tried to put a stop to this?" Lisa asked incredulously.

The former heir to the Saotome School shrugged. "Nope. I've tried. Kami-sama only knows how much I tried to get this jerk and others like him to get off my back. Though this is the first time Mousse used guns on me. Most of the time he uses swords, chains, and clubs."

Lisa was becoming even more shocked when she heard this, then she asked, "And how long has this been going on?!"

"A little more than a year and a half now."

"And the authorities haven't put this guy in jail yet?!"

Ranma paused as he thought about it. "Come to think of it, no. I don't think I ever saw the police. Back in Nerima, Mousse never even got asked to show any permits for the weapons he carried or..."

"Well I don't know how things are done in Nerima, Eric, but this is Hiroshima!" Lisa interrupted. "The last time I checked, GUNS are illegal and firing into a crowd is definitely against the law! So is attempted MURDER!"

It then occurred to Ranma that he had another solution to his problems. Back in Nerima, the law, along with everyone and everything else, either stood by and did nothing or worked against him. He started to smile as he nodded to his classmate. "You know what, Lisa? You're absolutely right. Guns are illegal." He turned to Balla. "Do you think you can use your powers to heal him enough so he won't die on me?"

"No problem. Though I won't heal everything!" Balla knelt down and extended a hand over Mousse. The tattoo on the back of her hand appeared as she worked her magic to mend all of his critical injuries, but leaving all the non-lethal damage alone. Mousse was going to be in the intensive care ward for several months.

"What are you doing?" Lisa asked as she watched Eric kneel down, take out a large handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it over his right hand.

"I'm going to strip Mousse of whatever guns he's got left." He replied as he began extracting things from all the hidden places where the myopic Amazon stored his things. The bow-wielding girl became amazed at just how much stuff he carried within his robes. With the handkerchief over his fingers, Eric made certain that none of his fingerprints were on Mousse's things as he removed several pieces of military hardware that his rival had never gotten the chance to use. Items such as hand grenades, explosive charges and even a bazooka (don't ask me where he hid that!), were brought into the light.

Eric nodded. With the witnesses at school and all of this evidence, Mousse was going to be sent away for a very LONG time.

Several hours later... Mousse awoke with a splitting headache and found himself lying on a cot in a very small room. When he looked over to one side, he saw that there were steel bars on one side and a man in uniform looking down at him.

"Huh? W-W-Where am I?"

"You're at the 235th Precinct of the Hiroshima Police." The officer replied. "You were brought here by some citizens who are pressing charges against you for assault, attempted murder, firing on innocent bystanders, and having in your possession illegal weapons and firearms. All those witnesses swear that the person you tried to kill acted in self-defense, so no charges have been made against him. You on the other hand are a different story." He gestured to the pile of hand-to-hand weapons and guns that were stacked on the evidence table beside him.

"What are you talking about... owwww!" Pain began shooting into his head as soon as he sat up.

The officer shook his head. "You'd better take it easy, friend. The medic did all he could to patch you up. You're going to need all your strength for your trial."

"Trial? What trial?!"

The officer glared at him. "I don't know how you managed to smuggle in all those weapons into the country, but it's illegal to carry firearms. All those other weapons are to be confiscated and used as evidence as well. There are also several dozen students at a local high school that had witnessed your little rampage today, shouting out the intent to murder one of them and firing at a crowd! We've already been to the area and forensics had collected enough spent bullets and cartridge casings that match with the ones that you had fired from that submachine gun of yours. With all this evidence against you, I'd say that you're going to be heading for prison for a VERY long time."

"I don't need to listen to this!" Mousse sneered as he reached into his robes for a weapon, then became shocked as he found... nothing.

"If you are thinking about escaping or resisting the law, then forget it, pal." The policeman said. "Those people who brought you in insisted that we do a strip search. You wouldn't BELIEVE what we found on you!" He gestured to the table again. "Oh and one more thing."

"What?" Mousse asked, though he began to have that sinking feeling.

"All those charges that I've mentioned so far were small potatoes compared to the main charge."

"What main charge?"

"Attempted first degree murder of one Eric Kobayashi. There were more than thirty witnesses so we may not even have a trial. A charge like that can entitle the death penalty. If you're lucky, you may just get life."

At that point, Mousse realized that he had been sent up the river, without a boat.

"Do you think that he'll be put in prison for this?" Balla asked as she and Eric ate dinner that night.

"Hmpf! Most likely, though there is a chance that he'll permanently deported to China. That's too good for him, but with any luck, he won't ever come back!" Eric said gruffly as he refilled his rice bowl. He then gave Balla a small smile. "I'd like to say thanks again Balla, for helping me back there. A lot of people could have been hurt or killed if you hadn't stopped him."

"Welcome!" Balla said with a smile as she saw a little more of the human side that Ranma kept hidden away. "And I want to say that you showed a lot of restraint by sparing him. I always knew that deep inside, you really are a good person!"

"Yeah, well don't make a big deal about it." Eric said with an off-handed wave. He still had to deal with others from his past showing up and wondered if his alternative solution would work on them. Only time would tell. Hoping to change the subject, he then asked her, "Balla, do you think you can show me more of that Tattoon magic?"

"Sure!" The Tattoon girl said as she felt that she was making more headway with her beloved. Little by little she was chipping away from the tough shell that Eric had erected over himself. It was just a question of time.

Later that night...

Eric was in deep in thought as he looked out at the evening sky from the balcony of his apartment. Balla had already gone to sleep for the night, leaving the formally cursed martial artist alone with his thoughts. He raised a hand and stared absently at the back of it while focusing his power. The mystic tattoo came into view as he let his newfound skills and senses flow with the outside lines of ki and the natural energies of his surroundings.

It was quite a new sensation to him. His life-long training in the martial arts had caused him to develop a heightened sense of awareness, specifically tuned for danger toward himself. However, that left him with less than stellar perceptive abilities toward that which did not threaten him. Now with the Tattoon girl's help, Ranma's sense of his surroundings had reached a new level. He could not only feel that which could threaten him, but also certain impressions and emotions of others, even at great distances. He could sense a couple being intimate some two blocks away. He could feel the impressions of a dog as it rooted about in its backyard. He could even feel the gentle air currents of the breeze as it wafted across long blades of grass in the city park. The teen who was once Ranma Saotome closed his eyes and extended his new senses even further. His aura began to emerge, but this time, it wasn't the angry, intense red ki that he usually emitted. This one was a white color and seemed to give off soothing waves. Faint lines of energy began crisscrossing over the surface of Ranma's forearms. As the Tattoon Priestess had told him, his secondary tattoos would form by themselves as his mastery over the tribal magic increased.

Just as Ranma was about to achieve a state of perfect harmony and serenity, his brow suddenly furrowed and his aura began to darken. Balla's beloved had just sensed the presence of certain people in Hiroshima, who happened to be at a hotel some thirty blocks away. He also sensed the presence of others. Most of which, he had come to hate.

One presence was extremely aged and was darting back and forth between houses, leaping at their balconies and causing others to become very angry.

Happosai. That freak must be on one of his panty raids again.

Then he sensed another who was just as old and radiated more control. Nearby was another less focused presence.

Hmmm, looks like Shampoo and that old ghoul are here too. Figures, since I just ran into Mousse.

Then there were two presences that filled him with disgust.

Kuno and that psychotic sister of his! Things just couldn't get any worse, now could they?

He then sensed the presence of someone that he had thought to be a friend. His expression became saddened.

Uccha... no, Ukyo. She's here too. Damn! They're all here!

At that point, Eric dropped his concentration and let his tattoos fade back into his skin. He took a deep sigh and shook his head sadly.

I guess that it was just wishful thinking that I'd be able to get away from all that shit in Nerima. It looks like I'm going to have to deal with them after all! And if I'm right, my next headache is going to be Nabiki. She's probably going to try to blackmail me into going back. Well, I can do something about that!

Ranma went back into his apartment and walked over to the closet where he stored his backpack. He then opened up a side pocket of his pack and began taking out a few things that he had stolen, (in his words, liberated), from Nabiki's room before he had abandoned the Tendos and his father. These items included all the hardcopy files that mercenary had on him, such as the paper files, the computer disks and photos of him in both his male and female form. The latter, in which she'd sell to Kuno or any of the other perverts at Furinkan. However, these were not the only things that he had taken. He had also brought along a few key things that he thought would be good insurance, if... no, WHEN Nabiki or any of the others pursued him.

All he had to do now, was to face them.

At the hotel...

"I still don't know why we're doing this!" Akane griped as she and her family ate dinner. "We're better off without that jerk! We shouldn't even be here! Good riddance I say!"

"Oh come on now, Akane! You're not fooling anyone." Nabiki teased. "We all know how much you want Ranma back."

"I DO NOT!" Akane half-screamed her denial.

Soun and Genma, of course took this the wrong way.

"Ah, it must be love, for my little girl to be so intense!" Soun sighed.

"Yes, a perfect match!" Genma agreed as he wolfed down his food. "Perhaps this separation was a blessing in disguise! They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder!"

"Well said Saotome! When they are reunited, then we shall hold the wedding right away! True love should not be denied!"

Akane then stood up and slammed her hands onto the table. "I DO NOT LOVE HIM! I HATE HIM! I'M GLAD THAT HE'S GONE! HE WAS NOTHING BUT TROUBLE SINCE HE CAME TO OUR HOME! AND I SHOULD HAVE MY HEAD EXAMINED FOR EVEN COMING TO HIROSHIMA!"

She then stomped toward her room, leaving her half-finished dinner on the table. However, it was soon empty as Genma followed one of the tenants of his training, which was to never let free food go to waste.

After dinner, as Kasumi good-naturedly cleared the table, Nabiki sat on her bed in deep contemplation. Ranma was here in Hiroshima. She could feel it in her bones. Her primary source of income would soon be under her thumb again and her bank account would be out of its slump and climbing.

Just what was he thinking when he left? How could he do that to her? She had a sweet setup going and he just had to ruin it by saying no and making a decision for himself. Well, his sudden burst of independence was going to be short-lived after she found him. He had cost her a lot of money since he left the Tendo home several months ago. He had taken nearly every piece of information that she had on him when he departed. She had already sold the last few photos of him in his cursed form. Images in which she had sold to Kuno at inflated prices. The perverted wannabe samurai had been hungering for more images of his beloved pig-tailed goddess and was determined to free her from the clutches of the demon-sorcerer Ranma. Once Ranma had returned to Nerima, Nabiki was planning on doing a full layout shoot with his cursed form, which would net her a pretty profit and put her through college. Ranma's feelings about it were of no consequence.

The pig-tailed martial artist had also ruined a couple of other lucrative ventures when he had left. One of which were the betting pools. The middle Tendo daughter had been profiting off odds on his fights with his rivals or any other fighter that came to Tokyo. The second business was the most important. They were secrets about Ranma. Secrets that she had ferreted out of him during his stay at her home. Secrets that others would pay for. Secrets that Ranma paid her on a regular basis not to reveal. Though he had taken all the hardcopies and data disks that she had on him in her room, her master files were still in her head, along with many others at school. She also had some back-ups hidden in secret caches at Furinkan, though many of them had been raided by the school's Computer Club. As a result, a lot of people were no longer under her control. However, she considered it all a minor setback and Ranma's return would recoup what she had lost.

Oh yes, Ranma won't be able to enjoy his freedom for very much longer once she caught up to him. She owned him, and he was still up to his neck in debt. He couldn't just walk away. He didn't have what it takes to escape her. He was just an immature, naive, egotistical jock. His sudden act of intelligence in breaking into her room, stealing her files and covering his tracks was just a one-time fluke. Ranma was the eternal sap. He couldn't stand to see girls cry and didn't fight them. His taking all of Akane's abuse and not retaliating was proof of that. He didn't have any class or control and would leap at any chance to a cure for his curse. And Ranma becoming cured would mean a sudden drop in her business affairs. He had the perpetual foot-in-mouth disease and it was so easy to manipulate him.

She expected some resistance, but she was certain that Ranma would bend to her whim, as he always did. With Akane, Soun and Genma bearing down on him, the dope was certain to collapse. And if everything else failed, she could always play her trump card. His overdeveloped sense of honor. That was the chink in his armor. He may complain and shout, but when it came to honor, he would do what was necessary, even if he hated it. The pledge to unite the families and the overwhelming debts that he owed her. It will be a stain on his honor if he were to turn his back on them.

Yes, Ranma would return to the Tendo Dojo. Willingly or not, he would return. The mercenary Tendo daughter would make certain of that.

Little did she know that Ranma was no longer the same person that she nor anyone else was expecting.

Ranma nodded as he put away all the files after committing them to memory. Nabiki had learned a lot of his secrets during his stay at the Tendo home, but when he left, he had taken many of hers. He had taken as many of the negatives of the photos of her private files as he could, while stealing the ones that concerned him.

Akane's sister had a LOT of skeletons in her closet. Not only did she have extensive information about him, but she also had data on more than half of Furinkan's student population, all the teaching staff and several important people of Nerima's community. From those photos, he had learned many things about Nabiki that he never knew before. If she were to threaten to expose his secrets, he could counter with hers. Turnabout was fair after all.

Nabiki would soon learn that Eric wasn't going to be pushed around by nobody!

The next morning...

"Please?"

"No."

"Come on, Eric."

"I said no!"

"Why not?"

"No, I'm not going!"

"Please?"

"NO!"

"Pretty please?"

"NO, NO, AND NO!"

"Please, please, please? I REALLY want to go and I REALLY want you to be there with me! It'll be fun!"

"Balla, after all that's happened, I really don't think that going to the annual festival that's coming up would be a good idea!"

"Oh please, Eric! I've never been to one before, and it sounds exciting! And it might be just the thing to get your mind off your problems for a while."

"And it's also just asking for trouble! Ryoga and Mousse found me and look what happened! What if the others were to see me there?"

"Eric, please." Balla clasped her hands together and held them out in front. Her eyes glistened with a certain sparkle as she pleaded with him. "Don't shut yourself out from me and everyone else. It's not good for you. I want to see you smile and be happy! I want to see you enjoy what life has to offer! Don't let your past consume you."

Ranma sighed as he turned his back to her, leaned against the wall and stared out the window at the rising sun. "Fun. Now there's something that I don't get to have much."

"Please Eric. It would mean a lot to me if you'd take me to this festival. I've heard so much about it from everyone at school. Everyone in class is going to be there."

"I don't know, Balla. If I go out, then those people that I told you about are bound to find me. I know that I have to face them sooner or later, though I'd much rather face them later."

"Don't worry about it."

"What?" Ranma turned to see Balla take a determined look on her face as she held up a fist.

She focused her power and let the tattoo appear. "I won't let any of those people come near you. Remember, I'm on YOUR side!"

The former fiancé of Akane couldn't help but show a slight smile. He still couldn't get over the fact that this girl was behind him. She showed a kind of devotion that was unfamiliar to him. Unlike Shampoo's deviousness, Akane's abuse or Ukyo's possessiveness, Balla showed sincere loyalty and was honest with how she felt about him. She never asked for anything and gave him space when he needed it. Why shouldn't he reward her by taking her out? It wasn't as if it was a real date. It was just... two people going out together for a night of enjoyment, that's all. And it had been a long time since his departure from Nerima, that he had gone out for fun.

Even though he felt that he was making a big mistake, that small part of him that still clung to his old self came out as he couldn't refuse Balla's request. "Oh... all right, Balla. Tomorrow night, but just for a couple of hours, okay?"

"YAAAAAAAAAAYYY! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" The Tattoon girl immediately embraced her beloved and gushed out how happy she was. "I promise you that this will be fun! This will be a night that you won't forget!"

Ranma simple stood there with a sigh and he put his hands on Balla's waist. I have a feeling that I won't be forgetting tomorrow night for a long time.

At her own home, Lisa was wondering how she would approach Eric today and ask him out to the festival. Draped over a chair was the brand new kimono that she planned to wear tomorrow night.

At her family's home, Nodoka was also wondering what she would wear to the festival. She was planning to go with her sister and wondered if Eric would be there.

To be continued...

Author's Notes

Well, that takes care of Chapter 6 of Tattoon Ranma. Now for those of you who are saying that I made Nabiki appear to be the money-grubbing mercenary of the original series, all I can say is that in this story she is! My stories can either have altered or canon personalities, to suit the mood. Besides, in this fic, Ranma has changed because of those people, so having them written as something other than original would defeat the purpose of his leaving, now wouldn't it? I like to experiment with mixes of both changed and unchanged personalities of the cast. In Fighting Blind and Weapon Ranma, Shampoo is more understanding and human, while in Cat Fist Fury and Tattoon Ranma, she's like the canon. Same thing goes for Ukyo, Kasumi, Nabiki and so on. I don't care much for Genma, Ryoga, Mousse and especially Akane, since to me, they don't have much in terms of redeeming qualities. But I guess that's just being biased.

Next chapter, Balla and Eric go on their first date, (though Eric will flatly deny that it is a date). We're certainly going to have more mayhem and a few more surprises as well as more development in their relationship. See you then!