Chapter 33 Nabiki Meets Mousse
As Nabiki entered the gate to her home, a young man followed her in. "Excuse me," he said politely, "Do you live here?"
Nabiki turned and said, "Yes, I'm Nabiki Tendo and this is my home. How can I help you?" She gazed at him dispassionately, seeing a tall, slender man, with long, black hair. By what she could see of his build through the white robe he was wearing, and by the graceful way he moved, she could tell he was a martial artist.
"My name is Mousse. I'm from the same village as Shampoo. I wanted to make sure Mr. Saotome was recovering from his injuries. I'm afraid I hit him a lot harder than I intended," the young man answered, somewhat sadly.
Nabiki smiled thinly, and then replied, "That answer will cost you five thousand yen." Mousse stared at her in disbelief and then handed her some money. "That's one of the ways I earn my keep, brokering information. As for your answer, he is still in a lot of pain. My brother-in-law said he didn't receive any permanent damage, however," she said. She was surprised to see a look of relief pass across his face.
Mousse smiled and then said, "Thanks. That is a relief. When I didn't see him come to the clinic today, I was worried that I might have really hurt him. I thought he was a tougher fighter than he turned out to be. Again, thank you, Miss Tendo."
She gave him an appraising look and then said, "Please, call me Nabiki." Then she smiled at him, showing her dimples.
Mousse gazed at the very attractive woman smiling at him, and said, "Of course, Nabiki. If you would, tell Mr. Saotome that he has nothing to fear from me. The only reason I fought him was to challenge him for Shampoo. I hope that he has a speedy recovery." He bowed politely to her and then disappeared out the gate.
"Well, well, that was intriguing," Nabiki said to herself, "I wonder what that was really all about." She stood there lost in thought. That is where Ranma and Akane found her as they entered the yard.
"What's going on, Sis?" Akane asked, startling Nabiki out of her reverie.
"I just had a very interesting conversation with a man named Mousse. He said he was an acquaintance of Shampoo," Nabiki said calmly, "He came by to check up on your father. It seems that he was worried that he might have hurt him badly."
"So he came by just ta check on the man he beat ta a pulp. That does strike me as a bit odd. Sounds like we need to talk ta Shampoo and find out more about him," Ranma mused.
Akane hissed at Ranma, and said, "You're backsliding again, Ranchan. Watch your grammar."
Ranma flashed a quick smile and then said, "Sorry, Acchan. This is hard, you know."
"Yes, I know dear. I've listened to how your father talks, so I know where you get this habit. You're getting better, though. You just slip now when you get excited," Akane said, "I'm going to go change and then I want you to watch me practice. I need you to see where I'm going wrong." She headed off to her room to change.
Ranma quirked an eyebrow at Nabiki. "That's not all, is it? You were certainly off in another world when we came in," Ranma asked.
"He intrigued me for some reason, Ranma. I'm not quite certain why. He's certainly different from the usual martial artists that I see. You know, polite, considerate, well-spoken," Nabiki said with a smirk.
"Very funny, Nabiki," Ranma growled, in mock anger. Nabiki took one look at him and wandered off, giggling. Ranma smiled briefly and then went into the dojo to wait for Akane.
Later that evening, Nabiki sat down next to Shampoo. "Mousse came by this afternoon to check up on Gemna. Shampoo, why would he be so worried about him? Nabiki asked.
A brief expression of shame flashed across Shampoo's face. "Mousse is a good man. He has a very kind heart. He will never make a good Amazon, because he really doesn't like to hurt people. He will fight when he has to, but he doesn't like it," Shampoo replied.
"It sounds like you like him," Nabiki said.
"He was my childhood friend. I hope once he gets over his obsession with me, then we can become friends again. I do miss the Mousse I used ta play with," Shampoo said softly.
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The next afternoon, Nabiki was waiting for her latest 'client' to show up. As soon as she had reached the location that he had picked for the rendezvous, she had been concerned. The alley, while off a busy street, was more isolated than she was comfortable with. She watched warily as he approached, followed by one of the students from the kendo club, obviously recruited as muscle.
"Tendo, I wasn't real happy with the information on the tests that you obtained for me," the man began.
Nabiki interrupted him coldly, "I provided you with the sample tests that you asked for, Takeda. I can't help that the people you sold them to couldn't keep their mouth shut. The sensei would never have known that you had the answers if they hadn't bragged about it where someone could hear."
"I still lost a bundle of money because of it," he returned, "I expect to get that back from you."
Nabiki pierced him with a cold stare. "You know my reputation. I don't give refunds," she replied, "Now, if you'll excuse me, we're done here." She started heading toward the mouth of the alley, but the muscle stepped in front of her.
"If you're expecting your sister's boyfriend reputation to protect you, I'm afraid it won't. He's not here to defend you," the muscle smirked.
A quiet voice said from above, "That's true. Saotome isn't here. I am, though." Several chains came flying out of the sky and wrapped around the muscle. He was pulled up onto the roof and out of sight. Nabiki whirled and got off a snap kick into the client's chest and knocked him into the building wall. She followed with another kick to the chin that drove his head into the wall, knocking him out. She turned as a figure dropped down behind her. She dropped into a fighting stance and then relaxed when she saw that it was Mousse. "Are you all right, Nabiki?" Mousse asked. She nodded and ran to him. "Then let's leave this place," he replied, "It appears to be full of trash."
"Thanks, Mousse. I owe you one. This might have gotten ugly," she said. Suddenly she began to shake in reaction to what had almost happened. Her mind was flashing images of what could have happened if Mousse hadn't intervened. Mousse put his arms around her and held her until she stopped shivering. "Could you take me away from here," she said in a weak voice.
He looked at her in concern, and then held out his arm as if to escort her. She looked at him bemused, and then linked arms. They headed out the alley, Nabiki leading them down the street to an ice cream parlor. "This is my treat by way of thinks, Mousse," Nabiki said softly.
After they got their ice cream, they sat down next to each other in one of the booths. She leaned into him, using his warmth to dispel the images that kept popping up in her mind. "Do you mind telling what that was all about, Nabiki?" he asked.
"It was a business deal that went a little sour is all. My client wasn't satisfied with the result of our deal and he wanted to take it out on me," Nabiki said, finally, "I was lucky you were around."
Mousse grimaced and admitted, "It wasn't exactly luck. I overheard them talking about taking care of a Tendo and followed them. I don't like defenseless people being hurt by thugs like that. Turns out you weren't as defenseless as I thought."
Nabiki smirked, and then said, "I am from a family of martial artists. Just because I'm not as into it as Akane or Kasumi doesn't mean I can't do a few things. Ranma did insist on me relearning the basics."
Mousse smiled at that. "If you're going to continue meeting dangerous people in dark alleys, you ought to learn more than just the basics," he replied, dryly, "If you're done, I'll walk you home."
"That's not necessary, Mousse. It's kind of you to offer, though," Nabiki replied as she stood up. Mousse rose with her and followed her out. Nabiki sighed, as he walked with her and then she linked arms with him. "Mousse," she said quietly, "Would you like to be friends?"
He raised one eyebrow at that and then said, "You know absolutely nothing about me, Nabiki. But, yeah, sure, I'd like to be your friend."
She smirked and said, "I know you're kind, with a good heart. You're good-looking, with a bit of a dry sense of humor. You also have a hopeless crush on Shampoo. You're a good martial artist, not in Ranma's class, but good none-the-less. What else do I need to know to decide that you would make a good friend? The rest I'll find out with time. Now, you on the other hand, really don't know much about me."
"That's true. Aside from you being very attractive, and intelligent, that you like making money, but find the hunt more fun, and that you have good taste in men, I don't know much about you," he said with a dry chuckle. She winced slightly and then joined in his laughter.
As they reached the Tendo home, Nabiki asked, "Could you stay for dinner? I'd like to get to know you better."
Mousse smiled and said, "I don't want to be a bother, but yes, I'd like that."
"Then it's settled. I'll introduce you to everyone and tell Kasumi that there is one more for dinner," Nabiki said as she drew him into the house. They found Kasumi cooking in the kitchen. "Sis, I'd like to introduce you to my friend, Mousse. I invited him to stay for dinner. Mousse, this is my older sister, Kasumi."
Nihao, Mu Tsu. Welcome to our home, Kasumi said.
Startled, Mousse replied, Thank you, Kasumi. Nihao, to you. How did you know I was Chinese?
I remembered Xian Pu talking about you and I thought you would appreciate hearing your own tongue, Kasumi said sweetly.
Thank you for your courtesy and thoughtfulness, he said formally.
"Where is everybody, Sis?" Nabiki asked.
"Ranma and Akane are in the dojo. No one else is home, yet," Kasumi replied.
Nabiki led Mousse outside to the dojo, where they found Ranma watching Akane practicing. She was punching as fast as she could against a vertical board, pulling her punches so that the board wasn't moving as she hit it. Ranma was counting down the time and when he had reached zero, Akane halted. "Not bad, Acchan. It looks like you're getting your speed almost up to mine," Ranma said.
"Ranma, Akane, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. His name is Mousse. Mousse, this is my younger sister Akane and her fiancé Ranma Saotome," Nabiki said.
Ranma stood and looked at Mousse. Slowly a grin formed on his face, surprising Mousse. Then Ranma said, "So you're the guy chasing Shampoo. The one who just beat Pop to a pulp. Ya did a good job on him. Nothing broken, just a lot of painful bruises."
"You bear me no ill will for attacking your father!" Mousse said in surprise.
"Why should I? I pound on him like that all of the time, and besides knowing him, he probably deserved it," Ranma smirked. He bowed and then said, "Any friend of Nabiki is a friend of mine."
Akane smiled, and said, "Nice meeting you, Mousse. Where did you two meet?"
"Yesterday when I came by here to check on Mr. Saotome was the first time we met. Then we met again by accident today and she invited me here," Mousse said.
Ranma stared at Nabiki and raised an eyebrow in question.
Nabiki sighed and said, "That's not quite true. Actually, today we met when he saved me from someone who was about to attack me. We got to talking after that and I asked him if he wanted to be friends."
Ranma growled, "Who was it that attacked you?"
"Nobody important. Mousse and I took care of him. I doubt he'll bother me anymore. I did learn one lesson though. No more meetings in dark alleyways," Nabiki said.
Kasumi came to the kitchen door and called, "Everybody, dinner is ready!!" As she stepped into the dining area, she saw that Mr. Saotome and her father were already seated. As Mousse entered the room, Mr. Saotome went very pale, and began to shake. Kasumi asked, sweetly, "Oh my, Mr. Saotome, is there something wrong? Are you coming down with something, perhaps?"
Gemna opened his mouth, but no words came out. He simply pointed to Mousse and groaned. Mousse smiled coldly, and said, "Mr. Saotome, you have nothing else to fear from me. I have no need to fight you anymore. I've proven to my satisfaction that I am a better martial artist than you, that's all I wanted to discover."
Shampoo said, with some heat, "You may have beaten Airen, Mousse, but you can't beat me in a fight."
Mousse shrugged. "It wasn't about you at all, Shampoo. I didn't even issue a formal challenge to him for your hand. It was just something I needed to do as a man," he said. Shampoo looked at him in confusion.
Shampoo said, I don't understand. If it wasn't about me, then why did you attack him?
It was a matter of honor, Xian Pu. I can't fight you for the right to marry you. I can, however, prove that he is not worthy to be an Amazon male, Mousse said. Shampoo stared at him, wondering what that meant.
As they finished dinner, Nabiki asked, "Mousse, could I have a word with you?"
He looked puzzled, but followed her to the koi pond, where they sat in silence watching the fish swim. Nabiki hesitated and then asked, "Mousse, I think I need a partner, maybe a bodyguard. I didn't want to alarm anyone, but I'm afraid that guy won't give up."
"Why didn't you have Ranma take care of him, Nabiki? He cares for you, so he would do that," Mousse said.
"Things are still a little tense between Akane, Ranma and I. You see, both of us love Ranma, but he only loves Akane. She still doesn't trust that I've given up on him, so it's safer for me if I don't get too close to him," Nabiki said softly.
Mousse thought about that for a while, and then asked, "How much is my protection worth to you?"
Nabiki laughed, and said, "Won't being around a beautiful woman be compensation enough?"
"Beauty is important, however, I can't be of much use to you if I don't have food to eat," Mousse said with a smile.
"I think we can come up with a satisfactory arrangement," Nabiki said, "I'll be needing you every afternoon after school. Can you meet me there?"
"Certainly. After all, what man wouldn't want to meet someone as attractive as you," Mousse said.
"Good. It's a deal. I'd also like the chance to learn your language," Nabiki said. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, and said, "And that's for saving me this afternoon. That debt I don't know how to repay. See you tomorrow." She stood up and walked back into the house, leaving Mousse staring at her in bemusement.
"Interesting woman, isn't she?" Ranma said from the dojo.
"How much of that did you hear?" Mousse asked.
"All of it. I agree with her, by the way. I can't be her bodyguard. If I had been there when she was attacked, I would have taken care of them, but I won't go after them unless they try again. I'd rather they not be tempted to do that. I'll feel better knowing that you are watching out over my sister-to-be," Ranma said, "Besides, she likes you."
Mousse smiled and said, "I believe it's time for me to leave. I'll probably be seeing you around, Saotome." He bowed to Ranma and left.
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Mousse met Nabiki at the school the next afternoon. He walked up as she was still talking to two of her lieutenants, giving them their instructions. He waited until she finished. To his surprise, she introduced him to the two girls, saying, "Misao, Megumi, this is my new partner, Mousse. Mousse, these are two of my top operatives. I'll be showing him the ropes for a while, so don't be surprised when you see him with me." The two girls bowed politely, and Mousse responded. They then ran off on their missions.
"Mousse, I'd like to take out that cretin from yesterday, and I need your help to do that," Nabiki said, "Nobody tries to strong arm me and gets away with it."
"Nabiki, it's one thing to protect you from an attack, but I'm not going to do anything I consider dishonorable," Mousse cautioned.
Nabiki frowned quickly and said, "I'm not suggesting anything dishonorable. He owes me a lot of money for past information I've gathered for him, and I'm going to call in his debts. He may try to attack me then as a way to avoid paying off what he owes. If he does attack, I want him taken down as damage free as possible so we can hand him over to the police."
Mousse mulled that over for a while and finally said, "So long as you don't goad him into attacking you, I don't have a problem, Nabiki."
"Good. He's usually by the gym after school. Let's head on over there and find him," Nabiki replied. Mousse smiled briefly and then gallantly offered her his arm. Nabiki grinned at him, saying, "Are you trying to ruin my image as the Ice Queen of Furinkan High? " Then she giggled softly and added, "Why not, let's shock the entire school!" She took his arm as they strolled off, ignoring the surprised looks on the faces of the people she was passing. As they neared the gym, Nabiki spotted Kanryu Takeda leaning against the outside wall, smoking a cigarette.
Nabiki smirked, "Takeda, that's a real bad habit you have there. One of these days it just might kill you."
"Hello to you too, Tendo. What do you and your boyfriend want with me?" Takeda snarled, stubbing his cigarette out on the wall and dropping the butt to the ground.
"I don't like being threatened. Did you think I would ignore what you tried to do yesterday? You owe me a hundred thousand for the information services I've provided for you. I've allowed you several days grace on the amount, but now I'm calling in my marker. You're just not that good a credit risk, anymore," Nabiki replied.
"I don't have that kind of money," he protested.
"That's not really my problem," she replied coolly, "I know you can get it. Bring it tomorrow." She turned to leave.
As she did, Takeda pulled a knife and lunged for her. Mousse caught the flicker of the knife blade from the corner of his eye and lashed out with a chain from inside his robes. The chain caught Takeda's arm and pulled him away from Nabiki before the knife blade made contact. In short order, Mousse had him hog-tied.
Nabiki said, "Naughty, naughty. That's twice in two days you've tried to hurt me. You should have just paid up when you had a chance. Now you're in deep trouble, that wasn't a real smart move in front of all these witnesses." She called the police on her cell phone and reported the attack, ending with the fact that he was captured.
"Thanks, Mousse. That's another one I owe you," Nabiki said, maintaining her icy demeanor, hiding the fact that her heart was racing inside her chest.
"No problem, Nabiki. I don't really like cowards who attack from behind like that," Mousse said, maintaining his calm. Seeing that knife drawn had made him see red.
A police officer came running across the campus toward them. Once he reached the gym, he asked, "Miss Tendo, tell me what happened here?" Nabiki related the incident, including the abortive attack yesterday. When she was done, he turned to Mousse and asked, "Who are you?"
Mousse bowed politely, and replied, "My name is Mousse. I am a minor member of the Chinese embassy staff. Miss Tendo here hired me to act as a tutor of the Chinese languages. I'm also a bit of a martial artist, so when this Takeda person attacked her, I disarmed him."
The police officer's somewhat rude demeanor suddenly changed when he heard that Mousse was on the embassy staff. He returned the bow, and then asked, "Are these people witnesses?" Seeing Nabiki nod her head, he went and took statements from as many people as he could catch. Once he had them all, he returned to Takeda and said, "Kanryu Takeda, you're under arrest for assault with a deadly weapon." He placed Takeda in handcuffs and marched him off. Nabiki and Mousse watched them disappear through the gates of the schoolyard.
"Embassy staff, huh?" Nabiki asked.
Mousse reddened and said, "Yes, as I said, very junior. I fetch things for one of the Amazon elders who is staying there."
"Would you walk me home, now?" Nabiki asked, starting to react to the panic she had almost succumbed to. In answer, he offered her his arm again. She again took his arm and they headed to the Tendo home. Once they arrived, and before she walked into the yard, she reached up and thoroughly and completely kissed Mousse. She said, "Thanks, again." She walked off, leaving a totally stunned and confused Mousse.