Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Grand Theft Auto: Nerima ❯ Bittersweet Symphony ( Chapter 24 )

Bittersweet Symphony

(The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony)

 

 

Friday came around and every thing was silent as usual. Shampoo was being oddly quiet as she had been for the last couple of days, but it was to be expected. Bugsy got the report from one of his guy that followed Shampoo and kept an eye on her. He got a lowdown of how the whole bar brawl went and after piecing a few things together he found something out about Shampoo. She's a very direct person. This was where her revenge became sub par at best. Yes she killed Carmen Vinsfield, but killing her wouldn't have been enough for Shampoo's loss. She must have thought that killing Carmen would have made things better, but as most people could tell it didn't help her that much. The fact remained that she had a surprise abortion and now it was eating away at her again. Revenge is suppose to make someone pay for what they've done, but after seeing how weak Carmen was, it was more of a sadistic mercy killing at best. Shit wasn't right in Shampoo's world right now and ideas were storming around in her head.

 

Behind the scenes Bugsy was watching every one's back with guys undercover. It must have felt like his obligation to them for some reason, but personal feelings didn't matter in the criminal world he lived in. You just did what you had to in order to survive and stay on top. Behind the pretty lights of the city and the casino was a black spot that only those on top could see in its full. In the news you here about a drug bust here or an illegal arms discovery elsewhere, but those are only a select few out of hundreds upon thousands of these events. Every fat cat needs its kill and every dog needs its bone.

 

Bugsy was this new cash cow in town and all eyes were on him. People who knew Bugsy knew that he didn't let anything slide and if not for his pleasant personality he'd more then likely be another Jasper Garino. He knew how to be ruthless and he knew how to make people disappear. He knew how to lure people and get the right allies. He knew how people thought, walked and talked. The only thing that really set him away from Jasper was his daughter and his kindness. In a sense he was a modern day Robin Hood, taking power away from the greedy and giving it to the right people who wouldn't abuse it. There has to be crime in the world so people who have nothing else to turn to, do have something to turn to. It's not honest work, but it's work nonetheless and without these workers there wouldn't be that thing called the police force.

 

Bugsy controlled both of these things ever since he got the money to and ever since he got the money he'd been planning on how he could make things better for everyone, but then something else happened. First it started when Jasper took over the syndicate in Liberty City and threw Bugsy out in the middle of Japan to expand revenue. It was just a plot to get people in Liberty City to forget about Bugsy Malone and make way for Jasper Garino. About four months after that Jerry followed Bugsy after being kicked out of the syndicate for a mild sex change, and was forced to take on a petty little street thug organization just to get by. Essentially they were both thrown far away and push to the bottom of the criminal world again and again. That was the first time he started to think of ways to get back.

 

Bugsy knew that getting rid of the competition was a good idea on Jasper's part, but soon after some kid, who turned out to be Ranma, trashed one of Jasper's bookies, so Jasper felt like unleashing some of his fury upon Ranma and the people around him. It was nothing new for petty street thugs so the deeds were done and the kid was supposed to learn his lesson and fuck off forever. Later on after Ranma left the city, Bugsy was suppose to keep an eye on him for a little while and make sure he didn't stir up any trouble. Bugsy got word that Ranma had hooked up with a computer hacker, an ex-military recon specialist and a runaway from Chicago. He didn't really feel the need to let Jasper know and didn't think much of it himself at first, but a few more months passed and the four were raising in the criminal world like bottle rockets. The name `Kyoto Hurricane' became a spreading wildfire and in no time after some sort of incident that left a twelve-story building leveled with over eighty people injured. Bugsy sat back and watched where this went and then the best news he'd ever heard came over the phone and into his ears.

 

Jasper's brother Louis was getting the hell out of Liberty City before his serial rape charges were brought to every ones attention. Basically Jasper bailed him out, sent him to Nerima with a chunk of money and said something like, `don't fuck up.' The first thing Bugsy did was getting the guy on the phone and telling him that he could use someone like him to help with a few bad depts. Louis shook hands with Bugsy under the condition that no one told his brothers Jasper or Timmy.

 

It was exactly what Bugsy wanted so he set up Louis with a job to stalk one Sheela Willis to see how this hurricane would react. He set up a scene with Sheela as the bait and an anonymous tip to Ranma. Word had it that Louis got close to losing it and raping Sheela, but Ranma caught him before he could do anything. The scene was nothing close to the recent Chuck Palmer murder, but it was savage nonetheless. It was the first part of Bugsy's revenge to kill off Jasper's brother and make it look like Louis's fuck up. Right after that happened Jasper sent Timmy to keep an eye on things and make sure that Bugsy and Jerry weren't up to no good.

 

Things stayed slow for a long while and it was really starting to take a toll on Jerry. Timmy seemed to find a great amount of pleasure in terrorizing Jerry and his hard earned assets, and before he knew it, that just became life to them. Living under Timmy's thumb and taking whatever scraps he handed them. While the two were practically Timmy's bitch, Bugsy found out the second reason as to why Timmy came to Nerima. It was so that any one associated with Ranma Soatome would be dragged through hell and put on a short leash. After that he started pulling strings here and there to dig up any info on Ranma Soatome and people associated with him. He acted a little too late on this and many of his former friends and family had already received some sort of punishment for what Ranma had done. Jasper proved that he was willing to destroy anything to get the results he wanted, even if it meant killing unborn children to get his message across. A few months went by with him living in fear for his daughter.

 

It was hard raking up enough balls to make a move, but eventually he made one. He needed to get himself a hell raiser of sorts and he needed to pay back some people whose lives he ruined. Ranma himself was perfect for the job so he did some more digging. It was a simple plan of bait and trap where he'd give Ranma's old girlfriend a bad dept and make it seem like she was kidnapped. Through his informants and Timmy's ok, Akane agreed to live within the Casino until her dept was paid off with no one knowing she had one. The conditions made it seem like she was held hostage, but later Timmy found out about who Akane was and how she was important to Jasper's plan.

 

Bugsy was one step behind Timmy again and needed to do something to catch up and stay ahead, so he found a young man by the name of Ryouga Hibiki who was looking for Akane and Ranma. The guy was shit out of luck with his girlfriend in the hospital and no money to spare. Through indirect sources he gave Ryouga an address and got one of his guys to give him a lift when Ryouga decided to hitchhike. After that, things started piecing together smoothly and with Ranma's arrival he started setting up people and events so that Ranma would come to him at some point. First he got one of Jerry's renegades, Drew, to cause a stir in Ranma's world and lead him to Jerry where as through Jerry, Ranma would meet Bugsy. The only problem was that Jerry was late on calling Bugsy about this and Ranma ended up finding him harassing his mom. It wasn't the best of times for Bugsy but he worked with it and got the results he required.

 

Everything was great until Bugsy made one horrible mistake. It wasn't until Jerry brought up Ryouga's odd behavior that Bugsy pulled some more strings and found out the truth behind Ryouga. Ryouga had two options. Either sell out Ranma and his posse, or Ukyo gets her plug pulled. More digging turned up that Timmy had Ryouga even before Bugsy found out about him and he was playing every one into a deathtrap to save his girlfriend. The sad truth of the matter is, is that the girl from Chicago wasn't suppose to die. Ranma was the only person Ryouga had to take care of, but it turned out as a massive disaster to every one. Sheela Willis was killed, Ranma Soatome was presumed dead and Bugsy had a gun to his head.

 

Bugsy was fucking up left right and center and now more people were dying. Timmy was taking care of business and everything Bugsy had worked for had just been shit on and flushed down the toilet with everything else. Timmy knew that Bugsy was out scheming, and he thought for sure Jerry was dead, and now his little girl was in danger. Bugsy was on the edge of his seat for nearly two days with erratic thoughts circling his mind, but then he got the first word of good news. Jerry was alive and in hiding, and then the next piece of news came. Not so much news, but more a plea. Ranma Soatome was somehow alive and breathing in the back of the Kitten Club, but needed some immediate, illegal, and expensive surgery. Hikori approached Bugsy with the cry for help and in under a minute Bugsy had his bank account drained and in Hikori's hands.

 

In the long months of Ranma's recovery, Timmy was out reeking havoc on the city with dealers all over Bugsy and Jerry's old sections of town. Things became a pathetic mess for every one and the only thing he could do to sooth it was knock off some debts here and there and just leave every one in general alone. His human trade industry crashed and burned thanks to the Garino brothers and now the names of Bugsy Malone, Jerry Winchester and the Kyoto Hurricane were becoming nothing more then old stories at the shitty little bar down the street. For a little while all Bugsy had was his little flower shop down on main because he couldn't pay his people to work for him, but it was out of nowhere when things started picking up again.

 

He received a letter from one of his informants that Ranma was on the verge of breaking loose from his bed and hitting the streets again. It was that same night that Bugsy got a call from someone that Ranma had just killed a bunch of Jasper's men inside the kitten club, killed Timmy Garino a few hours later and was on the highway, higher then a kite and getting ready to charge a police barricade on a motorcycle. Bugsy hung up the phone immediately after that and thought of the only person to call at that point. It was the sender of the letter and his oldest partner in crime, aside from Jerry. Happosia. The old man was an underwear thief/loony for sure, but no one was as old school as him and if there was someone that could find Ranma and get him to safety within the twenty minutes given to him then it would be him.

 

Ranma may have been in rough shape again, but the point was that he was back in the game and Timmy was out of the picture for good. Bugsy knew that Ranma wasn't going to be back for a few days so he started thinking of ways to make money fast. During this time Bugsy received a generous donation from his long time friend from Vice City. He said he heard about the hard times and that Jasper was on his hit list too, so it was a win-win situation for both of them if Bugsy could take him out. Good old Bugsy new exactly what to do with money. This is were stealing a casino came into play, but the thing Bugsy forgot about was that he had a daughter that would become a target long before he ever would.

 

Yes stealing the Casino was a success, however Bugsy never saw Jasper coming in that fast for an attack. All hell broke loose within one day of owning Jasper's casino and suddenly he was in a mad panic again. Ranma got word from a washed up Garino named Boris that a maniac named Chuck Palmer had Marci under his `care.' It was nothing less then a stroke of luck that Jerry figured out where Chuck was, but Jerry was being himself again and decided to take a hands-on approach with dealing with Chuck. As usual Jerry got carried away and wanted to beat down Chuck, probably for what happened to his little brother all those years ago, and as usual Jerry got into a near death situation with his hot headedness. It took Ranma and a nearly retired cop to fix the mess and save Marci, but once again every one was wounded on Bugsy's behalf.

 

When no one was looking Bugsy managed to freak out and tear apart most of his new office in his fit, but he cooled his boots and took a deep breath. After placing his hands on his hips and looking down he saw a piece of paper he ripped in half and threw on the floor. It said something interesting, but nothing he hadn't heard before. `Revenge is best served cold and with a side salad instead of the fries you fucking well asked for.' He couldn't even remember who wrote that, or when, but it was in one of his many folders for some reason or another. Either way it got him thinking. What if Jasper's world just suddenly collapsed in on him without any warning whatsoever? What would happen if Jasper were on top one second and the next on the bottom with nothing to show for it? Bugsy needed a plan to catch him off guard in the last place he'd expect.

 

Bugsy had a word with Nabiki and Hikori over a few issues and found out that Jasper was having sort of a formal party with every crime boss from wintery parts of Eastern Europe to the wild, wild west of the United States and Mexico. Every one was going to be there; the Triads, the Mafia, the Yazuka, the Cartel, the Russian Mob, even the Hells Angels and they were all going to where Jasper was going to be within the next few days. Who the fuck in their right mind would attack a place like that with such a small organization like Bugsy's. International Spies, FBI, CIA, fuck not even James Bond would touch that place even if he had a minigun in one hand, a flame thrower in the other, and a bazooka strapped to his dick along with a couple of big hairy bombs for testicles. It was an accident waiting to happen that was for sure and maybe it was one of Jasper's plans, but Nabiki figured out something most people wouldn't have. If Bugsy attacked with and every one connected to him just sort of vanished then who's to say that it was even Bugsy who attacked to begin with. Nabiki's words were; “That's a lot of conspiracy thrown into one building. Most of them are already enemies so why not spread a few rumors and take them by surprise.”

 

It was a simple yet perfect plan. All of them will be busy trying to figure out who screwed them while Bugsy's boys pick them off. After a little while of thought Bugsy had to smile, Jasper had made both him and Jerry so small time that they seemed like nothing more then a quick fling in the criminal underworld. Nobody remembered Bugsy Malone and Jerry Winchester. It was time to use that to their advantage and feign ignorance on the whole situation. Bugsy's only job was to get every one out of Nerima and prepare for the fight of his life, but before that he had to have a screaming contest with his ex-wife.

 

 

Bugsy's ex was in his office wearing more jewelry then she was worth and wearing a few animal skins that could have gone to a better cause like being soaked in gasoline and set on fire. Her hair had hundred dollar highlights throughout it and the way the light came off of it made her kind of look like a creepy eight-legged freak, which is odd really because she shared a similar personality to that of a hissing tarantula. With this said, she wasn't exactly nominated for soccer mom of the year. “I want my daughter back!”

 

“Fuck you ya dirty dyke! She's safer with me then you.” Bugsy wasn't really in the mood to deal with her at this point, however he never seemed to be in the mood anyways.

 

“Oh, that's rich. A washed up thug like you ain't got the know-how to take care of a child!”

 

“I don't have the know-how? Where the fuck were you when she needed you!?” Bugsy's voice boomed across the room as he slammed a fist on his desk.

 

“I was in fucking Italy on business-”

 

Bugsy rolled his eyes because he knew the truth. “Oh, business huh?”

 

“I was on business and I left her in the care of the babysitter and what do I find when I come home!? Police tape and fucking chalk lines!”

 

“Yeah that what you found TWO WEEKS AFTER SHE WAS TAKEN AWAY BY A FUCKING CHILD MOLESTER!” If the two were green one would be the wicked witch of the west and the other would be the incredible hulk.

 

“You should have-”

 

“No shut the fuck up! There was no way to contact you, no fucking phone number, no fucking anything! You were off in Italy fucking whatever hunk of meat managed to worm its way between those dirty ass legs of yours!”

 

“I was-” Bugsy wasn't gonna let her finish a sentence and he was damn well going to win this fight.

 

“Want to know who saved Marci? It was a serial killer named Ranma Saotome, AKA the Kyoto Hurricane. Does that bother you that a serial killer is taking better care of my daughter then her mother? Because it sure as hell concerns me.”

 

She crossed her arms and put on the innocent act. “Why do you make me look like such a troll? I'm doing my best with Marci!”

 

Bugsy laughed and said, “That's a fucking joke if I've ever head one. You know what I found out about Marci? I found out that she can start a bar-b-q and cook a stake. You know who showed her that? ONE OF YOUR FUCKING RENT-A-COPS! RENT-A-COPS ARE NOT FUCKING BABYSITTERS! AND AN EIGHT YEAR OLD SHOULD NOT KNOW HOW THE FUCK TO COOK AND MARINATE A FUCKING STAKE!!!” This time he got up and kicked his desk over and then started walking towards her slowly with the finger of blame pointed straight at her. “Ever since you took my little girl away from me I've only had visits once every two weeks and so far I've spent more time with her! THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT!!! The only reason you want her is to make my life miserable ya self centered bitch!” Bugsy finally got her cornered against a wall and got his face right in hers. “I'm just wondering; when you gave birth to her didn't some sort a maternal instinct kick in at any given moment or did you just see the dollar bills of my generous child support?”

 

He kept his eyes on her and a scowl on his face as the silence filled the room. After waiting a few moments he nodded and said, “I thought so.” He turned around and walked back to his overturned desk. “Get the fuck out of face and the fuck out of our lives, because you're really shitty at this whole mother thing.”

 

Bugsy knew what was about to come so in the brief moments of silence he had he decided to look for something that made its way onto the ground. Almost right when he found it is when Bugsy's ex decided to explode in one of her usual fit. Watching one of these was much like watching someone stretch their mouth open by six times its own capacity, pop their eyeballs out of their head and shoot long streams or crimson flames directly out their ass. It was truly a sight to be seen. “You fucking asshole! You don't fucking respect me! You don't fucking care about anything! You don't fucking-”

 

Bugsy pointed a small handgun at her and pulled the trigger. The boom shut her up, but it wasn't because she was dead. He hit a little vase parked on the shelf beside her and said, “That was a warning. In my world I can pay people as little as five hundred bucks to snuff you out and make you disappear. If you don't want to be mistaken for a overdosed hooker in a dumpster I suggest you shake your ass and get the hell out right now.” It wasn't like Bugsy to threaten a woman like that, it just wasn't his style, but then again calling her a woman was something of a joke. Either way it got her out in a hurry and Bugsy was doing his best to collect himself.

 

 

After Bugsy got his desk looking a little like it did before, Nabiki walked in wearing a nice new suit along with a few papers under her arm. “I've got some good news and some bad news for you Bugsy.” Bugsy rubbed his face and asked for the good news first. “Well I got those three a flight out of here with their cut of the money and they don't seem to be complaining. I'm just having trouble with the others. They don't seem to want to leave.”

 

“Ah, don't worry we'll get them out of town before this place goes to hell, we've got time. What's the bad news? Some one didn't get hurt again did they?”

 

Nabiki just smiled cheerfully. “Oh, well kind of.”

 

Bugsy was expressionless at best. “How does some one kind of get hurt? They're either hurt or not.”

 

“Well one of the CEO's you hired thought I was a secretary and gave me a pat on the ass and asked me to get his coffee for him.”

 

“So you hit him?”

 

“Not so much me.”

 

Bugsy sunk in his seat and looked ready to cry. “You told Ranma… Ranma hit him didn't he? Is he ok?”

 

“He only hit him twice…”

 

“That could mean anything!”

 

 

While Bugsy's CEO was in the hospital with a concussion and an eye swollen shut, Ranma was already far away enough to stay out of trouble and get into some more. Ranma, Hikori and some Russian guy were in a stolen firefly going down the street and towards a nice little place that held something wonderful. “You're looking a little tired there Hikori. You ok to drive?”

 

Hikori's eyes were wide and highly focused on the road. The way he gripped the steering wheel gave off the impression that he was holding on for dear life. “I'm dandy. I'm El Dandy.”

 

The Russian guy gave Ranma a shove. “Is e' always like this?”

 

Ranma shook his head. “Not normally…”

 

Hikori turned his head slowly towards them and showed off those tired yet wide open eyes. “I can hear you two, you know?”

 

Ranma put up his hands. “Sorry. You're just looking a little tired, I'll shut up.”

 

There was a silence in the car and after a while Hikori just sort of started to blurt something out. He looked right at Ranma and said, “You know rice crispy squares? Melted marshmallow and all that?”

 

Ranma nodded, “Uhhh… Yeah.”

 

“Well last night I couldn't sleep, so I made a life size bull out of Captain Crunch after I found out we didn't have any rice crispies. So I used Captain Crunch instead.”

 

“Uhhh… Ok…”

 

“While I made it I stuffed a fuck load of strawberry's inside and-”

 

Ranma interrupted him. “Where'd you get all the materials for this?”

 

Hikori went into deep thought for a moment and came up with, “There was a convenient store just around the corner. And they had Captain Crunch and marshmallows. And Strawberry's.”

 

“Right…”

 

The Russian guy tapped Ranma's shoulder. “Is not normal, no?”

 

Ranma shook his head. “Not really…”

 

Hikori was in his own little world as he drove. “So after I made it I started making a spear out of fruit loops.”

 

“This is really starting to explain the mess this morning…”

 

“And when I was done, I attacked the bull and pulled out the strawberry heart and then I bit into… I declared myself the Queen of France after that… Yeah… Last night was wild…”

 

There was another odd, uncomfortable silence in the car until Ranma said the only thing he could. “Hikori, I'm not entirely comfortable with you driving right now.”

 

Hikori looked at Ranma with a really confused look. “Why…?”

 

 

After a forced stop and a change in seating arrangements, Ranma was now driving with the Russian guy beside him and Hikori passed out in the back seat. “Man is quite scary. What you think his problem being?”

 

“I have no clue Uri, but I've seen him like that only once before and even then it was a complete mystery to me.”

 

“Is too bad. Must be bad for health.”

 

“Hikori will be Hikori… So what brings you to Nerima? And how did you know where to find my car?”

 

Uri shrugged a modest shrug. “Ah, I hear that my brother Boris die, so I come to pay respects. I find out from Bugsy that he helped you find Palmer and died, so I'm thinking I help too.”

 

Ranma looked a little shocked. “Boris was your brother? Man, I'm sorry I couldn't do anything to save him…”

 

Uri looked a little sad, but kept a smile on his face. “Is no big deal. He use to be Mr. Big-Time in Russian, but when he come here, not so much. I hear that even though he try to make by, he still save girl from bullet. My brother no ever had brain in head, but had good heart, no?”

 

Ranma nodded in agreement and looked down a little. “Check that, he took a bullet for me and I never gave him a reason too…”

 

Uri's expression became surprise but he kept his features the same. “Take bullet for you, huh? Is great gift when man gives life for other… Take my advice and use time well. Men like us, don't last too long.”

 

“Yeah…” Ranma turned a corner and came to something of a downsized mansion. “Is this the place?”

 

Uri nodded, “Da. Man who live here bought your car at police auction. I hear he is push over.”

 

“Maybe, but he's got money and that usually buys security…”

 

Uri stopped for a moment and thought. “I think we have money too, right?”

 

Ranma hit his head. “Oh, yeah I keep forgetting that we're rich.” Ranma reached back and rolled Hikori off the seat to reveal a duffle bag he was using as a pillow. Ranma's expression lightened up. “Yay. Things that shoot and stab.”

 

Uri looked a little confused. “We killing people over car?”

 

Ranma pulled out a couple of guns with silencers. “Lord no. We got some nifty high tech tranq guns.”

 

Uri looked confused. “What this word mean?”

 

“Darts that put people to sleep.”

 

Uri shook his head. “No I mean `nifty'. Sound like animal porno.”

 

“Oh, uhh… It means… Uhh… Er…” Ranma started to look a little mad. “You know what? Screw it, lets just go shoot shit.”

 

Uri shrugged “Ok.”

 

 

As Ranma shot the last unsuspecting target into slumber, he found the garage and saw it for the first time. It was the car Sheela made for Ranma before she died and it was a beauty. He walked slowly towards it with a smile on his face and ran a finger down the sleek steel body. It was his favorite shade of red with a big old white stripe going up the long hood, over the roof and down the trunk. A couple of mean looking round headlights were up front and the grill above the radial tires screamed awesome. A big old blower plated with the same chrome on the hubcaps, shined and glittered in the soft light. Towards the back and above the mean bumper was a custom tag that labeled the beast as a `Saber Turbo Custom Deluxe'. The moment would have been perfect if Ranma was the first one to get inside, but out of nowhere Hikori opened the door, flipped forward the front seat and climbed into the back where he passed out again. “You fucker!”

 

Uri shrugged and got in after Hikori. “Is nice car, very roomy. I'm liking the black leather bucket seats.”

 

Ranma's eyes nearly shot out of his head as he watched both Hikori and Uri perform taboo unto his car. “You're both fuckers!” Ranma got in and slammed the door with anger written all over his face.

 

“What is problem?”

 

“I'm hot wiring it, go away.”

 

“So rude when angry…”

 

After a few `fucks', and `shits' Ranma brought the car to life and started to smell something both memorable and momentarily horrible. He knew what it was right away and without even looking he reach back and gracefully plucked the smoke out of Hikori's mouth. “No smoking in my car!”

 

Uri had a smoke in his mouth with a flame frozen inches away from it as Ranma turned his head and glared at him to. “Ok, I no smoke…”

 

“Good.” As Ranma revved the engine a few times the garage door seemed to open on its own, which was pretty sweet, but the part that made it suck was that there were a few guys with guns on the other side. “Oh, fu-”

 

Before Ranma could finish his sentence, the two guys opened fire right at them causing both Ranma and Uri to duck. A few deafening shots went off and for a moment Ranma thought for sure someone must have been hit, but the thing was that there was a lack of broken glass. He looked up at the windshield to see three lovely little scuffmarks. Uri caught on first though. “Is bulletproof glass?”

 

“I love you Sheela…”

 

“Mine name is not Sheela…”

 

Ranma ignored him and hit the gas hard. The beast was powerful and full of piss n' vinegar, but the thing that Ranma found astonishing was that the tires tried to move so fast that it actually became easier for the car to just lift up the front end while the tires caught up to the spinning motion. A heavy black patch was laid in the garage and the Saber came rocketing out while doing a catwalk and hitting one of the guys standing in front. Ranma's reflexes kicked in and he hit the brakes to bring the car to a stop. “That… Was… COOL!” It was about that point where the back-up security came on out to try their thing.

 

Uri pointed forward. “Is not looking good. Gate over there! Hurry!”

 

“Right!” Ranma hit the gas and did that two tire jive again. The gate was closed but didn't look all that tight, and as they approached the front tires hit the ground just in time for the front to bust through the gate. There were sparks, fire, gunshots, and if they had a six-pack and some moonshine it would have been a Hill Billy hoedown. The gunshots followed the three down the street until they faded away into the distance to become nothing more then wasted lead. A car came after them after some time but Ranma lost the tail after going into a dark end of town. It wasn't that it was a bad section of town; it was just that there were very few residents and very few streetlights and with the night sky coming in fast it was a good place to lay low for a little while.

 

Slowly a light rain started to fall in on the city and the rocky streets quickly became spotty and wet. Ranma decided to pull out of his little back road and take a slow ride back to the casino. The beads of water started to quicken their pace and dark blue clouds above the city started filling out into big treacherous things. Ranma stayed quiet as he drove the car thinking about Sheela. It was all those little moments that he remembered best about her, but as he drove with the wipers on, they just brought him back after every pass. He wanted to get his mind off of her even though is pained him to do so. He turned on the radio to a talk radio station that said some interesting stuff.

 

“…the man can follow his path down the road of fate, or else he can sway from that and enter the dark woods of the unknown. We are not bound to what is in front of us and in more ways then one we can break this wall down and walk boldly through it. Do you hear me, or am I just speaking to myself?” The voice on the radio went quiet for a few moments and only the slight buzzing of the bad reception could be heard. “You must not let others decide for you and become independent in this thing we call life… Think about that Mr. H and then decide what is right and what is wrong.” A few moments passed and another voice came on.

 

“That was Larry Jackson with yet another powerful message. If you weren't here for the full of it then allow me to go over what he said quickly.”

 

“What station is this?” Uri asked.

 

Ranma shrugged and tuned it to another. “Sounded like some guy promoting bean dip. Nothing important.”

 

“Ok.”

 

 

Just as the rain let up, Ranma pulled up to the valet parking and told the kid to just pull the wires apart to stop the car. Uri was holding Hikori up and walking him into the casino. “You drunk? On the cocaine? Is bad for you.”

 

Hikori just made a moan and while that was going on Ranma heard a honking horn and turned to see Nabiki pulling up, both suspiciously fast and towards a puddle. “That bitch…” A small dirty tsunami hit Ranma right in the face as Nabiki parked her flashy car and got out. Ranma was short, had boobs, and was not happy. “Two weeks… I almost went two weeks without changing!”

 

Nabiki kept and innocent look on her face. “Oh, did I do that? Oh well, no time for that right now. I've been looking for you.”

 

Ranma's eye twitched and she said, “I don't have the money yet…”

 

Nabiki shook her head. “Oh, I wasn't thinking about that, but I think we can discuss it later. For now I've got some information for you.”

 

“…”

 

“What?”

 

“I don't have the money yet…”

 

“I'm not asking for money.”

 

Ranma thought for a moment. “I don't want to owe you any favors…”

 

Nabiki had that `I hate you and you're stupid' look on her face and she was directing it right at Ranma. “Let's just go inside and I'll explain.”

 

“Is this another one of your `get fit' ideas, because that whole thing with Kuno last week was a horrible idea.”

 

 

Ranma remember back to last week and it went something like this, “O' lo, thou, art thou, art.”

 

“Get that fucking stick out of my face…”

 

“Put up your sword, for you stand no chance! Thou, art, thou.”

 

“Fine…” Ranma got the sword into the ready position.

 

“Remember, you may only strike and defend with the sword. Thou, thou, art. I STRIKE!”

 

The embarrassing part was that Ranma didn't like swords and if the rules were to only strike with the sword, then he was out of practice. Every so often Kuno would get Ranma on the hand with quick hit that left a hell of a sting. This kept happening along with various taunts until Ranma decided to forget the rules, just this once. “THAT'S IT!” Kuno's wooden sword came down swift and right into Ranma's catching hand.

 

“Umm, you're not suppose to-”

 

Ranma ripped the sword out of his hands, broke it in half over his knee and walked slowly towards Kuno with a pissed look. “You have unleashed the fury!” In about thirty seconds Kuno was pummeled, battered, bruised, bleeding and hanging out of a tree like an unwanted rag doll. “That'll learn ya!”

 

 

Nabiki shook her head. “It was purely for my own entertainment, I swear. Anyways let's get inside and-”

 

Nabiki was interrupted when the long forgotten Zero ran out and towards Ranma. “I've finished it! It's done! And I'm am a technological god!”

 

Ranma looked at him for a few moments and said, “What the hell are you going on about?”

 

“It's the thing I thought to make when no one else would have even remembered. It's a reverse GPS that hooks from the satellite and after giving specific serial numbers it displays locations of what ever it hosts! Isn't it amazing!?”

 

Ranma looked at Zero with a little bit of confusion. “Zero what the fuck are you talking about?”

 

Zero opened a little screen and started pointing at in frantically. “Remember that GPS I made for Ryouga?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I can find him with this if he's still wearing it.”

 

Ranma went very silent for a moment and nodded a couple of times. “I see…”

 

“It's not perfect yet though. If you give me a few days I should be able to get rid of all the car GPS's running off the same satellite. The watch had a unique design so it should be easy to single out after I eliminate a few.”

 

“Ok… Ok…” Ranma was in deep thought and nodded a few more times. “Get it ready for me as soon as you can. You're the man Zero.”

 

“I know this.” Zero said modestly.

 

Ranma turned back to Nabiki with a bit of a preoccupied look. “What were you going to say?”

 

Business was business in Nabiki's world so she just spat it out. “The Amazon's have flown back to China, and mine and your parents are catching a flight to Kyoto.”

 

Ranma blinked a couple of times and looked really confused. “Huh? What? Why?”

 

“Bugsy got them out of here so they wouldn't be pegged for what's happening next week.”

 

Ranma went into thought for a moment and things were starting to hurt again. No goodbyes, no warning, they just up and left. Was anyone else planning on leaving? Were people going to stab him in the back again? `Nah, they were just getting out of harms way, right?' That all too familiar feeling of someone yanking him around made its way to the pit of his stomach and made him feel sick, but he didn't want to think Nabiki would try to screw him like this. `What about Akane? Is she going to leave me alone too?' Was she just going to run away with every one else while Ranma fought the war by himself? `Then again, next week will be hell on earth…' Ranma looked up at the sky for a moment just as the rain started to come back and asked. “So how come no one told me about this?”

 

“I just did.”

 

Ranma thought to herself. `You know that's not what I meant… What the hell's going on all of a sudden?'