Kasumi was watching her in the bathroom of the Tendou home as she was attempting damage assessment in the aftermath of their disastrous visit to Doctor Toufuu. Standing crab-like on all fours, naked and with her butt half-immersed in soothing warm water she glared at her older sister accusingly.
"Really, Nabiki," Kasumi tried to assuage her, "I told you I was sorry. I did not mean to startle the good doctor while he was talking to you. Nobody could have predicted that he would react with such silliness to simply being spoken to."
"You really don't get it, do you, Sis?" Nabiki asked genuinely curious.
"I am sure he only meant to be helpful when he tried to demonstrate the procedure, he just got a bit carried away." Kasumi tried to defend the doctors behavior. "He was just trying to show us how it would be done and your screaming only confused him more. And you weren't knocked out for that long either. You came to soon after he had danced off with his skeleton. He only hit that pressure point to stop you from struggling and possibly ruining the tattoo."
"Yeah," Nabiki agreed sarcastically, "we wouldn't want to have that now would we? I am so glad that he did not screw up the tattoo and copied the mark perfectly from Ranma's design. The design that they were going to use to mark Akane as his property!"
"It is not that bad, Nabiki," Kasumi tried to console her younger sister. "At least he didn't get to finish the tattoo and there is no mention of Ranma's name."
"Yes, it just says 'This slave is the personal property of: ___ ' on my butt-cheek," Nabiki complained lifting herself out of the tub and posing with her behind turned to the mirror.
There on her butt it stood in blue and black on pale pink. The hateful words could be easily deciphered even mirrored as they now appeared. The phrase she had told her sister formed the heading of an empty cartouche. The oblong frame was ornamented with tiny rune-like symbols. The master-copy that Toufuu had used as a template had contained the characters for Ranma's name in the center, but the doctor apparently had not gotten that far. It truly didn't look half bad. A bit like a cattle-brand by way of royal seal. A caligraphed stamp of ownership. Nabiki could actually have appreciated the artful design if it hadn't been tattooed on her very own skin.
"I have an open invitation to enslave me tattooed on my ass," Nabiki exclaimed angrily. "It looks like I am just waiting for someone to put his name in there."
Even Kasumi had to agree with that.
"This must not be seen by anyone," Nabiki decided "You can tell no one of this. Especially not Nodoka. God knows what she would make of it.... I will have to get this removed as soon as possible."
"Bad news, Akane," Ranma announced a story higher up in the couples room, "your tattoo will be a bit delayed. Your sister visited the doc and he went crazy and trashed all the supplies. We have to wait a few days to get new ones."
Akane groaned. That was so typical of Kasumi, always ruining everyone's fun without actually noticing anything, Oblivious and blissfully ignorant of what happened around her. The girl needed a keeper!
"Why will it take so long to get new supplies?" Akane wondered instead of voicing her thoughts about her sister. "We are in Tokyo, there must be many shops who sell tattoo inks and needles here."
"Well, it were special inks and needles," Ranma explained. "When I made up the tattoo I wanted it to mean something, that's why I used those elements from those ancient scrolls. And then I thought I could make it even better by using the right materials. So I asked around a bit. We know people after all. So I got in contact with the guy who did all the pictures that came alive and had him give me the address of his supplier. And do you remember the Chinese twins who brought all those weird plants to Nerima? Well it turns out that Kodachi saved a few rare plants from that incident. Everyone else I asked claimed that the Chinese vampire-bamboo is a myth, but Kodachi cultivated some in her garden and she gave me a few shoots when I asked. The scrolls say they are the perfect material to make tattooing needles out of for magical tattoos."
"A magic tattoo? I thought you didn't trust magic?" Akane asked having a bit trouble digesting all her master had said. "You mean that the tattoo will come alive and move around on my skin like a moving picture?"
"Well I guess that you could do something like that too," Ranma admitted, "but this one won't move around or anything. I just wanted it to really mean something. The most magical about it is that it can't be removed or destroyed or anything. I wanted to put a permanent mark on you, so that nobody can steal you away from me."
Akane smiled and hugged her master. That was so cute of him. A bit on the paranoid-possessive side, but it really showed that he cared.
"Let's hope those supplies come soon, so you can put your mark on me," She enthused.
"Yes," Ranma agreed eagerly. "You know what frustrates me the most? I even bought twice what we would actually need because I feared something like this might happen and Toufuu still managed to waste all of it in one afternoon.
In the bathroom Kasumi listened to her younger sister rant about keeping the incident silent. She felt bad about the whole thing. She really shouldn't have startled the doctor like that when there had been sharp instruments in his reach. And asking him about details once Nabiki was down had been a mistake. It had only egged him on at that point. But all that was in the past now and best not dwelt on too much.
She had to agree with Nabiki as she covertly tried to hold the back of her skirt away from her own behind, secrecy really was the best option at this point. Having a tattoo that nearly proclaimed you to be someone's slave was bad enough, but the more people knew about it the more dangerous it got.
Such a secret could be used against you if you shared it with someone. Somebody might for example accidentally reveal its existence to the world to draw attention from herself. Even among sisters. When the chips were down it was every girl for herself. Yes, Nabiki was right, it would be best not to reveal anything to anyone for now.
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(Posted Sun, 10 Apr 2005 21:23)
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