Ranma nervously waited, naked, in a room across the hall. ‘Chilly in here,’ he thought to himself. ‘I wonder if Nabiki is alright in the other room. That must of have hurted her alot.’ Ranma paced around the room, looking worried.
“Anxious, huh?” Nabiki teased Ranma with a smirk as she entered the room, fully dressed once more. “Don’t tell me the big, bad martial artist is afraid of a little pain.”
“Huh? Oh, hey Nabiki. Everything alright?” Ranma smiled at Nabiki, looking more relieved. “Now that you mention it, I think Pops did use red hot cattle irons to train me. I kinda remember it now. Usually, the years from when I was about eight to about twelve tend to be one big blur to me. I think I was nine when Pops tried pain management techniques. Hmm, it was effective, if I remember it right.”
Toltiir caught Ranma’s attention and directed him to sit with a gesture. As Ranma turned his back to Nabiki, while he was sitting down, Nabiki frowned at yet another revelation of Ranma’s childhood.
Toltiir handed Ranma a gas mask that seemed to be connected to some kind of cross between an incense burner and a middle eastern hookah pipe. “Please place this firmly over your nose and mouth and breath deeply for a couple minutes.” Toltiir kept an eye on his watch, and when he seemed satisfied, he took the mask from Ranma.
“Smelled sweet, what does it do?”
“It makes you weak, like a wee babe. You seem strong, can’t have you tearing the place up when I brand your dragonmark.” Toltiir responded in an even voice.
Ranma paled. “You can undo it, right?”
“Oh relax.” Toltiir admonished Ranma. “It’ll wear off in thirty minutes. Why don’t we start with the dragonmark for you? Since you don’t have to worry about becoming unbreakable, we don’t need to save it for last.” Ranma nodded his assent. “Would you like yours in the same place?”
“Sure,” Ranma grunted. “On my back will be fine.”
“Wonderful, just lay down and we’ll strap you in. Perhaps your girlfriend will return the favor and hold you down?” Nabiki moved to stand by Ranma’s head and held his shoulders down. Toltiir once again rummaged up some straps from a cardboard box to tie Ranma down with.
Nabiki couldn’t help herself from teasing Ranma. In a sultry voice she whispered into Ranma’s ear, “Kinky. Think I can tie you up later, Ranma?” Nabiki then purred into Ranma’s ear.
Ranma jerked at the sound of the cat like purr. “Very funny, Nabiki.”
Meanwhile, Toltiir dug another wooden box out from under the cabinet in this room. Opening it, he removed a large off white tooth that had a golden tint to it. Nabiki blanched at the sight of the tooth. Seeing her expression, Toltiir remarked, “Actually, it’s bigger than the jade dragon tooth. I know you couldn’t see that tooth too well. If you could hold him nice and tight, this will only take a moment.” From the same box, he also removed a golden pad that he touched the tooth to. Almost immediately, the acrid smell of something burning filled the air. Ranma seemed to flinch for a moment under Nabiki’s hands before relaxing. Without any warning, Toltiir deftly pressed the base of the tooth to Ranma’s left shoulder blade, burning the dragonmark permanently into Ranma’s skin. In contrast to Nabiki, Ranma just laid there calmly. The only clue to his ordeal being a quick indrawn hiss and a squinting of his closed eyes.
“All done,” Toltiir announced as he removed the tooth from Ranma’s skin. Nabiki unstrapped Ranma, and Ranma sat up with a sigh of relief before he stretched his arms over his head.
Placing the dragonmark supplies back into their box, Toltiir replaced the box back into the cabinet. Coming out, he was holding his pens and brushes. “OK, want your little blessing of happiness over your heart like Nabiki?”
Ranma caught Nabiki’s eye for a moment. “Where would it look better in both forms? On my chest or on my shoulder?”
“What else are you getting?”
Ranma stopped to ponder for a moment. “That one gem that lets me see into hidden weapon space sounds very useful in a fight. It also enhances the other senses. Hopefully, that means I will be even harder to sneak up on.” Ranma gave a feral grin at this statement. “The see heat one sounds like it might be useful, for seeing opponents in a lot of dust or smoke or fog. Not sure which one would be better, but I like the idea of being able to keep an eye on what Mousse is going to pull on me next. Radar, I wonder if I could do that with chi. I might be able to throw energy beams with chi. Chi beams can’t be too different then a möko takabisha. I think I might like to try to develop those as techniques before I get those types of gems, if I ever do. And we haven’t really looked into those rune stuff at all. I think you should get some sigils on your hips.” Ranma punctuated his last statement by poking Nabiki in the side, on her pelvic bone.
Nabiki swatted his hand away. “You’re not even inked yet and already you’re addicted to getting more tattoos. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were just trying to see me without any pants on, again.” Nabiki then noticed something Ranma did not mention. “Why aren’t you interested in that Bane of the Amazons gem? Sounds perfect for dealing with Cologne and Shampoo.”
Ranma blushed. “Sounds only useful if I first let them ... er I mean Shampoo ... uh, you know – with me. How else do you show you can’t make babies? Plus, I can’t see Cologne trusting Japanese doctors. She’s want to drag me to China and stuff me with passion spice or something. Anyways, if it is for someone caught by them, well ... I don’t plan on getting dragged off to China.”
Nabiki just raised an eyebrow. “No one plans on getting dragged off. If it does happen, you won’t be able to come here last minute to buy the gem. Though I do see you point on having to do it first. People only go to the doctors when they fail to have kids, you have no reason to go get checked out. Thus, we can’t use a doctor’s report to scare away the fiancées. And, yah, Cologne would want to cure you the Amazon way. See into stuff space? Sounds the best to me. Getting only the one gem?”
Ranma shrugged. “I don’t know how the two different sight gems would interact. Not sure what else to get, though I’d like to come back here again to look some more. Maybe save up some money first.”
Nabiki turned towards Toltiir. “Where would you place a gem for sight, anyways?”
“Somewhere on the head. Customarily, on the forehead. However, if you don’t want people to see it easily, you can put it behind the earlobe, on the soft spot under the ear. You could also put it on one of your temples, one of the corners of the eye, or the corner of the lips.”
Nabiki turned back to Ranma, “I think the tattoo would look better, on a man, if you got it on your shoulder. Still works good there, on a girl too.” Nabiki then smirked, “Plus, I am sure your Ranma-chan fan club of perverts would hate for you to mar those perfect boobs of yours.”
“Whatever,” Ranma said as he rolled his eyes. “OK, you can put the friendship tattoo on my shoulders.” Ranma sat still on the bench, so Toltiir could work.
Toltiir quickly drew and painted an exact replica of the cartouche he drew on Nabiki.
“Why are the gold handles different lengths on the pens?” Ranma questioned.
“The gold rod is not just a handle. It gets fed to the nib which inks the gold into the skin. The pens with the shorter handles have used up more gold.” Toltiir then motioned for Ranma to lie down along the bench again. Turning back to his counter, he readied his brushes and inks. “I must commend you, Miss Tendo, on your color choices. Expertly, Toltiir painted Ranma’s final tattoo onto his rump. When he was done, he turned to Nabiki with a flourish. “Well, Miss Tendo, do you approve?”
Nabiki was grinning like the cat who got the canary and the cream. “Yes! That looks very nice, indeed. What do we owe you?”
“Why don’t we adjourn to my front room where I can get Mr. Saotome his gem. But first, would you like anything for the pain?” Toltiir reached into his apron to find his pain cream. Since Ranma gave a simple, noncommittal shrug, Toltiir handed the cream to Nabiki. “Why don’t you rub a little on him. When he’s dressed, come out front, I’ll be at the register ringing you up.” Toltiir then exited the room.
Nabiki started to rub some cream onto Ranma’s dragonmark. “So ... what does my Tattoo say, anyways?”
Ranma smirked in response. “That be telling. Plus, I don’t know what you put on me, so it is only fair.”
“Oh? Fair? Maybe I should ask Kasumi what it says,” Nabiki replied with a smirk of her own.
Ranma smiled innocently. “Great idea, I think I’ll do the same.”
Nabiki stared at Ranma playing innocently for a few moments. “Fine,” she huffed, “maybe we can stop someplace on the way home to look. Bathhouse maybe.”
Ranma said nothing in return, as he was busy putting on his clothes. Once done, the two exited the room and went to pay the garden gnome.
Nabiki checked her watch while Ranma quickly stuck the X-Ray gem behind his ear, where it was well hidden. Toltiir had already rung up a receipt, and handed it to Nabiki. “Should be obvious who bought what. The custom tattoos you bought each other are both about the same size and so the same price.” Nabiki was a little disappointed to see that they were only listed as custom tattoo on the receipt, without any descriptions. Two of the four were cheaper then the other two, and obviously were for the matching tattoos they got. Ranma and Nabiki quickly pooled what they each owed and paid Toltiir.
“Got a business card with an address or something on it?” Ranma asked while looking around on the counter top. “In case we want to come back.”
Toltiir shrugged, “If you desire to come back, I am sure you’ll find your way again.”
“Come on, Ranma,” Nabiki pleaded as she tugged on Ranma’s arm, “lets see what else there is to do around here.”
After Nabiki left, the samisen player got up and threw off her Geisha regalia. The make-up on her face disappearing with the clothes. “Well, what an interesting experience that was.” She smirked at Toltiir. “I am eager to see how it plays out.”
Toltiir chuckled, “I figured you’d take an interest in those two. I think you won’t be the only one keeping an eye on them.”
“Yes, well, tata for now.” The goddess then strode towards the exit.
“Don’t meddle to much,” Toltiir called after her.
She turned her head to smile back. “No worries, they do enough on their own to keep me amused. I’m going to go catch up with them before they get too far ahead. I want to witness what comes next.” Without another word, she exited from the shop in pursuit.
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(Posted Sun, 04 Nov 2007 08:07)
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