Roy gently touched his wife’s shoulder. “Neither did I, dear. Neither did I.” His eyes turned back to Nodoka. “You do realize what you’ve done?”
Nodoka blinked. “Freed my child from slavers?”
Roy nodded, his eyes wide. “Nobody escapes from these guys. Nobody. There are two places downtown that use the same methods. One or two have tried to escape; they’re always found, usually with bloody results.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Nabiki replied. “The tracker tattoos are gone. The only ones left are those which were deemed necessary for our survival to keep.” She smiled. “Also, Sally did something to make it impossible for us to be enslaved again.”
Roy frowned. “Fair enough... but once they spot you, it’s going to be ugly. You may not be a slave... but that doesn’t mean that they won’t try to kill you and everyone around you. You’re going to need more than incredible strength and speed. You’re going to need a plan.” He blinked for a moment. “Is there really someone who can remove the tattoos?”
“Sally was a... special case,” Nodoka replied. She was about to elaborate when another voice chimed in.
“I... I think it can be done,” Nabiki whispered quietly.
All eyes turned to her. “What?” Akane whispered.
Nabiki took a deep breath. “Sally gave me a clue on it. The tattoos are painted using special inks, as well as ki - a person’s own spirit - to give force to them. Spirit is a form of energy, just like any other. If a person could mimic another person’s ki...”
Ranma’s eyes widened. “You would need a lot of training for that, but... if you’re right...” She took a deep breath. “Pop taught me the basics of ki manipulation... but the control you’re talking about would take years.” She raised an eyebrow, closed her eyes in thought, then looked at Nabiki carefully, as though staring through her rather than at her. “It... maybe. That’s all I will say for now.”
Roy smiled. “If you all can figure out how to remove the tattoos... you have no idea how much it would be worth. We’ve been wanting to take those bastards down for a long time, now; unfortunately, nothing - NOTHING - can stop them. To make matters worse, I think they have a couple of our boys on their payroll - meaning I can’t do anything overt to help.” He sighed. “How much money do you guys have?”
“Setsuna’s bank card holds well over a hundred thousand,” Rally replied. “There’s also Mom’s house and money in Japan; I was planning on asking Becky to take care of those through her contacts.”
Roy nodded; he slowly stroked his beard with his fingers. “Tell Becky to be very careful. If your mom is Pervert Enemy #1, the selling of her house is going to raise eyebrows. The money’s going to need to go through so many hands to make it untraceable that you’ll be lucky to get half of it.” He frowned. “As for staying here...” The glare from his wife got center stage. “You can stay for tonight - ONLY tonight. As for tomorrow... I suggest you get in touch with Becky immediately about tying up your mom’s loose ends. She’s also probably the person to see about buying a new place.” His face paled. “You haven’t introduced them to May yet, have you?”
“No...” Realization dawned in Rally’s eyes. “Oh, that’s not going to be fun.”
“There’s more to it than that,” Roy replied. “Consider her contacts in Chinatown. You’d better impress on her the importance of secrecy, otherwise things could get messy. One wrong word from her, and...”
“I know. Believe me,” Rally replied. She then looked to her family. “May is... well... she was a hooker for awhile. And... her attitude about it was somewhat different from yours.”
The others nodded slowly. Roy stifled a yawn, and rose from his chair. “Well, Nancy and I are going to go to bed.”
Nancy cast a pleading look toward Ranma and Nabiki. “And... if you must... be quiet about it. And clean up any messes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the pair replied, the look shared between them letting everyone know they were considering it.
See other episodes by Nightelf
(Posted Mon, 20 Jan 2003 10:51)
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