Not that she had killed anyone the first time, like Kodachi, all she'd done was provide a distraction for the real killer. Of course, unlike Kodachi, her placement in that role hadn't been intentional.
And now she had something else to consider. Yet again, Shinnosuke had offered her a chance to stay. of course, if she didn't turn up to meet the others, wouldn't they come looking for her? And wouldn't Ranma's friends know to come looking this direction? Or had Ryouga or Ranma told anyone about it. She hadn't, but if Ranma had, or Ryouga ever did...
She was thinking about it.
****
Shampoo had started off buying the wagons, goods and hiring the drivers just as part of her cover. She'd begun stopping at each village to buy and sell to maintain that cover. Soon, she had begun turning a profit over the funds that Kodachi had started her with.
It took her more than a couple of weeks to reach the Bayankala region. And by that point she had begun the habit of occasionally "letting" the drivers deal with the villages to "give her a break." So they thought nothing of it when she decided to remain unseen by the reportedly barbaric inhabitants of the region.
And that left Shampoo free to creep about looking for signs of any Japanese children. She found nothing.
The Musk domain was practically empty, save for Herb and his underlings, and they weren't entertaining children. The children weren't in the Amazon village, and the surest sign of that was that Cologne wasn't around. As for Phoenix Mountain...
She'd managed a small incursion into the realm, enough to hear some rumors among the guards and nothing about groundlings. But she had to leave quickly.
As she was driving away from the region with her wagons, she determined one thing. She'd have to go back to the Phoenix Mountain to check again. After at least a brief visit to Japan to meet with the others.
It seemed she'd be playing merchant a little while longer.
****
Ukyou didn't so much hear the person dropping behind her as she felt it, and she was instantly on guard.
"Back off, jackass!" Ukyou snapped angrily readying the tanto in hidden in her kimono. She'd had to stash her battle spatula, it was too big a point of identification.
"Ukyou-sama!" the follower snapped quickly, setting Ukyou to pause her actions.
"Konatsu?" Ukyou gasped looking around quickly for any else before grabbing the effeminate ninja and leaning forward with narrowed eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to help you!" Konatsu said.
"To help me...?" Ukyou repeated, uncertain that she had heard that from the usually non-hostile ninja.
"I know you had nothing to do with this," Konatsu insisted. "You couldn't ever hurt Ranma like that."
"Oh," Ukyou said. "Right...Konatsu, I'm just...through with it, I'm just going to go off somewhere and fade into the background. Let them look for me, I'm going to vanish okay?"
"Then I'll come with you," Konatsu insisted.
"Konatsu..." Ukyou said.
"Those other girls will come for you, or the police, or Ranma's friends," Konatsu said. "You'll need help."
"All right..." Ukyou sighed. "But one thing, Konatsu."
"What?" the ninja asked.
"You're going to have to start dressing like a man," Ukyou said.
Of course, if she wanted to keep this up with Konatsu, then she couldn't go back to meet the others. Which was just as well for her, actually.
****
This was the third monster-haunted mountain Nabiki had investigated. One was a fake, another was a misidentified animal, as for this one...
Something grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against a nearby tree.
"What are you doing here, Tendo?" Tarou growled.
"Here to help," Nabiki gasped out past the hand around her throat.
"Help?" Tarou asked. "From you? With what?"
"Children," Nabiki gasped out, instantly she was released and dropping to her knees gasping for breath an instant before she was again roughly grabbed by the shoulders and slammed against the tree.
"What children?" Tarou asked sharply.
"I'm here to atone for the Tendo part in this," Nabiki snapped. "Do you think I, ME, Nabiki Tendo, would come all across these gods-forsaken wildernesses if I didn't think I had to?"
"And how do I know you're not working with them," Tarou asked.
"Would I investigate this sort of thing on my own?" she asked seriously. "What would I do, make sarcastic remarks until you kill yourself from annoyance?"
Tarou narrowed his eyes and then shoved her up the path.
"You'd better have gotten used to these 'gods-forsaken wildernesses,'" he said. "Because you're not leaving now."
"Of course not," Nabiki said, rubbing at her shoulders as she walked up the path.
"You make one wrong move, Tendo," Tarou growled low. "And I tear you to pieces."
Nabiki swallowed nervously and continued walking up the path ahead of the man.
"What is that you're wearing?" Tarou asked finally. "You look like a whore."
"It's a European dress," Nabiki said before bitterly adding. "And thank you, I'm sure from you that's high flattery."
****
Kodachi looked across the table at Shampoo.
"It's been a week," she said simply.
"Yes," Shampoo agreed. "They not coming."
"Either they're dead or, they don't want to come back," Kodachi agreed. "So, how do we proceed from here."
"I go back to China, try Phoenix again," Shampoo said, she shrugged. "Maybe get lucky."
"I suppose I'll continue with my investigations as well," Kodachi added, nodding. "Contact me if you hear anything, about anyone."
"You too," Shampoo said before leaving the room, leaving Kodachi behind to sigh.
"And so ends our alliance," Kodachi said, shaking her head. "The quest is over, it seems survival is in order now."
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(Posted Thu, 24 Jul 2003 17:48)
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