Parting Gift 


Nabiki walked past Fey, to sit on her bed, holding and stroking Diamond.
When she looked up, he was disturbed to note that she had tears in her
eyes. He pulled out her desk chair, sat facing her, then reached out,
and brushed a tear from her cheek. 

"I... I never cry," she said, trying to smile. She only succeeded in
looking forlorn.

"Tendo-san," he began.

"Nabiki, please."

"Nabiki, I... I did not mean for your time to be so short... I thought
it would take much longer to learn what I needed to know. If... if I
were to leave Diamond here, his mating urges would drive him insane.
I... I don't want to leave you alone so soon..." She just looked at him,
tears slowly tricking from her eyes.

"I...," he sighed. "I can leave him here with you, Nabiki, but to do so,
I must give him a mate. If I do, then she and he will both leave for
several months, until the first litter is born and weaned. Only then
would he return to you. Either way, you will be alone for some time. I
wish it could be otherwise, truly I do."

"I... I would give you a gift, ere I go, Nabiki. I have turned your
world upside down, I expect, and it is only right that I make what
amends I can. What would you ask of me? If it is within my power, I will
do it."

She just stared at him, tears trickling down her cheeks, and he sighed
in defeat. She spoke, softly, sniffling occasionally. "I never had...
much affection... around me, you know... I never had anyone, or anything
to love, except my family. And I've hurt them... so much. I mean, I had
to, we had to have the money, but it hurts so much to see that they
don't trust me..." She was softly stroking Diamond's back, and rubbing
his head, as she spoke. 

"It's so painful, knowing that I have to do this, I have to have enough
money, I have to get through college, to even have a chance at living a
life of anything but poverty and loneliness, but I have to hurt so many
people to do it. Sometimes... sometimes I wish I could be free. I watch
Diamond flying... and I wish I could just fly away from my problems like 
that... Be so free, not have to care about a woman's place, or glass
ceilings, or whether I'm going to find anyone to love before I die..."
She broke down, sobbing, and Fey moved to sit on the bed. He put an arm
around her, and she spun to face him, burying her head in his silk
shirt, sobbing.

"There... there is one gift I could give you, Nabiki," he said, stroking
her hair. "It... it would let you experience the freedom of flight, like
Diamond... give you all the time you need to find someone to love... let
you dispense with society's demands entirely... but it's not an easy
thing to live with. I think you could do it... I chose you because you
seemed so much like one already... Nabiki, I could make you a dragon."

Nabiki pulled back, staring into his face, Ranma's face, looking down at
her with sad eyes full of pain, offering her something beyond strange. 

"You mean... like Diamond? But..."

"No, no," he said, placing a single finger gently on her lips, which
quivered at his touch. "A dragon, a real dragon. Oriental, not western,
you'd be, oh, somewhere between twenty-five and fifty feet long, I
suppose... But a real dragon, Nabiki-san, can change her shape. You
could still look as you do now, though I suspect you would become a bit
more idealized, look more like how you picture yourself in your mind. If
you take this gift, you'll have a lot of ki, and I would recommend
getting Ranma to train you. You could become a very strong martial
artist quite quickly."

"Don't decide too quickly though. There are drawbacks... the biggest is
probably the lifespan... you would live a very long time, Nabiki. That
gives you time to make very long-term investments, and become quite
rich... but it also means that you'll have to watch the people you love
grow old and die..."

"I can mitigate that, just a bit." He held out a small ring, beautifully
crafted, a gold dragon twined about a silver one. "This is an age
ring... you put it on, then if you twist it one complete turn to the
left, you'll become a year younger, one twist to the right, a year
older. Don't worry, it won't turn on its own. If you take it off, you
will age normally from that point on. It too has its drawbacks... but it
will only affect the age of your human form, just as you too could do,
if you could maintain your concentration on it properly. But its most
important use, is that if someone else places it on your finger, then
you will age as they do. If you meet someone, then you can join them,
temporarily, on the normal pattern of life, growing old with them, until
they die. It won't take away the pain of their death, but at least you
won't have to deal with the pain of seeing them age while you stay
forever young."

Nabiki held the ring in the palm of her hand, staring at the twining
dragons, her tears slowing. She looked up finally, and stared into his
crystal blue eyes, seeing the flecks of gold floating through them.
"Yes," she whispered. "Make me a dragon."

Fey nodded, and stopped time in the room, preventing the people outside 
from interfering. 

"First, you will take my blood into your own. My blood has been mixed
with the blood of an ancient dragon, and this will give you true
strength, and seal the transformation, when I make it. Without this, you
would be a pale reflection of a dragon," he instructed, as he pulled out
a beautiful golden knife, and sliced his own palm, then handed it to her.

She looked at it for a minute, before placing it against her palm, and
drawing it slowly down. She winced, but held out her bloody palm. He
clasped her hand in his, and the fire started. 

Her hand felt like it was burning and the heat raced up her arm,
shooting through her. Her heart caught, a mass of heat and flame swirling
in her chest, spearing outward in every direction now, setting her mind
afire; her whole body seemed to burn as it seared through her.  Finally
he released her, and slowly she came back to herself, wondering how such
intense pain could possibly be so pleasurable.

"Now, the transformation..." Fey drew on the magic lines of the world,
then, deciding to ensure that she was protected against the vengeance or
'help' of those waiting outside, he tapped that core of flame that
burned within himself as well, and reaching out, he changed her,
imprinting upon her her new true form, then adding in secondary forms.
She could, of course, change her shape rather freely, but the imprints
would help prevent her from forgetting something vital in her
transformations. Though she could easily transform to something that did
not breathe, it would not prevent her from panicking when she tried to
breathe, and failed.

In deference to her catlike nature, he imprinted tiger and half-tiger
forms, modeled after Ranko's, then nodding at the thought, a half-dragon
form. Considering Diamond, and her penchant for spying, he imprinted a
fire dragonet form and, recognizing that something less noticeable might
do as well, if small, he imprinted a housecat. Finally, considering her
comments about a glass ceiling, he imprinted a male form, modeled
somewhat after himself, or Ranma.

He focused on the dragon blood in her, strengthening it, heightening its
ki-generating potential and creating certain paths for her ki to follow,
as he had done with his little fire dragons, so that if she needed it
before her training was complete, her instinctive defenses would include
ki-powered punches and kicks.

He also embedded a strong flame of magic in her. It might take her time to
find someone who could instruct her in its use, but he knew it would
appeal to her. 

Considering some of the things she might face before she was ready, he
added a core of resistance that would withstand and eventually reverse
any pressure points which she subconsciously disliked. That should allow
Dr. Tofu to help her, without letting Kho Lon take advantage of her. He
thought of the perverted Master he had trained under once, and added a
protection against the pervert, specifically. He gave her a small center
of male ki, along with a specialized organ to generate it. The defensive
reaction would be automatic... if Happosai groped her, it would feel
like he was groping a man, though she could restrain the reaction,
should it be necessary.

Oh! Jusenkyou, he had detected that curse on a number of people in the
vicinity. If it were so common, then someone might well try to use it
against her. He created a complex weave then, mixing ki, the magic of
the tapestry, and the power beyond power, to create a strong binding
that would, he hoped, repel the power of Jusenkyou, while still, if it
worked right, using the power to imprint on her the form held within the
waters, so that she could take it at need. 

Finally, he added to her subconscious a number of techniques and ideas
that would come to her slowly, as she needed them, or became ready to
use them. Also, he added to her subconscious the means to take on a form
that mixed two or more other forms. That would be far easier for her, he
guessed, than trying to come up with new forms from scratch. 

The last thing he did, before bringing her back to consciousness, and
releasing the hold on the room, was put a powerful spell on her to hide
the changes in her. It would last several weeks, he hoped, and hopefully
prevent anyone outside from realizing what he had done. 

"Please, Nabiki, say nothing of this to the others until I am gone, and
I would suggest not speaking of it to anyone you do not have to. I am
sure you are aware that there are those who would seek to take advantage
of you."

She nodded, smiling shyly at him, her tears dry. In fact, there was no
sign of them... this was not the body she had just been in, no matter
how closely the appearance matched. She was a dragon now.

As the others reentered the room, Nabiki was finding that the way her
mind worked had changed, in a way that appealed to her greatly. All the
things she normally thought of when she saw someone for the first time,
all the little mental processes she would go through, seemed to be
happening at once, in parallel, for each of the people that had just
entered. 

She grinned. It was like having a computer in her head, she thought
happily. She noted that those processes were getting more information
than she had been, and she mentally took over one of them, looking at
Ranma, and realized with some surprise that she could see his aura,
could gauge its strength. She flicked her eyes to Akane, and was mildly
surprised at the strength of her aura. If she would ever get control
over herself, Nabiki thought idly, she could be really good. 

She looked at the other three, and struggled to control her reaction.
Chikuso, but they were strong... their auras weren't vague, either, but
sharply defined, looking like larger versions of themselves, though...
Belldandy's had wings? Nabiki wondered what that meant, before turning
her attention to Fey.

She felt mildly stunned at the sheer power of his aura, which dwarfed
them all, as she watched him take a device from the smallest of the
three strange women and listen to her instructions on its use, before
simply disappearing. The three women excused themselves and she looked
about her, realizing suddenly that Diamond was gone too. "Chikuso," she
thought, "I didn't ask which he was doing. Did he take Diamond with him,
or just give him a girlfriend. Will he be back in a few months? Or
never?"

Ranma and Akane talked for a few minutes then bid her goodbye and
left. She looked around her, wondering what she was looking for, and
finally she went to her desk and pulled open the top drawer. To her
surprise and yet filling her expectations, there was a box there. She
lifted it, noting absently that her mind seemed to have catalogued its
precise weight, while she personally merely noted that it was quite
heavy. 

She opened the box, flipping back the decorated lid after admiring its
engraved oriental dragon, and gasped in awe, tears springing to her eyes
at the number of precious stones it held. "He really did listen... Now I
don't have to worry about college, but there's still Akane, and
Kasumi... but he took care of us all. Wherever you are, Fey, I hope you
get home safely, and bless you." She picked up the roll of paper,
tightly tied with a blue ribbon, that lay on top, and settled back to
read.

---

Nabiki sat on her bed in the dorm room, lost in thought. She had
received her gift from Fey, and in thinking over its implications, she
realized that she could not remain a close part of her sister's lives
any longer. She had long known that eventually she would seek her own
way in business, and leave them... but she had wanted them settled down
first.

Now, with all that had gone on, neither Kasumi nor Akane were settled,
though her own world had been irrevocably altered. If Tofu was true to
his word, Kasumi would not be alone much longer. That left Akane... and
Ranma. 

She had finally gotten the true story of Phoenix mountain from Mousse,
who had surprised her often with his wit, and perceptiveness, even in
the face of his blindness. She occasionally wondered if perhaps he were
not as blind as he appeared. She shook that thought off, and
concentrated on Ranma. Pheonix mountain had proven that Ranma loved
Akane, and she felt sure that Akane loved Ranma. 

She needed to know why Ranma could not act on that. In a sense, she
already did. Akane had forced that revelation from him some time after
the failed wedding. He would tarnish his own honor before allowing his
actions to destroy the honor of the other girls. Still, she felt certain
there was more to it than that, or he would have been seeking out
honorable ways of resolving it. Why had he never come to her, sought out
her aid in finding a resolution? Could it truly be that he felt he could
not trust her?

Nabiki looked at the seven memory crystals that Fey had given her, and
smiled. Those would come in handy indeed. Yes, she would do as Fey
suggested, and take lessons with Ranma. That would give her the
opportunity to see what was going on and pump him for information. 

First, though, she had that danged literature test to study for. She
sighed, and got up from the comfortable bed, to sit by her desk. She
pulled out her book and started reading. Fifteen minutes later, she
thought she caught a reference that indicated an earlier passage had
been foreshadowing. She sat bolt upright in surprise when her attempt to
recall the previous passage resulted in a perfect image of the paper in
her mind, words clearly legible, relevant passage centered. 

Well now, Fey had not mentioned an eidetic memory as one of the fringe
benefits, but she'd take it sure enough. Perfect visual recall was
definitely nothing to sneeze at. She grinned then, as she realized that
this would make it much easier to find the time to work with Ranma, as
studying had just become much easier. Key in this, she recognized, was the
fact that she had not merely remembered the sheet of paper exactly as it
had looked, but had remembered the precise page from a vague conception
of what it had contained. 

Nabiki paused, remembering an interesting technique used by an eidetic
in a story she had read. Mentally, she pictured an empty spiral bound
notebook, and grinned inwardly as she noted the solid and real
appearance of it in her mind. She flipped it open, and marked a '1' in
the upper corner of the first page. She wrote out a list of people whom
she would have to get to talk to her in depth if she were to solve
Ranma's fiancee problem.

She flipped to the next page, and wrote out a list of things to check
on, starting with who was the head of the Saotome clan, and what it
would take to make Ranma the head. She didn't think much of Genma, but
then, Nodoka was pretty strange upstairs as well, what with her peculiar
ideas of manliness and all. Best if it were left in good hands, and she
knew that Ranma was the only truly honorable one in the lot.

She paused after writing five items down, and flipped back to the first
page to check, and smiled as she saw all her listings still there,
exactly as she had written them. She closed the notebook then, and
concentrated on her literature book, bringing up the pages she had read,
noting with amusement the faithful reproduction of the waterstain on one
page. She brought up her notebook again, flipped it open, and sighed in
relief as she saw the writing was still there. She flipped to the second
page; it too was as she left it. So, eidetic notebooks do work, she
thought to herself. What about my real ones?

She proceeded to pull out one of her notebooks, and flip quickly through
it, taking only a momentary glance at each page as it lay flat. She
closed the notebook, and opened it in her mind, flipping through to a
random page, where she carefully scrutinized it, looking for
distinguishing features. She opened the physical notebook, flipped
through to the same page, and examined it. Perfect match. 

She grinned in delight and ran quickly through her other notebooks,
doing the same for them, then returned to her literature homework,
flipping back to the beginning, glancing quickly at each page, before
returning to her spot and reading.

Finishing rather sooner than she was accustomed to, Nabiki set her books
aside. Standing, she looked down at herself. Fey had intimated that her
appearance might change. His letter had implied that no-one would notice
any differences for two weeks, though it also said that she could
suppress that aspect, so surely she herself would be able to see the
differences.

Seeing no noticeable differences, at least to her eyes, she decided to
try some of the other techniques he had written about. Verifying that
the door was locked, she lowered her blinds and twirled them shut.
Stepping back to stand centered within the empty interior of the room,
she focused her mind on changing. As Fey had promised, visions of the
imprinted choices sprang up before her mind's eye. Noting the one that
looked like a male version of her, but built like Ranma, she shivered.
"Think I'll save that one," she muttered to herself. It was certainly a
nice thought on his part but she didn't feel quite up to dealing with
gender changes just now.

She couldn't tell just how large the tiger and dragon forms were, though
the humanoid dragon form definitely intrigued her. That left her with
the miniature dragon and the cat. Appealing as the dragon was, it
reminded her of Diamond and once again she felt unready.

So she focused on the image of the cat then shut her eyes tightly as the
world seemed to rush upwards around her. "Whoa," she thought, "I wasn't
expecting it to be that disorienting." Her legs collapsed beneath her
and she buckled to the ground.

Opening her eyes again, she tentatively brought her hand before her face
and marveled at the brown furred paw she beheld. An almost instinctive
motion in her hand bared sharp claws then retracted them smoothly.

She twisted her body around so that she could see her tail. It was
strange, as she watched it moving, to feel sensation from a fourth
extremity. 

Straightening herself once more, she bunched her legs and leapt to her
bed, landing easily upon its soft surface. She stilled, one forefoot
lifted, then turned and leapt back down, berating herself. Just because
she was exploring her new forms was no excuse for getting cat hair on
everything. "Bad kitty," she berated herself mentally in an amused tone.
That had been one of the few good things about Akane's pet P-chan; no
shedding. Not that Akane could ever have had a cat for a pet what with
Ranma's reaction to them. She smirked a bit, realizing the potential
this form had for teasing Ranma, then shuddered. Teasing sure, but if he
lapsed into his feral state, he could probably tear her apart.

"Note to self: no cat forms around Ranma!"

She grinned as she pictured Shampoo after once of her recent escapades.
Wait. Thinking back over her memories of Shampoo, she remembered the
difficulty Shampoo and Mousse both had when they were transformed
unexpectedly, with getting out of their clothes. 

She cast her gaze around the room. No pile of clothing was in sight.
Curious, she mused.

Pulling up the list of forms in her mind, she selected her human form
once more. Once again her body rippled and her point of view changed
drastically. It felt like she was being thrown into the air and would,
at any moment, be in for a long fall, but when it ended, she was
standing at rest upon the floor.

Looking down at herself, she smiled, for she was once more in the
clothing she had worn before taking her cat form, nor was that clothing
so much as mussed by what it had gone through.

"Handy," she said aloud, "but if it does the same thing when I go male,
that could be a bit embarrasing." She made a mental note to be sure that
she was alone and unobserved the first time she made the transition to
male. She wasn't ready to try that just yet, but neither did she want to
leave it untested until it was needed for some purpose, only to discover
that it left her naked.

Thrilled that the transformations worked she sat upon her bed, thinking.
Though she still felt emotionally unready to face her miniature draconic
form, she felt the strong urge to take it anyway. She could hardly wait
to finally experience the freedom of flight.

Regardless, she had more to do though than just explore her powers. She
had the chance now to gain the freedom she had desired for so long.
While she had already begun to consider what would have to be done with
respect to her family, there was also her business to consider. 

She closed her eyes, then, summoning the mental notebook within which
she had made notes regarding her sister's relationship with Ranma, she
considered its plain cover.

Remembering the mental pen with which she had written on its pages, she
smirked a bit. "Think outside the box, Nabiki-chan," she told herself.
With no mental tools or metaphors she focused her imagination, and a
picture of herself in miniature dragon form in flight appeared on the
cover of the notebook even as the notebook itself became a hardbound
book. "I didn't have to 'manufacture' the notebook in the first place,
so why should I have to write on it to change it? Heh."

Flipping open the now hard-backed notebook, she looked at the first
page, a hand-written list of names. "No need to be so mundane." A new
page appeared above the list, on slightly thicker paper. On it appeared,
in gilted letters, "Nabiki's Freedom."

Below this appeared, in a firm black, "Table of Contents."

"It may all be in my mind, but there's no reason it can't be organized."
Two entries appeared below the title, then she flipped the page. As she
looked in her mind at the hand-written list it changed, gaining a title
at the top of the page, and looking like the professional seeming output
of her computer.

She inserted another page between the list of people and the task list
on the next page. On this new sheet a chart appeared with each person's
name in a box. She drew connections between the figures, labeling them
with the relationship, then rearranging them all, until she finally had
a chart that listed in a reasonable fashion all of the involved persons,
ordered by their importance to the stability of any eventual outcome.

Flipping to the next page, she once again changed it from a handwritten
page to a professional looking production. Turning that page aside, she
looked at the blank sheet that followed, and titled it, "Business."

She spent the next hour going over her plans for her businesses, who to
turn what pieces over to, how to explain things, how to get out of
certain arrangements and other pertinent details, until she felt
confident that she had formed a viable plan for removing herself from
the center of the web without setting her legacy up for a fall.

Finally she turned back to that first list, the list of people she
needed information from. This was the big one. Resolving her own
business affairs would be tame compared to this. Every one of these
people had more than enough reason to mistrust her. Her vision blurred
slightly, tears threatening as she considered once again how completely
she had cut herself off from affection and trust, before she firmed her
intentions and fought down the emotions.

The information she would need from most of these people, which simply
had to be the truth, if she was to do any good at all, was exactly the
sort of personal, emotional truths that they would be most loth to
reveal to her.

"Damn," she muttered. Staring at this list she seemed suddenly as far
from her freedom as she had before Fey had given her his gift.

Her need was a trigger, though it came far sooner than Fey had
anticipated or desired. A flood of information filled her mind,
detailing the empathic abilities of dragons and giving her a crash
course in using them.

When her mind finished processing the information that had been crammed
into it, Nabiki smiled a genuine smile as the strain and worry drained
away. A moment later a shudder ran through her as she realized the
implications of one particular piece of the letter Fey had left for her.
He had warned her that she would have to be very careful to remember the
reasons for the gift and the reasons for her behavior, lest the greater
facility she could now bring to her former activities cause her to lose
herself in them. She had been unsure what he meant. 

After all, she could spy much more easily now, but then, she had not
generally been the one to do that sort of thing herself anyway, at
least, not once she had gained enough influence to get others to do it
for her. But given this new empathic power, well, now she truly
understood. For a person in her field, the power to influence someone to
trust you could be very easily abused.

The person she had been, before Diamond and Fey opened her eyes, would
not have hesitated a moment to use such a considerable advantage, and
the realization of how hurtful that would have been, how unutterably
cruel her former self's callous actions would have felt to those she
betrayed by forcing their trust made her feel physically ill.

Recovering from the sudden wave of self-disgust, Nabiki gathered her
purse and a ledger. She had no time for getting maudlin. Grabbing her
keys, she unlocked the door, stepped out, and locked it again behind
her. Walking with a firm stride down the hallway, she glanced down and
smirked at the ledger in her hand. She had picked it up purely out of
habit, though she no longer needed it to be able to track her business.

Of course, it was probably as well that she had done so. It would not do
to reveal too many of her changes at once. She had no desire to get Fey
in trouble with those goddesses.

Stepping out of the dorm, she paused, one hand held just above the stair
railing. Her senses were far more acute now and she could fairly see the
haze that hung over the city. She had not really thought about what it
would mean when Fey had mentioned that dragons were closer to the land.
Now she understood; with her being more in tune to the earth, she felt
very keenly the pollution and general distress of nature that surrounded
her.

"Man, this is not going to be as easy as I thought," she muttered,
wincing. Stirring from her momentary stillness, she was soon striding
across the campus heading for one of her favored diners. 

Halfway to the opening between the two buildings ahead that would let
out to the street across which waited her eatery of choice, she heard
someone call her name. Inclining her head to the side, she smirked at
the confident poise of the young woman waving at her. Stilling, she
awaited the other girl's approach.

"Nabiki-san," the other girl said when she was a few feet away, "I
thought I'd missed you when I didn't find you on the quad with that
lizard of yours."

"Dragon, not lizard, Kayuka-san, and some family business came up. I'm
heading to Tamoko's right now, join me?"

"Sure thing, Nabiki-san," Kayuka agreed, matching her stride to Nabiki's
as Nabiki resumed her pace. "So... does that mean that cute hunk I saw
with your sister leaving your dorm a while ago was Ranma?"

Nabiki's smirk widened, growing a bit predatory, but a yen note was
slipped into her hand before she could speak. "Yeah, that was Ranma,"
she said, pocketing the yen. She was surprised that she actually felt a
bit uneasy that her companion had reacted as she had. After all, that
was exactly what Nabiki was about to ask for, right?

"So... who were those gorgeous gaijin ladies he was with? More
fiancees?" Kayuka, like many of Nabiki's clique, enjoyed the stories of
the poor boy's torment. She held out several more yen notes, but Nabiki
waved them aside.

"Sorry, can't say. Though they weren't fiancees." They had paused at the
road's edge, and now strode briskly across it. Entering the eatery,
Nabiki waved at Tomoko, then allowed the waitress to lead her to a
table.

As she slid into the booth seat, Nabiki realized that meeting Kayuka
here was rather fortuitous. Kayuka was involved in the student
government and her boyfriend worked part-time for the registration
offices, so there was a good chance she would know or be able to find
out a fair bit of what Nabiki needed to know.

"Interested in cutting a bit of your debt, Kayuka-san?"

Kayuka sat up straight, eyes widening. "Nabiki-san? Are you kidding? Of
course I am... if..." She wilted suddenly, and Nabiki smirked,
recognizing that she was obviously thinking that it was too good to be
true, which meant, of course, that Nabiki was about to ask for more than
she could willingly give.

Nabiki didn't wait for Kayuka to try to recover, nor did she acknowledge
the other girl's embarrassment. If Nabiki ignored it, Kayuka could too,
without losing face.

"I have had a rather lucrative opportunity arise rather suddenly,
Kayuka-san, but it's a limited time offer." Yeah, as in I don't know how
long I'm going to be able to survive in this polluted place. "I have
been proceeding through the courses at a moderate pace. After all,
stress kills, and in our business, we can't afford to get too stressed.
Now, though, I find that it will be well worth my while to push through
college a bit more quickly. I believe your boyfriend might be in a
position to assist me with getting quickly scheduled for placement tests
to accumulate credits."

Kayuka nodded. "Sure, Hitoshi could do that, I figure. But... if... uhm,
if you pass too many too quickly there will be a lot of scrutiny..."
Kayuka spoke delicately, trying to avoid openly implying that Nabiki was
looking for some assistance on passing the tests, though it was what she
expected.

"Oh, no, Kayuka-san, that won't be a problem. I'll need no help to pass,
and they can look at it as closely as they like."

Kayuka nodded happily. As long as she wasn't being asked to arrange the
results, this should be fairly easy money. 

The two girls continued to discuss things over their meal when it came.
Kayuka noted in her diary later that day that she had never seen Nabiki
that carefree and unstressed. She didn't seem any less sharp, and
though she never referred to the ledger she carried, her words made it
clear that she continued to hold a tight rein on her business. Her
newfound balance, wherever it had come from, did not seem to have
affected her business acumen or instincts in the slightest.

---

A pair of mismatched eyes, one a glittering green, the other a hard
blue, watched the progress of the two girls as they left Tomoko's.
Neither girl noticed their observer, for she stood in the shadows some
distance away and had not moved since their earlier passage across the
green expanse.

Her hair was black and a little bit beyond shoulder length, but styled
with curls that lifted it to rest at her shoulders. Her face had a
certain beauty and her body was well-toned, but she did not attract
attention. Her severely conservative business suit deliberately
downplayed her assets.

Much as she enjoyed attention at the right times and from the right
people, as a general rule she sought to avoid notice. She held a
definite power in the school, but it was a hidden power, and even the
quickly and adroitly formed information nets of Tendo Nabiki had little
to say about her. Ishigami Ayami taught four classes at the university.
None of them appeared on the official lists, none had webpages enticing
new students or offering coursework. They were by invitation only and
the invitations she offered were seldom declined successfully.

Now she was presented with a mystery and a challenge, and she dearly
loved a challenge. She watched the students as they signed up for their
courses and she chose her students from among them by the results of
her observations.

Now she was seeing a student that she had dismissed as without potential
demonstrate a remarkable turnaround. Never had she witnessed someone go
from such a low potential to one so high, and yet she could see no other
change.

"Tendo Nabiki," she whispered, "what happened to you?"