Disclaimer: All copyrighted material is property of their respective owners. I own nothing. This work is merely to show my appreciation to the original creators.
" " -speech
' ' - thoughts
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It was a nice autumn day. Ranma, Akane and Nabiki were in school and the fathers were playing shogi leaving Nodoka and Kasumi to do the household duties. Kasumi, after finishing dusting the living room decided to go get the mail.
"Auntie, there is a letter for you."
"Okay, Kasumi-chan. I´ll come to get it, just a second," Nodoka, who was in the middle of preparing food, shouted.
"I´ll prepare the dishes so you can read the letter, Auntie. Here it is." Kasumi handed the letter to Nodoka and began to chop vegetables as Nodoka retreated to the living room.
Nodoka gave a small happy shout. "Oh, Its from Kinuyo. I have been waiting for this letter. You remember Kinuyo, Genma-dear, don´t you?"
Genma sweatdropped. He wished he could forget that crazy woman whose mother had taught Nodoka to wield that damn blade so effectively. "Yes dear."
Nodoka resumed reading the letter with a smile on her face. Then she picked up the picture and some papers that had come with the letter, gave the picture an approving glance and suddenly broke in a 'grandbabies-dance'
"Wai wai, grandbabies. I´ve been waiting this for so long. My little boy is going to be married."
This put some life to the two men. "Exactly, we must immediately call for a priest, oh my baby girl, I am so happy," Soun began to wail.
Genma patted his friend´s back. "Quite right Tendo. Ranma must finally understand his duty and marry Akane."
Nodoka stopped dancing and gave the men a withering look. "What are you idiots babbling. Genma you know perfectly well that the agreement with the Aoyamas takes precedence over everything else. You did sign the papers yourself."
Naturally, this prompted a reaction from Soun. "WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Um, I can explain Tendo, old friend," Genma said.
"RANMA WILL MARRY MY AKANE AND THATS FINAL."
Genma, trying to channel his friends anger towards Nodoka to escape the situation got a portion of his spine back. "Quite right Tendo. You heard him woman, there is no room for this silly foolishness of yours."
SHING Nodoka´s kantana ended the argument in her favour as the men covered and began pleading for their lives.
"Listen, and listen well idiots. This agreement was made well before Ranma was born and unlike that drunken promise you made it is a sacred bond between clan Ikari, clan Aoyama and clan Saotome. It has been written down and all families have signed it. I say again, Genma, you signed the papers two days after we were married, did you not? That was after all the only way I was allowed to marry you."
Genma remained in the 'crouch of the wild tiger' and did not answer out of fear.
Nodoka continued. "Now, Soun, I do not oppose if one or more of your daughters become Ranma´s mistresses. Healthy young man like Ranma can satisfy many women, I am quite sure of that. Kasumi dear, you would be a perfect mistress for my son. What do you say?
Kasumi was blushing hard and managed only stutter a bit before she dropped the cutting knife almost wounding herself.
For a while nothing else than a rapidly repeated "Oh my" could be heard from the kitchen as Kasumi tried to purge naughty thoughts out of her head and compose herself.
This was the scene that greeted the youngest members of the household as they arrived from school.
Their day had began without incidents which left Ranma a little worried. The feeling only grew as the day proceeded without bigger mishaps. This lead Ranma to suspect that there would be major trouble waiting for him somewhere nearby. He was not to be disappointed.
As Ranma stepped inside of the Tendo house his mother sheathed her sword and engulfed Ranma in a tight hug, all the while gushing about how his little boy was going to be a man soon.
"Uh, hi mom. What´s going on?" Ranma asked, a little confused by her mothers behavior.
"I´d like to know that too," Nabiki, who had noted the state of her big sister, said.
"This is what is going on." Nodoka shouted in glee, pushed the letter and picture to Nabiki and began dancing around the room still holding Ranma. "You are going to be married Ranma, isn´t that wonderful?."
Nabiki read through the short letter which was written as follows.
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Dear Nodoka,
At long last the promised day has come. Today is the fifteenth birthday of Tsuruko and as such I have prepared her for the omiai. She is eagerly expecting to meet Ranma after she did read through the papers you sent us and I hope your son will like her.
I decided to ask Urashima Hinata to act as the nakoudo and she chose to held the omiai at a small teahouse that her family owns in Kanagawa. I hope the omiai could be held in two days. Please inform Urashima-san if there is a problem with this.
Kinuyo Aoyama
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After she read the letter (which she noted was posted day before) she began to inspect the other papers which described this Tsuruko in a detail. Everything from her three sizes to her martial arts skills, hobbies and other interest were covered. The picture showed a self-confident, beautiful young woman in a kimono wielding a katana.
Nabiki swore silently. This girl would be a trouble. It was obvious she was highly skilled and propably just as stubborn and clingy as the other fianceés. Things were not looking good for her little sister, especially as it looked like Nodoka would be supporting this fianceé just as much as the fathers were supporting Akane. Besides she was in danger to lose her cashcow.
"Come, Ranma. You need some proper clothes for your omiai.We will go shopping," Nodoka said dragging Ranma out of the house, only stopping to snatch the papers and the photo from Nabiki.
ooo
An exasperated Ranma looked at the pile of men´s kimonos, hakamas and other clothing that his mother and the shop assistant had brought for him to try on. Still he did not want to be too rude to his mother. "Mom, could ya please tell me what is going on? You´re been blubbering about marriage all the way from Tendos. I'm not going to marry that uncute tomboy."
Nodoka did know well enough who Ranma meant with that "endearment". "No, Ranma you are not going to marry Akane. You are going to marry her," she said and gave Ranma the information package and the picture of one Aoyama Tsuruko. After that she whacked Ranma with her sheathed katana. "And do not insult people like that even if they are not present."
Ranma rubbed his head and barely glanced at the papers."Ow, mom, even if it's not Akane ya want me to marry I'm not marrying anyone. I´m not ready."
"I understand that Ranma. However family honour requires that you will at least accept this engagement and marry her at some time in future. I will leave it to you and her to decide but I wouldn´t mind sooner rather than later and of course I expect lots of grandchildren to spoil." After this Nodoka went in her grandbabies-mode and began dancing around embarrassing Ranma to no end.
He sighed dejectedly and began to read through the papers.
´She´s cute,´ Ranma thought after seeing her picture. ´But then, they all are. And she´s a kendoist. I just hope she´s not a female Kuno. I´d go nuts if I had to suffer two Kunos around. Shinmeiryu, huh.´
ooo
Meanwhile in Tendo-Dojo a meeting was taking place in Nabiki´s room.
"Akane, I think we have a problem," Nabiki calmly said eyeing her younger sister.
Akane, after hearing what was going on was seething. "Whatever, I do not care. Ranma can go and marry that hussy for all I care."
Nabiki sighed. Akane was behaving far too expectedly. "Akane, this is serious. Unless you want to get rid of Ranma for good you will get your act together."
"I said I do not care!" Akane huffed and stormed out of the room. Nabiki stared after her for a couple of seconds and the shrugged. "Whatever. I know you sis. I know you love that big baka and I am going to do my best to ensure that this omiai is not going to be a succesful one. Right sis?" She turned to her older sister who was sitting on her bed still sporting a blush on her face. Seeing that she was not going to get an aswer Nabiki rolled her eyes and sought a chocolate bar and manga while counting people she would have to call about this new fianceé.
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A/N: This´ll be my next project after Ode and Silence are either finished or I get a writers block with them. Ranma/Love Hina and one or two other crosses later on. And yes, it´s that Ikari-clan.
