Author's Notes:

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½. It's owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Comics. This isn't written for any form of profit.

This story assumes the anime timeline BEFORE the "Boy Meets Mom" episode at the end of Season 7. Essentially, this means that Ranma has not talked to Nodoka since leaving on the training trip with Genma. He has essentially no memory of her.

This is my first attempt at fan fiction. I invite comments, constructive criticism, and suggestions.

Nodoka Saotome looked around and sighed. She had spent the last few hours cleaning out one of the hallway closets in an attempt to find some old recipe books that had been packed away years ago. However, in the midst of her search she came across a small, dusty box pushed into a corner.

Hmm…What's this?

She pulled out the box and opened it. Inside, she found several photographs of her, Genma, and Ranma from over a decade ago.

Oh, I forgot about these, thought Nodoka as she flipped though the pictures. She stopped at one picture of her kneeling with a little Ranma in her arms and Genma standing behind them.

"Ranma," she whispered. "I wonder how manly you've become."

She thought back to the day her husband and son left her. Genma had vowed to make Ranma "a man among men" and promised that he and Ranma would commit seppuku if they did not fulfill their promise. She wasn't worried though. She knew it in her heart that Ranma would be every bit as manly as she had hoped. That was why she was looking forward to seeing them for the first time in ten years at the Tendo residence. The Saotome family would finally be reunited again.

Nodoka smiled and dreamed of how her son would be the epitome of the perfect son. Not only would he be so handsome that he would rival some of today's rising Japanese movie stars but he would also be polite and well-mannered. He would be mindful of the traditions to which most teenagers seem to have turned their backs.

Thinking of what today's youth had become caused her to frown.

The idea of family honor above all else seemed to have all but disappeared as these kids selfishly cared only for themselves. She had seen many teenagers around her neighbourhood just sitting around being lazy while bragging to their friends about their latest material possessions while their parents worked long hours to support them. Nodoka shook her head and reached for her katana which was lying next to her. That katana had been passed down through the generations as a symbol of the family's martial arts heritage.

Nodoka did not adhere to all of the traditions all the time – she knew that there were occasions where they had to be bent or ignored. Traditions are not rules, and having been created hundreds of years ago, some of them were out of date and needed to be revised for the new, modern society within Japan. That society brought things that did not exist in the old times and they seriously complicate matters when it came to tradition.

Nodoka was brought out of her thoughts and memories when the doorbell rang. Putting down the pictures and the package, she got up to go to the door.

"Coming!"

When the Saotome matriarch opened the door, she found a five and a half foot tall boy looking at his feet and muttering about thanking Kami-sama for porches. Ranma looked up and immediately recognized the woman at the door as the woman in the picture, but was immediately speechless. Ranma's mouth gaped and his eyes widened. From Nodoka's point of view, the boy appeared to be shy and somewhat familiar. Ranma didn't know exactly how to interact with his mother. One simply does not walk up to their mother for the first time in ten years and say "Long time, no see, eh?"

"Dear?" Nodoka caught herself staring at the boy, thinking that his features were really close to her son's.

"Uh…Are you Nodoka Saotome?" Ranma winced, thinking that there were probably thousands of other ways that were better at asking for her identity.

"Why, yes, I am," Nodoka replied, curious as to where this was going.

Ranma reached into his pocket, and pulled out the picture. Unfolding it, he gave the picture to Nodoka. He was still trying to figure out how to break it to her that she was his mother. Nodoka's facial expression changed immediately as she recognized it as a copy of the picture she was looking at minutes before.

"How did you get this picture?" she asked rapidly while staring at the picture. "Do you know my husband Genma or my son Ranma?"

Ranma reminded himself that he had nothing to lose. "Uh…ah…Mrs. Saotome…there's no easy way to say this, so here goes…the little boy in the picture…is…"

"Ranma!" Nodoka exclaimed as she embraced Ranma. "I can't believe it's really you! " She started to sob. "My goodness, you finally came home!"

Nodoka held Ranma by the shoulders and looked him over. "You've grown up, and become so handsome. Please come in, we have so much to catch up and talk about." She released him and led him in. Ranma timidly followed.

Nodoka led Ranma to a table and motioned for him to take a place before she headed into the kitchen and quickly returned with a small tea set. After pouring some tea, Ranma moved to pick up his teacup, but thought twice. He realized that he had to say something eventually if he was going to get his mother to help him. In his mind, catching up on the last ten years could wait. He needed a solution to his problems and an answer to a burning question he had about her right now.

Would his mother love him even with this curse? He had no idea.

"Uh…Mrs. Saotome…" Ranma started.

Nodoka smiled. "Goodness Ranma, I'm your mother for kami's sake. Please call me 'mom' like you used to."

"Er...ok, mom…I…need your help with something, but there's something you need to know." Ranma lowered his head. The steely resolve he relied on regularly was missing. When Ranma looked at the floor, Nodoka realized that Genma was not there.

"What happened to your father, Ranma? Did something happen to him?"

Ranma took the question as an opportunity to ease his mother into explaining the curse.

"He's fine…sort of. About two and a half years ago Pop took me to a legendary training area in China called Jusenkyo."

Nodoka beamed. It seemed to her that Genma really went out of his way to make Ranma a great martial artist. Hopefully, he did the same when it came to making Ranma a real man.

"The training grounds were made up of thousands of springs. When we were there, the guide who was with us kept trying to tell us something, but we had no idea what he was saying since we didn't know any Chinese. We ended up ignoring him and continued with the training. After a while, Pop fell into one of the springs.

"And he…uh…came out of the pool as a panda."

Nodoka stared at Ranma. She had known her son for a total of five minutes and he had already told her a lie. Not just any lie, a completely unbelievable lie. Ranma wasn't living up to expectations, and Ranma's face looked like he had absolutely no remorse whatsoever about lying to his own mother.

"Ranma, please don't lie to me. It's not respectful, especially to your mother." Nodoka lectured while wondering exactly what Genma had been teaching her son.

Ranma threw up his hands as if to say he was surrendering. "No, mom, I'm serious. Pop turned into a panda." He paused. "The training grounds in China are cursed. If you fall into one of the springs, then you take the form of whatever drowned in that spring. Pop fell into the Spring of Drowned Panda, so Pop takes the form of a panda. Eventually, we were able to figure out that hot water changes Pop from a panda to a human and cold water changes him from a human to a panda."

Nodoka continued staring. Her husband turns into a panda with cold water?

She didn't faint. She didn't know what to think. Her husband, for all intents and purposes, could wind up in a zoo. This was not at all like the vision of her reunited family that she had been daydreaming about for ten years. This was far from traditional, and it scared the hell out of her. Genma's curse seriously complicated matters.

She was so scared that a minute passed before she moved. To Ranma, it was an eternity. He could read his mother – a decade of training in martial arts included extensive study in analyzing opponents – and it was clear that she was disappointed.

What infuriated and frustrated Ranma was that he knew he had to further disappoint her.

And here he was, trying to get help from someone whom he thought he was disappointing.

"Er…mother?"

Nodoka was still lost in her own thoughts. The notion of having a husband that was a zoo animal half the time remained with her, and she couldn't push it completely out of her mind. Maybe her tea wasn't strong enough for this, but her mind slowly began to recover from the shock.

Realizing that Ranma was trying to get her attention, Nodoka looked at him, and his face said something that he didn't have to say out loud.

"There's more."

"After Pop fell in the Spring of Drowned Panda, he came out and attacked me like he was still training. I didn't expect a panda to come out of the spring, so I wasn't ready and I…"

Nodoka braced herself.

"I…I fell." Ranma lowered his head, where another uneasy pause followed. Ranma was thankful that this one was much shorter. It was clear to his mother that Ranma thought that whatever he turned into was significantly worse than Genma's curse.

"Into one of the springs?"

Ranma nodded.

"Which one?"

"Spring of Drowned Girl."

"You… turn into a girl?"

Ranma nodded again, keeping his head low. A fire started burning within his mother.

Nodoka felt a burning rage growing inside her. Without thinking, Nodoka splashed her cold tea in Ranma's face, triggering his curse.

"Hey! What did you do that for?"

Any lingering doubt about Ranma lying to her disappeared, but it was replaced with thoughts that were much, much worse.

Her son turned into a girl. He would never be the man among men she had always wanted. How could he earn any respect among his peers if he was constantly changing sexes?

Nodoka had always wanted grandchildren, and had expected Ranma to be the father of those kids. But this curse meant that Ranma could also become the mother.

She was getting ahead of herself. Children? How could Ranma even have kids if he was constantly changing sexes? There was no way that Soun Tendo would want his daughter to marry Ranma. What woman in her right mind would marry him? What man would?

The prospect of men being with Ranma disgusted Nodoka. Ranma was male, except when the curse kicked in. Based on what Ranma said about Genma, Ranma probably still had his male personality when female. That meant that Ranma could be called a homosexual when he was female.

Nodoka didn't have issues with homosexuals, but then she hadn't really talked to one either. She had watched enough TV for the stereotypes to have an effect on her, and she didn't know a positive one. She was indifferent to them, except that now it was her son that had this 'problem'. That changed everything in her mind. She knew how well labels stuck to people, even if they weren't accurate. From what she had seen, not one gave a damn about the traditions to which she tried to stay true.

It was obvious that Ranma wasn't traditional. There weren't any traditions that could be bent or carefully ignored for him. He was a sex-changing freak of nature, and he was her son.

The shame would be borne for generations. The shame that started with her.

With that, the happy image of her future family completely shattered, and the fire burning within her made her blood boil. Rational thought stepped aside to let emotions take over as Nodoka reached for her katana, eyes closed.

She might as well not have a son. She didn't know the person who was sitting in front of her, and she was definitely not related to her.

The change in Nodoka's emotions was not lost on Ranma, and his mind drifted to the blade in his bookbag and Nodoka's increasingly tighter grip on the handle of her sword.

"Mom?"

"Leave. Now."

"Huh?"

"GET OUT!"

Ranma quickly got up and started to back towards the door. The only thing holding back Nodoka from drawing her sword was that Ranma actually was her child.

"Wait, mom…please." Nodoka didn't even register that Ranma said anything. "I need your help-"

Nodoka continued to advance on Ranma, making him continue to the door. "Help? Why the hell would I help you? I don't even know what you are."

"But you don't understand…" Ranma said, tears welling in his eyes.

"What's to understand? You aren't my son. My son isn't this…this…freak. You aren't even male – you can't be my son."

"I am! I…" Ranma backed into the door.

"You're nothing. You were supposed to be a man among men. You were supposed to do great things. Now leave, before I use this," Nodoka said, starting to draw the katana.

Ranma picked up his bookbag, opened the door and stepped out. He wasn't going to get into a fight with his own mother. When he turned around, the door was closing in his face.

"Don't come back" was the last thing he heard as the door slammed.

Ranma stood in front of the door, where this ordeal had started. His tanto was still in the bag, and he suddenly realized that he didn't even get a chance to offer his life to his mother, so that there would be at least a witness to show some honour.

He doubted she would take it. It was tainted.

He wept. It was over.

He had just experienced the ultimate rejection, and he didn't have the will to continue fighting this hopeless battle. He had failed to solve his problem, which meant he was a failure. He was nothing, as his mother had stated.

Worthless. Useless. A freak.

He couldn't even get someone to be his second when he wanted to commit seppuku. He wondered if he even had any honour, especially after his mother disowned him.

This had to end. He didn't just want to die, he needed to die.

Ranma turned and headed for the nearest shrine. Maybe the kamis would accept his life. They had been playing with it for as long as he could remember.

"Don't come back," Nodoka said, as she slammed the door in Ranma's face.

Overcome with emotions, Nodoka fell back against the door and dropped her katana. It clattered against the wooden floor. Tears were falling freely from her face now but she made no attempt to wipe them away.

"The kamis must be mocking me," she thought bitterly.

In the short span of twenty minutes everything she had hoped for had come crashing down on her. She was married to a giant panda and her son, her own flesh and blood, turned out to be nothing more than a freak of nature.

"What did I ever do to deserve this?" she sobbed as her knees finally gave way and she collapsed to the ground.

Author's Notes:

I'll be honest here – this was a hard chapter to write. Some parts of it seemed forced to me. I had a very hard time separating Nodoka from someone I know, and Takahashi didn't spend a lot of time on the rest of Nodoka's character because it didn't help the comedic portion of canon. I did my best to keep to canon (if the anime can be considered canon with respect to Nodoka is debatable since she only appears in two episodes) and keep her human, but please let me know if I lost my way or seem to be wavering.

Thanks to my girlfriend - who did tons of work on the final bit - and to all who reviewed Chapter 1.