I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi or Naoko Takeuchi.
"We're home!" Ranma and Nabiki called out as they stepped into the front hallway, pausing to chang their shoes, both girls damp from the light shower that had caught them while roof-hopping home.
"Oh, you're finally back!" came a voice from the direction of the kitchen, and girls stiffened — that hadn't been Kasumi's voice. Then a beautiful redheaded middle-aged version of Ranma came around the corner toward them.
"Mom!" "Auntie Nodoka!" the two girls chorused.
Ranma's mother walked up to them and bowed to Nabiki. "I was sorry to learn of your father's death," she said soberly. "His end was honorable, but too early."
Nabiki returned the bow. "Thank you," she said. "Now Father has rejoined Mother, as he has longed for these twelve years — something to rejoice at even if we will miss him."
"Of course, dear," Nodoka said with a sad smile, and turned to Ranma. "Ranma, Genma told me when he called that you are working on a way to save the Tendos from Kuno-dono. Have you thought of a way?"
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I did, and after askin' around today it'll work. I'll tell everyone what it is after dinner."
Nodoka nodded, face serene, though her concern showed in the sharp glance she sent her currently-dughter. "Very well, dinner is ready. Would you two get Akane from her room and Genma from the dojo while Kasumi and I set up the table?"
"Sure, I'll get Akane as soon as I get some hot water," Ranma agreed, and headed for the kitchen.
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "I suppose I can't begrudge the division of labor. I'll go get Genma," she called to Ranma's retreating back. Then, turning back to Nodoka, she softly said, "Kasumi, Akane and I wanted to keep you out of this mess, but I'm glad you're here. Thank you."
"I could wish you had called me in immediately, and especially after Soun committed seppuku, but I understand your reasoning and am grateful you wished to protect me," Nodoka said. "But we are going to be family, and family should support each other."
Nabiki carefully didn't flinch. "You're right, Auntie Nodoka, family should look out for each other. I'm glad you're here now. I'll go get Genma." The two headed down the hall, separating as Nodoka turned toward the kitchen and Nabiki continued out of the house toward the dojo.
When Nodoka had told her that Genma was in the dojo, Nabiki had expected to find him running through katas. So, when she quietly stepped through the doorway, she was surprised to find the stout middle-aged man kneeling on the floor, eyes fixed on the small family shrine and apparently oblivious to all else. She simply stood there watching for a few minutes, but Genma failed to acknowledge her presence and finally she coughed slightly. At the sound, Genma started and turned his head to look at her, and Nabiki was stunned speechless at the tear streaks running down his cheeks.
When she failed to say anything, Genma smile slightly. "Yes?" he asked in a surprisingly normal tone.
Nabiki shook herself out of her shock and said softly, "I'm sorry to disturb you, Uncle Genma, but Auntie Nodoka says that dinner is ready."
Genma nodded and rose smoothly to his feet. "Thank you," he said simply, and strode by her toward the house, Nabiki quickly following.
The two met Ranma and Akane at the foot of the stairs, the pigtailed boy and youngest Tendo with their arms around each other's waist, and the four sat down at the family room's low table as Nodoka and Kasumi, red-eyed but looking much better than she had the previous day, brought in the last of the dishes for the meal.
/\
Nodoka looked around the table and nodded, satisfied that everyone was more or less finished. It had been an odd dinner — no speed-eating contest between Genma and Ranma with insults to match, no verbal sparring match between Ranma and Akane with sardonic comments being tossed in by Nabiki, no talking at all, just silence as everyone ate.
But the meal was finally over, and it was time to give the curiosity Nodoka had been firmly sitting on free rein. Putting down her chopsticks, she looked over at her son, sitting across from her with Nabiki on one side and Akane on the other. "Everyone is finished eating," she said to Ranma. "I believe it is time to tell us of the solution you have come up with."
Everyone else except Nabiki turned to stare at the pigtailed boy, and he and Nabiki exchanged glances before Ranma reluctantly nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. But first, let Nabik tell ya what won't work — it'll save time after. Then I'll tell ya what we've worked out."
Nodoka paled while Akane stiffened, then with a worried look at Ranma slipped an arm around his waist — if he and Nabiki were shortcutting protests, this wasn't going to be good.
It wasn't. "... then, when Kuno breaks his word — and he will, sooner or later — I'll be in a position ta deal with it. After that, Nabiki says I should be freed in around five ta ten years—assumin' I'm not charged with murder," Ranma said, then looked around at the stunned faces. Kasumi had tears streaming down her face. Nodoka didn't, though her face had paled and it was obvious that under the low table she was gripping her husband's hand. And Akane ... Ranma repressed a flinch at the uncomprehending pain in her eyes.
For a few minutes no one spoke, then finally Genma asked, "And the Adjustment you'll undergo before they put you up for auction?"
"Already got it handled," Ranma said. "When the time comes it won't be a problem."
Then, looking at his father steadily, Ranma added, "Pop, this'll get Kuno off a' Akane's back and the Tendos out a' debt, but it won't bring in more money and Nabiki says she won't be able ta do that herself anymore — too much attention. But she says the family will be able ta get by if the dojo reopens for classes. Can ya do that — teach the classes?"
Genma nodded solemnly as his wife's grip on his hand tightened. "Of course, boy. I'll see to it that my old friend's daughters are taken care of. And once the debt is paid, there will be a home for you to return to."
"How ... how long until ..." Nodoka managed to ask past the lump in her throat.
"Tomorrow Cologne's gonna be gettin' what she needs ta lock the curse," her son responded. "The next morning she'll lock it, so the magic will have time ta settle before I'm processed. Kuno's goons'll be by ta get me by noon the next day."
Finally shaking off her own shock, Akane burst out, "Ranma, please, there's got to be another way!"
"No, Akane, there isn't," Ranma said as softly as he could. "And even if there is a way I missed, it's too late — I gave Kuno my word, and until he breaks his part of our agreement that's that."
"You and your honor!" Akane snarled, then rose and ran from the room. Ranma sat and stared after her as they listened to the sound of her footsteps receding down the hall then up the stairs. Silence fell, until Kasumi spoke up.
"Go to her, Ranma," the matronly Tendo said softly, wiping at her cheeks. "You have so little time together, before ... Don't waste any of it."
Ranma nodded without a word, then rose and walked out of the family room. As the sound of his footsteps started up the stairs, Nodoka buried her face in her husband's shoulder, and he let go of her hand to pull her into a hug as her own tears finally came.
/oOo\
By Tman
Her hands going through the motions of cleaning up her shop, Kounji Ukyo fought to make sense of how her world had just been torn apart.
Just a few hours ago, Ranma and Nabiki had quietly come in during a lull in business. She had greeted them both enthusiastically, the former because she hadn't seen him in a while, the latter because she was glad to see the middle Tendo sister finally out and about after the Tendo patriarch's death. She figured Ranchan had dragged Nabiki out for some much-needed relaxation.
One look at both their faces had told her otherwise; a bomb was about to be dropped.
She just didn't realize Ranma would be the main casualty...
She'd listened as he had quietly explained what had happened, and what would happen, and she'd somehow managed to restrain her alternating shock, rage, and fear. He'd stood up finally, given her a hug, rejoined Nabiki, who'd remained silent throughout the entire exchange, and then stepped out of her business. She was too benumbed with shock to follow, to accost him, to scream at him, slap him, demand he run with her for the hills ... anything ... all she could do was stand there, until the smell of burning okonomiyaki had forced her attention elsewhere, and by the time she'd looked up again he was gone.
She had closed early today, and was now cleaning up the place, trying to make sense of what she'd learned, and coming to some frightening realizations.
For all the years that she had hunted Ranma, masqueraded as a boy, and worked along the edges of society, Ukyo had been aware of the Imperial slavery system. But it had been an abstract to her — it happened to other people, people who had made wrong choices, weren't lucky, weren't fast and smart enough, people who deserved it ... never to her and those she associated with.
Now, it had become all too real to her. All those years of being mostly on her own, she was now aware that she had been walking a razor's edge. It would have been all too easy to slip into debt, to annoy the wrong person, to fall into a position where it might have been her going on the auction block to pay off owed debts, her mind altered to make her less rebellious and more pliable. She'd been unknowingly walking in a crosshairs, and that frightened her.
And with that fear came the crushing knowledge that she had little if any safety net as an independent businesswoman ...
... and the even more devastating knowledge that Ranma wouldn't be there to save her if that happened. He had chosen to sacrifice his freedom for the Tendos. He had chosen Akane over her...
That thought had triggered another realization. Ranma might have chosen another over his 'cute fiancée', but he wasn't riding off into the 'happily ever after' of many a romantic daydream. He was giving up everything, his freedom, his manhood, and the chance to be with those he loved, possibly forever, to be the slave and likely sex toy of one they'd all thought a blustering annoyance, a harmless obsessed fool who was no match for Ranchan's martial prowess. Only now, the blustering fool had managed to outmaneuver him on a battlefield none of them had much experience on. A battlefield Ranchan couldn't study or train up on before ... before ...
Growing up as a boy, learning their ways, the better to fit in, Ukyo was aware of the hormonal currents that ran through them, the dawning lusts she'd observed. She'd seen even polite and well-mannered boys talk of their fantasies, of the things they'd do if they had a slave of their own — especially a full-use slave — to command.
And Kuno was lust personified, wrapped in the trappings of privileged nobility and arrogant power. He spoke in the honeyed cultured words of aristocracy, but he was at heart, she now saw, a predator, obsessed with his own appetites ... and now there would be nothing between him and the satisfaction of his desires.
So even as she raged that Ranma had chosen another and the reclamation of her family honor had become that much more difficult, if not impossible, she also felt a growing cold fear for her childhood friend ... what Ranchan would be sacrificing, what he ... no, what she ... what she'd be facing, and what she'd be forced to endure...
Wiping at her eyes became a futile exercise as the kitchen around her blurred in a fog of tears. Her cleaning forgotten, Ukyo fell to the floor, her arms wrapped around herself as she succumbed to her emotions.
It was much later that she managed to pull herself together, still trembling, but at least able to function. Her thoughts and emotions had gone through a hellride and she wasn't sure she would ever be totally okay ever again.
But one thought burned in her mind.
Just as she'd never given much thought to the institution of slavery, she'd never really paid much attention to the Underground Railroad save as a vague abstraction, an amusing myth like the Yeti, onis, the Loch Ness Monster, or the Japanese abolitionist movement.
As soon as she made sure she was reasonably financially secure, she was going to hunt up the Railroad. She'd join their ranks, she'd fight to make a difference...
Ranchan wasn't going to be fighting alone.
This chapter includes the first material added to the original story at Anime Addventures by Tman. Tman's contributions added quite a bit of complexity to the story, and IMHO improved it considerably.
