Choices and Consequences

Chapter 7

The Mother of all Problems

Even if you can't see me, I'll be there, mom...

Disclaimer: I am not Rumiko Takahashi, nor do I own Ranma 1/2.

One Day Later Saturday February 18, 1994

Thus far, it had been a rather unusual day for Akane; it had started with the anniversary of her mother's death as usual, wherein she had gotten up after the same dream about her mother she had had the last several times this day rolled around. However, the rest of it was quite different; Ranma and his father had been too busy yelling at each other about the latest crisis to particularly care about the fact that it was a very important day to her family.

They didn't even bother to stop shouting at each other long enough to say goodbye when they left, to Akane's great disappointment and anger; it had been all she could do to keep herself from going up to Ranma and slapping him for how he was acting, but she reminded herself not to dishonor her mother by reacting in violence...at least until she was done with paying respects to her.

The trip to the graveyard had been uneventful, it had gone the same way as the last year and all the years before that; they paid their respects to the dead Mrs. Tendo, reminded each other a bit about her, cried a little, then returned home.

When they arrived however, Akane had found a strange sight: a redheaded middle-aged woman in a kimono who was carrying a long thin package and sitting across the table from Ranma, who was in girl form, and Genma, who was in his panda form. The woman had introduced herself as Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother and she had appeared to be a very nice and polite woman… with the exception of that whole business with the Seppuku contract if Ranma wasn't a "Man among Men", of course. At least, she had appeared to be nice until that whore Shampoo had arrived, whereupon Nodoka showed her true colors.

Nodoka had then acted like she and Shampoo were the best of friends, and had spent all of lunch belittling Akane's beauty and blaming her for a lot of what she heard had been going on between her and Ranma. All the while, Shampoo had been grinning widely and keeping herself close to Ranma, which had only incensed Akane further because he clearly wasn't resisting her very hard.

In addition, Nodoka had embarrassed her with questions about whether Akane thought Ranma was 'manly', well groomed, and handsome in front of Shampoo, Ranma, Genma, and her whole family. Akane had been unable to say anything in front of Shampoo without blushing like a tomato, as it was just so embarrassing to say anything like that in front of anyone, let alone Ranma and Shampoo.

"...And then Shampoo had the nerve to call me 'insecure' and even implied I was jealous! Can you believe that P-chan?" Her pet pig shook his cute little head with the wide, expressive eyes so hard and fast he fell off of the pillow he had been sitting on. Akane giggled and then, as her P-chan gave her what might have been a look of betrayal had he been human, she started outright laughing at his antics for several minutes as the black piglet went red for some reason.

Akane then sighed, exasperated. 'Stupid Ranma, hanging off of that floozy Shampoo during my humiliation! I am definitely better looking after all; if he is hanging off of anyone it should be me! Err...not that I would be interested anyway!'

She then glared out her window and said, "At least Ryoga doesn't hang off of everyone he sees..." P-chan nodded vigorously at this. "...The same is true for Mousse; he just focuses on Shampoo and ignores other women...when he doesn't think that another woman is Shampoo that is..." She then laid back on her bed alongside of P-chan. "I wonder how the perverted idiot enjoyed lower earth orbit again..." She smiled a little at the thought and giggled a bit before just hugging her P-chan, who she would almost say was smiling.


"YAAAAAAH!"

Ukyo snapped her head up to look out the window of Ucchan's just in time to see her best friend and, at the moment, fiancée crash into the ground right in front of her restaurant. "Ranchan!" Ukyo was about to rush out and glomp her in such a manner as to put a certain Amazon bimbo to shame when she remembered the conversation from yesterday and the promise she had made.

Although Ukyo had just said she wouldn't push the engagement, she was pretty sure that Ranma wouldn't be thrilled to be glomped yet again a mere day after said conversation.

'Darn it! This would have been a great opportunity to steal a march in this little war; Akane must have sent her here, via Air-Akane, like she always does when she gets angry, so if it weren't for the promise, then I could push the engagement a little, and make some real progress for once!' Ukyo swore mentally, but, in the end, after berating herself a little more, she walked outside and offered Ranma another free meal of okonomiyaki and a friendly ear.

Ranma looked her with a suspicious glint in her eyes a second before giving her one of the smiles that always made her heart flip, even though she would have preferred it to be when he was in his male form, and said, "Sure Ucchan; that would be great!"

After they went inside Ukyo started cooking an okonomiyaki for her as usual, opened her mouth to speak and suddenly froze. 'What should I talk about? Normally here is where I either flirt with her, insult the other fiancées, or try to bring her around to the engagement.' She thought frantically, as Ranma looked at her quizzically, 'Let's see, this is Ranchan, you really can't go wrong with her favorite subject, the martial arts, but what should I...'

"Ucchan? You there?" Ranma asked curiously, wondering why Ukyo had opened her mouth without saying anything.

Ukyo shook her head and smiled before saying quietly, smirking, "Ranchan, I was thinking about the last time we went on a trip together..." Ukyo saw her start to get nervous and quickly added, "Remember the technique you learned? I was thinking about trying to learn it myself; at the very least the 'soul of ice' would really help me in the kitchen. Do you have any tips for learning it?"

Ranma's eyes sparkled with excitement as their discussion got deeper and deeper into the topic of the art, branching out from the sole topic of that technique as time went on. Pretty soon, even though the food had been made and eaten a long time ago, the two were still going strong, as, for each of them, this was one of, if not the, primary passions of their lives.

As the two martial artists debated methods of training or types of kicks Ukyo realized that she no longer regretted her decision of not trying to take advantage of the situation. She had never seen him this happy or animated talking to her before and the spark in his eyes and grin on his face just made her feel like she was falling in love with him all over again, and she felt herself getting similarly happy and animated as she did so, blushing as came to the simple conclusion that, barring marriage right then and there, she wouldn't miss the moment for anything in the world...


Shampoo sighed as she sat at the table and looked out at the koi pond while thinking, 'Stupid Violent Pervert Girl, why did she have to go and do that? At least I knew about the plan made by Genma and great-grandmother beforehand, it would have been... bad if I had called my Airen, 'Ranma'.'

She then smirked. 'Akane made quite the spectacle of herself with how she was so embarrassed to say that Airen was good-looking or manly, I know for sure that she didn't really impress Ranma's mother very much with that. Of course, given how she can never say if she wanted to break off the engagement or let someone else marry Airen, it would be a cold day in hell before she would be half as willing as me to show her true feelings for him, if any. It was so embarrassing to watch; I wonder if Mercenary Girl took pictures.' Shampoo giggled at the thought. 'Even though Nodoka didn't see her send Ranma flying across Nerima again, I doubt that she made a very good impression.'

Then she thought of another way to help Mrs. Saotome make the obvious choice, after making sure Akane was nearby she asked, "Mrs. Saotome, its getting fairly close to dinner, would you like to make it with me? Kasumi makes it every day, maybe we could let her take the night off."

Nodoka beamed. "That is a splendid idea Shampoo. What were you thinking of making?"

As Shampoo hoped, Akane couldn't let her get the better of her so easy.

"I can help too, Mrs. Saotome." The youngest Tendo quickly said.

After Nodoka accepted Akane's offer, Shampoo felt a pang of guilt hit her, not at the thought of Akane humiliating herself again, but at the thought of someone actually having to eat what she cooked. 'I know its necessary, but I'm pretty sure that it has to be a crime of some sort allowing her to cook dinner...'

While they prepared the meal, although it may not have been the most mature thing to do, Shampoo took great pleasure in outdoing Akane in everything they were working on, then smirking at her. Akane was just barely able to keep herself under control until dinner when she found out that Shampoo had 'accidentally' mistaken her food for garbage and threw it out as such.

While Ranma didn't say it out loud, Shampoo could see the joy in his eyes when he heard what she had done to protect the innocent that night. Unfortunately, Akane seemed to realize this somehow and stormed off to the kitchen after eating while muttering something about cooking for someone who would actually appreciate the effort and eat it instead of certain ungrateful freeloaders. 'I truly pity the person she is speaking of...'

Shampoo peeked inside the kitchen, hoping that Akane didn't live up to her nickname of 'Kitchen Destroyer', but was surprised, for she had never seen Akane cooking with quite that level of calmness before, which was particularly unusual given how she had just been humiliated...


It was just after dinner and Ryoga was truly starving; other than some pet food as P-chan in the early afternoon, he hadn't eaten anything in hours and the pantry of his house was completely barren as, because of his constant training and hiking, he didn't have a job. While his parents had jobs, they hadn't stocked up on food in quite a while, and what food that remained was a case of food poisoning just waiting for whoever was foolish enough to eat it.

Ryoga then snarled and shouted, "Curse you Ranma!" While it wasn't Ranma's fault in this case, Ryoga was jealous of him because he got free food all the time while spending meals with Akane.

He suddenly heard a voice from behind him, saying hesitantly, "Ryoga?"

He jumped at the sound, which prompted the speaker to speak again, causing him to smile as he recognized the voice, "Sorry the door was open and I figured I would just walk in."

To Ryoga's great joy, it was Akane who had shown up in his house; she appeared to be rather angry about something but smiled as she looked at him, then said some rather frightening words, "I helped make dinner tonight but that...witch Shampoo threw it all out while calling it garbage. The worst part is that I could tell that everyone was happier after it happened and actually wanted to thank her."

Ryoga was only able to prevent himself from fainting at the thought of Akane coming to his house by focusing on the conversation. 'She is just so pretty, beautiful blue-tinted hair, gorgeous...' He stopped himself, realizing that his getting a nosebleed probably wasn't the best idea for impressing her.

"...so after she did that I was going to storm off to my room, but I remembered that you probably didn't have much to eat and decided to make you something." Alarm bells went off in Ryoga's head as she offered him a small pot, presumably filled with some type of soup.

Ryoga took the pot with mixed feelings; while he was thrilled that Akane had took the trouble to cook him food and bring it over to his house, even though he was starving he couldn't help but recall the hospital visit the last time he had eaten her cooking. Nonetheless he steeled himself as he had a promise to keep. 'I'm doomed...there is so much I had to live for, but it is clearly too late for me...'

He quickly got a spoon from the kitchen and, without looking, took the lid off the pot, grabbed a spoonful and ate it, prepared for death by cooking. Ryoga's eyes then went suddenly wide from the sensations in his mouth. 'Its actually not bad! Nothing like what Kasumi or Ranma's hussies can make, but its still pretty good!' He looked down and it actually looked like how it tasted; miso soup.

Biting her lip anxiously, Akane asked, "What to you think Ryoga?"

He looked at her in shock and replied in a voice that Akane could tell was completely baffled, "Its actually pretty good; I mean, its not incredible, but its not bad, although you might want to use a bit less spices in it. It's a bit...tangy." He said that while eating the soup like his life depended on it, making Akane smile slightly.

"...Really?" Akane said that quite skeptically because of how he has always complimented her food profusely while secretly knowing it was awful.

Ryoga picked up on the skepticism and said, a bit of soup running down his chin before he licked it up, "Here." He gave her a spoonful, which she ate with a beaming smile. "See Akane? It really is pretty good!"

Unfortunately, after a few minutes of small talk Ryoga's ability to prevent himself from fainting was overcome by her grin and he collapsed onto the floor in a nap, feeling that he might die happy now.

Afterward, Akane decided to return home and gloat to Ranma about how some people actually appreciated her food and enjoyed eating it. Unfortunately, 'Ranko' was busy asking her mom for childhood stories about Ranma so she had to abandon the attempt. 'Oh well, at least I know my food can be good.' After bidding everyone good night, she got ready for bed and went to sleep. 'Hm, less spice eh? I'll remember that next time.' That was her last thought before drifting off to sleep with a smile.

Author's Notes: While some of you might be surprised that Nodoka would be willing to embarrass and belittle Akane so much, there is a very simple reason: She didn't. It was merely Akane's point of view of the events. As for the food Ryoga eating actually being good, that is because at that time, she trusts him as a person enough that when she cooks for him, she feels that she doesn't have to go all out to impress him, thus using her actual cooking skills which, while not great by any stretch of the imagination, make her food taste like fast food quality rather than three week old roadkill.

rewind gone nuts: I completely agree on both the Shampoo not being bisexual and the not wanting to share him parts, but Nodoka doesn't need to know that, at least as far as the Amazons are concerned. Cologne is basically taking advantage of a wonderful opportunity to get her on their side by implying that it is an option if she supports them but not promising anything; AKA she is telling the truth but not mentioning that it is probably irrelevant.

Just to be clear, as far as the Amazons are concerned, it doesn't matter if Shampoo is willing or not to share Ranma so long as Nodoka THINKS she is willing, at least, they think it won't matter.

You are probably right about how interested or rather not interested Nodoka is in Ranma having a bunch of mistresses, although it might be debatable about whether she COULD be portrayed as interested (I'm having some doubts myself, I must have read too much fanfiction). But even if she isn't that interested, in this time line, she knows about the other fiancées and that her whole family and clan are backed into a corner by the massive honor issues that are aiming right at them because of the stupidity of a certain panda.

I completely agree with you on Nodoka's parenting skills or lack thereof. If I recall correctly, there was an incident after she found out about the curse where she was going to have Ranma commit Seppuku because he was moping after having left the Tendo's place if Genma hadn't stopped her. Sadly, I think that Genma beats her as a parent based on that incident alone hands down, which is truly frightening as Genma is awful as one (By normal standards, not those in anime).

Also, thank you for the reminder on the length of the training trip, I completely forgot it started that early in Ranma's life. As such, I have edited the chapter out.

ranma-saotome-cursed-fighter: Unfortunately, it appear that she is never going to forget about the contract. She will try to make him fulfil it if at any point he fails to act as a 'man among men'.

Edited 5/9/09