Chapter 12: The Afternoon After.
Ukyo, Shampoo, and Kodachi sat in chairs before the judge with their heads hanging low. Up front, Toshio Kuno and his lawyer were speaking quietly to the judge and thanking him for the off-hour audience away from the official eyes of the press. Tatewaki was sitting over on the side of the room subdued. There were two ninjas sitting on either side of him, and two more waiting to take possession of Kodachi. Cologne sat on the opposite wall with Konatsu by her side. As a compromise for being allowed in the court conference room, Konatsu had allowed Toshio to jam him into a suit, although "jam" was not the appropriate word - the suit fit him rather well.
After consulting with Toshio, the judge spoke to the three women. "All right, because no one was actually hurt when you rampaged through those hotels and because the hotels have allowed Mr. Kuno to accept responsibility for the damages, I am sentencing you to one year of probation and sixty hours of community service each. Since you are all under age, if you keep your noses clean, this conviction will become sealed. Consider yourselves extremely lucky." With that, the judge rose and left the room.
Cologne rose as soon as the judge left. "Thank you for your timely assistance, Mr. Kuno."
"You are welcome," he replied. "Although, please understand, it was my niece's involvement that spurred me to action." He then turned to Kodachi. "Do you know how much trouble you could have been in, you foolish girl?" Kodachi winced at his tone, as he continued: "I don't have as much power here as in Nerima. I cannot cover up your idiocy as easily here." He turned to Tatewaki. "That includes you, fool. You're supposed to be attending classes at University, not chasing after girls who have no interest in you at all and, in fact, are in love with someone else." Tatewaki looked rebelliously at his uncle, but held his tongue. Toshio spoke again to Tatewaki: "You are going to return to campus and stay there until the semester ends. You will be monitored, and if you leave campus without my blessing for any reason, I will cut off every credit card you have and deny you access to your bank account." He turned back to Kodachi and addressed her: "You will likewise be monitored. You're grounded from here on in. You can go to competitions only if chaperoned. Otherwise, you will be at school or home. That's it or face the same consequences as your brother. "
Konatsu now rose and bowed to Toshio. "While I acknowledge your own concerns, thank you for your help none the less. I appreciate the time you gave me this morning when I showed up on your doorstep." Toshio nodded his acceptance. Konatsu turned to Ukyo and spoke: "Mistress, we need to go home now."
Ukyo didn't like the absolutely flat tone she heard in Konatsu's voice. There was no anger, no reprimand, but definitely no adoration either. With a start, she realized that, with this rescue, he may consider his debt to her repaid. Without the Kuno family's intervention, she could be looking at some very real jail time and a permanent record and, apparently, Konatsu had involved Toshio. The thought that Konatsu might actually leave her disturbed her in ways she didn't understand.
Cologne spoke up again, "All right, Shampoo, get up and let's go. We have a divorce to plan." Shampoo paled as she heard this, but she was too ashamed to deny this (for now). In her rage and pride, she had foolishly placed herself in a position to be surrounded by policeman in riot gear with tear gas – too many to mind-wipe. Her options had degenerated to either attacking "those who protected others" or surrendering to them. She had chosen the option that would spare her village humiliation, but not herself. Happily, most of them were married, but Grandmother said she now had added three more perspective husbands with her surrender. Shampoo also did not like the way Grandmother was eyeing Konatsu – there were rumors out there that the ninja was as talented as Ranma.
Meanwhile, Tatewaki had opened his mouth to say something to his uncle only to be viciously shutdown. "Not one word, Tatewaki!" his uncle shouted. "Not one bloody word. Right now, it upsets me that my heir-apparent is a complete fool who cannot accept what his eyes tell him. Understand these simple truths: Akane Tendo does not love you! She doesn't even like you after you made her life hell! Akane loves Ranma Saotome. Period. End of statement." Tatewaki tried to shout a denial, but Toshio caught his chin in a firm grip and wouldn't let him speak. "Ranma Saotome loves Akane Tendo and no one else." Toshio held up his other hand sharply to the rest of the room, his rage silencing the gasps from three young women. "The pig-tailed goddess you keep chasing does not exist. She is a polymorphic form of Ranma Saotome. He was cursed by a very powerful spell that causes him to appear as a 'she' sometimes. You're chasing after a guy and all of Nerima knows this!" One of the ninja guarding Kodachi had to catch her when she fainted. Tatewaki went very pale, but Toshio could see Tatewaki was denying all of this to himself. "Listen to me you, idiot! Everything I said is true."
Cologne spoke up then: "He's right, Kuno. Every word your uncle spoke is true." She then sighed. "Every bloody word." Konatsu was nodding his head in agreement. Shampoo and Ukyo broke into tears, but Cologne heard their whispered denials and saw the look on Tatewaki's face. She sighed again, and knew nothing had been resolved.
A/N:
I hope you enjoyed the story. I'd like to thank the following Reviewers (in no particular order) for the feedback and encouragement: supermangageek23, caia-chan, TL, NPP6, Compucles, Richard Ryley, Wharpt, SatineGrey, Flameraven1, Leoness, Weird Beard, and James Birdsong. I also like to thank all those who sent PM's as well – any healthy interest is "good" interest.
I'm taking a small break to do some reading – some of you have completed stories since I started "Say 'Yes' to the Dress" and I want to read them. I am also re-working some of the my stories in the pipeline: The villain in "The Destruction of Ranma Saotome" didn't work out at all and the story has some severe out-of-character issues, so it's been sent to the shredder (again – it often takes three or four re-writes to solve these issues). Instead, I have a few small "slice-of-life" stories on tap. The first up is "To Serve and Protect in Nerima":
Come join Police Sergeant Hiroaki Imia as he introduces his new transfer, Officer Sadeo Ueda, to the citizens of Nerima. Will Officer Ueda have what it takes to be a police officer in Nerima? Read and see!
(Due out before the end of September :-) )