Morning finds Ranma and Akane walking to school. Ranma is, of course, walking on top of the fence, but he doesn't seem fully awake. His eye lids are heavy, and the spring in his step is weaker than usual.
"You're lucky you don't have to spar with your father these mornings. With the way you're half asleep, he'd have woken you through submersion in the koi pond."
"Pop actually tried to give me that `You've been taking it too easy. Martial arts isn't a part time job.' speech this morning. He still thinks everything will stay the same as it ever has. I invited him to spar with me, but of course he's too scared of being caught by mom. I would have thought he'd try running for it by now, but I think he's hoping he can diffuse the situation if he stays."
"The more you tell your mother, the less likely this will blow over."
"It can't blow over. I've hoped for so long that I could resolve everything before I met my mother officially, but that'll never happen. The longer I take, the harder it will be when she finally does find out. One way or another, mom will find out everything over the next few days, and hopefully we'll still be a complete family at the end. I *REALLY* don't want to go to school today."
"Why not?"
"There are two things running through my head that are trying to distract me. One is wondering how my mother will react when Ukyou tells her about us abandoning her when we were 6. The other is the blissful memory of how soft my pillow seemed as I was waking up this morning. I don't see how I'm going to pay any attention in school today, between an overwhelming desire to go back to sleep, and the recurring image of my mother filleting a panda."
* * *
It was a long day of school, made longer for Ranma by his interminable boredom, and his inability to sleep well in class due to his teachers' bizarre requirements that he stay awake during the lectures he was otherwise ignoring.
Finally it ended, and Ranma headed off for his checkups. During his examination by Cologne, he brought up a new topic. "I need advice on two subjects, The first has to do with my neko-ken. I'm going to tell my mother about my aversion to cats soon, and I was wondering what the effect of the dead man's coin will have if I slip into the neko-ken?"
"You want me to accurately predict the effect of an ancient artifact, which normally drives the wearer slowly insane, that is interacting in some bizarre manner with your Jusenkyou curse on a person suffering a schizophrenic attack caused by an acute phobia instilled in your formative years? Just avoid it at all costs. At best you'll wind up with a hairless panda suffering from multiple surface lacerations. I couldn't even say for sure that you'd recover your senses, or that you might not strike out against everybody, friend or foe, and I'm not sure if you could be stopped, without having to kill you. I hope your other question is less morbid."
"It should be. What method would you use to acquaint someone like my mother with magic?"
"You want to make sure she believes your history? I'll ask Mousse to demonstrate his curse. If she refuses to believe, I can cast something temporary and harmless on her. There is always a chance she will deny even that evidence, but I have found that the few people who will persist in denying that much evidence, never will believe in magic, and might lose their own sanity trying to deny a reality that they aren't equipped to deal with. Now you can answer a question for me. How do you think your mother is likely to try to resolve your multiple commitments?"
"I really don't know. All of the obvious solutions will please no one. If I could have figured out a path on my own, I'd have mentioned it already. I hope she can analyze this better than I, or I may have to take my own life."
* * *
After he finished with his precautionary health measures, he picked up Ukyou at her Okonomiyaki-ya, and the two of them walked to the Tendo's home.
"Ranchan, I'm having a hard time dealing with the number of ways you might die in the near future. If there were an enemy to fight, I could deal with it; but between the coin, the risk of seppuku over your multiple engagements, or over whether you're manly enough for your mother to prevent her from demanding your death... I remember how it felt when I lost you when I was six. If you die, I don't know what I'll do. I keep shying away from thinking about it, and then come back to it. It's like prodding a wound, that can't heal due to the constant prodding."
Ranma nods. "If there was someone to defeat, I'd trust my life to my skill, and if my skill wasn't enough, I'd go build up more, and try again. But I feel like I'm carrying my death within me. I feel like my mind has been rubbed with sandpaper; all of my feelings are stronger, and tinged with pain. Everything good or bad hits me with ten times its normal feeling; plus a pain that this might end soon, and that my future is more insecure than ever before in my life."
* * *
"Mother, I'd like to present to you my best friend from childhood, Ukyou Kuonji. Apparently our fathers affianced us when we were six." Ranma escorted Ukyou into the room where his mother was waiting, and they sat down to talk. Kasumi had thoughtfully left tea and cups for the three of them.
"I'm pleased to meet such a good friend of my son. Please relax, and tell me about how you two met."
"Well, the first time I saw Ranchan ..."
* * *
"... so I ran after the yatai, until I tripped. Ranma was sitting on top waving back to me, and calling something."
Ranma's mother was understandably shocked. "That's horrible. Ranma, you must tell me how much of this you remember, and how much of this you are responsible for."
"Ucchan was my best friend. At the time I thought she was another boy, and no one told me anything about there being an engagement. When Ukyou returned, pop confirmed her story, but said that the final decision to leave had been mine because he had asked me which I preferred, Ukyou or Okonomiyaki, and I said Okonomiyaki."
"Has Genma done anything to get this engagement annulled?"
"Not directly. He's told Soun that it is a valid engagement. The only thing he's tried was to get me married off to Akane when no one else was looking."
"How did you two meet again?"
"Well, after the Saotomes were gone, I swore I would no longer be a woman, and dedicated my life to Okonomiyaki and revenge. For ten years I lived as a boy, training to fight and to cook. I found out that the Saotomes were here, and enrolled in Ranma's class. I thrashed Genma, and challenged Ranma the next day. For the first half of the battle, Ranma tried to find out why I was furious. When he gave up, he started attacking me, and eventually noticed that I was binding my breasts. I still wanted to trash him for stealing my youth, and ruining my chances for a husband. He told me I should have no trouble finding a husband, because he thought I was cute. After that, I started to see the good qualities Ranma has. I want to marry him, and I think I'm the best fiancee for him."
"Why do you think you'd be a better wife than Akane?"
"Because I listen to him when he explains things instead of beating him up first. Because I care for him and I am willing to show it. Because I'm an excellent cook, and a successful business woman at the age of sixteen. I'm a better martial artist. I've grown up on the road like he has, and my last ten years as a boy has given me a unique perspective on some of the things Ranma has gone through. I asked for this engagement when I was younger, and want it to go through now, unlike Akane, who was assigned to marry Ranma to satisfy their fathers' prides."
Nodoka thought for a bit, and responded, "If it weren't for all of the agreements already binding Ranma, I would welcome your interest in him. Ranma is blessed to have a friend such as you. I don't know yet how we will resolve all of our family's commitments, but it is obvious that Genma's actions have put us in your debt. I also promise that I will bring up the matter of the way you were abandoned when I finally do see my husband. As a father, himself, he should have known better than behave that way to a child, even if he didn't expect that she might someday be his own daughter. Please tell me some more about your life after you settled in Nerima."
"Well, with the number of boys interested in Akane, it seemed that the fastest way to loose Ranma from his commitments would be to help Akane fall for someone else. If she were happily engaged to another martial artist, and if the fate of the Tendos dojo were secure, then the Tendos would likely forgive Ranma's engagement to Akane. The likeliest candidate was Ranma's sparring partner, Ryouga. Unfortunately, he's too shy to tell her that he loves her, and she's too oblivious to realize it, herself. She's so sure of her own opinions that she won't let a little thing like reality interfere, unless it makes itself extremely apparent. Of course, Akane isn't as bad as the Kunos, who rarely let reality color their delusions. ..."
* * *
Afterwards, Ranma walked Ukyou home in silence. Ukyou had spent the last hour or so talking, and Ranma seemed to be brooding. Towards the end of their walk, Ranma finally speaks.
"I wish my dad had taken you with us. Sometimes I think all of my troubles wouldn't have happened if I grew up with you. I know it would have been more fun going from place to place with you along. I dunno what our engagement would have been like, but I missed your friendship, even if I didn't realize it at the time. I'm the best at what I wanted all my life, and now it all seems a waste of time. My life is a tangled mess, and my death lies at the end of so many paths. The ones where I don't die are worse. Me living without honor, hurting so many people. And all those pains of all of you are reflected on me. Sometimes seppuku seems pleasant by comparison.
"How can I make you and Akane and I and my parents happy? Anything I can choose will make enemies of Cologne and Happosai. You know I care about you and Akane. I've shared so much with you, you have to see it. Well, none of this is likely to matter a year from now. If we can't get this coin removed, I'll take my own life before I go mad and endanger you all. If we do remove it, my mother'll ask me to kill myself to preserve family honor; either for my curse, or for my multiple engagements."
"Ranchan, don't worry so much. Your mother will take care of this fiancee mess. Maybe she'll find a way to annul them all, and you'll finally be allowed to choose for yourself."
"Do you really think I'm going to select a bride? Upset two of you, and widow the third within a year? You think I'd willingly do that to any of you? Of course I'm putting it off. After my death I won't be able to hurt any of you anymore. Akane will cry to P-chan, and maybe Ryouga'll ask her out. The whole school wanted to date her. Shampoo is so overconfident and sloppy in her fighting that someone else will defeat her. Hopefully my death'll allow her to return to China before she's restrained by a law officer and tries to force him into wedlock. It's you that I worry about. I've already abandoned you once when we were six. Doing it again is too cruel. I wish you had another boyfriend. I know what it's like to be without friends. each time you gain and lose them the pain is worse, and I can't be there for you after I'm gone."
"Don't say things like that, Ranchan."
"If I don't say it now, it'll be too late. I'm saying it too late as it is. I wish I had done it a long time ago. But I didn't want to lose your friendship. Now it's too late for choices. I'm not likely to marry before I die. I'd like to see you happy before then."
* * *
"You're lucky you don't have to spar with your father these mornings. With the way you're half asleep, he'd have woken you through submersion in the koi pond."
"Pop actually tried to give me that `You've been taking it too easy. Martial arts isn't a part time job.' speech this morning. He still thinks everything will stay the same as it ever has. I invited him to spar with me, but of course he's too scared of being caught by mom. I would have thought he'd try running for it by now, but I think he's hoping he can diffuse the situation if he stays."
"The more you tell your mother, the less likely this will blow over."
"It can't blow over. I've hoped for so long that I could resolve everything before I met my mother officially, but that'll never happen. The longer I take, the harder it will be when she finally does find out. One way or another, mom will find out everything over the next few days, and hopefully we'll still be a complete family at the end. I *REALLY* don't want to go to school today."
"Why not?"
"There are two things running through my head that are trying to distract me. One is wondering how my mother will react when Ukyou tells her about us abandoning her when we were 6. The other is the blissful memory of how soft my pillow seemed as I was waking up this morning. I don't see how I'm going to pay any attention in school today, between an overwhelming desire to go back to sleep, and the recurring image of my mother filleting a panda."
* * *
It was a long day of school, made longer for Ranma by his interminable boredom, and his inability to sleep well in class due to his teachers' bizarre requirements that he stay awake during the lectures he was otherwise ignoring.
Finally it ended, and Ranma headed off for his checkups. During his examination by Cologne, he brought up a new topic. "I need advice on two subjects, The first has to do with my neko-ken. I'm going to tell my mother about my aversion to cats soon, and I was wondering what the effect of the dead man's coin will have if I slip into the neko-ken?"
"You want me to accurately predict the effect of an ancient artifact, which normally drives the wearer slowly insane, that is interacting in some bizarre manner with your Jusenkyou curse on a person suffering a schizophrenic attack caused by an acute phobia instilled in your formative years? Just avoid it at all costs. At best you'll wind up with a hairless panda suffering from multiple surface lacerations. I couldn't even say for sure that you'd recover your senses, or that you might not strike out against everybody, friend or foe, and I'm not sure if you could be stopped, without having to kill you. I hope your other question is less morbid."
"It should be. What method would you use to acquaint someone like my mother with magic?"
"You want to make sure she believes your history? I'll ask Mousse to demonstrate his curse. If she refuses to believe, I can cast something temporary and harmless on her. There is always a chance she will deny even that evidence, but I have found that the few people who will persist in denying that much evidence, never will believe in magic, and might lose their own sanity trying to deny a reality that they aren't equipped to deal with. Now you can answer a question for me. How do you think your mother is likely to try to resolve your multiple commitments?"
"I really don't know. All of the obvious solutions will please no one. If I could have figured out a path on my own, I'd have mentioned it already. I hope she can analyze this better than I, or I may have to take my own life."
* * *
After he finished with his precautionary health measures, he picked up Ukyou at her Okonomiyaki-ya, and the two of them walked to the Tendo's home.
"Ranchan, I'm having a hard time dealing with the number of ways you might die in the near future. If there were an enemy to fight, I could deal with it; but between the coin, the risk of seppuku over your multiple engagements, or over whether you're manly enough for your mother to prevent her from demanding your death... I remember how it felt when I lost you when I was six. If you die, I don't know what I'll do. I keep shying away from thinking about it, and then come back to it. It's like prodding a wound, that can't heal due to the constant prodding."
Ranma nods. "If there was someone to defeat, I'd trust my life to my skill, and if my skill wasn't enough, I'd go build up more, and try again. But I feel like I'm carrying my death within me. I feel like my mind has been rubbed with sandpaper; all of my feelings are stronger, and tinged with pain. Everything good or bad hits me with ten times its normal feeling; plus a pain that this might end soon, and that my future is more insecure than ever before in my life."
* * *
"Mother, I'd like to present to you my best friend from childhood, Ukyou Kuonji. Apparently our fathers affianced us when we were six." Ranma escorted Ukyou into the room where his mother was waiting, and they sat down to talk. Kasumi had thoughtfully left tea and cups for the three of them.
"I'm pleased to meet such a good friend of my son. Please relax, and tell me about how you two met."
"Well, the first time I saw Ranchan ..."
* * *
"... so I ran after the yatai, until I tripped. Ranma was sitting on top waving back to me, and calling something."
Ranma's mother was understandably shocked. "That's horrible. Ranma, you must tell me how much of this you remember, and how much of this you are responsible for."
"Ucchan was my best friend. At the time I thought she was another boy, and no one told me anything about there being an engagement. When Ukyou returned, pop confirmed her story, but said that the final decision to leave had been mine because he had asked me which I preferred, Ukyou or Okonomiyaki, and I said Okonomiyaki."
"Has Genma done anything to get this engagement annulled?"
"Not directly. He's told Soun that it is a valid engagement. The only thing he's tried was to get me married off to Akane when no one else was looking."
"How did you two meet again?"
"Well, after the Saotomes were gone, I swore I would no longer be a woman, and dedicated my life to Okonomiyaki and revenge. For ten years I lived as a boy, training to fight and to cook. I found out that the Saotomes were here, and enrolled in Ranma's class. I thrashed Genma, and challenged Ranma the next day. For the first half of the battle, Ranma tried to find out why I was furious. When he gave up, he started attacking me, and eventually noticed that I was binding my breasts. I still wanted to trash him for stealing my youth, and ruining my chances for a husband. He told me I should have no trouble finding a husband, because he thought I was cute. After that, I started to see the good qualities Ranma has. I want to marry him, and I think I'm the best fiancee for him."
"Why do you think you'd be a better wife than Akane?"
"Because I listen to him when he explains things instead of beating him up first. Because I care for him and I am willing to show it. Because I'm an excellent cook, and a successful business woman at the age of sixteen. I'm a better martial artist. I've grown up on the road like he has, and my last ten years as a boy has given me a unique perspective on some of the things Ranma has gone through. I asked for this engagement when I was younger, and want it to go through now, unlike Akane, who was assigned to marry Ranma to satisfy their fathers' prides."
Nodoka thought for a bit, and responded, "If it weren't for all of the agreements already binding Ranma, I would welcome your interest in him. Ranma is blessed to have a friend such as you. I don't know yet how we will resolve all of our family's commitments, but it is obvious that Genma's actions have put us in your debt. I also promise that I will bring up the matter of the way you were abandoned when I finally do see my husband. As a father, himself, he should have known better than behave that way to a child, even if he didn't expect that she might someday be his own daughter. Please tell me some more about your life after you settled in Nerima."
"Well, with the number of boys interested in Akane, it seemed that the fastest way to loose Ranma from his commitments would be to help Akane fall for someone else. If she were happily engaged to another martial artist, and if the fate of the Tendos dojo were secure, then the Tendos would likely forgive Ranma's engagement to Akane. The likeliest candidate was Ranma's sparring partner, Ryouga. Unfortunately, he's too shy to tell her that he loves her, and she's too oblivious to realize it, herself. She's so sure of her own opinions that she won't let a little thing like reality interfere, unless it makes itself extremely apparent. Of course, Akane isn't as bad as the Kunos, who rarely let reality color their delusions. ..."
* * *
Afterwards, Ranma walked Ukyou home in silence. Ukyou had spent the last hour or so talking, and Ranma seemed to be brooding. Towards the end of their walk, Ranma finally speaks.
"I wish my dad had taken you with us. Sometimes I think all of my troubles wouldn't have happened if I grew up with you. I know it would have been more fun going from place to place with you along. I dunno what our engagement would have been like, but I missed your friendship, even if I didn't realize it at the time. I'm the best at what I wanted all my life, and now it all seems a waste of time. My life is a tangled mess, and my death lies at the end of so many paths. The ones where I don't die are worse. Me living without honor, hurting so many people. And all those pains of all of you are reflected on me. Sometimes seppuku seems pleasant by comparison.
"How can I make you and Akane and I and my parents happy? Anything I can choose will make enemies of Cologne and Happosai. You know I care about you and Akane. I've shared so much with you, you have to see it. Well, none of this is likely to matter a year from now. If we can't get this coin removed, I'll take my own life before I go mad and endanger you all. If we do remove it, my mother'll ask me to kill myself to preserve family honor; either for my curse, or for my multiple engagements."
"Ranchan, don't worry so much. Your mother will take care of this fiancee mess. Maybe she'll find a way to annul them all, and you'll finally be allowed to choose for yourself."
"Do you really think I'm going to select a bride? Upset two of you, and widow the third within a year? You think I'd willingly do that to any of you? Of course I'm putting it off. After my death I won't be able to hurt any of you anymore. Akane will cry to P-chan, and maybe Ryouga'll ask her out. The whole school wanted to date her. Shampoo is so overconfident and sloppy in her fighting that someone else will defeat her. Hopefully my death'll allow her to return to China before she's restrained by a law officer and tries to force him into wedlock. It's you that I worry about. I've already abandoned you once when we were six. Doing it again is too cruel. I wish you had another boyfriend. I know what it's like to be without friends. each time you gain and lose them the pain is worse, and I can't be there for you after I'm gone."
"Don't say things like that, Ranchan."
"If I don't say it now, it'll be too late. I'm saying it too late as it is. I wish I had done it a long time ago. But I didn't want to lose your friendship. Now it's too late for choices. I'm not likely to marry before I die. I'd like to see you happy before then."
* * *