Disclaimer - I don't own Ranma or any of the characters in this story
Chapter 5
"Feeling jealous?" Nabiki asked Sachiko as they made their way to school Saturday morning, walking side by side while Ranma and Akane were ahead of them adamantly talking about the demo class they were going to give.
"What, about talking martial arts with those two fanatics? I'm good." Sachiko replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Cheehh, I forget how hard you are to tease sometimes." Nabiki said with a look of disappointment.
"I'd ask you the same, but I know Ranma only ticks two of your three boxes, Handsome, Dumb, and Rich." Sachiko said, sticking her tongue out at Nabiki.
"Not dumb, easily manipulated yes, but not dumb. Hence why I just take advantage of men, not date them." Nabiki corrected. "Still though, I doubt I'd let my baby daddy run around like you've been, you sure you're okay? We could swing by the pet store after class to get a collar with a name tag." Nabiki says with a smirk.
"I'm not exactly thrilled with the attention at school, but it's been a long time since I met him. I'm not ready for a relationship, and he's still...oblivious to them. Did I tell you he thought the number on the pair of panties some girl gave him was so they could be returned if found." Sachiko said with an incredulous look.
Nabiki just shakes her head, unable to fathom a boy being so clueless. "Its almost endearing until you realize dating him would be like going out with a grade school kid. Like, he still thinks girls have cooties, even though he is one through out the day. Though dear god, if he actually gets a libido..."
Sachiko shudders at the thought of Ranma being anything like the rest of the boys at the school.
Ranma couldn't stop smiling as he worked with Akane during the demo class. While Akane had the sells pitch down and did the talking, Ranma played the clown to her straight man act during more of the entertainment oriented parts, often over exaggerating things like in movies only for her to show the proper way to do something and why it was important. While he wasn't excited about it at first, he had to admit it worked, Akane knew what she was doing when talking to the kids and parents. He noticed she was especially good at helping to convince the parents of the one girl who was in the small group of kids, giving examples such as dance and acting that could benefit from training in martial arts.
The hour was just about up and Ranma was showing a few stances to the kids while Akane was helping with paperwork for those that decided to join. Finally as the numbers dwindled to the last kid Ranma joined Akane.
"Thank you for joining us Today, we look forward to seeing you again Tuesday night!" Akane said to the mother and son.
"Thank you for your time, I'm sure he's going to love it, its all he would talk about for weeks. And to have a class taught by such a cute young couple no less." The mother said with a wistful smile.
Akane quickly cut off Ranma before he could correct the woman. "Oh my, thank you." throwing in a blush at the compliment and then helping lead them to the outside gate.
When Akane returned to help start cleaning up, Ranma asked her "Why didn't you correct her?"
"Ranma, she's a customer, its better to let her think she's right than to possibly upset her about an innocent guess." Akane answers matter of factly, though not looking at him as she carried a mat over to the spot for them against the wall.
"Oh, yea, I guess that makes sense. I was surprised how much talk'n you did, figured we'd just do our show and stuff." Ranma says.
"Well, as Nabiki is happy to say, "Words sell better than punches". She actually helped come up with all the sales pitch stuff, I just practiced it with her and hope they don't ask anything I'm not prepared for." She told him.
"Ah. I guess that makes sense. You are pretty good at it though, I never would of thought about telling the mom about martial arts being good for dance or act'n" Ranma says, putting the last mat away.
"Well, its true, dance routines and kata's are kinda the same thing, and even you've seen some martial arts movies, so you know if the actor can really do the stunts it makes things seem more real." Akane replied, starting to use the large broom to gather any dust and dirt.
"Huh, I can only imagine my pop's eyes bugging out if he saw me dancing." Ranma chuckled at the thought. "He always said that stuff wasn't manly."
"Well, just imagine if we could get you in a Tutu" Akane said with a snicker.
"Pretty sure his brain would explode." Ranma said, laughing at the image of his dad.
"Alright, I think we're done here, I'm gonna grab a bath first." Akane says as they head towards the main house.
Before they even slide the partition between the main room and back yard open, they can here Mirei throwing a temper tantrum at Sachiko. Akane opens the partition and looks at Ranma. "After you." She says with a smirk.
Stepping past her, Ranma see's a scene of chaos and despair. Loose drawing paper is all over along with crayons. Mirei in her favorite pair of overalls and a red long sleeve shirt is on her back performing the punching/kicking tantrum kata to a tee while screaming mostly incoherently. Making eye contact with Sachiko who's face goes from sheer frustration to a large smile, she quickly gathers her study materials and magazines she had on the table and stands up.
"Tag, you're up. Good luck." She says before heading towards the stairs, turning back just as she reaches them. "No TV!" She shouts over the screaming, which only leads to Mirei's cries getting louder. Akane gives him a smirk before she follows after her.
'Well...this isn't...terrible.' Ranma thought, wondering what he's suppose to do now. 'Okay, what would my dad do.' Ranma thinks as he begins to pick up the paper and crayons around the table. 'Probably just yell at me to be a man and shut up…' Ranma thinks bitterly. 'So, I guess don't yell...and...see whats wrong?'
Standing over the little girl, Ranma tries to get her attention. "Mirei, hey, can you tell me what's wrong?" He tries, only to be met by her taking a deep breath and screaming TV again.
'Okay….' Ranma sits down near her, though outside of punching/kicking range.
"What do you want to watch?" Ranma asked her.
Mirei paused her tantrum to look at Ranma with hope on her face. "Scarlet!" she said excitedly, getting up and attempting to make her way to the TV.
Ranma had to quickly spring board from his position over in front of the TV. "Okay, but why was mommy saying you couldn't watch it?" He said hoping it wouldn't cause more screaming.
Mirei begins to sniffle a bit as she answers. "Mommy said...Play...Outside."
"Ah, have you been inside all day?" Ranma asks, finally understanding what was going on. Sachiko had told him Mirei preferred to stay inside and would be a couch potato if allowed, but then she'd be impossible to put to bed as she'd have too much energy at night.
With a face that seemed to be upset at her own answer she replied. "Yeeessss".
"Well, I'm done with the class, how about we go to the park first, then we can ask mommy again when we get back for some TV?"
Mirei rolled that around in her head for a bit before looking back at Ranma. "Magical daddy." She seemed to demand, pointing at her sippy cup of water that was still on the table.
"Ughh...are you sure?" Ranma asked, dreading the answer he knew was coming.
"YES!" she shouted while nodding her head.
"Okay, fine, go put your shoes on, I gotta change our of this Gi." Ranma said while taking the lid off the cup and splashing him self enough to trigger the change and then heading upstairs to change into one of his casual shirts and slacks as both his Chinese outfits turned out to all be in the wash.
'I can't wait for her to start swinging by herself' Ranma thought as he finally has a minute to sit down, Mirei having demanded his help on the swing, but ignoring all of his attempts to teach her when to push her legs out, and pull them back. Looking around the small playground it seemed most of the kids were about her age and just doing their own things, a group of three moms who were standing together chatting, and a few others were playing with their kids.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Asked a young woman, who was pushing a stroller.
"Oh uh, no, please" Ranma replied, motioning to the open half of the bench.
"Thanks, it's been two months and I'm still getting sore and tired just from these walks." The woman says as she maneuvers the stroller next to the bench and then sits down.
"My names Midori Tatsuya." She says with a smile and small bow.
"Ranma Saotome" Ranma says, returning the small bow.
"Your little sister is cute." Midori comments, watching Mirei going down a slide.
"Sister?" Ranma says confused.
"Oh, sorry, you must be baby sitting, you two just look so alike." Midori corrects.
"Oh no, she's my kid." Ranma says to clear things up.
Midori's eyes go wide. "But, you're so young…" she replied with concern.
"Uhh…" Ranma suddenly realizes the woman obviously thinks he was Mirei's mom, and he couldn't exactly change right here. "Well, things just kinda...happened." Ranma replied, not really sure what to say.
"Oh my..." Midori replied, both kind of stuck in an awkward silence neither knew how to get out of..
"It's fine, really. Mirei's a good kid, and we got lots a help" Ranma says, hoping Midori stops looking so, weirdly worried.
"The father...he didn't...force himself on you…" Midori asks, covering her mouth but her eyes showing pity.
"Force himself?" Ranma says confused, before the insinuation finally makes sense. "No way! I'm a martial artist, no way some boy could do that too me." Ranma says, jumping up from the bench, and then jumping up to a near by street light where he used the neck of the light to swing around a few times before dismounting with a triple flip and landing back next to the bench to show off his skills. He grimaced a bit though when he realized he likely just pulled some of the stitching on his shirt sleeves and his mom was going to flip.
Midori was stunned by the display, never before having seen something so wild and yet graceful at the same time. She couldn't help it as her hands simply began to slowly clap before the girl in front of her took her seat again.
"See, no way something like that could happen." Ranma said with his usual arrogance.
"I...I guess you're right…" Midori uttered, before she seemed to return to that worried face that also looked like she was upset about being worried. "Still though, to go through all that, at..at such a young age. My parents would of not stood for it."
Ranma realized he didn't have a clue what his parents would of done if they'd found out back then, and just gave a shrug in response.
"I'm amazed they let you keep her at all, but I couldn't imagine giving mine up either, no matter what." Midori says with a soft smile as she gently pulls the now gurgling and squirming baby from the carriage.
Ranma watched as the woman put a towel on her shoulder and then gently held the tiny child against her. Ranma really wasn't sure what she meant about not keeping or giving up a baby, he'd never heard of anything like that while in the village. Ranma though didn't have long to think before he felt something bump into his knees, finding Mirei there, staring up at the baby also.
"Little baby." Mirei said excitedly, pointing at it with her right index finger.
"Hello, Mirei was it?" Midori asks with a smile.
"Yes! I'm three." Mirei replied proudly.
"Oh, well little Ichiro here is just two months old. So you're a very big girl compared to him." She replied.
Mirei nodded seriously at this news, though her attention quickly changed back to Ranma as she remembered why she was there. "Scarlet!" She she said, holding her hands up to be picked up.
Ranma checked the small clock in the playground and saw it had been over half an hour and figured they should get headed back. "Okay, I guess it is time we should get back." he answers, holding out an arm for her to grab on before he swings her around and onto his shoulders, her loud scream of excitement drawing the attention of the whole park, and causing poor Ichiro to start crying.
"Oh, sorry, she can be quite loud…" Ranma apologized.
"It's fine, he'll calm down soon enough once I feed him." Midori replies, gently shushing Ichiro.
"Well, Nice ta meet'cha, hope ya have a good rest of your afternoon." Ranma says as he starts to head back, giving a small wave that Mirei mimicked, receiving a smile and a nod as Midori used both hands to adjust Ichiro's position.
"Ranma, whats wrong?" His mother asked as he came into the main room looking conflicted. Mirei wasting no time, ran over to the TV the moment he set her down.
"Nothing, I was just talking to a lady at the playground." Ranma said, heading to the kitchen to get some hot water, past his mother standing in the entrance.
Nodoka's eyebrow's arched up at that, but he didn't seem to notice. "What...did you talk about?" She asked as Ranma turned on the faucet and waited for the hot water.
"I said Mirei was my kid she started getting worried or something. Like asking if some boy had forced me to, as if." Ranma says with a shrug. "Then she was saying if it was her, her parents would of made her like give the baby up, but that doesn't make sense, you can't just like, give away a baby."
"That's not exactly what she meant Ranma, though it is one such possible outcome to put a child up for adoption." Nodoka answered slowly, not quite sure how Ranma might take learning about this topic. "Young women who find themselves pregnant and not yet ready for it, may choose to have what is called an abortion to end the pregnancy, or if they don't wish to do that, they give the baby up for adoption where another couple raises the baby as their own." She finishes, watching Ranma's eyes seem to narrow as he listens.
"Wait...end the pregnancy? You mean…" Ranma says, his mouth feeling dry from the thought of what that could mean.
"Yes, though it can't be done too late into the pregnancy unless there are medical reasons that put the mother's life at risk." Nodoka says, herself feeling her left hand begin to shake and shifted herself to push it up against the entrance.
"Did...did Sachiko's parents" Ranma started to ask shakily, not even noticing the shift in his body as the water pouring over his hand finally got hot enough.
"Your sister has asked to be the one to tell you about all of that. When she's ready." Nodoka said quickly cutting him off.
"Where are her parents?" Ranma asked, not liking the idea he was being kept in the dark.
"Again...it's not my place to answer that Dear, Please...just have some patience." Nodoka replied, sliding smootly over to the faucet and turning it off, before pulling Ranma into a hug.
"But...why? Why could someone just...get rid of a baby?" Ranma questioned, his arms folding around his mother softly.
"Because the world's a cruel and unforgiving place, Japan especially has very strong beliefs in how women should behave and what's allowed." She replied, tightening her hold briefly. "Frankly I'm surprised you're not like your father in that respect, his whole "man among men" and "women are just a distraction" nonsense, I worry how he'll react when he finds out what's happened…"
"Heh, he tries anything, I'll pound him, and then ship him back to the amazons, he learned to keep his mouth shut pretty quick there." Ranma says, a chuckle escaping his lips. "You should of seen what happened when they found out he taught me the nnn...nnnnn...Neko-ken." Ranma said, pulling back from the hug but giving his mom a smile as he remembered the elder hog tying and hanging him from a rope in the middle of town for a week for the children to whack with stick and other...mostly unsharpened, weapons like a training dummy.
"What is this Neko-ken?" Nodoka asked, becoming worried when Ranma seemed to flinch at the mention of it.
"Well, its like an ultimate technique, suppose to make ya invincible, but to learn it he had to throw me in a pit of cats while I was covered in fish sausage and other stuff."
"HE DID WHAT!?" Nodoka practically shrieks.
"Multiple times, I was about...six I think." Ranma finished.
Nodoka's aura exploded, causing the kitchen to shake under it power.
"Well, I mean, I learned the technique…" Ranma says's in hopes it would calm his mom down. "I just...can't stand to be around cat's or I start acting like one and forget what happens. I..I P..p.p..pur… do that too sometimes." Ranma explains.
"When I see him next I'm gonna Censored for extreme violence and then I'll really let him know what I think of his teaching ability." Nodoka rants until Ranma puts a hand on her shoulder.
"Mom...It's fine, usually I just find a place and have a nap from what pop's says, maybe steal a fish." Ranma tells her, hoping it would get his mother out of the murderous rage she appeared to be in. Nodoka gives him a look to say this wasn't over, but does at least seem to drop the murder from her eyes.
"You don't think its dangerous?" Nodoka asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Well sure, if you're someone I don't like, pops generally had to make a run for it." Ranma said with a smirk.
"Okay, well we'll talk about this later, but for now, you need a bath before anything else, it should be free now, Akane finished while you were at the park."
"Okay, that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all." As he turns to exit the kitchen.
Stopping briefly to see what Mirei was watching, it looked to be a children's show in a magical land. Some bad guy was detailing his plans of conquest when the heroine cuts him off. Mirei for her part was bouncing in her seat as the little witch with long red hair begins her own speech about the bad guy needing to stop being like this. It was the introduction of the girls cat yowling in agreement though that made Mirei break her eyes away from the screen as she thought she heard something, but nobody seemed to be around.
Coming out of the bathroom that evening after brushing his teeth, Ranma found Mirei waiting for him holding a large picture book. She was dressed in her panda pajama dress and was smiling.
"Hey Mirei, something up?" He asked
"Huummm… magical daddy read book." she said, looking at him with hopefulness.
Trying to hide his grimace, with a smile he tells her. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to go to bed with wet hair, I might catch a cold. But I can still read to you, what book do you have?"
With a pouting look, she turns the book around to the front so he can see the cover. "Your book." she says.
Looking at the cover Ranma can see the title of "Papella and Panda". The cover showed what looked to be a small red headed girl on a broom floating a few feet off the ground, looking at a Panda who was in a large puddle of water. 'Is my life just one universal joke?' he wondered as he took the book from the girl then held out his hand for her to hold as they headed to the bedroom to read the story.
"Panda! You can't just eat all the watermelons you see!" Papella admonished the large bear as he was about to chomp into another, his face already red and dripping juice, watermelon rinds scattered around him suggested he'd been at this for some time.
But I asked the watermelons to say something if it wasn't okay. A sign the Panda held up read.
Papella shook her head disapprovingly, then got onto her broom and wiggled her fingers at the Panda, they both began to float up in to the air. "Come on, lets go see what work this farmer has for you to pay him back, if we're lucky he might know where we can find Witch Bella." The pair flew into the air while the Panda made whimpering sounds.
Ranma looked down to see that Mirei had fallen asleep on his shoulder, her arm and leg splayed across him. Slowly closing the book and putting it down on the floor, he smiled at how much like his father the Panda in the story was. 'Next time I probably should change, my fake girl voice is terrible for Papella' he thought. 'I wish pops had done this with me, it feels...nice' Thinking of his own childhood, the rarity of reading, let alone any sort of cuddling or being held.
'I guess if I'm doing this and pops didn't, then its gotta be the right thing to do. But, what does it mean about me if everything pops did was wrong?' Ranma felt worried at the thought. But before he could think much more he heard a quiet Click from the doorway. Looking over his mother was there holding a finger to her lips, before bringing the camera back up and taking another picture of the pair. With a smile she then closed the door and headed back down the hallway from the sounds of happy foot falls.
Ranma felt the air gently brush against him, which was odd as he was sitting in the Dojo this Sunday morning trying to center himself before starting practice and all the windows and doors should be closed as they were everynight. As he opened his eyes, his father seemed to blur into view, and the familiar feeling of his ki sent a subconscious shiver down Ranma's spine. The man was wearing his white gi as always, but had nothing else with him. 'Probably stashed the stuff nearby' Ranma thought to himself.
"Let's go boy, we need to get back to our training journey." His father told him in his usual condescending way.
'What is he thinking, he can just say that like I'm suppose to break camp and follow him?' Ranma thought, though keeping his face neutral as he replied. "That's done now. I've got a lot more stuff going on now pop."
"Hummph, School and some girls aren't important Ranma, you still have a long way to go before you'll be a master in the Art." Genma chided Ranma as if he was still the child that just started their journey.
"It's more than that, mom's here, you really need to talk with her." Ranma said, standing up and crossing his arms, staring back into his father's eyes as he see's a flash of fear in them.
"I don't need that...woman. To think after all these years of raising you I come back to see she's been cheating on me with my supposed best friend. Those two traitors and their spawn can rot for all." Genma was cut off when he suddenly found himself punched into the wall.
"Mom didn't cheat on you, if you'd bother to actually talk instead of run away, you'd know that!" Ranma shouts, hoping to follow up his initial strike but his father pushes off the wall and rolls to the side, coming back up in a fighting stance.
"You think I'm blind son? That little girl has red and brown hair, just like Nodoka and Soun. Why else would she even be here?" Genma says, then launches an aerial strike at Ranma, who leaps to join him in the air.
Ranma managed to give a strong kick to his father's left thigh, but received an elbow in the stomach. Landing on the ground both are nursing their wounds but remaining on a razors edge of alert.
"Hmph, you still kick like a girl Ranma!" His father shouts.
"Well now thanks to your stupidity, I am one more than I'd like to be. Guess its no surprise your a lazy fat panda all the time though." Ranma shouts back.
"Oh, I've been watching, you stay a girl far longer now than when we were running. Does living with all these girls make you want to be one, have you tried on some of their pretty dresses?" His said, pushing buttons he'd long since rigged to explode.
Ranma charged at his father, raining blow after blow at him as they danced around the dojo. But for all his speed and power, his father was able to block and deflect most of them to prove ineffective. Starting to tire, Genma finally saw the opening he was waiting for and kicked Ranma at the wall. Only it wasn't the wall but the door to the walkway and Ranma smashed right through it and out into the back yard of the Tendo house and rolled into the Koi pond.
Emerging wet, and extremely pissed he leapt back up onto solid ground, her father having come out to continue the fight. Before they could do much more though, the sound of steel being drawn drew both their attentions back to the main house, where Nodoka stood, brandishing the family blade while in her robe and nightgown, her face now very awake, and very pissed.
"Genma Saotome, cease this behavior right this moment!" She demanded, pointing the sword at him.
Genma, still burning with adrenaline snapped back at her. "I don't listen to whore's that cheat on their husbands with their best friends."
Ranma didn't see his mother's face budge at the insult, but it seemed to be the only part of her that didn't, as suddenly her white battle aura flamed around her, almost reaching the top of the roof in height. In what looked like an instantaneous movement, she pulled the sword back horizontally, touched the blade with her left hand that seemed to add a glow to the blade, and then unleashed a horizontal swipe into the air towards Genma. Then Ranma was hit with a blinding light and he felt his body slump to the ground as darkness consumed him.
Ranma slowly started to open his eyes, feeling like it was lifting weights just to crack them open. The light from the ceiling was blinding at first, but he couldn't seem to get his arms to move much. His hearing was still ringing, but he realized he was back in his room in his futon. He tried to sit up when a hand on his chest held him down and he could hear some noise but not make out anything. Looking at the hand he realized he was still a girl and his hair was damp, so he must not of been out long. Slowly rolling his head to the side, he saw Kasumi was there with her hand, while Sachiko was next to her. They were saying something, but he couldn't make any of it out.
"I don't think he can hear you yet Kasumi." Sachiko said, seeing the blank look Ranma was giving them.
Kasumi nodded, seeing the same blank look. "I'll go let Auntie know he's waking up, try not to take advantage of him, again." She said with a smirk as she left the room, hearing Sachiko shout her name in embarrassment.
Sachiko looks back at Ranma who's staring at her now that she's the only one in the room, causing her to blush a bit and busy herself getting a damp cloth for his forehead.
"What...hit...me." Ranma slowly says as she leans over to place the cloth on his head.
"Can you understand me now?" She asks, getting a simple nod in response. "Your mother accidentally hit you with one of her sword...magics? I'm not really sure how she does it. She was aiming for your father but kind of hit everything in the yard, even some of the Koi in the pond…"
'Mom can do..sword magic? I could barely even follow her movements, and she took me and pops out like it was nothing. I gotta get her to teach me.' He thought upon hearing this.
"She said you'd be back to normal in a bit, though your father took the full hit, he's going to be out for a few hours. Do you think you can sit up? Mom said you should be thirsty when you woke up." Sachiko asked while holding up a glass with a straw.
While moving at all still felt like he was wearing weights, he managed to slowly get into a seated position and take the glass that was offered. Drinking half of it before he even realized how parched his lips and throat were.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
Kasumi returned to the room as Ranma finished the rest of the water. "Ranma, do you think we can get you downstairs, your mother would like to talk with everyone." She asked, seeing as he was sitting up.
"Sure, I uh, just might need some help." He said, moving to his knees but not steady enough to stand himself.
"I'm glad your in your girl form, I don't think we'd be of much help otherwise." Sachiko says as Kasumi and her take up positions to help support Ranma and lift him to his feet.
The table downstairs seems to have everyone, with a few breakfast plates still to be cleared as their owners pick at their food. Genma is no where to be seen, but Ranma can tell his mother is upset, judging by the grip she had on the coffee cup she was holding, and the broken handle from it resting on the table. Seeing him up and about does seem to relax her though, as she gives them a sorry smile and goes to get his breakfast from the kitchen. Ranma finds sitting up to still be a bit tricky and is bracing himself with his elbows on the table.
"Please, eat first, you're going to need it to regain your strength." His mother says as she puts the plate in front of him with a smile.
"Sure, though you're going to have to teach me how you did that mom, it was awesome." Ranma replies.
Raising an eyebrow at her son, Nodoka simply replies. "We'll talk about that later, right now I'd like you to eat and then tell me what your father said, and why he described me as...such." Her demeanor souring at the thought of Genma's words. Ranma's initial attempt at eating almost ended with a face plant into his food as one arm wasn't enough to support him, so his mother moved over and helped to feed him for a few minutes before he could take over, eating at an almost glacial speed.
Finally finishing his plate Ranma laid back on the floor and patted his belly. "Thanks mom, that really hit the spot."
"That's good to hear dear, do you think you can tell me about what your father said now?" Nodoka asked while gathering up his plate, the rest of the conversation at the table quieting down.
With a grunt, Ranma picked himself back up to the table and waited for his mother to return to her seat before beginning, careful to sanitize the story as Mirei was there listening with the rest as she continued to pick at the few remaining vegetables on her plate. Telling her about how his father had probably been watching them for a while, thinking that Mirei was Nodoka and Soun's child, and that he wanted Ranma to leave with him again. Finishing with how when Ranma refused, Genma then insulted his mom and Mirei and Ranma popped him in the face and then the fight began.
"So, where is pops?" Ranma asked after he finished explaining things, noticing his absence in the room.
"I have him secured in the Dojo for now, once he wakes up I'll be having a long...discussion with him." Nodoka answered.
"Hope you have a gag he can't chew through if you want to get in a word." Ranma joked, but the slight smile on his mothers face was a bit unsettling. He was able to get himself back up the stairs and into his bed after the meal, and proceeded to sleep for the rest of the morning.
The sounds of muffled yelling and grunting echoed through the house later in the afternoon, leaving those still in the house to watch as Nodoka stood up and headed to the Dojo, carrying her sword in front of her. Ranma got up to follow, but a look from his mother sent him back to the table to continue on his studies. Reaching the doorway to the Dojo, still wide open from the fight this morning, she stopped and counted backwards from ten, before stepping through.
Genma was more testing his restraints, than actively trying to break them it seemed as Nodoka took a good look at him against the wall. At a glance it would seem he was tied up by simple white ribbons, no more than an inch wide, with golden rings on the end that encircled his wrist and ankles perfectly. Some simple cloth was tied around his head to create a gag, leaving his reaction at seeing her enter to be nothing more then a growl.
Moving to just a foot away from him and looking him dead in the eyes as he stared back with anger she gave him a large wicked smile as she began to talk. "Dear Husband…I'm so happy for your return." Genma shuddered, as if her words were dripping on him like ichor. "But it seems you're misunderstanding somethings, saying some things that would imply me to be a...dishonorable woman." She finishes the sentence, slowly drawing the blade from its cloth cover.
His reply was just two angry grunts, but she knew exactly what he said and in an instant she sliced the top of his gi into shreds, his large stomach now hanging out, but uncut. Slowly sliding the blade back into its sheath, savoring the look on her now quiet husbands face, Nodoka begins again. "The little girl here, is no Tendo. She is the product of your negligence as a father. Because of you failing to teach our son about the birds and the bee's, he ignorantly helped in making my daughters life a struggle that she's still working to overcome, while also being a mother herself."
Nodoka waited for Genma, watching his eyes as they shifted from hatred, to confusion, to a suspicious glare, finally he replied with two mumbled words. "Oh no, it is the truth, Mother paid for the test herself, you know how she is about female heirs…" The blood from Genma's face drained at the mention of Nodoka's mother, he quickly looked around just to be sure she hadn't sneaked in at some point.
"Now, do you think you're ready to...talk? Ranma's told me so much about your trip, but I still have so many questions."
Upon nodding, Nodoka reach behind his head and undid the gag and then returned to her previous spot, waiting for Genma to make eye contact once again.
"Look, Honey…" Genma started to say, the frown he saw on her face had him quickly change though. "Nodoka...san… I, I did the best I could, the boy doesn't listen, wanders off on his own half the time and was all his fault to begin with! You have to believe me, I did my best to make him a Man among Men, but once he met those Amazon's in china he stopped listening too me." Bending his head down at the end as if he was groveling on the floor.
"Oh, Ranma is actually quite the man among men, at least when compared to his father. Here I was worried that when he met Mirei, he'd run for the hills from the girl he got pregnant…" Her eyes boring holes into his skull, while letting the words hang around Genma's neck.
"I...I was forced too, by the master, I hadn't yet finished my training you see and he wanted to go to the next town, and and and it wouldn't of been honorable to not listen to my master." Genma replied with tears.
"Funny, when my mother caught your master shortly before you, he told a very different tale. Of a scared boy who wasn't ready for any responsibility, least of which was being a father. I'd hoped after you seemed to calm down those first two years with Ranma that you'd changed, I could see you loved him then, and he wanted nothing more than to impress his father." Nodoka said, willing herself to not tear up at the thought of the young boy. Genma turning his head to avoid looking at her when she mentioned those early years.
"Yet here we are, fifteen years later, just a scant few postcards from you, then nothing for over four years. You ran the moment you saw me and then think I'm cheating on you, and my son seems to have no respect for you outside of martial arts." She says with anger returning to her voice. "The only reason I haven't flayed you and delivered you to mother is that for some reason, the boy still loves you, even if he'd never admit it. I can tell he misses you, the look on his face in the morning's as he practices by himself gives it away."
Genma doesn't say anything, but he does look up at Nodoka, a worried look on his face as he contemplates what Nodoka says. 'The boy's been nothing but an arrogant brat since he could beat me at times, and the last few years have just been him suggesting to go back to that accursed amazon village, as they were better "teachers" than his own father.' Genma thought with a grimace. 'How could the boy care about him after all this, I'd hoped by getting him around some girls that were, more womanly, he'd get interested in them and forget about his problems with me.'
"Before I release you, I need you answer some questions, and if you think about lying, just know the restraints can tell." Nodoka said, watching Genma look at the gold like rings for any sign of this but seeing nothing.
Tapping the hilt of the sword on the floor, Nodoka asks. "First thing, I want to know you're going to stop with this journey, Ranma's home and needs to focus on school and being a father, a Good father. Short trips I'll allow, but nothing more than a week and it can't interfere with school."
Genma grumbled, but nodded his acceptance.
Tapping the hilt once more. "You leave Sachiko out of your schemes, she is My daughter, not yours and if I find out you've done anything to upset her, hell won't be able to sort out what you were before you arrived. Mirei is your granddaughter, I expect your BEST behavior, and if anything happens to her, pray Ranma gets to you before I do."
Genma grimaced at the idea of what his son could do to him, it wouldn't be nearly as quick as Nodoka would make it though. The sound of the hilt hitting the floor again drew his attention back to Nodoka who looked annoyed at his slow answer so he nodded quickly.
"Something you should also consider, my mother and sister will be here as soon as they finish their current assignment. I suggest you make yourself...presentable. Lazing around and trying to bum off Soun isn't going to happen if you plan to be apart of this family. Get a job, and keep it, or else they'll find you a job…" Genma didn't even want to think about what they might find for him and vigorously nodded his head in agreement.
Tapping the hilt once more. "What in the hell were you thinking about teaching him the Neko-ken, I looked it up and that technique is banned because its just a step away from demon summoning." Watching his face go ashen, she silently hoped that the neko-ken was at least the worst thing he did.
"Well...you see...the pamphlet said it would make him invincible...it was just that the pages were kinda stuck and I didn't see the warnings until after I'd trained him…" Genma explained with a look of sadness. "I didn't know it would cause him to become a cat, I swear!"
Nodoka sighed, even before he left, Genma was prone to failing to read the warnings on things or think about what might happen after he did something. "Well, when mother gets here maybe she knows of some way to fix it, you're lucky he remains as sane as he is, most possession type rituals are not forgiving."
Genma grimaced once more at the mention of her mother, leading him to think about the girl and child Nodoka had mentioned as being her daughter and their grand daughter. "No..Nodoka-san. How is it even possible for Ranma to have had a child. I did my best to keep him away from girls, keeping him unaware of them and sex seemed to have worked fine these last four years while we were in China, he never once even picked up on all the Amazons trying to attract him." Genma asked with a genuinely confused look.
"You might of kept him ignorant of these things, but that doesn't mean the girls were. While you gave him no idea what a relationship was, Sachiko just happened to figure out a way to get him interested, martial arts training. Tell me, what were you doing leaving our son alone most of the time back then in junior high, did you not even know about her visiting him?" Nodoka asks crossly.
"Well, I was working odd jobs to build up funds for the trip to China, so my hours were not normal. I'd seen him after school with another boy, fighting and studying some so figured he was okay on his own. If I'd known a girl was involved of course I would of stepped in." Genma answers.
"And you never once asked him how his day was, what he was doing, who he was with?" Nodoka said giving him a glare.
"Welll...I'd never had too before… We trained, we ate, we slept, what more does one need?" Genma answered ashamed.
Nodoka gave him a chop to the head. "HE was a CHILD you idiot, he needed support, love, someone to confide in, and most importantly someone he could trust. Frankly I'm amazed after some of the things he's told me that you did that he cares for you at all, most kids would of called the police!" She says heatedly. "I've got half a mind to do it myself still!"
Genma flinched from both the strike, and the words. Having watched Ranma in the village the last few years, he saw the boy change and his view of his father diminish as the other adults there explained that his father wasn't always right, wasn't to be trusted, and that people do normally care for each other, not fight. He'd hoped that with Soun's help they could get the boy back on track to be their successor and take over the Dojo, and if he was married then it should keep him safe from the contract even with the curse. Now everything he'd planned had gone to hell and he didn't have anyone else to blame but himself.
Taking a deep breath Genma looked back up into Nodoka's angry eyes and apologized. "I'm sorry No-chan, I...I messed up. I do care about our son, more than you or him think. You know I'm no good at this parenting thing, no thanks to my own, so I just trusted in the Art, let that be my guide and well...I'm sorry." He finished and simply kept his eyes glued towards hers.
Nodoka broke the eye contact as she spun around, unsure if she could even believe an apology from the man. After collecting her thoughts, she gave one more tap of the hilt, this one softer than the earlier ones. "Lastly, I need to know if you still care about us." Nodoka softly said.
Genma didn't answer right away, taking some time to simply look back at the woman in front of him before releasing a long sigh. "Fifteen year's No-chan, fifteen years that I thought about you and kept my vows." was all he could say.
"Then why did you run?" She asked stiffly.
Genma grimaced at the cowardly action, being the first thing she'd seen of him in so long. "I'd hoped to have Ranma married to a Tendo, that it would be enough to protect him from the contract before you found out about the curse. We are still both so new to the curses and Ranma was taking it especially hard as we rarely had hot water on the way here. I thought he'd follow after me..." Genma answered
Nodoka slowly collapsed to the ground. "That fucking contract…Why did I let you talk me into such a terrible terrible thing."
Genma hanging his head low. "I'm sorry…"
"We're back." Called Akane, opening the front door and heading in to take her shoes off, Ranma, Sachiko, and Mirei following behind her. The group kicked off their shoes and followed her around the corner when she suddenly stopped, causing Mirei to bump into Ranma and cause a chain reaction resulting in Akane losing her balance as she was pushed forward, grabbing onto Sachiko who in turn grabbed for both Akane and Ranma and they all ended up in a heap with Mirei giggling at them.
"What'cha stop for?!" Ranma asked loudly as he lifted his head up. Staring right into a white and blue stripped pattern of cloth.
"Ranma, don't look!" Sachiko shouted as she put a hand over his eyes, trying to save Akane some dignity as she had accidentally pulled Akane's skirt down during the tumble.
Akane for her part was mortified and was trying to get her dress pulled back up, but it was caught on something. Giving a hard yank as she flipped over, she soon found it had been Sachiko's hand that was supporting the girl and she was pulled and flipped around, landing face first between Akane's legs.
"EEEKKKK" Akane screamed.
"Argghh!" Sachiko screamed as Akane tried to close her legs but instead seems to have trapped Sachiko between them.
Ranma opened his eyes once again on hearing Sachiko's scream of pain and seeing she was getting crushed, reached in and pulled on her her shoulders, falling backwards suddenly when Akane released her grip. Ranma and Sachiko fell into a sitting position, with her in his lap. Akane quickly grabbed at her dress and then ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door.
"Thanks Ranma…" Sachiko said after catching her breath.
"Uhh, yea...no problem" Ranma says, still a bit shocked and not yet letting go of her in his lap.
Suddenly her face began to turn red and she tried to squirm out of his grasp. "Ranma...can you let me up...you're...uh...poking me…"
Ranma's face was now also turning crimson, at both the words from Sachiko, and her squirming was causing him to feel entirely too strange. Upon letting her up her eyes drifted down to the same place he was currently embarrassed about, without a word he too hopped up and ran to his room, slamming the door behind him.
'I can't look at them ever again.' Sachiko thinks as she finally turns the corner they were all collapsed at only to see Nodoka, Soun, and a large panda sitting there, staring at her as they very much seem to have seen and heard what had just happened. Sachiko simply turned around and ran up the stairs, but hesitated at Akane's door, and decided it was better to hid in Nabiki's room instead, startling Nabiki as she rushed in.
Down below, all three of the teenagers involved could hear what sounded like a train whistle, followed by something falling to the floor, followed by Mirei's shouted screams of "Panda" over and over.
'Why am I so worked up about this, we both already got a good look that first night' Akane thought, her face buried in her pillow as she thinks over the recent mishap downstairs. 'I can't believe I had my panties being flashed, only to then dump Sachiko's face into them. He probably is thinking about the two of us right now that...that...pervert!' The grip on her pillow causing her knuckles to go white.
'Damn it...no, it wasn't anyone's fault, I gotta calm down or I'm going to get in trouble with Auntie again.' She thought before sliding off the bed and into a sitting lotus position. 'Just think about the ocean, the waves, the sounds, and take deep breaths' She told herself as she tried to distract her brain from the recent events. Though what might be more of a problem she found was that she couldn't stop thinking about it, and even more disturbing was some thoughts of a certain boy or red head falling on her instead.
'What do I do now?' Ranma thought, doing his best to not think about the events downstairs while at the same time constantly having them pop-up into his brain. This was unfortunately causing another part of him to pop-up and he was equally disturbed by it not going away like it usually would. 'Akane's just going to want to kill me, and Sachiko probably thinks I'm a pervert. I need to talk to mom, but I can't go downstairs like this!' He thought, glaring down at his lower anatomy.
Ranma was dismayed, until his eyes fell on a glass of water left in the room on the desk from yesterday. 'Not like this...but I can just change and it won't be a problem!' He quickly grabbed the water and splashed himself. Suddenly though he felt exceptionally strange, even with the cold water on his head, the rest of his body was...hot, just moving seemed to send electric sparks down his spine as certain area's felt...intense to the touch. 'Oh shit...now whats going on with this body?' He thought as he laid down and tried not to move or think.
"Sooo...you want to tell me why you're buried under the covers in my room Sachi-chan?" Nabiki asked the mound in her bed, having been interrupted from her book keeping as the younger girl ran in and hid a few moments earlier. Though the slamming of Akane's and Ranma's doors pointed to a likely cause.
"I can't go back out, I'm just going to live here forever!" Sachiko replied loudly.
"Uh huh...you wanna...tell me why before I start packing my things?" Nabiki said as she wheeled her desk chair over.
After a brief explanation of what happened, and some time for Nabiki to stop laughing much to Sachiko's chagrin, Nabiki finally got herself together. "So, you found yourself in a bit of a..sandwich and now you're going to live as a hermit? It was an honest accident, hardly some scandalous act, if you want one of those, go out with Kasumi and her friends on a weekend…"
Having seen some of Kasumi's 'not for Auntie's eyes' outfits, Sachiko blushed even harder at the thoughts of what older girls like that were doing. "Thats not helping!" Sachiko yells at Nabiki through the covers.
"Well, what do you think will, do you think you all need to apologize for falling all over each others private parts? "Oh Akane, I'm so sorry about the muff dive." Nabiki did in her best Sachiko Voice. "Ranma, please say sorry for reminding me how much I long for you each night." Nabiki continued, laughing herself onto the floor as Sachiko tightens the blanket around her.
'I should of gone into Kasumi's room.' she thought regretfully.
The dinner table that evening was stuffed and tense due to yet another person joining them. Soun and Genma were on one side, Nodoka next to Genma on her side while Mirei and Sachiko joined her, Mirei having to be moved away from Genma after already attempting to splash him to bring back the Panda she desperately wanted to feed Bamboo. Soon joining them was Kasumi and Akane on the next side, with neither Sachiko or Akane making eye contact. Nabiki joined them a minute later, followed by a still female Ranma, which had Akane doing her best to stare a hole through the table. Ranma looked frazzled and jumpy, but took his seat next to Nabiki and Soun without a word.
While the group was silent for the most part at the start of the meal, letting Mirei tell Sachiko all about the Panda, eventually even she ran out of energy and food. Sensing the questioning looks she was getting from the group, Nodoka figured she should begin.
"Well, as you all know my husband Genma has returned, finally. After some discussion this morning, he's agreed to look for work and begin to try and establish himself as a member of normal society. Soun and I will allow him to stay in the Dojo for now until he's able to find an apartment of his own." She finished, looking around the table and expecting some questions.
"Didn't we have a house mom? Why doesn't he just move back there?" Ranma asked.
"We do, but its currently being rented, as that was the fastest way to get some much needed income to help here before Soun started up classes again." Nodoka replied.
Ranma nodded and looked at his father who was uncharacteristically quiet. "A job pop, you? Let me guess, the circus is in town?" He said with a laugh.
While his father shot him a dirty look, he didn't rise to challenge, instead to Ranma's surprise his mother also gave him a cross look. "Ranma, is now an appropriate time for such comments?" She said sternly, while moving her eyes to Mirei, who didn't really understand the insult, but was now asking Sachiko what a circus was.
Ranma sheepishly apologized. "No mom, sorry mom."
"Does this mean we're going to move to the old house?" Sachiko asked with a little worry.
"Not right away as its another ward over and would require you to change schools, as well as day cares for Mirei, and Soun and I think its best to wait until all of you have at least headed off to college so running the house doesn't fall on you girls." She says, looking at the Tendo sisters. She could see that relaxed the girls who were obviously worried about such a large upheaval in their daily lives.
"Ranma, in regards to your training, your father and I have reached an agreement. Afternoon/Evening sessions only for right now, and only if you're homework is done. Short training trips will be allowed "If" you can pass this school year and get up to the minimum for your grade level."
Ranma nodded a little sadly, he could already feel he was losing a little bit of his edge since he arrived, but arguing with mom about school was not going to get him anywhere.
"Any more questions?" Nodoka asked, with no reply she began to gather the dishes up, to which Kasumi and Nabiki helped with before heading into the Kitchen.
Ranma stood up quickly, barely making eye contact with the two other girls, before quickly returning to his room, followed shortly after by Akane to her room. Sachiko helped Mirei up and they headed upstairs also, only for her to realize she'd need to go into both rooms, Ranma's for clothes for her and Mirei, and Akane's to sleep. Cursing in her mind she asked Mirei to head to the bathroom ahead of her to get ready for a bath, she knocked on the door to Ranma's room.
"Ranma, I need to get some stuff for Mirei and me for a bath and bedtime, can I come in." She called through the door.
Behind the door she could hear him quickly moving about before he replied "Sh...Sh...Sure."
Opening the door, she saw he was under a futon and seemed a bit jittery. "Are you...okay?" She asked tentatively.
"This body...is..just being..wierd again." He replied.
"You uh...want me to get mom?" She asked, not having the time or the want to get dragged into this right now.
Ranma took a while to answer, before meekly agreeing. Sachiko grabbed the stuff she needed, dropped it in the bathroom's changing area where Mirei was still struggling to get her shirt off, before letting Nodoka know of Ranma's troubles.
"Ranma, I'm coming in." Nodoka said, sliding the door open slowly after knocking.
Entering the room she saw Ranma was laying in the futon and had a concerned look on her face. Taking a seat near him she put her hand on his forehead, seeing that his face was flush.
"Mom...somethings isn't right with this body." Ranma said, doing his best not to sound frightened.
"Can you tell me what isn't right, and when did it happen?" Nodoka asked, running her hand through the smooth red hair.
Ranma turned his head away. "This afternoon...after...getting home."
"But you were a boy during that, incident?" She said a little confused.
"Uhm yea...after that I came up here cause...I was...dealing with a problem." Ranma stated, now almost regretting asking for his mom as thoughts of that afternoon once again surged through his mind.
Having seen and heard most of the exchange, Nodoka was pretty certain she knew of the problem he was talking about, so she nodded for him to continue.
"I couldn't get it to go away...so I figured if I was a girl, it wouldn't be an issue and splashed myself with some water. Only that made everything worse…" Ranma moved his hands over his eyes, as if that would hide him from the embarrassment.
"Worse how, did you feel sick?" Nodoka asked, curious how the curse might affect him.
"No...just...everything started feeling...electric, I guess? Just moving around, my wet shirt made my, chest, hurt, and down there too. I laid down and tried to use a technique to calm down, but the...incident kept breaking my concentration. I found if I just massaged the parts that were feeling strange, it felt much better, so I did that for a while until suddenly I felt my chest tighten up, followed by the rest of my body and it felt...good, but I also...had a mess...down there. I thought I was done with it, but now after dinner it's starting again…" Ranma explained as best he could, worry now evident in his voice.
'Wait...did he…' Nodoka thought as she suddenly realized what Ranma had done. "Okay, okay...uhm, look. Nothing is wrong with you Ranma, that was just a normal orgasm for a female." She tried to reassure him.
Ranma's eyes got wide at this though. "Normal! Orgasm!?" he shouted, louder than he intended.
"Yes, you know, similar to how when you're in your male body and you touch...your penis, until it also...makes a mess down there, that is called an orgasm." Nodoka says, some panic creeping into her voice at the thought.
Ranma narrowed his eyes at her, seemingly upset with her now. "I don't do that!" he says defensively. "Pops said I'd get a disease and it would fall off, that it was just an evil spirit trying to steal my ki."
"Ranma, when it comes to your bodies, has your father told you anything that is the truth?" Nodoka asks with a grimace. 'I should drag that idiot up here for this talk, but he'd likely only make it worse at this point' She thought in disappointment.
Ranma seemed to crumple at the realization that his father had once again lied to him. Feeling even more unsure of what was going on with his bodies. After staying silent long enough that it was starting to feel uncomfortable he finally looked back up at his mother, embarrassment making his cheeks match his current hair color.
"I think...I need another biology lesson, cause now none of this." Ranma motions towards his body. "makes any sense…" He said in frustration.
Nodoka nodded, she wasn't sure how to even begin this conversation though, and bowed out to go borrow the biology book once again, though stopping by the Shogi table on her way back to the room to give Genma a swat to the head and a disapproving look, leaving him and Soun wondering what that was about.
