Over the Clouds
"Nodoka, please try to understand..." Genma pleaded in a tone of a desperate man, losing an even more desperate battle.
The proud woman couldn't even bring herself to look at... him. She forced all her focus, her anger, her resentment at the situation towards the man before her, the one who was obviously at fault for the ordeal. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM? HOW COULD YOU HARM OUR SON?!?"
"Damn it, Nodoka, he was ALWAYS like this!" Genma growled, finding his fustration becoming overwhelming. He understood how his wife felt, having been through it three months ago. The disbelief, the blaming, the guilt that he HAD indeed been at fault... all the destructive emotions he had always ran from held him fast, insisting that he face the situation, lest they consume him. With help, Genma had crawled out of the clawing talons and gnashing maws of the self-imposed torment, finally coming to realize that it was something out of his control, something that he could not defeat, that he could not place blame for, that he could not overcome.
The only thing he could do, was accept, and learn where to go from there.
The change that acceptance brought through him was astounding; where once a cowarding opportunist occupied the frame of a stout and rugged martial artist, a man of growing valor maintained. With that valor, he sought the one other person who would have to understand it all, so that she may accept, and help to raise their son the best they could.
"HE WAS NORMAL, *NORMAL*! HOW DARE YOU BRING HIM BACK LIKE THIS?" Nodoka continued to scream, throwing all her ill emotions towards her spouse with a velocity brinking on fatal.
"NODOKA, LISTEN TO ME," Genma returned, "THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NO MATTER *WHAT*!!!"
YOU SAID YOU WOULD MAKE OUR SON A MAN, NOT A DEGENERATE!" Nodoka retorted, interjecting against her husband. Her own mind was muddled with her rage and confusion. How could this have happened to her child? How could he possibly have always been like this? It sounded just like another one of Genma's lies. Nodoka had been patient with her husband, but to not accept the blame for what was obviously a dire fault of his that concerned their only child. No, it wasn't her child, it was some broken facimile that she could not recognize.
Nodoka's expression steeled from hot anger to cold fury, before she continued, "You made a promise, Genma. And if you claim this to be true, you must atone before our ancestors for your mistake."
"Nodoka, dear," Genma replied, taking deep, shuddering breaths, before addressing his wife, "Ranma was born this way. It's a... its something neither of us could ever predict to happen. We-"
"No, *you*, Genma," Nodoka seethed, "If this is indeed a problem of genetics, then know that it was not of my blood that bred this beast."
"...what?" Genma staggered back, as if he had been physically assaulted. Ranma's cries within the background did nothing to help.
"What is it, hmm?" Nodoka asked with an edged, arched tone, "Burakumin ancestory? Punishment by fate from your ill exploits under that wretched pervert you laughably called 'Master'?" Nodoka stepped closer to Genma, staring into his eyes, and allowing him to see her hate and betrayal, "Or did I just marry defective scum?"
"How... dare... you."
"HOW DARE YOU!" Nodoka began to scream again, "YOU *USED* ME! I WANTED A SON TO BE PROUD OF, AND YOU USE ME TO CREATE *THIS*!"
After gesturing towards Ranma, Nodoka spun, and briskly walked to the mantle, where a box and an ancient sword set sat, proud. She unceremoniously snatched the white, foot long box down, and ravenously opened it. She grabbed the contents in a fist, and threw the to Genma's feet.
The martial artist stared in disbelief at the two ceremonial daggers that lay on the floor before him, "Woman... what is the meaning of this?" Even the question would sound asinine to him, if he had his wits.
"Be a man for once in your life, you rotten bastard, and do the right thing." Nodoka growled, before turning to remove the Saotome Honor blade from the mantle.
Genma's own eyes mirrored the betrayal in Nodoka's, "Fine, I will be a man... for once in my life. Ranma, lets go..."
_________________________
"Why are you here," Genma said simply. As simple as the question was, the emotions behind it were all too deep and complicated. To even begin to decipher them all would be folly. Despite this, one could be noted above all others.
Fury. Quiet, almost dispassionate, fury.
"Uncle Saotome?" Kasumi breathed, looking between the two guests.
"I... I..." Nodoka couldn't explain the reason she had come, why she had to come. Before the man she had searched for for so long, she now felt as if she was totally without penance, that she did not deserve forgiveness. All she could do, was bow her head, lowering her eyes from his view, before shutting them.
"Genma? Who is this?" Soun came to the front door, finding a slightly familiar auburn-haired woman standing before them in abject misery. He then turned to see his friend glaring at her with an intensity of concentrated light boring through steel.
"I... I should go," the woman attempted to turn, and run, forgoing any dignity to escape from the searing agony that threatened to burn her frail heart to fine ash.
Unfortunately, a strong hand grabbed her wrist, as she turned.
"What the heck is going on here?" Akane demanded, refusing to let the woman escape, "She's *OUR* guest! You have no right to treat her like this!"
"Let me go, please!" Nodoka pleaded, unable to bring up the strength to physically resist, as her ex-husband's presence seemed to sap her of her tiny will, leaving her even more timid than a fledling fawn.
Kasumi looked between everyone, and turned to find Shampoo and Ryoga approaching, "Um, perhaps we should discuss this over tea..."
"Who she?" Shampoo enquired, with her question complimented by Ryoga's curious expression.
"Let me go! I don't belong here!" woman pleaded, finally using her own growing panic to give her strength to attempt to break free.
"That's not a call for Mr. Saotome to make, Ms. Soh," Akane returned, not taking her eyes off of Genma, who in turn didn't take his eyes off of the woman in Akane's firm grasp.
"I don't! I was here to see Genma and my-"
Immidiately, she ceased her struggles, bringing her free hand to her mouth in shock. "N-no, I've caused y-you enough t-trouble as it is..."
"Let her go, Akane, she wants to leave," Genma commanded, earning a glare from Soun.
"I hold you dearly as a friend, Saotome, but please do not presume yourself capable of ordering my children around."
"Please, everyone just calm down," Kasumi pleaded, as her and Ryoga seemed to be the witnesses outside the ordeal, looking in and finding a lit fuse growing disasterously shorter by the second.
"Ryoga, go make sure that Ranma stays away," Genma once again directed a command, this time to his son's best friend. Ryoga nodded, and with a slight expression of concentration, made his way back to Ranma.
As Ryoga was leaving, Genma pushed his glasses further up his nose, "Nodoka, you made it clear your standing, and I made it quite clear that I nor Ranma would have nothing to do with you."
"I know, I-I-I'm s-sorry! Please, j-just l-let me go!" Nodoka was on the edge of collapsing into a wide and deep abyss of despair, as emotions that sought to be controlled for eight years spilled over, like the hot magma from a volcano that had been buried deep within the earth's core.
"Hold on! Why were you here to see him? What's this all about?" Akane felt a familiar anger building from her confusion, but steeled herself to hold it at bay until she recieved answers.
"Shampoo with violent girl, why you here to see airen?" Shampoo demanded, folding her arms under her chest.
"Were you the one who called earlier?" Soun asked, recalling the voice.
The tense air finally pressured against her until her defenses fell, and Nodoka crumbled. Akane barely acted fast enough to support the woman from falling completely to her knees. "I'm sorry Genma," her voice was quiet, the subtle sound of silk against sandpaper, "I-I can't even... even begin to... to t-tell you how wrong I was."
"You abandon your only child for eight years," Genma's cold, almost indifferent countenance changed to heated rage, "and you think a simple 'sorry' WOULD CHANGE ALL THAT?!?"
Kasumi's expression changed to shock, as she put two and two together, "You're Ranma's mother!"
"WHAT?!?" Akane turned to woman to face her, "But, but how? You're normal!"
"AKANE!" Kasumi herself was shocked at her little sister's comment.
Nodoka couldn't even look at the girl supporting her, as she spoke quietly, "Is it normal for a mother to abandon her child, no matter what the circumstances were?"
"But-HEY!" Akane tried to reply, but found herself jerked away by Shampoo. With a cool expression, she stared down at the woman on her knees before her, before backhanding her across her cheek.
"SHAMPOO!" Genma shouted, demanding her attention.
She paid no one else but the dismal woman before her any attention. With a controlled voice, Shampoo spoke only to her, "You no come near husband. You no come near Ranma. If Shampoo see you do, no need excuse of Kiss of Death to kill you." To emphesize her threat, Shampoo knelt down before the woman, tenderly cupped Nodoka's chin with both her hands, and gently, almost affectionately in her hate, kissed the woman on her jawline.
Just as Shampoo was standing up, Genma grabbed Shampoo in a fierce bear hug, instantly forcing Shampoo to thrash, and dropping her fragile control on the impulse to outright kill the woman.
Genma ignored the string of Mandarin swearing, while staring coldly at Nodoka, "Go."
At that singular word, Nodoka ran, ran as hard and as fast as possible. She was not running from the threat, nor was she running from the cold, callous expression her once-husband wore.
She ran, because it was the only thing left for her to do.
The Tendous hadn't moved throught the ordeal, when Shampoo forcably removed Akane from Nodoka. Each one of them felt the shockwaves of the emotions given off in waves that washed over them. The center of attention had been like a sun going nova, bathing anything that satilited it in its menacing corona. Kasumi almost collapsed herself from the scene, more powerful than she had ever witness in reality or fiction. Akane's anger grew double-fold from being manhandled by the Amazon. The only thing that kept her in place was disbelief of the situation. Soun remained frozen, staring after the woman who had tripped once in her flight, struggled to open the front gate, and ran into the growing night. He was unable to comprehend the situation momentarily, and would later choose to dismiss it for its unpleasantness.
Every Tendou of the household had witnessed the events, including one who had chose to remain unnoticed.
"Nodoka, please try to understand..." Genma pleaded in a tone of a desperate man, losing an even more desperate battle.
The proud woman couldn't even bring herself to look at... him. She forced all her focus, her anger, her resentment at the situation towards the man before her, the one who was obviously at fault for the ordeal. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM? HOW COULD YOU HARM OUR SON?!?"
"Damn it, Nodoka, he was ALWAYS like this!" Genma growled, finding his fustration becoming overwhelming. He understood how his wife felt, having been through it three months ago. The disbelief, the blaming, the guilt that he HAD indeed been at fault... all the destructive emotions he had always ran from held him fast, insisting that he face the situation, lest they consume him. With help, Genma had crawled out of the clawing talons and gnashing maws of the self-imposed torment, finally coming to realize that it was something out of his control, something that he could not defeat, that he could not place blame for, that he could not overcome.
The only thing he could do, was accept, and learn where to go from there.
The change that acceptance brought through him was astounding; where once a cowarding opportunist occupied the frame of a stout and rugged martial artist, a man of growing valor maintained. With that valor, he sought the one other person who would have to understand it all, so that she may accept, and help to raise their son the best they could.
"HE WAS NORMAL, *NORMAL*! HOW DARE YOU BRING HIM BACK LIKE THIS?" Nodoka continued to scream, throwing all her ill emotions towards her spouse with a velocity brinking on fatal.
"NODOKA, LISTEN TO ME," Genma returned, "THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN NO MATTER *WHAT*!!!"
YOU SAID YOU WOULD MAKE OUR SON A MAN, NOT A DEGENERATE!" Nodoka retorted, interjecting against her husband. Her own mind was muddled with her rage and confusion. How could this have happened to her child? How could he possibly have always been like this? It sounded just like another one of Genma's lies. Nodoka had been patient with her husband, but to not accept the blame for what was obviously a dire fault of his that concerned their only child. No, it wasn't her child, it was some broken facimile that she could not recognize.
Nodoka's expression steeled from hot anger to cold fury, before she continued, "You made a promise, Genma. And if you claim this to be true, you must atone before our ancestors for your mistake."
"Nodoka, dear," Genma replied, taking deep, shuddering breaths, before addressing his wife, "Ranma was born this way. It's a... its something neither of us could ever predict to happen. We-"
"No, *you*, Genma," Nodoka seethed, "If this is indeed a problem of genetics, then know that it was not of my blood that bred this beast."
"...what?" Genma staggered back, as if he had been physically assaulted. Ranma's cries within the background did nothing to help.
"What is it, hmm?" Nodoka asked with an edged, arched tone, "Burakumin ancestory? Punishment by fate from your ill exploits under that wretched pervert you laughably called 'Master'?" Nodoka stepped closer to Genma, staring into his eyes, and allowing him to see her hate and betrayal, "Or did I just marry defective scum?"
"How... dare... you."
"HOW DARE YOU!" Nodoka began to scream again, "YOU *USED* ME! I WANTED A SON TO BE PROUD OF, AND YOU USE ME TO CREATE *THIS*!"
After gesturing towards Ranma, Nodoka spun, and briskly walked to the mantle, where a box and an ancient sword set sat, proud. She unceremoniously snatched the white, foot long box down, and ravenously opened it. She grabbed the contents in a fist, and threw the to Genma's feet.
The martial artist stared in disbelief at the two ceremonial daggers that lay on the floor before him, "Woman... what is the meaning of this?" Even the question would sound asinine to him, if he had his wits.
"Be a man for once in your life, you rotten bastard, and do the right thing." Nodoka growled, before turning to remove the Saotome Honor blade from the mantle.
Genma's own eyes mirrored the betrayal in Nodoka's, "Fine, I will be a man... for once in my life. Ranma, lets go..."
_________________________
"Why are you here," Genma said simply. As simple as the question was, the emotions behind it were all too deep and complicated. To even begin to decipher them all would be folly. Despite this, one could be noted above all others.
Fury. Quiet, almost dispassionate, fury.
"Uncle Saotome?" Kasumi breathed, looking between the two guests.
"I... I..." Nodoka couldn't explain the reason she had come, why she had to come. Before the man she had searched for for so long, she now felt as if she was totally without penance, that she did not deserve forgiveness. All she could do, was bow her head, lowering her eyes from his view, before shutting them.
"Genma? Who is this?" Soun came to the front door, finding a slightly familiar auburn-haired woman standing before them in abject misery. He then turned to see his friend glaring at her with an intensity of concentrated light boring through steel.
"I... I should go," the woman attempted to turn, and run, forgoing any dignity to escape from the searing agony that threatened to burn her frail heart to fine ash.
Unfortunately, a strong hand grabbed her wrist, as she turned.
"What the heck is going on here?" Akane demanded, refusing to let the woman escape, "She's *OUR* guest! You have no right to treat her like this!"
"Let me go, please!" Nodoka pleaded, unable to bring up the strength to physically resist, as her ex-husband's presence seemed to sap her of her tiny will, leaving her even more timid than a fledling fawn.
Kasumi looked between everyone, and turned to find Shampoo and Ryoga approaching, "Um, perhaps we should discuss this over tea..."
"Who she?" Shampoo enquired, with her question complimented by Ryoga's curious expression.
"Let me go! I don't belong here!" woman pleaded, finally using her own growing panic to give her strength to attempt to break free.
"That's not a call for Mr. Saotome to make, Ms. Soh," Akane returned, not taking her eyes off of Genma, who in turn didn't take his eyes off of the woman in Akane's firm grasp.
"I don't! I was here to see Genma and my-"
Immidiately, she ceased her struggles, bringing her free hand to her mouth in shock. "N-no, I've caused y-you enough t-trouble as it is..."
"Let her go, Akane, she wants to leave," Genma commanded, earning a glare from Soun.
"I hold you dearly as a friend, Saotome, but please do not presume yourself capable of ordering my children around."
"Please, everyone just calm down," Kasumi pleaded, as her and Ryoga seemed to be the witnesses outside the ordeal, looking in and finding a lit fuse growing disasterously shorter by the second.
"Ryoga, go make sure that Ranma stays away," Genma once again directed a command, this time to his son's best friend. Ryoga nodded, and with a slight expression of concentration, made his way back to Ranma.
As Ryoga was leaving, Genma pushed his glasses further up his nose, "Nodoka, you made it clear your standing, and I made it quite clear that I nor Ranma would have nothing to do with you."
"I know, I-I-I'm s-sorry! Please, j-just l-let me go!" Nodoka was on the edge of collapsing into a wide and deep abyss of despair, as emotions that sought to be controlled for eight years spilled over, like the hot magma from a volcano that had been buried deep within the earth's core.
"Hold on! Why were you here to see him? What's this all about?" Akane felt a familiar anger building from her confusion, but steeled herself to hold it at bay until she recieved answers.
"Shampoo with violent girl, why you here to see airen?" Shampoo demanded, folding her arms under her chest.
"Were you the one who called earlier?" Soun asked, recalling the voice.
The tense air finally pressured against her until her defenses fell, and Nodoka crumbled. Akane barely acted fast enough to support the woman from falling completely to her knees. "I'm sorry Genma," her voice was quiet, the subtle sound of silk against sandpaper, "I-I can't even... even begin to... to t-tell you how wrong I was."
"You abandon your only child for eight years," Genma's cold, almost indifferent countenance changed to heated rage, "and you think a simple 'sorry' WOULD CHANGE ALL THAT?!?"
Kasumi's expression changed to shock, as she put two and two together, "You're Ranma's mother!"
"WHAT?!?" Akane turned to woman to face her, "But, but how? You're normal!"
"AKANE!" Kasumi herself was shocked at her little sister's comment.
Nodoka couldn't even look at the girl supporting her, as she spoke quietly, "Is it normal for a mother to abandon her child, no matter what the circumstances were?"
"But-HEY!" Akane tried to reply, but found herself jerked away by Shampoo. With a cool expression, she stared down at the woman on her knees before her, before backhanding her across her cheek.
"SHAMPOO!" Genma shouted, demanding her attention.
She paid no one else but the dismal woman before her any attention. With a controlled voice, Shampoo spoke only to her, "You no come near husband. You no come near Ranma. If Shampoo see you do, no need excuse of Kiss of Death to kill you." To emphesize her threat, Shampoo knelt down before the woman, tenderly cupped Nodoka's chin with both her hands, and gently, almost affectionately in her hate, kissed the woman on her jawline.
Just as Shampoo was standing up, Genma grabbed Shampoo in a fierce bear hug, instantly forcing Shampoo to thrash, and dropping her fragile control on the impulse to outright kill the woman.
Genma ignored the string of Mandarin swearing, while staring coldly at Nodoka, "Go."
At that singular word, Nodoka ran, ran as hard and as fast as possible. She was not running from the threat, nor was she running from the cold, callous expression her once-husband wore.
She ran, because it was the only thing left for her to do.
The Tendous hadn't moved throught the ordeal, when Shampoo forcably removed Akane from Nodoka. Each one of them felt the shockwaves of the emotions given off in waves that washed over them. The center of attention had been like a sun going nova, bathing anything that satilited it in its menacing corona. Kasumi almost collapsed herself from the scene, more powerful than she had ever witness in reality or fiction. Akane's anger grew double-fold from being manhandled by the Amazon. The only thing that kept her in place was disbelief of the situation. Soun remained frozen, staring after the woman who had tripped once in her flight, struggled to open the front gate, and ran into the growing night. He was unable to comprehend the situation momentarily, and would later choose to dismiss it for its unpleasantness.
Every Tendou of the household had witnessed the events, including one who had chose to remain unnoticed.