Chapter 3: Of Goodbye's and Meddling Ducks
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 or any of it's characters.
It was late afternoon by the time Ranma decided to return to the dojo, the atmosphere was heavy with Ranma's depression as she thought about what would happen when she returned. Ranma knew that many things would be set in motion whether they would hold good or ill for her health she could not tell, but still this part of her journey was coming to a close and her answers would come soon enough.
The gloom hanging over Ranma as she walked home was almost tangible. Ranma kept second-guessing her decisions of late, of seeing the old ghoul, looking at that strange stone, of ever having awoke this morning. Her head was spinning with possible situations of her return, all the way from her being disowned or being forced into wedlock with that fountain of man. They were all absurd, but she could not help but worry at what was going to happen. Ranma didn't even notice when she entered the dojo compound until she came to the front door. 'Well here goes nothin for good or ill somethins gonna happen' thought Ranma as she entered the household.
Genma was playing Go with his best friend Soun bemoaning his ungrateful heir, how his problems stopped the uniting of the schools. Why couldn't Ranma take his responsibility? Was it too hard to own up to your own mistakes? Why did his son make him engage him to so many women, with all the food he required what choice did he have? He would have never been able to have a nice leisurely drink otherwise, or a good 12 course meal. Oh when his ungrateful heir gets here he's going to give him a piece of his mind, their he is now time to give... what the hell, the size of that gem, he could be set for life! Screw the Tendo Saotome engagement with that he could build his own dojo!
As Ranma entered the living room if the household she was almost immediately jump by her 'Father'.
"Boy!" yelled Genma "you will give that too me right now!"
-Sigh- "What are you talkin' about pop?" asked Ranma getting rather annoyed at the fat bastard
"That large juicy gem on your forehead, why was I cursed with such a disrespectful child?" cried Genma to the heavens.
"Why don't ya shut up pops?" Ranma yelled back punctuating her statement with a kick to the face.
After picking himself off the floor Genma moaned out loud while forcing crocodile tears. "Oh why does my own son disrespect his father so, to attack him in his aging years and deny him of his retirement"
While rubbing her temples Ranma muttered, "Do not kill the Panda, do not kill the Panda," as a mantra.
With a couple of slow cleansing breaths Ranma calmed down and 'civilly' continued walking to the back yard.
"I'm not finished with you yet boy!" yelled Genma as Ranma reached the entrance to the back yard.
Charging Genma tried to get his hands on his ungrateful heir. He feinted a punch to the chest while making a grab for the sapphire on Ranma's forehead.
Catching the hand that was going to 'relieve' her of the sapphire on her forehead she used Genma's forward momentum to toss him into the Koi pond.
"I don't think you should be picking on uncle Genma Ranma," Nabiki said with a smirk.
"But the baka, deserves it," Ranma responded turning around.
"Where did you get that," said Nabiki when she saw the largish sapphire on Ranma's forehead, "that has got to be worth at least 500,000 yen!" her eyes getting notably larger.
"I'll tell ya in a few Nabiki I don't feel like talk 'bout this continually," Ranma responded with a sigh.
"Okay Saotome but you owe me an explanation," said Nabiki with a greedy twinkle in her eye.
"I'll talk to everyone after supper," said Ranma with a sigh.
Ranma walked outside the back porch and dealt with her Panda of a father. She quickly beat him to a pulp in a scene that cannot be described with mere words but suffice to say was quite effective. The "Panda" all the while was harping on her about being manly, uniting the schools and giving him his rightful reward i.e. the sapphire on her brow. After a few more 'adjustments' to the newly made pretzel Ranma sat in the lotus position on one of the rocks beside the Koi pond. To meditate on the days events and hopefully clear her mind.
The rock she was sitting on was of little concern, neither was the Panda behind her that held a sign that said could someone please help me? No what was concerning her thoughts was what had happened of late. What would she tell the family, and how would they react, Akane obviously believed the entire thing was her fault. How she came to that conclusion was beyond Ranma but she did, the father's were going to react badly that much was certain. Nabiki would find some way to profit off of this and well she didn't want to even think about the old freak.
'well, I can't em' everything but I gotta tell them I'm stuck in my cursed form. I just wish I didn't have to do this' thought Ranma as she mentally sighed.
A call from behind interrupted her meditation, and depressed chain of thought. "Would you like some hot water Ranma-kun?"
said Kasumi with her ever present smile.
-Sigh- "Not right now Kasumi," answered Ranma depressed.
"Is there anything wrong Ranma-kun?" said Kasumi as a worried frown crossed her face for a split second. "If there is anything wrong we could talk about it," she continued.
"I'll talk with you after supper, okay Kasumi," Ranma said looking at her with an obviously fake smile.
"Alright, we'll talk after supper," Kasumi answered pleasantly only the slight strain in her smile announced her worry.
The evening meal was quite strained, there was a tension in the air the could not be identified, the meal was relatively quite the only sounds being the slurping of food and the dueling chop sticks of Genma and Ranma.
Nodoka stared at her child, she didn't know what was wrong but something was obviously up. He hadn't changed back when he returned home, and looked slightly depressed, an unusual combination for him. She just hoped that he would tell her when things happened to him, but she knew so little about him. The ten years of separation weighed heavily on her soul. Each year of separation felt like a thousand pounds upon her shoulders.
After the evening meal everyone was once again gathered in the common room of the Tendo household. Akane was watching some Anime on the television; Nabiki was in one corner of the room reading one of her manga. Kasumi and Nodoka were on one of the couches talking animatedly; while Soun and Genma were engaged in one of there customary Go matches.
The entire room quieted when Ranma entered, they all knew what was to come, as she was about to answer the silent question that had been hanging in the air the entire afternoon, What was happening.
-Sigh- "Alright there's a few things I gotta say," Ranma said as she sat on one of the couches in the room.
Ranma began to weave his tale of woe, how he found the mysterious crystal, waking up at Dr. Tofu's, and his trip to the Neko-Haten (minus a few details). When she was finished the reactions were predictable.
"Oh how I'm cursed with such a weak son, to get himself locked in his alternate form so many time," Genma lamented with crocodile tears brimming his eyes.
"Well this is interesting," said Nabiki with a calculating gleam in her eyes.
"Oh my, that is rather distressing," Kasumi said only looking slightly worried.
"Wahhhhhhhhh! The schools will never be joined!" wailed Soun to the world.
With all this Akane rolled her eyes with a muttered "baka", while Nodoka looked on with worry.
"Wait a minute this has happened before?" said Nodoka in a worried tone.
With that the entire room quieted down, except for the human fountain in the corner of the room, but he was pretty much ignored.
Ranma was thinking on how to tell her mother about the subject of her having her curse locked before but was saved by the timely intervention of Kasumi.
"Oh my, yes Ranma has been locked twice before, once with the cats tongue, although to be fair that wasn't a true lock, and another time when his friend Herb came by" said Kasumi after thinking for a second.
After everyone gave Kasumi odd looks, they continued the discussion.
"So this has happened before and no one," said darkly Nodoka while directing a withering glare at Genma. "Thought it was important to tell me," she finished with her eyes blazing in barley-controlled anger.
Genma cringed and started spouting excuses when his wife began to stroke the silk covered bundle that she carried with her. Every one else looked on with disgust, a little fear and, amusement when it came to Nabiki.
"Now Nodoka I'm sure it just slipped his mind,…" said Soun stopping at the murderous glare he was receiving.
"I'll continue this discussion latter with my husband," Answered Nodoka as she continued to stroke the bundle while glaring at Genma. "Right now I would like to know if it is possible to unlock this curse", she continued while glancing across the room.
A sudden light came to Akane's eyes as she thought of something "the Kaisui-fuu it was able to unlock the curse before!" Akane eyes brightening with renewed hope.
-Sigh- "We already tried that, it didn't work," Ranma replied slightly depressed that she had to shatter everyone's hope.
"Is there anything we can do?" asked Nodoka worriedly.
"I'm gonna talk to the old ghoul again tomorrow see if she has any other ideas," answered Ranma.
The entire scene proceeded to break down from there, Genma was yelling about his weak son and his unwillingness to give his father his rightful due's, while Nodoka tried to control him, Soun was weeping about his lost son-in-law, and the couple got into one of their ever popular shouting matches. The argument continued like this for a good thirty minutes until a slightly frazzled Nodoka established some semblance of control.
"Now that we are all calmed down we can continue this," Said Nodoka. "Now I would like to know what we are going to do about this, and please no more than one person at a time," she continued while sending a glare to her husband. Who sputtered for a few seconds but promptly shut up.
"Okay, we will speak with this Elder 'cologne' was it? Tomorrow, what I would like to know right now is about the other two times my son has been locked," she continued in a voice full of ice.
"I think I will handle this one," said Nabiki with a smirk. "Free of charge… this time," she continued.
Nabiki proceeded to tell Ranma's mother about the incidents where he was locked, the cat's tongue pressure point which although did not stop the change, made the water feel like it was boiling, and how to counter the pressure point Ranma had to learn the speed punching technique Cachu Tenshin Armaguriken (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire). This allowed him to procure the phoenix pill, which give the user extreme resistance to heat, from Cologne.
Nabiki then told the tale of when Ranma was locked in his cursed form by a magic ladle called the Chiisui-ton (locking ladle). Ranma then had to go to a mountain in a different part of Japan to retrieve the Kaisui-fuu to unlock his curse. He defeated the dragon prince herb and unlocked his curse.
Finally the plans for the next day were made and the two families retired for the night, but not before the idiotic duo had there punishment by the Saotome Matriarch.
Making sure that everyone else was asleep Ranma quietly got out of his futon. Quickly packing his things, she wrote a letter informing the family of her going to seek a cure and would not be coming back until he found it, he placed the note on the dinning room table, which could be easily found. Ranma also wrote a second letter to Akane, which he quietly put on the desk of her room.
Casting one last look upon the dojo compound Ranma promised herself that she would return here a man, the pale moonlight of the summer night cast a ghost like quality over the entire compound. As if to preserve the ageless beauty within the eyes of the beholder, the spell was broken as Ranma roof hopped to the Neko Haten to converse with the Amazon elder and plan the next step of her journey.
The only thing bothering the pig-tailed youth on her journey was the feeling in the back of her head that said she was destined to never return to the Tendo dojo.
Cologne was in mediation in her room, contemplating the situation that had befallen the bull headed male that was her son-in-law. He always seemed to attract weirdness, which while interesting was rather bothersome. The recent situation had many possibilities and many potential downfalls, one they could easily use this to gain an extreme leverage in their favor in this current debacle.
If just the three of them were hiking through the wilds of china then the boy would surely developed some feeling for her great-grand daughter, but their was another problem with what happened and that was also great cause for worry. In her three hundred some years of life she had never encountered a situation like this. Only three ways were known to lock someone in there cursed form one was completely random, which was a second dunk in the spring they were cursed with, the Musk dynasties Kaisui-fuu and the cat's tongue pressure point.
This stone completely baffled her, she could not figure out how it had subsided the chaotic magic of Jusenkyo. She didn't even know if there was a way to unlock the curse, which was her greatest worry. Cologne would have continued this line of thought but was interrupted by a knock at the back door of the restaurant.
Ranma sighed as she reached the back of the Neko Haten, 'well this is it, I wish there was another way to do this,' she thought as she adjusted the shoulder straps of her bag.
Ranma knocked twice on the back entrance of the building and waited hoping that she wouldn't have to knock again. Just as she was getting impatient the door was opened by what appeared to be a corpse on a stick.
"Welcome son-in-law, what brings you here at this ungodly hour?" asked Cologne in a low voice.
"I figured it would be far easier to get outta here late a night then early in the mornin'. So I brought my stuff, if ya wanna wait a few day I can understand but I wanna get goin as soon as possible," said Ranma obviously anxious to get going on the journey.
"It's alright son-in-law, but you'll have to give me and Shampoo a few minutes to get ready, this is probably for the best. This way we can avoid the morning explosion when all the other's figure out what happened," said Cologne, as she looked deep in thought. "Come along get inside, we don't have all night you know," she continued in a commanding tone.
Cologne entered the back of the restaurant followed by closely by Ranma. Cologne proceeded up the stairs to retrieve her heir and prepare for the journey ahead.
A few minutes later the small group left the Neko Haten and headed to the docks for late night passage across the China Sea.
In the back of the Neko Haten in a small cage a white duck with glasses upon its beak fumed to itself. 'I knew this was your plot all along Saotome, taking my fair Shampoo from me, I shall have my revenge!' thought the duck as it began to laugh manically but just turned into a series of quacks.
Ranma, Cologne and Shampoo were able to acquire passage quite easily across the Sea, with two obviously beautiful women traveling with their grandmother, as there only chaperone the price was cheap too. As the sun touched the Streets of Nerima three of the key players had left for ancient lands in search of a cure…
To be continued.
AN: another chapter done, I hope you like the story so far, please R&R!