Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma use it merely for entertainment purposes.
After Genma should his friend the picture, Soun started in with the tears. They were a mix of 'My daughter is keeping her fiancé from me,' 'The Schools will finally be joined,' and 'My Son in Law is gallivanting as model.' It was hard think of the origin of the last wail, the picture while good for an amateur was nowhere near professional quality. After the fifteen minutes of crying Soun and Genma decided to spend the rest of the day planning on how to get Ranma's location out of Nabiki.
After hours of intense thinking that could only be done by Masters of Anything Goes the two came up with a foolproof plan. They would wait until Nabiki got home from school and then they would demand (yell on Genma's part and crying and begging on Soun's part) she tell them where Ranma was. Once Nabiki told them Ranma's location, totally forgetting that Nabiki had not once given into their demands yet, they would head there and force him to fulfill his 'honorable duty' by marrying one of the Tendo Daughters.
When the time for Nabiki and Akane to return home finally arrived the two old friends stood by the entrance just waiting for Nabiki to enter the house. After five minutes of waiting the front door started to open and the two acted just like any good practitioner of Anything Goes would, without thought.
"Girl I demand to know where the Ungrateful Boy is!" Genma commanded.
"Wah! Please Daughter; tell us where Saotome's Boy is. Wah!" Soun begged/cried.
"What are you two talking about?" Akane demanded. She came home alone because Nabiki had a couple of deals she had to take care of. She was rather irritated because Kuno intercepted her on the walk home spouting how that no matter how much he loved his 'Pony Tailed Girl' that she his 'Fierce Tigress' would be first in his hear. Even the custom flatting of Kuno that followed did little to alleviate the irritation from the incident. The last thing Akane wanted was her Father and his fat friend yelling some nonsense at her the moment she entered the door.
"Akane?" Soun asked bewildered at his youngest daughter's appearance. It never occurred to him that she could be the first one in the door. "Where is Nabiki?"
"She had some business to take care of," Akane answered. "Why do you want to know where Nabiki is, anyway?"
"Because she knows where my Worthless Boy is!" Genma answered. "We must find him in order for the Schools to be joined."
"He's right Akane," Soun nodded. "Once we find Ranma, he can pick one of you to be his bride and the future of the schools will be assured! Wah! I'm so happy! Wah!"
Deciding to change the subject to more important matters, to her anyway, Akane asked, "Dad do you think you can show me some Chi techniques?" Her father had not shown her anything in several years but Akane was always loyal to her father first when she sought out training. So she asked him hoping Soun would, if not she could always look for another Chi Master. After all Anything Goes did take teachings from other schools and mixed them together.
"Not now Girl," Genma replied. "We have more important things to do."
"Saotome is right Akane," Soun said solemnly. "We'll see about continuing your training after the Schools are united." Akane huffed at being brushed aside but accepted it anyway and walked off to her room.
"Tendo are you really going to continue her training?" Genma asked. 'Don't know why he trained her to begin with, she just a girl after all.'
"Of course not Saotome," Soun answered. "Only a Man can truly use the Art. I just taught Akane the basics so she would have something in common with you're boy. You know shared interests and all."
"Brilliant idea Tendo," Genma said. "So you're planning on Akane marrying my Ungrateful Son?"
"I think it would be for the best," Soun replied. "Now what do we do until Nabiki gets home?"
"Well you are still down by three games," Genma said.
"Then I shall have to rectify that," Soun said walking over to the shogi board as Genma followed.
A half an hour later the pair of shogi players heard the front door open once again. Genma-Panda held up a sign saying, "I think your second daughter is back." He had been transformed in to his cursed state with one of the koi as it jumped up out of the pond, the resulting splash was only able to make the distance necessary to him because of the nature of the Jusenkyo Curse.
Soun looked towards the door asking, "You think so?" When he turned back to read Genma-Panda's sign he found four of his pieces missing. "Hey what happened?"
Genma-Panda had on his best innocent looking face, one that only Soun would believe, trying not to give away the fact that he was the one that removed the pieces. "Come Tendo," Genma-Panda wrote on the sign, "Let's go talk to your daughter."
Nabiki was about to head up stairs to her room when Soun and Genma-Panda stepped in front of her. They repeated what they did with Akane earlier, only with signs on Genma's part. When Soun stopped crying long enough Nabiki asked, "What are you talking about?"
"We are talking about this?" Genma-Panda held a sign in one paw and Ranma's picture in the other.
When Nabiki looked at the picture she narrowed her eyes. 'The only way they would have that picture would be if one of them went through my room. Daddy wouldn't do that because he actually respects the privacy of our rooms. That only leaves Saotome. Still he's claiming Ranma is his Son, I always thought them both being named Ranma was a coincidence.' Nabiki looked at Genma-Panda to see if he was lying. The usual signs of lying; nervous twitching and his eyes frantically looking from sided, where not present this time. 'He's telling the truth. Or at least what he thinks is the truth.' The revelation made Nabiki pause for a moment. Genma had only told the truth once since he got here and that was when Kasumi asked if he was hungry. 'Even if it gets Saotome out of the house I don't think Amaki would appreciate having him back in his life. I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking I'm a toad or something because Yamato read their minds and found out I'm the one that gave away Amaki's location.'
"Sorry can't help you Daddy," Nabiki said. She walked away with no other word or a glance back at the stunned pair.
"Wah! How could my Daughter do this to me? Wah!" Soun wailed. "Now the Schools will never be joined!"
"Oh why did the Kami curse us with such Disrespectful Children?" Genma-Panda held up a sign. He flipped the sign around, "Come Tendo we'll search for him ourselves. He must be around here somewhere."
"Right you are Saotome," Soun instantly stopped crying. "Let us be off!" The two charged out of the house in order to try and find Ranma once again.
Ranma himself was out taking a walk still trying to decide what to do about his parenting situation. He had been rather closed off from almost everyone today because his mind was occupied on what to do about his two families. Ranma did not mince words, they were both his family, Kyoko loved him like her own and Nodoka loved him because he was her own. Even know he was very deep in thought.
Ranma was so deep in thought, in fact, that he did not notice he was about to walk into someone until he hit the poor person knocking them to the ground. "Oh Kami I'm so sorry," Ranma said looking down at the person he knocked over. "Kasumi?" Ranma felt very guilty knocking over the eldest Tendo because of his inattention. "I'm so sorry I was thinking so hard that I did not see you there." Ranma bent down and offered his hand to the fallen girl.
"Oh Ranma," Kasumi replied taking the offered hand. "Its all right, accidents happen." When she was up on her feet Kasumi looked at Ranma's eyes for a moment feeling his distress. "Is there something bothering you Ranma?"
"Yeah actually," Ranma admitted. Ranma felt the need to talk to someone, not involved like Akira, about his problem and Kasumi appeared to want to lend an ear. "Remember when we first met and I told you I was adopted," Kasumi nodded, "Well a couple of days ago my birth Mother called me…" Ranma spent the next fifteen minutes summarizing the events since Nodoka called him and his feelings on the matter at hand.
When he finally finished Kasumi had a look of empathy on her face at Ranma's plight. "This is truly a difficult choice you have to make Ranma," Kasumi said. "All I can really tell you is this, just because you let your birth Mother into your heart doesn't mean you have to push away your adopted Mother. From what you've told me both seem to love you very much and do not want to force you to make a choice. They just want you to be happy."
'She's right, Even thought they both want me around, neither has made any indication on hating the other. In fact when they talked they seemed to at least try to be friends with one another.' Ranma gave Kasumi a soft smile, "Thanks Kasumi."
"It is no trouble Ranma," Kasumi returned the smile. "Well I must be going now. I have to start dinner soon."
"Yeah Sensei will probably be starting dinner as well," Ranma said. "I'll see you later, Kasumi."
"Good bye Ranma," Kasumi returned waving as Ranma walked off back towards his apartment.
Not long later Ranma was quickly approaching his apartment complex when he felt someone or something was trailing him. It was actually two some things and they started following Ranma only a few seconds ago. 'I wonder what is following me?' Ranma thought. 'They are to far away to see with Omni Sight and if their dangerous using Remote Viewing could leave me too open to defend myself. Also if their hostile the last thing I want is to lead them to where I live. I need to get someplace secure and away from my apartment so I can face whatever or whoever they are.'
Without even a pause in his step Ranma walked passed his apartment building and down the street. The two people following him from the rooftops soon followed. Soon Ranma had led the his two pursuers a good two blocks away from his home and he decided it was time to find out who these two were. When Ranma came to an intersection he used a quick burst of speed and Chi to create two after images of himself via the Splitting Cat Hairs Technique. The two images and himself each went their own separate way confusing Ranma's followers. Ranma no longer felt he was being followed, he ducked into an ally and activated his Remote Viewing. With his consciousness outside his body Ranma focused on the intersection where he previously was. What he saw there made him angry. There, just a couple of meters away, was a giant panda waving around signs to another man Ranma did not recognize. Ranma knew of only one Panda that could be in Japan, loose on the streets, and following him, 'Saotome!' Ranma thought. 'I am so tempted to just get back to my body and kick you're ass! But I promised a few people they would be around to watch it happen. So for now you get off easy.' Ranma returned to his body and leapt up to the room of a building and sprinted back towards his home.
Back at the intersection Genma-Panda and his partner Soun were wondering how Ranma eluded him. "How did you're Son split off into three body's Saotome?" Soun asked. "Is this some kind of socerery?"
"I'm not sure Tendo," Genma-Panda answered. "The Boy did spend time with those wicked Amazons. Maybe they did not just brain wash him but made him weak by teaching him Magic!"
"That must be it Saotome," Soun said. "It is the only logical explanation!" Not surprisingly Soun started to wail once again, "Wah! My future Son-in-Law has been force to give up the Martial Arts! Wah!"
"Tendo!" Ranma waved his newest sign around frantically. "We must hurry and go after the Boy! Other wise we may lose track of him completely."
"Right you are Saotome!" Soun said. "We'll split up! You go to the left and I'll go right!" Genma-Panda nodded and ran off to the right and Soun to the left and subsequently both neither traveled in the direction Ranma took, straight ahead. As Genma-Panda left the intersection he could not help but shiver a little and get the feeling that he would be in a world of pain in the near future.
Back at Ranma, Kyoko and Akira's apartment, the two of the later were getting concerned about the former. The both knew Ranma could take care of himself, but that did not stop them from feeling worry, especially Kyoko. "I wonder why Ranma is so late?" Kyoko asked.
"I'm sure it's nothing Sensei," Akira replied. "He's just got a lot on his mind and probably lost track of time. I'm sure he'll come through the door any second now and smile once he sees all this food."
Akira was only half right in his prediction. Ranma came inside within the next couple of seconds but the look on his face was anything but happy. Ranma had a scowl on his face, his eyebrows were scrunched together and sparks of static electricity arching off his body all sighs of extreme anger. Without so much of a word hello to Kyoko and Akira Ranma marched right up to the phone. Just before he reached up for it he took a calming breath so his Electrokinesis would not fry the phone. When he picked it up he quickly dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up. "Hello this is the Suzuki Residence, Suzuki Ukyou speaking."
"Ucchan, its Ranma," Ranma replied. "Could you put Mom on I need to talk to her about someone I ran into this evening."