It would, of course, be premature to act on the information, as I had yet to sound Kasumi out on the subject. But if she desired it, would mother welcome her into our home, and let her find her own future?
She was not as off-balance as I had hoped, and added a proviso of her own. But it was one I was reasonably sure Kasumi would have no trouble accepting. Kasumi would be given carte blanche to seek her own path in life if she could tell mother in all sincerity that at that moment, she wanted a husband and children. If Kasumi's desires paralleled my mothers, she would be accorded the right to her own path, even if it eventually didn't align with mother's.
I could have played on my mother's affection for the darling Kasumi, and I'm sure I could have convinced mother to welcome Kasumi into her hearth, but it was the gift of Kasumi's freedom I was working towards. And if mother needed reassurance that Kasumi was as I had portraited her, that was reasonable.
Once I had secured the optional part of my plan, it was time to address the core of my plan. Neither Kasumi nor I could honorably abide a family with titular authority invested in Genma, and a family with Genma would indefinitely postpone the next generation even if it didn't lose the current one. And while a mass exodus was a distasteful possibility, the Saotome family would be better served by a putsch.
"Either Genma goes, or we all go."
.o0O0o.
My mother was a delightful contradiction. An almost pathological refusal to be disloyal to her husband coupled with a burning desire to off the bastard, either through Seppuku or through prolonged painful blood loss. I was able to secure her agreement to support the status quo, and to back me if I shifted it to my favor.
She also agreed to bank the coals of her anger until such time as I had played my plan out. So with her provisional support over the loss of her husband, and the temptation of an attention-starved fertile daughter to add to the family, I had secured my first ally.
The next stage was unnecessary to my overall plan. True, it would facilitate the manipulations of the fathers, but it was hardly necessary. It was attempted merely to increase the happiness of my mother, Kasumi, and I.
I managed to buttonhole Kasumi during one of her shopping trips. After securing her company at a tea shop, I tried to determine if Kasumi was amenable for inclusion in my plans. The first thing I needed was to ascertain her compliance with the condition my mother added.
Unfortunately the embarrassed Ranma that Kasumi had known for months required several minutes of hemming and hawing before being able to ask an embarrassing personal question like, "If you could, do you want to eventually marry someone and have children?"
Had I actually been the brainless git she took me for, I might have worded it similarly enough to a proposal. But while I still had to sound like someone with an elementary school planning ability, I was using my intellect to drive my desires forward.
After eliciting a flustered reply in the affirmative from Kasumi, and a weakened smile as her sunny disposition was reminded of things others kept her from achieving, I could finally make my pitch.
"I'm working on a plan ta clear Nabiki, but it's taking on a life of its own. I got my mother to agree, and, well, you know how my mother wants to be surrounded by grandkids? She agreed that if you wanted children of your own, we should include you. It seems my mother doesn't mind if she's spoiling my children or yours."
"But, Ranma." Kasumi was obviously trying to conceal the pain I was causing her in considering her plight. "I'm not in a position to even pursue a relationship. I can't get out of the house often enough to even meet someone, much less date."
"I want your help deceiving our parents. If you are willing, and I can get everyone else to agree to their parts, you can go back to school. And while you're attending college you'll meet many eligible bachelors. A few might even be good enough people to date you."
"What would I have to do?"
"Pretend to reluctantly agree to marry me due to family honor. I swear on my own honor that when it's all over, there won't be a marriage."
"But what about Akane?"
"She may or may not know about it until after it's all over. But when it's finished she'll have the right to date anyone she wants, or avoid them. We won't be engaged."
"What are you planning on doing?"
"If you agree, I'll tell you and mom everything, otherwise I need you to be surprised if I don't have your help."
"You mean you'll do it anyway?"
"Yep. I've got to do it to get Nabiki's charges dropped. If you don't want to be a part of this, I'll keep you out of it. But I could use your help, and you could use a social life."
"But why do we have to trick our fathers?"
"Because they insist I rescue Nabiki, but refuse to give me anything to bargain with. I can't even offer to sacrifice myself for Nabiki, as they've forbidden that. If I don't trick them, Nabiki will either be arrested or in hiding, and I'll be blamed for only doing everything they've allowed!"
"But surely you can convince the fathers..."
Ranma interrupted "That's the first thing I tried. They don't wanna know. The fathers and Akane have decided that since the Amazons are in Japan because of me, then it's my fault Nabiki turned to a life of crime. And since I've always succeeded before, they don't see a need to help me now. Well, I can succeed, but not under the restrictions they've given me, and not by telling the truth. Now, given the choice of me deceiving the fathers or me deceiving Cologne, which would you try?"
Kasumi was silent for so long I thought I'd blown my chance to sway her. Only the indecision warring in her eyes, as her conscience tried to untangle the mess, gave me hope. But finally she acquiesced.
Now that I'd secured my allies, and fortified my own position, it was time to bargain for Nabiki's pardon.
I was honest with Kasumi when I pointed out that I had no plan to deceive Cologne. I planned to offer her something that she wanted in good faith in exchange for pardoning Nabiki. Of course it would be valueless to me.
I had to refuse point blank to return to China with them. I truthfully told the Chinese contingent that I was forbidden to offer them myself for Nabiki. But their interest was peaked when I offered to deceive the fathers in order to make Cologne an offer for the pardon of Nabiki.
I made clear that the parents were willing to accede nothing. But with Cologne's help, I could convince the parents to end all of my engagements forever, leaving Shampoo with the best claim; such as it was.
I brought out a contract which stated explicitly that if all the engagements were broken, each and every one of the Chinese amazons would drop all charges against Nabiki.
She saw no reason not to sign, especially since even if the charges were dropped, she still had Nabiki locked up in cursed form for a future bargaining chip. A fact that had still escaped me.
I told her that as long as she allowed me to lie about the contract she'd signed; I'd be able to use her demands as the leverage I needed to end the engagement. In order to feel superior she told me I had a week to try it.
I could have probably done it in a few hours, but I took my time, and made sure of my success.
Now it was time to coach my allies, and explain the necessities of my actions. I could have kept them totally in the dark, but they deserved to enter into this with eyes open.
While waiting for Kasumi to find an excuse to visit mother's house, I arranged a pair of legal documents. Luckily, the Japanese civil ceremony is primarily centered on the transfer of a person from one family to another. The entering and leaving a family is considered of greater significance than the bond between the two people.
This is gradually changing in to line with the European countries, where clan is just a connected collection of nuclear families. But in Japan, the contract to marry Kasumi into the Saotome family is superficially similar to a contract to adopt her as my sister.
As the head of the adopting family, Genma had to be extensively mentioned in the contract as well. It would take a smarter man than him to notice the papers also covered his adoption as a Tendo.
Like a real wedding contract, mine needed the signatures of Kasumi, myself, and our three parents to be legal. But mine did not leave Genma as head of the family, but put him in the Tendo family under Soun.
The other contract specified that Genma took full responsibility for all pre-existing contracts regarding myself, and for everything arising from our training trip. It also gave up all rights to make future contracts. This contract made no attempt to conceal its nature.
Eventually I told Kasumi and my mother my full intentions, and convinced them both of its necessity. The fact that my plan's realization would pardon Nabiki quieted Kasumi's conscience over leaving her family.
Mother waited by the phone to meet us at the city hall offices. Kasumi went back to the house to wait for her lines. And I found Akane and told her someone thought they saw Nabiki hiding in the high school principal's Hawaiian themed rooms. I forbade her from going with me to rescue her after I went to tell the fathers.
Thus insuring her absence, I lied to the fathers. I told them that Cologne agreed to pardon Nabiki if they agreed to end the engagement between Akane and me.
They heaped abuse on me for considering such a plan until I told them I had thought they could have ended the engagement until the pardon went through. This they thought was a capital idea, until I told them it would never work. If I showed up at the cafe without an engagement, my feet wouldn't touch ground before the church in the Jhoketsuzoku village. If only I could break the AKANE engagement and still be engaged.
This was Kasumi's cue to serve tea. If the fathers couldn't come up with the plan, I'd have to be still less subtle. Luckily my father's veniality rose to the surface. We'll engage him to Kasumi or Nabiki.
Both fathers discarded Akane's claim immediately. I pointed out that Kasumi and Nabiki were not martial artists, and even if I watched them constantly, I couldn't protect them. They'd only be safe from the Amazons once we were married.
From that point on there was nothing they would consider besides our immediate marriage. Nabiki being indisposed, Kasumi was forced to be the bride. As Akane would interrupt a religious ceremony, a civil one would have to do.
I mentioned in passing that I'd help mom behead dad if she weren't at my wedding, so a phone call assured that she'd be there.
Once we were all gathered together, I mentioned the other engagements my father made. Soun readied his demon head, and asked if I were considering jilting Kasumi at the altar.
With Nodoka and Kasumi backing me up, I produced the two contracts. "I will sign this," holding up the misleading adoption form, "only if you two sign this."
Genma tried to bluster, and Soun tried to look righteous and put upon, but with mother's katana, and Kasumi's disapproving frown over my shoulder they didn't have much luck. Genma might have tried to run if his plans weren't so close to fruition.
Eventually their greed made them sign as they whispered to each other ways to get around it once I was safely married.
Then, with a show of reluctance, I was the last to sign the adoption forms. After winking at my sister and mother, I sulked while we waited for the forms to be filed.
Once that was done, mother drew her Katana, and informed the fathers that the newlyweds were moving in with her for now. The three of us had agreed to sit on the truth until Akane and Cologne were taken care of.
We let the fathers flee the chore of helping Kasumi pack her belongings so that they could celebrate by getting drunk. Meanwhile we met Akane at the Tendo home.
Honestly, we tried to break it to her as gradually as we could. After all, we didn't want her to think her sister and I betrayed her by getting married.
"Congratulations!" I cried out. "Your father just legally adopted my father as his brother! Genma Tendo is now your uncle!"
"What?" she screamed.
Kasumi reiterated. "Yes, we just got back from city hall, where Genma was removed from the Saotome registry and incidentally his marriage, and he was put onto the Tendo registry as Daddy's parent's son."
"So, Ranma's my cousin?"
"Cousin-in-law. But since Genma's adoption has united the two schools, Tendo honor is satisfied. You can marry anyone you want."
Akane apparently interpreted this as an act of breaking our engagement to marry so that I might marry someone else. "Fine! Go marry your floozies!"
"Nope! Not gonna! Before he got himself adopted, he agreed to full responsibility towards the families he engaged me to. I'm free of all the engagements. Technically he even agreed to take responsibility with the Amazons, but of course they'll ignore that."
"So what happens now?"
"Well, because we did this, Cologne is contractually guaranteed to drop the charges on Nabiki. So after we tell Cologne, we can take Cologne's contract to the police and they'll rescind the arrest order on Nabiki."
"So you made Uncle Genma really into my uncle; all the engagements are gone; Nabiki will be a free woman. What else did I miss?"
Kasumi blushed. "I'm not sure if this is the right time to mention this. Daddy let Auntie Nodoka adopt me, so I'm now Ranma's sister."
"But you're my sister!"
"Of course! And I'm Nabiki's sister. It's just that I'm now also Ranma's sister."
"But he's my fiancee! I mean my cousin."
"Cousin-in-law, and your older sister's younger brother."
"That's insane!"
I dropped my voice an octave lower than normal, and tried to make my breathing sound slightly asthmatic "Akane, I am your father!"
Akane passed out.
I grinned sheepishly at the two annoyed older women. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't resist."
A little later Akane awoke to my off-key rendition of "My brother's mother is my mother too." She woke up angry. "I don't believe all of that!"
Nodoka mediated. "Ranma is not your father. The rest is true. Here are photocopies of the legal documents involved."
"But how could Daddy trade Kasumi for Genma?"
"Easy." I prevaricated. "He treated Kasumi as an unpaid domestic, and treated Genma as a learned and honored guest. Mom and I hope Kasumi will pursue her dreams, maybe go to college. We hope Genma will stop stealing from us. Both families traded trash for gold. I always wanted a sibling!"
"Ranma!" Nodoka turned to Kasumi. "I apologize for Ranma's description of Soun's feelings towards you."
"I'm sorry if I upset ya. I'll try not ta mention it again, but I'm not gonna pretend he treated you like you deserved."
"You just wanna use Kasumi to do the Saotome housework!"
Seeing how Akane was just lashing out, I matched her in tone and volume. "For ten years on my training trip I did all the cooking and cleaning! Pop couldn't be bothered. For ten years mom did all the work at her home! If Kasumi does start college she'll probably wind up doing less than a third of the work around our home. Everyone in our family can do whatever needs doing, and if Kasumi is busy with her classes, she won't have time for housework."
I caught myself wondering why I was bothering to argue with Akane, now that I'm no longer bound to her through an engagement. Part of it was almost invariably force of habit. There's no way to go from one state in a relationship to another without a period of adjustment.
But examining how I felt, I'd have to say I was angry with Akane while feeling protective of Kasumi. I've felt protective of Kasumi before; who wouldn't when living in a house with only two non-combatants, where one of them was the only person to consistently care for others.
But somehow, having intentionally endeavored to make my sister-figure into my actual sister, made me feel so much more protective of her. I thought I had always treated her as I would a real sister; I didn't think I would care any more or less after the family shuffling.
Apparently I invested more of myself in this family construction project than I had imagined. I collected the most supportive people I knew to form a family for myself. So any attack against them is an attack on my opinions and mores.
But Akane was obviously accusing me based on what she'd have done in my position. She was picked up after for her whole life, so of course she'd see adopting Kasumi as a move to acquire a housekeeper. She wasn't empathic enough to see that all three of us were used to doing the chores. All three of us would rather not have to do them all, but we understand the work required so we couldn't just dismiss the sacrifice someone else was making and dump all the work on them as if it were nothing.
Akane also had yet to realize she couldn't lose Kasumi as a sister unless she drove her away. Akane was angry and hurt by Kasumi leaving. She wasn't thinking about Kasumi's welfare yet. When she did she'd feel ashamed for having taken advantage of Kasumi and guilty for not helping her escape. And like in the past when she felt guilty, she always had sublimated her guilt and shame into outwardly directed anger.
Before she reached that stage, I wanted the old men to be around to deal with the mess. And before that, I wanted Nabiki back; I still had to live past telling her about the family swap. She wasn't going to take it well.
Ukyou wasn't going to take losing the engagement well, either. But hopefully she would realize that I was going to treat her the way I always had. The only changes that had happened were the new betrayal by Genma, and the ending of any attempts of Ukyou to compel me to behave the way she wanted against my will. If she wasn't able to get past that problem, we should not have ended together.
The shattering of all the engagements would have happened sooner or later. I wouldn't have let any fiancee marry me while under the delusion that I was no smarter than my father. And there was no way I would have dropped my disguise while still vulnerable to demands from my imbecilic ex-parent. So in a very real sense, my father was the lynchpin which prevented me from furthering my relationship with any female, although not quite in the manner with which I'd described to my mother.
So as soon as I could convince the Tendos that I was free from their compulsions, and compel the Amazons to accord me some basic human rights, I could start dating without deception. And I'd certainly accept an honest offer from Ukyou to date. Whether it would lead to anything would depend as much on her as I.
But first, I had to deal with the smartest of the Tendos. So it was time to see Cologne about dropping the charges on Nabiki. While I was considering the previous argument, Akane had made some new accusation. Perhaps it was the same one; I couldn't be asked to really listen. So when she finished her bile-filled thought, I ignored it, and said "It's time we went to the Nekohanten to rescue Nabiki."
"You didn't answer my question!"
I didn't have any idea what she had asked. "I'm not going to waste time arguing with you. Do you plan to follow us to the Nekohanten, or are you going to spread the word that Nabiki can come home in an hour or two? It might take that long to get the charges officially dropped. And even after that happened, it did Nabiki no good if she thought she needed to keep hiding."
I could see Akane didn't want to give up the argument. I was sure that she'd follow us just to continue it as we walked. But once again, she surprised me by putting someone else before her desires. I'm sure I'm being unfair, she often puts others before her own desires; if she didn't, I wouldn't have maintained the engagement for so long. Unfortunately she also often puts her own desires first regardless of others.
I do have a theory to explain this discrepancy. Actually it's more like an untestable hypothesis than a theory. I believe that Akane's baser nature is extremely selfish; a spoiled brat. But she actually desires to be a truly good person. So when she realizes she has a choice between selfishness and selflessness, she chooses to behave altruistically. But because she's inherently selfish, and lacks empathy, she often doesn't notice an opportunity to do the right thing, or she lets anger cloud her mind.
If this is true, it makes Akane a more praiseworthy individual than Kasumi, who is selfless by nature, and finds caring for others easy. Akane works to overcome the devils within; too bad the devils too often win.
This is not to downgrade Kasumi. One doesn't become so selfless without work at training her own demons. Kasumi deserves praise for being the person she has become, and not backsliding; Akane deserves praise for constantly fighting to become better, even if she's doing such a poor job of it.
In any event, Akane left to begin the pointless task of trying to let Nabiki know it would be safe to return. Meanwhile we proceeded to within 20 feet of Nabiki's hiding place without realizing it.
Cologne was visibly shocked that I had managed to end the engagements. Once she recovered, she wasted no time before beginning her attack. "Well, son-in-law, now that you've ended your engagements, there's nothing keeping you from returning to China with Shampoo."
"There are several things keeping me from leaving; not the least of which is that I have to get Nabiki pardoned. We might discuss the rest some other time. Will you come to the police office with us to drop the charges?" We didn't need her presence. The contract alone would be sufficient, even if it would take longer for the police to react. Our visit to the Nekohanten was more of a courtesy call.
"I'll phone them to let them know. If you'll take the contract to them showing them I agreed to drop the charges that should be sufficient. I can't leave the cafe for that long at this time of day, and Shampoo and Mousse are out."
We accepted this because we had not been bothered by overanxious Amazons. We didn't know that Mousse was miles away, or that there was a duck locked up in the back. Fortunately the police were aware of the bizarre set of relationships in Nerima, so the three contracts were accepted as a full explanation relatively quickly.
I'd long known that the antics of the people surrounding me were considered free entertainment by the people of Nerima. I wasn't aware that this extended to the constabulary, whom I would have expected would be bothered by the illegality of many of the activities.
However they had apparently decided that until the activities of the martial artists were officially brought before their attention, they would exercise plausible deniability over our actions. By this manner they could avoid confronting the worst of the fighters who could decimate the police force.
We weren't above the law; but we were above investigation unless the officers were compelled to look into it. After all, how could the Neriman police maintain their 95 successful arrest statistics if they were required to track down and convict people like Happosai, Genma, Kuno, or Ryouga?
So the police could cancel their hunt for Nabiki, and consider it a misunderstanding. It didn't matter to them that Nabiki probably blackmailed others, or that Cologne obviously set Nabiki up, or that I had probably tricked my father into signing legally binding contracts. Officers that felt compelled to look into these things were assigned to look into things like the panty thief's crime wave. Smart officers ignored it.
So we thought Nabiki was safe, and proceeded to help Kasumi pack. The majority of her stuff would have to be moved by van, or over multiple trips, but her most prized possessions, and her clothes we could take over to the Saotome home before the fathers thought to object.
I didn't think the fathers would dare hold Kasumi's possessions hostage, but I wasn't going to risk it. Many of her belongings could have been replaced, a few were priceless. Those came with us, while the fathers celebrated their mistaken belief that I'd married Kasumi.
None of my plans preceding this would have been possible if Nabiki weren't missing. She would have balked at changing the engagement to Kasumi for all sorts of good reasons the fathers overlooked. She would have smelled a rat when I actually agreed to a wedding. She would have noticed the true contents of the contracts.
On the other hand, if Kasumi or Akane had been trapped by the Amazons, Nabiki would not have let the rest of the family leave me with my hands tied in rescuing her. So it wasn't pure luck that Nabiki would be indisposed when the fathers decided to leave me to hang in an impossible situation.
I knew that when Nabiki finally returned home, she'd realize what some of the others were only beginning to suspect. I couldn't be as dumb as I've acted. The others would briefly consider it, and then dismiss it as it brought too many disturbing possibilities to mind. They'll chalk up my recent actions to an anomaly of clear thinking.
But Nabiki wouldn't have dismissed the possibility. Then she'd start to wonder why I've behaved like an idiot. Why I let myself get manipulated so often in the past. And maybe she might even ask what it was that I was willing to suffer for in order to keep the others from discovering.
But now that I had swapped Kasumi for Genma, I could safely stonewall Nabiki. She couldn't lean on me through the threat of the fathers or Akane. She couldn't make my rivals any more annoying. All she could do is try to compel Kasumi to compel me to tell her.
So I felt I was ready for Nabiki's return. What I wasn't ready for was her continued absence. I wasn't prepared when the drunkard fathers returned before Nabiki did; so there was no mitigating calm intelligence when they told Akane that I'd married Kasumi.
She would prefer to believe I had betrayed her with her sister, rather than the possibility that Kasumi would rather be safe in my family instead of under the control of those two idiots. Remember if it hadn't been for me, Kasumi might have been forced to marry into that freak Chardin family due to Soun, and her father also forced her to endure the antics Genma and Happosai.
So while Kasumi was collecting university brochures, Akane confronted me over my apparent infidelity. But instead of the quick clobbering of me she had expected; I drew it out by dodging her constantly, while taunting her with the truth. "It was your father's idea that I should discard you and marry Kasumi. But of course you'll blame me just like you blamed me when HE engaged us. Still, he was too stupid to actually get me married to Kasumi. I showed you the paperwork, Kasumi's my sister. Your father was too drunk to know the difference between a sister and a wife."
Somehow she took this last statement as either a slight on her mother, or on Soun's overworking of Kasumi, because she just became angrier. I admit I lost my temper at that point. "If I wanted her for a wife, I'd have proposed to her myself! I'll marry whoever I want!" Then I stepped into her guard, and slapped her.
I don't know if she took this as rejection of her, of her skills, or of her assumption that I'd accept a beating, but she ran away distraught. I could have handled that better if I had forewarned her about how we'd deceived our fathers. But once she charged in to punish me, I had only three choices. Let her vent her frustration, take her down hard, or slap her. If I hadn't disabused her of her fantasies now, I would have had to eventually. She may be cute when she smiles, but she's hideous when she's lashing out in self-righteous anger.
I learned later that my mother calmed her down. She was... annoyed over my treatment of Akane, but she agreed that slapping her was preferable to cowering in fear, or using the Hiryu Shoten Ha. If Akane can't treat me like a person, she won't be treated like a friend, much less a girlfriend.
My mother claimed to agree, but still thought it was a poor way to treat a lady.
"If Akane were a lady she'd have believed me when I told her the truth instead of other people's lies. Heck, at least she should have heard me out! She's behaving like an armed and dangerous child who prefers seeing me as the guilty party. Maybe that's because she's scared if I'm right. Maybe she really cares for me, maybe not. But we aren't going to get anywhere if I coddle her or pretend her infantile tantrums are justified. When she behaves that way, she needs a spanking from her parents, but Soun won't do it. And if I do it, she'll consider it rape. I may have to do it eventually, regardless."
My mother asked me to try to find a better way to handle it in the future, and to save the slapping as a last resort. As I was already doing that, I readily agreed.
With Nabiki out of circulation, and the fathers dreading Ukyou's response, it fell to Akane to complain to Ukyou about "their common problem." Ukyou sought me out in full okonomiyaki battle garb. But unlike Akane, after she nearly took off my toes with a warning spatula shuriken shot, she waited for an explanation.
"First off, I've never married anybody. The fathers insisted I marry Kasumi, and I pretended to go along with it, but I switched the marriage certificate for adoption papers. Kasumi is now my sister, and I couldn't marry her now, even if I wanted to, which I don't.
"Second, in order to rescue Nabiki, the fathers agreed to end all engagements to me, including the Tendo's, yours, and Shampoo's, although Cologne denies it. Genma thought he was being clever, but he signed a legal form insisting he plans to take full responsibility for your dowry, and your years of revenge. Then I tricked him by adopting Kasumi as my sister, instead of my wife, and kicking Genma out of the clan. He's now Soun Tendo's brother."
"But what about us?"
"Nothing's changed. If you're willing to agree to the legality of the papers filed by the courts, and restrict your revenge to Genma Tendo, we can start going on real dates. If you plan to ignore the contracts Genma signed, or get revenge on me, we'll be fighting. Either way, I think of ya as a friend."
"But we're engaged!"
"Nope. Genma reneged on the engagement, and signed legal papers claiming full responsibility, plus giving up all rights past and future to engage me. Then he left our family. His promises were and are worthless. However, if you want to stay for dinner, I can ask mom to make enough for one more."
"No. I have to have some time to think about this. Why didn't you tell me this yourself?"
"I was hoping to get Nabiki back first, and deal with her anger over ditching Akane, stealing Kasumi, and dumping Genma on her. She's gonna do something for revenge even though it was all done to protect her. I wanted to get that out of the way before I started dating."
But it was Shampoo who became the first to ask me out. Granted she asked me out regularly without expecting me to agree. So she was somewhat surprised when I said yes.
In retrospect I should have insisted she show some discretion or decorum when it came to the other ex-fiancees, for she couldn't resist the urge to assert her superiority over the weakling Japanese women who vexed her so often in the past. Her taunting of Akane was either overheard or relayed to the Tendo brothers, who wasted no time in invading the Saotome home to take me to task over abandoning Kasumi.
While the moron's ignored everything in order to corner me, my family approached them from behind. Soun was just about to go into his demon-head, when Mom drew her sword and demanded they tell her why they invaded her house uninvited.
Genma puffed himself up with false importance, and claimed it was his house too.
His pompousness took a hit when all three of us Saotomes laughed at him. "This has always been my house. You lost all rights to enter uninvited when you signed our divorce papers, Genma Tendo."
Well, an unknown divorce trumps a rumored infidelity. We provided them with a copy of the adoption papers, but they proved incapable of reading what was written instead of what they expected to find there. We had to explain in meticulous detail that this wasn't a marriage certificate, but a double adoption with divorce form.
Most of their joint possessions had been in Nodoka's name, as mortgage payments, for example, can not be left to a traveling penniless martial artist to manage. Those possessions of Genma's that were still lying around the house I had put in escrow, pending Genma's resolving all of the commitments he had dumped on me, and then reaccepted.
If Genma claims inability to pay a court approved debt, those possessions of his we had can be sold off. If we gave them to Genma, they'd just disappear off of the court's radar.
Genma's first response was to claim the paper worthless. When Nodoka pointed out it had the same legal weight as their marriage contract, Genma backpedaled. His next move was to laugh as he destroyed the copy we let him read.
When we pointed out it was a copy, he demanded to know where the original was, we humored him pointing out we had no idea. After it was notarized and submitted to the courts it could be anywhere. It hardly mattered, as the changes to the family register had already gone through.
Bluff number three was that he'd just change it back, as head of the Saotome family. We had to point out in slow words that as he was no longer even on the Saotome register, he wasn't the head, and he lacked all legal power to do anything to it. Especially as he had been brought onto the family register because Nodoka had had no brothers to carry on the Saotome family name.
Then he went into his crying routine about having an ungrateful son, and asking why I did this to him.
I pointed out he left me no choice. They did demand Nabiki be exonerated, and this was the only way they left me. I also pointed out that if he didn't meet his promises, he needn't consider me his son much longer.
As he sputtered, I talked to my mother around him. "You see, mom, he kept telling me all through my childhood how I had to behave honorably. Now for the last few months I learned that while he was preaching this to me, he wasn't behaving honorably, himself. But as he used to be the head of the Saotome family there was no one to take him to task over it. Now that he's legally Soun's younger brother, his actions reflect on Soun, and it's Soun's responsibility to rein Genma in, otherwise the Tendo name will be mud. They are already in trouble, because Genma has to make amends with Ukyou. If Genma can't maintain the Tendo honor, I'll have to sever all ties with him."
"But the engagement to Ukyou is your responsibility!"
"No, Pop. It never was. And you signed a paper a few days ago agreeing that it was entirely your responsibility. A paper we've already filed with the courts, and supplied copies to Ukyou and her father." Genma's face had a look of horror as he stared metaphorically into the future. "Don't look so gloomy. It's not that awful. All you have to do is find a way to make restitution to a girl who has spent a decade hating you."
"You're not really married to Kasumi, you can marry Ukyou!"
"Even if I were to marry her tomorrow, it won't change a thing. The engagement was broken for the second time by your hand, and you've signed away all rights to engage me. You still owe her regardless of what I do. If I were to marry her, you'd then owe both of us the dowry you stole, and restitution for Ukyou's hardships. Cheer up, pop. No one's asking you to commit seppuku to make amends. At least not yet."
At this point, my mother asked "This has been an interesting conversation, but I ask again, how dare you break into our house uninvited? This is your cue to apologize, and politely leave. Or should we either call the police, or throw you out ourselves? Ranma, try to avoid the Hiryu Shoten Ha in the house, please."
.o0O0o.
Author's Notes:
At this point I had planned to end the "Ranma fixes his problems" part of the story, as in my mind, he had already succeeded. All that was left was to resolve the outstanding situations.
From this point on, keeping the characters acting believably dictated the rest of the story. However resolving the current situation lead to more confusion.
Ukyou is slightly marginalized in this story. I think the largest reason for that is my belief that if Ranma shattered his ties and started over with his fiancees, then Ukyou had the best chance to win Ranma. That means that these changes annoy/affect Ukyou only by destroying the status quo. She has little reason to be upset with the changes, and her taking advantage of the changes would occur after the end of the story.
Kodachi is completely marginalized, as her desires don't matter to anyone else, and she doesn't care what happens within reality. So there's no reason for her to appear unless the author wants her.