Ranma 1/2 : A Mothers Resolve
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is property of Rumiko Takahasi and Viz Media respectivly, and I lay no claim to their ownership. This is purely a work of fiction written for personal and public entertainment and published only on . Please do not repost.
Chapter 5 : The Secrets of Mothers.
Genma decided that interupting Nodoka at the time would have been a mistake, mainly because he remembered some of the 'many' instances of improperly prepared magical situations over the past year. To his suprise, most of them were not his fault. He knew that Ranma had a tendancy to lure trouble, a tendancy that had helped the boy become the powerful martial artist that he had hoped the boy would become. His views about women didn't apply to his wife for a few reasons, most of which involved either her ever present katana, or her tendancy to use magical charms. He personally wondered why she had to take on the roll of a traditional housewife in Nerima. It made her stick out like a sore thumb. At his wife's 'subtle' encouragement with her katana, he left for a training trip, and wouldn't be back for about a month.
Nodoka had to put more detail into the charm she was preparing for her son than the one she prepared for her husband. A giant panda didn't really need cloths, so that aspect wasn't included. A teenage girl, however, needed to have a sense of modesty, even if she was normally a guy. Nodoka had recently invited her son over, refraining from telling him about the trigger. She knew that Ranma would need some good news in his life, but she needed to get him used to being a girl every now and then. She had prepared a little something for Ranma to accept his condition, and as a way for her to bridge the gap that had formed between them over the last eleven years. Just as she finished the last touches of her project, the doorbell rang to anjnounce her guests.
Nodoka was quick to welcome them into the living room with tea at the ready. She had planned to be subtle at first, but she knew ranma would become suspicious, so she threw that plan out the window. "Ranma I need to tell you something" Nodoka brought out the seppuku contract, causing Ranma and Akane to freeze for a moment. Nodoka smiled and continued "I first have to mention that I would never have held you to this. This was just something that I used to try and keep Genma from doing anything stupid during that training trip, something that utterly and completely failed, as you may already know." She smiled at their relief, and went on. "This will be destroyed at the end of the day, but I need to tell you something else. Ranma, I have recently found out something about your curse..."
Ranma was quick to jump to that. "Have you found out how to cure me?" Akane rolled her eyes, and Nodoka frowned, continuing with her conversation, "Ranma, I am sorry, but i have recently found out that there is no safe way to remove you curse. Any method that might pull it off would cause permanent damage to your mind." This was not the kind of news that Ranma wanted to hear, but Nodoka continued, if only to help him deal with the fact. "I can do a few things about your predicament however." Nodoka opened a box and pulled out a paper charm. "I am sure you are curious why I have this, and I would understand if you were hesitant to let me use it on you, so I will explain."
"First I need to explain what happens to Genma's cloths when he transforms." Ranma had wondered about that, considering that he never had a gi on when he was a panda, but always when he changed back. "I gave him a charm, not much unlike this one, one that allows his cloths to enter a version of a hyperspace pocket." Nodoka stopped long enough to ask her son something important. "You do know what a hyperspace pocket is, don"t you?"
Ranma smiled and proudly answered his mother. "It is a pocket of space kept in a parallel physical plane utilizing a frequency of parallel energy signatures that don't cancel out. It basically means that the pocket can exist in two places at the same time." Ranma finished his little explanation to find his mothers a bit shocked and Akane's jaw on the table. He pulled out the thermous he had decided to carry around for when he got wet. "It's how I store this away, and how Mousse hides all his weapons." Akane was quick enough to recover her jaw, but still felt a little shaken up at the sudden revelation of Ranma's paractical use of transdimensional utility.
Nodoka herself was trying to recover from her son's flawless discription. He certianly didn't hold back, and he sure as heck laid it out flat. It was obvious that she was going to have to go over the practices of subtlety with him at a later date. She shook her head, this was going to be a long and eventful four weeks. Especially since the nannichuan would be stuck in customs for a while. It always took at least a month for the water to be processed, mostly since Jusenkyo water was clasified as 'dangerous material' much to her relief. Nodoka decided to bring out a package she had prepared for her son as a sort of payback for hiding from her with the whole 'Ranko' and 'Mr Panda' incident.
Nodoka first grabbed the charm, and asked her son a question "Ranma, tell me honestly, do you trust me?" This was the question that was going to determine everything that was going to happen in the coming weeks. Ranma was taken aback by the question, more so as his mother was holding a magical charm, and he had do ask "Mom, did you make that?" That was a question that Akane didn't expect Ranma to ask, and she looked at Nodoka with a bit of shock. Nodoka set the charm down and sighed. This was going to be a long night.
"Yes Ranma, I did. I know I portray the image of a Yamato Nadeshiko, but in reality, I am anything but a stereotype." Nodoka paused and picked up the charm again. "I began training as an enchantress when i was no older that you, when you father took you away for your training as a marial artist. You may not realise it, but magic was ruthlessly persecuted up until a half-century ago. Many who still practice magic do so in fear of persecution." Nodoka looked up and smiled at the two teenagers in front of her. "But it seems that trying to look like a traditional mother, I stood out like a fireworks display."
Ranma listened to his mothers words, and realised that there really wasn't anything normal in Nerima. "Yeah, I guess you got a point." Ranma fidgeted a bit at his mother's earlier question, and decided to answer. "I do trust you mom, it's just, it's a lot of news to just be dropped on me ya know?" Ranma was more than uncomfortable with the situation. His mother was a magic user, he could never be cured outright, and he was likely to be on the recieving end of more magic. "any other surprises?" Ranma wanted this over with, too many shocks in one day.
Nodoka gave her son a smile, and handed him a vial of fluid. "Yes actually, first, that potion will end up locking you in female form for four weeks." Nodoka started laughing Ranma's jaw slammed on the table, and Akane's eyes went the size of of small plates. "Wh-what?" Ranma got out as his mother recovered from laughter. "You see, the trigger on your curse can be rewritten, but you get locked for a few weeks while the re-writting takes affect. That potion does both jobs." Nodoka took the vial back and raised the charm. "So, my son, you want to get started?"
Ranma grimmaced, and reluctantly accepted. Nodoka placed the charm on Ranma's throat, and no sooner than it was placed, it began to glow blue and emit a purple smoke. "Alrignt son, I need you to breath deeply, and resist vomiting." Ranma complied with his mother, although the scent of the smoke was barely more tolerable than Akane's cooking. The charm basically disintegrated into smoke and entered his body upon his deep breath, and Ranma was looking a bit pale as a result. Nodoka let him rest for a while, and waited for him to recover. "Now son, that smoke will allow you to change cloths when you change gender. You will need to use your hyperspace pocket for you wallet and such, but gender specific things will be safe with your cloths."
Ranma was still a little dizzy, but understood what his mother said. She then gave him a pitcher of ice water and the vial. "Use the bathroom dear. First drink the potion, then splash yourself. It's the only way to do it properly." Nodoka watched her son walk out of sight towards the bathroom, and picked up the package with a devilish smirk. "Auntie, what is in that package?" Nodoka went full blow cheshire grin at that question. "Just something to make sure that Ranma will know he is a girl for the next month." At that moment, Ranma-chan called out in her mother.
When Nodoka got to the bathroom, she handed her naked daughter the package, then left and locked the door from the outside. Ranma-chan was curious as to why her mother did that, right up until she saw what was in the package. Inside was a red skirt, a black blouse, a pair of black three inch heels, and to top it all of, a set of lacey black panties and a lacey black bra. To say that Ranma was not impressed was to say that Ryoga got lost easily. Her reaction to the garments before her was understandable.
Akane jumped at the scream while Nodoka smiled wickedly. She was going to have a lot of fun these next four weeks, and she suspected that her 'daughter' would as well, once she got over her fathers idiocy on manliness and women's roles in the world. "Akane, I think you will like what I have planned for my 'daughter for the first week." Nodoka filled in Akane what she prepared for Ranma-chan that week, and saw the young woman burst into a fit of giggles. She handed Akane a package and went to retrieve her daughter, which Akane hid in her purse as she heard them returning.
"Now Ranma-chan, I know you may not like it right now, but I wan't you getting used to things other than the same chinese outfits you always wear, and for that, we need to go shopping." Ranma grimaced. She didn't like shopping, and while she had disguises, she had no casual female cloths. Upon seeing Akane grinning madly, Ranam-chan got a twinge of fear. "But before we go out today, there is one more thing we need to address." Nodoka said as she walked her daughter into her room and akane followed right behind. "You look beautiful, but you could stand for some makeup." to which Akane brought out the makeup kit Nodoka had just given her. Ranma new this was going to be a long day.
Sorry for the long delay, everyone. But when I recieve negative reviews or notes, it really brings down my desire to write or type anything. If you have something negative to say, please keep it to yourself. Constructive criticism is welcome, but please be polite about it. I am writing this story for my own entertainemt, and am posting it for the entertainemt of others. Please keep that in your thoughts the next time you type a review or leave a note.
As to the next chapter. Look forwart to the first week of Ranma-chan month as a full time girl. Kuno bashing, smashing and slashing ahoy!
