Son Turned Daughter, Chapter 21
An unusual disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. And Son Turned Daughter was originally written back in 2002 by fanfiction author Tangent. Please see the first two chapters of this series under his pen name. This series has been written for noncommercial use only.
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Chapter 21
"The winner of this match in Martial Arts Fine Dining is (Ranma Saotome!)" Just as Referee Santa Kunō said the pigtailed girl's name, he turned away from the microphone his manservant had been holding near his mouth.
"The winner is the Anything-Goes Schools!" Ranma declared loud enough for everybody in the Fūrinkan High stadium to hear. The people of Nerima did not hear as they were cheering and applauding.
"Oh, Ranma!" cried Akane rushing to hug her girl friend. Their hoop skirts had to squash outward first, though.
"Oh, Akane," the red-faced redhead said, unable to return the hug. "This is embarrassing."
"You did it!," Mr. Tendō cried tearfully, attacking her from the other side with a hug. "You saved the reputation of the schools!" More of the hoop was squashed.
"Oh, yes. Great advertisement for the dōjō this has all been," Nabiki did not look like she wanted to hug. "Akane and Ranma can replace their dō-gi with hoop skirts."
Her sarcasm was wasted by being interrupted by the very pale, platinum blonde in a white gown announcing in the now hovering microphone, "Kodachi! Kodachi Kunō, I know you are responsible for destroying my latest boyfriend! Show yourself! You cannot declare yourself the winner of the event unless you do, you know."
The ninja manservant was now holding a huge picture frame behind her. Or trying to as she swept around the sports ring, looking for her rival, The Black Rose. She must be The White Lily, judging by the bouquet of them she held.
When she had circled around to where the Chardin party and her had been sitting, she looked down with contempt at her "latest boyfriend"(?), Picolet Chardin. He and Chance (and St. Paul, over by the table) were lying on the mat, unconscious, their mouths looking as if it would be difficult to push a straw through them.
Then the Anything-Goes party was surrounded by friends, schoolmates and neighbors swarming onto the stage to congratulate them.
"We knew you could do it!" , "Trust Raging Red to pull off a miracle!" , "Akane is the one who–"
An explosion interrupted everybody. People had jumped back from it. This left those in the middle of the swarm to see what had happened. Chardin's tuxedo was no longer white, but as charred as he himself was. And there was some bleeding, too. His staff of waitress nurses were hurrying to attend him and others caught too near the blast.
And the White Lily was nowhere to be seen. And her picture frame was gone to. With Sasuke.
Everybody decided it was a good idea to take the party elsewhere.
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It was Sunday and the audience wanted to party. The martial arts match was their excuse. Already there were debates and arguments about whether 'Fine Dining' qualified as a true martial art; but they all agreed go with the food theme for the day. And so, the crowd started separating into smaller crowds. Kasumi stayed with her father and his older friends and acquaintances who going to a restaurant they preferred.
"Saginomiya, I think was what Headcase said her name was," Yuka said inside the small crowd with and around Ikuko, who was leading away from Fūrinkan.
"Asuka Saginomiya!" Ayane told them. "She has quite the reputation."
"Asuka…whitish hair…likes lilies…," Shikako said. "I feel I should know her."
"Me, too," Makoto agreed.
"Forget her!" Hiroshi waved them off. "We're here to celebrate Ranma's win!" He reached to pull her next to him.
She easily avoided his hand. "Didn't you learn your lesson durin' out 'date', yesterday?" She glared at him, but he keep smiling like he thought he still had a chance with her. "Man, I guess you don't." And yet, for everything else, he was a coward.
"Akane's a star, too!" insisted Sayuri.
"It was my idea," Akane proudly acknowledged. "I was looking for the family baby carriage…" She was pushing it; 'Burin-chan', though, had escaped. "...I'm the one who remembered the box with the Yucky-Awful candy in it."
"It was more 'n just yucky Awful - disgusting is more like it!" Ranma pushed her tongue out of her mouth. "Can't wait to get to Ikuko's Okonomiyaki place and taste something good."
"What was that mystery box?" Ikuko asked.
"Oh, it was Dad's and Ranma's dad's master. He…." She stopped herself, hopefully in time. There were a lot of the things that their master had collected in their storage shed, half-attic and other places around the house. Her dad was too afraid to touch any of them. He told her and her sisters that they could be contaminated by them if they did. Being a kid, she forgot and found the box and the lozenge inside. Now, she didn't want her friends to know, because they might getting curious and end up contaminated like she had risked becoming. Though it had made her feel like a hero: taking a chance for a cause! She may fall, for the glory of Anything-Goes! Her childhood fantasy went on.
"What was that about the Technique of the Taoists?" Akiko asked.
"And the Secret of the Sages!?" Ikuko added. "That's what that French madam said you were using."
"The Daoists have whole libraries of different techniques," Akane said. "That's what Dr. Tōfū says. He's an expert in Chinese medicine and says everything is woven together and explained by Daoism's complicated metaphysics."
"Daoists have experimented with ways to be immortal," Gosunkugi actually spoke up. He considered himself something of an expert on subjects like this. "There have even been some who have lived hundreds of years!"
"Really?!" Now, that got Ranma's attention. "Akane, could that box be one-a their experiments!?"
"Uh…. You'll have to ask Dad about that."
"I can tell you!" Gosunkugi told her. "You were breathing in food. That must be the first step to eating only air."
"Eatin' air!? Nothin' but AIR?!" Ranma's stomach screamed at the void.
"And you'd have to first keep the Yucky-Awful candy your mouth for who knows how long?" Akane reminded her. Just the thought of that was threatening to make her puke again.
"Well, we're here!" Ikuko Kunoji said to get there attention. "The 2nd Branch Okonomiyaki restaurant."
"Hello, everyone," Nabiki said, having waited by the door. Unlike her sister and Ranma, she had thought to wear pants not pantaloons under her hoop skirt. And had stuffed a t-shirt securely in a pocket. It should have been more wrinkled than it was and somehow fit over her bodice well enough. She was glad she hadn't had to wear a corset, iron or otherwise, like the redhead was still doing.
"I thought you went with Kasumi and Dad," Akane told her.
"Oh, please. Me go to the Bathhouse Cafe? Just the fact that Dad and his cronies go there tells you enough about the demographics of its customer base. No wonder its struggling to survive."
"Bathhouse Cafe?"
"It's that place with the display case of plastic meals you passed, Ranma" Nabiki informed them.
"Half-way between the high school and here," Akane mapped it out for the new one in town.
"Enough about the competition, folks! Get in here and eat!" Ikuko ordered, locking the door and hurrying behind the counter-griddle combo.
"You added tables?" Nabiki raised an eyebrow. "How? This building is too narrow."
"I got a good deal with Tokyo Area Remodels, Demolitions, and Interiors Styled, Unltd." she explained. "I just call it TARDIS."
Nabiki wasn't buying. Especially as it seemed that everybody seemed to accept the sudden change as if it were old news. "Magic," she muttered and wondered if she should leave.
"I like it," Akane said. "It lets more of us in here. I'd hated whenever we were crowded together in here."
Ranma glared at Hiroshi and Daisuke (and a couple of other oglers she didn't have names for). "I think we should kick the guys out, anyway. Make this an all-girl get-together." The irony was lost on her.
"Sit with us on the counter stools, Ranma!" Daisuke 'asked'.
"Yeah, as if I wanna be where you can touch me with your knee. 'Accidentally'." If she were himself, he, too, would have let his knees out loose, instead of her having to imitate the other girls and annoyingly keep her knees closer together. Especially when guys were about.
Megumi, Ayane and Yasushi sat at the counter with the guys.
"Come sit with us, Ranma," Shikako invited and the smiling Makoto nodded. Ranma was swift to be sitting across from them at their table. Akane then sat next to her own best friend. Sayuri and Yuka had their chairs turned around looking at them and not Hiroshi and Daisuke on the other side of their table, forgotten.
"The clique's all here!" Yuka giggled. "And Ranma."
"Ranma's with Akane, so Ranma's part of our group, too, now," Shikako asserted.
"She's too boy for me," Sayuri tried not to frown. Her eyes flickered from Ranma over to Akane for an instant. They really were good childhood friends. But not perfect friends.
"But it's like Akane said, how is Ranma going to learn how not to be like a boy his dad raised her to be if she doesn't have girl friends around to help her?" Makoto said.
"Yeah, that's the idea," the redhead muttered. She was betting that that all that she had learned would stay in the girl brain and not pop up in his guy brain. Right now, the odds didn't look very good. She was almost enjoying being here surround by girl friends. What would happen when she was himself and couldn't have girls treat him this way?
"Ranma has real honor!" Akane assured her second best friend. "She only acts like a boy."
Was that supposed to be a complement? Ranma didn't want to be a girl, only fit in with them. No guy-girl complications.
"She's not a real boy, because she's not a pervert."
"You think only guys are perverts?" Sayuri rolled her eyes.
"They're also violent!" Yuka added to the list.
"Girls can be violent, too." Sayuri was about to casually mention a certain raven-haired girl who was sitting next to the redhead‒
Yuka was used to being the glue that kept everybody together; she interrupted with, "What about that girl in the ring, today? If there is a violent girl its‒"
"‒Asuka!" Makoto screamed! Everybody startled, the girl with the heavy bangs turned to the girl with the hardly any bangs at all. "Kindergarten!"
"You're Right!" Shikako paled. "The White Lily."
"The Black Rose."
"I'd forgotten about that!" Sayuri said.
"How can anybody forget that," Yuka shuddered a little.
Makoto and Shikako shuddered more. "We can never forget."
"Why can't I remember whatever you're all talking about!?" Asked a growingly frustrated Akane.
"Sayuri and Yuka looked at each other. Yuka volunteered to be it. "You went to Lizard Kindergarten like the rest of us here. Except Ranma. But you weren't there when it happened. Uh…Ryugenzawa? You family went on an early vacation?"
"Ryugenzawa?!" Now it was Akane's turn to shudder.
"Akane?" there was obviously something her friend hadn't told her about. Later, for sure!
"Back to Asuka and Kodachi," Sayuri told Yuka.
"We'd rather not relive old memories," Makoto and Shikako mumbled.
"Romeo kissed Kodachi. In public." Sayuri said.
"And made all the girls nearly swoon!" Yuka giggled, wishing she could be swooned.
"You're right," the two more severely traumatized said. "Ranma has to know. Romeo is her step-brother."
"Okay, you've got my attention. Now tell me what I'm supposed to know."
Over at the counter-griddle, Ikuko had her battle spatula our. "Don't!" she ordered Ayane and her companions. "Let them tell it their own way." Seeing the gossip intimidated, she said to Ranma, "Just about everybody you see in here went to the same kindergarten at around the same time. I'll keep everybody else out of this." And glared at everybody else.
Now Ranma had to get involved. If it was so important now, maybe there was something she could do it about it. If it involved martial arts.
Yuka began telling the story as it was told that protected the innocent. But not the guilty. "Our teacher thought we kindergarten kids should team up, boy-girl, holding hands. Kodachi did the choosing and it was the coolest boy, uh…" she glanced over at Makoto and Shikako "A-kun. Asuka threw an exploding flower at him, and took B-kun for herself. He was the cooler boy, she said.
"Things got worse."
"They kept throwing those lily bombs and rose bombs at them!" Makoto showed signs of PTS. Shikako was there to rub her back in a comforting gesture. One she needed as well.
"The boys were never cool again," Sayuri sadly shook her head in sympathy.
"Kodachi's dad owned the school, so it was only Asuka who was expelled," Shikako said. She took a deep breath and said, " 'A-kun', Botan, is my twin brother." She frowned at the redhead, "He got pretty much the same treatment from you."
"Me?! I didn't do nothin' wrong to nobody that don't deserve it! He hadda be in that horde of hentai I took care of!"
"He was, Ranma," Akane told her. "He was that sumō you used as a trampoline."
"See? He was in– He's your twin!?" The girl had a slender figure, stretched out by her height.
"He began overeating after what happened," she shook her head at her memories.
"And Makoto's brother was B-kun?" Ranma asked. "Have I met him?"
She nodded; it was Akane who spoke, "He's her step-brother brother and is the president of the Chemistry and Explosion Club. She has a keen sense of smell because she has to have!"
"Too many explosions…too many explosions," Makoto said, wrapping her arms over her ears and head. "It's not the Explosives Club; it's the Explosion Club!"
"As I said," Sayuri said, "the cool kindergarten boys were never cool again."
"And all because of Asuka and…" Akane practically growled the name, "Kodachi!"
"You knew about their brothers and you never asked why they were messed up?" Ranma didn't understand.
"Why should I've asked?!"
Ayane couldn't keep quiet any longer! "Because Kodachi wouldn't have kissed you if that hadn't happened!"
Thung~! Went the giant spatula against her head. While she was holding it, Ikuko went around, shoved the flat of the spatula between her butt and the stool, then lifted her up off it and hurried to toss her out before her straining arms gave out. She then turned and confronted Megumi and Yasushi. "You care to join her out there on her butt?"
"We want to stay and be entertained," Yasushi answered.
"Kodachi did not kiss me!" Akane said.
"But that was your big, important first kiss that changed your life(!)(?)" Ranma struggled to understand her friend. He became Romeo for her Juliet.
"Oh, wow," Yuka said. "Her denial is worse, this time."
Sayuri was on her feet, her hands gently resting on Akane's shoulders. But she was talking to Ranma, "After that, no boy wanted to go near Kodachi."
"So, she took it out on Akane!" now the redhead was getting the picture! "Her crazy dad owns the school, so she gets to be Juliet in a kindergarten play. It went from holdin' hands to kissin'! From boys to girls!"
"And we're all glad she did," Ikuko said, holding her spatula like a staff. "Every time Kodachi does look like she's grabbing a boyfriend, Asuka shows up and they attack each others dates in the same way."
"With big-girl bombs!" Makoto barely suppressed another outburst.
"And not just bombs," Shikako tells them. "Asuka also uses boobytraps. She hasn't any athletic skill like Kodachi has."
Ranma thought what happened at the Fine Dining Match. "And because her "date" today was defeated, she's sure Kodachi did it! She ain't interested in the truth, just their twisted game of revenge!"
"Their families are the high-and-mighty type," Ikuko told her. "If they actually hurt each other, it would cause it all to escalate! Things could become a full-blown feud, a Ketsu. It could take out more innocent bystanders than just the dates."
"That sucks!" Ranma exclaimed. "Hey, hold on! I'm, my, uh, Romeo is now s'posed to be Kodachi's date!?"
"We did say you needed to hear the story," Sayuri reminded.
"So you can tell your step-brother, Romeo!" Yuka said.
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It took long enough to finally get the too lingering taste of the Daoist (Taoist?) box lozenge out of her mouth and nose. But Ranma found she hadn't had her mind stuck on them, and on her stomach too much, too! She found the problems of her girl friends (almost) enough of a distraction. Still, Ikuko's okonomiyaki was a great antidote to bad taste. She had several of them. Mainly because the chef was feeling sorry for Romeo through her. Little did she know how much she was helping her 'brother'.
Then there came the time to think about the iron corset and tight bodice and stupid, stupid hoop skirt that didn't want to stay down. Take something off of it and – Fmphf – it would expand. Hers and Akane's even threatened to make the cheap, lightweight tables unstable. There would have been a waste of okonomiyaki and drinks on the floor then.
Nabiki returned from doing whatever she had been doing (probably getting the money from her Vulcan Enterprises made on betting on Fine Dining) just to tell her sister that their daddy and Kasumi were on their way home.
All three waved goodbye to everybody. And everybody waved goodbye to them; they wanted to stay behind and celebrate Ranma and Akane's victory earlier. (And it was easier to gossip and build positive and negative lore around them if they weren't present to correct it.)
And so they were on their walk home.
"Yes. it was a Fine Dining Victory for the Anything-Goes schools," Mr. Tendō opined, still basking in the glow.
"Oh, Father. Was that a dad joke?" Kasumi asked, sweetly.
"What? Oh, no! I just meant it must have helped our reputation. You know important a reputation is for a dōjō master, ha, ha!" Especially after how much damage his own master had done to it.
"Did you enjoy yourself at the Bathhouse Cafe?" Akane asked.
"Oh, my, yes! The Otsuka have the best ramen in town. I shall miss it and them when they find a buyer."
"As if she ever eats out much," Nabiki commented.
"Bathhouse Cafe? Why call it that?" the shortest among them asked.
"The answer is obvious, Saotome. Because it was once a bathhouse."
"Why isn't it one now?"
"The genuine hot spring that fed it kept becoming lower and lower," Kasumi said.
"They kept remodeling to account for it, but, in the end, the bathing area ended up in the basement," Mr. Tendō told her.
"And they made it even more beautiful, each time," Kasumi smiled at their memory.
"The problem is that the original bathhouse was bombed during the war," Nabiki picked up the relevant part. "They rebuilt on the cheap. The foundation may not be strong enough to withstand an earthquake. You do know about how people feel about earthquakes in Japan, Ranma?"
"Of Course I know! Don't insult me!"
"That's why they changed to being a cafe," Akane finished the story.
Or not. "There's a lovely and large bathing pool in their basement, still," Kasumi said.
"And stupidly large," Nabiki let her feelings be known. "It must be the size of an Olympic-sized pool."
"Well, the Otsuka family did want to attract users through a facade of luxury." At the moment, Kasumi looked like she liked facades. "Its just so tragic that bad marble isn't as strong as granite."
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Turning the corner, they saw a somebody leaning against the wall beside the Tendō gate. The woman no older than her early 40s was dressed in an elegant but not formal kimono that was entirely traditional. She also had her hair short or pulled off her neck as was the custom when in a kimono. What made her unusual was the long and suggestive item she carried wrapped in silk.
"She has sword," Nabiki said. Then lower, "There's no doubt about it. Let's call the police."
"Now, Nabiki, we shouldn't assume the worst in people," Kasumi said.
"Carrying swords has been strictly illegal since 1876. Why do you think our kendō-boy only uses a bokken? Though the way he uses it is illegal, too."
"Yes, we must show hospitality," Mr. Tendō said. "We welcome even those who are not strictly unarmed in their combat."
"Stupid as it sounds, I hafta agree with him on that," Ranma said, her elbows up and her hands resting behind her head. "You can't improve your skills if all you practice against unless you go against weapons. Then you end up with budō, not bujitsu, the art of winnin' fights."
"I, I…think I'm ready," Akane said. But received a big boost in confidence when she looked over to her sensei. Ranma was there step in when things became too dangerous for her against the swordswoman. All she had to do was to nag to remind her to back off until that moment came.
She turned back to looking at the woman. And had a sexist idea: This was a woman with a sword. Not a man. The thought did help ease her worry. Women had the reputation to be better at archery, not swordsmanship.
The woman saw them and stopped leaning. She drew herself up into a more dignified posture, and demeanor. She thought they were passersby, though. She could go back to leaning after they had passed by.
"Uh, Hello, there." He bowed "My name is Soun Tendō. This is my home."
The middle-aged woman bowed back and rose. "Hello, my name is Nodoka Saotome."
"Saotome?!" Soun cried, suddenly panicking. "You,you wouldn't be related to Genma Saotome?"
"Why, yes. I'm his wife."
"His Wife?! Uh, Excuse me!" he bowed swiftly before walking away a pace or two before running.
"Mom?" Ranma stood there in delighted shock.
Soun was halfway to the end of the block before he turned, waved and called out, "I'm only going to warn, that is, see if I can find Genma!" And he hurried even faster out of sight.
"Let that be a warning to you, daughter of Genma," Nabiki said in a loud whispered in her ear.
Oh, yeah, oh, man, geez, just my luck! Why couldn't she have meet mom when she was himself!? And s/he was in the most frou-frou of clothes, of course! No way could she present herself as a man among men in a hoop skirt and petticoats! The only pants she had on were pantaloons.
"Then this Chance person was correct when he told me my husband lived here. I had thought he must surely be mistaken as he said he had come about a marriage contract his master had for my daughter. But I have no daughter. Still I had to retain some hope of seeing my son again.
"Tell me, please, if my Ranma, my son, is still well? Why isn't he with his father, Genma?"
"Uh,..." Akane turned to Nabiki.
"Yes. Ranma is well," she said. "They are currently on another of their extended training trips."
"Oh, dear," the woman sighed. "And here I have waited ten long years to see them again."
"Stay! Come inside! Let's talk!"
'Ranma - Eeep!" Akane cried, realizing her mistake!
"Ranma? You have the same name as my son?" She was a little confused. "You are the 'daughter' Chance said lived here?"
"Uh, um, yeah. There are more girls named Ranma than boys(?)" Gah! Was there!? Her Old Man had always let her believe it was a male name, fitting for a Man Among Men.
"You're right. It has to be only a coincident. After all you cannot be my son."
"No, it is not really a coincident," Nabiki said. Akane almost yelled out her name in reprimand! But, true to her sister's character, she was hiding behind one hand the other in the form of "V" made with the index and thumb: the hand sign for "yen". Yes, this was going to cost Ranma. "You see, this…pigtailed girl, here, has amnesia." ('Amnesia'?! Akane mouthed the word.) "When your son, Ranma, discovered her, she latched onto his name and has refused to give it up. She's a great admirer of him."
"Really!? She is? He must be a true man among men, then," her whole body lost most of its tension. A tears welled up in brown eyes.
('She bought the amnesia?' Akane almost blurted. Unbelievable!)
"Yes, he can be a man among men. Even some girls find Ranma too much of a man."
"Oh, dear! I hope that is not in a negative way."
"I can honestly say that every time he's made an appearance, the girls admired him."
"My son, the ladies man!" Her face lit up.
"Oh, yes. Ranma is definitely that," Nabiki almost smirked as she placed a hand on the shoulder of the shorter girl.
Ranma had stood there, dazzled by the splendor of (his) mom. (He) had been taking in every detail of the stranger who had most often been on (his) thoughts. He could only wonder if she were still alive. Why would she have allowed the dirty, stinking Old Man take the six-years old (him) away from her - for ten-long years, now! - if she weren't? But she Wasn't! She was there–Here! (He) had to – had to – burn the image into (his) memory! If there had been one constant in his life was (he) he would be snatched away from those (he)she had come to care about.
She…. She. She was Girl! She wasn't the Son mom was looking for!
She should put this off until after she changes. Right?
"May I visit? Mr. Tendō suggests that he may actually find where my husband is presently."
"Of course, you may, Mrs. Saotome," the smiling Kasumi said pleasantly. "Why don't we all chat and get to know each other better?"
"Yeah, Big Sis, Why don't we?" want to, Nabiki said and thought.
Ranma had the premonition, or a great fear, that it could be now or never: What if (she)he never saw their mom again!? "Ye, yes. Stay. Talk. Visit. …Stay."
The little redhead was suddenly moving, quickly pushing open the heavy, wooden gate of the Tendō fortress.
On the other side, she forgot who was the host, so eager was she to welcome his/her mom. Kasumi, the true host, was amused and went in next. She had to pause to greet their guest properly until Akane and Nabiki were there with them. The polite formalities were done were done with mixed feelings by everybody but Kasumi.
Ranma's mom returned the politeness shown to a guest, but there was something beyond the obligatory politeness. It felt like she was genuinely pleased.
Of course she'd be pleased, the redhead told herself. She thinks she's gonna see her son again. But it's more important I see her.
Nabiki pulled Akane back, letting the other three go in without them. "She has a sword. Why does she have a sword? We know nothing about her other than she claims to be Ranma's mother. Now, let's get in there and hope the idiot hasn't already put her big foot in her small mouth."
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Luckily for Ranma, Nodoka had been busy complimenting Kasumi about the house, and her asking about "Aunt" Nodoka's house. Ranma, too, wanted to hear about (his) childhood home (though a part of her wondered if it was the girl brain that was more interested).
Finally they came to the end of the hall and the common room. Akane had gotten ahead of her pigtailed friend and was pulled her toward the table. There was brief struggle when the redhead saw where she wanted her to sit. Brief, because Ranma flipped her and told her, "I'm gonna sit near mom!"
"What did you say, Ra…Ran?" Aunt Nodoka asked.
"Her amnesia, remember?" Nabiki told her. "She took Ranma's name because she admired him so greatly. Now she wants you to be her mother-in-law."
"Oh, my. But Ranma is supposed to marry one of us," Kasumi said, still not getting with the program.
"My son has a harem?"
"A Harem!" Akane cried, getting up from the floor.
"I don't know where you got that idea, Aunt Nodoka," Nabiki said, not liking how pleased she looked. "Harems are rather rare in animanga." (At the time of her speaking.)
"Muyo! Who needs harems!" Ranma was satisfied with being in a clique of girl friends.
"We mustn't be rude. Technically, our guest is correct," Kasumi said in polite Japanese. "Our father and Uncle Saotome have had a long-standing marriage agreement. Any one of us sisters could fulfill the obligation our family is under.
"But, come, sit, Aunt Nodoka," Kasumi said, gesturing to the of the table opposite where their father sat.
She did (in the very traditional, and uncomfortable, kiza position). Ranma went with the seiza instead of her preferred way, knees comfortably out. Akane did as her friend did. Nabiki sat sideways, yokozuwari. She was on the same side as Kasumi, who had now lowered herself and was knee-walking, shikkō, out to the kitchen to get refreshments. This was so she wouldn't be towering over her very important and traditionally minded guest seated on the floor. It would have been rude.
"Tell me about my son, please!"
"S,he's a wonderful person. Somebody we can be proud of," Akane told her, while the redhead next to her blushed. Slightly. "Definitely not a pervert!"
"Not a pervert and, yet, has so many fiancées. I don't know if I should be relieved or worried. I was around Ranma's age when I met his father. But, then, my husband was over 18 and we could be legally married immediately."
"Oh, ho," Nabiki got the implication. The others, not so much.
"I'm sure Ranma, the son Ranma, definitely not the-this daughter Ranma, could be a pervert if you want him to be, mom!"
"So eager," she smiled on the girl who would be her daughter-in-law. "But we must respect the proprieties. Ranma is not yet eighteen, the age Japanese law demands the husband be before premarital activities."
"Oh, ho, again." Confirmation. Or Nabiki thought so.
"Yes, Mom," Ranma bowed her head. "I'll remember that." She then told herself, "Hafta wait!"
"I would ask you to stop referring to me as 'mom', young lady. You may, perhaps, do so once you have the signed the marriage certificate that authorizes you to, but until then the most informal I will allow you to be with me is 'Aunt' Nodoka."
Ranma's enjoyment took a sharp dive. "Aunt." It hurt to say the alternative.
Aunt Nodoka noticed. And softened. "I give you permission to call me 'Auntie'."
"Yeah, (ha, ha). Thanks. 'Auntie'," Ranma responded with a lack of enthusiasm.
"Since the subject is on you," and she also turned her eyes to Akane, "Why are girls wearing crinolines?" Even as she said this, Kasumi returned with a tray of treats, and back to walking on her knees again. In a hoop skirt. "...Well, you are martial artists. This must be a special technique." Kasumi's certainly was.
Only then did Ranma realize how much easier it was to sit on the floor in collapsible hoop skirts than in a chair. Even with so many wide ribbons on the skirt itself.
"That's right!" Akane told her, still proud of what they had accomplished today. "We won at the Martial Arts of Fine Dining today!"
"And Fine Dining requires you to wear…uh,..."
"They're French," Akane frowned. "Too French. The food, too."
"Japan has a large number of Michelin 3-star restaurants," Nabiki informed her little sister. "The judges are French."
"I know: We'll learn to eat kaiseki style, mom–Auntie!" Ranma had raised her hand in the air, waving like she wanted to get the teacher's attention.
"And dress in the most formal and elegant of furisode kimono," Kasumi added, liking the idea.
"Uh, yeah. That would be the most feminine of Japanese things to wear." Ranma's mood dropped further. She was being dug into an even deeper hole. How was she going to get out of it before she could stop keeping their secret.
"Now, *sigh* on to my husband. The last I heard from him was his letter that said he and Ranma were going to China–"
"A Letter! Writes you LETTERS? He never told me about no letters!"
"Now, why would he, Ran? You are really not a member of the family."
"That does it! I can't take it no more! That stinkin', cheatin', stealin' –LYING Old Man has gone too far, this time!" Her mania against Genma had returned in spades!
She was on her feet, reaching under and wrinkling the satin dress as she pulled up the crinoline rings together. Her frilly pantaloons were revealed. "Give me hot water! Hot water!" she demanded, fumbling with the drawstring. In her anger, she was making the knot tighter. Meanwhile, "Pop and me went to China, Alright! That's where he got me cursed with this, this–Aaa!" In her frustration, she snapped the drawstring,
and, then, started tearing at at the skirt material and ribbons! "I AM Ranma! I'm you're Son! I ain't got no amnesia! I turn girl!"
"Ranma!" Akane shouted. "Don't tell her the truth!
"No! I didn't mean to say that, Nodoka-san!"
For ten years, Nodoka had practiced every day for when it became her seppuku duty to cut off the heads of her son and husband as they committed hari kari. It was the more merciful way for them to die than by bleeding from having painfully cut open their own bellies. Afterwards, she was prepared to commit suicide herself. Day after day, she practiced so that she could make their ends a swift one; practice was the only reason she could overcome her aversion to the whole idea.
With practice comes habit comes reflexes. Everything became automatic: removing the silk, grasping the handle, swinging the blade,
Reality: she was sitting, the short girl was on her feet, the blade hit the hoop skirt's bodice.
Returning to her senses, she feared she had stomach-slashed Ran-ma! Hari kari without it being an honorable suicide! She put all of her remaining, fast fading strength into completing her murder out of mercy.
The sword was flung back by metal. Hope, regret, determination: "No more!" she cried and made sure the sword broke on whatever was protecting…her son.
Then she broke down, sobbing at how very, very close she had come to killing the one she most loved. And what made it all the worse was now she knew–felt!–she could never have done any swift, sure, clean seppuku. She would have made her family suffer an even more agonizing death.
"Mom?" Ranma had dropped to the floor and scooped the larger woman into her slender arms. If firsts were important, this was her first hug, the hug that she meant…and it meant something deeply to both of them. "It's alright; I'm alright. You didn't hurt me. I'm wearing a corset." And Ranma tears flowed freely now. "Not a manly thing to wear, is it?"
"It was the perfect thing to wear…Son," she said, running her hand through the red hair.
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The Asuka, White Lily arc is in Chapters 339-340 and is manga-only. The background of her and Kodachi, the Black Rose, is the same as I presented it here. I am the one that connected the incident causing no boy wanting to be near them again and that being the reason Akane had to play Romeo in their kindergarten play. I have always thought that Kodachi wanting to be Juliet was the perfect connection.
And, yes, the rest of the arc was about the Lily wanting to hurt Ranma and Kodachi wanting to return the revenge on Asuka's own boyfriend.
The Chemistry and Explosion Club made its first and only appearance in S1E2 of the anime.
And for those who don't know about Ranma's mom, Nodoka being obligated to to decapitate Genma and Ranma was the great justification for revealing that Ranma still had a mother, but why he couldn't tell her his-into-her secret. Only him being a man-among-men was supposed to allow him to live when they met after ten years apart.