Kingdoms being at war with one another had been a long and tumultuous road for all civilians. It has been a constant for humanity since civilization began. That was, until The Goddess showed up, and blessed the four Kingdoms of Alganon with a long and lasting peace. Shirya, Wallka, Zyopa, and Gryoih had never known peace before her arrival. She brokered treaties, created trade routes, and brought aid to those in need. In return, the nations had to follow her rules to be graced with her favor.
This proved to be the most difficult with the nation of Shirya. Shirya was in the mountainous region of Alganon which kept it more isolated than the rest of the countries. They had a private culture filled with secrecy and a reputation for having "Mad Kings." They were fine with war and had less desire for lasting peace. They refused to participate in trade and wanted their borders to remain closed. The Goddess made many concessions to bring the Nation of Shirya under her wing. She had rules about arranging marriages between the kingdom's royals to promote a family-like culture between the nations. Shirya refused to participate in this as well, but the Goddess left this alone as long Shirya did not initiate war and treated its citizens with dignity and respect.
This changed when Shirya refugees began entering other nations with stories of the cruel regime of Mad King Gosunkugi. The Goddess who loathed cruelty and war made the decision to use her divine might to bring the Nation of Shirya to its knees. The wealthiest kingdom of Wallka led the war effort under the direction of King Genma. The king worked with a rebellion force within Shirya which was led by a well-respected warrior, Soun Tendo.
Wallka only took the bordering villages when the Goddess ordered the invasion stopped as King Gosunkugi had surrendered and agreed to the terms of treating its citizenry better and participating in giving up his only daughter to have an arranged marriage with King Genma's son. Many privately felt that the Goddess was naive about this decision, but those devoted to her believed her mercy and desire to avoid hypocrisy in her peace-focused rule was what made her powerful enough to truly bring harmony to Alganon.
"How did it come to this?" Akane said aloud as she stared at the metal bars of her cell. She was dirty and had been given only scraps of food for days. Her angry and vengeful thoughts swarmed her mind interrupting her attempts at sleep. As far as she was concerned, "The Goddess'' had abandoned her people. How could she have chosen to retreat just because King Gosunkugi had made such halfhearted claims and promises?
The Goddess put no protections in place for those that had helped her invasion force. The minute Wallka's soldiers were gone an utter slaughter began and the leaders of the rebellion were captured. Memories of Akane's father begging the Wallkan soldiers not to abandon them were still fresh in her mind. Akane watched as her comrades were killed in front of her by King Gosunkugi's Royal Army. To both her surprise and horror, instead of being killed there, her father and sisters were captured and dragged all the way to the capital city's royal dungeon. As she sat inside the dark and damp prison cell her thoughts drifted towards her family.
"We're probably all going to be publicly executed," Akane voiced what she thought was her deepest fear. She didn't realize how much worse it could get or the kind of crazed man Gosunkugi really was.
"Stand."
A booming guard's voice startled her in the darkness. Akane stood and took tentative steps toward the metal bars. He grabbed a key off the wall and unlocked the door and took a step inside the cell.
"Put out your hands."
Akane had a rush of thoughts about using her martial art skills to knock this guard out and attempt an escape, but she thought better of it. She needed to find out where Kasumi, Nabiki, and her father were. She couldn't bare the idea of leaving them behind in this hellhole. Hesitantly, she put out her hands and watched the guard place cuffs on her wrists. Despite the dark, she now saw an extra chain hanging from the center of the cuffs with something dark blue at the end of it. The guard reached for it and brought it toward her neck. That was when she realized it was a collar.
"Overkill for just one female prisoner, don't you think?" Akane sneered.
"Be quiet, traitor."
And with that, the guard grabbed a long chain that yanked both Akane's wrists and neck forward in the direction he began walking.
Akane's whole chest was on fire with rage as she walked along the lengthy corridors. The only traitors here were the King and those who served him. She bit her tongue though. She had heard the rumors of what it was like to be a prisoner of the Mad King Gosunkugi. Akane had no desire to be his next victim.
Soon the long dark corridors lead to beautiful hallways with marble floors and the smell of new furniture. Before Akane knew it they were standing in front of two huge wooden doors. The guard pulled a rope, a bell rang, and then the doors began opening. Inside was an opulent room with a massive golden throne at the end of the room. A scrawny hollowed-eyed man sat there with his legs crossed and eyes looking down upon Akane with disdain.
The guard pulled Akane into the center of the room and she suddenly felt the sharp pressure of a kick to the back of her legs making her land on her knees.
Akane gritted her teeth in disgust at the situation, but the feeling was quickly replaced by mild panic. Why was she in the throne room with King Gosunkugi? She was fully expecting to be publicly executed, not to be in the direct presence of one of the most private kings that Shirya had ever experienced. It wasn't just his unusual appearance that caused this deep discomfort that was rising into fear.
King Gosunkugi bent his head to the side in an eerie way as though he could read Akane's mind. A wretched smile crept across his face.
"You're quite a manly-looking girl, aren't you," were the first words King Gosunkugi spoke to Akane.
"That's good for me then. I would never want to be desirable to a scrawny deranged king!" Akane retorted.
"You won't have that attitude for much longer. I happen to know a lot about you, Akane Tendo. You're headstrong, loyal, capable, and most of all your family is really important to you. Unlike your sister Kasumi who is soft and doesn't do well in the art of deception and unlike Nabiki who is too conniving to be trusted - you're the perfect girl for my plans. I know enough about you that you would sacrifice anything, even your life if it meant that your sisters and father would be spared. Am I wrong?"
"..."
"Your silence tells me that I'm right."
All of a sudden, a guard entered from a side door with a prisoner chained in the same way as Akane. As the prisoner approached the throne she got on her knees obediently and that was when Akane realized who she was.
"Kasumi?!"
Kasumi looked over and it became clear she was emaciated and bruised. Her eyes looked vacant and defeated.
Akane could hardly stand it and lunged towards the king, "What did you do to her!?" Only to have the guard yank her chains hard enough to make her fall forward onto her face. She looked as though she was giving the king a deep bow.
The king condescendingly smiled, "That's more like it."
Akane screamed, "Shut up, you monster! Kasumi is just a cook! She has nothing to do with the rebellion! What are you doing to her!?"
"She's a tool to get what I want. I give you my word that I will spare her and your entire family if you work with me, Ms. Akane Tendo. If you, unfortunately, decide not to, I will torture them all to death and make you watch. I'll make sure to kill you last." He spoke plainly.
"...What is it that you want from me?"
King Gosunkugi made a motion with his hands and the guards took Kasumi and Akane and connected their chains to metal brackets on the floor. Then the guards exited the room.
"As I am sure you know, there aren't many that are actually loyal to me. Even within this palace, I know that many want me dead. I have never been assassinated because no one wants to go against the Goddess's rules. Once she revoked her favor, it became clear to me that there were many snakes in my den. I had to go into hiding within these very walls to protect myself and my daughter, Princess Kaori, from this country's nobility. I will never put myself in a vulnerable position again. Now that the Goddess has given me back her favor, the people and more importantly the nobles follow my directions."
"I'm…not following," Akane tentatively responded.
She heard a long loud sigh come from the king, "Since you are a commoner of this nation you are probably the most ignorant on The Goddess of all the peoples of Alganon. That is all by the design of my ancestors. This nation will never make our people the religious slaves of the Goddess as the other countries have. But, your ignorance means you don't know all the rules she has for royals to prevent war. She has such strict rules of succession and marriage. Shriya's royals agreed to some of them to gain her favor because without that decision our nation would likely have collapsed after an all-out war with our allied neighbors. We needed time to build ourselves up and thus we played by a few of her rules to get aid and acceptance. Our great nation has been preparing for a long time for such a great war. Generations of our rulers have been preparing since The Goddess arrived and imposed her morals on us. We were still not ready when we were invaded, but we will be soon. I just need to buy time and appease The Goddess and the lackey nations."
Akane nodded to appease him, but still felt confusion riddled with anxiety at not knowing why he was explaining all of this to her…the daughter of a Shiryian "traitor" according to him.
"Anyway, Ms. Akane Tendo, her rules are that only a firstborn son of a high-born first wife may succeed the throne or the eldest male related to the king if he has no heir. As I am sure you are aware the queen is dead and I only have one daughter. Given my reputation and then the added fact that the Goddess revoked her favor none of the nobles would offer up a daughter for me to marry. I will get around this eventually, but to get Wallka to stop the invasion I had to offer up something good. Wallka knows I have no sons or living male relatives. That means if my daughter has a son with Prince Ranma they will have a claim on the throne of Shirya. I can't let that happen. I need a stand-in."
"Won't the Goddess just revoke her favor once the deception is revealed?" Akane asked.
"She will, but by then Shirya will be ready to take a stand against her."
"...you want ME to be your stand-in?! I can't possibly pull off being a royal. And why would I EVER help you start war!?" Akane shouted.
"Why indeed. I can think of a few. The first reason would be right there," King Gosunkugi's long thin finger pointed at Kasumi's withered form.
"I already told you what I would do to your family if you refuse, Ms. Akane Tendo. I will torture them beyond recognition. If you marry Prince Ranma and reveal that you are not my daughter - I assure you that your entire family will be dead before Wallka's invasion force can get to the capital city. The nobility is wary of me and I don't have enough intelligence on any one person to know if I can blackmail them into doing this, except of course you, Ms. Tendo. As one of the daughters of the Rebellion General, I know a great deal about you. I truly think, for your family, you would do anything."
"...You're disgusting. But, even if I wanted to do this I think I would be found out right away. I don't know a thing about being a royal." Akane sheepishly responded. Her head was spinning. How could the king truly be requesting such an insane plan? He truly was as insane as the rumors throughout Shirya said he was. Everyone distrusted this mad man, no wonder the nobles avoided and made excuses to not have their daughters arranged to marry him after the Queen's passing.
"Well, you have some advantages in this. Shirya is an isolated nation. The royals of the other nations know nothing about how we do things or behave. They don't know my daughter's name or what she looks like. They probably already believe us to be uncivilized savages. Also, if it wasn't for The Goddess's decision to withdraw - your father's rebellion forces wouldn't have been destroyed by me. She led me right to them. At the very least, do you really think that she should be the unquestioned leader of Alganon when she's so naive? Frankly, she deserves to face some consequences for being this gullible."
Then King Gosunkugi banged madly on a bell next to his throne and the guards came back into the room. He made a motion with his hand and then one of the guards grabbed Kasumi's face and pried her mouth open. The other guard pulled out a knife and began trying to cut something out of Kasumi's mouth. Kasumi began screaming in terror.
Akane began desperately pulling on her chains with thoughts of breaking the guards' necks once she got her hands on them.
"STOP! STOP! You said you wouldn't torture her if I agreed to be your daughter's stand-in," Akane begged.
"Well…I planned to take her tongue to prevent her from talking about my plan, but I guess I do keep her completely isolated in the dungeons. I suppose If you agree to be my daughter's stand-in I will not remove Kasumi's tongue. Who would have thought it'd be so easy to break you? We will put you through some minor training on manners and get you sized for some luxury clothes. You need to at least look the part."
Akane gritted her teeth, "Can my family be given better conditions as part of this deal?"
King Gosunkugi stared at Akane for what felt like a century, but finally agreed and then sent her away. She was taken to a nice room and brought a decent meal. A beautiful woman with curly blonde hair came in to take Akane's measurements and told her that she would be her manners instructor in the following weeks before Akane would be sent to Wallka.
When Akane was finally alone, other than guards outside her door, her mind began whirling. Should she attempt to escape? No. There's no way she could find all of her family members and get them out safely. She did agree quite easily to the King's plan, but she wanted her family to live. She wanted to live. How could she just let her family be tortured and killed for the King's amusement when all he was really asking her to do was "play princess" for his daughter?
Akane found herself desperately trying to justify why she was going along with this plan. She knew that the consequences could possibly be very severe, but maybe the king was right and The Goddess wasn't the answer for peace being as naive as she was. There would always be evil rulers and kings that would find a way. Just because her strategies had worked up until now didn't mean that there wouldn't continuously be a slew of evil leaders that took advantage of The Goddess's gullibility. At the very least, going with the plan, for now, bought her and her family time. She'd try to gain more information about Wallka and The Goddess and see if there was possibly a way to stop King Gosunkugi and save her family from him.
Ranma:
After a long day of sparring with his best friend, Ryoga - a servant came with a summons from King Genma.
"What could Dad want with me?" Ranma complained.
"Probably something important, Ranma. He doesn't summon you often," Ryoga replied.
"That's what worries me. It makes me uncomfortable when Dad calls upon me."
"Well…you are of age, Ranma. I'm bettin' King Genma has finally decided who you're going to be arranged to marry. Do you have anyone you want in particular? I know you've met the princesses of the other lands"
"Meh. I've mostly been trying to think of which one my dad would most likely choose for me more than anything. He only has two options either Princess Ukyo of Zyopa or Princess Shampoo of Gryoih."
"You don't have a preference, Ranma? They're both quite beautiful."
Ranma heard the sound of his own footsteps echoing in the halls as he rounded the corner to the throne room. The sound made goosebumps litter his skin in anxious anticipation. It had been a while since he'd been face-to-face with his dad.
King Genma never included him in anything related to politics or skirmishes between the countries as Ranma was his firstborn son and heir. His father preferred to keep him in the dark despite it being deeply frustrating to Ranma. One day, Ranma would be king - shouldn't he know more about how Wallka should be run?
"I don't really have a preference, Ryoga. I don't really want to get married in the first place."
"I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to marry. Especially to one of two beautiful princesses. You don't realize how lucky you are," Ryoga responded with an exacerbated tone.
Ranma found himself at the entrance of the throne room. He watched Ryoga reach for the door handle and open the golden door. He deeply bowed towards Ranma signaling for Ranma to go inside. It always made him uncomfortable that his closest friend was also his servant. Everyone around him was beneath him in hierarchy, other than his father, and this fact made him question the genuineness of any of his relationships.
Thus, the idea of marrying someone he did not really know felt like it would be more of that same discomfort of not really knowing how anyone really felt towards him. He had met both Princess Ukyo and Princess Shampoo at balls and large royal events. They threw themselves at him as he is the only male prince. Whichever princess he doesn't marry would likely have to marry a nobleman in their own country. It would bring far more prestige to either princess if they marry him.
Ranma told himself he was probably overthinking things. The princesses were still royals and his status equals. The relationships, hopefully, would not feel as missed-matched as Ranma's friendships with his servants and guards did.
With his anxious thoughts swimming in his head, he took a step through the golden door and steeled himself to face his father.
"Well well, my dear boy! It's been a while since we've last spoken - hasn't it?!" His father's booming voice filled the room.
"Yes, father, it has been" Ranma bowed, "why have you summoned me?"
"Straight to business as always! Are you on your toes expecting me to spare right here?!" King Gemma deeply laughed and jumped up from the throne doing martial art poses with a huge grin on his face.
Ranma was exhausted by his father's obsession with one vs one sparring, but each kingdom did have its own philosophies around the fighting arts. His dad just happened to be extremely passionate about it. And this obsession of King Genma's made it that Prince Ranma was one of the best Wallkan martial artists in Alganon's history. Performing well against the other nation's top martial artists and consistently out performing records his ancestors had set. Ranma was, as his father said, an extremely gifted protege. King Genma wanted everything about Wallka to be preserved - their philosophies, fighting styles, wealth, and dedication to the Goddess. The King made sure Prince Ranma was the perfect Wallkan heir.
That's why Ranma knew there was no way he could get out of an arranged marriage to one of the other princesses. According to tradition, since he was the heir, if there was a princess of another kingdom available they must wed. Maybe he should count himself lucky that there were two. Ranma found himself wondering if maybe King Genma would actually let him choose.
"Not today, Dad. I expect this to be about the future queen," Ranma spoke with a begrudging tone. Secretly hoping his dense father might pick up on his hesitancy to be married.
"You would be right, my boy. A queen is nothing but a blessing! But, I have huge news that you will not be expecting. I have chosen your bride-to-be."
"That is not unexpected," Ranma's voice did not hide the disappointment.
King Gemma took a swig of sake and let out a booming laugh at Ranma's attitude.
"You will be marrying Princess Akane from Shirya," King Genma drunkenly and gleefully shouted.
Time stood still for Ranma. This was even worse news than what he was expecting. Firstly, he'd never even met the Princess from Shirya because Shirya notoriously doesn't participate in royal commingling and secondly, Shirya was a backward country of backward people. He didn't want to marry an outcast. Last Ranma knew Shirya didn't participate in arranged marriages. How did his dad swing this?
"WHAT!?" Ranma yelled. "They don't marry off their royals? Why would they start now?"
"I know! Isn't this great? After all these generations we finally have a way into Shirya! I know you have only heard small whisperings my son, but Wallka invaded Shirya. They've ALREADY submitted to our forces to earn back the Goddess's favor and to sweeten the deal they offered up their Princess. Don't you see? Your child with Princess Akane could put a Wallkan royal on the Shiryan throne if we get a male heir first. Even if that doesn't work out we will still be the first to have Shiryian royal blood in the family. If for any reason there are no Shiryian male heirs in future generations - Wallka will have a claim."
Ranma stood there with a pit in his stomach. He knew there was even less of a chance of him fighting this arranged marriage now. This was going to be a massive advantage for Wallka over the other nations. It could even mean that Wallka would absorb Shirya if everything worked in Wallka's favor.
"When will this marriage be taking place?" Ranma responded.
"The Goddess wants to do it as fast as possible to prevent the Shiryian king from backing out of the deal. Princess Akane should be here next week."
Ranma nodded and then stood in silence as his dad droned on about how he was glad that he didn't arrange for Ranma to marry Shampoo or Ukyo - that *apparently* he was a "genius" because he didn't make the decision prematurely. Ranma just rolled his eyes at his dad's conceited attitude and waited until he was dismissed from the throne room.
As Ranma exited the room, Ryoga was waiting for him with a curious expression on his face.
"Sooooo, is it decided who you're going to be marrying Prince Ranma?" Ryoga said in a mocking tone with an extra teasing emphasis on the word prince.
"Guess," Ranma said plainly.
Ryoga could tell from Ranma's stern facial expression that he hadn't received news that he liked from King Genma.
'Well, Ranma, I guess you did have a preference on which princess you were to marry if you're looking this grim after your meeting with the King. Knowing that - my guess is that King Genma chose for you to marry Princess Shampoo. At the last ball, I think I saw you and Princess Ukyo were getting along pretty well. I thought you would choose her….if you had a say, anyway."
"Wrong," Ranma responded.
"Oh? So, you actually have a preference for Shampoo and are going to be marrying Princess Ukyo? If that's true, I am happy about that. Princess Shampoo is a tad…eccentric. Although, she is beautiful."
"Even worse than that."
"Huh?" Ryoga questioned.
"I am marrying the princess of Shirya. Unlike Shampoo and Ukyo - she is a princess I have never even met. I don't know her personality, hobbies, or even what she looks like. Shirya is a freaky nation at that. I'll be the first non-Shiryian royal to be marrying a Shiryian. I…just don't like that."
"Woah. That is unexpected news," Ryoga replied.