Nodoka remained stoicaly composed as her son approached with a gajin wh... young woman in toe. There was something disturbingly different about him - she could see it in his eyes. His carefree spirit was gone and replaced with a wary maturity. Soldiers looked like that durring wartime, she realised with a worried frown and reassessed her son's companion. There was blood in their past. What had they been through?
Nabiki frowned herself as she beheld the blonde who was all but clinging to the boy. She'd castigated herself over her responsibility for his disappearance and he'd just up and run off with some floozy? If he didn't have a good explanaition she'd find some way to make them both pay.
"Mother, Nabiki," Ranma began formally and his tone caused Nabiki to start, "thank you for coming. This is my teammate, Millia Rage. Millia, this is my mother, Nodoka Saotome, and Nabiki Tendo."
"Pleased to meet you," Millia greeted them with a bow, smoothing out her hair - or rather, causing it to smooth itself out - as she did so.
Nodoka inclined her head regally in bare acknowledgement, "we shall see, young lady."
Nabiki snatched up the word and asked, "Team-mate?"
Ranma scratched the back of his head and wondered, "how can I explain this?"
"At the beginning, Son," Nodoka advised. "Shall we sit down in the shade?" Taking acquiescence as granted she moved to the indicated bench. "Now, Son, where have you been these passed few weeks?"
Ranma shrugged and rushed on with it, "we've been in America training under the X-Men ..."
"The X-Men?" Nabiki scoffed. "What would they want with the likes of you, Saotome?" The X-Men were respected heros, revered for saving Japan several times over. "You're a good martial artist, maybe the best, but you're no superhero."
"Ranma and I are Children of the Atom, Tendo-san," Millia answered for him. "We are new mutants."
"Yeah, right," Nabiki scoffed, then reconsidered. "You're not serious?"
"Oh, yes. That's why Mr. Sinister kidnapped us. He wanted ..." Ranma shuddered.
"He wanted us, or at least our genes," Millia supplied with a snarl, "and still may."
"So you've got another enemy," Nabiki observed lightly to cover her surge of guilt. "Same old .."
"This is different," Ranma said firmly. "Mr. Sinister isn't just a rival martial artist out to challenge me. He's pure Evil!" Nabiki flinched at the venom in Ranma's voice.
"And powerful, besides," Millia observed.
"Yeah," Ranma agreed with obvious dislike of the admission. "He's out of my league." For now, he added privately.
Nabiki arched an eyebrow to hear Ranma Saotome admit that someone was better than him. But then, he wasn't talking about martial arts.
Nodoka frowned as she considered the way the blonde and her son's eyes flicked about the park as if they were expecting an attack and not just from the ussual suspects. "I see," she said with a calm she did not feel. "So how long do you plan to stay in hiding?" She dreaded the answer. Let it not be another ten years!
"It isn't hiding," Ranma snorted at the insult. "Well, not quite. It's training!"
"We are students at the new Yashida School for Gifted Youngsters," Millia put in.
"Yashida?" Nabiki frowned at the name. "Not The Yashida!?"
"That's right. We will be training under Sunfire-sensei," Ranma said proudly.
"I see," Nodoka inclined her her head then noded. Yashida clan was involved in clandestine dealings, but Sunfire added more than a touch of respectability to the name. "I approve."
Nabiki snorted. "And you expect us to buy this, Saotome? Kidnapped by a supervillan, rescued by superheros, studying under a national superhero. Next you'll be telling us that you're going to become a superhero yourself!"
"Yes," Ranma replied simply. "We are going to be part of Japan's own Ekusu-Hito team."
"Oh, come on," Nabiki scoffed. "Even for you that's too wierd! We're going to need more than that if you expect us to go home and tell everone that we let you leave with some blonde gajin ..."
Nabiki broke off as Millia's hair rose up above her like a scorpion's tail. "This isn't a joke, Tendo-sama," Millia assured her. "We are mutants."
"Yeah, right," Nabiki snorted. "You'll have to do better than some martial arts technique to convince me. I ... eep!" She exclaimed as tendrils of liquid shadow wrapped around her. "Is that the best you can do?" she demanded defiantly.
"I'm not the one doing it," Millia informed her sweetly then turned aside to admire her partner. "Your touch is a lot more delicate now, Ranma."
Ranma grunted in concetration then let the Darkforce disipate. Holding, just holding, something with Darkforce was a lot harder than it looked.
"So you've learned a new technique," Nabiki observed as she smoothed her skirt. "Big deal. I've seen you do better."
Millia gaped. Not that they were really showing much power, but maybe Ranma's tales weren't such exagerations after all if the girl could not tell the difference; either that or the girl was an idiot.
Ranma considered showing her the true extent of his mutation but, "whatever," he shrugged. "What do you think, Mother?"
"I've seen martial artists use their hair as a weapon," Nodoka observed quietly, "but never make it move quite like Millia-san does. Besides, you would not lie to me about such a thing." If there was a touch of doubt in her voice, it was well hidden beneath layers of concern. "You are not going to be able to visit us very often, are you?"
"Yashida-sensi is very concerned about our safety," Ranma said, "and our family's. I guess I agree with him. It's probably safest if I ... don't see... you for a while, Mom."
"I understand," Nodoka grimaced. "I do not like it, but I do understand. What about your fiancee? What shall we tell her?"
Ranma sighed and braced himself. Akane being kidnapped to draw him into a fight had happened so often it was a cliché, but she'd never really been in danger until Saffron. Yet, like Saffron, Mr. Sinister truely was a deadly serious threat. It would hurt but there was only one way to stop Mr. Sinister from using Akane as bait. "It's probably best if we break off the engagement."
"Son, what are you saying?" Nodoka exclaimed aghast. She was a very traditional woman, though one with certain odd ideas.
"Hah! I knew it!" Nabiki gloated. "It's just an excuse to dump my sister after all."
"Like I need an excuse to dump that Tomboy," Ranma forced himself to say. It was strange how hard the denial was all of a sudden, now that he really wanted it to be believed. "Anyway, I'm going to be too busy training to be an Ekusu-Hito to have time for fiancees."line
"What about your family responisbilities?" Nodoka demanded coldly.
"I'm sorry, Mother," Ranma replied as coldly, drawing on the soul of ice technique to mask his emotions, "but I have other responsibilities now."
"What about your duty to the Saotome name?" Nodoka insisted and shifted her bundle significantly.
"You're as bad as Sinister," Millia accused hotly. "We are not baby factories!"
"Millia," Ranma cautioned.
"No, Ranma-san," the blonde assassin responded. "You broke us out of Sinister's breeding farm. I will not let your mother threaten you into something that is practically the same thing." She turned on Nodoka and accused, "I hear plenty of 'responsibility' and 'duty' from you, but no 'love'."
"You wouldn't understand," Nodoka countered frostily, her mind racing with images -mostly wrong- of Ranma's captivity at the 'breeding farm', "you are not Japanese." She eyed the gajin coldly, but speculatively. Her mind played connect the dots and drew an obvious, if erroneous, conclusion. "Ranma must marry a Japanese wife to provide an heir, but he may keep a mistress, or two, if ..."
"I've heard enough," Millia spat and stalked away, her hair swirling in agitation.
"Millia! Wait!" Ranma called then turned back to Nodoka and rose to his feet. "I'm sorry, Mother, but I must go now."
"Go after your gajin lover, Saotome," Nabiki sneered. "I'm sorry I over estimated your honor."
Ramna stiffened at the insult but decided, "a clean break, then. But I'm afraid you underestimate me, Nabiki. You should have learned never to bet against me." Coating himself in shadow, Ranma litterally flew to Millia's side.
"I'm sorry, Ranma-san," Millia appologised. "I should not have spoken so to your mother."
"It's probably for the best," Ranma assured her, though his mother's disappointment pained him. He cared, in his bones, what she thought of him. "It will be worth it if it protects them," he tried to convince himself more than Millia.
"You are very brave, Ranma," she observed. "I hope the others haven't been hurt as much by their families. Perhaps I am fortunate to be an orphan. But at least we have each other." She smiled at him breifly then glanced away with a blush. They'd thought he was her lover!
(Posted Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:34)
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