Genma glared silently. Ranma and Akane would be married, he'd see to that by fair means or foul.
"Foolish boy! Did you forget I know your greatest weakness?"
Ranma looked up with a disinterested glare. "I highly doubt that."
"Ranma... either marry Akane now or face your greatest fear!"
"He will not marry her! Get over it!" Rikku exploded.
"Very well Ranma." Genma said gravely, turning his back to his son. "You leave me no choice. Behold, the thing you fear most!" With that, the portly martial artist whipped around brandishing an emaciated, disheveled kitten which meowed piteously.
Ranma's glare went from boredom to angry contempt as he stalked across the room and took the kitten as he twisted the wrist that held it. "You jackass! Can't you see you're hurting her?"
The tiny cat curled closer to Ranma. {"Thank you."} She said in her native tongue.
{"It's nothing."} Ranma replied in kind, as he scratched at her ears. {"Are you well? Have you need of anything?"}
The kitten blinked in surprise, but felt it would be poor etiquette to disregard the question. {"The large human seldom fed me, just enough to keep me alive. Would it be too much trouble for a bit of milk and some tuna?"}
{"Of course, little one."} Ranma said carrying the kitten to the kitchen. {"Do you have a name?"} He asked.
{"No. I was in the place humans call a pet store. While the thin human there was talking to the clerk, the fat one picked me up and stuffed me in his robes!"}
Ranma frowned before throwing two lead marbles back into the living room with satisfying thud and twin cries of pain. "Idiots." He muttered to himself as he set a bowl of milk down.
{"Excuse me, but I've never known a human who can speak our tongue so fluently. How is that?"} The kitten said.
Ranma smiled as he closed his eyes a moment before he opened them to reveal golden slitted cat's eyes. {"Let's simply say, we are both favored."} Ranma said mysteriously, before returning his eyes to their human shape and setting the tuna down. {"I managed to find some sardines as well. I hope you enjoy it."}
{"Thank you. What are you called?"} The kitten asked curiously.
{"I am called Ranma."} He smiled as he returned to the living room.
"Ranchan, what was all that purring and meowing about?" Ukyo asked. "Why aren't scared of that cat?"
"To answer your questions in order, I speak cat, and I had to get over my fear of cats."
"Why would Ranma be afraid of cats?" Nodoka asked in confusion.
The room was quiet for a while before Ranma spoke again. "Yourrr fool of a husband tried to teach the boy an incomplete technique. And failed badly."
Rikku smiled. "Hello Auntie B."
Ranma smiled as his eyes became slitted and his body began to shift and change once more. His body grew taller and more feminine as light brown fur covered the former male's skin. Her face became more elongated and feline like as two ears appeared atop her head and thick golden hair cascaded down her back. "I am Bast, Goddess of Cats, and you, mortal, have much to answer for." She growled, glaring at Genma.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Genma said loftily.
"Do you deny starving dozens of my followers and then using them to torment my Avatar, he who speaks with my voice and acts on my behalf?" The slender cat woman growled, hauling the portly martial artist off his feet and shaking him vehemently.
"It was for the boy's own good." Genma protested.
"For your own stomach is more like it." She spat, flinging him into the nearest wall. "You attempted to teach my Avatar the Neko Ken, with no regard for the full repercussions of your actions. You just wanted an invincible fighter to win you prize money so that you could stuff your own fat belly."
Nodoka was livid with rage. "Genma! Is this true?" She snarled, drawing the Saotome family blade and advancing on her husband with murder in her eyes.
"Nodoka, peace. My Avatar does not wish him dead. I will decide a fitting punishment, but his life is not forfeit."
Nodoka glared hatefully, but sheathed her blade. "As you wish, Bast Sama."
"I must think on what this wretch of a human deserves. I shall return when I have decided to deliver my judgment." Bast said.
{"H-honored Goddess. A moment please?"} The kitten said nervously from the door of the kitchen. {"W-would you do the honor... of naming me?"}
"So you want a name, little one?" Bast purred as she scooped the little gray kitten into her arms. "My my... You're so thin. Barely more than a wisp of mist to you." Bast paused as she raised the kitten to eye level. "Yes. I do believe you'd fit that name quite nicely. You are called Mist now. Do you like that?"
{"Mist."} The kitten purred trying out it's new goddess given name. {"I like it very much. Thank you goddess."}
Bast simply smiled and crossed to Kasumi. "My Avatar tells me you have been caring for your home and family to the exclusion of yourself. It's never good to have such a lonely existence." The feline goddess extended her hands, offering Mist to the mortal girl. "Would you please take care of each other?"
Kasumi blinked and held her hands out as Mist carefully stepped from one to the other. "I'll do my best, Bast Sama." She replied as Mist mewed happily in agreement.
"That's all I ask." Bast said with a bow. "I shall return to deliver my judgment upon you, Genma Saotome. Until then." With those words and a flash of light, the goddess was gone, leaving her Avatar in her place.
"Ranma!" Nodoka exclaimed. "How can you protect-"
"My father? Your husband? Mother, despite everything he has done, for good or for ill, he is still part of our family. If he's dead, then he will never change, in this life or the next."
"Ranma you will marry Akane and that's final!" Genma exploded.
"I AM ALREADY HAPPILY MARRIED WITH A FAMILY! I CAN NOT AND WILL NOT MARRY AKANE!" Ranma bellowed impatiently, stunning the house into silence. "Damn it. That wasn't how I wanted to do this."
"I don't see how you had any other choice." Nabiki purred coiling herself around Ranma's waist. "Besides, If you didn't tell them I would have."
"You mean you married Ranma?" Akane gaped.
"RANMA, HOW DARE YOU CHEAT ON YOUR FIANCÉE AND WITH HER OWN SISTER NO LESS!" Soun roared, invoking his demon head attack.
"SHUT UP!" Ranma shot back. "I married a Tendo, so honor has been satisfied. What does it matter if I wed middle or youngest?"
"The schools must be joined." Genma said solemnly.
"And what does that have to do with anything?" Ryoga broke in. "You're being asses about this."
"Ranchan doesn't even practice Anything Goes anymore, so how can he unite the schools?" Ukyo piped in.
"Ranma must- urk!" Genma came up short as Ken and Rikku crossed their swords at his throat and Nodoka laid her blade across the back of his neck.
"Ranma doesn't have to do anything." Nodoka said coldly.
"He's earned the right to shape his own destiny." Kenshiro said levelly.
"So you can go suck an egg and just stay out of his life!" Rikku proclaimed, nodding emphatically.
"Mother, children, that's enough."
"Yeah right, those are really your kids." Akane snorted.
"You think I'm lying?" Ranma said coolly.
"You disappear for six months and then suddenly reappear with my sister, your other fiancée, that pervert Ryoga, and two teenaged 'kids' and we're all just supposed to believe it?"
"First, your sister is now my wife. We've been happily married for some time now. Second, Ukyo is no longer my fiancée. She was adopted into the clan as my sister, thus making her a Saotome and restoring her honor. Third, I left you more hints about Ryoga then you can shake a stick at. You consistently disregarded them. Finally, whether you believe it or not these are my children and I love them very much."
"Yeah right! They look nothing like you. The boy has blue hair and eyes that match, and the big busted bimbo over there barely looks like your girl side."
"Akane!" Nabiki growled as Ranma pulled Rikku closer to him.
"Oh please. Come on sis, the jokes over. Pay the bimbo and her little pimp and let's get back to our normal lives."
"Stop it." Ken hissed clenching his fists as Rikku huddled closer to Ranma sobbing softly.
"Oh, did I hurt the wittle bimbo's feelings?" Akane taunted as Ken began to shake.
"Stop it." He repeated as drops of blood fell from his clenched fists to the hardwood floor.
"Come on kid. She's too stupid to be good for anything but home wrecking." Akane said smugly.
"SHUT UP!" Ken exploded crossing the floor in a single bound to tackle Akane to the floor, repeatedly punching her in the face. "You don't know anything! You just take your preconceptions and run your mouth without caring how it hurts people! She can't help it she's big busted! She's your fucking family! Don't you even care about that!"
"Kenshiro, that's enough!" Rikku grunted as she hauled Ken back to his feet and dragged him away.
"Let me go, Rikku!" He thrashed in her arms as Nabiki came over to restrain her son and Ranma leveled Akane with a hateful glare. "I'm going to kill her!"
"NO!" Rikku exclaimed, tightening her grip. "That is not our way!"
"I don't care!" Ken snarled, shaking with barely contained rage. "She didn't care about hurting you, so why should I care about her?"
"Because, she's family." Rikku said softly. "Right or wrong, she's still our flesh and blood."
Ken didn't respond but his frenzied shakings soon reduced themselves to violent tremors.
"That little bastard hit me!" Akane gaped as her face began to swell. "Let me at him!"
"No." Ryoga said calmly, stepping between her and Ken. "After what you said about Rikku you deserve what you got."
"You're already on my shit list, pig boy. I have no compunction about going through you to get to him."
Ryoga settled into a defensive stance. "Try me."
"Is this how martial artists settle their disputes?" Nodoka asked seriously. "Name calling and wrestling about on the floor?"
"This will be settled in the Dojo! An official challenge, between Akane Tendo of the Tendo School of Anything Goes, and-" Happosai coughed from within his bag, cueing Kenshiro's formal introduction.
"Saotome Kenshiro, Student of the Water Path of the Omni Ken school of martial arts." Ken said, recovering his usual cool demeanor.
"All right! I accept! And I'll even put down a little side wager. If I win... Ranma severs all ties with you and comes back to me."
"Are you sure you want to do this Akane? This is a challenge approved by the current grandmaster of your school. Any additional stipulations will be binding on your honor. Are you certain?" Ken said locking eyes with the youngest Tendo.
Akane bit her lip in thought a long while before she nodded. "Yes. I'm sure."
Ken looked over his shoulder at his parents who gave him a silent nod as Rikku squeezed him from behind. "Very well. On my honor, I accept your stipulation, and if I win... I call for the destruction of the Tendo Dojo and it's sign. This is your last opportunity to back out, because I have no intention of losing."
Akane stared in shock. "I- I accept your terms." She said shakily. "And on my honor I will abide by them."
"Master, surely we don't need waste Akane's vast talents on some know nothing and his made up school!" Genma babbled. "I can fight in her place."
"If you require an opponent, I, Saotome Rikku, Student of the Fire Path of the Omni Ken school of martial arts will fight you."
"Hah! Like a scrawny child like you could be any challenge to me!" Genma laughed.
"Fine. They have their wager, so I'll make one of my own. If I win, the Tendo-Saotome engagement is permanently dissolved."
"Fine! But when I win, Ranma must marry Akane immediately!"
Rikku tossed a glance back at her family, who nodded. "Agreed."
"Then it will Akane vs. Kenshiro, and Genma vs. Rikku. Winner will be determined by submission or knock out. All techniques that can cause death or permanent physical injury are banned. All other tactics are permissible. Match to begin in one hour. Kasumi will officiate."
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(Posted Fri, 11 Mar 2005 07:14)
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