The next morning, in the Nerima ward of the Imperial city of Tokyo...
A yawn escaped the chestnut-haired, middle-aged woman as she rose from her futon, she stretching herself as rays of morning sunlight shone through her bedroom window. Shoving the blankets away from her, she turned to rise, her feet automatically warmed thanks to the home's ontotsu -- as most Japanese did these days, she referred to the internal heating system imported from the Land of the Morning Calm by the local reading of the kanji used to make up the Korean word "ondol" -- pipes.
The doors to her bedroom then opened, revealing a raven-haired, brown-eyed girl dressed in a plain yet flattering kimono, a breakfast tray in her hands. On the skin between the flaps of her dress under her throat was a tattoo of the Saotome family mon. "Good morning, Mistress," the servant declared with a proper bow before she stepped inside to place the tray on the table. "Breakfast is ready."
"Thank you, Ukyou-chan. Will you prepare my bath?"
"Hai, Mistress. Right away."
With that, the servant departed. Watching Ukyou depart, Saotome Nodoka nodded in approval before she turned to eat. A minute later, after getting the furo going, Ukyou returned to fold up the blankets and futon, storing them in a closet. Nodoka continued to watch her servant out of the corner of her eye as she ate. Yes, Ukyou had come a long way since Nodoka had found the abandoned girl several years ago in a servant's auction house in Kyoto. Having been caught by local authorities disguising herself as a boy -- for a reason Nodoka herself wasn't aware of, even to this day -- the poor child was subjected to basic hypno-training in preparation to spend the rest of her life as a pleasure slave upon her reaching maturity. Nodoka had saved her from such a fate. Seeing something more within the young Kansai girl -- and, admittedly, feeling lonely in her home without the presence of either her husband or her daughter -- Nodoka purchased Ukyou and began to train her as a proper household servant. While her ownership of the younger girl could, if Nodoka desired it, last for a lifetime, the Saotome matriarch privately intended to wait until a fine young man came along to become Ukyou's husband, and then she would emancipate her.
In the innermost part of her own heart, the matriarch of the Saotome Clan of Nerima had hoped that she could find some way to allow Ukyou to marry Ranma if the opportunity presented itself. But alas, it couldn't really happen. As Nodoka herself had arranged with Tendou Kimiko years ago, Ranma -- the counterpart of Saotome Yumiko, Nodoka's daughter, from another dimension -- would be the personal yoojimbou to one of Kimiko's three daughters for the standard five year "indentured" period. And then, after Ranma's service was finished, it would be hoped that he would unite with his former mistress in marriage, thus allowing the dreams of Kimiko's husband Souun and both Saotome Genma and his own counterpart from another world (Ranma's father) to come true: the union of the two schools of Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu.
And, so Nodoka had dreamt of for so long, lots of grandchildren to spoil to her heart's content.
For most of the time since her husband and daughter had left Saotome-ke for their training journey, Nodoka focused her life's work on seeing the planned union between the Saotomes and Tendous come through. It was simply impossible for Yumiko to marry any of the Tendou girls, so she would, in essence, be held in reserve to be married off to some wealthy merchant's son should the opportunity eventually present itself. While a competent martial artist in her own right -- she was a third-dan in kenjutsu and kyuujutsu and a first-dan in iaijutsu -- Nodoka pretty much held onto more traditional viewpoints when it came to a woman's destiny, even in this day and age.
Thinking on that, Nodoka then frowned as she remembered the day she got the letter from Yumiko telling her of her husband's death thanks to a training accident. Sighing, she closed her eyes as she recalled her desire to see her precious one brought back home as quickly as possible. But it couldn't happen; the people who had rescued Yumiko from the fate that had claimed Genma had incurred an honour-debt with the younger Saotome, a debt that Yumiko -- rightfully so, Nodoka then believed -- had to honour before she could ever hope to return to Japan.
If that debt hadn't ultimately led Yumiko into the dark world of the Noir...
"Mistress, are you alright?"
Nodoka blinked, and then she gazed warmly at Ukyou. The latter had placed herself in a kneeling position to the right and behind the former, the proper place for a house servant to be when addressing her owner outside the bounds of a private meeting. "I'm alright, Ukyou," the Saotome matriarch assured her. "I was just thinking. I'll be ready for my bath soon. Would you see if the newspaper and the post have come?"
"Hai. Excuse me, please."
Ukyou bowed, and then she departed. Nodoka sighed as she turned back to her breakfast -- and her reminiscing. Things had seemed so right, even after poor Kimiko succumbed to cancer. Ranma's training in the world of the yoojimbou proceeded ahead without fail. Soon enough, reports of his growing skill and prowess began to appear in the media. Seeing those stories filled Nodoka with a special sort of pride, a pride only a mother could feel on seeing her own son (which Ranma had technically become despite his birth on another Earth) succeed in his chosen occupation. And once the debt to the Tendous was paid and Ranma was finally married off...
And then...
Then...
Nodoka shook her head. Oh, how could Souun have been so foolish?! To blindly incur such a debt with a powerful European family like the Chardins. And with the arrogant scion of the local noble house taking more than a proper interest in poor Akane...
Thank all the gods for the intervention of the Hana Clan! Nodoka had mused time and time again since the day Souun called her and told her the joyous news. Susumu Marie, Marchioness of the Dual Empires, third granddaughter of the late Princess Hana Nagaiwakai, would agree to take over Ranma's planned service to the Tendou family. Even more, she would gladly give Souun enough money to properly pay off the debt to the Chardins in exchange for a five-year period of household service to the Hana Clan as a whole by all three of Kimiko's daughters (the service by Akane later modified into a yoojimbou contract thanks to Yumiko, who, as per the traditions of the Noir, required a working partner, which Akane had agreed to become).
And best of all, since Marie-koosama was looking for a bodyguard who would also give her "full-use"-like service...!
"Mistress?"
Nodoka turned as Ukyou stepped back into her bedroom, a copy of the Teitoku Shimbun and a letter in hand. "Yes?"
Ukyou held out the letter for her mistress. "A letter from the Hana Clan, Mistress."
The older woman blinked as she noticed that the letter had no postage stamp on it. The wax seal on the envelope had been imprinted with the Hana mon, a symbol Ukyou had become familiar with since negotiations between the Tendous/Saotomes and Susumu Marie had begun. Privately wondering how the letter had actually come to her doorstep in the first place, Nodoka took it from her servant, and then she opened it. Drawing out the folded sheet from inside, she opened that and scanned the contents of the letter within. Her breath then caught in her throat as the letter's simple message sank into her mind. Spending a moment wondering what had occasioned something like this from the teenage marchioness, Nodoka then ordered, "Prepare an overnight bag for me, Ukyou. I've been summoned to Hana-jou."
Ukyou nodded. "Hai, Mistress. Do you wish me to accompany you?"
"Yes, please. I'll have my bath right now. We'll depart as soon as we can."
"Hai, Mistress."
Within two hours, Nodoka and Ukyou had stepped out of the Saotome home, overnight bags being carried by the latter as they headed to the nearest street-tram station. Once there, they only had to wait ten minutes to catch the next tram which took them eventually to Tokyo station for a long train-ride to Sapporo on Hokkaido. There, they would catch a train to Wakkanai, and then a ferry to Rishiri-tou.
Meanwhile, we...
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(Posted Wed, 30 Mar 2005 06:18)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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