But, he slowly realized, his father didn't have the same problem, and it was his fault anyway. The old man was the one who'd decided that they'd go to the village and he was the one who'd eaten the damned food in the first place. And since he was already married, there was little possibility of him getting another wife, unless there was some strange law that he didn't know about. Not that he wanted Shampoo to be bound to his father like that, since, despite his dislike of the laws, he'd gotten along with her well enough, and putting her into that sort of relationship was... disturbing, to say the least.
Still, he couldn't pass up a good opportunity like this, and so he jerked a thumb at his old man. "So if HE beats you, there's no problem, right?"
"He beat us?!" one Amazon scoffed. "That never happen."
"But this is a tournament, right?"
"What are you doing boy?!" Genma snapped.
"Trying to get you out of this mess."
"How would what you're doing manage that?!"
The pigtailed young man smirked. "It's simple. They're having a contest, and what you ate is first prize. So, if you win it, then it's yours, and you can do what you want with it."
"And you want me to fight?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't you?"
"Because it's your duty to take care of this!"
"How do you think that?!" Ranma barked, glaring fully at his father.
"You're my son and that means that you have a responsibility towards me! Duty and honor demand that you help your father when he needs it, and listen to his instructions always!"
"Uh... no. You just want me to fight so that you don't have to."
"I can fight my own battles boy. It's just proper that you fight now. Besides, you should be thanking me for giving you an opportunity to get some practice in! And anyway..." the elder Saotome said, and then rubbed his belly. "I don't feel so well."
"You're joking."
"Why would I joke about such things? As a martial artist, I am the picture of good health. I am merely feeling... strange."
"Yeah, right! You're just trying to get out of it!"
"I am serious, boy! You should show more concern for your father!"
"Why should I?!"
"Because he is a rather stupid man?" murmured an aged voice, and the two males turned to see an aged woman standing on a staff.
"I know him, and he's always trying to get out of stuff."
"This time that I'd doubt it."
"And why's that?"
"Simple. The food that he ate was wax."
"'Wax'?"
"We used to use regular food, but that could spoil, and in my years as an Elder, I've seen some rather bad scenes when that happened. So, we got wax replicas made to represent the feast that would be given in the Champion's honor later on."
"So, he ate a... trophy?"
"Precisely."
Genma whimpered, and held his sizable gut as he bent over in half. "Oooh.... But it looked so good...."
"If it didn't, then we wouldn't have had a proper trophy. Though we don't have one at the moment, now do we?"
"How was I supposed to know, you old woman?"
The Elder whapped him on the head with her staff. "My name is Cologne, young man."
"Ow.... But I didn't feel bad before...."
"That because you ate so fast, you no taste food," one of the teenaged Amazons mocked. "When you eat so quick, you get many dangers that only start with bad tummy."
"See boy? You have to fight for me."
Rubbing at his eyes, Ranma considered kicking his father in the head, as he tried to consider his options. He had very few at the moment, and knew that it wasn't exactly a good thing to have happen. Yet, he had never thought that his father would be in such a rush to eat that he'd go for wax food.
Unfortunately, he could see the old man had done so, leaving him in a bad situation, while:
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(Posted Sat, 22 Oct 2005 22:08)
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