"A tournament?" Ranma asked sceptically.
"Yes, it will be perfect," Nodoka explained enthusiastically. "All your suitors are martial-artists of some type or another, so they should respect it as way sort this out."
"I don't think that will work, mom," Ranma cautioned. "We already tried something like that in the past. Like the rhythm-gymnastics martial-arts match where Kodachi promised to give up on me if she lost. It did not quite take and I doubt any of the other girls would be good losers either."
"That's why we had Nabiki write up the contracts this time to make sure they are ironclad. And with the ceremony held immediately after the end of the award ceremony for the victor there will be little time for them to go back on their word," Nodoka declared.
"You want me to get married after this soon?" Ranma asked shocked. "I thought this was just to decide who gets to be the official fianceé?"
"No, Ranma it is time to get this over with as soon as possible before things can get complicated again or your father has had the chance to engage you to someone else." Nodoka told him in no uncertain terms. "Everyone will have agreed to the terms of the tournament and nobody's honor will have been lost like it would have been if you had just picked one of them and ignored the others' claims."
"So, may the best girl win then?" Ranma wondered trying to come to grips with the idea.
"Exactly," Nodoka agreed, "except that Nabiki suggested a more inclusive entry criteria than that, since there might be others who are interested."
Ranma needed a moment for this cryptic declaration to make sense.
"Mom!" he yelled once he had finally figured it out. "Please don't tell me that Nabiki has talked you into allowing boys to enter this tournament of yours. I am a guy!"
"Don't worry son. I explained to her that you are my manly son and that I only would allow girls to enter. I made it clear that I would personally inspect all candidates to makes sure that all contestants were really female. And I won't be fooled by some cross-dresser. I have met that 'waitress' that works at Uc-chan's and wasn't born yesterday," Nodoka assured him.
"Thank the gods for small favors," Ranma sighed in relief.
"Nabiki grumbled a bit about lost revenue but finally accepted my terms," Nodoka related. "But she brightened up soon when she remembered something about instant powder on mail order for some reason."
Ranma groaned. He could see where this was heading and it was not a good place.
"What is Nabiki's involvement in this anyway?" He asked avoiding the explanation of instant nannichuan powder for the moment. "What is in it for her?"
"She will help us with some of logistics and legal aspects and in return we let her keep most of the proceeds from the ticket and concessions sales and a percentage of the entrance fees."
"I don't think that Shampoo or Ukyou will be very happy to find out that they have to pay Nabiki to participate." Ranma worried.
"The entrance fee will be waved for a girls with a valid engagement or similar claim. We have decided to include the Chinese girl in that category even if her marriage claim is a bit irregular. We have written all the other fianceés that your father could remember and informed them of the tournament." Nodoka told him happily.
Great, more fianceés, Ranma thought. And they are all coming here to beat each other up. No way this could possibly go wrong.
"How many people did this stupid Panda sell me to anyway?" he wanted to know.
"Not that many. And not all of them might even be interested even if you are a very manly man. We will have probably a number of girls who have already made other arrangements since my husband ran out on them or who don't wish to participate for other reasons. Nabiki has suggested that we round up the field and fill the slots of the no-shows with other interested parties who have no prior claim and can't afford the somewhat expensive entrance fee. She wanted to hold qualification matches open to anyone willing to pay a much smaller sum to see who would join the seeded fianceés, but I am not sure that would be the way to go," Nodoka finished her explanations.
"It sound like you have it all planned out," Ranma commented much more calmly the he felt. "Don't see that you will need me for any of this."
"Well we still have to decide about some details that I would like your input for, son," his mother tried to reassure him. "The consolation prizes for the runners-up for example. I thought that a position as officially recognized mistress for 2nd and 3rd place would be good; Nabiki says that would keep the final matches interesting. We are not quite sure what to do for the rest. I think that inviting all the also-rans for a communal night of celebration would go a long way to alleviate any hard feelings even if I find Nabiki's term of losers' orgy a bit vulgar. And then there will have to be a fair-play award...."
Ranma tuned her out mentally. The more he heard about this idea the worse it sounded. The tanto was beginning to look quite appealing by comparison with what the horrors his imagination was conjuring as results of this tournament. He would not even have to live to see it all go down in flames. He was likely to be a dead man as soon as Akane heard about his mother's plans. But he knew that with both his mother and Nabiki in on it there was little hope of him escaping his fate.
Seeing that his mother had finished talking and that he was expected to contribute he decided to ask a question about the more practical aspects of the proposed event.
"So what type of tournament did you have in mind anyway?" Ranma wanted to know. "Will it be a simple knockout tournament or something more complicated? The girls will all have their own ideas about rules and many of them will probably want to be allowed to use weapons, but I don't know if that would be a good idea."
"Oh, we have not gone into any of that yet," his mother replied. "You can help us flesh out the details. I just thought that we would have a simple..."
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