Ranma rubbed her nose as her sneezing fit stopped. Either she had gotten a cold or something from that passing shower, or this was what Setsuna liked to call a “sneeze of recognition,” which would mean somebody somewhere was talking about him, and in all likelihood, it would be ironic. Ranma hoped it was the former. She wasn’t sure that she wanted her wife to think too much about her until she was cured… if that was even possible.
Her father was taking her to his best friend’s dojo, so “he” could get engaged to one of his friend’s daughters so the two could “unite the schools.” Until recently, she hadn’t even known that there was more than one school of Anything Goes—although she had seen similar styles. That was how she’d met Akane Tendo eighteen months ago, after all, and if it hadn’t been for the Tendos, she’d never have met Setsuna Meioh.
Setsuna came into Ranma’s life almost by accident; when he had first talked about his itinerant lifestyle with the Tendo sisters, Nabiki had asked him how he was going to get his high school diploma. Ranma told her that he probably wouldn’t, since he could never get settled down in one place. Besides, his father didn’t seem to think it was that important; in fact, he was currently pressuring Ranma to drop out altogether and focus entirely on the Art. Quite frankly, this had floored all three sisters, who were quick to list all of the disadvantages of being a high school dropout. By the time they’d finished, Ranma had been more than convinced, but, as he pointed out, he didn’t know what he could do about it.
Luckily, Nabiki knew Setsuna Meioh, who was apparently some sociologist or something who employed the middle sister to gather various information about Nerima. The next time the two met, they’d talked about him at length, and apparently the green-haired woman had become fascinated by him. Ranma wasn’t sure why a well-to-do professional like Setsuna would find someone like him interesting, but he was certainly glad she’d found a reason.
It was Setsuna who had figured out how he could convince his father to let him stay in one place long enough to get his diploma. With her coaching, he had slowly convinced his father that he needed to graduate from high school to be a respectable citizen—though for some weird reason it didn’t quite take hold until Ranma started using the phrase “respectable man” instead. This, again, was at Setsuna’s suggestion. Genma seemed to see the argument’s logic very quickly after it had been put that way.
But though his father had agreed to let him finish high school at Furinkan, there were some very specific conditions. Ranma had to keep up his training to his father’s satisfaction, in addition to maintaining grades appropriate for “a respectable man.” This wouldn’t have been so bad, but what had made things really difficult was the final condition. Genma wanted his son to take a larger than normal course load each semester, so he could graduate halfway through his senior year—after which the two would go on a an intensive training trip for several months.
It hadn’t been easy, and he wasn’t exactly his class’s valedictorian, but through hard work (not to mention the capable tutoring of Kasumi Tendo, who met him every other day at the Nerima Public Library) Ranma had managed to compress his last four semesters into three, and graduate with a B average, which Genma deemed “respectable.”
But while Kasumi’s tutoring was, without a doubt, important, it was Setsuna who had really kept him going. She became his informal counselor, meeting with him every weekend so he could discuss his life with a neutral party, as well as work out a few of the social problems that came with being raised by Genma Saotome.
Ranma liked her. Setsuna wasn’t some wimpy shrink like the ones on TV who would constantly try to make you feel better by spouting off the latest psychobabble—if Ranma ever complained about something that was really his fault, she told him right away, in her brusque, no-nonsense tone of voice. She refused to let Ranma feel sorry for himself—for anything. Yet, at the same time, she could be capable of really deep empathy, when it was required. He still remembered when she had convinced him to talk about his mother, a woman he barely remembered and assumed was dead. It was the first time he’d allowed himself to cry in years, but she didn’t belittle him—instead, she’d hugged him, and told him that it was alright to let out you emotions sometimes, even if you did your best to keep the world at large from seeing them. And most importantly, she’d told him that she sometimes had the same problem.
In retrospect, it was obvious that that was when their relationship had started changing to something more than student and counselor; though they continued to meet in that context, they started spending more time together as friends. From there, things developed so quickly that Ranma didn’t even realize that he and Setsuna were dating until their first kiss, and he didn’t realize that he was in love until someone else pointed it out to him. (Specifically, Akane had clonked him over the head and said, “You’re in love with her, you moron.”)
That was last summer. Ranma and Setsuna had given up all pretense of “counseling” by his final semester, as their meetings inevitably turned into dates anyway. Still, even though their relationship had been great, he was still surprised when Setsuna had proposed to him a week before Christmas. The Tendo sisters had been the only ones present when the two had married on his birthday, December 27th, (the first day he could legally do so) and he’d become Ranma Meioh. He’d had to leave immediately so as not to make his father impatient, but he promised to return as soon as possible, so he could finally meet her friends in Juuban (and, of course, so the newlyweds could consummate their vows). He still hadn’t told Genma (who seemed to go berserk every time it looked like he was getting close to a woman), so he’d hide his wedding ring in his pocket when his father was around, but he was sure he’d work up the nerve to tell his old man soon, and then he’d be able to wear his ring around the clock.
Ranma’s ring was still in her pocket. She resisted the urge to glare at her still-human father. It just wasn’t fair; going to Jusenkyo had been Genma’s idea, yet it had been Ranma who had ended up with the damned curse. That Genma had picked up problems of a different sort while in the area was of little consolation—especially since her father seemed to blame his son for not remaining a “him” after getting splashed with cold water, as if the teenager should have known better. What made it worse was that, in one respect, her father was right—Ranma should have known better, though not because of anything Genma had taught her. In fact, this had happened because she’d followed his precepts, when she should have acted according to her wife’s advice.
It was something the Setsuna had taught her husband soon after the two had met when she was still just his informal guidance counselor. Three weeks into the school year, the stress of his heavy intellectual workload combined with his father’s demands for visible progress in the Art was already starting to take its toll. It seemed that he wouldn’t be able to meet any of his goals, and he was once again seriously considering dropping out.
Setsuna hadn’t let him whine; instead, she told him to suck it up. This was what his father would have done, but unlike his father, she gave him specific advice on how to take care of situations like this. To illustrate, she had then given him an example from the martial arts world, telling him about a tribe of women warriors in China who had perfected a technique called the “Soul of Ice,” which allowed them to detach their emotions from their surroundings. Once mastered, the technique let the user pull off devastating moves, provided that the technique be maintained throughout the emotionally intense chaos of a fight. The lesson was clear—when things don’t go according to plan, sometimes the best thing to do was to step back and think things through as neutrally as possible till you come to a workable solution.
At the end of the session Ranma had asked her for the name of the tribe.
“Joketsuzoku—the Chinese Amazons.”
While in high school, Ranma had learned the definition of the word “ironic” and could use it in a sentence. Two weeks ago, he’d discovered that using the word in a sentence about his life really sucked.
Nobody had been in the guide’s shack when Ranma and his father had shown up at the training ground, but there didn’t seem to be anything unusual about it—just some poles sticking up out of a bunch of springs.
Nothing notable happened during the training—the two hopped up on the poles, sparred for an hour or so, then came down. Genma was wondering what was so special about the Jusenkyo springs when Ranma realized to his horror that his ring had fallen out of his pocket. He started scanning the area (much to his father’s confusion) in hopes of spotting the golden band that his wife had given him. Thankfully, he quickly spotted it at the bottom of one of the springs. He was about to jump in when he heard the panicked shouts of a young girl behind him. He’d picked up enough Mandarin to know that something was wrong, but (in a decision he’d soon regret) he decided to follow his father’s lead and let him take care of the problem for once. And so, without a second thought, he jumped in.
As he reached for his ring, Ranma noticed that something felt… odd, but he ignored it. Getting the ring turned out to be more frustrating than expected—it was as though his reach had been drastically reduced. When he finally retrieved his precious band from the bottom of the spring, he jumped out of the water, intending to do a flip to impress the newcomer, but his balance was off for some reason and he landed on his rear instead. Serves ya right for showin’ off, jackass.
When he looked up, he saw his father and the girl staring at him open-mouthed. He started to ask them what was wrong, only to be shocked by the high pitch of his voice. That was when he noticed that his father seemed a lot taller. Slowly, Ranma cast his gaze downward—only to have his view obscured by two large bumps on his chest. Against his better judgment, he looked inside his disturbingly baggy gi. When he realized that the mounds were made of flesh, she fainted. After she woke up she learned about the Nyannichuan; when she was splashed with cold water, he’d turn into a girl. Hot water reversed the curse.
Later, after she’d found out that the girl (who was named Shampoo or something like that) was one of the Amazon warriors her wife had spoken of, Ranma Meioh had banged her head against a nearby tree for five minutes straight. Then she passed out again.
The two had hurried back to Nerima; Genma apparently decided that his son’s condition meant certain things had to be taken care of right now. Ranma had tried to tell him about Setsuna, but when he’d mentioned the word marriage, Genma informed him that it didn’t matter since he was honor bound to marry one of his friend’s daughters to join the two schools of Anything Goes. That one sentence had thrown Ranma so much that he had spent most of the return trying to detach himself to think of a solution—but it didn’t exactly work, since he seemed to get soaked every three seconds. He would have stayed a girl, just to make it easier, but Genma insisted that he remain a guy as often as possible. He’d finally gotten his father to tone down once they were past customs.
She hadn’t had the chance to contact her wife, and quite frankly, she doubted that Setsuna would want to remain married to a freak like her. Sure, she knew that there were probably girls who wouldn’t mind having someone who was both a boyfriend and a girlfriend, but she was pretty sure Setsuna wasn’t one of them. And she wanted Setsuna. And now she was on her way to meet pick the fiancée who she was supposed to marry for family honor. Ain’t anythin’ gonna go my way today? She would have gone further in that train of thought, but for two things.
First, Setsuna wouldn’t have liked it.
Second, they’d already arrived at Genma’s friend’s home. And Ranma recognized it immediately.
It was the Tendo compound.
Genma removed a thermos from his pack, dumped the hot water on his child, and knocked on the door.
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(Posted Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:11)
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