This should have been his first clue that something was very very wrong here. One of the few things Ranma had learned over the years on the road with his Pops was that Lady Luck was a fickle rhymes with witch and a total indian-giver, exacting far more in karma than she ever paid out. He knew better to trust his current streak--there'd been too many crashes in the past and some of the fees had been higher than he'd ever suspected. The examples were numerous beyond measure--the Ryü no hige "dragon's whisker" soup, the Gouriki soba "Herculean strength noodles", Houou no Tamago "phoenix egg", Zygyg’s Mirror...well maybe not that last one, but yeah, Ranma had learned the hard way to be wary of luck and how undependable it is.
Still, that didn't stop him from grinning as he walked down the busy Juuban streets. While he knew better than to depend upon luck--good or bad--there was nothing that said Ranma couldn't enjoy it while it lasted. Even if the resultant karmic imbalance was going to be a real pain once things began to move the other direction...
Still it was nice to no longer be stuck in Nerima, wonderful to no longer be shackled to impossible to fulfill conflicting honor obligations, absolutely marvelous to no have that damn seppuku pledge hanging over his head any more!
He really should have paid Nabiki to offer advice on the situation sooner. Ranma snorted. Sure she had more or less made everything else worse, but whatever she'd said to his mother that night had resulted in her tearing up the paper the pledge was written on and she'd yet to bring it up again around him since. Pops was another matter, but better Pops than him! It was the old man's fault in the first place so it was just deserts as far as the younger Saotome was concerned.
Too bad Nabiki quickly found herself way over her head on everything else. The middle Tendo daughter's attempts to get the Amazon contingent deported had resulted in the "truth" coming out about the Tendo's ancestry as burakumin. The old hag had hinted strongly enough that the evidence was frabricated and could be made to go away in exchange for certain concessions. Nabiki had fought as best she could, but the faked documentation was authentic enough seeming that many of her best contacts were ...unavailable...
And who knew that Ucchan's family has such connections? It turns out all those jokes about the Kuonji family being ninjas were in at least partially based on fact! When Nabiki had tried to manipulate the Kuonjis she suddenly found herself playing at a much higher level than she had ever suspected possible. It was a testament to middle Tendo's skills that she'd been able to stay ahead of things for as long as she had already! Of course a big part of that was made possible by her take over of the Kuno family. Without that support structure she'd have been forced to capitulate a long time ago.
The mess was ongoing and the players so focussed on the zero-sum game the Saotomes were largely forgotten as the family matriarch relocated her son and husband back to their ancestral home. Genma hadn't liked it but even he could see how dangerous it was to be in ground zero at the moment and it hadn't taken much to persuade him on the benefits of discretion. No one ever said Ranma's father lacked in the self-preservation department...
So that was how one Ranma Saotome found himself turning down one Mount Avenue that afternoon, on his way towards the Momiji Family Market. His Momma had promised as a sort of celebration of his return to cook some of his favorite dishes. Unfortunately they'd run low on Nori and he had been sent out to pick up another box or two so Nodoka would have enough for tonight's dinner.
Normally he'd have roof-hopped over to the store but life had been treating so well lately Ranma thought he'd take the sidewalks and enjoy the time alone. He'd noticed a funny look in Pop's eye on the way out, and knew the old man still had his heart set on the Tendo engagement. Who knew how long this respite from the normal chaos that he lived in would last? Best to enjoy it while he could...
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(Posted Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:07)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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