Nodoka sat silently on the veranda of her home. Sitting there on the back-porch, watching as the sakura leaves blossomed and fell on the numerous trees in her garden, the Saotome Matriarch could only ponder her situation...
“Nochan! Bring me a beer!”
...And twitch in disgust at her husband’s antics.
Ever since her beloved baby boy disappeared a month ago, her husband had been evicted from the Tendo home and dojo. Without a male heir to go through with the engagement, there wasn’t an engagement. And after a week of Nodoka’s beloved Ranma having gone missing, Soun decided to up his search in his own way. He kicked Genma and told his best friend to either come back with his son or not to come back at all.
So much for camaraderie amongst martial artists...
“Nochan! Beer me!” The disgusting voice bellowed from within the confines of the house.
Her shoulders slumping, Nodoka placed her cup of tea down on wooden floor before slowly getting up. She made her way to the kitchen with practiced ease, opening the refrigerator and pulling a can of beer out from inside before closing the door once more. She then made her way to where she expected to find her husband...
...Sitting on a couch in the living room and watching television.
“I don’t see how this is going to help us find out son...” Nodoka said coolly, even as she handed her lazy good-for-nothing husband his beer.
His hand grasping around the frosty can of beer, Genma slowly turned his head to his wife, a smile on his face. “Do you not notice what I’m watching, Nodoka?”
Turning her head to look at the television set, Nodoka frowned. “A woman wearing a bikini?”
“Actually it’s then news,” Genma answered seriously. At his wife’s raised eyebrow, he explained, “Okay, it’s the weather reports right now, but what I’m watching is the news.” He smirked at his wife. “I’m going to save my energy for when I’m needed, and in the meantime, watch this for our boy. The way our son is, I know for certain he’s going to cause some ruckus, one which’ll get him put on TV. It’s a genius plan if I do say so myself.”
“And you do say so yourself...” Nodoka muttered under her breath as she started to walk away from the pathetic excuse of a man she had foolishly married.
She hadn’t gotten more than four steps away when her husband spoke up again. “Oh, one more thing, my dearest Nochan?”
Turning to look over her shoulder, Nodoka schooled her features to be as pleasant-seeming as possibly and asked, “Yes, dearest?”
The cursed martial artist held up an empty plastic bag. “Could you go down to the store and get me another bag of biscuits. Mixed ones. I love all the flavors.”
Her eye twitching, Nodoka slowly answered, “Will do...” And with that, she left the room, idly wondering why she foolishly got married. Without the proper constant manly conditioning, all males seemed to become lazy slobs who only served to make the lives of their wives a living hell; leaving them for months, possibly years on end without a word, and then coming back and wanting to be waited on hand and foot. Her friend Dr. Michi Muzino’s husband was no better, and her brother Sadao was the same.
That poor woman... Her sister-in-law Holly. The gaijin had to adopt the Japanese name of ‘Seiko’ or ‘holy child’ to better fit into her husband’s ‘image’, as he didn’t want people knowing he married a woman who wasn’t Japanese. After all, he’d been a big Japanese jazz musician back in the early-to-mid Seventies, and his major fan base was amongst Japan.
And even now, after his career was long-near over, he was still traveling the world under other excuses. Sure, he was a great photographer, Nodoka had to give her brother that... But the way he more or less ignored the fact he had a wife and son made the woman ill.
“I guess that’s one thing I have over Seiko...” Nodoka thought as she made her way to the front door. “At least my husband WANTS to spend time with our son...” Maybe a little too much, what with a decade-long training trip, but it was better than Sadao did with Jotaro...
Oh, little JoJo. Without her own son around, Nodoka knew that the empty-nest syndrome she’d been going through without her family around would’ve been a lot worse than it was. Holly had been so kind to bring JoJo around often to spend time with his ‘auntie NoJo’. Though the matriarch still had the slight suspicion Holly would bring JoJo over so she could have someone to socialize with, (as most Japanese didn’t associate well with foreigners) Nodoka still had to be thankful to the American.
*RING*!
Nodoka’s train of thought came to a halt with the ring of the phone.
*RING*!
“Nochan!” Genma’s voice bellowed. “Answer the phone!”
Her eye twitching, Nodoka shook her head in annoyance as she once again found herself walking back to the kitchen. Picking the phone up off the receiver, she head it close to her head. “Hello, Saotome residence.”
“Nodoka? Are is that you?” Came a very familiar female voice over the phone. “It’s Holly!”
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Nodoka managed to smile a little bit. “Seiko! Oh, what a coincidence. I was just thinking about you. How are you and JoJo doing? I haven’t seen either of you since the new year started.”
“That’s just it!” Holly told her sister-in-law over the phone. “This is about Jotaro!”
Her eyes widening, Nodoka could feel a knot of tension forming in her stomach. “What’s wrong? Has JoJo disappeared too?”
“Too?” Holly asked quietly. “No, no, he hasn’t disappeared. Jotaro’s in jail!”
“JAIL!?” Nodoka shouted over the phone. “What is out little JoJo doing in jail!?”
“He’d gotten into a fight with some thugs and got tossed into jail,” Holly told her sister-in-law seriously.
Nodoka nodded her head. “I see. Don’t worry, Seiko. I have some connections. We’ll get JoJo a good lawyer and we’ll have this settled in no time.”
“No, it’s not that!” Holly said exasperated. “He wants to STAY in jail!”
Nodoka blinked her eyes once, twice, thrice. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Holly said seriously. “He’s claiming to be possessed by an evil spirit and refuses to leave the cell!”
Nodoka was perplexed by this. “Are you certain?”
“Positive,” The other woman told her over the phone. “Plus JoJo did manage to show us something... Bizarre...”
“Bizarre?” Nodoka asked.
“He suddenly had a beer can in the cell with him, along with a fountain pen.” Holly said. “We don’t know how he suddenly had them, but there they were in the cell with him. The only explanation we have is that JoJo said the evil spirit brought it to him!”
Nodoka frowned a bit. “An evil spirit you say?” She considered that. She’d seen and heard quite a bit about her own son’s life to understand that, yes, there could be such a thing as ‘evil spirits’. There were Chinese form-shifting water-based curses and magical artifacts with all sorts of weird, (and often stupid) powers, so why couldn’t there be such a thing as evil spirits?
“Yes,” Holly said seriously.
Nodoka nodded her head seriously. “Hang in there, Holly. I may have an idea...”
“You do?” Holly asked, her voice sounding very hopeful.
“Yes,” Nodoka answered. “Just give me time to get some help, and we’ll come down to see what we can do...”
“Oh, thank you, Nodoka! I can’t tell you how much this means to me!” Holly thanked her in-law over the phone.
Smiling, Nodoka simply answered, “Anyhing for family... Just one thing.”
“What’s that?” Holly asked curiously.
“Well, Holly,” Nodoka started slowly, searching for a pen and paper. “Where ARE you?”
(------)
Sitting down at a circular table, Miyo frowned deeply as she looked over her tools of the trade. Crystal Balls, Ouiji Board... Tarot Cards... She was getting the same thing.
The Star. Following the hunch, she tried to follow up all she could. Yet, even just reading upon the Star card, it didn’t feel right to go through with a true Tarot card reading. And her other methods only served to work with the Star. All she could see in her crystal ball were stars.
Of course, the Ouiji Board has also spelled out ‘Platinum’, but the fact of the matter was, ‘Star’ followed it.
“I don’t get it...” Miyo admitted to herself. Usually she was so good at controlling her viewings, her powers; knew what was going on with anyone. Yet now her power seemed to be off. She couldn’t get a good look at whoever was supposed to be the card. “The most I could get out of this was ‘Platinum Star’...”
Raising her hand slightly, Miyo brushed back her length of dark brown hair behind her shoulders, along with the ribbons which she usually allowed to go over her front. Things were getting difficult to read, and she’d exhausted her immediate options.”
“Maybe I should go back to the Hikawa Shrine,” Miyo considered seriously. “The Hino clan’s fire-reading ability is pretty good...” And it might be able to spread some light on her questions, (no pun intended).
It was then an older woman gently pulled back the curtains to the small divining room. It was amazing the similarity between her and the younger girl. The only real difference was that the older woman seemed to prefer an outfit that would have been in place with either a Gypsy camp or Woodstock. “Miyo, dear!” She held out the cordless phone to the young fortune teller. “It’s for you.”
Nodding her head, Miyo stood up from her table. “Thank you, Mother.” She said politely as she took the telephone from her mother. “Hello?” She spoke evenly into the phone. “Miyo speaking. How are you doing, Mrs. Saotome?”
“Oh! How did you know it was me?” Nodoka asked in shock from over the phone. “Was it your powers? I knew I made the right decision in calling you!”
“Actually,” Miyo spoke up. “We have Caller ID.”
“Oh...” Nodoka said slowly over the phone. “I was wondering if you could help me...”
Miyo sighed dramatically. “Mrs. Saotome, if this is about finding your son, I have to tell you I’ve been-”
“No, not that,” Nodoka said. “I know, you’re offering your psychic services, but this isn’t about me. This is about my nephew.”
The fortune teller had to blink her eyes in surprise. “Your nephew?”
“Yes,” Nodoka answered seriously. “I need you to come to a police station with me and check something out!”
Now Miyo was really feeling off her game. Nodoka had a nephew? That meant Ranma had a COUSIN? Why didn’t she see THIS coming!? “Hold on, I think you better start at the top...”
(------)
“Take these broken wings! And learn to fly again, learn to live so-”
“No.” *Click*!
“And I ran, I ran so far awa~ay! I just ra~an, I ran all night and-”
“Not this again...” *Click*!
“We built this city... We built this city on rock and roll-”
“No.” *Click*!
“Ooh, baby do you know what that’s worth? Ooh, heaven is a place on-”
“Too happy.” *Click*!
Step by step, heart to heart, left foot back, we all fall down, (fall down)! We’re toy-”
“Too electric beat.” *Click*!
“It’s gonna take a lot to take me away from you! Ain’t nothin’ that a hundred men or more could ever do... I pass the plains down in Aaa~Africaa...”
Shrugging his shoulders, Jotaro sat back on bed, listening to the music of Toto. Something about the artist’s name just clicked with JoJo. So, relaxing, the bancho began flipping through the pages one of the numerous Takuban piled by the foot of his orthopedic mattress, while listening to his radio connected into a generator; all provided by his very gracious evil spirit.
“Okay, he’s right this way, Mrs. Saoto-WHAT!?” The police chief screamed as he looked towards the young man in the jail cell. “How can this be!? He’s listening to a radio and reading a graphic novel of Urusei Yatsura!!”
“It’s ‘Rumic Theater’, dumbass!” Jotaro replied offhandedly, not taking his eyes off of the graphic novel.
The police officer turned to the new arrivals. “This is a problem! A massive problem!”
“So I see...” Nodoka said as she looked at her nephew in the prison cell. With his looks and physique, he was obviously a manly man... But his attitude was just all wrong. One needed to have respect to others. “JoJo!” Nodoka spoke up seriously.
That caught Jotaro’s attention. Slowly, he turned her head away from the manga and towards the prison cell door. “Aunt NoJo?”
The police chief blinked his eyes. “NoJo?” JoJo, NoJo, what next?
“Childhood nickname,” The police officer answered as he looked at the clipboard he was holding in his left hand. “Origin clan of Kujo and her given name of Nodoka. Although she married into the Saotome family, (whom we have quite the file on) the nickname stuck.”
That caused the police chief to stiffen up as he turned to his subordinate. At first the senior Japanese policeman had thought the name Saotome to be a mere coincidence, but to hear that... “We... Have a file? You mean she’s related to the notorious thief and trouble-maker Genma Saotome?”
At those words, Nodoka frowned. “What do you mean, notorious?” Although in all honesty she had a pretty good idea what THAT was about, at the moment, she’d rather deal with the situation at hand. Her nephew JoJo in jail!
Raising his left hand to the side of his head to rub his temple, the police chief sighed. Why was it his shift that he had to deal with a family of thugs and thieves...? Damn it, wasn’t this shit supposed to fall on Saeba’s lap?
“Nodoka?” Holly spoke up as she came up from behind her sister-in-law. “Could you try now?”
Nodding her head at her foreign relative, Nodoka said, “Of course.” She then turned to face her nephew once more. “JoJo!” She spoke up seriously. “It’s time for you to leave!”
Snorting in annoyance, Jotaro turned towards his aunt. “Aunt NoJo... I know that you’re trying to look out for me, but really, it’s best I stay in here.”
Nodoka stood there by the jail cell bars, her bundle firmly over her left shoulder. “JoJo,” She rose her right hand up, making a ‘come here’ motion with her index finger. “Be a dear and listen to your auntie NoJo...”
Rolling his eyes, Jotaro placed the manga down on the bed with the others and got up from the bed. “What is it?”
Nodoka smiled a serene smile. “Closer.”
Sighing, Jotaro took a step closer. “What?”
“Closer.”
Another step. “Well?”
“Closer.”
“Oh for the love of...” Jotaro took two steps. “Well!?”
Smiling, Nodoka told him, “Closer, dear...”
“Argh!” JoJo stomped right over the bars of the cell, looking his aunt right in he eyes. “Well, what is it!?”
Smiling, Nodoka raised her hand...
...And grabbed his head, pulling his head up right up to the bars!
“JoJo!” Nodoka shouted. “Stop this foolishness at once and come out of there! Don’t you see how you’re making your mother worry!?” She motioned over to Holly, who was watching in shock at how Nodoka was treating him like she used to when he was a kid.
“OW! MY EAR! LET GO OF MY EAR YOU GODDAMN BITCH!!!” Jotaro howled louder as Nodoka pulled harder.
“And that is something ELSE we need to discuss,” Nodoka said in a calm even voice as she held a death-grip on his ear. “How could you talk such a way in front of your own mother! Such unmanliness isn’t becoming of you.”
“Damn it, aunt NoJo! I can’t control this Evil Spirit! If you attack me further, it’ll hurt you!” Jotaro roared in pain as his aunt pulled harder. “JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, LET GO OF MY FUCKING EAR!!!”
Nodoka raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see any evil spirit attacking me...” The Japanese woman looked over her shoulder at Holly, who was looking positively shocked. “Do you?”
Holly sweat-dropped as her son screamed louder as Nodoka began twisting his ear. “No, sister-in-law...”
Finally, Nodoka let go of her nephew, sending the young half-Japanese tumbling back a bit as he raised a hand to hold his ear. “Fuck, fuck, fuck...” He hissed in pain. Stupid evil spirit!
“You see?” Nodoka asked her nephew. “There is no evil spirit! And to further prove to you there isn’t, I’ve brought a psychic with me!”
The police chief raised an eyebrow. “A... Psychic?”
“Oh they’ve gotta be shitting us...” The police officer standing guard mumbled.
“Bullshit...” Jotaro agreed for once with the Japanese boys in blue.
“Actually,” The new female voice spoke up. “I prefer to think of myself as the real thing.”
Jotaro raised an eyebrow at the young woman walking into the room. She was a little on the cute side, but those eyes... Rather cold and fierce, like a wild animal... Or worse, a snake...
“Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?” Jotaro grumbled, remembering a certain movie star’s quote which he happened to agree with completely.
“This,” Nodoka spoke up as she motioned to the high-school girl, “Is Miyo. From a long line of famous psychics, she can tell us your real problem.” Smiling, Nodoka leaned over and told the girl, “No go ahead dear. Tell him this is all in his head, that this isn’t some evil spirit in possession of his body, and we’ll just all go home and pretend none of this ever happened...”
However, Nodoka was unnerved by how the fortune teller was eyeing Jotaro seriously. “Dear? Go on and tell him. You’ve seen the real thing. You can tell him he’s just imagining all this in his head now.”
Slowly, Miyo looked back and forth between Nodoka and the man standing in the cell. “Actually...” She said slowly. “He may be the real deal.”
“What!?” Was the response from most of those in the area.
“HA! I TOLD YOU!” Jotaro laughed as he pointed at the group of adults gathered. “DIDN’T I TELL YOU I WAS POSSESSED!?”
Her eye twitching, Nodoka told her nephew, “Nobody likes a gloater.”
Holly was rather nervous now. “Are... Are you sure my son is possessed?”
“I... Wouldn’t be sure if it’s a possession though...” Miyo admitted. “I mean, it doesn’t seem harmful, but... I can see a distinct flow of energy about him that isn’t anything natural to the body... It’s kind of like what I see around myself or my mother... But...” The young fortune teller frowned. “There’s just something so ‘different’. Like it’s coming off from him rather than leaching onto OR a part of him. As if he’s the source...”
Jotaro frowned. “The source?” That might explain WHY it protects me...”
“Protects you?” Miyo asked.
“Let me show you how scary it can get...” Was all Jotaro said before the gun suddenly snapped off the cord connecting it to the holster on the guard’s belt. The gun crossed the distance, before placing itself into Jotaro’s right hand.
“Aaah! My-MY GUN!” The police officer on duty shouted. He was, understandably, shocked to see his gun go flying on it’s own
“How did that gun get over there!?” The police chief shouted. “This, this is bad! Real bad!”
However, Miyo had been able to see what had happened. She could feel it was an event only those with extra-sensory perception would have even been able to truly, and she was ‘blessed’ to view it.
An arm. Rather blue in coloration, but it was another human-like arm, which shot out from Jotaro’s shoulder. It had reached between the bars, grabbed the policeman’s firearm, and gently retracted back to the young ‘possessed’ man.
“JoJo!” Nodoka shouted as she saw her nephew holding the gun. “What did you do? HOW did you do it!?”
“I told you what was in me,” Jotaro said seriously. “An evil spirit! You just can’t see it...” He frowned a bit, slowly turning the gun towards his head. “But watch this...”
“JOTARO!” Holly screamed as her son pulled the trigger. “NO!!!”
*BLAM*!
All was deathly silent for a long moment, as everyone just stared in shock and horror. What they had expected was the young man’s head to go splattering across the cell before his lifeless body fell limp...
Instead, they saw him sweating lightly, the bullet just hovering in mid-air...
...Except for Miyo.
“No way...” The young psychic thought as she stared in complete awe. The right hand had appeared once again, extending off from Jotaro’s forearm. Between it’s index finger and thumb, it held a firm grasp on the bullet.
“Behind me, but unseen...” Jotaro said as he slowly lowered the gun, the bullet falling harmless before clattering on the hard concrete floor. “It bound itself to me not long ago...”
The silence continued for a bit. Miyo had believed it upon first meeting JoJo, but now there was no room for denial amongst those gathered that had witnessed such an event. A thousand ideas and possibilities were going through the fortune teller’s mind as she tried to come up with an exact mystical explanation of WHY this was happening...
...But little did she know, someone ELSE amongst the group had seen Jotaro’s extra arm as well.
“My father Joseph has mysterious powers too...” Holly thought in shock. “But... But what has happened to my son!?”
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(Posted Sun, 16 Apr 2006 02:25)
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