Ranma was headed towards the shopping district before he remembered he didn't actually even have to go there. He hesitated briefly, then shrugged, not changing his route. He had a few hours before sunset, and Hotaru was (for the moment) safe and being watched over by the women he trusted most.
But then ... what was he going shopping for? A distracted part of his mind thought that it would be a good idea to get Urd a present. She'd helped him out quite a bit, after all, and he wanted to stay on her good side. Especially with how crazy things seemed ready to get at a moment's notice.
Somehow, the idea of buying Urd something without getting something for his mother didn't seem quite right, though. Even though she seemed to delight in it, he did owe her a lot for taking care of his daughter. Which was his responsibility, he realized with a scowl, coming to an abrupt stop atop a utility pole, and dropping to sit there while he thought about it.
Was he shirking his responsibility? He struggled with that for a moment before deciding he wasn't. Not yet, anyway. He could only be expected to do so much, and if there was another fight like his last with Tarou, he'd be damned if he wouldn't do everything he could to keep Hotaru out of it. That meant there would be times when he simply couldn't be there for his daughter, as uncomfortable as that thought made him.
Still ... he was lucky. He was able to surround the girl with people who seemed to very much care for her. Remembering how she was when they first met, so much more timid and shy.... And then remembering what he'd read about her in the datacube.... He knew without taking a class or reading a book that hanging out with her 'big sisters' was good for her, and he couldn't imagine his mother being a negative influence.
Which brought him full circle. If he wasn't shirking his duty, he felt a need to show his thanks to his mother for helping him when he needed it. A nagging weight lifted from his heart as he realized it wasn't just her, by any stretch. It was Akane, Shampoo, Ukyou, and even Nabiki. And even better yet, since he wasn't engaged to any of them, no one would get the wrong idea if he got them presents!
"Perfect!" he exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "I just gotta get them all something! Only.... What do I get?" He mulled that over for a while, suddenly glad that he had time before his date.
***
Genma was in a dour mood. It wasn't that the girls had made him cart their things across the city without even saying 'thank you'. Though, that didn't help. It wasn't that he'd been pushed and harried into taking care of Tendo, leading the man to Ranma's apartment and run-down dojo. Though, that didn't help, either. It wasn't that he'd had nothing to eat since Nodoka made breakfast that morning. Though, that last one actually hurt quite a bit. It wasn't even the fact that Nodoka had insisted on delaying the engagement, or that the Emperor himself (of all people!) had merely nullified them. This, too, was actually a crushing blow.
But it wasn't something he couldn't overcome.
No, what bore down on him was that his son seemed to have lost all respect for him entirely once he'd became a father. He wanted to beat Ranma over the head and tell him to snap out of it. To stop thinking it was so easy. To.... To address the boy from a position of authority and be respected the way that Hotaru admired her own adoptive father.
He sighed, admitting that spark of jealousy. What had he done wrong that his son was closer to an adopted ... weak ... girl he'd only known for two weeks than his own father?
He glanced to one side as a cat suddenly wandered out of a nearby alley, miao-ing curiously.
Well, there was that thing with the pit full of-
But everyone made mistakes, he reasoned. Absolutely everyone. Even Ranma wasn't perfect. Trying to be a father at his age? Why, Genma was two years older than Ranma's current age when he became a father himself!
He tried to convince himself that Ranma had an advantage: Girls were obviously easier to raise! Tendo had single handedly raised three of them! She was already old enough to talk, and if she were a boy, she could learn martial arts!
But those points quickly failed. Genma had a sneaking suspicion that Soun hadn't raised his daughters at all -- they'd been left to their own devices, largely raised by their mother's ghost ... and Kasumi. He wouldn't fault his lifelong friend, or insult him by declaring that belief. And he thought Tendo's daughters were, generally speaking, fine examples of young women.
A glance showed none of them were nearby and ready to hit him.
Okay, Akane might be a little violent, but it wasn't anything that Ranma couldn't handle. And Hotaru was surrounded by very well-trained martial artists, girls or not.
"Right," Genma declared suddenly. That was the trick of it! Hotaru was the key to getting his son to respect him again. All he needed to do was impress the little girl and earn her love and trust. How hard could that be? And then his son would respect him, and everything would go back to the way it should be!
"What's that, Saotome?" Soun asked, sniffling a bit and wiping at his nose with a handkerchief.
"Ah, we're here," the man replied, pointing to the apartment complex.
"Are you sure?" Soun asked quizzically. "That sounded like a 'I've got a brilliant plan to marry Ranma to Akane' declaration, to me."
"No, no," Genma protested, shaking his head swiftly. "I was...." He trailed off as a realization struck home. If he could win Hotaru's affection and become a loveable grandfatherly figure ... he could tell her that she would be happier with Akane as an adoptive mother. "Actually, I do have a plan," he admitted. "But I'll explain it later. The first step will be finding the new students Ranma promised us."
"Then I support this effort entirely," Soun decided, all traces of his weeping binge vanished. "Let's get to it!"
***
Hotaru giggled. Her sisters were so silly, and so nice. And Grandmother was so considerate! The only thing that could make the situation better was if her papa was there, too.
But he had work, and she understood that, if she didn't like it. She forced that thought away; what did she have to be sad about?
Ukyou stared down at the miniskirt she had been put in, one topped off with a silly shirt that someone had made wrong. "I don't think so," the chef said in a flat tone.
"But, what's wrong with it?" Nodoka pressed, frowning.
"It, uh, don't leave much to the imagination," Ukyou replied dryly.
"I can see your bandages," Hotaru said seriously, nodding. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she assured the little girl with a grin, before turning her attention back to Nodoka. "Why not just go with a traditional kimono? I think that'd be better for around the house, anyway."
"Yes," Shampoo managed, emerging from the dressing room and looking down at her own dress in dismay. It was tight -- very tight. The poor girl looked like she'd spill out the top of the dress if she breathed in any, and her feet could only make tiny, mincing steps. "Is pretty, but...."
"That's fine," Nodoka conceded when Akane emerged from her own dressing room and stared wordlessly down at the spandex jogging outfit she'd been stuck with. "Oh, all right. I just thought.... Well, you wanted to look special for Ranma."
"We do," Shampoo said, taking the breath and straining her outfit to the very edges of decency. Hotaru glanced behind her as a young man with a headband and tiny fangs made a gurgling noise, vanishing in a tiny geyser of blood from his nose.
"But we have a certain impression to maintain," Ukyou added, vanishing into a stall and emerging a heartbeat later in her standard outfit. "I mean ... I liked that other blouse, the one that was long-sleeved. The pleated skirt from earlier went with it really well."
"And Shampoo like Chinese dress with side-slit very much," the Joketsuzoku girl offered, once she'd vanished into her own booth. The dress was flung over the door as she continued, "Easy to fight in."
Nodoka sighed slightly as Akane vanished also. "I suppose," the woman allowed. "I had just hoped...."
"Auntie?" Akane called from within her booth, as Shampoo emerged, looking glad to breathe normally again. "I think.... Well, Ranma's got a lot on his mind right now, especially with Hotaru-chan."
She straightened up at hearing her name, wondering if she was causing trouble or getting in the way.
"We don't want to make problems," Ukyou added, catching Hotaru's anxiety and giving the girl a quick hug. "We just want to be with Ranchan and Hotaru-chan, until...." She trailed off, blushing slightly. "Well, we've got some time," she amended.
Hotaru didn't know how much time there was, and she wasn't positive about whatever it was that everyone was talking about ... but she knew that she wanted everyone to be together and happy. "I hope I never lose my big sisters," she said anxiously.
"Oh," Akane said, wincing, before the three big sisters collected the younger one in a big hug. "We're not going to forget about you, Hotaru-chan!"
"Never," Shampoo chirped. "We always be best friends, Shampoo think." The Chinese girl turned suddenly serious, and looked at Ukyou sternly. "Friends learn to share, though. Especially best friends who be like sisters."
Ukyou's eyes widened, and Hotaru wondered why -- though, it did make the chef look silly, and she couldn't resist giggling. "Y...you mean," Ukyou sputtered in surprise.
"Of course she does!" Akane exclaimed, her own eyes widening. "It.... It all makes sense now! But I can't-"
"Not yet," Ukyou said quickly, before Akane could say more. "And ... I couldn't either. But you know what, Akane-chan?"
"W...what?"
"We've got a lot of time to learn, and two people I think it's worth learning for."
"Shampoo know she not make stupid choice," the Joketsuzoku warrior said in satisfaction.
"I don't get it!" Hotaru finally protested, feeling lost.
"We're going to be together," Akane promised, smiling. "I think we'll all be together for a long time, Hotaru-chan. Don't ever worry about us leaving you, because none of us would ever do that."
"To you or your father, kami help us," Ukyou added with a giggle.
"That's so wonderful!" Nodoka gushed, sniffling. "Okay, girls, I'm sorry I tried to push you!"
"Is okay," Shampoo replied, as Hotaru's big sisters released her from the hug. "Later we take turns, you maybe help us pick out ... inti.... intim.... How you say?" She turned to Akane questioningly.
"Intimates?" Nodoka guessed. "Certainly!"
Hotaru wondered what those were, but decided she'd find out later. For the moment, her sisters and grandmother were there for her, and that was enough.
***
Urd looked at the chart thoughtfully. "Well, I sure as hell didn't plan that one," she finally announced to the empty room. "But why not?" She tapped some commands into the file to lock some aspects of it.
"What did you blow up this time?" Skuld asked, poking her head into the room dourly.
"Why does it always have to be explosions with you?" Urd fumed.
"'Eventually, I'll get you to blow up," Skuld said confidently. "It'll be fun. Kang taught me that."
"Some inventors aren't worth your time to hang out with," Urd warned her younger sister. "And I did blow up. Father got mad at me."
Skuld pouted. "I missed that?"
Urd rolled her eyes. "Here," she said, gesturing to the file before her. Skuld obligingly came into the room and leaned forward to look at the screen, incidentally putting her in range for Urd to seize her sister in a headlock and apply a goddess second class limited noogie to the smaller goddess's noggin.
"Ow, ow ow ow ow! HEY!" Urd released her sister and smirked in satisfaction, crossing her arms over her chest. Skuld glowered and rubbed at her head. "Meanie."
"Thanks," Urd replied. "That's for wanting to blow me up. Now look at what I did."
"You ... waited until the chaos waves were aligned, and then locked them in a single file?" she asked doubtfully.
"Kind of. Chaos doesn't have much power, generally. It's the number of waves, and the points they overlap at. By locking this wave into place, I make it so that three opposed waves, which had aligned briefly, are now locked into a united wave."
"And that reduces the level of chaos?"
"Well, a tiny bit."
"So ... you didn't really accomplish much at all."
"Ah, I don't need to listen to you," Urd muttered, throwing her hands into the air. "The point is that it's not hopeless. He won't be crushed by chaos before he gets a chance to shine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bath to attend to before a date tonight."
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(Posted Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:36)
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