In preparation for her announcement, Setsuna gathered all of the household’s residents; somehow, she felt that her husband would want to have others around when he heard this news. Besides, they would probably want to be around tomorrow evening as well after they heard this.
“Before I begin, I need to know something for certain. Ranma, did your father ever talk to you about a contract?”
“Ya mean about me havin’ ta marry one of the Tendos?”
“No, I already knew you weren’t aware of their verbal agreement; what I’m talking about is a contract written on a physical piece of paper that your father kept with him.”
Ranma sighed. “No, he never told me anythin’ about that either, but since yer askin’ me these questions, I’m bettin’ that ya already know whether or not it exists.”
“Well, yes, it does exist, but I wanted to know if you knew about it.”
“If it has anythin’ ta do with anythin’ important in my life, you can bet yer ass that he didn’t tell me about it. Why? Does this one say I’m honor-bound ta move ta Montana and become a chicken rancher?”
“Ranma, this isn’t a laughing matter.”
“An’ I wasn’t jokin’.”
“Ranma, your father is apparently in possession of a seppuku contract.”
The pigtailed martial artist’s eyes narrowed. “Lemme guess. Whatever’s in this contract is gonna explain why Pops has been actin’ like an idiot for so long.”
“That may very well be the case, but that’s not exactly why you need to know about it. The contract’s terms state that your father is obliged to raise you to be a ‘man among men’…”
“Ouch,” interject Haruka with a grin. With Ranma’s curse, that had to be a problem for the Saotome patriarch.
Setsuna briefly glared at her housemate before continuing: “…or both of you have to commit ritual suicide.”
“What?! Why do I hafta do it?”
“Because you signed the contract.”
“I’m pretty sure I woulda remembered signin’ somethin’ that said I was s’posed ta disembowel myself.”
“Your handprints are on the contract—and if Nabiki gave me the correct date, you would have been six-years-old at the time.”
“I’m gonna hafta kill myself over somethin’ I did when I was six years old?!”
“Calm down, Ranma. Nabiki says that you don’t need to worry too much about this. Not only would the legal validity of the contract be extremely questionable in and of itself, but a few things have already happened that have completely changed the entire situation.”
“How?”
“The third person who signed this contract knows about your curse, but she says that that doesn’t necessarily mean the contract has been violated.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No. She’s more concerned with character than biology, and from what people have been telling her about you, you definitely appear to line up with her ideals of manhood.”
“Setsuna,” Michiru asked, “just who is this person?”
Setsuna’s mouth turned up into a subtle grin. “Her name is Nodoka Saotome—Ranma’s mother.”
This was met with stunned silence. After a few seconds, Ranma gulped and asked, “My… my mother’s alive?”
Setsuna nodded.
“But… but why didn’t she try an’ get in touch with me? Why’d she let Pops let me thing she was dead? Why the hell would she agree to something so moronic to begin with?!”
Setsuna noticed that her husband’s voice was starting to rise, so she tried to alleviate his stress—temporarily, at least. “Ranma, I know that you’ve got a lot of questions, but I don’t think I’m the one who should be answering them.”
“But I—”
“You can ask her yourself; she’s coming here tomorrow evening.”
“M-My Mom’s comin’ over here? Tomorrow?”
Setsuna nodded. “Yes… and Tissue’s coming with her.”
“Tissue…. Ya mean that Amazon that Pops, uh, well, I guess she couldn’t marry Pops….”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Huh? Whaddya mean?”
Setsuna merely smiled. “Your mother can answer that question far better than I can.”
“Oh, okay.” Ranma plopped back down in his seat. “Heh… I’m gonna meet my Mom….”
“Ranma-papa?” Hotaru inquired of her father figure before being locked in a crushing bear hug.
“I’m finally gonna see my Mom again! This is the best day of my life!”
Setsuna cleared her throat and motioned towards her wedding band, which prompted Ranma to revise his statement. “Uh, I mean, the second best day of my life.”
“Better.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Kwakerjak
(Posted Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:36)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.