“Ah, here we are,” Genma said cheerfully as he approached a fenced-in compound with his son. “This should be the place.”
“Ya sure?” Ranma asked unenthusiastically.
“Of course I’m sure, boy. Just look at the sign.”
Ranma did so, reading aloud the words on the sign of one of the buildings. “Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. To defeat owner in savage combat, enter in rear.”
“You see?” replied his father. “I know what I’m doing. Of course, we won’t be entering in the rear, as I highly doubt that we’ll have to engage in savage combat—at least not yet, anyway.”
“Whatever. Let’s just get inside before those clouds decide ta start raining.”
Genma had to agree on this point; it would hardly do for his son to be a cat when he met his bride, after all. With that in mind, he walked up to the front door and knocked.
“Gah! That’s them! I knew those two shouldn’t have wasted time in the furo!”
Nabiki tried to reason with her frantic father. “Calm down, Daddy. I’m telling you, they’ll understand once we explain it to them. It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“But… but… but I wanted this to be perfect!” Soun whined as his eyes began watering.
“In that case, you probably should have told us about this before your friend and his son showed up so we could get ready.” Another round of knocking came from the front door. Nabiki sighed. “Kasumi, why don’t you get that while I tell Akane and Minako to finish up.”
“All right.” The oldest Tendo sister walked towards the front door of her home.
“Why don’t you go with her, Daddy? I’m sure your friend can’t wait to see you, and this way, you can stall for time until Akane and Minako are presentable.”
“I can? I mean, yes! I can do that! That’s an excellent idea! Saotome and I can just make small talk until everything is ready! Yes!”
“Well, then don’t let me stop you.”
“Huh?”
“The door? Kasumi?”
“Oh, right.”
The Saotomes were a bit confused by the lack of a response to their rather earnest knocking. “I’m pretty sure that this is the address,” said Genma with no small amount of uncertainty in his voice.
“Maybe they ain’t home,” Ranma suggested.
“Perhaps,” replied Genma. “But Soun should have gotten that postcard I sent by now—I’d think that he’d want to be here to greet us.”
“Maybe it got lost in the mail, or somethin’ like that.”
“Maybe…” The two martial artists continued standing in silence. “Can you hear anyone moving around in there, Ranma?”
Ranma listened to the near-silence. “I dunno. Can’t really tell; there’s too much background noise out here ta really concentrate.” Several more seconds of silence passed. “Maybe they didn’t hear ya—it is a pretty big house, after all.”
“That could be it… is there a doorbell somewhere around here?”
“Dunno. I don’t see one.”
“Me neither…. Maybe we should try the dojo.”
“I don’t think that’d work.”
“Why not?”
“It ain’t connected ta the main building. If they couldn’t here ya before, it ain’t like they’d here ya if ya tried at the dojo.”
“Perhaps someone’s in there.”
“If they were, don’t ya think we’d hear them?”
“Maybe they’re meditating.”
“Maybe.”
“I’m going to have a look. You wait here.”
“Sure thing.”
As his father headed off, Ranma turned his attention to a much more interesting conversationalist who happened to live inside his head. So, Artemis, have ya figured out how we’re gonna know Venus when we see her?
Not yet, Ranma.
Don’t ya have any idea how ya were supposed ta do it originally?
Not really—I was sort of hoping I’d just somehow know through the connection I’m supposed to have with her.
Ya mean like instinct, or somethin’ like that?
Something like that, yes.
An’ if that didn’t work?
Artemis was silent for a few seconds. I don’t know. I’m sure I would have thought of something, though.
So basically yer telling me that our only option is ta wing it?
Well, yes. I guess that’s it.
Oh, brother. The Princess sure is in good hands.
Artemis would have responded to Ranma’s snide comment, but just then, the door opened, mildly surprising the pigtailed martial artist. In the doorway stood a young woman with a very matronly appearance, with her brown hair done up in a braid that was resting on her shoulder. She smiled warmly as she cheerfully greeted her visitor: “Hello there. I’m sorry it took so long to answer the door—we had a minor problem that needed to be resolved. Can I help you?”
“Um, is this the Tendo residence?”
“Why, yes it is. Are you Ranma?”
“Um, yeah. I’m Ranma Saotome.”
The girl didn’t get a chance to answer, as an exuberant male voice called out from behind her. “Ranma? As in Genma’s son?”
“Um, yeah—oof!” Ranma was caught up in a remarkably strong bear hug.
“Welcome! Welcome to our home! Please, come in.”
“Urf.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“M cmn’t brthe!”
“What?”
“Father, I think he’s having difficulty breathing.”
“What? Oh, sorry.” The Tendo patriarch let go of the teenager in his grasp, much to the relief of the latter, if his gasps were any indication. It was then that Soun noticed a rather conspicuous absence. “Where’s your father? I would have thought that Genma would be here as well.”
“Oh, well, since ya were takin’ a while ta answer the door, he decided ta see if anyone was at yer dojo.”
“I see,” replied Mr. Tendo, who looked thoughtful for a moment. “Why don’t I go and talk to him while you introduce yourself to the rest of my daughters?”
“Um… okay.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Kwakerjak
(Posted Mon, 08 May 2006 04:35)
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.