Thursday morning greeted Ranma with a blast of sunshine through his closed lids, rousing the martial artist from his wonderful slumber. A few seconds later, he’d managed to form a semi-coherent thought: Man, that’s bright. Ranma really wasn’t that used to being woken by the sun; no, for most of his life, his father had forcibly removed him from dreamland about a half-hour or so before sunrise so they could get in Ranma’s all-important training. It wasn’t that Ranma had a problem with sleeping in until dawn, but he was a bit worried that it would become a bad habit that might lead to the erosion of his talents if he allowed it to continue on a regular basis. Of course, the empty space where his wife had been sleeping indicated that she got up fairly early as well; perhaps she could rouse him in the morning when she got up.
But those fleeting thoughts were shoved to the side as more important issues came to his mind. Last night his wife had disclosed her bisexuality to him. Again, Ranma didn’t have a problem with this in and of itself—it was only when his curse was factored into the mix that things became… awkward. Quite simply, he wasn’t entirely sure how to react to having a significant other who was physically attracted to both of his forms. Eight hours of sleep had managed to clear his head on the matter a bit, though. Now that he thought about it, there was absolutely no way that Setsuna’s interest in him could stem from his dual forms: when the couple had first met, he’d only had one!
Still, he did have some problems with the situation, but most of them involved Setsuna only indirectly. Ever since he’d been cursed, Ranma had been making a concerted effort to avoid thinking about the sexuality of his female form, mostly because of the troubling implications it had for his male self-image. For starters, it threw conventional notions of sexual orientation completely out the window; trying to figure out if he was a straight male or a lesbian while he was in his female form made his head spin—and that was assuming that his sexual preferences would remain unaffected by his curse. What if he started becoming attracted to men while he was female? What if that attraction lasted even faster he switched back to his male body? Would it matter? Was there any way to tell other than through experience?
And the idea of actually having sex while he was female had its own set of complications: what if he didn’t enjoy it? Would that effect his relationship with Setsuna? On the other hand, what if he did enjoy it—maybe even more than sex as a man? Would he really be able to consider himself a man if he ended up preferring lesbian sex to the heterosexual variety? Then again, if he went through this Amazon thing, would it even be important?
Ranma’s head was starting to spin from all of the speculation—but that’s all it really was: speculation, with no experience in reality to justify it as yet. “Ugh,” the martial artist mumbled to himself. “I gotta stop thinkin’ about this kinda stuff on an empty stomach.” He headed out the door of the room he shared with his wife and meandered towards the kitchen for breakfast.
Setsuna was eating breakfast in the kitchen with the other female residents of the house when her bleary-eyed husband shuffled into the room. “Good morning, Ranma.”
Ranma yawned. “Good mornin’.”
“Coffee?” asked Michiru as she motioned towards the pot.
“Nah, I don’t drink coffee. Pop figures that drinkin’ caffeine just for the sake of drinkin’ caffeine is a bad idea, and on that point at least, I think he’s somehow managed ta be right. ’Sides, I got mornin’ workouts ta wake me up.”
“I see.”
“Any particular reason you haven’t done that yet?” a mildly interested Setsuna inquired.
“I dunno… I’m just slippin’ off my schedule, I guess. I gotta get back in my routine soon, but that unfortunately means I gotta deal with my Pop—and if what Mom and Tissue said was right, he ain’t gonna be in any mood ta make up, ya know?” Any possible reply was cut off by a loud gurgling from Ranma’s stomach. “Ugh… need food.”
“Help yourself,” said Haruka. This turned out to be another lapse in judgment, as Ranma proceeded to help himself to everything that wasn’t on someone else’s plate (except the coffee).
“Dear, I think you forgot that Ranma tends to take such offers literally,” Michiru observed.
“Yeah, I know,” replied her lover as she stared at the sight of their roommate inhaling food like a vacuum cleaner powered by a fuel-injected V-8 engine. “It’s just that I’m still getting used to the idea that people exist who can actually eat more in one sitting than Usagi.”
Still, it wasn’t too much of a problem, as the other residents of the house were pretty much finished by the time Ranma had arrived. Haruka and Michiru excused themselves to get ready for school. As Setsuna did her own thinking about the conversation she’d had with her husband the previous night.
All in all, it turned out that Ranma had taken the news of her bisexuality pretty well, and that put the Time Guardian at ease about her other, more important secret, which she was certain she would be able to inform her husband of soon… just not now. Not when he was groggy, and when she wouldn’t have the time to answer all of his questions. But as long as she did it fairly soon, she was pretty sure that Ranma wouldn’t have a problem with her job as a Warrior of Love and Justice.
However, right now, the secret she was in the mood for divulging related to her sexual proclivities, and Setsuna knew exactly who needed to know about her sexuality next, and this time, she was certain that there wouldn’t be any unnecessary stress involved. “Hotaru? Do you mind if I take you to school today?”
The violet-eyed girl was a bit taken aback by this proposition; after all, Haruka and Michiru usually did that, and a change of routine like this wasn’t exactly the kind of thing the Time Guardian would normally do on the spur of the moment. “Um, okay, Setsuna-mama. But… why?”
Setsuna simply smiled in return: “There’s something I need to discuss with you, that’s all.”
“Oh… okay.” Hotaru excused herself from the room to get ready.
Setsuna had given her husband a quick kiss and was just about to exit the room herself when an idea suddenly occurred to her—one that would give Ranma a chance to take care of some of his problems (at the very least, it would give him something to do for the day). She turned back to her husband and asked, “Ranma? Could you do me a favor sometime today?”
Ranma was starting to get used to having entire days without any pressing business to hold his attention, and he was worried—though whether this worry came from a genuine concern about the state of his martial arts talent, or from a simple lack of experience was unclear at the moment. At least he had something to do today. His wife wanted him to pick up some very rare spice for a dish she planned on making that night for dinner—and the nearest merchant who sold this particular spice (at least at a price that Setsuna would accept) just happened to have his shop in Nerima. Ranma wasn’t an idiot; he knew perfectly well that his wife was subtly hinting that he should drop in on the other members of his family, but it didn’t matter. Truth be told, he probably wouldn’t have been able to think of an excuse to go to Nerima on his own (though this notion brought up the issue of why Ranma thought that seeing his family wasn’t a good enough reason to go there).
Thus, after his wife left for her job (a subject which, curiously enough, had yet to come up in the conversations the Meiohs had had to that point), and Hotaru, Haruka, and Michiru left for school, Ranma checked the weather report on TV (mild and sunny all morning, with a 30% chance of showers in the late afternoon), headed outside, and then took to the roofs of Tokyo as he made his way towards the ward of Nerima.
Ryoga took down his tent and packed it into his backpack. He’d had an unusually comfortable sleep, considering that he’d been sleeping on uneven ground—he barely felt the knot that had developed in his shoulder, and that had, for the most part, dissipated with his morning exercises.
After preparing and eating a quick breakfast, Ryoga finally took a good look at his surroundings—he had learned long ago that it was pretty pointless for someone with a curse like his to try and figure out where he was before he went on his way, simply because that could change all too easily. Still, it was useful to get some idea of where he was, simply to find out if it would be worth the effort to try an not leave the area, so he began scanning the area—with surprisingly auspicious results. He was standing in front of a complex of buildings that seemed to tickle a hard-to-reach memory. Something about the arrangement of the buildings and the expanse of grass…. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more familiar they seemed…. Wait a minute! This is where I went to junior high! I’m finally back in Nerima! This was quite possibly the best news he’d had in a while—it seemed that his curse was cutting him a break. With any luck, I’ll be able to find my house—maybe even some other members of my family.
And when (or rather, if) that endeavor was successful, he could resume his search for the nemesis who had somehow managed to make his life more miserable than it already was—Ranma Saotome.
Ranma Meioh abruptly sneezed, nearly losing his footing as he bounced over the rooftops of Shinjuku. He decided to stop and catch his breath, as well as recheck his bearings. Besides, he needed to plan his day… he had three stops that he wanted to make while he was in Nerima, all roughly equidistant from each other, and he had to decide where to go first.
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(Posted Mon, 29 May 2006 16:38)
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