Ranma didn’t particularly feel like giving out all of the details of his life to four people he had known for less than a minute, so he gave the Tendos the ultra-condensed version. “Well, basically, I’ve spent the last ten years or so on a trainin’ trip with my Pops, and as a result, I’ve sorta had the Art drilled inta my head pretty thoroughly. Not that I really mind that—I mean, I really love bein’ a martial artist, and I’d probably choose ta make it the center of my life even without his influence. But basically, me an’ Pops have been movin’ from place ta place, pickin’ up different techniques that can help me develop a well-rounded fightin’ style. Never really had much chance for a social life until recently, when I managed ta convince Pops ta stay in one spot so I could finish high school.”
“Funny,” Nabiki said. “You look younger than most graduates.”
“That’s ’cuz I graduated two years early.”
“So, that would make you about sixteen… Akane’s age…”
Akane simply rolled her eyes at the implications of her sister’s statement. Sure, Ranma seemed nice enough, and if he could graduate from high school early, he was obviously intelligent, but he was still a teenage male, and in her experience, teenage males didn’t stop being nuisances until they were about twenty-eight years old.
If Nabiki noticed Akane’s reaction, she didn’t react to it. Instead she continued questioning Ranma. “So, what are your long term plans?”
“Well, eventually, I wanna become a sensei when Pops retires and run a dojo—I guess that’s supposed ta be your dojo if I understand his plan right….”
Ranma….
I’m a little busy, Artemis….
This rebuke didn’t cause the mooncat to hesitate one bit. Your curse…
Oh, right. Ranma paused, not sure how best to broach the most critical topic he needed to address. “Look, there’s somethin’ real important ya gotta know before anythin’ else happens, but it’s the kinda thing that doesn’t really come up naturally in conversation, ya know?” As soon as he registered the sisters’ nods, he continued, “Could ya get me some hot and cold water? Ya sorta have ta see this ta believe it.”
Kasumi went to the kitchen and soon returned with two glasses of water, which she placed next to her guest. “Alright, first of all, do any of ya believe in magic?”
“What, you mean like abracadabra, pull-a-rabbit-out-of-your-pants stuff?” asked Nabiki in a bemused tone.
“No, I mean real magic—like curses and supernatural stuff like that.”
A look of concern immediately crossed Kasumi’s face. “Ranma, are you saying you have a curse of some kind?”
“Well, I guess most folks would see it that way. Ya see, on our trip ta China, me an’ Pops went ta this place called Jusenkyo in the Bayankala mountain range—near where the Yellow River starts. Basically, there’s a whole buncha springs there, an’ they all got their own tragic story—lotsa people an’ animals have drowned in those springs, and mosta the springs’ll curse anyone who inta them. I didn’t really get all the details about why, but ta make a long story short, I fell inta the Spring of Drowned Cat, and now I turn inta a cat when I get splashed with cold water.”
Nabiki’s reaction was a bit more skeptical. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! Is this some sort of weird bid for sympathy? Because it’s not working.”
Ranma just picked up the glass of cold water and dumped it over his head.
Soun Tendo’s second daughter was not one to lose her cool over unusual incidents, but even she had her limits. “Holy shit!” Where there had been a good-looking teenage boy, there was now a white cat with a distinctive moon-shaped patch on its forehead.
The others were surprised as well, but that surprised turned to fascination fairly quickly. “Is that really you, Ranma?” Kasumi asked in a motherly tone of voice (which wasn’t surprising, since her voice was almost always motherly) as she stooped down and began lovingly petting the cat, who began purring in response.
It is when I let him use this body, Artemis thought silently.
Yeah, yeah. But we’ll tell ’em that later.
Obviously—mmm… she’s good at this…. Outside of the cat’s head, the Tendo sisters were still waiting for an answer, so the white feline nodded in response to Kasumi’s question. “Meow.”
“How do you change back?” asked Minako.
“I don’t think he can answer questions that aren’t in a ‘yes or no’ format, Minako,” Akane replied.
You gonna speak up, Artemis?
Not yet—let them get used to the fact that you turn into a cat first. Instead, Artemis motioned his paw toward the glass of hot water and meowed.
“You want us to pour the hot water on you?” Kasumi asked.
“Meow.”
Kasumi did so, and the teenaged boy returned. Confident that Ranma could now answer her questions, Minako started firing them off. “Wow… that’s amazing! Does it hurt? Where do your clothes go? Are you really a cat, or just something that looks like one? Can you talk to other cats? Do you eat mice? How do you—”
“Whoa, hold up! Ya gotta gimme a chance ta answer, after all.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“It’s no problem. Anyway, no, it don’t hurt, though it does feel kinda weird. Soon after I got the curse, I learned a technique that lets me access a… a pocket dimension, I guess ya’d call it. Any way, that’s where my clothes go. I can talk ta other cats, but most of ’em don’t really have that much ta say beyond ‘go away’ and ‘I wanna have sex.’ And I haven’t eaten mice or anything else like that, an’ I don’t intend ta start unless I have to. I think that’s all of it—anything else?”
This time it was Nabiki (who had gotten beyond her initial surprise by this time) who spoke up. “Actually, I was wondering what you thought of this whole marriage business.”
“Eh, I got mixed feelings about it. I know it’s important ta our fathers, but I don’t see how—”
It was then that said fathers, who had apparently decided to see how their children were getting along, decided to make their entrance. “Of course you don’t see how your opinion is important,” Genma finished for his son. “After all, you’d follow my wishes regardless of what you thought, because that’s an integral part of the respect all children owe their fathers,” he proclaimed confidently, convinced of the unimpeachable logic of his statement.
“Seriously, Pops, just cause I respect ya as my sensei don’t necessarily mean I respect ya as a parent. Like I’ve told ya, ya still got a long way ta go before ya get that.”
“Humph!”
Soun decided that the best way to prevent an unsightly quarrel among his guests was to shift the focus of the conversation. “Well, Ranma, now that you’ve met my daughters, it’s time to decide which one will be your fiancée.”
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(Posted Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:36)
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