It made him sound like a rather pompous ass, and Ranma knew it. "Let me guess.... We're going to Hong Kong?"
"What? No!"
"Korea, then? Vietnam? Taiwan?"
"No, stupid boy!" his father barked, his mouth opening wide enough to almost let one see his tonsils. "We're going back home?"
"We are?"
"But, of course. We're heading to Japan! This was only a simple trip to see what special techniques that you could learn here. Now, it's important that we touch base with our homeland."
"That'll be good to do."
"Shampoo do have to agree. Further we go, safer we be, and when outside of China, we be able to relax," the Amazon put in with a calm sigh.
Her words made Genma's face grow pinched. "You sure that you don't want to stay here? Maybe have us leave you someplace where you could feel comfortable."
"Let Shampoo think.... No. Shampoo going with you."
"How nice...."
"Yes, well, Shampoo want to go with Ranma. He give her chance to live, unlike depressing life back in village. That mean have to go with you," she told him, giving him a look that spoke of her dislike of him.
"How nice," Genma muttered, letting his shoulders slump as he tried to shrug off his situation. Bringing along a shapely young woman hadn't been in the plans when he'd made his promise all those years ago. The idea was for the boy to have no distractions, and be able to focus on choosing one of Tendo's daughters for his wife. Having a curvy young girl around could lead to some... things happening between her and his son, but, for the time being, he couldn't do anything about it.
"Glad you agree."
"I wouldn't say that. After all, you weren't in my travel plans in the first place."
"Then you should no have eaten trophy."
"I didn't know that it was wax!"
"We have to have this talk again?" the purple haired girl asked, raising a brow. "Shampoo not want to. And just so you know, Shampoo only want to be helpful to Ranma, do heroic things, and live life as Amazon truly should. Stupid Oyaji can go do what you want."
"Then, you're not going to interfere...."
"What you talking about?"
"No... nothing!" the elder Saotome blurted, and laughed nervously, rubbing one hand on the back of his head.
Ranma stopped himself before he started to shake his head. If nothing else, his father was still a clueless idiot no matter what the timeline was. The man wasn't exactly a genius in a lot of things, and wasn't someone who thought things past the moment when he'd get what he'd wanted.
Of course, the pigtailed boy was reasonably certain that he knew where they were going. Heading to Japan after visiting the village likely meant that they were going to be going to see a certain trio of sisters in Nerima. He knew that would mean that he'd be probably getting stuck with the engagement again, but this time was already going to be different, what with him showing up with Shampoo.
But the big thing was that he could change how it would go. He knew that Nabiki had been wondering if he was going to be cute or not, and that Akane would be... grumpy. However, he could now avoid all those mistakes that he'd made before, and would have a good chance of dealing with it comfortably.
Then again, he could avoid the whole issue all together, but then he wouldn't have a set plan about that. He could possibly go and see his Mom, with all that would come with being with her again. The only other option would have him and Shampoo camping out, and he knew that his father would be after him to follow through with his promise. Besides, it might be a bit... demeaning to have a super hero having to take odd jobs to feed himself.
Slowly letting out a deep breath, he leaned back in the hay, while:
(Posted Tue, 18 Jul 2006 09:48)
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