How did we get to where we are today? Everyone thinks about that very question at some point during their lives. Ranma, however, never had much call to do much in the way of pondering on that particular existential quandary. There was, after all, always something to distract his attention while in Nerima. Psychotic fiancées, magic curses, homicidal rivals and brain dead parental figures took up most of the time one would have normally spent pondering such things.
Not that Ranma would have devoted an inordinate amount of time or effort on said pursuits even if he had the spare hours in the day. He's not that cerebrally inclined.
However, when he found himself in the hospital with three broken ribs, one of them puncturing his lung, there was little else to do. Ranma always thought of himself as invincible, the best there was. In a certain sense, that line of thought was absolutely true. But at the same time, there were some things that he just couldn't defend himself from.
Akane had only gotten worse since the wedding debacle, taking any opportunity to show Ranma just how little she thought of him by abusing him physically and emotionally. The point of no return had been passed when he had to be rushed to the ER in order to stop him from drowning in his own blood when a mallet strike sent him into a rather pointy piece of rebar. It was only through Ranma's inhuman durability and recovery abilities that he didn't die immediately.
And no one cared.
The very instant he hobbled back into the Tendo home, Ranma was instantly beset by both of his parents to get married to the person that almost killed him. They argued that Akane was just shy and that the girl would calm down after the wedding. This, of course, set off another tirade from Akane about how she never wanted to get married to that pervert, and she wished he had died. The entire situation was all set to devolve into another session of "Let's pound on Ranma" when relief had come from a very unlikely source.
Nabiki's voice cut through the caterwauling like the voice of God almighty, demanding everyone's attention. She told everyone that this entire thing was over. Ranma would not be wed to any Tendo, because there was no dowry.
That set quite a few people off, and their demands to know exactly what Nabiki meant were met with the cold revelation that she was now the sole owner of the Tendo dojo. Turned out that Soun had seceded his power of attorney to her years ago so that she had full authority to pay bills and order repairs. Now that she was a full adult, it was a fairly simple process to transfer the dojo to her name alone.
Protests exploded from all sides, which she deftly countered with the following:
"Get the fuck off my property."
More had to be said to get anybody to do anything but shout, but in the end, the Ice Queen stood victorious. Akane and Soun were allowed to stay, with the understanding that Ranma was to be released from the marriage promise. With no dowry, (There was no way in hell Nabiki was giving up her investment) there was nothing to be done about it.
Genma and Nodoka moaned about Nabiki's dishonorable nature, causing her to reveal her second surprise of the day. Ranma, being eighteen, was now legally able to duck any arrangements his parents had for him. Nabiki took advantage of this by using a couple favors to get Ranma legally emancipated from them. All he needed to do was fill out some forms. Threats of physical violence were met with threats of police action. No court in Japan would deny that Ranma had been abused as a child, and his parents continued disregard for his safety clearly showed that they were unfit to exert control over his life.
While this was happening, Ranma had finally become completely disillusioned with his guardians. Neither of them wanted what was best for him. Nothing new there from Genma, but Nodoka... Seeing her as the irrational person that she was, Ranma quickly took Nabiki's help in getting out of the situation.
The other fiancées were handled as follows: Ukyo's claim was rendered illegitimate by the fact that, there again, there was no dowry. The Poker King had won it from the Kuonjis long ago, and so Genma actually got let off the hook for that one. Shampoo, on the other hand, was more difficult. Amazon culture did not recognize any piece of paper that did not directly benefit them, so the fact that Ranma had been made suddenly single only made their claim more valid.
As was his custom, Ranma took the problem head on, challenging Cologne to one last match, winner take all. If Cologne won, Ranma would go back to Joketsuzoku. If Ranma won, the Amazons would relinquish their claim forever. Although Cologne was under no obligation to accept the challenge, she had grown tired of the chase. Moreover, did one really want to piss off somebody that had killed a god?
The battle was short but brutal. Although it appeared close at times, there was never really a doubt that Ranma would win. Cologne's heart was not in the fight, and Ranma very much wanted to get the hell out of the arrangement. He would not be a trophy husband.
When Ranma went back to Nabiki to thank her for all her help and to ask her if he could do anything in return, she told him to move away. The further the better. Any money Nabiki had been making off him was going directly into fixing the house or dojo, and even the gifts from the aborted wedding failed to bring in much of a positive cash flow. Besides, Nabiki had moved past pictures awhile ago to more grownup schemes. You can only count on something for so long before it gets tapped out. Even as Ranma thanked her again and took off, Nabiki managed to keep the tears out of her eyes. It wasn't like she liked him. No, not at all.
Right.
Ranma wandered, as he was known to do before settling down at the Tendo dojo. Along the way he met a couple other strong martial artists that he learned from, including that guy in the red bandanna. He was a really good warrior. A bit too obsessed with something he referred to as "the fight", though. Ranma just wanted to learn new techniques, not listen to the man groan about the art. He walked away with some new special moves, and a deep respect for the amount of starch one should put in one's shorts. Ranma figured that was half the guy's problem.
When Ranma was walking through Shinjuku one day, fate stepped in again. Some local toughs were harassing a blond gaijin man, presumably for the crime of being gaijin. Ranma couldn't stand to see anyone picking on the weak, so he jumped in and stomped them into the ground. The man turned out to be none other than Theodore Diggers, who was in Japan on business from his associates. They apparently wanted to know why there was so much demon and youma activity in Japan at the time. More importantly, why was it that the only people that seemed to be able to stop the monsters were girls in tight clothing?
Over the conversation they had afterward, Dr. Diggers learned that Ranma was on the lookout for new places and people with which to train. When he dropped the fact that his wife was the greatest warrior of an entire world, Ranma jumped at the chance to get out of there. He was eighteen, out of high school, and had nothing to hold him to Japan anymore.
And so Ranma began his adventure with the Diggers.
When the two men got back to his house, Theodore proceeded to introduce Ranma to his three daughters. Ranma, having been through this before, vehemently declared that there was no way he was marrying any of them. This provoked reactions ranging from confused, (Gina) through amused, (Brianna) to annoyed. (Brittney. As if there was anyone for her but her muffin!)
The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up, though Dr. Diggers did want to know exactly why Ranma thought he had somehow engaged him to one of his daughters. Ranma's explanation provoked a new range of reactions, this time starting with annoyed (Gina) moving through angry, (Brittney) and ended with nine kinds of livid. (Brianna. How dare those bastards hurt this studmuffin!)
Dr. Diggers talked his daughters out of seeking revenge on Ranma's behalf, sighting that although they had wronged Ranma, karma would eventually catch up with them. Spouting eastern teachings was out of character for Theodore, but everyone took his word for it. They shouldn't have worried. Shortly afterward, Dr. Diggers contacted a witch friend of his to hex select members of Ranma's former antagonizers. (Again out of character for him, but he thought a little poetic justice that he could blame on the universe's idea of Karma was not out of line.) Ever since then, Akane had been suffering from splitting migraine headaches whenever she got mad, Genma became explosively flatulent whenever he lied, Nodoka got a bad case of arthritis if she touched her sword, and Soun got horrendous conjunctivitis on the occasions when he cried.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Ranma found himself happy with where he was and what he was doing. People here liked him for him, and although he did have to explain about the curse, it seemed like the whole thing was "more of the same" to them instead of something to set him apart because of. Apparently, everyone here was used to weird things happening. The end result from all this was he now had a place that he could train, and people that he could call friends. The only "friends" he had in Nerima were either trying to kill him, in the case of Ryoga, or nail his girl side, in the case of Hiroshi and Daisuke. His time could be spent how he saw fit. Usually, Ranma spent it training, but he was always up for assisting Gina on one of her adventures. Besides, Gina always attracted the best people to fight, like that Benji guy. Now that was a fight.
Ranma's stomach reminded him of who was in charge, and he followed it's directions until he got to the kitchen. He found Gina already there, fixing a breakfast of her own. She had a serious case of bedhead, her long blond hair unkempt and frazzled. "Mornin', Gina."
Gina turned towards him slowly, fixing him with bleary, sleep-addled eyes. "Mmmmmughhh..." she groaned out from her position by the microwave.
Ranma smiled. Somebody hadn't had their morning cup of coffee. "Late night?" He expected so. There were a bunch of bumps and thuds late last night, and that only happened when Gina was working on one of her inventions, like the particle impactor, or that hyperwave generator, or that nifty neutral building block device. What was it called? Oh right... the Standard Template Constructor.
"Brittney got me up early this morning," the blond genius whined. "She got attacked last night by wererats and they put some sort of collar on her. I'm going to try to get it off."
Ranma jerked out of his quest for food when the attack was mentioned. "Brittney got attacked?" Gina nodded her head and yawned. "And you didn't wake me up?!"
Gina groaned. Everybody had learned not to stop Ranma from entering a fight. They didn't even try anymore. "It happened really fast. They got in, slapped the collar on her, and took off."
"Wouldn'ta got away if I'd been there," Ranma mumbled to himself as he resumed the search for sustenance.
Just then:
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(Posted Sat, 05 Aug 2006 08:03)
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