Finally having traveled far enough along the path to reach the house, the pair watched as a tall girl in a green apron dress came out to meet them.
Ranma was a bit surprised that the place had what appeared to be a maid. It didn't look like it was an inn, so the family they were staying with had to be fairly rich as the Kuno's staff wasn't as nicely dressed as this girl.
By his estimate, the girl was taller than his male form, though that might have been due to the high heels on her dark green boots. With the boots ending at her calves, white stockings carried her legs up the rest of the way to the wide green skirt resting just above her knees. Over the green dress was the kind of apron Kasumi preferred with the large shoulder ruffles and the simple white bow in the back. Above her waist two large breasts pushed out the green fabric of her dress to be visible past the sides of the bib of her apron, making her the bustiest girl he'd ever met. Finishing off her outfit were the pair of short puffed out sleeves to her dark green dress, giving her an overall stylish and cute look.
Judging by her accessories, green was her signature color as it seemed to match her green eyes and the green eyeshadow she was using. Even the hair ornaments holding her ponytail up were green, though there was some variety in her look. The choker around her neck for instance was black with a rosy gem set in the middle of her throat. Similarly rosy pink earrings shaped like roses adorned her ears, while her lips were coated in a similar hue of glossy lipstick.
Grinning slightly at the situation, Nodoka hoped the girl would restrain herself. It had been a lot to ask of the girl to not be by Ranma's side once Nodoka had found him, but she'd understood the reasons. Now that Makoto was being reunited with her childhood love, her ability to restrain herself would be a concern. She doubted Ranma could pick up on the girl's body language, but if Makoto had a tail it would have been wagging clear as day.
For her part, the tall girl bowed once they were in range, flipping her ponytail over her head to hang down and obscure her head. "Welcome home, Nodoka-sama, Ranma-sama."
Pausing along with his mother, Ranma got the sinking feeling that there was something he wasn't being told about here.
His mother on the other hand waved the girl off. "Now dear, just call me Auntie like always."
Bobbing into the standing position, Makoto did the motion with such practiced ease that her ponytail settled neatly behind her head. "Of course Auntie."
Seeing that Ranma was starting to question the situation, Nodoka led them inside. Not wanting to leave Ranma completely in the dark, she filled him in on a bare minimum of information. "Mako-chan will be taking care of you during our little vacation here."
Staring blankly at his mother for a moment, Ranma let it pass for the time being.
For her part, Nodoka continued blithely along not giving Ranma much opportunity to worry. "Some tea and snacks would be nice dear."
"Of course Auntie."
Figuring it wasn't a problem, he followed his mother and the tall maid into the house allowing her to seat him on an individual pillow and serving table. While he'd been served food by pretty girls before, he'd never had one take such a traditional approach.
After the tall maid bustled out of the room to prepare their meal, Ranma had a chance to turn to his similarly seated mother. "Uhm, mom? What's going on here?"
Raising an eyebrow, his mother was a bit curious at his continuing ignorance. "Don't you remember Mako-chan?"
Seeing him shake his head in the negative, she tried a different reminder, "What about visiting here as a child?"
Getting another quiet no, she was beginning to worry. "When is the last time you remember visiting me as a child?"
Staring blankly at her, Ranma eventually ventured a guess. "Uhm, I guess before we left on the training trip, though I don't really remember you from then either. When we got back from Jusenkyou I was planning on ditching Pops, but I couldn't remember where I lived or what you looked like or nuthing."
Growing more suspicious, she decided to ask something more specific. "What about your twelfth birthday?"
Still staring blankly at her, Ranma seemed to put some effort into trying to recall that specific birthday. "Uhm, nothing special I guess, Pops never really did anything for my birthday, said it'd make me weak."
Frowning, Nodoka allowed Makoto to pour her tea as the girl started serving them rice-balls and tea. This finally confirmed the suspicions she had had for years now. When Genma had made that contract and taken Ranma at age five, they had an agreement that Ranma would visit at least on his birthdays. Ranma's twelfth birthday had been the last time she'd seen Ranma until she'd met a red-head going by the name of Ranko Tendou.
She had had her suspicions as soon as his first visit on his seventh birthday. Makoto had to reintroduce herself to Ranma, a process that was all too easy as Ranma was quite an openly friendly boy. More troubling to herself however was that he seemed to have trouble recognizing her, though he would light up whenever he actually realized he was with his mother.
Every year had been that same pattern, with some spell of forgetfulness falling over him each time. In a way, the fact that Makoto had to make friends with Ranma each time they met had pushed her towards becoming Ranma's maid, as despite his friendliness, he never seemed to bother remembering her after she left.
On the twelfth birthday, fearing that something was up, Nodoka had attempted to stop Ranma from leaving again, the training be damned. Genma however had proven to at least be excellent at sneaking away. Two weeks later she'd let Makoto catch up with him at the new school he was registered at, and once again Makoto was a stranger to him. They had made friends for the eighth time, only to have Genma discover Makoto's presence and haul Ranma off again.
In the end, Nodoka had to let them be for fear of disrupting Ranma's life too much. When Ranma's thirteenth birthday rolled by with no visit, Makoto had thrown herself into her training.
Nodoka was personally suspecting that it was scheme of Genma's to get at her families wealth which he had been denied. Part of being allowed to marry Genma, who had proved so greedy, was that she would only live on a small stipend and have nothing the man could abuse.
While Ranma would legally be his own man soon on his upcoming eighteenth birthday, it seemed Genma's plan was coming to fruition. Despite objections to the otherwise, Ranma was surprisingly honorable, and if Genma ever managed to tie him down to a Tendou girl and that dojo of theirs, they would likely have Ranma squarely in their grasp.
Even now Ranma seemed to suffer from that same spell, as sometimes he would be open and relaxed around her, and the next moment he'd be looking at her as if she were some terrible ogre about to pass sentence on his life.
Makoto on the other hand seemed convinced that it was a 'dark general scheme' to prevent Ranma from remembering her and the other senshi. The idea that Ranma had a team of reincarnated pretty magical warriors had always tickled her, and she hoped they would find a way to help her son.
Seeing that they were served and that Makoto was sitting patiently at Ranma's side awaiting his wishes, Nodoka decided to test her theory. "Now, Ranma, this is Makoto Kino. I took her in when she was orphaned as a little girl, and she's been training to be a maid to a special young man one day."
Glancing from his mother to the eager-to-serve young maid, Ranma failed to make the connection despite his mother's heaping piles of innuendo. Taking a moment to remove a rice-ball from his mouth, he greeted his host. "Uhm Hi, I'm Ranma Saotome. Uhm, did you make these rice-balls?"
"Mhmm, of course," answered Makoto while smiling happily at him.
Taking another bite out of his rice-ball and revealing the dark red center, Ranma remembered to chew and swallow before complimenting her. "Ya know, Adzuki Bean paste filled rice-balls are my favorite."
Smiling indulgently, Makoto merely nodded her head. Like all of his favorites, she knew what his favorite type of rice-ball was, though it was always possible he might have new dishes he liked. The Adzuki rice-ball was a recipe she had learned how to make from scratch by age nine simply because it was one of his favorites.
Sipping her tea, Nodoka sighed as Ranma proved to have once again forgotten Makoto. While she didn't know what sort of spell was cast over Ranma, she did suspect Genma in this. As such, she really couldn't condone the Tendou engagement anymore.
With any luck, it would take only a week for Makoto and Ranma to get reacquainted, and she had high hopes as Makoto seemed quite confident that now she was a magical maid, she could protect Ranma from this cruel enchantment. There was also the possibility of arranging a proper fiancée for Ranma, though considering the mess Genma had made, that seemed unlikely to go well on short notice at least.
For his part, Ranma wasn't quite as unobservant about Makoto as his mother thought.
For one, she reminded him of Kasumi, only the nicest Tendou girl was never so attentive to him. Where Kasumi had only been moderately polite but kind none-the-less, Ranma had a feeling that Makoto wasn't so restrained. The girl seemed to have even checked with his mother to see what type of rice ball he preferred.
With his long time experience with the fiancée brigade, he was aware of a few other facts about this girl, particularly as she seemed to be about as eager as Shampoo. Unlike the bouncy amazon however, this girl was obviously restraining herself despite the fact that she was intently reading him to see some opening to where she could offer help.
Already the girl was picking rice from his face and finger feeding it to him, and he had no doubt at all that she'd gladly hand-feed him everything given the chance.
All told, he didn't think his suspicion that this girl was some fiancée his mother had arranged was too far-fetched. As she combined the two aspects from Kasumi and Shampoo that made it hard for him to say no to them plus a little extra, the idea of being alone with her was a bit worrying.
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(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:56)
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