Cologne of the Nyu-che-zuu had seen much in her three centuries of life.
She thought she had seen and heard it all.
But this . . .
"Your son is from this Yiziba planet we've heard so much about in the last day?"
Genma nodded. "That's correct."
Cologne took a moment to absorb that concept. "And you raised him since he was a baby in the way you did so as to fulfil the dying wishes of his mother on Yiziba?"
"Yes, Elder, that is correct."
Another pause as the elder absorbed that news. "And it was this Destructo fellow who appeared in Tomobiki two nights ago who saved him from the madness of the Neko-ken? And at the same time, saw to it that the living spirit of your child's real mother would be fused into Ranma's subconscious mind so to prepare him for the day his powers would awaken and he might elect to return to his homeworld."
"That is what happened, Elder."
Cologne glanced at Nodoka for a moment, and then she turned back to her husband. "And because of that, you deliberately knocked Ranma into Nyanniichuan to give a body for the soul of his mother -- whom you now see as your new daughter, Kanami -- so that, when the time finally came and Destructo revealed himself, Kanami could actually live her own life because she had been murdered on Yiziba?"
"Yes, Elder, that was planned right from the start."
A grin crossed her face. "And you even went so far as to ask Destructo to use his power to disguise Ranma so that no one, not even Happy or I, could sense the truth about him?"
A grave nod twitched Genma's face, a contrite look -- an honest contrite look, Cologne quickly realised -- crossing his face. "Yes, Elder, that is true. I apologise for the deception of you, of course, but I think you can understand deep down why we wished to keep the Master ignorant of this."
"He won't be ignorant for long," Cologne warned, and then a delighted cackle escaped her. "I must admit, you two, that was sheer genius on your part!"
"Are you implying we shouldn't have raised Ranma?" Nodoka asked.
"Of course not! A child with such incredible power . . . " A pause. "Let me tell you this, Nodoka: if he had come to Earth near the village, every would-be mother there would have honour duels to the death for the right to raise him. In fact, some of the more 'female chauvinistic' mothers might've done as Genma here did and dunked the baby into Nyanniichuan so she could be raised as a 'proper' warrior amongst our people." A deep breath. "So, you've succeeded beyond your wildest dreams when it comes to your child! But it still doesn't change some facts concerning his interaction with my great-granddaughter, much less his other fiancées."
"That is true, Elder. We do accept that," Souun said. "My agreement with Genma concerning the union of both our branches of Musabetsu Kakutou-ryuu was always subject to a special caveat: if or if not Wysynski-sensei would make an appearance before such a marriage was consummated, thus awakening Ranma's powers -- and, by extension, giving Kanami her own chance at life. If Wysynski-sensei had not come forth . . . " He then paused. "Well, I suppose it would have been 'business as usual' for all of us in this situation, much as I regret that actually happening in the first place."
"Yes, you are right there, Souun," Cologne admitted. "We've all made some very foolish, even ugly, mistakes when it came to Ranma and who would actually win the right to take his hand in marriage. But we've all cloaked ourselves in our own worldviews, believing we were in the right all along. Having this happen . . . "
"Will end up hurting too many people who don't deserve to be hurt in the long term," Nodoka finished for their host. "That is what we've come here to help resolve, Elder. Unlike my son's other would-be lovers, your great-granddaughter's claim, through your tribal laws, has considerable legitimacy. It would be an evil thing to do to simply ignore such claims, pretend they don't exist. To ask your great-granddaughter to abandon the laws she had been raised from birth to consider sacred would be hurtful. In the end, we don't want that. Ranma wouldn't want it either."
"Fair enough," Cologne acknowledged that with a nod, and then she breathed out. "Unfortunately, there's been something of a misconception when it came to what Shan actually did at the village when your husband and son came to visit us, Nodoka."
"She didn't have to use the Kiss of Death, you mean," Genma noted.
The elder smirked as she gave him a knowing look. "I knew you had to understand Chinese if you were going to help Kanami, Genma."
"It was easy," Genma noted. "May I remind you, Elder, we do, to an extent, share the same writing system. What for the most part is read in Mandarin is read very much the same way in Japanese. Or Korean for that matter. At times, the interpretations do radically change, but it didn't when it came to that particular spring."
Cologne laughed. "Oh, if only more Japanese would think that way!" she declared with a slap to her knee, and then she nodded. "And yes, Genma, you were right. Shan didn't have to use the Kiss of Death. It was clearly obvious to my fellow elders that there was something very off about both of you when you came to watch the tournament. Only when Shan had gone off after you two did we remember that the Jusenkyou guide had been with you. After we talked to him, we soon realised the mistake Shan made."
"So the Kiss of Death is, in effect, meaningless," Nodoka said.
"Of course not. A warrior's honour in our village is a very important thing to take into consideration," Cologne replied, and then she took a deep breath. "The problem among most of Shan's generation is this: they tend to take matters of honour a little too seriously. It's come to the point where a simple mistake in words spoken between one another could lead almost to a fight to the death." She closed her eyes as she considered that point, and then she carried on, "Simply put, Shan's generation have been filled to the brim with lessons about honour, how the laws are to be used and how much they've protected our village from outside interference. But they don't have anywhere near the experience necessary to know when to use those laws . . . and even more, when not to use them."
"And this ultimately is one of those cases," Nodoka stated.
A nod. "Yes. Shan took it on herself to use the Kiss of Death. She knew from the start that failure in carrying out that oath would mean facing Jusenkyou. She failed. But at the same time, she involved another oath: the Kiss of Marriage. And that, from what I understand thanks to Nabiki, was done because Ranma simply was defending whom he perceived as a defenceless opponent from Shan's attack. Is that right?"
"That is correct, Elder," Souun confirmed with a nod.
"Fine, then," Cologne declared. "And now we come to this little revelation you've dropped on me." A smile then crossed her face. "Personally, given what you three were ultimately up to, I can understand -- even applaud! -- your deception. Happy is, as you all well know, quite a control maniac when it comes to whatever he perceives as 'his.' Atop that, his need to absorb the ki from females would simply make Kanami too irresistible a target for him not to pass up. And I don't think that Kanami would like to be the constant target of his 'devotions.'" A pause. "However, it is not my decision in the end. It is my great-granddaughter's decision. I could override her use of the Kiss of Marriage on Ranma given what he is now. But Shan may not accept my reasons why. After all, it doesn't take too much of a stretch of imagination to see what could happen if he -- or Kanami for that matter -- decided to come after the village as a whole in vengeance over Shan going after a person they cared for just out of some vain hope to bring Ranma to heel. And I suspect now that he has his full powers, Ranma is, in effect, invulnerable to the more coercive techniques we could potentially use to control him."
"If he isn't, there's always Infinity close by to assist," Genma reported.
"Yes, true," the Nyu-che-zuu elder acknowledge that with a nod, and then an amused look crossed her face. "And that is something some of the people who have interacted with Ranma have always feared deep down: his acquiring friends beyond our own circle who could show him that the path he's walked for so long is not the only path he could have taken to compose his life's story. Shan, I think, won't like that idea at all. Neither would Mu-tzu, the Kunous, much less Kuonji-san and Hibiki-san. If Ranma simply turned around and walked away from them, their own worldviews would take quite a vicious blow to the heart, perhaps shatter them once and for all. They wouldn't like that by any stretch of the imagination." A raised eyebrow. "I hope you three are prepared to deal with the potential aftermath of what this event has unleashed."
"As a matter of fact, Elder, we are," Nodoka declared. "The Kunous, despite their many delusions telling them to the contrary, have no marriage claim on either Ranma or Kanami. Everything they say is meaningless in the long term and I can (with Nabiki's help) appeal to the courts to block their using their own influence to change that state of affairs. As for Ukyou-chan, her claim was actually rendered null-and-void when the yatai cart meant as the dowry was gambled away to the Gambling King before the verbal 'agreement' between my husband and Ukyou-chan's father was made. Atop that, the yatai was returned to them, with monetary compensation provided for the food taken from that cart. Why this was pursued further -- why Ukyou-chan was, in effect, stripped of her identity as a girl and forced on a ten-year quest for vengeance -- is unknown to us at this time. We will have it investigated, though."
"Not to the point where the girl herself might be hurt because of it, I hope."
"Of course not. Ranma would definitely disapprove of that even if he has no real amorous feelings for Ukyou-chan. She is his oldest friend."
"True. I assume that if Mu-tzu does something foolish from this point on, he'll be facing deportation," Cologne noted. On seeing her guests nod, she then sighed. "Very well then. I will give him one final warning about this. If he presses it and is made to face up to the consequences of his various actions, I won't object. Now, one final question: what about Hibiki-san? Does he know about Ranma's true nature?"
"He does," Genma replied. "At the same time though, it finally got the girls thinking about 'P-chan' and they came to their own conclusions about it. My son's oath to Ryouga was never broken despite what the fool might say otherwise. There is the potential for a lot of trouble from him; his own obsessions concerning my son are well known to you. His pride simply wouldn't let something like this go: Ranma now gaining a power Ryouga, no matter how much he trained, could equal." A shake of the head. "I fear that he'll keep on trying to do more mischief in whatever way he can. Souun and I both admit, much to our regret, to using him, in a sense, to make Ranma even more prepared for the day if or when he would return to Yiziba. The whole matter with 'P-chan' was a perfect training opportunity that couldn't be passed up."
"Fortunately, Ryouga-kun's shyness ensured he wouldn't go too far when it came to taking liberties with Akane-chan," Nodoka noted. "If necessary, we can easily reveal the truth about his deception as 'P-chan' and make it as public as possible, thus ruining his reputation, at least in Nerima."
"There's a danger in that," Cologne warned. "If your actions ended up making him think he had nothing left to live for, well, with his Shishi Hookoodan power, Ryouga could then easily become a walking time-bomb that could level all of Nerima if it lost control. I don't think you'd want that to happen, do you?"
"Of course not," Nodoka replied.
"So now that we've cleared the air there, let's get to the next stage," Genma proposed as he adjusted his glasses. "Elder, my honour, the honour of my family, has been strained beyond belief because of the necessity of preparing my son for the day he would go to a world where honour is, for many, a hollow concept. I've always deep down didn't want to walk the Master's path, but raising Ranma put me dangerously close to trotting down that trail. To that end, I must do something to compensate you and your people for the problems the coming of my son and I to your village ended up unleashing, most of all to your great-granddaughter. Is there anything you might desire, within reason, to allow this to be resolved?"
"The Sen-ken forms," Cologne automatically replied.
Genma smirked. "I thought that would be what you'd ask for."
Later . . .
"A very intricate plan they came up with, wasn't it?"
Cologne perked on hearing Mousse's voice, and then she nodded. "It was that," she stated, both now speaking in Mandarin. The elder had known that the nearly blind weapons-master had overheard her conversation with the Saotomes and Tendou Souun. Now it was time to see what sort of decision Mousse would make about that. "I have to confess, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the Tendou home when Happy comes back and finds out his two 'cowardly' heirs pulled such a fast one on him."
"Kanami is still in danger, Elder," Mousse warned.
"Attracted to her?"
"In a physical sense, of course. If she still looks like Ranma did when he changed into a girl. Goddess only knows, I've seen that enough times."
Both laughed. "She may not be in as much danger as you might suspect, Mu-tzu," Cologne then said. "Her ki now, from what I can sense, is different from normal Terran ki. Happy might not be able to absorb it at all."
"He'll starve to death trying to get it, in other words?"
"Exactly." A wry smirk then crossed the elder's lips. "And if what I suspect might happen does happen, Happy won't find an easy time of it at the Tendou home when he does come back from his panty foray in Osaka."
"What do you mean?"
"Child, you know that the Tendous offered Ranma the first home he had known for ten whole years," Cologne explained. "While his sense of honour will have to adjust to the demands of Yizibajohei culture, I do think his sense of repaying debts has not been affected. And . . . " A smirk crossed her face. "Wouldn't it be sheer poetic justice to ensure that Happy could not absorb any ki from Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane by turning them into Yizibajohei?"
Mousse winced. "That would be poetic, Elder."
Both laughed as we . . .
(Posted Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:03)
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