None of this particularly impressed Takashi Hino, and it hadn't for years. He'd been a politician long enough to not be distracted by the 'little things', and had good practice in keeping himself under control. That was important when one was making decisions that could affect thousands, and maybe even millions, of people every day.
But right then, one individual in particular was on his mind, and he couldn't get her out of it.
Turned away from his desk, he tapped one hand on its polished surface, and frowned thoughtfully. It wasn't that he was disappointed in her for the most part, as he knew that she did well enough in that Catholic school of hers. Not that he wanted anything less though, as he thought that his daughter was meant to be a model of success in whatever she was supposed to do. So, the ability to not have to worry about her was a blessing for him, as far as he could tell.
However, he'd been reminded about what the daughter of one of his contemporaries had been doing, and so that had drawn his own thoughts to his child. Forgetting her existence wasn't exactly something that he could do, as she was the only continuation that his blood would have. Of course, it was easy enough to get bogged down in the little details of governence, since it was a massive effort to run the political machine that was modern day Japan.
That was what she could never understand. He wasn't blind to her dislike of getting involved in such things, and he knew that despite the growth of women getting involved in the government, there was no way that there would be a 'Hino' to follow directly in his footsteps. To tell the truth though, that was fine by him, as there were plenty of girls who didn't trail after their politician fathers into politics.
What he had hoped was that she could see that she would do better in getting involved in the other aspects of their level of society. Eventually, she'd have to marry someone of their social class, and then they would carry on the family legacy, possibly even becoming well known in things like charity or social work. At the very least, she could be the support in the background, doing whatever she could to keep the home and appearances well enough, even if she didn't go out to do anything herself.
Unfortunately, she didn't want any of that, and since he couldn't change her mind, he respected her wishes. His daughter simply wasn't in his plans, which meant that she had her own life, and he worked on what he had to get done. He just wished that she understood that there were pressures that he couldn't just ignore, no matter how much she might want him to.
Still, she at least had some friends to be with, although the ones at school were merely passing companions. From what he'd heard, her most important friends were girls from another school, which wasn't that bad. There were good things being said about Haruka Ten'oh and Michiru Kaioh, and he recalled them being included in some very high class functions. Then there was Ami Mizuno, who was a well known prodigy, and someone called 'Minako', who'd been overseas. He'd heard some troubling things about the Kino girl, but she had at least behaved herself despite her previous reputation. With the daughter of the famous Professor Tomoe, and the obviously caring Usagi around, she had some nice people to be with.
What really had him second guessing what had happened was his son-in-law. There had been little time to meet the boy before hand, and what little contact that they'd had was tense at best. Even in the special clothing that he'd had, he never really looked all that 'classy'. Instead, he'd seemed to be... rough, and was pretty cocky in his attitude. Obviously the boy had little in the way of education, which didn't sit all that well, but he was obviously making her happy, and so he let it be. Taking his advice from his own father in law, he even allowed the marriage after letting her see men that she might be better suited for.
Something told him that might have been a mistake.
No clear reason had come to him, but he was uncertain of what getting involved with this boy would do for his sole heir. This kid would never be able to be easily fit into the 'debonair' mould. Instead, you could dress him up, and he'd impress plenty of people with his zeal and quick wits, like he had done with several of the younger women. Yet, he was the son of a petty thief and grifter, who was in turn the student of an even worse petty thief and pervert. Someone like that wasn't likely to amount to much of anything, never mind doing anything worthy of the daughter of a Liberal party leader.
Besides, the kid had seemed to have something against Takashi himself. Just what that was, he didn't know, but apparently he was rather protective of Rei, and saw him as a problem for her. More than likely, he had just gotten stubborn over some important thing, but it was lucky that he was going to defend her so strongly. That meant that he was going to not rest if she was in trouble, which was a mark in his favor.
So, he was stuck, still uncertain as to what he should do, and had to wonder just what would come of his daughter's marriage to Ranma Saotome.
"You want us to go where?" Ranma asked, staring at his father.
Genma gave an exaggerated sniff and tried his best to make himself look superior to his son. "We're going to see my old friend Tendo at his dojo in Nerima."
"Oh, great. Another plan of yours, huh?"
"Stupid boy, it's something that was set up for years, and you fussing about it isn't going to help anything."
"Really? Are planned that far ahead, did we?" the pigtailed boy scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Of course. This is for the schools, after all."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Simple." The elder Saotome gave a wide grin. "You're going to go there, and we'll have you engaged to one of Tendo's daughters."
"'Engaged'?"
"She'll be your fiancee, and then your wife."
He wanted to laugh so hard that he choked on it, which amused Ranma even more. The very idea that he'd marry anyone other than his current wife was absurd, and he knew that his friends wouldn't even think of helping in any plan to break them apart, especially one that was as stupid at this. From the time that he'd seen her, he'd known that Rei was special, and having wanted her even when her figure had been covered up by her shrine maiden robes had told him that it was more than physical appearance that had drawn him to her.
Honestly, he didn't even pay much credit to the concept in and of itself anyway, so he wasn't about to worry about it all that much. "Great. Just going to have to get this outta the way, I guess."
"You mean, you're not going to fight it?" Genma asked hopefully.
"What I'm plannin' on doin' is goin' to visit a shrine as soon as I can."
"A 'shrine'?"
"You know, one of those special places that are all religious, and have those big freestanding gates. Somewhere like that."
"I know what a shrine is! My concern is what could you want to do at a place like that."
"Fat lot you know," the pigtailed boy muttered. "There's plenty of stuff to do there. A lot of special things are just waitin' there to get at."
Confusion set in, and Genma began to wonder about what exactly that could mean. It was unlikely that the boy was going to pick up religion now, but there were stories of temples having secret treasures that could help a warrior out. For all that he knew, the boy was going to be heading to get some special weapon or scroll. Then again, there was always the possibility that with this engagement coming up, he might want to work on wedding plans right away.
Either of those was welcome news, and he felt pride in his son following in his footsteps.
To Ranma, the idea of visiting his friends sounded tempting, despite the fact he wanted little do with his father's latest scheme. Seeing them again would be nice, and they might even want to join him on his trip to reunite with his wife. Getting back to Rei was most important though, and he had to wonder how soon he could get started on that.
For the moment though, he was kind of stuck, and had to deal with his father's latest bout of stupidity. Luckily he wouldn't have too much trouble in avoiding much of the mess. All he had to do was work on getting on to the following step, and he thought of ways of doing exactly that, while:
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(Posted Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:10)
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