Life in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, when one really stops and thinks about it, is not really that different from life anywhere else. Oh, sure, Nerima has a multitude of mind-bogglingly powerful martial artists in residence, and mages had a tendency to fling spells around like they were going out of style, and occasionally there was a scuffle between the odd multinational conglomerate and an escaped android, but really, nothing too out of the ordinary. The people there still live, work, play, and love just like any other group of human beings on the planet—the only difference, essentially, is that Nerimans have a higher tolerance for distraction. Much higher.
In the case of one Akane Tendo, these distractions included her unfortunate tendency to be kidnapped on a fairly regular basis, usually as a direct result of her association with her reluctant fiancé, Ranma Saotome. The last time, however, had been particularly stressful, as her undesired adventure in Jusendo had brought her closer to death than she’d ever been before. It was probably due to the carpe diem outlook she’d temporarily adopted upon her return that she’d agreed to cooperate with her and Ranma’s fathers’ efforts to foist a marriage upon the young man—an action which Akane now realized was quite possibly the dumbest thing she’d ever done. Looking back, it was perfectly obvious that the only reason he’d agreed to get into that tuxedo was that he’d been caught off-guard; if the wedding had been successful, it likely would have ended up causing nothing but long-lasting bitter resentment.
Thank goodness for the crazies, Akane thought to herself. If Ranma’s other suitors and rivals hadn’t taken it upon themselves to disrupt the ceremony as violently as possible, the odds were good that their relationship would have already begun to breakdown, likely beyond any repair. She ran her hand through her short, dark hair as she tried to refocus on the task at hand; the teachers at Furinkan High School might have been forgiving of her absenteeism (because it usually wasn’t voluntary), but that didn’t mean they weren’t willing to pile on the make-up work. However, as she stared at her algebra textbook, trying to make sense of the quadratic equation, she suddenly found her thoughts interrupted once again, this time by an external stimuli.
“Are you outta yer mind?!”
It was the clear, strident voice of her fiancé (or, more accurately at the moment, her fiancée, as the soprano that drifted up to Akane’s room belonged to Ranma’s female cursed form), no doubt giving her usual knee-jerk reaction to someone telling her that she had to do something. Ranma had been cursed to change genders when hit by hot or cold water since before the two of them met, and the novelty of his aquatransexuality had worn off a long time ago, such that she didn’t even have an ounce of curiosity as to how Ranma had managed to get his curse triggered yet again. Still, she supposed it would be best to find out what all the fuss was about. For one thing, if this carried on, she wouldn’t be able to complete her work anyway, and for another, whenever someone tried to make Ranma do something she didn’t want to do, she usually ended up getting involved anyway. Akane closed her book, left her room, and headed downstairs to the family room to ascertain the origin of the hubbub (and perhaps take part in it herself).
There, the entire Saotome family had gathered: Nodoka was sitting down at a table, exuding the calm and dignity that so effectively masked one of the oddest worldviews Akane had ever encountered; Ranma was pacing frantically back and forth in front of her, visibly attempting to keep from screaming at the top of her lungs; and Genma sat in a corner, arms crossed petulantly with the all-to-familiar grumpy expression he got whenever it looked like things weren’t going his way on his face. Akane’s father, meanwhile, was standing off to the side, observing the scene in disbelieving wonder.
Even though Akane had no idea what the Saotomes were arguing about, it was pretty easy to figure out that the conversation had reached a stalemate. “No, no, a thousand times no!”
“Look, Ranma, I understand that you’d feel a little uneasy about what I’m asking you yo do…”
“Mom, you’ve said an’ done some things that made me a little uneasy before, but this goes beyond ‘uneasy’ an inta ‘certifiably nuts!’”
“I’m only asking you to carry on the family business,” Nodoka said.
“Business, shmusiness,” Genma said, interjecting himself into the conversation. “The boy has the right to live his life the way he wants to.”
Now, Akane was really confused; she had never heard this kind of supportiveness from Genma Saotome, who normally was quick to use familial obligations to impress Ranma into all manner of craziness.
Nodoka, meanwhile, continued to plead her case. “If you’ll just hear me out—”
“No, Mom,” Ranma said firmly. “I’ve gone through enough crap already, an’ I don’t need somethin’ like this makin’ my life even more screwed up than it already is!”
Akane had had enough of listening to an impassioned conversation with nary a clue as to the overall subject. “Could someone please tell me what’s going on here?”
Turning towards the new voice in the room, Ranma rolled her eyes slightly, as if she expected her problems to grow exponentially in the next few minutes. She hastily exhaled in ineffable exasperation before pointing her thumb over her shoulder in the general direction of her mother and explaining the situation in her typically blunt fashion: “She wants me ta be a magical girl.”
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(Posted Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:39)
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