Ranma opened up the small, ornate box and discovered it held a golden magatama with a fine gold ring through the hole, obviously meant to be worn dangling from one's earlobe. He had seen them before. They seemed to be popular among both guys and girls in certain areas he had passed through around the Kanto region. The rumor he had heard was that the magatama was worn to indicate that person was a fighter.
"Cool!" Ranma grinned.
He had never considered wearing an earring before—his old man would have probably had a hissy-fit about it being unmanly—but it was the work of seconds before the gold magatama was hanging from his left ear lobe. He gave his head an experimental shake, feeling the unfamiliar weight shift from his ear and bounce against his neck.
Satisfied, he decided to head back to the dojo.
"Where have you been, boy?" Genma demanded, not looking up from the game of shogi he was playing with Soun.
"Around," Ranma snorted. "Ain't none a' your business anyway, old man."
Genma looked up, his mouth open to chastise his son for being disrespectful but when he saw Ranma, he froze and his face paled. Genma raised a shaking finger to point at Ranma, or more specifically, Ranma's left ear.
"W-what is that?" Genma demanded shakily. "Where did you get it?"
"What? This thing?" Ranma asked with a smirk while he twiddled the magatama with a finger. "Found it earlier. And don't even think about swipin' it. It's mine."
"Foolish boy! Do you have any idea what that means?" Genma bellowed.
"Sure, I seen'em before," Ranma shrugged. "It means the person wearin' it is a fighter. I'm a fighter, so I'm wearin' it. Get over it."
Genma fumed for several moments. It was what he had feared most since Nodoka told him about it. It was the reason he had taken Ranma on a ten year training journey. It was the primary reason he had convinced his son to avoid his mother. It had nothing to do with the foolish seppuku contract and everything to do with keeping his son away from what that magatama represented. Now it seemed that in spite of all his efforts, destiny had found his son anyway.
For the rest of the night, Genma considered his next course of action. The boy had refused to give up the accursed magatama, going so far as to give Genma a particularly thorough thrashing to make his opinion on the matter clear.
It was only a matter of time before the boy got caught up in the Fate of the Sacred Bead as Nodoka had called it. Genma had several options he could take now, but after thinking it over, he decided to...
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Iridium Heart
(Posted Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:28)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.