Of course, it was still irritating to see his father heave a sigh and look put out by the fact that he actually had to explain himself.
"It's really simple," Genma stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "You see back then I had to spend some time far from some well travelled grounds."
"On another training journey, eh, old man?" the pigtailed boy grunted.
"Why wouldn't it be? Your mother was making noises about getting pregnant, and I had no desire to be hounded about that."
Lips pressed together, Ranma didn't try to hide the twitching of his right eyebrow.
"Still, I figured that I'd see how far I'd get, and impressed myself with the length that I'd travelled. Got right into this old district that was abandoned long ago."
"And this is all important... how?"
"I'm getting to that boy. You see, I wound up in this place that a lord had created centuries ago. The way that I figured it, I could take shelter in that building since it wasn't occupied. Imagine my surprise when, instead of the empty space that I could wait out the big storm raging outside, I wound up seeing a figure with these large bat wings illuminated by the lightning."
"'Bat wings'?" Ryu murmured.
Hayate frowned thoughtfully. "Sounds like a western demon."
"Pop...." trailed off Ranma. "Ya didn't sell my soul ta be eaten, now did ya?"
"Absolutely not! It simply wouldn't be good to go that way," Genma insisted.
The others all gave off sighs of relief.
"No, I couldn't do that. If I did, then what would I do for a heir?"
"Just when I thought that he was not going to be any stupider," Ayane bit out under her breath.
"I was just amazed that she wasn't looking to hurt me... at least much."
"'She'?" the younger Saotome muttered with no little sense of dread.
"Oh, yes. Apparently she is some sort of royalty there, and was quite interested in me having a son."
Kasumi looked like she might be ill. "Don't tell me that she...."
"I'm not sure what you're thinking. All I know is that I must have impressed her, since she wanted my son for herself. That probably was only because I was unavailable due to being married and all."
A wary look was sent from son to father. "Somehow, I kinda doubt that she had any trouble keepin' herself back. But what does that haveta do with me?"
"Simple. She wanted to meet with you when you came of age. Seems that she was interested in getting seriously involved with you when the time was right."
"You don't mean...." Hitomi looked indignant. "You didn't go and engage him to her, did you?!"
"Absolutely not. She didn't even ask, which was fortunate, since that would make problems for the plans that I already had," Genma commented, actually looking relieved.
"That's probably good."
"It's excellent, I'll have you know. From what I've been told, this 'Morrigan Aensland' is actually quite a powerful woman. If that's true, then she'll likely be quite helpful in getting the boy to learn to expand his skills. My son will be more of a 'man among men' than any other boy could be!"
"She is to be his... instructor?" Hayate slowly asked.
"It was her own idea. Apparently, she could already see that the boy would be someone special and worthy."
"Now that doesn't sound too bad," Ryu put in.
"I did have some concerns in that direction, but now he'll learn how to get into all sorts of physical activities, and I know that he'll enjoy it. Most boys would love to have such a lovely sensei. And she was the one who offered to be the boy's teacher in the carnal arts!"
"And I could be wrong."
"Why would you say that?" the elder Saotome asked... before turning to see the three kunoichi, all three glowing so that their auras were flaring like fire storms around them. The energies loomed over him, and sent out a sense of impending doom in his general direction.
Considering the fact that Ayane was twirling several kunai in her hands, Kasumi was sliding the shining blade of her ninjato out of its sheath, and Hitomi was tugging her fighting gloves tight, this was quite likely what was coming to him right then.
"It's been years since then...." Genma managed to put out a nervous laugh, while:
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(Posted Sun, 03 Aug 2008 06:09)
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