Nodoka sighed as she stared absently out a window of her bedroom; she’d been shifting her gaze between there and the empty spot on the bed where her husband should have been lying for quite a while now, trying to figure out how to deal with Nabiki’s suggestion. It all seemed so simple—almost too simple, in fact. She had always held to the notion that one of a wife’s most important duties was to curb some of her husband’s more ignoble behaviors—to civilize him, in other words—and by that standard, it would appear (at least on the surface) that she had failed Genma. That a psychological problem might underlie his sometimes inconsiderate and almost always impulsive behavior had never occurred to her before, and though it seemed reasonable from what little Nabiki had told her about this Attention Deficiency (or whatever it was called), part of her was already second-guessing the whole business, convinced that this would serve as an excuse from her own negligence. Of course, she also hadn’t a clue of what she could have possibly done to intervene, but that was another matter entirely.
Ranma returned to the main Tendo building to find his normally composed spouse sitting at the family room table and massaging her eyebrows. “You okay, Kasumi?”
“I’m fine, dear,” she said with a small smile. “It’s just that I just finished having a conversation with Father and…”
“He’s bein’ stubborn?”
“No, not really. I mean, he seems to be well aware that he overstepped the bounds of his parental responsibilities, and furthermore, I’m fairly convinced he is truly sorry. But…”
“But…?”
“But when I tried to get him to explain how he could think such a thing was a good idea in the first place, all I got was incoherent rambling.”
“Lemme guess—it was my Pops’ idea, an’ he just let himself get carried away by the fat man’s excitement.”
Kasumi was surprised by how well Ranma had managed to sum up her father’s point. “How did you know that?”
Ranma sighed softly; it seemed that he had managed to stumble into another conversation about his father’s antics. “Oh, I’ve done plenty of stupid things just cause Pops was way too enthusiastic about it. He’s got a talent for convincing people that his ideas are worthwhile, an’ if ya don’t keep yer wits about ya, it’s easy ta find yerself knee-deep in sh… um, in trouble.”
“Really?”
“Really. It makes ya really wonder what he could accomplish if he ever decided ta become a salesman—ya know, really put his mind to it. I mean, if it weren’t for the mess he caused earlier today, who knows? He mighta actually managed ta convince Akane ta go along with his latest stupid training idea. Heck, if he hadn’t gotten off ta such a bad start by bargin’ inta her when she was tryin’ ta take a bath, he still might have pulled it off!”
“Is this the one with the rocks you were talking about earlier?”
“The very same. Just got done with a shoutin’ match with him over it, an’ he left for that quarry outside the city limits ta teach himself the technique.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Well, ya sorta need boulders in order to train for it, an’ most quarries have a lot of those.”
“No, I meant why would he decide to learn it himself?”
“Huh? Oh, I dunno. I think he thinks it’ll prove him right an’ me wrong.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“For the average person (and most above-average people, for that matter), yes. For him? Depends on how much he screws up the instructions.”
“I see… shouldn’t we help him?”
“Ah, he’ll be alright. If he ain’t back by morning, maybe we can check on him.”
“Well, if you’re certain…” Kasumi trailed off, not sure where to take the conversation next. She finally settled on getting a second opinion, if only by proxy. “What does Akane think of all this?”
“I think it’s nuts,” Akane said as she walked in from the kitchen.
“Akane?” Kasumi asked quizzically. “What were you doing?”
“I was on the phone with the police department to let them know about Genma’s shenanigans.”
“What?!” her brother-in-law practically shouted. “Akane, I told ya, it’s no big deal.”
“I know. That’s why I called them.”
“Huh?”
“It’s an unwritten rule that martial artists, particularly heads of schools, get a lot of leniency, since they usually contribute a lot to the economy in this section of Nerima. Since your father is apparently somewhere where the only person he can hurt is himself, they’ll probably just check up on him to make sure he’s okay. If he is, they can look the other way like they normally do.”
“Ya sure? Sounds way too good to be true ta me.”
“Well, it helps that that quarry is abandoned, and thus Genma probably won’t be causing much property damage.”
“Oh… okay, I guess. Yer sure this won’t get us run out of town?”
“Ranma, even if I’m wrong, it’ll only be him that gets run out of town, since you had the good sense to try to stop him.”
“That ain’t what he usually tells people.”
Akane sighed again. “Trust me, Ranma. This will work… I think.”
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(Posted Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:19)
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