Nerima, the Tendō home…
"The schools will never be joined…"
"Enough, Tendō! Now, listen to me, wife! You will…!"
SHIIING!
"…Urk!"
"Husband, you have no right to object to what our wonderful son has done."
"B-b-but…"
"You forget that you are muyokoshi, husband!" Nodoka stated as she calmly gazed on her shivering husband, the sharp edge of the Saotome honour blade now a half-inch from his exposed neck. Nearby, a sobbing Sōun had frozen up on seeing that deadly blade drawn out and put against his best friend's body to make him conform to his wife's wishes. "You were adopted into our family by Otō-sama from your lower family!" Genma winced on hearing Nodoka say that word as if he had arisen from burakumin in lieu of the middle-class merchant's family he had been born from. "Even more so, due to the thieving ways you learned from your master…" — on her saying that, Genma went sheet white — "…your parents decided they wanted nothing more to do with you anymore. And when he adopted you into the family before our marriage, Otō-sama made it very clear that you would have NO legal say whatsoever when it comes to our child!"
"B-b-but…"
A knock. "Excuse me!"
Nodoka turned, and then she gaped. "Kimiki-san! Toshoba-san! How are you?!" Effortlessly sheathing her weapon, she immediately walked over to embrace Miyake Kimiki, and then exchange bows with her husband Toshoba; Nodoka had met Shinobu's parents just before the wedding, when they had a private omiai to confirm what their children had in mind. "What are you doing here, anyway?!" she asked.
"Well…" Toshoba said as both relaxed across the coffee table from the still-frozen Genma as Nodoka returned to her place, "…it turns out that what our daughter's been training for has finally come true. The Urusians have come to Earth."
Nodoka blinked in confusion. "I don't recall these Urusians…"
"They're Lum's people," Kimiki provided.
The Saotome matriarch's eyes widened. "HER people?! What are they doing here?!"
"Challenging us to a tag race. And your son, Mrs. Saotome, will defend Earth."
Nodoka turned at that unfamiliar voice, and then she blinked. "Who are you?"
The handsome African-American man smiled as he drew out his wallet to show his identification. "I'm Agent Jay of the Men in Black, ma'am." He waved to the very beautiful woman accompanying him. "My partner, Agent Elle. May we come in?"
Nodoka then nodded; she remembered Shinobu having told her about these brave people who — after giving up EVERYTHING of their normal lives — had stood on the front line of Earth's defences for decades. "Please do, Jay-san, Elle-san."
Sōun blinked. "W-wait…who are these people, Nodoka…?"
Elle sighed. "Mrs. Saotome, we're quite aware of your husband's refusal to recognise your son's marriage to Commander Miyake. Would you mind?"
She waved to an ominous bulge under the black jacket wore close to her left breast. Nodoka nodded. "Please do."
What happened next even made the Shinmei-ryū student gape in awe.
"Was that necessary?" Kimiki asked as Elle put away her Lawgiver pistol after both Genma and Sōun were hit with stun bolts to the chest.
"It was," Elle stated. "As soon as we got told that Nodoka's son was chosen as our tag champion, we did some research in his family history. The many reports of his father's acts of petty thieves — not to mention the incident with the Cat Fist training that, in part, allowed Saotome Kanami to become her own being — are known to us, not to mention his close friendship with Tendō Sōun. And your daughter DID write to you about their plans for Ranma to marry one of the Tendō daughters to 'unite their schools.'"
"Especially since Master Happōsai never GAVE them masteries in the first place," Jay added. "How the hell can you unite two schools when they were never separated?"
The Miyakes sighed. "I really pity you, Nodoka-san," Kimiki stated.
Nodoka chuckled. "Genma does have his good points, though they are quite hard to locate, Kimiki-san. So what exactly is this all about?" she then asked the two MIBs.
"Well, it's like this," Jay began…
Somewhere in the world…
"Curse you, Saotome Ranma…how dare you make that pretty girl shoot me…?"
Grumbling as she walked down the city street somewhere, the bright red-haired, brown-eyed girl in the orange wrap-around shirt and black exercise trousers, a tiger-striped bandana wrapped around her thick head of hair wasn't really paying attention as she effortlessly shifted around passers-by as she put step after step in front of her. Slung to her back was a rather large travelling pack, a wooden umbrella strapped to the top. Worn yet sturdy shoes were on his feet. As she went, the woman that had been born a man named Hibiki Ryōga could only scowl as she remembered the last time she — before that hellish trip to that valley full of cursed springs in China — had encountered his old middle school classmate and avowed rival…
The previous November…
"SAOTOME RANMA, PREPARE TO DIE!"
It had been a perfect attack, catching the coward when he least expected it.
Of course, he angled himself to ensure the nice girl close by wasn't going to be hurt.
But then she…
"LEAVE MY FIANCÉ ALONE, YOU MONSTER!"
And then came the scalding pain…
"«…has announced that a young man from Japan now resident in Canada will be acting as our planet's 'tag champion' against the alien invaders. Seventeen year-old Ranma Saotome — who has been confirmed by the U.S. State Department as being the great-grandson of the famous archaeologist Henry 'Indiana' Jones — will face the…»"
Ryōga gasped. "Ranma?! Where?!"
Her head snapped left to stare at a television behind the glass window of some sort of electronics shop. Glancing around, the wandering martial artist was quick to see all the English signs, not to mention note the VERY high skyscrapers around her. After a moment, she asked one lady in English, "«Excuse me, please! Where is this place?»"
The woman gazed at her. "«You're just a block from Times Square.»" She waved off to Ryôga's left, allowing the wanderer to look over. "«Welcome to the Big Apple!»"
With that, she headed off. "«Um…thank you!»" Ryōga called out, and then she moaned. "New York City. Damn…halfway around the world from Japan…!" She then caught herself as her eyes locked onto a familiar face on the television screen. "Ranma…what's he doing on CNN?!" the wanderer asked as she walked up to gaze intently at the report before her ears perked up to listen to the announcer:
"«…the tag race will be held in Welland, a small city in south-central Ontario that is southwest of Niagara Falls, thirty minutes from the border with New York state at Buffalo and two hours by car from Toronto, Canada's largest city…»"
Ryōga jolted, and then she shuttered. "Welland…I can find that…"
With that, she headed south along Broadway towards the Fashion District…
Fukuoka, on the shores of the Naka River on Nakasu Island…
"Ranma…?"
The young okonomiyaki chef was staring wide-eyed at the television screen behind the serving counter of the small yakitori yatai close to where she had been staying for the last while looking for a new place to erect Okonomiyaki U-chan's. It was well past sunset and Kuonji Ukyō had wanted to find a place to forget her troubles for one night.
As she had been enjoying her snacks, her past had come to smack her hard on the face!
"Damn…"
Ukyō looked at the yatai owner. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"That kid that's gonna fight those aliens," the owner stated as he nodded to his television set. "NHK just came out with the news. He's Japanese; from Tōkyō, in fact! But he married a Canadian girl last December and he's going to live with her in that same town he's gonna fight the aliens in! Says it right there!"
Ukyō's brain didn't catch that part as she focused on the katakana on the screen. "Weruranddo," she pronounced the local pronunciation of "Welland," and then she saw the katakana and kanji beside it for the province name. "Ontario…?!"
"Big province in the centre of Canada," a university student sitting nearby said. "Largest city in the country's there. The capital city, too. That Welland place is just outside Niagara Falls, believe it or not!" He then shook his head as he noted the pictures of the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles on the lawn of what appeared to be some sort of high school. "Damn! They hauled out the military for that bunch!"
"What do you suppose that is, Onii-chan?" a female high school student asked.
"What?"
"That thing that looks like a shuttle from Star Wars in front of those tanks?!"
Everyone blinked, and then they looked. "Yeah, pretty futuristic!" Ukyō noted.
"Well, let's hope the kid'll win. At least he's got his wife beside him."
Silence.
"His wife…?" Ukyō gasped as she stared at a nearby salaryman…
Back in Nerima…
"So this is some sort of subterfuge that this Captain Invader is trying to do to so that the more militaristic elements of his people's government — who would attack and invade us without a second's hesitation — won't surrender to those urges?"
"That's right, ma'am," Jay said as he and Elle stared at Nodoka. "Given how well your son's trained — and given the fact that the place they'll do this has LOTS of high trees and high bridges for him to use as jump-points to ambush her — we think he'll probably pull it off in a day. And once it's done, the Urusians will be happy and go home and we can get back to all our lives again."
"Except, of course, for your son living with your daughter-in-law in Canada," Elle stated. "And for that, we need to make arrangements for his records to be sent over to the school she's attending: the Aqueduct Montessori Academy of Welland."
Nodoka blinked. "'Montessori?!' I've heard that name before."
"It's a good school," Kimiki reported. "Very flexible when it comes to teaching students. And given how much Ranma's missed classes…"
The Saotome matriarch sighed. "Hai, true. Well, it appears I have work to do."
"Would you like to get to Canada so you can be there for your son?"
She perked on hearing Elle's question, and then she nodded. "I should be there for him," Nodoka noted. "I've missed out on nine years of my son's life. I refuse to miss out on anything more, even if he's now married to such a beautiful lady like Shinobu-chan." She then gazed at the still-unconscious Genma and Sōun. "Pity for them that they'll not be able to leech away from my son's efforts as he makes a life for himself with his wife. I just wish there was some way to help the girls…"
"I think we can help you there, ma'am," Jay noted as we now…
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(Posted Sun, 16 Jan 2011 06:59)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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