The sound of splashing water rippled familiarly through the Tendo yard as Genma Saotome splashed down into the Koi pound and Ranma landed lightly on the ground and irritably started walking into the dining room to sit down to breakfast.
"Good morning," Kasumi said brightly as Ranma sat down and waved at her.
"Morning Kasumi," he responded as he bent down to get his meal before his father got out of the pond to join them at the dinner table and start to pick at Ranma's plate.
"Can't you guys be more quiet?" Nabiki asked in a barely discernible mumble as she sat down at the table. "I mean every morning combat and shouting and whatever else. Can't you let a girl get her sleep?"
"You don't need to sleep in Nabiki," Akane chided. "But anyway, isn't the whole sparring every morning getting old? Finally?"
"It was old when I was thirteen," Ranma muttered. "Hasn't stopped him from keeping it up."
Soun Tendo was buried behind his paper as usual.
"Well, a martial artist does have to keep in shape, after all," Kasumi noted with a bright smile.
"That's right, Kasumi," Genma said bombastically as he poured hot water over his head. "After all, if you let your skills wane fighting against weak opponents or doing nothing, you'll be weak yourself in no time! Isn't that right, Tendo?"
Soun said nothing.
"Eh, Tendo?"
Genma moved over to shake the other elder martial artist curiously as everyone else looked on. Aside from Nabiki who had fallen back asleep.
"Mr. Tendo, are you all right?" Ranma asked.
"Oh my," Kasumi said with a tsking shake of her head. "Father seems to be engrossed in his paper again."
"Oh, of all the..." Akane snapped, rolling her eyes as she turned back to her meal. "Do we really have time for this?"
"What the heck set him off this time?" Ranma asked. "Nothing very weird happened."
Nabiki's head jerked as she blinked back into the semi-awake state she spent most of the morning before school in. She glanced over toward her father and the fuss being made over him. While most everyone else fussed over her father, she reached over and snagged the newspaper to start reading.
Soun continued staring into space.
"Nabiki, please be more polite to father," Kasumi noted.
"Mmhmm," Nabiki muttered. "Let's see..." Nabiki's eyes latched onto the words "monthly stipend" and scanned up to the top of the article and found it had been continued from the first page.
While everyone else either ate or poked at the still catatonic Soun she started scanning down an article detailing an effort to address the declining population issue.
She started waking up when she hit the first of several laws passed. "Huh, they're giving mothers a monthly stipend, higher if they're working, legal protection for single mothers' seeking employment," she said. "And.." she snapped bolt awake. "And educational grants for college or university!"
"What?" Akane asked.
As she turned toward Nabiki, the middle Tendo sister seemed to be locking up as she read further.
"Nabiki," Kasumi said cautiously. "Please don't tell you me you're thinking about getting pregnant to pay for college."
"Women are ineligible for health insurance except under the following circumstances," Nabiki said hollowly, "A) less than 3 years older than the age of consent..."
"Age of consent is what?" Ranma asked.
"Thirteen," said a now pale Kasumi.
"So that's...all of you," the pig-tailed martial artist commented.
"They can't do that!" Akane shouted. "What's the point of this?"
"There's other exceptions," Nabiki said shakily. "B) Menopausal or Post Menopausal, C) Barren or unable to bear children for medical reasons, D) mother to five or more children, E) Pregnant, F) mother to a child less than 5 years old."
Akane and Kasumi stared at Nabiki in something like horror.
"So, they're making things easier for mothers who work or want to work, but taking stuff away from women who aren't mothers?" Ranma asked.
"Ye..yeah," Nabiki said.
"Let me see that!" Akane snapped, taking the paper away from Nabiki and reading on. "They legalized polygamy?!"
"Oh my," Kasumi said. "Why would they do that?"
"'so that a household can have a parent at home with the children without cutting into working hours,'" Akane read full of hostility. "Probably just some pervert in the Diet or something. Preferential treatment for women immigrating...lesbian marriage, provided children are produced!?! They're just perverts!"
"It sounds like they're desperate to encourage women to choose to be mothers," Kasumi said. "I had no idea it was getting so bad."
"But this is excellent, boy!" Genma shouted.
"What?!" Akane and Ranma shouted, the tomboy dropping paper and letting Kasumi pick it up.
"Don't you see?" Genma responded. "Now you can marry all your fiancees!"
"But that would be..." Akane started, stuttering.
"Are you crazy?" Ranma demanded.
"Your mother will be so thrilled," Genma said.
"Oh my," Kasumi noted as she read further and gave Ranma a pitying look. "I'm afraid not."
"What do you mean?" Genma asked. "It's perfect."
"The last law," the eldest Tendo sister said. "All individuals that are capable of being female for a sustained amount of time are considered women. This includes but is not limited to Vancian Wizards capable of extended Change Self spells, mutants with the doppleganger ability, kitsune and individuals affected by the drowned girl Jusenkyo curse."
Ranma blinked as everyone stared at him in the new silence.
"Eh?"
"Well, Ranma," Kasumi said quietly. "Legally, female."
"Uh...uh," Ranma stuttered.
"Which means he...uh, she?" Nabiki asked. "Has the same health insurance problem the rest of us do. Meaning no more free hospital stays."
"I'm a GUY!!!" Ranma shouted.
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(Posted Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:29)
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