"GENMA SAOTOME, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!!!!"
The Tendous watch morbidly as their obese houseguest tries to avoid the tidal wave of riot police storming at him from the front gate, stun batons and capture nets at the ready. Genma dives into the koi pond, quickly emerging a second later as a pand, a sign hovering over his head. [I'M JUST A CUTE PANDA!] He twirls the sign. [SAOTOME'S NOT HERE!] Another twirl. [GO LOOK ELSEWHERE!]
A dozen stun batons and tasers slam into his fur. With the layer of water covering his body, the results are quite predictable.
ZAP!
[THAT DIDN'T HURT...]
The panda collapses into the dirt by the cherry tree. "Transform him back and take him away!!" the riot squad captain orders.
A policeman draws out a thermos of hot water, pouring it on the panda. Seeing that happen from the front porch, Souun blinks surprisedly, then his eyes focus momentarily on Nabiki. Though his second daughter keeps her face neutral, Souun is quick to note the satisfied gleam that shines from her eyes. Shuddering as the implications of what just happened start to sink in, he rises, heading inside...
Elsewhere...
"Nodoka Saotome?"
"Yes?" Ranma's mother blinks surprisedly on seeing the two police officers standing at her front door.
"Inspector Zenigata, Metropolitan Police, ma'am," the elder of the pair holds up his identification booklet. "Your husband was just arrested today on multiple charges of petty theft, plus acts of criminal child abuse concerning your son Ranma. You, ma'am, have been implicated as a possible accessory concerning your son's welfare, especially concerning a certain agreement you made with your husband directly affecting your son's upbringing. I'm afraid you'll have to come with us to the station to answer some questions, ma'am."
Nodoka's eyes widen...
An hour later...
"Why?"
Nabiki jolts on hearing Souun's hissed question, then she sighs before turning to gaze on him. Akane and Kasumi remain silent as their sister and father face each other down in the living room. "It was necessary and long overdue, especially when it came to what that fat oaf did to his son," Nabiki sternly replies, . "You should know that harbouring a known criminal could easily get you charged as an accessory to whatever crimes he's committed, even if all you do is keep silent about it, Dad."
Souun shudders. "There was no need to do this!" he snaps. "It's a private matter..."
"There, you are wrong, Father," Kasumi's stern voice causes him to jolt. "It ceased being a private matter the instant Genma sold Ranma-kun off to the Daitokuji family when he was an infant. Even if some of the families affected are willing to brush off Genma's dishonourable behaviour, others have not. And by not acknowledging their suffering at that monster's hands, then we dishonour ourselves even further."
Sensing that all his daughters were in agreement on this matter, a surge of panic floods Souun from head to toe. "That's not relevant!!"
"To you, it may not be relevant, Dad," Nabiki scowls. "To them, it's a whole different story!"
"But the schools...!!"
"SO WHAT?!?!" Nabiki snaps, causing Souun to duck. "What the HELL is your problem, Dad?!! Ever since that fat bastard dragged his son here, we've been nearly eaten out of house and home by him!! Did he ever try to help us keep our house over our heads?! NO!!! He didn't do ANYTHING to help us make our lives just a bit better!! And we couldn't depend a damned BIT on Ranma-kun because he was never TAUGHT how to live like a normal person by that panda!! And all you did whenever something went wrong was yell at Ranma-kun, force all that shit all over Ranma-kun and prayed that it would just go away and leave us be!! Well, guess what, Dad?!" she points upstairs to where the guest room is. "Guess who finally got tired of it all and decided he didn't want to deal with all this shit anymore?!"
Souun quakes. "But Ranma-kun must come back...!"
"No, Father. Ranma-kun doesn't have to return at all. Further, we have no right to demand he return."
He spins on Kasumi. "WHAT?!!"
"Don't try to ignore the basic problem, Father," the eldest daughter stares him down. "Your so-called 'friend' broke his word about the promise he made to you to allow Ranma-kun to marry one of us and unite the schools the instant the Daitokujis, the Kuonjis and heaven only knows HOW many other families became involved during that damned training trip of theirs!! If you REALLY cared about our family hounor at ALL, you would've thrown that lazy beast out onto the street the instant we learned about Kaori-chan or Ukyou-chan..."
"But the Daitokujis renounced their claim on Ranma-kun!!"
"Ukyou-chan has NOT, Father!!"
"She's not relevant!" Souun shakes his head. "Her interference in the wedding and her help in destroying the Saotome home..."
CRACK!
His head snaps around, the left side of his cheek flaming from Kasumi's slap. "Are you so STUPID that you'd lead us into a BLOOD-FEUD with the Kuonjis, Shampoo-chan's clan and whoever knows how many OTHER families because you can't wake up and see what's happening around you?!" the eldest daughter shrills as his hand drifts up to his cheek. "Mother must be turning over in her grave right now!! If this is your idea of what 'honourable' behaviour is like, then I wish to have no part of it whatsoever!!"
"Neither do I," Akane spits out, speaking up for the first time.
"Nor me, either," Nabiki shakes her head.
A shudder roars through Souun as the scale of his daughters' rebellion -- no, their BETRAYAL! -- of him sinks in, then a Demon Head explodes from him, taking up almost all the space in the living room. "YOU WILL DO AS I SAY OR I WILL DISOWN YOU ALL!!!!"
ZAP!!
Souun gags surprisedly as the taser sends a massive jolt of electricity through his body, then he drops to the floor. His daughters gaze dispassionately at him, then Kasumi gazes on Nabiki. "Summon the police. Tell them we have another accessory to Genma's crimes here."
"Right," Nabiki heads to the phone...
Later...
"I'm sorry that it had to come to this," Inspector Zenigata sighs.
The Tendou daughters stand together on the front porch as Souun, still unconscious from the taser strike, is loaded aboard a paddy wagon on a stretcher by several police officers. "We had hoped to persuade Father to see reason finally when it came to his 'friend's' activities," Kasumi takes a deep breath. "Unfortunately, he just wouldn't budge, Kichou-san. Then he tried to..."
She shakes her head. "Don't worry about that, ma'am," Zenigata smiles. "I'll get a judge to put in a court injunction stripping your father of all his legal rights concerning his family before he recovers from the taser. And given what we've learned from Saotome's wife about what was going on concerning their son, I think we're going to be spending a lot of time talking to your father about all these agreements that poor boy was forced through." He ruefully shakes his head. "This is so insane..."
"What about Nodoka?" Nabiki asks.
The inspector snorts. "The instant she learned that Ranma had left your home without notifying anyone of where he was going, she started raving about him not acting like a 'manly man' and that she'd have to seriously consider forcing that seppuku agreement on him. Well..." he shrugs. "After we took her sword away and destroyed it in front of her, she shut up real quick."
"You destroyed the sword?!" Akane gapes.
"Of course, Akane-san! Nodoka Saotome IS Genma's wife and your sister did warn us how skilled he is in the martial arts!" Zenigata indicates Nabiki. "What's to say what sort of skill she had? There's no way in HELL that I'm going to risk my officers against anyone like that!"
"Yes, that would've been prudent," Kasumi slowly nods, wondering how the sight of her family's honour blade being shattered would have come to affect Nodoka. To be treated as nothing more than a monster by the legal authorities ALONE would have gravely damaged Nodoka's sense of what was proper. But to see the katana, symbol of her family's honour, destroyed at the hands of the public authorities...!
"It's a pity things had to come all the way to this," Nabiki breathes out.
"Agreed," the inspector nods. "Oh, do you want us to try to track down Ranma?"
The Tendou sisters exchange looks, then shake their heads. "No, Kichou-san," Kasumi answers for them. "Whatever feelings Ranma-kun may have towards us have -- or so we believe -- significantly soured over the last while. It's best to leave him be for now. I'm sure if he's needed to testify against his parents or Father, he'll be willing to come up then. Until then, let him be."
"Fair enough," Zenigata slowly nods...
Night soon comes to Nerima, ending the most earth-shattering day the district has experienced since the rainy day when a curvaceous redhead was carried into the Tendou dojo on the shoulder of a panda. Sitting in her bedroom, Kasumi gazes out the window as the stars start to twinkle in the darkening sky. She blinks as her mind detects a faint disturbance in the house's wa, then a smile crosses her face as a dark shadow falls over her. "Sasuke told me you were forced to turn against your father today," Kodachi faintly smiles as she deftly slips into Kasumi's bedroom, then turns to draw her beloved into a comforting embrace. "I trust I've come in time?"
"Hai," Kasumi sighs as they kiss...
"A-chan? You here?"
"Hai," Akane quivers, now naked under the covers as Ukyou and Shampoo slip in through her window. "You hear?"
"This one heard from Ribbon Girl's ninja about what happened to your father and the stupid panda," Shampoo chuckles delightedly as she and Ukyou start to strip off. "It's only right that this one and Ukyou come to give comfort to our suffering friend."
"I'm not suffering now," Akane shoves the covers back as she beckons her guests to her...
Hearing the gentle sounds of lovemaking from both of her sisters' rooms, Nabiki sighs as she does the final tallies in her ledger, then she closes the book, her fingers rubbing her eyes. With Ranma and Genma now gone and most likely never to return, the food budget could finally be brought back to something resembling normal. Souun's and Genma's departure also meant that all expenditures concerning visits to local bars could be dismissed totally. That was good: Nabiki didn't have to worry anymore about making any sort of "special" arrangements with the local construction companies, much less the bar owners, in case her father or the panda had gone on a drunken rampage. Best of all, with Ranma gone, all the fights his very presence seemed to instigate would come to a stop, which would make things much easier on the house. With all the potential repair problems eliminated, money could at last be set aside to give the old place a proper make-over.
There was still one small problem hanging over the Tendou family's collective heads: Happousai. Deep down, Nabiki suspected that the instant the old grandmaster learned of what happened to his students, he'll probably get the hint finally and either stop or seriously curb his lingere-hunting expeditions if he didn't want the long arm of the law to reach out for him. Besides, the chances were there that when he learned of his students' fates, Happousai would decide to revoke their teaching licenses -- Not that Dad's ever put his to any serious use! Nabiki scowls to herself -- thus bringing Souun's and Genma's dreams of uniting their "schools" to a crashing end. Of course, the old lech would become very upset because Ranma wasn't here for him to fondle when he ever got in the mood...
Ranma...
Nabiki blinks, then reaches into her drawer to draw out a picture of her sister's ex-fiance (as things pretty much seemed now). It wasn't a risque-like picture, like those she had sold of Ranma's female half to Kunou and other interested parties, but it did readily show off his many attributes. Downright pleasing to the eye, caring, honourable to a "T" and by far, the best fighter of his generation. Also socially VERY rude, stubborn, prideful, shockingly naive in anything outside of martial arts, single-minded...!
She sighs. Perhaps this was the best thing to happen. The whole mess around Ranma was just that: a big MESS. And with the adamant refusal of all the parties involved to try to help clean it up, the mess would remain a mess, getting only worse as days pressed on. Well, with the removal of three of the more obstinate parties from the equation, plus Ranma's abrupt departure to places unknown yesterday, things might finally start calming down. True, the matter of Akane's relationship with her "rivals" might provide a new source of trouble, but still...
Nabiki shrugs. Oh, well, worry about it later. Time to go to bed...
Now what?
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(Posted Thu, 13 Mar 2003 06:37)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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