Considering things for a moment, Ranma decided he had to check on something. He flipped back to the section of the Tendos. He HAD to look at what this said about Kasumi...
Trained in the art from the tender age of four and then up until her mother’s death, Kasumi Tendo, although probably the least guilty of the majority of the Japan-based students of the Anything Goes School, even she cannot claim blamelessness. The brightest of the Tendo siblings, (and far brighter than their father) Kasumi is the authority; the Matriarch of the Tendo Household. While Akane and Nabiki might scream or laugh at the father's demands, Kasumi is obeyed; claiming that she is acting for the good of the household.
Unfortunately, while this may be true, Kasumi’s own desire to bring about peace an order within the confines of her home have left much to be desired. The Curse of Anything Goes has blinded Kasumi to the truth around her... originally a defense mechanism to protect her after her mother’s own death due to the mystical workings of the Art of Anything Goes... a defense mechanism that, over time has been warped by the Martial Art’s Curse, allowing her to not notice the pain and suffering around her, nor the obvious love and levels of affection that Dr. Ono Tofu holds for her: - See ‘Pawns of Nerima’; Tofu.
With her own incapability to see or interact with the truth of the way things have gone, Kasumi has implicitly permitted many of the things the others do, from the quarrels, to the laziness, and even the rather destructive tendencies... which she could stop with only a word.
It should be noted that Kasumi, with the level of taint of Anything Goes contained within her, was almost able to throw off the ‘Saotome Charm’, therefore dooming the practitioner Ranma Saotome earlier than expected. She had counseled Ranma to accept the others’ actions, to preserve the peace of the house; that Ranma should live by their expectations, as Kasumi herself had lived. Since such advice had come from her, Ranma had been inclined to actually give it a chance, thereby dooming himself to open attack by Akane.
Ranma’s eye twitched. He remembered that time all right. It was when he had first arrived at the Tendos, and after his curse had been explained, Akane knocked him out with a table to the back of the head... and afterwards, Kasumi told him how it was nothing against him, that Akane was really a sweet girl... just a violent maniac at times.
Good thing he decided to take THAT with a grain of salt. Who knew what worse could’ve happened if he had?
Shaking his head, Ranma looked back down at Kasumi’s entry.
Fortunately for Ranma, just because Kasumi had been foolish enough to sacrifice herself as the taint of the Anything Goes demanded, the young male was inclined not to do the same, therefore buying him some more time before he would be engulfed in the true darkness of the school and past the point of no-return.
As it stands, Kasumi is blind to the world around her, having enslaved herself to taking care of her family, sacrificing her youth, freedom, and sanity all for people that are already too far gone into the blackened path of Anything Goes. It is doubtful that there is anything left underneath the superficial shell that Kasumi has become, and if ever taken from the others, would probably be in need of professional help for the rest of her life, due to being unable to comprehend not having to serve others and having to actually deal with her own emotions.
Indeed, Happosai has gotten the ‘blank slate’ needed for his Rejuvenation, without even having had to lift a finger; a puppet in charge of everyone else and impeding of his plans, actually placating and pushing them along at points.
His eyes wide, Ranma was having trouble digesting this information. Kasumi was more or less... nothing? She was simple degraded to being a simple tool?
And again, there was mention of Happosai and Rejuvenation. What the heck did THAT mean? Was he going to be youthened, empowered, or what!?
Whatever was planned, Ranma wasn’t getting a good feeling about-Huh? There was another Tendo Entry after Kasumi?
Kurumi and Natsume ‘Tendo’. While not Tendos by blood, they have been accepted as part of their family, at Happosai’s behest, having defended them against the attacks of a large indigenous Ursus and taking the guise of Soun Tendo as to train them to defend themselves. While having found the two orphans, saved them from a wild Gobi Bear, and trained them to be able to defend themselves from danger would seem out of character for the Grandmaster of Anything Goes, it can be assured that this was not done out of the goodness of his heart. He neither knows goodness, nor has a heart anymore, having sacrificed the organ to Urca in exchange for the darkness and power he has now.
Having stayed with the girls for just over three months to teach them just past the basics of Anything Goes, the two women are undeniably beset with the curse of the school. Happosai left them to roam free, as this would allow the two children to envelope themselves into the school naturally rather than force it. Staying with the girls would mean acting as a father and training them further, and for his own sake, Happosai cannot allow anyone in his school to reach a certain level in the art of Anything Goes before he is ready for them to: - See ‘Impeding Progress’.
In growing and training herself in what she feels is the art of Anything Goes, (and unfortunately for her, being pretty accurate) Natsume developed into a rather cold and ruthless personality. Although proven wrong about her beliefs in that Soun is her father, she has gone on to continue receiving training from Happosai. This is so that when the time is right, Happosai will see to it that Natsume will defeat Akane, seeing that she deserves to inherit the Tendo Dojo over someone who won’t exist once his use for her is done.
And with her as the heir of the Tendo Dojo, Natsume will be the one in line to marry Ranma Saotome. After seeing Natsume in action in more recent times, Happosai has every intention of using her as the one to breed with Ranma Saotome.
The book dropping from nerveless fingers Ranma twitched considerably. He remembered Natsume and Kurumi, remembered how much trouble he had fighting them, thanks to his inability to work with Akane at first due to the tomboy just not listening to him. And now it turned out that Happosai was trying to push her to be the heir of the Tendo Style? That he wanted her to BREED with him!?
Kami-sama... the literally pervert was manipulating them ALL!
And that caught Ranma’s attention once again. Were all the Tendo’s being manipulated? He knew Kurumi was taught the art to get her ‘cursed’ by the school, but was the younger of the two sisters being made into an active role in the madness of Happosai?
Bending over and picking up the book once more, Ranma sat back down on a garbage can, his back to the brick wall of a building as he continued to read in the semi-privacy of the alley-way he’d ducked into and found this book in the first place.
Karumi is the younger, and more kind-hearted sister of the two children taken in shortly by Happosai and like her sister, was lead to believe Soun Tendo was her father, and trained herself in what she knew of Anything Goes. Although that has been proven false, she has taken up to training under Happosai once again alongside her sister. However, she doesn’t quite agree that they should inherit the Tendo Dojo rather than Akane, seeing the pride the girl has in her art and status as the heir.
It should be noted Karumi also loves to eat quite a bit. She is even able to eat Akane’s cooking! This is because of the Curse of Anything Goes, one which both Genma and Ranma Saotome are victim of; Gluttony. Thankfully for them, the Saotome Charm has held steady against this aspect for a certain level. Whereas the Saotomes just love to eat whenever they can, despite logic or morality involved in attaining food, Karumi isn’t so lucky.
With a hyperactive metabolism, eating isn’t just a need for Karumi. It’s an undeniable facet of the girl’s existence. She needs a constant intake food, as her body digests and disperses the nutritional value faster than wood in a furnace. Without it, she is victim to severe pains, and so has taken to doing anything for food, including beating down innocent people and eating what they have, or taking money on them to go and buy something. It is not a practice she enjoys, (minus the actual eating part) it is something she is victim of herself and cannot get away from.
“...Damn...” Ranma said slowly as this opened his eyes to quite a bit about himself and his old man. He always wondered why not many people besides him and his Pops seemed to just chow down food like there was no tomorrow, or fight over it. To him, eating was a constant and had to be kept up.
And now, it seemed that his constant eating and large meals, even the will to fight with his old man over food, was all just another manipulation of the curse of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. And Karumi suffered from it worse than either he or his old man did.
Lowering his head, Ranma sighed. It was awful to find out all these horrible things about his school. The more he read, the more disgusted he became by all of it.
Were he and the others truly doomed?
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(Posted Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:59)
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