The dinner table was one of the few things her mother had been willing to bend on tradition a little after Ranko's injury because of the obvious hassel it was to her. It was also probably the only thing she had ever seen her mother go against Genma to get. So she held onto that one act of when Nodoka choose Ranko over Genma, even if it was for something so small; it was still something at least.
"Thanks mom," the girl said in a cheerful way when Nodka had served Ranko her portions. One thing that she noticed since she got her 'curse' things had tasted a bit diffrently, and she had developed a taste for fish.
As her mom left Ranko suddenly heard the door open and her head perked up. Maybe it was Ranma, he was comming over today and...oh, it was only HIM. 'I thought he was over at the dojo today'
Ranko then suddenly found the things on her plate a million times more interesting and looked down to her food and began the slow dissection of the former aquadic lifeform in front of her.
One by one the seconds ticked by, then the minutes, and then finally it happened when she found the soy sauce was just a little too far to reach and asked her mother to pass it to her.
"Nodoka quit babying the girl and have her get it herself," Genma ordered his his wife when she reached forward. "If you keep doing everything for her then she'll just turn into some lazy slob."
"Don't worry," Ranko said in a toneless voice. "I have no intention of taking after you."
As soon as she said the words Ranko wished she could take them back. Not for the fact that she didn't mean them, just because right after they had reached Genma's ears he went into his 'woe is me' routine.
"Oh gods," he cried to the heavens. "What have I done to deserve such a failure of a child? I was a good man, always doing what his master told him, why couldn't you have at the very least blessed me with a stong and healthy son insted of this weak little ungreatful girl? I taught her everything I knew at great pains to myself and yet she still becomes this failure in all respects of the art."
Ranko only sighed and looked away from the pitiful image of Genma crying and looking at the ceiling while Nodoka decided she had something to do in the kitchen and left the two alone.
The girl simply sighed and stayed to listen to the cold water panda rant on, about his lot in life; at least it was better than the insults he always greeted her with whenever she needed to talk to him. They hadn't even had a real conversation since her accident.
It was quite a turn around from the way she used to view the man only a few months ago; as well as his art. HIS art, not hers. In the end Anything Goes was just that, to defeate all challengers in any way no matter how you did it as long as it was in 1 to 1 combat or odds. It was also the reason she was in this wheelchair.
Back in China, she HAD to fight Shampoo because the girl had challenged her, when Happosai showed up, she HAD to deal with him on her own because accepting help from Genma or anyone else would be a sign of weakness. Then finally when Shampoo showed up and sent her challenge letter, she HAD to face her alone because that was the rule of her school.
Then, when she had awoken in the hospital and faced her father for the last time; insted of offering his apologies or simpathies, he belittled her talent and strategies; her tallet for being crippled by an an opponet so far beneath her, and her strategies for not setting up a trap like that or at least going to check it out in the first place.
That was the day that Genma Saotome stopped being her father, and just some fool living in the same house as her that bossed her mother around with twisted ways of honor and tradition. After all, it was a Japanese wive's duty to obey her husband.
So with most of her meal eaten by Ranko, and the rest by Genma, the crippled werecat wheeled her way out of the dinning room to go back to her own bedroom.
Maybe she could call Akane and talk with her a bit. It sure would get Ranko out of this funk she seemed to have dug herself into lately.
(Posted Fri, 08 Aug 2003 06:34)
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