Story: Genma the Ex-Harem Protagonist

 

Ranma grew up without knowing his mother. All those years of training, from the time he was a toddler until he was sixteen years old, he'd only known his father. And his father was an ass. Any development of social skills? Accidental. Purely accidental. His sense of ethics? We can give Genma a little credit here - After all, Genma had been suitably traumatised by his time training under Happosai that he didn't want his son to wind up anything remotely like that. Perhaps he went a little too far with it, which sabotaged Ranma's capacity to actually tell Akane how he really felt for a long, long time - but still, the point remains. If his mother had been around Ranma would have been a very different boy.

He'd spent some time getting to know her a bit better. She's a nice woman. A little weird sometimes, but nice and caring and considerate. She liked Akane as well, which to Ranma's mind, meant she had some level of good taste.

And now, Ranma found himself in the awkward position of watching his wife do a bit of clothes sharing with his mother. It was bad enough when his own girl form had to do it, but watching a near identical copy of his girl form go about it was, to say the least, a little odd.

"Gosh, these modern clothes are strangely comfortable," his mother said, twirling around while wearing that cute blue skirt and matching jumper that, in all honesty, Ranma had always thought looked really nice on Akane. 

Ranma coughed into his hand, trying desperately not to stare. 'She looks like me. She looks like me. She looks like me.'

His brain kept repeating it like a broken record, each loop making him more uncomfortable than the last.

Akane, meanwhile, was having the time of her life. Because of course she was. She was getting to play dress-up with someone who actually wanted to look girly.

“I told you it’d look good on you, Auntie,” Akane said warmly, stepping back to admire the effect. “You really do have a great figure.”

Nodoka—now sixteen, energetic, and beaming with a kind of girlish confidence Ranma hadn’t seen from anyone in his family—cupped her cheeks, blushing. “Oh, Akane! You flatter me. But really, this outfit is so youthful. I never realized how much fashion had changed.”

“Uh-huh,” Ranma muttered, turning his head away so fast he nearly strained something. “Couldn’t’ve guessed.”

Akane noticed and smirked at him with that deceptively sweet smile he’d learned to fear. “What’s wrong, Ranma? You look uncomfortable.”

“I ain’t uncomfortable!” Ranma snapped automatically. “It’s just—she— you— and the— that skirt— I mean— this is weird!”

Nodoka laughed in a perfectly airy schoolgirl giggle that shot straight down Ranma’s spine. Everything about this was super weird.

“Oh my, Ranma, you always get so flustered! Honestly, you’re just like your father was at that age. Well—” She paused, tilting her head in thought. “Except less panicky. And better groomed.”

Akane burst out laughing. “She’s got you dead on, Ranma.”

Ranma crossed his arms. “Can we not compare me to Pop right now? Pretty sure I ain’t ever gonna be as bad as he was at sixteen.”

“Are you sure?” Nodoka mused. “He once tried to impress me by stealing a shrine’s sacred rice barrel and rolling it down a hill like some kind of heroic gesture.”

Akane blinked and tilted her head. “…Why?”

Nodoka sighed nostalgically. “I’m still not certain. To be honest, things were rather hectic back then, and -" she stopped for a moment to look herself over. "Do you think, by any chance, that your father would be in the mood for a little bit of fun while I look like this?"

Ranma's inner voice began to scream, and it was not going to stop any time in the near future. Akane, unhelpfully, giggled cutely and patted her on the shoulder.

"With a body and face like that, if you went for him right now it might be a little weird for him," Akane said. "You're the spitting image of Ranma's girl form."

"Oh, you think so?" his mother said, looking herself over in the mirror. "Um, Ranma, you wouldn't mind splashing yourself with some cold water, would you? I want to see for myself!"

The screaming was getting louder, and now on top of that Ranma's eye had developed a nasty twitch. Totally understandable, really. Anyone in his position would be having the same reaction. Torment. Total, complete psychological torment!

Ranma took a step back, holding out both hands like Nodoka had just asked him to swallow a live hand grenade.

“Nope. Nope! No way! Absolutely not splashing myself! We are not doing visual comparisons today!”

Akane folded her arms, her smile sharpening. “Ranma, it’s not like she asked you to marry her or something. It’s just a look-alike check.”

“That ain’t helping!”

Nodoka pressed her fingertips together, looking almost shy. “Oh dear… am I being unreasonable? I just wanted to see—since everyone keeps saying I resemble your girl form…”

She trailed off, the corners of her mouth twitching. Ranma had seen that smile before. It was the Saotome Family Secret Scheming Smile. Ranma had seen that face in the mirror sometimes when he had a really good idea. He'd always assumed it was a trait he'd picked up from his father - so seeing it on his mother's face was a little bit alarming.

"Come on, son~" she smiled at him, hunching over and wiggling her fingers around unnecessarily. "Kukuku, mother's fine with you having that cursed form, but for now, let's take a look and see how we compare!"

=====

When things get tough, the tough get tougher. In Genma's case though, when things get tough... he tends to find a place to hide until it gets sorted out again.

To think that vampire would return. Ellanora! Oh, he'd hoped he'd seen the last of her, but elements of his past seemed determined to come back to bite him! And so, here he was, hiding in this alleyway in panda form, determined not to allow himself to be found. At least, until he had a plan to deal with it!

This was not cowardice! It was the Saotome Secret Technique! Yes, that's right! The secret technique, where one hides away until one has an answer to the problem at hand! It was not cowardice, thought it can seem that way, it was simply taking the time to breathe and think, creating sufficient distance from one's opponent until one could develop a means to fight back!

For example, that one time when he was courting Nodoka and came up with the brilliant plan to impress her by stealing a shrine's sacred rice barrel. Granted, he'd wound up tripping over a rock, which made him drop the barrel, and his attempts to recover it resulted in him running on top of it until they both reached the bottom of a hill - 

But, no, that would not help in his current situation. What he was really hoping for was that Ranma would resolve the issue for him. Hrm. How should he deal with that vampire coming back to life after all this time...

"Francoise~"

That voice sounded oddly familiar. Oof! All of a sudden Genma was being picked up by a familiar looking cutesy girl! She was rubbing her cheek into his fur, while somehow managing to carry his much bigger frame! Who was this -

"Now, Azusa!" a voice that sounded even more familiar said. "You know full well you cannot take pandas home. They're an endangered species."

"Aw, but mother~" the girl, Azusa, whined. "But he's so cute!"

"I know dear," her mother said. Suddenly Genma knew who that was. He turned around to see and sure enough it was her. Uh oh. "But he was much cuter when he was human and younger~"

Alas, the Saotome Secret Technique had its limits. For one thing, it was entirely possible that while running from one foe, you might run into another instead!