Ranma would never, ever admit to it, but he has quite a bit in common with his father. This is, naturally, a deeply offensive suggestion, and anyone foolish enough to make it within earshot is liable to receive a detailed explanation of precisely why they are wrong, possibly accompanied by a demonstration of the Hiryu Shoten Ha. Genma is a lazy, greedy, shameless old fraud, whereas Ranma is a hardworking, generous, perfectly respectable young man who would never dream of exploiting another person's trust for personal gain.
The fact that Ranma has, on occasion, stolen food, cheated at games, taken advantage of someone's generosity, and attempted to talk his way out of the consequences of his own actions is entirely beside the point. These were isolated incidents, each justified by circumstances so exceptional that they would have made a lesser man weep. Besides, Genma does those things all the time, which is clearly different.
Then there's the matter of their martial arts. Both father and son possess an almost pathological belief that any problem can be solved through sufficient application of martial arts, regardless of whether the problem in question is actually susceptible to being punched. Genma once attempted to resolve a domestic dispute by running away, which Ranma would never do. Ranma would, of course, make a tactical withdrawal, preferably at high speed, and then spend the next several hours explaining why the whole affair was someone else's fault.
They are both stubborn, both proud, and both possessed of an extraordinary ability to convince themselves that they're right. They can both be remarkably resourceful when there's something to be gained, and astonishingly obtuse when acknowledging the obvious would require them to admit a mistake. Neither is particularly good at apologising. Both have an unfortunate tendency to regard a perfectly reasonable request for an explanation as an accusation of wrongdoing.
And, perhaps most damningly, both have a gift for making their problems everyone else's problems.
But Ranma would insist that these similarities are superficial. He is his own man, thank you very much, and if he happens to have inherited a few of his father's less objectionable qualities, that hardly makes him responsible for the rest. You can't choose your parents, after all.
Which brings us to his mother.
Now, Ranma would be much happier to hear that he takes after Nodoka. His mother is a proper lady, after all. She is graceful, dignified, and possessed of the sort of refined sensibilities that Genma has spent a lifetime avoiding. She has standards. She has principles. She has a sense of honour. And she has a sword, though that's a whole other point of contention.
Ranma, naturally, has standards, principles, and a sense of honour of his own. The fact that his interpretation of these things sometimes differs from his mother's is a minor technicality, and one that he would prefer not to discuss in any great detail (see the sword for further information). But let's see what else he has in common with his mother, shall we?
The Tendo dojo looked less like a martial arts hall and more like a construction site hit by a desert storm. Coarse, golden sand clung to the polished floorboards in thick drifts. Shattered porcelain from several priceless vases littered the entryway, and a jagged hole in the sliding door remained as a souvenir from an Anubis warrior's scimitar. The air still held a faint, metallic tang of ancient magic hanging around.
Ranma stood in the center of the wreckage, his hands on his hips. He surveyed the devastation with a frown, his eyes narrowing. Beside him, Nodoka-now sixteen and radiating a terrifying amount of youthful energy - was practically vibrating. She wore a simple training kimono, her dark hair flowing free, her face a mirror image of Ranma's female form.
"Honestly, it's a disaster," Nodoka chirped, though her tone suggested she found the chaos rather invigorating. "But look at the bright side, Ranma! It gives us a chance to reorganize the whole place. I bet we could move the weapon racks to the west wall to improve the flow of chi."
Ranma grunted, rolling up his sleeves. "Yeah, stupid Egyptian misadventure..." Ranma grumbled. He looked toward the hallway. "Akane, could you get some hot soapy water?"
"I'm already on it!" Akane's voice drifted back from the kitchen, followed by the rhythmic slosh of a bucket.
Ranma sighed and knelt, grabbing a coarse brush. He began scrubbing a particularly stubborn patch of sand with a tremendous amount of focus. Shortly, Nodoka joined him, scrubbing the area right next to him with equal intensity. As Akane approached, balancing a heavy wooden bucket of steaming water, she stopped in the doorway.
She stared. From her vantage point, the sight was uncanny. Two identical profiles - save for the hair - were hunched over the floor, scrubbing in perfect, synchronized rhythm. They both tilted their heads at the same angle. They both paused at the exact same moment to wipe sweat from their brows with the back of their wrists. You really could see mother and child between the two of them, huh?
"Here's the water," Akane said, setting the bucket down with a heavy thud.
"Took you long enough," Ranma quipped.
"Indeed, you did say you were already on it," Nodoka said.
"Probably tripped on the way and had to heat the water again..." Ranma muttered.
"Hey, I wasn't gone that long at all!" Akane replied, though her eyes remained fixed on Nodoka.
Akane knelt beside them, handing out rags. Look at them. Both muttering to themselves about the dirt and the grime, and having to deal with sand marks on the wooden floor...
"Urgh, that's just so typical..." Ranma grumbled. "No care for the mess they're making."
"I swear they really don't think of others at all, do they?" Nodoka grumbled in the exact same tone. "No, they show up, have their misadventure -"
"Then leave everyone else to clean up after them..." Ranma finished.
Akane stared at them. The tone and cadence was almost identical between them. The body language as well, tensing in the same places as they spoke, their brows furrowing as they complained.
"Well, it wasn't my fault, I'll say that much!" Nodoka said aloud.
"Yeah, not mine either," Ranma continued. "Urgh, I keep on getting pulled into nonsense like this..."
"It was like that for me as well, back in the day! Hrmph!"
Mother and child puffed up their cheeks in righteous indignation. Neither of them was looking at one another, but they were both mirroring what the other was doing. How eerie, how unsettling!
"You two are unbelievable," Akane whispered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma demanded.
"Nothing," Akane said, though her mind was racing. "Just... keep scrubbing."
It was a coincidence. It had to be a coincidence. She was reading into it, looking for the similarities between the two. It's just because they look quite similar, it's just because they -
Still, she couldn't help but test it out.
"By the way," Akane asked. "How did Ranma's father propose?"
Ranma himself froze on the spot. It was clearly something he didn't want to even think about. But interestingly, Nodoka froze as well. She turned absolutely crimson, right there on the spot.
"P-Propose?" she blushed. Aha? Interesting! Very interesting! "W-Well, Genma was- I mean! I-I hardly see what business it is of yours how that shameless man went about his courtship! It's not as though I was particularly interested in him or anything! Hmph!"
It was as though she'd been possessed by the living incarnation of Ranma himself. Or perhaps the apple didn't fall far from the - no, this apple dropped like a rock and embedded itself into the roots!
"I mean, it was such an unmanly way to go about it anyway..." Nodoka muttered to herself. "I almost felt sorry for him, so I had to say yes. He certainly wasn't the most handsome, rugged, charming specimen of a man back then..."
For a horrible fleeting moment, Akane didn't see Nodoka there, nor Ranma either. Actually, she was looking at herself too. Was this what it looked like when they were... Like that? Oof, no wonder people kept pushing them together or assuming they were already married. You know. Before Ranma and her actually did tie the knot.
"What family did I marry into..." Akane wondered, not for the first time, which made her wonder just what wondrous dimensions were still left for her to uncover.
No comments:
Post a Comment