Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Reluctant Bet (2nd Labor) ❯ Genma's Tale ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

segment 1: Here's... Genma?

"At last, at long last," Soun wept as he reread the postcard for the fifth time. That odd feeling that it should say something else persisted.

Hi.
Coming from China.
Need help with Ranma.
Genma

That feeling returned when, after telling his three lovely and dutiful daughters about the engagement, a panda entered the house and made a beeline for the kitchen.

After the panda changed back into his old buddy Genma, the heavyset man had explained Jusenkyo and this whole weird sensation of "something slightly off" returned with a vengeance.

"Whatta ya mean 'marriage'?!" Akane glared at the old man. They weren't suggesting she marry HIM were they? This could be even worse than marrying Kuno.

"Oh dear, oh my." Kasumi wondered how the wa of the home would be maintained.

"So where is he? Is he cute? Is he rich?" Nabiki looked over Genma and crossed that last off the list. "Is he cute? Is he intelligent? Does he have a nice bod?" Nabiki had her priorities after all. If the boy was nice and cute, she'd have a boyfriend and as long as he didn't go pushing her buttons (like flirting with Akane, she couldn't *stand* how all the guys fawned over little sister while ignoring her) then she'd thaw the Ice Queen image a bit.

Akane was easily scandalized. "NABIKI?!" How could anyone go along with such an archaic system? And this boy was a BOY, and Akane was well acquainted with them: stupid, egotistical, perverted, greedy, domineering, violent BOYS were something she loathed so badly she could taste it.

"Oh my, I hope he's not too young." Kasumi frowned ever so slightly. Young would be improper. Though she *was* almost twenty now and it wasn't like she had a lot of prospects. Maybe he would turn out to be cute and intelligent and well-behaved. And if he had a nice butt, that wouldn't hurt. Hmmm. Maybe she'd have to settle for polite, an attention to manners could excuse a lot of faults.

"So where is Ranma?" Soun started looking around, even though it was plainly obvious that the panda had arrived alone.

"Well, Tendo... there were some problems. After my son had declared that he wanted to train at Jusenkyo..."

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Ranma fell into the pool, and Grey got out as that was the point he had been inserted in. The forcefield kept the water away from him, and frankly he preferred things that way. He still wasn't quite sure what would happen when a full conversion cyborg fell into Jusenkyo, there was a good chance nothing would as living flesh wouldn't be in contact with the waters, but why take chances?

Though the outer casing had been altered to look more human, the whole thing didn't look like the Ranma that had fallen in. It was still a Triax VX-500 Manhunter (though a different one from the First Labor due to damages received then) with the jetpack replaced by antigrav, most of the various pop-up weapon systems removed, a forcefield generator and fusion miniplant retained, a single secret compartment in the left arm, and a strength and stealth upgrade.

Which meant that the basic dimensions remained the same. Eight feet (2.4m) tall, four feet (1.2m) wide, and three feet (0.9m) thick. The overall package looking like some massive blond bodybuilder.

"Genma. Die." Grey launched himself across the ground, grabbed the panda, performed a quick airplane spin, and launched the panda.

"Oh sir. What you do? You send other sir to Amazon Village."

Grey groaned and sped off in the indicated direction to see what could be done about minimizing the damage. Though he'd wanted to do something like that for a long time.

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"And so my son, driven insane by the changes inflicted upon him at Jusenkyo, threw me into a nearby village during a long battle. Fortunately, I landed safely in the women's bath area, and after escaping found a feast that had been laid out for some later contest. Naturally, in keeping with the Master's teachings, I determined there was no owner claiming it and helped myself. No telling when you'll get the chance to eat again, after all." Genma nodded and attempted to look wise.

"Ah yes, I remember those days," Soun nodded, rejoicing in that those days were past.

"Yeah right," said Nabiki whose BS meter had long since pegged itself.

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"Argghhh," Grey said through clenched teeth. The VX-500 chassis was capable of running at just roughly 100mph (160kph) and his in particular was a little slower at 95mph (152kph). TOO slow, it appeared.

A panda was tied up and hanging over a cooking pit.

It was tempting, VERY tempting, to just leave. If it had been a cookpot, he probably would have. Genma would have dropped into some boiling water, turned back to human, and likely spent the rest of his life working off his debt. A roaring fire, on the other hand, meant panda steaks.

Grey finished running into the village and sized it all up. Yes, his arrival had made a definite impression. Well, at least he had the translation program. "Load Mandarin Language."

*Mandarin datapak: file not found.*

"Oh crap." Grey wondered what else hadn't been loaded. "Okay, activate primary weapon system."

*EM containment field: stable.*
*Primary weapon: ready.*

Momentarily cursing the "in genre" modifications that he had to name an attack or activate various functions, Grey centered the crosshair appearing in his vision on the rope. "Razor Beam."

A pencil thin laser beam shot from a popup mount on his right forearm to cut through the rope.

Genma fell into the firepit, scattering logs and running around the village with smoking fur a moment later.

"Oh crap," Grey repeated. Yup, there was a certain Chinese girl (odd that her hair wasn't purple), stalking up to him yelling in Mandarin. "Would you believe i'm with the Sierra Club?"

There were a few groans in the crowd, indicating that some of the Amazons were familiar with the name.

The 5'2" Chinese girl continued to berate him. Grey shrugged and tried to indicate he didn't speak Mandarin.

Shampoo swung at him when it was apparent that this boy didn't understand her.

Grey, not being Ranma, took the blow square on. Shampoo was getting angry about the dent in her bonbori when Grey further demonstrated that he was not Ranma.

Sensors locked onto the presence of water nearby, and determined a high probability that THAT was the bath-house (though there was a panda-shaped hole in one side). A hand moving much faster than Shampoo expected spun her around, grabbed the back of her collar, and threw her 200ft (61m) into said large body of water.

Shampoo was just coming out of the pool, radiating angry, when the big outsider appeared again. She yelled and attacked. The big outsider spun her around then dunked her in the pool again.

Another attack, another reply. Grey didn't like this, but if ANYONE tried to beat on him, he didn't care if it was Kasumi, he'd respond in kind. If opening a door for a girl was considered Sexual Harrassment (and therefore a greater crime than armed robbery in America at least) then chivalry was dead and hell if he was going to give a girl deferential treatment. Any anger at Miya dumping him to become yet another Apollo groupie was purely incidental, right?

After the third time her head was submerged, Shampoo surrendered by being unconscious. At which point, not being able to communicate with the locals and get someone ELSE to do it, Grey tried a couple of other methods before using mouth-to-mouth to rid the Amazon of way too much excess water.

Then, naturally, knowing how this would likely be construed, he fled while carrying Genma. He had questions that the overweight patriarch could only answer.

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"Ah, my son defeated their champion. Naturally, as the Anything Goes style is much more powerful than some tribal martial artist." Genma beamed proudly for a moment. "We escaped the village with packs of vicious headhunters in pursuit..."

"Headhunting Chinese Amazons?" Akane held her hands in a "time out" gesture.

"Oh yeah. The headhunters were last year. Anyway, my son braved the village to rescue his loving father, indicating that he had mostly recovered from whatever had driven him insane." Genma moaned and bewailed the Heavens briefly before returning to his narrative.

"What did you do that could have driven him insane?"

"Well, there was the Catfist training, and there was the Touched Soul, and the..." Genma went on for two minutes giving a tantalizing view of the gentle care and scholastic upbringing he'd given Ranma. "...and then there was that time I sold him to some pedophiles. But I stole him back before they'd gotten too involved."

"Catfist? Touched Soul? Lion's Cub? Pedophiles?" Soun inquired.

Genma explained the terms briefly.

Kasumi's expression was calm and serene. This was mainly due to the fact that she'd gone into shock, which was revealed by the way her hair was sticking straight up.

Akane excused herself to go run to the bathroom, she hated BOYS but this was a level of cruelty beyond her. Nabiki just had her eyes clenched shut and twitched occasionally. Even an Ice Queen has her limits.

"Ah, the life of a martial artist is fraught with peril." Soun nodded sagely. Hmmm. He hadn't done *any* of that with his daughters. But then they were frail little girls who wouldn't have withstood that sort of training. "So what happened then, Saotome?"

"It was horrible, Tendo, he wanted to know where he could find some childhood friend. Naturally, keeping our agreement in mind, I refused to say. The joining of the schools is of the utmost importance! Ranma was relentless, however. He threatened to do inhuman, terrible, things to me if I didn't tell him." Genma sniffled. "He even built a fire to torture me with!"

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Grey let the fish crackle over the fire before turning his attention to where Genma was tied to the tree. "i told you already. You can eat WHEN you tell me where to find Ukyo. She's already spent too much time living on some vengeance quest. Maybe if i get to her NOW she can still have a life and get some outside interests."

"I... don't know why you'd want to see that boy. RANMA! How dare you treat your father so!" His mouth involunarily watered from the smell of the fish.

"i ain't Ranma. i'm just a substitute. Besides, you've done this to Ranma enough. Paybacks a cold mistress, ain't it?" Grey turned the fish to let them cook evenly. "i didn't know they had trout in the Bayankala range. Neat, huh?"

"Ranma. You break your father's heart." Genma licked slobber off his lips. His son had set the cooking fish up so that it was upwind of the bound martial artist. Well, the info wouldn't do Ranma any good anyway. "Ukyo was in the Kansai area, Osaka to be precise, we met them on the..."

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"I held out as long as I could, Tendo, but eventually he beat the truth out of me."

"Where's the burn marks and broken bones?" murmurred Nabiki just loudly enough that her two sisters could hear.

Akane and Kasumi nodded as one. Holding out against that sort of torture (beatings, hot irons, and sodium pentothol) for three days, one would expect the man to be scarred. Or at least thinner.

"And then," Genma sobbed with crocodile tears, caught up in his brilliant acting. "And then, that girl from the village found us again!"

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Grey finished recording the directions and lifted his pack. Judging from the way Genma eyed it, it wouldn't be safe to leave it around him. How fortunate that he and the Saotome patriarch were parting ways now. It wouldn't be difficult. Genma's top running speed would be below ten miles an hour.

And there *were* other methods.

Genma's eyes bugged out as his overly tall and muscular son cut him loose and then rose silently into the air. Graceful, silent, dignified.

Except that the girl from the village leapt out of a tree and wrapped herself around him before he'd cleared that level. Then Genma was stuck watching the combined dot vanish into the distance. Tendo. Tendo would know what to do!

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"And so I came here," sniffled Genma. "My son's crazy and thinks he's in a Dragonball crossover or something." Genma stopped and frowned, wondering where *that* comment had come from. "Oh, Tendo, how can I return him to being the same immature and easily led putz that I raised him to be so that we can unite the two houses?"

"Well, if he can levitate and throw ki blasts, he must be a worthy heir to the school," reasoned Soun. "And I'm sure that once he understands it is a matter of honor, he will marry one of my daughters."

"What's he look like again?"

Genma cried some more but didn't have any photos and so just indicated that his son was tall, strong, darkhaired, and built like a dedicated martial artist.

Akane pictured someone like Kuno and grimaced.

Nabiki pictured someone like a young Japanese version of Jackie Chan, perhaps with a roguish good humor, and smiled. "So is he cute?"

Kasumi pictured someone with the discipline and strength of a true martial artist, old school, and a bit of the samurai out of epic romantic fantasy. "But how old is he?"

Not even Soun was buying Genma's story, at least completely.

"Oh, and Tendo," sniffled Genma. "Before we get too involved. Do you have anything to eat?"

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