Here you go folks, part three.

Send any CC to me at lprior@geocities.com.  Hope you like to.  Part 
four is almost done.

All characters copyright of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan Inc. and
Viz Communications.

SINS OF THE FATHER

CHAPTER THREE

LUNCH AT UKYO’S

OR

A LITTLE EXPLANATION

Later that morning at Ucchan’s. 

Ukyo had been busy preparing for the lunch rush  --  mixing up batter, 
preparing the grill, setting up spatulas, all the usual things.  She quietly 
hummed a happy song as she knew that she would see Ranma 
sometime today.  He had promised to stop by for dinner.  She heard a 
customer enter the restaurant as she turned away from the door, and 
called over her shoulder, “Good morning and welcome to Ucchan’s.”

Suteko slid into a seat at the counter and looked over the menu board. 
 “I’d like a number one please.”

“Coming right up.”  Ukyo quickly prepared the okonomiyaki and slid it 
onto a plate.  She gracefully placed it in front of the customer and 
smiled.  “There you go, a number one fresh from the grill, that will 
be....Oh it’s you Ran-chan.  No charge.”

The young woman looked up, “What did you call me?”

“Ran-chan, what I usually call you.”  Ukyo smiled at the person she 
thought was her fiancé.  “That’s a different look of you.  Trying out the 
American styles now?”

Suteko looked at the girl behind the counter with confusion.  “Who’s 
Ran-chan?  My name is Suteko.”

Ukyo took a closer look.  There were differences.  This girl had black 
hair and green eyes.  Ranma-chan had red hair and blue eyes.  “I’m 
sorry.  You look just like my fiancé.”

Suteko, if it was possible, looked even more confused.  “Excuse me, 
did you just say your fiancé looks like me?”

“Um, it’s a long story.  He had a few things happen and well...”

“Sounds interesting.”  Suteko responded, then took a bite of the 
Okonomiyaki in front of her.  “Hey, this is good!”  She quickly but 
daintily ate the entire thing and pushed the plate away.  “They don’t 
make anything like that where I come from.”

As there wasn’t any business yet, Ukyo stayed and talked with her only 
customer.  “Where’s that, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Boston, Mass in the US.”

Ukyo let out a low whistle.  “You’re a long way from home.  What brings 
you here?  You a transfer student?”

Suteko grimaced for a moment and then answered.  “No, I’m taking 
time off from school.  I’m here to restore my mother’s honor and get 
revenge on the man who took it from her.”

“And...”

Suteko debated internally for a few moments about telling family secrets 
but she was a bit sad and lonely after all this time and the girl in front of 
her seemed truly to be interested, so she spoke.  “I’ve spent the last 
year tracking all over Asia looking for him.  I finally found him this 
morning, right here in Nerima, where I started.  I offered him a challenge 
and by tomorrow my mother’s honor should be restored and my life can 
go back to normal.”

“Here in Nerima?”

“Yes, he’s staying at a local dojo.”  Suteko looked up at the ceiling, 
trying to remember the name of the place she found her father.  “Um, 
the name was something like Tenso, Tenko or something like that.”

Ukyo was shocked for a moment.  Someone staying at the Tendo dojo 
had damaged the honor of some woman from America.  She had to 
ask.  It couldn’t have been Ran-chan.  Could it?  “The Tendo Dojo?”

“Ya, that’s the place.  He was surprised, to say the least.”  Suteko’s 
eyes looked  inward for a moment, remembering Genma’s reaction at 
Atsuko’s name.  “He didn’t expect to have anyone come after him, 
after seventeen years.”

Ukyo was getting confused.  After seventeen  years.  Well, that meant 
it wasn’t Ranma, he was only sixteen.  Could she be referring to Mr. 
Tendo or Mr. Saotome or maybe even Happosai?  The only way to find 
out was to ask.  “Who didn’t expect you?”

Suteko looked back at Ukyo.  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t tell you.  I’ve been 
looking for my father.  Genma Saotome.”

Ukyo’s face fell in shock.  “Your father?”

“Yep.  A little over seventeen and a half years ago Genma Saotome 
was dating a young woman by the name of Atsuko Fukusuu.  They got 
very close one night and nine months later, I was born.”  Suteko’s face 
hardened as she remembered her mother’s story about how he had 
dumped her.

“Wait a minute. You’re telling me that Mr. Saotome fathered a child and 
then dumped the mother, seventeen years ago?”

“Close.  The day after he spent the night with my mom, he broke up 
with her.  He told her some crap about being engaged to a.... how did 
mom put it ... oh yeah, ‘a prettier, richer and more womanly girl than 
mom.’  Then she bashed him one good.  She left him sitting, nursing a 
sore head.  She told me she never wanted to see his sorry face again!” 
 Suteko had started to glow just a little around the edges.  Her anger 
was beginning to build.  “That was before she realized that she was 
pregnant with me.  By the time she knew, her family was in the US and, 
well, Uncle Jackie said he’d track down my father and make him marry 
her.  Of course, by the time they found him, it was too late.  He had 
married the other poor girl his family had chosen and mom was stuck an 
unwed mother.  She had a long fight with her parents but she told them 
she was going to keep me, and Uncle Jackie agreed with her.  He told 
them that he would take care of her and me.  Well, he was the head of 
the clan in America, so that was that.”

“That must have been tough on your mom, being alone and all.”  Ukyo 
was feeling very sympathetic.  She understood feeling abandoned -- 
and by the same man.  Mr. Saotome seemed to be a real student of 
Happosai.  He didn’t care whom he hurt.

“Actually, it was probably the best thing for her.  She got to tell 
grandfather where to shove it and live her life the way she wanted.”  
The glow around Suteko died down as she smiled.  “Grandfather didn’t 
believe in women running businesses, like a dojo.  He trained mom 
when she was little, just for practice.  He wanted a male heir for the 
place and hoped having a daughter trained in the Fukusuu staff work 
would attract a good husband.   He never could admit that mom was 
better at it than he was.”

“You know, I’m not surprised.  Genma always seems to wiggle out of 
things.”

Suteko looked back at Ukyo.  “What do you mean?”

“Well, back when Ranma and I were small, we were good friends.  
There was finally a day when our fathers talked, and my father offered 
me to Genma as a bride for Ranma.  Dad even threw in our 
okonomiyaki cart.”  Ukyo spoke quietly, remembering.  “Genma took 
the cart but left me behind --  abandoned me by the side of the road.  I 
vowed that I would never fall in love and spent my life training as the 
best okonomiyaki chef in the world.  After ten years, I tracked down 
Genma and Ranma and challenged them.”

Suteko looked surprised.  Ukyo challenged her father but she was 
engaged to Ranma?  What was going on here?

“When I found them, I challenged Genma but he put off the blame on 
Ranma.  So I challenged Ranma to combat.”  She stopped for a 
minute.  “The funny thing about the whole thing was, Ranma had no 
idea I was a girl.  So when his dad asked him if he loved me or 
okonomiyaki better, he picked the okonomiyaki.”  She smiled.  “You 
should have seen his face when he realized I was a girl.”

Suteko sat very still for a moment.  “So, this Ranma is Genma’s son?”

“That’s right.”

“But I thought Ran-chan was your fiancé?”

“He is.  Ran-chan’s what I call Ranma.”  Ukyo looked a little 
embarrassed.  “It’s a pet name from when we were kids.”

“OK, Ranma is Ran-chan.  Ran-chan is the girl I look like, right?”

“Yep.”  Ukyo was getting a kick out of watching the emotions chasing 
across Suteko’s face.

After another minute Suteko spoke up.  “Ukyo, do you know if Ranma 
and Genma stopped at a place in 
China called Jusenko?”

Ukyo was surprised.  “How’d you know that?”

Suteko looked down,  “Got some water?”

Ukyo’s jaw dropped.  She got a pot of water and splashed Suteko.  
The girl transformed.  One moment she was a woman, the next she 
was a tall, blonde, muscular man.  The clothes she was wearing got 
pretty tight but she had been wearing loose clothes before.  With a 
voice an octave lower she spoke.  “I followed Genma around Asia.  I 
always seemed to get were he had been a month or more after he was 
there.  About six months ago, I stopped at this tourist attraction call 
Jusenko.  I speak a little Chinese and the guide told me about the 
pools.  I thought he was kidding.”

“Kidding?”

“Yeah, we have places like it all over the US.  Places claiming to be 
magic, you know, to bring in the bucks.”  She shook her head.  “To 
prove to him that he was lying I - um - “

Ukyo stood behind the counter in shock.  “Don’t tell me you...”

“Yes, I jumped in.”  Suteko looked, if possible, more embarrassed.  “I 
was such a jerk.  Mom always told me my tendency to jump without 
looking was going to get me into trouble.”

“That’s an understatement.”  Ukyo turned and grabbed up a hot kettle 
and poured it over Suteko’s head.  “Boy, your as bad as Ran-chan.”

Suteko rung out her shirt.  “Well...,”  She looked up.  “Why don’t you 
tell me about my brother.   I wasn’t paying much attention at the Dojo.  
I, um, have a tendency to be a bit single-minded.”

“Really?”  Ukyo cocked a brow at that.  “Interesting,” she thought.  
Aloud, she said  “Well, do you remember much besides Genma from 
this morning?”

“Let’s see.  Before I challenged Genma, there was a boy.  He landed in 
the pool behind the house.” She snapped her fingers.  “Wait a minute!  
He changed into the girl!  So that’s Ranma.”

“Yep, anything else?”

“Well, after I challenged Genma there was this girl who tried to stop 
me.”  Suteko crunched up her face in thought.  “That must have been 
Ranma in girl form.  There were, let’s see, three other girls and another 
man.  One of the girls and Ranma tried to follow me when I left but they 
couldn’t find me, of course.”  Suteko looked smug at that comment.

“Of course.”  What did she mean by of course?  Ukyo could see the 
resemblance to Ranma clearly with that comment.  The girl was sure of 
her ability.

Suteko heard the touch of question in the other girl’s voice.  She 
sighed.  “Sorry, Ukyo.  One of my family’s secrets is how to disappear 
from sight.  No one from the Dojo could have followed me unless I had 
wanted them to.”

“If you say so.”

Suteko laughed.  “So, Ukyo, who were the other people?  Like the girl 
who followed me.”

Ukyo debated internally for a moment but she decided to tell the girl the 
truth.  “The girl with Ranma would have been Akane, his other 
fiancée.”

Suteko interrupted.  “His other fiancée?  Are you telling me Ranma has 
two fiancées?”

“Actually, that depends on who you talk to.  There are arguments about 
two others.”

“Four!”

“Yep, makes life real interesting.”

Suteko shook her head.  Poor kid.  Four girls.  What did Genma think 
he was doing?  One fiancée was bad enough but put the attentions of 
four girls on one guy and all hell would break loose.  “How did that 
happen?  Is Ranma some type of Romeo?”

Ukyo spoke up quickly in Ranma’s defense.  “No!  He isn’t.”

Suteko looked aslant at Ukyo.

“No, really.  You see Ranma was engaged to Akane before they were 
born.  Then he met this amazon named Shampoo and defeated her 
and according to their traditions that makes them engaged.  And then 
there’s Kodachi, but she’s just crazy.”

“Along with you that makes four.  Any others?”

“Not at the moment.”

“So which one of you does this Ranma kid want?”

“Kid?” thought Ukyo.  “She can’t be more than six or eight months older 
than Ranma.  “Well that’s the problem.  Ranma hasn’t decided yet.”

“Oh, boy.  Now that’s got to be interesting,”  Suteko responded.  “Not 
that I really care about that,” she thought.  “Ukyo, I have a serious 
question for you.  I want you to answer me truthfully, OK?”

Ukyo looked a bit surprised.  “Why would she make a point about 
truthfulness now?”  “OK.”

“Do you think that Ranma will give me any problems with my challenge 
of his father?”

Ukyo started to answer but stopped.  That was a good question.  “If 
you explain to him why your challenging him I think not.  But that 
depends on what exactly you plan on doing to Genma.  Are you 
planning on more than just shaming him?”

Suteko sat looking at the girl behind the counter.  She hadn’t thought 
about that in quite a while.  The past year had been taken up just 
tracking down her father.  No one had ever asked her what she would 
do once she found him.  “Ukyo, I don’t plan on killing him, if that’s what 
you mean.”  Ukyo let out her breath.  “I never planned on killing him.  
Mother and I knew from the beginning that he had to be taught a 
lesson, but she never wanted to hurt him.  It’s against all I have been 
taught to do such a thing.”

“Than just what are you going to do to him?”

Suteko looked crafty.  “That my new friend I can’t tell you.  It has to be 
a surprise to all around.”  Just as she said that the first of the noon 
customers came in.  She looked up.  “Whoa, is it that late?  I’ve got to 
go find a place to crash tonight.”  She got up from the counter and 
placed some money on the counter.  You know any place good, clean 
and cheap?”

Ukyo made a quick decision.  “You could stay here.  I’ve got a spare 
room.  It’s not much, but it’s dry.”

Suteko smiled.  “Are you sure?  I wouldn’t want to be an 
inconvenience.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks.  I’ll just go get my pack.  I left it at the airport.”

“OK, see you later.”  Ukyo responded absently.  She was already 
working on the orders coming from the customers.

********************************************************************************
I hope you liked this.  Any problems?  I think it moves a little jerky but 
well it is a first draft.

Later  Lisa
*********************************************************


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