They Shall Be One Flesh

Part 2 


     Sunday was Nodoka Saotome's favorite morning.  She
always woke early and headed downstairs with unusual haste,
often without even bathing.  It wasn't because she worked on
weekends, as she had them off, and Nodoka never began chores
until after noon, in simple-minded adherence to a rule she 
had imposed on herself in an effort to have a social life. 
Instead, Nodoka rose early because she loved reading the 
Sunday newspaper.  It had the largest home living section, 
for one thing.  Nodoka often fantasized about the meal she 
would prepare for Ranma and Genma when they finally returned 
to her, and Foods had given her many ideas over the years.  
True, she had finalized the menu six years ago, but occasionally she
would consider adding another course, so the recipes were still
amusing to read.
     But the most important reason that Nodoka loved the
Sunday paper was that within it the wedding announcements
were printed.  She reveled in them; they were a reminder to
her of the happiness of her own wedding day, of the shining
moment when Genma had pledged to protect and care for her
forever.  She also loved looking at the beautiful brides,
and it was pleasant to see young people living proper, moral
lives through matrimony.  And Nodoka always enjoyed seeing
the announcement of someone she knew; or, somewhat
disturbingly, of the child of someone she knew.  On this day
she eagerly spread the section across the tabletop, reading
the announcements with pictures first.  She proceeded to
those without, the ones provided for free.  She found
someone she knew this time.



     Soun strode down the street proudly clad in his full
martial arts uniform.  It was the only thing he ever wore,
which was only one of the reasons none of his daughters had
ever invited him to Furinkan High School.  Ranma walked
easily beside him, perched high atop the fence.  Akane
simmered five feet behind the pair; every few steps she
would send a pebble skittering twenty yards down the road.
Nabiki walked easily next to her, a slight smile on her
face.  Periodically she would glance at Ranma's acrobatic
feat and shake her head slightly.
     Ranma slowed momentarily until the girls pulled up
beside him.  "So, does school always start this early?"
     "No," Nabiki said.  "We're just going early so Daddy
won't see all the boys."
     "What boys?"
     "All the boys who want to date Akane."
     "Nabiki!" Akane said, flushing.
     "What, do they follow you around or something?"
     Nabiki smirked.  "Or something.  Guess she won't have
to worry about it now, huh?"
     "No," Ranma agreed shortly.
     The school-yard was deserted when they arrived.  "I
can't believe I'm going to school again," Ranma said,
staring at the imposing stone building.
     After they entered the school, it took about five
minutes to find the assistant principal's office.  After
pointing out the door to her father,    Nabiki detached
herself from the group and took a few leading steps towards
the hall.  "Daddy, I'm going to go and do some things,
okay?"
     "Okay, honey.  Have a good day."  Nabiki nodded and
walked elegantly away. Soun opened the door to the office,
pausing to turn to his youngest daughter.  "Akane, wait
here."
     Akane wrestled down the urge to stop her father;
knowing that she could not but forestall the inevitable.  At
the last moment, she lost control.  "Wait," she gasped,
reaching out in supplication.  But Soun had already entered
the office, and her hand fell limply to her side.



     The hall was lamely decorated with banners proclaiming
the success of Fuurinkan's sports teams.  Proceeding briskly
towards the school yard, Nabiki paid them no mind; she had
other things to think about.  At the moment, Nabiki had two
main goals.  The first, dealing with the transference of
money from other places to her pocket, she had discovered
long ago.  The second, to save Akane from her marriage, was
a more recent acquisition.  The challenge, as she saw it,
was to combine the two in the most lucrative way possible.
With that in mind, she brushed back her hair and stepped
into the open.
     The field had become crowded in the ten minutes since
the Tendos and the Saotomes had arrived.  Tatewaki Kuno
stared at the sky, a slight frown pulling on his features.
"Methinks we will have a tempest before this day is done,"
he pronounced, hearing the footsteps behind him.  "Ho!
Nabiki Tendo.  Do me the honor of revealing the location of
your most precious sister, mine heart's true love, Akane.
For I perceive that it is past time for her to arrive, yet
she is not here; hence she must be elsewhere."
     Nabiki pursed her lips and considered the request.
"You know, Kuno, there's something else you'd like to know
even more."  And once he knew it, he might take action.
Nabiki had never seen anyone as good at fighting as Kuno.
Ranma might have been training for a while, but if Akane
couldn't beat Kuno without his letting her, she doubted
Ranma would have a chance.  She wasn't sure exactly how the
boy felt about Akane, yet, but a solid beating certainly
wouldn't make the marriage look more attractive.
     The weight of the boys around them shifted inwards.
None of them wanted to miss the information Kuno would be
buying.  "Such rabble," Kuno said with disgust.  "Come,
Nabiki, let us remove to a more private location."
     "Whatever, Kuno."
     Once inside the kendo training hall, Kuno pulled out
his wallet.  "Come, tell me what it is you have to say."
     "10000 yen."
     "It has never before cost more than 1000!  What is this
usury?!"
     "Usury would be if I charged interest.  Trust me, you
need to hear this."
     "Very well."
     "First of all, Akane is in her first hour classroom."
Or Nabiki assumed she had arrived there by now.
     "Then I shall proceed there apace.  But first, tell me,
what else speak you of?  For it cannot be that this is the
information for which I have paid."
     "No, it's not.  She's there with a boy."
     "Akane has been captured by some villain!  Then I must
away, to her side!"
     "Let me finish!  She's there with a boy, Ranma Saotome.
Her husband."
     Kuno stood for several seconds, breathing deeply,
before letting out a blood-curling scream.  Lightning
flashed dramatically to accompany the Blue Thunder's anger.



     "So, how was your weekend?" Sayuri pranced into the
classroom lighter than air.  "You never called me on
Saturday after school like you said."
     Akane swiveled in her desk, glancing at the room's
sparse population before turning her gaze to her friend.  "I
was distracted," she said.  Her tone was dark; a certain
coolness washed over the two girls.  Sayuri tossed her hair
and took a seat.
     "What are you doing here so early, anyway?  Everyone's
waiting for you outside."
     "You know how I feel about that."  A sudden crash of
thunder punctuated the statement.  Across the room, Ranma
scowled.  He was glad to be inside, even if it wasn't
actually raining yet.  The problem was that he was squeezed
into a tiny school desk, awaiting the start of class, under
a teacher who already watched him with a careful eye.  The
presence of his wife certainly didn't decrease his
irritation.  He watched her chat with her friend, wondering
idly if she had mentioned the marriage yet.  Probably not,
he guessed.
     The door swung open with a crash.  Ranma stared at the
huge crowd of students who rushed into the classroom, led by
a tall, handsome boy in a kendo uniform.  A long bokken hung
by his side, a proper accompaniment to his threatening
posture.  "Which of you is Saotome?" he demanded at the top
of his lungs.  The boy strode smartly to the center of the
room and ran his gaze over the other students.  "Reveal
yourself, Saotome!"
     Ranma rose to his feet.  "Yo, I'm Ranma Saotome.
Whaddya want?"
     "Saotome!" the boy exclaimed, drawing his bokken and
leveling it at Ranma's head.  "Know that I am the great
Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Fuurinkan High!  You have
committed the greatest offense possible, by taking the hand
in marriage of the beauteous Akane Tendo before she could
run to my arms!  For the honor of my ancestors, I shall
smite thee!"
     Sayuri gasped.  "Akane?"  The voices of the class rose
like a tsunami, overwhelmingly powerful and absolutely
unstoppable.  "You got married?"
     "You want to fight me, Kuno?" Ranma said, tensing his
legs.
     "The thrashing that I shall give thee could not be
considered a fight, boy!"
     "Fine," Ranma said.
     Kuno attacked suddenly, his anger fueling eloquent
motion.  His bokken flashed in abbreviated strokes, driving
Ranma to the wall.  His anger was as great as it had ever
been. His blood throbbed in his veins, beating a song of
victory and vengeance.  He was not prepared for a
counterattack.
     When Ranma leapt forward, he held nothing back.  His
fists pounded his frustrations into the kendoist, made
helpless by the intensity of Ranma's anger.  Only in the
back of his mind did Ranma notice someone standing beside
him.
     Finally Kuno leapt out of Ranma's reach, nearly falling
into the crowd of watching students.  His gut ached, and he
could feel one of his teeth moving slightly.  He spat,
wiping the sweat from his brow.  "The hundred blows!" he
cried, swinging his bokken fast enough that it began to
blur.  Ranma backed away warily, searching for a hole in
Kuno's offense.  In the distance, he could hear the bell
signaling the beginning of class.
     Ranma was prepared to attack when he sensed movement
beside him.  Akane flew past him stretched into a long kick,
hitting Kuno square in the jaw.  "Die, Kuno!" she shouted
with the impact.  A quick combination disarmed her target.
After that, Kuno put up no resistance at all.
     Akane grunted with each of the blows that followed.
Her art inflicted the maximum possible damage. She heard
distinct snaps as several of Kuno's ribs broke.  Akane could
see the light in his eyes dimming as he sagged to the floor.
She lifted him for one final haymaker, striking him cleanly
in the face.
     Akane slumped after the final blow and fell heavily
into her seat.
     All around was silence.  Finally a girl, one whose name
Akane had never learned, moved to Kuno's side. She smoothed
her skirt as she knelt to give him a cursory examination.  A
moment later she spoke to the room.  "We had better call an
ambulance."
     Ranma's only thought was anger.  He couldn't believe
she had interrupted him in the middle of a fight; a fight he
was winning, no less!  It wasn't like he had needed or
wanted her help.  Only the imposed solemnity of serious
injury prevented him from lashing out at her.
     Akane felt an immense weariness and, for the first time
in days, a deep satisfaction.  She had been searching for a 
target, and after telling the whole school what she had 
desperately wanted to prevent them from knowing, Kuno 
deserved whatever he got.  Guilt never entered her mind.
She watched the school nurse remove Kuno's unconscious body
from the classroom, saw the blood soaking his uniform, and
was happy.
     "Class!" The teacher seized the lull.  "Please, may we
begin?"
     The students paid him no mind; but his voice was a
catalyst for their action.  "Akane!" a hundred voices
shouted, surrounding the hapless girl.  "You're married?
For real?"  The questions sent Akane crashing down from her
momentary high.  She tried to ignore them, tried not to
answer.  She didn't want to answer; she didn't want them to
know!  She hid her head in her hands, reaching desperately
for an escape from the pressure, cowering from the
oppression.  Even her oldest friends joined in the chorus,
their sensitivity overwhelmed by their curiosity and
amazement.
     As Ranma's anger cooled, he began to feel a burning
embarrassment, something like what he experienced as a girl.
Everyone around him knew that he was married, knew of his
great shame.  He considered briefly jumping out the window.
Running away would be an easy solution, certainly.  Then he
noticed, with some surprise, that no one seemed to have any
interest in him.  Searching for the reason, he realized that
all the students were gathered at the other end of the room,
around Akane.
     It struck him more powerfully than any of Kuno's blows.
Akane had to be in agony, sitting there, the harassment 
unchecked. In agony, because of the marriage that was his
responsibility.  Guilt crept up his spine, a feeling with
which he had only recently become acquainted.  He didn't
like it.
     "Shut up!" Ranma shouted.  "Leave her alone!"  With a
purposeful intensity, he assumed a threatening stance.
"Can't you see, she's, look, just shut up!"
     Kuno's beating was still fresh in the crowd's mind.
They parted like the red sea, hurrying to their classes and
their desks.
     Akane lifted her head slowly.  Everyone could hear her
when she spoke, but her words were aimed directly at Ranma.
     "I hate you."



     It took Nodoka a day to decide what to do.  She spent
hours sitting by the phone, the directory in her lap.  Again
and again she would cradle the receiver, dialing, only to
let her finger fall gently on the hook.
     The truth was she didn't know what to say.  She
couldn't believe what she had read.  She absolutely could
not believe it.  That Genma would do this to her was beyond
belief.  Or that he would do it to Ranma, who was sixteen!
He and Soun had done it together, she was sure.  She
remembered Soun, as one of Genma's old drinking buddies.
She was certain that the marriage was something they had
forced the children into.  After all, the Tendo girl could
hardly be older than Ranma; she might even be younger.  But
to hide it from the boy's own mother!  To not invite her to
her own son's wedding, after she had not seen him for ten
years!
     On Monday morning, Nodoka stopped crying and consumed
herself with furious action.  She called in sick to work,
reasoning that she had a sickness of the heart, and then
made ready to leave.  Tokyo was a colossus and Nodoka lived
far from the ancestral Tendo home; by midmorning she had
only just entered Nerima.
     She wove her way through the familiar streets, past the
raucous vendors and harried travelers.  She had lived here
once, in her youth.
     The rain had been chased away by piercing sunshine,
pursued by breathy gasps of wind.  It had become a beautiful
day, though Nodoka had not noticed it.  She was consumed by
anxiety, because she still had no idea what she would say
when she arrived.  Only one thing was certain: she had to
confront Genma.  After all, she thought wryly, he would
probably provide enough words for the both of them.
     Gathering her courage, she stepped up the walk and
knocked on the door of the Tendo dojo.  At the behest of a
tall, pretty girl, who assured the red-haired woman that she
was not Akane, Nodoka entered.  In the entryway her gaze
fell upon her husband.
     Genma had not changed.  He wore the same silly white
gi, a bandage hiding his baldness.  His eyes held a shifty
intelligence, his chest a thick strength.  When he noticed
her, he took on the dark cast of fear.
     She saw him, and suddenly she knew exactly what words
were needed.  "Genma," she said, her voice trembling, "where
is my son?"



     The moment the lunch bell rang, Nabiki set off in
search of her sister.  After fruitlessly wheeling through
the halls and around the grounds, she spied Akane walking
towards the forest behind the school, her two best friends
trailing at a distance.  Nabiki stepped up her pace and
intercepted them before the thick row of trees.  "Where are
you going?"
     "Just going to eat," Akane said, flashing her lunchbox
defensively.
     "Mind if I join you?"
     "I guess not."
     They proceeded to a small clearing among the trees.
Akane's two friends, Yuka and Sayuri, took seats next to the
sisters.  "So," Nabiki said.  "Kuno."
     "Yes," Akane said.
     "Guess he got hurt pretty bad, huh?"
     "I wouldn't know."
     "I heard he's going to be in the hospital all week,"
Yuka piped in.  Nabiki thought she saw Akane grin, just for
a second.
     For a moment, there was no sound but the forest around
them.
     Akane's friends had a specific agenda, though.  "Hey,
Akane.  So tell us, who was that guy?" Nabiki smiled.
Sayuri had brought up just what she wanted to talk about.
     "Why don't you tell them, Nabiki?" Akane said.  "You've
always been good at telling people about my personal life."
     Their eyes locked for a moment, and then Nabiki
acquiesced.  "He's her husband.  Our father and his father
made them get married."
     "Just over the weekend?"
     "Yeah," Akane said.  "Just like that."
     "Heavy," Yuka said.
     "I'm really sorry," Sayuri offered.  "Unless you're
happy about it.  But you're not, are you?"
     "He's my husband."  Silence, again.  Nabiki was
learning to hate silence.
     "What are you going to do?"
     "What is there to do?"
     "Well, how do you feel about him?" Sayuri asked.
     "At least he's cute," Yuka said.  She had the decency
to look embarrassed afterwards.
     "He's my husband," Akane repeated, poking at a stick.
"That's the beginning and the end of it."
     Nabiki almost groaned.  Akane was saying that she had
decided the family's reputation was more important than her
own feelings; that what her father had declared, she would
hold to be true.  She was giving in, and Nabiki could not
stomach it.
     "That's so sad," said Sayuri.
     "It doesn't have to be," Nabiki said.  "There are ways
to end marriages, Akane."
     Akane glanced at her friends.  "No.  It's done,
Nabiki."  Saving face, Nabiki decided; this was all about
saving face.  She would speak to her sister later, in
private.  She suspected the song would change.
     Yuka seemed unaware of the tension.  "Did you say you
hated him?"
     "I don't know him very well yet," Akane said.
     Nabiki pretended to check her watch and rose to her
feet.  "Listen, I'll talk to you later, okay?"  After a
chorus of goodbyes, she left the three girls to their
conversation.  She could no longer stand to listen to her
sister's pleasant denunciations of what Nabiki knew she
really felt.  But Akane was a bad actress, and Nabiki was
sure she was playing charades; the truth would come out
before long.



     Ranma left school during the lunch hour.  He wanted to
go home, but he had no home.  He wanted to take comfort in
his family, but his family had betrayed him.  So he went to
the Tendo Dojo, in search of a pale substitute.  He found
his father kneeling on the floor, facing a woman he had
never seen before.
     Genma raised a trembling hand to point at his son,
right behind the woman's back.  "He's right there, Nodoka.".
     The woman spun around like a whirligig, hesitating for
not even a second before running to embrace the boy.
"Ranma," she breathed, and her eyes filled with bittersweet
tears.
     Ranma accepted her closeness awkwardly.  The woman -
Nodoka, his pop had called her - she gazed up, running her
hands over his face again and again, and she gasped, and
then she was crying, and she shuddered.  She opened her
mouth and she closed it and she whimpered, and then she
stepped back, never taking her eyes off him.  "Ranma," she
said, "do you - " She trailed off into a deep breath, and
when she spoke again Ranma detected a hint of fear.  "Do you
remember me?"
     He looked at her more closely.  Her face was oddly
familiar, but seemed somehow out of place; like a warm day
on the eve of winter.  Ranma slowly shook his head.  "Pop,
who is she?  Who are you?"
     "I'm your mother," Nodoka said.  "And you're my son."
She grasped him again, desperately.  "You're my son."

End Part 2

Notes:

Let's see...feel free to mail me for the first part.  

The Eternal Lost Lurker has informed me that Japanese tradition 
requires that a husband take his wife's family name.  Since I didn't 
know this when I wrote the first chapter, and the change in family 
name is a fairly important part of the fic, Akane and Ranma are 
following Western tradition.

Many thanks to all the guys on FFIRC for their great comments, and to 
Phillip Masters for helping me with early drafts.    

Send C&C, everyone. 


Thomas Schmidt
Tschmidt@trader.com