At last! I've been looking forward to this.
I love cliff-hangers. Bwahahahahahahahaha-- *choke* *gasp!*
We can tell.
Wild Child 2 - Nodoka-san no Ko
I had to look the second 'Ko' up, after Vincent apprised me
that there was a pun here. 'Child' is what I was familiar
with; 'sin' or 'fault' is the one I wasn't. Nice pun.
Looking idly around the room, Ranko noted the way
light of tonight's half-moon made peeked through a gap
^ 'the'
Ranko puffed up a few moments later, her steps
heavy and uneven. She bent over, chest heaving, and
fought briefly not to collapse to the road in sheer
relief. It would be way too undignified.
Nice way to give us a sense of what physical shape
Ranko is in.
She turned her head to ask a Akane about it, but
Spurious 'a' -------------------^
"The moment anyone sees you together, they're
gonna realise you're twins. You two look absolutely
identical. If you weren't dressed differently and
your hair I don't think I could tell you apart at
all."
I tend to agree with Vincent on this. I've known
identical twins in RL, one of whom ran distance and one
of whom didn't, and you could easily tell them apart at
sight based on musculature.
"I don't get it." Onna-Ranma frowned at Ranko.
She was tempted to move her arms just to see if Ranko
would follow her as if she were an image in a mirror.
Yeah, I remembered your reference to the Mirror Mansion
story in part 1 (volume 36, btw, I believe).
*whack*
Ranma slumped unconscious as the panda, a feral,
hunted look on its face, scooped his son's limp,
female body up and sprinted for the freedom of the
garden.
Heh. Of course.
And screeched to a halt at the sight of the bare
blade of Nodoka's katana hovering, steady, inches from
his furry throat.
Not sure where this comes from. In canon, Nodoka needs
a VERY good reason to do this. And, actually, isn't really
good enough with a katana to hold it steady 'inches' from
someone's throat. I suspect alterverse changes to be
explored later.
Just then the middle daughter, Nabiki, came into
the room and knelt between her two sisters. Nodoka
was interested to note that Nabiki now wore a kimono.
Did you give us a reason for this? I didn't notice one.
"She is a young man suffering under a curse, a
curse which causes him to take a female body from time
to time," she said. "Through his father's negligence,
ignorance, and haste, and a moment's carelessness,
*he* now is forced to become female when splashed with
cold water." Kasumi erased the frown she had been
directing at the panda and smiled. "Fortunately, hot
water returns him to his original - natural - body."
The smile became more unpleasant. "I suppose it is
Kami-sama's vengeance visited upon the father that he
also is cursed, to become a panda. It appears to suit
his nature well."
I didn't think it OOC for Kasumi to speak up at this
point, but fingering the curse as Genma's fault to this
extent struck me as OOC. Certainly it would be un-Japanese
to do so. You might want to consider Kasumi's initial
statement being less direct, and a subsequent exchange
such as:
Nodoka: Do I understand that my husband is at fault
in this?
Kasumi: As to that, well... (shrugs)
Tearful reunion over with, and Genma restored to
human shape if not humanity, Kasumi served freshly-
And what happened to the pledge? How was it disposed of?
Or is that To Be Disclosed?
"The records show she was adopted into the
Saotome family at seven years of age," put in Nabiki
helpfully. "Oddly, her originating family is not
listed; or rather, it's given as... Saotome." She
Same spelling? You don't say (I ask because of your
response to Vincent, saying that Saotome is a samurai
name; I remember reading somewhere that Saotome with
different kanjis is a known Japanese name, but that
Saotome spelled as RT spells it is not).
Nervously, Nodoka pulled the sheets toward her
and read them, knowing already what they would say.
Honda Fujiko, adopted as a Saotome. On the same day,
the marriage of Saotome Kenji and Saotome Fujiko.
It is my understanding that this adoption business
happens when the man needs to adopt the woman's family
name. In this first case, a Fujiko marrying a Kenji,
I don't see why there'd be an adoption at all.
Saotome Nodoka, born of Saotome Kenji and Saotome
Fujiko. No other children. Suzuki Genma, adopted the
day before their marriage eighteen endless years ago,
known thereafter as Saotome Genma. Saotome Ranma,
Right. Like this. Genma is trading up, so he adopts
Nodoka's family name. Post-WWII, you can do this w/o
the adoption, just by naming Nodoka clan head on the
family register, but this is still regarded as 'unmanly'.
The workaround is to fall back to the previous system,
using the adoption to give Genma the desired family name,
and then Genma heads the new family register with his (new)
family name. This is what the Japanese did back when
the law said that the man's family name HAD to be the
new family's name.
So much of the story not told by those bare
listings.
So intriguing.
Nicely told. I'm looking forward to more.