Chapter Text
So, Martial Arts Ikebana. That had been a thing.
Walking home from the palatial home where she and Ranma had faced off against a whole clan of practitioners of that rather bizarre art, Akane was tired, her hair was a mess, and she wanted out of her yukata. They’d won, but it had felt like a hollow victory that had done little to help her mood. It had all been so ridiculous. Victory without dignity was hardly a victory at all.
The only good thing about the day was another chance to see the cute redhead beside her done up in a yukata as well. Akane kept stealing glances at her fiancée, guilt eating at her. She wasn’t sure if it was guilt about how much she liked Ranma as a girl, or if it was about how she’d helped nearly arrange things so that she would never see the adorable redhead again. If the wedding had actually gone right…
Ranma noticed her looking and she felt a pang in her heart. Because she knew, if she was being honest with herself, that the girl she saw before her was the one she’d fallen in love with first. Sure, she’d grown to love Ranma’s boy side as time had gone on, but he was so often pushier and more combative in his birth form. Meanwhile, as a girl… Ranma was adorable. Ever since those nervous smiles on their first night meeting one another, that cute face had made Akane’s heart race.
“What’s up, Akane?” Ranma asked.
“I…” she started, but… what could she say?
This form was a curse. Ranma deserved to be free of it. As much as Akane might like it. As much as she might want to kiss those soft lips. To hold the small girl against her, protective feelings flush in her heart.
It wasn’t fair to Ranma.
“Well, don’t you two look adorable,” Nabiki’s voice called out, cutting through Akane’s indecision.
She spun around, ready to yell something at her sister. Only to discover her sister wasn’t alone. Auntie Nodoka was walking alongside her. Both she and Ranma let out small eeps of surprise, then began rapidly (if chaotically) explaining why Ranma was in a yukata.
“It was a challenge. A proper martial artist’s gotta respond ta those!” Ranma said, as they wound down, realising Nodoka did not look angry.
“Very understandable, dear,” Nodoka replied. “Especially to help defend your fiancée’s honour. It’s manly and honourable.”
Ranma let out a sigh of relief, but Akane still had something else on her mind.
“My sister isn’t dragging you into anything… unsavory, is she?”
“Baby-sis, I’m hurt,” Nabiki said, placing a hand on her chest in mock pain.
“She simply wanted an adult woman’s advice on some matters of fashion,” Nodoka explained. “Kasumi is an excellent older sister, truly a model young woman, but she is, well… a young woman.”
Nabiki held a rare genuine expression as she added a small shrug and nod. It left Akane feeling mildly guilty about her accusative suspicions. They were all young women in need of a maternal figure.
“What do you say you join us, Akane, dear?” Nodoka added. “I am sure you will also have some questions, and, between the two of you we will cover more ground. We are merely headed for the mall nearby.”
“It’s for makeup and professional clothing choices and that sort of stuff,” Nabiki explained, clearly seeing the hesitation in Akane’s eyes about not knowing the specifics.
“Oh, well, that does sound nice,” Akane said, before turning to Ranma. “Shall we go?”
It was only after the gulp from Ranma and the odd noise from Nodoka that Akane realised what she’d done. Inviting Ranma to girl things was simply too easy sometimes…
“It would be nice to have a boy around to carry our bags, good thinking,” Nabiki said, saving the day.
“Oh, yes. I suppose it will,” Nodoka added. “And, perhaps it will be good for you to come along, so that you might know what to give as presents when you and Akane are married. More husbands should know what to get their wives.”
“Uh… s—sure,” Ranma mumbled.
The reaction left Akane feeling she’d been wrong to ask, but it was too late. Nodoka had declared tagging along ‘manly’ and Ranma would do everything to please her. A habit Akane couldn’t really blame the redhead for, after growing up with only Genma and every reason to think Nodoka had died. If Akane’s own mother had returned somehow, Akane would be similarly focused on pleasing her (even without the risk of a seppuku pledge handing over her neck).
Whatever Ranma was feeling, none of it escaped on the short walk to the mall.
It was only after they arrived, when Akane asked to sit down for a bit (her feet were sore from walking in traditional shoes) that Ranma spoke up. asking to go get changed. Nodoka had happily agreed and the redhead hurried off to the washrooms.
By the time Akane was back on her feet, Ranma was returning, dressed in more typical Chinese silks and… still a cute little redhead.
Nodoka made a small noise at that.
“Oh, uh… well, when I’m like this it can be weird goin’ into the men’s room. I get comments and—it’s gross. But I can’t really change into a guy in the ladies’ room.”
“I… I suppose that is understandable,” Nodoka said, in a tone that seemed about the best any of them could have asked for.
After visiting a few stores, and getting the occasional odd look from the staff at the way one of the ‘young women’ in the group was standing back apart from the information on makeup and fashion, the small quartet decided to visit a small coffee shop for a small light snack on their way home. Nabiki was reasonably certain the name was German, but she didn’t actually know if Germany was known for its cafes. Auntie Nodoka reasoned that cafes were European and all those countries were similar enough it probably didn’t matter.
Either way, it was quiet and looked nice, so Nabiki was happy to go in and sit in a booth. They began looking over menus, discussing the various options, when the owner stepped out from the small kitchen area. She was a somewhat tall woman, dressed just as traditionally as Nodoka, with black hair and greyish-blue eyes, or maybe blueish-grey (between the light and distance Nabiki wasn’t completely certain). What she was certain of, though, was that the woman seemed oddly familiar. Nabiki was trying to place her as she walked over.
“Have any of you decided on dri—” the woman began, freezing up as she rounded Nodoka’s shoulder and got a proper look at her.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow, finding that interesting.
It was clear Nodoka had also noticed, though she seemed surprisingly thrown. “H—hello? I… do we know one another? You seem… somewhat familiar? I cannot place you, though.”
The woman stayed silent a few more moments, not even breathing. In reply, Nodoka wore an awkward smile.
Then the woman let out her breath, relief washing over her. “Ah, yes. Yes. Of course not. I… I rather changed my look and it has been rather a long while. I likely remember you more because I looked up to your fashion sense so much back then. You were a bit of a role model.”
“Oh. I—well, thank you,” Nodoka said, wearing a smile, but also pausing in a leading manner.
“Fumiko,” the woman replied.
Nodoka made a small face, clearly failing to place the name and face.
Apparently trying to move on from the awkwardness, Fumiko-san moved her attention to the rest of them, her eyes then landing on Ranma. “Oh, and this young woman must be your daughter, Nodoka-kun?”
That turned Nodoka’s face even more strained, but she intervened with what she was certain was the truth. “My son, actually.”
“Your…” Fumiko said, trailing off slightly, her eyes quickly moving back and forth between mother and child a few times with an expression Nabiki wouldn’t read. “I—I am sorry young man. I am glad to know Nodoka-kun supports you, though.”
“Uh… thanks?” Ranma replied, visibly lost.
Akane seemed similarly perplexed, though Nabiki felt she understood. The woman before them must have friends or family members in the ‘diverse genders’ crowd. With the way she was looking at Nodoka, Nabiki was leaning towards friends made in Shinjuku while visiting the lesbian scene.
“Auntie-Nodoka is a friend of our family,” Nabiki said, feeling like Akane might still squirm at being introduced as Ranma’s fiancée in the current situation.
After a little more awkwardness of Fumiko giving Nodoka a lovestruck sort of look while Nodoka struggled with the faux-pas of not remembering her, the group then placed their orders. Green tea for Nodoka, coffee for Nabiki, and cream sodas for the other two.
Fumiko returned with their drinks a short time later. The group debated between the food options, but ordered after a few more minutes. Other customers arrived as they ate, but Fumiko’s attention continued to drift back to Nodoka. Nabiki had been about to chalk it all up to the other woman having had a doomed crush many years ago (while Nodoka had likely not known the woman very well at all) when Fumiko apparently made a small mistake in handling the order of another table. It was too far for Nabiki to eavesdrop easily, not while trying to keep up with the conversation the rest of her own table was having, but she saw Fumiko’s body language in apology and nearly dropped her fork.
That body language was so like Ranma.
And… and suddenly Nabiki realised why the woman looked familiar. Because, if Nabiki hadn’t known about Nodoka, she’d have been ready to believe Fumiko was Ranma’s mother. The eyes, the hair, the shape of the nose… it was all so like Ranma’s birth form, but softened to fit a woman’s face.
But Nodoka was Ranma’s mother. There was no doubt, looking at the woman and the redhead sitting across from her.
Unless… unless it wasn’t a friend that had made Fumiko so invested in being glad Nodoka had accepted the redhead as a boy. If she was—no. Nabiki decided to stop before she went any further down that rabbit hole.
It was plausible, but improbable. A matter to keep a vague eye on, but nothing to dig at just yet.
All the same, Nabiki was quite happy when Nodoka offered Fumiko her card, asking to keep in touch. Poor auntie Nodoka had apparently lost track of most of her junior college friends after getting married… and Fumiko seemed happy to accept the offer to be friends once more.
It wasn’t like Nabiki to sit so quietly in the kitchen while Kasumi did the dishes. Something was up, and it was generally best to ask. Neither of her sisters were the best at communicating something they were uncertain of. (Akane was also a bit poor at communicating certainties sometimes, but that was another matter.)
Nabiki jumped a bit when Kasumi asked her, showing how truly out of it she was.
“I… we had an encounter today that is—well, let me ask you, does Ranma look like Genma at all?” Nabiki asked.
“Look like—” Kasumi began, before trailing off as she thought about it. Nabiki simply seemed so sincere in her asking. “Not… not obviously, no? Though, things can skip generations, I suppose? Or it is simply that Ranma takes after his mother so strongly…”
“That’s… that’s what I’d been thinking, until… until today. I think I might be going crazy, but we met a woman today who could have easily claimed to be Ranma’s mother and…”
Nabiki took a breath, and then explained the rest. How the woman had known Nodoka, but Nodoka hadn’t recognised her. How she’d responded to being told Ranma was a boy. As well as how the woman seemed downright smitten by Nodoka.
“Oh my. That… that would be quite the surprise if it were true,” Kasumi replied.
“I can’t bring myself to give it anything better than one in five odds, but that’s still higher than it should be,” Nabiki said.
A few days later, Kasumi had answered the phone to hear a feminine voice she didn’t recognise on the other end. For a brief moment she thought it was Konatsu on a tinny connection, but then the woman introduced herself as Fumiko, a friend of Nodoka’s. Kasumi was happy to call the older woman over, letting her take over the phone call (in part to keep Nodoka out of her kitchen… the woman kept putting things in the wrong place and ruining Kasumi’s system).
After perhaps fifteen minutes Nodoka announced her friend was coming over. Having realised during the call that this may be the woman Nabiki had said had likely complications with auntie Nodoka, Kasumi decided to take a little initiative. Namely, she convinced her father and Genma that she and Nodoka would need help cleaning for having female company over and both men soon made themselves scarce.
That left only herself, Nodoka, and Ranma around. The pigtailed teen was in his male form at the moment, but had no fear of doing housework.
Another forty minutes or so later the house was tidied just a touch (Kasumi kept things in good order normally) and Ranma had arrived back from the bakery with some cookies. Nodoka was mumbling something about it reflecting poorly on her to have to use store bought food, but she was cut off by a knock at the door.
Kasumi opened the door and immediately found herself agreeing with Nabiki’s suspicions. The woman before her was surely related to Ranma somehow.
A few polite greetings were exchanged, Fumiko as much a model of good appearances as Nodoka, and the trio drifted towards the living room. Ranma had been waiting there for them, eyes on the cookies. He had the good manners to get to his feet and give a quick bow for the guest, however.
Sitting down, Fumiko’s eyes were on Ranma. “A handsome young man… is he yours as well, Nodoka-kun?”
“As—oh, yes. Yes,” Nodoka replied, Kasumi seeing that she was deciding to put off the awkward matter of the curse for the immediate term.
Ranma seemed to pick that up and decided to escape having to say anything just yet by grabbing a cookie.
“Are you in your last year of middle school then? Or, the first year of high school?” Fumiko asked, putting Ranma on the spot.
He awkwardly swallowed his mouthful of cookie and then answered. “Uh, second year, actually.”
“S—second year?” Fumiko replied, blinking in surprise and speaking a bit more loudly than she likely meant. “Oh my… well, I am relieved to know you were able to move on quickly then, No-cha—”
The woman froze, realising what she’d said and covering her mouth. Her eyes were filled with panic as she began to turn pale.
Nodoka looked similarly surprised, though quite thoroughly confused on top of it. “No-chan? Apart from… the only other one to call me that was…”
She then said a name. A name that made Fumiko wince, as if she’d died a little hearing it.
While Kasumi had been prepared, Nabiki’s sharp eye having briefed her on the possibility, it seemed neither Ranma nor Nodoka were quite putting the pieces together. (In Ranma’s case, perhaps because he was more here to nibble on cookies and show vague interest in his mother’s behaviour than any actual investment in the conversation.)
“It’s… it is Fumiko now,” came the soft reply after the silence had lingered.
“Pardon?” Nodoka replied, genuinely thrown.
“I had it changed. My name is now Fumiko.”
Ranma nodded, “Makes sense. Yer parents were jerks, givin’ their daughter that other name.”
It was then Fumiko’s turn to be confused, staring at Ranma. Kasumi found herself mildly mortified by the misunderstandings and attempting to find a way to explain things without being presumptuous.
“They—they did not know they had a daughter,” Fumiko explained. “I had always had the heart of a woman, but…”
“ Ohhh ,” Ranma replied, eyes lighting up. “Yeah, I’ve got a friend, who’s the same.”
“You…” Nodoka began, stumbling briefly with the desire to repeat the name she’d said before, though stopping herself. “You’re a woman now?”
“I was a woman before as well. I was simply in denial and had not yet started hormones,” Fumiko replied, still sounding a little off-kilter.
Right, Kasumi realised, because Ranma had been in girl mode before. Yet Nabiki said they’d all insisted the redhead had been a boy. Fumiko must have expected Nodoka to be more educated on such matters.
For her part, Nodoka looked to be in shock, her eyes studying Fumiko closely for a few long moments. Her attention then drifted towards Ranma, before returning to Fumiko.
“A woman… I was in a relationship with… slept with a woman…”
After a pause she clearly spent trying to determine the best response, Fumiko turned, dropping into a prostrating bow upon the floor. “I apologise for having misled you. My… my love had been genuine, and I had hoped at the time it would give me the strength to live as a man for your sake… but it was an impossible goal. And I… I had no idea how to confess at the time. Self-hatred and doubt had left me terrified you would not be accepting of such things.”
It seemed to still be slightly too much for Nodoka, her lips tracing out the beginnings of words but each idea dying before it became a fully formed sentence.
“Dang. I never thought ma woulda been in a lesbian relationship… even if she didn’t know it,” Ranma half muttered, before grabbing a cookie.
“And I,” Nodoka started, her eyes going wide and drifting off into empty space, “never would have thought Ranma’s biological father would turn out to be a woman.”
At that, both Fumiko and Ranma began coughing, the former in simple surprise while the latter had swallowed his cookie early and now needed some help clearing his windpipe. A few panicked smacks from Kasumi and Fumiko and he was breathing again.
The panic overcame, both Fumiko and Ranma turned towards Nodoka.
“Biological father?” they asked in unison, though Ranma stumbled slightly on ‘biological’ and Fumiko on ‘father’.
“Or… not father, I suppose?” Nodoka said, understandably a bit confused. “Mother? Oh… but that seems confusing, having two mothers… neither a ‘step’ one…”
Fumiko let out a squeak of surprise and panic. “I—Mother… I am a… no. I am not worthy. I have not… I wish I had—I wish I could be worthy of the word, but… I didn’t—there’s so many things specific to a mother…”
The whole thing seemed to be overwhelming her emotionally. Which Kasumi supposed made sense, it was a heavily loaded concept on matters of gender. She herself had made the mistake of bringing the matter up vaguely with Konatsu one time and the ninja girl had reacted quite strongly. At the time she’d believed that was simply Konatsu’s personality, but it seemed it affected other women like her as well.
“An adoptive mother is still a mother, is she not?” Kasumi offered.
Fumiko blinked before turning to Kasumi, a mixture of guilt and hope in her eyes.
“I—can we go back ta the—well, where does pops fit inta all this?” Ranma asked.
“ ‘Pops’ ?” Fumiko added.
“Saotome Genma,” Nodoka explained. “My—the man who married me, knowing I was pregnant but still ready to take me in. As well as the man who trained Ranma as a martial artist.”
“When you were…” Fumiko said in a soft voice.
“I had waited too long… I had thought you would come back… Fumiko… I wasn’t able to accept it, and then it was too late to do anything about the pregnancy. My parents were furious… but then Genma came along, ready to marry me either way.”
Fumiko’s lips quivered, before tears began to flow down her cheeks. She began repeating apologies, Ranma awkwardly attempting to comfort her. Nodoka then moved around the table, taking Fumiko’s hand.
“You shouldn’t be comforting me… I should be comforting you… I abandoned you… I left you pregnant… I was only thinking of myself,” she managed through the sobs.
To her obvious surprise, Nodoka pulled her closer, allowing Fumiko to sob into her chest. “I have had time to process what happened. I had made peace with what I had thought happened, and have learned today you had a far more understandable reason to leave than I had thought. So, I have gained a reason to forgive you today, while you have learned things were more complicated than you had thought.”
“Still,” came Fumiko’s muffled and sobbed reply.
“Besides, knowing that we were both women suffering means we have the bond of womanhood,” Nodoka added.
A bit of logic Kasumi wasn’t quite certain she agreed with or disagreed with. On one level it made sense, but, on another, she felt certain there were men who would deserve similar forms of compassion… probably?
Like Ranma, she supposed. Who was sitting there looking deeply confused how to process all of this. He gave Kasumi a questioning glance, but she was uncertain how to reply to it.
“Um… not ta make this all ‘bout ‘me’ and whatnot, but… this, uh, this means I don’t technically have a dad, then?” he asked, sitting awkwardly in one of his ‘project masculinity’ poses he did from time to time.
“Ranma, dear, do not be silly. You have Genma, your—well, your step father,” Nodoka replied, still holding Fumiko even as the other woman seemed also concerned about what this all meant for Ranma.
For the son she’d suddenly found out she had.
“Right. How long’s that gonna last? You and pops’ve been livin’ in the same house fer a couple months now and barely held a conversation. Fu—uh… other ma’s been here for fifteen minutes and you’re basically declarin’ yer love for her,” Ranma replied.
At the phrase ‘other ma’ Fumiko had lit up, looking practically ready to break into happy giggles. It was, in Kasumi’s opinion, somewhat adorable. It also reminded her of how both Ranma and Konatsu sometimes acted when included in feminine matters. Like they had been hit with a flush of euphoria.
“Sweetie, that,” Nodoka began, before her eyes drifted over to Fumiko, who was still glowing with happiness. A blush then spread across Nodoka’s cheeks. “Oh… oh my. I… well, I… Kasumi-kun, Ranma… may Fumiko and I have some time alone to discuss certain matters?”
“Uhh… sure,” Ranma replied.
“Of course,” Kasumi added with a smile.
After they left—well, his mums alone in the living room, Ranma had told Kasumi he wanted to go work out a bit in the dojo. It was only half a lie. He did want to distract himself with exercise, but he knew it wouldn’t happen.
His whole life had just been thrown sideways. Or… at least the gender part of it.
Sitting in the dojo, staring at the Iroha upon the wall, Ranma had to wonder what the fundamentals were on that front now. It changed everything, didn’t it? Because… because now he had a parent who was an obvious reminder that being a woman was an actual possibility. Not just a guilt inducing mistake on the days where Akane seemed to want her to be one.
And he didn’t technically have any male genes in himself at all then, did he? Could two women together actually lead to a son?
Returning from their expedition to putter around town and escape Kasumi’s cleaning campaign, Genma and Soun had both agreed they deserved a beer after all their hard work (avoiding hard work). Sure, perhaps they weren’t leading the most honourable of lives these days, but Genma had tried. Despite his family and their master.
And look where it had gotten him. A loveless marriage with a woman who’d never seemed to get over her broken heart. And a son who surely could only come to love the man who raised him less if the severing truth ever came out.
Ok, so, sure, some of that had been driven by lapses of judgement Genma had made while raising the boy, but… no one was perfect. He’d always had the best intentions for Ranma, even if the outcomes had been mixed.
To Genma’s surprise, throwing him from his glum thoughts, he noticed an extra pair of shoes in the genkan. Nabiki had apparently come home, though it seemed Akane was still out… the extra shoes were clearly too large to be Akane’s, but were definitely a woman’s. He’d been hoping to avoid the awkwardness of having to talk to one of Nodoka’s old friends he knew nothing about.
Slightly apprehensive, he followed Soun towards the living room, where he found his wife waiting, sitting beside a woman he didn’t know. Kasumi and Nabiki were sitting in a corner of the room, whispering between themselves.
They did not hold his attention, however. His eyes were focused on his estranged wife, somehow still as beautiful as the day he’d met her. An embodiment of feminine perfection.
Though, the woman beside her… where Nodoka’s features were a softly domestic, those of a perfect working class wife, this other woman had a face that seemed sharper and more refined. A noblewoman’s face, in Genma’s mind.
“Husband,” Nodoka said, her voice cold and formal (not that that was anything new). “Genma.”
“Uh… yes, dear?” Genma offered, a bit unsure where he stood at the moment.
Nodoka then leaned forward, her forehead against the tatami floor. “I wish to apologise. I—I led you into our marriage under false pretenses, and in doing so took advantage of your kindness.”
“No-chan, that is a bit harsh on yourself,” the other woman said.
“What… what false pretenses?” Genma asked, sitting down near the doorway, not quite certain if this was about to all go even more sideways and somehow end with him needing to run away.
“I… am a lesbian,” Nodoka replied.
A cricket chirped outside as Genma attempted to process that. It, well, it just didn’t make much sense with what he knew of his wife. His brain couldn’t accept it.
“You spent years pining over that scu—the man that left you alone and pregnant. Surely anyone that hung up on a man isn’t a lesbian?” he said, a bit annoyed that he couldn’t point to any signs of her caring about him to disprove it, after all the effort he’d put in to do right by her… perhaps assuming love was an inevitable response to kindness had been naive, but all the same…
“That is true, I was hung up… but, I learned today that I was not hung up on a man,” Nodoka replied.
Genma blinked, but, before he could reply, the elegant woman seated beside Nodoka slipped into a deep bow.
“Nodoka has shown great kindness in forgiving me for my past actions, but I must also beg your forgiveness and give my thanks for your efforts in raising my son where I was absent.”
Another moment of silence floated past as Genma found himself lost by the latest turn in the conversation. A woman couldn’t get another woman pregnant? And how could Nodoka have mistakenly believed she was engaged to a man if she’d gotten to the point were a pregnancy could happen?
Unless…
“You have a Jusenkyo curse?” Genma asked.
“… pardon?” the woman replied.
“I have not yet explained Jusenkyo to her,” Nodoka added.
“Uh… then…” Genma stammered.
“I am—well, the term you are most likely to know is a ‘New Half’.”
“… you? You were… a woman as beautiful as you?” he found himself saying, too shocked to stop himself from boldly complimenting another woman in front of his wife.
In reply, Fumiko blushed slightly, before nodding. “Hormone therapy is a wonderful thing… if a bit tricky to do in this country.”
“And, learning that Fumiko is a woman, I now understand why I fell in love with her and no other man,” Nodoka said. “All the kindness you showed Ranma and myself, husband… it is truly appreciated, but I can now understand why it never bloomed into romance. It was a shortcoming on my end.”
“I…” Genma began, before having to shake his head slightly, clearing his thoughts. He noticed Soun sitting motionless beside him, seemingly in shock, and was glad he wasn’t quite as hopeless as his old friend. Then, he turned his attention to Fumiko. “I… I will say, I spent the last seventeen—almost eighteen years certain that if I ever met the man who broke Nodoka’s heart, I would avenge her. That I would answer a broken heart with broken bones.”
Fumiko turned pale, and he raised a hand to calm her. He’d been trying to assure her he’d cared for Nodoka, not scare the woman.
“Well, it turns out there was no man who broke her heart, so I don’t need to do that. I—I’ll admit I don’t totally get that whole… thing, and I didn’t know people like you could be lesbians, but… you’re definitely a woman. I can’t doubt that. I just have to look at you—and to trust Nodoka,” he explained, not entirely sure where he was going with it. Was he losing by having his wife declare her love for a woman, or winning by finding out his failure to truly win his wife’s heart had been a failure of an impossible task?
He’d come home expecting a beer, not to suddenly have a confusing lesson about how sexuality and all that worked. Now he was sticking his foot in his mouth with a rambling speech in front of two beautiful women.
“That—I… thank you,” Fumiko replied. “And… well, I do wish to clarify that, yes, women such as myself can be lesbians, but I, specifically am—am bisexual.”
Her elegant features were once more coloured with a gentle blush. Genma had to wonder at it, while he saw Nodoka give the woman beside her a slightly confused look.
“Seriously?” Nabiki groaned, reminding everyone she and her sister were present. “I guess we can at least know that Ranma comes by the shy cluelessness honestly, getting it from all three parents—she’s proposing a threesome, you panda.”
The words turned Fumiko downright incandescent. “I—I was proposing no such thing. I understand that Nodoka would have no interest and was merely—that is to say… I merely wanted to get the truth out.”
Nabiki mouthed something to herself, but Genma missed it. He was too busy processing the fact that the woman before him did seem flirtatious. Still… he couldn’t exactly steal the love of Nodoka’s life.
He decided it was best to move the conversation to another topic. “Aherm, well, I do think I need to apologise for having… made mistakes while trying to raise Ranma. I tried my best, but—well, the path of a martial artist can be fraught with peril.”
That got a small nod out of Fumiko, before she asked, “May I clarify as to why you were left to raise Ranma single-handedly? Was No-chan ill, or...”
“Erm, well,” Genma began.
“You see... we...” Nodoka added. “Our marriage was not exactly a functional one. The fights were not good for young Ranma.”
“I, though, had sworn to Nodoka’s parents that I would raise Ranma to the best of my ability. As if he were my own. It was clear I would not be able to do that while living with Nodoka... so I proposed to train Ranma on the road,” Genma explained. “With full determination to make him an heir worthy of the Saotome School.”
“That was... another fight, but, in the end, he convinced me,” Nodoka said. “It was painful to say goodbye to my little boy, but Genma had shown such honourable determination, agreeing to raise another—another’s son.”
“And then he made that stupid seppuku pledge ta prove his determination,” Ranma muttered, walking in from the yard.
“I—yes. I did,” Genma replied, feeling the heat of Ranma’s glare.
Did that glare mean any bond between father and son had been severed between them? It certainly seemed fierce enough for that to be the case.
“Seppuku?” Fumiko asked with a small squeak.
“Yes, that I would…” Genma began to say, before he looked at her again and had some part of the back of his brain remember her history. How being a man had apparently been impossible for her... and how Ranma was her child. “A promise that might have been impossible.”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Ranma shouted, marching over and yanking on Genma’s gi collar.
“Well, considering you technically only have two women for biological parents, trying to force you into a mold of masculinity might have been a mistake,” Genma explained.
“Oh my, yes,” Nodoka added, with a small nod. “It really is not just a gradient from disgraceful man to outstanding man… it had not occurred to me that ‘woman’ could also be an outcome. An honourable one, even.”
Ranma turned, looking at his mother with a somewhat pained expression, before shifting his footing to throw Genma into the yard. Genma heard a shout of frustration from his (adoptive) son/student, and then found himself landing with a splash in the koi pond.
Akane arrived home to the sound of a scream. A somewhat deeper voiced scream, but it still seemed that of a woman. Slightly concerned, Akane hurried towards the source, finding auntie Nodoka’s friend was visiting and apparently in a slight state of shock over the panda climbing out of the koi pond. Nodoka, Ranma, and Kasumi were all trying to explain it was a Jusenkyo curse, and Akane decided she could help out. It was all a bit confused and did not seem to be getting through very well. So, Akane decided she could help.
“Mhm, Ranma has a curse too,” she said, before popping the lid of her water bottle to give Ranma a small squirt.
Her fiancé(e) shrank with the splash, taking on a female form. Akane had thought that would be easier for someone to process, since the change was so much less dramatic. It did not seem to be the case this time, however. Fumiko stared at Ranma for a moment and then fainted.
“Oh. I suppose that would have a dramatic effect on her,” Kasumi said softly.