Chapter Text
“It’s finally time…I really hope this works out.” Soun looked at the postcard in his hand, familiar writing scribbled across the back. He sniffled and wiped his moist eyes. “I must get the girls.” Standing up from the table, he quickly opened the sliding door and took a deep breath.
“Kasumi! Nabiki! Akane! I need the three of you down here!”
Soun waited for a couple of seconds but not one of his daughters had responded or appeared. Sighing, he slipped on his house shoes and closed the slide door behind him. “I guess I’ll come to you then. Jeez, this is what I get for being so lax with these girls.”
Kasumi stirred the pot and lifted the ladle up to smell the roux. The seasonings were just right. The beef perfectly cooked, vegetables tender but still with a some bite, even the honey she had drizzled in melded with the richness of the curry.
Kasumi smiled. “Perfect,” she muttered as she separated her own portion into a smaller pot on another burner. Placing a lid on the family pot, she reached into the fridge and extracted two jars. One was full to the brim of pickled vegetables, her ‘anything goes’ fukujinzuke. The other was pickled ghost peppers. “Ooh, I need to make sure there’s enough rice,” she muttered as she placed the jars on the counter beside her. While her portion of curry slowly came to a simmer, she gathered some more spices and added them in gently. The ratios were important when it came to spice. What good was the heat if it didn’t taste good?
“Kasumi?” Her father’s voice came from the hallway behind her and grabbed her attention. She’d heard him saying something earlier but it must’ve been something for him to come directly to her for once.
“Don’t worry dad, food is almost done.” Kasumi cut the burners off and walked over to the rice cooker.
“Oh…well that’s good, but it’s not what I came to you for. I actually need to talk to you girls about something. When you can, come to the family room? I’ll get the other two and meet you there.”
Kasumi wondered what was up with her father. He wasn’t usually this serious. “Yeah sure…is everything okay?” She checked the rice cooker and fluffed the rice a little bit.
“Yeah, things are fine! Oh by the way, we’re gonna have some guests over tonight. An old friend of mine and his kid. I’ll explain once we’re all together.”
As her father left, Kasumi sighed and shut the rice cooker. “I guess I’ll have to get more rice…” She looked behind her and Soun was gone.
Soun knocked on Nabiki’s door, wondering if his daughter could even hear him. “Nabiki? Are you home?” He twisted the door knob but it wouldn’t budge. His eyes widened. How long had she been locking her door? He knocked harder this time, hoping it would get his middle child’s attention. “Nabiki!”
The door swung open so quickly, his fist slammed straight into his daughter’s forehead. The two of them stood still for a moment, until Nabiki threw herself to the ground with such force that her headphones flew off her head and she started bawling.
“Da~d! That’s child abuse! You can’t just hit me because I didn’t hear you! I’m so sorry for being such a neglectful child! Please don’t hurt me!”
Soun backed away immediately. “Wait! Nabi, no I-…It was an accident!”
Nabiki was crumpled on the floor of her room, sobbing and sniffling. “I’m sorry I’m such an awful daughter, you resort to violence! I know you’re an old school martial artist but I’m not build like you or Akane!”
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry I hit you!” Soun gingerly walked over to his daughter. His hands hovered above her shoulder, wondering if she would recoil from him. “Are you okay?”
Between sniffles, she managed to squeak out, “Maybe, I, think…”
This was the last thing Soun needed. “Look, Nabi I’m sorry about this but I need you and your sisters to come downstairs…there’s something important I need to tell you all.”
Nabiki shot up. Her eyes were completely dry and laser focused. She grabbed her father’s face with such strength that he winced.
“Oh my god did it happen?”
His face was contorted from the pressure but he had to ask. “Did what happen?”
Nabiki scoffed and tossed her father aside with ease, moving back to her gaming chair. “Are we finally broke? Do we need to sell the house? I know it’s a little beat up but I think I can come up with a good enough marketing campaign, maybe we can get at least double what it’s worth right now…”
She continued muttering random words and typing away on her keyboard. Soun sat up and grabbed her headphones. “Nabiki, we’re not broke,” he said laughing. “But you might want to be careful with these.”
“Oh, okay, good.” Nabiki spun around and grabbed the headphones from her father and placed them on the stand next to her monitor. “So what is it?”
“Well it’s a long story, but I need all three of you to meet me in the family room. Do you know if Akane is back from school yet?”
Nabiki shook her head. “No idea. I’ve been in here all day.”
Her father’s eyebrows shot up. “All day?”
Nabiki’s expression faltered for a second. “Yeah, you know my class is doing online lessons this semester right? Didn’t Akane tell you?”
Soun kept eye contact until his daughter sighed.
“Okay, okay, I skipped today but I wasn’t lying about the online classes. My homeroom teacher wants us to reduce paper waste and get the class used to working digitally. We have online lessons four times a month. That’s why I got the computer.”
“Doesn’t your school provide one?” Soun crossed his arms over his massive chest. “I’m pretty sure Akane has one as well.”
Nabiki broke out into laughter. “That!? My phone can do more than that thing! Dad you really don’t know much about technology do you?”
She was right about that. He cleared his throat, “I will talk to you about this later. Go get Akane and meet me downstairs.”
“But dad I-”
Nabiki’s please fell on deaf ears. She grumbled something to herself again as she stormed out of the room and slammed the door. Soun sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
“How did I not know she was at home all day?”
Nabiki huffed and puffed downstairs to the kitchen. “Sis have you seen Akane? I don’t know if she’s back from school yet and dad’s being weird.” The room was empty, despite the warmth and smells. “Oh, I guess she’s not here.”
She walked in and saw a note next to the stove. Nabiki picked it up and saw her older sister’s handwriting.
‘Headed to the store. I’ll be back before dad’s meeting. Nabi if you’re reading this, please check the curry. Akane if you’re reading this, get Nabi to check the curry.’
Nabiki crumpled the note in her hands. She saw the two pots on the stove. One was smaller, probably Kasumi’s portion from hell. She gingerly lifted the lid and took the tiniest whiff.
“Oh, god!” She dropped the lid back down and fell over backwards. Nabiki was gasping for air as she crawled to the fridge and cracked it open. She grabbed a bottle of water and downed the whole thing before crumbling it in her fist. Slamming the fridge door she stared, wide eye-ed at the smaller pot of curry. “What is that woman’s stomach made of?”
Nabiki kept her distance from the smaller pot as she circled around to the other one and lifted the lid. It smelled…normal. She dipped a finger in and tasted it. “Hmm…” it was perfect. “Well at least she stopped cooking for everyone with her own tastes.”
Just as she was about to leave the kitchen, Nabi paused and clenched her fist. The poor bottle in her hand crumpled even further. “WAIT WHY DID SHE WANT ME TO TRY THE CURRY?”
Fuming at the ears, she stomped around the corner to the hallway connecting the main house and the dojo. She had to find Akane and that was the only place she could think to look.
Akane closed her eyes and turned her senses inward. The feeling of the humid air. It had just rained so the moisture made everything a little sticky. The thick but cool fabric of the gi on her skin. Each breath was measured and paced. She felt her heart beat slowly settling from her cardio earlier.
Deep breath in, and out. Akane was focused. She opened her eyes and pushed her palm straight down. First her palm met with the cold stone. She felt the texture grind against her callouses and pulled her hand back to her waist.
“HA-!”
Her hand shot down and through the concrete sending bits of it flying all over the dojo floor. The sting in her palm was light but satisfying. Akane had spent months working on stacking her joints. It gave her more destructive force while reducing pressure on her own body. Fighting was mutually destructive so minimizing damage to yourself was crucial.
“Nice! Do you mind if I post that clip?”
“Nabi!” Akane gasped. How did her sister get the jump on her? “How long have you been there? And no! You can’t just put me on the internet for your creepy ass followers!!”
Nabiki’s laugh rang through the empty dojo. “Akane you’re hilarious. It was just a video, I’m not streaming right now. I like to document things for memories too sometimes.”
“Whatever,” Akane grumbled. Any sense of peace or satisfaction she’d felt was gone. “What do you want?”
“Now that I think about it, I’m sure there’s guys out there who are into ‘a dangerous girl’. If you just let me stream one training session we might just get a bunch of followers, or even clients!”
“Oh my god, what do you want?” Akane asked quickly. “I don’t have time for you right now and I don’t care about guys!”
Akane turned away from her sister and started gathering the pieces of concrete on the floor. Nabiki was always like this which Akane just didn’t understand. She had to adjust her training schedule since school had started again.
“Well, I came to get you cus dad wanted to tell us something. Though since you’re so antisocial and hate everyone, maybe you might wanna sit this one out.”
“Ugh,” Akane groaned. “Fine, I’ll be there, just let me change.”
“Alright stinky!” Nabiki said as she turned away. She stopped at the edge of the room for a moment. “Are you sure I can't post that clip?”
“Nabi! NO!” Akane screamed and threw a rock at her sister. Nabiki dodged it and winked at her baby sis. With that, she left Akane alone in the dojo and walked back to the main building. Akane gripped her gi with trembling fists. Why was she so annoying?
Wasn't there a single normal person in the whole family? She turned around and looked at the rubble all over floor. She’d put a mat down but there was still dust and rocks on the aged wood. The sense of achievement was small but it was still there. Under all of her swirling emotions, she guarded that little light. No matter what happened, Akane knew she was the best martial artist the family had ever seen.
Soun Tendo looked at his daughters across the table from him. Just outside the rain had started up again. The pitter patter agains the roof and into the pond in the garden were so serene. Somehow, he’d managed to raise these girls to this day. Soun wiped a tear from his eye and looked back down at the postcard from his friend. He tossed it onto the table and the girls looked quizzically at the picture of a panda.
“Today, one of you will find your husband.”
All three of the sisters started talking at once.
“WHAT!?” Akane screamed and stood up.
“Are you selling us?” Nabiki said, picking up the post card on the table.
“Dad, what is going on?” Kasumi looked concerned.
“What do you mean husband? We’re still children!” Akane crashed back down and looked at her older siblings. “Nabi! Kasu! What is happening?”
“I think our father is realizing how much we can go for on the deep web,” Nabiki held her sister’s head on her shoulder, stroking her hair. “I just hope I sell for the highest price.”
“Stop it you two,” Kasumi said. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m sure dad can explain what’s going on.”
Kasumi turned to her father with an eyebrow raised. “Dad, I know I’m 19 and technically an adult, but I hope you’re not trying to get rid of me.”
Soun gasped, appalled at the thoughts of his daughters. “Now now now, everyone calm down. I realize the idea of marriage can be quite scary for you girls, so please let me explain.”
He stood up and walked to the edge of the room, taking in the serene garden. “A long time ago, I made a promise to my friend. We were both students of ‘anything goes’ and with the burden of parenthood we had to put some things on hold.”
Turning back to his daughters he smiled. “We promised to marry our children to carry on the school and lineage.”
Akane stared at her father in shock. Nabiki’s eyes were wide as well. Kasumi seemed to be the only one with no visible reaction.
“Now, when I say that I don’t mean you are going to get married today. It’s just an engagement of mutual benefit.”
“I would definitely like a say in who I marry dad,” Akane was the first to speak up.
“Well, I could shift to couples content. It would push some of my followers away but it could mean more new and fresh viewers.” Nabiki was already scheming. “Well if he’s your friend’s son, it can’t be too bad I guess. How old is he?”
Soun turned back to the garden and chuckled. “Well you see…I have no idea.”
“Dad!” Kasumi was annoyed for once, which shocked the other two. “What do you mean you have no idea?”
Akane spoke up as well, fueled by Kasumi’s reluctance. “Yeah, it really does feel like you’re trying to sell us off.”
Soun spun around sending his long hair whipping into his face. “I just got a postcard saying that Genma and his son Ranma are coming to Tokyo from China! They’ll be here soon so you’ll get to meet them in person!”
“So they’re returning from China after their training and now it’s time for this engagement? I feel like this is a bit rushed don’t you think?” Akane looked from her father to her sisters. This had to be a joke.
“Nonsense!” Soun said, plopping down in front of his daughters. “The thing is, once the engagement is settled on, we can then take all the time we need! Planning a wedding, deciding on how to move the dojo into the future, this is just the beginning!”
Just then, there was a large crash from somewhere on the premises. Akane stood up, staring at the hallway into the house. Suddenly screaming and heavy thudding footsteps emerged from the silence. The thumps were getting closer to the room and with each step everyone grew tense. Soun got to his feet in a flash and crept to the hall. Somehow, he resembled a competent martial artist.
Just as he peered around the corner and disappeared, the girls heard a scream. They all jumped up and headed out of the room only to see their father running from a large, sopping wet panda.
The panda followed Soun down the hallway until he stopped in front of his daughters. All four of them watched as the animal strolled up to them and suddenly placed someone down in front of them.
“Uhm, dad?” Akane asked quietly. “Are…these your friends?”
Soun shook his head in shock. He looked at the panda and then down at the child. The panda reached out and pushed the child towards them.
“I’m sorry about the mess,” they spoke up. “My name is Saotome Ranma.”
Soun looked at the child and sighed. “Oh wow, it’s so good to see you Ranma. Where’s your father?”
Nabiki quickly stepped in front of her family. “Ranma?…” She turned around to face Soun. “Dad, you said Ranma was a boy. This is a girl.”
“Wait…No, wait…” Soun’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slumped to the ground.