Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Chained World: The Fall of the House of Kuno ❯ Making Plans ( Chapter 3 )

This was originally published by me under the name Anduril at Anime Addventures, with the only changes being a few corrections in spelling, punctuation and the occasional word choice. If you like the beginning of my story but think I've gone off the rails, or have your own ideas for a great branch-off, or think I'm taking too long to update and want to continue the story yourself, come to Anime Addventures and join in the fun!

I claim no ownership rights to any of the works of Rumiko Takahashi.

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In the kitchen of possibly the most popular hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Nerima district, the Cat Café (though a certain okonomiyaki chef might dispute the claim), a small, wrinkled, old, white-haired Chinese woman bounced around from stove to counter to shelves, preparing for the morning rush. With all the energy she was putting into her labors, a casual spectator would never have known that she was badly distracted and going through the motions as her mind focused on a black-haired, pigtailed boy. The news of what was happening with the Tendos wasn't yet widely known, but in restaurants customers talk, and a certain purple-haired beauty's broken Japanese covered a level of comprehension and sharp mind few people recognized. So the Chinese Amazons that owned and staffed the Cat Café knew what had happened and in the kitchen Ku Lon was pondering, and dreading, the probable results when Ranma returned and learned of the foreclosure and Soun's death.

Suddenly the sound of someone hammering on the café's front door jolted the Amazon elder from her thoughts. Pausing, Ku Lon listened and nodded in satisfaction as she heard one of her assistants approaching the door. “Honored customer, café is not yet open,” she heard her heir say in the soft, musical voice that charmed customers and brought the tips rolling in (the former war -leader carefully ignored the part played by her heir's skimpy, tight-fitting clothing). “Please come back in one hour, and we give you special treat.”

“Shampoo, it's Ranma,” returned the voice of the boy Ku Lon had just been obsessing about. “I need ta talk ta the ol' ghoul, an' it can't wait.”

Ku Lon briefly closed her eyes with a sigh, as Xian Pu, worry carefully hidden as befitted an elder and war-leader in training, appeared in the doorway. “Great-grandmother, Ranma —”

“I heard, child. Let him in, I will be out momentarily. Have Mu Tse put up the `closed for emergency until further notice' sign, there's no telling how long this will take.”

“Yes, great-grandmother,” Xian Pu replied and vanished back into the dining room yelling for “stupid Mousse” while Ku Lon started turning off all the burners on the stove.

 

“So I got a plan,” Ranma finished from where he sat across from possibly his primary arch-nemesis, her purple-haired heir seated on one side of her and Xian Pu's love-besotted would-be husband Mu Tse, on the other, “but I need yer help.”

Ku Lon leaned forward and gazed speculatively at the pigtailed boy. “I must say I am surprised to find you here, son-in-law,” she said musingly. “I would have thought that with such a tale you would be charging into the Kuno estate seeking that delusional idiot's head.”

“Yeah, that's what I started ta do,” Ranma responded, “but on the way there a thought occurred ta me — what happens after I kill him? It's not like the debt just disappears.”

“A good thought,” Ku Lon said approvingly. Finally, the boy is beginning to think! “And what happens then?”

“It'd depend on Kodachi,” Ranma said. “If she really thinks that I'm in love with her and stickin' with Akane out a' honor, then nothin' changes fer the Tendos except the offer fer a way out switches ta me marrying Kodachi, instead. If she really knows I l-l-l-like Akane” — beside Ku Lon, Xian Pu flinched slightly — “then the demand probably includes her moving away, too.”

“And this is not an improvement?” the Amazon elder questioned, and Ranma gave a sharp, bitter bark of laughter.

“Yeah, it looks like it oughta be, right? The problem is, while Kuno's a delusional idiot, at least he has a sense of honor. Kodachi, though, she'd probably insist I marry her first, and what if she decides the debt would make a good hold, just in case? We'd never get out from under.”

“So challenge the delusional fool!” Mu Tse asserted. “Offer him his `pigtailed goddess' if you lose and forgiveness of the Tendo debt and abandonment of his pursuit of Akane if you win.”

Ranma laughed again, more light-heartedly this time, shaking his head at Mu Tse. “Maybe Shampoo ought ta try that with ya, see how well it works! No, he'd just refuse ta admit I beat him — the only way that'll change is if I kill him an' let him talk it over with Kami-sama, an' then we're back ta Kodachi.”

“Airen bring Tendo girls to China, to Village,” Xian Pu burst out, “then Tendos safe, Shampoo have Airen, all is good!”

Ku Lon stiffened. Here it comes, she thought as she watched Ranma. I'll have to tell him `no', and Xian Pu will be a long time forgiving me. But Ranma just sat and gazed at Xian Pu. Then, when she began to squirm, finally Ranma answered simply, “No,” and aged matriarch stared at him in shock.

“But why Airen no do this?” the purple-haired girl demanded incredulously, and Ranma shrugged.

“ `Cause if yer village elders are smart they'd throw us out, and if they didn't it wouldn't be safe. Kuno may only be a lord, but thanks to the Hawaii plantations he's one a' the richest lords in the Empire. He'd have no problem hirin' a small army ta come after us, and the Joketsuzoku ain't that far inta China. And the Chinese don't have anything on the border ta stop him. Why should they? The area's so out a' the way, not even smugglers use it — the only reason the Shogun hasn't snatched it up is he doesn't want it. No, Kuno'd just keep throwin' people at us `til he won, or he weakened the village to the point the Musk finish the job for him. The Tendos could end up hoping that he wins, or surrender to his men — it'd probably be better than what the Musk would do ta them.

“And that's assumin' we actually get there, he's got people watching the dojo. Me and pop can lose `em easy, Akane maybe, Nabiki and Kasumi forget it.”

Xian Pu looked entreatingly at her great-grandmother, but Ku Lon nodded. “Well reasoned, son-in-law, when you actually use your mind for things besides fighting you do very well — as things stand the Tendos cannot use the village as a refuge. But there is another option, what of the Underground Railroad that I have heard of, that the Americans run? Could you not seek refuge there? Considering how the American propaganda rails against sexual slavery especially, I would think they would be happy to help you, and the United States is much farther away than China.”

Ranma asked, “Do you know how to contact them?” then chuckled as Ku Lon simply shook her head. “Well, I do.” As the other three stared he shrugged. “Hey, I ain't a part a' the Underground, but I agree with `em on slavery and I've helped them out a time or two.

“Still, it wouldn't work. First, there's the same problem with gettin' the Tendos ta China — not near as bad, but it's there, and the Underground doesn't need that kinda heat, either.

“But even if that weren't true, there's another problem — the reason the Shogun's investigators have never been all that concerned about the Underground Railroad. Ya see, the US is on the other side of an ocean. That means any slaves smuggled ta the US have ta be taken by boat or plane, an' that really cuts down on the number a' escaped slaves that can be taken out. An' that means there's a waiting list. Sure, if I asked the Tendos'd go on the list, but it's a long one, and the only way they'd jump ta the head a' the line is `cause of abuse. From what Nabiki said on how fast they'd get the debt paid off, if they went fer full service they'd probably be free before their names came up.”

Ku Lon smiled and shook her head. “Very well, you've told us all the escapes that won't work, so what will work and what is our part in it?”

Ranma shrugged. “It's simple enough — he's gonna get one a' the slaves he's demanded, just not the one he expects right now.”

The three Amazons stared at him, Mu Tse in confusion, the other two in dawning horror. Stuttering, Xian Pu asked, “A-a-airen not mean become g-girl-type slave of Sword Boy?”

Ranma nodded. “Yep, that's exactly what I mean. I figure if I tell him that if he writes off all the Tendo debt and swears on his honor ta leave Akane alone he'd get his pigtailed girl as a slave an' the `foul sorcerer' disappears, while if he doesn't Akane would probably kill herself before she'd allow him to own her and he'd never see his pigtailed girl again, he'll go along.”

“But Ranma,” Ku Lon protested as Xian Pu curled up in her seat, hiding her face, “Kuno will demand that the slavery be permanent and full service. Besides, sooner or later his delusions will force him to again pursue Akane, whatever oath he swears.”

“True,” Ranma agreed, nodding, “but when that happens I'll be in the perfect position ta deal with him — on the inside a' the Kuno household, with the Tendo debt cleared.”

“And what of the curse?” Mu Tse asked. “Sooner or later hot water will find you, however hard you try to avoid it. What then?”

“I suspect that is why we are having this conversation,” Ku Lon said dryly, “is it not, Ranma?”

Ranma nodded. “One a' the reasons, yeah. I need ta get the curse locked an' figured you'd know how ta do it — an' not the Cat's Tongue, just avoiding hot water won't work. Though it'd be nice if the curse could be unlocked later.”

“Yes,” Ku Lon said thoughtfully, “I can do it. I'll have to go shopping for some unusual ingredients and the preparations will take several days, but it can be done.” — And keep you at least a friend of the Joketsuzoku, if nothing else — “As for unlocking it later — possibly. The curse does not like to be tampered with, and while we have a way to reverse the potion, the effects are ... chancy. Sometimes it works immediately, sometimes not at all, sometimes it waits anywhere from a few days to a few years before unlocking. And sometimes it changes the trigger — makes the water needed hotter, or colder, or not water at all — once, it was an emotional state that activated the curse, and another that reversed it.

“But Ranma, there is something you are forgetting — when Kuno returns to his pursuit of Akane, you will have been Adjusted and unable to attack him.”

“Nah, I didn't forget,” Ranma said, “that's the other reason I'm here. I figure there's a way ta break the Adjustment, but I'll need Shampoo's help.”

Xian Pu raised a tear-streaked face and nodded firmly. “Shampoo do whatever needed. Just tell what.”