Disclaimer

I don’t own any of the characters herein.

Genesis

Chapter Two

June 1st, 2011

"Hi, honey, I’m home."

No matter how many times she heard it, Akane couldn’t help but grin at Ranma’s now-traditional greeting. He’d picked it up from an American when he was learning English. She set the pot down on the stove, turned the heat to minimum, and walked out of the kitchen.

"Dinner is almost ready. How did it go?"

"Not bad, actually." He shrugged. "I won’t know the results for a few days, but the dissertation hearing went well enough. Nobody looked overly hostile or belligerent."

"That’s good."

"Is Ami home yet?"

"No." Akane shook her head. "She was going to stop over at Misaki’s on the way back from school."

"Good." Ranma swept her up in his arms.

"Oh, no!" she laughed. "Put me down, you pervert! Dinner’s gonna burn if I don’t--"

"Oh, all right." He mock pouted, and set her back down. "Can’t have you ruining dinner."

She giggled, and walked back to the kitchen. "It’s nothing fancy, but--"

"Don’t worry about it." He waved it off. "Frankly, I’m still amazed that you learned to cook at all."

"Yeah, me too." She stirred the pot, and checked the rice steamer. "So now comes the hard part, eh? The waiting."

"No, the hard part was understanding thermodynamics in the first place." Ranma collapsed into his chair.

- - -

January 1st, 2004

"Frankly, Mr. Saotome, I am rather surprised by your decision to pursue this course." The Dean glanced through his records. "Your education prior to 2000 was hit-or-miss, and consistently bad grades. Then in 2000, you re-enrolled in high school, at first year, and paid your own way through. And scored in the top two percent all three years." He looked up at the young man opposite him. "Why?"

Ranma considered his answer carefully. "I think I’d need to tell you a lot about how I was raised, Sensei."

"We do have some time, but not an unlimited amount. Perhaps you can abridge it slightly?"

"For the first twenty years of my life, I was trained in martial arts, and nothing else. My Sensei--" Even now, he refused to think of Genma as his father. "--felt that everything else would be at most a distraction from the Art. Finally, he told me one lie too many, and I decided to leave the Art."

"Just like that?"

"Well..." He looked down. "It was an impulse decision, I will admit, but for at least a year prior to that, I’d realized that I was wasting my time." He sighed. "I was the best martial artist in the world. That’s not just a boast; I’d defeated people of stunning power level in single combat. But aside from fighting duels, I realized that there wasn’t a lot I could do with the Art."

"You could have become a Master of your school, and trained others in the Art."

He chuckled. "I don’t really have the right temperament to be a good teacher. And I lack the...personal skills. I was already thinking of upgrading my education, so that I could do something more worthwhile with the Art."

"That explains that part of it, but now you’ve caused me to have another question. In what way does your proposed course load take advantage of your martial arts training?"

"Mechanical engineering is subject to physical limits, same as the human body. As a proper understanding of the human body allows you to push the limits of the body’s performance, so does understanding of a mechanical process allow you to push the limits of a machine’s performance."

"But a machine is not a human body."

"I understand that." Ranma nodded. "However, the processes of testing the limits can be remarkably similar. Plus, any martial artist learns a surprising amount about physics and geometry. It’s just that they learn it only on the instinctive level."

"I can see your point." The Dean nodded.

- - -

"Curry. Love your curry." He spooned some onto a slice of toast, and took a big bite.

"Used to be, you’d run in fear whenever I went near a kitchen."

He waved a hand. "Hey, anyone can learn. I’m living proof of that."

The door opened, and Saotome Ami ran in. "Hi Mom, hi Dad!" She gave her mother a quick hug on the way by, and dropped into her chair. "Misaki and I have our science project ready, and we’re gonna win for sure."

Akane narrowed her eyes. "And how much help did your father give you?"

"None!" Ranma raised his hands. "You know me better than that!"

"Yes, I do. I know that you’re a big softie who can’t deny his daughter anything."

"Yeah, but you know that I’d rather have her succeed on her own merits, as long as the challenge is within her scope."

Her eyes softened. "Yeah. If you had to learn anything from the old Panda, at least it was that."

"Besides," giggled Ami. "I knew he’d be hanging over my shoulder, offering suggestions, so we did it all at Misaki’s place."

- - - - -

His part-time job normally scheduled him around classes, but as he was all but finished, he was at home on a Monday morning. He hadn’t entirely abandoned the Art, but his practice sessions were down to a mere two hours per day. He was most of the way through a monster 324-move kata when the telephone rang.

Normally, he would have just let it ring, but there was nothing normal about this week. He stopped the kata, and sprang for the phone.

"Saotome residence."

- - - - -

"Thank you, come again!" Akane closed the till, and checked her watch. "Hey, Maya. Ranma will be here in five minutes."

"Okay." The bookstore’s owner nodded. "I’ll have these on the shelf by then, and I can take over for you."

"Thanks, boss."

Working in the bookstore wasn’t exactly her dream job, but it was paying the bills, and at least she was surrounded by fine literature. Well, and low-quality manga, because it sold.

Maya finished stacking said manga on the shelves, and stood up and stretched. "All right. Lemme grab a coffee, and I’ll relieve you." She walked back towards the back of the store.

Akane glanced up the length of the mall. The bookstore was in prime real estate, right at the point of the corner, where two corridors met, and she could see over half the mall from here. But the food court was just around the second corner, and she could only see half of it...Ranma could already be there.

Not that it really mattered; her break schedule wasn’t cast in stone, but Ranma had nothing but time until he got the word on his dissertation.

Maya returned, a hot cup of coffee in hand. "Okay, I have the till. Say hi to Ranma for me."

"Okay. Back in thirty." She turned and ran down the corridor towards the food court.

Ranma wasn’t at the food court. She was a bit puzzled; he hadn’t missed a lunch with her in over a year. She was just about to start searching elsewhere when she heard his voice.

"...don’t care why, old man. Just get lost. I told you years ago, you were dead to me."

"Ranma, you’ve been wasting your life here."

Genma.

"It’s time for you to accept the truth and pursue your destiny."

"Destiny? Where the hell did that come from?"

She started towards the two. She hoped she’d be able to keep her temper in check. If not...well, it had been nearly three years since she last really blew her stack.

"I told you. Nearly ten years ago. Took me that long to track you down; I’d gotten a hint that you two had gone to Hokkaido, and spent a long time searching the island."

"I know. That’s what I told Nabiki to tell you."

"Dammit, Ranma--"

Ranma poked a finger at his father. "That’s Doctor Saotome to you."

Akane stopped dead in her tracks. "They accepted it!"

"Huh?" He glanced over. "Oh, hi, Akane. Yeah, I just got the call about an hour ago. I’ve officially earned my doctorate."

"Wow!"

"I know." He chuckled, and walked towards her. "Food court’s okay for now, but you, me and Ami will have a proper night out tonight to celebrate. Let’s go eat."

"What about--"

"Don’t worry about it." Ranma didn’t glance back. "Just some old guy I don’t know any more."