Genma fakes their death to escape from debts

[kazenoryu]

Some idea that just occurred to me. I don't know if something like this has been done before.

The basic outline starts by,
either A: Genma and Ranma are considered legally dead after being declared missing by Nodoka because she received no news from them for more than a year.
or B: Genma bits off more that he can chew with some debtor and has to fake their death to escape. Nodoka is notified and called to identify them, but the bodies were beyond recognition.

Either way, Nodoka is heartbroken and seeks out Genma's old friend Soun to inform him of their "deaths". After discussion, Soun feels that it is his duty to take care of his best friend's widow. Nodoka reluctantly agrees as she has no other relatives. Naturally feelings develop as they each mend their hearts.

I was considering a few changes, but now that I think of it a few of them would be too big a difference.

1. Soun's wife died before she was able to give birth to Nabiki and Akane.
2. After Nodoka remarries, they give birth to two daughters.
3. Ranma is born earlier, so he's older than Kasumi.

So from these changes, after Ranma reappears Kasumi is left as the only candidate since the other two daughters are his half sister. Or they may consider the pact fulfilled since the two girls could be seen as products of the schools being "joined".

The reason I'm reconsidering though is because I think it a bit difficult to consider those two daughters as Nabiki and Akane. The age gap would be large between Kasumi and them. If Ranma arrives at the age he did during the manga, then they would be in elementary school. Or if I consider making them the same age as they were in canon, then Kasumi would have moved out of the dojo since she's more than old enough to have done so.

Or maybe I should scrap the first idea altogether and modify the second to just one.

Anyway, I'm having difficulty finding a logical way to implement this idea, so I'm throwing it out to see if either someone grabs it or if some discussion would help me find a way.

[kazenoryu]

Hmm... a dark way of making Nabiki and Akane to be of the same age would be if Nodoka has been cheating on Genma with Soun. That would mean that the pacts is her way of getting rid of Genma, and after having them being declared dead frees her up for remarriage with Soun...

I don't like dark fics though, so meh...

[PCHeintz72]

I don't know if something like this has been done before.

Never seen both together.

I have read stories with Ranma and or Genma faking their deaths for one or more reasons. A few with Genma telling people Ranma stayed with that he was dead so he could sever ties. Even read one where Nodoka buried Genma and made a fake burial for Ranma in her own back yard... (Ranma ended with Shampoo and Ukyo in that particular one).

I think I've seen one with a Kasumi only story, it was a horror story.

I have seen one with the ages made way different, but the opposite direction, with the Tendos much older than the Saotomes.

Main issue with most of the variants I've read has already been mentioned... almost all require Nodoka and or Genma doing something worse than even in canon, and or making the story dark in nature.

[Spica75]

1. Soun's wife died before she was able to give birth to Nabiki and Akane.
2. After Nodoka remarries, they give birth to two daughters.
3. Ranma is born earlier, so he's older than Kasumi.

1 and 3 don´t really add to the story, and 1 as you already noted yourself actually makes it more troublesome to work out.

Or they may consider the pact fulfilled since the two girls could be seen as products of the schools being "joined".

The pact would be fulfilled in fact yes, but i think Genma would howl about it bigtime because he isn´t getting his pension out of it if it happens like that.
Genma would probably make the claim that the new kids are not related to him in any way and thereby the pact remains. It can be made as a technically correct claim so you can have it either way.

The reason I'm reconsidering though is because I think it a bit difficult to consider those two daughters as Nabiki and Akane.

So let Nabiki and Akane exist as originally, and add Soun/Nodoka kids to that. The more the merrier. Well, depending on your definition of "merry" of course.

Perhaps make the added kids a boy/girl set of twins? That could allow Genma to try to push some of Ranma´s fiance´s over to Nodoka´s 2nd son(and obviously he WILL consider himself related to the boy as long as it suits him).

Some idea that just occurred to me. I don't know if something like this has been done before.

Faking their deaths, yup done before, but i cant recall seeing one where that leads to Soun/Nodoka.

Regardless, i think it´s an idea with some potential. Just not sure in what direction.
What are you aiming for? Fun, action, romance...?

[LawOhki]

Is a problematic idea to go through with past a one shot.

Did lead me to thinking of a story where during things in Nerima Genma suddenly panics over something and he convinces Ranma that they have to fake their deaths to get away for awhile while it cools down. Plan succeeds.. a little too well and by the time Ranma gets sick of Genma and decides to return, he finds out that everyone has kind of moved on, and the reason was some trivial thing that Genma blew out of proportion. Like some 1000 yen bill.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Faking their deaths, yup done before, but i cant recall seeing one where that leads to Soun/Nodoka.

I just recently read a story where Genma faked his death early on, and later -- after he died for real (from poison, which wasn't explained, or even mentioned until long after his death was established) -- Ranma found his mother, who was married to Soun and had a child with him, named Sakura. (Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi were also present from his first marriage.) For the life of me, I can't recall the name of the story or find it, though. (I suppose it wasn't good enough to bookmark.) I do distinctly remember that none of the kiddies cared much for Nodoka, and one recurring theme concerned things that ruined what Nodoka wanted (like raising Sakura to be a "proper" lady, as opposed to upholding a martial art family's legacy).

[kazenoryu]

I just recently read a story where Genma faked his death early on, and later -- after he died for real (from poison, which wasn't explained, or even mentioned until long after his death was established) -- Ranma found his mother, who was married to Soun and had a child with him, named Sakura. (Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi were also present from his first marriage.) For the life of me, I can't recall the name of the story or find it, though. (I suppose it wasn't good enough to bookmark.) I do distinctly remember that none of the kiddies cared much for Nodoka, and one recurring theme concerned things that ruined what Nodoka wanted (like raising Sakura to be a "proper" lady, as opposed to upholding a martial art family's legacy).

Hmm...why does that seem familiar to me...perhaps I've read it before as well?

Anyway, I agree with LawOhki said, this idea might be difficult to implement past a one-shot...

Either way, I don't have anything concrete yet so this fic might become dead before it was born.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Well, now I find it. The story was called Robin One Half.

As for the idea itself, in general, which I forgot to address before, I'm more concerned with the why of it, which is why it seems like one-shot material. If any of this stuff happens, with or without some adjustments to the details, toward what ends will the story take us from there? As it is, it just seems to change things up for change's sake.

[Spica75]

Did lead me to thinking of a story where during things in Nerima Genma suddenly panics over something and he convinces Ranma that they have to fake their deaths to get away for awhile while it cools down. Plan succeeds.. a little too well and by the time Ranma gets sick of Genma and decides to return, he finds out that everyone has kind of moved on, and the reason was some trivial thing that Genma blew out of proportion. Like some 1000 yen bill.

*LOL*

[Maximara]

Some idea that just occurred to me. I don't know if something like this has been done before.

The basic outline starts by,
either A: Genma and Ranma are considered legally dead after being declared missing by Nodoka because she received no news from them for more than a year.
or B: Genma bits off more that he can chew with some debtor and has to fake their death to escape. Nodoka is notified and called to identify them, but the bodies were beyond recognition.

There are problems with both of these

A. The rule of thumb is seven years not one is required to declare someone legally dead. Also from what I can tell in the manga canon Nodoka didn't get any news from Genma and Ranma during the training trip which went from when Ranma was able to walk to about 17 so were are talking around thirteen years easy.

B. Genma don't show enough forward thinking in the canon to do this. From the manga canon Genma would simply disappear with Ranma and assume that was the end of the issue.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

A. The rule of thumb is seven years not one is required to declare someone legally dead. Also from what I can tell in the manga canon Nodoka didn't get any news from Genma and Ranma during the training trip which went from when Ranma was able to walk to about 17 so were are talking around thirteen years easy.

I just wanted to make a correction here: Genma sent letters to Nodoka regularly, up until their training trip took them to Jusenkyo (which Genma mentioned in his last letter).

[gsteemso]

There was a story on Geocities, The Youngest Tendo, by someone calling himself “Blood Blade” wherein Nodoka divorces Genma in favour of Soun due to Genma being absent and unreachable for years, with only rare letters to indicate he and Ranma are even still alive. It ended after only two introductory chapters, and only superficially matches your concept, but it’s the closest similarity I can think of.

[Spica75]

I just wanted to make a correction here: Genma sent letters to Nodoka regularly, up until their training trip took them to Jusenkyo (which Genma mentioned in his last letter).

That´s actually stated somewhere?

Anyway, how regularly?

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Yeah, in the second chapter of the story that introduces Nodoka. How regularly isn't specified, but "for a long time" appears to be satisfactory enough for her, up until the last letter that mentioned "magic springs in China." (The other, less substantial evidence of Genma's contact with Nodoka is when he sent her the Umisen-ken scroll and telling her to get rid of it. Which might be telling about their level of communication, since Genma could have easily destroyed the scroll himself.)

[Spica75]

Thank you.

(The other, less substantial evidence of Genma's contact with Nodoka is when he sent her the Umisen-ken scroll and telling her to get rid of it. Which might be telling about their level of communication, since Genma could have easily destroyed the scroll himself.)

Huh, had forgotten about that completely. Very weird even if they have regular contact or not i would say.
Unless it´s implied to be more of "hide" than "destroy" -get rid of- perhaps?