Chapter No. 3
"Oh, goodness, my hair!"

Ryoga had gotten lost trying to find the toilet. It somehow didn't occur to him to look indoors for it. Fortunately enough, Kasumi found Ryoga wandering the halls of the Tendo Dojo, which was only a short distance from the house.

"Ah, there you are," she exclaimed in a tone of pleasant surprise.

Ryoga let his eyes trail around the dojo, his need for the toilet momentarily forgotten. It was not a particularly large dojo but certainly of good enough quality. The sparring room was well-maintained, the equipment near perfect. "Why's there a dojo here?" he asked curiously. "Are you a martial artist?"

"Oh, heavens no," Kasumi replied. "Akane's the closest one to a martial artist here. She comes here every day. But I've never seen anyone else practice here."

It certainly was a pity, Ryoga acknowledged, the dojo being so well-maintained and all.

Kasumi sighed. "Daddy's a bit obsessed with this place. He keeps it open, all day every day: The Tendo Martial Arts School of Anything Goes. I suppose it was all he had to lean on after our mother died."

If Ryoga had been slightly more prudent and intelligent, he would have seen what a sensitive subject this was. Maintaining a dojo, especially one as nice as that of the Tendo's, is a lot of money, and it gets more expensive every year. Kasumi, who was in charge of the family budget, did not like that but appreciated the sentimental value of the place. So did Akane. Nabiki cared nothing for it, on the other hand. She spent a lot (and I mean a lot) of money on other things and thus Kasumi knew the day was coming when Soun Tendo would have to say goodbye to his sweet dojo.

"If, say," said Ryoga suddenly, "a very strong martial artist took residence here and married one of Mr Tendo's daughters, would that improve the dojo's reputation?"

Kasumi hesitated and said, "I suppose so."

It takes absolutely no thought to know what was going through Ryoga's mind. If he came to Soun on the pretext of taking care of the Dojo, he would earn the approval to marry Akane. As they say, when you win over the father, half the job's done.

Ryoga had never had a plan for his life. He was pleased to know that now he did.


Unfortunately, one of Ryoga's flaws was an inability to put the foot down.

He couldn't mention that he wanted to stay when he heard that Akane had, after some heated discussion, agreed to Nabiki's money-making plan to get Ryoga a plane ticket to China.

"I don't really like Nabiki's idea but if it's to help then I'll be glad to do it," Akane told Ryoga. And of course, he was so enamoured by her kindness that he couldn't bear to inform her of his change of plan.

In the end, Ryoga decided that he would have to go to China, get the business over there out of the way, and then return to Akane and get married. It was a fool-proof plan.


The Tendo house was very quiet without Akane and Nabiki. Early in the morning they left for school in order to carry out The Plan. Ryoga didn't follow them; he had had enough excitement at Furinkan High the day before to sustain him for quite a while. As a result, he spent his time watching Soun and Kasumi on their daily routine. No offense to them but theirs was a lot less exciting than Akane's.

Soun proved that it was possible to spend four hours consecutively reading the newspaper. And then he put down the newspaper and meditated. For another four hours. Kasumi partook in the mystery of a mother's daytime activities, which a person of Ryoga's age seldom knew of. And neither did it interest him.

Lunchtime was a peaceable affair, by which time Ryoga was actually longing for excitement. He soon got it.

"I'm going shopping," Kasumi announced. "Would you like to come with me, Mr Ryoga?"

They ended up at Dr Tofu's place.

Dr Tofu was humming the tune of Sukiyaki to himself as he swept his front pavement methodically, seemingly in a good mood. The sign on his front door announced that his self-managed clinic was currently open. When Dr Tofu noticed Ryoga coming towards him, he looked up, smiled and waved. Then he noticed Kasumi.

A curious gleam came into Dr Tofu's eyes, which reflected into his glasses. His hands trembled violently and without warning he snapped his broomstick in half.

"Ah, K-Kasumi!" he gasped in a weak voice. "W-Why are you here?"

"Just dropping by to say hello," Kasumi replied. "Did I come at a wrong time?" she asked uncertainly.

"Of course not!" Dr Tofu insisted. "Come on in!" He threw the broken broomstick pieces into the air, both of which landed on Ryoga's head. And on the bump Akane had given him too.

To add even further insult to injury, Dr Tofu used Ryoga as a doormat as he invited Kasumi in.

"Oh dear, are you sure he's all right?" Kasumi asked Dr Tofu anxiously.

"He'll be fine!" Dr Tofu laughed dismissively. "Just needs to rest his young head a bit, the dear fellow." As he said this, he affectionately patted Ryoga a little hard on the head. Ryoga was pretty sure his bump had to be the size of a basketball by now.

Before Ryoga could follow the two young adults inside, Dr Tofu had closed the door on him. "Am I in some sort of slapstick comedy?" Ryoga groaned as he sat on the pavement and nursed his swollen head, all the time wondering why the normally sensitive Dr Tofu was so different when Kasumi was around.


Akane and Nabiki came home with a fistful of money and a first-class plane ticket to China. This cheered up Ryoga a great deal, as he had been spending a great deal of time wallowing in self-pity after the fiasco at Dr Tofu's place. To have Akane smiling at him was simply magical.

"We got all the money from Kuno," Akane explained to Ryoga over dinner. "The Kunos are one of the richest families in Nerima, and you know how Kuno likes me and all…" She looked unhappy about that.

Desperate to cheer her up, Ryoga said, "Thank you for your kindness. When I am done in China, I'll make sure to come back and, and…" He meant to say, "And shower you with happiness," but his heart was thumping painfully and he couldn't get the words out.

"We were glad to help," Akane smiled, somewhat evasively. Then she resumed eating dinner and soon, silence came over the Tendo family.


Ryoga was a bit miffed to know that he was to leave for the airport early the next morning. That night, he told Akane what he was going to do in China, in the privacy of the empty dojo.

"There is a man who I must fight. Well, he is not a man because he is a coward. I challenged him to a man-to-man fight but he ran off to China, so now I am going after him to even the score. His name is Ranma Saotome."

"Ranma Saotome?" Akane felt like she ought to know that name, for no reason she could discern.

Ryoga nodded. "Even if he is a coward, Ranma is the only man I consider a worthy rival. When I beat him, I'll be a true martial artist." Ryoga had convinced himself that going to China was part of his fool-proof plan.

Akane smiled. Ryoga was truly passionate about things and she couldn't help wanting to support him. In her mind, she saw no one more worthy of success than he. The poor guy had never even had a girlfriend – and he was sixteen, for goodness's sake.

Akane decided that, since Ryoga had confided in her, she would confide in him.

"Today, when I was asking Kuno for money, I felt so guilty. It was like I was just using him and leading him on. It's terrible. When you like someone and that person doesn't feel the same way but they're nice to you and you can't help loving them but it would have been better if they said 'I hate you.'" All this time, her tone was becoming bitterer and her voice shakier as she went on betraying more emotion than she normally did. She forgot that Ryoga was a boy at that moment. All she wanted was a shoulder to cry on.

Ryoga couldn't fathom what on earth Akane was talking about but it sure sounded depressing. What he knew was that she was definitely getting upset because her eyes began to water and she leaned into his body, weeping tears that she had kept inside of her for a long time.

There was a hitch in Akane's voice as she sobbed brokenly into Ryoga's chest. "I like Dr Tofu," she confessed, softly as if afraid of her own feelings.

Ryoga's world instantly came crashing around his ears.

"Is that true?" he asked, his voice painfully tight. At last he understood what Akane had been talking about.

"Yes," she said. (Ryoga felt as if he had been struck by an arrow.) "But he likes Kasumi. You can tell from the way he is around her."

Ryoga understood completely. He recalled what happened earlier that day but he honestly didn't care about that. It was as if he was being painfully deflated, cut and then throttled. Something writhed within him – it was agony. He felt very faint and very light-headed and he wanted to shut everything out. All this occurred within a second and more was to follow later.

"I," Akane sniffed, "really wish I was like K-Kasumi. I-I grew my h-hair long t-to be like her but it j-just gets in the way of what I r-really like: sports." A tear dribbled down her face and splashed on Ryoga's shirt. "I'm such a t-tomboy. I'll n-never be good enough for Dr Tofu."

In the midst of his own agony and despair, Ryoga saw that Akane was truly hurting as much as he was. And in that moment he came to a decision. What he did next was an action he would later bitterly regret. It was also probably among the most selfless things he had ever done.

First, he took off his bandana. One of the strange things about Ryoga Hibiki was that his bandana was as sharp as a razor blade and could be used as a knife. He had spare ones beneath the one had had taken off.

"Akane," he said gently, "you need to be shed of your burden."

And as he said this, he raised his bandana high and cut off the length of Akane's hair.

Akane froze. Her hair silently slid to the floor and her head immediately felt naked. She didn't know what her first reaction to this was. She didn't articulate any coherent thoughts.

Ryoga raised his head and stared at the stump of hair that remained, accompanied by bangs that Akane would later cut off herself. She was wordlessly touching the back of her head to confirm what Ryoga had done. "Dr Tofu told me that short hair suited you better," he said, swallowing and then smiling gently.

Akane said nothing.

"You may hit me if you wish," Ryoga announced.

Akane, being an agreeable sort of girl, promptly obliged. Then she stormed out of the dojo without sparing another glance at him. He could see in his mind's eye the tears that were still glistening in her angry and despairing eyes.

Ryoga wanted to sink into the floor and die in a hole.