Chapter 2: New Class
"I have to wear that?" Ranma asked.
The "that" in this case was a bra, a slip, and a black sailor dress with a white collar and white cuffs. The creases on the dress's pleats were pressed with such precision that they could have been used for Martial Arts Cartography.
"Quit your whining. You sound like a girl," Genma said. He sounded angry, although he still kept his voice quiet. They were trying to keep their camp hidden.
"Why can't I just wear normal clothes?" Ranma asked.
"You saw how everybody was dressed yesterday. What part of 'blend in' do you not understand?" Genma asked. He held his hand against his forehead and tilted his head back in a melodramatic pose. "Oh, what a failure of a father I am. My own son, scared of some clothes."
Ranma scoffed at the obvious manipulation, but she nevertheless picked up the bra. She held it as if it were a particularly strange wild animal she had accidentally caught and was now trying to determine how to cook. She asked, "Then what should I do if I get splashed?"
"Just don't get splashed," Genma said, resuming a more normal stance.
Ranma just threw the remainder of the cold water in her canteen at Genma, who promptly transformed into a panda.
Genma responded by holding up a sign which read, "Then you run away, or hide, or whatever. Improvise. This is your challenge." He flipped the sign over. The back of it read, "I never said that this training would be easy."
"The things I do for martial arts," Ranma muttered to herself. She then directed her attention back to the bra in her hands.
It wasn't the first time she had had to dress up for training. This whole exercise reminded her of back when she had learned how to use the naginata. Fukuyama had required her to wear a female kimono and learn several skills seemingly unrelated to the weapon itself. That was despite the fact that she had been male at the time. Later, when she had learned the katana with Ootsuka, she had been forced to wear a kimono as well, albeit a male one that time. In the end, it was just some clothes. It wasn't something drastic, like a corset made of iron, and even that she might have considered wearing if the technique was intriguing enough.
Ranma turned the bra back and forth in her hands, experimented with the hooks and eyes at the end of the wings, and generally tried to figure out how the thing was supposed to work. She then slid her arms into the straps and fumbled around her back trying to grab the ends. She wasn't able to locate them, though. She ended up needing to grab the wings at her sides and sliding her hands backwards until she reached the ends. Once she had them in hand, she tried to hook the two pieces together. The two ends slipped past each other with no effect. She tried a second time, but the two pieces once again slid past each other without catching.
"Need help, boy?" Genma held up a sign. Ranma shot him a dirty look and then went back focusing on the contraption in her hands.
Frustrated, she took the bra off. She held it in front of her and tried hooking it there again. It was just as easy as the first time she had done it. She then slid her arms back into the straps and tried for a third time. This time she met with immediate success. She then realized that only one of the two hooks had caught an eye. She tried to hook the other, and the first one disconnected in the process.
Ranma was growling softly to herself by the time she managed to get the thing properly set around her chest. She asked, "How do girls deal with this all the time?"
She next picked up the slip. She had to flip it back and forth twice before she could figure out which side was the front. After she had done so, she was able to put it on by treating it like it was a particularly flimsy and insubstantial shirt. Her technique worked, once she had managed to separate the two spaghetti straps and maneuver her head between them.
The sailor dress, though, was more of a challenge. It was practically a lake of cloth. Like the slip, Ranma tried to put it on as if it were another unreasonably large shirt, but she got lost on the way to the figurative surface and ended up poking her head out of the zipper hole. She pulled her head back in and tried again, but the preposterously long collar got tangled up and forced her to abandon the overall attempt. She pulled the dress off and then held it at arm's length in order reset the whole thing. Once everything was straight again, Ranma started over. She tried to pull the dress on again, this time being careful to track the location of the neck hole as she moved. She was more successful with this attempt. After one last minor body contortion to pull the zipper closed, Ranma had the sailor dress donned.
As much trouble as that all had been, Ranma had at least had a conceptual understanding of what she needed to do to put on everything thus far. In contrast, she had no idea what to do with the neckerchief at all. She held it limp in her hand and asked Genma, "Do you know how this thing works?"
Genma shook his head back.
"Whatever," Ranma said. She wrapped the thing under her collar and tied the ends of it in front of her in a bow. It was the simplest generic knot she could think of that could still be easily undone.
"How does this look?" Ranma asked, holding her arms out in presentation to Genma.
Genma was holding a sign which read, "You'd better go. You're late."
"What do you mean I'm late... I'm late!" Ranma quietly exclaimed. She tugged on her white socks and ballet-style shoes, snatched her book bag, and then jumped out of the small campground. Behind her, she could hear the guttural panda laughter of Genma as it quickly faded into the distance.
Ranma ran through the streets, fuming on the impracticality of girl's clothing as she went. If she could have just worn her keikogi, she would have been able to leave minutes ago.
She followed the path she had taken the day before with Genma, only in reverse this time. Things looked different going the other direction, but the glimpses she had taken on her trip away from the school the day before assured her that she was on the right track. The occasional appearance of girls in similar uniforms to her as she ran helped reassure her that she was headed in the correct direction, too. Unlike her rapid running, the girls she passed were all walking in a much more sedate pace, which made sense given they weren't supposed to arrive early to meet their new teacher.
The sounds of girls greeting each other came from here and there as Ranma hurried in to the school grounds of Lillian. She ignored them, instead focusing on reaching the Western-style building and her destination therein.
Once she reached the main office, she pushed open the door and rushed into it. She was lightly sweating from the long run, but a look at the clock on the wall proved that she had barely made it in time.
The headmistress was standing at the side of the room. She was talking to a young woman, but she looked up at Ranma's intrusion.
"Gokigenyou," the headmistress said. "I appreciate your punctuality and your sense of urgency, although I would recommend you leave earlier next time such that you do not need to rush so much to be on time." She gestured to the woman beside her. "This is Tanezaki-sensei. She will be your homeroom teacher." She turned to the woman and said, "This is Ranko Sugita-san, the new transfer student I was telling you about. I will leave her in your care."
The name bounced off of Ranma's consciousness until she remembered the introduction that Genma had given the day before. She would need to remember to listen for that name.
"Thank you," Tanezaki said with a slight bow. She was thin, with long black hair, a white blouse, and a dark blue pencil skirt.
Tanezaki walked away from the headmistress and towards Ranma. As she approached, she pulled out a handkerchief. When she got close enough to do so, she handed it over to Ranma and said, "You may want to dry yourself a bit. It's very important for students of Lillian Private Girls' School to always be modest. You should walk gracefully as to not disturb the pleats of your skirt or stain the white of your collar."
"Okay," Ranma said, biting back the more direct response she wanted to give. Two weeks. She only had to blend in for two weeks. No, less than that, she was sure. When it came to martial arts, and especially learning new techniques, nobody was better than she was. The main question was how quickly would Genma let her progress.
Nevertheless, Ranma took the offered handkerchief and used it to wipe the perspiration off of her face and neck. It felt good to do so. She then handed the used handkerchief back to Tanezaki.
"If you would please follow me, I shall give you a brief tour of the school," Tanezaki said. She then led Ranma out of the office.
They passed by a scattering of girls in the hallway as Tanezaki showed Ranma around the area. Tanezaki pointed out various rooms of importance as they passed by them, such as the teachers' office, the cafeteria, and the various restrooms. They made their way outside, where she showed Ranma the way to the chapel, the primary gym, the sports field, the greenhouse, and the Rose Mansion. They then returned back inside, where Tanezaki pointed out the cabinet which was assigned to Ranma.
Ranma took a moment to change her shoes.
"Finally, your classroom is on the second floor. It's this way. You'll be in the First-year Chrysanthemum Group. When we get there, I'll say a few words to the class, and then you can introduce yourself. Say whatever you'd like. Maybe say why you're transferring in to Lillian, or what types of hobbies you enjoy doing," Tanezaki said.
Tanezaki's statement shot through Ranma, triggering a brief moment of panic. It brought with it the reminder of what Genma had said the day before: Ranma had been admitted to Lillian, but she had not actually entered Lillian. For some reason, she had thought just meeting the teacher would have been the end of it; she hadn't put any thought into what would happen afterward. It was only at Tanezaki's mentioning of giving an introduction that Ranma realized her oversight. Long-term planning had never been a particular strength of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, instead preferring to use quick thinking and extreme adaptability to handle anything. That applied to countering an incoming punch from an opponent, avoiding an angry shopkeeper searching for a thief, or giving an introduction to a new class which would be as unnoticed as a tree in a forest.
"Okay," Ranma said reflexively as she considered the novel problem which had just presented itself.
Normally she was a fairly private person who rarely liked to say anything about herself. The numerous times she had transfered in to a new school, she had always basically said nothing at her class introduction. It had the added advantage of causing others to underestimate her. However, that was normally, and here she had to blend in. That meant she would need to come up with something to say to the class that would avoid standing out.
"You should also consider joining an after-school club. None of them are actively recruiting right now, but I'm sure most of them would be open to getting a new member. It's an excellent way to make some new friends," Tanezaki continued as they walked up a flight of stairs.
"Okay," Ranma said, only half paying attention to what Tanezaki was saying. She was instead trying to think of what kind of introduction she could give. She had only ever seen one girl transfer in to a class before. That girl had given an energetic introduction and had told everybody some of her hobbies and interests. That lined up with what Tanezaki had suggested, which implied it was a good path to take. However, that led directly to the question of what ordinary girls liked to do.
"I'm the advisor to the choir myself, and we'd be happy to have you join, if you're interested. Besides that, Lillian has a large number of other clubs, like photography, inventions, dancing, and newspaper. What types of things do you enjoy doing?"
"Okay," Ranma said absentmindedly. She hadn't really known that many people in her travels, and almost all of them had been related to fighting in some way or another. She couldn't remember the last non-fighter, girl or boy, she had really interacted with. Regardless, she trawled through her memory, trying to dredge up the details she had seen directly and the fragments Genma had alluded to over the years in references and insults.
"I see," Tanezaki said. She remained quiet for the rest of the walk.
Ranma was still thinking about what ordinary girls enjoyed when they came to a stop.
"This is the classroom," Tanezaki said. She gestured towards a sign mounted high to the side of the door. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah," Ranma said with a nod. She had had a whole minute to prepare. She was more than ready.
Tanezaki opened the door and entered. Ranma followed behind her. At their entrance, a tan girl with glasses and a short ponytail announced, "Stand. Bow."
Ranma could see, and almost feel, the eyes of the all girls upon her as she walked in. It was the same in every school she had ever transferred into. New students were an unusual event, and the novel change they represented was always the focus of curiosity and more.
"Gokigenyou," Tanezaki said. "Today I have the pleasure of introducing a new classmate. This is Ranko Sugita-san." She wrote the name on the blackboard. "She will be joining us in the First-year Chrysanthemum Group. She lost her mother when she was very young, and she was raised by her father. I hope you can all help her make herself at home here. Would you like to say anything, Sugita-san?"
And suddenly, Ranma was on. She gave a perky smile, and brightly said, "Hello. I'm Ranko Sugita. I like cooking, and cleaning, and clothes. Teeheehee."
The class stared at her in silence.
Ranma inwardly crowed at her introduction. It had been perfect.
Tanezaki cleared her throat and said, "Thank you very much, Sugita-san. Over here is Ami Waki-san." The girl who had announced their entrance nodded in response. "She is the class representative. You can ask her for any assistance you may need.
"Yoshino Sumazu-san..." a frail-appearing girl with thick eyelashes nodded. Her black hair was tied into two long braids which draped from both sides of her head. "... is Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur. I'm sure she would be happy to assist you as well.
"Now there is a free seat near Nao Hanamori-san. Can you please raise your hand?" A girl with glasses and a ponytail raised her hand at Tanezaki's prompting. "Please take your seat there."
Ranma walked between the desks to the designated spot. The eyes of the class followed her as she went. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of interest in her chest for some reason. Their stares continued as she sat down. They only came to an end when Tanezaki began her lessons, which forced everybody to direct their attention back to the front of the room.
The morning classes were fine, if a bit confusing at times. Ranma had spent the majority of the past decade on the road walking, hiking, training, practicing, and otherwise being physically active. Discussions about how the body distributed oxygen to various organs and about the esoteric rules of comma usage in English simply hadn't been part of her daily life. While she tried to pay attention, it was like starting to read a mystery book in the middle of chapter eight. She struggled to understand what was going on, in regard to what the teacher was teaching.
In contrast, it was easy to understand what was going on with the students. Whenever the teacher turned her back, which was a not uncommon occurrence, one or another of them would send a curious glance towards Ranma. Ranma would meet them with a glance of her own, which would typically result in the girl hastily turning back to face the front of the room. It was the same as all the schools Ranma had transfered into in the past.
The signal for lunch was a blessed relief. Ranma's stomach had made its emptying status progressively known as classes continued, and she was eager to resolve that situation. She tried to get up out of her chair to do so, but before she could, she found a girl with short black hair standing in front of her desk. The girl said, "Gokigenyou. What brought you to Lillian?"
A flash caught Ranma's attention, and she turned to her right to see its source. She saw a girl with long bangs and glasses near the door pointing a camera towards her.
A second girl appeared, standing to the side of Ranma's desk. She had long brown hair in a ponytail down the back of her head. She leaned in a bit towards Ranma and asked, "How was it growing up without your mother?"
A third girl appeared on the other side of her desk. She had two long black braids similar to Yoshino's. She also leaned in a bit and asked "What's your blood type?"
There was a flash as another picture was taken.
"Which school did you come from?"
"What type of food do you like?"
Ranma was surrounded, and it looked like more and more girls were approaching.
"Who's your favorite actor?"
"Which clubs are you interested in joining?"
The sound of a girl's cough filled the room. The chatter surrounding Ranma's desk fell silent, and the cluster of girls there turned and parted such that everybody could see the source of the interruption. It was Yoshino. Despite her demure appearance and the quietness of her cough, she had somehow managed to command not only the attention of the girls near Ranma but also the attention of the entire room.
"Remember, we're supposed be welcoming Ranko-san. I'm sure she would appreciate a more modest introduction to the class," Yoshino said. She directed a smile at the group.
"O..Of course," one of the girls said. The girls surrounding Ranma's desk cleared away like leaves blown away by the wind.
The casual deference to the frail-appearing Yoshino was astounding. Ranma wondered where it had come from. She was more used to everybody obeying the school boss, the strongest and toughest fighter who could beat up any challengers to his authority. This was similar to that, only completely different. The girls didn't seem to fear Yoshino as such, and Ranma was willing to bet that Yoshino couldn't run 100 meters without fainting, let alone beat somebody in a fight. Ranma was curious and intrigued by the interplay she had just witnessed. Was it possible that it was related to the martial arts techniques Genma had promised at the end of this special training?
"I hope you can forgive us. It's very exciting to have a new transfer student entering Lillian at any time, let alone so far into the school year," Yoshino said. "Please make yourself at home. If anybody continues to bother you, feel free to let me know. Gokigenyou."
"Okay," Ranma said. She wasn't quite sure what had just happened, but she did appreciate the chance to get up and stretch her legs.
Her stomach nagged at her as she did so. She was hungry and wanted to get something to eat. Tanezaki had shown her the cafeteria in the morning, but she had shown Ranma a lot of places in the morning. Ranma was worried that she might make a wrong turn on the way there, and that that lost time would mean everything would be sold out before she arrived.
That was an easy problem to solve, though. The teacher had suggested asking either Yoshino or Ami for help if she needed it. Seeing how Yoshino had just spoken to her, she seemed like the best person to ask to get some directions.
"Hey, Yoshino-san," Ranma said.
Several girls turned to look between Ranma and Yoshino. There was far more interest in her call out than Ranma would have considered warranted for such an ordinary action.
Yoshino didn't seem to take notice, though. She turned around to face Ranma again and asked, "Yes?"
"Can you remind me where the cafeteria is?" Ranma asked.
"I would be happy to. It's right this way."
Yoshino led Ranma out the door, moving with grace that seemed to suffuse everybody in the school. The hallways had several girls walking around, most of them moving in the same direction that Yoshino was bringing Ranma. The area was wide enough that there was still plenty of room to navigate around despite that.
As Ranma walked beside her, she mentally urged Yoshino to move faster. However, Ranma didn't take any overt action to prompt her, as it seemed like everybody was walking in a similar sedate pace. She instead took the opportunity to ask the question which had been raised during Tanezaki's morning introductions. "What was that Rosa Fotada Bouton Soweru thing the teacher was saying about you earlier?" Ranma was familiar with what a class representative was, but had never heard of a "Rosa" position in any previous school.
"You mean the title 'Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur?'" Yoshino asked.
"Yeah, that. What's that?" Ranma asked.
"It means I'm the petite soeur of Rosa Foetida en bouton," Yoshino said. She led them down the stairs to the ground floor.
"Okay. But what does that mean?" Ranma asked.
Yoshino stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at Ranma. She asked, "Do you know about the Yamayurikai and the soeur system in Lillian?"
Ranma was taken aback at Yoshino's sudden focus of attention. She persevered, though, and said, "Uhh... not really."
"I see," Yoshino said. She turned forward again and resumed walking. "Where to start? To begin with, the student council here is called the Yamayurikai. It has three officers. They're elected by the student body each year."
"Elected? That's kind of strange, isn't it?" Ranma asked. Most of the schools she had attended in the past had had some kind of competition or tournament to determine the student council.
"Is it?" Yoshino asked. She briefly glanced over to Ranma then directed her gaze forward once again. "How else would the Yamayurikai be selected?"
"Lots of ways," Ranma said with a shrug. She thought back to the more recent schools she had attended. "Cooking competition. Gambling contest. Fighting tournament. Tennis match. That sort of thing." It really depended on what the school specialized in. In that light, an election would make sense if Lillian specialized in politics, social popularity, or something similar. Ranma made a mental note to keep an eye out for any examples of that. Interaction with other people had been relatively rare throughout her training trip, and it was always good to learn new skills from a school of specialists.
"Really?" Yoshino asked. She directed another gaze at Ranma, this one questioning, before turning her eyes forward again. "I had always assumed that most schools were like us. Regardless, the way we do it here in Lillian is by having an election each year. The top three candidates are selected to be the three officers of the Yamayurikai. We have Rosa Chinensis, the red rose; Rosa Gigantea, the white rose; and Rosa Foetida, the yellow rose. Combined, the three of them are referred to as The Three Roses."
"Okay," Ranma said with a nod. It was a bit unusual to have three leaders rather than a single one, but it wasn't unheard of. A school of martial arts could have any number of masters. It also wouldn't have surprised Ranma if, behind the three titles and positions, really only one of them was the grandmaster in charge of everything.
"The other thing you need to know about Lillian is that we use the soeur system here. An upperclassman will partner with a lowerclassman. This relationship is formalized when the upperclassman gives the lowerclassman her rosary." Yoshino pulled a necklace she wore around her neck out from where it was semi-hidden under her dress. It had beads all along the cord and a cross for a pendant. "The upperclassman is the 'grande soeur,' which translates to 'big sister,' and will mentor and support for the lowerclassman. The lowerclassman is the 'petite soeur,' which translates to 'little sister,' and will assist the upperclassman. It's a very sacred bond.
"And that is probably as good a place as any to stop for now, because this is the cafeteria here," Yoshino said as she led Ranma through a doorway.
Inside was a large room which, if it was a cafeteria, was one unlike any Ranma had ever seen before. She had been to enough schools to know how things should have been. It should have been obvious that it was a cafeteria even before the door was opened, due to a loud clamoring coming from within. There should have been pandemonium as a large crowd jostled for food. Students should have been practically, and sometimes literally, fighting for the last piece of bread before they sold out.
Instead it was a scene of sedate serenity. Not a single shout could be heard. Along the side of the room were four small storefronts, each with a sign on high labeling what it sold. It was hard to tell for sure through the open windows and doors behind the counters, but they all appeared to be sharing a single communal kitchen.
In the middle of the room were numerous large rectangular tables, around which several girls sat, ate, and talked. The room was filled with the moderate buzz generated by dozens of concurrent conversations, but it was nothing like the raucous experiences she had always encountered in the cafeterias of her past schools.
"You can buy a meal ticket at the machine over there," Yoshino said. She gestured to the ticket dispenser near the corner of the room. "You then bring it to whichever counter you'd like to order from."
Ranma walked over to take a closer look, with Yoshino following right behind her. What she saw almost made her cry. Each ticket cost 1000 yen. It was far more than she could afford. She looked down at the three coins she had, just to double check that she hadn't misremembered their denominations. She hadn't.
She could feel her stomach give a plaintive growl in protest.
Ranma turned around to face Yoshino and asked, "Do you have any snack vending machines around here?"
Yoshino blinked in response to Ranma's question. She recovered quickly, though, and said, "Yes, we do have some. They're over this way." She led Ranma back out of the cafeteria. As she walked, she asked, "In that case, would you like me to finish the rest of the explanation of why I have the title 'Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur?'"
"You mean there's more?" Ranma asked, shaking her head.
"Yes, but not that much more," Yoshino said.
"Sure," Ranma said. Learning more about the student council and how they operated was always a good thing to do in a school. Besides, her classmates had given her some odd looks when she had called out to Yoshino earlier, which made her wonder if there was some other custom she was violating and thereby drawing inappropriate attention to herself.
Yoshino nodded. She said, "That title is a combination of both the Yamayurikai as well as the soeur system. While the three Rosa positions are officially elected each year, as I said earlier, in practice the tradition is for the petite soeur of each of The Three Roses to be elected to the position that her grande soeur held. The students already know them and hold them in high regard, and they already know how the Yamayurikai works.
"Therefore, the petite soeurs of The Three Roses are called 'en bouton,' which translates to 'in budding.' That means that Rosa Foetida's petite soeur is referred to as 'Rosa Foetida en bouton.' That's Rei Hasekura. In turn, her petite soeur, that's me, is referred to as 'Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur.' That means that, unless something particularly unusual happens, Rei-sama will be Rosa Foetida next year. Following that, I will be Rosa Foetida in my third year."
"That all sounds way too complicated," Ranma said, shaking her head again. She wondered why it couldn't be something nice and simple, like schools of martial arts. There were grandmasters, masters, students, and nobodies. Everybody had an easy to understand title and role.
"I admit that it can sound confusing at the start. However, once you see it in practice, it's pretty straightforward. Basically the Yamayurikai comprises the three rose families. Each family has one Rosa in the third-year, and the petite soeurs who are connected to her," Yoshino said. She drew to a stop. "And here are the vending machines."
Ranma's look inside the machines left her with mixed feelings. On the upside, they were filled with breads, chips, candies, and large amounts of just plain calories. There was practically a cornucopia of options. It was enough to cause her mouth to water in anticipation. On the downside, the prices were also high. At least they were cheaper than the cafeteria.
She looked at the three coins she held in her hand and at the options in front of her. She then scanned through the rows. The cheapest and most calorie-rich thing she could find were the instant noodles. 45 seconds later, she owned of lunch.
"Three?" Yoshino asked as Ranma pushed the button a third time.
Ranma shrugged back and picked up her last purchase. She would have gotten more if she could have, but that was all the money she had with her. She went ahead and opened the first cup.
"I see. Well, you can find some hot..."
Yoshino's statement was interrupted as Ranma took a big bite out of the first block of noodles. The crunchy texture and the salty seasoning tickled her mouth and filled the growing void she felt in her stomach. She tried her best to catch the stray falling noodles in the cup as she ate. She was loathed to waste anything. It wasn't the best thing she had ever had, but it was far better than many of the things she had been forced to eat while hiking through the forest; frequently sauteed squirrel was considered the height of fine dining, and it was rare to be lucky enough to catch one rather than the less palatable options.
In a few seconds, Ranma had finished her first cup. She was in the process of opening the second one when she noticed Yoshino watching her with wide eyes. She paused and asked, "What?"
Yoshino blinked and said, "It's nothing. I've just not seen anybody eat with quite so much alacrity before. May I suggest having a seat somewhere to avoid causing too much of a mess?"
"Oh. Sure," Ranma said. She looked around and saw a nearby bench.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to go. I must to eat my lunch as well, and I'm a bit less celeritous than you are. Gokigenyou," Yoshino said, and gave a slight nod.
"Thanks," Ranma said as Yoshino walked away.
Ranma took a seat on the nearby bench. She finished opening her second cup of instant noodles, and she ate it just as fast as the first. The third followed suit a minute later. While she was still somewhat hungry, she definitely felt better than she had 10 minutes earlier.
She made her way back to the classroom, checking the sign at the top of the door before walking in. Inside, approximately half of the girls were present and eating at their desks. Yoshino was one of them.
Ranma took her seat and relaxed for a few minutes before the classes resumed.
Afternoon classes proceeded very much like the morning ones had, up until everybody stood up and left the room. It was at that point that, much like in the morning when Tanezaki had mentioned that Ranma would need to give an introduction, the full implications of the classes Ranma was taking struck her.
They were going to PE class.
The abrupt realization brought with it a stab of worry. PE class meant that she would need to change clothes along with the others in the changing room. That was an intimidating prospect. It wasn't so much the fact that girls would be changing around her; the past few weeks as a part-time girl had eliminated most of the exotic mystery of the female body. The bigger issue was that she would need to blend in with all the others. The curse may have been an almost perfect disguise for her physical state, but it didn't help nearly as much with her behaviors. She was left with the challenge of trying to imitate how girls acted in a changing room, and she had absolutely no idea how they actually did act in a changing room.
With no other options, Ranma had to fall back on her standard answer to everything: improvise.
She slowly walked into the changing room, making sure she was neither the first nor the last person to enter. As she did so, she surreptitiously kept an eye on what the other girls were doing. Most of them walked towards what appeared to be a random locker, so Ranma did the same, picking one towards the middle of the row of them. As she maneuvered around the room, she subtly edged away from the showers and all the other sources of hot water she could see.
Once at the locker, Ranma cast another hopefully unnoticed glance around the room. Most of the girls had self-consciously turned to face either a locker or a wall before taking off her dress. Each of them was determinedly focused on herself as she tried to change her clothes as quickly as possible. Ranma did the same, turning away from the others to pull off her sailor uniform and pull on her gym uniform as fast as she could.
As she changed, Ranma noticed that she seemed to get the occasional glance from the girls nearby out of the corner of their eyes. There seemed to be a renewed interest in her chest for some reason, although there were a few glances at her arms and legs as well. The glances were fleeting, though, and nobody outright confronted her, so she considered the exercise a success.
Ranma was still reflecting on needing to not stand out as she, along with the others in the class, walked into the gym. It was a depressing thought. She would need to hold herself back to match everybody else. It transformed the idea of PE class from a welcome change in activity to a particularly egregious exercise in tedium.
The class was beginning a segment on volleyball, and the teacher had them split up into pairs. Ami approached Ranma, and the two of them found an open section of the gym. They then spent the period throwing a ball back and forth, both trying to bump it up in return. Having learned Martial Arts Beach Volleyball years earlier, it was all too familiar to Ranma. She could have literally done it blindfolded. Still, she needed to fit in with the others, so she tried to calibrate her own abilities to match their lack of skill. It meant that she and Ami spent more time chasing down stray balls from mis-returned bumps than actually practicing.
Ranma was finding it hard to even pretend to be interested in what she was doing. In the earlier classes, she didn't actually know what was being taught, so even if she was confused by the lack of context, she could still try to learn something new. In contrast, the volleyball practice was as if she had been asked to go back and learn how to add two numbers together all over again. She couldn't even properly ignore everything going on around her and daydream, considering she had to both interact with Ami as well as constantly override her reflexes in order to mask her abilities.
After what felt like too long, the teacher called class to an end. Ranma returned to the changing room with the others. It was with some relief that she noticed that none of the girls tried to take a shower. If that had been part of the regular ritual everybody did, she wasn't sure what she would have done.
The changing of clothes back to the regular Lillian sailor uniform was very much like changing into the gym uniform had been, only in reverse. It was with some chagrin, though, that it once again took Ranma two attempts before she was able to put the uniform on without getting tangled up in the long collar.
After they had all changed, everybody returned back to their room on the second floor for the remainder of the afternoon classes, which concluded without note.
The moment classes ended, Ranma practically jumped to her feet. She did not want a repeat of what had happened at lunch to happen again, where she had gotten boxed in by numerous girls asking questions. She said a quick, "Bye," and headed for the exit.
"Ranko-san."
Ranma hadn't even realize that she was the person being called out to until she had already turned the corner. By that point she figured it was too much of a bother to return, and she just kept going. If it was important, they would call out to her again.
They didn't.
She walked through the halls and out the doors to freedom moments later.
Strangely, she seemed to be the only person leaving Lillian. She had been the only person changing her shoes in the changing area, and as far as she could tell, she was the only person on the campus grounds at all. She pondered that oddity as she walked past the rows of trees and made her way to the main gate of the school. She had come to no conclusion by the time she had reached the street in front of the school, so she filed the phenomenon away for future consideration.
The trip back through the streets was slower than the rapid run had been in the morning. Ranma was quite aware that when she returned, there was a good chance that Genma would ambush her. She wanted to save her energy for that attack.
When she reached the temple, Ranma slowed down a bit to take a more careful look around, trying to see if there were any witnesses which might expose their campsite. When none appeared present, she quickly hopped over the bushes and into the small clearing she had set up the day before.
Inside, she saw Genma. He threw a bundle at her.
"Put that on," Genma said.
Ranma looked down and saw it was a keikogi.
Genma said, "We can't have you messing up that costume. Take it off and change into some real clothes." He threw a bottle as well. "This, too. You'd better appreciate how much trouble it was to get that."
The uniform and undergarments were far easier to remove than they had been to put on. This was countered by the fact that Ranma had to carefully store the dress such that it wouldn't wrinkle, stain, or otherwise become blemished. She then threw on the keikogi. The finishing touch was the hot water, which triggered Ranma's transformation.
Ranma emerged from the tent ready for a fight. Genma did not disappoint him, launching a nominally surprise attack without warning, irrespective of the danger of exposing their presence. Ranma blocked it with her arms and sent a kick back in return, which in turn was blocked as well. The exchange was swift and quiet, ending in a draw. Once that had been determined, a brief armistice was established as they both sneaked out to a more safe neutral ground. They jogged several streets over, towards the river they had fought beside the night before. Nearby there was a large green area, presumably a park of some kind. It had enough trees and open spaces to make it the perfect terrain within which to fight. Once there, the onslaught began in earnest.
They fought throughout the afternoon. There was a brief pause for dinner as they both walked into a small convenience store to stock up on food. Ranma distracted the shopkeeper while Genma slipped some things into his keikogi. They then walked out again and shared the rice balls and plastic-wrapped breads that Genma had taken. In this case, "shared" was defined by Genma trying to eat it all while Ranma tried to take whatever he could. The situation naturally favored Genma, but Ranma was able to steal a enough things through Genma's guard that he was in no danger of starving.
As they ate, Genma asked, "How was your attempt at infiltrating the school, boy?"
Ranma thought back on how the day had gone. Nobody had raised an alarm. The only questions he had been subjected to were the generic ones at lunchtime, and even those had been deflected with Yoshino's help. A touch of pride tinged his voice as he said, "It went great. Nobody suspects a thing."
Genma nodded. He said, "Good. Very good. In that case, maybe it would be safe to tell you the next step. Time is short here, after all."
"Yeah," Ranma said enthusiastically. As plain as the day had been, it had done nothing to diminish his interest in the techniques Genma had promised to teach him.
Once again, Ranma wondered if this Umisenken at the end of the training regiment had anything to do with what he had seen in Lillian over the course of the day. There was the casual and inexplicable demonstration of power that Yoshino had shown at lunch, and there was the social and political aspects of Lillian which the Yamayurikai elections could have represented. Or possibly everything had all just been random coincidence, and what Genma was training him to do was completely unrelated to it all. There ways no way to know in advance, and that mystery even further tantalized Ranma and enhanced his interest.
"Okay. Then step two of the training."
Ranma perked his ears up and paid close attention.
"You need to make friends with a rich girl. It would be best if you could find Ogasawara, Kanina, or Torii," Genma said seriously. As he spoke, he solemnly nodded his head again.
"What?" Ranma asked. He didn't even bother trying to prevent it from coming out as a shout.
"I said, 'you need to make friends with a rich girl.' Ogasawara, Kanina, or Torii would be best, but really, any girl would be fine. Just make sure she's rich. That shouldn't be too hard in a place like Lillian," Genma said. He cast an evaluating eye at Ranma as if to judge the effect of his words.
"Are you crazy? What does that have to do with martial arts?" Ranma asked. He had undergone exotic training in the past, but he could make no sense of the two steps Genma had given him thus far. Ironically, that more encouraged him than dissuaded him. If past experience was anything to go by, seeing how inscrutable this training was, the end result really would live up to Genma's bombastic promises the day before.
"Don't question me, boy. Don't forget who is the master here. If you want to learn these techniques, you will need to follow my training exactly," Genma said. He tried to cuff Ranma on the head, but Ranma had maintained his guard and blocked the strike. It proved to be a feint, though, as Genma used the distraction to reclaim one of the rice balls which Ranma had stolen earlier.
Ranma put any thoughts about Ogasawara, Kanina, Torii, and rich girls out of mind. Whatever the intentions of this training were, they could wait until later when there were less pressing issues to contend with. He shouted, "Hey! Give that back!" and launched a counterattack on Genma's remaining stash of food.
The border raids came to an end once the final morsels of dinner had been finished on both sides. The raids were instead replaced by a series of escalating skirmishes, which quickly erupted into a full-scale battle across the streets, riverbank, and park. It lasted into the late evening before a hesitant armistice was reestablished.
It was once again near midnight when Ranma returned back to camp. He collapsed onto his cold bedroll and quickly fell asleep.
Last Updated: April 2, 2020