Chapter 4: Conclusion
Among all of the invisible people in the world, maids and janitors were some of the most invisible. Despite their easy access to so many intimate places, everybody constantly overlooked them. That made them the first roles Shiho thought to use whenever she wanted to conduct surveillance. In this case, infiltrating a large residence, a maid would be perfect.
Adopting the change was simplicity itself. The uniform was a must. She additionally put on some conspicuously heavy makeup, tied her hair up in a ponytail, and donned a pair of glasses. Most importantly, she changed her posture and bearing to one of an experienced employee resigned to do whatever needed to be done. Then it was as easy as casually joining the small collection of women walking into the Kuno estate. There was only the smallest moment of confusion before they welcomed her into their midsts; Shiho acted like she belonged there, so everybody else acted like she belonged there.
The Kuno estate was huge. There were imposing walls, a courtyard which rivaled Furinkan High School's, and multiple large buildings spread around the enclosure. There was an huge greenhouse on one side, and there was what appeared to be a tropical beach on the other. The main building itself put all that to shame, though, towering as large and as proud as Osaka Castle.
Shiho kept up with the other maids as they rushed through the open grounds and into the house proper. It was only when they were inside that they slowed down and split up, by unspoken agreement subdividing the tasks between them. Shiho didn't understand the system, but as long as she appeared to be doing work, she expected it would be fine.
Nominally, Shiho joined the others in scrubbing, dusting, sorting, and doing all of the other duties expected of a maid. However, what she was really doing was looking around to see what she could discover about Kuno.
The master bedroom was easy to identify due to its size and its layout. Interestingly, it also appeared to be unoccupied. The bed was tightly tucked, and a light layer of dust covered everything. Shiho took a quick minute to brush up the area before moving on.
The second bedroom Shiho found at least looked like it was being used. However, she only gave it a cursory examination. The clothing and the rhythmic gymnastic equipment strongly suggested that it was a girl's room. If Shiho became desperate, she would search it, that was only if she became desperate.
The third bedroom was where Shiho really began her investigations in earnest. The moment she stepped into it, she was confronted by what appeared to be a shrine to Akane. There was a large poster of her on the wall, and several photographs of a similar nature surrounded it.
In addition to the shrine, the room also contained various kendo gear, which further suggested that this was the right place to look. A matched pair of swords, one long and one short, were set on a stand beside the shrine. There was no armor on display, but the layout made its absence feel strikingly conspicuous.
On the other side of the room were a large number of books. Most of them were treatises on the various shogunate governments and dramas featuring samurai protagonists. The lack of any nearby dust made it clear that they were frequently read and reread.
Several art prints could be found around the room as well. There was an image of Tomoe Gozen, the famous female warrior of the Genpei war, and an image of Yoritomo Minamoto, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate.
Her examination, and associated perfunctory dusting, was interrupted when Kuno himself walked into the room. His appearance gave Shiho a brief moment of panic, but she masked it by deeply bowing to the boy, the demure act of a maid greeting her employer helping as much as her heavy makeup did in obscuring her face. In turn, he played his role perfectly, barely giving her a glance before dropping his school bag onto the floor.
Shiho stepped out of the room, just as invisible as before. Rather than escape, though, she continued to loiter around the area, giving the nearby hallways an apparently deep and slow cleaning. Her intention was to follow behind Kuno once he left to see where he went. However, she was foiled in her efforts by the fact that he never left.
She spent a full hour wiping and re-wiping cracks and crevices before she gave up. Kuno had yet to move from his position of meditation in front of the poster of Akane, to the point that she wondered if he had fallen asleep, and she could only clean a table so many times became it became suspicious. It was time to move on.
Shiho spent the next hour cleaning the rest of the house, such as to not make the target of her surveillance obvious. It also gave her time to process what she had observed, just in case there was something else she should investigate while she still had the chance.
Clearly Kuno had an obsession with Akane as grand, pervasive, and corrosive as Shylock's hatred of Antonio. Unlike "The Merchant of Venice," though, there was no Duke to appeal to in order to bring the situation to a resolution. It appeared that Portia would need to take a very different approach to get him to stop.
Shiho was still considering this when she eventually joined the maids in making her escape. Once outside again, she waited a few blocks before bidding the others farewell and splitting away, disappearing as obviously and as unnoticed as the wind.
A girl in her late teens answered Shiho's knock at the Tendo home. She had long hair, she wore an apron over her dress, and she bore a strong resemblance to Akane and Nabiki. She said, "Good evening."
"Good evening. Are Soun Tendo-san, Nabiki-san, and Akane-san here?" Shiho asked.
"Yes, come in," the girl said. She stepped to the side of the doorway to make some space. "Father, Nabiki-chan, Akane-chan, you have a visitor."
Shiho entered the house proper. She waited until the door behind her had fully closed before she took off her scarf, sunglasses, and wide-brimmed hat.
In many ways, the Tendo home was like the Saotome home, only much bigger. It was maybe twice as large, and that wasn't including the substantial, attached building to the side of the property. Despite its size, the inside was still characterized by plain plaster walls, wooden floors, and the occasional sparse decoration scattered on the tables.
The girl led Shiho into the living room, where Soun was already present.
"Ranma-kun, I mean Kobayakawa-san, what are you doing here?" Soun asked.
"I know how to get everybody to stop attacking Akane-san," Shiho said.
"You do? How?" Akane asked from the hallway. She, along with Nabiki, continued to approach until they had fully entered the living room.
Shiho turned to face Akane. She said, "Kuno-san fancies himself as Yoritomo Minamoto. If we can convince him he's more Tessan Aoyama, that should make him stop."
"Who's that?" Akane asked.
It was obvious that Akane would know Yoritomo Minamoto's name, so Shiho explained who the other person was. "Tessan is the villain of the 'Banchou Sarayashiki' legend. The story is that he wanted a woman, Okiku, to become his mistress. When she refused, he had her killed and thrown into a well. Thereafter, her ghost tormented him for ages."
"Oh, my," the girl wearing the apron said.
Akane shuddered.
"That's bleak," Nabiki said.
Shiho nodded. She said, "It's a cautionary tale as much as anything. If we can get Kuno-san to realize he's acting that dishonorably, then he'll stop."
"That's a nice theory, but what makes you think it'll work?" Nabiki asked.
"Don't you remember what he said?" Shiho asked. It had taken the visit to the Kuno estate to give her the context to properly weigh them, but in hindsight, everything had been plain in the boy's words.
"Who, Kuno-chan? He said something?" Nabiki asked. She looked at Akane, who shook her head back in return. "When?"
"Right before my fight with him," Shiho said.
Nabiki scoffed. She said, "That? He's always blathering on and on like that. It doesn't mean anything. It's just nonsense."
"No, it isn't," Shiho said. She automatically adopted the cadence and posture of Kuno. "'Free the fair Akane-kun from her wretched fate!' 'I see the duty falls to me.' I will defeat you and force you to renounce your engagement.'" She resumed a more normal way of speaking. "You see? It's obvious that he pictures himself as the honorable protector of Akane-san. If his actions were instead dishonorable, then he'll stop."
Akane overtly sighed. She said, "That's your big idea? It's the same thing we hired you to do in the first place, and we saw how well that worked."
"No, it isn't," Shiho said, causing Akane and the others to sharply look at her. "You hired me to be your fiance. That's very different."
"What do you mean?" Akane asked.
"Your being engaged is related, yes, but it's only a tangent to the main point," Shiho said. "There's a common motif in samurai lore of a samurai rescuing a distressed damsel from an impossible situation. If Akane-san were trapped in an engagement, that fits right into that. And the more trapped Akane-san is, the more it spurs Kuno-san on. What we need to do is to change the story. Even more common in samurai mythology is the idea of a samurai trying to balance his duty against his desires. There are countless stories of the honorable samurai needing to ignore the allure of some temptation, or of him debasing himself and it leading to a disastrous ending. If we can change him to that world view, then everything will fall into place."
Akane, Nabiki, and Soun all exchanged looks. Akane then asked, "Okay. If that's true, then how do we convince him of that?"
"It's simple," Shiho said. She looked straight at Akane. "You need to convince him that you aren't trapped in this engagement. You need to convince him that you love Ranma Saotome and that you are eagerly looking forward to marriage."
"What?" Akane nearly shouted.
"In the stories, the woman's opinion is of paramount important. If the woman secretly loves the samurai, than it's the samurai's duty to save her. If the woman is happy with how things are for her, then it's the samurai's duty to resist that temptation."
"I guess that makes sense," Akane said. She still sounded tentative. "But how am I supposed to do that?"
"We do what we did before, but this time, you are the star of the show, not me. You need to put a stop to the fight and declare your love for Ranma," Shiho said.
"No!" Akane's face flushed a bright red. "No, no, no!"
The forceful shout startled Shiho. She asked, "What's wrong?"
Akane's hands flailed around. She asked, "In front of the whole school? No way!"
"Why not?" Nabiki asked. A grin came to her face. "You've done it before, don't you remember?"
As impossible as it it seemed, her blush intensified even more. She shouted, "No I didn't!"
"Yes you did," Nabiki said. Her grinned broadened. "Don't you remember when you confessed how much you loved Kugimiya-san?"
"Oh, you were so cute as Romeo," the girl wearing the apron said. Her smile seemed much more natural and benign than Nabiki's.
"Are you talking about that school play? When we were kids? This and that are totally different!" Akane shouted. "I shouldn't need to explain that to you."
Shiho pieced the fragments together. It sounded like Akane had played Romeo in a staging of "Romeo and Juliet." It wasn't the most common thing ever, but it wasn't unheard of for a girl to play a boy's part.
"How is that different?" Shiho asked.
"That was just a performance," Akane said.
"And this is also just a performance," Shiho said. It was a performance for people who weren't aware it was being staged, but it was still acting.
"No," Akane said. She vigorously shook her head. "It's different, and different is different."
Shiho sighed. It was ultimately up to Akane, and if she didn't want to go any further, than Shiho wasn't going to try to force her to. It was always the prerogative of the client to leave the engagement. It was still a disappointment to leave the Tendo's situation unresolved, but in this case, her honor was satisfied. She had already gone far above what could reasonably be expected.
"I see," Shiho said. "In that case, I'm sorry to have bothered you all. I hope you will consider using the Hi Ao Production Company the next time you are in need of any acting services. Good evening." She bowed.
"What?" Akane asked. "You're leaving?"
Shiho raised up again and said, "Yes. You've already ended the contract, so there's no more job here. I only came because I thought you wanted to end the morning fights, but if you don't want to." She shrugged. It was their choice to abandon the situation, not hers. "Goodbye."
"Wait," Akane said. She hesitated, her face growing red once again. And she hesitated further. Then she said, "Okay. Fine. We can try what you said. What do I need to do?"
A whiplash of mood hit Shiho. It was a mixed blessing at best. She wanted to continue her success rate, but this would also be more work for her, and unpaid work at that. Still, pride was what it was, and she had already made her decision even before she had entered the Kuno estate.
"Okay," Shiho said. She clapped her hands together, like a director beginning a new production. "Give me your best line. Tell me you love me."
"Here?" Akane asked. Then, louder, "Now?"
"Sure. Why not?" Shiho asked.
"But... there's everybody here," Akane said. She looked around at Soun, Nabiki, and the girl wearing the apron.
"Yes?" Shiho asked.
"I... I can't do it in front of everybody," Akane said. Her face was blushing again.
Shiho's face scrunched up in confusion. She asked, "You do realize that you're going to have to do this in front of the whole school, right?"
Akane's blush further intensified. She said in a quiet voice, "Yes, but can't we... you know... work up to it or something?"
"I guess," Shiho said. Stage fright was a common experience, but she had never of rehearsal fright before. The inauspicious start very much worried her. "Where do you want to start?"
"I guess we can go to the dojo," Akane said. She then turned to the everybody else in the room and shouted, "And none of you listen in!"
There was nothing in the large, spacious, wooden dojo to block any sound, and the traditional, paper-like doors clearly only provided minimal insulation. Regardless, Akane did seem more comfortable inside as compared to when she had been in the Tendo house. That was only a relative evaluation, though. On an absolute scale, Akane was still doing poorly.
It was like the rehearsals for a class play, only far worse. In those, the girls would likewise need to have their lines prompted, but at least they could actually say them. In contrast, Shiho was making practically no progress at all with Akane.
"I," Shiho said.
"I," Akane said. Her voice felt stilted.
"Love," Shiho said.
"L..ove..." Akane said. A warble joined her stilted words.
"You," Shiho said.
"Y..y..ou..." Akane said. The warble progressed to a full stammer.
"I love you," Shiho said.
"I.. I... I can't do it," Akane said.
"Why not?" Shiho asked. As much as she wanted to be understanding, she was frustrated. Over the past hour, they had glimpsed only the most minor touches of progress.
"It's just too... ugh..." Akane said. She squirmed her body back and forth.
"What is 'ugh?'"
"It's... embarrassing..."
Shiho sighed. Working with amateurs was always so difficult.
"Here," Shiho said. She took Akane's arm, pulled her over to a corner of the dojo, and turned her to face it. "Now, try saying it."
"At the wall?" Akane asked.
"At nothing at all," Shiho said. "To begin with. We can work up from there."
"I love..." Akane trailed off into silence again.
"Ugh..." Shiho mussed up her hair in frustration.
They continued to practice for another hour after that, but they met with as little success as they had had over the course of the previous hour. It wasn't useless as such, but it was the nearest thing to it.
An almost palpable gloom haunted the Tendo Dojo as Shiho left Akane behind for the evening. Despite how impossible it was for Shiho to beat Kuno in a fight, it was increasingly looking like the preferable option. It had become obvious that their current approach was fundamentally flawed, and Shiho spent the rest of the night trying to think of a different one.
Shiho was tentatively optimistic upon returning to the Tendo home. She had brought a secret weapon with her, courtesy of the Hi Ao Production Company.
She was welcome into the house by the girl with the apron, who introduced herself as Kasumi, the eldest sister of the family. Kasumi proceeded to lead Shiho to the dojo, where Akane was already waiting inside, and then left the two of them alone. Akane's balled up fists and gritted teeth made it look like she was preparing to enter a martial arts tournament.
"I thought we'd try something different today," Shiho said. She dropped her bag on the ground and knelt over it.
"What's that?" Akane asked. She moved forward to watch as Shiho opened the bag.
Shiho pulled out a copy of the script and handed it towards Akane. She asked, "You played Romeo before, right? I thought we'd try that today." There were several scenes in which Romeo professed his love to Juliet throughout the play. It wasn't perfect, but it would at least give them something to work with.
Akane did not take the offered script. She said, "Oh no. Absolutely not!"
"Huh?" Shiho asked.
Akane stood with her hand aggressively pointed at Shiho's face. She said, "No way I'm doing that."
"Why not?"
"I hate acting!"
Shiho was taken aback, and it took her a second to recollect her wits in the face of Akane's forceful attack. She held up her hands in surrender. "Okay, okay."
It had seemed like a promising idea, but it was obvious she had misinterpreted the situation. Akane's hatred of acting did help explain why she was so bad at it, though. Or maybe her lack of ability explained her hatred. Regardless, having Akane act out the various love scenes in the play was clearly a non-starter.
Shiho tossed the script on top of the costumes in her bag, and she resigned herself to what needed to be done. "In that case, I guess we should go back to the practice we were doing before."
Akane's anger immediately melted away, replaced by the awkward embarrassment from the day before. Practice went much the same way as well, with Akane's confident declarations once again turning into hesitant and tentative stutters. Their long evening was quickly interrupted, though, when the door to the dojo opened. The noise caused Akane to shout and jump to face it.
"Onee-chan! What are you doing here?"
"Is that any way to greet your sister?" Nabiki asked. She had a tray in her hands upon which were some cups and snacks.
"That isn't an answer to my question," Akane said.
Nabiki peered around the room intently. She said, "Is it so strange to be hospitable to a guest?"
"For you? Yes," Akane said. "You're just trying to eavesdrop, aren't you?"
"I come all this way to bring you some refreshments only to be accused. You wound me. I'm just trying to help," Nabiki said. She put the tray down next to Shiho's bag and then picked up the script from it. "What's this? You finally managed to convince somebody to let you play Juliet?"
Shiho's actress senses were prickling and insistent. It was like when a supposed race car driver went through an entire event without once approaching the showroom. They weren't wrong as such, but Nabiki's actions certainly felt artificial and suspicious. It gave Shiho pause, trying to figure out what to make of it.
Akane had expressed how unusual Nabiki's was behaving, which presumably meant that Nabiki was acting that way for a specific reason. She had intently looked around before directly highlighting the script Shiho had brought. And she had mentioned Juliet by name, which was a very arbitrary statement to make in the already conspicuous situation. Presumably that was what drove her presence here.
Shiho made the intuitive leap. She turned to Akane and asked, "You want to play Juliet, don't you?"
"Huh?" Akane asked.
Nabiki nodded. She said, "That's right. Akane's been wanting to play Juliet since forever."
"Onee-chan!" Akane shouted. Her face started to flush red again. "That's normal, isn't it?" Akane asked, both louder and and more forcefully than ordinary conversation would have considered polite. "It's every girl's dream to play Juliet."
Shiho rolled her eyes in annoyance. She asked, "Then why didn't you just say so? You can do Juliet's part then. I'll say Romeo's lines. It's better that way, anyway." She took the script from Nabiki and handed it to Akane.
Akane took the script and threw it back onto the bag. She said, "I don't need it."
"Oh?" Shiho asked.
Akane took on a stereotypical, melodramatic pose, her right hand clutched to her chest and her left arm extended forward. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Shiho mentally skimmed through the play. She had planned on rehearsing the start of it, when Romeo declares his love for a girl, but if Akane was going to be reciting Juliet's part instead, it required a different focus. She confirmed that the famous balcony scene was as good as any, and better than most.
"That's pretty good," Shiho said. It certainly was, compared to Akane's previous efforts. "Can you do the whole thing?"
"You asked for it now," Nabiki said. She shook her head and left the room.
"Easy," Akane said. She emoted an extended arm again. "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name. Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet."
"Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?" Shiho said, reciting Romeo's line.
Akane continued, "Tis but thy name that is my enemy..."
As they progressed through the scene, Shiho grew progressively more comfortable. Akane's performance was far from great, but considering the lack of preparation, it was as good as Shiho would have expected from an amateur. Most importantly, it had none of the fumbling nonsense that Akane had stuttered through for all of the day before.
"Would'st thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love?" Shiho asked.
"But to be frank and give it thee again. And yet I wish but for the thing I have; my bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite. I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu," Akane said.
Shiho gave a robust clap in response. There was definitely something here she could work with. She shouted, "There! Like that!"
The blush on Akane's face had been replaced by a proud smile.
The entire Tendo family had gathered in the dining room. Soun was sitting at the table there. To his left was Nabiki, and to his right was Kasumi. On the other side of the table sat Akane and Shiho.
"You don't understand. I love Ranma-kun," Akane said. Her voice was plaintive and longing. "I can't stand to see him hurt again. Please."
Nabiki crossed her arms and leaned back from the table. She asked, "Since when?"
"Ever since the moment I first saw him," Akane said. She glanced furtively towards Shiho. "It was destiny. I just knew that Ranma-kun would be the one for me. This is my duty, but it is so much more than that. It's my dream, too. Please, do not destroy it."
"That's nice," Kasumi said. She had a benign smile on her face.
"Hmm..." Soun crossed his arms in front of him.
Nabiki had a not-quite grimace frozen on her face.
Shiho felt closer to Nabiki's expression than to Kasumi's. She had lost count of the number of times Akane had confessed her love, and while she had improved immeasurably, something ineffable was still off.
"It's still not quite right. Something's missing," Shiho said.
Akane eager demeanor vanished, and she slumped over. She turned her head to Shiho and asked, "Like what?"
"I don't know. It's fine, but it just feels flat. Nothing really stands out," Shiho said. Upon saying that, she realized what was missing. "A climax. It needs a climax, something that will stick in their memory and stay with them."
Nabiki nodded. She said, "I think that's right. Something like... a kiss."
Akane jolted upright and shouted, "A kiss? You want me to kiss her?"
"Oh my," Kasumi said. Her hand moved up to cover her mouth.
Shiho nodded. She said, "That could work. It's a pretty common way for a romance story to end, and it's a good way to emphasize how close we are."
Soun glared at Shiho and a growl could definitely be heard coming from him, but he didn't actually say anything.
"Absolutely not," Akane said. She slapped the palm of her hand on the table in front of her. "There's no way this is going to be my first kiss."
"First kiss?" Shiho asked. She was confused. "You didn't kiss when you did 'Romeo and Juliet?'" It was hard to imagine how that could have worked without any kissing.
"Oh," Akane said. She tapped a fist into her open palm. "We could do that."
"Do what?" Shiho asked.
"We used tape," Akane said.
"Tape? How?" Shiho asked. She didn't understand how tape fit into the conversation.
"Just tape over the mouth, so we don't really kiss. It's what we did in that play," Akane said. She pantomimed covering her mouth appropriately.
"Really?" Shiho asked. The idea sounded absolutely ridiculous.
It was easy to imagine hiding a strip of tape somewhere, but that was the only easy part. Distracting the audience from noticing the actress putting it on sounded implausible at best, and it was outright impossible that the audience wouldn't see it at some point before, during, or after the actual kiss. That was also entirely ignoring the obvious fact that the actress couldn't say anything while her mouth was taped shut.
"That sounds terrible," Shiho said.
"It's not that bad," Akane said.
"Yes, it is. In a theater play, it'd just look awful. In a real-life performance, it would ruin everything." Shiho swiped her hand back and forth, as if trying to fan away some dust. "It'd be better if we don't do anything at all than to try and do that."
"Then do you have any other ideas?" Akane asked.
Despite their best efforts, they weren't able to think of any other possible climaxes. In the end, they decided to just go forward regardless. Akane's performance wasn't bad as such. Shiho just hoped that not bad would be good enough.
It was another rainy morning when Shiho met up with Akane and Nabiki at the front of their house. She was dressed in an archaic, male kimono for the event, and she carried a prop katana and wakazashi on her waist. It was flamboyant to the point of caricature, but she thought it would be well received by the audience.
The three girls once again walked together to Nerima High School, and once again there was a mob of male students waiting in the courtyard. This time, though, rather than spur the crowd into action, Kuno emerged forward and confronted Shiho.
"You cur! You dare show your face here again, and in the company of the beautiful Akane-kun, no less." Kuno raised his boken to point at Shiho. "I see I have shown too much mercy. I shall not make that mistake a second time. You meet your end today!" He ran forward, boken poised and ready to strike.
"No! Stop!" Akane stepped forward and planted herself directly in his path, adopting a stereotypical position of screening with her arms spread out wide.
"What is this?" Kuno stopped as suddenly as he had started. "Step aside so that I may free you of your baleful burden."
"Thank you, Kuno-senpai, but you don't understand. This isn't a burden. You see, I love Ranma-kun. I can't stand the thought of seeing him hurt. Please," Akane said. The only hesitation in her voice was what could be expected from a troubled and torn girl trying to navigate a tricky situation. The real challenge would be coming up, though. They had tried to predict some of Kuno's most likely responses, but it was impossible to be certain what he would do next.
"What is this?" Kuno asked. He brandished his boken at Shiho. "Sorcerer! You have bewitched Akane-kun! It is the only explanation!"
Of the multitude of ideas they had planned and rehearsed for, magical sorcery was not one they had considered. They would need to improvise, which could be problematic for Akane.
Shiho stepped forward from behind Akane and tried to redirect the flow to a more comfortable one. She said, "Only as much as Akane-chan has bewitched me as well. Kuno-dono, please, allow me to explain, as one samurai to another. It's true that it started as an arrangement of our honorable fathers: a sacred oath between our warrior families that we would marry and merge our two schools of martial arts. However, it is so much more than that. I love Akane-chan with all my heart. This is not an obligation, or even a privilege. This is fate."
"For me as well," Akane said. "Ever since the moment I saw him, I knew Ranma-kun would be the one for me. Can you not see the red string which ties us together?" She held up her hand nearest to Shiho and showed off her little finger. "When you wound him, you wound me just as much. This is my duty, but it's so much more than that. This is my dream, too. Please, do not destroy it."
Kuno wavered. His boken slowly drooped to the ground. In contrast, the furrow on his brow grew and deepened, becoming so pronounced that it was visible across the entire courtyard.
Comprehension struck Kuno's face, and he re-raised the boken. He shouted, "This is a trick! It must be!" He released a hand from his boken and used it to point at Nabiki, who was walking along her diverted path to the side of the crowd. "You!"
"Me?" Nabiki asked. She stopped and pointed at herself.
Instantly, the crushing weight of realization struck Shiho. All of their preparations had been focused on Akane. They had completely forgotten that Nabiki would be around as well. Still, by this point, anything Shiho did to try to prompt her or remove her was bound to be suspicious or worse. There was nothing she could do but watch and hope.
"How can I help you, Kuno-chan?" Nabiki asked.
Kuno stalked over to her, and he pulled out a large stack of yen from his shirt. He handed the stack into Nabiki's waiting hand in a motion which was clearly well practiced on both sides.
"What's this for?" Nabiki asked. It didn't stop her from opening her bookbag and placing the money inside it.
"The truth," Kuno said. He scowled at Nabiki.
"The truth?" Nabiki asked. "Well, since you asked so nicely, the truth is that they've been like this for weeks, ever since Ranma-kun showed up at the house."
Kuno frowned. He pulled out a larger stack of bills and handed them to Nabiki.
Nabiki placed them into her bag as well. "You should have heard Akane in the dojo. Night after night, repeating over and over how much she loved Ranma-kun."
"Did she..." Akane started saying. Then, in a louder voice, she shouted at Nabiki, "Were you listening in on me?"
Nabiki only gave a sidelong glance back at Akane. It prompted Akane to give a growl of frustration while the hint of a blush came to her cheeks.
"Lies!" Kuno roared. He took out a yet larger stack of bills.
Nabiki avidly took them. She said, "You know, a few days ago, Akane-chan called us all into the dining room. There, right in front of our father and sister, she confessed her love to Ranma-kun. She kept going on and on about how wonderful he was and how much she was looking forward to the day they were going to be married. Fate this and honor that. Honestly, it was kind of embarrassing."
"Onee-chan!" Akane shouted. Her blush had grown to be fully developed.
Nabiki shrugged back to Akane. She said, "Business is business. Are you willing to pay more?"
"I said I wanted the truth, you greedy woman! Now give me what I've paid for, or you'll never get a single yen from me again!" Kuno shouted.
"Kuno-chan, I'm telling you the truth. I'll swear it on anything you want me to. But, if you want me to tell you Akane hates Ranma-kun, I can do that, too. I'll tell you anything you want, if you pay me," Nabiki said. She held out her hand.
Kuno visibly grimaced, and his growl could be heard across the entire courtyard. He swiveled his head to face Shiho and shouted, "No! I refuse to believe it. It's a trick!"
Shiho thought frantically. They were at an impasse, and that was effectively a failure. It wasn't good enough to leave the situation in confusion. They needed to convince Kuno, and despite there best efforts, they had yet to do so. There had to be something she could do to tip the balance.
"Kuno-senpai!" Akane shouted. Her fists were clenched at her side. "Then how about this!" She reached over, grabbed Shiho's collar with both her hands, and yanked her close.
It was all the cue Shiho had. It was all she needed. So when Akane smashed her lips into Shiho's, Shiho pivoted to accept it adroitly. She used all her considerable experience to turn the tentative bumbling of a girl's first kiss into the most intimate, untoward, and certainly-not-platonic spectacle she possibly could given the circumstances.
An audible gasp filled the courtyard. The shrieks of several girls screaming could be heard in the distance.
"Or..." Nabiki said as the long kiss extended, "I can tell you how far they've gone. I don't think Father even knows that."
There was a wooden thunk of a boken hitting the ground.
Akane relaxed her grip, and Shiho drew back, finally able to resume breathing again.
"How's that, Kuno-senpai!"
Kuno's mouth was as slack and agape as the hands from which he had dropped his boken.
Shiho bowed deeply. "Kuno-dono, please. I beseech you. We both know you are the superior man. You are faster than me. Stronger than me. More skilled with with the sword than me. If you would take Akane-chan, then I would have no way of stopping you. Still, prove you have the honor to match your martial prowess. I beg of you, do not steal my life's love away from me."
Kuno growled again, his robust voice sounding like a passing train it its volume and tenor. He reached down and grabbed his boken.
"Fine!" Kuno's shout cracked like thunder throughout the wet courtyard. "I'll accept your engagement!" He posed as dramatically as any actor playing Hamlet ever did. "But if you ever make her cry, then you will rue the day that you crossed paths with Tatewaki Kuno!" The reverberation of his pronouncement lingered in the air.
"Of course I never will," Shiho said, bowing deeply once again. "Thank you very much."
"Thank you for understanding, Kuno-senpai," Akane said. She reached over and gave Shiho one more kiss. "Until later."
Shiho waited at the gate while Akane walked forward. The crowd parted for her and let her pass unchallenged. Shiho then turned away, satisfied with another job successfully completed.
Author's Notes:
First, a big disclaimer: I'm not at all confident of the veracity of the segments about samurai rescuing damsels in distress, and about the nature of a samurai's duty being influenced by the context of the woman's situation. I did fair bit of research, but I found surprisingly little on samurai love stories. Therefore I can't say it's wrong, but I likewise can't say that it's right. I do think it lines up with the common motif in general Japanese mythology of the conflicts of giri (obligation) and ninjou (human emotion), but I also think that it feels more like a 21st century paradigm than a 20th century one, let alone a 17th century or a 12th century one. If anybody out there knows, I'd welcome the opportunity learn more. Regardless, if needed, I hope you will accept this particular conceit.
With that disclaimer presented, let's talk about this story.
"Portia's Plan:" also known as "If Ranma Did Not Exist," " Prayer to Freya," "Chevalier d'Eon's Mirror," and "How Do You Solve a Problem like Kuno?" I had no shortage of potential titles for this story, each with their various positives or negatives. I ended up selecting "Portia's Plan" because it was most in alignment with how canon "P.A." titled chapters. The title itself references "The Merchant of Venice," and how Portia was a woman who dressed as a man in order to resolve one of the problems in that play.
I had begun this story because I specifically wanted to do something without Ranma Saotome. "Finding the Silver" follows Ranma in an entirely different setting than canonical "Ranma 1/2," and I had wanted to try doing the inverse of that. Additionally, I had had the impression that all my work focuses on Ranma as a main character. Since then I've gone back and checked, and that was an entirely incorrect impression, but it had been one of my motivations at the time.
As so frequently happens, this story evolved a great deal in the course of my writing it. The biggest change was in terms of structure. I had originally planned it as a standard three-act story. However, a few days before I had released the first chapter, I changed it to the four-act structure of Kishoutenketsu. That shift necessitated a great deal of rework, but in the end, I think it fit nicely.
The other major change was one of content. I had originally envisioned this story as being much larger than it is. In my original conception, I had pictured Shiho fighting Kuno to a standstill in that first confrontation, if not actually defeating him. This could have been done in a variety of comedy-slapstick ways, such as Kuno slashing open Shiho's shirt and the sight stunning him for a few moments. Subsequent to that fight, I had planned on redoing various canonical "Ranma 1/2" scenes in this different context, such as Shiho intentionally diving out of the third story window knowing there is a pool below, or the Tendos hiring another actor to act as Ryouga in a staged fight with Akane only pretending that the umbrella is extremely heavy.
However, when I got to the point of writing it, I didn't like how it felt. It would stretch plausibility in the extreme for Shiho to adopt a semi-permanent new identity for this job. (What happens long-term when "Shiho Kobayakawa" never graduates? If "Ranma Saotome" attends Furinkan, how long until somebody forces a demonstration of Jusenkyou?) Additionally, it also feels unfair to Kuno for him to be beaten in martial arts by a civilian. As such, I changed things so Shiho was decisively defeated in that first confrontation. Obviously that caused a substantial and pervasive change to the story.
Related to the point about changing story content, as can be inferred by the description of the original conception, for a long time I was stuck trying to figure out how the story should conclude. I had been picturing it as a "Ranma 1/2"-style escapade, with a situation appearing, hijinks occurring, and then the situation ending. However, I couldn't think of a good way for this situation to resolve, short of a "Shiho fails and leaves" type ending, which I did not like at all. I was discussing this with somebody else, and they mentioned that "this sounds like a 'problem of the day' in the 'P.A.' universe." I thought about it and realized that that was correct. When I changed the paradigm to be a 'P.A.'-style one, where a client comes to Shiho with problem and she subsequently solves it, it became much easier. Clearly the "problem" was Kuno, and so the most appropriate story conclusion would be solving that.
That being said, that does understate the difficulty of doing that. In my opinion, it's not at all obvious how the situation with Kuno could be resolved. For a long time, I had pictured a scene with Shiho threatening to perform seppuku, in the style of the film "Harakiri," and maybe her actually being willing to do it. However, it felt very melodramatic and like a cheap way out to me, given how much seppuku is used in stories to force issues. My breakthrough was when I realized this story could be a character arc for Akane. In canon, she is romantically shy and awkward, and having her develop into somebody who as more confident and decisive could be a nice arc in this story. Admittedly I do think canonically Akane is more angry-shy than the blushing-shy I used in this story, but I think it's close enough to be reasonable. Also, as a related bit of trivia, originally it had been Nabiki who had been the most prominent secondary character in this story. The change to focus to Akane brought with it a substantial increase in her role and an associated decrease of Nabiki's.
The final note I'll make about this story is its length, and especially its chapter length. I've noticed as time goes by that my chapter lengths seem to be growing larger and larger. I made a particular effort this time to keep them around 5000 words to see how it feels. I clearly succeeded, but I'm not entirely convinced they are better or worse than longer ones.
Anyway, that is one more story completed. Thank you for reading. I would love to hear what you thought of it. Regardless, do I hope you enjoyed it.
Temporary Author's Notes:
This chapter gave me a lot of trouble.
I've noted before how things can be so easy and obvious in summary and outline but so hard to do when you try to actually write it. The idea of having Akane play Juliet for practice is one such example. It's a simple and natural idea, but none of the characters have quite the right knowledge or mindset to make it happen. And even if they were, making it dramatically interesting for somebody to do the obvious thing presents a challenge in and of itself as well. For example, Nabiki could have given a one-line statement to Shiho of, "You should have Akane play Juliet as practice," but that's not very satisfying.
I feel like my resolution to the above could have been better. The scene where Nabiki comes in and gives the exposition that Akane wants to play Juliet feels weird to me. I think it is entirely plausible and reasonable. I'm imagining Nabiki eavesdropping, she hears the good idea being ignored, and she takes action to fix things. However, as it is, it does feel somewhat like an arbitrary deus ex machina. If I had a 3-paragraph section in Nabiki's point of view to explain things I'd feel better about it, but that seems weird given this story structure, so I'm leaving it as it. I hope Shiho's lampshading of things and Akane's later observation that Nabiki was eavesdropping is good enough for readers to make the connection.
The other segment which stands out to me as a part which could use more work is the commentary about using tape during the acting. I think there needs to be a better transition there, and maybe more reflection within Shiho and discussion with Akane and the others. I'm not sure what I should put there, hence me not expanding it, but that segment feels more abrupt than I'd prefer.
In contrast, I like how the segment with Nabiki near the end played out. I originally had some commentary about Shiho being impressed that Nabiki was managing to misdirect so much while telling the truth. However, I ended up cutting that as being too much "self-congratulations by the author" which felt pompous and arrogant.
I am disappointed that I wasn't able to expand that section with Nabiki just a little more, though. I had originally had an idea of Kuno asking Nabiki how far Akane and "Ranma" had gotten, Nabiki answering they hadn't done anything, Akane kissing Shiho, and than Nabiki *gasp!* giving a refund to Kuno and apologizing for having out of date information. I was thinking the insanity of Nabiki giving money back would add to the shock value of the situation, both for Kuno and for the reader. However, I couldn't quite get it to work, so I simplified it.
I was also looking for a place to put more exposition about Shiho's character, such as Akane or somebody asking her about her first kiss, and Shiho giving an explanation of her past; or making a big deal of Shiho disguising herself when visiting the Tendo Dojo and how those who saw her would naturally mistake her for her famous movie star mother. However, as much as I like Shiho and P.A., none of that is relevant to this story, so I cut it all.
Alas, the necessities of dramatic pacing.
Last Updated: November 14, 2021