Oyu no Ranma
Ch. 4: Normal Girls
DISCLAIMER: In a frantic rush, Linda ran to the office printer, grabbed the report, shoved it into a folder and slammed it onto the CEO's desk. She looked at her watch. She might just make it, she thought. She rushed down the hallway, almost crashing into a receptionist who was on her way back from a coffee break. Not trusting the elevator, she took off her heels and stumbled as fast as she could down the stairs in her stocking feet. Through the parking lot she ran to her car. She drove like a maniac to the elementary school. She parked as close as she could and ran inside. A stuffy-looking lady in dour glasses smiled at her officiously at the door. "Let me in!" Linda pleaded, "My daughter is in the play!"
"I'm sorry," the lady said, "I can't do that. Many characters and situations in this fanfiction are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Kitty film, and Fuji TV. The author is writing this without their permission."
~~~~~*~~~~~
Note on timing: This and the next couple chapters actually take place at the same time as the previous chapter, only from Ranma's perspective. I realize this is a little confusing, it's part of the reason why It's been so long since the last chapter. But I could work out a better way to do it so this is what we're left with. Enjoy!
~~~~~Ch.4~~~~~
After that embarrassing fight with Kuno, School had been rather dull. Akane and Ranma were late to their first class, but they had doctor's notes from Tofu, so that wasn't a big deal. As for the rest of Ranma's initial scholastic adventure, she had missed a year and two months of school while she was on the road with her father, but she hadn't exactly missed it. History was still boring, Math was still incomprehensible, English was still equally incomprehensible, and Gym was too easy. The lunch period had held the most action really.
Japanese schools have lunch in the classrooms, and as a result there's a slightly less institutional feel to it than in American schools, which is odd when you consider that most things about Japanese education are more institutional than the American system. Ranma had been admonished three times already that she had to get a school uniform. Normally she wouldn't pay this any mind, except Akane kept assuring everyone that Ranma was just new and that she would be buying one as soon as possible.
Because lunches take place in classrooms, the cliques are a bit smaller than in American high schools. They are still apparent however. Most of them center around different clubs. At Furinkan there were the Tennis players, the Kendoists, the Thespians, the Chemists, the Yankii with their died blond hair and sour expressions, and then there were the Popular kids. In more well-to-do schools these kids might be the hall monitors, but in Furinkan, the hall monitors were all invisible losers to whom nobody paid any attention. The popular kids were either pretty, impressively athletic, or both. Everyone hovered around the Popular kids like the spokes of a wheel.
As it turned out, this was the group Akane belonged to. And it made for some uncomfortable moments.
Akane and Ranma had just begun opening their lunches when Sayuri came to Akane's desk, "Akane-chan you've honestly got to stop taking on these charity cases, I mean, like, honestly!"
"Ranma's not a charity case, Sayuri, She's a guest, and she's really cool. She's better at kenpo than I am. Didn't you see her beat Kuno?"
"No, I mean, hello? I was in school on time, okay? Besides, it's not like we need another female martial artist at this school, honestly!" Sayuri had her hair in an off center ponytail and lots of bright plastic jewelry that made her look like an 80's era Madonna wannabe despite her uniform…and Japanese-ness. She had a gracefulness to her movements though, which suggested a great deal of training.
"How many female martial artists are at this school?" Ranma asked.
"Oh, it's just Akane, and I guess you now. But that's more than enough, believe me," Sayuri answered as if she hadn't been insulting Ranma five seconds before. "Don't get me wrong, some of the moves Akane showed me work really well in some of my dances, but the rest of it is so...barbaric." Then she turned back to Akane and started up the insults again, "Honestly, Akane, why couldn't you have brought a boyfriend to school instead of China girl over here? I'm sick of having to date boys from other prefectures."
As if to punctuate her point, a boy with light brown hair stepped in from behind Sayuri, "Hi, China girl, I'm Hiroshi. So...me and some of the guys were wondering... do we have to fight you to date you or are you easy like Sayuri here?"
"I'm not easy!" Sayuri protested
"And you don't have to fight me to go on a date with me!" Akane yelled afterwards.
"Oh, so you'll go on a date with me then?" Hiroshi asked, stepping rather close to Akane. Judging by the way he moved, and how he seemed oblivious to Akane's personal space, Ranma guessed he was a wrestler, though his muscle definition put him strictly at the amateur level.
"NO!" Akane wrinkled her nose. "I don't date creeps."
"You think every boy is a creep," the boy said, backing up an inch or so, apparently realizing he was being a little weird. "And if I were to beat you in a fight you'd be honor bound to date me wouldn't you? That is the deal isn't it?"
"Look, I had nothing to do with that. That was all Kuno and my sister."
"Right, well…the way I understand it, you're the heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes. If one of us challenges you, we challenge your school. So if we beat you, you have to win your title back, and we would get to dictate the terms of the next challenge. In other words, we could force you to date us. Am I getting anything muddled here?"
"No," Akane muttered sullenly.
"So it comes back to what I was saying. You won't date anybody unless they beat you... and Sayuri is easy."
"Hey!" Sayuri hit Hiroshi on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, babe, I'm easy too." With that, Hiroshi dipped Sayuri down into a kiss.
When he rose again, Sayuri was blushing and Hiroshi was looking at Ranma with a lecherous grin on his face. "So how about you, China Girl? You easy? Or hard?"
The way Hiroshi said the word hard, seemed vaguely perverted to Ranma, so it didn't seem like she could safely choose either option. The word "hard," as in "difficult" is taihen in Japanese, and if you are a Japanese of that sort of mindset then you might notice that if you switch the syllables around you get hentai. Hiroshi was of that mindset. Ranma was not. Ranma just knew that she did not want to be hard OR easy, so she did her best to create a third option:
"Let me put it this way, shithead. If you so much as breathe funny in my direction I'm going to kick your ass so hard my toes will be sticking out of the top of your head." As an afterthought, Ranma added, "And my name ain't China Girl. It's Ranma Saotome, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
Hiroshi backed up and held up his hands, his eyes wide. He was still smiling though. "I guess that answers that question. Hey guys!" Hiroshi called out to his buddies, "Looks like we got another Anything Goes girl!"
Akane sighed. "Sorry Ranma, now you're in the same mess I am."
Ranma shook her head, "It's no biggie. If you can handle a bunch of guys attacking you every mornin', then I should be able to, no sweat."
"I don't know, Ranma. Some of the boys are pretty strong and you might not be able to dodge if you're fighting more than one at a time."
"Oh yeah? I bet I knock more of 'em out tomorrow than you!"
"You're on!"
They were joined by Yuka, who had shoulder length hair and an air of having seen everything. She also was very lean and a few inches taller than Akane. She seemed to cut through the room when she walked. A runner, Ranma guessed. "So you're the new girl, Ranko Saotome, that right?" She asked, sitting on Ranma's desk.
"It's Ranma Saotome," Ranma corrected her.
Yuka wrinkled her nose. "Ranma. Why would you want to be named that? Wild horse indeed. You know you're just inviting the guys in school to try to tame you."
"It's my name. I'm keeping it," Ranma stated.
Yuka shook her head. "You ought to come up with a cool English name for people to call you in school. It's the latest thing. I'm Erika, Akane is Scarlett, you know, like in Kaze to Tomo ni Sarinu? Fits her to a tee. What would be a good name for you? Ronda maybe. That sounds a little like your Japanese name."
Ranma had no idea what Yuka was talking about. Yuka, as Akane would later explain, had recently become an Americanophile after she had stayed in the U.S. for a month with some family. She had seen Gone with the Wind, along with its Japanese version, Kaze to Tomo ni Sarinu something like five times. Ranma, of course, hadn't ever seen Gone with the Wind and didn't even know Scarlett the color much less Scarlett the character in that movie. She was just irritated by the girl. "My name is Ranma," she reaffirmed, forgetting to use feminine personal pronouns.
"You're worse than Scarlett! You even talk like a boy. Lucky for you they like tomboys around here. Do you have a boyfriend yet, Ronda, or are you still pure and virginal like Scarlett here?"
Akane came to Ranma's rescue here. "Yuka! She just got here okay? At least give her a few days before you start with the boyfriend crap."
"Scarlett, the school is in utter chaos because you're the most popular girl in school, but you won't go out with anyone. Ronda is just as pretty as you are and apparently just as much of a tomboy. I'm just trying to stave off the end of the world a day or two."
"I didn't ask to be the most popular girl in school. The only reason I am is BECAUSE I won't go out with anyone."
Yuka sighed. "I know. You're making it hard on the rest of us. All the men are saving themselves for you. It's pathetic. And I know you're waiting for someone mature to come along, but I have to break it to you, there isn't any such thing. I dated this college boy last night. Total jerk. Should have figured with his Lolita complex and everything."
"Yuka, You're sixteen!"
"I know, right? He still had his hands all over me like I was a piece of meat. I tell you, sex is all men think about. There aren't any exceptions."
Ranma knew of one exception. She hadn't thought of sex much at all when she was a boy. She was too busy learning the Art and trying to survive off of stolen food scraps back then. Then again the only girl Ranma had any real contact with was Shampoo, and that was when she was a part time girl. Shampoo was aesthetically pleasing, that was sure. But Ranma never found her physically attractive. Granted, most of the time when she saw her she was the wrong gender and Shampoo was trying to kill her, but still, shouldn't she have felt something in the nights when she was a boy?
"Bullshit," Ranma said out loud, startling both herself and the girls sitting around her. "You just don't meet any boys who aren't sex crazed lunatics 'cause you're a sex crazed lunatic yourself. If you met a boy who didn't think about sex all the time you'd probably just make fun of 'im or something, because he wouldn't give you the time of day."
Yuka had her mouth open for a moment, but then she smiled and laughed. "You know, Ronda, I think you may have a point there. I have to feel like the guy is a little interested in me or else why bother, right?"
"My name ain't Ronda, it's Ranma."
Yuka smiled and grabbed Ranma's nose shaking her head back and forth. "Aw lighten up, Ronda. It's going to be a long school year otherwise."
Yuka got off of Ranma's desk and started singing "Herupu mi Ronda! Herupu herupu mi Ronda!"
Ranma, of course, had never heard of the Beach Boys or the song "Help me, Rhonda," so it just seemed to her like Yuka had gone momentarily insane. Ranma was pretty sure it was going to be a long school year whether she lightened up or not.
~~~~~*~~~~~
After school, Ranma and Akane had to set about getting a job. First, however, they had to do some shopping. "The Nade's a couple blocks down from the school." Akane explained as she led the way.
"The Nade?"
"The full name is Japanese Beauty Baatafurai. Most of us just call it the Nade though."
Ranma nodded. The abbreviation came from the first two syllables of the word for Japanese Beauty, "Nadesico".
"What's baatafurai mean?" Ranma asked.
"It's English for 'butterfly'," Akane explained, "The Nade carries school uniforms, but they also make dresses for weddings and other special occasions."
"And you go there enough to have a nickname for the place?"
"Oh yeah, it's really cool," Akane said, touching Ranma's shoulder excitedly, "They have all kinds of fancy dresses there in storage, and you can rent them for only 1000 yen an hour. Once, for Sayuri's birthday, she, Yuka and I got dressed up at the Nade and went out for karaoke. It was so much fun! Well, until the boys showed up anyway." Akane's expression soured, and she let her hand fall back to her side.
"Why do you hang out with those girls?" Ranma asked, "They don't seem all that great to me."
"Sometimes, I wonder about that myself," Akane sighed, "but they're the only friends I have, or at least they were until you showed up. I wouldn't have been able to stand high school without them."
Ranma couldn't say anything to that. Just the mere possibility of friendship with a girl she barely knew was enough to make her sacrifice six months of her manhood, who was she to criticize Akane's choices?
Instead, Ranma found herself reaching out for Akane's hand. Akane grasped it lightly and smiled at her. Ranma felt warmth, both emotional and physical, from the act. It felt good to hold Akane's hand, to have a friend to share something with, even if what was shared was a feeling of loneliness.
She felt a lump start in her throat, but she kept from crying, mostly out of habit. She walked, holding hands with Akane for the remaining block as they approached the Nade.
"Welcome!" an elderly, willowy woman greeted them as they entered the shop. Manikins dressed in bright, colorful dresses and kimono lined the walls. There was a comfortable looking leather couch on the far left and two wide doorways that led to the men's and the women's changing rooms. Finally, a door behind the sales counter led into an expansive back room. Everything seemed bright, fashionable and clean. There was an austere quality too, like a zen garden.
Ranma didn't notice anything special about the old lady's garb at first. It was pretty nondescript, but after she had looked around the store she found herself looking at the woman again when she moved. The clothes, she realized, were perfectly tailored. There were no visible seams, and yet there was no way the lady could move that would produce the slightest wrinkle.
"Good afternoon, Nishikigi-san," Akane bowed. Ranma followed suit after realizing she was staring at the lady.
"Good afternoon, Tendo-san. I see you have brought a friend."
"Yes, this is Saotome Ranma, she's staying with my family. Take care of her okay?"
"Pleased to meet you, Saotome-san," Nishikigi greeted Ranma.
"Right back atcha," Ranma said in return, after which Akane hit her in the elbow. "Hey! What was that for?"
Akane rolled her eyes. "Ranma grew up on the road with her father," She explained to the lady, "She's a little uncultured."
Nishikigi nodded toward Ranma in sympathy. "That must have been terrible for you."
Ranma shrugged. "It had its moments. I just need a uniform for school and I'll be out of your hair."
Nishikigi's expression darkened for a brief moment into something approaching disgust, but then brightened again into a saleslady smile. Ranma wondered what was up. Then she noticed Akane was glaring at her and she got it. "Oh right. Atashi, not ore. I forgot. Sorry, 'kane."
"She was also raised as a boy," Akane explained.
"Well, for a boy, you make a beautiful girl, Saotome-san. I just need your measurements and I'll have your uniform ready right away."
Ranma found herself blushing at the lady's complement. Of course she had been called beautiful before, but mostly by drunken sailors and lecherous would-be muggers. Not by nice old ladies in a dress shop. "Um…measurements?"
"Don't worry about it; we'll sort you out, dear," Nishikigi assured her, "If you could turn around please?"
Ranma made a full 360 degree turn, feeling a little silly.
Nishikigi frowned just a moment again, and smiling once more said, "You have an admirable taste in clothing, given the circumstances, but I'm afraid they're too loose for me to make anything out. If you could just step into the change room for a moment and take off your blouse and slacks?"
"Okay." Ranma said, and let out a small sigh as she glanced over to the men's change room for a second before walking into the women's. Once she was inside it was fine. Just like the men's change rooms she had been in when she was a boy. It was just that those little choices that she had always taken for granted as a child were now a constant reminder that things were different now. She stripped to her underwear. She was wearing the sports bra from the previous night and a fresh pair of panties. She had managed to forget about this during the day and now she felt a wave of embarrassment as she looked down at herself.
"36-25-34," Nishikigi declared as she picked up Ranma's old clothing. "I'll be back in five minutes."
"Um, okay." Ranma said. Then she realized something. "Hey! What are ya doin' with my clothes?"
But the lady was already gone. Akane came in a moment later. "So she got you, huh? I thought she might."
"What do you mean?"
"Nishikigi-san is a little, what's the expression? Obsessive compulsive?"
"Yeah? What's that?"
"She can't stand it when clothes don't fit. She's really fast, and it's kind of neat really, but you don't want to come in here wearing someone else's clothes, and it can be really embarrassing if you gain weight or...start building up muscle."
"So…my clothes…?"
Akane nodded, "They're going to come back... improved."
"How strong are you, anyway?" Ranma asked, changing the subject.
Akane looked down at her feet. "Once, daddy passed out and I had to carry him to his room. I didn't even break a sweat."
"Wow, that's awesome! I bet you couldn't carry my pops, though."
Akane laughed and looked up for a bit, but she looked down again. "Not passed out, but I could manage it if he helped a little, you know, like, if he wrapped his arms and legs around me?"
"Okay. That's not an image I wanted in my head, but that's really cool. I could do that during a fight once I got my ki worked up a bit, but not cold. You should use that in your Art."
"Girls aren't supposed to be strong like that," Akane said.
Ranma thought about this for a while. She hadn't put it together that Akane was a girl, she was thinking of Akane as a student of the Art. "Um…I guess that means you're a bit of a tomboy. That's okay, right?"
"No, Ranma, it isn't." Akane said sounding a little hurt. "I've been a tomboy all my life. Getting into fights, wearing my hair short, I've been teased relentlessly about it and I'm sick of it. Dr. Tofu even made fun of me. I wanted high school to be different. I wanted to be more like Kasumi, the one everyone likes. Kasumi who's so mature, who's happy all the time. The one Dr. Tofu goes gaga over. I grew my hair out, I wore dresses, I tried not to get in fights as much, but did it work? No! Kuno made his stupid speech and I started having to fight people ALL THE TIME! It isn't fair!"
Ranma didn't know what to do. She walked toward Akane hesitantly. Akane hugged her. Ranma wrapped her arm around her friend awkwardly and, after some hesitation, patted her on the back.
"Akane?" Ranma spoke after a moment. Akane was crying hot tears into her bare shoulder and didn't respond, so Ranma sighed and continued. "I think maybe you're bein' a bit unrealistic about a few things." When Akane didn't say anything for a while, Ranma continued. "I mean, ya say you wanna be like Kasumi, but you're not Kasumi. You're you. And you say you don't wanna be a tomboy, but I know you care a lot about the Art, else you wouldn't be so keen on bein' my student. If you're a girl and you study the Art, folks are gonna call you a tomboy, that's just the way things are. Some things ya just can't change. You just gotta learn ta live with it and work on the things ya got some say over."
Akane pulled away from Ranma, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I just want to be a normal girl."
Ranma frowned, looking at her friend. "No. I don't think ya want that. Not really." Ranma crossed her arms and sat down on the bench provided in the change room. "Ya know, Pops used to always goad me inta doin' stuff by callin' me a weak little girl."
"But you were a girl, why would he say that?"
"I was a boy, Akane, I've told you that before."
"Honestly, Ranma, just because you were raised as a boy doesn't mean you were a boy, stop being so dramatic."
"I ain't bein' dramatic! I…" Ranma gave up. "Fine. Point is, Pops would say to me that girls were weak both physically and mentally, and I couldn't trust 'em or fight 'em because of that. And you know what? I think he was right."
"What?"
"Yeah. I think maybe most girls, normal girls, are weaker physically and mentally, but it ain't 'cause they're girls, it's cause they got fed the same shit I got fed and believed it. They think 'Oh I'm a girl so I gotta be dumb,' or 'I'm a girl so I can't be strong.' That's bullshit. Normal girls believe all that though. You can believe that if ya want and be just as normal as anyone else. Or you can be the martial artist I know you can be."
Akane was silent for moment, and then she said, "Ranma, you know a lot about the Art, and since I've met you, you've been a good friend, but…you don't know anything about what normal girls are like. So maybe you should keep your opinions on them to yourself for awhile."
Ranma blinked at that. She thought she had given some pretty good advice. "All I was sayin' was that bein' some stupid weak girl wearin' dresses all the time and lettin' people walk all over ya might not be somethin' ya really wanna pursue. That's all."
But Akane didn't seem mollified by this explanation at all. In fact she seemed almost angry. Her face was getting red and her left hand was gripping her right arm tightly, almost as if she were restraining herself. Then she smiled weakly. "I think I'll wait out in the lobby for you. Nishikigi-san will be back soon"
And with that she left, leaving a confused Ranma in her wake.
Sometime later, Nishikigi came back with Ranma's uniform and clothes. Ranma tried the uniform on. It fit perfectly, which vaguely bothered her. When she looked in the mirror, she saw a well put together teenage girl ready for school. She felt a little lost. Her hair was the only thing that kept her from looking completely normal. Bright red and in a pigtail. She smiled at that. She was a girl, but she was not a normal girl. Just because maybe girls were supposed to be weak, didn't mean she had to be. And suddenly looking at the image in front of her was just like that first time in China, before she learned to hate her curse. She liked the way she looked. Just like she liked to look at her muscles in the mirror when she was a guy, only a little different. She moved around a little, posed a bit. On a lark, she made a sexy stance, which wasn't really all that sexy given the shapelessness of the Furinkan uniform, but it was still impressive, even if she couldn't keep a straight face. I'm hot, she thought to herself. She crossed her arms under her breasts. "Well, of course I am. I'm Ranma Saotome."
She gave herself a last discerning look. "I wish I wasn't so damn short though."
Ranma had never been short before. It was always the female form that was short. Ranma touched the mirror. "This is me," she said, and while it scared her a little bit, mostly what she felt was pride. She had gone through a lot in this body. She had fought angry shopkeepers, Amazons, and belligerent drunks. Yeah she was short, and a girl, but she could kick ass all the same. And she was hot. "Way to go, Saotome," She said, giving herself a thumb's up, "you rock."
The dressing room was a little cramped so Ranma left the stall while still in uniform and began a slow kata in the hallway. The kata was a mix of tai chi, yoga and Aikido moves. It was a form designed by Ranma to fully explore her range of motion in various types of clothing with out stressing out the fabric too much. She had invented it after her curse due to the unfortunate opening of the top part of her gi during certain critical moves. So far, her Chinese clothes were the least restrictive of her movement. She doubted the uniform would be as free, but she needed to know exactly what moves she could get away with in the uniform and what she would have to avoid doing.
As it turned out the skirt wasn't too bad for fighting. Ranma could make a 120 degree angle with her legs with out any problem, which was good enough for most close range attacks. Any greater than 120 though and the skirt started to ride up on the leg, so that by the time Ranma got to 180 degrees in a full standing front split, she might as well have been wearing just her underwear for all the good the skirt did hiding her nether regions. Ranma decided that boxer shorts were the way to go for the school uniform. There was simply no way to fight without flashing somebody.
Satisfied that she knew how to move in the uniform now, Ranma went into the lobby to look for Nishikigi and hopefully get her old clothes back in some form or another.
Akane squealed as she exited the change room "Ehhh! You must go to the same school I do! My name is Akane, what's yours?"
Ranma smiled weakly. The play act made her feel a little uncomfortable. "It's Ranma, please take it easy on me." It wasn't one of Ranma's best performances, but she was a little distracted. She looked around the lobby. "Where's Nishikigi-san?"
"She went in the back. Is something wrong with the uniform?" Akane asked, falling out of the pretend scene herself.
"Nah, I just kinda wanna get my old clothes back. They got sentimental value."
"You have clothes with sentimental value? I guess you're a girl after all!" Akane laughed.
Ranma frowned. As much as she was ready to accept her girlhood for the next six months she still wasn't quite ready for direct verbal blows against her masculinity. Besides that, Akane was acting a little strange. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, but it was a little creepy. "You can't carry much of a wardrobe on the road," Ranma explained, "so y'learn to appreciate clothes that work well for ya. It'll be cool if she can make them fit me better, but I hope I can still move around okay." Seeing that the door to the back was open, Ranma headed toward it. "I'm gonna see what's up."
The back room of the Nade was another world—a darker world of concrete, high ceilings, and exposed fluorescent lights. Long rows of dresses and other formal wear stretched out in thin aisle ways that seemed to end at a precipice beyond which all existence would cease. If Ranma looked at the track of fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling, she could see that there was indeed a wall and so there could only be a finite number of clothes, but if she looked straight in front of her again the illusion was back. It made Ranma feel a little dizzy. Shaking her head free of the feeling Ranma walked along the wall of the room, feeling that to be somehow safer and less exposed than walking down one of the aisles. Proceeding this way, Ranma came to something of a clearing amidst a copse of clothes where Nishikigi was inspecting what looked to be Ranma's shirt through a pair of thin spectacles.
"Nishikigi-san?" Ranma spoke.
Nishikigi's eyes met Ranma's gaze over her lenses. "I have a few questions for you, young lady. First, what is your name again?"
"Uh… Saotome Ranma. Am I in trouble or somethin'?"
"No, dear, not at all. Sorry for coming off that way. You really ought to work on speaking in a more feminine manner, though. You lived on the road?"
"Yeah," Ranma answered. "I…" Ranma switched from "ore" to "atashi", "I mean, yes, I have been on the road with my father for most my life." It was the first full sentence Ranma said using feminine speech patterns, and it twisted her guts up a little.
Nishikigi smiled appraisingly, "These stitches…you did them?"
"Yea---Yes."
" They were done by hand?"
"Well, yes. I didn't exactly have room in my backpack for a sewing machine did I?"
Nishikigi nodded. "This stitch here, is very neat, and this one...this one is almost, almost mind you, expert level. I haven't seen work this promising in decades."
Ranma beamed. "What can I say? I'm the best." Ranma forgot to use feminine pronouns. Nishikigi frowned. Ranma was about to rephrase what she said, but the woman raised a hand.
"That's important to you, isn't it, Saotome Ranma?" Nishikigi asked rhetorically. "Being the best? I have to say, as far as your age group goes you probably are the best seamstress in Japan. There are women who study their entire lives and die before reaching your current level. These are sad cases of course, most anybody can attain an expert level in the craft if they exert themselves enough, but not at such an age."
"I don't think I'm that good," Ranma protested.
"Saotome-san, there are machines that can sew. A machine can sew an expert stitch in an instant. Sewing by hand is a skill that is fast dying out. Oh there are the housewives and amateurs who dabble out of financial necessity or simple curiosity, but no one who truly pursues it as an art. Japan, with its electronic gadgets and brand name fashions has maybe two people who can practice the old art, and I fear that you and I are those two people."
"You can't be serious, I mean, one of the reasons I looked through that book on sewing was 'cause….was because I figured I could stitch a wound up if Pops…if my father or me got a bad cut or something. Doctors use stitches all the time that way and they don't use machines."
Nishikigi's eyes went wide. "You learned how to sew…by reading about it in a book?"
"Well, that and this one time I was passin' er…passing by an electronics shop, and they were playing a sewing special on their television sets, so I stopped for a couple minutes to check it out. The moves are pretty simple really. Not nearly as complicated as some of the other techniques I've had to learn. The muscle memory was kind of hard to develop though." What Ranma didn't say, because it was embarrassing and because it wouldn't have made any sense to the lady, was that she had found it much easier to do in her female form, because her hands were smaller and she could maneuver the needle more easily. Whenever she tried it as a male she felt like she was wearing thick gloves or something. She had practiced for about a month off and on in China, sewing rags together and tearing them apart. She figured it was good enough about the time Genma and she left for Japan, and she hadn't really bothered with it since, except that she found the dexterity she developed helped immensely when she was tying her pigtail with the dragon whisker.
"I see," Nishikigi looked disappointed. "I was going to offer to teach you to be a master seamstress, but apparently it's not something you're passionate about; it is merely the means to an end for you. I'll leave the offer on the table though, should you ever choose to take me up on it." She folded Ranma's shirt in three swift movements, placed it on top of the already folded pants and handed the clothes to Ranma. "I've hemmed the pants and taken in the shirt some. It should still be loose enough for fighting, but now it won't look like you're some tomboy cross dresser wearing her brother's clothes."
"Uh…thanks. You knew I was a martial artist?" Ranma was surprised because Nishikigi didn't move like someone who knew the Art at all.
"I think you'll find martial artists are a bit more common here in Nerima than in some other places you've been to. I could have gone that way myself, but I decided to concentrate on the Art and leave the martial stuff to livelier souls."
"No offense, I'm just a little curious. Just what can a master seamstress do that an expert seamstress can't?"
Nishikigi smiled. "I'll show you, girl, but don't go telling anybody. Last thing I need is the wrong kind of publicity." Nishikigi took two pieces of cloth and fastened them together with some pins, then she took a needle in her right hand and held up the strips of cloth with her left. She held her needle poised at the connection between the two cloths. "Watch closely," she said. Then she seemed to let go of the needle and there was a blur, punctuated by an intermittent flash of metal as the two pieces of cloth tightened together to became one in the span of three seconds.
"Wow." That was all that Ranma could say. She had never seen such rapid, yet subtle ki manipulation. Somehow Nishikigi was able to coerce the needle to travel along a thin line of ki as it passed in and out of the two cloths. It wasn't just ki manipulation, it was downright telekinesis! If instead of going the cloth, Nishikigi pointed the ki trail out toward a target…well she could get herself a nice collection of punctured skulls.
"I can tell what you're thinking. And that is precisely why I use this strictly for sewing. I am just a harmless old woman who owns a dress shop. I am not someone anyone should challenge."
Ranma nodded slowly. "You have my word, on my honor as a martial artist, that your secret is safe with me, Nishikigi-sensei." Ranma bowed deeply. When she rose she grimaced and looked away. "About payment? I think the Tendos have some kind of account with you?"
Nishikigi sighed and sat down behind her desk. "No I'm afraid it's just the middle sister Nabiki who has the account with me. She called earlier today to inform me that she was separating her funds from the rest of her family's."
"I could work for you! I could pick stuff up, keep the wrong people out, that sort of thing." Ranma said.
Nishikigi smiled, her eyes twinkling a little. "I know what you're about, girl. That tactic isn't going to work. I'm only going to teach you if you renounce martial arts for the rest of your life. Are you prepared to do that?"
Ranma grit her teeth. She wanted to learn that technique! But martial arts was her life. It wasn't worth giving up everything just for one lousy technique. Then again, it was far from lousy... Ranma shook her head. She shouldn't even be considering it. She thought desperately of ways she could trick the old lady into teaching it to her anyway, but everything she thought of seemed completely dishonorable, and some of the ideas were almost evil. When Ranma was halfway through planning out how to steal one of Nabiki's cameras and how she could set it up so she could catch Nishikigi perform her technique from the optimum angle, she stopped herself. She took a breath. "No," She said, "I cannot abandon my Art. Do you have anything else?"
"My brother, Ryu, has a restaurant down the street. He always needs workers. If he agrees to it, you can work for him and your earnings will pay for the uniform. It should only take about a month."
"A month?"
Nishikigi shrugged. "My skills are in high demand. I feel I'm entitled to a healthy profit. By the way, how much can the average martial artist make in a year? I'm just curious."
Ranma growled at the old lady's thinly veiled jab at her chosen profession. Changing the subject she asked, "Does he have any secret techniques I should know about?"
"Ryu? No, nothing to speak of, unless you count the ancient art of sneaking up behind you and telling you what you're doing wrong."
Ranma chuckled in spite of herself. "What's your given name? In case he asks."
Nishikigi raised her eyes to the ceiling and sighed. "Guess."
Ranma shook her head.
"Amiko. My full name is Nishikigi Amiko. Please don't make me repeat that."
Ranma snickered. Nishikigi's parents had named her "Knit girl". "So do you…"
"I sew. I do not knit. If it does not involve the use of a thin sharp needle, I do not do it. Now leave, before I decide to stop being reasonable."
Ranma complied, "Thank you, Nishikigi-sensei, and good bye."
"You really are a fast learner, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
Nishikigi waved her off, "Nothing, just an old lady's meandering thoughts. Good bye, Saotome-san."
With that, Ranma bowed and left.
"Well you look happy, what happened?" Akane asked when Ranma entered the lobby again.
"Well, long story short I have a job, and you do too, I guess, if you want it. Nishikigi-sensei said I should work over at her brother's place down the street to pay off my uniform. She said he always needs people, so he'll probably hire you too. Of course it means it will be a month before I can actually use any of the money myself, but it's better than nothing, I guess."
Akane gave Ranma a strange look. "That sounds good. That means we won't have to search all over Nerima for a job. We should go shopping before we head over there first though. You need more clothes."
"I think I have enough clothes, really. I don't want to waste any money." Ranma thinned her eyes, "Okay what is it, Akane? You've been looking at me strangely since I got out."
Akane smiled and shook her head, "It's nothing. It's just, all of a sudden you're talking like a girl. It's just a little odd."
"I haven't…I…I ain't been talkin' like a girl. That's crazy." Ranma said feeling blood rush to her head. What Akane said was true. She had been using feminine pronouns for herself and even using proper pronunciations. "You really are a fast learner, aren't you?" Nishikigi had said. Now Ranma understood. It was really subtle but every time she used the wrong pronoun or the wrong pronunciation of a word Nishikigi would frown or look away, and every time she used the feminine pronoun and the right pronunciation she would smile and look him in the eye. She had been stroking her ego to get her to talk better! "That catty old bitch!" Ranma exclaimed.
"What?" Akane asked.
"Nothin'. Just somethin' the old lady said. Come on." Ranma left the store and Akane followed.
"Ranma?" Akane spoke once they were outside.
"Yeah?"
"My sister, Kasumi? She's a normal girl, at least by your standards. My friends... they're normal too. I don't remember much about my mother, but I do remember she wore dresses and didn't get into fights. Really, just about every woman I have ever liked or respected has been 'normal.' Maybe I can't be exactly like them and still practice the Art, but I'm going to get as close as I can. And I don't appreciate you bashing that lifestyle just because you've given up on it."
"I ain't given up on anything," Ranma said in a knee-jerk response. She managed to recover somewhat by saying. "I never wanted to be a girl like that, so I never gave up on it."
"You agreed last night you'd let me teach you how to be a girl," Akane reminded her in a quiet voice.
"Not really. I said I'd..." but Ranma didn't finish. Akane's hurt expression halted her argument. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just, I never wanted that, so I can't see why you would want that." Ranma shook her head, "Look, I'll try to act more like a girl, okay? I just don't see what the point is. I mean, I don't remember my mother." Ranma surprised herself with that last bit.
"Not at all?"
"I just have this vague memory of her, just before Pops took me away." They were alone, young Ranma sitting on his mother's lap. She was crying, and she told him that she loved him. Ranma kept silent about this though.
Ranma had walked about ten steps down the street in silence when she felt a cool breeze across her shins and stopped. She looked down.
"What is it?" Akane asked.
Ranma growled softly in frustration, her melancholy forgotten. "It's nothin'. You got my pack right?" Akane nodded. "Give it to me, please." Akane handed Ranma's satchel to her. Ranma opened it, put her Chinese clothes inside, and carried it by its handle. She had planned on wearing her Chinese clothes out, but she had gotten used to the uniform so much she forgot she was wearing it. Ranma had always been proud of her ability to adapt to any situation, but this was a little much.
Still, it was kind of strangely neat to be wearing the same thing as Akane. It was like they were on the same team. They were in the same boat. They were both girl students at Furinkan. Ranma didn't feel so much like some foreign stranger anymore. She smiled at Akane, "So, we still friends?"
Akane smiled back. By way of response, she linked her arm with Ranma's and leaned in to her playfully. Ranma leaned back. There wasn't any pressure here. They were just two girlfriends from school hanging out together. And Ranma didn't want that to end.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Ranma let Akane take her clothes shopping, which was oddly fun. Ranma was determined to get over her aversion to wearing girl's clothes, and so saw the whole thing as a training exercise, though in deference to the sex of her birth, Ranma deigned not to buy any dresses. There were one or two outfits that were close, but these were some kind of flexible solid color legging with a loose, but feminine top, almost like a closely fitting tunic, which didn't really count as a dress to Ranma. She didn't like how the air hit her legs in dresses, it felt weird. Jeans, on the other hand, were a no go for the same reason she didn't wear them as a male: they weren't flexible enough. In the end, Ranma only got about four outfits, and Akane got two. All of the clothes together still weren't as expensive as Ranma's uniform though. Nishikigi was making a killing.
After the outer clothing was taken care of, Akane helped Ranma buy some unmentionables. Because the articles of clothing were unmentionables, they shall not be mentioned here, except to say that Ranma had never been so embarrassed, and yet at the same time oddly proud in her entire life. Akane, meanwhile started to develop a nasty scowl. Ranma wasn't entirely sure why, though it seemed to have something to do with the fact that Akane's unmentionables appeared earlier in the alphabet than Ranma's unmentionables. At any rate the scowl didn't quite go away until she and Ranma were back in their school uniforms and standing before the store front of Yui's Yakitori.
"Why is it called Yui's Yakitori?" Akane asked. "I though the place was owned by Nishikigi's brother, Ryu."
Ranma shrugged. "Must be his wife's name or something."
Some discussion has been made concerning other realities, so it is perhaps fair to make a few comparisons here. First, if Ranma had not taken the potion she would of course not have been standing in front of Yui's Yakitori with Akane. She would have been at the Tendo residence practicing outside the dojo while Akane crushed blocks inside and she would have been a he. . Second, he would have missed almost a full day of school after a fight with Kuno that involved Ranma's girl side and a kettle of hot water. And finally, after steaming all day about events Akane would have broken six pencils in frustration and would be well on her way to developing a healthy distaste for her aquatransexual companion.
Instead, the differences can be summarized in the following scene.
The two girls stand outside Yui's Yakitori, arms intertwined and smiling. They walk toward the entrance, which causes some confusion as they both grab for the door at the same time. Both of them invite the other to go first, and the issue is eventually decided with a hasty game of Jan Ken Pon, known in the west as rock, paper, scissors. These are obviously two friends, perhaps even best friends.
They've only known each other for two days.
Wherefore this chumminess? You could chalk it up to loneliness, to the collection of similarities and differences that fit the two together like slices of bread in a grilled cheese sandwich, or…to luck.
The last possibility gains a little on the other options when one considers that the Jan Ken Pon match wasn't quite as idle a game as it might have been. To the extent that excessive training can be said to be against the rules, Ranma cheated a little. She was able to see, an instant before Akane made her move, which sign she was going to make and was able to compensate. None of which would have much mattered except that Ranma then said, "Man, Akane I can read you like a book. You've got to hide your moves more."
Akane, for various reasons we won't review here, would not have accepted this from a boy. As it was, it caused her to scowl a little, before she forced herself to smile about it and say, "You'll have to teach me then. After you, sensei." Akane then opened the door for Ranma purposely seeming to misunderstand the terms of the game.
Ranma if she were a guy, would have insisted on holding the door, because that was the terms of the match and Akane was a girl and so on. Of course male Ranma wouldn't have had the opportunity or the inclination to hold open the door in the first place, but the point is that what would have made him defensive about his masculinity, now only made her chuckle at Akane's gall. It was primarily Akane addressing Ranma as sensei that defused any protests that she might have had though. The incident represented something on the order of five blowups narrowly avoided.
The restaurant Ranma and then Akane entered was decorated with lots of warm browns and off whites. Despite the specialty of the restaurant being yakitori, which is basically cooked chicken kabobs, there was a modest sushi bar at the front and a buffet at the center of the restaurant with a variety of dishes. It didn't seem too busy, but then it was still fairly early in the evening. A chalk board on an easel advertized an "all you can eat" special.
Akane tried to get the attention of one of the waitresses, but the woman was balancing four different platters on various parts of her anatomy and was far too busy to pay attention to anyone who wasn't sitting down. The place wasn't swishy enough for a maitre d. Ranma sniffed at this a bit in dismissal. Yui's was maybe a notch above a fast food joint, not at all like where she worked in China.
Ranma led Akane to the sushi bar where the chef was rolling up rice and fish into seaweed paper. "Hey," Ranma said, "You hirin'?"The sushi chef was very quiet and pleasant in a suspiciously Chinese manner. He was only a few inches taller than Ranma and stopped what he was doing, smiled and bowed and indicated with his arm for Ranma and Akane to follow him. He gestured to a door marked private.
"Thanks," Ranma said and the sushi chef bowed and went back to work.
"It says 'Private'," Akane noted looking at the door.
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, what are we supposed to do?"
Ranma turned her attention from the door to Akane's confused expression. "What do you mean?"
"We can't go in there," Akane stated as if it were obvious.
"Why not?" Ranma asked, confused herself now.
"It's marked 'Private!'"
"You said that already, what has that got to do with anything?"
"Don't you know what 'private' means?" Akane asked.
"Yeah, it means 'this is the manager's office, not the bathroom.'"
"No," Akane shook her head. "It means 'don't go in or you might catch someone doing something perverted.'"
"That's in a furo. Restaurants are different. Besides that's what knocking's for." Ranma rapped on the door loudly. "Hey! Manager-san! You doin' anythin' perverted in there? 'Cause otherwise we're comin' in!"
Ranma heard a voice say "The door's unlocked," and turned to Akane with a look that said "see?" She moved to open the door.
"Wait," Akane said.
"What?"
"He didn't say he wasn't doing anything perverted."
Ranma rolled her eyes, opened the door, and went in.
Ryu Nishikigi sat behind his desk smoking a cigarette. He had salt and pepper grey hair in a ponytail and looked like he had been a bishonen type when he was young. Even now he had a certain charisma about him. His eyes, crinkled at the sides as he read some stack of papers looked sharp, but he had a slight smile to his lips which softened his expression.
"What do you want?"
Akane bowed. "Please excuse us, Manager-san, but we were wondering if we could apply for a job."
"We're not hiring anybody." Ryu Nishikigi said.
"But your sister said you always need…" Akane began.
"I always need workers," Ryu snapped, "not high school kids who can only be here on the weekends and don't show up even then." Ryu looked down at his ledger."Get lost."
"We'll work afternoons too." Ranma said. "I've got restaurant experience and Akane…" Ranma stopped. She just realized there was little to no chance of Akane getting hired.
"Listen. I know you mean well." Ryu said in a tone that suggested the opposite. "But every time I hire high school students I regret it. Especially students from Furinkan high school. So unless you're willing to quit school or something you can forget about working for me."
"Okay," Ranma said. "What about if we wore costumes and advertised for you or somethin' ? How could we screw that up?"
"You'd find a way. This one kid I heard about, she had a fight in her costume. Completely ruined it. Sullied the image of the restaurant too."
Ranma had to agree that sort of thing was all too likely. "You know, you're right. Akane and me, we get into fights all the time. But that could be a good thing. We could be like bouncers for you, keep the riff raff out of your restaurant."
"The goal here is to minimize the damage. If you're in here starting fights that's not going minimize shit."
"I got experience," Ranma said, "I worked as bouncer in China. If ya hire me ya ain't gonna regret it."
"I'm sorry but you don't exactly look like much to me. A high school girl isn't going to keep anyone from starting anything."
"But that's just it!" Ranma said using her normal vernacular, "They won't see me comin' I'll just incapacitate 'em and haul 'em outta here. And I can work as a waitress as long as nothin's goin' on. Just give me a day I'll show you I can work."
"Alright, Red, you at least talk a good game, I'll give you a shot. But what about your friend here?"
"I can cook!" Akane said in the sort of exuberant, youthful tone that is so charming in young children when they say they are princesses or space monsters, but which steadily becomes more disturbing with age.
Ranma laughed nervously, "Um, she's…still… learning that skill. Look she's one of the most popular girls at school. If you hire her, a whole bunch of students will come just to see her. And she's strong too."
Akane's scowl returned just then. Ranma frowned herself for a moment while she tried to figure out how to take back her compliment without making it into an insult. Or was it the comment on her cooking that Akane was upset about?
Thankfully Ryu spoke just then: "I don't know…" he said. "You say my sister recommended you to me?"
"Yeah," Ranma said, "your sister, Nishikigi Amiko."
Ryu's eyebrows lifted. "Well, if she told you her given name then you must have made an impression." Ryu still seemed unsure.
"Just give us a day," Ranma bargained, "You can fire us right after if you want."
"Alright. I don't know why I keep doing this. But I'll give you a chance. Each of you get an apron out of the supply closet, and start working the tables."
"Where's the supply closet?" Akane asked.
"It's right next to the restroom." Ryu answered.
"Where's the restroom?" Akane asked.
"Just get out of here before I fire you." Ryu grumbled.
~~~~~To be continued in chapter 5~~~~~