Ranma and his friends belong to Rumiko Takahashi. They're used
here without permission.
------------------------------
newRanma 6: Fighting
by Chris Jones
------------------------------
Akane stared in horror at the sight before her.
*BZZZZ*
It was a sight she had hoped never to see, but was
nonetheless curious about if it ever did happen.
*BZZZ... ZZZZZ*
She gasped as the floor turned red in front of her.
*BZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ*
"Ouch. Got my ear," Ranma said.
"Your... your hair, Ranma."
"You like it?"
Ranma had taken Kasumi's electric shears and put the
longest guard attachment she could on the end. In just a few
minutes, she had removed most of the hair from her head. Except
for her long, thick bangs, all the hair on her head was now just a
few centimeters long. The hair on the side of her head that had
been operated on had finally grown long enough so that this was
enough to make it even on both sides.
"I... I..."
"It's kinda girly-lookin' I think," Ranma said. "But I'll
be damned if I'm gonna keep wearin' that ball-cap."
She ran her hands through her newly short hair. It felt
odd and strangely light. She reached behind her head to the only
other part she'd left long at all and quickly tied off a rather
short, lop-sided pigtail.
She turned to one side and looked in the mirror.
"I look like a complete dork, don't I?" she asked, smiling
all the while.
"No!" Akane said.
The look was unusual, but exotic rather than odd-looking.
Ranma's bangs fluttered in the air as the girl moved, surrounding
her face like a halo. The effect was beautiful, Akane thought.
When Ranma grinned her usual, rakish grin, the image was... sexy,
even. It accented her slender neck and slim shoulders in a way
that made one look at the girl from head to toe before focusing on
any one area such as the girl's curvy bosom or hips.
She could never, NEVER, tell Ranma that.
"I think it looks okay," Akane said seriously.
"What ever. At least it ain't lopsided any more."
Akane hoped that Ranma would never realize how attractive
she really was.
* * *
Shampoo and Ukyou were both stunned speechless by Ranma's
new appearance. They hadn't spoken any at all through lunch at a
local Thai-food joint.
"Kinda wild," Hiroshi noted. "I like it."
"It's cute," Nabiki agreed. "I think Kunou-chan likes it."
Kunou had been silent all through lunch, even when he
snatched the ticket before anyone else could pay.
For the first time since actually seeing Ranma's new
haircut, he opened his mouth. "Nabiki Tendou speaks truly. It is a
flattering style."
"It ain't no big deal," Ranma said, blushing a little bit.
She was uncomfortable with the attention, and was starting to wish
that she had worn the damn cap.
There was a chapter in the 'Bodywatching' book that talked
about heads and hair. Ranma had skimmed over it briefly in favor
some of the other body parts, but was now wishing she had examined
it a little more in depth. She promised herself that she would
when she got home. Was there something secret about hair that made
it more interesting that other parts of the body?
"It's certainly daring," Yuka noted.
Akane shook her head at the other girl, trying to get her
to stop.
"I mean, it really brings out your eyes."
"Wonderful..." Ranma complained, her embarrassment
thickening.
"I mean--"
"ALOHA!" A loudspeaker rang out just as Kunou was about to
open the school's front gate to get them back inside, cutting off
Yuka's comment.
"We're busted," Hiroshi noted sourly.
"Hello, all you naughty keiki!" the principal exclaimed as
he leapt down from the top of the wall. He was carrying a
megaphone in one hand and a pair of barber's shears in the other.
"You been very naughty, sneaking off during lunch hour! We have a
saying on de islands--"
"Which I bet you just made up," Ranma interjected.
"De student who sneaks out come back widdout de hair!"
Yuka and Sayuri both screamed, their hands going to their
lochs. Yuka had suffered one of the principal's bowl-cuts before
and was not eager to repeat the experience.
"Hold thine instrument of evil, foul educator!" Kunou
exclaimed, bringing his bokken to bear. He stepped in front of
Ranma to shield her from the principal.
"Keiki... My own son! You oppose you papa? You flesh and
blood? WAAAH!"
"Why don't you just leave us alone, you old freak!" Akane
shouted angrily.
"Get outta the way, Kunou," Ranma declared, roughly
shoving the kendoist aside. "You wanna cut my hair?" she asked.
"Go ahead."
"But, pigtailed girl," Kunou said in concern. "You
cannot--"
The principal was staring at Ranma's hair in shock. The
clippers clattered loosely to the ground.
Behind him, Nabiki had just managed to get the gate open
and was gesturing for the rest of them to hurry inside.
Ranma stared darkly at the principal as he stood in front
of her, his eyes watering.
"Well, are you gonna shave my head, or what?" She
demanded.
"YOU CUT IT ALL OFF!!!" the principal wailed. He turned
and ran back for the building, weeping into one arm.
"Saotome school of non-aggressive combat, 2," Ranma
declared. "Principal Kunou, Nada."
* * *
Ranma and her friends didn't get off scot-free. They all
had to do water torture punishment for two periods outside the
library as per a hastily worded memo from the principal's office.
'Carry the buckets' quickly turned into a rag on the principal
session with Ranma and Nabiki, who had never actually had to do
water torture before, leading the call.
"What I'd really like to know," Nabiki complained bitterly
despite the fact that she had already conned Kunou into carrying
both her buckets, "Is why the man has such a fetish for short
hair?"
"Nabiki!" Akane shouted.
"It's not a dirty word, Akane. I'm serious. What drives
him?"
"It's madness," Kunou said darkly. "It infects my whole
family."
"That sounds real good coming from you, Sempai," Ranma
noted darkly. In her irritation, she had simply set the buckets
down and was slouching against the wall.
Kunou 'hmphed' and turned back to the group. "My father
has always been first to wield the clippers. Truly monstrous
depredations have been performed on my own scalp and Kodachi's...
well, let's just say I'm glad he left when he did, because my
twisted sister's self-esteem could not have handled the blows it
would have received if he had been allowed to style her hair
during junior-high school."
"Maybe it really is a fetish," Daisuke noted. "Like vinyl
clothes or body-piercing. Maybe the principal gets off on seeing
people with short hair."
"That's gross, Dai," Hiroshi said. "That's really gross."
Shampoo, who was not subject to the punishment but had
followed the group in anyway looked around in mock nervousness.
"Shampoo see bald people..." she stage-whispered.
The group dissolved into giggles and outright laughter.
"Let's cut the noise out there, children!" the librarian
complained through the closed doorway. "This is a school, not a
social club!"
"Man, we oughtta do something!" Ukyou complained bitterly.
"I bet no other school has to put up with this kind of crap! Why
couldn't this have been calm and normal like my last school?"
"Normal?" Nabiki chided. "With at least two confirmed
transvestites roaming the halls?"
"Well..."
"We *did* break the rules, after all," Akane said sadly.
"We did have this coming to us."
"If it were just a case of we broke the rules and gotta do
the time, that'd be cool," Ranma said, "But this is a grudge. The
principal don't like us, so he's makin' sure we suffer. We outta
just leave," the girl suggested. "Just walk out and not come
back."
"If a man owes you money and will not pay, he is in
trouble," Nabiki said sagely. "If many men owe you money and will
not pay, you are in trouble."
"She's right. Man, if we could get *everyone* to leave
that would be cool," Hiroshi noted.
Sayuri held a hand to her mouth. "That's awful!" she said.
"Everyone would get in trouble."
"At this school?" Ukyou asked. "Yeah, right. It's more
like we'd get the principal in trouble. Wouldn't that be great?"
"'Twouldst be wonderful indeed if we could run the madman
off to the heathen wastes again," Kunou grumbled.
"I'll say," Ranma agreed. "Oh well... Hey, it's almost
two-thirty. We better get back to class."
* * *
Makuna-sensei was not a lot of help about the principal.
Rather than commenting on any of the incidents Ranma related to
him, he suggested that Ranma think about how she felt about the
principal, and even try to chat rationally with the man.
Ranma walked out into the waiting room grumbling darkly
about the bad habits of psychologists.
Outside, the girl Ranma had come to know purely in
passing, Taiyoko, looked up. As usual, her face was filled with
anxiety and more than a little fear.
"Yo," Ranma greeted her.
Ranma intended to wave and walk past since the girl seemed
so uncomfortable with her presence, but was taken aback with the
expression Taiyoko gave her.
"What?!" Ranma demanded, looking around herself in shock,
trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Y-your hair..." Taiyoko whispered. "It's..."
"Oh. Yeah," Ranma said, rolling her eyes. "I cut it this
morning."
"Y-you-you're very beautiful," Taiyoko stammered.
Ranma blinked in surprised. "What?" she asked.
Taikyoko's face turned bright red. She leapt up from the
seat and ran into the doctor's office.
Ranma blinked again, unsure of what had just happened. She
knew she looked good, but what would cause the girl to react so
strongly to her presence?
* * *
Later that afternoon, after Ranma had returned to the
Tendou Dojo, she was still rather disgruntled. Why did the
principal single her and her friends out? It wasn't like she had
done anything any of the other students hadn't.
Well, as Makuna-sensei had politely pointed out, she did
regularly flaunt the school dress code. And she interrupted class
all the time. And she slept through all the school assemblies.
And...
Okay, she realized, maybe she did tend to cause more
problems and than some of the other students. Before the principal
had shown up, she thought had come to a sort of equilibrium with
the school administration. They didn't bother her and she did her
best not to bother them. It worked out perfectly well up until the
loony had shown up.
As she grumbled about her problems, Ranma walked through
the Tendous' front room and noticed her father sitting on the
verandah, sipping a beer and staring out at the back yard.
Due to the lack of fighting as imposed by doctors' orders,
Ranma had had very little contact with the man since her surgery.
She hadn't realized just how little contact they had outside of
training. When she removed that part of their relationship, she
was surprised at how little was left.
The old man had been pissing her off anyway. He had been
moping around like it had been *his* head that had been hacked on.
"Hello boy," Genma greeted his child.
"Hey," Ranma answered.
Genma took a long draw off of his beer and looked back out
over the yard.
Ranma plopped down next to her father and grumpily looked
out over the yard to figure out what her father was staring at.
It was a breezy day, but not unduly windy, so Nodoka and
Kasumi were both behind the house, efficiently hanging laundry out
to dry.
Nodoka was wearing her kimono, but Kasumi was wearing a
light cotton dress that twisted and flowed around her in the
breeze. The thin fabric alternately billowed away from her body
and snapped tightly against it, displaying the girl's curves and
nigh-perfect proportions.
Both women had their hair tied back behind them in buns,
but stray stands of hair swirled around them. The laundry,
fastened securely to the clothes-lines, snapped and swirled.
Nodoka and Kasumi, working quickly and expertly, almost seemed to
dance in and out of the swirling morass of colors.
Ranma found herself breathless at the unintentional beauty
of the scene.
"Kasumi will make some man a very fine wife some day,"
Genma said quietly.
"Pops?"
Genma winked at Ranma. "Let's just say I'm partial to
buns."
Ranma blinked, trying to figure out what her father meant.
* * *
"ATTENTION ALL YOU BAD STUDENTS!" the principal's voice
announced over the intercom. "Dey been some very bad keiki trying
to sneak out during lunch hour. Cause Kahuna can't be havin' with
all dat, we gonna lock down da campus during lunch! No students
leave dey classroom during lunch. Dat mean no sandwich line and no
drink line! Have a wonderful day!"
A chorus of moans and groans went up around Ranma, as well
as more than a few angry comments. Ranma glared back behind her at
one of the guys in her class who was starting to get a little
personal with his insults.
"This is bad," Ukyou complained out loud. "He's going to
really let us have it if we don't do something."
"What are we going to do?" Hiroshi asked out loud as the
students who had brought their lunches pulled them out and began
to eat. "We can't just... I dunno."
Hinako was busy licking a lollipop and reading a
storybook, so Ranma turned around in her seat to face the others.
"Why not?" she asked. "We've been breaking the rules all along
anyway. What's it going to cost us that we ain't already paying?"
"We could get thrown out of school, Ranma!" Akane warned.
Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Maybe. Maybe not."
"What are you thinking, Ran-chan?" Ukyou said.
"Even if I can't fight, I've got a few ideas about how to
beat this," Ranma said. "But I think I need to talk to Nabiki for
this--"
The classroom door slid open, allowing Nabiki and Kunou to
step inside.
"How did you get out of your class, 'Nee-chan?" Akane
asked.
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?" she asked. "Do
you still want to go to lunch today?"
"We could," Ranma said, gesturing at Hinako, who was so
involved in 'The Little Salaryman that Could' that she had
completely dissociated from the rest of the class. "But that's
what he's expectin' us to do."
"The pigtailed girl speaks truly," Kunou agreed. "My
dastardly father would not make such a pronouncement unless he
planned to enforce it by hook or by crook."
"I think we can do something, but Akane's right," Ranma
said. "We're getting real close to the point where we can get in
more trouble than just doin' bucket duty."
The rest of their usual lunch group had already crowded
around Ranma, but she put the proximity out of her mind and began
to outline her plans.
Nabiki's expression was troubled. She bit her lip.
"Dangerous, Saotome. Very dangerous. It could blow up in our
faces."
"It could also hammer the final nail into the man's
coffin," Kunou declared. "Even if it did not come from the razor-
sharp mind of the pigtailed girl, I would be inclined to follow
this plan."
"But you'd follow any plan, Kunou-chan," Nabiki said.
"Let's do it like this instead." She explained her revision upon
the plan.
"Nabiki Tendou's plan has merit," Kunou said, "But
creating a riot to cover our actions as she proposes would only
needlessly endanger the pigtailed-girl's well being. Instead, let
us do this." Kunou spoke at some length. While it was difficult to
extract meaning from his flowery speech, Ranma began to grin
wickedly.
"I like it!" she said.
"One more thing," Nabiki said. "We need something to back
us up."
"Let us say that my father is a most evil man," Kunou said
coldly. "Let all who aid us say that indeed the principal of
Furinkan High is a pervert and a fetishist of the highest degree.
Only then will our most noble rebellion be seen in the light it
truly deserves."
The grins faded around the group, but those around Ranma
and Kunou knew that they were stuck with it now. If they ever
wanted to be free of the man, they would have to act.
* * *
After lunch, Hiroshi, Daisuke and Ranma had assembled
fifty or sixty of their male classmates in the boys' locker room.
Ranma felt uncomfortable with the dozens and dozens of eyes
lingering upon her body, but took solace in the fact that they all
had a pretty good idea of why they were there.
It wasn't to look at a pretty girl.
"So, Ranma," one of them called out. "What'cha gonna do
about the principal."
"I can't fight him," Ranma said. "Not injured like I am.
Instead, we've got to do something more drastic."
"More drastic like what?" another boy asked.
"I'll tell you," Ranma said. "We've got a plan. It's like
this..."
* * *
"I'll tell you for five hundred yen apiece," Nabiki said.
The girls around her all began to rummage around in their
purses and pockets. Sayuri, Yuka and Akane all began to collect
the fees while the group of girls began to press in around Nabiki
to hear her pronouncement.
"We're being taken advantage of, ladies," she said. "We're
being sexually exploited and not doing a thing about it."
"Is someone taking ecchi pictures again?" one girl asked
anxiously.
"At this school?" another said darkly. "We already knew we
were being exploited, Nabiki. If it's not voyeurs in the locker
room, it's that freaky panty-thief."
"Ah, but there's a threat you may not be aware of," Nabiki
explained. "How many bowl cuts are we going to endure before
everyone realizes that the principal is a hair fetishist."
A gasp went up from all around the restroom.
* * *
"He gets off on shaving our heads?" a uniformed kendoist
cried out. His hand went to his bald head, and he began to tremble
in revulsion.
"Verily," Kunou spat out. "That twisted man who is no man
has perpetrated his depredations long enough. If not the onus of
unbearable rule and regulation is enough to move you, the assault
on your manhood should rouse all to action."
"Why should we believe you?" another bald boy cried.
"Have I not lived with the man?" Kunou asked. "Have I not
suffered vile sling and arrow since the day I was born? Have I not
fought alongside you at each and every opportunity to drive the
foul demon away?"
The practice room, full of kendoists and members of all
the other sports teams, was silent.
Kunou drew his bokken and leveled it at the captain of the
baseball team.
"Takeshi Tanaka," he named the boy. "You yourself have
suffered the agony of humiliation at my father's hands."
Takeshi pulled off his ball cap to reveal that he was
indeed nearly bald.
"And your younger sister attends this selfsame school!"
Kunou declared. "Are you such a man that you will allow that...
that... BEAST to slake his vile lusts upon her virgin lochs?"
"Never!" Takeshi cried out, tears coursing freely down his
face.
"Every one of us stands to see our dignity and honor
diminish as long as the thing that calls itself my father is
allowed to hold sway at this institution. We have everything to
lose by not acting. Act as you will," Kunou said, turning his back
on the crowd.
"But, Kunou-sempai!" one of the younger soccer-team
members asked. "What can we do?"
"There is a plan in the making," Kunou said, "but it is
not without risk. I cannot ask you to join, and yet I cannot
envision a man who would allow these horrors to continue err he
had a choice. Who will make the choice to follow me?"
"I will!" Takeshi, the baseball team captain declared,
clenching his fist in the air.
"Tell us what to do!" Another cried out.
"Very well," Kunou said. "If you will accept the risk, you
may seek the rewards of heaven. This, then, is our plan of
attack..."
* * *
The teachers all knew that something was up. There was no
way that the 700 odd students at the school could keep it
completely under their hats. Whispered conversations were stopped
in mid sentence if anyone approached and an air of defiance had
sprung up. Angry stares and whispered insults began to rain down
upon the most hated of Furinkan's teachers.
Miyuki Sipuru, first-year geometry teacher, decided not to
comment since she suspected that whatever was happening was
directed at the principal. When she first started at the school,
she got a 'regulation' bowl-cut before ever meeting the man who
had written the regulations. Perhaps if the students' plan was
spectacular enough, she thought as she drew on the board, then the
principal would reconsider his insane rules.
"So if you take the cosine of the arc like this and--"
Hearing the classroom door click behind her, she turned
around.
Her classroom was empty.
Miyuki stared in shock. Surely they wouldn't... Had they?
Could they?
* * *
"Late in the war, American planes began to firebomb the
city of Tokyo," the history teacher said. "At the same time..."
Ranma waited until the teacher's back was turned to the
class. Silently, she rose from her seat and smiled at everyone
around her. They needed a little leadership and a *lot* of
encouragement to go along, but Ranma thought that that wouldn't be
a problem.
On cat-like feet, she made her way over to the open window
and climbed through it. It was true that such an act pretty
soundly broke her medical restrictions, but Ranma was feeling
pretty rebellious. It wouldn't hurt her to get a *little* bit of
excitement. Effortlessly, she began to shimmy down a drain pipe to
the ground.
The history teacher turned around, hearing the amazed
whispers behind him.
"Where on Earth is Saotome?" he demanded.
"Uhh... I think he had a doctors' appointment after
lunch," Hiroshi answered.
"Hmmm... I could have sworn that-- Oh well."
He turned back to the board and began to write.
"So we can assume that the Americans had developed and
tested the first nuclear device in the southwest United States
only a few weeks before the twin bombings on these cities. How
many died in the initial blast? Tendou?"
He turned around to get his answer from the girl he just
quizzed.
He was surprised to see her seat sitting empty.
"Wasn't Akane Tendou here just a second ago?"
"Uhhh... I think that she's at the doctor with Ranma,"
Daisuke answered.
"Honda then..." the teacher said, looking around for
Hiroshi. "Wasn't Hiroshi Honda just here?"
"I don't think so," One of the girls answered, fighting to
keep a smirk off her face. "He's sick today."
"Hmm... people are disappearing on me today," the teacher
said, feeling the need to take a draw off of the flask hidden in
his briefcase. "Well, at any rate, the initial damage estimates
can be found here and here. If you'll look at this diagram, you'll
see that..."
The rustle began almost as soon as his back was turned. He
whipped back around to see what was happening, but only Hikaru
Gosunkuji was there among a sea of empty desks to return his
stare.
Hikaru raised his hand politely. "Can I go to the
bathroom?" the boy asked.
* * *
Nabiki felt nervous as she waited outside the school gates
with the first dozen or so walkouts. She still had reservations
about what was happening despite Ranma's and Kunou's careful
planning. When her dozen doubled, she felt a little less nervous.
When Kunou came out of the athletics wing leading most of the
school's athletics teams in his wake, she started to get the heady
feeling of victory.
Ranma and Akane appeared a few seconds later leading
another sixty or seventy students behind them. Hiroshi and Daisuke
were with them. Sayuri and Yuka were directing the first year
students and providing encouragement for some of the more nervous
members of the protest.
Ukyou had cleared out the home-ec wing and was leading
dozens of girls who were ladened down with 'refreshments' for the
protestors.
Ranma was grinning like a maniac by the time she reached
the gate.
"It's gonna work!" the redhead cried. "Everybody's
leaving!"
"Let's just see what happens when they all start going
home," Nabiki said as the noise level began to rise. "We'll know
tomorrow wether we've won or not."
Ranma nodded, although Nabiki was having serious problems
keeping the grin off her face.
Akane was clinging to Ranma's arm with excitement and the
thrill of victory. The redhead didn't even seem to notice.
Ukyou noticed and glared daggers at Akane's back.
"This is great!" Akane said. "We've finally shown that
nutcase that we're not going to deal with his weirdness any more."
"Yeah," Ranma said. Something began to eat at her,
however. Something didn't feel right. Had they truly done the
right thing by protesting in such a manner? Ranma began to analyze
what they had just done again. It seemed like they had done the
honorable thing.
Having had a snack after winning their freedom, the
students were beginning to disperse.
"We have liberated the school," Kunou declared. "The
goddess of justice smiles warmly upon us today."
"Let's all get out of here, then," Ukyou said. "I'll open
Ucchan's early so we can regroup there."
"We'll come," Ranma said, salivating at the thought of
free okonomiyaki. "You wanna come, Sempai?"
"Nay," Kunou declined. "For I alone must remain here to
explain what has happened to that man."
"Kunou-chan..." Nabiki said in surprise. "Why? Are you
sure?"
"Do I not live with the man?" Kunou said, echoing his
earlier statements. "Everyone here may escape his torments in the
safety of the outside world. Our homes are safe havens from his
depredations... all except mine. He must know the crime for which
he is being punished, or there is no true justice. Sadly, I alone
am most suited to tell him."
"Kunou-sempai," Akane breathed in surprise.
"I must deal with him," Kunou said sharply. "If for no
other reason than to hammer this lesson into his skull. I do not
expect that I will be going home anytime soon. 'Tis a far better
thing I do...'"
"Well, if you're sure," Akane said, walking off with the
others. "Hurry if you can. We'll all be at Ucchan's for a while."
Kunou nodded, but his forced grin held no hope.
After a few seconds, Ranma broke away from the group.
"What's up, Saotome?" Hiroshi asked.
"I gotta go check on something," she said, a hint of
anxiousness entering her voice. She broke away from the group
before anyone could protest.
"She's worried about Kunou?" Ukyou asked in surprise.
"Ranma's been... different lately," Nabiki sighed.
Akane started to fret. It couldn't be that her fears were
coming true, could it? Was Ranma starting to... care... about
Kunou? Surely not...
* * *
"Why on earth are you home so early?" Takeshi Tanaka's
mother asked of him and his sister.
"Mother," the team captain addressed her formally, "we
came home because we were being taken advantage of at school."
"What?" the older woman asked in surprise.
"It's the loony principal!" his little sister exclaimed.
"He's been trying to force us all to cut our hair. We all think
it's because he's a pervert and wants to take advantage of us."
"Principal Kunou?" their mother asked. "Are you sure?"
Takeshi pulled his ball cap off. "I didn't get my hair cut
like this voluntarily," he complained.
The Tanakas' mother began to shake in outrage. How dare a
man, any man, molest her children so?!
After confirming the story from her children and getting
more details, she reached for the phone and dialed a number.
"Tokyo Police Department, Nerima Ward," the polite
receptionist answered. "Can I help you?"
"This is Mari Tanaka. I need to speak to my husband,
please."
"I'm afraid that Captain Tanaka's not available right
now," the receptionist informed her after just a second.
"I need you to interrupt him them. This is an emergency,"
Mari said.
* * *
By the time the phone calls started the pour in, the
principal was wandering the halls, not believing what he was
seeing. He stared around about himself in shock. Only a few of the
teachers had seen fit to stay after the students had walked out,
but they couldn't meet his gaze.
"Why?" he called out loud. No one was there to answer him.
Did they really hate him that much?
Eventually, shambling aimlessly through the hallways, he
made his way to the Kendo club's room.
Tatewaki was sitting in a lotus position in the center of
the floor, his eyes closed and his bokken balanced across his
knees.
"Tacchi... Tacchi didn't leave me!" the principal
exclaimed. "You such a good keiki! Lookin' out fo' you papa."
"I have not left simply by the merit of the fact that
there is no where I can truly escape," the kendoist said, not
bothering to open his eyes.
"What you talkin' bout, Keiki?" the principal asked
dubiously.
"Is it not obvious?" Tatewaki said. "Do you not see that
the entire student body has profoundly rejected your evil? Are you
so incapable of accepting reality that you do not realize that
this is all your own doing?"
"Tacchi..."
"Quiet, oh father of mine. I have tired of your abuse, and
I refuse to stand for it any more."
"I never abused you!" the principal shouted.
"Does not a child need its dignity?" Kunou asked. "Does
not a child need a parent that he or she can run to in times of
trouble and strife? Does not a child need a protector? A
confidant? A priest-confessor? You cry that you are not guilty of
abuse, yet I don't remember a father who would have known if his
son was routinely beaten by the upperclassmen in grade school. I
don't remember a father who would have known if his daughter lived
in fear of molestation from the power-mad priests in junior-high."
"Tacchi... why didn't you say somethin'?"
"I did," Tatewaki responded. "And you ignored me. How did
you put it? A 'brudda have to be strong'? I endured being beaten
for almost two years, father.
"And as for Kodachi, well, the only person she had to tell
that she was being stalked was myself. Her father *should* have
made a complaint to his cronies in the Ministry of Education when
his daughter's panties and leotard were stolen. He should have
seen to the priest's dismissal or even his arrest when the man was
caught taking pictures inside his daughter's shower stall. When
the man cornered her in the attic of that idiotic school and tried
to rape her, her father should have been there to save her.
Instead, she had to settle for watching me beat him senseless with
a wooden stick."
"I-- I didn't know," the principal said weakly.
"HOW COULD YOU HAVE KNOWN!?" Kunou demanded angrily. "You
abandoned us and flew away to Hawaii to get a tan! Do you know how
humiliating it was to have the police tell me to get my father to
call back when I tried to report that my sister was being
molested? Do you?! Do you know how much you have allowed your
daughter's sanity to be damaged? Well?!"
The principal was speechless, staring at the floor in
shock.
"At first I was overjoyed to learn that my father had
returned from his hideaway to rejoin his oh-so dysfunctional
family. Then I was horrified to learn that you had become this...
this perverted mockery of a man. You are worse than those who beat
me and just as bad as the man who tormented your daughter. I hope
you're quite pleased with yourself, Father," Kunou said, saying
the last word like it was an epithet. "Soon, I suspect, all the
world will know of your evils. When that time comes, when you
stumble through the streets with a cross on your back and all
around jeer rudely at your humble state, remember that it was your
son who helped put you there."
Tatewaki opened his eyes and rolled effortlessly onto his
feet.
The principal collapsed, dropping to his knees.
"Good bye, Father. I hope I don't see you again," the
kendoist said before propping his bokken against his shoulder and
striding from the room.
Just outside the kendo room, Kunou nodded once to Ranma,
who had overheard everything. She covered her mouth in shock and
surprise.
Inside, they could hear the principal begin to weep.
"Speak not of this, noble pigtailed-girl," Kunou
whispered, "for it was not something that I wished to share with
anyone but him. Instead, think of mine and my sister's dignity. We
have some small madness between us I fear, but we must maintain a
thin illusion of normalcy lest we fall to complete and utter
insanity."
"I... I understand," Ranma whispered, gulping at the
kendoist's rare self-honesty.
"Come," Kunou said. "Let us away to yon restaurant so that
we may forget this horrible scene."
* * *
"Akane! Nabiki! Ranma!" Kasumi exclaimed when the three
returned home from Ucchan's. "Where have you been?"
"At the restaurant," Nabiki answered. "Why?"
"Were you part of the walkout?" Kasumi asked. Soun, Genma,
and Nodoka came and stood behind her upon hearing the three enter
the house.
Ranma bit her lip. They already knew?
"Uh, we kinda organized the walkout," Ranma said
sheepishly. "We got pretty tired of the principal and all his
crap."
"Oh?" Soun asked. "So... you led... that?"
"What's the big deal?" Akane said. "There have been school
protests before, haven't there?"
"Not like this," Genma said. "You haven't heard, have
you?"
"Heard what?" Ranma asked.
"It seems that Principal Kunou has been sacked," Soun
explained. "It's on the national news. He's being investigated for
inappropriate sexual conduct with some of the students by the
Ministry of Education."
"The National News?!" Nabiki cried. She ran into the front
room and turned the television on. Sure enough, after tuning to
the twenty-four hour news network, a picture of a man who looked
like Principal Kunou without a tan was displayed on television.
"Were any of you molested?" Nodoka asked the two girls in
concern. "Were either of you hurt?"
"Well," Nabiki said. "He tied Akane up once."
"That was just a stunt, wasn't it?" Akane asked, confusion
and fear crossing her face.
"There's something else," Nabiki said, listening to the
broadcast. "It seems that there might have been some misconduct
before he left for Hawaii the last time. They're talking about
filing criminal charges."
"You're kidding!" Ranma said, incredulity growing on her
face. "Right?"
Nabiki shook her head. "I think we may have gotten out
just in time."
* * *
Ranma was sick to her stomach. She never meant it to go
this far. Everything felt wrong. As bad as he was, surely... Did
he? Could he? Guilt and uncertainty began to assail Ranma. She
slept very poorly.
Almost all the students returned to school the next day
despite the fact that there were police and news crews waiting in
front of the building. The police held the legitimate journalists
and the paparazzi back while the students nervously made their way
inside.
Ranma split up from Akane and Nabiki as soon as the three
entered the building and sought out the principal's office. She
walked past the now-empty secretary's desk and threw open the door
to the office, expecting to find the man inside with a ukulele and
some palm trees.
The trees were gone. So was the sand, crabs, and pumice
boulders that had been scattered around. The ocean-print wallpaper
had been roughly torn away from the walls and stuffed into the
trashcan next to the now-bare desk in the center of the office.
The only thing on the desk was a folded note.
'Gone to Hawaii. Back... whenever. - Headmaster'
"It's better this way," Kunou said, stepping into the
office behind her.
Akane and Nabiki were with him. "Maybe it is better,
Ranma," Akane said. "If he really was... doing that."
"Was he?" Ranma asked.
"What?" Nabiki asked. "Acting like a looney?"
"No!" Ranma shouted, uncertain of her feelings. "Did he
really molest people? Was it really some sexual thrill for him?"
she asked. Ranma's words indicated her uncertainty. She really
didn't know what to think. "Akane, do you really think he got off
on tying you up that time?"
"I... don't know. It was weird and I was angry about it
but..."
"Aren't his other misdeeds enough to warrant this,
Pigtailed-girl?" Kunou asked. "Have you forgotten the mistreatment
you suffered at his hands?"
"I don't know," Ranma shouted, running from the room.
Ranma fled the school. After a few minutes of running
aimlessly, feeling guilt and uncertainty piling up upon her, she
realized where she had to go.
She had to get both sides of the story.
It was surprisingly easy to track down what flights were
leaving for Hawaii and from what gate once she got off the train
to Narita. The baggage attendants and counter clerks were helpful
and polite in helping her find the appropriate place.
Eventually, she came upon the terminal area she was
looking for.
It took Ranma several minutes to actually recognize the
man for who he was once she found him. He was dressed in wrinkled
business clothes and had lost the plastic palm tree he usually
wore in his hair at some point. His sunglasses were gone, but that
didn't stop Ranma from noting the man's deep tan.
He looked like hell, Ranma thought. He looked a lot like
the picture they had shown on the news the previous night.
He averted his eyes from the girl as she approached.
"You're goin' back to Hawaii."
"Yah," the principal answered in his fake accent. "De
islands always be nice to me. Never gotta explain myself there."
Ranma winced.
"Why?" She finally asked.
"Why what?" The principal quipped back.
"Why all of it?" she asked in irritation. "The haircuts,
the lunch thing, the weird rules. Why all the accusations? Did you
really..." Ranma gulped. "Did you really... "
"No," Kunou said. "Me ain't never done anytin' like dat to
boy or girl," the principal said. "De rules... de rules just gone
too far this time."
"What do you mean, too far?"
The principal inhaled deeply. "Siddown here, Keiki. Let
you headmaster tell you a story."
Nervously, Ranma sat down in the uncomfortable airport
lounge chair next to the principal and waited for the other shoe
to drop.
While the shoe didn't drop, the principal's faux accent
did.
"It was about ten years ago," the principal began. Ranma
was startled at his voice, which was suddenly surprisingly clear
and intelligent-sounding. "I had just finished my doctorate in
education. Tacchi and Kocchi were both in good schools. I was
happy and rich, and then my wife died."
Ranma did her best to keep silent, but couldn't help
herself. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
The elder Kunou shrugged. "It's been a long time. I still
miss her, but... it's 'water under the bridge'," he finished in
English. "There have even been a few women since, although some
were not very good choices. I'll admit to being crazy sometimes. A
lot crazy, some of the time. Your father-in-law. He lost his wife,
and he's a little crazy sometimes, right?"
Ranma nodded in agreement.
"My wife... she had the shortest, most beautiful hair. She
always wore it just like I like it. And when she was gone, I found
myself looking at women and girls who had hair like she did. I bet
you think it's funny the big pervert Kahuna has a 'hair fetish',
ne, Keiki?"
Ranma winced, a little ashamed of the phrase she and the
others had used so frequently the previous day.
"Some men like lingerie. Some like athletic women. Tacchi
seems to like anything in a skirt. For me, it was hair. There was
this girl at Furinkan... oh, about the time you were in seventh
grade probably. She looked a lot my wife, even down to the short
hair. It was wrong, but... hey... you can't help it when you fall
in love with a girl."
Ranma cringed at the intensely personal statement. Her
cheeks burned in embarrassment.
"Don't worry, Keiki. Like I said, Kahuna never did
anything hentai. She was an office assistant part of the day, and
I just gave her jobs so that she would be working where I could
see her. Got me through the day some days. Course, if you let the
sharks in, somebody gonna get eat."
"What happened?" Ranma managed to whisper.
"It turned out that the girl did some part-time modelling
for ecchi magazines." The principal shrugged again, as if it was
no big deal. "She got caught. Since she was underage, there as a
big stink. When her parents found out about it, they were real
upset."
"And not wanting to take any of the blame for her
upbringing," Ranma guessed.
"Parents kinda funny that way, Keiki," The principal
explained, temporarily lapsing back into his accent. "No parent
wants to admit they a bad mommy or daddy, that they don't care
enough, that they didn't watch their kids carefully enough. So
they find people to blame. 'Why weren't her teachers aware of the
problem?'"
Ranma shook her head, unsure of how to respond.
"Now, if what Tacchi says is true, then I'm a pretty bad
parent," the principal admitted. "Pretty loopy. Pretty crazy. When
they started looking for a 'sugar daddy' at the school, I figured
that they would realize that I was attracted to the girl even
though I hadn't actually done anything. It was a pretty bad time
for me. I was hurting pretty bad emotionally, and not really in
touch with reality. So I figure, hey, I've got money! Let's just
take a long vacation and get away from all this crap!"
Ranma nodded. It was the principal's long trip to Hawaii
and the abandonment of his children. She almost began to pity him.
"And when you came back..." Ranma prompted.
"I was a little crazier, and a little saner. I thought a
lot about how schools should work when I was on the island. I had
it in my head that I'd make my students the best around by giving
them unsolvable problems and expecting them to solve them."
"The haircut rules and the coconut thing," Ranma guessed.
The principal nodded. "That was good. Unite the students
against the bad guy. Make 'em smart! Make 'em strong! You and
Tacchi were the leaders, really. I even got to be the good guy in
my head because I was letting you two unite the students against
me. It was a pretty good time!"
Ranma cocked her head to one side. "Then what went wrong
with the lunch thing?"
Principal shrugged. "Everything else, the mandatory
haircuts, the toilet cleaning, everything, I was willing to give
on. I knew that if there was a reward, it would make the students
better. I *wasn't* willing to give on the lunch policy because I
felt that students should respect their school and teachers enough
to stay there all day."
"But we were already in the habit of 'defeating' you,"
Ranma guessed.
The principal nodded, a grin on his face instead of a sad
expression. "Boy, howdy! And I got trashed but good!"
"But... it was the 'hair-fetish' thing, wasn't it?" Ranma
asked, her voice deep with guilt. "We called you a pervert one-
too-many times."
"The rooster came home to roost, Keiki," the man's tone
shifted. "The Principal's a freak! A Pervert!" He sighed deeply.
"And then someone said, Hey, you remember that short-haired girl
that used to work in his office? What about her? Maybe he was a
pervert with her. He sure took off like a shot when she got in
trouble."
Ranma gulped nervously.
"So I get a call from the ministry of education last
night. Lost my job, but that's okay, really. They gonna hold a
conduct hearing and press criminal charges. 'Cause o' the coconut
thing, 'cause o' the short hair, I'm gonna swing. Better to go
back to Hawaii so they can't hang me in person, ne?"
Almost unconsciously, Ranma's hand went to her short,
newly budding pigtail. She suddenly felt uncomfortable next to the
man, as if he were threatening her somehow. It was just a few days
ago that she had trimmed her hair. What if... what if he looked at
her the same way he looked at the underage model before?
Ranma had a sudden flash of being tied up like Akane had
been at the Principal's first assembly at Furinkan high. Instead
of hanging above the stage at Furinkan high with her wrists tied
to a broom, she was in the attic of a Catholic school. The
principal advanced on her with a pair of barber's shears in one
hand while unzipping his pants with the other.
Ranma shook her head, realizing that her imagination was
running away with her. She forced herself to think seriously on
the matter. Had he ever done anything like that? He really had
never done anything to her other than be annoying so far as Ranma
could remember. He didn't look threatening. He just looked
pathetic.
Who was Ranma to judge someone who had already judged
himself?
She suddenly recalled the moment she had seen her father
watching Kasumi and Nodoka hang the laundry. For the first time,
Ranma realized how beautiful his father thought Kasumi was. His
father may have been a lying, cheating, sexist pig, but he had
always stressed the utmost politeness and gentleness to Ranma when
dealing with the fairer sex. Even if Genma did look at Kasumi in a
sexual way, Ranma could never believe that he would act on his
feelings.
Suddenly, Ranma couldn't find it in her heart to fear or
even resent the pathetic man sitting beside her for his
admittance. She didn't think this man would act on his feelings
either.
"Don't go," Ranma said. "I think you can get through it."
The principal shook his head. "Maybe. I kinda doubt it."
"I think... I think I can do something. Something to get
the hearing cancelled."
The principal raised one eyebrow in skepticism.
"Didn't you say that you gave us unsolvable problems?"
Ranma asked. "Didn't we always solve them?"
The principal just shook his head. "Maybe if the
accusations weren't so strong or if there wasn't so much
evidence..." He sighed and slumped down in his seat. "You just
don't get the Ministry of Education to back down on something like
that, Keiki. They really think I'm a criminal now."
"Gimme a day, then," Ranma pleaded.
"Huh?"
"Just one day," Ranma stated. "An' if you don't think the
hearing will be called off, then you go ahead. Run away to
Hawaii," she challenged.
The principal sighed and shrugged. "What the hell. I'm
waiting on standby tickets today anyway. I can get a first class
seat if I wait a day. What can you possibly do to get me out of
this?"
* * *
"My name is Ranma Saotome, and I would like to publicly
apologize for calling the principal of Furinkan High School a
pervert."
Ranma winced as the flash bulbs went off all around her. A
little bit of feedback from the microphones and loudspeakers
flared up as well. When she had asked Nabiki to help her put
together a press conference, she hadn't really expected so much
attention.
As it was, *most* of the Tokyo television stations and
newspapers were out to hear her confession. Ranma recognized a few
faces in the crowd from television. She suspected that Nabiki had
called in every favor she had in order to pull this off and
realized that she was going to be in debt to the girl for the rest
of her life.
"It all started when we, me and some of my friends, wanted
to go out to lunch instead of eating here..."
Ranma dove into the details of their battle plans, laying
them bare for the world to see. All around her, reporters looked
at her with keen interest as her story unfolded. Ranma did her
best to keep her facts honest and unbiased as some of the
reporters started to ask questions. After a few minutes, Kunou
stood up beside her behind the podium the drama club had set up in
the school auditorium.
"As his son, I can attest to my father's innocence of
sexual abuse. The man is many things," Kunou said. "But a sexual
predator he is not."
After some time, the questions began to trail off and
Nabiki ushered the both of them off stage. Yuka and Sayuri stood
up behind the podium and thanked the press members profusely
before politely asking them to leave.
* * *
Later that night, the ex-principal walked quietly through
the halls of his ancestral home. Despite the fact that he rarely
slept there, it was still very much his home. He didn't plan to
leave it again.
His silent footsteps carried him through the house until
he found himself in front of the shuttered room his son used for
practice and meditation.
"Tacchi," he said. "Thank you for what you did this
morning."
Tatewaki was silent, his back turned to his father. In
front of him were two unframed photographs, one of Ranma from
before her surgery and one from the press conference earlier in
the day.
"Don't thank me," the kendoist said. "But thank instead
the pigtailed girl. It was her and her alone who chose to save you
from the fire. If it were me, I would have left you to rot. Now,
leave me alone and never enter my presence again. I have no desire
to see you again. I will no longer call you 'Father'."
Silently, the man who had just lost his son turned away.
The next morning, he was sitting in the first class section on a
JAL flight to Oahu.
-----
~to be continued...
here without permission.
------------------------------
newRanma 6: Fighting
by Chris Jones
------------------------------
Akane stared in horror at the sight before her.
*BZZZZ*
It was a sight she had hoped never to see, but was
nonetheless curious about if it ever did happen.
*BZZZ... ZZZZZ*
She gasped as the floor turned red in front of her.
*BZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ*
"Ouch. Got my ear," Ranma said.
"Your... your hair, Ranma."
"You like it?"
Ranma had taken Kasumi's electric shears and put the
longest guard attachment she could on the end. In just a few
minutes, she had removed most of the hair from her head. Except
for her long, thick bangs, all the hair on her head was now just a
few centimeters long. The hair on the side of her head that had
been operated on had finally grown long enough so that this was
enough to make it even on both sides.
"I... I..."
"It's kinda girly-lookin' I think," Ranma said. "But I'll
be damned if I'm gonna keep wearin' that ball-cap."
She ran her hands through her newly short hair. It felt
odd and strangely light. She reached behind her head to the only
other part she'd left long at all and quickly tied off a rather
short, lop-sided pigtail.
She turned to one side and looked in the mirror.
"I look like a complete dork, don't I?" she asked, smiling
all the while.
"No!" Akane said.
The look was unusual, but exotic rather than odd-looking.
Ranma's bangs fluttered in the air as the girl moved, surrounding
her face like a halo. The effect was beautiful, Akane thought.
When Ranma grinned her usual, rakish grin, the image was... sexy,
even. It accented her slender neck and slim shoulders in a way
that made one look at the girl from head to toe before focusing on
any one area such as the girl's curvy bosom or hips.
She could never, NEVER, tell Ranma that.
"I think it looks okay," Akane said seriously.
"What ever. At least it ain't lopsided any more."
Akane hoped that Ranma would never realize how attractive
she really was.
* * *
Shampoo and Ukyou were both stunned speechless by Ranma's
new appearance. They hadn't spoken any at all through lunch at a
local Thai-food joint.
"Kinda wild," Hiroshi noted. "I like it."
"It's cute," Nabiki agreed. "I think Kunou-chan likes it."
Kunou had been silent all through lunch, even when he
snatched the ticket before anyone else could pay.
For the first time since actually seeing Ranma's new
haircut, he opened his mouth. "Nabiki Tendou speaks truly. It is a
flattering style."
"It ain't no big deal," Ranma said, blushing a little bit.
She was uncomfortable with the attention, and was starting to wish
that she had worn the damn cap.
There was a chapter in the 'Bodywatching' book that talked
about heads and hair. Ranma had skimmed over it briefly in favor
some of the other body parts, but was now wishing she had examined
it a little more in depth. She promised herself that she would
when she got home. Was there something secret about hair that made
it more interesting that other parts of the body?
"It's certainly daring," Yuka noted.
Akane shook her head at the other girl, trying to get her
to stop.
"I mean, it really brings out your eyes."
"Wonderful..." Ranma complained, her embarrassment
thickening.
"I mean--"
"ALOHA!" A loudspeaker rang out just as Kunou was about to
open the school's front gate to get them back inside, cutting off
Yuka's comment.
"We're busted," Hiroshi noted sourly.
"Hello, all you naughty keiki!" the principal exclaimed as
he leapt down from the top of the wall. He was carrying a
megaphone in one hand and a pair of barber's shears in the other.
"You been very naughty, sneaking off during lunch hour! We have a
saying on de islands--"
"Which I bet you just made up," Ranma interjected.
"De student who sneaks out come back widdout de hair!"
Yuka and Sayuri both screamed, their hands going to their
lochs. Yuka had suffered one of the principal's bowl-cuts before
and was not eager to repeat the experience.
"Hold thine instrument of evil, foul educator!" Kunou
exclaimed, bringing his bokken to bear. He stepped in front of
Ranma to shield her from the principal.
"Keiki... My own son! You oppose you papa? You flesh and
blood? WAAAH!"
"Why don't you just leave us alone, you old freak!" Akane
shouted angrily.
"Get outta the way, Kunou," Ranma declared, roughly
shoving the kendoist aside. "You wanna cut my hair?" she asked.
"Go ahead."
"But, pigtailed girl," Kunou said in concern. "You
cannot--"
The principal was staring at Ranma's hair in shock. The
clippers clattered loosely to the ground.
Behind him, Nabiki had just managed to get the gate open
and was gesturing for the rest of them to hurry inside.
Ranma stared darkly at the principal as he stood in front
of her, his eyes watering.
"Well, are you gonna shave my head, or what?" She
demanded.
"YOU CUT IT ALL OFF!!!" the principal wailed. He turned
and ran back for the building, weeping into one arm.
"Saotome school of non-aggressive combat, 2," Ranma
declared. "Principal Kunou, Nada."
* * *
Ranma and her friends didn't get off scot-free. They all
had to do water torture punishment for two periods outside the
library as per a hastily worded memo from the principal's office.
'Carry the buckets' quickly turned into a rag on the principal
session with Ranma and Nabiki, who had never actually had to do
water torture before, leading the call.
"What I'd really like to know," Nabiki complained bitterly
despite the fact that she had already conned Kunou into carrying
both her buckets, "Is why the man has such a fetish for short
hair?"
"Nabiki!" Akane shouted.
"It's not a dirty word, Akane. I'm serious. What drives
him?"
"It's madness," Kunou said darkly. "It infects my whole
family."
"That sounds real good coming from you, Sempai," Ranma
noted darkly. In her irritation, she had simply set the buckets
down and was slouching against the wall.
Kunou 'hmphed' and turned back to the group. "My father
has always been first to wield the clippers. Truly monstrous
depredations have been performed on my own scalp and Kodachi's...
well, let's just say I'm glad he left when he did, because my
twisted sister's self-esteem could not have handled the blows it
would have received if he had been allowed to style her hair
during junior-high school."
"Maybe it really is a fetish," Daisuke noted. "Like vinyl
clothes or body-piercing. Maybe the principal gets off on seeing
people with short hair."
"That's gross, Dai," Hiroshi said. "That's really gross."
Shampoo, who was not subject to the punishment but had
followed the group in anyway looked around in mock nervousness.
"Shampoo see bald people..." she stage-whispered.
The group dissolved into giggles and outright laughter.
"Let's cut the noise out there, children!" the librarian
complained through the closed doorway. "This is a school, not a
social club!"
"Man, we oughtta do something!" Ukyou complained bitterly.
"I bet no other school has to put up with this kind of crap! Why
couldn't this have been calm and normal like my last school?"
"Normal?" Nabiki chided. "With at least two confirmed
transvestites roaming the halls?"
"Well..."
"We *did* break the rules, after all," Akane said sadly.
"We did have this coming to us."
"If it were just a case of we broke the rules and gotta do
the time, that'd be cool," Ranma said, "But this is a grudge. The
principal don't like us, so he's makin' sure we suffer. We outta
just leave," the girl suggested. "Just walk out and not come
back."
"If a man owes you money and will not pay, he is in
trouble," Nabiki said sagely. "If many men owe you money and will
not pay, you are in trouble."
"She's right. Man, if we could get *everyone* to leave
that would be cool," Hiroshi noted.
Sayuri held a hand to her mouth. "That's awful!" she said.
"Everyone would get in trouble."
"At this school?" Ukyou asked. "Yeah, right. It's more
like we'd get the principal in trouble. Wouldn't that be great?"
"'Twouldst be wonderful indeed if we could run the madman
off to the heathen wastes again," Kunou grumbled.
"I'll say," Ranma agreed. "Oh well... Hey, it's almost
two-thirty. We better get back to class."
* * *
Makuna-sensei was not a lot of help about the principal.
Rather than commenting on any of the incidents Ranma related to
him, he suggested that Ranma think about how she felt about the
principal, and even try to chat rationally with the man.
Ranma walked out into the waiting room grumbling darkly
about the bad habits of psychologists.
Outside, the girl Ranma had come to know purely in
passing, Taiyoko, looked up. As usual, her face was filled with
anxiety and more than a little fear.
"Yo," Ranma greeted her.
Ranma intended to wave and walk past since the girl seemed
so uncomfortable with her presence, but was taken aback with the
expression Taiyoko gave her.
"What?!" Ranma demanded, looking around herself in shock,
trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Y-your hair..." Taiyoko whispered. "It's..."
"Oh. Yeah," Ranma said, rolling her eyes. "I cut it this
morning."
"Y-you-you're very beautiful," Taiyoko stammered.
Ranma blinked in surprised. "What?" she asked.
Taikyoko's face turned bright red. She leapt up from the
seat and ran into the doctor's office.
Ranma blinked again, unsure of what had just happened. She
knew she looked good, but what would cause the girl to react so
strongly to her presence?
* * *
Later that afternoon, after Ranma had returned to the
Tendou Dojo, she was still rather disgruntled. Why did the
principal single her and her friends out? It wasn't like she had
done anything any of the other students hadn't.
Well, as Makuna-sensei had politely pointed out, she did
regularly flaunt the school dress code. And she interrupted class
all the time. And she slept through all the school assemblies.
And...
Okay, she realized, maybe she did tend to cause more
problems and than some of the other students. Before the principal
had shown up, she thought had come to a sort of equilibrium with
the school administration. They didn't bother her and she did her
best not to bother them. It worked out perfectly well up until the
loony had shown up.
As she grumbled about her problems, Ranma walked through
the Tendous' front room and noticed her father sitting on the
verandah, sipping a beer and staring out at the back yard.
Due to the lack of fighting as imposed by doctors' orders,
Ranma had had very little contact with the man since her surgery.
She hadn't realized just how little contact they had outside of
training. When she removed that part of their relationship, she
was surprised at how little was left.
The old man had been pissing her off anyway. He had been
moping around like it had been *his* head that had been hacked on.
"Hello boy," Genma greeted his child.
"Hey," Ranma answered.
Genma took a long draw off of his beer and looked back out
over the yard.
Ranma plopped down next to her father and grumpily looked
out over the yard to figure out what her father was staring at.
It was a breezy day, but not unduly windy, so Nodoka and
Kasumi were both behind the house, efficiently hanging laundry out
to dry.
Nodoka was wearing her kimono, but Kasumi was wearing a
light cotton dress that twisted and flowed around her in the
breeze. The thin fabric alternately billowed away from her body
and snapped tightly against it, displaying the girl's curves and
nigh-perfect proportions.
Both women had their hair tied back behind them in buns,
but stray stands of hair swirled around them. The laundry,
fastened securely to the clothes-lines, snapped and swirled.
Nodoka and Kasumi, working quickly and expertly, almost seemed to
dance in and out of the swirling morass of colors.
Ranma found herself breathless at the unintentional beauty
of the scene.
"Kasumi will make some man a very fine wife some day,"
Genma said quietly.
"Pops?"
Genma winked at Ranma. "Let's just say I'm partial to
buns."
Ranma blinked, trying to figure out what her father meant.
* * *
"ATTENTION ALL YOU BAD STUDENTS!" the principal's voice
announced over the intercom. "Dey been some very bad keiki trying
to sneak out during lunch hour. Cause Kahuna can't be havin' with
all dat, we gonna lock down da campus during lunch! No students
leave dey classroom during lunch. Dat mean no sandwich line and no
drink line! Have a wonderful day!"
A chorus of moans and groans went up around Ranma, as well
as more than a few angry comments. Ranma glared back behind her at
one of the guys in her class who was starting to get a little
personal with his insults.
"This is bad," Ukyou complained out loud. "He's going to
really let us have it if we don't do something."
"What are we going to do?" Hiroshi asked out loud as the
students who had brought their lunches pulled them out and began
to eat. "We can't just... I dunno."
Hinako was busy licking a lollipop and reading a
storybook, so Ranma turned around in her seat to face the others.
"Why not?" she asked. "We've been breaking the rules all along
anyway. What's it going to cost us that we ain't already paying?"
"We could get thrown out of school, Ranma!" Akane warned.
Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Maybe. Maybe not."
"What are you thinking, Ran-chan?" Ukyou said.
"Even if I can't fight, I've got a few ideas about how to
beat this," Ranma said. "But I think I need to talk to Nabiki for
this--"
The classroom door slid open, allowing Nabiki and Kunou to
step inside.
"How did you get out of your class, 'Nee-chan?" Akane
asked.
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?" she asked. "Do
you still want to go to lunch today?"
"We could," Ranma said, gesturing at Hinako, who was so
involved in 'The Little Salaryman that Could' that she had
completely dissociated from the rest of the class. "But that's
what he's expectin' us to do."
"The pigtailed girl speaks truly," Kunou agreed. "My
dastardly father would not make such a pronouncement unless he
planned to enforce it by hook or by crook."
"I think we can do something, but Akane's right," Ranma
said. "We're getting real close to the point where we can get in
more trouble than just doin' bucket duty."
The rest of their usual lunch group had already crowded
around Ranma, but she put the proximity out of her mind and began
to outline her plans.
Nabiki's expression was troubled. She bit her lip.
"Dangerous, Saotome. Very dangerous. It could blow up in our
faces."
"It could also hammer the final nail into the man's
coffin," Kunou declared. "Even if it did not come from the razor-
sharp mind of the pigtailed girl, I would be inclined to follow
this plan."
"But you'd follow any plan, Kunou-chan," Nabiki said.
"Let's do it like this instead." She explained her revision upon
the plan.
"Nabiki Tendou's plan has merit," Kunou said, "But
creating a riot to cover our actions as she proposes would only
needlessly endanger the pigtailed-girl's well being. Instead, let
us do this." Kunou spoke at some length. While it was difficult to
extract meaning from his flowery speech, Ranma began to grin
wickedly.
"I like it!" she said.
"One more thing," Nabiki said. "We need something to back
us up."
"Let us say that my father is a most evil man," Kunou said
coldly. "Let all who aid us say that indeed the principal of
Furinkan High is a pervert and a fetishist of the highest degree.
Only then will our most noble rebellion be seen in the light it
truly deserves."
The grins faded around the group, but those around Ranma
and Kunou knew that they were stuck with it now. If they ever
wanted to be free of the man, they would have to act.
* * *
After lunch, Hiroshi, Daisuke and Ranma had assembled
fifty or sixty of their male classmates in the boys' locker room.
Ranma felt uncomfortable with the dozens and dozens of eyes
lingering upon her body, but took solace in the fact that they all
had a pretty good idea of why they were there.
It wasn't to look at a pretty girl.
"So, Ranma," one of them called out. "What'cha gonna do
about the principal."
"I can't fight him," Ranma said. "Not injured like I am.
Instead, we've got to do something more drastic."
"More drastic like what?" another boy asked.
"I'll tell you," Ranma said. "We've got a plan. It's like
this..."
* * *
"I'll tell you for five hundred yen apiece," Nabiki said.
The girls around her all began to rummage around in their
purses and pockets. Sayuri, Yuka and Akane all began to collect
the fees while the group of girls began to press in around Nabiki
to hear her pronouncement.
"We're being taken advantage of, ladies," she said. "We're
being sexually exploited and not doing a thing about it."
"Is someone taking ecchi pictures again?" one girl asked
anxiously.
"At this school?" another said darkly. "We already knew we
were being exploited, Nabiki. If it's not voyeurs in the locker
room, it's that freaky panty-thief."
"Ah, but there's a threat you may not be aware of," Nabiki
explained. "How many bowl cuts are we going to endure before
everyone realizes that the principal is a hair fetishist."
A gasp went up from all around the restroom.
* * *
"He gets off on shaving our heads?" a uniformed kendoist
cried out. His hand went to his bald head, and he began to tremble
in revulsion.
"Verily," Kunou spat out. "That twisted man who is no man
has perpetrated his depredations long enough. If not the onus of
unbearable rule and regulation is enough to move you, the assault
on your manhood should rouse all to action."
"Why should we believe you?" another bald boy cried.
"Have I not lived with the man?" Kunou asked. "Have I not
suffered vile sling and arrow since the day I was born? Have I not
fought alongside you at each and every opportunity to drive the
foul demon away?"
The practice room, full of kendoists and members of all
the other sports teams, was silent.
Kunou drew his bokken and leveled it at the captain of the
baseball team.
"Takeshi Tanaka," he named the boy. "You yourself have
suffered the agony of humiliation at my father's hands."
Takeshi pulled off his ball cap to reveal that he was
indeed nearly bald.
"And your younger sister attends this selfsame school!"
Kunou declared. "Are you such a man that you will allow that...
that... BEAST to slake his vile lusts upon her virgin lochs?"
"Never!" Takeshi cried out, tears coursing freely down his
face.
"Every one of us stands to see our dignity and honor
diminish as long as the thing that calls itself my father is
allowed to hold sway at this institution. We have everything to
lose by not acting. Act as you will," Kunou said, turning his back
on the crowd.
"But, Kunou-sempai!" one of the younger soccer-team
members asked. "What can we do?"
"There is a plan in the making," Kunou said, "but it is
not without risk. I cannot ask you to join, and yet I cannot
envision a man who would allow these horrors to continue err he
had a choice. Who will make the choice to follow me?"
"I will!" Takeshi, the baseball team captain declared,
clenching his fist in the air.
"Tell us what to do!" Another cried out.
"Very well," Kunou said. "If you will accept the risk, you
may seek the rewards of heaven. This, then, is our plan of
attack..."
* * *
The teachers all knew that something was up. There was no
way that the 700 odd students at the school could keep it
completely under their hats. Whispered conversations were stopped
in mid sentence if anyone approached and an air of defiance had
sprung up. Angry stares and whispered insults began to rain down
upon the most hated of Furinkan's teachers.
Miyuki Sipuru, first-year geometry teacher, decided not to
comment since she suspected that whatever was happening was
directed at the principal. When she first started at the school,
she got a 'regulation' bowl-cut before ever meeting the man who
had written the regulations. Perhaps if the students' plan was
spectacular enough, she thought as she drew on the board, then the
principal would reconsider his insane rules.
"So if you take the cosine of the arc like this and--"
Hearing the classroom door click behind her, she turned
around.
Her classroom was empty.
Miyuki stared in shock. Surely they wouldn't... Had they?
Could they?
* * *
"Late in the war, American planes began to firebomb the
city of Tokyo," the history teacher said. "At the same time..."
Ranma waited until the teacher's back was turned to the
class. Silently, she rose from her seat and smiled at everyone
around her. They needed a little leadership and a *lot* of
encouragement to go along, but Ranma thought that that wouldn't be
a problem.
On cat-like feet, she made her way over to the open window
and climbed through it. It was true that such an act pretty
soundly broke her medical restrictions, but Ranma was feeling
pretty rebellious. It wouldn't hurt her to get a *little* bit of
excitement. Effortlessly, she began to shimmy down a drain pipe to
the ground.
The history teacher turned around, hearing the amazed
whispers behind him.
"Where on Earth is Saotome?" he demanded.
"Uhh... I think he had a doctors' appointment after
lunch," Hiroshi answered.
"Hmmm... I could have sworn that-- Oh well."
He turned back to the board and began to write.
"So we can assume that the Americans had developed and
tested the first nuclear device in the southwest United States
only a few weeks before the twin bombings on these cities. How
many died in the initial blast? Tendou?"
He turned around to get his answer from the girl he just
quizzed.
He was surprised to see her seat sitting empty.
"Wasn't Akane Tendou here just a second ago?"
"Uhhh... I think that she's at the doctor with Ranma,"
Daisuke answered.
"Honda then..." the teacher said, looking around for
Hiroshi. "Wasn't Hiroshi Honda just here?"
"I don't think so," One of the girls answered, fighting to
keep a smirk off her face. "He's sick today."
"Hmm... people are disappearing on me today," the teacher
said, feeling the need to take a draw off of the flask hidden in
his briefcase. "Well, at any rate, the initial damage estimates
can be found here and here. If you'll look at this diagram, you'll
see that..."
The rustle began almost as soon as his back was turned. He
whipped back around to see what was happening, but only Hikaru
Gosunkuji was there among a sea of empty desks to return his
stare.
Hikaru raised his hand politely. "Can I go to the
bathroom?" the boy asked.
* * *
Nabiki felt nervous as she waited outside the school gates
with the first dozen or so walkouts. She still had reservations
about what was happening despite Ranma's and Kunou's careful
planning. When her dozen doubled, she felt a little less nervous.
When Kunou came out of the athletics wing leading most of the
school's athletics teams in his wake, she started to get the heady
feeling of victory.
Ranma and Akane appeared a few seconds later leading
another sixty or seventy students behind them. Hiroshi and Daisuke
were with them. Sayuri and Yuka were directing the first year
students and providing encouragement for some of the more nervous
members of the protest.
Ukyou had cleared out the home-ec wing and was leading
dozens of girls who were ladened down with 'refreshments' for the
protestors.
Ranma was grinning like a maniac by the time she reached
the gate.
"It's gonna work!" the redhead cried. "Everybody's
leaving!"
"Let's just see what happens when they all start going
home," Nabiki said as the noise level began to rise. "We'll know
tomorrow wether we've won or not."
Ranma nodded, although Nabiki was having serious problems
keeping the grin off her face.
Akane was clinging to Ranma's arm with excitement and the
thrill of victory. The redhead didn't even seem to notice.
Ukyou noticed and glared daggers at Akane's back.
"This is great!" Akane said. "We've finally shown that
nutcase that we're not going to deal with his weirdness any more."
"Yeah," Ranma said. Something began to eat at her,
however. Something didn't feel right. Had they truly done the
right thing by protesting in such a manner? Ranma began to analyze
what they had just done again. It seemed like they had done the
honorable thing.
Having had a snack after winning their freedom, the
students were beginning to disperse.
"We have liberated the school," Kunou declared. "The
goddess of justice smiles warmly upon us today."
"Let's all get out of here, then," Ukyou said. "I'll open
Ucchan's early so we can regroup there."
"We'll come," Ranma said, salivating at the thought of
free okonomiyaki. "You wanna come, Sempai?"
"Nay," Kunou declined. "For I alone must remain here to
explain what has happened to that man."
"Kunou-chan..." Nabiki said in surprise. "Why? Are you
sure?"
"Do I not live with the man?" Kunou said, echoing his
earlier statements. "Everyone here may escape his torments in the
safety of the outside world. Our homes are safe havens from his
depredations... all except mine. He must know the crime for which
he is being punished, or there is no true justice. Sadly, I alone
am most suited to tell him."
"Kunou-sempai," Akane breathed in surprise.
"I must deal with him," Kunou said sharply. "If for no
other reason than to hammer this lesson into his skull. I do not
expect that I will be going home anytime soon. 'Tis a far better
thing I do...'"
"Well, if you're sure," Akane said, walking off with the
others. "Hurry if you can. We'll all be at Ucchan's for a while."
Kunou nodded, but his forced grin held no hope.
After a few seconds, Ranma broke away from the group.
"What's up, Saotome?" Hiroshi asked.
"I gotta go check on something," she said, a hint of
anxiousness entering her voice. She broke away from the group
before anyone could protest.
"She's worried about Kunou?" Ukyou asked in surprise.
"Ranma's been... different lately," Nabiki sighed.
Akane started to fret. It couldn't be that her fears were
coming true, could it? Was Ranma starting to... care... about
Kunou? Surely not...
* * *
"Why on earth are you home so early?" Takeshi Tanaka's
mother asked of him and his sister.
"Mother," the team captain addressed her formally, "we
came home because we were being taken advantage of at school."
"What?" the older woman asked in surprise.
"It's the loony principal!" his little sister exclaimed.
"He's been trying to force us all to cut our hair. We all think
it's because he's a pervert and wants to take advantage of us."
"Principal Kunou?" their mother asked. "Are you sure?"
Takeshi pulled his ball cap off. "I didn't get my hair cut
like this voluntarily," he complained.
The Tanakas' mother began to shake in outrage. How dare a
man, any man, molest her children so?!
After confirming the story from her children and getting
more details, she reached for the phone and dialed a number.
"Tokyo Police Department, Nerima Ward," the polite
receptionist answered. "Can I help you?"
"This is Mari Tanaka. I need to speak to my husband,
please."
"I'm afraid that Captain Tanaka's not available right
now," the receptionist informed her after just a second.
"I need you to interrupt him them. This is an emergency,"
Mari said.
* * *
By the time the phone calls started the pour in, the
principal was wandering the halls, not believing what he was
seeing. He stared around about himself in shock. Only a few of the
teachers had seen fit to stay after the students had walked out,
but they couldn't meet his gaze.
"Why?" he called out loud. No one was there to answer him.
Did they really hate him that much?
Eventually, shambling aimlessly through the hallways, he
made his way to the Kendo club's room.
Tatewaki was sitting in a lotus position in the center of
the floor, his eyes closed and his bokken balanced across his
knees.
"Tacchi... Tacchi didn't leave me!" the principal
exclaimed. "You such a good keiki! Lookin' out fo' you papa."
"I have not left simply by the merit of the fact that
there is no where I can truly escape," the kendoist said, not
bothering to open his eyes.
"What you talkin' bout, Keiki?" the principal asked
dubiously.
"Is it not obvious?" Tatewaki said. "Do you not see that
the entire student body has profoundly rejected your evil? Are you
so incapable of accepting reality that you do not realize that
this is all your own doing?"
"Tacchi..."
"Quiet, oh father of mine. I have tired of your abuse, and
I refuse to stand for it any more."
"I never abused you!" the principal shouted.
"Does not a child need its dignity?" Kunou asked. "Does
not a child need a parent that he or she can run to in times of
trouble and strife? Does not a child need a protector? A
confidant? A priest-confessor? You cry that you are not guilty of
abuse, yet I don't remember a father who would have known if his
son was routinely beaten by the upperclassmen in grade school. I
don't remember a father who would have known if his daughter lived
in fear of molestation from the power-mad priests in junior-high."
"Tacchi... why didn't you say somethin'?"
"I did," Tatewaki responded. "And you ignored me. How did
you put it? A 'brudda have to be strong'? I endured being beaten
for almost two years, father.
"And as for Kodachi, well, the only person she had to tell
that she was being stalked was myself. Her father *should* have
made a complaint to his cronies in the Ministry of Education when
his daughter's panties and leotard were stolen. He should have
seen to the priest's dismissal or even his arrest when the man was
caught taking pictures inside his daughter's shower stall. When
the man cornered her in the attic of that idiotic school and tried
to rape her, her father should have been there to save her.
Instead, she had to settle for watching me beat him senseless with
a wooden stick."
"I-- I didn't know," the principal said weakly.
"HOW COULD YOU HAVE KNOWN!?" Kunou demanded angrily. "You
abandoned us and flew away to Hawaii to get a tan! Do you know how
humiliating it was to have the police tell me to get my father to
call back when I tried to report that my sister was being
molested? Do you?! Do you know how much you have allowed your
daughter's sanity to be damaged? Well?!"
The principal was speechless, staring at the floor in
shock.
"At first I was overjoyed to learn that my father had
returned from his hideaway to rejoin his oh-so dysfunctional
family. Then I was horrified to learn that you had become this...
this perverted mockery of a man. You are worse than those who beat
me and just as bad as the man who tormented your daughter. I hope
you're quite pleased with yourself, Father," Kunou said, saying
the last word like it was an epithet. "Soon, I suspect, all the
world will know of your evils. When that time comes, when you
stumble through the streets with a cross on your back and all
around jeer rudely at your humble state, remember that it was your
son who helped put you there."
Tatewaki opened his eyes and rolled effortlessly onto his
feet.
The principal collapsed, dropping to his knees.
"Good bye, Father. I hope I don't see you again," the
kendoist said before propping his bokken against his shoulder and
striding from the room.
Just outside the kendo room, Kunou nodded once to Ranma,
who had overheard everything. She covered her mouth in shock and
surprise.
Inside, they could hear the principal begin to weep.
"Speak not of this, noble pigtailed-girl," Kunou
whispered, "for it was not something that I wished to share with
anyone but him. Instead, think of mine and my sister's dignity. We
have some small madness between us I fear, but we must maintain a
thin illusion of normalcy lest we fall to complete and utter
insanity."
"I... I understand," Ranma whispered, gulping at the
kendoist's rare self-honesty.
"Come," Kunou said. "Let us away to yon restaurant so that
we may forget this horrible scene."
* * *
"Akane! Nabiki! Ranma!" Kasumi exclaimed when the three
returned home from Ucchan's. "Where have you been?"
"At the restaurant," Nabiki answered. "Why?"
"Were you part of the walkout?" Kasumi asked. Soun, Genma,
and Nodoka came and stood behind her upon hearing the three enter
the house.
Ranma bit her lip. They already knew?
"Uh, we kinda organized the walkout," Ranma said
sheepishly. "We got pretty tired of the principal and all his
crap."
"Oh?" Soun asked. "So... you led... that?"
"What's the big deal?" Akane said. "There have been school
protests before, haven't there?"
"Not like this," Genma said. "You haven't heard, have
you?"
"Heard what?" Ranma asked.
"It seems that Principal Kunou has been sacked," Soun
explained. "It's on the national news. He's being investigated for
inappropriate sexual conduct with some of the students by the
Ministry of Education."
"The National News?!" Nabiki cried. She ran into the front
room and turned the television on. Sure enough, after tuning to
the twenty-four hour news network, a picture of a man who looked
like Principal Kunou without a tan was displayed on television.
"Were any of you molested?" Nodoka asked the two girls in
concern. "Were either of you hurt?"
"Well," Nabiki said. "He tied Akane up once."
"That was just a stunt, wasn't it?" Akane asked, confusion
and fear crossing her face.
"There's something else," Nabiki said, listening to the
broadcast. "It seems that there might have been some misconduct
before he left for Hawaii the last time. They're talking about
filing criminal charges."
"You're kidding!" Ranma said, incredulity growing on her
face. "Right?"
Nabiki shook her head. "I think we may have gotten out
just in time."
* * *
Ranma was sick to her stomach. She never meant it to go
this far. Everything felt wrong. As bad as he was, surely... Did
he? Could he? Guilt and uncertainty began to assail Ranma. She
slept very poorly.
Almost all the students returned to school the next day
despite the fact that there were police and news crews waiting in
front of the building. The police held the legitimate journalists
and the paparazzi back while the students nervously made their way
inside.
Ranma split up from Akane and Nabiki as soon as the three
entered the building and sought out the principal's office. She
walked past the now-empty secretary's desk and threw open the door
to the office, expecting to find the man inside with a ukulele and
some palm trees.
The trees were gone. So was the sand, crabs, and pumice
boulders that had been scattered around. The ocean-print wallpaper
had been roughly torn away from the walls and stuffed into the
trashcan next to the now-bare desk in the center of the office.
The only thing on the desk was a folded note.
'Gone to Hawaii. Back... whenever. - Headmaster'
"It's better this way," Kunou said, stepping into the
office behind her.
Akane and Nabiki were with him. "Maybe it is better,
Ranma," Akane said. "If he really was... doing that."
"Was he?" Ranma asked.
"What?" Nabiki asked. "Acting like a looney?"
"No!" Ranma shouted, uncertain of her feelings. "Did he
really molest people? Was it really some sexual thrill for him?"
she asked. Ranma's words indicated her uncertainty. She really
didn't know what to think. "Akane, do you really think he got off
on tying you up that time?"
"I... don't know. It was weird and I was angry about it
but..."
"Aren't his other misdeeds enough to warrant this,
Pigtailed-girl?" Kunou asked. "Have you forgotten the mistreatment
you suffered at his hands?"
"I don't know," Ranma shouted, running from the room.
Ranma fled the school. After a few minutes of running
aimlessly, feeling guilt and uncertainty piling up upon her, she
realized where she had to go.
She had to get both sides of the story.
It was surprisingly easy to track down what flights were
leaving for Hawaii and from what gate once she got off the train
to Narita. The baggage attendants and counter clerks were helpful
and polite in helping her find the appropriate place.
Eventually, she came upon the terminal area she was
looking for.
It took Ranma several minutes to actually recognize the
man for who he was once she found him. He was dressed in wrinkled
business clothes and had lost the plastic palm tree he usually
wore in his hair at some point. His sunglasses were gone, but that
didn't stop Ranma from noting the man's deep tan.
He looked like hell, Ranma thought. He looked a lot like
the picture they had shown on the news the previous night.
He averted his eyes from the girl as she approached.
"You're goin' back to Hawaii."
"Yah," the principal answered in his fake accent. "De
islands always be nice to me. Never gotta explain myself there."
Ranma winced.
"Why?" She finally asked.
"Why what?" The principal quipped back.
"Why all of it?" she asked in irritation. "The haircuts,
the lunch thing, the weird rules. Why all the accusations? Did you
really..." Ranma gulped. "Did you really... "
"No," Kunou said. "Me ain't never done anytin' like dat to
boy or girl," the principal said. "De rules... de rules just gone
too far this time."
"What do you mean, too far?"
The principal inhaled deeply. "Siddown here, Keiki. Let
you headmaster tell you a story."
Nervously, Ranma sat down in the uncomfortable airport
lounge chair next to the principal and waited for the other shoe
to drop.
While the shoe didn't drop, the principal's faux accent
did.
"It was about ten years ago," the principal began. Ranma
was startled at his voice, which was suddenly surprisingly clear
and intelligent-sounding. "I had just finished my doctorate in
education. Tacchi and Kocchi were both in good schools. I was
happy and rich, and then my wife died."
Ranma did her best to keep silent, but couldn't help
herself. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
The elder Kunou shrugged. "It's been a long time. I still
miss her, but... it's 'water under the bridge'," he finished in
English. "There have even been a few women since, although some
were not very good choices. I'll admit to being crazy sometimes. A
lot crazy, some of the time. Your father-in-law. He lost his wife,
and he's a little crazy sometimes, right?"
Ranma nodded in agreement.
"My wife... she had the shortest, most beautiful hair. She
always wore it just like I like it. And when she was gone, I found
myself looking at women and girls who had hair like she did. I bet
you think it's funny the big pervert Kahuna has a 'hair fetish',
ne, Keiki?"
Ranma winced, a little ashamed of the phrase she and the
others had used so frequently the previous day.
"Some men like lingerie. Some like athletic women. Tacchi
seems to like anything in a skirt. For me, it was hair. There was
this girl at Furinkan... oh, about the time you were in seventh
grade probably. She looked a lot my wife, even down to the short
hair. It was wrong, but... hey... you can't help it when you fall
in love with a girl."
Ranma cringed at the intensely personal statement. Her
cheeks burned in embarrassment.
"Don't worry, Keiki. Like I said, Kahuna never did
anything hentai. She was an office assistant part of the day, and
I just gave her jobs so that she would be working where I could
see her. Got me through the day some days. Course, if you let the
sharks in, somebody gonna get eat."
"What happened?" Ranma managed to whisper.
"It turned out that the girl did some part-time modelling
for ecchi magazines." The principal shrugged again, as if it was
no big deal. "She got caught. Since she was underage, there as a
big stink. When her parents found out about it, they were real
upset."
"And not wanting to take any of the blame for her
upbringing," Ranma guessed.
"Parents kinda funny that way, Keiki," The principal
explained, temporarily lapsing back into his accent. "No parent
wants to admit they a bad mommy or daddy, that they don't care
enough, that they didn't watch their kids carefully enough. So
they find people to blame. 'Why weren't her teachers aware of the
problem?'"
Ranma shook her head, unsure of how to respond.
"Now, if what Tacchi says is true, then I'm a pretty bad
parent," the principal admitted. "Pretty loopy. Pretty crazy. When
they started looking for a 'sugar daddy' at the school, I figured
that they would realize that I was attracted to the girl even
though I hadn't actually done anything. It was a pretty bad time
for me. I was hurting pretty bad emotionally, and not really in
touch with reality. So I figure, hey, I've got money! Let's just
take a long vacation and get away from all this crap!"
Ranma nodded. It was the principal's long trip to Hawaii
and the abandonment of his children. She almost began to pity him.
"And when you came back..." Ranma prompted.
"I was a little crazier, and a little saner. I thought a
lot about how schools should work when I was on the island. I had
it in my head that I'd make my students the best around by giving
them unsolvable problems and expecting them to solve them."
"The haircut rules and the coconut thing," Ranma guessed.
The principal nodded. "That was good. Unite the students
against the bad guy. Make 'em smart! Make 'em strong! You and
Tacchi were the leaders, really. I even got to be the good guy in
my head because I was letting you two unite the students against
me. It was a pretty good time!"
Ranma cocked her head to one side. "Then what went wrong
with the lunch thing?"
Principal shrugged. "Everything else, the mandatory
haircuts, the toilet cleaning, everything, I was willing to give
on. I knew that if there was a reward, it would make the students
better. I *wasn't* willing to give on the lunch policy because I
felt that students should respect their school and teachers enough
to stay there all day."
"But we were already in the habit of 'defeating' you,"
Ranma guessed.
The principal nodded, a grin on his face instead of a sad
expression. "Boy, howdy! And I got trashed but good!"
"But... it was the 'hair-fetish' thing, wasn't it?" Ranma
asked, her voice deep with guilt. "We called you a pervert one-
too-many times."
"The rooster came home to roost, Keiki," the man's tone
shifted. "The Principal's a freak! A Pervert!" He sighed deeply.
"And then someone said, Hey, you remember that short-haired girl
that used to work in his office? What about her? Maybe he was a
pervert with her. He sure took off like a shot when she got in
trouble."
Ranma gulped nervously.
"So I get a call from the ministry of education last
night. Lost my job, but that's okay, really. They gonna hold a
conduct hearing and press criminal charges. 'Cause o' the coconut
thing, 'cause o' the short hair, I'm gonna swing. Better to go
back to Hawaii so they can't hang me in person, ne?"
Almost unconsciously, Ranma's hand went to her short,
newly budding pigtail. She suddenly felt uncomfortable next to the
man, as if he were threatening her somehow. It was just a few days
ago that she had trimmed her hair. What if... what if he looked at
her the same way he looked at the underage model before?
Ranma had a sudden flash of being tied up like Akane had
been at the Principal's first assembly at Furinkan high. Instead
of hanging above the stage at Furinkan high with her wrists tied
to a broom, she was in the attic of a Catholic school. The
principal advanced on her with a pair of barber's shears in one
hand while unzipping his pants with the other.
Ranma shook her head, realizing that her imagination was
running away with her. She forced herself to think seriously on
the matter. Had he ever done anything like that? He really had
never done anything to her other than be annoying so far as Ranma
could remember. He didn't look threatening. He just looked
pathetic.
Who was Ranma to judge someone who had already judged
himself?
She suddenly recalled the moment she had seen her father
watching Kasumi and Nodoka hang the laundry. For the first time,
Ranma realized how beautiful his father thought Kasumi was. His
father may have been a lying, cheating, sexist pig, but he had
always stressed the utmost politeness and gentleness to Ranma when
dealing with the fairer sex. Even if Genma did look at Kasumi in a
sexual way, Ranma could never believe that he would act on his
feelings.
Suddenly, Ranma couldn't find it in her heart to fear or
even resent the pathetic man sitting beside her for his
admittance. She didn't think this man would act on his feelings
either.
"Don't go," Ranma said. "I think you can get through it."
The principal shook his head. "Maybe. I kinda doubt it."
"I think... I think I can do something. Something to get
the hearing cancelled."
The principal raised one eyebrow in skepticism.
"Didn't you say that you gave us unsolvable problems?"
Ranma asked. "Didn't we always solve them?"
The principal just shook his head. "Maybe if the
accusations weren't so strong or if there wasn't so much
evidence..." He sighed and slumped down in his seat. "You just
don't get the Ministry of Education to back down on something like
that, Keiki. They really think I'm a criminal now."
"Gimme a day, then," Ranma pleaded.
"Huh?"
"Just one day," Ranma stated. "An' if you don't think the
hearing will be called off, then you go ahead. Run away to
Hawaii," she challenged.
The principal sighed and shrugged. "What the hell. I'm
waiting on standby tickets today anyway. I can get a first class
seat if I wait a day. What can you possibly do to get me out of
this?"
* * *
"My name is Ranma Saotome, and I would like to publicly
apologize for calling the principal of Furinkan High School a
pervert."
Ranma winced as the flash bulbs went off all around her. A
little bit of feedback from the microphones and loudspeakers
flared up as well. When she had asked Nabiki to help her put
together a press conference, she hadn't really expected so much
attention.
As it was, *most* of the Tokyo television stations and
newspapers were out to hear her confession. Ranma recognized a few
faces in the crowd from television. She suspected that Nabiki had
called in every favor she had in order to pull this off and
realized that she was going to be in debt to the girl for the rest
of her life.
"It all started when we, me and some of my friends, wanted
to go out to lunch instead of eating here..."
Ranma dove into the details of their battle plans, laying
them bare for the world to see. All around her, reporters looked
at her with keen interest as her story unfolded. Ranma did her
best to keep her facts honest and unbiased as some of the
reporters started to ask questions. After a few minutes, Kunou
stood up beside her behind the podium the drama club had set up in
the school auditorium.
"As his son, I can attest to my father's innocence of
sexual abuse. The man is many things," Kunou said. "But a sexual
predator he is not."
After some time, the questions began to trail off and
Nabiki ushered the both of them off stage. Yuka and Sayuri stood
up behind the podium and thanked the press members profusely
before politely asking them to leave.
* * *
Later that night, the ex-principal walked quietly through
the halls of his ancestral home. Despite the fact that he rarely
slept there, it was still very much his home. He didn't plan to
leave it again.
His silent footsteps carried him through the house until
he found himself in front of the shuttered room his son used for
practice and meditation.
"Tacchi," he said. "Thank you for what you did this
morning."
Tatewaki was silent, his back turned to his father. In
front of him were two unframed photographs, one of Ranma from
before her surgery and one from the press conference earlier in
the day.
"Don't thank me," the kendoist said. "But thank instead
the pigtailed girl. It was her and her alone who chose to save you
from the fire. If it were me, I would have left you to rot. Now,
leave me alone and never enter my presence again. I have no desire
to see you again. I will no longer call you 'Father'."
Silently, the man who had just lost his son turned away.
The next morning, he was sitting in the first class section on a
JAL flight to Oahu.
-----
~to be continued...