Ranma One-Akane
By Ron Dow75
4: Surfaces
Ranma's small, soft, singed, scratched, and soaking wet Akane-body was taken to Furinkan High's main building. She was cradled in the very strong arms of a man in a kendo-gi who looked like he could be that Kuno-creep's much older brother.
All gave way before the samurai who claimed to be their acting headmaster. Even dripping wet, he was imposing. And that was from just a fraction of the battle aura Ranma sensed. All of the rest was directed inward.
The clothes Ranma were in, too, were singed, tattered and soaking wet. The man's lower left arm could feel through the back of the blouse she had on; his right hand supported the bare thighs the school dress revealed. {Is that what this 'acting headmaster' is holdin' back!?! Is he a secret pervert that's afraid he'll lose it, otherwise?!}
He WAS overly stoic; all of the time from the pool, he'd kept his eyes straight ahead, not looking down at her body once.
They reached the infirmary just as she got her wind back: "Please let me go," she said far more politely than she wanted. {Damn! How come a BODY has things to say when the owner is outa it!!? Does that have anything to do with why I THINK in _HER voice?!}
A girl with her dark brown hair tied up in a short ponytail by a red ribbon gave a surprised reaction, "Akane??!"
Ignoring the girl in his arms, the man in charge told the girl below him, "Go to the office, and get a spare uniform." He turned to Ranma only to ask, "What size?"
Apparently that information was readily at hand for the Akane-girl. Ranma had to say, "I, I don't know."
The other girl said, "I know! I'll get it, sir!" exiting.
The big man of brawn continued on. Ranma asked, "Where are you, taking me?"
His answer was, "To bed."
Her answer was, "I don't want you to take me to bed!" And she reared back her hand to slap him. {Martial arts SLAPPING!!?!} Ranma protested.
The force of her blow spun her as she was thrown through the air.
She landed, clumsily and awkwardly, on the bed. {Ow-ch, ch! Not only do these no-good boobs wanna get in the way—So does a stickin'-out hip!!}
But Ranma quickly pushed herself up on one hip, ready to defend-and-attack.
What she saw was the back of the expressionless adult Kuno as he placed an infirmary screen between them with one hand. He departed without looking back, without saying another word.
= = =
Dr. Tofu Ono flipped the switch that lit his cellar. Beyond the immediate area were the Plexiglas-door bookcases that contained his eclectic library. Along with ancient Chinese tombs, modern Western-style textbooks, paperback treatises, pamphlets and brochures to such attractions as "The Three Brothers" and "Juusenkyo", he had a special selection of mangas. He liked the original ideas they gave him for his treatments. But there were a few shoujos.
In the immediate area, to his left, was an empty bookstand. To his right were a couple of chairs, a reading table and lamp near the wall. Across the way, its doors closed, a shrine was on a table by the further wall. Next to that, in the corner was a desk-sized, double-hatch (one with a heavy padlock) chest with pure white cloth covering something about 60 centimeters high. And beside that was a map of the local area tacked to a single wooden ornamental screen. The good doctor paused to ponder before it. "I wonder how it got moved?" Carefully, he repositioned it a couple of centimeters until it was between him and the correct degree of NNW direction. "There!" he smiled.
On the map different colored-painted Chinese ideograms and symbols marked various, seemingly random locations. Dr. Tofu liked to think of them as "geo-chi shiatsu points". Only one of them had a red-and-black yin-and-yang sign. And that one was NNW of the clinic.
= = =
A girl moved the metal-frame-and-cloth-curtain of the screen to look in on, "Akane! You actually met him?!"
Ranma saw she had the smallest eyes and lightest brown hair she remembered seeing in a fellow Japanese; "Who is he? He claims to be the acting headmaster."
The girl came into the little privacy area and immediately sat down on the bed with her, "That's who he is! He's ALSO the biggest mystery of Furinkan!" {Gee, she's sittin' close, even for a Japanese. Do all girls get next to each other like this?}
Ranma said, "The mystery is how a guy like that became even an acting headmaster." {Her bein' up next to me like this is pushin' my buttons to back off, assert myself…or grab her!}
The girl whose left hip and thigh {to say nothing of the boob) were nearly touching Ranma's right told her, "Yeah, he belongs in a samurai epic."
{…But it doesn't bother the Akane-body. Girls must get this close to each other normally after all! Focus on,} "A samurai epic?"
She said, "Yeah! Those scenes where the warrior is off deep in the woods, undergoing tests of discipline?"
Though Ranma had seen very little TV or theater because of his travels and his skinflint pop, even she knew about the most famous of those scenes; "Are there any waterfalls around here?"
She shook her large head of hair, "No. But that's why he keeps water in the swimming pool, unheated—Even in the winter!"
Ranma said, "You mean, he's the reason there was water in the pool when it's too cold to swim in?!"
She nodded, "He doesn't swim in it, I don't think. He just likes to be in it up to his chin."
Ranma said, "Oh!…That's why he was there when –In his clothes??!"
= = =
To the right of the wooden screen with the map on it, nearest the stairs, was the bookstand. On it, Dr. Tofu had placed a Chinese medical reference. Placing his hands on the chart of the human acupuncture points, he let his left hand hover over the map. "Yes, the disturbance remains at the Tendou property. Akane must still not show signs of recovery. I'd hoped it was only temporary amnesia. No harm would come if her mind had been prompted to reconnect with her familiar ways on waking up. Hmm…but it seems the cause of her problem was not one of sickness.
"But there was something that was causing my Diagnostic to sound the alarm yesterday. Sickness is normally what it means; making sure those who lived or worked at the geo-chi points are treated keep the disruptive effects of the sites sealed back. Sickness demons are usually the first to emerge.
"But the Diagnostic was what suggested the treatment I used on poor Akane. I would NOT have done anything to make a person with a possible head injury unconscious, otherwise."
The doctor he slammed the book closed, annoyed with himself, "If only the thought of seeing Kasumi hadn't clouded my mind, I could've been alert to what was really happening."
He picked up the book from the stand, and stood looking at his bookcases, "I'm going to need assistance in finding the correct text I'll need."
Tucking the weighty book under an arm, he had enough time to bow his neck as he slapped his palms together, "I need you, Beti."
= = =
The thin, oddly plain girl talking to Ranma asked, "I know you say you don't like gossip, Akane, but hasn't Nabiki told you any of these things about Mr. Touno?"
Ranma asked, "Who?"
She said, "Who's Nabiki; your sister?"
Ranma asked, "No: Who's Mr. Touno?"
She said, "He's the acting headmaster, Sadamu Touno-sama."
Ranma asked, "It's not Kuno?"
The girl laughed, "Can you imagine a "Headmaster Kuno"? Let's keep things straight, he's Headmaster Touno."
Ranma said, "But he looks so much like Kuno!"
The girl nodded, "The word is that they're related. A cousin, I think."
Ranma looked away to what, half-drowned at the time, she remembered, "So that's why Kuno called him itoko no kata." She returned her look to the girl, "Okay, now, for you. What is your name?"
Ranma received a very strange look back, "I'm Tsugako. Nabiki's first vice president and secretary?"
Ranma returned the look, {What the hell does that mean??}
From the other side of the screen came, "I'm back with the spare school uniform and emergency unmentionables, Akane!"
Tsugako said, "And that's Sayuri; your best friend?"
= = =
While Beti did the research among the bookcases, Dr. Tofu'd gone to the chest to uncover the special mass of marbled red clay on a silver platter. Resting beside it was a case with ancient bronze acupuncture needles.
Before beginning, Tofu sighed, "If only the answers from one reading did not settle out so soon after."
Starting with the skills he learned as a chiropractor, the doctor started running his strong fingers over and beneath the surface of the clay. He felt for the spots that called to be pushed, pulled or massaged; when he felt an energy imbalance, he would stick one of the needles in it. That is when the clay would spasm and seem to come alive…
= = =
The soggy uniform dress fell to the floor around her bare feet.
The idea of getting out of girls' clothes was a welcome one to Ranma. {Too bad I can't do the same for the body! Life would be different for me, then.} But she knew it was only to put on a dress that was just like the one she despised, only one not wet and messed up. {Girls' gotta be all 'neat, and clean, and pre-tty'; can't have them look like they really do anything.} Okay, Ranma knew she was being unfair; she'd seen more than enough hard-working women in his travels. But she, the Stallion, had a great big mental block on about all things positive about females. Until her 100% male-self got as used to being a girl as he was capable of getting, she would not be ready to deal with her blindspot. {I can't even think about bein' the one needin' rescuing right now," she glowered to herself.
{' Course, it's not like I haven't had to be helped before. I remember stayin' at this Buddhist monastery after I hurt myself once. They talked about the "Folds of Adjustment". Something about two days, two weeks, two months, two—} She had gotten down to the wet peach-colored bra and (somewhere below it) wet, lacey, taffeta panties.
{Even that long and I won't be likin' any of this!!}
"Akane?!" Sayuri asked. She was holding out a towel for her.
Ranma accepted it. {I don't want to be a girl long enough to HAVE to learn if I can!!}
Ranma started drying herself off. She saved the underwear for last; besides being the wettest, they were also had in them the parts that were the most…
Tsugako asked, "Aren't you going to change into fresh lingerie, Akane?"
Ranma said, "Oh, right!" trying to remember exactly what that word meant even as the body had reached around and was getting slack in the middle of the peach-colored bra by pulling on the elastic band… {What a bother! What is with girls puttin' on new things the first chance they get!? As a guy, I never had a problem with leavin 'damp underwear on and lettin' them dry naturally
Tsugako commented, "What were you thinking this morning, Akane? Your top and bottom don't match in the least."
While the bra was being dropped on the chair with the other wet things, Ranma said, "It's not like anybody is supposed to see them."
Sayuri said, "Where is your mind today, Akane? Of course they're going to be seen."
That's when a crowd of voices entered the infirmary.
= = =
Dr. Tofu made one last pass of his hands over the work of clay-with-bronze-needles that could now, at best, be called abstract. He read its lumpy surface as a phrenologist reads the head. One last push, and he was satisfied that the true character of the present situation was ready to be read.
But it wasn't from the swellings in the misshapen mass he would read. The black-green lines within the red clay (with specks of yellow) seemed to form very idiosyncratic sousho/cursive ideograms.
"Hmm…"Three have become five…" Okay, five doesn't have quite the primal power that three does; but all prime numbers are stable. I don't see the disturbance. It is Yin and Yang that are in constant change. They are two with two more hidden within them, making four. The threat from the Tendou property is centered on even numbers. Three sisters form a natural prime set. If that is the three referred to, Mr. Tendou would still be able to compensate for the odds, by subtracting and adding his presence.
"If he was aware of the imbalance. Hmm…"
Surprisingly little of the clay had clung to the doctor's hands; this he massaged into them as he pondered. "My Diagnostic is sensitive to the fluctuations of energies in the area. It wouldn't have rung like a figurative bell like it had if it hadn't been struck by an impending disturbance." The clay disappeared as it was absorbed into his skin. "I was attuned to its peal, and not distracted by anything yesterday. I looked at the time. It happened at 8:25 AM. And since I found out later it had to do with Akane…Whatever precipitated the disturbance happened then, at her school."
Tofu had a thought, "That could mean that whatever the crisis is has effected the school as well!"
= = =
{It's okay…This body isn't overreactin' as much as I wanna. It must be sorta okay for a buncha girls to see another *Swallow* another girl naked; nude. Right: This is Japan.
{Maybe it makes some sense to let a body that knows how to be a girl to take the lead for a while. If it was left up to me alone I'd probably end up screwin' up royal, and becoming an even bigger damned fool than I feel like right now.} Then she made a resolution, {As long as I'm stuck bein' a full-time girl, not a half-time, or part-time girl, I, I, --I can't even think it!! I'm not ready, yet!!}
"Akane! Akane Tendou!! Is that your answer!??!" asked one of the representatives from every classroom in the school; there were so many, most were out in the hall. And they all wore the same blue jumper and white, puffy-sleeve blouse uniforms. Ranma wasn't.
"My answer?" {While I was thinkin' to myself, they must've asked something that that Akane-girl hadn't rehearsed in her head before or something. It isn't in the body's programmin'.}
A girl shorter than Ranma was now, with the big brown eyes that left little white showing stepped forward. She wasn't kawai/cute, exactly. But she definitely wasn't Ranma's idea of what a leader of a mob should look like (but there was still an alarm bell going off in Ranma's mind that she was too sensory overloaded to deal with). "Since asking you politely is not sufficient," ("With offerings!" another good said, holding up a small gift wrapped parcel with both hands.) "We will ask you in blunt language. We demand that you choose a guy!"
("But not Chika!" "Or Hisa!" "Inugoya is mine!")
Ranma finally found her voice, "Why would I want to do a dumb thing like that?"
A tall girl with long but stiff hair, with a more or less unfeminine manner about her {Now, that's my idea of a girl who could lead a riot.} said, "Because all of the guys worth dating have become obsessed with you, Akane! All they can talk about is you!"
Ranma said, "That's dumb of them."
The tall girl said, "We're talking about boys." Of course they're dumb.
Off to the side, a permed girl Akane's size but with what seemed like a much better figure said, " ' Especially considering what they seem to prefer." There was an insult in there, punctuated by the survey she gave her.
That did not bother Ranma's feeling, but it did bring her mind back to how naked she was; she told them, "I don't want to choose any boys! I HATE boys!"
The brown-eyed girl said, "We've heard that all before. But for the good of the group, the girls of Furinkan High, you WILL date a boy."
The tall girl said, "Yeah! And be so hopelessly gone on him, all the other boys will stop thinking of you and think of us, for a change!"
Ranma told them more forcefully, "The thought of acting like a silly girl is too…ridiculous…to even talk about!" She was stopped from saying a word that would've certainly have had the girls feeling more insulted than they already felt.
The race-queen type said, "Then you leave us with no choice."
There were nods and other shows of agreement from the gathered girls.
Ranma stopped feeling naked and became merely nude as she adopted the usual battle stance; her spirit struggled to become one with the body. "What are you going to do!?! I warn you, I'm a martial artist!" {Wow! I actually got to say that!}
The tall girl smirked, "That won't matter. Nothing you do can stop it."
The beauty gave Ranma her most vixen smile, "The word is about to go around that, "despite your violent protests", you have become the fiancée in an arranged marriage."
The girl still holding the gift with both hands murmured, "We're sorry, Akane."
That news so stunned Ranma her arms lowered themselves. "Fiancee?! Marriage!?" There was only one automatic association the Akane-body had with those two words. "I don't want to have anything to do with KUNO!!" she yelled. {Why DOES her mouth say one thing, and her crotch say another!?!!}
= = =
Tofu went over to the bookstand and the "Guide to Accursed Grounds, Third Edition" Beti had placed on it. There were places that had a greater concentration of geo-chi points than Nerima, some even had well over a hundred within an a hectare/couple of acres or so of land. Juusenkyo was one that came to the doctor's mind for some reason. "I wonder if my Diagnostic picked up a disturbance in one of those. It would still have to relate back here, or I would not have heard the resonance." It was just a hunch, but if anybody could sense things above this physical plane, it was Beti. It was just too bad about her problem, or she could have been much more of a help to the doctor. But, then, that was what led to her death, and how he, eventually, came to have her skeleton. It was a very tragic story.
Tofu smiled, Beti had even brought a photograph of Akane Tendou. Picking it up, he said, "Well, since I thought of it, I'll start with Juusenkyo." Then he mused, "If you begin at the ends, what you're looking for is usually found in the middle, anyway."
No sooner had he placed his hand on the section, than the photograph changed. He only got a glance at it before the face returned to that of Akane, but it was enough to give him the answer he was after. "That's why the Diagnostic recommended the turtle-over-snake treatment! It all makes perfect sense, now!
"The idea is NOT to make the boy Akane; the idea, the heart of the problem is to make sure that that they are kept SEPARATE! There must be TWO STRONG identities in that one body! If there was just the boy's, then there'd be one less identity, that still housed in Akane's body's. One minus five is FOUR! "Three" would "have become four". FOUR is the number of Yin and Yang! It is vital there be an odd, preferably prime number at the Tendous!
"I'm going to have to make Mr. Tendou aware of the new—"
Dr. Tofu Ono had a realization that made him pick up the "Guide" with both hands and stare at its picture of bamboo poles over each of the geo-chi points. "Does that mean Akane's soul is now one of the "Three" of the "Five" identities!?!"
Suddenly the temple bell-like gong that someone who has not absorbed some of the clay could not hear from the Diagnostic became loud enough to catch his attention.
Dr. Tofu snapped his head around, "B, but, there ought to be balance now! The crisis should at least have been dampened!"
He rushed back to the chest, "Beti!! We're going to have to operate on the Diagnostic! While there is still time, we are going to get to the deeper mysteries behind Akane and this boy! And may Destiny and the gods be kind."
Notes Below:
Ranma would have treated Akane's body and identity the same way as he would've treated the Juusenkyo accursed female identity. Which was what he was about to do; there was nothing to keep Ranma from trying to go back immediately to China. It is important that until the real Akane returns to the Tendou home her presence be felt in Nerima. After that?
If Ranma hadn't been given the turtle-over-snake treatment, Akane's-body identity would have been reduced to zero(*)? Okay, then what about the Accursed (Female) form of Juusenkyo? The simple answer is the independence is provided by the curse magic; it IS the accursed form. Part of assertion of that independence is the "water magnet" effect.
(*) Not quite true, but correct for the definitions the Diagnostic was conveying on its surface:
"Three" and "Five" are the simple way of counting the identities. Subtract Akane's and Ranma's bodies and you do not really come back to Three. The true number might be closer to "Twenty-two over seven": A truly magic number.
They'll be more on that after I've explored Akane's side of the equation in an "Akane Two-Ranma" chapter or two. Remember, if Ranma's body doesn't have a strong identity, too, the equation doesn't come out to five, either. Alert: An ancient character of mine (i.e., from my pre-computer days) is going to make an appearance that will put these stories on a path different from accepted fanfic lore.
One final note: I like the stories that are forming in my head with this "fiancee" story angle. It has great potential. But I'm not happy with how the girls turned on Akane. (Hint.) It has to do with the deeper mysteries of her and Ranma.