Ranma & Kaneda
By Ron Dow75
Week One: Tuesday
She-Ranma, Day One
Ch. 22: I Am...Pretty Positive
She-Ranma felt the male aura that infused the wooden carp
that had been in Miss Hinako's hand purse. That male
energy seemed familiar. She picked it off the ground from
where Yuka had dropped it on by side the school track.
Yuka warned, "You're not going to TOUCH it!? It makes you
feel, --Well, you KNOW."
The pigtailed girl in the black, Chinese pants suit
studied the magic object. She asked in a stereotypically
Asian girly voice, high and soft, "It makes you feel like
you have...a family?"
Yuka said, "What kind of family do you come from!?!"
The female-infused Ranma said, "Not one with a brother."
Na said, "I have a brother."
Sayuri said, "They have a word for when a brother makes
you feel like that. Not a very good word, either."
Ranma-chan said, "I can't say I entirely like this
brother. But somebody has to see he doesn't get in
trouble."
The former gang girl said, "My brother deserved to be in
trouble." Didn't her?
Yuka said, "I just know the thing is troubling."
Sayuri asked, "So, is that what you're going to call it,
Ranma? Are you going to be your Brother's keeper?"
She-Ranma looked around for a place to put it, "I wish I
had a purse to put him in." She decided to put it between
the white sash and the black silk pants it was holding
up. If she used a side weapon, that's where she would
keep it. Oh, dear! Did she have to think like that?
Sayuri said, "You really don't feel anything?"
Ranma-chan said, "Just a little sympathy mixed with
jealousy mixed with anger mixed with.... Oh, dear! Now I
know how the Tendou sisters must feel about their
brother, Kaneda."
Hiroshi came up to her, "What are you girls talking
about?"
Startled, she-Ranma jumped backward, raising a thigh and
a hand in the pose; the other girls also reacted. "What
are you doing back!?? I thought you went with Kaneda?!"
With his natural frown, Daisuke said, "The "High and
Mighty Martial Artist" was so into his own self he
wouldn't slow down. Why try and catch him, when we can
try and catch--"
Hiroshi hurried to change the subject back to, "You were
saying what you were talking about?" He hoped it was
something sexy.
Na said, "We were talking about the Ran-chan's "little
brother"."
As she-Ranma calmed herself down, she said, "I'm not sure
what it is. But I know it's magic."
Yuka said, "Magic, she calls it."
Sayuri, starting to show signs of her discomfort around
it, said, "Do you really think it's a fetish, Ranma?"
Daisuke leaned closer to it, "A fetish? Are you sure? It
doesn't look like any I've seen in the magazines."
Boys! Sayuri told him, "A fetish is what they call ANY
magic object. That's what the word meant before guys like
you perverted it."
Daisuke said, "Before...? I get it. It used to be a girl
word." It certainly had the shape and size of something
that should interest girls more than guys.
Yuka asked, "Sayuri, you really don't believe in magic?"
She liked to pretend there was magic, of course, but like
most people, she really didn't think magic happened to
people she knew. And the wooden carp didn't look like any
magical wand on any "Magical Girl" anime she'd seen.
Sayuri started walking away from the object, and the girl
who had it, "You know I'm a martial arts fan. The best
ones use chi. Chi is more BASIC than magic. It's the
animate force in everything. Even a thing or a place may
have some."
Ranma-chan said, "I never heard chi described like that."
Of course, she hadn't paid all that much attention to the
boring side of her training. Martial arts were about
action, not talking. Talking is what Pop did.
Oh, dear, she didn't know why she fought, did she?
Sayuri continued, "There are different ideas about what
Chi, or Ki, is. I think it's potential. Anti-entropy."
And before the guys could say something stupid about
that, too, she told them, "But Chi is concentrated
anything that's not ordinary. The Polynesians call it
mana. Just touching something with mana is taboo with
them. It's like discharging electricity. That's the flow
of Chi."
Na smiled, "You mean, if I touched an extraordinary guy,
I would get a charge?"
Yuka said, "I know the feeling." And despite what had
happened, she still stayed near attractive aura.
Ranma-chan smiled, "You know a lot about it, Sayuri." She
wanted to please, so she didn't bother to question how
well Sayuri's ideas matched with those Ranma had buried.
Just the sound of Ranma's overly feminine voice was
starting to get to Sayuri. "When you're a fan, you're
interested in all aspects." Now that she found an
audience, she couldn't resist going on a bit, "In living
beings, Chi can become concentrated enough to become
animal magnetism. That's what people like martial artists
use to control chi."
Ranma couldn't tune everything out for ten years;
something connected, "Magnetism?... Don't magnets have
poles, positive and negative? You know, male and female."
Na said, "You mean female and male."
Ranma told her innocently, "I said positive first. Male
is positive."
Na said, "Ranma, I hope you don't think being feminine is
a negative?"
Ranma crossed her eyes as she looked inside herself. "I
don't feel very negative."
Sayuri merely grunted.
Na said, "You're serious. Ranma, why'd you even have to
think about it?"
Ranma said, "When Pop and I stopped at temples---"
Na said, "I should have known it was your dad,
brainwashing you."
Yuka said, "Poor Ranma."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Back in her tree house office, Miss Hinako drew in the
excess Chi energy of the school through the holes bored
in the trees around her. The little girl grew up to be
the 25-year-old her birth certificate said she was. The
beauty said, "Mmm... There. Now have Mr. Kaneda Tendou
try anything with me." As she knew she would, a part of
her wished he would. She had lived with those feelings
for years. But it was rare for her to meet somebody who
made her want to act on them.
"...Mr. Tendou IS handsome. ...That long red hair frames
his strong face like a ronin hero out of a samurai epic."
She almost allowed herself to giggle at the thought of,
"What he'd look like with a moustache?" But the picture
became ruined when she remembered the last time she saw
him. "His face is no longer gentle."
She became lost in her thoughts. She had wanted to help
the boy as she had just helped Miss Ranma. All three of
them were victims of the Anything-Goes School's reckless
use of special techniques. The only difference between
what had happened to her, as she saw it, was that it was
their gender that had been cursed, not their age. Ranma
was a girl with a guy's spirit. While poor Kaneda had to
deal with being a guy with a girl's spirit. "No wonder
he's been in so many fights. He had to try and PROVE he
was a real man.
She frowned, "But now he is TOO much of a man. I know
from being a reform school teacher, things can only get
worse in his life if he stays like that." She made a fist
at those memories, "Correcting their excessive machismo
is why I wanted something like the Yang Balancer." And
she may have had it sooner, if it weren't for her child's
accursed short attention span.
It filled here with self-confidence now that she had her
child under control, "I won't let Mr. Kaneda become a
punk!" Reaching for her handbag, she said, "I will modify
his polarity again. Instead of attracting too much male
Yang energy, he'll attract more female Yin energy." The
hand purse wasn't within reach. She started look more
seriously for it. "The trick will be to find the right
balance of Yin and Yang." Her mind distracted, she
continued with her search around the office, "Of course
it wouldn't be so bad if he were sensitive. I like men
who can cry." Smiling, she squatted and looked under the
table with her toys and other play things on it, "Where
is that fetish? Without it, the person adjusted will stay
the way they are as if they had been born with that
balance of male and female."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
She-Ranma could not look at her classmates; instead she
pretended she was interested in the wooden carp. "Pop
didn't brainwash me." But she realized, "But my life HAS
only been about training and traveling. I really don't
know much about girls. Just what I've seen along the way
and been told of them."
Na said, "See? Being a girl doesn't have to be negative."
Memories of a different attitude were ignored.
Yuka grinned, "I always try to be positive."
She-Ranma nodded. Yes, positive. She put on a hopeful
smile and lifted her big, blue, "This is my chance to
learn something beside just martial artists." Right now
that seemed something negative. But, still, the martial
artist in her needed a challenge: "I CAN do the most
important job of all!" There: She had made the giant
leap.
Daisuke asked, " "The most important job"? A girl can
have that?"
She-Ranma said, "Yes: Only a GIRL can be a housewife!"
Hiroshi, Daisuke and even Sayuri facefaulted. Na asked
Yuka, "IS being a housewife the most important job of
all?" Though she, too, had her excess male spirit
converted, being a girl all of her life, she had fewer
illusions.
Yuka said, "I always heard it was being a mother."
She-Ranma said, "A mother?" a strange feeling started to
open up in her.
Sayuri was back on her feet, "This isn't the time before
the World War II! Women have the right to be MORE than
just a housewife and a mother!"
(Daisuke nodded, "I have fantasies about office girls."
(Hiroshi said, "JUST office girls!? Why do you think they
give manga girls all those good jobs?")
She-Ranma said, "But isn't being a wife and..." blush "a
mother....Aren't THEY what really make a woman a woman?
After all, they are duties a man cannot do."
Sayuri said, "You need to see my father. My mother only
"walks three steps behind" her guy in public. At my
house, it's the houseHUSBAND."
Na had some memories of her old self, "That's right.
There are all sorts of stories about wives who take it
out on their husbands when they get home and can be
themselves."
She-Ranma tried to imagine what it would be like for a
guy to be married, or even engaged, to girl like that.
She felt sorry for the guy. A girl should not be like
that. Her culture had told her, "...That's only because
those poor women have not accepted their place in the
natural order. Only then can they find fulfillment." As
she talked, she-Ranma felt even more open to the
experiment. As a martial artist she could relate to self-
sacrifice.
Sayuri saw this girl DID have a lot to learn. But for the
moment, she was repelled by the caricature of a woman
Ranma-chan seemed to have turned into.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The six finally reached the main building. She-Ranma had
been so busy sorting through her unfamiliar feelings she
had let her friends do most of the talking, answering
only when they asked a question. That, too, seemed the
right thing to do. A girl should be as inconspicuous as
she was allowed to be.
Unconsciously, she had adopting the postures of the girls
around her.
So into her own little world, she didn't notice the many
accidents that were going on around her. Those with her
did. And it wasn't just the boys who were tripping and
running into things. Of course, when the girls did it,
they didn't have a goofy look on their faces.
Quiet as she had been, when they got to stairs leading to
her classroom, she just had to say, "Please, gentlemen,
go ahead of us."
Sayuri rolled her eyes. Talk about feudal ways.
Daisuke didn't want to, "I want YOU to go ahead of us."
Hiroshi said, "Me, too! I agree with the Western saying,
"Ladies first"!"
Sayuri told him, "You do? Didn't you ever think we'd
rather look at YOUR butts than you look at ours?"
(Ranma felt a mild flush.)
Daisuke said, "In THOSE school uniforms!? What is there
to look at!?! Why can't Furinkan have mini-skirts like
other schools!?! THEN there'd be something to look at
when girls go up the stairs!"
Hiroshi kicked his friend up the stairs, "They don't want
to HEAR about their naked legs!"
Wising up, Daisuke muttered, "Geez! I'm lucky that's ALL
that came out of my mouth." Glancing over his shoulder
back at Ranma.
Hiroshi groaned, "I know." He had found Ranma attractive
before, but now her pull was threatening to raise
something that his interest.
She-Ranma, meanwhile, was trying not to look at their
butts. (Pants did show them off better than dresses,
didn't they? No, don't look!)
She-Ranma climbed the stairs with her eyes lowered. She
took her mind off of things that she shouldn't look at by
looking at her bust. It brought back memories. But it was
hard to understand why she had ever been hostile to what
was underneath her shirt. Breasts, after all, were
natural, given to women by the Heavens. Even the
goddesses had them. They were the special marks of female
maturity. And the size of hers certainly marked her as
special. (Okay, she did understand a little why she
disliked them. She didn't really want to be marked out
for a reason like that.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Meanwhile Nabiki Tendou was following Kuno down the hall,
"Kuno, I told you in the nurses office, and I'm telling
you here, Kaneda had nothing to do with you being
trampled."
His wooden bokken in front of him, at the ready, the
samurai boy told her, "Nay, Loyal Sister of my sworn
nemesis. It is that knave's refusal to show his lord and
upperclassman the proper respect that has planted the
seed in others! I must go to the root of the problem and
cut out the rot for the natural order to be righted!"
Nabiki asked, "And you think the teacher is going to let
you do that in his classroom?"
"I stand for the order! I am certain the authorities will
also be glad to be rid of that disturber of the civil
peace!" Speaking of peace. There was undue talking in the
stairwell and hallway. That, too, was against the rules,
as the signs clearly told one and all.
He tarried in his course. He would whet his blade on
these malefactors, first. But, then, he saw among them
the pigtailed girl, Ranma.
His sword rose in his hands in front of him.
Nabiki said scornfully, "Oh, isn't that "adult" imagery."
But she, too, noticed a difference in Ranma-chan.
Hiroshi said, "Kuno." He and Daisuke stopped, and the
girls had to stop behind them. Ranma's wooden carp
developed a battle aura.
The tall, handsome idiot came loping towards them,
"Ranma! My Flame-haired Venus who sets my heart ablaze!"
Ranma stepped closer to Daisuke, wishing she could hide.
"Upperclassman Kuno. What do you want?" Her training to
fight crashed against her feelings that she shouldn't.
Hiroshi asked, "Yes, what do you want?" He actually felt
challenged to be a man.
The pressure was making Daisuke sweat, "Kuno, do you mind
not pointing that sword at me?"
Kuno commanded them, "Out of my way, Lowborn
Lowerclassmen, I will scale you if I must to reach the
object of my pure heart's desire."
Panic started setting in for the two ordinary guys.
Suddenly Daisuke grabbed Kuno by a wrist and the hilt. He
was as shocked as the noble.
She-Ranma cried, "Oh, dear! What??"
Sayuri and Yuka cried, "You idiots!!"
Na said, "They're in it deep, now."
Nabiki just stayed out of the way and studied what was
going on.
Kuno cried, "This is sacrilege! You dare to defile the
sword of a samurai!!?!"
Daisuke cried in desperation, "Hiroshi! He's going to get
us BOTH if we don't get that sword away from him!!"
Having heard the stories, Hiroshi cried, "*I'M* not
touching a samurai's sword!" But he HAD to do something:
He shoved! He shoved Kuno with all of his power. But Kuno
was trained to remain on his feet. Hiroshi continued to
shove. Kuno was shoved down the hall, as Daisuke
desperately tried to keep his hold on the sword.
Daisuke's foot got accidentally tangled with Kuno's.
Kuno tripped. Hiroshi fell on top of his.
And Daisuke had the sword.
Kuno was in a rage, "Give me back my sword!! You must pay
for this disgrace!!"
Daisuke laughed hysterically, "I did it! I took away
Kuno's sword!!! Ha, ha!! I beat the kendo master with
just my hands—-Like Kaneda! Ha, ha!." And he ran down the
hall with it.
Kuno screamed, "KANEDA!! This IS his doing!!"
Hiroshi felt Kuno was about to blow. He scrambled up to
his feet, stepping on the angry samurai's head without
thinking, and made a dash down the hall: "Daisuke, wait
for me!! That's a two-handed sword: Let me have half of
it!!"
They had a head start, but Kuno was soon catching up,
swinging his empty hands around as if they still held his
cherished weapon, "I recognize you rebels, now!! You're
part of Kaneda's faction!! Stop!! Stop, I command!! Face
your ends like men!!"
She-Ranma had watched all of this like the other
witnesses, dumbfounded. From the time she'd spent with
those boys, Hiroshi and Daisuke, this seemed out of
character.
Suddenly she felt a sudden drop in temperature at her
left side. It was Sayuri. It was almost as if She-Ranma
could sense the icicles. She-Ranma asked with big
innocent eyes, "Sayuri?"
The girl with the hair ribbon turned a cold shoulder to
Ranma, and marched to class.
Yuka asked, "Sayuri??" but there was a tug from the
wooden carp and she remained by Ranma's side.
She-Ranma truly wanted to know, "What was that about,
Yuka?"
Yuka said sadly, "I don't know." But Na got a trace of a
smile.
Nabiki volunteered an answer, "She blames you, Ranma.
That girl thinks YOU'RE responsible for what just
happened to her friends."
It was Yuka that spoke up the most vehemently, "Ranma had
nothing to do with it! She was just standing here!" She-
Ranma felt the other girl start to heat up. She realized
her Chi senses were now more sensitive...And they were
attuned to different things than they were when she had
thought of herself a boy.
Nabiki informed them, "Ranma was standing BEHIND two guys
who were definitely interested in her. If they backed
down from ANOTHER guy, a guy she decidedly WASN'T
interested in, they would have lost major guy points."
Yuka was beginning to burn. But it was Na who spoke up,
putting an arm around she-Ranma, "It's those guys OWN
fault if they decide to go from idiots to jerks." The
best she-Ranma could describe about what she was feeling
from Na was hot ice.
Yuka agreed, "Right! Don't make a victim out of Ranma,
again: She's had that all of her life from her father."
Nabiki eyed the carved wooden thing sticking out from
behind she-Ranma's sash. Growing up in the Anything-Goes
School, she had some ability to recognize Chi power. She
said, "If you guys say so." And she coolly walked away.
The fourth law of acquisition: Don't let them know you're
too interested.
The redhead had the urge to throw cold water on Nabiki
again. But, no, that wouldn't be very lady-like.
Na told she-Ranma as she walked the girl to class, her
arm still around her shoulder, "Stay with me, and we'll
rule this school." Of all the paths the more female Na
could have taken, she now chose the opportunist.
She-Ranma said, "But I don't want to rule anybody."
Ranma, unlike Na, had limited ideas about what a girl
could be like. And since "should" had been strong in her
old life, that's the arrow she wanted to follow. She
wanted to be what she'd been raised to think a girl
SHOULD be like.
Yuka went ahead to open the classroom door for them,
"You've been ruled by your father all of your life. Maybe
ruling somebody else will help you break away from his
violent influence." Yuka had very few opinions of her
own, but that sounded like the right thing to say at the
moment.
Na told her, "You HAVE to break away. That IS the reason
for being a teenager."
She-Ranma almost protested, "No, that's not right. A girl
belongs to her family until she marries into another
family. From father to husband."
Yuka reminded her, "But RULED by her mother-in-law." Her
own grandmother took full advantage of her one time of
authority.
Na said, "That's the OLD world. This is the NEW Old
World. General McArthur has shown us the way. It was East
vs. West and the West won!" And she gently pushed she-
Ranma into 1-F ahead of her.
Facing her class, she-Ranma felt weather fronts coming
from the students. Most of the boys were warm, and
getting warmer the more they looked at her. Some of the
girls were cool. Ranma realized she wasn't sensing sexual
temperatures, for while many of the girls were getting
chillier towards her, others were warming up to her. Like
Yuka. This warmth was different from the boys'. The boys'
heat was penetrating, threatening to dry her soul. But
the heat from the girls was enveloping, like a toasty
blanket on a cold morning.
Na, on the other hand, was all of the above, "I wish I
could sit near you, Ranma. But I'll be here for you."
Yuka took she-Ranma by the hand and led her, "I'm near
you, Ranma."
Moving among the class, she-Ranma could feel the cross-
currents she and little brother was stirring up. She hung
her head in guilt. There was going to be a storm.
Mr. Ando entered the room, "I misplaced my lesson plan,
Class." The sociology teacher was one of the youngest at
the school. Because he had dreams of moving up into
higher education, he was always thinking about other
subjects than what he was supposed to. He would often
veer off his course and talk of things that didn't really
seem to have anything to do with the topic.
He went immediately to the greenboard, turning his back
on the class, and started going into trends. Like how the
Japanese were beginning to prefer the certainties of pre-
arranged marriages to the uncertainties of dating.
As the teacher talked, she-Ranma felt the room grow
hotter. And colder. Her heightened Chi sense actually had
her feeling the darting glances, the lingering stares,
and the frosty glares that came her way. She could even
'hear' heads turn. It made her feel very uncomfortable in
her seat. It was hard to act like a lady and not fidget.
She put her feet and hands together, and sat up straight.
She wished she could draw in her breasts, make them stick
out less. She smiled, Kasumi-like, to hide her true
feelings.
Meanwhile, the energy within the wooden carp was
responding to the surrounding currents, too. When most of
Ranma's maleness had been reversed, it had expelled the
strong male energy he already had. What Kaneda hadn't
absorbed was now instinctively trying to protect. That
was Ranma's nature.
And the yang was MOST attuned to she-Ranma's yin.
Without a body of its own, the aura that was little
brother reached out to the surrounding auras. The guys
felt pushed to watch out for the weak and defenseless
Ranma, "or else".
Only they didn't understand where this feeling towards
the girl was coming from. If they were going to respond
to a challenge, they preferred to think the idea of
protecting this very attractive girl was their own. And
since they thought better to take advantage of the cute
and busty girl, they wanted to get credit. They might
sense she had another guy in her life, but HE wasn't
where they could see him. This was their chance to win
points with her before he came back.
Such were their thoughts.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hiroshi and Daisuke ran into the room. Hiroshi had Kuno's
bokken now. Both she-Ranma and Sayuri ran to them, "Are
you alright!?!" they both said at once.
Hiroshi said while catching his breath, "We're, smarter
than, Kuno. We, lost him."
Daisuke was also panting, "But he, kept finding us."
Sayuri said, "I'm glad to see you're not hurt." She
turned her icy stare at yon-Ranma, "No thanks to you."
She-Ranma bowed her head, "Yes. Perhaps you are right. It
was I Upperclassman Kuno approached." She would ask
Upperclassman Kuno to forgive her friends. But she could
only apologize to them. Hiroshi and Daisuke's male pride
would surely be offended if they knew her plan.
Hiroshi got his wind back, "Don't blame yourself, Ranma.
It was that jerk Kuno's fault!"
Daisuke said, "Yeah! Kuno's always causing trouble. It
was about time somebody besides Kaneda stood up to him."
He almost volunteered to attack the samurai again.
She-Ranma said, "Kaneda?" Kaneda DID do that, didn't he?
If anybody could keep Kuno from bothering ---But no. She
couldn't honestly look to him, or anybody else for that
kind of help. She didn't believe in violence any more.
She had had a lifetime of it, and what had it brought
her?
Hiroshi saw the reaction Kaneda's name got from Ranma. He
was jealous. Before he knew what he was doing, he had
raised the wooden sword and struck a pose, "For you,
Ranma, I shall make sure Kuno doesn't bother you again!"
What did he think he WAS!?!! A knight, and Ranma was his
damsel!? That was ridiculous!
Daisuke tried to take the weapon away from him, "I can do
it better than you can!"
Hiroshi wouldn't let go, "You already tried to use it on
him! We've got to hide it where--"
Kuno appeared at the door, "AS I surmised! The
unprincipled allies of that knave, Kaneda Tendou,
returned to their vipers nest! Return my ancestral
property!!"
Panicking, Hiroshi and Daisuke BOTH swung the two-handed
weapon at the samurai. Even with the threat of an
imaginary sword, Kuno was able to force them to back up.
The two raw fighters were entirely on the defensive as
the other students got out of their seats to allow them
room as they stumbled, bumped, and tip over the desks to
make room for their "Strategic retreat".
Sayuri yelled at she-Ranma, "Why don't you DO
something!?! You're the martial artist!"
Ranma looked worried, "Oh, dear! I do suppose I should.
You don't think they will be offended. Fighting IS for
guys. I wouldn't want them to think--"
Ranma's yang kicked butts: In a chain reaction, first
one, then another of the guys told her, "Don't worry,
*I'll* do it! We don't want you to get hurt." Their
battle auras were joined together in a common cause.
Gathering into clumps, the girls of the class watched as
guys they'd known since at LEAST junior high school
suddenly start fighting for a girl rather than OVER a
girl, piling on Kuno.
But whether he had one or two guys holding onto a limb,
the samurai warrior refused to be pulled down. He fought
on, yelling his battle cry.
Meanwhile, others had joined in the struggle with Hiroshi
and Daisuke for control of the wooden sword.
Soon there wasn't a seat that was where it was supposed
to be. And the girls who weren't watching the show of
machoness, were now escaping out of the room.
Mr. Ando, meanwhile, was at his desk, busy making notes
on this case study of group dynamic.
Na hustled she-Ranma to the door, "Come on, girlfriend.
School is over."
Ranma wasn't sure, "But, but the boys! If there's
something I can do--"
Na told her, "The best thing you can do for them is
leave! They were already in trouble ONCE today because of
you."
Yuka said, "Oh, yes! Principal Hinako may have forgiven
you, but that was before she thought you had changed."
She-Ranma said, "But I DID change. Why does trouble have
to follow me?"
They just missed Principal Hinako.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outside, she-Ranma was still in Na's grip, "I really
don't think we should leave the school grounds."
Na told her, "If we don't, we'll just end up in
detention. Believe me. I know about detention."
Yuka asked, "Won't we get in detention, anyway, for
leaving the campus?"
Na told her, "Well, ordinarily, I'd say there was safety
in numbers. You know: Hope we get lost in a crowd and get
no worse than everybody else. But..." she studied the
fretful redhead in black Chinese silk 'pajamas', "I think
this time it'd be better if the teachers and especially
the Principal, can SEE that Ranma has reformed. Authority
figures LOVE that sort of thing."
Yuka brightened, "You mean shopping?!"
She-Ranma raised her head, "Shopping? What kind of
shopping?"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
She-Ranma looked at the scarves of all sorts she had in
her hand, and those that were still in one particular
garbage bag in the alley, "These are going to show
everybody I want to be a girl?"
Na told her, "Nah, I use these when I want to skip
school. Even perverts leave scarves alone."
Yuka watched her get out of her Furinkan uniform, "Er,
Na, I don't have gym clothes under MY dress." Na lending
Ranma-chan her extra gym clothes had been how she had
introduced herself.
Na got a couple of the heavier pieces of cloth and
started pinning them around her, "I have gym clothes on,
because people know gym classes CAN leave the school. By
the time they realize I'm not with the rest of the class,
I'm gone.
"But all you have to do is COVER the uniform with the
scarves. Of course, it'd be easier if you got down to
your slip."
Yuka blushed at the suggestion. Na said, "No, I didn't
think you could do that. What have you got under those
clothes of yours, Ranma?"
She-Ranma blushed for another reason, "B, boy's---Oh, no!
I just can't say it! Suddenly, it seems so perverted."
Even Yuka looked at her with a sweatdrop. "That's all
right. Your father wouldn't LET you have panties."
Na said, "Or a bra. Obviously. Well, there's one way to
help you feel like you're not daddy's little boy." And
she yanked Ranma's pants down, boxers included.
She-Ranma cried, "What are you DOING!!?!" pulling down
the front of her black, silk shirt (which caused the back
to raise).
Na took the white sash from around the black, silk pants
and tied it around she-Ranma's waist, "Yes. It LOOKED
like you were wearing a baggy man's shirt. It's long
enough on you to make a sexy, little black dress."
Yuka said, "Just be careful not to do any bending."
Still pulling at the hem, the red-faced she-Ranma said,
"But I don't have anything on underneath!"
Na quirked a smile, "I have bloomers on. Do you want to
borrow my panties?"
She-Ranma was confused, "Girls do that??"
Yuka wrinkled her nose, "Ew! Don't even joke about it,
Na!"
Na picked out one of the scarves she-Ranma still had in
her hand, "Pin this on. Believe me, it'll give you as
much protection as a lot of the panties I see in the
locker room. And it's not lacy."
Yuka said, "Aw! I like lacy lingerie."
Folding the scarf into a triangle, Na reminded her, "It's
just until we can get Ranma REAL panties."
Yuka asked Ranma, "Do YOU like lacy lingerie?"
She-Ranma said, "I, I never thought about it before.
Ever." She quickly put the fetish back under her sash. It
had become a side-weapon again in her mind.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
They had left Nerima, and were walking in the nearest
business district with multi-story buildings. Talk about
getting looked at before. And it wasn't because of the
colorful costumes Na and Yuka had made of the scarves.
She-Ranma's Chi-enhanced senses could feel those aimed at
her breasts. She should not have let Na unbutton the top
of her shirt.
But she was convinced most of them were grazing over her
shapely legs (trying to get under the hem of her shirt).
She WAS glad she was wearing something underneath. But
while it wasn't right for a lady to wear boxers, she
WASN'T sure wearing a pinned, silk scarf was any more
proper. "It feels like I'm wearing a diaper," she
muttered.
Na asked, "Oh? You've worn a diaper lately?"
She-Ranma said, "No. It, it's just the way I, imagine one
of them feels like." Her female, round buttocks already
took up more of her body awareness than her male, flat
butt did.
Na said, "Then use your imagination and think of it as
the latest fashion in sexy lingerie. "Victoria's Little
Secret"."
Yuka said, "Since Ranma is used to wearing men's
underwear, maybe if we get her a larger scarf, she can
make herself a loincloth. Er, only not so long in front."
She-Ranma said, "Oh, dear, no! When we get to the
department store, let's go straight to where they have
the girls' underwear. I want to feel like a normal girl
as soon as I can."
They really didn't notice the open, hole-in-the-wall
pachinko parlor they passed. And inside, he-Kaneda
wouldn't have noticed them if he had had more practice at
playing the pinball-like game. He HAD thought it would've
been a good way to waste his time with the little money
he had. HE could even have won something. But his teenage
hormones did not allow him the peace to win. So it was he
wasn't distracted when his Chi-enhanced senses told them
something of interest was passing by.
Going out to the street he saw that something was Ranma
and her friends. Again he felt it was wrong that she was
with somebody else, even girls. He followed them.
The great thing about the Furinkan boys' spring uniform,
it was just a pair of gray slacks and white shirt. It
looked no more like a uniform than the hundreds of other
young office workers in the area.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
He-Kaneda lost them at the elevators. But he hustled and
raced up the stairs. It wasn't until the fourth floor
that he saw them again. He then stalked them, trying not
to think he was a lone guy surrounded by women's apparel.
But he could go no further than the post that to him
marked the boundary line of the lingerie section. With
his heightened maleness, lingerie should have only meant
getting lucky. A chance to feed his fantasies. But
thinking of all the panties and bras his sister Kasumi
had made sure he had worn challenged his right to be
called a real man. Either way, being around delicates was
making him feel like a pervert. Of both kinds.
A saleswoman asked, "Can I do something for you, sir?"
Startled, He-Kaneda spun around. His fist hit the faux
marble post and broke a chunk out of it. Regaining his
composure as best he could, he coughed, and stammered in
a loud voice, "YES! I, I'm here to-oo buy, buy panties,
bras for me--my GIRLFRIEND! Wife, I mean!!" He was lucky
he hadn't said "sister" because he had been thinking of
Kasumi. She was the one who shopped it in their family.
Thinking about his own time in girls' clothes had
confused him about whether guys DID that sort at all.
The woman looked him up and down, "And what size does she
wear?"
He-Kaneda froze. "Size?" Aw, Geez!! He didn't even
remember his own bra size, let alone-- "HER size!" he
said pointing.
"Whose?"
He pointed around the post at the redhead going into a
dressing room, "My girlfriend, I mean my wife, is the
same size as her! Exactly the same size!"
"Do you want me to ask her what her size is?"
"No!! Can't you tell just by looking!?!"
"Why don't we go ask her? Perhaps if she tells us, I
won't have to call store security."
"Security, hunh?" It took a moment, but Kaneda ran.
The saleswoman called out, "We have security cameras, you
know!!"
Thinking they'd be waiting for him at the exits he ran up
the up escalator.
There was still the matter of cameras. There was only one
place he thought might not have cameras. Only it meant--
No!! He wasn't going to do it. He was a guy, damn it!
He'd rather get arrested than have to be a girl. YES: He
WOULD take it like a man!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
With the dressing room curtain open, Na and Yuka stood on
either side, acting as screens. Ranma's modesty was
invaded with each clasp, slide and tug. Girls, it seemed,
were very free with their hands it came to other girls.
Na asked the cute girl in just a panties and bra, "How
does it fit, Ranma?"
The embarrassed Ranma had no idea how to test for fit,
other than, "It feels okay, I guess." It was lacy and
purple with a little red bow. The panties were part of
the set. They were something she had not even conceived
of wearing before.
Yuka said, "Fit isn't important! This is Ranma's FIRST
bra! It should make her feel pretty!"
Ranma put her hands around back, "Having a tight band of
elastic go around your upper body is supposed to make you
feel pretty? Not to mention the shoulder straps."
Na said, "If it's too tight, it doesn't fit right." Ranma
was filling the cups as well.
Yuka told her, "You're just not used to wearing a bra,
Ranma."
Na said, "Then you shouldn't have picked out an underwire
bra for. Ranma doesn't NEED any support!" It was almost
unnatural for a girl to be that firm.
Yuka said, "Whenever it starts to bother you, do as I do,
Ranma." And she recited her aphorism, "I feel this way
because I'm a WOMAN, and a woman is meant to be pretty! I
am wearing something pretty, so that makes ME, a woman,
pretty!"
Na was not impressed, "With that kind of logic, why don't
you get a body-shaper and have something that will REALLY
remind you just how "pretty" you can be."
---Suddenly something came crashing through the
ceiling!!!
Among the pieces of concrete, wood, acoustic tiles, air
duct, and a rusted pipe of hot water was a soggy,
longhaired girl in a Furinkan school uniform.
The nearly naked pigtailed girl recognized her, "Akane!!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A few minutes earlier Kaneda had been waiting for
security to come for him when he realized, "Wait! What am
I going to be arrested for!? Lurking around the lingerie
section, waiting to see girls in their underwear (or
naked!) --stalking!?! "What kind of a MAN is that!? If
I'm going to HAVE a reputation as a man, I'm going to
have to escape. And hope they don't check to see who I
was." Reputation was everything to a martial artist. It
could be used to avoid fights as well as start them.
But there WAS no bathroom on the fifth floor! This floor
didn't even rate acoustic tiles. The pipes and air ducts
were exposed.
There was his escape route! The cameras probably weren't
pointed up THERE!
He leaped up and grabbed hold of one of the pipes.
But this floor hadn't even rated a building inspection. A
metal strap holding the hot water pipe to the ceiling
broke. Water came pour out, soaking the parched wood
floor underneath. As Kaneda reached for an air duct, the
section of rusted pipe broke off, and crashed through the
floor, taking he followed. Only his martial arts skills
kept him, now her, from being badly hurt.
The only damage to him was Kaneda's reputation as a
man...to Ranma.
The End of the chapter.
By Ron Dow75
Week One: Tuesday
She-Ranma, Day One
Ch. 22: I Am...Pretty Positive
She-Ranma felt the male aura that infused the wooden carp
that had been in Miss Hinako's hand purse. That male
energy seemed familiar. She picked it off the ground from
where Yuka had dropped it on by side the school track.
Yuka warned, "You're not going to TOUCH it!? It makes you
feel, --Well, you KNOW."
The pigtailed girl in the black, Chinese pants suit
studied the magic object. She asked in a stereotypically
Asian girly voice, high and soft, "It makes you feel like
you have...a family?"
Yuka said, "What kind of family do you come from!?!"
The female-infused Ranma said, "Not one with a brother."
Na said, "I have a brother."
Sayuri said, "They have a word for when a brother makes
you feel like that. Not a very good word, either."
Ranma-chan said, "I can't say I entirely like this
brother. But somebody has to see he doesn't get in
trouble."
The former gang girl said, "My brother deserved to be in
trouble." Didn't her?
Yuka said, "I just know the thing is troubling."
Sayuri asked, "So, is that what you're going to call it,
Ranma? Are you going to be your Brother's keeper?"
She-Ranma looked around for a place to put it, "I wish I
had a purse to put him in." She decided to put it between
the white sash and the black silk pants it was holding
up. If she used a side weapon, that's where she would
keep it. Oh, dear! Did she have to think like that?
Sayuri said, "You really don't feel anything?"
Ranma-chan said, "Just a little sympathy mixed with
jealousy mixed with anger mixed with.... Oh, dear! Now I
know how the Tendou sisters must feel about their
brother, Kaneda."
Hiroshi came up to her, "What are you girls talking
about?"
Startled, she-Ranma jumped backward, raising a thigh and
a hand in the pose; the other girls also reacted. "What
are you doing back!?? I thought you went with Kaneda?!"
With his natural frown, Daisuke said, "The "High and
Mighty Martial Artist" was so into his own self he
wouldn't slow down. Why try and catch him, when we can
try and catch--"
Hiroshi hurried to change the subject back to, "You were
saying what you were talking about?" He hoped it was
something sexy.
Na said, "We were talking about the Ran-chan's "little
brother"."
As she-Ranma calmed herself down, she said, "I'm not sure
what it is. But I know it's magic."
Yuka said, "Magic, she calls it."
Sayuri, starting to show signs of her discomfort around
it, said, "Do you really think it's a fetish, Ranma?"
Daisuke leaned closer to it, "A fetish? Are you sure? It
doesn't look like any I've seen in the magazines."
Boys! Sayuri told him, "A fetish is what they call ANY
magic object. That's what the word meant before guys like
you perverted it."
Daisuke said, "Before...? I get it. It used to be a girl
word." It certainly had the shape and size of something
that should interest girls more than guys.
Yuka asked, "Sayuri, you really don't believe in magic?"
She liked to pretend there was magic, of course, but like
most people, she really didn't think magic happened to
people she knew. And the wooden carp didn't look like any
magical wand on any "Magical Girl" anime she'd seen.
Sayuri started walking away from the object, and the girl
who had it, "You know I'm a martial arts fan. The best
ones use chi. Chi is more BASIC than magic. It's the
animate force in everything. Even a thing or a place may
have some."
Ranma-chan said, "I never heard chi described like that."
Of course, she hadn't paid all that much attention to the
boring side of her training. Martial arts were about
action, not talking. Talking is what Pop did.
Oh, dear, she didn't know why she fought, did she?
Sayuri continued, "There are different ideas about what
Chi, or Ki, is. I think it's potential. Anti-entropy."
And before the guys could say something stupid about
that, too, she told them, "But Chi is concentrated
anything that's not ordinary. The Polynesians call it
mana. Just touching something with mana is taboo with
them. It's like discharging electricity. That's the flow
of Chi."
Na smiled, "You mean, if I touched an extraordinary guy,
I would get a charge?"
Yuka said, "I know the feeling." And despite what had
happened, she still stayed near attractive aura.
Ranma-chan smiled, "You know a lot about it, Sayuri." She
wanted to please, so she didn't bother to question how
well Sayuri's ideas matched with those Ranma had buried.
Just the sound of Ranma's overly feminine voice was
starting to get to Sayuri. "When you're a fan, you're
interested in all aspects." Now that she found an
audience, she couldn't resist going on a bit, "In living
beings, Chi can become concentrated enough to become
animal magnetism. That's what people like martial artists
use to control chi."
Ranma couldn't tune everything out for ten years;
something connected, "Magnetism?... Don't magnets have
poles, positive and negative? You know, male and female."
Na said, "You mean female and male."
Ranma told her innocently, "I said positive first. Male
is positive."
Na said, "Ranma, I hope you don't think being feminine is
a negative?"
Ranma crossed her eyes as she looked inside herself. "I
don't feel very negative."
Sayuri merely grunted.
Na said, "You're serious. Ranma, why'd you even have to
think about it?"
Ranma said, "When Pop and I stopped at temples---"
Na said, "I should have known it was your dad,
brainwashing you."
Yuka said, "Poor Ranma."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Back in her tree house office, Miss Hinako drew in the
excess Chi energy of the school through the holes bored
in the trees around her. The little girl grew up to be
the 25-year-old her birth certificate said she was. The
beauty said, "Mmm... There. Now have Mr. Kaneda Tendou
try anything with me." As she knew she would, a part of
her wished he would. She had lived with those feelings
for years. But it was rare for her to meet somebody who
made her want to act on them.
"...Mr. Tendou IS handsome. ...That long red hair frames
his strong face like a ronin hero out of a samurai epic."
She almost allowed herself to giggle at the thought of,
"What he'd look like with a moustache?" But the picture
became ruined when she remembered the last time she saw
him. "His face is no longer gentle."
She became lost in her thoughts. She had wanted to help
the boy as she had just helped Miss Ranma. All three of
them were victims of the Anything-Goes School's reckless
use of special techniques. The only difference between
what had happened to her, as she saw it, was that it was
their gender that had been cursed, not their age. Ranma
was a girl with a guy's spirit. While poor Kaneda had to
deal with being a guy with a girl's spirit. "No wonder
he's been in so many fights. He had to try and PROVE he
was a real man.
She frowned, "But now he is TOO much of a man. I know
from being a reform school teacher, things can only get
worse in his life if he stays like that." She made a fist
at those memories, "Correcting their excessive machismo
is why I wanted something like the Yang Balancer." And
she may have had it sooner, if it weren't for her child's
accursed short attention span.
It filled here with self-confidence now that she had her
child under control, "I won't let Mr. Kaneda become a
punk!" Reaching for her handbag, she said, "I will modify
his polarity again. Instead of attracting too much male
Yang energy, he'll attract more female Yin energy." The
hand purse wasn't within reach. She started look more
seriously for it. "The trick will be to find the right
balance of Yin and Yang." Her mind distracted, she
continued with her search around the office, "Of course
it wouldn't be so bad if he were sensitive. I like men
who can cry." Smiling, she squatted and looked under the
table with her toys and other play things on it, "Where
is that fetish? Without it, the person adjusted will stay
the way they are as if they had been born with that
balance of male and female."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
She-Ranma could not look at her classmates; instead she
pretended she was interested in the wooden carp. "Pop
didn't brainwash me." But she realized, "But my life HAS
only been about training and traveling. I really don't
know much about girls. Just what I've seen along the way
and been told of them."
Na said, "See? Being a girl doesn't have to be negative."
Memories of a different attitude were ignored.
Yuka grinned, "I always try to be positive."
She-Ranma nodded. Yes, positive. She put on a hopeful
smile and lifted her big, blue, "This is my chance to
learn something beside just martial artists." Right now
that seemed something negative. But, still, the martial
artist in her needed a challenge: "I CAN do the most
important job of all!" There: She had made the giant
leap.
Daisuke asked, " "The most important job"? A girl can
have that?"
She-Ranma said, "Yes: Only a GIRL can be a housewife!"
Hiroshi, Daisuke and even Sayuri facefaulted. Na asked
Yuka, "IS being a housewife the most important job of
all?" Though she, too, had her excess male spirit
converted, being a girl all of her life, she had fewer
illusions.
Yuka said, "I always heard it was being a mother."
She-Ranma said, "A mother?" a strange feeling started to
open up in her.
Sayuri was back on her feet, "This isn't the time before
the World War II! Women have the right to be MORE than
just a housewife and a mother!"
(Daisuke nodded, "I have fantasies about office girls."
(Hiroshi said, "JUST office girls!? Why do you think they
give manga girls all those good jobs?")
She-Ranma said, "But isn't being a wife and..." blush "a
mother....Aren't THEY what really make a woman a woman?
After all, they are duties a man cannot do."
Sayuri said, "You need to see my father. My mother only
"walks three steps behind" her guy in public. At my
house, it's the houseHUSBAND."
Na had some memories of her old self, "That's right.
There are all sorts of stories about wives who take it
out on their husbands when they get home and can be
themselves."
She-Ranma tried to imagine what it would be like for a
guy to be married, or even engaged, to girl like that.
She felt sorry for the guy. A girl should not be like
that. Her culture had told her, "...That's only because
those poor women have not accepted their place in the
natural order. Only then can they find fulfillment." As
she talked, she-Ranma felt even more open to the
experiment. As a martial artist she could relate to self-
sacrifice.
Sayuri saw this girl DID have a lot to learn. But for the
moment, she was repelled by the caricature of a woman
Ranma-chan seemed to have turned into.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The six finally reached the main building. She-Ranma had
been so busy sorting through her unfamiliar feelings she
had let her friends do most of the talking, answering
only when they asked a question. That, too, seemed the
right thing to do. A girl should be as inconspicuous as
she was allowed to be.
Unconsciously, she had adopting the postures of the girls
around her.
So into her own little world, she didn't notice the many
accidents that were going on around her. Those with her
did. And it wasn't just the boys who were tripping and
running into things. Of course, when the girls did it,
they didn't have a goofy look on their faces.
Quiet as she had been, when they got to stairs leading to
her classroom, she just had to say, "Please, gentlemen,
go ahead of us."
Sayuri rolled her eyes. Talk about feudal ways.
Daisuke didn't want to, "I want YOU to go ahead of us."
Hiroshi said, "Me, too! I agree with the Western saying,
"Ladies first"!"
Sayuri told him, "You do? Didn't you ever think we'd
rather look at YOUR butts than you look at ours?"
(Ranma felt a mild flush.)
Daisuke said, "In THOSE school uniforms!? What is there
to look at!?! Why can't Furinkan have mini-skirts like
other schools!?! THEN there'd be something to look at
when girls go up the stairs!"
Hiroshi kicked his friend up the stairs, "They don't want
to HEAR about their naked legs!"
Wising up, Daisuke muttered, "Geez! I'm lucky that's ALL
that came out of my mouth." Glancing over his shoulder
back at Ranma.
Hiroshi groaned, "I know." He had found Ranma attractive
before, but now her pull was threatening to raise
something that his interest.
She-Ranma, meanwhile, was trying not to look at their
butts. (Pants did show them off better than dresses,
didn't they? No, don't look!)
She-Ranma climbed the stairs with her eyes lowered. She
took her mind off of things that she shouldn't look at by
looking at her bust. It brought back memories. But it was
hard to understand why she had ever been hostile to what
was underneath her shirt. Breasts, after all, were
natural, given to women by the Heavens. Even the
goddesses had them. They were the special marks of female
maturity. And the size of hers certainly marked her as
special. (Okay, she did understand a little why she
disliked them. She didn't really want to be marked out
for a reason like that.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Meanwhile Nabiki Tendou was following Kuno down the hall,
"Kuno, I told you in the nurses office, and I'm telling
you here, Kaneda had nothing to do with you being
trampled."
His wooden bokken in front of him, at the ready, the
samurai boy told her, "Nay, Loyal Sister of my sworn
nemesis. It is that knave's refusal to show his lord and
upperclassman the proper respect that has planted the
seed in others! I must go to the root of the problem and
cut out the rot for the natural order to be righted!"
Nabiki asked, "And you think the teacher is going to let
you do that in his classroom?"
"I stand for the order! I am certain the authorities will
also be glad to be rid of that disturber of the civil
peace!" Speaking of peace. There was undue talking in the
stairwell and hallway. That, too, was against the rules,
as the signs clearly told one and all.
He tarried in his course. He would whet his blade on
these malefactors, first. But, then, he saw among them
the pigtailed girl, Ranma.
His sword rose in his hands in front of him.
Nabiki said scornfully, "Oh, isn't that "adult" imagery."
But she, too, noticed a difference in Ranma-chan.
Hiroshi said, "Kuno." He and Daisuke stopped, and the
girls had to stop behind them. Ranma's wooden carp
developed a battle aura.
The tall, handsome idiot came loping towards them,
"Ranma! My Flame-haired Venus who sets my heart ablaze!"
Ranma stepped closer to Daisuke, wishing she could hide.
"Upperclassman Kuno. What do you want?" Her training to
fight crashed against her feelings that she shouldn't.
Hiroshi asked, "Yes, what do you want?" He actually felt
challenged to be a man.
The pressure was making Daisuke sweat, "Kuno, do you mind
not pointing that sword at me?"
Kuno commanded them, "Out of my way, Lowborn
Lowerclassmen, I will scale you if I must to reach the
object of my pure heart's desire."
Panic started setting in for the two ordinary guys.
Suddenly Daisuke grabbed Kuno by a wrist and the hilt. He
was as shocked as the noble.
She-Ranma cried, "Oh, dear! What??"
Sayuri and Yuka cried, "You idiots!!"
Na said, "They're in it deep, now."
Nabiki just stayed out of the way and studied what was
going on.
Kuno cried, "This is sacrilege! You dare to defile the
sword of a samurai!!?!"
Daisuke cried in desperation, "Hiroshi! He's going to get
us BOTH if we don't get that sword away from him!!"
Having heard the stories, Hiroshi cried, "*I'M* not
touching a samurai's sword!" But he HAD to do something:
He shoved! He shoved Kuno with all of his power. But Kuno
was trained to remain on his feet. Hiroshi continued to
shove. Kuno was shoved down the hall, as Daisuke
desperately tried to keep his hold on the sword.
Daisuke's foot got accidentally tangled with Kuno's.
Kuno tripped. Hiroshi fell on top of his.
And Daisuke had the sword.
Kuno was in a rage, "Give me back my sword!! You must pay
for this disgrace!!"
Daisuke laughed hysterically, "I did it! I took away
Kuno's sword!!! Ha, ha!! I beat the kendo master with
just my hands—-Like Kaneda! Ha, ha!." And he ran down the
hall with it.
Kuno screamed, "KANEDA!! This IS his doing!!"
Hiroshi felt Kuno was about to blow. He scrambled up to
his feet, stepping on the angry samurai's head without
thinking, and made a dash down the hall: "Daisuke, wait
for me!! That's a two-handed sword: Let me have half of
it!!"
They had a head start, but Kuno was soon catching up,
swinging his empty hands around as if they still held his
cherished weapon, "I recognize you rebels, now!! You're
part of Kaneda's faction!! Stop!! Stop, I command!! Face
your ends like men!!"
She-Ranma had watched all of this like the other
witnesses, dumbfounded. From the time she'd spent with
those boys, Hiroshi and Daisuke, this seemed out of
character.
Suddenly she felt a sudden drop in temperature at her
left side. It was Sayuri. It was almost as if She-Ranma
could sense the icicles. She-Ranma asked with big
innocent eyes, "Sayuri?"
The girl with the hair ribbon turned a cold shoulder to
Ranma, and marched to class.
Yuka asked, "Sayuri??" but there was a tug from the
wooden carp and she remained by Ranma's side.
She-Ranma truly wanted to know, "What was that about,
Yuka?"
Yuka said sadly, "I don't know." But Na got a trace of a
smile.
Nabiki volunteered an answer, "She blames you, Ranma.
That girl thinks YOU'RE responsible for what just
happened to her friends."
It was Yuka that spoke up the most vehemently, "Ranma had
nothing to do with it! She was just standing here!" She-
Ranma felt the other girl start to heat up. She realized
her Chi senses were now more sensitive...And they were
attuned to different things than they were when she had
thought of herself a boy.
Nabiki informed them, "Ranma was standing BEHIND two guys
who were definitely interested in her. If they backed
down from ANOTHER guy, a guy she decidedly WASN'T
interested in, they would have lost major guy points."
Yuka was beginning to burn. But it was Na who spoke up,
putting an arm around she-Ranma, "It's those guys OWN
fault if they decide to go from idiots to jerks." The
best she-Ranma could describe about what she was feeling
from Na was hot ice.
Yuka agreed, "Right! Don't make a victim out of Ranma,
again: She's had that all of her life from her father."
Nabiki eyed the carved wooden thing sticking out from
behind she-Ranma's sash. Growing up in the Anything-Goes
School, she had some ability to recognize Chi power. She
said, "If you guys say so." And she coolly walked away.
The fourth law of acquisition: Don't let them know you're
too interested.
The redhead had the urge to throw cold water on Nabiki
again. But, no, that wouldn't be very lady-like.
Na told she-Ranma as she walked the girl to class, her
arm still around her shoulder, "Stay with me, and we'll
rule this school." Of all the paths the more female Na
could have taken, she now chose the opportunist.
She-Ranma said, "But I don't want to rule anybody."
Ranma, unlike Na, had limited ideas about what a girl
could be like. And since "should" had been strong in her
old life, that's the arrow she wanted to follow. She
wanted to be what she'd been raised to think a girl
SHOULD be like.
Yuka went ahead to open the classroom door for them,
"You've been ruled by your father all of your life. Maybe
ruling somebody else will help you break away from his
violent influence." Yuka had very few opinions of her
own, but that sounded like the right thing to say at the
moment.
Na told her, "You HAVE to break away. That IS the reason
for being a teenager."
She-Ranma almost protested, "No, that's not right. A girl
belongs to her family until she marries into another
family. From father to husband."
Yuka reminded her, "But RULED by her mother-in-law." Her
own grandmother took full advantage of her one time of
authority.
Na said, "That's the OLD world. This is the NEW Old
World. General McArthur has shown us the way. It was East
vs. West and the West won!" And she gently pushed she-
Ranma into 1-F ahead of her.
Facing her class, she-Ranma felt weather fronts coming
from the students. Most of the boys were warm, and
getting warmer the more they looked at her. Some of the
girls were cool. Ranma realized she wasn't sensing sexual
temperatures, for while many of the girls were getting
chillier towards her, others were warming up to her. Like
Yuka. This warmth was different from the boys'. The boys'
heat was penetrating, threatening to dry her soul. But
the heat from the girls was enveloping, like a toasty
blanket on a cold morning.
Na, on the other hand, was all of the above, "I wish I
could sit near you, Ranma. But I'll be here for you."
Yuka took she-Ranma by the hand and led her, "I'm near
you, Ranma."
Moving among the class, she-Ranma could feel the cross-
currents she and little brother was stirring up. She hung
her head in guilt. There was going to be a storm.
Mr. Ando entered the room, "I misplaced my lesson plan,
Class." The sociology teacher was one of the youngest at
the school. Because he had dreams of moving up into
higher education, he was always thinking about other
subjects than what he was supposed to. He would often
veer off his course and talk of things that didn't really
seem to have anything to do with the topic.
He went immediately to the greenboard, turning his back
on the class, and started going into trends. Like how the
Japanese were beginning to prefer the certainties of pre-
arranged marriages to the uncertainties of dating.
As the teacher talked, she-Ranma felt the room grow
hotter. And colder. Her heightened Chi sense actually had
her feeling the darting glances, the lingering stares,
and the frosty glares that came her way. She could even
'hear' heads turn. It made her feel very uncomfortable in
her seat. It was hard to act like a lady and not fidget.
She put her feet and hands together, and sat up straight.
She wished she could draw in her breasts, make them stick
out less. She smiled, Kasumi-like, to hide her true
feelings.
Meanwhile, the energy within the wooden carp was
responding to the surrounding currents, too. When most of
Ranma's maleness had been reversed, it had expelled the
strong male energy he already had. What Kaneda hadn't
absorbed was now instinctively trying to protect. That
was Ranma's nature.
And the yang was MOST attuned to she-Ranma's yin.
Without a body of its own, the aura that was little
brother reached out to the surrounding auras. The guys
felt pushed to watch out for the weak and defenseless
Ranma, "or else".
Only they didn't understand where this feeling towards
the girl was coming from. If they were going to respond
to a challenge, they preferred to think the idea of
protecting this very attractive girl was their own. And
since they thought better to take advantage of the cute
and busty girl, they wanted to get credit. They might
sense she had another guy in her life, but HE wasn't
where they could see him. This was their chance to win
points with her before he came back.
Such were their thoughts.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hiroshi and Daisuke ran into the room. Hiroshi had Kuno's
bokken now. Both she-Ranma and Sayuri ran to them, "Are
you alright!?!" they both said at once.
Hiroshi said while catching his breath, "We're, smarter
than, Kuno. We, lost him."
Daisuke was also panting, "But he, kept finding us."
Sayuri said, "I'm glad to see you're not hurt." She
turned her icy stare at yon-Ranma, "No thanks to you."
She-Ranma bowed her head, "Yes. Perhaps you are right. It
was I Upperclassman Kuno approached." She would ask
Upperclassman Kuno to forgive her friends. But she could
only apologize to them. Hiroshi and Daisuke's male pride
would surely be offended if they knew her plan.
Hiroshi got his wind back, "Don't blame yourself, Ranma.
It was that jerk Kuno's fault!"
Daisuke said, "Yeah! Kuno's always causing trouble. It
was about time somebody besides Kaneda stood up to him."
He almost volunteered to attack the samurai again.
She-Ranma said, "Kaneda?" Kaneda DID do that, didn't he?
If anybody could keep Kuno from bothering ---But no. She
couldn't honestly look to him, or anybody else for that
kind of help. She didn't believe in violence any more.
She had had a lifetime of it, and what had it brought
her?
Hiroshi saw the reaction Kaneda's name got from Ranma. He
was jealous. Before he knew what he was doing, he had
raised the wooden sword and struck a pose, "For you,
Ranma, I shall make sure Kuno doesn't bother you again!"
What did he think he WAS!?!! A knight, and Ranma was his
damsel!? That was ridiculous!
Daisuke tried to take the weapon away from him, "I can do
it better than you can!"
Hiroshi wouldn't let go, "You already tried to use it on
him! We've got to hide it where--"
Kuno appeared at the door, "AS I surmised! The
unprincipled allies of that knave, Kaneda Tendou,
returned to their vipers nest! Return my ancestral
property!!"
Panicking, Hiroshi and Daisuke BOTH swung the two-handed
weapon at the samurai. Even with the threat of an
imaginary sword, Kuno was able to force them to back up.
The two raw fighters were entirely on the defensive as
the other students got out of their seats to allow them
room as they stumbled, bumped, and tip over the desks to
make room for their "Strategic retreat".
Sayuri yelled at she-Ranma, "Why don't you DO
something!?! You're the martial artist!"
Ranma looked worried, "Oh, dear! I do suppose I should.
You don't think they will be offended. Fighting IS for
guys. I wouldn't want them to think--"
Ranma's yang kicked butts: In a chain reaction, first
one, then another of the guys told her, "Don't worry,
*I'll* do it! We don't want you to get hurt." Their
battle auras were joined together in a common cause.
Gathering into clumps, the girls of the class watched as
guys they'd known since at LEAST junior high school
suddenly start fighting for a girl rather than OVER a
girl, piling on Kuno.
But whether he had one or two guys holding onto a limb,
the samurai warrior refused to be pulled down. He fought
on, yelling his battle cry.
Meanwhile, others had joined in the struggle with Hiroshi
and Daisuke for control of the wooden sword.
Soon there wasn't a seat that was where it was supposed
to be. And the girls who weren't watching the show of
machoness, were now escaping out of the room.
Mr. Ando, meanwhile, was at his desk, busy making notes
on this case study of group dynamic.
Na hustled she-Ranma to the door, "Come on, girlfriend.
School is over."
Ranma wasn't sure, "But, but the boys! If there's
something I can do--"
Na told her, "The best thing you can do for them is
leave! They were already in trouble ONCE today because of
you."
Yuka said, "Oh, yes! Principal Hinako may have forgiven
you, but that was before she thought you had changed."
She-Ranma said, "But I DID change. Why does trouble have
to follow me?"
They just missed Principal Hinako.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outside, she-Ranma was still in Na's grip, "I really
don't think we should leave the school grounds."
Na told her, "If we don't, we'll just end up in
detention. Believe me. I know about detention."
Yuka asked, "Won't we get in detention, anyway, for
leaving the campus?"
Na told her, "Well, ordinarily, I'd say there was safety
in numbers. You know: Hope we get lost in a crowd and get
no worse than everybody else. But..." she studied the
fretful redhead in black Chinese silk 'pajamas', "I think
this time it'd be better if the teachers and especially
the Principal, can SEE that Ranma has reformed. Authority
figures LOVE that sort of thing."
Yuka brightened, "You mean shopping?!"
She-Ranma raised her head, "Shopping? What kind of
shopping?"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
She-Ranma looked at the scarves of all sorts she had in
her hand, and those that were still in one particular
garbage bag in the alley, "These are going to show
everybody I want to be a girl?"
Na told her, "Nah, I use these when I want to skip
school. Even perverts leave scarves alone."
Yuka watched her get out of her Furinkan uniform, "Er,
Na, I don't have gym clothes under MY dress." Na lending
Ranma-chan her extra gym clothes had been how she had
introduced herself.
Na got a couple of the heavier pieces of cloth and
started pinning them around her, "I have gym clothes on,
because people know gym classes CAN leave the school. By
the time they realize I'm not with the rest of the class,
I'm gone.
"But all you have to do is COVER the uniform with the
scarves. Of course, it'd be easier if you got down to
your slip."
Yuka blushed at the suggestion. Na said, "No, I didn't
think you could do that. What have you got under those
clothes of yours, Ranma?"
She-Ranma blushed for another reason, "B, boy's---Oh, no!
I just can't say it! Suddenly, it seems so perverted."
Even Yuka looked at her with a sweatdrop. "That's all
right. Your father wouldn't LET you have panties."
Na said, "Or a bra. Obviously. Well, there's one way to
help you feel like you're not daddy's little boy." And
she yanked Ranma's pants down, boxers included.
She-Ranma cried, "What are you DOING!!?!" pulling down
the front of her black, silk shirt (which caused the back
to raise).
Na took the white sash from around the black, silk pants
and tied it around she-Ranma's waist, "Yes. It LOOKED
like you were wearing a baggy man's shirt. It's long
enough on you to make a sexy, little black dress."
Yuka said, "Just be careful not to do any bending."
Still pulling at the hem, the red-faced she-Ranma said,
"But I don't have anything on underneath!"
Na quirked a smile, "I have bloomers on. Do you want to
borrow my panties?"
She-Ranma was confused, "Girls do that??"
Yuka wrinkled her nose, "Ew! Don't even joke about it,
Na!"
Na picked out one of the scarves she-Ranma still had in
her hand, "Pin this on. Believe me, it'll give you as
much protection as a lot of the panties I see in the
locker room. And it's not lacy."
Yuka said, "Aw! I like lacy lingerie."
Folding the scarf into a triangle, Na reminded her, "It's
just until we can get Ranma REAL panties."
Yuka asked Ranma, "Do YOU like lacy lingerie?"
She-Ranma said, "I, I never thought about it before.
Ever." She quickly put the fetish back under her sash. It
had become a side-weapon again in her mind.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
They had left Nerima, and were walking in the nearest
business district with multi-story buildings. Talk about
getting looked at before. And it wasn't because of the
colorful costumes Na and Yuka had made of the scarves.
She-Ranma's Chi-enhanced senses could feel those aimed at
her breasts. She should not have let Na unbutton the top
of her shirt.
But she was convinced most of them were grazing over her
shapely legs (trying to get under the hem of her shirt).
She WAS glad she was wearing something underneath. But
while it wasn't right for a lady to wear boxers, she
WASN'T sure wearing a pinned, silk scarf was any more
proper. "It feels like I'm wearing a diaper," she
muttered.
Na asked, "Oh? You've worn a diaper lately?"
She-Ranma said, "No. It, it's just the way I, imagine one
of them feels like." Her female, round buttocks already
took up more of her body awareness than her male, flat
butt did.
Na said, "Then use your imagination and think of it as
the latest fashion in sexy lingerie. "Victoria's Little
Secret"."
Yuka said, "Since Ranma is used to wearing men's
underwear, maybe if we get her a larger scarf, she can
make herself a loincloth. Er, only not so long in front."
She-Ranma said, "Oh, dear, no! When we get to the
department store, let's go straight to where they have
the girls' underwear. I want to feel like a normal girl
as soon as I can."
They really didn't notice the open, hole-in-the-wall
pachinko parlor they passed. And inside, he-Kaneda
wouldn't have noticed them if he had had more practice at
playing the pinball-like game. He HAD thought it would've
been a good way to waste his time with the little money
he had. HE could even have won something. But his teenage
hormones did not allow him the peace to win. So it was he
wasn't distracted when his Chi-enhanced senses told them
something of interest was passing by.
Going out to the street he saw that something was Ranma
and her friends. Again he felt it was wrong that she was
with somebody else, even girls. He followed them.
The great thing about the Furinkan boys' spring uniform,
it was just a pair of gray slacks and white shirt. It
looked no more like a uniform than the hundreds of other
young office workers in the area.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
He-Kaneda lost them at the elevators. But he hustled and
raced up the stairs. It wasn't until the fourth floor
that he saw them again. He then stalked them, trying not
to think he was a lone guy surrounded by women's apparel.
But he could go no further than the post that to him
marked the boundary line of the lingerie section. With
his heightened maleness, lingerie should have only meant
getting lucky. A chance to feed his fantasies. But
thinking of all the panties and bras his sister Kasumi
had made sure he had worn challenged his right to be
called a real man. Either way, being around delicates was
making him feel like a pervert. Of both kinds.
A saleswoman asked, "Can I do something for you, sir?"
Startled, He-Kaneda spun around. His fist hit the faux
marble post and broke a chunk out of it. Regaining his
composure as best he could, he coughed, and stammered in
a loud voice, "YES! I, I'm here to-oo buy, buy panties,
bras for me--my GIRLFRIEND! Wife, I mean!!" He was lucky
he hadn't said "sister" because he had been thinking of
Kasumi. She was the one who shopped it in their family.
Thinking about his own time in girls' clothes had
confused him about whether guys DID that sort at all.
The woman looked him up and down, "And what size does she
wear?"
He-Kaneda froze. "Size?" Aw, Geez!! He didn't even
remember his own bra size, let alone-- "HER size!" he
said pointing.
"Whose?"
He pointed around the post at the redhead going into a
dressing room, "My girlfriend, I mean my wife, is the
same size as her! Exactly the same size!"
"Do you want me to ask her what her size is?"
"No!! Can't you tell just by looking!?!"
"Why don't we go ask her? Perhaps if she tells us, I
won't have to call store security."
"Security, hunh?" It took a moment, but Kaneda ran.
The saleswoman called out, "We have security cameras, you
know!!"
Thinking they'd be waiting for him at the exits he ran up
the up escalator.
There was still the matter of cameras. There was only one
place he thought might not have cameras. Only it meant--
No!! He wasn't going to do it. He was a guy, damn it!
He'd rather get arrested than have to be a girl. YES: He
WOULD take it like a man!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
With the dressing room curtain open, Na and Yuka stood on
either side, acting as screens. Ranma's modesty was
invaded with each clasp, slide and tug. Girls, it seemed,
were very free with their hands it came to other girls.
Na asked the cute girl in just a panties and bra, "How
does it fit, Ranma?"
The embarrassed Ranma had no idea how to test for fit,
other than, "It feels okay, I guess." It was lacy and
purple with a little red bow. The panties were part of
the set. They were something she had not even conceived
of wearing before.
Yuka said, "Fit isn't important! This is Ranma's FIRST
bra! It should make her feel pretty!"
Ranma put her hands around back, "Having a tight band of
elastic go around your upper body is supposed to make you
feel pretty? Not to mention the shoulder straps."
Na said, "If it's too tight, it doesn't fit right." Ranma
was filling the cups as well.
Yuka told her, "You're just not used to wearing a bra,
Ranma."
Na said, "Then you shouldn't have picked out an underwire
bra for. Ranma doesn't NEED any support!" It was almost
unnatural for a girl to be that firm.
Yuka said, "Whenever it starts to bother you, do as I do,
Ranma." And she recited her aphorism, "I feel this way
because I'm a WOMAN, and a woman is meant to be pretty! I
am wearing something pretty, so that makes ME, a woman,
pretty!"
Na was not impressed, "With that kind of logic, why don't
you get a body-shaper and have something that will REALLY
remind you just how "pretty" you can be."
---Suddenly something came crashing through the
ceiling!!!
Among the pieces of concrete, wood, acoustic tiles, air
duct, and a rusted pipe of hot water was a soggy,
longhaired girl in a Furinkan school uniform.
The nearly naked pigtailed girl recognized her, "Akane!!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A few minutes earlier Kaneda had been waiting for
security to come for him when he realized, "Wait! What am
I going to be arrested for!? Lurking around the lingerie
section, waiting to see girls in their underwear (or
naked!) --stalking!?! "What kind of a MAN is that!? If
I'm going to HAVE a reputation as a man, I'm going to
have to escape. And hope they don't check to see who I
was." Reputation was everything to a martial artist. It
could be used to avoid fights as well as start them.
But there WAS no bathroom on the fifth floor! This floor
didn't even rate acoustic tiles. The pipes and air ducts
were exposed.
There was his escape route! The cameras probably weren't
pointed up THERE!
He leaped up and grabbed hold of one of the pipes.
But this floor hadn't even rated a building inspection. A
metal strap holding the hot water pipe to the ceiling
broke. Water came pour out, soaking the parched wood
floor underneath. As Kaneda reached for an air duct, the
section of rusted pipe broke off, and crashed through the
floor, taking he followed. Only his martial arts skills
kept him, now her, from being badly hurt.
The only damage to him was Kaneda's reputation as a
man...to Ranma.
The End of the chapter.