Ranma Tales ½: Chapter 12- Enter Kodachi

Part 1- Initial Contact

Ranma didn't often like being in his girl form to much, even if he was used to it and didn't shy away from it. The last three years had gone a long way toward being comfortable with the form and both the advantages as well as the disadvantages it had. Right now he had just got done enjoying one of the advantages, or at least to him it was.

Ranma had just come from a ice cream shop, where she had enjoyed one of the most delicious ice cream treats she'd ever had. Which wasn't exactly a surprise, Genma hadn't been big on ice cream among many other sweets having defined them as 'girlish'. Anything 'Girlish' was not allowed Ranma at all. While Ranma's sensei the last three years had gotten rid of most of the baggage from Ranma's childhood some things where still hard unless he was a girl at the time.

Ranma leaped up to one of the fences lining the side of the street. Ranma thinking to herself 'After all I can't just ass up such a convenient training aid'. This particular fence was taller than normal since it bordered a lot that had recently been cleared for some new construction. She just started walking along the fence when she heard a crash from inside the fence.

Ranma turned to face the scene and heard a girl shout 'We have you now! We'll pay you back for hurting Aya and Mayumi!" This was a bit odd as the voice was one she know somewhat, it was owned by a girl named Shiho from her class in school. 'What is Shiho doing?' was the thought before he sees Shiho and two other girls (which he remembers as Keiko and Makino) facing off against another girl with black hair wearing a green leotard and wielding... A ribbon...?

The figure laughs maniacally (and in a way most people would rather forget) and then says "Foolish girls I Kodachi the Black Rose of St. Bacchus! A champion of Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts! You cannot hope to compare!" After saying this Kodachi lashes out at the girls with her ribbon as if it was a whip knocking them all to the ground. Once they are on the ground she starts attacking them further with the ribbon as the cringe and cry out in pain.

Deciding she's watched more than enough of this cocky girls antics she leaps down to stand in front of the next girl the ribbon was aiming for. Deftly snatching the ribbon in her hand Ranma stands in front of the other girl and says "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

Kodachi laughs some more and says "Who would that be? All I see are commoners in front of me who cannot hope to match one such as myself!" She then pulls the ribbon towards her.

Ranma shrieks as her hand starts to hurt and lets go of the ribbon. Looking down she sees the edges of the ribbon cut her hand as it was pulled on. Obviously that was no ordinary ribbon. Ranma asks "What sort of ribbon is sharp?"

Kodachi replies "Why one lined with razor sharp threads along the edges!" and laughs again.

Ranma raises an eyebrow and says "People have told you before that your a nut job right?"

Kodachi gets angry and shouts "Wretch for that you will pay! We'll see how you fair against my brilliance!" With this she lashes out with the ribbon again, though now directly at Ranma.

Ranma dodges the ribbon strikes while deciding how best to go about this. On the other hand the more Kodachi misses the more enraged she seems to get, getting faster with her strikes as her anger builds though also less accurate. Ranma however isn't worried having fought more than a few people before with strange whip or whip-like interests.

Finally deciding on a course of action Ranma puts on a Ki enhanced burst of speed and gets close to Kodachi. Then she lashes out with her palm before Kodachi can react and leap away. Her palm strikes the other girls wrist and forces Kodachi to drop her ribbon she leaps backwards.

Kodachi straightens from her landing and says 'Very well. I've accomplished my mission anyway. Have the ugly peasant girls!" She tosses a bunch of black rose petals into the air and then leaps off over the fence.

Ranma sighs and looks around at the girls lying around all cut up by the ribbon. She helps them to their feet, since carrying all three of them to a doctor at once would be a bit much. Ranma thinks to herself 'Well that was different... Something felt awfully familiar about her though, I wonder what that was... Oh well got to get these girls some help and I wouldn't mind if my palm stopped bleeding either...'

Part 2- Stand In

Ranma enters the Tendo dojo with Shiho, Keiko, and Makino. The girls greet Kasumi at the door, Ranma implying Kasumi shouldn't act like she knows her with hand gestures. Kasumi looks a bit worried at them all bandaged up and asks if they are ok. They reply the aren't exactly ok, but they'd already visited the hospital. They ask if they can see Akane and Kasumi tells them she's currently up in her room doing homework.

She follows them up to Akane's room, thinking about what they had talked about. 'Well that was... strange... They asked me to protect them in case Kodachi got anymore strange ideas about how capable they might be before the match. It's kinda bad I had to lie and tell them my name was Ranko, but I really didn't feel like trying to explain things to them... Especially not since it would be really hard to keep it a secret at school much longer if they knew. Oh well, I'm gonna have to explain things sooner or later as is. I attract water like strange enemies.'

They knock on Akane's door and from inside they hear "Come in." They all enter the room. Ranma again motions against revealing who he is, though this time to Akane.

Akane looks at her strangely, but says "Hello Shiho, Keiko, Makino... Why are you all here?"

Shiho looks at the others and they nod to her. She then says "Akane we need you to do us a big favor... As you may know were part of Furikan's martial arts rhythmic gymnastics team. In fact we have a match against St. Bacchus this coming Friday. Which is why we have a problem. Their teams captain refuses to be defeated and to make sure of it she attacks the members of opposing teams before the matches so we can't fight against her."

Akane looks shocked and says "How does she keep getting away with that?"

Shiho shrugs "It's simple no one is crazy enough to face her and tell her she's insane. The school itself doesn't seem to care either... She ambushed us earlier and we'd be in worse shape if Ranko here hadn't interfered." They look gratefully at Ranma for a moment while Akane looks vaguely amused, then Shiho continues "We aren't in any shape to take her on Friday so we need someone to stand in for us. The only person we could think of was you, please Akane take our place!"

Akane shrugs "Well she seems like someone that needs to be put in her place... I'll help you." She glances at Ranma with a smile and adds "Besides anyone who could take on 'Ranko' there sounds interesting." The girls look confused having no idea the two knew each other.

Ranma sighs and says "Well she is pretty sneaky, razor edged ribbons and all..."

Akane stares and says "Razor edged ribbons?" The others all nod and she adds "Your serious?" They nod again and she finally says "What sort of nut is she?"

Ranma shrugs and says "Not sure, but she's dangerous..." holds up her bandaged hand "I'd be careful till the match if I where you..." She would have said more, but now was not the time.

Akane sighs "I guess I have to..." She looks at the girls and asks "How about you come by tomorrow and you can explain the rules and concepts of Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts to me?"

The girls nod and Shiho says "Thanks Akane! This means a lot to us." Soon after they all leave, so it's just Akane and Ranma in the room.

Akane looks at Ranma and asks "Exactly what did I get myself into?" Ranma just shrugs.

Part 3- Complications

Later that night Akane walked out of the bathroom and headed to her room after a bath. She was wondering what sort of competition she'd ended up in. 'Razor edged ribbons, Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, and crazy school girls... Oh well.' She goes to enter her room, but her senses tell her something is off.

She stops and bumps her second sight up a notch. This brought up what had to be the strangest thing she'd seen yet. The aura of a person clinging to the ceiling in her room. What made it worse was that she had never seen that aura before, though it was somehow vaguely familiar. Well whoever it was, was in for a surprise.

Akane enters her room and just as she senses the person start to drop down Akane sidesteps far enough to be out of reach. The body thuds into the floor and a big mallet bounces off the bed as it flies from the prone figures hands. Taking a good look at the body Akane sees it's a long black haired girls dressed in a green leotard. 'Tacky color choice and what's with the leotard anyways? Furthermore what's up with the giant mallet? And who is this crazy girl?" That was about Akane had a chance to think before the figure pulled herself to her feet.

The girl stood up and let loose a horrifying laugh as she held a hand in front of her mouth that made Akane cringe. Seeing Akane cringe seemed to prompt the other girl to speak "So you try to ambush me, Kodachi Kuno the Black Rose of St. Bacchus, do you?"

Akane frowns and says "Who is ambushing whom here? I'm pretty sure this is my bedroom!"

As she pauses and Kodachi interrupts with that laugh again and then says "Obviously I am the one being ambushed by a mere commoner like yourself! Couldn't wait to be defeated by my charming self, could you?"

Akane scowls and says "You dropped from my ceiling as I was coming back from the bathroom wielding a giant mallet! You have a lot of nerve accusing me of ambushing you!" At this Akane decides she's had enough and before the other girl can react grabs her hand and tosses her out. Specifically out her window when it wasn't open.

Below Ranma, now a guy again, was relaxing by the koi pond. Hearing the sudden crash from the window in Akane's room and seeing a body shoot out of it he rushes over to catch the falling person. He didn't quite make it completely under the person in time however and fell on his ass as he catches them.

While Ranma lies stunned under the other person, he does realize a few things. First it's a girl on top of him, as the breasts poking into his chest attest to. Second she's taller than Akane. Third that his left hand really shouldn't be where it is. The last due to how that hand had ended up between her legs in a position he hadn't really intended.

The girl shakes her head and then starts to stand up when Ranma's hand moves even more toward where he doesn't want it to be. The girl turns her head and says "You naughty boy you! I should beat you up for touching me like that! But your cute and there are so few guys at St. Bacchus... Marry me and you can do that all you want!" Ranma now realizes exactly how bad things are. Well at least he thought he had...

Kodachi reaches over and pulls his face to hers as she plants her lips against his, Ranma starts to try to pull away when their lips touch and he hears a loud gasp from the side. Finally managing to push Kodachi away Ranma sees a very shocked Akane staring at the scene in front of her. He then feels awfully dizzy for reasons he's not quite sure of and falls over backwards.

Akane screams at Kodachi "What are you doing with Ranma?" As well as thinking to herself 'Why did he let her kiss him? That jerk! Also where did he think he was putting his hand!'

Kodachi replies idly "So that is his name then? Very well my dear Ranma it is then."

Akane shouts "Hey I'm talking to you!"

Kodachi waves her hand and says "I feel no need to speak to you, my only concern here is my dear Ranma..."

Akane tries to stay somewhat calm "What have you done to him bitch?" She fails pretty badly though...

Kodachi just laughs that evil laugh of hers and says "We have only shared a kiss. That is only natural for lovers such as us..."

Akane's eyes narrow and she says 'What do you mean lovers?"

Kodachi smiles and says "Why my dear Ranma saved my life and only asked for the use of my body in exchange. It was a fair trade so I have excepted..." Which is as far as she gets before an irate Akane punts her over the wall.

Akane stares at the unmoving form of Ranma, before slowly coming over and making sure he's still alive. Which he is. He doesn't move however and his eyes are wide open still which would be odd if he were asleep. Still having nothing better to try immediately she tries to wake him up as if he were asleep. Not getting any response she bumps her second sight back up another notch and takes a look at him.

Everything looks fine to her second sight as well however, which doesn't help things. She does however see that he seems to be applying his ki in various ways. She doesn't have any idea what she's seeing though, so she can only hope it helps. So she waits.

Several minutes later, Ranma seems to relax even further and then to her surprise he groans, the first sound he's made in several minutes. So she says "Ranma!" in the hopes that he'll answer her.

He does reply "Remind me to stay five miles or more away from that crazy girl..."

Akane lets her anger at what she saw slip out again "What do you think you were doing with that tramp?"

Ranma sighs and says "I only tried to catch her when she feel through the window... Heck if I'd known it was her I'd have let her fall on her own."

Akane in a huff says "Well that's not how she tells it! She was talking about how you were lovers and you kissed!"

Ranma rolls his head to look at Akane and says "I don't exactly know what she's talking about. I do know that while I was stunned from hitting the ground my hand was where I really didn't want it... Then she kissed me... I felt a paralyzing poison spread through me... Remind me to never ever let her close enough to kiss em again!"

Akane blinks "She poisoned you?"

Ranma nods "Yeah, that's why I'm still sitting on the ground like this... I've started counteracting it with my body control techniques, and it doesn't seem like it lasts very long anyways... I'd rather not have to lay here though..."

Akane sighs and says "Whenever you think you can sort of move I'll help you inside..." She's still annoyed at what she saw Kodachi and Ranma doing, but he seems to be telling the truth... The paralyzing poison explains why he didn't manage to fight her off, but still he was her Ranma! Even if they hadn't officially decided that...

Part 4- Training

After school each day Akane practiced with the tools the girls brought her, with Ranma and the girls helping. The first day after school they'd come and explained the rules, which was basically no attacks by anything other than the tools. The only other rule of sorts was that getting knocked out of the ring means you lose.

Learning the tools proved entertaining for anyone watching Akane however. She initially kept stepping on the ribbon, tripping on the hoops, dropping clubs all over the place... She however was not happy about it one bit. The only thing going for her right now is that she'd been doing quite a lot of balance training already. She was also very quick from her speed training.

As the days went on however she improved, though at the cost of any further training other than in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics while at home. Unlike the mental and spiritual exercises and even a lot of physical exercises now, this type of training required equipment and so could only be done at home. Ranma had learned the tools with her to give her someone to practice against, though he seemed better to start and stayed better than her the whole time as well. He however specifically refused to fight Kodachi, the very idea made him feel sick.

By the time the match came around both had learned the tools fairly well. The only last minute advice from Ranma to Akane was "Just remember not to use any high end techniques... I really don't think most of the audience would understand and Kodachi doesn't seem to use any ki at all..."

Part 5- Face Off

The competition was held at the St. Bacchus school for girls. Ranma and Akane arrive awhile before the match and head for the dressing room provided. Ranma heads in first just to make sure Kodachi hasn't left any surprises. The only thing out of place is a vase full of black roses. Ranma tells Akane "I'd stay away from the roses if I was you... Black roses normally imply a death threat of sorts... And with Kodachi's habit of using poison."

Akane nods and pushes Ranma out so she can change. She comes back out dressed in her own leotard a few minutes later and they head out into the gym. As they come out onto the floor they see Kodachi waiting for them. She smiles and says "Oh, my Ranma darling! I have come to rescue you from the evil clutches of this base creature.." She points to Akane and continues "When the match is over we can return to my house together and continue where we left off the other night!"

Ranma looks ill and says "Only in your dreams." Which just makes Kodachi laugh her evil laugh.

At that point the announcer comes on and says "And now to announce the two champions you will see today!" He pauses and then says "For St. Bacchus in the red corner, the Black Rose Kodachi Kuno!" Kodachi leaps into the ring and lands in the corner indicated. The announcer waits for the noise to settle down before he goes on "For Furikan High School in the white corner, Akane Tendo!" Akane hops into the ring in her own corner as the seconds step up behind them.

The referee calls out "Fighters to the center ring!" Both girls step forward and the referee continues "Bow!" Akane bows to Kodachi, though Kodachi continues to stand. The Ref sighs and says "Fight!" Kodachi steps back and pulls out her ribbon then lashes out at Akane with it.

Akane dodges, weaving in and out of the ribbons path. She asks Ranma for a club and he tosses it up to her. Using the club she diverts the ribbon and then holds it to tight to the mat. Kodachi lets it go and asks her second for a hoop.

Kodachi tosses the hoop at Akane, who dodges out of it's path. The hoop embeds itself an inch into the corner post behind Akane. The announcer calls out "It's the Black Roses infamous razor hoop!"

Ranma says to the ref "Hey that's razor edged! That's not legal!"

The ref replies "It's legal as long as it's not a bare handed attack."

Ranma looks at him blankly and stammers "That's insane!" The ref just shrugs.

Meanwhile the girls have started going at it with clubs. Though Kodachi has an advantage since her club has retractable spikes on it. Akane however holds her own blocking with her club.

The announcer proclaims "The Black Rose uses her special spiked clubs to batter at her opponent!"

Ranma asks the ref "Your going to tell me that's legal to aren't you?" The ref just nods and Ranma sighs.

The girls have changed tactics again fighting with ribbons this time. Though Akane's ribbon is in bad shape being just cloth, versus Kodachi's razor edged ribbon. Soon enough their isn't enough left of Akane's ribbon to use and she calls for a hoop from Ranma who tosses one up. Akane tried to deflect the ribbon with the hoop only to watch as the razor edge of the ribbon slices through her hoop cutting it cleanly in two.

The announcer cries out "Look at that! Nothing can stop the Black Roses deadly ribbon!"

Ranma asks the ref one last time "So that's a fair and legal tactic in this style, huh? Just destroy your opponents weapons and you win?" The ref just shrugs.

Akane sees the problem here and calls out for another club. Ranma tosses it to her and Akane grabs it and her club from earlier. A quick toss using one of the clubs and it knocks the ribbon from Kodachi's hands. Kodachi laughs and says "So you wish to challenge me further do you? Give up and I might spare you the embarrassment!"

Akane gives her own laugh and says "Right, I haven't seen anything to worry about from you!" Kodachi frowns and calls out for her own clubs.

Akane approaches Kodachi. Kodachi in turn says "Witness my fearsome power of my secret technique! Blow of a thousand clubs!" Kodachi's hands blur and it seems as if at least twenty clubs are striking at Akane. Akane backs off as Kodachi advances to stay out of their way.

The announcer says "Amazing! It looks like Kodachi's one club is at least twenty!"

Akane gets a idea and calls out to Ranma for a ball. He tosses one in, and Akane kicks it into the middle of the storm of clubs. The clubs scatter all over as Kodachi proceeds to drop all but one of them. Getting hit by more than a few as they scatter.

The announcer calls out "It was twenty clubs!"

Akane smiles as she gets an idea and she rushes Kodachi while she tries to recover from the scattering clubs. She shoves one of her clubs into Kodachi's guts and lifts her off the ground and tosses her up and out of the ring.

Barely catching her breath Kodachi pulls out a whistle and blows it. At the sound of the whistle the whole ring moves over until it's under where Kodachi lands. The movement however knocks Akane off her feet. Kodachi meanwhile lands on hers.

The announcer chime sin with "Wow look at that! The ring won't let Kodachi fall out!"

Kodachi laughs again as Akane pulls herself to her feet. "Insignificant peasant girl! You cannot defeat me! I will have Ranma darling as my own!"

Ranma growls and says "I'm not an object to be owned!" He looks at the ref and says "You cannot tell me that was legal!"

The ref shrugs again and says "It wasn't a bare handed attack."

Ranma just stares at him as if he has two heads and then says to Akane "Akane, forget what I said earlier and teach this moron a lesson."

Akane smiles. She applies some Ki and in the time it takes to blink is across the mat to where Kodachi is standing. Kodachi not being able to react in time can't stop what comes next as Akane uses a club to trip Kodachi. As Kodachi falls Akane uses the club again and knocks Kodachi up into the air. While Kodachi is up in the air Akane draws in power from outside herself the same way she learned that night not that long ago and putting her hand against the mat she says "Seal!". Bands of Ki wrap themselves around the ring and form into chains binding the ring to the floor.

Kodachi tries to use the whistle again, but while the ring shakes the Ki chains hold it tight and don't let it move. Surprised Kodachi lands on her ass outside the ring, the force of the fall temporarily taking her breathe away. Silence falls over the gym.

The announcer finally breaks the silence and says "The Black Rose has fallen out of the ring!"

The ref raises his hand in Akane's direction and says "Winner!" Akane hops up and down for a second or two then leaps out of the ring and hugs Ranma. This stuns a few in the audience.

Kodachi gets up and runs over to the ref "You can't allow this! She cheated! She used some strange chains to bind the ring in place!"

The ref looks at Kodachi strangely and says "What chains? All she did was strike the mat with her fist..." Kodachi starts to argue with the ref.

In her place however her brother Tatewaki Kuno comes down from the stands and raises his bokken in challenge at Ranma. "Unhand the fair Akane Tendo foul sorcerer! I cannot allow such actions as these to continue."

Ranma sighs and Akane says to him "I'll hug however I want to hug you delusional idiot!" Kodachi finally hearing this notices the two in a hug and leaps over.

"Unhand my darling Ranma foul peasant girl! While your cheating actions may have caused everyone else to declare you the winner of this match, I was the real winner! Now give up Ranma and go play with the other little girls!"

Ranma looks at Akane and says "You take her and I'll take him ok?" Akane smiles and nods. Then in a blink both of them uppercut one of the others sending them through the roof.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay on this chapter... Unfortunately for me, my job has been getting in the way. Well if it's still my job... I apparently don't get a choice in the matter. Anyways, I'll either end up with considerably more time on my hands soon or I won't have any free time. Have to wait and see...

Quick comments:

borg rabbit- Shadow is from my other non-fanfiction works. I've also only ever briefly published any of those stories online. Though I'm more tempted to now. I doubt I'll get to it all that soon though as I'll have to clean up that mess before posting any of it and of course not being fanfiction it won't be on here...

JakeTheSheepy- Akane... is... Well it really depends on how you look at it... Martial arts-wise even in the original series she was good, just not as good as others that came later (hence why I had Ranma specifically say he was 2nd dan, while Akane had yet to become a 1st dan, I assume most of the others from the original fall in the 1st to 4th dan range based on what I've seen). She was nearly a master in her school (one belt away) regardless of her fathers lack of help in finishing to master it. She really just needs to work on several things that Ranma had been working on. Kodachi actually wasn't a master either, but had a style so different than normal it was hard to deal with and had the opposite characteristics to Akane (namely she was quicker and had better agility, but lacked strength). Here however both Ranma and Akane 'cheat' by using ki to enhance their movement. You haven't gotten a good example really yet, but Ranma is still considerably stronger. You'll note I even mention he still holds back against her most of the time. I just made her catch up enough that she wouldn't be a problem later. I've also had her step up her training so she stays competitive. So far she just hasn't faced a real threat... It won't stay that way though...

Btw, In case you'd like to see something like what I imagined... The new anime series Shakugan no Shana has an animation that matches what I imagined for Ranma when he draws the katana from himself... Of course that being a brand new series, my head predated seeing that animation... But it was rather entertaining to see what I imagined animated...

Lastly as you can guess even Kodachi is slightly different... I don't think she's to far off her normal personality, I've always had trouble trying to picture most of her actions as well as Kuno's... That's why Kuno seldom gets written directly by me and I just infer that he showed up and was dealt with... Which is often what happened in the series anyways... Kodachi however had to have a few minor adjustments to her 'martial arts' style as well, since it's a complete gimmick style like tons of others in the series... Oh also I couldn't remember the name of the school (well not enough to spell it at least), and I had way to many problems finding which episodes of the anime this chapter uses... So I simply pulled the name from another fic.