Chapter 2: New Class

"I have to wear that?" Ranma asked.

The "that" in this case was a bra, a slip, and a black sailor dress with a white collar and white cuffs. The creases on the dress's pleats were pressed with such precision that they could have been used for Martial Arts Cartography.

"Quit your whining. You sound like a girl," Genma said. He sounded angry, although he still kept his voice quiet. They were trying to keep their camp hidden. "Of course you got to wear that. You're supposed to be blending in. You saw what everybody was wearing yesterday, didn't you?" He held his hand against his forehead and tilted his head back in a melodramatic pose. "Oh, what a failure of a father I am. My own son, scared of some clothes."

"Yeah, yeah." Ranma scoffed at Genma's obvious manipulation. She understood the concept of dressing the part. It had been drilled into her enough times in Kondou's ninjutsu training. The key to a successful disguise was to be exactly as people expected you to be.

That was in the abstract, though. In terms of particulars, while Ranma had learned a great number of specific ninjutsu techniques, especially in regard to combat, they had left shortly before Kondou began teaching the details about how different people acted. In hindsight, it might have been better if they had stayed a few more weeks, although Genma had been very insistent that night that they had to leave immediately, so it was hard to say for sure.

Ranma picked up the bra and held it as if it were a particularly strange animal she had accidentally caught and was now trying to determine how to cook. She asked, "But what should I do if I get splashed?"

Genma resumed a more normal stance. He said, "Just don't get splashed."

Ranma just threw the remainder of the cold water in her canteen at Genma, who promptly transformed into a panda.

Genma responded by holding up a sign which read, "Then run away, or hide, or whatever. Improvise. This is your challenge." He flipped the sign over. The back of it read, "I never said that this training would be easy."

Ranma sighed.

It wasn't the first time she had had to dress up for training. When she had learned the naginata in Kyoto, Fukuyama had required her to wear a female kimono and learn several skills seemingly unrelated to the weapon itself. It hadn't just been her, either. Martial Arts Beech Volleyball, Martial Calligraphy, Martial Arts Swimming, and innumerable others had had similar requirements. In the end, it was just some clothes. It wasn't like it was really that important. She would have been willing to wear a corset made of iron, if the technique was intriguing enough.

Ranma turned the bra back and forth in her hands, experimented with the hooks and eyes at the end of the wings, and generally tried to figure out how the thing was supposed to work. She then slid her arms into the straps and fumbled around her back, trying to grab the ends. She wasn't able to locate them, though, so had to try a different approach. She grabbed the wings at her sides and then slid her hands backwards, following the cloth until she reached the ends. Once she had those in hand, all that remained was to hook the two pieces together. However, when she tried to do that, all she could feel was the hooks brushing against the smooth cloth without catching. She tried sliding the two ends together as well, but the pieces slipped past each other with no effect.

Genma held up a sign which read, "Need help, boy?"

Ranma shot him a dirty look and then went back focusing on the contraption in her hands. However, the next several seconds proved to be just as fruitless as the past minute had been.

Frustrated, she took the bra off. She held it in front of her and tried hooking it there again. It was just as easy as the first time she had done it. She then slid her arms back into the straps and tried yet again. This time she met with immediate success, although the connection felt tentative and unbalanced. She then realized that only one of the two hooks had caught an eye. She tried to hook the other, and the first one disconnected in the process.

Ranma was growling softly to herself by the time she managed to get the thing stable and set around her chest.

She next picked up the slip. She had to flip it back and forth twice before she could figure out which side was the front. After she had done so, she tried to put it on as if it were a particularly thin and flimsy shirt. Unlike with the bra, her technique this time proved effective on the first attempt. The slip was quick and easy to don, once she had managed to separate the two spaghetti straps and maneuver her head between them.

In contrast to the insubstantial slip, the sailor dress was large and weighty, like a lake of fabric in her hands. Still, Ranma approached it the same way, trying to put it on as if it were an unreasonably large shirt. It proved to be much more of a challenge, though, and she got lost on the way to the figurative surface. As best she could tell, her head got stuck trying to emerge through one of the sleeves. She pulled her head back in and sought another opening, but the preposterous length of cloth above her got tangled up and forced her to abandon the overall attempt.

She pulled the dress off and held it out in front of her in order reset the whole thing. Once everything was straightened out again, Ranma started over. She tried to pull the dress on a second time, this time being careful to track the location of the neck hole as she moved. She was more successful with this attempt, and a quick contortion to pull the zipper closed completed her effort.

As much trouble as it had been to don everything she had worn so far, Ranma had at least had a conceptual understanding of what she had needed to do. That was an advantage she lacked with the neckerchief.

"Do you know how this thing works?" She dangled the limp piece of cloth out towards Genma.

Genma shook his head back.

"Whatever," Ranma said. She wrapped the thing under her collar and tied the ends of it in front of her in a bow.

"How does this look?" Ranma asked, holding her arms out in presentation to Genma.

Genma was holding a sign which read, "You're late."

"What do you mean I'm late... I'm late!" Ranma exclaimed quietly. She tugged on her white socks and ballet-style shoes, snatched her book bag, and then jumped out of the small campground. Behind her, she could hear the guttural, panda laughter of Genma as it quickly faded into the distance.

Ranma sprinted through the streets, fuming at the impracticality of girl's clothing as she went. If she could have just worn her keikogi, she would have been able to leave minutes ago.

She followed the path she had taken the day before with Genma, only in reverse this time. Things looked different, going in this opposite direction, but the glimpses she had taken on her trip away from Lillian the day before assured her that she was on the right track. She was further assured by the occasional appearance of girls in sailor dresses similar to hers. Unlike her rapid running, the girls she passed were all walking in a much more sedate pace, which made sense, given they weren't supposed to arrive early to meet their new teacher.

The sounds of girls greeting each other came from here and there as Ranma hurried under the tall gate at the front of the Lillian school grounds. She ignored them, instead focusing on reaching the Western-style building and her destination therein.

Once she reached the main office, she pushed open the door and entered it. A look at the clock on the wall proved that she had barely made it in time.

The headmistress was standing at the side of the room. She was talking to a young woman, but she looked up at Ranma's intrusion.

"Gokigenyou," the headmistress said. "I appreciate your punctuality and your sense of urgency, although I would recommend you leave earlier next time such that you do not need to rush so much to be on time." She gestured to the woman beside her. "This is Tanezaki-sensei. She will be your homeroom teacher." She turned to the woman and said, "This is Ranko Sugita-san, the new transfer student I was telling you about. I will leave her in your care."

The name bounced off of Ranma's consciousness until she remembered the introduction that Genma had given the day before. She would need to remember to listen for that name.

"Thank you," Tanezaki said with a slight bow. She was thin, with long black hair, a white blouse, and a dark blue pencil skirt.

Tanezaki walked away from the headmistress and towards Ranma. As she approached, she pulled out a handkerchief. When she got close enough to do so, she handed it over to Ranma and said, "You may want to dry yourself. It's very important for students of Lillian Private Girls' School to always be modest. You should walk gracefully as to not disturb the pleats of your skirt or stain the white of your collar."

"Okay," Ranma said, biting back the more direct response on the tip of her tongue. Two weeks. She only had to blend in for two weeks. No, less than that, she was sure. When it came to martial arts, and especially learning new techniques, nobody was better than she was. The main question was how quickly Genma would let her progress.

Nevertheless, Ranma took the offered handkerchief and used it to dry off of her face and neck. The run had been short, but she had pushed herself hard for its duration, and it felt good to wipe off the light sheen of sweat she had developed. She then handed the used handkerchief back to Tanezaki.

"If you would please follow me, I will give you a brief tour of the school," Tanezaki said. She then led Ranma out of the office.

They passed by a scattering of girls in the hallway as Tanezaki showed Ranma around the area. Tanezaki pointed out various rooms of importance as they passed by them, such as the teachers' office, the cafeteria, and the various restrooms. They made their way outside, where she showed Ranma the way to the chapel, the primary gym, the sports field, the greenhouse, and the Rose Mansion. They then returned back inside, where Tanezaki pointed out the cabinet which had been assigned to Ranma.

"Finally, your classroom is on the second floor. The closest stairs is over this way. You'll be in the First-year Chrysanthemum Group. When we get there, I'll say a few words to the class, and then you can introduce yourself. Maybe you can say why you're transferring, or what types of hobbies you enjoy doing," Tanezaki said.

Her statement shot through Ranma, triggering a flash of concern. It brought with it the reminder of what Genma had said the day before: Ranma had been enrolled in Lillian, but she had not actually been admitted into Lillian. For some reason, she had thought just meeting the teacher would have been the end of it. She hadn't put any thought into what would happen afterward. It was only at Tanezaki's mentioning of giving an introduction that Ranma realized her oversight, and she immediately focused herself on addressing this new problem which had just presented itself.

The numerous times Ranma had transfered to a new school, she had always said basically nothing at her class introduction. She was a private person who rarely liked to say anything about herself. That had the advantage of frequently causing others to underestimate her. However, that was normally, and here she had to blend in. That meant she would need to come up with something to say to the class that would avoid standing out.

"Okay," Ranma said.

Long-term planning had never been a particular strength of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It instead preferred to use quick thinking and supreme adaptability to handle any eventuality. That was applicable to any situation: countering an incoming punch from an opponent, avoiding an angry shopkeeper searching the area, and giving an introduction to a new class which would be as unnoticed as a tree in a forest.

"You should also consider joining an after-school club. None of them are actively recruiting right now, but I'm sure most of them would be open to getting a new member. It's an excellent way to make some new friends," Tanezaki said as they walked up a flight of stairs.

"Okay," Ranma said, only half paying attention to what Tanezaki was saying. She was instead trying to think of what kind of introduction she could give. The obvious answer was to give an introduction like an ordinary girl would, but that answer was as useless as it was obvious, seeing how she wasn't exactly sure what that would be. Ranma had only ever seen one girl transfer in to a class before. That girl had given an energetic introduction and had told everybody some of her hobbies and interests, which lined up with what Tanezaki had suggested, implying that that was a good path to take. However, that led directly to the question of what ordinary girls liked to do.

"I'm the advisor to the choir myself, and we'd be happy to have you join. Besides that, Lillian has a large number of other clubs, like photography, inventions, dancing, and newspaper. What types of things do you enjoy doing?"

"Okay," Ranma said absentmindedly.

It would have been so much easier if she had had a few more weeks of training with Kondou, but as she didn't have that training, she would need to improvise from her own personal experiences. The problem was that she didn't have that much to work with. She hadn't really known many people in her travels, and almost all of them had been related to fighting in some way or another. She couldn't remember the last non-fighter she had really interacted with, girl or boy. Regardless, she trawled through her memory, trying to dredge up the details she had seen directly and the fragments Genma had alluded to over the years in his references and insults.

"I see," Tanezaki said. She remained quiet for the rest of the walk.

Ranma was still thinking about what ordinary girls enjoyed when they came to a stop.

"This is the classroom," Tanezaki said. She gestured towards a sign mounted high by the door. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Ranma said with a nod. She had had a whole minute to prepare. She was more than ready.

Tanezaki opened the door and entered. Ranma followed behind her. At their entrance, a tan girl with glasses and a short ponytail announced, "Stand. Bow."

Ranma could see, and almost feel, the eyes of the all girls upon her as she walked in. It was the same in every school she had ever transferred into. New students were an unusual event, and the novel change they represented was always the focus of curiosity and more.

"Gokigenyou," Tanezaki said. "Today I have the pleasure of introducing a new classmate. This is Ranko Sugita-san." She wrote the name on the blackboard. "She will be joining us in the First-year Chrysanthemum Group. She lost her mother when she was very young, and she was raised by her father. I hope you can all help her make herself at home here. Would you like to say anything, Sugita-san?"

And suddenly, Ranma was on.

Despite the nervousness she felt, she put on a bright and perky smile. It was a lesson which had been hammered into her countless times over the years: Never show fear. Never show pain. No matter what she actually felt, always outwardly exhibit a confidence strong enough to be weaponized. Any exposed weakness could and would be exploited.

"Hello. I'm Ranko Sugita. I like cooking, and cleaning, and clothes. Teeheehee."

The class stared at her in silence.

Ranma inwardly crowed. It had been perfect.

Tanezaki cleared her throat and said, "Thank you very much, Sugita-san. Over here is Ami Waki-san." The girl who had announced their entrance raised her hand in response. "She is the class representative. You can ask her for any assistance you may need.

"Yoshino Sumazu-san..." A frail-appearing girl with thick eyelashes raised her hand. Her black hair was tied into two long braids which draped from both sides of her head. "... is Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur. I'm sure she would be happy to assist you as well.

"Now there is a free seat near Nao Hanamori-san." A girl with glasses and a ponytail raised her hand at Tanezaki's prompting. "Please take your seat there."

Ranma walked between the desks to the designated spot. The eyes of the class followed her as she went. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of interest in her chest, and their stares continued as she sat down. They only came to an end when Tanezaki began her lessons, which forced everybody to direct their attention to the front of the room.

The morning classes were fine, if a bit confusing at times. Ranma had spent the majority of the past decade on the road walking, hiking, training, practicing, and otherwise being physically active. Discussions about how the body distributed oxygen to various organs and about the esoteric rules of comma usage in English simply hadn't been part of her daily life. While she tried to pay attention, it was like reading a mystery book by beginning in the middle of chapter eight. She struggled to understand what was going on, in regard to what the teacher was teaching.

In contrast, it was easy to understand what was going on with the students. It was the same as all of the schools Ranma had transfered into in the past, if possibly more voluminous than typical. Whenever the teacher turned her back, which was a not uncommon occurrence, one or another of them would send a curious glance towards Ranma. Ranma would meet them with a glance of her own, which would result in the girl hastily turning back to face the front of the room.

The signal for lunch was a blessed relief. Ranma's stomach had made its emptying status progressively known as the hours progressed, and she was eager to resolve that situation. She tried to get up out of her chair to do so, but before she could, she found a girl with short black hair standing in front of her desk. The girl said, "Gokigenyou, Ranko-san. What brought you to Lillian?"

A flash caught Ranma's attention, and she turned to her right to see its source. There was a girl with long bangs and glasses near the door pointing a camera towards her.

Her appearance was partially obscured by a second girl, who approached the side of Ranma's desk. She had long brown hair in a ponytail down the back of her head. She leaned in towards Ranma and asked, "How was it growing up without your mother?"

A third girl appeared on the other side of her desk. She had two long black braids similar to Yoshino's. She also leaned in and asked "What's your blood type?"

There was a flash as another picture was taken.

"Which school did you come from?"

"What type of food do you like?"

Ranma was surrounded, and it looked like more and more girls were approaching.

"Who's your favorite actor?"

"Which clubs are you interested in joining?"

The sound of a girl's cough floated through the air. The chatter surrounding Ranma's desk fell silent, and the cluster of girls around her turned and parted such that everybody could see the source of the interruption. It was Yoshino. Despite her demure appearance and the quietness of her cough, she had somehow managed to command the attention of the entire room.

"Remember, we're supposed be welcoming Ranko-san. I'm sure she would appreciate a more modest introduction to the class," Yoshino said. She directed a smile at the group.

"O..of course," one of the girls said. The girls surrounding Ranma's desk scattered away like baby spiders.

The casual deference to the frail-appearing Yoshino was astounding. Ranma wondered where it had come from. She was more used to everybody obeying the school boss, the strongest and toughest fighter who could beat up any challengers to his authority. This was similar to that, only completely different. The girls didn't seem to fear Yoshino as such, and Ranma was willing to bet that Yoshino couldn't run 100 meters without fainting, let alone beat somebody in a fight. It made her curious and intrigued by the interplay she had just witnessed. Was it possible that it was related to the martial arts techniques Genma had promised at the end of this special training?

"I hope you can forgive us. It's very exciting to have a new transfer student entering Lillian at any time, let alone so far into the school year," Yoshino said. "Please make yourself at home. If anybody continues to bother you, feel free to let me know. Gokigenyou."

"Okay," Ranma said. She wasn't quite sure what had just happened, but she did appreciate the chance to get up and stretch her legs.

Her stomach nagged at her as she did so.

Tanezaki had shown her the cafeteria, but she had shown Ranma a lot of places in the morning. Most likely Ranma could find it again, but she was worried that she might make a wrong turn on the way there. Past experience had proven to her how quickly things sold out in the fighting arena that was the school cafeteria, and she couldn't risk any delay. Any lost time would mean everything would be sold out before she arrived.

That was an easy problem to solve, though. The teacher had suggested asking either Yoshino or Ami for help if she needed it.

"Hey, Yoshino-san."

Several girls turned to look between Ranma and Yoshino. There was far more interest than Ranma would have considered warranted for such an ordinary action.

Yoshino didn't seem to take notice, though. She turned around to again face Ranma and asked, "Yes?"

"Can you remind me where the cafeteria is?" Ranma asked.

"I would be happy to. It's right this way."

Yoshino led Ranma out the door, moving with the grace that seemed to suffuse everything in Lillian. The hallways had several girls walking around, most of them moving in the same direction in which Yoshino was bringing Ranma.

Ranma mentally urged Yoshino to move faster. There was still plenty of room to navigate between and through the crowd. However, Ranma didn't take any overt action to prompt her, as it seemed like everybody was walking in a similar sedate pace, and she wasn't supposed to stand out.

She instead took the opportunity to ask the question which had been raised during Tanezaki's morning introductions. "What was that Rosa Fotada Bouton Soweru thing the teacher was saying about you earlier?" Ranma was familiar with what a class representative was, but had never heard of a "Rosa" position in any previous school.

"You mean the title 'Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur?'" Yoshino asked.

"Yeah, that. What's that?" Ranma asked.

"It means exactly what it sounds like. I'm the petite soeur of Rosa Foetida en bouton," Yoshino said. She led them down the stairs that Ranma had climbed up with Tanezaki in the morning.

"Okay, but what does that mean?" Ranma asked.

Yoshino stopped at the bottom of the stairs and turned to look at Ranma. She asked, "Do you know about the Yamayurikai and the soeur system in Lillian?"

Ranma was taken aback at Yoshino's sudden focus of attention. She persevered, though, and said, "Uhh... not really."

"I see," Yoshino said. She turned forward again and resumed walking. "Where to start? To begin with, the student council in Lillian is called the Yamayurikai. It has three officers. They're elected by the student body each year."

"Elected? That's kind of strange, isn't it?" Ranma asked. Most of the schools she had attended in the past had had some kind of competition or tournament to determine the student council.

"Is it?" Yoshino asked. She briefly glanced over to Ranma then directed her gaze forward once again. "How else would a student council be selected?"

"Lots of ways: tennis match, gambling contest, cooking competition, fighting tournament, fishing test. That sort of thing," Ranma said. She had no shortage of examples from her past. It really depended on what the school specialized in.

In that light, maybe an election wasn't strange at all. What was an election, if not a tournament? That meant that the martial arts Lillian specialized in had to be politics, popularity, or something else in that vein.

It all made sense. Genma must have targeted Lillian to try to shore up what he saw as a deficiency in Ranma's skill set. Interaction with other people had been relatively rare throughout her training trip, and it would be beneficial to have the chance to learn some new skills from a school of specialists.

Ranma made a mental note to keep an eye out for any examples she could learn from.

"Really?" Yoshino asked. She directed another gaze at Ranma, this one questioning, before turning her eyes forward again. "I had always assumed that most schools were like us. Regardless, the way we do it here in Lillian is by having an election each year. The top three candidates are selected to be the three officers of the Yamayurikai. We have Rosa Chinensis, the red rose; Rosa Gigantea, the white rose; and Rosa Foetida, the yellow rose. Combined, the three of them are referred to as 'The Three Roses.'"

"Okay," Ranma said with a nod. It was somewhat unusual to have three leaders rather than a single one, but that wasn't unheard of. A school of martial arts could have any number of masters. It also wouldn't have surprised Ranma if, behind the three titles and positions, really only one of them was the grandmaster in charge of everything. Or maybe there was another person above all three of them who was really the grandmaster. That would make sense, seeing how "Yamayurikai" sounded like a "Mountain Lily Council," but the three named masters all had roses for titles rather than lilies.

"The other thing you need to know about Lillian is that we use the soeur system here. An upperclassman will partner with a lowerclassman. This relationship is formalized when the upperclassman gives the lowerclassman her rosary." Yoshino pulled out a necklace she was wearing around her neck from where it was semi-hidden under her dress. It had dark green stones all along the cord and a cross for a pendant. "The upperclassman is the 'grande soeur,' which translates to 'big sister,' and will mentor and support for the lowerclassman. The lowerclassman is the 'petite soeur,' which translates to 'little sister,' and will assist the upperclassman. It's a very sacred bond.

"And that is probably as good a place as any to stop for now, because this is the cafeteria here," Yoshino said as she led Ranma through a doorway. "I can explain the rest to you later."

Inside was a large room which, if it was a cafeteria, was one unlike any Ranma had ever seen before. She had been to enough schools to know how things should have been. It should have been obvious that it was a cafeteria even before the door was opened, due to a loud clamoring coming from within. There should have been pandemonium as a large crowd jostled for food. Students should have been practically, and sometimes literally, fighting for the last piece of bread before they sold out.

Instead it was a scene of sedate serenity. Not a single shout could be heard. Along the side of the room were four small storefronts, each with a sign on high labeling what it sold. It was hard to tell for sure through the windows and doors behind the counters, but they all appeared to be sharing a single communal kitchen.

In the middle of the room was a considerable number of large rectangular tables, around which numerous of girls sat, ate, and talked. The moderate buzz generated by dozens of concurrent conversations filled the air, but it was nothing like the raucous experiences she had always encountered in the cafeterias of her past schools.

"You can buy a meal ticket at the machine over there," Yoshino said. She gestured to the ticket dispenser near the corner of the room. "You then bring it to whichever counter you'd like to order from."

Ranma walked over to take a closer look, with Yoshino following right behind her. What she saw almost made her cry. The tickets were far more than she could afford. She looked down at the three coins she had, just to double check that she hadn't misremembered their denominations. She hadn't.

She could feel her stomach give a plaintive growl in protest.

Ranma turned around to face Yoshino and asked, "Do you have any snack vending machines around here?"

Yoshino blinked in response to Ranma's question. She recovered quickly, though, and said, "Yes, we do have some. They're over this way." She led Ranma back out of the cafeteria. As she walked, she asked, "In that case, would you like me to finish the rest of the explanation of why I have the title 'Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur?'"

"You mean there's more?" Ranma asked. She already felt overloaded from what Yoshino had already explained.

"Yes, but not that much more," Yoshino said.

"Sure," Ranma said. Learning more about the student council and how they operated was always a good thing to do in a school. Besides, her classmates had given her some odd looks when she had called out to Yoshino earlier, which made her wonder if there was some other custom she was violating and thereby drawing inappropriate attention to herself.

She just hoped that Yoshino was telling the truth and that she was almost done.

Yoshino nodded. She said, "That title is a combination of the Yamayurikai and the soeur system. As I said earlier, the three Rosa positions are officially elected each year. However, in practice, the tradition is for the petite soeur of each of The Three Roses to be elected to the position that her grande soeur held. They know how the Yamayurikai works, and the students already know them and hold them in high regard.

"Therefore, the petite soeurs of The Three Roses are called 'en bouton,' which translates to 'in budding.' That means that Rosa Foetida's petite soeur is referred to as 'Rosa Foetida en bouton.' That's Rei Hasekura. In turn, her petite soeur, that's me, is referred to as 'Rosa Foetida en bouton petite soeur.' That means that, unless something particularly unusual happens, Rei-sama will be Rosa Foetida next year. Following that, I will be Rosa Foetida in my third year."

"That all sounds way too complicated," Ranma said, shaking her head. She wondered why it couldn't be something nice and simple, like schools of martial arts. There were grandmasters, masters, students, and nobodies. Everybody had an easy to understand title and role.

"I admit that it can sound confusing at the start. However, once you see it in practice, it's pretty straightforward. Basically the Yamayurikai comprises the three rose families. Each family has one Rosa in the third-year, and the petite soeurs who are connected to her," Yoshino said. She drew to a stop. "And here are the snack vending machines."

Ranma's look inside the machines left her with mixed feelings. On the upside, they were filled with breads, chips, candies, and large amounts of calories. There was practically a cornucopia of options. It was enough to cause her mouth to water in anticipation. On the downside, the prices were also high. At least they were cheaper than the cafeteria.

She looked at the three coins she held in her hand and then scanned through the rows in front of her. The cheapest and most calorie-rich thing she could find were the instant noodles. She began the transformation process, turning the former into the later.

"Three?" Yoshino asked as Ranma pushed the button a third time.

Ranma shrugged back and picked up her last purchase. She would have gotten more if she could have, but that was all the money she had with her. She went ahead and opened the first cup.

"I see. Well, you can find some hot..."

Yoshino's statement was interrupted as Ranma took a big bite out of the first block of noodles. The crunchy texture and the salty seasoning tickled her mouth and filled the growing void she felt in her stomach. She tried her best to catch the stray falling noodles in the cup as she ate. She was loathed to waste anything.

It wasn't the best thing she had ever eaten, but it was far better than many of the things she had been forced to consume while hiking through the forest, where sauteed squirrel was considered the height of fine dining, and it was rare to be lucky enough to catch one rather than the less palatable options.

In a few seconds, Ranma had finished her first cup. She was in the process of opening the second one when she noticed Yoshino watching her with wide eyes.

"What is it?" Ranma asked.

Yoshino blinked and said, "It's nothing. I've just not seen anybody eat with quite so much alacrity before. May I suggest having a seat somewhere to avoid causing too much of a mess?"

"Oh. Sure," Ranma said. She looked around and saw a nearby bench.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to go. I must to eat my lunch as well, and I'm not quite as celeritous as you are. Gokigenyou," Yoshino said. She gave a nod of her head.

"Thanks," Ranma said as Yoshino walked away.

Ranma took a seat on the nearby bench. She then finished opening her second cup of instant noodles and ate it just as fast as the first. The third followed a minute later. While she was still somewhat hungry, she definitely felt better than she had at the start of the lunch break.

She made her way back to the classroom, checking the sign at the top of the door before walking in. Inside, approximately half of the girls were present and eating at their desks. Yoshino was one of them.

Ranma took her seat and relaxed for a few minutes before the classes resumed.

Afternoon classes proceeded very much like the morning ones had, up until everybody stood up and left the room. It was at that point that, much like in the morning when Tanezaki had mentioned that Ranma would need to give an introduction, the full implications of the classes Ranma was taking struck her.

They were going to PE class.

The abrupt realization brought with it a stab of worry, although Ranma made sure she gave no outward sign of it.

PE class meant that she would need to change clothes along with the others in the changing room. That was an intimidating prospect. It wasn't so much the fact that girls would be changing around her; the past few weeks as a part-time girl had eliminated most of the exotic mystique of the female body. The bigger issue was that she would need to blend in with all the others. The curse may have been an almost perfect disguise for her physical state, but it didn't help nearly as much with her behaviors. She was left with the challenge of trying to imitate how girls acted in a changing room, and she had absolutely no idea how they actually did act in a changing room.

With no other options, Ranma had to fall back on her standard answer to everything: improvise.

She slowly walked into the changing room, making sure she was neither the first nor the last person to enter. As she did so, she surreptitiously kept an eye on what the other girls were doing. Most of them walked towards what appeared to be a random locker, so Ranma did the same, picking one towards the middle of the row of them. As she maneuvered around the room, she subtly edged away from the showers and all the other sources of hot water she could see.

Once at the locker, Ranma cast another hopefully unnoticed glance around the room. Most of the girls had turned to face either a locker or a wall before taking off their clothes. They were determinedly focused on themselves as they tried to change as quickly as possible, although she did notice several of them examining her just as surreptitiously as she was examining them.

Ranma tried to mimic them. She turned to face a locker, pulled off her sailor uniform, and pulled on her gym uniform as fast as she could. As she changed, she noticed out of the corner of her eyes that the glances in her direction became both more numerous and more overt. There seemed to be a particular interest in her chest or arms for some reason, although her legs drew some attention as well. Nobody outright confronted her, though, so she considered the exercise a success.

She was still reflecting on the need to not stand out as she, along with the others in the class, walked into the gym. That's when the next realization hit her, more depressing than worrisome in this case. She would need to hold herself back to match everybody else. It transformed the idea of PE class from a welcome change in activity to a particularly egregious exercise in tedium.

The class was beginning a segment on volleyball, and the teacher had them split up into pairs. Ami approached Ranma, and the two of them found an open section of the gym. They then spent the period throwing a ball back and forth, both trying to bump it up in return. Having learned Martial Arts Beach Volleyball years earlier, it was all too familiar to Ranma. She could have literally done it blindfolded. Still, she needed to fit in with the others, so she tried to calibrate her own abilities to match their lack of skill. It meant that she and Ami spent more time chasing down stray balls from mis-returned bumps than actually practicing.

Ranma was finding it hard to even pretend to be interested in what she was doing. In the morning classes, she hadn't actually know what was being taught, so even if she was confused by the lack of context, she could still try to learn something new. In contrast, the volleyball practice was as if she had been asked to go back and learn how to add two numbers together all over again. Tedious and boring was an understatement. She couldn't even properly ignore everything going on around her and daydream, considering how she had to constantly interact with Ami while concurrently overriding her reflexes in order to mask her abilities.

After what felt like too long, the teacher called class to an end. Ranma returned to the changing room with the others. It was with some relief that she noticed that none of the girls tried to take a shower. If that had been part of the regular ritual everybody did, she wasn't sure what she would have done.

The changing of clothes back to the regular Lillian sailor uniform was very much like changing into the gym uniform had been, only in reverse and more extreme. Pretty much everybody in the class had taken at least a fleeting glance in her direction. That was definitely a concern, and she stood on guard, ready to defend herself from a potential attack.

That guard made the already unfamiliar task of putting on the sailor dress that much more complicated. She managed to do it more smoothly than she had in the morning, but only just. It still took her two attempts before she was able to put the uniform on without getting tangled up in the long collar.

After they had all changed, everybody returned back to the First-year Chrysanthemum Group classroom for the remainder of the afternoon classes, which concluded without note.

The moment classes ended, Ranma practically jumped to her feet. She was not going to be boxed in again by numerous girls asking questions, as had happened at lunch. She said a quick, "Bye," and headed for the exit.

"Ranko-san."

Ranma hadn't even realize that she was the person being called out to until she had already turned the corner. By that point she figured it was too much of a bother to return, and she just kept going. If it was important, they would call out to her again.

They didn't.

Strangely, she seemed to be the only person leaving Lillian. There were several groups walking through the hallways, but by the time she got to the shoe changing area, she was alone. That solitary existence continued as she walked out the doors and into the bright afternoon sunlight. As best she could tell, she was the only person on the campus grounds at all. She pondered that oddity as she made her way past the rows of trees, bushes, and hedges to the front gate of the school. However, she had failed to draw any real conclusions before reaching the edge of the campus, so she filed the phenomenon away for future consideration as she began walking along the streets of Tokyo.

The trip back to camp was slower than the morning sprint had been. Ranma was quite aware that there was a good chance that Genma would ambush her the moment she arrived. It wasn't every day, but it happened often enough and erratically enough that she always had to remain on guard for the possibility. She saved her energy for that not-really surprise attack.

When she reached the temple, Ranma slowed down and took a more careful look around, trying to see if there were any witnesses which might expose the campsite. When none appeared present, she quickly hopped over the bushes and into the small clearing she had set up the day before.

Inside, she saw Genma. He immediately flung a bundle at her, which she deftly dodged.

"Put that on," Genma said.

Ranma looked down where the bundle had landed. It was a keikogi.

Genma said, "We can't have you messing up that costume. Take it off and change into some real clothes." He threw a bottle at Ranma. "This, too. You'd better appreciate how much trouble it was to get that."

Ranma's uniform and undergarments were far easier to remove than they had been to put on. This was countered by the fact that Ranma had to carefully store the dress such that it wouldn't wrinkle, stain, or otherwise become blemished. She then threw on the keikogi. The finishing touch was the hot water, which triggered Ranma's transformation.

He emerged from the tent ready for a fight. Genma did not disappoint him, launching a nominally surprise attack, irrespective of the danger of exposing their presence. Ranma blocked it with his arms and sent a kick back in return, which in turn was blocked as well. The exchange was swift and quiet, ending in a draw. Once that had been determined, a brief armistice was established as they both sneaked out to a more safe neutral ground. They jogged several streets over, towards the river they had fought beside the night before.

Nearby there was a large green area, presumably a park of some kind. It had enough trees and open spaces to make it the perfect terrain within which to fight. There, the onslaught began in earnest.

They fought throughout the afternoon and evening. The only pause was when they broke for dinner. They both walked into a small convenience store to get it. Ranma distracted the shopkeeper while Genma slipped some things into his keikogi. They then walked out again and shared the rice balls and plastic-wrapped breads that Genma had taken. In this case, "shared" was defined as Genma trying to eat it all while Ranma tried to take whatever he could. The situation naturally favored Genma, but Ranma was able to steal a enough things through Genma's guard that he was in no danger of starving.

As they ate, Genma asked, "How was your attempt at infiltrating the school, boy?"

Ranma thought back on how the day had gone. He was concerned at the amount of attention he had received before and after gym class, but nobody had raised an alarm, so it must have been nothing. Indeed, the only questions he had been subjected to were the generic ones at lunchtime, and even those had been deflected with Yoshino's help. A touch of pride tinged his voice as he said, "It went great. Nobody suspects a thing."

Genma nodded. He said, "Good. Very good. In that case, maybe it would be safe to tell you the next step. Time is short here, after all."

"Yeah," Ranma said.

As plain as the day had been, it had done nothing to diminish his enthusiasm in the techniques Genma had promised to teach him. He had seen enough of Lillian to see the real potential of the martial arts they specialized in, whatever that turned out to be. There was the casual and inexplicable demonstration of power that Yoshino had shown at lunch, and there was the social and political aspects of Lillian which the Yamayurikai elections represented. Whatever this Umisenken was, it was very different than anything Ranma had learned in the past, and as such, it was particularly intriguing.

"Okay. Then step two of the training."

Ranma perked his ears up and paid close attention.

"You need to make friends with a rich girl, preferably Ogasawara, Kanina, or Torii," Genma said. As he spoke, he nodded his head again, slowly and solemnly this time.

"What?" Ranma asked. He didn't even bother trying to prevent it from coming out as a shout.

"I said, 'you need to make friends with a rich girl.' Ogasawara, Kanina, or Torii would be best, but really, any girl would be fine. Just make sure she's rich. That shouldn't be too hard in a place like Lillian," Genma said. He cast an evaluating eye at Ranma as if to judge the effect of his words.

"Are you crazy? What does that have to do with martial arts?" Ranma asked. He had undergone exotic training in the past, but he could make no sense of what Genma had just told him to do. Ironically, that more encouraged him than dissuaded him. The inscrutability of the training so far lined up exactly with the bombastic promises of power Genma had made the day before.

"Don't question me, boy. Don't forget who is the master here. If you're going to learn these techniques, you'll need to follow my training exactly," Genma said. He tried to cuff Ranma on the head, but Ranma had maintained his guard throughout the break and easily blocked the strike. It proved to be a feint, though, as Genma used the distraction to reclaim one of the rice balls which Ranma had stolen earlier.

Ranma put any thoughts about Ogasawara, Kanina, Torii, and rich girls out of mind. Whatever the intentions of Genma's training were, they could wait until later when there were less pressing issues to contend with. He shouted, "Hey! Give that back!" and launched a counterattack on Genma's remaining stash of food.

The border raids came to an end once the final morsels of dinner had been finished on both sides. They were instead replaced by a series of escalating skirmishes, which quickly erupted into a full-scale battle across the streets, riverbank, and park. It lasted into the late evening before a hesitant armistice was reestablished.

It was once again near midnight when Ranma returned back to camp. He collapsed onto his cold bedroll and quickly fell asleep.

Last Updated: November 19, 2021