Ranma ½ Red, Violet and Black
Author notes: Welcome to chapter 5 in which Shampoo and Cologne investigate something, Ranma and Akane talk and Kodachi learns something new about herself. As always I hope you enjoy the read.
Chapter 5
It was a beautiful sunny Thursday afternoon in Tokyo and most of its inhabitants were enjoying the beautiful weather. Not all of them though. In the district of Nerima for example there were currently three young men in very bad mood walking out of the door of a hospital. They had a pretty rough night behind them, due the fact that their attempt to sexually assault a certain redhead had been foiled when they were unceremoniously beaten up by one angry Kodachi Kuno.
When the would-be rapists had awakened again from beating-induced unconsciousness they had dragged themselves to the nearest hospital in order to treat their hurting bodies, obviously just stating they got into a fight and omitting the reason why they got into a fight in the first place. All in all, they did get out relatively unscathed. One of them, a muscular boy with black hair, had his broken arm in a cast and the brown haired leader of the clique was still wincing with every step, curtesy of his still hurting groin which had gotten a few kicks during the night. In addition, all three of them had a minor concussion.
However, no lasting harm was inflicted upon them and so they had been released from the hospital after a few hours and were now walking towards their homes together. It wasn't very relaxing walk though thanks to the pain and so soon enough the three teenage boys started bickering. "That is all your fault. Drugging that girl was your brilliant idea, you idiot. I should have known that any idea you came up with would never work out." The muscular boy complained to the leader of the trio.
"Oh, shut up you clown. Drugging her worked perfectly fine. How was I supposed to foresee that some other crazy, violent chick would show up out of nowhere?"
"Still, it's thanks to your overinflated ego, which couldn't handle being rejected by that bitchy redhead, that we were in that dumb alley anyways." Interjected the third guy.
The leader angrily snarled: "Hey now, don't blame me alone for this. Because I remember you two forgetful fools agreeing eagerly when I proposed to teach that slut a lesson." The other two could only grumble, since he had a point there. As the trio was just taking a shortcut over a mostly unused parking place suddenly they heard a voice call out: "Please wait a second gentlemen." Turning around in surprise the three saw a very unusual sight before them. An apparently very old and very small woman with long white hair in a green garment was sitting perched atop of a gnarled wooden staff in the middle of the parking lot. Blinking in surprise the three thugs just gaped at her until the leader managed to ask: "Yes, what is it?"
Suddenly the small old women pulled out three photographs from her pockets, held them up and looked back and forth between them and the three teenagers intently for a few seconds before proclaiming: "Good, you are indeed just the people I've been searching for. Shampoo dear, would you be so kind."
Before any of the three guys could utter as much as a question suddenly another figure landed right in front of them seemingly out of nowhere. It was a young beautiful teenage girl with vibrant purple hair and similarly unusual red eyes. The newcomer smiled brightly and greeted: "Ni hao." Then without warning her fist shot forward and punched the leader of the trio squarely in the face. He screamed out in pain as his nose broke and a gush of blood sprayed onto the ground. Staggering backwards in pain he clutched his hurting face. His two pals had apparently learned from their previous mistakes because unlike the night before they immediately turned to flee. It just did them no good. Since a very furious Shampoo easily grabbed both of them by the backs of their shirts and effortlessly lifted them off ground. She followed up by violently smashing them back down to the ground where they then remained writhing in pain.
Stepping over the discarded thugs the young amazon then closed in on the leader whose eyes widened in terror. Before he could react Shampoo's right hand shot forwards and clutched his throat with an adamant grip. His own hands tried to desperately pry her hand open but her iron like grip was unrelenting. On the contrary the purple haired girl lifted the wannabe-rapist off the ground by his throat, which left his feet trashing above the ground while he was making desperate choking sounds. The amazon was still smiling at him in a rather pleasant way. Her eyes however were burning into his own with hatred and disgust.
Cologne, having put the photos away again, hopped closer to the two and casually started to talk to the boy again: "Now that I hopefully have your attention, I would like to ask a few questions if it is alright with you, youngster."
Shampoos victim just let out a strangled whine. Completely unfazed the amazon matriarch continued: "You and your pals tried to rape a red haired girl with a pigtail yesterday after you drugged her ice cream. At least that is what she told me and she hardly has any reason to lie about something like this. Is that correct?"
"Y… yes… it... is. Please let go." Managed the unlucky guy to choke out even though his air supply was seriously strained. Nodding sagely Cologne acknowledged his answer but Shampoo made no move to let him go whatsoever. The old woman then pulled out a small vial with clear fluid out of her pockets and showed it to the would-be rapist: "This was yours then I presume? I suggest you don't lie to me, or my dear great-granddaughter Shampoo here might make you regret that."
Fighting against the increasingly larger blotches of black that started to infringe his vision, the brown haired boy got out a strangled response: "Uh-hu… that's…what we used."
"Very well, then I would like to know if you have any more of these potions and where exactly you got them and you better do it fast because I'm not sure how long my great-granddaughter's patience with you is going to last."
Tears in his eyes and his face already turning unnaturally blue the guy in question managed to babble out in choked bursts: "We don't have any… anymore. Just the three. We… stole it. From… some… weird store run by… some old coot. Says he sells… magic stuff. Obviously he's… crazy. But he had those drugs. He said… they were for… temporarily subduing even the most… dangerous people. I thought… they could come in handy… but… he… wouldn't sell them. So we grabbed them… when he wasn't looking."
"Where is that store?" Cologne wanted to know.
The strangled answer was now intersected by desperate chokes for air very frequently: "Somewhere in Suginami… in Asagaya to be exact…in… a back… alley… I don't… know the exact address… I swear… That's all I know… Please…."
The amazon matriarch made a hand gesture and Shampoo dropped the choking boy on the ground. Desperately he sucked in air into his lungs and rubbed his hurting throat. "I guess that is a start. I'll have to find this store." Cologne mused: "Thank you for the information." With that she started to hop away on her stick. The guy on the ground let out a sigh of relief. His relief was short lived however as the elder amazon suddenly called back over her shoulder: "They are yours Shampoo. Just don't kill them. We might be able to get away with a lot because the police is afraid of us but we can't possibly get away with murder without some consequences."
"Alright Shampoo let them live, barely." The purple haired girl replied. Then she violently yanked the boy before her to his feet and tossed him atop his two writhing comrades.
Whimpering in fear all three of them stared up at the imposing amazon towering over them, cracking her knuckles.
"What do you still want. I told you everything we know." Cried the brown haired leader in terror."
Shooting them an angry glare Shampoo responded in a threatening voice: "You perverts tried to violate Shampoo's airen."
"What? What's an "Eiren"?" Asked another one of the teenagers confused. Mentally searching for the correct Japanese word for a few moments the violet haired girl elaborated: "Airen means beloved. Red headed girl you attacked yesterday is Shampoo's beloved." Her eyes burning with fury, that made the three wanna-be rapists cower even lower, she continued: "Nobody, tries to violate Shampoo's airen. Shampoo is going to punish you."
Paling even further despite that seeming impossible before the three boys begged for mercy: "Please no. Have mercy. We'll never do anything like that again. We swear."
The amazon just nodded cracking her knuckles again: "No you won't. Because if you try violating any girl ever again Shampoo going to find you, rip your arms off and beat you to death with them. For now though, Shampoo just going to hurt you a bit. Hmmm… maybe a lot."
"No please…" One of her victims once more begged.
Shampoo just smiled viciously and commented: "Time to put trash into trash can." The next five minutes a multitude of pained screams could be heard coming from the parking lot. Then a visibly cheerful Shampoo left the area alone. A few hours later two pedestrians found three badly beaten up young men stuffed into a dumpster. They were then transported to the very hospital they exited earlier that day with various broken ribs, noses and shins as well as whole bunch of other bruises.
Meanwhile at the Tendo residence Ranma was just waking up from after sleeping for most of the day. She really had been exhausted. Unwilling to face the world outside of the guest room again just now, the redhead lay awake in her bed staring at the ceiling. She used that time to once more reflect upon the latest events in her life. To say she was still less than pleased would be an understatement. The fact that she would have to spend quite some time of her life as a girl if no miracle happened was still gnawing at her psyche immensely.
On the other hand, the young martial artist's spirt was also quite a bit elevated due to the fact that her friends and family had reacted significantly to this mess with surprising kindness, or in Gemma's case with much less vitriol than expected. This was obviously not something that made Ranma's loss of her manhood any easier for her to stomach, but it did help her to not feel completely like crap.
Sighing the now full-time girl pondered, that it wasn't over just yet unfortunately. The Tendos and her father might have been kind of understanding, but she most likely still had to face Ukyo about the issue sometimes and her childhood friend might not be as forgiving. Reconnecting with her mother was also out of question for now. Unless she felt the urge to commit sepukku of course, which Ranma, now that she had considerably calmed down after her earlier panic, absolutely didn't. So far Kodachi was the only one who reacted very poorly to her being stuck as girl and even then merely running away while crying angrily had been rather subdued for the Kuno girl, who was prone to much more dangerous reactions most of the time. Not that Ranma was particularly upset about Kodachi reacting poorly. The pig tailed girl had never really considered the martial arts gymnast as anything but a dangerous nuisance with some mental problems. She had to admit though that the Kuno girl did show a very honorable side the night before, so maybe she wasn't all bad.
What had probably been most surprising to the redhead however had been how Shampoo of all people had basically been the first one to be utterly supportive. Ranma had honestly expected the amazon to get back to wanting to kill her. Instead she had been as nice as always and even defended Ranma from Genma's ranting. While Ranma had stopped disliking the amazon a while ago, she still had always considered the purple haired beauty to be a dangerous person, to whom she better kept a safe distance. Mostly due to the fact that she did try to kill the redhead at one point and then later used various magical and not so magical trickery in order to try making Ranma fall in love with her. As a result, the young Saotome had always been very guarded around her and had a certain level of distrust for the Chinese girl even though there were times where they interacted in a genuinely friendly way. This was also why the redhead never completely considered the amazon to be a real friend before.
However, earlier this day Shampoo did prove that she in fact genuinely cared about Ranma and this time the Saotome girl was inclined to actually believe it. In hindsight maybe she should have figured that out earlier, the red haired girl thought. Shampoo had mellowed out significantly since she first arrived in Nerima and had toned down both the violence against perceived rivals and the attempts to ensnare Ranma's heart with questionable, often magical means. In fact, she hadn't done any of that in a very long time. The last incident with some magical artifact had been that reversal jewel business and that had been wholly unintentional on Shampoos part. As all this went through the young Saotome's head she finally concluded that just maybe she had been kind of unfair to Shampoo for thinking so unfavorably of the amazon. Additionally, the violet haired girl could be incredibly cute at times, when she wasn't being an overly clingy, jealous girl. Wait, what was she thinking? Blushing a bit Ranma decided to think about something else. This wasn't really the time to think about how cute Shampoo could be.
Suddenly there was a light knock on the door followed by a hesitant voice, belonging to Akane: "Ranma? Are you awake?"
"Yes. I am. What is it Akane?" The pig tailed martial artist replied.
"Oh good." The Tendo girl said: "Dinner is ready. Kasumi wanted me to inform you."
Sighing while getting up Ranma stated: "Thanks Akane. I'll be up in a minute." As much as she didn't want to face the world again, she was really hungry and skipping another meal wouldn't help. So the red haired martial artist got up, put on some clothes and grumpily walked downstairs to the living room.
A short while later the entire household, minus Happosai who hadn't been around for almost a week now to the enjoyment of everyone else, was sitting at the table and eating dinner. It was a rather quiet dinner, mostly because nobody was really in a good mood and everyone was just silently eating their food.
Trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere Kasumi tried to engage in some small-talk: "So Akane, how was school today?"
"Okay, I guess." Came the court reply and silence once more fell over the table. The eldest Tendo gave up and the rest of the meal was eaten without any conversation. When everyone was finished Kasumi dutifully started to clean the dishes. Ranma was about to stand up and go back to the guest room, when Soun cleared his throat and then announced: "Akane, Ranma, if the two of you could stay please, we would like to talk to you." Genma just nodded gravely in agreement. The redhead sighed and sat back down next to Akane.
"What's the matter dad?" The youngest Tendo asked warily. Whenever her father and Ranma's father wanted to talk to both of them at the same time it usually wasn't something that either of the teens liked.
Genma started to answer her: "It concerns your engagement to Ranma…" As usual, whenever the arranged marriage came up, Akane was quickly getting angry.
She interrupted the bald martial artist: "What? You two are still insisting on that? Are you really that stupid? I'll admit that Ranma can be an okay guy from time to time and maybe, just maybe he makes a really good friend when he isn't being stupid. But you can't expect me to marry him when he's stuck as a girl. I don't want to wait a minimum of eight years just so I can fulfill some arranged marriage that you two cooked up. What if I meet someone else in the meantime? And no matter what Nabiki says I am not into other girls. Even if I was, I would probably not want to date a boxer short wearing tomboy with zero female modesty like her." During the last sentence she pointed at Ranma with her thumb.
The young Saotome, despite generally depressed mood, was still to prideful to let that comment slide and complained: "What? Hey, what's that supposed to mean? You'd be lucky to get someone as good-looking as me if you were into girls. Also who are you calling tomboy?"
Before Akane could argue back or worse send Ranma flying through the roof again Sound intervened: "Calm down you two. We actually wanted to tell you that we decided to annul your engagement, at least for the time being." Both teenagers blinked once and then stared at their parents in shock. Ranma was the first to recover: "What? Just like that? From how much you two have been harping about it since I arrived I figured you'd persist even now."
Genma sourly replied: "Well I wanted to, but Tendo doesn't want to put Akane through that."
"Also due to you being stuck as girl Ranma, we would probably run into serious legal roadblocks anyways." Soun added before suddenly starting to cry noisily. He lamented: "Now the schools will never be joined. What a tragedy."
"Geez, dad calm down." Akane said while rolling her eyes.
Genma used that time to interject: "That being said if Ranma should get cured from this prematurely then the engagement is of course back in effect." The Tendo patriarch just nodded to confirm this.
"Naturally." Ranma retorted sarcastically, having not expected anything else.
Akane, recapitulated: "Fine. So the engagement is off. Can we leave now?"
The fathers just nodded and then Genma barked at his daughter: "By the way boy, you got out of training today, but I expect you to train tomorrow. The heir of the Saotome school of anything goes martial arts isn't allowed to slack off."
"Yeah, yeah sure pops." Ranma replied while making a dismissive hand gesture. Then the two teens turned to walk upstairs side by side. When they passed the guest room they both stopped and Akane shot Ranma an apologetic look before saying: "I'm sorry Ranma."
Blinking in confusion the other girl asked: "What are you sorry for?"
The youngest Tendo fidgeted around nervously before answering: "Well, for this entire situation I guess." Blushing she looked down before continuing: "I never wanted to admit it. But I do like you, even if you are an insufferable jerk sometimes. I even am somewhat sad that you are stuck as a girl and that the engagement is called off. I know I'm being silly. We pretty much quarrel all the time. We would probably have made a horrible couple. Plus you probably don't like me very much since you insult me all the time."
The redhead sighed heavily and figured she might as well spit out the truth for once instead of saying something dismissive or rude. Sadly, she whispered: "You are not being stupid. I… Look I don't really like to admit things like that but… I… I… also c… care about you. A lot. Okay. I'm… just… really bad at showing that… I guess. It… kind of would be unmanly to do so, or that's what I thought at least. But look at me, I don't think that matters much anymore. Fact is I do like you too. When I'm insulting you I really don't mean it. You are a tomboy, I'm not going to say you aren't, but you aren't uncute or anything. I would have actually liked to marry you one day. Preferably not too soon if nothing else just to annoy my pops but still…"
Akane stared at the redhead, trying to hold back tears. How often had she wanted for Ranma to say all these things? And now that she did say them it was probably too late.
Still sounding rather sad Ranma sniffed and continued: "Well you made it clear you are not interested in girls, which I currently am no matter how much as I'd rather not be one, so I guess it won't work out between us. Not that I blame you. I sure would also be pretty grossed out if you were a guy instead off a girl. So I guess this is the part where I tell you that I hope you find someone else you can be happy with."
With her head still hanging down the pig tailed girl dejectedly turned around to disappear in her room. Suddenly Akane grabbed her hand and held her back. Turning around Ranma looked at her former fiancée in confusion. The Tendo girl's eyes were shimmering wetly with barely held back tears when she stated: "Look Ranma. I do still like you. We might not be able to make a good couple, but there is nothing that says we can't still be friends. Like I proposed to you when we first met. How about it?"
For the first time since she woke up a small smile spread across Ranma's face. She gratefully replied: "Sure, I'd like that very much, Akane."
As the sun started to set and night was slowly falling over Nerima, most of its inhabitants prepared to retire to their beds. Not so Kodachi Kuno. The young noblewoman was currently still very awake and way to occupied with her own, mostly negative, thoughts to consider sleeping. The balck haired girl was at the moment sitting on her bed in her room, her eyes red and puffy from crying most of the day. Her room also was a mess. Ripped posters and photographs of Ranma, still in male form, were strewn all over the place. She had previously angrily destroyed them in a short lived fit of rage at the unfairness of the universe.
"Just why do I have to meet a nice, handsome boy who piques my interest only to have him turn into a girl? This is just typical. I never have any luck." The Black Rose once more sighed. The timing of all this made her even more bitter. It was really pretty ironic that right after she had actually managed to make her beloved Ranma agree to go on a date with her, the boy turned into a girl somewhat permanently. And since Kodachi wasn't someone who reacted very well to things not going her way she had holed herself up in her room and wallowed in self-pity.
Aside from the occasional servant asking if she wanted anything nobody had disturbed her during this either. This was of course due to the fact that the young Kuno girl was deep down a rather lonely girl, who didn't have any notable friends. Of course that was mostly because most people were rather afraid of her, for not entirely unjustified reasons, as well as the fact that her family's considerable wealth made her seem rather unapproachable to begin with. As for her family, they generally did care for her and Kodachi for them, however their relationship was nonetheless rather strained. So as a consequence nobody had really been willing to comfort the young noblewoman, leaving her in her rather miserable state.
Sniffling once more the Black Rose lamented to herself: "Apparently the universe itself hates me. Why else would it mock me so cruelly?" Feeling a slight resurgence of general anger, aimed at no one in particular, again her gaze suddenly fell upon a picture of Ranma in his female form. It was a completely tame photo of the redhead smiling happily at the camera. It also had some holes in it from something sharp puncturing it. Kodachi had stolen this particular photo from her brother a week or so ago in order to use it as target practice. Tatewaki had countless of photographs of Ranma's female form, most of them much more revealing, so the Kuno heiress figured he wouldn't miss it. In hindsight she felt rather stupid for using a picture of her crush, albeit in female form, for that purpose.
Picking the picture up Kodachi mustered it for a few seconds before concluding: "Well, Ranma darling does look rather cute as a girl, I'll have to give him… her that. That exotic red hair does have a certain charm as well." Suddenly the black haired gymnast became aware of what she was saying and blushed heavily. "What am I even talking." She muttered under her breath: "It's not like that matters. My dearest Ranma is cursed to spend a sizeable amount of his lifetime as a girl and now my chances of ever becoming his/her girlfriend and future wife are over." Groaning in disappointment at that though she once more looked down at the photo of Ranma in her redheaded female body. Still, Ranma was cute like this, the Black Rose concluded.
Odd, why was she continuing to think that? That such a handsome and well-toned male specimen as Ranma was now permanently a much shorter red haired girl was quite a tragedy. Kodachi's subconscious mind answered that by having her remember the time when she fought a female Ranma, who was wearing nothing but a pink leoatard, that showed off the redheads perfectly toned physique. Conceding the young Kuno girl admitted to herself that maybe it wasn't that big a tragedy after all. Sure the male Ranma was a real hunk but Ranma as girl was really gorgeous as well. Those clear blue eyes, her exotic red hair, her cute face, that beautifully toned body and her pert little backsi….
Kodachi once more stopped her own thoughts from going down that direction further. Confused she asked herself: "Why do I keep thinking such weird things? Why would I even think about Ranma darling's girl-form like that?"
As if to answer her question all of a sudden another memory flooded her mind. A very recent one from the very early morning of the same day. The memory of how Ranma had casually undressed in front of the young noblewoman and stood there naked from the waist up. Her perfectly shaped and rather sizeable breasts with the pert pink nipples at their top at full display. Kodachi blushed profoundly at that memory and once more couldn't help herself from admitting internally how that view had been rather intriguing.
Okay, she finally concluded that maybe Ranma's body as a girl was just as appealing as her male one. The finally Kodachi understood while she was thinking such weird things. With an understanding: "Oh" her face lit up with realization.
With a baffled look she spoke to herself: "Huh… Apparently I am indeed attracted to Ranma darling's female body. Curious. And also kind of unexpected. I never figured I had such… tendencies before. But then again I never did think about it intently before."
Shortly the noblewoman though about what damage this realization about herself might cause on her social standing, but swiftly discounted them as miniscule. She was rich and powerful and could easily get away with all her usual eccentrics, most of them worse than being bisexual. So the latter would hardly pose any noteworthy problem. However, this new discovery the young Kuno girl had just made about herself did open up some new possibilities. For example, if she still was attracted to Ranma, and as she presumed Ranma was still attracted to girls as well, she might be able to seduce the redhead yet. True, the young Saotome couldn't be her husband for the time being, but maybe she still could be Kodachi's girlfriend?
Shooting up from her bed the Black Rose made her decision and loudly proclaimed to the empty room: "Very well, the universe itself might try to spite me, but I Kodachi Kuno, the Black Rose of St. Hebereke's school for girls will not give up that easily. I will make my Ranma darling mine, even if she is a girl now." Looking thoughtfully, she added: "Hmm, unless all those filthy peasant girls that want to snatch Ranma away from me share my preferences this might actually work out in my favor. Anyways time for me to stop wallowing in self-pity and instead get out there and get back to convincing my beloved that I am the right girl for him, … I mean her."
She followed up on that prideful declaration with her trademark, slightly insane laughter. However, right after that the black haired girl's eyes fell upon the clock on one of the walls. Seeing that it was in the middle of the night Kodachi's face fell and she quickly conceded: "Alright, perhaps It is better to get back out there tomorrow after school. I already skipped classes today and probably shouldn't repeat that tomorrow."
Further author notes (Beware of minor spoilers): Well, there goes chapter five. As usual thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoyed it. If not, I apologize for being a hack.
As promised in earlier author notes Kodachi reenters the battle for Ranma. Expect to see more of her next chapter.
I should probably also address the matter of pronouns for Ranma. I usually tend to use the gender pronoun that fits her/his current form for Ranma in narration. So basically, due to the plot of the story, the narration will almost always refer to Ranma as she/her/girl/daughter and so on. In universe characters might do that differently. Kasumi for example switches from he to she after Ranma is stuck, while Akane still uses he/him most of the time out of habit. Genma also still calls Ranma "boy" most of the time out of habit. Those aren't mistakes but it's deliberately written like that. Though I will probably make some mistakes along the way, since gender pronouns in Ranma fanfic can get chaotic and I'll probably slip up a few times.