As Kocho wandered the halls of the Metropolitan Hakuo Women's Academy, she heard talk from the various student body, today what was on their minds were a recent rumour,
"Is it true?" one young lady whispered to her friends a group of three,
"So Mimi-chan says," one of the three responded,
"Wow an actual boy?" the third asked, "but why here? aren't there other-"
"Quiet!" one of them hissed as Kocho walked by them, and yes the halls were rife with such gossip, until she walked by at least,
Kocho eventually reached her destination, outside the principal's office, quickly the girl smoothed the creases in her outfit, after she was done she knocked,
"Enter" instructed the voice from the other side,
Opening the door she saw two people at the desk, both were rather elderly, one was a balding man, looked late fifties in fishing waders he was sat in front of the desk,
The other sat behind the desk, she was pretty small, standing at only three feet tall, with waves of cascading white hair down her back, and entirely decked out in scratched western armour, except for her helm which laid on the desk, she was Principal Panzer,
"Is this the lady here?" The older gentleman asked,
Principal Panzer nodded, "Ja, that's her," she said, "Kocho, please sit,"
Kocho nodded and took a seat by the old man,
The Principal gestured to the man, "Kocho this is an old friend, one who's saved me and many other alumni more then we dare to count, Lorenzo-"
"Ah I'm no one special, just call me Zozo," the man said waving away any of the praise principal panzer had for him, "I'm retired, my Duchess is in younger, stronger hands now,"
Panzer rolled her eyes, "Like you couldn't still put a shot in the eye of a Yoma?" she scoffed, "ignore his humble attitude, this man is a bonafide Yoma slayer,"
Kocho's eyes widened, "Really?" she asked,
Zozo blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, "It's all quite the misunderstanding," he said, "I wasn't trying to fight Yoma, I was trying to steal treasure, and they were all very different from the Yoma you see on land, not many Ninja in the water you know? so few Yoma have been able to adapt to the tactics of a human,"
"Oh like that siren Yoma?" Principal Panzer asked, she turned to Kocho, "sniped that fucker out of the sky with one harpoon, it's in a museum now" she grinned, "harpoon and all,"
"My, I have read about that," Kocho stated, "they say that skeleton has done wonders to help us ninja better understand how to kill Yoma," Kocho bowed her head to the older gentleman, "Sir you are truly impressiv-,"
"Please, I only sold the body for money," he said, almost apologetically, "anyway, this visit isn't about some old fossil like me," he said,
Panzer sighed and leaned back into her chair, nearly sinking from Kocho's view,
"Right, your grandson," Panzer said, "you know this is an all girls academy right?" she asked, "no boys allowed is basically our biggest rule,"
"Oh you've no worry about my grandson," Zozo patted his right leg, and only then did Kocho realise he was missing the limb, "This is all he thinks about," he said shaking his head, "strangest part to him... to everyone is that it wasn't to a Yoma, it was to a shark,"
"Respect the sea," Panzer said,
"Always," Zozo added, "my first and most important lesson," he said, "the old seamen who I used to dive for would be shaking their heads at me in shame that I dared to forget that for even a moment, but to him, he can't understand the power of the ocean depths, he and I have been diving for years together and he's only seventeen, why I'm sure he feels better in the ocean then even I do," he looked to Panzer, "you know he's got skill, I didn't train him with a speargun, I trained him with The Duchess and he can take her apart, put her together while swimming away from some of the most dangerous things down in the depths, load a harpoon and fire it into the skulls of whatever's chasing him,"
Panzer frowned, "Course I know he's good," she said, "if he were even questioning his gender he'd have been invited, but he isn't," she said, "he's a boy, and again, all girls here,"
Zozo's expression turned grim, "Hebijo want him," he said, "being where I learned they of course want the next generation of me, and that boy has talent, but... they'll enable his darker tendencies, I don't want him going on the warpath for all sharks trying to find the one that took my leg, here he'll be grounded, and you owe me," he said putting his hands together, "Panzer... I've never asked a thing from you," he said making the principal grimace, "I need you to take that boy in, the path he's on will destroy him if he's left as he is, and if Hebijo stick their poison in him-" Lorenzo shut his eyes, "I've tried to be better then Hebijo's teachings, but I always had friends," he looked up, "like you Panzie,"
Principal Panzer blushed and raised her hands, "Okay, okay, we'll take in your boy," she said chuckling, "not like I was ever really gonna say no," she stated with a nearly feral grin, "I need to stick it to that snake school anyway," the two shared a sad expression, one filled with loss,
"Kocho" Panzer said after a minute, "this boy will need a guide and being the leader of the public morals committee-,"
Kocho nodded, "Of course, I will ensure this boy will not get into any trouble," she said, "but-" she cast a glance to Zozo, "what if he does something... highly inappropriate?"
"Well he must be punished for anything inappropriate," Panzer stated,
Lorenzo shook his head, "I doubt it would come to that, the boy has almost no interest in girls," he sighed,
Kocho's phone buzzed, "Pardon me," she said, turning away from the two and taking her phone out of her pocket and answering it, "hello,"
"Greetings Kocho-san," Chihaya started,
Kocho could hear someone shouting behind her, "GET OVER HERE SHARK! WE FIGHT LIKE MEN!"
Kocho recoiled away from the phone due to the loudness, "Oi Kanzaki quit screaming! Kumapooh can't hear my orders!" Ranmaru barked,
Kocho took a breath, "Sorry we're a little lively over here," Chihaya said, "we've been called down to the beach since people have reported a strange person lurking about with what we believe to be a gun, unfortunately we can't find him, but there's a shark in the water, looks like it might be prowling for a snack,"
"I'll be there soon," she said, "keep everyone out of the water," she said before ending the call, she turned to look at the two adults, "this ''duchess'', would it happen to resemble a gun?"
"She's a heavily modified Greener," Zozo said, "I could see people mistaking her for a gun from far away,"
"That explains the person with the gun then," she said before she left the room via the window, using her whip to grapple onto a gargoyle and using it to swing herself toward a streetlamp, using them to quickly arrive at the beach, while also avoiding detection, sure some people likely felt a rushing breeze by them but non could've seen her swinging by, as she landed she found her team staring at the water, a lone shark fin could be seen swimming back and forth,
Chihaya turned to her, "Ah, Kocho-san" she said with a polite bow, "As you can see we're doing our best to chase the creature away-"
"Oi c'mere!" Kanzaki called swinging a large twin handed heavy blade sending a wave towards the beast, but one that returned to normal before contact with the creature,
"Kan shush!" Ranmaru ordered as she was attempting to put together some contraption,
"Until the shark comes closer we can't do much, Zan-kun has been trying to slash it from where she is, and Ran-chan is hoping she can make something to scare it away," Chihaya stated,
"And the mystery person?"
"Can't find him," Chihaya said, "I'd assume he's been chewed up but we've not seen a trace of red in the water,"
"There's about to be" Kanzaki stated as she swung her blade again, making another blade of water that sailed toward the shark but disappearing before it could connect,
"Maybe if you gave it a minute that creature would forget your range?" Ranmaru asked snidely,
"Can't chance it rookie, longer that thing's here, longer we have the possibility of being seen," Kanzaki stated back,
"And you?" Kocho asked, Chihaya,
"Oh... well I figured I could Gum up it's gills and force it to flee," She said, "but well... I didn't want to hurt the poor thing,"
"Of course," Kocho said, she pulled off her jacket and handed it to Chihaya, she walked forward past her two teammates and walked into the water snapping her whip as she drew closer to the sea creature,
She took a stance and flipped her whip out swatting the shark on the nose as she walked forward, her whip snapping into the air, the shark turned and seemingly started to swim away, Kocho continued to chase it away even when she had to swim,
And looking underwater she realised that the shark a hammer head had turned and was coming toward her,
She watched as a Harpoon tore through the shark's body and stopped it from swimming toward her,
Kocho found a sturdy looking rope leading from the shark to a heavily armoured deep sea diver who pulled the creature away from her, she narrowed her eyes as diver, who judging by the large harpoon cannon must've been the one she was asked to watch over,
As the creature was pulled further away from her she watched as the shark was pulled into a twin harpoon shot, and slowly the shark turned upside down and died,
The diver swam over to it, ripping the two recently fired harpoons, using a winch on his harpoon cannon to pull the shark towards the beach, He seemed to lock eyes with Kocho for a second, who quickly surfaced,
She got back on land where her team waited for the mystery person who dragged the sea beastie onto the beach, they watched as he pulled his harpoon out and slid it back into his weapon which he apparently could hold one handed,
As he dropped off the shark he turned to them, he reached up and opened his little face hatch, "Hi," he said giving what they assumed was a bright smile, "I'm-"
Quickly Kocho snapped her fingers, Kanzaki put the boy on her shoulder and then they jumped away before they could be seen,
After being carried from roof to roof and then dropped onto the ground roughly as the four ladies watched the beach,
"Oof, well seems you're all pretty skilled eh?" the boy said flipping onto his feet and pulling out a scroll, as Kocho turned around to see him his diver suit was sealed away, and finally allowing her to see a shirtless and heavily scarred teen with wild hair and diving shorts, next sealed away was his weapon, then the scroll was shoved down his shorts,
"Ripper of a shark eh?" he asked with a grin, "It's amazin' how ya leapt in the water to deal with that hammer head," the lad walked over to Kocho and slapped her on the shoulder, "real guts a steel ya got there eh Sheila?" he laughed,
"I take it you're Lorenzo's grandson?" Kocho asked,
"Oh so you're Kocho," he said pulling her into a hug, "lovely to meet you, I'm Rip," he looked behind her, "my grandad told me all about you and the Hakuo five," he said realising that even counting Kocho there weren't five girls, "hey how come there's only four of you? where's number five?"
Kocho crossed her arms, "Ah, well she's behind you,"
The teen turned but there was nothing behind him but his own shadow, and he turned back to the others with a smile on his face, "Oh haha," he rolled his eyes, "Ninja and shadows,"
Suddenly a rag was held over his mouth and quickly he was put to sleep,
Kocho smiled as Kisaragi caught the teen and tossed him to her, "Mission accomplished," she said before leaping off the roof and vanishing,
Kocho rolled her eyes lifting the teen onto her shoulder, "So dramatic," she said, "girls, let's go," she said before she ran after her and leapt off the roof,
OCTOPUS-A few minutes later-OCTOPUS
Rip woke up on a comfy sofa, "Mmm? what?" he asked leaning up off the seat he was laid onto, "was that needed?"
Kocho smiled, "Had to be sure you wouldn't kick about while I was swinging," she said, "so you're going to be enrolled at the school?"
Rip jumped up, "Yeah is there any thing I have to-"
Kocho held up a uniform for him, "Here," she said trying to hide her twitching smile, "you're uniform,"
"Cheers, thought I'd have to go and get it me'self," he said taking it,
Kocho put her hands behind her back, "I'm sure you'll want to go somewhere to cha-"
She watched as Rip started dressing first pulling the shirt on, next the blazer, then the arm band, and stopping at the pleated dress skirt,
The girls stifled laughs, "S-something wrong Rip?" Ranmaru asked,
Rip put on the skirt and almost had the stockings on too but Kocho frowned "Wait you're putting it on?"
"And in front of girls?" Chihaya asked,
"Well it's my uniform ain't it?" Rip asked with a grin, "hey there a place to mod weapons round here? I want to make sure The Dutchess is all tuned up fore lessons start,"
The girls were stunned, they were sure they'd done the prank right, but this boy had worn the outfit without so much as asking for a set of trousers,
"Uh w-wait!" Kanzaki cried, causing Rip to turn to her, "uh it's just... bathroom!" she said, her eyes lighting up, "You know there's no boys bathroom right? this is an all girls school yeah, so you'll have to share the bathroom with a bunch of girls,"
Rip shrugged, "Okay," he said "but seriously where's that parts room?" he asked before exiting the room,
"This is... going to not be as funny as we thought is it?" Kocho asked,