Ranma of St. Bacchus, Chapter 44

By Chaos Orchid

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"Female things are contaminations!"

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(she), (her), etc. are to indicate that while Ranma physically feels she is in a female body, psychologically (she) doesn't feel convinced she is female. Unparenthesized, it means her gender dysphoria has slipped down on her list of current concerns.

'She', 'her' means Ran's more accepting about being a girl.

She, her means she has fully embraced being a girl.

He(?), his(?), him(?) means he is mostly comfortable in the male body, but is uncertain about gender identity

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Kunō, "Our first dates are also to be our first dates, together and apart? Then I have the great responsibility of ensuring our milestone lead to something epic, worthy to be celebrated on our anniversaries!"

Akane, "I'll celebrate you not challenging me everyday for a date!"

'Ran', "Me, too!" Really? The idea of being challenged appealed to 'her'. But maybe not the same guy everyday. That could get stale, right?

Confident, Kunō laid his bokken on his shoulder, "Of course. Our date will be so glorious it will be no challenge for me to win yet a second, third and more from the loser. The winner of the Best Girlfriend Match will wish she had lost!"

Mao, "Wah! I want to be the loser(!)"

Noa, "I already feel like a loser."

Yuna, "I won't say it."

Junko, "Right. We have to support our teammates's morale."

Nabiki, "Tell me what your "epically glorious" date is like, Kunō, and I'll make the arrangements"

Kunō, "You need not be involved any longer. Sasuke."

The runt ninja appeared as if out of nowhere. Or perhaps he had just been unnoticed. "Yes, Master! As a loyal manservant who strives to anticipate his master's wishes, I have the list of current events to which you have received invitations." And he felt over his purple ninja-gi, looking for it. "Now, where did I put it? I do not remember the last time you actually accepted one. – Did I add it to my other lists?" And he pulled out a pocket notebook. "Let's see…," he said, flipping the pages over, muttering, ("A forage porridge recipe…A reminder to oil the gears of the front gate…A summary of Mistress Kodachi's activities…Yamada Ran's)

"–Ah! You are invited to the Biannual Auction of Accursed Antiques, a symposium on poison antidotes…or is that anecdotes(?)...a banquet at La Belle France Cuisine de le Gourmands…"

'Ran' understood the word "banquet", "I'd get to eat!?"

Kunō, "La Belle France has a strict code of etiquette and attire, especially at a banqueting soiree. As one enrolled in St. Hebereke, I am assured that you have met the standards of my sister's elite academy, where only the high-born or most wealthy of the nouveau riche attend."

"Yeah. Heh, heh," 'she' half-laughed in 'her' guilt.

"Unfortunately, it is Akane who poses the difficulty. For all of her many capabilities, she lacks those refined in charm schools for the upper class."

('Ran', "Charm school?!" There was really a use for Endo-sensei's class? 'She' would be able to eat fancy meals? Banquets, smorgasbords!)

Akane, "Like I want to be that kind of charming!"

Sasuke, "There is a charity ball sponsored by the Society for Meiji Restoration."

"A group of Euro-excentrics," Nabiki commented. "Will the ball attendees be expected to dress as Westerners did in the latter-18th century?"

Junko, "Then it will be little more modern in fashion than what those who go to the La Belle France restaurant are encouraged to wear." The only reason to be surprised that she had been there was that she was currently wearing a long, bulky black sweatshirt over black (with colored 'streamers') tights.

Yuna, "I received an invitation and it said "Black tie"."

Mao, "My aunt said she spent a small fortune to be fashionable in her gown."

'Ran', "Gown?! I'm gonna hafta wear a gown!?"

Akane, "That leaves me out, thank goodness! I don't have a gown."

Nabiki, "Good! You can go on a different date with Kunō." She wanted her sister to go on a date with him, but not one that complicated her plans for her client, "Ran-sama".

Yuna, "Unacceptable."

Junko, "Right. Kodachi has to understand that the two girls vying to be her brother's girlfriend know each other personally."

Mao, "We're going to give Akane a gown!"

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After Kunō and his servant left, Nabiki tried using her skills to talk them out of the providing the gown. But seeing her sister scheme, made Akane determined to accept the offer. And that night's date.

Leaving the park, crossing the street, going through the wooded strip and to the other side of the parking lot, they had one more street to cross before the wall and gate of St. Hebereke. Along the way, Noa-kohai got to feel useful when Yuna took the bow and arrow from the golf club bag she carried and punctured a thermos from one of the girls hiding to ambush Ran and Junko used a spiked gym club to set off an exploding gym ball of another group. (Mao just parkoured and pushed a girl out of a tree.)

Akane, "This is how Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnasts challenge their rivals!?"

Nao, "Want sword? Bokutō? Katana? Uh, kodachi? Tontō? …Shinai?"

Akane, "How're you able to get all of them and those other things in that bag?"

Nao, "Not know."

Mao laughed, "Secret of Dark Magic!"

Nabiki, "I don't carry weapons because they attract attention to you. And not in a safe way."

Akane frowned, then, "I'll take the shinai!" And she drew out the split-bamboo kendō sword.

'Ran', "I'm fine."

Couch Junko, "Options. If you had a jō staff, you could knock wat…er, things more than a meter away."

'Ran', "If I don't carry an umbrella, I'm not gonna carry just a stick."

Nabiki raised an eyebrow. They were trying to say something they didn't want outsiders to know. Interesting?

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The gate guard told them the visitors would have to check out ninety minutes before curfew. It should be no problem as they would be leaving for the date well before then. They also had to promise not to take any of the weapons with them. They were school property.

Most of the Sunday visitors were gone and some of the girls had joined them or had been let out on a pass for some or another reason. Perhaps to go to a charity ball.

The girls that remained in view, viewed Akane and Nabiki unfavorably. Word had gotten back and spread about what had happened in the park. They also frowned at Ran. They still wanted to date her in the hope and scheme that he would take her place. Technically, this Tendō girl would be dating Ran before any of them – an outsider from rival school Fūrinkan! And she would also have the other boy that was just out of their grasps: the tall, dark, handsome, rich brother of Kodachi!

A group of girls started following the visitors, Ran and her dormmates and was developing into a horde, when Nabiki stopped and turned to face them. "Matsushida-sensei, nicknamed "the Professor of Psychological Warfare"?"

The girls cringed at the name, looked at each other, then dispersed to go their own ways.

Junko, "Katai told you(?)"

"Right. And she is apparently right that the girls know you, as schoolmates, are honor-bound not to rat on them. But they know I'm not honor-bound."

Akane reminded herself, "No comment. She is my sister."

The students called the ground floor "Mōru kai", the first "Kyōshitsu kai" and the second "Jihanki kai": "Mall Floor", "Classroom Floor" and "Vending Machine Floor".

'Ran's stomach growled.

Junko, "You stuffed yourself just a couple of hours ago!"

"B,but I've, uh, burned a lot of energy!"

Akane, "So did I!" And she felt a reason to be better than her opponent, "But I can use ki-energy from the Reservoir."

"So can I!" 'Ran' felt the dig. "I go to the Reservoir all the time." Then 'her' shoulders slumped, "I go too much. Something's wrong with my control."

Akane felt a reason to be senpai, "Would you like me to help you? I grew up in a dōjō."

"Heh! I grew up…." 'Ran's identity slipped away again. But (she) now understood (she) had grown up with more than just dōjō training.

Not that it would do 'her' any good now. Whatever control it gave her of 'her' ki-power, it was trained-in below (her) subconscious. 'She' reset her shoulders, "After our classes, tomorrow."

"Nabiki can tell you the best way to get to the Tendō dōjō."

Nabiki, "Let's see if you're still talking to each other after tonight's date."

"Nabiki, don't you dare cause any more trouble!"

"What she said!" 'Ran' felt a connection with Akane (she) didn't remember feeling before. Which really wasn't saying much as (her) memories only started four days ago. But that meant (she) wanted the anchor even more.

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'Ran' was pleased to see how much of the food wasn't finished. 'She' immediately plopped down in the gym bloomer and tee and went to finishing it.

Or trying to. "Leave some for us and our guests," Junko told her, placing a bokutō on her arm.

Akane, "It, it's alright."

Nabiki, "The first rule of dating, Little Sister, is not to pig-out. That's a warning to guys who aren't chumps. Kunō is a chump, but there are going to be many who will be judging you more harshly at the ball."

"That means you should eat now!" 'Ran' smiled up at her, patting a spot beside 'her'.

Akane hesitated. But didn't dislike sitting beside the redhead.

Mao, "Akane is my size!"

Nao, "Only in high." The American was tall. 4" taller! And she was even 1" taller than the tallest girl here, Yuna. It didn't help her to feel immersed in Japaneseness.

Yuna, "Junko should be closest to Akane's proportions."

Junko, "And I have some gowns I haven't worn!"

"You have many outfits you haven't worn, Sweatshirt Girl," said a girl entering the room.

"Yuko," her dormmates acknowledged her.

Akane, "A miko?" She was wearing the traditional costume of a shrine maiden.

Yuna, "Good timing. We can use one of your arcane abilities."

Yuko, "My arcane…." She was a little confused until she picked up on the cues Yuna and Junko were sending her. "Oh, my 'arcane' powers!" Then she brightened up, "I and the Miko Club–"

Junko, "Do remarkable things!"

"Which we won't remark on, now," Yuna warned.

'Ran', "They cured my hair curse!"

"Which we shouldn't remark on!" Yuna glared at the idiot. It was her secret they were trying to keep for her.

Akane, "What color did it make your hair? That red doesn't look natural, either.

"Oh! Sorry I said that."

'Ran', "That's alright. I think that, too." (She) put (her) hand to (her) hair. (She) still hadn't seen the hair and face of the Boy. When would (she) get the chance to stay being the Boy. Would (she) enjoy it? Junko and the others thought (she) had cursed herself because (she) didn't like being a girl and wanted to be a boy. (She) could agree (she) didn't like being a girl. …Except when 'she' didn't mind it.

Yuna moved to divert talk away from the curse, "Yuko can be a medium for her shrine's kami and grant a simple wish."

Junko, "And that wish is for Akane to fit comfortably into my gown."

(Mao, "Gowns aren't comfortable.")

Yuko at last got the idea, and pulled out from beneath her white kosode kimono an omamori amulet hanging from a necklace. "I'll start praying, now." And she put it between her upturned palms. (But she couldn't keep herself from peeking at what was happening to the guest.)

'Ran' gulped down half a dumpling whole when (she) realized that (she) what was about to happen to Akane was going to happen to (her) as well.

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NOTES:

Having (her) identity pushed away whenever (she) reached for it meant that the concern 'Ran' should have about (her) amnesia was pushed away, too.