Ranma of St. Bacchus, Chapter 03
by Chaos Orchid
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Personal honor above all else ! Exhibitions were about necessities, not about self-worth!
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A Man Among Girls!
"You forgot the styling cape!" Noa said, bringing the clothes covering over.
"Ran's not wearing clothing!" Mao grinned. It was true; all the shortstack had on was a sheer baby doll nightie. And that was torn.
"And that is why she should have cover!" Noa felt sorry for Ran being made fun by having a nightie put on her while she had slept that none of the other girls would risk wearing. Not unless it was for their husband. Or, daringly, their boyfriend.
Yuna the beautician rolled her eyes. "We had better things to think of just getting Ran here for her shampoo."
"Shampoo!" the redhead without (her) pigtail cried out and began to try to take (her) neck away from the salon's sink!
"Enough! I will make this as fast as I can!" Yuna cried, pushing the bound spitfire back down and grabbing a bottle of shampoo. "But because of the trouble you have caused, it shall be hot, hot water!"
As Noa was wrapping the cape around her, the girl's boobs suddenly flattened yet expanded! Everything grew larger! Muscles appeared clearly defined within the lithe body of an athlete. She was feeling somebody manly. Very manly!
–A body wrapped even MORE tightly by the gymnastics ribbon! "Too tight! Too TIGH~T!" He(?) screamed flexing wondrous muscles for all his(?) worth! "Can't breathe!" Then shut up, his body told him(?)!
Some of the girls looking in through the hall-side window fainted, some swooned. Some gaped. Some had their moths open, their tongues hanging out. Almost all became wet. A very few ran away, crying, "Matsushida's going to punish us all!"
The hair under the lather so quickly lost its red that the beautician was convinced she had been wrong and the color was, after all, from a cheap hair dye.
The last to actually notice the transformation was Yuna. Just keeping her fingers within the the thrashing locks required her concentration. In fact, it was only when she said, "It's your own fault the shampoo went in your eye!" that she noticed the face was no longer cute. It was – the archer had a vision of a cupid shooting an arrow into her heart!
One of Kadachi's lieutenants, Junko was the fast thinker among them. She snatched up a pair of the salon's scissors and went snip the ribbon! She would be his heroine !
Head, yes; but body? Unable to thrash because of the binding, the face towel on the heartthrob's lap was almost staying in place. Mao now saw her chance to remove it!
Yuko saw her dormmate's hand reaching for it. The dragon whisker in her hand became upright and straight.
*Snap!*Snap!*Snap!*... His(?) exposed skin crisscrossed with deep welts, the teen boy catapulted him(?)self up out of the chair! The cape fell over his(?) front. To everybody else's great disappointment.
Yuna cried out in alarm as his hair wasn't coming out of the sink. That was until it filled it so greatly it was now spilling out of the sink and its still running hot water and down onto the floor!
Junko was now thinking of cutting the hair. But there was just too, too much for mere scissors to accomplish that feat! She looked around for something else that would do the job. "Razor hoop! Emergency! Get a razor hoop!"
And still the hair grew and grew, forcing the people around it to step away.
Except Noa: "It has me! I am in tangle!"
"What's happenin'!? Why is my hair doin' this !? I don't remember! But it can't be good! I'm gonna go bald, ain't I!? "
Trying to get out of the hair, Noa tripped.
And fell against tall, dark and handsome. What's more, he automatically caught her and held her; they looked as if they were on the cover of a romance novel!
That was too much for the elite girls who were supposed to be chaperoned when around males! Mao forgot about looking under the cape. Instead the martial arts rhythmic gymnast looked around for the nearest tool to use against the pair! That was in a rack of plain seltzer water (good for taking out stains and drinking). She picked up a bottle to throw.
"No, toss it here!" Yuko told her. "You know what they say(?)!"
Mao did know: And grinned! After toss it to her teammate, she looked at the girls on the other side of the open salon door. She tossed three bottles to them. But kept the fifth.
"On the count of three!" Yuko announced.
Mao wouldn't wait for the timing and began to vigorously shake her bottle. The others hurried to catch up with her. The all managed to get the caps of their bottles off at roughly the same time.
Carbonated water fizzed and splashed against Nao and the guy who held their rival too closely! "Cold water!" Yuko told the 'would-be lovers'. "You hose down an animal in heat with…." Anybody holding something dropped it.
The hoped-for love interest was gone; the redhead was back.
"But we want tall, dark and handsome," griped many , "We never did get to see how much of a man he is." , "Did anybody take any pictures!? " , "That's Junko's job." , "Not any more!" , "Right! Girls , get your cameras!" , "We're going on a man hunt!" And most of them did run off.
One girl screamed in fright "Eeeyea! You could've CUT me with that razor hoop!" , "You almost ran into me! " the other yelled back.
The girl made her appearance at the salon door with the hoop. "This is Kodachi's. Sorry, it was the closest."
Junko took it, then waded through the hair, trying not to be caught up in it like Noa. Only…
"It is now red," Yuna noticed at the same time.
"Uh, he take her place, she he(?)" Noa suggested a clue that she hoped somebody else could provide an answer from. Only then did she realize that she was no longer supporting herself against the man's pectoral chest, but pressing against a boob. And she was pressing down on it. The tall man was replaced by a smaller girl. The cute face was now almost pressing against her own boobs.
She tried to separate herself from her; but legs were too snarled up in the red hair.
"The shampoo?" Junko said, reaching the now non-growing cascade of hair that fell from red's head.
"No wonder you rebelled, Ran," Yuna said. She allowed herself to sympathize. And shudder. A bald girl? It went against her beautician nature.
"Hot water!" Yuko called out.
"And we used soda water and Ran was back to being a girl!" Mao
"Cold water," Yuko glared at her. "That is the cliche, you know."
"Hot water…cold water…," (she) searched (her) memory. But (she) really didn't have any! Was it too recent!? Not traumatic enough!?
Junko grabbed her first handful of locks and began slicing with the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics razor hoop. Slicing carefully. The outer edge was as sharp as a straight razor.
"Leave enough for me to give her a French braid." Yuna the beautician was back.
"No! No whatever braid! I want my queue back!" 'Ran' told her. And them.
"What's a kyū?" Mao asked.
"That's what Chinese peasants were once forced to wear," Yuna told her while motioning to Junko where she wanted the initial cutting to start.
"Yes. I, I…think it does come from China," 'Ran' said, searching for a distant memory to fill in part of (her) haze. (In a gesture of trying to grasp it, (her) fist captured Noa's jinbei pajama top, accidentally pulling her closer to (her). (Her) eyes focusing inward, (she) failed to see the boobs in (her) face. Noa's face was red.)
"The Mongolian conquerors made the men wear the pigtail because that is what they did to their horses' tails," Junko told them.
"Ran wants to be a horse!" Mao grinned,
"A wild horse," Yuko added.
"Yes! That's right! Wild Horse!" It was a clue to who (she) was: "Uma Ran! " Uh, there was something wrong with that, (she) thought. What was it?
"Why call it a 'pigtail' if it's not curly like a pig's?" Mao wondered aloud.
" 'Pigtail' is English word," Noa told her.
"Oh, look who's talking. You don't even take English classes."
"That is because I already speak English!" Mao could be so dense sometimes. No wonder her next favorite Sanrio character after Hello, Kitty is Badtz-Maru the penguin. "I require be in Immersion Japanese! I not suppose think in my language if I can!" Then her voice went low as she said to herself, in English, "I miss English spelling. It makes more sense than Japanese spelling. Kanji, hiragana or katakana? Which homophone?"
"Done!" Janko announced, wiping the sweat off her brow.
The redhead made to bound out of the salon chair and steal the dragon whisker on her way out. (Leaving the still trapped Noa behind.) Of course, Yuko knew this and shoved it down past her sailor fuku neckline and into her bra. She did know a girl willing to fight for something in that safety deposit would find no problem reaching in between her cleavage. And she was ready to fend off or run.
To her surprise, Ran did not try. She looked upset at even thinking to do that. "So, your precious 'dragon's whisker' isn't that precious after all?" Even that challenge only marginally attracted the girl to her bust.
"We know you're weaknesses," Junko said.
"Sit down in the chair and let me make you beautiful," Yuna the beautician told her.
"Ran can't be 'beautiful'," Mao smiled. "She can only be cute. So cute!" Being a Sanrio fan, of course she liked cute.
"I am still giving her a French braid. She needs something to balance that out. Too much of anything is overdoing it."
"At least she won't have a pig's tail."
"A horse's tail," Yuko corrected her.
'Ran' struggled with her options. If she had more knowledge of battle tactics, she might (and probably would) have figured out a way to win. But as she couldn't remember them…
(She) sat back into the salon chair. "Stupid beauty shop."
"Cutie shop!" Mao reminded her.
One task accomplished, Junko went to freeing Nao. "There! As punishment, you are getting the same job as Ran: You're both going to have to sweep up…." She looked at the amount of hair and changed it to, "... clean up all this hair. Nobody will be able to use this salon until it's cleared!"
"Yes, Senpai," Noa glummed.
"You gonna use hot water on my hair again?" (she) wasn't really certain if (she) or did not want what happened again. Well, of course (she) couldn't let it happen without (her) dragon whisker. But still…
"You know we have to keep this a secret?" Yuna said. She turned to look at the few girls who were still outside the salon, looking in. She pulled back her imaginary bow and aimed it at them. Most of them received the message and fled.
"But Kodachi-sama–"
"Especially , Kodachi-so-called-sama, Junko! "
"I agree," Yuko told her. "She is on an enough of a power trip!"
"Yeah!" said Mao, still grinning. "Remember how hard it was to take Ran down? What if she controlled Ran and had her attack us!" Wow, Noa thought, Mao really is like Badtz-Maru: She can get things right, once in a while.
Kodachi's lieutenant, Junko, gave it some thought. She wasn't the boss-lady's top second-in-command, or even third. It wasn't like she was the equivalent of a 'major' or a 'captain'. She wasn't a 'sargent'. 'Lieutenant' did best describe what she was in the Hebereke hierarchy. If she could find a way to move up in the ranks, she would.
But at Hebereke there was also a good chance of moving down. It would take some strategizing to figure out if and when, if ever, to make her move with this Ran pawn. "Deal! I will make everybody aware why we have to keep Ran's secret a secret!"
As Yuna cold shampoo'd Ran's hair in cold water before putting it into a French braid, Junko said, "Nao, you know about makeup!"
"Yes. But not the martial-arts type!"
"We'll teach you. You're in charge of seeing that Ran uses it and keeps it."
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NOTE:
Ran(ma) is gender dysphoric, but doesn't know (she) is. Not yet. (His) view of the opposite sex is still largely what Genma has trained his son to be: The opposite of Happosai– Absolutely Non-pervert! (Oh, yes, they're also supposed to be the 'weaker' sex. At Kodachi's school? As if!)