Ranma of St. Bacchus, Chapter 04
by Chaos Orchid
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A true martial artist's mission is to protect the weak, not to become famous.
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Ran the Celebrity
"Coordinate!" Yuko was standing in front of the handful of girls standing watch on this end of the hall the beauty salon was in. "As soon as Mao gets back, Michi, you're replacing her on Operation: Alcohol Salt! Remember: We can't let Professor Matsushida and the other boarding faculty know Ran's secret!"
"Right! Ran's our chance to have a boy here at St. Hebereke!"
"You mean St. Bacchus ."
There was excited giggles and laughter. "This is the chance for the school to live up to its nickname!"
"Here she is. Mao, where's the booze?" Michi asked.
"I left it far away from here, of course. I splashed it in several places. That should distract her from our concentrated horniness. You know how Matsu-Matsu feels about alky!" She handed Michi the crude, hand-drawn map of where they had 'salted' false evidence. "Make sure you make you splashes away from those I did."
As Michi was leaving, Yuko called to her, "Don't get caught!" To the rest, she said, "Brave girl. If she gets caught with the alcohol, she's in for 'Rehab'."
"Yeah." The festive mood changed at the thought.
Meanwhile, Mao had gone down the hall. "Dormmate, dormmate! Ran's dormmate! Let me through" she said to the girls crowding the hallway.
"Why should we?" , "That's right! You have a better chance with Ran-kun than we do, dormmate!"
To them and the others grumbling, Mao told them, "I'm only senpai to Noa. Yuna, Yuko and mainly Junko are in line ahead of me." But that didn't mean she wouldn't try to have her 'dates' with Mr. Hunk!
Or that she wasn't open to bribes. And the girls who realized that, let her pass.
*Shutter*Shutter* There were actually a few girls at the end of the clump taking photos. Why, Mao couldn't understand. (She would.)
The short Ran was wearing pinned and taped-up styling capes, held together, front and back, by a sash belt. Even the slick salon protector had wet hair sticking to it. She looked like she had been attacked by a flock of shedding sheepdogs! The mass of gathered of midnight black hair was as big as a shaggy sheepdog. A shedding one, as with every step, more strands of hair was lost to the floor. She at last got to the maintenance bin used for recyclables and the small girl struggled a little to get the hair in it.
Wiping her sweat off her brow, she turned to look into the salon to remind herself just how much more there was to do. Mao saw her French braid was covered by Yuna's bandanna. She must have pinned both up.
Yuna was wiping her own brow. It looked like she had been slicing the long, continuous outrush of hair into semi-manageable sizes with the razor hoop.
"Mao?" The girl with the bedhead hair turned.
"Noa. You look nice," Mao smiled at the girl no longer looking like she was ready for bed.
'Ran' wasn't smiling her. "Where've you been!? You were s'pose to help me with this disaster cleanup!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" Noa tried to bow, but was surrounded by too many bodies. "Junko has make me take makeup lessons!" She was wearing the results.
"Well, you're here, now! Get in there and –
"Makeup! "
Looking apologetically, she held up the makeup case.
"You obviously can not put it on Ran until after she's lathered well and showered," Yuna said at the doorway. "Go! You go with her, Noa. New here, she doesn't know her way around the school yet."
'Ran' told her, "I still gotta lot to do in there!" And (she) looked at the amount of stray hairs out in the hall, now. "...and out here."
"You have done enough. And I'm exhausted from having to deal with you. Your impatience took the fun out of braiding." At 'Ran's' smile, answered back, "It has now become a challenge for me." 'Ran' lost her smile. (She) didn't remember past challenges, but (she) understood that it meant Yuna wasn't ready to give up on trying to win her over to the style. She was a beautician at heart.
As Noa led Ran away, Yuna told the crowd, "Who has not taken photos of Ran? You will get copies. But first –Get in here and help me finish! That will convince you you shouldn't try and make Ran male unless you know what you're doing!"
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A small crowd of people followed them. But they kept their distance. Word was getting around you shouldn't upset the new girl. Not too much. Later. Maybe. When there was more info.
Because they were in her ear-shot, they mostly kept quiet. All the better to listen for info. And, oh, cameras were ready. He might appear again, unexpectedly.
'Ran' ignored them.
Noa couldn't. Feeling self-conscious meant, irrationally, she herself was at the top of her list of things to chat about. Anyway, it was a way for her to show the redhead her sympathy.
"My step-dad would love you, Ran," Noa said, upset with herself for reliving bad memories. "You perfect hair donor for him."
"Until I probably go bald," 'Ran' glared at the dad inside the foreigner's mind. "And why would he need so much freakin' hair?(!)"
"He own O'hara Wigs and Weaves."
"Ohara, huh? So he even had you change your old name to his."
"No. Do you not know that in Japan, husband can take the name of his wife? Everything only legal, though, if husband and wife have same name. Step-dad took name of mom because…"
Ran interrupted her, "Because that was name of the company she owned and he wanted everybody to think it was always in his family. What piece of…. Oh.
"Uh, that's right. Um, where's your real dad?" But by the pained look on Noa's face, (she) decided not press it.
Instead, (she) reached behind her head.
"Do not unpin bandanna," Noa told Ran. "Or braid. Have your hair up and in cover when you shower or bath or…." having makeup put on you.
Ran glummed. But it wasn't about the new do. "I can't take a hot soak, can I? Not without my whisker."
Word got around then that Ran had whiskers. But…as a guy, right? Certainly not as this cutie.
They were nearing a public toilet. Noa asked, "You have go before we shower?"
'Ran' looked over her shoulder at the crowd. Then turned back. "Do you?"
"I can wait!" And they both hurried to the school's private bathhouse.
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One girl was in only her lingerie, the other was nude. Slap, slap…; flap, flap…
"Retreat!" 'Ran' called out! (She) was pushing the much taller Noa ahead of (her), (her) hands propping her up if it seemed she was going to stumble.
They were being chased by a clump of girls, some still had their clothes on. "Stop them!" they shouted to the girls ahead who hadn't tried to shower with Ran.
Noa called out in surprised fright as 'Ran' tossed her over the heads of the girls in front of them. (She) then swerved and ducked between those girls (there were some advantages to being a short shortie) before catching the heavier Noa in her fetal position. Somehow (her) body just knew what to do without (her) having to think about it!
If (she) had thought about it, (she) wouldn't have tried to pull off such stupid stunt! –Noa could have gotten hurt!
It certainly didn't do the girl's nerves any good! But Noa had been a beginner ranked Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnast long enough to be somewhat familiar with danger. Especially with the type of tools Kodachi and the other top ranked athletes used!
"Where!? " 'Ran' demanded.
"Uh, uh, top floor."
(She) saw the main stairs and made for them! Still carrying Noa, still curled into a ball.
"HALT!" It was a woman fast approaching. She was old, as tall as a man, thin, wiry and with her hair in a bun that was really a pinned French braid.
"Matsushida-sensei!" Noa cried out! The girls chasing them also cried out the name.
Ran screeched to a stop. The girls chasing them also screeched to a stop.
They all stood there, waiting for judgment to fall upon them. And the professor did look like she was inspecting; first Ran, Noa and, then, striding toward the two dozen girls. Keeping her severe gaze on the girls…
Her hand came down and–Swatted Ran's bare butt!(?)! "Go!"
On that cue, 'Ran' was running again. The girls behind her weren't. They would have to get by Matsushida. And the woman wasn't budging.
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On the second floor, Noa was put down and they took the stairs to the third floor at a more normal pace.
"Do you think she knows !?" 'Ran' asked.
"We know too soon, I mean, soon enough," Noa said, trying to get her nerves under control.
"Man! I can't even take a cold shower around here! If I'm somewhere where there's also hot water, they team up on me! And there had've been ten girls with cameras to see me as a guy! All the extra hair loss, just for a few seconds of a photo shoot!"
"I think naked ones want more than pictures of you as male, Ran!"
There was somebody waiting for them at the top. "The ones who did that will be punished," Junko said.
"I have some ideas!" Mao grinned. "Toss them into the piles of damp hair! Make them feed the hair into the incinerator! Make them wear hair shirts – Ha! Better : put it in their undies!"
"And that's nothing compared to what the girls will get who inform to the adults your secret, Ran." Saying that, the odango haired girl turned to look down the third floor hall. There many non-adults outside of their dorm rooms that probably didn't needed to be. Junko took the gymnastics ball she held and tossed it.
It exploded! The concussion just threw a couple of the looky-loos against a couple vending machines. But the rest got the message and decided it was time to leave the hall.
" Explosions!?" 'Ran' cried and wondered.
"Your scholarship is for Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics and you don't know about the tools?" Mao asked. (Did the cat-like girl ever stop smiling? Irritating!)
"I not know when they make me join," Noa mumbled.
"She'll learn," Junko said, leading the way to their own dorm room. "Kodachi wouldn't have recruited her if the Black Rose hadn't seen some potential."
"And does she ever have potential!" Mao whistled at the memory of the battle they had with the redhead the last time they were in this same hall.
"I have no potency. Why recruit me?" Noa mumbled again, her Japanese getting sloppy.
"Mao?" Junko asked. "Do you want hair in your, uh, 'undies'?"
"Mao understands! I'll keep that secret a secret, too!" But it didn't mean she wouldn't hint. "It's the reason most of the girls were recruited." And she rubbed a cheek against a shoulder of the cringing Noa.
One of the doors was unlocked and 'Ran' paid attention for the first time the details of the dorm room.
Light yellow-white was the main color. A light blue line was painted in the middle of the walls.
Near the door was a large sectional couch, a coffee table that could be used as a tea table, a couple of armrests, cushions and an oriental rug that marked this area as its own 'room', separate from the bed area beyond.
There were six beds, three for two walls. Each had a folding chair near the footboards which were also fall-front desks with drawers under the work surfaces. There were also storages spaces in the headboard and under the beds themselves. Hospital curtains hung from the ceiling that allowed for some privacy if they were pulled the full length of the tracks.
Built-in closets took up most of the other available wall spaces.
"Stupid," was 'Ran's' immediate critique. "Usin' floor futons, you can have more floorspace when you're not sleepin'." (She) went to the only other door in the room. "Is this a toilet or what? I need to wash this hair off a me."
"Americans call it bathroom," Noa told her. "Also has shower over bathtub."
"Yo~tsupi!" (she) cried, rushing into it.
There were strangers inside. Six of them. They had been waiting for her.
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NOTES:
The only exterior we see in the S1E13 anime is the front of the school. In this story, the dormitory-classroom building is the one next to the gym-arena. The third floor has 14 rooms with 6 dormmates, 84 students. An annex not seen has 8 rooms with 6 dormmates, 96. 180 students in total. But 22 live off-campus. There are 202 students in total. It is an elite and expensive school, specializing in a dangerous sport. More students are not really required and few want to enroll. (The reason the annex has more students than the main dormitory is explained in Chapter 7.)
Why are the girls given little chance to date? The families of most of the girls see them as investments. They have made or will make marriage arrangements based on the perceived business and/or political advantages the families receive. They are modern 'princesses', aristocrats.