Ranma of St. Bacchus, Chapter 06
By Chaos Orchid
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"Anything goes means improvisation . Don't depend on weapons."
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On and Off Guard
They were going to see a teacher at the boarding school, and a respected one, at that. That was how they convinced 'Ran' (she) had to wear something. (She) put on the simplest, most unisex thing available: one of Noa's jinbei. She was about almost 168cm, 5'6", and the small and (mis)shapened body (as (she) thought of it) was 150cm, 4'11" even, and yet (she) was able to walk in the jubei pants because they are meant to be long shorts. And its shirt had long short sleeves.
"And they fit you when you tall in boy body, Ran!" Noa smiled. Yes, they were made to fit loosely and that could be adjusted with drawstrings.
Being a teen girl at heart, Noa's relaxed wear was a dark, matte lavender. 'Ran' only associated pink for girls and so was okay with it. (She) failed to notice the light abstract pattern that could be seen as lavender flowers. Traditional jubei, and men's especially, didn't have patterns. Or were lavender.
Time for them to go out into the dormitory hall again. *Sigh* Of course there was a small crowd waiting.
"Yamada-san Ran-chan…"
"Don't call me Ran-CHAN!" (She) snapped, surprising everybody including (her)self!
"Uh, well,..." the small, taller girl in the green leotard stumbled with her presentation. "I can't call you Ran-sama. Or Ran-dono. You're a kohai!
("Just call her Ran," the plain girl in slacks said behind her. She was ignored.)
The 157cm, 5'2", girl drew herself up and gathered her pretentiousness. "I, on the other hand, deserve to be called Mizunokōji-sama Tantō-sama. I am the heir of that world famous manufacturer of sports equipment." And she drew out her long ponytail sideways to make herself look even larger. "Mizunokōji, Ltd, in fact, supplies most of the gymnastics equipment used at Seijin Hebereke!"
"I guess that explains why you're here," Ran acknowledged, unhappy about having to.
(A beat late, the 162cm, 5'3½", girl in halter and slacks lifted a bonzai fan, and limply waved it and deadpan cheered. "Hurrah for the idol of a sports expo, hurrah." She was ignored by her companions.)
164cm, 5'4", wearing a long white dress, the girl with long bangs that reached almost to her eyes, adjusted her glasses and asked, "Can we see Ran-kun?"
"Hufāsu!" the girl who had hit her while they had been nude in the bathroom now hit her again. The 160cm, 5'3", girl with the headband was now dressed tight-fitting gym bloomers that let her display her muscles. On her t-shirt, though, was her name, Shitsū. (Noa, the English-speaker, was the only one to think the name should be embarrassing for the girl.)
'Ran' counted them. "There are four of you. Where're kendō and ninja-girl?"
"I'm a kunoichi," said a voice from above. She was dressed in a stereotypical ninja costume – so stereotypical, in fact, that it looked like a costume rental, an adult sexualized one. Her purple panties were showing as she uncomfortably stayed near the ceiling by having one foot on the doorframe, one barefoot holding onto a suction cup by her toes, and both hands pressing against the hall wall and looking like she would slip from it at any moment. Even saying, I'm a kunoichi, showed the strain she was under.
'Ran's' only comment about (her) new neighbors was, "Man!"
"I'm Katai, by the way," the most rational of them said. Turning to her senpai, plain girl said, "Tantō-sama, shouldn't we be getting on with why we have been lurking around Room 13's door?"
("It's actually Room 14. There's no Room 4," the semi-superstitious Noa had to say and tell herself. Room 3 was followed by Room 5. '4' sounds like the word 'death'. 13 isn't an unlucky number here.)
"Ah, yes: The Challenge! Maruyama-san Junko, we of Room 12…"
Junko dismissed her, "Later, Tantō! We have better things to do."
"You will not brush me aside again! Sic them!" she ordered.
Hufāsu produced a razor hoop and Shitsū a spiked indian club. Tantō, of course, had to have a gymnastics ribbon.
Before (her) roommates could get their own equipment, 'Ran's' instep hit Muscle's wrist and caused her to lose her grip on the club; the instep continued its trajectory and snagged the inside of Stupid's hoop.
Having caught the spiked club and hoop in an easy contortion that put the above ninja-girl to shame, the small redhead casually spun the hoop around the club she held. The razor-sharp edge sliced Pretentious's ribbon. 'Ran' was tempted to rub salt into their loss by yawning.
"No fair! No fair! FAULT! You lose! It's against the Rules of Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics not to use tools! You did it with martial arts unarmed skills!"
"I ain't been trained in your MĀRG, yet! And my scholarship isn't for brawls! As long as I ain't in a refereed match, anything goes!"
"You tell them, Ran!" Noa cheered. (She was back in a simple, though almost mini dress).
Their roommates didn't cheer. "You are aware that by battling on occasions like this could have been, you have the chance to improve your, uh, 'MĀRG' skills?" 164cm, 5'4½", Yuna told them. (Now out of her hairy kyūdō-gi and sky blue dō-gi.)
"And you denied us our opportunity to practice!" 163cm, 5'4", Yuko told them. (Now out of her hairy uniform and in a midi dress of her own liking.)
"You girls do that. Me, I like anything goes." Saying that, she stepped on the inside of the hoop and pulled it from the inside's top up until it bent and bent and– Crack! Snap! –splintered into pieces. ('Shrapnel!' Noa thought!)
"Uh, I think we will save our discussion about extra-curricular, um, Mārugu, until later," 160, 5'3", Junko told the others.
"Let's go see Kasumi-san!" 167cm, 5'2", Mao said. (She had on pants so loose they could almost be mistaken for hakamas, but her shirt could've been mistaken for Hawaiian, if it didn't have different Sanrio characters on it.) ('Ran' ignored the cat ones as best (she) could.)
"Right. She's gonna tailor me clothes that'll fit," 'Ran' nodded. Only glancing over her shoulder at the Room 12ers only once, she flipped the spiked club she still held and asked, "Where's the trash chute?"
(Noa kept her uneasy eyes on them. Katai was trying to tell them this was not the time to cause any more trouble. They wanted to stay on the good side of the female Ran, too, didn't they? Noa hoped they would listen to the clever girl this time.)
The trash chute was around the corner. 'Ran' dropped the club down it and continued past an elevator to the door that separated the students' dormitory hall from the faculty's. There was a panel of labels with buttons. "Kasumi-sensei, may we visit you?" Junko asked. "Our new student, Ran, needs to be fitted for the school uniform. She's, uh, one of Kodachi's special projects."
The door swung open and the Room 13ers entered semi-forbidden territory.
The first thing 'Ran' noticed was how bright the hallway was. It had to be, she saw, because there were so few windows to let in the daylight. Then she remembered that (her) dorm room didn't have windows. None of them, even the teachers', didn't have windows. "Stupid." 'Ran' grumbled. This was Japan, disasters happen here. He wondered whose bright idea thought of this floorplan. ((She) hadn't met the Big Kahuna, Santa Kunō, yet.)
The second thing 'Ran' noticed were the security guards. That's what their uniform patches called them, Anchisukiru. They had police batons. 'Ran' seemed to be conditioned to evaluate potential opponents, even though (she) didn't consciously understand the significance of what she was sensing. The batons turned out to be hot sticks, cattle prods. They could shock somebody with electricity. They had a dial that allowed the guards to increase (or decrease) the amount of damage they did to its victim.
"I'll escort you to Ōno-sensei!" said a 165cm, 5'5", stout guard, suspicious of them. His hand was near a holstered pistol. 'Ran's' scans of the other guards revealed he was only one with a hand gun. (She) thought it didn't shoot bullets but just shocked people. (Tasers weren't common, yet.)
Since the teacher lived on the other side of Room 13, Apt. 13 was a short walk away. It was the guard who pressed the intercom button. "Ōno-sensei, this is Oto, the Head of School Security, here!"
"Isn't Oto a girl's name?" 'Ran' made the mistake of saying that out loud.
The man almost angrily turned to her. "The Oto family is from the Ishikawa prefecture."
" 'Oto' can also mean 'relative'. Hello, Uncle Isao," Kasumi-san smiled. Luckily she didn't look anything like him.
"Not while I am on duty: It's Oto !" he said, officiously.
"Of course, Oto-san. Teens, come in." 164cm, 5'4½", Kasumi-san walked with an easy grace. She had on a satin blouse, a long tweed shawl and a skirt that reached her knees. What captured 'Ran's' attention was her long French braid. What was with French braids at this school!? Was it the fashion? (She) didn't know anything about fashion! (She) couldn't, having so few memories.
The label on the intercoms had said this was an apartment, not a dorm room, and it was right. A one room and a bathroom apartment had its own kitchenette. It was a very good size compared to many apartments in Japan. "Ōno-sensei Kasumi-san, this is Yamada-san Ran," Junko said, making the introductions. "As you can see, I don't think one of the standard school uniforms will fit her."
"I'm short," 'Ran' grumbled. " Too short."
"And with measurements that are unusual for a petite." Kasumi-san smiled pleasantly at her. "You get out of those clothes while I get the body tape."
"I didn't have to put on clothes?(!)" 'Ran' said rather loudly.
"For the most accurate results, it is best if the person being fitted is nude. I'm sorry, …." She didn't finish the sentence as the girl was already nude. "My, feminine modesty isn't one of your traits, I see."
"I guess I must have been a nudist, back when I had memories."
"You have memory issues?"
The bathroom door opened. "Kasumi…. Oh! Students." It was a man, 185cm, 6'1", in a jacketless suit and loose tie. He looked at the naked girl down and up. Then turned his eyes away and stared to an interesting ceiling tile.
"Ran, do you have a problem with Ichijou-sensei Ryōma-san seeing you nude?" Kasumi-san asked.
"I guess not. Should I?"
"Yes," was Noa's answer.
"Ryōma-san is gay," was Yuko's answer. But the miko looked at the man still averting his gaze and added, "But not entirely gay."
"Few people really are naturally either entirely heterosexual or homosexual," Kasumi-san smiled. "But I've lived and worked next to Ryōma for a number of years now and I and all, well, most of the girls at the school trust him."
"He teaches Japanese history," Yuna told Ran.
"He also has the hobby of studying battle tactics!" Junko said, apparently a fan of the man.
"I have many hobbies," he said, sitting in a chair, his back to them all. "I don't, ahem, date much."
"Okay, why not. Stay. Are you ready to measure me, Teach?"
"A very informal girl," the only adult woman in the room said, coming over and beginning to do just that.
"She talks like a guy!" Mao smiled like she was tattling.
"Ran uses male Japanese…and ungrammatically, at that." But Kasumi-san smiled for the redhead. "But who am I to judge? My lessons are in English.
"And how is your Japanese coming along, Noa?"
"Terrible. Wish take your class, but can not. Must immerse."
"I know. But I am still here to tutor you. There are still some English lesson I can teach you that will be useful when you move back to America."
"Hey! I just thought of something!" Mao grinned wickedly. "Guess who teaches Japanese here at the school, Ran?"
"How am I s'pose to know. The only teachers I know right now are these two and…."
Noa nodded. "I require, must take Japanese language lesson from Matsushida-sensei. She not go like you not use Japanese of womans."