Ranma of St. Bacchus, Chapter 17
by Chaos Orchid
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"Above everything, a true martial artist must be able to have total awareness of their body. And then step back and let the body act!"
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Pig, Punishment and Pudge
The little, black pig went in then out of the spotlight! Its squeal was now drowned out by the horde of girls chasing after it! The first of all of them was Mao, the mischief-lover, but there were girls who weren't wearing leotards. By their bloomers, 'Ran' guessed, the outside PE class had chased the animal and it went inside to try and escape. Then the gymnastics girls saw it as a way to distract themselves from the threat Kodachi was posing first to Yamada Ran. The release for their stress was symbolized by the squeal of a pig!
The girls, though did have enough presence of mind to stay out of Kodachi's spotlight circle and went around it.
The distraction was the pause in the Black Rose's manipulations that 'Ran' needed. (Her) body had been giving (her) trace feelings, clues (she) now tried to understand. Kodachi was out to get (her) to play Kodachi's game, giving her the house advantage. Of course she did. Every opponent did. But there seemed to be a theme to all the disadvantages she was piling on.
The very Black Rose was attempting to weaken (her) control of (her) skills(?)
And it might work. (She) really didn't know (her) own skills. (They) were basically just hunches to (her). (She) could forget to look for them. Or just forget them. (She) could end up doubting (her)self.
Suddenly the lights went back on! Everybody could see everybody else and the pig. Everybody except Koachi; shouting at Sasuke. Looking behind it, the pig crashed into the back of her knees. The Black Rose fell on her Black Rose butt.
"You horrid, vile creature! Now I know why they eat pigs at luaus! And why don't we!" she told it, picking up her gymnastics ribbon.
It happened to run in 'Ran's' direction. And it was (she) who stopped the ribbon.
"Disqualified! You horrible, novice girl! Only tools may be used in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics!"
"Thanks for remindin' me, Captain. I guess I'm also ejected from this game for usin' bad Japanese!" And to add further insult to Kodachi's already toppled pride, 'Ran' thrust up the pig with (her) instep and walked away with it.
Not wanting to be in the fallout zone, Noa followed. "Wait, Ran, please!"
Inside the girl-gymnasts' own locker room, (she) set the pig down by its bandanna. The thing immediately lost its direction and went back into arena, where it was –again– chased by the PE girls. And Sasuke.
"What now(!)(?)" It was a interjection and a question by Noa.
"Now I get punished for skippin' two classes," (she) said, getting out of the snug, snug leotard. "Three, counting PE." then (she) gave a wry chuckle. "My first day at school and I miss three periods. It's almost like I've only gone to school for half a day."
"And you be punish by Kodachi! She is daughter of headmaster!"
"Maybe not. The so-called Black Rose is a bully. And she sees me as some sort of threat. As long as I come back and go through the motions of doin' what she wants me to, I should be okay. She has to wait her time until she thinks I won't leave this school…" 'Ran' had a very interesting thought, "...and go to another school(?)(!)"
"You're right about that, Ran," Junko said, coming in with the other Room 13ers and others. "Kodachi hates competition."
Yuko agreed, "And you would be a tough competition if you took your skills to an opposing school."
"Like Fūrinkan!" Mao added.
"And yet your skills are not rhythmic gymnastics skills," Yuna reminded her. "They are just martial arts skills."
"Ran, you have on school uniform," Noa called out to her. "You not take shower?"
"Like I wanna be near hot water. I'll smell. Bye! See you girls later!"
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"Where next? Time to check in with admin," (she) told (her)self. "Could try and skip the punishment, too. But that wouldn't be honorable.
"Stupid honor." (She) didn't know why honor seemed so important to (her), but it was. (She) would honor (her) lost memories and report in for school discipline. It couldn't be any worse than (fill in the blank). Right?
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Anybody being punished in a class of Matsushiba-sensei wasn't allowed to sit in a chair; they had to sit on the floor. And not sit just any style. Of course not! They had to sit in the strictest, cruelest of all sitting postures.
(She) and other young ladies had to sit the proper seiza way of the Buddhist monks meant to be uncomfortable: knees and the balls of the feet on the floor, thighs on the back of the heels. More and more Japanese were finding it too uncomfortable to maintain it before cramps set in.
The next level up of punishment was to stand with a bucket filled with water. That was why 'Ran' protested being given a bucket, "The cram class hasn't even begun yet and I'm bein' punished like this(!)?"
"This is for cleaning the floor, laggard," Matsushiba-sensei told the red haired girl. " 'A clean floor means clean skirts'!" Noa and Koko were already sweeping the classroom floor.
"Okay: Hai! " Understood.
It was only when (she) was reaching for the handle that (she) cried: "Not Okay: Yoku nai! It's hot! The water's hot!"
"Uh, ah(!)" Noa rushed in to help, "Ran's allergic to hot water!"
"Th, that's right!" Koko went for the help, too, "You don't want to see her when hot water gets on her! Nobody does!" Except for the seconds it would take to take pictures of male Ran. A minute at the most before cold water had to be added.
Others in the class agreed. Many also wanted the chance to cop a feel.
Matsushiba looked down on the small girl. "Take the broom of Ohara. Ohara: The bucket!
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In 'her' knee-length, 'Ran' had to sit the prim and proper, old-fashioned, seiza way. (She) was not only lower than (her) chair-sitting classmates, (she) was even more humbled because the tall Matsushiba like to be on her feet even when she didn't have to. And most of time, she stood on the raised platform the teacher's desk sat on.
Well, at least 'Ran' didn't feel singled out. Koko had to sit the same way. Though 'Ran' couldn't see her as she was hidden behind what looked to (her) to be a 'maze' of desks, chairs and girls' skirts.
"Put one hand on your diaphragms." Matsushiba-sensei was looking straight at Yamada-san Ran as she spoke to the whole class. 'Ran' obeyed. "Place your other hand on your adam's apple." 'Ran' only had a little trouble finding the small(er) thing. "Now feel your Adamu no ringo rise. If you can't raise it, lower it and raise it back to your normal voice level." That was right! 'Ran' realized, girls did like to speak with a high-pitch. Being, (she assumed) born-and-raised in Japan, (she) had gotten so used to this habit that it passed through her ears without registering until it was pointed out. (Or when a shrill falsetto was used.)
So…the strict disciplinarian all the girls in school were afraid of demanded that (she) not only use female Japanese, (she) was even expected to literally sound like an ideal Japanese female. It was all so…
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"I not want sound that way!" nearly whined Noa after the cram class. "American find high-voice annoy and weird! Make woman sound like child in cartoon!"
"A kid?" They were going back to their dorm room. Noa had to be on the outside with 'Ran' so close to walls that nobody could sneak attack from that angle. Noa looked forward; 'Ran' used (trained) senses to keep a lookout in back of (her). "I guess I can see it your way. But I know women do it just to sound cute.
"Oh, great! I don't wanna be even more cute !"
"It has to comes from baby-talk," Koko said, walking backwards ahead of them. "Even today, married women seldom get a chance to go to mixed-sex meetings. They are stuck in the house and the only ones they get to talk to are their kids and other mothers. The men are either away working or 'worshiping' Bacchus!
"Party hearty, girls! While you still can!" Koko was the leader of the unofficial Morale Association.
"And sound like you breath balloon-air," Noa glumly reminded them.
"Girl(!) what kind of party do you do(?) I thought America was the party center of the world!"
"That stereotype!"
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'Ran' and Noa got to Room 13 before the others. (She) had eaten three packages of chicken tenders and was in just (her) sports bra and panties when the others did finally arrive. "Where have you been!?" demanded Noa.
"Kodachi punished all of the girls who had chased the pig," Yuna said. "I stayed with them for moral support."
"If you'd have brought your bow and arrow, you could've shot the piggy!" Mao made the motions of doing just that.
"She ordered us jog to Nerima and back," Junko told them.
"We saw the pig and forgot about just jogging!" Yuko smiled.
"So you didn't learn your lesson and chased after it again. Is that right?" 'Ran' asked.
"We did more than merely 'chase'." Yuna smiled.
"The piggy knows parkour!" Mao grinned at the memory.
"We used the pig as an excuse to actually practice Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics," Junko was also smiling.
"You do obstacle courses in MĀRG?" (Now, 'Ran' wished (she) had chased after the little, black pig with the bandanna.)
"Not in regulation MĀRG," Yuna told her.
"But yes, in Natural MĀRG, out where the only audience are bystanders and unofficial referees," Junko told her.
"Ah, the difference between budō and bujitsu," 'Ran' nodded. Sports vs real martial arts.
"There is an even stricter budō-spirit form of MĀRG," Yuna said. A non-dangerous sport.
"You find a spirituality in playing with dangerous weapons?! " Noa had slipped back into English. She obviously didn't even have Shoshin, the Beginner's Mind.
'Ran' wasn't the only one to sigh. But 'Ran's' was heavier. (She) was the one charged with enlightening her to Shoshin and raising her to the Zanshin, Lingering Mind, that would allow her to be a semi-effective teammate. Kodachi was betting (she) couldn't. 'Yamada Ran' had never lost! How to begin? "Noa, do you want to be as irresponsible as your mom and dad?"
"You actually heard what I told you, in English?" She actually felt listened to. Her parents hadn't: All three of them.
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'Ran' was ready to get out of 'her' stretchy bra and panties…. But her memories of the first ones (she) literally remembered wearing came back to her. True, most of the time, they were not on the top of the things (she) was thinking of at the time. But their changes were noticed by (her) sensory awareness– and her motor awareness when the changes redistributed (her) figure's weight! The stretchy leotard did the same but with the entirety of her torso not outside of the French cut or sleeves. Yes, there had been changes there, too.
When (she) was happy with the way (her) spectacularly trained body performed, (her) boobs, especially the right boob, shrank a centimeter or more; ditto for (her) buttocks, ditto the right cheek. Maybe even (her) thighs seemed less thick.
Of course, any changes in size threatened to make her larger just by (her) noticing them. Even when (she) was happy with what (her) body could do, (she) still had an underlying dislike of it. Dislike meant a D cup if– IF, maybe, because it, thankfully, hadn't happened yet–a not larger cup! And that wasn't even going on how the panties would sometimes threatened to give (her) what the 'others' would tell (her) was called 'camel-toes'. Not good for martial arts.
(She) ended up having to take 'her' underthings off, because just thinking about what (she) had just thought about had pushed (her) boobs into D cup territory and felt the preparatory invasion of the too very girl part of (her).
"It's like your body is yoyoing on then off a diet!" Mao smiled.
"You noticed!? " (she) said, actually feeling naked. Or maybe it was the surrounding emotions of the school was seeping into (her) through the Reservoir? (She) didn't want to look down at (her) exposed body; instead, (she) closed (her) eyes and pinched the body. There was an English phrase (she) knew for some unknown reason: "Pinch an inch". What an 'inch' was, (she) wasn't sure. Was it 2.5cm or something? Well, (she) didn't have that much flab! Or (she) didn't want to believe (she) did. But it was soft (a firm soft, not a firm firm) flab (not a sinewy leanness)!
"I'm a martial artist! A martial artist shouldn't be FAT!"
"Maybe because of all food you eat?" Noa suggested.
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NOTE:
Sorry, but Ryōga doesn't appear until Chapter 20. But it will be a turning point that leads to 'Ran' meeting canon residents of Fūrinkan and Nerima.