Ranma ½ Senpai: A Story of Good Friends
- Thread starter The Ero-Sennin
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Yay, Chapter 11. The one where I become bankrupt.
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Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written parody. Ranma ½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Studio Deen, Shogakukan, Viz Media, and Madman Entertainment. Support the official release, okay?
Senpai
A Ranma ½ Story
Chapter 11/?
Kosaku almost decided on skipping school the next morning. There was no way he could walk through that gate and face his classmates, especially the members of the club he’d formerly been Captain of. The idea, the fear of having to carry the stigma of being the first Captain to lose his position for such a humiliating reason should’ve tipped him towards just laying in bed and not bothering to get up.
He didn’t want to miss the usual breakfast deals offered by the shops along the way though, so it was a simple matter of cajoling a bit of money from his mother, slipping on his uniform and heading out the door.
“At least there’s the food, I can’t be banned from eating,” he said as he reached the bottom of the stairs of his apartment–expecting to find Ukyo’s cart waiting outside with griddle sizzling.
Instead he found an empty spot that Ukyo had occupied for days on end.
“Huh? What…?” He looked around, confused. There was no sign of her anywhere.
His heart fell, he’d been hoping to just pig out today. It wasn’t like there was anything left for him to do.
“Was it something I said?” He asked before he began up the street towards the school.
Or did she pity him? He really hoped it wasn’t that… he didn’t need her pity, just something to eat.
Shaking his head, he began jogging up the street, a habit ingrained in him by boxing and made moot by his voracious eating. He would just head up to the Donburi shop and have a little extra of a tasty breakfast bowl. Or rather he would if the sign on the door didn’t say it was closed.
“What?!” Pulling a phone out of his pocket, Kosaku checked the time, and realized the place should’ve been open an hour ago. “Why the heck…?”
He turned and jogged faster up the road. The ramen cart! He could grab something to eat there, and–it was closed too. The cart wasn’t set up and the owner was completely absent.
As it turned out, the convenience store was closed, too, as was the bakery. The Taiyaki stand being shut down was the final straw, and Kosaku was soon charging towards the school, his stomach growling and his vision red. All of his favorite places to stop and eat closed? Even if it meant hurting their business by turning away other customers? Hatanaka Kosaku may be a glutton, but he wasn’t an idiot! He knew that someone powerful was manipulating things!
It was bad enough that he was being thrown out of boxing, but to punish him like this?! Now he was furious!
“WHERE IS HE?!” Kosaku shouted as he reached the schoolyard. “WHERE’S SAOTOME?!”
Behind him the gates of the school slammed shut, startling him, and Kosaku realized that nearly every student in the school was standing in a broad circle around the path leading to the building’s steps–the ring bordered by the school’s male students, who all stood at-ease with their arms folded behind their backs and their feet spaced. On the other side of the circle, Ranma stood waiting, holding up a large cast-iron tower shield at his side.
“I’m right here,” Ranma said. Behind him, up on the steps, Nabiki, Akane, and Katie stood with Kodachi, who was wearing a look of pure scorn that she leveled directly upon Kosaku.
Seeing Kodachi’s harsh glare, Kosaku paled and tensed up. He was glad that, far as he knew, looks couldn’t kill–he’d be dead where he stood, burned to ash, if they could.
If her look was dangerous, her words were near fatal.
“Hatanaka Kosaku! You stand before I, the Black Rose Kuno Kodachi, accused of failing to live up to the expectations set when you were chosen as Captain of the Boxing Club. You are also being charged with fraud, misappropriation of Student Council assets, and embarrassing the name of my Furinkan High School through the sin of your filthy gluttony!”
Kosaku’s mouth fell open, as the frustration that brought him here became horror as Kodachi exposed him properly.
“Only by the miracle of your overeating habit being detected, has this establishment been spared the humiliation of what your vice would bring to the school. Had it not, however, we would’ve had to bear the shame of a boxer who cannot make weight!” Kodachi thundered on, her vehemence carrying across the field.
She focused all of that ire upon the target of her contempt. “What do you say, in your defense, Hatanaka Kosaku?! Are you not the glutton who cannot control his desires?! Are you more a pig than pigs themselves?! Do you have the courage to lie before the truth that has been laid bare?!”
Kosaku, his body tense, tried to look away from his peers, but he couldn’t. Wherever he turned, he was met by disapproving looks, disbelieving eyes, and vicious words muttered about him… at him…
“I… I…” He began.
“I took the liberty of closing every restaurant, cart, stand, and market within two kilometers of this school to prove a point,” she went on, “That you would come here. Frustrated, furious! Was I not correct? For what reason did you demand Saotome Ranma? To beg for your post back, for a final chance to live your dream? Or was it the food you wanted?”
Kosaku stopped again, any words he’d been trying to say as she spoke withering away. He tried to look away from her again, but this time when he did he saw Ishida just behind Ranma, his face stony and eyes brimming with contempt. Next to him, Shunpei looked about ready to cry, the first year witnessing the humiliation and fall of the person he once called Captain.
“It doesn’t matter what you say, for I have made your answer for you. The only reason you are here, Hatanaka Kosaku, is to reclaim your position as Captain of the Boxing Club. I will allow this, only on the condition that you conquer the beast that is your gluttony. For a man enslaved by his vice is no man, he is the vice incarnate.”
She brought up her hand to toss back her long side-tail. “To that, what do you say? Will you accept my unwarranted generosity?”
Kosaku couldn’t believe it, was… was he really being given another chance? In spite of what Saotome said? It was too good to be true… he couldn’t just expect to have it all just like that?
“Y-yes! Of course!” He shouted back. “I want to! I will! I promise I won’t let you down, I swear it on my-”
“Silence,” Kodachi cut him off. “Do not merely tell me that you will do what I ask of you, any worthless filth can say sweet words. A man shows his resolve in his action.”
She gestured down to Ranma. “Punch Saotome with all of your might, with every ounce of your resolve, and I will measure it from here.”
At that Ranma smirked and readied the tower shield he had with him. Kosaku looked from her to Ranma, a bit disbelieving. This was his trial? One punch?
“You want me… to punch him?” He asked after looking back up at her.
“Can you?” Kodachi asked.
Kosaku looked at his fist, and then at Ranma, who just smirked and gestured for Kosaku to come at him. “Come on, Hatanaka, show me what you’ve got under all of that flab! This is the only chance you’ve got, and if you don’t show me something worth working with, you don’t have to worry about coming back to school, either!”
“That’s correct, if I cannot see an ounce of resolve from you,” Kodachi declared, “I will see to it that you are banned from every boxing ring and every restaurant in Tokyo. They will know your face as that of failure, an untouchable beast. From here on, your fate is in your own fist!”
Hearing that, Kosaku clenched his hand into a fist. His fate… in his fist?
Ranma got ready. “I’m waiting, Hatanaka!”
Kosaku looked straight ahead, at Ranma, and tightened his fist further. “My fate… it’s all mine. I can’t blame anyone if I lose here, just me…”
He immediately thought of what happened yesterday, and the week before. “I’ll only have myself to blame. And there’s no going back after this. If I fail here, I won’t be able to eat at my favorite restaurants-”
Kosaku squashed that train of thought. “No… I won’t be able to box! Ever again!”
He then dug his feet into the sidewalk, and shot forward, accelerating straight towards Ranma with both fists coming to his chest and then rising up to guard like a boxer charging his opponent.
“If I can’t box… then what will I be…?!”
Fire began to burn in his eyes, as he closed the distance.
“A loser…? A guy who eats a lot…?!”
He moved faster, as he drew his right to launch it.
“I won’t…!”
Upon reaching Ranma, he fired his punch, aiming straight for Ranma’s face like he was going to punch through his head.
“I WANT TO BE A BOXER!” He yelled as his fist traveled to connect with its target.
A tremendous clang sounded instead, as Kosaku’s fist plunged into the face of the tower shield Ranma had carried, the metal vibrating at high frequency from the force of the impact. An instant later, there was a tremendous gust of wind as the shockwave blasted off the shield in every direction, blowing back against Kosaku as well, the abrupt wind sweeping his short bangs up into sharp spikes without the need of any hair gel. The same wind buffeted the other students, and kicked up a great cloud of dust behind and to Kosaku’s side, causing the other students to cover their faces and turn their heads to shield their eyes.
When the wind died down, the stunned Kosaku was even more shocked to see a large, deep crack appear in the iron shield, before it fell away in two halves that then crumbled to the ground, revealing Ranma standing behind it, clapping his hands.
“Did… did I just do that…?” Kosaku wondered to himself, as he looked at his still outstretched fist. It tingled, but it didn’t hurt at all!
“Then a boxer you will be,” Kodachi decreed. “Your resolve has moved me, Hatanaka Kosaku, I will sit no more on this matter, I look forward to the success and accolades you bring to Furinkan High School.”
She turned away, and looked back towards Ranma. “Saotome, see to absolving him of his sin.”
“Will do,” Ranma said as the crowd of yammering onlookers began to disperse as well. “Hatanaka, let’s get going!”
“To train?” Kosaku asked as he shook his hand.
“Training the usual way is impossible,” Ranma said. “Nope, I’m going to show you how you’re going to beat this eating problem of yours.”
He gestured to him. “We’re going to the kitchen, get going.”
Kosaku gaped in confusion.
The kitchen?
Ranma walked ahead of Kosaku, keeping the pace brisk enough so the boy wouldn’t lose interest and wander off. It was certain to be a bafflement, how cooking was going to fix Kosaku’s problem with food. Ranma could tell the boy was dreading being fed until he would get sick at the idea of being fed, but that was far too mundane.
Still, he could alleviate a few of the boxer’s concern. “See Hatanaka, the problem is that the stuff you eat is passable but unremarkable. Because of that, you just stuff your face out of habit. So you, with your amnesia of the event, thusly eat again because you don’t remember. And hey, maybe deep down you just like to eat and eat, but you have to sacrifice something to get anywhere.”
“I’m ready, I just don’t-” Kosaku tried to speak up and reassure the Chairman. He was for real now, he was going to be a man. The man now, just show him the way.
“-Understand how this will help. Well, we just need to do more than closing places close to you in order to get you to stop!” Ranma finished for him. “You need to eat something that will keep you honest on your diet.”
He opened the door, being dutifully followed by Kosaku.
“How are you Hatchan?” Ukyo asked, standing by one of the stern looking cook ladies.
“U-Ukyo-san?! But-” Kosaku sputtered.
“I got paid to close up for today.” Ukyo revealed, cutting off the boxer before he could do something to raise the ire of everyone else. “Plus I got a nice little bonus for helping you keep your diet.”
“Huh?” Kosaku’s brain broke at the idea of her helping him.
“The President took care of talking it over with your folks, so you’re not going to be eating your mom’s probably fantastic cooking until we can balance out your weight and nutrition.” Ranma said, “Instead, you’re going to be eating a special okonomiyaki for breakfast and dinner, plus a new bento that only you’ll get.”
“And I’m getting paid rather amazingly for this so don’t screw this up for me Hachan. I want my own brick and mortar shop.” Ukyo added, giving him a glare.
“I wouldn’t dream of it! Not now not ever!” Kosaku replied. “If I did that, I would have to slit my belly to recover from the shame.”
“That’s sweet of you,” Ranma said with an amused expression. “And that’s why I’m here. Your belly stays intact and gets to sample some good stuff.” He cracked his knuckles. “Wait here, I’ll make your breakfast.”
Off Ranma went amongst the various burners and equipment.
“Does he know what he’s doing?” Kosaku felt he needed to ask.
“Sure does; when it comes to food he cooks like he fights. Which is to say better than ninety-five percent of the world.” Ukyo said, shrugging.
“Really?” Kosaku asked.
Ukyo nodded. “Yeah. We grew up together, and I’d make him Okonomiyaki he used to go crazy for before he left. That rubbed off on him, because when we met again about four years ago he had started cooking and was amazing at it.”
She then smirked. “He thinks of a dish like an opponent, and the prep how to beat it. The result is food that doesn’t just taste good, you feel good after eating it.”
“What a talented guy.” Kosaku found his respect for the Chairman deepening by the second.
It looked like he was sauteing ground pork now, the smell of spices beginning to fill the air.
“Is… is this mapo tofu?” Kosaku asked, he wasn’t much for Chinese but he learned the names of all foods just in case.
“When it’s my turn you’ll understand everything, Hachan.” Ukyo reassured him. “If not for me, your dreams would truly be dead.”
“Really?” Kosaku was kind of surprised.
“Ranma’s dead set on helping you out but he doesn’t have time to babysit you. That’s part of where I come in, because I can help deliver your ‘medicine’ to you.” Ukyo explained, cracking her knuckles. “Looks like it’s about time.”
“Ukyo, you’re up!” Ranma called, as he dished up the Mapo Tofu into a holding container.
“Hell yeah!” Ukyo took Ranma’s spot, beginning to make an okonomiyaki.
“Chairman.” Kosaku said it with full respect. “Mapo tofu?”
“Listen, Hatanaka, when it comes to cooking, the only thing that separates truly great cooking and the merely good is the impact it leaves. You consume good food en masse because it fills you up and leaves you feeling comfortable even after you’ve almost eaten yourself sick, because you want to feel good and feel the things good food makes you feel.”
Kosaku nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been there.”
“But what was the last great thing you ate? The thing that sticks out in your memory because it hit you so hard with flavor that you remember the day, time, what you were wearing and the song on the radio?” Ranma explained in a lecturing tone.
“The first time I had an okonomiyaki from Ukyo.” Kosaku didn’t even need to think about it. He had been out jogging for a while, trying to feel like a boxer when he saw the yattai and smelled the food. Oh it smelled like heaven on earth and tasted even better.
“How she gets you, you’re still chasing that taste.” Ranma confirmed with a snicker. “Which proves the point, you eat a lot because it doesn’t hit you like it should.”
Kosaku seemed doubtful when the completed Mapo Tofu okonomiyaki was held out to him. He swallowed a sudden mouthful of drool.
“This will knock your appetite right out,” Ranma reassured him.
“You’ll understand once you taste it.” Ukyo assured him. “I had my doubts but I tried it and it took me by surprise too.”
“Eat up, this is all you get for breakfast.” Ranma ordered.
Kosaku licked his lips in anticipation and took that first bite. Immediately, he was hit by a fierce bolt of spice and flavor. It almost staggered him as he chewed the food, pulses of numbing and heat causing his face to flush. He had to take a breather after that first bite, trying to cool down. “It’s soooo hot but it’s too delicious to stop!”
He attacked the okonomiyaki with abandon, as the heat of the food made his eyes water as well as his nose. He occasionally complained, but he just could not put it down. He had to eat more more more! And indeed it burned and burned!
“It was so good!” Kosaku announced after he finished, his lips stained red with sauce. “Oh my… oh my!”
“How do you feel?” Ranma asked with a slight smirk.
“Like I lit my face on fire yet I loved every second of it.” Kosaku was cleaning up the remains that he could see or feel on him.
“How about something else? A lobster special?” Ukyo offered, presenting an already prepared example before him.
On sight, Kosaku’s face twisted in pain, as if he was being stabbed some invisible knife. “No… no that’s fine. I’m... I’m not…”
He stopped, his eyes widening. “I’m not… hungry?”
He wasn’t. He didn’t have any appetite at all for seconds!
“And you won’t be for a while, at least until lunch.” Ranma said
Kosaku looked up at Ukyo, then at Ranma, disbelieving. “W-what did you do?!”
“A combination of medicinal Chinese and Sichuan cooking, this Mapo Tofu Hatanaka Special works in two fold,” Ranma explained. “First, you’ll note that the thought of eating something else now repulses you. That’s because the herbs in the okonomiyaki batter are the same concoction put into porridge to help people with stomach problems keep it down as well as them wanting more of the porridge only. Add in the spice work used in the mapo tofu to create an addicting quality that makes you keep eating it even as you cry in pain and agony.”
“Which,” Ukyo continued, “basically means you’ll only want to eat that again right now. Of course, we won’t make it for you meaning you can keep your diet.”
A lot of this was going over Kosaku’s head, but the fact that he didn’t want to eat made it pretty obvious that it was working.
“Right now, we’re removing old lingering pockets of bad juju that are floating in your system as well as the lingering traces of other nasties,” Ukyo went on, “As you progress this diet menu, you’ll go on to revitalize, reinvigorate and reinforce, allowing you to get back into shape.”
“The goal is that you’ll eventually learn to curb your appetite on your own.” Ranma said, nodding his head. “At that point, you should be ready to retake your previous seat as captain.”
Kosaku, though he didn’t get most of the talk, got the most important part: follow the diet, conquer his eating problem. “I understand, but Chairman, you did miscalculate one thing: I’m still hungry.”
Ranma and Ukyo both looked at him in surprise.
“… For training that is! I have to get in shape!” Kosaku said with a smirk. “I wanna box!”
Ranma laughed at the joke, once he realized that Kosaku was only meaning he wanted to work out. “Okay, we’ll spend a little more on going over the menu with you before you start training.”
Kosaku nodded, a fire burning deep in his soul. Today was his first step!
“Three hundred meters, or nine hundred eighty-four feet.”
Thirteen year old Katie, wearing a wetsuit, stared down at the cold, dark blue waters of the Bay of Biscay, and the buoy that bobbed in the water in front of the yacht she stood at the bow of. She looked back at her Uncle, who was reading a handheld depth meter. Nick held it away from him, and then turned to look at her with a grin. “Water’s pretty frigid, a balmy fifteen degrees celsius, and about five celsius at the bottom.”
Katie didn’t react to her Uncle’s taunting, she remained focused on the water, her green eyed gaze following the rope that led from the buoy down into the waters until she just couldn’t see it anymore. Three hundred meters. Nine-hundred eighty-four feet. A third of a kilometer. Almost a fifth of a mile.
Then another voice spoke. “If the cold doesn’t kill you at the surface, it will at the bottom. But that shouldn’t bother you, should it, mi perrita?”
Katie did react this time, looking towards an older teenaged girl wearing a black and white one piece bathing suit and holding above her head a dark parasol. A girl as pale as her, with black hair braided into a ponytail over her shoulder. Her hair and her eyes were her most distinguishing feature–a dog-like merle pattern of white and gray splotches decorated her ink-colored hair, while her the irises of her eyes were a vivid titanium white.
The girl strode over to the edge of the boat, Katie watching her every move, before she joined her and looked down at the water with her. “It’s only three hundred meters, it shouldn’t take you more than fifteen minutes.”
Katie looked back down at the water.
“You sound like you’ve been further,” Nick said, his tone inferring that he knew full well she had.
“Further, deeper. The bottom of the sea is a playground in the dark that all can frolic in… they just need to let go of the fragility of their humanity.”
Katie nodded in agreement, before the other girl looped her arm around hers and leaned closer to her, resting the side of her head against hers. “Are you ready?”
Katie drew in a breath, and nodded slowly as she took the girl’s hand in her own..
The other girl, their guide and Katie’s instructor for this summer–a brilliant underwater combat expert named Lida Ysidro–smiled. “Then let’s go play in the dark.”
Their fingers interlacing, both girls leaped from the boat and crashed into the cold water below.
It was the shock of much warmer water that snapped Katie out of her daze, as she found herself amidst the swirling foam of bubbles her jumping into the pool created. Through the cloud of rapidly ascending air pockets, she could see Akane touch her feet down on the bottom of the pool, her long dark-blue hair trailing up behind her on a cloud of bubbles that had yet to escape to the surface. She was looking at her, and only her, no sign of panic to be seen as she stood on the bottom.
With an encouraging nod from her senpai, Akane crouched and jumped for the surface, using the strength of her legs to propel her to the surface. Katie was right behind her, accelerating with arms outstretched to catch her as she surfaced, to be the life preserver that kept her stable and afloat.
“I did it… I did by myself!” Akane exclaimed. “Down and back up!”
“Congrats.” Katie said, with a laugh and a smile. “You’re getting better!”
Akane decided to luxuriate in the feeling of her success and of Katie’s arms around her. It wasn’t something she was normally used to, feeling this close with another girl. But that feeling of safety and warmth made it all okay.
“Ne, Akaneko, are you going to cuddle me all afternoon or are we going to keep training?” Katie teasingly whispered to her.
“Oh... uh, sorry.” Akane blushed a little, feeling only slightly embarrassed. “I just need to cool down a bit.”
That’s what she said anyways.
“Hey don’t mind it.” Katie said, sporting an amused smile. “But we are here to learn you to sink and swim.”
Akane nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“Good to go again?” She asked as she pulled back a bit.
Akane nodded, and took a deep breath before Katie let go of her and both girls descended to the bottom of the pool like stones, this time with much fewer bubbles obscuring their view of one another.
It was honestly a wonder to see the world underwater and look right at Katie, that was how Akane’s mind filtered it all. Even as they began to piston up and down, all without creating a froth so they could enjoy this sight over and over. There were fewer breaks once they really got going, as if they were challenging each other to some kind of competition based on underwater squat thrusts.
What was this blissful feeling, the winding caress of the water as she plunged and ascended, and why had she been so afraid of it? Akane Tendo, the girl who launched people through the air like paper dolls, had allowed herself to be suckered by the talk of impossible. Her own mind had weighed her down and given rise to the fear that had prevented her from experiencing this bliss.
No longer, that was the conclusion she had come to after all this.
“Whew.” Katie said when she and Akane had finished a long routine of plunges. “I think you’re getting it down. All we need to do now is get you ready to actually move in the horizontal part of the water.”
“Just as long as I remember that up and down are still a thing.” Akane said with a shrug. “And that you’re still with me.”
“I won’t let you down as long as you don’t make me.” Katie said, adding a quick hug to her hold to remind Akane not to take offense.
“Right.” Akane allowed herself to be dragged back to the edge, where she was able to climb out. Surprisingly, Yuka and Sayuri were waiting outside the pool.
“Akane-chan, I see you’re making progress.” Sayuri said, being the more polite of the pair. They had arrived about five minutes ago to find Katie-senpai and Akane locked in some kind elaborate water based dance routine and they were still a bit off guard.
“Just a bit.” Akane said, with a smile. “I’m almost ready to start swimming around.”
“That’s awesome.” Yuka said, almost meaning it. She was watching Katie in the background and how the girl was taking the opportunity to cut loose since Akane was no longer in the immediate area. She was going back and forth underwater at high speed without breaking the water tension. “You’re almost out of your anchor prison.”
“I’m still going to sink.” Akane admitted, shrugging a little. “I just don’t have to panic as much.”
The sound of Katie breaking the water’s surface in a graceful leap that defied physics so much that seven professors tendered their resignations in disgust caught all three girls’ attention. As amazing as all three agreed the girl was, she was just so casually superhuman in the water that it bordered on the ridiculous. She landed back in the water and barely made a ripple, as the water was actually gelatin to her.
“Wow…” Akane stared, eyes sparkling, and for a second she forgot about her friends.
“So, uh,” Yuka said, trying to think of how to say this. “Ok, I can’t be totally polite about this but when the hell did you jump to the side of lilies and unrequited love?”
Akane turned an uncomprehending look on Yuka. “Eh?”
“She means when did you go from girls who are friends with Katie-senpai to wanting to be her girlfriend.” Sayuri clarified.
“I’m… what?” Akane looked confused, before she tried to laugh it off. But the notion stayed there even in the face of disbelief and dismissal. “No no, guys, it’s just in your heads.”
Sayuri and Yuka looked skeptical at that, but it was apparently not the time to talk about it as Katie launched herself from the pool and landed–completely dry–right by both of them.
“So what’s up? You guys don’t have a meet for another month so you don’t need a captain yet.” Katie said, before she leaned in. “Or are you upset that I’m ‘monopolizing’ all the available Akane time. Because I assure you, all you needed to do is call her to make an appointment.”
There was a thick pause following that as the two girls got the idea that she had heard everything.
“Now! If there is anything else you need, feel free to ask.” Katie said, standing back up right. “If you’ll excuse me, it’s lunch time. C’mon Akaneko, Kasumi-senpai said she was going to put something nice together for us, didn’t she?” She sauntered away, unmindful of anything else.
Akane nodded and jogged off after her. “She sure did.” She looked back and waved at her friends. “See you guys!”
“Told you to call her.” Sayuri whispered once they were left alone by the pool.
“Shut up.” Yuka snapped as she buried her face in the palm of one of her hands.
A few minutes later Akane stepped into a shower stall in the girl’s locker room and started it up, lost in thought. It was pretty clear that something deeper was there to her friendship with the American girl but she wasn’t quite sure if it was romantic in nature. She was definitely sure it wasn’t like her sisters, but the idea Yuka planted had yet to be uprooted.
“It’s only been a day and we’re making more progress than in a week.” Katie said as she stepped into the stall next to hers.
“Thanks.” Akane said with a happy little smile. “I almost can’t wait to be able to swim for real and not just in my dreams.”
“Almost is right, impatience leads to death.” Katie said with a nod as she began to lather up her hair with shampoo. “So what did the gossip girls want?”
“Oh, they’re bugging me about my love life.” Akane admitted. “They always have overactive imaginations when it comes to me.”
“Do they now?” Katie asked.
“Well it’s not really strange that they’d fuss over me; what with all the problems I’ve had with boys, my engagement, and well…”
“Me?” Katie asked with a bit of a grin.
“Yeah,” Akane said with a mild flush across her cheeks.
Katie laughed. “Are they shipping us? Who’d have thought girls with boys on the brain like them would be appreciative of that sort of thing?”
Akane flushed a bit brighter, this time at Katie’s carefree reply. “Can you blame them? I mean, with all the time we spend together it’s not hard for people to believe that there’s something going on.”
Katie nodded in agreement. “Despite the fact that you are arguably the second straightest girl I’ve ever met even after your noted attitude towards boys.”
“Second?” Akane asked. “I didn’t know there could be girls more heterosexual than I.”
“She was my very first unrequited love, a girl too good for me.” Katie smiled wryly. “She helped me master my swimming too, and taught me Cavitation.”
Cavitation, the powerful punching ability Katie demonstrated to Akane the day they began their plunge training, and would teach her when she overcame her swimming deficiency once and for all.
Akane was impressed. “She must really be amazing.”
“She is,” Katie said, “I’ve been thinking about her quite a bit since we started training. She was the one who helped me overcome the worst part about swimming for me.”
“What was that?”
“Deep water,” Katie replied. “I’d been terrified of it from when I was little, after I first saw Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio, and learned how deep and huge the ocean could get. A dense girl like me who can only sink? I was scared for a long time, until she helped me get over it.”
“So, kind of like you and me,” Akane asked.
Katie closed her eyes and pouted. “Yeah, except I’m not being crushed upon by my determined and lovestruck student.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if you were?” She wanted to say it aloud, but Akane bit down on it, her face coloring some. Instead, she opted for something else. “How did she help you overcome it?”
Katie stood under the spray of the shower, her eyes closed, her thoughts going back to the cold waters of the Bay of Biscay, and the descent towards darkness far below.
“Fear is irrational, even when it makes perfect sense to be afraid. She taught me that most of the time when we panic, when we give in to fear, it isn’t even because of the thing we fear, but of being unable to do anything about whatever we’re afraid of."
The shock of the cold wore off quickly as Katie focused on more important things. Staying close to the cable that led to seafloor. Staying close to Lida. Failure to do either meant certain death.
“Believing that fear lets it win.”
Fifty meters, well past what recreational divers considered safe, the point where any help was possible in an emergency had been long passed. A hundred meters, the world record for constant weight without fins… deeper they went, and darker it became, the sun’s rays struggling to pierce the water further down.
“The key to overcoming the fear is telling it that it’s wrong, and that it’s nothing but a remnant of when you didn’t know what you could do. It’s simple confidence, but that can only come from putting in the work to back it up.”
One hundred-fifty meters, the operating depth of most Allied Submarines in World War II. Two hundred, where the Germans could go. Here, the light was almost entirely gone, a faint glow from above. At this depth, the rope had to be illuminated–slow-flashing strobes guiding both girls towards the bottom.
“When you can do it though…” Katie smiled before she washed the soap from her hair.
Three hundred meters. Nine-hundred eighty-four feet. A third of a kilometer. Almost a fifth of a mile. Greater men had died striving for less than what a pair of teenaged girls had achieved. Setting foot down on the cold, silty seafloor, Katie spared a moment to peer in the darkness that surrounded her, illuminated only by the gradual flickers of the lights mounted on the ropes.
And then by something else, a gentle white light that began to spread across the seafloor. Turning around, she looked up and found Lida floating above her, smiling as the gentle white light shined forth from her irises and the white splotches of her otherwise jet black hair.
Katie pulled her head out from under the spray and spat out some of the water that attempted to get into her mouth. “… You’ll live a life unlike any other.”
In her stall, Akane finished washing her own hair and hummed. “So basically, believe in myself, and I can do anything?”
“Pretty much, I mean… look at all the stuff you can already do. Any part of you that tries to hold you back? It’s wrong by default, you’re stronger than you think.”
Katie finished rinsing off and shut off the shower before running her fingers through her wet hair to make sure she got all of the shampoo. As she stepped out, she turned to see Akane emerge from her stall, wringing the last bit of water from her own damp hair.
Akane looked back up at her, and let out a small laugh. “When you put it like that, what do I have to be afraid of?”
“I don’t know, do you?” Katie asked.
Akane’s gaze only became more focused. “You know what I’m talking about, senpai.”
Taken aback by Akane’s tone, Katie closed her eyes and let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, I do.”
When she opened her eyes, Akane narrowed the distance between them, but the taller Katie still needed to lean down to erase it completely.
= = =
Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written parody. Ranma ½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Studio Deen, Shogakukan, Viz Media, and Madman Entertainment. Support the official release, okay?
Senpai
A Ranma ½ Story
Chapter 11/?
|Back in the Ring|
Kosaku almost decided on skipping school the next morning. There was no way he could walk through that gate and face his classmates, especially the members of the club he’d formerly been Captain of. The idea, the fear of having to carry the stigma of being the first Captain to lose his position for such a humiliating reason should’ve tipped him towards just laying in bed and not bothering to get up.
He didn’t want to miss the usual breakfast deals offered by the shops along the way though, so it was a simple matter of cajoling a bit of money from his mother, slipping on his uniform and heading out the door.
“At least there’s the food, I can’t be banned from eating,” he said as he reached the bottom of the stairs of his apartment–expecting to find Ukyo’s cart waiting outside with griddle sizzling.
Instead he found an empty spot that Ukyo had occupied for days on end.
“Huh? What…?” He looked around, confused. There was no sign of her anywhere.
His heart fell, he’d been hoping to just pig out today. It wasn’t like there was anything left for him to do.
“Was it something I said?” He asked before he began up the street towards the school.
Or did she pity him? He really hoped it wasn’t that… he didn’t need her pity, just something to eat.
Shaking his head, he began jogging up the street, a habit ingrained in him by boxing and made moot by his voracious eating. He would just head up to the Donburi shop and have a little extra of a tasty breakfast bowl. Or rather he would if the sign on the door didn’t say it was closed.
“What?!” Pulling a phone out of his pocket, Kosaku checked the time, and realized the place should’ve been open an hour ago. “Why the heck…?”
He turned and jogged faster up the road. The ramen cart! He could grab something to eat there, and–it was closed too. The cart wasn’t set up and the owner was completely absent.
As it turned out, the convenience store was closed, too, as was the bakery. The Taiyaki stand being shut down was the final straw, and Kosaku was soon charging towards the school, his stomach growling and his vision red. All of his favorite places to stop and eat closed? Even if it meant hurting their business by turning away other customers? Hatanaka Kosaku may be a glutton, but he wasn’t an idiot! He knew that someone powerful was manipulating things!
It was bad enough that he was being thrown out of boxing, but to punish him like this?! Now he was furious!
“WHERE IS HE?!” Kosaku shouted as he reached the schoolyard. “WHERE’S SAOTOME?!”
Behind him the gates of the school slammed shut, startling him, and Kosaku realized that nearly every student in the school was standing in a broad circle around the path leading to the building’s steps–the ring bordered by the school’s male students, who all stood at-ease with their arms folded behind their backs and their feet spaced. On the other side of the circle, Ranma stood waiting, holding up a large cast-iron tower shield at his side.
“I’m right here,” Ranma said. Behind him, up on the steps, Nabiki, Akane, and Katie stood with Kodachi, who was wearing a look of pure scorn that she leveled directly upon Kosaku.
Seeing Kodachi’s harsh glare, Kosaku paled and tensed up. He was glad that, far as he knew, looks couldn’t kill–he’d be dead where he stood, burned to ash, if they could.
If her look was dangerous, her words were near fatal.
“Hatanaka Kosaku! You stand before I, the Black Rose Kuno Kodachi, accused of failing to live up to the expectations set when you were chosen as Captain of the Boxing Club. You are also being charged with fraud, misappropriation of Student Council assets, and embarrassing the name of my Furinkan High School through the sin of your filthy gluttony!”
Kosaku’s mouth fell open, as the frustration that brought him here became horror as Kodachi exposed him properly.
“Only by the miracle of your overeating habit being detected, has this establishment been spared the humiliation of what your vice would bring to the school. Had it not, however, we would’ve had to bear the shame of a boxer who cannot make weight!” Kodachi thundered on, her vehemence carrying across the field.
She focused all of that ire upon the target of her contempt. “What do you say, in your defense, Hatanaka Kosaku?! Are you not the glutton who cannot control his desires?! Are you more a pig than pigs themselves?! Do you have the courage to lie before the truth that has been laid bare?!”
Kosaku, his body tense, tried to look away from his peers, but he couldn’t. Wherever he turned, he was met by disapproving looks, disbelieving eyes, and vicious words muttered about him… at him…
“I… I…” He began.
“I took the liberty of closing every restaurant, cart, stand, and market within two kilometers of this school to prove a point,” she went on, “That you would come here. Frustrated, furious! Was I not correct? For what reason did you demand Saotome Ranma? To beg for your post back, for a final chance to live your dream? Or was it the food you wanted?”
Kosaku stopped again, any words he’d been trying to say as she spoke withering away. He tried to look away from her again, but this time when he did he saw Ishida just behind Ranma, his face stony and eyes brimming with contempt. Next to him, Shunpei looked about ready to cry, the first year witnessing the humiliation and fall of the person he once called Captain.
“It doesn’t matter what you say, for I have made your answer for you. The only reason you are here, Hatanaka Kosaku, is to reclaim your position as Captain of the Boxing Club. I will allow this, only on the condition that you conquer the beast that is your gluttony. For a man enslaved by his vice is no man, he is the vice incarnate.”
She brought up her hand to toss back her long side-tail. “To that, what do you say? Will you accept my unwarranted generosity?”
Kosaku couldn’t believe it, was… was he really being given another chance? In spite of what Saotome said? It was too good to be true… he couldn’t just expect to have it all just like that?
“Y-yes! Of course!” He shouted back. “I want to! I will! I promise I won’t let you down, I swear it on my-”
“Silence,” Kodachi cut him off. “Do not merely tell me that you will do what I ask of you, any worthless filth can say sweet words. A man shows his resolve in his action.”
She gestured down to Ranma. “Punch Saotome with all of your might, with every ounce of your resolve, and I will measure it from here.”
At that Ranma smirked and readied the tower shield he had with him. Kosaku looked from her to Ranma, a bit disbelieving. This was his trial? One punch?
“You want me… to punch him?” He asked after looking back up at her.
“Can you?” Kodachi asked.
Kosaku looked at his fist, and then at Ranma, who just smirked and gestured for Kosaku to come at him. “Come on, Hatanaka, show me what you’ve got under all of that flab! This is the only chance you’ve got, and if you don’t show me something worth working with, you don’t have to worry about coming back to school, either!”
“That’s correct, if I cannot see an ounce of resolve from you,” Kodachi declared, “I will see to it that you are banned from every boxing ring and every restaurant in Tokyo. They will know your face as that of failure, an untouchable beast. From here on, your fate is in your own fist!”
Hearing that, Kosaku clenched his hand into a fist. His fate… in his fist?
Ranma got ready. “I’m waiting, Hatanaka!”
Kosaku looked straight ahead, at Ranma, and tightened his fist further. “My fate… it’s all mine. I can’t blame anyone if I lose here, just me…”
He immediately thought of what happened yesterday, and the week before. “I’ll only have myself to blame. And there’s no going back after this. If I fail here, I won’t be able to eat at my favorite restaurants-”
Kosaku squashed that train of thought. “No… I won’t be able to box! Ever again!”
He then dug his feet into the sidewalk, and shot forward, accelerating straight towards Ranma with both fists coming to his chest and then rising up to guard like a boxer charging his opponent.
“If I can’t box… then what will I be…?!”
Fire began to burn in his eyes, as he closed the distance.
“A loser…? A guy who eats a lot…?!”
He moved faster, as he drew his right to launch it.
“I won’t…!”
Upon reaching Ranma, he fired his punch, aiming straight for Ranma’s face like he was going to punch through his head.
“I WANT TO BE A BOXER!” He yelled as his fist traveled to connect with its target.
A tremendous clang sounded instead, as Kosaku’s fist plunged into the face of the tower shield Ranma had carried, the metal vibrating at high frequency from the force of the impact. An instant later, there was a tremendous gust of wind as the shockwave blasted off the shield in every direction, blowing back against Kosaku as well, the abrupt wind sweeping his short bangs up into sharp spikes without the need of any hair gel. The same wind buffeted the other students, and kicked up a great cloud of dust behind and to Kosaku’s side, causing the other students to cover their faces and turn their heads to shield their eyes.
When the wind died down, the stunned Kosaku was even more shocked to see a large, deep crack appear in the iron shield, before it fell away in two halves that then crumbled to the ground, revealing Ranma standing behind it, clapping his hands.
“Did… did I just do that…?” Kosaku wondered to himself, as he looked at his still outstretched fist. It tingled, but it didn’t hurt at all!
“Then a boxer you will be,” Kodachi decreed. “Your resolve has moved me, Hatanaka Kosaku, I will sit no more on this matter, I look forward to the success and accolades you bring to Furinkan High School.”
She turned away, and looked back towards Ranma. “Saotome, see to absolving him of his sin.”
“Will do,” Ranma said as the crowd of yammering onlookers began to disperse as well. “Hatanaka, let’s get going!”
“To train?” Kosaku asked as he shook his hand.
“Training the usual way is impossible,” Ranma said. “Nope, I’m going to show you how you’re going to beat this eating problem of yours.”
He gestured to him. “We’re going to the kitchen, get going.”
Kosaku gaped in confusion.
The kitchen?
|Don’t Fear the (Carolina) Reaper|
Ranma walked ahead of Kosaku, keeping the pace brisk enough so the boy wouldn’t lose interest and wander off. It was certain to be a bafflement, how cooking was going to fix Kosaku’s problem with food. Ranma could tell the boy was dreading being fed until he would get sick at the idea of being fed, but that was far too mundane.
Still, he could alleviate a few of the boxer’s concern. “See Hatanaka, the problem is that the stuff you eat is passable but unremarkable. Because of that, you just stuff your face out of habit. So you, with your amnesia of the event, thusly eat again because you don’t remember. And hey, maybe deep down you just like to eat and eat, but you have to sacrifice something to get anywhere.”
“I’m ready, I just don’t-” Kosaku tried to speak up and reassure the Chairman. He was for real now, he was going to be a man. The man now, just show him the way.
“-Understand how this will help. Well, we just need to do more than closing places close to you in order to get you to stop!” Ranma finished for him. “You need to eat something that will keep you honest on your diet.”
He opened the door, being dutifully followed by Kosaku.
“How are you Hatchan?” Ukyo asked, standing by one of the stern looking cook ladies.
“U-Ukyo-san?! But-” Kosaku sputtered.
“I got paid to close up for today.” Ukyo revealed, cutting off the boxer before he could do something to raise the ire of everyone else. “Plus I got a nice little bonus for helping you keep your diet.”
“Huh?” Kosaku’s brain broke at the idea of her helping him.
“The President took care of talking it over with your folks, so you’re not going to be eating your mom’s probably fantastic cooking until we can balance out your weight and nutrition.” Ranma said, “Instead, you’re going to be eating a special okonomiyaki for breakfast and dinner, plus a new bento that only you’ll get.”
“And I’m getting paid rather amazingly for this so don’t screw this up for me Hachan. I want my own brick and mortar shop.” Ukyo added, giving him a glare.
“I wouldn’t dream of it! Not now not ever!” Kosaku replied. “If I did that, I would have to slit my belly to recover from the shame.”
“That’s sweet of you,” Ranma said with an amused expression. “And that’s why I’m here. Your belly stays intact and gets to sample some good stuff.” He cracked his knuckles. “Wait here, I’ll make your breakfast.”
Off Ranma went amongst the various burners and equipment.
“Does he know what he’s doing?” Kosaku felt he needed to ask.
“Sure does; when it comes to food he cooks like he fights. Which is to say better than ninety-five percent of the world.” Ukyo said, shrugging.
“Really?” Kosaku asked.
Ukyo nodded. “Yeah. We grew up together, and I’d make him Okonomiyaki he used to go crazy for before he left. That rubbed off on him, because when we met again about four years ago he had started cooking and was amazing at it.”
She then smirked. “He thinks of a dish like an opponent, and the prep how to beat it. The result is food that doesn’t just taste good, you feel good after eating it.”
“What a talented guy.” Kosaku found his respect for the Chairman deepening by the second.
It looked like he was sauteing ground pork now, the smell of spices beginning to fill the air.
“Is… is this mapo tofu?” Kosaku asked, he wasn’t much for Chinese but he learned the names of all foods just in case.
“When it’s my turn you’ll understand everything, Hachan.” Ukyo reassured him. “If not for me, your dreams would truly be dead.”
“Really?” Kosaku was kind of surprised.
“Ranma’s dead set on helping you out but he doesn’t have time to babysit you. That’s part of where I come in, because I can help deliver your ‘medicine’ to you.” Ukyo explained, cracking her knuckles. “Looks like it’s about time.”
“Ukyo, you’re up!” Ranma called, as he dished up the Mapo Tofu into a holding container.
“Hell yeah!” Ukyo took Ranma’s spot, beginning to make an okonomiyaki.
“Chairman.” Kosaku said it with full respect. “Mapo tofu?”
“Listen, Hatanaka, when it comes to cooking, the only thing that separates truly great cooking and the merely good is the impact it leaves. You consume good food en masse because it fills you up and leaves you feeling comfortable even after you’ve almost eaten yourself sick, because you want to feel good and feel the things good food makes you feel.”
Kosaku nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been there.”
“But what was the last great thing you ate? The thing that sticks out in your memory because it hit you so hard with flavor that you remember the day, time, what you were wearing and the song on the radio?” Ranma explained in a lecturing tone.
“The first time I had an okonomiyaki from Ukyo.” Kosaku didn’t even need to think about it. He had been out jogging for a while, trying to feel like a boxer when he saw the yattai and smelled the food. Oh it smelled like heaven on earth and tasted even better.
“How she gets you, you’re still chasing that taste.” Ranma confirmed with a snicker. “Which proves the point, you eat a lot because it doesn’t hit you like it should.”
Kosaku seemed doubtful when the completed Mapo Tofu okonomiyaki was held out to him. He swallowed a sudden mouthful of drool.
“This will knock your appetite right out,” Ranma reassured him.
“You’ll understand once you taste it.” Ukyo assured him. “I had my doubts but I tried it and it took me by surprise too.”
“Eat up, this is all you get for breakfast.” Ranma ordered.
Kosaku licked his lips in anticipation and took that first bite. Immediately, he was hit by a fierce bolt of spice and flavor. It almost staggered him as he chewed the food, pulses of numbing and heat causing his face to flush. He had to take a breather after that first bite, trying to cool down. “It’s soooo hot but it’s too delicious to stop!”
He attacked the okonomiyaki with abandon, as the heat of the food made his eyes water as well as his nose. He occasionally complained, but he just could not put it down. He had to eat more more more! And indeed it burned and burned!
“It was so good!” Kosaku announced after he finished, his lips stained red with sauce. “Oh my… oh my!”
“How do you feel?” Ranma asked with a slight smirk.
“Like I lit my face on fire yet I loved every second of it.” Kosaku was cleaning up the remains that he could see or feel on him.
“How about something else? A lobster special?” Ukyo offered, presenting an already prepared example before him.
On sight, Kosaku’s face twisted in pain, as if he was being stabbed some invisible knife. “No… no that’s fine. I’m... I’m not…”
He stopped, his eyes widening. “I’m not… hungry?”
He wasn’t. He didn’t have any appetite at all for seconds!
“And you won’t be for a while, at least until lunch.” Ranma said
Kosaku looked up at Ukyo, then at Ranma, disbelieving. “W-what did you do?!”
“A combination of medicinal Chinese and Sichuan cooking, this Mapo Tofu Hatanaka Special works in two fold,” Ranma explained. “First, you’ll note that the thought of eating something else now repulses you. That’s because the herbs in the okonomiyaki batter are the same concoction put into porridge to help people with stomach problems keep it down as well as them wanting more of the porridge only. Add in the spice work used in the mapo tofu to create an addicting quality that makes you keep eating it even as you cry in pain and agony.”
“Which,” Ukyo continued, “basically means you’ll only want to eat that again right now. Of course, we won’t make it for you meaning you can keep your diet.”
A lot of this was going over Kosaku’s head, but the fact that he didn’t want to eat made it pretty obvious that it was working.
“Right now, we’re removing old lingering pockets of bad juju that are floating in your system as well as the lingering traces of other nasties,” Ukyo went on, “As you progress this diet menu, you’ll go on to revitalize, reinvigorate and reinforce, allowing you to get back into shape.”
“The goal is that you’ll eventually learn to curb your appetite on your own.” Ranma said, nodding his head. “At that point, you should be ready to retake your previous seat as captain.”
Kosaku, though he didn’t get most of the talk, got the most important part: follow the diet, conquer his eating problem. “I understand, but Chairman, you did miscalculate one thing: I’m still hungry.”
Ranma and Ukyo both looked at him in surprise.
“… For training that is! I have to get in shape!” Kosaku said with a smirk. “I wanna box!”
Ranma laughed at the joke, once he realized that Kosaku was only meaning he wanted to work out. “Okay, we’ll spend a little more on going over the menu with you before you start training.”
Kosaku nodded, a fire burning deep in his soul. Today was his first step!
|Discarding what breaks us|
“Three hundred meters, or nine hundred eighty-four feet.”
Thirteen year old Katie, wearing a wetsuit, stared down at the cold, dark blue waters of the Bay of Biscay, and the buoy that bobbed in the water in front of the yacht she stood at the bow of. She looked back at her Uncle, who was reading a handheld depth meter. Nick held it away from him, and then turned to look at her with a grin. “Water’s pretty frigid, a balmy fifteen degrees celsius, and about five celsius at the bottom.”
Katie didn’t react to her Uncle’s taunting, she remained focused on the water, her green eyed gaze following the rope that led from the buoy down into the waters until she just couldn’t see it anymore. Three hundred meters. Nine-hundred eighty-four feet. A third of a kilometer. Almost a fifth of a mile.
Then another voice spoke. “If the cold doesn’t kill you at the surface, it will at the bottom. But that shouldn’t bother you, should it, mi perrita?”
Katie did react this time, looking towards an older teenaged girl wearing a black and white one piece bathing suit and holding above her head a dark parasol. A girl as pale as her, with black hair braided into a ponytail over her shoulder. Her hair and her eyes were her most distinguishing feature–a dog-like merle pattern of white and gray splotches decorated her ink-colored hair, while her the irises of her eyes were a vivid titanium white.
The girl strode over to the edge of the boat, Katie watching her every move, before she joined her and looked down at the water with her. “It’s only three hundred meters, it shouldn’t take you more than fifteen minutes.”
Katie looked back down at the water.
“You sound like you’ve been further,” Nick said, his tone inferring that he knew full well she had.
“Further, deeper. The bottom of the sea is a playground in the dark that all can frolic in… they just need to let go of the fragility of their humanity.”
Katie nodded in agreement, before the other girl looped her arm around hers and leaned closer to her, resting the side of her head against hers. “Are you ready?”
Katie drew in a breath, and nodded slowly as she took the girl’s hand in her own..
The other girl, their guide and Katie’s instructor for this summer–a brilliant underwater combat expert named Lida Ysidro–smiled. “Then let’s go play in the dark.”
Their fingers interlacing, both girls leaped from the boat and crashed into the cold water below.
It was the shock of much warmer water that snapped Katie out of her daze, as she found herself amidst the swirling foam of bubbles her jumping into the pool created. Through the cloud of rapidly ascending air pockets, she could see Akane touch her feet down on the bottom of the pool, her long dark-blue hair trailing up behind her on a cloud of bubbles that had yet to escape to the surface. She was looking at her, and only her, no sign of panic to be seen as she stood on the bottom.
With an encouraging nod from her senpai, Akane crouched and jumped for the surface, using the strength of her legs to propel her to the surface. Katie was right behind her, accelerating with arms outstretched to catch her as she surfaced, to be the life preserver that kept her stable and afloat.
“I did it… I did by myself!” Akane exclaimed. “Down and back up!”
“Congrats.” Katie said, with a laugh and a smile. “You’re getting better!”
Akane decided to luxuriate in the feeling of her success and of Katie’s arms around her. It wasn’t something she was normally used to, feeling this close with another girl. But that feeling of safety and warmth made it all okay.
“Ne, Akaneko, are you going to cuddle me all afternoon or are we going to keep training?” Katie teasingly whispered to her.
“Oh... uh, sorry.” Akane blushed a little, feeling only slightly embarrassed. “I just need to cool down a bit.”
That’s what she said anyways.
“Hey don’t mind it.” Katie said, sporting an amused smile. “But we are here to learn you to sink and swim.”
Akane nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“Good to go again?” She asked as she pulled back a bit.
Akane nodded, and took a deep breath before Katie let go of her and both girls descended to the bottom of the pool like stones, this time with much fewer bubbles obscuring their view of one another.
It was honestly a wonder to see the world underwater and look right at Katie, that was how Akane’s mind filtered it all. Even as they began to piston up and down, all without creating a froth so they could enjoy this sight over and over. There were fewer breaks once they really got going, as if they were challenging each other to some kind of competition based on underwater squat thrusts.
What was this blissful feeling, the winding caress of the water as she plunged and ascended, and why had she been so afraid of it? Akane Tendo, the girl who launched people through the air like paper dolls, had allowed herself to be suckered by the talk of impossible. Her own mind had weighed her down and given rise to the fear that had prevented her from experiencing this bliss.
No longer, that was the conclusion she had come to after all this.
“Whew.” Katie said when she and Akane had finished a long routine of plunges. “I think you’re getting it down. All we need to do now is get you ready to actually move in the horizontal part of the water.”
“Just as long as I remember that up and down are still a thing.” Akane said with a shrug. “And that you’re still with me.”
“I won’t let you down as long as you don’t make me.” Katie said, adding a quick hug to her hold to remind Akane not to take offense.
“Right.” Akane allowed herself to be dragged back to the edge, where she was able to climb out. Surprisingly, Yuka and Sayuri were waiting outside the pool.
“Akane-chan, I see you’re making progress.” Sayuri said, being the more polite of the pair. They had arrived about five minutes ago to find Katie-senpai and Akane locked in some kind elaborate water based dance routine and they were still a bit off guard.
“Just a bit.” Akane said, with a smile. “I’m almost ready to start swimming around.”
“That’s awesome.” Yuka said, almost meaning it. She was watching Katie in the background and how the girl was taking the opportunity to cut loose since Akane was no longer in the immediate area. She was going back and forth underwater at high speed without breaking the water tension. “You’re almost out of your anchor prison.”
“I’m still going to sink.” Akane admitted, shrugging a little. “I just don’t have to panic as much.”
The sound of Katie breaking the water’s surface in a graceful leap that defied physics so much that seven professors tendered their resignations in disgust caught all three girls’ attention. As amazing as all three agreed the girl was, she was just so casually superhuman in the water that it bordered on the ridiculous. She landed back in the water and barely made a ripple, as the water was actually gelatin to her.
“Wow…” Akane stared, eyes sparkling, and for a second she forgot about her friends.
“So, uh,” Yuka said, trying to think of how to say this. “Ok, I can’t be totally polite about this but when the hell did you jump to the side of lilies and unrequited love?”
Akane turned an uncomprehending look on Yuka. “Eh?”
“She means when did you go from girls who are friends with Katie-senpai to wanting to be her girlfriend.” Sayuri clarified.
“I’m… what?” Akane looked confused, before she tried to laugh it off. But the notion stayed there even in the face of disbelief and dismissal. “No no, guys, it’s just in your heads.”
Sayuri and Yuka looked skeptical at that, but it was apparently not the time to talk about it as Katie launched herself from the pool and landed–completely dry–right by both of them.
“So what’s up? You guys don’t have a meet for another month so you don’t need a captain yet.” Katie said, before she leaned in. “Or are you upset that I’m ‘monopolizing’ all the available Akane time. Because I assure you, all you needed to do is call her to make an appointment.”
There was a thick pause following that as the two girls got the idea that she had heard everything.
“Now! If there is anything else you need, feel free to ask.” Katie said, standing back up right. “If you’ll excuse me, it’s lunch time. C’mon Akaneko, Kasumi-senpai said she was going to put something nice together for us, didn’t she?” She sauntered away, unmindful of anything else.
Akane nodded and jogged off after her. “She sure did.” She looked back and waved at her friends. “See you guys!”
“Told you to call her.” Sayuri whispered once they were left alone by the pool.
“Shut up.” Yuka snapped as she buried her face in the palm of one of her hands.
A few minutes later Akane stepped into a shower stall in the girl’s locker room and started it up, lost in thought. It was pretty clear that something deeper was there to her friendship with the American girl but she wasn’t quite sure if it was romantic in nature. She was definitely sure it wasn’t like her sisters, but the idea Yuka planted had yet to be uprooted.
“It’s only been a day and we’re making more progress than in a week.” Katie said as she stepped into the stall next to hers.
“Thanks.” Akane said with a happy little smile. “I almost can’t wait to be able to swim for real and not just in my dreams.”
“Almost is right, impatience leads to death.” Katie said with a nod as she began to lather up her hair with shampoo. “So what did the gossip girls want?”
“Oh, they’re bugging me about my love life.” Akane admitted. “They always have overactive imaginations when it comes to me.”
“Do they now?” Katie asked.
“Well it’s not really strange that they’d fuss over me; what with all the problems I’ve had with boys, my engagement, and well…”
“Me?” Katie asked with a bit of a grin.
“Yeah,” Akane said with a mild flush across her cheeks.
Katie laughed. “Are they shipping us? Who’d have thought girls with boys on the brain like them would be appreciative of that sort of thing?”
Akane flushed a bit brighter, this time at Katie’s carefree reply. “Can you blame them? I mean, with all the time we spend together it’s not hard for people to believe that there’s something going on.”
Katie nodded in agreement. “Despite the fact that you are arguably the second straightest girl I’ve ever met even after your noted attitude towards boys.”
“Second?” Akane asked. “I didn’t know there could be girls more heterosexual than I.”
“She was my very first unrequited love, a girl too good for me.” Katie smiled wryly. “She helped me master my swimming too, and taught me Cavitation.”
Cavitation, the powerful punching ability Katie demonstrated to Akane the day they began their plunge training, and would teach her when she overcame her swimming deficiency once and for all.
Akane was impressed. “She must really be amazing.”
“She is,” Katie said, “I’ve been thinking about her quite a bit since we started training. She was the one who helped me overcome the worst part about swimming for me.”
“What was that?”
“Deep water,” Katie replied. “I’d been terrified of it from when I was little, after I first saw Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio, and learned how deep and huge the ocean could get. A dense girl like me who can only sink? I was scared for a long time, until she helped me get over it.”
“So, kind of like you and me,” Akane asked.
Katie closed her eyes and pouted. “Yeah, except I’m not being crushed upon by my determined and lovestruck student.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if you were?” She wanted to say it aloud, but Akane bit down on it, her face coloring some. Instead, she opted for something else. “How did she help you overcome it?”
Katie stood under the spray of the shower, her eyes closed, her thoughts going back to the cold waters of the Bay of Biscay, and the descent towards darkness far below.
“Fear is irrational, even when it makes perfect sense to be afraid. She taught me that most of the time when we panic, when we give in to fear, it isn’t even because of the thing we fear, but of being unable to do anything about whatever we’re afraid of."
The shock of the cold wore off quickly as Katie focused on more important things. Staying close to the cable that led to seafloor. Staying close to Lida. Failure to do either meant certain death.
“Believing that fear lets it win.”
Fifty meters, well past what recreational divers considered safe, the point where any help was possible in an emergency had been long passed. A hundred meters, the world record for constant weight without fins… deeper they went, and darker it became, the sun’s rays struggling to pierce the water further down.
“The key to overcoming the fear is telling it that it’s wrong, and that it’s nothing but a remnant of when you didn’t know what you could do. It’s simple confidence, but that can only come from putting in the work to back it up.”
One hundred-fifty meters, the operating depth of most Allied Submarines in World War II. Two hundred, where the Germans could go. Here, the light was almost entirely gone, a faint glow from above. At this depth, the rope had to be illuminated–slow-flashing strobes guiding both girls towards the bottom.
“When you can do it though…” Katie smiled before she washed the soap from her hair.
Three hundred meters. Nine-hundred eighty-four feet. A third of a kilometer. Almost a fifth of a mile. Greater men had died striving for less than what a pair of teenaged girls had achieved. Setting foot down on the cold, silty seafloor, Katie spared a moment to peer in the darkness that surrounded her, illuminated only by the gradual flickers of the lights mounted on the ropes.
And then by something else, a gentle white light that began to spread across the seafloor. Turning around, she looked up and found Lida floating above her, smiling as the gentle white light shined forth from her irises and the white splotches of her otherwise jet black hair.
Katie pulled her head out from under the spray and spat out some of the water that attempted to get into her mouth. “… You’ll live a life unlike any other.”
In her stall, Akane finished washing her own hair and hummed. “So basically, believe in myself, and I can do anything?”
“Pretty much, I mean… look at all the stuff you can already do. Any part of you that tries to hold you back? It’s wrong by default, you’re stronger than you think.”
Katie finished rinsing off and shut off the shower before running her fingers through her wet hair to make sure she got all of the shampoo. As she stepped out, she turned to see Akane emerge from her stall, wringing the last bit of water from her own damp hair.
Akane looked back up at her, and let out a small laugh. “When you put it like that, what do I have to be afraid of?”
“I don’t know, do you?” Katie asked.
Akane’s gaze only became more focused. “You know what I’m talking about, senpai.”
Taken aback by Akane’s tone, Katie closed her eyes and let out a soft laugh. “Yeah, I do.”
When she opened her eyes, Akane narrowed the distance between them, but the taller Katie still needed to lean down to erase it completely.
|Hungry for Success|
In the gym of Furinkan High School, Ranma had just finished putting Kosaku through a heavy workout that had gotten the boxer hopeful out of his morning classes. Much of it was focused on both burning calories and shedding weight, as it was reclaiming the snap and crispness to the punches Hatanaka had risen to the top of the Boxing Club with. Still, man cannot live on guts alone and soon Kosaku’s was rumbling.
“Ah, I’m hungry.” Kosaku said it so matter of factly that it seemed like part of an unseen comedy routine.
“That’s fine, the okonomiyaki was to last you until lunch.” Ranma said, cracking his knuckles. “Come on, I’ll fix you the revised athlete’s bento.”
“Right away Chairman.” Kosaku wasn’t about to argue.
Ranma had Kosaku jog, just to burn that little extra bit of calories. Still, they made it to the kitchen and the section reserved from the unofficial Head Chef of Furinkan High. The latter waited in anticipation as the former began to get to work.
“Now, before I start cooking, I’ll let you know that even though this is a bento, this will actually be made with French techniques.” Ranma said, making sure he had everything ready. “Because I don’t really want you to just rely on Sichuan and I’d rather you think of lunch as a reward. You’ll still be eating an okonomiyaki off the training menu for dinner tonight, but you have something ‘fattening’ for right now. But it’ll be anything but...”
“Sounds great but… you can cook French food?” Kosaku was amazed. This guy was younger than him but he was so talented.
“Turns out my aptitude for learning techniques expanded outside martial arts.” Ranma answered as he began cooking. “Took a little bit of reading plus sitting in on lunch prep here before I got it down. Don’t worry though, it won’t be exactly butter and beef fat for days. You’re going to be burning this off anyways.”
“Right.” Kosaku said, deciding to shadow box a little as he waited.
It didn’t take comparatively long for Ranma to finish the dishes involved in the French Bento for Kosaku. Not that time was an issue, Ranma had all day to put Kosaku’s face to the grindstone anyways. Still, the food was done and the boxer was one lecture away from eating.
“Now, French food is pretty novel and yet, still well entrenched from the post-war recovery. Because of how it’s cooked, French food comes off as more filling and thus it was more desirable to those starving after the war.” Ranma explained, before he gestured to the Bento.
“A few quick French items: A Croque Monsieur sandwich, some sauteed white asparagus, and salmon salade nicoise. The first is a ham and cheese sandwich topped with bechamel sauce and then more cheese to make it crunchy, and the last is a salad prepared with salmon, green beans, potatoes and some hard boiled eggs. All in all, the point is to hit your stomach with some dense and rich flavors to contrast the lightness of the breakfast and dinner.”
“Got it.” Kosaku was trying not to drool, a hard thing when it smelled so good.
“Just a reminder you will get these ‘delicious’ bento only if you follow the diet perfectly.” Ranma said, holding it back. “If you cheat, and I’m watching you heavily now, you’ll get gruel. Flavorless, soul destroying gruel.”
His expression and tone then became quite severe. “For. All. Of. Your. Meals.”
“You can break my fists if I betray you like that again Chairman.” Kosaku said, extending out his right hand in oath. “I will lead Furinkan to its first glory in boxing and then I will conquer the world and bring a world championship to Japan!”
“Thatta boy.” Ranma said, passing him the bento. “Now eat up, you have a long day of further training to do before club.”
Kosaku didn’t need to be told twice, as he attacked the bento with abandon. The flavor hit so hard it was like he was sparring, each bite sending a jolt of deliciousness up his spine. It was almost enough to make him take a knee and surrender but her needed the energy, he need to fuel himself up for what was to come.
A single tear slipped down his cheek, emotions running wild as he realized he didn’t deserve the kindness they had offered him. He didn’t deserve this. He had been such a heel about it, whining and cursing the guy who wanted him to succeed.
“I’ve been so stupid.” Kosaku said, just barely loud enough to be heard by Ranma. “Even after I wasted your time, and betrayed you… you gave me another chance.“
“Well, yeah,” Ranma said. “You got something worth believing in there in that fist of yours. What self-respecting martial artist would want to see that go to waste?”
Kosaku looked down at the bento. “Kuno.”
The elder of the siblings, naturally.
“After Kuno came here and made this whole school all about him, nobody cared about the other clubs, we fended for ourselves… or we just took the free time for granted.” He sighed. “For the first time, there’s someone who believes in us. Even a gross overeater like me.”
He smiled big then. “I don’t want to let you guys down.”
Ranma returned the smile. “You won’t, trust me. Now let’s get your lunch digestin’, Hatanaka.”
With that, they exited the kitchen for the gym once more, Kosaku jogging the whole way. It was a weird scene, to be sure, with Kosaku laughing as he ran with Ranma keeping up with a serious expression on his face. But there they went, master and disciple, pushing on to take that all important first step to glory.
After several laps around the school, they were back in the gym, where the boxing club had gathered. Even though Hatanaka was still in his redemption tour, he was still regarded as the captain and thus had a duty to those who looked up to him during the time he had been in the seat. It was for this reason he stood before them, to speak to them all about what was to happen now.
“Everyone, let me first apologize for being so weak to let you all down.” Kosaku said, looking at all the members. “The truth was… for a while there, I loved to eat more than I loved to box. It took me losing everything to realize that I love boxing more. It’s been there for me since I was little and it’s the only thing I could ever see myself doing. My eyes are clear and my vision is focused.”
“Hatanaka.” Ishida said, feeling hope again. “I want to believe in you, but it’s hard after the last couple times.”
“I know, and I will earn that trust again in time Senpai.” Kosaku said with a small smile. “But right now, I’m going to get back down to Flyweight and stay there. Sakigachi’s captain is a Flyweight and if we’re going to win the meet, I need to be the one to face him. And that’s why I’m going to work even harder and follow the diet even all the way to hell if it takes me there. I want to see what the summit looks like and I want to share it with you guys.”
“Well shoot Hatanaka!” Shunpei yelled, pumping a fist. “If you’re going to talk like that then we’re going to make sure you make weight!” The rest of the club made a rousing cheer at that.
“Everyone, thank you.” Kosaku said with a smile as he curled his right hand into a fist. “I finally realized it when I hit that shield today, that the weight and all the food ended up dulling my senses. That punch was godawful and not fit to be thrown by even the worst amateur. That’s what I allowed myself to become, despite of the power still living in these fists. I refuse to go back to that again, I am Hatanaka Kosaku, the man who will conquer the world of Boxing!.”
That brought cheers from everyone in the gym, those who were supposed to be working but were listening in.
“That’s right! Why stop with high school?” The Sumo Captain yelled. “Let’s all aim for the heights together as men!”
“I’m gonna win olympic gold!” A judoka cried.
“I’m gonna win the world championship in karate!” A karateka followed up.
“Yokozuna!” Several sumos chanted together.
“Ooooh!” The whole gym chorused.
“Well then.” Ranma said, clapping his hands. “We got a lot to do then if we’re making these dreams come true! Now get to work!”
“YES, CHAIRMAN!” The boys shouted back.
“We were the shameful,” Kosaku thought later, as he continued to hit the mitts with Ranma. “We threw in our pride as men and lost our backbones and our guts, because we couldn’t believe in ourselves.”
His jabs, already starting to look better, met Ranma’s mitts with heavy, loud thuds..
“We didn’t have the resolve to stand up for ourselves, or for someone who needed us to,” Kosaku continued to think, using the emotions swirling inside him to surge along with the demands.
“Come on Kosaku, put your hips into it and actually swing!” Ranma shouted. “Give me an upper worthy of a future world champion!”
“God, I don’t know if you’re out there or if you can even hear me.” Kosaku thought as he curled up. “But if you are, listen up! If I can erase that shame with this fist, then you can have everything else. Take the food, take my looks, take everything… just as long as I still have this fist to defeat the past and win the future!”
The young boxer uncorked himself, delivering an uppercut that thrust itself at the Heavens as if demanding an answer. The bang of his glove colliding with the mitt caused everyone else to stop and gawk. Ranma was left on his tippy toes to keep from being flung away with such a tremendous blow.
“That’s what I want out of you, Future World Champ!” Ranma said with a giant grin. “Your body is already starting to recover the shape it needs. Take a breather, I need to put Ishida through his paces, then you’re sparring with Shunpei.”
“Thank you very much!” Kosaku said, breathing heavily as he exited the ring. “More… I need to do more!”
When Kosaku arrived home later, there waiting on the stoop of his apartment building was what appeared to be an angel relaying a gift from the Gods. Okay, it was just Ukyo but she was a sight for sore eyes. He stopped and appreciated the sight, knowing she was only here because of the business deal she had struck with Ranma and Kodachi, but it was hard to care.
“Good evening, Kuonji-san.” Kosaku said respectfully. “I hope today has been profitable.”
“Oh it has, it has Hacchan.” Ukyo said with a smile, looking down at the okonomiyaki for a second. “But this is important. You’re my friend and I want you to live up to your dream so even if I lost a lot of money I wouldn’t care right now.”
“I’m glad.” Kosaku smiled. “So what’s tonight menu?”
“Twice cooked pork okonomiyaki. The spice is of course through the roof but the herbs I put in it will help you sleep and calm your stomach down for the night.” Ukyo announced, holding it out to him before adding. “It’s made by me, so it’ll be the best you’ve ever had.”
With restraint, for him anyways, Kosaku carefully took the okonomiyaki and savored the aroma. “Ahh, smells divine.” He took a bite and was punched in the face with the spice. “Sooo hot, but delicious!” He worked his way through it, managing to finish it without crying despite the higher heat.
Ukyo applauded him. “Good job, Hacchan. You’re well on your way to getting passed this hurdle.”
It took a few gulps of air before his tongue stopped sizzling. Then, Kosaku said, “Thanks, I’ve got you to help keep me on the road. When I am world champ and people ask for the secret to my punching power, I’ll plug you okay?”
“You better, or I’ll knock you out myself!” Ukyo gave him a playful swat on the arm. “I’m sure the thought had crossed your mind, about why Ranma didn’t just force you to cut the weight.”
“It had,” Kosaku said, considering that was where his mind went with the whole diet in the first place.
“Well, it’s because he grew up travelling the road with his pops.” Ukyo said, painting the picture in Kosaku’s head. “So he knows the pain of not being able to eat and starving. It’s why he stuck to cooking so much, it gave him a way to get food without stealing. He definitely wanted to solve your issue without it, because he knew it’d ruin your body. You’re not a pro yet, so you can’t be expected to just go full bore like they do. If you think it’s hard now, you won’t last a day on the Pro’s road.”
“It wasn’t hard at all, I was just weak.” Kosaku said with a sigh. “It’s regrettable but that’s probably my deepest shame. I let myself be defeated by something so easy but now I can finally see what I need.” He looked at her for a second, all cute and curvy but also not interested in him. “I need to keep my eyes toward the prize you know? Don’t settle for the immediate pleasure, go for the long term success.”
“That’s how you do it Hacchan.” Ukyo said with a grin and a laugh. “I gotta get going, take care now.”
Kosaku watched her leave before sighing deep and heavily. “I wonder, did I fall in love with her or her food? Man, it doesn’t matter, she’s out of my league anyways. Maybe someday I’ll meet a girl for me and it won’t be a total mess.”
With that thought, the young boxer went on home to rest for the evening, the first good sleep he’s had in months.
|It’s All Good|
Beneath the late evening night sky, Nabiki and Kasumi sat on the back patio of the Tendo home, enjoying the summer night. Tea and cookies were set on a tray between them, while a laptop computer was in front of Nabiki, who was comfortably cross-legged on a folded blanket. Nabiki was composing an email, yet another shot in a long correspondence she’d been involved in on behalf of Kodachi.
“What a crazy couple of weeks it’s been, huh?” Nabiki asked as she finished sending the email. The responses so far had been very favorable.
Nice as summer could be, it was well known for its storms.
Kasumi nodded in agreement. “A lot has happened, yes…”
“It’s not going to calm down any, either,” Nabiki went on. “It’s a long school year ahead of us, our row isn’t something that’s going to be over before the summer break begins.”
Butsumetsu being taken down a peg was easy for sure, but now that she was getting a picture of the scene at Tomobiki via her correspondence, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the fights to come wouldn’t be as easy as Kodachi was ramping everyone up to believe. The show of force had certainly had its effect, and now everyone was scrambling for whatever power they could have lest they get shown some force, too.
Kasumi sighed a bit wistfully. “I wish my high school days were as exciting.”
“Yours were a different kind of exciting,” Nabiki teased.
Kasumi giggled before she took a sip of her tea.
Closing her laptop, Nabiki looked back at the partially ajar patio door. Soun and Genma were playing shogi, while watching the news, so they were completely unaware and out of earshot.
“Hey, speaking of excitement, if Katie does manage to win Akane over to the lily side of things… where do you want to go with this?”
“Do you mean with Katie or with…?” Kasumi led.
“With the engagement, and I guess with Katie. I mean, it’s not like either of us don’t know what’s going on, and I guess Ranma’s involved now too in this growing pile of bodies.”
Kasumi nodded in agreement. It was only a matter of time, naturally, before Ranma became involved with one of those tempting young women, and she was pretty certain that Misao was the one who won him over.
“We should invite them over for dinner,” Kasumi suggested. “It seems that whenever we communicate, someone is left out of the chain that has to be told later. It’s getting complex, taboo even… there will be so much that needs to be aired out.”
Nabiki stared at her sister for a long, silent moment, before she flat out said it. “Are you sure you don’t have some kind of lewd ulterior motive?”
“No!” Kasumi exclaimed, before she wore a teasing smile of her own. “But now it’s in my head~”
A snort left Nabiki’s nostrils, before she looked up at the night sky. “Can we play around a little bit more, before we start having to get serious?”
“Now who’s being lewd?” Kasumi asked.
“You are, you know what I meant,” Nabiki snapped back at her.
Kasumi giggled once more, before she took a look at her cellphone’s display. It was late and Akane wasn’t home yet.
“I think I was right, by the way,” Kasumi said. “It’s been about a week.”
Nabiki closed her eyes, and let out a chuckle. “Yeah.”
Under the same night sky, but completely oblivious to it, Misao say back and laughed as Ranma flailed while desperately trying to not get shot in a violent game of hide and seek involving props, hunters in HAZMAT uniforms, and banana men.
The buzz of her phone caught her attention, an easy feat given its storage between her breasts. Plucking it from her cleavage, she swiped the screen and found a message from Katie. After reading it, she smiled and glanced in Ranma’s direction warmly.
The good news could wait for after the stream. Ranma would be very happy to know they had the whole apartment to themselves for the night.
After hearing of his triumph with Kosaku, Ranma deserved some proper praise.
“Ahh he got me!” Ranma cried out in sudden dismay as her hiding place was literally blown open. “That damn Banana Bastard!”
Misao tossed her head back and laughed.
Lowering her phone, Katie let go a soft chuckle, and looked over to Akane as the two walked down an empty street. The two had spent the entire afternoon and evening to this point just walking around the neighborhood, getting a feel for the new dynamic–the shifted status quo.
“So, feel any different?” She asked her.
Akane, whose cheeks were making her name apt at this moment, looked at Katie then away again. She had a small, but happy smile. “Is different good or bad? I feel… good, but-”
“It’s hard to articulate, huh?” Katie asked. “I was the same way when I realized I liked boys.”
Akane gave Katie a look when the foreigner laughed again, but resumed smiling. “I don’t think I'm going to go crazy for every girl I meet. I mean, the list of ones that do stuff for me is pretty short.”
“A list have you, hm?” Katie asked with a smile that now promised vicious teasing.
Seeing that smile, and ready for her, Akane chose to deny her by owning it. “It’s a short one, really short, and you're number two.”
Katie gave pause. “Number two?”
“You don’t walk around in a leotard all day.”
Okay, Katie couldn’t argue. “Okay, that’s fair. I will take second place to that.”
She then smirked. “Or would you prefer I wore less, you pervert?”
“No comment.” No need for one, the dark flush on her face spoke volumes.
Katie rounded her, and Akane stopped to look up at her face
“You can get a look now, if you want to,” she offered.
Akane’s blush only became darker. “I… don’t know if I can go there yet. This is still so new to me, just k-kissing is a big deal.”
“That’s okay,” Katie reassured her, “No rush, no fuss. I'll go at your pace. Be the bisexual you want to be.” She punctuated her encouraging words by leaning forward and kissing Akane on her forehead. “Still, you have no idea how happy I am, Akaneko.”
Akane had an idea, as she cupped Katie’s face and pulled her down a little lower to kiss her chastely. Against her lips, Katie let out a laugh, before breaking the kiss and resting her forehead against hers.
“C’mon,” she said, “Let’s get over to your house, then.”
“Sure thing,” Akane replied, as they turned and left together, hand in hand.
They were being watched, their walk to the Tendo Dojo seen through a scope. On the other end of the scope, attached to a Gewehr 98 Bolt Action Rifle, the viewer lowered the weapon and smiled warmly before she said in English. “She’s grown up so much.”
Besides the woman, dressed in a black evening dress and a black sheer veil, was an equally young nun dressed in pure white, a stark contrast to the grim attire of her companion. She was looking through the two with a pair of binoculars, and wearing a shocked expression.
“Two women, doing such things in public…” the nun in white said in an uncertain tone, with Japanese accented English.
“Live and let live,” the woman in black said. “Long as they search for the Lord and have goodwill, who should we be to judge?”
“That’s an odd thing to say given you’re aiming a rifle at their backs.”
The woman in black chuckled. “I have no intention of shooting them, Angela.”
She raised her rifle against her shoulder and pushed up her shroud so she could watch them from the distance. To the departing couple, she spoke.
“Not before I see you one last time, mi perrita.”
|For Services Rendered|
Separation anxiety was something normally experienced by children, normally small toddlers who could now recognize that the particular caregiver in their life was absent for longer than it took for them to come rushing to their cries. However, Genma Saotome was a man well in touch with his inner-child, so to be separated from someone who he had spent so much of his continuous time with consistently, even more than his best friend and master, even more than his wife, was finally starting to weigh down on a man in his early 40s–er… mid 30s.
“I’m still a man in my prime,” Genma grumbled after glaring off at nothing. He was outside of Dr. Tofu’s clinic after acting as Mr. Panda, the helpful assistant to the Doctor that managed to draw in quite a crowd of people. It was not much, but it paid enough for what a roving martial artist like himself needed.
Though the doctor’s needling him about Kasumi and any possible interest in Ranma was off-putting. He had to tell him three times over in as many hours that Nabiki seemed more interested in the boy than either of her sisters. How such a well-to-do man just couldn’t step up and land an obviously single and desirable woman like Kasumi was beyond him.
Men who neglected their women didn’t get to keep them for very long–with him being the obvious exception of course.
All this was beside the point. Since the boy had gone to live with that AV girl and that wild animal, he’d hardly seen hide or hair of him in person. Sure he’d see he was doing fine was on plenty of youtube videos, cooking all kinds of dishes he’d evidently been holding out on him or playing video games in his cursed form–much to his chagrin of course. A stubborn man and filled with pride, Genma Saotome was not one to admit it aloud, but he wanted to see his son again.
“He could at least show some gratitude!” Genma snapped to himself as he trudged to the Tendo Dojo. “Maybe share a little in that wealth of his he’s no doubt making.”
Honestly, Italy?! That AV Girl took him to Italy! For a cooking show episode!
“I bust my ass for sixteen years training him! Sixteen years! The very least he could do is pay me back for my troubles!” He complained to the heavens.
As it turned out, Ranma was generous when it came to paying what he’s owed.
“Hey there, Genma-san.”
The voice of the young woman who called out to him, with that thick Osakan accent, caused Genma’s blood to curdle. There was only one person with an accent that obvious to be on a first name basis with him. When he whirled around, it was too late, a large okonomiyaki smacked into his face, the freshly fried confection sizzling loudly as it burned against his face.
Genma promptly began screaming from the burn, and struggled to rip off the okonomiyaki… which only caused it to explode, blasting him into a telephone pole.
His face blackened and reddened by the smoke and heat, Genma sat there in a daze, before looking up and finding Ukyo looming over him, spinning another such okonomiyaki on her fingertip.
Ah, Ukyo Kuonji, the girl whose father he talked into giving him his okonomiyaki cart in exchange for an engagement to Ranma that he promptly fled from honoring. She was certainly up there in people he did not want to see standing over him with weapons in hand.
“Hey there, old man…” She said with a grin better reserved for a Hellsing character. “… I’ve been lookin’ for you for a long time, and I think it’s a good opportunity more than ever for me to demonstrate what I’ve been up to since we last met.”
Before Genma could attempt to get a word edgewise, the okonomiyaki spinning on her finger went spinning into his face, and sizzled up again nice and hot before exploding again to the sound of his scream.
… Which was cut off by more explosions that went well into an otherwise peaceful night.
Bwahahah! That's got to be one of the best ways of phrasing that I've come across!
Oh, and now that I've had a moment to catch up with the stuff from Chapter 10 to this point: Superlative! As previously mentioned, a little bit OC-heavy for my tastes (I refer to characters such as the overeating boxer rather than Katie and her roommate), but since they are pretty important to the plot I can only say that you're handling them well. Dangling threads involving minor side characters irritate me immensely, as I feel it shows a lack of care and attention on the part of an author, and your successful avoidance of that pitfall is both enjoyable and, alas, either very rare or actually unprecedented in my entire life's consumption of fanfic, which is well into a second decade now. Bravo sir!
Oh, and now that I've had a moment to catch up with the stuff from Chapter 10 to this point: Superlative! As previously mentioned, a little bit OC-heavy for my tastes (I refer to characters such as the overeating boxer rather than Katie and her roommate), but since they are pretty important to the plot I can only say that you're handling them well. Dangling threads involving minor side characters irritate me immensely, as I feel it shows a lack of care and attention on the part of an author, and your successful avoidance of that pitfall is both enjoyable and, alas, either very rare or actually unprecedented in my entire life's consumption of fanfic, which is well into a second decade now. Bravo sir!
Well. That should satisfy my foot-in-mouth quota for a while.
In my defence, I haven't actually seen any copies (let alone read any) of that series before, though I do just barely recognize the name. This sort of minor misunderstanding is one of the reasons that multicrosses are difficult to do very, very well; the more series are woven in, the greater the chance of any given reader encountering something you as the author are very familiar with but the reader in question has never heard of. That said, if there is anything in One Pound Gospel relevant to his appearance here that you did not explicitly include, such an omission was in no way apparent, and my enjoyment of the sequence was completely unhindered.
In my defence, I haven't actually seen any copies (let alone read any) of that series before, though I do just barely recognize the name. This sort of minor misunderstanding is one of the reasons that multicrosses are difficult to do very, very well; the more series are woven in, the greater the chance of any given reader encountering something you as the author are very familiar with but the reader in question has never heard of. That said, if there is anything in One Pound Gospel relevant to his appearance here that you did not explicitly include, such an omission was in no way apparent, and my enjoyment of the sequence was completely unhindered.
Another good showing here. I love the pacing of the story and that you don't bombard us with new characters, but take the time to properly introduce them.
Will Kodachi join Katie's harem or do you have other plans for her?
I really liked the One Pound Gospel! cameo. It was a funny manga, but unfortunately much too short and I'd really have loved to see him get together with the nun.
Will Kodachi join Katie's harem or do you have other plans for her?
I really liked the One Pound Gospel! cameo. It was a funny manga, but unfortunately much too short and I'd really have loved to see him get together with the nun.
And now we go on with the next, take a breather... you're going to need it.
= = =
Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written parody. Ranma ½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Studio Deen, Shogakukan, Viz Media, and Madman Entertainment. Support the official release, okay?
Senpai
A Ranma ½ Story
Chapter 12/?
The Kuno estate had been empty since Tatewaki had gone to be treated for his injuries. When he would return it was not known, but for now the seat of the Kuno clan was Kodachi’s dominion. In her solitude, Kodachi had taken to redecorating the house in her image as she had done to the school, black and deep purples and reds being the overwhelming colors of the house’s interior.
Walking down the long hallway from her bath to the sitting room of the house, wrapped in a bathrobe and holding a smartphone in her right hand and the towel she dried her hair with in the other. After such a long and eventful day–as every day seemed to be for her lately–Kodachi was quite keen to lounge around in her big empty house and relax until it was time for sleep.
Tonight would be no different in her routine, were it not for the ringing of her doorbell. Odd, to have visitors at so late an hour, but she wasn’t the sort to release Mr. Green Turtle without entertaining them first. So she trotted over to front door and opened it.
“Yes?” She asked before she recognized the seven young women standing outside her door. “Oh, well this is unexpected.”
“Hello, Kodachi-senpai!” The young women in front of her were in fact the members of her old school’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Club. The dark-haired Tomoe, her former vice captain who ascended to the captaincy and was the closest to Kodachi’s equal, Rin, the red-haired new vice captain, the pink-haired Asuna, the floor exercise specialist with clubs, Iwa, the blue-haired master of the flag, Tamaki, who was exceptional with hoops, Otsune, a twin-tailed girl who mained the ball, and Ryoko, a tomboyish blonde who was a ribbon expert.
“What brings you all here?” Kodachi asked, looking among the other young women.
Tomoe stepped up. “There’s an important matter to discuss, Senpai. We’ve heard rumors that you’re building up for war against Saginomiya of Kolkhoz.”
Kodachi’s eyebrows rose. “I see. And you have come to lend your support?”
“We want to help out,” Ryoko said roughly. “The girls of St. Hebereke aren’t fragile.”
There was a chorus of affirmations from the other girls, as Tomoe nodded. “However we can, Kodachi-senpai, we want to fight alongside you.”
Kodachi looked among the girls, before she closed her eyes and nodded. “Please, come in then. Make yourself comfortable so we may discuss matters more freely.”
She opened her door wider for them, and turned to lead them into the house. “I didn’t think that you would want to take part. I had left St. Hebereke specifically to spare it being pulled into my conflict with Saginomiya.”
The seven girls followed Kodachi inside, Tomoe leading them. “I appreciate your wanting to preserve St. Hebereke’s peaceful beauty, senpai, but after all our time spent together the fact that you would go off without us almost feels like an insult.”
Kodachi walked from the doorway and across the foyer, passing close to the stairs leading up to the second floor and towards her living room entrance. “I apologize for that, Tomoe-san. Furinkan High School needed much work after the damage done by my family. Someone with a firm hand and a brilliant vision was necessary to guide it, so I took the first opportunity to do so almost without thinking of the consequences.”
Tomoe hummed in agreement. She then looked to her left and right, at the other girls as they began to spread out behind her.
Kodachi continued speaking. “There is one thing you are mistaken about, though.”
“What is that?” Tomoe asked as she stopped walking.
“I left St. Hebereke in peace, because as far as I care…” Kodachi slowly looked back at her former classmates, seeing all of them now with weapons in hand. “… You’re all so insufferably inept that you would be more hinder than help. You did not even attack the moment my back was turned.”
Rin, Asuna, and Iwa fell upon her, wielding a baton, a pair of clubs, and a quarter-staff respectively to bring them down upon her head. All three weapons smashed into the polished marble floor, cracking it, before Kodachi landed neatly upon Rin’s head and then leaped again, spinning over the other girls and landing behind them.
“Slow, as well,” Kodachi added as Tomoe whirled around to face her. “Did I teach you nothing?”
Tomoe’s face twisted into a snarl, as she immediately produced a riding crop and pointed it at her former captain. “You taught us teamwork!”
Otsune was next, whipping a ball at Kodachi that the Black Rose narrowly avoided with a quick sidestep, the ball leaving a large crater where it bounced off the wall. As she moved, a pair of hoops thrown by Tamaki narrowly missed her, embedding themselves in the wall as she reached the stairs and jumped up onto the banister.
Setting her feet on the inclined railing, Kodachi maintained her footing as she ducked under a club thrown at her, the maneuver allowing Iwa to vault onto the banister a few steps above Kodachi. Twirling the staff in her hands she swung at Kodachi and stabbed at her with the weapon, forcing the Black Rose to evade the strikes and parry them with her hands away from her center mass.
Behind her, Ryoko landed atop the podium at the very end of the railing, a ribbon trailing behind her that she whipped around then swung for Kodachi’s back. She jumped over the lashing ribbon, side-flipping over the stairs to land on the opposite railing.
Taking the staff and adjusting her grip, Iwa thrust the staff with such force that when it impacted where Kodachi was, it left a jagged hole like it were hit with a high-caliber bullet.
“Your form is too aggressive! It takes too long to pull your weapon back!” Kodachi warned, as she avoided the second stab, and then jumped straight up over the ribbon slash that cut a gash in the wall and sliced through the railing. At the top of her jump, she kicked off the wall, avoiding Otsune’s ball twice–first the actual through and second the rebound.
Twisting herself into a backflip, she landed atop the decorative archway above the entry to her living room and huffed as she adjusted her bathrobe.
Tamaki, with hoop in hand, looked aside to Asuna, who nodded in agreement. When Tamaki threw a single hoop at Kodachi, and the Black Rose avoided it by leaping towards the end of the hallway, Asuna was already there on an intercept course, swinging one of the clubs for her head.
It is caught in Kodachi’s hand, the second club suffers the same fate as they land on the carpet. “How predictable.”
“We couldn’t agree more,” Asuna said with a smirk, before a bright yellow cloud of mist ejected from the clubs and into Kodachi’s face, causing her to stumble back, coughing as the fast-acting toxin took hold. A paralysis agent!
“You taught us very well, Kodachi-senpai!” Asuna taunted.
Tomoe saw this, and cracked the riding crop against the floor. “Quickly!”
Iwa quickly ran up the railing overhead and jumped down, slamming her quarterstaff into the block Kodachi as Asuna brought her clubs down. As the two drew back, Ryoko’s ribbon caught around Kodachi’s left arm and allowed Iwa to clock her across the face with the end of the staff. Staggered, she was left wide open by a downward swing from Asuna, that forced her head down. Rin’s baton caught her forehead, forcing her head back up, and she staggered back.
Otsune’s ball hit next, striking her in the stomach and pushing her back, leaving her open for Tamako to run up and–rather than use her rings, turn around and spin kick Kodachi straight in the chest, slamming her up against the corner. The beating didn’t stop then, with each girl laying into Kodachi with their weapons, keeping her pinned in the corner with their strikes as Tomoe walked over, dragging her riding crop along the floor.
“Forgive us, Kodachi-senpai,” Tomoe said, “But after you forsook us to go to that commoner school… we were offered an opportunity to transfer to the ranks of the elite. You chased your ambitions without a single word of warning to us, and you expect us to not feel sore about that?”
Under the hail of blows, Kodachi responded. “You think… I can forgive… treachery…?”
“You gave us no choice-” Tomoe began.
“I can,” Kodachi cut her off. “But I will never forgive…!”
She then caught one of Asuna’s clubs with far greater dexterity than she should have been capable of, and disarmed her of it. An instant later, the six girls were flung back, hitting the floor and walls after a sweeping blow from Kodachi, who wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
“… Is anyone besmirching Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics by striking me with a barehanded blow!” She said in a voice tinged with fury.
The other girls quickly got back up to her feet, with Rin advancing forth slowly. “Don’t let up for a second!”
Asuna agreed with the vice-captain. “She should be slowed down because of the toxin!”
Otsune readied her ball. “Forgive us, senpai, but you’re only one person against all of us!”
Kodachi smirked. “Ohohoho… these are the fairest odds you’re going to get.”
Rin and Iwa were the first to strike, the longer reach of Iwa’s weapon reaching Kodachi before Rin’s own shorter, sword like baton. Jumping onto the extended pole, Kodachi vaulted over Iwa, landing behind her and clubbing her across the back of her head, dropping her in a single blow.
Rin saw this, and swung with the baton. “Bitch!”
Kodachi parried the weapon with one blow, and then with the second disarmed Rin upward before she realized what happened.
“Wha…?!” Rin began before Kodachi caught the baton in her free hand and jabbed her in the Solar Plexus, throwing her onto her back with the wind dislodged from her lungs. “Ugh!”
Asuna attacked with another pair of clubs, Kodachi blocking with her two weapons and, with greater speed, striking her in the chest and stomach, launching her back and into Tamaki. Both girls crashed into the banister, and crumpled, as above them Mousse walked down the stairs, casually observing the throwdown. Beside them, Otsune attacked decisively, throwing her ball with all her might at Kodachi.
Raising her rod, Kodachi struck the ball and directed it right into Ryoko, who was slashing at her with the ribbon, the ribbon sliced the ball into two halves, each tagging Otsune and Ryoko in the face and knocking them flat out as well.
Tomoe looked around at the best of St. Hebereke’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, all fallen like freshly reaped wheat, and then back at Kodachi with eyes now filled with fear. “… I-Impossible…! The toxin…!”
“That I have perfected in the use of since my childhood?” Kodachi asked, prompting Tomoe to blanch with fear.
Of course she would be immune to such things…
Kodachi lowered both her weapons, before tossing them to the floor so she could readjust her bathrobe. “Tomoe-san.”
Tomoe went rigid where she stood.
“When Saginomiya offered you a place at Kolkhoz, was it dependant on you defeating me?”
Tomoe’s eyes grew larger, before she slowly nodded.
“Ohohoho…” Kodachi laughed. “Well then, it would appear you will have to shamefully return to St. Hebereke’s as backstabbing traitors and idiots on top of being weaklings who smear the name of the sport they claim to perform!”
She folded her arms. “Contemplate that during your brush with oblivion.”
It was then that Tomoe sensed someone behind her, but it was too late, and with a mighty, ringing blow the current captain of St. Hebereke’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team collapsed to the floor–bashed over the head by a goose-shaped training potty wielded by Mousse.
Not that Kodachi saw it, in the speed with which he struck.
“Thank you, Mu Tsu,” Kodachi said as she walked past him.
“You’re injured,” Mousse said as he observed her.
“Hmph! A light evening workout, nothing to be concerned about,” Kodachi stopped and looked back at the girls strewn about the floor. “I’m more concerned with the fact they came to send my rival her regards.”
“Ah, your school war,” Mousse observed. Frankly such things didn’t interest him, though he respected and regarded it as a conflict between villages.
“It seems that I will have to punish Saginomiya much sooner than I had planned on,” Kodachi lamented. “Ah well.”
As calm and confident as she appeared upon the surface, underneath she was fury incarnate, bristling at the idea that her own former classmates, her own team could be so easily turned against her. For what? A chance to go to an overrated school full of subpar students who by no account should even be allowed to consider attending on academic merit alone?!
She stopped in the entryway to the living room, and narrowed her eyes. No, for this she wasn’t just going to humiliate Kolkhoz. She was going to bury them, and she had an idea of how.
“If you would be a dear, Mu Tsu, dispose of this embarrassment?”
Mousse looked back at her and extended a long knife from his robe. “Permanently?”
Kodachi was aghast at the very idea. “No, I want my enemies to suffer their humiliation. Besides, I’d rather not have a foot massage with blood splattered hands.”
At that Mousse returned the knife up his sleeve and set out to drag the first of the unconscious girls out and toss them over the mansion’s wall.
If there was one thing Asuka Saginomiya couldn’t stand, it was someone else having even a fraction more popularity than her. A few weeks ago she could post a picture of a blank wall and get a firestorm of likes and comments. Now? Now all she saw when she browsed Instagram were people commenting on some common Furinkan student’s photo sets, a sloppy mess of amateur work, and her own lovingly done and artfully rendered shots getting absolutely zero love.
However, what she hated even more than any old random peasant stealing her thunder, was that her rival, Kodachi Kuno. The student council president and undisputed master of Furinkan High School had gone to her Instagram account and posted security footage of her being cornered by, and then destroying the very best of the traitorous St. Hebereke School’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team.
“Submitted for your approval, the fate of TRAITORS,” the video’s caption read.
“How can you be so strong, Kuno Kodachi…?!” Asuka seethed angrily after watching the video for the fifth time.
She was loath to admit it, but her mortal rival’s transformation of her buffoon brother’s fiefdom into something worthy of attention had been a success. What had been just another school for delinquents and perverts in Nerima was suddenly clawing its way to prestige so fast that the surrounding property values shot up ten percent in just a week!
Worse yet, it wasn’t mere style, as the destruction of Butsumetsu High School’s fighting strength showed that the school had deadly substance–power that was deliberately left to go untapped. Kolkhoz High School’s own combatants could offer no challenge either. The Kendo Club’s best champion dispatched to send a message brought a chilling reply from Furinkan, leaving him so humbled and destitute that he withdrew from school days later, demanding that none come looking for him.
Kodachi’s swift dispatch of her own former classmates from St. Hebereke, her own former comrades, was only another debilitating setback for the White Lily that seemed to cost the Black Rose nothing. Soon Furinkan High School would move, and all rivalries with the Kuno family would be put to a sudden and devastating end.
By contrast, her school seemed to have little motivation to build its steam, and Tomobiki High School, their nominal rivals, were mired in some sort of dysfunction that made finding out what was going on there difficult. She hadn’t heard from Mendou in weeks.
“Is it hopeless?” She asked no one in particular, as she was alone in her sanctum slash office at Kolkhoz High School. “Has The Black Rose truly surpassed me? Will this be how our rivalry ends…? With the triumph of her little ‘garden’ relegating me to a distant nuisance? A lowly creature not even fit to cower in her shadow?”
She dropped down, dramatically, laying her arms onto the table and letting her white-blonde hair fan out across the oaken surface of the desk. With a deep breath, she raised a fist and dropped it onto the table.
“No… I refuse…” She pushed herself upright. “I refuse! I defy thee, Kuno Kodachi! For you are the darkness that threatens our realm, and I am the brilliant radiance that shall be its savior! Ohohohohoho!”
She stopped when she realized that her dramatic speech had an audience. Standing in front of her, with a timid look on her face, was an exceptionally pretty young woman, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, dressed in a pure white version of a Catholic Nun’s habit. Puzzled, Asuka stared at the Nun, who stared back at her.
“A-are you… Saginomiya Asuka-san?” The nun asked, nervously, as though she were sincerely hoping that the seemingly demented person she was speaking to was not her.
Asuka continued to stare. “Yes, I am Saginomiya Asuka, the White Lily of Kolkhoz High School.”
The Nun’s face fell immediately. With a sigh of resignation, she introduced herself. “I am Sister Angela of St. Mary’s Convent, I am the translator for your new self-defense instructor.”
At that, Asuka huffed. “Another one? Outrageous, I thought Daddy got the message when I dismissed the first two. I have no need for self-defense lessons, my time is extremely precious and my skills in combat are more than adequate.”
It was at this point Asuka felt something poke her in the back of the head, causing her to freeze where she stood. It was round and had a hard metallic feel, yet it wasn’t sharp at all. Was… was that a gun?
“Eres pendejo, o que?”a woman with a husky voice spoke in a language that was definitely foreign. It sounded like Spanish, but the dialect was a little off.
How did she get into the room? When? She never saw anyone until she noticed that Nun. The nun! She looked to Angela. “What did she just say?”
“That you spoke too soon about your training being adequate,” Angela replied.
“Un niño de cinco años podría apuñalarte en la espalda, y ni te darías cuenta cabron” the foreign-speaking woman then said.
“You don’t look out for yourself very well, for someone with so many enemies,” Angela translated after a moment’s hesitation.
Asuka turned around and came face to face with a bizarre woman. She was dressed in the style of a gothic lolita, wore a black short-sleeve ballroom dress sans petticoat over a black lace body stocking, as evident by the lace patterns going down her arms and ending at rings that fit over her middle fingers that matched the patterns going down her legs to her Mary Jane shoes. She was aiming a bolt action rifle at her face.
Her most startling–and disturbing–feature however, was her long braided black hair, speckled with splotches of white that varied in size, and her titanium white eyes.
“And this… person… is…?” Asuka asked.
“This is your instructor, Ysidro Lida-san,” Angela introduced, as the woman lowered her rifle and and chuckled.
“Does she understand Japanese?” Asuka asked.
Angela shook her head. “No.”
“Well tell this foreigner that I have no need of her services and she can leave. The other two were complete wastes of my time and I don’t want another distraction,” she said with an upturned nose.
“Ella no quiere que le enseñes nada, dice que ya es suficientemente buena,” Sister Angela said gently to Lida.
Lida laughed at that, before she cheerily replied. “No me importa lo que esta perra pendeja quiera, me están pagando por resultados, asi que va a aprender algo aun que no quiera.”
This was going over Asuka’s head. “What, what did she say?”
Sister Angela, a bit flushed, looked from Lida to Asuka. “She… she says that she is only getting paid if she teaches you something. So, it is in your best interest to learn.”
Asuka huffed in annoyance. “Is that a fact? Well what can she teach me? How to dress like a creepy prostitute?”
Angela winced, and simply asked Lida what Asuka could teach her.
Lida, her brows raising, let out a smooth laugh. “Ohohoho…”
Asuka stopped at that and narrowed her eyes at Lida, was she mocking her?
“Tu eres un inútil pedazo de mierda en una pelea. Tu entrenas por qué quieres que te cojan, pero en este pueblo te van a violar como la perra que eres! Si tuvieras que pelear con cualquier persona en este momento, te descuartizaron en pedazos. Y creeme, ellos lo disfrutarian. La una oportunidad que tienes…”
She then lifted up her rifle, indicating it. “Es aprender a dispararles antes de que te pongan las manos encima.”
Asuka looked at the rifle, then at her, disbelieving. “You’re saying I should shoot them?!”
Angela was surprised she got the gist of that. “Actually, yes… that’s basically what she’s saying.”
“Nonsense, I can go to jail for that!”
Angela quickly translated what Asuka said, to which Lida only chuckled again.
“Tu y tu familia tambien pueden ir a la carcel for todo el fraude..”
Angela did a double-take. “Wait, what?”
Asuka whipped her head over to Angela. “What did she say?!”
“Porcierto, ni te atrevas a decirle sobre eso,” Lida then said to Angela quickly.
“She… er… she says that it’s absolutely imperative that you do something to bridge the gap between your strength and your enemy’s. Th-they have all trained for years as martial artists, so in that sense you don’t have a chance to fight them if you had to now. Learning to shoot will make up for that difference easily.”
Asuka frowned. “I don’t know what you people do in the west, but here in Japan we aren’t allowed to even own guns without heavy regulation.”
Angela sighed and spoke Asuka’s concerns to Lida, who just rolled her eyes at the idea.
“Las armas de fuego son permitidas en este pueblo para que la gente pueda matar a los extraterrestres. No es una ley escrita, pero a nadie le importa,” Lida explained.
Angela recoiled, before she nodded slowly. “You needn’t worry about that, Saginomiya-san. The legal repercussions of owning and using a firearm are no issue.”
Asuka huffed. “Then in that case, why not just be my bodyguard?”
“We were not hired to do that,” Angela quickly replied.
Asuka turned her nose up. “I’m sorry, but did I ask you that specifically, Kirishitan?”
Angela recoiled, the implication that came with Asuka’s words biting deeply into the young nun. She frowned at the girl, how shameful! How rude! She turned to Lida, and translated her request.
Lida wore a momentary scowl, before she answered. “Si me vuelvo tu guarura nunca vas a aprender nada, perra malcriada.”
“You won’t learn anything, if all she does is protect you,” Angela warned.
“Whatever my father is paying you to be my instructor, I’ll pay you double to be my bodyguard. No! I’ll triple it!” Asuka quickly offered.
Angela’s frown deepened, but it looked like this headstrong girl was not going to listen. She turned to Lida, and translated the offer to her Spanish. When she got it, Lida let out a chuckle that turned into a deep and throaty laugh.
“Esta bien, voy a ser tu guarura,” she replied, “Pero te vas a arrepentir.”
Angela grimaced. Of course she would.
“What, what did she say?” Asuka demanded.
“She… she said she’ll be your bodyguard,” Sister Angela revealed. “And she’ll take double what your father pays her.”
Asuka smirked. “You didn’t tell her about the triple part?”
“I would rather you not spoil her,” Angela revealed, before glancing towards the woman. “Ysidro Lida-san… she is a woman of God, like myself.”
Her? A woman of God? Asuka gave her a confused look, an eyebrow raised upward at the very idea. She was dressed like she wanted to be in some dark anime about witches or something.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. All that does is that now I have something to stand between myself and Kuno,” Asuka said with a dramatic flair as she turned and walked towards the windows of her office, to gaze out it contemptuously onto the schoolyard of Kolkhoz below.
“As a member of my security detail, the first thing I order you to do is to make sure this school is secure.” She looked back at the two. “I’m sure that a reprisal will be coming from my enemies, and I want to be ready for them!”
She then looked ahead. “And when they come… I will gaze upon Kodachi and laugh as all she’s built is shattered like cheap glass! OHHHHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
With a resigned sigh, Angela turned and asked. “Ella quiere que te encargues de la seguridad estudiantil.”
“Ella quiere que pongas a su pequeño ejercito en forma. Eso esta bien, pero no tengo la intención de hacer nada de esa mierda.” Lida replied.
Angela nodded slowly. “Entiendo eso.. pero si cualquier cosa le pasa a ella…”
“Ella va a regresar arrastrándose. Me va a suplicar que la ayude a hacerse mas fuerte.” Lida reasoned. “Dios ayuda a quienes se ayudan a sí mismos.”
She looked over at Asuka, who was laughing at her own sense of superiority over her enemies. Angela shook her head, how embarrassing. She hoped her enemies would go easy on her.
They wouldn’t.
Kuno Kodachi was insane, to put it in simple to understand terms. She’s mad, nutty, off her rock, twigged out and whatever pleasant euphemisms you want to use to describe the fact that she was fuckin’ batty. But to simply call her mad was to do a disservice to both the girl and yourself because there was so much more.
Underneath the madness, the laughter and kooky behavior, was a certified genius. A mad genius yes but a genius for sure. She was a fusion of this two extremes; intelligence and insanity, toned into a package to conquer whatever was put in front of her.
When you toss in the fact she was rich you now had something truly dangerous on your hands.
In the most basic sense possible, no one but Kuno Kodachi could turn an ordinary High School into a high fashion crystalline citadel filled to the brim with aspiring Men and Women ready to burn a path to a better future. One reason was the funds and the other was that no one could ever conceive of an idea. But that again spoke to her genius and spoke even better on the influence of her new inner circle.
Down to brass tacks, since making friends with Akane and Katie, Kodachi got shit done. She removed her brother’s old fan club and fashioned them into the dream of every high school girl reading manga or playing Prince games in the space of a week. Overnight she built a fortress to shelter her forces and foster inside them the sense of worth and self respect they had never had before.
Yet all that still wouldn’t be enough for Mousse to want to follow her.
It was, to his eyes, how those friends of hers reacted to her appearance after the fight with Shampoo had finished. He had watched Akane, a nice if naive outsider girl, outskill Shampoo with her bamboo stick like the Champion of the Amazons was an amateur. That girl who was a timely intervention from her opponent’s husband away from putting Shampoo down for the count.
And yet that same girl blushed and fawned at the mere sight of Kodachi. She stumbled for words and tried to offer excuses for her loss even though it was almost surely a quirk of timing Ryoga had managed to interfere. He looked at Katie, a strong woman who burst with violent energy and thought, surely a demon given human form.
She too reacted in much the same way, guffawing like an idiot in the face of this girl Kuno Kodachi.
He had to know what was the truth of it. Were they flattering her because of money? Or was Kuno Kodachi someone to throw your lot in with? In truth, before he could even ask her to take him in she simply told him that he would come with her in a tone that told him death awaited a refusal.
The tribe had tried to instill a sense of pride in clinging to their traditions. Which meant that the outside world was treated with scorn and derision even as evidence of their advancements and betterments trickled back. His eyes, long a thorn in his side, were simple things to fix for her.
Verily, she had given him the ability to see clearly that Kuno Kodachi was no mere girl.
Only the word empress could suffice to describe her, a font of destiny and dominance bringing to order from the chaos that humans naturally wrought. The fact she had dispatched those seven girls with such insulting ease did not surprise him. Nor was her refusal to kill them, not out of misplaced morality but a simple understanding of making her enemies suffer.
Before his thoughts could go further, Kodachi emerged from her bedroom dressed below her status but still nevertheless elegant. A pair of tight pants, a loose black violet long sleeved shirt that hung over her shoulder with a gold-loop belt that hung off her left hip, and a large matching hat hat that hid her long hair. She had places to go incognito.
“So what has become of those girls?” He asked.
“They are persona non grata at St. Hebereke. My influence has seen to properly punish them for their treachery,” Kodachi said as she stopped to take one more look in an adjacent mirror and adjust her hat.
“Are you planning on going out?” He asked in a clipped tone, one he quickly learned she liked.
“Yes, I will be out for a few hours at the least.” Kodachi replied after she finished adjusting her hat. “I may need you for later tonight, depending on how things go.”
“Tell me what you need and it will be done.” He answered, nodding his head as she detested seeing him bow.
“Simply be up until I return or call otherwise.” She explained, pulling out a smartphone and handing it to him. “For you, by the way, .”
He walked over and took it from her. “Very well. Where are you going?”
“Oh, out for a jaunt,” she answered with a sinister smile. “My investigation into clan Saginomiya family’s many sins has barely even begun and I’ve already found a starting point where they often overlook: in the so called gutters of humanity.”
“Understood.” He answered. “Remember to film anyone stupid enough to attack you.”
She simply smiled and left, a parting laugh echoing off the walls. “OHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Ah yes, another reason to follow her was that she had an amazing ass.
To put it bluntly, ramen was not a dish familiar to Kodachi. Indeed, it was Tendo Nabiki who introduced her to the delight as well as inspired her first move; a little shop just on this side of the border with the neighborhood of Taian–a wealthier part of Nerima where a lot of tourists and foreigners liked to spend their money for more local fare. This place, with its high quality ramen and low price alcohol, was a popular stop for such individuals, as well as two teachers from Kolkhoz Academy who Kodachi had been directed to.
Hello Black Rose-sama, we are like-minded individuals inside of Kolkhoz Academy’s inner circle. We have heard of your interest in taking down the school’s Queen from a mutual association, and we would like to pass a few bits of intelligence that will help you on your way. Before you meet us, however, we insist that you check out this ramen shop we like…
The message she had received had not deceived. Kodachi arrived exactly on time, before they had even finished their first bowl. It was a simple thing: order a bowl, take a table close enough to eavesdrop but not so close the people you were snooping on could tell and put up walls.
Yes, a classic fly on the wall maneuver, as shown to her some weeks ago by Nabiki.
“Regulars are easy to spy on at restaurants. They have a routine they zero in on so much that they forget everything else. They’ll sit in the same spot and not think of anywhere else. So you can be as close as a table away from where your mark’s sitting and he won’t even care you’re there” Nabiki had explained.
“Is it really so simple?” Kodachi asked, clearly puzzled by the world of intrigue and scandal Nabiki preferred to reside in.
“Creatures of habit are the most careless lot, I mean… a predictable martial artist is easy to defeat, right?” Nabiki asked, putting advice into the younger Kuno’s brain that would last her years.
And from there to here and now, where Kodachi found herself ordering.
“Ah, lovely customer-san.” The friendly shopkeeper greeted her. “What brings such an elegant young woman to my humble shop?”
“I was in the neighborhood and decided it had been too long since I had something truly enjoyable. An extra spicy beef ramen with a side of gyoza please.” Kodachi returned it and ordered at the same time to save on chit chat. “And a pineapple juice to drink.”
From there, the money was exchanged and soon Kodachi had her food and drink and her seat in that sweet spot close to her target. Now to listen in and see if there was anything to learn. The two men seemed to be in especially high spirits, laughing among themselves like they’d been telling jokes all night.
As it turned out, what they had to say was hilarious.
“Ah a long day of babysitting out of the way, eh Goto-senpai?” One of the men said to the other as he leaned back from eating. He was a younger guy, who had spiky brown hair and glasses. “To think we’re getting paid so much for this, and bonuses on top of that!”
“Of course Makabe-kun but you have to be careful with those words.” Goto, a balding man with a ponytail and a shitty beard, said. “We’re not supposed to get bonuses.”
“Ah, sorry, sorry.” Makabe replied. “I’m just so excited about this job I keep forgetting.”
“It’s not what you expect for teaching though right?” Goto replied with a chuckle.
“If this job was any easier I would literally be stealing candy from babies,” Makabe said with a boisterous laugh of his own.
Kodachi’s eyes narrowed for a long second. There was no way Kolkhoz’s teaching could be easy, they had the best students with the best grades in Nerima since their inception. Something was rotten here.
“It pretty much is,” Goto went on, taking a sip from what was clearly alcohol of some kind. “Hell, a kid like you who went to teaching school is overqualified for this.”
“Overqualified?” Kodachi repeated in her mind.
Makabe looked surprised. “You never went?”
“I’m not even licensed, man.” Goto said with a laugh.
This came as a shock to Kodachi as well. “Unlicensed?!”
Makabe nodded, understanding. “Well, to be honest I never graduated. I actually washed out at the end of my first semester. That’s fine though some of these kids are too dumb to eat miso soup without supervision, let alone tell if their teachers are full of it.”
“Makabe-kun!” Goto admonished with mock scandal. “Those are the, heh, future leaders of Japan you speak so ill of! Have some respect.”
“I apologize, senpai!” Makabe snickered as he failed to contain his amusement.
“You know half of them would have to ask their butlers to tell them what miso soup even is!” Goto continued, setting off a boisterous round of guffawing from the pair of buffoons.
It didn’t add up in Kodachi’s twisted, brilliant mind. Why were these “teachers” disparaging their students despite their cushy and decidedly undeserved positions? The High Schools of Furinkan, Tomobiki, and Butsumetsu neighborhoods were well familiar with cruel teachers. Given the delinquency of their respective student bodies, the faculty was adversarial–if not outright antagonistic–to even the most behaved students.
No such atmosphere existed at St. Hebereke, due in part for the fact that it was a wealthy Catholic Private School with extremely difficult standards for its students. Kodachi had assumed that Taian Neighborhood’s other prestigious school would have a similar environment.
More concerning… if the academic standards were in fact so low, why was someone as intelligent as Tendo Nabiki not attending Kolkhoz? Or her little sister Akane? Both girls were far too brilliant for her father’s vanity project. A boxer with Hatanaka’s punch should have the best Academies the nation over vying to have him. Why was he at Furinkan? It just didn’t make sense. Something was rotten and even someone without a nose could smell it.
No matter, she would finish her food and make some calls, and maybe she would close in on her first chance to tighten the noose around Asuka’s throat.
Finishing her food and drink as the two men continued to boast about their good fortune, Kodachi rose from her chair and coasted past. She made to produce a small bottle of aerosol on her way, and gently spritzed a bit over their shoulders. A gentle fragrance easily overpowered by the aroma of street level food… and a potent diuretic and laxative with a slow release. Come the next day, their charmed lives would be miserable.
Once you’ve had some dinner, come meet with us at the karaoke bar down the street to talk all about it. Our mutual friend has some pretty good taste in music, so we hope you pick a good song when you show up, on their behalf.
The karaoke bar in question was a rather nice and upscale place, like just about everything else in Taian, ideal for anywhere from teenagers to salarymen to come and sing away their troubles while enjoying snacks and drinks provided by the staff. With her entry, she was quickly told she was expected in the room furthest down the hall, near the emergency exit.
Going down the hall, she reached a partially open door where she could hear the sound of laughing and bickering over music selection. Opening the door, she found a small group of three boys and two girls. The boys were wearing the uniforms of Kolkhoz, while the girls were dressed in Tomobiki’s.
The boy closest to the karaoke machine, a tall, gangly young man with blonde hair held back by a headband, stood upright and gave her a friendly smile. “Yo! Uh… can I help you?”
“Hello,” one of the Tomobiki girls said with a friendly wave.
Kodachi was surprised. “Ah… I came here on behalf of Tendo Nabiki. She said that the next song you pick should be by Akino.”
The other students quickly shared looks, before the boy at the machine smiled and gestured for her to close the door. “You got good taste in music, I’m Sousuke.”
Kodachi stepped in and shut the door behind her. “I am understanding that you are all close to the White Lily’s inner circle?”
One of the boys sitting on the couch between two of the Tomobiki girls put on a grin, he was a foreigner with reddish brown hair and a face full of freckles. “We’re part of the Student Council, yo! I’m Paul. And these cute gals are Ichiko and Eimi.”
The second of the two seated gave a thumb’s up. “And I’m her last ‘boyfriend’, Soichiro.”
Kodachi blinked several times, and then pointed at him. “Ah yes, I remember you from my last meeting with Saginomiya. How did things work out?”
“Ah, you know, soon as she was declared the winner I got kicked upstairs to the Student Council and ordered to never speak with her highness ever again unless requested,” Soichiro replied. “What happened to your guy?”
“We parted on amicable terms,” Kodachi said with a perfectly straight face. “My condolences for your breakup.”
“Eh, I’m on the student council,” Soichiro said. “So what’s up.”
“Following your boss’s advice, I was able to overhear a pair of teachers relaxing after their day at work. Their incriminating and less than flattering statements about themselves and their students has left me curious about the actual climate at Kolkhoz High School.”
Sousuke, the leader of this cadre of informants patted the top of the karaoke machine and shook his head. “You mean how most of the kids are pretty much rich window lickers or pretty airheads? Well, they ain’t wrong.”
“You are aware of it?”
“Student council, babe,” Paul said in immaculate Japanese. “The only requirement to be on it is that you’re not dumb as a brick, or you dated Asuka.”
“Hey,” Soichiro sharply snapped, to the laughter of the girls.
The two girls from Tomobiki, sitting with the two boys, nodded in agreement. Eimi then spoke up. “Yes, my twin brother is in the Fashion Club goes to Kolkhoz, but I got a better grade on the entry exam.”
Kodachi was surprised. “You failed to enter Kolkhoz?”
Ichiko nodded. “Me too, but apparently I bombed the test pretty savage despite studying for weeks beforehand.”
Sousuke nodded. “Comparatively speaking, I consistently get some of the lowest grades in school.”
Kodachi stared at the odd mismash of students, especially Sousuke. “But you’re on the Student Council.”
“Well yeah, that’s because my parents paid premium for it,” Sousuke replied. “Same as with Paul and Soichiro here, and Eimi-chan’s brother.”
Secondary education in Japan was not free, but “Premium” tripped a flag for Kodachi. “What do you mean… premium?”
Paul offered the answer. “Simple, you pay a little bit extra, and your kid not only gets into Kolkhoz, but they get good grades no matter what. You’re on the fast track to graduation and placement in a superb college if you pay a little more on top of that.”
Kodachi gaped at the foreign student, then looked back at Soichiro, and then at Sousuke again. “They are… paying to pass?”
“Oh yeah, it’s how Kolkhoz Academy has the highest percentile of students in the entire country,” Soichiro said. “Pretty crazy, isn’t it?”
Kodachi was almost stunned lucid by it. “Those scoundrels, those con men… but wait… such fraud would be easy to detect, would it not?”
“It would, but there’s a trick to it,” Sousuke said. “I’m not exactly privy to how the trick works, but they can make any grade a great one. Including the students of national exams.”
Kodachi recoiled. “Nationals?”
“If you want a free ride to Tokyo U, Kolkhoz is where you go,” Paul said.
Sousuke clapped his hands together. “The trick though, and I’m certain of it, is located in the offices of the school! You get in there and find out what they are doing, and you’ll blow the whole lid off the biggest scandal in Japanese school system of the 21st Century.”
What a tempting opportunity, but Kodachi was crazy, not stupid. “I am curious, what do you have to gain from the shame soon to befall your school?”
Sousuke shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t get dragged into your stupid war with Saginomiya for one–no offense.”
Soichiro nodded. “No offense, but I’ve already been in that meat grinder, and I don’t want to go again.”
“That is fair,” Kodachi agreed.
Eimi then spoke up. “Because of Mendou-san, we’ve been wrapped up in this too, and we want out. Things are already bad enough at Tomobiki because of the Crusaders.”
Ichiko then added. “We want this to end, and we’re going to do it by supporting you.”
“And besides… after what you did to Butsumetsu? Morale’s at an all time low because we know how strong you Furinkan monsters are, no one wants to fight you guys except for the stupid diehards for Saginomiya,” Sousuke finished.
“More like Try-hards,” Paul corrected.
Kodachi nodded. “I see… this information, it’s going to be put to good use. However, if I’m going to I will need one final piece.”
Sousuke cocked his head slightly. “What?”
“A floorplan of Kolkhoz Academy and any information on the school’s defenses,” Kodachi replied.
Sousuke smiled. “Oh that’s not easy to come by, so that’s going to cost you.”
Kodachi stared at the young man somewhat dangerously now. “Cost me what?”
At that, Sousuke held aloft the karaoke microphone. “How’s your karaoke skills?”
Kodachi’s gaze dropped to the microphone, and then rose to Sousuke’s face, as if what he was saying was utterly ludicrous.
“You fool,” she said, before smirking, “Do you realize that I went to an All Girl’s School? Karaoke is not merely a pastime.”
In an instant, she had the mic in her hand and she was posed dramatically, ready to sing. “It’s a way of life!”
Naturally as expected of a girl of so many talents, Kodachi killed it.
= = =
Disclaimer: The following is a fan-written parody. Ranma ½ is property of Rumiko Takahashi, Studio Deen, Shogakukan, Viz Media, and Madman Entertainment. Support the official release, okay?
Senpai
A Ranma ½ Story
Chapter 12/?
|Evening Workout|
The Kuno estate had been empty since Tatewaki had gone to be treated for his injuries. When he would return it was not known, but for now the seat of the Kuno clan was Kodachi’s dominion. In her solitude, Kodachi had taken to redecorating the house in her image as she had done to the school, black and deep purples and reds being the overwhelming colors of the house’s interior.
Walking down the long hallway from her bath to the sitting room of the house, wrapped in a bathrobe and holding a smartphone in her right hand and the towel she dried her hair with in the other. After such a long and eventful day–as every day seemed to be for her lately–Kodachi was quite keen to lounge around in her big empty house and relax until it was time for sleep.
Tonight would be no different in her routine, were it not for the ringing of her doorbell. Odd, to have visitors at so late an hour, but she wasn’t the sort to release Mr. Green Turtle without entertaining them first. So she trotted over to front door and opened it.
“Yes?” She asked before she recognized the seven young women standing outside her door. “Oh, well this is unexpected.”
“Hello, Kodachi-senpai!” The young women in front of her were in fact the members of her old school’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Club. The dark-haired Tomoe, her former vice captain who ascended to the captaincy and was the closest to Kodachi’s equal, Rin, the red-haired new vice captain, the pink-haired Asuna, the floor exercise specialist with clubs, Iwa, the blue-haired master of the flag, Tamaki, who was exceptional with hoops, Otsune, a twin-tailed girl who mained the ball, and Ryoko, a tomboyish blonde who was a ribbon expert.
“What brings you all here?” Kodachi asked, looking among the other young women.
Tomoe stepped up. “There’s an important matter to discuss, Senpai. We’ve heard rumors that you’re building up for war against Saginomiya of Kolkhoz.”
Kodachi’s eyebrows rose. “I see. And you have come to lend your support?”
“We want to help out,” Ryoko said roughly. “The girls of St. Hebereke aren’t fragile.”
There was a chorus of affirmations from the other girls, as Tomoe nodded. “However we can, Kodachi-senpai, we want to fight alongside you.”
Kodachi looked among the girls, before she closed her eyes and nodded. “Please, come in then. Make yourself comfortable so we may discuss matters more freely.”
She opened her door wider for them, and turned to lead them into the house. “I didn’t think that you would want to take part. I had left St. Hebereke specifically to spare it being pulled into my conflict with Saginomiya.”
The seven girls followed Kodachi inside, Tomoe leading them. “I appreciate your wanting to preserve St. Hebereke’s peaceful beauty, senpai, but after all our time spent together the fact that you would go off without us almost feels like an insult.”
Kodachi walked from the doorway and across the foyer, passing close to the stairs leading up to the second floor and towards her living room entrance. “I apologize for that, Tomoe-san. Furinkan High School needed much work after the damage done by my family. Someone with a firm hand and a brilliant vision was necessary to guide it, so I took the first opportunity to do so almost without thinking of the consequences.”
Tomoe hummed in agreement. She then looked to her left and right, at the other girls as they began to spread out behind her.
Kodachi continued speaking. “There is one thing you are mistaken about, though.”
“What is that?” Tomoe asked as she stopped walking.
“I left St. Hebereke in peace, because as far as I care…” Kodachi slowly looked back at her former classmates, seeing all of them now with weapons in hand. “… You’re all so insufferably inept that you would be more hinder than help. You did not even attack the moment my back was turned.”
Rin, Asuna, and Iwa fell upon her, wielding a baton, a pair of clubs, and a quarter-staff respectively to bring them down upon her head. All three weapons smashed into the polished marble floor, cracking it, before Kodachi landed neatly upon Rin’s head and then leaped again, spinning over the other girls and landing behind them.
“Slow, as well,” Kodachi added as Tomoe whirled around to face her. “Did I teach you nothing?”
Tomoe’s face twisted into a snarl, as she immediately produced a riding crop and pointed it at her former captain. “You taught us teamwork!”
Otsune was next, whipping a ball at Kodachi that the Black Rose narrowly avoided with a quick sidestep, the ball leaving a large crater where it bounced off the wall. As she moved, a pair of hoops thrown by Tamaki narrowly missed her, embedding themselves in the wall as she reached the stairs and jumped up onto the banister.
Setting her feet on the inclined railing, Kodachi maintained her footing as she ducked under a club thrown at her, the maneuver allowing Iwa to vault onto the banister a few steps above Kodachi. Twirling the staff in her hands she swung at Kodachi and stabbed at her with the weapon, forcing the Black Rose to evade the strikes and parry them with her hands away from her center mass.
Behind her, Ryoko landed atop the podium at the very end of the railing, a ribbon trailing behind her that she whipped around then swung for Kodachi’s back. She jumped over the lashing ribbon, side-flipping over the stairs to land on the opposite railing.
Taking the staff and adjusting her grip, Iwa thrust the staff with such force that when it impacted where Kodachi was, it left a jagged hole like it were hit with a high-caliber bullet.
“Your form is too aggressive! It takes too long to pull your weapon back!” Kodachi warned, as she avoided the second stab, and then jumped straight up over the ribbon slash that cut a gash in the wall and sliced through the railing. At the top of her jump, she kicked off the wall, avoiding Otsune’s ball twice–first the actual through and second the rebound.
Twisting herself into a backflip, she landed atop the decorative archway above the entry to her living room and huffed as she adjusted her bathrobe.
Tamaki, with hoop in hand, looked aside to Asuna, who nodded in agreement. When Tamaki threw a single hoop at Kodachi, and the Black Rose avoided it by leaping towards the end of the hallway, Asuna was already there on an intercept course, swinging one of the clubs for her head.
It is caught in Kodachi’s hand, the second club suffers the same fate as they land on the carpet. “How predictable.”
“We couldn’t agree more,” Asuna said with a smirk, before a bright yellow cloud of mist ejected from the clubs and into Kodachi’s face, causing her to stumble back, coughing as the fast-acting toxin took hold. A paralysis agent!
“You taught us very well, Kodachi-senpai!” Asuna taunted.
Tomoe saw this, and cracked the riding crop against the floor. “Quickly!”
Iwa quickly ran up the railing overhead and jumped down, slamming her quarterstaff into the block Kodachi as Asuna brought her clubs down. As the two drew back, Ryoko’s ribbon caught around Kodachi’s left arm and allowed Iwa to clock her across the face with the end of the staff. Staggered, she was left wide open by a downward swing from Asuna, that forced her head down. Rin’s baton caught her forehead, forcing her head back up, and she staggered back.
Otsune’s ball hit next, striking her in the stomach and pushing her back, leaving her open for Tamako to run up and–rather than use her rings, turn around and spin kick Kodachi straight in the chest, slamming her up against the corner. The beating didn’t stop then, with each girl laying into Kodachi with their weapons, keeping her pinned in the corner with their strikes as Tomoe walked over, dragging her riding crop along the floor.
“Forgive us, Kodachi-senpai,” Tomoe said, “But after you forsook us to go to that commoner school… we were offered an opportunity to transfer to the ranks of the elite. You chased your ambitions without a single word of warning to us, and you expect us to not feel sore about that?”
Under the hail of blows, Kodachi responded. “You think… I can forgive… treachery…?”
“You gave us no choice-” Tomoe began.
“I can,” Kodachi cut her off. “But I will never forgive…!”
She then caught one of Asuna’s clubs with far greater dexterity than she should have been capable of, and disarmed her of it. An instant later, the six girls were flung back, hitting the floor and walls after a sweeping blow from Kodachi, who wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
“… Is anyone besmirching Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics by striking me with a barehanded blow!” She said in a voice tinged with fury.
The other girls quickly got back up to her feet, with Rin advancing forth slowly. “Don’t let up for a second!”
Asuna agreed with the vice-captain. “She should be slowed down because of the toxin!”
Otsune readied her ball. “Forgive us, senpai, but you’re only one person against all of us!”
Kodachi smirked. “Ohohoho… these are the fairest odds you’re going to get.”
Rin and Iwa were the first to strike, the longer reach of Iwa’s weapon reaching Kodachi before Rin’s own shorter, sword like baton. Jumping onto the extended pole, Kodachi vaulted over Iwa, landing behind her and clubbing her across the back of her head, dropping her in a single blow.
Rin saw this, and swung with the baton. “Bitch!”
Kodachi parried the weapon with one blow, and then with the second disarmed Rin upward before she realized what happened.
“Wha…?!” Rin began before Kodachi caught the baton in her free hand and jabbed her in the Solar Plexus, throwing her onto her back with the wind dislodged from her lungs. “Ugh!”
Asuna attacked with another pair of clubs, Kodachi blocking with her two weapons and, with greater speed, striking her in the chest and stomach, launching her back and into Tamaki. Both girls crashed into the banister, and crumpled, as above them Mousse walked down the stairs, casually observing the throwdown. Beside them, Otsune attacked decisively, throwing her ball with all her might at Kodachi.
Raising her rod, Kodachi struck the ball and directed it right into Ryoko, who was slashing at her with the ribbon, the ribbon sliced the ball into two halves, each tagging Otsune and Ryoko in the face and knocking them flat out as well.
Tomoe looked around at the best of St. Hebereke’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, all fallen like freshly reaped wheat, and then back at Kodachi with eyes now filled with fear. “… I-Impossible…! The toxin…!”
“That I have perfected in the use of since my childhood?” Kodachi asked, prompting Tomoe to blanch with fear.
Of course she would be immune to such things…
Kodachi lowered both her weapons, before tossing them to the floor so she could readjust her bathrobe. “Tomoe-san.”
Tomoe went rigid where she stood.
“When Saginomiya offered you a place at Kolkhoz, was it dependant on you defeating me?”
Tomoe’s eyes grew larger, before she slowly nodded.
“Ohohoho…” Kodachi laughed. “Well then, it would appear you will have to shamefully return to St. Hebereke’s as backstabbing traitors and idiots on top of being weaklings who smear the name of the sport they claim to perform!”
She folded her arms. “Contemplate that during your brush with oblivion.”
It was then that Tomoe sensed someone behind her, but it was too late, and with a mighty, ringing blow the current captain of St. Hebereke’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team collapsed to the floor–bashed over the head by a goose-shaped training potty wielded by Mousse.
Not that Kodachi saw it, in the speed with which he struck.
“Thank you, Mu Tsu,” Kodachi said as she walked past him.
“You’re injured,” Mousse said as he observed her.
“Hmph! A light evening workout, nothing to be concerned about,” Kodachi stopped and looked back at the girls strewn about the floor. “I’m more concerned with the fact they came to send my rival her regards.”
“Ah, your school war,” Mousse observed. Frankly such things didn’t interest him, though he respected and regarded it as a conflict between villages.
“It seems that I will have to punish Saginomiya much sooner than I had planned on,” Kodachi lamented. “Ah well.”
As calm and confident as she appeared upon the surface, underneath she was fury incarnate, bristling at the idea that her own former classmates, her own team could be so easily turned against her. For what? A chance to go to an overrated school full of subpar students who by no account should even be allowed to consider attending on academic merit alone?!
She stopped in the entryway to the living room, and narrowed her eyes. No, for this she wasn’t just going to humiliate Kolkhoz. She was going to bury them, and she had an idea of how.
“If you would be a dear, Mu Tsu, dispose of this embarrassment?”
Mousse looked back at her and extended a long knife from his robe. “Permanently?”
Kodachi was aghast at the very idea. “No, I want my enemies to suffer their humiliation. Besides, I’d rather not have a foot massage with blood splattered hands.”
At that Mousse returned the knife up his sleeve and set out to drag the first of the unconscious girls out and toss them over the mansion’s wall.
|The White Lily’s Black Witch|
If there was one thing Asuka Saginomiya couldn’t stand, it was someone else having even a fraction more popularity than her. A few weeks ago she could post a picture of a blank wall and get a firestorm of likes and comments. Now? Now all she saw when she browsed Instagram were people commenting on some common Furinkan student’s photo sets, a sloppy mess of amateur work, and her own lovingly done and artfully rendered shots getting absolutely zero love.
However, what she hated even more than any old random peasant stealing her thunder, was that her rival, Kodachi Kuno. The student council president and undisputed master of Furinkan High School had gone to her Instagram account and posted security footage of her being cornered by, and then destroying the very best of the traitorous St. Hebereke School’s Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team.
“Submitted for your approval, the fate of TRAITORS,” the video’s caption read.
“How can you be so strong, Kuno Kodachi…?!” Asuka seethed angrily after watching the video for the fifth time.
She was loath to admit it, but her mortal rival’s transformation of her buffoon brother’s fiefdom into something worthy of attention had been a success. What had been just another school for delinquents and perverts in Nerima was suddenly clawing its way to prestige so fast that the surrounding property values shot up ten percent in just a week!
Worse yet, it wasn’t mere style, as the destruction of Butsumetsu High School’s fighting strength showed that the school had deadly substance–power that was deliberately left to go untapped. Kolkhoz High School’s own combatants could offer no challenge either. The Kendo Club’s best champion dispatched to send a message brought a chilling reply from Furinkan, leaving him so humbled and destitute that he withdrew from school days later, demanding that none come looking for him.
Kodachi’s swift dispatch of her own former classmates from St. Hebereke, her own former comrades, was only another debilitating setback for the White Lily that seemed to cost the Black Rose nothing. Soon Furinkan High School would move, and all rivalries with the Kuno family would be put to a sudden and devastating end.
By contrast, her school seemed to have little motivation to build its steam, and Tomobiki High School, their nominal rivals, were mired in some sort of dysfunction that made finding out what was going on there difficult. She hadn’t heard from Mendou in weeks.
“Is it hopeless?” She asked no one in particular, as she was alone in her sanctum slash office at Kolkhoz High School. “Has The Black Rose truly surpassed me? Will this be how our rivalry ends…? With the triumph of her little ‘garden’ relegating me to a distant nuisance? A lowly creature not even fit to cower in her shadow?”
She dropped down, dramatically, laying her arms onto the table and letting her white-blonde hair fan out across the oaken surface of the desk. With a deep breath, she raised a fist and dropped it onto the table.
“No… I refuse…” She pushed herself upright. “I refuse! I defy thee, Kuno Kodachi! For you are the darkness that threatens our realm, and I am the brilliant radiance that shall be its savior! Ohohohohoho!”
She stopped when she realized that her dramatic speech had an audience. Standing in front of her, with a timid look on her face, was an exceptionally pretty young woman, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, dressed in a pure white version of a Catholic Nun’s habit. Puzzled, Asuka stared at the Nun, who stared back at her.
“A-are you… Saginomiya Asuka-san?” The nun asked, nervously, as though she were sincerely hoping that the seemingly demented person she was speaking to was not her.
Asuka continued to stare. “Yes, I am Saginomiya Asuka, the White Lily of Kolkhoz High School.”
The Nun’s face fell immediately. With a sigh of resignation, she introduced herself. “I am Sister Angela of St. Mary’s Convent, I am the translator for your new self-defense instructor.”
At that, Asuka huffed. “Another one? Outrageous, I thought Daddy got the message when I dismissed the first two. I have no need for self-defense lessons, my time is extremely precious and my skills in combat are more than adequate.”
It was at this point Asuka felt something poke her in the back of the head, causing her to freeze where she stood. It was round and had a hard metallic feel, yet it wasn’t sharp at all. Was… was that a gun?
“Eres pendejo, o que?”a woman with a husky voice spoke in a language that was definitely foreign. It sounded like Spanish, but the dialect was a little off.
How did she get into the room? When? She never saw anyone until she noticed that Nun. The nun! She looked to Angela. “What did she just say?”
“That you spoke too soon about your training being adequate,” Angela replied.
“Un niño de cinco años podría apuñalarte en la espalda, y ni te darías cuenta cabron” the foreign-speaking woman then said.
“You don’t look out for yourself very well, for someone with so many enemies,” Angela translated after a moment’s hesitation.
Asuka turned around and came face to face with a bizarre woman. She was dressed in the style of a gothic lolita, wore a black short-sleeve ballroom dress sans petticoat over a black lace body stocking, as evident by the lace patterns going down her arms and ending at rings that fit over her middle fingers that matched the patterns going down her legs to her Mary Jane shoes. She was aiming a bolt action rifle at her face.
Her most startling–and disturbing–feature however, was her long braided black hair, speckled with splotches of white that varied in size, and her titanium white eyes.
“And this… person… is…?” Asuka asked.
“This is your instructor, Ysidro Lida-san,” Angela introduced, as the woman lowered her rifle and and chuckled.
“Does she understand Japanese?” Asuka asked.
Angela shook her head. “No.”
“Well tell this foreigner that I have no need of her services and she can leave. The other two were complete wastes of my time and I don’t want another distraction,” she said with an upturned nose.
“Ella no quiere que le enseñes nada, dice que ya es suficientemente buena,” Sister Angela said gently to Lida.
Lida laughed at that, before she cheerily replied. “No me importa lo que esta perra pendeja quiera, me están pagando por resultados, asi que va a aprender algo aun que no quiera.”
This was going over Asuka’s head. “What, what did she say?”
Sister Angela, a bit flushed, looked from Lida to Asuka. “She… she says that she is only getting paid if she teaches you something. So, it is in your best interest to learn.”
Asuka huffed in annoyance. “Is that a fact? Well what can she teach me? How to dress like a creepy prostitute?”
Angela winced, and simply asked Lida what Asuka could teach her.
Lida, her brows raising, let out a smooth laugh. “Ohohoho…”
Asuka stopped at that and narrowed her eyes at Lida, was she mocking her?
“Tu eres un inútil pedazo de mierda en una pelea. Tu entrenas por qué quieres que te cojan, pero en este pueblo te van a violar como la perra que eres! Si tuvieras que pelear con cualquier persona en este momento, te descuartizaron en pedazos. Y creeme, ellos lo disfrutarian. La una oportunidad que tienes…”
She then lifted up her rifle, indicating it. “Es aprender a dispararles antes de que te pongan las manos encima.”
Asuka looked at the rifle, then at her, disbelieving. “You’re saying I should shoot them?!”
Angela was surprised she got the gist of that. “Actually, yes… that’s basically what she’s saying.”
“Nonsense, I can go to jail for that!”
Angela quickly translated what Asuka said, to which Lida only chuckled again.
“Tu y tu familia tambien pueden ir a la carcel for todo el fraude..”
Angela did a double-take. “Wait, what?”
Asuka whipped her head over to Angela. “What did she say?!”
“Porcierto, ni te atrevas a decirle sobre eso,” Lida then said to Angela quickly.
“She… er… she says that it’s absolutely imperative that you do something to bridge the gap between your strength and your enemy’s. Th-they have all trained for years as martial artists, so in that sense you don’t have a chance to fight them if you had to now. Learning to shoot will make up for that difference easily.”
Asuka frowned. “I don’t know what you people do in the west, but here in Japan we aren’t allowed to even own guns without heavy regulation.”
Angela sighed and spoke Asuka’s concerns to Lida, who just rolled her eyes at the idea.
“Las armas de fuego son permitidas en este pueblo para que la gente pueda matar a los extraterrestres. No es una ley escrita, pero a nadie le importa,” Lida explained.
Angela recoiled, before she nodded slowly. “You needn’t worry about that, Saginomiya-san. The legal repercussions of owning and using a firearm are no issue.”
Asuka huffed. “Then in that case, why not just be my bodyguard?”
“We were not hired to do that,” Angela quickly replied.
Asuka turned her nose up. “I’m sorry, but did I ask you that specifically, Kirishitan?”
Angela recoiled, the implication that came with Asuka’s words biting deeply into the young nun. She frowned at the girl, how shameful! How rude! She turned to Lida, and translated her request.
Lida wore a momentary scowl, before she answered. “Si me vuelvo tu guarura nunca vas a aprender nada, perra malcriada.”
“You won’t learn anything, if all she does is protect you,” Angela warned.
“Whatever my father is paying you to be my instructor, I’ll pay you double to be my bodyguard. No! I’ll triple it!” Asuka quickly offered.
Angela’s frown deepened, but it looked like this headstrong girl was not going to listen. She turned to Lida, and translated the offer to her Spanish. When she got it, Lida let out a chuckle that turned into a deep and throaty laugh.
“Esta bien, voy a ser tu guarura,” she replied, “Pero te vas a arrepentir.”
Angela grimaced. Of course she would.
“What, what did she say?” Asuka demanded.
“She… she said she’ll be your bodyguard,” Sister Angela revealed. “And she’ll take double what your father pays her.”
Asuka smirked. “You didn’t tell her about the triple part?”
“I would rather you not spoil her,” Angela revealed, before glancing towards the woman. “Ysidro Lida-san… she is a woman of God, like myself.”
Her? A woman of God? Asuka gave her a confused look, an eyebrow raised upward at the very idea. She was dressed like she wanted to be in some dark anime about witches or something.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. All that does is that now I have something to stand between myself and Kuno,” Asuka said with a dramatic flair as she turned and walked towards the windows of her office, to gaze out it contemptuously onto the schoolyard of Kolkhoz below.
“As a member of my security detail, the first thing I order you to do is to make sure this school is secure.” She looked back at the two. “I’m sure that a reprisal will be coming from my enemies, and I want to be ready for them!”
She then looked ahead. “And when they come… I will gaze upon Kodachi and laugh as all she’s built is shattered like cheap glass! OHHHHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
With a resigned sigh, Angela turned and asked. “Ella quiere que te encargues de la seguridad estudiantil.”
“Ella quiere que pongas a su pequeño ejercito en forma. Eso esta bien, pero no tengo la intención de hacer nada de esa mierda.” Lida replied.
Angela nodded slowly. “Entiendo eso.. pero si cualquier cosa le pasa a ella…”
“Ella va a regresar arrastrándose. Me va a suplicar que la ayude a hacerse mas fuerte.” Lida reasoned. “Dios ayuda a quienes se ayudan a sí mismos.”
She looked over at Asuka, who was laughing at her own sense of superiority over her enemies. Angela shook her head, how embarrassing. She hoped her enemies would go easy on her.
They wouldn’t.
|The Empress|
Kuno Kodachi was insane, to put it in simple to understand terms. She’s mad, nutty, off her rock, twigged out and whatever pleasant euphemisms you want to use to describe the fact that she was fuckin’ batty. But to simply call her mad was to do a disservice to both the girl and yourself because there was so much more.
Underneath the madness, the laughter and kooky behavior, was a certified genius. A mad genius yes but a genius for sure. She was a fusion of this two extremes; intelligence and insanity, toned into a package to conquer whatever was put in front of her.
When you toss in the fact she was rich you now had something truly dangerous on your hands.
In the most basic sense possible, no one but Kuno Kodachi could turn an ordinary High School into a high fashion crystalline citadel filled to the brim with aspiring Men and Women ready to burn a path to a better future. One reason was the funds and the other was that no one could ever conceive of an idea. But that again spoke to her genius and spoke even better on the influence of her new inner circle.
Down to brass tacks, since making friends with Akane and Katie, Kodachi got shit done. She removed her brother’s old fan club and fashioned them into the dream of every high school girl reading manga or playing Prince games in the space of a week. Overnight she built a fortress to shelter her forces and foster inside them the sense of worth and self respect they had never had before.
Yet all that still wouldn’t be enough for Mousse to want to follow her.
It was, to his eyes, how those friends of hers reacted to her appearance after the fight with Shampoo had finished. He had watched Akane, a nice if naive outsider girl, outskill Shampoo with her bamboo stick like the Champion of the Amazons was an amateur. That girl who was a timely intervention from her opponent’s husband away from putting Shampoo down for the count.
And yet that same girl blushed and fawned at the mere sight of Kodachi. She stumbled for words and tried to offer excuses for her loss even though it was almost surely a quirk of timing Ryoga had managed to interfere. He looked at Katie, a strong woman who burst with violent energy and thought, surely a demon given human form.
She too reacted in much the same way, guffawing like an idiot in the face of this girl Kuno Kodachi.
He had to know what was the truth of it. Were they flattering her because of money? Or was Kuno Kodachi someone to throw your lot in with? In truth, before he could even ask her to take him in she simply told him that he would come with her in a tone that told him death awaited a refusal.
The tribe had tried to instill a sense of pride in clinging to their traditions. Which meant that the outside world was treated with scorn and derision even as evidence of their advancements and betterments trickled back. His eyes, long a thorn in his side, were simple things to fix for her.
Verily, she had given him the ability to see clearly that Kuno Kodachi was no mere girl.
Only the word empress could suffice to describe her, a font of destiny and dominance bringing to order from the chaos that humans naturally wrought. The fact she had dispatched those seven girls with such insulting ease did not surprise him. Nor was her refusal to kill them, not out of misplaced morality but a simple understanding of making her enemies suffer.
Before his thoughts could go further, Kodachi emerged from her bedroom dressed below her status but still nevertheless elegant. A pair of tight pants, a loose black violet long sleeved shirt that hung over her shoulder with a gold-loop belt that hung off her left hip, and a large matching hat hat that hid her long hair. She had places to go incognito.
“So what has become of those girls?” He asked.
“They are persona non grata at St. Hebereke. My influence has seen to properly punish them for their treachery,” Kodachi said as she stopped to take one more look in an adjacent mirror and adjust her hat.
“Are you planning on going out?” He asked in a clipped tone, one he quickly learned she liked.
“Yes, I will be out for a few hours at the least.” Kodachi replied after she finished adjusting her hat. “I may need you for later tonight, depending on how things go.”
“Tell me what you need and it will be done.” He answered, nodding his head as she detested seeing him bow.
“Simply be up until I return or call otherwise.” She explained, pulling out a smartphone and handing it to him. “For you, by the way, .”
He walked over and took it from her. “Very well. Where are you going?”
“Oh, out for a jaunt,” she answered with a sinister smile. “My investigation into clan Saginomiya family’s many sins has barely even begun and I’ve already found a starting point where they often overlook: in the so called gutters of humanity.”
“Understood.” He answered. “Remember to film anyone stupid enough to attack you.”
She simply smiled and left, a parting laugh echoing off the walls. “OHHHHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!”
Ah yes, another reason to follow her was that she had an amazing ass.
To put it bluntly, ramen was not a dish familiar to Kodachi. Indeed, it was Tendo Nabiki who introduced her to the delight as well as inspired her first move; a little shop just on this side of the border with the neighborhood of Taian–a wealthier part of Nerima where a lot of tourists and foreigners liked to spend their money for more local fare. This place, with its high quality ramen and low price alcohol, was a popular stop for such individuals, as well as two teachers from Kolkhoz Academy who Kodachi had been directed to.
Hello Black Rose-sama, we are like-minded individuals inside of Kolkhoz Academy’s inner circle. We have heard of your interest in taking down the school’s Queen from a mutual association, and we would like to pass a few bits of intelligence that will help you on your way. Before you meet us, however, we insist that you check out this ramen shop we like…
The message she had received had not deceived. Kodachi arrived exactly on time, before they had even finished their first bowl. It was a simple thing: order a bowl, take a table close enough to eavesdrop but not so close the people you were snooping on could tell and put up walls.
Yes, a classic fly on the wall maneuver, as shown to her some weeks ago by Nabiki.
“Regulars are easy to spy on at restaurants. They have a routine they zero in on so much that they forget everything else. They’ll sit in the same spot and not think of anywhere else. So you can be as close as a table away from where your mark’s sitting and he won’t even care you’re there” Nabiki had explained.
“Is it really so simple?” Kodachi asked, clearly puzzled by the world of intrigue and scandal Nabiki preferred to reside in.
“Creatures of habit are the most careless lot, I mean… a predictable martial artist is easy to defeat, right?” Nabiki asked, putting advice into the younger Kuno’s brain that would last her years.
And from there to here and now, where Kodachi found herself ordering.
“Ah, lovely customer-san.” The friendly shopkeeper greeted her. “What brings such an elegant young woman to my humble shop?”
“I was in the neighborhood and decided it had been too long since I had something truly enjoyable. An extra spicy beef ramen with a side of gyoza please.” Kodachi returned it and ordered at the same time to save on chit chat. “And a pineapple juice to drink.”
From there, the money was exchanged and soon Kodachi had her food and drink and her seat in that sweet spot close to her target. Now to listen in and see if there was anything to learn. The two men seemed to be in especially high spirits, laughing among themselves like they’d been telling jokes all night.
As it turned out, what they had to say was hilarious.
“Ah a long day of babysitting out of the way, eh Goto-senpai?” One of the men said to the other as he leaned back from eating. He was a younger guy, who had spiky brown hair and glasses. “To think we’re getting paid so much for this, and bonuses on top of that!”
“Of course Makabe-kun but you have to be careful with those words.” Goto, a balding man with a ponytail and a shitty beard, said. “We’re not supposed to get bonuses.”
“Ah, sorry, sorry.” Makabe replied. “I’m just so excited about this job I keep forgetting.”
“It’s not what you expect for teaching though right?” Goto replied with a chuckle.
“If this job was any easier I would literally be stealing candy from babies,” Makabe said with a boisterous laugh of his own.
Kodachi’s eyes narrowed for a long second. There was no way Kolkhoz’s teaching could be easy, they had the best students with the best grades in Nerima since their inception. Something was rotten here.
“It pretty much is,” Goto went on, taking a sip from what was clearly alcohol of some kind. “Hell, a kid like you who went to teaching school is overqualified for this.”
“Overqualified?” Kodachi repeated in her mind.
Makabe looked surprised. “You never went?”
“I’m not even licensed, man.” Goto said with a laugh.
This came as a shock to Kodachi as well. “Unlicensed?!”
Makabe nodded, understanding. “Well, to be honest I never graduated. I actually washed out at the end of my first semester. That’s fine though some of these kids are too dumb to eat miso soup without supervision, let alone tell if their teachers are full of it.”
“Makabe-kun!” Goto admonished with mock scandal. “Those are the, heh, future leaders of Japan you speak so ill of! Have some respect.”
“I apologize, senpai!” Makabe snickered as he failed to contain his amusement.
“You know half of them would have to ask their butlers to tell them what miso soup even is!” Goto continued, setting off a boisterous round of guffawing from the pair of buffoons.
It didn’t add up in Kodachi’s twisted, brilliant mind. Why were these “teachers” disparaging their students despite their cushy and decidedly undeserved positions? The High Schools of Furinkan, Tomobiki, and Butsumetsu neighborhoods were well familiar with cruel teachers. Given the delinquency of their respective student bodies, the faculty was adversarial–if not outright antagonistic–to even the most behaved students.
No such atmosphere existed at St. Hebereke, due in part for the fact that it was a wealthy Catholic Private School with extremely difficult standards for its students. Kodachi had assumed that Taian Neighborhood’s other prestigious school would have a similar environment.
More concerning… if the academic standards were in fact so low, why was someone as intelligent as Tendo Nabiki not attending Kolkhoz? Or her little sister Akane? Both girls were far too brilliant for her father’s vanity project. A boxer with Hatanaka’s punch should have the best Academies the nation over vying to have him. Why was he at Furinkan? It just didn’t make sense. Something was rotten and even someone without a nose could smell it.
No matter, she would finish her food and make some calls, and maybe she would close in on her first chance to tighten the noose around Asuka’s throat.
Finishing her food and drink as the two men continued to boast about their good fortune, Kodachi rose from her chair and coasted past. She made to produce a small bottle of aerosol on her way, and gently spritzed a bit over their shoulders. A gentle fragrance easily overpowered by the aroma of street level food… and a potent diuretic and laxative with a slow release. Come the next day, their charmed lives would be miserable.
Once you’ve had some dinner, come meet with us at the karaoke bar down the street to talk all about it. Our mutual friend has some pretty good taste in music, so we hope you pick a good song when you show up, on their behalf.
The karaoke bar in question was a rather nice and upscale place, like just about everything else in Taian, ideal for anywhere from teenagers to salarymen to come and sing away their troubles while enjoying snacks and drinks provided by the staff. With her entry, she was quickly told she was expected in the room furthest down the hall, near the emergency exit.
Going down the hall, she reached a partially open door where she could hear the sound of laughing and bickering over music selection. Opening the door, she found a small group of three boys and two girls. The boys were wearing the uniforms of Kolkhoz, while the girls were dressed in Tomobiki’s.
The boy closest to the karaoke machine, a tall, gangly young man with blonde hair held back by a headband, stood upright and gave her a friendly smile. “Yo! Uh… can I help you?”
“Hello,” one of the Tomobiki girls said with a friendly wave.
Kodachi was surprised. “Ah… I came here on behalf of Tendo Nabiki. She said that the next song you pick should be by Akino.”
The other students quickly shared looks, before the boy at the machine smiled and gestured for her to close the door. “You got good taste in music, I’m Sousuke.”
Kodachi stepped in and shut the door behind her. “I am understanding that you are all close to the White Lily’s inner circle?”
One of the boys sitting on the couch between two of the Tomobiki girls put on a grin, he was a foreigner with reddish brown hair and a face full of freckles. “We’re part of the Student Council, yo! I’m Paul. And these cute gals are Ichiko and Eimi.”
The second of the two seated gave a thumb’s up. “And I’m her last ‘boyfriend’, Soichiro.”
Kodachi blinked several times, and then pointed at him. “Ah yes, I remember you from my last meeting with Saginomiya. How did things work out?”
“Ah, you know, soon as she was declared the winner I got kicked upstairs to the Student Council and ordered to never speak with her highness ever again unless requested,” Soichiro replied. “What happened to your guy?”
“We parted on amicable terms,” Kodachi said with a perfectly straight face. “My condolences for your breakup.”
“Eh, I’m on the student council,” Soichiro said. “So what’s up.”
“Following your boss’s advice, I was able to overhear a pair of teachers relaxing after their day at work. Their incriminating and less than flattering statements about themselves and their students has left me curious about the actual climate at Kolkhoz High School.”
Sousuke, the leader of this cadre of informants patted the top of the karaoke machine and shook his head. “You mean how most of the kids are pretty much rich window lickers or pretty airheads? Well, they ain’t wrong.”
“You are aware of it?”
“Student council, babe,” Paul said in immaculate Japanese. “The only requirement to be on it is that you’re not dumb as a brick, or you dated Asuka.”
“Hey,” Soichiro sharply snapped, to the laughter of the girls.
The two girls from Tomobiki, sitting with the two boys, nodded in agreement. Eimi then spoke up. “Yes, my twin brother is in the Fashion Club goes to Kolkhoz, but I got a better grade on the entry exam.”
Kodachi was surprised. “You failed to enter Kolkhoz?”
Ichiko nodded. “Me too, but apparently I bombed the test pretty savage despite studying for weeks beforehand.”
Sousuke nodded. “Comparatively speaking, I consistently get some of the lowest grades in school.”
Kodachi stared at the odd mismash of students, especially Sousuke. “But you’re on the Student Council.”
“Well yeah, that’s because my parents paid premium for it,” Sousuke replied. “Same as with Paul and Soichiro here, and Eimi-chan’s brother.”
Secondary education in Japan was not free, but “Premium” tripped a flag for Kodachi. “What do you mean… premium?”
Paul offered the answer. “Simple, you pay a little bit extra, and your kid not only gets into Kolkhoz, but they get good grades no matter what. You’re on the fast track to graduation and placement in a superb college if you pay a little more on top of that.”
Kodachi gaped at the foreign student, then looked back at Soichiro, and then at Sousuke again. “They are… paying to pass?”
“Oh yeah, it’s how Kolkhoz Academy has the highest percentile of students in the entire country,” Soichiro said. “Pretty crazy, isn’t it?”
Kodachi was almost stunned lucid by it. “Those scoundrels, those con men… but wait… such fraud would be easy to detect, would it not?”
“It would, but there’s a trick to it,” Sousuke said. “I’m not exactly privy to how the trick works, but they can make any grade a great one. Including the students of national exams.”
Kodachi recoiled. “Nationals?”
“If you want a free ride to Tokyo U, Kolkhoz is where you go,” Paul said.
Sousuke clapped his hands together. “The trick though, and I’m certain of it, is located in the offices of the school! You get in there and find out what they are doing, and you’ll blow the whole lid off the biggest scandal in Japanese school system of the 21st Century.”
What a tempting opportunity, but Kodachi was crazy, not stupid. “I am curious, what do you have to gain from the shame soon to befall your school?”
Sousuke shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t get dragged into your stupid war with Saginomiya for one–no offense.”
Soichiro nodded. “No offense, but I’ve already been in that meat grinder, and I don’t want to go again.”
“That is fair,” Kodachi agreed.
Eimi then spoke up. “Because of Mendou-san, we’ve been wrapped up in this too, and we want out. Things are already bad enough at Tomobiki because of the Crusaders.”
Ichiko then added. “We want this to end, and we’re going to do it by supporting you.”
“And besides… after what you did to Butsumetsu? Morale’s at an all time low because we know how strong you Furinkan monsters are, no one wants to fight you guys except for the stupid diehards for Saginomiya,” Sousuke finished.
“More like Try-hards,” Paul corrected.
Kodachi nodded. “I see… this information, it’s going to be put to good use. However, if I’m going to I will need one final piece.”
Sousuke cocked his head slightly. “What?”
“A floorplan of Kolkhoz Academy and any information on the school’s defenses,” Kodachi replied.
Sousuke smiled. “Oh that’s not easy to come by, so that’s going to cost you.”
Kodachi stared at the young man somewhat dangerously now. “Cost me what?”
At that, Sousuke held aloft the karaoke microphone. “How’s your karaoke skills?”
Kodachi’s gaze dropped to the microphone, and then rose to Sousuke’s face, as if what he was saying was utterly ludicrous.
“You fool,” she said, before smirking, “Do you realize that I went to an All Girl’s School? Karaoke is not merely a pastime.”
In an instant, she had the mic in her hand and she was posed dramatically, ready to sing. “It’s a way of life!”
Naturally as expected of a girl of so many talents, Kodachi killed it.
|Leftovers|
Honestly, Kodachi didn’t expect this.
In fact she had hoped for something as mundane as her being a bottle blonde (not true, as Kodachi knew her since she was four and she certainly had a natural blonde to her). Discovering a scandal big enough to topple her and her entire family was more than she could ever want. No, there was no wanting under these circumstances.
This was what Kodachi needed her entire life and did not know until now.
An opportunity to completely destroy her mortal rival didn’t come often. With one firmly in her grasp she needed nothing short of perfection to see her victory through, and when it came to perfection she had four people ideally suited for providing as close as one could get to it to pick from.
Naturally, she went for the most attractive one.
“Saotome Ranma-kun, what do you think of ramen?” She had asked him in Furinkan High School’s kitchen the very next morning. Ranma was in the midst of writing down a recipe to give to the lunch staff for the rest of the week as he looked through the main icebox of the kitchen.
“As an eater, it can be cheap and filling if you know where to go for it. As a chef, I see a canvas upon which to paint a masterpiece.” Ranma answered, chuckling at her confused look.
Kodachi hummed at that. “A canvas, you say?”
“Break it down to brass tacks, it’s noodles in flavored water cooked a certain way. Keep that in mind, and you can turn it into literally whatever you want,” Ranma said lightly. “Like for instance, I’ve been thinking about doing soupe de poisson ramen.”
A French dish she was familiar with, Kodachi rather enjoyed it. “That sounds like it’d be excellent.”
Ranma did a bit of a double take. “You like soup de poisson?”
“Some in my income bracket would consider it commoner fare, and more would enjoy it simply because it is served to them with the French name.” Kodachi smiled slightly. “I rather find a charm in its preparation and the flavors there within.”
Ranma smirked. “Fancy yourself a bit of a connoisseur?”
“Sasuke, my family’s ninja, is actually well-versed in French Cuisine,” Kodachi replied. “It’s about the only thing he’s good for aside from his utter devotion to our family.”
Not that she’s needed to rely on him since she began training her Gentlemen.
Ranma didn’t know the Kunos had a family ninja, or that he could cook French food. He’d have to look into that. “It’s kind of funny, I never would’ve expected you to be into something like that. I think even most average people would cringe at the idea of using the leftovers to make something before they had a chance to try it.”
Kodachi nodded. “Yes, and that’s a flawed way of thinking, do you not agree? We are conditioned to believe that there are things we should be above. Food, occupations, even people. Once all the desirables are acquired all that is left is refuse that should be cast away.”
Ranma found that a little bit poignant coming from her. “Uh… yeah, I guess.”
Kodachi rested her hands against the counter that separated her from Ranma, who closed the icebox door and leaned back against it. “You went to Butsumetsu for a time, wouldn’t you say that it reflects that attitude? Many of those students, do you see any of them being contributing members of society?”
Ranma let out a quick laugh. “Oh brother, I think those guys may as well stay in High School forever, there’s no hope for ‘em.” He stopped and then frowned. “Well with some exceptions.”
“Ohhohoho…” Kodachi’s laugh was rather subdued. “It’s that narrow thinking, of seeking out the exceptional, that leads people to waste something that is perfectly good–if work is put into it.”
She gestured around. “This school wasn’t far removed from Butsumetsu High School, or Tomobiki. In fact all three can be considered one and the same, where students who don’t make the arbitrary requirements for entrance into the likes of Kolkhoz or St. Hebereke.”
Ranma was starting to see where she was going with this. “We’re the scraps leftover when all the parts that they wanted got taken by Kolkhoz and St. Hebereke.”
“Yet with preparation and creativity you can make something fantastic with them, that which is considered cheap and indolent can one day become the envy and desire of the rich and frivolous.” Kodachi declared. “Like a wonderful bowl of soup de poisson.”
Ranma folded his arms, weighing heavily on this rather profound discussion. “I gotta say though, there’s more here at Furinkan than just fish heads and leftover veggies. At least in this school, there’s a lot more going for us.”
Kodachi nodded, he had hit the nail on the head. “That is true, you are all of a higher quality than many would be willing to accept. The turnaround of these students to take longer than it has, I expected to be having a conversation like this one closer to the middle of fall instead of before summer break.”
“So why are we having it now?” Ranma asked.
“A good question with a disturbing answer. Last night I went out and enjoyed some ramen in Taian,” Kodachi revealed. “I ended up there at the instruction of several members of Kolkhoz’s Student Council.”
Ranma frowned. “Why were you taking orders from them?”
“I was introduced to them via a mutual contact, they told me of a major scandal covered up at their school, one that may have the potential to ruin the name of the Saginomiya family,” she revealed. “The quality of the student who goes to Kolkhoz does not matter so much as the amount of money the family is willing to pay.”
That was a little heavy, Ranma thought, though he didn’t quite appreciate the scope of what she just said. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“I am going to collect proof that such scandal truly exists, and I will need your assistance in that endeavor,” Kodachi answered. “I wish to break into the school in the middle of night and steal the evidence.”
Ranma stared at Kodachi, before closing his eyes and letting out a laugh. Kodachi found herself rather taken by the sight and sound of it.
“Geez, you’re definitely not as above it all as I thought,” he admitted.
Kodachi frowned. “Is that a problem?”
“Nah, you’re scary, rich, and hot enough to get anyone to do this kind of stuff for you–but you’re itchin’ to do it yourself. A hands-on girl like that is pretty dang cool,” Ranma said, fondly recalling his spars with Katie, watching Akane trash that Kolkhoz kendoist, and of course seeing Misao step up against Shampoo and Ryoga.
Kodachi’s frown vanished as she tilted her nose up with a bit of inflated pride at his praise. “I assure you, I'd never dream of sending you into a place I would not go myself.”
Ranma laughed again, and there went The Black Rose’s heart all atwitter again. “Well, count me in on your raid. Who and what all are we going to need for it?”
“With yours, Mu Tsu’s, and mine talents we are fairly potent. However, we need a true master of infiltration and subversion in the team. A true ninja!”
“Ah, your ninja,” Ranma said.
Kodachi nodded. “Why yes, of course. We will need to make a quick trip to the medical center where I sent my brother to retrieve him… I banished him there to tend to my brother after he attempted to take revenge on Izurando Katie-san for defeating his master.”
So there was a chance at meeting Kodachi’s brother, huh? Ranma found that interesting, maybe the dirtbag has learned a lesson after the humbling he got. “So let’s go get him, then.”
“We shall take the day off immediately then, and head over to the hospital, it is in Minato and I would like to move towards raiding the school as soon as tonight.”
Ranma recoiled a bit. “Tonight? That’s a bit short notice.”
“You should inform your boss that you will be late tonight,” Kodachi advised him.
Ranma shrugged his shoulders. “Actually tonight’s pretty clear for me, she’s doing an R-18 stream so…”
He kind of trailed off at that, and Kodachi could’ve sworn she saw the beginning of a frown before he quickly squashed it. “… So I’m all yours!”
“If I could only be so lucky,” Kodachi said back with a flirtatious lilt to her voice that brought a small flush to his cheeks.
|Sanitorium|
By the afternoon, rain had moved into the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, blanketing the area in clouds and showering the city with curtains of heavy rain. With an umbrella and a raincoat to protect him from his curse being triggered, Ranma stepped out of the limousine that drove him, Kodachi, and Mousse to Tokyo’s Hiroo Hospital, the white, angular building looming above them and well lit under the unexpectedly dark clouds.
“So this is where they are keeping him, huh?” Ranma asked. “You’d think they’d keep him somewhere a little more secure.”
“Shortly after his misadventure, he was confined to his room under the orders of the doctors who specialize in the trauma he sustained. Sasuke has been there to assist in keeping him in bed, and to this point he has been well behaved, actually,” Kodachi explained as they walked up the sidewalk to the large double doors of the main entrance.
Mousse looked up at the daunting face of the hospital, he felt an unease about it, something triggering his fighting instincts. He looked towards Ranma and Kodachi, wondering if they could feel it as well.
“You don’t think taking him out of here will give your brother a chance to act out, will it?” Ranma asked.
Kodachi laughed. “No… the damage Izurando Katie-san did to my brother will keep him here for a long time.”
What an interesting opportunity to have a look at a real trainwreck, Ranma thought as they entered the hospital’s front lobby. As one of the three main hospitals in Minato, and located in one of its busier districts, it was quite busy as they walked in–but the sight of a handsome young man in white Chinese-style robes, a second equally handsome young man in a bright yellow raincoat, hat, and slickers, and a gorgeous young woman wearing naught but a leotard slippers, and a shawl to keep off the rain still turned heads as they went to the elevator to the seventh floor of the hospital.
With intent and poise, Kodachi left the elevator doors on the seventh floor, marched straight to the front desk, and nodded to the nurses behind it. “Greetings, I am here to see Kuno Tatewaki, my brother.”
The pretty nurse behind the counter, taken aback by the three teens in front of them, needed a moment before she snapped out of her dazzlement. She quickly got to work on the computer in front of her. “Ah, y-yes. Kuno Tatewaki-san is currently recovering from another round of surgery. He can take visitors, but please take care not to disturb him.”
“Oh, I doubt that is possible,” Kodachi said as she received her visitors badge.
“Disturbing him or not?” Mousse asked for clarification.
“Not, of course,” Kodachi said, “My brother is already quite disturbed.”
Ranma folded his hands behind his head. “I bet.”
The nurse almost made a face, as if to agree with Kodachi, but refrained. “I’ll let Dr. Hyuuga know that you will be coming in.”
“There’s no need for that,” a woman’s voice called.
Kodachi and her party turned and found a bespectacled woman wearing a white lab coat over a black long-sleeved dress with a long cut up the sides that went up past the hip, exposing a great deal of the woman’s pantyhose-clad legs as she walked. She was a woman of breathtaking elegance, in spite of the pedestrian setting of the hospital.
However, all Ranma really could notice was a more than passing resemblance to Misao– albeit this woman was much taller, and had jet black straight hair that reached past her waist rather than her current myriad of colors that stopped well above it. She was just as heavy around the chest, maybe even more…
“I am Doctor Hyuuga Mizuho, I am Tatewaki-kun’s doctor,” the woman introduced herself. “You are Kodachi-san, yes?”
Not the least intimidated by the older beauty, Kodachi nodded. “Yes, I’ve come here to check on him, and recall my family’s servant.”
Mizuho smiled pleasantly to the girl. “Of course, he’s just come from under sedation and he’s lively as ever. Please, come this way.”
As she turned to lead them, she noticed Ranma’s face under the hat of his rain slicker and her eyes enlarged slightly in surprise. “Ah, Ranma-kun?”
Ranma was taken off guard by the elegant woman’s recognition. “Uh… yeah? Have we met before?”
“No, but I’ve heard a lot about you,” Mizuho replied, “I’m Misao-chan’s aunt.”
“Sure you’re not her sister?” Ranma meant it more to say that they looked a lot alike, but Mizuho Hyuuga was a single woman in her early forties. As such, she laughed, a sound to the ears what silk was to touch, and brought a hand to her cheek.
“No wonder she’s so taken with you!” She said coolly. “You’re quick to flatter.”
“I’ll say!” Kodachi said, rather struck by Ranma’s boldness. Truly a man amongst men!
Ranma paused. “Wait, what did I say?”
Mousse wore a wry smirk. “Your confidence is admirable, Saotome.”
Ranma processed that and then broke into a blush. “H-hey! I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Too late my entire night has been made,” Mizuho teased as they passed through the doors to the Post-Op Care unit of the hospital.
Ranma slapped his palm to his face. “Don’t tell Misao I said that…”
“Doctor, how is my brother doing?” Kodachi asked as Ranma languished in embarrassment.
“A handful even in his current state,” Mizuho revealed. “We've had to do corrective surgery on wounds he keeps reopening with his thrashing about.”
“A man with a strong will,” Mousse said.
“Quite, he is thoroughly convinced that he will heal better on his own, but the damage done to him was catastrophic at best.” Mizuho shook her head. “Being kicked through a clocktower and the mechanism inside at a few hundred miles per hour is not something people get up from easily.”
Ranma whistled. “That must’ve been ugly.”
“It’s partly why I had the whole thing torn down, they were still picking pieces of my brother from it during the renovation. Mostly teeth and hair, thankfully.”
Ranma winced. “Brutal.”
“Ah, but he deserved it!” Kodachi reassured him.
“Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong, a jerk that big needs it as bad as it can get short of actually killin’ the guy.”
Mizuho laughed again. “Nicely put, Ranma-kun… because there are things you can do to a person far worse than death.”
“After what I saw Misao do to Shampoo, I read you loud and clear on that.”
Mizuho’s lips tightened at mention of that, and she let out a huff that sounded chagrined. “Yes, quite.”
She then swiped a key card attached to her lab coat in front of a reader, and the doors to the actual recovery ward opened… to an unexpected clamor.
“I demand to speak with that enchantress! That succubus! I will not stand for this any longer!” A voice much stronger than it ought to be bellowed.
“Is that him?” Ranma asked.
“That is my dear brother, my he does sound strong!” Kodachi said in surprise.
“Tatewaki-sama, please stop trying to move against your restraints!” Another man said in a much more panicked voice.
When the group reached the bed in question, they of course found the elder of the two Kuno siblings, Tatewaki, strapped down to a reinforced bed and swathed head to toe in bandages and casts. His physical state did not stop him from thrashing around like a mosher with a mummy bondage fetish. Attempting to hold him down was the family ninja, Sarugakure Sasuke, and two nurses and a doctor.
Resting one hand on her hip, Mizuho sighed and strolled over to the bed. “Mou, Tachi-kun, what’s wrong now?”
“Do not take such affectionate tones with me, witch!” Tatewaki shouted back. “I was well on the road to recovery when you lashed me down to this bed and carved into me again! What have you taken from me this time? My limbs?! My organs?! My manhood?!”
Mizuho shook her head. “I didn’t take anything at all other than bone and concrete fragments, which you still have plenty of embedded in places where they may hurt you.”
“Liar! I can feel that you have done something! My strength, my power, it has been sapped!” Tatewaki roared back.
Mizuho shook her head. “If you allow me to work on you, and yourself to recover, then you’ll get that strength back and then some.”
“Please Tatewaki-sama, listen to her! She has your best interests at heart!” Sasuke pleaded.
“Those injuries were nothing! Nothing!” Tatewaki bellowed.
“Honestly dear brother, you are embarrassing yourself and the family name!” Kodachi then interjected, prompting the elder Kuno to give pause.
“Oh, hello dear sister,” Tatewaki greeted as if granting her only the barest formality.
Kodachi huffed and tossed her side-bunched hair over her shoulder. “Tell me you have not been throwing a tantrum all this time. Your care is the best that can be offered, and you are treating these tireless men and women like they are nothing!”
“They bring me no closer to the wellness I must achieve! Time is of the essence! I cannot languish here for months! Not when there is so much at stake!” Tatewaki argued back, causing Sasuke to grimace.
Ranma rolled his eyes. “Geez, what is this guy in such a hurry for?”
Mousse hummed and stroked his chin. That fervency, the wild look of delusion in his eyes. He knew it all too well. “If I had to guess…”
“You there! Commoners! Who are you to speak out of turn?!” Tatewaki bellowed at them.
“Saotome Ranma,” Ranma said, “Of the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling.”
“Mu Tsu, formerly of the Joketsuzoku tribe of China,” Mousse introduced himself.
Tatewaki stared at Mousse, a tad incredulous. “But you are a man.”
“I know,” Mousse replied.
“Well, if you must know, I must return to my school post-haste. There is a woman who I must repay for her decisive blow against me,” Tatewaki explained.
Mizuho repressed a giggle, while Sasuke outright cringed.
“Tendo Akane is out of your reach, brother,” Kodachi advised him.
“Got that right,” Ranma muttered.
“I speak not of the fair Akane,” Tatewaki said, “I speak of the Goddess who revealed herself to me. A woman of such wild ferocity and violence that surpassed even her fearsome might!”
Ranma’s face fell a bit. “Uhh…”
“I speak of the American woman, Izurando,” Tatewaki declared passionately. “Never have I known such power… such beauty in violence firsthand!”
“Izurando Katie-san?!” Kodachi exclaimed softly.
“Oh geez,” Ranma said flatly.
Tatewaki closed his eyes and chuckled. “Yes, for the longest time I had yearned for the fierce girl who bested me in the realm of kendo. Yet… to meet a woman who held nothing back in the slightest, who came at me with every intent to crush me beneath her feet… I knew that in my heart I must tame her!”
Ranma and Mousse had similar, incredulous looks. “Tame her?”
“Oh my,” Mizuho chirped.
Sasuke had his face buried in his palm.
“I knew from the moment I realized what it then it would be my destiny to show her what the love of a civilized and sophisticated nobleman is like! I am her Gilgamesh, and she is my Enkidu!” Tatewaki declared, eyes wide now with a lustful flame.
Ranma then spoke. “Not to make it sound like a detriment to her character, but she is a huge lesbian.”
Kodachi looked over to Ranma, intrigued. “Oh she is?”
Tatewaki chuckled. “Hmhmhm… not even the power of lilies can withstand my masculine charisma. When I show her the true breadth of my manliness, she will swoon as a proper heterosexual woman!”
A short stillness followed, Ranma and Mousse visibly cringing at that statement.
He was then thrashing wildly in his bonds. “OR I WOULD IF THIS MADWOMAN DIDN’T CONTINUE TO POKE AROUND INSIDE MY BODY AS THOUGH I WERE A SURGICAL THEMED BOARD GAME!”
“Still haven’t found that bucket of water yet,” Mizuho murmured under her breath.
Kodachi huffed. “Well fighting her at every turn isn’t going to help you recover any sooner. So you will be well to just suck it up and rest well.”
Sasuke nodded. “Please, Tatewaki-sama, just let it be for now.”
“I cannot! I must see my wild goddess of violence again!” Tatewaki argued back mid-thrash.
Ranma then had an idea. “Hey, Tatewaki or whatever, how about I do you a favor?”
Tatewaki stopped and looked at Ranma. “And what sort of service will you do me, Saotome?”
It was innocent enough, Ranma would feed the elder Kuno sibling a little white lie, and then once he ate it up he wouldn’t cause Mizuho anymore trouble. Then that would be the end of it and they’d all be ready to stuff him back into the hospital once he came out.
Unfortunately, Ranma did not know what he was dealing with. Though he would.
“I’m Katie’s roommate, I’ll put in a good word for you…”
The first three words were the only ones Kuno Tatewaki actually heard. Once he heard them, he found himself first aghast that a young man would be living under the same roof as such a beautiful woman. Then he found himself furious that this stranger, this commoner would be on more intimate terms with her. Sharing meals with her, sleeping within a vague proximity of her, and even… even using the same toilet as her!
“YOU LIVE UNDER THE SAME ROOF AS THE WILD MAIDEN?!” Kuno roared, all of his ire locked directly at Ranma.
“Oops,” Mizuho murmured.
“Oh dear,” Mousse grumbled.
“Brother, you…” Kodachi began before she sighed in a stark moment of lucidity.
Tatewaki stared at Ranma, his gaze burning with hatred and envy, before he closed his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. He then relaxed completely, sinking down into the bed, and opened them to look to Mizuho. “Doctor, I entrust myself to the highest standard of your care.”
“You do, now?” Mizuho asked, quite pleased to hear that.
“I wish to make the fullest recovery possible. So that when I am fully healed…” He turned his head and stared at Ranma. “… I will destroy this man before me.”
Ranma stared at Tatewaki, before he shrugged his shoulders. “You know what? Yeah, that’s fine.”
He gave the older Kuno a dangerous smile. “I accept your challenge.”
Kodachi looked over to Ranma, finding his confidence as enthralling as catnip to a tiger. Mousse found this same confidence impressive, though a tad reckless… after all it was this eagerness that led him to trading blows with Shampoo.
Mizuho and Sasuke were relieved that this meant Tatewaki would at least behave. The former then spoke. “Thank you for deciding to behave, Tatewaki-kun. I hope from here we will have a good time on the road to recovery.”
“Every painful moment will be worth it,” Tatewaki replied.
“Yeah, whatever,” Ranma said. He was going to put him back in here the second he stepped out, so…
“Well, as long as you’re going to behave, it means that I can now take Sasuke off your hands,” Kodachi said as she stepped forward.
Sasuke turned to Kodachi. “Ah, you need me for something, Kodachi-sama?”
“Yes, a task requiring your skills has come up, I will need to make use of you tonight,” Kodachi commanded.
“Ah, at once… well…” Sasuke looked back to his master. “I need to be sure Tatewaki-sama is…”
“Don’t worry,” Mizuho promised. “He’s in good hands, I’m the doctor for him.”
She looked around the teens, and finding that her joke went over their heads, shrugged her shoulders in mild resignation.
Sasuke left Tatewaki’s side, and bowed deeply to Kodachi. “As you command, Kodachi-sama, I will be at your side. What do you need me fore?”
Kodachi smiled. “I will explain along the way. We must prepare immediately.”
She nodded to Mousse and Ranma. “Come along, we must return to the school.”
“Right,” Mousse said as he followed.
Mizuho waved to them. “Please come by anytime, especially you Ranma-kun.”
Ranma flushed and shyly waved back at Mizuho and left after them. On his way out the recovery wing he passed a glance back at Kuno, who was now resting in bed, his gaze locked onto him in turn. Seeing this, Ranma shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment as he followed the group along. Sarcastically, he thought about how wonderful it would be to fight someone as weak as that jerk.
Once the doors closed behind them, Mizuho looked to the well bandaged Kuno and rested a hand on his thigh. “We’re going to work together well from now on, Tatewaki-kun.”
Tatewaki nodded. “I can only hope for the best recovery.”
Mizuho looked down at his bandage wrapped body, and smiled before she let out a silky laugh. “When I’m done with you, you will be a whole new man.”
She patted on his thigh, the sound of metal being struck through fabric sounding, prompting Tatewaki to stare at his leg in confusion.
|Kids With Guns|
The truck that pulled to the loading dock of Kolkhoz Academy had unloaded pallets upon pallets of crates, forty in total, and in all of them were the same thing: Guns. Pistols, rifles, shotguns, there were enough firearms to arm an Army division in total, and the sight of them brought a gleam to Asuka’s eyes and a look of dread to Angela’s face.
“W-where did you get all of these?!” Asuka asked Lida as she looked with glee upon the first crate of boxes, seeing nothing but submachine guns packed in straw.
With her role as security advisor, Lida’s first request of Asuka was to purchase firearms for the entire student body, since guns were all legal in Nerima. With a nice hefty flood of firearms, even Kolkhoz’s weakest students would have a fair chance against the likes of Furinkan, and even Tomobiki.
Finding such measures appealing, Asuka quickly cut a blank check and told Lida to get to work.
“Buenos amigos de mi familia producen armas de airsoft, estos son excedentes de los modelos del año pasado. No tuve que pagar un solo centavo,” Lida replied.
“She knows people,” Angela translated.
Asuka, still in awe, picked up one of the SMGs. “I didn’t think that we would get so many guns. This was money well-spent!”
Angela translated to Lida, who closed her eyes and laughed throatily.
After checking the action, Asuka attempted to extract the magazine. With a pop it slid out, and she was immediately greeted with a shower of small steel bearings that poured from the box. Staring at it uncomprehending, she looked at the stamped letters on the side of the gun, and then looked to her and Angela.
“Hey, this is airsoft,” she said with a frown.
Angela didn’t catch that. “W-what?”
“This is an Airsoft Gun!” Asuka yelled at her. She pointed at the crate, all of various guns sporting the same labels. “These are all airsoft!”
Angela nearly withered under the verbal assault, before she turned and translated to Lida.
“Pendeja, claro que sé que son. Yo las ordene,” she replied.
Angela cringed, before replying. “She knows, she ordered them.”
“What are we supposed to do with Airsoft?! I am trying to fight a war against powerful enemies! Those monsters aren’t a joke!” Asuka screamed at her, furious over the waste of money.
When Angela translated that, Lida let out a laugh and pulled out an airsoft pistol, modeled after a Glock 17L. “Yo decidí que usar balines es más seguro para que tus escuincles pendejos peleen tu estúpida guerra. Además, todas están modificadas.”
Angela sighed wearily, prompting Asuka to brandish the empty airsoft SMG at her. Prompting a sour look from Lida. “Well, what did she say, nun?!”
With a weariness belying her young age, Angela translated. “She said that they are safer for you to use, and are… modified.”
“Modified how?!” Asuka said as she pointed it at Lida. “What good are toys going to do against people who can dodge rifle shots?!”
Lida, rather offended that Asuka would point a gun at her, loaded or not, airsoft or otherwise, quickly pointed the airsoft pistol at her stomach and fired a pellet that hit her with enough force to knock the wind out of her.
“OOF!” Asuka exclaimed as she clutched her solar plexus and doubled over.
Lida lowered the gun before she spoke to Asuka. (“You see now how much these fucking toys can hurt?”)
She offered the pistol to Angela, who took it without hesitation as Asuka looked up, tears running down her face.
“Airsoft guns are not toys,” Angela simply translated without looking at Asuka, “Do you see that now?”
“You… you shot me!” Asuka shouted out.
Lida hummed to Angela, who translated it to her in turn. Hearing it, Lida nodded.
“Te dispare por que eres una marica.” Lida retorted with a roll of her eyes. “Si quieres que alguien adore tu flácido culo mientras muere para protegerlo, tu puedes contratar a la policía con tu dinero sucio, quizás hasta algunos mercenarios”
“You were being bratty.” Angela translated liberally, more to spare Asuka’s feelings than anything else. “As an aside, haven’t you considered asking the police for help? Or mercenaries?”
“Those incompetents can’t stop a single perverted boy,” Asuka growled back. “I… I want quality.”
Hearing Angela’s conversion, Lida shook her head.
“Ni creas que lo vas a encontrar fácilmente. Realmente esperas alguien capaz de enfrentar un ejército de esos cabrones caiga en tus manos?” She chastised Asuka with a snide snarl. “Si crees eso, eres mas idiota que una chica fresa asfixiándose en vergas para ser mas popular.”
Angela’s face colored brightly, and she shook her head to fight off the flush. “There is no shortcut for the strength you want.”
Lida then grinned. “Cuando las personas con las que estas peleando esta guerra terminen contigo y tu escuela, entonces te esperare con mis brazos abiertos. Entonces no tendrás absolutamente nada, y desde ahí, te convertiré en algo más que una perra en celo.”
Angela stared at Lida, who nodded for her to say as she wished, before she took a deep breath. “I-I can make you stronger, but… but you must give this war up first.”
Asuka huffed in defiance. “What does a gloomy, sadistic girl like you… know about my ‘war’? This is my image at stake, the adoration of my many followers. I will see the Black Rose pruned from the face of the public, and show her her place well beneath me.”
She turned for the exit of the loading bay, shuffling for the doors. Without looking back, she called out. “If these guns work, distribute them… and train the low folk to use them properly…”
Angela now reserved her somewhat horrified stare for Asuka, before she turned to Lida. “Ella dice... Ella dice que esta es su pelea para vencer a esa Kodachi. Por qué todo esto, incluyendo a todos estos estudiantes, por algo tan frívolo?”
Lida let out a snort. “Porque es una chica loca atrapada en su pequeño mundo, con el suficiente dinero para hacerlo real. Mendou y Kuno son iguales... per las ilusiones de Kuno son exactamente lo que la gente quiere. Ella está pensando para el futuro, pensando en grande. Estos pendejos solo piensan en satisfacer sus pequeños juegos engreídos.”
She turned and looked out the loading dock, and the rain clouds hanging heavily over Nerima. In English she then said.
“When this is over, the winners will be more than ready to face the true world.”
= = =
Because this party is about to get crazy.
