Disclaimer: Ranma ½ and all of its characters are owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz video. I don’t even own stock.

Chapter Three

By Michael Fetter

Another day, another school.

Ranma-chan sighed and watched the houses passing by her window across from Kodachi. At least the older girl didn’t want to arrive at school an hour early. This was also the first time Ranma had ever seen the gymnast in anything that wasn’t a leotard. Didn’t she have anything else? Ranma didn’t think about the number of similarly styled Chinese shirts and Kungfu pants in his closet.

There had been some reservations about going to St. Bacchus, Kodachi’s private high school. Ranma-chan ended up not having a choice in the matter after getting a splash of cold water in the morning. She had the usual sparring session with her father that invariably took them over the koi pond. Ranma was still feeling groggy from the paralysis potion of Kodachi’s last night and was dunked three times as a result.

In the furo she was able to avoid Kodachi this time. Everything was fine, a long warm soak, dressed in clean clothes, and then leave for breakfast. Almost.

Reentering the anteroom for his clothes, Ranma was struck by a suddenly leaky pipe. She grimaced, but decided she’d get some warm water from the kitchen. As her door opened so did the outer door. Ranma-chan froze for the moment with Tatewaki staring back at her. What was wrong with these furos?!

Well, one thing lead to another and Tatewaki wound up unconscious on the ground and she headed downstairs. When Kodachi caught her, it was decided Ranma-chan would accompany her to St. Bacchus and that was that.

Ranma-chan sighed as she saw the new school pulling up into sight, "At least I ain’t gotta worry bout Tatewaki spouting Shakespeare at me all the time."

There was a smaller crowd of people in the courtyard of St. Bacchus. Ranma groaned as she expected another mob fight.

"Ah, my adoring fans," Kodachi grinned and opened her door.

"Huh?" Ranma quickly followed in case Kodachi needed her help.

The crowd cheered a little, some clapping and whistles. Some were chanting, "Champion Kodachi!"

Ranma blinked and shrugged. At least it didn’t look like anyone was going to get beaten up anytime soon. She followed the pony-tailed girl into the school. The crowd suddenly fell silent as Kodachi went out of sight. Curious Ranma turned around to see why. The other female students seemed to have forgotten Kodachi’s presence entirely.

"Gotta change before class," Ranma-chan thought as she began searching for a boy’s bathroom. That ended up being a difficult thing in a girl’s only school. Ranma had a suddenly sick feeling about the day.

"Hey! Hey look!"

Ranma turned to the sound of shouting and jogged over to the window where a number of girls were looking out. "What is it?"

"It’s a boy! Gusonkugi, my love!" one the girls swooned.

Even more curious, Ranma leaned over to get a look and found . . . the weakest, most foolish looking, spineless twerp she’d ever seen in her life! Gusonkugi wore the Furinkan uniform, his skin was pale like a sheet of paper, dark bags hung under his eyes, a camera around his neck, and taped around his head were a pair of wax candles.

That settles that, Ranma thought as she walked quickly away, no changing into a boy for me.

~

Except for the all female classes, school with Kodachi was a lot like school with Tatewaki, with the notable exception that Kodachi did not speak in bad Shakespearean when mentioning her Ranma-sama. Ranma-chan thought of the classes as all female, not girl. Girl would imply they were young, sweet, and pretty. Some of these girls were just a little too butch and being known to have girlfriends of their own didn’t help appearances either.

Gym was a little different. There were no rough and tumble sports like soccer or football. Everything had something to do with gymnastics. Ranma didn’t mind except her uniform was a plain purple leotard.

Ranma-chan skulked as she was dragged around by Kodachi after receiving her uniform. She hardly noticed the fact Kodachi had taken her into the locker room to get changed.

"Oh, dear," Kodachi found herself dragging Ranma-chan by the wrist as the redhead collapsed to the ground with a nose bleed. "Are you feeling well, sister-to-be?"

Ranma groaned and just let her head bounce off the ground as she was tugged through the rows to her locker. There were far too many naked feet wandering about the room, she decided from her perspective. Ranma-chan was not going to survive this without a blood transfusion.

Maybe she blacked out. Maybe she was dreaming. But Ranma was pretty sure she was now in the school gymnasium surrounded by a hundred different girl, giggling forms contained by thin spandex. This was not much better than the locker room, but it seemed Kodachi had gotten her out of their. "Guess I know what it’s like to be drug outta combat by my buddy."

"What was that?" Kodachi asked, still pulling Ranma along by the wrist.

"Nothin," Ranma responded morosely as she plucked at the purple leotard she was now wearing. Somewhere in that blackout Kodachi must have put it on her. "So, what’re we doin?"

Kodachi pointed to the ring in the center of the gymnasium. "I shall assess your potential to joining the St. Bacchus Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts team. Do not be discouraged if you are beaten handily for I am the leader of this school’s team. Even if you could not put up a scrap of a defense against my magnificence, know that I am also the undefeated champion, so it is not expected a girl, such as yourself, should come close to beating a high born lady, such as myself."

Ranma’s eye was twitching.

"What could I expect anyway from one who has only recently ascended from the lowly position of peasants, carried by your brother, my dear Ranma-sama? You may trip and disgrace yourself in this test of skills," Kodachi did not notice the air warming up, or that the heat was coming from Ranma, "and you may knock yourself out with the instruments of this battle as one raised by an oaf of a father. But take solace in the knowledge that I shall endeavor to fix these broken pieces of your upbringing."

People around the gym were watching the pair of girls carefully. Kodachi, lost in herself, seemed completely unaware of the heat eminating from the redhead or the red glow that followed her. Both of Ranma’s eyes were now twitching, her free hand shook like she was ready to draw a gun from her hip, and her teeth ground together as she growled like a blood-thirsty animal.

"Whatever," Ranma hissed and yanked her hand away. "We’ll just see how badly I do in this Rhythmic Gymnastics Martial Arts."

Glancing over her shoulder, Kodachi smiled like a mother to her dog and leapt into the ring. "Then shall we begin?"

"Fine!" Ranma-chan spat back and jumped, twisting in the air, to land opposite of her fiancee. "Show me watcha got!"

What followed, echoing with ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd, was complete carnage. Ranma did not flow like Kodachi, she did not bounce off of the border ropes, did not twist her ribbon elegantly, nor did she make looping tosses with her hoop. Red with anger and frustration, Ranma and Kodachi bound about the small ring for more than ten minutes, trading hits with their weapons and countering the attacks. The ring was nearly in a state of decomposition by the time the two girls had finished trouncing the area. Ropes were cut, the ring floor was shredded, spiked clubs were imbedded in corner posts, and a medicine ball thrown with ‘judicious’ force had bent one of the support beams in half.

Finally running out of weapons, Kodachi shrugged, "I suppose that will do." She stood balanced on one of the corner posts while Ranma hung onto cross rope that was meant to give the absent floor bounce. "You are rough and only somewhat skilled within this great arena, but you show some potential. Therefore, I shall graciously offer the position of my second to you and from hence on you shall be my student until you have perfected your form!"

Still swinging a little from beneath the rope, Ranma blinked, "Uh, no. That’s okay. I’ll pass."

"Nonsense," Kodachi laughed, making people cringe. "I shall have you fit to assume my place in the next tournament against the lowly peasants form my brother’s school."

Ranma groaned. In a way, she had just been challenged. "Great," she muttered.

~

Sweaty and just a little tired, Ranma-chan was glad to peal the leotard off her body that she barely noticed the fact she was even in the girls' locker room this time. Having the curse drove away an sort of pleasure Ranma might've had at peeping on girls. Now he was just embarrassed.

Brushing by a few girls who congratulated her on such a good match with Kodachi, Ranma found an empty space in the shower and twisted the knob below. The warm water helped her relax after such a stressful day in an all girls school. Her headache might even be better if the girls around her would stop screaming.

"EEEEK!! PERVERT!!"

Ranma blinked and looked down. Woops.

"Hentai!" one of the girls yelled and picked up a bottle of shampoo to throw. Others were getting the same idea and began to advance on the pigtailed boy.

Laughing nervously, Ranma found himself backed up against the shower wall surrounded by a mob of girls. "I-It's really not what it looks like! I swear I wasn't lookin at ya!"

"What? We aren't good enough for you?!" demanded one of the girls whose face began to turn red. Some with anger and others with what he hoped was just embarrassment, but the drooling wasn't helping.

"Hohohoho!" hearing the commotion, Kodachi strolled into the shower and then leaped over the group of girls, catching Ranma around the shoulders and pressing herself against his body. "Ranma-sama, what a wonderful way to surprise you fiancee! I had no idea you were such a naughty boy. Hohohoho!"

The stimuli ended up being too much. Ranma froze up and tipped over backwards with a stream of blood rolling out of his nose. He might've fallen to the ground except Kodachi was holding him a little too tightly in his mind, but his nerveless arm did hit something.

"Hohoho! My Ranma-sama, how scandalous you are, but I don't mind you flaunting yourself for me! Why this is what engaged people do! You're such a bad influence on me!" Kodachi continued, barely aware of the others in the shower room who stared, dumb-founded. She was also barely aware of the temperature of the water cooling.

When the transformation happened, the girls took a step back and began to whisper. Kodachi had seemed rather . . . odd . . . to them.

No longer pressed up against a firm chest and noticing the lighter weight in her arms, Kodachi opened her eyes and found herself cradling an unconscious redhead in her arms. "Ranma-sama?" she asked, peering around the shower. "How does he do that?"

Deciding it was best to just forget the whole thing, the other girls made a quick retreat from the locker room, looking back once to see Kodachi still holding onto the returned Ranma-chan.

Very odd.

~

It was only the afternoon and Ranma was already feeling exhausted. The match with Kodachi had been tough, but it the scene in the shower that really got him down. Sitting at the base of a tree, Ranma-chan started picking at her bento. "Hope I never have to do that again."

"Excuse me, Ranma?"

Ranma-chan looked up to find a group of girls standing around her. "Uh, yeah?"

The girl in front edged closer with caution. "Were you . . .," she pointed between Ranma and the locker room. "Uh, that boy in the locker room . . . is that . . .?"

Sighing, Ranma-chan hung her head and nodded slowly. "Look, it's a curse alright? It's not my fault. I didn't mean for anyone to see it."

"What about Kodachi? She seems to know you," Another girl asked.

Ranma-chan laughed nervously and scratched the back of her head. "Uh, well, that is . . . we're sort of engaged."

Some of the girls blinked while others had an expression like they 'knew it all along'. "Oh."

Slowly, each girl put the pieces together, eyebrows shooting up with realization The girl in front put a hand over her mouth in shock, "Geez, poor girl."

Another kneeled down beside Ranma and put her hand on the redhead's shoulder. She smiled with dramatic tears in her eyes. "That's okay, Ranma. We understand now."

Ranma blinked. "You do? You aren't angry?" She looked at the girl beside her strangely when the tears suddenly dried up and she stood, her face stern.

"Don't worry. We'll make sure the other girls don't bother you about this. I'm sure you're going through a very tough time. You have our sympathies."

Scratching the back of her head, this time in confusion, Ranma-chan nodded. "Uh, okay."

Kodachi returned from searching the school grounds for Ranma-kun to spot Ranma-chan and the group of girls. Walking with her nose in the air and a condescending smirk, Kodachi made her way over. "Ah, sister-to-be, it is good that you are familiarizing yourself with the other students. I'm sure being associated with me has helped that."

"Yeah, Kodachi." The group of girls scowled at the gymnast. "We just couldn't help but try to be her friend because of you."

Kodachi seemed to not notice the barb and smiled empiriously at the girls.

Shaking her head, the lead girl nodded to Ranma. "See you around, Ranma-chan." She shot another disgusted look at Kodachi then turned on her heel to leave. "Let's go girls."

~

"Did you hear?"

"About Ranma?"

"Poor girl."

"There she is, and Kodachi too."

The front doors to the school opened as a black limo pulled up to St. Herbeke's. Kodachi walked through the crowd regally, not hearing the murmur of voices. Ranma followed a step behind, nervously glancing about the area. Some of the looks other girls were giving her were just down right scary.

All eyes followed the pair as they entered the limo and then watched them pull away.

"Did you see that?!"

"Kodachi has her whipped!"

"I wonder what Ranma's boy form is like though."

People stopped and looked at the blushing girl. This began a whole new round of discussion to begin.

In the limo Ranma sat back in the black leather seats and released a great sigh of relief. She couldn't wait to get back to the Kuno estate and get out of the girl's uniform.

Staring at the redhead speculatively, Kodachi tapped a finger against her lips. "We shall begin your training as soon as we arrive at the Kuno mansion." She missed Ranma's groan. "You have great potential though it may not succumb to much more than my own mastery of Rhythmic Gymnastic Martial Arts. Still, like a rough stone, I shall the rock blanket of my skill to polish you into a great fighter! A prodigy in the ring to follow after my own example as is only fitting for a woman of the Kuno family! Hohohohohoho!"

The driver slid the divider up as the laughter began. Ranma shivered and wished she could only do the same. And didn't they break the match in a tie anyway?!

"And as I shall be placing you in the next meet, we shall tour Nerima to greet our opponents in the traditional manner! Be certain you pay close attention and maybe you too could become the Black Rose's sidekick! Hohohohoho!"

When did the horror end?

Considering the rest of the Kunos, Ranma wasn't very hopeful.

End Chapter Three

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Ja ne.