It had been mostly the tomboy's fault for being so stubborn of course, though Kodachi did share some of the blame for being unpredictable and crazy. The girls had practically forced him into this with no other option open to him except backing down — and Ranma Saotome could not be expected to do that.
It would be most unfair to blame him for what had happened, but he had the feeling that that would not stop anybody — certainly not Akane. And there was no way to predict how Kodachi might react to the revelation of the full truth of what had happened. Reality seemed to be only a minor influence on the Kunō girl's thought process.
Being girls they would not understand that Ranma had only been motivated by good intentions.
He realized all this as he landed in the courtyard prepared to meet his enemy.
Akane had started it by wanting to become a martial artist, too. Ranma had tried to explain her that this was not a good idea in the most diplomatic way he could, but Akane would not listen.
The tomboy only would get herself hurt if she tried to fight everyone herself, she should just sit back and let Ranma do the fighting. Saffron should have shown her that much.
After a heated discussion Ranma had ended up being maneuvered into promising not to rescue Akane the next time she got abducted.
Ranma had practically been forced by her to take this course. He had preemptively attacked the next group of strangers who showed up in Nerima with the usual signs of prospective tomboy-nappers. After the fight he had taken over their headquarters, a medieval European castle hidden inside the hollow shell of a Tokyo business building, and assumed the identity of a tomboy-napper himself.
He had disguised himself as the iron-masked Prince Wildpferd of Lichtenburg who had come to Japan to capture himself a bride. And macho, stubborn and tomboy-ish just happened to be the prince's type.
The plan had been to show Akane just how helpless she really was and that she needed somebody like Ranma to save her from People like Wildpferd. Ranma had tried to make the prince Akane's worst nightmare patterning him after everything that Akane accused Ranma of. An arrogant pervert who was trying to gather himself a harem.
Somehow things had gotten out of control at the point Akane entered the picture. She had refused to see the danger she was in or how little chance she had of escaping the Prince without help. Ranma had left her lots of openings, but the girl would not admit defeat and call Ranma for help.
Akane had even managed to weasel a promise out of the prince to receive training in the mistaken believe that she could somehow get good enough to beat him on her own.
Ranma had decided to make the best of a bad situation. In the guise of several female servants he had started to train Akane a bit and tried to break some of her worst habits while making her stay here in Prince Wildpferd's castle as uncomfortable as possible. Because of her stubbornness she allowed many humiliating and degrading things to be done to her rather than giving in, but Ranma also managed to at least get some strength training in and made progress in helping Akane learning to control her temper.
Just when Ranma had gotten comfortable with just the two of them being alone in the otherwise empty castle, Kodachi had appeared on the scene. Ranma was still not quite sure how Kodachi had managed to become a Prisoner of Prince Wildpferd. Ranma certainly did not want her here, but Kodachi appeared to want to be here and Akane expected him to keep her. There was little Ranma could do about that and all of his attempts to make Kodachi leave had just resulted in settling her more firmly in place.
And if all that was not enough now her brother had appeared in Ranma's supposedly secret lair.
Tatewaki Kunō and Sasuke the Kunō family ninja had interrupted the dinner that Prince Wildpferd had been having with his two prisoners.
Ranma would somehow have to defeat Kunō without allowing himself to be unmasked. Akane and Kodachi could be somewhat stupid at times, not realizing that what they thought to be two different characters really was a single victim of Jusenkyo, but they might very well figure out that Ranma and Wildpferd were one and the same if given enough hints.
Even the blue thunder might notice a similarity between Ranma and the prince and blurt out something that would allow the girls to connected the dots. Ranma would be done for then for sure.
Ranma could not allow himself to use any of his special moves. He could use no Hiryū Shōten Ha or Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken to give himself away as somebody trained in secret amazon techniques. Using techniques completely unique to Ranma like the Mōko Takabisha or any of the other adaptions and variations of moves that Ranma had come up with himself was right out. Ranma could not even safely use his normal fighting style. Akane might not be a real martial-artist, but she would recognize her own family-art for sure.
One thing Ranma had already done to disguise himself was to take a sword. Ranma did not normally use swords and few people had seen him train or fight with one to recognize his style. Ranma also had to admit that he was not nearly as good with weapons as he was unarmed another thing that would hopefully help to keep the girls from recognizing him.
Moving slowly and keeping to the ground instead of revealing his speed and mastery of aerial combat Ranma advanced on his enemy.
As he held the sword in front of himself he got his first good look on the blade he had taken from the wall of the dining room. It had been a part of the decoration and on closer inspection turned out to be completely blunted. A good thing in something that was just supposed to lend a bit of atmosphere to a room, but a distinctive disadvantage in a weapon.
This was bad.
Not that Ranma actually wanted to cut or slash Kunō, but the kendonist would think that Ranma had a real blade and fight accordingly. The Blue Thunder was an idiot, but he did know a thing or two about sword-fighting.
Ranma's opponent had stopped sprouting poetry and insults and was now concentrating on a fight with what he assumed to be a deadly opponent.
Could Ranma somehow manage to beat Kunō without getting himself or his opponent badly hurt or his identity revealed?
It would be a challenge, and Ranma Saotome never backed down from a challenge!
With a cry Tatewaki struck the first blow. Ranma parried only realizing to late his opponents intention. Steel met wood in a splintering crash and Kunō twisted his blade in an elaborate gesture. Had Ranma been using a real blade at this point it would have stuck in Kunō's wooden sword and the twist would have wrenched it out of Ranma's hand disarming him easily.
Neither of them expected Ranma's sword to bounce of Kunō's splintered weapon like that and turn with the added momentum of Kunō's twist directly towards his head.
From the balcony Akane and Kodachi watched in awe as Kodachi's brother passed out after the prince struck a single blow with the flat of his blade. It happened very fast — a crash, a hollow 'THUNK' and Tatewaki laid sprawled in the courtyard.
Kodachi knew her brother to be a master of his sport. For the prince to beat him in one strike without even using the edge of his blade truly spoke volumes of his ability.
Watching her brother defeated at the prince's feet she knew that she had chosen wisely when she had set her eyes on him and that from now on she would redouble her efforts to win over the Prince in the Iron Mask.
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(Posted Sun, 09 Jan 2005 07:42)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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