"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man?
The shadow knows."
-- Lamont Cranston, The Shadow
"That must be him now!" Soun shouted as he ran for the door.
A red-headed girl with a huge backpack stood in the doorway. "Hello, I'm looking for Soun Tendo? I'm Ranma Saotome."
Ranma wasn't expecting Soun to grab him in a bear hug. "At last, son, you're here."
Eventually Soun realized something was wrong, but it was left to Nabiki to put it into words. "Daddy, 'he' is a she." At which point Soun fainted.
"Poor father. He must be so disappointed."
"He's disappointed?" Nabiki complained, "What about us? He should have made sure Ranma was male!"
Ranma interrupted the family argument to ask, "What difference does it make if I'm a guy or a girl?"
"Well I don't swing that way," Nabiki nearly screamed.
"What are you talking about?"
Surprise suddenly dawned over Nabiki's face, "You mean, you don't know?"
"All I know is that my worthless excuse for a father told me I had to visit you, and that Soun Tendo would be my legal guardian until I turned 18."
Soun sat up. "Where is your father?"
"Ahobaka Prison awaiting trial without bail."
"What for?"
"He knocked over a police officer while running away from a restaurant without paying for a meal. I found out about it an hour later, while I was dragging his sorry ass back to the restaurant. The police arrived and charged him with resisting arrest. Shortly thereafter, the police computers listed hundreds of thefts linked to him. When the restaurant owner revealed that Genma used my name, the police found hundreds of dine-and-dashings he made in my name, and added those as both theft and fraud. His trial has been delayed twice because more and more crimes that keep coming to light. Apparently he's skipped town on bail several times before. They are now trying to comb his diary to figure out when and where he was on our training trip to see what additional crimes he committed."
"A martial artist's life is fraught with peril," Soun aphorized.
"Being a martial artist has nothing to do with committing crimes! He's getting off lightly because I haven't turned over the evidence of child abuse. If you think his thefts were necessary or in some way justified by his martial arts, then I'll go back to living on the road."
"No! No, no. I didn't mean that. I was just remembering our.... Never mind. Akane, here, is the heir to my school, and she can assure you that I don't go around stealing, and that she never gets chased by hordes of women trying to avenge a theft. We don't do that sort of thing in this school."
All four girls looked at Soun as if he were mad. The sounds of synchronized blinking filled the room. Finally Akane said, "Riiiight. Ranma, you study kenpo, how about a little sparring?"
The next morning, a now male Ranma asked Soun, "School?"
"You'll be staying here a while. You'd better go and start the process to get you registered for classes. Akane will take you."
"Who are you that speaks so familiarly with Akane Tendo?"
"I'm ..."
"Wait! Is it not the custom to give one's own name first? Fine. Mine I shall give. Know you that I am the undefeated up-and-coming kendo star, the Blue Thunder, Tatewaki Kuno, age seventeen."
Ranma gawked and stammered, "I'm just living with the Tendos..."
"What! Under the same roof as Akane? I forbid it!" Kuno tried to slash Ranma, but Ranma jumped back out of range.
"My name is Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of martial arts, and I refuse your challenge."
"He's just visiting our family!" Akane shouted exasperatedly.
"Silence! I cannot permit this!" Kuno attacked just a bit too slowly to connect with Ranma, but he did manage to damage the stone wall, and the tree behind Ranma. However Ranma managed to punch Kuno in the forehead, knocking him unconscious. Ranma then proceeded to drag Kuno into the school.
Ranma slammed open the door to the administrative office, attracting the attention of a secretary. "Young man! Why aren't you wearing a school uniform?"
Ranma dragged Kuno into the room. "Because I'm not a student here. I need to use the phone."
"You can't just barge in here dragging bodies and demand to use the phone! What school do you attend?"
"Either let me use the phone to call the police, or I'll name you an accessory after the fact. In fact, you'd better get the principal out here, or I'll publicly accuse your school of encouraging the battle this morning."
"Young man..."
"Move it!" Ranma grabbed the telephone, and called the police. "My name is Ranma Saotome. I'd like to report an assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted homicide. The assailant is unconscious. I'm in the administrative office of Furinkan High school. I have witnesses. Please send a squad-car, and whatever detectives needed to investigate."
After listening to the reply, Ranma answered, "No, I'm not reporting a schoolyard fight. The school cannot handle this internally. I'm reporting an attempted murder. Please give me your name." Ranma paused, "Because if the assailant regains consciousness before you get some cops here, I'm going to include your name in my statement. Now give me your name as you are required to. If you were properly trained, you should know it's the law. Now get a squad down here before I call the newspapers. I'm sure they'd love to hear how Nerima's finest like letting attempted murderers run free." Ranma slammed down the phone and turned to the secretary.
"You still here? Fine. You can explain to the principal why he wasn't informed before the police show up. I'm sure he'll overlook it when the next round of layoffs occurs." This was finally enough to shift her.
The vice-principal entered the office. "Now, young man, what's this about the police?"
"I came to this school intending to apply here. Before I got to the front door, I was assaulted with a deadly weapon in front of witnesses. No one from the school attempted to interfere or investigate this, even though it was on the school campus in full view of the front half of the school. Would you care to explain why you apparently condone an attempted murder on a prospective student?"
At this point two police officers entered the office. "Now then, now then, what have we here?"
Ranma's stance intimidated the vice-principal into letting Ranma answer. "I was coming into school to register, when I was stopped by this student looking to pick a fight on the front lawn of this school. He tried to attack me. I told him I refused to fight. He then proceeded to assault me, his misses causing the destruction of the school wall and the tree. If he had connected, the average student would be in critical condition. He had no knowledge that I could defend myself, so I was forced to conclude he was trying to kill me. I knocked him unconscious and dragged him up here, where I called the police. Akane Tendo was a witness, who was within ten meters of the whole incident, and half the school could have seen the whole thing from their windows. I repeat that had I been an ordinary student, his first blow would have left me injured with broken ribs and internal bleeding, if not killing me outright. His second blow would have shattered either my skull or collarbone, the first being instantly fatal, the second would have run the risk of puncturing a lung, possible heart injury, and almost guaranteed loss of the use of one of my arms."
The officer nodded in response as he noted everything down. "I see, I see, I see!" He turned to the vice-principal. "And were there any faculty present?"
The vice-principal apparently had a greater imagination than the police officer. He could see the half-meter gash in the stone wall out front and unfortunately pictured what that would look like if that strike had occurred to a normal student's head. This prompted him to abandon his stance to protect Kuno using the reputation of the school, lest his new nightmare actually come to pass. Better to be as helpful as possible and hope this event, which ended better than he deserved to hope, wouldn't be repeated in the future. One student arrested was a much smaller scandal than an innocent murdered in cold blood.
"No," the vice principal said, "It was the unofficial policy to ignore the fights on the front lawn before school. They were always made against a known martial artist able to defend herself. And they were always instigated by Tatewaki Kuno, the son of our absentia principal. We were just lucky that the first time he attempted to assault someone else, it turned out to be a martial artist able to defend himself. I'm not sure if I can have him suspended from school, as my position is tenuous. However I will order everyone to give the police their full cooperation in this investigation, I will also order our teachers to report to you all of the previous infractions that never made it into his official records because of our fear of the principal's reprisals. Would you like our teachers to compile a list of students and faculty who watched this morning's battle? I don't wish to presume, I merely offer assistance if you request it."
"We'll wait on that, for now. I think I'll take the statement of the girl who witnessed the fight close up. Sergeant?"
"Yes Sir?"
"Handcuff the accused, take one of the other officers and drive him back to the precinct, and lock him up. Radio in for a doctor to see him, and have the precinct send over six officers to take statements, and a forensics officer and photographer to examine the crime scene. Leave his weapon here, and tell forensics they need a 1.5 meter long Ziploc baggie."
"Yes sir."
The officer turned to the last police officer. "You'll go with the lady to ask that girl... Akane Tendo to come up here to answer some questions." The officer turned to Ranma and the vice-principal. "I'm going to have to ask you to remain here for now, and not contact the others in this school, until we can begin our full investigation."
Meanwhile Akane was holding buckets in the hall. Her internal dialogue of it being Ranma's fault that she was late for class, was derailed by the sight of an unconscious Kuno being manhandled down the stairs, and a police officer summoning her to the office for questioning.
While the police uncovered Akane's morning fights, there was overwhelming evidence that she hadn't instigated the practice. Her evident anger over Ranma's interference in her fight was considered evidence that she approved of the fights; so no one was charged for assaulting her. Since she accepted the morning challenges, they weren't assaults.
Ranma's refusal to fight Kuno, on the other hand, meant that their fight wasn't a friendly sparring match.
Kuno's ranting in the police precinct that he had the right to "smite" anyone living at Akane's home reinforced the idea that they had a dangerous sociopath locked up. Kuno's insistence that the "peasant" police had no right to lock up the magnificent Tatewaki Kuno didn't win him any friends either.
Kuno's signed confession was a mere formality, since he was shouting the just-ness of his actions. Japanese police were proud of their conviction rate, but many of them felt he was making things too easy. The unscrupulous minority of the police regretted that there was no need to 'compel' Kuno into a confession. However it did move his arrainment to a less favorable judge, and prompted the D.A. to ask for no bail, as it was their opinion that Kuno wouldn't mind the loss of money, and would feel it was his right not to bother attending a trial.
Kuno did have the best lawyers money could buy, though. They immediately moved to have him declared unfit to stand trial.
Whether he ended up in a prison or a mental hospital, it'd be a long time before he walked the streets as a free man.
The secretary asked the vice principal, "What should we do about that young boy who stormed into my office? He was quite rude."
"So, I'd imagine, would you be if someone had just attempted to kill you. We will overlook it entirely. He has done the school a great service by not dragging us through the muck along with Tatewaki. He would have been within his rights to begin by accusing the school of complicity, and we would have been found guilty. His speech may have been rough, but his actions were compassionate. If he decides to school here, I want it clear that we hold him no ill will."
Meanwhile Sasuke Sagakure was busy preparing an overnight bag for his master, when he heard a voice whisper from within the brightly lit bedroom, "Why do you serve Tatewaki Kuno?"
"Who's there?" Sasuke shouted as he drew a wazikashi.
The voice came from a different part of the room, where there was nothing to conceal an intruder. "I am the Shadow. I have watched you. Many ninja have honorably served dishonorable men. But you have failed to protect him from himself."
Sasuke took a swipe through where he thought the sound came from. As he drew back his sword into a guide position, the blade separated near the handle. "You have allowed your master to display his insanity to the world. You have waited until someone else stopped his madness. You have stood idly by and waited for your master to attempt to murder!"
"Show yourself!" Sasuke dropped the sword's hilt as he snatched a trio of throwing spikes from his robes.
"As the only servant that the Kunos respect, as the nearest thing they have to an adult, as the saner one, it was your duty that you made sure Tatewaki received proper mental care. You have failed the house of Kuno by seeking to conceal their instability. You will redeem yourself by doing all you can to remove the madness from this family. Know that I shall be watching you."
That evening, after hearing about the exciting events of the morning, Soun stared at Ranma in disbelief, "But how could you refuse a challenge! That goes against the heart of Anything Goes!"
"It was not made by an honorable martial artist. I don't acknowledge the demands of dishonorable bullies. It wasn't until later that I learned he was a sociopath, obsessed with your youngest daughter."
"But to be a great martial artist requires striving against any foe!"
"Oh, I fought him. I knocked him out and gave him to the police. The way he was behaving, he might have seriously hurt someone else when I wasn't there to stop him."
"But don't the police hate to interfere in matters of honor?"
"But it wasn't a matter of honor. I politely turned down his challenge. It was a matter of assault!"
"Sasuke!" Kodachi cried out. When he appeared, she commanded him, "You will find out who is pressing charges against my brother."
"But why, mistress?"
"Because if no one shows up to testify, then he'll be released, of course. Don't question my orders again!"
"But there were over a hundred witnesses, mistress. Besides the young master has already given a confession at the police station."
"None of that will matter if I get the charges dropped."
"Ms. Tendo?"
"Yes?"
"I'm Detective Inspector Plod of the Tokyo Police Department. I'm here to ask you about your pre-school battles. I understand that Tatewaki Kuno organized about thirty boys to attack you every morning for the last eleven weeks. Is that true?"
"Yes! Well... I think those numbers sound accurate."
"Do you recognize the names of two boys, Makoto Mizawa and Jiro Tanaka, as two of the boys in the battles?"
"Yes, they are two of the boys that attacked me."
"They claim to have been beaten up and threatened by Kuno into participating against their wills. They have pressed charges against Kuno. At the moment, no one is accusing you of anything, officially. However you should be warned that you could be held accountable as an accessory to assault, as you are a Martial Artist and they are not, were it shown that you did nothing other than fight back. If it came to light that you had suspected that other students were being coerced, and still fought back against non-martial artists, even in self defense, then you would be charged with assault."
"But I never wanted those fights in the first place!"
"Because you did not stop them, you may have injured innocents, who were only there because Kuno threatened them with worse than what you did to them. Even in as bizarre a situation as you were in, it was as much your responsibility as Kuno's to see that no innocents were dragged into it. Kuno allegedly dragged those innocents in, and you may have been unaware that they were innocents, but it was your responsibility to do all you could to save the innocents from harm. What did you do to stop the fights?"
"I told them to leave me alone! I beat up Kuno every day for starting this. What more could I do?"
"Reported it to the school. Granted, they would have probably ignored it, but then you should have reported it to the school board, or the police. Talking to the students' parents might have helped. Please don't get me wrong. You were a victim also. Kuno has the primary responsibility, followed by the school administration. However as a martial artist, you are held to a higher standard about whom you fight. You failed in your responsibility, and would be liable if any of the parents desired to press charges. Do you understand why you were partially responsible?"
"Ye- Yes."
The inspector smiled, "I'm glad. That means I can drop this for now. Unless anyone specifically accuses you, the police won't have to involve you directly. If you hadn't been willing to accept responsibility, it would have fallen to me to talk with the head of your school of martial arts. As he's also your father, it would have been very awkward." Having revealed the punishment inherent in Akane's past actions, Detective Plod continued by treating Akane as less of a criminal, and more of an equal, complimenting her, "Instead you handled this better than some adults I've met. Everyone makes mistakes, but people like you, who learn from them, assure that the Tendo School's honor won't be tarnished. I hope we can meet in the future under better circumstances."
"Kodachi Kuno!"
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
"Captain of the St. Hebereke Martial Arts Gymnastic Team. A team widely believed so incompetent that they don't dare compete to win."
"We are undefeated!"
"You assault your competition before the match, and use your family's money and position to get away with it. Everyone believes that you do this because you know you're only a second rate gymnast, unable to compete against your opponents. They say you need to use poisons and ambushes in order to avoid loosing to everyone, because your school is the worst of all of the competing schools."
"Lies! I am the Black Rose! I am the best! Who are you to slander me thus?"
"I'm called the Shadow. Whether you are the best or not, you've convinced everyone else that you are the worst. The irony is that you had to work quite hard to convince everyone that you were the worst. But enough of these pleasantries. I'm here to discuss your plans to get the charges dropped on your brother, by getting his accuser, Ranma Saotome."
"Come out of wherever you're hiding, and we'll discuss it."
"Ranma will not drop the charges; neither for threats, nor for money. What started as your brother's youthful indiscretion, has advanced through assault to attempted manslaughter, and is now tending towards a charge of criminally insane. Your brother has been responsible for each step, through mindlessly acting as he thought best. Will you add to his folly by trying to sweep this monumental mistake under the carpet? Or will you rise above your brother's mistakes and try to restore the good name of Kuno?"
"How?"
"Because he admits to his actions, but refuses to accept responsibility for them, the doctors are calling your brother a sociopath. Your brother needs to accept responsibility like the samurai he wishes he were. If he were in a clinic, receiving treatment for stress induced exhaustion, coupled with classes on ethics, then he wouldn't need to be admitted into a loony bin, or tried for attempted murder. If his family took responsibility for his lapse, the Kunos would be praised for doing their best in a difficult situation, as befits a great family. Instead of being scorned and gossiped about for trying to cover up a scandal. And if the Kunos tried to cover up the scandal and failed, they'd be a laughingstock for the next two generations."
"With your brother locked up, you are the de facto head of the family. This is your chance to shine; to show the world the nobility of the Kunos. Nobility through humility."
"But to leave my brother locked up! It can't be accepted!"
"Your brother would have succeeded in murdering Ranma Saotome in front of a hundred witnesses. He needs doctors' help before he irredeemably destroys the Kuno name. You must be strong. You have something in common with Ranma Saotome, you know. To preserve the Saotome name, he pressed charges against his own father, his only family. That's why you would fail to try to coerce him to protect Tatewaki. He would rather death than dishonor."
"It's all fun and games, until someone's head gets shattered like a melon."
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(Posted Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:57)
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