Ranma recognised Furinkan High school the moment she saw it. There is an air that only schools ever seem to project, ofttimes even after they have been converted to other uses.
The crowd outside was rather less familiar, though. It was composed entirely of boys, for one thing, and every one of them was looking out of the schoolyard in their direction. She slowed her pace a little, caution suggesting that she ought to find out what was going on before participating.
As she turned her head to ask, though, she found that her companion had sped up. Akane was fully focused on the crowd ahead, and setting her feet with the force of partially-restrained anger.
As the boys broke into excited shouts, many of which Ranma hoped she had heard incorrectly, Akane broke into a run, powering towards the mass of her classmates like, like… Well, she was more graceful that a rampaging elephant, but not a great deal less damaging to anything that didn’t get out of the way. Ranma was far enough behind her to see how the taller girl treated the first few boys to meet her, and stopped her own run on top of the wall beside the gate instead of entering the schoolyard. The mass of opponents had stalled Akane’s charge before she reached the main building, but it was purely by shear numbers. Admittedly, the girl might have gotten further if she had been more careful about knocking them out when they were directly in front of her – many of the fallen bore footprints dealt post-defeat as she made her way over them in a straight line towards the classrooms.
With some interest, Ranma noted how none of the many weapons wielded against her friend, even when violently separated from their wielders, passed out of the school grounds or struck the school building.
“Ranma!” called a familiar voice. “Get in this school now!”
Ranma looked up to see nabiki hanging out of an upstairs window. She gestured mutely at the fracas between the gate and the doors.
“Don’t worry about that – Akane deals with them every morning.”
“Rrri-ight,” said Ranma. Her eye was caught by a cluster of flying bamboo pieces which she identified – after a moment – as the broken component parts of a shinai. Shaking her attention away from the brawl again, she asked, “Did you…”
“You’ll have to go to the administration offices, but they’re primed. For some reason they thought your father wouldn’t make a mistake like that.”
“That’s understandable,” admitted Ranma, “They’ve only met him once.”
Nabiki laughed shortly. “Ah, look. Akane’s nearly finished!”
Sure enough, as Ranma looked down, she was facing a tall boy in a hakama who brandished a bokken, with the remainder of her attackers lying around like so many fallen leaves. Ranma wasn’t particularly impressed at first – his posture was more samurai movie than kendo hall – but when he struck with controlled precision and speed she revised her opinion. He was nearly a master-rank kendoka, and he was holding back ridiculously – almost as though he intended to lose.
Akane’s defence was direct, powerful, and effective. She slapped the bokken to one side and used the boy’s momentum to redirect him into tripping over one of the other boys. Fortuitously, his bokken slipped under one of her other victims, although the gratuitous punch she delivered to his face as he fell probably did as much to prevent his resuming his offensive. A stillness fell over the schoolyard.
With a huff, Akane straightened her dress and started towards the doors. Ranma jumped to catch up with her, skipping gracefully between the fallen bodies.
“Hey, Akane!”
Akane snapped around, settling into a defensive stance before she recognised her houseguest. “What?”
“What’s all this about?” asked Ranma, gesturing to the mess around them.
“Kuno-baka decided that no one could date me unless they defeated me,” replied Akane.
“Uh-huh.” Ranma followed her up to the doors. “Ya know, I could understand beating each other up to get the right ta ask a girl out – that’s flattering in an icky sort of way – but beatin’ the girl up kinda misses the point, doesn’t it? Besides, all going at you at once they’ll never be able to figure out which of them actually beat you. Which one’s Kuno, anyway?”
“Oh, he’s the last one, the kendoka. He always waits until I finish with the rest.”
“Right, so he waits until you’re tired from defending yourself against them all. After setting the terms.” She snorted dismissively. “He’s just trying to make it easier for himself.” The doors slammed shut behind them. “And then he has the gall to hold back against you – he wasn’t going half what he could do in a real fight!”
“You What!”
“You hadn’t figured that?” asked Ranma. “I get it all the time – guys always seem to hold back against girls. The decent ones learn not to, and if you’re any good you can punish the rest by beating them round the mat…”
Outside, as the rain began to fall, a panda peered around the gatepost and nodded in satisfaction. At a school which permitted a fight this big on the grounds, his son would surely overcome his foolish obsession with pretending to be a girl.
(Posted Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:28)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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