Hakufu soaked in the furo reflecting on the days events. The arrival of her younger cousin was an unexpected delight. Her fight with Taishiji had been fun. He seemed so incredibly powerful. Yet, Ranma had toyed with him like he was a rank amateur. And the way her younger cousin took out that mean guy that tried to hit her with a crowbar was amazing. Ranma seemed to be the embodiment of every thing she wanted to be; strong, skilled, and insanely fast.
"That's it!" Hakufu declared, leaping up. "I wanna be a fighter just like Ma-chan!"
With that, Hakufu left the furoba wrapping a towel around herself as she went. She had to tell Kokin.
"Kooookiiin!"
Kokin looked up from the phone he just hung up just in time to see a towel clad Hakufu appear in his room.
"Gah! Why aren't you wearing any clothes?" Kokin demanded trying not to gawk at his attractive cousin. If she wasn't so stupid, he would have sworn she was doing this on purpose to tease him.
"I finally woke up!" Hakufu gushed happily.
"No wonder it took so long," Kokin remarked. "Did you fall asleep in the furo again?"
"I'm not the same Hakufu anymore!" Hakufu chirped. "Yes, in other words, I'm now the all new Hakufu Mk II!"
Hakufu turned around and struck a dramatic pose, inadvertently giving Kokin a clear view of her...feminine place due to the towel barely being long enough to cover her bottom. It was then the towel slipped off her body, giving Kokin an even better view before he jumped forward and grabbed the towel, holding it like a curtain between them.
Ranma ran past the door with Aunt Goei in hot pursuit.
"Ranmaaaa, come give your Aunt Goei a hug you studly young man!" Aunt Goei caroled.
"Gah! No way! Don't wanna! Stay away!" Ranma shouted.
A moment later, a splash was heard followed by Aunt Goei laughing.
"Well, Ranma-chan if you didn't want me to hug you, you should have just said so!" Aunt Goei giggled. "You didn't have to soak yourself with that nasty koi pond water."
Kokin sweat-dropped
"I've decided!" Hakufu declared not having noticed the events outside. "I will now become a top ranked fighter! I'm going to get Ma-chan to train me!"
"Yeah, yeah, I told you a hundred times you gotta wrap a towel around yourself," Kokin muttered, trying not to look at the complete Hakufu in vibrant flesh tones.
At that moment, Ranma wandered in, in girl-form, stripping off her shirt while muttering darkly about pervert aunts and koi ponds. Kokin gaped at the well-formed breasts on Ranma's chest, nearly as big as Hakufu's.
"What's wrong?" Hakufu asked Ranma, turning toward her and giving Kokin a full frontal.
Suddenly the abundance of tantalizingly naked, lovely female flesh became too much for poor Kokin. His nose exploded in a geyser of blood and he fainted.
"Ewww!" Hakufu squealed. "Kokin, that's gross!"
"So what'cha doin' in here naked anyway, Fu-chan?" Ranma asked.
"Naked?" Hakufu looked down in surprise. "Oh, I guess I must have dropped my towel."
"So why ain't I goin' to Nanyo, like Fu-chan and Kokin?" Ranma asked.
"Because Seito Private School was the only one willing to make allowances for your condition, dear," Nodoka replied. "Now you better get going so you won't be late."
"Sure, Mom," Ranma replied.
"Have a good day, Dear," Nodoka smiled at her son and handed him a bento, a cell phone, and his train pass.
"You too," Ranma replied and turned to go...only to be glomped and groped by his Aunt Goei.
"Have a good day, Ranma-chan," Goei purred. "I just bet you'll have to beat the girls off with a stick when you get to school!"
"Gah!" Ranma squeaked, his pigtail standing straight out. "Aunt Goei!"
Goei giggled and let Ranma go. The pigtailed martial artist promptly vanished, leaving at high speed before his aunt got any weirder.
"No-chan, your son is so manly!" Goei said dreamily.
"Yes," Nodoka grinned, "He is, isn't he."
Ranma looked down and contemplated the cell phone he was holding while he rode the train. These were two very big indicators of how things had changed for him. He wondered how he was ever going to fit in to a normal school. He had a very big streak of individuality thanks to being apart from Japanese society most of his life. While most students were trying their best to conform, Ranma was trying his hardest not to. At Furinkan that really didn't matter. The school was full of nuts and non-conformists. This new school though...it sounded like just the type of place that took great pride in forcing people to conform. The only plus side is that being a private school, he would have his Saturdays free.
Then there was his family. They were weird...well...Kokin seemed halfway normal, but his aunt and his female cousin were definitely nuts. Ranma was troubled that someone was out there putting out hits on his cousin. It didn't make any sense. The girl was too big a ditz to make any real enemies, Sacred Bead or not.
On the other hand, for all their lack of skill, fighters around here seemed to be pretty cavalier about use of lethal force. Ranma had done a lot of thinking about what his father had told him and what had happened the other day. There was very little doubt that that Hanno-thug had been about to kill Hakufu. A crowbar to the head was a pretty blatant statement of intent.
The more he thought about it, the less guilty he was feeling about putting the prick in the hospital. Not that Ranma was turning his back on the Code of the art, but he was beginning to realize that as a martial artist, a defender of the innocent and weak, he might not always be able to resolve the situation without seriously hurting, or, kami forbid, killing an aggressor. His father was right about that.
Ranma sighed. As bad as Nerima had been, the participants of the battles that took place there still respected life. Some more than others, of course. Had they not, they would have been put down like rabid dogs.
This mess appeared to be vastly different. Whatever subculture of fighting existed here was more like warfare than martial arts. He wondered if that's what it was like everywhere and he had just led a sheltered life like his father said. The Amazons supported that theory. They seemed quick enough to kill. And he had seen his share of street gangs in his travels, but those types tended to leave him and the old man alone, usually sensing they were out classed.
Not here though. There appeared to be some fighters here with above average skill and power. What they lacked was the Code. They seemed to have no limits; even assassination was acceptable. Even to guys with honor, like that Taishiji-guy.
Ranma didn't like where all this was headed. They had already tried to come after his family once, and he wasn't stupid enough to believe that he wasn't already neck deep in it. Putting one of their goons in the hospital was bound to bring himself to their attention as well. If they came after Fu-chan, or any of his family, again Ranma might be forced to do more than put the bastards in the hospital. He hadn't even been here a day before the Fate had sucked him right into the middle of things.
Ranma's thoughts were interrupted by the PA announcing his stop. He stepped off the train and headed toward his new school.
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(Posted Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:20)
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