Ranma and his friends belong to Rumiko Takahashi. They're used here without permission. ------------------------------ newRanma 6: Fighting by Chris Jones ------------------------------ Akane stared in horror at the sight before her. *BZZZZ* It was a sight she had hoped never to see, but was nonetheless curious about if it ever did happen. *BZZZ... ZZZZZ* She gasped as the floor turned red in front of her. *BZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ* "Ouch. Got my ear," Ranma said. "Your... your hair, Ranma." "You like it?" Ranma had taken Kasumi's electric shears and put the longest guard attachment she could on the end. In just a few minutes, she had removed most of the hair from her head. Except for her long, thick bangs, all the hair on her head was now just a few centimeters long. The hair on the side of her head that had been operated on had finally grown long enough so that this was enough to make it even on both sides. "I... I..." "It's kinda girly-lookin' I think," Ranma said. "But I'll be damned if I'm gonna keep wearin' that ball-cap." She ran her hands through her newly short hair. It felt odd and strangely light. She reached behind her head to the only other part she'd left long at all and quickly tied off a rather short, lop-sided pigtail. She turned to one side and looked in the mirror. "I look like a complete dork, don't I?" she asked, smiling all the while. "No!" Akane said. The look was unusual, but exotic rather than odd- looking. Ranma's bangs fluttered in the air as the girl moved, surrounding her face like a halo. The effect was beautiful, Akane thought. When Ranma grinned her usual, rakish grin, the image was... sexy, even. It accented her slender neck and slim shoulders in a way that made one look at the girl from head to toe before focusing on any one area such as the girl's curvy bosom or hips. She could never, NEVER, tell Ranma that. "I think it looks okay," Akane said seriously. "What ever. At least it ain't lopsided any more." Akane hoped that Ranma would never realize how attractive she really was. * * * Shampoo and Ukyou were both stunned speechless by Ranma's new appearance. They hadn't spoken any at all through lunch at a local Thai-food joint. "Kinda wild," Hiroshi noted. "I like it." "It's cute," Nabiki agreed. "I think Kunou-chan likes it." Kunou had been silent all through lunch, even when he snatched the ticket before anyone else could pay. For the first time since actually seeing Ranma's new haircut, he opened his mouth. "Nabiki Tendou speaks truly. It is a flattering style." "It ain't no big deal," Ranma said, blushing a little bit. She was uncomfortable with the attention, and was starting to wish that she had worn the damn cap. There was a chapter in the 'Bodywatching' book that talked about heads and hair. Ranma had skimmed over it briefly in favor some of the other body parts, but was now wishing she had examined it a little more in depth. She promised herself that she would when she got home. Was there something secret about hair that made it more interesting that other parts of the body? "It's certainly daring," Yuka noted. Akane shook her head at the other girl, trying to get her to stop. "I mean, it really brings out your eyes." "Wonderful..." Ranma complained, her embarrassment thickening. "I mean--" "ALOHA!" A loudspeaker rang out just as Kunou was about to open the school's front gate to get them back inside, cutting off Yuka's comment. "We're busted," Hiroshi noted sourly. "Hello, all you naughty keiki!" the principal exclaimed as he leapt down from the top of the wall. He was carrying a megaphone in one hand and a pair of barber's shears in the other. "You been very naughty, sneaking off during lunch hour! We have a saying on de islands--" "Which I bet you just made up," Ranma interjected. "De student who sneaks out come back widdout de hair!" Yuka and Sayuri both screamed, their hands going to their lochs. Yuka had suffered one of the principal's bowl- cuts before and was not eager to repeat the experience. "Hold thine instrument of evil, foul educator!" Kunou exclaimed, bringing his bokken to bear. He stepped in front of Ranma to shield her from the principal. "Keiki... My own son! You oppose you papa? You flesh and blood? WAAAH!" "Why don't you just leave us alone, you old freak!" Akane shouted angrily. "Get outta the way, Kunou," Ranma declared, roughly shoving the kendoist aside. "You wanna cut my hair?" she asked. "Go ahead." "But, pigtailed girl," Kunou said in concern. "You cannot--" The principal was staring at Ranma's hair in shock. The clippers clattered loosely to the ground. Behind him, Nabiki had just managed to get the gate open and was gesturing for the rest of them to hurry inside. Ranma stared darkly at the principal as he stood in front of her, his eyes watering. "Well, are you gonna shave my head, or what?" She demanded. "YOU CUT IT ALL OFF!!!" the principal wailed. He turned and ran back for the building, weeping into one arm. "Saotome school of non-aggressive combat, 2," Ranma declared. "Principal Kunou, Nada." * * * Ranma and her friends didn't get off scot-free. They all had to do water torture punishment for two periods outside the library as per a hastily worded memo from the principal's office. 'Carry the buckets' quickly turned into a rag on the principal session, however, with Ranma and Nabiki, who had never actually had to do water torture before, leading the call. "What I'd really like to know," Nabiki complained bitterly despite the fact that she had already conned Kunou into carrying both her buckets, "Is why the man has such a fetish for short hair?" "Nabiki!" Akane shouted. "It's not a dirty word, Akane. I'm serious. What drives him?" "It's madness," Kunou said darkly. "It infects my whole family." "That sounds real good coming from you, Sempai," Ranma noted darkly. In her irritation, she had simply set the buckets down and was slouching against the wall. Kunou 'hmphed' and turned back to the group. "My father has always been first to wield the clippers. Truly monstrous depredations have been performed on my own scalp and Kodachi's... well, let's just I'm glad he left when he did, because my twisted sister's self-esteem could not have handled the blows it would have received if he had been allowed to style her hair during junior-high school." "Maybe it really is a fetish," Daisuke noted. "Like vinyl clothes or body-piercing. Maybe the principal gets off on seeing people with short hair." "That's gross, Dai," Hiroshi said. "That's really gross." Shampoo, who was not subject to the punishment but had followed the group in anyway looked around in mock nervousness. "Shampoo see bald people..." she stage-whispered. The group dissolved into giggles and outright laughter. "Let's cut the noise out there, children!" the librarian complained through the closed doorway. "This is a school, not a social club!" "Man, we oughtta do something!" Ukyou complained bitterly. "I bet no other school has to put up with this kind of crap! Why couldn't this have been calm and normal like my last school?" "Normal?" Nabiki chided. "With at least two confirmed transvestites roaming the halls?" "Well..." "We *did* break the rules, after all," Akane said sadly. "We did have this coming to us." "If it were just a case of we broke the rules and gotta do the time, that'd be cool," Ranma said, "But this is a grudge. The principal don't like us, so he's makin' sure we suffer. We outta just leave," the girl suggested. "Just walk out and not come back." "If a man owes you money and will not pay, he is in trouble," Nabiki said sagely. "If many men owe you money and will not pay, you are in trouble." "She's right. Man, if we could get *everyone* to leave that would be cool," Hiroshi noted. Sayuri held a hand to her mouth. "That's awful!" she said. "Everyone would get in trouble." "At this school?" Ukyou asked. "Yeah, right. It's more like we'd get the principal in trouble. Wouldn't that be great?" "'Twouldst be wonderful indeed if we could run the madman off to the heathen wastes again," Kunou grumbled. "I'll say," Ranma agreed. "Oh well... Hey, it's almost two-thirty. We better get back to class." * * * Makuna-sensei was not a lot of help about the principal. Rather than commenting on any of the incidents Ranma related to him, he suggested that Ranma think about how she felt about the principal, and even try to chat rationally with the man. Ranma walked out into the waiting room grumbling darkly about the bad habits of psychologists. Outside, the girl Ranma had come to know purely in passing, Taiyoko, looked up. As usual, her face was filled with anxiety and more than a little fear. "Yo," Ranma greeted her. Ranma intended to wave and walk past since the girl seemed so uncomfortable with her presence, but was taken aback with the expression Taiyoko gave her. "What?!" Ranma demanded, looking around herself in shock, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Y-your hair..." Taiyoko whispered. "It's..." "Oh. Yeah," Ranma said, rolling her eyes. "I cut it this morning." "Y-you-you're very beautiful," Taiyoko stammered. Ranma blinked in surprised. "What?" she asked. Taikyoko's face turned bright red. She leapt up from the seat and ran into the doctor's office. Ranma blinked again, unsure of what had just happened. She knew she looked good, but what would cause the girl to react so strongly to her presence? * * * Later that afternoon, after Ranma had returned to the Tendou Dojo, she was still rather disgruntled. Why did the principal single her and her friends out? It wasn't like she had done anything any of the other students hadn't. Well, as Makuna-sensei had politely pointed out, she did regularly flaunt the school dress code. And she interrupted class all the time. And she slept through all the school assemblies. And... Okay, she realized, maybe she did tend to cause more problems and than some of the other students. Before the principal had shown up, she thought had come to a sort of equilibrium with the school administration. They didn't bother her and she did her best not to bother them. It worked out perfectly well up until the loony had shown up. As she grumbled about her problems, Ranma walked through the Tendous' front room and noticed her father sitting on the verandah, sipping a beer and staring out at the back yard. Due to the lack of fighting as imposed by doctors' orders, Ranma had had very little contact with the man since her surgery. She hadn't realized just how little contact they had outside of training. When she removed that part of their relationship, she was surprised at how little was left. The old man had been pissing her off anyway. He had been moping around like it had been *his* head that had been hacked on. "Hello boy," Genma greeted his child. "Hey," Ranma answered. Genma took a long draw off of his beer and looked back out over the yard. Ranma plopped down next to her father and grumpily looked out over the yard to figure out what her father was staring at. It was a breezy day, but not unduly windy, so Nodoka and Kasumi were both behind the house, efficiently hanging laundry out to dry. Nodoka was wearing her kimono, but Kasumi was wearing a light cotton dress that twisted and flowed around her in the breeze. The thin fabric alternately billowed away from her body and snapped tightly against it, displaying the girl's curves and nigh-perfect proportions. Both women had their hair tied back behind them in buns, but stray stands of hair swirled around them. The laundry, fastened securely to the clothes-lines, snapped and swirled. Nodoka and Kasumi, working quickly and expertly, almost seemed to dance in and out of the swirling morass of colors. Ranma found herself breathless at the unintentional beauty of the scene. "Kasumi will make some man a very fine wife some day," Genma said quietly. "Pops?" Genma winked at Ranma. "Let's just say I'm partial to buns." Ranma blinked, trying to figure out what her father meant. * * * "ATTENTION ALL YOU BAD STUDENTS!" the principal's voice announced over the intercom. "Dey been some very bad keiki trying to sneak out during lunch hour. Cause Kahuna can't be havin' with all dat, we gonna lock down da campus during lunch! No students leave dey classroom during lunch. Dat mean no sandwich line and no drink line! Have a wonderful day!" A chorus of moans and groans went up around Ranma, as well as more than a few angry comments. Ranma glared back behind her at one of the guys in her class who was starting to get a little personal with his insults. "This is bad," Ukyou complained out loud. "He's going to really let us have it if we don't do something." "What are we going to do?" Hiroshi asked out loud as the students who had brought their lunches pulled them out and began to eat. "We can't just... I dunno." Hinako was busy licking a lollipop and reading a storybook, so Ranma turned around in her seat to face the others. "Why not?" she asked. "We've been breaking the rules all along anyway. What's it going to cost us that we ain't already paying?" "We could get thrown out of school, Ranma!" Akane warned. Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Maybe. Maybe not." "What are you thinking, Ran-chan?" Ukyou said. "Even if I can't fight, I've got a few ideas about how to beat this," Ranma said. "But I think I need to talk to Nabiki for this--" The classroom door slid open, allowing Nabiki and Kunou to step inside. "How did you get out of your class, 'Nee-chan?" Akane asked. Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?" she asked. "Do you still want to go to lunch today?" "We could," Ranma said, gesturing at Hinako, who was so involved in 'The Little Salaryman that Could' that she had completely dissociated from the rest of the class. "But that's what he's expectin' us to do." "The pigtailed girl speaks truly," Kunou agreed. "My dastardly father would not make such a pronouncement unless he planned to enforce it by hook or by crook." "I think we can do something, but Akane's right," Ranma said. "We're getting real close to the point where we can get in more trouble than just doin' bucket duty." The rest of their usual lunch group had already crowded around Ranma, but she put the proximity out of her mind and began to outline her plans. Nabiki's expression was troubled. She bit her lip. "Dangerous, Saotome. Very dangerous. It could blow up in our faces." "It could also hammer the final nail into the man's coffin," Kunou declared. "Even if it did not come from the razor-sharp mind of the pigtailed girl, I would be inclined to follow this plan." "But you'd follow any plan, Kunou-chan," Nabiki said. "Let's do it like this instead." She explained her revision upon the plan. "Nabiki Tendou's plan has merit," Kunou said, "But creating a riot to cover our actions as she proposes would only needlessly endanger the pigtailed-girl's well being. Instead, let us do this." Kunou spoke at some length. While it was difficult to extract meaning from his flowery speech, Ranma began to grin wickedly. "I like it!" she said. "One more thing," Nabiki said. "We need something to back us up." "Let us say that my father is a most evil man," Kunou said coldly. "Let all who aid us say that indeed the principal of Furinkan High is a pervert and a fetishist of the highest degree. Only then will our most noble rebellion be seen in the light it truly deserves." The grins faded around the group, but those around Ranma and Kunou knew that they were stuck with it now. If they ever wanted to be free of the man, they would have to act. * * * After lunch, Hiroshi, Daisuke and Ranma had assembled fifty or sixty of their male classmates in the boys' locker room. Ranma felt uncomfortable with the dozens and dozens of eyes lingering upon her body, but took solace in the fact that they all had a pretty good idea of why they were there. It wasn't to look at a pretty girl. "So, Ranma," one of them called out. "What'cha gonna do about the principal." "I can't fight him," Ranma said. "Not injured like I am. Instead, we've got to do something more drastic." "More drastic like what?" another boy asked. "I'll tell you," Ranma said. "We've got a plan. It's like this..." * * * "I'll tell you for five hundred yen apiece," Nabiki said. The girls around her all began to rummage around in their purses and pockets. Sayuri, Yuka and Akane all began to collect the fees while the group of girls began to press in around Nabiki to hear her pronouncement. "We're being taken advantage of, ladies," she said. "We're being sexually exploited and not doing a thing about it." "Is someone taking ecchi pictures again?" one girl asked anxiously. "At this school?" another said darkly. "We already knew we were being exploited, Nabiki. If it's not voyeurs in the locker room, it's that freaky panty-thief." "Ah, but there's a threat you may not be aware of," Nabiki explained. "How many bowl cuts are we going to endure before everyone realizes that the principal is a hair fetishist." A gasp went up from all around the restroom. * * * "He gets off on shaving our heads?" a uniformed kendoist cried out. His hand went to his bald head, and he began to tremble in revulsion. "Verily," Kunou spat out. "That twisted man who is no man has perpetrated his depredations long enough. If not the onus of unbearable rule and regulation is enough to move you, the assault on your manhood should rouse all to action." "Why should we believe you?" another bald boy cried. "Have I not lived with the man?" Kunou asked. "Have I not suffered vile sling and arrow since the day I was born? Have I not fought alongside you at each and every opportunity to drive the foul demon away?" The practice room, full of kendoists and members of all the other sports teams, was silent. Kunou drew his bokken and leveled it at the captain of the baseball team. "Takeshi Tanaka," he named the boy. "You yourself have suffered the agony of humiliation at my father's hands." Takeshi pulled off his ball cap to reveal that he was indeed nearly bald. "And your younger sister attends this selfsame school!" Kunou declared. "Are you such a man that you will allow that... that... BEAST to slake his vile lusts upon her virgin lochs?" "Never!" Takeshi cried out, tears coursing freely down his face. "Every one of us stands to see our dignity and honor diminish as long as the thing that calls itself my father is allowed to hold sway at this institution. We have everything to lose by not acting. Act as you will," Kunou said, turning his back on the crowd. "But, Kunou-sempai!" one of the younger soccer-team members asked. "What can we do?" "There is a plan in the making," Kunou said, "but it is not without risk. I cannot ask you to join, and yet I cannot envision a man who would allow these horrors to continue err he had a choice. Who will make the choice to follow me?" "I will!" Takeshi, the baseball team captain declared, clenching his fist in the air. "Tell us what to do!" Another cried out. "Very well," Kunou said. "If you will accept the risk, you may seek the rewards of heaven. This, then, is our plan of attack..." * * * The teachers all knew that something was up. There was no way that the 700 odd students at the school could keep it completely under their hats. Whispered conversations were stopped in mid sentence if anyone approached and an air of defiance had sprung up. Angry stares and whispered insults began to rain down upon the most hated of Furinkan's teachers. Miyuki Sipuru, first-year geometry teacher, decided not to comment since she suspected that whatever was happening was directed at the principal. When she first started at the school, she got a 'regulation' bowl-cut before ever meeting the man who had written the regulations. Perhaps if the students' plan was spectacular enough, she thought as she drew on the board, then the principal would reconsider his insane rules. "So if you take the cosine of the arc like this and-- " Hearing the classroom door click behind her, she turned around. Her classroom was empty. Miyuki stared in shock. Surely they wouldn't... Had they? Could they? * * * "Late in the war, American planes began to firebomb the city of Tokyo," the history teach said. "At the same time..." Ranma waited until the teacher's back was turned to the class. Silently, she rose from her seat and smiled at everyone around her. They needed a little leadership and a *lot* of encouragement to go along, but Ranma thought that that wouldn't be a problem. On cat-like feet, she made her way over to the open window and climbed through it. It was true that such an act pretty soundly broke her medical restrictions, but Ranma was feeling pretty rebellious. It wouldn't hurt her to get a *little* bit of excitement. Effortlessly, she began to shimmy down a drain pipe to the ground. The history teacher turned around, hearing the amazed whispers behind him. "Where on Earth is Saotome?" he demanded. "Uhh... I think he had a doctors' appointment after lunch," Hiroshi answered. "Hmmm... I could have sworn that-- Oh well." He turned back to the board and began to write. "So we can assume that the Americans had developed and tested the first nuclear device in the southwest United States only a few weeks before the twin bombings on these cities. How many died in the initial blast? Tendou?" He turned around to get his answer from the girl he just quizzed. He was surprised to see her seat sitting empty. "Wasn't Akane Tendou here just a second ago?" "Uhhh... I think that she's at the doctor with Ranma," Daisuke answered. "Honda then..." the teacher said, looking around for Hiroshi. "Wasn't Hiroshi Honda just here?" "I don't think so," One of the girls answered, fighting to keep a smirk off her face. "He's sick today." "Hmm... people are disappearing on me today," the teacher said, feeling the need to take a draw off of the flask hidden in his briefcase. "Well, at any rate, the initial damage estimates can be found here and here. If you'll look at this diagram, you'll see that..." The rustle began almost as soon as his back was turned. He whipped back around to see what was happening, but only Hikaru Gosunkuji was there among a sea of empty desks to return his stare. Hikaru raised his hand politely. "Can I go to the bathroom?" the boy asked. * * * Nabiki felt nervous as she waited outside the school gates with the first dozen or so walkouts. She still had reservations about what was happening despite Ranma's and Kunou's careful planning. When her dozen doubled, she felt a little less nervous. When Kunou came out of the athletics wing leading most of the school's athletics teams in his wake, she started to get the heady feeling of victory. Ranma and Akane appeared a few seconds later leading another sixty or seventy students behind them. Hiroshi and Daisuke were with them. Sayuri and Yuka were directing the first year students and providing encouragement for some of the more nervous members of the protest. Ukyou had cleared out the home-ec wing and was leading dozens of girls who were ladened down with 'refreshments' for the protestors. Ranma was grinning like a maniac by the time she reached the gate. "It's gonna work!" the redhead cried. "Everybody's leaving!" "Let's just see what happens when they all start going home," Nabiki said as the noise level began to rise. "We'll know tomorrow wether we've won or not." Ranma nodded, although Nabiki was having serious problems keeping the grin off her face. Akane was clinging to Ranma's arm with excitement and the thrill of victory. The redhead didn't even seem to notice. Ukyou noticed and glared daggers at Akane's back. "This is great!" Akane said. "We've finally shown that nutcase that we're not going to deal with his weirdness any more." "Yeah," Ranma said. Something began to eat at her, however. Something didn't feel right. Had they truly done the right thing by protesting in such a manner? Ranma began to analyze what they had just done again. It seemed like they had done the honorable thing. Having had a snack after winning their freedom, the students were beginning to disperse. "We have liberated the school," Kunou declared. "The goddess of justice smiles warmly upon us today." "Let's all get out of here, then," Ukyou said. "I'll open Ucchan's early so we can regroup there." "We'll come," Ranma said, salivating at the thought of free okonomiyaki. "You wanna come, Sempai?" "Nay," Kunou declined. "For I alone must remain here to explain what has happened to that man." "Kunou-chan..." Nabiki said in surprise. "Why? Are you sure?" "Do I not live with the man?" Kunou said, echoing his earlier statements. "Everyone here may escape his torments in the safety of the outside world. Our homes are safe havens from his depredations... all except mine. He must know the crime for which he is being punished, or there is no true justice. Sadly, I alone am most suited to tell him." "Kunou-sempai," Akane breathed in surprise. "I must deal with him," Kunou said sharply. "If for no other reason than to hammer this lesson into his skull. I do not expect that I will be going home anytime soon. 'Tis a far better thing I do...'" "Well, if you're sure," Akane said, walking off with the others. "Hurry if you can. We'll all be at Ucchan's for a while." Kunou nodded, but his forced grin held no hope. After a few seconds, Ranma broke away from the group. "What's up, Saotome?" Hiroshi asked. "I gotta go check on something," she said, a hint of anxiousness entering her voice. She broke away from the group before anyone could protest. "She's worried about Kunou?" Ukyou asked in surprise. "Ranma's been... different lately," Nabiki sighed. Akane started to fret. It couldn't be that her fears were coming true, could it? Was Ranma starting to... care... about Kunou? Surely not... * * * "Why on earth are you home so early?" Takeshi Tanaka's mother asked of him and his sister. "Mother," the team captain addressed her formally, "we came home because we were being taken advantage of at school." "What?" the older woman asked in surprise. "It's the loony principal!" his little sister exclaimed. "He's been trying to force us all to cut our hair. We all think it's because he's a pervert and wants to take advantage of us." "Principal Kunou?" their mother asked. "Are you sure?" Takeshi pulled his ball cap off. "I didn't get my hair cut like this voluntarily," he complained. The Tanakas' mother began to shake in outrage. How dare a man, any man, molest her children so?! After confirming the story from her children and getting more details, she reached for the phone and dialed a number. "Tokyo Police Department, Nerima Ward," the polite receptionist answered. "Can I help you?" "This is Mari Tanaka. I need to speak to my husband, please." "I'm afraid that Captain Tanaka's not available right now," the receptionist informed her after just a second. "I need you to interrupt him them. This is an emergency," Mari said. * * * By the time the phone calls started the pour in, the principal was wandering the halls, not believing what he was seeing. He stared around about himself in shock. Only a few of the teachers had seen fit to stay after the students had walked out, but they couldn't meet his gaze. "Why?" he called out loud. No one was there to answer him. Did they really hate him that much? Eventually, shambling aimlessly through the hallways, he made his way to the Kendo club's room. Tatewaki was sitting in a lotus position in the center of the floor, his eyes closed and his bokken balanced across his knees. "Tacchi... Tacchi didn't leave me!" the principal exclaimed. "You such a good keiki! Lookin' out fo' you papa." "I have not left simply by the merit of the fact that there is no where I can truly escape," the kendoist said, not bothering to open his eyes. "What you talkin' bout, Keiki?" the principal asked dubiously. "Is it not obvious?" Tatewaki said. "Do you not see that the entire student body has profoundly rejected your evil? Are you so incapable of accepting reality that you do not realize that this is all your own doing?" "Tacchi..." "Quiet, oh father of mine. I have tired of your abuse, and I refuse to stand for it any more." "I never abused you!" the principal shouted. "Does not a child need its dignity?" Kunou asked. "Does not a child need a parent that he or she can run to in times of trouble and strife? Does not a child need a protector? A confidant? A priest-confessor? You cry that you are not guilty of abuse, yet I don't remember a father who would have known if his son was routinely beaten by the upperclassmen in grade school. I don't remember a father who would have known if his daughter lived in fear of molestation from the power-mad priests in junior-high?" "Tacchi... why didn't you say somethin'?" "I did," Tatewaki responded. "And you ignored me. How did you put it? A 'brudda have to be strong'? I endured being beaten for almost two years, father. "And as for Kodachi, well, the only person she had to tell that she was being stalked was myself. Her father *should* have made a complaint to his cronies in the Ministry of Education when his daughter's panties and leotard were stolen. He should have seen to the priest's dismissal or even his arrest when the man was caught taking pictures inside his daughter's shower stall. When the man cornered her in the attic of that idiotic school and tried to rape her, her father should have been there to save her. Instead, she had to settle for watching me beat him senseless with a wooden stick." "I-- I didn't know," the principal said weakly. "HOW COULD YOU HAVE KNOWN!?" Kunou demanded angrily. "You abandoned us and flew away to Hawaii to get a tan! Do you know how humiliating it was to have the police tell me to get my father to call back when I tried to report that my sister was being molested? Do you?! Do you know how much you have allowed your daughter's sanity to be damaged? Well?!" The principal was speechless, staring at the floor in shock. "At first I was overjoyed to learn that my father had returned from his hideaway to rejoin his oh-so dysfunctional family. Then I was horrified to learn that you had become this... this perverted mockery of a man. You are worse than those who beat me and just as bad as the man who tormented your daughter. I hope you're quite pleased with yourself, Father," Kunou said, saying the last word like it was an epithet. "Soon, I suspect, all the world will know of your evils. When that time comes, when you stumble through the streets with a cross on your back and all around jeer rudely at your humble state, remember that it was your son who helped put you there." Tatewaki opened his eyes and rolled effortlessly onto his feet. The principal collapsed, dropping to his knees. "Good bye, father. I hope I don't see you again," the kendoist said before propping his bokken against his shoulder and striding from the room. Just outside the kendo room, Kunou nodded once to Ranma, who had overheard everything. She covered her mouth in shock and surprise. Inside, they could hear the principal begin to weep. "Speak not of this, noble pigtailed-girl," Kunou whispered, "for it was not something that I wished to share with anyone but him. Instead, think of mine and my sister's dignity. We have some small madness between us I fear, but we must maintain a thin illusion of normalcy lest we fall to complete and utter insanity." "I... I understand," Ranma whispered, gulping at the kendoist's rare self-honesty. "Come," Kunou said. "Let us away to yon restaurant so that we may forget this horrible scene." * * * "Akane! Nabiki! Ranma!" Kasumi exclaimed when the three returned home from Ucchan's. "Where have you been?" "At the restaurant," Nabiki answered. "Why?" "Were you part of the walkout?" Kasumi asked. Soun, Genma, and Nodoka came and stood behind her upon hearing the three enter the house. Ranma bit her lip. They already knew? "Uh, we kinda organized the walkout," Ranma said sheepishly. "We got pretty tired of the principal and all his crap." "Oh?" Soun asked. "So... you led... that?" "What's the big deal?" Akane said. "There have been school protests before, haven't there?" "Not like this," Genma said. "You haven't heard, have you?" "Heard what?" Ranma asked. "It seems that Principal Kunou has been sacked," Soun explained. "It's on the national news. He's being investigated for inappropriate sexual conduct with some of the students by the Ministry of Education." "The National News?!" Nabiki cried. She ran into the front room and turned the television on. Sure enough, after tuning to the twenty-four hour news network, a picture of a man who looked like Principal Kunou without a tan was displayed on television. "Were any of you molested?" Nodoka asked the two girls in concern. "Were either of you hurt?" "Well," Nabiki said. "He tied Akane up once." "That was just a stunt, wasn't it?" Akane asked, confusion and fear crossing her face. "There's something else," Nabiki said, listening to the broadcast. "It seems that there might have been some misconduct before he left for Hawaii the last time. They're talking about filing criminal charges." "You're kidding!" Ranma said, incredulity growing on her face. "Right?" Nabiki shook her head. "I think we may have gotten out just in time." * * * Ranma was sick to her stomach. She never meant it to go this far. Everything felt wrong. As bad as he was, surely... Did he? Could he? Guilt and uncertainty began to assail Ranma. She slept very poorly. Almost all the students returned to school the next day despite the fact that there were police and news crews waiting in front of the building. The police held the legitimate journalists and the paparazzi back while the students nervously made their way inside. Ranma split up from Akane and Nabiki as soon as the three entered the building and sought out the principal's office. She walked past the now-empty secretary's desk and threw open the door to the office, expecting to find the man inside with a ukulele and some palm trees. The trees were gone. So was the sand, crabs, and pumice boulders that had been scattered around. The ocean- print wallpaper had been roughly torn away from the walls and stuffed into the trashcan next to the now-bare desk in the center of the office. The only thing on the desk was a folded note. 'Gone to Hawaii. Back... whenever. - Headmaster' "It's better this way," Kunou said, stepping into the office behind her. Akane and Nabiki were with him. "Maybe it is better, Ranma," Akane said. "If he really was... doing that." "Was he?" Ranma asked. "What?" Nabiki asked. "Acting like a looney?" "No!" Ranma shouted, uncertain of her feelings. "Did he really molest people? Was it really some sexual thrill for him?" Ranma asked. Ranma's words indicated her uncertainty. She really didn't know what to think. "Akane, do you really think he got off on tying you up that time?" "I... don't know. It was weird and I was angry about it but..." "Aren't his other misdeeds enough to warrant this, Pigtailed-girl?" Kunou asked. "Have you forgotten the mistreatment you suffered at his hands?" "I don't know," Ranma shouted, running from the room. Ranma fled the school. After a few minutes of running aimlessly, feeling guilt and uncertainty piling up upon her, she realized where she had to go. She had to get both sides of the story. It was surprisingly easy to track down what flights were leaving for Hawaii and from what gate once she got off the train to Narita. The baggage attendants and counter clerks were helpful and polite in helping her find the appropriate place. Eventually, she came upon the terminal area she was looking for. It took Ranma several minutes to actually recognize the man for who he was once she found him. He was dressed in wrinkled business clothes, and had lost the plastic palm tree he usually wore in his hair at some point. His sunglasses were gone, but that didn't stop Ranma from noting the man's deep tan. He looked like hell, Ranma thought. He looked a lot like the picture they had shown on the news the previous night. He averted his eyes from the girl as she approached. "You're goin' back to Hawaii." "Yah," the principal answered in his fake accent. "De islands always be nice to me. Never gotta explain myself there." Ranma winced. "Why?" She finally asked. "Why what?" The principal quipped back. "Why all of it?" she asked in irritation. "The haircuts, the lunch thing, the weird rules. Why all the accusations. Did you really..." Ranma gulped. "Did you really... " "No," Kunou said. "Me ain't never done anytin' like dat to boy or girl," the principal said. "De rules... de rules just gone too far this time." "What do you mean, too far?" The principal inhaled deeply. "Siddown here, Keiki. Let you headmaster tell you a story." Nervously, Ranma sat down in the uncomfortable airport lounge chair next to the principal and waited for the other shoe to drop. While the shoe didn't drop, the principal's faux accent did. "It was about ten years ago," the principal began. Ranma was startled at his voice, which was suddenly surprisingly clear and intelligent-sounding. "I had just finished my doctorate in education. Tacchi and Kocchi were both in good schools. I was happy and rich, and then my wife died." Ranma did her best to keep silent, but couldn't help herself. "I'm sorry," she whispered. The elder Kunou shrugged. "It's been a long time. I still miss her, but... it's 'water under the bridge'," he finished in English. "There have even been a few women since, although some were not very good choices. I'll admit to being crazy sometimes. A lot crazy, some of the time. Your father-in-law. He lost his wife, and he's a little crazy sometimes, right?" Ranma nodded in agreement. "My wife... she had the shortest, most beautiful hair. She always wore it just like I like it. And when she was gone, I found myself looking at women and girls who had hair like she did. I bet you think it's funny the big pervert Kahuna has a 'hair fetish', ne, Keiki?" Ranma winced, a little ashamed of the phrase he others had used so frequently the previous day, nodded. "Some men like lingerie. Some like athletic women. Tacchi seems to like anything in a skirt. For me, it was hair. There was this girl at Furinkan... oh, about the time you were in seventh grade probably. She looked a lot my wife, even down to the short hair. It was wrong, but... hey... you can't help it when you fall in love with a girl." Ranma cringed at the intensely personal statement. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment. "Don't worry, Keiki. Like I said, Kahuna never did anything hentai. She was an office assistant part of the day, and I just gave her jobs so that she would be working where I could see her. Got me through the day some days. Course, if you let the sharks in, somebody gonna get eat." "What happened?" Ranma managed to whisper. "It turned out that the girl did some part-time modelling for ecchi magazines." The principal shrugged again, as if it was no big deal. "She got caught. Since she was underage, there as a big stink. When her parents found out about it, they were real upset." "And not wanting to take any of the blame for her upbringing," Ranma guessed. "Parents kinda funny that way, Keiki," The principal explained, temporarily lapsing back into his accent. "No parent wants to admit they a bad mommy or daddy, that they don't care enough, that they didn't watch their kids carefully enough. So they find people to blame. 'Why weren't her teachers aware of the problem?'" Ranma shook her head, unsure of how to respond. "Now, if what Tacchi says is true, then I'm a pretty bad parent," the principal admitted. "Pretty loopy. Pretty crazy. When they started looking for a 'sugar daddy' at the school, I figured that they would realize that I was attracted to the girl even though I hadn't actually done anything. It was a pretty bad time for me. I was hurting pretty bad emotionally, and not really in touch with reality. So I figure, hey, I've got money! Let's just take a long vacation and get away from all this crap!" Ranma nodded. It was the principal's long trip to Hawaii and the abandonment of his children. She almost began to pity him. "And when you came back..." Ranma prompted. "I was a little crazier, and a little saner. I thought a lot about how schools should work when I was on the island. I had it in my head that I'd make my students the best around by giving them unsolvable problems and expecting them to solve them." "The haircut rules and the coconut thing," Ranma guessed. The principal nodded. "That was good. Unite the students against the bad guy. Make 'em smart! Make 'em strong! You and Tacchi were the leaders, really. I even got to be the good guy in my head because I was letting you two unite the students against me. It was a pretty good time!" Ranma cocked her head to one side. "Then what went wrong with the lunch thing?" Principal shrugged. "Everything else, the mandatory haircuts, the toilet cleaning, everything, I was willing to give on. I knew that if there was a reward, it would make the students better. I *wasn't* willing to give on the lunch policy because I felt that students should respect their school and teachers enough to stay there all day." "But we were already in the habit of 'defeating' you," Ranma guessed. The principal nodded, a grin on his face instead of a sad expression. "Boy, howdy! And I got trashed but good!" "But... it was the 'hair-fetish' thing, wasn't it?" Ranma asked, her voice deep with guilt. "We called you a pervert one-too many times." "The rooster came home to roost, Keiki," The man's tone shifted. "The Principal's a freak! A Pervert!" He sighed deeply. "And then someone said, Hey, you remember that short-haired girl that used to work in his office? What about her? Maybe he was a pervert with her. He sure took off like a shot when she got in trouble." Ranma gulped nervously. "So I get a call from the ministry of education last night. Lost my job, but that's okay, really. They gonna hold a conduct hearing and press criminal charges. 'Cause o' the coconut thing, 'cause o' the short hair, I'm gonna swing. Better to go back to Hawaii so they can't hang me in person, ne?" Almost unconsciously, Ranma's hand went to her short, newly budding pigtail. She suddenly felt uncomfortable next to the man, as if he were threatening her somehow. It was just a few days ago that she had trimmed her hair. What if... what if he looked at her the same way he looked at the underage model before? Ranma had a sudden flash of being tied up like Akane had been at the Principal's first assembly at Furinkan high. Instead of hanging above the stage at Furinkan high with her wrists tied to a broom, she was in the attic of a Catholic school. The principal advanced on her with a pair of barber's shears in one hand while unzipping his pants with the other. Ranma shook her head, realizing that her imagination was running away with her. She forced herself to think seriously on the matter. Had he ever done anything like that? He really had never done anything to her other than be annoying so far as Ranma could remember. He didn't look threatening. He just looked pathetic. Who was Ranma to judge someone who had already judged himself? She suddenly recalled the moment she had seen her father watching Kasumi and Nodoka hang the laundry. For the first time, Ranma realized how beautiful his father thought Kasumi was. His father may have been a lying, cheating, sexist pig, but he had always stressed the utmost politeness and gentleness to Ranma when dealing with the fairer sex. Even if Genma did look at Kasumi in a sexual way, Ranma could never believe that he would act on his feelings. Suddenly, Ranma couldn't find it in her heart to fear or even resent the pathetic man sitting beside her for his admittance. She didn't think this man would act on his feelings either. "Don't go," Ranma said. "I think you can get through it." The principal shook his head. "Maybe. I kinda doubt it." "I think... I think I can do something. Something to get the hearing cancelled." The principal raised one eyebrow in skepticism. "Didn't you say that you gave us unsolvable problems?" Ranma asked. "Didn't we always solve them?" The principal just shook his head. "Maybe if the accusations weren't so strong or if there wasn't so much evidence..." He sighed and slumped down in his seat. "You just don't get the Ministry of Education to back down on something like that, Keiki. They really think I'm a criminal now." "Gimme a day, then," Ranma pleaded. "Huh?" "Just one day," Ranma stated. "An' if you don't think the hearing will be called off, then you go ahead. Run away to Hawaii," she challenged. The principal sighed and shrugged. "What the hell. I'm waiting on standby tickets today anyway. I can get a first class seat if I wait a day. What can you possibly do to get me out of this?" * * * "My name is Ranma Saotome, and I would like to publicly apologize for calling the principal of Furinkan High School a pervert." Ranma winced as the flash bulbs went off all around her. A little bit of feedback from the microphones and loudspeakers flared up as well. When she had asked Nabiki to help her put together a press conference, she hadn't really expected so much attention. As it was, *most* of the Tokyo television stations and newspapers were out to hear her confession. Ranma recognized a few faces in the crowd from television. She suspected that Nabiki had called in every favor she had in order to pull this off and realized that she was going to be in debt to the girl for the rest of her life. "It all started when we, me and some of my friends, wanted to go out to lunch instead of eating here..." Ranma dove into the details of their battle plans, laying them bare for the world to see. All around her, reporters looked at her with keen interest as her story unfolded. Ranma did her best to keep her facts honest and unbiased as some of the reporters started to ask questions. After a few minutes, Kunou stood up beside her behind the podium the drama club had set up in the school auditorium. "As his son, I can attest to my father's innocence of sexual abuse. The man is many things," Kunou said. "But a sexual predator he is not." After some time, the questions began to trail off and Nabiki ushered the both of them off stage. Yuka and Sayuri stood up behind the podium and thanked the press members profusely before politely asking them to leave. * * * Later that night, the ex-principal walked quietly through the halls of his ancestral home. Despite the fact that he rarely slept there, it was still very much his home. He didn't plan to leave it again. His silent footsteps carried him through the house until he found himself in front of the shuttered room his son used for practice and meditation. "Tacchi," he said. "Thank you for what you did this morning." Tatewaki was silent, his back turned to his father. In front of him were two unframed photographs, one of Ranma from before her surgery and one from the press conference earlier in the day. "Don't thank me," the kendoist said. "But thank instead the pigtailed girl. It was her and her alone who chose to save you from the fire. If it were me, I would have left you to rot. Now, leave me alone and never enter my presence again. I have no desire to see you again. I will no longer call you 'Father'." Silently, the man who had just lost his son turned away. The next morning, he was sitting in the first class section on a JAL flight to Oahu. ----- ~to be continued...