What has gone before: In this world, there is no Tendou Akane.  Ranma's
fiancee is Ukyou, and his parents hate it.  They are still known to the
school populace as the wrong sex, and Ryouga as Ranma's pet pig Charlotte.

                                    TENDOU 2/3
                                 by Ken Arromdee
                           Chapter 7: Bara no Soldier

    Ranma stopped at a street vendor to buy a few nikuman, while wearing an
olive-green Maoist cap with a red star in it.  She knew this particular
vendor's political sympathies--he would have been Ranma's age in the 1960s,
and he had never been to China in his life, but he had lots of peculiar
ideological ideas.  The vendor smiled at Ranma, said "I like the hat", and gave
her an extra piece, saying "there will be plenty for all after the world
revolution.  I'm glad you are on the side of the people...  we so seldom see
that in young folks today."
    Ranma took the food and left for home, chuckling at how she had fooled the
old man with just a hat.  "It's always best if I buy food as a Communist."

    Just a bit down the road, a dark-haired, dark-clothed, girl faced off
against three heavily-bandaged opponents.  "So you people from the Furinkan
High New Gymnastics Club never give up, do you?  I'll make you suffer so much
that you won't be able to compete at all!"
    "You've fought us every time a competition comes up!  We'll never forgive
you for that!" said the bandaged figures.  They charged the girl.
    She just cackled.  "Nobody gets the better of me!"  She straightened out a
ribbon and snapped it at the charging figures, hitting them hard enough to
knock their batons out of their hands and cut their clothes.  They screamed
and cried, a sound which only drove her to further laughter.
    Spotting this, Ranma, not liking bullies and being one of the few Furinkan
students capable of doing whatever she wished to whatever bully she wished,
leapt down off her fence and caught the other end of the girl's ribbon.
    "Impressive", she told Ranma.  "You're obviously no ordinary girl."
    "You got that right."
    "But you can never defeat me!"  The girl launched one of her fallen
opponents' batons at Ranma, who not only dodged, but swept low and knocked
her off her feet.  To Ranma's surprise, the girl flipped over and made a
perfect landing on her feet.  "Let me introduce myself.  I am the beautiful
flower of St. Hebereke Girls' School, Black Rose Kodachi!  Hohohohoho!"
Kodachi tossed a black rose into Ranma's hands and ran away over the rooftops.
    Ranma turned to the fallen fighters.  "Stop crying...  act like men!"
    They tore off their bandages, revealing their faces.  "We're girls!"

    The girls, from Ranma's class, followed her all the way home.  They tried
to explain.  "The New Gymnastics Club!  We can't ever compete because Kodachi
always beats up the competitors.  St. Hebereke wins by default!  Please, Ranma,
for the honor of the girls of Furinkan, fight her and help us!"
    Ranma was skeptical.  Being a girl right now didn't have to mean getting
involved in girl stuff.  "I don't know if I..."
    "She's a champion at Martial Arts Gymnastics!  We know you can beat her."
    Ranma, always looking for a challenge, replied "Oh, that's different!
I can never lose at anything which has 'Martial Arts' in the name!"
    "Thank you, Ranma!  You're a good friend!"

    A small black pig, listening outside, hopped in through the window.  Ranma
caught it.  "So, R--".  Realizing that there were still guests around, Ranma
pretended to be nice to the pig.  "Oh, this is Charlotte!  Isn't he cute?"
Each girl got a chance to hold him to her chest and pet him.
    Ranma told the girls "Hate to be a drag, but you'd better go.  I'd better
go fix up Charlotte.  Look, he's injured, must have been in a fight outside.
There's blood coming from his nose!"

    "Excuse me", said Ranma to Soun Tendou (currently taking a bath), and
splashed water from the tub all over Charlotte and herself, turning them both
into boys.

    Ryouga scowled.  "'Please Ranma, for the honor of the girls of Furinkan!'",
he mimed.  "'Thank you, Ranma, you're a good friend!'  They'd never talk to
_me_ that way.  No girl would like someone who turns into a pig!"
    "They all seemed to gush over you, Charlotte.  And you could have ran away
if you wanted."
    "Don't call me that!"
    "Bye, Charlotte.  I'm going to bed."
    Ryouga nearly punched Ranma but thought better of it given the late hour.
Instead, he wandered away, looking for his home.  Someday, he vowed, he
_would_ find it.

    Late that night, Kodachi snuck into the house through the window.
Pathetically easy, she thought--it was open.  Finding no traps upon a cursory
search, Kodachi moved from room to room through various windows and doors,
usually hiding on the ceiling, braced against her mallet.  Odd--Ranma seemed
nowhere in sight, though there was a boy wearing a similar outfit.  She must
be in hiding!
    A boy tapped her on the shoulder.  "Excuse me, which way to the Hibiki
residence?"  She turned to find a handsome and strong-looking teenager her
own age wearing travelling clothes, carrying a backpack and umbrella, and
wearing a bandanna on his head.  Kodachi bowed, told Ryouga she had no idea,
and left before he could warn anyone of her presence.
    In fact, Ranma knew very well that Kodachi was there.  The ceiling is a
horrible hiding place, since anyone's peripheral vision would easily catch
an unwelcome intruder up there unless it was three stories high.  Once Kodachi
left Ranma and Genma's room, Ranma, no slouch himself at sneaking when he
needed to, followed her.
    Passing the bathroom, Ranma realized he just couldn't hit a girl while he
was a guy, and splashed himself.
    Ranma, now female, tried to hit Kodachi.  But her trained reflexes let
her dodge, and she ran away from Ranma.  Ranma chased her, followed by
Ryouga.
    "What are you doing here?" asked Ryouga during the chase.  "Sneaking
around late at night just to fight some girl you don't like?"
    By now, they had reached the roof.  Kodachi turned around and charged
Ranma, trying to knock her off the edge.  Ranma stepped aside, and Kodachi
went falling.
    Ryouga was furious at Ranma.  "You're keeping her from telling me the way
home?  Why don't you go home yourself and leave her be?"  He jumped down to
catch the plummeting figure of Kodachi, then leapt back up onto the roof with
her.
    Ranma replied "Ryouga, I can't go home because I _am_ at home.  She
spied on me in my own house."
    "Oh."

    Kodachi blinked a few times.  She had been rescued!  And what a hunk of
a guy! "You...  you saved me!"  Kodachi, having gone to an all girls school,
dreamt about guys all the time.  She wanted someone like this guy to come and
take her....  "What is your name?"
    He responded "Ryouga Hibiki" a bit nervously.
    Kodachi put her arms around Ryouga, who could only stand, shaking, and
putting her down.  She blinked.  This boy didn't like her?  No, he must just be
a little shy around girls.  Kodachi handed him a bouquet of black roses, which
released a cloud of gas, paralyzing him.  Only his eyes showed any hint of
emotion.  Was that rage?
    No, she thought.  A first kiss has to be properly prepared for.  He must
not like the way she looked!  Kodachi put on makeup while Ryouga fell to the
ground, motionless as a statue, then leaned over to kiss him again.  The
expression in his eyes got worse, but he must be in uncontrollable joy at
finding his future wife.
    Ranma knocked Kodachi away.  "Beat it."  Kodachi landed a block distant.
    As Ryouga's great physical stamina slowly began to throw off the drug, he
chattered out "I'll...  get you for that, Ranma!"
    "What did I do?  You didn't want her kissing you then!  I could see it in
your eyes!"
    "Of course, I didn't.  But she did care for me!  If she had stayed around,
we could have gotten to know each other.  Maybe someday we could have kissed
under better circumstances, no matter how much pain our relationship began
with.  It's a lousy start, but still a start!  If you really wanted to help
me, you would have just moved her away a little bit."
    "Ryouga, stop it with the depression.  Nobody could stand more than five
minutes with her, and you know it.  You just like to gripe."
    "I bet she likes pigs, too, Ranma.  And it's your fault that she's left
me!"
    Ranma poured some water on Ryouga.  "Quit it, Charlotte."  Charlotte
bweed.

    Ryouga did try to look for Kodachi in the next couple of days.  He made it
to Okinawa and back, but didn't find her.  But miraculously, on the day of the
tournament, he was at St. Hebereke, without having gotten lost.  Surely, he
thought, this was a sign that luck was changing for him.
    Two girls from the St. Hebereke team leaned out a window.  One poured her
waste water out.
    "Hey, better be careful, that could have hit someone!"
    "Oh, there's nobody there.  Just a pig.  It looked like someone was there
because he's in a pile of old clothes, that's all."
    "Say, he's cute!"
    Kodachi chose that moment to walk by, and snatched the pig from her
classmates.  "This pig will help me against Ranma..."

    Kodachi politely greeted Ranma outside the dressing room, offering to
shake her hand.  From out of nowhere a robed teenager carrying a bokken grabbed
her hand.  "I shall not allow my hentai sister to attack the girl who loves
me in such a cowardly manner as this!"
    Ranma was surprised.  "Kunou is your brother?"
    Kunou replied "Indeed, my sister is a twisted, perverted person who shows
no mercy."
    Kodachi smiled at the compliment.
    Kunou fell down, red marks on his hand.  Kodachi sighed.  "I wonder what
made him fall asleep like that?"
    Ranma did not shake, of course, and fled into the dressing room.  A bouquet
of black roses lay there, with a note from Kodachi.  Ranma considered testing
them for poison on the convenient fishtank, but decided that it was smarter not
to touch a bouquet of roses which might contain a touch-activated trap.
Besides, what if the thorns were poisoned?

    Ukyou (having travelled all the way to St. Hebereke to see the battle)
hugged Ranma before the fight.  This caused him to shake a bit, but he allowed
it.  The match itself began with the announcer introducing the competitors.
    "From St. Hebereke, the reigning champion, Kunou Kodachi!  And from
Furinkan High, Saotome Ranma!"  Kodachi stepped up to Ranma and greeted her,
then shouted "Look over there!"  Seizing the moment, she threw a handcuff
around Ranma's wrist.  Attached to to was a chain, at the end of which dangled
a very unhappy Charlotte.  "Let's see how you fight now, having to protect
your pet pig too!"

    The announcer continued.  "The rules are simple.  The opponents must not
attack each other with their bare hands!  And the first person to touch the
ground outside the rink is a loser!"
    Odd, thought Kodachi as they attacked each other with hoops and ribbons
and sticks, Ranma didn't seem to want to protect her pet pig at all.  But it
still clung to her and tried to avoid Kodachi's attacks, getting in Ranma's
way.  It even wrapped its chain completely around her several times!  What
a marvelous strategy.
    Kodachi pounded Ranma on the head with a stick, then thrust her club at
her.  Ranma, proving she wasn't entirely helpless, twisted her head aside as
Kodachi's club sprouted spikes.
    "Hey, is that fair?" asked Ukyou to the announcer.
    "Of course.  It's a tool."

    Ranma leaped from her rather strained position in chains, pig between her
feet, and landed on Kodachi.  "Ranma is pummelling Kodachi with a pig held in
her feet!  It is permitted because a pig is a tool!"
    While Kodachi (and Charlotte) were stunned, Ranma extricated herself from
the chain.  She grabbed a section of it with both hands and defended with
it, catching Kodachi's club in the links.
    Kodachi threw hoops at Ranma.  Ranma was shocked when one of them cut off
part of the side of the rink.  The announcer continued on and on.  "The
hoops thrown by Kodachi are razor-sharp!  What an awesome tool!"
    Kodachi aimed hundreds of clubs at Ranma.  Ranma countered with a chain,
a pig, and the referee's bell.  Ranma grabbed the announcer's table with
her ribbon, and Kodachi threw her own brother against it.  His head hit like
a rock.
    "Now Kodachi is searching around for more objects to use as tools!"
Kodachi glared at the announcer and caught her in the ribbon next, throwing
her at Ranma.  "I was wondering when someone was going to do that", muttered
Ukyou from the audience.

    Genma was busy serving tea, as a panda.  It was not clear exactly why, and
in any case he should have realized that he shouldn't bring hot water to a
place where Ranma had to stay female.  But he didn't think of it.  Thus, the
next object to be grasped by Kodachi was the panda's hot water teakettle.  She
advanced on Ranma with it.  "Since you are as annoying as an insect, I will
treat you like one, and use a boiling water attack like one would use on a
cockroach!"
    Kodachi was very pleased with herself.   "The advice that I paid that girl
Nabiki for worked well.  She's afraid!  I've actually made Ranma run away from
me!  All those people in the audience probably don't realize that boiling water
is a stupid way to kill cockroaches.  I prefer poison anyway, makes them all
twitch and squirm like nerve gas...."
    Ranma was, indeed, trying to avoid Kodachi.  She backed off, then jumped
nearly straight up at Kodachi.  Kodachi threw the kettle at Ranma, then lashed
out with her ribbon at it...
    ... only to have her ribbon cut by a spatula.  The kettle landed on the
ground and burst.  Ranma was suddenly very glad to have a fiancee who knew
how to fight.  It would have been terrible if she had changed to a man wearing
a leotard, right in front of everyone with nothing to hide her except a
cloud of steam that would only block people's vision slightly....
    "Thanks, Ucchan!" shouted Ranma.
    Kodachi quickly asked the announcer if that was okay.  She didn't respond.

    Finally, Ranma caught Kodachi's arms in a scissor grip between her legs
when Kodachi came just a _little_ too close.  Kodachi came flying out of
the ring, but whistled.  The ring began to shake, and moved to catch her.
"See!  I can't lose!"
    Ranma tore up the ring's floor, revealing a band of St. Hebereke girls
there.  Not wanting to face an angry Ranma, who seemed a more immediate threat
than an angry Kodachi, they fled.
    All that was left of the ring was four corner posts and some ropes.  Ranma
perched on one of the corners.  Charlotte jumped after Kodachi, nearly dragging
Ranma off the post.  Kodachi threw a hoop at him.  "Get away, you stupid
pig."
    Ranma maneuvered the chain so that Kodachi's hoop hit the handcuff.  It
sliced neatly in two, and Charlotte was free.  He ran off, seeking hot water.
    Kodachi managed to catch Ranma with her ribbon, and flipped her far up, out
of the rink.  Unfortunately for Kodachi, Ukyou, standing nearby, caught
Ranma in a spatula and flipped her right back.  Ukyou tossed Ranma something.
It smelled delicious, but said "explosive" on it written in sauce.  Ranma
threw it at Kodachi, and the blast tossed her completely out of the ring.

    Ukyou picked up the microphone.  "The winner...  Saotome Ranma!"
    There were too many witnesses for her to lie about who won the fight later,
thought Kodachi.  Damn that Ranma!
    "How...  how horrible", cried Kodachi with alligator tears.  (She never
understood that expression--her alligator didn't cry a whole lot.).  "Ranma has
defeated me using a deadly weapon.  I could have been killed!"
    "You're insane!", shouted Ukyou.  "That explosive okonomiyaki delivered no
more concussive force than a good sized hammer, and _you_ use those all the
time.  Are you a killer too?"

    Afterwards, Sayuri gave Charlotte to Ranma.  "He must have ran away from
you!  I saved him from getting on a train to Honshuu...."  Ranma took the
pig away and plunged him into hot water, then splashed herself, transforming
them to men.
    "You jerk!" exclaimed Ryouga.
    "Huh, what did I do?"
    "I saw how she looked at me.  Like an annoying little animal, like a tool!
Because of your fight Kodachi will forever treat me like dirt....
    *Flashback: "Get away, you stupid pig!"*
    Kodachi took that moment to come by and offer Ryouga a bouquet of black
roses.  "Take this, Ryouga-sama!"
    "No!  You're going to give me those and poison me and take me away and do
all sorts of painful things to me...  I know your tricks!"
    As Ryouga threw the bouquet of roses down, they exuded a blackish gas.
A squirrel scampered by through the cloud, and instantly fell asleep.  "See!"
shouted Ryouga at Ranma.
    Ranma whispered "I don't think she even knows you're Charlotte, Charlotte."
    "But before she loved me, and now she wants to hurt me!  Are you going to
deny the evidence of your own eyes?"
    "I think she just thinks of those as the same thing."
    Kodachi advanced on Ryouga, who began to run.  "Damn you, Ranma!"
    "Oh, get lost, Ryouga!"  Ranma could just as well have stayed silent.

(Author's note: Okay, the first scene violated the premise that nothing changes
except for not having Akane.  So sue me.  I'll try not to do it again.)