Story so far:  Six months before the start of Ranma 1/2, a member of the
St. Hebereke Martial-arts Rhythmic Gymnastics team arranged for Kodachi
Kuno to be committed to a mental institution.  Now, Kodachi has been
released and is attending her brother's school.  She discovers Nabiki's
scheme to get cash from her brother, but mistakenly believes Akane is
also involved.
___________________________________________________________________

    Class resumes, and I am forced to sit by the younger Tendo girl
again.  My uncertainty and vagueness are gone, washed away by a clean
wave of anger.  I take out paper and write.

    "Miss Tendo.

    "I know what you're attempting, and I will not allow you to
succeed.  If you continue to toy with my brother, there will be painful
consequences.  Stay away from him.  You may consider this a threat."

    I sign the note, fold it, and slip it into her bookbag.  If I give
it to her directly, she will undoubtedly cause another clumsy scene, and
I would prefer not to be punished twice in one day.  Let her stew over
it after school, at home.



    Once school has let out, I return to the family residence.  This
house feels twice as big as it needs to be, and it looms at me as I
approach.  Memories assault me.  Flinging rose petals about and laughing
with wild abandon at nothing in particular, setting traps about the
mansion in hopes of catching the assassins I am convinced are coming --
bits of my past flicker like a kinema in my mind.  I unlock the door and
enter.  My brother is not home yet, so I will prepare dinner for the two
of us.

    Among the spices, I find some less traditional food additives.
Barbiturates, mostly.  I should throw them away, but I have a powerful
reluctance to dispose of my pharmacological arsenal.  I don't think the
elder Tendo girl is going to take kindly to my interference, and I don't
know how far she might go.  The younger girl could be dangerous, too.
She's some sort of martial artist, and apparently quite a skilled one.
I'm sadly out of practice, and the drugs that help me maintain my mental
balance also disrupt my physical one.

    Of course, the disease could be thinking for me.  Nabiki Tendo
hasn't threatened or harmed me, and I shouldn't be assuming she will.
But the image of the beaten schoolboys comes to my mind, and I realize
that I have no idea what is truly happening in Furinkan High.

    In any case, keeping drugs in my spice cabinet won't accomplish
anything.  I take them up to my room.



    By the time my brother arrives home, I have dinner prepared.  I'm
not the best cook in the world, but I'm good enough -- good enough to
make cookies that taste good even when laced with muscle relaxant,
anyway.  I happen to think that indicates a certain amount of skill.

    "You have placed nothing untoward in my meal, I hope," says my
brother as I scoop rice onto his plate.

    "Of course not," I say, feeling hurt.  He pokes uncertainly at his
food.  "I'm cured, remember?"  I didn't often drug him; I don't know why
he's so suspicious now.  I take his dish, replace it with my own, and
sit down, eyes stinging.  He begins eating, looking perhaps a little
abashed.

    I breach the subject of the early morning massacre, but have trouble
keeping him on-topic.  I gather that these boys regard themselves as
potential suitors for Akane, and that they must defeat her in order to
be judged worthy to date her, but I can't understand why she insists on
this absurd ritual.  My brother is of no help whatsoever:

    "She is a tigress!" he says.  "They gathered around her like
jackals, snuffling and growling, but she stood firm.  One charged her.
She dispatched him with a single blow!  Another came.  Proud and fierce
she stood, and again the animal went down.  Two came at once!  Fools!
For my love seized one and flung him into the other, and down they went
like ninepins.  Oh, Kotchi!  If only you could have seen her!  You would
have been thrilled to the core of your being to see such power and skill
and beauty!  She was...."

    He rambles on, heaping praise on Akane for something she had no
business doing in the first place.  I listen with half an ear.  Is it a
plot to gain my brother's sympathy or increase his admiration?  If it
is, it seems to be working.  But why are the other boys do determined to
win her?  What has she promised them?  Sex?  Boys are primarily
motivated by sex, so that is quite likely.  And yet my brother shows no
signs of jealousy, and I cannot picture him allowing someone else to
sleep with his girlfriend.

    Oh, it makes no sense.  My brother is more or less finished eating,
so I begin to clean up the kitchen.



    Night comes.  I lie in bed, but sleep escapes me.  The sounds of the
house come alive, and I feel again the terrors of my youth.  My illness
lies in the back of my mind like a terrible worm.  The drugs can put it
to sleep, but never kill it.  It will be my constant companion until the
day I die.

    I see a long, lonely battle ahead that can only end in death or
madness, and I am afraid.  Day after day I will struggle for something
most people take for granted, for my very self.  I would rather have
been born with flippers for limbs than live with this creature in me,
waiting to eat my life if I tire.

    I will live in this house on my brother's charity and be a lonely
old maid, for who would marry a madwoman?  What man would want me,
Kodachi, as his wife and the mother of his children?  My unblemished
face and body are nothing  compared to the constant threat of
derangement which will follow me forever.

    Tears fill my eyes.  No one will ever love me.  I almost wish I were
insane again, so I would not know this.  I press my face into the pillow
to muffle my sobs.



    Morning brings, if not joy, at least renewed determination.  While I
am packing my medication, I realize that I forgot last night's dose.  I
must be more careful; I cannot afford to make such mistakes.

    I depart for school early, determined to see the battle for myself.
Arriving, I settle myself on the high stone wall, facing the school.
Judging from the collection of boys wandering about, I am in plenty of
time.  One boy swings a hockey stick uncertainly back and forth, while
another does knee-bends.  One by one they trail in, looking nervous, and
gather in one corner to gain courage from each other.  My brother
arrives, too, and nods solemnly to me before entering the school
building.

    The minutes creep away.  I crane my neck to look down the street.
It's almost time for school to start; when is Akane going to arrive?
Then I hear approaching footsteps and spy two figures, both running full
speed, one on the sidewalk and the other -- of all things -- actually
running along the top of the fence.

    He jumps down, and both cross the street, heading for the school.  I
don't recognize the fence-running boy, but the girl is Akane Tendo, with
a scowl that would terrify an ogre.  The boy leaps onto the wall and
crouches beside me as she charges into the schoolyard.  Out of the
corner of my eye I see my brother step out of the building.

    "I hate boys!" screeches Akane.  "I... hate... BOYS!"

    She tears through the group like a buzzsaw, closing on each boy and
dispatching him with one or two brutally effective blows before moving
on to the next.  It is quite the most astounding and terrifying thing I
have ever witnessed.

    "She hates boys?" I wonder aloud.  "Is she a lesbian?"

    "Probably," snorts the boy next to me.  I spare him a glance.  He is
a handsome, muscular youth in a red shirt, with an air of untamed
vigor.  I spare him another, longer glance.

    "What do you mean?"

    He shrugs, muscles moving under his shirt.  I suddenly feel
uncomfortably warm.  Tearing my gaze away, I watch the fight again.

    With one final swift blow, Akane dispatches the last of her
suitors.  The boy in the red shirt leaps down, and I follow him.  My
brother steps forward.  "Fools..." he begins, but Akane has spotted me.

    "YOU!" she screams, charging towards me.  I realize that I am
completely unarmed, nearly helpless.  I hide behind the boy in red.
"What did you mean by that note, huh?  'I know what you're up to?'
What's that supposed to mean?"  She tries to dodge around him, but I
circle, keeping the boy between us.  She tries again, but I dodge the
other way.  She stops and glares at him.  "Why are you protecting her,
Ranma?"

    "Me?  I'm just standing here."

    "I know what you are!" I shout over Ranma's shoulder.  "You're the
geisha that ensares the young samurai!"

    "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A... a geisha?"  She gapes at me as if I'd said
something totally unintelligible.  "Huh?"

    "You there!"  My brother has grown tired of being ignored.  "Who are
you, that you should be so familiar with Akane and my dear sister, who
has so recently returned from--" I open my eyes wide and shake my head,
and he catches himself.  "--France."

    France.

    I bury my face in Ranma's strong back.  "Shoot me,"  I whisper.
"Shoot me now."  It occurs to me that I never properly appreciated the
asylum.

    "I'm Ranma Saotome.  Who're you?"

    "I am Tatewaki Kuno."  He raises his bokken dramatically.  "The Blue
Thunder of Furinkan High!"  An ominous crack of thunder rolls out of the
sky and a cool, wet breeze begins to blow.  I look up at the gathering
clouds.

    "Uh, yeah," says Ranma nervously.  "We're gonna be late for class.
C'mon, Akane!"  He seizes my hand and dashes into the building.

-- David

  Next time:  Kodachi faces an unpleasant truth about her brother.