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The Taming of the Horse

    Kodachi took a deep breath.  "It would make me ever so happy
if you could have Saotome Ranma transferred to St. Hebereke's,"
she simpered.

*Among the more interesting conundrums thrown at Ranma, to say the 
least....*

    Ranma looked at her, and continued.  "I've been locked in
girl form now twice.  Both times, it could have been forever if
things had gone wrong.  In between there's the fear that if I be
a girl too much, the curse will take over and lock on its own.
Going to school as a girl would be..."  He shrugged.  "And if I
stay a girl, they'll cancel the engagement and take me away from
you.  If I get a girl's mind, they'll do that even if I look like
a man."

    "And you'd let them?"  Akane hissed.  "You think I'd let
them?!"

    Ranma shrugged resignedly.

    Slap!

    The sound echoed in the dojo, and Ranma looked at Akane, his
eyes wide.  "Akane..."

    "That was for thinking like a quitter," Akane informed him
tightly.  "And for insulting me."  She leaned forward.  "And
this... this is for caring about losing me."  She kissed him,
carefully and thoroughly, then settled back on her shins.

    "I'm never gonna understand girls," Ranma muttered, touching
his cheek and wincing.

*This is still ducking another issue.  I'll detail more in a bit.*

    "The thing about Kasumi's books is that they say that
biologically, brains and minds are like that too, that there's no
real difference between a man's brain and a woman's brain except,
um, hormone levels and... um... cultural sex-role training, I
guess.  Ranma, you win a lot of your battles by changing the
rules-- can't you win this one the same way?"

*Ahem.  This is somewhat (or even very) off-topic, but Kasumi's books 
are a tad out-of-date, apparently.  Recent research shows that there are 
several genuine differences--but these are in terms of averages, not 
overall range.  For instance, the average girl does better in languages 
and worse in math than the average boy--but Madame Curie blew most male 
mathematicians off the map.  I guess my beef is that the above was an 
oversimplification, at best.*

    Ranma looked down and twiddled his fingers.  "What about,
uh, sex?"

    "Um... what about it?"

    "Suppose I get... gack.  Suppose I, er, my girl form, gets,
uh, interested in, uh... guys?"

    Akane thought frantically, then decided to go with her
initial impulse.  "Then I hit you.  A lot.  Hard.  With many
large, heavy, hard, painful objects.  The same way I will if it
looks like you're interested in another girl.  Until you aren't
interested in guys any more."

*And so we come to the other issue I mentioned before:  Akane's also 
drawn a line against doing anything as girls--even kissing.  Ranma's 
concern against getting stuck is a valid one--does she expect a trapped 
Ranma-chan to stay celibate indefinitely...?*

    "Akane?" Kasumi said as they passed her in the hall.  "Oh,
hello, Ranma-kun.  Aren't you supposed to be at school?  Akane,
what are you doing here?"

    "Taking a bath," Akane shot back over her shoulder.  Ranma
smiled helplessly at Kasumi as she was pulled into the bathroom.

    Kasumi put her hand to her mouth.  "Oh, my goodness!"

*Beautiful!*

    Ranma stood there, slumped, and she listened to the weeping
noises echoing in Akane's corner of the room, and she thought
about all the times she'd violently denied wanting to look at
Akane's body, and she could only think of one thing to do.
"Akane."

    "WHAT?!"

    "Hit me."

    "...What?"

    "What part of 'hit me' didn'tcha understand?  Hit me.  I
deserve it.  Neither of us is gonna feel better until ya do."

    Akane turned, and looked into Ranma's sad eyes, and raised
her hand reluctantly.

    Slap!  Ranma rode it out, and waited.  Slap!  Slap!  Slap!

    "You done?" Ranma asked through cheeks that were reddened
and beginning to swell.

    "I think so."  Akane giggled suddenly.  "At least you're not
so cute any more..."

*Ahem.  IMNSHO, this qualifies as clinically ill.  The aforementioned 
potential problems will just get worse if something isn't done about 
this, soon.*

    "I can't help it, dammit," Ranma said, trying to reach the
middle of her back.  "Bad enough I gotta wear a girl's uniform,
but Momma made me wear this damn bra, and it itches!"

*Snicker.  I was gonna suggest the sports-bra thing, but you beat me to 
it.*

*Oh, and the gymnastics scene was very well done.*

    Ranma adjusted the garment and jumped up and down a little.
"Hey.  This is great," she said in a surprised tone.  She looked
at Akane.  "Thanks... partner."  Akane felt herself grinning like
a maniac at the look in Ranma's eyes, and had to suppress the
urge to throw her arms around Ranma and kiss... her?  Ranma was
too busy putting her uniform back on to notice that Akane had
gone pale and silent.

*Of course, this may very well address my earlier concern.*

    "Tendo Akane, please report to the main office."

    Ranma looked up at the PA speaker in the hall, irritated.
"Shit, it's lunchtime!" she said.

    "Language, Ranma," Akane chided.  "It's probably just
paperwork.  I'll be back in a minute."  She started down the
hall.

    "Wait, you got my lunch--" Ranma began.

    Akane turned and smiled mischievously.  "Well, this way
you'll have to wait for me, won't you?" she said while walking
backward.

    "Look--"

    "Saotome Ranma, please report to room 318," the PA speaker
interrupted.

    Ranma looked thwarted.  "Damn!"  She caught up to Akane.
"Say, where is room 318, anyway?"

    "I don't know, but I imagine it's on the third floor, baka,"
Akane said, as though to a small child.  "We're on the second
floor, so you find a stairwell, you go up--"

*You know, I gotta say, this is one of the most blatant displays of 
utter cluelessness I've seen in this fic.  Surely these two realize that 
Ko-chan has a significant amount of pull at the school--enough to 
arrange things to her pleasure?  They should have been suspicious the 
moment things led to them getting split up.*

    Kodachi put one hand on her hip,  looked at her other hand,
and started folding down fingers.  "One... two..."
    
    "Eeek!"  "A guy!"  "AAAA!"  "Perrrverrrt!"  "Hey, he's
cute!"  "I saw him first!"
    
    Ranma burst back through the door, wearing a tightly
stretched sports bra, a damaged skirt, and a terrified
expression.  He slammed the door behind him and leaned on it.
"...three," Kodachi completed, and looked at Ranma with
satisfaction.  "It's so nice to see you again, Ranma-sama."

*Well, now, it seems that Kodachi has adapted to the new situation quite 
well, wouldn't you all agree?*

    "Uh, Kodachi?"  Ranma said while Akane's mouth opened and
closed soundlessly.

    Kodachi's expression changed as she turned back to Ranma.
"Yes, Ranma-sama?"

    "Sorry about this--"  Pow!  Ranma caught Kodachi as the
taller girl folded neatly, and lowered her to the floor.

*Blink*

*OK, you got me with this one.  A surprise event that I have no beef 
with, because you've built up to it.  Very well done!*

    "Hey, I'm a girl, right?  Besides, if YOU'D hit 'er, I
wouldn'ta had ta!"  Ranma had a long fuse, but most of it was
already burned by this time.

*Ah, the Saotome School of Logic....*

    Kodachi twitched, then sat up groggily.  "Oh... I must have
fainted when Ranma-sama kissed me..."  She noticed the absence of
her top.  *He must have torn my clothes off... and showered my
upturned, panting lips with feverish kisses!*  "Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-
ho!"

    The door was opened cautiously.  "Captain Kodachi?  Are you
all right?"

    Kodachi's laugh cut off abruptly.  "Oh, I'm far better than
all right," she said dreamily.  Her voice changed.  "Fetch me
another uniform, at once."  She picked a carrot stick off the
tray and nibbled on it meditatively.  "Now, how shall I enter
this in my diary?"

*Hmmm.... Knowing Kodachi, it would be more like, "How shall I phrase 
this in my full page ad in the Gazzette?"*

    ~~~~~ end Herding ~~~~~

Next: Four confrontations-- or is it five? No, it's not a lemon!
in Chapter 7: Mating
to be posted tomorrow.

*Looking forward to it!*

--Freemage

Vince Seifert    Network Analyst     seifertv@csus.edu
http://webpages.csus.edu/~seifertv/  updated 1998Jun04
CSUS hired me to build their network, not to speak for the university.

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