Life of Chaos
Part 1 - The Last Straw
Chapter 7 - Gym Is Hell On Earth
Most of the characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Communication,
and some other companies. Used without permission. I'll return them as
soon as I finish my other series, and... well... that might take a
while. I lent Ryoga's mom a copy of story plots and well... she's a
Hibiki... it'll take some time before I see her again and find out what
she did with them.
Dan is from Street Fighter and belongs to Capcom. The American names
have been used.
Mr. Strike is from Futaba-Kun Change, which belongs to Hiroshi Aro and
Studio Ironcat.
-------------------------
As the boys from the class filed into the locker room to change for gym,
Mikado went straight to the showers. He hoped he could wash more of the
ink off his face. He had been allowed to get some of it off during math
class, but the face painters had chosen to use permanent makers.
Kuno was running late. He had tried to escort Akane to the girls' locker
room, but had been knocked unconscious for his trouble.
"Hey, Ranma, get lucky with Akane yet?" Hiroshi asked.
"Yeah, you two were almost married. You've had to have done it by now,"
Daisuke added.
Ranma glared at the two. "Why would I do anything with her?"
Mousse shook his head. "That is getting old, Saotome. Even I can see you
want nothing more than to get into her panties."
Ranma blushed slightly. "I'm not some pervert!"
"Right, perhaps I misjudged you," Mousse tried to say casually. "I
thought you were a man. Guess you don't have the guts to make love to
Akane."
Ranma slammed Mousse into the lockers. His cheeks were crimson red while
he snarled through clenched teeth. "If you want to fight, just ask for
it."
"I'm not looking to fight you, Saotome. Just stating that I doubt you
have the courage to be a real man for the girl you love. I bet Ryoga
will get laid by that Akari girl before you even kiss Akane." Mousse
tried to control his voice. It still quivered slightly since he could
not forget what he had seen Ranma do to Saffron.
"Ain't no way Piglet is going to score before I do!" Ranma growled.
"Leave me out of this!" Ryoga then punched Ranma into the wall. "And
don't call me that! I won't even let Akari do that!"
"Geez, with the way you're both acting, I might be the first to have
sex," Mousse said with a smirk. <This is working better than I hoped.>
"That's a laugh, Mousse. You don't even got a girlfriend." Ranma glared
at Ryoga.
"What about my beloved Shampoo?" Mousse asked confidently.
"Your beloved Shampoo would skin you alive if you kissed her. It'd take
a miracle for you to be with her," Ranma retorted smugly.
Mousse's face became a few shades paler. Saotome had a point, his
chances with Shampoo weren't very good at the moment. "Well, who said
the girl had to be my girlfriend? I... well... I can have sex with a
girl to make Shampoo jealous."
Ranma shook his head. "If you do, Shampoo won't get jealous, she'd throw
a party."
Mousse glared at Ranma. "I doubt that. Anyway, Ryoga, think you're more
of a man than Saotome?"
"Goes without saying," Ryoga replied.
Ranma kicked Ryoga in the head. "I'm manlier than both of you put
together!"
"You aren't even a guy all the time," Ryoga retorted.
Ranma seethed. "Neither of you are men all the time!"
"Let's settle this with a bet," Mousse tried to suggest casually. "First
to get laid gets the losers to do whatever he wants."
"You're on," Ranma answered firmly.
"Ranma isn't going to beat me. I'm in," Ryoga replied, but his voice
quivered slightly. <What am I doing? If Akari finds out about this, I'm
pig food. But I can't back away from a challenge, especially from
Ranma.>
"You ain't got a chance, Piglet." Ranma finished getting dressed and
stormed out of the locker room.
"Good." Mousse smirked and then let out a long sigh of relief. He had
planned to issue that challenge for a while; however, he had been afraid
Ryoga would win by being with Akane and that would cause him more
problems. He doubted Ranma would have gone through with the challenge if
he had issued it alone, since he technically didn't have a girlfriend.
Since Ryoga was with Akari now, Ranma would have to go through with it
or lose the bet.
If Ryoga won, Mousse would only owe Hibiki a favor, but so would
Saotome- which wouldn't be that bad. Now if Ranma won by sleeping with
Akane or any other girl besides Shampoo, Saotome would be guilty of
adultery and that would free his beloved of her obligation to be with
Ranma. And if Mousse somehow won, he would demand that Ranma marry
Akane.
-------------------------
The girls immediately pestered Shampoo for details about her hair. Few
had seen what happened to cause her to wear a pony-tail, and all they
were getting from her now was that a stupid boy had cut her hair and
that he would die.
After a minute of trying to get the information from Shampoo, the girls
gave up and got ready for class. Most of them avoided being anywhere
near Akane and were saying things about her in hushed voices.
<Not this rumor again.> Akane shook her head. She thought her classmates
knew better than to trust the rumor horde, but they proved her wrong.
All because of Mariko's stupid accusation that she was bi-sexual
everyone, including Sayuri and Yuka, were now giving her a wide berth in
the gym changing room.
Akari entered the locker room last and chose a locker near Akane. "Don't
you know Akane is bi?" Ryunami whispered to Akari.
"Well if your fiancee turned into a girl as cute as Ranma, wouldn't you
be tempted to at least try 'her' out?" Akari asked.
Ryunami blinked. That wasn't the reaction she counted on. "So, do you
like girls then?"
"Only if the girl is Ryoga-sama," Akari replied.
Ryunami's eyes flattened and walked away. <I'll take that as a yes. I
won't let you get away with ignoring my 'advice,' especially someone
who's foolishly in love. Besides, Nabiki did better with her betting
pool than I did on Akari's fight.>
"Thanks, Akari," Akane said. "Wish I knew how to deal with those kind of
accusations better."
Akari shrugged. "I've been getting worse since I started junior high.
They accused me of beastiality just because of my love for pigs. They're
great pets, fighters, and taste good with wheat bread, however, if
you've ever seen pigs mating, you'd find it anything but arousing."
Akane couldn't help but briefly imagine Akari with Katsunishiki, and
shuddered. That would be worse than being accused of liking girls.
<Beastiality, huh?> Ryunami smirked, since she had overheard their
entire conversation. <Even better than accusing her of bi-sexuality.>
-------------------------
The men's gym teacher waited for his students to exit the locker room.
He marked them off in the order they came out.
The teacher was beginning to wonder if Gosunkugi was going to be the
last student out when Ryoga called out loudly, "It must be this door!"
He smiled as he finally found the gym after several tries, which he
considered to be very good.
"Where are Kurenai and Kumon?" the gym teacher asked.
"Well, Kurenai has been missing since lunch and Kumon is in the nurses'
station," Hiroshi answered.
"Kumon should be here soon, though," Ranma added.
"Okay. Welcome to gym, I'm your teacher, Fuji. To start class, I want
you all to run two laps around the soccer field."
Most of the students shrugged and began their run.
-------------------------
The girls assembled for their gym class. They soon saw a blond-haired,
muscle-bound gaijin approached them.
<Arnold-chan?> several of the girls thought since the guy looked a lot
like their favorite terminator robot.
"Hello, I am your gym teacher, Mr. Strike," he said in a very deep
voice. After taking attendance, he began, "Today, your mission is dodge
ball. The objective is to remove your opponents by hitting them with one
of these balls; however, if your opponent catches the ball, you are
eliminated. The teams are as follows, team alpha: Daimonji, Genmizu,
Konjo, Kuno, Masaki, Sieki, and Shan; team beta: Shiratori, Takahashi,
Tanaki, Tendo, Wataru, and Unryu. Team alpha will be stationed on that
side of the centerline, while team beta has that other side. Do not
cross the border at any cost. That is all."
Team beta did not look pleased at their prospects. One member shy of
their opposing team and they had more martial artists as well. This was
not a fair game.
Mr. Strike tossed one ball to each side. "Begin."
Azusa's eyes glazed over slightly seeing the ball bounce toward her.
"Pierre!" she cried out and hugged it.
Shampoo caught one of the balls, and grinned. <This sort of game could
get someone hurt, preferably pervert-girl. Too bad crazy-girl is on my
team, I would've liked to hurt her too.> She leapt up into the air and
spiked the ball with all her might, aiming for Akane. When her fist came
in contact with ball, it exploded.
Everyone, except the teacher, blinked. Azusa hugged her ball even
tighter, causing it to detonate as well.
"Shan and Shiratori are out," Mr. Strike said simply while tossing a new
ball to each team.
"What with ball?" Shampoo asked dizzily.
"In some of the balls are explosives. If you hit them too hard, they
will explode. They will also detonate if their timer expires as well."
Shampoo glared at Mr. Strike. She had always been taught to respect her
teachers, but this school was making that very hard for her.
"Why the hell are there explosives in the dodge balls?!" Akane asked
angrily.
"This will teach you survival instincts and gives more incentive for you
to dodge."
Akane growled. After living with Ranma for a year, she had developed a
good survival instinct. Too bad she often ignored it if someone was in
trouble, especially Ranma. However, some of the girls in this class
would not be able to shrug off one of the explosive balls too well. If
one of them got hurt, Mr. Strike would get a beating far worse than she
had ever given anyone.
Mariko grinned wickedly. "Oh, this will be fun." This was her type of
game, dirty. She grabbed the new ball and threw it with all her might.
Ayashi stared at the ball with morbid fascination as it flew straight at
her. "Oh, shit." She decided to dodge too late and was blown across the
floor.
"Wataru is out." Mr. Strike tossed a ball to team alpha.
"You really should give up, Tendo." Kodachi laughed gleefully as she
grabbed the new ball and wailed it towards Akane.
Akane noticed the ball and got out of the way. "I'm not that easy."
Unfortunately Sayuri had been standing next to her.
"Tanaki out."
Akane turned toward her friend and was relieved to see the ball had not
exploded. She still was not happy. She grabbed the ball and hurled it at
Kodachi. "Eat this."
"I would not accept anything from you considering your lack of culinary
skills." Kodachi knew Yuka was Akane's friend, and peasants can be good
shields. She pushed Yuka into the approaching ball, which detonated.
"Masaki out."
Akane stared at Yuka in shock. "S-sorry."
"Unryu out."
"I'll take her out for you, Kodachi-sama." Mariko had caught the ball
Akari threw and threw it at Kodachi's target. Akane hadn't noticed until
it was too late, and was now sprawled on the floor smoking from the
explosive impact.
"Tendo out."
"Can I forfeit? Retreat?" Rumiko asked.
"Negative," Mr. Strike answered.
Rumiko let the ball thrown by Yume hit her. She wasn't about to let
Mariko or Kodachi get a chance to peg her with one of those balls.
"Winners: team alpha."
-------------------------
Ranma and Konatsu finished their laps in a time that would beat Olympic
runners. Gosunkugi finish his first lap after everyone else completed
their second lap.
Fuji-sensei didn't want to keep everyone waiting, so he told Gosunkugi
that he would make up that lap after class. The gym teacher then had the
class break off into the assigned pairs and ordered them to do thirty
sit-ups.
Some of the students looked at the teacher strangely. "Only thirty?"
Gosunkugi gave them an evil look. He then frowned looking at his
partner, Ryoga. He went first and attempted the sit-ups. At about
twenty, Ryoga asked, "Done yet?" Gosunkugi replied that he was.
They switched positions. Hikaru tried to hold down Ryoga's feet.
Unfortunately, Gosunkugi went flying when Hibiki attempted his first
sit-up.
"Hey! Where are you going? You're supposed to hold my feet," Ryoga
called out.
Gosunkugi responded by landing into the Furinkan pool.
Fuji-sensei slapped his forehead while holding Kumon's feet, who had
just return for the nurses' station. "For the rest of class, Kumon,
you're Hibiki's partner."
"Whatever," Kumon replied.
-------------------------
"This game there will be four balls." Mr. Strike tossed two balls to
each side.
"We strike Tendo," Kodachi said firmly, after catching one of the balls.
Mariko nodded as she grabbed the other one for her team.
Shampoo then caught the ball thrown by Sayuri. "Three better than two."
The three girls nodded to each other and threw their balls at once.
"Damn it." Akane attempted to dodge, however the incoming balls came in
at angle making it difficult to judge where to move. She jumped back and
was hit by the ball Kodachi had thrown. It exploded, throwing her into
the other two balls, which also detonated. Akane landed head first into
the ground.
Sayuri grabbed Akane's comatose body and dragged her into the locker
room for a change of clothes that weren't burnt to a crisp. She had let
the rumor keep her away from her friend, but she wasn't about to leave
Akane lying on the ground.
Akari was as angry as a pig that hadn't been fed. Her friend had been
triple-teamed and had been hurt. She grabbed the ball out of Rumiko's
hands and hurled it at Mariko. "You'll pay for that!"
Mariko went to catch the ball, but found that Akari had thrown it much
harder this time, and the ball blew up. "That hurt, you know." She
glared at the pig-farmer and then checked her hair for any damage.
Shampoo deemed Akari to be the biggest threat of her opponents. She
hurled a ball at her, but Unryu dodged it.
"This really isn't cute." Azusa launched a ball, that she now considered
ugly, at no one in particular.
Ryunami had been trying to blend into the back wall. She didn't want to
be in this game. Unfortunately, she was beamed in the head by Azusa's
attack; fortunately it failed to detonate, so she escaped no worse for
wear.
"You should all give up. You have no chance to win against us." Kodachi
took the ball that hit Ryunami and pitched it at her opponents. She
didn't care who she hit, her main target had already been removed.
Rumiko was struck in the leg, and gave a prayer of thanks that it didn't
go off.
Akari grabbed that ball and hurled it back at Kodachi, who dodged. "Pig
shit!" Yume was hit in the chest by the ball, which discharged.
Shampoo grabbed the new ball and fired it off at Akari.
Unryu avoided being hit directly, but was caught in the explosion. She
cursed at failing to strike back against all of Akane's attackers this
game.
Ayashi wondered why she was even trying to win. Their chances sucked and
all any of them could hope for was to not be hit by another explosion.
She threw a ball and was quite thankful that Kodachi caught it.
"There is nothing cute about this game." Azusa nervously stood alone.
"Time to end this game." Kodachi threw her ball along with Shampoo.
Azusa braced herself for the explosion. "Charlotte, help me," she cried
out before the balls detonated.
-------------------------
Ryoga sneezed.
"All right, boys, pull-ups, ten reps each. Kenzan you're first,"
Fuji-sensei said.
Konatsu jumped and grabbed the bar with his right arm and did twenty
pull-ups. After he did two more with his left, the gym teacher stopped
him.
"You only have to do ten pull-ups, not ten with each arm."
Konatsu bowed apologetically. "I'm very sorry."
"Saotome, you're next."
Ranma grabbed the bar and repositioned himself. He did the ten
repetitions upside down.
"You don't have to show off, Saotome."
"Needed more of a challenge," Ranma replied.
Mousse, Sentarou, Kenshiro, Hiro, Mikado and Kuno each did their ten
repetitions. Hiroshi was happy to pull off seven, while Daisuke only did
three before his arms gave out. Gosunkugi failed to do even one.
"Hey, Ranma, watch this." Ryoga leapt to the bar and positioned himself
upside down like Ranma had and did ten inverted pull-ups, but with only
his right arm.
Kumon frowned. He had wanted to one-up Saotome. He grabbed hold of the
bar and attempted to duplicate Ryoga's feat. After the second repetition
he lost balance and his left arm took hold. Regaining his equilibrium,
Kumon finished the ten inverted pull-ups with both arms.
The gym teacher scowled. He hated that his class had freaks like Ranma
who could do things now that he hadn't dreamed of when he was in his
prime. What had happened to all the normal students like Hiroshi and
Daisuke?
-------------------------
Team beta being short a member made the teams even more unfair. Needless
to say, the third game was short and brutal.
-------------------------
Akane awoke in the locker room. She noticed a clean gym uniform sitting
next to her, and that hers were quite charred. She quickly changed. She
frowned when she noticed the shirt was a bit stretched out in the chest
region, as she guessed who the owner was. "Great, this is what Ranma
wears when he's being really perverted." She knew that wasn't quite
true, but she hated to be reminded that he had a better female body.
Akane's frown deepened as she remembered what happened before she went
to 'sleep.' Mariko, Kodachi, and Shampoo had triple teamed her in that
psychotic dodge ball game. Her fist shook angrily. "How can any
respectable teacher be willing to risk hurting his students?" She then
thought, <Because all the respectable teachers here have tenure.>
Akane stomped out of the locker room and approached the gym teacher as
the girls prepared to begin the fourth game. "What kind of insane game
is this?"
"This game is important training to teach you survival instincts," Mr.
Strike replied.
"The hell it is. This isn't training. It's sadistic. Some of them can't
take those explosions."
Mr. Strike looked down at Akane. "You're just a weak girl who's afraid
of getting her hair singed. If you can't deal with my class, just leave
and fail."
"Weak? Afraid?" Akane punched her teacher in the jaw.
Mr. Strike flew across the gym. "You struck a superior officer. Girls,
attack her!" He ordered and then rubbed his jaw. <Well, she's not weak.>
"Weak girls should run, not try to start fights," Shampoo said smugly
holding one of the balls.
"I'll punish you!" Mariko cheered. Sure she was punishing Akane for
hurting her beloved, but the teacher didn't have to know that.
"You'll pay for taking Charlotte from me." Azusa didn't care if Akane
was technically her teammate.
"You really should leave us, vile wench. You have no hope to fight
against all of us." Kodachi grabbed a ball from Satsuki and joined in
with Mariko, Shampoo, and Azusa as they all launched explosive dodge
balls.
Akane braced herself and was blown into the wall. She staggered to her
feet.
"No one gets away with hurting a superior officer." Mr. Strike threw a
dodge ball at Akane that was painted blue. Its explosion was much larger
than the other balls.
Akane was momentarily part of the wall, she then fell onto the ground.
"Leave her, and begin play," Mr. Strike said firmly.
A few of the students looked at Mr. Strike rebelliously, but couldn't do
anything as Mariko, Kodachi and Shampoo appeared to be on the teacher's
side. Attempting to challenge him might cause them to be attacked like
Akane had been.
-------------------------
Fuji-sensei heard something as he led the boys into the gym. In the back
corner a rope hung from the ceiling. He told his class to climb it to a
flag tied halfway up.
Konatsu quickly climbed the rope and instead of climbing back down, he
let go. He landed softly on the mat, making no more disturbance than a
cat would.
"This is too easy." Ranma jumped up and tagged the flag.
"It's nice to see that you can jump, Saotome. Now try to climb the
rope," Fuji-sensei said with a scowl.
Ranma shrugged and climbed the rope. Almost at the top he heard a couple
explosions. He looked towards the girls and saw Akari standing at the
centerline.
"You crossed the boarder." Mr. Strike hurled a ball at Akari, which
exploded.
"What the hell?" Ranma noticed Akane lying on the ground unconscious a
short distance away from the teacher. He shifted his body weight to
swing the rope towards the wall and used the momentum to rocket himself
towards Akane and the teacher.
Most of the boys and Fuji-sensei followed.
"What is going on here?" Ranma demanded.
"Dodge ball," Mr. Strike replied simply.
"What happened to her?"
"She struck her superior, me."
Ranma glared at the teacher, but no word seemed to be enough to convey
how angry he was.
Akane awoke to see Ranma attack Mr. Strike with unrestrained fury.
"Girls, attack him."
"Attack Mr. Strike?" Satsuki asked hopefully while holding a ball.
Kodachi, Shampoo, and Sayuri also had balls and they nodded to her.
Shampoo tossed her ball to Mariko since she didn't want to risk
upsetting her great-grandmother because she attacked a teacher.
Mariko looked at the ball and debated for a moment. She rather liked
this game, but Kodachi was all for helping that boy. She added her ball
to the attack.
The four balls pegged Mr. Strike and all of them exploded. "This is
insubordination!"
"No, this is mutiny," Kodachi replied, getting two more balls from a
ball rack and throwing them at her teacher.
Ranma grabbed Mr. Strike and snarled into his ear. "No one hurts Akane,
asshole, no one." He then threw him at a full rack.
After the smoke cleared for the explosions, Mr. Strike moaned, "Remember
Korea!" He then took a long nap.
Shampoo glomped onto Ranma. "Airen save Shampoo from crazy teacher!"
"Ack!" Ranma tried to figure out what to do.
"Yes, Ranma-sama, I must thank you too for saving us," Kodachi added
while scowling at Shampoo.
Akane fumed. They could have easily beaten the teacher and ended the
insane game but they had attacked her instead. She growled as Ranma let
Shampoo hang all over him. "Don't you have any shame?" Akane snapped and
then stomped out of the gym.
"Hey, Akane...." Ranma tried to go help Akane, unfortunately Shampoo
purposely moved to caused him to fall.
Akane gave them a contemptuous look before leaving.
"Akari-chan, are you okay?" Ryoga asked.
"Good as a pig at meal time." Akari smiled at him.
"For what he did to you and Akane, I'm going to kill him."
"Ryoga, calm down. You don't have to hurt him, Ranma already did."
"But...."
"Just leave him be, my little piglet." Akari giggled.
"Akari...." Ryoga couldn't fight against a cute girl. He sighed. "Please
don't call me that."
Fuji-sensei allowed any injured girl to go to the nurses' station and
had Kumon take Mr. Strike to there as well. He integrated the remaining
girls into his class. Still upset at Saotome for showing off, he did not
allow Ranma to follow Akane.
They resumed rope climb and when it was Ryoga's turn, he tested the
rope's hold. He blinked as the rope went slack and then the metal plate
holding it in the ceiling bounced off his head. "I think it's
defective."
"I just love my job," Fuji-sensei said, wondering if he had died and had
gone to hell.
-------------------------
Author's Notes:
Sorry this is so late. Real life, friends wanting to watch my Kenshin
tapes en marathon, computer problems, and FFVIII all contributed to
delaying this. I'll try to make this bi-weekly for the next few parts
and hopefully pick up some lead time.
<Smacks head.> I noticed I've made a little oversight in Akari's
character. Primarily her tendency of using pig references. I'll be going
over previous parts and change some of her lines to be more IC.
Mr. Strike's resilience is from military training and from being caught
in many of his own explosions.