The Black and Red Roses of St. Hebereke Girls' Academy

[Dumbledork]

Due to a lack of Ranma/Kodachi stories I’ve decided to write my own.

Principal Kuno is sick and tired of Ranma’s behavior and expels him from Furinkan, much to Kuno’s and Ranma’s joy. However, their joy doesn’t last.

Nodoka thinks that not finishing high school is not very manly and Nabiki tells Ranma that he won’t be able to teach without a degree. Unfortunately, Furinkan is the only school around and Genma doesn’t want Ranma to leave the Tendo home for too long as he fears for the pact.

Meanwhile in Furinkan, after two days of not seeing the pigtailed girl Kuno’s getting really worried and asks Nabiki for the whereabouts of his love. Nabiki tells him that the pigtailed girl goes wherever Ranma goes.

Kuno’s getting furious and tries to find a way to get the pigtailed away from the clutches of the ‘vile sorcerer Saotome’. Then in a stroke of brilliance he has a cunning idea. There’s one place where Ranma wouldn’t be able to cast his evil spells onto the poor girl and where she could get a decent education at the same time, St. Hebereke Girls’ Academy. So he pulls some strings to get the girl enrolled at St. Hebereke since he knows that the poor girl could probably not afford the tuition fees.

He’s even cunning enough to disguise it as a scholarship since he knows that his pigtailed girl is rather stubborn and would probably not accept charity.

A letter arrives at the Tendo Dojo, and after much bickering and bitching the Saotomes come to the conclusion that it’s probably the best solution, even if Ranma will have to attend as a girl.

Cue a few days later when a short redhead arrives at St. Hebereke wearing the traditional uniform and immediately getting into trouble with Kodachi. After a thorough beating Kodachi retreats and leaves the redhead alone who’s immediately accepted by the other girls for defeating ‘the psycho’. Ranma’s really surprised since he’d always thought that Kodachi was a popular girl.

Over the next few days he realized that he had been wrong. The gymnastics team only followed Kodachi because they were afraid of her and the only friends Kodachi has are the ones she buys presents for.

At one time Ranma tries to be alone for a while and hears crying from a tool shed. Curious he investigates and sees Kodachi crying heavy tears. Like always he’s a sucker for a crying girl and asks Kodachi what is wrong. At first she is aggressive and apprehensive; after all, nothing in the world was free and she had yet to find anyone who’d genuinely be interested in her wellbeing and not in what she could provide to them.

Over the next few days Ranma manages to pull Kodachi out of her shell and learns about the ponytailed girl’s sordid past and why she changed after her mother’s death.

Slowly a friendship develops between the two girls … possibly leading to something more.

This is just a short summary of the prologue and I have a lot of ideas for the story.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Interesting. Is this why you asked about Kodachi's knowledge of Ranma's curse in the Ranma forum? Well, whether it was or wasn't, my opinion is that you can use Ranma's revelation of the curse to Kodachi to highlight that Ranma is growing to understand/sympathise with her. You've got a nice take on the semi-traditional "Ranma gets to know Kodachi and realises that she's a lonely girl" angle, there's nothing wrong with that, but it seems that Kodachi discovers the truth about the two Ranmas by accident. Ranma choosing to take her somewhere private and tell her on purpose, breaking the truth to her gently, is not only a nice change, but it works on a number of other angles too -- for a start, it helps highlight that he is starting to think of Kodachi as a friend, that he would willlingly reveal to her something he tries to keep a secret.

Don't get me wrong, Ranma would probably be thinking/hoping that the revelation of his true identity would at least get her to stop treating his female form as a romantic rival (with all that entails), and at most that it would make her stop chasing him (he has enough problems dealing with three conflicting engagements; having a 'free' girl chasing him makes things worse), but that he would actually admit to her about being "the pigtailed girl" can and should be presented as a genuine sign of friendship and trust. It would also behoove Ranma to have an ally aware of his true nature -- while water does seem to seek him out, it seems to be more 'switching forms whenever the opposite form would be most annoying'. So, if he's spending his school days as a girl and attending a girl's only school, he may discover hot water seeking him out (though in a lesser fashion to cold, mainly because hot water's rarer).

Also, may I make a suggestion? Don't have Kodachi turn out to be a lesbian or a bisexual. For one thing, Ranma doesn't see his cursed form as himself (hence one of the reasons he can be so flippant about it in matters other then sex, which just hits his panic button) and so would not really be able to reciprocate feelings only held for his cursed form. For another, it's a cliche, and for a third matter, it doesn't really fit with Kodachi's established character -- recall that, shortly after meeting Ranma, she thinks to herself about how she was afraid she'd never find any eligible men and notes that an all-girl's school was the wrong place to look for "Mr. Right". To say nothing of her dreamy "what a man..." when she first sees Ranma's face. Her deciding eventually that, yes, she does find Ranma attractive irregardless of form would be believable; that's more her not caring which form Ranma is in, but acknowledging and preferring that Ranma is really a guy.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

I would like to see this story. There have been other Ranma/Kodachi stories -- Roses of Shadow by Richard Lawson is one. More wouldn't hurt. Some Ranmaverse denizens are essentially facades, people you can build up elaborate backstories for without contradicting canon. To me, Kodachi is almost as good a candidate for that as Kasumi.

[Té Rowan]

I would like to see this story. There have been other Ranma/Kodachi stories -- Roses of Shadow by Richard Lawson is one. More wouldn't hurt. Some Ranmaverse denizens are essentially facades, people you can build up elaborate backstories for without contradicting canon. To me, Kodachi is almost as good a candidate for that as Kasumi.

Heh. If Kasumi can be 'oblivious' because she's so busy working on her thesis (at least one fic, probably three or more), no doubt Kodachi can have a hidden Marianas Trench of her own.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

Just a thought, but what are you planning for Ranma's outfit after "she" starts attending St. Hebereke? As Antimatterenergy (I believe) pointed out, it's a cliche to have Ranma dress up in a feminine uniform, but it's completely out of character for Ranma, who refuses to wear any uniform when attending Furinkan. While it's true that he wore a uniform in Junior High, his curse means that wearing a gender-specific set of clothing is asking for trouble -- look how he almost inevitably winds up turning back into a guy while wearing one of those frilly dresses he uses to mess with people's heads, which makes him look like some kind of freak. Yes, wearing his iconic clothes would probably make his identity clear to anyone who knows about it... but Ranma's curse, by the time you're bringing up, is well-known at Furinkan. You could declare equally that either the St. Hebereke students are in on this due to having friends/boyfriends at Furinkan, or they have no idea beyond faint rumors of Ranma being a crossdresser and so they wouldn't pay any attention to "Ranma-chan's" uniform, as none of them have ever seen Ranma except maybe passing by in the street.

Similarly, Ranma would probably want to hide his identity behind a false name; as much as he needs this scholastic opportunity, it's embarrassing as all hell to him. However, I would heartily advise you not to have him use the pseudonym "Ranko"; that name is associated with some of the worst moments in Ranma's life, when he was forced to deceive his mother whilst simultaneously living in terror of having to commit seppuku. It is not a name with happy memories for him, and so he would not be willing to use it. In fact, you could probably get a nice comedic scene out of him trying to figure out a false name to use while attending St. Hebereke, with the peanut gallery chipping in helpful (and not-so-helpful) advice.

[DCG]

I'm finding it highly amusing and a bit bother some that some one is using the Idea board to tell people "How it should be done"

So please stop "SpaceKnight of Chaos" Your Facts about Ranma are your own view point and one not shared by many others.


As for the Idea of this thread. It sounds like a great read to me and brings to mind ranma going there on a martial arts scholarship and then to a major collage.

Would that even be possible?

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I am doing no such thing. I am merely making suggestions and offering my input as to how to make this story unique and avoid things that have become cliches in Ranma fanfiction. Everything I have posted I have noted as being my suggestion - At no point have I told Dumbledork that they should write it the way I am suggesting, they are perfectly free to use, adapt or discard my thoughts as they see fit.

Also, what "Facts"? Beyond mentioning Ranma doesn't wear the Furinkan uniform in either form (save for the Furinkan girl's uniform at least once as a disguise against Ryoga) and Ranma's distress at having to pretend to be "Ranko" around his mother at first, what was I stating as being 'fact'?

[Dumbledork]

Did Ranma actually ever say that he refused to wear the uniform because of his condition? I can't remember a single instance where someone would call out Ranma on it.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

No, it's never said why he refuses to wear the Furinkan High uniform, nor does anyone ask; it was just the most logical explanation to me why he would insist on wearing his relatively gender-neutral Chinese clothes in High School when he had no problems buying and wearing a uniform when he was curse-free and attending an all-boy Junior High School. It's actually kind of odd that he never got called on it, but seeing as how his curse became scholastic knowledge fairly early in the series, they might have decided it was best to leave him be rather then debating over whether he should be in one set of gender-specific clothes or another. Ranma looks like a real freak if he gets turned into a guy while wearing girl's clothes, and a girl wearing guy's clothes would probably get some strange looks herself.

Anyway, I was just wondering what you were planning to do about clothing Ranma once he accepted going to St. Hebereke. As I tried to point out, you honestly could go either way on the possibility of the Hebereke girls having heard the truth about Ranma from Furinkan friends/boyfriends. If they have heard of Ranma's curse, then he'd probably get a reputation as a real freak if he started wearing the girl's uniform. If they haven't heard of it, Ranma could either wear a uniform (which he normally doesn't, unless playing with someone's head) or he could 'natural' in his usual outfits - both are valid options, both would be in character, the latter just a little more then the former.

As I said, all of these are merely thoughts, possibilities and suggestions. I have no intention of forcing them on you, and I apologise if I came off like that, and I honestly expected you to simply tell me where to shove them. I'm fine with that, just as I'm fine with you taking whatever fragments you think might be useful and putting your own spin on them. It's the waiting for you to just say "get lost" that makes me edgy more then anything.

[Dumbledork]

Eh, I didn't say anything. I enjoy every comment I get. The positive as well as the negative. Ranma would wear the uniform. As for the knowledge of the curse... people might not know about it. After all, Ranma tried to make it appear like he was using magic during the fight against Mousse and there's the possibility that the spectators might have thought it was only a trick. After all, it's a well known fact that most of the Furinkan students are total morons, so I wouldn't be surprised.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

This is set post-Nodoka moves into the Tendo Dojo, just out of curiosity? Because I think Ranma's curse becomes widespread knowledge amongst Furinkan by that point - at the least, none of the guys will buy from an "au naturale" Ranma-chan in the Tsubasa story due to being aware that "she" is really a guy, and Ranma-chan is revealed to be the same person as Ranma-kun in front of the whole school during the Martial Arts Cheerleading squad (the whole "Akane asking if Ranma really meant 'her' declarations of love for 'him' so that everyone can hear" thing - that's even how the secret comes out at last in the anime).

But that's not really important. This is your story to write, I'm just curious how you're going to make it believeable for Ranma to wear the Hebereke uniform when he refused to wear the Furinkan one. Eh, could just be that Hebereke is stricter about such things then Furinkan, so Ranma has no choice but to wear it if s/he wants to keep the scholarship. That would also probably explain why Nodoka is okay with it, despite her normal dislike of Ranma crossdressing. And when I say dislike, I mean threatening to make Ranma commit seppuku, until she got knocked out and thought it was just a dream.

Come to think of it, doesn't Nodoka stop trying to make Ranma-chan "more ladylike" after finding out she's really her son? Just out of curiosity? Not related to this, just expanding my own knowledge of the series.

Also, isn't the Hebereke uniform technically a tan and white fuku? Or is that only in the anime...?

[Dumbledork]

I haven't really decided on a timeline yet. The only things that are set in stone are Ranma attending St. Hebereke and interacting with Kodachi.St.

[SpaceKnight of Chaos]

I see, I was confused by your plot outline in the first post, though now that I look at it, it could easily be set at any point after the Principal has come to Furinkan and Nodoka has begun to at least visit the Tendo Dojo. If Nodoka isn't a permanent resident, it's a little fidgety how she'd find out about Ranma's expulsion, but this is Ranma 1/2: any of "Ranko", Soun or the Tendo girls might say something stupid and let her find out, prompting them to scramble and claim that Ranma is trying a find a better school.

Anyway, I was just trying to point out that it helps to have a believeable reason why Ranma would wear a girl's uniform when he won't even wear a boy's uniform at Furinkan, but I guess I was being thick: St. Hebereke's clearly more normal then Furinkan, so it's obvious that they'd demand Ranma wear the uniform (maybe after s/he shows up in his 'usual' clothes the first day) or else they'll expel him too. Ranma wouldn't be exactly enthusiastic about it, but hey, he's not really going to enjoy having to spend 7 or 8 hours a day 6 days a week as a girl and pretending to be a girl either: the outfit's just icing on the cake.

Do you have any comments about my suggestion not to use the name 'Ranko'?

[Dumbledork]

The name really doesn't matter, but since 'Ranko' is the canon name of female Ranma later on I wouldn't call it a cliché.

[TerraEpon]

I seem to remember that in the manga Ranma sometimes wore the male uniform, but maybe they were just dark versions of his normal clothes.