Ranma 1/2 story from Shonen Sunday Week 10, 1990 (Ranma 1/2 Volume 12, Part 4) Original story is Copyright (C) 1990 Takahashi Rumiko/Shogakukan Translation is Copyright (C) 1990 AmaTran/Ragnarok Part 4 of 5 Minna kiki ippatsu!...no maki (A critical moment for all!...episode) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Furinkan High School, snow blows outside while the principal explains the situation using a side diagram of Kunou's head, with the back of the head bare to reveal... Principal: (laughing) I drew the map that shows the location of the coconut with the school regulation exception on the back of Tachi's head. The diagram clearly labels items like "Tachi", "map" and "principal". In the principal's underground office... Male students: ...Therefore--!! If we shave the back of Kunou Sempai's head!... All students will avoid having marubouzu haircuts!! Everyone raises their barikan upwards in a gesture of unity. Male students: (determined) For the sake of everyone's happiness! Fight!! Oh!! Suddenly, who should appear within their midst but... Kunou: (smiling evilly) Hu hu hu hu hu, I heard what you were talking about just now. The students rush Kunou with their barikan. Students: News travels fast! Kunou Sempai, this is the end--!! Akane and Ranma watch from an overhead branch... Kunou: You fools--!! Kunou disposes of the other students rather handily. Kunou: (angry) My hair is a friend of long standing. You bastards would trim it away?! Ranma cracks his knuckles in preparation for taking action... Ranma: Of course I'm the only one who can go and do it. Akane: (concerned) Wait, Ranma. Whatever else about Kunou Sempai, he deserves pity. Everyone tried to force him to be a sacrifice... Kunou suddenly hugs Akane, much to both Ranma and Akane's surprise. Kunou: (crying) I have only thoughts of you! (shaking head back and forth) Let's go out, Tendou Akane!! A greatly upset Akane throws Kunou away as Ranma looks on. Ranma: He still deserves pity? Akane: (annoyed) He still deserves pity. Ranma: (thoughtful) But surely, it's no good to use strength. Akane: That's right. As long as we don't have his consent... Ranma, in his female form, dressed very smartly, rushes up to Kunou. Ranma: (smiling) Kunou Sempai!! Kunou: (astonished) Hm!? It, it's the girl with the ponytail, isn't it!! Ranma hands Kunou a box containing a barikan with a ribbon tied around it... Kunou: (picking barikan up) Is, is this for me!? Ranma: (shyly) Kunou Sempai, I... I like boys with marubouzu haircuts!! This revelation stuns Kunou, and surprises Akane and the other students who, hidden in the trees, watch the whole scene transpire... Students: I get it, if he does it himself... It'll be the perfect solution, won't it? Akane: (amazed) It's a beautiful plan, Ranma. Ranma watches Kunou ponder the situation. Ranma: Hm? Kunou: (resolved) For... forgive me, girl with the ponytail... Anything else that would make you happy, except a marubouzu haircut... Ranma: (heartbroken) Oh... oh no... Ranma imagines (for Kunou) a fun date between a clean-shaven Kunou and the girl with the ponytail... Ranma: (in tears) And it was my dream to go out with a marubouzu Sempai... At this point, Ranma really lays it on thick with a presentation of "what might have been" called "Otome no yume" (a maiden's dream). Ranma imagines riding the merry-go-round with Kunou... Ranma: (smiling sadly) Just the two of us doing that, Ranma imagines the two of them sharing a drink... Ranma: and this... Kunou abruptly steps in with his own imagined passionate kiss with Ranma... Kunou: (excited) And this too, I think I want to do it!! Kunou makes a grab for Ranma, who kicks him unconscious with a foot to the face while changing back via a convenient pot of hot water... Ranma: (disgusted) Tsk, I wasn't able to trick him. Students: (delighted) Oh. He did it. The students turn Kunou so that the back of his head is accessible to their barikan... Students: (determined) Okay, right here... Akane: (alarmed) Wait!! The students are surprised that Akane intervenes. Students: (curious) What is it, Akane? Akane: (worried) We still didn't get Sempai's consent. Remember!! Our enemy is the principal! The students stop as they are struck by the truth of Akane's words. Akane: Even if Sempai is strange he's a student isn't he!!? To do this sort of thing to one of our own when we are all students... The students stand around Kunou, thinking upon Akane's words. Students: (crying) How could we do this... Our concern for our hair blinded our eyes... Aaah--forgive us, Sempai!! We were mistaken!! Suddenly, even as Kunou lies unconscious, a voice seems to come from nowhere... Kunou: It's alright. It's alright, everyone. You can shave off as much as you must to save all the students... Students: (awestruck) Se... Sempai... The students get ready with their barikan... Students: Thanks! Sempai's hair won't be shaved in vain!! Kunou angrily gets up upon hearing this. Kunou: (furious) A fellow speaks in his sleep and you interpret it so selfishly... Students: (nervously) Wa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... Akane: (looking back) Hm!? Several things rush out from the trees, taking snips of hair from the students! Someone yells out, "Lo-lobsters!!" The lobsters fly about, nicking scraps of hair from the panicked students... Ranma: (dodging lobsters) They're aiming for hair! Akane: They're trained lobsters!! Suddenly, Ranma has a premonition of... Ranma: (to himself) Danger! Ranma barely gets out of the way as his ponytail narrowly misses getting lopped off by... Students: (astonished) A giant lobster!? Ranma leaps towards the giant lobster... Ranma: You monster! Only to be rewarded with a blast from the lobster's claw of... Ranma: (dazed) A smoke screen!? The giant lobster seizes Ranma using its large claw... Akane: (worried) Ranma! Inside the claw... Principal: (preparing to snip off Ranma's ponytail) #Hello#. Ranma: (yelling to the students outside) The jerk's inside here!! With his disguise blown, the principal makes a run for it, with Ranma in hot pursuit. Ranma: (angry) You pervert principal!! Ranma finds a hut on stilts. Ranma: Principal! Come out!! Ranma climbs up to the hut and finds the principal's desk and many Hawaiian souvenirs... Ranma: (searching) Damn it, and I was sure he'd fled this way. Something catches Ranma's attention; what appears to be a bust of the principal atop a stand, holding a pair of scissors. It looks rather odd... Ranma: (smiling and turning his back on bust) Why, it's a bust. The bust comes to life and tries to snip off Ranma's ponytail. Ranma turns around and pounds the principal on the head. Ranma: (disgusted) That was a lousy disguise. (grabbing the principal) Now then, let's make this visit short. Principal: (pantomiming sesame seed grinder) I have happy news. (explaining) #Just now#, I remembered where the coconut with the school regulation exception is. Ranma: (smiling sweetly) I don't need that. Ranma cracks his knuckles while smiling at the nervous principal. Ranma: (directing a powerful blow at the principal) Set your teeth!! Principal: (smiling) *OH MY GOD!* There is a loud noise. When the smoke clears, Ranma's blow has fallen short of hitting the principal, and with good reason. The coconut that the principal has caused to drop on Ranma's head has rendered Ranma nearly unconscious. Interestingly enough, the coconut has the characters "school regulation exception" written on it... The principal strings Ranma up from the roof, upside down, with his hands tied behind his back. The precious coconut is placed on a table nearby. The principal gloats over a dazed Ranma... Principal: (laughing) I've decided that you will be marubouzu number one. Ranma: (delirious) #Never give up...# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next: Ippatsu gyakuten...no maki --