CHAPTER THREE

They put him in a class of little girls. Real little. And that stupid ribbon taunting him in the breeze was the only reason he didn't tell Ku Lon to shove it. The elder was darn near cheerful to leave her new Great-Granddaughter to the kids' care. By the end of the day Ranma had all five katas shown to him down. The second day he learned the other seven. He didn't even glance at the six year olds as he left the group.

On the third day he was anxious to get to the real class. Then Ku Lon showed him the ten year olds. The instructor had him run through the basic katas, approving his form after a single run through.

"Xu Pai. You - Xain Pu's blood-sister -," the instructor called out in Chinese. Ranma cursed no understanding more. The girl trotted up and faced Ranma across the area he performed his kata in. When she turned into a fighting stance he started to get a feeling of dread. He didn't know the curt word the instructor spoke next, but he could guess by the hand gesture that went along with it. "Begin."

Xu Pai wasted no time. Ranma fell into an easy tempo of dodging the strike while attempting to calm his anger. There was no way he was fighting a little girl, not even for a class spar. Finally he decided to tap the weak areas Xu Pai exposed rather than attack.

Instead taking note and closing the gaps the girl started to get more sloppy. Her form broke down and Ranma stopped pointing out gaps but just dodged the enraged blows. Xain Pu's vocabulary of cuss words was helpful to understand when the small girl started yelling at him.

The instructor came over and the two had a rapid conversation that Ranma interpreted only two words in seven. "You not fight. Why?" The Japanese request from the teacher caught him off guard.

"I ain't fighting no girl. Help her out, sure, but she didn't even try to correct the holes in her defense when I pointed them out. She just got mad."

The teacher didn't seem to like that answer. With a barked command two other girls trotted over. Then the three ganged up on him.

Shrugging, Ranma continued to dodge and tried to point out their mistakes again. The instructor watched with a keen eye and after a few minutes yelled at Ranma to fight. While dodging the girls Ranma yelled back that he didn't fight girls.

Then the teacher joined in. If Ranma continued using Amazon Wu Shu he would have been in trouble. As an practitioner of Anything Goes even the teacher couldn't touch him. He did have to block a few blows instead of dodge but there wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

"I see you've gotten yourself in trouble already Great-Granddaughter." His opponents stopped their attacks at the elder's comment in Japanese. Ranma scratched his head as Ku Lon talked to the instructor in rapid Chinese. "It seems you do not believe these girls worthy of a fight."

"It's not that. I just don't fight girls. I've been trying to point out where an attack would come from but all they do is get mad. Then the instructor jumped in and I just gave up trying to do anything."

"And why do you 'not fight girls' Great-Granddaughter?"

"'Cause," Ranma scuffed his foot on the ground.

"Because why?"

"I just don't wanna hurt them. It's not right for a martial artist to harm the we- Umm girls."

"You meant to say weak. Do you believe these girls to be weak because of their age or because they are girls?"

Ranma hesitated for a minute before answering honestly. He was already hiding his gender. He didn't want to be dishonest more than that. "Both."

"I see." Ku Lon pogo-ed on her staff closer to him. "I am a girl Ranma. Do you believe I am weak as well?"

"Heck no. You're a master at your art."

"And yet I am a girl. Does that not make me weak."

"Sorry Elder but you ain't been a girl for a long time."

"A woman than. Is a woman weak as well Ranma? Would you be able to spar – actually exchange blows - with Kan Ri?"

Ranma looked at the instructor before muttering a small no.

"Then it is the female gender you have an issue with. Are you not a woman yourself Ranma."

He opened his mouth the argue before cutting himself off. That was right wasn't it. Here he was all girl. He settled for a scowl at Ku Lon and crossed his arms over his ample chest.

"You started using your own style, could you not defend yourself with Wu Shu?"

Ranma thought about it. He stopped using Wu Shu when the other two girls jumped in, didn't he? That was right. With the instructor he would have been toast if it wasn't for Anything Goes.

"Nah. Give me a week and I'll be fine with Wu Shu."

"It is not a week. It is now. You have already memorized the forms, now you must use them. You will only use Wu Shu, is that understood?"

Ranma barely had a moment to blink before the old lady was on him. He dodged instinctively and received a blinding rap to his skull. "Only Wu Shu Ranma. Understood?" Ranma nodded his head through the pain and dodged again using one of the moves from Wu Shu.

Each time he fell back to Anything Goes to avoid a blow Ku Lon would use that blasted staff to connect to his head. When he stuck to Wu Shu he would take the hits and Ku Lon did not pull any punches. At the end of five minutes he had more bruises than a day long spar with his pops. His ribs ached something awful and he was excused from classes to limp home. Xain Pu used all the words for 'stupid' she could (Chinese and Japanese) while tapping his ribs that night.