Akane Grows Up

!SPECIAL EFFECTS! "THOUGHTS"

Chapter Seventeen

"I don't have time for this! If you want to fight me so badly, send me a challenge letter!" Kaneda attempted to go around the Shadowlaw assassin doll who stood in his way with her legs separated as she pivoted back and forth between each one, ready for action. She was a Caucasian female with shoulder length brown hair, sporting a slender yet amply endowed physique and well corded muscles. This rather creepy looking martial artist wore a dark blue, body suit with light blue pinstripes along with a similarly colored military hat and red knuckle dusters on her fists. Her black high heel boots and yellow necktie completed the beautiful woman's ensemble.

"Commencing attack! Cannon field! Ah, oh!" The deadly assassin flew at Kaneda feet first, prompting the hammer wielding warrior to drop to the ground to avoid getting hit.

"Whoa!" However, before Kaneda could do anything else, his opponent dropped down and leg swept him with both legs while her hands were on the ground, knocking him off his feet.

"Cannon slide!" Then the doll leaped up into the air from her prone position on the ground, kicking Kaneda, knocking him upwards. "Battle will end in victory."

"It's not over yet!" Kaneda landed on the ground like a cat while the assassin came at him with another flying kick. Kaneda blocked the attack by striking her the shin of her leg with the edge of his hand. Then he counter attacked with a roundhouse kick of his own, knocking the girl back several feet, prompting her to deftly land on her feet.

"Ah, oh!" the girl screamed as she leaped towards her opponent, executing a flying side kick that nailed Kaneda in his midsection, causing him to skid backwards a couple of feet. Then the assassin attempted to follow up with a combination of three punches and two high kicks, all of which Kaneda blocked.

"Now it's time to…"

However, Kaneda was tricked by his opponent who while seeming to have attempted another punch and kick combination which Kaneda thought to block actually grabbed him, executing a backwards suplex wrestling maneuver that smashed his head into the ground.

Upon getting up, Kaneda struck the girl with a jab, missing his next two punches as she rolled on the ground right past him.

"What was that? I forgot how unpredictable these dolls can be. What's she doing now?" Kaneda thought as the Shadowlaw assassin stood up a few feet from him.

"Yes, sir!" the girl said, standing at attention and saluting, causing a holographic image of M. Bison to appear, glowing with power and flying straight for her opponent.

!SMASH! "Aargh!" "I thought that was just an illusion. There's no way Bison could be here." The holographic image of M. Bison slammed through the surprised martial artist, knocking him down.

"Cannon forward!" the girl announced, floating in the air towards Kaneda feet first.

"Hammer time!" Kaneda threw a ki hammer towards his oncoming opponent, knocking her out of the air and onto the ground.

"Aaaaaah!" the girl yelled upon getting up. Standing with her knees bent with one fist up and the other down, she powered up, her battle aura increasing. Then she slid on the ground towards Kaneda with such speed she left after images of herself as she struck him, but Kaneda had crouched on the ground, blocking the rapidfire attack. Then he grabbed the girl like a rag doll, spun her around countless times within a second, and slammed her to the ground on her back.

"Have these dolls have gotten stronger, or is this one simply tougher than the rest?" Kaneda contemplated during the battle. As the girl got up and came running towards him, Kaneda violently threw his ki hammer at his adversary, nailing her squarely in the stomach and knocking her back a few feet.

However, the doll wasn't out of the fight yet. "Hyaah!" Before Kaneda knew what was happening she had leaped towards him, kicking him in his midsection and knocking him off his feet. Then she grabbed him and slammed him into the ground with another backwards suplex.

"Ungh!" "Time to get serious!" The long haired martial artist swung his hammer quickly, using it to propel him straight for the Shadowlaw doll hammer first.

However, the skilled damsel blocked the charging attack by crossing her arms and countered. "Cannon Slide!" She struck Kaneda with an upwards kick knocking him straight up. "Cannon field!" Zooming in on her quarry feet first, she slammed into him, knocking him back a few feet while he was still in the air. And before Kaneda could get his feet back on the ground, she stood up and saluted. "Yes, sir!" Once again, a translucent image of M. Bison appeared and flew into the long haired martial artist, striking him and knocking him off of his feet and a couple yards back.

Despite all this, Kaneda used his acrobatic prowess to land on his feet, and as the Shadowlaw doll came leaping towards him, he counter attacked. "Time for my new hammer attack!" Swinging his ki hammer in a circle countless times, he struck the girl over and over again, sending her to the ground. As she was getting up, he leg swept her, taking her feet right from under her. Stumbling to get up only to take a direct hit from a thrown ki hammer, the girl grasped her hurt midsection as the weapon seemed to pass right through her. However, as she moved in to attack Kaneda, the rematerialized ki hammer came at her like a boomerang, hitting her in the back and causing her to fall forward.

"Ah, oh!" Before the doll could get her bearings, she took an elbow to the chin, a straight forward punch to the solar plexus, and finally a ki hammer blow to the head as she lurched forward.

"This is the end of the line!" Kaneda called out to the stunned warrior. "Tell your boss not to bother me, or I will deal with him according to his folly!" Making a powerful swing with his hammer, he knocked the girl far up into the sky.

"Oooh! Ooooh! Oooh! Ooooooh!" she moaned as she got further and further away.

"Whew! That was a hard battle if there ever was one! Now it's time to see what's going on with that battleship." Kaneda used his ki hammer to throw himself into the air. Flying over the sea as he made his way to the battleship, he noticed the dome with the high school students inside.

"What does Principal Kuno think he's doing?!" Kaneda exclaimed as he saw what was going on.

"What's that coming towards us?!" one of the students inside the dome called out.

"It's Kaneda Akiyama!" one of the girls yelled happily. "He's coming to save us!"

"That guy can't do anything to help us," Ranma replied with his arms folded on his chest.

"We don't know what can happen, Ranma. Give him a chance."

"Are you in love with him, Akane?"

"No, Ranma. But he's a nice guy who takes me seriously as a martial artist unlike some people."

Ranma turned away from her. Then he walked over to the plastic dome that encased them. "Tenshin amaguriken!"

"Ranma, what are you doing?!" Akane screamed anxiously.

"We don't need Kaneda coming here to rescue us. I'll break out of this dome, get on that battleship, and take on whoever's running that thing."

!CRACK!SMASH! "We're out!" Ranma leaped onto the battleship and smashed his way through the hull only to find the ship was only made of die cast metal, normally used for miniature toy cars. Getting on top of the fake ship, Ranma paused for a moment. Then he dived in the water.

"Where did Ranma go?!" one of the students called out.

"He dived in. What's he planning to do?!"

Kaneda hadn't noticed Ranma taking the plunge, but he did see Akane and the other students inside the dome who were happy to see him flying towards them. Kaneda also noticed what looked like a remote control apparatus on the top of the ship and destroyed it.

"Hey, everybody! I'm going to crack a piece of that dome in order to make a bridge to the battleship! Once I've done that, you can get on that boat and make your way back to shore!"

"Hooray!" the students cheered loudly.

!SMASH! As the kids made their way to the ship, all of them heard a voice.

"You be getting in the way, Akiyama! These kids be getting the buzz cuts and sugar bowl haircuts I got planned for them, yeah!"

"Wrong! This hair brained scheme of yours has gone on long enough!" Kaneda screamed to the loud speakers on the faux pas battleship."

"You no be hearing the last of this, brudah!"

Then Kaneda landed on the ship and turned to Akane. "You think you can drive this thing back to the shore? I have some unfinished business with the principal."

"I can handle things from here. You can count on me!" Akane announced with conviction.

"All right then. I'm off!" Swinging his hammer and throwing it into the sky, Kaneda took off in the direction of Furinkan High.

"Wow!" more than a few of the girls swooned as they saw the long haired martial artist take to the skies.

"Come on, everybody!" Akane proclaimed as she took hold of the wheel. "We're going home!"

XXX

Back at his office, Principal Kuno looked dismayed. "Don't know what I be doing about Kaneda and his betrayal."

At that moment, a drop dead gorgeous man with long, golden brown hair in a ponytail, standing at six and a half feet tall waltzed into the principal's office. His physique was slender with beautifully defined muscles as he wore a two tone, purple and yellow spandex, and red sash. His chest was bare except for a tattoo of a large snake that seemed to slither across his torso whenever the man moved. In addition to all this, he also carried a three pronged, golden claw attached to his right wrist. Overall, his look made him out to be a matador.

"If it isn't the principal of Furinkan High," the unusually beautiful, long haired man said in an aristocratic, Spanish accent with unconcealed contempt.

"Who are you to be coming in my office without permission? You be getting out of ere before I throw you out, yeah."

In less than a blink of an eye, the wicked man zipped up to the desk behind which the principal sat and picked him up violently. "You better tell me where I can find Kaneda Akiyama, or I will slice you into pineapple slices!" he threatened, holding Kuno by the neck with one hand while his other hand poked the hapless Hawaiian wannabe with his attached three pronged claw.

"Gasp!"

"Maybe I'll kill you regardless." The matador took a good look at the principal. "I don't ever think I could understand a man like you. You have that ridiculous palm tree growing out of your head as if your hideous face didn't make you ugly enough. You ugly creature you, soon your life will be gone unless you tell me what I want to know."

"OK! OK! He's on his way to my artificial island!" As soon as Kuno had told the handsome man where the island was located, he breathed a sigh of relief, sweating bullets and gasping for air.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Upon dropping the principle on his but, the matador went running out of the office.

As the handsome, young man was about to leap into the air he ran into someone. "Oof! Watch where you're going, little girl!"

"You watch where you're going! If you're not careful, I'll shove those fancy tongs up your ass!" the girl said in retort.

The Spaniard tossed his head to the side. "Pushy little wench!" Then the handsome man regarded the girl with a little more scrutiny. "Hmm. As much as I would like to examine you further, I must bid you adieu. Farewell for now, my beauty!" With that, the Spaniard leaped into the air jumping from palm tree to palm tree until he was gone.

"Who was that kook?! Reminded me of Kuno!"

At that moment, Ranmachan walked in wearing a Hawaiian styled, red sarong with yellow flowers on it. Her well shaped thighs moved towards the principal while her half concealed cleavage thrust itself forward.

"All girls be getting bowl cuts," Kuno said as he whipped out the shears to cut off the girl's pigtail after having recovered from being stunned at the sight of the beautiful young girl.

"I'm not one of your students," the girl said using a leg that was bare up to her thighs in order to keep the principal at arms length.

"Where you be coming from?"

"I've come from a neighboring island, seeking a very special coconut for my poor, sick father," Ranmachan expressed with her hands clasped in a pleading fashion.

"A special coconut?"

"Yes, one with a scroll of parchment inside of it."

"You sweet wahine, you." Then Principal Kuno began to tear up.

"What's wrong?"

"I was just remembering my son."

"You have a son?" the girl asked.

"He be missing for three years, yeah." Kuno looked up almost crying. "Do you have a father, child?"

"I just told you that I had a sick father who needs a special coconut with a parchment inside?" the girl said with a look of incredulity on her face.

"That be right. Alright den, I be helping you, wahine," the fake Hawaiian replied with a smile.

"You mean, you'll give it to me?!" Ranmachan expressed with excitement.

"No. I mean I be helpin you search for the special coconut wit da school rules pardon inside." The principal put his hands on the girl's shoulders while Ranma had a shocked look on her face.

"Don't you have it?"

"Dumb kahuna I am, I forgot where I put it, yeah."

XXX

While Ranma was trying to get his hands on the special coconut, Akane was having a hard time driving the fake battleship. "Where are you going, Akane?"

"I don't know. It isn't responding to me. It's like the ship is still remote controlled. It's going back to the mainland. It's going faster and faster, and I can't slow it down!"

"We're all gonna die! Aaaaah!" the students screamed.

The ship made its way to an island very close to the mainland, and crashed into the shore. As everyone made their way to shore, they noticed the scenery made the place look like a tropical island with palm trees and lush vegetation all over the place. In a few minutes, all of the students got their composure. In addition to the many types of plants there, they found several straw huts and something else.

"Hey, look!" one of the students called out. "There are coconuts all over the place. I bet the special coconut is somewhere around here!"

"Good idea! Let's grab all the coconuts and search them for the parchment that will let us keep our hair!"

"Yeah!" Both boys and girls ran in several directions all over the faux pas island, gathering all of the coconuts in sight.

"All right, everybody, it's time for me to find that parchment!" Akane called out, prompting everyone to place the massive amounts of coconuts in front of her, so she could use her karate to chop them open.

"Have you found it yet?" a diminutive, particularly nerdy guy with short hair and coke bottle glasses asked as Akane chopped open one coconut after the other.

"No, not yet," the blue haired girl answered, exerting.

A few minutes later, the same guy asked again. "Have you found it yet?"

!CHOP! "No, not yet."

"Have you found it yet?"

!CHOP! "No."

"Have you found it yet?"

"No!"

A few moments later, the boy asked again. "Have you found it yet?"

!CHOP! "No!" Akane screamed impatiently.

"Are we there yet?"

At that point, Akane stopped what she was doing and glared at the boy. "What?!"

The boy paused for a moment, blushing a little bit. "Sorry."

"Here's the last one, Akane," a girl said placing a coconut in front of her.

"That means this is the one with the pardon inside of it!" Akane announced happily. However, upon chopping it open Akane gasped as two balloons, one looking like a boy with a buzz cut and the other looking like a girl with a bowl cut came streaming out with a note attached to the balloons that said [NO.]

"It's a fake!" another student called out.

"If this keeps happening, that means we'll end up getting buzz cuts!" a boy announced.

"Then we'll have to get bowl cuts!" a girl called out.

"We can't give up!" Akane interjected. "We simply have to find the principal!"

"That's right! We'll find the principal and force the information out of him!"

"That's right. We'll beat it out of him!"

Unbeknownst to the students there, the principal and Ranma were hiding behind a large palm tree and watching the events as they unfolded. Then the crazy principal leaped into the air, swinging on a vine attached to a palm tree. "Catch me if you can, keikis! Ha ha huh ha ha!"

!CLIP! Unbeknownst to the Hawaiian principal, Ranma, still in her girl form, leaped above him, attached herself to the vine and used a pair of scissors to cut the vine and drop him to the ground.

"Sweet child, how could you turn on me?" the principal cried out.

"Hmm? I don't recall ever teaming up with you," Ranma said slyly while Akane looked on with a grimace on her face.

The students tied the principal up with the cut vine. Then one of the students demanded, "Where's the coconut with the parchment in it?"

"I forget where I hid it, yeah."

After answering their questions nonchalantly, the principal noticed a couple of students with huge rocks in their hands, ready to pound him into the ground. "Maybe these stone slabs will jog your memory."

"Oh! I just remember, yeah!"

"Where is it?!"

The principal looked up and said to Ranma. "Be pullin the rope hanging down from that palm tree right next to you, wahine."

Ranma leaped up to the rope and used her weight to bring it down. "Like this?"

"That be it, yeah."

Everyone was shocked to see a giant sized picture of a child wearing a kendo outfit. "What does that picture have to do with anything?" one of the boys asked with hostility.

"It's my son who's been missing for three years now. If you find my son, then I'll let you know where the special coconut is. Yeah."

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Where do we start?" one of the girls there asked no one in particular.

"That kid looks a little familiar," Ranma said, regarding the picture. "I bet if I…"

"Ranma, what are you doing?" Akane demanded as Ranma leaped up to the rope, swinging on it and painting the kid's almost bald scalp a black tar color brush.

"That's upper-classman Kuno!" one of the students called out upon viewing Ranma's finished work.

"Where is he?!" another student asked out loud.

"Don't worry, guys. I'll find him!" Ranma answered everyone.

XXX

After using hot water to change into his male self, Ranma took off searching for Kuno, leaping from tree to tree. "There he is!"

"Never! Never will I, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, get that insidious haircut!" the kenshi said to no one in particular as he cut through several palm trees with his bokken.

"Greetings, Kuno."

The swordsman turned to see, "Kaneda Akiyama! What are you doing here, you son of a merchant! I shall smite thee!"

"Hold it, Kuno. I believe there's someone who wants to see you," Kaneda explained.

"And who would that be, cur?"

"Your father."

"Fool! I haven't seen my father in years! I…" !CRACK! "Ungh!" Kuno went down unconscious after Ranma had struck him from behind.

"That was uncalled for, Ranma."

"Your way took too much time, Kaneda. And besides, your hair isn't on the line." Picking up the kendoist, Ranma leaped into the air and made his way back to where the other students were. Kaneda followed behind him a good distance, keeping his presence hidden.

XXX

"Here he is," Ranma announced shoving Tatewake Kuno in the principal's direction. "Let's get this tearful reunion over with."

"Way to go, Ranma!"

"Oh, yeah!" Principal Kuno exclaimed happily until he got a closer look at the boy. "This isn't my keiki."

"What are you talking about?! He looks just like him!" Ranma stammered.

"My son, Tatewake…"

"Did you say Tatewake?" Ranma asked, raising his eyebrows. "That's the name of the guy here."

"No. No. No. My son was fourteen and a whole lot shorter," the principal explained.

"That was three years ago! Did you think he'd stop growing?!" Ranma interjected.

"Hmm. Let's buzz the brudah's hair."

At that moment, the younger Kuno woke up in a rage. "You, the principal of evil! How dare you even imply cutting my beautiful hair?!"

"Kuno," Akane interjected. "Take a good look at the principal. Is he your father?"

Both men regarded each other for a moment. Then kendoist spoke. "My father disappeared three years ago, and you look nothing like him." !SWIPE!

"You can no hit me with that bokken of yours, yeah." As the older Kuno dodged, a picture came from the folds of his Hawaiian shirt.

"What is this?" Kuno commented upon taking hold of the picture and recognizing the image there in. "This is a picture of my father! Where did you get this?"

"That be me three years ago, yeah," the principal answered with a laugh.

"You lie!" Kuno announced. "My father's skin was far lighter than yours."

"Gee. Don't you think it was possible he simply got a tan?" Ranma asked with his arms folded on his chest.

"Yeah, that is the same guy," one of the other students said out loud as he and the others looked at the picture.

"Enough talk! Take this!" The kendoist attacked the principal with his wooden blade. However, the older man took out a small, hand sized razor and shredded the bokken up. "The Kuno family secret technique called the wooden sword shredder! This is the same technique that took off my hair three years ago!"

"Gasp!" the principal exclaimed. "How did he know the name of that technique?"

"That proves he's your son. Now give us the coconut with the pardon!" a student called out with the others behind him.

The two men stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity to Ranma and the other students watching them.

"My son!"

"Father!"

The two looked as if they were going to embrace each other until both of them brandished their respective weapons, the kendoist coming up with a new wooden bokken.

"Now it's time for me to pay you back for what you did to my hair," the younger Kuno said as his battle aura arose, his weapon in a clinch with his father's.

"Enough of this!" Ranma called out, kicking the bokken welding samurai into the atmosphere. "You got want you wanted, so where's the coconut with the parchment inside of it?"

"You win, keiki. Problem is I don't remember where I put it," the principal answered with his hands up.

"What?!"

As everyone there approached the Hawaiian wannabe menacingly, he began to get a little nervous. "I want to be helpin you, but I can't unless I get the map where the coconut is, yeah."

"And where would that be?" Ranma asked, getting a little perturbed.

"On the back o' Tacchi's head."

"On Kuno's head?" Akane asked, bewildered at the thought. "Why would the map be on Kuno's head?"

"Three years ago, I drew the map on the back of Tacchi's head when he was asleep after I had shaved him, yeah."

"Three years ago?" Ranma parroted. "That means you were planning this thing over three years ago!" Ranma went over to the principal to strike down when someone stayed his hand.

"That's enough of that, Ranma."

"Kaneda! What are you doing here?! It figures you'd take the side of the principal. What kind of traitor are you?"

"I'm not on anyone's side, Ranma, but this whole farce has to end here and now." At that point, Kaneda brandished the coconut, broke it apart with his bare hands, and showed the parchment with the pardon inside, holding it up for everyone to see.

"Hooray! The students cheered. "No buzz cuts!"

"No bowl cuts for us girls either!"

Then the principal glared at the long haired martial artist. "Akiyama you be ruining my plans for the last time, yeah."

"What do you mean, Kuno?" Kaneda replied with his arms folded on his chest.

"I gonna expose your friend's secret for the world to see."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but…"

"It be too late for apologies now. Your friend gets exposed, yeah!"

"Nooo!" Hiiro Toriyama, the high ranking Tokyo city official cried out, appearing out of nowhere. Just at that moment, members of the press arrived with pens and paper.

"So what's this big secret you have to tell us, Mr. Kuno?!" one of the many reporters arriving there called out, running to the principal and placing a microphone in his face.

"That be good question. I gonna answer it." Kuno made a large photo appear out of nowhere and showed it to everyone there.

"Noooo!" Hiiro screamed in agony and embarrassment. "I'm ruined!"

"Wait a minute," a reporter commented. "That looks like a younger version of Hiiro Toriyama sucking his thumb. What is he, eight years old in that picture? I thought you called us all here to show us something juicy and humiliating about the city council member."

"He be sucking his thumb; that be embarrassing enough, yeah!"

"Thanks for wasting our time, you schmuck!" a reporter from an unrespectable tabloid called out.

Then Kaneda turned towards the city councilman. "Is this the big secret you were so embarrassed about?"

"Well, yes," Hiiro answered, his face blushing beet red. "You don't know how long it took me to stop doing that when I was a kid. Everyone made so much fun of me. Now everybody knows about it."

"Nobody cares! To think I had to go through all of his hassle for nothing!" Kaneda screamed.

"Kaneda."

The long haired martial artist turned to see Akane approaching him. "Yes, Akane?"

"Thanks for everything you've done to help us. I really appreciate being able to keep my hair."

"Well, you're welcome, Akane. Do you still want to come by my dojo and keep training?"

"Yes."

"This has all been very entertaining."

Kaneda turned to see, "Vega! What are you doing here?"

"You've ruined too many of Bison's plans, so he has sent me here to end your miserable life. Kiss your ugly girlfriend good-bye because you'll be seeing red by the time I'm done with you."

XXX

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry for the looong delay. When I last wrote this chapter, I had problems with my computer, causing me to lose what I had written so I had to start over from scratch.