“Auntie Ranko, you look like a princess!”
Ranko blushed as she crouched down to hug her nephew, still in the second costume the Disney cast had dressed her in for the photo shoot. “I think that was supposed to be the point, so I guess that’s good! Did you have fun today?”
Hoshi nodded. “I got to ride a pirate ship with Dad! Mama didn’t come. She had to stay with Mioko.”
Ranko opened her eyes wide in playful excitement with a little gasp. “A pirate ship! That sounds so cool, buddy! Did you see me while you were out on the water? I got to be a mermaid all day!” ‘Got to’ might be a little strong – more like ‘forced into a fucking corset that would have suffocated a garter snake’ – but he doesn’t need to know that.
The young boy shook his head emphatically. “It was really dark in there, Auntie. I couldn’t see you. But how were you a mermaid? Miss Akane says you don’t like water.”
Ranko blushed deeply with a nervous chuckle. “Well, this time, it was magic, so it was okay.” You know, magic water. Totally a made-up thing, right? Nothing to see here! She rose from her crouch as Izumi and Kaito approached, the latter pushing a rented black stroller. “Hey, you guys. Having a good time?”
Izumi nodded, a bright smile on her face. “Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for this, little sister. The kids have just been having a blast.” She stepped closer, taking a few steps around her sister to examine her outfit. “Well, they sure cuted you up! Your wedding dress might have a run for its money.”
The singer tittered, leaning over on her sister’s shoulder. “Not sure about that, Izzi. I can almost breathe in this one.” She looked up at a clock on a cast-iron tower alongside the pavilion. “Speaking of which, I gotta go get set up.” She looked back down to Hoshi. “You gonna hang out and watch me sing, bud?”
“You bet, Auntie! Auntie Yui and Auntie Mei are saving our seats! Miss Kasumi’s out there, too!” Hoshi beamed excitedly, but his eyes turned past Ranko to her left. “Miss Akane!” He ran a few steps forward, hugging Ranko’s fiancee as she exited the cast member building where the park’s cast members had let her change out of her own princess attire. “Happy birthday!”
Akane picked the boy up, sitting him on her forearm and clasping her hands to carry him. “Thanks, Hoshi! You ready for the show?” As the ten-year-old in her arms nodded, she stepped forward to rejoin Ranko and her family, looking around. Too many people. Better not risk a kiss here. They’d lose their minds if they caught us. “Hey. Ranko. Do good up there, okay?”
Giggling, Ranko lifted her skirt and gave a little bow. “As you wish.”
Akane rolled her eyes, adjusting Hoshi’s weight in her arms. “Silly girl. Go. Shoo. Kick butt. See you after.”
The redhead nodded, idly rubbing the back of her fist with her right hand.
----------------------------------------
“And now,” the public-address system boomed to the excited crowd still packing its way into metal bleachers surrounding the Adventureland Stage, casting its shadow from the setting sun over the audience. “Introducing, Ranko and the Dapper Dragons!”
Ranko walked out from behind a red velvet curtain that edged the stage, waving to the cheering crowd some thirteen thousand strong. She wagered maybe half of them had any idea who she was, and the other half had just been looking for a place to sit down after being worn out by their overstimulated children all day, but she’d take it. The amphitheater only held about six thousand people normally, but temporary bleachers had been added at the back to expand the seating capacity twofold. Does that count as a double sellout, Ranko wondered blithely as she strode out to center stage to wave to her bandmates, beginning to don her headset.
"Your highness,” Crash said with a smirk and an affected bow, motioning to the blue-and-teal costume she still wore.
“Oh, fuck off, Crash,” Ranko said with a smirk.
Crash cringed. “Uh, Ranko, you know your mic is hot, right?”
“Oh, crap!” Ranko frantically reached for the battery pack to turn it off, before realizing it already was. “You sonnova…”
Her guitarist beamed. “Gotcha! So, what’s the set plan?”
“So, this first one is one of theirs, so it’s pre-recorded. You guys can just chill for a minute.”
Shinji nodded. “Don’t gotta ask me twice. It’s hot as hell out here.”
Ranko scoffed. “Maybe if you didn’t dress like a baked potato, you’d be more comfortable, goofball. And besides, I promise, that jacket ain’t half as hot as four layers of freakin’ petticoats.”
The bassist chortled. “And that’s why I’m not a girl. But seriously, why’d we have to do this in summer?”
Must be nice to get the choice, Shin. “That’s when they asked, dork!”
Ranko walked the edge of the stage, waving to everyone as she turned on her microphone, blowing a kiss to the front row on her left side, where Akane and the rest of their combined families sat. The songstress motioned to the audio booth, and the rising notes of the ballad she’d stayed up all night learning from the CD and VHS that the Disney events team had overnighted her began to play.
“Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’tcha think my collection’s complete? Wouldn’t ya think I’m the girl… the girl who has everything?” She motioned to the collection of audio equipment behind her with a bit of a giggle.
“Look at this trove. Treasures untold! How many wonders can one cavern hold? Lookin’ around here, you’d think, ‘Sure. She’s got everything!’ I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty. I’ve got whozits and whatzits galore. You want thingamabobs? I’ve got twenty. But who cares? No big deal! I want more!” She raised her arms slowly and held the high note for a full three seconds, until the very last moment before she had to begin the next verse, not even allowing herself time to breathe between them. The crowd murmured, clearly impressed with her skill. Got your attention now, she thought to herself as a gust of wind made her loose hair fly back behind her.
“I wanna be where the people are. I wanna see… wanna see ‘em dancin’, walkin’ around on those… What do you call ‘em?” She lifted her foot, making a show of examining the black ankle boot with the chunky five-centimeter heel strapped to it. “Oh. Feet! Flippin’ your fins, you don’t get too far. Legs are required for jumping, dancing, strollin’ along down the… What’s that word again?” She tapped her forehead, a furtive expression on her face as if thinking on the spot. “Street!”
Having never heard the song before last night, she was shocked with how well it had resonated for her. Indeed, she had spent a good bit of the last seventeen months feeling like a fish out of water, grateful for her opportunity to discover a whole new world that she never could have dreamed of before the Phoenix. She had walked through hellfire, but come out of it embraced by brand-new family and friends on the other side of it.
“Up where they walk. Up where they run. Up where they stay all day in the sun! Wanderin’ free. Wish I could be part of that world!”
Holding her arms out to the side like she was flying, she skipped at a near run to the other side of the stairs, her face a picture of wonder as if she was trying to sell to the crowd that she had never walked before. She whirled once when she reached the end of the stage, letting her skirt flare up around her.
“What would I give if I could live out of these waters? What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand? Betcha on land, they understand, and they don’t reprimand their daughters! Bright young women, sick of swimming, ready to stand!”
That’s right, Nodoka, Ranko thought darkly in the split-second between lines. You don’t get to judge me. You don’t get to tell me no. This is my life, and you can’t reach high enough to catch this star. You can’t even fathom how far I’ll go.
“And ready to know what the people know! Ask them my questions, and get some answers! What’s a fire, and why does it… what’s the word? Burn?! When’s it my turn? Wouldn’t I love… love to explore that shore up above?”
Ranko smiled brightly, waving to a little girl in a sky blue princess dress similar to the one Akane had worn all day, who watched her with eyes of wonder as if she was really watching Ariel sing to her.
“Out of the sea! Wish I could be… part of your… world!”
She held the last high note for a full four seconds, not stopping until the crowd had begun to cheer.
Ranko gave the broadest, brightest smile she could fit on her cheeks, walking back and forth and trying to make eye contact and wave to every little girl she could find.
When the applause finally died down, Ranko walked to the back of the stage, and Crash tossed her a black leather half-jacket. She looked over the back of it, where Izumi had spelled out her signature from the band’s logo across the shoulders in glued-on rhinestones. Welp, can’t wear this to the grocery store anymore, she thought with a smirk. I’ll definitely stand out now. She pulled it on, and gently untied the blue ribbon in her hair. As soon as the ribbon came free, her locks bounced playfully around her shoulders. She gently shook her head to let the waves fall naturally.
There. That’s the bills paid. Now, time to have some fun. She smiled softly up at Crash, who had rushed with her to put together the music for her newest song. She’d just written it two days prior, in preparation for the Disney show. She had something special she wanted to say to an audience she rarely got to reach - something that had been weighing heavily on her mind of late.
“Hey, let me hear you! How many princesses we got out there today? Let me see you!” She waved emphatically and beamed brightly as hundreds of little girls squealed as they were lifted up by their parents.
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“Yeah? Me too!” She blushed a bit as she gestured to herself with her hands, making eye contact with Akane with a sweet smile as she spoke. I can’t believe you’ve got me calling myself that, Akane. Miracles happen, I guess. But to be yours? I’ll be anything. Ranko giggled into her headset microphone. “So, can I tell all my fellow princesses a little secret I’ve learned over the years? Something it’s super important to always remember?”
Crash’s guitar sprung to life, playing a bouncy, fast-paced tune over the cheers of thousands of little girls. The synthesizer joined a moment later, adding a bright background to the guitar. The bass joined, and then a very light tremble from Ken’s snare drum.
Nodoka, Pop, you put all this poison in my ear about what it meant to be a girl. Who knows how many of them have heard stuff like that too? Well, I’m gonna shout it down.
With all four instruments playing, there was only one left to add to the song, and it poured into Ranko’s headset microphone through the very brightest of smiles. Akane’s heart warmed at the sight of such effervescent joy radiating from the cheeks of the girl who was twenty-four days from being her wife, and already was in all but name.
“Hey there, Cinderella! Get your foot out of that shoe! Stop tryin’ to fit in for some fella who would tell you what to do! Come on, break out of your shell, girl, and give it all you’ve got! You don’t need a magic spell to make you something that you’re not!”
She bopped around the stage, playing to the crowd more than actually dancing. If there were two thousand little girls in the audience, she wanted to make eye contact with every last one of them individually. Most of her favorite moves weren’t exactly appropriate for her current audience anyway, though she did wish Hitomi and Emi had been able to join her. The little amphitheater stage just wasn’t big enough for seven people, and constrained most potential for dancing even with just the five of them and all of their gear.
“So, throw down that broom and leave your room, and know that come what may, if you build it on your own, midnight can’t take it all awa-a-a-Aaay!”
Crash jumped up in the air, hitting his guitar hard in time with the start of the chorus, which Ranko belted as halfway between a pop song and a battle cry, reaching out with an open hand and gesturing to a different little girl with every undulating bar. Ken stood from his little folding stool, though it only bought him a few centimeters of height, and he rapped frantically on the snare drums with his sticks.
“When they said once upon a time, that time is now, so chase your glory! Just pick up the pen, and start again! This time, you write the story!” She made a gesture with her left hand as if writing in the air with an invisible pen, much as Ariel did in the cartoon she’d watched last night. “You have always been your heroine; no damsel in distress! You are a non-compliant, strong, defiant, self-rescuing princess!”
As the crowd roared, Ranko bent down low, reaching her hand down as she strode the very outer edge of the stage. Several of the parents in the front row lifted their children up to her so she could touch their hands. She moved from the right side of the stage to the left, and the last hand she touched was Hoshi’s, lifted up in the strong arms of Izumi’s husband Kaito.
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty! There’s no time for counting sheep! You think somewhere a man’s been makin’ plans for you while you’re asleep! But if you need some help in waking up, you might find this alarming: some girls wait their whole lives long, and never stumble on Prince Charming!”
A different cheer rose from the crowd, this one seeming to come mostly from the adult women in the audience.
“So don’t waste another minute waiting for some strapping knight. Learn to truly love yourself, and when you do, you’ll be alright!”
Ranko thrust her right fist into the air as she traditionally did at the end of Rise as thousands of women of all ages screamed emphatically at her affirmation of feminine power.
“When they said once upon a time, that time is now, so chase your glory! Just pick up the pen, and start again! This time, you write the story! You have always been your heroine; no damsel in distress! You are a non-compliant, strong, defiant, self-rescuing princess!”
She grinned at the crowd. Not sure if I’m supposed to do this. Not sure I care. As it is, they might be a little pissed that I wrote a whole song about ignoring their movies’ examples.
She hopped down from the stage to the concrete ground, landing on her toes so as not to damage the chunky heels of her borrowed black ankle boots. She walked up the stairs separating two of the aisles, greeting every girl she could see or reach as she did. She wanted them to know that she had written the song for them, so that they didn’t feel the same way about being a girl that Ranko had for so long, before she knew better. I used to think being a girl made me helpless. Speechless. Hopeless. But now, I see the light. Don’t make the same mistake I did, kids.
From the stage, Shinji could only shake his head with an exasperated chuckle as he played through the refrain. Why do we even bother planning for shows? She just does whatever the hell she wants anyway!
Signing a heather gray child’s sized Ranko and the Dapper Dragons tee shirt with the black marker she was handed, Ranko continued the song as she continued ascending the concrete steps. She stopped for a visit every few rows as she was mobbed with children - and no small number of adults - rushing the metal railing separating the steps from the rows of seating.
“Sometimes, life can get you down and drop your confidence to zero. Come on, polish off your crown, girl! You’re becoming your own hero! And don’t ever let the fire in your soul begin to dim. There’s still time to take control back from those stupid brothers Grimm! Yeah, I know you want your wishes on the stars to all come true, but you have the power that it takes to make sure that they do!”
She made her way to the top of the steps, crossing in the aisle behind the bleachers as she sang directly to more and more little girls. The bright smiles in each of their eyes filled Ranko with a sense of satisfied purpose, as if they understood the assignment she was giving them. No hand that was reached out went untouched; no article held out to her went unsigned.
“When they said once upon a time, that time is now, so chase your glory! Just pick up the pen, and start again! This time, you write the story! You have always been your heroine; no damsel in distress! You are a non-compliant, strong, defiant, self-rescuing princess!”
In the wide concrete concourse between the back of the amphitheater seating and the temporary bleachers that had been set up behind it, Ranko spun around quickly, dancing merrily with herself. It was less the sort of sultry hip movements that dominated her work at the Phoenix, and more playing with her skirt, skipping about in a circle and making wide, slow arcs with her arms as she danced through the bridge.
Standing in her front-row seat and looking behind herself to watch, Akane’s eyes sparkled as she watched the love of her life. She truly looked the part of the quintessential, carefree, joyous Disney princess, leather jacket and all. What I would give to show one minute of this on video to the Ranma I knew two years ago, she thought with a blush. He’d have a stroke. But, my gods, look how happy she looks. You look like you can fly, baby. Gods, I love you.
“When they said once upon a time, that time is now, so chase your glory!” Ranko began jogging down the steps on the right side of the amphitheater, waving to the fans on that side as she did. She moved quickly now, repeating the chorus to buy herself enough time to make at least a few quick stops to sign things and wave to the audience on that side of the bleachers.
“Just pick up the pen, and start again! This time, YOU write the story! You have always been your heroine! No damsel in distress! You are a non-compliant, strong, defiant…”
Ranko’s eyes glimmered with joy as she heard hundreds of feminine voices join her in repeating the title of the song. “... self-rescuing princess!”
She descended the last four stairs at a run, jumping nearly her full body height to land in an almost superhero pose on the stage. She chuckled silently to herself. The short cheerleading skirts have somethin’ goin’ for them, at least. They don’t get in the way of your legs when you jump.
She whirled back toward the audience, waving upward with both of her arms, and large swaths of the audience took her suggestion to stand. “Hey there, Snow White! Somewhere, there’s a mirror on the wall, and I hope one day, it swears that you’re the bravest of them all!” She motioned with an open palm out to a little girl of maybe four who sat on her father’s shoulder, making the muscles gesture with her arms. The audience cheered for her as they looked where Ranko had drawn their attention. You’re damn right, kiddo, Ranko thought with a grin.
“They might call you overzealous when you’re making your own way, but it’s only ‘cause they’re jealous of the girl you’ll be someday! So let this be your ‘I want it’ song, and shout it to the rafters!”
Her eyes flashed to Akane; this line applied to the both of them more than any other. ”You have waited far too long to start your happy ever after!”
Ranko kicked her leg forward, using its momentum to step forward, bending down and pointing forward with an open hand. “When they said once upon a time, that time is now, so chase your glory!”
Again, she gestured as if she were writing in the air with a pen - not unlike the character she was dressed as had done in obtaining her legs from that octopus lady. “Just pick up the pen, and start again! This time, you write the story!”
She pointed outward with both hands, remembering at the last second to use two fingers rather than one to do so. “You have always been your heroine; no damsel in distress! You are a non-compliant, strong, defiant…”
Not having a handheld microphone to point toward them, Ranko stepped forward with her left foot, turning to the side and cupping her hand up to her ear. The crowd responded just as she hoped. “Self-rescuing princess!”
The synthesizer and main electric guitar fell silent, leaving only Shinji’s bass to step down the scales as if dismounting from the pedestal she had raised the audience onto.
“You are a…”
Ranko stopped singing as the audience’s voices rose to meet her, letting them finish the final line without her. She had not planned for another call and response, but she happily accepted it, biting her lip and watching with a proud smile and bright eyes as just over two thousand young women affirmed that her message had been received.
“Non-compliant! Strong! Defiant! Self-rescuing princess!”
Crossing both of her hands over her heart, Ranko bowed to the cheering crowd as a final hammering hit from Shinji’s bass guitar echoed through the outdoor space.
“I mean it, girls,” Ranko said sincerely. “I am proud of every single one of you. We all are. Aren’t we?”
The audience thundered in response.
“Of course, you can be a hero, but it doesn’t mean you have to give up all the good stuff about princess life. You can still fall in love with someone who means the whole world to you.” She flashed as direct a smile as she dared at her fiancee in the front row to stage right. “And you can still make them an important part of your happily ever after.”
As she spoke the last three words, a bubblegum pop rhythm began flowing out of the huge speakers mounted around the amphitheater, responding to the command of Jacob’s fingers on his Yamaha synthesizer.
“When we started out, everyone said we were delirious. No one thought we even had a chance to get this serious. Everyone who knew us thought we’d call it quits pretty quick!”