No Need For Ranma

Sukedachi muyo (助太刀無用) is the 71st chapter of the manga and the second chapter of the Dojo Destroyer Arc.

Synopsis
Ranma goes out with Shampoo much to Akane's frustration. Akane punches a wall before her match, and injures her hand rather badly, thus handicapping her against the Dojo Destroyer. Ranma's date gets off to a bad start as he tries to steal the Instant Nannīchuan Powder and run away.

Plot Overview
Ranma is running along a wall for his date with Shampoo, all the time thinking about the Instant Nannīchuan Powder whilst sining "never going to be a girl again" to himself. Suddenly a bucket a water appears and begins flying towards Ranma, which he dodges. Soun then appears on the wall and notes that just a few more inches and he would've hit Ranma, when Ranma sees Soun he asks him what he did that for. In response, Soun, with tears in his eyes, calls Ranma a traitor and asks him who he can abandon them the day that the Dojo Destroyer is meant to return, Ranma just smiles at Soun while telling him that he'll be back before they know it.

Akane, with Nabiki in tow, appear at the bottom of the wall where Akane tells Ranma to take his time since she'll defeat the Destroyer with her left arm alone. She then proceeds to punch the wall and reduces it to rubble. Ranma (who'd jumped into the air before Akane punched the wall) tells Akane that this sounds good to him and gives bids them farewell. Soun then asks Akane if she's sure she'll be all right, to which Akane says she'll defeat the Destroyer with her right arm alone. Nabiki then pipes up and asks Akane if she wasn't just talking about using her left arm a minute ago, while Soun repeats himself in asking Akane if she'll really be all right. Akane, crying slightly due to the damage she did to her left hand when she punched the wall, just says that she wishes that they'd both shut up.

Ranma, meanwhile, has made his way to Sakura Park where he soon meets up with Shampoo for their date. Not wasting any time, Ranma hands Shampoo a bouquet of flowers and while Shampoo is revelling in the fact Ranma gave her the bouquet, Ranma uses this opportunity to ask about the Instant Nannīchuan Powder. Shampoo proceeds to ask Ranma what he's talking about and then starts to cycle away, causing Ranma to panic and tell her to wait. Angrily, Shampoo rhetorically asks Ranma if he only wants to date with her in order to get the Instant Nannīchuan Powder. Ranma nearly reveals that this is the only reason for agreeing to the date, but stops himself and instead tells Shampoo to forget it since he wanted to get to know her better but she obviously doesn't trust him...

Touched by these words, Shampoo tells Ranma that the Instant Nannīchuan Powder is in her backpack and he can have it after the date. Ranma then gets close to Shampoo with only the bouquet between them. Suddenly Ranma releases some powder from the flowers which stuns Shampoo, giving Ranma then chance to take the backpack. As Shampoo screams at Ranma, he tells her that he's sorry but has no time to waste.

Atop of a roof, Ranma begins sining that he's never going to be a girl again and opens the backpack. However, instead of Instant Nannīchuan Powder, Ranma pulls out a cat. When Shampoo catches up to Ranma, he's lying on the roof, terrified, as the cat comfortably sits on his stomach. Shampoo then tells Ranma that the Instant Nannīchuan Powder was just the bait and she won't give the powder to him so easily.

Elsewhere, Akane has gone to Dr. Tofu's Clinic in order to have her hand looked at. Dr. Tofu quickly fixes Akane's hand and bandages it, he also tells her that it should be all right after about an hour. Akane thanks Dr. Tofu and leaves, as she does Dr. Tofu makes sure to remind her not to hit anything with her bandaged hand for the next hour, to which Akane tells Dr. Tofu that she'll be careful.

Some time later Akane sees Ranma pass her on Shampoo's bicycle while Shampoo sits on his lap (although Ranma wishes she wasn't since he can't see where he's going). Akane can't believe that Ranma is with Shampoo at a time like this, but soon puts that aside and reiterates to herself that she'll defeat the Dojo Destroyer with just her left arm. She then throws a punch, but suddenly an extremely large man wearing a Gi with a necklace of Dojo signs around his neck appears and ends up being hit by Akane's punch (although he doesn't seem to notice). Dr. Tofu's words then echo in Akane's mind and begins to cry a little as the hour was almost over.

Ranma and Shampoo then appear behind Akane. In anger, Akane kicks the bicycle with Ranma and Shampoo still on it into the air while telling Ranma that this is all his fault. When the pair land, Ranma sees the large man who Akane punched moment earlier and notices that he's carrying the Tendo Dojo's sign on his back. This causes Ranma to decide that this man must be the Dojo Destroyer, just then Shampoo darkly notes that the Destroyer is strong, much too strong for Akane to take on single-handedly.

Later on at the Tendo Dojo and the Destroyer has arrived. Akane is ready to face him and outrightly refuses any help from her father as she believes she can defeat him on her own. Kasumi asks Soun if he's sure about not helping Akane as she may need it, in response Soun tells Kasumi that there's no point since once Akane makes her mind up there's no changing it. Akane then begins her fight with the Destroyer, but the Destroyer pulls off his necklace of Dojo signs and a bright light engulfs Akane.

Back in Sakura Park and Ranma is very restless, so-much-so that he can't even stay in the same place very long. Shampoo then asks Ranma if he's worried about Akane, to which Ranma nervously asks why he would be worried about a macho chick like her. This causes Shampoo to sigh and take out the Instant Nannīchuan Powder and talks about how she promised to give it to Ranma after the date. When Ranma tries to take the powder, however, Shampoo moves it out of his grasp and tells Ranma that if he wants to finish the date... he has to give her a goodbye kiss!

Ranma is pleasantly surprised that this is all Shampoo wants as he thought she was going to give him something more difficult. An undisclosed amount of time then passes and Shampoo is still waiting for Ranma to kiss her, while Ranma can't bring himself to do it. Some joggers then pass the pair and wonder what they're doing since they haven't moved since the last time they passed through.

Cast in Order of Appearance

 * Shampoo (human)
 * Ranma Saotome (male)
 * Soun Tendo
 * Nabiki Tendo
 * Akane Tendo
 * Betty
 * Tofu Ono
 * Dojo Destroyer
 * Kasumi Tendo

Quotes
To be added

Trivia

 * While Ranma runs along the wall at the start of this chapter, there is a sign which says "Yamada Music Academy", coincidentally a character in Rumiko Takahashi's later work, Birds of Fate, there is a character called "Yamada".
 * Similarly the name "Sakura Park" could be a reference to either Sakura or Sakura Manabu who appear in Takahashi's other works, Urusei Yatsura and One-Pound Gospel respectively.