Shear Folly

Ippatsu gyakuten (一髪逆転) is the 118th chapter of the manga and the fifth chapter of the Principal Kuno Intro Arc.

Ranma is tied-up and having a tough time since he is stuck between Kuno and the Principal while they are fighting. Ranma manages to knock out Kuno and then he is left to deal with the Principal.

Continuing from the Previous Chapter
With Ranma now tied-up upside-down with his hands behind his back, the Principal moves in to finally cut Ranma's pigtail. Unfortunately, for the Principal, Ranma can still move around despite being tied-up and easily avoids the Principal's hair clippers before sending the Principal landing headfirst onto the Pardon Coconut. Annoyed with Ranma's continued defiance, the Principal blows up a small balloon filled with pepper which he subsequently pops right in front of Ranma's face.

Now Ranma can't see where the Principal's attacking from, he moves in again to cut off Ranma's pigtail. Luckily, Akane arrives with the other students and shouts down the Principal's ear with a megaphone, obviously causing the Principal great pain and stopping him from cutting Ranma's pigtail.

The students then quickly spot the Pardon Coconut and move in to grab it, but the Principal intervenes by hitting the Coconut with a Baseball bat (sporting a Baseball outfit as he does so). Shortly after the students curse the Principal they notice the Coconut is returning, lodged squarely on Kuno's forehead!

Father Against Son
Blinded by the Coconut in front of his eyes, Kuno begins wildly thrashing his around in the hope of hitting his father. When Kuno attempts to swing at Ranma he finally intervenes and kicks Kuno into his father. As Kuno lies on the floor, the Principal decides he'll reward his "Tacchi" by giving him a hair cut. Obviously Kuno hears this and is outrightly against it. He then declares to his father that if he likes shaved heads so much that he'll make sure there are monks at his funeral!

The pair then begin chasing after one another. Ranma quickly gets caught in the middle as the pair swap lightning quick strikes to the other. After dodging as many attacks as he can, Ranma tells Kuno to leave his family feud at home, where it belongs. He then proceeds to headbutt Kuno, leaving both of them rather dizzy from the impact, but fortunately Akane decides to hit Kuno of the back of the head and finally knock him unconscious.

Finishing off the Principal
With Kuno having been dealt with, Ranma turns his attention to the Principal. Ranma swiftly goes in to headbutt the Principal as well, but unfortunately, he forgot the shears which the Principal is holding. However Akane reminds Ranma at the last minute and during Ranma's panic the robe he's attached to swings back as if it were a and he's able to swing back out of the reach of the Principal.

After unintentionally slamming into one of the supporting beams, Ranma manages to grab a pole with his feet and prepares to swing back at the Principal at full speed. Undeterred by Ranma's new weapon, the Principal begins using his Shears to shred away at the Bamboo beam. During this time Kuno regains consciousness and comments on how foolish Ranma's being as the Principal's technique will use the beam as a ramp to get to Ranma's hair faster.

Sure enough the Principal shreds the beam and moves in for Ranma's hair, however, only just then does the Principal notice that Ranma has moved upside-down and out of his reach. Ranma then quickly uses this opportunity to kick the Principal in the face and finally defeat him.

Once Akane and the other students finish rejoicing they demand the Principal hands over the Coconut and agree there won't be any Buzz or Bowl cuts. The group then notice as the Principal begins crying as he apologises for being wrong. Feeling sorry for him, Ranma and Akane tell him that so long as he admits it they'll forget about it, which quickly cheers up the Principal.

Some time passes and the Principal decides to give the students another gift for their kindness... another new hair rule! (This time requiring boys to get whilst girls get  cuts.) After the students beat the Principal severely, he still continues to fight Kuno. The others, meanwhile, think that they haven't hit the Principal enough, but decide to just leave Kuno to clean it up as it's his mess.

Cast in Order of Appearance

 * Principal Kuno
 * Ranma Saotome (male)
 * Akane Tendo
 * Hiroshi and Daisuke
 * Tatewaki Kuno

Trivia

 * Oddly, what the Principal says after he misses Ranma changes from "!%%$!" (in English) in the original Japanese version to "$#!%!" in Viz Media's translation.