Courage Under Water

Mizu no naka no konjo (水の中の根性) is the 140th chapter of the manga it is also the second and final chapter of the Akane's Swimming Lessons - Principal Kuno Arc.

Akane and the Principal persevere with their swimming lessons. The Principal stays up all night sewing a swan training costume to help Akane learn how to swim, but it almost causes her to drown. The mermaid costume works just as well too. Akane is ready to call it quits when all her friends from school rally behind her and give her the encouragment she needs to continue on.

Continuing from the Previous Chapter
With Akane persistently continuing with her swimming lesson, the Principal declares that they'll move on to the first lesson of their "mastah trainin'", called the Swan!

Almost immediately, Akane's mind fills with images of her being able to swim as gracefully as a Sawn (whilst Ranma, meanwhile, thinks it will be more like a hammer on a lake). Just then the Principal hands Akane a suitcase which he explains contains something which he spent all of last night making. The Principal continues by telling Akane that with the thing inside the case she'll be transformed into a swan.

Unfortunately for Akane, the suit is less like a beautiful swan and more similar to an ugly duckling. Realising how stupid she looks, Akane punches the Principal before running off whilst declaring that they're just making fun of her. The Principal chases after Akane to try and explain things to her, but Akane swats his hand away when she notices the marks on the end of the Principal's fingers from making the suit.

With Akane distracted, the Principal takes the opportunity to push her into the pool where she immediately begins thrashing around like she usually does. As the other students comment that this "training suit" is more like a "drowning suit" the Principal pushes a button on a small remote which causes the legs of the suit to be kicking furiously. The students then realise that, although it looks elegant on the surface, a Swan kicks rapidly underwater, which is what the suit's purpose is. Unfortunately, Akane has tipped upside-down and the legs are uselessly flailing in the air. As Akane struggles to hold her breath, she opens her and eyes to see Ranma pulling a face at her, terrifying her.

The Lesson Continues
After dragging her out of the pool, Akane hits Ranma for acting stupid when she should be saving her. Ranma then proceeds to suggest to Akane that she just give up right now, but Akane refuses and tells the Principal to go ahead to the next lesson which the Principal calls "da Mermaid".

Akane is then swiftly put into a mermaid outfit before being pushed into the pool where the Principal pushes a button which makes the tail of the outfit to start trashing wildly. Ranma immediately notices the similarity between this lesson and the previous on and hit the Principal for his stupidity, although the Principal reassures Ranma to watch it to the end. The Principal then hooks the back of Akane's swimsuit with a fishing hook and line and tells her to swim with confidence as there's no way she's going to drown.

Akane does as instructed, but ends up pulling the Principal in before he hits the other end of the pool and loses consciousness. As some students notice a large amount of bubbles coming from beneath the pool, prompting Ranma to jump in and save Akane yet again.

The Final Attempt
Once Akane regains consciousness, the Principal apologises to her and begins weeping at not being able to give one girl what she wanted. As Ranma thinks to herself about how surprising she finds the Principal being serious about the training; Akane sits in silence before smiling and reassuring everyone not to worry about her. Akane continues by telling everyone that it's not like she has to swim (despite planning to live on a boat) before adding that if a tidal wave hits she'll just run to the hills as she believes she can run faster than some old water. As they hear this, Yuka and Sayuri begin to wonder if Akane's suffered a head injury.

With her speech made, Akane runs off with tears down her face as she really did want to learn to swim. However, before she can get too far, Ranma jumps in front of her path and asks Akane if she's a coward as she's running away when things get tough. That other students then tell Akane not to give up as they're with her too. With tears of happiness running down his face, the Principal asks Akane if she's ready for lesson three which Akane more than happily agrees to do.

The Principal then tells Akane that this lesson will make even the worst hammer girl swim like the. With this dramatic introduction, the group eagerly await for the revelation of what the third lesson involves, but are universally shocked when the Principal reveals he's talking about nothing more than a. However, even in a lifebuoy, Akane still ends up nearly drowning, causing the Principal to wail in despair, whilst the other students tell Akane that they take back what they said earlier and she should just give up.

Cast in Order of Appearance

 * Akane Tendo
 * Principal Kuno
 * Yuka and Sayuri
 * Hiroshi and Daisuke
 * Ranma Saotome (female)

Trivia

 * The english title for this chapter is a pun on the phrase "courage under pressure".