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Of course, what that class couldn’t know was that castle was one of the many places that Ranko had been successfully kidnapped to, and, like many nobles who’d done so, the family had been fully aware of her reputation for not staying caught and had commissioned paintings of her, so if it turned they couldn’t keep her despite their best efforts they’d at least have a picture of her. Paintings like this had been made all over the place - portraits which many historians argued couldn’t be real, or not entirely real, insisting they were at the very least exaggerations - which didn’t explain why all of those paintings were so close to the same, and agreed on virtually all important details, accurate for the period (aside from the hotly disputed subject matter) or were indisputably as old as they ought to have been.

Odd how so many historians spend their time arguing over how history never happened.

Still, among those who had better things to do than argue over why a red haired, blue eyed Japanese girl couldn’t have existed in the Meiji, especially not one with such well developed curves, they could appreciate that legends are always about something rare and extraordinary that doesn’t appear normally, and go on enjoying the reason why this castle was so popular a historical site.

It was one of those rare few where a full-detail painting of the semi-legendary “flame-haired Ranko” still existed on the walls, and was available for public display. The majority of those paintings to survive were in private collections and not shown to just anyone.

Yuka and Sayuri came to join the crowds around the legendary artwork, hemmed off by ropes and security measures as would suit the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, of which some thought the value was comparable, while native Japanese felt that this was higher.

Staring over the backs of the crowd, Yuka blinked at seeing the portrait of the kimono clad girl reclined, stunningly beautiful even in repose, and then whispered to Sayuri, “Hey, I’d never noticed before, but doesn’t Ranma’s girl side look alot like the legendary ‘flame-haired Ranko’ to you?”

“Yah, and it’s kinda creepy our tomboy looks like a picture of the legendary beauty, except for the missing pigtail and the boyish way he acts, of course. That’s probably why we never noticed a likeness before now.” Sayuri agreed, looking over the portrait taken of the martial artist, unaware they were the same person as she contrasted the cursed guy she knew with the legends about Japan’s most desired woman.

“What’s even more creepy is that once or twice I’ve heard him use the same name - Ranko, when going disguised as a girl. It’s just so odd that he’d try and disguise himself as the girl who almost single-handedly formed one of two competing symbols of Japanese girls’ desirability over the last hundred and fifty years.” Yuka puzzled, as two ‘Red-Geisha’, with red dyed hair and ample curves based on the maiden who’d become something of the castle’s claim to fame, walked past the crowds.

The two girls sighed. “What would you give to be that desirable? To have plays written about you, and battles fought over you?”

“Yah,” dreamy sigh. “Hey, didn’t the Greeks have someone similar?”

Sayuri gladly enlightened her friend. “Yes, and they called her Helen of Troy, so beautiful that it was said her face launched a thousand ships when her husband went to war against her lover. If you ask me, those Greek stories were small pickings compared to the epic tales surrounding Ranko of the Fiery Hair.”

Both girls once again sighed in well intended jealousy over the famous girl, thinking dreamy dreams over what it would be like to have been like flame-haired Ranko, famed for her sapphire eyes and stunning beauty, desired by nobles all over Japan.

Good looks like those would solve all of their boy problems, they were sure.

Of course, none of them were aware of certain photos which had begun to circulate, taken by shopkeepers of a traditionally dressed young flame-haired maiden who’d been shopping for a teakettle, or what excitement that would bring.

Ruroni Ranko, Chapter 3