Disclaimer - nothing of Ranma ½ belongs to me, I'm just having fun playing with the characters temporarily.
Combat Kasumi
Her Tuesday group stood and gather up all of the various accoutrements of the tea ceremony, some grimacing as they did after sitting so long in seiza. Kasumi smiled at her advanced class, sharing a little conversation with the traditional-spirited wives who made up her advanced tea-ceremony class. She overheard one of the ladies talking about martial-arts tea ceremonies.
The young woman shook her head in bemusement as she changed out of her kimono and back into her usual dress. The tea ceremony was a cultural activity samurai partook as a pacific ceremony, showing themselves as more than simple blades for their shogun to wield. Kasumi shook her head in wonder at the strange ideas some people had. As the daughter of a martial artist she understood the place of violence in life. Unlike many of the martial artists around her though she recognised the need for tranquillity as well as action.
'Father! The dojo is free again!' She called as she came into earshot. Soun had taken a while to get used to his oldest daughter using the dojo three afternoons a week, but the money helped household finances, even with him insistin Kasumi keep half of the profits for herself. After their brush with poverty Kasumi had started the classes to increase their savings, although the company and independence were nice - since she'd dropped out of high school to look after the household she'd only retained a few of her old friends.
'Oh my!' Kasumi realised they were completely out of onigiri and that if she made another large batch of the snack for the constantly ravenous martial artists in the house then there wouldn't be enough for dinner and breakfast tomorrow.
'Father, Mr Saotome I'm going out to the market to get some more groceries. I'll be back soon.' She smiled warmly at the shogi-plaging pair and lightly trotted off in the direction of the local shopping district, greeting people as she went.
The shopping was getting really quite heavy, but Mr Matsuda the rice man had agreed to deliver a twenty-five kilo sack to the house sometime that evening. Kasumi didn't mind the wait though as she'd been saved the extra journey. As she wandered home Kasumi enjoyed the sights and sounds of Nerima. Mother's death had been devastating to the whole family, but despite the loss it had impressed upon Kasumi the importance of enjoying life as it happened and not taking things for granted.
The attack came so fast Kasumi barely had time to dodge. Her groceries hit the ground hard as the eldest Tendo daughter threw herself to the side, barely avoiding being pierced by the stranger's dao.
'Are you a friend of Shampoo?' Kasumi asked, noting the newcomer's striking violet hair.
The girl nodded. 'I am Ti Zhu, Xian Pu's cousin. Are you the Tendo girl?'
Kasumi bowed politely. 'It is a pleasure to meet you Tissue, I am Kasumi Tendo.'
'You will die, Kasumi Tendo!' The girl screamed in Mandarin, launching herself at the Japanese girl. Kasumi was almost too late in translating the yell - her Mandarin was very rusty. She jumped back from the downward sweep Tissue delivered with a fierce kiai. As she dodged Kasumi charged her hands and arms with hard ki. She concentrated her energies on reactive defence, guiding the blade away from herself and trying to disarm the furious Amazon.
'Why you not try to fight serious?' The Amazon demanded, so angry her previously good Japanese was broken and thickly accented.
Kasumi caught the dao once again, scooping it away from herself with a loosely cupped hand and trying to strike at the median nerve on the girl's sword arm, but it was a strike she'd only read about in one of the books Dr Tofu had lent her, so she wasn't sure that it would work properly. She decided to distract the amazon by answering her question honestly. 'If I win you will perform the kiss of death on me, if I lose you will probably hurt me with your sword. I don't want to hurt you, you seem like a nice girl, but I'm also not very keen on you hurting me either.' She jumped over a low kick and vaulted over Tissue's head to stand behind her. That always seemed to wrong-foot Ranma's opponents when he did it to them. 'It's quite a dilemma.'
Ranma and Akane were walking home from school arguing as usual, this time about the Jackie Chan film they'd seen the other night when they were interrupted by the sound of a fight and the waft of ki in the air. As one they leapt up onto the roof of a nearby building. They were greeted by the sight Kasumi in cat stance, hand in a soft cupped position facing off against a sword-wielding Amazon. Akane cried out and surged forward, but Ranma grabbed her.
'Wait! Look at the fight - Kasumi's clearly in control even if the other woman's doing all the attacking.' Ranma hissed into Akane's ear. Ranma watched as Kasumi easily deflected another flurry of cuts, dancing through the holes in the Amazon's defence to land a series of strikes with a single finger.. It looked like she was combining dim-mak with the Hokkaido-invented White Crane style and while her range of techniques was not especially exotic each move was elegant and precise. Ranma's eyes widened in admiration - Kasumi perfectly understood each motion and executed it as easily and calmly as everything else she did. The dao slipped from the Amazon's uncooperative fingers and Kasumi spoke to her, although Ranma couldn't quite hear what she'd said. The Amazon swung wildly at her and Kasumi flowed sideways within hugging distance of the girl and positively blazed with ki as she earnestly reiterated her last argument. The Amazon girl hung her head in defeat and Kasumi bowed her head in defeat and Kasumi bowed politely.
'Hello Akane, Ranma.' She greeted the pair of them serenely. 'This is my new friend Tissue.' Would you help her to Dr Tofu's please? I need to get dinner ready.'
Kasumi hummed cheerfully as she put the finishing touches on dinner. Ranma appeared nearly silently at her elbow, snatching an onigiri from the side. 'So, where 'dja learn that White Crane, nerve-strike technique combo style?'
Kasumi carried on dishing up the food. 'Oh, Mrs Watanabe is the only White Crane style master in Honshu. I go around a couple of times a week to take tea with her and when she falls ill I make extra food and make sure she gets proper nourishment.'
Ranma frowned. 'Who's she?'
Kasumi paused to think about how he might know her mentor. Her face cleared as she realised how he'd recognised Mrs Watanabe. 'She's the lady who washes and rinses her doorstep every morning. I think she's splashed you a few times on the way to school.'
Ranma twitched. No wonder only idiots and those new in town dared trying to pick on Kasumi