Hello everyone. I am posting a fic I have worked on and off for the last
few months. It all started when I became interested in a manga and later
an anime called Hikaru no Go. When I went to look for fics concerning this
manga/anime I discovered to my surprised that 90% of all fanfics were yaoi.
So I started one.
I hope you enjoy it as it is still in progress. C&C would be helpful.
Sincerely Long
Ranma no Go: Prelude
By Long Ngo
Started November 16, 2002
* * * * *
At a dojo in the Nerima Ward of Tokyo, two men were hunched over a table. Between them was a gridded board, nineteen by nineteen boxes. Each man stared keenly at the board, deep in thought.
Their posture spoke of their intense concentration. The silence that permeated the air only helped to reinforce it.
To the side of each individual was a wooden bowl filled with either white or black colored oval stones. As the heavier of the two reached for a stone, one could see the workmanship of the playing piece, perfectly oval and polished to a shine.
With a black stone in-between his thumb and pointer, the man lifted his hands above the level of the table. From the point his hand reached the zenith and started to descend, the position of the stone had switched to where it now rested between his pointer and middle finger. With a snap of his wrist, the stone made contact with the goban upon one of the numerous cross-sections. Retracting his hands back to his lap, he waited, wanting to see what his opponent would do.
The leaner of the two stared at the point of attack. Looking at the shape that the stones that were already on the board made and the shapes that were to come, he ran numerous battle plans over in his mind. *Should I attack or defend?* he thought. For what seemed like ages, he did nothing but stare at the board. With the sound of water breaking due to an acrobatic leap of the fish in the koi pond, "A defense is a good offense," he muttered as he too reached into his bowl, lifting out a white stone. With the same motion as his opponent, the stone shifted from thumb and pointer to pointer and middle finger until his stone sounded with a crack as stone and goban met.
Watching the events from the safety of the kitchen was a young child with eyes that betrayed his curiosity. This was not the first time that he had watched his father and his friend. Yet each time he had saw his father play, he never gave it much thought. Normally he was preoccupied playing with his father's friend's three sons. Today was different. Today he was alone in the house since his mother had taken the mustache man's wife and three sons shopping.
With nothing better to do, Ranma decided to finally figure out what game his father was playing. Once he did, he could then play the same game with his friends.
Scanning the room, Ranma looked for places to hide. It would not do for a great martial artists like him to just walk up to his father and ask him what he was doing. A great martial artist would sneak up and only when he had conquered the opponent would he ask what they were playing.
Since he had married and settled down, Genma had flourished as a man would with a caring wife. He had gotten heavier since he no longer ran from wolves through knee-deep swamps with a munchkin for an evil master sitting on his head. He now spent most of his days on his back, on his butt and atop his wife at night.
Though marriage had made him soft, his mind was as sharp as ever. Though not a grandmaster, at the age of 32, he was the undisputed Master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It didn't matter that he was only one of two practitioners and the other was a four year old.
He could see any attack coming and his sharp mind would come up with a counter. Some of his most famous were the terrible Crouching Tiger, the Cradle and finally the Saotome succession technique. It was one of his greatest achievements. The Saotome Anything Goes Final Attack relying on Speed, Strategy and Separation. For all his genius, it was too bad Genma didn't have eyes behind him or been paying attention to his surroundings since he would have noticed his son creeping up behind him with a metal frying pan in his hands.
*Mom said that the best way to get father's attention was with a frying pan,* Ranma thought, his mind going back to that day.
* * * * *
"Mommy! Father is ignoring me," a three-year-old Ranma cried out, clinging to his mother's apron.
"Ranma! What did I tell you about crying?" his mother scowled.
Wiping some of the tears from his face, "A manly. . . sniff man will not cry," Ranma said between sobs. Smiling down at her brave son, Nodoka picked him up and gave Ranma a hug. "That's right Ranma. A man will not cry. He has to be brave to protect his wife and maybe a mistress of two." For a second, Nodoka's eyes misted over as one of her fantasy before she married Genma played in her mind.
The sniffling Ranma soon became a gasping Ranma as the young child tried to breathe, as his mother's loving arms got tighter along with the smile that grew on her vacant face.
With a shudder, Nodoka opened her eyes and kissed Ranma on his forehead. "Someday you will give me so many wonderful grandchildren but until then you are still a child and it is alright to cry."
By this time Ranma had stopped crying as he sucked in precious air.
*Oh how Ranma will be so manly when he grows up,* Nodoka thought. Looking at her son, she could see that he had stopped crying just to make her happy.
"What did you want again, Ranma?" she asked, having forgotten the reason he was here.
Squirming to be set down, Ranma waited until his feet had touched the floor until he answered. Taking in a couple of deep breath to fill his oxygen- deprived lungs, "Father is ignoring me!"
"That's right," Nodoka exclaimed. Thinking a bit, "Well Ranma when I want to get your father's attention there are two ways. The first is inappropriate and should only be done when you are married to a nice girl or your mistress."
Ranma started to back away from his mother. Though only three, he had come to expect strange things every time his mother said the word, "mistress." Not knowing what it was, it had to be something really cool since she smiled all the time. The hugging part had to be part of it too but he didn't like it that much since he couldn't breathe.
"The other is that over there," Nodoka pointed to the iron pan on the stove she was using to cook food.
* * * * *
"Yep, mommy said this will get father's attention," Ranma muttered. As he creped closer, the young child wondered if this was what his mother had stashed inside her bedroom since he occasionally heard his father shout his mom's name late at night.
Moving closer and closer, Ranma waited until the right moment to strike. Placing his father between himself and Mr. Tendou to hide presence, Ranma pulled the pan back and waited, like a batter waiting for the right pitch.
Studying the board, Genma congratulated himself in stopping his friend's attack. Picking up the next stone, Genma started to attack.
*He fell into my trap,* Soun thought gleefully. With a quick précised motion, he placed a stone to close the trap, giving him the upper right corner.
Staring hard, Genma gulped. *He responded to my attack with a Tsuke. Damn it.* Frowning in anger at falling so easily, Genma started to plan his own trap.
Moments later Soun started to swear.
This was the moment that Ranma had waited for. He had learned early on that tensing the muscles made a punch hurt less and so he had waited until his father relaxed a little. Seeing how his father's shoulder's slumped and his head slowly started to move backwards, Ranma lifted his left leg like he saw on the television and gave a mighty swing as the same leg touched the ground.
* * * * *
Smiling inward at his brilliant maneuvering, Genma planned his next move as he relaxed and savored the victory that was surely to come. His musing was suddenly interrupted as his danger sensed flared and his musing ended with him seeing black and white stars floating around his head in the guise of Go stones.
Seeing his father stunned, Ranma smiled as his mission was now accomplished. Dropping the cast iron pan, he leaped from the floor onto his father's shoulders. Using his two hands to firmly grab hold of both of his father's ears, he started to shake him.
"Whatcha doing father?"
Unknown to the five-year-old, abrupt movement of the head after it had been injured was a bad thing.
Feeling the room start to spin, Genma's eyes started to roll up into his head has he fell back.
"Father are you okay?"
From his vantage, Soun smiled. *Ah the love a son feels for his father,* he inwardly mused. *Too bad I shall never feel such love with three daughters.*
"Don't worry about your father Ranma. He is just resting a bit," Soun offered some comfort to the confused boy at the same time adjusting the stones to suit his needs.
As the pounding in his head subsided, Genma groaned. *What in the world happen?* he thought. AS he opened his eyes, the sight you of son's face inches from his own made him blink a few times. "Huh?" was Genma's response to his son's question.
"Father, did you faint?"
"Oh course not son. I was resting. Right, Tendou?"
Soun taking his cue nodded. "Ranma my boy, martial artist masters like your father and I do not faint. We are too great."
Ranma moved away from the two laughing men for a bit. When he saw that his father was now sitting in front of the board and not laying now, "What cha playing, father?"
The question disrupted Genma's thoughts as he blinked from the board to his son and back. *I swore my stones were in a better position.*
Trying to find a familiar ground for the time being, "What have I told you about martial arts? About how to become a strong fighter?" the father asked instead of answering, looking up from the board.
"A martial artist protects the weak. He is honorable. He . ."
"No. Ranma, my boy, tell me how a martial artist can win even when he faces someone stronger than him?"
"The Saotome Secret Technique!" Ranma answered instantly.
"Ehh . . ." Genma muttered, a lost for words.
Across the board, his long time friend glanced up with a questioning looked.
Coughing, Genma looked up with the expression of a man about to teach a class of students their first lesson. "Remember this Ranma, martial arts are not just about how strong someone is. There will always be someone bigger and stronger than you. No, what sets a martial artist from the crowd is his techniques and knowing when to use them. Strategy and tactics, my boy, are the keys to becoming the best of the best. Like a general directing his troops, a martial artist must know when to use a special move and when to retreat. What I was doing was playing a game called Go, it teaches you tactics and strategy. Why some of the best generals . . ."
For a young child, the world was a new and wonderful place. In essence he was a gigantic sponge in the middle of an ocean, soaking up information at an amazing rate. A child's mind acts differently from an adult's, rather than rational thoughts, a child's mind associated pictures and words together and for young Ranma this instant was imprinted into his mind forever.
"Do you understand, Ranma?" Genma concluded.
Looking from the Go board to his father, Ranma smiled. "Hai!"
"Good."
Returning his attention to the Go board, Genma swore a second later, finally remembering. "Tendou! When did that black piece get there?"
"What? Saotome, old friend, it has always been there," Soun answered with a wounded expression.
"I see, . ." Genma answered. "Look Tendou, Godzilla!" Genma suddenly shouted.
Turning his head, Soun looked in the direction his friend pointed. With the life they both had, seeing Godzilla was not impossible.
"I don't see anything Saotome. Maybe you need new glasses." Soun said.
"I must have been mistaken. I'll go and see about getting a new prescription. Anyways it is your turn."
"Yes, something stronger," Sound nodded sagely. Looking back at the board, "Saotome! What is the meaning of this? I swear that white stone was not there."
Oblivious to what was being said, Ranma's attention was fixed upon the Go board and the stones his father and his friend were playing. They alternated turns and when one color surrounded another, the ones in the middle disappeared. "It's like cowboys and Indians," Ranma muttered, remembering the old American movies he saw with his father and how the Indians always surrounded the cowboys and how the cowboys always lost.
As Ranma's eyes wandered the board, something unusual caught his attention. At one of the board's corner there seemed to be a bloodstain. Since he was a martial artist, Ranma was fairly verse in what blood looked like. Usually it was his duty as a martial artist to scrub the floor of the dojo when they visited other training halls.
"Father, what is that stain?" Ranma asked.
"What stain?" Genma answered without looking at Ranma, since he wanted to keep an eye on Soun. "The board is clean."
"But it is dirty," Ranma replied.
"Stop talking nonsense and let me play."
"But Father, those spots look like blood," Ranma insisted.
*Can you see it?*
"Hai, Father. I knew they were blood spots."
"What did you say?" Genma asked, still not looking at Ranma.
*Can you hear my voice?*
"Huh?" Ranma answered confused by both questions. Thinking for a moment the second voiced seemed strange. It didn't sound like his father or his friend's voice.
*You can hear my voice can't you?*
Looking around, Ranma became a bit scared. He knew that a martial artist wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything not even ghosts. "I'm a martial artist. I'm not scared of nothing," Ranma started to chant to himself. "I'm a big boy now."
"Ranma I don't see any blood stains on the board. Did Tendou put you up to this?" Genma asked having finally turned to look at Ranma.
Across the table, Soun shook his head in denial.
"Who is it?" Ranma asked.
*I've finally found someone.*
"Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki is that you?" Ranma shouted while looking around. "Come on out!" To Ranma's ears, he could hear the sound of the wind getting louder yet there was no wind.
*You can. You can.* the joy in the voice was so definite that Ranma could pick it up in his panic state. *The Gods before me, I thank you.* As the short prayer ended the board in front of Ranma started to glow an eerie green. A glow that only Ranma could see which drew his attention was back on the Go board.
"Ranma stop it this instant. Stop saying those weird things. There is no one here but you, me and Tendou." Genma said sternly.
"Is your son alright, Genma?" Soun asked, worried about his future son-in- law.
With his attention back on at the board, Ranma took a step back. Towering over both his father and friend was a white ghost. He was dressed in something like his Summer Festival clothing. In the ghost right hand was a fan. As the ghost opened his eyes, Ranma could not but help notice how purple his eyes were.
Shaking himself out of the daze, he looked frantically for a place to run and hide in. Ranma got desperate when he saw that the ghost had surrounded him.
"I don't wanna disappear!" Ranma wailed, remembering the entire lesson his father had just taught him.
*I will now return. Return to the living world.*
Those two sentences were the last things Ranma heard as blackness swept through his conscious.
Seeing his son fall unconscious, Genma jumped to his feet and had gathered Ranma in his arms in a heartbeat. "Ranma! What's wrong?" Genma pleaded. "Tendou call a doctor!"
"I'm right on it. There is a family doctor only a few blocks away. Let's carry him there."
"Right!" Genma answered. *Nodoka's gonna kill me.*
* * * * *
"Don't worry about anything, Anoi-san. You are in perfect health," Dr. Tofu commented.
Smiling at the kind doctor, "Thank you, sensei," she said. Look at the young man behind the doctor, "I wish you the best of luck Chinmi-chan when you go back to Tokyo University. Such a handsome and kind young man."
Blushing at the compliment, Chinmi looked at his father and smiled. *Someday I'll be the one that will respond to that title, 'Doctor Tofu.'* "Thank you Anoi-san," he replied.
"Hahahaha. Someday my son will take over this clinic. Now all my wife and I need to do is find the boy a wife."
Before Chinmi could respond, the front door burst open as two men ran into the clinic. The heavier set man was carrying a small child.
Doctor Tofu glanced up, a bit startled at the interruption but quickly responded due to years of training. "Soun, what's the matter?"
"The boy fell unconscious," Genma answered.
"Ranma was babbling about ghosts and started to get hysterical and then fainted," Soun finished the explanation.
"What Tendou meant was he fell unconscious," Genma corrected his friend.
"Yes, yes," Dr Tofu smiled gently, trying to calm the two.
Directing the two men over to his examination table. Once the boy was lying on the table, he started to examine the young man. First checking the left and right eye then examining his breathing and heart beat, everything seems fine.
It was only when Doctor Tofu looked more deeply at the boy, beyond the flesh, did he sense something was wrong. *The boy's ki is'nt right. There seems to be something strange going on.*
"What's the matter doctor," Genma asked, disrupting Tofu's concentration. When the doctor didn't respond right away, Genma started to panic even more. *Nodoka's gonna kill me.*
"Chinmi, take Genma and Soun outside. I need silence," Tofu commanded.
Jumping up at the sudden command, Chinmi swiftly ushered both martial artists and Anoi-san outside.
* * * * *
Waking up, Ranma noticed that everywhere he looked, it was completely black.
"Where am I?" Ranma wondered.
"In your mind," a voiced answered as the blackness disappeared, this time white light surrounded him.
"Who are you" Ranma asked.
"Fujiwarano Sai," the ghost responded.
"Am I going to disappear?" Ranma asked, a bit afraid of the answer.
"Hehehe, no you are not. Don't worry."
"Sai? What are you?"
In reaction to the question, the white light that had surrounded Ranma faded away until a man placing stones in front of a Go board similar to the one that his father was playing on appeared.
"I was a sensei to the emperor of Japan during the Heian Period. I and one other taught him Go at the Capital." A man appeared across the board from. Surrounding him were two very pretty ladies.
Ranma could sense the pride and joy that memory brought Sai. The next sentence proved he was right.
"Day after day, I played Go and was very happy." There was a pause before Sai continued.
Ranma was mesmerized, this was like those stories his mother told him each night before he went to sleep.
"One day, the other instructor told the emperor that he did not need two tutors. One was good enough. He suggested that me and I should play a game and the winner would stay and continue to teach Go to the emperor."
"You two played right? Who won?" Ranma asked.
There was another pause. This time the surroundings changed. Sai was still sitting down next to the goban but another man had replaced the young emperor. Surrounding the two were lots of people. The emperor was also there, behind a curtain.
"I was white and my opponent was black. The game proceeded evenly until that fateful event that changed my life. Even now it was unbelievable that under the watchful eyes of so many men that only I saw it. In the goke, amiss all of his black stones there was a single white piece. When he saw a chance he picked up the white stone and placed it in his captured pile."
"So he cheated," Ranma muttered.
"When I was about to bring up the subject, he was quicker and accused me of cheating instead. I lost my composure and lost the game. With the charge of cheating hanging over me I was chased out of the Capital. Without my livelihood I had no reason to live. Two days later I drowned myself."
"Why!" Ranma shouted. "My father does it all the time. It is just for fun!" It was as if Sai did not hear him as the scenery changed again, this time it was a lake. At the edge of the lake Ranma saw Sai. Slowly the Go sensei walked towards the middle of the lake till his head had disappeared beneath the water. "Sai!" Ranma shouted.
To be continued.
I hope you enjoy it as it is still in progress. C&C would be helpful.
Sincerely Long
Ranma no Go: Prelude
By Long Ngo
Started November 16, 2002
* * * * *
At a dojo in the Nerima Ward of Tokyo, two men were hunched over a table. Between them was a gridded board, nineteen by nineteen boxes. Each man stared keenly at the board, deep in thought.
Their posture spoke of their intense concentration. The silence that permeated the air only helped to reinforce it.
To the side of each individual was a wooden bowl filled with either white or black colored oval stones. As the heavier of the two reached for a stone, one could see the workmanship of the playing piece, perfectly oval and polished to a shine.
With a black stone in-between his thumb and pointer, the man lifted his hands above the level of the table. From the point his hand reached the zenith and started to descend, the position of the stone had switched to where it now rested between his pointer and middle finger. With a snap of his wrist, the stone made contact with the goban upon one of the numerous cross-sections. Retracting his hands back to his lap, he waited, wanting to see what his opponent would do.
The leaner of the two stared at the point of attack. Looking at the shape that the stones that were already on the board made and the shapes that were to come, he ran numerous battle plans over in his mind. *Should I attack or defend?* he thought. For what seemed like ages, he did nothing but stare at the board. With the sound of water breaking due to an acrobatic leap of the fish in the koi pond, "A defense is a good offense," he muttered as he too reached into his bowl, lifting out a white stone. With the same motion as his opponent, the stone shifted from thumb and pointer to pointer and middle finger until his stone sounded with a crack as stone and goban met.
Watching the events from the safety of the kitchen was a young child with eyes that betrayed his curiosity. This was not the first time that he had watched his father and his friend. Yet each time he had saw his father play, he never gave it much thought. Normally he was preoccupied playing with his father's friend's three sons. Today was different. Today he was alone in the house since his mother had taken the mustache man's wife and three sons shopping.
With nothing better to do, Ranma decided to finally figure out what game his father was playing. Once he did, he could then play the same game with his friends.
Scanning the room, Ranma looked for places to hide. It would not do for a great martial artists like him to just walk up to his father and ask him what he was doing. A great martial artist would sneak up and only when he had conquered the opponent would he ask what they were playing.
Since he had married and settled down, Genma had flourished as a man would with a caring wife. He had gotten heavier since he no longer ran from wolves through knee-deep swamps with a munchkin for an evil master sitting on his head. He now spent most of his days on his back, on his butt and atop his wife at night.
Though marriage had made him soft, his mind was as sharp as ever. Though not a grandmaster, at the age of 32, he was the undisputed Master of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It didn't matter that he was only one of two practitioners and the other was a four year old.
He could see any attack coming and his sharp mind would come up with a counter. Some of his most famous were the terrible Crouching Tiger, the Cradle and finally the Saotome succession technique. It was one of his greatest achievements. The Saotome Anything Goes Final Attack relying on Speed, Strategy and Separation. For all his genius, it was too bad Genma didn't have eyes behind him or been paying attention to his surroundings since he would have noticed his son creeping up behind him with a metal frying pan in his hands.
*Mom said that the best way to get father's attention was with a frying pan,* Ranma thought, his mind going back to that day.
* * * * *
"Mommy! Father is ignoring me," a three-year-old Ranma cried out, clinging to his mother's apron.
"Ranma! What did I tell you about crying?" his mother scowled.
Wiping some of the tears from his face, "A manly. . . sniff man will not cry," Ranma said between sobs. Smiling down at her brave son, Nodoka picked him up and gave Ranma a hug. "That's right Ranma. A man will not cry. He has to be brave to protect his wife and maybe a mistress of two." For a second, Nodoka's eyes misted over as one of her fantasy before she married Genma played in her mind.
The sniffling Ranma soon became a gasping Ranma as the young child tried to breathe, as his mother's loving arms got tighter along with the smile that grew on her vacant face.
With a shudder, Nodoka opened her eyes and kissed Ranma on his forehead. "Someday you will give me so many wonderful grandchildren but until then you are still a child and it is alright to cry."
By this time Ranma had stopped crying as he sucked in precious air.
*Oh how Ranma will be so manly when he grows up,* Nodoka thought. Looking at her son, she could see that he had stopped crying just to make her happy.
"What did you want again, Ranma?" she asked, having forgotten the reason he was here.
Squirming to be set down, Ranma waited until his feet had touched the floor until he answered. Taking in a couple of deep breath to fill his oxygen- deprived lungs, "Father is ignoring me!"
"That's right," Nodoka exclaimed. Thinking a bit, "Well Ranma when I want to get your father's attention there are two ways. The first is inappropriate and should only be done when you are married to a nice girl or your mistress."
Ranma started to back away from his mother. Though only three, he had come to expect strange things every time his mother said the word, "mistress." Not knowing what it was, it had to be something really cool since she smiled all the time. The hugging part had to be part of it too but he didn't like it that much since he couldn't breathe.
"The other is that over there," Nodoka pointed to the iron pan on the stove she was using to cook food.
* * * * *
"Yep, mommy said this will get father's attention," Ranma muttered. As he creped closer, the young child wondered if this was what his mother had stashed inside her bedroom since he occasionally heard his father shout his mom's name late at night.
Moving closer and closer, Ranma waited until the right moment to strike. Placing his father between himself and Mr. Tendou to hide presence, Ranma pulled the pan back and waited, like a batter waiting for the right pitch.
Studying the board, Genma congratulated himself in stopping his friend's attack. Picking up the next stone, Genma started to attack.
*He fell into my trap,* Soun thought gleefully. With a quick précised motion, he placed a stone to close the trap, giving him the upper right corner.
Staring hard, Genma gulped. *He responded to my attack with a Tsuke. Damn it.* Frowning in anger at falling so easily, Genma started to plan his own trap.
Moments later Soun started to swear.
This was the moment that Ranma had waited for. He had learned early on that tensing the muscles made a punch hurt less and so he had waited until his father relaxed a little. Seeing how his father's shoulder's slumped and his head slowly started to move backwards, Ranma lifted his left leg like he saw on the television and gave a mighty swing as the same leg touched the ground.
* * * * *
Smiling inward at his brilliant maneuvering, Genma planned his next move as he relaxed and savored the victory that was surely to come. His musing was suddenly interrupted as his danger sensed flared and his musing ended with him seeing black and white stars floating around his head in the guise of Go stones.
Seeing his father stunned, Ranma smiled as his mission was now accomplished. Dropping the cast iron pan, he leaped from the floor onto his father's shoulders. Using his two hands to firmly grab hold of both of his father's ears, he started to shake him.
"Whatcha doing father?"
Unknown to the five-year-old, abrupt movement of the head after it had been injured was a bad thing.
Feeling the room start to spin, Genma's eyes started to roll up into his head has he fell back.
"Father are you okay?"
From his vantage, Soun smiled. *Ah the love a son feels for his father,* he inwardly mused. *Too bad I shall never feel such love with three daughters.*
"Don't worry about your father Ranma. He is just resting a bit," Soun offered some comfort to the confused boy at the same time adjusting the stones to suit his needs.
As the pounding in his head subsided, Genma groaned. *What in the world happen?* he thought. AS he opened his eyes, the sight you of son's face inches from his own made him blink a few times. "Huh?" was Genma's response to his son's question.
"Father, did you faint?"
"Oh course not son. I was resting. Right, Tendou?"
Soun taking his cue nodded. "Ranma my boy, martial artist masters like your father and I do not faint. We are too great."
Ranma moved away from the two laughing men for a bit. When he saw that his father was now sitting in front of the board and not laying now, "What cha playing, father?"
The question disrupted Genma's thoughts as he blinked from the board to his son and back. *I swore my stones were in a better position.*
Trying to find a familiar ground for the time being, "What have I told you about martial arts? About how to become a strong fighter?" the father asked instead of answering, looking up from the board.
"A martial artist protects the weak. He is honorable. He . ."
"No. Ranma, my boy, tell me how a martial artist can win even when he faces someone stronger than him?"
"The Saotome Secret Technique!" Ranma answered instantly.
"Ehh . . ." Genma muttered, a lost for words.
Across the board, his long time friend glanced up with a questioning looked.
Coughing, Genma looked up with the expression of a man about to teach a class of students their first lesson. "Remember this Ranma, martial arts are not just about how strong someone is. There will always be someone bigger and stronger than you. No, what sets a martial artist from the crowd is his techniques and knowing when to use them. Strategy and tactics, my boy, are the keys to becoming the best of the best. Like a general directing his troops, a martial artist must know when to use a special move and when to retreat. What I was doing was playing a game called Go, it teaches you tactics and strategy. Why some of the best generals . . ."
For a young child, the world was a new and wonderful place. In essence he was a gigantic sponge in the middle of an ocean, soaking up information at an amazing rate. A child's mind acts differently from an adult's, rather than rational thoughts, a child's mind associated pictures and words together and for young Ranma this instant was imprinted into his mind forever.
"Do you understand, Ranma?" Genma concluded.
Looking from the Go board to his father, Ranma smiled. "Hai!"
"Good."
Returning his attention to the Go board, Genma swore a second later, finally remembering. "Tendou! When did that black piece get there?"
"What? Saotome, old friend, it has always been there," Soun answered with a wounded expression.
"I see, . ." Genma answered. "Look Tendou, Godzilla!" Genma suddenly shouted.
Turning his head, Soun looked in the direction his friend pointed. With the life they both had, seeing Godzilla was not impossible.
"I don't see anything Saotome. Maybe you need new glasses." Soun said.
"I must have been mistaken. I'll go and see about getting a new prescription. Anyways it is your turn."
"Yes, something stronger," Sound nodded sagely. Looking back at the board, "Saotome! What is the meaning of this? I swear that white stone was not there."
Oblivious to what was being said, Ranma's attention was fixed upon the Go board and the stones his father and his friend were playing. They alternated turns and when one color surrounded another, the ones in the middle disappeared. "It's like cowboys and Indians," Ranma muttered, remembering the old American movies he saw with his father and how the Indians always surrounded the cowboys and how the cowboys always lost.
As Ranma's eyes wandered the board, something unusual caught his attention. At one of the board's corner there seemed to be a bloodstain. Since he was a martial artist, Ranma was fairly verse in what blood looked like. Usually it was his duty as a martial artist to scrub the floor of the dojo when they visited other training halls.
"Father, what is that stain?" Ranma asked.
"What stain?" Genma answered without looking at Ranma, since he wanted to keep an eye on Soun. "The board is clean."
"But it is dirty," Ranma replied.
"Stop talking nonsense and let me play."
"But Father, those spots look like blood," Ranma insisted.
*Can you see it?*
"Hai, Father. I knew they were blood spots."
"What did you say?" Genma asked, still not looking at Ranma.
*Can you hear my voice?*
"Huh?" Ranma answered confused by both questions. Thinking for a moment the second voiced seemed strange. It didn't sound like his father or his friend's voice.
*You can hear my voice can't you?*
Looking around, Ranma became a bit scared. He knew that a martial artist wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything not even ghosts. "I'm a martial artist. I'm not scared of nothing," Ranma started to chant to himself. "I'm a big boy now."
"Ranma I don't see any blood stains on the board. Did Tendou put you up to this?" Genma asked having finally turned to look at Ranma.
Across the table, Soun shook his head in denial.
"Who is it?" Ranma asked.
*I've finally found someone.*
"Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki is that you?" Ranma shouted while looking around. "Come on out!" To Ranma's ears, he could hear the sound of the wind getting louder yet there was no wind.
*You can. You can.* the joy in the voice was so definite that Ranma could pick it up in his panic state. *The Gods before me, I thank you.* As the short prayer ended the board in front of Ranma started to glow an eerie green. A glow that only Ranma could see which drew his attention was back on the Go board.
"Ranma stop it this instant. Stop saying those weird things. There is no one here but you, me and Tendou." Genma said sternly.
"Is your son alright, Genma?" Soun asked, worried about his future son-in- law.
With his attention back on at the board, Ranma took a step back. Towering over both his father and friend was a white ghost. He was dressed in something like his Summer Festival clothing. In the ghost right hand was a fan. As the ghost opened his eyes, Ranma could not but help notice how purple his eyes were.
Shaking himself out of the daze, he looked frantically for a place to run and hide in. Ranma got desperate when he saw that the ghost had surrounded him.
"I don't wanna disappear!" Ranma wailed, remembering the entire lesson his father had just taught him.
*I will now return. Return to the living world.*
Those two sentences were the last things Ranma heard as blackness swept through his conscious.
Seeing his son fall unconscious, Genma jumped to his feet and had gathered Ranma in his arms in a heartbeat. "Ranma! What's wrong?" Genma pleaded. "Tendou call a doctor!"
"I'm right on it. There is a family doctor only a few blocks away. Let's carry him there."
"Right!" Genma answered. *Nodoka's gonna kill me.*
* * * * *
"Don't worry about anything, Anoi-san. You are in perfect health," Dr. Tofu commented.
Smiling at the kind doctor, "Thank you, sensei," she said. Look at the young man behind the doctor, "I wish you the best of luck Chinmi-chan when you go back to Tokyo University. Such a handsome and kind young man."
Blushing at the compliment, Chinmi looked at his father and smiled. *Someday I'll be the one that will respond to that title, 'Doctor Tofu.'* "Thank you Anoi-san," he replied.
"Hahahaha. Someday my son will take over this clinic. Now all my wife and I need to do is find the boy a wife."
Before Chinmi could respond, the front door burst open as two men ran into the clinic. The heavier set man was carrying a small child.
Doctor Tofu glanced up, a bit startled at the interruption but quickly responded due to years of training. "Soun, what's the matter?"
"The boy fell unconscious," Genma answered.
"Ranma was babbling about ghosts and started to get hysterical and then fainted," Soun finished the explanation.
"What Tendou meant was he fell unconscious," Genma corrected his friend.
"Yes, yes," Dr Tofu smiled gently, trying to calm the two.
Directing the two men over to his examination table. Once the boy was lying on the table, he started to examine the young man. First checking the left and right eye then examining his breathing and heart beat, everything seems fine.
It was only when Doctor Tofu looked more deeply at the boy, beyond the flesh, did he sense something was wrong. *The boy's ki is'nt right. There seems to be something strange going on.*
"What's the matter doctor," Genma asked, disrupting Tofu's concentration. When the doctor didn't respond right away, Genma started to panic even more. *Nodoka's gonna kill me.*
"Chinmi, take Genma and Soun outside. I need silence," Tofu commanded.
Jumping up at the sudden command, Chinmi swiftly ushered both martial artists and Anoi-san outside.
* * * * *
Waking up, Ranma noticed that everywhere he looked, it was completely black.
"Where am I?" Ranma wondered.
"In your mind," a voiced answered as the blackness disappeared, this time white light surrounded him.
"Who are you" Ranma asked.
"Fujiwarano Sai," the ghost responded.
"Am I going to disappear?" Ranma asked, a bit afraid of the answer.
"Hehehe, no you are not. Don't worry."
"Sai? What are you?"
In reaction to the question, the white light that had surrounded Ranma faded away until a man placing stones in front of a Go board similar to the one that his father was playing on appeared.
"I was a sensei to the emperor of Japan during the Heian Period. I and one other taught him Go at the Capital." A man appeared across the board from. Surrounding him were two very pretty ladies.
Ranma could sense the pride and joy that memory brought Sai. The next sentence proved he was right.
"Day after day, I played Go and was very happy." There was a pause before Sai continued.
Ranma was mesmerized, this was like those stories his mother told him each night before he went to sleep.
"One day, the other instructor told the emperor that he did not need two tutors. One was good enough. He suggested that me and I should play a game and the winner would stay and continue to teach Go to the emperor."
"You two played right? Who won?" Ranma asked.
There was another pause. This time the surroundings changed. Sai was still sitting down next to the goban but another man had replaced the young emperor. Surrounding the two were lots of people. The emperor was also there, behind a curtain.
"I was white and my opponent was black. The game proceeded evenly until that fateful event that changed my life. Even now it was unbelievable that under the watchful eyes of so many men that only I saw it. In the goke, amiss all of his black stones there was a single white piece. When he saw a chance he picked up the white stone and placed it in his captured pile."
"So he cheated," Ranma muttered.
"When I was about to bring up the subject, he was quicker and accused me of cheating instead. I lost my composure and lost the game. With the charge of cheating hanging over me I was chased out of the Capital. Without my livelihood I had no reason to live. Two days later I drowned myself."
"Why!" Ranma shouted. "My father does it all the time. It is just for fun!" It was as if Sai did not hear him as the scenery changed again, this time it was a lake. At the edge of the lake Ranma saw Sai. Slowly the Go sensei walked towards the middle of the lake till his head had disappeared beneath the water. "Sai!" Ranma shouted.
To be continued.