Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and whoever she sold the rights to.
With a relieved sigh Shampoo plopped down her backpack and gazed out at the scenery around her. Hills, trees, rocks and some open fields. About as perfect as Shampoo was going to find in this country.
Two days ago she had left her great-grandmother Cologne on a solo journey to improve her stagnant martial arts skills. Cologne had supplied her with weeks worth of instructions and exercises to get her past the lull she had found herself in. Shampoo was eager to go through the books that Cologne had loaned her.
Shampoo had felt a little guilty in leaving her great-grandmother to tend to the restaurant without her help (especially with only Mousse around) but had been reassured that it wouldn't be a problem. Cologne was planning on hiring some part-time workers while she was gone and possibly keeping a few of them when she returned. That way it would free up more of Shampoo's time to concentrate on more personal matters, namely Ranma.
However, as much as Shampoo wanted to, she had to try to keep thoughts of Ranma to the back of her mind and focus on her current tasks. So far things had gone well especially where the weather was concerned. No sudden rain falls had activated her Jusenkyo curse during her trip nor had the forecast called for rain any time soon. Nothing had slowed her progress to this spot, the spot Cologne said was the same one used for Ryoga Hibiki's Breaking Point training.
Shampoo shuddered involuntarily at the thought of slamming boulders repeated into her frame, the process to learn the infamous technique. Luckily, she had no plans of torturing herself through the Breaking Point training this trip. Instead, after taking about a half hour to set up her camp and quickly consulting a manual that she had been studying on her way here, Shampoo located a small spot of grass and set down an incense burner. She lit the burner then sat down cross-legged next to it. Shampoo then took several minutes to clear her mind and slow down her body's heart rate all the while breathing in the fumes from the burning incense. Soon she entered the frame of mind that would allow her to begin the first part of her great-grandmother's training.
Shampoo blinked rapidly as her senses came back to her. Looking around didn't accomplish much since all she could perceive was a grayish landscape that was completely flat and faded as far as she could see against a slightly lighter gray sky. No source of light was found either. Not wasting any more time, Shampoo concentrated upon herself. Immediately, a black figure began to materialize in the air in front of her like a ball of putty being stretched by invisible fingers. Four dark thin strands protruded out of the body of the main blob while a lump formed on the top. Concentrating further, Shampoo's thoughts defined the protrusions until it became obvious that the four strands were legs and arms, both with a set of feet and hands and the lump formed a head and face with long flowing dark hair following shortly after.
Shampoo stopped her concentration and looked at her progress. An almost exact replica of herself stood waiting in front of her. Almost in the fact that her double was naked, missing details in the more intimate areas of her body and was completely black in color. It was hard for Shampoo to make out the definitions of her body or her facial features.
'It will have to do for now,' Shampoo thought with a frown. 'Great-Grandmother's manual told me that it would take several tries to get my Shadow to look just like me. Still, I was hoping for a better first try.'
Curious, Shampoo walked up to it, took one of it's arms in her hand and gave it a squeeze. There was no warmth to it and she couldn't feel a pulse but otherwise it felt like any other arm. She let go and was relieved that she hadn't done any damage to the appendage. She had been afraid that she would leave indents where her fingers had closed around but apparently the unmoving figure's body reacted to normal touch. Tentatively, Shampoo poked at the round protrusions on her Shadow's chest. Even though they lacked nipples the figure's breasts felt like the real thing.
Removing her hands and feeling foolish and not a touch disturbed with herself, Shampoo stepped back and took a battle stance. She mentally gave a command and her Shadow finally moved by going into a stance as well. With only a moment to prepare herself Shampoo charged at her doppelganger and opened up with a quick kicking and punching combination that lacked any real power. She needed to test just how good this Shadow of hers was first and didn't want to risk breaking it.
She needn't have worried since her Shadow began moving and absorbed or dodged her attacks using its upraised arms and legs. Suddenly it took hold of one of Shampoo's outstretched hands, gave it a painful twist which caused Shampoo to yelp in pain then pivoted to do an over the shoulder throw to have Shampoo land hard against her back. Completely taken by surprise Shampoo was helpless as her Shadow flipped her over onto her stomach, grabbed both arms and held them up as far as they could go against her back. While Shampoo was still collecting her wits the double used its legs to spread Shampoo's own to prevent any leverage in that area.
The whole exchange had lasted lest than five seconds.
Luckily for Shampoo's continued health her Shadow didn't continue its attack. Instead it held Shampoo down with its nonliving body using the strength that Shampoo had given it. With the action now over Shampoo was finally able to get her thoughts in order.
"This sucks!"
That pretty much summed it up in Shampoo's opinion. With effort Shampoo reigned in her emotions and mentally commanded the Shadow to stop attacking. Without a word the Shadow let go of its hold and stepped back to its original position. Shampoo's recovery was much more vocal and less graceful. She sat up while cradling her throbbing wrist then gave a disgusted groan as she continued her way to her feet. Unconsciously, she began applying pressure to specific areas of her wrist to ease the pain then angrily stopped herself.
"Stupid," she said aloud. "You're in a dreamscape. You can just make it better." Putting action to words she simply thought about having a healthy wrist until all the pain was gone. She twisted her arm and hand around experimentally to be sure that everything felt right then turned to regard her Shadow once again.
"This time I'm not holding back." She got into a much tighter stance this time and once she was ready gave the command for her Shadow to attack again.
Two hours later Shampoo opened her eyes to the real world. It took her several seconds to reorient herself to reality and the first thing that she noted was that the shadows of her camping area were longer than they had been when she had started her meditation. It had been a few hours past noon so now the day was getting closer to evening. The next thing that came to her attention was her stomach grumbling.
Blinking the last of the fogginess out of her head Shampoo began cleaning up her meditation area along with the now spent incense. Cologne had given her over two dozen uses and Shampoo hoped that it would be enough to see her through. Soon after she began making dinner. While going through the simple tasks she began thinking over the newest exercise of her training regime.
The technique was simply called the "Shadow Puppet" exercise. It was an improved method that originally had the trainee use special smoke to make their shadow come to life but was abandoned once it was discovered that the shadow could take a life of its own and cause trouble. The new process was used by inhaling a special incense and entering a dream like state where the trainee could create an exact replica of themselves to spar against. The "shadow" was as strong and fast as the trainee and knew the styles and techniques of the trainee as well. The exercise was used to mentally help detect areas that needed improving as well as test newly learned moves to determine how effective they were. However, since the exercise happened completely in the head it did not translate to stronger and faster muscles once the trainee awoke but it did help with improving skill. Another downside was that the Shadow could only be "programmed" with the user's current knowledge of martial arts and fighting against the same opponent would not help much with developing battlefield tactics. Still, without an extra person around to spar against the exercise was useful in getting an overall look at the trainee's current level.
And after Shampoo's first disastrous attempt at fighting her Shadow she had found out exactly that. Her subsequent tries had been more successful and she had been able to consistently fight the Shadow to a standstill. Not surprising because she was fighting herself but her quick defeat at the beginning had been humbling to say the least. Once she had gotten past the shock she had really cut loose against her twin and had quickly found the holes that needed to be fixed in her style. It was quite sobering to be her own critic and have to bear witness to all the bad habits that she had developed. It was one thing for Cologne to tell her what to correct when she trained her and quite another for Shampoo to actually see it herself.
'I can't believe how soft I've become,' Shampoo thought irritably as she ate her dinner. 'If Ukyo hadn't fought me that day I would still be back there getting weaker by the hour in that restaurant. I guess I owe her though. Maybe when I get back I can thank her by whooping her butt all the way from my place back to hers.' Shampoo smiled wickedly at the image that that thought brought up. It would certainly make her feel better to be the undisputed queen of martial arts in Nerima again.
Now in a better mood, Shampoo continued her eating. Once she was done she got ready for bed and the trials that awaited her tomorrow.
Shampoo used the next two days to concentrate on kata, speed and strength building. It was very boring and tedious work but it had to be done to fix the problems she had encountered with her Shadow. She wouldn't be able to work on the new material Cologne had given her until she was satisfied with ironing out the flaws in her style.
As she practiced she could almost hear her great-grandmother saying, "If you can't perfect the basics then there's no point in advancing into what you youngins' call 'The flashy techniques.' You'll only experience defeat otherwise." It was that phrase or something similar that Shampoo had had to endure through all the years that she had spent training under the ancient master. She had heard it enough to seriously consider if Cologne was deliberately trying to stifle her progress. While Shampoo loved her great-grandmother dearly there were times she wished that Cologne would finish shriveling up and die.
Thoughts like that though were not too constructive in bettering her skills and Shampoo was determined to make her time out here count. She took her time in performing a graceful and challenging form to focus on her movements then blasted through another as fast and hard as possible to push against her limits. When her body became too tired to continue Shampoo dueled with her Shadow on the mental side to make sure that she was improving.
Finally, on the third day Shampoo felt ready to move on. She leafed through the pages of the manual that Cologne had given her until she reached the section she had left off on. After only a few paragraphs Shampoo stared at the manual with utter shock. It was a new section that Cologne must have recently written and bound into the book since the penmanship differed from the original author and the pages were crisp and white compared to the crinkly and yellow pages from earlier.
"How can great-grandmother expect me to do this?" Shampoo said barely above a whisper.
It read:
"The basics and advanced forms of the Joketsuzoku style have been covered up till now. It is now time to begin incorporating a style that I have recently been reintroduced to that will help correct deficiencies that I have become aware of. I am no doubt going to receive incredible criticism from my contemporaries but I believe that in order for our style to keep any credibility and relevancy in the martial arts community then it's inevitable to evolve and change to keep ourselves from being outdated.
This style is called Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū but is better known as Anything Goes. It was first introduced to us several hundred years ago when a wondering man known as Happosai came to our area. I won't elaborate on the disaster that happened with his 'visit.' However, it seems that in resent years Happosai was able to pass on some of his teachings to two individuals, Soun Tendo and Genma Saotome. Of the two Genma Saotome is the only one that seems to have advanced the style any further by creating a specialty in air combat. It is this specialty that I want included into the Joketsuzoku style since our current midair combat system relies more on acrobatics with few attacks.
The pages following contain sketches of the forms that I have witnessed from the current practitioners. They are as complete as I can make them from only viewing the forms on a few rare occasions. Eventually, I will be requesting that the current masters of the Saotome style begin training the newest generation of warriors from our village. Unfortunately, this cannot happen until personal matters that I will not go into are settled. Until then I am forced to scrutinize the style from a distance and make whatever notes I can. Good luck to those that are attempting this training and I hope to update this manual with more complete details sometime soon.
Cologne of the Joketsuzoku."
Shampoo set down the book and took a few minutes to let sink in what her great-grandmother was asking her of. To learn a challenging and complicated new style from just a handful of drawings. What was her great-grandmother thinking?! Did she expect to have her beloved's air style mastered by the time she got back? While she'd love to learn Ranma's signature martial arts she had expected to learn it from him and by his side as he helped her move through the air like a bird in flight.
Moaning in defeat, Shampoo wondered how she was expected to accomplish this. It wasn't like she was Ranma himself who seemed to learn new martial arts skills overnight. While she had no problems admitting that Ranma was the superior fighter it seemed that Cologne thought differently. Apparently Cologne was expecting her to learn what Ranma had spent his entire life perfecting.
It was while Shampoo was sulking over this dilemma, a memory from younger years came to mind. Belatedly, she realized that this wasn't the first time that she had been challenged to learn physical activities from hand drawings or even written material. Her tracking mentor, Ruikai Xun, had once left a message on her front door simply telling her to track and catch a wild boar. At the time it seemed well past her current level of trapping rabbits and she was about to head over to his home to demand what he was thinking when her great-grandmother had stopped her.
"Think about this, young one," Cologne had said. "Xun wouldn't have sent that message if he didn't think you would be ready. He must believe that you have all the necessary skills to accomplish what he's tasked you with.
"Will it be difficult? Most definitely. However, it is these types of challenges that truly define who you are and what you will become. To take the skills that you currently know to go beyond your abilities."
Young Shampoo had been skeptical but she trusted her great-grandmother. That night and most of the next week she had experimented, stalked, baited and eventually caught a 200 pound boar using a heavily modified rabbit trap. Both Ruikai Xun and Cologne had been impressed when she showed them her catch and Ruikai Xun had given her pointers on how to improve for next time.
The more Shampoo thought about that time the more confident she became. Firming her features with resolve, she turned the page of the manual to the sections that contained Cologne's drawings. As her great-grandmother had written the pages here showed depictions of the forms of the Saotome school of martial arts. The drawings were simple stick figures and motion lines but they were distinct and organized well. The drawings were also in pencil rather than the ink from previously in the book and Shampoo could make out several eraser marks where corrections were made. It seemed Cologne had gone for practicality rather than spiffy designs, with the ability to make changes later.
As Shampoo turned through the pages something fell out of the manual and landed in her lap. She placed the manual down and picked up the piece of folded paper that must have been wedged into the binding of the book. When she unfolded it she found that it was another message. All it read was:
"Good luck, Shampoo."
'Great-grandmother is testing me, to see how much I can learn,' Shampoo realized. 'Well, it's time to show her just what I can do.'
