Hi every body this is the second chapter of my story. Like always: I owe nothing
To Lordjohnstang
Again thanks for the review I really appreciate it.
Now without further stalling:
The Pill of the Sleeping Dragon Chapter 2
Your not talKing about the pill of the sleeping dragon are you elder? Tofu asked with an worried expression. Yes I am but no matter what we have to wait for him to wake up and then explain everything to him, it has to be his decision in the end.
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Two weeks passed since the incident and Akane was getting frustrated, Ranma was avoiding her and her friends in school looked at her wary. As if they were afraid of her, but that couldn't be, could it? They had to know it was all Ranmas fault, right? Her father and Mr Saotome said so too. It was all Ranmas fault like always, even her own Sister turned cold … well colder towards her. When Ranma started to avoid her and was missing for hours after school she got angry and accused him of cheating on her, to her surprise Ranma didn't stutter some apology or anything he just looked at her and shook his head sadly then walked away. Of course that didn't sit well with her and she was talKing herself into one of her usual rants about him being a pervert and of course the Fathers went right along calling him honourless and a disgrace and whatnot.
That is until NabiKi had finally enough.
"Would you just shut up already!" NabiKi literarily screamed at her shocKing everybody present into silence.
"Ranma did not cheat on you, for the last few days he went straight from school to the Hospital with Cologne to help Kazuo. You haven't forgotten about him right Akane? After all you nearly Killed him."
"That wasn't my fault, its all because of Ranma!" Akane defended hotly.
"Just keep telling that to yourself." NabiKi replied with her famous Icequeen facade going on.
In the Hospital a boy slowly regained consciousness. He felt weaker than ever before and was barely able to move at all and even the smallest movement was painfull. He looked around the room untill he realised he was in a Hospital but he had no Idea why exactly. The only thing he remembered was the sudden pain and then the darkness. Exhausted even from those small attempts to remember and to move he fell back to sleep…
The next Day
Ranma and Cologne were visiting the Hospital like every day in the past two weeks. Everyday they had slowly pushed some Ki into him and use every little knowledge of 4000 years of Amazon Healing Arts in order to help Kazuo to recover. And three days the efforts paid of. Every day he seamed to get stronger and healthier. When they entered his room that day they saw him talking to a nurse who was changing the wrappings for his broken ribs. When the nurse finally left the room was shrouded in silence, nobody really knowing what to say until finally Kazuo started.
"I guess I have to thank the both of you, the doctor told me that I owe my life to you, he said he was amazed that I survived and healed that fast and told me that you both are the reason for that. I don't really remember what happened but still im gratefull to the both of you."
"Don't mention it, it was my fault anyway." Ranma said with his hand behind his head and a somewhat sheepish smile.
"Nonsense Son in Law, there was nothing you could have done, but that's neighed here nor there, what's important is that you my boy are not out of danger yet."
Taking a quick look at Kazuo's confused expression she started to explain everything to him.
"So let me get this straight, everybody has Ki or Life Energy, and Martial Artists can use that to strengthen or heal themselves and create weapons like that Mallet Akane used." Kazuo asked still struggling to get things straight, seeing both his visitors nod he continued.
"And Ranma was forced to inject his Ki into me to start healing me or I would have died, problem is that action started my Ki to work on healing myself but since I have neither control nor the reserves I will die anyway if I don't get regular Ki injections, since I cant stop myself from using up my Ki? Like a car with a stuck gas pedal whose tank is running empty?"
"While that isn't the most accurate comparison its basically correct." The Elder answerd
"You have a two possibilities here. You learn control of your Ki which will probably take a few years while you get regular injections of Ki from either Ranma or me, which I would strongly suggest since it's the safest way, but you would be dependent on us and will be severely exhausted until you get enough control. The other would be to force your body to produce an extreme amount of Ki. Since only a master can control foreign Ki inside his body the only way would be by taking the Pill of the sleeping Dragon, by creating such an amount of your own Ki you should be able to feel and control it enough to force yourself to stop using up that much Ki. The problem with that is that if you aren't able to control it fast enough your body wont be able to handle to produce and release that much Ki for long, you'll have half an hour at best to gain that control. Either way you still would have to learn proper control. In the end its your choice, I suggest you take your time and think about it." Cologne ended her rather long explenation.
With that both of them left after making sure to give him enough Ki for the day.
The next three days Kazuo was awake for most of the night thinking things over.
'Two times already have I been powerless to do anything. First my parents die and I can't do anything about it, then I nearly die because of that Akane's goddamn anger. No there is no way I will be dependant on others any longer, I'll take control of my own life even if it might kill me!' With his decision made he finally went to sleep.
The next day Kazuo waited for Elder Cologne and Ranma to arrive and told them about his decision.
"Your absolutely sure you want to use the pill?"
"Yes I am, I will take control of my own life and stop just watching it pass by me. Also I want to learn to protect myself and learn Martial Arts. I remember Ranma telling me about the people he knows and how strong they are. I refuse to be a weak bystander any longer."
"If that is your wish then I will accept that and provide you with the pill, and I believe son in law here will be an excellent teacher, even if he himself has still many things to learn. We will begin preparing you for your gamble the best we can, so I'm going to teach you an meditation method and an unique breathing technique, this will be the only help you get from me aside from providing you the pill, and that is only because my great granddaughter was partly responsible for what happened no matter how small her role was. Anything more and I would be breaking village laws. In fact I'm not allowed to teach you anything but since Son in Law here could use this technique to refine his control there is no problem with me teaching him, you just happened to be in the same room." Cologne said with a small grin shared by both Ranma and Kazuo.
" Now listen closely this technique is called the Kokyuu no Kurosora (Breathing of the Black Sky). It was said to have been created by a man only known as the Ryou no Kyuubudo (Dragon of Nine Arts) I have to admit I was never able to completely master it since there is nearly no information of that technique and only the absolute basic is taught from teacher to student. Even in the 4000 years of Amazon history this technique is only a legend and many believe it to be just that. Even thou it is incomplete this technique has the potential to be extremely efficient, since every student is improving it in his own ways in order to truly master it there is no saying what the limit is. That said listen closely since I will only explain this once…" With that she went ahead with a detailed explanation about what she knew about the technique and what her thoughts were on the ways to improve or finish it. After that she made sure both boys understood the basics and were doing them correctly.
Nearly a week later Cologne finally said that Kazuo's body was in the best condition it would be and he was ready to take the pill. Of course Kazuo used all his free time to practise what he knew of the Kokyuu no Kurosora but he wasn't able to feel any Ki in his body. The only indication that he was actually doing it right were comments from both Tofu and Cologne saying his Ki seemed to flow slightly more smoothly.
Ranma was getting ready for the day and he was quite nervous, that didn't happen often … well apart from the times he was around one of his fiancés but that didn't count. Today was the day Kazuo would take the pill and literally take a gamble with his life as the ante. As a Martial Artist Ranma always knew what he was risking and was able to find some kind of inner peace with putting his life on the line in order to become the best and to protect those precious to him if need be. But watching somebody who was obviously weaker than him and with barely any training and by no means a Martial Artist, do the same thing because he refused to let his life be controlled by others or even Fate itself if Fate truly existed, was something he hadn't seen or even imagined before and he could not help but feel some kind respect for the boys resolve and determination. In the last week Ranma wasn't able to talk much with Kazuo since the moment he went inside the Hospital with Cologne until the moment they left was the only time he could get any break from all the chaos around him. Even after Kazuo was released from Hospital a week ago they still met there for his daily recharge. Only once was he able to get a break from all the chaos and that one time his curiosity made him follow Kazuo to a clearing on a hill near a old shrine which was surrounded by a thick forest on one side and gave you an great view over most of the city.
Ranma watched him sit down in a meditative position and focused on his breathing. He was impressed with the effort Kazuo was putting into it even if it had to exhaust him since he still didn't have any kind of real control.
He could tell it was working if just slightly. Even with his in comparison to Cologne of Tofu's weak Ki sensing ability he could feel the boys weak Ki flow more easily.
Kazou was apparently in his own world, he didn't even seem to notice the squirrel which was approaching him and studding him curiously.
After nearly 15 minutes of studding Kazuo meditate Ranma decided to get to it himself and sat down a few feet away from him and also concentrated on honing his skills in the Kokyuu no Kurosora.
He could tell he was doing it right as he managed to slowely get slightly better control each time he used it and was becoming faster with reaching previous levels of control.
Somehow he knew that there was way more behind this technique than he knew and it would still take some time before he could use it in an actual fight since it was very different to what his father had taught him.
When he felt Kazuo moving next to himself he also came out of his meditation and was shocked to realize that several hours seemed to have passed judging from the nearly dropped sun.
Kazuo couldn't help but to start laughing at Ranma's expression.
"Yeah I made the same face the first time I meditated here. I like the peace and calm of this place, my parents often came here with me when I was still crawling around. Time just seems to flow differently around here."
Ranma just nodded to this, since he had no idea what to say, sure his childhood wasn't exactly a happy one and his pop was … well his pop … but still he knew he had both his parents and they loved him even if they showed it in a strange way.
After a few seconds of silence he asked.
"Your really sure about all this? I mean I understand about wanting to learn the Ki control but why do you want to use the pill instead of learning it the save way, your no Martial Artist after all?"
"I know I'm no Martial Artist yet but I want, no I need control over my life. My parents died and I couldn't do anything about it and now I nearly died and again I couldn't do anything. Being confronted with death and your own helplessness changes you. I simply can not keep living that way, I know it sounds cliché and overly dramatic but I rather die trying to take control of my life than letting it be controlled by anyone els but me." He said with a serious face until he continued with a grin.
"Fate herself can fuck off for all I care." That of course got the wished reaction from Ranma since he himself often cursed the gods and wanted to tell them the exact same thing
"Anyway Cologne told me pretty much the same thing you did about how strong someone can get and that you are the most promising Martial Artist of this generation. She also said that you simply refuse to give up and don't lose no matter the odds, and that is something I admire, so I'm asking you to teach me and help me take control of my life." He said all that while looking Ranma straight into the eyes.
Ranma was again surprised by the pure determination in Kazuo's eyes and after a few seconds he answer.
"I will teach you. I am no master yet but I will help you no matter what."
It came out in a honest and strong voice, filled not with Ranma's usual confidence but rather with respect and determination.
With a simple nod and a small smile of thanks Kazuo made his way home leaving Ranma alone to his thoughts.
Usually Ranma would have boosted about being the best there is when being asked something like that, but some small voice in his head stopped him this time.
It made him answer honestly by asking him one single question.
'How can I stand before Herb and Saffran without giving up to help others, but having any control of my own live seems impossible to do? And here he is, not standing a chance against any of what I faced, and nearly dieing because of what happened and he is starting on his way to do what I apparently can't. What right do I have to call myself the best?'
With that Ranma made his own way back to the Tendo dojo, no doubt Akane would be throwing a tantrum again and the Fathers would join her side like always.
Even so he was happy to know that Nabiki wasn't supporting Akane anymore and stopped blackmailing him for money, sure she still sold pictures of him and was taking bets and all but they had come to some kind of mutual agreement and were now working together.
To his surprise Kasumi was also acting a little colder towards Akane, he never thought it was possible for her to act cold to anybody but she stopped protecting and defending her, now she was stating brutally blunt truths, they were all under the cover of her blissfully unawareness of course.
It was funny really how she was able to casually do that as if it was perfectly normal thing to say:
"Akane sometimes you act like a spoiled little bitch" ( well ok she said princess but he knew what she meant.) in the same sentence and voice with: "Oh my, do you want any more tea?"
Every time she did it Akane, Soun and Genma were staring at her in pure shock, while she had a serene and blissfully unaware smile donned on. And every time both Ranma and Nabiki were struggling a loosing battle to not outright roll on the floor laughing their ass off.
Most of the time they had to excuse their self and storm of into another room.
In fact the first time Ranma nearly choked to death on his rice and Nabiki did a classical spit-take of tea right into her fathers face.
Laughing slightly at the memory Ranma he finished breakfast. He had sworn to himself that he would help Kazuo take control of his life and he would also do so for himself even if he had to get help to do it. With that he made his way towards the clearing were Kazuo would risk it all.
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Well that's it for the second Chapter.
Now with that done I'm currently looking for good Darkfics mainly from Ranma or Naruto were they take control of their life or are getting revenge. I have quite some trouble finding them and as there seem to be mainly two categories of them:
The "Hero" having some kind of revenge but forgiving everybody in the end.
Or the "Hero" having actually revenge without forgiving them all and making his own way no mater if that is being good or evil.
A great example even if its clearly for more mature readers and quite a bit over the top but nonetheless hilarious and greatly written would be "Everyone has darkness" or " Way of the Rattlesnake" both by Darthemius.
To make it short I'm hopping for suggestions in the form of an Title and an Author name^^
Anyway thanks for reading my story and please review.
Other than that, have fun reading.
Desh
