A Price
"He's barely spoken, grandmother," Mei sighed as she looked out of the window, her deep blue hair was secured back into a loose bun and she had cake flour smeared on her cheek from cooking all day. Since Shampoo's birth, Mei had become something of a housewife, opting to rather cook for her husband than train in the fields.
"It's only been a few weeks," Cologne put forward wisely, "You can't expect him to be over his father's death already…"
"But he wont cry either," Mei shook her head, adding a little more pepper to the soup, "I know he's a strong boy, but not to shed a single tear? And the nightmares grandmother, he screams each night, shying away from some nameless terror. I've tried asking him about it, but he just deflects me!"
She added in more pepper.
"I understand," Cologne said seriously, eyeing the soup pot a little nervously; just how much pepper was she adding to it? "But until he's ready to open up, there is little we can do. We have no idea what horrors that boy and his father saw."
"His father?" Mei scowled, "Oh, I would like to give that man a piece of my mind…"
"Respect the dead," Cologne cautioned softly.
"Respect?" her granddaughter looked livid, "Whatever dreams haunt the child now are completely and utterly that Saotome's fault!"
She kept adding pepper.
"Isnt that-?" Cologne began, gesturing to the soup, but Mei was on a role.
"I mean, there is only so much training you can put a small boy like that through," she complained, all the while shaking pepper in the soup, "I-I just wish I could…"
She trailed off and sighed yet again.
"I don't know grandmother, what do the other elders say?"
Cologne's lips pursed.
Here came the crutch of the matter. In the weeks since the child's arrival, Cologne had been defending her position tooth and nail. Her plan to foster the boy amongst them had been met with suspicion. She could not blame them on that score, she supposed. The boy was a stranger, practically blown in on the wind for all they knew of him. There was a strong belief that the best course of action would be to deliver him to the Japanese Embassy and be done with it. Cologne had found no passport or travel papers amongst the little belongings the boy and his father had brought with them. For she knew, they were both in the country illegally.
"They do not like the idea of me training a boy," she said slowly.
"Training?" Mei blinked, "You want to train Ranma? Why?"
"The boy is an heir to Anything Goes Martial arts," Cologne looked thoughtful, "I knew someone a long time ago of the same school. He…disappointed me beyond any forgiveness. Its strange, but I feel like I could have a second chance with this boy."
Mei's gaze softened.
"I see," she said and tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Does the child have any talent?"
"I don't know," Cologne admitted, "But if he does, I will train him, despite what the other elders say."
Mei nodded, her thoughts turning to the small boy who had entered their home so abruptly. He was such a sweetheart, perhaps a little hesitant and brash, but sweet all the same. He seemed confused at first on how to act around females, but she had no doubts that he would adjust well into the tribe. If given the chance.
She stirred the soup.
"Will you be staying for lunch, grandmother?"
Cologne gave a start, eyeing the soup.
"No, my dear," the elder said lightly, "I think I will wonder down to the training hall, see how the boy is holding up."
Mei watched her grandmother leave, shrugged and took a sip of her soup. Her eyes watered as she spluttered on the peppery liquid and grappled for a glass of water.
~R1/2~
Ranma scowled at Shampoo.
It had been three weeks since his father's death and the little Amazon girl had given him no peace. Though they could hardly understand each other, he understood quite well what she thought of him. Not one of her comments and snide looks had gone unnoticed by the small pigtailed martial artist. He had learned within the first few days of his stay in the village that boys were not thought of very highly and he felt more than a little annoyed by the fact.
He watched her practice her sparing and tried to keep a tight lip from criticizing her stance and her form. It was all he could do to get to his feet and show her exactly how it was done. She stepped too wide and her blocks weren't fast enough, but for some reason, no one faulted her for it. The adults around her would smile and praise her progress as she defeated opponent after opponent.
Ranma found this odd. Pops had never given him a good word, only showed him how to do it better and when Ranma did succeed, all he got was the non-committal nod and maybe a smile. But that was how his father was and from a young age Ranma had learned to accept it.
At the memory of Genma Saotome, Ranma felt a funny pinching sensation in his chest. A small voice in the back of his head cried; Daddy! Daddy's dead!
Ranma squashed it, letting rage fill him instead.
Not Daddy, he berated himself, Pops. The stupid old man is gone, nothing I can do about it.
He left me all alone! The voice persisted.
I can take care of myself! He snapped back.
He brought up memories of the times his Pops had traded him for food.
But he always came back.
He remembered that Genma had never told him about his mother.
Maybe she's dead.
The pit then. The pit!
The voice had no answer for that and Ranma knew he had won the argument with himself.
But that just made him feel worse.
Returning his attention to the match, he watched as Shampoo took down yet another opponent and admitted reluctantly that she was marginally better than the other girls and even, on the rare occasion, boys she trained with. But, and this he couldn't help but give an internal, satisfied smirk for, he also noted that she wasn't as good as him. Half the things she did he had learned when he could barely walk.
He hadn't trained in three weeks, maybe longer, not since his Pops had taken ill in any case. He was silently glad for the short break to allow the worst of the cuts on his body to heal, but now he was growing restless. He needed to train. He wanted more than anything to get up in one of the training halls and go over his forms. He felt lost without the daily routine.
However, he dared not train. He had seen how the boys in the village who wanted to be martial artists were treated. They were a joke to the community and the only way to effectively learn a martial art was to seek apprenticeship to a master in another village. For this, a boy needed permission from an elder and those permission slips came in far and few between.
He thought of the elders besides Cologne, the ones who watched him like they expected him to run off with one of their daughters or something. They seemed wary of him and Ranma couldn't for the life of him understand why.
So no, he didn't think he could get permission if he tried.
Maybe he'd leave on his own. He was pretty good at looking out for himself now and he was sure he could find food when he needed it. Maybe he could make it back to Japan. Maybe he could find Ucchan…
"You seem restless, sonny?" the annoyingly familiar voice of the village elder Cologne said at his side, disrupting his thoughts.
"Its nothing old ghoul," he muttered miserably, watching as Shampoo commenced another fight.
"You wish to train," Cologne said wisely, pointedly ignoring the boy's rudeness with mild amusement. She gave him a playful tap with her cane, "Why not go out there, sonny boy? Lets see what you can do."
Ranma frowned and rose to his feet, preparing to leave.
"I don't fight girls," was all he said as he left the training hall, barely noticing the amused gaze of the village elder that followed him.
~R1/2~
"Hey! Wait up!"
Ranma turned in surprise to see a boy running after him. The kid was about his own age with long, dark hair and big, round glasses bouncing up and down on his head. Ranma paused to let him catch up, only to have the boy run past him to a nearby tree.
"Hey, you're the new kid," he said to the tree, "You're taller than I thought you were."
"Um," Ranma coughed, drawing the boy's attention towards him, "I'm over here."
The boy put his glasses on and blushed, whirling around to face Ranma, his cheeks flushed a little in embarrassment and he walked over with an apologetic look on his face.
"Oh right," he scratched the back of his head nervously, "Sorry about that, my eye sight isn't that great. I'm Mousse, by the way."
"Ranma," said Ranma, a small smile playing on his lips, "You speak Japanese real well."
Mousse grinned at the comment.
"Yeah," he said, "My dad is really proficient in languages and stuff. He made me learn."
"That's cool," Ranma ignored the pit in his stomach at the mention of a father, "So um, did ya need me for something?"
"Oh yeah, well you see," the blind boy looked a little sheepish, "I heard you were Shampoo's new foster brother."
Ranma just shrugged. Cologne had made no mention of him being sent back to Japan, so he supposed he was just staying here until the Amazons could think of something to do with him.
"Are you a martial artist?" Mousse carried on, not seeming to notice Ranma's expression.
Ranma was genuinely surprised by this statement and found himself nodding once more.
"Yeah," he said in disbelief, not having told anyone but the old ghoul about that, "How did you-?"
"The way you were watching the bouts," Mousse said smugly, "You looked like you knew every move the two fighters were going to make. You shook your head several times, always right before Shampoo beat someone. It was like you could see the end in sight. Either you watch way too much martial arts on TV, or you have experience."
Ranma could only nod.
"My-my Pops taught me," he muttered.
"Do you need a sparing partner?"
"Huh?" now Ranma was confused.
"None of the girls will spar with me seriously," Mousse continued, "I want to take an apprenticeship in a neighbouring village next year, but I also want to know I can become strong on my own. My mom's taught me some, but she's away a lot now. You need a practice partner, well so do I. We can help each other."
"I dunno…" Ranma began.
"Please!" Mousse begged, "I'll help you learn Chinese, I'll help you learn about the village, I'll do anything! Please!"
Ranma thought about it for a moment, it would be nice to be able to train again and he needed a male partner…it seemed like a win-win. He got to fight again and possibly get some help in learning Chinese.
"Alright," Ranma said, "You help me learn Chinese properly and I'll spar with ya! Deal?"
Mousse beamed and the two shook on it. Ranma grinned back, he wasn't quite sure yet, but he thought he might have made his first friend.
"So what do we do now?" Ranma wondered out loud.
"You want a tour of the village?"
Ranma nodded.
"Okay," he agreed, "That sounds-"
He suddenly froze, his entire body going rigid as his eyes caught sight of something.
"AAAHHHHHHHH!"
In an instant, Ranma shot himself up a tree, shivering and shaking like a leaf, Mousse looked around in shock for what had scared the boy, but all he saw within any close vicinity was…
A cat?
~R1/2~
Cologne rushed as soon as she heard the scream, but all she found was Mousse. He was a familiar face around her home, having had a long-standing infatuation with Shampoo since they were practically babies. The nearsighted lad had his glasses on for once and was staring straight up. Cologne followed his gaze to the boughs of nearby pine tree. There, clinging to one of the highest branches and shaking was Ranma. There were tears of fear in his eyes and he was as pale as a ghost.
"Child!" Cologne exclaimed, there was now a small crowd of onlookers coming towards her, "Whatever is the matter?"
Ranma looked down at her and pointed a shaking finger to something just beyond the tree. Cologne looked around, but her eyes only met the white fur of a stray cat.
"G-g-get it away!" the boy cried, "G-g-get that stupid c-c-c-that thing away!"
Cologne was confused, before her old mind started working into high gear. She hadn't seen a case like this in nearly a hundred years. In fact, she had thought the technique was sealed, how in the world…?
She snapped back, taking charge of the situation immediately.
"You!" she said, pointing to one of the onlookers, "Get that cat out of here. Now!"
"Stupid boy scared of cats!" Shampoo jeered with a laugh.
Cologne hadn't even noticed her great-granddaughter had followed her from the hall. For the first time, she felt a stab of fear in her heart. If her suspicions were correct, this situation could become very dangerous.
Perhaps the other elders were right about the boy.
"Not now!" Cologne snapped at her great-granddaughter, she looked up at Ranma, "It's okay Ranma, the cat is gone. You can come down now-"
"Meow!"
Cologne froze, her eyes going wide. She looked up the tree to see Ranma unfolding quite leisurely from his curled up position on the branch with a feline elegance and her heart stopped as she met twin catlike slits. She took an involuntary step back.
"I'm going to resurrect Genma Saotome, so that I can kill him for this," she muttered ruefully, she then looked to the people around her and said more clearly, "No one move a muscle!"
The cat like Ranma flexed and meowed, but didn't attack. Then, just as Cologne was trying to think of a way to get out of this mess, Ranma shot off in a flash and disappeared from sight.
Damn it!
"Search the village!" she shouted, "And if you find him, call me. Do not, I repeat, do not touch him until I arrive. Now go!"
She watched as all the gathered villagers dispersed, the same thing running through her mind as she jumped onto the nearest roof to get a better view. She hoped none of the villagers would be foolish enough to approach the boy in this state.
"The Neko-ken!" she muttered angrily, "Of all the foolish things! He trains the child in the Neko-ken! Genma Saotome, you fool! You idiotic fool! Just like Happosai and even he wasn't this stupid!"
She surveyed the village around her carefully and was relieved when she saw the small form of a boy moving on all fours towards…her granddaughter's home! She immediately leapt from the roof and took off after the Saotome child. She hadn't had so much excitement in years and almost chuckled with exhilaration as she darted after him. Despite the clear danger of the situation, she was glad that the child had finally shown something of his previous training. It showed that he might have potential, though how she was going to convince the other elders now was beyond her.
She followed him to Mei's home and watched curiously as the boy bounded into the kitchen and immediately crawled his way onto Mei's lap. She had been sitting in the living room with a book in hand. Her granddaughter looked shocked by the action and stared at the boy in dismay.
"Ranma?" she said softly, but the small boy curled up tighter into a ball and purred. Then, as though on cue, tears started to fall down the small boy's cheeks and soon his purrs turned into sobbing tears as he reverted back to his human mind. He kept clinging to Mei though and crying.
"Daddy!" he sobbed.
Cologne gave a small smile, this time the Neko-ken had acted on its most pressing need.
The need for comfort.
Ranma had not grieved the death of his father and she was happy to see the tears come from the small boy. As Mei wrapped her arms around him, Cologne turned away, knowing that she needn't worry over controlling the Neko-ken. Ranma trusted Mei enough to allow her to calm him.
She left him to his tears, her mind working with new possibilities.
~R1/2~
"….an adept of the Neko-ken!"
"He's too dangerous!"
"We should send him back to Japan."
"Lock him up! Lock him up!"
"It would be safer for the village!"
Cologne listened patiently to the arguments of the other elders whilst keeping an entirely calm look on her face. She waited until they died down before she spoke.
"I invoke the right of apprenticeship," she said calmly and clearly, "And eventual adoption."
"For who?" one of the elder's asked hesitantly, though Colonge knew every single one of them suspected the answer.
"Ranma Saotome."
Chaos broke out.
"…..against every law and tradition!"
"He's a boy!"
"You cannot adopt or apprentice a male!"
"Actually," Colonge spoke out loudly, "There is no law written by an Amazon that states the offer must be made to a female. It reads that the apprentice must be worthy. We only have laws dictating a male may not learn those techniques reserved in each family for women, there is nothing to stop me training the boy."
"Why do you want to do this?"
"I have a feeling about the child," Cologne said truthfully, "On his father's death bed I swore I would make him the best, I would not have done so if I thought he didn't have the potential. I gave my honour. I never go back on my word."
"You would really train a male to be the best?" one elder queried, "Not your own great granddaughter, but the child of a stranger?"
"I will train Xian Pu to the best of her abilities and she will be one of the best in our village, I tell you that," Cologne said testily, "But Ranma will not only have Amazon training, I will send him out every year to masters across China, he will be the best."
"You think he can handle so many different forms?" one elder asked, clearly disbelieving.
"He is a disciple of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts," Cologne decided to play on one of the Amazon's most basic desires; revenge, "I'm sure you all remember the lecher Happosai?"
There was a murmur of hatred around the room.
"Imagine this, to train one of his own disciples to be greater and stronger than him and then to set him loose on the old wretch. Imagine the insult."
Unsurprisingly, this idea the elders seemed to like.
"What of the Neko-ken?"
"He has chosen a maternal within the tribe, my own Mei," Cologne said firmly, "He can be controlled."
There was a chattering of murmured conversation as the assembly of women began discussing, bickering, shaking heads, shouting agreement and waving sticks in the air. Like most council discussions, it seemed like hours before the talk was done and silence finally reigned. Cologne waited patiently for their decision, her breath caught in her throat in anticipation.
"Very well," it was Lotion who spoke, she was probably the oldest of the elders assembled and highly respected amongst the tribe, "You may train him, but there is one condition."
"I thought there might," Cologne sighed inwardly and faced her comrade, "What is this condition?"
"If, when the time comes, Ranma is unable to defeat Happosai," she paused, looking solemn as though she too did not like the condition, "If he is unable to accomplish his purpose he will be useless to the tribe. Defeating Happosai will prove his final worth regardless of his gender. If he is unable to perform this task, you will execute him."
"What?" Cologne exclaimed, "That is a harsh punishment for failure, he may not win the first time, it may take a few attempts to finally defeat the cur. Ranma is-"
"He will never be a full Amazon," Lotion said, "Unless you plan to marry him to the tribe?"
Cologne had thought about that, all she would have to do was betroth him to a girl until he had reached marriageable age, but that came with its own set of problems. Every Amazon girl she knew grew up dreaming of being defeated by a brave and strong outsider male. There were few families who would let their daughters give up on this dream. She had even thought of offering her own great-granddaughter, Shampoo, but the thought of making her marry someone she would very well be growing up with and living with as an adopted sibling made her stomach churn.
Cologne shook her head.
"Then he will have to be adopted, but be warned Cologne; failure is not an option," Lotion gave a weary sigh, "I realize this is much to ask of the boy, but the only reason we have survived as a tribe this long is because we have preserved our secrecy. There are still many years before Ranma will have to face him, if the lech should appear again that is. You have the time to train him Cologne, but a price must be met. In exchange for the honour of being part of this tribe, despite his gender, he must give something up in return. Outsider males have given up their tribes and beliefs for centuries to be part of this; Ranma will be given no exception. He must either defeat Happosai, or die in the attempt; if he is unable to fulfil this, you must take his life yourself."
It was unfair. Hypocritical and unfair. If Ranma were a girl, they never would have placed this condition on her. There was something else about his presence that irked these elders, though Cologne couldn't quite put her finger on it. But now she had time. He would become a fosterling of the tribe until the day he could walk proudly as one of them. It wasn't what she had hoped for, but it was something.
"Ranma will defeat Happosai," Cologne said finally, her eyes hard, "I have sworn that he will be the best and that is what I will make him. Ranma Saotome will be an Amazon, mark my words on this."
~R1/2~
Ranma sat outside the training hall, his arms curled around his legs and his knees pushed to his chest. Embarrassment flooded his cheeks red and he fought back even more tears than those he had shed in front of Mei and the old ghoul. It was the first time since his father had put him through the training that he had relapsed into that state.
The sight of the cat had brought it all back, every single terrifying moment. The smell of fish, dirty fur and his own blood. Cats screeching and clawing at his flesh, him screaming, begging his father to let him out. He hated his father for it, hated him for the pain, for the humiliation and for the fear. He hated him most of all for leaving him alone to deal with it, alone in a place where he could only understand a few people, where most of them disliked him on sight and the rest ignored him as a nuisance.
He felt guilty then; his father was dead. Dead and gone. There was no one to blame, no one to take it out on, no one here to go all out with. He wanted to hit something, punch and hit so hard that it would hurt him too. He needed to feel something other than the pain in his chest and the guilt in his heart.
"Hello sonny," an aging voice cackled gently in his ear, "Where's Mei?"
Ranma gave a start, frantically wiping away the rogue tears that had begun to creep their way down his face.
"With Shampoo," he sniffed, remembering with a cringe the awkward moment when the annoying girl had walked in on him hugging her mother. The angry screech was still ringing in his ears.
"Ah," was all the Elder said and took a seat beside him on the ground, her walking stick propped up on her shoulder, "Do you know what happened to you today, sonny?"
Ranma winced.
"I turned into a cat," he said softly, biting down on his lip.
Cologne laughed.
"Not quite," she said with amusement, "You entered a type of berserker state, one that makes you act like a cat."
"Berserker?" Ranma turned to look at her in confusion, "What's that?"
She sighed, tapping her finger wearily on her cane.
"Difficult to explain," she said, "Traditionally, people usually develop the ability on their own, some are just predisposed to it I suppose. It usually comes out when they are extremely angry or in a life-threatening situation. The smell of blood has been known to be a trigger."
"I don't understand-" Ranma began.
"It's when a warrior becomes crazy in battle," she said, "He or she becomes unstoppable, without fear, without remorse. All they can do is fight and when it's over, they don't remember a thing."
Ranma's eyes widened at the description; is that was his father had done to him? Turned him into a monster? He remembered waking up in the back of a fish stall, full to the point of being sick, the place was wrecked and his father was wrapping him up in a blanket, trying to carry him away before the many shouting men could get to them. He remembered asking what had happened, he remembered his father's pale face, he remembered looking at a newspaper later and realizing he had lost three days.
"Your father," the Elder continued, "Subjected you to the Neko-ken, a technique that has been forbidden since its creation because of its many…disastrous side effects."
"Side effects?" Ranma dared ask in a trembling voice.
"An irrational fear of cats, psychological trauma and complete loss of sanity if it fails," she looked at him now, eyes taking a serious light, "The Neko-ken was designed by the Musk Dynasty a very long time ago. They were a race of people who had bred with animals and so had taken on those abilities. In the last days of that empire, the technique was created to maintain the bond between human and beast. It became an artificial method of creating berserkers and a flawed one. Instead of sending the adept into a rage, it creates an induced psychosis caused by their extreme fear of cats. Their strength, speed and prowess in battle are greatly increased, but they are at mercy to the instinct of the thing that they have come to fear most. Luckily the Dynasty fell before they could experiment with any other animals besides cats."
"How did Pops know about it then?" he asked curiously.
"The last copy of the Neko-ken was stored here for centuries, guarded and sealed," Cologne suddenly looked angry, "But a man came here, to my everlasting shame he tricked me and stole many of our treasures, included in this was the details of the Neko-ken. It is my belief, Ranma, that this man was your father's master, Happosai, Grand Master of the School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
Ranma's eyes widened.
"I never heard Pops talk 'bout him," he said weakly.
Cologne snorted.
"The man was a cruel pervert," she hissed, trapped in some terrible memory, "Your father was smarter than I gave him credit for if he removed all association."
Ranma remained silent, unsure of how to carry on. In his head he was going over everything that had happened. Had his father known the Neko-ken was dangerous to learn? Probably. Had he cared? Probably not.
Guilt and hate struck him again.
"So what happens now?" he whispered, "Ya said berserkers couldn't be controlled, does that mean-"
"There is a way to control it," Cologne smiled at him kindly, "When an adept of the Neko-ken trusts someone enough, he allows them to calm him down and returns to his sane mind. You chose someone today who you trust enough to do that."
"Mei," Ranma said softly and swallowed hard.
"You can stay here, but there is a condition."
"Condition?"
Cologne sighed heavily.
"This is not something I would want to put on the shoulders of an eight year old boy," Ranma was about to protest, but she silenced him with a wave of her hand, "Don't argue sonny, you're not even old enough to shave yet let alone deal with what I've got to tell you, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose."
He watched as she readjusted the way she sat, never once taking her eyes off him. Her wizened face looked even more haggard all of a sudden. She looked like this was the last thing she wanted to be telling him.
"I've spoken with the Council," Cologne tapped her cane, "And they have agreed to let me take you as an apprentice, perhaps leading to eventual adoption into the tribe."
Ranms gaped.
"Why would ya want me for an apprentice?" he blurted out before he could stop himself.
"Because I think you have potential," she grinned ruefully, "Your father made you drag him here for a reason; he wanted you to be the best and I swore on his death bed that I would make you so."
Ranma just stared at her. His father was always, always going on about him becoming the best, a man among men and a great martial artist. It was all he had ever known, all he had ever wanted. He had thought that dream was dead when his father died, thought it buried with him. No one else was going to push him like his father had and he had accepted that fact, but now…
"Why?" he chocked out.
Cologne regarded him, her expression gentle.
"Because I have a good feeling about you," she licked her lips," If there's one thing I've learned in all my years of life, it's to trust a gut feeling. I will teach you to be the best, if that is what you want."
Ranma blinked and opened his mouth to affirm his commitment, but then he remembered Cologne's words and his tongue suddenly seemed to stick to the roof of his mouth.
"And the conditions?" he asked carefully.
The Elder laughed, obviously pleased.
"Clever boy," she said approvingly, "Never take an offer at face value, that's your first lesson. Now the conditions; those are the tricky bits, but the Council won't agree otherwise. You see sonny, you're too dangerous now for us to just let loose on the world and you're also a boy which brings a whole set of problems all on its own."
Ranma grimaced.
"Sorry for bein' born a boy," he said dryly.
"You're forgiven," Cologne cackled, then seemed to sober up, "Point being, we are a tribe of women, any boys born to this tribe don't stay here long. They either take up a trade or they leave to be apprenticed somewhere else. Men can join the tribe only by defeating one of our warriors and marrying them, by doing this they prove themselves as worthy, as equals to a woman's power. Traditionally, women do not train men how to fight, they do not waste their time doing so. Our beliefs put the priorities of females above that of the male. Understand?"
Ranma frowned, but nodded.
"My intention is to train you in Amazon techniques as well as apprentice you out to as many different masters as I can find," her smile was back now, "Anything Goes means anything and everything it takes to win. An amusing school, but I always did enjoy that principle. Many women don't like the idea of me doing so, not without a reason that is."
"Reason?" Ranma repeated, his frown deepening.
"Happosai stole from us, humiliated us," she looked angry now, "It is the worst possible insult for a man to do this to an Amazon woman. The price for such an insult is death."
Ranma blinked, shirking away a little from the tiny Elder. He didn't think he liked where this conversation was going.
"We are a merciless race," Cologne said with a bitter smile, "I have seen enough of the world to know it, but it is who we are. Obstacles, as the saying goes, are for killing."
Ranma definitely didn't like the sound of this.
"I will not ask you to kill Happosai," she tapped her cane again, "It is not your offense to justify, but if you wish to learn under me, there will be a time when I will ask you to fight the man and win. You must defeat him and hand him over to the tribe for trial. That is the condition."
She had told him to go with his gut, well something in his gut was gnawing at him like crazy and he had to ask, he had to know the consequences of failing to complete such a task.
"And if I don't win?"
Cologne sighed.
"Then, as the Council will see it, there has been no reason to train you and your life will be forfeit," she looked at him sternly, "You will die."
The eight year old felt oddly calm about being threatened, he waited for the Elder to continue, and somehow he knew there was more.
"Your options sonny, are these," Cologne said, "You can choose to take the apprenticeship, learn all you need and maybe one day fight Happosai, if he is indeed still alive. Or the Council can lock you up so that your Neko-ken is never a danger to anyone; you will grow old and die alone in a cell. Or there's a third option."
"Third option?"
Cologne nodded, her face becoming solemn.
"If you tell me right now you want nothing to do with this I will have you on a boat to Japan by dawn tomorrow, safely away," she took a breath, "I cannot help you beyond that."
She lapsed into silence then and Ranma knew she was waiting for an answer. It was a lot to think about and Ranma had the funny feeling that he couldn't ask for time to do so. She wanted, no, she needed an answer right now.
The second option was out immediately, he knew he would die a lot sooner than Cologne obviously thought if he had to be confined to a cell for the rest of his life. The very idea of never venturing outside or learning the art made him shudder. The third option had more appeal to it. She was willing to risk the wrath of her peers to get him out of China, but then what? He didn't have any family, no one in Japan who would want him. The Tendos might take him, but he didn't know where they were or if they would indeed do so. The same for Ucchan, now he thought of it. It was a lot to rest on an assumption and he didn't want to end up in an orphanage somewhere, forever deprived of learning what had been his entire life.
So that left option number one, a harsh penalty if he failed, but a great reward if he succeeded. It would be a long time before he had to fight Happosai, if the man ever appeared, in the mean time he would be able to train, maybe he'd get to teach someday too, and he could stay close to Mei. He would also be close to his father's grave and despite all the bad feelings he had for the man, he was still his father and it was his obligation to remember.
He looked at Cologne, swallowed hard and sealed his fate.
"I accept the apprenticeship."
Cologne closed her eyes as though in pain and nodded, finally rising from her seating position.
"Good," she said softly then looked at him, "Go back to Mei now sonny, get some dinner and a good nights sleep. Tomorrow, your training begins."
