A Chinese Connection
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or any related characters in any way, shape or form.
Author's Notes: to those who pointed out the last chapter was pretty corny; I know and admit it, but they can't all be gems.
Aondefhaka; I can honestly say I'd never thought about that possibility until you mentioned it, but now you have, I must say that I like it!
A New Generation
"Are you alright, airen?" Shampoo asked, seeing the rather dazed look on her husband's face and the somewhat dreamy way in which he was going about his activities.
"I… don't know." Ranma admitted. "I guess I'm just sort of overwhelmed. It's hard to believe our kids are grown up enough to go on a training journey of their own, now…"
"I know what you mean." Shampoo replied, starting to look a little dreamy herself. "It feels like it was only last week that they were running off behind our backs and getting into mischief."
"It was last week." Ranma pointed out. "Remember? They sneaked off from their chores and picked a fight with that so-called 'gang' that Cayenne runs."
"Oh yeah, now I remember." Shampoo said. "Still, at least they won."
Ranma nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that is the important thing." He added, completely sincere. Then he sighed. "Still, the house is gonna feel awfully empty with them away… and why did they decide on traveling to Japan, anyway?"
"You were the one who mentioned the possibility, and you can't blame them for wanting to discover the other side of their heritage. If they run into any booby traps left behind by that fat fool or the old lecher, though, there's going to be hell to pay." Shampoo stated.
"Only if you beat me to them." Ranma scowled; it was bad enough what his father and Happosai had done to him when he was in Nerima, he would not let that sort of crap fall on his own children.
Shampoo made a gesture of acknowledgement, and then got back to the topic at hand. "But you can't deny it won't feel at least a little good to have them out from under our feet- raising triplets wasn't exactly easy."
"You're telling me?" Ranma asked rhetorically. "That's why we decided to not have any more until after they were grown enough to take care of themselves. But, still, I… I don't know, I'm just concerned about them going off on their own like this…"
"They won't be alone, airen. They'll have each other to back them up, and while they fight like all siblings do, they do love each other- they'll take care of themselves." Shampoo pointed out.
"I know that. I don't know why I'm worried in the first place." Ranma admitted.
"Because you're their father, you love them, and you want to keep them safe. There's nothing wrong with that, it means you're a good father, but that's part of why you have to let them go now. They need to learn to stand on their own feet and fight their own problems, and that's what this journey of theirs is really all about."
Ranma said nothing, simply letting that sink in. Then, he changed the topic. "By the way, where are the kids anyway?"
"Out in the woods, practicing those new special attacks they've been developing." Shampoo replied, looking somewhat distracted at that statement.
"You don't approve?" Ranma asked.
"It's not that, it's just… well… I wonder if maybe we're pushing them too hard sometimes, that's all." Shampoo admitted.
"Us? Pushing them? Not at all." Ranma stated confidently. "We've never tried to dictate how they'll live their lives- they took to martial arts of their own free will."
"Or was it because they felt the need to live up to our reputation?" Shampoo asked.
"…You're thinking about little Manami again, aren't you?" Ranma said, the question more of a statement than anything. When his wife nodded his head, he shook his own in a rather amused fashion. "You worry too much about that girl, you know? She's not the frail, docile little innocent you seem to think she is. Believe me, she can hold her own against anything and anyone, when she feels inclined to do so."
"It's not that!" Shampoo protested, then wilted somewhat at her husband's skeptical look. "Well, alright, it's not entirely that… it's just… why would they be trying to make their own techniques, something that most martial artists don't think of until after they've considered themselves masters, unless they feel the need to live up to our reputation?"
"But they aren't most martial artists." Ranma pointed out. "They're our children. They're talented, skilled, proud, and stubborn as all hell. Just like us."
"Who are you calling stubborn?" Shampoo asked, in mock outrage.
"I recall a certain bluenette chasing me all the way from here to Japan…" Ranma began, a mocking grin spreading across his face. "And then there was what happened in Japan…" He started to go on, then ducked a purposefully slow backhand from his wife, the mood very much improved.
Meanwhile, in the woodlands outside of the Joketsuzoku village, a girl stood in a valley she and her siblings had more or less claimed as their personal training ground, inhaling and exhaling in a repetitive pattern as she stared at the training dummy before her. Her jiujiebian, the nine-linked chain whip, at her side clinked gently, before her wrist flicked and it began to whirl into life. Around her limbs it danced and slashed, a breathtaking display of skill, growing faster and faster until she judged herself ready to strike.
"Splitting Strike!" She called, as what looked like a dozen chains suddenly exploded forth and wrapped themselves around the target's limbs, neck, torso and legs, ripping it clean out of the ground and pulling it to her feet. At that, most of the chains faded away, revealing them to be illusions- only one chain was the real thing. Manami Saotome smiled and untangled her weapon from the training dummy, then stiffened at the sound of mocking clapping from behind her.
"So that's your 'special attack'? A cheap knockoff of the Splitting Cat Hairs? Couldn't you even think of a name to disguise that fact?"
"Cherry." Manami said, her tone neutral, but her eyes aglitter with a fire that would be quite familiar to anyone who knew either of her parents. Anyone who saw the two sisters standing together would have made the assumption that the shorter, less developed Manami was the younger, and that it was Cherry who was the elder sister. Not only was that impossible, with the two being triplets, but it was actually Manami who had been born first. She was simply rather shorthanded in the height department, which she could live with, and turning out to be a rather slow bloomer in the chest department, which bothered her, seeing as how her mother and sister were both quite generously equipped in that regard. She flicked a lock of her purple hair and unflinchingly met Cherry's red eyes (just like their mother's) with her own purple ones.
"Is that all you think my technique is? A cheap imitation? I'll have you know it took quite a bit of work learning how to channel the ki along my weapon, instead of through my body. I worked hard to put it together. So what do you have to show for your efforts, hmm?"
Cherry simply smirked, taking a dramatic posture (a bad habit of hers, as far as their parents were concerned) to allow the breeze to romantically flare the black/red hair that had inspired her name… at least, that was the reason she claimed was behind her name. The truth was that one of her parents had commented that her hair was the same hue as a ripe black cherry, and in the confusion of the birth, that had been taken as her name- and changing it afterwards would have been such a hassle that she'd been left with it.
"How about I demonstrate on you? Come at me, if you dare…" She teased.
Manami didn't hesitate in the slightest; it was true that she was a quiet and generally pleasant girl, but she was both a Saotome and a Chinese Amazon and so she had a fighter's instinct. Her jiujie bian lashed out at her little sister, but just as it was about to wrap around Cherry's neck, the girl suddenly vanished. A split second later, she reappeared behind Manami's back.
"Flash Step!" She howled triumphantly, one spear-hand already plunging towards the knock-out pressure point on her sister's neck. Unfortunately, she had forgotten something crucial. One of the reasons why the jiujiebian was so dangerous in the hands of an expert was its incredible flexibility and capacity to attack in any direction. And Manami was an expert, having trained with her chosen weapon since she was old enough to carry it. The metal lash whipped around Manami's side, coiled around Cherry's wrist and pulled it off-course- and as she was tugged into range, Manami's elbow shot back and drove painfully into Cherry's solar plexus, knocking her to the ground and driving the wind out of her lungs. The youngest of the Saotome triplets coughed and wheezed, then looked up to see her sister standing over her and smirking.
"Is that all you have? I'll admit it's impressive that you not only managed to revise the Amaguriken training, but mix it with that 'Extradimensional Warp' move father told us about, but it's clearly got some room for improvement. You were noticeably slower when you tried to hit me just then." Manami commented.
"A move like that burns up massive amounts of energy. I don't think she could keep fighting for long after using it- if she misses, I'd say she's lost the fight for sure. Hell, I don't think she can pull it off more than once a day at her present level." Came a calm voice. Both girls looked over to see their brother, watching their antics and smiling.
"And what do you know, Lotion?" Cherry grumbled bitterly.
"So how's your move coming, brother Toshio?" Manami asked, using their sibling's Japanese name (apparently for the sake of preventing an argument, Ranma and Shampoo had given their only son both a Joketsuzoku name and a Japanese name after he was born). "The 'Roar of the Earth Dragon'?" She added for emphasis, ignoring Cherry's sulking comment about stupid, flashy names.
"It works, but not very well." Toshio said, taking Cherry's bitterness in stride. "It's still only in development, though, just like me, so it's only to be expected. It's slow and limited range for now, but I'm sure that'll improve with practice."
"Care to give us a demonstration, hot shot?" Cherry sneered.
Blue-steel eyes glinted beneath a fringe of dark green hair, and Toshio smiled in a very sinister way. "Alright, if you insist, sister." With that, he turned to face a relatively isolated tree, pulling his weapon from his shoulder and raising it into the air over his head, the blade pointing backwards as if he was in preparation to make a vertical chop. Toshio had, to all appearances, received a double inheritance of strength from their parents, and was without a doubt the strongest of them all. As a result, he had taken to the usage of a zhanmadao; a Chinese greatsword normally intended to be used against cavalry.
Toshio inhaled and began to focus, his battle aura visibly springing to life, slowly winding its way along the edge of his sword. Suddenly, his eyes shot open and he brought the blade down in a mighty swing, causing the earth to explode in a shower of dust and flying stones, ripping a sizeable gouge that stretched from him to the tree, which had not only been knocked askance but suffered terrible rips and gouges in its truck, apparently from a mixture of the concussive force and the attendant shrapnel.
Manami looked at the devastation her brother had unleashed, then at her weapon, and visibly wilted, something that Toshio was quick to notice.
"Now, don't be like that." He cautioned her. "Yes, the Roar of the Earth Dragon is flashy, but your move is a lot more versatile and a lot easier to pull off. My move mightn't have any practical applications at all- can you imagine me actually being able to use something like that on a living target?"
Manami looked happier at that, prompting Cherry to scoff. "You coddle her too much, brother. If she doesn't have the stomach to be a Warrior, maybe she should be a farmer instead."
"I'm just as good as you are, sister!" She protested.
"You might have skill, but you lack confidence." Cherry retorted.
"Confidence? Is that what you call it? It looks more like being full of yourself to me." Manami snapped.
Toshio sighed and slapped a palm against his head as his sisters started arguing. "Now I'm really starting to wonder if going to Japan's such a good idea. How am I supposed to keep these two from killing each other?" He mused.
Seeing that the two girls were now rolling on the ground like a couple of animals, he sighed and went to break them up.
An hour or so later…
"Mom, dad, we're home." Came a voice, followed closely by their daughter, Cherry Saotome. The dirty Chinese/Japanese girl walked right through the room and headed for the kitchen with barely a glance at her parents.
"What's her problem?" Ranma asked, recognizing his daughter in one of her bad moods.
"She's just ticked off that Manami's jiujiebian made a fool out of her new Flash Step technique, that's all. So, what's up?" Their son asked.
"She got lucky, that's all!" Cherry complained from the kitchen.
Both Ranma and Shampoo smiled; yes, that was their daughter.
"Just because you're taller and have a little more on your chest doesn't make you better, sis." Manami mocked.
"If you couldn't flick that stupid weapon of yours in every direction, you'd have lost to me, and that's no lie." Cherry snapped, coming out of the kitchen.
"Oh, you wanna try me again, is that it?" Manami mocked.
"Right here, right now!" Cherry replied.
The two escapees from Nerima shook their heads with parental patience as their daughters began a bare-knuckled brawl right there in the living room, up until their son grabbed them and literally banged their heads together to take the fight out of them. "Maybe it won't be such a bad thing, this training journey." Ranma mused.
Shampoo nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, I think they might need some hard lessons in teamwork."
"That as well. You three will be fixing everything you just broke before you take so much as one step outside this house, you do know that, don't you?"
"Yes dad." The triplets chorused mechanically. Their parents shared a Look; maybe they didn't have to worry about what might happen to them if they went to Nerima. Maybe they should be worrying about what would happen to Nerima after they arrived.
I admit, this was a rather strange one. No idea where it came from, or why I decided to write it. Sometimes, you just go with the flow, though I hope it wasn't too distasteful. For those curious about Toshio's hair and eye color, it's actually the same color scheme that the anime was originally going to give Shampoo: dark green hair and light blue eyes. Don't believe me? Check out the season one opening theme; Shampoo appears in a few screens with that setup. I don't know why they changed to blue hair and red eyes when they finally animated her. Also, before anyone brings it up, I actually wasn't aware that "Roar of the Earth Dragon" resembled Inuyasha's Wind Scar until I'd actually written it- the original inspiration was one part the Bakusai Tenketsu to one part Happosai's "battle aura blast" move.