Kenichi was glad the Shinpaku Alliance wasn't going to withdraw, even if he still didn't fully trust Ranko's sudden decision to help them out. Then again, if she'd overheard what Castor had said in their match, she might have decided to join for that reason. After all, she would have a strong motivation to see Castor defeated thanks to that wager she'd made.
"I'm glad we got some extra help," Nijima declared suddenly. "I only wish it had been Hermit or Siegfried instead."
"Why would you say that?" Ranko asked dangerously.
"Don't take it the wrong way," he replied, "It's simply that with Kenichi on his own team, they're the strongest options we have remaining."
"As if," Ranko protested. "You should count your lucky stars it was me."
"You're certainly good," Nijima agreed, "but having seen all of you fight, I have to place them higher. Don't worry though, you're probably in the top five or six."
"Top five or six?" she shouted back, almost choking on her words. "Just who else do you think could actually match me in a fight?"
"Me for one," Kisara cut in. "Freya for another."
"I already beat Freya quite easily, if you recall," Ranko fired back.
"You only won because of a dirty trick," Kisara countered. "And all of us are way better than when you last showed your face."
"Don't think I've just been sitting on my rear doing nothing," Ranko snarled. "I'd be happy to prove my point right here if you'd like."
"Now, now. Calm down," Nijima declared, stepping between them. "I admit my estimates may not be perfect, but we'll all see soon enough who really is stronger."
"You got that right," Ranko agreed, heading off to the arena. "I'll wipe their whole team out before you even realize the match has started. Probably in the top five or six. What a crock."
"Just don't expect me to come to your rescue when you get in over your head," Kisara sniped back as she followed the other girl.
"That went even better than I expected," Nijima boasted once they were out of earshot. "I actually managed to get both of them fired up."
Kenichi should have known that's what he had been up to. Realizing the rest of his team was gone, Ukita went to follow after them but Nijima blocked his path.
"Don't fight them head on," Nijima warned him. "Try to distract the other team as much as you can. Keep them on the toes and unable to gang up on the other two, but fight defensively and stay out of their range as much as you can. I don't care if you have to turn your back and run from them the whole fight, just stay in it as long as you can manage."
"I may not be as strong as the others, but I can do more than that," Ukita complained.
"Don't be a fool," Nijima replied. "You're outnumbered five to three and thanks to this tournament structure, we haven't seen them fight yet. If you're taken out then that leaves more of them to gang up on Kisara. My strategy is the best thing you can do to protect her."
It was pretty rough that the Shinpaku Alliance and the team they'd beaten in their first match were the only teams that had an extra match in the tournament bracket that had recently been revealed. Still, they had pretty much forced their way into the tournament and in doing so bumped it up from 16 to 17 teams, so it was probably only fair. Back to the matter at hand, Nijima's words seemed to have gotten through to Ukita, as he finally agreed to his plan and continued on to join the rest of his team. One thing he could say about Nijima, his powers of manipulation were quite real.
Ranma was still steamed from Nijima's lack of faith in her abilities, so she was impatient for the match to start. Just when Ukita finally joined them, and she was sure they were going to begin, a commotion started above as air defenses began firing at a plane overhead. Ranma was still trying to figure out what was going on, and if they were in any danger when the plane was hit, starting a rapid descent as it was covered in flames. However, she'd noticed that the pilot had bailed out right before the explosion, and was now falling rapidly toward the ground.
As the figure neared, Ranma recognized him as Siegfried. It really was quite the entrance as he avoided another round of missiles being fire at him, released his parachute late enough that he still touched down in the arena with a rather jarring velocity, and rolled forward into a pose, all without so much as losing his hat.
"What are you even doing here?" Kisara cried out in surprise. "Aren't you supposed to be training in Tibet?"
Everyone else seemed to be getting a little too worked up. Sure the entrance was flashy and all, but he'd wager the only reason no one he knew had tried it yet was that none of them owned their own private jets. Well, maybe the Kunos did, but still.
"That's our fourth member!" Nijima declared pointing to Siegfried, being the one of the few other people to actually keep his head.
"I don't fully understand what's going on, but if commander wishes it, I will gladly help out," he declared.
"I'll allow it," Diego ruled from up on his perch, although Ranko almost wished he'd take a harder stance for once. She wanted to prove she was the best, and the more people who helped, the less impressive the win would be.
"Then let me just see what we're up against. Nijima Scan!" Nijima declared, as he stared blankly at the five members of the Capoeira team while a couple of antenna sprouted from his head. That was certainly an odd looking technique. Ranko wondered how exactly it worked.
"Is he really human?" Kisara asked.
"Lately I'm not so sure," Ukita remarked.
"He's the leader," Nijima informed them, pointing to the one shirtless member of the team.
Not even letting them continue, Ranma charged the person he'd indicated. Rachel's master didn't seem the type to get upset by such an action, and she wanted to make sure she was the one to take out the top dog. A flash of movement barely gave her enough warning as she halted in her tracks and leaned back to avoid a spin kick delivered when her opponent dropped to the ground and used his arms to twist his body into the attack.
She cursed a bit that she'd been forced to rely on her instincts instead of continuing her training of only using moves she'd planned out. Then again, she was quite sick of that training anyway. Sehrul might talk a good talk, but trying to do it his way was nothing but a huge handicap in any fight and she'd yet to see the slightest hint that might change. Anyway, as she defended against a couple more kicks it was clear that she didn't have any other options.
Her three companions had rushed in after her and distracted the other four members of the team, but the leader had about as much of a speed advantage over her as Berserker had when she'd fought him. Unlike Berserker, however, this guy knew what he was doing. Still, she wasn't going to let that intimidate her; she'd find a way to win. At least as soon as she could get close enough for an attack of her own.
He was quite a bit larger than Ranma's girl form, and was good at using the range of his legs to maximum effect. And with the speed and ferocity of his attacks, she hadn't yet found a way to grab his attacking leg itself. So far his defense had been impenetrable, and the same couldn't be said for her own. Oh she'd avoided any clean hits, but some of her blocks had been a little less than ideal, and she was already sporting a few bruises on her arms. Nothing that would slow her of course, but they gave solid proof of how this fight was going so far.
She tried a few taunts to hope to make him angry, but that proved about as effective as when she used them against Ethan. She was almost starting to miss the gang back in Nerima. If nothing else she could always count on her ability to get them riled up.
A cry from nearby drew her attention to where a body had just hit the floor next to Siegfried, joining one of his companions as both of them stood unmoving.
"That's two down already!" Nijima called out with glee from the sideline. "The new Siegfried truly is unstoppable. We can win the whole tournament like this!"
"Wrong," Siegfried replied simply. "I've been searching for you for three days without rest. I'm sorry, but I'm at my limit. I need to sleep."
Saying so, he immediately fell flat on his back, not moving any more than the two he'd defeated. Ranma was grateful for that small favor. She'd come out determined to prove herself the superior fighter and here was this jerk showing her up by taking out two of them before she'd so much as landed a hit on her own opponent. She could still save some face though, considering she'd gone for the leader.
Beating him shouldn't be too hard either. She could fight defensively until she wore herself out enough to get better control over her ki. She might catch the occasional mistake from him too, because let's face it, she was the best. Even so, that wasn't good enough for her. Kisara and Ukita looked to be losing, if anything, as they worked together against the team's sole girl and the last standing guy other than the leader. If they did pull out a victory, though, she just wouldn't be able to stand having them come to her aid to finish off the last guy.
No, this had to be her victory alone, and she wanted it as quickly as possible. The question was, how was she going to achieve that? Once again she wished she hadn't wasted time on Sehrul's stupid strategy training. If she'd focused instead on building up her strengths, it might have given her the edge she needed. Maybe if he'd at least told her how she was supposed to combine strategy and instincts she could make use of the training.
If it were just for watching for tricks her opponents might be using, that was going to be a huge letdown, because it would be useless against straightforward fighters, which seemed to make up the lion's share of her enemies. Then again, if there was a trick, she should just figure it out herself instead of getting worked up over not knowing it. Maybe she could use her instincts to figure out how her opponent would react to an attack and plan around that. It was a good idea, but now she needed to figure out how to go about doing it.
Maybe if she pictured herself defending against the attack she planned to use. Of course there was the issue that they used two very different styles. But if she imagined herself under some weird curse that limited her to using the kick heavy Capoeira style, maybe she could make it work. Okay now, if she tried to dart to the left just outside his range before charging in, how would he react? Picturing the scenario in her mind, she got an answer and decided to put it to the test.
Just as she'd expected, the moment she changed course toward him, her opponent lashed out with a kick coming from her right. The timing, the angle, everything was almost exactly as she'd predicted. Having planned in advance for just such a reaction, she was able to duck down and deflect the kick over her. Still, she'd been too unsure it would work and had waited to confirm that was his actual reaction before moving, so she'd been able to do little more than defend against it. She needed more confidence if she really wanted to catch him off guard.
Having seen it work on its very first try gave her more than enough confidence to go all in this time. Repeating the same procedure from last bout, even as she was deflecting the blow she pressed forward again, but only for an instant before turning sharply to her right. As she'd expected, his left leg was following behind his right in a second attack as she dropped down on his hands and continued his spin.
Thanks to her accurate prediction, she was able to reach the leg before it got much velocity, latch onto it, and use her own momentum to twist into a throw that slammed him into the ground. He'd braced himself to avoid any serious damage, but that couldn't have felt good. Releasing his leg, she dashed toward her fallen foe, as her continued experimenting with this new technique predicted he would roll back away from her, yanking the leg free in the process. Doing so, she could keep him from getting the space he wanted.
This time, however, she was wrong, as he instead pushed off the ground back toward her in an attempted counter-attack. His positioning was poor for such an attack, which was why she hadn't expected him to do it. Maybe she'd shaken him, but such a decision was clearly a mistake and would have allowed her to get in a devastating hit while his defenses were down. Unfortunately, she'd already committed to her current action, and wasn't in a position to take advantage of it.
Her quick reaction spared her from falling victim to his assault, and their mutual surprise left neither in position to do any damage as they brushed past each other with no significant contact. That had been dangerous, though. It shouldn't be too surprising she couldn't perfectly predict his attacks, and it was only luck that she hadn't really been forced to pay more than a missed opportunity for it this time. That said, if she was right more often than she was wrong, it could still be a fair trade off in the end, and there might still be ways to stack the odds more in her favor.
Even if her old man had mostly intended her to use it in looking for potential dirty tricks to play, Ranma had long been trained to think at lightning pace during battle, and she wasn't yet pushing her limits on that front. Before she started her next attack, she predicted his two most likely responses and came up a plan that would work well against either of them. Their next few exchanges proved that she was really onto something even if they hadn't gone quite as perfectly as she'd hoped.
So as the fight progressed she experimented further with her mixed instinct/strategy plan, trying a number of different variations, such as comparing more than one possible attack or playing out the fight a few moves in advance. Slowly she started to refine her system according to what tended to work best. Now she really was pushing her mental limits, but she strained to get in as much as she could while she fought without losing her focus on the fight itself.
And she was more than pleased with the results. Oh she made her share of mistakes and paid for them in close calls, bruises, and one particularly bad kick that wouldn't have needed too much more force to give her a concussion. Nevertheless, as she fine-tuned the process, got more comfortable using it, and learned more of his fighting style, the match was quickly turning overwhelmingly in her favor. Her exertion hadn't even done much to close the gap in their speed yet, and she was still giving five blows for every one she got.
The damage was beginning to take its toll on him too, and seeing him dazed from her latest slip through his defenses, she figured it was time to go in for the kill. Deciding to add a little insult to injury, she used one of his own moves that she'd liked the look of and nailed him with a kick right to the side of the head that sent him down hard and left him out cold. Taking pride in a job well done, she figured it was time to turn her attention back to the other two and save their hides. It'd be hard for Kisara to mouth off after that.
She was going to offer to do just that, but her jaw clenched shut when she saw Kisara fighting. She'd completely changed her style which now bore a quite unpleasant resemblance to a cat. For a moment she wondered if Kisara had been trained in the neko-ken as well, but it only took that long to realize that she was still in her right mind. This was simple mimicry. Although why anyone would choose to mimic that animal was beyond her.
Whatever crazy reasoning she had, it actually appeared to be working for her, as she was now winning her fight with ease. A solid kick put the female fighter in much the same state as Ranma had just left her team's leader, a fact that didn't sit at all well with the one remaining member.
"Aisha!" he cried out in shock, running toward his downed teammate.
He should have known better than to lose his focus on the fight, though, as Ukita took advantage of this immediately, grabbing the man from behind, lifting him over his head, and throwing him out of the ring and into the water below, ending the match.
"Took you long enough, considering you were handling the small fries," Ranma told them.
"Only because I didn't use my Nyakwando until the end," she fired back. "You saw how quickly I took them out with it."
"I think you just caught her off-guard because she couldn't believe how ridiculous you looked," Ranma joked, not willing to admit the moves had been pretty good for someone on her level.
"You're just jealous I have such an amazing style all of my own," Kisara replied smugly.
"What? You think I couldn't do that?" Ranma asked. "Believe me, if you ever see me acting like one of those … things, you'd be smart to run the other way as fast as you can."
Diego cut their argument short with an announcement, which was unfortunate, because it was just starting to get fun.
"And that brings a close to our first full round," he declared. "Only eight teams remain. So let's not waste any time starting the next round. Our first match will be the Ryozanpaku Alliance versus the Unknown Fighter."
"What?!" Kenichi immediately protested loud enough for the entire audience to hear. "That's not fair! They just finished fighting."
"It's a new round," the master of Lucha Libre responded. "I can run the matches in any order I want."
"That's true, but you should consider delaying our match," Nijima cut in. "You wouldn't want the audience to miss out on as entertaining a fighter as Siegfried, would you?"
"It's not my fault if you don't bother to get enough rest before the match," he responded without sympathy. "My decision stands."
"Don't worry," Ranma assured them. "I can handle this."
Dirty decision or not, jumping right into the next fight only helped her. What few small injuries she had were more than made up for with the extra control over her ki she had thanks to having already depleted some of it.
"We'll be fine," Kisara added, emphasizing the first word. "With my Nyakwando, we'll be unstoppable. It's three against one, anyway."
That one she was referring to had now made his way into the ring, just as some servants finished clearing away the Capoeira team. He was wearing a long hooded black robe, gloves, and a mask that looked about as cheap as the old man from Ryozanpaku's. All in all, it didn't leave an inch of skin visible. What was it with contestants wearing disguises in this tournament anyway? At least this one didn't leave it completely obvious to everyone just who they were.
"What is with the getup anyway?" Ranma asked him, but received only silence in reply.
"Not very talkative are you?" Ukita noted.
Their opponent again failed to respond, this time getting into a stance that looked like a standard one from karate. Their oh so fair referee was probably just going to let them start whenever they felt like it again, so Ranma decided she would jump right in. The guy had been fast in the last fight, possibly even faster than leader of the Capoeira fight, so she'd just test his defenses a bit with a feint to get a feel for how he'd react.
Sprinting toward the masked figure, she jumped back just before she crossed into his range, hoping to get a response. She certainly got that, as the guy surged after her far faster than she'd prepared for and threw a fist her way. She managed to block it with her left forearm, but she hadn't had enough time to get in a proper defense and the awkward nature of it sent a shock of pain through her shoulder.
She probably would have been in for a lot worse than that if Kisara hadn't distracted him with an attack of her own. Ranma tested her shoulder as Kisara was rewarded for her efforts with a roundhouse kick to her side that sent her tumbling away from their foe until Ukita caught her to stop her momentum. She was relieved that it was nothing more than a mild sprain and wouldn't really interfere with her fight.
This was going to be a tough one though. The guy had been holding back in his last fight. He was way faster than any of the losers from Capoeira team. Oddly enough though, his skill didn't seem anywhere near the same level as his strength and speed. She'd been right that it was karate, but the moves were the sort of basic stuff that an average black belt would know. As long as he wasn't just holding back, she might be able to take advantage of that.
"Ukita, Kisara, let's take him at the same time," she ordered, having learned from her previous attempt not to go it alone.
They must have realized how serious the situation was, because Kisara didn't even give her any lip about the order. She was worried Mask Guy would charge one of them before they got the chance considering Ranma was pretty much on opposite ends from the other two. Whether it was overconfidence, preferring to fight to defensively, or just not wanting to turn his back on any of them, though, he was kind enough to stay put.
Ranma slowed just a hair shortly before coming into range, hoping to direct his attention at Kisara and Ukita first. Not that she wished even Kisara any ill will, she just figured she had the best chance of winning this for them, and having a distracted target would only help. This worked great, and what's more, the relatively simple style the guy was employing made predicting his moves fairly easy, so Ranma was already in motion to take advantage of the weakest point in his defense and hopefully end this with one well-placed blow to the back of the neck.
Unfortunately, she'd underestimated just how good the guy's reaction time was as he knocked Ukita and Kisara away before using that speed of his to spin around fast enough to smash into Ranma with the side of his arm before she could land her own blow. Frustrated that this guy was outdoing her so significantly, she tried desperately to get some sort of counter in before the force of the attack took her out of range, but the guy wouldn't even let her do that much as he moved further away from her.
Out of pure spite, she just barely managed to grab a fold of the cloak between two of her fingers, squeezing tightly and pulling the cloth toward her until she had a solid fistful of it. Her own momentum did the rest of the work as the material proved to not be strong enough to stop her completely as it tore loose. The whole thing came free, even knocking the mask off with it. Her brief moment of triumph was cut short as she realized she recognized the person wearing the simple green t-shirt and blue pants underneath the cloak.
"Reiko!" she called out in shock having no clue what Shampoo's daughter was doing there.
This fight just went from difficult to all but unwinnable. Still, she was at least going to try to come up with something. The cloak had slowed her enough to make for an easy landing, and she quickly made her way over to where her two companions were picking themselves back up.
"This just go a whole lot harder," she informed them. "If you have any bright ideas I'm all ears."
"What, the great Tendo Ranko doesn't have a single idea of her own?" Kisara mocked.
Ranma ignored the taunt, instead using the reprieve Reiko, for whatever reason, was giving them to run through as many scenarios as possible. But every fight she played out in her head ended up with them on the losing end.
"Maybe we can trick her somehow?" she suggested. "Or I don't know, blackmail her into giving up. That's not really my thing, but I'm drawing a blank on how we can win this in a fair fight."
"There's three of us and only one of her," Kisara protested. "Surely we can manage something."
"Sorry, but I was actually including sleeping beauty over their getting back up to help us and even then I don't see a way out of this," Ranma replied, pointing to where Siegfried still lay just a few feet away.
"It can't really be all that bad," Ukita argued.
"You should listen to your friend there," Reiko cut in. "Since I was trying to keep my identity a secret from my target, I avoided using my real style. Now that the cat's out of the bag, there's not really any point to holding back. So we may as well get this over with."
Punctuating her words, Reiko went on the offensive for the first time. Not planning to stand around and wait for her, Ranma dashed over to Siegfried, lifted the prone form, and tossed him at Reiko. The purple-haired martial artist simply batted him away, letting him bounce a couple of times without even waking up. Ranma was treated to much the same as she was knocked aside with little more apparent effort than the guy who wasn't even conscious. She obviously hadn't been sitting on her rear all this time. She was even better than he remembered her.
"What was that all about?" Kisara cried out angrily. "How could you do that to Siegfried?"
"I was hoping that would wake him up," Ranma answered. "Or that he'd at least be able to get in one of his counters during his sleep or something."
"Fighting in his sleep?" Kisara complained. "Like he could do something like that."
"It's really not that hard to learn," Ranma told her, confused as to why she thought the idea so odd.
Anyway, Kisara should have been paying more attention to the fight instead of arguing with her over her choice of attacks, as Reiko wasn't content to simply let them stand around talking this time. In a flash she was between Ukita and Kisara, grabbing the two of them and throwing them out of the ring before they had so much as a chance to cry out in surprise. Twin splashes left no doubt as to the fact that Ranma was now alone in this match.
The girl in question then turned on Ranma, sprinting toward her, no doubt intending to do the same thing to her. Ranma tried to put up a defense, but even having managed to predict how she would attempt to break through it, she just didn't have enough speed to do anything to prevent it. Although one surprise was that rather than simply knock her out of the ring, the taller girl grabbed the front of her shirt and hoisted her into the air, walking over to the edge of the arena and holding her over it.
"A girl going by Tendo Ranko who uses Anything Goes and recognizes me by sight?" Reiko mused softly enough that nobody but the two of them would be able to hear it. "I don't know what you're up to, but seeing as I have other things on my mind, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for the moment. I warn you though, if you're working on anything underhanded, you should probably stop now. I'm here for Ranma, but I won't ignore this indefinitely."
Her words only confused Ranma. Ranko he could understand, but surely Shampoo and Cologne wouldn't let Reiko hold onto to any silly delusions about curses not being real. How was it she couldn't figure out who Ranma was? Shouldn't she have seen some old photos or something?
Having said her piece, Reiko released her hand, intending to drop her, but Ranma used the opportunity to make one last ditch effort as she grabbed the outstretched arm and swung her legs over in an attempt to tangle them with Reiko's. At the very least maybe she could take the other girl with her. Sadly, that wasn't to be, as she simply swung her arm over to the side to throw off her aim, then thrust her arm downward with enough force that Ranma lost her grip and began falling toward the water.
For a moment she instinctively panicked before she remembered that she was already in her cursed form. Calming down she dived gracefully into the cold water then changed course and swam up with enough force to fly out of the moat and land back on the spectator's side of the chasm. Finding Sehrul in the stands, she locked eyes with him and gave him a look that she wanted to speak with him. Hoping he got the message, she went for one of the exits, entering an empty hall to find the man in question already waiting for her there as he tossed her a bottle.
"Thanks," she said as soon as she realized it contained hot water. She then opened it and dumped it over her head turning back to her male form. "Now I need you to undo that pressure point thing."
"I understand you don't like losing," he answered, "but it may not be in your best interest to show off your full strength in such a public venue."
"Like I care," he snapped. "It's about time I see if this training is working, and she's the perfect test of my skills. Now if you don't undo it, I'll see if I can't figure out a way to do it myself."
Despite the lessons he had received in pressure points, that might not go too well. Which didn't change the fact that he wasn't bluffing. He wasn't going to let Reiko walk all over him as she'd just done when they had the rematch he assumed she was here for. At least he hoped that's why she'd shown up. If Shampoo and Cologne had convinced her to marry him, he'd have much bigger worries than the outcome of their match.
"Very well," Sehrul agreed, having been mulling it over all this time. "I suppose I can't very well keep you hidden forever."
Ranma rewarded him with a huge smile as the tall man's hand dashed out and began pressing point after point that Ranma did his best to memorize. Even before he'd finished, the relief washed over Ranma. Not having to fight his own ki anymore was such a weight off of him that his whole body relaxed itself as if he'd just gotten into a hot bath.
Quickly, he tested a moving a little chakra as if preparing for a Moko Takabisha and was delighted with how easy it was to manipulate the flow. He'd spent a good bit of time thinking of things he wanted to try when he was done with that training. And with the bracket showing he still had one more fight before he met up with Reiko, he had the perfect opportunity to test some of them out. Now, he just needed to change quickly and get back out there for his next match.
"So that was Reiko, huh?" Ukita declared sullenly, still dripping water from where he'd climbed out. "It's no wonder Ranko could never beat her. How can anyone be so monstrously strong?"
Kenichi wasn't as surprised by that, the girl still not being able to hold a candle against his masters. Nevertheless, he could see a dark mood descended over the gathered Shinpaku Alliance members.
"Don't be so down," he told them. "You won two matches in an international tournament. How many people can say that?"
"Yes, it will help our fame greatly," Nijima admitted, being the one person among them who had never seemed that depressed to begin with. But nothing compared to when Kenichi here wins the tournament."
"What?!" he cried out in surprise. "How am I supposed to win against someone like Reiko when I don't even hit girls? Or someone like that?"
He pointed to where the solo member of the team known as Tenchi Mushin Ryu was taking on the whole Mongolian Bufu team as easily as Reiko had just taken out the Shinpaku Alliance.
"Don't worry, Kenichi," Miu assured him. "I'll be here to help you, and we can take them together."
With Miu it might just be possible, but that didn't sit well with him. He wanted to protect Miu, not depend on her to win his fights. Still, given the Elder's promise of letting him date Miu if he won the tournament, he would swallow his pride if it just let him come out victorius.
"Besides, we have to win this, for Ranko's sake," Miu declared firmly.
"Where did Ranko go, anyway?" Kenichi asked, not having seen her since she'd jumped her way out of the moat in spectacular fashion.
"Probably slunk off with her tail between her legs after the beating she just got," Kisara suggested, ignoring the fact that she'd received the very same beating.
"We don't have time to worry about that right now, anyway," Nijima told them. "Looks like the Yomi team is about to fight."
Sure enough, the three member team was walking toward the arena. Ranma had ditched his mask since the last match, and rather than simply stay in the back, he was moving resolutely toward the center. The high tech arena had not been set up like a wrestling stage this time, instead being left a plain circle with the usual moat on the outside.
"Looks like we finally get to see their last member in action," Nijima said happily. "So let's watch closely and see if we can find any weaknesses."
"He can't be as bad as the other two, right?" Ukita asked. "I mean Ranko said he wasn't one of Yomi's leaders."
She'd also said that was only because he'd recently joined, but Kenichi hoped that was just her giving a biased account of his strength. Either way, he'd find out soon enough.
Ranma leaped into the arena, watching the Pankration team walk across the small bridge over the moat to enter, wearing that weird armor from something out of ancient times. Unfortunately, Rachel and Ethan leaped over behind him.
"What are you doing?" Rachel asked. "I already have a plan for this fight, and this isn't it."
The five members of the Pankration team barely looked like they'd be enough of a challenge to get any decent practice out of if he fought them alone. If his own teammates decided to interfere, it would hardly be worth anything. Unless … they were trying to stop him instead of helping him. Yes, this would be perfect.
"I'm going to be fighting you two more than I am them," he told his teammates, loud enough that the Pankration team would be able to hear. "If you want to come out of this in one piece, you probably ought to help them."
"Huh? Is this some kind of joke?" Rachel asked, but Ethan on the other hand was already taking a defensive stance against him.
"I assume our master has removed the pressure point technique you were under?" he asked.
"Yeap, I'm feeling better than ever," Ranma replied cheerfully.
"Then I suggest we do what he says," Ethan told his sister. "We have little hope of winning against him if we don't work together."
"He's really that strong?" Rachel asked in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't know what kind of trick you're pulling," one of Pankration fighters exclaimed. "But don't expect to fool us."
They could think what they wanted; Ranma wasn't trying to fool anyone. Thankfully, his teammates believed him and were already moving together trying to get him in a pincher attack. Ranma easily evaded both attacks, relishing having his old speed back again. But he couldn't simply stand for returning to old form. The point was to improve, so it was time to test that out a bit. And he'd start by taking a page from a Joketsuzoku technique.
Getting his ki to move exactly as he wanted proved even simpler than he anticipated, and starting with his right arm, he carefully forced some of it into the muscles throughout his arm and hand. Ki naturally enhanced muscles as it flowed through the body, and the main principle behind the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken was to force more ki than would naturally flow there into the arm, enhancing it even further.
Even with that, however, it primarily aided muscles close to major ki pathways, particularly the biceps, and triceps. Great for speed punching, but muscles further down the arm and into the wrists and hand got much less of a speed boost. Now, he was able to force his ki equally in every muscle throughout his arm. This might not seem like much, but to a skilled martial artist, being able to twist your wrist faster or better manipulate your fingers at high speed was a fairly significant difference.
Even more, he was now skilled enough to keep his muscles supercharged without losing control, continuing the technique as long as liked. Testing out a few of his more dexterous Amaguriken punches to block a few blows, he extended the technique to his other arm. And skeptical of their honesty or not, the Pankration team was now converging on Ranma as well, so he started enhancing the ki in his legs next, using the enhanced speed to dance around all seven other fighters at a faster pace than he'd ever used before.
Soon enough, every muscle in his body had been powered up, and Ranma couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so exhilarated. He now basically had a full body Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken that he could keep running as long as he liked. This made him far more dangerous than he'd ever been before. He was laughing in his head at the notion that it would take him a decade to catch up to Ryoga. This just proved how fast he could improve himself when he put his mind to it.
For now though, he needed to get more practice with his new technique. Get his mind used to the higher speeds his body could put out so he could properly wield his newfound strength. So for the most part he simply danced around his opponents toying with them. Tripping a few up. A couple of harmless throws. Mostly though, he just got practice. He may have been sending a few more attacks Ethan's way, but then he almost felt he had to do that after the way all their sparring matches had gone since he'd started Sehrul's training.
Yeah, Reiko better prepare herself, because this was a whole new Saotome Ranma.
Kenichi was quickly spiraling into a state of depression upon seeing Ranma practically toying with his own teammates in addition to the entire Pankration team.
"Everyone left is a monster," he declared sullenly, before turning sharply to the Elder. "And we have the worst one of all in our next match."
"Relax," Nijima told him. "The old man only joined to deal with that bald master. I'm sure he'll just resign without even fighting you. And either Reiko or Ranma is going to be eliminated before meeting up with you. With any luck, the winner will be too injured to put up much of a fight. You might only have one real match left in the entire tournament."
That did cheer him up a little. Still, all three of the other teams scared him.
"So why is he fighting his own team?" Kenichi asked curiously.
"Do you think maybe he found out about what Castor is up to and got angry with them?" Miu asked hopefully.
"I'm pretty sure he's just doing it for training," the Elder answered. "The Reiko fight must have got him riled up, and now he's trying to prepare himself for their match."
"Isn't it a bit late to do something like that?" Ukita asked. "He'll just tire himself out."
"Not at all," the Elder replied. "Even under normal circumstances one can improve significantly in a single match. Even more so for him as he's just finished some rather unusual training. He's growing by leaps and bounds even as we speak."
"What training is that?" Miu inquired. "And how do you know about it?"
"They were talking about it earlier," Sakaki answered. "You guys really need to step up your training if you couldn't tell yourself."
Kenichi wondered just how he was supposed to overhear a conversation on the arena floor from way out in the stands. Although it was a small comfort that Miu hadn't been able to catch it either. He didn't need another reminder of how much behind her he still was.
"Speaking of that training," Akisame cut in, directing his question at Kensei. "Are you familiar with what he was referring to? I'm wondering if it's something we could use on Kenichi."
"I'm not familiar with the technique itself," he admitted. "But I have some idea of what was probably done, and I might be able to recreate it. Still, as he is now, I doubt Kenichi would survive it. Then again, if we're careful, maybe we can work something out."
Kenichi didn't like the way that conversation was going, but that was a concern for another day. He had plenty to worry about right in front of his eyes as the battle continued.
Ranma was really starting to get the hang of his new ki enhancement technique, which was quite a relief. When he fought Reiko, he'd need as much of his attention as possible devoted to predicting her moves, so this had to be all but second nature. He was already starting to mix both of his new abilities together, and if he just dragged this fight out a little longer, he should have that working smoothly enough for his next match.
The way this was going too, he could draw it out as long as he pleased. He'd taken a couple of glancing blows early on, but as he got better control over his abilities, it was getting to the point where none of them had any real hope of hitting him unless he let them.
The Pankration team even looked to be getting more and more wary of him. Two of the guys and one of the girls had gotten themselves in a good flanking position, but were holding back as if afraid to get close. He was almost starting to wonder if they were up to something, but in the end, it wouldn't matter if they were. He could handle whatever they came up with, and the last two of their friends must be even more scared, as they weren't even in any position to move against him if they wanted to.
Besides, Rachel and Ethan were the larger threats, and both of them were heading in for another futile attack. He was just mocking the exchange in his mind to determine how best to deal with it when he saw motion that caught him completely by surprise. The final two members of the Pankration team, the guy who'd been barking out orders the whole time and the other girl, were just making their presence known again.
It was now very clear why those two had been avoiding Ranma. It was because he wasn't their target; Rachel was. Distracted as he'd been, he'd noticed too late to stop them, as she was sandwiched between their fists that each landed on one side of her rib cage. While she was still in shock from that hit, the leader had already twisted around behind her and placed a second blow to the back of her head that sent Rachel toppling forward.
Bursting into motion, Ranma caught her before she could hit the ground. The girl who had assaulted Rachel had been continuing her own part of the combination while her leader got in the second attack and was already closing in on Ranma hoping to take advantage of him while he was distracted, no doubt. Ranma rewarded her with a sharp kick to the forehead that laid her flat, carefully holding Rachel as still as he could in the process so as not to aggravate any potential injuries. Sounds behind him reminded him of the other three members of their team, who must have been waiting for just this moment.
They might have even succeeded in their plan and caught him unaware if Ethan hadn't already waylaid the three of them quite brutally. It was only expected that he wouldn't like their treatment of his sister any more than Ranma did. He looked down at Rachel again just in time to see her coughing up blood.
"I'm afraid my injuries might be just a bit serious," she said, struggling to keep the mood light.
"Why did you betray her like that?" Ranma demanded of the leader and only member of the Pankration team still standing.
"Betray her?" he replied. "I'd like to remind you that you were the one attacking your own teammate, not me."
"Don't play games with me," Ranma snapped. "I warned her exactly what I planned. I didn't just stab her in the back like you did."
"I do regret it came to that," the teen told him, getting a very resigned look in his eye. "Nevertheless, winning was too important to let that hold us back. It had quickly become clear that a ploy like that was our only hope of winning."
"See that she gets medical attention," Ranma told Ethan, passing his sister over to him and then cracking his knuckles. "I'm going to teach him that however important winning is, there are some things you just don't do."
Fortuna watched the scene from his control room with excitement. This tournament was going even better than he'd hoped for.
"There's simply so much young talent here," he said into the microphone that would cause the robot posing as him to speak. "That Ranma boy may be the most exciting prospect yet."
"Don't forget that Yami already holds claim over him," the Fist of Brahman declared from where he and his fellow member of the Nine Fists sat near his robotic impersonator.
"I would of course be willing to offer a sizable compensation package if you were to hand him over to me," Fortuna told him hopefully.
He'd love to have the boy, even if he might be slightly on the gullible side. He showed no sign of having caught on to the fake blood Castor had used for her little coughing fit.
"I'm afraid I must still decline," was the reply he received.
"Pity," Fortuna declared, but forcibly cheered himself. "Nevertheless, even without him, there are plenty of others who have caught my eye. Why I doubt I'll miss my children at all once they've been punished for that embarrassing show they just put on."
"Allow me to take care of them for you," a new voice added. "I've been getting bored simply watching fights."
Glancing at some of the other monitors, he identified the speaker as the Yomi brat, Kano Sho. The one that had shown up despite his lack of participation in the tournament.
"As long as you understand that my punishment is rather final in nature, that's fine with me," he answered.
Fortuna was actually curious if the boy could take out all his former children even if some of them were no longer in the best of condition. If he was, it just further emphasized how Yami seemed to scoop up all the good talent for themselves. He'd just have to lay claim to these new children that had caught his eye before Yami could.
"They won't trouble you again," Sho promised, walking off.
It was a shame they only had one more match before they completed the second day of the event, and one that was unlikely to be exciting at that. He'd live though, as the final three matches tomorrow were sure to get his blood boiling. He wondered who would win in the end.
Figuring he'd just be in the way of the doctors anyway, Ranma stayed behind to watch the next match. It proved quite effective at keeping his mind off of Rachel's injuries too, as the old man hadn't just given up. At least not right away. He had some really fancy moves he was showing off too, even if he was holding back to train them. Still, he might be getting a little too carried away at that. The training itself was fine, but Kenichi didn't look like he'd be in much shape to continue the tournament if he kept this up much longer.
Eventually though, 'Garyu X' got caught as not being qualified in an under 20 tournament, having put down his age as 20. With that over, they declared an end to the day's matches with the final three concluding tomorrow. No longer having a reason to stick around, Ranma decided to go check on Rachel, since he did feel at least partially responsible for what had happened to her.
Getting directed to the medical wing, Ranma quickly located Rachel amid the other wounded from the tournament. She was lying there in a hospital gown with oxygen mask over her face. Almost as soon as she'd seen him, however, she ripped it off.
"I'm glad you came," she declared enthusiastically. "I'm told it was a little dicey for a while, but it looks like I'll pull through. If I push myself, I think I might even be able to help out in the next match."
He wished she didn't have to be so loud in her greeting. Everyone else in the room was now staring at the pair of them.
"Don't worry about that," he told her. "You just rest up."
"But I couldn't possibly let you and my brother fight without me," she all but wailed, turning several of the looks quite dirty as she continued to make a ruckus in the middle of the medical area. "You saw how strong that girl was."
"I plan to fight without your brother either," he answered. "That's one fight I have to do alone."
This claim seemed to have caught her interest, but rather than argue, she actually looked excited.
"So who is she?" Rachel asked in a whisper, finally keeping the volume down. "Lover? Jealous ex-girlfriend? I hope it's something good."
"Nothing like that," Ranma insisted. "Let's just say it's a point of pride that I have to win this."
"Don't be so stingy," she complained quietly before raising her voice again. "Fine if you insist I'll leave it to you. Just be careful. I don't want to see you injured."
"And the fight better be exciting, or you'll pay for it later" she barked out in a hushed tone right after her first statement, leaving him confused.
"Well, I'll let you get some rest," he told her, turning and heading out of the wing as he tried to puzzle out just what the blonde girl was thinking.
Why'd he have to always run into the crazy chicks anyway?
Miu had been helping Kenichi back to the medical wing where Kensei and Akisame were going to try to get him recovered as much as possible in time for tomorrow's fights. What she wasn't expecting was to see Ranma already there talking with an injured Castor. The girl was laying it on thick with talk of wanting to help him despite her injuries and not wanting to see him hurt too.
The depressing thing was, with how angry Ranma had become when she'd been injured, and with him already down here watching over her, it looked like Castor may have been telling the truth about his feelings for her. Even if Miu told him what Castor was really up to, he might not believe her. Worse still, if he thought Ranko had put her up to it, she might do more harm than good. That didn't mean she wasn't going to just leave it be. Instead she waited outside the door for Ranma to finish up, and stepped into his path as soon as he'd left.
"You may be in for a bit of a shock in the near future," Miu told him. "But if so, I want you to remember that what you've been looking for might have been right there with you all along."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Ranma asked in bewilderment.
She supposed that was a little too vague, but she just wasn't very good at this.
"I can't say too much," she tried again. "But let me at least tell you this. If you do lose this tournament, it might just end up to be the best thing that ever happened to you."
"Well, not much chance of that," Ranma replied. "Seeing as I don't plan on losing."
Miu was determined to see that he did, for his own sake as well as Ranko's. Hopefully he'd remember her words when that time came. Until then, there was another topic she needed to discuss with him.
"You and Ranko both seem like good people to me," she told him. "I think you would be better off leaving Yomi."
"Don't you start on me with that too, now" Ranma complained. "I did get thrown out of your dojo before I sought out my current master, after all. So you can hardly complain that I did."
"I'm sorry about that, but it was just a misunderstanding," Miu told him, blushing a bit at being reminded of that event. "You see, my grandfather was just trying to trick you into a paying a larger fee for the training, and it kind of didn't work out as he'd planned. If you came back I'm sure they'd be willing to train you as well."
"Oh, is that all," Ranma replied, cheering up considerably. "I should have known they wouldn't actually want me gone."
"So you'll leave Yomi and come back to Ryozanpaku?" she asked hopefully.
"Eh, I'll think about it, anyway," he replied. "For now all I really care about is my next match. I'll worry about that stuff when the tournament is over."
"Please do," she told encouraged him. "We even offer boarding at a very reasonable fee."
"Yeah well, don't lose before our match tomorrow if you want to convince me," Ranma said as he turned and walked off. "It wouldn't exactly speak much for the training they offer."
Miu only hoped that everything did work out. They could pry Ranma away from Castor's manipulative clutches and possibly pick up two more boarders to help fund the dojo. Not to mention how nice it would be to have a girl her own age around more. But first, she had to make sure they won tomorrow.
Ranma had gotten a little more practice in last night with the two new techniques he'd come up with the day before, but he was now well rested and prepared for the match ahead. Ranma hadn't had any difficulty convincing Ethan to let him fight this one alone, so he now stood in front of the arena waiting to start. Seeing Reiko approaching the stage from the other side, Ranma hopped the moat and waited there until she joined him. The expression on her face was quite serious, and to his relief, didn't look at all love-struck.
"So, what are you doing here, Reiko?" he asked, still a bit nervous about that fact even with her current demeanor.
"Mousse let me in on the news that there was a tournament coming up you'd be participating in," she answered. "He was able to get me entered as well, which gives me the perfect chance for the rematch I've been wanting."
That still didn't explain how Mousse found out about it, but at least she claimed to only be here for a fight. And if that's what she wanted, he was more than happy to oblige.
"Well, I'm ready whenever you are," he told her, getting into the same relaxed stance he'd used in their first fight and again waiting for Reiko to make the opening move. Meanwhile, he was ensuring his ki was properly flowing to all his muscles and running through some likely scenarios for their opening exchange.
Much like their first battle, she came on with more speed than he'd expected. He knew Reiko would have improved, but he hadn't thought it would be so dramatic. She'd clearly been holding back in the match against the Shinpaku Alliance. That said, if she was expecting it to start off the same as the last fight, she was in for a much bigger shock, as his own improvements were greater still. Deflecting her initial attack without too much difficulty, he danced away from her.
Frustratingly enough, she still had the upper hand in speed, even using his new ability, and as skilled as she was, that was a dangerous imbalance. Not wanting to leave it at that, he risked forcing a little more ki into his muscles, having to quickly stop as he felt a bit of a strain from them. Ignoring that, he started his own assault, getting in a brief exchange of blows with Reiko that left neither of them with a clean hit but proved that their speed was all but even. Ranma even thought he might have a slight edge, if anything, but he'd need to see more to ensure she wasn't holding back.
One down side to the fastest paced fight he'd ever been in was that it gave him less time to act out their fight in his head in order to predict her movements. But thanks to all the practice he'd got yesterday, he was still able to get enough where it should be a major advantage. Yes, he had a good feeling about this fight after those quick exchanges, leading him to give off a confident smile that was only further bolstered by Reiko's own obvious displeasure. No doubt she'd assumed she could just overpower him in this fight and was cranky over him catching up to her. Well, too bad for her. She'd just have to deal with it.
Pressing forward with another attack, he quickly proved his new mental technique was still earning its keep as he saw through Reiko's planned defense and landed the first solid blow of the match with a punch to the cheek that twisted her whole upper body to the side with its force. As a bonus, this left a major blind spot he could exploit to hopefully really send her reeling. Sending a kick toward her unprotected back, he looked forward to sending her crashing face first into the hard floor of the arena.
Meanwhile, Reiko was turning the momentum from her spin into a sort of cartwheel to get space from him, but Ranma didn't change his plan, calculating that he'd started his own attack fast enough that he'd get it off before she was out of his range. So he was completely unprepared for her legs wrapping around his own attacking limb, latching on, and being used to yank him in the air as Reiko continued her cartwheel. She even managed to twist him such that it was his back that collided with the floor.
Ranma had at least had time to position himself to distribute the impact so that it did little damage, as jarring as it had been, and he quickly flipped back to his own feet and got back into a defensive stance. Even as he'd been flying through the air, his mind had been at work trying to figure out how she'd done that. Ranma was certain that she hadn't been able to actually see what he was doing. Sure she would have sensed the attack coming, but her counter had required far too much precision to pull off based on a general feeling like that.
Nor did he think it likely she had simply predicted the angle of his assault. Nothing in the fight so far had shown her good enough at guessing what he would do for that, so it would be odd for her to only gain that ability now. No, he didn't know how, but she had to have actually been able to tell exactly what he was doing. Come to think of it, there was an odd feeling in the air whenever he got close to Reiko that reminded him of when Ryoga was charging up for a Shi Shi Hokodan, only much less depressing. He'd bet good money that had something to do with it.
So, she had some fancy technique that more or less gave her eyes in the back of her head. A nice ability, but not enough of an advantage to change the way the fight was going to end. The same trick wouldn't fool him twice, and he'd just use two tricks of his own for every one she came up with if need be. Ranma was not losing this.
Kenichi was in absolute awe. Sure he'd seen even higher level fights from his masters, but he'd never imagined he would see anyone his own age fight with such skill and speed, much less two of them. Even Miu had never seemed quite so far beyond him. The dance of attack, dodge, block, and counter continued at such a breathtaking pace, with so few hits actually landing, that it almost seemed as if they'd choreographed it in advance.
"They really are both quite talented," the Elder mused as the flurry of movement continued.
"Not like Kenichi at all," Apachai added helpfully, in a blow to his pride that thankfully was nowhere near as painful as one of the Muay Thai master's actual blows.
"Yes, it really is night and day between them, isn't it?" Akisame agreed
"Hey, I'm sure they've both been training much longer than I have!" Kenichi protested.
"Tch … making excuses," Sakaki griped. "If you ever want to be on their level you'll have to spend more time working for it, and less whining about their advantages."
It's not like it would make much of a difference anyway at this point. There was no way he could get better than either of them in time to win the tournament. It looked like his happy dream of dating Miu would be over almost before it started. And he'd been so excited when their semi-final opponent had told them he was withdrawing from the tournament. He'd come looking for someone who turned out not be here, so he claimed to have no reason to continue. Little good that did him now.
Then again, watching the two of them go at it like that, maybe Nijima had been right. They might beat themselves up so badly that the winner was in no shape to continue. He might yet have a chance.
"So, does either of them have an advantage?" Kenichi asked his masters, hoping they answered in the negative.
"Hard to say," Shigure answered first, cheering him with the claim.
"Apachai does not know who will win," Apachai chimed in, further bolstering his confidence.
"It really is an interesting fight," Kensei added. "As evenly matched as they are, they're very different fighters in more than just the styles they use. Ranma's training seems quite uneven, in areas such as his ki control and his ability to manipulate the fight into a favorable direction he's already into master level. Yet he hasn't even chosen the Sei or Dou path yet, and that's not the only training he's lacking in."
Kenichi perked up at hearing there was one area at least where he actually surpassed someone of Ranma's skill.
"Reiko on the other hand has a well-developed Seikuken, better physical conditioning, and a far more balanced skill set. It really will be interesting to see which one wins."
"If I had to predict the outcome, I would say it favors Reiko," Akisame declared. "You can practically see the careful molding of her training that she's gone through her entire life. Whoever trained her is very skilled and has a clear path set out for her on the road to becoming a master. Ranma has weaknesses that can be exploited, while Reiko has been left with none of any significance."
"Bah, what a boring answer," Sakaki complained. "Becoming the best shouldn't be about following some carefully constructed plan. You need to struggle, find your own strengths, and hone them into deadly weapons. Ranma may be a little rough around the edges, but specializing can leave you with trump cards your opponent would never expect someone on your level to be capable of. A fight can end in an instant, and my money is on Ranma pulling something out of his hat that does just that."
"Well, hopefully it won't end too quickly," Kenichi exclaimed, wanting nothing decisive at all about the victory.
"Yeah, you can learn so much just from watching this," Miu agreed, completely missing his point as her own eyes remained glued on the match.
"Personally, I'm going to have agree with Sakaki's choice in victor," the Elder declared.
"Hah, told you," Sakaki bragged, thumping his chest loudly and taking a swig from a beer he was holding, earning him a sharp look from Akisame.
"Not for the reason you gave, however," the Elder continued. "You see, there is one major weakness I do notice in Reiko."
"Oh, what's that?" Nijima asked curiously, forcing his way into the conversation before Kenichi even realized the alien had been anywhere close enough to overhear.
"You can tell by watching her fight that she's not used to tough battles against those close to her own level," the Elder noted. "It's a common enough problem among prodigies. They've been trained by masters who are far beyond them and spar with peers who can't compete. As such, they get very little experience against those their own level."
"And that makes that much of a difference?" Kenichi queried.
"Yes," the Elder answered. "I can tell that Ranma has the drive and determination that comes from having to truly push yourself to the limit to win. The fight is sure to help Reiko in that regard, but as it stands, she lacks that drive. It gives Ranma a strong edge. At least assuming the fight doesn't drag on too long."
"Why would that be an issue?" Miu questioned.
"He simply won't be able to keep up at his current level nearly as long as Reiko," he answered vaguely.
So, it was a stamina issue or something then? It was amazing what the Elder could see just from watching a fight. Even being told in advance, the only thing Kenichi could see was Ranma lacking a Seikuken, but he'd just assumed he was a Dou type fighter before. Still, he hoped the Elder was wrong. Even with Castor injured, Ranma still had Pollux as a teammate who might aid him in the next round. One dangerous enemy was more than enough, thank you very much.
The match had been too even for Ranma's tastes. By his tally, he was slightly in the lead in exchanges, but even after all the fighting, both were still more or less uninjured, and that simply didn't bode well for Ranma. He was using his ki much more effectively, but that came at the cost of burning through it faster. If he wasn't able to gain a stronger advantage, he'd end up losing this.
Even knowing that, his options for shifting the balance of the fight were limited. Burning through ki faster wasn't the only downside to his technique. Building up enough ki to generate the chi for his Moko Takabisha disrupted his control briefly. Trying to use it at close range would slow him down and leave him vulnerable to counterattack. And if Ranma backed off to get enough space, his attack would probably just be dodged and waste more of his ki.
Pressure points weren't looking any more promising. He'd tried a few attacks, but Reiko was ready for him this time, and proved very skilled at preventing him from landing them where they needed to go. Given that he hadn't had the chance to properly work them into his style either, even attempting to use them tended to leave openings, that while small, Reiko was skilled enough to exploit. So he'd more or less given up on that front for the time being and decided to stick to what he knew.
With those options denied him, he saw only one real shot at winning this quickly enough, and thankfully Reiko showed no sign of having been trained in the Bakusai Tenketsu. That was important since he planned to drop defense completely and switch to an all out offensive. They should both end up taking far more blows this way, and he'd just have to outlast her. Ranma had a lot of practice standing up to punishment between his fights with Ryoga, Taro, the old freak, and whatever other nut showed up to challenge him. Needless to say, he felt the odds favored him in this contest.
That said, he may have waited too long to make this decision, and he really needed to end this quickly, so he was going to take another risk to try and give him an extra little edge. That was raising the ki he was pumping into his muscles even a bit more than he already was. Doing so quickly changed the strain he was feeling in his muscles into a sort of burning tingling sensation that probably wasn't a good thing, but wasn't enough to stop him.
Putting his plan into motion, he was pleased to see that it did give him a small boost in speed, and using the surprise he hoped that would bring, he started his all-out assault immediately. The fight quickly took a far more brutal turn as it went more or less as he expected. Taking a punch to the face left Reiko open for a kick that slammed into her side. He let a kick from Reiko through his defenses, ignoring the pain as it landed in his gut almost doubling him over, as it allowed him to grab the offending leg and slam Reiko into ground hard enough to leave a crater in the floor.
Ranma never let up for a moment to give Reiko the chance to recover as each of them continued to add to their collection of bruises and other injuries. Very briefly the notion flashed through his mind about how he didn't like fighting girls, but as absorbed in the match as he was, he hardly even noticed it, and didn't miss a step as their fight continued.
Ranma's own body was really starting to protest the action he'd been up to. Thanks to the level of abuse they were dishing out to each other, it looked as if one way of the other it would be over well before he ran out of ki. Still, he ignored the pain and pressed on, finally seeing the reward for his efforts just a few short moments later, as Reiko was clearly being slowed by her own injuries. Taking advantage of that, Ranma slipped through her guard and hit her with an uppercut that must have left her dazed, as she didn't even attempt to defend herself when he continued his assault and slammed her back down into the ground.
Still not seeing much in the way of reaction, Ranma seized upon the opportunity to finally make use of some of the pressure point lessons he'd undergone and end this. Darting out his hand, he found a spot on the back of Reiko's neck and shot some ki through his finger just as he'd remembered being told to. The rolling back of her eyes just before Reiko went completely limp proved his training in that regard hadn't been completely in vain.
Standing up, Ranma was just starting to feel the rush of victory from a hard fought battle when Rachel's master's voice boomed through the arena's speakers.
"Winner: Team Gemini!"
A stirring near his feet indicated that Reiko was already coming to. Must not have done that quite right, as there was no way she should be up so soon. Still, it served its purpose.
"I lost, didn't I?" she asked him morosely as she pulled herself up to her knees.
"Fraid so," he told her simply, but was quickly treated to the sight of her slamming her fist down to the arena floor hard enough to shatter the area around it.
"Why?" she cried out angrily. "Granny keeps telling me I'm as good as you are, and since our last battle I trained harder than I ever had before to make sure I won this time. So how did I lose again after going all out right from the start?"
Looking at Reiko, Ranma could actually see tears starting to form in her eyes, putting Ranma on edge. He just never knew how to deal with a crying girl.
"Don't worry about it so much," Ranma told her trying to calm her down. "You may have been training hard, but my master didn't want to let me do the training I've been under because he was afraid it would kill me. It was a nice shortcut to catching up with you, but I might not always improve so fast."
He would if he had anything to say about it, but it might be best not to mention that here. Especially since his words already looked less effective than he'd hoped.
"Besides, that was probably about the best fight I ever had," he assured her. "Sure Ryoga used to make me work for my wins from time to time, but that was more getting it through his thick skull that he was outclassed and that he should just stay down. You're the first person my age who's ever been able to match me move for move and really push my skills to the limit because I know you'll take advantage of any mistakes I make."
"I know what you mean," she said, still sounding to be in a sour mood, but at least looking less likely to break into sobs. "I just wish you'd have given me a few more to take advantage of. You're a very frustrating person to fight, but I admit I admit the challenge was a bit exhilarating up until the end."
"Well, you can fight me again anytime," he told her. "I can't think of anyone who would do a better job at keeping me on my toes. Of course I'll win again, but I'm sure you'll make me work for it."
"Don't be be too quick to count me out" she fired back, and thankfully did look to be cheering up. "Your own story proves I still have room to up my training. You just wait and see how well you do against me next time, now that I plan to really get serious."
"I look forward to it," he told her, giving a small little mock salute and turning to leave the arena.
He meant what he said too. Sure he'd prefer if his rival were a guy, but he supposed he could live with it being Reiko, seeing as she didn't have any romantic interest in him. And he'd meant what he said about preferring her fighting style to Ryoga's. Fighting Reiko would keep him sharper than trying to beat his way through Ryoga's thick skin. Not that Ryoga was terrible at martial arts, but Reiko just had the lost boy beat in speed and pure prowess of her technique. He had a lot more respect for the Joketsuzoku's style of Wu Shu after seeing her employ than he'd ever gotten from Shampoo.
Taking the chance to look around now, he was surprised to see Rachel's bed had been wheeled out to the side of the arena, just before the stands. She lay there with the back propped up so she could watch while Ethan stood next to her. Wanting to make sure she was okay, Ranma hurried over to her. Seeing him coming, she lifted her hand into the air, confusing Ranma until a microphone landed in it, tossed from up where her master was sitting.
"I just knew you would win, darling," she declared, sending a bit of a shiver down his spine with her words. "Now you'll be able to punish that monster Kenichi for me in the finals."
"Punish him for what?" Ranma asked curiously.
"I was ashamed to say anything, but he's done ... terrible things to me," she declared. "I can't bring myself to say any more, but please, just make him pay for his crimes."
"That's a lie!" Ranma heard Kenichi shouting from the stands. "I never did anything to her!"
Could it be true though? Kenichi hadn't struck him as a terrible person. Then again, he had seen a few looks when he was in his girl form, so he supposed it was possible.
"Well, we'll see if he even makes it to the final," Ranma pointed out.
"The Tenchi Mushin Ryu team has withdrawn from the tournament," Diego's voice boomed from the speakers. "The final match between Team Gemini and Team Ryozanpaku will begin shortly."
Well, that was bad news for Ranma. He was counting on the match buying him some time to recover. The injuries Reiko's attacks had left were bad enough, but he could fight through the pain. There was also a concern that his ki was still kind of low. But the worst part was, he could tell that last bit of ki he'd dosed his muscles with had done some damage. Nothing too bad yet, but using his new ability any further was a risky venture at this point.
"I don't mind you helping me out this time ... uh ... Pollux," he told Ethan, remembering the stage name at the last moment.
"I'd feel better if you were the one to avenge me," Rachel told him. "Please, do it for my sake, would you?"
At that he saw Rachel finally turn off the microphone and stash it in the bed.
"Now we've got a couple of hooks in this match to engage the audience," she declared. "But I don't trust my brother not to ruin the mood again. You've done passably so far, but try to really work the crowd, let them feel your hatred for Kenichi. It won't be a proper show otherwise."
Ranma now didn't know what to think. Had she just made that claim against Kenichi for her own amusement? Whatever the truth, he had a fight to win, and he wasn't about to play Rachel's games. Deciding to leave it at that, he turned to head back for the arena, finding his way blocked by a new figure, a boy with light-blue hair done in a ponytail.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Kano Sho," he answered. "They haven't even told you that much?"
"Ah, Yomi's leader," he said with a nod.
"That's right," he answered. "You impressed me with your last fight, so I'm here as the leader to give you an order. Win or lose the match, I don't care, but Kenichi is mine to fight. So leave him in a condition to face me properly."
Whatever his official position, Ranma didn't like the idea of anyone bossing him around. Still, he could understand having someone you wanted to fight. He'd just been pretty selfish about the match with Reiko himself, so he bit back most of the retort he wanted to give.
"I'll see what I can do," he said as coolly as he could manage before continuing past him toward the arena, only to be stopped with a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh, and before I forget, if you hurt Miu in any way, I'll kill you," Sho said fiercely, and turning his head to look the boy in the eye showed he was completely serious about that claim.
"You're not making this easy, you know," he complained.
Ranma was already hurting and now he was supposed to win without injuring either of his opponents?
"You could always just concede the match," Sho pointed out.
"Meh, I've come this far, I may as well win the thing," Ranma replied, pulling away from the hand and jumping across the moat until he was back in the arena.
His two opponents were already waiting there for him, Miu being full of determination while Kenichi looked to be scared of him.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you win this match," Miu declared.
"Not your choice," he replied smugly. "Who wins this match is up to me."
"Too much is riding on the outcome to leave it at that," Miu fired back before getting into a stance and positioning herself closer to Ranma. "Come on, Kenichi."
"Miu is right," Kenichi added, seeming to have found his backbone somewhere. "We've made it all the way to finals. With victory this close I can't give up now."
Given how much his muscles protested the treatment he'd already put them through, Ranma decided he'd at least try to win with just a standard ki flow. That quickly proved to be a very difficult route. Her training match with her grandfather really had done Miu some good, and she was fighting at a higher level than when he'd watched her earlier in the tournament. It was actually quite impressive how light she was on her feet. Kenichi clearly wasn't up to her level, but made the fight more difficult nonetheless as they worked together quite well.
The pair was effective enough that Ranma had been put mostly on the defensive and was struggling to keep in this at all. It looked like playing it safe just wasn't going to happen. If he could just take one of them out, the rest would be a lot easier, and he'd noticed something as they fought that might help with that. Each of them seemed more focused on protecting the other than on their own defense. Press one too hard and the other was sure to interfere, even if they weren't in the best position to do so.
That gave him a plan to work with. Waiting until the pair of them were on either side of him, Ranma worked through the pain and forced ki into his muscles to speed himself up, completely ignoring Miu and charging straight at Kenichi. The force of his assault sent Kenichi sprawling backward despite having blocked the blow. Meanwhile, Ranma was constantly listening to the sound of Miu's footsteps behind him and picturing exactly where she was in his mind. With Kenichi having slowed him, she caught up, and the sudden silence indicated she'd leaped into the air a moment before his danger sense flared a warning.
He ignored it briefly as he pressed forward toward Kenichi, wishing he had whatever technique Reiko had used, and hoping he was able to correctly predict the exact course of her attack. At what had better be the last second, he ducked reaching up to grab the flying kick aimed at his back. Her actual attack was pretty close to the mental image he had of it, enough so that a minor adjustment allowed him to grasp the leg and fling her out of the ring.
Watching her trajectory, his heart sank as he realized that pretty close wasn't good enough. The slight delay had given Miu enough time to react that she'd been able to ruin the angle of his throw. She was taking a higher arc that would still bring her down outside the ring, but close enough for her to grab the ledge and flip herself back in. Trying to reach her himself and prevent her from doing that, he was halted by Kenichi, who had found his way back to his feet.
"I won't let you touch Miu," he vowed, already having slowed Ranma enough that there was no way he could reach her in time.
However, this also turned Kenichi's back to Miu, so that he was unable to see the new threat in order to warn the girl of it. Just as Miu was about to grab the ledge, Ethan grabbed her shirt from behind, finishing his own leap from outside the arena, and causing the girl to let out a small shriek.
"Miu!" Kenichi called out in alarm, turning just in time to see the pair tumble out of sight before hitting the water in a loud splash.
Ranma took advantage of his distraction to kick Kenichi in back, the momentum of which Kenichi turned into a roll as he then got back to his feet and faced toward Diego.
"That's not fair!" he protested. "Pollux wasn't even participating in the fight."
"You complain that he let you fight Ranma two on one?" Rachel said into the microphone, having pulled it out again. "You're a coward as well as a criminal! Now stand and face justice!"
"He is disqualified now," Diego informed them, giving his answer. "But no rules were broken so the girl is as well. The fight continues."
Ranma was grateful for that, but was still in a bit of a pinch. That kick to Kenichi should have sent him out of the ring as well, but it was clear that his little stunt had finally pushed his body too far. Instead of simply hurting, his muscles were no longer responding properly. Like when they were simply so exhausted that no amount of will could possible make them lift those weights you'd been training with one last time.
Of course, like in that scenario they seemed to be fine overall, and should just heal up even stronger, but that did him little good in the rest of this fight. He couldn't match up to Kenichi in speed right now. He was probably almost as slow as Kuno used to be. Not that he was going to leave it at that. Since his speed was wrecked no matter what he did, there wasn't any reason to withhold the Moko Takabisha any further. He'd see just how well Kenichi dealt with chi attacks.
Firing one off at the boy, his target froze up, not even attempting to move as it hit his arms and sent his whole body tumbling backward and rolling toward the edge of the ring. He sent another attack his way hoping to finish the job, but Kenichi finally got enough sense to roll to the side, avoiding it as the attack blasted a small chunk of the arena from the edge.
"What on earth was that?!" Kenichi screamed in a near panic.
Seemed he didn't handle them very well at all. Ranma would have to be a little conservative seeing as his ki was as dangerously low as ever, but this was still his fight to lose.
"Kenichi's right," Miu heard Ukita cry out as she made her way over to them, dripping water as she went. "Is he supposed to be some sort of wizard or something? That just isn't possible."
"It's a simple chi attack, not some kind of magic" Sakaki grumbled. "You're making it sound like it's way more impressive than it is."
"What part of that isn't impressive?!" Kisara protested.
"Sakaki, most people don't see stuff like that every day," Miu reminded him, hoping he wouldn't embarrass her too much this time.
"Still, it's something any true martial artist can learn if they put their mind to it," Sakaki argued.
"If that's true, wouldn't martial arts just become a matter of firing attacks like that back and forth at each other?" Nijima inquired.
"It's not as simple as that," Akisame lectured. "Like all techniques, there are drawbacks to their usage. Learning the technique is easy. Overcoming the limitations and using it effectively is much harder. There are some styles that make use of attacks like that, but they're complicated enough that that unless the whole style is built around them, it rarely works well. And few styles are willing to design themselves around techniques that can only be used by those who are already fairly accomplished martial artists."
"Still, we never taught Kenichi how to deal with attacks like that," Kensei noted. "Now the boy seems to be panicking."
They were right too. Kenichi was doing little more than running around trying to stay as far away from Ranma as he could without leaving the ring, and Ranma hadn't even fired a third of those attacks yet.
"Keep it together Kenichi!" she yelled out to him. "I know that you can still win this!"
Thanks to her carelessness, she'd been eliminated from the match, but somehow, she still felt that Kenichi could pull it off. Probably.
Too bad Miu's words had their intended effect on Kenichi. The boy may have been running around too fast for Ranma to waste any ki firing another Moko Takabisha at him, but standing there recuperating while Kenichi tired himself out worked just fine too. Still, maybe a little bit of bluffing could keep his opponent from becoming too sure of himself.
"You really think you have a chance?" Ranma taunted. "I was fighting evenly back when your girlfriend was helping, and even then I was just toying with you. You saw how I fought in the last match, so you know you ain't seen nothing yet."
"That doesn't matter," Kenichi yelled back. "It's not always the strongest fighter who wins. I'll admit you're stronger and everyone can see that so … is there any chance you could just let me win the tournament?"
Heh, Kenichi started off strongly enough there but really lost points for the end. Who just asked their opponent to throw the match? Well, Mousse had that one time, but that was Mousse.
"A lot of people seem to want me to lose this," Ranma noted as he slowly walked toward Kenichi, hoping the other boy wouldn't notice Ranma had already half charged his arm in preparation for another Moko Takabisha. "Why's it so important to you anyway?"
He saw Kenichi's eyes flash toward where Miu stood in the stands and Ranma used the opportunity to take a couple more steps while he was distracted. Just a little closer and he should be able to blast Kenichi out of the ring before he could dodge.
"Trying to impress your girlfriend?" he asked, needing to keep the conversation going just a little longer.
"She's not my girlfriend," Kenichi told him, but calmly rather than in the sort of reactionary denial Ranma often employed when accused of being close to one girl or another. "But her grandfather promised to let me date her if I won the tournament. That's why I can't lose here."
Ranma hadn't been expecting that, and the admission brought him up short. But he was already close enough to finish this.
"Look, I don't normally give advice like this, so you're only going to hear it from me once," he told Kenichi. "But if you really care for the girl, you need to stop wasting your time and do something about it no matter who's against it."
He immediately punctuated his words by firing off the Moko Takabisha he'd been holding back, then turned to face Diego as soon as the blast hit.
"I'm bored with this tournament, so I'm pulling out," he yelled to the man, turning back toward Kenichi and walking past where the stunned boy stood staring at the crater left by the attack Ranma had aimed right in front of his feet.
"I guess I'll let Sho have you in one piece, after all," he said to Kenichi as he went.
Jumping over out of the arena, Ranma's toes barely made enough contact to keep him from slipping down into the water and revealing the curse to everyone. This really was going to suck until he got a chance to rest and recuperate. Taking a few quick steps away from that particular danger, Ranma expected to hear some sort of outcry from Diego, but instead was treated to a series of explosions that rocked the whole arena. The cause was sure to be the jets flying overhead as the island's defenses briefly attempted to shoot them down before going quiet.
Ranma didn't know what was going on, but most of the crowd had already decided a panicked flight to be the best course of action, as the stands began to empty themselves. Looking over to where Sehrul stood, Ranma hoped for some kind of direction, but it was Diego who spoke first.
"The audience is leaving, so I guess that's our cue to do the same," he declared, still making use of the speaker system so everyone left could hear him.
As if in response to his words, a jet that looked much like the one they'd arrived on touched down next to the arena. Diego and Ethan and were already heading for it, and Ranma noticed that even Rachel was out of her bed and sprinting toward it as if nothing was wrong. It was possible she was just good at dealing with pain, or simply had a speedy enough recovery that it wasn't a major issue anymore, but seeing the carefree expression on her face, he was a little skeptical of that.
For his part, Ranma hesitated, worried about what exactly he'd be leaving behind. His reaction must have been noticed, as Sehrul appeared beside him a moment later.
"Come now. We need to leave," he told Ranma, motioning to the plane.
"Not just yet," Ranma insisted. "There's some people here I want to make sure get out okay."
"They have several master level fighters to protect them," Sehrul pointed out. "Your help should not be needed."
That made sense, but even if they weren't exactly friends yet, he knew them well enough that it just didn't feel right abandoning them. And considering Reiko was here only because of him, he especially owed it to her to see she got out of this mess.
"If they can get them out safely than I should be able to tag along as well," Ranma argued. "So I'll just stay here and make sure you're right, then catch up with you later."
"There's no time for that," Sehrul told him. "I apologize for this."
Ranma had barely had a chance to puzzle for a moment over what he meant by that when he felt something press into his neck and everything went black. It felt like only a moment later that he opened his eyes, but he had clearly been moved. He'd just been laid out flat on the floor inside some building. Sitting up he saw seven others in the room, two of them being Rachel and Ethan. Most of the the rest seemed to be around his age as well. Although one was a girl several years longer that looked quite out of place.
The again, one of her companions was in a wheel chair, another Ranma couldn't guess an age or gender for under the robe they wore, and the rest of the crowd was all quite colorful as well. Maybe she wasn't so out of place after all.
"Did everyone make it out okay?" he asked first, worried about what happened while he was out and more than a little annoyed for having missed. it.
"Kano Sho perished," Ethan answered. "I am not aware of any other deaths."
"Sho, huh?" he asked, never liking to hear anyone died, but not knowing him well enough to get all that worked up over it. "What got him?"
"It was reported that he was shot," Ethan answered, but I was not told the specifics.
Ranma hoped that not being aware of any other deaths meant Reiko and the Shinpaku Alliance folks got out alive, but he wasn't certain how much intel they'd actually have on anyone outside of Yomi.
"Are you certain we should be telling him this?" the little girl asked. "I am still not aware of the reason he was brought here in the first place."
"I wouldn't worry about it too much," answered a heavily muscled guy with an eye-patch that looked to be in the middle of chess, shogi, and go, all at the same time, each played against a different one of his companions. He certainly didn't look like the brainy type. Then again, his pops loved games like that, and he certainly didn't have all that much going on upstairs.
"He's likely to be joining our ranks very shortly," the guy continued.
With talk of joining their ranks, it finally hit Ranma that this must be a meeting of Yomi's leaders.
"Why are you so certain he'll be chosen?" the little girl queried. "I've never heard of him. Is he even on our level?"
"I'm plenty skilled," Ranma insisted, starting to get ticked off at the little girl's attitude, even if it didn't seem like she was being deliberately insulting.
"I take it you haven't heard much about the tournament if you're even questioning that," Rachel declared. "For the moment, he may actually be the strongest person in the room. Seems to have a knack for stirring up drama as well."
Ranma smirked at the surprised look that got out of the little brat, but his attention was quickly brought back to Rachel as she sauntered over to him.
"In fact, if you're not careful, I may start falling for you for real," Rachel told him, leaning in closely, which emphasized once again how little the outfit she wore actually covered.
Ranma quickly scurried back from his seated position, getting quickly to his feet as soon as he was a safer distance, a sweat already breaking out. That reaction that earned a sudden laugh from the girl that had just caused it.
"Strong as he is, he's still way too easy to mess with," she declared in her mirth.
"Is it really necessary to play these games?" Ethan asked his sister, who ignored him completely.
"Back to the matter at hand, I have it on good authority that the Demon Fist has already expressed interest in taking Ranma here on as his official disciple," Eyepatch Boy declared.
"Is only the Demon Fist interested?" Ethan asked, actually sounding nervous. "Is there any chance the God Hand might take him instead?"
"Is there something wrong with the Demon Fist?" Ranma asked quickly, before Ethan's own question could get answered.
"Perhaps the fact that he recently killed his previous disciple," the guy in the wheelchair answered.
Hearing the reply and focusing his attention on him, Ranma realized that he actually knew the guy. It was Ryuto, the one Kenichi had fought back when he'd been clashing with that Ragnarok organization. Still, he had more important concerns.
"Why would he kill his own disciple?" Ranma asked a bit darkly, not liking the sound of that, whatever the reason.
"He failed to follow his orders to kill Shirahama Kenichi," declared a guy wearing a camouflage suit that looked like something out of a military uniform.
That explanation only made things sound worse. They were sending kids out to murder other kids and then killing them off if they failed? Even if it was just this Demon Fist who was that bad, the rest of Yomi seemed far too casual about the whole killing thing for his liking. Maybe he should have taken Nabiki's words just a bit more seriously.
Regardless, he'd only stuck around because he liked Sehrul's training. If they were trading him off to this other guy, then he didn't want anything more to do with them. At least not if the Demon Fist was anything like what they described. Pity about it all, considering how much progress he'd made under Sehrul, but if Miu was telling the truth, he might still have options. Getting to find out what happened to everyone would be a nice bonus as well if he went with that.
He owed Sehrul enough to at least talk it over with him, but if he didn't like how that talk went, he'd blow this joint and go hop back over to Ryozanpaku to see if their training was any good.
Notes:
I hope everyone enjoyed getting to see the results of Ranma's training. Given how long this chapter already was, you can probably see why I split the tournament into two chapters. As I believe I've already mentioned, the Ranma cast will stay involved, and won't just be making occasional cameos.
Next chapter should be a good setup for the next part of the story and let you know a bit about how that will work out. I'll try to get it out at a reasonable pace.