Anything goes: Blue sky generation.
By Bakasaiga
Chapter 3: Anything Goes Initiation!
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Ranma had been having a calm, pleasant, and all around nice day. His students had done well in their sessions, no one had decided to challenge the dojo, and no bizarre mystical artifacts or creatures had surfaced nearby. He was beginning to wonder what kind of disaster was going to ruin the calm when his daughter brought a limping Kazuki into their living room.
He briefly examined himself, and confirmed that he was currently a she. 'It's always awkward meeting someone twice.' She noted with some amusement. Twenty six years of being cursed had an odd effect on what she now found amusing.
"Hello Ao Chan!" She said with practiced cheerfulness as she approached her daughter. "Who's your new friend?" She gave Kazuki a quick once over. 'no broken bones, ankle sprain consistent with a poorly delivered kick to a hard surface with considerable force, minor scratches to hands and face along with the dust and dirt on clothing indicates a fall. Final analysis: got into a fight which ended in him getting a lucky hit in.' She smiled. Lucky hits were her favourite kind. A quick prodding to several pressure points at speeds faster than any normal human could register, and the boys substantial Ki was already well on its way to healing the ankle.
"Hello Auntie Ranko. This is Kazuki, the boy I was talking to daddy about earlier?" Aosora responded. "Actually, we were wondering if we could talk to father about training Kazuki Kun." Aosora said, putting particular emphasis on the word father.
"Oh! Of course!" Ranma said with a vigorous nod. "I'm sure that I-HE would be very happy to train Kazuki! He was rather disappointed that Uehara didn't want to pursue martial arts any further. What caused the change of heart Uehara kun?"
"Not so much a change of heart as a change of situation." The boy sighed despondently. Ranma raised an eyebrow. 'Well that doesn't sound good.'
"Do tell." She said and motioned for the two teens to sit down. Both did almost immediately. Rama noted that Kazuki was no longer limping, and didn't favor his injured foot when he sat.
"Well, it started today after school when some psychopath attacked us." Kazuki began tentatively, as if the boy wasn't sure whether or not Ranma would believe him. 'You just described most of my high school weekends kid, I believe you.' she thought ruefully.
Not seeing any disbelief or disapproval, Kazuki continued. "So, this guy attacks us with a massive club. He kept screaming about how I stole Aosora Chan from him and he seemed to know her but-"
"But I have no Idea who the heck this guy is!" She jumped in angrily. "He mentioned something about a promise, but I don't even recognize him in the slightest!" She blushed as she realised she had just cut Kazuki off. "Sorry Kazuki Kun." She said sheepishly.
Kazuki smiled back. "It's alright. I was just going to say that he ran off at the last minute after..." The boys face fell again into a look of lament. "...After he challenged me to a fight next week. I can't fight him, I'll get massacred! This guy smashed the ash fault in front of the school with one hit!" Sorrow shifted into hysterical terror as the boy looked at Ranma in desperation. "Please! Even if Ranma San can only teach me the basics, anything that would help me survive!"
"Alright," Ranma said standing up, "I'll tell him. I'm sure that he would've been happy to train you regardless of the situation, but in this situation I know he will be especially anxious to begin." Ranma left the room and proceeded to the nearest bathroom to change. She managed to get halfway there before hearing a voice that made her freeze.
'Actually sis, I think Kazuki should start out with you.' She nearly tripped from the shock. 'WHAT!' She thought back at the voice. 'Wait, when did you even separate us?'
'About halfway through the conversation.' The voice responded. 'Kazuki has a Ki perception fluke, and out of the three of us you're the best at that skill, therefore he should start out with you.'
'But you can use it too! All three of us can! We learned it before we separated to beat the old pervert!' She thought back, becoming increasingly flustered.
'Yes, but you also have the most self control and experience with new students out of the three of us.'A third voice interjected. 'Ranma gets too excited when he starts teaching a new student and would try to rush Kazuki along, and probably get him hurt. That's why he leaves the basic level courses up to you, remember?' Ranma shot several rude thoughts at the other two, but otherwise didn't disagree. 'And as for me, if you honestly suggested that I try my hand at teaching... I'm not sure what kind of head injury could even inspire such a thought.'
'...I never thought I would see the day that you would be the reasonable one Reibyo.' She quipped back at her third mind.
'His point still stands Ranko chan. Have fun with your new student, I think I'll take a nap.' She felt the presence disappear, half of its Ki returning to her.
She sighed and moved back towards the living room. 'Aren't you going to abandon me like Ranma, Reibyo?' She asked the remaining voice.
'No, I am rather interested in this boy's ability. Few are able to tell my Ki from Ranma's, but he saw my presence clearly with only the most basic level of Ki sight.' Reibyo answered.
'Well, at least I still have my kitty cat to comfort me' She thought sarcastically. Reibyo somehow managed to snort mentally at the comment.
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"Osu!" Ashita shouted as he swung his club, knocking three Manuel High students into the wall on the other side of the empty lot.
"Damn it! We won't forget this!" A bruised student in a Manuel High uniform shouted. The boy immediately turned and he ran away from the battleground, leaving most of his companions' unconscious on the ground.
"I hope you don't!" Ashita shouted back at the fleeing delinquent. "I HATE having to repeat myself!" Cheers came from his fellow Tomobiki high students.
"Way to go boss!" A boy with hair tied back in a greasy pony tail and sporting a black eye from the fight shouted limping up to Ashita. "You really saved us!" Ashita nodded absently to the other gangster.
"She didn't even recognize me..." He muttered to himself absent mindedly and reached up to his head. He froze.
The ponytail wearing boy noticed his gang leader's discomfort. "Is there something wrong boss?" He said, touching the larger boy lightly on the arm. He cried out in a mix of surprise and pain as Ashita grabbed his arm with bone crushing force.
"Where is it?" He growled at the smaller boy.
"Where's what boss?" The boy said with a pained voice.
"My hair band!" He shouted. He released the boy, much too delinquent's thanks, and began gesturing to his wild red hair, normally held in place by a currently absent metal hair band.
The ponytailed delinquent glanced from side to side, cradling his bruised arm as he did. "There!" He pointed of a bronze crescent shape embedded in the dirt. He quickly hobbled over to the shape and pulled it out of the ground.
"Oh thank god." he sighed in relief as he took the metal .band from the shaking boy. He carefully slicked his messy hair back and replaced the hair band.
"Geez boss, what's so important about that little thing anyway?" The delinquent said in a nonplussed tone.
Ashita sighed despondently. "It was gift from an old friend." He rubbed the scratched mental band slowly. "And a reminder for a promise we made..." The large red haired boy stared off into the distance, a smile coming to his face as a fond memory sprung to mind. a blue haired girl stood in front of him, holding out the band in one hand a wiping away tears with the other.
"Here, something to remember me by." She sniffled, It'll help you lots stronger, and then-"
"I'm not sure what your deal is, but I don't appreciate people attacking me out of the blue!" Shouted the same blue haired girl, fire in her eyes as she stood between him and the coward who had taken her from him.
The new memory entered his mind unbidden and made him seize with anger. "Uehara." He growled under his breath. "How dare you steal her away from me!"
"Um boss, what do you want to do now." The dark haired boy asked tentatively.
Ashita ran a hand through his shoulder length mane, considering his options. " Have there been any other gangs trying to muscle in on our turf lately..." He trailed off
The smaller boy scratched his head in thought, Ashita Glaring him with narrowed. The boy began to sweat heavily.
"what was your name again?"
The smaller delinquent briefly tried to decided whether to be relived or dumbfounded. He settled on relived. "Um, my name is Tadashi Kunio sir." He briefly considered. "Well, there is Bass high. They seem rather cocky of late."
Ashita grinned. "right then, you get everyone ready for tomorrow Takashi! We're going to attack Bass high head on!" He swung his Tobetsu over his shoulder and began to cackle like a mad man.
"Um, it's Tadashi sir." The smaller boy said, before shaking his head and limping over to another group of student's.
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"No! Your legs are way too close together, and your back let should be pointed forty five degrees away from your front one.! This shouldn't be this hard of a concept, even for you!" Ranko tapped Kazuki in the back of his right leg. The boy blushed and attempted to correct the stance. A giggle from the kneeling Aosora informed him that he had failed.
They had been at this for more than an hour now. As soon as he had changed into the Gi Aosora had given him, which he now noticed also included leg binding's and an oddly firm feeling set of slippers, he had been shepherded into the dojo for humiliation. Ranko sensei showed him a stance, he tried and failed to copy it, she chastised him and corrected the stance. He had been expecting some kind of bizarre training exercise, or at least some kata! He felt completely ridiculous.
"Why are we doing this anyway?" He asked mortified. "Shouldn't you be helping me get ready for a fight? Instead of having me stand around like an idiot?"
Ranko sighed. "Stances are a very important part of martial arts." She corrected his stance by hand as she spoke.
"I know that!" He answered hotly, trying not to move from the stance despite his feeling. "But Ashita is a freaking monster! I don't understand how this is going to help me survive fighting him."
"Dodge."
Kazuki barely managed to sidestep the sudden punch from his new teacher, even with the verbal warning.
"What was that!" Kazuki shouted.
"It was a punch." Ranko responded simply, holding her fist in front of his face. "A punch that you dodged Without falling on your ass."
Kazuki simply stared at the hand, trying to figure out what on earth the redhead was talking about. He glanced at Aosora to see if she could give him a hint. Then he remembered earlier that afternoon.
'a normal person wouldn't be able to dodge these punches.'
'I dodged all of those punches... But I wasn't expecting her kick so when I tried to dodge it, I lost my balance and fell over.' He thought. That punch had been just as unexpected and fast as Aosora's kick, but he had been able to dodge it much more comfortably. 'Maybe this will work...'
He fell into the position of the stance again. 'legs at shoulder width apart, one foot pointed straight forward, the other forty five degree's away from it.' He went through the motions of several dodges he had learned years earlier in his ill fated kenpo class. All of them felt much smoother.
"Congratulations kid." Ranko said in an amused tone. "You figured out a concept I teach to white belts." Kazuki blushed.
Ranko patted him on the shoulder. "Eh, don't feel bad. Most of them don't get it anyway, though we mostly take kids younger than you. I can tell them that "This stance is better for dodging", but mostly they ignore it."
"Um thanks, I think." Kazuki said. 'so why didn't you just say that instead of punching me?' He grumbled internally.
Ranko glanced up at a clock on the dojo wall. "Well, looks like it's time for supper any reason you would need to leave Kazuki?" Kazuki shook his head.
"Good!" Ranko said with a grin, gripping Kazuki's shoulder harder than he would have thought possible for her small frame. "You can stay and eat, we'll practice some more afterwards. You're going to love Kasumi's cooking!" Kazuki again felt himself nodding on reflex. For a friendly invitation, Ranko sensei's words had an odd sense of finality to them.
"Do you do this to all of your new students?" Kazuki said to the rising Aosora.
"No, Auntie just likes you." She said with a smile. She strode out into the hallway and pointed to the right. "Come on, the stairs are that way."
Kazuki blinked. "Wait, but didn't Ranko sensei just go the other way?"
"Yep!" The blue haired girl answered. "But that's the way to the window, and you can't handle that yet."
"Oh, right." Kazuki said with a smile and a short nod before following her to the stairwell. He wasn't sure what else he had been expecting.
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About names:
Ranma: Wild horse. (Of course you knew this.)
Ranko: Wild child.
Reibyo: Spirit cat.
Tadashi Kunio: Loyal Countryman. He gets a name, so he get's to appear more than once.
About other things:
The stance thing is actually true, and just common sense. one leg being pointed off to the side allows you to duck and move to the side much easier, and sets up a kick better. Both feet facing forward allows you put more force and speed into an attack.
Notes from the author:
Sorry about this one being shorter. Next chapter is more training, followed by the fight! Following that, I am going to be breaking up the arcs with oneshot's focusing characters between this story and the manga, so hopefully that will answer some questions.
