Chapter 7: Jaden's Master

Everyone was seated in the teachers' room, the martial artists out of breath and the rest being treated for any wounds they sustained. Ranma lied on the couch, every one of his muscles aching for the first time in his life. Ryoga simply crashed onto the floor in exhaustion, while Mousse was stuck in a trash can he mistook for a chair. Shampoo was resting next to Ranma, both he and Akane too exhausted to do anything about it, but fortunately Shampoo was too tired to try anything and just ended up rolling off the couch and onto the floor. The GX team was in a similar state from all the duels, yet the only ones passed out on the floor were Jaden, Hassleberry, and Syrus, while the drained others were sitting in chairs. Genma (having done very little fighting at all) was the only one of the six Nerima residents not at the point of passing out.

To explain, when the Nerima team, Pegasus, and the duelists arrived at the base camp, they found it under siege by the Dark Duel Spirits. The duelist defense team of Crowler, Bonapart, and Atticus were on their last legs, winning each duel, but losing quickly to the vast number of challengers. Fortunately, the GX team had recovered enough during the run to fend off the remaining forces of the DDS, while Ranma's team finished them off. They then proceeded to rid the entire island of the DDS menace. By now, Ranma and co. had enough DDS cards to start their own card shop!

Genma, Pegasus, Crowler, Bonapart, and Shepherd sat together at the meeting table in the center of the room, discussing their current situation.

"So, what you're saying is," Shepherd asked, "that these monsters are evil duel spirits, and the only hope we have of beating them is for Ranma to learn Duel Monsters?"

"That's correct," Pegasus answered calmly. "These things need to be defeated in actual combat to be destroyed."

"But they're too strong to be taken out at full strength," Genma continued, "so our only way of weakening them is by defeating them in duels. As Chazz demonstrated with that one lizard spirit, they lose a significant amount of Duel Energy, and thus power, when defeated."

"If that's the case we will be happy to teach the boy here," Shepherd said happily. But Pegasus simply shook his head.

"No offense, Shepherd, but I have to teach Ranma."

"But why?" Bonapart asked confused, "Duel Academy is the best duelist educational facility in the world!"

"For two reasons," Pegasus explained, holding up two fingers. "One: This school has already been discovered by the DDS, and they have made it clear that they see it as a threat. Ranma and the martial artists must devote their entire time to learning duel monsters, so fighting swarms of them will result in this," he directed towards the tired out fighters, "happening everyday until we get defeated.

"Two: if Ranma does learn here, and the spirits attack, it puts everyone else at risk of being caught in the crossfire. As an educator of youths, I know that is the last thing you would want to happen to your students."

"I see your point," Shepherd agreed, Crowler and Bonapart nodding in agreement.

"Besides, the spirits will now target Ranma's team only. Seeing as conquering the school was so easy, they should no longer see you as a threat. So if any of them stayed here, they would jeopardize the entire island.

"My island is unknown to them, and thus the ideal training facility. In fact, we were on our way there when we received your distress signal, which gave me the perfect idea."

"Oh?" Shepherd said.

"That's right," Genma said smiling, "We'd like to take Jaden as well, so he can learn martial arts!" This surprised the teachers, and Jaden quickly recovered and rushed over to hear this.

"You want me to learn how to fight?" Jaden said, pointing at himself.

"Of course!" Pegasus said happily. "You're the best duelist on the island, no doubt about that. And we need your skill at dueling to stop these things. Dueling skill, however, won't be enough though. Ranma-boy will instruct you on the basics of Anything Goes Martial Arts. He isthe best practitioner of it in Nerima."

"You're forgetting someone!" a voice yelled out of nowhere, followed by an explosion from the ceiling. Jaden readied his disk and Genma his fists, but what emerged from the smoke was so fast it was a blur. It sped past Genma and Jaden and proceeded to...flip the skirts of every female duel academy student?

"Kyaa!"

"Eeek!"

"Aaah!"

The thing flew through them all and straight towards Alexis.

"Alexis, no!" Jaden yelled, but suddenly, Ranma found the strength to rush over and punch it through the wall.

"Stupid, old perv," Ranma growled. The thing leapt back into the room and stood before Ranma, showing a familiar face.

"Is that any way to treat your master?" Happosai yelled angrily at Ranma, hitting him in the head with his pipe. "And I don't remember you being so weak, brat!"

"Shut up! I just fought an entire army of monsters, of course I'd be tired!"

"Stupid, excuse-making disciple!"

"Stupid, old perv!"

"Enough you two!" Akane, having regained her strength, yelled as she hit them both over the head. "Happosai, why are you even here?" Happosai lighted his pipe and sat down.

"When you were leaving on the helicopter, I snuck aboard and clung to the tail of it for dear life. After all, how could I let my precious disciple go off and fight an army of monsters by himself?" Happosai teared up a bit, causing Ranma to lower his guard. The old demon took this opportunity to splash him with cold water and turn him into a girl. "Now how about a reward for my troubles?" he cried as he leapt towards Ranma-chan. He was met, however, with Akane's mallet to the face.

"Is he always like this?" Pegasus asked Genma, pointing at Happosai. Genma responded, "Actually he's being much more polite than usual."

"I bet the only reason he came was to molest every female student on the island," Ranma-chan said bitterly, the others nodding in agreement and Happosai face falling. It was then everyone noticed that the duel academy students and personnel were staring in shock at Ranma. She looked down at her transformation and remembered they never explained Jusenkyo yet.

"Oh yeah, they don't know about Ranma's curse," Akane said.

After a few minutes of explanation and transformations (except for Ryoga), the entire school knew of Ranma, Shampoo, Genma, and Mousse's curses and transformations (except for Ryoga's).

"And I thought that Mousse guy was pathetic enough, but turning into a duck? Now that's weak," Chazz sneered, earning a glare and curse words at a statue from Mousse.

"So there's a hot spring training ground that can turn people into animals, people, and even monsters?" Jaden asked in amazement.

"This world is full of unexplained mysteries, Ranma-boy," Pegasus responded, taking a sip from his tea. Shampoo and the kitchen staff saw it fit to provide refreshments for the students during the long explanations.

"I can attest to that," Happosai said, smoking his pipe. "Anyway, I have business here with the Kuriboh-head and Pegasus."

"For the last time, my hair doesn't look like a Kuriboh!" Jaden yelled, only to be bonked on the head by Happosai's pipe.

"Respect your elders, brat! As I was saying, I overheard your conversation about this kid's master. I also heard that Ranma has to focus on learning that card game, so you must agree that not even Ranma can beat the basics of Anything Goes Martial Arts into Kuriboh head with such a limited schedule."

"Did he just say 'beat'?" Jaden asked sweat-dropping.

"Well, I see your point," Pegasus responded, surprised he overlooked that crucial part of the plan. "But since Genma is such a weakling," "Hey!" "the only person able to properly teach Jaden is Ranma-boy. What do you suggest?" Happosai sneered evilly, sending a chill down everyone's spines.

"I'll take the boy under my wing in place of Ranma!" the old demon laughed. Ranma's dream of having a pupil shattered, and Jaden was terrified (and considering half the stuff he sees, that's saying something!).

"I feel sorry for the poor kid," Ryoga whispered to Mousse, the half-blind weapon user nodding in agreement.

"Same here, Ryoga. That old man's a beast! I'd sooner take my chances with Pantyhose Taro, and he's a giant, winged ox monster, for Pete's sake!" Unfortunately, the person he whispered that to was Jaden, who nearly wet himself at this news.

"If anyone can get the kid ready to fight those monsters in time, it' good old Happosai!" the old demon cackled. Pegasus saw that they had no other recourse. Ranma needed to be focused on training, so Happosai was the only other person to teach Jaden. Pegasus nodded in approval, much to the dismay of Jaden and Ranma.

"Very well, then," the white haired man said, "I appoint you to be Jaden-boy's martial arts instructor."

"Perfect! Let's start his training first thing tomorrow morning!" Happosai cheered, waving his pipe in the air. Ranma and Jaden were both turned into stone by this news.

"Good luck, kid," Genma said placing his hand on Jaden's shoulder, "you're gonna need it."

-The Next Morning-

Jaden was fast asleep in his dorm room, with visions of duel monster cards dancing in his head. When suddenly...

"WAKE UP, STUPID BRAT!" Jaden fell out of bed and got stepped on by Happosai. "Time to start training." Jaden glanced at the clock and was wide eyed.

"It's 4:00 in the morning! The sun isn't even up yet!"

Happosai hit him with his pipe and yelled, "Idiot! The 14th rule of 'Happosai's Anything Goes Training' states that if it's after midnight but before noon, it's morning!" The old man then kicked Jaden out of the room. "You should be glad I let you sleep in for 3 hours and 59 minutes."

-35 minutes later-

Jaden was running on the path to Duel Academy with weights tied to his arms and legs while simultaneously pulling a sled with Happosai on it, whip in hand.

"Isn't 4 laps around the island a bit tough for the first day?" Jaden yelled to the old man.

"Rule 11! 'Nothing is too tough!' Now run!" Happosai responded, whipping Jaden until he sped up.

-2 hours later-

Jaden was in the gym, dodging dodgeballs for his life as Happosai shot them with a bazooka. You heard me.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jaden yelled as one just missed his face.

"Rule number 1! 'Master Happosai is always right!' And I say this is a good idea!" he responded, reloading the bazooka. "Now this time try to catch them, and no crying when they hit you anymore. I'm not training a wimp!"

-45 minutes later-

Jaden and Happosai, both dressed like burglars, were in the girl's locker room.

"What does stealing girl's underwear have to do with martial arts training?" Jaden asked.

"Rule 8! 'Shut up and steal!'" the old man responded in a hushed voice.

-Lunch time-

"I...can't...take it...anymore!" Jaden whined, face flat into his mashed potatoes. The poor Slifer Red was sitting at the same table as Ranma, Mousse, and Ryoga in the Slifer cafeteria. "That freak can't possibly be human! This kind of training is absolutely inhumane!"

"Can't say we didn't warn you," Mousse said, drinking a can of soda.

"But you didn't warn me!"

"We didn't?" Mousse responded, "Well...then let me warn you now. Run as far away as you can and don't look back." Ranma then smacked Mousse in the back of the head.

"Don't go giving him ideas. Jaden is tough, and he would never do something so cowardly. Right, Jaden?"

"Right. Never," Jaden said sweat dropping as he pushed his full backpack back under his seat.

"Anyway," Ryoga said, finishing his green beans, "while you've been strength training for when you learn the Anything Goes techniques, we've been learning the basics of duel monsters with Professor Crowler."

"Do you think you could give us a few tips on how to strengthen our decks, Jaden? All that jerk did was yell at us every 12 minutes," Ranma added.

"You've been making your decks already?" the Slifer asked. "Let me see." Ranma, Mousse, and Ryoga each took out a deck box. Ryoga's was yellow, Mousse's was white, and Ranma's was red. Jaden looked through each deck, but with a ill look on his face.

"Mousse," he started," your deck is filled with nothing but trap cards. Not a single monster or spell."

"I thought that those would be the best ones for me to use!" the weapon-specialist beamed, "I especially like the one called Mirror Force." Jaden set Mousse's deck down and picked up Ryoga's.

"Ryoga, your deck is filled with nothing but monster cards! And most of them are too high level to summon without a sacrifice!"

"But those were the strongest cards I could find," the headband-wearing curse victim said sheepishly, "I thought that your cards had to be super strong for you to win."

Jaden sighed as he placed Ryoga's deck down and finally picked up Ranma's.

"Now Ranma, it seems like you get the basic concept of a variety of cards."

"It was the first thing that Crowler guy taught us," the martial artist smirked, getting a glare out of Ryoga and Mousse. But Jaden still didn't look happy with Ranma's deck.

"Yeah, but the problem is that none of your cards work together. For example, you put Hero Signal in your deck, but there isn't one Elemental Hero in your deck. And you put the Black Luster Soldier in here, but without the ritual spell to summon him. If anything, your deck is actually worse than Ryoga's and Mousse's." This comment shocked Ranma and earned a sneer at him from Ryoga and Mousse.

"I wanted to go with an Anything Goes deck that takes a bit from everything!" Ranma responded in defense.

"You know, I have a good 30 minutes before I have to continue training," Jaden said, an idea forming. "So what do say we head to the card shop so we can build champion decks for you three?"

The three martial artist turned to each other and grinned. They were going to get decks made by the duelist champion himself! It was like learning Kung Fu from Bruce Lee! They nodded in agreement, tossed out the scraps of their lunches, and left the table.

"By the way," Jaden asked, "how are Shampoo and Akane doing with learning Duel Monsters?"

"Their doing pretty well," Ranma said. "They even dueled against that one Hassleberry kid and won." This surprised Jaden, seeing how tough Hassleberry is.

"I heard that dad is learning from Pegasus right now, as well."

After a quick walk to the DA campus building, the four heroes found themselves at the card shop. Jaden rang a bell on the counter and a familiar purple-haired Amazon popped out.

"Nihao, Ranma!" Shampoo cheered, glomping the curse victim. She was wearing the card shop employee uniform, hat and everything.

"Shampoo, you work at the card shop?" Jaden inquired. Shampoo turned and noticed the other three. She then proceeded to glomp Jaden!

"Nihao, Jaden!" she cheered in a similar way as to Ranma. Ranma, Ryoga, and Mousse were shocked to say the least, while Jaden had a look of dread.

"So, care to explain?" Ryoga asked with a sly smile, while Mousse, on fire and full of rage, took a few weapons out of his sleeves and added, "Answer carefully." Jaden sighed as he recounted that fateful afternoon...