A/N: I'm not exactly sure where this is Ranma-wise yet. It's at least after the Bakusai Tenketsu, Shi Shi Hokodan, and Hiryu Shoten Ha pop up. Ryu Kumon at the latest. Will give a more definite answer later. For now, don't assume they have anything more than what I explicitly mention.
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Akanema! Magistra Akane Magi!
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Chapter 10: The Dark Kni– er, Budokai Continues.
Disclaimer: The toys come from the boxes of Rumiko Takahashi and Ken Akamatsu.
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Takahata-sensei's battle aura, Akane thought half-dazed, was impressive.
The giant blast of death, more so.
"IS HE CRAZY?-!-?-!-?-!" Ranma cried, on his feet like everyone else. "He's going to kill that kid!"
"Negi-sensei's a Mag– Martial Artist," Akane said, barely managing to recover herself. For once, her mind wasn't focused on trying to pick apart how exactly she could recreate the Iai-ken or the Kankaho technique the older teacher was using to significantly augment his battle aura. "He and Takahata-sensei apparently have a long-standing agreement to fight and test their strength against ach other." She paused. "That said, you'll help me ambush Takahata-sensei in a dark alley if Negi-sensei gets seriously hurt, right?"
"Count on it," Ranma, said.
"I'm in," Ryouga volunteered.
"Justice must be served," Kuno said.
"Shampoo in!"
"You got it, honey!"
"HEY!" Asuna protested.
The four from Nerima stood quietly for a second. Then, "Akane, did you know they were back there?" Ranma said.
"No, I was kinda pre-occupied with my classmate's Penny Machine Gun and two members of the faculty beating the crap out of each other," Akane said, personally affronted by her oversight. She looked over her shoulder. "Any thoughts, Elder Cologne? Observations? Words of wisdom? Perhaps an anecdote about how Bruce Lee was once beaten by an infinitely superior Amazon technique you know similar to this?"
Cologne glared at her. "Are you mocking me, girl?"
"It's either that or completely realize I'm watching a ten year-old being beaten by a man more than twice his age, at least," Akane said. Face grim, she returned to watching the fight.
...
It had been a good day so far. This school festival was much more interesting than the one they had in Furinkan, and she'd already made a note to come again the following, regardless of whether or not there was anyone to invite her or not. it was quite amusing, what young people got up to doing. 'Gay for Akane' indeed…
She had not held much expectation for this tournament, thinking it merely a venue for the children to have a proper fight and maybe see if Akane really had improved as much as her apparent arrogance and body language– which had become damnably difficult to read properly after she started obsessing about those stories of that English fellow–suggested. She'd been roughly surprised instead, starting with the preliminaries– to think that Shampoo had been eliminated from a tournament Akane had managed to enter! Inconceivable!– and continuing well into the next day.
The young boy of the first match she had dismissed as a fluke, though an interesting one to keep an eye on, but the second match had blown her preconceptions out of the water. It was quite possibly the first time she'd ever watched someone, most especially Ryouga, a boy whose training she had been involved with, be beaten unconscious with his own umbrella. Whoever the Ku:nel was, his strength must be monstrous to do that to someone who was already tough before he'd been subjected to the Bakusai Tenketsu training.
She'd watched the third match with serious eyes, and had found herself quite impressed now that she was partially expecting it. The girl was obviously well-trained in the ninja fighting techniques, easily keeping up with that Kuno boy, who was something of an apocalyptic puzzle for Cologne. She dreaded the day he learned to properly utilize chi in his attacks. The girl had one, though both she and the Kuno boy would have finished it faster if they hadn't been so obviously been flirting, as Akane had noted. The girl's perception was a far cry from the rather dense girl Cologne had first met. Well, dense when it came to subtleties and uncomfortable truths, anyway.
She'd had to readjust her thinking again when the next match came. Akane's assessment of the girl Ku Fei had been surprisingly accurate, though she hadn't mentioned the dark-haired girl. Had she not known? Or had she deliberately kept it secret? Well, neither were fighting anymore, so it as hardly an immediate concern, but still…
She'd been just about to dial down her expectations when the match between the child and the older man n the suit was announced. After all, how interesting could it be (from a purely technical sense, since someone getting beat up was always hilarious)? She decided to be attentive anyway, just to see if the older man had anything interesting up his sleeve she could pretend was invented by Amazons. The little blonde girl was just a flicker out of the corner of her eye, and she had long since removed that impulse from her body. Not every short, child-like, long-haired blonde was The Monster, after all.
Within the next five seconds, she wondered wistfully if this was what it would be like if she'd ever had a son– or a grandson, or a great-grand son– and decided to train him, in between making some quick mental rewrites of Shampoo's– and Mousse's, of course, though only because Shampoo needed someone to beat on– new training regiment. The boy had the spirit of an Amazon– and of course the good looks!– but unfortunately a little something fleshy extra. And his moves! Smooth, determined and efficient, and what appeared to be chi techniques, including the shundo-jutsu, that most sought after but hard to learn technique, though not like anything she'd seen. Akane said he was British. Well, those Occidentals could be pretty weird, eating hamburgers and drinking coffee and smoking opium all the time, maybe that had something to do with it. Still, he kind of reminded Cologne of her third husband, before she broke him, and sometimes afterwards too. He'd been the one to escape, hadn't he?
She almost missed the older man's– Takahata, was his name?– attack, and it was thanks to the commentator's helpful exposition that she realized what exactly he'd been doing. It was chillingly close to what the Kuno boy could do, with the added complexity of it being an Iai technique, and lacking the added speed and surface area Kuno's boken provided for making the air pressure blast while still retaining enough blunt force to be effective. Her mind boggled at the fact this was also accomplished without the benefit of chi. Her mind reeled at the idea of what that technique would look like, properly augmented. It was difficult to conceive what such a technique was like.
And then he did that strange thing that raised his battle-aura to strange and eldritch levels she'd only once felt in the presence of The Monster, and suddenly she could conceive what such a technique was like. It was being used right in front of her. At a child.
She mentally volunteered herself to the squad Akane was proposing.
And the Negi Charm snared another victim.
She had cheered as loudly as her age and dignity could allow when the child had refused to back down, getting up from what was essentially a direct hit from a monstrous fist, cheered, and wished she was several score younger so she'd have the looks to yell such obviously heart-felt cries at the boy the way the girls– Akane included, she saw, yelling herself hoarse, a fierce light in her eyes that had often made Cologne wish duty didn't make this girl an enemy to be beaten instead of a potential recruit– were, until he rose to his feet to fight again.
The boy had endured, even as it seemed such a hopeless Curb-Stomp battle. And then… and then he'd done the impossible, such that Cologne had doubted what her eyes saw for a moment. He'd blasted his way through the ultimate blast of the older man's technique, and rendered such a mighty blow that the man had stayed down. When his victory had been declared, the cheers had been a glorious acknowledgement of the boy's power.
If Ranma never worked out– a possibility that she at least had to acknowledge existed– then perhaps she'd live long enough to see about bringing this boy in…
Though she wondered about how that Takahata fellow had walked on water… didn't look like the way she did it…
Still. It was turning out to be a very interesting day, on top of it being beautiful. She was even inclined to give Akane the benefit of the doubt and actually expect improvement from the girl.
Now if only her old fears about short people with long, golden hair would stop bothering her…
...
Ranma stared at the stage that was begin rebuilt, and felt slightly abandoned. Akane had gone with most of the other female contestants to take that kid– little man, he corrected himself. Young man? Well, whatever, the guy definitely deserved to be called something with 'man' in it after a showing like that– leaving him, that huffy girl in the blanket, Ryouga, Kuno, that Kotaro kid with the mean uppercut, and that ninja-girl dressed like a waiter at the contestants' seating. Speaking of which…
"What are the two of you still doing here?" he pointed Ryouga and Kuno. "I mean, the two of you go eliminated, right?"
"Hey, no one said we weren't allowed," Ryouga said, though he looked pretty annoyed, his head turning left and right looking for the one who had eliminated him so humiliatingly.
Ranma snorted. "Heh, whatever. At least you guys got kicked out early so I don't have to bother doing it myself."
Ryouga glared at him, one hand drifting towards his umbrella.
Kaede patted Ryouga on the shoulder. "Now, now. Can't you at least wait until after the tournament? You wouldn't want to ruin it for your friend Akane-chan, would you? And after all that work Negi-kun did to win his round…"
Ryouga softened, and he and Ranma shared an approving look.
"That kid's got guts," Ranma said approvingly. "It should be pretty interesting to fight him when he gets older."
"You might get a chance to," Kaede said. "He's on your side of the blocks."
Ranma blinked. "Hey, that's true! Man, this tournament's pretty easy for me! All I have to do is beat two girls and then I'm in the semifinals!"
The girl in the blanket glared at him. "Don't underestimate me! I know secrets of combat you couldn't possibly understand."
"Tough talk for a girl with a security blanket," Ranma shot back.
"It's a cloak!"
...
The reconstruction was finished. The next contestants walked out. And every male in the audience had a religious revelation, an epiphany.
There IS a god.
"I must make a note for Sasuke to hire some maids," Kuno said in a distracted voice as blopd flowed freely from his nose.
"Erk," Ryouga agreed.
"Good thing Akane's not around to see this," Ranma commented. "She'd probably be all disapproving about them wearing those things and than take it out on me."
"Yes, I probably would have."
Ranma stiffened as Akane walked out from behind him, giving him a mocking smile. Then she turned to the two contestants. "If I didn't know better, I'd say my other classmates had hand in this," she said conversationally. "A maid-fight is just the sort of silliness they'd cook up."
Akane watched the fight, marveling at skill the two were showing. It looked like she wasn't the only one who'd made rapid improvement. Asuna was leaps and bounds above and beyond what she could do in Kyoto. She kept one ear open, listening to her immediate surroundings, though she didn't quite know what to make of the side-bets and such going on between Evangeline and the cloaked guy. Though calling the guy a pervert came to mind. Still, considering the stuff Evan got up to wearing– or not wearing, as the case may be– she wasn't really sure it was all that bad.
She snickered at Asuna's abrupt 'love-confession', and settled back to watch… and then her hackles rose, her whole body stiffening as she saw what came next.
Asuna and Setsuna were just about to charge at each other again when–
"ASUNA!" Akane's cry broke through their tension , and they turned to stare at the normally smugly composed girl. "YOU'VE BEEN HOLDING OUT ON ME, DARN IT!-!-! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THIS TECHNIQUE! DANR IT, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN SO MUCH TROU–" Akane was abruptly cut off as Kaede nonchalantly clamped a hand on her mouth, the other twisting one of Akane's arms behind her back. The ninja game a sunny smile and nodded her head in an 'as you were' gesture.
"And it looks like Contestant Tendo needs to take a chill pill," Asakura said. "Heh, looks like Contestant Kagurazaka will have some explaining to do…"
Asuna and Setsuna exchanged slightly embarrassed looks, then moved back on to bashing each other's heads in, to the background accompaniment of Akane and sometimes Evangeline yelling…
...
Really, that blonde girl was creeping Cologne out…
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Akane sat and sulked, a bitterly annoyed look on her face that discouraged, in the short term, anyone from trying to talk to her. She kept her face set as she watched Asuna and Setsuna intently, trying to catalogue moves and techniques while at the same time listening to Eva and that guy Ku:nel's conversation, such as it was.
She'd always known, intellectually, that Setsuna knew highly advanced techniques, so it wasn't much of a shock, but for Asuna to– ! She'd always used Asuna as a baseline to compare things with, had always classified Asuna as weaker than her in strength and technical knowledge. To have that surety destroyed like this… How did Asuna know that technique, which from the sound of it was really technical and complicated? How?-!-?-!-?-!
Akane felt herself twitching and made herself stop.
The fight ended. Akane forced herself to stand. She was gripping her stick hard, she realized. She turned to look at Takane. The mage gave confident smirk.
As Akane and Takane made their way to the stage, passing Setunsa and Asuna on the way back– she gave the girl an intent look that definitely promised she'd be pumping the bell-haired girl for that technique later on- Akane went over what she knew of Takane: she could summon those black-cloaked things, she was a mage, and she was sufficiently able to fight as to make it through the prelims. She was secretly having an affair with her Ministra Mei, was definitely not on the dodge-ball team, marks on her wrist says she had a bondage-fetish– pervert, said a small stubborn part of her mind that quickly got its ass kicked– she didn't use flying brooms often…
Akane sighed. She looked at the girl across from her– when had they gotten in position– and essayed a weak smile. "I don't suppose you'd be so helpful as to provide occasional breaks for me to catch my breath while you provide helpful exposition on your techniques?"
"Is this supposed to be your famous wit, Tendo Akane?" Takane said, raising one perfect golden eyebrow. Well, at least Akane hadn't started comparing the girls bust-size to Ranma's yet.
"No, just a completely justified question," Akane said, raising her stick in both hands like a staff. She moved her feet. Getting into position. "And I suppose it's too much to ask that you'll have a completely transparent attack pattern that I can easily take advantage of?"
Takane gave her a withering look. "What kind of a stupid question is that?"
"Had to ask, anyway," Akane said. She let out a breath and turned to Asakura. "Ready."
Takane nodded curtly. "Ready," she said.
Asakura threw up her hand. "Begin!"
As Takane through back her cloak dramatically, and Akane habitually began noting details– cut, throw angle, strength, direction, projected landing area– the magnitude of what she was doing finally hit her. She was fighting in a tournament, watched by hundreds of people, watched by her family and all the martial artists from home, by her teacher and by her masters, her classmates and her fans. A single mistake could completely ruin the image she had so carefully and painstakingly built up during her stay in Mahora, destroy her reputation. It would be putting herself on the line in an unmerciful, public forum going against a trained mage with nothing but the stick in her hands, a few onmyodo ofuda in her pockets, her business cards, her Artifact, her skills, a few half-assed and possibly faulty techniques, and her wits.
It occurred to her that maybe she should have started with something smaller and safer. Like exhibitionism.
And in a moment of clarity she realized this was exactly what Negi-sensei must have felt.
And suddenly, it all fell into place. She had, if not a plan, than an acceptable tactical approach, to a clearly-lined campaign objective.
With a cry, she charged, stick whirling in her hands. A close observer would have seen just a little bit of similarity to Setsuna's movements in the previous fight. The purpose, however, was much different.
Over-whelming all-out attack.
This was just like Negi's fight. She didn't expect to win. Her family didn't really expect her to win. They were too used to her not winning anymore. So why not go all out? If Takane made the mistake of holding back long enough, she might actually have a chance.
The blonde was just recovering from having thrown her cloak– just dramatics? No set up?– when Akane was on her, staff swinging at Takane's left. Akane saw her lips moved as she incanted as silently as possible, felt her staff begin to deflect as the simple Deflexio spell began to snap into place. Akane tried to push more chi into her staff, trying to overcome the resistance of the spell, but as happened so often the attempt failed, and her staff seemed to slide off, the end slipping between her and Takane. Recovering quickly, the detective readjusted her grip on the staff, bracing it with her right elbow and pushed the whole thing broadside toward Takane.
It caught the older girl in the torso, knocking her back, and Akane spun the staff again, pointing the butt at Takane, twisting her torso and awkwardly stabbed at the girl, the rather sloppy positioning never the less allowing her to bring her whole weight to bear on the staff. It struck the wooden deck hard, but Takane had already rolled away. Perhaps she wasn't untrained as Akane thought? Her movements had the air of things rarely practiced and almost never used. Definitely not like Negi-kun then. At least she wouldn't have to worry about getting in close. More closer than arm range, and a mage had trouble hitting you with anything without getting themselves in the blast as well.
She ignored Asakura's words as she kept up the attack, not letting the girl get any space or room to so much as breath, much less let loose a spell. Takane had managed to roll herself such that her feet were under her, but she was still low, crouched. Akane moved to take full advantage of the fact, flipping her staff through her hands until they gripped it at one end like a sword– thank you, Setsuna-san for that particular bit of coaching as well– darting to one side so she could sweep the staff sideways for maximum power.
Two things caught her eye.
One, Takane's arms seemed now suddenly covered by a thin but inconceivably dark layer of stocking, seemingly wrapped around her arms like a gothic accessory, yet had no apparent folds.
Two… she was smiling.
Akane had enough to time think CRAP! and flashback to all the times this had happened to Ranma– already preemptively wincing about how much this was likely to hurt– when her staff struck Takane's upraised left arm and stopped dead, the shockwave rushing up Akane's arms and shoulders. Before she could loosen her grip, Takane had pulled her forward, right fist already moving upwards in a text-book upper cut as her feet kicked off.
Akane felt herself double over, rising as the magically-boosted fist struck her square. Yes, it hurt exactly as badly as she thought it would.
The thought was a small and petty comfort as her midriff exploded into a flower of pain…
...
- To be continued...
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A/N: I stand by my assertion that Ku Fei uses Chi even as early as volume 6, though only for strength-boosting purposes. Else how could she have bitch-slapped all those demons? On the scale of things, Mana's probably closer to Badass Normal than Ku. All we know for sure she has is that demon-sensing eye. The rest is pure bad-assery.
The exposition for Takamichi's Iaiken neglected to mention if it used chi or not. to add to his bad-assery, I've decided his small-scale version, in fact, does not. Kuno Tatewaki has, upon consideration, been upgraded to 'Frickin' Scary Badass Normal'. Consider: he doesn't use chi for those air-pressure blades he uses. Not. A. Drop. Imagine what he could do if he DID. I am. I'm intrigued by the challenge of such character development…
The ONLY person in the Akamatsu-verse the Negi-charm doesn't work on is Amagasaki Chigusa. The onlyone. Everyone else vaguely inclined to swing that way– vampires, robots, future descendants (even if only in vibes), Twilight Imperial Princesses, Oujo-sama of various types, bodyguards, mercenaries, assassins, martial artists, girls in general, artificial creatures, Cosmo Entelechia, and even TSUKUYOMI HERSELF!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!Chigusa is the only exception. Every other female, and some who aren't, if they even vaguely like dudes and have met Negi in person, falls for the charm. It's an Epic-Level Spell-like Ability: Ultimate Charming Person! Cologne doesn't have a chance.
I love TvTropes. It makes labeling people's positions in the grand scale of plot so much easier.
Cologne can't know everything. Even if she traveled a lot, that meant she was missing ALL the developments in all the other parts of the world she wasn't in. Plus when could she possibly have trained if she had? I figured she stayed mainly in the area of South East Asia, perhaps training or maybe even mercenary work, with occasional sojourns to India and maybe the nearest-reaches of what is now Russia. She once went to Australia, but only because she was drunk and woke up on a boat. Her most extensive contact with westerners would be their colonies (until TV came around, which adds it's own weirdness), which paints a really bad view (those scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean 3, showing how murderous the East India Trading Company was? Like that, but worse). Never mind what history books says, I live around here and I know what folk-memory, which is pretty reliable about atrocities, remembers. Point is, I'm trying to make ALL of the characters on the Ranma side more than what nearly two decades of fanfics have stereotyped them as. It might be doing it a little myself unconsciously, but at least I'm trying. So send suggestions, ok?
And now, a deleted scene from my Nanoha/Green Lantern/Magical-girl-kitchen-sink crossover Takamichi Nanoha of 2814 that's tangentially related to this story…
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Deleted Scenes: Contracting Out For A Hero
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Takamichi Nanoha, Green Lantern, needed to find someone. This 'Fate' girl was proving to be frustratingly unlocatable by her ring, and it was a fortunate twist of fate– heh, pun!– that she'd spotted this add just when she'd been pondering this question.
She dialed the number and waited.
"Moshi moshi. This is the Tendo Dojo, Kasumi speaking" a young woman's voice said.
"Ah, this is Green Lantern. I'd like to talk to," Nanoha checked the ad again, "the Great Detective Tendo Akane. Is she in?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, you just missed her. She left for England yesterday on a class trip. Would you like to leave a message, Green Lantern-sama?"
Nanoha sighed. Well, there went that idea. "No, thank you. Thank you for your time. Good bye."
Putting down the phone, she picked it up again and tried another number. "Hello, is this Mori Kogoro's office? This is Green Lantern…"
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END!
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Had to use all my willpower to keep from putting this in the main fic and making it cannon. I have hereby depleted all my Green and am very deeply in the Orange end of the spectrum. I want a hamburger. And reviews. And a hundred hamburgers! And a thousand reviews! I want it! I WANT IT ALL! MINE!
Please review, C&C welcome.
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.