A:N. I am aware that there have been several problems on this chapter, somehow all the corrections that JohnnyG made were simply added to the mistakes thatI made, making this chapter have loads of repeated words and stuff. My fault, not Johnny's. I cheaked this version and I hope it is good enough, but by the time I add this it many of you may have already read the version with the mistakes and not want to read this one. Hopefully the problems will go away.
Today was the day of the tournament; Ranma had set out an hour early so that he wouldn't be late. The problem was that the map on the poster was not the easiest to read, and the location was in a poorly signposted outskirt of Tokyo. Therefore Ranma was rushing slightly as he was running awfully close to the 9:00 signing in time. It would be pointless for him to be there only to turn up late.
Ranma was still not in a good mood, that stupid dog had eaten all of his supplies and the only way he had been able to eat was by using all the savings he had managed to keep hidden from Nabiki. Unfortunately that wasn't much, so he was left with only a week's supply of food before he would need to get some more supplies. That meant either stealing (something he was against doing since it was what Genma would have done) or getting a job, something that wasn't easy to do for a young ronin on the streets.
It seemed that the tournament would be held outdoors rather than in a training hall. All around him were farmer's fields and empty plots, hardly a building in sight. As far as Ranma was concerned that would be a good thing, mainly because his specialty was mid air combat and out here there would be plenty of space to do that in. Of course there was also the fact that if he wanted to use any of his special techniques, then no buildings would be damaged, not that he would use them of course. Ranma was planning on winning this tournament with pure skill, so any tricks he had learnt learned from the Amazons were not going to be used. The only exception would be if his opponent pulled out destructive tricks of his own, or if someone as strong as Ryoga showed up, then the kids gloves would be off.
Off course being outside also meant it could also rain on him, he just hoped his luck would hold out today.
As Ranma turned the corner he sighed in relief as he saw where the tournament was being held. It was indeed being held in a field, and was seemingly going to be held in a single large arena that had been set up outside. All around the wooden platform were raised seating that was able to hold five hundred people in each stand.
Apart from the fighting arena there were a large number of tents including a first aid tent, stalls selling various types of food, a few fairground attractions and several official looking tents, including the signing in tent. It looked like a fair as much as a tournament, maybe the tournament was just an attraction. Ranma really didn't care as long as he got the prize money so he could eat, then he would be alright.
Speaking of which, Ranma realized that he had made it in the nick of time. If he had been five minutes later then he wouldn't have been able to sign in for the tournament, and therefore unable to claim any money. Ranma was relived relieved at the prospect of not having to steal to make a living; he was determined not to end up like his po…Genma.
He walked up to the signing in desk and waited to sign in. He had to wait awhile for the group ahead of him to sign in, a kendoist with a large following of girls from the look of it. The possessive looks on a couple of them made Ranma almost cringe in sympathy for the young man; it seemed he wasn't the only one with woman troubles.
Once the group in front of him was finished signing in, and had moved on, Ranma was at the front of the queue.
"Yes may I help you?" asked a plump looking woman behind the desk in a business like manner.
"Erm yeah, is this where I sign in for the tournament?" asked Ranma.
"Bright spark aren't you?" said the woman rudely before pulling out a few sheets of paper and a pen before and handing them to the martial artist.
"Fill these in and then give them back to me."
Ranma moved aside and looked at the form. He soon realized that he would have problems deciding how to answer a few of the questions that were required.
Hmmm, what do I call myself? I can hardly call myself Ranma Saotome can I, so who am I going to be? Ranma thought about it for a short moment before inspiration struck and he wrote down a name. Well it will have to do, now then what gender am I? He glanced up at the sky for his answer.
Male hopefully.
Meanwhile
"Tenchi, lets go and have some grilled burgers," said Ryoko as she took one of Tenchi's arms and attempted to drag him off to the American styled stall.
"No let's get some Ramen," said Ayeka as she took Tenchi's other arm and attempted to take him to the Chinese Ramen stall. The fact that they both had a hold on Tenchi wasn't really all that unusual, and it wouldn't really cause too many problems if it wasn't for one small fact about the locations for the two stalls.
They were on opposite sides of the field.
So when both of the young, alien women noticed there was something stopping Tenchi from allowing him to go to with them, they were understandably angry when they found out what caused it.
"Let go of my Tenchi," growled Ryoko as she gave a slight pull on Tenchi's arm, not hearing his whimper.
"What do you mean your Tenchi? Me and my soon to be husband were going to enjoy some nice traditional Ramen," responded Ayeka with a tug in her direction. Neither noticed a second whimper coming from their love.
"Why would Tenchi want some stupid Ramen when he can have something as gorgeous as juicy American burgers?" yelled Ryoko as she pulled Tenchi towards the burger bar.
"We are not in America Ryoko, we are in Japan, so we shouldn't eat American food," yelled Ayeka as she tugged Tenchi her way.
Katshuhito sighed in despair, why was it that every time they went anywhere they had to make it difficult?
"Girls would you please let go of Tenchi, if you're not careful he won't be able to fight in the tournament."
Needless to say both of Tenchi's arms were quickly released, though not before both girls gave the other a sharp glare that clearly stated that this wasn't over yet.
Happy that Tenchi was going to be in a fit state to be fighting later on, Katshuhito glanced at the people who were accompanying them. Sasami seemed to be excited to be here and was looking around at all the fairground stalls with a fair amount of glee., and Ryo-ohki was sitting in her arms contentedly while nibbling on one of the carrots. Mihoshi was almost as excited as Sasami and if it wasn't for the efforts of Kiyone, then he had no doubt that she would have visited half of the stalls already. His son in law son-in-law was glancing around the area with interest while looking at the timetable for today's events. At the back of the party he spotted a morose figure who was grumbling to herself.
"Will you stop sulking Washu?" sighed Katshuhito.
Washu glanced up at him, giving him a dirty look, before looking back down on to the ground and muttering something about 'spoil sports'.
Before they had left the shrine that morning, Katshuhito had made everyone promise to keep any 'out of town' activity out of today's events unless an emergency required them. That included banning Ryoko from flying/teleporting/etc, leaving Ayeka's guardians at home, banning the GP from showing their firearms on public display, and (much to her chagrin) banning Washu from 'investigating' any of the other fighters at the tournament. Katshuhito had even gone as far as saying that while the tournament was going on she was forbidden from bringing out her computer, it was just too weird to see a holographic screen floating in the air. The only exception was if something really unusual turned up that required immediate investigation.
The others had complained about how strict he was being;, after all he hadn't been as strict before when they went out to the Fair together. However Katshuhito figured that extra caution was a good idea today. Gathered here today were a large number of people who were trained to be able to spot things that others couldn't. In his time on Earth he had met quite a few martial artists who could not only spot something out of place in the group, but have hade enough experience in the supernatural to figure out that something was 'odd' about them. There were even some who were skilled enough at reading a person's aura that they determined that he was an alien at a single glance. While he doubted that there would be anyone of that caliber here today, Katshuhito was not going to bring extra attention to his guests than was needed.
Bringing his mind back to present he saw that Tenchi was fidgeting slightly with his boken, no doubt he was slightly nervous about the day ahead of him.
"How are you feeling Tenchi?"
"Not bad Grandpa, I just hope I will do alright today."
"Off Of course you will Lord Tenchi, no one will stand a chance against you today," encouraged Ayeka.
"Yeah Tenchi, you got nothing to worry about. You beat that slime ball Kagato didn't you, none of these weaklings will be able to lay a finger on you," agreed Ryoko.
"However, unlike you're past battles you will not be using the Tenchi-ken, nor will you be able to use the light hawk wings if you get into trouble," reminded Katshuhito. "And I would be careful before assuming that the people here are weak, they may not have access to Jurian power or anything like that, but they may be able to give Tenchi a serious fight."
"Stop being so negative," said Ayeka. This will be a breeze for Lord Tenchi, especially with the way you have been training him this last week."
"Yeah, I mean two hours everyday with you and Tenchi's exhausted," added Ryoko.
"I'm just being practical you two, it is always unwise to underestimate you're opponent." To tell the truth Katshuhito wasn't that awed by the training sessions he had put Tenchi through. After all, two hours a day was nothing to some people he had met in the past, and in his youth he was one of them.
He turned to his son who was still looking at the timetable. "So Nobuhiki, where does Tenchi have to be first?"
Nobuhiki glanced at the sheet before reading the relevant information out. "It says here that in about five minutes all the competitors have to go into the introduction tent to find out who they will be fighting." He looked around and then pointed to a large tent that seemed to dominate all the others in both size and importance. "It's that one I think."
"You better get going Tenchi, you don't want to be late do you," said Katshuhito as he gently prodded his grandson in the right direction. "And good luck.". They watched as he entered the tent before Ryoko and Ayeka broke out into another fight, Mihoshi and Sasami started pleading for some ice cream and Washu continued grumbling about killjoy priests and experiments that could be done to them. Katshuhito sighed again for what seemed to be the hundredth time today; keeping this lot out of trouble was going to be tough.
Ranma had just finished filling in the demonic paperwork from hell. They weren't happy just getting his name, age and style of martial arts; they wanted loads of insane information like his favorite color and asking for a thirty-word sentence to describe how he felt about Volvos. Ranma didn't understand it, but the forms were there so he was going to sign them.
Once he finished he went back to sign-in tent to turn in his forms. There, he was understandable upset when he found out that it was only the first sheet that he filled in was important. The other ten that he had filled in was a set of completion forms that had belonged to one of the officials. It seemed he wasn't the only one who was upset, the official who owned the completion forms was highly disappointed with the answer that Ranma had given for one of the questions, apparently Volvos weren't a Chinese delicacy found in most restaurants, not that Ranma cared much.
Getting those annoying thoughts out of his head he looked on the timetable to see were he was supposed to be, maybe if he had time he could get a quick snack before he had to be anywhere. Unfortunately, he found out to his dismay that he should have been at the 'introductory meeting' five minutes ago. Ranma did the only sensible thing he could think of, he ran like hell from tent, trying to find out were he was supposed to go, completely forgetting that he had a map with him.
"Hello, and welcome the very first 'All Japan Anything Goes martial arts tournament.'. Today we will be…"
At that moment a red blur burst into the tent and looked around feverishly. Slightly annoyed at the interruption the announcer decided to ask the young man politely if he could help.
"Excuse me, can I help you sir?"
The young man paused slightly and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Is this the place to go for the fighting tournament, only I was late and…"
"Yes, yes you're in the right place," interrupted the announcer. "Now, if you would please take a seat over there, then I can continue the introduction, hopefully uninterrupted this time."
"Heh, heh, thanks," said Ranma as he took a seat in the back row. Now that he wasn't rushing around he could observe the around him. The introduction was taking place in the biggest tent in the area, easily big enough to fit a circus in. The main floor was covered by four separate arenas that were very similar to the one he had fought Kodachi during the gymnastics match, only there were no side ropes keeping people in and that they were easily twenty meters in each direction, and were therefore far larger than the one he had fought Kodachi on. They weren't as large as the one outside though, so he guessed that these were for trials or something.
In one corner of the tent, the one he was sitting in at the moment, were a large group of people of all shapes and sizes, about sixty if he guessed correctly. Standing in front of the group was the man who had helped Ranma earlier. He wasn't a very tall man, nor did he have a physique that screamed he was a fighter. In fact he looked very ordinary, except that he had a quaffed blond hair and sunglasses and was wearing a suit. In fact, he looked more like a business man than anything else, not the sort of person who ran tournaments from his experience, but then he hadn't been to that many tournaments. Most were underground fight clubs that his father would take him to for some quick money.
The announcer, fully recovered from being interrupted, started his speech again. "Ok, welcome to the very first 'All Tokyo Anything Goes martial arts tournament.'. We hope to have brought together the very best fighters in the area to see who is the best of the best, and depending on its success, this tournament will hopefully expand in the future to include the whole of the island, and maybe the rest of the country if it proves to be popular. The winner of the tournament will be placed on our honor board and will win themselves a total of 100,000 yen."
Ranma glanced around at the people who had turned up to the tournament. From what he could see he wasn't very impressed, most of the auras were unfocused and not very powerful, heck Akane could beat most of these people up easily. There were a couple of exceptions, but he couldn't really sense any more than that from here.
"However not all of you are going to fight in the tournament proper," continued the announcer, "seeing as there is a large number of people here today we are going to have a series of tryouts first to determine who the top fighters are. The top sixteen will go on to the final, which will be held outside." He then held out a bucket, which mad made a rattle when it was shaken. "In here are a set of numbers, each number represents a person fighting at the tournament. If you look at you're information pack you should see a number on one of the sheets… the one saying you are participating in the tournament." Ranma looked at his and found the number sixty-four highlighted. He saw a sticker that was included and placed it on his shirt. "This number will be used to decide who you are fighting, as I or one of my assistants will pick a two numbers at random. Those two numbers will represent which two fighters will meet in a ring and will fight."
"The first sixteen people to win three fights will be entered into the tournament proper, while those who loose lose two will be knocked out of the tournament. If more than sixteen people win three fights then it will be decided on who won lost the least fights, and if that doesn't decide it will be decided in a one off fight with everyone in the same ring, but we'll explain more about that if there is a need for it. As you may know all the fights are going to take place today, which means that you will have to have a lot of stamina as well as skill and strength to become the champion. It may seem harsh folks, but that's how it's going to be done."
"Now for the rules of the completion. Like I said earlier, the first sixteen to win three fights will go through, while those who loose two fights will be knocked out of the tournament. The decision of the officials is final, so no amount of arguing will change their minds. To win a fight you can either knock you're your opponent out, throw them out of the ring, or get them to yield defeat, something that is especially useful for you weapon users out there. Each fight will last five minutes each, and if a clear winner has not been decided in that time then the referee will decide the outcome of the fight on several different categories;, which are aggression, number of hits given and taken, the amount of damage received and the number of times you were knocked to the floor. Again the referee's decision is final, so don't bother arguing with them."
"There are several ways in which you can be disqualified and if you wish to check in you're your information pack it will explain all to you. We expect you to read all of these rules before competing, and if any of these are broken then you will be removed from the tournament. No excuses will be excepted unless there are issues which are out of you're control. Now while we are going to decide who fights first we will allow you time to read the rules for those people who haven't done so yet." The announcer then headed of off to the blackboard with a group of previously unnoticed men in kimonos and started picking out numbers from the bucket and writing them down.
Deciding that it would probably be a good idea to look at the rules before he found himself chucked out on a technicality, Ranma flicked through the papers he had been given. He soon found the rules and glanced over it briefly to see if there was anything important that he should know.
They seemed alright to him, no stupid rule saying he had to marry the looser of the fight if they were a girl or anything; just you're your bog standard rules. It would have been funny to see Kodachi try to enter the tournament, nearly every weapon she used was against the rules here, as well as the banning of drugs and powders, not that she would care.
Glancing around he spotted several different styles of fighters that were assembled. From you're usual Karate and Kempo to Kendo, and one of the kendo people was the boy he saw earlier in front of him in the queue, and judging by the way he held his sword Ranma was sure he would be fun to fight against, if nothing else.
At that moment the announcer and his assistants had finished deciding the order of the fights and were about to tell the assembled fighters what the order of the fights were to be in. When Ranma found out his fight wasn't until the thirtieth, he walked up to one of the arenas to see what the competition was made of.
Tenchi watched his opponent warily as he took to the ring for the first time. He was slightly nervous at the number of people who had turned up, and a lot of them were big, mean and nasty looking. Tenchi was really didn't want to embarrass himself or his grandfather, especially when he had been so encouraging to him in the first place. Earlier he was quietly confident in his abilities, but now after seeing his competition he wasn't so sure in himself.
This fight was one of the first four to take place, so there was a lot of attention on the first group of fighters. Lots of spectators had arrived from the fair to see the qualifying round, although Tenchi's friends and family were not among them. Each arena was raised slightly so that everyone could see easily, even those at the very back. Tenchi really didn't want to do anything stupid like falling over his own feet or drop his boken; he would never hear the end of it if his grandfather found out.
Tenchi's first opponent was another sword user. He was a year older than Tenchi and was slightly taller with a longer reach than the pig tailed Jurian. His long blond hair fell down his back in a graceful, yet masculine, sweep and he was wearing a kendo uniform like Tenchi that fit his firm frame nicely. The woman women who were in the crowd, both fighters and spectators, gave him dreamy looks and muttered 'what a hunk.' He gave Tenchi a dazzling smile that reflected some light into his eyes, blinding him slightly, before he spoke.
"Hark, what do I see before my eyes but a mere peasant who dares to oppose my obvious might. Come peasant, tell me you're your name so that I may know who I destroy so easily," drawled the blond as if board bored of his company.
"Well, my name is…."
"But isn't it impolite to not give one's name first before asking another's? Fine then, I am the bringer of justice against all those who do evil, I am the one whose mere mention sends fear into his opponents, I am none other than the rising star of the kendo world Hirotaka Suzuoki, the Shimmering Sun of the Tokyo institution!" A bright light shone onto him as he mentioned his name.
The crowd got very excited at the speech, several girls were chatting avidly with each other while several of the guys were wondering what the hell had just happened. Ranma, who was watching this particular match, was feeling very ill all of a sudden for some reason.
"Huh?" Tenchi wasn't sure if this guy needed help or not, but the light effects were pretty cool.
"Now then, now that you know my name it seems only right that you as a mere mortal tell me what you are called, after all I need to know who I will beat," said Hirotaka.
"Erm, my name's Tenchi, Tenchi Masaki."
"Ah yes, a name that does indeed belong to someone of a lower class as yourself. I am surprised that you are not quivering in fear as you look at me now, but alas I fear you will do so in the future. Oh what a tragedy it must be to face my awesome might knowing full well that you do not stand a chance," bemoaned Hirotaka as he clutched his sword to his bosom and took a dramatic pose.
Oh god no, it's contagious! thought Ranma in dismay.
Tenchi was about to argue that he was neither a peasant, nor remotely frightened by the 'Shimmering Sun' when the referee decided to intervene.
"Hey come on now hurry up, we haven't got all day now you know!"
Hirotaka fell out of his pose and gave a harsh glare at the referee, who was dressed in black like all the others. "Hirotaka the Shimmering Sun does not hurry up for anyone peasant!"
"Now none of that sonny., I don't care if you're the emperor of Japan, on in this ring I'm in charge and I can disqualify you for time wasting time if I want to. Now are you two ready to fight yet or do you want to finish your discussion out of the ring?"
Tenchi and Hirotaka nodded and both took positions facing each other. Tenchi noticed that his opponent hadn't taken a very good stance and was leaving lots of holes in his defense, but then his grandfather did the same thing to suck Tenchi into his traps. This 'shimmering sun' was either very good, or pretty damn poor.
The referee glanced at both fighters, checking to see if they were ready. When they both gave him a nod he announced the start of the fight.
"OK you know the rules. This fight is between Hirotaka Suzuoki and Tenchi Masaki. Ready… FIGHT!"
It was pretty anticlimactic really. Hirotaka charged in swinging his boken as if he was trying to sweep the pavement. Tenchi simply stepped to the side and twisted his boken out of his grip before hitting him on his lower back so that the momentum would be enough to send him out of the ring.
Tenchi couldn't believe it, he had won his first match, and easily at that. From the way his opponent was sprouting off, he expected someone who could fight, not someone who was obviously so unskilled.
However not everyone agreed that the fight was over. Getting up from the floor, Hirotaka got back onto the arena and charged Tenchi with his spare boken while shouting, "I fight on!" Surprised that his opponent was still fighting, Tenchi only reacted in the barest amount of time and managed to block the clumsy strike that was headed for his forehead. He was soon blocking like mad, trying to calm Hirotaka down so he would stop fighting, but for all the good it did him he may as well sung a 1950's ballad in Norwegian. The referee was having just as little luck, all the shouting he was doing was having no affect whatsoever as he valiantly tried to split them up.
Ranma meanwhile was impressed with Tenchi's skill while trying to calm his opponent down, he hoped they would be able to fight later on. He was about to jump up to help him when help arrived from elsewhere.
"Damn where the hell is he, the boss is going to kill me when he finds out we lost him."
"Hey I found him, come on guys lets get him before someone gets hurt!"
Said help arrived as a group of ten burly men wearing white jackets jumped onto the stage and brought down the raging kendoist, forcing him into a strait jacket. No matter how violently he struggled, he couldn't fore force himself out of their grasp and in the end he ended up laughing at the top of his lungs in a manner of a lunatic, which seemed to be what he actually was.
Soon the men had managed to restrain him and had dragged him off out of the tent, leaving only a very confused group of spectators, a confused Tenchi, and a very confused and angry referee.
The referee at this time was understandably upset and so he asked for answers in a suitably subtle way.
"What the hell was all that about?"
Tenchi was left scratching his head wondering if that counted as a win or not.
"Could numbers 47 and 64 please make their way to arena four. I repeat, could numbers 47 and 64 make there way to area four, thank you."
"Hey you get up!"
"Huh, what?" asked Ranma. After watching a couple of fights he had gone back to his seat and ended up taking a nap, not taking any notice of his surroundings. So he was startled when he was shaken awake by a rather large man sitting next to him.
"I'm sorry but I had to wake you up, but you're your fight is about to start any minute now."
"Oh crap, you're kidding me!" yelped Ranma as he leapt into the air and headed of towards the fighting arenas. The man just stood where he was and looked at his watch as if waiting for something. Sure enough ten seconds later a blushing Ranma approached the guide while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Erm… you wouldn't happen to know where I'm fighting would you?"
The official smiled before pointing out the furthest arena from their current location. "You need to head off to arena four I believe, which is that one over there."
Ranma gave the man a quick bow in gratitude before running at top speed towards the afore mentioned arena.
Eventually Ranma was arrived at the fighting arena, and after checking to see if there were any gymnasts hiding underneath (once bitten, twice shy) he leaped leapt onto the fighting floor. He glanced at the other occupants of the ring and started sweating slightly at the annoyed look he was getting from the referee.
"Its about time you got here kid, if you were thirty seconds later I would have been forced to declare this fight as an automatic win for your opponent," growled the referee.
"Yeah you wimp, too scared to face me were you?"
Ranma turned his attention away from the official to his opponent. The man he was facing was a true behemoth, being at least seven feet tall and having an incredibly muscular build. The fact that he was wearing army fatigues, including the 'but butt kicking' boots, the khaki trousers and the muscle T that clung to him like a second skin, and the fact that he had a mass of body hair and stubble on his face was enough to make him a very intimidating sight. Each of his arms had to be the size of Ranma's legs, and the look he was giving Ranma was one that wasn't seen on most pacifists. Any sane person would be terrified at the prospect of facing off against such a foe.
Ranma gave him a disinterested glance over before he put his arms behind his back and started bouncing slightly on his toes as he continued to look around at his surroundings.
"Hey punk I was talking to ya!" yelled the man, not at all liking the fact that he was being ignored.
"Look can we get on with this?", drawled Ranma. "The quicker we fight, the quicker I can beat your ass so that I can get something to eat."
"Oh you're a confident punk ain't ya? I like that, its more fun breaking a man's spirit when their have a lot of it." The mammoth then stood up even taller that before and gave Ranma a look that made most of the audience cower. "My name is Ryunosuke Ohbayashi, but people otherwise call me 'The Man Mountain Goliath,' you might have heard of me."
Ranma yawned loudly. "Naw, not really, I only know decent fighters."
It was obvious that Goliath wasn't expecting this kind of reaction, which was evident from the steam coming out of his ears (only figuratively speaking of course) and the reddening of his face.
"Oh I am really going to enjoy rubbing you're face under my boot boy…" growled Goliath.
"Are you two finished with your pissing contest yet or what?" asked the referee impatiently.
The two men nodded to him and took their stances, Goliath favoring an attacking boxing stance with a look of murder on his face, while Ranma took his usual 'non-stance,', meaning standing casually with his arms behind his back, and just smirked at his opponent. Seeing that they were ready, and feeling slightly sorry for the kid, the referee started the fight.
"This match is between Ryunosuke Ohbayashi and Ranma Nanashi, follow the rules and everything will be fine. Ready...FIGHT!"
Goliath came in fast with a huge haymaker, which threatened to take Ranma's head off if it connected. He was surprised though when Ranma simply leant back the barest of fractions and avoided the punch. He did the same to the next punch, and the punch after that, and the one after that. Soon Ranma was casually ducking and weaving blow after blow, while Goliath was punching as fast as he could at the elusive target, his punches getting sloppier and sloppier as time went on. Eventually he resorted to kicks as well, but it was obvious to those watching that he normally relied on his fists to fight.
Panting and sweating, he tried to goad his opponent into a mistake. "What's with all the dancing around kid, to scared and weak to fight like a man?"
Ranma effortlessly jumped over a sloppy kick and then avoided the follow-up punch in midair. "Not really, just warming up a bit first." He landed gracefully at the edge of the ring and waited for his opponent to make a move, his arms still behind his back.
Something inside of Goliath snapped at the obvious disrespect the kid was giving him. He had to admit that he was fast, faster than him anyway, but to not even attempt to fight in a respectable tournament was really pissing him off. As soon as he saw the brat land near the edge of the ring Goliath charged at him at full pelt with his arm cocked back, hoping to get that infuriating smirk of his face.
Ranma almost sighed in disappointment when he saw the giant rush at him. To be truthful Ranma was really enjoying himself. While 'Goliath' (what sort of name was that anyway?) wasn't giving him a challenge, it was still fun fighting him. He was about as skilful as Akane when they first met a year ago (with his arms anyway, he couldn't kick to save his life). The strength in those massive arms would be able to do some serious damage if they ever contacted anything, nothing to what Ranma could do of course, but it would still give a nasty bruise all the same.
The reason Ranma sighed was because it seemed that the 'Man Mountain' relied on intimidating his opponents with his size and strength rather than use any amount of skill. That was alright for opponents who hadn't fought any really tough fights, but Ranma just found it slightly annoying. He knew of a certain patriarch who would do something similar. He also had a large temper, which was making him fight less effectively than he could. The longer the fight went, the angrier Goliath got, the sloppier he became with his punches, which made them much easier to avoid, and therefore made the fight less enjoyable for Ranma. Now he was doing exactly the same thing as Akane had done in their first fight, charging in recklessly with no thought of control at all. Well, Ranma would put him out of his misery and show him how big a mistake that was against someone of his class.
Goliath could feel victory coming his way, there was no way that the punk would avoid this, and when he hit he was going to enjoy making the fight last till they ran out of time. He wouldn't except any forfeits or any other crap like that, he was going to show the kid the meaning of pain. He was soon in range to deliver a crippling strike and swung with everything he had at the kids face.
Goliath was expecting the kid to try to avoid the punch, and he definitely expected to get some kind of hit in if he did. He didn't expect the kid to catch his arm, and he really didn't expect to end up flying through the air over the crowd and almost landing in the arena next to them.
CRASH
…and there was no way in hell that he expected it to hurt so damn much.
Ranma watched as the giant crashed into the side of the raised arena next to them heads first, almost knocking the fighters on it of balance with the shockwave, causing Ranma to wince and hope he wouldn't get in trouble for it. He was kind of disappointed at the outcome of the fight, he had ended it with one of the most basic judo moves ever, a throw that most white belts were taught in their first couple of lessons. To fall for something like that was just pathetic, even Akane could get out of that one.
The referee stared at the young man that had somehow won the fight. He was sure that the kid didn't stand a chance, especially with all the dodging he was doing to avoid ending up in hospital, although he had to admit that his skill in dodging was exceptionally high. And to end the fight with such a basic move meant one of two things, one he was either a very lucky beginner…
…or he was a very good fighter.
Realizing he was just standing pretty when he had a job to do, he approached the victor and raised his arm in victory as he named him the winner. As he did so he had to wonder how good this guy was.
A bit earlier
CRASH
"What the hell was that?" wondered Tenchi as he felt the floor beneath him shake violently for a moment. He was lucky to avoid crashing to the arena floor, as he was just able to catch himself.
His opponent wasn't so lucky. A tall karate black-belt with a muscular frame hit the floor painfully and struggled to get back on his feet. That may have had something to do with the large number of hits Tenchi managed to get in on his body and head with his boken, as well as a couple of shots to the mid drift (although he wasn't hit south of the border in any way, if you get what I mean).
Slightly surprised at the interruption, Tenchi turned to see his opponent on the ground, and apparently not getting up.
The referee seemed to agree, as he counted down from ten before raising Tenchi's hand.
"The winner is Tenchi Masaki!!!"
After a smaller applause than he was expecting, Tenchi left the arena and headed of off to see who his next opponent was, but was stopped by a call from behind him.
"Hey, the guy with the boken, wait up!"
Tenchi turned to see who it was, and to see if it was him who was being called. After a quick scan of the crowd he saw the guy who had asked him to stop approach him.
He was a young man (although a couple of years older than Tenchi) in a red and black Chinese outfit. He was about 5'10 and had a well muscled, but agile build, much more suited to a gymnast than a fighter in Tenchi's opinion. As the young man stopped in front of Tenchi he was able to get a better look at his face. Blue eyes, black hair in a small pigtail like his, and an innocent look about him. He was also scratching the back of his head nervously with a similar expression plastering his features.
"Did you want to talk to me?" asked Tenchi curiously, wondering what the slightly older boy wanted from him.
"Eh, heh, well I just wanted to apologize for interrupting your fight , and well…" the young man said apologetically.
"Did you say you interrupted my fight?" asked Tenchi., "I can't remember anyone getting in the way of the fight, are you sure you did something?"
The young man looked slightly surprised for a moment. "Didn't you fall over when the ring shook under you?"
"That was you? I thought that it was a small earth tremor or something!"
The pigtailed youth (the older one) (the one in Chinese clothes) started laughing nervously while increasing his head scratching. "Heh eh, well you see, that was me. My fight kind of got out of control for a moment," he said while pointing back at the arena that Tenchi had just come from.
What Tenchi saw was quite a sight, lying on the floor next to his arena was a HUGE man wearing army combats. He was sure that the man could have bear hugged both Azaka and Kamidake at the same time with no trouble!
He was also unconscious after colliding with the side of his arena head first and was currently receiving medical attention. It was then that something that the other youth had told him registered in his head.
"You mean to tell me that you did that?" Tenchi yelped incredulously. The distance between each of the fighting floors was easily 40 feet; he couldn't believe anyone could do that, short of Ryoko anyway.
"Well, yeah that was me. All I did was throw him out of the ring, although I guess I over did it a bit."
Tenchi had to agree, if he had thrown that giant hard enough to hit the arena as hard as he did, then the guy must have put in some serious strength. The two young men walked to the seating area and found a couple of seats while still talking to each other.
"Yeah well don't worry about it; the fight was almost finished anyway so you didn't affect it too much." It was then that Tenchi realized that he hadn't introduced himself. "Oh, and by the way, my name's Tenchi Masaki."
"Tenchi huh, well my name's Ranma Sao…erm Ranma Nanashi. So you said you won your fight anyway, even with my, erm…help?"
"Yeah I did, it's the second fight I won today, one more fight and I'm through to the final. How about you, how have you been doing?"
"Me? Well I've only had one fight and you saw how that one turned out…" Ranma then pointed at Tenchi's boken., "So what style do you study, I'm guessing some sort of Kendo from the boken you're carrying around."
"Yeah that's right, although I doubt you would have heard of the style if I follow. It's only used by members of my family, and I only know of my grandfather and a few others who use it." Not that he didn't know of others who used it besides the Jurian royal family, it was possible that the entire Jurian army had at least some skill at it, even if they weren't the front line fighters.
"A family style huh? Sounds cool, family styles can be really effective if they're done right."
"It is a good style, though I'm nowhere near as good as my Grandfather yet. He seems to be able to beat me every time we fight effortlessly. He may be old (older than most people) but he's still very good."
"Heh, I know what you mean. I practice a fighting style called Anything Goes Martial Arts, and the Grandmaster of the style is an old pervert called Happosai."
"What do you mean pervert, does he look at woman naked and stuff?"
"Well yeah he does that, but he mainly steals their underwear and gropes their chests."
"He steals their underwear huh, well that's kind of perverted."
"Tell me about, especially when the women are still wearing them when he steals them."
"When their wearing them!?" yelled Tenchi incredulously. Did he hear right or was his ears playing tricks on him?
"Yep, annoys the hell out of them too," continued Ranma, as if the idea of people being that perverted was completely normal, which for him it kind of was. "The thing is that he's such a good martial artist that there's hardly anyone who can beat him. About the only two who can are me and the Old Ghoul."
Tenchi was about to ask more when he saw a couple of friendly faces enter the marquee they were in.
"Hey Grandfather, Washu-chan, over here!" yelled Tenchi as he waved them over.
The two aliens heard the call and after finding Tenchi's location headed towards it, taking seats next to him.
"Hi Gramps, Washu-chan, how's it going?"
"Not bad, Ryoko and Ayeka are taking Sasami on some of the rides and Mihoshi and Kiyone were wining all the prizes on the shooting range last time I saw them. No idea where your father is though," answered Katshuhito. He then turned to Ranma and gave him a weird glance that only lasted for a moment before allowing his expression to go back to normal. "Who's your friend Tenchi?" he asked.
"Eh? Oh, Grampa, this is Ranma Nanashi, one of the fighters in the tournament. Ranma this is my Grandfather Katshuhito, and the person with him is Washu…"
"But please call me Washu –chan, everyone else does," said the small girl cutely.
"Hey Katshuhito, Washu-chan," greeted Ranma, noticing immediately that the old man walked like a master fighter, while the little girl had… something odd about her, those eyes just looked too mature for her small body.
"So Tenchi how has it been going so far?" enquired his grandfather curiously.
"Fine so far, fought two, won two. They were pretty easy though, one was just a black belt at Karate and the other was a lunatic with a sword. He had no skill whatsoever and in the end he had to be dragged from the ring in a straight jacket."
"Yeah I watched that fight, reminds me of someone I used to know, only he was worse."
"Worse than that guy, you've got be kidding."
Ranma sighed as he told the three about him. "Kuno was this idiotic kendoist who went to my old school, came from this really rich, nutty family so he decided he could get away with what he wanted. Anyone not of 'noble birth' was a peasant, and I was called the 'foul sorcerer Saotome' because he could never beat me in a fight, so I had to be using dark magic to do it."
"Yeah that sounds familiar, that 'Shimmering Sun' called me that plenty of times in our fight."
"Good thing Ryoko wasn't there, otherwise he may have become fish paste," chuckled Washu.
"Well I have to admit that while he was an idiot Kuno was a very good fighter," acknowledged Ranma very reluctantly. "With a sword he was pretty useful, he could cut down trees with just his boken and had this cool air pressure attack. Without it though he was left looking pretty, which was why I never had any respect for him, without his sword he was nothing."
"Hmm… let me guess, you're one of those who feel that weapon users aren't as good as unarmed fighters," said Katshuhito.
"Well sort of," agreed Ranma hesitantly., "I mean I don't have anything against people who fight with weapons, I had to use weapons in a few matches I fought last year. It's just those who can't fight with their fists, if it came down to it that bothers me. If their weapon is taken, or they don't have it at a certain time, then their pretty useless. Most weapon users can be beaten by simply taking their weapon. Once that's done it's your fight by forfeit, if they rely on it too much," explained Ranma.
Katshuhito raised an eyebrow at the answer, admittedly underestimating the rough speaking youth. He was right of course, relying on a weapon was useless, if you lost it in battle and if you couldn't fight well enough to at least regain your sword, then you were dead. The only exception to the case was the Tenchi-ken, which couldn't be removed from its owner's grip. Other than that the general applied, rely on your weapon to your peril.
"Wise words indeed, although you first have to remove the weapon from its owner, in some cases that may be easier said than done," replied Katshuhito, smiling confidently at the youth.
Puzzlement was shown on Ranma's features for a moment before recognition replaced it. "Hey, I think Tenchi mentioned you earlier. You're his sensei aren't you?"
"Yes that's me," confirmed the priest with a nod. "I may be an old man but I am more than able to fight if I have to."
"Yeah I believe you, you walk like a really good fighter, and besides I've learned a while ago not to judge things from appearances. I know some people older than you who are really good and it's real hard to win against them. "Not that they ever beat me, nope, never. Anytime that happens its cause they're lucky or cheat, not because their better than me, Ranma Sa…whatever, is still the best!
Katshuhito smirked inwardly, he very much doubted that they were older than him.
Before they could continue their conversation an announcement was heard. "Could numbers 64 and 19 please make their way to arena 1 for their next fight. I repeat numbers 64 and 17. Thank you."
Ranma bolted up in his seat. "Ahh, that's me! Sorry, I better be going, it was nice to meet you, bye." And with that he rushed off towards the fighting area.
"Well he was sure in a hurry wasn't he?" commented Washu.
"Possibly, he might want to size up his opponent before the match," suggested Katshuhito.
"Or he could just be trying to avoid us because we're boring him to death"
"I doubt it Washu-chan, he seems to be the type who live for martial arts."
"If you say so Yosho-dono."
She glanced at her future son in law (cough guinea-pig cough) and saw that he seemed to be thinking seriously about something. "Are you alright Tenchi?"
"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine, why do you ask?"
"It's just that you seem very thoughtful right now, anything we should know about?"
"Not really, it's just that when Ranma talked about that Kuno guy he said used be called 'foul sorcerer Saotome,', but I thought his name was Nanashi. It just seems a bit odd that's all."
Washu shrugged. "Not really, he could have married afterwards and taken his wife's name, or he could just be fighting under an alias.?"
"That sounds right," added Katshuhito. "After all, Nanashi means 'no name,' he may just want to do this without people knowing his real name."
"Yeah maybe, I'll ask him next time I see him," sighed Tenchi. "Well I might as well see when I'm fighting, at least I can prepare for it then. Wait for a minute will you?"
Once Tenchi had left, it was just the two older aliens left sitting there.
"So Yosho, want to tell me what set you off earlier?"
To his credit Katshuhito didn't react to her probing comment. "I'm sorry Washu-chan but I don't understand."
The diminutive scientist just gave him a look that screamed 'you're not fooling anyone.'. "When we approached Tenchi you reacted to seeing that Ranma kid. You didn't show it much, but it was there for a moment. Is there something you know about him that you want to tell me." It wasn't a question.
Sigh. "There's no fooling you is there Washu-chan?"
"No there isn't, and stop buttering me up and answer the god-dammed question."
The priest looked at the arena where the pigtailed fighter was conversing with his opponent for a moment before answering. "To tell you the truth Washu, I don't really know. It's because there is something in his aura that is very familiar to me, I know I've seen it before somewhere, I just can't remember what it is."
"Do you think its something we should worry about?," asked Washu.," "I mean we don't to risk another kidnapping or something."
Katshuhito just shook his head. "No its nothing like that, the last time I saw this was about 400 years ago at the most. I highly doubt that it's any non-human contact or anything, it's just something that I can't quite figure out at the moment. I'll work out the significance of that young man's aura eventually."
"You know, I could tell you exactly what that aura was if I had access to my computer, but someone decided that I'm not allowed to since it might cause too much attention," groused Washu.
"Washu-chan, you know full well that the people of Earth are not ready for knowledge of our existence yet. If they found out that they're a Jurian colony then they will likely attempt to have a war with us. Not that they would actually beat us, but there is every likelihood that some less… responsible members of the population would use the excuse to attack neighboring countries, claiming that they're hiding aliens. Nuclear weapons or worse may get involved," answered Katshuhito calmly to a still grumbling scientist. "When they are ready then it will not matter, but for now you're your abilities will have to stay hidden."
"I still don't see why," complained Washu., "I mean it's not that unusual. I could just say that it's a prototype for Microsoft or something."
Katshuhito smiled slightly before leaning in close to Washu. "Well there is another reason. I had to convince the girls that discretion was a good idea, and for that I needed you to be an example for them. You do want to be a good example for your daughter don't you?"
"Ah shut up," grumbled Washu as she crossed her arms and sulked. Yosho was such a spoil spoilsport; she'd get back at him when they were home later. Maybe she could try out her new invention that had been inspired from some American comic, what were they called… oh yes, Peebos.
Authors note
These are the first fight scenes I've written; I hope they're ok.
Ok, I know that I said that this would be done in a week so I apologise for keeping you waiting. The reason this is late is because I had a small problem with my computer which caused me to lose all my chapters of 'Lost and found', meaning that I had to rewrite this chapter.
Just a few things to say today, first I can imagine that some people are upset that I didn't have Ranma and Washu talking more to each other, but I have my reasons. I want this occur during the length of the tournament, I didn't want it to happen too quickly since that would be less enjoyable.
About Ranma's supposed problem with weapons. In my opinion he doesn't have one, only with people who depend on them. I can name three times in the first few episodes when Ranma has used a weapon and not complained at all.
First was when P-chan ended up in that rich families house Akane was desperate to save him. Ranma uses a stool against the three servants as a weapon, first as a shield and then again when he used it to trip the man with the bo staff over.
Next was the gymnastics competition. Surly everyone knows about this so I won't say too much. But you can tell that Ranma doesn't like resorting to weapons when she kicked Ryoga during training (though that may just be her wanting him to shut up.)
Finally there was the fight with Cologne at the snowman race (anime version). Ranma uses the sword she has after realising that she has a lack of mobility due to her snowshoes.
So for those people who say that Ranma hates weapons then I'm sorry but you're wrong. He may dislike them and prefer the unarmed styles of martial arts, but he will use them when he has to.
About the whole 'new powers' thing. I have to agree with a lot of you who sent in reviews who said that by including those Sayajin genes that he was already an improved version and there was no need add anything else. If I add too much to him then there is a danger of this becoming a 'God Ranma' fic, which I am trying to avoid at all costs. I only asked people what their ideas were to see if there was some alternative to Ryoko's powers, like say instead of electricity Ranma has ice (by the way that isn't going to be a new power, just an example).
There were a couple of ideas that I'm going to consider, I want to either have Ranma 'learn' the Nekoken, or at least master the fear, I just cant make my mind up about either option. It's pretty important when you consider that he's going to have a companion who goes miah to do something about it, so its going to be one or the other.
The idea of him changing the energy sword into other weapons is a good one as well. I think I read somewhere that Ryoko can change her sword's length so that it can be a short sword, a long sword, or even a staff. I reckon I can make Ranma's adaptively come out there somewhere. While the other ideas are good and would be useful in other stories, they might not be a good idea in this story. I might still use them though.
As for Ryoko's powers, there are still some that confuse me, Assimilation being one of them. I know that she assimilated permanently with Zero, but can she do it temporarily as well? She assimilates that stone pillar while fighting Kagato and becomes HUGE, but I don't know if she can simply change sizes and is still assimilated with the pillar, if she 'de-assimilated' her self with it, or if she didn't assimilate with it but just changed its form and controlled it without joining with it (like a remote control car). If someone could clear this up for me then I would really appreciate it.
I'm going to say that she can teleport into orbit, but not as far as the moon. If anyone has any major problems with that then tell me.
Thanks for all the reviews, I can't believe that I have over three hundred all ready, I never expected this response.
One more thing…RANGER5 WILL YOU HURRY UP AND UPDATE 'FOREVER THE TOMBOY'! I really like the story and I want to see it updated. I know that you aren't dead since you've reviewed my story several times, so I just have to assume that you're lazy.
Ah, its great to get everything of my chest like that.
And finally I would thank JohnnyG for pre-reading this chapter. After loads of reviews saying that I needed a pre-reader I finally relented and asked Johnny G to do it, and I have to say that it helped a lot, there shouldn't be as many mistakes here.
I think that's everything, I'll try to write the next chapter quickly but I'm not promising anything, it just makes people disappointed when I go over an appointed time.