Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma.
This chapter took a long time to write. It is also easily the longest I've written yet.
I apologize in advance if Ranma seems a little out of character for this match, but I wanted it to mirror (in a way) Akane's match. I hope people like it.
And therefore: Here's chapter 10. Enjoy.
-three weeks later-
Ranma sat in the locker room in the arena where the fight was going to take place. She was nervous, no that was an understatement: she was petrified. Three weeks ago her boyfriend and sensei-turned-training-partner had told her that he felt that she was about ready and that his dad was staying in China waiting for Kyle to call him. She finally after three weeks got enough courage to squeak to Kyle that she was as ready as she would ever be.
Now, here she was in the locker room, within one hundred feet of her long time Idol, whom she was about to fight.
"Akane, I don't know if I can do this," Ranma told her friend.
"Relax," Akane soothed her friend, thinking of the irony of the situation. When she had been about to face Kodachi she had been in Ranma's place and Ranma had been the one consoling her. Now the roles had been reversed.
"Akane," Ranma wailed, "this is the World's Strongest Fighter we're talking about here. Not some high school student or another relatively unknown person. He hasn't lost in nearly forty years!"
"Don't think like that!" Akane told her friend, "Think about all the moves and techniques Kyle taught you. Kyle knows his dad well, he would have trained you to beat his dad would he have?"
"But Kyle's so good!" Ranma bemoaned, "I'm not nearly as good as he is! Why does he think that I'm ready for this?"
"Kyle has told Ryu, who's told me, that you're better than him at many of the techniques he taught you," Akane informed Ranma, "The technique involving multiple hits in a split second, remember that one? On a good day he can land four, that's on a good day. The day we got Dr. Tofu and Kasumi to confess to each other you landed five hits on him like it was no big deal. You're at least as good as he is, Ranma; if not better!"
"But…" Ranma tried again.
"NO BUTS!" Akane declared, "Ranma, you fought almost sixty women in the same day and won, when you were the underdog! You told me you were so scared you didn't know how you managed to stay on the log long enough to win. You've managed to teach me to have self-discipline, which I consider a miracle in itself, along with how to cook, sew, swim, act more like a girl, though I don't know how you knew how to do that one yourself. I realize you had help in all of those but you were instrumental in all of my training."
"When Kyle first got her," she continued, "he said that you could last ten minutes against his dad which was longer than anyone had managed in twenty years. You're not just some unknown fighter! You're one of the world's best!"
A knock on the door interrupted the two girls. The door opened, revealing a pretty young girl about Kyle's age.
"Sorry to interrupt," she said, "but we're ready whenever you are."
"Can we ask you are?" Akane asked curiously.
"Oh, that's right, you don't know who I am," the girl said, "My name is Ann; I'm Kyle's twin sister."
"Oh, nice to meet you," Akane said.
Ann smiled, "Ranma, whenever you're ready, dad is waiting," she said before closing the door behind her.
"C'mon Ranma," Akane coaxed, "It's now or never."
"How are you so calm?" Ranma asked still shaking, "This is the World's Stron…."
"Ranma, stop thinking of him like that," Akane said, "You're just psyching yourself out. Think of him not as this 'world's strongest fighter' but as Kyle's dad, a man named Darian Moor, who teaches at a small university somewhere in America."
Ranma sat there for a moment; the only sign that Akane's words had hit something in her mind was that she was no longer shaking.
"C'mon," Akane said again, "Remember, Kyle will be out there with you in the ring. He can't fight for you but he'll give you the weapons you want and he'll be there to support you. Just like a good boyfriend."
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Ranma didn't know how she managed to get up and leave the locker room. She hardly registered the walk from said locker room to the arena where the fight would take place. But here she was, standing next to Kyle who was acting as her second for this duel, standing in the lowered 'ring' facing the man she had dreamed of facing for over two years. A woman stood next to him.
"That's my mother," Kyle explained, "She's acting as my father's second for this match."
"I'm scared," Ranma confessed to Kyle.
"I know," Kyle told her, "I get scared to when I spar my parents."
Ranma looked at him like he had sprouted a third eye. "But you're so good," she said.
"And they're my parents," Kyle told her.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the announcer called into the microphone.
"That's my older brother," Kyle whispered to Ranma, "He and Dr. Tofu will be standing by in case one of you is injured badly and needs immediate treatment."
"The event that we have gathered here today to witness is a truly epic battle of Martial Arts Titans! In this corner, the man holding the title 'World's Strongest Fighter', Darian Moor!" Kyle's father stepped forward and bowed, then stepped back.
"In the other corner, the challenger, daughter of one of the acting Grandmaster's of Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, Ranma Saotome!" Ranma imitated Kyle's father in acknowledging the crowd.
"The rules of this match are simple," Kyle's brother explained, "the fighter's are encouraged not to kill each other. There is no time limit to the match. The match will end when one fighter is no longer able to continue or admits defeat. Do both fighters accept these rules?"
Ranma and Darian Moor nodded.
"Then the match may begin. As soon as I get out of the way."
Kyle's brother ran to the edge of the combat area. "Begin!" he yelled.
Ranma and Darian began circling each other, getting a bearing on their opponent's defense. Ranma struck first, sending a right hook into Darian's side. He caught the blow, which opened up his right side. Ranma took immediate advantage of that, sending another blow at him. Darian seemed to have planned on her doing that for he caught her punch before it was halfway to him. Thinking quickly, Ranma opted to head-butt him. This he did not seem to have anticipated.
Darian took the blow but shook it off, kicking Ranma in the stomach. Ranma found herself flying backward and barely managed to roll over and stay on her feet.
'Damn, he's strong,' she thought to herself, 'but I guess that comes with the title.'
She took the brief pause to quickly look over Darian Moor. He was shorter than Kyle, but more built. He dressed like Kyle too.
'Must be where Kyle got his fashion sense from,' she mused.
Darian wore a black tee-shirt with loose blue jeans, and dark boots. Not exactly what you would expect a fighter to be wearing in a fight. Then again, Kyle only wore training clothes for their spars when they were in the dojo.
She didn't have more time to look her opponent over, for he came at her, quite quickly for a man of his age, 'What did Kyle say his father's age was?' Ranma thought as she dodged and blocked a furious assault of kicks and punches, 'Around 84 if I remember correctly. Well Cologne is almost 200 and she's just now starting to deteriorate.'
Ranma jumped over Darian's head and kicked him with the back of her foot. Like Darian, she wasn't wearing training clothes, she wore her typical Chinese outfit that she wore outside of school. It was looser fitting than the jeans and tee-shirt that Darian wore.
'Must use that to my advantage,' she thought as she blocked a kick to her head, kicking her opponent in the head at the same time.
Darian reacted well to this. Since his body's initial reaction to being kicked in the face was to turn away from the source, he twisted his body around, picking up momentum for the foot that was on the ground which he used to kick Ranma under her extended leg, throwing her into the air and to the ground. He then rose to punch her as she lay prone.
Rolling out of the way, Ranma still felt the impact of Darian's fist hitting the surface of the arena. She looked where he had hit the ground, and her eyes widened as she took in the sight of a small fist shaped crater.
'Ok,' she thought, 'He's not just strong. He's really strong.'
She saw Darian run at her and reacted. Her foot shot out, kicking him in his right shin causing him to fall to one knee. She then kicking him in the chin, sending him to his back. As she rose up he pushed her away with both feet.
'Déjà vu,' she thought, 'that happened three weeks ago in a match with Kyle.'
Both back on their feet, Ranma and Darian circled each other again. Darian struck this time, punching her in the gut. She doubled over and he rose to put an elbow strike into her back. Ranma smirked as her right fist plowed into Darian's crotch. He still managed to hit with the elbow strike but with far less force than was originally intended.
They pulled back again, eying each other. They both struck this time; Darian moving in for another elbow strike and Ranma going to tackle Darian. Darian reacted fast, grabbing Ranma and throwing her across the combat area. Ranma skidded to a stop thirty feet away from him. She had twisted her body around as she flew through the air and landed on her feet. She looked up at Darian and noted how far away he was.
'This is farther than Kyle ever managed to throw me,' she swallowed.
She remembered another trick that worked against Kyle. She moved toward Darian, trying to kick him in the side of the head. He caught the blow, but she placed her hand on the ground and hit him with her other foot. Unlike when she used this move on Kyle, she spun around pulling her leg from Darian's grip and stood to face him.
Darian faced her, dropping into a subtle stance for a moment. Ranma recognized it as one of Kyle's and raised her arm to block a kick that came from nowhere. Taking his leg, she spun Darian through the air and tossed him across the field. He landed twenty feet away, on his feet.
"You have learned well," he called to her, "my son is an excellent teacher is he not?"
Ranma blinked, he didn't sound like he had even begun to exert himself.
"He is," she responded, hoping she masked her heavy breathing, "He's used that stance more than once against me, though this is the first time I caught the kick the first time it was used."
"You're skill is impressive then," Darian complimented her, "the last fight I had that was the finishing move. My opponent never saw it coming."
"Perhaps that was because he had never seen it before," Ranma suggested as the two traded blows, she ducked under a kick, rolled behind him and punched him in the back. He staggered forward a step before catching himself and turning around.
"I'm afraid not," Darian informed her, grabbing her arms and kicking her in the chest, causing her to stumble backward, "she was the person who taught me the move originally."
"Then how does Kyle know it?" Ranma grunted, faking a blow to his gut and kicking him in the face.
"The last fight I had was over a year ago," Darian explained, wiping the blood from his nose, "I had seen her fight several times and was impressed by the move, therefore I asked her to teach it to me. This was three years before we fought, I showed Kyle the move before he left for college."
"Hold on," Ranma said, dropping to sweep his legs out from under him, which he jumped over, "the last person you fought was a woman?"
"Surprised?" Darian asked.
"I guess not," Ranma admitted, "after all, what am I?"
Darian grinned, before taking her legs out from under her and, this time, succeeding in punching her as she lay prone. She kicking him in the head again.
"You like to aim for my head," Darian commented, "perhaps it is because my son has a similar fighting style to me and you aim for his head when you spar?"
"Perceptive," Ranma complimented, though inside she cringed, he was probably going to change tactics now and his head would be less vulnerable.
"Well I haven't studied the Art all my life for nothing," Darian commented, "Sword!" he called to Kyle's mother. Kyle's mother grabbed a claymore from the wall and threw it to him. He caught it mid-air.
"Kyle! Katana!" Ranma instructed. Kyle tossed her the katana.
"Interesting choice," Darian commented, swinging the claymore at Ranma, "I hope you know how to fight one of these with one of those." Ranma staggered back from the force behind Darian's blow. Kyle was right about his father and the claymore, and Darian wielded the sword with much more strength than Kyle did.
Ranma parried another blow and thrust her weapon forward. Darian jumped back out of the way.
Darian swung the claymore downward. Ranma had enough time to jump to the side, evading the attack, but only just.
Ranma kicked Darian in the chin. Darian flipped over backward and landed on his feet, slashing at her even before he landed.
Darian blocked a swing from Ranma, and tried to sweep the weapon out of her hands. Ranma mimicked a method of Kyle's and flipped over moving in the rotation of the weapons, nullifying the attempt.
Ranma was beginning to get tired and Darian looked as fresh as he did when he first started the match.
'God, does this man ever get tired?' she thought to herself. Then her heart almost stopped. Darian held the claymore in one hand, calling for another. He caught the flying weapon effortlessly. He was now armed with two of the massive swords.
'Oh, shit,' Ranma thought, holding her hand out and hoping Kyle got the message; he did and another katana appeared in her hand.
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"Wow, Ranma is good!" Ann breathed from the stands. Akane looked over at Kyle's sister.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"James, that's our older brother, has been watching dad fight for nearly thirty years," Ann told her, "in that time, he's seen dad use this style one time against an opponent: The last person to come the closest to beating him."
"Oh," Akane said, "I didn't realize that Ranma was doing that well."
"She's doing great don't worry," Ann reassured her, "you haven't noticed something strange about the match yet have you?"
"What do you mean?" Akane asked Ann, again.
"Ranma has had my dad as an Idol for quite some time now, right?" Ann asked to be clarified.
"Yeah," Akane confirmed.
"Well then she probably knows that dad usually uses an alias when he goes to an official fight," Ann said, "He's using his real name today."
"What's that got to…do…with…are you saying that your dad is expecting to lose?"
"Maybe," Ann smirked, she looked around to see if anybody around them was paying any sort of attention to what the girls were saying.
"Akane," she said softly, leaning closer to Akane to be heard better, "do you want to know a secret?"
"About what?" Akane said just as softly.
"About dad," Ann told her, "Ranma doesn't know this but…"
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'Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.' Ranma thought as she blocked, or attempted to block, the strikes of Darian's swords. Even though he only had the strength of one arm behind each blade, the force behind the blows didn't seem to lessen any.
Darian's next blow knocked her left katana out of her grip. The following one knocked the right one out.
'Fuck,' Ranma was all but panicking now, 'how did I ever think that I could stand up to this guy? He's not even human, it seems. He's the World's Strongest Fighter and I'm just…'
"Ranma, stop thinking of him like that,"
Ranma blinked at Akane's voice in her head. She ducked under another swing as the voice continued.
"You're just psyching yourself out. Think of him not as this 'world's strongest fighter' but as Kyle's dad, a man named Darian Moor, who teaches at a small university somewhere in America."
Ranma looked at Darian again.
'Funny,' she thought, evading another claymore, 'He looks about as big as my dad, who I can whip around the dojo easily these days.' She jumped over the claymores again, finding a different voice in her head this time.
"There are two styles for the Illusion of Control," Kyle explained, "One is the card trick I showed everyone on the train, which I am showing you again here. In this style, you give the audience or your opponent the sense that they have control over what is happening. The other is a mirror image. You are giving your audience or opponent the sense that you have complete control over the situation and there is nothing that can be done about it. Interestingly enough, you can fight the second style with the first, all you have to do is be able to recognize what is going on and play along with it until you see an opportunity to strike."
Ranma laughed inwardly, Darian was using the second style. Making it appear that he wasn't tired. Using an intimidating technique to cause his opponent to doubt themselves. It was all a strategy to give him a mental edge over his opponent. Oddly enough her father's voice rang though her head now.
"In a match Ranma," Genma Saotome began, "there will come a time when you are exhausted. This is to be expected, fighting is hard work. At this time you will begin to doubt yourself and your abilities, because you are tired. It is crucial to remember when this happens that your opponent has been working just as hard as you have been and therefore is just as tired."
Ranma couldn't see any sign of fatigue in Darian's form. He swung the claymores just as hard and fast as he did when he first got them.
'But he has the self-discipline not to let up,' Ranma reminded herself, 'he won't quit until he's too tired to lift the blades.'
She ducked under another swing.
'I need to get one of those blades away from him,' she thought, 'he's backed me away from Kyle so that I can't get any of my weapons.'
Quickly she formed a simple plan. She began to let Darian back her farther into a corner. When she was as far into the corner as he could get her and still wield his swords properly, Darian swung in with his left arm, which Ranma calculated was the weaker of the two. Grabbing the blade close to the hilt, Ranma stepped into Darian's body, twisted around, and yanked the blade from his hand.
Darian was momentarily surprised by Ranma's sudden offensive, but quickly reverted back to his single sword stance. While not as good as Darian was, Ranma dropped into the stance as well.
'Need to get rid of both swords quick,' she thought, 'I don't know how long I can wield this monstrosity.'
Ranma took her chance after a few quick strikes from Darian. Using the same technique he tried earlier, she swept the sword from Darian's had using a circular motion. But unlike Darian's previous attempt she had no intention of keeping her weapon so put as much force into the move as she could. Darian couldn't counter in time to hang onto the blade and both blades flew across the floor landing a ways away.
Before he could react, Ranma stepped in punching him twice in the face and once in the gut.
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"Holy Shit!" Ann exclaimed, "Did you just see what Ranma did?"
"Yeah, she disarmed your dad and punched him a couple times," Ryu said from beside Akane, "why do you ask?"
"You missed it!" Ann cried, "AAARGH, how did you miss that? Ranma hit dad six times there, not just three. She used that multiple hit technique three times in succession!"
"I'm guessing that's impressive," Akane said, looking at Ann like she was out of her mind.
"Of course it's impressive!" Ann yelled, "That's easily the most difficult move Kyle knows! Kyle's also the best at it out of the five of us. And Ranma's better at it than he is!"
"We know," Akane told her, "she hit Kyle five time's a few weeks ago. With 'one' punch." She added on the end.
Ann looked at Ranma with immense respect.
"I like this girl," she said, "I really like this girl." Then she blinked and looked around. "Where'd she go?" she asked.
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Ranma cautiously moved around the ring, staying as quiet as possible. She was well hidden with her 1000 Sea Path technique. Darian could neither sense her nor see her now. Sneaking up behind him she hit him in the back, moving away quickly. Darian spun around, searching for her, but she had already moved away.
She waited until Darian had turned to face her new position to strike. This time she struck him in the shin the kicked him in the face. Darian fell and rolled, getting to his feet and searching for her again.
'Keep it random, Saotome,' Ranma told herself, 'Keep it random.'
She landed several more hits on Darian before he managed to notice a pattern to her movements. By then she had devised a new pattern and moved to set it up.
'This should be the last blow!' she thought smugly, moving in for the 'kill'.
But the blow never landed. Darian caught her fist in the air, twisted around behind her and jabbed his finger into the back of her neck. Ranma suddenly felt ten times weaker than before. She also noticed that she was visible. Had she dropped the 1000 Sea Path Veil too soon?
"You're undoubtedly wondering two things right now," Darian said to her, "How did I find you? And, why am I so tired? The answer to the first question is simple: I could smell you. You used the technique too late in the fight. Since you were covered in sweat, it was only a matter of concentration before I found you and could follow you. As for the second question, I hit a pressure point in your neck that channels your battle aura through your body. If disrupted, the body gets considerably weaker. It wears off after a while, usually after a long nap, or you can have somebody hit the corresponding pressure point. Neither option is available to you during this match. So the next question is: Do you yield?"
Ranma stared at Darian.
'Damn it Kyle,' she cursed to herself, 'why do you always have to be right. You warned me about using the 1000 Sea Path late in the battle, didn't you.'
She looked around, noticing the crowd for the first time, 'The noise must be deafening,' she thought, the crowd in the arena was huge.
'Do I yield?' she thought to herself, 'Can I continue as I am?'
She looked back into the audience. Somehow she found Akane, sitting with Ryu, they both looked anxious. To the left of them, sat Shampoo with Mousse, the pair had started dating a couple weeks after the camping trip and were a disgustingly cute couple. Next to them sat Nabiki and Kasumi, and the rest of her family.
So much had changed since she had arrived here in Nerima. She had friends. She taught Akane to branch out, discipline herself. Both girls were good enough to take on their respective father's and, in Ranma's case, win, in Akane's case, be evenly matched. Akane had her first match. Kyle showed up, with Ryu and Herb. Akane had a boyfriend now. Mousse acted more like a man his age. Nabiki didn't try and make deals with people that were to her profit. Kasumi and Tofu had confessed to each other. Ranma had fallen in love.
Was that enough? Could she live with yielding the match and live with what she and Kyle had brought to her life and the lives of others?
She looked back into the stands. Ayaka and Misaki, her friends from school sat not far from Akane with their boyfriends, all of the cheering exuberantly. Her entire school was in the stands. She could see Ryoga and Akari, sitting with their sumo pig. Herb was sitting there too; it wasn't hard to miss him…her…it in the colorful Chinese clothing he wore.
'They would forgive me for yielding,' she thought, 'most of them are martial artists and understand what is happening.' She was an inch away from opening her mouth and saying "I yield" when something caught her eye.
It was the girl from the locker room; she was standing next to Akane. Kyle's sister did not bother her as much as Akane did though. The look on Akane's face seemed to scream "Don't you dare! Don't you fucking dare!"
Ranma looked over to Kyle next. His face was impassive, but his eyes burned with emotion. They bore into her and it was almost as if his voice was screaming in her head "Who gives a shit about what others think of you! What will you think of yourself if you do this? What of your dream?"
'That's right,' Ranma remembered, 'my dream.'
Her dream to defeat the man in front of her. It had given her motivation to train for a year and a half before she met Kyle and was the reason why she worked so hard with Kyle to get better.
"Do you yield, Ranma Saotome?" she heard Kyle's brother call to her.
"No," she answered in an icy tone, "No, I do not yield. I am Ranma Saotome, and I do. Not. LOSE!"
She dropped into the subtle stance that she had seen Kyle use several time in their sparring matches.
"Using that old trick?" Darian commented, "Let us hope luck is with you, lassie."
He circled around her, looking for an opening. He suddenly rushed at her, juked to the right, and came at her from a different direction.
He never saw it coming. Unlike Kyle, Ranma adapted the stance to her own style and idea, using a punch instead of a kick. Darian rose nearly ten feet into the air, flew back thirty feet, and landed flat on his back.
Ranma watched him for a moment, waiting for him to get up. Then he did something completely unexpected:
He tapped the ground once, with his hand.
Twice.
Three times.
"The match is over," she heard Kyle's brother announce, "Your winner and new World's Strongest Fighter: Ranma Saotome!"
Ranma wasn't sure how the roof to the building stayed on.
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After signing umpteen thousand autographs, having her picture taken who knows how many times, being interviewed by news stations from three different countries (she had to have Ann Moor give translations for the languages she didn't know), and finally being shepherded away by Dr. Tofu to get looked at for injuries, Ranma was back in the locker room with Akane.
"You did it Ranma!" her friend squealed, "You did it! We have to have a party! Kyle's sister said she'd be able to find a perfect place for us to hold it!"
Ranma grinned at her friend, "I hope she takes a while, I feel like I need to sleep for a week."
Akane laughed, then sombered up. "Ann told me something in during the match that I think you should know now," she said.
"What?" Ranma asked, finishing changing into fresh clothing.
"You remember how you said that Kyle's dad hadn't lost in nearly 40 years," Akane said, Ranma nodded.
"Well, Ann told me something interesting," Akane continued, "In 40 years, Darian Moor has lost only one time: to Kyle."
Ranma stared at Akane in disbelief as Akane continued.
"Apparently right before he went off to college, Kyle was at the peak of his training. He and his dad had an unofficial-official match to see how much Kyle had learned. During that match, Darian used the same dual-claymore technique that he used on you because Kyle was close to beating him. But the differences in their versions of the same style of fighting gave Kyle an advantage and he eventually beat his dad. Darian is much stronger than Kyle, but Kyle is has more finesse to his moves and is faster."
Ranma didn't hear more of Akane's speech as she promptly keeled over and fainted.
So how did you like the fight? Was it to your expectations? I'm sorry if I seemed to be glorifying Kyle at the end, but you must remember that Ranma can beat Kyle. It isn't explained in the story, but Ranma fainted because she just realized that she should have known that she could beat Darian from the beginning as she could beat Kyle.
Anyway, one more chapter after this: the epilogue. I'll get that out as soon as I can.
Let me know how I did, please review.