Disclaimer: I don't own either Histories Strongest Disciple Kenichi or Ranma 1/2.

"Writer"

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"(Hello.)" Thought

"Mouko Takabisha" attack/ technique

"[U-chans]" signs

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"/Hello\\" Telephone

Part 12: One step closer

With the pigtailed boy gone for the weekend Kenichi felt somewhat refreshed but somewhere deep inside, he missed him as well.

"(Ranma-san might not talk a lot, but he is cheery and... just has something about him.)" Kenichi looked at his clock in his room and is showed that it was five in the morning.

"I still have time to go to the dojo... I think I'll start this day with a little relaxation. I know! I'll go and water the plants in the school garden." With that in mind Kenichi moved off to clean himself up and get dressed.

Grabbing his school bag that held his training Gi within and quickly walked off towards student gardens at school. Just a quarter of the way too school the boy was cheerful that nothing could ruin this feeling at the moment. "(I think I'll jog the rest of the way to school)" Soon arriving at the schools gate, Kenichi took a little breather.

"(That was a long distance... still better than what Koetsuji-san usually makes me do.)"
Getting on to the schools grounds was a little bit trickier but then thanks to Miu and the training he was undergoing he now held the key into getting in.

School wasn't the most favourite of places for most of the student body going to them, like in many schools. Even the staff could sometimes feel like their students. Or it was the staff that made the students dislike going to school. But there were students who liked going to school and liked their teachers and Kenichi was just one of these many who belonged to such a group, with Ranma being in the other group.
It was a place that caused nervousness in those who studied there, but on the weekend when it is almost completely empty it would cause paranoia in anybody who walks its lonely corridors.

"(Maybe I should tell someone about the chain fence... who knows who else could get in here?)" Kenichi was a little nervous, only his steps could be heard as he walked through school grounds to the garden. "(At least I know that the plants won't harm me. That's why it's so comforting to be here.)"

As the young disciple enjoyed the serene feeling there, it was suddenly broken by the feeling that someone else was here also? "You really made it hard for me to find you…. Kenichi Shirahama."

Turing around Kenichi hoped that his ears had been playing tricks on him "(it was a creepy place with no one else here)" only to find that it was unfortunately not a bit of imagination. As there stood one of the people he had hoped to avoid since leaving the karate club some time ago, Captain Fukuda who stood behind Kenichi and his intent was as clear as the sky. The kindly soul that he was, Kenichi went for the more civilised and peaceful approach.

"Why should I fight you Fukuda-senpai?"

Fukuda made no sign that had heard now that his intentions were going to change. "I don't need a reason to fight you , I just want to Shirahama."
While he had been training hard, Kenichi still felt some fear towards Fukuda and he also didn't think he was ready to get into a fight even a meaningless one like this with Fukuda. It was also to him as a disciple of Ryouzanpaku fit with fighting on school grounds; taking a deep breath and letting it out calming himself before just walking past his upper classman.

"I don't do meaningless fights." Kenichi voicing his belief but this wouldn't help him out with Fukuda.
"Meaningless? Coward!" That one word made Kenichi stop in mid step. "Running away, I shouldn't have expected anything from a coward like you!" Something deep in Kenichi emerged as he looked Fukuda straight in the eyes. "I'm no longer a coward take it back!" The upperclassmen merely smiled as he took up a stance.

"Hit me Shirahama, till I'm down and MAKE me take it back!"
Kenichi was nervous, just like with his first fight against Daimonji. "(Calm down, I just have to fight him like I did with Daimonji. Nothing can go wrong!)"

Kenichi was confident in himself when Fukuda moved to strike first. "(He's fast)" Fukuda showed why he was the captain of the karate club as he was faster than Daimonji, luckily Kenichi had improved and so was not the same as before.

The first attack came as a left hook to his face which he blocked quickly with his forearm but was to slow to block or dodge the spinning kick which was too fast and caught him straight in his abdomen. Pained blossomed in his abdomen as well as knocking the wind from him at the same time. The blow lifted him off the ground, and shot him back a good 5 meters and touching down off balance with momentum caused him to role for another meter before the energy was gone.

"Come on! Show me that move you used. After all the time searching for you that is the least you could do!" Fukuda was waiting for his opponent to stand up but the boy was coughing and didn't look like he would get up soon. Fukuda walked over cautiously to his opponent and Kenichi did get up but then he wasn't in the best shape.

He threw a punch that Fukuda evaded but another followed straight to the stomach and the finisher was aimed to trip him. Things didn't go that way. After the punch to the stomach Fukuda powered another punched into Kenichi's face before ramming a powerful knee into Kenichi abdomen. Fukuda let the underclassman fall to the ground at that blow knowing that he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. "Still such a novice…. that incident with Daimonji was just a fluke by the looks of it.

Turning around the upperclassman made to walk away from the underclassman he had just beaten but something caught his leg. Kenichi wasn't just going to let it end there like this. "Take…. It…. BACK!" Looking down Fukuda found that Kenichi still had enough strength to have move, gripping his leg. Growing irritated at this weakling Fukuda turned on his trapped leg and brought his foot down stomping on this pests upper back repeatedly.
"Let go you weakling! You piece of trash!" The next strike was the last as the pain overwhelmed Kenichi forcing him to let go of Fukuda leg.

Fukuda was already gone be the time Kenichi had gathered his strength to pull himself together. Sitting down with his back against the wall Kenichi went over the fight within his mind eye, a tear fell from his eyes as he sat there.

"I trained so hard and still I got beaten." As he sat there his mind wondered how Miu would have beaten the upperclassman, as the masters at the dojo would have been able to do it. Yet this brought up an image of Ranma in his mind, standing proud with the rest at Ryouzanpaku seemingly looking down on him. "He would have beaten Fukuda. I have to get stronger…. stronger than Fukuda then I'm one step closer to him." Kenichi fuelled by this goal got up, picking up his bag and slowly made his way straight back to Ryouzanpaku.

Ryouzanpaku

Opening the gate was still a problem but luckily Apachai was always there it seemed to open it. "(Somehow it's like he knew I was coming.)" "Apa... Kenichi you don't look too good. Did you get destroyed in a fight?" Straight as always Apachai's words hit where it hurts the most. "Yeah... I did." The giant seemed sad when he saw that his little disciple was feeling down. "I will teach you how to kill him!"

While very... enthusiastic the giant Thai's words were a 'little' overboard. Just then Akisame's voice interrupted the two and put an end to Apachai's training plans. "Apachai! Shugire is looking for you. She wants to play that board game you two always play." The giant man's eyes shined from happiness as he ran to find his friend. Akisame watched as the giant ran away smiling at his antics. "I see that you had some problems."

Kenichi nodded to the master. "Go clean yourself, calm down and then we will continue your training." Kenichi nodded as he went to the backyard to evade Miu's sight. As he was cleaning up himself the cold water, which calmed his mind and soothed his bruises. Just as he was about to get over his defeat Miu's voice broke the recovery.
"I thought you were going to arrive sooner Kenichi-san..." Her eyes catching sight of the bruises on the boy and she came quickly to the only logical thing. "Fukuda do this to you?" Kenichi's mind raced to come up with an excuse. "I slipped on the stairs in school." This dumb excuse caught Miu off guard.

"What kinds of stairs do that?" Kenichi knew that it was a stupid excuse but he had already said it so he might as well roll with it. "An aggressive one? Well I'm going training." Miu still wasn't convinced. "Kenichi!" She wanted to go after him but a heavy hand that smelled of beer, the one of the two belonging to Sakaki stopped her. "There is something called: A face a man can never show to a woman." While this wasn't as stupid as Kenichi's excuse it was as corny. "Really?"

Akisame was cheery as he checked if Kenichi's bones were intact. It could've been because of the boy was squirming, the voices or/and the faces he making but the master was quite cheery. "No problem at all. Your bones are all safe. It is a good thing you came back safely."

The feeling Kenichi had at the moment couldn't be voiced but his face showed it all. "Safely... it's not a laughing matter! I went through all that training and I got beaten in a minute!" Kenichi was trembling, his feelings from before came back full force. "It's definitely not a laughing matter. So what will you do now? Get stronger and pay him back equally?" Kenichi was silent as he wiped his tears away.

His pride wanted to say yes but that thought didn't sit well with him. "When something is not right I want to say it's wrong, but just saying that won't change anything.

"To do what I believe right... I need strength! Strength and courage! But I don't have either!" He yelled that last part as he felt all the weight on him evaporate into the winds. The sound of a hand hitting a matt echoed in through the room. Akisame smiled as he looked on at his apprentice. "Alright! Starting tomorrow you will start learning techniques." As he said this Apachai seemed too appeared itching for a fight. "APACHAI IS READY!" He grabbed Kenichi as the disciple was did his best to get away from the giant.

"Apachai enthusiasm is good but you don't know the word 'limit'." The master of Muay Thai stopped as he looked at Akisame.

"Apa! Japanese is too hard. What does 'limit' mean?" Kenichi turned pale at this. "He really doesn't know!"

After the usual training exercise from yesterday Kenichi was curious how this new training would go. Right at the moment he had a lesson with Akisame. "(Why is Sakaki-san following me?)" Even Akisame felt the need to question Sakaki's presence but in a different way. "Sakaki, as a martial artist could you give advice".

"I DON'T GIVE ADVICE!" Sakaki's voice boomed over Akisame's as both he and Kenichi wondered why the Hell is he here.

Still this was a welcome distraction for Kenichi as he faced a stone statue, a very creepy one. "By the way... what is this?" Kenichi pointed at the ugly decoration that somehow had a training gi on it. "This is my special training device".

"For now forget about complicated techniques and let's start with this. The difference between throwing and defence is that throwing can be turned into an attack." Encouraged by those words Kenichi grabbed the shirt that was on the creepy statue and started pulling with his other hand on the back of it. "I can barely move it!" Akisame smiled at his disciple's way of thinking. "You have to find the centre of the weight.

"It is also known as the balance of the mass, simply said. When you place force on two different ends of the weight centre you can easily knock them down." After a verbal teaching Akisame demonstrated what he meant, with his left hand at the top of the statue he did a light kick to the bottom of the special training equipment. The statue started spinning in the air at an incredible speed and levitated above the ground until it lots its speed and landed right back on its feet.

One word was enough to voice what Kenichi felt. "Amazing." Koetsuji looked at the boy but thought of the demonstration in a far more different way. "It isn't amazing... at all."

With that Kenichi started a new form of training to him. After the lesson with Koetsuji, a very... strange lessons with Apachai who was more than happy to train him but ended up K.O-ing the young disciple. Still, while Shirahama was progressing through the weekend something was off. He felt stronger, faster but that damned statue wasn't getting easier to throw. The other strange thing was Sakaki-san who was always watching him."(I kind of feel like he is stalking me... I hope I'm wrong!)" Yet on Sunday something changed.

Once again Kenichi was training with the statue and Sakaki stood there and watched. "Akisame, the brat is holding out well. To tell you the truth I didn't think he would survive as long as he did. It's even more amazing that he actually came here." The disciple had a large smile as he heard these words.

"(My first praises and coming from Sakaki-san... I hope I'm still wrong and he isn't stalking me!)" As he tried to throw the statue again he felt that talking to Shiro wouldn't be a bad thing. "I guess I don't have talent, I still can't lift this easily." The karate master laughed at hearing this. "You idiot, didn't you notice it yet? Isn't that creepy thing strange?" Looking closely something WAS off with the thing. "Isn't this bigger?"

Akisame turned to Sakaki with a rather displeased look. "Really? Well it is in the age where it can grow under a night." Seeing the smirk on Sakaki's face Akisame looked at his disciple to see him standing in the storage room. Kenichi was dumbstruck at the giant sculptures. "This is only the beginning." With that he pulled the boy out and closed the door." Only after you practice with all one hundred of them will you increase you strength ten times." Kenichi looked upon the man and looked away.

"I knew that something was wrong... I feel cheated." Seeing the boy gloom Sakaki knew how to cheer him up. "Hey kid. I'll teach you something good but only today! Tell me how this upperclassman of yours is, describe him." Akisame was very upset with this as he went to put back the statue to its place.

"Didn't you say you don't take disciples?" The karate master was rather nervous as he became louder. "I'm not making him my disciple! I'm only teaching today because... because... I'm in a good mood because Pigtails is coming back today and I'm itching to spar with him!" Kenichi was somewhat pleased that Sakaki is teaching him but the reason bothered him. "(So he only teaches me because he's happy that Ranma is coming back...)" The karate master didn't see the boy becoming gloomy again as he lead him to the garden.

"So kid about this upperclassman what kind of style does he uses?" Kenichi was dumbstruck by that question. "What style? Well I guess it's... I don't know." Sakaki looked back a little ticked. "You don't know the style of your opponent you fought recently!?" The look could freeze a puppy or kitten in mid-air but Kenichi took a step back and covered his wits.

"I wasn't really mad. Anyway what was his posture? Something like this?" Sakaki took up a stance unknown to Kenichi but as he thought about it he took up the stance Fukuda used. "His hands were like this, his body was a little slanted and he took steps." Sakaki's shark like grin appeared and Kenichi felt a little scared at it. "If what you are saying is right, kid. Then I know how to fight him. From what I know he took some sports, probably karate and boxing and now it's something different so I'll teach you a few important moves midget."

Shirahama liked this man a lot but it bothered him that he didn't remember his name. "Shirahama. My name is Shirahama Kenichi." The master looked surprised for a bit then he smiled and looked away. "I guess even midgets have names. Fine then, Kenichi. Call me then Sakaki-sensei." The boy smiled at the master's friendly attitude. "Yes Sakaki-sensei!" The man blushed and looked away. "Sakaki-sensei... can I... can I become strong? I practiced a lot and I still lost." The man surprised by this question looked at the boy.

"Don't have any confidence do you? Tell me, how strong you want to become. You can tell me it is a man's goal so I won't laugh." The boy looked at the ground for a moment. "(I want to become strong enough to protect Miu... but I want to become stronger than Ranma!)" After deciding he looked into the master's eyes. "I want to become stronger than Ranma so I can protect Miu!" A moment of silence and Sakaki started out right laughing.
After he calmed down he looked at the boy. "If you really want to become strong than look beyond that, your aim is to become the strongest in the world! In your life there is no you can or no you can't! It's doing it or not! Now throw away your doubts and let's start training then."

Valkyrie's base of operations.

Her personal guards were the only ones besides a few lackeys in the building. She looked tired and her men could see that. "(All that searching for that pigtailed jerk and still no results. I hope the recruitment thing went well at least.)" She looked at her henchmen Fukuda, who was ready to answer.

"So how was the recruitment going? How was this Shirahama you mentioned?" Fukuda was on his knees before the girl who could kick him into the next week, if she so desired it. "Your prediction was wrong still he wasn't as bad as the rest." Valkyrie pulled out a two photos from her pockets and threw one at Fukuda so hard it embedded in the ground right in front of him. "A freshman with the nick 'Judo User' might be a challenge." Fukuda took the picture and took a good look of it. "Hope he's worth it. I love to break the weaklings."

Valkyrie felt hot as the karate captain looked at her, she loved how the man around her looked at her. "Do so, I don't care a bit." With that she threw the other picture in front of Fukuda. "If you see that guy on the picture then contact me that instant. Don't dare to fight him, he is mine!" Fukuda pulled back a little seeing the fierce look and tone the girl had. "As you wish." With that he left the room leaving to search for his new targets.

Valkyrie on the other hand dismissed her bodyguards and went over to the window to look at the scenery. "(Still can't believe that not long ago I fell out of this window... and he saved me, that raven haired. I wonder what you are up to Ranma, I'd so love to see you again, I bet I could get him to teach me a move or two.)" As she looked out the window she caught glimpse of a redheaded woman walking down the road. "(That reminds me, those cows! The redhead and the blonde... just wait till I get my hands on them! I'll show them who they're messing with!)"

As she thought about the two a thought came to her mind. "(That redhead, she jumped so high with that heavy bag... I wonder, if he knows that jerk? Maybe they are siblings? That wouldn't be farfetched I think... according to Loki she even fought Odin and survived. I guess I really need my saviours help to beat her after all.)" A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. One of the many of her henchmen entered. "I have a message from Odin, Valkyrie." The redhead turned around and walked over to her chair to sit down.

"Finally decided to add me to the Fists?" Kisara was quite excited about the idea that she could join the fists so the henchmen's nervous expression quickly did its part to ruin her good mood. "No, at the moment Odin ordered most of Ragnarok to set up a new base around the eastern part of Nerima, around the Furinkan region." Valkyrie rummaged around in the secret pocket in her chair for her handheld since no good news was being said today.

"This plan reeks of Loki. Let me guess they want me to go in there and clean the place with a strike team."
Confident in her abilities and her friendship with Freya often landed her such jobs so this wouldn't be a surprise. "Actually, they want you to stay here and defend this zone and continue on with recruiting should they fail." Putting the handheld down Valkyrie dismissed the messenger.

She waited a minute after the goon had left the room. "(What could they want with that place? What is so important there? Wait... Furinkan? Isn't that the same place where Saotome attended school?)" A lot of things went through her head as the possible scenarios popped up and went.
"(Could it be that I can't find Ranma or that redheaded cow because they went back to Furinkan? Odin will have his hands full with the two. Wasn't there already an operation in Furinkan? Could it be that there are more insane people like Ranma there?!)" Valkyre shivered at the thought and put it away for now. She still had her orders and they had better give her the Fist promotion for leaving her here!