Force of Will
By
Sam W. Ryder
Chapter 7
When the dust settled Ranma found that it wasn't a villain, or at least he didn't look like one, in the crater. He looked to be just a bit taller than Ranma, wearing a yellow sweatshirt, black pants, and a leopard-spotted bandanna around his head, in his hand, at the most central point of the crater was an umbrella of all things. Still, he wasn't going to be taking a chance.
He adjusted himself so Nabiki was behind him and set into a ready stance. He wasn't about to start throwing his fire around, not when using a quirk in public while legal in one's self-defense wasn't the most optimal option considering how many things could burn.
"Nabiki go!" He said and leaning forward found the world spun about him than his vision was filled with a thick fog and soft hands grabbed him by the shoulders helping him retake his balance.
He heard a 'hmph' and all of a sudden he was being guided away, "like I'm going to let you get yourself killed because I ran away like some damsel in distress." Nabiki said.
Ranma frowned, he didn't turn away from a fight, and he could just see Nabiki rolling her eyes at him as if he were the world's biggest idiot. Was he in the greatest condition? Not really. Did that matter? To some extent, yes it did, Did he think he could and would win? Most definitely.
He tried to straighten himself, to move away from Nabiki neither worked, and he realized something. Either he had used the last of his energy to avoid the attack or Nabiki was using her fog to hold him. If he were being honest with himself he had to admit it was likely a mixture of the two.
"Ranma Saotome! Don't run from me, you coward!" Came the shout in the fog.
Ranma stiffened. He refused to let someone who used sneak attacks to call him a coward. Within him, the lever that he associated with his quick jerked into the on position and he felt himself begin to warm as the fog started to drop lower.
"Stop being such a meathead, you meathead," Nabiki grunted and as Ranma shot her a glare he pushed the lever back. The fog soon settled several feet above his head and he felt his back press against a wall.
A grating sense of dread filled him and Ranma jerked Nabiki down to the ground just in time to see fog whipping in a tight spin and something burying itself into the concrete above them. Four more dug themselves into the wall at various angles and heights.
"I know you're in here Ranma, the fog hasn't moved." Whoever it was snarled.
"Just what did you do to him Ranma?" Nabiki asked in a whisper.
For Ranma however, even after thinking about it for about a minute, a minute of ignoring insults, that left his knuckles popping, his teeth grating, and the urge to go and fight to grow, he still had no more an idea than when he started. He shrugged.
"I should have realized that you'd be the coward I knew you'd be after you ran out before our last fight!"
That struck a chord. Or it kind of did. He'd never run from a fight, or at least not run, run. He'd lead his father on plenty of routes searching for a better vantage point, or looking for any little thing that could give him the tiniest advantage. But to run away before the fight had even started?
The closest he'd ever come to doing that well, there were two instances, or at least he thought but he didn't remember either very well. The first had to be when he was around nine, he remembered pain, and the thought that living on his own was better than living with Genma. He started but he couldn't quite recall how far he'd gotten. When he woke up he was back in camp, and he hurt a hell of a lot less than before. Then his father dragged him off and threw him into a pit of cats of all things, cats that the man had starved, no less. While wrapped in fish sausage!
The second, it was hazier than the first. Around middle school, though he could remember how old he was, something to do with a school rival. From there everything was a bit more jumbled. Bread, a challenge, time, a vacant lot, a fight. Then poof, nothing. He didn't even remember coming to. He did remember that in the end, while he still felt it wasn't the right fight, he knew he'd lost. And just like that, he was jumping at the chance to swim to China for further training.
His head ached as a teen wearing a plain school uniform that looked completely normal save for the four black canines in his mouth and the two of them leaping for a piece of thrown bread. Then guiding the same teen, ranting, and raving like a lunatic to his street where a dog took over. He'd swear to anyone who'd listen that dog had some kind of quirk.
"SAOTOME!"
"Shut up Ryoga!" Ranma yelled back his eyes springing wide as he realized three things. One, he knew the other teen's name, two, and far more importantly, he'd given away their position.
Ranma ignored the position he and Nabiki were still in as he lay with his arms wrapped around Nabiki, his back separating his fiancee from any of the projectiles that might stray their way. He held tighter and rotating slightly so she was on his chest he kicked the ground pushing him down the sidewalk as thundering steps brought Ryoga closer and closer until he crashed his umbrella into the wall and the third fact Ranma remembered kicked in.
Ryoga, with the help of a map two compasses, and a path made of gold coins leading to his destination wouldn't be able to find his way out of a wet paper bag without getting lost. Hell, the guy had to use the bathroom and stood an equal distance between that and the water fountain, and not the kind people drank out of and headed towards the second option.
It didn't take long for the sounds of crushing rubble, and shrieks of terror continued into the distance. Finally, when he couldn't hear Ryoga's angry screams any longer, he loosened his grip on Nabiki. By the time the two of them were on their feet the fog had vanished and there still wasn't a pro hero on the scene.
"Seriously, what's with this neighborhood?" Ranma asked, "which hero agency patrol's this area?"
Nabiki snorted, "none want the job. Between the city council harping on them and the endless brawls around Furrinken none last more than a week or two but even that seems to be shrinking. The other day the newest one, Far Away the storybook hero quit. Apparently, some wrinkly kid stole her top and bra before running off."
Ranma wrinkled his nose. Honestly, before he turned into a female he hardly noticed it, not that he hadn't caught a few wandering hands heading for one female or another going down the street. But egh. If he ever ran into the benjamin button wannabe himself he was sure he'd get through to him with a 'whap' to the kids head. As soon as he finished that thought he felt like dousing his brain with bleach.
Not because of the perv's, those suckers could light themselves on fire, it was the fact that he remembered that awful movie his middle school English teacher called a 'classic. "You'd think with the number of concussions I've had that, that would've been one of the things to go." He muttered.
If Nabiki heard him she made no mention of it as they continued on their way home.
As they passed through the gates Ranma was surprised to find everyone waiting, staring at him in silence, as if they were expecting him to either break into dozens of pieces or to recount the events of the day which they were aware of. He chose neither of those options, he skirted around the group and trudged inside and found that his way was barred by his father and Soun.
"Ranma-san." He heard Kasumi say in the soft voice, one Ranma only heard her use when Akane went overboard in her training and ended up hurting herself.
Akane's huff of annoyance broke in before Ranma could respond. "The idiot probably got beaten down and had to be rescued by his classmates."
He felt his eye twitch, once, twice and he took a deep breath, half ready to rant at her, half ready to just walk away. He turned to start with the first option and found a hand wrapping around his face. His heart jumped, pulse raced and it happened.
Fire. A full spinning cyclone of fire. Invocation one: (Helios Twister) Then he felt nothing but cold and the sensation that he was falling.
The first thing Ranma noted when he woke was that he was warm, the second his chest didn't ache in the slightest. Slowly, he opened his eyes and found he'd been deposited in the guest bedroom and he was alone. Sitting forward he prodded his ribs expecting the ache to return with a vengeance, it didn't.
Flexing his hands his last moment of wakefulness caught up to him, a hand reaching for his face, grasping it. Ranma made it a point to never allow himself to be afraid, to let fear take hold of him, fire was too wild for that. So that he felt that spike of fear and panic had him gritting his teeth.
He could hear his mother's voice, the only real memory he had of her, or at least the only one that remained. "My Ranma, you are fire, wild, and untameable. But when prodded or passionate those around you may be burned. In those moments you must be in control."
It was that he could remember his father yelling for him. If his mother had more to say, either he left, or he didn't remember.
For a time he lay there looking at the ceiling. Only then did he realize that the room's light was on and as he gazed outside to find that night had long since fallen. Well, he decided, he managed to avoid the explanation for the time being.
Slipping out of his Futon, Ranma made short work of putting it away and found he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. He wasn't supposed to train his quirk or in his art and it wasn't like he'd ever had a hobby unless you counted eating, and while competitive eating was still a thing, it was dominated by those with digestive or dental quirks so even with his appetite he wasn't sure he'd win and it wasn't worth doing unless he could.
Losing sucked, period.
So one hobby after another was brought up and shot down. Building models, expensive, boring. Knitting? He'd have to be still, it wasn't going to happen. Cooking? After Nabiki's tales of Akane's early attempts at cooking? Yeah, he wasn't going to give the girl ideas.
Finally, he'd had enough, while he couldn't exercise, practice, or anything else there was nothing stopping him from going for a walk at least; and if that walk happened to be on a fence, well, it wasn't like it would take any more effort than walking normally. Having decided, he made for the window, there was plenty of ways down from there that didn't take a lot of effort, and that way he didn't have to deal with those downstairs who wanted answers.
He was halfway out the window when he heard the slight squeak of the doors hinges and he looked back like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Frozen stiff.
The look that Kasumi gave him was one of anger or even annoyance she looked like she hadn't noticed anything at all! "Oh good, your up. There's a young lady on the phone for you."
Just like that Ranma was back inside, and following the oldest Tendo girl down the stairs. No one had ever called him before, hell, he didn't remember if he'd even ever picked up a phone. It didn't take him long before he narrowed the list down to one place rather than a person. U.A.
No one else knew where he lived let alone his phone number, partly because he didn't even remember that the Tendo's had a phone in the first place!
So as he took the phone Kasumi offered, a retro corded phone in off white with a spring-like chord used way back in the 1990s, something that was offered all the time on the late-night television shows Ranma settled himself in for some kind of lecture, warning or even just being told the break they'd been given was cut short. A possibility that pleased him.
"Hello?" He asked absently twining his fingers into the chord.
"Saotome-san, as we've been given the day off tomorrow several of us have opted to take an outing to Takoba beach." It took him a moment to place the voice as Shoji's.
Ranma wasn't quite sure what to do, he'd enough of the ocean to last him a while, simulated or otherwise. He took a half step into the kitchen allowing Kasumi to make her way in and nodded to her in thanks as she placed a plate of dinner she'd saved for him on the counter in front of him. It wasn't like he wanted to stay home either. Perhaps his silence was telling enough as Shoji spoke again.
"It seems a pop-up carnival has been set up to celebrate the beach being cleaned up."
That was something Ranma could get behind. He'd been through plenty of festivals and carnivals and the like on his travels and he'd been fortunate enough to get a few samples of the food and a free game or two. Though his time hadn't lasted long at any of them he had enjoyed it all the same. Add that to the fact that he'd managed to accumulate a small amount of cash from stray yen or the thanks of those he'd helped here and there, well he figured he might be able to enjoy himself a bit.
"Sure, I'll go," he said he spread the chord between his fingers and nearly jumped as Kasumi seemed to appear out of nowhere, her dainty hands undoing the chord and gave a knowing smile. As if everyone twiddled with it when they were on a call.
There was scrapping on the other side of the phone before Shoji spoke again, "we'll be meeting at Musutafu station than at noon."
"See you then Shoji," Ranma said, and after waiting a moment to make sure the other teen hung up the phone he followed suit and turned his attention toward the plate only for it to be pulled away by a glaring Soun.
The mist started converging on him as he spoke, "You best not be going on a date Ranma!"
'I'll not have you dishonor your fiancee like that boy!' His father chimed in a moment later by swinging a sign at his face, Ranma stopped the sign with an open palm and looked at his currently human father whose hand and face was wrapped heavily in bandages.
Well, at least he knew who he'd burned.
"Father, it was one of Ranma-Kuns schoolmates who called, a young man," Kasumi said. That one sentence took all the wind out of both their parent's ad after a few grumbles Ranma was in the kitchen eating his food alone.
Page BREAK Page Break
The next day Ranma found himself all but shoved out the door by a groggy Nabiki, one hand depositing a small wad of yen into his hand the other bringing her cup to her lips so that she could take long draws of her morning coffee. He didn't even get to enjoy Kasumi's breakfast.
Suffice it to say, even though Ranma was forced to take the train he arrived an hour early. For a few minutes, he tinkered with the idea of wandering around, maybe head to the carnival and get something to snack on but decided against it.
Glancing down at himself, Ranma looked for any stray threads and the like, he'd put on his best clothes which translated into least worn. The golden dragon that wrapped its way around his shirt had lost a fair bit of its brightness and one of its whiskers had been more or less undone over the last six months but finally, he nodded. It would have to do.
Ranma straightened just in time to bump into a larger man that came just past his chin, though his black mohawk loomed higher than Ranma.
"Sorry about that," Ranma said looking down into the older man's eyes which looked like someone had scrawled over them with charcoal. Beside him was a brown-haired woman with pink teeth who held the hands of two children. One boy, one girl, each had an eye surrounded by the same charcoal-like mark as the man, marking them as his kids.
The man clicked his tongue softly but the woman pressed a hand to his arm and he sighed. " Whatever, it happens."
The man looked ready to walk away when his son jumped between him and Ranma. "Don't make me beat you up! I'm really strong!"
Ranma was ready to write the boy's words off with a laugh but then he started sparking with red electricity. Electric quirks were a rarity, maybe one in every twenty thousand or so, most didn't even last in bloodlines more than a generation or two before they mutated. The fact that he remembered that bit of trivia would have made Gozo, his middle school science teacher proud
"Roku!" The woman snapped grabbing the boy by the arm.
She started to apologize but Ranma waved it off. "Don't worry about it," he said, "kids will be kids."
Ranma caught the man's eye again and gave him a shallow bow which the man hesitantly returned before leading his family off into the crowd.
It wasn't ten minutes later that the first of his classmates, Jiro took a position a few feet away from him, one of her earphone jacks plugged into an ancient iPod as she looked around dully, though she spared Ranma a nod.
For all that they fought villains the day before she didn't seem to worse for wear, excluding the bandage around her upper right arm. She was wearing a black shirt with bright pink lettering featuring a band called Pantomime and torn denim jeans.
"How are you doing?"
"I'm good," he said though that was a tough question. Physically he felt fine, Willa was doing well enough. But mentally, all of his mistakes seemed to be on repeat in his head. If his classmates hadn't been heroes themselves he could have gotten them killed.
Jirou didn't look like she believed him but let the matter drop. A few minutes later a few more of their classmates arrived, Yaoyorozu, Shoji, and Aoyama.
Yaoyorozu bit her lip as she looked them over. "The groups smaller than what I was expecting."
Jiro snorted, "What do you expect? I had a hell of a time getting my parents to let me come out today."
That sounded about right, like something a caring parent would do. Maybe they thought that the league of villains was lurking around looking to finish the job. Ranma didn't have that issue with Genma. The man just seemed glad Ranma hadn't come to him for money.
"I had the same issue," Shoji said, "they let me come under the condition that I check in every few hours."
"I just couldn't be stuck in the house anymore." Ranma added, "I was going stir-crazy."
Yaoyorozu nodded and clapped her hands together, "then let's get going."
As they headed out Ranma scanned them much the way he had Jiro. None of them had come out unscathed but the one who came closest was probably Aoyama who seemed to be quiet.
"Wait up!" Called the voice of Kaminari, a voice Ranma would have been more than a touch happy not to have heard. "Sorry, sorry, the rent's wouldn't stop going on about how sweet it was that we wanted to check on each other." He added with a deep sigh.
Ranma blinked, was that why someone, likely Yaoyorozu from her blush, organized this? To see that they were okay? While he could see her doing that he couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't thought of it.
What's more, the feeling that something was wrong, a feeling that he'd had since he'd woken the previous night, was gone. Reluctant as he was to admit it it was probably because he was with his classmates. Though he'd never actually admitted it out loud.
The awkwardness passed as they walked down toward the beach where a decent crowd had gathered for the carnival, which featured shooting gallery's, goldfish scooping, a few booths selling album chips for their band, plenty of food stalls, and even a guy drawing images of the people holding giant chocolate bars or driving clown cars.
Ranma immediately decided to go for one of the shooting games, he'd seen them at a few festivals and they looked like they'd be fun but it was one of the few he'd never gotten to try.
"Those things are fixed you know?" Jiro said, "It's impossible to win without some kind of sight or targeting quirk." At that point, she rapped her knuckle against a sign which stated such quirks couldn't be used.
"Young lady." Said the man running the stall, his face was that of a frowning emoji. "There's no cheating at my stall! Five yen for five shots hit the target and knock down the prize it's yours!"
Ranma pulled out his cash and handed the man the money he needed and picked up the air rifle. He aimed down the sight of his air rifle and pulled the trigger watching as the bb soared a ways to the right of what he was aiming at and frowned. He knew he wasn't the greatest shot with his sniper technique and it wasn't like he'd handled a gun before but he was still pretty certain that he'd lined the sights up right. It was pretty straight forward.
He brought the gun up again and took the second of his five shots, again it went wide. "Dude I told you these games are rigged." Jiro's said with a sigh.
"I run a fair game, miss!" The barker snapped his face turning purple as a devil emoji took residence there.
Ranma smirked and slapped another bill against the counter increasing his shots and adjusted his aim. Pfft. The bb flew and not even a second later there was a 'ding' and the stuffed bear fell from its shelf. He lined up another shot, this time at a plump mouse creature with a lightning bolt-like tail. It too fell. With a single shot left he chose a lavender bat that looked sleepy and a touch annoyed.
'Ding.' The bat fell into the waiting net.
The barker wheezed a bit as he said, "there I told you, I run a clean game here."
Pfft. Pfft. A human-sized giraffe joined the others, pfft, pfft, pfft, a gorilla, a unicorn, an otter. He searched for his last target for what seemed like forever. There was no way he'd ever go for the tiny dog thing that said something about taco bell. Similarly, the cat was out. Finally, he settled on a lion. The ding rang out, the prize fell and tears started falling from the barker's face.
Ranma rolled his eyes and taking his prizes he turned to Jiro, even if he couldn't really see her through his bounty. "So what do I do with these?"
He felt like deadpanning as she shrugged, "how should I know? Do I look like I'm into those types of things? I told you the game was a waste of money."
As she walked off Ranma followed behind her, doing his best to ignore the annoying little mouse that would chant "pika, pika pi" every time it shook in the slightest. Which meant it did it a lot.
They quickly joined back up with the group a few stalls down where Kaminari was scarfing down more takoyaki and Ranma had to admit if nothing else the blonde had one heck of an appetite, even if his own was still bigger.
"Hey, prizes," or that's what Ranma was pretty sure he said, it came out closer to "Hrey pwiribes."
He laughed as Yaoyorozu pinched the bridge of her nose. "Kaminari-san, please finish what's in your mouth before speaking."
"Eew. That isn't fabulous at all." Aoyama said his face was a little green.
A tentacle stretched toward him, a mouth forming at its end. "I see you managed to win. What will you do with your spoils?"
Ranma shrugged, he wished he did know what to do with them, it wasn't like he wanted them. Internally he sighed, he'd thought he'd gotten better at thinking things through, but if he had it wasn't anywhere near enough. If he brought them home chances are his father would throw them away or that they'd end up gifted to Nabiki. He didn't mind that so much but it would just send their parents into a tizzy about young love.
Sadly he still didn't feel anything but respect and friendship towards his fiancee. So he didn't want to deal with it all night. If ever.
"Aww." Yaoyorozu locked eyes with something in the pile and looked away than repeated the action punctuated with a sigh. On the third time, Ranma extended the pile as best he could.
"Pick one." He said, The class president looked torn before reaching into the pile and pulling free the otter and hugged it to her chest with a squeal of delight.
"Thank you Ranma-san!"
Ranma nodded before shaking the pile still in his arms or at least hanging from his arms. "Anyone else?"
Kaminari wasted no time in reaching into the pile with a big grin on his face and pulling out the bear Ranma had first shot and looked at it less than pleased. He went to put it back when one of Jirou's earphone jacks shot past Ranma and stabbed into the teen's face.
"Don't be gross! You got grease all over that bear." She scolded him and Ranma couldn't help but chuckle. She then reached into the pile and pulled out the plush bat and secured it under her arm.
Shoji looked at the pile for a moment and shook his head, Yuga tapped at his chin his sparkling eyes locked on the equally sparkling unicorn before he looked away and shook his head.
With a sigh Ranma shoved the unicorn into the teen's arms and started, he'd a plan for the others in his arms.
They wandered for a few more hours back and forth, Ranma spent a few minutes catching all the remaining goldfish reducing the stalls working into a bawling mess when he started handing the fish to any kid that walked by.
The girls had gone over to grab something from a soba vendor as Ranma looked around for anything that might have been interesting. When he went toward the ring toss game Shoji placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Perhaps it would be a better choice not to?" He said.
Ranma sighed, it wasn't his fault that the ring toss looked somewhat interesting considering the things were coated in so much grease, not even dust would cling to them. On the other hand, he was already packing around four stuffed creatures…
He nodded as a shiver ran up the length of his spine. Turning he caught a piping hot something just before it could strike him in the face and for the lift of him he couldn't figure out where it came from.
"Dude who'd you piss off?" Kaminari asked as he peeked at what was in Ranma's hand.
Unsure was the electric teen meant Ranma followed his gaze and found himself looking at an okonomiyaki, its sauce spelling out.
'I know your secret, I'll be coming for you. Next Sunday.'
"Wish I knew," Ranma said scratching the back of his head he turned to look back at the crowd and still found himself with no suspects.
End.
I still need a beta folks the chapter would have come much faster with one!
So not a huge chapter, but I bet more happened in it than you think. Look again. Do it, you know you want to.
Anyway thanks for reading! If you want to support me you can head over to my patr-eon (.com)/swryder. You can also join my Discord channel the link is here = ( )/ discord (.gg/hN3eEHq)
Responses:
Ferdiad: Thank you! I'm trying to make his growth reasonable. It's not been the easiest thing to manage.
LegendaryMob: Thanks for taking the time to respond. I understand your concern when it comes to Ranma's personality. It does, however, mirror his character in the original story. He will grow, I promise.