Ranma headed to the Tendo dojo with the Doc's notes secure in his bookbag trying to not let what the Doc told him rattle him. The teen's face was a mask of calm indifference to hide the turmoil inside. How was someone supposed to react when their doctor said something was going wrong with them that he couldn't name off the top of his head? It wasn't like Ranma could go to a 'regular' doctor given the circumstances in his life. Even before he had gotten the curse Ranma and normal doctors didn't mix. Pops might have been a ruthlessly demanding sensei and often had moments of short-sighted weakness. However, Genma was not generally stupid or needlessly reckless when it came to Ranma's training. Some of Ranma's earliest lessons included how to use his chi to speed up his healing and maximize the gains from the training. This allowed the Saotomes to do training that regular people would consider abusive if not outright torture.
The chi healing did have the tendency to mess with western doctors' minds. The last time Ranma had gone to one of those was when he was twelve and needed to have a bone set. That poor lady had been left a blubbering mess when he showed up two weeks later with the bone fully healed and ready for the cast to come off. Since then, Ranma and Genma tended to stick to genuine traditional doctors like Dr. Ono when they could.
Ranma looked up at the sky towards one specific point. The was nothing to draw the eye there except clear blue sky. For some strange reason he just knew that Saturn was right at that point in the sky and he could have seen the planet had it been night. Ranma was pretty good at astronomy as parts of it were useful to figuring out one's location and he had often seen the night sky on training trips in the countryside. However, he thought it was odd that he would know just where one planet was in its orbit. That wasn't something he had concerned himself with in his astronomy lessons.
Should he note it in his record for the Doc? It was something strange and Ranma thought he remembered overhearing his fellow students talk about how the stars were supposed to be magical or was that able to tell the future? On second thought what did his classmates really know about magic? Ranma shook his head and decided to keep that thought out of his report. It was probably just a random fact he had overheard and was suddenly remembering.
This unknown magical issue must really be getting to him. Ranma decided he needed to clear his head before heading to the dojo and the inevitable production that would occur when he handed Tofu's notes to adults. Part of Ranma wondered if Pops and Mr. Tendo would use this to try and hurry the engagement along. Yeah, he could totally see either of them saying something like 'you could be killed by this magical curse. Honor demands you immediately wed Akane and have a child to secure the family line.'
No thanks! Ranma did not need the stress that such a situation would bring even if nothing would come of it. Thinking of other things that he didn't need, there was the fact that he couldn't let Nabiki know. She' probably sell the information to some of his upset rivals in such a way that they'd all attack him. Ranma had lost any belief that Nabiki might have some scruples when it came to making money after the fiasco of having the engagement switched to her for a week.
Ranma turned and headed down the street away from the Dojo. He needed to come up with a plan to pass the news along to Pops without causing himself more headaches. Akane would probably be annoyed at his delay in getting to the dojo even though he hadn't given her a time frame and he had the newspapers. He could handle Akane so long as she wasn't too pissed off. Just needed to put that in the plan that he had to make.
After walking a while in deep thought Ranma's ears pick up the sound of clashing steel. He immediately got his head out of his thoughts and turned to look at the source of the sound. There was apparently a small crowd looking in on the source of the sound and Ranma carefully weaved his way through the crowd. He also noted that he was at the front entrance to Nerima College and realized he must have been thinking about things longer than he had realized.
The clash of steel came from two pairs of students' sword fighting in what was apparently an exposition that three other students were running using live steel. What really caught Ranma attention was that the students weren't using katanas or dress in kendo armor. Instead, they were using swords and armor out of a couple of western movies that Ranma had seen. His eyes were soon drawn to a nearby banner that read Nerima College Historical European Martial Arts Expo.
For the next half hour Ranma quietly watched as the college students demonstrated the western martial arts style. Ranma was fascinated. He didn't know that the westerners had martial arts schools of their own. The students running the expo were very good even if they didn't use any chi to enhance their abilities. Ranma was really impressed when he saw the half-swording technique and murder strokes demonstrated. You could do things like that without using chi? He could also admit that making the sword guard into a potential weapon was genius on the westerners' part.
Ranma saw that the students had a small table set up with a bunch of pamphlets and grabbed a couple. He kept one out for himself and put the rest in his bookbag. A quick skim reading revealed that a visiting professor from England at the college had started up the college's Historical European Martial Arts club using translated training manuals and a small group of students who were big fans of European history.
Just as Ranma finished reading the pamphlet the student running the expo started to wrap things up with a question-and-answer session. One question got Ranma's attention when someone asked if the club was accepting high school or younger members. Sadly, the group was a Nerima College only group at the present time. They were looking into growing to a HEMA club for the city and were asking to see how interested people might be in that option.
It was time for Ranma to head back to the dojo one the question-and-answer session was over. Seeing the expo had helped to clear Ranma's head and had given him a great idea to explain things when he got home. That was a win in his book.
Soun and Genma were sitting around the shogi board playing their usual game when they heard the front door opened. A quick chi check by the duo revealed that Ranma was the new arrival. They paid Ranma's footsteps half a mind as the teen headed to the family room. Genma had his back to his son when Ranma opened the door to the family room to come in. The elder Saotome didn't let that or his game bother him as he spoke up. "You're late boy. Akane has already come home and is quite upset at you not helping her on your project."
Ranma shrugged his shoulders and said, "I went to Nerima College where they were having an expo on western martial arts. Turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be. Got some pamphlets on it if you guys are interested in the subject."
Soun looked up and said, "Why didn't you invite Akane to go to the expo with you Ranma? Surely that would have been a great idea for a date for two martial artists."
"I wasn't sure how good it would be since before the expo I hadn't even heard that westerners had their own brand of martial arts. Besides, most of the expo focused around sword styles and I figured Akane wouldn't like that given Kuno."
The fathers conceded that point to Ranma. They knew all too well about wanting to indulge in an innocent past time that their wives were not thrilled about doing. Both Soun and Genma looked at each other's eyes for a moment before nodding their heads slightly. It should be okay for Ranma to learn how to do such things provided he didn't do it in excess. Besides, the boy was trying to expand his horizons in martial arts which was a core tenet of Anything Goes.
"Oh, I almost forgot. I ran into Dr. Ono on my way to the expo Pops. He noticed something odd in my aura and then spotted a bit of magic he couldn't recognize. He wants to keep an eye on it and would like me to take it easy for a few days while he checks up on everything. Even went so far as to write a series of instructions for you and the school insisting that I take it easy until he can find out more."
Both Genma and Soun turned away from the shogi table to look at Ranma. They looked the teen over to see if they could spot any obvious troubles in Ranma's aura for themselves. Upon seeing nothing they decided to pay it no mind. Dr. Ono was much better at reading someone's aura and could even read a person's internal chi flows which they had never mastered.
Genma spoke up, "Very well Ranma. Take it easy like Dr. Ono told you. However, be aware that I'm going to double your training once everything is clear with him in order to make up for lost time."
Soun then chimed in. "You might as well take this time to work on that school project with your fiancée. Akane is in her room working on her own homework."
"Good point Tendo old friend." Genma said catching onto Soun's little plan.
Ranma fought the urge to roll his eyes as he handed the Doctor slips to the fathers before he left the family room. He then headed back into the main hallway to get to the stairs and headed upstairs. He passed by the room he shared with his father and headed for the turn in the hallway leading to the sisters' bedrooms. Ranma got to Akane's door and knocked on it.
A few seconds later Akane opened the door and gave Ranma a glare. "About time you showed up Ranma. Where were you?"
"Martial arts expo."
For some strange reason Akane was not happy to hear the truth from Ranma. She increased her glare and said, "Martial arts expo? You blew off working on our school project for an expo on martial arts? How could you be so stupid?! Did you at least get the newspapers like you said you'd get?"
Ranma fought down the urge to scowl as he opened his bookbag and pulled out the newspapers. Akane let him into her room making sure to keep the door open. The duo opened the papers and started looking at the international sections. Ranma found a small article quoting President Fowler of the USA and President Narmonov of the USSR on their opinions on German reunification. He cut the article out of the paper to include in the report. Akane was unable to find anything in the newspaper Ranma had handed her. She then pulled out the cut-out article from her father's morning paper that had given her the idea for the project.
They spent a few minutes rereading the two articles and making some notes in their notebooks. Akane said, "Well I suppose this was a decent start for the project. Tomorrow we're heading to the library understood? I'll keep the articles in here since you'll probably doodle on them or get them torn up in a martial arts paper shredding contest if you kept them."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence tomboy. I'll see you at dinner." With that said Ranma left Akane's room. She watched as Ranma closed the door and resisted the urge to snort. The baka was probably on his way to the dojo instead of doing his homework. The pervert could be so juvenile at times that Akane had to wonder how she could ever see some glimmer of potential in the fool.
Ranma headed down the hall to his room and got to work doing the rest of his homework. It didn't take him too long to get through his work and he was satisfied with his expected results. Another solid B or maybe a B+ for him on those assignments. His classmates would probably be horrified at leaving their homework at such a level, but why should that bother him?
Since he had gotten done before dinner, Ranma decided to pull out the pamphlet again and reread it. The pamphlet even had a small diagram of a longsword showing how different parts of the sword could be used as a weapon. Swords had always had a bit of appeal to Ranma like they seem to do for every boy. He didn't bother to use swords in his personal style because it didn't fit in properly.
Genma had focused the Saotome Branch of Anything Goes on an unarmed aerial basis as that fit his preferences. Both Saotomes had experience with facing kendoists and had developed techniques to deal with those fighters. Didn't help that kendo, even here in Nerima, had degraded more into a sport and form of exercise rather than keeping to its warrior roots. Finding Kenjutsu practitioners that stuck to their combat roots was hard around the major cities in Ranma's somewhat limited experience. The sweeping cuts of the styles Ranma had personally faced would also add another level of complication to the aerial nature of the Saotome Branch.
Storing a blade whether training or live steel was no longer a problem for Ranma. He had gotten the hang of the chi pockets Mousse used for his hidden weapons attacks a while ago. Didn't bother making them as big as the moron did, but then Ranma wasn't about limit his chi options. His chi pocket had more than enough space for a sword if Ranma wanted to add one to there as an additional option. A number of those techniques the college students had demonstrated could be integrated into his martial arts fairly well. Perhaps he could even modify them in the future into a sub-branch of the Saotome School.
An image of a longsword with an ornate handle and guard suddenly filled Ranma's thoughts. The blade of the sword was shined to the point that you could see your reflection in it. The guard had the cross-guard functionality of the swords he had seen in the expo, but with additional ornate curves that reminded Ranma of binoculars for some reason. There was also a brilliant red gem in the center of the guard where it crossed the blade. The gem reminded Ranma of an eye as it gleamed within his mind.
Then just like that, the image of the sword sank into the depts of Ranma's mind. Ranma didn't forget what he had seen, but it no longer dominated his imagination. For a moment Ranma wondered if he should add that to the notes of things to talk to the Doc about before deciding against it. The Doc was trying to figure out a magical ailment and not trying to become Ranma's shrink. Besides, what young man didn't fantasize about cool looking swords every now and then?
The CIC of the Cats Lair was a buzz of activity that hadn't occurred in the hallowed halls for millennia. Snarf had switched all the observation satellites in orbit onto active scan and was having the lair's computer compile the data. He had also pulled up the documents on Lord Lion-O's investiture including the scans of the young lord when his star seed had been grafted into the newly forged Sailor Crystal of Thundera. In all honesty Snarf didn't have the faintest clue about what most of information on record was telling him since he didn't have a doctorate in metaphysical biology.
He knew a little more than the average member of the Silver Millennium about the workings of star seeds and Sailor Crystals thanks to his position as Lord Lion-O's aid. Star Seeds were a part of the soul that was connected to the physical world in a typically metaphysical way somehow. Snarf wasn't about to try and ponder that one unless he was completely drunk. Star Seeds were either connected to or formed the core of a person's heart crystal which was primary engine of a person's mystical abilities. They were supposed to have some sort of effect on a person's ability to use various mystical energy whether that was mana, chi, or psychic potential, but that could have just been a theory.
Snarf's limited knowledge that he understood about star seeds were how they connected to Sailor Crystals. A Sailor Crystal was basically the deepest and most profound connection possible to a world for an individual tying a person directly into the source of the planetary ley lines own power. Those crystals allowed only two people to be directly connected at a time: the current holder and their first heir. Other heirs had a tenuous connection to the crystal that would not strengthen unless they moved up to the position of first heir. The Sailor Crystal was effectively the source of a senshi's power and the lynchpin to the biosphere spells.
There was also some sort of interaction between Sailor Crystals and worlds that were gravitationally linked to the crystal's world. It involved some sort fusion of magic and physics that Snarf had to tune out for his sanity when it was covered in a briefing. What had mattered for the investiture was that before the Sailor Crystal of Thundera was forged the biosphere of Thundera depended on the Sailor Crystal of Saturn. Once Lord Lion-O received the crystal and fused it with his star seed the Sailor Crystal of Thundera took over handling the biosphere of Thundera shifting the Saturn Crystal to a secondary backup status. At the same time, the Thundera Crystal became a backup for the biosphere of Saturn and the other moons orbiting the planet if the Sailor Crystal of Saturn were ever lost.
Sailor Saturn had found records dating back almost a yuga to the time of the semi-mythical Queen Losna of House Euryphaessa who was supposed to have founded the earliest version of the Silver Millennium. The records were of the creation of the Sailor Crystal of Saturn which had been thought lost since the First Interregnum roughly some 300 senshi generations before the Sixth Interregnum. The Sixth Interregnum itself was almost 40 senshi generations in the past when House Selene took over and renamed the kingdom as the Silver Millennium. It had been pure luck, or maybe providence that one of the court wizards of the time had taken a pleasure cruse on their personal spaceship only to have a major engine problem that knocked the ship into a very long orbit in the solar system well outside the usual travel lanes.
Maybe it hadn't been lucky for the poor wizard, but it had preserved the ship's logs and computers through the generations until Sailor Saturn stumbled across it. She had been able to keep her discovery quiet as her court magicians grabbed every useful bit of data they could from the old wreck. Snarf was double checking the records of the database to make sure his memory wasn't playing tricks on him. It had been decades of relative time for him since he thought he had heard a particular factoid.
A grin appeared on Snarf's face when he saw that he had remembered correctly. There were ties between a Sailor Crystal and 'halls of power' as the old records put it that could allow one to track the location of Sailor Crystal holder even when said crystal was in a dormant state. Once he adjusted the Cats Lair sensors, he could narrow down Lord Lion-O reincarnation's location to within a few dozen kilocubits! That would narrow the search time for Lord Lion-O by weeks if not months.
Snarf checked the records and found the signal for the Sailor Crystal of Thundera. He saved the information to a folder on the mainframe he was using to store everything relating to finding Lord Lion-O for easy access. Then came the tricky part for Snarf. He needed to double check to see what part of the Cats Lair was considered to be Lord Lion-O's 'hall of power' by the ancient magic. Then he would need to set up the sensors to triangulate Lord Lion-O's general location via the 'hall of power'.
Thundera's only awake resident slumped in his chair as he thought about what he'd need to do to get that setup ready. He'd have to break open the old technomagic lesson primers again to make sure he did everything right and that could take weeks! This wasn't checking up on machinery designed so that the stupidest fop from Luna could operate. This would involve lots of precise setup where even the smallest mistake could get him the wrong results. Snarf only knew enough about calibrating magical sensors to know that he didn't proverbially know his head from a hole in the ground on that subject.
The frustration only grew in Snarf's gut as he realized that none of the portable sensors were in the Cats Lair inventory or the printing blueprints were what he needed to locate Lord Lion-O. There were blueprints of sensors that could work thank the spirits. However, he'd have to do some jury-rigging to get the sensors made. That was at least another week of long days and nights with his nose stuck in front of a computer screen going over procedures that would make his brain hurt. "Oh Snarf, I'm a political advisor and personal aid, not an engineer."
Two days later Ranma showed up at Dr. Ono's office just like he was instructed and waited for his appointment. Ranma was not expecting Genma to walk out onto the reception area with a scowl on his face. Genma walked over to Ranma and smacked him upside the head. "You idiot! What were you thinking not telling me that you went to Dr. Ono because of pain caused by your curse? And then what was with that story you told about just running into the good doctor? I thought I raised you to be more honorable than that Ranma!"
"What?" Ranma was shocked that Pops knew about his condition. How did he find out? Was that worry he heard in Pop's voice.
Genma shot Ranma a look that told the teen he was a complete dumbass. "I'm your father boy. Dr. Ono has to talk to me about your medical condition since you're a minor. Now why did you feel the need to put on such a show?"
Ranma shook his head as he tried to gather his wits. "I didn't want anyone to make a big production out of it. I figured you and Mr. Tendo would use it to try and push the uncute tomboy on me like you always do. That would just piss off Akane which would be a headache to deal with. Nabiki would probably set up a bidding war for the info and use it to cause me a truckload of headaches to deal with involving rivals coming out of the woodworks."
That earned Ranma another smack on the head from his father. "Grow up boy. This ward does not revolve around you. What do you think you're some sort of Shonen manga protagonist? Soun and I might give you an Akane some good-natured motivation to help break the ice from time to time. A health condition is not such a time. As for Nabiki, I'll admit that the girl has a mercenary heart and loves causing mischief. I do think you are misjudging Nabiki's ability to understand a situation and her ability to read what could bring danger on herself."
"We are talking about the same Nabiki Tendo right? You know, the one who tried to sell dates with me while we were engaged?"
"Bah, she was only having a little fun in her money hungry way. Nabiki knew that Akane was still engaged to you. She was just having some amusement while she let Akane cool off and realize how much the engagement meant."
"That's not how I recall the engagement getting switched back Pops."
Any further argument on the Saotomes' parts was cut off as Tofu walked into the waiting room. Tofu looked at the duo and smiled. "I'm glad you are still here Mr. Saotome. I was hoping that you would consent to undergo some tests as well. My colleagues were able to inform me about a chi technique for getting past surface interference such as your Jusenkyo curse when scanning someone's chi. I have been able to get a little practice in on some of my regular patients. However, I would like to test the technique on a control person before trying to use it to get more information on Ranma's condition. You are the best comparison person to test on given your blood relationship, curse, and active martial arts lifestyle."
Genma nodded his head and replied, "I don't mind helping. What is this new technique of yours?"
Tofu motioned for the duo to head into one of the patient exam rooms and started to explain. "The technique is an adaption of the principals behind ultrasound machines using chi instead and is in many ways simply an extension of the chi sensing abilities I use to diagnose patients. The chief difference with this technique is that I place an acupressure needle a few centimeters inside you and transmit my chi sensing through the needle. This will let me get past the usual interference I have with you two since the needle goes through the surface interference of the curse."
"What are the side effects doctor? A person can really mess someone up injecting their chi into another like you're describing." One of the first rules that the dreaded Master had ground into Genma and Soun's heads was that you don't mess around with doctors and that went double for genuine traditional doctors. The things they could do if they got their hands on you when they were angry were no joke.
Tofu replied, "The spot where I stick the needle in will be numb for about half an hour. Given that you are a chi using martial artist Mr. Saotome, I would recommend not doing any heavy exercise for at least 2 hours. I personally would prefer you wait 12 hours for my chi to completely clear your system. However, most of the effects should wear off by the 2-hour mark. Now please give me a moment to get your medical files." He then headed out of the exam room to get the records from the office.
Genma had already gotten on the exam table when Tofu returned with the files and some containers of water to activate the duo's curses. Tofu opened Genma's file, took out a hair-thin needle, and carefully pushed it into Genma's chest. He closed his eyes and used the sensing technique he had been taught happy to finally get a clear view of the elder Saotome's chi flows. The needle was removed so that Genma's curse could be activated and a new needle was used to exam the panda.
After Genma was changed back Tofu spoke. "Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Saotome. The technique worked like my colleagues said it would and I assure you that you are in good health. I'd personally recommend losing a kilo or two, but it will be alright if you work out a little differently and convert that extra mass into muscle. Let me help you sit up." Tofu did so and then he helped Genma over to one of the nearby chairs to free up the bed.
The elder Saotome sat down and waited while Tofu filled out his own medical record. He mused that the doctor was right as usual about him not doing any heavy exercise for a while. Genma's chest was still a little numb from the remaining bits of the doctor's chi left within him from the probe. Hell, Genma's entire body felt a little off from the foreign chi waves bouncing around inside it. The usual methods Tofu used on exams were like he was just listening. Sort of like the different types of sonar that Genma's father had talked about from the old man's time serving in the navy during WWII.
Soon enough Tofu had finished his notes and was ready to exam Ranma. The exact same procedure was followed and Tofu left Ranma on the bed while he made his notes. He then turned to the duo and said, "Today has been a very productive day gentlemen. I was able to gain a much clearer picture of both of your conditions which will be of great help in the future for taking care of you."
"Ranma, I will have to consult further with my colleagues before I can diagnose you condition correctly. I still want you to keep reporting to me every two days for chi scans while I monitor your situation and I still want you to follow my restrictions on chi usage. I think I will be able to lift those restrictions in a week or two, but I want to completely eliminate that variable for now."
The teen slowly got up on his elbows and asked, "What's wrong with me Doc? You said last time that I've got a mass of magic in me causing a problem."
Tofu put down Ranma's file, headed for a drawer, and took out a large chart. He then put the chart on the wall revealing a stylized drawing of the chi flows within a person. It also had several other diagrams showing other energy flows within a person. Then Tofu took out a pointer and began to explain. "I'm not sure if you are aware of this Ranma, but there are multiple types of energies that mainstream society has label under the category of fantasy. There are the general categories such as chi like you use, mana which is used for magic, and mental energy favored by psychics. There are supposedly other categories out there, but they are just hearsay to me with no research material that I've been able to find. There are also different varieties of energies in these categories. Hot and cold chi or emotional chis to name some examples that you have worked with in the past Ranma."
"These energies all exist within a person, but at different metaphysical layers. People also tend to favor one or sometimes two of these energies bringing them much closer to the physical world or strengthening them to interact with the physical world. There is still a lively debate in my circle of doctors on this topic given that we have to go on personal feel and sense data as we don't have a mechanical way of measuring these things yet. Are you following me so far Ranma? This might be confusing, but it is hard to describe what's going on without going into hours of precise minutia to explain everything."
Ranma nodded his head. Different energies and different means to do things people considered impossible. People were naturally better at one or two methods and practice those abilities they were strong in. Seemed simple enough for what he needed to know.
Tofu then continued. "What I'm about to describe is a major simplification of what I was able to sense in my scans today. Ranma, it seems that you naturally have a talent for magic. That talent is moving closer to the physical world and waking up for lack of a better description. A pinch of your magical abilities activates every time your curse is triggered and it seems like your own magic is treating your curse like an invader."