Achievement


Ranma sat in silence as four old men discussed him just inside the
building. He was sitting in lotus position, waiting for them to return.
After they had come back from the kingdom of Farallon, the Lady had
insisted that he needed to gain complete control of his ki, and
brought a Tai Chi Chuan master from his own world.

All that effort to let Masters reach him, and she had brought one from
his home, who didn't care about the Five Kingdoms, or all the effort he
had just been to. He was only now, three months later, admitting to
himself that she was right. Just having the peace agreement wasn't
enough. They needed to see that it would be kept, to get used to the
idea, before the masters would allow themselves to be drawn out of their
temples and dojos, and make the long journey to train the new Lord Fey.

She was right about controlling his ki, as well. Because of the work
the Tai Chi Chuan master had done with him, he could now summon the
power of the Neko-ken at will, and do many other interesting things with
his ki. He was still afraid of cats, but he suspected that the Lady had
a plan for that as well.

Now the master had gone, and returned with three others. For nearly ten
hours, Ranma had undergone test after test. He had pushed hands with
each of the masters, a taxing exercise that literally involved pushing
hands, but was really focused on the passing back and forth of ki. He
had been attacked by each master in turn, each using a different art
against him, and been required to demonstrate how he could turn each
style of attacks against the attacker with minimal movement, then been
attacked by all four at once.

They had made him attack them with the Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu,
demonstrating how he had integrated the Tai Chi Chuan into his personal
style.

The final tests had involved him centering himself in different places
and different positions, while the masters tried everything from all out
attacks, to levers, to throwing stones, to breaking boards against him,
to force him to move. This unusual centering, the ability to almost
literally become one with the immediate environment, was one of the most
powerful abilities in Tai Chi, and could literally make a master of it
into the proverbial immovable object. Indeed, despite everything they
had tried, he had remained where he placed himself. No the masters were
closeted, discussing him.

As the door closed behind the last master, he looked to Wan Go, the
master who had trained the boy. "Surely you do not still expect us to
believe that the boy has studied the Tai Chi Chuan for a mere three
months, Wan Go? You have had your fun, now tell us the truth. How long
have you been training the boy?" He grinned at Wan Go. It had been a
good joke, after all.

"Three months." Wan Go replied. The other three masters turned slowly
and looked at him.

"You are serious," Jan Fen said, shock evident in his eyes. "You are
actually serious, aren't you." Wan Go didn't even have to reply. "Is he
really human? That woman, who acts so much like his mother, though she
does not call him son, she has the blood of a dragon, I think."

"He is as human as I am," Wan Go replied.

Lo Phun sighed. "It figures that the youngest Master ever to reach this
level would be from another world, raised by a Dragon. Why do my
students never reach this high?"

"You assume too much, Lo Phun," Wan Go replied. "The Lady Alana has
informed me that my student is from our world. That is why I was brought
to teach him. He is the heir to the Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu."

"You mean that school founded by that infidel, Happosai? How
unfortunate," moaned Ko Lin. "But he has passed the tests. He is a tenth
dan Tai Chi Chuan master, and it isn't even his chosen art! I hope that
stupid infidel appreciates what he has in this boy."

"I want to add one more test," Wan Go interjected. "I don't think I've
reached his limits yet."

"You want to go further?" Jan Fen was shocked. "Tenth dan is not good
enough for you?"

"Come. You will see. I think he can achieve something remarkable. We
will see." They followed him, curious to see what more he thought
this young warrior could do.

Wan Go had not told them that he had asked the Lady about Ranma's
astonishing speed at learning the Tai Chi. She had simply told him that
Ranma's ability was a gift from the gods. Technically true, perhaps,
after all, everything one was was really a gift from the gods, but
useless as far as understanding the boy's amazing abilities. Wan Go had
tested the boy when he first came, and found that though the boy had no
conscious control of his ki, he was nonetheless using it to augment his
speed, strength, and stamina in the sparring they did.

Ranma stood and faced them as the four old men came out. He bowed
deeply.

"Student, I have one further test. Are you ready?" Wan Go challenged
him.

"Hai, sensei." Ranma replied.

Wan Go led Ranma to a short stone column, about four and a half feet
tall. "Sit upon this, and find your center. Center yourself very
strongly, then I want you to meditate. I want you to hold onto your
center, and meditate, and withdraw your awareness of the world. As you
do this, you must not let your hold on your center falter. Do you
understand?"

"Hai, sensei," Ranma answered, and leapt lightly to the top of the post,
settling in lotus position on it. He closed his eyes, and focused.

"When you are centered, and your awareness is withdrawn, say 'Ready'.
Then, wait five minutes, and return." Wan Go instructed. Ranma focused,
and found his center, and firmed his center in relation to his
surroundings. He steadily strengthened his center, until he was
comfortable, then breathed out, and began to meditate. He held tightly
to his center, until his awareness was withdrawn. He said, "Ready." but
did not hear his own words.

When Wan Go heard his student speak, he looked at the others, who were
watching curiously, and at the Lady, who stood some distance away,
watching them all, and rubbed his hands together gleefully. He had tried
this many times, and failed, but he thought Ranma might finally succeed.
He was so powerful in himself. Wan Go reached out with his ki, and felt
the post, and located its weakness. His wrinkled hand lightly tapped a
spot on it, and the post crumbled to dust.

The gasps of his peers and the startled cry of the Lady were music to
Wan Go's ears, as he stared bemused at the boy, still sitting four and a
half feet from the ground, resting comfortably on nothing at all. He
walked over, picked up a plank of wood, and placing it against Ranma's
back, applied a considerable amount of force, visibly bending the plank.
Ranma did not move. Wan Go dropped the board, and sat down on a bench,
counting the time.

At the appointed moment, Ranma's eyes opened, his senses stirred... and
his mouth dropped. The old men watched, amused, as Ranma slowly... ever
so slowly, reached beneath himself, staring straight ahead. They
chuckled as his hand passed slowly beneath him, encountering nothing.

"Uhm... Sensei... what am I sitting on?" Ranma asked.

"Nothing at all, student. Nothing at all," was Wan Go's self satisfied
response. Ranma stood up slowly, and the watching masters gasped again.
Holding your center while moving was difficult enough... holding it
while standing on nothing? As he stood, they noticed that his center
wasn't really moving... His center of gravity stayed perfectly still, as
his legs stretched down beneath him, but still failed to reach the
ground.

Now that his feet were only a foot and a half or so from the ground,
Ranma felt safe enough to look slowly down. Even as he stared at the
ground beneath him, he didn't fall. He looked at the grinning Wan Go,
and smiled. Reaching out again, he felt the ground beneath him with his
ki... and mentally gave it a gentle push. Gasps rose around as he wafted
slowly upward, stopping when his feet were about three feet from the
ground.

He looked over at the stone wall, and mentally gave it a sharp shove.
Though otherwise motionless, he still slid five feet through the air
directly away from the wall. The masters were silent now, as they
watched the boy creating a whole new art before their eyes. He reached
out with his ki, and took both the ground and the wall, and gave an
angled shove... and rotated in the air. He gulped, and pulled himself
back upright.

He looked at Wan Go, grinned an evil grin, and watched Wan Go gulp
suddenly. Ranma reached out, held the ground very tightly, and lifted up
on Wan Go. Wan Go rose smoothly five feet into the air. Ranma laughed
delightedly, and released Wan Go, who promptly dropped back to the
ground.

Wan Go was irritated. "All right, student. Enough playing. Down. Now."
Ranma dropped silently to the ground, and stood before his sensei. It
didn't matter that Wan Go was irritated. Ranma was too thoroughly happy
for that to bother him. He had just realized that a slight twist on this
new technique would aid him in the Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu more than
everything else he had learned in the Tai Chi Chuan... With this
technique, there would literally be a surface to leap from or land on,
wherever he needed one.

They gave Ranma his dan belt, and a plaque... Eleventh Dan. Ranma was
sure Master Wan Go had told him there were ten dans in Tai Chi Chuan...
but who was he to argue? They were the masters.

---

The Lady informed him that she would permit him two weeks to integrate
the Tai Chi firmly into his style, before beginning his training in
magic.

He found that he did not have to perform the centering exercises to
merge this new ability, that he found himself thinking of as the
'Juushin Jisei Ryuu,' or 'Controlling Center of Gravity Style,' with the
Musabetso Kakuto. He did not need to be centered to mentally solidify
the air just where his foot or hand would be in the next moment, and
push off of it. With this addition to the Musabetso, he could remain
airborne indefinitely. It was very close to flying, and he found it
absolutely exhilarating.

Of course, he could literally fly, as well, by finding his center and
moving himself, and he trained in this as well, but it took time for it
to become familiar. Rather than choosing to move in such and such a way,
he had to figure out how to move in relation to some fixed object, so
that his body would move as he wished it to. It was confusing, and he
found it more comfortable to use leaps, with which he was quite
familiar, and which he knew precisely how to control.

He also developed an exercise that he would continue for the rest of his
life. He worked out a means to use the Juushin Jisei Ryuu to effectively
increase the weight of his body, without actually increasing his weight.
It was the basic equivalent of being in a heavier gravity, but with the
Juushin force being applied to whatever surface he came in contact with
to prevent it from feeling the extra weight. He named it the Juuryoku,
or Gravity, technique.

As this developed, it had two basic effects. First, as he slowly
increased the effective gravity, it forced him to become stronger to
continue to be able to perform his leaping aerial katas. Second, it
conditioned him to the constant use of his ki, which strengthened his
body's ability to handle the flow of ki, and strengthened and deepened
his ki reserves.

---

Two weeks later, as they waited for his new sensei to arrive from
the northern mountains, Ranma began his training in magic. His first day
of training made Ranma understand why the Lady had insisted that he
begin with Tai Chi. She made him center himself, and reach out with his
ki, then she fired magical attack after magical attack at him. He
strained to hold his center, as he was pummeled, and he used new-found
mastery of ki to bat the attacks away.

Slowly, as he touched the attacks, he began to get a feel for them,
until suddenly, as she fired yet another magical arrow at him, he felt
its weak point. With a feeling akin to exaltation, he touched its weak
point with a feather light brush of ki, and the attack simply melted
away. Soon after, she began stepping up her attacks, hitting him with
steadily more powerful effects. Even the immaterial ones that sought to
affect him without passing the intervening space could be felt with his
ki, and every one had its weak point, and every one fell before a minute
application of ki. It was just like the way Wan Go had caused that
column to fall into dust... a little touch at the right point, and it
was done.

After a while, he began to feel more points on them, more detail, and
finally, he stopped her, and asked her to fire a single magic arrow at
him. She returned to the small, simple attack, and he caught it with ki,
and held it in the air. He closed his eyes, and felt deeper, and finally
he could feel where the strands of magical energy were coming from...
and gathering them up, somehow, he wasn't sure, he pulled them together,
and tied them to each other in the same way, and released his
creation... only to get hit in the chest by two arrows... the one he had
created, and the one she had sent to him.

They both laughed at his blunder, then she told him to get back up, and
ready himself again. Now she sent a single slow missile towards him...
and he reached out with his ki... and felt nothing, and it flew into his
chest and knocked him off his chair.

He was excited, and demanded to know how she had hid the magic, and
wanted to try it again and again, but she just smiled sadly at him, and
refused. She couldn't bear to tell him that he couldn't see it because
it drew from a feminine source. He was totally blind to magic from the
female principle, and she knew why, and she knew he would be hurt if she
told him.

She would wait, and when he was strong enough to know, she would tell
him. She suspected she would lose him then, but she had little choice.
He would never be able to free her until he mastered both feminine and
masculine magic, but she doubted even he would be strong enough to face
the pain he would have to face to become whole enough to master both.
Not for the last time did she curse his worse than worthless father.