Private Bet #3
by Shade

Disclaimer: Let the reader beware!

~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2: Darkness of Twilight
~~~~~~~~

Secret Techniques.
Hidden Treasure.
Only one old priest watching the whole place.

The words were like music to Genma Saotome's ears.

Despite his claims that hardship was needed for a true martial artist,
the overweight hypocrite had no stomach (a first) for any real discomfort
at his own expense. It was so much easier to find a cozy bar with a warm
supper and as much alcohol as he could drink and let his disgraceful son
endure the trials of being poor, cold, and hungry outside.

Best of all in his opinion, was these little bits of gossip
that help lead him to more opportunities to make his weak boy
more of a man (and in the process steal enough loot to live well
for awhile).

"Who is he and where do I find him?"

Genma didn't even bother asking what these techniques were,
if it could make Ranma a better fighter then no sacrifice
the boy had to make was too great.

"His name is Yosho, the priest of the Masaki Shrine."

~~~~~~
-Masaki Shrine

"Trying to take something that doesn't belong to you?"

Genma swallowed nervously as he froze in mid-theft.

Yosho's glasses flashed as a stray beam of
sunlight struck at just the right angle.

The bald fool got the feeling that he and his son were going
to be staying here awhile, whether they wanted to or not.

For once in his life, Genma was right.

~~~~~~~~

Ranma and Tenchi were almost polar opposites, though they shared some
similar events in their lives. Both had lost their mothers at an early age,
Ranma's to his training and Tenchi's to the grave. Their fathers were
equally poor in their own ways. Neglect was almost worst then abuse,
at least there were times when Genma had actually been there for his
son no matter how badly he usually treated him.

Tenchi was well on his way to becoming an introvert,
burying his pain instead of letting it heal.

But this day he found himself face to face with a boy
hanging from a branch overhead as he made his way up
to the Demon's cave.

"Boo!"

Tenchi responded intelligently.

"GAH?!!"

"Hi! Wanna be friends!"

"Huh?!"

"My name's Ranma!"

The boy swung up and off the branch he'd been hanging from
into a triple somersault and finally touched down in a perfect
three point landing right in front of Tenchi...almost.

A piece of loose foliage spoiled his entrance, causing the young
hyperactive martial artist to stumble and fall flat on his face.

"Ouch!"

The stoic young boy tried to control himself.

"Hahahahahaha!"

He failed.

It was an unexpected feeling, the first real
crack in the emotional shell Tenchi had built
up around him to keep others out.

"Hey! Wanna at least give me a hand up?!"

Ranma sputtered literally, his wide open mouth
had gotten a nice taste of humble pie and it tasted
like old leaves. Blech!

"Ah...Sure."

A hand was offered and accepted.

"So what's your name?"

"Me? Tenchi. Tenchi Masaki."

"Whatcha doing?"

"Um I'm going up to th-the-"

"Wanna play?"

"Huh?! Ah...I...ac-actually-"

"Let's go!"

"Wha?! Wa-wait a minute!"

"Wheee!!"

"AAAAHHHH!!"

And so it went.

Tenchi never did make it up to the cave that day.

Or the next day, or the day after that.

After awhile even the stick in the mud Masaki would have
to admit he was having the time of his life, even when
he wasn't sure that he would survive the experience.
Ranma's sheer zest for life seemed to just sweep
him along for the ride.

But that first night would turn out to be even more startling.

~~~~~~~~~

"You're challenging GRANDPA?!"

Surely he couldn't have heard him right!

"Yeah."

"But WHY?!"

Ranma looked subdued for a moment before answering.

"Pops...po-pops tried to take some stuff from the temple,
if I win then me and Pops get to stay here and he doesn't
haveta go to jail."

"And if you lose?"

"Then the temple gets our Tantos, they're worth
enough to pay for what my father tried to take."

"But what'll happen to you if your dad has to..."

Concern filled Tenchi, even though they had just met
a few hours earlier he found himself worrying for Ranma.

"I-I don't know...But I'm not gonna lose!!"

Tenchi swallowed back his misgivings, something about that
determined tone struck a similar chord within him.

He found himself believing Saotome.

~~~~~~

Three figures stood in the courtyard.

Two faced each other, the third could only
watch the drama unfolding in front of him.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready."

"Very well then, the match will be until the first hit.
Is that alright with you young one?"

"Yes."

Tenchi could only watch with mounting horror, there was no way
his new friend could possibly win this. Grandpa was a master
of the first rank with the wooden bokken, all Ranma could
possibly accomplish would be a lot of painful injuries as
Tenchi himself could attest to from hard experience.

Yosho assumed the basic Jurai stance for combat as across from him
Ranma settled into a seemingly relaxed textbook Kempo stance.
His feet were positioned funny though, they were too far apart for
the boy to be able to attack effectively and his hips were turned
slightly at an angle towards his opponent.

The dark shaded glasses he wore blocked any attempt to look into his eyes,
making it impossible for the venerable warrior to study them and figure out
what the boy was planning.

Yosho had decided it was in Ranma's best interests
for him to be raised away from the influence of Genma,
perhaps even taking him on as a student of the temple.

Choosing to end this fight quickly the undefeated
swordsman supreme of the Royal House of Jurai
launched the first attack.

~~~~~~~

Tenchi's jaw had buried itself into the ground
and was making good progress on its way to London.

This fight had been going on far
longer then he'd thought possible.

And Ranma was still holding his own?!

It was unbelievable!

Yet somehow, impossible as it appeared to be the
young martial artist had managed to evade or block
everything that the old man had thrown at him,
no matter what direction he attacked from Ranma was
always a step ahead of him.

It was as if Ranma didn't even see any of the
feints or false openings the swordmaster tried,
Twice the boy had either leapt over or ducked strikes
to his rear that he couldn't have possibly known were
coming. Who was this boy?!

~~~~~

The young martial artist in question was starting to
breathe hard from the strain he was putting his body
through. This man was *much* better this father.

It took every bit of skill he possessed along with
a big dose of luck to keep that weaving sword from
connecting and even though only a few minutes had
passed it felt as if he'd been fighting for hours.

There.

The disturbance of the 'wa' came a millisecond before the actual strike,
but long enough to backflip out of the sweeping cut. As Yosho twisted
his blade and took a step forward to turn the cut into a lunge
the stubborn Saotome boy did a perfect split and dropped to the floor,
falling as he had been taught. The strike missed his crotch by less
then the span of three hairs as Ranma's foot lashed out in a roundhouse sweep,
forcing Yosho to leap up to avoid being knocked off his feet.
The old man came down with a flying strike but the boy rolled out of the way,
giving himself some space to breathe.

{Incredible...I have the techniques of the Royal House at my disposal
and still he manages to avoid defeat. And if I'm not mistaken he's
already learning how to make use of them himself! His unique style
is already changing, I can see his posture adjusting to compensate
for my greater reach and that strike he just attempted was a variation
of the move I just used against him less then two minutes ago!
If nothing else I can't let such potential be wasted.}

Ranma was getting desperate, none of his regular moves had worked so far.

{I've got to take the offensive or I'm finished.
But I can't get close enough to avoid that damn sword,
he's simply too skilled with it. I can't keep this pace up
for much longer. I've got no choice...I have to try a
special technique.}

The boy danced back as the warrior resumed his relentless
offense, pushing Ranma back bit by bit until the pigtailed
boy found himself backed into a corner.

"Well my boy, you've done exceptionally well for someone of
your age and skill. There is no dishonor in surrendering now,
you have nowhere left to run."

"No! This fight isn't over yet! I won't surrender,
this fight is until the first hit or knockout!"

"Very well."

Yosho sighed, both impressed by the boy's courage and dismayed by his stubborness.

{Here it comes.}

His timing would have to be perfect or else it would all be over anyway.

Ranma extended his 'wa' to its fullest, his ordinary
senses seeming to become hypersensitive as the ki
flowed through his body.

"Kiiiiya!" Yosho dashed in, his sword held overhead.

Ranma's hands seemed to blur as he pulled out a large cloth.

{NOW!}

"Saotome Anything Goes Secret Technique! Goshin Dai Ryü Sei Fu!"

~~~~~~~~

"Say what?!" Several of the non-Japanese speaking watchers asked.

"Translates as 'Body-Defense Shooting Star Cloth',
a move from the Umisenken School that doesn't make
you totally invisible but comes darn close."

Shadow looked mildy impressed by the fact that Ranma had actually managed
to pull his daring gambit off. The kid had balls, too many ethics perhaps,
but then again no one was perfect.

~~~~~~

Ranma vanished from sight.

The wooden blade cleaved through the
air he'd been occupying a heartbeat later.

For the first time in seven hundred years Yosho found himself
caught off guard by an opponent. For an endless moment his eyes
darted around, searching for his missing target.

The former prince had possessed the quickest reflexes
in the Juraian Empire while he'd lived on Jurai and
age had not dulled his abilities. As soon as Ranma
reappeared right behind at his most vulnerable angle
Yosho knew and spun in a dizzyingly blur of motion,
his sword coming at a speed and angle that the boy
couldn't possibly hope to block or evade in time.

It was over.

{Not yet!}

Ranma could feel the blow coming and knew that this was it.

His arm lashed out in a race against time.

Two separate attacks struck out at unbelievable speeds.

*Pow*

The scene seemed to freeze as a deathly hushed silence descended.

Ranma gave a small groan and fell with a loud crash to the stone tiles,
a large bump on his side from where the the hit had connected showing.
The strain of those final moments had been too much for the young boy
and he just lay there, out like a light.

{Oh no.}

Tenchi ran over to see if his friend was all right.

"Tenchi."

His Grandfather's voice stopped him.

"Grandpa?"

"Take Ranma inside, I'll be there in a minute to check on his injury.
I need to speak with his father first."

"Grandpa?!"

His eyes seemed to ask what he didn't state with his words.

"You'd better prepare the other two guestrooms,
it looks those two will be staying for awhile."

"Grandpa!" Tenchi looked like a person who'd just been
informed of a stay of execution. Ranma was going to be
staying with them! So relieved that he didn't even bother
to question this, Tenchi carefully supported the now
semiconscious boy as they made their way back to the main temple.

Yosho watched the two of them go, making sure that no one else was around to see.

Then carefully he pulled back the top of his white priest robes to reveal
a good-sized red bruise forming on his shoulder.

{Well I'll be damned.}

~~~~~~~

Remarkably it took Ranma only two days to recover from the battle.

His natural hardy constitution had him back on his feet
the first day, the second saw him already running around
again.

It was like paradise for him here.

A new friend, plenty of food and a warm place to sleep.

And Yosho Sensei had even offered to train him!

Genma couldn't object, even after his bruises faded
he had no way to stop Yosho. His natural cowardice
instead took a different route for him to deal with
his humilation and anger over being defeated.

{It's all the boy's fault!!!}

He would have to discipline Ranma again, it was his duty as his son's father
and master. But it would have to wait until he could make sure that the priest
wouldn't find out. Genma suspected the old man knew far more about the situation
then he was letting on and only the tantalizing lure of new secret techniques
kept the bald martial artist from just taking his son and running.

~~~~~~~

Once again the intangible spirit found
herself watching the newcomers to the valley.

When the Saotomes had arrived the former pirate
hadn't known at first, Genma had been recuperating
in his room from the thrashing he'd taken when trying to fight
the sword master after being discovered stealing from the temple.

She had noticed when her Tenchi didn't show up around the cave
for a few days. This had prompted concern and worry from
the intangible being. Had something happened to him?

It wasn't till later that she learned of their encounter.
But it was Ranma's own natural curiosity that finally led
to the meeting between himself and Ryoko.

"Who are you?"

Yosho's lessons had begun to sharpen Ranma's crude ability
to sense Ki and ever since he'd arrived he'd been feeling
this strange prickling at the edges of his perception.
It had not taken him long to find the origin of those
feeling up here.

{You can sense me?!}

Her astral jaw dropped.

"You seem real nice."

The projection facefaulted as this new shock to her system proved too much for her.

The most feared and dastardly space pirate in the quadrant
was being called...nice?!

A lonely imprisoned being several thousand years old
was up against an adorable blind pigtailed boy that
could charm the socks off of a hardened miser.

Ryoko never stood a chance.

-To be continued...