Power
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Intrasonic
> brackets denote Chinese speech
The young child obediently knelt before the
father, quietly taking in ever word being spoken. The father was idly fingering
a thin, worn-through book, although his lecturing seemed not to include
it as a reference at the moment.
The child's state of health looked rather
poor, to say the least. From their feet to their arms to their face, there
was scarcely a spot devoid of cuts or scratches. It was mere speculation
how far beneath the half-shredded training gi the injuries extended. Large
stains of dried blood were still visible across the clothing, although
it would be guessed that most of it had been cleaned off the child's skin.
The eyes were bloodshot, as though they had gone far too long without meaningful
sleep. Even now, they were darting back and forth nervously, as though
expecting to spot some unseen danger in the room.
"A martial artist must be prepared to give
his life for The Art," the father was saying, his tone of voice suggesting
that it was an oft-repeated mantra. "In the quest for excellence, they
do not fear for themselves. The Art comes first, last and always. The Art
is everything."
"Yes, father."
"Then why are you afraid?"
"I... I..." A small tear trickled down the
child's check unbidden, quickly brushed away. "I'm not... afraid," they
whispered quietly.
The father was unmoved. "I didn't hear you."
"I'm not afraid," the child repeated, louder
this time.
"I don't think you believe it."
"I'm not afraid!!!" the child retorted, now
standing. Their face winced as the sudden movement aggravated the scores
of injuries across their body. "I'm not afraid!"
The father smiled thinly. "Then why don't
you trust me? I'm only doing my best to make you the strongest martial
artist in the world."
The child swallowed, but remained in place.
Almost hypnotically, the father continued
to speak. "You cannot be the strongest without overcoming your fears. You
must be strong and face whatever holds you back. Only then can you truly
master The Art. Do you understand?"
The child nodded, more resolve now evident
in their stance.
In response, the father produced something
from a bag and held it out for the child to take. A string of fish-cakes.
Instinctively, the child backed up a step,
arms tensed, as though to ward off the offending object. From beyond the
two, a hole in the floor yawned, almost as though waiting to be fed. Occasionally,
a muffled caterwaul echoed upwards, prompting the child to cringe at the
sound.
"You must overcome your fears," the father
repeated. "Persistence and sacrifice are the keys to perfection of The
Art."
Hesitantly, the child reached out their hand
to accept the fish-cakes.
"Only by persisting will you succeed in learning
this technique."
Slowly, the fingers grasped the string holding
the various cakes together.
"True power does not come easily. But a true
martial artist understands this and presses ahead nonetheless. In the end,
only The Art matters."
Trembling, the child wrapped the cakes around
their legs, waist, shoulders and arms, until the entire length was used
up. Straightening again, they looked beseechingly towards their father.
In reply, the father's face was expressionless,
nodding curtly before glancing meaningfully towards the hole in the floor.
"I told you before. Don't give up, and the cats will teach you the Nekoken."
The child was standing before the pit now.
Below, glowing eyes peered up from the darkness, the smells of the fish
slowly beginning to reach downwards. "T-they... didn't want to teach me
last time... or the time before..."
"That's because you hadn't proved yourself
worthy. You must persevere, and prove yourself their better!"
The cats were beginning to wake up, their
yowls getting louder. The boy shivered, exerting all his will-power to
keep from running away from the hole.
The father approached, alongside the child.
"I've devoted myself to training you to be the best martial artist in the
world. I believe you can do it, with all my heart. Can't you trust me in
return?"
The child slowly nodded, new resolve coming
into their eyes. Taking a deep breath and a purposeful step forwards into
the space above the pit... the resolve shattered again.
"N-NOOOO!!!! DADDYYyyyy..."
The child's shrieks were quickly lost amidst
the cries and yowls of a hundred starving cats.
It was early afternoon that Cologne first heard
signs of stirring from the bedroom of her Great-granddaughter. Quietly
ascending the steps, the aged matriarch pushed open the door to the sleeping
quarters.
Shampoo was still sleeping, although she was
haphazardly wrapped in her bed sheets, and now lying on the floor. Even
now, she would twist or thrash in a way that suggested a less than peaceful
sleep.
Xian Pu, wake up, > Cologne whispered,
tapping the girl on the shoulder.
The reaction was immediate. With a shriek,
Shampoo launched herself at Cologne, her right hand lashing out violently.
By this time, the matriarch had already moved
out of reach, allowing Shampoo's hand to merely rip out a section of the
wall before she was tripped up by her own bedsheets.
Urgh... >
Awake now? > Cologne inquired, once again
approaching her great-granddaughter.
Shampoo was hugging herself, shivering despite
the warm room. I... was having a nightmare... I think. >
Cologne's smile was somewhat wry. I would
like to think that you wouldn't normally attack me like that. What
sort of dream did you have? >
It was... strange. I was only a child...
and I was in a pit... full of cats... >
Sounds like you were learning the Nekoken
in your dream. That could be considered rather traumatic. >
But I was never taught the Nekoken. >
Shampoo abruptly swallowed. But Ranma was... >
Quite true. The technique is supposed
to render the trainees permanently insane. I was always impressed that
Ranma survived it so well. >
The younger amazon's face was suddenly nervous.
Great-grandmother... about the technique Ranma and myself were practising...
>
What about it? >
What if... we both tried it at the same
time? > The worry in her voice suggested that it was perhaps more than
just an idle question.
Cologne shrugged in reply, permitting the
question to remain abstract. I suppose if you had done it at the exact
same time, it is possible that you might have both picked up stray thoughts
from the other. Perhaps you should only attempt it one at a time from now
on. >
Shampoo nodded, getting to her feet.
Perhaps you are right. It... was a terrifying dream. I never realized how
terrible an experience it must have been for him. >
Really, when you consider what you went
through to become the warrior that you are... is it so surprising what
he went through to become even stronger than you? >
Shampoo had no answer to that.
Do not let it disturb you too much, >
Cologne admonished soothingly. By now, those thoughts should have
all but faded away. >
I... hope so. It is strange to fear something
that I turn into... >
"Ranma?"
After placing her ear to the door, and hearing
no response, Akane deliberated on what to do next. Ranma being Ranma, he
was always happy to eat. But he had to be awake and at the table to do
that. And lunch was about to be served right now. Normally, she would have
simply barged in and soaked him into the land of the awake.
But things were a little different right now.
The two of them were... friendlier than they had been for a long time.
To be specific, they were about to go on a mutual outing tonight, to watch
a movie and grab a bite to eat together. Not a date, but still an outing.
And the last thing she wanted during that outing was for him to be angry
about her dumping water on him.
"...even better," Nabiki was continuing, "wouldn't
you love for him to be grateful to you, for waking him up for lunch?"
Akane gave her older sister a patient glare.
"I get the idea, Nabiki. No need to overdo the advice, okay?"
Nabiki gave a thin smile. "Right. So wake
up him up. Nicely."
Akane nodded, deliberating on various options
before slowly turning back to Nabiki. "Um... what do you think would be
the best way?"
Resisting the urge to laugh, Nabiki merely
smiled again. "This is where you walk in, find Ranma in some rather compromising
situation, don't give him a chance to explain, completely loose your temper,
then belt him out the window into the pond. And have him mad at you all
day."
"Right. I'll do that... hey!"
"So to prevent that from happening,
why don't you first take a slow peek into his room and see if he's still
sleeping?"
"Oh. Okay."
Before Akane was able to nudge the door open,
a loud yell came from the room. Followed by several loud crashes. Followed
by one big crash. Followed by silence, then a splash outside.
Nervously, Akane turned back to her sister.
"What do I do now?"
"This, little sister, is where you screw
subtlety, go in and try to figure out what the heck is going on."
Akane immediately did so. "What's going on,
Ranma?!"
"He's not in the room," Nabiki pointed out
after a moment. "And there's a big hole in the wall. And we heard a splash.
He's probably in the pond right now."
"Oh. Right."
Even as both went to examine the rather obvious
point of exit. Peering through it, a clear picture of the backyard pond
was visible, complete with a sputtering redhead in the middle of it. Ranma
was wearing the same clothing she had left the house in yesterday, which
suggested that she had come home tired enough to sleep in them.
Ranma looked around in bewilderment before
looking up at the two girls looking down at her. "Whadya do that
for?" she demanded.
"I didn't do anything!" Akane retorted.
"Then how'd I get here?"
"You did that yourself," Nabiki quickly interjected,
before the arguing could escalate any further. "Akane was about to wake
you up for LUNCH, actually."
The word 'lunch' was normally a suitable distraction
where Ranma was concerned, but strangely enough, it didn't seem to be this
time. "Uh... I think I'll pass on lunch."
Akane swallowed. "I... I'm not cooking this
time. Kasumi is..."
Ranma nodded idly, getting to her feet. "That's
okay. I'm not really hungry right now. I'm just gonna go for a walk."
As though to solidify her point, Ranma emerged
from the pond, shaking the water off herself as best she could. That failing,
she did the sensible thing and took off her shirt to wring it out. Sensible,
if not especially appropriate.
Akane's glared downwards. "Do you mifphghgph..."
Nabiki removed her hand from Akane's mouth.
"What you meant to ask him," she whispered, "was 'Did you have some
sort of dream last night?'."
"Um... right. Did you have some sort of dream
last night, Ranma?"
The redhead looked up from wringing her shirt
out. "Uh... yeah. It's nothing."
"Well... you were yelling in your sleep. And
you broke a hole in the wall."
"Just... a nightmare. That's all. How come
you're so concerned?"
"I'm not conmfpghghgh..."
Once again, Nabiki clamped a hand over her
sister's mouth and pulled her away from the window. "Think first, talk
second," she admonished quietly. "Now try again."
Akane's head reappeared again. "I was just...
making sure you're okay."
Ranma briefly raised an eyebrow and she put
her shirt back on again. "Er... thanks. I'm just gonna be gone for awhile."
"Okay. Um... have a nice walk." The two girls
watched Ranma vault over the backyard wall, then turned to face each other.
"Getting better, little sister."
"Would you quit interrupting me, Nabiki?"
"Akane, I can see your insults coming a mile
away. You've got to stop saying the first thing that comes to your head.
You're going to a movie tonight. I'm not going to be there for you. You
have to make a conscious effort to think things over, then talk."
"But he just walked off, even after I said
nice things!"
"He was going to walk off no matter what,
Akane. But right now, he's walking off with a few things on his mind. Such
as the fact that you were going to wake him up for lunch. And the fact
that you wanted to know why he woke up so roughly. And that you wanted
to know that he was okay. And the longer he walks around, the longer he's
going to think about those things."
"Oh. I never thought of things that way."
"Trust me, little sister, I did. Now if you
really want to score a few points before tonight, let's try planning ahead
a little. Ranma's missing lunch now."
"He said it was okay..."
"Akane, this is Ranma we're talking about.
He's a bottomless pit on his good days. Right now, he's been training his
brains out. Whatever nightmare he had is probably bothering him more than
his stomach. But when he gets back in an hour or so..."
"He'll be asking when supper is."
"Right. So what would be a good thing to do?
That he would appreciate?"
Akane looked thoughtful, before finally brightening.
"I could... make an extra meal for him!"
Nabiki resisted the urge to groan. "Uh...
yes, you could. But there's something else you could do, that's even easier
to do. What do you think that would be?"
"I... could... set aside a plate for him!"
Nabiki resisted the urge to jump for joy.
"Why, that's an excellent idea, little sister. Maybe you should
do that before Mr. Saotome eats his son's share."
"Right!"
Nabiki watched Akane race down towards the
table, gently thumping her head against the wall. Were they even related?
How could someone be so ignorantly one-minded? And this was only one-half
of the equation. Ranma's big mouth was possibly even worse than Akane's
impulsive reacting. And they were supposed to go to a movie together? And
watch the whole thing without hating each other? And eventually get married?
Perhaps it was time for desperate measures.
It was with an unhurried pace that Ranma slowly
progressed down the street, having stopped only at a restaurant for a glass
of hot water. Whether it was by luck or subconscious intent, he continued
on a path that kept him well away from the dwellings of any of his rivals
or fiancees. Which was just as well, as he had other things on his mind.
He hadn't lied to Akane. He had woken
up from a dream. But he wasn't entirely certain what to make of the dream.
It hadn't seemed... quite real. Enough to honestly scare the hell out of
him, yet somewhat surreal from the onset. And unlike a lot of dreams,
he could still remember this one fairly well...
###############
The dense jungle seemed to continue on without
end. Stepping over fallen trees, pushing through patches of overgrown leaves
and grass, and slogging through pools of mud. These, along with countless
other obstacles, sought to halt forward progress. But all were cross and
mastered, footprints and flattened vegetation serving as proof to any who
would follow her.
Her? Ranma shrugged off the observation with
practised ease. He had long been able to tell whether he was male or female
without actually looking at himself or hearing himself talk. Although her
body seemed... smaller. Weaker. Shorter. Even for his female body. Like
he was just a child.
A scramble up a small rock face made the situation
clearer as he occasionally was forced to look at his various limbs to make
sure they had found a secure purchase. He was just a child at the
moment. Young enough that his body was still fairly
androgynous, yet not so young that he wasn't able to detect a slightly
lower centre of gravity and a distinct lack of something between his legs.
So he was definitely a young, female child at the moment.
This information was regulated to a background
knowledge as he crested the rock face and continued onwards without even
stopping to take a breath. A large object was strapped to her back, although
its identity was unknown. The whole time, her gaze was constantly shifting,
viewing the surroundings with suspicion. Every bush, patch of grass, boulder
or low-hanging tree branch was suspect as a hiding place. The ground was
ruthlessly analysed for betraying footprints or telltale tufts of orange
and black fur.
That information jolted Ranma. She was hunting?
Or running away? The idea of running was unconsciously and violently rejected.
Running was absolutely not an option. Better to die a thousand deaths before
running away. Right now, she was most certainly the hunter. Hunting what?
A formidable hunter in its own right, something that had orange and black
fur...
Fear began to gnaw at the edges of Ranma's
mind as her mind filled her in on the journey's objective. Ridiculous.
Impossible. She was just a child. No matter how skilled, she was just a
child. And she was going to single-handedly kill a... TIGER?!?
Frantically, Ranma tried to change her course.
She ordered her legs to stop moving, to turn around and return to... wherever
she had come from. She didn't have a prayer the way things stood. Maybe
in a few years. But right now, against a giant beast like a tiger, with
long sharp claws and teeth and fangs and...
Ranma renewed her efforts to backpedal. For
kami's sake, it was a CAT! She'd go into conniptions before she even caught
sight of it. Just the knowledge of its presence would make her freeze up,
never mind actually seeing it. The beast would have its huge canines
clamped around her throat in seconds, and she'd be twitching like a helpless
doll the whole time.
The fear was most certainly there, Ranma knew.
It was frantically trying to penetrate her mind in full force, to prompt
her body into motions that would result in escape. Unfortunately, for some
reason, her body was simply choosing to ignore it in full force. And that
was going to prove to be a very bad thing soon, Ranma was positive...
A snarl caught her attention.
Right in the middle of the pseudo-pathway,
her quarry was waiting. Kami-knew-how-many-hundred pounds of solid muscle,
bone and fur, with five out of six ends possessing surgically-sharp cutting
instruments. Two thin slits eyed her with disdain, clearly not viewing
her as anything beyond a possible meal. And not a very large one at that.
For her part, Ranma froze wide-eyed in her
tracks. Her feet felt rooted to the ground, her arms rigid at her side.
Even her mouth didn't budge, caught in a half open gape. As big as she
might have known her prey to be, knowledge failed to do justice to what
was before her. Her previous estimations of who the predator and who the
prey were quickly began to be thrown into question...
Ranma frantically ordered her body to turn
and runrunrun-
In response, her teeth finally clamped down
together, even as she bent her limbs into a ready position. Reaching behind
her back, she took hold of the object strapped to it and brought it forth.
Several yards of cloth fell to the ground, revealing a double-handed sword
that was longer than she was tall. The metal surface looked mildly tarnished,
save for the recently sharpened edge. Shifting her stance slightly to accommodate
the oversized weapon's weight, she levelled the point between hers and
the tiger's eyes.
-runrunrunrunrunrun-
Even as the animal sprang towards her with
deadly intent, Ranma felt herself mirroring the lunge, screaming out a
cry of challenge as her arms strained to bring the blade around in a wide
arc...
#################
Ranma shuddered at the memory of his dream,
absent-mindedly turning a corner and continuing down another street. So
lifelike... as though he had actually been there, hunting through
the jungle, confronting the tiger, swinging the sword...
But he knew it wasn't real. Not by a long
shot. Too many things wrong with it. For starters, he would never have
been using such a weapon. He was capable of using weapons, of course, but
he'd always felt that they were limiting and inflexible for real combat.
Secondly, he had been a young girl in the dream. He hadn't had his encounter
with Jusenkyou until he was sixteen years old.
But most significant of all was the encounter
with the tiger. He hadn't run away. Certainly he had frozen up in fear.
He'd been completely paralysed for a time. But then it had gone away, and
he'd attacked. That wasn't supposed to happen. He should have simply stood
there, possibly losing his mind and fighting like a cat.
He'd had dreams involving the Nekoken before.
They had been very scarce over the past few years, usually only after he'd
gotten into some fix involving it. There had definitely been no Nekoken
in this dream. So where had the dream come from?
A small pebble bounced off Ranma's head, jolting
him from his thoughts. Briefly halting his walk, his turned his head in
the direction it had come to from.
From between two close buildings, a head was
peering out warily. Wreathed in her blue hair, Shampoo's face was immediately
recognizable. Beckoning him with her hand, she withdrew behind the wall
again.
Looking around briefly, Ranma noticed that
the few people on the street were otherwise occupied. Sidestepping, he
was soon behind the wall, next to the Amazon.
"How come you're hiding?" he wanted to know.
Shampoo shook her head. "We train secret,
yes? Not want people see together."
"Gotcha. So what's up?"
Judging from the troubled look on Shampoo's
face, he thought he might have an idea what exactly was up. Her opening
words confirmed it. "Ranma have dream last night?"
"Uh... yeah. You could say that. You know
anything about it?"
"Shampoo talk with Great-grandmother. She
say it okay. Happen because try at same time. Okay if try one at time."
Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."
Shampoo was nodding in agreement.
They stood facing each other in silence for
several moments, ignoring and being ignored by several passerbyers. As
for what was going on in their heads...
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" Ranma finally
exploded.
"WHY YOU LISTEN TO STUPID FATHER?" Shampoo
demanded, just as vehement.
They trailed off into several more moments
of silence before winding up again.
"You tryin' to get yourself killed?!" Ranma
continued. "Goin' after a tiger when you're just a little kid? You must
be crazy!"
"Shampoo not crazy! Shampoo think Ranma
crazy! Listen to stupid father and cover in fish and go down in hole full
of hungry cat!"
"I was TRAINING!!!"
"Shampoo TRAIN!!!"
"A martial artist must be prepared to lay
down his life for the art!"
"Amazon warrior never afraid to die!"
Another period of silence ensued between the
two.
Ranma finally spoke, his voice quieter. "I...
I guess you beat the tiger, huh?"
Shampoo's voice was also more subdued. "Shampoo...
kill tiger. Very bad hurt. Almost die when try go back to village. Take
long time to recover. See Ranma not crazy after learn Nekoken?"
"Well... I was... pretty messed up after the
third time. Those c-c-animals are nasty when they're hungry. But, yeah,
I guess I got over it and got training again."
"Great-grandmother say thoughts go away."
"That's good. It sure was weird, imagining
myself attacking a c-cat like that..."
Shampoo nodded. "Shampoo never afraid of own
curse before."
"No kidding. Anyway, I gotta get back to the
dojo."
"We practice tonight?"
"Yeah. I'm gonna be a little late, but I'll
be there."
"Ranma remember promise to be man when fight?"
He didn't quite remember promising
that, but... "Uh... yeah, okay."
"Is good. See tonight." That said, Shampoo
took off down the alleyway, heading back towards the Nekohanten. For his
part, Ranma simply exited the alleyway, resuming his walk down the street.
"Yum! This sure beats your cooking by a long
shot!"
Akane gritted her teeth and clenched her fists
until her knuckles whitened. "You... you... you just wait until I've had
a little more practice."
"That'll be a few years, for sure."
"That's what you thought about martial arts
too! And I can kick your butt easily!"
"Hold!"
Akane sighed. "What now?"
Nabiki shook her head. "Bad answer. That's
a sore point with Ranma. You don't want to remind him like that."
"I'm not going to be a doormat!"
"Of course not. But you could have phrased
that better. A lot better."
"How?"
"You could have said 'Maybe, but it's just
like martial arts. Practice makes perfect'."
Akane reluctantly nodded her head. "Okay."
Nabiki nodded approvingly. It wasn't easy,
but she had high hopes that this 'training' would pay off in the long run.
She couldn't very well do anything about Ranma and his amazing ability
to say the exact wrong thing at any given time. But she could do plenty
about Akane's amazing ability to misinterpret anything in the worst possible
way. And she was doing that right now.
For the past hour, she had gone through the
bulk of what Ranma was likely to say at any given time, and showed Akane
how to diffuse any possible conflicts before they even started. It was
tiring work, but like most martial artists, Ranma was a predictable person.
And so were his insults.
"Alright," she decided. "Let's say that you've
just gotten out of the movie. And you both feel like a quick bite to eat
before going back home."
"So we go to a restaurant?"
"And Ranma says 'Hey, Ucchan's is just a few
blocks away'."
Akane frowned. "The only reason he'd say that
was if he planned on trying to make me jealous!"
"Ahem."
"I mean... 'I don't want to eat there'."
"So Ranma says 'How come?'"
Akane let out an exasperated breath. "I don't
know!"
Nabiki sighed. "You have to think about these
things, little sister. I would suggest something along the lines of 'We'd
never eat our meal in peace if we ate there. Ukyou would think we're on
a date or something'."
"Why would I say that?"
"One, Ranma will love the idea of no fighting
happening. Two, he'll agree with the idea that the two of you aren't on
a date. Three, there's plenty of other places to eat at near that theatre."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense."
"Of course it does. Now... try this one. Ranma
orders too much food, and realizes that he can't pay for it. So he tries
to borrow some money from you. What do you do?"
"Tell him to find someone else to borrow money
from... I mean, say no?"
"Keep trying, Akane."
"I'm not just going to give him money! I'm
not exactly rich, you know."
"So you lend it to him. And to let him keep
his pride, you say that he can pay you back whenever he's able to. And
that's the end of the problem. You finish your meal and you go home. What's
the last thing you have to do?"
Akane blushed. "I'm not going to kiss
him!"
Nabiki groaned. "You've been watching too
many romance movies, Akane. Any kissing on this outing either means that
things went really well, or that someone is moving too fast. Try
again."
"Uh... Remind him to pay me back?"
"No, you split up, and go home separately,
so no one suspects anything. Do I have to explain why?"
"No, I understand that."
Nabiki stood up wearily. "Alright then. That
should cover all the worst case scenarios. You two should both arrive home
alive."
"I still don't get why I have to do
all this, and he doesn't."
"Once you start, I'll bet that he'll reciprocate
and act just as nice. You just have to set a good example. And once he
gets really interested, I'll be happy to offer a little advice to
him. For a price, of course."
Akane laughed at that. "Of course."