Dreams of Destiny
Chapter 7
Ranma strolled along the fencetop whistling tunelessly. He was very happy to see Mr. Hino again. He had many happy memories of the short time he had lived at the shrine with him and Auntie Haruka. Ranma had been saddened by the news of her death, but figured he couldn't feel any worse about it, since his leaving was Oyaji's fault. As Ranma vaulted over a cross street to the fence on the other side, he considered what had happened today. Finding out that curing the curse was impossible had been a sever blow, but knowing that some kind of control over it was possible made him happier about it.
What really tugged at Ranma's mind was Mr. Hino's mention of how the curse had affected his ki. It had seemed as if it was stronger. Maybe it has to do with that theory from physics Ami talked about last night, Ranma thought. Something about conserving mass. Maybe my girl-side is turned into energy when I'm a guy and I can now use that energy. I guess the same thing would happen to my guy side when I'm a girl. Ranma hopped down from the fence as he approached the park he had come to earlier this morning. Ami had wanted him to stay and talk to her friends, but Ranma had begged off, claiming the need to get some more training in. While he did want to train, Ranma needed the privacy to think a few things over.
That monster had scared him, as much as it pained him to admit it. Ranma had never really fought anything that he couldn't beat with his physical skills. Ami had told him that the daimon he had faced was unusual, though, that she'd never heard of a monster made completely of water before. If they're normally more solid, then I can fight them, Ranma thought. But I gotta get tougher and faster. I wonder how I can do that? Ranma found a shady tree to sit under as he contemplated that question. All his life, Ranma's training had been in the hands of others, ultimately the styles and techniques he had learned had been Oyaji's decisions. Now, Ranma had to figure out techniques of his own to train himself.
Too bad I don't know where that guy from junior high is, Ranma mused, struggling to recall his old friend's name and failing. He was always strong and tough, even if he was always angry and had the directional abilities of a blind lemming. Ranma considered finding someone like that to spar with, but Juuban was a relatively peaceful ward, aside from the monster attacks. The only dojos he'd heard about had been soft styles like Tai Chi and Akido. While those were good styles and useful, Ranma figured he already knew more than the dojo masters did. He'd studied those arts in China and Korea a couple of years ago. What he needed were body hardening and strength and speed training.
Screams on the other side of the jogging track drew Ranma's attention. Ranma looked up in time to see people running in every direction and another of those goofy woman-monsters like the one that had attacked him that morning. Ranma hopped to his feet and took off towards the monster at a run. He crossed the intervening distance in a matter of seconds and jumped into the daimon with a drop kick. The blow caught the daimon by surprise and it dropped its victim, rolling down the gentle incline towards the small pond in the center of the park. Ranma kippuped back to his feet and turned to the young man that the daimon had dropped and shouted, "Get out of here before that thing gets back up."
The young man nodded and wasted no time scrambling to his feet and running like hell. Ranma turned back to the pond as the daimon was slowly getting back to her feet, shaking her head to clear it. It saw its target fleeing and made a move to catch it, but Ranma launched himself at it again, throwing a quick series of punches to its chest before dropping under its return swing with a leg sweep, tripping it yet again. This time, it rose with a growl and a slot in its midsection opened up. "Printer!" it shouted as sheets of paper launched from the slot at Ranma. He dodged around the best he could, but several of them still nicked him, causing superficial cuts on his arms and legs.
"Damn, and this was one of my nicer outfits too, " Ranma grumbled as he dove out of the way of another round of paper flechettes. He winced as some of the paper sliced through a tree trunk, sending the tree crashing down. Better not let that thing get a good hit in, Ranma thought as he continued to run circles around the daimon. "You know, you're pretty weak compared to that one that showed up this morning," Ranma said conversationally as he danced around the missiles. "What's wrong, quality control not doing its job? How'd someone like you get set loose? Were they desperate?"
The daimon screamed in rage as Ranma taunted her abilities and sent more paper at him. The daimon was getting frustrate with her lack of progress against this pathetic human. How was he able to avoid her memo attack? Well, he would pay for interfering with her mission and letting her target get away. She halted her attack for a moment, filling her queue with paper as she prepared for her ultimate attack.
As soon as the daimon stopped throwing the paper around, Ranma knew that trouble was brewing, but a glimmer of an idea popped into his head and he rushed the daimon, body-checking her. Unprepared for such a direct assault, the daimon was sent flying into the pond. She sank beneath the surface, leaving Ranma to wonder if he'd finished it off, but then she broke the surface with a scream and jumped towards Ranma.
"Office Blizzard!" she shouted, throwing its hands up for dramatic effect. When nothing happened, the daimon sweatdropped and quickly reached down to pull open a tray on her side. She looked down at it and gasped. That pathetic human had gotten all her paper wet and jammed her up! How dare he! Ranma watched the daimon try to scoop a gooey mass out of the tray and was glad he remembered how gelatinous paper got when it got drenched.
"What's wrong," Ranma said with a cocky smile on his face. "Something gumming up the works?" The daimon screamed at him again and abandoned her attempts to clean out the tray to charge at him swinging wildly with her fists. "Whoops, too slow," Ranma said as he ducked under her fists. "Not even close that time."
Ranma continued to dance around the daimon's clumsy attacks, trying to keep from busting a gut. This was the same kind of creature that had beaten him this morning? Impossible. Ranma's attention was so caught up in avoiding the daimon, that he failed to notice a green blur as it tackled him and knocked him out of the way, followed by a shout of "Rainbow Moon Heartache!" There was a flash of light and Ranma could see a giant pink heart smack into the daimon, like what had happened this morning. He struggled against whatever was holding him down and it released him as the daimon screamed, "Lovely!" and turned into a computer printer.
"Get offa me," Ranma growled and the pressure on him suddenly released. He found himself staring up at a very attractive brunette in a stylized green and pink sailor fuku with a very short skirt. "Nice underpants," Ranma commented, eliciting an embarrassed glare as the girl moved away from Ranma and ran off. Ranma got to his feet and saw that whoever had thrown that big attack was long gone. "Wonder if that was one of those Sailor Senshi," he mused. "I bet it's embarrassing to run around in such a short skirt. I wonder why they butted in, it's not like I needed the help."
"As good as you are," came a voice behind him, causing Ranma to whirl around and see another girl in the same kind of uniform. Only this time it was the blonde with the page-bot cut he'd seen that morning. "You're still no match for a daimon. Leave fighting them to us, or you'll wind up getting seriously hurt."
"Is that a threat," Ranma blustered.
"Just a little free advice," the blonde said and jumped up into the trees, disappearing among them in seconds.
"Damn," Ranma said flatly. "She's right. Right now, I can't do much against those things. I just got lucky with this one. But I'll train and I'll get good enough to beat these things on my own, without help from the cheerleaders. Ranma Saotome is the best and he never loses!"
* * *
"I can't believe how rude he was," Makoto complained as she detransformed and joined the others in front of the park bench they sat on. Usagi and Minako had just gotten to the shrine when the Mercury computer had announced its detection of a daimon at the park. They'd transformed and arrived to find Ranma dancing around the daimon, his clothes in tatters and slightly cut up. Jupiter had tackled Ranma out of the way, so Sailor moon could destroy the daimon and she'd expected to be thanked, not insulted.
"He's pretty sensitive right now, Mako-chan," Ami said as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder. Makoto put her hand over Ami's and squeezed gently, letting her know that she wasn't really angry. "He's trained his whole life to fight and take care of himself, so he's upset that he can't fight the daimons as well as we can. He's got his pride, Mako-chan."
"I know, Ami-chan," Makoto replied with a sigh. "I know what it's like to lose both your parents so suddenly and have to define yourself by something you do well. That's why I got in so many fights at other schools before I came to Juuban, but that doesn't make him any easier to deal with."
"I think he may just resent the Sailor Senshi, Mako-chan," Ami replied. "We've been saving him at a time when his confidence is at an all time low. It must look to him like there's nothing he can do. Which isn't true. I've never seen a normal person stand up to a daimon like that before."
"That's because you've never seen a real martial artist before," Minako interjected. "I visited some distant relations in the Nerima district last summer and got a real eyeful. They have as much property damage there as we do and no monster attacks. It all comes from martial artists fighting. They're like a dime a quart over there."
"That's a 'dime a dozen', Minako-chan," Ami said with a sigh.
"Anyway," Minako continued, oblivious to the correction, "Some of those martial artists are pretty powerful and they could probably give us a real run for our money. We've got power in our Senshi forms, but no real style or technique. It's kinda like cutting something or smashing it. We smash, they cut."
All the girls looked at Minako in surprise. They hadn't expected such a coherent line of reasoning to come from the usually airheaded blonde. Finally, Rei said, "All right, who are you and what have you done with Minako-chan?"
"What? I'm not as smart as I look," Minako said indignantly.
Everyone groaned again, all thoughts of Minako having been replaced by someone who looked the same, but was much more intelligent ceased. "I think you mean that you're not as stupid as you look, don't you Minako- chan," Usagi asked.
"Isn't that what I said," Minako asked, her eyes shining with blissful ignorance.
A chorus of groans was all that answered her.
* * *
Dr. Mizuno sighed in relief when she heard Ranma announce his arrival. She'd heard what had happened at school and she was glad it hadn't been more serious than it had been. Several times in the past, the monster attacks had proven lethal. She came out of the kitchen, and gasped in shock as she took in Ranma's tattered appearance.
"What happened," Dr. Mizuno said as she steered him into the living room and sat him down.
"Nothing big," Ranma replied non-chalantly, "just a few dozen paper cuts. I ran into one of them monsters in the park this afternoon and it cut me up a bit."
"You weren't in danger like this morning," Dr. Mizuno asked, her voice tinged with worry as she examined the cuts.
"Nah, this one was pretty much a push over," Ranma replied, trying not to wince as Dr. Mizuno's fingers probed one of the deeper gashes. "The one this morning was a lot tougher. I guess you heard about that one, huh?"
"They called me at work to let me know," Dr. Mizuno replied. "It's pretty routine these days to get a call from the school informing you that there was an attack, but every parent is worried when they get a call telling them that their child is the victim."
"I'm sorry ta worry you," Ranma said sincerely. "I just couldn't let Mr. Egawa get attacked by that monster. Besides, I thought I could take it. I guess I was wrong." Ranma was unable to keep a tinge of bitterness out of his voice at that.
"Ranma," Dr. Mizuno said as she moved to sit next to him, "I've never thought highly of your father. I tried not to make a secret of that when you came here, but he did one or two things in his life which earned him some respect. One of those was fathering you. The other was to seal away a set of techniques. Techniques that he felt were too powerful for him to use. He told me that they drew dangerously on his life force, his ki. He gave them to me for safe keeping and told me not to let anyone unseal them unless the need was great. I think you have a greater need and a greater ability than your father, so I'm going to trust you with them, Ranma, because I think you'll be responsible with them."
Dr. Mizuno got up and moved over to the small shrine in the corner of the room that contained various family members' photos and slid her hand along the bas until there was an audible click and the front panel now showed a small gap. She reached a finger in and slid the panel out of the way an pulled out a cloth wrapped bundle. Closing the hidden panel back up, Dr. Mizuno crossed the room and set the bundle on the table in front of Ranma.
"Ranma," she began, "I want you to promise me that you'll use these to help people. These are a great responsibility and could easily be used to make you profit at the expense of others. Do you promise?"
"Yes, Auntie, I promise," Ranma said with all the solemnity he could muster. Inwardly he was bursting with excitement. I never thought Oyaji would be smart enough to create his own techniques, Ranma thought, much less seal them away. He was never afraid of anything dangerous when I knew him, so these techniques must be really powerful. Ranma carefully opened the bundle and pulled out two tightly wound scrolls, sealed with red wax and bearing Genma Saotome's hanko stamp. Ranma tentatively cracked the seal on the first one and unrolled the scroll. There, in his father's shaky handwriting were the training methods necessary to master a set of techniques. Ranma's eyes skimmed the scroll with enthusiasm, although his face suddenly darkened.
"What's wrong, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno asked.
"I can't use these," Ranma said dispiritedly.
"Why not," Dr. Mizuno asked curiously.
"Because these built on other ki techniques that Oyaji knew," Ranma replied. "Ones he probably would have taught me in a few years. Without him around, it may take years to learn these. I'll have to figure out the basic techniques myself. Unless the teacher that Mr. Hino finds for me can help with them."
"Mr. Hino offered to find you a teacher," Dr. Mizuno asked, a little surprised. "That's wonderful, Ranma. I seem to remember that he knew some powerful martial artists when he was younger. Of course, he could have just been making up a story, but this could be very good for you."
"I just hope that whoever he finds to help is a decent martial artist," Ranma said. "I really need someone to practice with. I mean you can do kata all you want, but you only improve by fighting someone else."
"What about a dojo in the area," Dr. Mizuno asked.
"Nah," Ranma replied. "I checked that out earlier. None of the dojos in the area have got anyone that can give me much of a challenge. I need someone as good as or better than me to fight against or I'll never get better."
"This may be an awkward question, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno aid hesitantly, "but what do you want to do with your life? Do you want to continue in martial arts and maybe teach, or is there something else you'd like to try?"
"Dunno," Ranma said, his lips pursed in thought. "All I've ever really known is martial arts, but I don't know how good of a teacher I'd make. I mean, all I have to go by are Oyaji's whacked out training ideas to go by. I don't know how to teach someone without putting them through things that could kill 'em."
"Maybe if you find someone more reasonable to train with," Dr Mizuno began, "you'll be able to learn how to teach the skills without risking serious injuries to your students."
"Maybe," Ranma admitted grudgingly. "And maybe not. I just hope I don't wind up with some old guy that'd blow away with the first stiff breeze."
"I have a feeling that won't be a problem, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno said, standing up. "Now why don't you put those scrolls somewhere safe and come help me with dinner?" Ranma smiled at his aunt and wrapped the scrolls back up, before running up the stairs to his room.
* * *
Grandfather Hino sat at his writing desk and considered the sheet of paper in front of him. He knew Ranma was special and a certain old friend of his was sure to be able to give him some help, or at least send an advanced student to help. He picked up his brush, dipping it carefully in the ink before he started writing:
Dear Master Juubei….
Chapter 7
Ranma strolled along the fencetop whistling tunelessly. He was very happy to see Mr. Hino again. He had many happy memories of the short time he had lived at the shrine with him and Auntie Haruka. Ranma had been saddened by the news of her death, but figured he couldn't feel any worse about it, since his leaving was Oyaji's fault. As Ranma vaulted over a cross street to the fence on the other side, he considered what had happened today. Finding out that curing the curse was impossible had been a sever blow, but knowing that some kind of control over it was possible made him happier about it.
What really tugged at Ranma's mind was Mr. Hino's mention of how the curse had affected his ki. It had seemed as if it was stronger. Maybe it has to do with that theory from physics Ami talked about last night, Ranma thought. Something about conserving mass. Maybe my girl-side is turned into energy when I'm a guy and I can now use that energy. I guess the same thing would happen to my guy side when I'm a girl. Ranma hopped down from the fence as he approached the park he had come to earlier this morning. Ami had wanted him to stay and talk to her friends, but Ranma had begged off, claiming the need to get some more training in. While he did want to train, Ranma needed the privacy to think a few things over.
That monster had scared him, as much as it pained him to admit it. Ranma had never really fought anything that he couldn't beat with his physical skills. Ami had told him that the daimon he had faced was unusual, though, that she'd never heard of a monster made completely of water before. If they're normally more solid, then I can fight them, Ranma thought. But I gotta get tougher and faster. I wonder how I can do that? Ranma found a shady tree to sit under as he contemplated that question. All his life, Ranma's training had been in the hands of others, ultimately the styles and techniques he had learned had been Oyaji's decisions. Now, Ranma had to figure out techniques of his own to train himself.
Too bad I don't know where that guy from junior high is, Ranma mused, struggling to recall his old friend's name and failing. He was always strong and tough, even if he was always angry and had the directional abilities of a blind lemming. Ranma considered finding someone like that to spar with, but Juuban was a relatively peaceful ward, aside from the monster attacks. The only dojos he'd heard about had been soft styles like Tai Chi and Akido. While those were good styles and useful, Ranma figured he already knew more than the dojo masters did. He'd studied those arts in China and Korea a couple of years ago. What he needed were body hardening and strength and speed training.
Screams on the other side of the jogging track drew Ranma's attention. Ranma looked up in time to see people running in every direction and another of those goofy woman-monsters like the one that had attacked him that morning. Ranma hopped to his feet and took off towards the monster at a run. He crossed the intervening distance in a matter of seconds and jumped into the daimon with a drop kick. The blow caught the daimon by surprise and it dropped its victim, rolling down the gentle incline towards the small pond in the center of the park. Ranma kippuped back to his feet and turned to the young man that the daimon had dropped and shouted, "Get out of here before that thing gets back up."
The young man nodded and wasted no time scrambling to his feet and running like hell. Ranma turned back to the pond as the daimon was slowly getting back to her feet, shaking her head to clear it. It saw its target fleeing and made a move to catch it, but Ranma launched himself at it again, throwing a quick series of punches to its chest before dropping under its return swing with a leg sweep, tripping it yet again. This time, it rose with a growl and a slot in its midsection opened up. "Printer!" it shouted as sheets of paper launched from the slot at Ranma. He dodged around the best he could, but several of them still nicked him, causing superficial cuts on his arms and legs.
"Damn, and this was one of my nicer outfits too, " Ranma grumbled as he dove out of the way of another round of paper flechettes. He winced as some of the paper sliced through a tree trunk, sending the tree crashing down. Better not let that thing get a good hit in, Ranma thought as he continued to run circles around the daimon. "You know, you're pretty weak compared to that one that showed up this morning," Ranma said conversationally as he danced around the missiles. "What's wrong, quality control not doing its job? How'd someone like you get set loose? Were they desperate?"
The daimon screamed in rage as Ranma taunted her abilities and sent more paper at him. The daimon was getting frustrate with her lack of progress against this pathetic human. How was he able to avoid her memo attack? Well, he would pay for interfering with her mission and letting her target get away. She halted her attack for a moment, filling her queue with paper as she prepared for her ultimate attack.
As soon as the daimon stopped throwing the paper around, Ranma knew that trouble was brewing, but a glimmer of an idea popped into his head and he rushed the daimon, body-checking her. Unprepared for such a direct assault, the daimon was sent flying into the pond. She sank beneath the surface, leaving Ranma to wonder if he'd finished it off, but then she broke the surface with a scream and jumped towards Ranma.
"Office Blizzard!" she shouted, throwing its hands up for dramatic effect. When nothing happened, the daimon sweatdropped and quickly reached down to pull open a tray on her side. She looked down at it and gasped. That pathetic human had gotten all her paper wet and jammed her up! How dare he! Ranma watched the daimon try to scoop a gooey mass out of the tray and was glad he remembered how gelatinous paper got when it got drenched.
"What's wrong," Ranma said with a cocky smile on his face. "Something gumming up the works?" The daimon screamed at him again and abandoned her attempts to clean out the tray to charge at him swinging wildly with her fists. "Whoops, too slow," Ranma said as he ducked under her fists. "Not even close that time."
Ranma continued to dance around the daimon's clumsy attacks, trying to keep from busting a gut. This was the same kind of creature that had beaten him this morning? Impossible. Ranma's attention was so caught up in avoiding the daimon, that he failed to notice a green blur as it tackled him and knocked him out of the way, followed by a shout of "Rainbow Moon Heartache!" There was a flash of light and Ranma could see a giant pink heart smack into the daimon, like what had happened this morning. He struggled against whatever was holding him down and it released him as the daimon screamed, "Lovely!" and turned into a computer printer.
"Get offa me," Ranma growled and the pressure on him suddenly released. He found himself staring up at a very attractive brunette in a stylized green and pink sailor fuku with a very short skirt. "Nice underpants," Ranma commented, eliciting an embarrassed glare as the girl moved away from Ranma and ran off. Ranma got to his feet and saw that whoever had thrown that big attack was long gone. "Wonder if that was one of those Sailor Senshi," he mused. "I bet it's embarrassing to run around in such a short skirt. I wonder why they butted in, it's not like I needed the help."
"As good as you are," came a voice behind him, causing Ranma to whirl around and see another girl in the same kind of uniform. Only this time it was the blonde with the page-bot cut he'd seen that morning. "You're still no match for a daimon. Leave fighting them to us, or you'll wind up getting seriously hurt."
"Is that a threat," Ranma blustered.
"Just a little free advice," the blonde said and jumped up into the trees, disappearing among them in seconds.
"Damn," Ranma said flatly. "She's right. Right now, I can't do much against those things. I just got lucky with this one. But I'll train and I'll get good enough to beat these things on my own, without help from the cheerleaders. Ranma Saotome is the best and he never loses!"
* * *
"I can't believe how rude he was," Makoto complained as she detransformed and joined the others in front of the park bench they sat on. Usagi and Minako had just gotten to the shrine when the Mercury computer had announced its detection of a daimon at the park. They'd transformed and arrived to find Ranma dancing around the daimon, his clothes in tatters and slightly cut up. Jupiter had tackled Ranma out of the way, so Sailor moon could destroy the daimon and she'd expected to be thanked, not insulted.
"He's pretty sensitive right now, Mako-chan," Ami said as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder. Makoto put her hand over Ami's and squeezed gently, letting her know that she wasn't really angry. "He's trained his whole life to fight and take care of himself, so he's upset that he can't fight the daimons as well as we can. He's got his pride, Mako-chan."
"I know, Ami-chan," Makoto replied with a sigh. "I know what it's like to lose both your parents so suddenly and have to define yourself by something you do well. That's why I got in so many fights at other schools before I came to Juuban, but that doesn't make him any easier to deal with."
"I think he may just resent the Sailor Senshi, Mako-chan," Ami replied. "We've been saving him at a time when his confidence is at an all time low. It must look to him like there's nothing he can do. Which isn't true. I've never seen a normal person stand up to a daimon like that before."
"That's because you've never seen a real martial artist before," Minako interjected. "I visited some distant relations in the Nerima district last summer and got a real eyeful. They have as much property damage there as we do and no monster attacks. It all comes from martial artists fighting. They're like a dime a quart over there."
"That's a 'dime a dozen', Minako-chan," Ami said with a sigh.
"Anyway," Minako continued, oblivious to the correction, "Some of those martial artists are pretty powerful and they could probably give us a real run for our money. We've got power in our Senshi forms, but no real style or technique. It's kinda like cutting something or smashing it. We smash, they cut."
All the girls looked at Minako in surprise. They hadn't expected such a coherent line of reasoning to come from the usually airheaded blonde. Finally, Rei said, "All right, who are you and what have you done with Minako-chan?"
"What? I'm not as smart as I look," Minako said indignantly.
Everyone groaned again, all thoughts of Minako having been replaced by someone who looked the same, but was much more intelligent ceased. "I think you mean that you're not as stupid as you look, don't you Minako- chan," Usagi asked.
"Isn't that what I said," Minako asked, her eyes shining with blissful ignorance.
A chorus of groans was all that answered her.
* * *
Dr. Mizuno sighed in relief when she heard Ranma announce his arrival. She'd heard what had happened at school and she was glad it hadn't been more serious than it had been. Several times in the past, the monster attacks had proven lethal. She came out of the kitchen, and gasped in shock as she took in Ranma's tattered appearance.
"What happened," Dr. Mizuno said as she steered him into the living room and sat him down.
"Nothing big," Ranma replied non-chalantly, "just a few dozen paper cuts. I ran into one of them monsters in the park this afternoon and it cut me up a bit."
"You weren't in danger like this morning," Dr. Mizuno asked, her voice tinged with worry as she examined the cuts.
"Nah, this one was pretty much a push over," Ranma replied, trying not to wince as Dr. Mizuno's fingers probed one of the deeper gashes. "The one this morning was a lot tougher. I guess you heard about that one, huh?"
"They called me at work to let me know," Dr. Mizuno replied. "It's pretty routine these days to get a call from the school informing you that there was an attack, but every parent is worried when they get a call telling them that their child is the victim."
"I'm sorry ta worry you," Ranma said sincerely. "I just couldn't let Mr. Egawa get attacked by that monster. Besides, I thought I could take it. I guess I was wrong." Ranma was unable to keep a tinge of bitterness out of his voice at that.
"Ranma," Dr. Mizuno said as she moved to sit next to him, "I've never thought highly of your father. I tried not to make a secret of that when you came here, but he did one or two things in his life which earned him some respect. One of those was fathering you. The other was to seal away a set of techniques. Techniques that he felt were too powerful for him to use. He told me that they drew dangerously on his life force, his ki. He gave them to me for safe keeping and told me not to let anyone unseal them unless the need was great. I think you have a greater need and a greater ability than your father, so I'm going to trust you with them, Ranma, because I think you'll be responsible with them."
Dr. Mizuno got up and moved over to the small shrine in the corner of the room that contained various family members' photos and slid her hand along the bas until there was an audible click and the front panel now showed a small gap. She reached a finger in and slid the panel out of the way an pulled out a cloth wrapped bundle. Closing the hidden panel back up, Dr. Mizuno crossed the room and set the bundle on the table in front of Ranma.
"Ranma," she began, "I want you to promise me that you'll use these to help people. These are a great responsibility and could easily be used to make you profit at the expense of others. Do you promise?"
"Yes, Auntie, I promise," Ranma said with all the solemnity he could muster. Inwardly he was bursting with excitement. I never thought Oyaji would be smart enough to create his own techniques, Ranma thought, much less seal them away. He was never afraid of anything dangerous when I knew him, so these techniques must be really powerful. Ranma carefully opened the bundle and pulled out two tightly wound scrolls, sealed with red wax and bearing Genma Saotome's hanko stamp. Ranma tentatively cracked the seal on the first one and unrolled the scroll. There, in his father's shaky handwriting were the training methods necessary to master a set of techniques. Ranma's eyes skimmed the scroll with enthusiasm, although his face suddenly darkened.
"What's wrong, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno asked.
"I can't use these," Ranma said dispiritedly.
"Why not," Dr. Mizuno asked curiously.
"Because these built on other ki techniques that Oyaji knew," Ranma replied. "Ones he probably would have taught me in a few years. Without him around, it may take years to learn these. I'll have to figure out the basic techniques myself. Unless the teacher that Mr. Hino finds for me can help with them."
"Mr. Hino offered to find you a teacher," Dr. Mizuno asked, a little surprised. "That's wonderful, Ranma. I seem to remember that he knew some powerful martial artists when he was younger. Of course, he could have just been making up a story, but this could be very good for you."
"I just hope that whoever he finds to help is a decent martial artist," Ranma said. "I really need someone to practice with. I mean you can do kata all you want, but you only improve by fighting someone else."
"What about a dojo in the area," Dr. Mizuno asked.
"Nah," Ranma replied. "I checked that out earlier. None of the dojos in the area have got anyone that can give me much of a challenge. I need someone as good as or better than me to fight against or I'll never get better."
"This may be an awkward question, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno aid hesitantly, "but what do you want to do with your life? Do you want to continue in martial arts and maybe teach, or is there something else you'd like to try?"
"Dunno," Ranma said, his lips pursed in thought. "All I've ever really known is martial arts, but I don't know how good of a teacher I'd make. I mean, all I have to go by are Oyaji's whacked out training ideas to go by. I don't know how to teach someone without putting them through things that could kill 'em."
"Maybe if you find someone more reasonable to train with," Dr Mizuno began, "you'll be able to learn how to teach the skills without risking serious injuries to your students."
"Maybe," Ranma admitted grudgingly. "And maybe not. I just hope I don't wind up with some old guy that'd blow away with the first stiff breeze."
"I have a feeling that won't be a problem, Ranma," Dr. Mizuno said, standing up. "Now why don't you put those scrolls somewhere safe and come help me with dinner?" Ranma smiled at his aunt and wrapped the scrolls back up, before running up the stairs to his room.
* * *
Grandfather Hino sat at his writing desk and considered the sheet of paper in front of him. He knew Ranma was special and a certain old friend of his was sure to be able to give him some help, or at least send an advanced student to help. He picked up his brush, dipping it carefully in the ink before he started writing:
Dear Master Juubei….