Ranma looked down on the dark floor contemplating what he saw and learned. The life he lived through, the quests he partook, the rivals, everything, was nothing but a lie. He had been living in a dream world for so long; he was nothing but a controlled human being, or partly human being.
There was also more. Ranma was more or less confused at what he learned. He had the consciousness of a girl who could control anything in Crystal Tokyo. It was his cursed form which Beryl and the others needed badly, not exactly him.
Everything was going to hell. He didn't know what to do, or even if he did, he never knew why he had to do. At first, he was grateful for Beryl. She showed him the truth, showed him the lie he had lived through. Although it was for some other greater purpose, he still felt grateful.
The lights finally opened, and someone opened his door. Turning on head towards his visitor, he was a bit surprised to see Rei, not Beryl.
"Had a nice sleep?" she asked, smiling.
"No... I didn't feel sleepy, actually, Rei-san..." Ranma replied, then immediately regretted it when Rei looked like she was going to dive towards him, intent to kill.
"REI-CHAN!" she shouted. Ranma nervously laughed.
"Sorry, Rei-s... chan..." Ranma replied nervously.
Rei sighed. "That's okay... Anyway, it'll be a busy day for you, so get ready."
Project IV: Crystal Tokyo R
Chapter 02: Training
Rei lead Ranma towards the part where Ranma was first plugged. Rei was once again in front of the computer, beginning to type a few things. That's when Ranma noticed something.
"You don't have any plugs, or holes on your body?" he asked. Rei stopped typing for a while, and looked at Ranma, and smiled.
"Yeah. Unlike you, I was never part of Crystal Tokyo," Rei said, then frowned. "My mom was a great scientist, and a great ally for the Queen, but when the Queen tried to banish her son, she dropped her support."
"Her son? You have a brother?" Ranma asked.
"Well, I do have one sister, and sorry. It was my mom's son in law, but he was also my father. His name was Tenchi, and was part alien and part human..." Rei replied.
"What?" Ranma asked, confused. "How can your mother's son-in-law be your father? T-that doesn't sound right..."
"Oh, my mom said it was so easy. First, she took some DNA samples from him, combined with her DNA, and out came me," Rei said proudly.
"What happened to your mom?" Ranma asked, wanting to change the subject.
"Well, after I was born, the Queen demanded that I was to be banished, since I had my father's chaotic traits. My mom did the last thing she could do. She froze me in some warm ice block, and told me to enjoy the Earth when I woke up," Rei said sadly. "It was a very long time ago, before the Pillars were made. I don't know if my father or my mother, or even my sister are alive. They were banished, and I was left behind, somewhere deep in the Earth's core so the Queen wouldn't be able to reach me."
"Wow... And I thought my life was depressing," Ranma replied. Rei's story was sad. She was left behind, for some unknown purpose, losing her only family a very, very, and make that a very long time ago.
"Anyway, forget about me for a while, Ranma, and concentrate on the training today," Rei began.
"Training?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah," Rei replied. "Training. First, let's start with the fun parts..." and she began typing a few things in her computer. After a few seconds, she smiled. "Yes, first, combat training."
"Combat training?" Ranma asked. "But I know how to fight. I don't need to learn that."
"Oh, I know," Rei replied. "I'm just going to teach you the stuff you don't know, like Neko-ken, Complete Anything Goes, and others that you'll find very interesting."
"N-neko-ken?" Ranma began nervously. "I... I don't want that!"
Rei moved towards him, and smiled disarmingly. "Don't worry, Ranma. It's wont be like before," and she made Ranma sit on the couch, and with a quick hand, inserted something at Ranma's head port [instead of calling it hole]. Ranma tried to relax, and watched as Rei went back towards the computer. "Well, here goes nothing!" Rei said wildly, and pushed the execute button. Ranma suddenly closed his eyes as the data was somehow forced a bit on his mind. It only lasted a few seconds, because suddenly his mind opened up on the information, and then, after minutes, Ranma suddenly lunged for air.
"Holishit!" Ranma cursed fast.
"Well, I think my guinea pig likes it," Rei said, smiling. "Like some more."
"Oh yeah..." Ranma replied, nodding.
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Beryl, after eating some breakfast, went towards where Rei was usually at, and saw Ranma in the chair, information being downloaded in his mind. "How is he?" Beryl asked.
"Are you shitting me, Beryl-san?" Rei said seriously. "I never saw anyone download so much information this fast! Normally, it would take 6 hours to get to the level of combat training I'm giving him to complete, but he is doing it in less than an hour!"
"Well, I did mention he learns a lot of things faster than normal," Beryl replied.
"Yes, but not this fast!" Rei began. Both females stared at the computer, and saw the percentage rise quickly to 100. Ranma opened his eyes, and saw both girls staring at him. He smiled.
"I know Amazon Wu," Ranma replied.
"Show me," Beryl said, smiling.
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Ranma looked around him as he saw himself in a large dojo. He had a normal white gi, while Beryl, who was in front of him had a dark red gi.
"This is a sparring program," Beryl replied. "It's one of those variations of the Matrix, and like Crystal Tokyo, it has the same rules, rules like gravity. What you must understand that these rules are no more rules of a computer program. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken. Understand?"
Ranma didn't, but nodded his head.
"Then hit me, if you can," Beryl replied.
Ranma went to a position, and waited until Beryl went to hers. She did so, slowly, and it was a stance he immediately recognized. It was a defensive stance. Ranma waited a minute, then suddenly, Beryl lunged towards him.
Ranma watched, shock as Beryl came towards him unlike he ever saw before. She seem to be moving in slow motion, but it was only a second ago she was 2 meters away from him, and now she was right in front of him. She took out her arm and punched towards him.
Ranma couldn't believe what he saw. For a moment, he saw Beryl adjusting her stance to make it more offensive. And the punch was fast! Amaguriken fast!
Ranma barely dodged the punch, rolled to the ground, and he was about to get farther away from her when he saw her in front of him again, this time with a kick going towards his legs. Ranma bent down, and jumped up high in the air, and Ranma couldn't even catch his breath when Beryl was in front of him in the air, and she launched a multiple punch attack which made his Amaguriken pale in comparison.
Ranma landed with a sickening crunch on the ground, the wooden floor gave away. Beryl made a backflip, and landed neatly on the floor, not even disturbing the air. She looked at Ranma's fallen form, and frowned. "Why didn't you attack?" she asked.
Ranma coughed a bit. "I don't hit girls."
Beryl sighed. "So, your useless against the Senshis, 'cause you can't hit girls, right?"
"I'm sorry," Ranma replied, looking down. "I just wanted to see how good you are..."
Beryl frowned. "No. You underestimated me, and thought I would be an easy person to defeat." Ranma was about to protest, when Beryl shook her head. "NO! I see it in your eyes. You have no desire to fight me seriously, so I had to show you how fruitless the thinking is. Females are just as strong in some points."
Ranma sighed. She was right. "I'm sorry. I'll fight seriously this time..."
"NO! There will be 'this' time, or 'next' time. I want you to fight seriously, always!" Beryl declared. "Many have underestimated our enemies, and died. I don't want anyone to make the same mistake."
"I won't! I'm sorry Beryl-san! I'll fight seriously this time!" Ranma replied. Standing up, he went to a serious stance, and assessed his opponent. She's faster than anyone I saw before. She can punch faster than my Amaguriken. I have to use my Ki to make me faster to par with her...
Ranma and Beryl both charged towards each other, intend of knocking each other out.
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"HEY!" Tama shouted, barging her way in the mess room. "YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS! BERYL IS FIGHTING RANMA!"
That caught the other two girl's attention, and proceeded to follow Tama.
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Ranma couldn't believe it. Every punch, or kick he threw to the woman was either blocked, or countered. She got a lot of good hits on him, yet he could not even hit her back, even if his muscles were Ki augmented to be faster. Ranma feinted with his left arm, hoping to catch her off guard. He did, and Ranma watched Beryl open her arms, trying to block the fake punch he sent, and bent his abdomen a little, powering up a kick, and made his foot stab towards Beryl's exposed abdomen.
Beryl suddenly grabbed Ranma's extended foot with both her open arms. Ranma was so surprised by the way her hand moved. He didn't see it!
Beryl smiled, and twirled her arm around, making Ranma spin in the air, and slamming himself on the floor again. "Good! Very good!" Beryl said proudly. Ranma had a much better performance than the first fight. "Adaptation, and improvisation. But the problem is not your technique..."
Ranma nodded, and then tried to trip Beryl with his left foot. Beryl smiled, and jumped up a bit, and the two began to fight anew.
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Mai, Tama, Rei and Rahme watched the fight with some nibbles of food in their mouth, enjoying the blurry fight scenes of both Ranma and Beryl.
"I never knew Ranma could do that!" Tama watched as Ranma launched mini Ki blasts towards Beryl, who was just dodging them like it was nothing. "I thought it would take a few more training simulations before any free mind could throw blasts."
Rei watched uninterestingly. "Ranma was able to do that before his mind was free."
"You're kidding, right?" Tama asked. Rei and the others shook their head. "THAT'S NOT FAIR! IT TOOK ME MONTHS AFTER BEING FREED TO LEARN! I'M GOING TO SNEAK UP ON HIM UNTIL HE TELLS ME HOW HE DID IT THAT EARLY!"
"He's not an anime hunk, you know," Mai began.
Tama blushes. "I didn't mean it like that!"
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Ranma desperately tried to find a way to at least get a hit to her. She was no longer a female for him, but a very powerful opponent, and he never had this much fun ever since Ryouga showed him the Shi Shi Hodokan. But Beryl was fast, moving from place to place like she was nothing but air. He needed something to distract her enough to finish this quickly. He was beginning to tire.
"Mokou Takabisha!" Ranma shouted, and threw one small but quick Ki blast towards the left side of Beryl, hoping he'd catch her off guard. He did, and Beryl thought that the blast was going to her current position, and moved a bit to the left, but then realized that she'd been duped, and jumped a bit in the air. That was all what Ranma needed.
Jumping up in the air, he smiled. "Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!" and gave out a hundred punches in one second... or was supposed to. Beryl smiled as she lashed her hand out in the last millisecond, and stopped Ranma's first incoming fist. Ranma finally realized the weakness of the Amaguriken. Once the initial punch is blocked, the body will be too unbalanced to follow up, and Ranma could only watch helplessly as Beryl launched a kick towards Ranma's midsection, and the boy flew towards one of the wooden pillars, and crashed into it with such force it broke.
Ranma took his time breathing, and looked at the ground, contemplating the biggest loss he suffered so far. It wasn't until Beryl spoke that his mind stopped sulking.
"How'd I beat you?" Beryl asked.
"What kind of question is that?" Ranma asked. "You were like a damn superhuman! You were faster and stronger than I was!"
Beryl smiled. "You think that my being stronger, or faster, has anything to do with my muscles in this place?" Ranma shook his head. What was she talking about? "Is that air your breathing right now?"
"What?" Ranma asked, and looked at Beryl who shrugged her shoulders.
"Anyway, stand up Ranma. We are going at it again," she announced.
Ranma stood up, and went to a position. What did she mean that she isn't using her muscles? And about the air?
Ranma was a bit distracted to start, so Beryl took initiative again, and launched herself towards Ranma. Unleashing a viscous punch towards his head, Ranma reacted instinctually, bending his back a bit, and countered with a backhand punch towards Beryl's exposed back. Beryl rolled front-wards, dodging the slap, and countered with her own attack, and did a quick three hit punch combo which took Ranma by surprise. The first two hit his chest, and the third was about to hit his head, when Beryl stopped her hand. Ranma was so surprised, that he backed away at once.
"What are you waiting for? You're faster than this," Beryl began. "Don't think you are. Know you are." And she began to attack, and she pleasantly found herself surprised that Ranma began to par with her speed. He moved faster than anything she has seen him today, but it wasn't fast enough. With fists flying, she blocked the incoming chop, and bent her arm a bit, hoping to lock him into submission, but Ranma recovered, and dragged his other hand to support his other arm, and both his and Beryl's arms were locked together. "Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Beryl barked.
Ranma grit his teeth. He could feel his body slowly tiring, but he ignored it. My muscles aren't real! Nothing is real! Nothing is! And he punched towards Beryl at faster speeds, that the woman found herself on the defensive this time.
That is it, Ranma! Free your mind from these petty rules of a computer! Beryl thought.
Ranma seem to faze out as he continued to make well placed punches, driving Beryl back. Ranma's hand blurred in a way that Beryl looked shock at as she tried to block his hands, but no matter how faster or harder she tried. She could only watch in shock as Ranma's hand finally got through her defenses, and a fist went travelling towards her face, stopping with only a few inches.
Ranma took deep breaths, calming himself down. He never felt so powerful, never felt so... alive. "I... I think I know what you are trying to do," Ranma began.
"I'm trying to free your mind, Ranma," Beryl replied. "At the time you trained yourself to throw a Ki blast, and learned how to harness Ki, what were your emotions?"
"Huh?" Ranma was confused, and put his finger in his chin to think about it. "Actually, I was feeling a bit depressed, but then, I resolved myself to make it through. I used my confidence as a medium."
"Exactly," Beryl said. Looking up, he talked towards the roof. "Rei, load the jump program."
Ranma found himself in the sky, going downwards towards a roof of a high building. It was instant. One second he was in a dojo, next he was in the rooftops.
"You have to let it all go, Ranma," Beryl began. "Fear, doubt and disbelief. Like when you try to channel Ki, free your mind." And with that, Beryl took a few steps, jumped upwards, very high in the air, higher than Ranma could ever hope to achieve, and traveled along a very wide distance, towards another building. Ranma could only watched, scrubbing his eyes a bit.
"Whoa..." Ranma looked.
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"You think he can be able to do it?" Tama asked.
"Who knows," Mai replied.
"Come on, Ranma-dono!" Rei said excitedly.
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Ranma scrubbed his hands together. "Okay, Ranma! Free your mind!" he repeated, and repeated again. "Free your mind..." and he took a dashing step, ran towards the edge, and jumped up high in the air...
Beryl watched with amazement as the boy made it with his first jump. Never, in history has a freed mind was able to do that, and she watched with amazement as Ranma landed neatly in front of her, sweating bullets, but his eyes resolute.
"H-how'd I do?" Ranma asked, looking up to her.
"You did the impossible, Ranma," Beryl replied in truth.
Ranma beamed.
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"I... I... I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!" Tama shouted, wringing her hair out. "HE DOES A KI BLAST, HE MAKES HIS FIRST JUMP, AND HE BEATS BERYL FIRST DAY OF THE TRAINING!"
"Well, Beryl did have high hopes for him," Rei said neutrally.
"I thought you were the one admiring your 'Ranma-dono', Rei," Mai said, smiling.
"Whatever," Rei said coldly. Mai giggled, which was ignored by the blue hair wonder, and before Mai could tease the girl more, Rei told them, "Hey, I'm disconnecting them already."
Mai took care of Beryl's port connection, while Tama took out Ranma.
Ranma opened his eyes, and saw the ceiling of the ship. He stood up slowly, and then suddenly clutched his chest as he felt pain searing through him. "What... the hell?" looking at Beryl, he asked. "I think I feel sore all over... from the sparring?" Beryl nodded. "But I thought it wasn't real."
"Your mind makes it real," Beryl replied. "What the mind conceives body achieves. Your mind conceived a beating when we sparred, and your body achieved it."
Ranma took some time to understand what she said. "So, if you die in Crystal Tokyo, you die for real?"
"The body can't live without the mind," Beryl replied.
Ranma nodded painfully, and was about to stand up when he felt something push him down. Ranma's eyes widened as he saw Tama cradle on top of him, pinning him down. "T-Tama, what are you doing?"
"ALRIGHT! YOU BETTER TELL ME HOW YOU DID ALL THAT!" Tama demanded, pushing her body nearer to Ranma. The boy suddenly became uncomfortable, and tried to move away, but his body was still in pain. "TELL ME!"
"Tama," Mai began, shaking her head. "You do that, Ranma will begin to like you."
"Really?!" Tama blushed. "Well, it was a long time since I had a male crewmember."
Ranma suddenly began to look nervous as the other girls, save Beryl were giving him the looks. It was the look of a girl licking her chops, and imagining herself naked with him. Ranma shivered.
"Uh, that is really nice, Tama, but not that I hate you girls, but I like other types of girls," Ranma said nervously.
"Then what girls do you like?" Beryl asked, smiling.
"Uh, blondes!" Ranma replied, noticing no one in the crew were blonde.
"Uh, I'm blonde!" Tama said desperately.
"No your not," Rei said neutrally. "You're a carrot top."
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Tama shouted.
Ranma watched the girls, save for Beryl fighting.
"I will never understand girls," he said dejectedly.
To Be Continued:
NEXT: Ranma finally advances on his training, able to manipulate Ki [an abbreviation of Kaotic Energy], and finally meets the famous Oracle!
Author's Notes: Yes, it might seem it's a re-written Matrix story, but as you progress, you'll see it isn't. Just be patient. Ja ne!