Chapter 1 –In the beginning…

Standing there on a pole looking at his son on a different pole, Genma was proud of his son. He was also concerned. The boy was getting good. Almost too good. They had been fighting above the springs for a bit now, and Ranma and was holding his own. He had even anticipated some of his moves correctly. Quite the feat against a master of the Anything Goes Ryu. Ranma had endured all his training and conditioning, and come out the other side better. He had absorbed nearly all Genma had to teach him like a sponge; learning the moves and techniques and incorporating them into his art better then almost any master Genma had seen. He had even seen him use a move flawlessly in this fight that he had just shown the boy two days ago. That was the problem in a nutshell, really. Ranma had learnt from him almost too well; Genma was running out of things he could teach Ranma, let-alone beat him in a fight with, and every day Ranma got better even if he didn't teach him anything. He hadn't lost a straight out fight yet, but the time wasn't far off. Maybe it was time to finish up their training journey and secure his… err their future. Yes, that sounded like a good plan. He would teach to boy a quick lesson here and then they would head off to Tendo's place.

"Hey Old man, getting too sore? We should stop; I wouldn't want to hurt someone so old as you! You might get crippled!" That was another thing Ranma had learnt almost to well; how to insult your opponents. Well, he would just have to show the boy who was the better.

"Respect your elder's boy!" Genma said as he leapt across the springs at his son.

Ranma put his cockiest grin on and jumped up to meet his father in the air. Mid-air combat was the specialty of the Saotome Ryu, and the part Ranma loved the best. It was as close to flying as he could come, and he sought every exhilarating second of it.

While in the air soaring towards his father, he analyzed his father's position. Strong balance, left forward, with what appeared to be a slight favoring of his right wrist. Ranma remember he had gotten a lucky hit there before. Ranma knew it was a feint meant to draw him in, that was a favorite trick of his fathers. Pops was getting to predictable. The rest of his fathers' stance seemed solid and with his considerable bulk, he would have leverage in any sort of air-based grapple. Better to keep the fight away from that.

Lashing out with his foot, Ranma attacked first. Genma dodged and countered with his 'injured' right hand. Ranma saw an opportunity to lay in a good strike to his fathers right wrist, but it was probably a trick to draw him in. An obvious trick now that Ranma had a chance to get close. He would usually ignore it tricks like this when he saw them. His father would also be expecting him to ignore it. Ranma's smirk turned feral as he thought of a plan. He went for the wrist.

Genma, caught off guard by Ranma actually falling for the simple ploy with his right wrist, managed to react only with a reflexive jab and shoulder-throw. Ranma took the hit, smiled. His father was throwing him in the direction he predicted he would. Ranma let him, but not without a parting kick to the back of the head to adjust his trajectory towards a nearby pole.

Genma, unable to correct for both the unexpected shoulder-throw and the kick to the back to the head, fell like a brick right into the spring below.

Splash!

"Come on Pop, is that all you've got?" Ranma said. He turned to the pool his father had fallen in. Ranma thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, but dismissed it and continued to wait for his father to surface and the fight to continue. A minute later, Ranma was starting to worry. Genma didn't usually stay under for a trick this long. What if he hit his head and was drowning? Ranma didn't really like his father as a person, but he was his father. Damn, he's probably waiting to ambush me the second I jump in.

About to jump off his pole into the pool his father fell in, Ranma nearly fell off startled when a large figure burst from the pool. Securing himself on his perch, Ranma smirked. Knew you couldn't hold you're breath that long Pop. Hope you kept your glasses; I don't want to have to go in and … get … them…!

Ranma watched as the figure that burst from the pool shed the water that was cloaking it and resolve not into his father, as he was expecting, but a panda. He could only gape. "W-w-what the HELL!" Ranma was frozen in place, and could only stare as the panda made a graceful upward arc out of the pool to the pole across from him. However this bamboo pole was not designed to hold the weight of a wet panda, so it promptly snapped when the weight was applied to it. The panda was forced to make an ungainly and hop to a near-by pole.

Still Gaping at the sight of a panda leaping from pole to pole and wondering just where is father went to Ranma wasn't really able to react when He saw the panda land, adjust, then leap strait at him. Ranma's base instincts kicked in and he tried to jump to the side when He saw the panda sailing through the air at him. He sub-conscious was expecting to make a clean jump away from the panda. What Ranma's sub-conscious didn't expect, however, was the panda to pull a reverse triple inverted spin-kick, and nail him directly in the forehead.

Already off balance from the quick jump, Ranma couldn't begin to come close to adjusting for the course alteration the kick imparted to his body, let alone the massive momentum transferred into him. Ranma went shooting off at precisely the speed and angle that is required to skip stones. Physics, as if in anger for being defied so often, proved that you can in-fact bounce across water as Ranma was skipped rather hard across the spring before he went flying out to the center of the valley. Ranma heard the sound of shattering wood before passing out.