Ranma Tales ½: Chapter 3 – The Calm before the storm

Part 1: Sunrise

Akane runs downstairs in her normal morning workout outfit and notices Kasumi setting the table as she heads out the door. She pauses a moment and asks "Kasumi have you seen Ranma this morning? I was going to ask if he wanted to come along for my morning jog, but he wasn't in his room..."

Kasumi looks up at Akane and smiles her usual sweet smile "Good Morning Akane and yes I have seen Ranma... In fact he was up before me, it was quite a shock when I saw him looking for a snack when I went to start breakfast. He told me that since he still needed to get his stuff from the hotel this morning before school. In case he was late getting back he wanted something to eat before he left, but he thought he'd be back when we started breakfast."

Akane nods and just before she turns to leave Kasumi adds "It was also quite funny, he kept apologizing for just wanting something to eat and swore he'd pay us back for everything he ate... It was actually kind of sweet."

Akane smiles slightly and then frowns. She leaves before she can figure out why she felt sort of jealous when Kasumi said he was sweet. After all why should she be jealous?

Sometime later she comes back in after her jog and runs up stairs before stripping and heading to the bath. Then she heads downstairs planning on sitting at the table till it was ready. This after all was he normal morning. This morning however she almost runs into Ranma who comes in the front door with a footlocker draped over his back and a military surplus style duffel bag in his other hand out in front. For all that both are fairly large he doesn't seem to be bothered all that much by either. Akane asks "Do you want any help with that Ranma?"

Ranma smiles seeing Akane and says "Nah, this isn't so bad compared to what I used to carry on the road... No camping gear after all."

Akane just blinks and says "Ok." thinking to herself 'This huge load is nothing compared to normal? Remind me not to ever wander around for a few years with him.' meanwhile Ranma practically leaps up the whole set of stairs barely touching any of the steps and heads on to his room. Leaving Akane staring after him with her mouth hanging open.

Soon everyone is around the table eating breakfast. Ranma is absolutely polite and Kasumi comments more than once on how it's nice to have someone so polite at the table. This is probably caused by the fact that Soun for instance simply hands her his rice bowl whenever he wants seconds and expects her to understand what he means. On the other hand Ranma when doing the same thing says "Kasumi, could I possibly have a second bowl of rice? If it's not any trouble for any of you at least." The last added sheepishly. Soun however doesn't seem to pick up on the gentle rebuke as he reads his paper and eats. Akane and Nabiki look a little on the other hand do notice and take a look at their own manners at the table because of it.

Akane taps Ranma's arm after looking up at the clock on the wall and says "We need to get to school Ranma or we'll be late."

Ranma nods. Then stands up to bow to Kasumi and says "Thanks Kasumi for the wonderful meal that you have made for us. It was terrific." Hearing this Akane and Nabiki feel a bit bad for not doing that themselves and both thank Kasumi as well, who blushes at all the attention which she's not used to. Soun just keeps reading the paper and mumbles something about having fun at school as they leave.

Part 2: Warming Breeze

School had actually been fairly uneventful, the Hentai Brigade hadn't been waiting for them today for unknown reasons. The only negative event was the arrival of Kuno in front of Ranma and Akane during lunch spouting nonsense about how he wouldn't let that Ruffian Saotome be engaged to his precious Akane Tendo. Ranma hadn't even looked up and had asked Akane "Would you like to or should I ?" Akane had smiled with a glint in her eye and said "Oh I think I'll enjoy this." Needless to say Akane worked off some of her anger at the sudden engagement on a overwhelmed Kendoist. Ranma glanced up when it was over and said "I hope he'll live." Akane just shrugged "He hasn't died yet."

The rest of school passed pretty uneventful and after what seemed like way to long for most of the students the days classes were over. Akane came over to Ranma as he was gathering his supplies back up and asked "Are you going to start training me today?" Trying to keep some eagerness out of her voice.

Ranma nods "Sure we can start as soon as we get home."

Hearing this Akane just grabs his arm and practically drags him out of the building. Ranma can't help, but laugh at this sudden turn of events.

Soon enough they arrive home and greet Kasumi. While Akane runs upstairs again. Ranma watches her go and sighs having a feeling that she's going to change her clothes again. While not entirely a bad thing, he was getting annoyed by the fact that besides school she only seemed to 'practice' martial arts when she wore her gi. Was she really suited to the Path...?

While he was thinking to himself he'd sat down at the table and watched Soun play Shogi against himself. Ranma had idly wondered why the guy had kept weeping every so often when he'd steal his own pieces until he heard some sort of mumbling about pop. Ranma decides he probably doesn't want to understand what's going on. At least not understanding is probably better for his sanity than understanding why someone would cheat playing against themselves.

By this point Akane has come back downstairs now in her gi and after she finds Ranma she says "Ok, let's start training Ranma."

Soun glances over at them and asks "Akane dear is Genma's son really so bad you'd have to teach him?"

At this Ranma just blinks and looks a little mad. Akane just giggles and says "No daddy, Ranma agreed to take over my training when I asked him if he would after our sparring match yesterday."

Soun nods at this until he realizes what she just said and then with a frown he says "I thought I was your sensei! Why would anyone else need to teach my little girl martial arts?"

Before Ranma can apply the often used Saotome foot-in-mouth technique in this situation Akane stares him Soun down and says "Dad you haven't taught me in the last two years at all! I'm not even a master at our school yet, because of that! He's from the same style of martial arts as us so their shouldn't any problems with allowing him to train me!"

Soun still obviously doesn't like this and says "He'll have to defeat me before I'll let him train you!"

Akane stamps her foot and glares at Soun as she replies "It's time for our training session, if you want to play your macho games you can do it later!" She then proceeds to walk out to the dojo leaving a shocked Soun and a startled Ranma behind. Ranma then picks himself up and follows her out to the dojo. For quite some time Soun just sits and stares at the dojo.

Inside the dojo a fuming Akane rants about her stupid pigheaded father, though from listening you couldn't tell if she was upset over wanting to test Ranma before they could start training or if it was over the engagement. She nearly jumps however when a hand touches her on the shoulder.

Ranma pats her shoulder and says "It's ok Akane it's just me. Want to talk about it?" Hearing this a sizable chunk of Akane's anger drains away and suddenly holding back a sniffle she says "Oh Ranma, I don't know what's gotten into dad. First he engages me to you and then he tries to interfere when you agree to help me train." Thinking a moment (and after sniffling again) she says "Really it started a long time ago when mother died. Dad just slowly fell apart... Well not exactly slowly, he fell apart completely at first which is why Kasumi ended up taking over most of the cooking and cleaning. If it hadn't been for Auntie Nodoka helping out the first year after she died I don't know what would have happened. Though Auntie Nodoka eventually left and she always looked so sad after spending awhile with us... Daddy seemed to pull himself together again before she left, but ever so slowly he started to withdraw again into his own little world. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. I want my daddy back!" At this last bit tears start running down her cheek and Ranma wraps his arms around her as he makes gentle comforting noises to her.

Eventually Akane gets ahold of herself again and she looks up at Ranma and says "I'm sorry Ranma, I didn't mean for that to happen."

Ranma just smiles and says "Sensei used to have a saying that sorta fits "Emotions are important, they hold great power and great danger. Emotions when controlled and used can foul you to excel beyond your simple potential. Emotions left wild and uncontrolled will use you, forcing you into things best left avoided and eventually will get you killed. And worst of all are Emotions bottles up inside, not controlled by understanding or let loose to use you, but instead contained and coraled. Emotions though are much like a bottle of pop in that often they get stirred up and just like stirring up a bottle of pop they will try to force their way out. If they can't get out they will instead slowly eat away at you from inside.' In think what he meant to say and got all distracted while getting to the point is that there are three ways you can deal with emotions. The worst in the long run is to never understand them and instead let them build up until the either destroy you or consume you. Neither of which is a good thing." Ranma thinks about it a second and says "Now I'm starting to do it... I guess I could have just said 'letting your emotions out once in awhile is a good thing'. I really need to talk to him about his tendency to babble since it's catching..."

Akane giggles a bit at this and says to Ranma "Thank you Ranma, I do feel better now. Thanks for being their when I needed you to." smiling a bit she adds "We do really need to practice though, so could you stop hugging me pervert?"

Laughing slightly he says "Sure I can do that tomboy." The last part added with a smirk. Akane swats him playfully. Soon they settle into a training routine as Ranma runs Akane through everything she knows.

Part 3: To Sense the Storm

After Ranma finishes watching Akane go through the different Kata's and moves she knows, occasionally correcting a few things while they are at it, he sits down and motions her to take a break and sit next to him. Akane glad for a break does what he indicated and glances over at him as she takes a few sips from her water bottle nearby.

Ranma thinks carefully for awhile and then says "You really are pretty good. You also have a lot more power than I'd expect. You only really need to work on your speed, balance, and form."

Akane frowns at this last part, internally asking 'And just what is wrong with my 'form', baka?' For know though she's holding her tongue.

Ranma nods to himself and continues "Really you remind me of how I was three years ago before sensei started training me after my father's death."

Now this shocks Akane. So she says "You mean I'm nearly three years behind you in the art?" Just staring open mouthed at him.

Ranma shrugs "Really I expected you to be worse, I guess in the end it could be argued that Soun was a better teacher than Genma in the long run. I know that might sound weird since my training was more advanced, but pop pushed me every day for seven years to master the art. Doing a lot of stupid things to me in the meantime." This said with a bit of a shudder, then after his brief pause he continues "This however was at the cost of just about everything else. I had the social skills of a monkey... The intellect of a tadpool... Heck all I had was the art... I could have never had a 'normal' life after the training pop put me through. The fact that you are 'only' three years behind while still having something beside s the art just amazes me."

Akane isn't sure what to say, after all the Ranma in front of her doesn't seem anything like what he just described to her. Ranma however goes on to add "As it was Sensei taught me more things that weren't the art in three years then things that were. I doubt you'd need three years to catch up to me. Heck your just about exactly where I'd expect of a martial artist with their initial mastery. I think even a week of real training would get you that far at least."

This also shocks Akane. Since her father had isolated himself from his daughters as he had, she'd never realized just how close she really could be to finally mastering the art. She started getting giddy when she glanced at Ranma and almost winced at the pained look on his face, wondering exactly what she'd done wrong to make him look at her like that.

Ranma realizing what he was doing sighs and says "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look at you like that... It's just I need to ask you a question... A really important question... You have to listen carefully to what I'm going to say... And then think very very carefully about what your answer will be..."

Akane frowns wondering what he's trying to get at, but nods and agrees "Sure Ranma, what do you need to ask me?"

Ranma looks at the floor and says "How far do you want to take the art? Are you serious about it and want to make it your life? Or is it a hobby just to pass the time?"

Akane gets upset that Ranma would even think it was a 'hobby' to her. "It's all I've ever wanted, you shouldn't even ask me that!"

Ranma sighs again. "Are you sure? It's just to me your sending mixed signals. On one hand you do practice often and train intensely. On the other you don't practice all the time and you are only focused when you want to be."

Akane gets even angrier with Ranma "What are you talking about?"

Ranma isn't able to look at Akane, but answers "Look Akane I don't want to have to ask you this. In fact it hurts me to have to say this to my best friend in the world right now. Unfortunately for both of us you asked me to teach you and I can't without knowing how serious you really are. I have to understand completely what you feel about this before I can do what I've promised. The gulf between a true martial artist and a hobbyist may be very different than you think."

This confuses Akane completely. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean... I mean at first you said I was nearly ready to be a master in the art and then you go and seem to imply that I have a long way to go."

Ranma nods without looking up. "A master doesn't have to be a true martial artist. Many ordinary people can eventually master some form of martial art. For a true martial artist though mastery isn't the end. It's a beginning. It's how you breathe, it's the way you feel, it's the center of everything both inside and outside of yourself. It has to be since your will is what advances the art further. It can't just be a matter of 'Now I put on my gi so I can practice', it has to be 'Can I practice muscle control techniques during class and not get distracted?'. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? "

Akane slowly works around the idea in her head and ever so slowly she nods. She hoped that this was all Ranma needed to hear from her as this was all more philosophical than she was used to and she believed he should know her answer already. If such a step was needed to go between how he trained and how she needed to for her own development in the art than of course her answer was yes.

Ranma sighs one last time (or so he hopes). "I have one last question that is more important than any other. Can you kill someone?"

Akane goes cold inside at this question. Thoughts run rampant through her mind "Of course I couldn't kill someone! I'm not a murder!" being the most dominant.

Ranma lifts up a hand before she can say anything and adds "I don't mean do you want to kill someone. I mean it as 'If your art required that you had the will to kill someone, could you really truly live with the consequences of your actions?' Could you take another's life if they hurt others and their was truly no other way? I don't want to know if you could in cold blood either, heck I don't want to even think about that... But... Can you decide on your own if one life is less worthy than another to live? And once you do can you live with yourself for the next day, week, month, year, decade, century of your life knowing you did what you did?"

Akane was awfully confused now and wasn't sure at all why he wanted to know this... She didn't have to much time to think about this though before one of the dojo's walls was blown apart and debris flew through the room.

Part 4: Storm Front

Ranma could almost kick himself. He'd felt safe for what might have been the first time in his life and now that looked like it could mean the death of the new friend he'd come to care for so much. He'd dropped his senses back to only cover the dojo while they practiced. This he was realizing had been a deadly mistake.

He also realizes in less than a second he has a few fairly big problems. Problem 1- The creature that just destroyed the dojo wall was one of the Lost. Problem 2- Akane right now wouldn't really be able to see or hear the this kind of threat, in effect to her it was invisible. Problem 3- The Lost One was closer to Akane than him, making her the easiest target for it. Problem 4- The Lost Ones couldn't be hurt without using Ki or other internal energy on them. Something Akane couldn't do right now. After figuring out what the problems where it was time to start on solutions.

Ranma shouted to Akane "Run, get out of here and get to the house!" She however doesn't start to run, instead she starts to ask what's going on. After all she can't see anything, except a strange hole blown in the dojo wall.

Ranma sighing internally he gathers up his energy and focuses before the creature can decide what it wants to do first. To an observer like Akane he seemed to gather himself and his eyes started to glow with an internal light, also his right hand which was being braced by his left started to glow with a bright white light. To Ranma himself however things were a bit different, he had pulled in power from the air around him and then using his own power changed the power he'd taken in to do his bidding. Eventually he'd gathered and altered enough power and striking his right hand against the floor he yelled something to the effect of 'reveal the unseen'. As soon as his hand touched the floor all the energy he'd gathered pulsed through the entire dojo, a intense wind the physical shape of that energy. Now as long as the creature was withing the dojo anyone could see it just fine.

Akane turned at the growl behind her and wondered briefly if this was some kind of nightmare. Standing half-crouched on the floor behind her was a shape that she couldn't imagine outside of a nightmare at least. It was big, easily as large as a horse though wider than any horse ever was, that was the first thing she noticed. It's skin, if you wanted to call it that, was an almost liquid black color. It had excessively long curved claws at the end of each well muscled leg. It's face... Well it's face looked like an ancient white theater mask in the shape of a demon's face above a huge gapping mouth with a impressive set of overly large fangs in it, a large puddle forming as drool dripped from that gapping maw it called a mouth. As it stood there on all fours staring back at her she was truly and utterly terrified. This was not an enemy she knew how to face. This wasn't even an enemy she could imagine had existed till this moment.

Just at that moment three new faces appear in the doorway of the dojo, only to stop dead in their tracks when they see it. Besides starring their wasn't much they could think to do. Ranma just thought about how he could never seem to get out of this bad luck that seemed to curse him.

Author's Notes:

This time I'll avoid any comments of my own to answer a few questions from the feedback so far. I'm also going to thank: Martrex, Jerry Unipeg, & Innortal for their comments! I appreciate it.

Now for the questions:

Ryoga- Ryoga will be in here, but yes unlike the normal series where he meets Ranma in middle school (9th grade from the sound of it, though they never really say that I can remember), I had to change a few things meaning they meet earlier than normal. Things however go much as they do before between the two however. I really didn't see why they'd act all that different 5 years prior to the normal series, both where much alike even then. I do however still have to decide on him getting to Jusenkyo... You'll find out when I write it though... ;)

Neko-ken- Yes this Ranma was subjected to the Neko-Ken training... Other than that I'll just say this Ranma is not all that fond of cats, but he however had a interesting last three years of training that will color how he deals with the Neko-Ken training.

Ranma's earlier curse and female form- Yes this Ranma's views of women in particular and his emotional condition are very different in some ways. Normal Ranma for instance is a chauvinist, or would be considered such. This Ranma isn't really, he knows because of himself that women can be a match for any man. Also he's much more comfortable with the fact that he is a perfectly functional women. It's to him just how he is, he can accept that now. However don't expect this Ranma to go chasing after guys just because he accepts being a woman in body... I would think homosexuals and transgender individuals would prove that having a certain body doesn't imply a certain sexual preference. I read way to much Ranma ½ fanfiction that ignores both Psychological evidence and real world fact that both say form does not equal preference.

Lucid dreaming take 2- Yes basic lucid dreaming can be done with little or no training. Living your dream and focusing on a certain mental task or other such thing however normally takes some training. I mastered the basics so I could control my dreams around the time I was 9 years old (it's why I can't have a 'nightmare' as such, I know it's a dream and nothing scary can ever harm me in my dreams because of it). However now with some training (by reading up on the subject and finding better methods) I can (for instance) write out a outline for a new chapter of this story while I'm sleeping and then recall 90+ of it when I wake up. You can also use lucid dreaming techniques while awake. I commented on it because a lot of people never use it and don't know what it is. For more information on Lucid Dreaming a good starting place is Wikipedia's entry on the subject, it also includes references to books and websites relating to the topic.

Shampoo- He has meet Shampoo, however she doesn't give him the kiss of death or the kiss of marriage. Other than that you'll have to wait for a flashback I have planned for more details...

Sensei (Shadow)- Shadow is a character from my own works who fit for this role (providing a helping hand as needed, but while forcing others to do their own roles using their own abilities). I'll hint at how old he actually is sometime later (in fact the best part will most likely be during the Shampoo flashback, since Shadow and Ranma were together during the flashback). For now lets just say Cologne is young compared to him... & since Happy is the same age as Cologne... However I'll also mentioned he doesn't look his age at all (in fact he looks to be in his early to mid twenties) and even Ranma doesn't yet realize how old he truly is... Shadow as his name implies is something of an enigma.