Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½™ or Sacrifice™ or any related characters, terms or concepts.
Part 14: The Dragon Spooker and the Wild Horse, Part 2
By the end of the day, Amelia was beginning to wish she'd met these two sooner. It turned out Ranma was a wizard as well as a martial artist; once they'd reached his and Ryoga's camp (where Ryoga had been waiting completely unharmed, exactly as Ranma had said he would be), he'd offered to get her to her destination faster. At her agreement, he'd encased both her and Ryoga in "bubbles" of swirling air, then produced these strange wings of silver light and flown away, the air-spheres trailing behind him. As a result, they'd covered in one day ground that would have taken Amelia about a week had she been riding.
As they had flown, Ranma and Amelia had talked, comparing their mutual lives. Amelia had told him a little about her travels with Lina and the others, and Ranma had told her something about the people he dealt with on a day-to-day basis, as well as some of his more bizarre battles. Currently he was telling her about his bout with Picolet Chardin, Master of Battle Dining.
"So what does this Parley de Foie Gras do anyway?"
"Well, a normal-mouthed person doesn't stand a chance at out-eating those bigmouth freaks. However, the rules for Battle Dining say that the winner is the first one to have no food left on their plates, they never say anything about the challenger having to actually eat the food, do they? The Parlay de Foie Gras is a speed-attack; while your opponent is eating his own food, you speedily and stealthily feed him the food from your own plate. This slows him down, and gives you the advantage; if someone can actually see you eating, then you receive a penalty; an extra plate of food for each time they see you."
"So you beat him?"
"Of course! I'm Ranma Saotome, the best there is. What's more, a life was on the line if I didn't win. It wasn't easy though, especially when he pulled off the Parlay de Foie Gras Counter."
"What's that?"
"He stuck a dining plate in his mouth to shield him from my barrage of food. But I countered his counter; another plate in the mouth, and there was enough of a gap I could direct my food through it."
"Two plates? How big was his mouth anyway?"
"Put it like this; he could fit a entire watermelon into his mouth and swallow it with the ease you could do the same thing to a peeled grape."
"Yuck, and one of the Tendo girls had to marry this guy? I bet they were grateful you won."
"You'd think so, but I never even got so much as a 'thank you'."
Amelia blinked at that as Ranma suddenly directed them to land in a small clearing, his wings dissipating as the bubbles popped and released Amelia and Ryoga. Ranma stretched, looked casually around their landing spot and then turned to Ryoga.
"We'll set up camp here for the night. Ryoga; you get a fire going while I go and catch us something to eat."
"Why do I have to set the fire? Why can't I go hunting? I camp out all the time."
"You can't go because you'll get lost, that's why. And you get lost here, you may be trapped here forever."
"And exactly why do you think I'm going to get lost?"
"Come on Ryoga, I know you; you could get lost in a closed coffin."
"I'm not that bad!"
Ranma didn't answer that, but simply gave an enigmatic smile before walking off into the forest. Ryoga grumbled to himself as he stepped towards a young tree. Amelia wondered how he was going to get firewood from that without an axe. She soon got her answer. As she watched, Ryoga adopted a fighting stance, his hands clenched into fists, with the exception of his index fingers, which jutted straight out. He stared silently at the tree for a few seconds, and then suddenly struck with the same blistering speed he had attempted to hit Ranma with. As she watched, he jabbed with his index fingers, each strike hitting a different part of the tree. As suddenly as he began, he stopped, leaving Amelia confused as to exactly what he had been doing.
She got her answer when the tree promptly… exploded was the only verb that came close to describing the way it seemed to simply disintegrate into fire-wood-sized chunks, clattering onto the ground in a heap. Some of the larger chunks actually landed on Ryoga's head and shoulders, not that he seemed to notice. Ryoga gathered up the chunks and quickly had a fire burning, he looked up from it to meet Amelia's amazed gaze.
"What?"
"How… what was that?"
"The Bakusai Tenketsu, a special technique over three thousand years old. With a touch of the finger, I can destroy anything."
Amelia swallowed nervously.
"Anything?"
"Well, any inanimate material to be honest; wood, metal and rock primarily. It was designed for use in the quarry, and I've only really practised it with stone, that's why I had to study the tree for so long."
Any questions Amelia may have wanted to ask were disrupted by Ranma's arrival with several gutted rabbits. Skewering them on sticks and placing them in the fire, Ranma sat back and waited for them to cook, Ryoga and Amelia joining him around the fire. Several minutes passed before Amelia decided to start up a conversation.
"So, can both of you do that?"
"Hm? Do what?"
"That Bakusai Tenketsu thing."
"The Breaking Point special technique? No, only Ryoga learned that, I prefer the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken."
"The what?"
"The name is a referral to the training; it translates as Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire. Basically, the training involves attempting to grab roasting chestnuts from a roaring fire with your bare hands whilst avoiding burning yourself."
Amelia blinked.
"That's impossible! No one could do that!"
"I assure you it can be done. The Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken is one of my most-used special techniques, allowing me to deliver several thousand blows in a single second."
"Still, that training is cruel."
"Cruel? No, harsh, but then it's Joketsuzoku style; most of their special techniques require harsh training. At least it has a more direct use than the Bakusai Tenketsu, now that's harsh."
"How so?"
"To learn the Bakusai Tenketsu, the trainee is suspended from a tree opposite a giant boulder. The two are then slammed into each other repeatedly until the trainee figures out how to smash the boulder into dust with a single touch of the finger. It's combat effect is secondary rather than direct; all the physical abuse the trainee suffers during the training thickens the skin and toughens the flesh, making them more resistant to damage. When Ryoga first learned the technique, my most powerful blows felt like a baby's kicks to him. Now that he's advanced the training, you could probably drop a castle on top of him and he still wouldn't stop."
Amelia looked at Ryoga in awe, whose chest swelled with pride at the attention. Amelia then returned her attention to Ranma, new questions welling within her.
"Joketsuzoku? Isn't that the tribe you said Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse belong to?"
"Yep. As Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku, it's logical to assume that Cologne is a Grandmaster of their style. She's the one who taught Ryoga and me our primary special techniques. She also taught me the Hiryu Shoten Ha; the Heaven Blast of the Dragon. I'll tell you this; harsh as Joketsuzoku style is, it's still nothing compared to what my father put me through."
"Yeah, heh, especially the Nekoken, eh Ranma?"
Ryoga laughed casually, only to be cut off as Ranma snarled and grasped the front of his shirt, roughly hauling him upwards.
"I told you never to mention that technique in front of others! Never! I keep your damn weaknesses secret don't I!"
"Urk! I didn't mean to!"
"What's the Nekoken?"
Amelia asked; scared Ranma was about to murder Ryoga. Ranma stopped, released Ryoga, took a deep breath and then calmed down.
"Here, read it for yourself, I gotta go; the memories are… rather painful."
He handed her a small booklet, which she took and studied for a few seconds.
"…I can't read this."
"Oh, sorry."
Ranma snapped his fingers and, before Amelia's eyes, the writing in the book changed to a language she recognized. She read the title aloud.
"Anything-Goes Martial Arts Secret Techniques: Nekoken."
Ranma wandered off as Amelia began reading.
"The Nekoken, alias Cat-Fu, is supposedly a Free-Style variant of Cat-Fist Kung-Fu. Using the Nekoken causes the user to enter a ki-charged berserker state, during which the martial artist's ki is channelled and focused to greatly enhance their speed, agility and reflexes, as well as producing ki "claws" that can cut through virtually any matter."
The next part was written in capitals, plainly intended to be emphasized.
"Note: the Nekoken is considered a false technique and has been banned for centuries due to its high casualty rate and the severe mental damage inflicted upon the survivors of its training (see next page for training process)."
It then went on in a more "normal" tone.
"Most of those who undergo the Nekoken's training process are killed. Many of those who survive lose their sanity, becoming permanently trapped in the Nekoken, a state which reduces them to little more than mindless killing machines that must be destroyed. Even if the trainee is lucky enough to escape these fates, then they will still suffer. The training causes them suffer permanent ailurophobia; a deep and unreasoning terror of cats. When confronted with a cat, the trainee cannot help but flee in terror."
"The Nekoken is essentially useless, as it cannot activated at will. Instead, when the trainee's fear of cats grows too great for them to handle, they black out and subconsciously activate the Nekoken, adopting the mentality and fighting style of a wild cat whilst the technique is active. They remain in the Nekoken until they have calmed down, a process which can be expedited by the presence of someone who the trainee trusts and/or feels deep affection for. A sudden shock, such as the activation of a Jusenkyo curse, can also snap them out of the technique."
Jusenkyo. There was that word again; Ranma and Ryoga had mentioned it several times, but they wouldn't explain to her what it meant. She turned to the page detailing the training process, and boggled at what she saw.
"The training process requires that the student be young, as it requires manipulating the child's mind to work. The best time to initiate the training is between the ages of five and seven; once the child enters puberty they cannot be trained. Training consists of the following steps:
1: dig a deep pit and fill it with starving wild cats.
2: wrap the trainee from head to toe in fish sausages, or other fish products if the sausages are unavailable.
3: hurl the trainee into the pit and wait for the trainee to escape, whereupon the trainee must be captured, the fish products reapplied and the trainee returned to the pit.
4: continue reapplying the fish products and returning the trainee to the pit until the trainee either dies or exists the pit in the Nekoken state.
5: capture the now-berserk trainee and hope that he or she recovers his or her wits."
Amelia swallowed her revulsion; how could anyone do this? And to their own child?
"Not pleasant reading, is it?"
She looked up to see Ranma, dismissed her attempt to return the booklet with a wave of his hand. She stared at him as he continued to speak whilst he knelt down to take one of the cooked rabbits from the fire.
"I was six years old when he put me through the training. I'll tell you this; he put me through harsh training before. He taught me how to take a fall by throwing me from the tops of tall buildings. He taught me how to manoeuvre in mid-air by binding my wrists and ankles together and then launching me into a tree from a catapult. I've ridden Great White Sharks, wrestled with Grizzly Bears, danced with poisonous snakes and fought off packs of rabid wolves with nothing but my bare hands, but he's still never done anything worse to me than the Nekoken."
Amelia said nothing; what could she say? As Ranma passed her a rabbit she absent-mindedly began to eat it, silently vowing that she would track Ranma's father down and punish him for his crimes. Justice demanded it!
The next morning, Ranma extinguished the fire, re-encased Amelia and Ryoga in those air-bubble things and flew off down the trail. By lunchtime, they'd reached the capital of Delasoa, the kingdom Amelia had come to visit, and had made record time in doing so. Knowing that she wasn't expected for several weeks, Amelia offered to buy Ranma and Ryoga lunch, an offer they graciously accepted.
"So, what do you two want to order?"
"Oh, we're not fussy."
"Amelia? Is that you?"
Amelia turned as someone called from behind her.
"No… it can't be? It is!"
Amelia rushed past several tables, Ranma and Ryoga trailing behind her, as she headed for a group of three people. A petite woman with orangey-brown hair and red eyes, a sword-carrying guy with blond hair and blue eyes, and someone wrapped from head to toe in clothing so that they could only see his eyes.
Meanwhile, miles down the road at the spot where Ranma and Ryoga had first entered this world, a strange man investigating. His hair was purple, as was his priestly garb and he wore a secretive, faintly smug smile, as though he knew something you didn't. Despite the fact his eyes were tightly shut, he seemed to have no problems seeing. He poked and prodded with his ornate staff before stopping in the center of the clearing.
"Oh my, my master will want to know about this."
Having said that, he disappeared without a sound, leaving no clue he had ever been there at all.
Okay, this chapter shot up like lightning; I don't think I've ever posted the next chapter so soon before. To recap; Amelia knows about the Nekoken, Ranma and Ryoga are now face-to-face with Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis, and Xelloss is on Ranma and Ryoga's trail. Next chapter up soon, I hope. Before anyone asks, Ranma and Ryoga are deliberately attempting to avoid letting Amelia (and, in subsequent chapters, the others) know they come from a different dimension. They're not stupid (Ranma especially); that's not the sort of magical talent you just announce to the world(s).