Dark Titans – Arc 5 - Pre Wedding Jitters

Chapter 4 - Part 1/2

Enjoy if you Will, Tolerate if you won't.

Terra waved energetically to the departing bus as it was swallowed up by the brilliant reds, yellows and oranges of the autumn forest lining the twisting country road. The geokinetic hero admitted that Sarah had been nothing like she'd expected. Despite the devastating news about the children being afraid to meet her, the bubbly woman had managed to turn the evening around and cheer her up immensely. Also, she still couldn't get over the older blonde's figure.

Speaking of which.

"Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?" She turned to regard her mentor as he weakly waved. His face was still beet red, and he seemed to be wavering towards collapse.

"I'm fine," he assured her in a shaky voice, "This kind of thing happens… more than I'd like to admit."

Terra avidly avoided looking at the twisted tissues stuffed up her invulnerable master's nose. "Are you serious? I have never seen someone's nose literally explode blood before!"

"I wasn't prepared for her to hug me goodbye like that," Ryouga sighed in defeat. Gingerly, he pulled out the red nose plugs and tossed them off the side of the road. "And I thought I was getting better at filing cute girls into the Genderless Blob category with Ukyou…"

Terra eyed the martial artist for a moment. "You scare me sometimes, Ryouga… but what the heck does getting hugged by a cute girl have to do with you hemorrhaging nose blood by the gallon? I thought you were gonna die!"

He dug his toe in the dirt awkwardly. "Um… I'll tell you when you're older. Anyway, that's all in the distant past now, time to forget it and move on."

"Older? What's that supposed to mean?" Questions started popping into her head, one after the next in rapid succession. "And how come you never do that when I hug you? And what's this 'genderless blob Ukyou' stuff? I've seen her on the video calls, she's, like, a slammin' hottie!" A sudden realization. "Wait, am I a 'genderless blob' to you?"

It wasn't too often that Terra got to build up a really good head of righteous female fury, and she found herself enjoying the sight of Ryouga wilting under her bombardment of questions… until a glimpse of inspiration flashed through her mentor's eyes.

Standing straight, a sinister grin sliding onto his lips, Ryouga held up a single finger to silence her.

"Now, Terra, I could spend all day explaining my completely real and logical explanations to all of those questions. Or..." His smile widened and he leaned in conspiratorially. "Or, I could teach you something really special instead."

Indecision racked the slight blonde for several long seconds of teeth grinding and hand wringing, before her need for training finally defeated her desire for gossip in a bloody, no holds barred cage match.

A disgruntled grunt signaled her defeat as she dipped her head. "...Fine."

Ryouga flashed a smile of triumph, oddly, it didn't seem to fit his face too well, but it was probably just a trick of the morning light. The bandanna clad martial artist then began to glance around the woods surrounding them, searching for something.

"Good. Now, we've made a lot of progress with your conscious control of your powers." Absently, her teacher walked over to a tree, only to kneel and scoop up a handful of acorns. He continued to lecture her over his shoulder. "So, now that we've got the basics down, we can start building back up again, starting with your most glaring weakness."

That set Terra back a step. "Wait. What weakness? You never said I had a weakness before, just that I was too strong!"

Seeming satisfied with his find, Ryouga stood and turned to regard her. Tucking the acorns into his pocket, he tilted his head as he studied her. "Being too strong is a weakness if you can't -" Her mentor donned an uncharacteristically frustrated expression (at least uncharacteristic for when he was dealing with her). "Look, I could explain, but maybe a demonstration might better make my point," he gestured to a spot in the middle of the road, "Alright, you go stand over there."

Once she took her place, she turned to stare at the martial artist expectantly. For his part, he moved to a spot about forty feet away from her and began to limber up, stretching his legs and swinging his arms around.

"Well, so what's this glaring weakness I supposedly have?" Honestly, she wasn't sure why this was bugging her so much. She guessed there was a difference between people telling you that you were 'too awesome for your own good' and telling you that there was something you were actually bad at.

Nodding to himself, finished with his warmup, Ryouga knelt, like a sprinter at the starting line. Then… he just paused.

"Well?" she asked, growing impatient.

"Sorry," he muttered, apparently concentrating fiercely on standing still. "Going full out is dangerous, so I want to make sure I'm totally focused."

Wait, what? What did he mean by that? What was 'going full-'

Terra's thought was derailed as Ryouga's hair whipped up above his bandanna, a violent tempest manifesting from nothing around him. A moment later, she felt the breeze herself; not the cool winds of fall, but a warm pressure vying to push her back. She squinted her eyes as she regarded the martial artist; it was weird, she could almost see something around him. Some kind of... azure haze?

Time slowed to a crawl and the world seemed to stretch out and blur at her periphery, her focus forming a claustrophobic tunnel between her and the fanged martial artist. The same icy dread she felt all the way back when she was trussed up in a sack about to have a boulder hurled at her seeped into her veins.

"Terra! Defend yourself!"

The geokinetic fought through her panic, straining to raise her hand to form a barrier-

In a blur of yellow and black, Ryouga vanished!

A fraction of a second later a gale blasted past and something poked her forehead hard enough to rock her head back.

She managed to open her eyes, still watering from the burst of wind in her face. Not feeling fully reconnected to reality yet, she absently noted the black spots on her master's bandanna, now close enough that she could count them. His arm was outstretched, his finger still resting against her forehead.

"Wha-?" she asked, still trying to figure out what happened.

Chuckling evilly to himself, Ryouga gave her another gentle tap before lowering his arm. "Now, I know I'm not nearly as fast as Ranma, but I think that should give you an idea of what I mean, right?"

Stumbling back a step, Terra rubbed her forehead vigorously. "Owww! What the heck are you trying to teach me? The joys of concussions?"

A worried lock graced her mentor's face and he leaned forward, gently using his hand to brush her hair away from her grievous injury. Terra felt her cheeks begin to burn as his thumb swept over the small bump on her forehead, like a feather tickling her skin.

"I'm sorry, I tapped you a bit harder than I meant to." He let her hair flop back over her face and then ruffled it mercilessly into a staticky mess. "But you'll survive. Which is more than I can say if I'd been a bad guy."

Ryouga wiggled his finger ominously, his fanged grin taking on a malevolent bent. "I can punch this finger through solid stone, after all, just imagine what it could do to your skull?"

Terra felt a sizable lump form in her throat as she considered his implication. Taking several futile moments to try to fix her hair, the geokinetic tried to think about what had just happened.

"You… you moved so fast i could barely see you. What the heck even was that?"

A grim smile settled on his lips.

"Just showing you how I felt right after Ranma learned the Chestnut Fist." Taking a step back, he cracked his knuckles. "Which takes us to the heart of your lesson."

Ryouga took a moment to cross his arms over his chest and fix her with a serious stare.

"Terra, how did I hit you?"

"In the head," she grumbled, "Hard!"

He rolled his eyes. "I meant, why did you let me hit you?"

"Let you?" the young blonde barked incredulously, "You moved so fast I couldn't even react!"

"And there we have it." The martial artist clapped his hands loudly together. "As powerful as you are, your reflexes are still those of an average person. It's why you have trouble keeping up with people like Robin in a fight. He's quick enough to bypass your defenses and get into hand to hand, which isn't your strength."

The slight blonde glared at her feet. It wasn't Robin she thought of when recalling a martial artist piercing her defenses like nothing. Her first encounter with Slade had been a humiliating defeat. He beat her while they were in a tunnel, underground! The only thing that had driven the relentless villain away had been her complete loss of control.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her teacher's concerned face.

"Don't worry about your speed. If speed was all that mattered, I'd never be able to tag that jerk Ranma, at all." He shook his head. "No, the reason you couldn't defend against my charge was because you were reacting, when you should have been predicting."

"Predicting? How could I…" A thought occurred to the young hero. "Actually, you did yell at me to defend myself… so now I just feel like a dope."

He chuckled in amusement then tilted his head back in what he obviously assumed was the direction of the camp. She caught his meaning and quickly grabbed his sleeve as she walked past him.

"Yelling warnings is a bit of a force of habit," he admitted ruefully, running his free hand through his shaggy hair. "In retrospect, I was really terrible at surprise attacks back in the day."

Ducking various branches, she continued to drag her lecturing teacher. "Anyway, that's what I plan on teaching you next. How to anticipate your opponent's attacks, predict them, so that you can act first, rather than react. With your power, it should go a long way to providing an impenetrable defense."

All too soon, they were back at the campsite, and immediately Ryouga went about packing up his things. She set about the same, already feeling the excitement building, not just at the idea of such cool new training, but of their promised change of venue to the desert.

Terra loved the desert for some reason. Maybe it was the fact that it was vast tracts of empty land with no one around.

"So, how do you learn to predict people's actions? Is it some kind of telepathy trick?"

Her mentor spent a long moment meticulously rolling up his sleeping bag into a tight bundle before responding. "Nothing so easy, unfortunately." He shook his head, the expression on his face reflecting deep distaste. "Remind me to tell you about the Headmaster some time."

While she was still working on the first pole of her tent, he was already packing up the cooking gear.

"To start, it's mainly focusing on your senses. Hearing, vision, touch, even smell. Taking in every detail around you and noticing even the smallest details." Ryouga paused his work to take a quick martial stance. His fists tightened until his knuckles went white and he ground his feet fiercely into the dirt. "The sound of tendons stretching. The sharp intake of my breath. The tensing of the muscles in my legs and arms. If you can perceive all those details, understand what they mean, then you can begin to analyze just what I might be planning to do next."

Terra stared for a long second, watching her teacher's muscles move in so many interesting ways beneath his tight t-shirt. Realization at just what she was doing struck, and she spun around on the spot, her cheeks tingling again.

She coughed loudly into her fist before slowly turning back. "Uhh, that sounds pretty cool, but how can you possibly be analyzing every tiny detail every second of the day like that? It sounds exhausting."

Relaxing once more, Ryouga tucked his toe under his umbrella before kicking it up into his hand and placing it on his pack.

"Well, that's the best part." He offered her a fanged grin. "Once you get used to doing it, it just kind of… happens on its own. It forms the basis of what we call your Dairokkan, or your Sixth Sense, I suppose. Some people also call it Sakkijutsu, though that's a bit more specific as 'sensing killing intent' as opposed to just general awareness."

"Killing intent? Is that even a thing?"

He nodded gravely. "It's deadly serious business. My own sakkijutsu is pretty good. I've done things like catch arrows shot at my back and the like." He gave a rueful shake his head. "Now Ranma though. His sakkijutsu is insane. I've seen him literally dodge attacks in his sleep."

Her eyes widened in awe. "How the heck does he do that?"

"Well, if I knew that, I wouldn't have missed!" Ryouga gave an evil laugh as he dropped his pack to the ground to use as a stool while she continued her distracted packing. "That level of awareness, I think, gets more into the esoteric arts, with ki and whatnot…"

Her teacher rubbed his chin in thought. "...Though, I've actually made a few leaps in sensing ki myself, with all the work of restoring you. Maybe it's worth a try…"

"Hey! Worry about your training on your own time!" Terra barked with a wry grin. "You're already the super martial artist, after all."

Ryouga waved off her ire, gesturing to the rest of her gear that needed to be packed up. "I'm only as good as I am because I don't stop training. Besides, haven't you heard that the best teaching flows both ways? You learning from me is the goal, but that doesn't mean I can't learn from you as well."

She took a few moments to finish packing before hefting her own pack. Luckily, Sarah had taken the bulk of Kasumi's 'supplies' with her for the kids, so she didn't need to drag a small island with her anymore. Seeing she was ready, Ryouga stood and donned his pack as well.

"This training is more important than you think, though. This isn't just about protecting yourself from your enemies. It's also about protecting everyone else from you, as well."

Terra paused at his words. "What do you mean by that?"

A familiar darkness reached up around the edges of her heart at the reminder of being a danger to those around her.

Ryouga scratched his head in thought for a moment. "Well, I'm sure you've seen videos of people sneaking up on, or just bumping into martial artists or soldiers, only to have them freak out and hit the person, or throw them or some other such reaction?"

She nodded. Beast Boy had shown her a few 'prank' videos that involved the prankster getting a face full of knuckles for their trouble. When it came to fight or flight, some people just went with the former.

"Now, if you're in wartime, those aren't the worst reactions to have. However, considering we live in a modern city, where virtually one hundred percent of people you run into are just going to be normal, good people, what happens if some random person were to bump into me-" Ryouga then swung his arm to his side with deceptive grace-

And blasted a twelve-inch chunk out of the tree standing beside him in an explosion of splinters and bark. With a loud groan the trunk splintered and listed to the side before collapsing to the earth with a tremendous crash. Once the dust cleared, Ryouga gestured to the downed plant.

"And I reacted like that?"

Terra felt the blood drain from her face at the visceral demonstration. It suddenly occurred to her that this wasn't just a lesson that Ryouga was making up, whole cloth, for her benefit. This was an issue that he lived with, something that he had to be on constant guard for. As strong as he was, even the smallest mistake could be…

As terrifying as the implications were, both for him and herself, she felt… elated for some reason. This was Ryouga passing on his own life experiences, letting her inside his head, just the tiniest bit to see a glimpse of how he saw the world.

How delicate the rest of the world must look to someone as powerful as Ryouga.

It was different from how she saw the world. Less a world of tissue paper, and more a video game. While he might destroy anything he touched, her problem was that the earth itself responded to her slightest command. If she were to randomly punch a transgressor, honestly, most people might barely even notice her strike.

But if she panicked, even for a moment, and unleashed her power on an unsuspecting innocent… What Ryouga did to that tree could very well be a mercy.

Terra chewed on the tip of her thumb, the taste of dusty leather on her tongue. Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy, even Raven… especially Raven, whose problems were far closer to her own than she wanted to admit. This must be something they all dealt with all the time as well.

However, this was the first time anyone had really explained it, demonstrated it, and really drove the point home for her.

Thinking back now, she could think of more than one case where something had startled her, and things had… gone wrong. Slade had been all too eager to recount the trail of destruction that her inexperience had left in her wake before she met the Titans. Perhaps if she had met Ryouga before all of this started, all those years ago, if she'd received his guidance back then, she might have avoided so much pain, her own, the Titans, and everyone else she had hurt.

"Ryouga, are you going to teach this to everyone else, too?"

Having waited patiently for her to finally respond, he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. Starfire already has her own training. Cyborg has his safety limiters. And Raven is, well, Raven." He must have seen something on her face that made him uncomfortable, as he quickly added, "Still, it never hurts to ask. Though, I'm not even certain I can teach it yet. Let's figure you out first before we worry about the others, okay?"

She nodded, feeling a small, relieved smile slip onto her face. "Alright, so what's the first step?"

Gesturing for her to take the lead, Ryouga tucked his hand into his bulging pocket, causing the acorns within to rattle quietly. "Well, we need to start working on your spatial awareness. And, lucky you, I think I might have just the training method to help." He offered her a fanged grin. "So, lead the way, and I'll explain as we walk."

Shrugging her narrow shoulders, Terra spun on her heel, already having planned out the best way to get to the desert from their current location. It would be quite a few hours of walking, but at least they'd be accomplishing something on the way, from the sounds of it.

The would-be-Titan was curious as to just what her teacher had cooked up for her. Maybe pointing out things around them in the forest and seeing if she'd notice them? Or maybe he had come up with some kind of crazy walking meditation? Something that made you glow, explode things, and get lost all… the… time…

Terra noticed, rather abruptly, that the only sounds she could currently hear were her own footsteps kicking up fallen leaves. It might just be her, but she was pretty sure that 'explaining things' usually involved things like 'talking' and 'being present'. Slowly, she turned to glance over her shoulder, where she expected to see the familiar form of the walking disaster area that was her master.

Dread began to build in her gut as she failed to see any combination of green, yellow or fang behind her.

"...Ryooouuuga? Are you-"

A keen whistle was followed by a sharp thwap and Terra sprang over a foot into the air. She landed a second later, vigorously rubbing her posterior, already feeling a welt forming. On the ground, she saw the culprit, laying on the ground, staring up at her mockingly.

A single acorn.

Ryouga's familiar laugh drew her attention to a tree a few yards away, as the martial artist stepped out into view. In his hand, he effortlessly juggled three more of the accursed nuts.

He shook his head in mock anguish. "What a shameful student I have. Can't even avoid an acorn moving that slow? It looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us here."

Terra could only stare at him, incapable of processing everything she was feeling in that instant.

"Did you… just fire an acorn... at my butt?"

He nodded, oblivious to her tone. "And you didn't even attempt to defend yourself. But don't worry, we have a few good hours to practice while we walk. Once you get used to listening to your surroundings more carefully, you'll be blocking these things in no time."

It took several long moments of deep breathing to finally swallow down the surging wrath that was bubbling over within her, but, gradually, she tried to process what he was saying. Absently rubbing her sore cheek, she grumbled, but tried to analyze his meaning.

Listening to her surroundings? Well, she supposed the idea made some sense… in the way that anything involving Ryouga made any kind of sense, anyway. All she had to do was train herself up so that she could hear the acorns coming, and then block them? At least it wasn't as bad as the whole boulder training. As long as she was focused, and didn't let herself get distracted, there was no way it could be too har-

Thwap!

"Mother F-"