Mario: *Slurrrp* Ahh, that's some good stuff. Huh, wha, oh it's you guys. Well listen the author does not own Ranma 1/2 and any characters in said series they belong to Rumiko Takahashi, ok see ya.
Sonic: That introduction sucks.
Mario: What ever as long as it keeps the lawyers away.
Chapter 4 Hmm…
"Damn." He said to himself as he landed softly on the ground. 'How could I have dropped it, it's the one half of the key. Aaa… oh well… I guess it just means I'll have to break into the room rather than just sneak in. Hmm, and I guess it means heading to this worlds hell, or whatever it's called here is pointless. Although completely dominating them and destroying them would be fun, especially that damachiko, what's her name… Hili… Mili …Hild, ehh… whatever, her name won't be important for long, especially when I get through with her.' Looking down on the city the figure smiled. "Heh… turning this place into a new hell is definitely going to be fun, hehehehehe…hahahahah…HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" Calming down from his laughter the figure yawned. 'Hmm… getting tired, guess I might as well get some sleep, after all waiting one day isn't going to make the destruction of this world any less fun.' Smirking, he calmly walked into the house. 'Although I do have to wonder if someone's found the first half of that omni-key thing.' Sigh. 'Oh well, either way, this is gonna be fun.'
---------The Next Morning---------
'Ok, so… why are we out here again?' Ranma asked as Diamond stood still and was speaking in an unknown and language to him. Sure he could understand the katas that she was doing before but now he couldn't understand why they were just standing, and why she was now talking like an idiot.
'To train.' Diamond answered.
'Yeah, that I got, but…what are you doing now?' Ranma asked.
'I'm going over spell incantations.' Diamond said.
'And, why is that so important?' Ranma asked, bored.
'Simple, it's training to get better at using magic.' Diamond answered.
'And, how will this help us?' Ranma said with a bit of worry.
'Hmm…Truthfully, with our luck, I don't really know but it can't really hurt to have some magic on our side, especially with how often it's used against us, and besides being able to use it in a fight can definitely give us an edge.' Diamond answered.
'It sounds stupid to me, besides I've had enough magic in my life for a thousand years.' Ranma said, angrily.
Noticing the anger in his answer Diamond decided to stop talking about magic, and decided to focus on another problem that they needed to solve. 'Yeah, well anyway let's think about something else, like that thing we found last night.'
'Ugh, not that thing again, jeez why are you always asking about it when you know my answer, let's get rid of the damn thing.' Ranma replied.
'Well while I can understand where you're coming from, I just get this feeling that the thing we found last night is something valuable, that it might help us out with our problem.' Diamond said.
'And just how do we know it won't make things worse, every freakin thing I run into usually makes things worse for me, or screws me over in some way, whether it's a cure or, something one of my rivals or fiancées got.' Ranma said, with a large amount of annoyance.
'Heh… and just how would it make things worse for you, right now you're just a voice in my head, you have no body, and… and just imagine what everyone's going to do when they find out your just a voice in some-ones head. To me the only way things could get worse is if I went crazy and decided to make out and offer myself to any guy that I came across, especially the old perv and Kuno.' Diamond said, with a slight bit of humor.
If he had a body Ranma was positive that he would be shivering in fear, being guy crazy and offering himself to Kuno or the perv, that definitely would have made his situation worse, and would be one of his worst nightmares, ranking right up there with his nightmares about the cats. 'Okay so things, can't get that much worse, although they still can. Anyway we still have no idea of what that thing will do, and even if we did, we have no idea of how to make it work, for all we know it could blow up in our face if we used the stupid thing the wrong way.' Ranma said to her.
'Well then it's a good thing that were in an open field, huh.' Diamond said as she pulled out the object that they had found last night.
'What, you brought that thing here ?!' Ranma said in shock.
'Of course, if were going to get anywhere we use what were given. Now let's see, how do we make this thing work.' Diamond said. She rolled the object around in her hands. It was spherical, with multiple lines connected in an intricate pattern. It felt warm in her hands as she held it. Looking over it she saw that there were multiple circles on it as well. 'Okay.' She said, as she raised a finger.
'This… definitely isn't gonna end well.' Ranma said, as Diamond brought her finger down and pressed on of the circles.
'Okay…this is new.' Ranma said, as nothing had happened.
'Hmm… maybe I need to press more buttons.' Diamond said, as she began to press more buttons. She continued to press buttons on the sphere with nothing happening, after a few minutes of press the buttons on the sphere Diamond began to get aggravated. 'Grrr…Dammit! why won't this stupid thing do anything!' Diamond yelled.
'Heh, I'm just glad nothings going wrong right now. Heheheh' Ranma said while lightly laughing at Diamond's attempts to get the sphere working.
A few minutes later Diamond was still trying to get the sphere working. 'Argh! This is stupid.' Diamond said, while hearing Ranma's laugh in her head. Rearing her arm back, Diamond flung the sphere away where it hit and fell to the ground.
'Hahahaha… so, the little sphere wasn't such a big help to us after all now was it.' Ranma said smugly.
'Ehhh… I guess it wasn't, dammit! I was so sure that it would be important to us.' Diamond said, sighing lightly.
'Oh well, I told you so. At least you got rid of it before it got us into any harm.' Ranma said smugly.
'Yeah, I guess, that is…a…good….' Diamond stopped speaking as she looked at where she had thrown the sphere. The sphere was now glowing and floating in midair. Ranma immediately stopped feeling happy as he saw what Diamond was seeing.
'Ok, so it does do something after all.' Ranma said, as Diamond continued to look at the glowing, floating, sphere. He was definitely sure that thing was going to make things worse for him, and was furiously trying to think of a way to have Diamond get them away from the sphere.
'Ranma don't bother with thinking about how to get away from the sphere. We're not going to get free of something this strange, so we better figure out everything we can about it.' Diamond said as she headed towards the sphere.
'But, this thing is a problem waiting to happen, like Jusenkyo!' Ranma said.
'Yeah, it is like Jusenkyo, and that means that walking away from this thing will probably be pointless, since it'll still find a way to screw with us.' Diamond said.
Ranma wanted to say something to disagree with her, but he couldn't come up with a good enough answer, and truthfully he had to agree with her. He had often thought about how his life would be if he had not gotten cursed a Jusenkyo. At first it would always be that his life would instantly become better, that the solving of that one problem would cause everything to fall into place and fix all of his other problems. However as he thought more about his life and dealt with more and more problems caused by his dad, he began to realize that getting rid of the curse would probably do nothing to really help his life. In fact the more he thought about it the more he began to suspect that if he did get cured of his curse it would probably just cause him more problems. He half suspected that if he had actually cured his curse that another on of his pop's idiotic promises would show up, and with the way his life worked it would be a guy claiming to be his new fiancé. And then after his new fiancé showed up a bunch of people who had also gotten cursed would also show up and try to get him to reveal how he had gotten cured, and it would just so happen that they would all be practitioners of some half unknown form of martial arts that he would have to beat and then they would hang around and mess with his life even more. Then just because his life wasn't bad enough they would develop crushes on his rivals and fiancées and continue to fight him in a vain attempt to win over one of his fiancées. And that was just if he had gotten cured, with the way things go in his life he was afraid of what would happen if he hadn't gotten cursed at all, because every time he thought about it, it would always lead to his life being worse than it was now, and that was something he did not like to think about.
'Ranma, look at this!' Diamond said to him, breaking him out of his speculation about how his life could have gotten worse. As he saw what Diamond saw Ranma was sure this wasn't going to end well, and would probably pull him into a whole new level of weird.
In front of them the sphere floated in the air. It glowed lightly as if floated. There were see through screens floating in front of it. Walking slowly towards it Diamond looked at it warily. 'Wow, this thing looks a lot like one of those computer screens Nabiki uses.' Diamond said.
'Yeah, it does.' Ranma answered, unsure of what he should do.
'Hmm…I wonder…?' Diamond mused, as she walked closer to the screens.
'Diamond.' Ranma said, with a slight bit of worry. He really didn't want to deal with the sphere, it just caused his danger sense to go haywire, of course pretty much everything did that to him, but this thing was on a whole different level.
'Don't worry, I just wanna try something.' Diamond said to him as she looked at the screens. 'Hmm… this one looks like the searching thing Nabiki uses on a computer.' Touching the screen, it quickly enlarged as the others shrunk. "Hmm… now let's see, a-t-t-a-c-k s-p-e-l-l-s." She said as she typed in the words.
Immediately, multiple screens jumped forward, with multiple lists of hundreds of attack spells. Diamonds face spilt into a massive grin as she saw what was in front of her. 'Hmm…which to look at first, so many choices, so little time.' Touching one of the names on the lists, the others quickly shrunk as new screens appeared.
'Hmm… this seems interesting, a wind spell.' Looking over the screen, Diamond read the incantation to use the spell. It was a bit longer than what she had tried so far, but that was to be expected since she was about to use a much more powerful spell than she had ever used before.
Standing up, she calmed herself down, since she was still quite new to channeling her mana and was a little confused on what the scrolls had meant in their descriptions. The descriptions in the scrolls she had read had said that it was similar to gathering chi, which had also confused her a little. The scrolls had stated that mana and ki were similar in the fact that they could be gathered using a strong emotion, but the thing that was strand and had confused her was the that the scroll had stated that gathering ki and mana using a strong emotion would dilute it making it less focused and weaker rather than if it was gathered calmly. It had really confused her since she remembered how Ranma had learned to use ki which was due to the Shishi Hōkōdan and using emotions, however deciding to think about that later she concentrated on channeling her mana. As she concentrated she felt the serene warmth similar to a heart beat along with a faint feeling of something else, ignoring it for now Diamond began to speak the incantation for the spell.
"Spirits of wind from beyond the stars. Heed my voice and gather to me. Together let us show true fury and destroy our enemies! Hurricane Blitz!" Diamond yelled, as the mana she had been channeling surged forward. The spell launched off of her hand and as he watched with in her head, Ranma could only think of one thing, which Diamond voiced. "Oh Sh!t!"
The spell formed into a massive hurricane as it flew threw the air, and tore threw the trees, tearing them out of the ground and destroying the ground below leaving a long trough from where she was standing to when the spell first went off.
'Diamond!' Ranma screamed inside her head.
'Yeah, yeah, I know, lets just concentrate on getting out of here right now!' Diamond screamed back at him as she ran towards the sphere and quickly yanked it out of the air. "Umm…uhh… turn off." The screens immediately disappeared, leaving both Diamond and Ranma thankful. "Okay, now we gotta get outta here." Diamond said, closing her eyes.
'Get outta here, how the hell are you gonna do that? Wait, how the hell did you get out here in the first place?!' Ranma yelled at her. 'Simple you're about to find out.' Closing her eyes, Ranma began to feel energy well, up. It was similar to both chi and the stuff that Diamond had used to cast the spell, but it also felt like something more, something greater. As the energy built up to a point Ranma heard her say in her head two words, 'Chaos-Control' and they were gone.
---------Scene change-------
Ran left the house of the woman he had questioned about his life in low spirits. He was really beginning to hate learning more about who was impersonating him, not because it made him angrier at the person impersonating him, but because it actually made him more and more glad that he had been impersonated. He leaned his back against a tree as he closed his eyes and thought about how he had started to do this.
-----------Last Night---------
Ran had come back to the Masaki household late that night, glad that everyone was asleep. Sitting down on the couch he sighed as his mind reflected on what he had learned this that day.
"Hmm… and what has got you so down?" A voice said surprising Ran. Jumping up and turning around landing in a fighting stance Ran looked at the source of the voice. In front of him stood a diminutive red-head, smiling up at him. "Aww, did I spook you." Washu asked jokingly.
"No, Washu-san." Ran quickly found himself with a very large gun in his face.
"Now, now, didn't I tell you to call me Washu-chan." Washu said to him, a smile on her face as she threatened him.
"Y-yeah, Washu-chan." Ran said, hoping to avoid being shot by Washu's gun. He had only been back for a little while but one thing that he had quickly learned from everyone else was that you do not want to be on the receiving end of one of Washu's weapons, especially if it's a new one that she wanted to try out.
"Okay then." Washu said putting the weapon away. "So what made you so sad?" She asked.
Looking at her Ran sighed. "Well when I went to the place where my father had been staying, I got a rather nasty surprise." He said as he sat down. "It turns out that as soon as I had left my dad had found another person to replace me with and it turns out the person is a little girl. I mean if they had gotten a guy, then I could understand that, even if the guy had been younger than me, but to get a little girl to impersonate me that's just ridiculous, and the people he has been staying with see nothing wrong with it at all." He finished exasperated.
"Hmm… that sounds pretty bad, what are you gonna do?" Washu asked.
"Ugh… I don't know?" Ran said as he looked upwards.
"Hmm… you want some advice from me?" Washu asked.
"Yeah sure." Ran said not really listening.
"Well you should find out more about what went on during that training journey, you've been gone for a while so some things have happened that you don't know about." Washu said.
"Hmm… you know that isn't such a bad idea, but I have no clue as to where they went on the training journey." Ranma sighed closing his eyes, opening them he saw a circular object being held in front of him.
"Well then I guess that this will help you." Washu said.
"Thanks, but umm… what is it?" Ran asked.
"Oh that's easy it a continuously updating global positioning and tracking device. It has information on all of the people that Genma met and all the places that he's been to. It has enough power to track someone through out the galaxy quite easily. You just press the button, and follow the blinking dots. It's so easy not even Mihoshi could mess it up." Washu said triumphantly.
"Okay then, I'll get going tomorrow." Ran said, as he yawned.
----------Present-------
And that had lead him to his current situation. It seemed that every time he had found out something about what his dad and the little girl had been doing while he was gone, the more he was feeling worse and worse for the little girl who had been impersonating, and glad that he hadn't been here to deal with what his pops had been planning on doing to him. Sighing he pressed the button on the tracker and a holographic display of the world appeared before him. "Which one, which one…" He said as he looked at the blinking dots on the world. "Hmm… he went to china, he must have had some reason to go there, I probably should check it out. Hopefully it won't be any worse than what I've already found out." He said quietly to him self as he took off for China. As he flew towards
China he could only say one thing. "Hopefully what ever he did there won't be as weird as what I've seen."
-----------Scene Change--------
Nabiki sighed as she leaned back in her chair, she was annoyed, and it was all because of one reason. 'What the heck is going on?' She thought as she continued to lean back. 'This is a freaking mystery.' She sighed as the thought passed through her mind. Truthfully there were a lot things she could tolerate and wouldn't get under her skin, a mystery often piqued her interest, but that was when the mystery didn't concern her, when it did it immediately got under her skin. She prided her self on her intelligence and one of the biggest blows was not being able to solve a mystery, and here now was a major mystery that would definitely affect her and she had no idea of what in the world was going on. 'Okay, relax Nabiki, lets go over what you know about the situation. Okay you know that there are currently two Ranmas and right now neither of them are at home. One of them is a little girl, which could possibly be just a curse making him Ranma, but something just felt wrong about that. The other was a completely different guy that had no idea of Jusenkyo, or magic, but had some major martial arts skills, and some serious power, but there was something wrong with that as well, and the only thing that makes sense is that I'm not getting the full picture here, there has to be something I'm missing, that I can understand, the only problem then is how do I get the information. I could ask them but I've already done that and besides neither of their stories match up, and then there's the fact that that Ran person seems dead set on proving that he is the real Ranma, and with his power, if any of the usual people aren't careful, there could be a major problem. If only there was a way I could find the information that I need, but it's not like there's a computer that has all the information in the universe and could tell me what I need, it would be like if heaven had a com…pu…ter….' Nabiki immediately sat up. 'Yggdrasil, if I could get to that computer then I could easily find out whatever I wanted, all I need is a way to access it.' Nabiki thought with a smile on her face. The smile however soon turned into a frown. 'Crap, the only person who could access the thing is mom, and she's gone to do something, which means that I have to wait for her to get back and that could be major trouble, especially if things come to a head like they usually do. Crap if only I could access it now.' Sighing as she thought of how close she was to figuring out this mystery only to have it snatched away. 'If I just knew how to access it.' Nabiki rested back on her chair. 'If only I could access it' she thought as she closed her eyes and began to go to sleep.
----------Scene Change-----------
Akane sighed as she balanced herself on top of the thin round pole. She could not understand why they were dealing with being able to balance. When she had been woken up this morning in order to go train she had thought she would actually be learning techniques, instead she was currently wasting her time balancing on a pole. She had been at it for hours and she was getting tired of it. A few minutes later she had had enough, looking at her teacher who was sitting on the bank of the river she yelled, "Hey, why are we doing this?! I mean you're supposed to be teaching me how to fight not how to balance on a flimsy piece of wood!"
"It's simple, it's to help you with your balance." He said to her.
"I know that but why do I need to train my balance I can already balance on a pole, so when are you going to actually teach me something I could use?" Akane asked.
Standing up a smile spread across his face. "Simple," jumping on to the pole causing it to shake and knocking her off balance causing her to fall off.
*SPLOOOSH*
"When you can fight me on this pole." Heishiro said, smiling down at her, as she stood up water dripping from her soaked clothes. Crouching down, he stretched his arm out towards her with his hand open.
"No thanks." Akane said as she batted it away. "I can get out on my own." Walking over to the side of the river bank and began to climb out ignoring the fact that she was currently soaked with water, she only got a little bit off the ground before that fact made itself known. She lost her footing and grip on the rocks she was using to climb out and quickly fell back into the water. Rushing back towards the surface she heard the sound of laughter and looked up to see Heishiro laughing. "What's so funny?!" She yelled at him.
"Oh you, you looked cute as you were falling." Heishiro said, a light smile on his face.
Akane blushed slightly as she heard him call her cute. Getting up, she decided not to ask him if he really thought she was cute for now, and instead asked him another question. "Well, then are you going to just sit there laughing or are you going to help me up?"
"Sure, but are you going to accept it I can't really help you if you won't accept it." Heishiro said to her.
"Yes, yes, I'll accept it just get me outta here." Akane said impatiently.
"Ok, ok." Heishiro said as he reached out his hand to help her. Reaching up she grasped his hand and found herself lifted up effortlessly. Setting her down on the side of the river where they had set up there things.
"Well, I think that's enough for now, we'll get started on the balance training again, but for now lets get some thing to eat." Heishiro said.
"Good, I'm starving." Akane replied as she eyed the food. They had been up since dawn, when he had rudely awoken her and she had found herself by the river. He had then laid out a pole and told her to balance on it. She had done it for hours and hours, getting a little better each time, but also getting a little more frustrated each time when she fell, and wondering why she was even doing the balance training. Noticing a plate being handed to her she eyed the food that was in-front of her and quickly began to dig in.
Heishiro eyed her as she began to eat. He was surprised that she had so much talent and yet hadn't been able to even use it yet. Truth be told he had actually been examining her while she was balancing on the pole, and had found a massive, almost bottomless amount of potential in her. He could only imagine as to what wonders she would be able to do when she was fully trained, and that was just in her martial arts potential, she also had other potentials that were waiting to be released. He had noticed them as well, and while he wasn't as skilled in probing them they felt just as bottomless as her martial arts potential. He had to wonder, as he took a bite of the sandwich, why he had been chosen to train her, he wasn't even fully finished with his own training, heck he had just finished mastering all of the basics and was just now moving onto the more advanced stages. She would most likely surpass him if she had been with a real master in about two weeks, with him it would probably take about three weeks. A somber expression passed over his face as he thought about how short a time it would take for her to surpass him, he would really have to train hard to keep up with her, it made him a little bit jealous, but surprisingly enough he also felt a little proud. He had been chosen to help train someone who could one day be the greatest martial-artist in the world.
*SPLASH*
Looking towards where the sound had come from he saw Akane climbing out of the bank a few minutes later, dripping wet. A small chuckle of laughter escaped from his mouth quickly growing audibly until it was a full blown chortle of laughter.
"Hey!" Akane shouted at him capturing his attention once more. "Don't just sit there and laugh, you're supposed to be training me, so start training!"
Heishiro smiled as he got up. She might have the potential to be the greatest martial-artist, but right now she was his student, his funny little student.
--------------------That Afternoon----------------
'Ok, so what are we going to do now?' Ranma asked for the sixth time as they sat on the futon. He was curious and very, very bored. Since she had cast the spell that created the massive hurricane blast, Diamond had been deep in thought, and had yet to say anything to him, and it was really starting to annoy him. He thought about yelling at her to get her to say something but decided against it, he had already done it twice and it had no effect either time, so he doubted that trying it a third time would do any better. Resigning himself to asking her about what he was doing when she came back Ranma began to relax and let himself drift into sleep.
"Huh, Wha…!" Ranma said as he woke up. Sitting up immediately he looked around the room. He saw everything where it was originally, including the sphere that had taught Diamond that Hurricane spell. Standing up Ranma walked over to the sphere and grabbed it when it dawned on him, he had walked and grabbed something, with an actual body. Waving his arms a smile broke across his face.
"yes…Yes…YES!" He said happily as he clenched his fist joyously. 'I have my body back.' Was the thought that ran though his head as he waved his arms, dropping the sphere. Jumping up he landed on the sphere and nearly tripped. He managed to catch himself before he fell down and made a large sound.
"Ok, Ranma calm down. You may have a body again but you've still got a lotta problems. You still don't have your body, you've still gotta deal with Diamond, and that fake, and that's not even thinking about how much trouble figuring out what to do with something like this is going to cause." Ranma said as he looked at the sphere. It was round and smooth and simple, but he was aware that just hid all of its power and secrets, and if any of his normal rivals found it and managed to use it, then he was in deep trouble, especially if there were more things like that typhoon that Diamond had made inside. Sighing Ranma walked back over to his futon. Sitting down on it he let out a sigh.
*Crack* *Krinkle**Crack*
Jumping back up Ranma looked at where he was sitting just a few moments ago. There was a piece of paper with a something written on it. Picking it up he began to read it.
"Hey Ranma, listen, I'm sorry I was ignoring you for so long. I was just a bit overwhelmed with how much power that spell has and had been looking over a lot of the other spells that it had. That thing is amazing it can do anything! Check it out, you definitely won't be disappointed. In order to activate it press the three buttons on it in this order top-top-bottom-top-middle-top-middle-middle-top-bottom-middle-top-then twist it. Got it, good, oh and don't be surprised if you suddenly lose control after completing a technique, it just means that I've woken up ok, ok, night."
Ranma looked at the note, rolling his eyes as he read it. Yeah use the thing that's probably going to screw him over even more, was the thought that ran through his mind, but he had to admit he was a little curious as to what else was still inside of it.
"Heh" Ranma laughed as he laid down on the futon, 'It might even have martial arts techniques.' He thought jokingly before sitting up quickly as he considered the possibility of the sphere having martial arts techniques inside of it. It wasn't impossible he considered after all it had a spell that could create a typhoon, and the amount of names he had seen had been enormous. If he used it and found even got only a little bit of names compared to the spells it would still be amazing. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Ranma grabbed the sphere and held it in his hand. Reading the note he pressed the buttons on the sphere in the pattern that was shown on the note and twisted it. The screens from when Diamond had activated it immediately appeared.
Looking at them for a few seconds Ranma quickly found the one that he was looking for.
'Ok, now to see if this thing can actually be useful.' Taking a deep breath Ranma spelled out m-a-r-t-i-a-l a-r-t-s t-e-c-h-n-i-q-u-e-s. Pressing the button after he finished entering what he was searching for.
Immediately dozens of screens appeared in front of him. Each of them filled dozens of hundreds of martial arts techniques. As he watched them fill up in-front of him a smile began to spread across his face.
'HOLY!? This…this…this is unbelievable, all these techniques, just… here, free, for the taking…this…this is…it's….' "heh…heheh…Heheheh…HAHAHAHAHAHA!!" Ranma laughed in glee as he looked at the techniques in-front of him and then looked at the sphere, oh this was definitely going to be something that he would keep around. Grabbing the sphere and pressing the top button as he had seen Diamond do before in-order to turn it off, Ranma ran out of the room, down the stairs and out of the Tendo Household the massive smile etched on his face as he ran. Not even noticing that Nabiki had spotted him.
-----------------Scene Change-----------
Nabiki sat down with a cold drink in her hand as she relaxed and considered what she had just seen after she had woken up from her nap. One of the candidates that could possibly be Ranma had just run out of the house, a big smile on her face and was holding a strange looking sphere in her hand. Now truthfully it wasn't that strange to see Ranma run off, usually Ranma would run off because of a technique, a cure, or a challenge, and if it was one of those things then she wouldn't have even thought about what was happening, since it would, in a little bit of a twisted way be normal, but this time things were different. For one thing she wasn't sure if the person she had seen was even Ranma, and second there was the fact that the one that did seem likely to be Ranma seemed to have a bit of a split-personality. Then there was that sphere she had been holding, there was something familiar about the design on it, she had seen it somewhere recently, she was sure of it but… she just couldn't place it.
Cupping her chin with her free hand Nabiki sighed as she considered what she should do. 'Hmm… alright, enough of this sitting around, I'm going to get some answers.' Getting up she walked up the stairs. She didn't bother to be discrete or quiet, since no one was there was no reason for her to be with no one there. Once she had reached the top of the stairs she quickly walked to the room that Ranma and his father had been staying at. She smiled as she looked into the room.
'Geez, as soon as something catches your interest you forget about everything else, although I guess it would be just like Ranma though, heh.' She thought. Smirking she took a step into the room and looked around. The girl had been carrying something, and she was positive that whatever the girl had been carrying was somehow related to why they had two people claiming to be Ranma.
Looking around the room Nabiki didn't notice much wrong with the room. It looked just the same as the other times she had seen Ranma's room. Although the fact that there was just one traveling pack was not lost on her. Continuing her look around the Room she spotted the open closet. Taking a step towards it she heard a sound.
*Crinkle**Crinkle**Crack*
The sound immediately caught her attention. Looking downward she saw her foot on top of a piece of paper. Smiling she crouched down and picked up the piece of paper. 'Hmm, now what do we have here…?' She thought. Looking at the piece of paper she quickly read it.
'Hmm… well that solves the problem of which one is the real Ranma, although it does raise more questions.' Nabiki thought as she looked up from reading the note that had been left for Ranma. Setting the paper back down on the futon, Nabiki left the room and headed back down the stairs.
Sitting back down Nabiki closed her eyes and sighed. She now knew which one of the two Ranma's was the real one but, while that did help her out a little it worried her much more. She had seen how the other Ranma had fought, and while she wasn't a martial artist even she could feel the amount of power that person held, it was far beyond what any of Ranma's normal rivals could manage, and seemed to be on the same level as that Saffron guy Akane had told her about. Remembering what Akane had told her about what had happened when Ranma had gone back to Jusenkyo, Nabiki shuddered. That Saffron guy sounded like a monster, which Ranma had just barely managed to beat and now there was this other person who was claiming to be Ranma, who was possibly more powerful than that guy, it was truly frightening especially when she considered why someone of such power would even bother trying to pretend to be Ranma. And then there was the fact that the person who had actually turned out to be Ranma was hiding something, the fact that that person could use magic, and Ranma seemed to be a spirit that was along for just the ride, was just another reason for her to worry. Sighing as she grabbed her cup and drunk it she shuddered again, with all this weird stuff gathering around she was sure that soon something was gonna break, and that when whatever it was that broke did break… well… it would hit the fan and with what Kami-sama had told her about helping Ranma she was going to be in the middle of it all. Sighing she looked up at the ceiling 'Heh, well, worst comes to worst I can at least make a few bucks… hopefully.'
-----------Scene Change----------
Duck, dodge, block, duck, duck, block, dodge, jump, dodge. That had described what Akane had been doing for the last few hours while she had been training. Heishiro had her start doing it when she had finally been able to balance properly on the pole, even when the pole was in motion.
That was what she and Kasumi had been watching Akane do for the last few hours. "Surprising" She said, catching Kasumi's attention.
"Hmm…what's so surprising?" Kasumi asked her mother, a look of curiosity on her face.
"Oh, it's just that Akane's advancing so well. Even though the drink did increase her ability to learn, she must have had a freakish ability to learn to be able to learn things like that so well and so fast." She said to Kasumi.
"Wow, that's amazing." Kasumi said, her hand on her chin s she watched Akane continue to train.
They sat in silence as they watched Akane continue to train. She continued to duck, dodge, block, and jump, as Heishiro continued gaining speed. Neither of them looking at each other for the time, as they were both lost in their thoughts.
*Splash*
The sound captured both of their attention as they saw Akane, sitting in the stream dripping wet. Looking up Akane began to yell at her Heshiro. Seeing her yell at her teacher, both of them began to snicker which grew to chuckling, erupting in full blown laughter.
Calming down a few moments later Kasumi looked at her mother as she continued to look at Akane. Taking a deep breath Kasumi spoke to her mother.
"Mother." She said
"Hmm…yes Kasumi ?" Her mother asked.
Deciding to get right to the point Kasumi asked her mother the question that was had been on her mind "Why are you back so soon?"
"Heh… I was wondering when you were going to ask me that. Well the reason I'm back is because…of well… it's actually because of two reasons. The first and foremost being that I wanted to see my precious girls again." She said to Kasumi a gentle smile on her face.
"And the other ?" Asked Kasumi.
"The other reason is to watch." She said a sad look on her face.
"Watch what?" Kasumi asked worried.
"That…that's something that I can't really say much about but I do know that what I'm supposed to watch over will have something to do with Akane and Ranma and it will be very important for them. I can't say anything more than that though." She said looking downward sadly.
Seeing the sadness on her mothers face Kasumi decided to stop asking and focus on something else, something that would make them a bit happier.
*Splash*
Hearing the splash once again both of the spectators looked towards the source of the sound. They found Akane once again sitting down dripping wet. She looked a bit bruised and tired, surprisingly though she began to laugh. As she laughed a feeling of relief spread through them as they to began to laugh. As Kasumi looked at her sister she thought about both Ranma and Akane, about how they would argue, about how the would fight and about how they would come together. Smiling as she thought about that she spoke to her mother. "Mother, I don't know if what is going to happen with Ranma and Akane is going to be good or bad, but I do know them, and I know that those two can overcome anything together."
Looking at her daughter she was shocked but as she looked at Kasumi's smile she couldn't help but feel that her daughter was right. "Hmm… well if you look that sure I guess I'm going to have to take your word on Akane and Ranma, but I do have one question."
"What it that mother?" Kasumi asked.
"Is Ranma training like Akane?" She asked, a curious smile on her face.
"That's something that I'm absolutely sure of." Kasumi said to her mother a smile on her face.
----------------Scene Change---------------
"DAMMIT!"
Ranma yelled as he pulled back his hand. twitched in pain. "Ugh… I don't get it." He said as he sat down. Sighing he closed his eyes and began to think, what was he doing wrong. He would gather his chi, form it into a sphere and then make it start to spiral, he would then launch the attack, using a tree for the training dummy. That was what he was supposed to do but the technique just wasn't working properly it would quickly pop, and disperse and he just couldn't figure out why. According to what he was shown in the instructions for the technique, it was supposed to continuously grind at the object and then explode, but it just wouldn't work for him and he was beginning to get frustrated.
"I'm doing everything right so why is it that the technique isn't working."
'Maybe it has something to do with how you're gathering your chi.' Diamond said.
"What the?!" Ranma said shocked.
Looking around he looked for Diamond but couldn't find her.
'You didn't forget that you're in my head right.' Diamond said.
"Wait don't you mean you're in my head." Ranma said to her.
"You really did forgot didn't you ?!?!" Diamond said , crossing her arms and taking control back from Ranma.
'What ?!? No, of course not, and hey, give me back control.' Ranma said.
'Ok, ok.' Diamond said as she released control back to Ranma.
Feeling control flow back to him, Ranma jumped up. Landing softly she stretched and waved his arms around, proceeding to toss a few punches into the air. Feeling satisfied that he was back in control Ranma leaned back against a tree and breathed a sigh of relief.
Opening his eyes Ranma looked up, the sun was beginning to set.
'Jeez, I've been here for so long and I still haven't gotten anywhere close with that stupid technique. Dammit!' Ranma thought.
'Hmm… so you haven't been able to get that technique to work have you.' Diamond said.
"Grrr… so what if I haven't gotten it yet, I'll get it eventually, after all there hasn't been a technique that could beat Ranma Saotome." Ranma said out loud as he began to laugh.
'Heh… I don't doubt it but if you don't want to be as old as the old perv by the time you get it, I've got a bit of advice to help you out.' Diamond said.
'Yeah… while you may be good with that magic stuff you should leave martial arts to me.' Ranma said a smile appearing.
'You do remember that in a weird way I'm you and you're me right.' Diamond said.
'Umm…' Ranma said, unsure of how to respond to Diamonds' statement.
'Ehh…forget it, just go back to training.' Diamond said, as she took control and rolled her eyes.
'Sure.' Ranma said as he felt control return back to him, surprised that Diamond could take control so fast and easily, especially with him not even feeling anything.
"SONOVA!!" Ranma yelled an hour later. He had been training furiously trying to get the technique to work and he had absolutely nothing. It was beginning to seriously piss him off.
'Hmm… well I thought for sure the great Ranma Saotome would have managed to get a simple technique like this.' Diamond said, laughing.
'Grrr…. Shut up, besides it's not like you can do it either.' Ranma said.
'Hmm… you're probably right, although then again…' Diamond trailed off.
'Hmph if you think you can do it then why don't you prove it.' Ranma said angrily.
"Alright then." Diamond said out loud as she took control again.
'Hmm… the technique you were working on was the Rasenbakuha… spiral blast huh.' Grabbing the sphere Diamond activated it. The screen quickly jumped out at her awaiting her query. Entering in the name of the technique she crossed her arms as the screen brought up dozens of techniques with the name Rasenbakuha. Cupping her face with her hand Diamond sighed exasperatedly. 'Umm… Ranma which one of these techniques were you trying to learn? '
'I don't know. When I saw all these techniques I just wondered if this thing could show me the strongest one and the all switched around, and then I just picked the one at the top.' Ranma said to Diamond.
'Hmm… ok then, I think I got it.' "Show the strongest technique." Diamond said. She smirked as she saw the list of techniques rearrange its self. When it was through she selected the one that was listed at the top.
'Hmm… ok now lets see what Ranma was trying to learn.' Looking over the technique she noticed that the word chi was blinking. 'Hmm… now what's this.' She thought as she touched the word. Immediately a new screen jumped up displaying new information.
'What the hell?!? ' Ranma said as he saw the new screen.
Looking at the screen Diamond crossed her arms as she read it. Smirking she closed the window and looked back at how the technique was performed. Looking over the screen she turned around and looked at the tree. Relaxing herself, closed her eyes and felt for her chi, finding it she committed the feeling of it once again to memory along with the subtle almost unnoticeable feeling of another kind energy. Concentrating on her chi and performing the technique she formed a small sphere of chi in her hand and then created an outer shell of chi around it, spinning the outer shell faster and faster the chi within began to react becoming slightly unstable yet contained. Spinning the outer shell even faster Diamond tossed the sphere into the tree where it grinded through the tree and then exploded as it hit the next tree destroying it.
'How the hell did you do that!' Ranma yelled, shocked, at Diamonds ability to perform the technique.
'I simply followed the instructions.' Diamond said, a smile forming on her lips.
'Oh hell no, there is no way in hell you just followed the instructions. You did something and I wanna know!?' Ranma said to her.
'Hmm… well I do have an idea of why you couldn't do it, but I'm not sure… why don't you try it again.' Diamond said as she gave control to Ranma.
Ranma felt control returning back to him, as a frown appeared on Diamonds face. What the hell had she done, that was the thought that was running through his mind. What she had summoned as chi was different form what he normally felt when he summoned chi. The chi felt almost completely devoid of any emotion different from the chi that he had used, but…it also felt familiar, and not just because it was chi, he was sure he had met someone who used a similar way of channeling chi, but he just couldn't place it.
Deciding to just find out later, Ranma summoned his confidence and began to channel his chi again. Only summoning a little confidence to get the inner sphere the right size, he summoned a little more to create the outer shell. Next came the hard part, since it took movement to get the chi spinning unlike how Diamonds way of using chi did. Moving his hand around in a circular motion the sphere of confidence began to spin. Getting it up to a respectable speed, Ranma then tossed the sphere at another tree. The sphere drilled partially into the tree and then popped like a bubble.
Before his frustration at not being able to get the technique while someone else was able to get it on their first try had set in Ranma felt control suddenly slip away.
"Hmm... I think I know why you can't get this technique." Diamond said.
'And why the hell would that be!' Ranma yelled inside her head, sore from not being able to get the technique so easily like he did with so many others.
"Geez, calm down there's no need to get hostile. Anyway the reason why you can't get this technique is because of the way you're using your chi." Diamond said.
'And what the hell is wrong with how I use my chi! I've used it to beat tons of people and it hasn't failed me yet, in fact its been way more useful to me than you've ever been.' Ranma said, angrily.
'Um, Ranma, you're a part of me, which means that you've been using my chi to fight, so I've actually been useful to you for a quite while. In fact if you think about it, since you were created by me, if I wasn't around you wouldn't even be able to exist.' Diamond said chuckling, while leaving Ranma deflated.
'Anyway, if you're willing to listen now, I'll tell you why you've been having such a hard time with this technique, ok?' Diamond asked.
'Humph, whatever.' Ranma said, sorely.
'Well any way, you remember fighting Dragon Prince Herb, right? Well any way do you remember how his chi was so strange…?' Diamond said.
'Yeah, I remember.' Ranma said still a bit sore.
'Well the reason that his chi was so strange was because he wasn't channeling it in the same way you were channeling it.' Diamond said.
'Huh?' Ranma said.
'The way that he channeled his chi didn't use emotions like your way of channeling chi did.' Diamond said.
'Wait so is that why he was able to change his chi so fast?' Ranma said, now a bit curious.
'Yeah, instead of using his emotions and turning them into chi he channeled it in a more direct form. You see, because he channeled it in a more direct form it was able to do more, and was even able to be changed into an aura that surrounded his body allowing him to fly.' Diamond said.
'Whoa…so if I were to learn how to channel chi like this would I be able to fly to?' Ranma asked, a bit of excitement leaking into his voice.
'Well, yeah, I don't see why not, it is still using chi after all, just a different way of using chi.' Diamond said.
'Alright then, let's get started.' Ranma shouted as he tried to move to train, only to find that Diamond had not given him control. 'Hey, what gives? ' Ranma asked angrily.
'Listen Ranma, I know that you want to train but it's getting late and I would rather get back to the dojo, and besides we haven't eaten anything all day.' Diamond said.
Ranma started to retort, but was stopped as Diamonds stomach growled. 'Yeah, alright let's go then.' Ranma said.
"Alright, then let's get home. Chaos Control! " Diamond said, as they disappeared.
----------Scene Change-------
Heishiro looked onward amazed as Akane jumped from pole to pole. She was amazing, it had only taken a few hours but she had managed to gain excellent balance, something that had taken him almost a month even with the aid of the potion, and yet here she was managing to get excellent balance after about an afternoon of balance training, it was just unreal to him. Closing his eyes, he continued to wonder even more about why he had been chosen to train this person who was obviously had a massive amount of potential, especially since she could still be trained so well at this age. Someone with this kind of potential needed to be trained by a real master, not some student who had just barely managed to learn the techniques, it was really confusing, and the more he thought about it the less it made since. It just didn't make since, he thought as he sighed.
"Hey, I'm finished." Akane said as she ran up to him. She smiled happily.
'And she's cute to.' Heishiro thought as he saw her smiling, quickly realizing what he was thinking shook his head embarrassed that he would think something like that about his student.
"Hey! I said I'm finished." Akane said to him again to rousing him from of his thoughts.
"Oh are you, well then, lets head home for today then." Heishiro said as he began to stand up.
"What, but I wanted to continue to train, come on lets move on to the next step." Akane said, eagerly wanting to move forward in the first real training she had had in a very long time, and she would be damned if she stopped now.
"Umm… ok… well then, I guess we could start on the next stage if you really want to…"
"Of course I do! I'm a martial artist." Akane said, angry that her teacher would question her dedication to being a martial artist.
"Ok, Ok." Heishiro said, waving his hands in front of him in order to placate her. Reaching into his bag he got out two wristbands. "Ok now, Akane, these two bracelets are your next step of training."
"What?! Is that all, jeez I thought that you were going to give me some more actual training." Akane said as she looked at the two wristbands.
"Don't worry, these are definitely going to help you train." Heishiro said as he handed the two wristbands to her.
"Hmm… and how are they gonna do that…?" Akane said, very curious since she had dealt with her fair share of magical clothing.
"Put them on and I'll tell you." Heishiro said, smiling lightly.
Looking at the wrist bracers, Akane sighed and put them on. "Ok they're on." She said.
*OOMPH*
Akane fell to her knees as she felt a massive amount of weight on her body.
"What the heck?!" She said as she struggled to stand up. Hearing the sound of laughter coming from close by, Akane looked up and saw Heishiro laughing.
"Hey! What the heck is going on? What are these things?" Akane said as she glared at Heishiro.
"Okay, okay." Heishiro said as he saw Akane glaring at him. "Those bracers you're wearing are called limiter bracers. They cut the amount of power that the wearer is able to use at once by a certain amount."
"Okay, then so these things are supposed to train me train me by making me weaker?" Akane asked skeptically.
"No, no, no, this if anything is an advanced form of weight training. Basically it limits and drains your chi while acting as a training weight for you entire body making it grow stronger and become faster." Heishiro said explaining how the bracers worked to Akane.
"Oh…okay then. So now what should I do to train?" Akane asked.
"What you've been doing." Heishiro said.
"Wait, how am I supposed to train with these heavy things I can't even do the balance training." Akane said.
"Oh that's simple, you see the bracelets only affect your body, they don't affect the ground or anything else, so basically while your body feels like it's wearing weights, the ground and other things around you don't feel anything." Heishiro said.
"Oh… okay then, I guess." Akane said. She walked towards the pole, carefully, with great effort, she placed one foot on the pole, and then with a similar amount of effort she placed her other foot in front of it. One after another she raised her foot feeling the increased strain on her body, and walked across the pole, turning around she looked at what she had just crossed, a smile appeared on her face. Stepping back on she crossed the pole again and again, each time she felt the strain on her body as she walked with the weights, again and again.
Sighing Heishiro looked at Akane collapsed on the ground, asleep, a small smile appeared on his face. She had soon gotten used to the weight of the bracers and had started running across the pole, seeing her do it so soon was just amazing especially considering her strength, he hadn't told her but he had actually set the weight of the bracers to a high level and was quite amazed that she was able to train for so long at that level. Looking up he saw the moon shine down. 'Heh, guess it's time for us to go home.' Walking over to Akane he bent down and gently nudged her.
"Wha…?" Akane said as she woke up, a bit disoriented. Looking up she saw a face close to her own.
"AHHH! PERVERT!" Akane said as she quickly punched Heishiro.
"Woah!" Heishiro said as he dodged Akane's punch. "Calm down, calm down."
"How can I, you were about to do something perverted!" Akane said, angrily.
"What no way, I was just waking you up." Heishiro said trying to explain.
"Yeah right." Akane said, not believing him.
"It's the truth, I mean… sure you're cute and all, but I wouldn't try to do something with a girl while she's asleep." Heishiro said a determined look on his face.
Akane stopped as she saw the look on his face, and heard what he said. "Do you really mean that?"
"Of course I do, why the heck would I not mean it." Heishiro said, his face showing even more determination.
Looking in to his determined face Akane found herself believing him. "Okay then… I guess I believe you I."
"Whew… okay then." Heishiro said, looking up into the sky.
"Wait a second did you just say I'm cute?!" Akane asked a smirk beginning to spread on her face.
"Umm…uhh…" Heishiro stammered, scratching the back of his head, flustered.
"You did, you said I'm cute." Akane said, her smirk completely evident on her face
"Its been a long day lets go home so you can rest." Heishiro said, turning away to hide his blushing face.
"Ok, but don't think I'm gonna let this go." Akane said, laughing as she began to walk towards home.
"Oh man, I can't believe that happened. Oh well she is quite cute." Heishiro said as he began to follow her.
--------End of Chapter--------
Sonic: Huh, wha, what the heck is going on?
Mario: Uhh… I think the chapter is over.
Knuckles: What!?! Really, I can't believe it, I mean this chapter was started like what eight months ago, and is now just getting through.
Shadow: Yeah, I was hopping it would die to. Oh well.
Tails: So now that this chapter is over what can we expect in the next chapter.
Silver: Well according to the out line this was supposed to be the end of this ark and would allow the next ark to begin.
Sonic: Wait so you mean there's more of this… Oh God!
Mario: Just buck up and endure Sonic, just buck up and endure it.