Ranma no Kagakusha.
I own nothing but my waning pride.
I liked your reviews, and promised at least one of you I would update by the end of this week. Here's the chapter.
(S)
Ranma was walking downstairs to the living room after an uneasy nights sleep. His father had gone out all night to try and drink himself silly and get rid of his current "allergy" to sake and had been submitted to the hospital since the bartender thought he had gotten alcohol poisoning. And since it was the summer holidays Akane had no reason to wake him up with a bucket of water so he had a rare chance to wake up under his own power. He just hoped Kasumi had saved him some breakfast since he was up far later than the rest of the house would be.
His thoughts returned to yesterday's meeting with Nathan and he shivered violently. The first friend, or even teacher, who didn't have an ulterior motive, and he was going to die, quite possibly before Ranma could learn anything from him. More than learning new moves, Ranma just wanted this new player to hang around longer. The man acted like the father he thought Genma might have been if he wasn't drunk all the time.
His mind wandered all over the events of the past few days. Nathan had taught him how to stump Nabiki, had beaten his father by acting drunk, and offered to help Ranma in just about every way possible, and this guy didn't even know Ranma yet. Ranma probably knew more about Nathan than the reverse.
Ranma caught himself laughing as he thought about exactly what mess Nathan had gotten Nabiki into with a few well placed words. Nabiki had apparently ripped up the check, thinking it was bogus. When Ranma confirmed it's authenticity, Nabiki ignored the fathers' yelling and proceeded to hit her head against the floor for two hours straight, not noticing when Ranma put a pillow under her head five minutes into it. Nabiki had forgotten a very important rule. In Nerima, if you didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, it tended to bite.
Ranma seated himself at the table after getting some leftovers from the fridge. Nabiki appeared behind him, a small bandage on her head proved that if you hit your head against anything for two hours it's bound to do some damage.
"Ranma, who gave me that check?" Nabiki's eyes narrowed dangerously, she was in no mood to play today.
Ranma would've gulped if he hadn't been employing the soul of ice since the moment he had felt Nabiki's presence. His mind raced as he tried to come up with something that wouldn't endanger Nathan's ability to meet him.
"He's my new sensei." Ranma replied truthfully, hoping against hope she would stop there.
Nabiki was still too sleepy to pry for a name. "Then your meeting him today, right?"
Ranma nodded absently. He knew his mistake before the gleam made it into Nabiki's eyes.
"Good, I'll be joining you then." Nabiki said in a tone that broached no argument. Ranma just sighed and wondered how he would explain this.
(S)
Ranma and Nabiki walked slowly up the same main path Ranma had walked these past two days, Ranma all the while looking around worriedly. He cast half glances at Nabiki to make sure she wasn't going to do anything drastic.
Ranma spied Nathan slowly approaching them with an unexpected smile on his face. This was a far cry from the weak, depressed Nathan of yesterday, or even the happy, amusing, Nathan of the day before. His smile was cold and calculating, it reminded Ranma of Nabiki at her best. In fact it made the Ice queen look like a half melted slush princess in comparison. Nathan was wearing a black dress suit and came striding purposefully up the road with the aid of a tall, ornately carved walking stick, adorned with a small golden handrest that molded perfectly into his palm. Ranma noticed with shock that he was wearing his special gloves.
"Nabiki Tendo, well I can't say I didn't expect you to be here." Nathan said, apparently bored at waiting. Ranma's eyes widened at that, this was another new side of Nathan, and Ranma was starting to doubt how much he really knew.
"And you must be the bastard that's been messing with my family for the past two days." Nabiki said with a lot less emotion than humanly possible.
"You know too much for someone your age, you must be horribly unhappy, or a terribly cruel person." Nathan laughed a cruel laugh to mimic his cruel face.
"Why do you say that?" Nabiki asked coolly.
"Your spiteful sarcasm and suspicious disposition might have told me a few things. Why don't you tell me how your mother died?" Nathan's eyes narrowed as a large crack ran through Nabiki's cool façade, she now seethed with anger, and suddenly ran forward to strike the older man.
Nathan twisted the wrist of the hand that held the cane and a loud click emanated from the joint that separated wood and metal. His arm rose sharply, leaving the cane on the ground and revealing a two and a half foot long blade that had been concealed within. Nabiki slowed at that but what stopped her in her tracks was when electricity crackled around Nathan's hand and the gleaming surface of the short sword caught fire.
"I really wouldn't attack someone like that Nabiki chan. I don't relly on honour like most people you know. I have a few underhanded tricks and more than one place good enough to dump your body." Nathan sneered, "Maybe I was wrong about you, you are rather dumb after all. By your age I knew when to acknowledge my betters.
Ranma was outright shocked; he didn't know which Nathan was real. He would like to believe that the kind, gentle man he thought he knew was real, but if this struggle was any indication then Nathan could be better than Nabiki at tricking people.
He knew one thing though, Nabiki wouldn't survive this without his help. He jumped in front of her and turned back to see if she was okay, and was greeted with her cocky smirk.
"You may not rely on honor, but Ranma here sure does, and it's in the martial artist's code to protect those weaker than him." Nabiki said while patting him on the shoulder, "You're horribly outmatched."
"Ranma might be stronger than me, but I can probably do some things that are impossible for him to do. I'll kill two birds with one stone here." Nathan said, yawning while putting the sword back into his cane, extinguishing it's blade, smirking at the way Ranma's eyes widened and making a deliberate gesture out of clasping his hands together.
Ranma shot forward, the intent to end this written all over his face. 'I have to stop him before he charges those gloves or we're both dead!' Ranma may have been strong, but he held no illusions about being able to dodge lightning.
Ranma cocked back his fist as he shot along the ground; he was almost within striking distance when he noticed a thick string coiled around Nathan's thumb leading up to his sleeve. Ranma tried to pull back but his momentum was too great. Nathan yanked the string and the weights released, sending a blinding flash and releasing a cloud of smoke. Ranma tumbled through the cloud, landing crouched on his toes, waiting for the glare to clear. Ranma's danger sense screamed at him but it was too late, Nathan hit an instant paralysis point on Ranma side, and for added effect sent a few hundred volts into him. Ranma collapsed just as the smoke cleared.
With his last amount of control before the point took effect, Ranma swiped Nathan's legs out from under him and yelled "Run!" to Nabiki. She took his advice and was off like a rocket.
When Nabiki was out of sight Nathan started laughing, and it was once again the hearty, childish laugh Ranma had grown accustomed to.
"Get up Ranma, your fine." Nathan gasped out, wiping tears from his eyes as all remnants of menace vanished from his voice.
Ranma tested his muscles suspiciously, and found he could move them again; he stood and attempted to compose himself, but failed miserably, "But… What the hell!?"
Nathan only laughed harder at that, "I guess I have some explaining to do eh? Let's do it over lunch." Nathan picked up his cane and started walking, Ranma noticed strings pulling the weights back into Nathan's clothes, and now that they were open, he saw the hidden pouches they were concealed in.
Ranma finally got a hold of himself and appeared directly in front of the confusing old man with speed he thought he wouldn't have to use against anyone but the old ghoul.
"I want to know. Right now." Ranma growled out maliciously.
"Well, since Nabiki will be here with reinforcements soon, I suggest we talk while we walk." Nathan continued around Ranma, motioning for him to follow.
"What if I want them here?" Ranma asked with an edge to his voice.
"Why would you? A) You could take me on your own if you wanted to. B) They'll kill me before you get any answers. And C) I don't want to die yet, so you will be putting them in extreme amounts of danger." Nathan's cool demeanor gave Ranma shivers as he thought of the implied threat.
Ranma conceded and started walking alongside the other man, gesturing for him to start explaining.
"Ranma, Because of my political career I am a mastermind of manipulation, what you saw there was a combination of techniques I've developed. First, I forced Nabiki to attack me without reason, and then I gave her a meaningless threat to fear. Finally, I turned you against me with that threat, while still keeping you confused enough so you wouldn't do any real harm. If there had of been a policeman nearby he would have seen her attack me, me defend myself, and then you attack me. You would have undoubtedly gone to jail for assault and I would be off scot free because I'm a politician from another country, and that grants me diplomatic immunity unless I intentionally violate the law." Nathan said as they approached a small yattai across the street from the park's edges.
"So it was all a lie? But, why?" Ranma had calmed down, now knowing for sure that this new personality was the fake.
"It wasn't all a lie. Remember when I said I would kill two birds with one stone? That was the truth; you just took it the wrong way. I wanted to turn Nabiki against me, since that can be use full later on, and I wanted to teach you your first lesson. A human's emotions are more easily manipulated than anything else in the world; it took less effort for me to make you attack me than it does for you to summon your ki. Do you understand?" Ranma nodded once as they ordered.
"Yeah, it's just like anything goes; if you can get your opponent angry then he'll make more mistakes." Ranma accepted the yakisoba and dug in.
"Good although, I do have an ulterior motive for doing this. I hate people like Nabiki. Extortionists and the like. They make money at other people's expense without offering any real service. And although I loath to admit it, I am much better at what she does than she is. No blackmailer will ever beat a politician at manipulation. I've had to do things for my country that no one should ever be required to do. So, I'm giving Nabiki a taste of her own, bitter, ill affecting, medicine. Want to help?" Nathan rubbed his hands together, smiling darkly, this time though Ranma joined in after nodding his head vigorously.
"Excellent, now, how much money do you owe her?" Nathan asked. Ranma looked down and hesitantly mumbled out a rather large number.
"My my, she is busy. Nathan took out a wallet, paid the cook and counted out a large stack of yen, which he then handed to Ranma into two smaller stacks, one larger than the other.
"Nabiki will have told them everything, so we must be quick. When you get there, deny everything she says, but before they can ask you anything, give the larger stack here to Nabiki, tell her I gave it to you, while holding the other in your other hand. Then get out of there before questions get asked. When you get back I'll be ready to tell you the basics of the first technique." Nathan could almost see the gears turning in Ranma's head. The boy seemed to be getting smarter every day, absorbing all the information like a sponge left in a desert then submitted to rain. Ranma almost knew what Nathan's instructions would do when carried out. This was his first chance in a long while to get back at Nabiki for everything she's done to him. He was slightly worried about paying back the money Nathan just gave him, but this was worth it.
(S)
Ranma arrived at the dojo just as everyone poured out in full battle armour. Akane was in her yellow gi, a practice boken she kept in her room in her hands. Soun in samurai armor waving around a naginata. Genma panda charging his ki so much it was in the visible spectrum, he had ki collected around his hands in what Ranm a realized were vacuum blades, prepped and ready to throw. Ranma was surprised his old man still had the control to hold vacuum blades for so long.
"What's up?" Ranma asked the shocked group, keeping his cool and trying not to laugh at what he was about to do.
"Wha?" was the general consensus. Nabiki heard this and came running out.
"Ranma? But, I saw it, he got you… What happened?" Nabiki asked a bit more eloquently, doing an amazing job at hiding her distress at losing her cash cow.
"What are you talking about Nabiki? I only went to meet my sensei. I'm going back real soon too." Ranma almost flooded excitement at learning his first specialized super technique.
Nabiki was about to respond when she felt a wave of anger and ill intention wash over her from the martial artists behind her, she knew it was a bad idea, but she turned anyways.
"You lied to us…" and the chase was on. All over the back yard, around and in some cases through the koi pond. Nabiki proved that in the right situations, non martial artists are pretty damn fast too.
Ranma let this go on for awhile before phasing out of sight and appearing between the rampaging mob of three and the running trixter, holding the group back with one arm and stopping Nabiki by grabbing the back of her shirt. Everyone struggled for a moment, but stopped. When they did Ranma let go and fished around in his pockets.
"Before I forget." Ranma pulled out the large stacks of cash, "Here ya go Nabiki that should pay off my bill, right?"
Nabiki nodded dumbly as she counted the money, "Where did you get all this?"
"Sensei gave it to me." Ranma's disembodied voice answered her as he fled the area.
(S)
Ranma got back to the clearing in the park where this whole mess began and saw some fairly odd equipment being assembled. There were six framed sets of glass, each set had two panes spaced evenly apart, held in a metal frame with small slots in the bottom, between each set of glass was a layer of colored smoke. All of this was set up on six tripods, each about five feet from the other.
"Ranma, guhd timin muhboy." Nathan mumbled out around a wrench he had stuck between his teeth.
"What's all this got to do with training?" Ranma scratched his head.
"Wull, puhtoo Well this is the first ki technique I've ever taught, I wanted to see if they worked before I brought them to you, so you would have something to start with. I gave it to an old ki master friend of mine, he died shortly afterwards. But he learned it. So I know this one is possible. This smoke you see is lighter than air, so it rises to the top of the panes of glass, and gets trapped there. Then I put in more smoke until it went all the way to the bottom, so that there is a layer of smoke to work with. This will be the first step in your training. But first you need to know what ki is. From my point of view." Nathan got out another contraption, a small clear box, with a little metal pad inside of it; on the pad was a CO2 cylinder. Nathan set this up on a tripod far apart from the rest and walked far away, motioning for Ranma to follow.
"Ki, from a scientific point of view, is the natural energy your body produces to run off of. What you are working with is excess ki that your body produces because of your physical condition. Your body makes more ki than it can use, so you leak it, and then can mold it like you do with aura control and ki missiles. Ki is a unique energy in its stability. I doubt you could control fire as well as you can ki because ki is the most stable form of energy known to man. Martial artists are unique because their training produces two things. Their physical training produces extra ki, and their mental control training allows them to utilize it. Is that clear?" Nathan's voice had moved to a lecturing tone that Ranma was familiar with. It had truly become a teacher student relationship.
Ranma just nodded with a determined mask etched into his face.
"Then we shall start with a demonstration. This exercise is all about control, you need very little ki to actually pull this off, but you need an immense amount of self control. The amount you breathe out naturally should suffice." Ranma was shocked at this, 'Could a technique this advanced need so little ki?' Ranma almost didn't catch Nathan starting to talk again, "The CO2 canister you see there has an immense amount of carbon diokixde in it, it is so compressed that it is actually solid, and that is what you are going to do with your ki. Watch closely." Nathan put on one of the shock gloves and picked up a wire lying on the ground, leading to the metal plate on which the canister was resting. He sent an imperceptible jolt through the wire and the canisters metal surface crackled with energy before there entire clearing was treated to an explosion of sound. Ranma could feel it in his chest more than he could hear it.
"That canister was overfilled with CO2, a real one wouldn't explode with nearly as much force. But the point of the demonstration was to show you the potential of compressed air. You can compress air by pushing it between two layers of ki and then release it with that kind off explosive force. Or, by using a minimal amount of ki, you can harden a layer of air around you to create a permanent shield of solid air, it would be more transluscent than glass and its hardness would depend on how much air you put between the ki. This will come much later, but the first step is the glass." Nathan started towards the odd setup.
"This step took my friend two weeks and thirty panes to complete, you will have six chances, if you can't complete it by then i will give you the next set of glass and you will be expected to set it up yourself." Nathan took out a tarp and layed it behind the five sets of glass. It was an extremely large tarp, and reached all the way to the tree line.
"Now move to the first one on the left." Ranma did as he was told, "Now put these protecive clothes on, you'll need them." Nathan hand Ranma some gloves, a face mask with clear plastic over the eyes and a thin elastic strap to secure it, and an overcoat, all made from the rubber like substance that the joints on Nathan's gloves were made of.
"The material is strong, light, moderately flexible and slash proof. Which means it will protect us from flying glass." Nathan explained while he put on a similar getup.
"Now, flood the first container with your ki." Ranma nodded and manifested two thin streams of ki, one in each hand, and fed them into the slots at the bottom, Nathan eyed him carefully as the smoke moved out of the way and up, trying to find somewhere to go. Ranma kept slowly feeding ki into the container. He was about to ask what to do next when the glass shattered outward, spraying them and the tarp with shards. Most just bounced off of them but some stuck fairly deep into the armour.
"Looks like you failed this time, take those out and let's get started on the next. I might even help this time." Nathan smirked, indicating the glass sticking out of Ranma's body suit. Nathan moved onto the next and started instructing.
(S)
I'm going to end it here so I can keep my head from spinning. If you have any problems with the way I'm writing this just review with your opinions. I may not like them, but I'll always take them into consideration. This chapter turned out darker in the beggining than i would have liked it to be. Oh well, maybe next one will be happy.