Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 characters except for Rodney Tendo in this Fan Fiction are creations of Rumiko Takahashi and are hereby used without permission.
This Fan Fiction may be freely redistributed, as long it is not changed from it's original form unless permission is granted from the author. Notification must be given to the author when this Fan Fiction is redistributed.
A few things happen in this fanfic that you will understand better if have read 'Ranma 1/2:Adjustments.' Those who haven't read it to give you a quick summary: The narrator Rod Tend" and his family decided to go on a vacation to China, and one of the last places they decided to visit was the Accursed Springs at Jusenkyo only because his dad received a brochure for the place and decided that it should be a safe place since an Amazon village was nearby and, 'it's gotta be safe, since somebody built a village nearby.' And Rod fell into Spring-of-Drowned-Girl. Afterwards Rod has to go live with his cousins, yup you guessed Akane, Nabiki, and Kasumi, because his family ran into a few financial troubles.
This chapter is best understood if Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of "Ranma 1/2:Teachers"
have been read first.
They can be found at: .
Start Date: 06-02-2005, 22:50 CST End Date:06-13-2005, 01:56 CST Chapter 4: Mysteries and A Final Match
Under normal circumstances she would not have been running full-tilt with
her chest unbound but these were far from normal circumstances. All she could
think about was finding and severely incapacitating whoever or whatever did
that to one of her friends, not to mention one who's main and only defense was
a hammer and a few nails at best.
"Get your dark, incompetent, sorry ass back here!" Rod yelled once the
dark figure was in view. "I'm gunna get you if it's the last thing I do"
"Let us hope that's not the case," came a cool calm voice from the dark
figure which stopped and turned to face Rod. It was a man, face was long and
thin, dressed in such a way as to not to revel much more. "I would hate to see
such a beautiful young lady such as yourself die for a lost cause"
"What the hell do you mean by 'lost cause"
"There is no way that you could beat me. Anger is clouding your judgment
and even if you weren't angry your skills are so pitiful that they don't even
compare"
"Just because you can pick on defenseless kids doesn't mean that your
powerful, it means that your no better than a street thug"
"He wasn't completely defenseless, that hammer of his... I don't have any
more time to chat, it was a pleasure meeting you, but I must take my leave"
and with that the dark figure made a smokescreen by way of bomb. Rod tried to
chase the figure through the screen but when she got through the person was
gone.
"Damnit!" Rod swore. "I had him right in front of me and he slipped
through my fingers!" She punched one of the walls that line the street to
relive stress, a rather large crack formed in it.
"So how is he doc?" Rod asked as soon as she got to Dr. Tofu's clinic.
"He'll be fine," Dr. Tofu responded, "just some major brushing and a
concussion"
"That's a relief, I was really worried about him. Is he awake"
"No, he's under some light sedatives right now. His parents said they'd
be right over to see him so I think it'd be best for you to go in when they
leave"
Rod nodded knowing that Dr. Tofu had some good reason for it. "I'll go
wait in the lobby"
"Are you okay? You look as if his condition is your fault or something"
"Close."
"I'll have a couple towels sent out for you and Ranma"
"Thanks allot," she turned and walked off toward the lobby where Ranma
already was sitting.
"How are you holding up?" Ranma asked.
Rod sat down and leaned back in a chair next to Ranma, "I've certainly
been better. The freak who attacked Gosunkugi disappeared in a cloud of
smoke"
"Do you think it's human"
"Yeah, probably just somebody who bought some cheap smoke bombs from a
fireworks stand or something. What I want to know is why he attacked
Gosunkugi"
"Same here. Say, what was the project that you and Gosunkugi were going
to work on? It wasn't on some strange old artifact was it"
"Kinda, the project was on some gem that was supposed to improve all
aspects of a warriors performance in battle"
"So why wasn't Gosunkugi affected by it"
"Good question. What's really messed me up is the fact that I'm training
to beat Kuno, yet this has thrown me for a loop. It's as if this was thrown in
as a spacer before me beating Kuno"
"If you say so. At the rate you're going it won't be long until you'll be
able to beat him"
"Thanks in major part to Shampoo, Ukyo, Akane 'n you," Gosunkugi's
parents walked in, talked with the receptionist and were escorted to their
son's room.
"Nice to know that they got here okay. Anyway, I just want to see yet
another person wipe the floor with Kuno"
"Take him down a notch eh"
"Yeah, his kind need to be shown that their not bullet proof."
'How did I get here?' Gosunkugi thought to himself opening his eyes. 'Saotome
must've brought me.' He noticed a young woman who fell asleep in a corner of
the room that he seemed to recall from somewhere but he couldn't quite put his
finger on it. 'She sure is pretty. Oh well I'm just glad she here, it's nice
to know that at least one girl, aside from my mom, cares about me. If only I
could have a conversation with her more than just, "Hi! Bye!"'
She began to stir, she looked around the room as if to recollect how she
got in the room.
When she saw that Gosunkugi was awake she spoke softly, "How do you
feel"
"Fine," he responded.
"Your parents have already visited you. They went back to your house
after they were told you would be okay"
"Have you been in here since I came in"
"Naw, I waited until your parents left. I don't suppose you would want
your parents asking who the pretty young girl was that was concerned about
you"
"Good point considering the fact that I don't even know your name"
"We haven't exactly had the time for a conversation." 'Should I tell him
my real name? I doubt he'd know that it's an English name for a guy... But I
can't risk it. Since it would be the only other person he knows with an
English name and it doesn't take a genius to out two and two together.'
"What about that guy that ambushed me, did you get him"
"No, he disappeared before I got to him, sorry"
"That's okay, it just means that me 'n my friend will have to change our
school project to something else"
"That's alright, I don't mind." She mentally slapped herself on her
forehead for forgetting that he did didn't know that she was the he of which he
already knew.
"That's nice of you to say but why do you care"
"Uh..well..that is to say"
"You're probably bummed out because you wanted me to wait until you got
the artifact back"
"Uh, sure"
"Why did you help me again? Or at least try and help me"
"You needed help so I gave it to you. Why not"
"Well, I don't really have many friends at school and I've never had a
girl friend before"
"Ho, whoa, back up," Rod said waving her hands in front of her, face
slightly red. "I'm not your girl friend. Sorry to burst your bubble"
"That's not what I meant. I was just saying I've never had one"
'I need to get some air... And a proverbial needle so I can put out my
minds eye.' "You were in trouble so I did what anybody else would've done. I
know that Ranma's helped you out a few times"
"Saotome? You know him"
"Sure. I live with him." Rod felt like smashing her head into the wall,
'Oh great, I've done it now'
"So you live at the Tendo dojo"
"Yeah"
"You must know my friend Rod then"
"I guess you could say that.
"That would mean that," he counted on his fingers, "eight people live
there"
"That's one way of looking at it. But I'm just in town for a short
while"
"Oh..." Gosunkugi looked sad.
"But don't worry, I'm sure we'll meet in the not-too-distant-future"
His face brightened, "Really"
"Sure, you never know when you'll need somebody to bail your butt out of
another situation." She looked at her watch, "I better get going"
He sat up, "Well, it was nice talking to you."
"Same here," since she couldn't bring herself to hug him she offered her
hand which he greatly took and shook. "I hope to see ya down the road"
"You too," with that she left. 'Boy, she sure was nice: I barely know her
and she tried to get the artifact back. I can't wait until I meet her next
time, I hope it'll be soon.'
As time passed, Rod got stronger and gathered more skill, mystery attacker still at large. (In case anybody cares, Gosunkugi made a full recovery as planned.) After reaching a consensus, Ranma, Shampoo, Ukyo, and Akane decided it was time to test Rod's skills. The plan was simple, Rod was to try to hike up a rather small mountain and get there in one piece within twelve hours. If he did he passed. When explained in full detail Rod agreed, considering it would be interesting to see Ukyo and Shampoo cooperating with each other, while working with Ranma. Also it would give him the chance to see his own progress.
Rod's first steps into the challenge weren't exactly the best in the
world. Of all the possible challengers, a tree root seemed to be his greatest
one he'd ever faced.
'This isn't going as well as I planned...' Rod thought pulling himself
up. 'Okay let's try this again, shall we?' He set off in the direction of the
small mountain(isn't that a contradiction of terms?). 'What traps did they
set up I wonder'
He approached a small clearing, in front of him was a pile of obvious
looking leaves and branches. 'Mmm hmm, do they really think they can get me
with that?' He backed up a few steps and ran, jumped over the leaves, and onto
the other side.
"Too easy," and as he was about to walk away he heard cracking from
beneath him. "What the..." the ground seemingly cracked beneath him and let
him fall into a pool of water about seven feet deep(the hole the water is
sitting in, the water itself is four feet deep.
Rod could hear laughter outside the hole, a woman's laughter. "Is still
too easy?" Rod heard a particular Amazon ask.
"Clever," she heard Shampoo jump off into the distance as she stood up
and rung out her hair.
She heaved her pack up out of the hole and tried to scratch her way up
out of the hole. After about five minutes of getting nowhere and getting dirt
under her nails she decided to try a trick she'd seen Jackie Chan use once: by
jumping off alternating walls of the hole she was eventually able to hop her
way out.
After not too long she was already half way up the mountain with out too much
trouble-
"If you want to call ninja monkeys and a demon cat 'not too much
trouble!" Rod interrupted the narrator.
Would you not interrupt me! I have my job and you have yours.
"Oh"
Since you can't do anything about it.
Rod just grumbled as she made her way up the mountain. When she saw a
hooded person standing next to a drawbridge. "You have got to be kidding me"
Nope.
"Who's writing this crazy fic anyway"
Talk to the writer, he's one level up from me.
"Geez... I'd like to see him doing this."
Considering he's got no skill-
Don't make me come down there!
Yes sir!
As she approached the drawbridge the person spoke, "Only those who pay me
may cross the ravine that my bridge crosses"
'C'mon, certainly they could've found something better than this...'
"Well lesse..." she dug around in one of her pockets and produced a handful of
lint, a button and a tissue that exploded in the washer. "I don't suppose you
accept lint as a form of payment"
"Not even maybe"
'I didn't want to have to use those but if I have to...' "Well, what
about a nice look at these!" she pulled open the front of her gi and exposed
her chest that she hadn't gotten a chance to bind.
The person laughed and lowered her hood to reveal a young woman with
long black hair, "And what do you expect that will get you"
Rod's face started to turn a faint red color, "Uh, I was kinda hoping you
were a guy... Guess not," she carefully closed the front of her gi.
"'Hoping you were a guy'! How dare you parade yourself like a cheap
hoar anytime you can't afford something!" she drew a sword from a sheath at
her side.
"Whoa, no need to get hostile. I just want to get to the top of this
mountain so the first phase of my training will be completed--Hold it did you
just call me a hoar"
"That is what I said, yes"
"Alright, that's it. I challenge you, if I win you will allow me to
cross free of charge, if I lose however...you may do with me what you wish. Do
you accept my challenge"
"Sure, I have many things for you to do for me"
Rod threw her pack to the side and bowed toward her challenger and took
her stance, "You get first honors"
"Why thank you." She raised her sword and swung it down, creating a high
pressure wave of air to come at Rod.
Rod braced for the impact, it knocked her back a few feet when it hit.
Considering the phrase "the best defense is a good offense" Rod decided to
give up her normal strategy of reacting, to attacking and seeing her opponent's
reaction. Also the fact that you can't really react if a swordsman lobs off a
limb kinda helped that decision.
She charged and attempted a jab at an obscure pressure point that is
supposed to put the person to sleep, instead she ended up prodding one of the
girl's squishy objects that dwell on her chest(I don't really like typing
the word.
Now, the typical reflex kicked in for the woman, in one shot Rod was up
and over the edge of the ravine down from whence she came.
'Note to self:' Rod thought, 'never try to hit that point on a mature
woman--scratch that, don't even think of it. It wasn't even smart to try it
on somebody that was still evasive. I don't have time for this' She stood up
and made her way back up the mountain.
"The whelp has returned I see," the sword-girl said. "Ready to admit
defeat yet"
"Not even close. Why don't I try..." She closed her eyes, and after a few
seconds they flew open, she raised her arm and shouted: "Zephyr!" A burst of
air shot off toward the sword-girl, it wasn't much but it knocked her off
balance and allowed Rod to get a few severe blows in.
"What sorcery was that"
"Just a blast of air, no more different that yours"
"I see. Do not think you have beaten me," she raised her sword. "I am far
from being beaten." She charged in at Rod.
Rod had learned that anytime somebody with a sharp object comes near you
it's not a good thing. So rather than run she decided to counter the charge by
running in herself. (A\N, Imagine here one of those fancy scenes where the
two warriors charge at each other and get one strike as they flash past,
thanks!)
They waited for the effect of each others attacks. They both fell, the
sword-girl to the ground while Rod managed to stay up on her knees clutching
her arm that had a nastily cut on it that was bleeding badly.
"I lie defeated, you may pass," the sword girl said. "Just leave me and
go"
"Not a chance," Rod said.
"What do you mean"
"What kind of gentleman would I be if I let you out here alone, I'm
guessing, with those injuries"
"Gentleman? What"
One pot of hot water later.
"I must be delirious," she rubbed her eyes. "How did you do that"
"It's a curse. May I inquire as to your name"
"It's Shimizu"
"Shimizu-san? I'm Rodney Tendo, nice to meet you. Well I must be going
now," Rod stood up and put on his pack. "It was a pleasure meeting you, until
next time," he walked up the road, and past the bridge.
'If I were a group of martial artists,' Rod thought looking around, 'who
were testing my trainee, what would I do next?' His stomach growled, 'I
suppose it would be smart to do anything on an empty stomach,' he reached
around to the side of his pack and tried to open a side pocket, but instead he
was met by a furry leg of something. He grabbed it and pulled it toward the
ground in front of him revealing itself to being a small monkey that was
clutching his supply of food(a box of Nutra-Grain bars.
"A little monkey huh? I didn't know they lived in Japan... Come here you
little bugger," he started to inch toward the monkey who in turn started to
stand up and inch toward the trees. "Oh no you don't!" he lunged for the
monkey but by the time he got to where the monkey was it was already hopping
through the trees howling it's head off. "Of all the days..." he dropped his
pack to the ground and gave chase through the trees which were at top level
since they were by a cliff.
Which, of course wasn't the best idea considering the weight difference
allowed the monkey to easily hop from limb to limb while allowing Rod to
almost fall about every other branch. The monkey ended up running to a panda
which it handed the box to.
"Whatcha doin' here Mr. Saotome?" Rod asked.
I'm not this 'Saotome' you speak of, was the response by sign, I'm
just your ordinary neighborhood panda.
"Mmm hmm sure. Would you mind giving those back so I can get on my way"
I would in fact mind.
"Or should I give Mrs. Saotome 'before and after' shots of your morning
battles that end up in my Uncle's koi pond"
Fear flashed over Genma's face...or at least Rod thought he saw it, it's
kinda hard to tell with a panda, You..wouldn't..
"Are you willing to test that theory? I'm sure Nabiki has a few shots she
can line me up with," Genma handed Rod the box. "Thank you, now if you will
excuse me, I have other business to attend to," he climbed back up one of the
trees and toward his previous location munching on a bar from the box.
Most of the rest of the way up the hill was fine until he reached the last
plateau before the top. (Kind of a nifty mountain i'n' it)
He looked across it spying a certain kendoist waiting for him.
"You've finally arrived," Kuno said.
"What is the meaning of this?" Rod asked.
"Isn't it obvious? Certainly someone of your intellect can figure it
out"
"A rematch, how fitting," he let his pack fall to the ground.
"Ready to lose again?"
"I'm better than you think. I trained with some of the most brilliant
martial artists and I have to say that your odds of winning have just about
dropped to zero"
"Oh I like challenge. But I believe that no amount of training will help
you"
"Pity," he walked toward Kuno until he was twenty feet away from him.
"The best of luck," he bowed to his opponent, "and may the best man win," he
took his stance.
Kuno drew his bokken and raised it in front of him, "I'm sure I will"
Ranma jumped up onto a rock at the side of the plateau and said, "This
match will between Rodney Tendo and Tatewaki Kuno. The rules are as followed:
the winner is declared by either a knock out, or a surrender. No time limit is
in place. Now let's have a nice clean match, it will begin in 5..4..3..2..1
BEGIN!"
End of Chapter 4
I personally hate cliff hangers but y'all will just have to suffer until the
next chapter :-P. (Assuming of course I have at least one person that is
following my series... Send me an e-mail if you are...please?) Just incase
anybody is wondering the next chapter should be the last if all goes well.
Any stray story ideas would be much appreciated. So until next time, see
ya. (In case you are about to skip over my "Credits" I changes a few things so
it would be greatly appreciated if you were to read it bows thank you.)
Credits:
Writer:
d3jake
Newest Pet:
Bill the Duck
People Who Keep Me Going Everyday: In case you hadn't noticed, this changed
between my third and fourth chapters. This is because they do more than
just keep me laughing, they keep me alive in a manner of speaking.
Without them my life would cease to have a direction or purpose. So in
effect they are my life, not my brain pumping electrical impulses to my
heart, by those who I interact with every day.
All of these people I don't think I'll ever forget as well as the fun
times we've shared. I thank them all for those moments and those yet to
come.
A Good Portion of My Teachers, Past And Present
(in case you glanced ahead I added honorifics to these people's names to try
to show a their part in my everyday(at least during the school year)
life)
brutus87-kun
Celeste-sama
ChemAngel-chan
Kaiko-chan
JDHack-kun
Joseph C-sama
Misa-sama
My Parents and Relatives
Starath-chan
Squall-kun
vergessen-kun
And Two Girls From the School Bus
"We're all gunna die"
"It happens, but miracles happen too"
'Rattrap' to 'Rhynox' (Beast Wars, Season 2, "Coming of The Fuzors
Part 2)
End of Document