Beyond the odd familiarity of the Ki signature, the other big reason 18 went to the trouble of tracking down and observing the fight between the locals was because of the oddity of having such large amounts of emotional Ki. Emotional Ki was exactly what it sounded like, saturating your Ki with a specific emotion, generally used temporarily to enhance. Usage of emotional Ki in small bursts was fine, encouraged even. In the data on the Saiyan's she'd been forced to go over, they reportedly used rage and pride on occasion, though after fighting Vegeta herself she suspected he used pride infused Ki a little too frequently when he was younger.
Ki manipulation itself was something her and 17 had just begun to seriously focus on before being taken by the Red Ribbon Army. It wasn't really covered much in what scrolls they had, so they only really understood the basic body strengthening aspect, and had only just begun to learn to project their Ki outside of their bodies.. Annoyingly enough, where they learned most everything 18 now knew about Ki was under Dr. Gero's tutelage. She still remembered the annoying humiliation of being lectured at by the old coot, made doubly worse by the fact that he was right. Her own Ki had started to take on hints of the icy aloofness she adopted to cope with her situation, which was manageable and able to be fixed without too much repercussion, while unfortunately 17's had been tainted by his overconfidence too much to completely erase the damage.
After all, it was 17's overconfidence that drove him to refuse 16's help with Cell. Even caught early, the emotional Ki had still influenced him enough that he disregarded reason when he felt he wasn't being taken seriously, regardless of the fact that he was in a life threatening situation.
Call it sentimentality or call it grieving, but to feel a Ki signature that was so much like her brother's from the before times drew her to the fight. Sure, she could tell herself that it was simple curiosity making her seek it out. But she knew she was lying to herself. She missed her brother, plain and simple. And to find someone with such similarities, she was drawn to it like a moth to an open flame.
Arriving at the abandoned lot to the scene of the fight, she was ruefully amused at how low level such a fight appeared to her now, as they were both probably stronger than her when she had been a normal human. The mutated beastman's fighting style seemed all about overwhelming strength, given its brutish stature and wide wild swings, while the teen that was fighting him actually had an appreciable amount of skill. He was faster, more skilled, and had a solid mind for tactics as far as she could tell. She also appreciated the ruthlessness she could see in him, willingly sacrificing his arm to rid himself of the tail keeping him in close quarters.
Watching the melee that ensued was even more interesting, as she began to see more of each fighter's style. The beastman's wasn't much to write home about, a simple brawling style that aimed to take advantage of his giant stature and matching strength. What was far more interesting though was dissecting the teen's style. The more she watched, the more she recognized his style. And as baffling as it was, she recognized pieces of her own style in his. Though, if 18 were to be completely honest, it was more accurate to say that his forms and techniques seemed to be a far more fluid and complete version of what she had learned. His footwork for instance was one thing 18 used in her own battle with Vegeta, when she was letting him just wear himself down. It was like subtly leading your partner in a dance, quietly influencing the strikes that would come by placing your body in certain positions, this way you would already have an appropriate block or guard up. At the highest of levels, it was as if you were reading their every move, while in reality you were simply manipulating them into using the moves you wanted them to use by feigning weaknesses and openings in your guard.
Then there were the combos that she recognized, that he seemed to just connect better. Block with your forearm, turn with the blow, use the follow through momentum to unleash a brutal back kick while tucking your body, simultaneously attacking and dodging a follow up strike. But while the string would've ended there for herself, the teen continued on, lunging forward with a stomp that led to an unfamiliar combo of blows that culminated with a heel strike to the chin.
It was fascinating, watching someone who seemed to practice the same style as herself, but actually had the proper training to get rid of the stiffness that herself and 17 had run into when trying to teach themselves. A lot of the flaws in her personal style had been forcibly smoothed over by the fact that she was monstrously more powerful now, but she had to begrudgingly admit that if they were on an even playing field, the human fighter would probably beat her.
But while 18 thought and analyzed, the fight didn't simply stop. Instead, it reached its grand crescendo, with a roaring Ki blast flying through the air at the lost in thought woman. So lost in thought was 18, that she barely even noticed the teens yell of concern until the last moment, where she casually swatted the blast into its intended target.
And with that, her attention was finally fully on the black haired teen. And her mind was instantly alight in a whirling storm of chaotic emotions. The teen didn't just have a familiar Ki signature or practice a seemingly higher form of her own school of martial arts. He also had those strikingly steely blue eyes and a wiry frame that emphasized speed and maneuverability over strength. He even had his hair in that silly braid that 18 would do for him in the mornings before he went off to school, when they would quietly listen to the radio and just enjoy the comfort of being together.
It was a punch to the gut, seeing what could only be described as her brother's doppelganger, staring at her with the same innocent curiosity and awe whenever she did something he thought was cool or interesting. A look she hadn't seen since that light had died in that lab.
"17? Is that you?" She numbly asked, although she knew the answer. Already her mind was no longer seeing the ghost she so strongly desired and was already working on spotting the differences.
"... What?" The pigtailed teen responded, as her brain filtered out the first difference, the voice. The timbre was wrong, and there was a bit of a country accent there that shouldn't be. He also seemed a bit more visually expressive than her 17, at least when out in public. The next thing she noticed was his clothes were unlike anything 17 would wear, which was reasonable considering 18 handled 17's wardrobe. The doppelganger was wearing silks, oddly enough, as if he was dressed and perpetually ready for a fight. Idly, she thought it a waste to not have him in better clothes.
"Hellooo? Are you okay? Do I need to get you to a doctor?" Her thoughts were interrupted by the hand waving in her face, unable to stop herself from noticing that there were calluses and scars present that weren't on her 17's hands.
"Huh?" She responded intelligently, shaking her head a little to regain focus on the here and now instead of on her inner turmoil.
The teenage martial artist pulled his hand back, tugging at his pigtail slightly in what she could only assume was a nervous tick. "Well you asked me that weird question, and then you looked like you were zoned out or something." He replied with a small shrug, though his nervousness seemed to recede and be replaced instead by a pure, almost childlike interest. "But that's whatever, tell me how you did that!"
The android blinked a few times, a little taken aback by his attitude, while also feeling a bit glad that he was different from 17. She hadn't planned on even being seen by the fighter, let alone confronted, so she felt like she was on the back foot in this social exchange. "What, you mean how I deflected your Ki attack?"
That earned a few rapid nods from Ranma, his mind already racing through the possibilities of the technique, and how it could be adapted and grown into something even better than the young woman's technique currently was. "I've never seen anything like it, I couldn't tell you how many times that would've been useful to know how to do."
Her sharp gaze tightened a little bit. "I could." 18 nodded blithely, causing Ranma to brighten up in cheer at learning a new and interesting technique, the first he could remember learning in a while. "But I won't. It would take too long to teach you, and I'm not exactly planning on sticking around here for more than a day."
Instead of the disappointment she expected to see, she was instead met with a clenched jaw and tightened fists, as if he was greatly offended. "Too long? I'll show you, I can learn how to do that in under a day. Heck, I can learn it in half a day! Just give me a chance to prove it to you!" He declared hotly, his ego having been challenged by her statement.
But the woman was seemingly unphased, just shrugging at him almost apathetically. "Probably." She responded plainly.
That time, she succeeded in actually taking the wind out of his sails, making Ranma face fault, an act that earned a cocked eyebrow from the blonde. "The heck? Then why'd you say it'd take too long if I could learn it in half a day?"
Her icy eyes studied the pigtailed martial artist a little more, as if she were mulling over the words she needed to let him down. "I'd need to teach you a lot more than simply how to deflect a Ki blast. The actual act of deflecting a Ki attack is pretty simple, you just need to coat your hands in Ki and brush it away like you would a punch. There's more to it than that, but at its core, that's all it is."
The girl carried on bluntly, unminding of the owlish look Ranma was giving her. "The reason it'd take too long to teach you is I'd need to guide you through purifying your Ki."
"Huh?"
She sighed. "Walk with me. I do have somewhere to be." The blonde stated plainly, turning on her heel and abruptly walking off. It took Ranma a few seconds to catch up mentally, before hastily jogging after the girl falling in step with her casual pace. "Uh… Why would I need my Ki to be purified? There's nothing wrong with my Ki reserves. Heck, I've got more Ki than anyone I know!"
18 briefly glanced up at the sky, shaking her head slightly as she subconsciously slipped into her role as big sister for her little brother's doppelganger. "Again, not the issue. The issue is that your Ki is tainted by emotions. Using emotional Ki isn't inherently bad, but what is bad is when you only use emotional Ki, like you currently do."
That caused Ranma's brow to furrow. "What do you mean it's bad to only use emotional Ki? Heck, what even is emotional Ki?"
"It's exactly what it sounds like. You had to summon up confidence to call your Ki to use that attack, correct?" She questioned, earning her a nod. "That's emotional Ki. One thing I'm sure you've noticed, is that if you aren't confident in yourself, it's harder to call up your Ki. You end up relying on the emotion to call up your Ki, and if you can't, you're just screwed. Which is the smaller part of why it's so bad to only use emotional Ki."
"One of the biggest drawbacks is that it creates a negative feedback loop. So someone using pride to call up their Ki would slowly become extremely arrogant to the point that feeding their ego was more important than anything else." She answered, thoughts again turning to Vegeta, who foolishly thought he would be able to beat Cell in his complete state and allowed him to absorb her. "Anger would make the person constantly irritable and violent, always itching to lash out at the slightest insult. Depression would make you unable to focus on anything positive, only ever focusing on the negatives. Apathy makes it harder to feel emotions. And to care about anything in general. You become a caricature of the emotion instead of being a person." 18 expanded on the idea, mostly thinking about how she could've become an emotionless husk in another timeline.
"Another drawback is that it's less dense. Pure Ki is more tightly compressed, which makes it harder to create and use. Emotional Ki is thinner, easier to summon and control, but you can't get nearly as much out of it as you can pure Ki. Think of Ki as water, and your body as a firehose. Emotional Ki spreads out, like when a firefighter is trying to put out a fire. Pure Ki is more like a high pressure stream, if I had to describe it. If you used your… Moko Takabisha, was it? If you used that on a brick wall, it would break the wall, and create a large hole. But if you used a Ki attack made up of pure Ki, it would create a smaller hole, as it'll be more tightly compressed with less splash damage I suppose." The woman continued on, glancing around reorienting herself to follow the directions to one Tendo Dojo that the doctor had pointed her in the direction of earlier.
"There's also the danger each emotion represents supposedly, some worse than others. Confidence isn't too bad until you end up in a life threatening situation and refuse to back down. Lust would make you an insatiable pervert. I'm not certain what too much happiness Ki would look like." She paused and shrugged. "Sadness would probably end with suicide. Anger would probably end in you killing someone, or burning out and dying early."
"All that said, it's not like emotional Ki is all bad. I've heard that someone who normally uses pure Ki dipping into rage allows them to have a burst of intense power, at the cost of being worn out almost immediately. It's also far and away easier to access and use. It just has its downsides that outweigh its upsides." She finished, adding one last thing before letting silence descend. "I don't know if that made any sense, I haven't really tried to explain it to anyone else before."
For Ranma, it was a bit jarring to hear all this, and he couldn't help but connect what the stranger was saying to the people in his life. Akane had already been an angry person even before he showed up, but it wasn't as bad then as it was now. Ryoga's life was already depressing, what with his family's curse compounded with his Jusenkyo curse. And Happosai was lust given human form.
And then there was Ranma himself. He had always been naturally prideful about his skill as a martial artist, as that was one of the few things he had that he could call his own. Growing up poorer than dirt and living on the road meant he didn't have tangible things that gave him comfort. All he had was the clothes on his back and the supplies in his pack. So, he found comfort in his abilities.
The idea that emotional Ki could turn you into a caricature of the very emotion was unsettling to think about, and one that his personal experience was struggling to deny. Akane's battle aura was a flaming red, Ryoga's a sickly green and his own a brilliant blue. Was the colors of their aura's reflecting that they were becoming more and more affected by their emotion of choice?
"Maybe a gun would have been a better metaphor. A shotgun for emotional Ki, and a high powered rifle for pure?" Ranma's thoughts were interrupted by 18's musings, and he was confused to find that they had stopped walking outside of the Tendo Dojo. "Anyways, this is my stop. The gist of what I'm trying to get at is that it would take a long time to teach you to quit using emotional Ki. I have some business here, and then I'll be on my way."
This caused Ranma to halt, and then groan and rub the bridge of his nose, the whiplash of thoughts stressing him out. A new, mysterious stranger that was also a pretty woman, and had fancy new techniques, as well as advice that had oddly terrifying consequences?
Of course, she could only be another fiance.
"Well, I happen to live here. So come on in I guess. Let's get this over with." Ranma gestured, opening the gate and waving her in.
"Oh? That's… Oddly convenient. Are you the owner's son?" 18 questioned, only just now remembering that this wasn't 17, and she probably shouldn't have gone full lecture mode on someone who was effectively a total stranger. She knew better than to do that, other people outside of family only ever hurt her. But the teen had just seemed so much like 17 that she let her guard down.
The teen sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, fiddling with his pigtail once more. "Ah, not quite. The dojo belongs to the Tendo family, I'm technically a guest here but my family has more or less been living here for a year or two at this point. I'm also technically engaged to his youngest daughter…" Muttering that last bit, he paused to kick off his slippers, noting the delayed response of the stranger doing the same. "Oh, we never really introduced ourselves. I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this."
The android tacitly ignored the bit about being engaged to the youngest daughter, as it truly had no impact on her. "I'm 18. Sorry about what?" She asked, peering around the quaint home and appreciating the, for lack of a better word, homeliness of it. Whoever took care of this place took pride in their work.
"Er… Is that your name or your age?" He asked, not answering the question as he wasn't really looking forward to the inevitable shit storm that would follow of a new fiance. 18 would be quite an odd name, granted between the Amazons, Musk, Phoenix people and Pantyhose Taro, it wouldn't be the weirdest name he'd ever heard of.
The blonde hummed as they entered the main room. "Name. And for your sake, never ask a woman her age." She joked lightly, though part of it was that she wasn't certain of it anymore. It wasn't like Gero would tell her the date between forced deactivations. "Anyway, I think I was told the owner was named Soun. Is he here? The sooner I can speak with him, the sooner I can get out of your hair."
"Uh… Give me a moment. Hey Kasumi, are you here?"
"In the kitchen!" A gentle voice called out.
"Is your dad around?"
"Father?" The voice got closer, until she appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. She was wearing a pretty, yet rather plain, lilac dress, with an apron tied around her waist and a towel in her hands which she was using to dry off. Her fluffy brown hair was tied in a ponytail and draped over one shoulder, highlighting beautiful brown eyes and a gentle smile. Overall, she gave off the energy of a housewife. "He should be out working. Most everyone is still out actually. Auntie took Uncle to look at the repairs to your home. Nabiki and Akane should still be at school." She then adopted a mildly displeased expression, which looked rather unnatural on the woman as she put her hands on her hips. "Which, speaking of school, shouldn't you be there now Ranma?"
The pigtailed boy let out a nervous chuckle, holding his hands up. "Well, you know I would have stayed at school normally Kasumi, but Taro showed up looking for Happosai, and I had to lead him away from the school to fight him."
The small frown on her face slowly faded, nodding reluctantly. "I suppose I can see the wisdom in that. What did you need Father for?" She questioned before finally seeming to realize 18 was there, causing her to bring a hand to her mouth and gasp in horror. "Oh my! I'm so sorry for not noticing you miss. Please excuse my lack of manners, my name is Kasumi Tendo, welcome to our home." She exclaimed, bowing hastily.
18 blinked again, feeling quite uncomfortable with the overly kind and polite ways of this woman. She'd had more good interactions with people in 2 days than she could recall having in years. She really wasn't sure what to do with herself, feeling more than a bit uncomfortable with it. "Er… It's fine really. You can call me 18. I'm the reason he was asking about your father. A nearby doctor pointed me in this direction and said I'd be able to find some answers for my questions here."
For whatever reason, that earned a sigh from both Ranma and Kasumi. "Oh dear, another one?" The brunette asked, giving Ranma a pitiful look while he shrugged helplessly, giving 18 the feeling that there was a misunderstanding going on.
But before she could even begin to clear up this apparent misunderstanding, the sound of the front door opening could be heard. "I'm home." A nearly bored sounding voice called out, as another brunette stepped into the main room. This one was slightly shorter than Kasumi, with her brown hair done up in a pageboy haircut. She was wearing a rather - in 18's opinion - hideous uniform, and carrying a bag. "School let out early. Shampoo apparently busted through the walls trying to find you Ranma, and when she couldn't, she picked a fight with Akane and Ukyo. Tore up half the school. Made a pretty penny on that, nobody had bet on there being a fight between the girls today." She mused, "I think Akane went out with Yuka and Sayuri, so hopefully she'll have calmed down some before coming home."
Her eyes then fell onto the guest of the home, quickly looking her up and down, much the same as 18 was doing to her. Apparently, whatever Nabiki was looking for she found, causing her to sigh. "Attractive. Around our age. Probably a martial artist judging by how she's standing. Another one? Really?" She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, while Ranma just glumly nodded. "I'll go call the construction company then."
"... As much as I love being talked about as if I'm not here, would you mind telling me what you're talking about and why it concerns me?" 18 said with a small amount of irritation, crossing her arms.
That, apparently, was of interest, as it caused all three people to pause and give her looks of surprise. "Really? You mean to tell me you aren't a new fiancé?" The girl that 18 could only assume was named Nabiki asked with a hint of incredulity.
"The fact that you're saying it so casually leads me to believe I'm supposed to know what you're talking about. But no. I'm not a 'new fiancé', whatever that means." And as if only to add to the confusion, Nabiki reached into her bag and pulled out a small black notebook, leafing through it before cursing. "Seriously? Gosunkugi bet 10,000 yen on the next new girl to not be a fiancé? That's so annoying…" She muttered to herself, though before 18 could question what that meant, Ranma piped up. "Wait really? Then what did you come here for?"
18 ran a hand through her hair and huffed, torn between curiosity and a strong desire to not know what the hell was going on in this house. "Short story is that I grew up in Nerima, and I'm trying to find my childhood home because I think some old scrolls were left buried on the property. Problem is that I don't remember where it was, and I don't recognize anything. I asked a man named Tofu, and after I told him what I remembered of my parents, he pointed me here and said my questions could be answered by the Tendo family and their guests."
The three people that lived here looked between each other, absorbing that bit of information. "I guess that makes sense. Father has lived in this home his whole life. And Auntie at least has been in the neighborhood for the past 2 decades." Kasumi conceded. "So… You aren't a fiancé?" Ranma asked with far more hope than he had any right to have, earning him an exasperated eye roll.
"I would know if I was engaged to someone, just like everyone else in the world." She quipped in jest, though judging by the wince from all three people present, she apparently hit a sore spot. "... Seriously?"
"Yeah…" All three replied with a sigh, followed by a brief silence that was interrupted by a clap of Kasumi's hands.
"Well, in that case, Father should be home in an hour or so. Why don't you all get comfortable, and I'll make some snacks?" She cheered brightly.
18 just sighed and nodded, idly wondering if this was worth the trouble as Ranma flicked on the TV and took a seat on the couch, gesturing for her to sit and wait.
-
Author's Notes: Thanks so much for the support on this work! The response was highly positive, and everyone had kind words to say. It really means a lot, and it keeps me excited and motivated to write more. I'd like to reiterate that if I'm doing this right, you shouldn't need to know too much about DBZ in order to enjoy this story, as Ranma lore will be more pertinent I think, as it's essentially a DBZ character being isekai'd into the Ranma world and not the other way around.
I am admittedly less confident in my writing this chapter than the previous, as this one was comparatively more dialogue heavy, and I'm not really certain I'm getting each character right. The dialogue on Ki and how I'm interpreting it in this story was rather difficult to get the way I wanted, though ultimately I want to say that I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It will get fleshed out even more in the future, so more chances for me to fuck that up yay.
I'd love to hear any comments or criticisms about my writing, especially as this much dialogue is something I'm not super practiced in writing. And there will only be more dialogue going forward.
I'm not going to have a set schedule of release dates, as I honestly didn't expect to have this chapter ready tonight, but smashed most of it out in one sitting today. I'm shooting for 2-4 releases a month give or take. Chapter length will generally be around 3-6k words, with chapter 1 being an exception due to how much exposition needed to be done, and my own stubbornness on not ending the chapter before 18 encountered Ranma.
Also is there no good way to respond to reviews on this site?