Words.

A/N: Okay holy carp you guys, it's been a week and I've got over a dozen reviews? I seriously wasn't expecting this level of attention this quickly! So, let's get a couple things out of the way. First and foremost, you guys all rock hardcore and I'm grateful for your kind words so far. I honestly feel like I don't yet deserve all of that, but I'll do my best to live up to it! Second, to questions that came up in the intervening period...

Kariston Draconis - That's kind of my goal, yeah. FF7 is broadly known. Ranma 1/2 is... less well known today than say in the 90s, but there are still die-hard fans. I'm trying to find the middle ground between 'catching up people who may never have known something I'm referencing', and 'beating the plot over the reader's head like a mallet'. I'm hoping I'm in that butter zone.
Overlooked Supporting Cast - love the nick by the way. Part of what always drew me to both of the franchises here was the fact that, yes, the stories and settings were grand, the details were nuanced and plentiful, and the emotions ran deep, but even if you put all of that on the wayside, the characters themselves could still stand apart and be interesting. That's the tone I'm trying to match in my writing. The story everyone knows by heart is coming (with changes of my own to be sure), but while we're all getting there, let's at least enjoy the guided tour.
Coffee - Cloud's role will be mostly unchanged...to start. I don't want to give away more than this. RAFO with the rest of us :D

Beyond that, I've got little else at the moment. Oh! Except for this chapter here!

EDIT: A lot of folks mentioned that this chapter seemed to paint Ranma in a wrong light, where everything in the relationship was his fault. One of my beta readers pointed this out, and I made a separate file for further review that addressed those concerns, and it was met with a little better results. I then accidentally uploaded the original file. Oops. Always remember to copy-edit, folks!

Chapter Three

Saotome School of Hard Knocks

[ ν ] - εγλ 0007, November 27

Ranma looked at Aerith in silence for a good long time. "You," he started, "want me… to teach you, to fight…" he trailed off for a moment, thinking back to the situations where he'd been roped into tutoring martial arts skills, and how disastrously they tended to end for everyone involved. "And you're asking me that… on purpose? Are you sure you wouldn't want someone better suited, like…" he gestured vaguely, "I dunno, a drill sergeant, or a vampire, or Kami help you, my pops?"

Aerith smiled. "I don't know a drill sergeant," she replied. "I don't know a vampire, whatever that is. And your 'pops' isn't here. And if he turns into a bear with cold water, that would probably mean lots of interruptions to training, I'd bet." She leaned forward, tilting her head to look up at him. "And I'm asking you."

Ranma blinked in surprise. "All right, then," he answered after several seconds. "Couple of ground rules, if you're going to be my pupil." He stood up and took a few steps away. Aerith followed, but gave him a bit of space. "First and foremost, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this properly. When we're training, I'm not 'Ranma', I am your sensei."

"Sensei?" Aerith repeated. "What's that?"

"It's an older word in my language," Ranma explained. "Broadly it means 'Master,' but it's what martial artists in my home use to refer to their teachers. If you have to refer to me by name, you should say Saotome-sama, which is the honorific used for an instructor, among other things. Outside of training, I'm still Ranma. But when we're training…"

"Sensei," Aerith responded, understanding the reasons for the division.

"Good," Ranma answered. "Second thing, I want ya to ignore everything I just said." Aerith blinked, opened her mouth, and closed it again a second later. "I am, by nature, very self-confident. Some of my own abilities are powered by my ability to be confident or prideful in myself. That being said," he continued, "I'm also, on occasion, a complete idiot, especially when it comes to my pride. I've gotten better about this recently, but I'm still improving, and I know I still have room to improve.

"So if you see me being an idiot," Ranma explained, "in or out of training, I want you to call me on it. Especially in circumstances where I'm letting my pride get in front of me." Ranma's smile faded a bit. "I've had a lot of things in the last year or two that got way out of control because I was too stubborn to admit I'd made a mistake."

Aerith nodded slowly. "I understand… sensei," she answered. "And if I call you on it, and you don't stop because you're too stubborn?"

"Then you not only have permission," Ranma stated, suppressing a grin, "but a standing order to hit me over the head with that staff of yours."

Aerith laughed. "I'll try not to abuse that, but it's good to know the option is there."

Ranma smiled at that. "Third rule, and this one is really the most important." he said, suddenly all business. "I am not your milestone. You should not use me as a measuring stick for how well you are progressing as a martial artist. If ya judge your progress by how well you do compared to me, you're going to be disappointed. Every. Day," he asserted, emphasizing the last three words. "That isn't me being proud, that isn't me trying to knock you down a peg. That's a fact of life. There is always, always someone better than you at what you're good at. I am not your competition," he repeated, sticking his thumb into his chest. He turned and pointed one finger right at Aerith's forehead. "You are. Every day you train, you become stronger than you were before. You become faster than you were before. You become better, in a hundred small ways, than you were before. You... compete against you." Ranma smiled, but it was a humorless smile. "So make sure you know what you're judging yourself against, if you start training and you think you're not gettin' any better."

Aerith thought about that in silence for a moment. It made a lot of sense, too. She stood there for what felt like a long time as she internalized that idea. "Yes, I think I understand, sensei."

Ranma nodded. "Then we start tomorrow morning, before breakfast," he announced. "Judging from how frosty the air is right now, I better find a jacket or something. Reminds me… you'll wanna dress in something a little…" he trailed off. "I don't want to say 'less girly' but basically, not a dress. Even if that's how you go around day to day, it's not the kind of outfit you want to be working up a sweat in."

"I think I can throw together something that'll work," she answered.

"One more thing," Ranma looked down at the ground. "This is really embarrassin' for me to even have to say. Because of... a lot of stupid reasons that are mostly my pops' fault and at least a little my own stupidity, I ended up with no fewer than three honor-bound engagements at the same time back home, along with one honor-contract for murder because of a misunderstanding, before I started getting them all sorted out." Ranma cringed at the memories of being hunted by Shampoo in both his forms. "What I'm sayin' is, and I don't think you'd necessarily do this, I just learn to start with this... basically, don't try to become my fiance, even if at some point it seems like a really good idea. Aside from the fact that I've got enough of that in my life right now, I think... What?"

Aerith was giggling, her hand over her mouth to keep herself from devolving into full blown cackling. "This isn't that 'stupid pride' of yours talking, is it?" she asked between laughs.

Ranma grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "It... mostly isn't my pride talking there, no," he answered, blushing. "I have rotten luck with relationships with women. It's not an exaggeration, generally they either want to kill me because of something I did in my past, or my pops did to them... or they want to kill my existing fiances, and marry me, for the same reasons."

Aerith's laughter wound down. "I hope you don't mind me saying so, but your life is messed up if that's normal for you, and your whole planet is messed up if that's normal for everyone."

"It shouldn't be normal, that's for sure," he agreed. "Okay, let me do my best to explain this insanity..."

-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-=x=-

The rest of the evening passed calmly. Dinner was shared between the three members of the household, and Ranma explained some of the details of his past relationship issues. He then demonstrated the transformation once again to a still-disbelieving Elmyra, and Elmyra in turn presented Ranma with a worn but quite functional dark blue jacket and a woolen newsboy cap. As the evening passed, Ranma was led upstairs to the spare bedroom, which was definitely cozier than he expected, but certainly comfy.

The next morning, well before dawn, Ranma woke and walked downstairs without a sound. He stepped outside, his breath fogging in the cold morning air, as he shrugged on the warm jacket given to him by Elmyra, stuffing the cap into one of the pockets. Running through a basic kata of Indiscriminate Grappling showed him that the jacket was certainly flexible enough for most maneuvers; he believed he might need to shed the jacket for some of the more advanced techniques of the School.

A few minutes later, he heard an alarm clock go off inside the house, followed shortly by a loud series of thumps, and finally the silence coming from the alarm being deactivated. Ranma smirked to himself. He'd said they'd be starting before dawn, but he honestly wasn't sure that Aerith would have managed it on the first day. Taking a few deep breaths, he decided to unbutton the jacket, allowing it to keep his arms warm but leave his movement less restricted. After a few more minutes had passed, he heard her heavy steps approaching the front door, and Aerith appeared in the doorway.

She had taken Ranma's suggestion to heart, and had done away with her usual loose dress. In its place was a set of mudstained trousers, and a neutral-colored long-sleeve shirt under her red bolero jacket. A pair of light leather gloves covered her hands, and she held her staff in one hand. She still wore a pink ribbon tying back her hair. It wasn't exactly a standard issue gi, but it would do under the circumstances.

"You train like this?" Aerith asked, shivering a little.

"Not if I can help it," Ranma admitted, shrugging, "but sometimes, you can't help it. Better to learn to deal with it now than have to adjust in the middle of a real fight." Aerith nodded at that. "I need to get a good idea of what you're capable of, so I know where to start with your training. How long have you been practising with the staff?"

Aerith thought about that. "Um… three years, give or take?" she replied.

Ranma nodded. "Show me."

"What?"

"Show me," he repeated. "If you were doing a practice fight, and I wasn't here, show me what you would do. And remember, it's 'what, sensei'," he added, smiling slightly.

Aerith nodded, blushing at her slip-up, and stood with her staff in both hands. As she began to move, Ranma felt that he was less watching someone practice fighting and more like he was watching someone dance. Aerith's motions were fluid and graceful, and even as the staff twirled with her, he noticed little wasted movement. What surprised him most was the woman's balance; it seemed as if many of her motions should overbalance her or simply tip her over completely, yet she continued to flow through the motion and proceed to the next without a moment of hesitation.

As her unorthodox kata progressed, the movements became less balletic and more efficient, more aggressive, but also more wasteful. Ranma's mind couldn't help but draw a parallel between a river gently carrying a raft downstream and the same river smashing the raft against the rocks amid the rapids. The staff blurred as it passed through the air, but it looked more like Aerith was now fighting against the staff, rather than with it. She finished with what appeared to be a concerted effort against a single imaginary foe, an assault of sharp blows and rapid parries which ended with a positively brutal three-part strike; a rising swing to the groin, followed by a spinning blow to hip-height, and ending in a savage thrust to what would be neck-height of any normal person.

Aerith was glowing with perspiration, breathing heavy and somewhat labored, as she concluded, returning herself to a centered stance. After a moment, she turned to Ranma, still panting lightly, and mopped her brow with her sleeve. "What do you think, sensei?"

Ranma was, internally, impressed. Outwardly, "It's a good start. There is room for improvement, but you definitely have a good base to build upon. One moment," he said, walking over to the junk pile nearby. He rummaged for a moment before finding what he was looking for; a solid piece of rebar, nearly twice as long as he was tall.. He set it down on a slab of concrete, focused for a moment, and gave it a knife-edge chop with his bare hand. The blow split the rebar almost perfectly in two, and he grabbed the cleaner of the two metal shafts, walking back over to Aerith.

"What is that for?" Aerith asked. Ranma gave a Look. "...sensei," she added quickly.

"This is for a demonstration," he explained. "Your technique is good. Not what I'd call standard bojutsu, but that's not a bad thing."

"'Bojutsu,' sensei?"

Ranma nodded. "Traditional martial arts in my world have a lot of different roots," he explained. "I could probably go on for a while on the styles and their differences, depending on where they originated, what kinds of opponents they were likely to face, the materials they had to hand, and standard deviations over something like five thousand years of recorded human history. That, however, probably wouldn't be much use in this situation," he asserted. "So we'll get to the practical side of it. Bojutsu is one of the more well known staff fighting techniques from my home, and there are significant parallels to the movements you use, but also significant differences."

Aerith considered this for a moment. "You're proposing to teach me bojutsu, sensei?"

Ranma shook his head. "Not quite," he answered. "Your style is different enough that trying to teach you bojutsu would be like knowin' how to walk, and then someone teaching you to walk, again, by moving someone else's legs with your hands. But," he added, "there are methods you can learn that will give you better control of your attacks, techniques out of bojutsu that would blend well with your style, and in the end your own style would become greater for it." Aerith nodded her comprehension. "Does your style have a name?" Ranma inquired.

"I… don't think so, sensei," she answered. "I kind of… picked it up as I went. I didn't really have a tutor for it, if that's what you mean."

Ranma smiled at that. "Then congratulations, student," he declared with a trace of a laugh in his voice, "you have successfully created Gainsborough-School bojutsu."

Aerith glared at him, grinning despite herself, before bursting out into laughter. Ranma's chuckles joined hers. "I, Aerith Gainsborough," she exclaimed dramatically, "shall defend the world from the forces of evil, with the power of Gainsborough-style staff fighting!" With that, she flourished and raised her staff triumphantly overhead, looking like a very oddly-dressed magical girl character from one of Akane's old manga. "Oh, goddess, that just sounds ridiculous, please don't tell anyone I said that." She took a deep breath, composing herself, then remembered her initial question. "So, what are you going to demonstrate with the rod there, sensei?"

Ranma remembered himself and stood back up, setting down one of the two rebar staves, and holding the other in a grip similar to Aerith's. "This isn't exactly ideal staff material, but it should give you an idea of what I'm tryin' to show." He mentally blocked off a couple of points about a third of the way out from the center of the rebar, and mimicked the initial movements of Aerith's kata. "I noticed," he began, "when you move, it's like you're usin' the staff as a balancing point…" he changed direction suddenly, thrust the tip of the staff firmly at the ground, and balanced against it on one leg, "...but you don't attack…" his body weight balanced perfectly between the staff held against the ground behind him and one foot planted on the ground, the other leg snapping out suddenly in a front kick, before pushing off against the staff with both arms and twisting his body into a spinning back kick, pulling the staff with him into a sharp thrust at stomach height, "...with any other part of your body."

Aerith stood there, watching intently at the maneuver he had performed, amazed not only by his addition to her own practice, but that he had flawlessly repeated her motions up to that moment after seeing them only once! "How did you…" she started, then remembered herself again. "Sensei, how did you do that?"

Ranma smirked. "Remember I mentioned I have a lot of skill, and a little talent?" When she nodded, he continued. "That's my talent. I can usually learn new martial arts just by watchin' them be done once or twice. I said I learned to throw a punch before I learned to walk, and I wasn't kiddin' either."

Aerith goggled. There was no other word for it. Trains of thought running through her head collided unexpectedly as she tried to process the idea of someone who could effortlessly mimic motions, attacks, techniques that he had never heard of before, by looking at them being done. At that moment, she remembered his words from the previous day, that if she spent time comparing herself to Ranma she would only disappoint herself. She saw those words in a whole new light, thinking about how long it took her to not just fall over when spinning her staff.

Ranma smiled and gave her a light tap on the head. "Remember who you're competing with?" he asked casually.

Aerith blinked, realizing she'd been spacing out. "Yes, sensei," she replied quickly. "I hadn't thought about punching or kicking much… I thought it would be too risky."

"Oh?" Ranma asked, concerned. He gestured for her to continue.

Aerith nodded. "Well… aside from my usually wearing dresses," she began, "and not really wanting to give people a free show, there's a lot of people out there who use swords or knives or whatever. And there's also monsters and animals, and other things that go around the slums that aren't either one."

Ranma nodded, thinking about 'other things' and mentally filing that away for review later. "I think I know what you mean, then," he considered after a few moments. "Basically, you don't punch or kick, because you don't know the best times to do so, so doing it at all seems too high-risk for the attempt." Aerith nodded slowly, amazed at the simplicity of how he cut through to the heart of the matter. "It'll take some practice, but a lot of it is instinct. If you've got a weapon, like a staff for instance, I'd say the best opportunities would be either if something gets inside the reach of your weapon, or if you want to keep a smart opponent on their toes."

Aerith nodded again, and smiled at Ranma, but the smile was fragile and momentary. "And… then there's Shinra," she added, trying to hide her concern.

Ranma saw something in Aerith's eyes that she couldn't hide quickly enough. He remembered her rapid-fire inquiry the previous day, and realized that this was going to be important. "Tell me about them," he said quietly, taking a seat.

Aerith sat down on the concrete slab next to him. "Shinra is… I don't know what your world is like," she started. "But here… Shinra controls pretty much everything now. About eight years ago, there was a war between the Shinra company and Wutai. Everybody knows that Shinra was probably at fault, but most of the news broadcasts are run by Shinra too, so…" She paused for a moment. "Anyway, it took over a year, but SOLDIER, Shinra's military, eventually forced Wutai to surrender. And in the meantime, they killed someone… very important to me."

Ranma sat in silence, listening and trying to comprehend the idea of not so much a nation or empire but a company, of all things, having enough power to effectively control a whole planet. "Before then," Aerith went on, her eyes misting, "they still killed people. And since then, they've kept killing people. They have… people… who do nothing but make normal people disappear. And some of them want me for one of their stupid science projects that will just let them kill more people."

Aerith tried to keep herself together, but it was too much for her to contain. She felt her tears stinging her icy cheeks, and wiped them away on her sleeve. Ranma scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm over her shoulder. "I'm… not the best at emotions," Ranma admitted. "My pops was… is… an idiot that way, and saw most emotional displays as a kind of weakness. 'Cuz of that, I had about the emotional range of a teacup for a long time, but… I'm slowly getting better. For what it's worth," he continued, "I'll do everything I can to make sure they don't get their hands on you."

Aerith sniffled, looking up at him. "You don't know me," she said, trying to understand him. "You don't know them. You don't know why they want me, you don't know this world, you don't even belong here. Why are you so willing to fight for me?"

Ranma looked her square in the eyes. "'The first duty of a martial artist is to protect the innocent,'" he recited calmly, hearing Genma's voice echoing in his memory as he said it aloud. "I didn't always understand that when I was younger, but I figured it out the hard way. It's not about being better at fighting, it's not about being able to put your fist through a plate of steel, it's about using the strength you have to help those who need it."

Ranma smiled at her. Aerith shared at him through watery eyes, mouth open in disbelief. "How are you real?" she asked quietly. "How can someone like you, with all your power and your skill, how can you be so damned noble?"

Ranma hesitated for a moment, remembering a not-long-past version of himself. "It's not easy," he responded. "I used to be a real piece of work. I was selfish, sexist, and arrogant to the point of being blind to anyone else's feelings. About two years ago… after we'd been cursed… my pops dropped a bombshell on me, and told me he'd arranged for me to be married. I wanted nothing to do with it, I wanted to find a cure and get back to normal. Eventually, Pops knocked me out and dragged me all the way to Hong Kong… we were already a day out to sea by the time I woke up. We got back to Japan, and he chased me, on foot, all the way back to Tokyo, knocked me out again, and carried me all the way to the Tendo home, the family I was arranged marriage to.

"Nothing there started off the way it was supposed to. I showed up as a girl, he showed up as a panda, then Akane saw me in the bath by accident, which means she saw me transform back to a guy… while I was stark naked." Ranma blushed hard at the memory, still clearly embarrassed by that. "Anyway, long story short, I stuck my foot in my mouth, and I paid the price for it, because she pulverized me with the dining room table. When I woke up I didn't understand why she'd gotten riled up, and so I ended up doing it again in a different way the next day. And that was basically the first half-year or so of our relationship. I'd do something incredibly, unbelievably stupid or spiteful or mean-spirited, which would get her angry with me. She'd show that she was angry, but I wouldn't understand why. And I'm pretty sure we hated each other because of that. Eventually, I started to really understand what I was doing, and why it was awful. And I realized right then that I'd created a lot of the situations that she'd gotten angry with me over, and I hadn't taken responsibility for those. I probably didn't deserve her hitting me, but, well, stupid pride and all that.. Sometimes a punch is the only way to talk to a martial artist."

Aerith blinked away the last of her tears. "You two stayed together that long? Even though you hated each other? Why?"

"She wasn't an angel herself, don't get me wrong," Ranma went on, "but she had... issues I really should have taken into serious consideration. A couple loons in the city trying to force her into dating or marrying them because of whatever reasons they had. Mostly this one jerk named Kuno, who riled up almost the entire male population of the school she went to, and made it so that every day for several months, she would have to beat them all up in order to even get to her class. He wanted to 'conquer her', if you get my meaning-" Aerith immediately understood, and also gagged in response, "-and really didn't live in the same world as us mere mortals, i.e., one where women told him no. He got away with it because his dad was the principal of the school, and their family was loaded and could basically bribe their way out of any problems. All that and the constant undesired attention from the boys at school and elsewhere, kind of took its toll on her patience and her desire to communicate with anyone of the opposite sex." Ranma paused for a moment. "Coupled with me being... well, who I was back then, and I'd at least say that a lot of my misery early on was self-inflicted. Maybe not deserved, but I definitely wasn't making things easier on her."

"Yeah, hard to imagine a relationship like that lasting very long," Aerith commented.

"Ordinarily I'd agree with you," Ranma said, "but we actually are still together. Akane's father and mine were students under the same master… don't ask me about him, he makes me look like a saint on my worst day. When they left his tutelage, they formed separate schools of the art under the respective family names. The terms of the arrangement were that, should both families have kids, the two schools should be reunited by marriage." He looked away, trying to hide the brief flash of anger he felt. "Course, my pops didn't bother to ask me if I wanted to get married, and dropped it on me at the worst time. Nobody in Akane's family asked her, her dad and both sisters just pushed her onto me even though she had her own problems, like Kuno. But it was on the honor of our respective families, and that's…" he paused, looking for the right words. "That's important, to us, I guess. So we stuck it out. And, now at least, we've learned enough about each other that we're getting past the 'our families are both manipulative jerks' part, and actually learned about each other as people."

Aerith scoffed in protest. "Your dad is a complete jerk," she agreed. "And if you find a way back there, do me a favor and hold the door open just long enough for me to hit him, he deserves it."

Ranma laughed. "I'd let you, too," he said, grinning. "But yeah, that's who I used to be. And I live every minute of my life knowing how easy it was not to care about how Akane felt when I said or did something harmful. But, I also know now that doing that, I was hurting myself too. And I made a decision. To compete, against my old self, to show that I could be better. And that's how I stay on track." He leaned back, stretching his arms. "I dunno if that counts as nobility though. Just trying to be better than I used ta be."

Aerith stared at him, still not understanding how a good person could fail so completely at realizing that they were a good person. Then her brain caught up with another part of the conversation. "Wait," she said suddenly, "she hit you with a kitchen table?"

"Yep." Ranma winced in memory, the blow having been a heavy one. He thought for a long moment. "How long does it take to learn to use materia?"

Aerith considered the question for a long moment. "I'm not sure," she answered honestly. "The basics can be learned pretty easily, but most people will have spell blowback for around the first year or so of learning."

"Blowback?"

"Yeah, it's... have you ever seen a lightbulb explode because too much current ran through it all at once?"

"Oh, I get it now," Ranma remarked. "Whatever you use to fuel a spell, if you use too much it becomes unstable?"

Aerith nodded. "That's part of it, yeah. Also, you need a lot of control in shaping and targeting the spell. It's very demanding to use it effectively in a fight. All of that together means it takes a lot of practice to get to the point where you can toss magic around at will in battle and not have it more or less blow up in your face."

Ranma's expression was of solid confusion. "If all of that is up to the person using the materia," he said, counting off the items on his fingers, "then what does the materia actually do for this exchange?"

"It's..." Aerith gave a little bit of a huff. "Okay, so this is one of the biggest points of contention, is the purpose of materia. There's been whole books written on it, but the bottom line is nobody really knows for certain. The way it was told to me, the version I believe anyway, is that thousands of years ago there were humans and another species, called Ancients, who lived here on Gaia together. Humans had magical potential, but lacked the innate knowledge that the Ancients used to shape that same magical potential into spells. The Ancients crafted the first materia as a bridge for humans to access that magic."

Ranma nodded. "So it gives you the capacity to use the spell, but you still have to apply yourself to the discipline," he speculated. "Otherwise, boom in the face."

"That's more or less it, yeah," Aerith answered. "I thought you weren't going to use materia, though?"

"Better to know how and not need it," he replied, the age old axiom coming easily to his mind, "than to need to use it and not know how. So, I guess you'll be my sensei for this kind of thing."

Aerith grinned. "When do you want to start learning?"

A/N: Yeah, I'm sinking ships already, sorry folks. Something may come of this later, but... Ranma's finally come to terms with his engagement to Akane, so we're probably not gonna be jumping in the deep end here. Also... Aerith has her own stuff to deal with. So no dating shenaniganery at the moment.

'kata' is the term used for a martial arts training exercise. Broadly, it's an exercise that takes the practitioner through a broad range of motions and techniques of the style in question. Indiscriminate Grappling/Anything-Goes Martial Arts is difficult to envision a single kata for, partly because the premise of it is basically the same as MMA/Jeet Kune Do, which is to not necessarily have a 'style' limiting your methods, but to take what works from as many different styles as possible, and make it your own. It's basically Anime JKD with Kamehameha's thrown in for flair.

'Bojutsu' is one of the two main schools of staff fighting in Japanese martial arts, the other being jojutsu (fighting with a jo staff). There are differences and similarities. I'm kind of winging it based on memory from a demo I attended years ago, since a lot of online resources seem to bundle the two together with no regard. But at least as my memory serves, bojutsu tends towards using the staff in conjunction with unarmed blows and using the bo as an assist for movement, while jojutsu treats the jo as the primary striking implement, seeing as how it is generally a longer weapon than the bo.

The jacket and hat given to Ranma by Elmyra is intended to have belonged to Elmyra's husband, who is not canonically named or given an appearance at any point that I was able to find. He enlisted with Shinra's troopers during the Wutai War, but never came home. The jacket is supposed to be the standard blue fatigues that Shinra troopers wear, if that helps you imagine it.

Aerith's reaction to Ranma's nobility, or perceived nobility at least, is owed a lot to the surroundings Aerith deals with. I mean, take a look at the world. Virtually anyone of any level of power in Midgar, personal or political, abuses it relentlessly in the pursuit of greater amounts of power. Ranma generally doesn't do that. And when you're used to everyone being garbage, anyone who doesn't act like that, and practices their preachings to boot, it's gonna look like nobility on the surface. I'm fully aware Ranma is no saint, early saga Ranma is... problematic levels of sexist and just oblivious to the levels of distress he causes the people around him. But he grows. It takes time, but he eventually becomes... not an asshole. Still human, but who isn't?

Hope you like it! Comments welcome!