Wow, three posts in four months. Could it be? Semi-regular updates? That's unexpected. Don't count on it going forward for a little bit. The next chapter comes slowly, but it is definitely coming. The job hunt progresses, I have a few interesting leads, but no major results have presented themselves yet. Hopefully, the good news will make itself known by the time the next chapter is released.

I'm astonished to say that I have received my first review in another language. I feel humbled. I never expected my story would get attention beyond a handful of people, and I'm grateful that so many of you are enjoying it.
DarkKayser: Me siento honrado por tu alabanza. Es una buena sensación saber que mi historia está trayendo alegría más allá del mundo de habla inglesa. Espero que sigas disfrutando de mi historia y, por favor, perdona los errores en mi respuesta traducida automáticamente.
VSX-2018: How, indeed… This is very much a 'read and find out' kind of thing.
Mr. Haziq: Yes and no… parts of that are getting answered ahead. Other parts will be answered in later chapters.
doraemax and Guest: Because we're starting at the back, so to speak, Vincent is some ways out. Have patience. We may see him, but as with so many other things, expect changes.
Chaosredshift and IPMay: You do touch on some interesting points. For my story's purposes, the majority of Ranma's abilities require focus to use, either though a spell to produce an effect, or through chi to empower an ability. As a result, a hyper-indestructible killing machine with simultaneous access to all of Ranma's powers, materia, and techniques, boosted by the Nekoken, is unlikely. That's not to say that we won't see the Nekoken at all, but it will have its normal limitations.

This coming weekend is Convergence in Minneapolis. I will be attending in cosplay at least two of the four days, and since this is my first year ever doing a cosplay for anything, I'm going to be attending several of the cosplay-related panels. If you are in the area and/or attending the convention, keep an eye out for Lucoa from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Android 18 from DBZ, or a silver-haired maid with glasses. For now, though, on with the story!

EDIT 8/9/2022: Corrected some minor typos.

Chapter 35

In Their Elements

[ ν ] - εγλ 0007, December 18

The picnic lunch box had been opened up, a large flat rock had been procured and a simple cloth placed over top it, and the three girls were busy digging into the assorted fruits and dried meats. Most of it was entirely unknown to Ranma, but not unfamiliar; they were definitely of a higher quality than she was used to, but she'd had travel rations many times before. "So what are all of these, anyway?" she asked, pointing at the various items strewn across the makeshift meal area.

Aerith smiled and started pointing at each item in turn. "The bread is just regular bread. But those are rainbow raisins, dried dumbapple slices, that's… some kind of cheese they make in the mountains, I forget the name… those are cockatrice jerky sticks, fresh cactuar fruit, and fried beachplug." She reached for a slice of the cactuar fruit, and took a nibble. And paused, thoughtfully. And reached for a napkin. "...nope. That is too weird for me," she explained, spitting it out.

Yuffie grinned across the stone table. "Tried to warn ya," she taunted lightly. "It doesn't have a flavor, it has a sensation. And that sensation is 'pricked by needles in your mouth.'"

Ranma decided to stay away from the cactuar fruit for now. "What's a… dumbapple?" she asked to nobody in particular.

Yuffie tilted her head. "What, you don't have dumbapples on your weird planet either?"

"I dunno, I never heard of them," Ranma answered, shrugging her shoulders.

Aerith gave a soft smile as she took some bread and a slice of the hard mountain cheese. "Dumbapples are… kind of an unusual fruit. There's regular apples, of course, but dumbapples don't grow the same way. Normally an orchard grows all its apples all during the same season or two, and then you harvest them all at once too." She took a bite of her food before continuing, "Dumbapples don't grow on a schedule. They just… grow, whenever. So you never really know when you're going to get a harvest."

Ranma puzzled that over for a moment. "That's weird…" she said finally. After a moment, she realized Cait was still standing apart from them, draped over sideways atop his Mog. "Are you gonna join us?" she asked politely, gesturing to an open place at the picnic area.

Cait gave a soft smile. "Ae appreciate the offer, truly," he responded, shaking his head. "But tha truth of it is, Ae dinna eat."

Ranma furrowed her brow for a moment, trying to remember their earlier conversation. "Oh, is that 'cuz you said you're like… made from a stuffed animal or somethin'?"

"Aye, laddie," Cait answered jovially. "Me body ain't made o' fleshy bits like you lot are, so Ae canna eat anythin'. Kind o' a shame, really," he went on, gesturing to the assorted layout before them. "Cuz Ae ken smell things jus' fine, an' that beachplug smells amazin'."

Ranma shrugged and took a bite of the jerky, before turning to Yuffie. "So why'd ya want the sparring match for, anyway?"

"I, uh…" Yuffie paused for a moment, grabbing a fistful of fried beachplug. "It's… your techniques."

A silence dragged out between them for several seconds, with Yuffie staring intently at the pattern in the impromptu tablecloth. "Okay, what about my techniques?" Ranma asked finally.

Yuffie still didn't answer for quite some time. She fidgeted with one of her throwing knives, considering her words. "I still don't really think you're… like… real, or anything. I still don't really know how I feel about the idea of this whole other planet where Shinra isn't around to fuck things up. I wish I could believe a place like that exists." She paused for a moment, grabbing one of the jerky sticks and a few slices of cheese.

Ranma opened her mouth to say something, hoping to encourage some faster revelation, but then she caught the look on Aerith's face. The older girl's eyes were staring right at Ranma, the piercing green gaze seeming to hold her in place. The martial artist wasn't always good at subtle, even after making a conscious effort to improve herself, but there was something in Aerith's presence that instructed her to wait. So she closed her mouth and made herself comfortable.

Yuffie went back to running the throwing knife beneath her fingernails as she talked. "Wutai… lost the war. All of you know that already, I bet. But it wasn't all that Wutai lost." The ninja's tone was steady but low as she continued. "Most of the people who fought in the war were our country's strongest, and smartest. They were the masters, the ones who would be passing on their knowledge to the rest of us now. If they were still there to do it. My country, my people… lost almost every single master we had to the war. There's the old scrolls, I even hear that there's stuff hidden in the Fire Caverns, but… it's going to take us years… decades… to put it all back together… to rebuild our country, our culture." She looked up slowly, her brown eyes locked on Ranma. "An'... maybe it doesn't hafta be like that."

Ranma leaned forward, propping her elbows onto the table and resting her head in both hands. "So… you're thinkin' I can… what… teach a whole country of people how to fight?" she asked, puzzled.

Yuffie shook her head, spearing one of the slices of cheese with her knife. "No, if this other world of yours really exists, I wouldn't make you stay in a crap-sack like ours… but…" she paused, lifting the knife to her mouth and taking a bite of the cheese. "I want to learn some of what you can do… so I can take it back to Wutai and teach some of the others there. Then we can all teach more people… and, well, you get the idea. I just wanna make sure we can save our people's martial traditions."

Nobody said anything for several seconds. Ranma was busy thinking about what it would be like to have an entire country of Saotome-ryu practitioners. It was a little humbling… and it was a lot terrifying. She put some of the more interesting worst-case-scenarios out of her head and tried to consider Yuffie's reasons.

After another moment, she heard Aerith speak. "Are you… wanting to learn Ranma's whole school of fighting?" she inquired, reaching for the pitcher of juice that had been included. "Because he isn't even teaching me that, he's mostly been teaching me to improve my staff-fighting."

Yuffie squeezed her fist around the knife handle, her knuckles white with the tension. "No, I don't want to learn all of it, that'd take years! I just want…" she stopped for a moment, loosening her grip on the knife. "I just want to learn… something… anything… that I can take back with me after we take down Shinra, and use it to rebuild what we had before."

Ranma considered that for a moment. "You want something that you can add to your ninjutsu, then, right?" she clarified. A moment later Yuffie nodded her head. Ranma smirked. "Ah, Ukyo, I wonder what you'd say to that…"

"...who's Ukyo?" Yuffie wondered aloud.

Ranma shook her head, smiling softly. "That's a long story for some other time." The redhead shifted slightly, before rolling onto her back and performing a flawless kip-up. As she dusted herself off, she glanced at Yuffie. "Okay, there's one big rule I have to lay down before we get started."

"Oh, joy, can't wait to hear it," Yuffie groaned, getting to her feet. Then she saw the more serious look on Ranma's face. "Oh, uh, I mean… sorry, just used to people givin' me stupid rules."

Ranma gave the ninja a look, but let it slide. "Well, runt, this one's gonna sound stupid no matter what, but I'm gonna say it anyway." She waited until she had Yuffie's complete attention. "Under no circumstances should you attempt to date me or become my fiance."

Ranma was used to it by now. She was even prepared for it. But it still felt strange to say something that important to her and to have it laughed off by all three of her students. Yuffie was practically doubled over in glee, looking much like she had earlier that morning when Ranma had been… ducked down behind Aerith in the marketplace, hiding from Cait out of reflexive fear. She let out a huff and rolled her eyes, mumbling to nobody in particular, "Welcome to the Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling, I guess."

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Lunch was finished up with gusto after that point. Cait, his Mog, and Aerith all moved to the side of the quarry while Yuffie and Ranma set up closer to the center. "So what kinda rules you want for this match, anyway?" Yuffie asked.

Ranma thought about that for a moment. "No lethal blows, obviously, but I wanna see what you're capable of." She moved into a broad stance, staring the shorter girl down. "Come at me with all you got."

"Ha, now that's what I wanted to hear!" Yuffie unshouldered her enormous shuriken, holding it in one hand, before she reached into a hidden pocket with the other hand. She pulled out a trio of throwing knives, sporting a small but aggressive looking smile.

Ranma stared in confusion. "Where did you even get those from, anyway?"

Yuffie's smile widened. "After you and the others dumped most of my stock on the forest floor and left it there like some kinda freakin' morons or somethin'," she accused, adjusting her grip on her weapons, "I had ta wait until we got here to buy more! I couldn't get any while we were in Junon, 'cuz you idiots had us on the run the whole time! Now I can finally show you what I'm really made of."

A beat of silence passed between the two, as Ranma absorbed that information. "All right then," she responded, shifting her stance from a broad, almost comically aggressive pose to a more controlled stance, bringing her hands forward. She curled one hand into a fist, flexing her index finger in a 'come here' motion. "Bring it on."

Yuffie charged forward, closing the distance between them in a sudden burst of speed. She swung hard with her shuriken, hoping to overwhelm Ranma and end the fight quickly. Ranma, for her part, did one of the things she did best, which was simply to not be there when the blow landed. She jumped straight back, twisting in midair into a flying backflip, before landing lightly on her feet almost the same distance away as when they began a moment ago. Ranma settled back into her stance, and extended one finger again, crooking it invitingly. "Whenever you're ready, Yuffie," she said calmly.

Yuffie growled in annoyance. The ninja flicked her wrist, and three throwing knives sailed out towards Ranma. A heartbeat later, she circled quickly to one side, hurling her shuriken at the redhead, before charging in right behind it.

Ranma read the knives for what they were; a feint. She held her ground and let them pass just to one side of her, before turning to face down the other two threats. She immediately darted forward, towards the shuriken, hopping slightly into the air to vault the whirling blades with a tap of one hand against the center grip. Unbalanced in midair, the shuriken skidded along the ground for a few meters as Ranma came face to face with the younger girl.

Yuffie moved gracefully, striking aggressively and quickly. Ranma blocked a trio of punches and deflected an elbow thrust aimed at her head, before spinning just behind Yuffie and giving a sharp shove, knocking her to the ground. The dark-haired girl let out a gasp of shock as she fell, but otherwise didn't cry out. She scrambled for her downed shrunken and shouldered it again, before reaching into her pockets a second time. There was a scattering of small bang sounds as Yuffie cast her hand in a wide arc, and a dispersal of opaque smoke followed the miniature explosions.

Some kinda flash bombs, Ranma thought, paying attention to the way the smoke moved. A second later, part of the smoke seemed to ripple, and the redhead turned to see a swarm of sharp knives flying straight at her. She weaved her way beneath the first set, twisted to the side of the second set, and deflected a final pair of knives with a well-timed snap kick, sending them flying skyward.

As the smoke began to dissipate, Yuffie ran in again, a short dagger in one hand, still doing her best to overwhelm the martial artist's defenses. She was hoping to force an opening for a clean hit, or at least something she could exploit further. But fists, feet, and blade all seemed to slip just wide of their mark. She was beginning to see how Ranma had managed to stay alive against SOLDIERs; the strange fighter just could not be pinned down. "Stay still, ya spaz!" Yuffie shouted, swinging a fist and colliding again with empty air. Ranma slid behind her with ease and pushed Yuffie forward, overbalancing the younger girl and sending her sprawling into the gritty dirt once more.

"C'mon, you're supposed to be a ninja, right?" Ranma taunted, a bead of sweat rolling down her brow as the sun beat down on the pair of them. "So gimme your best ninje!" she continued, deliberately mispronouncing the word.

Yuffie sprang to her feet and charged forward. "Wutaian doesn't sound like that and you know it!" She threw a back punch as a feint before committing to a two-step kick. Ranma batted her legs to the side, sending Yuffie spinning with the momentum of her attack. The girl crouched down, grinning, before springing forward in an awkward-looking headbutt that managed to carry a lot of inertia with it.

Ranma ducked down underneath the human projectile, and was rather surprised to see the glint of metal occupying the space Yuffie had just vacated. Caltrops. Runt's adapting fast, she thought, trying to box me in. She limboed beneath Yuffie as she sailed overhead, pushing herself back to standing and turning to face the girl. "An' what are ya gonna do about it, huh?" she called out, egging on the other girl. "Gotta hit me to shut me up."

"Let's see you handle this!" Yuffie threw out her hand and more gleaming metal slid out of nowhere, a spread of almost a dozen weighted metal darts slicing out of the air. Every single one missed Ranma, and Ranma didn't even have to dodge. And then she saw the new arc of caltrops in front of her, filling a circle around her that she hadn't realized had been cast.

"Huh," Ranma grunted. "Nice trick."

"You can't get away now!" she shouted, pulling her enormous shuriken off her back and flicking it contemptuously to one side, sending it flying in a low, wide semicircle, before it arced through a turn in midair. Ranma tracked its motion for a moment, but didn't let her eyes leave Yuffie. "You got three choices. Duck, jump, or get hit. What's it gonna be?"

The shuriken completed its arc and scythed down to about waist height, spinning like a lawnmower blade as it flew towards Ranma. The redhead had to admit, this was an excellent way to limit mobility and options, practically guaranteeing a clean hit by forcing her into three equally bad options. Yuffie was playing chess with her, and against any common foe, this was basically checkmate.

Against a common foe, Ranma thought with a grin. She leaned down to one side, just underneath the shuriken as it swept just overhead, and as Yuffie began to draw out another set of throwing objects, Ranma reached up and slipped two fingers into the center hole of the shuriken, tugging hard and redirecting the star's flight.

Right back at Yuffie.

Yuffie blinked and froze for a fraction of a second, staring as her carefully laid trap seemed to fall apart in the space of a heartbeat, but threw out her attack anyway, a set of impact flashbombs, before darting to one side. The shuriken passed through the space she had just vacated, before digging hard into the boulder Ranma had perched on earlier that morning, shuddering to a stop. Yuffie turned to take aim at a dazed and disoriented Ranma, drawing a pair of flat daggers into her-

Ranma was gone.

"What?" she cried out in disbelief. Her eyes darted around, before she noticed a shadow fall over her, causing her to glance upward. Ranma landed scarcely a half meter in front of her and immediately moved to strike. Yuffie recoiled as the first punch sailed just beneath her chin, reversing her grip on the blades in her hand and reaching up to press the tips against Ranma's chin just as the girl's fingertip stab halted a hair's breadth from Yuffie's neck.

Ranma panted, the exertion clear in her posture, sweat rolling down her neck and forehead. "Gonna get those daggers outta my face, runt?" she demanded in a low growl.

"Gonna get that hand away from my neck, old man?" Yuffie countered, clearly on her last legs as well as she sucked in a deep breath. "Cuz I think I could filet your head before you can finish that nerve strike."

Ranma smirked knowingly. "Not gonna have the chance… look up."

Yuffie's eyes flicked up for a fraction of a second, just long enough to see a pair of sharp, weighted throwing knives descending towards her. "Shi~i~it!" she cried out as she wheeled away from the errant blades, pulling her daggers away from Ranma in the process. The first knife landed point-in, exactly where Yuffie had been a moment earlier. The second one clattered noisily to the gravelly earth less than a meter away. Ranma dashed forward, grabbing Yuffie by the wrist and yanking it straight upwards to pull her guard off balance, before slamming her other fist forward in a precise strike to the solar plexus.

Which stopped a fraction of a centimeter away from impact.

Yuffie struggled in the girl's grip for a second or two until she realized that not only was Ranma's grasp significantly stronger than she would be able to wrest out of, she had also been beaten. She opened her hands, the last two knives tumbling into the dirt. "All right, all right, you got me," Yuffie conceded, looking down and to her left. "Now lemme go, will ya?" Ranma released her grip, and Yuffie rubbed at her wrist in reflex.

"You're good," Ranma admitted. Probably at least as good as Konatsu, she thought to herself. "You've got skill. You know when to attack, where to move, and how to misdirect. But." Ranma could practically feel the younger girl's ego inflating at the praise, and paused deliberately until she was certain Yuffie was paying attention. "You've seen what we're up against, and if it's not enough against me, it's not enough against them either. Your close-range fighting is sloppy and slow. You're telegraphing your movements. You need to learn when to disengage, and you gotta control your emotions better 'n that."

Yuffie's head was still lowered, staring at some spot in the dirt a few meters away. "...jeez, you sound just like him…" she mumbled, stepping around Ranma and moving towards the nearby boulder, her shuriken wedged two-points-in to the stone.

Ranma stifled the urge to ask who Yuffie was talking about. There was a venom in her voice, one that Ranma felt a strange familiarity with. It took her a moment to identify it, since she hadn't heard it out of someone else's mouth in quite a while. "Your old man too, huh?" she commented.

Yuffie nodded vaguely as she gripped the shuriken in the stone. "He's… got his pride." She managed to rotate it out, and began checking the tips for dulling or nicks. "An' he's a hypocrite to boot."

Ranma let out a chuckle at that, thinking about Genma. "Let me guess… your pops saddled you with some impossible standards, started bitchin' about you failin' to clear the bar, an' then you an' he had a big fight over it."

Yuffie froze. "How the hell do you know that?"

"That's just me an' my pops all over," Ranma replied, crossing her arms behind her head as she started walking back over to the others. "You ain't the only one, believe me."

Yuffie turned and stared at the redhead in disbelief. After a moment, she shouldered her shuriken again and caught up with Ranma, who was by now only a few meters away from Aerith and Cait Sith. "So… how didja do that anyway, earlier?"

Ranma stopped short. "Do what?" she asked, as Aerith walked over to meet them. "You mean slingin' that big shuriken of yours around?"

"No, that thing!" Yuffie answered insistently, practically bouncing on her feet. "With the Blizzard spells, on the beach!"

Ranma shook her head in confusion, opening her mouth to retort, but Aerith's voice rang out first. "I've been wondering that myself, sensei," the brunette's tone was much gentler than the young ninja's.

"I still don't know what you two're askin' me, then," Ranma shrugged, stretching her arms over her head. "I just… when I need ta do somethin' like that, I'm just hittin' myself with the spell. It hurts some, but only for like the first two or three spells, an' then it's just… well, you saw, right?"

Aerith nodded hesitantly. "But the thing is, targeting yourself with a spell doesn't do what you're talking about it doing. If you were just casting on yourself, you should have passed out or worse from the damage long before you did anything substantial temperature wise." She lowered her voice dramatically. "It's like you're tapping into something else… I don't know what, but it looks and feels a lot different than the spellcasting I taught you back in Midgar."

Ranma's eyes flicked between the two, and she screwed up her eyes in concentration. Am I doing somethin' different? she thought, rubbing her chin. She's the one who taught me how ta do it at all. And I've been doin' it like she said… except… oh, maybe that… She blinked and met Aerith's inquisitive gaze. "I've been using my chi when casting sometimes too. Maybe that's it? I can't really think of anythin' else."

Yuffie and Aerith shared a look. "You mean," Yuffie began, "you've been using the Lifestream to power your spells?" she asked in a suspicious tone.

Ranma paused for a moment, hearing something in Yuffie's question that sounded worried. "Some of my techniques need a lot of chi to work," she explained, gesturing with her hands. "So when I'm gearin' up to use 'em, sometimes I gotta use materia at the same time. An' I guess… when I'm doin' that, it doesn't hurt me as much."

There was a pause as all three of them caught themselves up on what was just said. "Show me," Aerith said calmly.

Ranma looked taken aback for a moment, raising her hands defensively. "Look, if I'm doin' it wrong, I can just-"

"No, show me," Aerith repeated, as a school teacher might correct a wayward student. Ranma almost jumped at the change in her demeanor, and even Yuffie took a few cautious steps back. Aerith let out a huff, relaxing her shoulders, before she stepped a bit closer to Ranma and softened her tone. "I need to see it… to sense it… so I can figure out what's happening. As your sensei. Please." Aerith smiled softly. "Show me a regular casting first."

Ranma blinked in confusion, but nodded her head, suddenly feeling very much like she was about to be chastised for her sloppy form in some new martial arts Genma had thrown at her. It was not a welcome memory, but she quashed it and focused instead on the task before her. She reached for her mana, channeling it through her materia, and felt the Blizzard spell launch from her fingertips, the icicles flying out to collide with the stones at the far side of the quarry. Two of the rocks froze over, and a third rock shattered with the impact of the spell, the sound of frozen granite impacting on the ground in the distance.

Aerith watched the spell fly, keeping her senses tuned as she felt the rhythm of the spell going off. Jeez, his spells are hitting hard for someone who's been doing this for only a month, she remarked to herself. "All right, that seemed… normal enough," she said aloud, taking a step back. "Now do one as if you're going to do one of your chi techniques too."

Ranma nodded, thinking back to the battle with the Jenova monster from earlier in the morning. She took a stance, and began channeling both her mana and her chi. It wasn't something she bothered paying attention to until now, simply working on instinct as best as she could. But now that she had the time and the patience to devote to it, she felt how the different energies both complemented and clashed with each other. Two different sources of power working towards a shared goal. Heh, that's something I know a little about already, Ranma thought with a smirk. She decided on the first move she'd ever learned to imbue with her chi, one of the basic strikes of Indiscriminate Grappling that had originally been grafted into the style from Hakkyokuken. "So- " She moved her hands in a small circle and lunged forward. "-ten-" She completed the circle and pushed forward with both hands, and felt the Blizzard spell suddenly, sharply focused at the space just beyond her palms as she completed the motion. "-shu!"

As the double palm strike completed, the Blizzard spell also fired off. Instead of a salvo of icicles flying through the air, the spell exploded outwards from where the impact of her hands would have been, looking like a blast of arctic air and shards of frost that filled the air for over a meter in front of Ranma before dissipating.

Ranma's eyes went wide. "What…?" she gasped, taking a step back as the cloud of ice began to fade in the sunlight. She looked at her hands. "...no way…" she muttered in disbelief. She repeated the motion, and saw another flurry of frost splinter through the air just in front of her, sublimating a moment or two later in the tropical sun.

Aerith looked on, smiling. "So, that's what you were doing differently." She stepped forward and felt the cool breeze left from the sublimating ice waft past her. "Try doing it again… but this time, with your chi only."

Yuffie and Ranma turned to stare in tandem. Yuffie spoke first. "Now hold up-"

Aerith waved her into silence, before turning back to the redhead. "Humor me, Ranma. I don't even know if it'll do anything, but I have to know for sure."

Ranma took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, returning her focus to her breathing. "Chi only for a spell… okay, let's give it a go." She slowed her breathing, focused on the energy within her, and started picturing the spell in her mind. It felt far more difficult now that she was being asked to do it deliberately. How do I even do this? she thought, trying not to grit her teeth. I know I've been doin' it anyway, or somethin' like it, but… She paused for a moment, thinking about the moment on the beach again. She remembered the elements of the spell as if they were being separated from each other the same way an iceberg calves away from a shoreline. Cold without impact. Frost as a part of herself instead of as a threat. And she remembered the spell responding to her needs, her forearm slowly enveloped in a sheet of ice by sheer force of will.

Maybe it really is that easy, she thought.

She cleared her mind and focused on the materia, starting by pulling at both her mana and chi as she did before, but slowly letting her mana slip out of her grasp again. She stopped thinking about it like spellcasting, like the materia was something separate from herself. She pictured herself and the materia as a single entity, extensions of each other, each strength complementing the other. This wasn't just fire-and-forget spell-slinging, and it wasn't learning something brand-new, on another planet, that made absolutely no sense to her. This was the Art. This was the very soul of the martial arts Ranma had practiced since childhood.

I can do this, she thought, and opened her eyes. Funneling the chi through the materia, she felt her body cool slightly, as if there were truly ice in her veins. She took a deep breath, and moved through a simple kata. At every moment where her attacks moved to connect with her imaginary opponents, the Blizzard surrounded her blows. Punches burst into a small explosion of ice; feet struck at the air, frost wreathing her kicks. A measured shoulder-check was surrounded by snowflakes. A fingertip nerve strike ended in a long icicle for a half-second before the magic sublimated away. Ranma completed the kata, taking a deep breath and lowering her arms to center, before she released the spell and felt her body slowly return to normal.

Yuffie and Aerith were both staring, awestruck. "Who-hoa," Yuffie exclaimed, a broad grin stretching over her face. "You gonna show us how you did that?"

Ranma grinned, staring at her own hands. "Give me a little time to make sure I can get it right," she answered, "but yeah, once you, Aerith, and Tifa are at the right level, I'll make sure you all know how to do this."

Several meters away, near to the wall of the quarry. Cait was staring intently, studying the martial artist as best he was able. His ears twitched gently as he observed the practice session, taking particular note of the ice magic surrounding the fighter's bare-handed strikes. "...well tha's a bit worryin'," he mused to himself. His keen eyes had already seen that Ranma carried nothing more than a few magic materia, and now a pair of summons… certainly nothing that should allow her- him to break the laws of magic. "Looks like dey had the right idea, sendin' us oot here. Who knows what kinda hijinks the lad could get up to with a power like tha'."

He turned his gaze slightly, noticing the girl in the pink dress standing slightly away from the other two. Aerith, the supposed Ancient girl, was no longer paying any attention to Ranma. She was, instead, staring directly at Cait. His ears twitched nervously. She canna hear me from way over there, can she? he thought. After another few tense moments of worried contemplation, Aerith smiled and waved to Cait. "Hey, Cait, we're going to be heading back to town soon," the girl called out.

Cait let out a breath of relief. "Aye, lass," he called back. "Meet up with ye in a mo!" Aerith nodded and turned back to see Yuffie and Ranma arguing about something. Cait gave the Mog an affectionate pat on the head. "Looks like we're safe," he muttered. "For no', anywae." The Mog began to move towards the trio, Cait standing cheerfully atop it. As he approached, he lifted one leg in a triumphant-looking pose, pointing emphatically with one gloved hand. "All rightie, lads and lasses, onward to Costa, and then to Wutai! Lessee if we can unravel this fortune of yours, eh?"

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Shinra Tower was, by necessity, the busiest place on the planet. Running a planet-wide corporate empire was only slightly less complicated than running an actual empire. The problem was that the bureaucracies for the two had almost no natural intersection with each other. As a result, nearly a third of the employees and paperwork for Shinra's headquarters were devoted solely to ensuring that the other two thirds could work together. There were people coming and going at all hours. And in recent days, nowhere else was that more true than the communications hub.

Ordinarily, being in the field in person meant that if even the president wanted to contact someone at the Tower, he would have to navigate the communications network from the outside using his PHS. As the president, however, leading a military force, he could instead use military communications lines and bypass the civilian network entirely. It was a little past noon in the Gongaga area, but in Midgar it was late evening when the video feed came into the central command post in Shinra Tower. Heidegger, having forced a civilian aircraft to fly him back from Costa Del Sol, was there to receive it personally.

"Ah, President Shinra!" he greeted, clasping his hands together. "To what do I owe-"

"Can it, Heidegger," Rufus cut off the man's platitudes, pulling out his cigar case and lighter. "There has been an update in information, and my standing orders have changed. You are responsible for seeing that those orders are carried out. Do you understand me?"

Heidegger paused for a moment as Rufus went through the ritual of lighting his cigar. He understood the new president had not agreed with his methods, or with the results. Heidegger was not fond of change, except where it benefitted him, personally, and he had been angling for the vice presidency for years. Had he obtained his desired ambitions by the time Rupert Shinra was assassinated, he would now be in charge. As it was, he was now playing second fiddle to a boy half his age. If it meant that he would have another chance to claim what he thought of as rightfully his, then he would play along until he saw his opportunity again. "Yes, Mr. President, I understand completely." He balled his hands up slightly below the camera's field of view.

"My orders are simple, Heidegger," Rufus continued, taking a slow drag on his cigar. "So simple that even you should be able to see that they are adhered to. Every agent, every trooper, every SOLDIER, is to know… Ranma Saotome must be captured alive, at all costs. I will not tolerate failure in this. Until we understand where he came from, and how, his continued existence is vital."

He? Heidegger's thoughts skipped at the unexpected pronoun. He rallied his attention and saluted to the screen. "I understand, sir."

Rufus nodded across the television screen. "Good. I'm sending updated info, which you should be receiving shortly. Make sure the information within is circulated to all bases and security centers." He held the cigar to one side, staring intently across the distance to meet the Director's eyes through the screen. "If you feel there is any reason you are unable to perform this duty, now is the time to say so."

Heidegger shook his head vehemently. "No, sir, I'll see to it immediately." He turned to leave.

Before Heidegger reached the door, Rufus spoke again from the telecom screen, his tone making the older man halt in place. "Make… certain… of it… this time," he said firmly, setting the cigar down in an ashtray. "You are not irreplaceable. And you have, thus far, not been worth the trouble. I do not expect that I need to remind you that you are on extremely thin ice. The failure of those under your command will reflect as your own. And your failure in this will reflect… poorly."

Heidegger remained frozen in place for a few seconds more, his back still turned to the camera. "Yes, sir," he confirmed in a cold voice, his fists tightening in anger. The video switched off, and Heidegger hurried out of the communications center.

Some time later, a maintenance report was filed to repair a number of fist-sized holes in the wall leading away from the communications center.

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It was mid afternoon by the time the four of them returned to the outskirts of Costa del Sol. The first familiar face they saw was that of Red, laying on the street next to the inn, in the shade of an overhang. What looked very much like a soccer ball to Ranma's eyes was bouncing somewhat lazily off his tail, and alternating between a pair of small children who appeared to be having fun passing it back and forth between each other and the talking wolf.

Ranma stared for a moment, amused. "You okay, Red?" she asked, suppressing a giggle.

Red didn't answer for a moment. His voice sounded somewhat far away when he did finally respond. "I am… fine, yes," he began, blinking slowly. His head twitched slightly as the ball was passed to him again, and his tail swished out in a controlled sweep, sending it in the other direction. "It is quite odd, though… my tail seems to be acting on reflex." The ball returned, and another thunk of the tail against the leather outer of the ball sent it towards the first child again. "It reminds me… of a game played at my home, though it was more… involved, there."

Ranma nodded in response. "Yeah, I think I know what you mean," she finally commented, as the other three passed along behind her. "As long as you're okay, though. Seen anyone else around since we left?"

Red didn't answer for a moment, seeing Cait and his giant Mog pass behind Ranma, following Aerith and Yuffie as they headed towards the inn. After a moment of tracking the movement, he blinked sharply, shaking his head. "This is not a dream, is it?" he queried, looking back at Ranma. "Or do cats wear clothes now?"

Ranma turned to follow Red's line of sight. "Oh, that," she answered. "Yeah, that's Cait Sith, he wants to go with us. It's… complicated."

Red let out a canine snort. "When is it not complicated with you, Ranma?" he asked, though there was a smile in it.

Ranma gave a chuckle despite herself. "I swear, it's not on purpose. Anyway, if we're all gettin' together for dinner or whatever, I'll explain it then."

"Fair enough." Red's tail flicked out again, bouncing the soccer ball off to one of the children again. "I believe Barret went to assist Shiro in readying his ship. Some of the crew came into port and are sitting at the tavern with Tifa. And I have not seen Cloud since shortly after we arrived this morning."

The redhead gave a frown at that. "Not like Cloud to go runnin' off… I'll ask around-"

"No need," said a familiar voice behind them. Ranma turned and saw Cloud approaching, carrying several heavy looking packages underneath each arm. "Been working on getting supplies for travel. Captain Shiro says we'll be at sea for at least five days unless the weather is favorable."

Ranma rolled her eyes briefly. "Well, maybe I shouldn't bother changin' back if the first wave is gonna just make me a girl again…" she commented dejectedly, glancing away.

"Na' so fast, laddie!" Cait's voice called out suddenly. Red lifted his head from the paving stones. Ranma and Cloud both turned towards the sound. Cait, atop his Mog, was running straight at Ranma full-tilt. "Gotcher covered this time!"

It was at this point that the light caught the object in the Mog's hand, and Ranma saw the familiar shape of a cast-bronze water kettle, streaming visibly even in the warm tropic air. Her eyes went wide as she held out both hands, frantically waving them in warning. "No, wait, waitwaitwait, it just has to be hot, not boiling-"

Cait's own eyes went wide at that, and he pulled on something behind the Mog's head. Mog turned sideways, and its odd, clumsy running gait transformed into a slick-looking slide on the soles of both feet across the smooth cobblestones that formed the main square. Right up until the heel of his front foot collided with a slightly raised stone. Mog tripped and faceplanted with a thud, Cait gracelessly tumbling down to the ground a half-meter ahead of him. The kettle went flying. The lid to the kettle went flying as well. And the steaming-hot water tumbled out of the kettle, sailing straight at Ranma.

Ranma moved purely on instinct. She inhaled sharply, her form blurring as she rolled through a fierce stomp into the ground, focusing her chi, grabbing desperately at her mana, and concentrating on the Blizzard spell she'd worked with earlier. She spun on her forward foot, lowering her body as she shifted her weight through a second step, the Blizzard spell seeming for a brief moment to wrap around her entire body. At the last moment, she raised her back arm to keep her balance, and thrust her hip and shoulder up and forward sharply into the space just ahead of the oncoming water. The Blizzard spell erupted off of her body, moving with her body, an arctic blast of air and ice and snow filling the air just in front of her, between herself and the scalding hot water.

The water collided with the frosty air. Magic and matter passed through each other mid-flight. And a half-heartbeat later, the water splashed into Ranma's face and torso.

Ranma tensed reflexively, slamming her eyes shut against the hot water. And let out a small gasp in shock. "Oh." His eyes blinked open. He slowly unwound his body from the final motion of the Tetsuzanko and stood up straight, patting at his damp clothes and un-boiled skin. "Huh. I guess that worked."

Cait ran towards him on his own feet, wide-eyed. "Ah, shite, Ae dinna know about the not boilin' it part- whoa," he said, nearly tripping again as he looked up at Ranma in his boy-half. "You are a tall drinka water all of a sudden, ainchoo?"

Ranma ignored the being he'd started rationalizing in his head as cat-shaped object and met Cloud's questioning gaze. "Cloud, this is Cait Sith," he offered as an introduction. "He… uh… wants to come with us."

Cait turned to Cloud. "Aye, an' thank ye for havin' me on board, capp'n!" the feline exclaimed, extending one hand by way of greeting. And paused, looking at the load Cloud was carrying. "Ah, on second thought, Ae'll wait until yer done the heavy liftin' ta introduce meself proper," he concluded, lowering his hand.

Cloud let out a huff of exasperation. "I hope you know, Ranma," he said, the edges of his mouth curling up slightly, "a pet… is a big responsibility." And started walking towards the docks, making sure none of his burden had slipped.

Ranma stared blankly for a moment, until his brain caught up with Cloud's comment. "Hey, Cloud, hang on, it's not like that!" And started after him.

Cait walked back over to Mog, and pulled at the control levers to get him back on his feet. He took a moment and sent a fourth burst transmission, making sure to include the cleanest photos he had managed to take of Ranma, both in his female and male halves. Then he turned to Red. "Oi, are ye with those two also?"

Red looked up at him, sniffing curiously. "I am, for now, yes. You… do not smell like a cat. And that-" he lifted one paw to gesture at the Mog below Cait, "-does not smell like a Moogle, either."

"Well, Ae should hope na'!" Cait declared in response. "Mog here's li'l more than a stuffie with some robo parts holdin' 'im up. And Ae…" he continued, pointing to his crown, "...am Cait Sith, the lord of all cats. Wouldna do fer someone important like me to be smellin' like the masses, would it?"

Red stared in silence for a moment as he processed that, his head tilting slightly to one side. "You are a strange individual, Cait Sith," he said finally, standing up to all fours. He gave a wolfish smile to the cat. "At the very least, you will fit in well."

And he, too, started padding towards the docks, leaving Cait to himself. After a few moments, when he was sure nobody else was in earshot, he gave a feline grin of his own and patted Mog on the head affectionately. "Tha' went better'n Ae thought. Hope they like the pics."

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The Shinra PHS network was the best global communications network on Gaia… at least partly because it was the only global communications network on Gaia. But for a planet which had yet to achieve spaceflight, and had no artificial satellites to boost communication range, it nevertheless had a fairly extensive coverage of the world. A not-insignificant portion of the budget for the Department of Urban Development was dedicated to building and maintaining those lines of communication. And the lines dedicated to military communication were always held to be of the utmost priority.

In short, this meant that SOLDIERs could receive new or updated mission criteria from nearly anywhere on the planet. So when Heidegger received the updated photographs of Ranma Saotome as both male and female, as well as the text of the kill order being rescinded, the information was able to be transmitted with almost no turnaround or chance of failure. This was a topic that held specific interest to Heidegger at the moment, as he had been Director of SOLDIER for nearly six years now and had no real intention of letting go of his accumulated power and prestige. He would do what was ordered of him, and he would do what he needed to do in order to remove the threat to his position.

The message went out.

It was received and acknowledged by a phone in Junon. Amon went to gear up once more, determined to bring the Sector 7 terrorists to justice. The Highwind had already departed with reinforcements bound for the Eastern continent, and it would take time before the Gelnika was ready. But he would be sure to make it in time to play his part. He signaled his receipt and advised of his current status.

It was received by two phones on a small helicopter approaching the Nibel mountains. Jagher and Venator were already in the middle of responding to a high-priority mission to take out a monster near the reactor in the mountain range. They were near to the new planned strike location, and acknowledged receipt, signaling their intent to hike down after their current mission completed.

It was received by a phone belonging to another SOLDIER sporting short, dark hair. He happened to be on approach in the Highwind, to the same trooper camp Rufus was organizing into his planned trap. An unsheathed longsword hung from his belt. He signaled his receipt and advised of his impending approach.

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…elsewhere…

The official mission update arrived at a phone outside a five story building with red trim, standing alone in the middle of a small forest. Lars looked over the message once and growled in disgust. "...You gotta be shitting me…" He turned and threw the phone into the distance, where it shattered on a large rock. "At least I won't have to go far to crush those worthless ants…" He turned again and entered the abandoned building.

The decor was more or less what he had expected it to be. Largely wood with metal accents, that glaring red polish, and images of what he had always thought was a fat man who looked far too jolly for having as many arms as he did. The stairwell leading up had caved inwards some time ago, the timbers now rotted from exposure. It was certainly still possible to reach the upper floors, but there was no point in doing so. Instead, he walked to the back of the building and pulled aside an ornate partition to reveal a stone stairway leading down.

The basement floor had a bar, of all things, and despite being abandoned, the bar still had a substantial stock of alcohol. Good stuff, too, by Lars' estimation. It was, in fact, half of the reason he'd initially agreed to the meeting. He sat down on one of the stools and reached over the bar for a bottle of aged bourbon and a shot glass. Unfortunately, both were just out of his reach.

"Oh, don't trouble yourself, allow me." Lars turned to look in the direction of the voice. He was already well aware of Don Corneo's general fashion sense, or lack of it, but he was somewhat surprised to find himself thinking that he sounded almost exactly the way you would expect him to from his appearance. The older man's smarmy, insinuating tone was as if innuendo had been given a voice box. Corneo walked past the gold statue of some unknown local god and stepped behind the bar, setting down a thick briefcase on the countertop, before grabbing the bourbon and a pair of shot glasses. "I always prefer to drink over business deals anyway."

Lars shrugged and took the proffered drink, downing it in a single go. "You ought to know, there's standing orders to have you brought before the Turks."

Corneo knocked back his own shot, and refilled the glasses. "Oh, I'd be very surprised if I wasn't a wanted man right now," he commented, waggling his eyebrows. "But that's not why you're here, are you? If you were, you'd have slapped me in irons by now. You figured out that the order to bring me in doesn't specify which of my many heinous crimes I'm to be charged with."

Lars said nothing for a long moment, the silence stretching out slowly to the breaking point as he contemplated the bourbon in front of him. It was well known that SOLDIERs couldn't get drunk easily, their enhanced metabolism breaking down most drinks in minutes instead of hours. Of course, that didn't stop them from enjoying a good drink. He eyed Corneo disapprovingly. "Well… that and the new bombs you brought me," he commented, eyeing the black briefcase sitting on the bar. That was the other half of why he was here. "You do have a substantial rap sheet, but… no, a reason for capture was not specified." He downed the shot as easily as the first, the flavor burning the back of his throat pleasantly.

"And you want to know what it is," Corneo went on, refilling Lars' shot glass again. "I swear, it's not for anything I did while I was in Midgar. It's more… what kept me in place while I was there…" Lars didn't react at all to that hook. Corneo pressed on, trying a more tantalizing bit of bait. "Alright, look, I know what's really going on behind the curtain here. And I'll let you in on Rufus' dirty little secret, give you as much control over him as I've got, but on one condition."

Lars stared at the man with about the level of consideration one might observe a cockroach, and mostly for the same reasons. He knew how the man's appetites ran. "All right, what's the condition?"

Corneo grinned from ear to ear. "Nothing so crass as you might be thinking," he reassured the SOLDIER. "All I really want is, when all's said and done, to go back to my little throne in Wall Market, and to once again have the complete, uninterrupted control down in the slums that I'm accustomed to. I don't mess with Shinra's business, they don't get involved in my little empire, and if someone crosses the line, we help each other out. Same deal as before." He downed his own shot, and refilled both glasses once more, stepping out from behind the bar with the slowly dwindling bottle of alcohol. Suddenly, he turned and gestured emphatically with the end of the bottle. "Oh, and that sexy little Turk babe gets handed to me on a silver platter, I've got some plans for breaking that blonde bitch."

Lars' eyes followed the man for another few seconds, the silence stretching out just far enough to be uncomfortable. "Out with it, then," Lars said finally.

Corneo let out a gleeful giggle. "Perfect, perfect, you won't regret this arrangement!" he cackled, setting the bottle down on a table near the middle of the room. He walked towards another table on the far side of the bar, and rummaged around in a pile of papers atop it, before holding up a thick file. "This is the proof… Rufus has been bankrolling AVALANCHE since day one. All of it. Every single action that they performed up until he was sent out of Midgar a few years back can be traced back to Rufus Shinra's own private accounts. I think the little shits got too big for him to control, but he still managed to do a hell of a lot with it."

Lars tilted his head slowly. "I don't follow."

"Oh, I'm so very glad you asked!" The shoddily dressed man wiped one hand on his jeans absently, before tossing his shot glass to the side, the tinkle of shattered glass following the action. He reached for the bottle of bourbon he'd liberated from the bar and took a swig. "It took me a while to piece all of this together, you know. AVALANCHE was the instigator of the war back then, and they were the ones blowing up shit all over the place. Wutai's military had its own victories, but anywhere you heard of a strike somewhere that Shinra already controlled, that was AVALANCHE. And they couldn't stop it! That was the whole idea!" He punctuated the statement by slamming the bottle against the table, the thud echoing around the nearly empty room. "Rufus sets up this AVALANCHE group to be the big scary boogeyman in the shadows, surviving like cockroaches no matter how many times they get put down! And when old man Rupert and everyone else from the old guard can't squash them, he comes back in and chases them out in minutes, because he could just cut off the money flow and then drop a SOLDIER or two on their front door! And suddenly he's the returning hero, saving the world from the villain that not even Rupert and his best could knock down for keeps. Even I can't help but admire such a good plan, and that showmanship counts for a lot."

Lars downed the last shot glass the crime lord had supplied him with. "And now, what, they're acting on their own?" he asked.

Corneo waggled one finger in response. "Not quite on their own. They're definitely not doing what Rufus wants, that's for sure. But I know how to keep track of the numbers. I think the new batch that were holed up in Midgar still have access to Rufus' funding. They just don't know it's his money. Which means… we can catch the bastard in the act. We threaten to air his dirty laundry out to his own company, and then get whatever we want out of it!" He splashed another shot of the booze into Lars' empty shot glass, much more of it ending up on the bar countertop than in the glass. He spun around, still carrying the bottle, and started waltzing back towards the middle of the room. "I get my little empire back, you get… I dunno, more explosives, someone to beat up, whatever it is you want… and after we've got ours, the Shinra boy's out on his ass and you can drop whoever you want in the top spot as your new puppet."

Lars knocked back his drink, slapping one hand against the bar firmly, and stood up, empty glass in hand. "And all that's in this file of yours?" he asked calmly.

"Indeed it is," Corneo went on, setting the bottle down in the middle of the room again. "Now, just in case you're considering betraying me, taking the proof and running back to Shinra, you oughta know I have copies stashed in a few places, so there's no point. They're already after me because I know about it, and if they know that you know about all this, you're just as much of a threat to them as I am. Why else would I tell you all this for free?"

Lars glared at the shorter man, pacing towards him. "You know," he began, "Shinra's intel file on you says you're actually pretty smart, and fond of riddles, so I gotta know. Why do you think I'm here?" He stopped in front of the bottle of bourbon, and poured another glass of the amber liquid. "Do you think I'm here to take back your file and leave you powerless? Do you think I'm here because of your charming personality, to join your noble cause? Or do you think I'm some kind of cheaply-bought idiot and just here for the rotgut you have in these bottles?"

"...Uh… I…" Even through the light buzz of the alcohol, this didn't sound to Corneo like the kind of riddle he wanted to answer. He took a step back, looking for a way out.

Lars rested one oversized hand on the Don's shoulder, keeping him from moving further away. He sported an apologetic smile. "Sorry, that came out wrong, let me try saying that a different way."

"Oh?" Corneo squeaked out a sigh of relief, and chuckled lightly. "Let me hear it ag-"

Lars' smile dissolved. Without another sound, the SOLDIER pushed Corneo roughly backwards against the wall, causing him to exhale sharply from the impact with the rough brickwork. In the blink of an eye, he drew one of his sabres, stepped forward, and thrust it through Corneo completely, the hilt buried against his chest, pinning him to the wall. "Do you really think I give a rat's ass about you or your little empire?" he taunted, as blood ran freely from the wound, already pooling on the floor beneath him, staining the wall as it dripped down. "You talk big, you act big, but you don't have any real power. You're no bigger or stronger than any of the other ants, and you crush just as easily." Lars pulled the sword free from the wall, the weight of Corneo's body hanging on the spine of the weapon for a long moment, before Lars shook the weapon sharply downward. Corneo slid off and crumpled bonelessly to the floor as the light faded from his eyes. "Rufus wants those ants from Midgar alive. I don't do alive. No fun if I can't kill 'em. I don't want Rufus under my thumb, I want him dead for tryin' to spoil my fun. Shoulda gone and played sandcastles with someone else."

Lars picked up one of the bottles of alcohol, slid the file under his shirt, took the briefcase that the crime lord had filled with explosive devices, and strode out of the basement, leaving Corneo's corpse behind.

About five minutes later, the timed explosive Lars had slapped against the bar went off. Combined with the high alcohol content of the hundreds of bottles stored in the basement, the entire pagoda toppled to the ground in a wash of flame, and was reduced to ash shortly after.

So endeth Don Corneo, 'lord' of Wall Market. Doesn't have the same ring as Denethor, but I'll take what I can get. Very soon, we will be trading in the locomotive engine for another boat, and we are pretty much officially off the last stretch of the rails for the original story. It took longer than I expected to put all of the pieces into place, but now I've got everything set that I need. From here on, we will be passing some familiar landmarks and bookmarks, but the views will be very different, as will the path we take to get there.

Before this, I admit, I was kind of using the original story as a crutch to get my own tale on its feet. It started slow, but I think it had to. The Midgar sequences were needed to introduce the majority of the pieces I needed to tell my tale. Everything after that was to get the pieces moving and in place for the rest of the saga. Now, it's my story. There are a few pieces moving in the background at this point, things unseen and unheard from the party's point of view and from Ranma's in particular, but aside from a few NPCs and the remaining members of the party, everything that I intend to use is either already in play or in planning on the back end… up to a point. Feel free to guess what that point is, but keep in mind I have to keep a few of my cards close to the chest. :D

Ranma's techniques:

Sotenshu - Double Palm. A specific type of strike in Hakkyokuken (Japanese name) or Bajiquan (Chinese name) martial arts, designed to open distance between the user and the opponent, as well as unbalance them for subsequent strikes.

Tetsuzanko - Literally, Iron Mountain Lean, or more colloquially, Iron Shoulder. Another technique adapted from Bajiquan, in which the user lowers their body before shoving forward and up, colliding with the opponent in multiple places using the hips, torso, and shoulder as the focus of the attack.

Elemental - Ranma has developed the internal ability to channel elemental materia into his combat by fueling the casting with chi rather than mana. In all other respects, this functions exactly the same as if the Elemental support materia were equipped in-game.

Hope you liked it! As always, feedback and comments continue to be welcome. I hope to see any of you present at Convergence, and then again back here when the next chapter gets posted. Stay safe out there.