Ryoga ½
by George Masologites
guilds@mail.serve.com [Hunter Kid]
© 0711/1997
4
Of Wolves and Magic


    "A student, you say?"  
    Ranma nodded, and patted Jeikar on the shoulder.  "He's got potential,
and a fast recovery rate."  An almost ungodly fast recovery rate, Ranma
thought with a an inward grunt, but didn't say anything.  "And he's come to
Japan looking for someone to train him..."  He trailed off, looking at Soun
Tendo expectantly.
    Soun stroked his mustache thoughtfully.  "You can pay, I assume, young
man?"  He directed his inquiry towards Jeikar, who nodded.
    "Hai.  I work at Ucchan's Okonomiyaki resturaunt, not too far from here."
    "Well, now, I suppose it couldn't hurt."  He ran a hand through his
thick black hair.  "Although I don't currently have many students, I guess
I can train you.  What days can you come to the dojo?"
    Jeikar shrugged.  "Any day's fine, sensei.  I can come in the
afternoons, before six."   
    Soun nodded.  "That would be fine.  When would you like to start?"
    "Well, I don't have work tonight.  My boss is giving me a night off, so
I was wondering if you could get me started today."  He grinned at his new
teacher.
    Soun stood up.  "In that case, let's get started."  He tightened the
belt slightly on his worn brown gi.  "Follow me to the dojo, Tsiang."
    "Hai, sensei."

    "Hey, Akane," Ranma called out as he strolled up the stairs.  "Your pop
wants you in the dojo."
    Akane's head peeked out of her room's door.  "The dojo?  Why?"
    "He just got a new student.  Some guy named Jeikar Tsiang.  He wants
you down there, so it doesn't look like he has only one student, I think."
Ranma grinned.  "Besides, Mister Tendo's probably out of shape from lack of
practice.  His student will need a sparring partner..."
    Akane nodded.  "Yeah, okay.  I'll be right down."  The door shut, and
Ranma heard sounds of her changing.  
    "Well, that was easy," he said to himself in a congratulatory manner as
he walked towards the dojo.

    "Well, now, young man," Soun was saying to Jeikar, who was kneeling in
front of him in a respectful sort of way, "have you ever trained before?"
He paused.  "That looks like a Chinese kung fu shirt, so you have?"
    Jeikar nodded.  "A little.  I trained some in China before coming here,
actually."  He hesitated, then offered some more information.  "If you're
trying to get a comparison here, Tendo-sensei, I can spar one of your other
students."
    Soun stroked his mustache, pondering for a moment, then nodded his
head.  "Yes, that will do nicely.  I'm familiar with their skill levels, I
believe.  Akane, will you spar with Tsiang?"
    Akane was also kneeling in front of her father, wearing her
yellow-tinted gi and a red cloth headband.  Jeikar had looked a little
surprised when Soun had said that there was no fixed uniform for their
dojo, and what he had on would do.  Soun had, however, made the Chinese boy
remove his ridiculous boots, assuring him that his kick speed would
probably improve barefoot, anyway.
    Jeikar and Akane both stood up and bowed to each other, and resumed
fighting stances.  Akane stood in a normal defensive posture, one arm
forward, one behind, feet set a little wider than shoulder width.  Jeikar,
on the other hand, who Ranma had expected to adopt the same stance as he
had used when the two had fought earlier - which was identical to Akane's -
balanced easily on one foot, his other leg raised in front of him.  His
hands were set in an odd position, something else that Ranma hadn't noticed
while they were fighting, but realized that his hands were in the same
position now as they had been then.  One hand was down, in the front of
him, palm slightly curved, and the other was back above his head, and Ranma
realized that Jeikar was probably accustomed to fighting with a bo staff.
    Soun noticed this, too, and shook his head.  "Today, Tsiang, we will
practice unarmed combat.  Akane, my only other student here today, is
unaccustomed to fighting with weaponry, you understand."  
    Jeikar nodded to his teacher and relaxed his stance slightly, looking
very much like he wanted to have a staff in his hands.
    That's why he couldn't block anything, Ranma realized.  He was used to
parrying with a bo staff.  He suddenly wondered if Jeikar would have been
tougher if he had been using the weapon of his choice.  Somehow, he doubted
it.  And he doubted it with a smirk.
    Soun looked quizically at the Chinese boy's odd stance, then shrugged
with a sigh.  "I guess we can see how that stance works.  I don't think
it's very practical for unarmed combat, though, Tsiang."
    Jeikar nodded with a grunt.  "Yeah, but it's the only stance I'm
familiar with.  I tried using another one earlier, because I didn't have a
weapon, but the end result was...bad."  
    His teacher shrugged again.  "Well, as you wish.  Let's see how you do.
 If it turns out okay, you can keep the stance.  Remember, this is a test,
not full-contact.  First person to get hit three times loses.  Fight!"
    Akane gritted her teeth and ran at Jeikar, spinning and kicking with
her foot, which would have smacked into the Chinese boy's stomach, only he
wasn't there to recieve it.  Dodging nimbly to the side he gave Akane a
quick openhanded strike to the side, forcing her to jump back, or else risk
another blow.
    "One for Tsiang," Soun acknowledged with a slight nod of his head.
    The two opponents circled, and Akane had the chance to assess Jeikar.
He was fast, that much was obvious.  Her kick wasn't the best, but it
wasn't sloppy, either, and he had sidestepped it without a problem.
Looking at him, she noticed that neither of his fists was clenched.  Okay,
so he doesn't like to use his fists, either, she noted.  Rather, he went
for openhanded blows.  Let's see...if I fake a punch to the right, he'll
dodge to the left, and I can side kick him there easily.  She was making
the assumption that he couldn't block blows, since he seemed accustomed to
using a quarterstaff.
    Jeikar, likewise, was studying Akane carefully.  Strange as it seemed
for him, this girl was definitely stronger than him.  By a lot.  He had the
advantage in speed, though, and could probably dodge anything she threw at
him.  Damn it, I wish I had my staff, he thought with a grunt.  I can't
block with my hands.  In fact, he hadn't the slightest clue.
    Suddenly, Akane charged, punching hard at his right shoulder.  He
jumped to the left, easily sidestepping it, instinctively swinging his
empty left arm that would have twirled a staff to deflect any incoming
blows, and before he could remember that he didn't have his weapon, Akane's
well-placed side kick smashed into his stomach and doubled him over.  He
jumped back, but not before Akane could kick him again, merely a light
touch with her right foot and tapped him on the right side.
    "Two points for Akane," Soun said, his face expressionless.  He
apparently didn't want Jeikar to think that he was favoring Akane in this
match, Ranma noticed.  
    They were circling each other again.  This is bad, Jeikar thought, his
frustration rising.  The irritating part was that he knew why he had been
hit - again, his lack of a weapon.  In a real fight, he would have dodged,
like he did, and twirled his bo staff downward, to knock away any incoming
blows.  What really annoyed him is that, even though he knew he didn't have
his staff, he had instinctively moved his left hand, trying to block with
the weapon that wasn't there.  He had to remember to parry with his arms.
    Jeikar fell back into his one-legged fighting stance, deciding that he
was probably going to lose and letting his experience in fighting wild
animals off in the wilderness take over.  As Akane charged again, he
bounded sideways, out of her way.  Wild boar charges, he acknowledged.
Counterattack.  Akane pivoted and turned around, but before she could turn
all the way around, Jeikar thrust his open palm at her unguarded back,
concentrating on the fact that his arm could act as a staff for him.  The
light finger touch on Akane's back was a surprise to her, to say the least.
 It would have been an ineffective attack in a real fight, but since they
were just sparring...Jeikar smiled.
    "Another for Tsiang."
    She leaped at him, ready to attack again.  Tiger pounces, he thought,
letting his reflexes solve this one.  Just as when a real tiger pounced,
Jeikar bounded up into the air, falling with a knee-drop that stunned an
ordinary tiger for about five or six seconds, giving him enough time to get
out of its way, and when he was that scared, he could run pretty far in a
few seconds.  But Akane didn't look around when he jumped as tigers did.
This is a human, dolt!  He berated himself, unable to stop his drop-kick.
Akane rolled out of the way and swept his feet out from under him, as he
fell, landing hard on the oak floor.  Akane held a fist to his throat, then
stood up and bowed to her father.  Jeikar, somewhat abashed at having been
beaten by a girl, stood up and bowed likewise.
    Soun, meanwhile, was studying his new student carefully, then he
suddenly nodded.  "In unarmed combat, Tsiang, I'll put you a little below
Akane.  I'll need to give you some lessons on blocking with your forearms,
it seems.  You seem to want to swing a staff to parry."  Jeikar looked
slightly embarrassed.  He had been hoping that his error hadn't been that
obvious.  "However, with your weapon, I'm sure you more skilled.  That's
for your next lesson, though, when I have someone here who can fight with a
weapon besides their fists."
    Ranma thought about volunteering, but realized that he couldn't fight
with a weapon, either.  Who needs a weapon when you can beat almost
anything with your fists?  He thought with a smirk.  
    "In any case," Soun was continuing, "you seem to have a natural talent,
like Ranma over there said."  Ranma was lounging on a stack of practice
mats that he hadn't ever seen used before.  "He also said something about
your recovery rate...?"
    "Hai, sensei," Jeikar said respectfully.  "I have a good constitution,
is all."
    "I see."  Soun nodded.  "Well, like I was saying, you'll make a fine
student with more practice.  But for now, let me adjust your stance for
unarmed combat.  That stance may be good with a bo staff, but without one,
it leaves your front completely unguarded.  Now, copy me, you two.  I'll
show you what the stance is supposed to look like..."

    "You want me to come to the dojo?"
    Ranma nodded.  He was speaking to Ukyou, who he knew to be good with a
weapon...a spatula, which he supposed was similar to a quarterstaff.
"Yeah, you know you assistant, Jeikar?"
    Ukyou said that she did.  "What about him?"  It was early; he had
already gone off somewhere after his morning shift of eight to ten; he
didn't have to come back until six for his evening shift.
    "Well, Mister Tendo's training him, actually.  I think it's a good
idea.  For Mister Tendo to have something to do all day, I mean.  Gives him
less time to try to force me and Akane on each other."  He smiled wryly,
and was sort of surprised when Ukyou didn't make a cutting remark about
Akane and snuggle up to him.  That much was good, he supposed.
    Rather than snuggling, Ukyou shrugged.  "Yeah, that sounds good.  But
how does it involve me?"
    "Well, Jeikar is a pretty bad fighter..."
    "You're telling me?"  Ukyou said with a laugh.
    "...or at least he is unarmed.  He says he trained in China with a
quarterstaff, and all of his moves do seem to be based around the staff
that he's carrying.  Or wants to be carrying, I should say."
    "And?"
    "Well," Ranma continued, "the problem is that Mister Tendo isn't
familiar with anyone who fights with weapons.  There's Mousse, of course,
but who wants to fight that guy?  Especially a novice like Jeikar.  If he
slipped up, he'd have steel sticking through him in about five different
ways."  He paused.  "Then I realized that a spatula is kind of like a
staff, so I was wondering if..."  He grinned at her.
    Ukyou thought about it.  "Well," she said, speaking slowly, "I can't,
not during the week.  The resturaunt stays open seven days a week usually,
but I suppose I wouldn't kill me to close it for Sunday afternoons."
Besides, she thought grimly, I've always wanted to smack that creep Jeikar
for hugging me and stuff.  Even if he is just kidding.

    Ryoga glanced ahead.  Nothing, he thought to himself.  Just the endless
seeming hills, covered with green grass and occasion trees for as far as
the eye could see.  He berated himself inwardly, muttering about how he
just needed to get back to the Tendo Dojo, then all would be well.  He
could have his long-sought revenge, and that would be that.  The problem
was getting there.  Maybe I should have gone through the forest after all,
he thought bitterly.
    "Why, hello there," a girl's voice said from behind him.  He turned
around, startled.  He hadn't heard anyone arrive!  Got to clear my
thoughts, he thought, shaking his head.
    Ryoga turned around, then jumped back.  It was the Ranma-chan
look-alike again!  "You," he growled.  "You're her!  You ran out on me.  Why?"
    The girl shrugged slightly.  "You mean you wanted me to stay?  What for?"
    "Don't play stupid," he snarled, enraged.  "I know it's you.  I can't
believe you fooled me before.  And here I've spent all this time looking
for you, Saotome.  Now we will end this, once and for all!"  He shrugged
out of his traveling pack and took the heavy bamboo umbrella out of it's
leather holder.  "Fight, Saotome!  Don't you dare try to flee again!"
    She appeared to be getting angry.  "You were looking for me?  Why?"
    "You know perfectly well why I was looking for you, Saotome!  Now
-fight me-!"  He shouted, brandishing his umbrella menacingly.  
    "I have no idea why you were looking for me," she growled, "but if it's
a fight you want..."  Suddenly she appeared perfectly relaxed and calm.  
    Ryoga fumed.  "Is this another one of your tricks?"  He demanded.
"Forget it!  It won't work!"  He charged at his opponent, swinging the
heavy umbrella in a mighty downward stroke that would crush her skull in a
single blow.  
    The hit never landed.  With those same calm motions, the girl drew her
sharp jen from it's place on her belt, and with the same motion the blade
of the sword landed just above where Ryoga was holding the umbrella.  It
broke his grip on the weapon, and it flew some distance off, thudding
harmlessly onto the grassy earth.  Ryoga snarled angrily and jumped backwards.
    "Shishi houkoudan!"  He bellowed, a huge wave of energy expanding from
Ryoga's outstretched hands and racing towards the girl, who had put the
sword back into her belt again.  Still moving with that irritating
calmness, she moved her hands slightly and a shield of blue energy formed
around her, knocking away the force of Ryoga's blast.  She moved closer to
him, moving slowly and purposefully, with a dangreous grace to her
movements.  Got to get her before she tries anything funny, Ryoga thought,
angry.
    Moving with surprising speed, Ryoga launched himself at the girl,
feeling sure that he would catch her off guard.  He was amazed to see that
she had merely moved a slight inch to the right, enough so that Ryoga's
powerful blow missed her by a hair's breadth.  Ryoga eyed her warily as she
seemed to be gathering her will for an attack.
    It had to be one of two things.  Either the mouko takabisha, a
horizontal energy wave blast similar to Ryoga's shishi houkoudan attack, or
the hiryuu shoten ha, a powerful attack that sent a wave of energy upwards.
 He decided that it was the former, and quickly altered the chi that he had
been using to form another shishi houkoudan blast to a barrier to block
Saotome's attack.  
    The girl didn't shout anything, or even barely move.  She just raised
her finger.  After that, in Ryoga's mind, all was chaos.  It wasn't a
horizontal energy wave attack, that was for sure.
    As soon as she raised her finger to release her chi, the ground under
Ryoga's feet exploded, sending him high into the air, reeling with pain,
even as she raised her finger again, this time sending a wall of pure flame
racing outwards from her.  The flames didn't seem to touch the ground as
they raced soundlessly over it and smashing into Ryoga, searing him badly
as he crashed to the ground, expecting to see the ground around him torched
and burning.  To his great amazement, it was untouched, except for a small
hole where the explosion had thrown him upwards.
    The girl's calm seemed to evaporate.  "Still want to fight?"  She
demanded, roiling with anger.
    Ryoga wanted to sleep.  He would be alright with sleep.  Just a little
rest.  A short nap.  He closed his eyes, and snapped them back open again.
No!  His mind screamed at him.  Rest now, and you won't wake up!  He forced
himself to raise his head.  "N...no," he managed to stammer weakly, letting
his head slump back down, as he closed his eyes, falling into peaceful
oblivion.

    His first sight was clouds overhead, floating gently in an azure sky.
Ryoga started to sit up, but the he shuddered in pain and lay back down,
defeated.  How?  He wondered.  How was that girl able to do that?  She had
never even physically touched him.  It was all...energy.  He stared at the
cloudy sky, contemplating silently.
    "Don't worry," a female voice came to him from from a little space
away.  "You'll be okay.  I used some herbs and salves, and your burns
weren't that severe.  You'e got tough hide, bandanna-boy," she remarked.
    "You!"  Ryoga stammered, sitting up.  "You...helped me?  Why?"
    The girl shrugged.  "Why not?  You seemed like an okay guy when I first
met you.  But when I approached you that second day...you went berserk."
    "You're not Saotome, are you?"  he asked, not really knowing what to
expect for a response.  But if she wasn't, why would his insults to Saotome
have gotten her so flaring mad?
    "I am," she responded simply.
    "You're Ranma."  Ryoga held his aching head.  "I just don't understand..."
    The girl snorted.  "I'm not Ranma."  Her voice held little respect for
that name.  "My name is Ryako Saotome."
    "R-Ryako?"  This girl wasn't Ranma!  But it sure looked like him in his
girl form.  Was it another Jusenkyo victim?  "What relation do you have to
Ranma Saotome?"
    "He's my brother."
    "Br...brother?  Ranma has a sister?"
    The girl, Ryako, nodded in an irritated fashion.  "Ranma has ruined my
life.  You cannot possibly understand," she added with a sigh.
    Ryoga laughed.  Ryako looked at him in surprise.  "You're not alone,"
Ryoga said, still chuckling mirthlessly.  "He's ruined my life as well, as
well as Uky..."  Ukyou's?  Why did he keep thinking about Ukyou?  He hardly
even knew her.  "...as well as countless others.  I am seeking vengeance,
as are you, apparently."
    "Why?"  The girl asked.  "What did he do to you?"
    Ryoga growled to himself, just thinking of Ranma.  "He's done many
things to me, things you wouldn't believe."  Ryako cocked an eyebrow.  "He
knocked me into a Jusenkyo spring, for starters," he said angrily.  "But
that's not all.  He is hounding a girl named Akane, trying to force her to
marry him, plainly against her will.  A girl that should have someone -
something - more!  She deserves better than that scum!"  He clenched his
fist, though it was disheartedly.  His claims about Ranma and Akane hadn't
had their usual effect of making him boiling mad, either.  
    "Your tone lacks conviction," Ryako observed dryly.  "Yet I think
you're telling the truth.  In many ways, you and I are similar.  You see, I
also fell into a Jusenkyo spring.  Laungnichuan, I believe it is called."
    Ryoga spoke a bit of Chinese.  "Drowned wolf spring...Spring of the
Drowned Wolf?"  He asked, surprised.
    The girl nodded.  "But that's not why I hate him.  He ran out on me.
Him and his scum father, both.  I told them I wanted to come with them; to
train with them.  Genma even agreed!  But when the day came," her voice
took on a menacing note, "they left.  And left me behind.  I was shattered.
 My mother said it was a shame, for I had great potential, she said, in
martial arts, expecially with special attacks that involved channeling
chi."  She sighed.  "And so I left home, alone, determined to find Ranma.
His tracks weren't that hard to follow, but during a snowy winter in the
mountains, I lost the trail.  And I couldn't remember the way back through
the whiteness.  So I wandered on, but I never found tracks of Ranma or his
father again.  So I trained myself, and at length I was beginning to be
able to focus my energy and cause things to happen.  Small rocks exploding
into shards.  A tiny candle flame when I needed one most."  She sighed again.
    "At first," she went on, "the things only happened when I really needed
them to.  Then, as time wore on, it became easier to focus and channel the
energy.  I think I was finally beginning to get the hang of it...when it
happened.  I had arrived in a small valley during the late spring, and it
seemed a pleasant enough place to train, so I took a look around.  Several
springs were there, and I hadn't had a good wash in a good deal of time, so
I...I leapt into it.  I crawled out, refreshed, only to find that I was
walking on four legs."  She growled, fuming.  "I had been changed into a
wolf.  Stunned, I couldn't comprehend what had happened to me, so I went
away.  To hunt."  Ryoga was startled to see a slight fire burning in her
eyes.  "Yes, hunting," she affirmed.  "I thought the change was permanent,
and I was hungry..."
    "You were lucky it was a wolf," Ryoga remarked offhandedly.  "I got
changed into a pig."
    "A pig?"
    Ryoga nodded.  "Yeah.  A small black piglet.  An animal that is eaten
over most of the known world."  His tone had become dark and unfriendly.
"But that is over," he waved it away with his hand.  "I have...found a
cure, you might say."
    Ryako didn't appear to be interested.  Ryoga blinked.  "Don't you want
to know what it is?"  He asked in surprise.
    The girl shrugged her thin shoulders.  "Not really.  I've grown to like
being a wolf, as a matter of fact.  It's a pain at times, but it's handy at
others.  Like when you're alone and need to catch your dinner."  She gave a
malicious grin.  "Much easier to stalk as a wolf."
    Ryoga thought it over.  Being a wolf would have some advantages, he
noted thoughtfully.  "So if not that, why are you so mad an Ranma?"
    "Because he and his father ran off without me.  I plan to make Ranma
suffer," her voice became cold-edged as she fingered the top of her sword
hilt.
    "Ah..."  Ryoga coughed slightly.  "Not that I'm defending Ranma,
but...aren't you overreacting a bit?  You're going to kill him because he
left you behind?"
    "Kill?"  Ryako shook her head.  "No, I doubt I'll kill him.  I just
plan to humiliate him.  Ranma needs to learn the meaning of honor."  She
scowled deeply.
    Ryoga nodded empathetically.  "Agreed.  Ranma Saotome has no honor.
Did you know your brother has four fiances?"  
    "I don't care.  With him and our father, anything could have happened.
The worse his life is, the better."
    Ryoga fidgeted slightly.  "Um, Ryako?  I-I want to ask a favor of you..."
    She looked at him with interest.  "Oh?"
    "Could you help train me?"
    She studied him, analyzing.  "Go on."
    "Well, you beat me so easily back there...I'm sure you can beat Ranma
just as easily.  I...well, I'd like it very much if you'd agree to teach me
some of what you know."
    The girl shrugged.  "I can teach you some of it, I guess.  However, my
ability isn't all natural.  Would you like to hear the rest of my story?"
Ryoga nodded.  "Well, then.  After a while, I found a hot spring and got
myself changed back into my normal form.  So I continued my training, but
there wasn't much to improve on.  My physical abilities with a sword were
strong, and my mental strength and abilities to channel chi easily matched
my sword strength to just about any man's.  But...I felt that there was
much more that I could do."  She paused, sighed, and went on.  "My
abilities then were similar to how yours are now...what did you say your
name was?"
    "Ryoga Hibiki."
    She nodded.  "Anyway, I had reached the top of my potential, so I
thought I was the best in the world, and ready to take on my brother and
his father."  She shook her head sadly.  "Then I was attacked by a band of
bandits.  But they easily overwhelmed me and stole all my posessions, save
my sword, for some reason.  Alone, I could have beaten them one-on-one, but
they just knocked me out so easily..."  She clenched her fist.  "So I began
to think of ways that I could improve beyond my limits.  There is numerous
tales of the magical energies, of which channeling chi could be considered
one.  So I returned to the one magical place I had ever been to...Jusenkyo,
and I spoke to the Guide there..."

[Two years previous, Jusenkyo, China.  Ryako's story.]

    The Guide looked up with interest as a young girl, perhaps fifteen or
sixteen years of age, stepped into his small hut.  He sipped his herbal tea
and looked at her closely, with an appraising eye.  She was thin and not at
all tall, with a nicely curved figure that could be well appreciated on
young women.  Her hair was blackish-brown with reddish highlights, and she
was dressed in a kung fu outfit, albeit an unusual one - a wood-brown
sleeveless silk top that opened over her right breast, with a large
encircled Chinese symbol for chi embroidered onto the back, and deep green
trousers, somewhat loose to allow free movement, but tight enough not to
encumber.  She also had a sharp jen thrust through her belt, and, if rather
plain, looked well-sharpened and equally well-balanced.
    Spring of the drowned girl, he acknowledged sadly.  "How may I help
you?"  He asked, speaking Chinese.  To the Guide's obvious surprise, she
didn't ask for a cure to the spring's curse.  
    "You are the Guide of Jusenkyo, correct?"  She asked, also speaking
Chinese.  He nodded, and she went on.  "The way you're looking at me, you
seem to know I've been cursed.  I have, and no, I'm not looking for a
cure."  She paused slightly, and he looked somewhat startled.  "Rather, I'm
looking for something long forgotten."
    He looked thoughtful.  "I think I know what you want, but continue."
    "I am looking for magic, and Jusenkyo, with its curse, is the only
place I know of that is magical."
    The Guide folded his hands together.  "Yes, I do know something about
magic."  A great deal, he thought inwardly, but didn't say anything.  He
sipped his tea calmly.  "Ask what you want to know; I'll do my best to
answer."
    The girl searched her mind for a specific question.  She hesitated,
then asked, "I just want to know about it, really.  And I want someone to
teach me how to use it."  She said the latter part with a good deal of
determination.
    "I see."  The Guide paused, sipping his herbal tea again.  "Well, I'm
not an expert by any means.  As a matter of fact, magic has been
effectively...squashed, you might say.  There honestly isn't more than a
handful left in the world today that know even the basics of magical powers."
    "Oh?"  The girl cocked an eyebrow.
    The Guide chuckled.  "I see you don't agree with me, and I have a good
idea why.  You think you know magic?"  He fixed an unreadable gaze on her.
"Before you answer, chi isn't magic.  Not in itself, if isn't."
    Her face turned into an expression of surprise.  "Then what is?"
    "I'll tell you all I know; perhaps you may even have a talent for the
lost art, girl."  He sipped his tea, his face still an unreadable mask of
calm.  "Magic," he began, "is manipulating the elements and using them for
your own ends."
    "What are the elements of magic?"
    "Undoubtedly the same ones you know of.  Stone, air, fire, water,
spirit, and energy.  Energy," he said sadly, "is the only one that still
remains used by more than a tiny handful.  And it's not used to close its
full potential.  You know it as channeling your chi."
    "Stone, air, fire, water, spirit, and energy," the girl repeated
thoughtfully.  "But if I can use chi to, say, create a bolt of fire, or
cause the earth to split, what's the purpose of the others?
    The Guide chuckled wryly.  "When you use your chi to make a 'bolt of
fire,' as you say, it's not a bolt of fire.  It's a bolt of energy.  A chi
bolt.  Not one made of flame, however it appears."
    She frowned.  "Oh, it's fire, alright."  She suddenly got an intense
look of concentration on her face, and threw a small wave of fire out the
opened door, which disappated quickly, the cool breeze snuffing it out.  
    He shook his head.  "That's not fire.  At least, that's not fire in its
elemental state.  Rather, it's the product of fire - heat, which your mind
sees as fire, so you unconsciously channel a bit of energy to make it an
orange burning color.  Fire, the element, is not only heat.  It's what
makes heat.  A chi fireball is a ball of heat taken away from its fuel, the
logs.  It will soon snuff out, as yours did.  Elemental fire, however, is
the essence of the flame itself.  Therefore, it does not burn itself out.
It can reproduce itself, but the reproduction is heat, which is the same as
the chi heat.  The center, elemental fire, though, doesn't need something
to feed on, because it has been called into being by magic."  Seeing the
girl's look of surprise, he added, "Oh, it can be put out.  Just throw some
water at it and it will disappear, but it won't vanish simply because it
doesn't have fuel to burn on."  He sighed.  "Confusing, isn't it, girl?"
    The girl nodded.  "Confusing, but no so much that it's impossible to
understand.  Now, as for my second question - can you teach me to use the
magic?"
    "Me?"  The Guide looked startled, then laughed good-naturedly.  "No,
young woman, I know magical lore, but not much more than that.  The use of
it is lost to time.  The most I can do for you is to explain the magic, but
I have no idea how to actually use it."
    She sighed dismally.  "You're sure there's no place I can learn?"
    The Guide pursed his lips, then made a decision.  "Near here is
Sungchuan, the Blessed Spring.  There, you can make a wish.  I suppose, if
you wanted to learn, you could go there and wish for the knowledge of using
the magics."  

[Present day, Japan.]

    "So that's what that place is called," Ryoga mumbled to himself.
"Sungchuan."
    "You've been there?"  Ryako looked surprised.  "Not many have."
    Ryoga nodded.  "A...a friend guided me, you might say."  He hesitated,
then continued.  "That was where I found my cure, but I...kind of blew it."
 He looked sincerely unhappy.
    "How so?"
    "I wished for not turning into a pig when splashed with cold water.
Now, I...", he sighed morosely, "...I turn into a girl."
    Ryako grinned toothily at him, and he suddenly noticed that her teeth
were abnormally sharp, and almost fanged.  The fangs were similar to his,
he noted, then realized why they were like that.  A wolf's teeth, he
thought with an inward shudder.  Jusenkyo has side effects?  He sure hoped
not normally.  "A girl, you say?"  She said, with friendly humor.  "That
would explain why whenever you look at me, you look uncomfortable.  People
say that I look like the Spring of Drowned Girl curse."  She chuckled.
"And I suppose I might, at that."
    "You do," Ryoga affirmed.
    "Anyway, allow me to contunue my story..."
    
[Two years previous, Sungchuan, China.  Ryako's story.]

    The young girl slid down the sharply inclined slope, and landed with a
thud at the bottom.  Looking around, her eyes flared with excitement.  I
made it.  The thought flew through her mind.  
    She jumped to her feet, peering around, taking in the sight.  The
cavern had a gently sloped dome roof, and the somewhat rocky ground beneath
her made balancing difficult, or so it would have seemed.  Ryako strode
across the rocks like it was a smooth marble floor.  The cave seemed oddly
clean, in a way, and the feeling of peacefulness appeared to be coming from
a small lake in the cavern's center.
    "I found it," she repeated to herself.  "I actually found it..."
    -That you did, traveler,- a powerful voice echoed through her head.
-And, from the looks of you, you've been looking for this for a long time.-
    The girl nodded.  "I have," she stated, trying to keep her voice
steady.  She seemed so...unimportant next to the rumble of Sungchuan's
Guardian Spirit.  She had never felt this way before, not even when Ranma
and her father had...no, best not to think of that.  Don't get angry, she
told herself.  Get angry and you lose control.  "I've come to make a wish."
    -So you have,- the spirit acknowledged.  -Speak your wish and enter the
Blessed Spring.-
    "May I ask a question first?"  She asked slowly.  There was no answer,
but she sensed that the spirit was nodding, and waiting for her to
continue.  "This place...Sungchuan...can it grant the powers of magic?"
    -To a point.  The spring can give knowledge, and it can give power.
And it gives knowledge to use that power.  But the actual mastery of those
powers and that knowledge is only obtained through practice.-
    "I have come here because there is no one I know of that can teach me
the magical arts.  The only one I can use is chi...energy," she corrected
herself quickly.
    -Yes, magic has been almost wiped from the outside world completely.
Energy, or chi, as you call it, is the only remaining one.  Also the
simplest to channel,- the spirit noted wryly.
    The girl formed the wish in her mind.  "I wish," she began hesitantly,
then speaking in a more certain voice, "for the knowledge of the magical
arts, as well as the power to use them."
    -Enter the spring, traveler, and your wish shall be granted.-
    
[Present day, Japan.]

    "When I exited the spring," Ryako concluded, "my head was filled with
wondrous knowledge long lost to the world, and I felt sure I could use
those powers."
    "Ah...pretty incredible."  Ryoga couldn't think of much else to say.
He was sourly thinking of the many ways he could have worded his wish so it
wouln't have backfired.  Dammit, he swore silently.  I could have wished
for powers like that.  "So," he said out loud, "do you think you could
teach me a piece of this knowledge?"
    Ryako nodded.  "I understand it perfectly.  The Guardian Spirit there
said that he had given me all the knowledge that I would need, and that I
now had potential to become a Guardian Mage."
    Ryoga blinked.  "A Guardian Mage?"
    She gave a short nod.  "As well as the knowledge of using the magics,
the spring granted me the lore of the magic.  Basically, the same stuff as
the Guide knew, but more detailed."  She paused slightly.  "At any rate,
there was a 'class of sorcerers,' you might say, in ancient times.  There
was a formal ranking system, based according to each mage's power.  It was
fairly complex, but Guardian was near the top."  She beamed with pride.
    "Ah..."  Ryoga hesitated, but asked it anyway.  "What do you think I
could become?"
    "Well, Guardian Mage is an overall mastery of all the elements."  She
winked at him.  "Seems a tad bit unfair, doesn't it?  So young, and so much
power."  She grinned happily.  "Very few mages could master all the
elements.  Most leaned toward a specifc element.  Dragon Mage, for example,
was given to masters of the fire element."  Seeing Ryoga's puzzled look,
she added, "Sorcerers grouped dragons and fire together.  It's the product
of one of the demon dragons that were widely feared before they were driven
off."
    "How?"
    She shrugged.  "That piece of knowledge wasn't given to me," she
admitted, grinning embarrasedly.  "Like I was saying before, though, you
should choose an element for me to train you in.  All of them would take
years to even learn the bare basics."  
    Ryoga couldn't help feeling envious of her.  She jumped into a spring
and got all of it in seconds.  Looking at her cute, smiling face, though,
it was hard to remain angry at her.  Not to mention he felt that anger
directed towards her was anger directed towards himself...she looked so
much like his female half he couldn't believe it, except for the
reddish-brown ponytail.  Runs in the family, he guessed.
    "So what's your choice?"  She asked him, smiling.  "Would you like me
to review them?  Stone, air, fire, water, spirit, and energy.  Energy," she
added, "is necessary to use any of the others.  You need to be proficient
with chi usage before you can begin to master any of the others.  But you
seem to be pretty good with that 'shishi houkoudan' blast that you pulled
back there, so I think you'd do okay."
    Ryoga honestly wasn't sure which one he wanted.  "Well...um..." he
stumbled over his words.  "...which one would suit me best, do you think?
And what's spirit do?"
    "Spirit," she answered, "deals with the mind and the unseen.  It's
powerful if used properly, but extremely hard to control.  You don't look
like you'd be particulary good with spirit," she noted, looking closely at
him.  Ryoga had this odd feeling she was looking inside him rather than at
him.  "Stone and fire," she stated at last.  "You appear to have a knack to
dealing with those two things."
    Bakusaitenketsu deals with stone, he realized, and the shishi houkoudan
with fire.  Both were chi, though.  How could that be?  
    The girl laughed pleasantly.  "Your thoughts are plain on your face."
She paused.  "And being a master with spirit allow me to probe your
thoughts."  How pleasant, Ryoga thought with a grunt, before realizing that
he had better shut his mind up.  "Actually, your two attacks, though energy
techniques, both deal with the stone and fire that are already there, you
just use them to further your ends."
    Ryoga thought that didn't make much sense, but he nodded anyway.
"I..." he hesitated, "could you give me the the advantages and
disadvantages to each?"  It sounded funny, but he needed some more
information.
    Ryako nodded.  "Sure," she said with a grin.  "Fire is the more
difficult of the two, but I think it's more powerful.  The controlling,
though, can be a bit tough at times, because fire, unless carefully
controlled, can produce effects vastly different than the intention.  Stone
is much the same way, but easier to learn.  It's probably more useful
overall, but not as much so in combat as fire.  You could conjure up a fist
of stone out of the ground and use it to punch your opponent, I suppose,"
she snickered.  "That would be pretty funny."
    Ryoga wondered if the explosion under his feet was caused using the
stone element.  "No."  The girl was looking at his thoughts again, he
realized with a frown.  "That explosion was just energy I caused to expand
outward quickly.  It could be caused with stone, though."  She picked up a
small rock about the size of her fist.  "See this?"  She turned it over,
then back over again.  She moved her hand slightly and it exploded into a
thousand tiny rock shards, and after the shards had flown about a foot, and
moved her hand again, and they just as suddenly contracted back into the
original rock shape, which she placed back on the ground.
    Ryoga, meanwhile, was watching, boggle-eyed.  She put it back together?
 "Causing the explosion is easy, either way," she told him.  "As I said
before, it can be used by expanding a point of energy quickly, or it can be
just as simply done by using stone to make the rock change from a big rock
into a bunch of small ones.  A small burst of chi is what sent them flying
outwards, then I used stone again, and told the rocks to come back
together, you might say."  She grinned at Ryoga.
    He realized his jaw was slightly slack, and shut it.  She spoke of it
like it was so simple!  "Well, then," he managed at last, "if fire's more
useful in combat, I'll learn it, no matter what it takes."  
    Ryako grinned again.  "Good choice.  Now, copy what I do..."
    
    "Steady..."  Akane licked her lips and focus carefully.  "Hyah!"  She
let out her energy as her clenched fist smashed through a cement block.
Small chips flew everywhere, and it split cleanly down the middle.  She
smiled.  Even if she hadn't been practicing much lately, at least she could
still break blocks.
    Something odd had happened, though, the second night that her father's
new student - what was his name?  Jei-something or other?  "Jeikar Tsiang,"
she recalled, "That's it." - had come to the dojo to train.  This was the
middle of the third day, with Jeikar scheduled to come in the afternoon, as
usual, until five-thirty.  He wasn't a particularly skilled fighter, but he
wasn't a complete klutz, either.  And he seemed somewhat friendly, even if
Akane did want to belt him in the mouth half the time because his ego
seemed to be the size of a small country.
    "Maybe even a large one," Akane grumbled to herself discontentedly.  
    She thought back to last night and smiled.  Something had happened
there that hadn't happened in a long time - her older sister, Nabiki,
donned one of Akane's gi's and had trained with her and Jeikar.  She wasn't
skilled, either, even less so than the Chinese boy.  It made sense that she
wouldn't be, of course, since she hadn't trained since she was about four
or five years old.  She and Akane had started their training at the same
time, but after the first half year or so, Nabiki had given it up,
considering it 'brutish and unladylike' to fight.  Akane had continued
vigorously for the next few years, but her training started falling off
when she entered high school, as her busy schedule kept her doing other
things.  Beating up that crowd of boys every morning - and Kunou, she
thought with a groan - did two things for her.  It kept her in shape, for
one, and it also boosted her confidence level.  If no male could beat her
in the school, she was good enough.
    And then Ranma Saotome arrived from China, and had embarrased her
totally - as a girl.  That was what probably embarrased her the most; being
beat by Ranma's girl side.  Recalling, she realized she had never really
fought his male side before, but she knew he'd beat her then, too, and
although Ranma used his skills in a generally good and just way - such as
saving me from idiots that want to marry me, she noted with a grunt - she
was beginning to wish he'd lose to someone.  Just once.  It would make her
feel so much better, knowing that Ranma could be defeated.
    Nabiki, as it had turned out, had good reflexes and a knack for dodging
attacks.  She could have easily gotten her arm there to block it in time,
as well, but from years of non-practice, her arms weren't strong enough to
block anything.  A good punch would just barrel through any attempt to hit
it out of the way.
    Jeikar fought much like Nabiki.  Akane had already sparred him several
times, and he also counted on his reflexes to carry him through a fight.
The reasoning wasn't the same as Nabiki's...his arms were leanly muscled,
and looked hard as a rock; he could certainly knock any of Akane's punches
aside, if he timed it right.  He had, apparently, never fought barehanded
before.  When he made that claim, however, he glanced sideways at Ranma, as
if Ranma knew differently, but Jeikar certainly fought as if he'd never
done weaponless combat before - never using his hands to block, and most of
his attacks were off-balance thrusts with his arms; not really punches, it
was like he was using his arm like a staff.
    "Hi, Akane," Nabiki's voice floated out to her from the dojo entrance.
Akane glanced up questioningly at her, and was surprised to see that she
dressed in a gi.  Not Akane's old yellow-tinted gi, though; this time she
had donned a red one, though it had a different make than Akane's.  More
fancy, she decided, looking at it, and it was sleeveless.  Nabiki had tied
it tightly with a black belt, matched by black wristcuffs and a headband of
similar color.  "Like my new gi?"  Nabiki smiled at Akane, tightening the
belt slightly so it fit better.  
    "H-hai."  Akane nodded.  It actually looked good on her sister, she
decided.  "Where'd you get it?"
    Nabiki grinned at her.  "I bought it on the way home from school today.
 Had some money, you know."  Akane didn't know, and she decided she didn't
want to.  Probably some devious plot to get a piece of the Kunou family
fortune.  "And your old outfit was a little small, so I bought this.  A
rather interesting store, actually.  They had every kind of martial arts
outfit imaginable, but I bought this one, because it wasn't too expensive.
And it even came with a free pair of these shoes."  She pointed to a pair
of thin Chinese kung-fu shoes, sitting out by the door.  They looked
identical to Ranma's.   She glanced down at the shattered cement block.
Well, shall we practice?"
    "Sure," Akane said with a grin at her older sister.  "Quick spar?"  She
fell into a defensive fighting stance, muscles tightened.  
    Her sister fell into a similar fighting stance, looking a little uneasy
while doing so, as if she wasn't sure if she was doing it correctly.  Akane
nodded reassuringly at her, and Nabiki looked a little more confident, and
initiated the attack.  Nabiki's kick, while surprisingly swift, lacked
style, and was a bit off aim.  Akane sidestepped it easily, sweeping low at
her sister, failing to trip Nabiki but throwing her horribly off balance.
The older of the two stumbled back, falling back on a defensive stance that
their father had demonstrated the previous night.  
    Nabiki attacked again, another quick kick, this time a high roundhouse
which Akane ducked under and lightly smacked her sister's adbomen with her
open palm.  This is how Ranma must have felt the first time when he was
sparring me, she realized.  The thought didn't exactly fill her with
elation, as she closed in on Nabiki, feinting to the right then sweeping
again as Nabiki danced to the side of her first attack.  The sweep hit
perfectly, and Nabiki fell to the ground, barely catching herself from
breaking a nose, and she rolled over and jumped back to her feet, panting
hard.  She fell back into an even more guarded position.
    I need to let up some, Akane realized with a sudden start, or Nabiki's
going to lose her confidence and stay on defensive all the time.  Akane
mimicked her sister, falling into an equally guarded stance, waiting for an
attack.
    She didn't have to wait long.  Nabiki charged straight at her, throwing
a quick punch at Akane's stomach, which she easily knocked aside.  An
opening, she noted, but didn't act.  Nabiki recovered quickly, jumping
backwards, then attacking again, this time a well-placed side kick that her
younger sister dodged, seemingly without effort.  Nabiki frowned, looking
frustrated.  
    "Okay," Nabiki grunted, racing quickly forward, "this time...for real!"
 She punched hard, her fist glancing off the hard wood wall of the dojo, as
Akane leaped easily over the flying fist, landing on the other side of
Nabiki.  She was surprised she could jump that high, actually, but with
Nabiki crouched like that, it was fairly easy.  She tapped the back of her
older sister's head, grinning broadly.
    Nabiki turned around and began to chuckle embarrasedly, and Akane
laughed along with her.  Exactly the same as when she had met Ranma, with
the roles reversed.  Exactly.
---------------------------------
Well, there's chapter 4.  I know what some of you are thinking:  "This
jerk.  He's making Ryako far to powerful."  I know, sorry. :P  Don't worry,
though, she's not going to be all-powerful forever. :)  Besides, Ranma's in
need of some sisterly love, don't you think? ;)  Okay, so maybe Ryako isn't
going to be real nice to him.

Well, I don't have a lot to say here, really.  Chapter 5 should be coming
out pretty soon, and all C&C should be sent to guilds@mail.serve.com.  Oh
yeah, and if you're going to send critique, at least make it costructive
criticism.  "You suck."  That's not constructive.  "You suck because...
<blah blah blah>" is.  Not that I want to hear either of those,
particulary, of course. ;)

Zai jian!