C&C welcome/needed

Ranma 1/2 senior year by Shane Yang

Part 2: Breakfast

	Outside the Tendo Dojo, a gust of wind swept up the freshly fallen 
leaves. Spring and summer have come and gone, it was once again that 
wonderful time of year. 

	It was time for another school year. 

	Two figures flashed to and fro in the Tendo backyard, weaving a 
delicate dance of carefully practiced moves executed with the grace that 
came only with years of experience.

	As he dodged a three hit combo, Ranma couldn't help but think back to 
yesterday's practice session. He'd found out that Genma was alot better 
than his overweight frame and lazy manner showed. This morning they were 
once again both holding back. Ranma knew from yesterday that Genma, like 
himself, was now using only a fraction of his true speed and power. 

	He also knew that it would no longer be so easy for his father to 
underestimate him. His father definitely knew now that Ranma knew the 
secret of pressure points. 

	Missing from their dance was the normal insults and yelling. Both men 
had learned by now that the other is not going to be distracted by such 
things anymore. They no longer resorted to using cheap tricks and low 
shots because they knew that it was a waste of breath. 

	Yesterday's fight had indeed brought their relation to a new level.

	Ever since Ranma started to train, his father had always pushed him 
relentlessly forward. Genma's ambition for him often ended up hurting 
both of them. After they arrived in Nerima, Genma's actions, especially 
those towards Happosai and Nadoka, had caused Ranma's respect for him to 
gradually disappear.

	Yesterday showed Ranma that his father was still better than him in a 
lot of areas, that there was still much to learn from Genma, that the 
old man was still worth his respect.

	Genma could feel his age as Ranma's quicker and cleaner movements 
threatened to ware him down. He knew that Ranma had indeed ascended to 
his own level of skill. Not only skill, but also experience, courage, 
intellect, strategy, reflex, the hundreds of tiny intangibles that made 
for a great martial artist.

	Genma now knew that Ranma, like himself, hid under a mask of 
imconpetency and sometimes even stupidity. Ranma's reputation around 
town portrayed him as the standard dumb, arrogant jock. He might be able 
to defeat monsters and gods in combat. Yet he did terribly in school, 
always was beaten to a pulp by girls, and was always scammed by people 
the likes of Nibiki.

	This stupidity just did not relate to the man who could come up with 
such impossible victories and unbelievable moves as Ranma. Genma knew 
that in order for Ranma to attain his present level of skill. Practice, 
intellect and the natural gift was required.	

	He wondered why his son put up with the amount of abuse that he took 
everyday. A quick punch followed by a combo which got dangerously to his 
pressure points snapped Genma out of his mental wandering. 

	"Hey," Genma yelled as he put everything into an all out attack. He 
could see Ranma smile as the boy weaved between his well formed attack 
and looked for openings. He was amazed at the conditioning of Ranma. The 
boy was able to shake off yesterday's injury and now didn't look to be 
trying too hard to avoid his best attempts. His ribs ached where an 
earlier attack had landed. 

	Ignoring his tiring body, Ranma kept the smile on his face as he 
continued to block attack after attack. It was getting harder and harder 
to keep blocking his father's powerful and seemingly never ending 
punches.

	Both men were going all out now. Genma attacking, Ranma blocking. It 
was not that Ranma liked being attacked, he did not have the opening 
required to fight back and thus had to wait for Genma to slip up.

	"Breakfast is ready everybody, Ranma, Akane, Nibiki, remember that you 
have school again today. Don't be late on he first day." Kasumi Tendo's 
cheerful voice rang out across the house.

	"Ping," Ranma and Genma met head on once again, their hands locking 
together in a palm to palm attack/defense. A split second later, both 
men pushed off and jumped backwards, signaling a stop in the training. 
Both were tired but happy for the second good practice in as many days.

	"You have to use your speed more boy, you can't match my power. I would 
have mopped the floor with you had I gotten a good night's sleep, " 
Genma boasted as they made their way inside.

	Ranma smiled at the advise and retaliated at the boast, "Whatever you 
say old man, who's the one sweating like a pig. "

	As Ranma and Genma came to the kitchen table, they noticed that they 
were the last ones to make it as Akane, Nibiki and Soun were already 
sitting down and waiting for Kasumi's delicious breakfast to be served.

	"Good morning girls, I hope you're ready for school. This is your 
senior year isn't it Nabiki? You should have a lot of fun this year. "

	Ranma watched Genma be unusually nice towards Nabiki as they took their 
seats and concluded that she must have some dirt on the old man. He 
surveyed the table carefully. Nabiki and Akane both looked a bit more 
grown up than when school had let out last year. Nabiki had the same 
twinkle in her eyes that she always did. She was presently looking at 
Genma the same way she looked at sushi before diving in. Ranma felt 
sorry for the freshmen who would run into her shortly.

	As he shifted his gaze from Nibiki to Akane, she happened to also 
glance over but looked away fast. Ranma signed inwardly to himself as 
emotions came rushing to him. She had been getting more and more 
withdrawn since the wedding disaster. He no longer received the once 
daily malleting except for a few occasional Shan-Pu visits. Their time 
together had declined as he went on more and more self-training trips 
and she tried harder to pick up things like cooking from Nadoka and 
Kasumi. Lately, their time together has been spent awkwardly and 
nervously. He got the feeling that she did not want have another let 
down like the previous wedding and therefore wanted him to make the 
first move. Ranma's problem was that he had no idea how he truly felt 
about her. It was nice to be around her sometimes. But he realized that 
the idea of commitment did not appeal that much to him. Oh well, he 
could always play dumb and pretend innocence. He had mastered both 
techniques lately. No one suspected him to have any clues as far as 
relationships were concerned and that was more than fine with him.

	"Ranma my boy, excited about starting a new year and getting one step 
closer to graduation. Hehe, you'll almost be qualified enough to inherit 
the dojo and take care of Akane. " Ranma winced as Soun Tendo's 
inspirational speech broke the momentary silence. He saw Akane's face 
turn slightly red. He was surprised to not hear the traditional "who 
wants to marry this jerk" from Akane. Ranma thought for a moment and 
decided against giving Soun the "who wants to marry this tomboy" 
comment. He inwardly wondered if this meant he was growing up. 

	Ranma's frame had shot up a bit more during the summer. He now stood at 
around six feet and weighed 150-160 pounds. He'd spent most of his 
training trips improving his power and chi. His efforts were rewarded 
with newly developed muscles and a raise in chi. Ranma now rated himself 
to be a step below Ryoga in terms of raw power. 

	Nibiki frowned slightly at not seeing the bickering that would normally 
occur after such a comment. She turned her attention from the elder 
Saotome to the younger, deciding that it would be more entertaining to 
see Ranma squirm.

	"So Ranma, I hear that Shampoo found you in China. Did you two have a 
nice time there all by yourselves? "

	Ranma froze as he watched Akane's expression turn into a scowl. He 
really did run into Shan-Pu while searching for a cure. He didn't do 
anything , not that she didn't try, with her but they did partner up and 
traveled together for a while. Ranma didn't even bother explaining it to 
Akane because she would never understand. 

	"Ranma you idiot, how could you!" Akane cried as she pulled out her 
mallet and swung it towards his head.

	Ranma shot an icy look towards Nabiki as he reached out with his 
chopsticks and pulled some food into his bowl Amagriken style. Kasumi's 
especially cooked this meal and he didn't want to miss it. 

	Ranma shifted his position just before the hammer hit and avoided the 
shot by inches. He jumped up with the bowl in hand and pleaded, "I 
didn't do anything with her I swear. " 

	Akane fumed that he'd dodged the first shot and followed up with an 
upper cut swing. 

	"Bam"
	
	The second swing did not miss Ranma as it sent him flying out of the 
house. Genma and Soun shared a look of surprise, they'd both seen Ranma 
make the little repositioning before it hit him. Genma also made out 
Ranma's hand blurring to strike the hammer in an effective block. He 
looked over at his old friend and saw from Soun's expression that his 
old friend did not catch Ranma's little move at the end.

	Ranma sighed as he flew through the top of the house. He'd been able to 
launch himself and block the hammer without anyone but his father 
noticing. "I'll just let her cool down a bit before going back inside, I 
can eat somewhere else, " he thought as his foot caught a nearby tree 
branch and he used it to flip onto a tree. He grinned to himself at 
Akane's power. The uppercut had sent him on a nice little trip, he mused 
that the block would not have been possible when the summer ended. Now 
if she could only use her talents on something besides his head.

	

part 3: school

	After finishing his breakfast, Ranma timed himself as he ran back to 
the dojo to grab his bag and lunch. Akane and Nabiki had already left 
when he got back to the dojo. They did not want to be late the first 
day. Ranma sprinted towards Furikan high school after thanking Kasumi. 

	He felt his mood getting lighter as the air zoomed by his face. Ranma 
has never been much of a student and most of his teachers thought he was 
stupid. Actually, everybody considered him to be dumb except a select 
few. Most of Ranma's opponents didn't think he was dumb. They might have 
though that way at the start of the fight, but they believed him to be a 
genius at the finish. But besides opponents, no one else thought much of 
Ranma Saotome's brain. Not Ukyo, not Nabiki, not Shan-pu, not Mu Tsu, 
not Ryoga, not Akane, Ranma tore himself away from that line of thought 
as he pushed onward. Mu Tsu, or Mousse as almost everybody called him, 
was blinded by his so called love towards Shan-pu and thought of nothing 
but destroying Ranma. Ryoga was the same way in his pursuit of Akane. 

	Mu Tsu and Ryoga could not really appreciate Ranma's intellect because 
they haven't tried to attain Ranma's level. One was driven by love and 
the other by anger. Their blindness towards nothing but the goal was 
what made them good martial artists. But Ranma knew that those two would 
not progress further if he was not in the way. The downfall of Ranma 
Saotome was their goal and they pressed relentless towards it.

	Ranma once again felt the loneliness of being the top fighter of his 
generation. Once you have gotten to a certain level, it is really hard 
to find motivation to push ahead to the next. He knew that he had shot 
past two or three of those levels in Nerima because he was pressed, 
because he had to save his own life and the lives of those around him. 
Yesterday's fight with Genma had perhaps served to push him past this 
present level, it surely rekindled his fire for martial arts. 

	Ranma stopped thinking as he made out the school gates and the cloud of 
dust coming from within. He wondered why the scene looked so familiar as 
he jumped on the wall. Immediately the answer came to him. Ranma had 
seen this everyday when he first arrived at Nerima. Apparently, Akane's 
fanclub has tried to revive itself to start off the year. Ranma watched 
with interest as bodies flew out of the dust. 

	"I wonder if I should interfere. She'll probably get mad either way." 
His thoughts were cut short as he saw the dust slowly clear. 

	Ranma and the rest of the school's population, those left standing, 
were shocked to see Akane's limp form appear in the dust. Silence 
descended on Furikan high as the person who was carrying Akane stepped 
into plain view. 

	The man looked to be in his mid-thirties. He was around Ranma's height 
and no one could tell his weight from underneath the suit he was 
wearing. 
	
	The man took in the crowd of spectators watching him and frowned. His 
eyes soon caught the boy in the red shirt racing towards him. 

	Before Ranma could get to Akane, something stumbled out of the small 
bit of dust still collected and yelled, "Who dares to interrupt the 
great Tatewaki Kuno during his conquest of the lovely Akane Tendo? 
Saotome, you will die for this intr....." As he saw that the one 
carrying Akane was not Ranma, Tatewaki Kuno did something he rarely did: 
he shut up.

	But not for long.

	"Who are you that cut me from behind? I am talking to you, curd. You 
must be one of Saotome's minions, I will destroy you and save the 
beautiful Akane again, " Kuno charged the man with his bokken slashing. 

	The stranger lets Kuno get close before jumping backwards and out of 
reach, "so you were the one who attacked me earlier, you're pretty good 
for a kid. "

	Kuno presses on harder while yelling, "ahh, you know of the greatness 
of Takewaki Kuno, I will go easy on you if you apologize to me and my 
true love Akane."
	
	The stranger laughs as he avoids Kuno's seemingly aimless slashes, 
"Boy, I only said that you weren't bad. To be able to develop and 
utilize jian-chi is indeed impressive, but your tricks will have no use 
on me. "

	Ranma's expression tightened as he watched the man move around Kuno's 
sword strikes. He noticed that Kuno was very much improved from a few 
monthes back. The seemingly non-targeted slashes were really trying to 
weave a delicate web of Jian-chi around Kuno's opponent. But the 
stranger's flowing movements were throwing Kuno's carefully planned 
attack aside. It seemed that the stranger moved forward when he should 
have gone back, left instead of right, up instead of down. Ranma knew 
the idea behind these movements were very simple: if the stranger moved 
somewhere that Kuno didn't anticipate earlier, then none of Kuno's 
attacks should be able to reach him. He also knew that while this was a 
good plan for breaking Kuno's new skill, it took mastery in speed and 
movement to pull off. He himself could have probably done it, but not 
with the effortness of the stranger before him.

	Kuno was now getting throughly frustrated. He had gotten the best 
teachers money could buy this summer. His swordsmanship had improved to 
such a level that he became confident in his victory against Saotome. 
Now, before he even had a chance against Saotome, this stranger comes 
along and Kuno's best moves could not even touch him.

	"Ahh, what sort of sorcery is this. No matter, prepare to taste the 
full wrath of the blue thunder." Kuno yelled as he pulled his sword back 
from the attack and wove a protective shield around himself with the 
wooden bokken. 

	"Put down the lady Akane, then I will have no doubts about crushing 
you," Kuno taunted as he backed away to a safe distance and went into a 
new stance. 

	"Ha, this place is getting insteresting. All right boy, I'll put down 
the lady. Then we'll see who the winner of the battle is. " The stranger 
set Akane on the ground and turned to face Kuno.

	"Feel lucky, fool, you shall be the first to taste defeat under the 
blue thunder's new bokken." Kuno boasted as he started to walk towards 
the stranger. His bokken held overhead in the traditional stance.

	Ranma felt further surprise at the level of skill Kuno was currently 
displaying. He saw that Kuno had used his self-confidence to create an 
air of unbeatableness. The sword overhead only served to increase the 
stranger's uncertainty. The stance and Kuno's posture gave his opponent 
the feeling that no matter how he attacked Kuno, the sword would be able 
to get to him first. Ranma felt the sweat in his hands as he considered 
how he would react in the same situation.

	The stranger threw his head back and let off a long laugh, "not bad, 
this is really a pleasant surprise. I see that I'm going to like this 
town. " His eyes seemed to light up as he eyed the approaching Kuno. His 
whole body stayed very still as Kuno edged closer, giving onlookers the 
feeling that he was meant to stand in this very spot with this very 
manner, that nothing and nobody would be able to move him one step back. 
This was the same philosophy that Ranma used earlier to counter Genma's 
"flying fists" attack. Stillness against movement, forcing the opponent 
to make the first move.

	The fight has now progressed out of the realm of "skill" and martial 
arts ability. It was now a battle of wits, of courage, of experience. 
Both Kuno and the stranger had created situations for themselves. 
Victory seemed to go to the person who could hold onto to his 
advantages. 

	"Hai," Kuno could not take the stranger's air of stillness and 
confidence anymore. His bokken seemed to slowly descend down upon the 
stranger. The bystanders watched as the bokken seemingly split from one 
into two, from two to four, from four to eight. As Kuno covered the last 
step to the stranger, his bokken was a blur of images coming from all 
corners, a wave ready to crash into the stranger. Only trained eyes like 
Ranma's could make out Kuno's true speed, but even trained eyes had 
trouble seeing where the real attack came from.

	"Hei, this is shadow sword play, " the stranger said with new respect 
on his voice as he kept his eyes focused on the multiple images of Kuno 
bokken. He knew that he'd made a mistake in his initial summation of the 
boy, now he was stuck in a situation he did not want to be stuck in. If 
he retreated, the air of stillness he'd created would vanish and Kuno's 
confidence and air of invincibility would roll over him. But he had to 
face the full fury of Kuno's the shadow sword play if he was to stay 
still. 
	
	Right before Kuno's sword reached in for the strike, the stranger's 
hands came up and his fingers uncurled as he non-chalantly shot them at 
Kuno's swords. This was one of the standard martial arts bare-handed 
moves: flower blooming. 

	"Ding, Ding, Ding...."

	 Sword met fingers as the "flower blooming" took on the force of 
"shadow sword play." Kuno's body shook each time the audible meeting 
could be heard. He attempted to back away after the fourth strike. His 
arms right arm felt like jello as the man's chi broke through the 
protective layer he'd placed around the sword. If this were his ordinary 
bokken, it would have been broken three times over. 

	"Ding"

	Kuno wasn't fast enough as the stranger struck a fifth time. Kuno's 
body shook again as his sword flew out of his hand. He knew that this 
was not the time to retreat and met the man's attack head on with no 
bokken. 

	The stranger turned around two moves later with a stunned Kuno standing 
motionless behind him. The stranger's hawk-like eyes once again circled 
the growing audience, stopping for a moment on the newly awakened Akane 
and the red shirted boy standing next to her. 

	"Hello everybody, my name is Ju and I am your new principle, " he 
anonunced in a high voice as he picked up Kuno's sword. "I want to see 
you two in my office, " Ju said as he stared at Ranma and Akane. "The 
rest of you, get to class. NOW!" 

	


	

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