Part six: yin/yan

	Ranma tested a smile on Akane as he unconsciously played with his 
shirt. What did she mean by "how could you?" Ranma's mind raced as he 
quickly formatted a list of things he did recently which could have 
drawn that statement from her. Quickly realizing that this list was 
going to be way too long, Ranma narrowed the timespan to his morning 
behavior and quickly found the answer.
 
	"Um, I can explain the situation with Shan-Pu Akane," Ranma started in 
a defensive voice. 

	Akane's eyes narrowed as she spoke, "Shan-Pu? Is that what you're 
calling her now? Since when did you become so friendly with that Hussy?"

	She silenced him with a look as he quickly tried to explain, "We'll 
have to talk about that later. How could you go around stating our 
Dojo's reputation like that? I can't believe your ego or your stupidity. 
Do you think everybody in Japan is a pushover?...."

	Akane stopped when she saw the confused expression on Ranma's face. 
"Don't tell me that you don't know anything about this Ranma. Don't even 
try to deny it: look."

	She handed him an envelope and watched his expression; her hand seemed 
to be involuntarily grasping for the handle of the invisible mallet.

	Ranma carefully took and examined the envelope.

	It was a simple, white envelope with a single not so simple decoration: 
a dragon. 

	Ranma glanced at Akane as he opened it and took out the letter inside. 
He started to read the letter aloud:

	"Ladies and Gentleman:

	"I, Ranma Saotome, have decided to represent the Tendo Dojo at the 
first No rules, No refs fighting tournament of Japan. The Tournament is 
to be held on March 15th of next year, right here at Nerima." 

	"So come and see Nerima's favorite son, me, put my perfect record on 
the line against the best that Japan has to offer." 

	"And for you amateurs out there who want to be among Japan's best. Do 
not forget to sign up for lessons at the Tendo Dojo, where I'll try and 
teach you the secret to being unbeatable. Who knows, you could be 
fighting by my side when it comes time for the big tournament."

	"Signed, The undefeatable: Ranma Saotome."

	Ranma crumpled the letter as he spoke slowly, "Where did you get this 
Akane?"

	Akane felt her heart tighten as she watched his eyes. She shivered ever 
so slightly as something flashed through those eyes. In that brief 
second, Akane felt like a little girl who had done something wrong. His 
eyes seemed to brighten, become balls of fires as they looked over her, 
seeing through all her fronts and finding her hidden faults.

	The look passed as Ranma let go of the crumpled letter. He suppressed 
his anger and calmed himself. 

	"If people think I actually wrote this, then they'll definitely think 
I'm an arrogant bastard. The participants at this event will all be 
looking to kick my ass; the other dojo owners of Japan are bound to be 
mad, and if I lose in the tournament, I'll become a laughingstock have 
to leave town, " thought Ranma as he absently listened to Akane talk 
away.

	"Who could have written that? The handwriting and style were exactly 
like mine. I've made some similar boasts in the past but nothing of this 
magnitude or stupidly. How could Akane think that I would risk the 
Dojo's name like that?..." He snapped out of his thoughts as something 
Akane said finally registered.

	"What? You mean these things are all over the school?"

	"Yes Ranma, I found out about last lesson. It looks like somebody 
spread them around this morning," she stopped to give him a hesitant 
look, "you, you really didn't write that?"

	Ranma shook his head as he spoke, "I guess we can't prevent this from 
getting around then. Let's eat lunch and worry about this later." 

	Ranma didn't know why but he felt a bit hurt that she still doubted his 
innocence.

	They found a shady spot to sit and got out the food Kasumi had 
prepared. Ranma couldn't help but think on how things had changed since 
the bombed wedding. The visits from Ukyo and Shan-Pu had grown less 
frequent and less violent. But that was probably because of what he'd 
said after they tried to.....

	Ranma cut himself off from that line of thought as he considered his 
present situation. Somebody had just tried to kill or maim him and 
someone else? was impersonating him and angering the martial arts 
community in the process. Things had suddenly gone from weird to 
dangerous in a hurry.

	Ranma looked at Akane just as she looked back. They gave each other a 
tiny smile and Akane started to speak, "So Mr. Unbeatable, who do you 
think is going around spreading those rumors."

	"Akane, could we talk about this when we get home? I want everybody 
from our family there when we bring this up. I don't think it's any of 
them but I have to check and make sure, " Ranma said quietly.

	"Okay." Akane felt her heart beat a bit faster when she heard him say 
"we" and "our family". Maybe they were getting closer after all, she 
thought as they finished their lunch and made small talk. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Ranma walked towards his classroom with a bit of apprehension. Math was 
definitely not his best subject but that was not what he was worrying 
about. This day had been so strange that it just seemed to drag on and 
on. 

	Ranma was wondering what would happen next when someone bump into him. 

	Ranma's awareness as a martial artist had grown to a remarkable level 
over his summer's training. Without great awareness of his surroundings, 
Ranma would have lost dozens of battles already. In the average day, 
Ranma had to dodge cold/hot water, attacks from enemies, fiances, fiance 
wannabes, pandas, dirty old men....... his reflexes and senses had 
developed to a remarkable level due to all this "training." Even the old 
woman with the water bucket hadn't been able to splash him lately.	
	
	But now, somebody had gotten so close to him as to "bump" him. And even 
though he was distracted, Ranma did not realize the presence of the 
other person they were with in two meters of him.

	Ranma knew this was trouble as soon as felt this person's proximity. He 
could normally sense people's presence 20-25 meters away. Martial 
artists of Genma's level could sneak to within 5 meters (when he was 
awake) when he wasn't looking. Happosai was a level higher and the old 
pervert could get to within a three meter radius of Ranma before he was 
noticed.

	The fact that this was person was able to get so close put his stealth 
ability at just below Genma's. Ranma tried the same trick he had this 
morning and quickened his chi flow, sending chi to his left shoulder. He 
knew there was no way to avoid the collision because this person was 
coming in fast.

	Their shoulder's crashed together soundlessly as their eyes locked. 
Ranma saw that this person was a boy who looked a bit older than Ranma 
himself. The boy had a sharp face and sharp eyes. It would have been a 
stretch to call this boy "handsome", but then again he wasn't ugly 
either. This person seemed to have something about him which gave him an 
air of command. His eyes were had a look that could only describe be as 
cocky.

	Currently the boy's eyes were looking at Ranma with slyness and a bit 
of mockery. His lips formed a half smile that said "the joke's on you."

	His smile didn't last long.

	Right as their shoulders struck, the boy had used a bit of his chi to 
stick the two of them together as the rest of his chi invaded a major 
pressure on Ranma's shoulder. Small arrows of chi shot into Ranma's 
body, threatening to produce injury at best and maiming at best. If 
these arrows got into Ranma's body unblocked and unhindered, they had 
the chance to injure Ranma's very root chi, causing irreversible injury.

	The boy was smiling because his plan worked and the over half of his 
chi managed to break through Ranma's protection layer of chi and get 
into Ranma's shoulder pressure point successfully.

	His smile disappeared as Ranma's second wave of chi arrived to stop his 
attack and complete take out the amount which invaded Ranma's body. What 
really made him sweat was the fact that Ranma's protective layer of chi 
seemed to be "yan" while the second wave of reinforcements was "yin." 
The boy's own "Ice chi" was capable of handling "Yin" or "Yan" alone. It 
was both at once which caused him problems.

	Ranma inwardly shivered as he felt the invaded chi. After dispersing of 
this wave, He began his counter attack. Because the boy had attacked 
with all of his chi, Ranma was the faster to recover and attacked first. 
Their chi met as they stared at each other. Ranma made a dozen or so 
attacks as the boy formed a chi shield. 

	Ranma felt a bit of frustration at his lack of success and decided to 
try a new technique. He normally formed the "Yin" chi from the major 
pressure point over his head and then let it travel down while forming 
the "Yan" chi from his foot and letting it go up.  Ranma had always been 
told that mixing "Yin" and "Yan" at the same time was a terrible idea 
and could lead to the destruction of career as a martial artist. This 
was well known in the martial arts community and is the reason why many 
of the top martial artists could either be "Yin" with a bit of "Yan" 
mixed in or "Yan" with a bit of "Yin" mixed in.

	This summer Ranma had to disobey those teachings and form both "Yin" 
and "Yan." He had been gradually getting used to this form of chi 
drawing and noticed the great leap in his inner-chi level and overall 
chi ability. 

	While Ranma could form both, he never tried to do it at the same time. 

	Now he did.

	Ranma could feel his body almost explode as a the top half of his body 
felt like it was in a furnace while the bottom of his body felt like it 
was in a freezer. He resolved to keep his calm as all control of his 
chi. He felt more and more of it store in his body as he attempted to 
stop the incoming chi. His veins and arteries expanded while his heart 
beat faster and faster. Ranma felt as if he was going to explode.

	The boy felt Ranma's offense stop.

	He saw sweat forming and evaporating on Ranma's head and laughed to 
himself as he thought that Ranma was using chi to heat himself up. This 
was indeed what many opponents tried to do against his "ice chi." 

	The boy countered as he launched another offensive, this time with all 
he had. Even if he didn't want to hurt Ranma, he had to give it his all 
now because Ranma's counter blast would surely hurt him if he didn't.

	Ranma thanked the boy and everybody in the boy's immediate and far 
families as he felt the offensive. His body had been locked in a 
stalemate between "Yin" and "Yan," an intra-ranma war between north and 
south. This was a war that both sides would lose no matter who won. This 
was why all martial artists who attempted this either died or went crazy 
from the experience. The war stopped as a new enemy entered from 
outside.

	The power of "ice chi" was indeed not to be underestimated because 
neither "yin" chi or "yan" chi could stop "ice chi" by itself. 
Eventually Ranma's body decided on a truce and the "yin" and "yan" 
blended together. 

	Ranma felt his world shake as a new sense of inner chi was developed. 
He dispelled the invading chi with little effort and also pushed the boy 
away without launching anymore offensives. He knew that he was currently 
at his absolute peak in chi level and it was an absolute miracle that he 
didn't explode. The problem was that he now couldn't hold this much chi 
much longer.

	The boy flew backwards in surprise and stared slackjawed as Ranma 
turned and ran away from him. Moments later, a huge chi blast flew into 
the air.	





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