Heyo! Betcha all thought you'd never hear from this little boy again...maybe most of you DID hope. hehehehe
Anyway, don't expect a sequel to this real soon, as I'm going on a trip all over SOUTHERN Alaska. FUNFUN!
This is NOT a Ranma 1/2 story. This is a RYOUGA! fic. Ranma is a very minor character in the plot development of a more *ahem* powerful Ryouga.
Read on! Comments and Critism accepted! Flames will be rejected automatically.
I like critisimn, not flames. jess one a them things...(ps...if RPM reads this, show it to your little kiddies, eh? Let ryo have fun.)
CREDITS! Hmm...Rumiko Takahashi (this is beginning to get inane), may Christ bless her heart, Shane McCoy, for his wonderful inspiration (heehee, bet that'll knock Nick off his socks!)
And of course, Nick Casler, for his long hours of tedious and thankless editing, while at the same time experimenting on four poor little modems. (You horrible man, you!)
Also thanks to Kami-sama, you bastard!
(you can tell I added these at four in the morning, cantcha?)
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Black Panther! pt 1
Myrriden
Edited (of course) by Nick Casler
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It was a bright, warm, sunny day, shining even through the canopy of the Canadian Alpine forest. Several birds were singing their beautiful songs, chiruping to one another cheerfully. Small various forest animals ran around, doing various forest animal things, while one small animal, a porcupine to be exact, could be seen busily nosing its way into the hand of a young boy sitting down beside a large pine. Slowly the hand slid down
the rested quills, daring the painful prick one could bring.
A ground-squirrel sat nearby, fussing with a small yellow bandanna given to it by the boy. Unfortunately, the boy was in too self-pitiful of a mood to laugh at its humorous attempts to imitate the black and yellow bandanna wrapped around the boy's own head.
*sigh* 'Still lost. A week of being lost. Why can't I just stay on path? Why can't I actually find where I'm going?'
Ryouga Hibiki leaned against the large tree, using his pack as a support, allowing the small porcupine a bit more room. It nosed at his hand, devouring the remnants of a piece of salt. "Why me? Ranma, this is all
your fault." Strangely, his voice lacked conviction. "All I ever wanted was a friend, so what does he do? He makes fun of me. Then he embarrasses me in front of everyone! And he does it over and over again! Then, when I challenge him, he runs off!" His voice was slowly growing stronger, "Ranma, you will be punished for what you've done. Not only what you have done to me, but to everyone. I'll not stop until you're tortured every bit as much as I have
been."
Ryouga stretched wearily, resuming his methodical petting of the porcupine. "I'll not stop. If only I had a technique you couldn't learn, that beat you soundly." Ryouga pondered.
"A technique, you say?"
"What the!?" Ryouga surged forward, bringing his umbrella to bear on the form before him. The porcupine reared back, pointing its quills at a man of perhaps forty, with a single white streak through his hair. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of glasses. The squirrel merely ducked down its hole, bandanna held between its teeth.
"I could teach you such a technique, the most powerful ki based attack ever."
"Who are you?"
"My name isn't important," the man frowned, "Do you wish to learn this
technique?"
"What's it gonna cost me?" Ryouga growled, trying unsuccessfully to calm
the porcupine.
"Sell your soul to the devil," the man said. Suddenly, after Ryouga's shocked expression, "I'm kidding. Actually, boy, I see a lot of potential in you. If you are capable of mastering this technique, then you might be
worthy to be my pupil."
"You want an apprentice?"
"Something like that. Do you accept?"
Ryouga paused in thought, something he didn't do often. "It sounds good...alright."
"Good then. First things first..." He looked at the porcupine.
*************************
"Morning, Kasumi! Gotta run!" Ranma said, grabbing his lunch. Akane blinked as Ranma flashed by, not even looking at breakfast!
"Ranma! What about breakfast?"
"No time, Akane! Gotta meet somebody!"
Akane began to glower, "Who?"
"Toma." Ranma looked back, surprised, "He sent me a letter a few weeks ago. The guys are coming for a visit. I want to meet them when they get to Furriken."
"Toma's coming for a visit?" Akane asked, surprised.
"Yup. Says he needs to talk to me."
"Can you wait? I'll walk with you."
"Better hurry, we don't have much time." Ranma glanced at the clock. Akane grabbed her lunch.
"Okay, let's go."
They arrived only a short while later, noticing the crowd gathered. "What's the deal?" Ranma blinked. "Hey! Let us through!"
"Wait your turn..." someone began crossly. When they noticed who it was, people began to move aside, letting Ranma through easily.
Ripping through the last of the vagrants, Ranma caught sight of a young man with soft brown hair, and large, almost feminine eyes. "Hey, brat!"
"Ranma! Just who I needed to see," Prince Toma cried out happily. "And Akane, so wonderful to finally see your glorious face once more!"
Akane beamed for a second. "Why did you come, Toma?"
"I'd like to invite you and your friends, those that joined me on my island some while back, to a tournament of great skill and endurance."
"A tournament?" Ranma blinked.
"Much more refined than others, and on a fantasy vacation spot next to none," Toma assured him. "I was thinking about how lonely it actually is on my island, so I began to think up ways of inviting people there for a reason, that wouldn't trespass national borders. As you see, my island is considered frequently part of Japan, though a nation of itself idea, I think. Well?"
"Um, Toma, as much as I hate to say this, but we have to finish school before we join in tournaments."
"Do we, Akane?" Ranma whined. "I hate school."
"So do I Ranma," she retorted, "but we have to finish."
Ranma's only reply was a snort.
Toma smiled, "I was quite aware of this, Akane, so I haven't scheduled it until this summer. That gives you another six weeks, I believe, of training? As well as contacting your other friends?"
Ranma nodded, "Cool. Who else will be there?"
"I've no idea. I intend to invite the most powerful martial artists." Toma shrugged, "A pleasure to see you both, I must leave now."
Ranma and Akane looked at each other, "Well, what do you think?" Ranma asked before Akane could open her mouth.
"I think we should go." she grinned.
*************************
"Now tell me why I'm doing this. I've already learned your katu-jovin move," Ryouga grunted, losing a slight grip on the trunk of the oak he was lifting above his head. The powerful blows his teacher were landing on his torso, and lower body in a methodical manner did not cease.
"Endurance, m'boy..."
"Don't call me that."
"Heh. It isn't always offense. You've got a powerful endurance, but this will make it even more powerful. Just like digging exercises."
"Feh."
"Feeling weak yet?" the teacher asked, landing an even harder than norm blow against his right abdomen.
"Feh." was the only answer he got.
"First we work on your endurance, until you can stand down a volcano erupting. My father did that once, you know. And another of my pupils as well. Personally I've never had the need to."
"Feh."
"Tell me when you begin to feel weak. We'll rest for an hour."
"Feh."
The teacher chuckled a moment, "You are in fact the strongest student I've ever trained. Much stronger than my first. Of course, he was a quick learner of the arts, and so didn't want the training in focus and
endurance, and common sense. He didn't stay around very long."
"What...was...he...like?"
"Ah...you can talk. Amazing. He was a short fellow with brown hair, and this strange fondness for pipes. Happosai, I believe his name was. He and his friend, Lucky, and a few others I taught together. Lucky and Happy
were the best of the group."
Ryouga grunted, "Master...of Anything Goes Martial Arts."
Suddenly the oak dropped on Ryouga's head, as the startled young boy reacted to the powerful blow landed in his midsection.
Pushing the oak away, holding a pained head, he muttered, "What was that?"
"You weren't ready, Ryouga. Next time be ready for a powerful blow at any moment. Always be aware of your surroundings. In other words, don't be lulled into a false sense of security."
"Alright, alright," Ryouga grumbled. "I got the point.
"I see." WHAM!
*************************
"Hey, Ranma? Have you seen Ryouga lately?"
Ranma looked up from the small pizza he was shoving into his mouth, "Go ga caanp seeb eb im gapiya. Ky?"
"What?" Ukyo laughed.
Ranma swallowed, "Na, I ain't seen 'em in a while. Why?"
"Just curious. Usually he drops by to say hi." Ukyo leaned over the counter to looked behind him. "Better skiddo, kiddo. Looks like Akane's on a rampage."
"Huh?" Ranma peered over his shoulder, then hit himself on the head, "Oh, yeah! We're supposed to be training!"
"Your training for the tournament with her?"
"I'm training her, not with her." Ranma muttered, finishing off the okonomiyaka. "That's difficult enough as it is."
` "I can bet," Ukyo laughed. "Well, I'll see you later, sugar."
"Maybe," he groaned, standing up.
*************************
"Why do I put up with this?" Ryouga asked nonchalantly as the thick wooden rod slammed once more into his midriff. The oak faltered a second, but he lifted it easily.
"You're getting stronger, Ryouga." The Teacher remarked. "Not to mention better able to withstand the pain."
WHAM
"Hey! That hurt!" Ryouga barely held onto the oak.
His teacher smirked, "So?"
Suddenly the oak was in Ryouga's hands, and moving fluidly at the teacher's head. Unfazed, the elder countered with his stout wooden staff, then slammed said staff into Ryouga's stomache. Ryouga just grunted, to come around for another blow, clipping the teacher on the shoulder, but receiving a nasty bruise over his left eye.
The battle continued much the same for a good half hour, until finally Ryouga lagged. Four rapid hits slammed into his upper torso, forcing him back into a tree. The oak dropped, and he used his fists to counter the
oncoming blows.
One of the powerful fists, driven by the stout Hibiki's determination rocked the teacher back a few paces, letting up on the previously relentless striking. Ryouga followed up with three slow, but powerful
blows to the head, right shoulder, and lower stomach.
He was surprised to find seven equally powerful blows land into his chest, knocking him square on his back. The strong blows continued to come, despite Ryouga's faltering attempt to stand.
Amazing, due to the training he had suffered over the course of three relentless weeks, Ryouga stood, and began to counter the blows, Ryouga seeming to gain power from the very blows slipping past his guard, into his body.
The battle broke when four rapid strikes blew past the solid defense, into Ryouga's temple, knocking him to the ground for more than hour of peaceful sleep.
The teacher stood, nursing bruised knuckles, chuckling at the boy's determination. True, he wasn't as quick a learner as Happosai, but Ryouga had much more stout and determined spirit. Much like the teacher's own father...
The teacher stared off in the distance, suddenly distracted by the thought of his own father. A powerful demon hunter he had been, with three young girls, and one young boy. All learned their father's attacks, but the boy learned only the attacks and defense until he was able to best his even his father in battle.
But great prowess in battle wasn't enough to fight demons. You had to have a special talent only the hunters processed, something he lacked, something his father couldn't teach.
Unhappy with this, the boy had disappeared for several years to learn from other martial masters until he became a powerful warrior, though not known to many legends. He became a trainer, a teacher.
The teacher was proud of his demon hunter father. Proud to have a noble lineage of the last surviving male demon slayer. He once thought he might perhaps pass the ability on to a daughter, but several hundred years of searching showed no woman he deemed worthy of marriage.
"Perhaps my hopes are too high," he finally said, noticing Ryouga's battered form slowly coming to alertness. "Good show, boy. You held up against one of the best fighters in the world for nearly and hour. What do you say now?"
"goin' t' disney worl'," Ryouga muttered harshly under his breath, holding rattled ribs. "ca't breathe... hrts."
"I imagine so. Do you know how much of your ki you used to keep moving? Kept channeling into yourself like nothing. You've got the biggest ki deposits I've ever seen."
"ya righ. Wh'm I s'sor?"
"It could be because you fell on your porcupine?"
"m' ass?"
"No, your porcupine." Ryouga looked wearily behind him, and indeed, there sat a wary porcupine (named Edd no less) puffed up, pissed off, and, well...sat upon.
"aw, shit."
His teacher's chuckle distracted him enough for him to pull a few of the quills out. "Why'd ya' stick m', edd? Damn park-a-pine."
*******************
Wham wham wham "Good rythum, Akane, c'mon now"
wham wham wham, "Faster Akane."
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
wham wham wham, "I guess I'll have to make allowances an'all."
Wham wham wham, "And what do you mean by THAT?"
wham wham wham, "I mean, you being a girl and all."
WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM, "Rrraaannnmaaaaaaaa!"
WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM, "C'mon you wimp! You suck!"
"RANMA!" WHAWHAWHAWHWHWHWHAM!
"Alright, Akane!"
POW WHAM Crunch!
"OW! That was my head! Akane! Stop! Ow! Alright already!"
Ranma's scream could be heard throughout the valley...*aheam* city.
*******************
"Edd? Where are you? Eddy? C'mon! It's bedtime."
The porcupine stared at the approaching form wearily.
"C'mon Edd. Its bedtime. Comin?"
With a sigh, the quills slid back smoothly, and Edd waddled forward to the waiting boy.
Ryouga settled down on the rough floor of the fosest, occasionally swatting at a mosquito, Edd settled peacefully on his chest, the ground-squirrel curling up beneath a bared arm. He fell asleep to the quiet snuffing of Edd, and whispering smores of a squirrel.
And awoke to the incredible cold of a million droplets of water crashing over his head, and the intense pain of Edd's startled quills digging into his chest, of a ground-squirrel digging its teeth inth his bicep.
"FUCK IT!" He screamed, rearing up, slamming a fist into his attacker's face.
The teacher reared back, startled by the vehemence of the attack, and the multiple strikes slamming into his face.
"Kacchuu Tenshin Amiguriken!" Ryouga thundered, "Got ya, you bastard!"
"Slower than you should be, but faster than you were," the teacher noted, parrying the blows. A lucky shot crushed his lip into resisting teeth. Reacting calmly, however, the teacher slammed several punches into Ryouga's midriff, crying in pain suddenly as they dug square into the quills sticking an inch out of the rock-hard skin.
Ryouga too, cried out, but the pain hurt him less, as the quills dug in barely a quarter of a millimeter.
The teacher felt a iron fist clip his ear, several more rushed into his stomache. "I'm on the defense this time," he thought to himself gleefully before blocking the powerful blows off his left arm, jabbing with his
right into the steel pelvis.
He was totally caught off-gaurd when Ryouga leapt away, and ripped up a pine, slicing the truck neatly above the roots. The pine tree slammed into him faster than any of Ryouga's previous strikes, knocking the teacher flying across the field. He landed with a spring against a smaller tree, leaping forward to face the oncoming onslaught.
An elbow caught Ryouga in the right pec, a foot in his head. Ryouga was belted again by the rapid slams and jabs before he could bring up his defense. He swept down in a kick, then brought his foot up as the teacher
leapt to avoid the foot. It caught on the teacher's left foot, enabling him to spring off it, landing a blow across Ryouga's cheek.
Instead, Ryouga parried it with a prepared jab, then counter attacked with a slam that knocked the teacher over seven meters back, flying through the air surprised.
"How'd he improve so much in just three days since our last fight?"
The reason was simple. Ryouga was angry, and in pain. The pain was fueling his anger, forcing an invisible aura of energy into weary muscles. Instead of calling upon the ki as he normally would, to produce a Shishi Houkodan, Ryouga instead used it a powerful source of energy, hardening his body to the point where it almost resembled iron in consistency. Besides, the teacher had already shown a remarkable resistancy to ki based attacks. He was more vulnerable to physical attacks.
All this the teacher noticed as Ryouga took a few seconds to approach. The powerful ki reserves were making the strong man even stronger. It was the proper way to fuel ki.
Ryouga came at him with several punches, each one breaking the sonic barrier, producing a thundrous sound in the night air as they rocked against blocking arms moving even faster. One blow slammed into Ryouga's
braincase, knocking him back, but instead of falling unconscious as he had previously, Ryouga merely grunted, and sped up.
Several dozen blows slipping past granite defense, rattling his ribcage finally knocked down the super boy.
He fell into the ground heavily, a final blow from his teacher allowing him to catch up on his sleep.
"Excellent," the teacher whispered to himself, "He almost had me. All he has to do is learn to fuel that ki better, speed himself up a bit, and he'll have me in no time." He stared at the dismembered pine tree. "He
already has me in the strength department. When shall I teach him the moves?"
**************************
"Akane! That's enough already!"
"You really think I'm ready?"
"YES! Now get me out of here!"
"Where are you?"
"IN THE BIRDHOUSE! AKANE! I'm beginning to become CLAUSTROPHOBIC!"
"Oops, sorry..."
*****************************
"Most people focus their ki by stating the name of the maneuver they are performing. As with your Shishi Houkodan maneuver, you state the name to release the ki.
'Battlers tend to train their brain into thinking this way. That you must announce the move before you use it, or else it will not work. They think it strengthens th power of the blow, without even realizing they've fallen
into a predictable battle method. You see, when you are depressed, you tend to use your final move, that shishi whatever. Instead, you should focus on regaining your ki from the elements around you.
'Energy is never dispersed, it just changes form. You use energy to move, you use energy to breathe, you use energy to fire off shishi whatsahoosits.
'Instead of draining yourself, learn to tap the sources of your power, and enhance them to the point where you can draw on a near limitless supply of energy. This world is full of spirit energy, just waiting to fill you up. All you have to do is tap into it."
Ryouga stared at the seed cupped into his hands. "Okay, now what does a seed have to do with this?"
The teacher smiled, "Not everything is a battle, Ryouga. You may see it that way, you may see nature as a million different battles." He pointed to Edd, "Edd's family developed those quills to fend off attackers. Birds
sing their territorial songs, trees develop poison to fend of beetles. This is no battle, but life. Life exists in a circle that cannot be broken. For years man has sought to work outside this circle.
'I'm telling you to move back in. Use the energy around you. Channel it. Feel the forest, hear its song, let it fill your very being."
Ryouga was silent, head bowed in mediation. Slowly, the teacher willed the power of nature into the boy, breaking past the subconscious barriers Ryouga had erected inside himself.
"I feel it!"
"What's it like?"
"A gentle touch.. when I focus it fades away."
"Don't focus on it, don't force it. Allow it, ask to come to you."
The teacher watched, with no small amount of pride, as a thin green tendril wrapped about Ryouga's arm. It was a phosphorent glow that reached from his arms, beginning to surround him.
"What does the seed say?"
Ryouga eyes were open, glowing a powerful green. Without a mutter, he gazed at the seed, which began to tremble, suddenly shedding a small root. The root slipped off the gentle hand, into the inviting soil below.
Within a second, the small seed became a sapling, and then a young willow, all the while keeping a branch connected to Ryouga's outstretched hand.
"I can feel the tree, it lives, it loves me. I can feel the other trees as well. They are alive, but different from me. They can talk, but with voices I can't fathom."
"The circle is complete," his teacher whispered, slowly breaking the bond. "Now do you understand?"
"It wasn't a battle, it was life. It was something that needed help . It wasn't a battle, it was love, that's all."
"That's the only reason anything survives on this planet, Ryouga. Not because there is air, or water, but because something more powerful than any human can comprehend, loves us."
"And that love keeps the planet alive." Ryouga whispered. "For God so loved the world..."
"Exactly. How'd you know that quote?"
"I ran across some nuns in Italy. They didn't know the half of it, did they?"
"Nobody knows any of it, Ryouga. What you've come to understand today, is a very small part of what needs to be learned, but can't be understood."
"I understand," Ryouga whispered, then chuckled, "I just contradicted you."
"It's alright. You've almost finished your training Ryouga. Just another week, I bet."
Just another week
*************************
Just wait till its in HTML format....
Go ZIBBLE Go!
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAH...hokay, zat's enuff.
myrriden@mailcity.com
Myrriden Out!
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0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2 0s/2
While most people are puttering along at 95 or 98 MPH, I have three words
for you.
Warp 4.
Engage.
=^_^= -/\/
Nick Casler
Meow! caslern@matnet.com
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