Memories (a Ranma-1/2-plus-plus! fanfic)
by Nikholas "Mayhem" F. Toledo 


Editor's note:  The original disclaimer written by the author is now way 
too old, as the number of cameos, guest appearances, throw-away 
references and what-not are equally important and belong to equally 
important people.  The series of Macross, Sailor Moon, Star Wars, The 
Real Ghostbusters, Maison Ikkoku, Tom Swift, El Hazard and, of course, 
Ranma 1/2 have made their respective marks on this on-going saga.  May 
their creators be forever remembered in the annals of history, monuments 
built, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  On with the pervert-bashing!


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|Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!Mayhem!|
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Chapter Ten
Happy Battle

	Ami Mizuno laid the book right at the center of the table like one 
would do with ancient tomes and things like that. 
	This was the first time Tom Swift saw the book up close and was 
rather surprised at the newness of it. "Didn't the librarian say that 
this book was over a decade old? How come it seems like it was never 
used?"
	"Actually, this book was done in the late seventies," she said, 
pointing at the title page. "Nearly twenty years ago. The paper is a 
little bit yellow now." She shook her head. "It seems new because it has 
never been used often. It just stood there on the shelves without anyone 
reading it until now." 
	She sighed. "It feels so sad to see an unread book. They're like 
black holes. All the painstaking process of gathering information at one 
place only to have it inaccessible just because no one wants to come near 
them."
	Tom smiled. "You know, a friend of mine said the exact same thing 
not too long ago. But it was for another book, of course. It was Dr. 
Spengler's Spirit Guide. You heard of him?"
	Ami feigned ignorance. "Can't say I have." She frowned a bit for 
effect. "Although the doctor's name sounds familiar... But I just can't 
place it."
	"Of course, you wouldn't. The formal observation of psychokinetic 
entities is still in its infancy - six months, to be exact. Yet he had 
researched on it for years, but no one took him seriously until the 
incident in California." He looked at her meaningfully. "You know, there 
was this one thing that I told my friend right after she said what you 
had just said..."
	"Oh, she's a she then..." She smiled and blink-blinked her eyes, 
"is she pretty?"
	Tom continued like he never heard her. "I told her that black holes 
weren't really black holes but actually emitted energy at a slow and 
steady rate. The only problem is that a lot more energy enters than 
leaves, such that exothermic reactions are almost nil compared to the 
onrush. 
	"But there may come a time, if the open model of the universe 
holds, that the ambient energy of the universe decreases enough that a 
black hole system will start putting out energy at a faster rate then 
energy coming in."
	Ami continued for him. "And, by that time, there will be no more 
stars left in the universe. The black holes, tired of hoarding everything 
to themselves, start to share, start to shine, becoming even brighter as 
the temperature goes down, lighting the dark void that used to be filled 
with countless stars with the power they had gathered over the aeons."
	"Thus, black holes will become the last stars..." he said.
	The background noise seemed to disappear around them. 
	"How did you...?" he asked, wondering who this person was in front 
of him. 
	She smiled. "I think I read the same sci-fi books you do..."
	"Oh..." he said.
	And that was that. The small universe around them ceased to exist. 
	But the silence was still there.
	"About the book..." they said at the same time. They laughed a bit. 
The sudden awkwardness disappeared with an audible pop. 
	Tom said, "could you run the title by me again?"
	She took a deep breath. "Lucasian Kinetics, a quantification of the 
relevant physical laws and a dissertation on the possible use of chi as 
an energy source, by Kimiko Tendo." She thought for a while. "Lucasian 
Kinetics? I don't think I've heard of anything like that before, have 
you?"
	"I think it's a Star Wars thing. It was made in the mid-seventies 
now, was it?"
	"Are you sure? Seems too serious for a Star Wars thing. Maybe it's 
something else."
	"I'm sure."

	The monitors in the underground headquarters focused on the 
unmentionable cloud. 
	The Organizer could not believe his eyes. "Was this part of the 
plan?" he asked, cleaning his glasses just to make sure. 
	On the screen, the airplanes completed the maneuver and were 
presently circling the massive (yet fluffy) lingerie. "I'm pretty sure 
Furinkan doesn't have a flyer's club."
	The Adviser, however, was worrying about more important details. "I 
can't raise Copycat Ken on the radio. I fear something's happened." He 
looked at the Organizer with solemn eyes. "I think we should abort."
	"Nonsense! Look at monitor 5. Everything's going according to 
plan."
	"There's too many variables... I can't locate Miss Hinako. She 
could -"
	The Organizer shook his head. "Miss Hinako, Ranma and Kuno are 
outnumbered a hundred to one. I'll take responsibility for it. Just do 
your job."
	The Adviser just grunted. "Well... It's your ass, not mine."

	Copycat Ken was very busy at this moment trying to save his ass. 
	"I never thought disguising as the old man could be so much 
trouble!" he yelled, then dodged as several highly explosive charges 
detonated in the air around him. He, too, was not immune to the call of 
the large bra that floated in mid-air, and unconsciously, he ran in the 
direction of Furinkan High.
	Luckily, he found a large dumpster that had several "Guaranteed: 
Tank Proof" signs written all over it. He jumped in, just as several 
shells blew the sidewalk he had been standing on into sidewalk bits. 
	The armored battalion screeched to a halt in front of it. 
	Gen. Yamashita opened the hatch of his tank. Not knowing what to 
do, he took out a large megaphone. "Mr. Monster," he said, "come out with 
your hands up! We have the place surrounded!" 
	At least it worked in the movies. "Go ahead and make my day!" he 
added for emphasis. 
	Copycat Ken thought real hard, as if his life depended on it (and 
it did). After a while, an idea came to his head. He twirled his 
handkerchief. 
	"I'm not Happosai!" he yelled, emerging from the dumpster. "I'm 
really Ranma Saotome!"
	<KABOOM> Immediately, the wall behind him crumbled to dust. 
	"Eep..." he scurried back in. "How could things get any worse?" he 
mumbled.
	Never ever ask if things could get any worse. If you do, they will.
	The dumpster began shaking. 
	It jumped in mid-air and spit out a very dazed looking Copycat Ken 
(as Ranma Saotome). To everyone's surprise, the dumpster sprouted a head, 
two arms and two legs. 
	"RANMA SAOTOME!" Tsubasa cried. "You're going to pay for what you 
did to my Ucchan!" He dumped the dumpster costume (rather redundant) and, 
with a mighty wallop, knocked Copycat Ken into the sky. 
	"I'm going to get you!" he yelled to the rapidly departing body in 
the sky. Then looking to his right, Tsubasa promptly fainted at the sight 
of several massive cannons pointed directly toward him.
	Gen. Yamashita stared. "HOW DARE THAT MONSTER DO THIS TO OUR WOMEN! 
HE WILL PAY FOR THIS!" With a mighty battle cry, the tanks moved off in 
the direction of Furinkan High.
	A lone tank stood behind to look after the ailing transvestite. 
With a little first aid (and several okonomiyaki that the soldiers 
happened to have inside), Tsubasa was revived, looking rather confused. 
He began to walk away, wobbling a little.
	"Oh, miss!" One of the soldiers ran after him. "You dropped your 
handkerchief." 

	"It's a Star Wars thing..." Ami admitted.
	The first page read: "Chi is an energy field created by all living 
things. It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together 
(refer Eq. 1.1)."
	Tom smirked. "It's a straight quote. I can't believe he actually 
wrote something like that."
	"She... Kimiko is a woman's name..." 
	"Oops. Sorry..." They continued to read on in silence. The rest of 
the chapter dealt with an explanation on what chi was and, to Tom's 
disappointment, it dealt more on metaphysical discussions rather than the 
hard facts that he wanted. 
	"This is just a hyped-up Taoist book," he remarked. "I can't 
believe I came all this way for this." 
	Ami said, "don't judge a book by its cover, Tom." She turned the 
page to let him see what Eq. 1.1 was.
	"Oh, my..." Tom was shocked to find that the page (and the next few 
after that) was filled with dozens of mathematical proofs and equations. 
Ami watched him take out a small piece of paper and wrote down the 
equations, sweat forming on his brow. He even took out his palmtop to 
check some data with. After a few minutes, he sighed and set down his 
pencil and palmtop. 
	She asked, "the proofs are correct, then?"
	"Beyond a doubt," he replied. "Correct to all observations made to 
within a .01% significance level." He shook his head in disbelief. "She's 
pretty good. Incredible, actually. Physicists have been trying to do this 
for years now and all this time it was just here gathering dust. Miss 
Tendo could have won the Fields medal. Maybe even the Nobel Prize for 
something like this. I just... I just... Wow." 
	"Calm down. You're hyperventilating again." She rubbed his back. 
"Now, tell me what Chapter One says. And spare me that technobabble 
you're so good at."
	Tom took a deep breath. "Chapter One is a mathematical proof 
linking all the four basic interactions in nature, the strong, weak, 
electromagnetic and gravitational interactions, all into one big package 
with the ancient Taoist concept of chi, the primordal cosmic energy, as 
the wrapping paper. It's the grand unified theory that everyone has been 
talking about which however no one has basically proven since they have 
been glaring at a four-based interaction system, not a five." 
	He sat back, still in shock. "It's just so hard to believe that 
someone on her own could..."
	Ami said, "and that's just Chapter One."
	"And that's just Chapter One," he echoed. 

	The chilly wind blew across the Furinkan High roofdeck and 
Gosunkugi stood like a sentinel, watching the complex interplay of events 
way below. The same wind blew through the folds of his black school 
uniform and tossed the few locks of hair he had. 
	He thought that it would be better if he had longer hair, or a cape 
to complement the uniform, or a top hat, maybe even a bouquet of flowers 
to toss at people whenever he felt like it. But those were simply 
inconsequential paraphernalia. He knew that he had no use for such 
things. 
	The words that Nanami Jinnai had said to him echoed once more in 
his mind - that he deserved better than what he had - and she was right. 
Now, everything seemed so clear. 
	All of his inhibitions, all of the doubts he had, it was all gone 
now. The answers were all so simple that he regretted not thinking about 
them before. It was as if he had been staring at a blank TV screen and 
banging here and there all his life to make it work and only know found 
the On bottom. And it won't be long before he could test all the other 
bottoms in the remote control. Yes, he thought, it won't be long.
	The sun glinted off the shiny metal spike which he took out of his 
pocket. 
	"It's showtime," he said quietly.
	The wind suddenly rose in intensity then suddenly stopped.
	"Gosunkugi -" Daisuke and Yuka stepped out of the stairwell.
	The roofdeck was hauntingly empty.

	Nabiki and her associates finished their betting rounds. It was 
obvious to whom everyone had bet against. 
	Nabiki smiled, "the poor guy. It seems that Ranma doesn't do well 
on Mondays."

	"CAPPUCCINO ATTACK!"
	The mob moved as one, brandishing their respective club weapons. 
	Kuno punted upwards everyone that dared touch his pig-tailed 
goddess, to each saying a short poem of "farewell, thine existence was 
fun, you traitor," and other such permutations. It was more the prose 
that served to maim the listener. 
	Ranma-chan unleashed several uppercuts that blasted students into 
the air. The way things were going, the Consortium had the advantage of 
bulk and a good organized attack. Pretty soon, she would wear out using 
the basic attacks. She had to use the special techniques.
	"Kuno!" she yelled, "Cover me!" She concentrated as Kuno stepped in 
front of her, brandishing that legendary bokken, shining like the sun, 
protecting the pig-tailed goddess, etc. Ranma-chan channeled her battle 
aura into her hands, creating a small glowing ball of chi.
	"MOKO TAKABISHA!"

	Chapter Two dealt with the interactions of chi with the rest of the 
forces in nature. 
	This time, Tom did not bother to check the validity of the 
equations, save for a few which seemed to him rather odd and out of 
place. He pointed to one in particular. "This equation deals with the way 
chi can dramatically increase the strong force so that it would start to 
act between two adjacent nuclei thus creating a small but controllable 
fusion reaction. It seems correct but I can't see where the extra energy 
comes in."
	Ami pointed to a small mathematical term somewhere below. "Here it 
is." She read the small print. "Coefficient of mental concentration... I 
think it has something to do with mind -"
	"WHAT?!? You mean she has a concept of mentalics?" 
	"Yes... After all, chi is the Force, right? Luke Skywalker did not 
chant some magic words to levitate and stuff like that. What was said in 
the movie again? Luke, feel the Force flowing through you. And that's 
what exactly is said here. Chi manipulates the rest of the other forces 
in nature by the speed and direction it flows. And you control chi by 
your mind."
	"But that's a movie," he protested. "It couldn't explain how..."
	"I think that's why she called it Lucasian Kinetics. Maybe the 
movie reflected theory so much that she had to give credit to Luke 
Skywalker."
	"Or George Lucas. After all, he's the one who made the movie."

	Akane shielded her eyes from the blast. 
	"What's going on?" she yelled as the shock wave rolled over them 
like a thunderclap. "Miyo?" she looked behind her and saw the fortune-
teller slumped the ground. 
	Sayuri laid her head on her lap and Hiroshi was busy fanning her. 
"I don't know what happened," Sayuri said. "One minute she was okay, then 
the next thing I knew, she was on the ground."
	Miyo began to mumble something. "What did you say, Miyo?" Akane 
leaned closer.
	"Grave misfortune, here... We have to run away... He's coming... 
He's coming..." Miyo whispered.
	"Who, Miyo?" Hiroshi asked, remembering Daisuke's ominous warning. 
"Who?"
	"Happosai..."

	The spot on the radar grew to gargantuan proportions. Instantly, 
the on-board computers identified it as a threat and switched directly to 
attack mode. Cameras targeted the approaching monster. The modified 
Sidewinder missiles (now carrying a special tranquilizer warhead) were 
armed, aimed and ready.
	"Let's go..." Max Sternberg flicked down his visor. 

	When the dust cleared, the combined might of the student body was 
knocked backwards a good ten yards. At the center of the softball field 
was a sizable crater, at the center of which stood Ranma-chan and a very 
shocked Kuno.
	Ranma-chan's hands were still pointing downwards where she had 
released the chi attack. The blast wave underwent a controlled detonation 
between her palms, forcing the shockwave downwards to the ground and 
outward to the sides, forcing the raging hordes back and leaving them 
otherwise unscathed. Now there was enough room for the second technique. 
	Kuno's eyes bulged outwards. "What power doth my goddess possess! 
Truly, thou are worthy to be with the great Tatewaki Kuno - wham."
	Ranma-chan punched Kuno and buried him up to his waist in the 
ground. "Not now, Kuno." She eyed as the Cappuccino Consortium got ready 
for another assault. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this alone. You'll get 
hurt if you fight with me."
	"Forgive me, my pig-tailed girl, but I must protest. I cannot let 
you fight against hopeless odds. Let me fight for you instead, and die 
knowing I have protected thee 'til the end."
	Ranma-chan's eyes misted over. "Oh, Kuno," she said, "you really 
care for me that much, do you?" She sighed. "And to think I used to hate 
you so much, that the mere idea of us together..." She shivered at the 
memory. "There's something I want to tell you..."
	With a mighty yell, the students jumped into the crater. 
"CAPPUCCINO ATTACK!!!" they cried once more.
	"My name is..." Ranma-chan stopped, knowing that this could as well 
be the point of no return. 
	The ravenous maw grew closer and closer with each step. She sighed, 
then began run towards the rampaging hordes.
	"My name is Ranko..." she said.
	
	A fifty-foot Happosai appeared over the top of the Furinkan High 
school clock tower. 
	The denizens of the Furinkan ward not directly involved with the 
fight began to tell stories about how they left the stove on at home, or 
how the dog just lost his spleen (there was a lot of that going around), 
or how a large fractal cow was found walking all over their mother's 
babushka, and took the fast train to Zimbabwe, where there weren't that 
many fifty-foot panty thieves this time of the year. 
	"RANMA!" Akane ran over to the edge of the battlefield, where 
everyone else was too busy trying to get a piece of the action that they 
did not notice the impending doom. There was no way she could warn him.
	A small kettle found its way in front of Akane. "You know what you 
have to do," Gosunkugi said, leaving the kettle in Akane's hands. Akane 
tried to thank him, but he was already nowhere to be found. 
	"Well, that's odd..." she said, and forgot all about it. 

	From all around the crater, the different clubs of Furinkan High 
converged in a circle towards the battle-worn defenders. 
	To their surprise, Ranma-chan began to attack on her own, running 
full speed towards the front of one side of the attackers. At the moment 
when it seemed that a collision was inevitable, she turned to the left, 
running all the way to the other side of the crater, maintaining a 
constant distance of about a yard from the angry mob. Then she kept 
running, going in a counter-clockwise direction around the swiftly 
contracting circle of space.
	To sensitive equipment or trained eyes, a wispy tendril of heated 
battle aura trailed behind Ranma-chan's body.

	The Organizer's eyes widened in alarm as he recognized this pattern 
of attack. "StormTroopers! Hot water blast now!" Sweat began to form on 
his brow. "My God," he murmured, "this looks bad..."
	The Adviser sat quietly on one side of the room, sipping iced tea. 
"I told you this was going to happen..."

	With the sun behind them, the jets screamed ever closer to their 
target, far below, the National Guard had already positioned themselves 
around the perimeter of the school, ready to fire as soon as the 
tranquilizers take effect.	
	Happosai was too busy trying to reach for the bra that he did not 
notice the missiles being launched. 

	Ranma-chan channeled all of her guilt outside her body, a powerful 
boost to her chi. Shiny droplets of tears trickled down and streaked 
backwards across her cheeks. 
	All that Kuno did was to love her. All that she ever did to him was 
to hate him. She hated her guy-side. As a guy, all she ever did was to 
hurt Kuno every single day of his life. 
	She wasn't Ranma Saotome anymore. She was Ranko Saotome, a 
different person - a person who knew how to love those that loved her.
	But wasn't she a he, too? Wasn't her love for Kuno just a product 
of that green spore cloud that she inhaled that noon? Aren't the feelings 
washing over her now just an illusion? 
	Deep inside her heart, Ranma-chan knew that the feelings of 
resentment and hate were buried underneath the controlling chemicals of 
whatever that she sniffed. Deep inside, the anger was struggling to burst 
out, to hurt the one person that she now loved even more than life 
itself. Deep inside, she knew that she was still Ranma. 
	"Why?" she asked herself. "Why do I feel like the illusion is more 
real than reality?"
	She snapped back to reality as a shadow fell on her, cast by a 
student with a jetpack on his back, about to spray her with superheated 
water, more than enough to change her back. All the time she had left was 
for a finger to press the contact -
	A flying bokken imbedded itself into the jetpack's stabilizing 
fins, making the pilot spin out of control. The hot water stream hit the 
other rocketeers, causing a chain reaction. 
	A few moments later, most of the flying people were either too busy 
picking themselves off the ground, or splashing each other, to care about 
anything else. 
	Ranma-chan looked over at Kuno, who was busy shouting, "MY AIM IS 
TRUE! I FIGHT FOR MY GODDESS!" 
	She bit her lip, "no time to turn back now..."
	Three more turns, and it would be all over. Already, the trailing 
part of the mob had already entered the first orbit of the spiral. 
	"What is real?" Ranma-chan asked herself.
	Just two more turns. The circle was small enough for the opposite 
sides of the mob to ask each other for a club sandwich. Ranma-chan gazed 
at Kuno, who was buried up to his waist in the ground. 
	"What is not?" the question echoed in her mind.
	One more... 
	"I don't care..." she whispered as the mob underwent a simultaneous 
flying tackle. 
	Zero... 
	"I love you, Kuno..." she whispered as the angry mob grabbed her 
shoulders, foaming at the mouth.
	 With a mighty blast, she hurled her right fist in the air, glowing 
in chi-enhanced fury. 
	"HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!"

	The deafening roar of the blast died down to a distant tock of the 
grandfather clock. The national library was completely unaware of the 
chaos happening, just a few miles away. 
	Ami read on. "This chapter deals with chi on a macroscopic scale. 
According to the text and the equations, it seems that a continuous 
stream of chi is flowing around the planet. It seems that it goes the 
same way as the usual weather patterns, there having a chi hurricane 
inside a regular hurricane for example."
	"Wait a minute," Tom thought for a while. "If the local weather 
patterns dictate the chi currents, and according to the mentalics part of 
the book, it would follow that if a person can manipulate chi, he can 
also manipulate the weather."
	"Hmm... I think that would be valid."
	"Still, do you think that a normal human being could generate a 
massive anomalous weather pattern, say a tornado, just by thinking about 
it?"
	"Stranger things have been known to happen..."
	
	"MY GOD!!!" From the comparative safety of the underground lab, the 
Organizer yelled as the twisting currents of chi developed into a full 
blown twister. 
	The normal whirlwind attack was amplified by the circular 
depression of the crater. The cameras showed gale force winds blowing 
across the entire softball field, picking the students off their feet and 
tossing them several blocks away. It seemed that a hurricane appeared 
right in the middle of the battlefield. 
	The Adviser shook his head, took his bag, and walked out the door. 
"There's nothing more we can do... I declare the Consortium dissolved..." 
	He left a once all-powerful Organizer, but now just a simple Chem 
club president, sobbing quietly on his command chair. 

	"AKANE!!!" Hiroshi rushed to the edge of the field. 
	He grabbed her and pulled her to the safety of a nearby overhang 
just as the winds grew to gale force. But she broke away from his grip 
and rushed to Ranma's side, carrying the hot water kettle.
	Sayuri miffed him when he came back. "Why the heck didn't you go 
and save her! She's our friend, too, you know!" 
	Hiroshi replied, "she can handle it. She's a martial artist 
anyway." He shook his head. "Some thanks I get for saving you. I think I 
should have left you outside!"
	Sayuri did that blue aura thing. "How dare you insult me!"
	The two were about to argue when they noticed Miyo trying to stand. 
"I've got to warn them," she said. "More misfortune coming. Everyone 
leave." She gazed at Hiroshi's eyes. "You, too, my love." She limped over 
to the field just as the wind began to die down. 
	"Let me help you -" *wham* 
	"Don't you even think about it..." Sayuri said, holding a large 
mallet.
	Hiroshi was a bit quiet afterwards.

	The jets screamed in the sudden maelstrom that sprang out of 
nowhere. 
	Max Sterling tried desperately to keep the plane steady. The 
airframe was already vibrating and he feared that perhaps the wings would 
get ripped off. But he suddenly found out that should be the least of his 
worries.
	"Alpha-1!" the other plane signaled to him. "The missiles have gone 
haywire! They missed the target completely!"
	Max looked out the window to see a really horrible sight.

	Happosai's mouth dropped open as the funnel of the twister drilled 
a hole through the bra right in front of him. He sobbed for a while, then 
began to glow a horrible red aura. 

	Nabiki stood tall against the squall, smiling triumphantly. "Only 
one more thing left..." She looked defiantly at the large angry monster. 
"I can't have you ruin my glorious comeback," she said.

	The National Guard's tanks crashed through the perimeter wall of 
Furinkan High, finding themselves in front of a very very angry Miss 
Hinako. Several students and lots of soldiers found themselves victim to 
the draining abilities of the teacher.
	"WHERE'S RANMA SAOTOME?" she asked all of them at the same time.
	Withered hands pointed at two different directions at the same 
time. 
	"ARRGGHH! DELINQUENTS EVERYWHERE!" She stomped away angrily, and 
almost tripped at a rocket pack someone had carelessly left behind when 
his battle aura drained body began to float in the wind. Suddenly, there 
was a wicked gleam in her eye. 
	Moments later, there was a large cloud of smoke where Miss Hinako 
was standing.

	"The concept of battle auras..." Ami read the chapter heading. 
	"Battle auras, often radiated by persons possessing high 
coefficients of mental concentrations. They are visible to the naked eye 
in special cases and have been photographed on film ("Mysterious 
Happenings of the Far East," Zemansky et. al., p.320). Well-known cases 
originate mainly from the following socio-cultural groups: Tibetan Lamas, 
Hindu ascetics from the Indo-Gangetic plain, shamans from the Australian 
Outback and sub-Saharan Africa, and..." she frowned a bit at this, 
"martial artists, particularly in the area around the sea of Japan."
	Tom set down his right fist on his left palm with a audible *ponk*. 
"So that was what it was! Battle aura! That's the glowing stuff around 
the monsters! They were martial artists!"
	"Huh?" she asked, although she already knew. It was funny to see 
him blush. 
	"Oh, nothing," he replied, calming down a bit. "Please, read on..."
	She continued. "This aura is a physical manifestation of the human 
inner strength, normally referred to as ki, and should be differentiated 
from terrestrial chi. Although, basically they are congruent to the 
concept of chi as a basic force in nature, human ki has a much larger 
degree of organization than the world-spanning Lucasian field."
	"Of course," Tom surmised. "Since chi is attracted to areas of high 
mental capacity, humans would act as reservoirs. Martial artists, having 
a greater degree of mental concentration brought about by years of 
discipline in learning the Art, would be better in manipulating their ki, 
and thus use its peculiar abilities of manipulating the other forces in 
nature to their own advantage, such as boosting physical strength or 
releasing small controlled fusion reactions or manipulating local weather 
patterns." 
	He looked at Ami. "Am I correct?" 
	She nodded. "It follows the proof for the formula here."
	He smiled. "I'm getting pretty good at this, now, aren't I?"
	Ami replied, "don't get too cocky, now. Do you know what happens 
when ki is drained?"
	Tom stopped. "What happens when ki is drained?"

	The wind gusts died as its energy source dissipated. The last of 
the fierce blue battle aura vanished from Ranma-chan and she slumped to 
the ground, exhausted. 
	"Kuno..." She looked to her side, but found that he had already 
fainted. "Jeez, and this was supposed to be the romantic part." Deep 
inside, the anger for Kuno still raged, but Ranma-chan ignored it. That 
would be another battle to fight. 
	She slowly rose to her feet, then began to dig Kuno out, thankful 
that it was all over...
	However, it was not...
	A mob of women surrounded the edge of the crater, and Ranma-chan 
found herself looking at a long-haired blond wearing a tight fitting 
orange sailor suit. Her eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey! Aren't you..."
	Sailor Venus shook her head. "No time! You've got to help us defeat 
him!"
	"Him?" Ranma-chan asked.
	"Him." Sailor Venus pointed behind Ranma-chan. She turned around, 
and saw a twenty-foot wide angry face looking at him.
	"RANMA!!!" Happosai's disembodied voice echoed through the hills. 
"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY!!!" 
	The air shimmered as Happosai got ready for a massive Happo 
Daikarin, then stopped as he noticed what Ranma's current state was, and 
who she was standing with. 
	"PRETTY LADY!!!" he said, the fifty-foot behemoth going into a swan 
dive. 
	The earth began to shake. 
	Time seemed to slow down as the gigantic pervert descended upon 
them all.
	When faced with certain death, some people think and act 
illogically.
	... Ranma-chan was thinking that the Happo Daikarin was a much 
better way to die. 
	... in the same vein, Sailor Venus found herself thinking aloud, 
"I've seen death in the face many many times, but this is ridiculous and 
disgusting."
	... Akane made her way through the screaming mob and threw the 
water kettle at Ranma-chan. She stood in front of the slowly descending 
pervert. "You'll have to get through me, Happosai!"
	The pervert grinned even more. "AKANE!!!" he screamed joyously. 
"YOU'VE COME TO PLAY WITH ME!!!"
	Now that didn't go as well as planned. 
	"RANMA!" Akane screamed, "DO SOMETHING!!!"
	Ranma stood up and angrily slammed the kettle to the ground. "Just 
what the heck do you think you're doing -" He fainted to the ground as 
his weakness caught up to him.
	"Hey! Weren't you a girl a while back?" Sailor Venus stammered with 
bulging eyes. She remembered Sailor Uranus and her rather odd (at least 
to her viewpoint) cross-dressing (she actually fell in love with her, 
mind you). But a guy dressing as a girl was far worse than a girl 
dressing up as a guy.
	"Not now, please!" Akane yelled. "Ranma! Ranma, wake up!" She shook 
him, which did not help him one bit.
	"Why the heck did you have to toss the hot water at a time like 
this?" he asked weakly.
	"I was trying to save your life, you idiot!" she yelled back.
	"Who are you calling an idiot, idiot?" Ranma replied, a little bit 
groggily, but rather angrily.
	"Why don't you stand up?!? Aren't you going to protect me?!?" 
	"I can't stand up with all your screaming in my ear."
	"Eh..." Sailor Venus tried to stand between them. "This is no time 
for a fight, you know..."
	"Were we talking to you?" they asked at the same time.
	"Okay..." she eeped. 
	And death by perversion hung over them all.

	The planes stabilized themselves and looked with utter horror on 
what was going to happen below. 
	When all hope seemed lost, Max Sternberg noticed a bright white 
blip on his radar screen. "Hey, look!" he yelled, pointing to the sky.

	Nabiki calmly walked over to the center of the crater. 
	"Nabiki! What are you doing here!" Akane not quite yelled. "Do you 
realize what danger you're putting yourself in?"
	Ranma butted in. "Don't worry, we martial artists can handle him."
	Sailor Venus said, "I'm not a martial artist. I'm Sailor Venus, the 
beautiful (and intelligent) sailor soldier, sworn to protect love and 
beauty wherever (and whenever) evil should strike."
	Nabiki countered, "Well, why aren't you doing anything but 
screaming?"
	It's fun to see a triple simultaneous full-face blush. "Well... 
I... We..."
	"Oh, I see..." Nabiki smirked and took out a piece of cloth from 
her pocket. "A lady's got to defend herself, sometimes..." 
	With a mighty heave, she threw the piece of cloth to Happosai's 
face. 
	A weird change went over Happosai. Looking like he was going to 
throw up, he shrunk to his sub-normal size and slumped to the ground 
right in front of Nabiki's feet, with the piece of cloth draped over him 
like a burial shroud.  
	Everyone's eyes popped out. "How did you do that?" they asked all 
at the same time.
	"These are sweaty boxer shorts..." Nabiki calmly replied. 
	"Oh..." everyone said, breathing a sigh of relief.
	Nabiki smiled victoriously. "It's amazing when these kinds of 
things really happen in real life."
	Happosai groaned. 
	"What did you say, Happosai..." Nabiki picked the old pervert up by 
the scruff of his gi. "I can't seem to hear you..."
	"I'm going to..."
	"... GET ALL OF YOU DELINQUENTS!!!"
	Everyone looked at shock to a possibly deaf Nabiki. But both she 
and Happy were puzzled. 
	From somewhere, Miyo screamed. "LOOK UP!!!"

	Miss Hinako streaked higher and higher into the stratosphere, 
passing through the remnants of the bra cloud, by the use of the trusty 
rocket pack. 
	She smirked. This was to be the greatest application of her 
technique. The ultimate pacification of Furinkan High, and perhaps the 
rest of Nerima, was at hand. 
	She stopped, hovering in mid-air just on top of where Ranma's 
attack blasted a tunnel through the cloud. The entire Nerima district lay 
peacefully below her.
	With a mighty yell, she pointed her hands downwards.
	"HAPPO-CIRCULAR-HOLE-IN-CLOUD-SIATSU!"

	Tom grabbed the book. "When ki is drained, there is a large loss of 
physical strength without deterioration of muscle tissue. Ki takes part 
in the burning of ATP in muscle tissue (although this is insignificant in 
normal cases). However, given a good coefficient of mental concentration, 
this effect can be overcome. 
	"There is also a reduction of body fluids that makes the skin 
maintain a wrinkled appearance (see Fig. 5.3). There is a chance that the 
battle aura drained body would be carried aloft by a gust of wind but 
there are too few cases with which to judge. There is, however, no 
permanent damage incurred. Body fluids and mental capacity is restored as 
soon as normal ki reserves are reached."
	Tom looked at the figure, "looks like a raisin to me."
	Ami thought, "that would explain the Floating Schoolboys Incident 
last fall. But still, what caused..."
	Tom continued, "there are, however, techniques which allow a person 
to drain an opponent's battle aura for that person's own use. These 
techniques are very dangerous and persons capable of doing such should be 
avoided at all costs." 
	The train of thought in Ami's mind came up with a startling 
conclusion. "A youma! A youma did it!" 
	"Huh?!?" Tom asked. 
	For some strange reason, she blushed. "N-nothing," she said and sat 
down. He smiled. It felt rather fun to see her blush.
	He read on, "this process requires a circular object, or crystal, 
that would have the effect of focusing the flow of ki from the person's 
body." That set a train of thought going running through Tom's mind. 
"Focusing chi?"

	With a sudden lunge, Ranma pulled Akane to the ground. 

	Ukyo closed the door of the Ucchan's. She sniffled a little bit and 
sighed. After what she did, there was no way Ranma could forgive her, 
given his pride. 
	Still, how come Akane slaps him every day, even pounding him to the 
ground on regular occasions, and he still cared for her? 
	She sniffed once more. "I guess Ranma really does love Akane." 
	There was nothing more she could do in Nerima. There was nothing 
left for her here.
	Nothing... 
	She wished that a sign, any sign would come along that would tell 
her otherwise.
	It was then that the earth began to shake.

	The entire distict erupted in chaos. 
	The earth itself began to shake. Windows shattered to bits. Trees 
were torn from their roots. Cars streaked to a halt. People slumped down 
to the ground in fright. Men cried in the streets screaming, "give us 
back our spleens!!!" 

	At the Furinkan Police Station, people were running and screaming 
as the bars of a particular jail cell began to give. 
	"She's gonna blow!!!" one of them yelled and everyone ducked just 
as cute stuff began flying around. Amidst the chaos, a shadow swiftly 
made its departure.
	"Oh no..." A policeman slowly got up, eyeing the cute stuffed toys 
littering the office. "She's loose..."
	
	At the Cat Cafe, the shaking ground shattered a few plates. The 
front wall, wreaked by that morning's gastronomically challenged Hibiki, 
cracked and split in two, offering Miss Hinako direct line of sight to 
the interior of the Cat Caf�. 
	To Cologne's great fear, chi started to drain from every pore of 
her body. 
	Shampoo cried out in bewilderment. "Great-grandma!" she said, as 
little streams of energy were slowly sucked upwards, "what going on?!?"
	Cologne knew she had to act fast. Already, she was beginning to 
feel weak. She depressed a potent bursting point on the floor. As the 
concrete floor of the restaurant shattered, she pulled Shampoo into the 
crater. 
	Using her cane, she began to scribble a few ancient symbols on the 
earthen floor, around the perimeter of the depression.
	After a few tense moments, Cologne put her walking stick down, 
breathing heavily. To Shampoo's surprise, the energy drain ceased. Even 
more so, she found herself surrounded by twisting currents of green 
battle aura, which seemed to flow out from out of nowhere.
	Cologne was too tired to explain. "Ancient Chinese Amazon Super 
Secret Technique, chi lens," she said, "tell you about it later..."

	At the Furinkan field, people where shriveling as energy poured out 
of their bodies by the kilowatt. 
	Sailor Venus groaned, "She's a youma!" before collapsing to the 
ground.
	Nabiki found herself without protection of any kind. Black spots 
began to swim before her eyes. "This can't be happening," she thought as 
she blacked out.
	Akane screamed as the vapory trail of battle aura emanating from 
Ranma's body dissipated into nothingness.
	Ranma fainted, just as the adrenaline boost that temporarily 
brought back his strength ran out. 
	Then, to everyone's surprise, the draining ceased.
	A horrible quiet descended upon them all.
	Just like the quiet before the storm. 

	From several hundreds of feet in the air, Miss Hinako hovered, 
glowing with energy. She had already absorbed nearly all the battle aura 
of the entire Nerima district. With every breath she took it seemed like 
thunder was booming. Raw energy crackled across her hands and her eyes 
glowed like twin suns. Her voice seemed disembodied as she said, "And 
now, for my revenge."
	Slowly, almost ritually, she spread her palms, with the two thumbs 
and index fingers touching, and said, with an almost god-like air, the 
name of her final attack.
	"Happo No-Yen Coin Return!"

	Tom held his breath.
	"Chi as an energy source..." Ami said, reading the chapter's title.
	"There exists a process defined to be chi focusing, that allows a 
small amount of chi to generate a large amount of energy and an excess 
amount of chi which can be harnessed to generate large amounts of 
energy." He remarked, "it's a chain reaction."
	They turned the pages to glance at the formulas. "Unlike all the 
other formulas," Ami observed, "all the equations don't have a mentalics 
component. How does the chi lens operate then?"
	"Let me see..." Tom thought, analyzing the proofs with mathematical 
precision. "Since chi flows very much like the wind, obstacles in its 
path and temperature differences would cause it to deviate from a 
straight course from east to west."
	"That's what causes regular weather patterns," Ami said. "But the 
system is chaotic. There's no way you could control it without the mind 
part."
	"No..." he replied. "These are the same equations written in 
Chapter Two. But instead of the coefficient of mental concentration, it 
has another group of constants which seem to indicate a different method 
of harnessing terrestrial chi." 
	He pointed at a particular line. "Instead of an active control 
system such as mentalics, it suggests a passive control system." He 
looked at her meaningfully. "Instead of using the mind, it uses the 
*obstacles* themselves."
	"What?!?"
	"See... The mind manipulates chi, and thus the rest of the basic 
forces in nature, by controlling the way it flows. A different velocity 
would cause it to change another factor." He snickered. "That's why in 
laboratories people couldn't detect chi since they were in *controlled 
conditions*. Only in uncontrolled conditions could it cause significant 
deviations to appear."
	"But..." Ami protested.
	"But that's not the point. The point is that if the wind could be 
channeled, so can be chi. And chi could be made to flow in such a way as 
to force the incoming chi to flow in the same direction, thus repeating 
the same process over and over again releasing the same amount of energy. 
It's like a hydroelectric dam. It stays there, does absolutely nothing, 
set up one time, but generates energy for an extended amount of time."
	"But..." Ami repeated.
	Tom was on a roll, and continued as if he wasn't interrupted. "But 
it could also be arranged that the setup would release an larger amount 
of energy, thus creating a chain reaction. It's the perfect power 
generator." 
	"But..." Ami pleaded.
	His eyes began to have a certain dreamy look. "Imagine it, Ami. A 
cheap, renewable power source that has almost no waste products. Imagine 
it, like windmills but producing larger and larger quantities of energy. 
Imagine it, all the cities of the world powered by just a single setup, 
by just a group of people digging the right trenches or building the 
right barriers."
	"But..." Ami said, despairingly.
	He rubbed his palms together. "Wait 'til the Admiral hears about 
this."
	There was a loud bang on the table that reverberated across the 
library, drawing stares from everyone.

	A vortex began to form around Miss Hinako's hands. Streams of raw 
energy coalesced, the sum total of the battle aura of the entire 
district, into a small bright star, growing larger and brighter with each 
passing second. Lightning and thunder cracked over the little bundle of 
destruction, as if it was made of the fires of hell itself. 
	Miss Hinako screamed with pain as she violently tried to control 
the energies that flowed through her, to prevent an early detonation of 
the chi sphere. Even she couldn't even bear looking at it. 
	The sphere grew into the size of a medicine ball, and a saner part 
of Miss Hinako's mind protested violently against this excessive (!!!) 
use of force. 
	Yet, absolute power corrupts absolutely. With a maniacal laugh, she 
released the sphere of doom, falling slowly like a bomb on the little 
pervert below. 

	The new sun cast shadows as it fell, as if torn by some mighty hand 
from the sky and cast upon the hapless martial artists down below. 
	It passed through the remains of the cloud, instantly vaporizing 
it. The earth cracked, and splinters of it began to float in mid-air, as 
the laws of physics itself began to bend underneath the descending ball 
of hellfire. 
	There was no time to counterattack. There was no time left to run 
away. 
	Just enough time to watch your life pass just before your eyes. 
	
	Hinako-chan regained her senses and began to scream.
	
	Akane watched as her surroundings were slowly swallowed in the 
unearthly light. 
	She saw Happosai squirming in the ground, too weak to do anything 
useful. 
	She saw Sailor Venus fired a desperate Love Me Chain to the center 
of the globe. But it only absorbed it, and went through the other side. 
The orb went on with its deadly journey. 
	She saw the rest of the students who remained vanish into the 
glare.
	She saw as Ranma tried a few vain attempts to put himself between 
the ball and her. He collapsed due to the exertion. Without knowing it, 
she reached out to touch his hand...
	Then it grew too bright to see anything at all.

	Ami shut the book with a bang. Tom could really see that she was 
angry, for some reason.
	"You mean to tell me that you're working with the military now?" 
she asked, her voice even. 
	"Well, yes..." he replied, not quite so sure where she was getting 
at. 
	She shook her head and gathered her things. "Have you ever heard of 
an uncontrolled chain reaction brought about by one of the basic forces 
in nature whose theoretical basis came from the brilliance of just one 
man, and what the military used it for?" She looked at him sadly. "I 
think you have."
	She left, taking the book with her. 

	Shadows cast on the surface of the sun...
	"PENTAGRAM OF PROTECTION!!!"
	Currents of darkness began to twist around the shadows, then burst 
apart with a mighty shriek, surrounding the spell-caster with a pulsating 
hemisphere of dark energy. And, as the chill wind blew to a squall 
strength, the half-sphere expanded, encasing the softball field and its 
environs in a protective shield. 
	The chi ball slammed into the barrier, screaming as the different 
energy classes fought, infused and died. Then, with a mighty thunderclap, 
the energy sphere imploded, sending concentric circles of force radiating 
around the impact point, stretching for blocks in all directions. 
	Then the strange phenomenon, too, died, leaving behind clouds of 
smoke where powers unleashed once took space.
	The intense light vanished, and Gosunkugi stood at the center of 
the smoking ground - and, from his hands, the faint trails of darkness 
vanished, as if they had never existed.
	A hero is born...

	Ukyo stood up, as the ground became steady once more underneath her 
feet. She ran outside the door, smiling.

	Kasumi yawned... It had been one peaceful afternoon at the Tendo 
Dojo. 


To be continued...

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