It could be a while till my next chapter, which is really, really annoying
cause
I've the next 3 chapters all planned out.
But I unfortunately stuffed up a finger yesterday which makes it difficult
to write.
Founding Fists
Chapter Three - Reality Bites
Standard Disclaimer: apologies for borrowing from
Rumiko Takehashi: for most of the heroes
Buronson and Tetsuo Hara: some concepts and some direction
Villains and method are mostly our own
Omega Point and Immortal Wanderer
Story Concept
Omega Point and Immortal Wanderer
Written by Omega Point
** Thoughts
Ranma was looking very uncomfortable standing up the far end of
an abandoned car yard, sixteen large sheet covered figures were
spaced around the yard. Shampoo holding a bucket of cold water
before her, asks Ranma "Ready?"
"You sure you want to do this?" Tofu queries from the sideline.
"the cameras are ready" Nabiki calls out from behind a bank of
high speed video and still cameras.
"Just get it over and done with." Ranma demands.
Shampoo dumps the cold water over her head, while Ranma starts
to shake and tremble, Cologne speeds amongst the figures ripping
the sheets away, revealing a collection of lifelike cat human
hybrid dummies. The plan worked the presence of a real cat (well
shampoo's cursed form was close enough) and the images of Eonneh
around the yard triggered the Nekoken.
Nabiki did her best to follow Ranma's movements with the one
camera not fixed on a dummy, but her eyes couldn't keep up with
the pace Ranma was destroying the images. Tofu and Cologne
managed to follow his movements with their eyes, Tofu in
particular seemed to suddenly gain an insight into the
movements. Shampoo, as per the plan ran forward beyond Ranma's
starting position and jumped into the bowl of hot water and pile
of spare clothes to revert to her normal form.
Less then 30 seconds later (28.78 according to the Nabiki's
cameras) Ranma shredded the last of the Eonneh look-alikes and
turned towards the group of spectator's but the hostility in his
eyes faded but didn't totally disappear as he moved over to the
group. Tofu prepared to hit the appropriate points to knock
Ranma out, but Ranma dodged, leaving Tofu hitting nothing but
air. Prepared for such an occurrence Nabiki unveiled a large
pile of catnip that had been kept in reserve in case of such an
eventuality, Ranma not really feeling threatened by Tofu turned
and leaped into the pile and started rubbing around in it
ignoring Tofu's seconded attempt to knock him unconscious, and
promptly ended up that way.
*********
Awake again Ranma turned immediately to Nabiki "Did you get
enough of it?"
"Sixteen camera's worth the one I was holding was next to
useless though." Came the reply just as Ranma noticed where he
was.
"What happened? Why am I in a pile of catnip?"
"You dodged," Tofu hesitated before continuing, "You didn't
fully trust us, I couldn't get you to stay still long enough."
"We had it in reserve in case something like this happened."
Nabiki continued for him.
Ranma became deep in thought *I'm losing it I can't keep doing
this, but I can't fight that thing without me becoming a cat.*
"Son-in-law, your too slow." Ranma was to depressed at that
point to notice the form of address used.
"Too slow, I shredded sixteen in under 30 seconds!"
"Too slow, they not move, Eonneh won't stay still like they
did." Ranma recognised one of his constant complaints to Akane
"Bricks don't hit back."
"How can I move faster then, ghoul?" earning him resounding
thump across his head from Colognes gnarled staff.
"Throw these." Cologne handed Ranma a small sack of marbles,
"And watch."
Ranma opened the bag and sprayed some 200 marbles towards
Cologne.
"Amaguriken" Cologne hit every single one of them sending them
hurtling into a brick wall on the other side of the yard.
Ranma stared in disbelief he'd already realised that Cologne was
fast but even he had trouble following her hands in that
exchange. "Roasting Chestnuts on an open fire?"
"I'll show you." Minutes later a small fire was going in the
middle of the yard with colognes hands darting in and out of the
fire so quickly that you where not sure weather or not her hands
ever actually entered the flames, but the chestnuts appeared to
be just hovering there.
"I can do this give them here." Ranma sat beside the fire and
promptly had his hands burnt in his initial attempts to
duplicate Colognes feat.
"I see we will have to work up to this." Cologne sighed as she
watched Ranma make his attempts, Tofu looked like he was about
to have a try when cologne stopped him, "I have a different
technique to teach you the two of you can teach each other the
other's technique later but for now I have something to allow
you to hit where you want."
"But I will have a promise from you before I teach you the
technique, you unlike Ranma have no ties to my tribe, even
though Ranma still maintains no ties to Shampoo he is still her
chosen husband so teaching him techniques is only bending the
rules."
"I Have no interest in being matched with another member of your
tribe!"
"I wasn't planning to, but are you willing to be a honorary
member of our tribe. The only restriction is that if you do
marry your offspring will be raised in the tribe."
"Okay, it's not like that's going to happen." Tofu sardonically
responded thinking about his loss of Kasumi.
"Splitting Cat Hairs" Cologne called giving no warning to her
intended attack Tofu watched as not one but four colognes
started to circle him, "Try to hit me." Came Colognes taunt.
Tofu figured there had to be a trick but made the attempts
anyway, his hand passing through the middle of one of colognes
images in sight, spinning to try again on another he was
incapable of determining which one was the real cologne due to
the shifting nature of the images, and Colognes circling none of
his hits actually impacted with anything solid. Cologne picked
that moment to extent her stick and tap Tofu on his head.
"Okay which one are you?" Tofu demanded delivering faster
punches and kicks, quick as he was he couldn't have competed
against Ranma, but then he would not have been considered slow
by many others.
"One and All"
"Make sense!" Raged Tofu his normally calm state disturbed by
frustration. Taking a chance he decided to see if he had picked
up something from Ranma's demonstration., "Cat Claw Swipe"
pivoting on one foot tofu spun extending his right hand loosely
with his finger tips in the direction of motion. He passed
through one, two, but not the third of the images spinning
around him. The technique was more powerful than even Tofu had
expected, sparing with Ranma and fighting against Eonneh with
Ranma had worn of, his body had learnt to make the chi claws.
While not very large yet they still managed to etch a series of
centimetre deep cuts into colognes staff.
Eyes boggling Cologne looked at Tofu then looked again examining
both his external features and his aura. "How did you do that?"
Tofu smiled, shrugged his shoulders, "You first, 'Splitting Cats
Hairs'"
"It's a technique where you use you chi to create duplicates of
yourself, the images can't attack but by rotating around the
victim it becomes very hard for you to be hit. Normally I would
expect to take a long time teaching it as it involves high level
of chi manipulation but.." Cologne pauses indicating her staff,
"you may have less difficulty than I had anticipated."
"You don't think that fighting Eonneh with Ranma is not going to
give me some insight into how the chi claws are formed, I don't
think it's possible to explain it, except that desperation seems
to come into it."
"Many Chi based attacks use emotions to focus the energy.
Depression is one of the more common. I think I know how to
improve your technique and teach you 'Splitting Cat Hairs'
********
Three or so days later...
Complaints where heard from three areas of the Tendo household.
Ranma sitting out side by a fire with very brown arms and a
faint odour of burnt hair and flesh surrounding him. He was
trying desperately to move his hands quick enough. "Hot, hot,
HOT... I will not give up!"
Tofu stood concentrating, two more Tofus came into existence one
either side of him, however they only sort of half left the
original, giving the overall image of a blur rather than
multiple people. Upon trying to move Tofu's concentration
slipped and the other Tofus winked out of existence. "I must do
it, MUST CONCENTRATE."
The third active member of the Tendo household was busy abusing
her henchgirls, "What do you mean you can't find him, where
talking about a eight foot cat he can't just disappear!"
Though in a really bad mood Nabiki decided that a break was
needed. Giving one last batch of orders to her henchgirls she
turned and spoke to the martial artists.
"I need a break. YOU need a break, you are both coming to the
fair and taking a rest for a few hours."
Both Ranma and Tofu looked at Nabiki in shock for while neither
of them wanted to go to the fair, the mere thought was making
them miserable, neither could deny the commanding voice or the
simple logic involved.
********
Ranma wandering around the stalls, more cautiously now having
already been turned female by on kid who tripped spilling their
drink on Ranma. When his eyes caught on one particular store
that seemed to be making a killing. A fish game anyone who could
catch a fish bare handed could put it in a jar and keep it,
twenty or so small upset children crowding around the stall.
"You can't do it."
"Impossible"
"Give our money back."
"I want a fish"
Ranma frowned upon the man behind the store who was obviously
quite happy collecting the money and not having had to give out
so much as a fish in the entire day.
"How's this game work?" Ranma asked as he approached the store.
"20 yen you can keep all the fish you can catch in a minute."
Unwisely the stall owner added "If your quick enough."
A glint appeared in Ranma's eyes one that had been absent for
the last few weeks, that of supreme confidence. *Just think of
it as training*
"Would you guys look after the fish I catch?"
A course of "Hai" erupted from the children.
Handing over 20 yen, Ranma took a deep breath "Tell me when my
time starts.", Suddenly he paused and looked at the owner of the
stall. "What temperature is the water?"
"Cold"
A shudder went down Ranma's back, *I'm glad I'm in girl form*
"Go" The stall owner called.
Ranma's hand's blurred removing fish and doing it so fast that
the water seemed to part away from his hands, In moments the
first tank had been emptied of fish and a row of jars now stood
with one fish in each. Taking a step to the right he repeated
the process in a second tank then a third, only 20 seconds had
elapsed and 58 jars of fish now lined edge of the counter.
Not impressed by the display Ranma had captured enough of his
fish to put him at a loss for the week, he grinned evilly,
"You've forty seconds left care to try for something more
challenging?"
"Like what?"
"These piranhas."
"Your on.", pulling back his sleaves and preparing to capture
the vicious creatures.
The stall owner dropped a few drops of blood into the water
sending the piranhas into a frenzy. "Just making it
interesting."
Ranma now looked a little more nervous.
"Go", A vicious smile played across the stall keepers face.
Ranma looked at the frothing liquid and his hand dove, grabbed
and flipped the piranhas into a largish glass bowl near by as no
more jars where in sight.
On finishing empting the tank of it's predatory fish Ranma
turned bowed to the applauding children now clutching 2 or 3
jars a piece. *I think I can do the old ghouls trick now."
On the other side of the fair Tofu was looking at the various
rides and such, pretty depressed, with his thoughts drifting to
Kasumi. Looking at the various rides, he kept picturing himself
and Kasumi together laughing. Glancing around he hunted for an
activity to take his mind off those thoughts.
Rings? No.
Cards? No.
Rifle? No.
Feats of Strength? No.
Cup and Ball? No... well maybe.
The pattern being woven on the table by the rapid movement of
the cups was memorising Tofu. It took him a few moments to
realise that this was what he was trying to do only on a larger
scale.
"Care for a game or three?" A cheerful looking Store owner
enquired.
"I'll have you best of three." Another fair goer responded while
Tofu still thought though his plans.
"We play first to three not best of three, I go first placing
this red ball under one of the cups, then I shuffle and if you
pick right cup you gain a point, if you don't I gain a point.
Then you do the shuffling."
"That sound fairer than most of these games!" Exclaimed the
surprised customer who had played simular games before and most
certainly never got to shuffle the cups."
"Ah, but I still go first and I wager my eyes are faster than
your hands!"
Watching the cup shuffler Tofu kept his eye on the correct cup
easily, - *I must have been mistaken, I won't learn anything
here.* - the customer picked it easily, and was even slower
shuffling the cups allowing the shuffler to equalise the points.
Deciding to stick it out till the end of the game Tofu continued
watching.
"Okay lets try something a little harder." The shuffler revealed
the ball covered it and somehow started the three cups moving in
a figure 8 without any of the cups even stopping for a moment.
Tofu's reflexes and observation skills had never been bad, and
training at Ranma's level had improved him considerable, so he
could still follow the pattern. Tofu was privately betting that
the other customer couldn't then just when Tofu thought the
pattern would slow there where suddenly 5 no 6 cups involved in
the figure eight. Tofu realised that because the cups had not
stopped in the transition he had been unable to keep track of
the ball. He couldn't even pick out which where the original
empty cups. Then suddenly the cups cam to a halt and there where
only three cups on the table lined up in a row.
The customer was baffled but as no comment was made he realised
that the customer was unaware of what had just taken place.
"You moved them so fast I bet you don't even know which one it
is." The customer remarked.
"Pick your cup then and I nominate the cup the balls in and you
can reveal the contents, A point for me if you guess wrong and a
point for me if I guess right. Fair?"
"Fair." -Nominating the middle cup the customer waited to see if
the shuffler had been out done. The shuffler pointed at the cup
on the left the customer turned over the left hand cup sure
enough there was the ball. Determined that trickery was involved
he turned over both other cups and not a splash of the red of
the ball.
"I'd like a try." The shuffler immediately sized up Tofu and
realised that there was something different about this customer.
"Okay but I'm not giving away a free point like I did just
then."
"Lets make it first to ten, I might take me a few try's to get
my hands up to speed."
"Your on, this could be interesting."
The shuffler immediately began to weave a pattern this time it
was more of a braided ring and when the extra cups emerged from
between the real cups the pattern didn't change but the extra
cups made focusing on the ball cup impossible, after guessing
wrong. Tofu began to get a sinking feeling that he had bitten
off more than he could chew. Tofu began his attempt starting
with two cups he started spinning them in a plain circle and
focused on making his ki duplicate the cups he managed to blur
the outlines of the cups as he spun them but couldn't quite get
the images to separate, hands used to the pattern now he
concentrated harder, the cups separated into two, so four cups
were spinning. Bringing the cups back to a halt and causing the
extra images to disappear, he lined them back into a row.
A big grin was spread across the shuffler pointed out the
correct cup.
"Lucky guess." Some of Ranma's ego had obviously rubbed off on
the former doctor.
"Tell you later what you did wrong." Obviously biting back
laughter.
Two or three other people had stopped to watch the competition
and were muttering "Did you see that?", "There where five cups
on the table I tell you.", "I didn't see anything wrong!"
Tofu, two points behind already kept focused on the game.
*Obviously there is a flaw in my method but where?*
This time the pattern was three interlocking circles, by the
time it reached full speed it appeared that the dealer was
shuffling at least 12 cups, the onlookers where dumb founded, as
all they could follow was that there appeared to be more things
on the table than there should be. Upon the cups coming to rest
Tofu pointed and wasn't too up set to be told.
"Not that one."
Trying a simple circle again, Tofu this time included all three
cups, taking it a bit slower realising that the speed that the
stall owner used was more to prevent others accusing him of
cheating, carefully built up a steady pattern that didn't
require much thought to keep going, feeling the cups passing
through his hands he imaged 2 of them causing five cups to
circle on the table. He had realised his earlier mistake, Tofu
hadn't let go of the cups when he made his first attempt he'd
literally passed them from one hand to another making the two
duplicates stand out like a sore thumb, this time he made
himself pay equal attention to all of them. The shufflers
expression this time was far more concerned.
"Your point." As the shuffler lifted the cup he picked.
Several minutes late a small crowd had appeared.. the score was
9-8 the dealers way. Tofu had been lucky enough to guess
correctly three times opposed to the shop keepers two, and guess
was what they were doing. Tofu started a pattern quite a
complicated swirling pattern, he'd managed to get up to 11
images to appear at a time and brought them to rest.
"That one." The shuffler claimed with a hopeful smile on his
face.
"No, not that one" revealing the ball and passing the cups over
for the final round.
*I think I've seen the flaw.*
As the cups started the rotation, Tofu prepared himself, just as
the images started to appear but before they where shuffled up
as well Tofu put 1000 yen on the table "Bonus side bet for this
round, The shufflers eyes widened and moved a hand to grab the
money before Tofu changed his mind. That movement was exactly
what Tofu wanted to achieve the real cups slid further than the
images without the hand to control them, Tofu had narrowed it
back down to three. And he'd already determined which group held
the real ball, so the correct cup when they came back to a halt
was immediately identified.
The Shuffler smiled at Tofu and handed over the money,.
"I hope you learned something."
Cologne walked up to the shuffler having come from the fish
catching stall making sure that Tofu was already out of sight.
"Did you show him the technique?"
"Of course, but is it wise he's not of our tribe." The shuffler
addressed his matriarch
"Any children he has will be."
"Is he good enough to take what I showed him the rest of the
way."
"Leave the thinking to me. How long did it take him to learn the
technique from you?"
"One round less than you, he learns quickly." The shuffler
suddenly paused hoping that Cologne didn't read such a comment
as disrespect.
"And he's not the faster." Mused cologne just loud enough to be
heard and then walked away.
Nabiki wandered aimlessly about the fair not really sure why she
agreed to Cologne's suggestion of getting Ranma and Tofu to the
fair. Sure she'd told the two the truth when she said she was
getting nowhere, but this wasn't helping her at all. Deep in
thought Nabiki turned a corner entering a maze of mirrors, she
was well past the entrance before the usually observant Nabiki,
realised where she was.
Looking around she saw reflections of herself distorted and
modified by the curvature and colour of the glass.
*I definitely would like to have that rub off on me.* Looking in
one mirror that enlarged and reduced appropriate parts of her
physique, to give her what she viewed as perfect proportions for
a female. Other mirrors though were not as flattering to her
figure, or sometimes her colour. With her appearing as a fat
dwarf, a purple snake, and a very sick shade of green, among
others.
Realising that the differences in appearance of her reflections
would make even herself have trouble recognizing the real
Nabiki, she realised that she would have to change the criteria
for the Eonneh search as there was no real way of telling wether
he was truly stuck in his cat-beast form.
Unbeknownst to her elsewhere on a globe a medium built business
man was muttering in a strange accent, "Be wanting good old
fashioned wizard to be sending, not be on this slow creation."
Perhaps Nabiki mused this trip will be of benefit after all.
Walking out of the maze she ran into Cologne.
"Did you get them to do what you wanted?"
"Yes, Son-in-Law and Tofu have learned some lessons."- Pausing
to take a breath -"They will need to know them well."
*************
Sometime later back at the Tendo Dojo, Tofu and Ranma spared,
tofu was starting to use some more leg work and other more
traditional punches and strikes, Ranma was moving faster than
ever. Tofu started circling Ranma called out "Splitting cats
hairs", concentrated and suddenly Ranma was dealing with four
Tofus circling him. Not to be out done Ranma jumped vertically
and aimed a series of kicks at the circle but connected with
nothing. Tofu promptly hit out with a well aimed punch hitting
Ranma in the chest.
"I've got you now!" aiming at the image he thought punched him
Ranma let loose a furry of punches which all promptly missed.
Ranma started paying more attention to work out the limitations
of this technique, Tofu wasn't striking as often, but he
certainly wasn't being hit, then he realised that the circle
that was being made around him seemed to flow blending Tofu's
aura around all the images (the images after all where part of
Tofu's ki) finding the one with the largest aura wasn't going to
work. But they all moved in a circle the pattern didn't change.
Having lived with the former doctor for the last few weeks Ranma
knew of a weakness, one that he planned on capitalising on.
"BBQ pork" tossing a few pieces of BBQ pork just in front of him
sure enough the sight of his favourite food and the appetite
from training worked. Tofu took a step inward, breaking the
circle, and the other images disappeared, "Amaguriken" Ranma
launched near to a hundred punches at Tofu, working a line of
light impacts across his chest, not hard this was practice after
all but they were hitting. Tofu staggered back a bit, then
smiled.
"I'll have you next time."
Authors end note:
Terrorists should really think before taking hostages when Ranma
And Tofu about shouldn't they?
See Next time ...
C&C Wanted as always
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Omega Point
There was no big bang only the previous omega point
http://members.tripod.com/omega_point_fanfics
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