The Three Saotomes
Part 11
The Nameless Wanderer.
Ranma stood in front of the gates to Furinkan High and strolled in. His
head was hung low and he wasn't really watching where he was going. Not
that it mattered really. All the students gave him a wide berth as he
made his way through the day. It had been this way for a week; Kuno was
silent so far as well. The trend would end today.
"Hold Saotome," Tatewaki stepped from behind the oak and stood directly
in front of him.
"Hello Kuno." Ranma did not even look up as he stopped a few feet away
from the boy.
"You must answer for your crimes," snarled the kendoist angrily. He held
a bokuten in his hands and spread his feet.
"And you have yet to answer for yours. I am unarmed, yet once again you
wield a blade." Ranma's voice was maddeningly calm.
"Your skill warrants such action knave," replied Kuno.
This caused his opponent to look up slightly. "Well, it appears you do
have something of a head about you. Still, your actions were inexcusable.
You're lucky I let you live."
"Perhaps I was rash Saotome, but this offence cannot be forgiven. This
dishonor will surely be the end of the Saotome line."
"Leave our families out of this Kuno. This is between you and me,"
snapped Ranma sharply.
Kuno surprised him for the second time that day. "I can accept these
terms. Your blood will flow to avenge my honor."
"So, your sword is worth someone's life is it? Pompous arrogance. Then
again, the same can be said of me." Ranma chuckled lightly and stood tall
in front of the kendoist. His face was stern, but still marred by a few
scars from his battle with Xianghua.
"We shall finish this today Saotome! Have at thee!" Kuno swung his sword
and attempted to cut Ranma in half with the wooden blade.
His face registered the surprised shock as Ranma stopped the stick cold
with his fingers, just in front of his face. "You're going to need more
than a week of training to beat me Kuno. The sooner you realize this, the
sooner we can end this farce."
"How dare you speak to me in such a manner!" roared the boy as he
attempted to pry the sword away without much success.
"I dare, simply because I'm strong enough to."
The kendoist stopped and stared at him for a moment.
"Kuno. I'm growing tired of beating you. Your skill is not perfect; no
man has perfect skill or invincible technique. Such things do not exist.
If you want to defeat me, you're going to have to realize this and
broaden your horizons. I know every move that you can possibly make as a
kendoist, and more importantly, how to counter those moves. To put it
simply, Kendo will not beat me."
"Impossible! I have trained since I was but a boy! My technique is
flawless! My strokes beyond the power of mortal man! You will never find
another man as powerful as I!" Kuno pulled at the blade harder and Ranma
released it. The boy was thrown onto the ground on his back.
"Your diligence in your training is admirable Kuno. However, it is not
enough. You've trained your whole life, and it shows. Train harder, learn
more, then come back and face me again. I will not fight you for at least
two months Kuno. No challenge or insult will persuade me. Good day."
Ranma strolled past the boy and left him sitting in the dirt.
"My honor will be avenged!" roared Kuno angrily as he stumbled to his
feet.
"That's all well and good, but talking won't do anything for your
skills." Ranma paused and turned his head slightly as he said this. He
then walked the rest of the way into the building. The students in the
courtyard simply stood in silent shock at the whole scene. Genryu, Akane,
and Nabiki included.
"What the heck was that about?" said Akane.
"I've never seen him act that way before," commented Genryu.
"It's like he wants Kuno to get stronger or something," commented
Nabiki. "You don't suppose he wants him to win do you?"
Kuno simply glared at the doors to the school as if he could burn them
away with his eyes. "Insufferable."
"Even if he's right?" commented Genryu as he passed. He wasn't paying
much attention really. His expression was one of worry as he watched the
entrance to the school.
+++++++++++
In the streets of Nerima, a cloaked figure walked up to a street vendor
with a small scrap of paper in his hand. He read it and faced the man
behind the counter. "Where is Furinkan High School?"
The shopkeeper looked up and sighed. "Not you again. Look, I already
told you that it's..."
"I have never been here before," said the cloaked figure standing in
front of him.
The shopkeeper stepped back as he saw the large point of metal
protruding from behind the young stranger's back. His gaze was cool and
steady as he stared the old man down.
"Who?"
"No more questions old man. Where is the high school?"
The shopkeeper simply pointed down the street. "Straight ahead! You
can't miss it."
"I see. Thank you."
He started walking away down the street and clenched his fist in front
of him. "I've found you at last! Today will be the day you breathe your
last breath villain!"
+++++++++++
Genryu Saotome sat with Akane and Nabiki during lunch. The girls mostly
ignored his presence. He wasn't exactly liked by either of them, but he
tended to simply sit quietly and let them talk. Nabiki often wondered if
he reported to his older brother about what they had said. They usually
avoided talking about Ranma in general when he was around.
They watched the elder Saotome as he sat quietly by one of the walls of
the school. He stayed under the cool shadows of the building and no one
sat with him. Genryu had other friends at least. Akane and Nabiki had
noticed him hanging around Hiroshi and Daisuke, two boys that sat near
him in class. Both were notable slackers, and relatively popular within
the male circles.
Ranma was an enigma to them though. He had spent much of his time since
the Chinese girl's arrival brooding. He didn't talk much, and his whole
attitude had changed in general. He was more short tempered, and he had
grown more violent. His mood had taken a nosedive as well.
Genryu spoke up suddenly causing both girls to jump slightly. "Ranma's
really worrying me. He's never been this way, not even in China. I've
never seen him more stressed, and he always looks tired. Something is
really wrong."
"His past is catching up to him," said Nabiki.
"Eh? You mean that guy who died in China?" asked Akane.
Nabiki looked thoughtful for a moment. "Look. I'm not real good at this
stuff, but this is how I see it. Regardless of whether or not he killed
that guy, all this is coming down on him now. He's stopped running away,
he's stuck in one place, and he has to face it now."
"I don't think he can take much more. What can I do though? I feel so
damn helpless," growled Genryu.
"You seem to be fine. That Ryoga guy showed up and tried to kill you
didn't he?"
"I wasn't married to Ryoga," said Genryu with a small snort.
Both girls' eyes went wide as they stared at him.
"What did you just say?" stammered Nabiki.
Genryu blushed as he realized what he had said. "Nothin, I didn't say
nothin!"
"No! You said he was married! I heard you!" snapped Akane as she stood
up and grabbed him by his shirt.
"Yeah. Was married. Big deal." He pushed her hands away and stepped
back.
"That's a rather important piece of information," said Nabiki.
"It's not my business to tell you these things."
"What about my father? Did he tell him too?" snarled Akane as she balled
up her fist and stalked towards the boy.
"Yeah."
The two girls looked at him and froze in place. "What?"
"Your dad already knows. I won't say any more than that," said Genryu as
he walked away from them.
The two girls simply stood in silence. Both of them were uncertain about
what to say or do. How much did their father know? Would he allow the
engagement even if he knew the boy was a murderer?
A soft whirring sound broke their train of thought and they glanced
around looking for the source as it slowly grew louder.
"What is that?" mumbled Akane.
Genryu rushed by them, he was sprinting full speed towards his brother.
"Ranma! Look out!"
The elder boy looked up from where he sat and smiled. A sparkling silver
flash was moving towards him at high speeds. "Well, it has been a while
hasn't it?" He jumped up just as the wall behind him seemed to shatter
and collapse into itself.
Genryu stopped a few feet away from the scene and frowned. "Oh great,
this guy again."
A laugh echoed through the schoolyard as an unfamiliar figure appeared
at the school gates. He stepped forward and threw off his long cloak. He
was a Japanese boy of about seventeen years of age. He had short spiky
brown hair, and a dark blue dogi that covered his small, but well muscled
form.
"I've found you at last!"
Ranma landed and ducked as a silver object passed over his head. The
strange boy reached up and caught it in his hand easily. It was a
massive, metal boomerang. The stranger smiled and lowered the weapon
slowly.
"Are you sure you got the right guy? I think you've got the wrong guy.
What's his name?" asked Ranma with a familiar playful smile forming on
his lips.
"Silence! I'll have my revenge yet!" roared the strange boy as he threw
the weapon again.
Ranma merely shifted as it passed him and ducked again as it returned to
the boy's hand. "You sure?"
Akane looked at Nabiki and then back to the boy again. "Who the heck is
this guy?"
"I dunno. He sure is rude, barging in that way without an introduction
or anything." She paused as the boy glared at her for a moment before
returning his gaze to Ranma again.
"For the insult you have placed upon me! I shall have my revenge at
last!"
Ranma sighed and threw up his hands. "Look you jerk. I don't have time
for this. It's your own fault after all."
"How dare you! You have insulted my family's name, and our honor!"
"Fine. I tried to help you out and this is how you thank me." Ranma
shrugged his shoulders and got into a battle stance.
"Some help. I'll take my honor back, with your blood!"
"This is about the dumbest excuse for a grievance I've ever heard!" said
Ranma.
"Enough talking! I'll finish you for good!" snapped the boy as he
charged forward.
Ranma met him in mid field and the pair exchanged blows for a moment.
The stranger almost managed to keep up with Ranma's speed, but was
knocked away at the last moment with a blow to the chest.
Ranma smirked and put his fists up as he went into a defensive stance.
"Come on. You can do better than that!"
"You're right!" screamed the angry boy as he pulled out the boomerang
and threw it again. This time he closed his eyes and pointed at it as it
passed by his opponent. The stranger shifted his stance and moved his
arms so that he was pointing at Ranma. The boomerang shifted in its
flight path and made a beeline towards him.
"Oh shit!" muttered Ranma angrily as he jumped up to avoid the
projectile. He was forced to twist in mid air as the bladed weapon turned
on a sharp angle and attempted to catch him as he fell. He landed roughly
and rolled away as a deep gouge was cut into the earth where he had been.
He stood up and frowned as the boy grabbed his boomerang out of the air
lazily. "Well, that's a new trick." He looked down at his leg and shifted
his stance. His ankle was killing him; he could feel the throbbing pain
on several places all over his body. "Damn, I'm still not finished
healing. I hate to do this, but I don't have a choice," he thought.
"It's enough to keep you on your toes Saotome!" snapped the boy angrily.
"Well, it won't work twice. You should know that by now." Ranma made a
fist and smirked as a small wind shifted his hair slightly.
"We'll see about that!" roared the angry stranger as he threw the weapon
again.
Ranma cupped his hands at his side and grit his teeth. He grunted and
seemed to stagger for a moment before thrusting his hands forward. The
stranger closed his eyes and pointed at the weapon as it sailed past his
opponent to his right. The moment his hand moved towards his opponent,
Ranma shot a ball of blue light from his hands that tore through the air
with a loud boom.
The stranger's eyes went wide and he attempted to dodge, the energy
blast was far to fast though. He took the blow directly in his chest and
was thrown into the air. He landed on the ground and rolled in pain as he
shook violently as energy coursed through his body. His screams caused
the small crowd of students to back away in horror, most of them still in
shock from what they had seen.
"What the hell was that?" screamed Nabiki.
"My god," said Akane with a horrified stare.
"Ranma!" cried Genryu as he rushed towards his brother.
The older Saotome had fallen down to one knee. He was breathing heavily
and clutching at his chest. He simply stared at the ground with a look of
pain on his face and tried to regain his breathing. Genryu approached him
from his side and he leaned into the boy's chest. "Damn, that hurt."
"Are you all right? Why the hell did you do that?" Genryu looked over
and saw the boomerang stuck in the ground a few yards away.
"I..." Ranma stopped talking and put his hand over his mouth. A sudden
surge of blood fell through his fingers and splattered on the ground as
he fell forward again.
"Ranma!" cried his little brother as he managed to catch his brother
again.
"I'll be all right. I'm still not fully healed from when I fought
Xianghua. I never should have tried that, but I didn't have any other
choice."
"You jerk! You could have been killed!" said Genryu angrily.
"So, Randy is it? Looks like you win again," said a pained sounding
voice.
Both of the Saotome brothers looked over and saw the boy struggling as
he sat up. His hand was clutched over his chest and he was obviously
still in pain.
"That's Ranma dope." Genryu helped his brother to his feet and sighed.
"It's been a long time," said Ranma with a slight smile on his face.
"You should have told me you were hurt. I would have come back later,"
snorted the boy as he managed to stand again.
Nabiki approached the stranger. "Who are you?"
"I don't give my name to anyone."
His answer caused both Tendo girls to frown at him.
"That's because he doesn't know what it is," said Ranma with a slightly
painful looking chuckle.
"Shut up Zalgildoze!" snapped the boy angrily.
"That's Saotome," corrected Ranma.
"Oh! He has amnesia?" A look of understanding crossed Akane's face as
she said this.
"That's so sad! How tragic!" said several girls within the crowd.
"He doesn't have amnesia. He's just not good with names," said Genryu
oblivious to the angry looks the boy was giving him.
"Not good with names?" said Nabiki in disbelief.
"So bad, in fact, that he can't even remember his own, not even five
minutes after you tell it to him," said Ranma. "Isn't that right Matin?"
"Terrible with names," said one of the male students.
"My little brother has that problem, just not as bad," agreed another
boy near him.
"You shut up!" screamed the boy angrily. He coughed a few times after
that and fell to his knees again.
"Neither of us is in any condition to argue about it right now," said
Ranma dryly. He turned towards the school and walked to the infirmary
with his brother's help.
++++++++++++++
Akane and Nabiki stood around the bed where Ranma lay resting. Genryu
stood guard by the door patiently while they talked.
"So. Are you going to tell us what the story with this guy is?" said
Nabiki lazily.
"I don't see why not. I'm afraid this one is kinda my fault," Ranma grit
his teeth and sighed at the memory.
"His Name is Matin. We went to grade school together."
"This isn't about a bread feud is it?" said Akane warily. She turned her
gaze towards Genryu. He was intentionally ignoring the conversation at
the moment.
"Do you want to hear about this or not?" snapped Ranma.
"Sorry," muttered the girl sheepishly.
"Anyway. He and I never got along well. We basically started fighting
almost right away. It was little more than your common childhood rivalry.
I don't even remember what started it."
"This is a common childhood rivalry?"
"It gets worse," said Ranma as he rubbed at his temples. "After about a
year I figured out his little problem. To compound things he fell for a
girl in our class. Anyway, he couldn't ask her out because he couldn't
tell her his name." Both girls looked at him with disbelieving stares.
"Yes, he's that bad. Anyway, one day he got an idea. He wrote his name
down so that he'd remember it when he talked to her. Well, I was a lot
meaner when I was a kid. I got wind of his plan and replaced his little
cheat sheet with one of my own. Turns out he fell for it, he introduced
himself as Asswipe the Mighty. I didn't think he'd actually be dumb
enough to fall for it."
"And ever since then he's been after you right?" said Nabiki with a
tired sounding sigh.
"Yeah. We left on our training trip a few days later. He's a royal pain
in the ass too. Our rivalry has lightened up a bit over the years. I
don't think he wants to kill me anymore, but he's still dangerous."
"You two have been fighting like this for how long?" asked Akane.
"About eight years now. It's not so bad really. The only reason it came
down to this is the fact that I'm injured."
"What was that thing anyway? How did you do that?" pried Akane with a
somewhat uncertain look about her.
"It's just an energy ball. Nothing more," said Ranma with a certain
amount of finality in his voice.
"But..."
Genryu spoke up. "Akane, Don't. The reason he's lying here now is not
because of anything Matin did to him."
"You mean?" Akane looked at the boy and stepped back.
"Yes. I was beaten by my own technique. I'll admit my injuries had a lot
to do with that as well."
Nabiki raised her eyebrow slightly and turned away. "Interesting. Come
on Akane, we've got to get back to class."
+++++++++++++
Tatewaki Kuno stood in the library and stared at the walls of books. His
unfamiliarity with the room left him a bit uncertain. "I must find a way
to defeat Saotome. It is obvious that he speaks lies about my skills, but
still. Perhaps his lies do have a certain grain of truth hidden deep
within them." He pulled a few books from the shelves and stared at them.
"I must find a way to perfect my skills even more, I must surpass pure
perfection! But how?" He turned and started walking towards the exit.
"Hey! You can't just walk out with those books!" whispered an old woman
behind the counter harshly.
"Pardon? Is this not a library?" asked Kuno.
"Yes! You have to check them out first! And be quiet!"
"Very well. I shall, check these books out then." He placed the small
pile on the counter and stood proudly.
"You can only check out three at a time! One of them has to go back,"
said the woman calmly.
"What? Curse you woman! I have need of these books! I shall use the
knowledge contained within them to finally defeat the vile Ranma
Saotome!"
"Quiet!" snapped the woman as she hit him over his head with a large
book.
"Very well. I shall remove this one." Kuno took the thinnest of the
books from his pile.
"Fine. Give me your library card."
"What need have I for such a card?"
"If you don't have a card, you can't check these books out!"
"How does one obtain this 'library card'? I hope it is a quest worthy of
my station."
"Fill out this form," said the woman as she handed him a piece of paper
and a pencil.
Kuno took it and sat down at a nearby table. He gazed down at his new
opponent and frowned. "There is not enough room to write my full title
upon this line! Curses, I must shorten it to merely Blue Thunder of
Furinkan High!" He lamented this quite loudly; earning a large number of
shushes from the students trying to study.
"Address? Ah, they must mean the Noble Kuno Estate! Now, how does one
spell 'Noble'?" He pondered for a moment and scratched down his
information.
+++++++++++
"Mr. Kuno. 'The Noble Kuno Estate', is not an address. No, I do not need
your full title, just your name, and finally, your loyal ninja retainer,
Sasuke, is not a valid means of communication." The woman handed the boy
another sheet of paper. "Please try to get it right this time. We are
running out of applications."
Tatewaki Kuno stood and glared at her. He took the paper away from her
and staggered back to his seat. "Curses! Once again I am prevented from
my destiny by this blasted paperwork! 'Tis truly as mighty an opponent as
Ranma Saotome himself! The Mighty Blue Thunder's wrist cannot take much
more of this punishment!"
One of the students approached the librarian and shook his head as he
glanced back at Kuno. "He's still here? It's been three days. He's not
already worried about midterms is he?"
"No. I don't understand it. The poor idiot can't even fill out an
application for a library card. I've gone through almost two thousand
forms." The woman pointed to a trashcan that was full of wadded up
papers.
"Man, who could have known?" The student walked away shaking his head in
disgust.
Another student walked up to her and nodded. "I'm new here. I need a
library card."
"Fine, just fill out this form," she said cheerfully.
"Oh, thanks," he turned away from her and went to a nearby table.
"Ok. Name, address, and phone number. Seems easy," he smiled and picked
up the pencil. "Name...name...uhhh. Name...dang...hmm...that's a tough
one."
The librarian hung her head and started to cry.
++++++++++++++++
TBC...
Next time: A new student at Furinkan. If only he could introduce himself
to the class...
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com