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Webmaster's note:  For some reason I can't make the this page to word wrap, so
until I do a manual word wrap, I suggest that you copy and paste this story in to a  
Micosoft Word.  It's a really good  story and worth a read.

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Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to the wonderful Romiko 
Takahashi and her licensees (Viz Communications in North America). This work is 
strictly for the non-profit enjoyment of fans. No copyright infringement is intended.

Apprentice
By Jason Lee McKeown

Gently, she shook the water from her collapsed umbrella. She was a little startled by the sudden stop of the down pour, but she welcomed the relief from the annoyance of the rain. It was very late and her trek home would be less strenuous without holding the umbrella to shield her from the water. She carefully placed the compacted umbrella into one of her bags and distributed her loads equally in her arms. It was obvious to her how much her other arm ached from carrying all the goods she had purchased. With that she continued towards her destination and the long awaited comfort of family that were at home.
Nerma was a small town in the suburbs of the vast city of Tokyo, it was always under construction due the none stop destruction that its residents provided to it. The young lady had been passing a site of a new bathhouse, since the previous one experienced a large amount of structural damage and was forced to be torn down. Due to the rebuilding, the lights on this street were down and the darkness of the area contrasted to the illumination of the prior roads the woman had traveled down. It sent a small shiver down the lady's spine and she quickened her pace.
"Were'ya goin good lookin?" Came a voice very close behind her.
The lady jumped and spun around to the voice, droping one of her bags in the process. She starred at the figure before her, due to the darkness it was difficult to make out the features of the person. It was definitely male and several inches taller than her. She stood still, shaking with fright and not knowing what to do next.
"That's to bad, you dropped your groceries, allow me help you with them" the figure said. It was obvious by the tone in his voice that something was wrong and she had the notion that he did not truely want to help her.
"N no, th thats okay, I can handle myself, n no need to trouble you," she stammered. "I got to be getting home, my family will be worried if I'm not home soon."
"Then allow me to escort you, you don't know how many bad people there are in this quiet town of ours, you may get robbed, or worse." spoke the slowly approaching figure.
The idea of having an escort appealed to her, but it was definitely not going to be some stranger late a night in the middle of a deserted street. She quickly grabbed her dropped bag and turned to get out of this situation. Her eyes shot open to see two more individuals in front of her blocking her path. One of them was a tall man with large gut while the other appeared to be the exact opposite, slightly resembling a merger of a boy and a rat. Again she could feel that these other men had evil intentions, and she did not want to stick around find out what they were.
"W what do you want, l leave me alone," she said, fear obvious in her voice.
"What the hell do you think we want you dumb woman?!?" spat the larger man.
She didn't reply, instantly she dropped her bags and began to dart off to some source of light. She began to scream, but for only an instant as the first man grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth. The three men began to drag off the kicking and struggling woman inside the fenced off area of the construction sight.
'NO NO NO please god don't let this happen' her mind cried only praying that someone had noticed, that someone had heard the brief cry of help, that someone would stop them.
"Thats not very polite Miss, trying to run away when I so graciously offered my assistance." Snarled the first man.
The smaller man gagged her mouth with a foul tasting rag and held her arms behind her back. The larger man tore one of her straps from here dress to reveal the bra hidden breast. She screamed one last time throught the gag and slupped to the groud unconsious due to extreme stress of the prologe to her rapping. The middle size man began to remove his shirt and then just suddenly stopped, frozen like a dear caught in the headlights of an on coming vehicle. Both the other men stopped at the sight of their motionless comrade, then tracing the line back to what he was starring at.
Behind the unfinshed wall of the bath house, a figure had stepped out and had observed the ordeal in the site, standing there burning holes through the criminals with his eyes. The moon was behind him and outlined his form, yet his eyes could still be seen and appeared to be casting off a reddish hue.
"Who the fuck are you?!?" yelled the larger man.
The man did nothing, just stood there gazing at them.
"Hey boss, we can't let this asshole turn us in, we gotta take his has ass out." spoke the welp.
"I know that you fool!" snapped the middle man. "Who ever he is, he's not getting outa here alive."
With that the trio advanced on the man slowly, trying to intimidate him so he might turn his back to run, then they would attack. Yet the gazing man didn't budge and kept analyising them as they approached. Then in the blink of an eye, he shot forward and delivered an elbow to the jaw of the fat man, the vicious sound of bone turning to dust could be heard, and then the unknown figure jumped and backfilped away to his original position. The large man gurgaled through the blood in his throat and fell backwards in a lifeless mass. The other two men starred at their fallen friend in horror. The smaller man's horror turned to hatred and charged at the figure who just attacked, screaming bloody rage, lashing out with a switch blade. The figure swiftly dodged the attack, and sunk two of his fingers under the small mans lower rib caged and yanked on the last rib. The slight sound of bone splintering again could be heard, and the shorter man dropped to the ground gapping for air from the sudden pain that coursed through his frame. Satisfied that the smaller man was out of the picture, the figure returned his gaze to the obvious ring leader of this trio of would be rapists.
"You. . .you motherfucker, your dead!!!" Screamed the leader as he wiped out a small pistol.
Seeing this the man darted behind a large pile of concrete bricks. The gun welding man stopped, seeing that he just lost his shot, stepped back to the unconcious girl laying on the ground.
"Well Mr.Wouldbehero, better step out or the bitch here is ain't ever gonna wake up!" he yelled, pointing the gun at the girl on the ground.
The man behind the bricks jumped out and flung a small rock at the gunman. The rock bounced off the gun, but the gunman didn't loss grip of his weapon.
"Ha! You fucked up, I didn't drop the gun, now you and the bitch are dead!" he yelled.
"Thats what you think." spoke the figure as he slowly approached.
"What! Then take this!"
The gunman pulled on the trigger, but it didn't budge. 'THE SAFTY!!!' his mind screamed as he quickly released that that was what the rock had struck. Just then the man jumped high into the air and delivered a kick to the gunman's face. Blood shot in all directions as the gunman's nose was crushed into his face. The force sent him sailing through the air about ten feet until he crashed in a stack of heavy piping. It was obvious that he would never again see the light of day, as not only was his nose imbedded into his face, but both of his cheak bones and upper teeth had been shuved an inch futher into his skull.
The man walked over to the unconscous girl and serveyed the damage. She didn't appear harmed, but her dress was torn. He picked her up and walked back around the corner from which he had first appeared. Around the building was a tent and as small fire that had died down now. He layed the girl down and pulled out a safty pin from a small pouch in his traveling backpack, and used it to close the fabric of her dress. He gave out a gentle sign in satisfaction that he saved a young woman from a terrble experience, he also pondered how many times this also had happened to other young ladies that weren't so fortunate to be rescued, and he silently cursed the scum that he had just dispossed of. He didn't relish in the fact that he had just killed a man, but he posed a deadly threat to her and him when he pulled the gun. The large man would be eating his food from a straw for the next few months and the runt would be having trouble standing and breathing, the last man was dead and killed by his hands. His mind returned to what he needed to do next, attempting to wake the girl might not be wise for the first thing she sees male might scare her into thinking that the terrble act was still in progress, so he decided that the better course of action would be to find out who she was and where she lived to take her home. Trauma would best be delt with in the company of family not some strange man out by a tent. He stood up and walked out to retrive her articles of possession. When he returned to her, he sat down and opened her purse to find her walet. Inside he found a picture of a man in a black gi with glasses 'must be her husband he thought', and an ID card which had her name and address.
"Kasumi Tendou," he said quietly "nice name."
Quickly he broke camp and repacked his possessions, and gently lifted the woman in his arms. 'It's a little passed eleven o'clock now, but usually people stay awake later on weekend nights' he thought as he search for the road that this 'Tendou Dojo' was located on. 'You'd think a woman connected to a place which taught the art of self-defense would be a little more resistant than the common lady,' his mind pondered 'but then again the fear might have pushed rational thought out of the window.'
It took him about a half an hour wandering down roads to find the place, but it was a relief none the less. The young lady stirred a little in his arms which brought his attention back to her. Her breathing had quickened and in the light outside the dojo, he was able to see that she had paled.
"Uh-oh this isn't good" he said as he checked her pulse. It was racing, 'she's probably recalling the ordeal in her mind, but her body is begining to suffer from shock' he contemplated 'I gotta get her warm and relaxed soon or things could get worse.'
Without hesitation he pushed open the gate to the dojo and rushed to the front door. He took out her key from her purse and openned the door. The lights were off, but his eyes had accostumed to the darkeness and choose to take the path leading down the main hallway past the stairs. Down the hallway was a large family/dinning room, it appeared to be the place of most action since some of the walls had obvious repair work and a shogi board was on the ground. He carefully laid the girl next to the table that was in the center of the room and took one of his blankets from his pack to keep her warm. Next he switched on the lights and dropped all his stuff to go look for some warm water to use.
"Pissst, Ranma!" whispered a voice.
"Wha, uh, what do you want, it's the middle of the night. . . AND WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM! You call me the pervert!" said the now awake boy. He stilled had a haze in his eyes, but he could make out the features of the girl next to his futon as Akane Tendou.
"Not now, I heard something down stairs, I. . . I think it's a proweller." Akane said, the fear evident in her voice. This brought Ranma out of his preparation for a verbal tangle with his fiancee.
Ranma quickly stood up and quietly walked out into the hallway with Akane taging along right behind him. They met Nabiki out there as well and the trio slowly walked down the stairs to the main room were the noise was heard. As they passed the entrance, Akane noticed that the front door was slightly open, but the door didn't appear forced open, 'thats strange' she thought.
Ranma slowly peaked around the corner of the door into the main room, 'who ever this jerk is, he's gonna pay for breakin into my house' he angrily thought. He halted his survelence when the perpetrator came into view, he was kneeling, but Ranma could tell that he was tall and well built. He was wearing hiking boots, blue jean shorts and a dark blue sweater with the sleaves pushed up just above the elbows. He had short brown hair and was wearing glasses, 'not your tipical burglar onsombal' Ranma thought. Ranma motioned to see what he was doing, what he saw shocked him, the figure was hunched over doing something to Kasumi who was unconsious, but figiting like she was in pain.
"YOUR DEAD!!!" Ranma screamed as he launched himself at the other man.
The man snapped his head to see this unkown youth that didn't match the picture in Kasumi's wallet flying at him. He quickly rolled away just as the floor boards splintered from the force of the punch that Ranma delivered, a foot away from the woman he was caring for. The man stood up and assumed a defensive stance, 'who ever he his, he must know the lady so I can't hurt him, but I'm not gonna take punches, I gotta wait till he calms down' he thought.
Ranma was on fire, his aura was raging about him, Kasumi was a good friend and Akane's sister, no body's gonna live that comes to harm her. With that Ranma shot up and brought out his Amagurikan technique to beat this stranger into a bloody mass. The stranger advanced to meet the blows with the palms of his hands. 'What the!' Ranma thought ' he's blocking my punches, he is no ordinary thug'.
'This kid's good, I didn't expect to have to block punches like these' the man thought, as he blocked the incoming attack from this kid, 'I might have to do something to make him stop.' After the thought, the man did a hard block to one of the forearms that was punching at him, and jumped into the kid's reach. He quickly grabbed the arm that he just blocked, under the shoulder and hefted the kid over his back to slam him to the ground, but the kid had kicked the man square in the back as he was sent over. 'Damn that hurt, now I'm getting serious.'
Ranma was slightly surprised again as he was being thrown, but nobody is gonna get the best of Ranma Soatome as he kicked the figure which threw him. Ranma landed about six feet away on his back, but he quickly propped up on his shoulders and kicked himself back to a fighting stance. As Ranma spun around to face his opponent he delivered a flying round house kick which the figure ducked. When Ranma landed, he shot his other leg out to sweep the mans legs out from under him, but the man had expected this and punched hard down onto Ranma's shin stopping the spin. Ranma winced in pain, but recovered by reversing his attack by kicking in the opposite direction with his good leg and caught the man in the right shoulder sending him over the table to the other side of the room. The man planted his other arm to stop his momentum and roled on his back, then snapped up to stand again. Ranma pushed his chest off the ground and flipped up, both starred at each other trying to analyse the other. Ranma was the first to attack again, maybe due his lack of control from his anger or his inattention, but as Ranma shot out with his punch, the other man had ducked and upper cutted straight into Ranma's chin sending his head into the roof of the room. The force of the blow sent Ranma's mind into a happy little land were he had been cured of his curse and was living a life of pampering by a harem of women. All of this had taken place in a minute's time, but the man was exhausted.
Akane had looked in to see the final result of the fight, but without thinking she attacked with her baseball bat. The man reflexed by blocking with his forarm, the sound of wood braking scared Akane since it ment that her weapon was now useless. A flash of red shot through the man's vision, the amount of extreme pain of his arm breaking from the blow almost caused him to pass out. Akane backed away affraid that she had just angered the man that just put her fiancee out of commision, but instead of begin attacked like she thought she would, the man looked at her with a mix of pain and resentment in his eyes.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE! IS THIS HOW YOU ALWAYS GREET SOMEONE THAT IS TRYING TO HELP ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS!!!" he yelled pointing at the unconscious girl with his good arm. "I understand it's late at night and I'm a stranger, but why not get a damn explanation first before attacking!"
Unknown to him, Akane thought the last half of his statement sounded familiar, but it was usually coming from Ranma.
"Wha," said Akane looking over at Kasumi who was still out cold, it was obvious that she was being cared for, not harmed, when Ranma had attacked. A feeling of guilt came over Akane. Nabiki had entered and went to her sleeping sister when the shouting had stopped, and as she entered she surveyed the room 'Whoa, this guy wipped out Ranma, who is he?' she thought as a shiver was sent up her spin.
"I. . .I'm sorry" said Akane looking down cast so as not to meet the eyes of the man she just hurt.
"What is the meaning of all this" shouted a man in a brown gi as he rounded the corner followed closely by a panda. All the eyes in the room looked up to see the two enter who were obviously shocked to see what was in the room. Inside, a strange man was crotched down holding his arm with a splintered bat next to him, Akane was standing infront of him holding the other half of the bat, behind them Ranma was imbedded into the ceiling dangeling from it by his neck, and Kasumi was unconscious with Nabiki next to her. All of it hit Soun at once and his mind couldn't take it all in so it decided to turn off.
"Oh good grief daddy" said Nabiki disgusted that her father passed out.
 read the sign of the panda at the entrance to the room.
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It was the next morning, the sun shown in through the crack in the window straight into Ranma's eyes. He shiffed his position to be away from it, but it had done its damage and he woke up. The sudden light that entered his eyes made his head hurt, not that the light had caused it but the enourmous swell on top of his head did that well enough. 'What the heck happened last night' he thought, then it came back to him that he had fought some strange man and the last thing before his wonderful dream of being cured was the man ducking under is attack. He shook his head and realized that he had some how gotten back to his room and that he smelled rather bad from the sweating last night, 'time for a bath.' Slowly he got up and went down to the bath room, 'I think I'll get some ice later on, now I just need to soak.' The warm water relaxed his tense muscles, the sudden struggle last night had drained his strength and left him rather cramped when he woke up. As he left the bath room, he heard humored conversation from the living room. As he walked in he was greeted by everyone, the stranger was there as well who just looked up at him with an indifferent expression on his face. His arm was bandaged and splint was on it, 'I didn't cause that' Ranma thought.
"Well son, looks to me that you had quite a work out last night, sit and have lunch with us" said Soun.
'Lunch?' thought Ranma raising an eyebrow, 'how long was I out?'
Ranma took his usual seat next to Akane, who giggled at him. The sight of Ranma looking so confused about the time and the swell on top of his head was too much for her. Ranma cast her angered glance and began to gather some food from the table. He then noticed Dr. Tofu enter the room with Kasumi next to him.
"Everything is okay, other than the shock from the whole incident last night, Kasumi will be fine." said the doctor.
"This family is in debt to you Mr. O'hare, for saving my little girl, and my apologies from last nights events, it is obvious that you only had honorable intentions." said Soun to the young man, his eyes then swayed back to Ranma who was looking quit confused again.
Ranma hadn't heard the whole story yet, but it appeared that he was in th wrong last night. He knew that a formal apology was coming up, but he didn't want to until he had heard the whole ordeal.
"Thank you Mr.Tendou, but I must still apologize for not going to immediately wake you all, I just felt it more prudent to care for Kasumi." said Mr. O'hare.
Ranma was listening, but he was hungry and beginning to eat, when time froze, 'wait a minute, Kasumi was being checked on by Dr.Tofu just a minute ago, then who made the lunch?' He looked around the table as Dr.Tofu and Kasumi sat to eat, 'Everyone's eating, then Akane must not have made lunch.' He sighed in relief, but then a sharp pain entered his side. He looked over at Akane who was starring at him with the gaze'o'death, 'what the, can she read my mind?' thought Ranma as he began to eat.
"Would any one else like some more to eat?" asked Mr.O'hare.
"Oh no son, you have done plenty for us in a day, now allow us to care for you as a guest." spoke Soun, it was obvious that he thought he had to repay his debt to the young man.
For the rest of lunch, not much was said, until it finished when Kasumi began to gather the dishes, it appeared to Ranma that what ever happened last night, she was over it.
"So Ranma, you study the martial arts," stated Mr.O'hare, it was a retorical question, but it broke the ice between him and Ranma "I noticed a lot of skill last night, maybe we could spar later."
"Sure, but what about you arm?" asked Ranma.
"Don't worry about it, I'll be fine," he said, noticing that the comment could be taken as an insult to Ranma's skill he quickly added "I'll just have to try harder to keep up."
"Thats cool, hey I know, let me take you on a tour of the house, it'll help us to get to know each other." said Ranma.
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"This here is my room and over there is Nabiki's room, and right here is the Tomboy's room, hummmphfff." commented Ranma holding his ribs. Akane looked none too happy.
"Who are you calling a tomboy you stupid jerk?" yelled Akane, who was preparing to level the pigtailed boy.
The third man in the group watched the couple begin to scuffle, until Akane pulled out her transdimensional malet and made Ranma one with the ground, then stormed off down stairs satisfied that she taught her lesson.
"Mr.Tendou lead me to believe that the two of you were to be married, what was the fight all about?" asked the still standing man.
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later, by the way what's your first name, it's kinda ackward calling you by your last name all the time." asked Ranma as he pealed himself from the ground.
"It's Christopher, Chris for short."
"Okay, where are you from then, your name isn't that popular around here, nor do you look like a local."
"I'm from the U.S., but I haven't been there for a long time." said Chris looking down at the ground remembering the past.
Ranma sensed the unhappier mood, so he decided to take him to the dojo to bring them to a setting that they were both familiar with. Chris marveled at the sent of the polished wood, it was obvious to him that the family tried to keep the dojo in good condition. Some of the walls were freshly panted and the roof looked rather new compared to the floor which gave the feeling that it had seen many battles, but still shined with the wax on it.
"Ranma, I have yet to ask her my self, but do you know why Kasumi was out late last night?" asked Chris. It was slightly obvious that the spar would come later and that Chris wanted some answers.
"Well, today is Dr.Tofu's birthday, and we were all planning to hold a big surprise party tonight here in the dojo. Dr.Tofu was over here all day yesterday, Kasumi had invited him over on his day off, I figure she likes him and all, and I guess she was setting the stage to have him come over today for the party without him suspecting anything. After Tofu left Kasumi went to go get the supplies she needed for the party, after that you know what happened." explained Ranma.
"Oh, okay, now how about you, why the kill him first then get answers mind set last night?" asked Chris. Ranma got the notion that the incident had not left the newcomers mind completely, and Ranma felt a little guilty about it.
"Well, I ain't tryin to justify what I did, but it was late at night, we heard some noises down stairs, so when we came to investigate, I see you hunched over Kasumi who was unconscious on the ground, I guess I thought you had hurt her, so I wanted to beat the hell out of you for it." commented Ranma who was now looking quite ashamed.
"I guess you could get that idea, I bet we all could have done something different to have changed the outcome" said Chris who now understood were the boy, who attacked him last night, was coming from. "Hey here's another question, it's a little personal and sudden, but whats the deal with you and Akane?"
"Oh, well, our parents decided that 'we should be married and carry on the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts' like Mr.Tendou would say" laughed Ranma.
"When is the wedding date, you two seem close, by the way you act it can't be that far off."
"WHA, Ahh, no it's not like that see," stammered Ranma, it's obvious that he was trying to dodge the question. "Who said that I liked that Tomboy, I didn't say that, look at how we act around each other, we're always fighting, how can you say we're close?1?"
"Don't try to deny it, it's obvious to a blind man that you act that way just to get the attention from her, maybe you tactics are a little off because they appear to always end with you getting hit or slammed into the floor boards, but they are successful, maybe you should try being nice to her, there may be better results." said Chris.
"What ever Dr.Ruth," replied Ranma, trying to conceal his reaction to the subject, but somewhere in his mind he was intrigued by Chris' statement 'maybe if I . . .' His train of thought was derailed by the sudden smirk on Chris' face, satisfied that his shot in the dark had struck gold.
"It's okay Ranma, we'll talk about this later, now lets fight." chuckled Chris as he took a fighting stance.
"What? Alright buddy, now I'll pay you back for what you did to me last night." said Ranma, with a glint in determination in his eye.
"Actions speak louder than words Ranma." said Chris as he began with a jump kick at Ranma.
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A couple of hours passed and Akane looked up from watching the TV to see Chris and Ranma walking back into the living room.
"I don't believe you two, you just fought last night and as if that wasn't enough!" yelled Akane. "It's worse then how you act with Ryoga around, Ranma."
Chris and Ranma looked at each other and serveyed the damage they dished out to each other. Chris had a few bumps and bruises but was exhausted. Ranma on the other hand looked like he had gotten his ass beat like a red-headed step child and was using Chris as a support.
"Well I'm glad to see you too Akane, macho chick and all." teased Ranma. The teasing worked.
"Aaargghhh, die Ranma!!!" roared Akane, and with a sound of a clap of thunder, Ranma was sent outside and imbedded into the wall that surrounded the Tendou house hold. Akane stood there breathing angrily with her fist outstretched to were it had came in contact with the now absent Ranma. Closed her eyes she stood up and fixed her blouse and dress to calm herself. "Oh I forgot that I was gonna help Kasumi with tonights meal." with that she walked off to the kitchen.
Ranma was back up in a flash "Nnnooo!!! Stop her Chris! Your life depends on it!" yelled Ranma.
"Huh?" Chris looked confused, but suddenly stepped back as a large frying pan wized past him and collided with Ranma's face, knocking him unconscious.
"Your such a JERK, Ranma!" yelled Akane.
Chris followed Akane as she re-enterred the kitchen. Kasumi was there and looked up at him as he entered. She looked slightly unsettled and told Akane that she had to go lay down for a bit. Kasumi didn't look up to meet Chris' eyes, instead she just hurried past him. 'Maybe I reminder of the incident, I guess some time is all she needs to get past her experience' thought Chris, feeling a little sad for the young woman.
"Oh great, now how am I gonna fix the meals?" worried Akane.
"Huh, oh don't worry about it Akane, I'll help with the cooking." said Chris as he washed his hands.
This was new, usually it was Kasumi that she worked with, now it was some man who just came to this house last night. Akane was also a little sceptical about his cooking ability, not that Akane had any basis for a judgement.
"So what are we making?" asked Chris.
"Well I don't know what Kasumi had planned for dinner, but we do have to make the cake for Dr.Tofu." replied Akane.
"Humm, do you like Italian food Akane? I make a pretty good lausania."
"Oh, sure, that sounds nice, I guess we can handle the cooking and let Kasumi rest."
"Well, I handle dinner while you can make the cake for Dr.Tofu's party."
Chris turned his back to start retrieving the supplies he needed for dinner, Akane on the other hand looked kind of confused, 'it has been a long time since someone asked me to handle a cooking job by myself'. Akane pulled up her sleeves and began focusing her ki to prepare for the cooking. Chris looked over his shoulder to see her aura growing as she looked fiercely at the eggs, cake mix, milk, sugar and other ingredients.
"What are you doing Akane?" Chris asked over his shoulder as he was cooking the meat for the sause. Akane's aura faded instantly and she slightly blushed.
"Uh, just getting ready." she said shakenly. Kasumi never really commented on Akane's preparation method, only tried to suggest not putting the peppers, vinigaer, or onions in the cookies, cake, or bread she was trying to make.
"How about just being calm, we can talk as we make the food, okay." said Chris.
"Sure, whats up then?" asked Akane.
"Well, I asked him earlier, but I think he was a little touchy on the subject, whats the deal with you and Ranma, and don't just tell me the father arrangement marriage thing."
"Ah, um, Ranma and I are. . .well he and I have our little fights now and again, but it's all his fault, he's always picking on me and calling me names. . . then" "then you pound him into the ground" " I pound him into the ground, right." Akane seemed a little bit surprised about Chris' interruption, but he was right.
"Why not have fun with him, ask him to go and hang out with him or something, you two seem to like each other's company even if it's only to fight, maybe a love-hate relationship huh?" 
"Wha? love, no way, uh uh, he's a jerk, there's no way I could love someone like that." defended Akane. Chris was beginning to see a trend here in the couple.
"Is he only a jerk because he teases you? When I talked with him in the dojo while we were sparring, I got the impression that he had sacrificed a lot to be with you or save you, that doesn't sound to me like the actions of a jerk." stated Chris, a plan was beginning to unfold.
"W well. . .he is nice some times, but he always has these other girls chacing after him and all, and right infront of me, it's like he's trying to annoy me." replied Akane. Their minds not set on the cooking they were doing.
"Maybe he wants to be chased by you Akane. . .just not with a malet." quietly said Chris.
Akane dropped the measuring cup that she was getting out to measure the milk to be added. She look down at the beginnings of the cake, 'maybe if I did show my true emo. . .' Akane stopped in mid thought realizing that she just spilled some of the milk.
"Oh, how clumbsy of me." said Akane as she bent down to clean the mess.
Chris laughed to himself and returned to mixing the sause. They continued to cook, and Akane was forced to settle using the "ordinary" ingredients that Chris had laid out for her to use, she didn't know why, but not concentrating so much on not messing up the cake, that it seemed to be right when it finally came out of the oven. 'I did it!' her mind yelled happily.
Dinner was served shortly after, and the family was quite surprized with the change in the type of dinner they were having, it wasn't everyday that they had a foreign meal. Ranma at first thought it to be some deadly concoction that Akane had pulled out of her book of pain, but that changed when tasted the first bite. The gathering devoured the meal and sat chatting about the day's events. Ranma had insisted that he and Chris have another go tomorrow after school, it was obvious that he wanted a rematch since this morning. Even Kasumi entered the conversation and politely requested the recipies for the dinner so she could add them to her vast collection. The happy talk was interrupted by Akane asking to speak to Chris alone in the dojo after the party had ended. This caught everyone's attention, but nothing was said.
A couple hours had pasted and a few of the town residents arrived to prepare for the doctor's arrival, even a short special guest, hefting a shrine on her back, had arrived and began interrigating the family on Dr.Tofu's and Kasumi's relationship.
Finally the time had come and Dr.Tofu was greeted at the door by Kasumi alone, who lead him to the darked dojo. Tofu was a wreck, even more so by the fact that the woman that he loved was leading him to a dark room. As they entered, the lights switched on, and the crowd of people shouted the 'surprize' which knock Dr.Tofu on his butt. He was yanked up by a number of the male poplation of the party and a beer was placed into his hand and a fat cigar shuved into his mouth.
The party ensued and finally the cake had arrived, all lite with candles, and the 'happy birthday song' pepped up. Dr.Tofu, being a young and healthy man, extinguished the candles easily, everyone clapped. Akane said nothing about who made the cake until Ranma had eaten his first piece. She starred at him, analysing for any discomfort or sudden muscle jerk, there was none. She smiled to herself and leaned over to his ear.
"So, how does it taste, Ranma?" she asked, knowing that he couldn't say it tasted like toxic stew or something like that.
"Wha, oh, it tastes good, Chris sure can cook, maybe you should take some lessons from him or something." he said.
Akane bite her lip to quell her slight anger that appeared from his insult. "This might surprise you Ranma," she said, the next was quiet as a whisper "I made the cake." She stopped and waited for his reaction.
Ranma was dead silent and frozen still, thinking that any second now the sudden urge to rip his stomach from his belly would arise, but nothing happened. He was dumbfounded and starred at the crumbs on his plate, 'what, is this some act of God, did hell freeze over, maybe I'm dreaming, no that can't be it, but how on Earth did she cook an edible food without the water of life?' Akane leaned back laughing to herself over his confusion and the expression of deep thought on his face.
Shortly there after the presents were brought out and Dr.Tofu began the unwrapping. Soun and Genma had purchased him a beer stein with his name engraved on it for later parties of the adult men. Nabiki had provided a 'helpful money managment book for young families', Tofu blushed considerably after the minute it took him to realize why she gave it to him. Akane had knitted a pair of slippers for him, one was larger than the other and resembled mittens. Before Ranma could come back from his state of meditation and say a word, Akane had turned to him, lossing the nice and happy deminor, and gave him a look that could kill any lesser mortal. 'Damn, I think she can read my mind' Ranma thought. Other gifts were presented to the young doctor, with Kasumi's coming last. It was tension building how the only noise that could be heard was the sound of the present openning. Finally at last the present was revealed, it was white gi, and had been embroidered with his name on the right hand side of the chest. It was obvious that the gi wasn't one to be worn around the house or to work, it was too formal since it included the waist and shin strappings. the sleaves were a little bit larger than normal and the the pants were dark blue.
"Thats wonderful my dear," said Tofu's mother. "Maybe you should take the young woman out one day in this my son." she whispered.
Tofu jumped at that final comment and quickly thanked Kasumi for the gift, only thanking an elderly woman who was a regular of Dr.Tofu's made the scene a bit more humorous. Kasumi looked delighted that he liked the gift, it had taken her many long months over her sewing machine to make it.
After a while the party died down and the guests left, as well did Dr.Tofu and his mother, who were escorted to the gate by Kasumi. The family made short work of cleaning up the mess left by the party, and broke to go to bed. Akane and Chris stayed behind to discus what Akane had on her mind.
Chris was silent, waiting for Akane to start the converstion, he couldn't help but notice that she was figitting and slightly blushing. 'I guess the topic of discussion is gonna be a personal one.' he thought.
"This is gonna sound kinda silly, but I need the honest opinion of a guy close to Ranma's age." said Akane blushing deeply.
"Shoot." Chris had sat down against the wall about ten feet from Akane looking to answer her question with full thought.
"Uh, you had said earlier that Ranma might be wanting me to chace him, how do you know that he would want that?" said Akane quietly.
"Well, from what I heard, Ranma is being saught after by a number of different women, if I gave the impression that he wanted the same type of attention that they give for you to give, I'm sorry that's not what I ment. Ranma is a fighter, and is looking for a challenge, each of these women have apparently given up without much of a struggle, which makes it way to easy for him. You don't pursue, so you are the challenge that he wants, I'd say thats what I'd be looking for and he and I have a lot in common."
"I didn't realize this, but why all the fighting?"
"Because he knows that you are a fighter just like him when it comes to the soul, you haven't given up against his attack of good looks and gracefulness like the others, so he must try to win you over with other tactics, unfortunately Ranma appears to be all thumbs when it come to expressing his emotions. It's natural I guess, not many guys can say what they mean to say or they screw it up when they try. It kinda clashes with our tough guy appearance, by me thinking of only giving truthful answers from my perspective can I be saying this now. Ranma might be thinking that if he were to confess what goes on in his mind, he may be showing you some kind of weakness or open up himself for ridicule."
"So what your saying is that he has things he wants to say, but he can't over come his pride or fear of what I might do?"
"Yep, he doesn't know if you would accept him or shun him, and rejection is a terrible blow to one's ego, expecially since I think he loves you, he just hasn't come to terms with it yet."
Akane gasped when she heard that, the idea that Ranma may truly lo. . .lo. . . l o v e her was not what she was expecting. Her mind began spinning with thoughts of what to do or how to react around him, she now knew that maybe, just maybe, things could be different for the two of them.
"This is all speculation Akane, I'm no mind reader, but a guy can kinda pick up on ackward actions of other guys."
"What type of wierd actions?"
"Everyday for instance, no matter how much you fight, or you thumping him, he still comes back in some fassion or another, be it apologizing or starting a new arguement. Also, think about what he's done, he said once he went to China to rescue you from some prince. If he didn't care for you, then why would he go to such lengths to get you back."
"My father probably forced him to go."
"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, Akane. Your father could have gotten him there, but when it came to fighting, he had to decide. Here's another example, Ranma talked about some cures for this supposed curse he has, one of which was on a floating island. You and a few other girls were taken, and he went to rescue you."
"It was called Togenkio, and he was more likely going for the cure, but. . ." said Akane.
"But he destroyed it to save you from some horrible experience, I'm sorry he didn't elaborate. That type of sacrifice is an act of a man that cares for you Akane." interrupted Chris.
Akane looked at the ground, her mind filled with a lot of info, and she needed to sort some things out with herself before she wanted to continue talking.
"Well, that's about it Chris, thank you for being honest with me, I think we should call it a night." Akane said as she began to leave the dojo.
"Good night Akane." said Chris to the departing figure. He felt kind of good now, he thought that he was helping to provide that little push to get their happiness started. 'Wow, it's been only a day and hear I am giving advice to people I don't really know, but then again I feel so comfortable here.' he thought, surveying the dojo and Tendou residence.


Like every school morning, Ranma and his father were sparring near the carp pond, dishing out blows to one another. The Tendou family was getting ready for breakfast and Chris was sitting silently in the sun with his good hand hovering over his damaged arm.
"What are you doing?" asked Nabiki, thinking that he had gone nuts or something.
"It's a form of meditation, by focusing my thoughts to any part of my body, I can increase blood flow to it, science calls it biofeedback, but it helps the natural healing process." he replied.
Nabiki raised an eyebrow and took a sip from her tea. A couple minutes of tranquility passed by with only the sounds of Ranma's spar, then suddenly a loud splash was hear and the arogant laughter of a young man.
"Thats whatcha get pops for takin on a younger and stronger man than you. HAHAHA." Ranma boasted. His hands on his hips with his shoulders rolled back in triumph.
"Here it comes" said Akane without looking up at him. "Honestly, you'd think he would learn by now."
"Huh?" said Ranma hearing the last statement, but his attention was snatch away as the giant panda jumped over him and kicked to the rear. Ranma blocked, but the force from the heavy panda toppled him over into the pond. A very angry and very wet female Ranma emerged from the pond cursing him/her self for his lack of foresight.
"What the hell!?!" said Chris, eyes the size of saucers.
"You mean you haven't seen them change? Ranma never told you what his curse really was?" asked Akane in disbelief.
"He just said he was cursed, but I didn't think that it would cause him to change sexes, or into animals." he replied, looking over at the approaching panda with the last statement.
"Well, you get used to it, I couldn't really imagine this place being as exciting as it is without the curses." said Nabiki who was reading a manga at the table. Ranma shot her and ugly look and walked past them towards the bathroom.
"Well how does he change back?" Chris asked.
"Hot water." Nabiki said.
"I guess I'll ask him the full story later." With that Chris continued in his concentration of his arm. Breakfast was served shortly after, and Akane and Ranma jumped up to run off to school when they were finished, Nabiki had left before them as usual. This leaving the three men and Kasumi alone in the house.
"You don't go to school, Chris?" asked Soun.
"I'm 24, Mr.Tendou, I've finish highschool and I have an associates degree. All that was done about four years ago." answered Chris, who seemed to get lost in distant memory after that.
"Well, um, okay, but why not a bachelors, you seem like a bright fellow, you should have easily gotten it." added Soun.
"I had been planning on it, but something terrible happened, and I lost sight in my college goals." replied Chris, now looking more uncomfortable.
"Well what happened son?" pried Mr.Tendou, but Chris was not in the mood to be pried who politely excused himself.
Chris wandered into the dojo looking down at the floor remembering the past. 
="This is our training hall son, you keep it clean and it will always be a place of honor" said dad. 'Man my father must be the strongest in the world.' thought the child Chris as he watched his father perform his kata. The shear power and perfection of execution marveled the boy, but not so much as how each kick and punch blended gracefully together to give the appearance that his father would lift off the ground and not come down. "Wow dad your great, I don't think anyone can beat you!" yelled the boy in astonishment. "Now now son, I have trained many years and one day you may be better than I, but it will only come with dedication and hard work, are you up for the challenge Chris?" asked his father. "Yeah! I wanna be strong like you dad!" replied the young boy as he stood up and wildly threw punches and ackward kicks at an invisible opponent. "Good, now first I need to teach you some control son."
Chris had trained under his father for twelve years, learning the art of physical combat and self defense. During the summers between school, Chris and his father would hike into the Rocky's and train in the harsh mountainous conditions, learning how to adapt to the enviornment and how it changed. Chris on the weekends would visit the local martial art schools that spotted the nearby towns and challenge those that appeared stronger and more experienced than he, although it caused him a few bumps and bruises, he would learn more from a beating than from an opponent that he defeated.
Then shortly after his graduation from highschool, Chris returned home to find that it had been broken into. Chris rushed into the house finding that many of the valuables still present, all except for his father's swords. Chris remembered a story of how his father had fought in a world championship competition, and had won, but the final fight had been a costly one. The last man that Chris' father fought was a darker individual more focused on the victory over his opponent then to master the fight itself like Chris' dad. The individual employed an illegal attack to Chris' dad's knee nearly breaking it, but there was damage done. The officials disquallified the fighter, but Chris' father urged them to let the fight continue and insisted that he would not accept the trophy by default. The judges consented and in the end Chris' father defeated the man even with an injured knee, Chris' father shunned the man for his dishonorable act and said that no true martial artist would be so cowardly to hurt his fellow man in a tournament of skill. The man was booed from the hall and his name was stained with dishonor, but before he left he vowed to have revenge one day. Chris' father told Chris this story to emphasize strict adherement to a code of honor and never try to make your own advantage on an opponent, such as to be a coward and weak. Chris then ran room to room searching for his father, but when looked in the dojo he almost screamed in horror. There in the middle of the dojo his father laid dismembered with the dagger that completed the set of blades that were won in that tournament shoved into the skull of his father's head a foot from the body. Chris dropped to the ground unable to coupe with the image, his mother had died during his birth and now his father was murdered. Chris had later called the police and an investigation was started, but the only evidence to the killer was the story that Chris told to the officials about the swords. It was discovered later that the man that fought in that final fight was a man by the name Kojiro Munisai and had ties in Japan. Chris lived alone for the next couple of years trying to continue in his life of school, but one day he packed up and sold his families assets, except for the dagger of the set of blades. He then transferred all his funds to his bank account and set out to master his art and find the man that killed his father. Four years had passed and Chris had meet many different people and learned many techniques, some that he decided not to use due their destructive nature and capability to kill ones opponent, but he learned them all the same, all to reach that goal of perfection.=
Chris reopenned his eyes looked down at his left hand. His fingers had dug into his palm from clenching his fist so tight and now it was beginning to bleed. He was exhausted, remembering his past and quelling his anger for what happened had sapped his strength. "Man I'm tired, and hungry too, maybe I'll go for a walk and pick up some lunch somewhere." said Chris as walked to the bathroom to wash his hand and wrap the injury.
"I'll be back later okay." said Chris as he departed the Tendou household.
"Okay, but don't be out too late, Kasumi is fixing up some sukiaki and it's delicious." replied Soun as he waved to the departing figure.
"Hmm, know were should I get something to eat." said Chris quietly to himself as he walked down the market. 'That looks like a nice place' thought Chris as he read the sign to the Cat Cafe.
"Welcome to Cat Cafe sir, please sit this way." said an attractive young woman. Chris could tell from her acsent that she wasn't from around Japan, then again long blue hair wasn't common anywhere he knew of.
"What you like to eat?" she asked.
"Uh. . .I guess I'll take take the ramen, gotta try the original first don't I?" chuckled Chris as he glanced at the list of many different kinds of ramen that were served here.
"Okay, one number one Great Grandmother." she yelled back to the kitchen, and with that she left to go serve some other costomers.
Chris looked around waiting for his food, and then he glanced back at the kitchen openning. Inside was a short old lady with long white hair wearing a green and red dress blose thingy, he didn't know what it was but it completely covered her body save for her head. Just then the old woman turned around and looked out into the resturant sensing that someone was watching her. She meet Chris eyes and began to try to size him up, she didn't expect to get what she got and she dropped the strainer for the noodles. It startled her when she peared into the man's aura and fighting spirit, only a few people she had meet had such a strong battle aura, the last being her future son-inlaw, but this man was stronger than him.
"Shampoo, who is that man there, what's his name?" asked Cologne as Shampoo walked to the window to fetch her orders.
"Shampoo not know Great Grandmother, why is he not welcome here? Shampoo go toss him out." said the amazon as she turned to go dispose of Chris.
"No, don't tangle with him child, I get the feeling that he would be a far greater match for you. I had hoped that you knew him thats all. Continue with your work child, I will deliver the ramen to him." said the amazon elder as she hopped out from behind the kitchen on her staff.
"Here is your ramen sir, I hope that it is to your liking." said Cologne as began to place the ramen on the table. Just in that instant she flung out a set of chopsticks from her sleave, which Chris block with his left forarm, the chopsticks imbedded in the back of the seat of the chair behind him was a menacing sight.
"What do you thin. . ." Chris got out just as Cologne shot out with her staff to impale Chris in the stomach. With a hard slam with his left hand on the table, Chris flipped himself out of his seat and over Cologne as a hole was shoved through the chair by her staff. Chris landed on his left arm in a hand stand and attempted a backwards bicycle kick to his assailant, but Cologne's 300yrs of life, experience, and the 3000 yada yada Chinese history yada yada, would not be bested in one attack. She flipped over the large end of her staff and landed on the table avoiding the kick and launched herself and staff and the man standing on his one arm. Chris was now facing Cologne upside down and seeing this attack he twisted his hips and curled his legs into his chest. Just as Cologne flew over, Chris kicked out with a leg and struck the later half of the staff knocking it from her grasp and sending it up into the ceiling. Cologne was surprised, she didn't think that she was going to be disarmed, but she could fight just the same. She landed near a couple watching the fight and she grabbed the bowl of ramen the man was eating and shot the noodles out like a noose. Chris had rolled over onto his feet when he had struck the staff and looked up just in time to see the noodles wrap around his neck and wrists. Pulling back instinctivly, he realized that they would not break and had gotten tighter, almost stopping him from breathing.
"Hiyaa. . ." gasped Shampoo, who was watching the fight, 'that technique was quite a deadly one and Great Grandmother must have a reason to employ it' she thought.
"Give up young man, the noodles won't break before you suffocate from struggling." slurred Cologne with a not so friendly look on her face.
"I don't know who you are lady, but I ain't done yet!" roared Chris as he launch himself towards the ground about seven feet infront of Cologne. He planted his hand down on the ground again and flipped down delivering a wood spintering axe-kick to the ground. The manuever was out of range for Cologne to worry about blocking, but the board on the ground where he kicked bent down under into the rooms under the cafe. One of the support boards acted like a pivot between where Chris had kicked and where Cologne stood, which caused her to be catapulted towards him. Cologne's eyes shot open with shock and just barely dodged the uppercut that Chris threw as she closed the distance between them. The punch came so close that Cologne heard the air woosh past her head, and she could feel the heat caused by the ki that was present in the punch. It was obvious that this man was getting into the fight far too much, and it was bitter sweet of her to initiate the duel. She had sensed that he was a strong fighter, but not so strong as to come so close as to almost inflict an injury upon her person. Cologne landed about ten feet behind Chris and turned to face him, Chris cursed under his breath for missing the blow and removed his leg from the hole in the ground and unwrapping the noodles from his neck.
"That is enough young man, I can tell that you are a far better fighter than I had originally judged you to be, hear take a seat and lets talk. Shampoo, bring another bowl of ramen, I believe his has gone cold." said the now calm old amazon.
"You mean it was a test? Here I thought I had broken some sort of ancient custome and you were trying to teach me a lesson." responded Chris as he dusted himself off. He then proceeded to the table and sat across from Cologne. Shampoo shortly brought out another bowl of ramen. Chris promptly broke the chopsticks apart and began eating before Cologne could initiate another 'test' of his skill, he was starving.
"What is your name young man, and who is your master? You fight too well to not have been trained at some ordinary school." asked Cologne.
"My name is Christopher O'hare, and I have too many masters to name. My father taught me of the Way of the martial artist, but my journey and all those that I have fought are my master." replied Chris through his mouth filled with ramen noodles, manners were out the window when Cologne had attacked earlier.
"O'hare. I've heard that name, an O'hare won the Japanese Martial Arts Championship Open about two decades ago, do you have any relation to that warrior?" asked the Amazon now thuroughly interested in this young stranger.
"Yes. . . he was my father." said Chris who looked down at the empty bowl in front of him.
"What? Did something happen?" asked Shampoo who now sat down next to her great grandmother. This man was no normal passerby on the street to be able to almost put away her great grandmother and she wanted to know all about him. Shampoo didn't catch the glance from her great grandmother from her choice of question.
"He was killed about six years ago, probably by the man he defeated in that tournament. I'm trying to find him hear in Japan to learn the true story." said Chris, his attitude showed more anger and determination now, and Shampoo got he idea not to ask anymore questions on that subject. She knew far too well the workings of a person's mind when revenge was in it, for she too once had those same thoughts.
"Well, I apologize for my great granddaughter's rudeness, but please tell us what your doing now in Nerma." questioned Cologne.
"Well you see, it started kinda like this. . ." started Chris as he began to tell them the story of his encounter with Kasumi, his welcome at the Tendou house that night, to the fact that he was staying there till his arm had healed by Mr.Tendou's insistance. The Amazons listened to the story, Shampoo was very surprised that this man had bested Ranma, her future husband, and was now living with them. After a while Cologne told him about a few adventures she and Shampoo had spent with the Pig-Tailed Boy and the fact that she was one of his mentors. A couple of hours pasted by, and Chris began to think that it was time to head back home, so he politely said good-bye and that he would most surely stop by again, maybe for another round with the elder, which Cologne welcomed any time he decided to.
------------------
Chris returned to the Dojo to find Genma watching the TV, Kasumi triming the bushes out in the lawn, and Soun trying to figure out a way to pass on the dojo to his heirs. Chris was greeted by all and he calmly asked if it was alright for him to take a bath, which Kasumi said would be fine in her always charming self. Chris departed up stairs to Ranma's room where he was sleeping and took out his change of clothes, then he proceeded to go down stairs to the bathroom. He deposited his dirty clothes in the hamper like Kasumi had instructed him to and he walked into the bathroom and commenced cleaning himself before he settled in the bath to soak. His mind drifted back to the minor duel with Cologne and he marveled at her skill, surely she had some new techiques for him to learn, or a few he could show her he thought deviously. He laughed to himself in humous manner and relaxed allowing the heat to be absorbed into his body. Chris was rather larger than the normal Japanese man so his broad shoulders and chest were out of the water, but the rest of his body was immersed in the bath. Slowly but surely he drifted off to slumber.
"Hey I'm home." said Akane as she stepped into the entrance.
"Hello Akane, where is Ranma? Usually he comes home with you after school." asked Kasumi.
"Oh him," said Akane in an angered tone "he'll be along home later, jerk insult my performance on the PE test today, that'll teach him."
"Honestly Akane, you should really try harder to control your anger." scolded Kasumi in her less then happy mood.
"Yeah, okay Kasumi." said Akane as she walked up stairs. Kasumi thought to herself how she can always contain that much violence 24/7.
Akane was exhausted, today had been her PE exam, where she had to run two miles and do as many pull-ups as possible. She had finished the run in under ten minutes which was great for her, but Ranma boasted that he finished it under nine. She let his bragging brush off, but when he commented on how she had done so many pull-ups that she must have the strength of a bull was too much. So she made his face one with her mallet of doom and sent him into orbit once again. She was still a little sweaty, so she decided to take a bath. Down stairs she put her dirty gym clothes in the hamper not noticing that someone elses were also in there. Now nude and with bath supplies in hand she slid open the bathroom door. The sight inside shocked her. The instant that Chris heard the door begin to open he launched himself toward the wall to reach for the towel that he had on the towel rake, but it was too late. Like a dear caught in the head lights of an on coming car, Chris had frozen just inches from the towel when Akane looked in. He didn't know what to do, finish the grab for the towel or try to cover himself with his hands, his mind faulted under the stress of his decision and at the sight of a beautiful naked girl just a couple yards away from him. Unfortunately his body began to react instinctively to the sight, unknown to Chris but know by Akane. Akane too stood there for a second, getting a full view of the man that was Chris, somewhere in the back of her mind she thought the sight was familiar, Ranma, Shinosuke, and now Chris, she was on a role. With her experience to the situation she made the first move, but just as she began to twitch her muscles, Chris' mind returned and he finished his grab for the towel and promptly wrapped it around his waste to cover his pride. He also shut his eyes, turned around, and stood siliently waiting for the impending blow that he had seen delivered to Ranma a few times before. Akane began to clinch her fist and shout her battle cry, but she stopped realizing that Chris had had the decensy to cover himself and look away.
"I apologize for embarrising you Akane, I didn't lock the door to the bathroom." said Chris.
"No Chris, I'm sorry for. . ." began Akane, she suddenly stopped at the sound of someone entering behind her. It was Ranma, who was looking worse for wear. He stopped motionless to the sight infront of him. Directly ahead of him was Akane 'NAKED' his mind screamed, and over her shoulder he could see Chris standing with his back to him and now looking over his shoulder at Ranma with only a towel around his waist. Time froze, Akane snatched a clean towel and covered herself and bolted up stairs, but Chris and Ranma stood motionless, oblivious to the girl that just left.
"In the dojo now Chris." calmly said Ranma as he left the bathroom.
'Well this certainly sucks ass' thought Chris as he began to dress himself.
Inside the dojo, Ranma stood at the far end under the shrine facing the doorway. He didn't move when Chris entered, who now had a small plastic guard placed on his forarm to protect the healing broken arm. Chris' eyes meet Ranma's and both stood still facing each other. Ranma was the first to speak.
"The last thing I had expected to see when I came home was to see my new friend and my fiancee in the buff together in the bathroom, so you better start explaining before I end that life of yours." said Ranma coldly, a red aura beginning to shine around him.
"Don't make statements you can't live up to Ranma, and don't be so god damn stupid." replied Chris.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?!" roared Ranma, whose aura shot up ten times its strength before.
"I said, don't make statements you can't live up to Ranma, and don't be so god damn stupid, I did nothing to Akane, it was just impeccably bad timing on all our parts." said Chris who was not backing down.
Ranma was on the verge of exploding with anger, he stared down at his clinching fists trying to further build his fighting spirit.
"So what now, are we gonna fight, are you going to attack first and ask questions later like you did before, remember the out come, oh wait, of course you don't, you were imbedded in the ceiling." said Chris, who too was beginning to get angry, not because of the incident in the bathroom, but because of the fact that a fighter that he respected and liked had judged him as a scandalous man, and he was gonna learn the hard way the folly of his misjudgments.
That was it. Ranma launched at Chris in a suicide diving punch which Chris easily dodged and then slammed his elbow down into the side of Ranma's ribs as he flew by. The force of the blow sent Ranma straight to the ground where he immediately sweeped Chris' feet out from under him and sent him onto his back. Ranma spun his legs and launched himself into the air above Chris and came down hard on his knee where Chris had used to be. The boards splintered under the force of Ranma's attack, but the broken wood caught on Ranma's pants causing just a fraction of a second of hesitation. Chris had rolled backwards and when his toes touched the ground he uncurled himself and dived into Ranma, clothes-lining him with his left arm. Ranma was sent to his back and since Chris couldn't plant his right arm to stop his momentum he was forced to roll away from the vulnerable Ranma. Ranma seized this time to get back to his feet and jump kick Chris in the back of the head. Just a couple of inches lower and the blow may have broken his neck, but it stunned Chris for only a second as Ranma landed right infront of him. Chris, in a croching position, extended his frame into a vicious uppercut to Ranma's stomach sending Ranma into the wall across the dojo where he left the imprint of his body in the broken wood. Chris stopped to regain his senses from the blow to the back of his head, it was bleeding a little bit, but nothing serious. Ranma was far from finished, but still covered his stomach as he pried himself from the wall.
The rukus had alerted the Tendou house hold who all gathered in the dojo entrance, Cologne also appeared since feeling the immense battle aura that was emitted before the beginning of the fight. Shampoo also had arrived followed closely by Mouse in duck form. Ukyo seeing the hated blue hair amazon running past her shop towards the Tendou Dojo, closed early to see what was up. The last to arrive was Akane, who was carrying P-chan in her arms, she looked to have been crying from the extreme amount of embarrasment from in the bathroom. No one knew what had happened save one person, but decided not to interfer since if it had caused these two warriors to fight so strongly, it must have been a serious issue.
Ranma brushed off some chips of broken wood clinging to his clothes, starring coldly at Chris. Chris had assumed a neutral stance to be ready to recieve or deal out an attack if Ranma showed the slightest bit of an openning. He saw one, Ranma finished brushing himself off and attacked with a lunging right punch, Chris manuevered past the fist and aimed his elbow at Ranma's lower ribs. In the back of Chris' mind he felt that it was too easy to land his blow and that Ranma had made the openning on purpose, but he didn't catch himself in time, and sure enough it was a trick. Ranma turned his hips and grabbed the back of Chris' head with his extended arm and pulled Chris' face to Ranma's rising knee. The blow sent Chris arching through the air and landing on his shoulders with a loud thud. Ranma wasn't going to wait for him to get up, so he jumped high into the air to come down on Chris with an amagurikan series of punches to his gut. Although Chris' vision was blurred from the swell above his eyelid, he sensed immediate danger and roled to his side. Ranma landed putting another hole in the dojo floor and instantly tried to punch with the other arm at Chris, but his attack was cut short by the back of Chris' heel connecting with the right side of Ranma's jaw. Ranma skided to a halt about eight feet from Chris, and quickly jumped to his feet. Ranma spat some of the blood that was collecting in his mouth watching as Chris pin-wheeled his legs to get to his feet. Both didn't stand still for long, and both shot out with a mid kick at the other. Ranma caught a glimpse of Chris smiling as he realized that Chris was several inches taller than he was, which meant that his legs were longer. Ranma flew to the far wall and bounced off of it and landing face first on to the ground. Chris jumped back to the other side of the room to force Ranma to close the distance for an attack. It took a couple of seconds for Ranma to press himself off the ground, it was obvious that this fight was draining him and if he didn't think of something fast that he would lose.
"Ranma! Please don't do this. It was all a mistake, nothing happened. I don't want to you get hurt anymore!" pleaded Akane with tears in her eyes. She marveled at the skill that was being shown, but she didn't want it to come at the cost of the health of the man that she lo. . . She choked up on the last thought.
"Shut up, Akane! Mistake or not I'm not giving up, I'm gonna put this jerk in a six foot hole!" yelled Ranma, who was beginning glow again by the focusing of his remaining ki, drawning upon his confidence.
Chris frowned at Ranma's statement and too began to summon his ki, realizing what the next attack was going to be.
Ranma closed his eyes forcefully and brought his hands facing each other in front of his chest. A small yellow orb began forming in a brilliant erray of light. It grew bigger as Ranma feed it his last remaining ki to finish the fight. Chris was glowing a bright blue and had drew one leg back and both his arms slightly extended from his sides, both hands glowing brighter than the rest of him. Ranma finished first and looked up at Chris with the intent to see him suffer, he screamed out "MOUKOTAKABISHA!!!!!" and his hands errupted with a blast of yellow ki heading straight at Chris. As Ranma did this, Chris slammed his wrists together and yelled "O'hare school of martial arts final attack!! GAIA'SFURY!!!!!!!" in english as his blast shot out to meet Ranma's. Both slammed into each other in the middle of the dojo causing the spectators to be flung out the doorway by the force of the battling ki's. Cologne was the only one not pushed out, and came to the horrible realization that Ranma had lost. Chris' ki attack not only consumed Ranma's but had removed the back wall of the dojo and household wall that ran the perimiter of the Tendou household. Ranma laid outside on his back with his shirt vaporized and his body sizzling, he wasn't breathing and he had a look of extreme pain on his face. Chris slowly walked over to the body and raised his hand into the air and began summoning his ki again.
"Thats enough! Leave him alone, haven't you done enough!!" cried Akane, tears gathering in her eyes, realizing that Ranma may not be returning to this world.
"Murderer!!" shouted Shampoo as she charged Chris.
"STOP!!!" roared Chris as he snapped his attention at the amazon. Shampoo froze in fright instinctively.
Chris looked back at Ranma, still with his arm in the air glowing a faint white. Then suddenly he slammed his palm onto Ranma's chest and Ranma was engulfed in a white light, blinding everyone. When the light fadded, Chris still had his hand on Ranma's chest. Chris was eminating a soft glow that was slowly fadding as it was sent into Ranma. A couple of seconds later, Chris closed his eyes and fell backwards onto the ground hardly breathing and convulsing a little. Ranma's eyes shot open, his body jerked and breathed a rush of air like a man who was just drowning. Ranma's color came back to him and he sat up with a look of fright on his face. Chris on the other hand was pale and looked like his entire body had atrophy, his face twitching like he was fighting an internal battle.
"Oh Ranma!!" Akane cried as latched onto him in an embrace. "I was so scared that. . ."
"Huh? What the?" said Ranma looking a little confused about the fact that Akane was hugging him and at what she was starting to say.
"Son, your alright, thank goodness." said Genma as ran over to him followed closely by Soun and the other Tendou sisters.
"What do you mean 'I'm alright', what just happened?" said Ranma who started looking around. It took him a couple of seconds to piece together the fact that he had burns all over his body and that he was now outside and not in the dojo. Ranma's eyes followed the line of burned grass back to the massive hole in the side of the dojo, he turned around and continued following the line to the missing wall and damaged car outside of it. 'I. . .I lost?' he thought to himself.
"Oh son we thought that you had died, you weren't breathing until Chris placed his hand on your chest a few seconds ago." said Soun looking concerned at the boy.
Ranma looked down at his chest and he noticed the outline of a hand on his chest with a soft glow still eminating from it. A shiver was sent up his spine at the thought of not waking up. He also noticed that his stomach was wet, he cocked his head and looked down at Akane who was crying with her head buried into his lower sternum. She was holding him tightly and quivering with each sob, Ranma was stunned and didn't know what to do, 'Does she care for me that much?' his mind asked.
"A. . .Akane? Are you okay?" he asked with genuine concern in his eyes.
Akane jumped a little bit and looked up with tears running down her cheaks. Ranma's heart skipped a beat, never had he seen something more lovely and beautiful before him. Akane lunged into another embrace not wanting to let go, her head next to his.
"I thought that I'd lost you." she said with a tremble. Time stood still for Ranma, the words that she said doing a good mind job on him.
Genma and Soun looked at each other with astonishment, Nabiki emptying role after role of film. The older men couldn't stand it any longer and both shouted a victory cry "YYYEEESSSS!!!!!!" and did high five. P-chan's eyes shot open and fainted just as quickly.
Time started back up for Ranma and Akane, and both leaned back from each other, speechless. Their attention brought back to what they were doing. Then both looked away trying to deny the feelings that were consuming them. Both looked at the form of Chris who was laying beside Ranma unconcious. Ranma looked confused again, but something told him that he needed help and fast.
"Quick, Kasumi go and get some water, Dad, Mr.Tendou help me get him inside, Akane get some blankets and a pillow." ordered Ranma. "Ukyo, Shampoo, go and get Dr. Tofu. Old Ghoul, do you have anything to help?"
Cologne frowned at that and said she would return shortly. With that, each of the people rushed to carry out their designated tasks. Shampoo and Ukyo, both ran quickly to Dr.Tofu's clinic, both thinking that they had lost a desisive battle in the War for Ranma, but that had no relevence on the fact that a man needed their help.
Chris was laid down in the family room and a blanket was spread out on him. Kasumi gave him some water while Akane laid a damp cloth on his forhead, Soun checked his pulse, it was very faint, but still there. Ranma looked down at his face, Chris still had the look of fighting a battle, little did he realize that in Chris' mind he was fighting the urge to pass on to the next life. Dr.Tofu and Cologne arrived, both asked for the others to leave so they could work undisturbed.
A few hours later, Ranma walked back out to the dojo and surveyed the damage, he thought in the back of his mind that it would be easier to tear this one down and make a new one. He scratched that thought, that was no way to treat the spirit of this dojo, it had seen many battles and festivals in its time, there was no need for it to end now. Like Dr.Tofu and Cologne worked to rebuild the life of the young man in the other room, he too would work to rebuild this dojo. 'This dojo would carry on to see many more battles, just like the one today. . . the battle I just lost, the battle, were it not for Chris, I would have died, did die, and was brought back before my spirit made its trek to the next life.' he thought. Ranma's thinking was cut short when he realized that someone was watching him. He turned around to meet the eyes of his old friend/enemy Ryoga.
"Well if it isn't Ryoga, what are you doing here, get lost again?" stabbed Ranma.
"I'm not here to fight Ranma, I know how your feeling right now." said Ryoga, brushing off Ranma's time old insult.
"Oh yeah? Then what am I thinking if you know so much?"
"Your thinking of how you just lost, and it's tearing you up inside, to know that through all your training, all your sorrows that you have had to go through, there is still someone better."
Ranma almost lurched over from Ryoga's statement, 'just how many people can read my mind anyway?' he thought.
"It's also tearing you up because you think that you may have been wrong about your accusation about Chris and Akane, and now he's in that room holding on to the last few strings of his life, the life he gave to you even after your arrogance, Ranma."
"Urk. . . just how did you find out about that Ryoga?"
"I'm Akane's pet pig silly, who do you think she talks to when she has things on her mind."
"Duh" Ranma said to himself mentally smacking himself on his forehead.
"Well Ranma, I just wanted to say that you got friends here to talk to if he doesn't pull through, there's no need take all the brunt of that kind of stress alone. Heck maybe even I'll talk with you later to help you, if I'm feeling sympathetic, see' ya" said Ryoga as he walked out of the dojo.
"I don't want your sympathy you jerk. . ." shouted Ranma, already knowing that Ryoga was long go after he left the dojo. Ranma walked over to the far wall and sat below the shrine pulling his knees into his chest, trying to coupe with thoughts of someone dying so that he could live. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, how could I be so gosth darn stupid, aren't I the one always wanting people to listen to me.' he thought to himself.
-----------------
The next morning Ranma awoke to find himself still sitting in the dojo, with a blanket drapped over him. He looked down at it and realized that was Akane's and that she must have come to see him sleeping in the dojo. Ranma took a short pause to breath in Akane's fragrence on the blanket, it smelled good, heck he loved the way it smelled. He shook his head to straighten his thoughts and he got up to go check on Chris. He was surprised to see that the family had gathered around the table and eating breakfast, Chris had his back propped up with several pillows and was drinking some tea and was watching the TV. It was sports news and he was tied into watching the Buffalo Bills pound the Miami Dolphins in one of the beginning games of the season.
"Well good morning Ranma," said Nabiki in a more than cheerful mood, "do I got to talk to you."
Ranma got a glance at Akane before he was ushered off, she looked embarassed knowing what Nabiki wanted to talk to him about, for she too had gotten the 'offer.'
"I had to pull some strings last night, but I got these developed. I just couldn't let something this good wait too long." she said evilly as she flashed the pictures of Ranma's and Akane's embrace yesterday after the fight. Ranma looked at the pictures and remembered how she felt in his arms, how she hugged him and how she looked so beautiful when she was crying for him. He would do just about anything to relive that brief moment of happiness with her.
"Hello, Earth to Mars, wake up lover boy, pay attention to me. I know it must have been a great experience for you, but it's not going prevent me from making a profit." said the slightly peturbed Nabiki.
"You have no idea how great." Ranma whispered to himself still in LaLa land. Suddenly seeing Nabiki's face of surprise he came back to reality. "OK OK, how much?"
"Wow, after that little bit of info, the price has now just sky rocketed. 20000 yen for the batch." she said coldly.
"20000 YEN!!!! How the heck am I gonna pay for that that?"
"You can make it on monthly installments, and a few menial tasks for me to give to you now and again. Is that a deal?"
"Dammit Nabiki, I just got paying you off last week, can't you just be human for a change." said the weakened Ranma.
"Nope, life sucks huh?" she replied.
"How about I float the bill?" said Chris as he walked slowly towards them. He fished out his wallet and pulled out the cash. Nabiki's jaw hit the ground at the sight of the amount that was in the wallet, and at the number of gold and platnium credit cards. "That also includes the negatives right?" he asked.
Nabiki nodded weakly and slowly pulled it from her pocket. Chris took the pictures and negative and left the cash in her still open hand where the pictures once were.
"I need to talk to you Ranma, please follow me." said Chris to Ranma. They left the still motionless Nabiki in the entrance way of the Tendou household.
Chris and Ranma walked into the dojo, Chris was still wrapped in the blanket and was moving very slowly in his actions. He sat down against the wall and Ranma took a seat infront of him sitting indian style.
"Ranma, yesterday I realized one thing when the fight started. . ." Chris started.
"No, let me first, I understand now that I was wrong, I didn't try to see it from you point of view, I jumped to a conclusion and assumed the worst. I assumed the worst of your character, that was wrong too, you are an honorable man Chris, I am sorry for doubting that. Also about the outcome, you must have known that I was going to employ my ki attack, I was so consumed with hatred that I was going to use such a deadly attack against you, but you overwhelmed me and returned my decision against me. And even after that you still put yourself at risk to bring me back, I have brought dishonor to myself and I apologize for my actions." said Ranma, who then bowed to the ground and held the pose for a long time. When he sat back up Chris sighed and looked at him in the eyes.
"You are not dishonored Ranma, you are young and have not experienced enough to control you anger. I too was once like you, I had defeated many older men when I lived in America, and through my victories did I forget that my actions before and after a fight will determine whether or not that person will play a part in my life again. I had acted foolishly to some that I had beaten, and they came after me to make me suffer, if it was not my own physical suffering it was the pains of others that I saw as the results of my actions. One man in particular, an old man had beaten me utterly, and I was so crushed that I insulted him. He, in one move, brought me to the ground and near the brink of death. The old man then brought me back and taught me that being honorable not only in my actions, but honorable in my thoughts will I gain the respect and friendship with my fellow man. You may have been thinking wrongly before yesterday's fight, but after the result you realized the errors of your ways and have now accepted the responsibility of your actions. Those are the acts of an honorable man, maybe misinformed at first, but honorable in the end." replied Chris, looking into the eyes of a young man that had just taken a step to being a better fighter.
"Thank you Chris, I can never repay you." said Ranma.
"Oh yes you can." said Chris raising an eyebrow.
"What?"
"You can repay me by sneaking me in a cooked stake for me to eat, Kasumi is insisting that I should only drink tea and eat rice & chicken broth till I recover my strength. I tried to explain that a man my size needs some red meat in his belly to get strong, but she would have none of it. Here's the cash, I like it medium rare, you know, to have some moo left in it when I eat it." said Chris with a smile on his face.
"Okay, gottcha pal." said Ranma as dashed from the dojo.
Chris returned to the main room where the rest of the family was located, he resumed his place resting on the pillows. He was looking better, his body had returned to its usual thickness, but he was still pale and was somewhat slow to react.
"Did you have a nice conversation with Ranma, I do hope you two get back on good terms again, it would be terrible to have to go through what happened yesterday once more." said Kasumi.
"Not to mention the house, you two removed a wall in the dojo and the cost is gonna keep us living sparingly for the next few months." commented Nabiki "Since some people I know don't try to float any bills." she added while looking over at Genma.
"Yes Kasumi, Ranma and I have settled our differences, but don't think I have forgotten about the damages. With all do respect Mr.Tendou, I get the impression that Nabiki here manages the finances of the household." said Chris as he looked at Soun who was reading the paper.
Soun nodded slightly, a little bit of shame was evident in his motion since it was the truth.
"Okay then, Nabiki, you and I will discuss later on how to cover the repair costs for the dojo and wall." said Chris who was still watching the football game. He loved Monday night football, even if was a rerun of the previous day's game, although it was a bummer to already know that the Bills had crushed the Dolphins with a 27-3 ending score.
"I just can't understand Americans, how can you get into a sport like that, all it is is grown men slamming their bodies into one another, all trying to get a deformed ball to another end of the field." said Nabiki as she sipped her tea without looking at Chris' response.
"And thats exactly why I like it Nabiki, something about using nothing but brut strength feels good for a change. You don't have to worry about control on the field, if you don't cause penalties then you can be as fierce as you want and you'll be congratulated for it. I loved those days in highschool." said Chris as he looked up at the ceiling recalling the great times he had back then.
"What ever" she replied.
A half an hour passed and Ranma returned, Chris jumped from his spot and tried to run to him, but his body gave way and he bellyflopped onto the ground.
"Way to go Mr.Swift." said Nabiki as she too got up to go to school.
Chris waved her off and got back up and hobbled over to Ranma, he took the carryout package and winked at him, then went up stairs to eat his meal in privacy.
"Where did you go Ranma? If we don't hurry then we're gonna be late." scolded Akane.
"I gotta go to school today, I died yesterday, can't I have a day off?" pleaded Ranma.
"No way, your fine thanks to Chris and now you have to suffer through school, so get used to it." yelled Akane, trying to overpower Ranma with her words.
"Calm down you two. Ranma doesn't have to got to school today, it was probably pretty traumatic for him so I believe he needs to relax, plus it wouldn't help if Chris were to give him a hint on that technique of his. Just imagine the glory of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts if Ranma could learn such a powerful attack." said Soun triumphantly. Genma nodded to what Soun was saying.
"But Dad, he's fine, just look at him." said Akane.
Ranma took his que and made the appearance that he was suffering from mental stress.
"See that proves it Akane, he is staying home." said Soun in finishing tone.
Akane glared at Ranma, and shoved her way passed him to go to school. Ranma laughed to himself about him being so fortunate. He then proceeded to sit infront of the TV and look like he was gonna loaf the day off.
"Oh no you don't Ranma!" yelled Soun and Genma in unison. "You may not be going to school today, but your gonna train, yesterday you got a few lucky hits in on Chris, but he out classed you, so that means you've been slacking. Get outside and start your kata above the koi pond." Genma finished.
Ranma jerked a little bit, it was rare to see his father taking any place of authority. He grunted and walked out side and began his practice, imagining an invisible foe in front of him. Ranma kept up his form practice for a good twenty minutes until Soun told him to stop and to begin the push-ups. 'This is gonna bite big time if I have to keep this up all day' he thought to himself.
The day passed and Chris came lazily down stairs, apparently he fell asleep after his meal, but he did look refreshed. He walked out onto the paddio and looked outside to Ranma who was drenched with sweat and doing eight count body builders very slowly. Soun and Genma were sitting cross legged with their arms folded and watching Ranma, not allowing him a moments rest.
"How long has he been up to it?" asked Chris to Kasumi who was polishing the table.
"Oh about when you left upstairs." she answered.
Chris looked over at the clock on the wall, it was 3pm. 'Dang, Ranma must be really dedicated to improving himself' he thought.
"Excuse me Chris, I hope it's not too much trouble, but could you mentor Ranma. Genma and I teach him the path to being a true martial artist, but he is truely skilled beyond our level in fighting, it does him no good for us to spar with him. So if you could, would you teach him how to improve himself?" asked Soun quietly so as Ranma couldn't hear him.
Chris nodded. "On one condition, he has to come to me, if he truely wants to improve his skill he has to seek out that improvement, it should not come to him." replied Chris, who then did an about face and walked out to the dojo.
"Thats enough for today Ranma, you can rest now." said Genma.
Ranma collapsed to the ground breathing heavily. His muscles spasiming from the immense workout that he had just finished. A minute later, Ranma dragged himself to the bathroom to wash off and soak in the tub for a while. When he finished, he began looking around the house for Chris, he hadn't seen him since this morning, and he was certain that he too would want to gruel him through some terrible workout, and was surprised when he didn't show. Eventually he found him in the dojo meditating in the center of the room. Ranma crouched a little and began to slowly walk silently up behind him with the intent to scare the crap out of him.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked.
"Dang it, how did you know?" Ranma questioned.
"I could feel the change in the wind when you entered, your body blocked some of the air passing through the dojo and I could sense it. You should consider that the next time you think about trying to sneak up on me." Chris replied.
Ranma huffed and sat about ten feet infront of Chris, and assumed his meditation stance as well.
"I'm home." said Akane, and was greeted like usual by Kasumi. "Where's Ranma, I got his homework for him and Ms.Hinako said she has a quiz for him to make up for tomorrow, so he needs to study."
"Last time I saw him Akane, was when he was searching for Chris a couple hours ago." replied Kasumi, who resumed her chores.
Akane began searching the house and came across the two of them in the dojo. She watched them for a moment, wondering how they can sit there and do nothing for so long. She could meditate, but it seemed to drain her of strength trying to remain motionless, she found that concentrating on breaking bricks or by going through her motions to be more fulfilling. She decided not to interrupt them, and she continued about her way, 'maybe I'll help Kasumi with tonights dinner instead' she thought.
Time ticked by for a while longer and then Ranma broke the silence.
"Chris, I've been meaning to ask you this all day, after seeing your display at the end of yesterday's fight, I was hoping that you could show me how to master so much ki like that. Would you please teach me?" asked Ranma without openning his eyes. A second later he added as he bowed "Tou wa ichiji no haji, towanu wa matsudai no haji."
"Very good Ranma, of course I'll teach you, but first I need to tell you that to master that 'defense' you must be completely pure and honest with yourself, for only one that can connect with the true being within can he hope to connect with the world." answered Chris as he stood up.
"Defense? How could that technique be considered a defense?"
"Because I don't feed the attack." replied Chris, time paused as Ranma was more confused as ever. "By the look on your face, I guess you don't understand so I'll start from the beginning.
A long time ago, after I was left alone in the world, I traveled the lands searching for new forms of martial arts and new techniques. One day I happened across an old master who had been crippled in a dangerous training exercise. He was dying, so I helped him and I saved his life. I stayed with him for a while till he got better and could provide for himself once again. The old man was greatful for my generosity and decided to teach me a technique that was several thousand years old. It was called the "Fury's Rage" and involved the employment of ki that was feed off my emotions. I was marveled by its power, and I thanked the man and vowed that I would carry on its teachings. Unfortunately the man died shortly after, even after he had been treated, maybe he knew that he didn't have that much time left on this Earth, so I decided to improve upon the technique in his name. I didn't know how I would do this, but somehow I trusted that it would one day come to me. About a year after that, I happened across a veteran female martial artist. She was being attacked by group of villains, and I came to her aid, we defeated the foes, but I sustained a stab to the gut by one of their knives. I was slowly bleeding to death, but some how the lady saved me by transferring her ki into me. My body healed in record time and I begged her to teach me the art. She consented and showed me how she could channel her energy to others. It came to a surprise to me that not only could she channel her ki to other people but from the earth as well. I had to learn to accept the man I was so I could build the connection to the earth, it took me a long time to do it, but I managed it somehow. It was only later did I realized that this technique was what I needed to improve the "Fury's Rage." I understood that I could feed on the ki of the earth and channel it straight into the energy of the "Fury's Rage" without having it deplete my strength. The only problem was that I raped the land when I used this connection, the plants and soil would be sucked of its life and become waste. I felt that I had hit a dead end for I would not use those two techniques together at the expense of the life of the land. Then it hit me, all things are from the Earth, thus everything shares a common bond, including ki of other people. I could use the techniques to drain my opponents and use it against them to conserve my strength. The only problem is that the ki focused in the human body can not be drawn upon when it is still inside the person, it's too eratic to try to control, so I would have to draw upon it when my opponent focused his ki. The only time that really happens is when he employs a ki attack."
"So your saying that you used my energy against me in yesterday's fight?" said Ranma not believing what he heard.
"Yes, I only have to extend a ki that acts in conjunction with the attack, thus I open myself up to accept the ki attack that is sent against me, so in essence I absorb the energy and rechannel it at the person who dished it out, the true advantage is that I can bolster that power by employing the "Fury's Rage" at the same time. I do use some of my own strength to do that, but it is no where near the amount that I would have to expend to get the destructive power that was shown yesterday. I renamed it as a defense because you protect yourself from the on coming attack and redirect it, but your opponent must initiate his attack first. Since this new technique had evolved from the "Fury's Rage" and the revision of the summoning of ki from the Earth, I call it "Gaia's Fury"."
"That’s fascinating, please teach me!" yelled Ranma, excited to take such a great step at improving his fighting ability.
Chris nodded and the instruction commenced, having Ranma first to learn the ability to control his ki and the ki around him.
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Days past without any sign of improvement. Each night Chris and Ranma would meet in the dojo to continue the training, and would spend many hours into the night. Ranma was beginning to weaken, his training each morning with his father and the training at night with Chris was beginning to take its toll. Ranma's scuffles with Kuno were getting worse, in each fight Kuno would be almost guaranteed at least one hit on Ranma before Ranma summoned his anger to dispose of the sword wielding Shakespeare. Mouse too was getting more than his usual hits in, but Ranma was still able to just inch out a victory over him. Akane was getting concerned that Ranma's training wasn't going anywhere, to her he appeared to not be learning anything new and it was costing him his grades in class, not that they were very steller in the first place.
"Maybe you shouldn't continue to try to learn this technique Ranma. Look at you, your a wreck, and you haven't shown any real improvement either, infact I think your getting worse." pleaded Akane. She didn't like the way Ranma appeared, he was haggered and slow to react due to his lack of rest. He didn't talk as much or put up much of a fight when he and Akane got into their little disagreements.
Ranma looked at her with his trembling blood shot eyes. Something inside him hurt from what she said, 'She doesn't think I can to it.' he thought. There where times that Akane would show some doubt in his ability to accomplish his tasks, but that doubt would fuel him to new heights to show her what he was capable of. This time the words sank a little bit deeper into his heart, because a part of him was starting to agree with her. He didn't like the way he felt, and sometimes a night he would stay awake thinking that maybe he just wasn't good enough to master this technique.
It had been a month now, Ranma stood infront of Chris in the dojo like he been doing each night before.
"Okay, from the top, clear your mind, summon your ki and force it to the upper part of your body." instructed Chris.
Ranma shut his eyes and began to concentrate, this part of the technique was simple, the only problem was that it would unbalance his fighting spirit and he would begin to strain under the weight of his ki to keep it higher in his body. "Ready" Ranma said, when he felt his body begin to twitch with amount of energy in his chest, shoulders, arms, and head.
"Now hold it there, and begin to open yourself through you legs to draw the ki of the Earth, open your mind and accept the power of the Earth, and build the bridge to its energy." said Chris.
Ranma looked to relax his face, but still held onto his control of his own ki, trying to draw the energy from the land into himself.
Time past and Ranma wasn't feeling anything, only the strain of holding his ki, it was beginning to hurt, and he started to show the signs of fatigue. This had taken place each night since Ranma had learned to shift his ki to another part of his body without initiating an attack, and each night Ranma would fail to bridge the gap to the Earth. Sweat beads began froming on is face from his exertion, he tried to concentrate on maintaining his shift of ki, but he was beginning to feel like he was burning inside. Finally he couldn't stand the strain any more, and Ranma was forced to let go of his ki and he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
"Damn, damn, damn!!! Why can't I do this? What the hell is holding me back, it doesn't sound that difficult and I can master any technique when I put my mind to it!" cried Ranma as he beat his fist on the ground.
Chris said nothing, he only starred at the young man lying on the ground who was chasting himself for his failure.
Ranma looked up at him, trying to get some bit of helpful advice, but Chris did nothing, only starred at him. Ranma began to detest his sight, the fact that this man could do something that he couldn't was tearing him up inside, and Ranma was beginning think that Chris was intentionally leading him to failure.
Finally Ranma got to his feet and shot out. "Why the hell won't you help me God damnit!?! What the hell am I supposed to do? You said you were going to teach me, and now you just stand there looking at me like your some high and mighty being!"
"Shutup!" Chris roared at Ranma. "Look at you, blaming someone else for your failure, I have done all that I can for this stage of your training, you are the only one who is holding yourself back. I ask you if you have accepted yourself, and you said yes. I hate liers, because if you truely believed and accepted who you are, you would have mastered this technique long ago. Now if you were to show your feelings to yourself and not try to deny them, this would be a lot easier."
"Hey I ain't denying nothing! I'm Ranma Soatome and I ain't afraid to hide anything!" yelled Ranma.
"Oh yeah, then why the hell do you still have a number of fiancees chasing you around town? It's because your too scared to tell them that you don't want to marry them, because you think that their gonna come to take their anger out on you."
"Thats not true!"
"Then what is the truth Ranma!?!"
"I don't want them to come and hurt Aka. . ." Ranma froze, his body felt like weight was beginning to be lifted off of it, but something in his mind told him to shut up.
Chris looked at him and waited for Ranma to continue, but Ranma didn't, he only stood there looking scared to death.
"Finish it Ranma!" Chris yelled.
Ranma took a step back, still looking scared.
"I said, FINISH IT!"
"I. . .I can't." Ranma stammered. Still backing up till he felt the wall to his back. Chris approached with an angered look in his eyes.
"How can you be so weak Ranma?"
"I'm not weak!" Ranma shot out trying to regain his composure.
"Yes you are. Your too weak to say it to youself I bet. You can't accept the way you feel and that's whats holding you back. The truely sad thing is that you look too content to live in your fear, and that will always prevent you from becoming as great a martial artist as you should be."
"I am not afraid of anything! I will not give into this!" yelled Ranma with his eyes shut.
"Then say it!"
Ranma shifted back and forth trying to escape from himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew what he wanted to say, diing to say, what his soul was crying for so long, but denied it.
"I said say it!!"
"I. . ." A faint whisper was heard in his head from someplace in his mind he was too afraid to go into.
"Say it!!!"
"I. . .lo" The voice was getting louder, the words to muffled to be heard, but he knew that it would bring a wave of problems if he accepted it.
"SAY IT!!!"
"I. . .love. . .A" He could almost make it out.
"GOD DAMNIT, I SAID SAY IT!!!!!!"
Something in Ranma snapped, and the voice in his mind cried the phrase that he had so long wanted to say loud and clear, no longer caring of the troubles it would bring. "I LOVE AKANE!!!!" he screamed. As a blast of energy was released from his frame in a briliant aray of light.
"What was that?" asked Kasumi to Akane, both in the kitchen doing the dishes. Akane had dropped the plate she was drying off, she knew that voice was Ranma's, although she didn't hear what he said, she could feel the wave of energy that he let lose. From out of no where tears started fall from her cheeks, which she frantically tried to wipe off her face.
Ranma collapsed to the ground on all fours, trying to not to pass out. He never had gone through a battle so fierce and draining. He continued to breath like they where going to be the last breathes of air he would ever get again. Ranma was motionless, not knowing what to do next, then a slight tingling in his hands got his attention. He could see a slight white aura begin to envelop is lower arms as it crawled up his body, when it reached his chest he felt incredibly warm and calm. His muscles began to twitch with the enery that was building inside of him.
"What the?" questioned Ranma as leaned back on his feet, looking at his glowing hands and arms.
"Congratulations Ranma, we are now ready to continue to the next step in your training." said Chris calmly, looking at the boy that became a man. "But before we do, I believe you have something you need to say to someone."
Ranma looked up at Chris with a certain look in his eyes. It was the look of pure determination and resolution, like that there was only one thing he had left to do on this planet, and now that he had this goal, nothing would stop him. He stood up and dashed out of the dojo as fast as his legs could carry him.
Chris walked slowly to the doorway of the dojo watching the departing figure.
"How the hell did you do that?" said a female voice to his right.
"Does it matter? Time to pay up." he replied.
"Damnit." said Nabiki as she fished out a large some of cash. "Remind me not take you up on any more bets in the future."
Chris laughed, and continued into the house.
Genma and Soun didn't see the on coming figure in time, as Ranma ran through his father and Mr.Tendou, sending them and the shogi board to other parts of the room, Genma being sent into the koi pond.
Akane jumped at the sight of Ranma screaching to a halt in the doorway of the kitchen, a look of pure happiness in his eyes with tears streaking from them. Ranma quickly walked up to her and took hold of her shoulders, not too tightly, but strong enough for her to get the impression that he didn't want her to back away. Akane didn't know what to do, first how Ranma had looked shocked her in pleasant way because she somehow knew that it was her that had caused it, and secondly that he had taken her in his arms and was slowly drawing closer to her. The background faded from her sight, only the look of Ranma's gorgious face a foot away from her own was registering to her. She could feel a primal instinct begin enter her mind, it told her to continue, and for once in her life she agreed to what it said. Her heart rate began to increase as he continued to get closer, and from the heat that he was eminating, it was a comfortable heat, a welcoming heat that she had only felt when ever she was in his arms and she could relish in it forever. Finally he was an inch from her, and her heart skipped a beat from the impending event, she closed her eyes in anticipation knowing that this was it and nothing was going to come in between her and Ranma. It seemed like and eternity to her as he drew closer, she could feel his breath washing over her face and over her tougne of her slightly parted lips. Their lips brushed each others like the touch of a feather, sending waves of electricity throughout her frame. She couldn't stand the delay any longer, as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a beautiful kiss.
"Oh my!" said Kasumi who was standing a few feet away.
"What is the hurry son, why did you . . ." said Soun as he rounded the entrance way into the kitchen, he stopped dead in his tracks from the sight before him. Genma too, in panda form, did not move, only his large saucer eyes and the dropped sign gave any notion to his reaction.
She didn't want this to end, somewhere in her mind she knew it felt right, how they fit together so perfectly against each other. Ranma and Akane held the kiss for another minute, neither wanting to let go or to end the moment. Finally they parted, and Ranma looked into Akane's watery eyes, 'She's so beautiful, why did it take me so long to realize it?' he thought to himself. Akane brought her fingers to her lips, she could still feel his pressed against hers, the tingling sensation still sending waves of pleasure through her body.
"I love you Akane Tendou." he said looking deeply into her eyes, it felt right he thought, like some how he had been ment to say this to her. "And, I'm sorry."
Akane was still in shock, any question on Ranma's kissing ability were thrown out the window, but the tears were already flowing before he had said what she had so long wanted to hear. She couldn't say anything, her only response was leaping into his arms for another kiss, this one being a little bit more passionate than the first. Ranma was shocked at the feeling of Akane openning her mouth slightly and pressing her tougne to his lips, he concented and meet her's with his. The sensations of Akane sucking lightly on his tougne as it entered her mouth almost destroyed all his barriers of control not to take her here and now. A couple minutes passed by, both still oblivious to the outside world and those around them, only their moment mattered, for they both had realized what they meant to each other.
Akane finished and looked up into Ranma's blue grey eyes, feeling his love for her as they trembled.
"I love you too Ranma, but why did you say you're sorry?" asked Akane, a little confused by his last statement.
"I don't know, maybe I'm sorry for not saying it sooner, I guess I was just too afraid for falling in love with you without you falling for me." replied Ranma still looking deep into her eyes.
After another minute of gazing into each others eyes, trying to organize their feelings for each other and how they wished things had happened differently, they came back down to the real world. Sweat drops fromed on their heads as they saw that the family was standing at the doorway watching the couple. Nabiki was at it again with the camera, and so was Genma with the camcorder. Soun was crying in happiness ranting about how the Anything Goes School's future was now secure, Kasumi was a little teary eyed for the happy couple. And in the back standing over the others, Chris was watching with his arms folded across his chest and a satisfied smile on his face.
Ranma and Akane both looked at each other, and both nodded in agreement from some telepathic message they sent to each other. Casually they walked through the huddle in the doorway and proceeded outside where they both dashed off onto the roof tops, hand in hand.
"Wait Akane, daddy wants to talk to his grown up little girl!" cried out Soun, who was starting to suffer from no longer being the most important man in his youngest daughter's life.
"Let them go Daddy, they need to talk." said Nabiki to her father. "And I need to get some work done." as she looked down at her camera with all the film used up.
----------------
It was a beautiful Saturday morning as Chris stood up and stretched in the sun light that was pouring through the window. He looked down at his right forarm, it had looked normal for the past week, and the softness around the break had disappeared. Chris got down and started a few one arm push-ups to test its strength, nothing structurally wrong, but he knew that he had to train to get it back to its normal strength. His attention was diverted from his arm as he heard a rusling at the window. Ranma was there working a little piece of wire to lift the latch that held the window shut. Chris walked up to it and unlocked it and quickly openned the window to allow Ranma in. Ranma had been supporting his weight on the base of the window ledge, and as Chris openned the window, he lost his balance and fell to the floor of the room straight onto his face.
"Well good morning Dr.Love, where were you all night?" inquired Chris.
"Thanks pal." said Ranma sarcastically as he rubbed his nose as he stood up. "Akane and I went to the park and talked about stuff, we didn't know how late it had gotten till the sun started to rise. After we watched it, we decided to come home separately to try to attract less attention from the guys down stairs."
"I guess you're pretty tired then, being up late and all."
"Yeah, I need to crash, I'll be down in several hours okay." said Ranma as he began to curl up on his futon.
Chris laughed to himself as he noticed on the side of his neck was a small hicky. 'I beat you stayed up all night talking, Ranma' thought Chris as he left the room. He stopped abruptly as he saw Akane frozen infront of him in a stance like she was sneaking to her room.
"You two must of had some fun last night, try not leave any evidence next time okay." said Chris as he patted his neck wear he saw the hicky on Ranma's neck.
Akane blushed deeply and disappeared into her room with a flash.
Chris laughed to himself and went down stairs to see the family gathered around the table eating breakfast. He was greeted like usual by Kasumi, and sat at his place to eat breakfast. Soun and Genma were happily taking about the upcoming wedding while Nabiki punched in numbers on her calculator. Chris sat quietly eating his food, eyeing the family as they continued about their way.
"Why are you two so happy?" came an elderly voice from behind Chris.
"Hello Grandfather Happosaui, how have you been?" asked the ever polite Kasumi.
"Ma Ma Master?!?" spoke Soun and Genma in unison. "When did you get back from your trip?"
"Trip? Ha! I'll teach Ranma a thing or two taking advantage of a poor defenseless old man as he seeks the companionship of beautiful young women." shouted the angry old man.
Chris choked a little on his food.
Happosaui paused for a second to look at the back of the large man at the table, then returned his attention to the two men of the house. "Well? Answer my question." he ordered.
"It's because of Ranma and Akane's weddi HUMMFFF!" said Genma clutching his stomach after Soun's elbow got there first.
"It's because its such a beautiful day and any man in his right mind should be openly happy." lied Soun.
"Do you think I'm stupid, I heard dope here spill the beans," said Happosaui pointing at Genma. "So what brought this on all of a sudden?"
"Ohhh nothing" replied Genma.
Happosaui just stood there waiting for a real answer.
"It's because Ranma and Akane confessed there love for each other yesterday, Grandfather." said Kasumi sweetly.
Soun and Genma slapped there foreheads for Kasumi's total honesty, knowing that things were gonna get complicated.
"Confessed there love!!" yelled Happosaui. "Oh, how could Akane betray me?" he said in a dramatic display of sadness.
Chris couldn't take that last statment and laughed out loud, spewing his rice all over Soun who was sitting across the table. Chris tried to apologize, but was laughing too hard to get the words out between his gasps for air. A glum look came over Genma and Soun, since they knew that now there was gonna be trouble. Happosaui glared at the man before him who was laughing uncontrollably, a faint red aura began to eminate from the ancient master.
"How dare you laugh at me. . .and with your back to me no less." snarled Happosaui.
Chris turned around with tears in his eyes from laughing so hard, once he got a look at Happosaui, he bursted out laugh again uncontrollably. Happosaui was furious, his aura shot up around him and the house started to vibrate.
"Take this you insulant welp!" roared Happosaui as he lashed out with a ki charged punch.
Chris demeanor changed from the light hearted young man to a stern faced stone as he moved his head to the side to dodge the punch. Chris starred at the old master with new found anger, all this surprised Happosaui, he had obviously underestimated this young man.
"You better get this through your thick skull pretty quickly. Ranma and Akane love each other, and for their own benefit, I am not going to allow you to distrub their new found happiness, so back off." stated Chris coldly.
Happosaui was taken back, not only had this man dodged his attack like nothing, but now he was ordering him like he was a lowly dog. "Wha. . .I don't know who you are, but nobody is gonna show up and start talking to me like that, I'm gonna teach you a lesson punk."
Chris stood up and walked out side past Happosaui, where he turned around to face him and began a quick stretching exercise. Happosaui twitched angrily at his boldness and walked outside as well.
"You know it isn't every day I meet someone so bold to call the tiger in his own den, so first I'm gonna see how good you are, before I send you off." smirked Happosaui.
Chris finished stretching and assumed a neutral position, watching the master keenly.
"Let's see how you like this technique." said Happosaui as he began to blend into nothingness in broad daylight. Chris didn't move, instead he just closed his eyes and began to concentrate. A minute passed by without anything happening, Genma and Soun were sitting on the padio watching in amazement at Chris' cool demeanor. Suddenly Chris spun to the rear and lashed out with a round house kick, to the naked eye it didn't appear that he had hit something except for the indentation that appeared in the side of the tree. Happosaui rematerialized shortly after at the base of the trunk with the mark of Chris' heel on the left side of his face and the line in middle where he struck the tree.
"Not bad, I guess I'm gonna have to get serious, huh?" said Happosaui who appeared to recover almost instantaneously. With that Happosaui charged at Chris lashing out with his pipe, thrusting at him with inhuman speed. Chris brought up his guard and began blocking just as fast, between the two fighters was a blur of motion. Happosaui then shot in quickly and attacked under Chris' chin like he had done so many times during his scuffles with Ranma, but Chris dodged and swept out with his left hand and chopped the pipe in half. Happosaui's eyes buldged open in disbelief at this, but was quickly slammed to the ground by Chris' other arm. Chris balanced himself on Happosaui's face on one arm, applying all his weight, and then vaulted off him to stand about twenty feet away.
"If your not gonna fight me for real then tell me so I won't waste my time." said Chris, trying to tick the old fart off.
"How dare you! Take this!" yelled Happosaui, who blasted his aura to try to immobilize Chris. Chris stood his ground and assumed his stance for the Gaia's Fury.
"Wow, Tendou look! He's gonna use his technique, do you know what this means?" said Genma.
Tendou looked at Genma, and then turned and yelled "Go Chris, finish him off!"
Happosaui then unleashed his ki attack and shot out at Chris. Chris slammed his wrists together and roared out "GAIA'S FURY" as his blast reached out to Happosaui's ki attack. The blasts collided, and just like Ranma, Happosaui was overwhelmed, but something was wrong. Just as Chris' attack began to come in contact with Happosaui, the blast disapated and flickered out of existance.
"What the?" said Chris shocked.
Happosaui was on his back a little charred, but began to stir, then got to his feet. "Very impressive, I didn't expect to have such an attack be employed against me. Your are a strong fighter so I will end this little scuffle HACKKK!!!!" Happosaui was frozen, his eyes almost came out of their sockets and blood shot from his mouth.
Chris had darted out with a vicious uppercut across the distance between them and was now kneeling over Happosaui with is fist burried into the old man's stomach, the punch had stopped and Chris allowed him to slump to the ground unconscious.
"You talk too much, you let your guard down." said Chris as he stood up and walked back into the house. Soun and Genma sat there with their jaws to the ground in disbelief.
"How how how did you do that?" said Mr.Tendou.
"My father taught me that in battle there is no room for conversation, once it starts, it only ends till some one is defeated. Apparently he thought that I couldn't notice him building his ki for a final blast to catch me off guard, he thought wrong." said Chris who then walked off to the dojo.
"Quick Kasumi, get me a box and some rope and some stamps please." said Soun as he and Genma dashed over to the unconscious old man. After he was packaged away, Soun and Genma hurried off to the nearest postoffice to mail off a box to Antarcticia.
The day passed and Ranma eventually came down stairs, still with a sleepy look in his eyes. As he walked into the living room he was greeted by Nabiki who was looking all too happy to see him. A sweat drop formed on Ranma's head already knowing that that ment trouble for him. 'Ah man, she's gonna blackmail me for yesterday, she's knows I ain't got no money so why doesn't she leave me alone. All I did was kiss Akane . . . oh that kiss, why didn't I do it sooner.' Ranma thought, not realizing that Nabiki was talking to him.
". . . thousand yen, hey pay attention. I know you don't have that much money, but you can work it off." she said a little peturbed that he wasn't focusing on her a little bit ago.
Ranma didn't hear the first part of her statement, nor did he want to, but from somewhere in his gut anger started to arise. "Damn it Nabiki! Why the hell do you always go and take advantage of other people, especially your friends and family? Is money the only thing that has any worth in your heart? Why don't you just leave me and Akane out of your damn schemes?"
"What the?" she looked angry "Thats what I get for offering you some cash to take Akane on a date, a verbal slap to the face, then forget you!" With that she began to storm off past him.
"Huh? W Wait Nabiki!" shouted Ranma as he ran to catch up to her.
"What now, gonna call me names, or are you going to try and berate me somemore?"
"No, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention back there, I guess I jumped to conclusions." he said looking shamefully at the ground.
Nabiki sighed, still looking a bit flustered. "I said I was gonna lend you some money to take Akane to dinner, you could pay be back later when you get the chance. To answer your question though, no, money is not the only thing of worth in my heart, I love my family, I learned to handle finances because my father was to inept to do it himself, believe it or not, but many of the costs for the repairs to the house come from my walet. Since I'm so good with cash is why this house hasn't gone belly up since you arrived."
Ranma, after hearing all this, looked even worse, almost like he wanted to crawl to a corner a die. "I. . .I'm sorry Nabiki, I didn't know."
"Enough of the apologies, hear take this money and use it to take my sister out on date, lord nows I'm not doing this for you, but for her, yes." said Nabiki as she handed Ranma a wad of cash. Ranma's eyes shot up to the sight of the amount she gave him.
"But, where am I gonna take her that requires all of this." he said gesturing the money to Nabiki, who just sighed and instructed the novice at love to her room so she could fill him in on how to create the perfect date.
Chris sat in the dojo alone contemplating his delema. 'My search for Kojiro has lead me to Tokyo, but where do I go next? I must avenge my father, and I have no time to waste, my arm has healed so now I back to full strength, but where to go?' Chris' pondering was interrupted by Ranma entering the dojo.
"I'm ready to continue training." he said.
Chris looked up from his sitting position and nodded. "You know the first part of the routine, so start."
Ranma took his stance and shifted his ki, followed shortly by clearing his mind to absorb the energy around him. His eyes shot open by the sudden rush of energy that coursed into him to fill the void in his legs. "Now what?"
"Good, now stop." said Chris.
"What?"
"I said stop, you can now pull ki from the earth, but remember that this is not the basis of the technique I'm teaching you, you must be able to absorb the ki being sent to you in the from of an attack. It's quite different, almost as if it is being forced into your body, which can kill you if you don't release it quickly at the person who directed it at you or other means. Now begin the motions again, but shift your ki to the rear of you body to create the void in your arms and chest."
Ranma shut his eyes and began again, this time extending his arms out at Chris.
"The key from here is to act like a mirror and a lense, first to reflect the attack back at your opponent and focus it to higher levels of power of your own."
Ranma nods and indicates that he is ready.
Chris stands up and assumes his stance to attack with the Fury's Rage. He begins to radiate an arua of fire about him and his eyes glowed a ruby red as he focused on Ranma.
Ranma swallowed hard at the sight before him, the Gaia's Fury looked impressive, but this new attack that Chris was preparing looked menacing, also the fact that he had to stay his ground was conflicting with his instincts to survive. He exhaled loudly to calm himself, he trusted that Chris wouldn't put him into danger, not after going to such lengths to teach him thus far.
Chris' face contorted with anger as he began to roar in rage to build his energy. The dojo began to quake, shortly the whole household, and eventually the block that the Tendou residence was located on. About a minute later, Chris stopped shouting and returned his attention to Ranma who was glowing a soft blue. Akane peared around the corner of the dojo entrance, the sight she beheld chilled her to the bone. Chris was ablaze with a furious ki and his eyes had the look of pure hatred, and before him was Ranma not looking like he was going to move.
"RRRAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!! FURY'S RAGE!!!!" roared Chris as he slamed his wrists together and unleashed his energy at Ranma.
Ranma's world was going in slow motion, he watched a Chris' hands errupted with the energy as it coursed out to him. But what happened next surprised him, as the blast got closer, his own ki launch out of no where to meet with Chris'. Just as they collided, Ranma felt the rush of energy flood into his body, he couldn't stop it, it threatened to overwhelm him from the inside. Once Chris' attack ended, Chris kneeled to the ground exhausted then snapped his eyes back to Ranma.
"RELEASE IT!!! YOU CAN'T CONTAIN IT ALL!!!!" Chris shouted.
Ranma clenched his head and gripped at his hair, his body was burning with power and his veins were visible throughout his body. He began to sweat perfusly and he writhed and twisted to find some avenue from the pain from the amount of overload the ki was giving him.
Akane was horrified, Ranma looked to be in extreme pain, which he was, but she didn't know what to do, only call out his name "RANMA!!" It was more like a plea then a cry, she didn't know what he was doing, but it looked to be killing him.
Ranma's eyes flashed open when he heard Akane's voice and he instantly turned to the direction of the still missing wall of the dojo. He forced his hands before his chest and began channeling the ki to an energy attack. "MOUKOTAKABISHA!!!!!!" he screamed as he jutted his hands out infront of him. Instantly the focused beam from Ranma's technique rushed from his hands at an angle just higher than the horizon. Several of the nearby houses had the shingles ripped from them as the blast shot by. Ranma continued pouring the ki from him, as he let loose he could feel his body begin to calm and relax from the earlier state of agony. Eventually the blast fadded to a vapor trail, having left a large opening in the sky as the ki desintegrated the clouds it passed. He collapsed to the ground unconscious, but shortly was roused by the cries and pleas of Akane as she shook him.
"Augh, man may head hurts," grumbled Ranma as he sat up, "huh? Are you okay Akane?" he said looking at the teary eyed girl kneeling next to him.
"I. . .I'm okay, I was just worried that. . ." quivered Akane, as she started to wipe the tears from her eyes. She obviously looked upset, but a small smile crept across her lips after a minute.
"Good job Ranma, you've completed the training, although you need to still master the rechannel phase, there is nothing more I can teach you with this technique. I apologize if you where hurt by the technique, but the last portion is a trial by fire, I had to do it when I first learned it, and you would have to do the same." said Chris, who was now standing over the couple.
Ranma shakingly got to his feet, althought the technique was intended to save the wielders strength, Ranma had expelled his own in an effort to remove the pain from before. He took in a large breath to regain his composure, then looked at Chris with a look of graditued. "Thanks man, I don't know how to repay this dept."
"Don't worry about it, think of it as a repayment for allowing me to spend these past five weeks with a family, wandering the roads alone day in and day out starts to nag at you for a while."
"You should talk to Ryoga about that." Ranma chuckled. Chris didn't get the joke, but he could tell that it had no direction at him, so he chuckled as well.
There was a slight pause, Chris broke it with a statement that he was going to go take a bath, he then proceeded out of the dojo. Ranma watched the departing figure, something about the way he looked during that moment of silience was eating away at him. Chris didn't appear upset, but something in his eyes told him that something was wrong. 'I guess I'll ask him tomorrow.' Ranma thought as he brought his attention back to Akane. Ranma smiled to her, she hadn't done anything, but just smiling to her felt right. Akane, blushed and smiled back. Ranma's smile turned into a grin, the grin turned into a mischivious grin, he then started to coil his body in preparation to pounce on his prey. Akane stopped smiling and looked a little bit unsettled, 'Uh oh' was the only thing she could think of as Ranma cried out, "Tickle Torture Attack!!"
The sounds of laughter and half-hearted cries of help could be heard from the Tendou dojo as the sun set in west of the town of Nerma.
------------------
Ranma grumbled as the first rays of light from the morning sun crossed his face. 'I gotta move my futon someday for it to stop doing that.' he thought. He then sat up and looked at the snoring fuz ball next to him that was his dad. He then shifted his gaze to where Chris slept, expecting to see his futon already folded and at the corner of the room, but there was none. Ranma raised his eyebrow at this and got up to proceed down stairs. He began a search of each of the rooms trying to find him, usually at this time Chris would be finishing up his practice in the dojo or watching the morning news. As Ranma passed by the dojo's entrance, he spied a small box and a note on top of it. Ranma picked the parcel up and read the note:
-To the Tendou's and Saotome's
I can't express the amount of joy that I experienced during my stay, you have all made a lonely man happy by allowing him to stay with you, but it was time for me to continue my quest. I have left a parcel for Nabiki, as she will now what to do with it. I pray that you will not squander what you now have with Akane, Ranma. True love is a rare and fragile flower, but it will never die and nothing can compare to its smell. There are also some recipts in the package for Kasumi, I know she would want them. I may return one day when I have finished my journey to see how all of you are doing. I take my leave now, may fortune smile upon this family.
Christopher O'hare-
Ranma closed his eyes and thanked the man that had such a large and sudden impact on his life, a life now filled with happiness from his realised love of Akane. He also thought of the forboding doom at the thought of his other fiancees discovering this, but he would deal with it. He opened the parcel to descover a large amount of money with a note saying "For the Dojo" on it and a number of cards with recipts and instructions for Kasumi, there was also a small slip of paper with a phone number on it, above the number it said "For emergencies only." Ranma closed the box at the sound of Kasumi's voice calling the family to breakfast, and proceeded back into the house.
Somewhere this a bird chirping, and somewhere there is a dog barking. Somewhere there are children playing, and somewhere there are children crying. Somewhere the are couples loving, and in Nerma there is a panda and a redheaded girl fighting. Somewhere there is a man walking, searching for an answer, an answer for his sorrow and anger, but knowing that beyond his search lies the promise of happiness and completion.
End for now.
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Well this took a pretty long time to write, not the writing actually, just finding the time between my work and studies, but I'm happy that I finished. This is my first fanfic of Ranma 1/2, depending on the replies from those that read this will I decide to continue the story. If your thinking, no this is not a self insertion fic, the character Chris O'hare was just a spur of the moment thought, which is how I wrote this fic. I didn't plan it out or write a draft before this, only the start with Kasumi's confrontation with the thugs and being rescued was what I had in the beginning. I've reread the story a couple of times making revisions here and there and trying to fix and mis-spellings, but if you find and blemishes I apologize and say, "hey, nobody is perfect." Of course all characters of Ranma 1/2 are due to the brilliant mind of Rumikio Takahashi, who truely respect and admire, but I only wish she would finish her story of Ranma dang it! Finish it please, I want to know like many others out there how it all unfolds!

Translation:
Tou wa ichiji no haji, towanu wa matsudai no haji.
To ask maybe a moment's shame, but not to ask and remain ignorant is a lifelong shame.
E-mail any C&C to: flistan@hotmail.com
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