Enough by Kitzy

Chapter 6: Learning Curves

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Ryouga thumped his head steadily against the nearest wall. He had been so close. Somehow, although he had no idea of where it was... he had seen Ranma. Oh alright, Ranma-chan... but same difference... then he had lost his focus. One second in which he had thought "nearly there"... and suddenly he was god knows where, as far from finding him as when he had started. He swore softly, pulling out the VHF radio the amazons had given him, hoping against hope they would be able to find a small village of wooden huts surrounded by mountains, next to a river – although what country it was in he had no idea.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Genma blinked, still half asleep as Shampoo dragged him into the Nekohanten. Muzzily he noted the large map of Japan, and the equally large map of China spread across the floor, before his head was dunked unceremoniously into a bucket of iced water.

"Growwff?" He spluttered for a moment, then a boiling kettle was emptied over his head and his wif – no, Nodoka's cold eyes froze him in place.

"You will mark on these maps the route your training journey took, and give as much detail as you remember of the events as you travelled." Dropping his eyes, Genma placed his finger on Tokyo, over the Saotome family home, not questioning why, knowing that unless Ranma lived and he restored his son's honour fully, he would in her eyes be lower than any Ronin.

"We began here, having trained at every dojo within walking distance of the house, and moved north..."

Hours passed, the teens taking turns to make notes of dojo names, villages, techniques learned... it seemed to be a complete census of every martial art technique in Japan... until just as the grey false-dawn brightened the sky, he paused. Frowning, Cologne drew out a black notebook and motioned for the others to leave. All except Happosai obeyed, repressing a shudder. There had only been two occasions yet that she had drawn out that particular book – once for the Neko-ken, once for another banned technique involving broken glass and lead weights. Genma had not paused before telling them of either of those... so what could possibly be so terrible that she did not want any of them to even hear of the technique? There was utter silence for almost ten minutes, then the unmistakeable sound of a palm meeting flesh. Another five minutes passed before they were motioned back in, to find Genma with his finger shaking on the map, a single, livid handprint on his cheek. Cologne looked up as she closed the book, teartracks marking her cheeks, sending a thrill of terror through them.

"If I find any of you trying to look in this book, or asking after what was spoken here, you will die. That technique is not only forbidden by international law, but by the law of the gods themselves." Mute nods were her only answer, nausea pooling in eight bellies at the thought of a technique so horrific that even the gods themselves would ban its use. She shuddered, drawing herself up before motioning him to begin again, the relentless accounting of every moment of those ten years continuing, Genma's folly spelt out in minute detail, unceasing, unrelenting, without a moments respite as the sun rose higher and higher, then began to fall again. As a second dawn broke, the black book came out for the seventh time, for a single word. Jusenkyo. The tale reaching its conclusion, Genma stopped, finger pointing to Nerima, the Tendo dojo, having left a marker trail winding over the map, a spiders web of dishonour laid out over two countries, ten years. Even Happosai seemed to shudder as he looked down on the mess, before he gestured with his pipe.

"Leave, Genma. And leave your belt here. You forfeited your right to be called a martial artist when you taught the lad the Neko-ken, and your right to be called human with..." he paused. "Leave." Genma nodded slowly, discarding the belt of his gi before walking, bent almost double from shame out of the room.

Nodoka slowly raised her eyes from her book, sighing deeply. "Over a hundred women are, or have been, engaged to my son. Over the past three months, he managed to reduce that number by over twenty. It is a start, but now I see the scale of the burden my son has carried for so long it is clear how much more must be done to salvage his honour." She looked around, slowly. "Any assistance is welcomed. In this matter, the clan has no pride, we will accept any and all help offered."

-oo0oo-

A/N: I think I'm going to stop apologising after this for the long delays... please, just accept that in every A/N there is an unwritten apology for the length of time between updates and leave it there.

I am using the *.*.*.*.*.* form to separate between locations, as a compromise between scene change and paragraph length. Please let me know if this works for you.

"Kahen Kaosu-ken" - my own translation of "Controllable Chaos – fist". Please tell me if it means something rude, I have an alternate name standing by.

Muahahaha... more clues as to Ranma's secret sealed technique... although I don't think I can tell you the details of the training and remain within my rating... :( it is FAR worse than the Neko-ken.

Yes, I realise Ranma hasn't had much angst this chapter... but with so many new techniques to learn, is it any wonder? We all know how much he throws himself into training...