Ranma allowed himself a brief smirk as she watched the other Kunoichi students from her tree. By the time they had found – and extricated themselves from – the trap down by the river, he had already retrieved the training scroll that was the prize for the day, read it and committed the technique to memory, then replaced it. She now lay on her belly, aura shielded as the scroll described, over a branch at least 20 feet above the heads of the others, occasionally casting a thin, colourless thread to entangle one of the more arrogant trainees. It had only been two months, yet she had graduated into the advanced classes – for those seeking mastery of the camp's school. Despite all that had happened, her love of the art had remained, giving her a release as she threw herself into learning the new style... and, in private, incorporating it into her own. Rolling onto her back, Ranma gazed up into the dappled light of her tree as she once again returned to her continual problem. During her time in Nerima, her style had changed so much – incorporating Amazon Wu Shu, the Seven Lucky Gods' techniques and Gourmet du Fois Gras to name but a few. It was no longer the Saotome school that once had been the basis of her art. It was barely even Anything Goes... thus, her problem. She was Ranma (sometimes Kajiko) Saotome... but of what school? She knew that she could no longer claim to be the student of any existing school... so she must become the grandmaster of her own. A snigger wound its way through the air as the redhead considered what her old sensei's reaction would be... lips moving as she mimicked the overused melodrama "Oh woe is me, what have I done to diserve such an ungrateful boy?" Her ears cocked as she found faint sounds of triumph from the direction of the scroll – time to head back to the camp... there was always a good meal after exercises like this.
As the trainees returned, the Elders of the camp exchanged glances. There was a pattern emerging whenever the opportunity to learn a secret technique was offered to the mastery students... One or more of the group would emerge at the head of a rather weary party, clutching the scroll, a broad grin on her face... and Kajiko would seemingly appear from nowhere, winking at the welcoming party before vanishing again, leaving a not-so-subtle hint that she had somehow learnt the technique already. It seemed that her declaration that she had been "the best martial artist of her generation" was not merely an idle boast. She had recovered quickly – almost too quickly – from the state she had arrived in, suggesting that she was merely putting on a mask, once again concealing her true feelings from the world. Anyone asking as to her health was brushed off with a cocky "Ah, I'll figure it out, no need to worry". Even more worrisome was her reaction when subtle inquiry had found that there was no known way of removing her curse... "Yeah, kinda figured that" and a careless shrug revealing less than nothing of the sheer emotional agony shown when she arrived. Kajiko was... an enigma. A dangerous enigma, yet one with a good heart. There had been several paired exercises where she had given up the prize in favour of her partner's health – even if she had been within a hundred yards of it at the time. In contrast, she seemed to have no respect for her own body at all, often ignoring horrific injury to win, learning every technique shown with incomparable speed – often after only having seen it once. The elders broke from their musings at a shriek from midair. "YATTA!" Kajiko popped out of nothing, seated on a ten foot pole as if it were the most comfortable chair in the camp. Ignoring the confusion all around her she proceeded to juggle two flags and a sign, on which the slogan "the schools will be joined" had been scrubbed out, and "The school has a name!" written in in bold Kanji. Seeming to notice the upturned faces for the first time, the flags and sign vanished, leaving her with a sheepish expression on her face. "Uhhh... Hi? I'm Kajiko, grandmaster of the Kahen Kaosu-ken... sorry 'bout that."
Ranma-chan relaxed back against the roof of her hut, lazily picking the remains of dinner from her teeth as she watched the stars spin in the clear night sky. "Kahen Kaosu-ken... yeah, I like that. Kinda like my life really... total chaos, but mostly under control... like dancin' on a knife edge. She gave a forlorn smile at that "Well... I guess now I've cut my last tie with pops. I don't carry his name, I don't carry his debts... now I'm no longer the future of his school. Heh... nearly time to move on. Living here... it's been good. Peaceful. An' I'm a lot easier with my girl form... but I gotta find a way to fix the Neko-ken... an' ... well... I can hardly call my school the controlled chaos fist if the grandmaster can't control his own chaos... Maybe... if I tell 'em I'm leaving they'll speed up my trainin'. It's been relaxin', goin' this slow, but it's time ta move on." She slipped down from the roof silently, a darker shadow against the night as she moved towards the Elders' meeting hut, not noticing the tiny black pig which wandered into her hut, dripping wet, before vanishing into midair with a resigned bwee.
*.*.*.*.*.*
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...