Er, been awhile since I posted anything on Life and Times. Anyway,
here's to let you know, I haven't forgotten about it.
Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in this story are owned by their
respective owners and creators. I don't own any of them.
This story draws ideas from anime and manga of all the series involved.
A mix of the Street Fighter arcade continuities will be used, but mainly
from the Alpha series and takes an alternate route from SFIII.
This is part of my Life and Times crossover series. This is the fourth
chapter to the First Knight arc.
C & C welcomed.
First Knight 4: Debut
"Sakura!" Ranma screamed out, sitting up. *No, it had been only a
dream," he thought as his awareness returned to him. It was then that
he discovered that he was sitting on a bed, a place he was sure was
different from the forest area where he had collapsed. A door creaked
opened, drawing his thoughts thankfully away from his nightmare.
"Oh, good, you're awake," the small old woman entering the room said.
"You've been asleep for over a day now."
"You found me? Uh, sorry, I forgot myself there. I'm Saotome Ranma,"
he introduced himself to his benefactor.
"I know. I am the one you've been sent to see. Genkai. You were
closer to my temple than you realized. When I saw the forest fire in
the area, I had gone to see what I could do to help, and that was where
I found your body."
"Sakura," Ranma said, remembering the vivid nightmare of the girl with
glowing red eyes, "I have to find her."
"It's too late. I suspect this is the name of the person you were
with? She is gone now. In her place is only a demon. I had known Ryu
was in the area but did not know there was another shotokan student
here. It's unfortunate what they have decided to become."
Ranma flopped back down on the bed. After a moment of lying ther, the
got up again, anger evident in his eyes. "What the hell happened last
night? You seem to know more than I do and I was there."
"Just something that was bound to happen anyway to anyone that trains
in that godforsaken style of shotokan," Genkai sighed, thinking of the
folly of her old departed friend. "Did you know the style the two
people you were with was once the greatest of all the assassin arts the
world has ever known? One man had thought that by taking out the
killing aspect of this art, the bloodshed associated with it would be
gone. He was wrong."
Genkai could feel her age as the memories of the past came back to
haunt her. She pulled up a chair to the bed. As much as it pained her,
she knew that this boy needed to know certain things in order to be
prepared. "It is not entirely true that it is the greatest of the
assassin arts. There are a few other arts that held that distinction on
certain points in history. One of those arts was the nekoken."
"T-The nekoken?" Ranma stuttered, his distress rising at the mentioning
of it.
"Yes, I do believe you are familiar with it. The lone practitioner of
an art feared and long forgotten except by a certain old perverted
coot. Don't be surprised. I've known your master for quite some time
now. I can't believe how your father managed to steal the manuscript
from him."
"You know my Pop, too?" Ranma asked, various questions were jumbled up
in his mind, but he did not know which ones to ask.
"Oh, yes, I know your father. The pride of your master. The person
Happi had been prepared to teach everything he knew too. I don't know
whether to say it was unfortunate when he decided to give up this prize
for your mother. The ambition that once burned so brightly in him, he
in the blink of an eye decided to move onto you."
"He taught me the nekoken on purpose?" Ranma asked, putting the little
bits of facts Genkai told him together. "When I get my hands on him..."
"The nekoken was the most prized of all of the ancient martial arts
techniques that Happi had in his possession," Genkai interrupted the
angry Ranma. "The temptation was too great for your father who wanted
you to take his place as heir to the Anything Goes School. It was
probably the biggest mistake of his life. For with that single act of
teaching you the move, he drew the attention of the current master of
the dark shotokan arts, Goki."
"The man that Ryu had fought against," Ranma said mainly to himself.
The person that had bested the now demonized Ryu. Were Ranma was to
guess who was the better, he would have to admit that the dark aura
surrounding Ryu had been impressive.
Genkai nodded. "Goki's sole purpose in life is to prove to the world
the power of his art. Almost none in this world can stand against him."
"Yusuke once told me no youkai higher than a B class could roam on the
earth realm without Reikai stepping in and taking them out," Ranma said,
confused, because Ryu's strength was at least A class, which would mean
Goki was the same.
"Technically, they are still human. Their demonic nature is of the
soul and mind, not of the body. Enma and Koenma have no jurisdiction
over the human living."
Genkai could already see the hope in Ranma's eyes. "Make no mistake,
they are demonic though. Once they head on to the path they chose,
there is no going back."
*Sakura is still human. I can still save her,* Ranma thought
excitedly.
Genkai could see that her words had no effect on the boy whatsoever.
The impulsiveness of the young. "It is for this reason you have to fear
him. His powers are great and even your master would have a hard time
taking him on in combat. Knowledge of the nekoken has no doubt reached
his ears and thus his reasoning for targeting you specifically. The
prospect of pitting his art against the legendary fury of the nekoken
would be too tantalizing for him to miss out on. It was he that signed
you up for the famed Street Fighter Tournament, in the hopes of bringing
your strength even higher so that he could taste the full power of this
ancient art."
"I can beat him without using stupid c-cats," Ranma said confidently.
"Can you?" Genkai asked as she got up from the chair. "We'll see.
There is someone waiting for you outside by the way. Try not to hurt
him too much. He only came because he thought you were an easy target."
"Huh?"
"A Street Fighter. You are part of the game now. Challenges like this
will happen frequently and unexpectedly. I have a feeling Happi had a
hand in this. By now, your location is probably well known to most
people in the tourney. If you don't want to keep fighting in the lower
ranks, I suggest you make short work of him."
The sound of a fight sounded just about perfect right now to Ranma.
His anger at himself for failing to save Sakura was still fresh in his
mind and he needed to blow off a little steam.
* * * * *
Vega raised his head slightly to look at the screen number forty four.
"Names?"
"Barry Horowitz and Ranma Saotome," his butler replied quickly.
"Give me the data on Saotome," he said quietly. The words barely left
his lips before the screen filled with pictures of various fights was
replaced by one screen with a data sheet. It was quite short compared
to the other such data he had asked for in the past.
"He is a rookie in the Street Fighter Tournament. This should be his
first fight. And he just won apparently."
"More information."
"Loading... ah, there it is. He was signed up by an unknown person,"
the butler said, before realizing what he was saying. Nobody joined up
the tournament without Vega knowing about it. He sweated nervously as
he looked at the large man sitting on the chair.
"It does not matter, continue."
"Practitioner of the Anything Goes style of the Saotome School," the
butler sighed with relief and continued, before stopping again. This
was not his day. "And that appears to be it."
"Raise his rating to A. Proceed with the screenings." The data screen
was just as quickly removed and the various screenings of the fight went
on recording. On screen forty four a young boy was making a victory
sign towards the screen as if he saw them there.
The butler knew better than to question his master and motioned to one
of the technical personnel to do as he was told. *To raise an E class
rookie to A class World Warrior has never been done before,* he
recalled. *I kind of feel sorry for him. He'll be the target of every
A class fighter now. No one will miss the chance to fight someone so
green and raised atop the rankings so fast.*
* * * * *
"So, what you going to teach me?" Ranma asked, his hands intertwined at
the back of his head, indicating how bored he was.
"Who said I was going to teach you anything?" Genkai said as she sat
with Yukina, enjoying the day.
"W-What?" Ranma sputtered out as he heard this. "But, Yusuke said that
you would be able to teach me some moves for the Makai tournament."
"You thought wrong. I teach the use of reiki. You have quite a bit of
that, which I suspect comes from the times you spend in near death
situations. But you don't nearly have the potential Yusuke has with
it. I would stick with life energy if I were you. It suits you well."
"Then why did I come here?" Ranma asked, thinking of his abrupt
departure from Nerima. *I'm dead meat, when I get back.* He stopped
yelling as he felt the gentle hand of the youkai girl, Yukina on his
shoulder.
"Hear her out, please, Ranma-kun," Yukina said.
"Thank-you, Yukina," Genkai smiled at the girl. "Just as impetuous as
Yusuke. I might not be able to teach you anything, but I can train you
in other areas. I'm afraid from what I've learned of your training, you
were coddled."
"Coddled? Lady, you don't know what I've been through to get to wear I
am."
"Oh, I know. But when you reached a point where your body physically
surpassed that of your father, he no longer had any idea where to go.
One of the main reasons he looked for the best training grounds and
moved around so much instead of putting you through the torture you
needed. I have my own limits, but you have not yet surpassed them."
Ranma thought of Yusuke and what he knew of the boy that was only
slightly older than him. If it was true that Yusuke didn't have any
formal training until he was fourteen, than this old woman was indeed
quite the task master. "Train me then. I can take whatever you throw
at me."
* * * * *
"Hey, why'd you wake us?" Mini-Urd complained groggily rubbing her eyes
with her little hands.
"Yeah, I had such a wonderful dream about Mamo-chan, too," Mini-Usagi
added.
"It was you!? Stop having them!" Ranma yelled at the sleepy and now
cringing girl. "Man, I thought I was turning...," he stopped as another
of the girls held his hand. His anger dissipated as he looked at
Mini-Moiraine's shy smile.
"Okay, just this one time. I thought I told you three not to mess with
my mind. Anyway, I need ask you three if you can stop 'enhancing' me
while I stay with Genkai."
"Well, I don't provide you with that much of a boost," Mini-Urd said.
"It's the other two you should be looking at."
"Waah," Mini-Usagi cried. Ever since Usagi managed to bind Ranma to
her, her 'mother' was decidedly stubborn about making sure he never got
into a situation where he could die again. Her mother would be pretty
angry with her if she let anything happen to him. "But Usagi can't
control it. She naturally worries about you so her strength transfers
to you when she thinks about you."
"But it's a two way thing, isn't it? Just send everything she sends to
me back to her, okay?"
"Okay," Mini-Usagi agreed, after concluding whether or not she could
hide that little detail from Usagi. She was rewarded with a smile from
her host. She happily smiled back as it meant Ranma wasn't angry about
her anymore. *Jeez, it was just a small dream. I wonder if he'll be
mad if dream about him instead,* she thought, giggling to herself. *He
probably wouldn't notice with his ego.*
"How about you," Ranma asked Mini-Moiraine. She had a cross look on
her face that made the resemblance to the Aes Sedai eerily familiar.
"It's only for practice. It's not like she's going to kill me."
Mini-Moiraine sighed and gave a pat on his hand to show that she will
do as he asked but kept the cross look so that he also knew that she
wasn't happy with it.
"Uh, can you keep it a secret from Moiraine? I don't think she'd be
too happy if she knew about this," Ranma said. Out of the Moiraine,
Urd, and Usagi it was oddly the former that made him feel the need to
keep this secret from. Though the woman had the outward appearance of a
marble statue, he could still feel from time to time the pain she
endured at not having her first warder by her side. "This won't hurt
her will it? I mean, I'm pretty sure of how she's going to feel if the
bond is broken."
Mini-Moiraine just smiled and held out her arms for Ranma to pick her
up.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Mini-Urd said as she looked at her
apprentice in disgust. "How hard is it to talk? You can't keep doing
that forever you know."
"Me too, me too," Mini-Usagi said, holding out her hands for Ranma to
hold up too. She squealed deliberately louder so Mini-Urd could hear as
she was placed on Ranma shoulder.
Mini-Urd scowled as she looked at the two scrubs. *I could be cute to
and not talk!* she thought, before noticing that Ranma was heading out
to meet up with Genkai. "Hey, wait up!"
* * * * *
A wave of nostalgia passed over Ranma as he locked the last of the ball
and chains into place over his left hand. It was awkward to move with
the four weights handcuffed to his wrists and ankles. The weight
themselves were not much of a problem as he could lift a small boulder
if he had too with the training he had undergone.
He could remember how he had scoffed at his pop the first time he had
done this sort of training. The weight distribution had been
inconsistent so it did not really help much in building up his body as
his pop had hoped. Not for the first time on this trip, he missed the
crazy ideas and company of the older Saotome. Neither of them were big
on touchy feely stuff, but at times the big lug did genuinely care for
him, Ranma knew.
"Are they secure?"
Ranma looked at the diminutive old woman standing in front of him on
the edge of the cliff side. "Yeah. I don't know what you're planning.
But this type of training doesn't work very well in building up the
body. It would be if the weight was more evenly spaced."
"You've been living with Happosai for a year. I trust that your body
is at the top physical condition."
"Then what are we doing here?"
"I going to kill you and you are going to stop me."
"What..." Ranma barely uttered the word out before Genkai launched
herself at him with a deceptive speed her old appearance gave no
indication of. The woman quickly got under his guard as his encumbered
arms were not fast enough to stop her. He grunted as he felt a sharp
pain in his abdomen. She was also strong her age and size it appeared.
One would have thought that after staying with the likes of Cologne and
Happosai, he would have learned not to think so little of the old.
Genkai didn't pause a moment in her assault and fired a minor rei blast
into Ranma's gut. The boy crumpled to the ground. Not bothering to
make sure if he could take anymore, she continued with a flying stomp to
where his body lay. She was not surprised that he finally managed to
gather his wits and scramble out of the way. "In Makai, many youkai
have abilities that might give them an unfair advantage. They will not
hesitate to take advantage for a single moment and many fight to the
death."
Ranma spit some blood out of his mouth. "Sounds fun," he said. He
regretted it when Genkai took the small moment he used to reply to her
to come after him again and he found himself gasping as her leg found
its way into his midsection. She was deliberately not making this fair
he was beginning to find out. He fought through the pain and managed to
take a swipe at the head of his assailant. "You think just because I
haven't been to Makai, I don't know what it's like to fight when the
odds are stacked against me?"
*Another mistake,* Genkai thought as she prepared to use the
conversation and once again draw close to the boy. She was surprised to
see that Ranma didn't even wait for her to answer his question as she
had expected. *Using my own method of distraction against me. He's
learned the Anything Goes style well, Happi.*
Ranma winced and knew what a fool he had been even as he through his
first punch in this one sided battle. Predictably, his weighted arm
didn't even come close to the old woman before he saw her image blur
from his sight and another searing pain erupted in his stomach. The
pendulous swings of the ball on the chains counteracted his momentary
surprise attack as they fought against the momentum of his speeding
fist.
* * * * *
"Oh, that's got to hurt," Mini-Urd said, adverting her eyes. She found
Mini-Usagi cowering below her not even daring to look. "What's the
matter with you."
"What I don't see, I won't know. If Usagi finds out about this, I'm
going to get it," she said, keeping her eyes shut.
"..."
"And what's with you?" Mini-Urd asked her apprentice, who didn't even
blink as she watched Genkai 'train' Ranma. Mini-Moiraine didn't answer
her, keeping her silent vigil.
"You better not be thinking about healing him. I get first dibs!
Besides, the Yggdrasil doesn't like you using that old fashioned magic
of yours," Urd said suspiciously. Her suspicions were confirmed as she
felt the air around her contract around her body, holding her into
place. "How... oh, sign language. You little spore! When did you get
the Yggdrasil to accept that as your input device? If you heal Ranma, I
swear I'm going to make you talk and then lets see who's the cute silent
one then!"
Mini-Moiraine sniffed and wagged her little fingers, invoking a spell
to close Mini-Urd's mouth. Satisfied, she went back to looking at the
fight making sure to note all the places Ranma was injured.
*That little brat. After all the things I taught her... hey, come to
think of it, it's my fault. I _did_ teach her this stuff,* Mini-Urd
suddenly recalled. Pride at this little fact warred against her anger
for a moment. Anger won out as she caught the smug look on her
apprentice's face. *My luck to get a student with the personality of
both Moiraine and Ranma.*
* * * * * *
Genkai finally stopped when she waited a full minute and Ranma did not
get up. The battle did not go as badly as she would have guessed. The
boy really was quite well versed in the art and thinking of the Anything
Goes style. He almost had a chance when he decided to just stand in one
place and then used the two chains tied to his arms as weapons, negating
the hindrance of his mobility and turning the other two on his arms into
tools. Even when she started firing rei blasts at him, he still managed
to hold his own with firing chi blasts himself. That is until she used
one that, while not strong enough to kill Ranma, was strong enough to
knock him out for a day.
"You girls can come out now and help him. Get him rested and tell him
we do this again tomorrow." She rolled her eyes as the three female
souls looked back at her with scowls. Who would have thought that
someone would have a sillier excuse for a soul than Pu, Yusuke's.
Looking at them again, she wondered where this would lead. She knew of
how Pu had transformed when Yusuke assumed his rightful heritage as a
half-demon. The link between them was similar to Ranma and these
three. This was especially true in the case of the silent one. Whether
she grew into a demon or and angel would depend on Ranma and the woman
he was bonded to. She shook her head sadly as she thought of the Makai
tournament. Where Yusuke thought battle brought the best out in
everybody, Genkai's experience taught her that it also brought out the
worst aspects.
* * * * *
"Are you okay, Miss?" the stewardess asked the woman who was currently
clutching her head in pain. She noticed that it was the Police
Inspector that had demanded to be let on at the last minute.
"I-I'm fine. Can you get me some aspirin?" Chun Li asked, her hands
still holding her temples. She looked up and gave the stewardess a fake
smile, to show that she was feeling a little better as far from the
truth as that was. She leaned back into her chair after the woman came
back with her pills and the pain had passed.
The blackouts were becoming all too familiar. *What did that bastard
do to me?* Chun Li thought as she tried to finish off some of the work
she brought with her on her laptop. Her recollections of her time she
spent captured by Vega were still not very clear to her, but lately she
was able to drudge up some memories of that event. If Ryu and Ken had
not saved her... she shuddered. She would still be a puppet of that
evil megalomaniac. Ever since that day, she had taken showers every day
as if that could help erase the psychopower Vega had once forced upon
her.
*But it never works. The shroud of darkness never seems to leave me.*
Chun Li shook that unhappy thought and again looked back at the screen
of her laptop. She frowned and knew that something had to be wrong.
Nobody jumped up to A class status in the Street Fighter Tournament with
just one battle no matter how good he or she was. That meant only one
thing. Vega had interfered directly with the status. Whatever Vega
touched could only lead to destruction.
"Saotome Ranma. Your next match won't be so easy."
* * * * *
Ken panted as he lay on the ground breathing hard. *Why am I doing
this? Eliza's going to be angry that I missed our date again.*
As he lay on his back, his eyes traveled up the reinforced specialty
punching bag he had made. Sand trickled down from the rather large gash
on it. *I did it... I finally did it. I've perfected the shoryuken.*
He forced himself to stand up and look at his handiwork and suddenly he
found himself staring in horror. His shoryu reppa, a move he had
developed when trying to perfect the shoryuken had _changed_. It was a
technique he had sought to practice after seeing his sensei beaten by a
similar move. It had been a slow process, but eventually with a little
hard work he managed to heat his fist with chi enough that it burned his
opponents. Now, however, the stage of his growth was far beyond what he
had thought was his limit so short awhile ago.
The move he had just performed had been the messatsu goshoryu. The
exact same move his sensei was beaten with. He could do nothing but
stare at the gash that radiated with the same dark aura he had seen on
only one other person. *But, how is this possible? The perfection of
the shotokan arts is the same art that Goki uses? Unless...*
Ken raised his hands up in front of him. His trained senses could
still see the kill chi radiating from them. Without even thinking of
it, his natural instinct had been to kill and that was what brought the
change in his technique. Every time he had used it before he had been
mindful to hold back lest he kill his opponent with it. And he enjoyed
the feeling.
*What's happening to me?* he asked himself as a the thought of testing
the move out on a Street Fighter passed through him.
A figure, hundreds of miles away from the dojo that Ken practiced at,
lowered his head again once the dark aura he had felt filtered into
nothing. "That's three."
* * * * *
"That dumb jerk!"
Minako looked up questioningly at Usagi from her place on the floor
with her friends.
"It's probably Ranma again," Ami said, also looking up.
"He's gotten himself beaten up again! When I get my hands on him...,"
Usagi said, holding her hands out as if the choke the boy if he were
here.
"He's a martial artist, Usagi. He can take care of himself. I'm sure
he's gotten into worse scrapes," Rei said, though calmly she went and
brought the phone over to the hysterical girl to make sure.
"What!?"
"Jeez, Usagi," Makoto said. "What'd he say that got you so riled up?"
"That's just it. He's not home and won't be for two years. He's
decided to go on a training trip." Usagi gave up all pretense of
pretending to study and got up to get her shoes. She had to get to
Nerima.
"Wait, hold it! Usagi, didn't he go on a ten year one just before
this?" Rei asked, but also got up to get her shoes. She frowned as the
rest of the vultures... her friends got up to do the same.
"He went alone! And that stupid brat, Usagi-chan, won't answer me when
I call her," Usagi complained.
The rest of the group bigsweated, not knowing how to take what was
basically their friend insulting herself.
* * * * *
"Hey, I thought I told you not to help me," Ranma grimaced as he the
three girls pushed him down on the bed. Mini-Usagi stood by his legs
with a miniature wand pointed at his feet. Mini-Urd sat on his chest
muttering in rhyme. He avoided looking at Mini-Moiraine who had a very
ugly expression on her face. She was tending to his head so he was
forced to look at her after a while.
"Hey, what are you looking at me for? I didn't die, did I?" Ranma
asked. She kept looking at him with a frown. "Okay, you can help me
heal up after we spar. But, no power boosts. I want to do this on my
own."
If she was happy about this, her passive face didn't let him know. She
was constantly the one that made him edgy. She was literally his
daughter in that she grew as he grew. From what he had learned from
Mini-Urd, this personification of his bond with the Aes Sedai back in
Tokyo was not yet fully grown yet, being so new. The Yggdrasil was
constantly modifying the little soul with information from him and
Moiraine. With the way the woman kept her emotions to herself though,
Ranma had become something of a single father.
"Eep! What do you think you're doing, Ranma," Mini-Urd asked as she
was suddenly picked up by the boy.
"You girls can do this tomorrow. Little girls need their sleep."
"Ranma, I'm hardly little. I'm the same age as you. It's grandma over
there that needs sleep," Mini-Usagi giggled, pointing to Mini-Urd.
"Who are you calling Grandma? You're just a baby!" Mini-Urd yelled.
"Girls, go to sleep," Ranma said, after having enticed Mini-Moiraine
into his arms and gently rocked as if she was a baby.
"Oh, we don't really need sl...," Mini-Usagi suddenly found her mouth
clamped shut.
"Will you rock us to bed too?" Mini-Urd asked sweetly.
"I guess..."
"Done!"
"Hey, me too!" Mini-Usagi said. She winked conspiratorially with the
small goddess. The truth was that while they often slept inside Ranma's
body, they didn't need it. Being part of Ranma's soul, when he slept,
he rested for the three of them. It was just that there really wasn't
that much to do inside his body so they spent most of their time in
stasis as most souls did, coming out only in times of need and
'boosting' the bodies as Ranma said. Unlike most souls, they did this
even when asleep. It took conscious effort not to help Ranma.
* * * * *
"Will he be fine?" Yukina asked Genkai as they sat enjoying the end of
the day.
"I don't know," Genkai said truthfully. "It is as they say. His
ambition is as great as Yusuke's once was. The 'battle fever' within
him grows larger the more he fights. Every times he encounters his
better, he can not help but want to level the field, like our battle
today. The Anything Goes style should have been long destroyed along
with the art his friend Ryu had fallen prey to."
"He seems okay right now."
"It only takes one memorable fight to spark him and he will be lost.
Such is the case with anyone that takes on the mentality created by
following the way of Anything Goes. If I were to say try and challenge
him at this moment even though he has just witnessed how badly I
defeated him, he could not say no."
Yukina turned and looked towards the room Ranma slept in. "Does he
have any hope?"
"He has already been targeted with by an S class demon. The boy will
not back down from this fight. His chances do not look good."
Yukina prayed for the soul or rather souls of the sleeping boy that was
unaware of what was happening.
* * * * *
The End. (maybe)
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