Ranma 1/2

Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, Rumiko Takahashi does. I just borrowed some of the characters. Rated: NC-17

Shades of Home

Chapter 3

Shades of Home

Chapter 3

Next morning Ranma woke as he normally did. Slowly, feeling groggy, grumpy and out of sorts. {Bacon, I smell bacon and eggs and toast. What else? Cinnamon! Sticky buns!!} Ranma jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and headed for the dinning room.

"Hey! Stop! No running in the halls. Come here!"

Ranma sidled up to the frowning man. What would happen now?

"Go back to your room."

Ranma walked back to the room, head hanging. {Damn! No breakfast!}

"Now walk to the dinning room. There is plenty of food." {I just have to walk?! No pushups, no anything!? Just go back and walk?}

Ranma walked to the dining room, pondering this new way of punishing. Pop had been harder on him. Errors were punished by rounds of kata until he dropped in exhaustion. He'd have to see this Rod of Knowledge, but he had a suspicion that it wasn't much. And what the hell was a Seat of Learning?

As he was eating, Shuba came up to him and said, "Headmaster wants you in his office."

At the look on Ranma's face, he grinned, "You're really in for it today. Poke and prod time. Don't worry about it! They'll test you to flinders. We all went through it. It's how they find out what to do with us. They test every thing from soup to nuts and then tell us what they think we ought to do with our lives. Pain in the Ass, but I've found that they really are right. The few students who have ignored them wound up in real trouble." Shuba gave Ranma a reassuring look. "You done? Let me take the tray for you. Don't expect this kind of service very often, But I really feel for you. Best get going."

Ranma met Headmaster Steven in the hall outside his office. Falling in beside him as he walked, Ranma worked up his nerve.

"Uhh, Sir? Headmaster? About some of those questions Sunny was asking me. What do I say? And what did she mean by ‘what do I do?' I don't understand. What are all these tests I'm suppose to be taking? Will it . . . never mind that. Please tell me something."

Steven smiled at Ranma. {At least he hasn't been completely crushed. I wonder how much of his hesitancy is normal and how much fear of punishment.}

"Let's see. As to Sunny's questions. Answer as much or as little as you want. If she gets too importunate . . . that's pushy . . . tell her to piss off."

"Tests are to find out what you know and how far you have gone in the arts. Also, physical condition. If anything hurts, tell us immediately. Don't push yourself to exhaustion, and relax."

Steven patted Ranma's shoulder, relieved when he didn't draw away.

"I'm afraid that some of the tests will be on that filth around your neck. We need to see what we can do about getting it off and we may, unfortunately, trigger the damn thing. If we do, we'll see to it that you don't feel anything."

Ranma frowned, he didn't like the thought that they might trigger the collar. How could they protect him from it?

"How will you protect me? I hate to be rude but I'd really rather you didn't mess with it too much. I mean . . . if you don't mind."

"Well, I do mind." Steven snapped, "Kid, do you have a backbone somewhere in your body? If you do, I'd like to see it."

Ranma got over being scared, just like that.

"You want to see back bone? OK. Here it is. I was brought up to respect my elders and be polite. But I'm telling you now, if you trigger this damn collar, I'm going to hurt you just as much as it hurts me. And that's a lot.

"You're so old it'll probably give you a heart attack or something."

Ranma gritted his teeth and grabbed his temper, stuffing his fury down deep inside.

"I'm sorry. I hate losin' my temper. Stuff usually gets broken. But I meant what I said; so just be careful, alright?"

Steven felt real relief. He wasn't broken, not even really bent.{OLD!! Heart attack!? Just you wait you little doofus.}

"Kiddo, if we trigger that piece of filth and you feel it. I'll let you pound me. We really do have a lot of experience with magical objects, curses and the like."

Pushing a door open he ushered Ranma into a lab.

Every where he looked there were blinking lights and all sorts of weird machines. It looked like something out of a sci-fi flick.

"Ulp! You're gonna hook me up ta that stuff? Forget about triggerin' the collar! Just don't electrocute me or turn me inta a mutant! Or a puddle a' slime!"

Steven couldn't help it. He started laughing, not a polite, adult, Ha. Ha. kind of laugh. No, it was a real belly laugh. He roared.

"Oh Ranma, I'm sorry about that comment about your backbone. I know that you must be scared half to death but don't be! Just relax, go with the flow, and I'm sure that we can get some good news for you."

After wading through a SAT like test called a General Education Levels, and spending even more time with a shrink, who asked him all the usual, stupid; Do you hate your father love your mother questions, (to which he took exception, answering with shrugs and grunts. Any phobias? "Grunt" *Squirm, shrug* "Cats"), he was shown to a dojo.

Dojo! Yay!

Ten minutes later he wasn't so sure. They had stuck little pads with wires sticking out of them all over him and put a band around his chest.

"What the hell is a stress test, I ain't got no stress. Yet!" Ranma turned sullen teenager, pouting and stubbing his toe into the floor. "And I don't need some stupid machine ta help me run. I ain't gettin' on that thing."

Steven, who had been watching from the side as the Technicians got Ranma ready, walked over and poked Ranma in the chest. "Yes, you are young man! That treadmill is the only way we can keep up with you and collect our data. Now get on it and run." Steven's eyes narrowed in challenge. "Unless you're afraid."

"I'm not afraid a' some stupid machine. If ya can't keep up with me, OK. Here we go." Ranma jumped on the treadmill, barely waiting long enough to let the tech hook him up.

Ranma ran . . . and ran . . . and ran.

After two hours the tech started to fiddle with the machine, saying, "Boss, I think the damn thing is broken. He's been running for more than two hours, at about 10 miles an hour. That's impossible, I mean it is . . . Shit, I don't know what I mean. I see him. He's running. But he's like a machine. And I don't think he's tired yet."

Steven looked up from the papers he was reading.

"Tell him to stop. We've got other tests to go through. I think we can skip all the other physical conditioning tests. If he can run that long and not be out of breath I believe that we can conclude that all his physical levels are top form. He's as strong as an ox!" {And these reports are mind boggling. That contact in Nerima is really good.}.

"Ranma! Stop running. We're done with the stress test and I just got a report that makes any other conditioning tests unnecessary.

"Now we get to have some fun. I've got some opponents lined up for you. We'll test your Martial Arts skill next."

Steven watched as Ranma jumped off the treadmill, but instead of slowing down and hopping off the back, Ranma jumped straight up in the air, flipped twice and landed behind the machine. Wires and sensors flew everywhere.

" Shit! I forgot about those sticky things. Sorry!" Ranma looked around.

Most of the tecks were just standing with their mouths open. Ranma snickered, they looked like fish.

Steven made a satisfied face, nodding to himself. "Don't worry about it. We don't need them for the next tests. Come on."

Ranma moved to the middle of the mat at Steven's nod. He looked around at all the people, wondering which of them was his opponent.

"Ranma! Pay attention, Kiddo! I'd like you to demonstrate any Tai-Chi you know. And a Kata from Anything Goes. Hajimeyou!"

Ranma felt like he was home.

The Art Martial was his love, his life, and his true joy. He showed it in every move. His form was pure and perfect, each stance flowed into the next like water into a pool. Each transition as graceful as a dancer. Each pause had purpose and was exited with smoothly rippling muscles.

From Tai-Chi he moved into an Anything Goes Style power Kata. Like going from a silently flowing stream to a roaring river Ranma exploded. He punched, kicked, jumped, spun, dodged and rolled. It was as if a wholly different person had dropped from somewhere!

He saw a rack of weapons and helped himself.

At Steven's nod he took a staff, then swords, after that Sai. Each weapon spun a web of protection and attack, a glittering web of impenetrable beauty and deadly menace.

Steven finally closed his mouth and called a halt.

"Ok! Ok! Kiddo don't wear yourself out. You're a black belt in weapons. I can see that. Let's see what you can do with a person facing you.

"I'll introduce you to your first opponent. Wendy, this is Ranma. He practices Anything Goes Style. I need you to really go all out.

"Don't worry about losing control. Frank is here just in case.

"Give him a good work out.

"Ranma, Wendy. She is one of those people I was telling you about. The ones that can't control their Ki power. Don't frown Wendy, you know that we only tell that to people who need to know. Take off that torque. We've got your back, as always."

Wendy was blond, blue eyed, 5' 9", weighed about 140 very muscular pounds and was maybe 35.

She pulled a heavy gold ring from around her neck, and the hair on the back of Ranma's neck stood up. There was a battle aura around her now and the power level was really high. Ranma felt it as an electrical static dancing across his skin.

Wendy looked at Steven and the man beside her, "Ok, Steven, Frank, be ready to step in. I really want this, but I don't want to hurt him." She hitched her head from side to side, loosening her neck. "Well, young man. Lets get this done."

Ranma took a stance, standing on one foot the other held hip high, bent at the knee. He clenched his fists and nodded at Wendy. Then, for the observers, every thing went to hell in a basket.

Wendy disappeared, Ranma looked up and then he disappeared. Everyone could hear the sound of fists and feet on flesh, but all they could see were blurs. Ranma realized that this woman was really good, almost as good as he was. But something was really wrong. Her battle aura was growing too fast. She was losing control of it!

Wendy aimed a kick at Ranma's head, but instead of kicking with the ball of her foot, she used the heel. The punch she landed was harder that any girl had the right to have, much less use in a sparing match. {She's really tryin' ta hurt me. What th' hell?}

Ranma dropped, rolled across the mat and jumped to his feet behind her.

She wasn't quite as fast as he was, but her aura made it hard to hit her. Her Ki power repelled his punches, making him have to put more power into them than he liked. He was always afraid that he might hurt someone badly. Most of the people he fought with were almost friends. Even that stupid Tatiwaki Kuno.

This was different! She wanted; no, needed, to kill him.

After fighting for some 10 minutes, in which Ranma used every tactic he knew, he realized that he was going to have to take drastic measures. He knew that Wendy wasn't in control at all. She really wanted to hurt him. Ranma called up his first Ki attack.

Cupping his hands, fingers curled, wrists together, he called a ball of Ki and shot it at her. "Mouko Takabisha!"

It hit her in the back, lapping around her and knocking her down.

She fell to the mat and rolled away from the blast helplessly. Straight for a rack of weight plates. {Oh, no! She's going to hit that rack. All those plates! They'll hit her!}

Ranma called another blast and punched it into the rack, throwing it into the wall. Weight plates stuck in the wall like coins in Styrofoam.

Tecks scrambled to get the torque back on her neck and check to see if she was badly hurt. She was just stunned.

"Hey, Kiddo! Are you Ok?"

"Frank, you shit, you were supposed to keep an eye on me.

"Ranma. I'm really sorry about that. It's been so long since I got an opponent that I lost control completely.

"Now you see what happens if you don't learn to control your Ki. But I don't think you have any worries. That blast was really fine tuned. Just enough to break my concentration, but not enough to really hurt me. And that re-blast. I've never seen anyone do that. Most people need at least an hour to recharge. I can see why Steven is so impressed.

"Hey! Easy! Easy!"

Ranma had grabbed her, checking her over himself and was now hugging her and trying to hide tears.

"I coulda' killed ya. I hate this. I really hate when I have to use Mouko Takabisha."

Wendy patted his back for a moment, Steven had walked over and was holding them both in his long, strong arms.

"Stop shaking! Don't be so upset! She's OK and so are you.

"I really am sorry about this. I didn't realize how much power she had built up. I never would have set you two at each other if I had."

Ranma quickly scrubbed his eyes and gulped a couple of times.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean ta be unmanly. I was just really scared. I usually get mad when I'm scared. But this time there ain't nothin' ta get mad at. So I wound up actin' like a jack-ass. I'm really sorry. It won't happen again."

Wendy grinned at him. "Hey, it's nice to see a guy with some sensibility. I really get tired of alla the testosterone around here. Stay as nice as you are and you'll have girls all over you."

Wendy looked at her watch, "Damn! If I don't get going, I'm going to be late for my class. Well, bye now. Don't let Steven brow beat you. He's really a big teddy bear."

Wendy blithely trotted out the door, leaving a puzzled Ranma in her wake.

" ‘Scuse me all to hell! Doesn't she realize what just happened? She was really tryin' ta kill me. What the fuck?"

Ranma turned to Steven, his eyes demanding explanations.

"Kiddo, she hasn't a clue. She doesn't remember most of what happens. She couldn't live with herself if she did. All she remembers is the actual fight, not how she was feeling. That torque, the necklace, keeps her sane and under control. But she can never leave the Compound."

Steven rubbed his hands together happily. "But I'm glad to see that we aren't going to have that problem with you. Two blasts in less than two seconds. Great control, and your attitude. I'm really impressed.

"And I really owe you an apology. My reports on Anything Goes style are scanty at best. I'm really sorry I insulted your Style. Please accept my apology."

Ranma grinned from ear to ear; an adult apologizing to him, he might really get to like it here.

"Apology accepted. I don't know who your spies were watchn', but either the guy was playin' around or your spies are blind."

Ranma peeked at Steven from under his bangs.

"Brat!" Steven shook Ranma gently by the shoulder.

"Old geezer!" Ranma shrugged his hand off with a laugh.

"This next test isn't one I'm looking forward to conducting, Ranma.

"It's the one on that collar. We really need to get some data. Thank God you aren't under any curses."

Steven furrowed his brow in worry. Ranma had looked down and was twisting his body back and forth, shoulders one way, hips the other, back and forth.

"Well, there is this tiny Jusenkyo curse. See..."

Steven turned so slowly that Ranma cringed.

"A tiny Jusenkyo curse", he whispered.

"A TINY JUSENKYO CURSE. SHIT! PISS! FUCK! AND DAMN, DOUBLE DAMN! "

Steven looked like he was about to cry, or punch someone, or something.

Ranma jumped onto the ceiling light. Hanging from the light he watched as Steven picked up a desk and threw it across the lab, followed by breaking another into pieces the size of saucers. Two fifty-pound weight plates followed that, sticking into the wall beside the others from the rack.

Ranma dropped from the light, appearing in front of Steven in an instant.

"Hey! Don't have a cow! I.. You. Geeze! You'll have a stroke here. Calm down! Calm down! I don't turn into anything gross. I just turn into a. . . . well . . . a girl. There now . . . see . . . I mean . . . Uhh . . . That's not so bad. Is it?"

Ranma got a really good look at the others in the room. They all looked horrified. And they were looking at Ranma not Steven.

"OK. Let me have it! What's the bad news? ‘Cause I can see that there's some."

"A Jusenkyo curse can't be broken. Oh, there are all kinds of supposed cures. They don't work, or only work once."

"That collar was put on you to control you, and suppress your chi power. This is really bad. If that curse has bounded that collar to your chi it's there forever. I apologize for loosing my temper. But this is just too much. I hate slavery and all its trappings. And to have to leave you in that...thing. It makes me sick! Well, it can't be helped. We'll do the tests and see what we've got. Lets go."

"Lay down here" Steven motioned to a table. It had straps on it that Ranma didn't like the look of.

"Hey! I don't wanna' be tied down. You're not gonna do that ta me. I won't do it. Get away! Get off me!" Ranma swatted away the hands that grabbed at him.

"Yes! Get off him. If he won't cooperate we'll just have to do this without safety precautions. If he hurts someone, it's on his head."

Steven knew he had Ranma when he turned his head and snarled. "Ok I know when I'm beat. Get it over with." Ranma hopped onto the table and lay down.