Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ryoga stories ❯ Ryoga's Training ( Chapter 2 )

[ A - All Readers ]

NOTE: This story takes place a few days after "The Truth about Ryoga" story. It is however a seperate event.

Chapter 1 version 1.1

Ryoga's journey brought him to a major part of Tokyo. He looked over the city in the direction of the Tendo dojo.

'Oh Akane, how I long to see your smiling face again. It seems like it's been ages. But I can't. I've fallen behind in my training. I remember how I used to double the weight of my bag and umbrella every year. Since I meet you, something changed in me. I thought it was a good thing. Now I see that if I'm ever to beat Ranma, I really do have to stop being with you.'

As part of his training, he needed to increase his bags weight again. He stopped just outside of the first hardware store he could find. Thankfully this was the one that had everything he usually needed. Before entering, he took a quick look through his back to make sure he knew what he needed to buy.

'Let's see...' Ryoga laid the umbrella aside and opened up his back pack. 'There's my sleeping bag... I remember those nights I looked up at the sky and felt nothing by hate. And confusion since I never seemed know where I was during those days. The sleeping bag actually did one thing for me. It reminded me home wasn't a place with four walls and a roof. It was where ever you hung your hat. Or in those days, where ever I happened to be.'

Ryoga laughed at the memory, but soon stopped himself. 'It feels strange to be able to find joy in a past sorrow. When I think of it though, it feels more like it happened to someone else...'

He shook his head and tried to focus on the task at hand.

'What's next in here... Oh, I was wondering where that bag of gold ore went... I'm not sure what mountain I was on, but I do remember going in and finding this stuff. A few days later, I found a jeweler and he told me I had some where in the area of two hundred thousand yen worth. I can still remember the look on the guys face when I pulled it out of my bag with just one hand.'

'A couple of thousand 100 yen pieces... I got that after I realized I couldn't always hunt for my food. Some cities I would enter would have rules and laws against it. But as long as I had some money, I never had to go hungry.'

'Here's my other bags of coins. What were they called? Oh yeah, American quarters, Spanish pasos, English pounds, some French coins, and German marks too. I could probably get rid of all these foreign things now that I don't have to worry about ending up there by accident...'

'Next I've got my cooking utensils. Nothing's worse then trying to cook and clean your meal with your bare hands. I found that out the hard way. My hands stank for months of dead animal until I got these.'

'My first aid kit. While it's true I rarely ever take this out for myself, I have found it useful whenever I ran into someone in the middle of no where. Thankfully I'm not always the reason they would get hurt...'

'Last, but not least... My twenty-five solid bricks of lead on the bottom. I guess I should add another ten bricks.' As soon as he spotted a clerk, he went over and asked for the bricks.

"Ten lead bricks? I can have them loaded on to a cart and taken outside for you."

"Why?"

"Why?! You don't think you can carry these things all the way to your car in one trip do you?"

"I don't own a car. I'm just going to put them with my other twenty-five bricks."

"Twenty-five! Your joking with me right? No one can lift Twenty-five solid bricks of this stuff. Let me see that bag of yours."

"OK." Ryoga carefully handed his bag over, but the clerk's hands didn't hold on very well and the bag dropped to the ground.

"My lord... Bring that thing over here for a second. I want to weigh that bag of yours." Ryoga did what the clerk wanted and set his bag on the scale. The needle shot around to the max the scale could read. "Do... do you realize what this means?"

"No. Not really."


"Your carrying more than two tons on your back!"

"Actually it's should be about 3 tons, but it was starting to feel a bit light." Ryoga pulled out the money to pay for the bricks. The clerk's mind barely registered this though.

After getting his change back, Ryoga packed the bricks in and headed out the door.


'Now that I think about it, my umbrella's also feeling a bit light. I should stop by the umbrella store next. Last time I was there, the shop owner promised me he would be getting in a new two ton version.' Ryoga set out and several miles later, he entered a small mom and pop shop.

"Hello? Uchi? It's me, Ryoga."

"Ryoga! Long time no see! What has it been, three years?"

"That all?" The two hugged for a second. Uchi was a friend of Ryoga's father before the accident.

"You know, your timing has always been the best. Just the other day, we got in a new umbrella model. It's like your current one, only... well, I'll let you be the judge." The two walked to the back of the store. "Here it is. I'd love to hand it to you, but it took fifteen full grown body builders and a fork lift to carry it in here. The weight is supposed to be five tons I think. They made it with some new fancy man made metal alloy."

The two starred at the almost ordinary looking umbrella and Ryoga felt a chill of excitement. He reached out to grab it. For a second, he wondered if he'd be able to carry this. 'It took fifteen men just to get it in here...'

Focusing, he took the handle and lifted it up. He was surprised to feel the umbrella wasn't that bad at all. The shop keeper just smiled.

"It's so good to see the investment wasn't wasted."

"This thing will do. How much do I owe you for it?"

"Ryoga, you know your money's no good here. I owe you and your family so much for the damage I caused. It's so much, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay my debts."

"Uchi, I don't know what you think you did, but no matter what you did, your debts have been paid in full several times." Uchi's mind drifted for a minute to the terrible accident and the results it had on Ryoga's parents. After that day, they never seemed to be able to find their ways. He was happy that Ryoga wasn't there that day, but as fate would have it, the poor boy got into an accident of his own with a boy named Ranma. So in the end, it seemed being lost would be the Hibiki family curse.

The sound of Ryoga testing his umbrella brought him back to the now.

"Thank you for your kind words Ryoga, but I want you to have that umbrella."

"I shall treasure it. I'll return to buy a new one in a year or two ok?"

"Then I'll have them start work on it today. How's ten tons sound? They told me with the right purity of this new metal, they could make it up to forty tons."

"Ten should be more then enough. I'll be looking forward to it."

Ryoga left the shop and continued to jab and twirl his new umbrella. He knew he had to savor these moments though. They never seemed to last.





NOTE: Please feel free to submit constructive ideas using the review option. Personally, I write stories for this web site to get better at my writting, not to hear rude and unhelpful comments. My stories will not get better by telling me you don't like it.

Thank you to the reader that pointed out a better choice then Titanium. Also thank you to the first reviewer of this story that did the very scientific perspective of this story (and how likely or not it may be). That's what I need. I can also use comments on what elements I forgot to add (too much or not enough first person?). Are my scense descriptive enough or too descriptive?


This update is because I used the wrong kind of metal for the bricks and as my brother pointed out (and the kind scientific reviewer), no real metal could make Ryoga's umbrella weigh 5 tons. So I am currently using "Ye Old Fictional" metal. It's great stuff. It weighs as much as you need it to. As a final note to this short (and pointless) tale, the charater is true to his word. Each year, he returns and gets an umbrella that weighs twice his current one. He also continues to buy more bricks for his back and also gets a lead lined back pack. Sounds fun right?