Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Fistful Of Omake ❯ What If Ranma Was Raised By X? ( Chapter 25 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

OMAKE: Worse Parent Than Genma?

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"Worse parent than Genma? This should work!"

Toltiir watched as the pebble skipped off a rock, caroomed off a pillar, then flipped into the water with a noise like a belch. He hadn't expected something like this from Rafael. "Did you mean to do that?"

"oops."

"Guess not."

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The short fellow with the attitude looked up at the tall person with another attitude, and frowned. "So tell me, bub, why I shouldn't beat you like a pinata at a Mexican birthday party?"

Genma frowned down at the little gaijin. "He is my son. By throwing him into the pit repeatedly, I will strengthen him and make him a 'man among men.'"

Logan considered this for all of two minutes. Chuck, aka Professor X, was always going on about duty and honor and stickin' his nose in where it didn't belong. Knowing the Prof, it was likely that he'd disapprove if nothing was done. Heck, killing a kid *that* way was just plain wrong even in *his* book. Maybe he'd do something, give the kid to Chuck, then Chuck could get the kid adopted elsewhere. Meanwhile this'd get the Prof off his damn back. "Got a counterdeal for ya, bub. You and me rumble. If you win, I give ya everything in my wallet. If I win, I take the kid with me to learn what my friends can teach 'em about fighting."

Confident in his martial arts superiority, particularly against some weak gaijin, Genma agreed.

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Long years had passed. He'd hated being a sort of mascot, but as he had no X-gene and was not a mutant - Ranma had only been able to throw himself more and more into improving his fighting skills. Until recently, that is.

With the Danger Room and occasional unprovoked attack by evil mutants and supervillains, Ranma had risen to a level of ability few could ever hope to attain. His sempai, Logan-san, was a tough fellow who knew martial artists from all over. He'd had exposure to martial arts styles from places as exotic as K'un Lun and the Inhumans' Hidden City. The fighting techniques of T'challa and those of Shang Chi and others.

Ranma had learned them all. It didn't help against someone like Juggernaut (who had ended rather decisively the "Ranma Saotome doesn't lose" line) but against opponents who were NOT avatars of unstoppable power, he could manage quite well in a number of situations.

Then Magneto had decided he needed to test a new method of crossing someone from being a normal human to a mutant. Altering them to mutant status would cause a number of humans to go mad or at least would shock them out of their usual politics. Magneto had decided that the test subject should be in the prime of his health, and already associate with mutants.

The artificial X-factor imbued into him had been unstable at first. The fight at Magneto's base had destroyed his machines, and for a year afterward it had looked as if nothing permanent had resulted.

Now, however, Ranma Saotome had another name. It was odd how if he'd been able to choose, he would have chosen something like Piotr's organic steel body, or Logan's healing factor which could have augmented his chi-healing to incredible levels. He would have chosen something that worked well with martial arts directly but didn't overshadow them in other words. Instead he had gotten the descriptive codename of Wildfire.

He had always had a good amount of chi. Training in various techniques under sensei like Daniel Rand and Dhalsim had increased those reservoirs. Having a mutant power like this seemed like a cheat because now he was a walking chi generator. Leap tall buildings? No problem. Throw a Ha Do Ken or use a rough version of Iron Fist's technique? Easy. Heal a teammate's injuries? Tricky, but do-able. Though striking a balance with his reserve was sometimes tricky.

Which brought him here to his native Japan for the first time since his father had sold him to Logan. All he had to do was see a chi technique once and he'd learn it. That wasn't the problem though he *was* planning on learning new techniques while here. What he really needed to do was learn how to better control his chi so that he wouldn't accidently keep discharging excess. His trip to China had brought... other problems. Ones that he didn't want to deal with as of yet.

His land of birth was most likely less crazy.

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Bayankala mountain range, China:

Cologne puffed on her pipe at the edge of the crater and looked mildly amused. "When that boy said he had a problem with his chi production, maybe you should have believed him."

Shampoo limped up on her crutches, scowling. "When can I go after that Outsider?"

"After the cast comes off in another week. You might want to wait until the bandages come off," offered Cologne in her "wise old elder" mode. "Or even when your hair grows back. You're not exactly looking your best, you know."

"If I lag too far behind, Sash will get him." Shampoo thought the stranger had been more handsome than Mousse though she would *have* to avoid startling him again.

"Sash would stay in Japan - she likes their manga anyway. You'd try to bring him back here." Cologne flicked a pebble down into the crater. "Can you imagine what would happen if Mousse decided to attack him the way he did anyone you tried to be friends with while you were growing up?"

Shampoo looked at the crater. Then at what was still standing of the house, then over to the Challenge Log that was still hanging crazily from one chain. "I see your point."

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Sighing, this was his third dojo today, Ranma went up to the rear entry. Were so few people around here good enough to use chi techniques that he wouldn't be able to learn *anything*?

The bell jangled. A young girl peeked her head out a minute later. "Here to challenge the dojo?"

"Yes." It was the easiest way to gauge the skill level of the dojo's master, after all.

"Oh my. Well, if you'd come this way, please."

Ranma nodded at the pleasant seeming woman and allowed her to lead him past two other young girls and finally into the dojo where a middle-aged man was waiting. "You're the sensei of this dojo?"

"Yes, I'm Soun Tendo, Master of the Tendo School of Anything Goes martial arts."

"'Anything Goes'? Hmmm. After I beat you, I'll have to ask you a few questions." Ranma settled into a loose basic stance. "Ready?"

Soun nodded once, frowning as the Challenger failed to identify himself.

Ranma could have simply dodged until he had the measure of the man's skill. He was bored and wanted to get to the good stuff immediately however, and so started off with a major attack. "HADOKEN!"

Nabiki and Akane both gasped as the Challenger threw a fireball at their father. Soun blocked it with crossed forearms but it had hardly been the sort of manuever they'd expected.

For that matter Soun himself was a little shocked even as his feet stopped sliding near the rear wall. A boy this young using a chi attack like that?! He was a bit rusty from years of not using his martial arts skills, but the sudden surge of adrenaline running through his veins was enough to throw off some of it. Upon seeing the boy's foot heading for his head and two inches away, Soun had time to begin blinking.

*WHAM!*

Bouncing off the rear wall and landing on his face, Soun was aware that the boy hadn't struck with nearly full power and had backed off to give him time to recover. Well, the challenge had been given honorably, and he was not about to give up the sign to the dojo. If the boy was intent on showing off in front of his daughters, then Soun Tendo would end this fight quickly by overwhelming this challenger with the full strength of the Anything Goes School Of Indiscriminate Grappling!

Akane gasped again as the two began to blur. Her father had come back faster than she'd ever seen him, that smarmy boy had gotten even faster, and then her father had accelerated further. The dojo was left behind in a moment, the battle turning into a high speed set of feints, attacks, and defenses. One thing in particular occurred to Akane: her father had been holding back in training her - A LOT.

Nabiki's eyes narrowed as she gauged their speed and skill level. She had to have a number of skills in gauging fighter potential, she often played bookie at the various schools and had to figure out the odds well in advance. The Challenger was holding back quite a lot while her father was fighting as near to all out as he could in this situation. Even with her father's skill level improving as old skills were remembered, this fight would have been over immediately if the challenger had wanted it. There was only one reason that Nabiki could fathom: and that was their presence. Mister Challenger didn't want to make the sensei look bad in front of his daughters.

Kasumi watched carefully, blinking every so often as her father's skill gradually improved.

Finally Ranma gauged that this sensei had no particular chi attacks. He was using chi to supplement his speed, strength, and endurance. There was something else, a sort of ego based presence attack that kept flicking into being. As the sensei was now on the edge of collapsing into exhaustion, Ranma gauged that he should play his end move - now!

Soun felt himself thrown straight up as his opponent accelerated yet again. Exhausted and gasping for breath, he tried to roll out and change his angle of descent as it began. Except that the opponent hadn't waited and now had him in an octopus hold. This looked like it was going to hurt.

*WHAM!*

Darn it. Why did he have to be right?

Ranma had leapt away at the last moment, using the sensei as a launch pad to accelerate the other even further while avoiding the impact himself. Man, wasn't he going to run into at least *one* chi master? He leaned back out of the way as one of the girls tried to attack him.

"You bastard!" Akane raged and tried to hit or kick this annoying *boy*. "How dare you beat on our father like that!"

Nope, Ranma decided. No chi techniques here either. Strength and general toughness enhancements only. Oh well, you couldn't expect the student to have too much that the Master didn't. As he'd learned himself, youth and enthusiasm could only carry you so far. "HADOKEN!"

*WHAM!*

Nabiki winced as Akane became one with the perimeter wall, spread eagled and looking shocked. Hmmm. *click* *click* *click* Kuno ought to pay some decent money for these shots.

"Anyone else?" Ranma glanced at the two others. Neither seemed like a martial artist, but he'd met some weird styles recently. When neither seemed inclined to attack him, Ranma nodded. "Well, as soon as he's recovered, I'll ask him a few questions. I gotta find out why your school of martial arts has the same name as mine."

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Death came to Japan.

Okay, his name wasn't death, but it was fairly close at times. To say that Sabretooth stood out among the Japanese was sufficient understatement it was ludicrous. Toad likewise stood out, though not as ridiculously. Mystique was currently an older Japanese man, as her attempts to become a perky Japanese tour guide had proven unable to disguise her attitude.

Magneto spoke Japanese. Not well, he had trouble with inflections and sometimes the use of the proper particle eluded him, but gaijin speaking Japanese were gawked at anyway.

As his usual agents were even more conspicuous than ever, Magneto had decided to gain the assistance of locals. The problem was that mutants in Japan tended not to call attention to themselves, even more so than elsewhere, due to the prevailing philosophy that "the nail that sticks out gets pounded down." The more intelligent mutants would use their powers in a minor subtle manner, if that much.

Which left Magneto trying to recruit from those less intelligent and more antisocial individuals that had fought the law and lost in the past.

A middle-aged Japanese man entered the warehouse, put a laptop computer down on the table, then flopped into a chair opposite the mutant mastermind.

Magneto raised an eyebrow at the man before the latter morphed back into Mystique. "Your report."

Mystique grimaced and turned the laptop so that the screen faced Magneto. "A crew of losers.

"The most promising is Onimusha. Fairly strong, he can lift over three tons. Limited invulnerability, he can shrug off typical injuries without any problem. They used tear gas to catch him. Problem is that he makes Sabretooth seem like a sparkling conversationalist and his ability to stick to a plan is outright pathetic."

Sabretooth growled from the sidelines at the perceived snub.

Magneto nodded. Sounded like a good henchman for recruiting.

"The rest of them are pretty poor candidates," Mystique continued. "There's Vidphile: who has the ability to use psychic photography to snap pictures of girls' panties. Lady Sumo - an extremely violent girl whose powers come from superdense fat tissue all over her body. There's Gourmand. Mutant power of being able to eat darn near anything. Lostboy - ability to get lost very quickly. There are also a number of martial artists with strange abilities, but I'm still researching those."

"Any promise there?" Magneto shook his head. Why didn't the only country ever targetted by nuclear weapons have more mutants?

"Some," admitted Mystique. "Many of these may be mutants from description of their power levels, or they may be mystically enhanced. I'm checking several of these as potential recruits but they appear to have their own agendas and tend to be loners. We can offer many of these little incentive to join. There *is* one promising candidate - some girl who hates boys and has some kind of battlerage."

"Well, if she turns out to not be a mutant, maybe we could just give her to Sabretooth," suggested Toad.

Sabretooth merely grinned at the prospect.

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"An arranged marriage?" Ranma scowled. "Well, there's a couple of things wrong with that."

"Which daughter did you say you'd marry?" Soun wasn't prepared to drop the subject by a long shot.

"The first thing is that I don't give a flaming about family honor," continued Ranma. "I've spent nearly ten years in the States and gettin' into scrapes all over the world. Every single time I've run across that stupid father's name: there's been dishonor attached to it. Can't uphold the family honor if there ain't none left."

"Rrrrraannnmmmaaa!" Soun began his Demon Head Attack, ignoring his daughters as they cringed back. This insolent young pup obviously needed to be taught a lesson.

Ranma grinned. At last! A chi attack he didn't know. Looks like it worked like so.

Soun cringed as Ranma suddenly replied with his *own* Demon Head Of Outrage Attack. How had the boy learned such a technique when it was based on the Master's chi immobilization attack. Genma didn't know one... Of course! The boy must have learned it from the Master. Wait a minute. The Master?!!

Ranma filed this new technique away as Soun Tendo began grovelling. Looked like this was a handy technique after all. Pain on the upkeep though, so Ranma dropped the chi aura.

"Oh dear, oh my," said Kasumi. She and Nabiki knew that attack as well, their father had fired it off quite a few times over the years. Oh well, Ranma was too young for her anyway.

Akane mumbled something from her bandages. As she currently looked like an extra in a Curse Of The Mummies film, mumbling was about her speed right now.

Nabiki shrugged expressively. "Sounds like he's none too interested, Daddy." Privately she felt that was too bad, as this guy was pretty cute.

"B-b-b-but..." Soun blubbered. On the one hand the dream of so many years, on the other hand the idea of this boy being the heir and disciple of the Master.

Feeling a lot better about the day, Ranma smiled and thanked his hosts before getting up and leaving. A new chi trick. Now he'd just have to check out this place over in Tomobiki that sounded promising.

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"Hmmm," hmmmed Toltiir. "So Ranma goes running around Japan briefly. Magneto tries to capture him while recruiting 'local talent' - then Ranma returns to America and Xavier's School at the end of summer break. No Tendo+Saotome marriage?"

"No, but Sash follows Ranma to Japan and gets involved with Mister Tendo after he accidently defeats her. Since the Tendo place is about five miles from a 'Manga No Mori' franchise she decides to settle down there." Rafael stretched his wings uncomfortably. "When Magneto learns that his target isn't in Japan anymore, he leaves with his new recruits in tow."

"Onimusha, Lady Sumo, and Peeping Tomcat among his new members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants." Toltiir shook his currently feline head. "Well, it's different, I suppose. No curse, and Ranma still has a number of interested girls but they're all minor powered mutants at the school, but it's a little different at least. Instead of insanely powerful martial artists showing up to challenge him, it's insanely powerful mutants and world menaces."

Rafael looked uncomfortable. "Actually, what I *intended* to do was have Ranma end up being raised by Kuan Yin."

"Already been done," said Toltiir, idly waving a paw.

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