Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Mind among Men ❯ Shattering ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A Mind among Men
A Ranma Fanfic
Written By : Noaki (Noaki@juno.com)

Disclaimer : I do not own in any way shape or form any
part of Ranma. I only use it's characters and some of its
storyline.

Conversation Key :
[" "]=Thoughts
" " =Speaking
* * =Telepathy
{" "}=Panda Signs
\" "/=Other Languages

Chapter Two
Shattering

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What has happened (Time line):
This fanfic takes place a week after the failed wedding attempt. Ranma sits on the roof and thinks (Hell let out for a snow day) about an upcoming challenge. He finally decides to use a scroll that could very well drive him insane for life. After reading the scroll, a big change comes over Ranma. He leaves for a ten day training trip and comes back very different. After a day at school the preparation for the upcoming battle is completed and the fighters gather in the early morning.

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The sun rose over the fields of Furinkan High, sending long thin shadows spearing into the dew covered grass. A large crowd had gathered to watch what promised to be a fight that could make an alien invasion seem boring. The shadows revealed one figure standing across from a fair multitude gathered around a small old man in the middle. As even the birds quieted down to watch the mayhem that was sure to erupt, the fighters began their introductions.

"Alright, I'm here old perv. Can we get this over with?" Ranma shouted out towards the group of fighters.

"Not yet! We have to entertain the crowds. Happosai! Have your... er... team... identify themselves." Nabiki shouted from her impromptu ticket booth.

Ranma and Happosai face-faulted. "Fine. I am Happosai, and I'm gonna make you carry on the Anything Goes school as you should!" Happosai said as he stood up.

"We fight alongside the master! Our children will join the families!" Genma and Soun shouted.

"RANMA PREPARE TO DIE! You confused Akane!" Ryoga shouted.

"You do realize that if you DO beat me I have to marry Akane?" Ranma replied.

"NOT IF YOU'RE DEAD!" Ryoga said then started to laugh.

"I shall smite thou foul presence once and fore all to release the lovely pig tailed girl." Kuno shouted.

"The old man said he'd change my name if you lost." Pantyhose Taro said.

"If you marry Akane, then Ukyo will marry me!" Konatsu said.

"If you marry Akane, then Shampoo will marry me!" Mousse said.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I owed Happosai a favor. I ask that you do not hold this battle against me." Herb said.

"Herb? How you doing?" Ranma said happily.

"Fine and you?" Herb replied before Happosai smacked him over the back of the head with a pipe.

"Quit talking with the enemy and pay attention!" Happosai said as he hid his pipe in his sleeve.

"I shall defeat you and prove to all that my school of Not Much Goes Toothpick Fencing is the best in the world!" some strange guy in armor made from toothpicks shouted.

"Is he for real?" Ranma asked.

"Afraid so..." Happosai replied with a frown.

"OK, tickets are sold and bets in place. You can fight now." Nabiki said while shoving a large roll of yen into her back pocket.

"What are the rules old freak?" Ranma asked.

"Why, Anything Goes of course. If we win, and you live, you marry Akane. If you somehow manage to defeat all of us then you can choose your own fiancee at your own pace." Happosai said with an evil grin.

"You better not lose!" Akane shouted from the crowd.

"Alright. Ready when you are." Ranma said as he dropped down to all fours and arched his back.

"What the hell?" the crowd and Happosai team said at once, except for Kuno. He was currently running at Ranma bokken first.

"Die foul Black Sorcerer Saotome." he cried as he swung his bokken at Ranma's head.

Ranma casually swiped one hand out. Kuno went white as a sheet as his bokken fell apart in several pieces.

"It seems grandson has mastered the Neko-ken." Cologne said from the sidelines. "This will be a good fight!"

"Umm... did he just destroy a bokken without touching it?" Toothpick boy asked. "Well... um.. that's nice... I'm outta here." he said when Genma slowly nodded. He then turned tail and ran... straight into the pool.

"Die Saotome!" Mousse shouted as he threw uncountable numbers of chains from his sleeves towards Ranma.

Ranma lazily dodged all the chains and bound towards Genma and Soun. "Meow." he said after coming to a halt in front of them.

Genma and Soun are not known for their brilliance. They do, however, have a great sense of self-preservation. All they could think of was what Ranma could do when in the Neko-ken, and the fact that Ranma was currently in the Neko-ken at the moment. The fact that there were no cats around was lost on them. The survival sense that told them that Ranma could shred them like paper won over the fear of Happosai. They both turned white and fainted on the spot.

["Well that was easy."] Ranma thought as he dodged a throwing knife from Mousse. He noted that all the other fighters had gotten over the surprise and were now converging to attack. He quickly ducked a barrage of chains that wrapped Konatsu up completely then dodged Taro's fist and Ryoga's umbrella. After a few minutes of dancing around he backed away from the mosh pit that had formed. He laughed when Taro punched Ryoga into the swimming pool along with toothpick boy. Instant P-chan and one less opponent.

"Take this! Fist of the White Swan Revised! SWAN LAKE!" Mousse shouted as he jumped into the air and threw hundreds of training potties at Ranma.

Ranma stood up to full height and held up one hand. A slight cyan glow filled Ranma's eyes for a second, then disappeared. The training potties suddenly stopped in mid air, turned, then rocketed back at Mousse.

Mousse frantically dodged the flying porcelain only to find himself stuck in mid-air as Ranma's eyes glowed lightly a second time. Happosai took that moment to hit Ranma with a small bomb, and Mousse fell to the ground and lost his glasses as the glow left Ranma's eyes.

"NOW, DO IT NOW!" Happosai shouted, and with those words three shadows rose from the ground.

"Sorry 'bout this, but we are under contract. We won't cripple you if we can help it." one of the demons said as it solidified into a solid form. All three were eight feet tall, looked like cats, and had jet black fur.

"HAHAHA, you can't win against demons! Especially CAT demons!" Happosai shouted then started to cackle evilly.

"Is he like this all the time?" a second demon asked.

"Pretty much." Ranma said nonchalantly.

"Oh, OK. Just checking."

"Stop talking, lets get this over with and go home." the third demon said. With that he leaped towards Ranma intent on knocking the martial artist out.

Said martial artist easily dodged by leaping straight up then coming down, heel first, at the base of the demon's spine. Ranma grabbed a hold of the tail and yanked hard, resulting in a cry of pain from the demon.

"AHHH!!! NO FAIR! NOT THE TAIL!" the demon cried as he flailed about trying to clutch his broken tail.

"Dude, that was harsh." the second demon said. "You have no clue how much that hurts."

"I think I do." Ranma said as, with a grin, a dark gray tail unraveled from his waist.

"What the..." was the response given by everyone at the same time.

"Side effect of the Neko-ken. One of them at least." Ranma replied with a shrug.

The two remaining demons turned towards Happosai. "You did not tell us we would be fighting a Neko-ken user. This is really not funny." the first said.

"Yhea, bummer." the second added.

"IT'S BROKEN! THAT MORTAL BROKE MY TAIL!" the third said as he rolled by in agony.

"He's not supposed to be able to control it!" Happosai shouted in frustration.

"Umm... technically it's not the Neko-ken." Ranma said helpfully.

"What is it then?" the first demon said.

"Well, when I was training last week someone calling themselves Urd and Skuld came down and helped me with my Neko-ken. They said that I was now the only living user of the Ryu-Tsume." Ranma said with a smile.

The two remaining demons looked at each other and nodded. A quick blast of chaos energy and they incinerated the third, then turned and ripped each other's stomachs open. "No way in hell we're gonna fight him." the first said before he died.

"Screw you, ya old pervert." the second said before he died as well. As the bodies went still, flames burst into existence and the bodies were incinerated and the demon's spirits banished back to hell.

"Well that's just great. I knew I should have used twice as many bras and half as many panties..." Happosai mumbled.

"Is that true, are you the wielder of the Dragon Claw?" Herb asked unsteadily.

"Err... yhea. Why?" Ranma replied nervously.

"GURAAAAAAH!" Taro snorted as he charged at Ranma, knocking Mousse's glasses back off on the way.

"Not now Taro." Ranma said as he casually hopped over the charging beast and kicked him into the school building through an open window. A crash was heard followed by a young voice shouting out an attack. A few seconds later an adult Hinako walked out of the building and sat on a bleacher to watch the rest of the fight.

"No reason really. You just happen to have more dragon's blood than I do now, that's all." Herb replied.

"Oh... That explains the wings." Ranma said.

"What wings?" Shampoo asked from the sidelines.

"Hurts like hell to bring them out. Not gonna do it right now." Ranma replied.

"Might as well get my beating over with." Herb said as he flew up into the air and launched a chi blast at Ranma.

Ranma's aura sprung to life around him. It's size had not grown much. In fact it seemed to have shrunk. But it was pure ki now, not hampered by emotions that he may or may not be feeling. While harder to summon up, pure ki is much more useful. Since it was not hampered by emotion, it could be formed into different shapes much quicker and with less energy wasted. It was much more efficient to use, leaving the fighter with more endurance. While not much more powerful, it does have a little more kick that the lighter (love, happiness, innocence) emotions, but doesn't quite reach the power of the heavy emotions (hate, anger, depression). The real advantage of pure ki is the fact that it can be utilized in multiple ways at one time.

The chi blast stuck Ranma's aura and promptly exploded. A large dust cloud was kicked up at the point of impact. Suddenly the dust began to swirl on one side and a beam of white ki lanced out to strike Herb. Herb dodged, but the beam curled back around to strike him from behind. A thin sheet of ice quickly formed over him from the neck down, leaving him immobilized. As the dust cleared Ranma could be seen standing on a small patch of grass that stood in the middle of a crater, his aura blazing and him unharmed.

"So, it seems grandson has mastered the use of raw ki. Quite a catch indeed." Cologne muttered to herself, somehow being overheard by Nabiki, who just put a grin on her face.

"It's down to me and you old man." Ranma said as he turned to face Happosai. Mousse took that moment to forego his glasses and throw a kitchen sink at Ranma. His aim was perfect and the sink flew straight towards the blurry figure that had his back to him, unfortunately that figure was Happosai. A dull clunk echoed through the air, then Happosai fell over stiff with his head stuck in the drain of the sink.

"So maybe we weren't alone... I always know he had a sink in there somewhere. Wonder what he keeps in his socks." Ranma said with a chuckle. He began walking towards the sidelines, his eyes glowing cyan once again. Mousse was lifted off the ground and flung towards the pool, landing with a splash and a quack. ["Why did he quack BEFORE he turned into a duck?"] Ranma wondered.

As Ranma wandered off the soccer field (read battlefield) Genma (who woke up as soon as the fight was over and his hide safe), Ukyo, and Shampoo ran up to him.

"Boy! Where did you learn that?"

"Ran-chan, honey, when did you grow a tail?"

"Now Ranma no have to marry pervert violent girl! Shampoo happy for Ranma!"

"Ranma you jerk! What did you do to Ryoga? You killed him didn't you? And you were picking on P-chan again!" Akane screamed as she ran up holding a soggy P-chan. She was about to brain him with her mallet when he turned and looked deep into her eyes. She stopped dead in her track as his eyes seemed to pierce to her soul. She felt like an open book before him, nothing was hidden from his gaze. A lone tear streaked down his face.

"You really believe all of that. How? Why?" Ranma said sadly.

"Wha... What do you mean? Of course I do! Your nothing but a..." Akane started.

"Insensitive baka. A jerk, idiot, jock. A prize to be kept from others, to be destroyed as a child eventually does to all their toys. Something to do as you wish with, then cast aside at the slightest inconvenience. No more than a roach you would step on and think nothing of. Ever since the wedding attempt, that's all I have been to you. You had feelings for me before that, but not true love. Not quite yet. If only you had given it a chance. But fear and greed kept you from showing it. I could never be happy with you now. Maybe it was never meant to be. I don't know why I didn't see it before. I was just as blind as you. But I know different now." Ranma said quietly, the noise of the crowd preventing anyone but those gathered around him hearing. He silently turned to face Genma.

Genma too felt like an open book. A very thin, picture book; but still open. He tried to lower his eyes and break Ranma's gaze, but was held in place.

"And to you I've been nothing but a tool. The master craftsman keeps his tools nice and sharp, he uses the best he can, and he creates what he wants with that tool. But when the tool breaks, he tosses it away in favor of a new one. As soon as I was useless and broken, you were going to cast me aside. But you wished to use me as long as possible. You wanted to use me to craft yourself into a comfortable life, then leave me to dull and rust. And when I was of no more use..." Ranma said sadly. He turned to Soun and the other two Tendo daughters as they walked up. "Mr.Tendo, I can't marry Akane. Nabiki would be almost as bad. Kasumi has already been proposed to. I advise her to accept. I know this engagement means alot to you, but I know your family's happiness comes first. Trust me when I say that none of your daughters could lead a happy life with me." Ranma said loud enough for them to hear.

Soun looked at Ranma, looked into Ranma's eyes, and realized the truth. "Well, it seems you were the first to open your eyes. Thank you for opening mine too." he said with sadness playing across his face. He turned to Genma slowly. "What your son said is true. I cannot force my family do to something that would force them to lead a life they do not wish. I am breaking the pact between the families."

Genma stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds. "You can't do that! It's family honor!"

"I am afraid I must use the subclause to the agreement then." Soun said as he began digging through his pockets.

"Subclause? What are you talking about Tendo?" Genma asked, starting to sweat nervously.

"Ah! Here we go. This one on the back of the napkin that says either party reserves the right to break the engagement if he deems it harmful to his family." Soun said as he showed Genma the napkin they had signed the pact on all those years ago.

Genma took the napkin from Soun and quickly read over it. Then he tried to eat it, before Ranma snatched it back and handed it back to Soun.

"I am sorry Genma, but it must be done." Soun said, eyes watering slightly.

"He will get over it." Ranma said calmly.

Genma slowly looked up at Ranma. He idly noticed Nodoka approaching in the background, but put it aside for now. "I guess you are right Tendo, the pact could no longer be carried out anyways." he said while staring at Ranma.

"What do you mean Genma?" Soun asked.

"The agreement was my son would marry one of your daughters, and I have no son." Genma said in an icy tone.

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Yes, it's another short chapter. But this was a good place to leave off. I've had a massive case of writers block the past few days and just haven't been able to continue the story. So I decided to say 'Screw it' and redo the storyline. I'm happy with it so far. It is kinda Dark and all, but it will get better for Ranma.

So, one fiancee down two to go (Kodachi isn't a fiancee, but will be dealt with anyway.)
That doesn't necessarily mean Shampoo or Ukyo will get married to Ranma (I'm still trying to fit the ladle lady in there somewhere.). I might just have Ranma regress into the Neko-ken in a freak lightning storm and live in a box under the Nekohanten's porch for the rest of his life. Whichever way it goes, this is the last time I'm writing about it. You'll just have to wait until I write it (Don't complain, I have to wait too :P)

Got questions? Comments? Flames?
Send them in and I'll answer, reply, and laugh (in that order).

Noaki (Noaki@juno.com)