Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Umbra Aureola ❯ Chapter 08 - Building Fighting Training ( Chapter 8 )

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

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Before I begin I want to give a special thanks to all those that reviewed, and even those that read. Encouragement is half the soul of a writer. I can assure you I read each and every review written and carefully consider what has been said.

On with the story!

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*



CHAPTER VIII : BUILDING TRAINING FIGHTING


Ranma set a boulder down hard on the soft grass outside the Tendo Dojo. Moving boulders was difficult, moving them great distances even more so. Not for the first time Ranma was truly regretting helping Anito out with his project, even if it did get rid of his very large debt to the Tendos.

"Hey Anito, what we using these things for anyway?" Ranma asked relaxing his sweat soaked body in the sun. Moving boulders had sounded like something Genma would dream up for training.

"Walls." Anito replied simply as he hefted another large basket of dirt up and out of the makings of the underground lair. Where Anito had previously worked with the assumption of hiding his work the nature of events had change. Thus Anito had elected to place the entry way stairs right outside, and to the side of the Tendo House. The logic being that the lair's stairs could later be encompassed by slightly extending the outer wall of the household. A secondary benefit of this choice was that Anito could move the dirt far more easily than in the original location.

"Eh? I didn't see you use boulders the first time." Ranma replied stretching out his muscles. Anito would want him to move one of those big baskets of dirt soon. Thankfully Nerima was filled with empty lots to dump the stuff. It was at these same places that Ranma had been collecting the boulders.

"I didn't, I used concrete. Then I covered it with wood." Anito replied. He placed a hand down on the dirt wall. A faint humming sound filled the air and the thick earth begin to boil. Anito then yanked his hand back and a large block, nearly a meter cubed, of earth ripped free. Anito casually dropped the hovering block into one of the dirt carrying baskets filling it to the brim.

Ranma hopped down to pick up the basket. "Hey that's pretty cool. How do ya do it?" He said strapping the huge basket onto his back.

"Resonance. I fill the area with my ki and then resonate it with the earth powdering it rapidly. Then I slice around the powdered section with my ki and pull it to the destination." Anito said weary from the work himself. He had carved out the stairs and half a room so far. It wouldn't be long before enough earth had been carved out to connect to the first room, where Anito had been residing, creating a pair of rooms and a set of stair.

Ranma lifted the basket up and out of the pit and then returned to drop another, empty, basket for Anito to continue dumping dirt into. "So if you used concrete last time why are we not using it now?"

Anito grinned, "I'm too poor. Concrete is expensive, at least for me, and we would need a whole lot of it. Besides, with my magic powdered rock does better than concrete any day. Especially considering I plan on enchanting the stuff to last longer. Finally because I am in no hurry this time. Last time I wanted a place to sleep. This time I am just adding additional rooms."

"Oh." Ranma nodded that made sense. If there was one thing he understood after all those years with his pop was that things can be expensive when you are poor. "So how did you build the place so fast last time." It was a good question, it had taken them two days to get this far and Ranma was certain Anito had his cubby hole finished faster than that.

Anito grinned. "I cheated. Well not really, but I did in a sense. It was rather simple really I did the same powdering trick I am using now, but pumped the ground full of water instead. Then I used a water pump to move the highly liquified mud out of the ground leaving a perfectly shaped room in a matter of hours. Then I formed ki barriers and poured in the cement so that it would make up the walls. I quick application of ki dried the cement nigh instantly and solidified it far harder than normal. All said and done the process only took me a few hours."

"The problem was I had to clean the water pump which took me quite a while, and the rent costs on the tools and supplies was expensive. This current method, while far more time consuming is far cheaper." Anito explained.

"Ah, that makes sense." Ranma said nodding. He groaned as he lifted up the large basket of dirt, it probably rivaled the boulders in weight for its shear size. Body already worn from hard work Ranma set in for a very tiring day.


*****************


Ranma woke up to a distinct and unfortunately a strangely comfortably feeling. That feeling was that of air rushing around him, a sense of weightlessness as if gravity had lost its powerful grip on the pigtailed martial artist. At the same time he felt this, Ranma's eyes saw a world that blurred with movement. His ears heard the swish of fast moving wind and his body felt the cooling tickle of the rushing breeze. Yes, Ranma knew this feeling well and it meant one thing, Genma had once again decided to wake Ranma up by throwing his dear son out the window.

Flipping over so that he was right side up Ranma casually blocked Genma's flying side kick as Ranma's large father followed him outside without a second thought. Ranma counter attacked sweeping his foot in a low tripping maneuver against the large man. Genma was no slouch and simply intercepted the blow with his own leg, countering the momentum perfectly, Genma's axis did not shift in the least from either the blow or the counter. No telling blows made both martial artists landed with practiced ease on the boulders on either side of the Tendo koi pond.

"Your slacking off boy, I haven't thrown you out the window in weeks!" Genma announced accusingly. Even as he yelled this he made five rapid punches at his son while leaping easily to the location Genma's son occupied.

Ranma wasn't even fazed, his Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken trained fists blocked the attacks with lighting fast ease. Despite this Ranma hopped back defensively from his father, not to avoid the blows, but instead to avoid his father's very large mass that threatened to overbear Ranma. "Who's slacking off old man? If I remember right I was moving boulders all yesterday. What where you doing?" Ranma enunciated the last with a reverse back kick aimed strait for his father's gut.

Knocking the kick to the side with his arm Genma attempted to trip his son with a fast combination high kick, leg sweep. Knocking his son off his feat Genma proclaimed. "You're getting slow boy!"

Ranma recovered from the leg sweep by landing lightly on his own hands. Using the power of Genma's own attack Ranma's legs spun sweeping under Genma's legs while flipping Ranma back up right. While his father fell Ranma delivered a quick side kick knocking his Panda of a father into the koi pond. With a humph of disdain Ranma asked, "Who's slow?"

Anito yawned, "How do you get up this early in the morning?" The arch-mage asked. "Personally, I think such early schedules should be banned as a crime against humanity." Anito said as he wandered out to where the two where.

The Panda growled a "Growf!" When that failed it then half a second later lifted up a sign that read. "Why are you here?"

"Didn't I tell you pops? Anito wanted some to practice, so I told him to join our morning sparing." Ranma said lazily from the boulder that he was standing on.

The Panda cocked its head in a thoughtful manner. Then it lifted up a sign that read. "Ranma can't teach until he is a master."

Anito bopped the Panda gently on the head with his staff. Well it at least looked like a gentle bop, but the fact that the Panda sank half a meter into the ground gave testament to how powerful that little bop was. Ranma found himself wishing that he knew exactly how the arch-mage augmented his attacks like that.

"That hurt." Read the sign the Panda lifted up as a large welt rose from his forehead.

"You forget Saotome-san that Ranma is mine until he pays off his debt to the Tendos. So unless you would rather teach me..." Anito left the sentence hanging.

The Panda pondered this carefully and lifted a sign that read. "Some practice teaching will be good for your art boy."

Ranma thwacked his father over the head with his fist. "You just don't want to teach do you?"

Sensing that now would be a good moment the Panda slipped off. Anito grinned and asked. "Well now that that is taken care of how are we going to go about this?"

"Well I figure from what I have seen of your fighting you understand the basics pretty well. Your problem is that you haven't built up the instincts. For most of those you can just practice the moves over and over again. Joining me for my morning kata would probably help you a lot. For the most part though you really need is more real battle experience. More importantly you need to learn how to fight without using your techniques."

Anito nodded and let Ranma continue. "I figured that we would spar about fifteen minutes or so without our ki techniques then half an hour with them every morning. After that you will follow me through my morning kata, or at least as much as you can do of it. What you can't do you can fill in with whatever you learned from Cologne and any other sensei you had."

Anito groaned. "You sure you aren't using those first fifteen minutes to pound the crap out of me. I am pretty pathetic when not using my ki techniques."

Ranma grinned back, "The thought crossed my mind, but really you rely on your techniques too much. They wear you down, your body just can't stand up to the kind of energy you can throw around. Your going to have to build it up and build up your physical control, speed, and strength if your going to beat a martial artist of Happosai's caliber." Or of my caliber, Ranma silently added. While Anito was good the few minor skirmishes between him and Ranma had only solidified Ranma's lead over Anito and Ranma was almost anticipating with joy the moment Anito took another leap that sent him, Ranma, scrambling after the canny arch-mage.

"Well let's get it on then." Said Anito with a grin.

Ranma grinned back and started with a lazy attack to test how good Anito was with his martial skills alone. The two quickly descended in battle with Ranma correcting Anito's frequent errors and taunting the arch-mage's slow speed. It felt good to be the faster of the two. Usually, with Anito's shadow step it was Ranma that strained to keep up with Anito's insane combat speed.

Back in the house watching the fight Genma poured hot water over himself and then cocked his head to the left and then the right thoughtfully. Soun approached from behind having recently woken up himself. "What is it old friend?"

"Hmm, I had thought I was mistaken, but the boy has gotten even faster again. It won't be long before I have nothing left to teach him." Genma seemed reluctant to say the last.

"The boy is quickly becoming a master of the Art. His skill and power is truly amazing." Soun said confirming.

"Yes, and that is what I fear. If Happosai should learn that I have reached the limit of my teaching he may decide to teach the boy himself."

Soun shuddered at that thought. "Don't think such horrible thoughts Genma old friend." Briefly the two remembered the horrors of learning under Grand Master Happosai. Even compared to Genma's idea of teaching Happosai's actions went well beyond the name of training into what was clearly the realm of cruelty. The tow could remember when the master feasted while they where chained starving to the trees.

Soun wept, "Genma old friend we cannot allow such a travesty to happen."

Genma nodded, "Yes, the schools must be united."

Soun nodded in quick agreement. The house suddenly shook as a yell broke the air. "Raijin's Hammer!" Lightning bolts pelted the ground sending exploding dirt and concussion waves into the room. Wailing Soun loudly said, "No not the house!"

Outside Anito grinned as he shadow stepped out of the way of Ranma's kick. "Fifteen minutes are up and I think I will enjoy the rest of this sparing match very much!" As he said the last he slammed his staff into Ranma sending Ranma into the ground with the awesome force of his ki augmented attack.

Ranma rolled up off the ground absorbing the impact with ease. "Ha, if you think that the next thirty minutes will be easy because you can use ki now you have something else coming." Dodging three attacks Ranma nailed Anito with a kick to the face. The blow sent Anito sprawling to the ground where the arch-mage recovered with surprising speed.

"We will have to see about that won't we?" Yelled Anito as he quickly threw himself into the fray once again.

Nabiki walked down into the room blurry eyed and still in her pajamas. Looking outside she groaned. "I though Ranma and Saotome-san where bad, but those two make enough noise to wake the dead."


****************


"Its really that simple?" Anito asked.

"It really is." Ranma answered.

"I don't know, it seems... almost too simple. Like the victory is cheapened by the ease of defeat." Anito said, not that he usual cared about cheating in order to win, it was just sometimes he enjoyed the challenge.

Ranma shrugged. "The Old Freak has whatever he gets coming. If Happosai can't control himself, then it is a martial artist's duty to use the weakness against him until such time that he eliminates that weakness."

Anito cocked his head to the side and thought about it. "There is truth in that. In battle using one's weakness is the key to winning. To not use such knowledge against an opponent, especially such a large weakness, is to handicap one's self."

Ranma grinned. "Heh, besides you'll fight him more times then you can count if you stick around here. Nothing can keep the Old Freak down for long. Some times I wonder if the Freak isn't immortal with the way he can keep going after some of those blows he takes."

"What are you two youngster's doing." Asked the Old Master sitting down taking a breath of his pipe. The smoke coiled lazily in the air around the diminutive grand master.

"Discussing tactics that will most assuredly result in your defeat of course." Anito replied answering the question easily.

"Keh, you are a hundred years to early to defeat the likes of me."

Anito lifted up and then tossed tossed a lacy, silk, D cup bra into the air where it begun to gently fall. While this happened he spoke. "Oh my, who would have thought, a helpless bra crying to be taken into the loving care of your hands."

"Don't think you will trick me so easily." Happosai announced with a retort.

"Slam!" Anito's staff knocked the old master strait through the house wall. Continuing on his destination the old master still had enough force left in him to put a crater in outer stone wall as well. Anito raised an eyebrow and shook his finger as if explaining a lesson. "Declaring the failure of a trap is far more effective if you are not actually leaping for the said trap as you speak the words." Anito paused meditating on his victory over Happosai. Suddenly grinning Anito said to Ranma. "Hey, your are right. I suddenly feel a whole lot better. It is as if the stress just melted away."

"What have I been telling you. Beating the Old Freak senseless makes any day a better day." Ranma said in agreement.

"What are you two up to?" Asked Akane in a suspicious tone of voice. Almost as if implying anything they where up to couldn't possibly, be good.

"Eh? I was just teaching Anito how to deal with the Old Freak." Ranma replied with an easy answer.

"Honestly, I really don't want to know what you where doing with that pervert."

"Actually, I was slamming the runt through the inner wall into the outer wall." Anito said simply. "Really you should try it some time. It gives this strange euphoric feeling."

Akane looked at Anito strangely. "Whatever." She said and turned away from the two. "I am going downstairs to eat."

"What is with her?" Anito asked curiously.

"Beats me, I've been living with her for a year and I still don't get what runs through her head." Ranma replied.

"Well she certainly got the food part right. Lets get something to eat. We have plenty of work ahead of us."

Ranma groaned. "Aren't two rooms and a set of stairs enough?"

Anito just laughed. "Hardly, I will need some rather large rooms for my more impressive experiments. Besides with as busy as you have been telling me the Tendo house has been they could use a few extra guest rooms for emergencies."

"Large rooms?"

"Large as in the ones we have been making are small. Large as in three times the dimensions, and that is in all directions. Don't worry I only need one or two of that size. Of course we may as well have a few extra rooms in that case... for storage or what not." Anito said, grinning evilly.

"I couldn't possibly have caused that much expense."

"You should thank me, Nabiki wanted me to evaluate the time as unskilled construction labor. According to her calculations you would be working for me for months. I decided to make it a contract job instead. Get it done fast and one large chunk will be knocked off your debt." Anito replied easily.

"Why am I not thrilled?"

"The painful back ache? The tired arms? The hard work? The promise of more? Any of those reasons seem sufficient for your lack of thrill?" Anito asked innocently.

Ranma decided that now was a good time to ignore the man. So he did just that and concentrated on what was important. Food, yes food was good. If Ranma was eating everything would be better. With that in mind Ranma dug into eat.