Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Umbra Aureola ❯ Chapter 19 - Enchantment, Magic and Amazons ( Chapter 19 )

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

CHAPTER XIX: ENCHANTMENT, AMAZONS, and TROUBLE


"Click," was the soft sound of the white stone being placed on the board. Ranma frowned in thought trying to figure out why Anito would ignore the battle in the the bottom left corner in order to place a stone on the far right. Go wasn't exactly the kind of game Ranma would normally play. The few times he did, Ranma had played by the Anything Goes Rules, which basically stated cheating is fair game as long as you aren't caught in the act. The idea being to train your awareness, your awareness of your enemy's awareness, and of course speed. Ranma figured that the real intention was to cover up the fact that his pops just plain sucked at go and shogi.

Given this one might question why Ranma was playing a game of Go. A question that Ranma very much would like to have answered himself. "Yo Anito, why am I playing this again?"

"Genma left me in charge of your training until he and Soun got back from their impromptu training trip."

Ranma rolled his eyes in remembrance. The two had left when Happosai had declared that he was ashamed that the two carried the name of his art. Further Happosai had elaborated on the fact that if they didn't do something about their failure themselves he would be forced to retrain them for the sake of the school's reputation. As one would imagine the two had immediately declared their intention of going on a training trip not seconds after the old master's statement. Of course, both had tried to make it sound as if though the trip had been planned long before Happosai's announcement, but the whole household knew better.

"And what does this have to do with training?"

"Strategy."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "How is a stupid board game supposed to teach strategy." Ranma grumbled and placed a piece that would guarantee he would capture three of Anito's.

Anito grinned. "The game of go consists of controlling territory by means of threat and invulnerability. That is you insure that you are strong enough in an area that any attempt to take that area will result in the aggressor losing his pieces. Equally, when under an assault you seek to achieve life, where upon your position becomes impossible to take, even if further defense is ignored. This philosophy and way of thinking can be applied to real life as well.

"For instance, Nabiki controls her 'territory' by pre-positioning her pieces. In Nabiki's case these are her agents, knowledge, and blackmail information. You similarly control your territory by being very good at martial arts. In go though, protecting your territory is not enough, you have to be able to take the enemy's as well. To do this it is important to know how you can successfully take territory using either your strength, or realizing your opponent's weaknesses and taking advantage of the same."

"Okay, okay! But what the heck does it have to do with fighting? That is after all what Genma wants you to train me in." Ranma said cutting Anito off in annoyance.

"There is more to life than direct combat. One can control the how and where of combat. One can prepare counter measures and traps, or seek out avenues of attack that leave an individual at his most vulnerable. For instance, if I where to kill you, it would be far easier to simply poison your food than to actual engage you in physical combat."

"Yeah, but that kind of stuff is dishonorable."

"Certainly, as in a normal martial arts match the intention is the testing, and or improvement of the contestants skill. Such stratagems can completely eliminate this usefulness of the engagement for that purpose." Anito paused and then continued a bit more quietly. "You don't however, think that if I should for already mentioned reasons... try to kill you... I will really care about testing my skills do you?"

"Kill me? Why would you... oh... yeah." Ranma paused remembering Anito's eviler side. "I still say this is just an excuse to neglect real work."

"Who said it isn't?" Anito replied with a grin.

"But, didn't you say it was to teach strategy."

"What is preventing it from being both?"

Ranma's eye twitched a bit. "That is so cheep."

"Its strategy." Anito replied with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, face it your just being lazy."

"Avoiding hard work is an art."

"No need to tell me that. My old man is the grand master of laziness. He takes it to a level that no one should ever go." Ranma said dryly.

Anito looked at the board for a bit and placed a stone. The game looked to be completely in his favor at this point. "Speaking of work I have somethings I need you to do."

Ranma let out a snort. "What the heck is it this time? Need another amphitheater carved out underground?"

Anito grinned a bit. "I could use an amphitheater... Seriously, though I need you to get some of the ingredients for Kinjakan. More specifically I need you to get a phoenix feather."

"Oh sure, I'll just stop by the supermarket and pick one up." Ranma said rolling his eyes.

Anito blinked. "How startling, skillful use of sarcasm."

"Hey, if you had to deal with Nabiki you'd get good at it too." Ranma retorted. "Heck, I swear she has it in for me. In the last few days she has just about cleaned out every yen I have to my name. All I got left is a single thousand yen note."

Anito smiled maliciously, laughing at the pigtailed martial artist under his breath. "Well, unless they really are having a special at a local store I suggest you go to Cologne. I know she has at least one."

"Oh and do you want me to scam a few yen off of Nabiki while I'm at it?"

"You wouldn't want to do that, now would you Ranma?" A female voice cut in from behind the pigtailed martial artist.

Ranma jumped straight up to the ceiling and clamped on having completely missed the girl's approach. Seeing Nabiki standing just behind where he used to be Ranma stuttered out in reply. "Uh, hi Nabiki. I was just kidding about that."

"Oh, don't worry. Since you are such a good friend I think I'll forgive that little statement... for say about 1,000 yen."

"You heard the whole conversation didn't you." Ranma asked grumpily as he handed over the cash.

"Now, now Ranma, a girl has got to keep a few secrets." Nabiki replied with an easy smile.

"Tsk, tsk, Ranma I see that you missed the entire point of your strategy training." Anito said slyly placing another stone.

Nabiki slipped Anito a look while Ranma just scratched his head. "What are you talking about?"

"You just surrendered your territory without even attempting to make a fight. In fact, you did so without even determining the enemy's strength." Anito commented.

"Huh?" The pigtailed martial artist replied.

"He's right Ranma, you didn't bother to even make me to reveal my method of forcing you to surrender of the cash." Nabiki slid in picking up what Anito wanted.

"Yeah, but I know you'd get it anyway."

Nabiki smiled a bit at this statement. "You sure know how to flatter a girl."

Anito chuckled at Nabiki's comment. "Yet, that isn't the point. By forcing her to reveal her method of attack you can attempt to devise an effective defense method against that attack, and or attack form. It is just like in go, you'll never defeat a better opponent if you never bother to put up a fight."

"So your saying that I should have held out so that Nabiki would have user her... technique against me. That way I could figure out how to counter it?"

"Exactly."

"Of course I'd would have to make you suffer more for putting up a fight." Nabiki slid in.

"Which is what I was thinking in the first place." Ranma said with a nod.

"What you fail to see is that right now you are falling for her second tactic." Anito said in response.

Ranma scratched his head again. He wasn't very good at this kind of junk. "Which tactic is that?"

Nabiki smiled and fielded this question. "It's a simple form of psychological warfare Ranma. When you don't want your enemies to continue to fight back, you punish them when they do so. Thus, the enemy naturally starts to react by surrendering before the fight even starts."

Ranma hung his head beating himself mentally for not catching that. Early in his life as a martial artist Genma had done the same on occasion. The old man would take the sparing matches to a purely offensive level. Then if Ranma fought back the panda would punish Ranma brutally after the match. Eventually, Ranma, a young boy at the time, had stopped fighting back, thinking instinctively that it would prevent the pain. After this surrender Genma had given Ranma a beating he never forgot. Telling his son, "Boy, a Saotome never gives up. No matter how many times you are beaten down, no matter how harshly you are punished for trying to fight I expect you to get back up and do it, and continue to do it till you win."

It was a lesson Ranma had never forgotten. Of course, given that Genma had repeated the lesson until Ranma knew it in his gut it wasn't exactly the kind of lesson he could forget. Now Ranma prided himself on the fact that no matter how strong an opponent he would keep fighting until he won. Never though did Ranma think to apply the same idea out of combat. In this he was ashamed for having failed at the most basic tenet of his art.

Of course, the stupid Panda generally failed to follow his own advice, but that was another story. Ranma had long since learned that his pops followed the do as I say and not as I do philosophy of life. "I should have known that." Ranma admitted.

"Knowing and applying are two different things. Anyone can know, to know one only needs to be informed. To apply it, to feel it, to make that knowledge real requires not only real understanding of the knowledge, but the effort to make sure you are using it." Anito said.

"You mean kinda of like how with a new martial arts technique, you can know how it works, but you have to integrate it into your style so that you actually take advantage of it." Ranma asked trying to connect what Anito said to something he knew.

"Oh my!" Nabiki said mimicking Kasumi, "He can learn."

"Hey, Its not like I'm stupid or anything!" Ranma retorted annoyed.

Nabiki just smiled ever so slightly at Ranma's statement leaving the pigtailed martial artist fuming. "Now Ranma, if I remember right you have some work to do." Nabiki said playfully.

Ranma groaned, "Yeah, I guess I better get going then." Ranma took his leave after saying that, fleeing further intellectual babbling.

Anito raised an eyebrow. "I take it you wanted to talk to me privately."

"Now, now Anito you should give a girl some time." Nabiki replied placing a stone on the board for the missing pigtailed martial artist.

"No one is in listening distance if that is what you are asking." Anito returned. Then the arch-mage put on a rare frown looking at the board with a hard gaze. Then the wizard placed a stone.

"Straight to the point. You sure know how to get to a girl's heart." Nabiki said flirtatiously. Nabiki's smile didn't slip as she placed another stone. "It seems our little subject hasn't changed all that much."

"Relieved?" Anito said with a grin. "The process is not quite finished." Then the arch-mage looked down placing a stone his eye twitching in irritation.

Nabiki briefly wondered if Anito had managed to read past her mask, or if he was just making a good guess. Nabiki being Nabiki cataloged these thoughts for later. "So tell me, how is your little building project going."

"Slow, I have finished the basic research, but there is still a lot left to do. So tell do you have anything else important or are we into the small talk."

"Oh, I'm quite finished. I just wanted to finish this game first." Nabiki said with an evil gleam in her eye.

"I appreciate it, it is so very hard to find a good game these days." Anito's words practically dripped with sarcasm.

"My sentiments exactly."

Anito and Nabiki glanced up from the go game as Kasumi swept in with groceries. Like normal the wonderful girl was humming a soft tune as she went about her work. Kasumi paused for a moment in front of the table to deposit a small, brown bag before heading out to the kitchen.

Anito and Nabiki blinked. "So, you are using my sister to run errands for you." Nabiki's voice had a hint of dangerousness to it.

"Honestly, I didn't ask her for anything." Anito replied peering into the bag. Anito's normal smile wavered a bit. "How did she know I needed volcanic rock?"

Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that statement. "An interesting question." Nabiki said thoughtfully.

In the kitchen Kasumi unloaded the food she had collected to for supper. Then the gentle eldest Tendo headed up the stairs and walked into the guest room where both Ranma and Genma stayed. Akane caught sight of her older sister. "Hey Kasumi there is no need for you to clean that pervert's room. He should do it himself."

"Akane, that isn't very nice." Kasumi scolded. Coming from Kasumi somehow the words were brighter than the sun. Yet, at the same time they somehow made Akane feel less than dirt. "Besides, I'm just returning a book."

"Oh, I suppose that is okay then." Akane muttered and left. Only then did she pause and think. What kind of book would Ranma possibly have that Kasumi would want to borrow? Akane hopped it wasn't something perverted, because if that idiot was corrupting her sister he was going to get a pounding that put every other pounding to shame.


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


"Achoo!" Ranma sneezed. "Someone must be talking about me." The pigtailed boy muttered.

Ranma was heading to the Neko Haten to somehow get that phoenix feather. Ranma didn't have a clue how was going to do it, and undoubtedly the method of obtaining the said feather would be fraught with peril. Yet, Ranma was sure he would find a way.

Given this one wouldn't be surprised that Ranma was taking his sweet time to reach the place. One might be surprised what Ranma was doing with that time. He was thinking. Then again given what he was thinking about maybe it wasn't so surprising after all.

Ranma was considering Anito and his last fight. The fact that despite Ranma's increase in speed he still couldn't push Anito into a hand to hand battle as easily as he should be able to. To say this was annoying was an understatement. Ranma had been effectively training his speed in every sparing match he had with Anito since the arch-mage moved here. Despite this Anito was still clearly out maneuvering Ranma. The problem wasn't how good Anito was, it was instead that Anito was getting better. Worse Anito was getting better at fighting at a range as well. Making the control of the distance all the more important.

In other words, if Ranma couldn't either figure out a way to close the distance with a teleporting wizard, or how to fight evenly with the same at a range further battles between him and Anito were going to go south fast. Losing was something Ranma could not tolerate. Thus, there was only one choice, to overcome Ranma's major obstacle.

Here in lay the problem. Ranma could only run so fast. The maximum speed at what he could run was severely limited by the fact that when a human pushes off the ground to move forward they also push up. In pushing upward, if using enough force, the human body leaves the ground. When in the air Ranma simply couldn't continue to accelerate. Thus, his maximum speed was determined by how much force he could apply forward as opposed to upward, and of course how much the pigtailed martial artist could minimize his drag.

Now, Ranma could get greater forward speed by leaning further forward. That is, he would push more in the direction he wanted to go. The problem with this was that if Ranma leaned too far forward his feet would slip. Which was basically disastrous in terms of speed. Ranma already took all this into account, thanks to Genma's excellent, if very painful, training. As such Ranma could run at roughly an astounding 30 m/s.

The thing was that Ranma needed to be a lot faster, and needed to accelerate faster to gain a speed advantage over the arch-mage. Further, Ranma needed to eliminate the diminishing returns he faced, while Anito was still following a linear path. This unfortunately was the difficult part. As far as Ranma could see it there were only two ways to accomplish this. Either the ability to accelerate in the air, or the ability to stick to the ground.

Now Ranma's first choice was of course acceleration in air. This had the exciting side benefits of flight, or at bare minimum increased ability to control his movement in air. On the other hand Ranma had very little idea how to pull it off. The simplest way would be simply to spew out ki in the direction opposite the way he wanted to go. The difficulty of this being that this ate up ki at obscene rates. Ranma doubted that any technique that threw away so much potential fire power would be of any reasonable use in combat without the kind of energy Saffron threw around. Even then, the raw waste energy would make Ranma leery.

Another path was through use of wings. Ranma had contemplated this after reading up on demonic energy. While the reading had original been to help him get rid of the stupid pumps and makeup on his girl form, it didn't take the pigtailed martial artist long to think of some uses for malleable energy. Wings where one such possibility. The problem of course being that spreading the energy out over the size Ranma would need the wings would leave it misty, and thus incapable of gripping air. For now the idea had to be sidelined until Ranma figured out how to buffer up the strength of such a construct. For that Ranma's considerations into forming barriers might just pay off.

That left only the stick to the ground solution. Here fortunately Ranma had some ideas how to pull it off. The Saotome school of martial arts had several ways of sticking to surfaces. It was part of the Saotome cling to the ceiling technique, or even the trick Ranma used to sit on the side of the tree for a few instants before dodging Kuno's sword. The technique was however, very limited in its power, and thus wasn't useful for this purpose. Ranma though figured he could extend the technique by extending his ki rapidly into the object he was standing on. This would, in theory, dramatically improve how well Ranma was tethered to the object.

Now the problem of this was that it required very good ki control to pull off. The level of which Ranma had only reached weeks ago. Which probably explained why such techniques were not already included in the Saotome school of martial arts.

Figuring there wasn't anything to lose in trying Ranma put his theory to its first test. Carefully Ranma extended his ki out of his foot and into the ground. Then the martial artist slowly lifted his foot from the rock. Nothing. Frowning Ranma studied the ground with his aura sight while his ki was inside it. Thinking the martial artist decided to change the pattern slightly. Then he lifted his foot again. This time there was a slight tug as he lifted his foot.

Ranma nodded to himself and grinned. "I think I got you figured out now."

Putting his foot down a third time Ranma extended his ki. This time he slowly altered the pattern using his aura sight to look at the way his ki and the ground interacted. After several attempts Ranma judged how to sense the connection between himself and the ground. Grinning Ranma leaned forward and burst off the ground. Only to fall flat on his face when he didn't release the technique on time.

"Ouch!" Ranma let out from where his face was implanted into the hard concrete surface of the road. "Okay, maybe this might take a bit longer." Ranma said grumpily and stood up.

Leaning forward Ranma tried it again. This time his face met the ground for another reason. That being that he released the technique to soon and at the angle Ranma had tilted himself this resulted in Ranma's foot flying out of underneath him. "Great... I get the basics figured out, and now have to deal with crazy timing issues." The pigtailed martial artist grumbled.

Frowning in thought Ranma peered at the wall of a building. Perhaps, it would be best to work on the technique in some other way. Using it to move up a wall would allow a much slower practice on the control he needed. Besides, it would be useful for those Saotome cling situations. Grinning the pigtailed martial artist put his hand on the wall. Pushing out his ki Ranma pulled down his hand to lift himself. Ranma was quite surprised when with only a minor tug his hand came free.

"Huh? What is up with that?" Ranma murmured and tried it again. The second attempt fared no better than the first. This time though Ranma caught sight of the problem with his aura sight. "Great, it works differently on different types of things." Ranma grumbled. Well, that wasn't anything he wouldn't be able to get used to, it just meant that it would take more time.

Heaving a sigh Ranma caught sight of the sun. It had moved down a fair amount and the remainder of the day was ticking away. Knowing that Anito wouldn't be happy with wasted time Ranma continued on his path to the Neko Haten. While he did so Ranma practiced the technique trying to learn the feel of when to release, and how to tell when the binding worked.

It didn't take Ranma but a second to realize the final flaw of the technique. That is that depending at what angle you were walking at the way the energy had to be used changed. Otherwise you completely stopped your forward motion and not just your upward motion. On the other hand secondary uses were shining in the light of day as well. For instance Ranma could use this technique to essentially stop on a dime, or at least stop as fast as the surface he was walking on allowed. The ability to do that would work wonders on Ranma's ability to dodge.

Further experimentation was halted when Ranma arrived before the Neko Haten. Letting out a sigh Ranma prepared himself for the inevitable amazon glomp and the requisite attack from the master of hidden weapons. "Wait, Anito was drillin' me on the importance of strategy. Maybe there is a better way about this."

Frowning Ranma hopped up to the next door roof and sat down to think. Ranma had never bothered trying to figure out how to get around those two..., but then again he hadn't in the past had so many back to back visits with the ghoul. As it was going knowing how to talk with Cologne without having to go through the normal hoops would be useful and was actually more likely to result in a meaningful discussion.

Ranma smacked his fist into his open hand. It was so simple he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it earlier. "Heh, why go to the ghoul when I can make her come to me."

The trick to it was actually easy. Cologne had such astoundingly better aura sight than her fellow amazons that Ranma had essentially a secret beeper frequency. Knowing the ghoul she was bound to show up if she sensed Ranma snooping around, if for nothing more than to give Ranma a hard time. Smirking Ranma extended his aura letting his increasingly well controlled ki lap up against the building in a wave.

The Saotome Fetch the Ancient Master Without Dealing With the Master's Students technique went off with out a hitch. It didn't take more than ten seconds for Cologne to pogo her way out of the Restaurant. "Looks like strategy really does got a use out of battle." Ranma muttered to himself.

"So son-in-law have you come to take your amazon bride."

Ranma let out a snort. "Ya should know by now that that ain't ever going to happen."

"An old woman has the right to hold out hope for her granddaughter." Cologne said in reply.

"Whatever, Anito needs a phoenix feather for some reason."

"A phoenix feather? They are quite rare, as I am sure you can imagine. Why should I give it to you, especially when you still owe me." Cologne said evaluating the pigtailed martial artist.

"Owe you? I don't remember anything about that." Ranma said scratching his head.

"As I recall in return for my help with your recent adventure with the bracelet you agreed to return the favor."

Ranma winced, he had forgotten about that. That little promise was going to make things a lot harder. Had it been any other day Ranma's thoughts would have stopped there. Instead Ranma remembered Nabiki's little lesson on giving up too fast... Ranma pondered hard on the subject from his place upon the roof. The old ghoul raised an eyebrow at her son-in-law's surprising behavior.

"Wait, that was if you helped me get the bracelet off, which you didn't. So take that old ghoul." Ranma said proud of dismissing Cologne's claim.

Cologne cackled. "I'm impressed son-in-law, I wasn't expecting you to show such insight for years yet. It is a pleasant surprise. It still though isn't a reason for me to give you the phoenix feather."

"Well I don't got a whole lot." Ranma said thoughtfully. "Besides, I'm getting it for Anito."

"If Anito wanted to pay for it, he would have come himself. I can think of one thing though..."

"I ain't marrying her." Ranma cut in quickly.

"Well if you don't have anything to offer son-in-law then I better get going."

"Wait, Anito said that he once traded you that technique that Ryouga learned."

Cologne stopped in interest. There were several reasons why she stuck around. One of them was the fact that martial artists of Ranma's caliber were likely to invent one or two useful techniques. Techniques that Cologne was quite intent on seeing, and perhaps even adding to the 3000 years of amazon history. "Now son-in-law what exactly are you proposing."

Ranma thought about his answer carefully. Part of what made a technique a good technique was the ability to easily execute it. Some ideas had been bouncing in Ranma's head about this particular one since the fight with Herb. With Ranma's new level of ki control and understanding of interactions... it might be possible for him to pull this off. Ranma wouldn't know for certain if it would work unless he tried it though, and Ranma hadn't had an example to try it on.

"Well, I can show you something I have been kinda thinking about... I'm not quite sure it will work though." Ranma said admitting his doubt.

"I must admit that I find myself interested. Since I'm feeling charitable today if your show is satisfactory I'll toss in the phoenix feather."

"Heh, if it works you'll be more than satisfied." Ranma said confidently. "Now all I got to find is a victim."

Luckily, a victim wasn't hard to find. Especially when you had a amazon matriarch in current possession of a second class citizen on your hands. "Easily done son-in-law. Mousse get out here!"

Duck boy arrived in seconds. Loyalty or love had nothing to do with it. Instead it was the fact that Cologne carried a big stick, and liked very much to twack the master of hidden weapons for his failures. "What do you want." Mousse snapped. Apparently, respect was one of the other things that Mousse failed to pick up. Which probably explained a fair number of the objections Cologne had of the duck boy.

"Son-in-law is thinking of taking my granddaughter on a date, so you'll have to cover for her." Cologne said simply. The desired effect was immediate. Mousse, filled with anger, moved to attack Ranma.

Ranma before Mousse could even react threw some more fuel on the fire. "Yo duck boy. I haven't been on very many dates, so tell me am I supposed to ravish her before or after?"

Mousse practically glowed, which was surprising because duck boy rarely put off a notable aura. "Enemy of women, prepare to die!"

Ranma hopped to the side dodging a set of five kunai that flew from Mousse's robes. Dropping to the ground Ranma was tempted to try using his new technique to stick to the wall instead. Ranma threw it out deciding that at his current level of skill it wouldn't be worth the risk. Besides, there was no point showing the ghoul all the tricks he had up his sleeve.

"So duck boy that all you got or are you hiding your skill with your weapons."

A pair of claws attached to chains and a dozen shurikens appeared neigh instantly. "I'll never let you have my darling Shampoo!"

Ranma lazily dodged the projectiles flipping over the increasingly angry Mousse. "Your losing your touch duck boy, I didn't even have to put effort into that one."

"Ha, your pride will be the better of you Saotome. Let's see how you handle this." Brining both arms up Mousse unleashed at least three dozen weapons varying from yoyos and egg bombs to knives and javelins. Each flew with unerring accuracy toward the pigtailed target. The arrangement of weapons scattered wide enough to catch Ranma even if he dodged, yet thick enough so that Ranma couldn't easily slip through. Well, that was the intent anyway a dozen past encounters had repeatedly proven that wrong.

Ranma smirked at Mousse's attack seeing the break in the fighting to give his technique a real chance. Holding out one hand with his thumb and forefinger extended Ranma drew the digits in a circle while spewing out hot ki from one and cold ki from another. The energy spiraled to an intense point as Ranma gathered wind imbued ki in his other hand.

The intensity of the spiral was everything, because if it was not potent enough then the massive amounts air and ki that inundated the area would snuff the newly formed attack like a candle in a storm. If however, the result had the right potency it would survive the massive forces and instead feed off them blossoming into an attack who's power was just short of the Hiryo Shoten Ha. The wind ki was simply a control. A method through which Ranma could both guide the attack in the direction of his choosing, and make sure that the resulting structure lasted until it reached its true target.

"Hiyouryu Uzumaki!" Ranma yelled slamming his fist dead into the center of the tiny spiral of hot and cold ki that he himself had created. The energy burned into a single intense point sucking up the surrounding heat as fuel and pulling the air into an intense spiral. The wind ki curled around the twisting wind guiding it into a thin tunnel of rapidly spinning air that exploded in the direction of Ranma's punch. The mini tornado snaked through the sky as it flew twisting to hit its target, Mousse, even as the master of hidden weapons tried to dodge the attack.

Unable to escape the twisting tornado Mousse was hit dead on. The tiny tornado swallowed the fiery battle aura of the enraged martial artist bursting to a new size and power instantly. Ranma's tentative control over the wind ki was shattered as the tornado ripped its bindings to shreds as it grew to epic proportions. Unburdened the tunnel of wind erupted into a full blown tornado that spiraled straight into the sky. It didn't take a master martial artist to see the resulting attack form. The result was without a doubt the same as a Hiryo Shoten Ha, if just a bit weaker. Of course, given that Ranma created it from both a distance and minimal preparation only a fool would see that as a mark against the technique.

Cologne cackled watching the shocked Mousse thrown through the air like a ballistic missile by the powerful ki induced winds. "I must say son-in-law I am quite impressed."

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Well, it wasn't supposed to do that. I kinda lost control at the end." Ranma admitted sheepishly. The pigtailed martial artist neglected to mention that if used correctly the result should have allowed the resulting tornado to travel whatever direction he desired.

"No matter son-in-law your display was more than satisfactory. The phoenix feather is yours." Cologne said going to get the said object. The old ghoul was practically grinning from ear to ear. She couldn't wait till the other elders saw that. Cologne cackled at the thought of her peers sputtering in denial that a male outsider could improve upon one of the greatest techniques the Joketsukozu had ever created.

Ranma missed all of this as he pondered how to go about fixing the small problem with the technique as it was. Ranma did after all want to use the technique against Anito, and it wouldn't do him a whole lot of good if it went out of control the minute it hit a large heat source. Ranma couldn't think of any ideas though. "Damn, I guess I'll have to read up some more on wind effects." Ranma said with a sigh.