Prometheus didn’t see any point in telling Ranma that though. It often seemed to him that mortals were too discouraged when they thought something difficult, and that was the reason they failed.
The boy’s determination was incredible when focused on learning a technique, but that wouldn’t be enough in this case. He could learn it, Prometheus was sure of that. He just wouldn’t be able to bring out its full potential, which wouldn’t do at all.
Prometheus had once upon a time given mankind the gift of fire, and now that he was finally free to see what they had made of it, he was glad that he had. No matter the cost, allowing the potential of humanity to prosper was worth it. For an immortal being imprisonment was only inconvenient, and the torture was quite ignorable after a time.
Now, however, he intended to give humans one more gift, and he would actually be able to watch and see what they made of it this time.
Besides, just teaching a beginner technique like this one was not sufficient reward for freeing him. It didn’t seem that Zeus and his kin were still around, but the boy had rushed in to save him without regard for any retribution that might have resulted from his jailors. That courage deserved to be rewarded.
Prometheus hadn’t thought much of the saying before his imprisonment, but now he rather liked the idea of killing two birds with one stone. Although he might prefer to kill several hundred with some… appropriated lightning bolts.
Prometheus had only given Ranma a hint or two, in vague terms. “Gather your will. Focus on the location you want to go to. Then cut your connection to here, and away you go. Try to get to that rock over there.”
Ranma had done all sorts of bizarre things in his efforts to cut his ‘connection to here’, and had even brought his life force to bear on the problem. The boy’s life force was so small that Prometheus didn’t think he could brush his teeth with it, but he did recall that humans dealt with such handicaps all their lives; it shouldn’t be surprising that in the years he had been imprisoned they had learned to work around such constraints.
The boy was passed out right now though. Prometheus honestly hadn’t told him nearly enough to understand the technique. This was a simple test, nothing more or less. How dedicated was he? How creative? Prometheus had been very interested to know what humanity was like now, not surprising given what he had endured for their sake.
The child had surprised him with that void technique; he nearly had managed to sever himself from this plane. Of course Prometheus then had had to prevent him from dying, as he had failed to form a connection to another point on the plane.
The boy was still unconscious after that. It was a perfect time to act. Prometheus would tweak him just a little, the boy might never even notice, but how important that tweak could be. It would have to be inheritable as well, for what cruelty it would be to place such a limitation on a gift. Not to mention the entertainment value this would provide him.
A little power applied here and there to the boy’s body and soul, and the work was done. The boy might not be quite so mortal anymore, but no doubt he would be thankful for that in the long term. When the boy awoke he would find that he really did know what it meant to sever one connection and immediately appear where he wanted to be. Prometheus would spout some sort of tripe about how impressive the boy was and send him on his way.
The power he imbued would take time to develop and would be as impossible to shift towards anything but this purpose as Prometheus could manage without making the changes too noticeable. It wouldn't do for his carefully thought out gift to be reduced to mere raw power. The boy's children wouldn’t have the same degree of ability, as they would not have been directly manipulated, but the trait would be dominant.
Such was the second gift Prometheus would grant humanity.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:03)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.