A chaotic swirl of colors formed around his body, borne on an aura of energy that quickly formed around him. Many colors seemed to fight with each other, and the shape seemed to quiver and morph, until it finally came to a rest.
Cologne eyes the aura with a sharp gaze, taking in the bands of red and white energy that did not seem to put off the combination of angry and tranquility used for those colors. The form of the aura itself was also in question, for it seemed to almost resemble a cat in shape.
But then, that would make some sense. Most masters have enough self-image in their later years that their aura begins to take on their mental form of who and what they are. Since this boy had lived uncounted years as a cat, and only perhaps fourteen to fifteen as a human boy, the mental image of self-being would be bias towards that of the feline.
It had taken a bit over a month of ‘Boulder-Sama’ as her pupil called it, before he finally got to this point. A full month and three days of constant endurance training in the mornings, followed by Chi control classes in the afternoons.
But he had finally done it, and was ready for the next step in his training.
“Ranma,” Cologne snapped.
The boy woke from his meditation, his aura fluttering before disappearing entirely. He had barely been able to catch its glow out of the corner of his eye before it was gone, bringing a frown to his face.
“Dammit,” Ranma muttered. “Still haven’t got it.”
“No,” Cologne interjected. “You got it just fine, boy. Congratulations, you’re now ready for the next evolution of your training.”
Ranma grinned for a moment, but then frowned just as quickly.
“The next ‘evolution’, you say?”
“Yes,” Cologne nodded. “Follow me.”
Leaping to the top of her staff, Cologne led the way out of the training hall and around to the back of her home. There, sitting in a small circle of stones with sand surrounding that, was a small and cheery looking fire. A fire that Ranma would come to despise in the next few days, to be sure.
Frowning again, Ranma looked to his ‘mother’ in askance. His answer came when she reached over to a basket of uncooked chestnuts, tossing a handful or two into the fire itself.
“The technique I am about to show you is called the ‘Katchuu Tenshin Amagurikien’,” Cologne explained as she watched the nuts cooking. “The literal translation of this move is ‘Imperial Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’. The meaning of which you will see momentarily.”
Cologne’s sharp eye saw that the chestnuts were ready, and idly handed one to Ranma to eat. Ranma quickly dropped the chestnut onto the ground, blowing on his thankfully cooling hand.
“What the heck?” he muttered, looking towards the fire to see that the chestnuts were gone from its flames.
“What I just did was reached my hands into that fire so fast that the flames did not have time to burn me before I was able to grab the chestnuts,” Cologne further explained. “This is done by a very specific focusing of Chi into the limbs that increases their speed dramatically. Have you ever played with the flame of a candle?”
Ranma blinked.
“How do you mean, ‘played’ with?” he queried.
“You can take the open flame of a candle and pass your fingers through it,” Cologne told him. “If you go at the right speed, you will not even feel the heat from the flames. A campfire is many times hotter than a candle, and many times larger. This training is practicing the art of ‘playing’ with a candle flame on a much larger scale. Greater speed is obviously required, and the act of pulling the chestnuts out of the fire requires greater dexterity.
“With this technique, one could punch an opponent a hundred times in the blink of an eye, get through the tightest of defense, and make the act of catching thrown weapons that much easier. The actual uses for this ability are nigh limitless.
“Understand?”
Ranma sat on his shins, staring at the small fire for a while. A thoughtful look passed over his face as he thought about the different ways one could use that level of speed, though the question of energy consumption would limit some of those. Techniques like this, however, could make or break a fight.
“I understand,” Ranma nodded. “What will my next training consist of, then?”
Cologne grinned.
“In the mornings, you will continue with the hour of tension training, and the two hours of non-tension training. After that, you will meditate for one hour, focusing on building and channeling your internal energies.
“I will be placing a large log of wood in the middle of the clearing that you first started training with the tension harness. You will run to that clearing after meditation, and carry the log back with you to this yard. That log will need to be split into firewood and kindling so that you can build this fire with it, and I expect you to do so with your hands, not an axe.
“After the fire is built, you will practice with gathering chestnuts from this fire until you’re hungry, or dinner, whichever is first. If your hands get too burnt to practice any more, or your arms get exceedingly tired, you will be allowed to meditate for half an hour while you use your healing techniques to lessen the damage to yourself. After which you will go back to training.
“Understood?”
Ranma nodded, memorizing his new daily schedule.
“This should take you at least a week,” she further explained. “If you for some reason complete this technique within the next ten days, I will increase the heat and size of the flames, and you will train again at that level. The hotter the flames, the larger the fire, and the faster you will have to go. The faster you are, the more useful this technique is.”
“Yes, Mother,” Ranma agreed.
“Well, get to it, then,” she snapped, leaving towards the house.
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(Posted Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:32)
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