"Isn't that Shingo, Usagi's brother?" Doctor Tofu asked.
Ranma gave a lopsided grin. "They're all volunteers. Isn't that nice?"
"I'm sure that it is, but..."
"What?"
"I thought that it would be something more... substantial. And at least troublesome."
"Who says that a little brother can't be trouble?"
Tofu raised a brow at the pigtailed boy. "Okay. But why did you make it seem like you had some sort of major threat in there?"
"Because I did have something. You see, back when I was travelling with my Pop, I met a martial artist. He wasn't as good as I am, of course, but he did have a little brother. That brat used to pester him all the time, but he got better at avoiding it. As I watched, I actually saw him learning something that carried over into the Art."
"Ahh... And you decided to use it here."
"Sort of. You see, I was talking to Mrs. Tsukino, and she didn't like the fact that I wanted to use wild predators in this."
"I'd doubt any mother would."
"Well, I did try for smaller animals," Ranma replied, "but she warned me against it."
"Why?"
"Apparently Usagi's got some kind of special touch when it comes to such things."
"My sister tried to bring squirrels and chipmunks home as pets, and she's nursed baby birds back to health. And strays keep on wanting her to pet them," Shingo put in.
"That's a surprise. So you joined up for this?" the doctor asked.
"Sure did! I mean, when I heard that Usagi was getting trained, I knew that I wanted to see this! But to help out, and be able to do this to her will be fun!"
"Oh. So what was all the noise in there about?"
"You don't know how dark it was in there! I mean, we had some flashlights, and glowsticks, but it was still a big dark space! It's easy to bump into something without trying."
"Well, now you're out, and you get get to work. Here are the maps showing you where your supplies will be hidden, and the path that they'll have to take," Ranma told the children.
"Thanks, we'll need it. Bye!"
"See ya."
For a moment, Tofu watched the kids run off, and then he turned to the creator of the exercise. "How did you get so many kids?"
"It's amazing what a promise of getting their kids out of the house will do for parents. Besides, these are kids that know my students, and would like to play with them anyway."
"So you used that to your advantage."
"Sure did. Those suits will slow the girls down, so they won't find it as easy to avoid Shingo and his friends as much as they'd like. We'll know who needs work when they get to the end all marked up."
"You know, this isn't quite a normal exercise..."
"That's my family's Art for you. You work with what you have. Besides, if I wanted normal, I could be marching them around, or having them in a dojo."
"True... There are some benefits."
"Especially in making things interesting," Ranma said with a grin, and glanced over at the trail while:
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(Posted Mon, 20 Dec 2004 05:11)
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