Bounding up along the rocky incline with minimal effort, Happosai stopped on a solid outcropping of stone and looked back over his shoulder. “Ranma!” The elderly midget shouted to the seven-year-old climbing after him. “Hurry up! We’re almost to the top! Don’t keep me waitin’! We got much more to do before nightfall!” He looked up at where the sun was coming in low on the horizon. They had just more than an hour at best, and Happosai always preferred to have the tents up before then.
Grabbing onto another rock with his bare-hand, the young ponytailed child nodded his head. “Yes, sensei!” The child called out as he pushed his young muscles further, pushing them past the limits and in effect, slowly refining them for even more strenuous activity.
Sitting down on the edge of the rock, Happosai sat down with his arms crossed over his chest as he watched the young child push himself to keep up with the elderly Grandmaster of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. The boy had the eagerness and the desire to follow the path of a proper martial artist, and it filled the old man’s heart with pride. He didn’t remember the last time he had any student that would so willingly go through the strenuous pain and tortures involved in the training that the art involved and required. Obviously, this boy was more Nodoka’s child than Genma’s, that fat and lazy slug.
Honestly, it almost made Happosai feel bad at how easy it was to get this child to follow him without question. After the kid had come out of his drug-induced comatose state, the old man had introduced himself to Ranma as the sensei of his father. With that little fact, it was more than easy to convince the child that Genma had decided his training was ready for the next level and brought him over to him for further training. “Still can’t believe the child just swallowed that hook, line and sinker,” Happosai thought as he shook his head. Yep, that kid was definitely Genma’s son. Dimwitted.
“Still,” Happosai reconsidered for a moment. “Definitely a lot more potential than his father. Definitely gotta be Nodoka’s lineage.” Oh sweet Nodoka. Now that woman was incredible. She was practically the female version of himself! Her idea of ‘manliness’ was everything that his school personified, and she worshipped any student of it. Oh, it was a shame she wasn’t born three-hundred years earlier. She would’ve definitely made a better girlfriend than that Joketsuzoku Amazon. Now what was that Nichezu’s name? Comb? Collar?
“Eh, whatever, not like she’s important anymore,” Happosai mumbled to himself. Bitch really did hurt him over the months he was training near the Bayankala Mountain Range. He made sure he got back at the woman though. Even if he lost a number of them over the centuries, he still had more than a few of their special Amazon Treasures. In fact, that scroll Genma had used to try and summon a Succubus had been one of them.
“Who isn’t important?” Came an innocent and cherub voice.
Blinking his eyes, Happosai’s focus was taking off his musings and he turned to look at the boy now sitting behind him. He smiled as he realized how quickly the kid had caught up, even with carrying both of the backpacks. “Well done, Ranma my boy. You’re getting faster and stronger.”
The child practically beamed with the praise. He never got any from his father, and it made him feel good to get affirmation that he was doing the right thing. “Thank you, sensei!”
“Don’t mention it,” Happosai said as he stood up. Placing his hands on his back, the old man leaned backwards and made his spine crack for a moment. “Well, time to continue boy!” He shouted as he jumped up considerably and gained some distance up on the face of the rocky cliff. He really wanted to make camp and get Ranma to bed soon. He needed to take a private ‘training excursion’ into the nearby town to liberate some silky darlings. He’d managed to find one of his caches in the past three weeks he’d been training the boy, and oh the wonderful memories they brought him. But if he was to regain his lost strength, he was going to need some new ones. The fresher, the better!
However, before he could get much further up the side of the cliff, he heard the child call up to him. “Sensei?”
Fingers gripping into the stone surface to make sure he didn’t fall off, Happosai turned to look back at the student. “Yes, child?”
“I know you’re doing this training to build me up and make me stronger,” Ranma called out to his martial arts instructor so the old man would hear him. “But when are you going to start training me in special techniques?”
“SPECIAL TECHNIQUES!?” Happosai shouted. Letting do of the side, he dropped back down to the rocky surface, landing gracefully on his feet. “Ranma, you should know that before any martial artist can start learning ‘special techniques’, they need to set a solid foundation. Without the proper muscle conditioning, stamina, endurance, flexibility, and mental agility, such things would be useless to someone who is training in the art, if not outright impossible.” He didn’t mean to sound harsh, but it always bugged him when someone saw the martial arts as just whom could make the biggest flash or whatever.
Blinking his eyes once, twice, Ranma responded, “But my Papa was always teaching me all sorts of stuff...” even if he didn’t like some of it.
Happosai raised an eyebrow. “Did any of it work?”
Considering that for a moment, Ranma could only answer, “No.” He sighed deeply. It was certainly true. A lot of the stuff his father put him through didn’t turn out as well as he did. “Is that why Papa gave me over to you?”
“Correct, Ranma,” Happosai agreed with the child. “Your father wanted you to be the best, but he himself is still merely a student. He is no qualified to be a proper teacher of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.” He grinned widely. “I’m just glad he finally got some sense and decided that it was time to let the professional come in and take over.” The elderly midget looked Ranma in the eyes. “He could’ve seriously damaged your training in the long run you know. If he kept it up, you might never have reached your full potential, despite his honest intentions.”
Okay, THAT was laying it on thick. After all, from what he found in Genma’s belongings, the fat fool was a very selfish and self-centered individual...
...Although, Happosai was interested in the small pledge written on a bar napkin. A pledge to unite the houses of the Tendo and the Saotome clans? Hmmm... honestly, he did need to see Soun again eventually to repay his wayward student for his... ‘forwardness’ with trying to end his tutelage early. Perhaps this was the logical excuse he needed.
His fists clenched to the sides, Ranma fought back tears. He didn’t want to cry, but it made him feel upset. His father was useless, was wrong in all this? But his father taught him so much! Was he really going to be set-back by it all? Was all his training so far for nothing?
Noticing the sudden waterworks, Happosai shouted to the ponytailed youth, “Ranma! Don’t cry!”
Sniffling, Ranma nodded his head slowly. “S-sorry, sensei. I know it’s not manly to cry.”
Raising an eyebrow, Happosai asked, “Are you kidding?” When the boy looked up at him with curiousness, the elderly man gave the slightly taller child a grin and told him, “Crying has its purpose Ranma. Tears are a weapon in and of themselves. They can be uses to set an opponent off balance or even gain sympathy.” He patted the child’s shoulder. “There is a time and place for them, but don’t waste them when you’re feeling sad. Use them when you need them most.”
Sniffling deeply, Ranma asked, “You mean it?”
“Sure!” Happosai responded. “I myself am known to be a master in that tactic.” Honestly, it was one of the few things his student Soun had a concept of. It was just too bad that was about the only major thing the daft fool depended on.
Smiling, the ponytailed youth felt a lot better about that. “That’s awesome, Sensei!” It really was! No wonder his father gave him over to Happosai. The man was truly a Martial Arts genius! Ranma would’ve never thought on his own to use tear as a genuine martial arts tactic! Happosai truly was a master!
Grinning widely at the praise he received form his student, Happosai nodded his head in a wise, sage-like fashion. “Now that you understand, we will continue with conditioning your body. When you are at the proper peak of your physique and age, we will start with the more in-depth teachings of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.” He turned to look back up towards the top of the cliff. “But for now, we really need to get camp settled. We can start further training in the morning.” And with that said, he started bounding up the side of the cliff-face once more.
Nodding his head firmly, Ranma ecstatically cried out, “Yes, Sensei!” He then rushed up to the side of the cliff and started climbing once more with renewed pep and vigor. He would become the greatest martial artist of all time thanks to Happosai, he just knew it!
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(Posted Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:09)
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