Genma barely had time to see Ranma move, much less react. Ranma parried, deflecting his former father's outstretched hand with one arm, then lashed out with the other in a forward punch, backed by Shunpo, that drove into the fat man's gut with all the force of a sledgehammer. Genma's breath was blasted out of him in a riot of pain. Only his extreme paunch saved his ribs from cracking, the layers of fat managing to cushion the blow enough.
But whatever else could be said about the faults of Genma Saotome, that he was a slipshod martial artist was not one of those. He counter-struck, immediately and automatically, his fist catching Ranma in the side of the head to spin him around with the impact.
Ranma cursed to himself. He had almost lost control again, but this time not to the Hollow but his own anger. He touched the spot on his head, and came back with blood on the fingertips. Apparently Genma's punch, while not serious, had at least torn the skin. Oh well, it would heal, and it didn't hamper his fighting ability. All of this introspection had taken place in the handful of instants it took for him to recover his stance, and he himself retaliated with a flying kick that blasted the older Saotome back several meters.
The two of them traded blows for several tens of minutes, whole flurries of punches and counterpunches, kicks and counter-kicks were exchanged. Genma, having everything possible to lose on this fight, fought with the full extent of his martial knowledge – the original Musabetsu Kakutô he had learned under Happôsai as well as the Saotome-ryuu version he had formed, both of the Senken arts he had created, the Yamasenken and the Umisenken, and every cheap and dirty trick that had ever existed in the book and even a few that didn’t. Ranma fought with five intense years of experience, from waking until rest and beyond, in Musabetsu Kakutô Saotome-ryuu, augmented by months of even more intense training in Shinigami hakuda and hohô, and all of the other Arts, techniques, and maneuvers he had ever learned along the way.
In other words—
"Slow. You're too slow!" Like before, Genma watched his son move so fast that he disappeared from sight, and then reappeared almost instantly behind him. He did not have time to raise an adequate defense before Ranma lit into him from his unprotected flank.
—Genma was being outclassed. Totally, and completely.
Even the Senkens were useless, as Ranma's innate talent for analyzing and assimilating techniques into his already diverse repertoire made it so that Genma could not use them more than once or twice before Ranma developed a counter. Attacks that served to bind the opponent, either to trap them or as part of the attack – the Kinshi Kinbaku Shô, Kaichû Hôju Satsu, Goshin Ryûsei Fu, and Rigyô Honshin – Ranma could just shift to his reishi form and then back again, once he had slipped free. Others, such as the Môko Kaimon Ha, Haku Dato Shin Shô, Geimon Tessen Shi, or Shichû Rakuchi Sei, could not even be used because Ranma was too fast for Genma to even get into position for the attack. The Goshin Dai Ryûsei Fu had already been proven to be useless against his senses. Even the Kijin Raishû Dan's vacuum blades did not even come close to hitting him!
At least, the ones Genma threw. Once Ranma had successfully started copying the various techniques, Genma was having to go all-out just to dodge! Mentally he grumbled to himself that maybe unsealing the two Arts may have not been such a good idea after all.
To himself, Ranma was able to admit that, even after all of this, after everything else that had happened, his former father was still a first-rate martial artist. Even with his advantages both as a Shinigami and as a Hollow, Genma was still holding his own. And those techniques he was using, they were incredible! Especially that kamaitachi/vacuum-blade move! If he could adapt it for his zanpakutô, then he could attack Hollows without even having to get in close!
Nearby, Yoruichi too was impressed. Despite the fact that the hakuda that Genma Saotome was using was clearly based on thievery – both types of thievery, one who would simply smash down the doors and overpower their victims, and one who relied on stealth, sneaking in via the back ways to steal out from under their victims' noses – the movements were solid, the attacks powerful and precise. And the way he was able to integrate the two different types like that, it was clearly a powerful and well-defined Art. Once all of this was finished, she would have to ask Ranma to teach her those moves.
Movement at the edges of the area caught her eye. She looked – the others were ready and in place. The clearing was now completely surrounded by members of the Karakura Police Department as well as of other districts and wards that Genma was wanted in, and by the owners of about 150 different yatai, bars, and restaurants that the fat man owned sums of money to, that Kisuke had been able to get here on short notice. The elder Saotome would be worn out now from fighting Ranma, and that should give all the normal people the opportunity to finally capture him.
Yoruichi dropped from the branches to the ground, making sure she was visible to the two combatants as she did so. That was her part in the plan; her appearance would be the signal that everything was ready. Once again, she felt a swelling of pride for her newly-adopted son. Everything here, this entire plan, all of it was Ranma's doing. Luring Genma to this place where he could not easily hide, wearing him down so that his invisibility technique could no longer be used, forcing the older man to reveal all of his techniques so that Ranma could develop counters for them, all of it. With such a brilliant mind, though, how could she honestly not be proud?
"It's over, Saotome!" she yelled, now that the combatants' attentions were on her, especially Genma's. "We've already got the police and all the people you ever swindled surrounding this area! Give it up! You can't escape!"
Genma's head whipped back and forth in a frenzied, horrified panic, as the various people began to come into view within the clearing, indeed surrounding him. There was old man Tanaka, the owner of that seafood place down in Kanagawa, the one with the really good shrimp! And there was Mrs. Yamada from Shibuya, whose husband had died of a stroke a few years ago, after Genma had stolen procured all of the contents of his takoyaki cart. What were all of them doing here? How did they know where to find him?!
"It's over, Genma Saotome. It's time you faced up to the consequences of what you've done," Ranma said, calmly and coldly, causing the Saotome patriarch to look at him in shock, fear, and betrayal. The pigtailed neo-Shinigami just turned his back partly on the bald portly man, and walked over to stand next to his new mother Yoruichi. "I told you before, you're not my father anymore and I'm not your son. When Mama adopted me into her clan," he inclined his head to the dark-skinned woman, "every promise you made in exchange for food, or sake, or whatever else you trying to get your greedy, grubby hands on with me as your collateral was rendered null and void. Without me around to take the fall for your irresponsibility, every empty and broken promise you've ever made's now rebounded squarely on your shoulders." Unable to resist one final stab at his onetime tormentor, he added, "Where it's always belonged all along… 'Oyaji'."
With that, Ranma Shihôin turned his back, finally and completely, on his past and the man had once had the distinction of being his father, and walked away. Yoruichi gave him one last, contemptuous look before doing the same.
"NOOOOO!!!!" Genma yelled. Shrugging off the attempts by police to take hold of him with terrified adrenaline, he tore toward the two of them like a man dying of thirst toward a spring. His eyes were crazed and desperate, the madness of a man who had watched his whole world crumble around him, who had just lost every reason for being. He ran straight toward Yoruichi, the one who had stolen his flesh and blood, his son from him. His arms held in close, ready to release the vacuum blades of the Kijin Raishû Dan. At such close range as he was trying to achieve, there would be no chance for her to evade, she would be torn to pieces by the blades.
Yoruichi was wide-eyed, pinned by the crazed, almost suicidal light in Genma's eyes. She could not move, made no effort to dodge the man.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
It was not that Ranma jumped into the path of the onrushing Genma, to shield her from his attack, that snapped Yoruichi out of her stupor. It was not even the wound Ranma sustained – some semblance of sanity returned to Genma in that brief instant as he saw Ranma step into the path of attack, and though it was too late to stop the attack altogether, he could at least redirect it slightly. The vacuum blade slashed through Ranma's left shoulder, cutting deep into his collarbone, instead of into his chest; meanwhile the other blade veered completely off-course, shooting into the trees. Branches were severed, but no one else was hurt.
It was the fact that, in Ranma's own desperation to save her, Yoruichi saw what looked like lightning gathering around Ranma's fist as he swung with all his might.
Shunkô…!?
The flash of the explosion was blinding, as Ranma's chi and rudimentary kidô-charged fist slammed up from underneath into Genma's jaw. In that moment, all that could be seen was the point of contact—
—and the aftermath. Genma lay sprawled out several meters away, steam rising from his body. His jaw was not actually been broken by the blow, but it was a near thing. His skin around the impact point was flash-burned, deeply reddened even further than a sunburn, and the shoulders and torso of his gi were singed and blackened. It was clear the older man was unconscious.
Ranma was in some ways actually worse off than his sire. The back and shoulders of his school jacket were vaporized, as was the right cuff where his hand had gathered the energy into, the remaining fabric falling forward to his elbows and waist, now without anything to hold it up. The wound to his left shoulder was deep, and though it did not bleed too freely, it did need to be closed and healed quickly, else Ranma might lose the use of his left arm altogether. Worse of all were the twitches and spasms moving throughout his body, even though he too was unconscious. To Yoruichi's trained eye, they were the telltale signs of a body pushed too far past its limit in too short a time, the muscles strained.
But he was alive, and breathing regularly. He had only passed out, whether from his injuries or just exhaustion Yoruichi didn't know. She supposed she could not blame her son for that, though. To actually achieve Shunkô, even after only just learning the bare basics of kidô…
"Ranma…" she murmured, cradling his head motherly in her arms.
"Is he… dead?" one of the vendors asked of Genma, hesitant to approach the still-steaming man.
Yoruichi shook her head lightly. "Iie… he's still alive. Get him out of here," she said, the last part somewhat coldly. The assembled bystanders were only too happy to comply, quickly calling for a pair of ambulances for the two of them. As the paramedics arrived, Yoruichi looked down at her son and though about all that had happened today. In the end, there was really only one thing she could say.
"You and I are going to have to have a long talk, young man…"
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(Posted Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:50)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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