Back at Ryozanpaku, the masters reflect on their 'gifted' disciple
The hotel room was dimly lit by the lamplight over in the desk by corner, adding to the air of romance. It also helped Ranma feel a little more at ease. Years of having people burst in on him during private moments had always put a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he was being watched whenever romantic stuff started happening. The fact that he hadn’t seen anyone from the old neighborhood since he ran away from it years ago was beside the point, irrational fears didn’t account for things like facts.
When she entered the room, Ranma found himself unable to breath for a moment. Seeing her body without a stitch of clothing reminded Ranma of all the reasons he was in love with her. It wasn’t just that the girl was beautiful, and she was, she was more beautiful than any other woman Ranma had ever met in his life. Her body had been sculpted by years of training to be a perfect balance between power, speed and flexibility, while retaining every bit of feminine beauty and sexiness possible. Every move she made was unconsciously calculated, by just walking across the floor it was obvious to the trained observer that she was unbelievably skilled and deadly.
Just looking at her, Ranma knew this was the only type of woman he could ever fall in live with and marry. That was Miu Furinji.
Miu sat down beside Ranma on the bed. Tentatively, she reached out to touch his hand. “Nervous?”
As much as he tried to stop it, Ranma couldn’t keep the uneasiness in his voice from coming out. “Y-Yeah, a little. I mean, this is my first time, to uh… you know.” As Ranma’s words trailed off, his eyes drifted down to Miu’s breasts, and he quickly glanced back up. Only, since they were about to do… that, shouldn’t he be looking down there and doing all that lusting stuff?
“It’s okay, I… I like it when you look at my body,” She said with a bright red face.
Since it seemed she would have to be the one to get things started, Miu reached over to tilt Ranma’s chin up to look at her and kissed him on the lips.
As he pulled himself in closer, Ranma thought back to just how he and this wonderful woman had come to the point they were at.
It had been a few days after the destroyed wedding that Ranma had learned about the Spring of Drowned Man water that Happosai drank and attacked him for stealing his cure. A few minutes into the chase and listening Ranma yell at him for stealing his one hope for a cure, Happosai turned around and pummeled Ranma into the ground.
Then he said something to Ranma that completely changed his life. He could still remember the words as if it were yesterday. “A cure? I ruined your once chance for a cure? What a joke! Hell, everything you do, everything you are is a joke. You constantly bitch about turning into a girl, but do you ever do anything about it? No, you just sit on your ass, waiting for a solution to fall right into your lap, and then cry when the universe won’t give you everything you want. It’s not just your curse, that the way you live your entire life! You’ve got three girls willing to jump into bed with you at the drop of a hat, but instead of taking advantage of the situation and getting some, or even fixing it by choosing one and sticking to your choice, you whine at how unfair it is, and why it’s all your father’s fault. What’s even more sickening is you approach martial arts, the ONE thing you’ve got going for you the same way, doing it half-assed and without any real discipline. When someone comes along and kicks your ass almost every week, you cry, bitch, and then finally do something, but ONLY to the point where you can beat that single nobody who showed you just what a loser you are! Face it boy, the only thing you deserve is being my squeeze toy.”
Ranma didn’t admit it to himself at the time, at least not on a conscious level, but Happosai was right. Unable to face that truth and the reminder of it every day, Ranma did what he was trained to do when faced with something he couldn’t: he ran away.
At first, he had just wandered around aimlessly, going back to the days when Ranma and his father had roamed on their training trip. When he was hungry, he stole food. When he was tired, he snuck into motel rooms via the window. He didn’t even think about school.
Then one day, he came upon a dojo. Looking back, Ranma didn’t really remember why he went in. He didn’t want to think about anything during those days, thinking always meant going back to consider what Happosai said. After looking around for a bit at each of the masters, the head of the dojo asked why he had come. Ranma, being Ranma, couldn’t bring himself to admit the fact that he was impressed with everyone there was wanted to join. He was the one everyone should be impressed with, he was the one everyone should be watching, cheering, admiring. It just couldn’t be the other was around.
So, in an effort to save his own ego and prove Happosai wrong, Ranma told them he had come to challenge the head of the dojo.
After everyone had got off the floor and contained their laughter, the old man who ran the place accepted.
In a testament to Ranma’s skill, potential, special tricks, and fighting experience, he lasted a whole twenty-nine seconds.
Thoroughly defeated and humiliated, Ranma had just laid there on the dojo floor after that. That was when the elder of the dojo asked if he wanted to join them as his student. Ranma didn’t know why the man asked. It could have been he had seen something special in Ranma, or if he had glimpsed the destructive path the boy would one day go down because of his own inability to decide for himself.
So Ranma began to train at Ryozanpaku, and re-learn everything he thought he knew about martial arts as well as himself.
The training was nothing like he had ever experienced before under his father, simply copying moves the old man did as best he could and trying to refine them over the years. It was different from what Cologne did as well, just showing Ranma one or two cheap tricks while having the boy build up his strength and stamina in humiliating ways. From the multiple masters of the dojo, Ranma learned each and every move for all the martial arts style they could teach him. He was made to practice until they were perfect, each movement, kick, punch, and technique was practiced separately until he cold do it perfectly. Only then was he allowed to integrate them into a single fighting style.
From the Elder Master Hayato, Ranma learned what it truly was to master his own ki, and started down that path himself. It wasn’t something as childish or simple as just reading a scroll that told you to get sad, or move to a certain stepping method into a spiral. The trips that Ranma was taken into the mountains to train involved learning more about himself, from himself, than just how to reproduce special effects that someone else showed him.
During all of this, Ranma met the Elder’s daughter Miu Furinji. To say that he’d never met anyone like her was an understatement. She was kind, gentle, beautiful, athletic, and had just as much talent for martial arts that Ranma did. When he showed her his curse, she didn’t laugh and treat it as some kind of joke, or get angry, or give him a great amount of pity. The only one in the dojo around his age, they quickly became friends.
Later that year when Miu started high school, and Ranma found himself having to repeat the same grade thanks to the fact he skipped out on too many days, she transferred to the one he was going to so that they could be together. During that time they met a boy Miu encountered a long time ago named Kenichi, got involved with his dealings with the local gangs, and later clashed with Ryozanpaku’s rival organization.
Although Yami was still around, the fighting between the two had reached a lull for the time being. Ranma was thankful since it gave him time to deal with several personal matters, like getting married to Miu.
Which brings us back to the moment…
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(Posted Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:31)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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