There were timelines where his pride and ignorance of all things not involved in simple fighting got him killed or worse.
There were timelines where Ranma Saotome visited Jusenkyo, was cursed to turn into a girl, and was eventually raped until his mind and spirit broke.
This was not one of those timelines.
Medical nodded to the question posed by Extradimensional Research. "Yes, actually, he's got a Linker Core, but it isn't very developed. I'd expect that he could manage a half-dozen spells at best. More likely four, maybe five, spells that he could become proficient at invoking. His power potential, on the other hand - particularly in genetic scans, is simply incredible. In the top 3% worldwide."
"Interesting," said Central, sitting back in her chair. "Once this gets out, I expect he'll be very popular."
It was the 1980s. Steam-powered or clockwork machina of various kinds were found used in a variety of locations. This was Japan though, not Europe, and something else dominated technology.
Onmyoji, outside of ancient legends, were not really good at working out day-to-day magical use. Explosive tags, barrier wards, explosive glyphs, purifying sigils, and the like - yes. Mass transit and processing paperwork - not so much. If you wanted consistent and dependable results, much less mass production, an engineer was what you wanted.
Alchemy was practiced by the Japanese, and some dragons were kept just so they could be bled every six months to produce special inks where their blood was a major ingredient.
However, the Japanese HAD made a recent development that was now catching on - a refinement of paper wards and tags.
Magical cards.
Of course there were people on both sides of the law who tried to use various magitech forms for various reasons. That included the types that used magic cards to do a number of effects.
However, that wasn't quite what Ranma had going for him.
"RANMA! GET BACK HERE!" yelled Genma as soon as he saw the package, dropped off by a large eagle.
He knew what this meant. Unfortunately for Genma, so did Ranma.
"FAT CHANCE, OLD MAN," yelled back Ranma as he ran for where the parachuting package would be landing.
"YOU CAN'T USE YOUR MAGIC," yelled Genma, trying to put on a burst of speed as he pulled something out of his gi. "See, I've still got your core unit!"
Ranma merely laughed and pulled something out of HIS gi.
"Eh?" asked Genma, stumbling a bit as he realized he was holding a small tree branch. "Damn it, he used substitution!"
Ranma engaged his flight spell, leaping into the air and letting the magic form his wings. THIS was cool. Useful too. He could snag the small package, dodge the hornet's nest his father had just thrown, and zip over to this hilltop.
Ranma noted as he landed - the return address, showing a girl whom he DID know, and tugged on the string holding the package closed.
BA-DUMF!
Ranma took a deep sniff as the package unfurled and shifted and became a picnic lunch. Then he began to eat. As his father had explained once before, if you could use an advantage to grab more food - it was all fair. Of course, he'd come up with that rule while scarfing a similar meal sent by the very girl who'd sent this particular feast.
Not that he wouldn't leave something for the old man.
It was kind of weird, his current situation. After all, he was:
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(Posted Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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