[Episode 240348] [Episode 240348]Genma sighed audibly. His nemesis this animal he thought must be a true king among cats had only been trying to feed herself and her newly born kitten? This alone made him hesitate. He was a martial artist of no little skill and regardless of the many, many untraditional and unethical set of values drilled into him by his dread master one that still stood out was to respect your defeated opponents. Of course this was designed to assure that they would fight you again thus giving you more insight to their fighting styles but still it was no less true.
Throughout the events of the past few days the white furred cat had become his opponent. Could he really sentence its offspring to starvation and death? He briefly entertained the idea of simply setting its mother free but he simply couldn’t allow that. He could begin the boys training today and not have to track down another hard to capture cat, and this cat alone was harder to capture than any of the other cats he had already stationed in the pit it had to be a stronger cat and that would result in an ultimately stronger training tool right? Most assuredly that had to be the case. Also to leave the defenseless kitten alone was dishonorable and he could not dishonor his opponent in that fashion. Nodding his head and cursing himself for his sentimentality he picked the kitten up gingerly and carefully placed it inside of his gi to keep it warm and safe. He would reunite his wily opponent and it’s offspring after the training was completed this evening. Surely his son would pick up the training quickly and there would be no need to hold on to both cats for long. Wincing slightly he walked off heading back to camp the kitten inside his gi had decided to claw into his flesh, obviously taking after its mother.
Making his way back into camp his bounty secure in a burlap sack and quickly tossed her into the dark dank pit from which the smell of a multitude of tired restless felines and their pathetic cries issued forth.
“Did you finally catch the last one papa?” a short extremely fit energetic but still quite short boy with a short ponytail asked.
“Indeed boy! Did you think some rotten flea bitten mongrel would ever give a martial artist of my skill trouble?” Genma asked proudly slightly posing while his son looked at him in wonder. It felt so good to have his son look at him with such respect and awe.
“’Course not poppa!” Ranma said proudly. “You want me ta go get the fish stuff from the fishingman we saw the other day?”
“That’s fisherman boy, and not right now, we need to stop feeding them for a few days. You can go get something for this little thing though…” Genma stated before slowly fishing out the tiny calico kitten and handing it to his son. “Be careful with her. Get her some milk and a few fishcakes and bring some back for us to eat.” Genma replied gingerly handing the kitten over to Ranma and handing him a few hundred yen in coins.
Ranma looked on at the small kitten in wonder. He had vague memories of having a pet from before he left his mother. To have one now brought back a lot of happy memories. Ranma cautiously asked, “Is this a new pet poppa?” He asked quietly gently stroking the small frightened kitten.
Frowning Genma stared at his son in irritation and was about to contradict Ranma lambasting him for being too soft to be a martial artist before tempering his tone. The kitten would only be his for a few days after which they would return the kitten to his defeated opponent. No skin off his back that his son was volunteering to take care of one of his honorable obligations and look after the small thing. Coming to a decision he nodded and said, “Just for a few days. It’s the kitten of that last cat I captured and it’ll be of no use in your training. You’ll have to look after it for a few days and be responsible for it. Do you understand boy?”
Ranma smiled happily. Yay he had a pet for a few days at least! “Ok poppa I’ll go buy all three ‘o us dinner!” he exclaimed happily before running off clutching the small kitten gently.
Genma shook his head and sighed as he watched his son run off. He was still far too soft; still he picked up martial techniques amazingly fast no doubt thanks to his superior genetics. Turning his attention back to the pit he nodded all one hundred and one cats captured. Pulling out a training manual he looked over its contents. Now he had to allow the cats to starve for three days and then he simply had to dress the boy in the requisite fish products and toss him in the pit. The training manual said that through observation and being attacked by a multitude of starving cats the trainee would be able to take on the animals characteristics and manifest them using unconscious ki replication. Why this had to be done with such a large multitude of cats he was not certain. And while on the face of it the training was rather brutal it was nothing compared to the survival training he and Soun received under the master. He had forced them to travel to Australia and swim among hungry Great White Sharks as survival and ki training. Of course while they were doing this the master was on the beautiful beaches doing his own brand of ‘training’. Shaking his head he tried to forcefully push out thoughts of his master. “I should’ve asked the boy to buy a bottle of sake too…Oh well.”
In the pit a small white cat huddled in a corner inside of the dank pit. It was cold down here and the other cats were many, far more than she liked to be around. Most of them were well fed though and paid her little notice. They were for the most part content that she did not threaten them for their space and simply huddled down next to a side in the large pit. Carefully cleaning off the scent from where the smelly monster had latched on to her she cursed herself. She had been extremely disheartened when she had felt the monster stop and go back for her daughter. Part of her had been happy that they would at least not be separated another large part had been frightened for her daughter’s life. Who knows what unspeakable things the monster would do to them both? Her initial thoughts had been escape but from the height of the walls and lack of things to jump onto would prevent that. Next had been survival but from the lethargy of the other cats in the pit they seemed to have had little trouble finding food so she simply huddled down patiently and waited.
The bright warm circle vanished and it got colder. But she was used to cold she remembered it well and simply nestled down for a wary sleep. The bright circle came up again soon enough. She did not understand why the other cats looked up and cried piteously when they saw one of two gangly smelly things but quickly realized they were looking at the food they were eating and understood. The smaller one tossed a small piece of food at some of the meowing animals before the larger one stopped him and began to do the monster variation of hissing. She remembered her mother had used similar body language when telling her that leaving warm den and looking at very large shiny fast moving monsters was a bad idea.
So she huddled down and waited. The others grew frantic and doubled their caterwauling but she simply sat and retained her energy. She knew she would need to escape or fight later and she knew how to be patient. The bright circle went down again and the cats grew angry. There were fights this night and she did not sleep soundly. She tried to avoid the fights and let the others tire each other out. She would wait. If she needed to fight she would do so without scratches or cuts. She was a wary fighter and hunter and would not go after prey she knew was stronger and healthier then her. She was surprised when the smaller monster appeared over the large dark pit and cautiously threw in some nice smelling meat.
She was especially surprised to see him holding her daughter. She was concerned for her but she appeared to still be healthy from what little she could see and the shorter thing did give her some small scraps of meat so she was likely alright. She had seen other smaller monsters feeding her kind before but they usually then hurt the stupid cats foolish enough to come to them. Hissing she watched the small monster after feeding her daughter but he did not hurt her and only carefully groomed and cuddled with her before walking out of her sight. This irritated her, but at least her kitten was eating and looked healthy. She had seen some of the other poor fighters of her kind get food through the magic cold see through thing that the monsters lived in but they never went outside so they were little better then prisoners. Still at least her daughter was eating she could save her later; she would not fail her last kitten.
More time passed. The others were fighting and there was blood around. Many mewled piteously and they were getting desperately hungry. She was not too stupid to try to attack others to eat that usually hurt you very much more then what you got to eat. She unlike many of these cats was used to not eating for days. She was a a survivor used to hardship. She remembered when she had kittens inside her that she could dig and get out small crawly things in ground. She did this and ate some so she was not as hungry as others. She had tried to get out of this dark cold place a couple times now but simply couldn't.
She was not sure how much longer she could stay down here. She needed to save her daughter but could not get out. She was still stuck in this cold small place. She was not the best fighter but she knew soon the others would try to fight her for food soon. She was confident that she was still strong though most of the others had cuts on flanks, heads, paws, and face. Suddenly the fights and cries stopped. They all smelt a nice smell like what came from many of the good monster’s food shrines. Looking up they saw the small monster and he was where the smell was coming from. Her mouth watered and suddenly smaller smelly monster was falling into the pit.
She knew to wait though let the other un-injured fight each other for initial food she’d get hers later. After the initial rush she darted in and grabbed some for herself. She smelt her daughter all over the short monster though and was surprised to smell freely given smells all over him. Her daughter had adopted this one? She thus started to be more careful to not hurt monster much while grabbing food unlike the others. If monster daughter’s he was owed some respect.
Genma simply didn’t understand it. He had tossed his son into the pit on three occasions now and still he had not learned the technique. He was even fearful of a small calico kitten and only Genma’s stern dressing down and the kitten’s own playful nature had made the boy capable of even conquering his fear enough to idly pet and care for the animal. His son was afraid of small kittens what a failure! Continued exposure to get him over his fear was the only solution now. His own master had thrown him into a large pit of snakes over and over until he had grown immune to their venom and lost all his fear of the animal he would simply do the same.
Meanwhile, Ranma was cautiously feeding and petting his kitten. “Good Kana-chan.” Ranma said shakily idly scratching the growing kitten sitting in his lap. Every time the cat slightly flexed its claws Ranma froze up but he had to feed the kitten his papa had said so and his papa would make him strong.
It had gotten bad in the dark place the small white cat thought. There was much blood here. The short monster that smelt strongly of her daughter had been thrown down here many times and the others were growing more desperate for food. Some of had died and been eaten. From what little she managed to see from outside the dark cold place the smaller monster was feeding her daughter and her daughter’s fresh smell was all over him. She knew she had to make sure he would live so her kitten would as well. She had tried to hide amongst his shredded coat that did not bleed when he was pulled out but the taller monster that captured her was careful and managed to knock her back into the pit. She knew she was sick now. Not enough food and the other cats had scratched her while she defended the small monster. She would fight though and make sure the short monster and kitten would live as long as she could.
Idly she woke up and fought through her pain to stand. The small monster smelt of food again and before she knew it was within the small cold place with her. This time something felt different then the other times. The short monster froze in fear as was usual but all in the pit felt different and for once the continuous fights and desperation for food stopped. The little monster began to yowl and a very dark feeling coursed through the pit. She froze feeling something dark from the hairless short thing and all of the cats began to move away in shock but her who was still wary for one or two of the more bold toms to try something. Surprisingly her kitten’s protectors yowling continued eventually matching the angry sound of many of the toms within the pit. Before she knew it he had broken through the food wrapped around him and…
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(Posted Sat, 18 Sep 2010 02:21)
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