Gneiss waved the boys concern off with a jovial laugh, "No one got seriously hurt." It was true. While Theo might say differently, it really was for the best. Now he wouldn't have to dip the boy in a boiling cauldron of acid to teach him how to use his Aural healing abilities.
"Now boy.."
"Ranma." he offered, cricking his neck to relieve some tension.
"Hmmm. Ranma my boy, I need to ask you a few questions about what happened back there. If you didn't know, there are allot of people worried about that situation, namely your ability to harness so much energy from the ethereal stream."
"Eh?" Ranma countered curiously. What the heck was this old cook talking about? Ethereal stream? What the heck was that anyway? "Ethereal stream? What the heck are you talking about, old man?"
Gneiss blinked, "You've never heard of the ethereal stream before?"
"Nope. Heck, I've never heard the word Ethereal before today!" Ranma exclaimed.
"Ah. Well. The Ethereal stream could best be described as a wavelength of energy that tetters just above our normal senses, Mages such as myself are able to tap into this wavelength and channel the power to our needs. For spells and such." The older man eyed the boy skeptically, "Surely you must know this. No one should be able to tap the stream with out at least some training."
Ranma shrugged. What was the problem with this anyway? "I think your confusin this Etheral thingy with my Ki, old man. Ki ain't nothing special, just my life force." he hmmed, "Maybe this ethereal mumbo jumbo has somethin to do with how my Chi drawin process is all screwed up?" he asked mainly to himself.
"Chi? Ki?" Gneiss had heard of such things before, but generally only in martial artist. They called the energy they drew from the Wavelength Chi, but Ki was a relatively new term.
"Ah.. kinda hard to explain, its something you can't really learn unless you train in its use like I have." Ranma explained, "Chi is the forces of nature, Ki is my inner life force. Best I can explain it, I think."
"Show me." Gneiss challenged.
***
Later that night.
Gneiss had seen many things in his lifetime. A Plumber crossing dimensions to find his lady love, some Toadstool person; A strange elf looking guy with his weasel companion that just wouldn't shut the fuck up. Annoying bastard. Heck, he had even seen some bald guy name Picard running from a hoard of women out for his ass. It didn't help matters he supposed when Picard teleported to his ship and threatened to destroy the planet, but that was all in the past.
Today he had seen exclusive proof of a previously untapped energy source. That energy source was known as Ki, and came from within one's self. Never before had such a discovery been made since the Ethereal stream. This was more then his chance to go down forever in the analogues of history, this was something new and entirely unknown for him to explore.
The problem, however, seemed to be the only person currently capable of exercising this energy source had made his intentions clear about leaving his fortress. Which wasn't something Gneiss was comfortable in allowing to happen after he heard the explanation on the boy's strange Bezerker affliction.
"Not to mention..." Gneiss sighed. He hadn't the heart to explain to the boy the true seriousness of his case. He had spent most of the day just talking to the boy, trying to understand the lads story about a big pink blob sucking him up and depositing him in 'Seer's Desert.' He made a mental note to do some research on the name 'Majin Buu' that the young boy seemed to mutter from time to time during his explanation. When the boy had casually asked what day it was, he had simply given the answer, as he was use to saying.
"1962 Earth standard, January 23rd." The old mage grumbled. "His reaction at least proves my theory some what. The reason we never discovered this strange energy form is simple because it was never developed in this time period to begin with. He wasn't uncommon for dimensional travelers from the future or parrael dimensions to get dropped off here. Look at Dee'm's flunkies, bunch of spoiled kids that had gotten dumped here for some reason or another.
Putting aside that fact, Gneiss was extremely curious about the boy's bezerker affliction. Not the training, but the way it seemed chained within the boy's mind. He suspected it was some form of magically induced Bezerker mind, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why anyone would do that to the boy. The Bezerker mind didn't seem to like anyone, making it a rather huge hindrance if he ever tried to go after him or her first.
So many questions, so many questions... How the heck to break these things to the boy?
***
"Sorry."
"Yeah.. I'm glad your feeling better, then."
"Thanks.. I didn't hurt you too bad did I?" He looked concerned, and reproachful as he said that.
"I'll live."
"Names Ranma."
"Theodore."
"Eh.. I thought you were Simon?"
"Shut up." The young mage snapped.
"Sorry." Ranma looked sheepish, "Didn't mean to upset you none."
"Look Ranma. I'm not upset (much), Master Gneiss informed me you weren't in your right mind, so I can't hold it against you. I'm just upset I had to learn Aura healing the way I did, that’s all."
"Aural healing?" Ranma looked confused, "What's that?"
"Um. How do I explain it?" Theo hmmmed, tapping his chin, "It's one of the Aura Mages prime abilities. You can use it to instantly heal from most wounds, even obviously fatal ones. At least, the masters of the art can. I've only been training for a week (if you can call this training), so I'm not very good." he grunted, showing his arms that still had bruises from the crap healing job he had done.
"You sayin with practice you can heal yourself instantly?" Ranma asked, an uncomfortable glint in his eyes. "Your kidding right?" Just thinking about being able to apply that to his martial arts training had him ready to pounce the boy for his secrets.
"Well.. if I become advanced enough as an Aura Mage.." Theo sweated, hovering closer to the door. "Um, look. I need some sleep. I just wanted to bring you dinner.." he motioned to the completely forgotten food sitting on the table. "Ah... I'll see you later." and he left.
Ranma blinked, then shrugged. "I'll figure it all out sooner or later."
Lets Look Towards
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Matdeception
(Posted Fri, 23 Jan 2004 18:39)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.