Ranma Saotome was a fighter.
Having been thrown tied up in a pit filled with hungry cats (plus a rabid one) in an insane plan to learn a banned technique, he had somehow against all odds survived despite his father's criminal stupidity and Pluto's meddling.
When the authorities arrived on the scene, the child they found was a bloody mess, holding on life by sheer stubborness and anger. Missing limbs, torn flesh, blood loss, infected by rabies and other infections, his left eye teared up from its socket, internal injuries... It was a miracle Ranma was still alive.
The young boy slipped in a coma shortly after his addmittance at the Hospital. Surgeons fought for days to keep him alive and stabilize his condition. His heart stopped three times in all and took more time and energy to restart.
When Ranma woke up, it was to hear his own father (who had come to take him back in the darkness of night) disown and abandon him for being a weakling and hopeless cripple. His scream of anguish alerted the nurse, prompting Genma's escape.
It took years for Ranma to recover from his ordeal but it was obvious that he would never be able to practice martial arts again, much less fight at all. Heavy duty physical and psychological therapy had been necessary for him to regain a modicum of autonomy and function in Society.
The final straw came when her mother had been found. After a cursory glance at her crippled son, she declared him unmanly and ordered him to prepare himself for seppuku. Needless to say, Ranma's remaining hopes were crushed. Nodoka Saotome was arrested and sent into an asylum. The Police continued to search for Genma but the martial artist/thief always escaped pursuit.
Ranma's story moved certain people so much that he was declared a ward of the State until his majority.
Deprived of martial arts and pretty much any physical activity, Ranma Saotome turned his energy toward learning and education, almost to the point of obsession.
Martial arts had destroyed Ranma. In their name, he had been put under untold abuse and suffering, culminating in his near death and his current state. The Art itself and all the mystical nonsense associated with it became an evil thing in his broken mind.
The search for knowledge became his salvation. Science, medicine and logic had saved his life and allowed him to regain a few bits of what he'd lost. Throwing himself in his studies, he put his intelligence, eidetic memory and capacity for learning into a totally different direction now.
Ranma Saotome the martial artist was dead. Long live Ranma Saotome the scholar.
And even if it was almost non-existant, there was a hope Ranma would find a way to repair the damages made to his body by the Neko-Ken training.
Years passed. Ranma turned into a somewhat misanthropic and bitter young man who lived only for his research. He bonded with Hotaru Tomoe because they had things in common: being physically handicapped and shunned by others. Ranma was her sempai and sensei, tutoring her in various subjects. Her grades had increased significantly thanks to him, she came second to Ami several times during the last tests (which angered Setsuna even more, Hotaru wasn't supposed to be the same age as Usagi and the others, much less be in the same class).
Sailor Pluto twitched and felt a headache forming. What did it take to get rid of that boy!? She looked closer and was surprised by one thing. Ranma wasn't a normal student even if he was the best at what he did(natch), no.
Ranma Saotome was well known in certain circles as a genius. He had access to a Science far beyond anything that existed. The government who was paying for all of this gladly did, getting their hands on advanced technology straight out of Science-Fiction.
Apparently, Ranma, while being a typical 'comic-book' scientist (the likes of Gina Diggers, Reed Richards, Doctor Doom, etc...) and as such a jack-of-all-trades, had a specialty field where he was the World's undisputed master:
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(Posted Wed, 28 Jan 2004 23:14)
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