Founding Fists
Chapter Four – New Techniques

Standard Disclaimer: apologies for borrowing from
Rumiko Takehashi: for most of the heroes
Buronson and Tetsuo Hara:  some concepts and some direction

Villains and method are mostly our own
Omega Point and Immortal Wanderer

Story Concept
Omega Point and Immortal Wanderer
Written by Omega Point

** Thoughts


Ranma was looking very uncomfortable standing up the far end of an abandoned car yard
, sixteen
large sheet covered figures were spaced around the yard.  Shampoo holding a bucket of
 cold water
before her, asks Ranma "Ready?"
"You sure you want to do this?" Tofu queries from the sideline.
"the cameras are ready" Nabiki calls out from behind a bank of high speed video and s
till
cameras.
"Just get it over and done with." Ranma demands.
Shampoo dumps the cold water over her head, while Ranma starts to shake and tremble,
Cologne
speeds amongst the figures ripping the sheets away, revealing a collection of lifelik
e cat human
hybrid dummies. The plan worked the presence of a real cat (well shampoo's cursed for
m was close
enough) and the images of Eonneh around the yard triggered the Nekoken.

Nabiki did her best to follow Ranma's movements with the one camera not fixed on a du
mmy, but her
eyes couldn't keep up with the pace Ranma was destroying the images. Tofu and Cologne
 managed to
follow his movements with their eyes, Tofu in particular seemed to suddenly gain an i
nsight into
the movements. Shampoo, as per the plan ran forward beyond Ranma's starting position
and jumped
into the bowl of hot water and pile of spare clothes to revert to her normal form.

Less then 30 seconds later (28.78 according to the Nabiki's cameras) Ranma shredded t
he last of
the Eonneh look-alikes and turned towards the group of spectator's but the hostility
in his eyes
faded but didn't totally disappear as he moved over to the group. Tofu prepared to hi
t the
appropriate points to knock Ranma out, but Ranma dodged, leaving Tofu hitting nothing
 but air.
Prepared for such an occurrence Nabiki unveiled a large pile of catnip that had been
kept in
reserve in case of such an eventuality, Ranma not really feeling threatened by Tofu t
urned and
leaped into the pile and started rubbing around in it ignoring Tofu's seconded attemp
t to knock
him unconscious, and promptly ended up that way.

*********

Awake again Ranma turned immediately to Nabiki "Did you get enough of it?"
"Sixteen camera's worth the one I was holding was next to useless though." Came the r
eply just as
Ranma noticed where he was.
"What happened? Why am I in a pile of catnip?"
"You dodged," Tofu hesitated before continuing, "You didn't fully trust us, I couldn'
t get you to
stay still long enough."
"We had it in reserve in case something like this happened." Nabiki continued for him
.
Ranma became deep in thought *I'm losing it I can't keep doing this, but I can't figh
t that thing
without me becoming a cat.*

"Son-in-law, your too slow." Ranma was to depressed at that point to notice the form
of address
used.
"Too slow, I shredded sixteen in under 30 seconds!"
"Too slow, they not move, Eonneh won't stay still like they did." Ranma recognised on
e of his
constant complaints to Akane "Bricks don't hit back."
"How can I move faster then, ghoul?" earning him resounding thump across his head fro
m Colognes
gnarled staff.
"Throw these." Cologne handed Ranma a small sack of marbles, "And watch."
Ranma opened the bag and sprayed some 200 marbles towards Cologne.
"Amaguriken" Cologne hit every single one of them sending them hurtling into a brick
wall on the
other side of the yard.
Ranma stared in disbelief he'd already realised that Cologne was fast but even he had
 trouble
following her hands in that exchange. "Roasting Chestnuts on an open fire?"
"I'll show you." Minutes later a small fire was going in the middle of the yard with
colognes
hands darting in and out of the fire so quickly that you where not sure weather or no
t her hands
ever actually entered the flames, but the chestnuts appeared to be just hovering ther
e.

"I can do this give them here." Ranma sat beside the fire and promptly had his hands
burnt in his
initial attempts to duplicate Colognes feat.
"I see we will have to work up to this." Cologne sighed as she watched Ranma make his
 attempts,
Tofu looked like he was about to have a try when cologne stopped him, "I have a diffe
rent
technique to teach you the two of you can teach each other the other's technique late
r but for
now I have something to allow you to hit where you want."
"But I will have a promise from you before I teach you the technique, you unlike Ranm
a have no
ties to my tribe, even though Ranma still maintains no ties to Shampoo he is still he
r chosen
husband so teaching him techniques is only bending the rules."
"I Have no interest in being matched with another member of your tribe!"
"I wasn't planning to, but are you willing to be a honorary member of our tribe. The
only
restriction is  that if you do marry your offspring will be raised in the tribe."
"Okay, it's not like that's going to happen." Tofu sardonically responded thinking ab
out his loss
of Kasumi.
"Splitting Cat Hairs" Cologne called giving no warning to her intended attack Tofu wa
tched as not
one but four colognes started to circle him, "Try to hit me." Came Colognes taunt.
Tofu figured there had to be a trick but made the attempts anyway, his hand passing t
hrough the
middle of one of colognes images in sight, spinning to try again on another he was in
capable of
determining which one was the real cologne due to the shifting nature of the images,
and Colognes
circling none of his hits actually impacted with anything solid. Cologne picked that
moment to
extent her stick and tap Tofu on his head.

"Okay which one are you?" Tofu demanded delivering faster punches and kicks, quick as
 he was he
couldn't have competed against Ranma, but then he would not have been considered slow
 by many
others.
"One and All"
"Make sense!" Raged Tofu his normally calm state disturbed by frustration. Taking a c
hance he
decided to see if he had picked up something from Ranma's demonstration., "Cat Claw S
wipe"
pivoting on one foot tofu spun extending his right hand loosely with his finger tips
in the
direction of motion. He passed through one, two, but not the third of the images spin
ning around
him. The technique was more powerful than even Tofu had expected, sparing with Ranma
and fighting
against Eonneh with Ranma had worn of, his body had learnt to make the chi claws. Whi
le not very
large yet they still managed to etch a series of centimetre deep cuts into colognes s
taff.

Eyes boggling Cologne looked at Tofu then looked again examining both his external fe
atures and
his aura. "How did you do that?"
Tofu smiled, shrugged his shoulders, "You first, 'Splitting Cats Hairs'"
"It's a technique where you use you chi to create duplicates of yourself, the images
can't attack
but by rotating around the victim it becomes very hard for you to be hit. Normally I
would expect
to take a long time teaching it as it involves high level of chi manipulation but.."
Cologne
pauses indicating her staff, "you may have less difficulty than I had anticipated."
"You don't think that fighting Eonneh with Ranma is not going to give me some insight
 into how
the chi claws are formed, I don't think it's possible to explain it, except that desp
eration
seems to come into it."
"Many Chi based attacks use emotions to focus the energy. Depression is one of the mo
re common. I
think I know how to improve your technique and teach you 'Splitting Cat Hairs'

********

Three or so days later…

Complaints where heard from three areas of the Tendo household.
Ranma sitting out side by a fire with very brown arms and a faint odour of burnt hair
 and flesh
surrounding him. He was trying desperately to move his hands quick enough.  "Hot, hot
, HOT…  I
will not give up!"
Tofu stood concentrating, two more Tofus came into existence one either side of him,
however they
only sort of half left the original, giving the overall image of a blur rather than m
ultiple
people. Upon trying to move Tofu's concentration slipped and the other Tofus winked o
ut of
existence. "I must do it, MUST CONCENTRATE."
The third active member of the Tendo household was busy abusing her henchgirls, "What
 do you mean
you can't find him, where talking about a eight foot cat he can't just disappear!"

Though in a really bad mood Nabiki decided that a break was needed. Giving one last b
atch of
orders to her henchgirls she turned and spoke to the martial artists.
"I need a break. YOU need a break, you are both coming to the fair and taking a rest
for a few
hours."
Both Ranma and Tofu looked at Nabiki in shock for while neither of them wanted to go
to the fair,
the mere thought was making them miserable, neither could deny the commanding voice o
r the simple
logic involved.

********

Ranma wandering around the stalls, more cautiously now having already been turned fem
ale by on
kid who tripped spilling their drink on Ranma.  When his eyes caught on one particula
r store that
seemed to be making a killing. A fish game anyone who could catch a fish bare handed
could put it
in a jar and keep it, twenty or so small upset children crowding around the stall.
"You can't do it."
"Impossible"
"Give our money back."
"I want a fish"
Ranma frowned upon the man behind the store who was obviously quite happy collecting
the money
and not having had to give out so much as a fish in the entire day.
"How's this game work?" Ranma asked as he approached the store.
"20 yen you can keep all the fish you can catch in a minute." Unwisely the stall owne
r added "If
your quick enough."

A glint appeared in Ranma's eyes one that had been absent for the last few weeks, tha
t of supreme
confidence. *Just think of it as training*
"Would you guys look after the fish I catch?"
A course of "Hai" erupted from the children.
Handing over 20 yen, Ranma took a deep breath "Tell me when my time starts.", Suddenl
y he paused
and looked at the owner of the stall. "What temperature is the water?"
"Cold"
A shudder went down Ranma's back, *I'm glad I'm in girl form*
"Go" The stall owner called.
Ranma's hand's blurred removing fish and doing it so fast that the water seemed to pa
rt away from
his hands, In moments the first tank had been emptied of fish and a row of jars now s
tood with
one fish in each. Taking a step to the right he repeated the process in a second tank
 then a
third, only 20 seconds had elapsed and 58 jars of fish now lined edge of the counter.

Not impressed by the display Ranma had captured enough of his fish to put him at a lo
ss for the
week, he grinned evilly, "You've forty seconds left care to try for something more ch
allenging?"
"Like what?"
"These piranhas."
"Your on.", pulling back his sleaves and preparing to capture the vicious creatures.
The stall owner dropped a few drops of blood into the water sending the piranhas into
 a frenzy.
"Just making it interesting."
Ranma now looked a little more nervous.
"Go", A vicious smile played across the stall keepers face.
Ranma looked at the frothing liquid and his hand dove, grabbed and flipped the piranh
as into a
largish glass bowl near by as no more jars where in sight.
On finishing empting the tank of it's predatory fish Ranma turned bowed to the applau
ding
children now clutching 2 or 3 jars a piece. *I think I can do the old ghouls trick no
w."

On the other side of the fair Tofu was looking at the various rides and such, pretty
depressed,
with his thoughts drifting to Kasumi. Looking at the various rides, he kept picturing
 himself and
Kasumi together laughing. Glancing around he hunted for an activity to take his mind
off those
thoughts.
Rings? No.
Cards? No.
Rifle? No.
Feats of Strength? No.
Cup and Ball? No… well maybe.

The pattern being woven on the table by the rapid movement of the cups was memorising
 Tofu. It
took him a few moments to realise that this was what he was trying to do only on a la
rger scale.
"Care for a game or three?" A cheerful looking Store owner enquired.
"I'll have you best of three." Another fair goer responded while Tofu still thought t
hough his
plans.
"We play first to three not best of three, I go first placing this red ball under one
 of the
cups, then I shuffle and if you pick right cup you gain a point, if you don't I gain
a point.
Then you do the shuffling."
"That sound fairer than most of these games!" Exclaimed the surprised customer who ha
d played
simular games before and most certainly never got to shuffle the cups."
"Ah, but I still go first and I wager my eyes are faster than your hands!"

Watching the cup shuffler Tofu kept his eye on the correct cup easily, - *I must have
 been
mistaken, I won't learn anything here.* - the customer picked it easily, and was even
 slower
shuffling the cups allowing the shuffler to equalise the points. Deciding to stick it
 out till
the end of the game Tofu continued watching.
"Okay lets try something a little harder." The shuffler revealed the ball covered it
and somehow
started the three cups moving in a figure 8 without any of the cups even stopping for
 a moment.
Tofu's reflexes and observation skills had never been bad, and training at Ranma's le
vel had
improved him considerable, so he could still follow the pattern. Tofu was privately b
etting that
the other customer couldn't then just when Tofu thought the pattern would slow there
where
suddenly 5 no 6 cups involved in the figure eight. Tofu realised that because the cup
s had not
stopped in the transition he had been unable to keep track of the ball. He couldn't e
ven pick out
which where the original empty cups. Then suddenly the cups cam to a halt and there w
here only
three cups on the table lined up in a row.

The customer was baffled but as no comment was made he realised that the customer was
 unaware of
what had just taken place.
"You moved them so fast I bet you don't even know which one it is." The customer rema
rked.
"Pick your cup then and I nominate the cup the balls in and you can reveal the conten
ts, A point
for me if you guess wrong and a point for me if I guess right. Fair?"
"Fair." -Nominating the middle cup the customer waited to see if the shuffler had bee
n out done.
The shuffler pointed at the cup on the left the customer turned over the left hand cu
p sure
enough there was the ball. Determined that trickery was involved he turned over both
other cups
and not a splash of the red of the ball.

"I'd like a try." The shuffler immediately sized up Tofu and realised that there was
something
different about this customer.
"Okay but I'm not giving away a free point like I did just then."
"Lets make it first to ten, I might take me a few try's to get my hands up to speed."
"Your on, this could be interesting."

The shuffler immediately began to weave a pattern this time it was more of a braided
ring and
when the extra cups emerged from between the real cups the pattern didn't change but
the extra
cups made focusing on the ball cup impossible, after guessing wrong. Tofu began to ge
t a sinking
feeling that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Tofu began his attempt starti
ng with two
cups he started spinning them in a plain circle and focused on making his ki duplicat
e the cups
he managed to blur the outlines of the cups as he spun them but couldn't quite get th
e images to
separate, hands used to the pattern now he concentrated harder, the cups separated in
to two, so
four cups were spinning. Bringing the cups back to a halt and causing the extra image
s to
disappear, he lined them back into a row.

A big grin was spread across the shuffler pointed out the correct cup.
"Lucky guess." Some of Ranma's ego had obviously rubbed off on the former doctor.
"Tell you later what you did wrong." Obviously biting back laughter.
Two or three other people had stopped to watch the competition and were muttering "Di
d you see
that?", "There where five cups on the table I tell you.", "I didn't see anything wron
g!"
Tofu, two points behind already kept focused on the game.
*Obviously there is a flaw in my method but where?*
This time the pattern was three interlocking circles, by the time it reached full spe
ed it
appeared that the dealer was shuffling at least 12 cups, the onlookers where dumb fou
nded, as all
they could follow was that there appeared to be more things on the table than there s
hould be.
Upon the cups coming to rest Tofu pointed and wasn't too up set to be told.
"Not that one."

Trying a simple circle again, Tofu this time included all three cups, taking it a bit
 slower
realising that the speed that the stall owner used was more to prevent others accusin
g him of
cheating, carefully built up a steady pattern that didn't require much thought to kee
p going,
feeling the cups passing through his hands he imaged 2 of them causing five cups to c
ircle on the
table. He had realised his earlier mistake, Tofu hadn't let go of the cups when he ma
de his first
attempt he'd literally passed them from one hand to another making the two duplicates
 stand out
like a sore thumb, this time he made himself pay equal attention to all of them. The
shufflers
expression this time was far more concerned.
"Your point." As the shuffler lifted the cup he picked.

Several minutes late a small crowd had appeared.. the score was 9-8 the dealers way.
Tofu had
been lucky enough to guess correctly three times opposed to the shop keepers two, and
 guess was
what they were doing. Tofu started a pattern quite a complicated swirling pattern, he
'd managed
to get up to 11 images to appear at a time and brought them to rest.
"That one." The shuffler claimed with a hopeful smile on his face.
"No, not that one" revealing the ball and passing the cups over for the final round.
*I think I've seen the flaw.*

As the cups started the rotation, Tofu prepared himself, just as the images started t
o appear but
before they where shuffled up as well Tofu put 1000 yen on the table "Bonus side bet
for this
round, The shufflers eyes widened and moved a hand to grab the money before Tofu chan
ged his
mind. That movement was exactly what Tofu wanted to achieve the real cups slid furthe
r than the
images without the hand to control them, Tofu had narrowed it back down to three. And
 he'd
already determined which group held the real ball, so the correct cup when they came
back to a
halt was immediately identified.
The Shuffler smiled at Tofu and handed over the money,.
"I hope you learned something."

Cologne walked up to the shuffler having come from the fish catching stall making sur
e that Tofu
was already out of sight.
"Did you show him the technique?"
"Of course, but is it wise he's not of our tribe." The shuffler addressed his matriar
ch
"Any children he has will be."
"Is he good enough to take what I showed him the rest of the way."
"Leave the thinking to me. How long did it take him to learn the technique from you?"
"One round less than you, he learns quickly." The shuffler suddenly paused hoping tha
t Cologne
didn't read such a comment as disrespect.
"And he's not the faster." Mused cologne just loud enough to be heard and then walked
 away.

Nabiki wandered aimlessly about the fair not really sure why she agreed to Cologne's
suggestion
of getting Ranma and Tofu to the fair. Sure she'd told the two the truth when she sai
d she was
getting nowhere, but this wasn't helping her at all. Deep in thought Nabiki turned a
corner
entering a maze of mirrors, she was well past the entrance before the usually observa
nt Nabiki,
realised where she was.
Looking around she saw reflections of herself distorted and modified by the curvature
 and colour
of the glass.
*I definitely would like to have that rub off on me.* Looking in one mirror that enla
rged and
reduced appropriate parts of her physique, to give her what she viewed as perfect pro
portions for
a female. Other mirrors though were not as flattering to her figure, or sometimes her
 colour.
With her appearing as a fat dwarf, a purple snake, and a very sick shade of green, am
ong others.

Realising that the differences in appearance of her reflections would make even herse
lf have
trouble recognizing the real Nabiki, she realised that she would have to change the c
riteria for
the Eonneh search as there was no real way of telling wether he was truly stuck in hi
s cat-beast
form.

Unbeknownst to her elsewhere on a globe a medium built business man was muttering in
a strange
accent, "Be wanting good old fashioned wizard to be sending, not be on this slow crea
tion."

Perhaps Nabiki mused this trip will be of benefit after all. Walking out of the maze
she ran into
Cologne.
"Did you get them to do what you wanted?"
"Yes, Son-in-Law and Tofu have learned some lessons."- Pausing to take a breath -"The
y will need
to know them well."

*************

Sometime later back at the Tendo Dojo, Tofu and Ranma spared, tofu was starting to us
e some more
leg work and other more traditional punches and strikes, Ranma was moving faster than
 ever. Tofu
started circling Ranma called out "Splitting cats hairs", concentrated and suddenly R
anma was
dealing with four Tofus circling him. Not to be out done Ranma jumped vertically and
aimed a
series of kicks at the circle but connected with nothing. Tofu promptly hit out with
a well aimed
punch hitting Ranma in the chest.
"I've got you now!" aiming at the image he thought punched him Ranma let loose a furr
y of punches
which all promptly missed.

Ranma started paying more attention to work out the limitations of this technique, To
fu wasn't
striking as often, but he certainly wasn't being hit, then he realised that the circl
e that was
being made around him seemed to flow blending Tofu's aura around all the images (the
images after
all where part of Tofu's ki) finding the one with the largest aura wasn't going to wo
rk. But they
all moved in a circle the pattern didn't change. Having lived with the former doctor
for the last
few weeks Ranma knew of a weakness, one that he planned on capitalising on.
"BBQ pork" tossing a few pieces of BBQ pork just in front of him sure enough the sigh
t of his
favourite food and the appetite from training worked. Tofu took a step inward, breaki
ng the
circle, and the other images disappeared, "Amaguriken" Ranma launched near to a hundr
ed punches
at Tofu, working a line of light impacts across his chest, not hard this was practice
 after all
but they were hitting. Tofu staggered back a bit, then smiled.
"I'll have you next time."

Authors end note:

Terrorists should really think before taking hostages in Tokyo shouldn't they?
Next time …

C&C Wanted as always