Star of War.

A Ranma 1/2-Fist of the North Star fanfiction.

By Dragonlord.

C&C welcome!

E-mail: valheru@mixmail.com

Disclaimer: all the characters are copyright of their authors. Ranma
1/2 propriety of Rumiko Takahashi, Hokuto no Ken propriety of Buronson
and Tetsuo Hara


Thanks to my pre-readers and to Tomas and Tannim to host this story!


Tomas'page (Nighthawk's Fanfiction)

www.geocities.com/Area51/Quasar/6189/


Tannim's page

Home.earthlink.net/~tannim/



Chapter 3: Heir of the Fists

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He slowly opened his eyes.

"Where am I?"

Not expecting someone to answer him he rise up still in the bed he was
in and looked at is surroundings.

He found himself in a room made of stone.

The room was spartan: only the strict needed to live; a futon where he
was laying, the hot air making any blanket non-useful, a litle
necesair, a desk with a chair and few things more.

In some way it remained Ranma the kind of cell he found in those
monasteries where his father brought him in the ten years long
training trip.

The memories of those times were rarely happy.

He took great pleasure in any teaching the monks or martial arts
senseis could give him when he remained time enough to have some
instruction that wasn't martial arts based.

But they never stayed too much time for Ranma's displaisure (usually
their where thronw out due to his father's bad habits). For the young
Ranma the days he passed doing chores to pay for the food his father
eat were the few moments of peace in his life dedicated to be the
greatest martial artist in the world.

The silence and peace he found in those places, usually in places far
away from centers of human activity were deeply sherished by the
training martial artist and the help he recived from the monks in the
art of meditation where found priceless in the days to come; when the
madness of his life in Nerima threatened to drive him insane.

In a way those few times helped him to remain himself; Ranma Saotome,
not Genma's son, born only to fight; born to be the perfect living
weapon.

But now he was slightly desoriented as looked the room from his sit
position upon his futon. The last thing he was aware of was about the
attack at Ember Town. He was so sure that he was to die then... but
that mysterious man appeared and changed that.

He still remembered the pain cursing trought his body after the kick
as his ribs, but another pain, way more wreaking, was slowly gaining
strenght as his mind cleared form those moments in that frontier town.
And as quick as the physical pain was rememeberd, also came the
moments that lead to Rea and Yado's death.

Their deaths and his killing; the first blood he ever took.

Now his mind was bringing him chrystal clear memories.

He closed his eyes as tears started to appear; to flow bringing him
some release yet making his sadness to grow.

Was he destined to find pain and suffering even in another world?

It seemed so, a tired mind told to a grieving heart, as he looked each
memory with his mind's eye.

Yado killed by some raider arrows, while his comforting hand was still
upon his more little one; a gesture that brought happines to his heavy
heart; an happiness washed away by Yado's blood.

Rea running to hug the prone body of her mother, alredy dead but still
warm while the little girl was driven insane by her pain.

Her last smile, a cherished treasure, forever in his heart along more
pleasent memories of a starting friendship.

But at the end becoming another life taken with a piece of his heart,
of his soul as he saw Rea's beautiful green eyes being veiled by dead.

How he hug her as she hug her mother only moments before as pain and
sadness flowded in his being.

Then the dark emotions.

A dark part of his is being brough forth turned to his use.

Emotions mastered; dominated.

A tool to serve his need of justice.

Of revenge.

The rage and bloodlust.

The bloodlust and the lust for battle.

Then it came; it came with his ravaging emotions.

Power.

Raging...

Burning...

Changing him.

Now memories of how he used that power to excercise that need of
revenge.

The exultant feeling of crushing one's enemy.

The pleasure to end a wrong life; an evil one that was an emboiment of
destruction and madness in a world were the weak was crushed.

How he crushed that man's skull, how he desintegrated a group of those
murderers scum, determinated to kill him.

How he used the Hiryu Shoten Ha to kill more of those bastards before
they killed more innnocents.

Innocents like Rea and Yado.

He was so sure of his inminent dead after he unlashed the dragon
rising wave. He hadn't time to look to his acts, as he was sure to
have meet his doom after the last attack.

He was ready to welcome his own end with the same hounor he had always
tryed to keep. He was even impacient to be embraced by the final
darkness, as part of his being wanting to end all, yet another part
unwiling to surrender, to just wait for a quick dead even if painfull.

He knew he was finished after using the Hiryu Shoten ha.

It was logical after all.

Using new energies that he had only started to use to boost his body
back in Nerima, in this new world with a body unprepared to such power
level, that display was only good to worn his body; making him weaker.

Looking back in time (even if he was ignorant of how much time had
really passed since loosing conciousness), back then he marveled of
his lack of perspective in the battle. The only ansewer he could came
with that in that moment the part wanting to end it all was comanding
him.

He sighed.

Those moments were still too much confusing, even being able to look
back at them with so much clarity.

He wiped his tears away and trough red rimed eyes looked to his hands.

His hands covered in blood.

The price for the safety of innocents likes Rea and Yado.

He was now a killer. And as strange at it may seem to the part of his
mind that was still the Ranma from Nerima, he was unrepeantant.

That part checked his own being as if searching for something,
anything that could make this new coldness towards killing seem...
less cold and undisturbed.

He looked and looked again and again to what seemed an eternity and
contradictingly was a very small amount of time, and again he came to
the same conclusion, to that same fact.

He was unrepeantant.

Damn, a part of him swore, the part that was rised up to belive in
protecting life and that killing was the most shamefull act one could
do.

And yet...

It was something needed to be done. The use of his darker emotions was
only circunstancial. In the chaos that was his mind were is ego was
being torn apart and reformed as his body once was, "Ranma" was forced
to admit that if in Nerima he had been withness of such killing, he
would have killed with his bare hands; in a painfull notion, the
killer(s).

He searched more into himself and still he came with the same
conclusion.

He would kill again if he could prevent such tragedies as the ones he
had seen.

Again came the word, the idea.

Unrepenting.

For the first time since waking up the entire being that was "Ranma"
said in the vaults of his mind the question:

What was happening to him?

It was as if with Rea's dead something had drastically changed within
his mind, within his soul, within his the coree of his being.

He wasn't sure, even if unrepeantant of his acts, that those changes
would be good or not.

His mind still worked.

His face showed a small smile.

During months they treated him like a doumb jock and here he was
thinking things that surely no sane man should be thinking.

Again his mind worked by its own voliation.

The memeories flowed with the time of the fight and as the battle
became clearer he came to the moment when he was saved.

That is after one of those killers broke some of his ribs.

He checked then his own body, neglected by his mind maëlstorm.

He foud his chest warped in bandages and even if he didn't feel any
pain he knew that he had been wounded. Using the same abilkity as the
one he used to check his body once he arrived to this new world he
explored his chest and more precisely his ribs.

Probing he found that his body was almost healed even if his ribs were
still cracked. His cheking informned him that almost two of his ribs
were broken hin several places, others were simply cracked and hadn't
broken under the kick he had recived.

In all he was surprised to see that he was better than he had
expected. He would still have problems in the next days but if this
body worked as his old one he would heal fast.

He groaned.

Phisicaly he was more or less sound, mentally he was a wreck.

Now he had other matters to consider. He almost wished to be again in
Nerima. At least ther the problems were easily clasified.

Problem a: fiancees; wanted or not.

Problem b: rivals by the dozen this one after a while tottaly
unwanted.

Problem c: a mercenary would-be-sister-in-law determined to dry him of
any money he could have.

Problem d: a father that was a complete morron; this being midly.

Problem e: a curse also unwanted, but more or less accepted.

And more each day.

Here he had to face mental problems, emnotions he wasn't aware he had,
powers needed to be controld, new parts of his mind to live with and
more.

Now that his body was checked he repased the last moments of the
battle when he was ready to die.

The man that saved him with some amazing martial arts move (and to
someone with ranma's level of mastery over the arts of fighting that
was saying much) also was the memory of the power the man displayed:
it was something almost inhuman. He was sure that the man hadn't used
even a fraction of his power.

But the most disturbing thing was that... recognition he felt when
their eyes met. It was something he hadn't felt in his now two lifes,
and he knew that the man had also felt "it".

This added more misteries and questions to the already long list he
had.

So far he was in a different world or dimention, that was clear to
him, almost an understatement.

What happened to this world to look like a wastland?

Was this destruction focused in a part of this world or was it
worldwide?

How do men get so big and why were them so eager to kill some
innocents?

Who was the man that rescuded him? Why did he felt like if their
meeting was something already destined to appear?

Where was he now? And the man?

So many questions without ansewer that it was begining to give him a
headake, but first things first the hole of his mind told him along
with the entire of his body:



It was not that he was particulary eager to eat, the pain of loosing
Rea and Yado still fresh but he knerw that leting his mind to wander
about the posibilities was nothing more than calling depresion upon
himself.

The last thing he needed right now was starting to act like Ryouga.

Maybe what he needed was preciesly that: a break. And food seemed the
right thing to lift his spirits. It always had and Ranma seriously
doubted that would change.

He even alowed to joke. When food would start to loose his interest
then he would panic.

He looked to his surrounding once more and found the trousers wich he
had awake up in this new world clean. He quickly put them, he hadn't
found any shirt but with the heat it was as unnecesary as ther
blanquet was, so now he was bare to the waist.

As it was dificult to belive that the food was going to appear by
itself and as curiosity was begining to sting him he decided to go and
explore the place.

Surpriselly the door wasn't closed and exiting the room he saw that he
was in a corridor. With a shrug he toook the right way and started to
walk noticing in his way other cels that were closed. Some minutes
after he arrived to a largest corridor, almost a small road were the
darkness was chased by some narrow windows from were the light of the
day flowed giving the place some feeling of peace and tranquility.

He again took to the right and started walking and, as his sight
looked at the walls in search of some details or clues of the place he
was in right now, he noticed something that puzzled him.

On the walls of the big corridor he could see several of what seemed
to be constelation of stars, some of them he recognised thanks to the
nights he passed looking to the skies when the inmensity of space and
the eternal glimmering of the silvery stars would allow him some
detachment from the sensless struggle that was is life in Nerima.

There the stars were his friends, telling him of the timeless movement
that was the cosmos, that perfect simetry and organization that broug
him humility to his soul, not that someone would belive that the great
Ranma Saotome could be humbled by something as simple as the stars in
the blackness of the night.

As he advanced, still lost in memories that smoothed the internal
turmoil he was passing by, he started to see several statues at both
sides of the corridor.

He could see that they were quite new as was part of the place, maybe
only some years old but they had a sense that the now young boy
couldn't define.

Maybe somethig atemporal as if what they described was older than he
could imagine.

Slowly he noticed that the statues'positions remembered him of battle
stances.

He stoped and looked closer to both sides of the way, his gaze coming
back to the first statue in his left side to the nearest one, in the
same place.

He could be mistaken, but he was sure that the different poses were
parts of some long and incredibly complex kata. As he looked each
statue he was surprised and awed of the complexity of the handwork
needed to do those satues as well as the feelings showed in them.

It was almost as if strenght and power flowed from each statue; from
part of the kata. He was sure that if brough to life by a warrior
those katas would allow the user to crush any other fighter. Even the
katas he had learned form the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu seemed weak and
clumsy if compared. One thing was sure: he wouldn't be facing the user
if he could prevent it as slowly another feeling asaulted him.

The fight, if the world "fight" could be used, would be brutal and
short.

He didn't knew or could identify the style depicted by the satues even
if himself was a master of more than fifteen different fighting styles
but he was sure that in that conflict only one of the fighters would
remain alive, the other crushed.

Folowing an urge he continued to walk unable to look to anything that
wasn't the staues and doing so he began, almost unconsiously, to
asimilate each of the fighting potitions that the statues were
showing.

Eventually, after some time walking, he arrived to a inmense room with
two statues like the ones of the hall but of a proportion alomst
unable to belive. Ranma had seen once fotos of some statues in a
remote island and they were incredibly huge but this two statues,
facing each other, were simply inmense.

Were these two giants spirits or even gods? Who carved those silent
faces and empty eyes but at the same time gaving them that feeling of
absolute power and strenght? What was the message that these two gods
could give to the one looking at them, an insect standing before the
refrained strenght of higher beings?

More mysteries.

Ranma started to walk towards the space between the two inmense
statues as he noticed what looked like a battle arena. He stayed
little in the fighting area as he noticed an open door in the oposite
wall from where light was coming.

He started to walk more quickly towards the door and once he arrived
near it slowed down. He looked trough the open door and discovered
another corridor or smaller halley this time without any statues at
its side; only an area opened to a windy bright blue day.

He looked to the blue skies before starting to march it.

As he continued walking he noted that in the two fields surrounding
the corridor were several instruments for trainning, but unknown to
him. Only a group of posts of different size and lenght could remain
him some excerise of balance and equilibrium.  Yet the smaller of this
posts in height was as high as three level house. Even with a ki
empowered jump could someone expect to land into the higher ones and
even then it would be difficult.

Who could do that and for what other training could that posts be
used, along with the other training items?

This only added more to the mysterious apperence in this place. Only
one thing was for sure: this place was saturated by martial arts, but
what martial art? If the statues of the former halley where a show of
the forms of that art then he was sure that that fighting form was
unexistant in his homeworld.

After some time he came to the end of the open corridor and found what
seemed to be a plain looking temple.

Little in comparation to the other buildings that were conected with
the one in front of Ranma. The style was chinese but with a hint of
japanese. Streaching his senses he could feel a presence behind the
wooden door he faced. After some moments of doubt he opened it.

The inside was stripped of anything that wasn't simple. In its
simplicity stood its beauty. Only some tatamis, a shrine, some rols
hung in the walls in what he belived to recognise old chinese. The
light the place could have was dimed by the closed windows but far
from giving a feeling of oppression the little light gave him the
feeling of peace and privacy.

Also a couple of candles upon high metal posts were giving a softer
ligh that mixed from the one coming from the closed windows. It
reminded him of the hall of satues, but with a feeling of purity that
was opposed to the one of power and violence that could be felt coming
from the statues.

But what caugh his atention was a constelation painted in the wall
facing him; he easily recognised the Great Dipper as he had looked at
it several times from the roof of the Tendo house. But this time,
looking at it he could feel something different within himself as his
eyes were drawn to the painitng that was between two of the chinese
rols. He was simply unable to look to anything else as... an unknown
recognition washing over his being.

He was forced to look down of the seven star constelation as his
senses warned him of a source of power.

There he was. The man that saved him from a sure and waited dead.

He was sitting under the constelation painting with the eyes closed as
his body was in a lotus position, as if unaware of the outside world
with an outfit similar to Ranma's; matching pants but black while
Ranma's one was soft grey.

Neeedles to say the fact that he was floating two feets from the
ground didn't pass unoticed for the awed otherworlder. There was a
feeling of power but not so massive as the one he reminded to have
felt when he had seen that man launch that ki-blast.

But the power was there.

He could feel it pulsating as if too vast to be canceled.

Another thing drew Ranma's attention, something upon the muscular
chest of that misterious man, but with the dim light he couldn't be
sure. What he was lookiong at was at a number of round scars in his
chest.

For a moment he wondered what kind of weapon could have make those
scars but he could easily imagine that the pain endured when he
recived them had been masive.

His other senses as well as his body relaxed as he picked the soft
aroma of incense was floating in the room. It was smoothing not as
other odors more overhelming. This one as complex and refreshing as a
summer's breeze in the wilderness he grew up in what seemed a life
time ago. That complex and yet strangely subtle fragrance achieved to
relax both his body and mind.

As the man made no move to aknowledge his presence he silently entered
the room trying to respect the meditation of the man.  Closing the
door swiftlly but slowly, he approached the floating figure from wich
emanated a feeling of peace such that Ranma felt comforted as he
aproched the man. It could have been his imagnation but he was aware
of what was almost an invitation to join him in his meditation.

Maybe it wasn't so a foolish idea as Ranma was conscious that the man
must be aware of the intrusion but as he paid no heed to the presence
of the youthfull ex-nerimian.

This only added more determination in the boy's mind. He was aware
that the man was deep inside of his mind but he knew also that his
savior was conscious of his surrounding. Such level was unheard even
in the comunity of superpowered martial artist way back in Nerima and
there _was_ an invitation to share the moment.

A feeling was starting to grew in his younger body and in his
significantly older mind, a feeling he once had for his father, way
before Jusenkyo or the Cat Fist training:

Respect.

Slowly Ranma adopted the same position as the man and sat in front of
him, trying to emulate him somehow, releasing his ki after a few
moments without any clear intention, only to feel it while driffting
inside of his own chaotic mind. As if the ki of the man was indicating
how to do it, guiding him from a subconsious level.

As he felt the energies flowing from his being he realised that once
his ki had been taped in that battle the flowing of power was much
more easy, the use of emotions almost unnecesary.

Of this Ranma was gratefull as he understood since the moment he used
his energy in that battle, that this power needed a conductive feeling
and untill he found others right now it was easier to use darker
emotions such as anger or hate. For now and for his own mental sanity
he decided to put aside the struggle of using or not those emotions...
somehow they didn't seemed right.

With a soundless sigh he again entered his mind, trying to find his
center and bring order to his being. Strangelly after a few momonts he
could feel his mind to calm as if the raging sea that it was when
awawkening had calmed.

Slowly as the calming waves of energy coming from the man washed over
him, ranma found his center the outside world closed to him.

Some time after (he wasn't sure of how much) he opened his eyes,
feeling refreshed. Strangely he wasn't hungry anymore and his mind was
as one. No conflict. The man was still in front of him yet this time
he was on the ground even if the position remained the same.

Now his eyes were opened, dark eyes that seemed to be weighing him,
almost testing him.

For a moment Ranma remained unmoving as those disturbing dark eyes
looked him up and down. He then started himself to look more closely
to his once savior.

Short dark hair that was starting to show the first hint of grey in
the temples and a tanned skin that showed muscles that seeemd to burst
with strenght as if he was a youth. Yet Ranma estimated his age to be
arround forty or fifty but the only mark of age were some wrinkles
near the eyes and corner of his mouth.

He wasn't a very handsome man but he had an air arround him that made
him look almost fair but with an edge to it. Looking into the man's
eyes Ranma saw a great deal of emotions and experiences along with a
overhelming sadness.

Undoubtly this man had his share of burdens and pains as if he had
lived times that no one should have, and with that insight Ranma
understood that this man had the beauty that only people that had
suffered can have. More than beauty, a sense of command and authority
that was under the hard facade of a unmatched warrior.

Ranma was still examinating the man in front of him when he spoke.

"I suppose that we must present to each other, don't you think so?
After that we will ansewer each other questions, deal?"

Ranma looked to the man and saw a new emotion in those sad eyes; he
could be mistaken but he belived it to be curiousity.

 There was also this strange feeling that himself was having; a
compulsion to trust that man.

Ranma slowlly presented himself but omiting his true origins, only his
name.

"I'm Ranma Sao... now just Ranma" he added with a small and sad sigh
as a in a flash he saw again the moment of his banishment.

"Ranma... Wild Horse?" Asked the man as if amused by something even if
sensing the emotions behind Ranma's voice.

"Yeah something like that..." Said Ranma without noticing that hint of
amusement as again unpleasant memories flashed in his mind.

The man noded as he understood the emotions behind that bleak voice.

"Well Ranma, my name is Kenshiro. My friends call me Ken."

"Hai, Kenshiro-san" said Ranma bowing slightly.

"Only Ken, please." He tried to smile but Ranma noticed that Kenshiro
or Ken wasn't used to smile. He looked to the man, waiting him to
continue. To his eye Kenshiro seemed doubtfull of how to continue or
say some thought.

For a moment Ken looked straight into the eyes of the boy in front of
him, noticing that when light touched those deep blue eyes they would
shine with golden reflections.

Finaly he spoke

"Now Ranma can you tell me how an almost grown up man ended in the
body of a five year old?"

The shock of someone being able to discover he wasn't realy a five
years old boy snaped him from his memories. He stayed there, mouth
open.

"H-Ho--How do you...?" Asked Ranma surprised once more by the man in
front of him.

"I have my ways. Now, can you tell me your story?" Said Ken in a
pacient tone.

Ranma blinked, still unsure if trusting the man. Finally he did so.
The things he had lost in the last week, the dead of his friends, the
uses of his martial arts to kill without any remorse were eating him
alive.

He simply needed to tell it all to someone.

"Well it started like this..."

In the next hours Ranma pured out his whole life story, beggining by
the momemt he started his training with Genma and finishing with the
moment when he found himself in his cell.

He started to shake when relating his cat fist training or the moment
when he was exiled. Then a moment of peace before telling of his lost
when the raiders attacked Ember Town. Then the ghost of the treason
and of the pain inflect upon his body and soul when he lost all
released new tears that made him to shake even stronger.

In all, the memories of the past days coupled with his mad life in his
home world that he related to Kenshiro made him to behave like the
little boy he was now. The boy that died the first time Genma gave him
a beating in the name of the art.

He didn't notice at first but Kenshiro had gathered him in a hug when
he had started to cry without saying anything. Only to comfort the
young boy, making Ranma to feel secure, a feeling he hadn't feel since
the moment of Yado's death.

Slowly Ranma stoped crying and he felt better. Curiously he didn't
feel ashamed to behave in a way tottaly different from the one he had
been rised were tears were seen as a weakness.

For a moment Kenshiro let Ranma to colect himself. He could see how
the cruelty of this world had shaken the young boy, but nothing he
could do to help Ranma. He would eventually come from this turmoil
stronger than before.

He let the boy some minutes more for himself before slowly asking.

"What are you going to do now?"

Ranma looked hopelessly to the older man. Since coming to this new
world he had feared the question and now more than before.  In Ember
Town he had been able to show the adults that he could do his share of
work even being so young.

Now with the only people he trusted and cared about dead he was at
loss in a land that he was still more or less ignorant.

"I don't know." Ansewered Ranma truthfully.

He then added more to himself than to Kenshiro "I have lost the people
that mattered the most to me. I have killed and I feel no remorse; no
guilt. What's happenig to me?"

Even if Ranma was talking in a wisper, Ken almost supernatural senses
easily picked the small monologue. He looked at the boy for a moment
again as if considering something.

Ranma continued, this time louder with new doubts, new questions that
he hadn't pondered untill the question of his future had come forth.

"I swore that I would return and take revenge from the people that
betrayed me but now... all the hate is almost... drained. But the
fury..." He finished almost surprised.

Ken looked at him as if examinating the boy's soul.

"Do you still want to get your revenge? Even after the deaths at Ember
Town? "

"I don't know... it's strange but," he started to put a hand upon
where his heart is "it's almost if there is a void in my heart and all
the rage and the hate were stored there. I still want the revenge and
to return to give them what they really deserve but it's almost as if
all of that crap happened to another. I feel the determination, the
fury and the rage but almost in a... oh damn! Words were never my
strong!"

"You said a void?" Ken's voice sounded almost dry.

"Yeah, somethin'like that, but I'm not sure of it... there is
something else tough." He said almost in a wisper.

"What?"

Ranma looked Kenshiro again and shed a single tear.

"Sadness. I don't know why or how but I feel sad, it's almost
overhelming. For a time it remained... sleeping I would say. But after
Yado and after Rea... Do you know when your heart is about to explode
by the sheer strenght of it? That's how I feel."

Ken nodded and stayed a moment silent, his eyes closed.

To Ranma there was something more going on. There was a... shift of
sorts in Kenshiro for a moment, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
It was almost as if the older man was talking to someone or to
something.

Ken remained silent for some moment more before openning his eyes.

"I have something to propose you, an alternative for your staying in
this world if you like."

Ranma's eyes lit up. An "exit" to the feelings he had right now.

"Yeah?"

"You told me that you were a good martial artist."

Ranma snorted

"I was the best of my generation." It wasn't gloating, but more a fact
in Ranma's mind eye.

Ken nodded beliving.

"Well then. I suppose that you're asking yourself what is my martial
art, don't you?"

Ranma looked to Ken. With all the story of his life in his home world
and his own tragedy he had forgotten about his fascination about Ken's
martial art.

"Sure! I never seen anything like that!" He said remembering the last
moments of the batle at Ember Town.

Ken smirked a bit.

"That was a sample of a martial art devised some 2000 years ago in a
little island near the coast of China. The first master of the style,
Shuken was told this Art by God himself."

Ranma stared to Kenshiro shocked by the implications.

"By God?" He said stunned.

"That's right. With it you can destroy the body from the inside out
using the 708 hikous or tsubos. Eventually you can also heal with it
even the most dying of the bodies. There are more techiniques in the
school as well as the uses of the body in its full capabilities."

"What do you mean by its capabilities?" Said Ranma intrigued and
gratefull of something that made him forget the past.

"I suppose that before, when you were fighting those riders you were
using your body living energy, or ki, to be stronger. Is it right?"

Ranma nodded

"Using it you can boost the strenght of your body to a point that it
makes it almost superhuman. Well in the school one of the basic
teachings is to strengthen the body without using one's ki. Generally
a fighter, even if he is a martial artist, uses only the 30% of his
overall strenght. However in our school we teach how to use the
remaining 70%. This can as well applicate to the body speed,
resistance, metabolism, healing factor, reflexes, senses, etc... But
that's nothing more than the basics of my school style."

"The basics?"

Ken nodded.

"What are you telling me that?" Ssked Ranma after some moments of
pondering the information Ken gave him.

Kenshiro's gaze was fixated in Ranma's one.

"In every generation the current master must train a pupil that some
day will be the Heir and master of this school. To only one man is
allowed the full knowledge of it because if this man is the wrong one
then the world could be easilly destroyed."

He paused to let the boy time to think about this last pice of
information.

"I'm telling you all of this because I want to train you to become the
next Heir."

Ranma was speechless.

Silence was the lord of the room for a long time. Ranma had expected
something but this...

"I-I --I don't know what to say..." He ansewered still surprised by
that last devellopement.

Kenshiro's expresion was stern.

"You must know that the training may be extremelly dangerous and that
at the end I may even erase the knowlege you could have gained if I
find you abusing the power you will eventually have."

He looked into those deep blue-golden eyes his voice deadly and Ranma
was aware of the importance of those words.

"I'm warning you that this training will be different from anything
that you can imagine. I will be ruthless, even brutal to a degree that
even the training in that cat-fist will seem nice in comparation. This
knowledge had caused a lot of tragedies and the destiny of the Heirs
of this scholl is filled with blood and tears."

He paused once again waiting some raction. Seeing none and the
seriousness in the young man he continued.

"I'm giving you a choice; the choice you didn't had with your father.
In case that you refuse I will take you to some friends that can help
you in forming a new life in this world."

He paused.

"The choice is yours. But remember that this knowlkedge is not a price
or a priviledge; it's a burden."

Ranma stayed silent.

For all his past life he had to do what the others told him to do
without having anything to say about the matter. His training in the
Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, the neko-ken, the trip to Jusenkyou and the
following shame of a curse so alien to him. Then all the fiancee's
mess, with all the pains that it carried with.

Now a man was telling him that he could give him the supreme martial
art but the price would be in blood, tears and pain. But the choice
was his; not something impossed.

His.

He looked into Kenshiro's eyes. Eyes that promised suffering but a
chance also to find a destiny and to remade a life from the scratch
only if he was ready to pay the price. A way to forget the past and
move on even after the dead of Yado and Rea.



He had made his choice.

He stood up and bowed once to Kenshiro, something that he had never
done before.

Yelding to someone in change of a new life.

"When do we start sensei? And wich is the name of our school?" He said
respectfull.

"We start as soon as your ribs have finished healing."

He paused once again. Ranma could see that if his new master could
avoid speaking he would but that suited him fine. After his banishment
and his other trials he didn't felt talkative either.

"And the name of our style is the Hokuto Shin Ken Style-the North
Dipper God Fist"

Thus ended a life and started a new destiny.

-------------------------------------------------

Ranma's ribs finished healing only two days after the moment he choose
to learn the Hokuto Shin Ken style. Ken had only touched him in two
point of his body with a soft presure and he could almost fell the
speed of his ribs repairing themselves increase. Ken asured him that
this kind of things were elemental in the knowldege of the Fist,
making Ranma wonder wich were the limits of the power of this strange
martial art.

His training began soon after. Ken gave him a new set of clothes
diferent from his usual chinese type but this suited fine also.

Strangelly, as time passed, it was more and more difficult to him to
make a connection to his former life... as if Ranma Saotome, heir of
the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu was fading to leave instead the five years
old Ranma trying to learn the sacred martial art.  Only the feelings
and the void coupled with his love for the martial arts that were a
part of him remained the same and became the only nexus to his past
life in Nerima.

The training began with morning sparings in the arena under the gaze
of the two huge statues; statues that had seen that same thing repeat
countless times.

There he was beaten ruthlessly by Kenshiro as he had to learn the
several kinds of combination of hikus that his master inflicted to his
body. Numerous were the nights when he couldn't get up by the pain
that ravaged his body and the only sensation he could notice was the
cold hard floor, smoothing his hardenning muscles which were marked by
what became the normal bruises that came along the touched hikus.

Before the sun even rose in the estern skies he was making the tasks
that Kenshiro asignated him, namely taking care of several of the
older statues or doing the cleaning of the rooms and the kitchen.

After that he would make Ranma to learn the chart of the nerves web in
the body, pointing him wich were the precise points were he had to
strike. When Ranma finally had learned them, several months after his
arrival to this new world, he had to learn the several kind of presure
he had to put in his strikes that came along the very pressing of the
tsubos. As before with every error he was again beaten; Kenshiro using
the same combination that he had previously failed but without giving
them the lethal energy that would have started the destructive
reaction in his body.

Again the only confort he had was the cold surface of the stone ground
that barely ereased the pain of Ken's blows.

His previous knowledge of the martial arts of his homeworld or of both
the Anything Goes and amazon wu-shu were remdered useless as none of
them worked with Kenshiro in their dayly sparing.

Simply none of them worked.

To the surpresive patterns of the Musabetsu Kakuto Kenshiro would
counter them only with the most basic of the Hokuto Shinken stances.
The Fist of the North Star was the best art to use in a chaotic fight
and against this Ranma's former style was way down inferior.

The tricks like the amaguriken or the Hi Ryu Shoten Ha didn't worked.
To the speed of the first Ken countered with even greater speeds that
almost seemed god-like. Ken not even used his ki in battle wich make
the Dragon Ascention Wave useless.

With each passing day Ranma grew more and more convinced that
effectivelly the Hokuto Shin Ken style was the supreme martial art. He
had been beated with only the most basic of the divine martial art's
patterns.

And when one day Kenshiro showed him some of the most advanced
techniques his beleafe almost became a faith.

It was in one of their sparing were Kenshiro checked Ranma's progress
when it happened.

Again and again Kenshiro efortlessly side steped Ranma's attacks while
marking with his fingers the vital points where the hikus where
located.

"Way too slow!" Again a bruise.

Ranma was projected to the ground slightly dazzled but inmediately
came back attacking.

"Too weak!" Two more to the abdomen and one to the face.

Ranma rose his ki levels in the hopes of increasing his strenght and
speed to match the one of his new master.

A reflex from his former life that he had still problems to control
even if Kenshiro had explained him that it would be futile.  Since
starting with the training, his body had again started to tolerate the
increasing of its owner own ki. Also since the figh in Ember Town he
had found that his power was growing and was more easy to chanell in
his body. All of this only helped to make the use of the ki boost
almost an automatic reaction that Ranma was unable to control.

Unfortunately that didn't worked either and with three blows, stronger
than before, Ranma was on the ground breathing heavilly.

Kenshiro's expresion was stern.

"What have I told you about using your ki to boost your phisical
prowess?" His voice was cold and his gaze unafected by the sight of
his student struggeling to rise up.

After a moment and a burst of will Ranma was again on his feets even
if it was clear that it had supposed a great effort.

"I... I'm sorry, sensei," he bowed. "But sometimes it's like a
reflex... I can help it..."

His father looked some momements more his trainee.

Then he advanced towards him and put his fingers in some spots of his
head. With a slight pressure, an energy shock and Ranma was send to
his knees dizzy, only to be caught by his master and adoptive father
before he touched the ground.

During a few minutes Ranma couldn't even speak as his head was almost
buzzing. The sensation disapeared a few moments after and he could
feel his body weaken somehow.

"What was that, master?" He asked worried that Kenshiro had errased
something importantdue to a former life reflex.

"Try to use your ki, now."

Ranma took some steps to distance himself from Ken and did as he was
ordered.

Nothing.

He looked to his master a shocked expresion and tryed to do it again.

Simply he couldn't acces to his ki-reserves.

Ranma looked bafled.

He tryed again by sheer stubborness.

With the same results.

"I have touched the hikus that rules the ways your body channel ki
towards its muscles." Ranma was speechless. What his master had done
couldn't be possible!

Kenshiro continued with his explaining telling Ranma of his new
restrictions.

"Now you have only the capability to channel slightly more ki than a
boy of your physical age. With time the levels of your body's ki will
increase with the training, but it will not boost you in any way.
Later you will be able to remove this block but not before you have
learned how to use your body untaped strength."

Ranma shalowed hard acepting the imposible for something very
possible. With a slight touch Kenshiro had opened a whole new level to
the martial understanding to Ranma.

Ken looked to the boy in front of him and nodded, knowing very well
what was passing in his young protegge's mind. He had also passed by
that in his training but he could imagine clearely what a martial
artist would think of such a technique, something that he wasn't in
his time when he started to learn the ways of the Fist.

Yet something bothered him.

The block he had put would hold but the power he had senses still
untaped in his adopted son was inmense.

He shook his head.

This training promised to be all he expected and more.

"Let's start again. Attack!"

And Ranma did.

Since then and in the following years he devoted his entire life to
learning every thing that his master taught him about the Fist and
outside of it.

Eventually Ken taught him about other things like history, matematics,
art, some rudimentary technology, healing knowledge outside of the
healing teachings of the Hokuto Shin Ken (Toki's books on the matter
helped), some chimestry, lenguages like ancient chinese and other
oriental lenguages.

Ranma as time passed took a growing pleasure in the diverse things
that Ken taugh him and grew to love and respect him. True, in the
training hours he was a ruthless master that didn't doubted in drew
blood if he thought necesary, but outside the chembers of the Hokuto
temple dedicated to the practice and training of the martial arts he
was a caring father that took pleasure in their mutual relashionship.

With this new love the inner demons of the boy grew to be nothing more
than nighmares and he finally found the posibility of living with the
memories of his deceased friends.

All in all with time and the growing feelings towards his new father
he grew to accept the loose of Rea and Yado but never to forget them.

Another thing was the growing sensation of acepting his new body as
time passed and the old Ranma started to fade.

Kenshiro, by his side, quickly grew to like and even love the strange
boy that came to him from another dimention.

In some moments, when the boy was asleep and when he could alow
himself to relax from the stern master he had to be, he would look at
his prone figure wondering that if destiny had allowed him maybe he
would have a son like Ranma. But it wasn't the case and Yuria was
still death... and still the boy was like the reminder of things that
could have been.

Then he would aproach the figure of the boy and with trembling fingers
would brush some of his dark hair bangs. The boy would say something
uninteligible while his innocent face was serene and Kenshiro would
take his hand back.

Also was the practice of martial arts with the boy. Rearely did he
remember when training with someone would make him feel so good. Sure
he had to brutalise the boy's body to unberable levels but Ranma would
never complain and would always come back, charging him with his
unbreakable will and, even if the boy was unaware of it, he was making
progress at an incredible rate.

In some ocations he reminded him of a strange mixture of the best
features of Toki and Raoh: the same passion and raw potential for
learning martial arts that marked Raoh increased by a tenfold but
doubled with the honour and moral code that marked Toki. It didn't
mean that the boy would refuse to fight using his most powerful
emotions like ambition, determination, anger or hate, feelings that he
come to acept as natural in order to be the best but he would put his
ambition under control, and would lash his anger and hate with an
unbreakable mastery, something that Raoh never did.

Ambition to posses the Throne of Heavens and the whole world would
define Raoh, while ambition to be the best marked Ranma, but puting
limits to it: he would use anything to achive his ends. But still he
would respect the laws of the Fist that had ruled the Hokuto Style for
more than 2000 years.

From what he knew of Ranma's previous life (they had time to discuss
their lifes outside of the training time) he was surprised to find
that the boy was basically a good human being more if he lived with a
moral void like Genma.

Maybe it was something that the boy had from within, beating at the
rythm of his heart? Something that was with him as was his soul, even
instinctive? A way to discern the good from the bad?

And so with passing years the bond between the boy and the master of
the Fist would grew more deep and strong.

Ranma at the age of seven.

They would spar untill he was drenched in sweat, his muscles a fire
that dounted his will, impulsing him to surrender and still he would
continue, ingnoring pain and exaustion, the strength of his spirit
growing and burning stronger with each passing day, relentless untill
the master ordered him to stop. Then would he allow his body to
colapse though his soul and mind still remained focused.

After a moment of pause to gain some strength he would rise up, then
adopt the several position of the Hokuto and stay still untill his
father would told him to switch to another. Each time his master would
took an old shinai and start beating him if any flaw was detected.
Soon blood woul be purring alongside with his tears of sweat but
concentration never living the mind of the boy, a fortress of solitude
against an ocean of pain.

Than after a time, always changing from minutes to hours, would the
master supervise the trainee in his own aplication of hikus to help
the blooding body to recover itself, task that he would do flawlessly.

Thanks to his quick healing, one of the few remanents of his former
life, he would be ready to another round for the following day. In two
hours he had to be ready for the theoric classes were the knowledge of
his mind would be put to test and streched with new knowledges from
the library of the Temple.

There, using several practice dummies made of steel, would he practice
the combination of hikus, his arms bluring in a speed greater than the
amaguriken, several times damaging his fingers untill the day that he
would penetrate the hard metal as if it was butter. All of this under
the gaze of his father.

Ranma at the age of ten.

Now the sparing was most active as the trainee's skill and knowledge
of the tsubos was more complete. Fist, kicks and any kind of possible
strike would be executed in a lethal and gracefull dance, moves
bluring to the naked eye. Still the master would mark any unprotected
tsubo that the future Heir couldn't cover in time.

First; a strike to the neck.

Second; one to the ribs.

Third; two brutal impacts to the right arm.

A fourth.

A fift.

A sixth.

And so on...

They would continue for hours untill the body of the trainee was
spasming in the ground, as if someone had passed a high tention cable
of electricity by every nerve of the body, unable to do anything but
moan in pain. Still the spark of fighting spirit would never leave
those cold blue grey eyes that would turn to firy golden each time his
power and determination grew. Eyes that had seen more pain in the
previous years: eyes that refused to surrender.

Ranma at the age of thirteen.

The young man was in the rear side of the temple welcoming the rising
sun to this almost barren land. He had already finished his morning
chores and was enjoying the warm of the rising star. Since his arrival
some eight years back he had noticed how nature had slowly but staedly
regained sovereingty upon the world. It was almsot as if God had given
the land a second chance after the nuclear holocaust.

The news that arrived to the new temple of Hokuto talked about almost
mundial peace with only a few trawbacks to it. Slowly life and
civilization were becoming a reality.

Ranma, even if that name was growing... unapropriate to the young man,
let the crispy air of the morning smooth his body and mind. The name
of a person helped to define oneself and sometimes he couldn't help
but think that "Ranma" was a death person unrelated to the growing man
he was becoming. He still remembered his past experience but more like
a fading dream only remaining the feeling he had for that time in his
home dimension, but without images for those feelings they were
almost...  unconected with himself. Eventually he could bring back
those images if he concentrated but he hadn't the need to remember
painfull times.

He sighed, untill Kenshiro, his father, gave him a new name he would
continue with his old "Ranma" name.

Yes, the name "Ranma" was the emboiment of a life he had left behind
long ago. Now he had a new life with bad and harsh memories but also
with some good moments. Yado and Rea's dead had been a hard moment and
he stil mourned for them, for their company but now he belived that
knowling them had been something he would never regret. He had a now
family and he could still make the thing he was best at: martial arts
but still being a human being.

He sighed again and returned to look to the rising sun one of the free
moments he had and enjoyed the most with the stargazing.

Suddenly his senses went in alert and knew that he wasn't alone
anymore. He turned to see his adoptive father in traveling clothes
contrary to his now more habitual garbs of priest.

Even if Kenshiro was now more than fifty years old he had still the
prance of a warrior and power seemed to ooze from him in waves. But
since last year there had been a cange of sorts between the warrior he
was and the most trascendent of a retired monk he was becoming. With
his now greyish hair and some more pronounced wrinkles he showed a
imposing presence doubled with a tangible air of wisdom.

He hadn't explained Ranma which were the reasons behind the change as
he knew that with time he would undterstand them.  And with time there
weren't any more secrets between them: Ranma had told him of his past
life and feelings and Kenshiro told him about the battles with his
brothers and his adventures after Yuria's death.

"What are we going to do today father?" He asked, aeger to start his
clases, a grin in his face. Even with the time they had shared
together Kenshiro still surprised him with new moves or techniques
making Ranma even more impacient to keep learning the Hokuto Shin Ken.

Kenshiro eyed his charge and with a small smile answered the exuberant
youth. Maybe this time the heir would retain some innocence to his
training. Sometimes Ken had problems when thinking that Ranma would
end being a killer, but it was a fate that the boy had chosen freely.

"There will be no training today. We are going to see some frinds of
mine for the next months."

"How so?" Asked a now pouting Ranma.

Ken actually laughed looking to the face of his trainee.

"You're not training to be an hermit Ranma. You have to learn how to
act with normal human beings again. If not you'll have more problems
to adapt to the others, the ones you are supposed to protect."

Ranma reluctantly nodded.

Since arriving to the Hokuto temple and accepting the training of the
Fist he had met few people and being in the temple, that was itself
far from the usual routes, provided even more isolement.

True some news arrived there with the food sended to the temple from a
place he not even knew of (he not even know the full resourses at
Kenshiro's disposal) but still Kenshiro was right: if things still
continued like that he would become unable to live with common people.
Something that he wasn't, to put it middly, very trained in his former
life. He still remembered the time when he could have been called
social disaster and still be a praise to his abilities.

Now that he thought about it a lot of his former problems as Ranma
Saotome were due to his lack of knowledge about how to deal with
people. At least Kenshiro had tutored him in basic social skills (not
that Ken was a master himself).

He was interupted by his father's voice.

"Go to pack some clothes. We are parting before noon." Then he went
towards the shrine.

Ranma shugered and went to do what his father had said him to.

-------------------------------------------------

Ranma and Kenshiro arrived to the outskirts of a huge town, more a
blossoming city, that showed still the marks of the troubled times
when Kenshiro was searching for his beloved Yuria, fighting to bring
some hope to a cruel world.

Even if the limits of the city were unprotected, as the inhabitants
were sure of their own strength, the internal city, older than the
newest expansions, retained the huge walls and defenses against
possible raiders. The guard's towers as well as a hundered more
details spoke of events that Ranma, more due to his isolement in the
Hokuto temple, couldn't face as yet.

Still the early memories of the attack to Ember Town, town that saved
him when he had just arrived to this once ravaged land, and the
killing that he had withnessed made him accept it as a matter of fact
as they appraoched the inner city. He griped a little harder the
straps of his backpack. For the first time in years he would be living
with more people than his father and, even if he wasn't affraid of it,
he was nervous.

Kenshiro averted his gaze from the entrance of the city to look into
his adopted son wich nerviousness was clear to the older man.

"Don't worry Ranma." Was his laconic sentence.

"Yes, father." Was Ranma's ansewer, as short as the one of his father.
With the years both had learned to comunicate their emotions with the
fewer words possible, and even if Kenshiro had only said few words,
the confidence the man had for his son was clear for this one. It
helped the boy to deal with his doubts about meeting other peoples
with a confident smile.

Both him and Kenshiro were using huge backpacks, something that in the
journey from the temple had refreshed Ranma's memories of trips with
Genma during his first martial arts trainnig.

But in this trip with his new father, he had grown to understand that
his time with Genma had been a time of deep injustice and undeserved
beatings, troubles and pain at the hands of his once father. With
Kenshiro he had understood that the harshness of any martial art
proper learning wasn't the excuse to banish love and kindness after
the training, something that he had never know. This only made him
hate more his former life.

As soon as they arrived to the first houses and the poeple had looked
at them a small crowd of people started gathering their eyes and faces
filed with joy, mother and fathers taking their sons and daughters
near the couple as shouts soon annouced their arrival.

"Look! It's Kenshiro-sama!!"

"Someone call lord Bart and lady Lynne!"

"Praise to the Heir of the Holy Fist!"

"Hail to him!"

"Kenshiro!"

"Kenshiro!"

The shouts and paraises astonished Ranma, while Ken smiled and allowed
the younger boys and girls, almost still babies, to a pproach him.
Ranma looked to this new aspect of his father, looking him with a new
light and understanding in his mind.

For those people Kenshiro was a savior, the one that brought peace to
the world again. They looked at him almost as if he was a divinity, a
being send by the Heavens to bring light once again to a desperate
world. He didn't knew all of that before and now this only made him
love more his adoptive father.

Love.

He had never thought that he would be feeling that kind of emotion for
another. He had cared, and more than that, for Akane back in his
homeworld and cherished his friendship with the little people that
still treated him fairly, but never had he be so sure that he loved
someone.

Mostly because he didn't knew what love is.

Back then, with his rising at the hands of Genma, he was a incomplete
human being. Maybe that helped in his once belived maestry of martial
arts but it also separated him from the others humans, people that had
a _life_. He had lived an incomplete one compared to the others and
that marked him as an outcast. Maybe to the people surrounding him he
was a jerk but that was because he didn't knew how to act with normal
humans.

Living with his fathe... with Genma and trading insults with him only
made things worst.

Now in another world, in another dimention he had found love with that
second chance destiny had seemed to give him. It was ironic that in a
world ravaged by a nuclear war he had found what he had always lacked
of. He was a human thanks to Kenshiro.

His father.

A smile of happiness appeared in his face more used to sadness and
determination. A face that had almsot forgotten how to smile a smile
of love and respect since the dead of the girl with emeral eyes.

And Ranma liked it.

-------------------------------------------------

Suddenly a strong voice shouted claiming silence.

Ranma ended his introspection to look to a couple that had arrived and
due to the reaction of the people gathering it was clearly important
people.

Ranma looked back to his father who smiled to the couple. Suddenly the
woman started to run and trowed herself to Kenshiro's arms hugging
him. The man smiled and aproached his father and the woman putting a
hand on Ken's shoulder while passing an arm around the woman. All the
three of them were smiling fondly like old friends.

The people arround them, also smiling slowly returned to the things
they were doing before Ken's arrival, letting the friends to their
privacy.

Ranma stood there, silent, a few feets behind his father, leting him
rejoice the meeting with his friends. Few times had Ranma seen his
father so happy and even enjoyed it, greatefull that Kenshiro, usually
somber, had some moments of happiness with old friends.

Then Kenshiro separeated himself from his two friends and turned and
faced Ranma, making him sign to approach them. The pig-tailed boy
approached and Kenshiro put one of his arms on the shoulder of the
younger boy.

"Lynne, Bart, this is my son and heir Ranma. Ranma this are my friends
Lynne and Bart."

Ranma bowed low.

He had noticed the looks he had recived when his father had told them
that he was the heir in training. He couldn't make clear wich were the
feelings the couple had right now towards himslef. From what Ken had
told him about his past life this two were of great importance in his
journey both before and after finding Yuria. As friends of his father
Ranma hoped that they would accept him.

Looking at Lynne he was surprised to see how beautifull the woman was
with eyes were goodness and a gentle soul shine, conmforting Ranma who
took inmediatly a liking to the woman. This stirred the long lost
memories of his own mother that he never met in his homeworld.

Lynne and Bart were surprised to say the last.

After all the fights and suffering that Ken had endured in the fights
with his brothers they had almost expected Ken to not have a heir and
the last years had been, untill now, a confirmation of that belief.

Untill now.

Lynne looked at the young boy.

Somehow cute he promised to be extremely handsome when grown up. She
could feel already the results of the training that Ken had imparted
upon the boy with muscles that were way more defined than possible at
a so younger age and a control of his body that even more warriors
never attained in a lifetime. His black hair was made in a short
pigtail that accentuated his good looks.  But his blue-grey eyes were
his most startling feature; his eyes were way more older than what was
common in boys of his age (wich she belived to be around twelve or
thirteen) but there was more... something disturbing that she had felt
in the past looking at Raoh, Toki and the very Kenshiro. Something
that she couldn't name, even after all her adventures with those men .

For a moment, when the sun shone bathing them with its light, she had
belived those eyes to be golden...

And she could feel power emanating from his body, maybe even too much
power.

All in all she was feeling nervous, even afraid by Ken's heir.

Suddenly she realised that the boy, Ranma, was looking at her and her
husband with something that was almost longing. Like her own children
looked at her in moments when they belived that they are alone, the
look of an abandoned child. And with that she realised, instinctively,
that the boy whatever was his destiny wouldn't harm her or any
innocent if he could prevent it.



She aproached Ranma and kneeling in front of his hugged him not unlike
a mother would do.

"Welcome, Ranma."

-------------------------------------------------

Kenshiro, Bart and Lynne were siting in the central room of the
couple's house, drimking some rare tea. The couple was watching their
old friend not knowing if asking him about his Heir. Both knew that
the matter was an old wound for Ken, more after all the pain it caused
him years ago; the troubles with Raoh, Jaggy and the other warriors
that prevented him to live with his beloved Yuria.

Now Kenshiro appeared after years of silence (something not so rare)
with his Heir, Ranma; a boy that even if he had some inner charm was a
mystery.

Why did Kenshiro decided to train a heir? Why Ranma? From where is
this strange boy from? Did he search for Kenshiro for the Fist? If so
then why?

This questions, were making them uneasy.

Not that Ranma was a bad boy, far form it.

Since both Kenshiro and Ranma had put their things in the guestroom,
the older man had ordained his charge to go and "play" with the other
young boys and girls. At first Ranma had showed some reticence to do
as he was said but a look between father and son had made him go to
meet the group of youngsters of the city. As far as Bart, and more
specially Lynne, had felt the boy had a darkness within him (much as
Kenshiro) but that was coupled with some goodness that from time to
time showed itself making the boy almost impossible to resist.

Now as the shouts of delight from the boys and girls were coming
through the windows of the room Lynne and Bart were waiting for their
friend to explain himself.

Kenshiro was sitting, his eyes closed, enjoying the sound of happiness
that were coming from the outside of the house. It was in moments like
this one that he sincerly belived that all the sacrifices made by
himself, by Yuria, by Rei, Toki Shuu and the others was worth it all.
Evidentlly he knew that the spirits of his friends were as joyfull as
he was looking at the final results of all the blood and sadness they
had endured.

Now he could feel the apprehension comning from his friends about him
having Ranma as Heir of the Hokuto Shin Ken.

He understood them; after all they had seen the ravaged that the
knowledge of the Fist could bring to the world. He had the same doubts
years ago when he first met Ranma (doubts since long gone). But that
was something that was preordained, it was something that Ranma could
not understand untill the time was right. He knew what time it was but
Ranma was to be in ignorance untill the very moment in wich he would
become the Fist of the North Star and the burden passed to him.

Kenshiro oppened his eyes to look at his two concerned friends.

"I suppose that you are asking yourself why I have a heir now?"

"It's not only that Ken," said Bart. "After all the troubles you had
with Raoh for the succesion and the pains and suffering that had
brought you the mantle of  Heir we supposed that you would keep the
secrets of the Hokuto to yourself."

He paused, moment that Lynne choose to spoke.

"There is more than that. Ranma... Why him? Something in that boy is
not normal even from what you could be waiting of the Heir of the
Hokuto Shin Ken... Something not so natural. It's almost as if under
all his innocence there was a darker nature."

Ken nodded as he decided how to explain himself.

"Ranma... you can say that he is the kind of figure that was concived
to be the possessor of the Hokuto Shin Ken." He paused.  "What I am
going to say will stay between Mamya and ourselves when she returns
from the frontier: it's a secret that not even Ranma is aware of."

The seriousness in Kenshiro's voice was more than enought to make
Lynne and Bart edgy. Usualy all that Kenshiro said was serious but for
him to think about it as a secret...

"First, Ranma is not from this world." He stated simply.

"What!?" Shouted the couple.

"from what he had told me he was a martial artist of the higest level
in his homeworld, but some of his rivals teamed together to exile him.
If it was a foolish chance or destiny that made him end here, I don't
know. But I think that it's more the second than the first. He
regresed from a body of sixteen years to the one of five at his
arival."

"That's incredible!"

"In his homeworld magic seems to be an integral part, or at last it
was in his life. And magic was involved in what he calls his
banishment; an apt term. Anyway in that world they have martial arts
but nothing that can compare to the schools that exist here.  I have
spared with him and even if they show extreme power in some techniques
the lot seems mostly inofensive. Anyway Ranma was rised from his most
younger age to be a living weapon..."

"magic... that seems to be a tale" said Bart.

"Yes, but its real or it was for the Ranma of sixteen years old. Now
to Ranma his arrival here wasn't easy. He wandered untill he fainted
in exaustion only to be find by some explorers of Ember Town. Then few
days after he regained consiousness the people that took care of him
were attacked by some riders... with the following bloodbath."

Lynne paled as Bart negated silently with his head. He still found
dificult to belive that there were still people like that in the
world.

"How did Ranma react to that?" asked Lynne with concern in her voice.

Kenshiro sighed almost in regret.

"He wasn't prepared. In his world there is an order very similar to
the one before the holocaust and the sight of that butchering shocked
him. He lost two very important poeople for him and that almost
shatered his mind.  Though that didn't stoped him to kill almost all
of the riders with his bare hands and was doing well untill he was
exausted and wounded. Then I arrived."

Bart had a knowing smile.

"I killed those raiders and took him with me." Finished Kenshiro.

"But why? Why making him your Heir? You could have leaved him at the
care of any town or even ourselves." Asked Lynne

Kenshiro closed his eyes remebering.

"Weeks before I found Ranma I had a number of dreams that repeated
themselves. In that dream I could see my brothers as well as Yuria and
the other Nanto Sei surrounding Ranma. At first I didn't understood
the meaning but it's clear to me now that Ranma is the next generation
of Hokuto Shin Ken master and maybe the most powerfull that is going
to be ever."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Bart intrigued by that last
statement.

"Ranma... Ranma is a natural born killer... a natural born warrior of
the likes you can find once in ten lifetimes. Even now loving him as
the son I never had I'm affraid of his uncanny ability to learn the
Hokuto Shin Ken even if it's something that I was expecting from him
since the first time we met. To put it short what normally should take
months and even years to learn, Ranma can do it in few days, even
hours."

"Woah." Was the only ansewer from Bart.

"How strong is he right now?"asked Lynne

"Right now I'll put his raw power near Raoh's level when I first faced
him. That's without counting the power he had from his homeworld that
I have blocked to allow him to continue his trainnig, yet that power
is also growing. He only needs the knowledge to boost his power and he
will be way stronger than I am right now."

"That's insane!" exclamed Bart.

Ken nodded.

"If we take in count that a Fist can't grew powerfull without Heavens'
gift, I'll say that Ranma is a messenger or a kind of Messiah from God
Himself. And there is more."

"More?"

"Oh yes. You see Ranma, even being more or less an innocent boy, has
the seed of the Musotensei in his being. The void and the sadness are
already within him. A spark more an the technique will reveal itself
in his mind, giving him the supreme technique."

He paused once again to let all of it sinks in his two friends before
speaking without a trace of sadness or anger in his voice.

"Truelly Ranma, my son, is going to be the one who will kill me."

-------------------------------------------------

The days Ranma and Ken passed soon turned into weeks and after that in
months untill the moment Ken choose to return to the temple.

In that time, even with Ranma begging his father to continue his
training, Kenshiro refused, only alowing him to revise what he already
knew while telling him to give his mind a rest and enjoy human
company. Many were the times in where Ranma would become angered but
still would go "playing" under the smile of Kenshiro, amused by his
antics.

To be true Ranma enjoyed those days in the city living with Bart and
Lynne and their family, discovering something that he never knew in
his days in Nerima and only gasped with Yado and Rea; the joy of being
accepted by others without having to fear mallets, extortion and all
the things that made his life miserable.

The joy to be accepted as he is.

It was true that in social skills he was better than in his past life
but he had still much to learn. So one of the reasons why they were
there was to teach Ranma ways to live with the others without being a
walking disaster. In the moments when he would say something wrong
Lynne and Bart (that soon became aunt Lynne and uncle Bart) would
simply explain him what was wrong, Ranma would think about it, blush
in embarassment and give a sincere apology that would be accepted
between smiles.

Ranma would soon help in any task, even the domestic ones, with
enthusiasm, something that in retrospective he would never have
allowed himnself to do in the Tendo dojo. Here he could help and show
a more friendly being that in Nerima, were any display like the ones
there with Lynne & Bart's family would have made him earn shocked
looks and the usual remark of turning into a girl or being unmanly.

What was more to him it was a way to make that time with Rea and Yado
continue. The time he lived with them learning to open himself to
others and that was brutally closed with their deaths, here he could
continue opening himself; a way to make that time of happiness
meaningfull. And Ranma, after the inicial shyness and indicision would
make the possible to fit with the other people that he met there.

It helped that Bart and Lynne family accepted him very soon, making
him almost feel like he was at home or something very near to that
concept.

-------------------------------------------------

"Well son, what do you think?" Asked some hours after they had left
the village.

Ranma had been silent since they left it early in the morning.

Kenshiro knew that the boy had enjoyed the stay and learned all he
could about the complexity in the relasionship between humans even if
in a child-others relation (even if Ranma isn't exactly a thirteen
years old). It wasn't that Ranma had become a social beast but Ken
trusted the boy to be able to blend better in a human group than
before. Even with the slowing that it supposed to his training (not
that it bothered Ken too much knowing the advanced level of his son)
Kenshiro knew that this weeks had been important in his charge's
formation.

Ranma stoped, looked into his father, then to the smaler dot that was
the city then once again to Ken before talking.

"That now I realise better why would I use the Fist."

That caugh Ken interest inmediatly. Untill now he had never asked
Ranma what he would do with the knowledge of the Fist.  Generaly that
question was asked to the possible heirs in one of the last stages of
the training. Kenshiro knew that Ranma wouldn't use the power of the
Hokuto in any dishonorable way but still he never gave himself to ask
his son about it.

"Well?" He asked in a neutral tone.

Ranma closed his eyes before smile a little smile. Then he opened his
eyes and locked his gaze in his father, his blue-grey eyes turned
golden but this time without the gleam that screamed dead.

"To protect those who can't protect themselves. To protect those dear
to me. To make the world a better place for anyone. To be hope in the
heart of the hopeless. Never will I use the Fist to gain power at the
cost of others'blood and tears. That's what I will be and what I will
do. That I swear in front of the Throne of Heavens."

Ken then smiled, pridefull, then put an arm on the shoulders of his
_son_.

"Let's go home. You have still a lot to learn."

Ranma noded and with the arm of the man that became his father if not
in blood but in every other way possible turned his face towards their
home.

-------------------------------------------------

The training took at an even faster rate than before.

Less hours were given to rest as if the learning capabilities and
natural healing of Ranma's body (boosted by the techings of Hokuto)
allowed him to train for more time. Kenshiro suspected some tampering
as since Ranma's Oath his learing capabilities already behyond human
levels increased making it seem less human. He knew it as in the two
thousand years of history in the School of the Great Dipper Fist a
case as the one of his son wasn't heard of. Now from who was the
tampering Kenshiro had his own suspition.

Whole days sparring at speeds that were god-like, hours repeating the
patterns of the body's tsubos to make the most destructive effects
inside of one's body as well as the healing that the hikus can bring
to an ill body. Use of the body energy to counter the effects of
specific ravages in one's body... All of this and more were absorbed
by Ranma's mind and body as if he was breathing them.

Eventually days passed turning into  months, and the months passed,
months soon turning into years.

With time and as Ranma grew in his knowledge and mastery of the Hokuto
the training session became harder, specially in his sparring matches
with Ken, sparring that was more like a battle to death for the two
warriors. Blood was spilled and muscles torn appart while the two
opponents faced each other without the thought of surrender entering
their minds.

Usually the fights ended with both fighters droping exhausted even if
in more of the matches it was Kenshiro that won at the end.  He was
the master and Ranma respected it, repect doubled with love for the
older man.

He knew that Ken hold back some techniques and also that the
experience of more than a thousand battles to dead gave his father a
wide marge between their two powers but slowly as the days passed that
gasp between them grew smaller.

With the time and as Ken grew older (even if his power was still
intact) their matches finished.

Since then and as Ranma approached the end of his teen ages, Kenshiro
started to explain him the last techniques of the Hokuto as well as
some of the higher lore of the School. Ranma still learned with the
same quickness and could have passed the final tests sooner if
Kenshiro hadn't decided to pulish even more the knowledge of Ranma.
Not that he belived for a second that Ranma wasn't whorty of the power
and title of the Heir but more becase Ken wanted to perfectionate the
already enormous power of the young man along with his knowledge of
the higher arcanes of the School that Ranma already mastered.

Also was the matter of the "block" that he had put upon the
ki-energies that Ranma had from his homeworld. It was still there more
due to ranma's decision than for anything that the older man could
have said. Ranma had the knowledge of erasing that block but he had
decided against it, prefering to finish his training first, something
that Kenshiro calculated to being more or less three years, almost two
decades after his arrival to that world.

And those final years passed.

Ranma was sitting upon a rock in what had became his favourite
thinking spot since the first years of his training in the Hokuto.  He
was thinking about the moment when he was face to face wih a giant
killing tyger (one of the few that rested upon the earth) all in all
to pass the test of the killing aura; as if to check that he had
enought killing power. Needless to say once their gaze crossed the
tyger lowered his head in sign of submission.

This only confirmed what Ranma knew; now death was one with him. He
had since long accepted it, almost after realising that he had killed
without remorse just after arriving to this new dimention when he had
crossed his path with Kenshiro. The scene with the tyger remembered
him that now he had the knowledge of the most destructive martial art
ever divised.

A smirk appeared in his lips remebering the now almost dream-like
memories of his life in Nerima and the martial arts of that world.
They seemed almost pathetic compared with the art he possesed now.
Even the "powerfull" Musabetsu-Kakuto ryu and the amazon wu-shu meant
jack to him right now.

Not for the first time in his second life he wondered what had happen
to the people back there. Had Ryouga married Akane? And Mousse, did he
finally won Shampoo's love? What happened to kuno once he had realised
that he had lost his beloved pig-tailed goddess?



Still some peole back there still made his heart go warm, little that
is, but what had happened to Kasumi? Had she finally found someone to
love? Maybe dr Toffu? What had happened to the good doctor at the end?
And Ucchan? What about her? Had she found happiness without him there?

Ranma sighed just as his awarness started to send him signs.

He turned to find his father standing a few meters away from were he
was sitting, looking at him carefully, measuring him, maesuring the
body and the mind that he had helped to forge. From the steel hard
muscles to the deep eyes and warrior-like pose screaming danger to
anyone how had some knowlege in the arts of battle.

Kenshiro examinated the mind and the burning will, unquenchable,
irreductible that shines in the depts of the blue-gold eyes of the one
that had become his son. The battle aura, enormous even if invisble in
a non-battle situation, that laid dormant but even so could
desintegrate anything as foolish to chalenge him.

All in all the most perfect fighting being that the Hokuto Shin Ken
school had ever produced.

Only a push more and he would be ready, a push to make him explode.

Ramna looked at the figure of his adoptive father aware that something
big was happenning. The signs barely perceptible but present for the
ones that knew Kenshiro well. Be it by how his eyes were looking up
and down, examinating him.  Or by the way the muscles of his jaw bent
as well as the steady rhythm of his respiration.

"Follow me." Said the older man as he turned around.

Ranma simply jumped down from his stone and followed Ken, curious
about all of this meant.

He followed his father into the temple's central room, were the two
statues of the defensors of Budism were standing. Silent watchers of
the more than two thousand years of history of the Hokuto Shin Ken
School. Silent about the tragedies that formed that history as well as
the victories won by the different Heirs of the school.

Kenshiro gestured Ranma to stop at the edge of the zone between the
two statues before taking his own place just in front of Ranma. the
young man noticed that they were at the edge of the fighting arena, a
place were they had fought countless battles.  Kenshiro remained
silent looking once more at the young man that had became so important
in his life

The he spoke and by the seriousness in his voice Ranma knew that
something big was about to happen.

"Today you will become the succesor of the Hokuto Shin Ken and will be
the next bearer of that responsibility."

He let his words sank in the young man's mind. The only extern sign of
his surprise were a sligh widenning of those unique eyes.

Ken waited some more to continue, his voice turning as steel.

"But before that... you will face me in battle once again and for the
last time. Don't hold back. This is the last examination of your
skills and of your knowledge so fight me as if I was your worst enemy.
I will do that."

Ranma only noded.

That said Ken went into position, bringing forth his battle aura,
reaping his clothes and laving his chest bare his seven wound
inflicted by Shin so many years ago shining as if really they were the
seven stars in the sky.

Ranma stood unmoving for a moment, still shocked learning that this
was the last task before being deemed worthy of possesing the title of
the Fist of the North Star. He nodded again and also brought his aura
forth.

He had seen the battle aura cursing trought the body of his father
making the ground to shake by its sheer power, turning from a deep
blue to shining white as its power concentrated.

His own battle aura, golden with red highlights before turnig white as
well. It  also torn apart his clothes almost in the same way that the
one of his father did, saturing the zone near them with power as the
two battle auras merged, iluminating the dark room, their muscles
growing as trying to contain all that power and failling.

Several cracks were heard coming from the walls as they were torn
apart by the sole air pression that the merged auras were producing.

Both Ranma and Kenshiro, using the Tenryuu Kokyuu Hou, were increasing
the resistence of their body as well as their phisical strenght and
speed for the uncoming clash. Yet they stayed there, their power
growing, eyes blazing with light as the fisures in the walls and in
the statues were growing in size. At the end it was Kenshiro who
attacked first.

Without warning he send several blast of energy towards Ranma with
such speed that his arms blured, a wall of ki-blast comming straight
to his student.

Ranma was sightly surprised by his father's choice. Ki-blast weren't
very commmon in a Hokuto Shin Ken battle as they tended to tax the
body. Inmediatly he put aside is surprise and a split second later
decided to counter them as his hands blured at the same speed as
Kenshiro's, sending his own blasts.

With a deafening sound the balls of energy clashed and repulsed each
other before exploding. Several of the power orbs were send flying
causing more destruction while some returned to the men that had fired
them.

Huge parts of the surounding walls exploded, leting the light of the
day to enter the room. Meanwhile the blasts send back to Ken and Ranma
impacted in their auras.

None of then took heed of the returning blast as their total attention
was focused on his adversary.

For a moment the blasts struggled with the battle auras, relasing a
web of lightnings that damaged even more the surrounding area. Finally
the energy from the blasts were absorbed in the battle auras, making
them brighter for a moment.

This done and still at the same distance Kenshiro smirked a bit. The
control of energy from his son was as perfect as his. then he decided
to follow and launched another attack.

He drew his arm back and with speeds that put in shame the amaguriken
sended a pression wave with enought power to compress tempered
titanium as if it was mashed paper. Ranma frowned when he felt the
presure coming and decided to send one of his own.

The area between them exploded as the two presure waves met sending
also a wall of displaced solid air towards the two fighter cutting
them slightly but they continued emiting the presure transforming it
in a contest of strenght and stamina.

Needles to say the walls behind them were blown out.

Soon, as perspiration covered their brows, some veins in their arms
and chest started to explode by the blood presure and the strain of
the contending presure. Both warriors looked at each other and without
even breaking their attacks approached each other, steb by step

As the walked the presure between the two attacks was growing with
each step taken. This, coupled with the battle auras that were raging
against each other provoqued that when only two metters separed father
and son a vacuum was formed. It only last some seconds before
exploding blowing the roof and some of the still standing walls of the
room.

But that mattered little to the two glowing fighters wich were pushed
some metters backwards by the shock wave. A second after they were
trading blows with speed that defied imagining. Again and again they
clashed jumping, running against each other, the displaced air cutting
them as the ground was torn apart by the sonic booms result of their
clashing. When their blow didn't conected then it was the turn of the
ground to be destroyed; straight lines of pulverised stone apeared in
the ground and craters were formed by the strenght behind the fists.

This went for some minutes more, minutes that seemed eternal for the
contending fighters.

Kenshiro was having the fight of his life.

He could have used the Musotensei and won the fight but it wasn't what
he wanted. This battle was for his son, his last present.  Also for
one time he was enjoying the battle, the rush of adrenaline, the
pounding of his heart as blood rushed by his veins.  Pleasure that he
had to fight against Ranma, someone that was a chalenge to his power,
something that he  hadn't felt since his last fight with Raoh.

Ranma was having similar thought as he blocked kicks and fists; blows
directed to his tsubos that quickly went further than that.  This was
for what he lived, for what he was born: the fight, to battle
adversaries as strong as himself. But what was more: this battle was
the way he had to give his thanks to his father, to the one that gave
him a new life and showed him so much. For his father he was going to
give his best.

Fists were flying and blood spiled by hundreds of little wounds. Both
fighters had passed the moment of the fight when special techniques
were used. Now only strenght, resistance and will to win mattered.
Still as the battle auras raged, and stones were reduced to dust, as
their spilled blood covered the ground, both warriors had matching
smiles even if the blows brought unberable pain as their bodies
vibrated by the strenght used in each blow. Yet only the resistance to
the pain and the refusal to surrender mattered. Pain that was endured
untill one of them surrendered.

As Ken blocked a kick-strike directed at his head's left side he did
the same. As he saw Ranma block his own attack with his left forearm.
As he saw his son glow even stronger as he drew more ki from his
reserves he knew that the moment was coming. A smile appeared in is
blood-tainted face.

 he tough as he saw Ranma jump backwards only to jump again this time
to his front were he was and drow his right arm back in a strike
directed to his chest. A strike that he could have blocked.

That is if he had wanted to.

Ranma powered more, directing the major part of his power to his right
fist in a strike to his father scarred chest. Kenshiro's last attack
had damaged his left arm rather badly but he decided to ignore the
pain. After all it was something that he had learned since a long
time. His fist flew straight with enought strenght to pulverise
anything the was on the face of the earth, that is unless you are a
master of the Hokuto.

That's why he was shocked when his father lowered his stance giving
him a perfect shot to his chest and droped all defensive power in few
seconds preventing Ranma to stop his own attack.

And it was with a sickening and maddening sound that he realised that
he had killed his father, as Kenshiro's bones and muscles were reduced
into a bloody pulp. Ranma's fist passed trough the first two scars of
his father's old wounds making the whole greather with all the kinetic
energy that followed the impact.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"  Was the shout that
resonated in the room, a shout of outer loss and infinite pain and
self-loathing.

Kenshiro not even felt the pain curse trough his body as he was send
flying toward a part of the still standing walls. He crashed, the
stones broken as he impacted and for some moments only darkness was
arround him untill the feeling that he was gently drew up, a strong
arm under his back, suporting him and at the same time allowing him to
be more comfortable.

He slowly opened his eyes as he felt hot tears upon his cheek. He
slowly opened his eyes, looked up and saw Ranma, the young man that
was more than a son to him, crying with his eyes flowded by tears.

Said youth was slowly repeating a single world like a mantra.

"Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhwhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy..."

Ken smiled and with some of his last strenght took his son hand.

"It was necesary..."

Ranma looked startled

"Uh?"

"It was necesary... that you killed me... to make you posses... the
Musotensei..."

"The musotensei? For a stupid technique I had to kill you?!" Ranma
almost sounded outraged

Ken smiled wilder

"Yes for that "stupid" technique... to make you the most powefull
master... of our art. You'll understand with time..." He started to
close his eyes

Ranma looking the eyes of his father start to close could feel his
sanity disappearing. This was worst than Rea's dead!

"Plase father! Don't leave me alone! I need you!!"

Ken once again opened his eyes his smile never leaving his lips.

"Alone? I will never leave you my son... I'll live through you as will
do the others..."

"The others?"

"Oh yes... The others. We will all protect you and when you'll will
need us... we'll be there for you..."

Then as his last moments were coiming his voice grew stronger as he
spoke once again.

"Don't let this destroy you. I have leaved a life full of whatever I
have needed. Friends, enemies and loved ones. Yes my life was full of
tears and sadness but I can't ask God a better life. I have brought
light to this world once. Now I'll leave this world knowing that I
left it in good hands. You are now the Fist of the North Star,
Ryuken."

Ranma was frozen as the new name was resonating like a gong in his
mind, one of the last missing pieces of his existance now clossed with
that new name.

"Ryu... Ryuken?" He asked in a low voice.

"Yes. Ryu. The Dragon of the Heavens. Ken. For the Hokuto and the
Nanto Shin Ken. They are yours now, Ryuken. Farewell my son"

Then with a last smile, Kenshiro the last Heir of the Hokuto Shin Ken
died in the arms of Ryuken, a man once known as Ranma Saotome, giving
the burden to the next heir.

Ryuken/Ranma was numb and shocked for a moment as he let go the body
of the man that was more than a father to him. He stood up while new
tears streaming from his eyes as an infinite sadness washed everything
else with the memories of all he had lost.

But in that moment it happened.

His new name worked as the key for the void that Ranma/Ryuken had
carried since coming to that land where his destiny awaited. The
Mousotensei opened itself in his mind with the opening of the void.

And with the ultimate secret of the Hokuto Shin Ken came the others.

Raoh star of violence.

Toki star of gentleness.

Yuria star of the loving mother.

Rei star of justice.

Shu star of Compassion

Shin star of Sacrifice

Sauza star of Rulers.

Uda star of Strategy.

Fudo the Mountain.

Ryouga the Wolf of Heavens.

And finaly Kenshiro.

Ryuken's mind was a maëlstorm of feelings, memories, and knowledge.
Each of this warriors coming to his soul, to the Void.  Starting to
live there as they had lived before in Kenshiro. All of them giving
their powers and martial knowledge but as well as leaving their print
and changes in Ryuken's mind that still was trying to put order in his
own memories before accepting the others'.

He droped to his knees and clutched his head waiting to the Musotensei
to finish its own restructuration, preventing him to go insane.

For some moments he was blind, deaf, senseless.

Then as quickly as it had started it stoped. No more mental doubts and
inner turmoil. Only a soft sadness remainder of the change within him.

Ryuken breathed slowly as he opened his eyes and stood up again. He
could feel them all now and if he concentrated slightly he could
access their lives and knowledge. But still he could feel Kenshiro's
sould inside, giving him all the support and love he needed.

He smiled.

"You were right father. You are with me. Forever. But still I want to
give something for all you have given to me."

He checked his own wounds and find them, strangely, already closed as
if there hadn't be any fight at all. For a moment Ryuken wondered if
all had been a dream but only looking at the prone body of his father
brough him again towards reality.

He sighed.

He looked back in the memories he now posesed and to the new
techniques he was now the sole master. But in two lifes in particular:
Kenshiro's and Shin's.

He then looked to his own chest and using one of his fingers, focused
his newfound knowledge of the Nanto Shin Ken. Then with a swift strike
he stabed himself in the chest percing trough skin, flesh and muscles.

The pain was already there, stronger than what he had first suspected.
He knew that it was possible to make it even more painfull and he did.
He wanted to feel the same pain that his father had felt when his once
best friend had marked him.

This was to remember.

To remember the moment when he had killed his father and to mark a new
starting point as it was for Kenshiro.

This was his third birth.

First in his original dimention from a mother that he not even knew
and of which he not even remembered anymore.

Second when he had arrived to this other world; to this different
dimention, stunned and defeated, angry by the unfairness of it all.
Still angry of the betrayal and of his loss of everything that had
some meaning to him.

And the third one that definitively killed Ranma Saotome of the
Anything goes School of martial arts; a being from wich only survived
the memories and the feelings. The death of an already dead man. A
death that mean the birth of Ryuken; Heir of the Sacred Schools of
Hokuto Shin Ken and Nanto Shin ken. A warrior that was paying his last
debt.

A second mark, a second scar.

A third one.

Then a fourth.

Then a fifth.

Then a sixth.

And finally the seventh.

Ryuken looked to the prone body of his master and father. His scars
were still visible even with the terrible hole that himself had
inflicted in the body of the one he had most loved. They were visible
as was his last smile.

Ryuken Looked to the seven bleeding wounds in his own body and to the
ones of his father and could see that they were totally alike.

"Good" said the young man as the warm blood flowed upoon his trousers
and all his body. Slowly he reached the back of his head to his
pigtail, the last reminding of the Saotome from Nerima.

He cut it with a deft use of a Nanto strike.

The pigtail felt to the ground.

He continued a while, dark hair landing on the blodied ground. Then he
stoped.

Ryuken passed his hands in his now short hair before kneeling and
picking up the body of his father and, with it, exited the hall,
picked some suplies and new clothes and after that left the temple.

-------------------------------------------------

Bart, Lynne and Mamya were in the room were they took councill with
other members of the city as they took care of the several problems
and burocratic matters that could happen in the organization of the
city. In that room thay usualy debated the laws and the use of the
materials in the towns, let it be food, wather or goods.

For some times the meetings in the hall of the councill were, puting
it midlly, boring. The three of then were (more or less) warriors and
even if they were gratefull that civilization and life was starting to
spread again in the world, there was times when they would have
prefered to have nothing to do with the political restructuration of
it.

But they were heroes, or so the people though of them. Lynne, Bart and
Mamya were unconfortable with it as they did what they had to in those
time of chaos. To them (and others) the true heroes where Ken and the
warriors of the two schools, the people that fought and sacrificated
their lifes to bring light to the world again.

Still people needed leaders and they had chosen them to that _borring_
situation.

As Lynne said several time to her husband they must do it because no
one would do it.

That day it was even worst than usual and more than once Bart had to
fight to not yawnn.

But sudenly the doors of the room opened wide and a couple of guards
entered.

"Lord Bart!" Shouted one of them his eyes full of tears as the other
was shaking almost unable to speak.

Bart was inmediatly to his feet as were Lynne and Mamya, something
important, and tragic, had happened.

"Speak!" He ordered.

"It's Lord Kenshiro..." started the man.

"What had happend to him!?" Exclaimed Mamya.

One of the guards, the one shaking, started to speak noticing that his
comrade had started to cry and was unable to do as he was ordered. To
be true he wasn't feeling very well either.

"A young man as just arrived and... and he was carring Lord kenshiro's
body... he is... dead..." He finished in a whisper but not silently
enough to not be heard by the major part of the people in the room.

At this several peole started to cry, others to shout while Bart,
Lynne and Mamya exited the room in a rush.

It wasn't difficult to find were Ken's body was as a large crowd of
people was there gathered, crying.

The three friends had quickly a way to enter the crowd as soon as they
were recognised. A few moments later they entered a circle were only
two poeple were.

One of them was an very handsome young man with short black hair and
deep blue-golden eyes who stood silent carring in his arms the prone
body of the one that was more than a friend to the trio in front of
him.

Lynne, Bart and Mamya as they recognised Ken started to cry as Lynne
hugged her husband turning her back to the young man and Ken's body.
Bart silently returned her hug as tears ran by his cheeks while Mamya
approached the body and passed a hand by Ken's face as she remembered
the time when she had met him and Rei and the adventures they had all
together until Rei's death.

"He wanted to be seen by his friends before being buried with Yuria."
The young man said softly.

This brough the attention of Bart and Lynne as, being the nearest,
they were the only ones to ear it.

Mamya looked up to the face of the young man that was suporting the
body of ken without showing any tiredness. She looked him intently and
soon recognised him as the young boy that was learning with Ken.

As recognition dawned in Mamya's mind so it did in the ones of Lynne
and Bart that started to look the young man. In their mind appeared
the last converstion thay had with Kenshiro and what he had said.

"You must be Ranma then." Said Mamya.

"Near. Ranma died with Kenshiro," he said without any trace of sadness
"now I'm Ryuken."

-------------------------------------------------

Ryuken was sitting in a little room in Bart and Lynne's house as the
couple and Mamya were looking at him. Even if they had been advised
that at the end the young man would kill him and that the very
Kenshiro had told them that nothing would go wrong with that, they had
still trouble to deal with the reality that Ranma, that now was called
Ryuken, had killed Kenshiro, his own father.

"You probably are wondering how and why I had killed my father,
right?" Asked Ryuken.

"That's one thing." Recognised Bart.

Ryuken closed his eyes, pain clear in his face.

"He had it all planed beforehand. He came and said that the last thing
I had to do to be the Heir was to fight with him in an all out battle.
I did that and for a time we were fighting with all we had."

He paused

"That's untill in a strike were I had put all my strenght he
deliberatly left his guard open and cut down any defensive energy.
That blow killed him. He had only the time to tell me of my new name
and that he would be always with me."

Once again he paused.

"The last thing that I wanted was to kill him! He was... is my father.
I loved him. As simple as that." His voice now showed more emotion,
almost as if he was angry with Ken for making him kill him.

Then as quickly as he showed that burning emotion he was again
controled.

"That will never change. I understand him but I can't help wishing for
another way for me to have the Musotensei without having to kill him."

After a moment in wich the three adults looked to the young man in
front of him,  Lynne simply asked

"Why did Ken sacrifice himself?"

Ryuken looked at her with a steady look.

"To live in me. To awake the Musotensei in me." And with that said he
proceed to torn his shirt showing seven scars that matched kenshiro's
ones.

"This is part of the price I've paid"

Only silence and stunnig ansewered him.

"I'm now the Fist of the North Star. I'm the Star of War."

-------------------------------------------------

Ryuken was deaming.

He was in a void surrounded by several ball of light, each ball with a
different colour. There was no up or down, nor right or left.  He was
only aware of his own being and of the one of the spheres.

Then in the darkness of the void several images started to appear.

People suffering.

Men, women and children being killed or enslaved as they begged for
pity.

Tears that turned in drops of blood; red rain that bit by bit drenched
an entire world.

Voices started to shout arround him.

Voices of strangers.

Voices of people that he had heated.

Voices from people that he had loved.

Voices full of hate

Despair

Sadness

Horror

Terror

Maddnes

A land he once knew.

A land he once lived in a heated life that he had shunned with his own
suffering.

A land that called him.

**Will you help them?**

A voice that he didn't recognised but that humbled him.

A voice older than Time with a power beyond human understanding.

A voice full of warm and wisdom.

**Will you return?**

**Will you hold your oath?**

Then he found himslef ansewering.

Yes...

The voice answered as if pleased. Or proud.

**Then it is finaly done.**

Without a shout Ryuken was awake, his breathing ravaged; in rhythm
that he hadn't since almost six months.

He looked to the window of his room. Nine months had passed since he
had brough the death body of his father to his friend's city. Since
then he had helped in the reconstruction and in protecting some of the
most isolated towns that could still be attacked by riders and scum
like that.

At the same time he had developped new powers based upon the
Musotensei. He had also to check for his own power, power that now
incorporated his ki-powers from his life in Nerima and that had grown
while blocked.

At first he had been surprised to feel the huge ammounts of energy
that he had released and had to work for some days to make that energy
work as one with the power he had been developing since the begginig
of his trainig with his father.

As for now the control upon his power was complete but there were some
side effects to the surge of power that came from the Musotensei and
the power he had from the old Ranma.

For one thing his body produced so much energy that to one point it
started to work as a shield upon each inch of skin.  Subconciously his
body would register an attack and the "shield" would reduce anything
to sub-atomic level; a mini Musotensei of sorts. He could also expand
the range of his aura to make strikes that could destroy anything it
touched or protect the things he touched.

Also he had discovered that his new powers could afect the temperature
levels  arround him passing from extreme heat to frozing in some
moments. The last thing he had discovered was a change in his
perception. He could now perceive, if he concentrated, the way energy
moved between different beings and states, making him able to
manipulate some aspects of it.  With this perception came also the one
of different patterns of light and heat. This allowing him to see even
in outter darkness as if it was bright day.

End each passing moment his own power would grow beyond anything he
had belived possible before, discovering new abilities.

Now looking to the northern skies, he pondered about his future and
the messages his dreams brough him.

Here he had a life that he liked. He liked to hear the voice of the
people he saved, of people that knew that there was still hope for the
future of humanity. He could make a difference as he had wished since
Rea's death.

But now that dream. Ryuken knew very well what it meant but he had
some doubts though. Would he be able to face the people that had
brought him to that land were he had his rebirth?

He looked to the skies, to the seven stars that ruled the Heavens.
There were glowing.

He had sworn.

"Time to return."

-------------------------------------------------

Ryuken stood before the grave of his father and his wife, Yuria.

He had come to a decision. Even if he loathed the idea to face the old
bunch from Nerima nothing indicated that he had to do it.  How knows?
Maybe he could finish that mission without having to met them.

He gave a bitter laugh.

That was a fool's hope.

Yet he had accepted.

After all he had to do what he had pledged his entier life to do in
two different worlds. If any innocent was in danger and he had the
power to prevent it then he would make what was possible and what was
not in order to protect the life of those unable to protect
themselves.

"You knew that I had to go back eventually, father" he said aloud
puting a hand upon the mark of Kenshiro's grave.

His eyes looked to the grave as he wispered.

"Time to face my own demons and that part of me that I thought closed
forever. But Ranma is as much a part of Ryuken as Ryuken is to Ranma
and, as this is, I will make what his right."

He bowed to the grave, then to Yuria's one, turned arround and took
the backpack that Bart was holding for him.

Lynne, Bart and Mamya had insisted in coming to bade him farewell. He
apreciated to detail.

He put the backpack in the correct position yet his attention was
focused in what was his only family he had left.

Lynne advanced and hugging him, wispered in his ear.

"Ken was proud of you as we are. Never forget that you have a family
here waiting for you."

Ryuken returned the hug and wispered in return

"I know"

He then separated himself and walked away from the trio.

He started to draw his power and an aura of white and gold appeared
arround him growing in brightness and power. Ryuken then shifted his
perception and, examinating the very stuff that was the texture of the
universe, draw a hand and opened a passage; a rift between realities.

Reality and Space fighted him back and he had to draw even more power
making every line of his body and clothes to be made of light as the
glow from his golden eyes became a fire that exploded arround him
bathing the whole area with its light.

All that power was launched to the weakening point that was the future
rift and with a last burst of power and light, reality was torn apart
under the onslaught.

Quickly Ryuken entered the passage; the Rift closing behind him with a
wip sound. For a moment the place where the rift was shimmered,
loosing some "stuff" from some seconds as reality repeared the damage
made.

Nothing indicated the place were only mere instants before the last
Hokuto Shin Ken master had been standing, only the memeory of the
power used in the three withnesses.

"Will he do it?" Asked Bart still awed from the display he had seen.

"We had to have faith in him as we had faith in Ken," said Mamya.

"He will return to us." Was Lynne only comentary.

"He will."



End of Chapter three of Star of war.

-------------------------------------------------

Author's notes:

As I know that some of you don't know much about the Fist of the North
Star in next chapter a list of the attacks of both the Hokuto Shin Ken
and Nanto Shin Ken will be put.

Also if some of you are worried about knowing nothing about some of
the characters in the FotN, in one of the future chapters (maybe the
sixth or seventh, not sure) a long part of it will be only in telling
about them and the story of the FotN. As in the next chapter we return
to Nerima and the cast that everybody know and love the synopsis will
not come soon.

Anyway if someone wants it badly I can try to send it to him or put it
sooner in the story.

And before some of you goes on the warpath in search of my head
because I changed Ranma's name please just wait, that nothing that I
put in this story is senseless: I have a good reason. You'll see in
next chapters.

See you all soon.

Dragonlord.

Enjoy summer's holiday! Have fun!