Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Saotome Men ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

This takes place between Chapters 2 and 3 of "Ranma: The Early Years". Also, it comes before "The 20th World Tournament"

THE MYSTERIOUS TOWER VERSION 1.1

The trip had been long. They moved as fast as they could over mountains, swamps, and other obstacles stopping every once in a while for rest, relaxation or to help someone in trouble. Ranko recalled how difficult it was to cross the sea between China and Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, but it wasn't half as bad as trying to cross the North Atlantic. Thankfully Genma altered their route so that they would be able to take breaks at Ireland and Greenland. She remembered also how
Genma taught them how to keep from freezing while swimming in the icy water by focusing their Ki energy into the center of their body. Anyone that might have seen the two would have wondered why they were steaming.

When the arrived in Canada, Ranko noted that it had been about a year since they started their hike and she started to wonder how much longer they would have to hike before they reached their destination.

"Hey guys, what's that?"

Ranma and Genma looked to see what she was pointing at. It took a second before they noticed a strange tower. It seemed to go on forever into the sky. They all decided to head towards it and find out what it was. As they got closer, they saw an odd looking tent at the base of the tower. They looked around for the owners, but there was no one to be found, so they turned their attention back to the tower.

"Boy, you thinkin what I'm thinkin?"

"Pop, you don't mean to climb that thing?"

"Why not? It'd be a perfect chance to test out the training we've had so far, plus I'd like to see what Ranko can do as well."

"You can count me in!" Ranko chimed.

"Guess that means I gotta do it too." Ranma didn't want to hang around all day at the bottom while his new sister and dad got to have all the fun. "Let's go!"

He yelled as he charged up his Ki and took off like a rocket. Ranko followed quickly. Genma knew he couldn't jump like they could, but he did have another trick that didn't use nearly as much energy and would last longer. He concentrated his ki on every cell in his body and forced them to grow eight time larger. As a result, Genma's size began to increase rapidly. He finally stopped growing at fifty feet tall and began climbing normally on the tower as if it were just a normal tree trunk.

'If only I could figure out why my ki can't reach very high.' the thought frustrated him. With out the cap on his energy, he knew this technique of his could let him grow several hundreds of feet tall. For as long as he'd known Soun and his master though, he could recall that he had a hard time building up energy and doing anything with it.

"Hey pop, mind if we hitch a ride?" Ranma and Ranko didn't wait for the old man to respond before jumping on each of his shoulders. With Genma's increased size, the trip up the tower only lasted two hours. They were not very far from the top when Genma felt his Ki energy start to run out.

"Ranma, Ranko, get on the tower. I can't hold this form much longer." The two quickly obeyed and as Genma shrank, they grabbed a hold of his arms to keep him from falling. Once his was his original size again, the trio finished the trip up.

Mean while in the tower, an old man ran to find his old cloak. 'I'm about to have visitors and Kami tells me I have to hid my true identity from my guest.'

He wanted ask why, but he figured since Kami had never bothered to warn him before when he would have guest, it must be important. Once he had his cloak ready, he looked over the edge to see how far away they were. What he saw was a giant man with two children riding on his shoulders. As the giant got close to the entrance, it began to shrink the size of a normal man and the two children
help to keep him from falling.

When Kami said they were on their way, he figured they were at the bottom. Seeing them there, he quickly put his cloak on and prepared to greet his visitors.

Ranma and Ranko quickly climbed up the stairs they found and began to look around. They never even noticed a short person looking at them in the corner.

"My my what energetic kids they are."

"Yes, they are." the old man jumped as he heard someone behind him. "Nice place you got here. Hope you don't mind us climbing by?"

"Oh no, not a problem at all. I don't get many visitors around these parts. It's nice to see a new face. Or three in this case. I suppose your here for the super holy water I have?"

"Super holy water? 'Fraid I don't know what your talking about, though now that you mention it, I am a bit thirsty."

"Well, to get it, all you have to do is take it from me," The old man began to reach for a container on his belt when he noticed the Genma was already drinking out a familiar looking container.

"Mmmm. Good stuff. Ranma, catch!" Genma throw the container to his son. Ranma quickly drank some of the contents and then let Ranko have the rest. The old man kept trying to intercept the container, but it was moving faster then he could.

'No doubt about it, I'm never going to let anyone know what happened here. They'd think I was getting old.' he thought to himself.

"Now for the second part of your stay. I'll let you all look into the Jars of time." The old man lead them to three identical looking jar's. "Just look in one and you'll see either your past, your present, or future."

Ranko went first and in the past one, she saw her mother, Nadoka holding her close and telling her about all the wonderful things she'd be able to do when she got older. In the present, she saw an odd boy about her age with black spiky hair and a bald child sparring together. When she got to her future, she hesitated. When she finally looked in, she saw herself and herself? There were two of her standing apart getting ready to spar. Before she could see more, the
vision vanished. Ranko backed away and sat down to think about what it could mean.

Ranma took this to mean it was his turn. He opened up the past and he saw his father weeping like he'd never seen his before. His dad seemed mad that Ranma was not growing up to be a strong fighter like he'd hoped. He saw his dad talking to his mother and then taking him away. Ranma could remember how he felt that day being torn from his loving mother and that for the first time, he felt anger towards his father.

He moved to the second jar to see his present. Inside he saw the spiky hair boy that Ranko had seen. He watched and saw the boy do something amazing. The boy shot a wave of energy out of his hands and used it to destroy a nearby rock. Ranma tried to note everything the other boy did to do that. He hadn't paid that much attention the first time the boy did his move, but thankfully got to see the boy do a second energy wave. This time he memorized everything he saw. Perhaps this would come in handy someday.

The last jar he had to look into was the future. Like Ranko, he wasn't really sure they should know what was to come, but his curiosity got the better of him and he looked. In his vision, he saw Ranko all grown up. Strangely, he couldn't see himself anywhere. Ranko in his vision was being attacked by various people. A short old guy, a Chinese boy, a Chinese girl, and several others he couldn't describe. He felt sorry for his sister, but couldn't help but wonder why he was seeing his sister's future instead of his own.

It was Genma's turn and the bald man quickly went up and looked into the past. What he saw was a man that looked like him, but he had hair. Lots of hair and it stood up in an odd fashion. Besides the hair, he seemed to have a tail, but that wasn't possible. He then saw his master, Happousai and the strange version of him fighting. Actually the two barely ever traded any blows. His master had tossed his fire burst at him and then used his pipe on his back and then used
the fire burst again. When it was all done, he the man's hair was all gone and his body was badly beaten. Besides being a bit burned, the man now looked like himself. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't remember any of this. It was a shame Soun and him buried the master almost ten years ago or he'd have asked about it.

Pulling himself away from the past jar, he moved to the present. There he saw his wife. She looked so lonely. He knew it was going to hurt her, but he never figured she'd be in this much pain over it. 'Be strong my wife. I do this for the sake of my son's honor and future as a man.'

Wiping a tear from his eye, he turned to face the jar with the future in it. There was only one thing he wanted to see in that and that was his son married to one of the daughters of his friend Soun. He opened it up and gazed hopefully. Instead of what he wanted, he saw a man with hair much like what he saw on himself in the past. Besides the hair, this man looked nothing like him. He had a tail and had an evil aura that couldn't be hidden. The way the man smirked, Genma thought he knew he was being watched. Genma couldn't figure how, but this man seemed even more evil the his master Happousai. He saw his son and another man fighting side by side against the evil one. The vision faded before he could see anything else.

As he thought about the visions, he noticed the serious looks upon his son and Ranko. Apparently they also saw things that disturbed them. Suddenly he heard a loud growl and his stomach muscles tightened to remind him of his most pressing problem.

"You wouldn't happen to have any food we could eat would ya?" Genma asked, forgetting how rude it might sound.

"Well... sure," The old man didn't like the thought of feeding three people. "You can eat these. They're magic beans. Eating one of them is like eating for 10 days straight."

Genma eyed the funny looking man with doubt in his eyes. Pessimistically, he put on in his mouth.

'Not bad,' he thought, "crunchy, yet oddly flavorless." In his stomach, the chewed up bean hit him like a brick.

"Wow, I feel full... almost!" Not wasting a second he tossed a couple more in his mouth. "Now for the real test. Here boy, have some!"

Ranma took a hand full and chewed them up. "Your right pop, these are filling."

Ranko joined in and they both were filled quickly.

"If you don't mind, we'll take a couple bags full." Genma announced. Before the old man could reply, Ranma and Ranko bagged up the whole supply and headed back down the tower.

"By the way," Genma starred hard at the old man. "are you a giant cat?"

"What? I am not a cat! Just because I look like one, doesn't mean I am!...? How did you know what I look like," As he said this, he pulled back his hood to reveal his face.

"I noticed you felt furry when I got your water jug. Glad my kids didn't notice or we'd have had a mess on our hands." With that, Genma followed his kids lead and jumped.

Near the bottom of the tower, Ranma and Ranko built up their Ki energy and pushed down to soften their landing. As the touched down, they looked up and saw Genma, in giant form, sliding down the tower as if he were an oversized fire fighter. As Genma hit the ground, he let his form return to normal.

"Ok, kids, time to head out!"


20TH WORLD TOURNAMENT

PART 1

Dear Diary,... Scratch that. Too girly sounding.

Dear soon to be old pages of paper... Better, but perhaps I'll think of something better later.

What can I say. I love my son. Not to mention my new daughter, Ranko. It has been mostly a blessing for us, except when she forgets to cover up. She lacks almost any feminine modesty and yet I can't help feel that had Ranma been born a girl, I probably would have raised her the same way. I have used the last couple of months training the boy's mind to help him over come the basic instincts of the body.

Along with advice and guidance, I have taken the boy's Ki training to the next level. I have started to teach him to use his Ki to manipulate his body. The boy has already become quite good at using Ki to jump and sometimes even run, but he has yet to put his Ki behind his punches and kicks. I also want to teach him to use Ki body growth technique. This trick could come in handy during the tournament we are going to since I suspect it will be mostly adults competing.

A few days after the tower incident, I took a moment to reach out and measure Ranma's Ki. What I saw was mind boggling. The boy felt like dipping into a bottomless well. The only problem was, Ranma doesn't yet have the right tools to get to all his power. I know deep in my heart that part of the source of this great energy has to be the Neko-Kun training, but even that doesn't explain it all away. I fear though that the only way to answer my questions about him would be to answer the question I have about myself. Am I really who my master told me I am?

I've started to suspect my origins from the moment I asked my master to help me unlock my lost memories. When he agreed, I felt a wash of energy go over me and while nothing happened at first, suddenly a whole life flashed before me. And while this life I saw brought me much comfort and even a purpose for my life, I sensed my master was doing something other then unlocking memories. To me, the memories seemed more like a well written novel, then the life of a true martial
artist. Unfortunately, the master is no longer with us so I can not ask him to help shed any light on this problem.

We're days from the tournament and according to the flier, this will be the 20th time this tournament will have been held. I hope my children are prepared.

PART 2,

The trio arrived arrived on Papaya Island on day before the start of the tournament. Once they were signed up, one of the monks lead them to a room they could stay until the next day. After that, they were shown the gym where they could work out if they choose to. They he showed them the dojo. There were already several fighters there sparring against one another. Finally they were show the cafe that they could eat for free. With that, the monk left them to attend to his other duties.

Ranma and Ranko decided the first thing they needed to do was to get some practice in. They headed to the dojo, while Genma figured it would be safer for him to head to the gym and lift weights until bed time.

Ranma started slowly with punches and kicks and slowly increased to jump kicks, round houses, and a wide variety of blocking techniques. All the other fighters stopped to watch the two youngsters go at it and some of them started to have thoughts of dropping out. After five hours of non-stop fighting, the two called it a night and turned in.

* the elimination happens and Ranma, Genma, and Ranko all make it to the finals.
*

* Ranma versus Hercule. *

Ranma's opponent, Hercule Satan, was introduced as to the crowd as the returning champion from the last two years straight and hearing this caused the crowd to cheer uncontrollably. They finally quieted down when the announcer started to announce his name. The two stood face to face and the announcer shouted the ok to fight.

"Come one, what is this? Why am I, the champ being asked to fight against a runt like that?" Hercule was clearly not happy and this made Ranma quiet upset until he realized that this guy was just trash talking. His father taught him that only weaker fighters need to do this, so Ranma figured he'd better go easy on this guy. He came in quick and with as little strength as possible, he taped the champs stomach then his chest, followed by his head, and finally back to his stomach. While he remembered to use low strength, he forgot about his speed and when the hits made contact, Ranma saw Hercule collapse in pain. Ranma's brain hadn't processed what he saw so he added a light kick to the head to bring the fight to a close. To Hercule, the kick seemed to came at his head at 50 miles per hour. It was the last thing he would see for a couple of hours as the blackness quickly took him.

"Ranma wins with a knock out!"



* Genma versus Mad Mike. *

Genma tried to figure out his opponent, but as far as he could tell, the man was a lunatic that liked to rant and rave and drool on himself. 'Better be on my guard. This is probably just a trick.' He thought to himself, then charged.

"Are you charging me?" Mad Mike just stood there as he noticed the obvious. "I am Mad Mike... Eie Eie. You will give me..."

Before Mike could finish his latest rant, Genma grabbed him by the collar, twisted his body, and gave mike a solid toss right out of the ring.

"Ring out! Genma is the winner!"

"tp... bung.... Eie Eie....." The man's last words confused Genma, but thankfully, Mike passed out before attempting to say anymore.

* Ranko versus Spopovich *

"A girl? My opponent is a girl?! I don't hit girls!" Spopovich was noticeably angry at the thought and never saw Ranko advance on him. She used a medium punch to the big idiots ribs sent him out of the ring and ending the fight in 3 seconds.

"I do believe this has been one of our quickest fights ladies and gentleman. Give it up for Ranko!!"

* Gomen versus Bruce. Bruce E wins. Not certain how though. Main characters are else where... *

* Ranma versus Genma *

"For our next match, we have father versus son. Who will win this one ladies and gentlemen? We'll know soon enough. Contestants, fight!" With that said, the announcer quickly scuttles off the arena.

"Well boy, this is it. Don't expect me to go easy on you just because your my son!"

"Well then don't expect me to do so either." Ranma moved to the left as Genma jump kicked at him. As Genma landed, Ranma did a 360 twist and extended his arm and let it hit the back of his father. Genma felt the hard blow, but ignored it. Focusing on the pain would only cause him to lose. He used a low kick to force his son to back up, but Ranma had other plans. He leaped over Genma's leg and did a flip kick in mid air, hitting Genma square in the head and stunning him. As Ranma landed, he came in hard and with three punches, brought his dad to his knees. To finish the battle, Ranma used a quick kick to knock Genma from the arena.

"And we have another ring out. Ranma is the winner!!" The crowd went wild. Genma stood up and while his face did not show it, he was prouder of his son then he'd ever been.

* Ranko versus Bruce E. *

"Kid, you'd better prepare yourself!" Bruce E figured if he acted really tough that Ranko would forfeit or be so scared, she'd wouldn't be able to fight back. Just to throw the point home, he began a series of quick punches and kicks. He was so busy making a show of his speed, he never saw Ranko approach him from the left. One strong punch to the head and Bruce E went down hard.

* Ranma versus Ranko. *

"Well this is it Ladies and Gentlemen, the main event and it's come down to two of the youngest fighters we've ever had! Give it up for Ranma and Ranko!!" The crowd went wild. The two young Martial Artist stood facing each other and bowed respectfully.

'Ranko is faster then me and I'm stronger then her. Besides that we're even. I'd better start this off slow and see if I can find any weaknesses.'

Ranma began with ten punches randomly tossed at Ranko. Each punch felt like a jackhammer, but she still managed to block every one that came at her. She returned her own set of punches that Ranma tried desperately to block. He couldn't stop a few of them and they stung as the made contact. Genma stared at the two from the side lines and knew that since neither of them knew how to back their punches and kicks with ki, this match would last a long time.

The fight went on for over an hour and the two showed no sign of tiring. Ranma suddenly had a flash of what he saw in one of the jars. The boy did some kind of Ki throw attack. 'How did it go? I couldn't hear him, but I saw his hands and I can still remember how they moved. If I can't do that, this match will never finish.'

They landed a couple of yards from one another and Ranma took this chance to try his new attack.

"Sao... To.. Me!!" His hads burst to life with power as he said this. When he felt the energy was gathered, he finished up. "HA!!!"

An impressive ball of energy shot out of his hands and struck Ranko square on the chest, knocking her out of the ring.

'I know I've seen an attack like that before' The anouncer stood to the side and noticed that Ranko was now out of the ring. He shock his head to clear his thoughts and got back to his job. "Ranko has landed outside the ring! Ranma Saotome is the winner!"