Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Fighter's tournment ❯ AFTCh7 ( Chapter 7 )

Scene: Tournament

The judges looked at each other, then at the rules and nodded. They spoke up through the speakers. "Ladies and Gentlemen, due to the fact that NESTS team was knocked out before the final fighter of Team Iori fell unconscious; Team Iori is the winner of this match."

Several people cheered, others booed at that, and Kyo Kusanagi cursed his luck. He had been HOPING that Iori's team would lose.

"They had the advantage and they still lost the match. Oh, my..." Misty glanced over at Igniz to see if he displayed any reaction. He surprisingly remained quite calm.

Krizalid frowned beneath his coat. "Just how did Iori pull off that trick?"

Igniz spoke slowly. "His personality had underwent an unexpected change. Previously, he had no intention of surrendering to the Orochi blood that circulated in his veins. But now, he sees it as his golden ticket to finishing the rivalry between himself and Kyo Kusanagi. Thus, he has trained himself to get some sort of control over the Riot of Blood. I must applaud him for his efforts."

"Sir, what will you do when they come back?" asked Zero.

"Once they arrive, have medical personnel on stand by to treat their wounds. Zero, I want you to start devising a new training plan so that they will be in good shape for round two."

Another figure materialized behind Zero. "I must admit that you are taking this quite lightly, sir," stated Ron.

"In a way, I am somewhat responsible for their lack of preparedness over this new development. I should have scheduled more drills against the Orochi Iori program. Ah, well. In the end, it won't make a difference. I will be the last one standing." Igniz smirked to himself.

Chapter 7

+++++++++++++++

"So...when will the transport be here?" asked Foxy in a weak voice.

"Not until the evening," replied Diana. Behind her, K9999 stared out into space.

She nodded before noticing the figure by Angel and Kula. "What's he doing here?"

"Ranma said he just wanted to check how Kula and Angel were doing."

"Diana...is it me or do they both seem more...?"

Diana gave a small smile. "Content? Yes...it seems he has that effect."

Kula groaned as she awoke from her Iori-induced nap. The young girl, seventeen years old sat up, only to groan as her side was killing her. She leaned back against the pillows and sighed. 'Stupid injuries.' At least the medical staff taped up the blonde haired girl's side, but they had to remove her top to do so. At that moment, she was just laying in bed in her pants and bra. She heard a gasp from the side and turned to look, only to blink as that new guy, Ranma, turned away. "Is something wrong?"

"You don't have your top on. I thought you might get mad at me for seeing something that I shouldn't."

Kula shrugged at the black-haired young man, even though he couldn't see it. She wasn't too concerned with modesty, when it came to her health anyway. "It's alright. Just don't try anything." She tried to sit up, only to gasp in pain as that little bit of movement nearly split her side wide open. "Ouch." She instantly put both of her hands right where her injury was.

Ranma turned around when he heard her gasp in pain. He ignored her state of dress and instead looked at her wound. "Hey, hold it." He walked up to her bed and place his hands on hers, moving them to the side. "Let me take a look here." He grimaced as he got a good look at her side; the doctors had only taped it up when they should have stitched it up. Ranma shook his head and then looked at Kula's face. "I'm going to try something, never really tried it before on someone, but if I get it right, you'll be as good as new in no time."

The blonde haired girl narrowed her eyes in thought for a moment. He could help her? Make the pain go away? Well, it was better than just being in pain. And while she wasn't exactly a vain person, she'd rather not have a scar on her body if she could avoid it. "Sure. Go ahead."

Ranma nodded and started pressing a few points along her side. 'Good thing doc showed these to me before he left.' Well, it was that and some of the stuff that Cologne had taught him. It wasn't anything really special. Just some mid-level shiatsu. The pressure points would stop the bleeding and kill the pain. The rest her body would be able to fix the damage on its own.

Kula gasped in minor pain as Ranma pushed lightly into her sides, she then blinked after a bit as the pain was going away. In fact, she could feel herself starting to breath easier from what he had just down. "What did you just do?" She was amazed. She thought that she'd be in pain until her "father" sent a pickup to get them.

Ranma looked at her and smiled lightly as he stood up. "Just some pressure point knowledge that a doctor taught me. Well, him and an old lady."

Kula blinked, you could do stuff like that with just a touch? It was a wonder why more doctors didn't incorporate that into their own healing practices. The smaller girl looked up and wondered why Ranma was looking at her, more specifically, her hair, curiously. "What's wrong?"

Ranma scratched his head and chuckled lightly. "I was just wondering, HOW do you change your hair like that?"

Kula blinked, a lot, then she started laughing. There was something about that question that struck her as immensely funny. The red-haired man known as the Insane Orochi Warrior was just waking up. He could see Ramon, Seth, and Vanessa standing to the side of the bed he was in. They had recovered and were a little worried about Iori.

"What happened?" Iori asked.

"Our team won due to the rules of the tournament. Since you fell unconscious after knocking out Angel we won the match against The NESTS Team." Seth answered.

"Everyone in the crowd was going nuts, not to mention a few of the fighters." Vanessa added. "They must have remember the last time you went in the Riot of Blood."

"The strange thing is that Angel and K9999 were only beaten unconscious not ripped apart like Vice and Mature were." Ramon continued.

"After you were unconscious the new guy Ranma carried you here to the medical section and you've been sleeping since then." Vanessa added. "Iori, what is going on? It was like you had some control out there."

Both Ramon and Seth nodded in agreement as Iori sighed. "The reason I wanted some time alone was to work on my control. I realized two things about a year ago. I had lots of power but no control over it so I decided to concentrate on that aspect of training instead. And it looks like it paid off."

"What was the second thing?" Seth asked.

"I'll tell you guys later." Iori evaded the question. "You said the new guy carried me here. But why?"

"You'll have to ask him yourself Iori." Ramon said. "But one thing is for sure. He is a very strange guy."

'Yes I will ask this Ranma Saotome why he helped me plus the fact he shut Kyo up like that is mystery enough.' Iori thought to himself.

Now with the second match of the day wrapped up and the winner declared, the arena emptied out within about an hour. People were still feeling jittery about the Riot of Blood incident that happened earlier but so far, there weren't any signs of apocalyptic battles being waged.

Most of the fighters went home to get in some training. A few fighters chose not to exert themselves too much and rested. Ranma opted to stay in the arena after the crowd left to allow himself to soak in the experience.

'It's been quite a day, Strike Claw. I wonder why Angel and Kula were looking at me so strangely when we were talking.'

I still can't believe that you used some of the pressure point lessons from the scrolls so irresponsibly.

Ranma chuckled. 'Nobody complained about him shutting up. And we all got a good laugh from what happened when he regained his voice.'

We should get home. Sara is... Strike Claw paused.

'What is it?'

There's psychic energy coming from the practice gym. Someone must be practicing. Probably a Psycho Soldier.

'I never did get a chance to say hello to them at the tournament. There were a lot of people surrounding them. Especially the girl.'

That's because their female teammate is also a musical sensation. If you turn on a radio station, there will be at least one request for an Athena Asamiya song on any request programming.

Ranma made his way to the practice gym and opened the door. Inside, a girl with a red suit and boots leapt forward to attack a practice dummy. "Show time!!" After getting two hits off, she mistimed her next move and fell on to her butt. "Ow..."

She noticed that there is someone else with her in the gym. Ranma waved sheepishly. "Uh...hi? I'm Ranma Saotome. We never got a chance to say hi."

"I'm Athena Asamiya. It's nice to meet you." She got up and dusted herself off.

"I heard that you're a musical sensation around here."

Athena laughed once. "Yep. If you want, I can give you an autograph."

Ranma shook his head. "No thanks."

"That's good. If I sign any more autographs, I think my wrist is going to go numb." Ranma chuckled at her comment.

"Getting some late practice?"

She nodded. "Yes. I just thought up of a new move. I know how I want to deal the damage and thought of three ways to end the move but I can't seem to get the timing right!"

"Well maybe you should use that musical talent of yours to get the right rhythm or something for the move. Then it would work...maybe. I dunno. I don't know much about music," said Ranma.

Athena thought about his suggestion. "That actually makes some sense. Thanks for the tip."

Four of the most feared fighters of the tournament were talking about the days events in their apartment they had rented for the tournament. They were talking about the fights and other events.

"Well, I must admit Yagami has certainly gotten stronger." The King of South town started the conversation.

"Yes brother he has but he seems to have trouble controlling the Riot of Blood." Wolfgang Krauser remarked.

"As much as we don't want to admit it Kusanagi has gotten stronger as well." Big said. All of his teammates wanted to disagree but couldn't.

"But I must admit what the new guy did to him was hilarious." Rugal added. All four men laughed when Kusanagi ran around in a panic when he couldn't make a sound.

"I don't know if you guys noticed or not but aside from Ranma being powerful he is knowledgeable about pressure points." Big spoke up again.

"We still don't know what he is fully capable of Big." Geese said.

"True and that impresses me." Krauser mentioned to the surprise of his teammates. Not many could impress the Earl of Strolheim. "The fact he has shown none of his techniques or moves means he is also a fighter who thinks with his brains."

The other three thought about Krauser's statements and agreed with them.

"Yes, being able to reason with Yagami proves that." The Modern Day Pirate added. Almost all the Boss Team wants to see what this new kid has. They know they will find that out when Ranma and Ryo fight it out in their match.

"CURSE YOU RANMA SAOTOME!!" This was a common phrase that Ranma had heard many a times. Usually from his enemies. Hell, this wasn't even Ranma's home world anymore and someone was yelling that phrase out.

It was none other than the four-time former King of Fighters Champion Kyo Kusanagi. The brown haired fighter Kusanagi frowned as he massaged his throat in his hotel room. It was a small room with two beds, a nightstand in the middle of them, and a TV on a dresser against the wall opposite the beds. That blasted new guy had done to him what no other had EVER done to him... HUMILIATE HIM IN FRONT OF THE WORLD!! It wasn't bad enough that he lost his voice for awhile, oh no! Kyo could handle that, it was just a bit of degradation. That wasn't so bad. But the fact that when he got his voice back he sounded like he had breathed in a lot of Helium.

The Heir to the Kusanagi line clenched his fist and frowned deeply. Oh yes, when it was his turn against that blasted Saotome, he would make him PAY! He clenched his fist and flames shot around it. Oh how he would make that blasted new comer PAY!

Fate seemed to throw a lot of monkey wrenches lately in Yamazaki's life. First, there is the incident that started it all when he tried to have some 'fun' with Lily Kane. A young fighter just comes out of nowhere and defeats him effortlessly. The word spreads like wildfire and Yamazaki's reputation has been damaged.

It is natural for the Orochi Hakkeshu to seek revenge and so he had made a plan to enter KOF since the other fighter would be participating as well, according to his sources. However, there were to be no single entries this year. Monkey wrench number two.

Monkey wrench number three came swiftly as Yamazaki could not put together a competent team in time to compete in the tournament and so he had to resort to his backup plan that will achieve the same goal of humiliating Ranma Saotome in public.

What Yamazaki would do is battle Ranma again and have his thugs videotape his victory over the pigtailed martial artist. If things don't go well, his thugs can delete the footage and make sure that things stay quiet. Now all that's left is to wait for his opportunity. He did not have to wait long as Ranma came into view, on route to his home.

From the details of the backup plan, one can tell that it is not a foolproof plan. Looks like Yamazaki is going to learn that lesson the hard way.

Ranma stopped walking when a knife came out of nowhere and embedded itself on the ground in front of him. He frowned when he saw Yamazaki come out of the shadows. "You again?"

"We got a little unfinished business." Yamazaki placed his hand into his pocket.

Ranma cracked his knuckles. "If you really insist on settling this now, then let's go. I have to go home for dinner."

"Kid...dinner is going to be the least of your worries when I get through with you!!" Yamazaki kicked some dust into the air in an attempt to blind Ranma. The martial artist shielded his eyes.

"SHAAAAAA!!!!" Yamazaki ran up to introduce Ranma to his specialty Snake Arms moves. He attacked all over the place but Ranma either ducked, leaped or moved out of the way.

"Whoa...how the hell is that kid dodging all of the boss's Snake Arms?!? Nobody has ever done that!!" exclaimed the thug with the camera.

"I'll bet that a lot of TV channels would love to get their hands on this footage! We can probably sell this for a lotta dough!!"

"But what about the boss? He'll kill us if we show footage of his loss!!" wailed the cameraman.

"We'll just lay low for a while and make sure that he can't touch us. Now keep taping!!"

Yamazaki snarled as he kept attempting to use his Snake's Arms attack to hit the boy. "SHAA!" The dyed blonde Yakuza held his hand in front of him, clenched his fist and snapped his arm forward, a golden streak that lashed out at Ranma, all it did however was destroy the poor wall behind him as the pigtailed youth dodged the blow.

Ranma smirked as he jumped from the street and landed near a garbage can. The pigtailed youth picked up the lid from off of the steel container and threw it at Yamazaki.

The tall Yakuza frowned and did a sloppy uppercut, loaded in Ki energy, knocking the lid away. Without taking his hand out of the position that it was in, Yamazaki snapped his wrist forward reaching out beyond what he should have been able to reach as his arm blurred again to try and take the youth's head off.

Ranma ducked underneath the strike and rolled forward. He round-housed kicked as Yamazaki's face, who, for some reason bent down and stuck out his tongue. As soon as Ranma's kick connected, Yamazaki let loose a powerful punch loaded with Orochi-fueled Ki energy, sending Ranma flying back.

Yamazaki smirked, thinking that the punk wouldn't get back up after that, he then blinked as Ranma rolled with the fall and got back on his knees. "Heh! Seems that the kid can a hit." He mumbled to himself.

Ranma shook his head as he stood up and smirked. True, he didn't like what this guy did, but he had to admit, that was one HELL of a tactic to use against him. He rolled out of the way quickly as that golden streak flashed out, destroying a few crate boxes behind him.

(----)

"Hey! This is pretty good! Kenjiro, keep rolling!"

"I am! Damn! Say, what's the kid doing?" Kenjiro pointed down below, the brown haired Yakuza was surprised at what he saw. His friends looked down as well and couldn't believe it either.

"I don't know." The first one spoke up. "But it looks like he's trying to figure something out."

(----)

'Three more.' Ranma jumped over another golden flash as it destroyed what was left of the garbage dump on the side.

"SHAA!" Yamazaki snapped his wrist forward again, destroying part of the wall of the building that his underlings were on.

Ranma rolled to the side and smirked as he got up and onto his feet. 'One more.' He thought to himself, out loud he taunted the Yakuza. "Oh come on! What's the matter? I know little old ladies that can fight better than you." Which was VERY true. After all, Yamazaki hadn't proven to be any harder than Taro was.

The blonde dyed haired Yakuza gritted his teeth together and rushed forward with his hand that was in his pocket gripped tightly on his knife. He pulled out his knife and tried to slash the kid across the chest, only to find that the kid kicked the knife out of his hand and imbedded it into the wall. Yamazaki sneered and flashed his arm downwards, trying to break the kid's legs. He growled when the kid jumped over the strike. Yamazaki was expecting the kid to either flip back or over him. He didn't expect what happened next though.

(----)

Kenjiro's eyes crossed as he watched what happened. "Oooh! That HAS to hurt!"

His friends nodded at that, they were protecting themselves to much to wonder how the kid did what he did.

(----)

What Ranma did was pretty simple, all he did was land on his legs and then do Yamazaki's OWN Snake's Arms attack against him... Unfortunately for Yamazaki, the place where Ranma hit wasn't a nice place.

Ranma looked up a bit and chuckled as he saw where his attack hit. "Um, sorry? I didn't MEAN to hit there, honest!" He was telling the truth, the attack WAS a bit off... Ranma was aiming a bit higher up... Like say Yamazaki's chest.

"You bastard!" Yamazaki cried out in a voice that was several pitches higher than usual for him. He clutched his hands over his crotch and fell over to the side. Having the Snake's Arms attack hit him in the family jewels was too much for the Yakuza and he promptly fell over.

When the NESTS team arrived at their headquarters in space, the medical staff immediately rushed all of them into the infirmary per Igniz's orders. Although Angel, Foxy and K9999 showed some injuries, they were nothing compared to Kula's. Her right side took serious damage during her battle against Iori Yagami. The medical staff had to hurry with Kula or she could be in serious trouble.

However Doctor Ksura, the Chief Medical Officer of NESTS became highly surprised when he found out that Kula's injuries had been stabilized by something else and that her genetically enhanced body carried out the rest of the repairs. Given the rate at which she is recovering, she would be up on her feet in no time. He made sure that he found out when this treatment was administered to measure the amount of time it took for her to heal.

"After she received this treatment at 14:37 hours, her injury healed itself in five hours and fourteen minutes."

Igniz nodded as Dr. Ksura finished his report. "What can you tell me about this treatment? How does it work?"

"Kula said that the boy, Ranma Saotome, had pushed her lightly on the injured side and then the pain went away. He told her that he used some pressure point knowledge. Further analysis revealed that by tapping this part on the body..." Dr. Ksura pointed to a diagram of the human body. "...the boy stopped the bleeding and somehow blocked the stimuli provided by pain from traveling through her nervous system."

"Thank you for your report, doctor. Dismissed." Igniz massaged his forehead lightly.

After the doctor left, Zero spoke to his master. "How shall we proceed to deal with Ranma, sir? The boy is undoubtedly a wild card that needs to be taken care of."

"We shall proceed as planned. We shall gather information during the tournament and see what other tricks he has up his sleeve. But now we know that he has knowledge of pressure points. Zero, I want you to pull up every single bit of information that you can find about how pressure points work and how they can be manipulated. And when they are sufficiently recovered, arrange a team meeting. There are some matters to be discussed."

"Yes, sir."

+++++++++++++++

"You know...the boss is probably going to know how much time Ranma spent with us and what we found out about him," said Angel. The medicine that the doctors gave her helped treat her headache.

"I know." Normally, Kula would be cautious around Angel since the other girl remained loyal to NESTS. When they had their conversation with Ranma earlier, the Anti-K' found out that Angel harbored some doubt in her beliefs regarding NESTS. The conversation remained quiet enough so that Foxy, Diana and K9999 could not hear them.

A voice on the intercom interrupted their conversation. "Kula Diamond, Angel, K9999, Foxy, Diana...report to the briefing room immediately."

They both looked at the supervising doctor for approval. "The both of you are in fairly good shape. You're free to go. If you feel anything out of the ordinary, just swing by."

Both girls nodded before exiting the infirmary and rejoined the others who were staying in the lounge until they were summoned.

End of Chapter