Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ A Fighter's tournment ❯ AFTCh9 ( Chapter 9 )

Scene: Fight

'Curious. Ranma somehow learned the Snake Arms move and created his own version, resulting in Yamazaki's defeat. How? Is it because Yamazaki relied on the move too much and allowed Ranma to observe it multiple times? This brings up new questions. How many times does Ranma have to see a move before he can use his own version of it? Does his adaptability depend on the interval between the times one performs a specific move against him?' Kim made a silent promise to himself to think about this some more after the match.

'Choi' adjusted his tiny brown fedora nervously. The claws had gotten sharpened earlier. He hoped that his training in his best friend's body would pay off. On the other side, Joe Higashi tapped his fists together a few times. "I'm coming for ya!!"

Chapter 9

When the clock hit 11:30, the gong went off to initiate the fight. "Hurricane Upper!!" Joe threw two small hurricanes towards his opponent. 'Choi' leapt up and did his Hishou Kyaku move, coming down from an angle while kicking at the same time.

Joe leapt up to use his anti air attack. "Tiger Kick!!" 'Choi' made a quick recovery on the ground and summoned his striker.

"A little help, buddy boy!!" 'Chang' came into the arena and did a mini version of his belly flop super move. Joe immediately performed a flying kick in mid air to knock 'Chang' away.

"Slash Kick!!" Joe moved with range for 'Choi' to use his Hien Zan move to make a counter attack by back flipping into the air and performing a kick.

When making an aerial recovery, Joe had a nagging feeling that something felt off about Choi. Normally, the midget would be abusing that claw of his, either through his special moves or his grab moves. He pushed the thought aside and leapt into the air again, this time, bringing one of his legs down in an arc motion. "Orah orah!!"

'Choi' rolled away from it and right into Joe's trap. As soon as Joe landed, he focused his energy in his arms and whirled them around as hard as he could. "SCREW UPPER!!!" Joe performed his trademark move, creating a giant tornado to blast 'Choi' multiple times. The smaller man ground his teeth together and got up. He glanced at the clock and noticed that he could make a switch if he wanted to.

"May Lee! Switch!!" 'Choi' decided that he needs some time to recover. Besides, she really wanted her chance. The look on her face said it all.

"This is going to be a piece of cake." Joe knew he shouldn't get cocky but he couldn't help letting that one comment come out. He moved quickly as soon as the girl entered the arena. "Slash Kick!"

Immediately, she moved into a strange stance, standing on one leg. When Joe hit her, she countered immediately with a kick, juggled him with two more kicks and then leapt into the air to use a knockdown attack.

Joe got up from the ground and frowned. This kid obviously had a different kind of Tae Kwon Do style. With Chang and Choi, they adapted some of Kim's Tae Kwon Do moves and used their own attributes to develop some moves. When they fought against someone, any fighter would know that they come from Kim's school since some of their moves have a similar look to Kim's moves. May Lee either came from another Tae Kwon Do school or she trained in another school and started training with Kim. He would have to keep observing her moves and tactics. If Kim did influence her fighting style in some way, then he might be able to find a weakness and exploit it.

Several Yakuza backed away from their boss as soon as he saw the footage of his defeat by Ranma Saotome. The Yakuza were praying for their lives to be saved from their very unstable boss.

Ryuji Yamazaki was pissed. To his way of thinking it was bad enough being beaten in less than 10 seconds by a new face on the scene. Everyone had heard about that fight where Ranma beat Yamazaki to save Lily Kane. There might have been some doubts even with Lily's and Billy's eyewitness accounts.

Now there was visual proof that Ranma had soundly defeated the Yakuza Hakkeshu and it was being played at the KOF tournament. Now his humiliation was known to the world. His great so called backup plan failed. Not only failed but backfired. He was not the one to be embarrassed but Ranma.

Ryuji turned his attention to his gang and noticed something right away. A few of his gang was missing. He noticed Kenjiro, Daisuke, and a few others missing.

"Where are Kenjiro and Daisuke?" The Hakkeshu asked. The gang as one gulped and seemed very hesitant to answer. He was growling out the questions. "And some of the others are missing. Where are they?"

"We haven't seen them since your..." One of the gang trailed off not wanting to die from mentioning the disastrous rematch with Ranma Saotome.

"You're telling me you guys haven't seen them since my rematch with Saotome." Yamazaki picked up. He knew what that meant. Those bastards had sold the tape to the TV stations instead of destroying it.

"Boss? You OK?"

"I've been humiliated twice by some punk. Some of my gang sold the video of my humiliation to the News on TV and YOU ASK IF I'M ALRIGHT!!!" Yamazaki yelled.

"But what are you going to do, Boss?" Another gang member asked. "Are you going to go after Kenjiro and the others or go after Saotome?"

The questions stopped the Yakuza boss in his tracks.

"And Boss, even you have to admit Saotome isn't just some punk kid. He's trained for near 15 years to be as good as he is." The same gang member continued.

"So you want me to give up getting revenge on Saotome?" Yamazaki asked with a calm voice.

His gang of thugs nodded. "Boss, who knows what kind of embarrassment you will go through next if you tangle with this kid?"

Ryuji nodded his head and decided to sink back in his chair to think. Ranma Saotome was out of his reach but Kenjiro and the others were in his reach. Oh, those guys were going to pay.

Yamazaki was sitting in the chair when the words of his gang finally managed to make themselves clear.

"You guys think I'm getting weak now." The Yakuza growled. The men in his gang begged and pleaded saying he wasn't getting weak. An evil grin appeared on his face as he leapt at his gang.

A few minutes later all the gang were moaning in pain as they rolled on the ground. Yamazaki walked away as he phoned his men away from his hideout to watch Saotome and to find Kenjiro and the others who sold the tape of his humiliation.

He sat down in his chair and continued to watch Team Korea and The Fatal Fury Team.

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

The Generations Team was standing by the arena watching May Lee and Joe Higashi battle it out. The Women's Team and The Kyokugen Karate Team had gathered around them watching the fight as well.

Ranma turned to Rock. "Rock, I've heard a lot of Terry Bogard but not a lot on Andy Bogard."

"Well even though Terry and Andy have about the same amount of experience Terry is by far the better fighter. He defeated my dad, Geese Howard, and his brother, Wolfgang Krauser." Rock explained. "Terry is a lot more powerful than Andy. A lot of people have wondered about that too. I mean both of the Bogard brothers have been fighting for the same amount of time yet Terry is a lot more powerful than Andy. He's also my mentor"

"I see." Ranma had a thoughtful expression on his face.

What Rock does not want to talk about is the fact that his boss, Geese Howard, killed Terry's and Andy's father Jeff Bogard. Many years later, Geese also killed their master and Terry's girlfriend during the '92 tournament. A little while later Terry defeated Geese after he defeated Andy and their teammate Joe Higashi. Everyone thought he was dead but Geese survived.

'No wonder the Bogard's were keeping an eagle eye on him. How do Terry and Andy feel about him being alive, Strike Claw?'

To Terry he has already defeated Geese. To him he has already gotten his revenge when he defeated Geese after the '92 tournament. He has moved on looking for opponents and trying to get stronger. Like Lady Bastet said he loves looking for the challenge other fighters can give him.

'And Andy?'

Andy still has a lot of anger and hatred to Geese even though his brother defeated him. Andy has trained since he has learned that Geese is alive to defeat him.

'No wonder Terry is stronger. He has already moved on since in his mind he has already gotten revenge on Geese. If Andy Bogard ever got rid of his anger and hatred to Geese he would be truly someone to respect.'

What do you mean?

'Terry has moved on but Andy is still stuck on getting revenge for what Geese did all those years ago. That is one of the main reasons Terry is stronger than Andy.'

I see. When you put it that way it makes sense.

"Ranma? Are you alright?" Looking to the side he could see Chae was the one who called his name.

"Yes Chae." Ranma smiled a little. "Just thinking about something."

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

Mai Shiranui was thinking about a handsome, pigtailed fighter and to tell the truth she was puzzled. He knew that she had tricked him into a date after the matches for tonight and yet he didn't seem angry at her. He could sense that she was feeling in the dumps after the talk she and Andy had. He just wanted to be a friend and tried to help her.

She remembered his advice from earlier.

~~~Flashback~~~

"I'm sorry, but you see, before I came here, I had similar problems with girls. You see, I had four admirers who would try anything, well, almost anything, to get my attention and get ahead of the others for my heart. If you really love this guy so much, just tell him. But don't push it. If you keep reminding him all the time, all you're going to do is drive him away from you because he'll be afraid of someone who's pushy and won't take no for an answer."

~~~End Flashback~~~

Ranma had truly helped her concerning her relationship with Andy. She knew a lot of men would have jumped at the chance to be her boyfriend. Just for her body. Not Ranma though. He had refused and given her some good advice. Advice that she knew would have worked.

She had to wonder why no one had given that advice to her. She shook her head still confused about this new fighter and knew she would learn more about him during their date.

'Ranma asked me to keep the date for tonight secret. I can understand why.' Mai thought to herself. 'What is it about Ranma that makes him so attractive?'

Mai turned her attention from Ranma to the two fighters battling it out in the ring.

"Come on, Joe!! Give yourself a break and switch already!!" shouted Andy. The Muay Thai kick boxer paid him no heed as he continued fighting against Kim's new teammate.

During the fight, Joe noticed that whenever she stood in a particular stance, May Lee would use a different set of moves. Her first stance had been classified as her normal stance where she stood in a relaxed but prepared stance. Her second stance puzzled Joe. Not only did she get a look of confidence, her sleeves of her t-shirt seemed to be rolled up, showing off some of her arm muscles. Gloves would appear on her hands and she had a mini red scarf, looking like a cape. Last but not least, the frog face on her shirt changed from a cute picture to a more fiercer one. In a way, she looked like one of those comic book heroes.

Joe slammed to the ground after she threw him with a Jumping Kick Grab move. 'She's good but not invulnerable...maybe I can try drawing her into my Screw Upper!' "Slash Kick!!" He launched a flying kick at her.

He figured that she would try to move into her Counter Kick pose and sure enough, she did. That's why he did a lighter version of the move so he won't travel so far. 'No way, she can counter this move!!' "Screw..." Joe summoned the strength in his arms that would be needed to create the tornado move.

'You won't get me like you got Chang!!' May Lee switched to her second stance and dashed forward.

Joe never got the chance to say the second word when his opponent delivered a few powerful hits before she backed off and posed once, moving her arms in an odd fashion. When she brought them down quickly, the amount of kinetic energy stored in her final blow exploded all at once.

"Doesn't that look like Leona's move?" asked Mary.

Terry adjusted his cap slightly. "Sort of. Except Leona uses an actual explosive. The girl found a technique to delay the damage from her physical attacks."

May Lee switched back to her normal stance before giving a sigh of relief. "How did you like my final move, Mr. Higashi?"

Joe groggily looked up before collapsing. 'Damn...'

"Nice one, May Lee!!" cheered 'Chang'. The girl simply smiled back at her teammates.

The retrieval crew took Joe's body to the recovery area while the next fighter for the Fatal Fury team hopped in to battle May Lee.

Igniz raised an eyebrow as he watched May Lee defeat Joe Higashi. The young bioshin blonde man turned to Zero and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

The white haired older man looked down and frowned lightly. "I'm not sure what to make of that win myself. Either she knows two different styles, or her style has two forms to it."

"Go on."

The man in the black body suit and over-sized jacket cleared his throat before continuing for his master, who was wearing a black cloak and cape. "I noticed in one stance she used a particular set of moves, yet when she changed stances, her moves changed as well. So either she knows two styles, or she has two variations of the same style."

Igniz nodded and narrowed his eyes as he looked down below. "I see. Highly uncommon then?"

"Not at all." Igniz turned to look at Zero in surprise, the second-in-command of NESTS nodded at his leader's surprise. "There are some styles of Tai Kwan Do that have various stances in them. If you stand one particular way, you do some moves, but if you stand another way, you'll do different moves and it's all part of the same style."

Igniz nodded and turned back to the fight. "That's interesting." He didn't much care for that, the girl didn't seem to have much power to her, even if she had strong moves.

****

Blue Mary Ryan stepped up to the stage, pulled her coat back and tossed it in the air. "Anton!"

"WOOF!" Came the call from her white dog as it jumped into the air and caught the coat in the mouth before running off.

Blue Mary stretched her arms above her head and then pointed at May Lee. "Are you ready?"

(----)

Ranma blinked and turned to Rock. "That's one trained dog. What do you know about her?"

Rock nodded and just looked on; he wanted to see how much Blue Mary had improved over the years since they last worked together. "Her name's Mary Ryan, though everyone calls her Blue Mary. She's a police officer and Billy had teamed up with her a couple of times. Once in 1997, and again in 1998. Unfortunately, their other partner was Yamazaki. He spent half the tournament worrying about Yamazaki beating him up and the other half worrying that she'd arrest me."

Ranma and Chae sweat dropped at him. Though to Ranma, it sounded like what he went through in Nerima when he had to team up with Mousse and Ryoga at times.

(----)

May Lee nodded and stepped forward a bit, she had heard that Blue Mary was a tough opponent to deal with, and only a handful of people could take her on easily. Her eyes widened as Mary did a leaping somersault forward, forcing her to block and get knocked back, but that only set her up for Mary's slide attack that knocked her into the air. While in midair, Mary jumped up and grabbed her, tossing her straight up. The blonde tossed the hair that had gotten on her shoulders behind her head before grabbing May Lee, who had fallen down on her knees right in front of Mary, by the neck and spinning her around and around many times before tossing the young heroine away.

(----)

Ranma winced at that. "That had to hurt."

The others nodded and Chae rubbed her own neck. "Yeah, she hit me with that move before; I know how much that hurts."

End of chapter