Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Seasons out of Time ❯ Let the lesson begin ( Chapter 4 )

 

 

Chapter 4: Let the lesson begin or Homework

 

 

 

To start Lani had the two sit in the garden behind their house, and she sat with them after settling her skirts around her. The three of them sat in a circle of moss ringed with stones, nearby a little waterfall trickled with musical tranquility into a small pond filled with a few decorative fish, turtles, seahorses and various plant life.

 

"Alright Ranma, let me take a look at your curse, I want you to try and think through the feeling you get when you change, feel it, picture it in your head, I don't want to have to put you through the change more than necessary or at all if I don't have to."

 

Ranma sat with his eyes closed and tired to relive the change in his mind, it surprised him how easy it came to him, but after all he had changed hundreds of times in the last few years. After a few moments of watching him Lani smiled.

 

"That's perfect! I can see how it works now." She frowned slightly. "Its stronger than I'd hoped, and there's several extra bits but I expected most of them. Like the one that draws water to you, I expected to see that but it seems specific to water that will cause you the most amount of trouble in any given situation. There also seems to be a bit that draws chaos to you, which I thought was something you had started out with but if it is this has made it worse. I'm going to get rid of as much of it as I can but the actual curse itself is too ingrained now to be completely removed, but to get rid of the part that draws water to you and to make this something other than a curse I'm going to change the base part of the spell like this." She smiled triumphantly and leaned toward the pond for a moment. When she sat back up she held a small ball of clear water in her hand. With a mischivious smile she threw it at Ranma. He didn't change and when that had sunk in he jumped up and went to the pond and began splashing more cold water on himself, still he didn't change.

 

Ranma turned around and picked up Akane swinging her around in sheer relived joy. He couldn't believe he was cured! Akane for her part was very happy for him, but a tiny part of her was going to miss shopping and going for ice cream parfaits with girl Ranma. Lani however wasn't finished.

 

"Calm down youngling. You can still change forms." That stopped the celebration and got the two to sit back down to hear what exactly she meant. "Because your curse was so ingrained I couldn't remove it completely, but I want to ask you, what do you think the difference between a curse and an ability is?" The two looked at each other and started to think.

 

"The amount of trouble it gets you in?" Ranma tried perplexed at where this could be going.

 

"Control." Akane guessed after a moment. "If you don't have any control over it, its a curse right? If its up to you when you do something then its an ability." Lani was impressed very few people would have figured it out so quickly.

 

"Exactly, I have changed the curse so that the only thing that will make you change is your own will. I want you to think again of how it feels to change into your girl form and this time I want you to want to change to that form."

 

Ranma tried and after a moment he did it, he felt the familiar sensation of becoming a girl and then before she suggested it he tried to go the other way. When he sat before them again as a boy Lani smiled at him. Even though it wasn't as complete as he'd hoped he was actually happier with this solution, never again would he change at random moments, never again could someone splash him and get him in trouble. Now he could control it he realized he would have missed the ability, if only a little, if he could never do it again. A random memory of eating ice cream with Akane floated through his mind, yes he decided, this was a perfect solution.

 

Lani turned to Akane. "It's your turn." She announced, scooting closer to her. "Give me your hand hon, and I'll teach you to cook, sew and swim." Unsure how exactly Lani planned to teach her by holding her hand Akane held her right hand out uncertainly. Lani smiled and touched her hand only with the lightest touch for a moment, but in that moment a burst of energy traveled between the two. Akane's head swam and for a moment the world went black.

 

When she woke her head was in Ranma's lap and he was looking at her with concern, Lani however looked perfectly calm.

 

"What happened?" Akane asked.

 

"I gave you a lot of information and knowledge in a very small amount of time, its not an uncommon side effect. I do apologize to you both though I should have thought to warn you that might happen." Lani replied sheepishly. "Don't worry you were only out for a moment. You now know how to cook, how to sew and the how to swim but there is one more thing I'm going to have to tinker with before you'll actually be able to swim. You see you have a physical reason why you've never been able to swim. Your body is actually more dense than most peoples and that's why you sink. It isn't a big deal really, I doubt you've ever broken a bone and that's likely because of the same problem. Its also why you haven't shown the same kind of speed Ranma has.

 

"I've never broken a bone either!" Ranma interjected.

 

"And he jumps back from damage amazingly fast too!" Akane added

 

"I'm sure that's true, but that has more to do with his curse and his advanced martial arts training. The curse has made his physical body very pliable because of the changes, and his training has given him a particularly high tolerance to pain." Lani explained, before reaching once again for Akane's hand, with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry this won't hurt at all and you aren't likely to pass out this time either.

 

Akane closed her eyes as Lani took her hand almost afraid of what would happen but she felt only a pleasant lightness spread through her body. When Lani was finished Akane sat up, and tried one of her punches. Already they could all see her speed had improved.

 

"I'll show you where the pool is a little later." Lani promised. "Right now though, it's Ranma's turn." Ranma was suprized but held out his hand as well. "I know you haven't had the same trouble as Akane but for the training I have promised the two of you it will be very helpful for you if I change your physical make up a little. I have already changed Akane's and now I'll do the same thing to you. What I'm doing, is making sure that both of your bodies are extremely flexible and strong. Think of it if you will, as your skin becoming more like rubber, but of course it's still skin and will heal. In fact I'm also showing your body how to heal itself faster and more efficiently than it has until now. By the time I'm done it will become almost impossible for you to be hurt bad enough that your body wont heal itself in a few minutes.

 

"I will also be giving you a special kind of armor to fight in that will repel blades, bullets, and chi attacks. This is actually one of the reasons we teach this fighting style by invitation only. I'm sure you can understand why we need to be careful who comes to have this kind of power." They both nodded at Lani's explanation, it made perfect sense to both of them.

 

When she had finished she set the two of them sparring each other. during the next hour or so Akane improved dramatically, already she had mastered Ranma's chestnuts on a roasting fire technique, when Lani called them back to the moss circle.

 

"I will leave you in a few minutes, to take care of some things and I hope the two of you will continue practicing. Before I leave for the day though I wanted to ask you a question you may consider a bit personal, but it is necessary for me to know. Have the two of you talked or come any closer to an understanding that may make it easier to work together?"

 

The two blushed to their hair lines, unused to anyone being so direct, and still not comfortable in their new relationship. After a moment Akane looked at Ranma and began speaking.

 

"We talked for a long time last night and we... um..."

 

"I told her I love her." Ranma blurted out, turning bright red. Lani smiled calmly.

 

"Good for you, did it work out alright for you?" She asked, in a sort of clinically detached tone.

 

"I told him I loved him too." Akane admitted bashfully. Lani looked at the two warmly.

 

"I told you when I offered the training that it wasn't necessary and I meant it. I'm very happy for you both, though I will say no matter what happens between the two of you other than for training purposes it will be completely up to you how, when or if you tell people anything of yourselves. The next question is do you think you're ready for the next part of the training that will help you get a better understanding of how the other thinks? Please think a moment before you answer, I can undo it again but I find it can delay the process rather than help it if my students aren't ready yet." Akane looked at Ranma as if to ask what he thought.

 

"I'm willing if you are Akane." He told her.

 

"What is the next step?" Akane asked turning back to Lani, needing to know what it entailed to make an informed decision.

 

"For the next step I will be opening your minds to each other specifically, and I will teach the two of you to communicate that way. I will also teach you both how to direct your thoughts so that you don't spill every thought in your head at each other but only the ones you mean to. I have found that many of my students prefer this to start but by the end of the training they have often opened their whole minds to each other. The point of these techniques I'll be teaching you is to turn you into a double edged sword, Later today or tomorrow I will take you to see a demonstration by my students who are about to graduate so you'll have a better idea of what I mean."

 

Akane looked to Ranma again to see if he was still okay with going ahead. "I'm willing if you are." She told him

 

"Lets do it then." He replied.