Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Steps of the Celestial Dragon ❯ Part 1: ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Date : 100509

Disclaimer : All Ranma and Jin Yong characters and concepts belong to respective creators and owners.

Ranma suffers from the Ultimate Moxibustion Point. To correct the problem, he uses the Nanban Mirror to travel to the past. But will this action truly help him? A part of the Timerunner series ...

T I M E R U N N E R

STEPS OF THE CELESTIAL DRAGON

Part 1:

The pigtailed martial artist knew that he had to find a cure to what the old pervert did to him ... quickly and soon. Right now, he was as weak as a person who had never trained in the martial arts with his use of ki stripped from him. He never really knew how dependent he was on ki until the day the old pervert utilised the Ultimate Moxibustion point on him. Now he was as weak as a 'little girl' who had never trained in the martial arts. At this moment in time, he was searching through the old pervert's belongings while he was out 'liberating more undies' as he called it from any of the poor women around him who happened to capture his fancy.

Bra after bra, panty after panty, were thrown all over the floor until it created quite a mess. He mentally apologised to the Tendo housekeeper for his actions while continuing to rummage through the old pervert's belongings. And there, he saw it ... no not a martial arts technique or scroll ... but a mirror. The Nanban Mirror. His heart soared when he thought of the possibilities of using the mirror.

'I can go back to the time before all this happened and warn myself about the old pervert's intentions to hit me with the UItimate Moxibustion Point,' he thought happily.

But then something occured to him. If he went back into the past to warn himself about what was going to happen, then he would not have any reason to go and search the old pervert's room in the first place. Which would then lead to him not finding the Nanban Mirror and not going back into the past in the first place. Which would in turn, cause him to not be forewarned about the old pervert's attack and which would lead to him becoming weakened by the Ultimate Moxibustion strike in the first place. He had heard of Nabiki discussing this problem before when they watched that American movie, "The Terminator". A paradox, she called it. A case of where a person went back in time to do something that led to him not going back in time which would then cause him to go back in time ... the whole cycle would never end.

So how was he going to solve this predicament? Then the answer occured to him. He would get the Nanban Mirror to send him to a place where a cure might be found! Without wasting anymore time, he shed a tear on the mirror. It glowed softly and then brightened to envelope the martial artist. Within a few seconds, the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist was gone.


There was a ripple in the air and a pigtailed boy of fifteen years was deposited in the middle of a cave. The cave was somewhat dark since it was night but not dark to the extent that he could not see a thing. In actual fact, part of the cave was brightened by the moon and starlight that penetrated the cave. The Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist studied his surroundings carefully. From the old furniture and the statue of a woman, this cave looked like it used to be somebody's home in the past. Since the Nanban Mirror sent him here, the cure had to be around here somewhere. He began searching the cave slowly and methodically for the cure.

It was a large cave with many rooms. Ranma had gone to almost every room but there seemed to be nothing of use that he could find in the cave. Just as he was about to give up, he heard a voice shouting from the outside. Thinking perhaps that the cave was not quite as deserted as he originally thought, the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist quickly went and hid himself in another 'room' of the cave. The voice continued to shout outside until finally he heard footsteps passing through the cave. Wondering who it was and at the same time hoping that he would not get caught by the 'home owner', the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist hid himself by a very large pillar rock that reached the ceiling of the cave.

The owner of the cave happened to be a young man most like in his early twenties, in well-dressed clothes. His hair style was unusual. Long hair that was tied in a ponytail above the head with a piece of cloth. As the owner of the cave-house, he also looked rather lost. Is this guy really the owner of the cave? Ranma wondered.

His eyes followed the young man as he continued to talk. Now that he was closer, he could make out some of the words that the man was saying. During his time of training with his father, Ranma had picked up bits and pieces of different languages in the different regions to get by. The young man before him was speaking Chinese. A very old form of Chinese dialect from a place he had been to in China ... Luoyang. Ranma was about to approach him when said person began to bow before the statue. Deciding not to disturb him for the time being, Ranma remained still as he watched the young man continued to do his bowing over and over again. Was he mad? Why was he bowing before the statue like there was no tomorrow?

After an hour of of watching, the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist finally got tired of waiting and watching the young man injuring his head on the floor. He called out. The young man stopped doing whatever he was doing and turned in his direction immediately.

"Hi! Hello? Are you the owner of this place?" he asked.

"No. I'm a visitor too," he said.

"I'm Duan Yu," the young man introduced himself.

"Ranma," the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist answered.

"What are you doing here?" Duan Yu asked.

"Looking for a cure. Why were you bowing before the statue so many times?" the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist asked.

"The writing here said that-" Duan Yu was about to say something when Ranma pointed to a small tear in the 'cushion' where the young man had been bowing like no tomorrow.

Getting curious, Duan Yu picked up the cushion and shook it.

"There appears to be something inside it," he said and began to tear open the cushion.

When the tear was big enough, Duan Yu fitted his hand through and felt his hand around. Removing his hand, he pulled out a scroll made of cloth and rolled it open.

Unable to read any of the ancient Chinese characters, Ranma asked Duan Yu about the contents of the scroll.

"What does it say?"

"Since you have bowed before me one thousand times, you are now my student. As a student, you must do everything that I, the master, tell you to. I have just one simple command. You must kill every member of the Carefree Sect and wipe them out completely without mercy. Wahhh!" Duan Yu cried out in horror much to Ranma's surprise.

'Dear Goddess is so violent.'

"What was that about?" Ranma asked, surprised by the outburst.

"The writer of the scroll wants us to kill a group of people," the Crown Prince replied.

"Anything else?" Ranma did not appear to be even disturbed by Duan Yu's revelation.

Being threatened with bodily harm and social blackmail on a daily basis back in Nerima for the past few years had deadened him to such trivialities.

"To accomplish this, I have imparted to you two techniques that would help you in dealing with any opponent. The Divine Skill of The North Technique and the Wave-like Subtle Steps Technique. Study them deligently. The martial arts of all the different factions are now yours in the next room. My apologies. I don't have the following martial art styles :- the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms belonging to the Beggar Sect; Yi Yang Finger and the Six Meridian Divine Swords belonging to the Duan family ... Hmmm? That's my family ... and the Tendon-Altering Sutra belonging to Shaolin Temple," Duan Yu read on.

"New martial arts technique?" Ranma asked and quickly moved over to look at the scroll.

The next section of the scroll though caused both youngsters to turn away in embarassment. It was not difficult to see why.

There was a naked drawing of a woman on the scroll. After a few minutes of averting their eyes, both youngsters turned to look at the drawings again.

"What does it say?" the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist asked as he looked through the scroll.

"It says this ..." Duan Yu began as he related the contents of the scroll to Ranma.

'This style doesn't make any sense!' the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist thought as he began to do the steps indicated in the scroll for the Divine Skill of The North Technique.

'Why do I have to get rid of all my internal energy to get this to work again? Yeah, right! There would be a conflict between the ki energy absorbed into the body from the opponent and the ki energy already present in the body of the user. Even Hinako's energy sucking technique doesn't work that way! Well, since I can't use it anyway. Here goes nothing.' the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist meditated and began the following steps to drain the ki from his body completely.

Not faraway, Duan Yu watched Ranma go through the first step of the Divine Skill of The North Technique with trepidation while he read the instructions to him. Nothing visible appeared to be happening apart from Ranma going through the different steps but deep within the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist, something was happening. His vast ki reserves were draining away like water into the gutter until finally, they were gone. Sweat pooled over his forehead as he went through all the steps told to him by Duan Yu.

Hours passed. Finally, it was done.

'Not that, it has made me any stronger or gotten rid of the effects of the Ultimate Moxibustion Point Technique used by the old pervert,' Ranma grumbled to himself inwardly.

"Can we go on to the next one now?" Ranma asked Duan Yu gruffly.

"Are you sure? You don't look so well," Duan Yu replied with concern at Ranma's tired condition.

"I'm a martial artist! A martial artist can take anything!" the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist insisted strongly.

"Very well, then," Duan Yu answered and began reading instructions for the second martial art technique.

One hour later ...

"See! Told you I could do it!" Ranma answered before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

Duan Yu ran over to the Jusenkyo-cursed martial artist to check on his condition. He felt his hand and his forehead. There was a pulse, albeit a very weak one at that.

"My goodness! Why did he have to be so stubborn?" he mumbled to himself before running off to get some water.

He ran through the cave and tripped over the stones in the darkness. Getting up, he realised that he couldn't see and began to feel around in the darkness. Before he knew it, his hand brushed up against something solid and there was the sound of stone grinding against stone from the opposite side of the wall.

'There's light in there!' Duan Yu thought and entered the hidden chamber.

The chamber was well-lit but like everything else in the large cave, it was covered with dust. Looking around, Duan Yu saw a few burning torches on the wall and ran to grab one. He ran up close to them and was about to take down one of the torches when he saw drawings on the cave wall. Wondering what it was, he drew closer to look at them.

They looked like drawings of a person with hands and legs in different positions.

'What is this? Another martial art technique? It certainly is different from the ones in the scroll,' he thought as his eyes moved from one drawing to another.

His new friend would be very interested in it.

Crap!

And speaking of his friend ... he had almost ... forgotten about him!

Without wasting anymore time, Duan Yu grabbed one of the burning torches from the chamber and ran towards the entrance of the cave. Quickly he filled an old wooden bucket with water and carried it back to the cave. Upon arrival, he took out a roll of cloth and dipped it into the wooden bucket. As he leaned over the pigtailed-martial artist, he knocked into the wooden bucket accidently with his knee, tipping its contents on Ranma. What happened next, caused Duan Yu to freak out.

"Oh my goodness! He's turned into a woman! The water must be enchanted or something! Don't tell me that these martial arts that most Dear Goddess asked me to learn is for women only? That's the only explanation. Then what about the martial arts in the cave? If there is one martial art technique that can turn a man into a woman, could there be another that can turn him back into a man?" he mumbled out loud before making his way back into the cave with the drawings on the wall.

Upon entering the chamber a second time, Duan Yu took care to study all the drawings on the wall.

'This style is all about killing the enemy and fast. It doesn't say anything about how to change a woman into a man," Duan Yu thought as he studied the techniques of the style carefully.

'Maybe I'm not looking at this right. The technique only changed Ranma when he pursued the martial arts with all his strength and will. Maybe if I do the same here, I might get enlightened on his condition,' Duan Yu concluded.

Personally, Duan Yu refrained from learning the martial arts as he thought that martial arts was all about how to injure or kill somebody quickly. From young, he had studied Buddhism and adopted its teachings into his heart. Thus he felt that all the martial art styles were too cruel to learn as a result. His father had tried to forcibly teach him the Yi Yang Finger Technique but Duan Yu had refused consequently running away from home to where he was now. But right here, in this cavern, he was going to learn a very deadly martial art style to help fix Ranma's condition. The irony could not have been more obvious.

The Crown Prince of Dali did not waste his time and began to learn the martial art technique in earnest.

Two hours later, Duan Yu had returned to the cave where he left his friend lying on the ground.

He couldn't help but think, 'She certainly looks beautiful. Not like Dear Goddess but close ... very close.'

Blushing slightly, he held his friend up in a sitting postion with legs crossed on the ground and began to remove her shirt carefully with his eyes closed. Then he sat on the ground behind Ranma in a similar manner. Using what he had learned from the drawings on the cave wall, he examined Ranma's ki flows.

'What is this? Something here is not right. It's locking up his ki flows, preventing him from using his internal energy,' he thought and began to hit Ranma's body at strategic positions across his back with his fingers.

He traced the ki flows carefully and then began to release them slowly. He lashed out with both his palms to hit Ranma's shoulders forcing him to exhale before hitting him again in the center of the spine with his finger. Ten minutes later, sweat was now creasing Duan Yu's eyebrows. He sighed in relief as he felt Ranma stir before him.

'Done!' The Crown Prince thought as he leaned back against the cave wall in exhaustion.

Ranma opened his eyes to find himself in girl form facing the statue of the woman in the cave. She checked his ki flows to find them flowing properly. Instinctively, she tried to summon her ki but could only feel a little at first.

"I've tried correcting your internal energy flow as best as I can. The block should fade away soon and you will have full access to your internal energy," Duan Yu said.

"You pervert! Did you have to take off my clothes?" Ranma asked aghast at the thought.

"You misunderstand! I couldn't do it with your clothes on! They were in the way!" Duan Yu protested in desperation.

"Why you!" she charged at Duan Yu in earnest.

"Wait! I didn't see anything!" he shouted and leaped to avoid the blow.

Ranma missed but quickly followed the palm strike with a punch towards Duan Yu's lunar plexus. Duan Yu twisted to the side to avoid her, his foot touching the side of the cave before leaping upwards towards the cavern entrance to avoid Ranma.

"Come back here, you pervert! Take your punishment like a man!" Ranma shouted as she chased after Duan Yu.

The two of them were now outside and Ranma was trying to hit Duan Yu with everything she had ... only to miss as the Crown Prince seemed to display a martial art skill that was way in excess of Akane and Shampoo's skill level. Not faraway, multiple pairs of eyes were watching the two.

"Do my eyes play tricks on me or is our prince being chased by a topless girl?" a man asked his companion.

TBC