Raised For Battle, Made For War A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Kendai details provided by Jerry ------------------------------- Chapter 1: Discovery Winter break had come to the students of Furinkan and for once Ranma was not among his family. Instead, he was in a rather remote region of Hokkaido with the intention of relaxing as only a martial artist of his caliber could: with rigorous training. He firmly believed that no matter how good he had become, he could get better. The battle with Saffron was proof enough of that. Though he had emerged victorious, there were too many close calls for his tastes, the primary one being Akane's near-death. True, there were many factors completely beyond his control at work but Ranma continued to blame himself for his inability to protect Akane when she needed him most. It was his desire to improve his skills that brought him to the middle of this snow-capped wilderness. Unlike most of his previous training voyages, Ranma was travelling solo. He had "persuaded" his father that his company would not be needed this time (which meant that he left Genma unconscious in the dojo) before leaving the Tendo home over a week ago. In an effort to slow any possible pursuit, he had told no one where he was going with the exception of one: his mother. Not only did he not want her worrying about him, she was the only person he could trust with the information. She, in turn, gave him her full support and wished him well, trusting him to return safe and sound. Otherwise, she would gladly take part in what would probably become a massive search and rescue mission for her wayward son and woe be unto him should she find him alive and well. These and other stray thoughts were pushed aside, however, as Ranma continued to practice. His body flowed like water, twisting and bending as he punched and kicked. His leaps carried him over and through the trees, their stark branches acting as springboards as he launched himself in seemingly random directions. His mind was clear, his focus absolute. And through it all, his body glowed with a eerie blue light, his ki pushed to the visible spectrum while kept tightly reigned in to prevent it from exploding forth like a bonfire. Ranma was currently concentrating on furthering his ki control since through it, all other things were possible. He had previously been working on perfecting his repertoire of special moves, specifically those belonging to the Yamasen-ken and the Umisen-ken. Though Genma had sealed them away, by teaching the Umisen- ken to Ranma, he had passed on the responsibility of protecting and perfecting the style to his heir. Genma knew that in Ranma's hands, the Umisen-ken would not be abused. The same held true for the Yamasen-ken though Genma did not teach him that style. Instead, Ranma had learned the moves by having Ryu use the techniques against him. It was quite similar to the way he learned the Umisen-ken from Genma, actually. Still, simple knowledge of the techniques was nowhere near enough for the young martial artist. He had to perfect the moves in their current form before he was able to adapt them to changing combat conditions. He had already done so with the Amaguriken and the Hiryu Shoten Ha (even Cologne was impressed at how fast he could snap off a twister nowadays). With some time and a bit of effort, he'd be able to completely intergrate both the "Silent Thief" and the "Noisy Thief" techniques into his fighting style. Leaping high into the air, Ranma crossed his arms over his chest and concentrated. At the apex of his leap, he let loose a silent cry and threw his arms away from his body faster than the eye could follow. The vacuum blade he launched easily severed the top of the target tree before impacting with the ground. Arms blurring, Ranma continued send blade after blade through the tree as he fell to the ground. Upon landing, he took several deep breaths as he watched the tree fall apart into dozens of evenly sliced pieces, each as smooth as a table top. He grinned at his handy work. "Nearly got it down pat," he proudly stated to himself. It was true. Unlike Ryu's chaotic final attack, Ranma was able to concentrate all of his vacuum blades at one target and throw them much faster as well. A few had missed, he noticed, but nearly all of them had struck the tree precisely where he directed them. As his gaze traced the damage inflicted to the ground by the missed blades, Ranma expression went from open pride to confusion. There was something odd about a section of the ground in the affected area, he noticed. Something metallic was glinting in the afternoon light. Curious, Ranma trotted over to the damaged area and began to poke around. In moments, he discovered what looked like a steel door about 15cm thick buried about a meter beneath the surface. That door now had a huge cut in it, courtesy of one of Ranma's missed vacuum blades. Leaning forward, Ranma felt a steady draft of slightly stale but warm air was emanating from the cut. Sniffing, he noted that the air was dry, like the air one would get from a heater. Standing, Ranma tried to figure out what he had found. "A missile silo? Nah. Too small, I think. Probably military though, in which case I'm probably gonna get in trouble for finding it." Ranma briefly considered leaving right away but shrugged after a moment. "Ain't like I'm not gonna get into trouble sooner or later, anyway." He suddenly grinned and snapped his figers. "Hey! Maybe this is a bomb shelter! Cool! I've never been in one before. Maybe I'll find a neat souvenir for Mom, too." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, excited at the prospect of finding some sort of nifty war trinket for his mother. For about a minute, Ranma considered how to get inside the place. He didn't want to use another vacuum blade since it might damage something important inside. His other techniques were a bit too destructive to be of use either. And he really didn't feel like trying to dig through that much dirt, either. After all, the ground was mostly frozen now and he didn't have a shov-- "Wait a minute!" Ranma smirked. He had the perfect technique he could use. He'd been meaning to work on it some anyway; he just hadn't gotten around to it yet. He really wanted to see if he had managed to successfully pick up the move without having to smash himself into boulders (he had enough of that as it was). What better time to try it than now? Smiling confidently, Ranma kneeled down about where he figured the front of the door lay. Cocking back a fist, he extended his index finger and held it rigid while he focused his ki. Taking a moment to visualize the ground in front of him, Ranma shot his fist forward with a cry of, "Bakusai Tenketsu!" *** A conical beam of light pierced the darkness of the stairwell. Sweeping his flashlight back and forth, Ranma began to walk forward. "Well, at least it worked." Indeed it had, though it took him a couple of tries before the ground had detonated. "Good thing Ryouga ain't here. He mighta laughed himself sick seeing me the first couple of times." He still needed to work out the kinks, though; he had no desire to constantly pelt himself with debris every time he used the move. The air inside was a bit stale like he had first detected but since it was warmer than outside, it was bearable. At least the entrance hadn't given him any problems. Apparently, his vacuum blade had cut completely through the door leaving the front part still locked in place while the back section was free to swing upwards. Fortunately, the door was sliced at an angle which gave Ranma enough to grip so he could lift it open. Now Ranma was inside, feeling a bit proud of himself and more than a little adventurous. Here he was, alone, walking underneath the ground in some sort of hidden building in the search of... well, he wasn't entirely sure just yet but he was hoping to find something. So far, though, his adventure was turning out to be rather dull. The hallway he was in ran straight back to a dead-end with about a dozen empty rooms evenly spaced between it and the base of the stairs. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing that would get Ranma's heart pumping but at least it was warm. After spending several days and nights camped out in the winter cold, the heat was a welcome change of pace. Casually exploring the rooms, Ranma noticed that most of them were kinda like the science labs at Furinkan, complete with built-in cabinets, tables and desks. A couple of the other rooms might have been offices. Whatever this place was, it definitely wasn't a bomb shelter. Before Ranma could dwell on the issue further, his flashlight suddenly dimmed. Uttering a mild curse, he shook it a couple of times. When that didn't work, he tapped the annoying device against the palm of his other hand only to watch the light go out completely. "Stupid piece of..." Ranma sighed. "Fine. From now on, no more cheap flashlights." It had been a choice between a better flashlight and a decent meal and, of course, Ranma chose the food. He wasn't sure if he would even need a flashlight on this trip so he hadn't been concerned. "Might as well go back to camp and finish up my training," he said to himself. He didn't bother trying to hide the disappointment in his voice. He had been hoping to find something of interest. Shrugging, Ranma lit up his aura for its illumination and began walking towards the exit. It wasn't really necessary; the doorway was straight ahead and he could still see daylight from the opening. However, since ki control had been a fundamental portion of his regime during this trip, he wanted to push himself as much as possible. Halfway down the hall, Ranma took one last look around, half-hoping he'd see something new pop up. Since he really wasn't expecting anything, he nearly fell over in surprise when something did emerge. It was the end of the corridor. When he looked at it a minute ago, it was just a blank wall. Now, there was a line of light softly glowing from top to bottom, bisecting the door evenly. Ranma walked back to the wall, noticing that as he did the glow became slightly brighter. Curious as to why there was a light now when there wasn't one a second ago, he released his hold on his aura. As soon as he did, the glow faded. Blinking, Ranma summoned his aura once more and watched as the light returned. A large smile split Ranma's face. "Now we're gettin' somewhere." Reaching out, the excited martial artist began feeling around for anything that might be a handle since he figured this was actually a door, not just a blank wall. After a few moments, he gave up. He wasn't sure there was a handle. It reminded him of the entrance; he never found a handle out there either. He'd have to try something else to get inside. Cycling through several techniques in his mind, Ranma found one he thought might work. Crossing his arms over one another, he rested his fingertips against the door, both hands held rigid and straight. Eyes narrowing, Ranma focused his ki through his hands and into his fingertips. Mentally calculating the probable thickness of the door, he let loose a loud cry and snapped both his arms into concentric arcs, slicing a perfect circle into the door roughly two and a half feet wide. A moment later, the chunk of metal slid to the ground at his feet with a resounding "thud." Clapping imaginary dust from his hands, Ranma nodded to himself. He had invented that move a while ago, the last time he had disguised himself to infiltrate Ryouga's house. He had cut through a wall to show Akane that Ryouga was hiding Akari in the next room, only to accidentally drop the portion he had cut onto the poor girl. He had corrected the move this time, allowing the piece to fall on his side just in case there was something fragile in the next room. Grinning madly, Ranma stuck his head through the opening to see precisely... nothing. Even with his aura, it was very dark. Frowning slightly, he looked down to see if there was anything blocking his entrance. Seeing nothing but a highly reflective floor, he climbed through the hole he made and stepped down-- --only to promptly lose his balance and fall flat on his face into a large amount of water. Coughing up the water she inadvertently inhaled, the transformed martial rose a bit unsteadily to her feet. "What the hell is this water doing here?!" She glared at the offending substance, more than a bit miffed at the unexpected change. Scowling, Ranma ran a hand through her dripping bangs only now realizing that the "floor" she tried stepping on was actually a six-inch layer of water on top of the actual floor. "What a cheap trick," she grumbled, shivering slightly as a slight draft came through the room. Stripping off her soaked shirt, Ranma took a careful look around, trying to judge the size of the room. Though her aura wasn't able to penetrate the surrounding darkness completely, she estimated this new room to be roughly half the size of the Furinkan gymnasium. From what she could tell, the walls were lined with computers, most taller than herself though none were currently functioning. Ranma was unable to tell if the water had come in from an outside leak or not. Still, the most outstanding feature here was the big whatchamacallit in the center of the room. Ranma carefully approached the weird structure, gliding through the water with minimal sound. The device was a bit longer than her sleeping bag and almost twice as wide. The surface was curved, like a cylinder laying on its side. Several large hoses and tubes ran from either end of the thing to the base and from the base to different areas of the room. Up close, she could see several glowing lines outlining the edges of the thing, like the one on the door she had cut open. The entire thing had a very sci-fi feel to it, making Ranma wonder about the wisdom of exploring this place. In all the movies she had heard about, Very Bad Things tended to happen to people who opened stuff like this. Ranma had plenty of bad things happen in her life already (Jusenkyou, in particular, came to mind) and wasn't eager to experience any more. *** [Bio-signal detected] [Releasing stasis field] [Hibernation system status: active] [Waiting...] *** However, a single question remained: why were the lines only visible when she had her aura openly glowing like this? Was something reacting to her ki? It was the only thing Ranma could think of, though she wasn't aware that something artificial could do that. Only living creatures could react to ki even if it was subconsciously. *** [Hibernation system disengaged] [Releasing lock on stasis unit] [Working...] *** "I wonder what could-- Hey!" Snatching her had away from the device, Ranma stared as the thing began to do something. The curved section had split down the middle and was sliding open. The glow Ranma was detecting intensified as something from inside the device reacted to her aura. As amazed as she was, Ranma gave no thought to releasing her ki and powering down. She simply stood and stared. *** [Stasis unit open] [Scanning...] [Master unit: offline] [Secondary unit 1: offline] [Secondary unit 2: offline] [Secondary unit 3: offline] [Processing...] *** Gathering her courage, Ranma approached the open device, unaware that she and whatever was inside was illuminating the immediate area with a soft, blue light. Taking a look inside, Ranma's jaw dropped. "Whoa..." *** [All units offline] [No new orders received] [Standing orders: acquire host unit] [Scanning...] [Bio-signal: active] [Range: 1.84 meters] [Compatibility: scanning...] *** It was a woman, a startling beautiful woman with silver hair, honey-hued skin and an athletic build. Since she was currently nude, Ranma couldn't help but notice that she was rather "mature" as well. Although it was difficult to tell, Ranma suspected that the woman was much taller than herself, possibly taller than her male body as well. But what in the world was she doing in here? *** [Compatibility: verified] [Host unit found] [Initiating primary acquisition protocols] *** As Ranma was leaning forward, the mystery woman's eyes snapped open. Letting loose an undignified yelp, Ranma jerked in surprise only to lose her balance and fall on top of the nude figure. Before she could leap away, the woman's arms wrapped around the redhead's slim waist and held her tight. The move was so unexpected that Ranma ceased her struggles for an instant and locked gazes with the woman. Idly, she noticed her eyes were gold in color. "" "Huh? What did you-- ACK!" That was when the woman began melting. This was strange enough on its own but since she was still clutching Ranma tightly, the overwhelmed martial artist was beginning to sink into her. "Hey! Lemme go! What do you think-- ARRRGH!!" Without warning, Ranma's body was wracked with overwhelming pain. It felt like every inch of her skin was on fire. If she wasn't held immobile, she might have seriously injured herself thrashing about. As it was, she very nearly wrenched her shoulders out of joint when she jerked backwards. Fighting back the impulse to cry out again, Ranma opened her eyes to look at what was happening. It was difficult to see through the pain but she was able to make out the woman. Or rather, what was left of her. She had almost completely dissolved. The problem was that she wasn't simply becoming a puddle; her body was flowing up Ranma's arms and legs, encircling her waist and, by the painful sensations she was receiving, actually seeping through her skin. The shock from this revelation lasted less than a second and was rapidly replaced by an intense rage. No way in hell was Ranma going to let some freakish woman take over her body! Her aura, which had never gone away even through all of this, suddenly exploded, completely annihilating the stasis unit they were laying in. Ranma then began pouring insane amounts of ki into her aura, trying to literally burn away the invading abomination. *** [Bio-merging interrupted] [Attention: bio-signal intensity has increased to 237% above normal parameters] [Reason: unknown] [Attention: bio-signal intensity has increased to 348% above normal parameters] [Reason: unknown] [Warning: Damage to secondary systems] [Attention: bio-signal intensity has increased to 453% above normal parameters] [Reason: unknown] [Warning: slave control systems rendered inoperable] [Attention: bio-signal intensity has increased to 561% above normal parameters] [Reason: unknown] [Warning: Damage to primary systems] [Attention: bio-signal intensity has increased to 689% above normal parameters] [Reason: unknown] [Warning: moderate damage to structural integrity] *** Despite her inhuman efforts, the sheer strain of fueling such an intense aura quickly took its toll on the young martial artist. Unable to maintain the flow of power any longer, Ranma collapsed, her aura flickering out like a candle in a brisk breeze. Utterly exhausted, she couldn't even muster the strength to open her eyes and see if her gambit had worked. Consciousness swiftly left her. *** [Unexpected increase in bio-signal intensity has ceased] [Bio-signal intensity falling] [Waiting...] [Decrease in bio-signal intensity has ceased] [Scanning...] [Host unit unconscious] [Status of host unit: undamaged] [Processing...] [Reason host unit remains undamaged: unknown] [Processing...] [Running self-diagnostic...] [Status of structural integrity: 63.7% within standard parameters] [Status of primary functions: 86.7% within standard parameters] [Status of secondary functions: 83.2% within standard parameters] [Slave controls systems: inoperable] [Auto-repair systems: currently offline due to bio-merging] [Processing...] [Proceeding with bio-merging process] *** End chapter 1 Author's notes: And thus concludes the first chapter in an interesting experiment. This is just the beta version and has yet to go through any pre-readers and the like so if you spot any glaring errors, I apologize. Once again, special thanks go to Jerry for his suggestions.