All We Know of Heaven
A Ranma ½ Fanfiction
By Prospero Hibiki
The Grandmaster Mongoose
God of Misdirection, Caffeine, and Those Socks You Lost Last Tuesday
[email protected]
Disclaimer:
Were I anything but a poor college student I would ... well I don't know what would happen since I doubt that this situation will change in the foreseeable future except if I fail out of said college. As it is I'm not making any money off of these characters and any character that you don't recognize from Takahashi Rumiko's Ranma ½ series is mine. And the truly sad thing is I'm not even making money off of them. Also the use of the poem "My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close" by Emily Dickinson is being used without permission though it is being credited and used in its original unedited form.
And So It Begins
***
Chapter 1:
I'd kill myself if I could. Yeah, I know that's not what anyone would expect from a person like me, but that doesn't make it any less true. Oh I can imagine a million different ways of doing it. Razors down the forearm are the one I think of most often though. It's sad, because I doubt that that would even work if I could try it. I can't of course which is something that makes me want to cry. I can grab the razor. I can hold it to my skin. I can press until I am just this side of drawing blood. And then my arm locks up and I can't go any further. Actually that's a lie. I can do anything except draw my own blood at that point. It's funny that way. Whatever keeps me alive seems to know what actions would cause my intentional death. I can open a vein to start an emergency transfusion, but I when it gets to the point where it's dangerous my hand flashes out and stops the bleeding without my willing it. Even casually walking though a munitions test sight doesn't work because my advanced senses scream when danger is near and since ignoring them would be the same as suicide I'm always saved.
I've fought enemy after enemy, hoping and praying that one of them will be manage to kill me, but those same reflexes that prevent suicide force me to fight my absolute best so as not to let that happen. God, I hate it. I could once cockily boast that Ranma Saotome always wins. Now I admit to it when I'm drunk in the hopes that someone would take it as a challenge and finish me off. Stupid Drunken Boxing. Booze is the only vice I'm allowed. Drugs are out cause I've always thought of them as suicide. I don't think I need to say that sleeping around with diseased women has crossed my mind, but it's never happened since I can feel the sicknesses coming off them.
I think the closest I ever came to death was the time of the Martian Plague. I worked unsuited in the most hazardous area day and night for a week straight with no food or rest. It was my hope that I could wear myself out enough that my aura wouldn't be able to keep the virus away from me any longer. I passed out with a smile on my face. Waking up three days later was pure hell. They'd cured the damn thing almost as soon as I passed out and some idiot pointed out my hard work and inoculated me against it as soon as they could. They gave me a medal because of it. It was all I could do not to shove it up the guy's ass.
My identity card's gotten pretty impressive in the years since. I haven't bothered to change my name because frankly I don't give a shit if anyone finds out about my unusually long life. More power to them if they want to study me. I won't let them take me alive though. Hell, maybe I'll tell them that if they want to live forever all they have to do is kill me. I'd love for someone to just pump gas into a room that I can't get out of, though just what such a room would consist of is beyond me. That's what's so disgusting about it all. The longer I'm alive the less likely it is that I'll croak. I can't give up the martial arts anymore than I could give up surviving, and trust me when I say I've tried. Not breathing that is. I've found breathing isn't really necessary for my life anymore. I guess my skin just takes in whatever oxygen I need or something. How do I know this? I held my breath for three days and nothing happened. Didn't even feel lightheaded. Only stopped cause some kid saw me doing and looked like he was going to pass out copying me. That and I was getting bored forcing my diaphragm not to contract or expand.
When did I notice I couldn't kill myself? Good question. I'd say it was probably a year after Akane's funeral. Yeah, she died when she got mugged one night. Got caught from behind with a lead pipe. Probably never knew what hit her. After that everything just started to go down hill. Life was pretty shitty at that point. I don't really know what happened to everyone else because I was pretty messed up. One day I just came out of it. The Nekohaten was closed, looked like it had been for weeks. So was Ucchan's. No one would tell me what had happened to everyone. Was really weird. I went to the grave, Akane's grave, with my tanto and tried to slit my arms. Couldn't do it of course. That's when I knew. I left then. Didn't bother changing my name, though I don't know if I'm still on the Saotome register, or even if there is a Saotome register anymore. Probably not, since it's been over half a millenium since then.
Only people I know about are Ryoga and Akari. They got married before Akane died. Akari died in her eighties, and Ryoga followed her after getting his affairs in order. I wasn't there of course. One of his great- grandsons told me. Apparently I'm something of a Hibiki family legend. Seems Ryoga stuck me on his register as a distant cousin that's not in line for being the head of the clan. I run across a Hibiki every dozen years or so, sometimes more often. Seems their sense of direction's gotten much better over time. So good that they've got the fastest transgalactic shipping service available. It's said that if you want to know how to get somewhere as quick as possible you can search the galaxy, find a Hibiki, and still make it there quicker than if you'd tried to do it yourself. No one ever gets it when I start to laugh.
Yeah, the Clan Hibiki is about as close to a family as I've got now, which is pretty sad since my first encounter with them lead to a constant stream of fights before we got things settled. Still it's kind of good knowing that I have family of a sort out there in the galaxy. They still practice the Art too, which means that if I ever manage to kick the bloody bucket, that the Art won't die off with me. Not that I'd particularly care if it did. I really just want to die, and I doubt that I'd let something like that stop me if I ever got the chance.
"Do you have anything to declare, sir?" I'd forgotten that I've been waiting in line for customs at this space station for almost an hour now. It seems they're at a heightened state of security right now. Besides it should be pretty obvious that I don't have much on me. Heck I don't even carry a backpack anymore. Hmmmm. "Sir, I asked if you have anything to declare."
"Only that I intend to destroy this station and everyone on it in the next few hours unless you can kill me before I can do so." It's fairly obvious that this man is bored since he almost waves me through the line despite having said this. I'm guessing though that it was the sudden charging of the security forces' pulse weapons that got his attention. Suddenly looking around me I find that I have more space than I've had in the twenty days it took for us to reach the Kantars System from Magnizard IV. Refreshing really. I was hoping that the rumors of an underground fighting tournament on Kantars III were true, but I might not have to go that far in order to get myself killed. "Oops. Did I say that out loud?" My fellow passengers seem to have backed away even further at that comment, strange because at least one of them seems to be a Berimian and I've never seen one of them back away from a fight. Besides there's only...fifteen men in combat suits with pulse rifles.
A man with some sort of rank emblem, local I assume, is stepping forward. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to place your appendages behind wherever your central nervous system is located, and remain still. Any sudden movements will be seen as a hostile act and will result in a lethal barrage." The speech is incredibly polite despite being backed up with over a dozen weapons. Still I wonder what he's been dealing with recently that makes him respond in such a manner. I mean really! Appendages? Central nervous system? Sheesh! All he should have said is, "Place your hands on your head, and stay put, or we'll shoot."
"Well, sonny boy, I don't think you've enough men to stop me from doing whatever I want." Man, Khu Lon was right, this does manage to piss people off much more than blatant insults would. "But don't worry, I'll wait for you to call for reinforcements. I'd hate for you to screw this up by acting before you're ready." Geez, I think the vein on this guy's forehead is about to explode! That can't be at all good for him at his age. But I can understand it. I mean here I am looking to be twenty at the most, calling him a child when he looks to be almost forty, though he's undoubtedly older than that with whatever extend treatments he's had. Still I think I've had the intended effect, because his finger looks like it's about to completely curl around the trigger. Sure I can dodge whatever shot he makes, but whether or not I can dodge all of the rest of the shots that'll follow when his companions open fire is the real question. Especially since I know I'll jump in front of any stray shots that head towards any bystanders. Really not a bad plan if I do say so myself.
"Stop! Don't shoot. He doesn't intend to fight back." Well it wasn't a bad plan and it might have worked if this girl wasn't running down the hall screaming her head off. Whoever she is it seems that she's got some pull with the soldiers because they are backing off slightly. She's not very old, well compared to me no one is, around twenty or so with a pale blue shade of hair, something that's become more common since man's started to live in space and on other planets. Still I do kind of wonder how she knew I wasn't going to do anything. I mean I don't think I've met her before, and she doesn't have a Hibiki build, especially since she's almost out of breath running from wherever she was.
"Are you sure?" It's Mr. Twitchy again. He still seems pretty pissed off, but only at me and he's not mad enough to shoot me, damnit!
"Yes, in fact he's disappointed that you aren't going to shoot him." My head whips around to look at her again, this time to carefully memorize her face. I know what she is now. She's a telepath, or minder as they're more commonly called.
I watch her as she focuses in on my face. Waiting until she's devoting all of her attention on me I then do the surge and block trick I developed when I first started to encounter minders over two centuries ago. "Stay the fuck out of my mind!" I knew it's worked when she's knocked back almost a foot from being shoved out of my mind. I know that she couldn't read my memories since those are almost totally blocked off from people like her, and she couldn't have gotten in so deep in the few minutes she had. Hell, the most powerful minders needed my active assistance to get that deep and even then it took hours. "You had no right to do that. No right at all." I reduce the block around my mind the slightest bit and create the image of a mind being stripped of all of its secrets bit by bit until it's nothing but a quivering pile of never ending pain. It's cruel of me, I know, but it doesn't change the way I feel about people picking through my head. I can tell she's gotten the hint when tears start to come to her eyes. I learned a long time ago that what I've just shown her is the one thing that almost all minders fear.
I'm actually kind of proud of Mr. Twitchy, because he's immediately gone back to an even higher state of rage. If he were trained any I'd almost guarantee that he'd be producing a battle aura in the deep reds of fury. "If you've hurt Mika, no being in this galaxy will be able to prevent me from killing you."
"Bah, if you ever decide to hunt me down I hope you bring enough men to get the job done." Shrugging my muscles out of the slightly tensed state my reflexes put them in I start to walk through the group of soldiers. "If there's nothing else I'm going to head off and find something to eat. If any of you want to pick a fight when you're off duty, look me up." I wonder what the hell is going on here when no one starts to follow me. I mean really. Who the hell lets a person that has threatened to destroy the space station go on his way especially after knocking the resident minder on her, admittedly cute, ass. Who knows though? Maybe they're gathering up more men so they can ambush me while I get some food. Yeah, that'd be nice. I start a nice daydream where I'm surrounded by armor-enhanced troops by the hundred each armed with nuclear weapons. Shaking myself out of the dream I look around and only one thought comes to mind, eerily appropriate since I'm currently on the Hibiki register.
"Where on Earth am I now?!"
~~~
Damn this station is much larger on the inside than I thought it would be. It feels like I've been wandering around here for hours. My stomach was killing me too. Sure, I can get by without food, but I actually like eating. Finally though I got around to finding a place that serves food...of a sort. It looks sort of like, no never mind that third wing rules that possibility out. Whatever it is it tastes kind of like chicken. Then again everything tastes a little bit like chicken. Heck the only thing that I've found that doesn't taste like chicken at all is Altarian chicken which tastes, oddly enough, like beef.
Lifting my personal set of chopsticks once more I signal to the host that I'd like another platter of...whatever it is. He's been really accommodating really, especially since he got a look at my account balance. Boy do I love anisible powered credit networks. Wherever I go I have money for food. It's great.
After the fifth order I figure that I've had enough to last me a while and finish the credit transfer making sure to leave a sizable tip. Hopefully I'll be able to eat here again before I leave because the food was pretty good, better than a lot of the stuff I've had over the course of my life. Still, I need to find a place to stay for the night and see about catching a ride down to the planet in order to dig up any information I can about this tournament.
The girl at the hotel gives me a discount, partly because I think she's got the hots for me, which doesn't particularly bother me. Means that I'll have a more comfortable room than I would have if I'd been some fat, old businessman. Well, fat at least. Still I'm kind of wondering if she's going to try to sneak into the room late at night. For some reason that's the impression I got of her though I only had the fact she actually started to unbutton her shirt all the way as an indication. Still I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to place an end table in front of the door.
It actually took much less time to get a room than I thought it would since I didn't have to dodge the authorities left and right. Something seems really off about that too. I mean sure, I know that I'm not going to blow up the station, and the minder knows it so theoretically the station security thugs know it too. But then again I knocked the minder on her ass without even touching her and then made her break out into tears after antagonizing over a dozen men with guns. Either no one's particularly concerned over this or there's something much more important going on that's keeping people from coming after me. So of course I'm just dying to find out what it is. People always say curiosity killed the cat. Well I certainly hope so.
Something tells me that whatever's going on isn't that far ahead. The whole barricaded area that almost continuously has armed men and women moving in and out in a hurry. I'd say that not even a fly could get through there without brushing up against one of them. I of course managed to do so without anyone even knowing I'd been there. Just to amuse myself I go back and forth several more times each using a different technique. It's amazing just how many of them I've picked up over the years now that I think about it. Tradition tends to make me prefer the Umi-Sen-Ken although the Ghost Walk is actually more efficient. But efficiency's overrated anyway. Damnit, I'm eight hundred and sixty something years old, and if I want to be inefficient then I'll be inefficient. Anyone who says different can sit on it and rotate.
Pushing these thoughts aside I continue to make my way towards what seems to be the center of the disturbance. Oddly enough I'm not that surprised to run into Mr. Twitchy once more. Of course this time he's not in his body armor so I can make out the nametag on his uniform. Major Alirnbia. I think I preferred Mr. Twitchy; at least I could pronounce that. The minder chick's with him too, Mila or Muka or whatever he called her. Damn, at times like this I really wish I had a better memory for names. And there it is, the centerpiece of the disturbance, a little girl, no older than nine, with her hand wrapped around the trigger of ... "Holy shit! It's a transnucleic null space modifier! I haven't seen one of these things in years. One of those puppies can turn whoever's holding it into the next best thing to a black hole. How come everyone but me manages to get a hold of one?" It occurs to me that the tension in the room has just jumped by exponents of infinity. "Oh, sorry. I guess you're busy. I'll come back later."
An enormous bellow rings out through the room. "Seize that man!" All around me the guards are standing dumbfounded at how I managed to get to where I am which allows me to prepare to evade them. Not that I couldn't do so without being prepared, but some of them might get hurt if I did it that way. As it the four of them go down before they start to approach me somewhat warily.
It's great! I haven't realized how much I've missed these random brawls where no ones trying to kill anyone. I put a little bit of effort into looking as relaxed as possible aided with the yawn I let surface. I cover my mouth with one hand and redirect the actions of two of the men, oops, the man and woman, into the paths of two additional people. Now I start to make a show of hopping around on one foot while placing a hand behind my back. The three men seem infuriated, but I've caught just a hint of a smile on the woman's face. Turning to face her I grin back. She lashes out with a rather sloppy forward punch and I dodge it like before, absently redirecting the other three attacks. "No, no, no! Use all of your body to throw the punch, like this." I make a quick punch that goes straight through her defenses missing her face by such a small margin I can see her hair get pulled slightly by the wind of it's passage. "Did you see it? Good, now you try." My left foot twitches out and knocks away one of the others as I watch her form. "Better, but you're not fast enough to do it all at once. Take it one step at a time." I throw a punch so slow that I complete a whole cycle of breathing as it goes out and back. She didn't even move this time just stood and watched it. "Get it that time?"
"I think so." She throws a punch, and it flows so beautifully I almost want to cry.
"Great! Now try the other arm."
Mr. Twitchy's gravely voice comes from behind me. "If you're quite finished, Lt. Max, I'd like to talk with our ... guest."
Lt. Max has paled now. I've got to learn her full name. It's just so rare that I get to have fun like that. Besides it's not very fair for her to get blamed for things that are my fault. All she did was get pulled into it. It's happened to me tons of times. "Hey, what's your name? Maybe we can get together later on for some sparring? It's been decades since I've had this much fun." The heat coming from behind me has picked up a few degrees. I think Mr. Twitchy's getting real close to developing a battle aura all on his own. I turn to face him, not in the least bit surprised that the vein on his forehead is even larger than it was earlier in the day. Some people just have no patience. "What if I don't want to talk to you? I really don't see any way you can make me. Sure, you could just bring in more and more people until you can't squeeze anyone else in, but by that time I'd probably be gone or hanging from the ceiling out of reach. Besides I'd much rather talk to either Lt. Max here..."
"Laura."
"I turn, slightly startled at being interrupted. "I beg your pardon?"
"My name's Laura." She's blushing now at having all of the attention of the room concentrated on her once again.
"It's a very pretty name. You don't run into it as often as you used to." Turning back to Mr. Twitchy, "Laura or the rather confused little girl holding onto the transnucleic null space modifier. If you want to talk to me that badly, do what everyone else does, and make an appointment with my secretary. We'll do lunch."
Heh, heh, heh. The Saotome School of Martial Arts Discordia strikes again. I'm almost tempted to bow and give myself a round of applause at everyone's stunned expression. Resisting the temptation I weave my way through the crowd of frozen people and plop myself down in front of the little girl.
"Hello. I'm Ranma, what's your name?" I can feel my eyebrow twitch slightly when her hand jerks in surprise. I might be suicidal, but turning this little girl into a miniature black hole, something that would be fatal to her as well as everyone else on the station, strikes me as a rather selfish way to go. It's just my luck to run across something that could kill me that I'll end up having to destroy. Again.
"Okay, you don't have to tell me your name if you don't want. No one's going to force you. But it'd be just plain rude to refer to you as, the girl. Wouldn't it?" I'm somewhat relieved when I get a tentative nod. "So I'm going to pick something. Something appropriate. Can't be a boy's name though, right? No, that'd be wrong. But nothing too frilly either. Bunny and Sweety and Darling are definitely out."
There's a general snickering from behind me. I wonder if someone tried to call her one of those names. No, there's no way this child's one of those. She's in coveralls with scuffed and patched knees, the pockets showing heavy signs of use from storing things. But just the same they are good quality ones of the sort that I'd choose to use to work in so my good clothes wouldn't get ruined. No, this girl is more likely to be helping out her parents at work than playing with dolls, and enjoying every minute of it, to boot. Electrical equipment comes to mind though I don't know why. I'm probably picking up hints from minor details that don't really come to the surface of my mind. Happens a lot really.
If she weren't here clutching the activator as if it were the last thing in the world, I'd see her able to support herself in seven or eight more years by the time she's sixteen. In a sudden moment of supreme clarity, I can see everything. There was an accident. Both of her parents, or the only one she had left, were killed. She's scared. Doesn't know what to do. Sure she could be on her own in a few years but not yet. Nothing makes sense. She's all alone now. Confused. And now here she is. It's all true, or something like it is. Abandoned at so young an age.
"Ucchan. Yes, Ucchan's a good name. She was my best friend when I was younger than you. You remind me a lot of her. I think you'll turn out much like she did. Though without being chased by cross dressers." I shake my head at the though that can still make me smile after all this time. "I swear every guy who ever entered her life romantically was really confused about his gender. But that's another story and none of it was her fault. No, she was a great friend if a little bit quick with a spatula when I put my foot in my mouth. Great cook too. Ran her own restaurant by the age of sixteen, one of the most popular in town too. Her story's really confusing though. Still she'd be proud for me to call you Ucchan."
Moving over next to her, not making any motions towards the transnucleic null space modifier, I lean against the same wall as she is. I could just reach out and take it from her but it'd be pretty meaningless for me to do so. She has to want to put it down or we'll end up doing this again sometime. I hold back a chuckle at the thought of me trying to come up with a reason for her not to kill herself. Irony strikes me pretty heavily at times like these. I shrug it off and give myself another reason. Sure I could always disarm it but there's always the chance that she could set if off before I can. As I recall these things have the lightest switch I've ever seen on, well anything.
I sigh. "I'm bored. Want to hear a story?" I can see Mr. Twitchy almost fall on his face, and I glare when I see the minder standing there behind him give me a small nod. I'd forgotten that she was here, and I flare my aura enough so that she can't read the 'Ucchan's' thoughts. I don't know exactly what's happened with her, but whatever it is she deserves her privacy until she decides to talk about it. 'Ucchan' nods ever so slightly and I launch myself into the story of Ryoga's bread duel, getting a small giggle from her, which she immediately cuts off with a glare at me. The other people in the room aren't nearly so restrained as the regular soldiers break out into loud guffaws.
"Mock glaring at them, I protest. "It's true! Every word is true. When he showed up on the forth day," I pause giving the laughter a chance to clear out, "he swore he'd find me for running out on our duel. He followed me from Japan all over China and back. Sure he probably made a few detours through Europe and Africa on the way, but what can you say? He eventually caught up with me and Pops at this valley deep in the Chinese wilderness. What happened there is another story." I place my hand behind my head slightly embarrassed about even bringing Jusenkyo up. "Besides it wasn't exactly one of my greatest moments, and the Hibiki family wouldn't thank me for spreading what happened around."
Everyone's staring at me now. I could swear that for just an instant I heard a Capan cricket chirp in the silence. "What? You don't believe me do you? You don't think the Hibiki clan always had the galaxy's best sense of direction do you? They really had to work on it. Besides I still don't think they go in straight lines. Half the time I think they just end up where they want to go after getting lost." Seeing that still no one believes me I fold my arms over each other and start to sulk. No one ever believes me when I tell the truth. Or when I lie for that matter. Life sucks.
I perk up slightly when I see someone bringing in some fruit and start passing it around. I hold up two fingers and, when she sees no one else is going to do anything, Laura throws me two apples getting a glare from the minder in the process. I offer one to 'Ucchan' but she shakes her head as if suspicious. I'm momentarily at a loss since I don't want to eat if she isn't going to. Making a show of shrugging I place them both in my lap even though they look really good. Really, really good. From the reactions from the security personnel they must taste pretty good too. It's not fair.
I've almost brought one of them up to my lips before I notice and stop. Picking up the other one I start to juggle it so I'm not tempted. It doesn't work so I start to go faster and faster, forcing me to put more and more concentration into keeping them in the air and not on eating them. It's only two so I have to go really fast before I'm distracted enough. Looking up I see that I now have everyone's attention including 'Ucchan'. I slow down once more and keep the speed at a level where everyone can see the apples clearly. I concentrate and a miniature ball of ki appears in my hands getting added to the act. I can almost hear the mass blink. I start to make the pattern more complicated now that I have a third object. I take a second while everything's in the air to actually roll both of my sleeves up. A quick flick of one of my wrists and I've added a second ball of ki to the mix.
It's very difficult to do what I'm doing right now. Sure I have an incredible ability to work with ki, but the concentration that is required to both keep a ball from dispersing and to change the direction with my hands is so far beyond what I learned as a teenager that it would boggle the mind. I've actually never tried to do something like this with more than one and to my surprise, for every ball I add the strain isn't multiplied but rather squared. Still I think this is the way I'll end up getting to 'Ucchan' since her face shows she's been captured by the movements of the apples and balls.
Slowly I spread my hands further and further apart until each hand is separately juggling one apple and one ball. I concentrate some more and each hand receives an additional ball of ki at precisely the same instant. I can feel sweat starting to accumulate on my brow at the strain. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up. Still it'll be worth it from the look of awe on 'Ucchan's' face. I was right earlier. Once I grabbed her curiosity I'd won. Now that I think about it she's a great deal like Ukyo in that respect.
"Really cool isn't it?" I chuckle slightly when she nods vigorously. "I can teach you how to do this if you want. Do you want to learn this?" Getting another nod I smile. "I don't teach just anyone you know. It's going to be a lot of work cause I'm a tough teacher. It also mean's you're going to have to give me that thing you're holding because it's really dangerous. I'm probably the only person old enough to remember when one of those things went off and it wasn't very pretty."
'Ucchan' nods in acquiescence and starts to hand me the transnucleic null space modifier when it all of a sudden gives off a rather loud beep that startles everyone in the room. I simply shrug despite the fact that my heart is now beating in the high nineties something extremely rare considering how well my body has been conditioned over the centuries. I remember reading about these things and how they would beep one minute before they would detonate. "Well shit. That's just about ruined everyone's day." Motioning for 'Ucchan' to keep holding on to it I move until I'm facing her and the device ignoring the growing panic around me. "Now 'Ucchan' I want you to be perfectly still no matter what happens, okay?" She nods and immediately freezes. Taking a deep breath I move.
During my travels I've perfected a great many techniques for a great many things and have constantly worked on perfecting existing techniques. Because of this some of my most powerful techniques are those that I learned during my youth. The chestnut fist is one of them. Over time I have managed to push further and further into the realm of superhuman feats to the point where my body has traveled several times faster than that of sound. It is quite draining however and at high speeds my control leaves a great deal to be desired. In this case though I need great speed and great accuracy while still keeping my body slow enough that the air turbulence doesn't jar the delicate electronics inside the device while I systematically tear it apart. It's going to be a race really between my hands and fingers and whatever signals the device needs to send in order to put this little girl into the ultimate heavyweight category. Since I know that I'm working off of a barely half remembered plan of something I once read over a century ago, I'm not exactly feeling my most confident at the moment.
I'm kind of amused that some people are obviously still watching me since their gasps come just after my hands start to blur. I'm sucking in huge amounts of air in the vain attempt to keep enough oxygen in my system to prevent my muscles from burning from the anaerobic conditions. Now is not the time to have shaky hands. Almost faster than I can see I've taken off the outer casing of the device and before it had fallen more than an inch had pulled out at least a dozen vital components after cutting them cleanly off using fractional ki blades projected from my index fingers. Still I don't let myself slow down, working my way deeper and deeper into the electronics. 'Ucchan' is doing her best to stay still though I can tell she's scared and I'm actually fairly proud. I take a second to hit a pressure point on her hand making her release the device and continue to disassemble it as it falls to the ground. In the instant just before it strikes the metal I find what I suspected was there along and swear loudly. One of my hands reaches out and bats the small but powerful explosive charge into the most empty corner and throw a ki blast followed by an air pressure wave mixed with a vacuum barrier. Just before they hit I wonder what exactly that combination of effects will do. It's definitely been a day for improvisation.
The ki blast detonates after passing the explosive setting it off. Fortunately for all of us inside the room, the vacuum barrier and air pressure wave cancel out the pressure wave from the explosion, as I must have thought they would. The earlier blast seems to have redirected all the force outwards preventing the much larger explosive blast from causing a hull breach. Damn, am I good or what? I did all of that without even really thinking about it, my subconscious having calculated the stress levels and pressure variables instantly while my body simply carried its instructions out perfectly. This is the sort of thing I used to live for, the feeling of everything coming together perfectly without conscious thought. I stand up and stretch my arms above my head and yawn. I'm pretty tired really. I haven't used that much energy in ages. Besides I haven't gotten to sleep yet since arriving on this stupid station.
Looking around I see that everyone is looking at me with awe in their faces. "You can all breathe now, the danger's passed." As if on cue everyone takes a deep breath. I shrug away the though and take a step forward, cursing slightly when I wobble. I really must have overdone it. Steadying myself I take another step and am surprised when my foot doesn't support me properly. I'm falling forwards and my arms aren't responding to my commands to break my fall. As everything goes gray I hear voices start to shout around me.
"Seize him!"
"Wait!"
Oh boy. Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to wake up on my bed in the hotel room I rented for the week?
~~~
"My life closed twice before its close-- It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell."
--Emily Dickinson
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Disclaimer:
Were I anything but a poor college student I would ... well I don't know what would happen since I doubt that this situation will change in the foreseeable future except if I fail out of said college. As it is I'm not making any money off of these characters and any character that you don't recognize from Takahashi Rumiko's Ranma ½ series is mine. And the truly sad thing is I'm not even making money off of them. Also the use of the poem "My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close" by Emily Dickinson is being used without permission though it is being credited and used in its original unedited form.
And So It Begins
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Chapter 1:
I'd kill myself if I could. Yeah, I know that's not what anyone would expect from a person like me, but that doesn't make it any less true. Oh I can imagine a million different ways of doing it. Razors down the forearm are the one I think of most often though. It's sad, because I doubt that that would even work if I could try it. I can't of course which is something that makes me want to cry. I can grab the razor. I can hold it to my skin. I can press until I am just this side of drawing blood. And then my arm locks up and I can't go any further. Actually that's a lie. I can do anything except draw my own blood at that point. It's funny that way. Whatever keeps me alive seems to know what actions would cause my intentional death. I can open a vein to start an emergency transfusion, but I when it gets to the point where it's dangerous my hand flashes out and stops the bleeding without my willing it. Even casually walking though a munitions test sight doesn't work because my advanced senses scream when danger is near and since ignoring them would be the same as suicide I'm always saved.
I've fought enemy after enemy, hoping and praying that one of them will be manage to kill me, but those same reflexes that prevent suicide force me to fight my absolute best so as not to let that happen. God, I hate it. I could once cockily boast that Ranma Saotome always wins. Now I admit to it when I'm drunk in the hopes that someone would take it as a challenge and finish me off. Stupid Drunken Boxing. Booze is the only vice I'm allowed. Drugs are out cause I've always thought of them as suicide. I don't think I need to say that sleeping around with diseased women has crossed my mind, but it's never happened since I can feel the sicknesses coming off them.
I think the closest I ever came to death was the time of the Martian Plague. I worked unsuited in the most hazardous area day and night for a week straight with no food or rest. It was my hope that I could wear myself out enough that my aura wouldn't be able to keep the virus away from me any longer. I passed out with a smile on my face. Waking up three days later was pure hell. They'd cured the damn thing almost as soon as I passed out and some idiot pointed out my hard work and inoculated me against it as soon as they could. They gave me a medal because of it. It was all I could do not to shove it up the guy's ass.
My identity card's gotten pretty impressive in the years since. I haven't bothered to change my name because frankly I don't give a shit if anyone finds out about my unusually long life. More power to them if they want to study me. I won't let them take me alive though. Hell, maybe I'll tell them that if they want to live forever all they have to do is kill me. I'd love for someone to just pump gas into a room that I can't get out of, though just what such a room would consist of is beyond me. That's what's so disgusting about it all. The longer I'm alive the less likely it is that I'll croak. I can't give up the martial arts anymore than I could give up surviving, and trust me when I say I've tried. Not breathing that is. I've found breathing isn't really necessary for my life anymore. I guess my skin just takes in whatever oxygen I need or something. How do I know this? I held my breath for three days and nothing happened. Didn't even feel lightheaded. Only stopped cause some kid saw me doing and looked like he was going to pass out copying me. That and I was getting bored forcing my diaphragm not to contract or expand.
When did I notice I couldn't kill myself? Good question. I'd say it was probably a year after Akane's funeral. Yeah, she died when she got mugged one night. Got caught from behind with a lead pipe. Probably never knew what hit her. After that everything just started to go down hill. Life was pretty shitty at that point. I don't really know what happened to everyone else because I was pretty messed up. One day I just came out of it. The Nekohaten was closed, looked like it had been for weeks. So was Ucchan's. No one would tell me what had happened to everyone. Was really weird. I went to the grave, Akane's grave, with my tanto and tried to slit my arms. Couldn't do it of course. That's when I knew. I left then. Didn't bother changing my name, though I don't know if I'm still on the Saotome register, or even if there is a Saotome register anymore. Probably not, since it's been over half a millenium since then.
Only people I know about are Ryoga and Akari. They got married before Akane died. Akari died in her eighties, and Ryoga followed her after getting his affairs in order. I wasn't there of course. One of his great- grandsons told me. Apparently I'm something of a Hibiki family legend. Seems Ryoga stuck me on his register as a distant cousin that's not in line for being the head of the clan. I run across a Hibiki every dozen years or so, sometimes more often. Seems their sense of direction's gotten much better over time. So good that they've got the fastest transgalactic shipping service available. It's said that if you want to know how to get somewhere as quick as possible you can search the galaxy, find a Hibiki, and still make it there quicker than if you'd tried to do it yourself. No one ever gets it when I start to laugh.
Yeah, the Clan Hibiki is about as close to a family as I've got now, which is pretty sad since my first encounter with them lead to a constant stream of fights before we got things settled. Still it's kind of good knowing that I have family of a sort out there in the galaxy. They still practice the Art too, which means that if I ever manage to kick the bloody bucket, that the Art won't die off with me. Not that I'd particularly care if it did. I really just want to die, and I doubt that I'd let something like that stop me if I ever got the chance.
"Do you have anything to declare, sir?" I'd forgotten that I've been waiting in line for customs at this space station for almost an hour now. It seems they're at a heightened state of security right now. Besides it should be pretty obvious that I don't have much on me. Heck I don't even carry a backpack anymore. Hmmmm. "Sir, I asked if you have anything to declare."
"Only that I intend to destroy this station and everyone on it in the next few hours unless you can kill me before I can do so." It's fairly obvious that this man is bored since he almost waves me through the line despite having said this. I'm guessing though that it was the sudden charging of the security forces' pulse weapons that got his attention. Suddenly looking around me I find that I have more space than I've had in the twenty days it took for us to reach the Kantars System from Magnizard IV. Refreshing really. I was hoping that the rumors of an underground fighting tournament on Kantars III were true, but I might not have to go that far in order to get myself killed. "Oops. Did I say that out loud?" My fellow passengers seem to have backed away even further at that comment, strange because at least one of them seems to be a Berimian and I've never seen one of them back away from a fight. Besides there's only...fifteen men in combat suits with pulse rifles.
A man with some sort of rank emblem, local I assume, is stepping forward. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to place your appendages behind wherever your central nervous system is located, and remain still. Any sudden movements will be seen as a hostile act and will result in a lethal barrage." The speech is incredibly polite despite being backed up with over a dozen weapons. Still I wonder what he's been dealing with recently that makes him respond in such a manner. I mean really! Appendages? Central nervous system? Sheesh! All he should have said is, "Place your hands on your head, and stay put, or we'll shoot."
"Well, sonny boy, I don't think you've enough men to stop me from doing whatever I want." Man, Khu Lon was right, this does manage to piss people off much more than blatant insults would. "But don't worry, I'll wait for you to call for reinforcements. I'd hate for you to screw this up by acting before you're ready." Geez, I think the vein on this guy's forehead is about to explode! That can't be at all good for him at his age. But I can understand it. I mean here I am looking to be twenty at the most, calling him a child when he looks to be almost forty, though he's undoubtedly older than that with whatever extend treatments he's had. Still I think I've had the intended effect, because his finger looks like it's about to completely curl around the trigger. Sure I can dodge whatever shot he makes, but whether or not I can dodge all of the rest of the shots that'll follow when his companions open fire is the real question. Especially since I know I'll jump in front of any stray shots that head towards any bystanders. Really not a bad plan if I do say so myself.
"Stop! Don't shoot. He doesn't intend to fight back." Well it wasn't a bad plan and it might have worked if this girl wasn't running down the hall screaming her head off. Whoever she is it seems that she's got some pull with the soldiers because they are backing off slightly. She's not very old, well compared to me no one is, around twenty or so with a pale blue shade of hair, something that's become more common since man's started to live in space and on other planets. Still I do kind of wonder how she knew I wasn't going to do anything. I mean I don't think I've met her before, and she doesn't have a Hibiki build, especially since she's almost out of breath running from wherever she was.
"Are you sure?" It's Mr. Twitchy again. He still seems pretty pissed off, but only at me and he's not mad enough to shoot me, damnit!
"Yes, in fact he's disappointed that you aren't going to shoot him." My head whips around to look at her again, this time to carefully memorize her face. I know what she is now. She's a telepath, or minder as they're more commonly called.
I watch her as she focuses in on my face. Waiting until she's devoting all of her attention on me I then do the surge and block trick I developed when I first started to encounter minders over two centuries ago. "Stay the fuck out of my mind!" I knew it's worked when she's knocked back almost a foot from being shoved out of my mind. I know that she couldn't read my memories since those are almost totally blocked off from people like her, and she couldn't have gotten in so deep in the few minutes she had. Hell, the most powerful minders needed my active assistance to get that deep and even then it took hours. "You had no right to do that. No right at all." I reduce the block around my mind the slightest bit and create the image of a mind being stripped of all of its secrets bit by bit until it's nothing but a quivering pile of never ending pain. It's cruel of me, I know, but it doesn't change the way I feel about people picking through my head. I can tell she's gotten the hint when tears start to come to her eyes. I learned a long time ago that what I've just shown her is the one thing that almost all minders fear.
I'm actually kind of proud of Mr. Twitchy, because he's immediately gone back to an even higher state of rage. If he were trained any I'd almost guarantee that he'd be producing a battle aura in the deep reds of fury. "If you've hurt Mika, no being in this galaxy will be able to prevent me from killing you."
"Bah, if you ever decide to hunt me down I hope you bring enough men to get the job done." Shrugging my muscles out of the slightly tensed state my reflexes put them in I start to walk through the group of soldiers. "If there's nothing else I'm going to head off and find something to eat. If any of you want to pick a fight when you're off duty, look me up." I wonder what the hell is going on here when no one starts to follow me. I mean really. Who the hell lets a person that has threatened to destroy the space station go on his way especially after knocking the resident minder on her, admittedly cute, ass. Who knows though? Maybe they're gathering up more men so they can ambush me while I get some food. Yeah, that'd be nice. I start a nice daydream where I'm surrounded by armor-enhanced troops by the hundred each armed with nuclear weapons. Shaking myself out of the dream I look around and only one thought comes to mind, eerily appropriate since I'm currently on the Hibiki register.
"Where on Earth am I now?!"
~~~
Damn this station is much larger on the inside than I thought it would be. It feels like I've been wandering around here for hours. My stomach was killing me too. Sure, I can get by without food, but I actually like eating. Finally though I got around to finding a place that serves food...of a sort. It looks sort of like, no never mind that third wing rules that possibility out. Whatever it is it tastes kind of like chicken. Then again everything tastes a little bit like chicken. Heck the only thing that I've found that doesn't taste like chicken at all is Altarian chicken which tastes, oddly enough, like beef.
Lifting my personal set of chopsticks once more I signal to the host that I'd like another platter of...whatever it is. He's been really accommodating really, especially since he got a look at my account balance. Boy do I love anisible powered credit networks. Wherever I go I have money for food. It's great.
After the fifth order I figure that I've had enough to last me a while and finish the credit transfer making sure to leave a sizable tip. Hopefully I'll be able to eat here again before I leave because the food was pretty good, better than a lot of the stuff I've had over the course of my life. Still, I need to find a place to stay for the night and see about catching a ride down to the planet in order to dig up any information I can about this tournament.
The girl at the hotel gives me a discount, partly because I think she's got the hots for me, which doesn't particularly bother me. Means that I'll have a more comfortable room than I would have if I'd been some fat, old businessman. Well, fat at least. Still I'm kind of wondering if she's going to try to sneak into the room late at night. For some reason that's the impression I got of her though I only had the fact she actually started to unbutton her shirt all the way as an indication. Still I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to place an end table in front of the door.
It actually took much less time to get a room than I thought it would since I didn't have to dodge the authorities left and right. Something seems really off about that too. I mean sure, I know that I'm not going to blow up the station, and the minder knows it so theoretically the station security thugs know it too. But then again I knocked the minder on her ass without even touching her and then made her break out into tears after antagonizing over a dozen men with guns. Either no one's particularly concerned over this or there's something much more important going on that's keeping people from coming after me. So of course I'm just dying to find out what it is. People always say curiosity killed the cat. Well I certainly hope so.
Something tells me that whatever's going on isn't that far ahead. The whole barricaded area that almost continuously has armed men and women moving in and out in a hurry. I'd say that not even a fly could get through there without brushing up against one of them. I of course managed to do so without anyone even knowing I'd been there. Just to amuse myself I go back and forth several more times each using a different technique. It's amazing just how many of them I've picked up over the years now that I think about it. Tradition tends to make me prefer the Umi-Sen-Ken although the Ghost Walk is actually more efficient. But efficiency's overrated anyway. Damnit, I'm eight hundred and sixty something years old, and if I want to be inefficient then I'll be inefficient. Anyone who says different can sit on it and rotate.
Pushing these thoughts aside I continue to make my way towards what seems to be the center of the disturbance. Oddly enough I'm not that surprised to run into Mr. Twitchy once more. Of course this time he's not in his body armor so I can make out the nametag on his uniform. Major Alirnbia. I think I preferred Mr. Twitchy; at least I could pronounce that. The minder chick's with him too, Mila or Muka or whatever he called her. Damn, at times like this I really wish I had a better memory for names. And there it is, the centerpiece of the disturbance, a little girl, no older than nine, with her hand wrapped around the trigger of ... "Holy shit! It's a transnucleic null space modifier! I haven't seen one of these things in years. One of those puppies can turn whoever's holding it into the next best thing to a black hole. How come everyone but me manages to get a hold of one?" It occurs to me that the tension in the room has just jumped by exponents of infinity. "Oh, sorry. I guess you're busy. I'll come back later."
An enormous bellow rings out through the room. "Seize that man!" All around me the guards are standing dumbfounded at how I managed to get to where I am which allows me to prepare to evade them. Not that I couldn't do so without being prepared, but some of them might get hurt if I did it that way. As it the four of them go down before they start to approach me somewhat warily.
It's great! I haven't realized how much I've missed these random brawls where no ones trying to kill anyone. I put a little bit of effort into looking as relaxed as possible aided with the yawn I let surface. I cover my mouth with one hand and redirect the actions of two of the men, oops, the man and woman, into the paths of two additional people. Now I start to make a show of hopping around on one foot while placing a hand behind my back. The three men seem infuriated, but I've caught just a hint of a smile on the woman's face. Turning to face her I grin back. She lashes out with a rather sloppy forward punch and I dodge it like before, absently redirecting the other three attacks. "No, no, no! Use all of your body to throw the punch, like this." I make a quick punch that goes straight through her defenses missing her face by such a small margin I can see her hair get pulled slightly by the wind of it's passage. "Did you see it? Good, now you try." My left foot twitches out and knocks away one of the others as I watch her form. "Better, but you're not fast enough to do it all at once. Take it one step at a time." I throw a punch so slow that I complete a whole cycle of breathing as it goes out and back. She didn't even move this time just stood and watched it. "Get it that time?"
"I think so." She throws a punch, and it flows so beautifully I almost want to cry.
"Great! Now try the other arm."
Mr. Twitchy's gravely voice comes from behind me. "If you're quite finished, Lt. Max, I'd like to talk with our ... guest."
Lt. Max has paled now. I've got to learn her full name. It's just so rare that I get to have fun like that. Besides it's not very fair for her to get blamed for things that are my fault. All she did was get pulled into it. It's happened to me tons of times. "Hey, what's your name? Maybe we can get together later on for some sparring? It's been decades since I've had this much fun." The heat coming from behind me has picked up a few degrees. I think Mr. Twitchy's getting real close to developing a battle aura all on his own. I turn to face him, not in the least bit surprised that the vein on his forehead is even larger than it was earlier in the day. Some people just have no patience. "What if I don't want to talk to you? I really don't see any way you can make me. Sure, you could just bring in more and more people until you can't squeeze anyone else in, but by that time I'd probably be gone or hanging from the ceiling out of reach. Besides I'd much rather talk to either Lt. Max here..."
"Laura."
"I turn, slightly startled at being interrupted. "I beg your pardon?"
"My name's Laura." She's blushing now at having all of the attention of the room concentrated on her once again.
"It's a very pretty name. You don't run into it as often as you used to." Turning back to Mr. Twitchy, "Laura or the rather confused little girl holding onto the transnucleic null space modifier. If you want to talk to me that badly, do what everyone else does, and make an appointment with my secretary. We'll do lunch."
Heh, heh, heh. The Saotome School of Martial Arts Discordia strikes again. I'm almost tempted to bow and give myself a round of applause at everyone's stunned expression. Resisting the temptation I weave my way through the crowd of frozen people and plop myself down in front of the little girl.
"Hello. I'm Ranma, what's your name?" I can feel my eyebrow twitch slightly when her hand jerks in surprise. I might be suicidal, but turning this little girl into a miniature black hole, something that would be fatal to her as well as everyone else on the station, strikes me as a rather selfish way to go. It's just my luck to run across something that could kill me that I'll end up having to destroy. Again.
"Okay, you don't have to tell me your name if you don't want. No one's going to force you. But it'd be just plain rude to refer to you as, the girl. Wouldn't it?" I'm somewhat relieved when I get a tentative nod. "So I'm going to pick something. Something appropriate. Can't be a boy's name though, right? No, that'd be wrong. But nothing too frilly either. Bunny and Sweety and Darling are definitely out."
There's a general snickering from behind me. I wonder if someone tried to call her one of those names. No, there's no way this child's one of those. She's in coveralls with scuffed and patched knees, the pockets showing heavy signs of use from storing things. But just the same they are good quality ones of the sort that I'd choose to use to work in so my good clothes wouldn't get ruined. No, this girl is more likely to be helping out her parents at work than playing with dolls, and enjoying every minute of it, to boot. Electrical equipment comes to mind though I don't know why. I'm probably picking up hints from minor details that don't really come to the surface of my mind. Happens a lot really.
If she weren't here clutching the activator as if it were the last thing in the world, I'd see her able to support herself in seven or eight more years by the time she's sixteen. In a sudden moment of supreme clarity, I can see everything. There was an accident. Both of her parents, or the only one she had left, were killed. She's scared. Doesn't know what to do. Sure she could be on her own in a few years but not yet. Nothing makes sense. She's all alone now. Confused. And now here she is. It's all true, or something like it is. Abandoned at so young an age.
"Ucchan. Yes, Ucchan's a good name. She was my best friend when I was younger than you. You remind me a lot of her. I think you'll turn out much like she did. Though without being chased by cross dressers." I shake my head at the though that can still make me smile after all this time. "I swear every guy who ever entered her life romantically was really confused about his gender. But that's another story and none of it was her fault. No, she was a great friend if a little bit quick with a spatula when I put my foot in my mouth. Great cook too. Ran her own restaurant by the age of sixteen, one of the most popular in town too. Her story's really confusing though. Still she'd be proud for me to call you Ucchan."
Moving over next to her, not making any motions towards the transnucleic null space modifier, I lean against the same wall as she is. I could just reach out and take it from her but it'd be pretty meaningless for me to do so. She has to want to put it down or we'll end up doing this again sometime. I hold back a chuckle at the thought of me trying to come up with a reason for her not to kill herself. Irony strikes me pretty heavily at times like these. I shrug it off and give myself another reason. Sure I could always disarm it but there's always the chance that she could set if off before I can. As I recall these things have the lightest switch I've ever seen on, well anything.
I sigh. "I'm bored. Want to hear a story?" I can see Mr. Twitchy almost fall on his face, and I glare when I see the minder standing there behind him give me a small nod. I'd forgotten that she was here, and I flare my aura enough so that she can't read the 'Ucchan's' thoughts. I don't know exactly what's happened with her, but whatever it is she deserves her privacy until she decides to talk about it. 'Ucchan' nods ever so slightly and I launch myself into the story of Ryoga's bread duel, getting a small giggle from her, which she immediately cuts off with a glare at me. The other people in the room aren't nearly so restrained as the regular soldiers break out into loud guffaws.
"Mock glaring at them, I protest. "It's true! Every word is true. When he showed up on the forth day," I pause giving the laughter a chance to clear out, "he swore he'd find me for running out on our duel. He followed me from Japan all over China and back. Sure he probably made a few detours through Europe and Africa on the way, but what can you say? He eventually caught up with me and Pops at this valley deep in the Chinese wilderness. What happened there is another story." I place my hand behind my head slightly embarrassed about even bringing Jusenkyo up. "Besides it wasn't exactly one of my greatest moments, and the Hibiki family wouldn't thank me for spreading what happened around."
Everyone's staring at me now. I could swear that for just an instant I heard a Capan cricket chirp in the silence. "What? You don't believe me do you? You don't think the Hibiki clan always had the galaxy's best sense of direction do you? They really had to work on it. Besides I still don't think they go in straight lines. Half the time I think they just end up where they want to go after getting lost." Seeing that still no one believes me I fold my arms over each other and start to sulk. No one ever believes me when I tell the truth. Or when I lie for that matter. Life sucks.
I perk up slightly when I see someone bringing in some fruit and start passing it around. I hold up two fingers and, when she sees no one else is going to do anything, Laura throws me two apples getting a glare from the minder in the process. I offer one to 'Ucchan' but she shakes her head as if suspicious. I'm momentarily at a loss since I don't want to eat if she isn't going to. Making a show of shrugging I place them both in my lap even though they look really good. Really, really good. From the reactions from the security personnel they must taste pretty good too. It's not fair.
I've almost brought one of them up to my lips before I notice and stop. Picking up the other one I start to juggle it so I'm not tempted. It doesn't work so I start to go faster and faster, forcing me to put more and more concentration into keeping them in the air and not on eating them. It's only two so I have to go really fast before I'm distracted enough. Looking up I see that I now have everyone's attention including 'Ucchan'. I slow down once more and keep the speed at a level where everyone can see the apples clearly. I concentrate and a miniature ball of ki appears in my hands getting added to the act. I can almost hear the mass blink. I start to make the pattern more complicated now that I have a third object. I take a second while everything's in the air to actually roll both of my sleeves up. A quick flick of one of my wrists and I've added a second ball of ki to the mix.
It's very difficult to do what I'm doing right now. Sure I have an incredible ability to work with ki, but the concentration that is required to both keep a ball from dispersing and to change the direction with my hands is so far beyond what I learned as a teenager that it would boggle the mind. I've actually never tried to do something like this with more than one and to my surprise, for every ball I add the strain isn't multiplied but rather squared. Still I think this is the way I'll end up getting to 'Ucchan' since her face shows she's been captured by the movements of the apples and balls.
Slowly I spread my hands further and further apart until each hand is separately juggling one apple and one ball. I concentrate some more and each hand receives an additional ball of ki at precisely the same instant. I can feel sweat starting to accumulate on my brow at the strain. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up. Still it'll be worth it from the look of awe on 'Ucchan's' face. I was right earlier. Once I grabbed her curiosity I'd won. Now that I think about it she's a great deal like Ukyo in that respect.
"Really cool isn't it?" I chuckle slightly when she nods vigorously. "I can teach you how to do this if you want. Do you want to learn this?" Getting another nod I smile. "I don't teach just anyone you know. It's going to be a lot of work cause I'm a tough teacher. It also mean's you're going to have to give me that thing you're holding because it's really dangerous. I'm probably the only person old enough to remember when one of those things went off and it wasn't very pretty."
'Ucchan' nods in acquiescence and starts to hand me the transnucleic null space modifier when it all of a sudden gives off a rather loud beep that startles everyone in the room. I simply shrug despite the fact that my heart is now beating in the high nineties something extremely rare considering how well my body has been conditioned over the centuries. I remember reading about these things and how they would beep one minute before they would detonate. "Well shit. That's just about ruined everyone's day." Motioning for 'Ucchan' to keep holding on to it I move until I'm facing her and the device ignoring the growing panic around me. "Now 'Ucchan' I want you to be perfectly still no matter what happens, okay?" She nods and immediately freezes. Taking a deep breath I move.
During my travels I've perfected a great many techniques for a great many things and have constantly worked on perfecting existing techniques. Because of this some of my most powerful techniques are those that I learned during my youth. The chestnut fist is one of them. Over time I have managed to push further and further into the realm of superhuman feats to the point where my body has traveled several times faster than that of sound. It is quite draining however and at high speeds my control leaves a great deal to be desired. In this case though I need great speed and great accuracy while still keeping my body slow enough that the air turbulence doesn't jar the delicate electronics inside the device while I systematically tear it apart. It's going to be a race really between my hands and fingers and whatever signals the device needs to send in order to put this little girl into the ultimate heavyweight category. Since I know that I'm working off of a barely half remembered plan of something I once read over a century ago, I'm not exactly feeling my most confident at the moment.
I'm kind of amused that some people are obviously still watching me since their gasps come just after my hands start to blur. I'm sucking in huge amounts of air in the vain attempt to keep enough oxygen in my system to prevent my muscles from burning from the anaerobic conditions. Now is not the time to have shaky hands. Almost faster than I can see I've taken off the outer casing of the device and before it had fallen more than an inch had pulled out at least a dozen vital components after cutting them cleanly off using fractional ki blades projected from my index fingers. Still I don't let myself slow down, working my way deeper and deeper into the electronics. 'Ucchan' is doing her best to stay still though I can tell she's scared and I'm actually fairly proud. I take a second to hit a pressure point on her hand making her release the device and continue to disassemble it as it falls to the ground. In the instant just before it strikes the metal I find what I suspected was there along and swear loudly. One of my hands reaches out and bats the small but powerful explosive charge into the most empty corner and throw a ki blast followed by an air pressure wave mixed with a vacuum barrier. Just before they hit I wonder what exactly that combination of effects will do. It's definitely been a day for improvisation.
The ki blast detonates after passing the explosive setting it off. Fortunately for all of us inside the room, the vacuum barrier and air pressure wave cancel out the pressure wave from the explosion, as I must have thought they would. The earlier blast seems to have redirected all the force outwards preventing the much larger explosive blast from causing a hull breach. Damn, am I good or what? I did all of that without even really thinking about it, my subconscious having calculated the stress levels and pressure variables instantly while my body simply carried its instructions out perfectly. This is the sort of thing I used to live for, the feeling of everything coming together perfectly without conscious thought. I stand up and stretch my arms above my head and yawn. I'm pretty tired really. I haven't used that much energy in ages. Besides I haven't gotten to sleep yet since arriving on this stupid station.
Looking around I see that everyone is looking at me with awe in their faces. "You can all breathe now, the danger's passed." As if on cue everyone takes a deep breath. I shrug away the though and take a step forward, cursing slightly when I wobble. I really must have overdone it. Steadying myself I take another step and am surprised when my foot doesn't support me properly. I'm falling forwards and my arms aren't responding to my commands to break my fall. As everything goes gray I hear voices start to shout around me.
"Seize him!"
"Wait!"
Oh boy. Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to wake up on my bed in the hotel room I rented for the week?
~~~
"My life closed twice before its close-- It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell."
--Emily Dickinson