Chapter 10
Happy Battle
Ami Mizuno laid the book right at the center of the table like one
would do with ancient tomes and things like that. This was the first time
Tom Swift saw the book up close and was rather surprised at the newness
of it. "Didn't the librarian say that this book was over a decade old?
How come it seems like it was never used?"
"Actually, this book was done in the late-seventies," she said,
pointing at the title page. "Nearly twenty years ago. The paper is a
little bit yellow now." She shook her head. "It seems new because it
hasn't been used often. It just stood there on the shelves without anyone
reading it until now." She sighed. "It feels so sad to see an unread
book. They're like black holes. All the painstaking process of gathering
information at one place only to have it inaccessible just because no one
wants to come near them."
Tom smiled. "You know, a friend of mine said the exact same thing
not too long ago. But it was for another book, of course. It was Dr.
Spengler's Spirit Guide. You heard of him?"
Ami feigned ignorance. "Can't say I have." She frowned a bit for
effect. "Although the doctor's name sounds familiar... But I just can't
place it."
"Of course you wouldn't. The formal observation of psychokinetic
entities is still in its infancy. Six months to be exact. Yet he had
researched on it for years, but no one took him seriously until the
incident in California." He looked at her meaningfully. "You know, there
was this one thing that I told my friend right after she said what you
had just said..."
"Oh, she's a she then..." She smiled and blink-blinked her eyes,
"is she pretty?"
Tom continued like he never heard her. "I told her that black holes
weren't really black holes but actually emit energy at a slow and steady
rate. The only problem is that a lot more energy enters than leaves that
exothermic reactions are almost nil compared to the onrush. But there may
come a time, if the open model of the universe holds, that the ambient
energy of the universe decreases enough that a black hole system will
start outputting energy at a faster rate then energy coming in."
Ami continued for him. "And that that time, there will be no more
stars left in the universe. The black holes, tired of hoarding everything
to themselves, start to share, start to shine, becoming even brighter as
the temperature goes down, lighting the dark void that used to be filled
with countless stars with the power they had gathered over the aeons."
"Thus, black holes will become the last stars..." he said.
The background noise seemed to disappear around them.
"How did you..." he asked, wondering who this person was in front
of him.
She smiled. "I think I read the same sci-fi books you do..."
"Oh..." he said.
And that was that. The small universe around them ceased to exist.
But the silence was still there.
"About the book..." they said at the same time. They laughed a bit.
The sudden awkwardness disappeared with an audible pop. Tom said, "could
you run the title by me again?"
She took a deep breath. "Lucasian Kinetics. A quantification of the
relevant physical laws and a dissertation on the possible use of chi as
an energy source. By Kimiko Tendo. (1)" She thought for a while.
"Lucasian Kinetics? I don't think I've heard of anything like that
before, have you?"
"I think it's a Star Wars thing. It was made in the mid-seventies
now, was it?"
"Are you sure? Seems too serious for a Star Wars thing. Maybe it's
something else."
"I'm sure."
(1) Deterministics of Lucasian Kinetics, Descriptions and Relevant
Physical Laws: A dissertation on the possible use of chi as an energy
source.
The monitors in the underground headquarters focused on the
unmentionable cloud. The Organizer could not believe his eyes. "Was this
part of the plan?" he asked, cleaning his glasses just to make sure. On
the screen, the airplanes completed the maneuver and were presently
circling the massive (yet fluffy) lingerie. "I'm pretty sure Furinkan
doesn't have a flyer's club."
The Adviser, however, was worrying about more important details. "I
can't raise Copycat Ken on the radio. I fear something's happened." He
looked at the Organizer with solemn eyes. "I think we should abort."
"Nonsense! Look at monitor 5. Everything's going according to
plan."
"There's too many variables... I can't locate Miss Hinako. She
could---"
The Organizer shook his head. "Miss Hinako, Ranma and Kuno are
outnumbered a hundred to one. I'll take responsibility for it. Just do
your job."
The Adviser just grunted. "Well... It's your ass, not mine."
Copycat Ken was very busy at this moment trying to save his ass. "I
never thought disguising as the old man could be so much trouble!" he
yelled, then dodged as several highly explosive charges detonated in the
air around him. He, too, was not immune to the call of the large bra that
floated in mid-air, and unconsciously, he ran in the direction of
Furinkan High.
Luckily, he found a large dumpster that had several "Guaranteed:
Tank Proof" signs written all over it. He jumped in just as several
shells blew the sidewalk he had been standing over into sidewalk bits.
The armored battalion screeched to a halt in front of it.
Gen. Yamashita opened the hatch of his tank. Not knowing what to
do, he took out a large megaphone. "Mr. Monster," he said, "come out with
your hands up! We have the place surrounded!" At least it worked in the
movies. "Go ahead and make my day!" he added for emphasis.
Copycat Ken thought real hard as if his life depended on it (and it
did). After a while, an idea came to his head. He twirled his
handkerchief.
"I'm not Happosai!" he yelled, emerging from the dumpster. "I'm
really Ranma Saotome!"
<KABOOM> Immediately, the wall behind him crumbled to dust.
"Eep..." He scurried back in. "How could things get any worse?" he
mumbled.
Never ever ask if things could get any worse. If you do, they will.
The dumpster began shaking. It jumped in mid-air and spit out a
very dazed looking Copycat Ken (as Ranma Saotome). To everyone's
surprise, the dumpster sprouted a head, two arms and two legs. "RANMA
SAOTOME!" Tsubasa cried. "You're going to pay for what you did to my
Ucchan!" He dumped the dumpster costume (rather redundant) and with a
mighty wallop, knocked Copycat Ken into the sky. "I'm going to get you!"
he yelled to the rapidly departing body in the sky. Then looking to his
right, Tsubasa promptly fainted at the sight of several massive cannons
pointed directly toward him.
Gen. Yamashita stared. "HOW DARE THAT MONSTER DO THIS TO OUR WOMEN!
HE WILL PAY FOR THIS!" With a mighty battle-cry, the tanks moved off in
the direction of Furinkan High.
A lone tank stood behind to look after the ailing transvestite.
With a little first aid (and several okonomiyaki that the soldiers
happened to have inside), Tsubasa was revived, looking rather confused.
He began to walk away, wobbling a little.
"Oh, miss!" one of the soldiers ran after him. "You dropped your
handkerchief."
"It's a Star Wars thing..." Ami admitted.
The first page read: "Chi is an energy field created by all living
things. It surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together
(refer Eq. 1.1)."
Tom smirked. "It's a straight quote. I can't believe he actually
wrote something like that."
"She... Kimiko is a woman's name..."
"Oops. Sorry..." They continued to read on in silence. The rest of
the chapter dealt with an explanation on what chi was, and to Tom's
disappointment, it dealt more on metaphysical discussions rather than the
hard facts that he wanted. "This is just a hyped-up Taoist book," he
remarked. "I can't believe I came all this way for this."
Ami said, "don't judge a book by its cover, Tom." She turned the
page to let him see what Eq. 1.1 was.
"Oh, my..." Tom was shocked to find that the page (and the next few
after that) was filled with dozens of mathematical proofs and equations.
Ami watched him take out a small piece of paper and wrote down the
equations, sweat forming on his brow. He even took out his palmtop to
check some data with. After a few minutes, he sighed and set down his
pencil and palmtop. She asked, "the proofs are correct, then?"
"Beyond a doubt," he replied. "Correct to all observations made to
within a .01% significance level." He shook his head in disbelief. "She's
pretty good. Incredible, actually. Physicists have been trying to do this
for years now and all this time it was just here gathering dust. Miss
Tendo could have won the Fields medal, maybe even the Nobel Prize for
something like this. I just... I just... Wow."
"Calm down. You're hyperventilating again." She rubbed his back.
"Now, tell me what Chapter One says. And spare me that technogabble
you're so good at."
Tom took a deep breath. "Chapter One is a mathematical proof
linking all the four basic interactions in nature, the strong, weak,
electromagnetic and gravitational interactions, all into one big package
with the ancient Taoist concept of chi, the primordial cosmic energy, as
the wrapping paper. It's the grand unified theory that everyone has been
talking about which however no one has basically proven since they have
been glaring at a four-based interaction system, not a five." He sat
back, still in shock. "It's just so hard to believe that someone on her
own could..."
Ami said, "and that's just Chapter One."
"And that's just Chapter One," he echoed.
The chilly wind blew across the Furinkan High roofdeck and
Gosunkugi stood like a sentinel, watching the complex interplay of events
way below. The same wind blew through the folds of his black school
uniform and tossed the few locks of hair he had. He thought that it would
be better if he had longer hair, or a cape to complement the uniform, or
a top hat, maybe even a bouquet of flowers to toss at people whenever he
felt like it. But those were simply inconsequential paraphernalia. He
knew that he had no use for such things.
The words that Nanami Jinnai had said to him echoed once more in
his mind. That he deserves better than what he had. And she was right.
Now, everything seemed so clear. All of his inhibitions, all of the
doubts he had, they were all gone now. The answers were all so simple
that he regretted not thinking about them before. It was as if he had
been staring at a blank TV screen and banging here and there all his life
to make it work and only now found the On bottom. And it won't be long
before he could test all the other buttons in the remote control. Yes, he
thought, it won't be long.
The sun glinted off the shiny metal spike, which he took out of his
pocket. "It's showtime," he said quietly.
The wind suddenly rose in intensity then suddenly stopped.
"Gosunkugi---" Daisuke and Yuka stepped out of the stairwell.
The roofdeck was hauntingly empty.
Nabiki and her associates finished their betting rounds. It was
obvious to whom everyone had bet against. Nabiki smiled, "the poor guy.
It seems that Ranma doesn't do well on Mondays."
"CAPPUCCINO ATTACK!"
The mob moved as one, brandishing their respective club weapons.
Kuno punted upwards everyone that dared touch his pig-tailed goddess, to
each saying a short poem of "farewell, thine existence was fun, you
traitor," and other such permutations. It was more the prose that served
to maim the listener.
Ranma-chan unleashed several uppercuts that blasted students into
the air. The way things were going, the Consortium had the advantage of
bulk and a good organized attack. Pretty soon, she would wear out using
the basic attacks. She had to use the special techniques.
"Kuno!" she yelled, "Cover me!" She concentrated as Kuno stepped in
front of her, brandishing that legendary bokken, shining like the sun,
protecting the pig-tailed goddess, etc. Ranma-chan channeled her battle
aura into her hands, creating a small glowing ball of chi.
"MOKO TAKABISHA!"
Chapter Two dealt with the interactions of chi with the rest of the
forces in nature. This time, Tom did not bother to check the validity of
the equations, save for a few which seemed to him rather odd and out of
place. He pointed to one in particular. "This equation deals with the way
chi can dramatically increase the strong force so that it would start to
act between two adjacent nuclei thus creating a small but controllable
fusion reaction. It seems correct but I can't see where the extra energy
comes in."
Ami pointed to a small mathematical term somewhere below. "Here it
is." She read the small print. "Coefficient of mental concentration... I
think it has something to do with mind---"
"WHAT?!? You mean she has a concept of mentalics (2)?"
"Yes... After all, chi is the Force, right? (3) Luke Skywalker did
not chant some magic words to levitate and stuff like that. What was said
in the movie again? Luke, feel the Force flowing through you. And that's
what exactly is said here. Chi manipulates the rest of the other forces
in nature by the speed and direction it flows. And you control chi by
your mind."
"But that's a movie," he protested. "It couldn't explain how..."
"I think that's why she called it Lucasian Kinetics. Maybe the
movie reflected theory so much that she had to give credit to Luke
Skywalker."
"Or George Lucas. (4) After all, he's the one who made the movie."
(2) Or psionics, maybe neuropneumatics.
(3) Rather blunt, aren't we?
(4) And he even acknowledges that he did make Luke sort of an avatar.
Akane shielded her eyes from the blast. "What's going on?" she
yelled as the shock wave rolled over them like a thunderclap. "Miyo?" She
looked behind her and saw the fortune-teller slumped the ground. Sayuri
laid her head on her lap and Hiroshi was busy fanning her. "I don't know
what happened," Sayuri said. "One minute she was okay, then the next
thing I knew, she was on the ground."
Miyo began to mumble something. "What did you say, Miyo?" Akane
leaned closer.
"Grave misfortune, here... We have to run away... He's coming...
He's coming..." Miyo whispered.
"Who, Miyo?" Hiroshi asked, remembering Daisuke's ominous warning.
"Who?"
"Happosai..."
The spot on the radar grew to gargantuan proportions. Instantly,
the on-board computers identified it as a threat and switched directly to
attack mode. Cameras targeted the approaching monster. The modified
Sidewinder missiles (now carrying a special tranquilizer warhead) were
armed, aimed and ready.
"Let's go..." Max Sternberg flicked down his visor.
When the dust cleared, the combined might of the student body was
knocked backwards a good ten yards. At the center of the softball field
was a sizable crater, at the center of which stood Ranma-chan and a very
shocked Kuno.
Ranma-chan's hands were still pointing downwards where she had
released the chi attack. The blast wave underwent a controlled detonation
between her palms, forcing the shockwave downwards to the ground and
outward to the sides, forcing the raging hordes back and leaving them
otherwise unscathed. Now there was enough room for the second technique.
Kuno's eyes bulged outwards. "What power doth my goddess possess!
Truly, thou are worthy to be with the great Tatewaki Kuno---wham"
Ranma-chan punched Kuno and buried him up to his waist in the
ground. "Not now, Kuno." She eyed as the Cappuccino Consortium got ready
for another assault. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this alone. You'll get
hurt if you fight with me."
"Forgive me, my pig-tailed girl, but I must protest. I cannot let
you fight against hopeless odds. Let me fight for you instead, and die
knowing I have protected thee 'til the end."
Ranma-chan's eyes misted over. "Oh, Kuno," she said, "you really
care for me that much, do you?" She sighed. "And to think I used to hate
you so much that the mere idea of us together..." She shivered at the
memory. "There's something I want to tell you..."
With a mighty yell, the students jumped into the crater. "CAPPUCINO
ATTACK!!!" they cried once more.
"My name is..." Ranma-chan stopped, knowing that this could might
as well be the point of no return. The ravenous maw grew closer and
closer with each step. She sighed, then began running toward the
rampaging hordes.
"My name is Ranko..." she said.
A fifty-foot Happosai appeared over the top of the Furinkan High
school clock tower. The denizens of the Furinkan ward not directly
involved with the fight began to tell stories about how they left the
stove on at home, or how the dog just lost his spleen (there was a lot of
that going around), or how a large fractal cow was found walking all over
their mother's babushka, and took the fast train to Zimbabwe, where there
weren't that many fifty foot panty thieves this time of the year.
"RANMA!" Akane ran over to the edge of the battlefield, where
everyone else was too busy trying to get a piece of the action that they
did not notice the impending doom. There was no way she could warn him.
A small kettle found its way in front of Akane. "You know what you
have to do," Gosunkugi said, leaving the kettle in Akane's hands. Akane
tried to thank him, but he was already nowhere to be found. "Well, that's
odd..." she said, and forgot all about it.
From all around the crater, the different clubs of Furinkan High
converged in a circle towards the battleworn defenders. To their
surprise, Ranma-chan began to attack on her own, running full speed
towards the front of one side of the attackers. At the moment when it
seemed that a collision was inevitable, she turned to the left, running
all the way to the other side of the crater, maintaining a constant
distance of about a yard from the angry mob. Then she kept running, going
in a counter-clockwise direction around the swiftly contracting circle of
space.
To sensitive equipment or trained eyes, a whispy tendril of heated
battle aura trailed behind Ranma-chan's body.
The Organizer's eyes widened in alarm as he recognized this pattern
of attack. "StormTroopers! Hot water blast now!" Sweat began to form on
his brow. "My God," he murmured, "this looks bad..."
The Adviser sat quietly on one side of the room sipping iced tea.
"I told you this was going to happen..."
With the sun behind them, the jets screamed ever closer to their
target; far below, the National Guard had already positioned themselves
around the perimeter of the school, ready to fire as soon as the
tranquilizers take effect.
Happosai was too busy trying to reach for the bra that he did not
notice the missiles being launched.
Ranma-chan channeled all of her guilt outside her body, a powerful
boost to her chi. Shiny droplets of tears trickled down and streaked
backwards across her cheeks. All that Kuno did was to love her. All that
she ever did to him was to hate him. She hated her guy side. As a guy all
she ever did was to hurt Kuno every single day of his life. She wasn't
Ranma Saotome anymore. She was Ranko Saotome, a different person. A
person who knew how to love those that loved her.
But wasn't she a he too? Wasn't her love for Kuno just a product of
that green spore cloud that she inhaled that noon? Aren't the feelings
washing over her now just an illusion? Deep inside her heart, Ranma-chan
knew that the feelings of resentment and hate were buried underneath the
controlling chemicals of whatever that she sniffed. Deep inside, the
anger was struggling to burst out, to hurt the one person that she now
loved even more than life itself. Deep inside, she knew that she was
still Ranma. "Why?" she asked herself. "Why do I feel like the illusion
is more real than reality?"
She snapped back to reality as a shadow fell on her, cast by a
student with a jetpack on his back, about to spray him with superheated
water more than enough to change her back. All the time she had left was
for a finger to press the contact---
A flying bokken imbedded itself into the jetpack's stabilizing
fins, making the pilot spin out of control. The hot water stream hit the
other rocketeers, causing a chain reaction. A few moments later, most of
the flying people were either too busy picking themselves off the ground,
or splashing each other, to care about anything else.
Ranma-chan looked over at Kuno, who was busy shouting, "MY AIM IS
TRUE! I FIGHT FOR MY GODDESS!" She bit her lip, "no time to turn back
now..."
Three more turns, and it would be all over. Already the trailing
part of the mob had already entered the first orbit of the spiral. "What
is real?" Ranma-chan asked herself.
Just two more turns. The circle was small enough for the opposite
sides of the mob to ask each other for a club sandwich. Ranma-chan gazed
at Kuno, who was buried up to his waist in the ground. "What is not?" the
question echoed in her mind.
One more... "I don't care..." she whispered as the mob underwent a
simultaneous flying tackle.
Zero... "I love you, Kuno..." she whispered as the angry mob
grabbed her shoulders, foaming at the mouth.
With a mighty blast, she hurled her right fist in the air, glowing
in chi-enhanced fury.
"HIRYUU SHOTEN HA!"
The deafening roar of the blast died down to a distant tock of the
grandfather clock. The national library was completely unaware of the
chaos happening just a few miles away.
Ami read on. "This chapter deals with chi on a macroscopic scale.
According to the text and the equations, it seems that a continuous
stream of chi is flowing around the planet. It seems that it goes the
same way as the usual weather patterns, thereby having a chi hurricane
inside a regular hurricane for example."
"Wait a minute," Tom thought for a while. "If the local weather
patterns dictate the chi currents, and according to the mentalics part of
the book, it would follow that if a person can manipulate chi, he can
also manipulate the weather."
"Hmm... I think that would be valid."
"Still, do you think that a normal human being could generate a
massive anomalous weather pattern, say a tornado, just by thinking about
it?"
"Stranger things have been known to happen..."
"MY GOD!!!" From the comparative safety of the underground lab, the
Organizer yelled as the twisting currents of chi developed into a full-
blown twister. The normal whirlwind attack was amplified by the circular
depression of the crater. The cameras showed gale force winds blowing
across the entire softball field, picking the students off their feet and
tossing them several blocks away. It seemed that a hurricane appeared
right in the middle of the battlefield.
The Adviser shook his head, took his bag, and walked out the door.
"There's nothing more we can do... I declare the Consortium dissolved..."
He left a once all-powerful Organizer, but now just a simple Chem
club president, sobbing quietly on his command chair.
"AKANE!!!" Hiroshi rushed to the edge of the field. He grabbed her
and pulled her to the safety of a nearby overhang just as the winds grew
to gale force. But she broke away from his grip and rushed to Ranma's
side carrying the hot water kettle.
Sayuri miffed him when he came back. "Why the heck didn't you go
and save her! She's our friend too, you know!"
Hiroshi replied, "she can handle it. She's a martial artist,
anyway." He shook his head. "Some thanks I get for saving you. I think I
should have left you outside!"
Sayuri did that blue aura thing. "How dare you insult me!"
The two were about to argue when they noticed Miyo trying to stand.
"I've got to warn them," she said. "More misfortune coming. Everyone
leave." She gazed at Hiroshi's eyes. "You too, my love." She limped over
to the field just as the wind began to die down.
"Let me help, you---" *wham*
"Don't you even think about it..." Sayuri said, holding a large
mallet.
Hiroshi was a bit quiet afterwards.
The jets screamed in the sudden maelstrom that sprang out of
nowhere. Max Sterling tried desperately to keep the plane steady. The
airframe was already vibrating and he feared that perhaps the wings would
get ripped off. But he suddenly found out that should be the least of his
worries.
"Alpha-1!" the other plane signaled to him. "The missiles have gone
haywire! They missed the target completely!"
And Max looked out the window to see a really horrible sight.
Happosai's mouth dropped open as the funnel of the twister drilled
a hole through the bra right in front of him. He sobbed for a while, then
began to glow a horrible red aura.
Nabiki stood tall against the squall, smiling triumphantly. "Only
one more thing left..." She looked defiantly at the large angry monster.
"I can't have you ruin my glorious comeback," she said.
The National Guard's tanks crashed through the perimeter wall of
Furinkan High, finding themselves in front of a very very angry Miss
Hinako. Several students and lots of soldiers found themselves victim to
the draining abilities of the teacher.
"WHERE'S RANMA SAOTOME?" she asked all of them at the same time.
Withered hands pointed at two different directions at the same
time.
"ARRGGHH! DELINQUENTS EVERYWHERE!" She stomped away angrily, and
almost tripped at a rocket pack someone had carelessly left behind when
his battle aura drained body began to float in the wind. Suddenly, there
was a wicked gleam in her eye.
Moments later, there was a large cloud of smoke where Miss Hinako
was standing.
"The concept of battle auras..." Ami read the chapter heading.
"Battle auras, often radiated by persons possessing high coefficients of
mental concentrations. They are visible to the naked eye in special cases
and have been photographed on film ("Mysterious Happenings of the Far
East," Zemansky, et al, p.320). Well known cases originate mainly from
the following socio-cultural groups: Tibetan Lamas, Hindu ascetics from
the Indu-Gangetic plain, shamans from the Australian Outback and sub-
saharan Africa, and..." she frowned a bit at this, "martial artists,
particularly in the area around the sea of Japan."
Tom set down his right fist on his left palm with a audible *ponk*.
"So that was what it was! Battle aura! That's the glowing stuff around
the monsters! They were martial artists!"
"Huh?" she asked, although she already knew. It was funny to see
him blush. "Oh nothing," he replied, calming down a bit. "Please, read
on..."
She continued. "This aura is a physical manifestation of the human
inner strength, normally referred to as ki, and should be differentiated
from terrestrial chi. Although basically they are congruent to the
concept of chi as a basic force in nature, human ki has a much larger
degree of organization than the world-spanning Lucasian field."
"Of course," Tom surmised. "Since chi is attracted to areas of high
mental capacity, humans would act as reservoirs. Martial artists, having
a greater degree of mental concentration brought about by years of
discipline in learning the Art, would be better in manipulating their ki,
and thus use its peculiar abilities of manipulating the other forces in
nature to their own advantage, such as boosting physical strength or
releasing small controlled fusion reactions or manipulating local weather
patterns." He looked at Ami. "Am I correct?"
She nodded. "It follows the proof for the formula here."
He smiled. "I'm getting pretty good at this, now, aren't I?"
Ami replied, "don't get too cocky, now. Do you know what happens
when ki is drained?"
Tom stopped. "What happens when ki is drained?"
The wind gusts died as its energy source dissipated. The last of
the fierce blue battle aura vanished from Ranma-chan and she slumped to
the ground exhausted. "Kuno..." she looked to her side, but found that he
had already fainted. "Jeez, and this was supposed to be the romantic
part." Deep inside, the anger for Kuno still raged, but Ranma-chan
ignored it. That would be another battle to fight.
She slowly rose to her feet, then began to dig Kuno out, thankful
that it was all over...
However, it was not...
A mob of women surrounded the edge of the crater, and Ranma-chan
found herself looking at a long-haired blond wearing a tight fitting
orange sailor suit. Her eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey! Aren't you..."
Sailor Venus shook her head. "No time! You've got to help us defeat
him!"
"Him?" Ranma-chan asked.
"Him." Sailor Venus pointed behind Ranma-chan. She turned around,
and saw a twenty-foot-wide angry face looking at him.
"RANMA!!!" Happosai's disembodied voice echoed through the hills.
"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY!!!" The air shimmered as Happosai got ready for a
massive Happo Daikarin, then stopped as he noticed what Ranma's current
state was, and who she was standing with. "PRETTY LADY!!!" he said, the
fifty foot behemoth going into a swan dive. The earth began to shake.
Time seemed to slow down as the gigantic pervert descended upon them all.
When faced with certain death, some people think and act
illogically.
Ranma-chan was thinking that the Happo Daikarin was a much better
way to die.
In the same vein, Sailor Venus found herself thinking aloud, "I've
seen death in the face many many times, but this is ridiculous and
disgusting."
Akane made her way through the screaming mob and threw the water
kettle at Ranma-chan. She stood in front of the slowly descending
pervert. "You'll have to get through me, Happosai!"
The pervert grinned even more. "AKANE!!!" he screamed joyously.
"YOU'VE COME TO PLAY WITH ME!!!"
Now that didn't go as well as planned. "RANMA!" Akane screamed, "DO
SOMETHING!!!"
Ranma stood up and angrily slammed the kettle to the ground. "Just
what the heck do you think you're doing---" he fainted to the ground as
his weakness caught up to him.
"Hey! Weren't you a girl a while back?" Sailor Venus stammered with
bulging eyes. She remembered Sailor Uranus and her rather odd (at least
to her viewpoint) cross-dressing (she actually fell in love with her,
mind you). But a guy dressing as a girl was far worse than a girl
dressing up as a guy.
"Not now, please!" Akane yelled. "Ranma! Ranma, wake up!" She shook
him, which did not help him one bit.
"Why the heck did you have to toss the hot water at a time like
this?" he asked weakly.
"I was trying to save your life, you idiot!" she yelled back.
"Who are you calling an idiot, idiot?" Ranma replied, a little bit
groggily, but rather angrily.
"Why don't you stand up?!? Aren't you going to protect me?!?"
"I can't stand up with all your screaming in my ear."
"Eh..." Sailor Venus tried to stand between them. "This is no time
for a fight, you know..."
"Were we talking to you?" they asked at the same time.
"Okay..." she eeped.
And death by perversion hung over them all.
The planes stabilized themselves and looked with utter horror on
what was going to happen below. When all hope seemed lost, Max Sternberg
noticed a bright white blip on his radar screen. "Hey, look!" he yelled,
pointing to the sky.
Nabiki calmly walked over to the center of the crater. "Nabiki!
What are you doing here!" Akane not quite yelled. "Do you realize what
danger you're putting yourself in?"
Ranma butted in. "Don't worry, we martial artists can handle him."
Sailor Venus said, "I'm not a martial artist. I'm Sailor Venus, the
beautiful (and intelligent) sailor soldier, sworn to protect love and
beauty wherever (and whenever) evil should strike."
Nabiki countered, "Well, why aren't you doing anything but
screaming?"
It's fun to see a triple simultaneous full-face blush. "Well...
I... We..."
"Oh, I see..." Nabiki smirked and took out a piece of cloth from
her pocket. "A lady's got to defend herself sometimes..."
With a mighty heave, she threw the piece of cloth to Happosai's
face. A weird change went over Happosai. Looking like he was going to
throw up, he shrunk to his sub-normal size and slumped to the ground
right in front of Nabiki's feet, with the piece of cloth draped over him
like a burial shroud.
Everyone's eyes popped out. "How did you do that?" they asked all
at the same time.
"These are sweaty boxer shorts..." Nabiki calmly replied.
"Oh..." everyone said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Nabiki smiled victoriously. "It's amazing when these kinds of
things really happen in real life."
Happosai groaned. "What did you say, Happosai..." Nabiki picked the
old pervert up by the scruff of his gi. "I can't seem to hear you..."
"I'm going to..."
"...GET ALL OF YOU DELINQUENTS!!!"
Everyone looked at shock to a possibly deaf Nabiki. But both she
and Happy were puzzled. From somewhere, Miyo screamed. "LOOK UP!!!"
Miss Hinako streaked higher and higher into the stratosphere,
passing through the remnants of the bra cloud, by the use of the trusty
rocket pack. She smirked. This was to be the greatest application of her
technique. The ultimate pacification of Furinkan High, and perhaps the
rest of Nerima, was at hand.
She stopped, hovering in mid-air just on top of where Ranma's
attack blasted a tunnel through the cloud. The entire Nerima district lay
peacefully below her.
With a mighty yell, she pointed her hands downwards.
"HAPPO-CIRCULAR HOLE IN CLOUD-SIATSU!"
Tom grabbed the book. "When ki is drained, there is a large loss of
physical strength without deterioration of muscle tissue. Ki takes part
in the burning of ATP in muscle tissue (although this is insignificant in
normal cases). However, given a good coefficient of mental concentration,
this effect can be overcome.
"There is also a reduction of body fluids that makes the skin
maintain a wrinkled appearance (see Fig. 5.3). There is a chance that the
battle aura drained body would be carried aloft by a gust of wind but
there are too few cases with which to judge. There is, however, no
permanent damage incurred. Body fluids and mental capacity is restored as
soon as normal ki reserves are reached."
Tom looked at the figure, "looks like a raisin to me."
Ami thought, "that would explain the Floating Schoolboys Incident
last fall. But still, what caused..."
Tom continued, "there are, however, techniques which allow a person
to drain an opponent's battle aura for that person's own use. These
techniques are very dangerous and persons capable of doing such should be
avoided at all costs."
The train of thought in Ami's mind came up with a startling
conclusion. "A youma! A youma did it! (5)"
"Huh?!?" Tom asked. For some strange reason, she blushed. "N-
nothing," she said and sat down. He smiled. It felt rather fun to see her
blush.
He read on, "this process requires a circular object, or crystal,
that would have the effect of focusing the flow of ki from the person's
body." That set a train of thought going running through Tom's mind.
"Focusing chi?"
(5) Actually, I thought youmas did it all the time. Maybe not in SM S,
though.
With a sudden lunge, Ranma pulled Akane to the ground.
Ukyo closed the door of the Ucchan's. She sniffled a little bit and
sighed. After what she did, there was no way Ranma could forgive her,
given his pride. Still, how come Akane slaps him every day, even pounding
him to the ground on regular occasions, and he still cared for her? She
sniffed once more. "I guess Ranma really does love Akane."
There was nothing more she could do in Nerima. There was nothing
left for her here.
Nothing...
She wished that a sign, any sign would come along that would tell
her otherwise.
It was then that the earth began to shake.
The entire distinct erupted in chaos. The earth itself began to
shake. Windows shattered to bits. Trees were torn from their roots. Cars
streaked to a halt. People slumped down to the ground in fright. Men
cried in the streets screaming, "give us back our spleens!!!"
At the Furinkan Police Station, people were running and screaming
as the bars of a particular jail cell began to give.
"She's gonna blow!!!" one of them yelled and everyone ducked just
as cute stuff began flying around. Amidst the chaos, a shadow swiftly
made its departure.
"Oh no..." a policeman slowly got up, eyeing the cute stuffed toys
littering the office. "She's loose..."
At the Cat Cafe, the shaking ground shattered a few plates. The
front wall, wreaked havoc upon by that morning's gastronomically
challenged Hibiki, cracked and split in two, offering Miss Hinako direct
line of sight to the interior of the Cat Caf�. To Cologne's great fear,
chi started to drain from every pore of her body. Shampoo cried out in
bewilderment. "Great-grandma!" she said, as little streams of energy were
slowly sucked upwards, "what going on?!?"
Cologne knew she had to act fast. Already, she was beginning to
feel weak. She depressed a potent bursting point on the floor. As the
concrete floor of the restaurant shattered, she pulled Shampoo into the
crater. Using her cane, she began to scribble a few ancient symbols on
the earthen floor, around the perimeter of the depression.
After a few tense moments, Cologne put her walking stick down,
breathing heavily. To Shampoo's surprise, the energy drain ceased. Even
more so, she found herself surrounded by twisting currents of green
battle aura, which seemed to flow out from out of nowhere.
Cologne was too tired to explain. "Ancient Chinese Amazon Super
Secret Technique, chi lens," she said, "tell you about it later..."
At the Furinkan field, people where shriveling as energy poured out
of their bodies by the kilowatt. Sailor Venus groaned, "She's a youma!"
before collapsing to the ground.
Nabiki found herself without protection of any kind. Black spots
began to swim before her eyes. "This can't be happening," she thought as
she blacked out.
Akane screamed as the vapory trail of battle aura emanating from
Ranma's body dissipated into nothingness.
Ranma fainted, just as the adrenaline boost that temporarily
brought back his strength ran out.
Then, to everyone's surprise, the draining ceased.
A horrible quiet descended upon them all.
Just like the quiet before the storm.
From several hundreds of feet in the air, Miss Hinako hovered,
glowing with energy. She had already absorbed nearly all the battle aura
of the entire Nerima district. With every breath she took it seemed like
thunder was booming. Raw energy crackled across her hands and her eyes
glowed like twin suns. Her voice seemed disembodied as she said, "And
now, for my revenge."
Slowly, almost ritually, she spread her palms, with the two thumbs
and index fingers touching, and said, with an almost god-like air, the
name of her final attack.
"Happo No-Yen Coin Return!"
Tom held his breath.
"Chi as an energy source..." Ami said, reading the chapter's title.
"There exists a process defined to be chi focusing, that allows a
small amount of chi to generate a large amount of energy and an excess
amount of chi which can be harnessed to generate large amounts of
energy." He remarked, "it's a chain reaction."
They turned the pages to glance at the formulas. "Unlike all the
other formulas," Ami observed, "all the equations don't have a mentalics
component. How does the chi lens operate then?"
"Let me see..." Tom thought, analyzing the proofs with mathematical
precision. "Since chi flows very much like the wind, obstacles in its
path and temperature differences would cause it to deviate from a
straight course from east to west."
"That's what causes regular weather patterns." Ami said. "But the
system is chaotic. There's no way you could control it without the mind
part."
"No..." he replied. "These are the same equations written in
Chapter Two. But instead of the coefficient of mental concentration, it
has another group of constants which seem to indicate a different method
of harnessing terrestrial chi." He pointed at a particular line. "Instead
of an active control system such as mentalics, it suggests a passive
control system." He looked at her meaningfully. "Instead of using the
mind, it uses the *obstacles* themselves."
"What?!?"
"See... The mind manipulates chi and thus the rest of the basic
forces in nature by controlling the way it flows. A different velocity
would cause it to change another factor." He snickered. "That's why in
laboratories people couldn't detect chi since they were in *controlled
conditions*. Only in uncontrolled conditions could it cause significant
deviations to appear."
"But..." Ami protested.
"But that's not the point. The point is that if the wind could be
channeled, so can be chi. And chi could be made to flow in such a way as
to force the incoming chi to flow in the same direction, thus repeating
the same process over and over again releasing the same amount of energy.
It's like a hydroelectric dam. It stays there, does absolutely nothing,
set up one time, but generates energy for an extended amount of time."
"But..." Ami repeated.
Tom was on a roll, and continued as if he wasn't interrupted. "But
it could also be arranged that the setup would release an larger amount
of energy, thus creating a chain reaction. It's the perfect power
generator."
"But..." Ami pleaded.
His eyes began to have a certain dreamy look. "Imagine it, Ami. A
cheap renewable power source that has almost no waste products. Imagine
it, like windmills but producing larger and larger quantities of energy.
Imagine it, all the cities of the world powered by just a single setup,
buy just a group of people digging the right trenches or building the
right barriers."
"But..." Ami said, despairingly.
He rubbed his palms together. "Wait 'til the Admiral hears about
this."
There was a loud bang on the table that reverberated across the
library, drawing stares from everyone.
A vortex began to form around Miss Hinako's hands. Streams of raw
energy coalesced, the sum total of the battle aura of the entire
district, into a small bright star, growing larger and brighter with each
passing second. Lightning and thunder cracked over the little bundle of
destruction, as if it was made of the fires of hell itself. Miss Hinako
screamed with pain as she violently tried to control the energies that
flowed through her, to prevent an early detonation of the chi sphere.
Even she couldn't even bear looking at it.
The sphere grew into the size of a medicine ball, and a saner part
of Miss Hinako's mind protested violently against this excessive(!!!) use
of force. Yet, absolute power corrupts absolutely. With a maniacal laugh,
she released the sphere of doom, falling slowly like a bomb on the little
pervert below.
The new sun cast shadows as it fell, as if torn by some mighty hand
from the sky and cast upon the hapless martial artists down below.
It passed through the remains of the cloud, instantly vaporizing
it. The earth cracked, and splinters of it began to float in mid-air, as
the laws of physics itself began to bend underneath the descending ball
of hellfire.
There was no time to counterattack. There was no time left to run
away.
Just enough time to watch your life pass just before your eyes.
Hinako-chan regained her senses and began to scream.
Akane watched as her surroundings were slowly swallowed in the
unearthly light.
She saw Happosai squirming in the ground, too weak to do anything
useful.
She saw Sailor Venus fired a desperate Love Me Chain to the center
of the globe. But it only absorbed it, and went through the other side.
The orb went on with its deadly journey.
She saw the rest of the students who remained behind vanished into
the glare.
She saw as Ranma tried a few vain attempts to put himself between
the ball and her. He collapsed due to the exertion. Without knowing it,
she reached out to touch his hand...
Then it grew too bright to see anything at all.
Ami shut the book with a bang. Tom could really see that she was
angry for some reason.
"You mean to tell me that you're working with the military now?"
she asked, her voice even.
"Well, yes..." he replied, not quite so sure where she was getting
at.
She shook her head and gathered her things. "Have you ever heard of
an uncontrolled chain reaction brought about by one of the basic forces
in nature whose theoretical basis came from the brilliance of just one
man, and what the military used it for?" She looked at him sadly. "I
think you have."
She left, taking the book with her.
Shadows cast on the surface of the sun...
"PENTAGRAM OF PROTECTION!!!"
Currents of darkness began to twist around the shadows, then burst
apart with a mighty shriek, surrounding the spellcaster with a pulsating
hemisphere of dark energy. And as the chill wind blew to squall-strength,
the half-sphere expanded, encasing the softball field and its environs in
a protective shield.
The chi ball slammed into the barrier, screaming as the different
energy classes fought, infused and died. Then with a mighty thunderclap,
the energy sphere imploded, sending concentric circles of force radiating
around the impact point, stretching for blocks in all directions. Then
the strange phenomena too died, leaving behind clouds of smoke where
powers unleashed once took space.
The intense light vanished, and Gosunkugi stood at the center of
the smoking ground, and from his hands the faint trails of darkness
vanished as if they had never existed.
A hero is born...
Ukyo stood up as the ground became steady once more underneath her
feet. She ran outside the door smiling.
Kasumi yawned... It had been one peaceful afternoon at the Tendo
Dojo.
To be continued...
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