Categories > Anime/Manga > Ranma 1/2 > cat fist fury
Cat Fist Fury Ranma ? is etc, etc, etc? : Thoughts Chapter 4 Misfits It was a sunny and clear morning in the district of Nerima as the citizens of Tokyo began to rise for the day. In one particular area of the neighborhood, one girl was already up and running, literally. People who were just exiting their houses to get their morning papers paused to watch a young girl jog past them. Akane Tendo briskly ran through the streets of Nerima. She was dressed in her usual jogging attire of T-shirt, shorts and running shoes. Her long black hair flowed behind her like a flag in a gentle breeze. As she went along, she occasionally threw a punch or kick in front of her. She briefly glanced at her watch and smiled. Another mile to go and she would beat her old record by twenty seconds. It was then that she looked down and saw a darting shadow on the sidewalk. Looking up to her right, she saw a tall and well-muscled teen sprint across the narrow fence that was parallel to her route. Before her startled eyes, the boy performed several somersaults, then raced down toward an intersection, oblivious that the fence ended there. Without slowing down, he leapt up toward the horizontal beam, which held a traffic light. Like a gymnast who was performing his routine, he executed three giant rotations, then let go on the upswing. The momentum he gained propelled him further upward. Curling his body, he made three midair flips, then landed gracefully on his feet atop a mailbox on the other side of the intersection. Jumping down with almost casual ease and grace, he then proceeded to bound upward to another lamppost that was some twenty feet high. Easily clearing the street light, he made a series of elaborate leaps and acrobatic maneuvers that would have easily won him a gold medal in the Olympics. He then jumped into traffic. Akane's eyes widened even further as she saw him continue to leap and race on the tops of cars and trucks. The way he perfectly timed his jumps from one moving vehicle to another was poetry in motion. He even added a few fancy flips, turns and reversals between jumps. Considering that the cars were moving at an average of thirty to forty miles per hour, this made it even more difficult and dangerous. However, this stranger seemed to be unconcerned as he continued his display his astounding speed, agility and balance. By the time that Akane had reached the intersection, the boy had already leaped back onto another fence and had sprinted out of sight. The youngest member of the Tendo clan stared dumbfounded as she watched him disappear over the horizon. Ranma smiled as he returned to the apartment that he was staying at. It had been a good run. As he began to fix himself some breakfast, he started to think about what he was going to do, now that he had returned to Japan. The former heir to the Saotome School of the Anything-Goes Martial Arts, had considered looking for his mother as soon as he got off the boat from China.
Ranma frowned at that last thought. That was something he did not want. After learning the truth about his father at Jusenkyo, the young martial artist had decided that he had his fill of him! He had vowed that day that he would become exactly his opposite. For the past year, he had been going bythe name of Cojiro Shinkara, a name he had made up in order to hide his true identity. For ten months, he had traveled all over China, mastering more than twenty different fighting styles. The training had also enabled him to perfect his own personal techniques, based on the Neko Ken and his saber tooth tiger powers. During his travels, he had also gained a considerable amount of knowledge, including pressure points, music, history, language and mathematical skills. He had also encountered several other places and people who taught him many 'special skills,' some of which could be defined as magical. He had picked up several interesting items along the way as well. His innate ability to quickly learn any skill or technique had served him well. His long journey had also shaped his character. He had learned to be polite and well mannered toward others. He used his wits more often and was not as cocky. His usual arrogant and chauvinistic ways had been diluted without the influence of his father. On rare occasions, his pride would surface, but now he was thinking about his actions and admitting to his mistakes. His only real problem was that his fierce animal nature would occasionally surface in times of great stress, emotion or in the heat of battle. This made him a danger to people around him, especially since he can summon the power of the Neko Ken. Ranma shook his head back to the present. It was time for him to start his new life. Two weeks later? It was an ordinary morning at Himoto High School. Ranma was a bit nervous as he entered the schoolyard. It had been several years since he had attended school. Ever since that one year at junior high, his father Genma had dragged him off to China. Thinking back on that time, he sighed as he remembered some unfinished business. Ranma then noticed a weakness in her legwork. Apparently, her heavy steel maces were putting her off balance a bit, causing her to exert a bit more to compensate. With that in mind, Ranma found his opening. As Shampoo delivered another series of strikes, he moved forward and gave a horizontal slash before leaping back. Shampoo thought that Ranma had missed and charged at him. Just as she raised her weapons and sent them toward his head, the steel maces fell off their handles and clattered to the mat. This all happened too fast for Shampoo to stop her charge. As she tried to halt her forward momentum, Ranma spun around and delivered a smooth kick to her midsection. As she went down, he moved toward one of the broken maces and used a foot motion to flip the sphere into the air. Shampoo scrambled to her feet attacked him with fists flying. She then shouted out her special technique. "KATCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Ranma was caught off guard by the sudden blurring of Shampoo's hands. He was hit at least three hundred times in the chest and face before he stepped back a few paces. Despite his enhanced strength and endurance, his body felt a bit sore from the assault. Shaking his head a bit, he took a stance, then lunged back at her and delivered his own counterattack. "TIGER CLAW FRENZY!" After seeing Mousse get savaged by that particular attack, Shampoo knew that the best way to counter it was to simply stay out of reach. She used several evasive maneuvers, which had her dancing around the ring. At first she thought she had outsmarted her opponent, but then she saw him? smiling? She left even more confused when he suddenly stopped his assault and leapt back. He casually stood with his arms crossed and waited. Shampoo looked at him for a moment, then decided to launch another attack. Then it hit her. The broken mace that Ranma had sent into the air came crashing down on Shampoo's head. Shampoo fell to the mat in a heap. The audience was stunned. The previous attack had been a decoy to get her to move under the descending weapon. Ranma smiled as the referee declared him the winner. Ukyo and Akane entered the ring and carried their unconscious teammate to their bench. Ranma thought as the announcer signaled for a five-minute time out. As Ranma sat on his bench, he looked over to where the opposing team sat. His gaze first looked at the one named Akane. She had an angry look about her as she returned his gaze with a glare of her own. His eyes then trained themselves on Ukyo, who was at the moment dabbing a wet rag over Shampoo's forehead. The Amazon was still a bit dazed as she lay on the bench. Ryoga was standing near Akane and was giving him a look of appraisal. Ranma sighed as he looked to his own empty bench. His teammates had been taken to the infirmary, along with Mousse and Kuno. Ranma let out another depressed sigh as he thought about how much his team had gone through to get to this final set of matches. It was now all up to him to win it for Himoto High. With that in mind, he stood up and prepared for the next match. "In the blue dragon corner," The announcer began after the time out expired. "Representing Furinkan High, Akane Tendo of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts!" He then gestured to Ranma. "In the white tiger corner, Cojiro of Himoto High!" There was a great amount of cheering coming from the male members of the audience. Ranma mused as he began sizing up his opponent. The girl was shorter than he was by about nine inches. His enhanced senses began reading her aura. Ranma then weaved around a dozen more blows. Akane couldn't understand it. She was throwing solid punches and kicks, but this boy was dodging as if they were nothing. He didn't seem to be even taking her seriously. This lack of attention began to make her temper rise. Wasn't she the best martial artist in Nerima? Didn't she always beat up Kuno and fifty other boys every day? Akane tried another combination, only to have those evaded as well. He wasn't even fighting back. He was mocking her and her skills! To be continued? Author's Notes Below, you'll find a small explanation of each of Ranma's special moves. Tiger Claw Frenzy: This is the original Cat Fist technique, but is under Ranma's conscious control. In the anime, we've seen him shred through tree trunks and other materials within seconds. Its speed is even greater than the Chestnut Fist. It is fast and it is extremely useful for close-quarters, able to deliver an average of six hundred strikes per second! It doesn't have much in terms of damage, compared to his other techniques. Rip Claw Slash: By focusing his chi, Ranma is able to strengthen the power of his cat strikes to the point in which they are able to slice through stronger materials such as stone and even tempered steel. He is not able to deliver many strikes with this technique, but he doesn't need to since the skill can cause greater damage. Cat's Eye Beams: Through some unknown process that is inherent in both his human and tiger form, Ranma can shoot out beams of heat or concussive force. The range and the extent of damage of the beams are not yet known but Ranma has been able to melt metals with them. Raging Tiger Bolt: Unlike the Moko Takabisha that we know in the mange and anime, this chi blast is far stronger than the normal Shi Shi Hokodan. It does not draw its power from Ranma's ego or pride, but rather from his determination. Since he is patterned after a tiger, his will to survive is far greater than his desire to be the best. His animal form is a thing of nature, so Ranma is able to tap into nature's power. His journey through China has also helped him as he learned from masters who were able to tap into the chi of their environment. Crescent Slash: A variation of the Raging Tiger Bolt that is flattened out and given an edge for cutting. Ranma is able to slice though materials from a distance with it. Berserker Rage: Ranma's finishing move, in which he allows himself to partially submerge into the ferocity of his beast form. Ranma is able to rush toward his opponent at unbelievable speed and deliver an amplified version of the Tiger Claw Frenzy. The damage is still the same, but at four times the speed! The final part of the move is actually a midair Rip Claw Slash with both hands. In this case, Ranma had purposely held back, as he knew that a full-powered strike would have sliced Ryoga to pieces! In any case, I hope the rewrites so far has cleared up some of the discrepancies and explained a few things. I intend to continue on as I go along. Cat Fist Fury Standard disclaimer is in effect. : Thoughts Chapter 6 Aloha Furinkan Ranma was the subject of much backslapping and adoration when he arrived at school the morning after the tournament. "Way to go Cojiro!" "You were totally awesome!" "You really put that stuck-up snob Kuno in his place!" "You totally rock!" Ranma was a little more than embarrassed at all the attention that he was getting, but he smiled back at his admirers as he went to his first class. Sometime later, Ranma decided to visit his new friends at the gymnasium. Fortunately, they had recovered enough from the previous day to attend school. As he entered the building, which was still undergoing repairs, due to the damage caused by the tournament, he was warmly greeted by his teammates. "Hey Cojiro! Over here!" Shang said from a corner. Ranma looked over and frowned as he saw that the Chinese boy's right arm was in a sling. As he walked over to him, he was approached by the other members of Himoto's fighting team. "Hey buddy!" Sakoto said. "Way to go! You really cleaned Furinkan's clock yesterday!" "Aw, it was nothing. You guys did pretty good, considering who you went up against." "Thanks for the flattery, but we all know who pulled Himoto's fat out of the fire yesterday." Sodan said. He had a small bandage on his forehead, where Kuno's bokken had struck him. "We got to admit, that Ultimate Neko Ken was pretty impressive." "How do you know?" Ranma asked. "You guys weren't there." "No, but Kai was in the crowds with a camcorder. He showed us the tape of you in action. Right now, he's probably selling clips to people. I swear, he's just about as bad as Nabiki." "Who's Nabiki?" "Nabiki Tendo, the Ice Queen of Furinkan. She's the older sister of Akane and she's what you would call a mercenary." "Mercenary?" "Uh huh. I know about her because I used to go to Furinkan. She's into blackmail, extortion and information gathering. If you want the dirt on someone, she's the one to see, for a price. She also sets up betting pools. I'm pretty sure she had one going yesterday. I guess when you won, you must have really upset her profits!" "I see." Ranma said quietly. Then another thought came to him. "By the way, since you used to go to Furinkan, maybe you can confirm some rumors I've been hearing from there." "Like what?" "Well, I was considering to enroll at Furinkan when I came to Tokyo, but when I heard some crazy stories, I decided to enroll here because those stories sounded too unbelievable!" "Believe me! Anything that you have heard from Furinkan is true!" Sodan affirmed. "You mean, the part where they have some crazy Hawaiian nut for a principal?" "You got it! He was the main reason why I transferred to this school! When he showed up at the beginning of the semester, he made up this stupid rule that all boys had to get buzz cuts and all girls get bowl cuts!" "Are you serious?" Ranma began to unconsciously finger his ponytail. "I'm serious! Then he made all the students go chasing around the school, looking for some stupid coconut that had a 'get-out-of-rules-free' paper in it! He set up weird traps and stuff and even hadseveral dozen principal's offices to annoy the students! After giving him several rounds of torture, we finally managed to make him give up that haircut idea for a while! Since then, he's been coming up with all sorts of ways to torment us! I left for Himoto soon after that coconut incident. From what I've heard, he's still after everyone's hair! I've seen him leap out and cut off a student's hair in three seconds with those barber shears of his! The longer your hair is, the more likely a target you become!" "Whoa, that's weird!" It was at that moment that Kai came running up to the group. "Hey guys! Look what I've got!" He began waving a handful of large denominations of yen notes. "Hey Cojiro! Your fighting style is really raking in the big bucks!" "Oh really?" Ranma responded. "I'll say! That tape I made of you fighting Furinkan yesterday is the hottest item on the market! Lots of students are wondering if you could start a class and teach that Neko Ken of yours! They're willing to shell out a lot of money to attend!" "This could help out our sports and other physical activities clubs." Sodan suggested. Ranma sighed and sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry guys, but I can't teach anyone how to do Ultimate Neko Ken." "Huh? Why not?" Kai asked. "I can't teach anyone because of two reasons. First of all, I'm still developing this fighting style. I'm not even sure what limits I can attain with it. Secondly and most importantly, the initial training to this style is far too dangerous. I found out the hard way that learning the technique would cause severe mental trauma. The technique can also be lethal to innocent bystanders. I was lucky because I found a way to control it. Purely by accident and it can't be duplicated." "I hate to tell you guys but Ultimate Neko Ken is off limits." "Aw come on Cojiro. You can bend a little on that right?" Kai pleaded. "I said no and I mean no!" "But?" "Leave him alone Kai. If he says that it's too dangerous and he can't teach it to anyone, then we should respect his wishes. After all, he won the No Holds Barred tournament for us." "Oh yeah! Speaking about the tournament, I just heard some really important news from Furinkan!" "What was it?" Ranma asked. "Because they lost to you yesterday, the entire student population had to submit to buzz cuts and bowl cuts!" "What?! I thought the principal gave up on that idea!" "Apparently not! It seems that Kuno had signed a contract with the principal, confident that Furinkan would win! Of course, he was too busy bragging about his 'superior fighting skills,' that he didn't bother to read the fine print. If Furinkan won the tournament, then the principal would resign. However, if they lost?" "Then everyone would get buzz cuts and bowl cuts." Ranma finished. "You got it!" Kai nodded his head. "After you had beaten their team, he put everyone under those shears of his! And get this, you know that Ukyo guy you fought?" "Yes?" Ranma began to get nervous. "Turns out that he wasn't a guy, he's a girl! Cute girl too! She just barely managed to convince him that she's female and escaped getting a buzz cut! She got a bowl cut with all the other girls! Of course this didn't make her any happier though! Everyone is really sore at Kuno for signing that contract! They also have a lot of hostility toward you!" "Hey! How was I supposed to know that this would happen?" "That may be true, but they kind of blame you for this mess! Not that it's any of our business! Hey Cojiro! Where are you going?" Ranma neither looked back nor answered as he headed out of the gym. Ranma arrived at his rented apartment an hour later and headed toward the bedroom closet. He then hauled out his knapsack and started searching.
Ranma frowned at that last thought. That was something he did not want. After learning the truth about his father at Jusenkyo, the young martial artist had decided that he had his fill of him! He had vowed that day that he would become exactly his opposite. For the past year, he had been going bythe name of Cojiro Shinkara, a name he had made up in order to hide his true identity. For ten months, he had traveled all over China, mastering more than twenty different fighting styles. The training had also enabled him to perfect his own personal techniques, based on the Neko Ken and his saber tooth tiger powers. During his travels, he had also gained a considerable amount of knowledge, including pressure points, music, history, language and mathematical skills. He had also encountered several other places and people who taught him many 'special skills,' some of which could be defined as magical. He had picked up several interesting items along the way as well. His innate ability to quickly learn any skill or technique had served him well. His long journey had also shaped his character. He had learned to be polite and well mannered toward others. He used his wits more often and was not as cocky. His usual arrogant and chauvinistic ways had been diluted without the influence of his father. On rare occasions, his pride would surface, but now he was thinking about his actions and admitting to his mistakes. His only real problem was that his fierce animal nature would occasionally surface in times of great stress, emotion or in the heat of battle. This made him a danger to people around him, especially since he can summon the power of the Neko Ken. Ranma shook his head back to the present. It was time for him to start his new life. Two weeks later? It was an ordinary morning at Himoto High School. Ranma was a bit nervous as he entered the schoolyard. It had been several years since he had attended school. Ever since that one year at junior high, his father Genma had dragged him off to China. Thinking back on that time, he sighed as he remembered some unfinished business. Ranma then noticed a weakness in her legwork. Apparently, her heavy steel maces were putting her off balance a bit, causing her to exert a bit more to compensate. With that in mind, Ranma found his opening. As Shampoo delivered another series of strikes, he moved forward and gave a horizontal slash before leaping back. Shampoo thought that Ranma had missed and charged at him. Just as she raised her weapons and sent them toward his head, the steel maces fell off their handles and clattered to the mat. This all happened too fast for Shampoo to stop her charge. As she tried to halt her forward momentum, Ranma spun around and delivered a smooth kick to her midsection. As she went down, he moved toward one of the broken maces and used a foot motion to flip the sphere into the air. Shampoo scrambled to her feet attacked him with fists flying. She then shouted out her special technique. "KATCHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Ranma was caught off guard by the sudden blurring of Shampoo's hands. He was hit at least three hundred times in the chest and face before he stepped back a few paces. Despite his enhanced strength and endurance, his body felt a bit sore from the assault. Shaking his head a bit, he took a stance, then lunged back at her and delivered his own counterattack. "TIGER CLAW FRENZY!" After seeing Mousse get savaged by that particular attack, Shampoo knew that the best way to counter it was to simply stay out of reach. She used several evasive maneuvers, which had her dancing around the ring. At first she thought she had outsmarted her opponent, but then she saw him? smiling? She left even more confused when he suddenly stopped his assault and leapt back. He casually stood with his arms crossed and waited. Shampoo looked at him for a moment, then decided to launch another attack. Then it hit her. The broken mace that Ranma had sent into the air came crashing down on Shampoo's head. Shampoo fell to the mat in a heap. The audience was stunned. The previous attack had been a decoy to get her to move under the descending weapon. Ranma smiled as the referee declared him the winner. Ukyo and Akane entered the ring and carried their unconscious teammate to their bench. Ranma thought as the announcer signaled for a five-minute time out. As Ranma sat on his bench, he looked over to where the opposing team sat. His gaze first looked at the one named Akane. She had an angry look about her as she returned his gaze with a glare of her own. His eyes then trained themselves on Ukyo, who was at the moment dabbing a wet rag over Shampoo's forehead. The Amazon was still a bit dazed as she lay on the bench. Ryoga was standing near Akane and was giving him a look of appraisal. Ranma sighed as he looked to his own empty bench. His teammates had been taken to the infirmary, along with Mousse and Kuno. Ranma let out another depressed sigh as he thought about how much his team had gone through to get to this final set of matches. It was now all up to him to win it for Himoto High. With that in mind, he stood up and prepared for the next match. "In the blue dragon corner," The announcer began after the time out expired. "Representing Furinkan High, Akane Tendo of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts!" He then gestured to Ranma. "In the white tiger corner, Cojiro of Himoto High!" There was a great amount of cheering coming from the male members of the audience. Ranma mused as he began sizing up his opponent. The girl was shorter than he was by about nine inches. His enhanced senses began reading her aura. Ranma then weaved around a dozen more blows. Akane couldn't understand it. She was throwing solid punches and kicks, but this boy was dodging as if they were nothing. He didn't seem to be even taking her seriously. This lack of attention began to make her temper rise. Wasn't she the best martial artist in Nerima? Didn't she always beat up Kuno and fifty other boys every day? Akane tried another combination, only to have those evaded as well. He wasn't even fighting back. He was mocking her and her skills! To be continued? Author's Notes Below, you'll find a small explanation of each of Ranma's special moves. Tiger Claw Frenzy: This is the original Cat Fist technique, but is under Ranma's conscious control. In the anime, we've seen him shred through tree trunks and other materials within seconds. Its speed is even greater than the Chestnut Fist. It is fast and it is extremely useful for close-quarters, able to deliver an average of six hundred strikes per second! It doesn't have much in terms of damage, compared to his other techniques. Rip Claw Slash: By focusing his chi, Ranma is able to strengthen the power of his cat strikes to the point in which they are able to slice through stronger materials such as stone and even tempered steel. He is not able to deliver many strikes with this technique, but he doesn't need to since the skill can cause greater damage. Cat's Eye Beams: Through some unknown process that is inherent in both his human and tiger form, Ranma can shoot out beams of heat or concussive force. The range and the extent of damage of the beams are not yet known but Ranma has been able to melt metals with them. Raging Tiger Bolt: Unlike the Moko Takabisha that we know in the mange and anime, this chi blast is far stronger than the normal Shi Shi Hokodan. It does not draw its power from Ranma's ego or pride, but rather from his determination. Since he is patterned after a tiger, his will to survive is far greater than his desire to be the best. His animal form is a thing of nature, so Ranma is able to tap into nature's power. His journey through China has also helped him as he learned from masters who were able to tap into the chi of their environment. Crescent Slash: A variation of the Raging Tiger Bolt that is flattened out and given an edge for cutting. Ranma is able to slice though materials from a distance with it. Berserker Rage: Ranma's finishing move, in which he allows himself to partially submerge into the ferocity of his beast form. Ranma is able to rush toward his opponent at unbelievable speed and deliver an amplified version of the Tiger Claw Frenzy. The damage is still the same, but at four times the speed! The final part of the move is actually a midair Rip Claw Slash with both hands. In this case, Ranma had purposely held back, as he knew that a full-powered strike would have sliced Ryoga to pieces! In any case, I hope the rewrites so far has cleared up some of the discrepancies and explained a few things. I intend to continue on as I go along. Cat Fist Fury Standard disclaimer is in effect. : Thoughts Chapter 6 Aloha Furinkan Ranma was the subject of much backslapping and adoration when he arrived at school the morning after the tournament. "Way to go Cojiro!" "You were totally awesome!" "You really put that stuck-up snob Kuno in his place!" "You totally rock!" Ranma was a little more than embarrassed at all the attention that he was getting, but he smiled back at his admirers as he went to his first class. Sometime later, Ranma decided to visit his new friends at the gymnasium. Fortunately, they had recovered enough from the previous day to attend school. As he entered the building, which was still undergoing repairs, due to the damage caused by the tournament, he was warmly greeted by his teammates. "Hey Cojiro! Over here!" Shang said from a corner. Ranma looked over and frowned as he saw that the Chinese boy's right arm was in a sling. As he walked over to him, he was approached by the other members of Himoto's fighting team. "Hey buddy!" Sakoto said. "Way to go! You really cleaned Furinkan's clock yesterday!" "Aw, it was nothing. You guys did pretty good, considering who you went up against." "Thanks for the flattery, but we all know who pulled Himoto's fat out of the fire yesterday." Sodan said. He had a small bandage on his forehead, where Kuno's bokken had struck him. "We got to admit, that Ultimate Neko Ken was pretty impressive." "How do you know?" Ranma asked. "You guys weren't there." "No, but Kai was in the crowds with a camcorder. He showed us the tape of you in action. Right now, he's probably selling clips to people. I swear, he's just about as bad as Nabiki." "Who's Nabiki?" "Nabiki Tendo, the Ice Queen of Furinkan. She's the older sister of Akane and she's what you would call a mercenary." "Mercenary?" "Uh huh. I know about her because I used to go to Furinkan. She's into blackmail, extortion and information gathering. If you want the dirt on someone, she's the one to see, for a price. She also sets up betting pools. I'm pretty sure she had one going yesterday. I guess when you won, you must have really upset her profits!" "I see." Ranma said quietly. Then another thought came to him. "By the way, since you used to go to Furinkan, maybe you can confirm some rumors I've been hearing from there." "Like what?" "Well, I was considering to enroll at Furinkan when I came to Tokyo, but when I heard some crazy stories, I decided to enroll here because those stories sounded too unbelievable!" "Believe me! Anything that you have heard from Furinkan is true!" Sodan affirmed. "You mean, the part where they have some crazy Hawaiian nut for a principal?" "You got it! He was the main reason why I transferred to this school! When he showed up at the beginning of the semester, he made up this stupid rule that all boys had to get buzz cuts and all girls get bowl cuts!" "Are you serious?" Ranma began to unconsciously finger his ponytail. "I'm serious! Then he made all the students go chasing around the school, looking for some stupid coconut that had a 'get-out-of-rules-free' paper in it! He set up weird traps and stuff and even hadseveral dozen principal's offices to annoy the students! After giving him several rounds of torture, we finally managed to make him give up that haircut idea for a while! Since then, he's been coming up with all sorts of ways to torment us! I left for Himoto soon after that coconut incident. From what I've heard, he's still after everyone's hair! I've seen him leap out and cut off a student's hair in three seconds with those barber shears of his! The longer your hair is, the more likely a target you become!" "Whoa, that's weird!" It was at that moment that Kai came running up to the group. "Hey guys! Look what I've got!" He began waving a handful of large denominations of yen notes. "Hey Cojiro! Your fighting style is really raking in the big bucks!" "Oh really?" Ranma responded. "I'll say! That tape I made of you fighting Furinkan yesterday is the hottest item on the market! Lots of students are wondering if you could start a class and teach that Neko Ken of yours! They're willing to shell out a lot of money to attend!" "This could help out our sports and other physical activities clubs." Sodan suggested. Ranma sighed and sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry guys, but I can't teach anyone how to do Ultimate Neko Ken." "Huh? Why not?" Kai asked. "I can't teach anyone because of two reasons. First of all, I'm still developing this fighting style. I'm not even sure what limits I can attain with it. Secondly and most importantly, the initial training to this style is far too dangerous. I found out the hard way that learning the technique would cause severe mental trauma. The technique can also be lethal to innocent bystanders. I was lucky because I found a way to control it. Purely by accident and it can't be duplicated." "I hate to tell you guys but Ultimate Neko Ken is off limits." "Aw come on Cojiro. You can bend a little on that right?" Kai pleaded. "I said no and I mean no!" "But?" "Leave him alone Kai. If he says that it's too dangerous and he can't teach it to anyone, then we should respect his wishes. After all, he won the No Holds Barred tournament for us." "Oh yeah! Speaking about the tournament, I just heard some really important news from Furinkan!" "What was it?" Ranma asked. "Because they lost to you yesterday, the entire student population had to submit to buzz cuts and bowl cuts!" "What?! I thought the principal gave up on that idea!" "Apparently not! It seems that Kuno had signed a contract with the principal, confident that Furinkan would win! Of course, he was too busy bragging about his 'superior fighting skills,' that he didn't bother to read the fine print. If Furinkan won the tournament, then the principal would resign. However, if they lost?" "Then everyone would get buzz cuts and bowl cuts." Ranma finished. "You got it!" Kai nodded his head. "After you had beaten their team, he put everyone under those shears of his! And get this, you know that Ukyo guy you fought?" "Yes?" Ranma began to get nervous. "Turns out that he wasn't a guy, he's a girl! Cute girl too! She just barely managed to convince him that she's female and escaped getting a buzz cut! She got a bowl cut with all the other girls! Of course this didn't make her any happier though! Everyone is really sore at Kuno for signing that contract! They also have a lot of hostility toward you!" "Hey! How was I supposed to know that this would happen?" "That may be true, but they kind of blame you for this mess! Not that it's any of our business! Hey Cojiro! Where are you going?" Ranma neither looked back nor answered as he headed out of the gym. Ranma arrived at his rented apartment an hour later and headed toward the bedroom closet. He then hauled out his knapsack and started searching.
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