The True Neko-Ken


When the time for the annual competition came around again, in Ranma's
ninth year, he and the Lady prepared to return to the Mage Towers. Ranma
had spent the intervening time working on magic with the Lady, learning
to perfect his own style of casting. On his own time, he had worked out
innumerable uses of magic that would fit into his fighting style. Of
course, he was unsure whether he would ever use them, as he preferred to
fight on his opponent's level, but it was part of his family's style, to
take everything that he had learned, and integrate it into his style.

He also spent time in training the masters in his Dojo. Then too, there
was the young man who had appeared one day, a Nameless, who had asked
for training, claiming to have been sent by an oracle who had told him
to seek training under the Lord Fey. He was on some quest for vengeance,
and had left after training for only six months, but he had promised to
return, when Ranma offered to give him his name. He claimed that he
could not accept the name of Fey, until he had attained his vengeance
for the loss of his former name, and his family. He was of particular
interest to Ranma, for Li, which was the only name he would give, was
oriental. Up to that point, the only people of apparent oriental origin
that Ranma had encountered had been his Lady, and her sister. 

They did not prepare for a long journey this time. His studies with the
mages there had borne little fruit, but he had learned what he they
could teach him, and they would not stay there long. Instead, they
prepared what they would need for their stay in the Mage Towers, and on
the day the competition was to begin, Ranma led the Lady Alana to the
scrying room.

There, he filled the basin with water, calmed it with his ki, then drew
up his power, and focused it into the basin. When the water cleared,
they could see the main entrance of the Mage Towers before them. Ranma
used it to guide his ki as he wove the threads together about them, and
when he released the threads, the paths of their return opened a path
between places, a doorway in the air, through which they stepped, from
his summoning room, into the bright sunshine that poured down upon the
open courtyard. They were greeted by the Magess Liliana.

This time Ranma did not object to the rooms they were offered in the
Nobles' Hall. He was quick to ask Ariana to guide him to where the young
wizards were practicing though. This time, she did not walk with
downcast eyes. Instead, she held her eyes on him, taking in the changes 
a year had wrought. In the two years he had been with the Lady Alana, he
had filled out and gained several inches in height. Now he looked his
age, instead of younger. The difference in their years was still too
great for her to look on him as more than a friend, but she felt some
pride in him, the pride a sister might feel for a brother who has done
well for himself.

He had missed last year's competition amongst the students of the Mage
Towers. The competition he had attended had been more like an entrance
exam, and the competitors had been trained by outsiders. The ones he
watched now, as he sat again in his familiar perch above the barracks,
though these were not the same barracks he had lived in, were definitely
more skilled, and he was delighted at some of the things they were able
to do.

When he joined the Masters to watch the first rounds of competition, he
was surprised to see that many of them had a fire lizard on a shoulder
or carried in the crook of an arm. "Your children have become quite
popular, Ranma," Liliana assured him. "They make excellent familiars.
They are remarkably intelligent, and can be taught simple magic. Not to
mention lighting candles with their breath." Her eyes glinted with
humour, for a silvery lizard rested upon her own shoulder, and its eyes
glinted iwth a mischievous light. He smiled back, and turning from
watching the success of his accidental creation, fixed his eyes and his
ki sight on the contests going on before him.

The next day, he went with Ariana to watch Liliana and Mardo again cast
the doors. "You know," Ariana said to him, laughing softly as they
watched the preparations, "the ironmongers in town call on the blessings
of the great Tiger Fey now. Their coffers were filled with gold when
they had to work for several weeks to craft these new doors, for the
last and third to last challenges. It was many years ago, the first time
they crafted these. They praise you, because you destroyed the doors,
and forced them to be reforged, for the first time since they were 
created."

Ranma groaned, then sighed, and said, the sadness evident in his voice,
"Perhaps this will be the year that I can open the door without
destroying it." He moved closer, and focused his mage sight and his
ki, as Mardo and Liliana began to weave their spell.

When it was complete, Ariana again turned to him. "You know, the
Masters decided this year to open your trial to the public. I hope you
don't mind. All the city heard your roar that day, and it took the
Masters considerable time and effort to prevent a panic. Also, all the
students will be there to watch. Liliana said it's to keep us humble.
More of the doors this year have been enspelled by women, to give you
more chances, and because you have really made the Masters recognize
that there really is a difference."

"Its ironic, Ariana. I will be humiliated before a whole city, when I
fail to open that door without destroying it. Yet they will cheer, and
think that I have triumphed. At least you will know. You will understand
that I have failed again."

"Don't be so negative. You might get it this time," Ariana scolded him.
She hated to see anyone looking so depressed.

He smiled at her, but it was a sad smile. "I need no false modesty,
Ariana. I have watched the casting. I do not yet know enough, or see
enough, to open these doors the way I need to. Perhaps I will be able to
use less force, to be more gentle. Nonetheless, I am still far from
being able to free my lady. You know, I never really thanked you for
what you did for me the last time." 

He looked up into her brown eyes, and smiled at her. "Thank you, Ariana.
The training I received here a year ago was well worth having, and I
appreciate it, and the comfort you gave me. I still regret laying my
burden on you, but I am glad you were willing to help me bear it."

She smiled down at him, thinking how much he looked like her little
brother when he smiled like that. It was too bad he didn't smile more
often. "I'll be there for you again, Ranma. Come to me, please. Don't
run and hide again."

"I will," he said, and his eyes held a promise to her, and he always
kept his promises.

Over the next several days, Ariana was rarely far from him. She was his
designated guide for his stay, and she enjoyed his company. After one of
the competitions, as she led him back to his room, she asked him,
"Ranma, I heard something from a guy I met in the city guard a few
months ago. He was in the border guards, and he said that when they
guided you through Farallon, to the other side... well, that you played
a flute every night?"

"Yes, I did. I play for the Lady. Given what she has had to give up by
being bound to me, I do what I can to give back. I cook for her, and I
play for her, and I take her flying. Why do you ask?"

"Well...," Ariana flushed, embarrassed. "I just... wondered why you
never played while you were here?" 

"Oh. Well, the flute I play is really the Dragon Fang, and the Lady said
it was impolite to bring weapons here. So I haven't anything to play."

"If...," and Ariana flushed again. He did this for his Lady, he said,
because of what he had given up. Why would he want to play for her? "If
I could find a flute for you, would you play for me?," she asked in a
rush, then turned away to hide her embarrassment. He didn't seem to
notice. 

"Sure, that'd be cool. Then I could play for the Lady again," he
replied.

A short while later, Ariana was sitting on a couch in Ranma's room,
while he settled himself in lotus position on the bed. He was holding a
metal flute that she had borrowed from Liliana. He fingered it for a
moment, examining the differences between it and his normal instrument.
Then he put it to his lips, and began to play.

Ariana found herself riding an emotional roller coaster, as Ranma poured
his heart into his music, his eyes closed. He played his his joy at 
soaring in the clouds with his Lady, his pleasure in the delight she 
took in their regular flights. Then he focused on the pain he felt each 
time they landed, and he knew that she could not do this except with 
him, because of him. He played his fear that he would never be strong 
enough to free her, a fear that was deep within him, but one he never 
dared put into words. He poured his hope into the flute, his hope that 
the door bound by Liliana and Mardo might one day open before him, and 
tell him that he was ready. 

He poured himself into his playing, and when he finally stopped, it was
several minutes before Ariana realized it. As she came back to herself,
she suddenly became aware that he had stopped, and was looking at her
curiously, and that there were tears trickling down her face. 

She jumped up and swept him off the bed, hugging him and swinging him
around. "That was wonderful, Ranma! Thank you." She finally set him
down. He looked a little dazed. She grinned, and bent over to kiss his
cheek, before stealing from the room, leaving him there with a look of
confusion on his face. He had been curious to see her reaction, stunned
to see her tears, and confused by her seeming happiness and enjoyment,
in spite of her tears. 

"I'll never understand girls."

---

The heavy doors swung wide before him, and Ranma, the Lord Fey, dressed
at the Mages' encouragement in the Dragon Armor which he had summoned
from its resting place in his hall, entered the long hall slowly, taking
in the challenge before him, the long sequence of locked and magically
held openings. He heard the swell of cheers, and the sibilant but muted
roar of conversation. He looked to either side, and saw that the long
rows of seats on either side, that stretched up and away toward the 
distant sky above the open air hall, that had been empty when last he
was here, were now full. 

To his right, on the lower levels, extending on down to the end, were
seated the students of the Mage Towers. To his left, in the long flat
low-walled observation area, were the Mages. Behind the Mages and the
students, on both sides, filling the stands, were the people of the
town. He saw one group of heavyset men cheering lustily on his left,
shouting out something about tigers, just behind the mages, and assumed
them to be the iron-mongers. They, if he again failed in his task, would
get a healthy commission to build the new doors. He would disappoint
either them or himself today. He suspected it would be himself. 

He stepped towards the first door, pausing before he reached it to
direct a deep bow toward the watching mages. The door was bound by a
man, and he tapped lightly with his ki. The bonds fell away, and his ki
pushed the door open before him. The crowd's roar grew muted as they
settled in to watch. 

He stepped lightly to the second door, an oaken thing. He could sense
nothing about it, so assumed it had been bound by a woman. This was only
the second door, so it would not be strong... He reached out, and opened
the door. It resisted him, but he gave a sharp tug, and it opened. The
spell cracked the air as it failed, and the door fell to dust, leaving
him holding the doorknob with a startled expression on his face.
Laughter swept the crowd, as he tossed the doorknob over his shoulder.
They could not see his face behind his helm, not from this distance, but
his posture had left no mistake as to his surprise and startlement. 

The next door again gave easily before him. When about the next, a heavy
wooden door bound with iron bands, he could again feel no magic, he
guessed they must have decided to simply alternate male and female. He
decided that he didn't really want the door too near him when it did
whatever it was going to do, so he stepped back. Remembering Ariana's
request to put on a good show to keep the city people happy, he allowed
a blue glow to gather about his hands, then thrust them forward. That
was just an act, as what he really did was to center himself to the
construct, and when he thrust his hands forward, he used the Tai Chi
Chuan to give the door a mighty thrust. It burst from its hinges, flying
forward to shatter in a flare of crackling energy against the next
obstacle. 

Ranma stepped through. The next door was again one that he could open
simply, but he had heard the crowd's sigh when he had simply walked
through as the door opened before him on the last male bound door. Oh,
well, he decided, if they want a show, I'll give them one.

Again, the crowd watched in awe as a blue glow gathered about his hands,
only to lance forward in a stream of blue light that struck the door,
shattering it. He had released the door's bonds before attacking it, so
there was no backlash. 

They followed their pattern, alternating, as he steadily worked his way
through the doors, to the cheers of the crowds. When he reached Marla's
door, he gave her a warning glance, to which she nodded, before he
repeated his previous manuever, smiling as the crowds gasped in awe as
he tore the heavy iron apart like paper. The cheer that went up from the
ironmongers was heard over the rest of the crowd, as they shouted with
one voice, "Tiger Fey!" He shattered the next door with a single punch,
then stood before the last door. 

He tuned the crowd out, as he sought to release the door, touching here
and there on it, trying to use what he had seen. But it was no use. He
would not be able to free it that way. Giving up, he heard the crowd
chanting, "Tiger. Tiger." He decided to give them what they had come to
see.

He stood before the door, and called up his aura, which licked about him
like blue flames. He waited as surprise and awe quieted the crowd, then
focused, and drew on the Neko-ken. His aura became like a half-tiger,
surrounding him, obscuring him from view with its blue spectral
appearance. It seemed solid and real, though blue flames still licked
and rippled across it. 

He drew up the threads of magic into himself with more power this time,
and again, he swelled into the image, becoming the half-man, half-tiger
creature again. He was taller this time, nearly seven feet. The Dragon
Armor still hugged his muscular curves, causing many of the watching
women to feel the heat of desire. Focusing, he drew again on his ki, and
now blue fire flickered about his form again. 

He thought about that for a minute... He had taken on the form of his
ki, but his ki was still about him. A sudden idea struck him... it would
be hard, but if he could pull this off, he'd really give them a show. He
concentrated, and his aura flared up around him, surrounding him
completely in blue flames. He reached again for the Neko-ken, wondering
what shape it would take now that he already was a cat. There were gasps
and mutters around him now, exclamations of awe, as his aura formed into
a nearly ten foot tall shape, reptilian, with huge wings that lanced out
from behind him. 

He reached again, and pulled up more threads, pouring the magic power
into this new pool of ki. And again he grew, and changed, becoming
physically, a ten foot tall scaled dragon-man, with a twenty foot
wingspan. He stretched his wings, marveling that they actually moved. It
was one thing to take on the form of a tiger... but he had actually
given himself a third pair of limbs, and they worked! He realized
suddenly that this had been a bit foolish. What if the Dragon Armor
hadn't formed holes for his wings? That could have been quite painful.

He looked over to the mages, a peculiar draconic grin on his face, as
curls of flame escaped his mouth, and saw the blank, glazed look on
Alana's face. Suddenly, he felt shamed. In his haste, he had not
considered what pain it might cause her to see that he could take on a
draconic form, and she could not. He turned back, determined to get this
over with quickly, to save her further pain. He didn't realize that her
look was not glazed with pain, but desire. While the magic was happy to
let her feel maternal love for the little boy, when she looked upon the
one she loved and saw a powerful dragon, it returned full force as a
bestial desire. Her eye's were glazed with hunger, and she was not alone
in that.

Ranma looked at the doors. He could snap the magic and open them with a
single punch, he realized. He wondered what the backlash would be
like... he grinned. His fist slammed into the doors, and they burst
asunder, as flame gouted upward, enveloping them and him in searing
flames. He didn't feel the heat of the flames, only the heat of his
triumph, as the cat and draconic urges he was feeling forced him to lean
his head back and roar to the heavens in exaltation!

His ki filled draconic roar shook the hall, reverbrating in the excited
crowd's bones. Even as his roar faded, and the primitive urges he felt
from the cat and dragon bodies were sated, his shame and failure came
home to him. He banished the dual forms, and collapsed to his knees,
crying hot burning tears of shame. Alana, who had leaped down and run
towards him when he roared, the flames of desire overcoming her, stopped
suddenly when he became human again, but immediately returned to her
forward motion, maternal concern now her driving force. She reached him
just as Ariana did from the other side, and she saw the genuine concern
in the young woman's face as she looked down on the crying boy. 

"We've got to get him out of here. If the iron-mongers or the Masters
come and try to congratulate him while he's like this, I don't know what
he'll do," Ariana shouted to be heard over the din of the crowd.

"Help me carry him," Alana replied, "He's heavy with his armor on." She
reached out to him, then drew back. "Careful, its still hot from those
flames. We've got to cool him off first." They both cast wind spells
then, drawing the heat away from his body, until they could lift him
between them, and spirit him away from the hall. 

They brought him to his room. He collapsed into sleep as soon as they
lay him on his bed, having become only just aware enough to banish the
Dragon Armor somewhere along the way. They worked quietly together,
removing his outer clothing, and getting him under the blankets.

Alana and Ariana sat by his bed. Ariana told Alana of finding him and
comforting him after his seeming success the previous year. Alana, in
her turn, after making Ariana promise never to tell Ranma, told her of
his early life, and what had happened to him that prevented him from
being able to sense feminine magic. 

Ariana began to question her about other things Ranma had said, and 
Alana soon found herself telling Ariana the whole story, from the first
day that Ranma had come to her, and freed her from Fey only to bind her
to him.