Achievement Ranma sat in silence as four old men discussed him just inside the building. He was sitting in lotus position, waiting for them to return. After they had come back from the kingdom of Farallon, the Lady had insisted that he needed to gain complete control of his ki, and brought a Tai Chi Chuan master from his own world. All that effort to let Masters reach him, and she had brought one from his home, who didn't care about the Five Kingdoms, or all the effort he had just been to. He was only now, three months later, admitting to himself that she was right. Just having the peace agreement wasn't enough. They needed to see that it would be kept, to get used to the idea, before the masters would allow themselves to be drawn out of their temples and dojos, and make the long journey to train the new Lord Fey. She was right about controlling his ki, as well. Because of the work the Tai Chi Chuan master had done with him, he could now summon the power of the Neko-ken at will, and do many other interesting things with his ki. He was still afraid of cats, but he suspected that the Lady had a plan for that as well. Now the master had gone, and returned with three others. For nearly ten hours, Ranma had undergone test after test. He had pushed hands with each of the masters, a taxing exercise that literally involved pushing hands, but was really focused on the passing back and forth of ki. He had been attacked by each master in turn, each using a different art against him, and been required to demonstrate how he could turn each style of attacks against the attacker with minimal movement, then been attacked by all four at once. They had made him attack them with the Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu, demonstrating how he had integrated the Tai Chi Chuan into his personal style. The final tests had involved him centering himself in different places and different positions, while the masters tried everything from all out attacks, to levers, to throwing stones, to breaking boards against him, to force him to move. This unusual centering, the ability to almost literally become one with the immediate environment, was one of the most powerful abilities in Tai Chi, and could literally make a master of it into the proverbial immovable object. Indeed, despite everything they had tried, he had remained where he placed himself. No the masters were closeted, discussing him. As the door closed behind the last master, he looked to Wan Go, the master who had trained the boy. "Surely you do not still expect us to believe that the boy has studied the Tai Chi Chuan for a mere three months, Wan Go? You have had your fun, now tell us the truth. How long have you been training the boy?" He grinned at Wan Go. It had been a good joke, after all. "Three months." Wan Go replied. The other three masters turned slowly and looked at him. "You are serious," Jan Fen said, shock evident in his eyes. "You are actually serious, aren't you." Wan Go didn't even have to reply. "Is he really human? That woman, who acts so much like his mother, though she does not call him son, she has the blood of a dragon, I think." "He is as human as I am," Wan Go replied. Lo Phun sighed. "It figures that the youngest Master ever to reach this level would be from another world, raised by a Dragon. Why do my students never reach this high?" "You assume too much, Lo Phun," Wan Go replied. "The Lady Alana has informed me that my student is from our world. That is why I was brought to teach him. He is the heir to the Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu." "You mean that school founded by that infidel, Happosai? How unfortunate," moaned Ko Lin. "But he has passed the tests. He is a tenth dan Tai Chi Chuan master, and it isn't even his chosen art! I hope that stupid infidel appreciates what he has in this boy." "I want to add one more test," Wan Go interjected. "I don't think I've reached his limits yet." "You want to go further?" Jan Fen was shocked. "Tenth dan is not good enough for you?" "Come. You will see. I think he can achieve something remarkable. We will see." They followed him, curious to see what more he thought this young warrior could do. Wan Go had not told them that he had asked the Lady about Ranma's astonishing speed at learning the Tai Chi. She had simply told him that Ranma's ability was a gift from the gods. Technically true, perhaps, after all, everything one was was really a gift from the gods, but useless as far as understanding the boy's amazing abilities. Wan Go had tested the boy when he first came, and found that though the boy had no conscious control of his ki, he was nonetheless using it to augment his speed, strength, and stamina in the sparring they did. Ranma stood and faced them as the four old men came out. He bowed deeply. "Student, I have one further test. Are you ready?" Wan Go challenged him. "Hai, sensei." Ranma replied. Wan Go led Ranma to a short stone column, about four and a half feet tall. "Sit upon this, and find your center. Center yourself very strongly, then I want you to meditate. I want you to hold onto your center, and meditate, and withdraw your awareness of the world. As you do this, you must not let your hold on your center falter. Do you understand?" "Hai, sensei," Ranma answered, and leapt lightly to the top of the post, settling in lotus position on it. He closed his eyes, and focused. "When you are centered, and your awareness is withdrawn, say 'Ready'. Then, wait five minutes, and return." Wan Go instructed. Ranma focused, and found his center, and firmed his center in relation to his surroundings. He steadily strengthened his center, until he was comfortable, then breathed out, and began to meditate. He held tightly to his center, until his awareness was withdrawn. He said, "Ready." but did not hear his own words. When Wan Go heard his student speak, he looked at the others, who were watching curiously, and at the Lady, who stood some distance away, watching them all, and rubbed his hands together gleefully. He had tried this many times, and failed, but he thought Ranma might finally succeed. He was so powerful in himself. Wan Go reached out with his ki, and felt the post, and located its weakness. His wrinkled hand lightly tapped a spot on it, and the post crumbled to dust. The gasps of his peers and the startled cry of the Lady were music to Wan Go's ears, as he stared bemused at the boy, still sitting four and a half feet from the ground, resting comfortably on nothing at all. He walked over, picked up a plank of wood, and placing it against Ranma's back, applied a considerable amount of force, visibly bending the plank. Ranma did not move. Wan Go dropped the board, and sat down on a bench, counting the time. At the appointed moment, Ranma's eyes opened, his senses stirred... and his mouth dropped. The old men watched, amused, as Ranma slowly... ever so slowly, reached beneath himself, staring straight ahead. They chuckled as his hand passed slowly beneath him, encountering nothing. "Uhm... Sensei... what am I sitting on?" Ranma asked. "Nothing at all, student. Nothing at all," was Wan Go's self satisfied response. Ranma stood up slowly, and the watching masters gasped again. Holding your center while moving was difficult enough... holding it while standing on nothing? As he stood, they noticed that his center wasn't really moving... His center of gravity stayed perfectly still, as his legs stretched down beneath him, but still failed to reach the ground. Now that his feet were only a foot and a half or so from the ground, Ranma felt safe enough to look slowly down. Even as he stared at the ground beneath him, he didn't fall. He looked at the grinning Wan Go, and smiled. Reaching out again, he felt the ground beneath him with his ki... and mentally gave it a gentle push. Gasps rose around as he wafted slowly upward, stopping when his feet were about three feet from the ground. He looked over at the stone wall, and mentally gave it a sharp shove. Though otherwise motionless, he still slid five feet through the air directly away from the wall. The masters were silent now, as they watched the boy creating a whole new art before their eyes. He reached out with his ki, and took both the ground and the wall, and gave an angled shove... and rotated in the air. He gulped, and pulled himself back upright. He looked at Wan Go, grinned an evil grin, and watched Wan Go gulp suddenly. Ranma reached out, held the ground very tightly, and lifted up on Wan Go. Wan Go rose smoothly five feet into the air. Ranma laughed delightedly, and released Wan Go, who promptly dropped back to the ground. Wan Go was irritated. "All right, student. Enough playing. Down. Now." Ranma dropped silently to the ground, and stood before his sensei. It didn't matter that Wan Go was irritated. Ranma was too thoroughly happy for that to bother him. He had just realized that a slight twist on this new technique would aid him in the Musabetso Kakuto Ryuu more than everything else he had learned in the Tai Chi Chuan... With this technique, there would literally be a surface to leap from or land on, wherever he needed one. They gave Ranma his dan belt, and a plaque... Eleventh Dan. Ranma was sure Master Wan Go had told him there were ten dans in Tai Chi Chuan... but who was he to argue? They were the masters. --- The Lady informed him that she would permit him two weeks to integrate the Tai Chi firmly into his style, before beginning his training in magic. He found that he did not have to perform the centering exercises to merge this new ability, that he found himself thinking of as the 'Juushin Jisei Ryuu,' or 'Controlling Center of Gravity Style,' with the Musabetso Kakuto. He did not need to be centered to mentally solidify the air just where his foot or hand would be in the next moment, and push off of it. With this addition to the Musabetso, he could remain airborne indefinitely. It was very close to flying, and he found it absolutely exhilarating. Of course, he could literally fly, as well, by finding his center and moving himself, and he trained in this as well, but it took time for it to become familiar. Rather than choosing to move in such and such a way, he had to figure out how to move in relation to some fixed object, so that his body would move as he wished it to. It was confusing, and he found it more comfortable to use leaps, with which he was quite familiar, and which he knew precisely how to control. He also developed an exercise that he would continue for the rest of his life. He worked out a means to use the Juushin Jisei Ryuu to effectively increase the weight of his body, without actually increasing his weight. It was the basic equivalent of being in a heavier gravity, but with the Juushin force being applied to whatever surface he came in contact with to prevent it from feeling the extra weight. He named it the Juuryoku, or Gravity, technique. As this developed, it had two basic effects. First, as he slowly increased the effective gravity, it forced him to become stronger to continue to be able to perform his leaping aerial katas. Second, it conditioned him to the constant use of his ki, which strengthened his body's ability to handle the flow of ki, and strengthened and deepened his ki reserves. --- Two weeks later, as they waited for his new sensei to arrive from the northern mountains, Ranma began his training in magic. His first day of training made Ranma understand why the Lady had insisted that he begin with Tai Chi. She made him center himself, and reach out with his ki, then she fired magical attack after magical attack at him. He strained to hold his center, as he was pummeled, and he used new-found mastery of ki to bat the attacks away. Slowly, as he touched the attacks, he began to get a feel for them, until suddenly, as she fired yet another magical arrow at him, he felt its weak point. With a feeling akin to exaltation, he touched its weak point with a feather light brush of ki, and the attack simply melted away. Soon after, she began stepping up her attacks, hitting him with steadily more powerful effects. Even the immaterial ones that sought to affect him without passing the intervening space could be felt with his ki, and every one had its weak point, and every one fell before a minute application of ki. It was just like the way Wan Go had caused that column to fall into dust... a little touch at the right point, and it was done. After a while, he began to feel more points on them, more detail, and finally, he stopped her, and asked her to fire a single magic arrow at him. She returned to the small, simple attack, and he caught it with ki, and held it in the air. He closed his eyes, and felt deeper, and finally he could feel where the strands of magical energy were coming from... and gathering them up, somehow, he wasn't sure, he pulled them together, and tied them to each other in the same way, and released his creation... only to get hit in the chest by two arrows... the one he had created, and the one she had sent to him. They both laughed at his blunder, then she told him to get back up, and ready himself again. Now she sent a single slow missile towards him... and he reached out with his ki... and felt nothing, and it flew into his chest and knocked him off his chair. He was excited, and demanded to know how she had hid the magic, and wanted to try it again and again, but she just smiled sadly at him, and refused. She couldn't bear to tell him that he couldn't see it because it drew from a feminine source. He was totally blind to magic from the female principle, and she knew why, and she knew he would be hurt if she told him. She would wait, and when he was strong enough to know, she would tell him. She suspected she would lose him then, but she had little choice. He would never be able to free her until he mastered both feminine and masculine magic, but she doubted even he would be strong enough to face the pain he would have to face to become whole enough to master both. Not for the last time did she curse his worse than worthless father.