Story: Akane's Dojikko-Ken

There are several tiers of martial artists. There are your novices, who either just recently began to practise or, quite frankly, aren't very good at it. They are generally only slightly above your typical random person in terms of fighting ability, if a touch more athletic. Then there are your hobbyists, who are pretty good in a fight but don't really take it too seriously.

Then there's the level that Akane had languished at. Practitioner. These people took it seriously. In the real world these are the people that do it seriously and are paid to be good at it. Soldiers, MMA fighters, boxers real professional martial artists. And if Akane Tendo had been in the real world, she'd have walked all over most of them by age 17 with the level of training she had before taking on her new martial arts style. Doesn't that say something about her bullheaded, stubborn nature, that she could push herself to being that good with that level of care being given to her by her teacher? That is to say, the barest minimum attention with most of her recent years being self taught, self motivated and self disciplined.

Practitioner is pretty much the top tier level in the real world. But in the world of Ranma 1/2, we can go a couple of steps further. Sure, a Practitioner could run headlong into a bunch of athletes her own age and tear them apart, but an Expert could do so without breaking a sweat. Similarly, a Master did not need to do so because they could simply show up and make everyone back down with a mere look. And a projected aura the size of a semi-truck.

That sounds all well and good, yes? A level of skill can be accomplished that is downright superhuman. Hard work, perseverance and determination. Except, well, for one small problem that Expert-level martial artists have to face. Maybe at some level Soun had sensed it or had been aware of it, having dealt with it himself. Maybe he didn't want to put his daughter through it. Maybe that's why he slowed down her training in the hopes that she wouldn't cross that barrier at too young an age, that she could be a little more mature and have more backup for the day that it did happen.

Because, you see, an Expert martial artist has a rather severe problem that we shall refer to as "Weird Shit". What is "Weird Shit"? Well, it can take any number of forms. The most common was suddenly being approached by people in distress because of unusual circumstances, and so they seek out someone that instinct tells them is physically and mentally capable of handling it. Or there was the second most common, in which that same instinct triggers a different kind of reaction from a particular kind of person. Not "this person can help me," but rather more....

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Mariko Konjo was doing her very, very best not to grit her teeth in frustration. Here they were, her school taking on the Furinkan Middle School in a game of inter-school volleyball. It should be an easy win for her team. It was always an easy win for her team! After all, wasn't she of the Cheerleading-style Martial Arts school?

It sounds like a bizarre and esoteric style, but it's really, really diverse. It combined flexibility (high kicks, stretching poses), dexterity (backflips, jumps, precise movements), strength (lifting fellow team members) and, above all else, being absolutely and utterly adorable. You appealed to the crowd to get them to cheer, motivating the players with your L-O-V-E!

You also interfered like crazy. Which Mariko did by tossing her baton in a spinning arc to catch one of the Furinkan players and take them out of the game - Only for the bitch with dark blue hair to stumble over it instead, giving that player the perfect chance to spike the ball just at the same moment that the baton rolled under the net, tripping up one of their own players and costing them the point. And hence the game.

All the wilie that girl was sitting on her big fat rump and rapping her hand atop the side of her head, with her tongue sticking out. How horribly uncute! Every single time she had tried to do something to help out her team that same clumsy girl had done something to get in the way, countering her attacks so that it gave Furinkan the advantage instead!

In short: She had lost. Mariko Konjo had lost. She didn't see it as her school losing, or the volleyball team losing. She had personally lost to this girl. This nobody. This non-cheerleader had creamed her in a contest of cheerleading martial arts! It was unthinkable! Impossible! It was burning her b-l-o-o-d!

"Thanks for helping out, Akane!" she heard one of the Furinkan girls say to the bitch. Akane. Mariko bit her lip. She would remember that name. She would <i>hate</i> that name! She would l-o-v-e to h-a-t-e that name!

"Um... Mariko? I think it's time for us to leave," one of the other girls said, and so Mariko reluctantly departed. For the time being. Menacingly twirling her retrieved baton in the process.

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She was skipping home, and she couldn't help herself. Inside and out, Akane was beaming with pride. She was doing it. She was actually doing it! She could feel herself getting better, faster, cuter, clumsier and growing as a martial artist with her own unique fighting style!

The only downside was that the boys at school were paying her a bit more attention than she especially enjoyed, but still! That was a small downside when she felt so overwhelmingly happy and good and was that a battle aura she was sensing?

"Two, four, six, eight! Who's the girl I've come to hate? Seven, five, three, one! My revenge has just begun!"

... Was that a cheerleader doing a series of high-kicking knees while whirling around a pair of pompoms? Ah! Danger instinct kicking in! Akane did the "dive of the friendly puppy," which involved seeming to trip over your own feet and upon hitting the ground roll over so that you landed on your backside, leaving you in the seemingly vulnerable yet extremely deadly "pose of the begging duck," from which Akane could launch any of a dozen cute, clumsy attacks or counterattacks. Good thing she had as well, since the pompom had been thrown and she'd just barely ducked under it. That wouldn't be something she'd normally care about except that it had embedded into the wall behind -

"Don't you get it, don't you see? Always watch your enemy!"

A kick swept across towards Akane's head. This girl meant business! Akane bent forward as if touching her toes, then bopped her head up to catch the girl on the underside of her knee. To Akane's amazement, the cheerleader somersaulted on the spot, landing perfectly on her feet.

Akane gulped, and her heart pounded in her chest. This girl was a real martial artist, wasn't she? Akane made to stand up, and made use of the "ring-tailed lemur's rise" to try and sweep out the cheerleader's feet from underneath her. Her currently unnamed opponent skipped over the attack, narrowed her eyes, pulled a baton seemingly out of nowhere and jabbed it towards Akane's throat. Playing for keeps?

"Whoops!" Akane said, waving her arms forward and making her bag lash out, knocking the arm away and clipping the cheerleader's chin. The enemy stumbled back a little, oblivious to the real nature of Akane's attack. "Sorry about this!"

"On that topic we shall see, just how sorry you will be!"

Oh, goodness, enough with the rhyming already. It was getting so obnoxious and - An opening appeared before her eyes. Instincts took over from a lifetime of martial arts, and she dove forward to exploit it without a moment's hesitation, even though the rational part of her brain was telling her to back off. And then her fist struck pompom, leaving her hand swept aside, and this time Akane was the one left wide, wide open. Akane's eyes went wide as she realised what she had just done. It was because she was not experienced enough in using this style of fighting against a serious opponent. If only she could have kept to it, maybe she could have -

Oof! Right in the breadbasket. This girl was fast and Akane had to - Too late! A foot landed on the back of her head, and Akane suddenly got to know exactly what pavement tasted like. For a moment the cheerleader stood triumphant with a foot on top of Akane's head.

"There's no need for your thanks, because your butt I've truly sp-"

And then the brick Akane had been carrying in her bag for weight training landed squarely on top of Mariko's head. Of course, she hadn't even noticed it flying out earlier when Akane had flipped it up at her, but that was the full nature of dojikko-ken: Misdirection was a key, crucial element. If only she had stuck to it, she could have avoided scuffing her face up.

"Oh, dear!" Akane said to her downed opponent. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine how are you?" the cheerleader replied on wobbly legs. She raised a finger, got distracted by it and fell forward. Akane caught her. The cheerleader then began pounding on Akane's shoulders with little balled-up fists. "Haaaate you so much!"

"That's nice," Akane said with a smile. "But maybe I should take you to Doctor Tofu for the time being?"

The cheerleader made as if to argue, but then tilted her head a little and nodded meekly instead, blinking with her eyes out of synch. "I'll kick your ass later."

"That's nice."

"In a martial arts cheerleading context!"

"You mean contest?"

"That's the word!"

And as Akane carried off her newfound rival for medical treatment, there was a boy with dark rings around his eyes, holding a camera at chest height. He watched them go by with raised eyebrows and held breath, then once they were out of sight he said:

"That was weirdly hot and I want to see more."

1. Mariko challenges Akane to a martial arts cheerleading contest.
2. Akane gathers another rival for herself.
3. How are Akane's sisters reacting to the change in her attitude?
4. Something else