The servants led them to the throne room after they had been fed breakfast. The doors opened to the audience chamber to reveal twelve people standing in front of the king. There were men and women decked in different armors and robes, with hands holding various weaponry.
"Heroes," the king said, "As promised yesterday, I have recruited companions who will accompany you on your journey. Apparently, everyone gathered has already decided which hero they wish to follow."
"It would make more sense to divide them up evenly, but then again this was a different world," Ranma thought.
"Now then future champions, please set forth with the hero you choose."
The warriors moved to their chosen hero. Ren the Sword Hero got five, Motoyasu the Spear Hero got four and Itsuki the Bow Hero got three. Which left him with nothing, "…sigh…" Given what Motoyasu had said about the shield being weak it made sense that most would gravitate to whom they considered the strongest. But still, there should have at least been one or two curious enough to try.
There was an awkward silence as people noticed what had happened and must have been waiting for him to say something. Well what could he say, the people had made it clear that they did not want to fight with him. It was not like he wanted someone forced along with him and fighting alone was not exactly a new way of doing things for himself.
The silence stretched on as he said nothing and tension started to mount. "We-well. Dear me, I would never have thought such a situation could occur," the king stated breaking the silence.
Ranma rolled his eyes, "I'm fine."
"…what?"
"I said I'm fine, I'll fight alone. It's not a problem."
That brought a fresh round of silence, most of the adventures probably afraid they would be forced to pair with him sighed in relief. However Ren spoke up, "I would not advise that especially given your weapon."
"Yuusha-sama, I'll accompany the shield hero instead."
A women who had rushed over to the spear hero, moved away from the pretty boy and made her way over to him. She was shorter than him with semi long crimson hair braided up in an ornate band. She looked perhaps one or two years older than him and her eyes and voice sparkling with enthusiasm. In fact she looked and sounded like Nabiki back when she had falsely declared her love for him in such a way that it fooled everyone for a second.
Nabiki, why did this girl make him think of Nabiki?
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"It would be unthinkable to leave a newly summoned hero alone in a new world."
Again he felt like he did whenever he spent time with Nabiki, nerves perhaps?
The king asked again if anyone else would join him, no one did. "Unfortunately Shield it appears you will have to scout additional talent for yourself, but fret not I will give you a bonus on your monthly war fund."
So he was getting paid for this too, well that was cool. A servant distributed four pouches one for each of them. "Eight hundred silver coins," he was told.
Well that helped but besides food what was he supposed to do with the rest. "I am Mein Sophia" she told him as the king dismissed them. "Ranma Saotome" he replied holding out his hand.
She hesitated for a moment but shook his hand all the same. "How well do you know the area?" he asked.
"Very well."
"Then show me where I can start fighting."
Her eyes twinkled with amusement. "Um Shield-sama, should you not get better equipped first?"
So that was what the money was for. Well weapons would be a lost cause since the shield would not allow that. Armor was too heavy and would mess with his movement style, unless. "Can you show me the way?"
"Of course."
1
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She led him out of the castle and into the surrounding city. The place looked good, cobble stone streets, signs hanging from the doors, running sewers, clean air. It was something right out of a fantasy novel, "This way. I'll lead you to the best weapon shop in town."
"The legendary weapon won't allow me to use other weapons," he told her. "So that would be pointless."
"Oh, I did not know. My apologies."
"No problem."
"Well he does sell armor too so perhaps that?"
"Depends" he answered as she led on.
She led him into a store with wall-to-wall weapons and armor, each looking like well crafted equipment. The shop owner cheerfully greeted them as they entered the shop. "Welcome."
He was a big man and well muscled. The muscle development looked thicker along his right arm consistent with a blade smith. The man must make everything himself to be that buff.
"Oh, a first time customer. It seems that you came in without knowing what you're looking for."
Ranma shrugged, not quite true but he'd roll with it.
"That is why I brought him here" she said with a simle.
"Thanks a lot, Mein-chan."
"No problem. It's simply that Oyaji's shop is famous around here."
"Oh ma'am, you're flattering me. But isn't the outfit of your boyfriend over there a bit weird?"
"We're not together," Ranma corrected out of reflex.
They both flinched at how fast he had said that. "Sorry" he said "She is helping me prepare for the wave."
"This is the hero of the shield Oyaji," she told the man.
The man looked him up and down like he was examining a blade, "A hero?" He looked him over again. "You look like you have some training."
Understatement, he nodded "Yes, I have some training."
"I see, well what can I do for you?"
Mein looked like she was about to speak, "I'm looking for armor but not the normal kind," he told the smith slash store owner.
"Oh?"
"I don't need heavy armor, I don't want light armor either. With the way I fight they would be a detriment, the heavy armor for the weight, the light armor for the lack of flexibility. What I need is clothing that counts as armor if such a thing even exists."
The shopkeeper stared at him strangely. "I would not suggest such a thing. There are clothing sets with magical properties to resist things better, but they are not as good as even the lightest armor and twice as expensive."
"So you do have some."
"Yes but…"
"May I see them?"
"…ok."
The man went to the back room and the girl turned to him, "Hero-sama are you sure? Given that your weapon does not have high Attack it might not be wise."
She was thinking with this world's logic and he could understand where she was coming from but he knew his own limits. "Trust me" he told her.
The shopkeeper returned with a set of dark clothing, the pants were black with a vest of the same color. The right side of the pants had a length of leather that covered the leg even more and was held in place by a band of leather sewn into the left hip. On the right side there was sleeve with a pauldron attached to the shoulder, while the left arm was bare from the shoulder down. Two black gloves that covered the forearm were also included.
"This was commissioned by a noble with strange tastes in fashion, he died before he could pick it up and it's been in the store room ever since. This has been magicked to increase the user's Agility by a small amount and to grant slight resistance to slashing, stabbing, and blunt force. It has a small resistance to every element and it can repair damage to a small degree."
Ranma blinked, "That's a lot of enchantments."
The shopkeeper nodded. "Cloth has the property to take in a lot of enchantments but individually they cannot be pushed very far."
"How much?"
"Now I already got paid to create it, so I'll give a discount since it would be good to get rid of it. Four hundred silver."
Mein pursed her lips but said nothing as Ranma paid the man. "You can use the changing room over there."
"Thank you Oyaji-san," he said as he entered the room and moved to change his clothing. The outfit felt good, the open sleeve was especially good for his shield arm as it made things easier to get on. He glanced at himself in the small mirror set in the room, this clothing looked as if he had seen its like before. Something from the cover of a movie called Advent Children, though he could not remember the specifics of the picture and decided that it did not matter.
As he stepped out he noted the annoyed look on Mein's face but it vanished underneath a smile as he stepped out. "You look good Ranma-sama," she told him.
"Ranma is just fine" he told her.
"Ah, as you wish Ranma."
"That looks surprisingly intimidating on you" the shopkeeper said. "I hope it serves you well."
They gave their farewells to the shop owner and exited the shop. "You are a strange one Ranma," Mein told him as she led the way towards a large gate.
"If you stay with me you'll get used to it, by the way where are we headed?"
"I was thinking Ranma should engage in some mock battles with lower class demons to see your combat potential."
"Fighting huh, that sounds fun."
1
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The grasslands were wide and vast. Over the plain he could make out the shapes of people and creatures, some of which were fighting each other. As they walked out one of the strange creatures floated over the ground towards them. "It's an Orange Balloon Ranma, one of the lowest monsters however it is very aggressive."
The thing was a round orange ball with a mouth and eyes and that was pretty much it. He just stared at it as the thing leapt at him, mouth open. With an almost nonchalant movement he caught the thing by its face, forcing the mouth closed. The thing struggled a little but its strength was no match for his own. Holding it for a moment he shrugged and squeezed, and wouldn't you know they exploded just like a real balloon when popped. "1 Exp, 1 copper"
"Money falls out of these things?" Ranma asked incredulously.
Mein shrugged, "Of course how else do adventures make their money."
He pressed the balloon corpse against the shield, and just like it had done with his translation guide, the shield absorbed the skin, and then informed him in a pop up that he needed ten more balloon skins to unlock the Balloon Shield. There was several growling sounds as a whole mess of orange balloon's burst forth from a bush that should not have been able to hold that many.
"Hero-sama look out!" Mein called just a bit too far away to react immediately.
"Ki becomes speed, it hardens the bone, strengthens the muscle. From this idea is born the power to strike, from the strike is born Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken"
Those thoughts rolled through his head swift as a bolt of thunder, a reminder of what he was capable of. To the eyes of anyone watching he stood up. If any high level adventurer happened to be in the area, and had a focus on the stat of Agility, they might have been able to see fists blur at impossible speeds.
But to those watching Ranma stood up and nine balloons exploded. Mein was speechless and confused looking around for a mage or someone to explain what had happened. Ranma on the other hand was counting, "…eight, nine, huh, that's convenient." So he got nine more xp points and nine more copper and enough balloon skins to unseal the Balloon Shield.
Requirements for the Balloon Shield Unsealed.
True Power Sealed…Equipment Bonus: Defense Boost…Special Effect: None
The shield changed from the Small Shield to a rounded orange shield with an almost rubber like quality to the touch. "This is really, really, cool," Ranma said as he looked at his new found shield.
"Hero-sama what happened?"
He pursed his lips, it cost him nothing to tell her what happened, but something about this girl reminded him of Nabiki. Something he could not place his finger on. Several times he had told Nabiki something thinking it would cost him nothing only to find it used against him later. So he shrugged, "Not sure, maybe a wizard did it."
They stayed out there for a few hours longer, killing different kinds of weak balloon's. By absorbing several different color balloons he discovered the Balloon Shield's true power…it could change color. And no it did not do anything more to the stats of the shield.
He made a note to find out more about the true power of shields, despite the balloon shield's being not very useful he was willing to bet that others would be much better. "Exp gained 32, copper gained 32"
Ranma Lvl 2
The level up was the strangest thing he had ever experienced. His stats went up by numbers of 11, 12, and 10 in respective categories. His Defense received a 12, his Attack an 11, MP/KI 10 along with his HP, Intelligence 1, Agility 2. He flipped the thing over to girl side and noted that Intelligence was now 12, Agility was 11, while Attack was 1 and HP was 2.
It went against everything he had ever learned, to increase the bodies prowess was long, hard and grueling work, it was not a matter of fighting opponents until a bar told him he reached a new level. But for this world that was exactly what is was, not that he was going to slack off in his training, hell perhaps training would give exp too.
They returned to town and Mein led him to an inn where he bought them rooms and a meal. Mein than produced a map, "The best way to begin in this country is to travel here to Raffan where there is a novice dungeon outside its limits."
"Why would we want to go to a dungeon?"
"…because that is where monsters live who give good exp."
"Oh, then where do you put criminals?"
The girl stared at him for a moment. "Oh that's what you meant, sorry I forgot, yes there are dungeons for criminals but they are mostly inside of the town or city limits. Anything outside can generally be considered a monster dungeon."
Ranma nodded, more information about this world was good information. One of the waiters delivered them a bottle of wine. Ranma shook his head, "No thank you."
Mein gave the man a coin and took the bottle pouring herself a glass, "You don't like wine Ranma?"
"Never touched the stuff, I saw what it did to my dad and despite how funny it was to watch I never want to be like that."
"…I see."
That conversation seemed to end the night and Ranma went to his room. He planned to sleep with his new clothing on, after all one never knew. He glanced at the bag of silver coins at his side, should he?
When traveling with his pa one always had to keep it hidden lest the old man sniff it out and steal it in the name of training. So…why not. He slipped out of his window on the second floor and spent several minutes finding stones and pebbles of appropriate weight. Slipping back into his room he emptied the coins into a makeshift sack made of his old clothing and placed the rocks and pebbles in the coin bag, covering the top with ten silver coins so that if someone peeked in there it would look real in the dark.
That done he laid down on the bed, frowned and moved to the floor pulling a pillow after him. He then followed his evening ritual of meditation, which he was not very good at, until he fell asleep. It was a myth that one needed to be cross-legged to mediate, the action was possible from any position and while doing any action, Ranma preferred to do so while lying down.
To his amusement the status screen popped up as he did so, "New Skill – Meditation: Intermediate. Meditation increases MP/KI recovery and encourages healing."
"That was cool," he thought as he drifted off to the world of dreams. Given what he knew of this world by the time he made it home he was going to be able to kick anyone's ass, even that evil midget Happosai. Well at least that was if he could get home, surely if there was a way here, there would be a way back. But then again the rest of the heroes were dead in their own world so that was also something to consider.
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Some instinct woke him in the night, his ki rocketed into action burning his veins and mind with light. He sensed magic an instant later. It was a dampening thing, clouding his mind and encouraging him to sleep. Well if magic wanted him to sleep that was the last thing Ranma wanted to do. He forced his eyes open as the door to his room was cracked, stilling his body he waited as the light spilled over him.
From his slightly cracked eyes he could see the intruder, "Mein?" he thought. He watched the woman move silently across the room to the table where his decoy bag of silver waited. She glanced in it and a very Nabiki like smile ran across her face. With conservative motions she placed the coin bag on her belt before gliding over to his fake sleeping form.
"How to handle this" Ranma thought. His first instinct was to leap up and start into action, but he kinda wanted to see what was going on. This girl had joined him and his instincts had told him something else was going on and now that it was happening he kind of wanted to figure out the whole picture. Well that and she was only stealing ten silver pieces, not that she knew it. She stood over his form frowning.
Hands reached down to unbutton his vest and deciding to scare her, he made a noise and turned over. The girl fell down on her ass just barely suppressing a yelp of fear. She stood up looking furiously down at him before clenching her fists and slipping out of the room.
She did not notice when he entered the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken and in three motions took the sack of money, got the silver coins, and returned the bag and got back into the same position of sleep even as the air stirred by the momentum caused her to stiffen and look behind herself. Seeing he was still under the *Sleep* spell she sighed and closed the door.
Well that was that. She certainly did not want to really fight alongside him that much was clear, either she was going to be gone come morning or pretend not to know anything just like his Pa. So either a thief or a moocher who wanted a free ride with whatever he was doing. That annoyed him but not so much as it would have if his instincts had not been screaming about her the whole time. Besides, he had prepared for it and his preparations had worked so nothing needed to be done tonight. With that covered he slipped back into a wary sleep just in case she figured it out and came back.
He woke up the next morning to the door splintering apart as several heavily armed men burst into his room. "Hero of the Shield you are under arrest for…" whatever else he had been saying was silenced by Ranma's reaction. He had come out of full sleep to fully awake in less than a second and his body reacted without checking in with his mind at the sight of armored men with hard angry faces charging him.
He had surged up from his position on the floor, leg shooting out at a diagonal, the full length of his body moving in tandem as his foot caught the knight who was speaking on the chin. The force of the blow lifted him up in the air, slammed him against the roof, and brought him down in a painful crash landing on the floor.
The second knight surged forward with a cry of rage, his sword in the act of being drawn from his sheath. Centering his body Ranma surged forward, fist lashing out to strike the center of the armor. Now by any reasonable standard of existence his fist of flesh and blood should have broken on the breastplate of solid metal. But unfortunately for the knight Ranma was not a reasonable existence, the blow dented the metal inward and sent the man flying out the broken doorway and into the wall across the hall. The landing was so hard that he did not fall forward but remained stuck in the wall. Two faces in helmets poked their heads around the doorway, eyes wide with shock.
"Exp 450"
Ranma Lvl 8
The two remaining knights gulped. "Now," Ranma said easily, "What is this about?"
The one to the right gulped. "Um, you're under arrest for sexual assault?"
"Really, and pray tell who did I do that to?"
"Um the king demanded you brought before him."
"Two plus two equals four," Ranma muttered. That little bitch, robbery does not work so she tries false accusations. Or could this have been her plan the whole time? "I did nothing" he told the sweating pair of knights.
"I understand that but um, um, would you please come with us to see the king?"
Ranma shrugged, no sense in running away. Time to find out what was really happening. "Sure" he told the knight.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Um, any chance you would come in restraints?"
With casual effort he reached down to the unconscious knight at his feet touching his fingers to the metal. With a squeeze he indented his fingers into the armor and lifted the man up by finger strength alone. Walking past the pair he did the same to the other knight pulling him out of the wall with his other hand. Each man weighed at least three hundred pounds in full armor and he was holding them up by finger strength alone.
He looked at the talkative knight. "I guess not" the knight said, answering his own question.
There were several more knights outside and by the time they reached the castle Ranma was carrying two more over his shoulders. The other five knights had wisely decided that they could not beat him.
"Exp 450"
Ranma Lvl 10
He went to the audience hall and as all eyes turned to him filled with disgust and anger, he dropped the four knights on the ground. Several of the guards in the hall started in surprise, one lowering his spear to the attack position. Ranma tossed one of the KO'ed knights into him knocking him to the floor.
He stalked forward. The king was sitting on the throne, his face a mask of rage. His minister with the golden circlet stood to his side, his face a neutral mask. The three other hero's stood to the left of the king. Ren looked troubled as he gazed at him. Itsuki was staring at him defiantly. Motoyasu was glaring at him with as much hate as the king was. Mein stood behind him, Ranma noted the money bag at her waist, and the stupid girl probably had not even opened it since last night. As their eyes met hers glinted ever so slightly in triumph before she hid behind Motoyasu in the perfect image of a traumatized child.
Everyone to the man, the heroes, save Ren, nobles, and guards stared at him like he was a demon. "Sup" Ranma asked the silent court.
"You, you monster!" the king yelled. "Why is he not in chains!?"
Two guards moved to make it happen, both were well dressed and better equipped than the knights sent to arrest him. Not that it mattered that much, the guard striking to his left was faster than his counterpart moving in low from the right, his spear snaking out in a swift thrust.
Moving at a diagonal Ranma side stepped the thrust moving towards the guard. The poor man did not have time to do anything as Ranma grabbed him by his helmet and slammed him to the marble floor. In the next heartbeat he leapt into the air performing a full backflip over the guard striking at him from behind. His leg swept out kicking the guard's legs out from under him. As he struck the floor Ranma stomped hardon his breast plate, leaving a perfect impression of his foot in the armor.
"Exp 640"
Ranma Lvl 12
"So," he said casually as if nothing had happened turning back to the king, "what is this about?"
More knights and guards poured into the room, weapons drawn, but putting themselves between the king and him. The king looked even more livid, "How dare you pretend to know nothing you devil!"
Mein spoke then. "Sniff… Hic… Shield Hero-sama got drunk yesterday… Hic… Th-then he suddenly burst into my room, giving into his beastly desires while forcing himself on me." She held herself tighter against the spear hero fake tears streaming down her face. "He said 'The night is still young' and violently tore my clothes off."
Motoyasu then comforted the sobbing Mein.
"I-I was horrified… I ran out of the room, screaming for my dear life when Motoyasu-sama appeared and defended me."
"…" Anger, bubbling anger surged thru his body but he fought it down. "So I chased you after I assaulted you?"
"How dare you talk to her," Motoyasu snarled. "I don't care what you think you are, touching a woman who does not want it is criminal."
*Eye Twitch*
"So you didn't steal anything from me Mein?" Ranma asked.
The girl whimpered and the king spoke, his voice like a headsman's axe, "Silence you fiend!"
"You brutally committed rape against my dear countryman, villainǃ If you weren't a hero, I would have you executed on the spot!"
More anger built. "So she just accuses me, with no witness, no evidence, and I'm guilty?" That was not fair but the looks of everyone here told him exactly that. Every eye here was not only judging, every eye here believed he was guilty and every eye here had been waiting for it, as if he had confirmed something about himself they had already known.
He met the eyes of Mein again and with everyone looking at him, and no one at her, the tearful child act vanished for an instant and the bitch stuck her tongue out at him.
"Her word is enough, I want to kill you so badly hero, you hurt my child!" the king roared.
And just like that Ranma lost his anger towards the king. Now that the king had said that he could make out some of the king's features in Mein. This was not an enraged king, this was an enraged father. It was still unfair that the man did not question what had happened at all but, from what he had seen of real fathers over his life, many of them would have reacted the same way.
Now of course all the anger transferred over to Mein. He looked up and such was his glare that the battle hardened knights flinched back from it. He wanted to say something insulting, he wanted to hurt her badly. This girl was worse than Nabki, this girl…sigh had done things he was far too used to being done to him.
He was something to be used and tossed aside when inconvenient, he was nothing more to her than that. Well he knew what was going on for the most part, no point in staying when all it would accomplish was to make him lash out at the guards and knights who were only doing their job.
So he turned and began to walk away from the king, the bitch of a princess and her sap of a hero. "Where do you think you're going!?" the king roared.
Ranma did not answer, he did not care. The two guards at the entrance to the audience chamber, having got a full showing of just what he could do, wisely stepped out of his way.
"Shield!" the king roared. "I might not be able to have you killed but I will make sure my entire kingdom knows what you have done!"
Ranma ignored him again and walked out of hearing range, moving very calmly save for the sparks of ki dancing around his shield.
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The portcullis slammed shut behind him, which was pretty silly considering they would have to open it again for the other heroes to leave. But the message was clear: "The door is shut."
Why the hell did he do this?
He was always meeting people who judged him first, women who used him then tossed him aside, who extorted him for money, or bashed him over the head with oversized hammers, or declaring marriage or death. Protect the weak, that was all he was trying to do with his life, have a little fun, become better at his art and fight for those who would not protect themselves. He was not that hard of a person to figure out, so why the hell was this always happening. What was the point of doing this? The air around him seemed to quiver with violence as those thoughts turned in on themselves.
That was when he heard a cry. He looked as a small child dashed from a darkened alley. Her hair was a dark brown and ran wild around her shoulders down her back and over her chest. Above her head two raccoon like ears poked out and from under a dirty ratty shirt she wore for clothing a tail of the same color showed.
There were broken chains connected to her ankles and wrists, scratches, marks and dirt over her exposed face and arms. She was clutching some sort of glass casing in her arms and her face was pale with exhaustion. Across her back was a long bloody cut, a fresh whip mark that had elicited the cry that had drawn his attention.
The child tripped, her bare feet bloodied from the rough road of the town gave out on her and she fell forward. A man followed from the alley a moment later. He was wearing a laborers outfit, looked annoyed more than anything else, and had a long black whip pulled back for another strike. The child held up the glass casing in front of her like a shield and the man pulled back for a second only to swing in at an angle that would avoid the case.
Both the child and he were surprised when a hand caught the whip. Ranma now stood in between them, his right arm raised, the end of the whip caught in it. His eyes were deadly calm as he looked upon the man. "I really should thank you" he told him gently, though the sparks of ki dancing in his shield showed his true emotions. "For a moment there I was questioning my whole existence. I forgot for a moment exactly why I do what I do."
"Th-that demi-human is a slave, she is my master's property. If you interfere with this than you will be defying the law."
"Well," Ranma said his voice cracking, "I have good news for you."
The man had the good sense to start sweating in fear at that voice. "What's that?"
"You day at work ends right now."
"What do you…" Ranma did not let him finish as he kicked out catching the man right in the testicles. He was very careful not to kill with the blow but nevertheless that man's ancestors would be sore for weeks on end. A whimpering sound escaped his throat as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell backwards.
Turning away from him he went to the child, the poor thing was trembling eyes wide with terror. But that quickly went away as she began coughing, and it sounded bad, it was a harsh unhealthy cough that grated the ears.
He was at her side in an instinct, scooping her up in his arms. "You," he shouted at a passerby, "where is the doctor?"
The man looked at the child in his arms then at him, made a face of disgust and turned away. "You son of a bitch" Ranma swore.
Looked around he saw that everyone had vacated the street, what the fuck was wrong with this place. He felt something wet on his arm and noticed blood starting to be coughed up from the child. He was no doctor but he knew that was really bad, he ran through town but every plea for help was ignored. Running out of options he kicked in the door to the weapons shop, there were people in it but he did not care.
The shop keep looked up startled from his counter "What the?"
"I need help!" Ranma screamed at him.
He took one look at the child and shouted "Shops closed, everyone out!" Motioning Ranma forward he placed the child on the counter. More blood came out staining her clothing "She needs a doctor but no one will tell me where one is."
"What!?" the weapon maker yelled.
"Where is…"
The child coughed again but something was different, the child arched and her breath was strangled, her eyes going wide. There was no time, it was too late to get a doctor, too late for normal medical help, so he did the only thing he could.
To heal with ki was not a new thing, martial artists in his world used it all time to recover from injuries that would have crippled normal people. Using ki like that was as natural as breathing and the higher ki one had the better they healed.
But healing someone else with your ki was a different matter. With a few rare exceptions like twins ki was not compatible between people. That was part of the reason why it could hurt so much when used as a weapon. Not only was the energy hitting you but your body was rejecting the foreign ki as well. So for most ki users healing others was beyond their reach. There were a few masters in his world who could use ki to heal others but they kept their secrets closely guarded.
He had spent a great deal of his free time experimenting, mostly with plants, in an effort to create an ability that could heal others. It had taken him months of diligent, and often times fruitless, effort until at last he had made his life force match that of the plants he had been using. Once he matched that he had been able to affect and heal damage done to them, now the problem he faced was how to transfer that skill to living, thinking beings. Due to the immense danger a foreign ki could cause he had never tried it on a person.
But now if he did nothing someone was going to die, and there was no way in heaven or hell that he would let that come to pass without a fight. He shut his mouth and stepped close to the child, he placed a hand on her heart, the organ that spread blood and thus ki throughout the body. He placed his other hand on her stomach, the sea of ki as it was sometimes called, the place where the body transformed food into energy and thus into ki.
He could not allow thoughts to interfere, he let instinct take over focusing on the one thought that he would allow. His ki was going to save her, it was not going to hurt her, it could not, it simply was not possible.
His hands lit with a blinding light and he focused the force of his life, who and what he was into the child. The instant his ki touched hers and he let his instinct do the rest, there was a click somewhere in mind. His ki flared to an even greater brilliance, the shield changed. He felt the weapon shift.
"Requirements for the Reiki Shield Unsealed."
True Power Unsealed: Ki Molding…Equipment bonus: Medicine 3…Special Ability: None
The balloon shield morphed, becoming more rectangular and smaller, perhaps a foot by a foot across. The kanji for the words "Life, Hope, Ki, and Light" were written on it, one word in each corner.
As the shield came into being Ranma's ki molded itself of its own accord matching the child in an instant. She took in a startled breath as life flooded her lungs, the source of the infirmary, somehow Ranma knew that. He knew that her lungs were weaker than they should have been, he knew that her escape from the slaver had overtaxed her body.
What he also knew was that he was not going to let it happen ever again, he let the ability drain his body. His MP bar appeared and started going down at a steady rate as his ki destroyed and rebuilt the damage that years of illness had done to this child. Such a disease, it was not like an injury, it took so much more to heal. He held on like that for a full minute, his MP was nearing zero and the healing was only half way through, well screw that.
The MP bar went to zero and with an effort of will he began to use his HP to power the healing. Losing MP felt draining, losing health like this felt agonizing. Horrible pain the like he had felt only as a small child in a pit of cats or fighting against the flames of the Phoenix god Saffron. But that pain did not matter this time, he was allowing it to happen. "A martial artist protects the weak." That was his life and that was all that mattered. His eyes became blurry as the bar went below one hundred and at the point where it reached thirty he knew he was done. He let go of the power and pitched over to the side fading into blackness.