Standard disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and all elements thereof belong to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz Video, et al. Chang Delune, Isamu Delune, and the Delune Family and history are property of their creator, me, David Gordon. Please don't sue me, I'm poor! Have mercy! etc. etc.

Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction: Pressure Treatment

-Character Summary, Chang Delune: Abilities, Personality, and History

-Martial Arts Style: Delune Family Style, a style based around speed, agility and pressure-point techniques. Also taught are use of a western-style sword and shield, and a boomerang-type weapon.

-Special Techniques / Abilities:

-Typical 'fighting anime' agility, strength, and endurance

-Ability to make superhuman leaps as per Ranma, Shampoo, and others

-Delune Pressure-Point techniques: versions of some of these have been taught to the Chinese Amazons over the years in exchange for training in other techniques unique to the Amazons, who have always been friends to the Delunes. The basic principle behind these is the sensing of where to strike with your chi to have the desired affect (cf. Ryouga being taught the Bakusai-Tenketsu by Cologne.) Chang and his father can both create new 'pressure-point strikes' on the spot, but it can take several minutes to find the proper target point unless you have extensive practice at finding the desired affect/point.

Chang has practice at:

=a more controlled version of the Bakusai-Tenketsu (he can choose which way the rock will shatter - usually away from him! Also, he need not shatter rock, but any non-living, solid material, like plastic or dead wood)

=typical martial-arts 'paralyzing' points, and the Shiatsu Sleep-Spot used (and stolen from the Delune dojo) by Happosai;

=what Chang calls the 'Momentum Strikes': a pressure-point that focuses your chi and your targets' chi into opposition, like magnetic fields, and thus sends the target flying with a totally disproportionate force away from the contact. (usually equivalent to one of Akane's hammer blows, but stronger chi create a stronger reaction, and a chi that is too weak or too powerful to affect wouldn't move at all.)

=(later) Chang's personal technique, and one that Cologne is keenly interested in when she witnesses it: the Mana Flare. Looking not at the ground, but the flow of the Earth's magical energies (referred to as 'mana'), Chang strikes his finger into the ground before him and forces the mana in a ten-foot circle around him to flare up like a volcanic eruption of pure energy. This somewhat depletes the mana there, and it can take a day or so to regenerate (less in unspoiled, natural areas), so unless Chang moves a fair distance, repeating this technique becomes less and less effective, looking like, in order, a Geyser, a Column, a Fountain, Sparks, then nothing.

-The Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken, taught to Chang's father Isamu in exchange for his teaching of pressure-points to speed up healing at the cost of exhaustion. Isamu, in turn, taught the technique to his son.

-The Delune Family Final Attack: this is revised from generation to generation, but the version taught by Isamu Delune is this: a punch uppercut designed to be blocked, but that disguises a minor 'Momentum Strike' which bounces the victim off the ground. While the victim is airborne, paralyzing strikes are directed at the shoulders, the attacker steps underneath his target, and the Amaguriken is initiated on the airborne and now unable to block victim. Finally, the victim's foot is grabbed and he is slung back and forth four times over the attacker's head (into the ground, trees, walls, or any other hard and convenient objects) and thrown away (again, usually at an obstacle.)

-Personality: Chang is somewhat rash and headstrong, with a hot temper that always seems to get him to do something he regrets. He has a rebellious streak because as his father's only child, it has always been assumed that he would take over the mysterious 'family responsibilities', and he resents that. He's almost as enthusiastic as Ranma about increasing his skills, but still has time for fun. He has a friendly 'sensei/student' relationship with Cologne, and is friends with Shampoo. He and Mousse are old rivals (the two best male martial artists around Jusenkyo) and don't like each other: Chang considers Mousse a coward who hides behind weapons, while Mousse always felt Cologne was favoring Chang over him.)

-History: Chang's family, the Delunes, have lived in the Jusenkyo Valley area for as long as anyone can remember, even Cologne. They have a small home that doubles as a dojo on the far side of one of the mountains from the springs, and often assist the Amazons and the Guide in defending the springs from the Musk Dynasty forces and keeping away ignorant travelers. The family also has some overriding purpose behind learning martial arts, but only the sensei of each generation knows for sure.

The main secret of the Delunes is a mental link forged between sensei and heir that 'downloads' (Chang's term) the memories of the sensei into the heir when the sensei dies. Isamu was the last heir, and after his wife died (meaning he would have no further children) he forged the link with Chang. Chang is a bit nervous about his father and the link, seeing as he could be getting the memories of every last Delune master since the link was learned and his father could already be in possession of that knowledge. Isamu is often extremely cryptic, fueling Chang's suspicions.

The Delunes have several rites of passage, the last of which is to devise a technique of their own, not copying anyone else. (Chang's is the Mana Flare.) Isamu also wanted to bring the family into the 20th or 21st century, so the home has a computer and, at Chang's insistence, a modem. Chang has used this over the last year or so to take correspondence courses for a full (if odd) education. But each generation of Delunes has taken a 'pilgrimage' of sorts to Tokyo, Japan, for their late adolescence. Chang doesn't know why, but he doesn't mind: it seems that over the last year or so, since Shampoo, Cologne, and Mousse vanished, all he and his father do is argue.

Thus, our young warrior comes to Tokyo (fortunately with a command of Japanese as good as Mousse's.) He's gotten less enthusiastic as he realizes he has no idea where he will live, what he will do for work, or what he's supposed to be doing there aside from watching out for "strangeness" or "evil." Somewhat irrationally, he also hopes to find a pair of martial artists who came to Jusenkyo a few years ago: had he and Isamu not been off pursuing a certain old panty-stealing thief who stole the scroll of the Shiatsu Sleep-Spot technique, they might have saved the duo from a life under a curse...

Pressure Treatment, Part 1: New in Nerima

Chang got off the train at the Nerima station and wondered what was next. {Well,} he thought, {what do I do now?} He had come to Nerima after searching through the rumor mill to find the region of Tokyo where the most strange happenings occurred, {But,} he kept thinking, {I still have no ideas about livelihood or how I'm supposed to react when something weird _does_ happen.} He sighed. {I suppose I'd better find a place to stay, and find a job - my money won't hold out for much longer. Father said the yen isn't what it used to be: now I believe it.} Consulting a map from a travel brochure, Chang headed for a residential district. {Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and get someone to take me in to work for room and board.}

It was only about a half-mile from the local high school that Chang heard the sounds of an escalating argument. Jogging in that direction, he saw five young men in white fox masks in a half-circle around a woman holding them at bay with a katana. As it became obvious that the men were trying to rob the woman, Chang's temper flared. In response, his battle aura began to glow in its peculiar silvery hue. The five men spun around in the evening light, crying "Ranma?" but sighing in relief upon seeing Chang.

"It's just some new kid! C'mon, let's get him!" the tallest cried, and the five rushed the young Chinese warrior.

"Your funerals," Chang warned as they closed in. The tallest led the way, and Chang spun aside from his punch, flicking a fingertip into the man's back as he dodged. Springing over a low tackle by the second robber, Chang again flicked his finger into the same spot on the new back. Ducking as he landed, he passed below the wild kick thrown by the third attacker, and again flicked his finger into the back as the man went by. Springing into a dive over the last two men, he flicked their backs at the same time. Rolling to his feet, he turned and clapped twice, at which point all five robbers collapsed. {Heh,} he thought, {the Shiatsu Sleep-Spot strikes again! I just hope that thief never mastered it...} He shuddered at the thought of _that_ man using the technique, and was thus startled by the quiet voice from behind him.

"Thank you - I've rarely seen such deft use of martial arts. Tell me - is your name Ranma Saotome?"

Chang jumped - the boy/girl from the time he and his father forgot to watch the springs had been called Ranma, and the name translated as 'wild horse' or 'wild stallion' - {There can't be two 'Ranma' martial artists around, can there?}

"Erhm... no, I'm Chang Delune. I studied martial arts with my father in China. And you are?"

"Nodoka. Nodoka Saotome. I'm Ranma's mother, but he and his father left years ago on a training trip and I haven't seen them since. Your hair is brown and not black, and you wear it loose, but you have the right build and you're about the right age." - {The boy at the Jusenkyo Springs was my age, according to the Guide,} Chang thought - "I thought you might be him. Genma promised to make him a man among men, and you certainly qualify," Nodoka finished. Chang choked. "Is something wrong?" Nodoka asked.

{How can I possibly tell her? First, her aura confirms the impression I'm getting from her - she's a sweet lady. She doesn't deserve to hear that her son's been cursed - especially when I have no proof. Second, this is modern Tokyo - if I spout off about magical cursed springs, she'll think I'm crazy!} "Ahem! No, no, I'm fine, I just choked on -" he thought desperately for a moment - "my gum! Yes, I swallowed my chewing gum, sorry about that. I have to get - to get _somewhere,_ so I'll just be going!"

With a cheery wave (and a huge sweatdrop), Chang leaped away to the rooftops, springing off them and landing in front of a small okonomiyaki restaurant. {Whew! I didn't want to have to explain that! Hmm, I wonder what the odds are of my meeting the mother of the boy who fell in the Spring of Drowned Girl?} Absorbed once again in his thoughts, Chang failed to notice the young lady in the restaurant doorway.

"Hello! Would you like some okonomiyaki?"

Chang jumped - {Dad would have my hide if he caught me being so unaware,} he thought, and turned to regard the young lady with brown hair much like his own - it was even the same length. "Uh, yes, I suppose," he replied as his empty stomach growled, "but I'd also like some information. I'm new around here, and I need a place to stay and work. Do you know of anywhere like that, miss?"

"Well, sugar, I might at that. Come on in and I'll give you the rundown about Nerima. By the time you leave Ucchan's, you should have a few ideas - and know who to watch out for around here," Ukyo Kuonji replied.

A fairly large meal and one conversation later, Ukyo was just finishing her usual 'tourist tale' of Nerima - omitting the Jusenkyo curses afflicting several of the residents, including her Ranma. {I should warn Ranchan that there's another good martial artist in town. I wish I could tell this Chang about Shampoo's curse (heh heh), but then I'd have to explain how she got it, and that could get Ranma in the picture. He hates for others to know about his curse!} she thought.

{Oh well, I warned him about Akane and her temper, Ryouga, the Kunos (all three,) Miss Hinako, the Golden Pair, Nabiki and her 'deals'... I wonder if I missed anyone?}

As if in answer, a table off to one side sprouted a head and bounded towards Ukyo, the legs doing the bounding hidden by a large tablecloth.

"Ukyo, my love! It's so good to see you again!"

"Ack! Tsubasa, you crossdresser, how many times do I have to tell you that you're not welcome here!?!" Ukyo yelped, then bounded away to stay out of her unwelcome admirer's reach.

"Oh, it's been such a long time! I've missed you s-" Tsubasa was cut off mid-plea by a finger jabbing at the back of his neck where it emerged from the fake tabletop. The intruder suddenly found himself unable to move as the pressure continued.

"_Excuse_ me, but the lady made it plain she doesn't want you around," Chang said. Having been brought up near the Jokuzetsu amazons had given Chang a fair respect for the wishes of female martial artists, and seeing one pursued like this just rubbed him the wrong way.

Ukyo stared as Chang frog-marched the immobile Tsubasa out the door. {Wow,} she thought, {that was quick! Hmm... I _could_ use some help waiting tables here...}

When Chang came back in, he was overjoyed to hear Ukyo's offer of a job as a waiter/bouncer. He accepted gratefully and helped her close down for the night before moving his things into her guest bedroom upstairs.