A/N: I am seriously annoyed. Never mind, I'll answer...

Mingshun: Have you ever *watched* or *read* the Ranma anime or manga? If you did, then you would know that Ranma is under a bloody Jusenkyo curse. If you don't, go search the bloody web! Calm down, Calm down...

James: I would like to ask you one thing. If you have an account, it would be fun if you logged on so I can see how terribly canon your characters are. If you don't have an account, then don't make opinions! Anyway, what right do you have to say what makes "Sense" and what doesn't? This is my fic, thank you very much, so I can make my characters do *whatever hell I want.* Hear me?

Licht Sieger: Yay! Finally! A constructive review! BTW, yes, it is, but the drunken part is optional. Not to mention it looks really cool. And funny. Have you ever seen Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master"?

Ranma32: Thank you! I think so myself too. Shampoo, you say? Takes notes down

Jerry Unipeg: Thanks!

Okay, sorry if I'm overreacting, but I was shocked at some of the reviews. So I reread my fic, and I thought "Hey, there isn't anything that wrong." If I'm wrong correct me.

Conflagration of Talents

Chapter 2

"Ungh..." Ranma yawned as he woke up slowly. Looking around, though, he realized that the sky had not even started to brighten yet; he still had at least two hours until his father came to get him to go train. He blinked slowly, getting the sleep out of his eyes. He was savoring the feel of waking up in a real bed for the first time. Usually he woke up in terrible conditions, dirt and mud coating his shirt, and to relax in soft sheets was heaven. He stretched languorously, feeling his bones pop and his muscles tense... and then he encountered a warm body next to him.

"What the...?" He gaped as he slowly, carefully inched away from a chestnut-haired girl snuggling closer to him. '*Oh, no... Akane?! She is so gonna kill me when she finds out about this...*' The handsome martial-artist quailed in fear at the very thought. It had only been a few days since he had gotten here, but he knew very well the legendary temper of the youngest daughter of the Tendos, and it seemed that the topmost thought in her head every time he met her was "Pervert".

But... as it was, the feeling was actually quite pleasant. She was curled up against Ranma, and he felt... protective, he supposed.

'*Don't be stupid! What are you thinking, Ranma?! This is AKANE you're talking about here!*' cried a little voice in Ranma's mind. It was the same voice that usually came out right before his Pop did something incredibly stupid, or Akane was about to deck him.

Quietly, he slipped out of bed and into the backyard, thinking all the time about the hot-tempered young girl who seemed to have an obsessive desire to hit him for no reason at all.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Ranma slowly began one of his katas. It was a rather simple one, one he had learnt a long time ago. But simplicity was often belittled by opponents, and in its predictability sometimes enemies lowered their guards and became complacent. He moved quickly, but nowhere near his real speed, and threw a series of punches into the air, his movements graceful and fluid. It was one of the first ones his father had taught him, and he had been so proud when he'd first learnt it.

And then, of course, his father had to ruin that moment. He had brought him out for a little celebration... and then seen this absolutely fascinating puzzle, as his Pop called it, but that was little more than a series of rope twisted together. After spending their celebration money, he of course did not want to lose face, so he still proceeded to buy a dinner for the boy, then running away before he could pay it. The restaurant owner did not take kindly to it, and had started advancing menacingly towards the boy... he could still remember everything as clearly as if it had happened only one day before.

FLASHBACK (A/N: I guess I'll just do the flashbacks like this)

<<"That fat bastard ran out on us!" snarled a tough-looking middle-aged man with a swastika tattoo on his forearm. He smashed a fist into a wall.

"Damn. Wait... he left his kid behind!" Another greasy-haired man smirked. "Let's... make an example of him..." They moved on, but before they could do anything the small boy who they had taken to be about eight years old punched the greasy-haired one in the stomach hard. He doubled over in pain, and Ranma leapt forward, rolling to avoid the clumsy attack by the bigger one. He then jumped and kicked the big man's head, and heard it snap backwards. It would not be fatal, as he was not very strong, but it would *hurt.* The man yowled in pain, and Ranma followed his instincts and whirled around to grab the arm of the greasy-haired man who was about to hit him with a chair. He twisted and dropped to the floor, and with a sickening crunching noise the man's arm broke. The man screamed in agony. Ranma jumped over them before they could react, and zipping over a table to block their way, the little boy ran out of the restaurant and into the streets, pausing for a moment to look down at his hands with a sad, solemn expression. He did not stopped until he had reached his father... but he found no comfort in that sector either. Running into a deserted temple they had designated as their "home", he found his father there pacing nervously around.

"Pop, I hurt one of them... I hurt him!" He cried out to his father. The man frowned down at his son. "Come on, boy, show some backbone! We've got to do these things now and then, you know... we have to survive too!" Ranma's father carefully peered out into the street, looking for signs of men chasing them. When no one came, he motioned for the boy to follow him, then moved forward, never noticing the dark-haired boy's anguished expression.>>

END FLASHBACK

Ranma frowned at the memory. Pushing it out of his mind, he began to work at a more advanced kata, moving quickly up the scale as a familiar boiling anger started in him.

'*So... this is the one.*' A voice suddenly spoke in his mind. Ranma lost his concentration and balance in shock, nearly tumbling into the koi pond. He had been edging closer to it with every step he took, and he had not realized it! He scowled at possibility that somewhere in his subconscious he *wanted* to become a girl. It couldn't be. Even if he had felt a strange attachment to cold water quite often...

'*Rather odd, his mind, isn't it?*' Commented a male voice. Ranma froze. He had *voices* in his head?

'Of course you do, dear. Don't worry, you're not mad,*' assured a maternal kind of voice. Ranma relaxed. That was one problem gone. Then, he nearly shrieked.

He was taking advice from a *voice?!*

'*That's getting annoying. Stop that!*' A grumpy old man's voice this time. Ranma did the only thing he could do at that moment: roll his eyes up in disbelief and collapse bonelessly to the floor.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

"Ranma? Hey Ranma, wake up!" A feminine voice said, clearly irritated.

"Huh..?" He opened his eyes to see Akane standing over him with an annoyed look on her face.

"You fainted in the courtyard," Akane said smugly. "Awfully girly, don't you think?"

"Hey!" Ranma protested, standing up. "I'm fine, it's just that..."

'*You thought voices were in your head?*' inquired a sophisticated voice.

"Well, yes, but..." Ranma paused as he saw Akane, her family and his father stare at him strangely.

"What?" He asked, irritated.

"You just responded to nothing," Nabiki pointed out.

"No I didn't, it's just that..." '*What? You do have voices in your head! Smart ones, too.*' The black-haired boy screamed in frustration.

"I have... voices in my head." He finally told them.

"You have voices in your head, son-in-law?! NOOOOOO! My son-in-law is crazy!" Soun sobbed into Kasumi's shoulder. She patted her father absently. Her attention was focused on Ranma.

"Umm... yeah, and there's quite a lot of them too," The youth continued, much cheered by the fact that the voices might dissuade the head of the Tendo House from marrying his daughter(s) married off to him.

'*Eight of us, to be exact,*" said a rather cheerful, wise voice in his head.

"I mean *eight* of them," The teenager corrected.

"Eight?!" Genma gasped. He turned to face Soun. "Do you think..."

"The Eight Immortals?" They chorused in unison.

"'Eight Immortals'? What kind of cheesy name is that?" Nabiki snorted as she grabbed a sandwich from the breakfast table. Ranma looked around blearily, realizing that he was lying on several dining chairs put together to form a kind of sofa. It was a Saturday, as he recalled, so no one would--

"Oops!" exclaimed Nabiki as she accidentally toppled a glass of cold water onto the makeshift sofa. From that moment until roughly ten seconds later, everything went into slow motion, and Ranma gasped as the water slowed down, moving sluggishly through the air, some in separate particles, others in a fluid mass. Moving like lightning, he slid off the "sofa" and under the table, lunging out the other side. Then everything accelerated, and his surprised father, who was standing behind Ranma, got dunked and promptly turned into a panda.

"Whoa!" gaped Akane as she realized that Ranma had moved to the other side of the table in the blink of an eye. Nabiki's eyes widened quite a bit, but she did not comment. Her father held up a sign saying "That's a great improvement, boy!" Soun was just standing there with his mouth hanging open, and Kasumi let an "Oh, my" escape her lips before magically producing a mop and bucket from nowhere and started wiping up the mess.

"Hey! I didn't know I could do that!" Ranma said cheerfully, as he panted. That slow motion thing really took the wind out of him! He was in a good mood; Soun feeling disappointed in him, meaning less chance of a marriage, and he had escaped turning into a girl!

'*Not bad! He's discovered that already?*' a good-natured musical voice asked.

'*No, we're just as shocked as them,*' responded a rough voice. It sounded quite impressed.

That's definitely the power of the Eight Immortals!" Soun cried with a delighted expression on his face, earlier grief completely gone.

"Yes, he'll make a perfect match for one of your daughters! Perfect! And it's all thanks to me, and my excellent teaching!" Genma congratulated himself.

"What are you talking about?" asked an irritated Ranma. "I have voices in my head! It's not natural! I'm disabled, I can't marry your daughters!"

'*Hey! Take that back!*' snapped a rich baritone voice.

"No, no! This is a blessing! You're great indeed Genma, your son has been chosen!" Soun wept happily.

Then, of course, by some freak chance the mop Kasumi was using suddenly snapped, sending a spout of water Ranma's way. His feet got drenched, and before he knew it he was no longer a he anymore. The redheaded girl sighed, and stood up, frowning at the two soft mounds on her chest. Ah well, she had been relatively lucky, she supposed.

'*Oh my!*' The maternal voice said happily. '*Finally we have a girl as our Chosen!*'

'*Umm... I think he's a boy that fell into Jusenkyo, actually,*' a fluid, deep voice interrupted.

'*So? It still amounts to the same thing,*' the musical voice joined in the conversation.

'Umm... who are you guys?' Ranma thought.

'*Later there'll be time for introductions. Right now I think you'd better look back at your family, they're looking at you like you've just grown horns,*' a mischievous voice teased.

"Are you okay?" asked Akane.

"Yeah. In fact... hey Pop, isn't it time for our training?" She cheerfully said.

"Yes! Let's see how good you've become." His father said, exultant. Finally his son had accomplished *something!*

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

A/N: Hahaha. That's the end. Next chapter: The Fight! Introductions! And more Slo-Mo!

Tell me what you think! The votes are still open, the first part didn't mean anything. It's just my own preference