A/N: My god. I know how long it's been since I updated, and I'm sorry for (if there is) anyone waiting for its update. Thanks for your patience!

Conflagration of Talents

Chapter 5

Nabiki was starting to get very annoyed with Ranma. He was wolfing down the food like he hadn't eaten for a week. "Ranma!" she hissed. "At least eat with proper manners!"

Unknown to her, several voices in Ranma's head were also chorusing the same thing. Looking abashed, Ranma nodded and toned down his pace to something roughly half of his normal speed.

Mollified, Nabiki continued eating. The food was really good! But that was to be expected, after all. As if on cue, Ranma said around a mouthful of rice, "Wow, Kasumi, the food's great!"

"Thank you," Kasumi said, blushing. Nabiki felt a stab of jealousy immediately. She pushed it back and soon it was replaced with anger. What had Ranma done to her? A few days here and she was already getting jealous of *her own sister?!*

'*Get over it!*' She reprimanded herself. '*You'll be facing enough of that at school anyway!*'

And then, of course, that stupid thought had led on to more stupid things. '*Perhaps Ranma needn't quite go to school... after all, we do have quite a lot of books here.*'

Oblivious to Nabiki's thoughts, Ranma continued eating and soon finished. Standing up and carrying the bowl to the kitchen, he once again complimented Kasumi on her cooking, and once again Nabiki felt the same stab of jealousy. Most irritating.

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In Ranma's mind, his eight teachers were having a discussion about their pupil.

"What do you think of him?" Lu Dongbin asked. He was the leader of their group, more or less, because he was the one who had distanced himself most from his earthly vices and desires.

"Well... he's uneducated, untactful, sometimes rude, uses improper language, but an apt and adept pupil at martial arts." Han Xiangzi shrugged. "More or less like every pupil we've ever had from this family."

"That's not *entirely* true. You forgot to mention that he has the highest affinity to many of our cultural heroes that we've ever seen, and that his mind absorbs information at the highest rate we've ever seen." Zhang Guolao said seriously. He had taken to the young pupil; he was friendly and willing, and he did not seem to have any entirely bad habits.

"And we can educate him in to the proper behavior. He has an open mind, and that could go far." He Xiangu agreed.

"He also has great capacity for Ki. Unfortunately, though, he appears to have an arrogant streak through him." Cao Guojiu frowned. Sifting through Ranma's memories, the patron of actors could see that Ranma had been told from the start that he would be the best, and that he had believed it.

"He's of the sort to go charging headlong into trouble, that's true, but like Guolao said, he could very well be our best student yet." Han Zhongli countered.

"So what's on the teaching list?" Lan Caihe asked. "Next we're going to brush up on languages and art, right?"

"Yes, so that's your cue." Lu Dongbin affirmed. "Also, he needs to have much greater control over his Ki if he wants to learn any Ki attacks."

"Not to mention have much more finesse in his martial art movements." Li Tieguai winced. As a cripple, he had had to learn the hard way how to fight using the least effort and come out on top.

Looking back into the real world, the group saw Ranma once again sit down on the wooden porch. A moment later, Ranma popped into view in the mental plain that was Ranma's mind.

"Hi guys," Ranma said cheerfully.

"Ranma, you're going to be at the pinnacle of martial arts. As such, you will need to know different languages, and the different cultures of different nations. Just learning Japanese will not be enough. There are many strong English martial artists, not to mention Chinese, Russian, German... the great nations of the west..." Lu Dongbin said contemplatively.

"Uh... okay...?" Ranma was clearly taken aback by this sudden suggestion that Japan might not be the only place in the world with martial arts. Heck, he hadn't even thought *about* other places before. Sure, they were there, but they weren't in his everyday life, so he had just kinda tuned out the knowledge.

"And I'm going to be teaching you these things!" Lan Caihe stepped forward, smiling.

"Hang on for a moment, Ranma, and I'll create a classroom for Caihe to teach you." Lu Dongbin closed his eyes in concentration for a moment, and the scene blurred to show a two chairs, two tables and a blackboard.

"All right, Ranma, today we'll learn about the Chinese. Tell me all you know about them..."

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"Mr. Saotome, is this normal for Ranma?" Nabiki asked Genma nervously. Ranma had an agonized expression on his face, and his hands constantly fidgeted as he sat down.

"Don't worry, it's all part of the Eight Immortals training!" Genma waved it off as he stared intently at the Shogi board. "My elder brother was the chosen one for my generation, and he spent hours just closing his eyes and sitting down. Then again, it could've been an excuse to sleep..."

Nabiki tuned out Genma's rattling about how annoying his brother was, and looked dubiously over to Ranma. "I wonder if this is how everyone's relationships start out as?" She sighed. Somehow, she doubted it. Why couldn't she have a normal life?

Then, she laughed. 'That'd be way too boring,' she thought

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After what Ranma felt was days (and actually were; the time in there was different to the time outside) he finally began to feel himself getting into the lesson.

There were many Chinese myths, and many of them were connected to beliefs. The Eight Immortals were a myth as well. Apparently, they had spread belief about Heaven around the world and as gratitude the Jade Emperor had granted them immortality and celestial powers.

But of course, the fact that they were in his head proved that they were real.

He now had a (very) slippery grasp on Chinese language. Frankly, he felt that he would never learn Chinese, but Lan Caihe assured him that it would come to him more naturally over time.

Also, Lan Caihe had introduced him to Chinese poetry and art. He couldn't really appreciate the pictures, which Lan Caihe had been somewhat disappointed by. She had finally given it up after the eighteenth picture of lakes and mountains had been shoved into his face and he could say nothing but "Uh... it looks nice?" and had moved on to poetry, which had yielded far better results.

He could actually understand most of the poems and understand what they meant. There was one about beans that had confounded him until he learnt the nature of it; it was a short poem, a mere twenty or so words, but it had been composed by the brother of a king. The king had been jealous of the brother, who was in love with (and loved by) a beautiful girl. The king, wanting to kill the brother, told him that if he could compose a poem within 7 steps and using the poem convince him not to kill him, he would let the brother go.

As such, the brother had written a poem about beans, for some inane reason. But it was basically about a bean plant. Ranma personally thought that if he'd been in that position, he'd probably have insulted the king and then ran for all his worth. Then again, he could just POUND HIM TO DUST! Anyway, along the branch, there were many beans. The humans take the beans and cook them, and they all die in the end, but in the fire one particular bean is crying because its brother wants to kill it. Actually quite simple, really, and the picture composed in his mind had been like something out of a cartoon. But the Chinese words had conversed the feeling behind it, and Ranma had said so. Lan Caihe looked strangely at him, then showed him several more and asking his opinion on it. After that, Lan Caihe had looked at him with satisfaction, so he gathered that he wasn't *too* bad.

And so, he had let go of the mindscape and returned to the real world, feeling as if there were lead weights on his eyelids. It was already dark, and the house's lights were off.

He only had time to drag himself to the guest room where his father was snoring very loudly before falling into a deep sleep.

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A/N: I'M DONE!