Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.

Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.

The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.

"Speech"

Time*

Noise*

{Timer}

---

Arc 1 - Chapter 3: Small Changes

Lawliet walked into the large room that serves as both the living room and dining room, where he can see the entire Tendo family and the dining table filled with all sorts of Japanese foods.

"Oh! You must be our new guest, Lawliet. It's nice to meet you. I'm Tendo Kasumi. You have already met my two little sisters, with the middle one being Nabiki and the youngest is Akane. This is my father here, Soun." The one who spoke up first is Kasumi Tendo. The oldest daughter of Soun and the older sister of Nabiki and Akane. Also, introducing her entire family before anyone could.

From what Lawliet recalls about Kasumi is that although she finished high school, she took over as the family matriarch after the death of her mother. She handles most of the house, caring for and supporting her family and anyone who visits. Her life is largely that of a traditional Japanese housewife. Just like Nabiki, Kasumi isn't a fighter.

Kasumi has a long dark brown hair, tied with a white bow and having it over her right shoulder, and black eyes. The tallest in height out of the three Tendo sisters.

Soun Tendo is a middle-aged man with shoulder-length black hair and a mustache, wearing a medium colored gi for Japanese martial arts.

"It's nice to meet everyone." Lawliet did a small bow to show his respect mostly towards Kasumi, who made the food and welcoming him to eat with the family.

"So, from what Nabiki told us. You're a wandering martial artist?" Soun asks Lawliet, with a small glint in his eyes.

"Yes." Lawliet replied, as he sat down next to the open spot right next to Kasumi, who hands him a small bowl of white rice and chopsticks.

"If you don't mind me asking, but what martial arts do you train in?" Soun asks with interests, including all his daughters as well. Especially for Akane, where Soun can see his sweet little girl is paying more focus on Lawliet.

"I specialize in palm style martial arts at the moment. Trying to develop my own personal martial art." There was no way Lawliet was going to tell anyone that he using the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms]. After all, it's from an old novel back in his world. No idea if it in this world, but better to be safe than sorry. If Lawliet actually told everyone what martial art he uses, then he would be either laughed at and/or look down on for practicing something that isn't real martial art in their eyes. Not that Lawliet would think the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] wasn't a real martial art. Because it is thanks to [Automatic Cultivation].

"Oh, I see." Soun nods his head, where he finds this interesting as there are good numbers of palm style martial arts. But, rarely many would be specialized in it. "Well, if you haven't found out yet. The Tendo Dojo is trained in the [Anything Goes Martial Arts]. We specialized more on a ground-based." Soun decides to give a small brief on what his family's martial arts are to Lawliet, but not everything. "So, if you're interested in learning this martial art. Please let me know."

"I see and I will." Lawliet nods his head at Soun, but he wasn't interested in learning the [Anything Goes Martial Arts] from the Tendo family nor from Ranma and his father. Since he knows it will be hard for him to learn without the help of his [Automatic Cultivation]. In fact, Lawliet knows his talent for learning combat is below average when he rebel a bit against his adopted parents in the past. To learn some other martial arts for self-defense than the one they picked out for him, which he failed to learn in after a year of training in it. Not worth mentioning.

Much to Lawliet's frustration. What took an average beginner to learn a martial art would be ten times better than Lawliet, who starts off the same. Even if Lawliet put 10 times the efforts compared to the rest. It wouldn't matter since if anyone put Lawliet next to the average trained ones. Those people would be considered as a genius while Lawliet would be a talentless person. Therefore, Lawliet could only give up learning martial arts. But, now, that he has the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] and he wasn't planning to discard it at all.

"Hey, Lawliet." Nabiki calls for Lawliet's attention, this includes drawing the attention of her family as well, not that she minded.

"Yes?" Lawliet looks at Nabiki as he lowers his chopsticks, waiting to see what Nabiki has to say.

"How do you get your money?" Nabiki asked this due to wanting to know what kind of job would allow Lawliet to travel freely as a wandering martial artist.

The rest of the Tendo family are also interested in this as well. In fact, Akane wanted to keep training as a martial artist in the future after she finishes high school, and if there is a job that allows her to support herself while doing so. She might have found her future career.

"Oh, I earn a living by tracking down objects that people wanted to find or go treasure hunting. Mostly the former than the latter. As I rarely find some treasures and when I do. I would usually just sell it to someone interested in the treasure for cash." Lawliet lied once again, but this time, this is something he could actually do thanks to having the [Skill: Tracking] and [Space] to help him out doing this kind of job. Using [Space] to support the [Tracking Skill] would make things way easier for Lawliet.

"Are you for real?" Akane asks in distrust, even her family is suspicious of what Lawliet said is true or not.

"Yup, here is something I found on the way here." Lawliet place the bowl and chopstick on the table before reaching into his right pocket, to hide in plain sight whenever he wanted to use [Space], and pull out a small gold bar. "I found this on the way here. Sadly, I only found one."

The look on the Tendo family's faces almost made Lawliet want to laugh out loud, because honestly, what he just said is mostly half-truth and half-lie. The truth is that there is an actual gold bar just at the borderline of entering/exiting Nerima, where there is a buried chest filled with gold bars below 50 meters. While the lie is that he only found one gold bar.

"That can't be real!" Akane reaches over the table to get the gold bar to get a closer look at it, but Lawliet moves the gold bar away from Akane's reach. "Hey!"

"Honestly, Akane." Kasumi let out a sigh. "Why would try to grab something that doesn't belong to you without permission?" Even though Kasumi has the urge to grab the gold bar herself to get a look at it. Since it's the first time for her to see a gold bar in person. Let alone getting the chance to hold one.

"Yeah, Akane. If anything, I would be pissed if someone tried to do the same to me." Nabiki agreed with her older sister, though she had to suppress herself from doing the same as Akane did. Her greed for money is rising beyond belief upon seeing the gold bar in Lawliet's right hand. If anything, Nabiki is going to find a way to get the info on where Lawliet got this gold bar from. As there might be more where that gold bar came from.

"I got a question, you don't have to answer, but it's mostly out curiosity." Soun spoke as he eyes the gold bar. "Are you planning to sell that gold bar in Furinkan?"

"Depending on if the seller gives me a good price." Lawliet replied before putting the gold bar back into his jacket's right pocket. Not caring about the look he is getting. "By the way, the food is delicious."

"Thanks for the compliment." Kasumi smiled at Lawliet. As she resumes eating, though Kasumi wonders what kind of tales Lawliet has to offer during his travel. To even find a gold bar and act like it wasn't worth much in his eyes.

"If you don't mind paying me a fee. I can get you a good seller for that gold bar." Nabiki said to Lawliet, while she begins to think up plans in order to get her hands on that gold bar.

"It's fine." Lawliet decline, since there is no point in selling the gold bar in the first place. After all, if he needs money. Lawliet won't mind stealing again unless he finds a decent paying job somewhere in Furinkan to pay for the rent. Of course, Lawliet could just use [Space] to expand the space inside of a small apartment too. If Lawliet decides to move out of the Tendo Dojo and want to go cheap while aiming for a better quality lifestyle without having to pay much for it.

"Alright, but if you change your mind. Don't hesitate to let me know." Nabiki said to Lawliet, acting like she didn't lose the change to make money again.

Akane begins to fume at this boy for not letting her look at the stupid gold bar, but kept her cool. Then an idea pops into Akane's mind.

"Hey, would you like to spar after dinner?" Akane remembers this Lawliet is a martial artist. Let's see what kind of martial arts he uses.

"Sure." Lawliet didn't decline, but he wonders if having a [Rank: Official] of the [Skill: 18 Dragon Subduing Palms] would give him the power to overpower Akane or not, or even all the martial artists in this world.

---

An hour later*

After dinner, with Kasumi quickly finished washing the dirty plates, everyone meets up in the dojo. With Soun, Kasumi, and Nabiki watch from the side while Lawliet and Akane not too far away from them. Standing apart from each other, ready for the spar to begin.

Akane took her fighting stance, with her left fist in front of her and right fist close to her waist. Leaning more towards her left side, with her left foot lining with her left fist. Determination appears in Akane's eyes, ready to fight with her absolute best.

However, for Lawliet, he was anything, but ready. For one thing, he just realized that he underestimated the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] by a lot, like a lot. And if that wasn't enough, Lawliet might have miscalculated in picking this martial art, for one thing, Lawliet's body is generating [Dragon Ki] and it's semi-sentient.

Before starting the spar. Lawliet went to the bathroom for a bit, to see what happen when he uses the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms Skills]. Of course, to not destroy anything, Lawliet used the bare minimum to the limit of using the [Skill]. [Dragon Ki] appear and as to how Lawliet know it was [Dragon Ki]? Well, a small see-through golden dragon appears when he performs a very slow palm strike and it would have destroyed the wooden wall in the bathroom if Lawliet wasn't quick to send the golden [Dragon Ki] to the sky via [Space].

And seeing how Lawliet knew how [Spatial Energy] felt like. That golden dragon was not made out of [Spatial Energy]; therefore, [Dragon Ki] is the answer, or at least, Lawliet thinks it's [Dragon Ki].

Nonetheless, out of all the [Skills] Lawliet possesses. None of them, excluding [Authority: Space], doesn't come with a manual on the "how" and the "why", forcing Lawliet to use the [Skill] blindly. Ironically enough, that's exactly why [Automatic Cultivation] went into a cooldown phase. So, Lawliet knows which moves are which in [18 Dragon Subduing Palms], but have no idea what would happen upon using them.

So after thinking about this. Lawliet roughly guess the movement control meant for controlling the [Dragon Ki] while the increased reflex might be Lawliet himself while using the [Skill] and the increased raw power must be the [Dragon Ki]. In other words, the [Automatic Cultivation] might have picked out an entirely different version or something under the name of the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms]. Instead of the version in the novel. If so, Lawliet might accidentally pick a very OP martial art without realizing it, not to mention it gives Lawliet the ability to generate [Dragon Ki] too as a hidden side-benefit.

Lawliet didn't have enough time to figure out what else the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] could do. But, at the very least, Lawliet had enough time in the bathroom to figure out the [Skill] has two different versions in it. 2 in 1 really. For one version bringing the [Dragon Ki] outside and the other keep it inside. Well, that's what Lawliet likes to think as he manages to prevent the [Dragon Ki] from coming out without any problems.

However, that is just it. Lawliet has no idea if the version of the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] that don't allow the [Dragon Ki] to come out would be weaker than the other one. Because either way, both use [Dragon Ki] just a little differently.

So, now that Lawliet is facing Akane currently. The chance of killing Akane might be very high, even if Lawliet tries his best to hold back not to cause too much harm. Furthermore, Lawliet knew no matter how much he pays Nabiki. She and the rest of her family might kick him out the moment they see Akane badly injured, or worse, dead. Forget being kicked out, they will hunt Lawliet down to the end of the earth to get their vengeance.

Lawliet did some quick-thinking and going through whatever the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] give him in knowledge is available that won't cause too much harm to Akane. Then, found one that would suit his current problem.

The [Crossing Great Rivers]. A movement technique of the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms], where if one mastered this movement technique, then they can effortlessly leap dozens of meters with ease, and move with the grace of a gazelle and the speed of the pouncing tiger. But, a thousand times better. Yet, even with the [Skill] at [Rank: Official] would be enough for Lawliet. Hopefully, that is...

Raising his left palm towards Akane and the right palm, facing up near to the waist. Legs are slightly apart. Lawliet stares at Akane while calculating how much strength he should put in his palm strikes or should he just avoid hitting Akane in general and just tire her out by dodging her consistently like how Ranma did in canon. He only poked her once at the end of the so-called spar, to show how much a difference between the two.

"HA!" Akane let out her battle cry as she charges right at Lawliet with a chop to his left shoulder, but missed as Lawliet took a step back to avoid the chop, causing Akane to growl as she throws a high left kick with the intention to knock Lawliet out cold in a single kick to the head. However, once again, she missed hitting Lawliet. As Lawliet just moves back once again, just barely enough to avoid being touched.

Lawliet didn't even break his stance and barely move at all. Mostly just taking a step is all Lawliet needed to avoid being hit by Akane.

"Stop dodging!" Akane shouts at Lawliet as she begins throwing a flurry of punches, hoping to land a hit at least once.

Yet, Lawliet easily avoids all of them with no problem and continue to not launch his first attack still.

This just pissed Akane even more. "Stop dodging and fight back!" Akane starting to hate how this bastard hasn't even bothered to attack her once!

"Okay, I think that's enough!" Nabiki shouted to both Akane and Lawliet, with the former huffing angry and sweating all over. While the latter didn't even sweat yet. Showing the difference between the two by their present appearance alone.

"I see now." Soun spoke up as he narrows his eyes at Lawliet while recalling everything so far. "I see that you have plenty of combat experience." Soun nods his head, figuring out why his baby girl was having a hard time facing her opponent.

"Yup." Lawliet lied once again today, making him wonder if he going to tell lies to the point, even he doesn't know what are lies and what are truths. Either way, throughout the entire spar. Lawliet had a hard time using the [Dragon Ki] and many times he was close to hurting Akane badly due to the [Dragon Ki] nearly almost came out if he didn't use his [Space] to send the [Dragon Ki] to the sky right away when he lost control over the [Dragon Ki]. Honestly, for Lawliet, it was more of a battle against himself from within than facing Akane really.

"Oh, my." Kasumi can see how upset Akane is, but knew right away that Akane won't be able to do much against Lawliet in the first few seconds in the spar. Something Kasumi saw through easily. Yet, it looks like Akane didn't, much to Kasumi's confusion.

"The match isn't over yet!" Akane shouted as she got ready to attack again after catching her breath. However, others didn't want this to continue, more than one reason.

"Oi! Akane, cool off!" Nabiki shouted at Akane, not wanting her little sister to push Lawliet to the point of wanting to leave to find another place to live in. Nabiki hates losing money and Lawliet is literally a walking money bank for her to withdraw from and she not going to have her little sister take that away from her if she can help it.

"Akane, I have taught you better not to let your emotions control you." Soun said to his youngest daughter, not noticing the look he is getting from his other two daughters. Mostly from Nabiki, who is giving him a deadpan look as if she couldn't believe what she just heard.

Akane growls as she was being denied of having the chance to punch Lawliet in the face nor being able to claim victory over him as a powerful martial artist.

"This isn't over!" Akane shouts at Lawliet before quickly rushing off to change out of her light yellow gi.

"So... Should I be concerned about this?" Lawliet as everyone that's still here. Also, make sure to keep a distance away from them as well, especially Soun. Since Lawliet recalls a small little fact, where Soun has demonstrated the ability to grow to Godzilla-like heights to fight enemies. No idea when, but just remember that it happened before, and honestly, Lawliet have no idea if the current [Rank] [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] would be enough to take Soun down while he in Godzilla mode or whatever he calls it. [Dragon Ki] or not, there is a limit of Lawliet could use without hurting himself with it somehow.

In fact, Lawliet has an idea of why there is the word: Subduing in the name of the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms]. Because that's what Lawliet has to do really, subduing the [Dragon Ki]. So, Lawliet begins to wonder if it's just his version of this [Skill] or it like the original? Either way, it's something Lawliet has to be very cautious in using.

"No, it just Akane doesn't have much experience in facing someone better than her in martial arts other than daddy." Kasumi replied to Lawliet's question, then got up and head off to get some sleep. As she got a busy day tomorrow. "Good night, daddy. Good night, Nabiki. And good night, Lawliet. It's nice to meet you." Kasumi made a small bow to Lawliet before leaving.

"Well, it's getting late. It's time for me to get some beauty sleep. Nice having you with us, Lawliet." Nabiki let out a yawn, where her body finally decided now to let her know it's time to sleep. "Once again, question. Money. Later." Nabiki yawns again as she got up from the floor and head off to her bedroom.

This leaves Lawliet and Soun alone in the Dojo in the middle of the night.

Feeling a little awkward, Lawliet kept his mouth shut for the time being while keeping his [Space] expanding his senses throughout the entire house since knowing Nabiki's history. Lawliet rather not have his picture taken without his permission.

Suddenly, Soun burst into tears and let out a loud wail, "THANK YOU!" As Soun begins to express how happy he was for Lawliet to pay such a huge amount of money to rent a room in this house and could have gone for a better place instead. As there are some difficult days, where there wasn't enough money; furthermore, Soun is happy to have a fellow martial artist around to talk with. As among his three daughters, only one has kept training in martial art while the other two decided to stop, but Soun softly explained how he couldn't push himself to train Akane harder and failed as a martial artist, for not bringing out Akane's potential. Yet, as a father, he couldn't bring himself to hurt his little girl.

Lawliet blankly tries his best to listen to Soun's whining and complaints before deciding it wasn't worth the headache. He already had enough listening to his adopted parents consist of complaints about him. Lawliet rather not have another person do the same to him, even if the topic wasn't completely related to him. Therefore, Lawliet just quietly pretends to listen and get a good grasp of controlling the [Dragon Ki], but gave up after 30 minutes into it. After recalling he only got 40% of controlling the [Dragon Ki] while the remaining 60% leftover continue to move freely until Lawliet send the [Dragon Ki] into the sky via [Space] to prevent it from leaking out of his body in front of Soun, who continue to complain about nearly into an hour now.

"So, thank you, Lawliet. And have a good night." Soun said to Lawliet before leaving the dojo without looking back once. If Soun had done once, then he would have seen how Lawliet was spacing out and wasn't paying a single word to what he said the entire time, but Soun is just too tired at the moment to bother and head off to bed.

Lawliet let out a sigh, that his talent in martial arts wasn't good as always. Then again, he shouldn't expect to get instantly reason on the first day. Nonetheless, Lawliet will continue to work on the [18 Dragon Subduing Palms] to see if it will [Rank] up manually. Otherwise, Lawliet will just have to come up with tricks to improve his combat abilities to survive this whole year before he regains access to the [Automatic Cultivation].

Blinking a few times, Lawliet noticed he is alone in the dojo and quickly head to his room, he renting while using [Space] to shut the lights in the dojo and teleporting directly into his bedroom to sleep. The first night of his second life, while doing his best not to remember why he has a second life, which ended up failing the moment he thought about it. Making Lawliet let out a frustrated sigh and decide to work on his [18 Dragon Subduing Palms], to see what else he could do other than being able to generate [Dragon Ki] and using it to power the stances/techniques in the [Skill].

---

The next day*

Lawliet blankly stares at the ceiling, ignoring the sound of Kasumi making breakfast in the morning. As he hasn't slept last night, something he used to with how he grows up. Lawliet was just hoping to sleep once again for a night, but failed to. Yet, this time, Lawliet didn't mind staying up all night practicing his control over the [Dragon Ki].

So far, not much progress, but it's a lot better at distracting Lawliet throughout the entire night at least. Though, Lawliet did get better at generating the least amount of [Dragon Ki] to have better control, but that weaken him by exchanging power for control really, and right now, Lawliet needs more control than power for the time being. Therefore, much better than his usual sleepless nights.

Getting up from the bed he slept in, which was, eh, a bit comfortable, but way better than falling asleep on a chair sometimes while studying. Lawliet guess, that is another thing to add to the mental list of what makes his new life better than the first one. On top of the list is that his adopted parents aren't here to control the way Lawliet lives his life. Making Lawliet less stressed than he was before and now able to relaxes without having to always be intense in case of someone aka one or both of his parents into his room to check on him. This is alone the many reasons why he always has sleepless nights.

Sliding the door open, Lawliet calmly walks into the tatami room, where he can see the dining table has already a couple of dishes placed down by Kasumi.

"Good morning, Lawliet." Kasumi said happily and a little surprised to see him up so early in the morning, with those shadows under Lawliet's eyes. A sign of insomniac, making Kasumi a little concern for Lawliet's health.

"Morning, Kasumi." Lawliet let out a tired yawn before sitting down in the same spot he sat in last night for dinner. Blankly staring at the food while waiting for the others to arrive for breakfast.

"You're pretty early for waking up at this time. Do you need to be somewhere so early?" Kasumi asks mostly out of curiosity than anything else. Plus, she could take this time to get to know Lawliet better since he will be staying with her family for maybe a month or more, but definitely an entire month if what Nabiki told her was true about paying 100,000 yen to rent a room for a month, including food as well. Though, Kasumi can see it's the truth due to seeing Lawliet taking out a gold bar like it wasn't worth much. Again, Kasumi wonders what sort of life Lawliet has experience. The interesting tales of his travel must something worth talking about. This is why she likes older men than younger ones as they bored her.

"Not really, but I might head out to do some research about the local dojos at least." Lawliet replied, but honestly, he was just doing this to prove that he is a wandering martial artist just as he said yesterday and aiming to learn more to merge into his martial arts, not that he needs to when he can just come up with something else thanks to his knowledge over anime and manga while growing up.

Plus, Lawliet still has to figure out what else he could do with the rest of his [Skills]. Like for example, the [Skill: Stealth] seems passive, but Lawliet discovered it more on the line of both active and passive types. Active to make the effects of [Stealth] to bring out its power while passive is more of a subconscious or instinct of using the [Stealth]. In fact, right now, Lawliet could say that the only Kasumi manages to see him and greet him is because Lawliet wasn't even trying to hide from her at all. As there was no point in doing so. Though, this just makes Lawliet more curious about what else he could do with all his [Skills]. Since all he got was a small description of what the [Skill] is and sometimes what it does. Therefore, this requires Lawliet to slowly figure out what these [Skills] could do at their present [Ranks]; of course, Lawliet won't mind leaving some of the [Skills] that wasn't that high up in [Ranks] alone while working on the ones that could be used right away.

"So, other than looking for the local dojos. Is there anything else you're planning to do for the day?" Kasumi asks Lawliet, hoping she could figure something in her busy schedule today to spend more time with Lawliet to learn more about him. Honestly, Kasumi finds herself a bit embarrassed for wanting to get to know a stranger so quickly, but her life been a little dull lately until Lawliet shows up.

"Hm. Maybe look around the place, see if there anything interesting to buy or check things out just out of curiosity." Lawliet shrugs his shoulder slightly while waiting for everyone to come down to eat. Under the help of [Space]; Lawliet can see Soun already finished taking his daily needs, lucky for Lawliet he didn't check before Soun was done. Ugh, that is something Lawliet doesn't want to see personally, and just thinking it for a moment disgusts him. As for Nabiki and Akane. The former is already walking downstairs and Akane just woke up. "How about you, Kasumi? Planning to do anything interesting today?"

"Just planning to do some grocery shopping and planning what to do for lunch and dinner. While cleaning the place." Kasumi said to Lawliet as she waits for the rest of her family to come down, or at least one of them coming down, so she could go up and wake up the rest of her family if they haven't already woke up yet.

"I see." Lawliet slowly nods his head. "Anything else? I'm sure you have something else to do besides doing grocery shopping, making meals, and cleaning." Lawliet felt kinda stupid he didn't develop a [Skill] towards memory recall, because he just realized he barely remembers everything in the Ranma 1/2 series. Only a few bits of important ones. Hopefully, by the time Lawliet is able to use the [Automatic Cultivation] again. He wouldn't end up dead or losing all his sanity by then.

"I... don't think so?" Kasumi begins to think of anything else she would do outside of the three things she does every day. Making Kasumi frown a little, for she barely had anything else she to do in order to enjoy herself instead of taking care of her family all the time.

"Well, I'm sure you find something to do later." Lawliet said to Kasumi, not realizing he just caused Kasumi to begin thinking about her entire life and what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.