The day was here. The time was now. My first tournament was about to begin and I was about to enter the ring and find out who my first opponent would be. I had no delusions about winning. My determination blast might be generally useful, but it could still be dodged, blocked, and probably deflected back at me by magic users.

I did theoretically know the hiryu shoten ha, but that move was all but worthless. Even if by some miracle I did manage to trick someone into following me into the spiral, it would only ever work once. It didn’t take a genius to notice when someone is moving in a very deliberate way before doing something.

Still, despite how pessimistic I sound, I had hope that I’d at least take a couple of victories. Summer had trained me well, after all, and she wouldn’t throw me into a tournament just to see me fail…right? Probably best not to dwell on that question…

In any event, I entered the ring and found myself face to face with a mountain of muscle. Even my male form was utterly dwarfed by this gargantuan griffin. Trading blows with this guy was not an option.

The referee brought us to the center of the ring and had us shake hands and reminded us of the rules before sending us back to our corners. Soon thereafter the bell rang, signaling the start of the first round.

We approached each other, sizing each other up. Shockingly, I did not want to make a wrong move and get KO’d instantly, so I was hesitant to engage first. Thankfully, my opponent was more than happy to take the initiative and lunged at me with an open palmed strike.

I slipped around the attack and used my speed to hammer as many hits into his abdomen as I could. I figured if it worked on Ryoga after his shatter point training, there’d be no reason it wouldn’t work on this guy, assuming I survived that long.

He tried to grab me but I danced away from his grasp. He retaliated by using his wings to buffet me with powerful winds to knock me off balance. I got clotheslined and hit the mat hard. A body slam would’ve turned me into a smear, but I was able to roll out in time and got back on my feet.

As he was getting back up, I launched a chi blast that I am as of now too embarrassed to name. It caught him on the chin and he went skidding back. I pounced on the chance to hammer away at his abdomen again as he was rebounding off the rope. He took a swipe at me and I backed off. He got back into position, but I could tell he was hurting.

Unfortunately, getting slammed into the mat earlier wasn’t exactly doing me any favors either. I had to start thinking about ending this fight. I let off another chi blast which he took full force, raising his arms to protect himself as much as he could. I followed up immediately by throwing all I could into one more assault on his abdomen.

I jumped away, panting heavily, hoping I’d done enough. Mercifully, my opponent fell to his knee, holding his abused abs, and tapped out.

After a few moments to collect himself, the ref brought us both back to the middle and we shook hands again.

“Good fight,” I said and he nodded in agreement. I can respect a man of few words.

My next opponent was the completely opposite of my first, a Pegasus mare who was even smaller than my female form. Her coat was sea green and her mane was sky blue.

“Hi! I’m Slip Stream! What’s your name?” She greeted eagerly.

“I’m Ranma,” I replied cordially.

“That’s a nice name Ranma! What fighting style do you use?” She asked blithely. I blinked.

“How dumb do you think I am?” I asked. She shrugged carelessly.

“You’d be surprised how often that works,” She said plainly. I gave her a flat look as the ref had us shake. She returned it with a wide grin as the fight began.

If Rainbow Dash prided herself for being the fastest flier in Equestria, then this girl might just be the fastest thing on land. Even in the limited space of the ring I was having trouble keeping track of her. She was moving so fast I was having trouble answering the flurry of blows she was landing on me.

However, despite the number of hits, she actually wasn’t hurting me all that much. Why? Force equals mass times acceleration. Slip had very little mass behind her punches and on top of that while her feet were giving her all the acceleration in the world, she slowed down just enough when she started punching that her offense felt extremely lacking.

“Give up! You can’t beat what you can’t catch!” Slip Stream crowed.

“Is that so?” I wondered and if we weren’t confined to a ring, she might very well have been right. But the limited area of the ring meant there were only so many places she could possibly be. That meant all I had to do was react quickly enough to one of her attacks.

I weathered her blows until the opportunity presented itself. She attacked on my left forward side and I was just barely able to grab her arm as she threw one of her flurry of punches.

“Gotcha!” I exclaimed with a grin.

“Uh oh…” Was her witty reply as I lifted her over my head and slammed her down onto the mat. I wasn’t about to give her the opportunity to get back up and resume her relentless assault. Not letting go of her arm, I flipped her on her front and pinned her arm behind her.

“Yield!” I ordered from on top of her.

“Alright, alright, I give!” She surrendered and I let her up as the ref called the match in my favor.

“Good fight,” I said.

“Yeah, you too, ow…” She groaned as she rubbed her shoulder, “But don’t think this is the last you’ve heard of me!”

“What are you, a Saturday morning cartoon villain?” I teased.

“You don’t know that I’m not,” She replied cheekily and left.
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My third match was one I had been dreading. I was matched up against a unicorn. His coat was black and his mane was neon blue.

“Hi, I’m Magma Star,” He introduced himself politely.

“I’m Ranma Saotome,” I returned as the ref had us shake hands. As soon as we returned to our corners and the fight began, Magma ignited his horn and his fists became shrouded in a dark purple aura which I presumed was supposed to act like boxing gloves.

We approached each other and traded a few blows to test each other’s guard, but as we did that I immediately felt something was wrong. Suddenly it felt like I was trying to move through molasses. I knew it was some kind of enfeeblement spell, but that knowledge wasn’t exactly helpful.

I threw out a chi attack in the hopes that I could disrupt his spell, assuming it was even the kind of spell that needed to be maintained, but I was slowed down to the point that he was able to easily sidestep my attack.

I put up as much of a fight as I could, but with my speed and mobility severely curtailed, Magma was able to relentlessly land blow after blow.

Eventually I was put on the ground and the ref called the fight. Magma ended the spell, we shook hands, and I headed to the locker room. Summer was there waiting for me.

“What have we learned today?” She asked me.

“That magic is way too strong and I don’t hit nearly as hard as I thought I did,” I snarked as I tried to rub the newfound soreness out of my arms. Summer gave me a flat look, “That chi doesn’t act as a natural counter to spells the same way someone’s inherit magic does.”

“Good. Now what are you going to do about it?” Summer asked.

“Either I figure out how to use chi as a substitute to overcome spells and people’s natural resistances or I train to the point that I can win even under enfeeblement spells and overcome people’s natural resistances,” I replied. I had been mulling this problem over for awhile now, but this tournament had really crystallized the issue in my mind.

“Not unreasonable solutions,” Summer replied, “In any case, you did better than I expected today.”

“Gee, thanks,” I drawled sarcastically. Summer smiled slightly.

“We’ll get you there one way or another Ranma,” She assured me, “But for now, let’s get you home. I’m sure your girlfriends are waiting to patch you up.”

“You’re being very cheeky today,” I grumbled.

“Am I? You must be imagining it,” Summer replied breezily. I decided I had enough aches at the moment without adding a headache and left it alone, hoping it wouldn’t come back to haunt me.

So, mixed news. On the one hand, I was able to finally talk to a sleep specialist. On the other hand, she barely spoke English and we could hardly understand each other. I got a new appointment in September.

Fortunately, the one thing the doctor was able to get across was that I was freaking lied to about my CPAP machine not having user-side control. It's just hidden behind pressing multiple buttons at the same time and holding them down for 10-20 seconds.

So at least now I can start experimenting with pressures and humidity to see what suits me so I might actually be able to start using the thing before the year is out. So yay, progress!

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In other news, I've gotten about half of the chapter for Standing United finished, so yay progress!