Prologue
"In you go again boy."
"NO! NOT AGAIN! ANYTHING BUT-YAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Genma closed the door despite Ranma's protests. "C'mon work already. I've been doing this for four days already and he still hasn't learned the Neko-ken yet. All he's done is bleed and become a coward."
He waited a little while longer then opened the door and spraying a foul fragrance downwards to keep the cats from attacking him. He collected Ranma but his son was passed out and close to death when he brought him into the light. "Dammit! I'd sell my soul for Ranma to learn this technique." He all but shouted in frustration.
The lights in the room suddenly shimmered then went out completely, startling Genma for a brief instance. When they came back on, in the corner of the room right in front of Genma happened the strangest thing he had ever witnessed.
First, it was just a corner. But in two seconds at max, a man just appeared from out of nowhere. He didn't appear like he had teleported, but rather like an image on a photograph develops would be a more accurate description. He just sort of faded into existence, sitting comfortably.
"Two words man, eternal damnation. We in business?" He asked like a hipster might.
Genma now got a good look at this man. He was tanned like he spent most of his time in the tropics, and despite his accent Genma wasn't entirely certain this man was Japanese. He wore a bright orange shirt and maroon sweat pants that looked like they had been soaked in blood. His hair was black and curly, like he had a perm, but he had two horns sticking right out of his forehead. His smile showed fangs and he wore black sunglasses but the bald martial artist could swear there was a faint red glow behind them. His shirt had a slogan on it, reading 'Over 99 Million Served' in kanji.
'A demon from hell, here to take my soul.' Genma worried. "Did I say sell my soul? Sorry, slip of the tongue, my mistake. Sorry for wasting your time." He got to his feet, Ranma's unconscious body still in his hands. "I'll just be on my way." He tried to walk out the doorway, but even though there was no door, it felt like he walked right into one. "Huh?"
"You didn't think I'd just let you leave now did you?" The demon asked.
'A barrier to keep me in?' Genma realized, then faced the hellspawn. "It was just an idle comment for crying out loud. A figure of speech. You don't appear to just anyone who speaks without thinking do you?"
"Depends on what they say." The demon said, getting to his feet too. "Here's the deal Genma Saotome-"
"How do you know my name?"
"Oh believe me Saotome, that's the least of your worries. But if you must know, once I came here I gained access to all the information collected about you, by mortal and immortal means. I know your birthdate, age down to the second, blood type, grades you got in school, even your dirty little secrets you want taken to the grave. You have nothing I don't know about."
"For now I'll just take your word on that."
The demon smirked. "You see Saotome, what you've been doing is sort of like a good old demon summoning ritual. A blood sacrifice here, so much collective fear and pain there, desire to get a specific result, and putting your soul up on the market. Adding the curse in too just made it sweeter. And with all that done, I was able to make a claim on your offer. So idle comment or not, your soul is now up for grabs, and if I fulfill your request, your soul becomes mine whether you like it or not. Basically, you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't."
"Well you sir can just go crawling back to whatever level of hell you came from, because I have no intention of selling my soul for my son to be able to perform a martial arts maneuver." Genma declared.
The demon just smirked as if he heard an amusing comment and crossed his arms. "You may not have the standard body of a martial artist, nor the moral grounds of one, but you do have the guts of one, and I like that."
"I'm not going to let a demon talk to me like I'm the immoral one."
"With all due respect Saotome, you are immoral. You took your son away from his mother so he'd grow up in the wilderness. You promised your dearest friend your son would marry his daughter, yet four years ago you made a deal with another acquaintance and promised Ranma to his daughter as well. And you've been throwing your son in a pit of hungry cats all for the sake of learning a technique you've been warned is foolish all because you think your son can prove the experts wrong."
Genma kept his mouth shut. He did see the instruction book say only a madman would try to teach anyone the Neko-ken, but he was so certain Ranma could do it he ignored the warning and went ahead with it. 'Maybe there was more truth to it than I gave it credit.'
"Everything I've done is to make Ranma become a renowned martial artist without equal." He did say when he could.
"Tell me Saotome, how exactly is engaging your son to two different women going to make him a better martial artist?" The demon asked.
"He only needs to marry the one with the dojo." Genma answered.
"Then why engage him to the one without if you have no intention of giving your son to that family? You did take the Kuonji's dowry so you owe them more than you owe the Tendo's. It doesn't matter which one was made first if you take something from one of them."
"That's none of your business." Genma argued, getting mad and frightened of what this demon would do to him. "Just what is it with you creatures and souls anyway? What do you even do with them?"
"Me personally? Not a thing. I'm just one of the guys set to collect those that are open for grabs like yours, and to keep an eye out for when that happens. After I get them, I take them to my managers, who then decide what's done with them. Usually they send them to one of the sections in Hell reserved for people guilty of one specific sin more than others, but sometimes they keep a few souls in reserve to sell back to dark arts practitioners."
"Hell has a bureaucracy?" Genma asked.
"Hell invented bureaucracy." The demon answered.
"That explains a lot."
"And now that I'm here, all I have to do is fulfill your request, just making the transition legitimate and then your soul becomes my property." The demon said, enjoying Genma's fright. "However, lucky for you I'm required to give you an escape clause given the fact your declaration was not intentional."
"An escape clause?" Genma repeated, relieved enough for his heartbeat to almost return to normal.
"Yeah, standard procedure. Let's see..." The demon said, pausing to think it over. "Here you go. You said so yourself that everything you've done, even this itself, has all been to make your son Ranma become a powerful martial artist right?"
"Yes." Genma answered. 'I've got a bad feeling about this.'
"Do you have faith he will succeed in all this?" The demon asked.
Genma nodded. "He is my son. I've put a lot of effort into him becoming the best. I'm positive he could be the best."
"Then prove it."
"Excuse me?"
The demon removed his sunglasses, revealing unholy red eyes. "That is your escape clause. If you can make Ranma become a martial artist everyone can consider stronger then themselves, I'll release your soul and you'll be safe, until you die naturally that is."
"That's it?" Genma asked, trying not to look into his eyes.
"Of course, it won't be that easy." The demon added. "In your efforts to make Ranma stronger, you made a lot of promises for him and none of them with his consent. You promised he would marry a Tendo. You promised he would marry a Kuonji. You promised his mother he'd be a man among men to her. You promised him he'd become the greatest. Obviously you have a lot of faith in your son to do all that. So I expect to see him fulfill all these promises you made for him."
Genma paled. "But... but..."
"But what Saotome? Suddenly doubting your son's talents? Don't tell me you have complete faith in him until he's required to prove it."
"But he can't marry a Tendo and a Kuonji. It's illegal to have two wives."
"You knew that when you made the dual engagements. Surely you had a plan for him to fulfill both deals. Unless you felt that wasn't your concern and it was up to Ranma himself to decide what to do about the mess you yourself created? Tell me Saotome, were you really certain your son could handle the two engagements or did you think the Kuonjis would just give up after you basically robbed them? Or are you more like an animal crapping wherever he pleases and Ranma's the one who has to clean up after you while you're free to make another mess for him elsewhere?"
'Dammit, what do I say here? I had hoped Ranma would marry Tendo's daughter before the Kuonji's found us and demanded anything of us. But if this demon pushes the issue, Ranma has to marry them both somehow. But how?' Genma asked himself.
"Well?" The demon pressed.
"I needed the cart. Selling it got me this place for the past four years so I could train Ranma and put him thru school." Genma answered. 'Maybe he can divorce the Kuonji girl then marry a Tendo. This demon didn't say he had to be married to them at the same time.'
"So you do whatever you want and expect Ranma to be the one to handle the consequences so you don't have to." The demon stated, not asked, before putting his sunglasses back on. "Let's hope he can handle it Saotome, for your soul depends on it."
"Isn't there any other way?" Genma asked.
"'Fraid not man. Here's my offer. You get Ranma to do all those things. Marry the two girls you already promised him to, and any other girl he gets promised to as well in the future, by your design or otherwise. Satisfy his mother's expectations of what he is supposed to be. And become a martial artist of very high caliber. Heck, just to make it interesting, I'll even let him learn the Neko-ken as requested so he has a chance to succeed. If he does all this, you get to keep your soul. If he doesn't, you die and your soul becomes mine. Understood?"
"Umm... how long does he have?" Genma asked.
"Well, considering the nature of the deal, I think seven years is not unreasonable."
"Seven years? Why seven?"
"You want it to be six?"
Genma immediately shook his head. "No, seven is better. But he'd be seventeen by then. It's difficult for a seventeen year old to be legally married."
"You'll find a way. I understand that Nerima where your friend Soun lives lets seventeen year olds marry with parental consent. Get both girls there and he'll marry them both."
"At the same time?"
The demon tilted his head. "You got a problem with that?"
"Bigamy isn't legal."
"Oh I know that. But you set him up with two fiancees, not me. You find a way to make it work. If it makes you feel any better, part of the terms of this deal are that for the next seven years you cannot die. Not until I come to see if he meets the terms of the deal of course." Genma looked relieved. "But that doesn't mean Ranma can't die. I'm leaving in that little challenge for him. And if he does die, the deal is off and you lose your soul early."
Genma looked worried again. "Is this really the best you can do? Are you certain you can't just pretend you didn't hear me?"
"Sorry man, no can do. I've got a job to do and this is it. Seven years to make Ranma all the things you told others he'd be, or you go to hell. Do we have a deal?"
Genma looked at his son, who looked paler than he did before. "Please, can you heal my son too? I'm worried he's dying from what I put him thru. If he's not helped, he may never have a chance to do any of this regardless of the deal."
The demon looked at the child in the bald martial artist's arms. "Well, I guess it's only fair I allow the boy who has to do all the work at least be fit enough to be at the starting line. Okay I will, but I'm going to have to add one more challenge to make it even."
"How is that even?" Genma asked.
"I'm already given you conditional immunity from death for seven years and the martial arts technique you requested for your son? How fair do you expect a demon from Hell to be?"
Genma sighed. "What is this extra challenge?"
"I'm going to make Ranma a demon, one that will be appropriate for this little challenge for you both. He'll retain his personality and if succeeds in seven years I'll return him to normal."
Genma gasped. "A demon? No!"
"That's my final offer Saotome. Take it, or leave your soul."
Genma winced and looked down at his son one last time. 'Ranma, forgive me.'