Summoning the Beast: Prologue
"Nabiki, what are you doing?" Ranma asked calmly as he entered her
room. That she had summoned him, well more like ordered him to come,
was obvious, for the boy never ventured into Nabiki's room
voluntarily. He had a good reason to ask the question, too.
Nabiki looked up from where she knelt on the floor. She wore a black
bath robe and in her hand she held a paint brush that dripped blood,
or something very close in appearance to blood. A large circle, about
three foot in diameter, was marked out on the floor, and around the
rim of this circle glowed symbols of blood that to Ranma seemed evil,
powerful, ancient, and demonic all at the same time.
"Summoning the forces of hell, what does it look like?" she snapped
without ire. Smoothly, with practiced ease, the girl stood, brushing
off her knees and dropping the bloody paintbrush into a bowl of
pinkened water.
Ranma had, on occassion, fought something that could be identified as
'a force of hell', or at the very least, 'a soldier of hell'. They
tended to be big, ugly and strong, or little, ugly, and fast, and they
all liked to throw, spit, or start fires. His duty as a martial
artist was clear on the matter. Despite Nabiki's general stranglehold
on his wallet and personal life, he had to stop her. "I-I can't let
you do that, N-Nabiki," he stuttered, unused to defying the
manipulative middle Tendo.
Nabiki paid little attention to Ranma as she went about the ritual,
preparing several sticks of incense and a handfull of some
unidentifiable powder within a small censer. Finally, when Ranma was
just beginning to sweat from the stifling heat within the room, and
his mind was fairly well made up on Nabiki's place as either a demon
or demon possessed victim, she asked,"Why not?" Simple question, no
verbal pitfalls or crafty loopholes capable of somehow getting him
tangled up in the scheme, why not answer?
"Well, things from Hell, demons and all, are evil, you know," Ranma
replied uncertainly."They hurt people and stuff, innocent people, and
it's my duty to protect them. Something like that," he muttered.
Stupid martial arts code, what had it ever done for him besides cause
lots of trouble? It was all he had to judge the world by, though, so
he'd stick with it for a while yet.
"That's certainly true, except for a few extreme cases," Nabiki
replied. From a large leather sack, she produced the bloody carcass
of a mutilated rabbit. This latest ingredient went into the smoking
brazier that lit the room with an angry red light. Immediately smoke
burst into the air in a hissing wave and the smell of charring meat
combined with that of the herbs and incense that already held
dominance within the modestly sized room.
"Then why are you trying to bring them here, and why did you want me
with you?" Ranma grated through clenched teeth. Nabiki could normally
talk circles around him, getting him to agree to practically anything,
and making his life a little bit of Hell on its own, but now she was
being so plain and straight forward that Ranma didn't know what to
think.
Nabiki chuckled, a deep throaty sound that seemed to caress
Ranma."Ranma, you're so simple, so naive. Do you honestly think I
would be stupid enough to bring a demon here, to my very own bedroom?
You must have seen at least one of those perverted animes that your
loser friends hoard. For the most part, they're true, with a few
mistakes here and there. Anyway, I digress." A handul of dried
eyeballs and goat testicles went into the smoldering coals of the
brazier."I'm just making a really long distance phone call, if it
makes you feel any better. I need some info on the stock market for
the next few months and can't afford to risk losing much money. You'd
be suprised how many evil entities will talk like excited school girls
if you sacrifice a couple rodents to them."
Ranma's eyes narrowed, but Nabiki seemed to be telling the truth.
Still, this was too weird to accept on blind faith, and Ranma had very
little of that in Nabiki Tendo."Okay, if that's true, why do you need
me? You gonna try to make me fight off a demon or something if you
screw this up?" Ranma didn't even want to think about what Nabiki had
just added to the other burning materials, for the sake of men
everywhere, human or animal.
"I doubt even you could handle the kind of infernal beings I associate
with, Ranma," Nabiki laughed condescendingly."I just need someone to
read the incantation for me while I ask the questions. I'd use Kasumi
like last time, but all the demons seem afraid of her for some reason.
You'll do just fine, you don't have to be literate to mumble a bunch
of strange phrases."
Ranma nodded reluctantly. He could do that, if he had to, but there
was the subject of payment for services rendered. Before he could
ask, Nabiki stated,"Half your debt, that's good enough, right?"
Vigourously, of its own volition, Ranma's head nodded. Half! That
was over forty five thousand yen!!!"What do I need to do?" he asked in
confirmation of his willingness to go along with his pseudo sister-in-
law.
"Just sit tight for a few more minutes while I get everything ready."
****
Through the oppressive and almost choking smoke, Ranma could barely
see the other wall of Nabiki's room, but sight wasn't necessary to
repeat the handful of simple phrases she had forced him to memorize.
Diligently, fearful of making a mistake and getting sucked into some
out of the way pit of Hell and burning for eternity, Ranma mouthed the
words to himself as Nabiki added an enormous cow's heart to the dying
coals of the brazier. It hissed and crackled, blackening slowly.
"Now, Ranma, loudly," Nabiki hissed.
Ranma instantly began the chant, allowing his mind to wonder as his
mouth did all the work. From the smoke above the brazier, a faint
green glow began to form, gradually gaining in intensity until spots
floated across Ranma's vision. From the span of one moment to the
next, the glow changed from the deep, throbbing green to a malevolent
red. Then their was a face, an unimaginably beautiful face, perfect
in its symmetry and inhuman in its structure. It regarded the pair
with coldly cruel eyes and a smile that made Ranma's skin crawl.
Reflexively, Ranma's battle aura slipped from its bonds, coiling
around him tightly and cooling his skin comfortingly until all the
sweat was gone and with it some of his fear.
****
The being whose evil infintely eclipsed the worst humanity could
imagine, regarded the pigtailed youth once again, this time with a
small amount of respect. For a mortal, a mortal human, the creature
was amazingly powerful, a god among its weaker brethren. Perhaps the
pathetic and greedy female and all her useless schemes hadn't been
endured for nothing, afterall.
Earth had long been barred to any of his kin, himself included. They
had been forced to send mindless animals in the hopes of one day
weakening the barrier that separated the myriad planes of existance,
even sometimes stooping low enough to work with a human to further
their goals. Others had had their agents on Earth, people of
influence and power, and Xiombarg had once thought to use the female
that knelt before him for such a task. She was intelligent, even by
otherworldly standards, and her vices were admirable in their
intensity, but the last few years, mere moments for an eternal force
such as Xiombarg, had seen a stagnation in her potential evil, a
complacency with the life she had already attained.
Ranma, that was the name Xiombarg plucked from the boy's mind as he
ignored the petty queries of his summoner. Basically good, the boy
held to virtues he didn't trully believe in out of ignorance and
stubborness. No problem. A thought later and seeds of doubt that had
already been present within his newest hobby's mind began to flourish,
growing tendrils that snaked their way through his soul. Corruption,
the kind that left the mind intact, and it was a powerful if
underdeveloped one in this case, took time, patience and a long
lasting contact with the mortal. Xiombarg had just the item for the
job.
The girl's question finally halted and she waited uncertainly for his
answers. An act of telethapy later and he said,"For the greatest
gain, use your assets to purchase as mush stock as possible in
McDonald's." That was all he said, and it was all she had expected,
except for the subject, but the profits were all that mattered.
A radiant sphere of blackness came hurtling out of a shadowed pillar
of irredescent flame and stopped before the demon. The sphere slowly
lost its obscuring darkness, the black energy being drawn into the
object it contained. It was a sword, one of a kind and irreplacable.
Xiombarg had kept it for millenia, for once it left his realm it would
never be able to return, and Artifacts of such power weren't to be
used negligently.
"Go, protect the boy and keep youself hidden until I command
otherwise," he ordered the floating sword. It wasn't intelligent in
the way that sentient creatures were, but one of the many facets of
the sword's magic allowed it to understand commands given to it by its
weilder.
****
Blue-gray in color, the blade of the sword, or blades if viewed
properly, were exactly forty eight inches in length, one half in width
and one eighth in thickness. Between them a space of one quarter inch
glowed with silver light and would appear as the same metal as the
sword itself unless viewed under the light of a full moon. There were
no cross guards, the blades melding smoothly into a bone white hilt
inlaid with writhing silver runes that pulsed softly. The foot long
hilt appeared perfectly, unbroken except by the runes that traced its
surface, but could, upon command, split in two, becoming a prefect
replica of itself and leaving two swords where before there had only
been one. A purely physical description is all we can garner from
this mysterious weapon as it slices through the fabrics of reality,
intent upon finding its new master, one Ranma Saotome, student of the
Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and soon to be agent and
soldier of Hell.
****
Nabiki smiled triumphantly as she surveyed her room. It appeared
exactly as it had before the ritual. No blood marred the floor
panelling, smoke no longer drifted heavily along the ceiling, and all
the various gory implements of summoning no longer existed. Next
year, when the time came to call upon her ace in the whole once again,
all new apparatus would be needed. No big deal, she'd be rich by
then.
Ranma stared around the room with wide, relief feeled eyes. That
thing had felt...wrong, simply wrong and completely at odds with all
that represented life. Just being in its prescense made Ranma feel
dirty and he welcomed the long bath be planned on taking within the
minute."Where'd everything go?" he asked in an attempt to break the
uneasy silence.
Nabiki shrugged."Part of the ritual, I guess. It always happens and
saves me a lot of trouble cleaning up. Now, if you'll excuse me,
Ranma, I have some business to attend to."
It was a dismissal even Ranma could notice, and he took it gladly. In
the doorway, only a few steps from freedom, Nabiki said to his
back,"Not a word, Saotome. Never mention what you just saw or I'll
make you regret being born."
Ranma frowned, clenching his fists and fighting the urge to smash a
hole in Nabiki's wall to show her how much he cared for her attitude.
It would only anger the girl, though, and he'd end up fixing the
damage, so he nodded without turning and headed for the furo. Halfway
down the stairs, the boy felt an oily, slick sensation on the back of
his neck, but it faded quickly and he attributed it to the grime of
sweat and smoke left over from Nabiki's latest venture.
****
It was linked to its master now, awaiting its other quasi-master's
command to leave the astral plane and assume its duty.
****
Author's Notes: Haven't written anything in a while, and I wasn't
really in the mood to write this, but the internet went down and I
couldn't think of anything better to do, so here's something new that
may or may not be continued. I'm not sure where to take this, but it
killed a couple hours of time, and I'm starting to feel tired enough
to get a few hours of sleep, so, I hope you enjoyed it. C&C welcome
at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com
"Nabiki, what are you doing?" Ranma asked calmly as he entered her
room. That she had summoned him, well more like ordered him to come,
was obvious, for the boy never ventured into Nabiki's room
voluntarily. He had a good reason to ask the question, too.
Nabiki looked up from where she knelt on the floor. She wore a black
bath robe and in her hand she held a paint brush that dripped blood,
or something very close in appearance to blood. A large circle, about
three foot in diameter, was marked out on the floor, and around the
rim of this circle glowed symbols of blood that to Ranma seemed evil,
powerful, ancient, and demonic all at the same time.
"Summoning the forces of hell, what does it look like?" she snapped
without ire. Smoothly, with practiced ease, the girl stood, brushing
off her knees and dropping the bloody paintbrush into a bowl of
pinkened water.
Ranma had, on occassion, fought something that could be identified as
'a force of hell', or at the very least, 'a soldier of hell'. They
tended to be big, ugly and strong, or little, ugly, and fast, and they
all liked to throw, spit, or start fires. His duty as a martial
artist was clear on the matter. Despite Nabiki's general stranglehold
on his wallet and personal life, he had to stop her. "I-I can't let
you do that, N-Nabiki," he stuttered, unused to defying the
manipulative middle Tendo.
Nabiki paid little attention to Ranma as she went about the ritual,
preparing several sticks of incense and a handfull of some
unidentifiable powder within a small censer. Finally, when Ranma was
just beginning to sweat from the stifling heat within the room, and
his mind was fairly well made up on Nabiki's place as either a demon
or demon possessed victim, she asked,"Why not?" Simple question, no
verbal pitfalls or crafty loopholes capable of somehow getting him
tangled up in the scheme, why not answer?
"Well, things from Hell, demons and all, are evil, you know," Ranma
replied uncertainly."They hurt people and stuff, innocent people, and
it's my duty to protect them. Something like that," he muttered.
Stupid martial arts code, what had it ever done for him besides cause
lots of trouble? It was all he had to judge the world by, though, so
he'd stick with it for a while yet.
"That's certainly true, except for a few extreme cases," Nabiki
replied. From a large leather sack, she produced the bloody carcass
of a mutilated rabbit. This latest ingredient went into the smoking
brazier that lit the room with an angry red light. Immediately smoke
burst into the air in a hissing wave and the smell of charring meat
combined with that of the herbs and incense that already held
dominance within the modestly sized room.
"Then why are you trying to bring them here, and why did you want me
with you?" Ranma grated through clenched teeth. Nabiki could normally
talk circles around him, getting him to agree to practically anything,
and making his life a little bit of Hell on its own, but now she was
being so plain and straight forward that Ranma didn't know what to
think.
Nabiki chuckled, a deep throaty sound that seemed to caress
Ranma."Ranma, you're so simple, so naive. Do you honestly think I
would be stupid enough to bring a demon here, to my very own bedroom?
You must have seen at least one of those perverted animes that your
loser friends hoard. For the most part, they're true, with a few
mistakes here and there. Anyway, I digress." A handul of dried
eyeballs and goat testicles went into the smoldering coals of the
brazier."I'm just making a really long distance phone call, if it
makes you feel any better. I need some info on the stock market for
the next few months and can't afford to risk losing much money. You'd
be suprised how many evil entities will talk like excited school girls
if you sacrifice a couple rodents to them."
Ranma's eyes narrowed, but Nabiki seemed to be telling the truth.
Still, this was too weird to accept on blind faith, and Ranma had very
little of that in Nabiki Tendo."Okay, if that's true, why do you need
me? You gonna try to make me fight off a demon or something if you
screw this up?" Ranma didn't even want to think about what Nabiki had
just added to the other burning materials, for the sake of men
everywhere, human or animal.
"I doubt even you could handle the kind of infernal beings I associate
with, Ranma," Nabiki laughed condescendingly."I just need someone to
read the incantation for me while I ask the questions. I'd use Kasumi
like last time, but all the demons seem afraid of her for some reason.
You'll do just fine, you don't have to be literate to mumble a bunch
of strange phrases."
Ranma nodded reluctantly. He could do that, if he had to, but there
was the subject of payment for services rendered. Before he could
ask, Nabiki stated,"Half your debt, that's good enough, right?"
Vigourously, of its own volition, Ranma's head nodded. Half! That
was over forty five thousand yen!!!"What do I need to do?" he asked in
confirmation of his willingness to go along with his pseudo sister-in-
law.
"Just sit tight for a few more minutes while I get everything ready."
****
Through the oppressive and almost choking smoke, Ranma could barely
see the other wall of Nabiki's room, but sight wasn't necessary to
repeat the handful of simple phrases she had forced him to memorize.
Diligently, fearful of making a mistake and getting sucked into some
out of the way pit of Hell and burning for eternity, Ranma mouthed the
words to himself as Nabiki added an enormous cow's heart to the dying
coals of the brazier. It hissed and crackled, blackening slowly.
"Now, Ranma, loudly," Nabiki hissed.
Ranma instantly began the chant, allowing his mind to wonder as his
mouth did all the work. From the smoke above the brazier, a faint
green glow began to form, gradually gaining in intensity until spots
floated across Ranma's vision. From the span of one moment to the
next, the glow changed from the deep, throbbing green to a malevolent
red. Then their was a face, an unimaginably beautiful face, perfect
in its symmetry and inhuman in its structure. It regarded the pair
with coldly cruel eyes and a smile that made Ranma's skin crawl.
Reflexively, Ranma's battle aura slipped from its bonds, coiling
around him tightly and cooling his skin comfortingly until all the
sweat was gone and with it some of his fear.
****
The being whose evil infintely eclipsed the worst humanity could
imagine, regarded the pigtailed youth once again, this time with a
small amount of respect. For a mortal, a mortal human, the creature
was amazingly powerful, a god among its weaker brethren. Perhaps the
pathetic and greedy female and all her useless schemes hadn't been
endured for nothing, afterall.
Earth had long been barred to any of his kin, himself included. They
had been forced to send mindless animals in the hopes of one day
weakening the barrier that separated the myriad planes of existance,
even sometimes stooping low enough to work with a human to further
their goals. Others had had their agents on Earth, people of
influence and power, and Xiombarg had once thought to use the female
that knelt before him for such a task. She was intelligent, even by
otherworldly standards, and her vices were admirable in their
intensity, but the last few years, mere moments for an eternal force
such as Xiombarg, had seen a stagnation in her potential evil, a
complacency with the life she had already attained.
Ranma, that was the name Xiombarg plucked from the boy's mind as he
ignored the petty queries of his summoner. Basically good, the boy
held to virtues he didn't trully believe in out of ignorance and
stubborness. No problem. A thought later and seeds of doubt that had
already been present within his newest hobby's mind began to flourish,
growing tendrils that snaked their way through his soul. Corruption,
the kind that left the mind intact, and it was a powerful if
underdeveloped one in this case, took time, patience and a long
lasting contact with the mortal. Xiombarg had just the item for the
job.
The girl's question finally halted and she waited uncertainly for his
answers. An act of telethapy later and he said,"For the greatest
gain, use your assets to purchase as mush stock as possible in
McDonald's." That was all he said, and it was all she had expected,
except for the subject, but the profits were all that mattered.
A radiant sphere of blackness came hurtling out of a shadowed pillar
of irredescent flame and stopped before the demon. The sphere slowly
lost its obscuring darkness, the black energy being drawn into the
object it contained. It was a sword, one of a kind and irreplacable.
Xiombarg had kept it for millenia, for once it left his realm it would
never be able to return, and Artifacts of such power weren't to be
used negligently.
"Go, protect the boy and keep youself hidden until I command
otherwise," he ordered the floating sword. It wasn't intelligent in
the way that sentient creatures were, but one of the many facets of
the sword's magic allowed it to understand commands given to it by its
weilder.
****
Blue-gray in color, the blade of the sword, or blades if viewed
properly, were exactly forty eight inches in length, one half in width
and one eighth in thickness. Between them a space of one quarter inch
glowed with silver light and would appear as the same metal as the
sword itself unless viewed under the light of a full moon. There were
no cross guards, the blades melding smoothly into a bone white hilt
inlaid with writhing silver runes that pulsed softly. The foot long
hilt appeared perfectly, unbroken except by the runes that traced its
surface, but could, upon command, split in two, becoming a prefect
replica of itself and leaving two swords where before there had only
been one. A purely physical description is all we can garner from
this mysterious weapon as it slices through the fabrics of reality,
intent upon finding its new master, one Ranma Saotome, student of the
Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and soon to be agent and
soldier of Hell.
****
Nabiki smiled triumphantly as she surveyed her room. It appeared
exactly as it had before the ritual. No blood marred the floor
panelling, smoke no longer drifted heavily along the ceiling, and all
the various gory implements of summoning no longer existed. Next
year, when the time came to call upon her ace in the whole once again,
all new apparatus would be needed. No big deal, she'd be rich by
then.
Ranma stared around the room with wide, relief feeled eyes. That
thing had felt...wrong, simply wrong and completely at odds with all
that represented life. Just being in its prescense made Ranma feel
dirty and he welcomed the long bath be planned on taking within the
minute."Where'd everything go?" he asked in an attempt to break the
uneasy silence.
Nabiki shrugged."Part of the ritual, I guess. It always happens and
saves me a lot of trouble cleaning up. Now, if you'll excuse me,
Ranma, I have some business to attend to."
It was a dismissal even Ranma could notice, and he took it gladly. In
the doorway, only a few steps from freedom, Nabiki said to his
back,"Not a word, Saotome. Never mention what you just saw or I'll
make you regret being born."
Ranma frowned, clenching his fists and fighting the urge to smash a
hole in Nabiki's wall to show her how much he cared for her attitude.
It would only anger the girl, though, and he'd end up fixing the
damage, so he nodded without turning and headed for the furo. Halfway
down the stairs, the boy felt an oily, slick sensation on the back of
his neck, but it faded quickly and he attributed it to the grime of
sweat and smoke left over from Nabiki's latest venture.
****
It was linked to its master now, awaiting its other quasi-master's
command to leave the astral plane and assume its duty.
****
Author's Notes: Haven't written anything in a while, and I wasn't
really in the mood to write this, but the internet went down and I
couldn't think of anything better to do, so here's something new that
may or may not be continued. I'm not sure where to take this, but it
killed a couple hours of time, and I'm starting to feel tired enough
to get a few hours of sleep, so, I hope you enjoyed it. C&C welcome
at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com