Saotome Ranma often found himself in bad predicaments, from being hurled into a pit of starving cats, to have far too many fiancées then he would like, to being hunted down by every Tom, Dick, and Jane that sought him out for a vendetta that was either ridiculous or he had no part in, to having to fight a god. Sufficed to say his life was not all that much fun but it was a life and now after going into the mountain near Nerima after a botched wedding, which he was blamed for, to train and clear his mind that life was about to be taken from him.
Ranma was guilty for his share of stupid stunts but accidentally break the seal on the tomb of some demon while practicing the hiryu gyoten ha was a new level even for him. Now he stood with back against the wall both figuratively and literally as a giant, snarling dog like creature standing at least 15 feet tall staring him down. None of his attacks had work against it; he couldn't even out run it despite his infamous seep and maneuverability.
The stench coming off the beast was enough to make him light headed let alone the amount of blood he was losing. Any other person, any other fighter would have resigned themselves to their fate, but this was Ranma, the martial artist with a head hard enough to break diamonds. The young fighter stop clutching his bleeding left arm and leaped into the air.
"I ain't gonna give some mutt the pleasure of doing me in. You're not nearly as scary as Akane!"
Either from the blood lost or the creature retaliation, everything went black.
'My heads killing me," Ranma rubbed his head 'what hell happened to dog-breath?' Ranma scan the area to find it was dark out and fire had been made. He could see no trace of the demon.
"So you're wake eh"
Ranma turn to see a man with a black pony tail and armor. Startled He tried to jump into a fighting stance, but found he was still too weak.
"Relax kid, I mean you no harm; name's Kouga."
"Are you the one that killed the dog thing?"
"Nope, that was Kirara, I just bandaged you up."
Kouga pointed to a small furry creature staring up at Ranma and tilted its head. Ranma absent mindedly petted it.
"You're kidding right, this little fox killed that huge mess of fangs and fur!?"
"Yea and she not a fox, Kirara's a demon"
"Isn't she kinda small?"
Kirara jumped into Ranma's lap and curled up to sleep.
"You'll learn demons come in sorts of shapes and size, and not all mean humans harm. Look at me, I'm a wolf demon but I didn't let you bleed to death."
"Good point but what did you mean I'll learn no offense but I'd kinda want steer clear of demons if I can."
"Shame you don't have much say in the matter kid. With your aura you're a demon magnet, I'd be surprised if this was your first encounter."
"Do phoenixes count?" Ranma couldn't help but to half joke.
"I guess so, I've never ran into one."
Kouga took a seat in front of the fire and handed Ranma one of the fish that were cooking. "Now that I think about your aura is almost identical to this monk I knew, he was close to Kirara and her original owner, which is probably why she saved you.
"You can own a demon?"
"Kirara's a special case. A tribe of demon hunters raised her to help them out. They were wiped out mostly, only Kirara's owner survived to my knowledge. She and the monk I mentioned earlier got hitched and had kids. But they didn't want the kids to get into the demon fight thing so when they pasted away the urge tp fight other demons got to be too much for her after going so long without doing so, so I took care of her, at least till she finds a human she likes."
"Gotta admit she is cute."
"That's good 'cause she going to stick to you like glue!" Kouga grinned
"Eh! Why?" Ranma yelled causing Kirara to awake up and growl at Ranma only to go back to sleep when Ranma scratch behind her ear.
"You're kinda dense aren't you," it was a statement not a question, "I just said till she finds a human she likes and that you have an aura identical to one of her original owners!"
"Oh, so what? I'm supposed keep a pet demon"
"And fight the bad ones, they'll be coming after you anyways and Kirara will help you out in a fight"
"If she took out the dog thing then I can wait to her in action."
"Good, but word of advice, you should back to Nerima first thing in the morning, you don't wanna fight demons on their own turf."
"I was planning on; I had finished what I came up here to do… Wait, how did you know I was from Nerima?"
"I saw your school ID in your wallet, which was empty, thanks a lot."
"You went through my stuff."
"That's beside the point"
"What point"
"Exactly"
"What?"
"Huh"
"You tell me"
"Tell you what"
"Chicken butt"
"You brat you turned it on me." Kouga let out laugh
"I'm the official king of immaturity."
"Whatever, so why did you come out here anyway."
"I need some place to think."
"Because you have so much trouble doing it?" the sarcasm stung
"No! If I was back in Nerima I wouldn't be able to have a moment a peace."
"So what's got your short in such a twist you gotta come out here and nearly get killed?"
"Marriage" Ranma tone was half forced
"Aren't you pretty young for that in this day and age, back want when I was coming up maybe not but defiantly now."
"Yea but it's an arrange marriage, not my only one mind you, but I thought I loved this one but I'm having second thoughts."
"Way to get deep o' king of immaturity. It's a pretty simple problem to solve. What's the wench's name?"
"Akane"
"Okay so imagine this Akane girl"
"Yea"
"Now picture spending one day with her, then another, and another, and now the rest of your life. Will she keep loving you, will accept your faults, can you accept hers, can you picture kids, and most of all is that right now if you were in trouble would she can to your aid for no reason other than that she loves you."
Ranma sat quietly with his eyes closed; he could picture one or two nice day with Akane but not a third and certainly not the rest of his life. After thinking about it Ranma realized Akane had never express her feeling for him and she too quick to send him flying for his faults. As far as her faults went he could not take the temper or false accusations. He shuddered at the thought of a hormonal Akane. Finally Ranma had always pull out miracles to save Akane but he could not say the same for Akane; he could not picture her even trying to."
"Hey Ranma, you didn't fall asleep on me did you"
Ranma opened his eye to see Kouga poking him with a stick. He grabbed it and threw it into the fire.
"What the hell man!"
"Sorry but you were like that for a while. Its late, get some sleep. I'll keep watch for any demons."
Ranma moved Kirara from his lap unto his pillow next his head and shut his eyes.