That night, Ryoga was sitting in his home thanks to Shirokuro finding him at his camp and leading Ryoga home. Shirokuro was warming up a hot dinner for Ryoga who was sitting in a chair at his guiding dog's insistence. Part of Ryoga was sad that neither of his parents had found their way to the house again since he had last been in here. However, he did console himself with the fact that it had only been two weeks since his last visit home which was very short for him. Maybe if he was lucky one of his parents would pop up soon. It was unlikely, but it would be nice since it had been several months since he had seen his parents face to face.
Ryoga let out a sigh of disappointment knowing that such a thing happening was way too much good luck for him to ever get. The only way he was going to luck out like that considering how much good luck he had recently gotten would be with a magical wish. A gleam of blue light caught the fanged boy's attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to look at the flyer that Ranma had given him earlier which was sticking out of his backpack. Ryoga picked up the flyer and brought it so he could look at it.
It was about the size of a large bookmark with a large and complicated blue circular symbol on the top fifth of the flyer. The symbol almost seemed to glow in the light. It was probably designed out of a very reflective ink. Underneath the symbol was written the following text:
"All of your heart's most secret desires uncovered.
That which is within my power to grant,
Let the two meet as thou they were lovers.
Do not think this a dream to make you rant.
Strike a bargain and make a pact,
The price you pay is to get your dream and nothing more
Let this be the governing of our contract."
Ryoga reread the text of the flyer several times trying to make heads or tails of it since it was different from the good fortune charms he was used to looking at. Was the poem a warning or an invitation? Ranma did say that the flyer was supposed to help grant one's wish and it did say that it could if the price was met. The lost boy shrugged his shoulders after a minute of thinking and decided to give it a try. He held the flyer in both hands and said, "I wish I didn't get lost all of the time."
The symbol on the flyer glowed and then a giant blue circle appeared floating a few inches off of the floor in front of Ryoga. His eyes bulged out in shock as the circle became brighter and a person started to rise out of it. There was a flash of light that left Ryoga dazed for a second. He saw Ranma standing in the circle with two bat-like wings once his slight returned.
Incomprehensible sounds came out of Ryoga's slack-jawed mouth as his bulging eyes tried to make sense of the sight before him. Ryoga raised his hand in a shaky manner as he slowly managed the motor control to point a finger at Ranma. After a few seconds, Ryoga regained the ability to babble. "What the? How did you? Did you really?"
Ranma gave a polite bow and said, "Good evening summoner. I am Ranma Sitri of the Sitri Clan and I will be the devil to fulfill your wish tonight."
The hair on the back of Ryoga's neck stood straight up when he heard what Ranma said. Ryoga's face became white as all his blood left it. He then fearfully repeated, "Devil?"
It was only with training and experience that Ranma was able to bite back the sigh of exasperation he had at Ryoga's all too common reaction from a new customer. Ranma snapped his fingers making the sigil disappear and made a large blackboard appear behind him. He retracted his wings and pointed to first point written on the blackboard while speaking. "Yes, you have summoned a devil Ryoga and here is why you have nothing to fear."
"First, I don't want you soul. It's not only been illegal since the 1700s, but it's been medically proven that consuming a human soul will fuck up a devil. It like the nastiest illegal drug in the world cranked up to 11 for devils." If anything, Ranma was downplaying the effects that consuming a human soul had to devils. It ravaged a devil's body and power while causing a devil to hallucinate. His grandparents had proven through after action reports that a large portion of casualties in the Great War could be attributed to human soul consumption.
Ranma moved his hand to the second point and said, "Second, I'm here to grant you a wish for payment and nothing more. Both the wish and the payment have to be mutually agreed on by both of us before I can do anything for or to you Ryoga. If your wish is by some odd chance beyond my abilities or you are unable to pay for it I head home."
"Finally," the devil said as his hand moved the final point on the board. "I'm not about to screw you over with the wish once we have agreed to everything. I, like the vast majority of devils, want to have a pool of reliable clients to keep my business in the black. Screwing you over means that I'm screwing myself over, do you understand?" Shirokuro came over just as Ranma finished speaking and happily accepted a scratch behind the ears from Ranma.
Ryoga slowly nodded his head while the color returned to his face. Most of what Ranma was saying made some sense to him. He wasn't sure about that first point, but Ryoga didn't think Ranma was lying about that. However, the big selling point to Ryoga was the fact that Shirokuro wasn't acting aggressively towards Ranma. Shirokuro was an excellent judge of character and Ranma couldn't be a bad person if she liked him.
With Shirokuro's reassurance, Ryoga made up his mind and said, "Alright Ranma. I have a wish I want you to grant. I'm tired of constantly ending up in weird locations and having trouble finding places. I want to not constantly get lost."
Ranma nodded his head and pulled out his DevilBerry to log Ryoga's request. He then turned to Ryoga and asked, "Do you mind if I scan you? This will let me know why you're having these problems so I can find a solution."
Ryoga nodded his head. It only made sense that Ranma would need to check him to find out why he kept on getting lost. At least he was decent enough to ask for permission. A small copy of the Sitri sigil appeared in Ranma's hand and it created a faint blue wave of light. The light swept over Ryoga several times from head to toe while giving Ranma a health report. It was a special spell that was kept in house by the Sitri clan designed by a reincarnated magician to pull asked for health information. Good thing the spell only pulled the info a person asked for or Ranma would have been swamped by the potential information.
With the information on hand, Ranma quickly entered what he learned into his DevilBerry. The Greed App quickly pulled out the various options Ranma had on hand and the assessed costs involved. Ranma had to repress a wince as he looked at the results and the costs involved. He turned to Ryoga and said, "Well, I've got good and bad news for you Ryoga. The good news is that I have verified why you keep getting lost and it can be treated. The bad news is that to permanently treat all of reasons you get lost is going to cost a lot."
Ranma continued his explanation before Ryoga could speak. "Your problem is twofold Ryoga. The first part of your issue is that have a special item fused to your soul known as a Sacred Gear. Your particular Sacred Gear is Sinbad's Astrolabe which can transport its user very long distances and it's partially activated. Because of this, your Sacred Gear is randomly teleporting you to different places at uncertain intervals. You can get training in how to use Sinbad's Astrolabe which will let you control where and when you teleport. That kind of training is expensive, but feasible."
"It's the second part of your problem that is really expensive. Basically put, your brain isn't wired correctly in how it understands spatial relationships. I can tell you that the directions between points A and B are in order 1, 2, and 3, but your mind will hear and think that the directions are 3, 1, and 2. It's because of this that you're constantly getting lost if you don't have someone guiding you somewhere." Ranma paused for a moment to pat Shirokuro for additional emphasis.
There was an additional pause as the devil let his client absorb the information. He then continued. "This condition is treatable, but that's where the cost comes in. The only hospital that can perform a surgery to cure your condition is my clan's hospital in the Underworld and there are several problems with that. First, it's ruinously expensive for an unaffiliated human to get transportation to the Underworld alive. Second, the surgery itself is expensive since there aren't many infernal brain surgeons that are qualified to operate on humans. Third, human health insurance does not cover infernal operations and the Underworld's medical facilities all operate on a payment first policy. Humans don't even get the option of a payment plan and have to pay in full upfront."
Ryoga blinked his eyes in shock and then muttered, "That doesn't seem to be very caring of the doctors."
This caused Ranma to roll his eyes and reply "I'm talking about devil doctors in the Underworld or Hell as you humans like to refer to it. Oh they'll do their job wonderfully if you pay them, but don't expect them to care about you beyond a professional level. Especially, if you're someone they view as a lower lifeform." Ranma had seen that kind of attitude plenty of times towards yokais or the occasional human when he visited his grandparents at work. He had never been subject to that attitude since the doctors and nurses seemed to view anyone with even a drop of devil blood as automatically superior to all other lifeforms. Even if they did have negative views on halfbloods, the fact that he was a Sitri would keep even the biggest bigot from voicing their opinion to him.
Ranma looked firmly at Ryoga and said, "Let's get back to your wish Ryoga. There are 4 options available to me to fulfill your wish. I can create a GPS that will always tell you where you are and gives you constant directions on where you want to go. Base cost for this will be 9,000 yen with various possible upgrades to the value of 80,000 yen. I can train you to use Sinbad's Astrolabe so that it stops you from teleporting at random times and you can use it to teleport where you want to go. That will cost 200,000 yen a month with the payment due in full at the start of the month. I can book an operation for you at my family's hospital to cure your brain defect. Will all of the fees and transportation cost that will cost 61,600,000 yen."
"What!" Ryoga blurted out in shock, "61,600,000 yen?! How the hell am I supposed to get that kind of money?" Shirokuro walked over and nuzzled Ryoga in an effort to comfort him.
This outburst earned Ryoga the stink eye from Ranma who briskly said, "I said your medical condition was treatable if expensive. Your final option is some combination of the 3 previous options. Your payment doesn't have to be strictly in cash. Property that you own with an assessable cash value can also be used as part or as the full payment. Note that if you use an item that is valued more than the cost of the wish I get to keep the difference. I'm also able to give you credit on your wish for any martial arts technique you know that I don't know if you teach it to me. This credit is to a max of 40% of the wish's value or 40,000 yen whichever comes first."
Ranma was a bit glum as he mentioned the limits on the martial arts technique credit. Why did his mother have to put that limiter on him? Other devils got their wishes paid in favors or knowledge without any limits. It was a completely unfair rule. The fact that almost 90% of Ranma's wishes prior to that ruling were paid in martial arts techniques while the average devil had roughly 10% of their wishes paid for in favors or knowledge conveniently slipped his mind.
Ryoga slumped in his chair annoyed and upset. "Damn it, I finally get a chance to stop getting lost and it's out of reach! What I wouldn't give if I had it for a chance to be able to find my way where ever I want to go."
Those words caused Ranma's ears to twitch as a thought came to him. Ranma reviewed the options for Ryoga's wish, quickly pulled up some additional information on his phone, and nodded his head. The devil turned returned to looking at Ryoga and said, "I have a way that you can your wish granted completely without the high yen cost. However, the cost will be pretty steep and this option depends on just how far you're willing to stand by that statement you just said."
A chill ran down Ryoga's spine when he heard those words. Ranma seemed to be an okay guy, well an okay devil. But, Ranma had made it crystal clear that any services he would provide as a devil came at a cost. The typically lost boy felt his throat dry up as he asked, "What kind of cost are we talking about here?"
Ranma snapped his finger causing a sigil to briefly appear and a chess board on a small table to rise up out of it. The chess board had one set of chess pieces on it and the set was missing a king and a pawn piece. Ranma put his hand on the board and said, "I am a high class devil which grants me certain privileges. Most of these privileges concern matters you don't need to know about given your current circumstances."
"However, there is one privilege that will be able to help you out if you accept me invoking it Ryoga Hibiki. I have the right to my own peerage which grants me the ability to claim a select number of lower class devils or to transform beings from other races into devils as my special servants. In return for their loyalty and service to me, I grant my peerage my patronage and that of the Sitri Clan along with giving them access to opportunities of social advancement with devil society. A devil, even a reincarnated devil, who is a member of a peerage and works hard, can find themselves members of the high class with the right to their own peerage after a century or two of loyal service."
"I'm letting you know about this Ryoga, because I'm willing to offer you a spot in my peerage. Your determination and your passion for martial arts is something I want in my peerage. There's about a 66.6% percent chance that the reincarnation process that will be used to transform you into a devil if you agree to this offer will cure you of slight disability. Even if it doesn't, getting the operation to fix things will be a breeze for you. As a devil under my command the costs associated with bringing a human to the Underworld no longer exist. The cost of the operation would also no longer concern you as it would fall to me as your master to cover the cost."
Ranma's face hardened and his voice became very serious as he looked at Ryoga. "Let me make something very clear to you Ryoga. Don't take this option unless you are absolutely willing to commit to it. I'm almost certain we can scrounge up enough cash and techniques for me to create a GPS for you. With a basic GPS it shouldn't be too hard for you to make more money to later wish for a better GPS or lessons on how to control Sinbad's Astrolabe. I don't mind being summoned multiple times to help you as your financial situation improves."
"However, if you join my peerage you are choosing to sacrifice your humanity and agree to serve me as either my servant or as my vassal for the next couple thousand years of your devil life. There is no backing out of being a devil and the only way for you to leave my service without being hunted down and killed like a rabid dog is for me to trade you to another high class devil. The enemies of all devils and the enemies of the Sitri Clan will become your enemies. Enemies who wouldn't think twice about killing you if they thought it would help them or if they could get away with it."
Ryoga wished he could swallow, but his throat was too dry to do so. He nervously said, "You're making it sound like becoming a devil is like joining the Yakuza."
An eerie light seemed to emanate from Ranma's eyes as he said, "What can I say? Some pervious devil clients paid closer attention than others when the devil granting their wishes talked about the Underworld."
The Sitri sigil woven into a floor mat in Ranma and Ryu's room lit up. Ranma quickly emerged from the light Ranma stretched out for a second and relaxed. He pulled out his DevilBerry and checked the text messages he had received while on the job. Good, Ryu had completed one job moving a grand piano up two flights of stairs and was working on another job helping someone move into their apartment. The amounts would bring the peerage account up to a good level this month. They had already met their goal for the month, but neither boy was satisfied with merely meeting expectations.
Ranma walked over to the desk, pulled a laptop out of his storage space, set it down on the desk, and booted up the laptop. He then got down to the annoying task of writing reports about the state of his peerage and his business ventures for the month. The Underworld might not have invented paperwork, but there sure was more than enough of it to go around down there. Ranma had to review and itemize how his stipend for peerage maintenance was spent. Shifting the unused parts of the stipend along with the allowance his mother gave to bank account for him and the peerage. He had to certify that the living expenses stipend had not been touched and request that the funds be turned over to his personal portfolio. Most importantly, Ranma had to see that his tithes were sent in.
Taxes in the Underworld were surprisingly straight forward. 10 percent of what you made went to your overlord. That meant that Ranma had to give 10 percent to his grandfather who in turn had to pay 10 percent of what Clan Sitri made to his overlord Serafall Leviathan. Another 10 percent of what you made went directly to the Satans. All tithes were a matter of public record and a devil's reputation rose and fell by the size of their tithes. This was also a driving force causing many young devils to try and complete their peerage as fast as possible. With a larger peerage one had more servants out earning more thanks to more jobs being completed. That in turn gave a young devil more income and thus a bigger tithe to build a better reputation.
It was honestly a big headache for Ranma who would much rather be out fulfilling contract or better yet, training. However, it was one of the duties of a King and Ranma's pride would not let him shirk those duties. So he sat down and proceeded with some reluctance to wrestle with the financial headache waiting for him.
The sigil flared again just as Ranma saved the last document he needed to work on. Ryu walked over to Ranma and he collapsed on the floor. The pawn looked up at his king and said between pants, "Can I have tomorrow off?"
Ranma looked down at Ryu with a questioning look, "Why? You usually do contracts involving heavy lifting so what happened on this one?"
Ryu looked up and said, "My last client was heavy into incense use and all of their stuff smelt of it. They especially liked to use frankincense and myrrh in their incense."
A wince of sympathy appeared on Ranma's face as he said, "You've got tomorrow off." Genuine frankincense and myrrh had minor light properties which made breathing in the fumes from them like breathing in extremely nasty smog to a devil. That's probably why Heaven had encouraged their followers to use those items in various rituals.
There was silence for a minute as Ryu tried to clear his head and Ranma checked to see if Ryu had any regulars he'd need to cover for his pawn tomorrow. Ryu broke that silence by asking, "So, did you get any new customers Ranma?"
Ranma frowned for a moment and said, "Not tonight. Ryoga didn't want to go with the option that was within his budget and is fixated with the options that are normally out of his reach."
Ryu shrugged and said, "Even you can't win them all Ranma. Maybe in a few days Ryoga will call you back wanting the more affordable option." It wouldn't be the first time that a client of theirs called back for a cheaper alternative that had been offered when the precise wish was outside the client's means to pay.
"Oh I'm almost certain that Ryoga will call me again soon. Only this time he will be calling to join my peerage."
It was a good thing that Ryu was sitting down became it was quite shocking to hear that there might be another member of the peerage soon. "What?"
A look of amusement appeared on Ranma's face as he replied, "Don't tell me you thought that you would always be the only member of my peerage."
That earned the high class devil a nearby pillow thrown to the head. Ryu followed his insubordinate attack with a verbal salvo. "No man, it's just that this is the first time I recall you offered someone the chance to join your peerage in years."
Ranma shrugged and said, "I just haven't run into people that I think are worth bringing into my peerage. Ryoga has characteristics I've been searching for and there is a good chance he'll take me up on my offer."
"What if he doesn't take you on your offer Ranma?"
"Then I don't get a new member of my peerage. At most, I wasted a flyer since I could consider the whole experience as learning to convince someone to join my peerage." If there was one thing Grandfather Sitri had hammered home to Ranma was that anything was only wasted if you got nothing out of it. Even failure was valuable if you could learn a lesson from it.
There was silence for a moment before Ranma said, "Pops is probably going to get us up before the sun rises like usual. So let's call it a night and some sleep?"
At the same time in the Underworld, Lord Saar Sitri and Lady Sheli Sitri were having a secret meeting with all four Satans. This meeting was off the books and was to be recorded strictly by word of mouth. Ajuka Beelzebub started the meeting getting straight to the heart of the matter. "Has the Devil Genome Project been completed?"
Saar nodded his head and replied, "It has and the results are as we feared. The Original Satans encoded several contingencies into devils when they transformed our ancestors. Some of the contingencies are powerful spell matrixes. Please note that not all of these encoded spells are in every devil genome. All devils descended from the 72 pillars, pure-blooded status or not, have two extra encoded spells in their DNA. Lady Sitri and her peerage believe that these spells are control mechanisms to keep the devil population subservient to the original Satans. How they work is unclear, but they are irremovable. Attempts to remove or modify any results in the complete unraveling of DNA and creates a chemical that triggers cell death in other cells."
As bad as that news was, it was not the worst news Saar had to give. "These spell contingencies are deeply troubling. However, they are not the immediate and more imminent threat to devils in the contingencies." Saar needed a moment to calm down his hate to a manageable level so that he didn't show it in his voice. "Simply put, the original Satans did not intend for devils to exist long after their deaths. One of the contingencies is a fertility reduction that immediately takes effect if the original Satans are killed reducing a devils fertility until it reaches the point of sterility. This reduction is set based off of the number of generations a devil is from their line's creation as a devil in the amount as follows: Pillar 7 generations, Extra 11 generations, and Common at 13 generations."
The four current Satans' faces became white as snow as they processed what their namesakes had cursed all devils with. Sirzechs broke the silence with a trembling voice laced with horror. "What about children born from two different groups of devils? What would the generation limit be for a devil with an extra and a common devil as their parents?" Sirzechs was terrified at what this news meant for Millicas.
Sheli spoke up at this point. "We are somewhat fortunate since the fertility reduction reaches a middle ground when confronting someone with a mixed heritage from our traditional social groups. The same goes for devils whose parents are from different generations within a social group. This is due to devil genetics having a tendency to incorporate helpful mutations. If I may use you and your family as an example Lord Lucifer," Sheli paused to wait for Sirzechs response.
Sirzechs quickly nodded his head in permission. He needed to know the answer and was terrified at what it could mean at the same time.
Lady Sitri then said, "Lord Zeoticus Gremory is an early 5th generation devil while Lady Venelana Gremory is one of the last born 4th generation devils. Because of the parental generational difference, you and your sister Lady Rias Gremory are a hypothetical generation 5.5 in terms of fertility reduction. Lady Grayfila is a 9th generation devil of Extra origins. This makes Master Millicas Gremory a hypothetical generation 8.25 on a theoretical 9 generation fertility reduction track."
Saar took over the explanation again. "The whole reason we have these hypothetical generations and abnormal fertility reduction tracks is because the old caste system was allowed to weaken in the latter centuries of the original Lucifer's reign. It's often overlooked that the other Satans who died with the original Lucifer were the children of the original Satans. The original Beelzebub, Leviathan, and Asmodeus having each died previously and partially activating the fertility reduction curse."
Serafall spoke up at this point, "Sounds like this fertility reduction curse was also supposed to keep the original satans looking out for each other. If they let or caused one of the others to die then they'd have fewer soldiers to work with in the future."
Falbium sighed and spoke up, "This is troubling and troublesome. The Extra and especially the Common devils were used as cannon fodder during the Great War. Their generation count is far higher. That's not counting those who are secretly descended from Pillar devil bastards or whose family line was forced down to that level."
Saar's voice was colder than Serafall's ice magic as he spoke again. "All pureblood devil bloodlines are 1 or 2 generations form extinction due to sterility. Some young devils, such as Ruval Phenex's heir, are at their terminal generation. Post-natal genetic analysis of these devils has confirmed that they will never have children of their own blood." Being the father of his girls made all the horrors he suffered in his life worth it. Saar would rather be turned into an angel then go without his children so the thought that children were being born who would never have that chanced sickened him.
All the satans looked weak enough that a light breeze could blow them over. Silence filled the room at the news. Devils in the form of purebloods were doomed because of the actions of the most famous and revered members of Devil history. Such news couldn't be released because it would trigger a bloodbath. At the same time, there would almost certainly be a bloodbath in a generation once devils caught on to the fact that purebloods weren't having children and the old power structure would be dying off. That's if the purebloods didn't start trying to kill the reincarnated devils thinking that it would somehow grant them their fertility back.
Ajuka spoke up, "Where do the reincarnated devils fit into all of this? Previous testing showed that any being transformed became a devil completely. Has the project resulted in any concerning findings for them?"
Saar shook his head, "Genetically the reincarnated devils are the same as pureblood devils. However, they are the superior breed when it comes to the various contingencies. The spell contingencies are there, but they're effectively inert. The fertility reduction also exists, only it's on a 17 generation count and it's tied to whoever is the devil's king. This means that they effectively don't have the curse."
Sheli took over, "My team has noticed that pureblooded devils that join the peerages of lower generation count devils have a slight increase in fertility. We just don't have enough data at this time to give you solid improvement amounts. We've also found that natural hybrids can have the contingencies non-existent or weakened in their genetic structure. What is removed or weakened among hybrids is purely left to chance. The only reliable way to deal with these contingencies is the reincarnation of humans and the integration of the reincarnated bloodlines into the old bloodlines."
Everyone at the table turned their head to look at Sirzechs who visibly wilted at their stares. As Lucifer, he was responsible for the internal administration of the Devils in addition to being the nominal leader of all demons. This issue was squarely within his domain to solve and everyone else was glad that they didn't have to make the call on this issue. At the same time, they couldn't help pitying Sirzechs since he was left with an impossible issue to somehow solve.
Sirzechs sighed and said, "I think we've had a vast amount of information given to us today. I think a recess is in order so that we can all mull over this information. We'll reconvene in three weeks to review potential options to handle this situation." With that said Sirzechs, Falbium, and Ajuka hurried out of the room.
Serafall let her satan guise drop so that her parents could see the worry on her face. She rushed over to her parents now that they were alone and worriedly asked, "This is horrible. What are we going to do for Sona?" Sona and Serafall were both 6th generation pillar devils which meant that if Sona married a pureblooded devil her children would almost certainly be sterile. At the same time, Clan Sitri had very few branches left with the only possible pureblood successor to Sona being an older criminal that was part of the Old Satan faction. If Ranma or any of the remaining cousins took over the Sitri clan would be forced out of the Pillars because of the current rules.
Clan Sitri losing Pillar status would be dangerous for the clan itself as it would strip the clan of many political tools and open it to attacks by other clans. At the same time, it would weaken the Meritocratic Faction's power in the Conclave of Pillars. Changing the rules to allow non pureblood Pillar families sadly wouldn't fly at the moment. Even many of the Meritocratic family heads wouldn't accept such an idea since they'd practically have to restore the fallen pillars to the Conclave of Pillars. That would weaken the power of each vote because there would be almost double the number of voting heads in the Conclave.
Saar and Sheli looked at each other for a long moment and then shook their heads. Saar bowed his head and said, "We appreciate your concern Lady Leviathan. Rest assures that my lady and I are looking into this situation. We will find a solution to this situation and we ask that you not look too closely into this matter as we will handle it as your vassals."
Serafall felt like she had been slapped for a second to hear her father talking so formally to her in private. However, she quickly noticed a discrete signal from Sheli that part of the mother and daughter's private code system. Her parents already had a solution in mind, but they keeping it close to their chests. They wanted her to have plausible deniability if whatever they were planning was discovered.
With a formal look on her face and fear in her heart, Serafall returned the bow. "I am pleased to hear of such industry from my vassals." She signaled as she spoke wishing her parents the best of luck.
