I do not own anything written by Rumiko Takahashi or Kosuke Fujishima.
From her shelter on a grassy embankment underneath a bridge, Ranma stared out at the pouring rain, her arms pulling her legs against her oversized breasts and her wings curled around her for comfort. The rain wasn't pounding down, but it was the kind of rain that can go on for hours and had emptied the park beside the bridge of what few people the arrival of night would have left. Now, the only signs of life were a few tiny nature spirits that had flown past her spot underneath the bridge several minutes ago — she could still see their distinct nature spirit lifeglows now aimlessly wandering around the park grounds, apparently unconcerned about the cool wet.
Not that Ranma would normally have had any more concern than they had, the first of the rain had passed harmlessly through her before she had taken shelter. And while she could sense the coolness of the night, delight in it even, she couldn't really feel it. She idly thought that she wouldn't have felt it if the rain was replaced by a raging blizzard.
No, her instinctive search for shelter, the way she was curled around herself, had nothing to do with the elements and everything to do with the turmoil roiling in her heart.
Not a man. Not a man. Not a man... The thought continually echoed through her mind, disrupting and overriding every other thought that tried to form. Then, another thought struck her: If I'm not a man, what am I?
Her eyes left the wandering nature spirits still flitting about and lifted up to search the night sky for any hint of the moon and stars — a hopeless task, of course, her old and until recently only real friends were completely obscured by the clouds. Disheartened at her failure, she dropped her face down against her knees. A thing, that's all. I've just been pretendin' since Jusenkyo, good enough that I actually fooled myself — Nabiki and Mom, too. And Nabiki said I can't act! Her bark of laughter was choked off by sobs, and tears ran down her cheeks and soaked her knees. Are they real tears, or as fake as the rest a' me? The idle thought passed through her grief and was gone.
"You look like you could use this." The female voice jerked Ranma's head up. Beside her was a tall (at least compared to Ranma, but who wasn't?), young blonde woman with red elongated slashes tattooed on her forehead and another two red triangles on each cheek under her eyes. She was dressed in red leather, and in her outstretched hand was a handkerchief.
Without thinking Ranma reached out and took the handkerchief and wiped at her cheeks. "Thanks," she said shakily, then froze — the cloth wasn't alive, not a hint of life energy, no ki infusing it like Royga had with his thrown bandanas, and she was holding it! Her eyes shot back to the stranger and widened as she realized she wasn't able to see through her clothing, either. And the woman was completely dry!
Forcing herself to relax, Ranma handed the cloth back, then nonchalantly rose to her feet to hover a few inches above the grassy embankment and focused the senses she was still learning to understand on the stranger that had intruded on her angstfest. Again, her eyes widened for a moment before she fought her expression back under control, because she sensed — nothing. Nothing at all, as if the person before her didn't exist. But she had to, she'd handed her the handkerchief, the one Ranma had been able to touch!
But while Ranma couldn't sense anything substantial, she was catching a hint of ... of something, almost familiar ... just an echo, but it made her feel like she needed a bath. Where had she sensed this before ... ? And then her mind flashed back to Dr. Tofu's office, the manic doctor taking bites out of a plate brought by a despair-ridden Kasumi, and the dark, ugly, slimy aura linking the two.
Ranma found herself taking a step back and forced herself to stop. Casually clasping her hands behind her back, she bluntly asked, "Who are you? What are you?"
The woman's eyebrows rose. "And why do you think I'm anything but what I appear?"
" 'Cause ya handed me a piece a cloth I could touch; I can't see through yer clothes; other than my eyes, I can't tell you're even there; and ya stink."
The woman stiffened for a moment, tattooed cheek twitching, then she relaxed muscle by muscle and pasted on a smile. "My name's Mara, and I'm a demon," she said cheerily.
"Yeah, I thought so. Good ta know what demons smell like. So what are ya doin' here?"
Mara's smile stiffened, just short of a snarl, and a deep indrawn breath hissed between her teeth. She paused for a long moment, exhaled, then finally said, "Why, I'm here to make you an offer, of course."
Mara kept her gaze fixed on the face of the naked, and incredibly cute, red-haired nature spirit floating in front of her — however much the demon would have normally enjoyed the sight on display, now would be a very bad time to let her eyes wander. Likewise, she kept her smile firmly in place in spite of the two words Ranma had just used that had her seething: 'stink' and 'smell'. Remember, this offensive little hottie might be the key to Nabiki, do not mess this up!
"What kinda offer?" Ranma asked, her posture screaming suspicion. "Just what can ya do fer me — get rid a' the Jusenkyo curse? And just how will that help me now? It's too late!"
"No, I can't remove the curse, it's too powerful — a set part of your destiny," Mara replied with a shake of her head. "But I wouldn't remove it even if I could. Without it, you're just one more mortal, however skilled a martial artist you might be for your age. With it, the combination of your martial arts skills and the capabilities your cursed form gives you make you a unique, versatile agent, able to go places demons can't with a broad range of options when you get there. Besides," she continued, ignoring Ranma's confused look, "you're right that as things stand there's no point — you'd still be incapable of having sex in your human form."
"So if ya can't get rid a' the curse and ya can't fix me, what have ya got ta offer?" Ranma asked despondently.
"I didn't say we couldn't fix you, just that removing the curse wouldn't do it," Mara said. Gotcha! she thought as the succubus brightened. "We can — and if you swear loyalty to me, we will."
"How?" Ranma asked eagerly, drifting slowly toward the demon, but Mara shook her head, her smile turning into a grin.
"That would be telling," she said, her smile broadening. "If you join me, then I tell you about it."
"Alright, alright, what do I gotta do?" Ranma asked.
Mara offered her hand to the succubus. "Just take my hand and repeat what I say," she instructed.
Ranma was reaching out her hand when they heard a high-pitched voice. "Ranma, there you are!"
The succubus and demon whirled, and Mara felt her heart sink at the sight of the tiny insect-winged naked blonde sprite hovering a few yards away. Not Cherry Blossom, not now! she wailed silently to herself even as she carefully put on a cool, disinterested expression.
"And Mara!" the sprite continued. "And being naughty, too. You know the rules, demons leave nature spirits alone and nature spirits leave demons alone."
Making a serious effort to not grind her teeth, Mara replied calmly, "Ranma isn't a nature spirit, so the truce doesn't apply."
"Oh, really?" Cherry Blossom responded cheerfully, and flew toward Ranma. She slowly circled the redhead, starting at the feet and spiraling upward, flicking a red nipple in passing and giggling when Ranma blushed and jerked backward, before finally coming to a stop a few inches from Ranma's nose. She giggled again when Ranma went crosseyed trying to look at her, then crossed one arm under her pert breasts and tapped on her lips with the fingers of the other. "I don't know," the tiny blonde mused thoughtfully. "She sure looks like a nature spirit to me. Feels like one, too."
"You know very well Ranma's a human cursed to turn into a succubus," Mara growled, tempted to simply blast the little annoyance into oblivion. She could explain it to Ranma somehow, somehow explain to Hild how the sprite died so it wouldn't be a violation of the truce ... and then she caught sight of several other sprites out of the corner of her eye, watching the proceedings from a dozen yards away. Damn!
"Oh, so she's both a human and a nature spirit!" Cherry Blossom burbled, circling Ranma's head. "Goodie, that means we both get to play!" Then, settling on Ranma's shoulder, she said in a stage whisper, "You know, you're awfully cute when you blush.
"Anyway," she continued in her normal bubbly tone, flying off Ranma's shoulder to again hover in front of her fellow nature spirit, "I'm not actually just passing by. Nabiki and Nodoka summoned me and asked me to look for you. They're really worried about you, and Kasumi will be, too, when she finds out how you took off. We don't want to worry Kasumi, do we?"
Ranma soundlessly shook her head.
"Good, so why don't you finish up your business here, and we can head back and brighten her day." The tiny sprite waved toward Mara, and Ranma turned back toward the demon, her mind whirling under the sprite's verbal onslaught. There had been something in the middle of that torrent of words that had rung an alarm, something about Kasumi ... and even as she reached out a hand she felt — something — brush across her, something ... slimy ... like she had felt from Kasumi at Tofu's clinic.
Yanking her hand back, Ranma glared suspiciously at Mara. "And just what would I hafta do, if I sign on? A martial artist protects the innocent and weak. Is that what you'd want me ta do?"
Mara suppressed a wince. Dropping her renewed smile, she said soberly, "No. We demons feel that the best defense is a good offense — we seek out those deserving of punishment and see that they get it."
"People like Kasumi?" Ranma demanded.
"Kasumi? You mean Tendo Kasumi?"
"Yeah, that Kasumi," Ranma snarled. "Sure, she doesn't really like what me and Nabiki are doing, but she's treated me great anyway. An' Doc Tofu's a good guy, too. She an' the doc don't deserve ta be cursed by some demon so he acts like a maniac whenever she's around. If that's what ya consider 'seeking out those that deserve punishment', then ya can kiss off!"
Mara stared as Ranma spread her wings and began to fly away, stunned by how abruptly everything had fallen apart. Shaking herself free of the shock, she called out to the angry succubus. "Ranma! If you change your mind just call my name, I'll answer as soon as I can!" There was no reply, as the Mara watched Ranma disappear into the night sky.
She stared at the empty sky for several minutes, then shook herself and walked across the park to a grove of trees. As she approached, Calise stepped out of the treeline. "Well, that could have gone better," her friend said sympathetically.
"No kidding!" Mara snarled. She paused and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and holding it for a long moment, then sighed. "I didn't really expect Ranma to agree, not at first," she admitted to her friend. "I was just laying the groundwork for later, I hadn't realized just how important Ranma's manhood is to him ... her ... whatever. But it was going so well! And then that blithering, crafty little bitch had to go and stick her nose in..."
"You do have to admit this ... situation ... doesn't fit our truce with the nature spirits very well," Calise pointed out, then hesitantly continued, "You really didn't know about Kasumi and Tofu?"
"No, I didn't. You did?"
"Yes, it was in Tofu's file," Calise admitted, then suddenly stiffened. "But it wasn't in Kasumi's file! Oh, shit, someone screwed up the cross-referencing, and I missed it! I'm sorry, Mara —"
"Not your fault," Mara said, waving off her apology. "Or at least not your job, you're just helping out in your off-hours. I can't read the file for every person Ranma meets, but I should have read Dr. Tofu's after Ranma visited the second time, at the latest — he is an old friend of the Tendos, after all, and he's mentioned in both Akane's and Kasumi's files especially. Just too many cases, I guess, maybe I should hand some of the less important ones off."
She shrugged, winced, and rotated her shoulders, trying to loosen up stiff muscles, then sighed blissfully when Calise stepped behind her and started to massage the back of her shoulders. "Ohhh, that feels good. Anyway, taking a look at my caseload's for later. Did Jalok follow her?"
Calise nodded as her hands worked their magic. "Yes, it took off like a bat out of hell —" She broke off, chuckling. "I've always liked that phrase, however did the English come up with it? Anyway, when Ranma flew off it followed her. But I don't know if it'll catch her, a couple of sprites took off after it when it left."
"Wonderful. Just ... wonderful. Sprites aren't the most stable of nature spirits, who knows what they'll do if they catch it? I really hope this doesn't blow up into another war, we really don't need that right now."
Regretfully, Mara stepped away, breaking off her friend's attentions. "Let's head home, it sounds like I need to report Cherry Blossom's interference, and then get some more files to read while waiting for Jalok to report in."
/oOo\
Jalok desperately scanned the wet steel and concrete jungle that surrounded it as it slowly flew down the street through the steady rain several stories above the ground. Not a hint, not a sign. When the imp had flown off after the angry succubus that had blown off Mara, Jalok had quickly found that it wasn't as fast as Ranma at full speed. Still, it had been pretty close and had been losing ground slowly while keeping her in sight — until the succubus reached the taller buildings of downtown Tokyo. It had lost sight of her immediately, and almost worse the way that it had to slow down to search meant its pursuers —
Sensing the next attack run coming in, Jalok desperately spread its wings, braking hard, and a sprite flashed across in front of it, slightly below where it would have been. Then Jalok was desperately rolling to the side and dropping and a split second later the second one streaked through where it had stopped, missing it by a hair. That was close! Jalok thought even as it plastered itself against the side of a skyscraper, eyes trying to follow two circling sprites at once. He wasn't trying to hit me so it probably wouldn't have been a violation of the treaty if he had, but still ...
Keeping against the wall, Jalok resumed its flight along the block, eyes scanning the buildings on the opposite side of the street while simultaneously keeping an eye on the two sprites keeping pace with it.
The chapter title comes from the old folklore about the natural place to make a deal with the Devil, referenced in the third verse of one of my favorite songs, "Sugar Cane" by Ray Wylie Hubbard.