Hey everyone!
Big thanks for all who reviewed: My-name-is-foxglove, Irena, jdcocoagirl and Inuyasha-No1.
Now, before you all start to howl my head of, I am aware that there is much ooc'nes in this fic, but what do you expect? This set in vampire world, it's hard to keep Ranma ½ characters the same. I've tried very hard to keep them as close to original as possible though.
Disclaimers: see chapter 1.
CHAPTER 3
Hinako Ninomiya, a detective working in Nerima City's police force, sat waiting in her car on a sunny morning. She kept drinking the milkshake she had bought before coming as she observed her partner, detective Soun Tendo, coming out of his house. At the door with him stood a young woman in her early twenties, Hinako guessed that she must be one of his daughters. The woman with long brown hair and serene smile gave her father a thermostat and waved to him. Soun smiled as he stepped in Hinako's car.
"Good morning, detective Tendo!" she greeted cheerfully.
"Morning, Ninomiya" he politely replied.
"Where shall we go?"
Tendo gave the address and Hinako started to drive.
"Was that your daughter I saw with you?" she asked after a while, still smiling.
The smile he had on the door returned to Tendo's face. "My eldest; Kasumi. She is a wonder, always looking after me" he said and held the thermostat as if to prove his point. "She has really been taking care of us since her mother passed away. I'm really going to miss her".
"Is she moving away?"
"Not yet, but it's bound to happen. She is 24 years old and having a serious relationship with a certain doctor guy. Not that anyone would have believed they would last. The poor man was a nervous wreck the first time he came to take her out" Soun laughed.
"What about your other daughters?"
"Nabiki has already moved out to her own apartment and Akane is in HPU which makes it difficult to see her at all. Unless she comes to give a report" he muttered. "Which reminds me, I'd appreciate if you didn't mention who it was that gave this report to us".
"No worries, Tendo, my lips are sealed" Hinako said, making a small gesture with her fingers over her lips.
Soun took his thermostat. "Coffee?" he offered.
"No thanks, I'm fine with my milkshake" she replied happily.
Soun raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. With her long black hair and long legs Hinako was the kind of woman that every man whistled after. Yet sometimes she acted like she was just a giddy child.
About 20 minutes later the two arrived to their destination. Hinako looked around herself. They were certainly in the district of so called night people, yet it didn't look like vampire area. Soun Tendo walked towards a shady looking door which had a sign Wolf's Nest written above it.
"Wolf's Nest? Are we in a werewolf district?" Hinako asked surprised.
"That's right. Werewolves are great informers. They have their entirely own network of getting information and are not that fond of vampires" Soun explained.
--
Werewolves: Werewolves could be called hybrids or chimeras of humans and wolves. Originally created by vampires to serve as their daylight guards. The first sightings of werewolves were made in the early 18'Th century. Like a bite of a vampire can turn a human to a lower level vampire, a bite of a werewolf passes the condition. During the first full moon the transformation is described to be painful and the werewolf has no power over his actions, following only his predatory instincts. After the first full moon however, werewolf can change anytime of day or night for whenever he/she chooses so. Also they have comprehension then. However, if werewolf doesn't satisfy its basic instincts of hunting and killing every now and then, it will loose to its own instincts again. Although werewolves are not immortal in the same sense as vampires, they too have a fast ability to heal their wounds, except ones caused by silver, and are slow to age.
One of the reasons vampires started to loose their ability to hide and were finally revealed to all mankind was because werewolves no longer wanted to work for them and started to rise to mutiny. Nowadays they are watched over to make sure they go to their hunting trips to the forests so they won't go berserk.
--
Soun pushed the door's open and entered to a dark looking empty bar that had all the chairs on the tables. Hinako was surprised of how large space the bar actually was and could imagine it full of drunken people partying. On the counter was a young woman, who didn't seem a day over 17 years old and who didn't even bother to raise her head up.
"We are closed. You are welcome to come back in the evening" she said with a sweet voice while reading a magazine.
"You know that I do not drink in here, Akari" Soun said, his voice humorous.
The young werewolf girl; Akari, raised her head and smiled when recognizing the detective. "Mr. Detective! What can I do for you?" she asked cheerfully.
"I need to speak with Hibiki. Is he here?" Soun said as he sat down by the counter, followed by Hinako.
"Sure thing. Wait just a moment" Akari said and disappeared to the back room. A moment later they could hear a cheerful voice shouting "Ryoga dear! You have visitors!"
"Ryoga dear? Are they dating?" Hinako asked giddily.
Soun shrugged. "Dating, mating. Whatever werewolves call it. Now don't let their appearances fool you. They're older than they seem".
A moment later a young man, or so he appeared to be, stepped out of the back room. He was dressed in black, with pants and a sleeveless shirt, and he had a yellow bandana pulled to his forehead, allowing his black hair to show. Like Akari, Hinako noticed, Ryoga Hibiki also had sharp looking teeth and nails and his eyebrows were surprisingly close to each others. Definitive signs of being a werewolf.
"Morning, Tendo. What brings you so early to my nest?" Ryoga asked, leaning towards the counter.
"Information, as always, Hibiki. Concerning of vampires or one particular in this case" Soun said.
"Is it about Kuno? Tell me you finally have something on that high-and-mighty bastard" Ryoga said smiling although he knew that it would not be the case.
"Sorry, Hibiki, we will still have to wait for him to go down. This is about a vampire, level 2, who late last night killed a level 3 vampire in sewers while HPU was on their task" Soun explained.
Ryoga scratched his head and thought for a moment. "No, sorry. Haven't heard of anything like that".
"I didn't really expect that you might have, but keep your ears open. We have a description of the vampire-"
"Description? The vampire was fool enough to be seen?" Ryoga asked, clearly surprised.
"According to our eyewitness he didn't even seem to mind being seen".
"Eyewitness?" Ryoga asked and eyed Tendo carefully. "I hope your daughter is alright".
Soun shifted in his seat. He so didn't like it that everyone knew her daughter, the youngest female in HPU. He decided not to answer. "According to eyewitness the vampire seemed to be in his early twenties. Had a boyish look but strong face. Black hair pulled in pigtail and dressed in black, with exception of red Chinese shirt. If you hear or see anything that might be related to this guy you let us know, right?"
"Sure thing, Tendo. Anything to let some blood suckers to suffer" Ryoga chuckled.
A moment later Soun and Hinako were walking back to her car.
"Did you watch how he reacted?" Soun asked.
"He seemed somewhat shocked when he heard the vampire had been seen, but other than that he didn't let out much" Hinako said. "So we can't be sure he doesn't know something already and is not hiding it".
Soun nodded. "I just don't know any reason why a werewolf would not be ready to rattle on a vampire".
--
"Okay, they're gone" Akari informed as she watched from the window.
Ryoga Hibiki immediately walked to the backroom of the bar and from there to the cellar. The cellar consisted on few rooms that were mostly used to store things they didn't need regularly but there was one room that was mostly empty. Ryoga entered that room and looked what there was: a small table that had a black coat thrown over it and a coffin. Ryoga walked to coffin and started pounding on it.
"Wake up! You have explaining to do!" he shouted.
A moment later the coffin opened and a face of a young man with a pigtail appeared.
"What is it, Ryoga?" he asked tiredly. "It's not even noon yet".
"Ranma, you were seen!"
The vampire blinked his red eyes. "You have to be more specific than that, Ryoga. What are you talking about?"
"Last night while you were out. You were seen killing a level 3".
The vampire, Ranma, rose from the coffin. He was still wearing the same black pants and red shirt. "I am aware that I was seen, Ryoga. Don't think that I'm so stupid that I wouldn't notice".
"Why did you let it happen then?" Ryoga asked, complete disbelief showing in his voice.
Ranma shrugged. "I hadn't meant it to happen. Not at first anyway. But I was too caught up with the level 3 to pay attention and then the girl already had her flashlight towards me".
"So it was Tendo's daughter" Ryoga muttered.
"What?"
"The girl that saw you is Akane Tendo, the youngest member of HPU. Her father is detective Tendo and he was here just now giving a very accurate description of you".
"That was the young tomboy girl I've heard about? No wonder really. There was definitely fire in her eyes" Ranma said.
"Ranma, you could have disappeared the moment she saw you. Instead you let her take quite a good look at you. Why? After you have been hiding for decades, why come out now?" Ryoga asked.
Ranma was quiet for a moment. "I guess I'm tired of hiding".
Ryoga was quiet for a moment. "Okay, if that's what you want. It's stupid but it's your life. Just know that the moment they figure out who you are you're going to have everyone after you. And I mean everyone. Army, police, HPU, Church of Jusenkyo, everyone! Are you prepared for that?"
Ranma had a smug smile on his face. "My life has mostly been just an endless battle. I'm grateful for this last century. I've been able to lay low and stay quiet. But it's time to show them again. Time to show that Ranma Saotome is back. Don't worry, old friend. I'll have my coffin removed from here. I don't want to cause any troubles for you or your herd".
"If it comes to that, Ranma, you can count on me to stay by your side" Ryoga said.
Ranma looked at the werewolf and smiled. "Hard to believe that you once tried to kill me" he chuckled.
"Yeah, well don't push your luck. Don't do anything stupid. Like that whole level 3 thing. Why did you do it? If you so wanted to kill couldn't you have chosen someone else?"
"I didn't kill it because I wanted to. I went closer because I wanted to make sure something. I had seen the man that level 3 had been a day before. Before he changed" Ranma said.
Ryoga shrugged. "One minute a human, next level 3. That's the way it goes, you know that".
Ranma looked Ryoga straight in the eyes. "Except when I saw him previously he had not been human then either".
To be continued…
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