Disclaimer: I don't own Negima! Magister Negi Magi or Ranma ½
Rise of Prodigies
Chapter Thirty Five: New Beginnings at the Starting Line
Beta:
"This is the Joketsuzoku village?" Okaasan said in surprise as Ranma and her parents walked towards the town down the quaint rural road in the Bayan Har Mountains, south of Mount Quánjīng, in Qinghai Province, China.
"This is unexpected." Otouchan said, nodding in agreement. "I was expecting something more… I dunno. Just not this."
Ranma could understand her parents' surprise at the Joketsuzoku village. For the home of a group of Amazons, it certainly seemed normal. It looked somewhat primitive with dirt roads and with only some houses possessing electricity or running water, at least if the limited number of power lines and the many outhouses were any indication. But it looked very much like other rural Chinese villages, even a little more well developed than most considering that most of the houses in the settlement were properly constructed brick buildings built in the traditional style with hanging hill roofs. Considering a good many of the isolated Chinese villages, many of which they had passed through on the way here, were made up of wooden or mud huts, this was a significant improvement.
Why had they been travelling through China on the way here when they could've teleported directly to the village? Well, since this was supposed to be a vacation, whatever else it was, Otouchan and Okaasan had insisted on travelling into the country ahead of the date they were expected by the Joketsuzoku to visit the country's attractions and admire the picturesque countryside around the Jusenkyo valley. Just like how Haruna and the rest of Ala Alba had left for Wales ahead of their departure date for Mundus Magicus so they could visit the place where Negi-sensei had grown up.
It was honestly a good decision as Ranma and her parents had greatly enjoyed the trip so far, it was just like they were on a holiday. Which technically they were. The only hiccup of it was that they had been shadowed from afar throughout by the familiar Mr. Mage and a contingent of his fellow Chinese mages. An annoying but understandable precaution considering her new nature.
"Not following us in?" Ranma asked Mr. Mage in her rusty Mandarin as she manifested a body next to him and his men even as she continued chatting with her parents as they strolled down the path towards the Joketsuzoku village.
"No," the man replied with perfect Japanese. "The Joketsuzoku and your parents can handle keeping watch over you from now onwards. Not that I think you actually will cause any trouble, Demon Lord or not, Ranma-san."
"Thank you for your vote of confidence." Ranma said, smiling at him gratefully. "If nothing happens to test my cool, I will be on my best behavior."
"Then I hope nothing does." The Chinese mage said with a smile of his own. "Have a nice stay in Jusenkyo, Ranma-san."
With that he offered Ranma a wave goodbye and teleported away with his men, even as she waved back before letting the body collapse back into a puddle that snaked back to her main body.
As the detached portion of her body sneakily merged back with her main body, not unnoticed by either of her parents if the disapproving look they shot her was any indication, she chuckled uneasily.
"I was just saying goodbye to our shadows," Ranma explained with a contrite smile.
"So they're gone?"
"Yes, Okaasan." Ranma said with a nod. "They've teleported away."
"Good," Otouchan said with a relieved sigh. "Having them watching us like we were potential criminals was trying."
"Yeah," Ranma agreed with a shrug. "But understandable."
"Agreed." Otouchan allowed. "But it looks like we've just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire."
"Yes," Okaasan agreed with a nod, adopting a truly serious face. "Looks like our hosts are waiting for us."
It was true too. Standing outside the Joketsuzoku village and in front of a gate with a sign mounted on it that declared the settlement's name, were a welcoming committee of its residents led by their Elder Kě Lún.
"It's game time." Ranma said as she adopted a determined look of her own. "Let's hope this doesn't devolve into a massacre."
"Ranma," Okaasan chided.
"Best behavior," Ranma said with a pout.
Seriously, she couldn't joke around about killing people now? Why!? Eva-chan did it all the ti- Okay, so following the Dark Evangel's lead here probably wasn't the best idea even if she was her girlfriend. But it still sucked! She wanted the freedom to express herself damnit!
"You better be." Otouchan warned. "But quiet down girls. It's game time."
As they settled down to the welcoming feast that the Joketsuzoku had arranged for them, Ranma surveyed her hosts and saw nothing but a sea of wary faces. She didn't blame them. Having a Demon Lord inside their home would make anyone uneasy, especially since her very presence there was part of a peace offering after having offended her in the past.
Was she honest about accepting the olive branch? Or was she using the chance of being inside their village as an opportunity to destroy them? Those must've been some of the thoughts that crossed her hosts' minds. Not that they had anything to worry about. The Joketsuzoku's Elders surely had some failsafe in place to contain her. They wouldn't have invited her to the village if they didn't.
Not that it'll be necessary. Ranma thought with a shake of her head. I came here to study the Jusenkyo springs and the Joketsuzoku village is a perfect base camp from which to do that. That and I'm sure they're fairly knowledgeable about them themselves seeing as they've lived next to them for centuries.
"You guys are a suspicious bunch aren't you?" Okaasan asked the old ghoul Kě Lún who shared their table at the head of the community hall that they were using for the feast, gesturing to the other Elders who were very pointedly not sitting with them but scattered strategically around the hall just in case a fight broke out.
"Can you blame us?" The hag like woman asked with a gummy grin. "Your daughter is a powerful Demon Lord. It is only wise to be cautious."
"Yet, you invited us in the first place." Otouchan pointed out.
"Better to take her measure and repair our strained relationship-"
"That's one way to put it," Ranma said with a shake of her head.
"I was trying to be diplomatic, Ranma-sama." The ancient woman said whilst shooting Ranma an apologetic look. "Would you describe it another way?"
"Call it what you want," Ranma said dismissively as she ate daintily from the wide selection of dishes laid out on the table before her. She wasn't hungry, as a slime she could survive off practically nothing, but she was curious about how all the food tasted.
"Very gracious of you, Ranma-sama." The crone said with another gummy smile. "As I was saying, it is better to measure and repair our strained relationship with you here, in the village where we are most powerful rather than attempt it elsewhere where we might inadvertently antagonise you and-
"Not be equipped to deal with the consequences." Otouchan finished for her.
"Exactly," Kě Lún admitted freely.
"You honestly don't need to worry so much," Ranma said airily as she finished a breaded shrimp. "As long as you assist me in my investigations into Jusenkyo, I will consider all animosity between us forgotten."
"You have our thanks, Ranma-sama." The lead Joketsuzoku Elder said with a grateful bow. "We will of course assi-"
"Enough!" An annoyingly familiar voice cried out in Mandarain suddenly from a far corner of the hall and Ranma turned in its direction to be greeted by Shān Pú marching towards their table, radiating fury.
"Great-grandmother! Why are you bowing to this, this brat!" The younger Amazon shouted, brushing aside attempts from her compatriots to stop her. "She cannot be as powerful as they say! We need not demean ourselves to curry favour with the likes of her!"
"Shān Pú!" Kě Lún shouted, looking genuinely angry. "Be quiet! Would you question the judgement of your Elders and antagonize a Demon Lord?"
"This brat cannot be a Demon Lord!" Shān Pú shot back defiantly as she reached the head table and slammed her hands onto it, rattling the dishes laid out on it. "I'll prove it!"
"And how do you intend to do that?" Ranma asked the other girl honestly curious, even as she allowed her body to shift into slime whilst maintaining its humanoid shape and dismissively continued her meal.
Shān Pú was either too stupid to take the warning for what it was or too overconfident to take it to heart. Either way, she ignored the gesture entirely and barreled ahead.
"I challenge you to a duel." The purple haired brat said, pointing a finger at Ranma. "I'll beat you and prove you're no big deal."
"That's your brilliant plan?" Ranma scoffed. "I de-"
"She accepts," Otouchan cut in before Ranma could finish and she shot him a look of confusion.
"Let's not do anything that might insult our martially oriented hosts." Okaasan leaned down to whisper into Ranma's ear.
Ranma frowned - She really didn't want to waste her time fighting a weakling like Shān Pú! - but sighed and nodded. She wasn't about to contradict her parents.
"Elder Kě Lún." Ranma said, turning to the old ghoul. "You have anywhere we can borrow?"
Thankfully after that, the feast had continued. Things had been even tenser than before, with Shān Pú glaring at her throughout from her own table, but Ranma had ignored it all and just focused on sampling the food on offer. It had tasted wonderful, the Joketsuzoku had great chefs, and she was thus in a reasonably happy mood as she found herself atop a familiar wide log that hung over a cistern filled with water.
"Is this your village's only training ground?" Ranma asked curiously as she waited for Shān Pú to show up from wherever she'd run off to go get ready.
"Hardly," Kě Lún said with a chuckle. "However, this is the one where we hold special events like our village tournaments and-"
"Honour duels?"
"Exactly," the old ghoul said with that gummy smile of hers. "Oh, and it looks like Shān Pú is back."
Ranma glanced to the other side of the log and saw that the purple haired girl was indeed climbing up. She'd apparently gone to change out of the formal clothes she was wearing earlier, a hanfu with pants that would not have looked out of place being worn by a female martial arts in a wuxia movie, into a similar but more basic blouse and pants. An outfit that Ranma noted was lightly armored.
"Best of luck Ranma-sama," Kě Lún wished as she hopped off the log, before skipping off the surface of the water below with the help of a little ki and landing next to Otouchan and Okaasan by the cistern's edge.
"Don't hurt her too badly, Ranma." Okaasan warned.
"But don't let her beat you up either before you win." Otouchan urged. "Just make this quick and easy."
"I'll do my best," Ranma said with a roll of her eyes at her parents. Sure she appreciated that they were certain that she'd win but did they have to go out of their way to question her restraint. This wasn't her first fight as a Demon Lord! She knew how to handle herself.
"What are you wearing?" Shān Pú said, sounding scandalized as she glared at the dress Ranma was wearing. "Do you honestly think you can beat me in that!?"
Unlike her opponent Ranma hadn't bothered to get changed and was still dressed in the fashionable and formal gray lace A-line long cheongsam she'd worn to the feast.
"Considering how weak you are? Yes, I think I will." Ranma shot back tauntingly even as she faked a mocking yawn and summoned her familiars. "In fact, I think I'll leave this fight to Zero-chan and the Slime Sisters. They're more than enough to deal with the likes of you."
"Y-You!" Shān Pú growled out in anger. "I'll show you!"
"Match start!" One of the shriveled old women that was one of the Joketsuzoku Elders, but whose name Ranma had not bothered to recall, announced, sending Shān Pú charging across the log towards Ranma and her familiars.
"Shāyú Quán (Shark Fist)!" She shouted as she ran, sending tendrils of her ki down into the water below and causing violent bursts of water to shoot from it at Ranma and her loyal minions.
"Guess she's improved her technique." Ranma noted absently as she absently summoned a Obice (Barrier) shield to protect herself and her familiars from the Amazon's attack. "Last time I saw her using that she actually needed to touch the water to use it."
"So what if she got better Mistress," the murderous Zero-chan snorted as she brandished a pair of large machetes menacingly. "We're still gonna mess her up aren't we, Slime Sisters?"
"We're going to kill her!"
"Let's make her cry!"
"...!" Pudding said wordlessly as she transformed her arms into vicious looking blades and leapt at the advancing blue haired Amazon.
Shān Pú leapt back, caught by surprise by the ferocity of Pudding's sudden assault. She was further forced back as her sisters joined her, Suramui leaping in with her arms shaped like warhammers whilst Ameko provided ranged support using her arms that she had transformed into whip like tendrils. Zero-chan would've too but as she tried to jump into the fray, Ranma plucked her out of the air and hugged her to her bosom.
"Stay with me, Zero-chan." She told her murderous Doll. "This fight will be so boring that I'll need the company."
"Aw~! But I wanna beat her up too," the crazy knife wielding automaton whined. "But if you say so Mistress… Can I still cut up the corpse?"
"She's not going to die. Sadly. That'd be rude to our hosts."
"Boo, boring. Old Mistress would be sad. Corpses are great conversation starters!" Zero-chan insisted.
"Huǒzhōng Tiānjīn Gānlì Quán (Imperial Roasting Chestnuts in the Fire Fist)!" The Amazon shouted as the Slime Sisters got in close, unleashing a flurry of punches in such quick succession that her arms must've looked like a blur to a casual observer.
Sadly for her, none of her opponents were anywhere near ordinary. With a little boost of energy from Ranma to empower them, the Slime Sisters easily weaved through the hundreds of punches without so much as sustaining a hit.
"That's the best you got!?" Suramui taunted with a snort as she slammed one of her warhammer shaped arms into the Amazon's right knee and broke it so badly that bone poked out of her skin.
Shān Pú howled in agony but Ranma's familiars were far from done. Even as her legs gave out from under her, Pudding leapt onto her chest and proceeded to repeatedly stab her bladed arms into the Amazon's chest with a gleeful grin on her face. To her credit, the purple haired girl tried to pry the Slime off but as she did, Ameko's tendrils grabbed hold of her arms and twisted them away. In fact she did so with such force that with painful popping sounds, both arms were pulled straight out of their sockets. As if that still wasn't enough, Suramui took the opportunity of the opening her sisters' attacks had created to land one more of her own and with a powerful swing of her arms proceeded to shatter Shān Pú's previously undamaged leg.
"She should've used Shundō (Instant Movement) to create some distance instead of trying to launch an attack." Ranma critiqued with a shake of her head as she observed how the Slime Sisters had so easily taken down the proud Amazon warrior.
They weren't done with just that though and acting on their vicious streak, the Slime Sisters happily began to transform into their true form and spread their bodies over the defeated girl's body, leaving her head exposed so she could continue screaming in agony, whilst they proceeded to eat away at the moronic girl's clothes. It seemed they were determined to not only humiliate her by the ease of which they had defeated her but by also leaving her stark naked.
"That's the spirit Slime Sisters!" Zero-chan cheered, waving her machetes in the air like they were pompoms. "Show her who's boss!"
And then they all spat on her head, dissolving chunks of her hair too. Actually, their acidic nature may have turned those places they'd hit into bald spots.
And she'd deserve those too. Ranma thought vindictively, trying to stop a smile coming to her face.
"And the duel goes to Ranma-sama!" The Joketsuzoku Elder playing referee declared hastily after shaking her head to clear away her shock at the one-sidedness of the whole match. "Could you please call off your familiars so that we may recover Shān Pú and take her away for treatment, oh great one?"
"Ameko, Suramui, Pudding, that's enough. To me." Ranma ordered and the three Slimes obeyed, detaching from the defeated Amazon's very raw looking skin and reforming into their chibified humanoid forms sauntered over victoriously to her side.
"Was that okay, Otouchan, Okaasan?" Ranma asked her parents, wary of their opinion.
"A little more excessive than I would've liked." Okaasan said with a shrug. "But she has tried to kill you at least twice, so I can forgive you for wanting to smack her down a peg."
"What your mother said," Otouchan added, rubbing the bridge of his nose in discomfort.
"I congratulate you on your victory, Ranma-sama." Kě Lún said after glancing to make sure that her great-granddaughter was taken away to be treated by her people. "But I wonder, would you be able to match me in battle?"
"Are you challenging me to a duel as well?" Ranma asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Heavens no," Kě Lún said with a laugh. "Simply a spar. That is if you would be willing to oblige. Would you?"
Ranma considered it for a moment and shrugged.
"Sure," Ranma agreed. "I'm a little curious about how I could stack up against you too. So bring it."
"Wonderful!" The ghoul said with a smile as she leapt onto the log and offered Ranma a respectful bow that she returned.
"Match start!" The Joketsuzoku Elder acting as the training ground's referee for the night declared and both combatants leapt into action.
"Jiǔyáng Shéngōng (Nine Yang Divine Skill)." The old ghoul whispered as her ki suddenly surged and suddenly took on a strong yang aspect, even as she launched into a kata. "Jiànglóng Shíbā Zhǎng (Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms)!"
She struck the air eighteen times with an open palm and each time a dragon conjured from raw yang energy surged forth towards Ranma.
"Impressive," Ranma said as they streaked through the air towards her. "But not good enough. Clamor Vespertilio (Bat Scream)!"
As the incantation of her spell was completed, her voice became an unnatural screech. One that was imbued with a portion of her vast demonic power and which easily dispelled the dragons and even caused Kě Lún to stumble back.
Capitalizing on this, Ranma used Conniveo (Blink) to teleport behind the ancient woman and at point blank range fire a Erugo Radior (Corrosion Ray) at her. Much to her surprise however, the old ghoul actually somehow managed to spin around whilst she was midcast and as the beam of entropic energy leapt from the magic circle Ranma's casting had created in front of her, actually managed to pull off a technique of her own.
"Qiánkūn Dànuóyí (Heaven and Earth Great Shift)!" The shrivelled old woman shouted frantically, as spinning her arms in a circular motion and channeling her ki she somehow managed to deflect Ranma's spell away from her and up into the night sky.
"Didn't expect you could do that," Ranma said honestly even as within her arms Zero-chan fended off the old woman's counterattack, her machetes blocking the claws the Joketsuzoku's hands had become thanks to the Jiǔyīn Báigú Zhǎo (Nine Yin White Bone Claw) technique Ranma had first seen her use back in Mahora. "But you seem to be forgetting something."
As she said that, the Slime Sisters who Ranma had not teleported with her leapt at Kě Lún's back, their arms once more shaped into an assortment of weapons. The old ghoul sensed them if the way she glanced behind her for a moment was any indication, but didn't turn to face them or disengage to a safe spot. Though to be fair she didn't need to do either.
"Shāyú Quán (Shark Fist)! Bīngxióng Quán (Fist of the Ice Bear)!" She shouted as jets of water shot out of the reservoir they were fighting above and froze in midair to become icy projectiles that slammed into the Slime Sisters and sent them reeling back.
"So you know the techniques your great-granddaughter uses," Ranma noted. "Should've expected that."
"Indeed," the old woman said with a gummy grin. "And more besides. Lìngshé Quán (Divine Serpent Fist)!"
Her hands suddenly lost their claw-like appearance and her strikes suddenly took on a serpentine character, but as noticeable as all that was, it was not the biggest change that took place with the advent of the Amazon Elder's new technique. That honour went to the elemental energy that suddenly began to suffuse each and every one of her blows.
The first punch was empowered with fire and literally melted the machete Zero-chan tried to use to block it and the second must've been fueled with earth energy because the unnaturally strong fist outright snapped her other blade in half.
Seeing this, Ranma used Conniveo to teleport back behind the safety of the Slime Sisters even as she fired a brace of Sagitta Magica, Series Obscuri (Magic Arrow, Dark Series) bolts to cover her retreat though the arrows of darkness barely slowed the old ghoul down as she almost dismissively intercepted them with her elementally charged serpentine strikes.
"You're good," Ranma acknowledged. "Guess, I'll have to up my game."
To do that, the Demon Lord had two options. One, pull out the big guns and start unleashing her more powerful spells with their potential for collateral damage. Or two, bring out her most powerful minion. Considering she didn't want to level her hosts' village, there was really only one logical choice.
"Itami." Ranma said in a whisper even as the feline projection manifested itself in front of the protective circle the Slime Sisters had formed in front of her.
"T-That is a lot of negative energy you have there Ranma-sama." Kě Lún said, staring at Itami in shock.
"You're not the first person to tell me that," Ranma replied with a shrug. "Itami, attack."
At her order, the projection let loose a bloodcurdling roar and leapt at the old ghoul, its shadow detaching as it did and taking the form of a figure in the midst of a high kick.
The ancient woman frowned at the seemingly mundane attack and easily used Shundō to move past their attacks. This put her in close quarters with the Slime Sisters and they promptly exploited this fact by launching into a series of attacks. Sadly, she was ready for them and easily fended them off with bullets of ki that she shot from the tips of her fingers using what she'd called Yīyáng Zhǐ (One Yang Finger) back in Mahora.
That said, she was right where Ranma wanted her and that was enough.
Itami, hit her. Ranma ordered her projection mentally.
It obliged, unleashing a beam of potent psychic energy from its maw at the preoccupied Kě Lún. Caught off guard and with only a few precious seconds to react as the Slime Sisters disengaged to leap behind the safety of the Obice shield Ranma had conjured, she could only turn and stare at the beam of purple energy in shock before it consumed her.
The beam took a minute or two to die down and when it did, Ranma was surprised to find the Amazon Elder simply on her knees instead of curled up in a fetal position. That was usually what happened to people hit by the surge of negative emotions that were born from her mistreatment by her abominable birth parents and which empowered Itami.
Geez, what is it with old people and just being stupidly tough? Even for a human this lady was annoying! Ranma bubbled in her ire.
"Fufu, it has been a long while since I had to fight like that." The old woman chuckled out, then released a rasping cough as she pushed herself to her feet, swaying slightly once she did so. "I think this is it for me. I forfeit."
"Ranma-sama is victorious by virtue of forfeit!" The referee said in a slightly disbelieving tone as if she couldn't accept what she'd just seen transpire.
Ranma offered the lower ranked Joketsuzoku Elder a nod in acknowledgement before turning back to Kě Lún. "Yeah, as expected of the leader of your people. You're pretty tough!"
"Thank you, Ranma-sama. You are as strong, no stronger, than I had expected." The leader of the Joketsuzoku admitted. "And dare I say it, likely to only grow stronger. Something that I hope as your friends, we Joketsuzoku, hope to be able to see for ourselves."
"I share that hope on both counts."
Kě Lún offered her a gummy smile at that before bowing at her respectfully.
"May you live long and prosper, Ranma-sama."
"And may our friendship do the same."
Ranma was pretending to sleep in the small but well furnished guest house - It was one of the few buildings in town with both running water and electricity. - that the Joketsuzoku had assigned her and her parents. It was the middle of the night, probably sometime around midnight if she was to guess, when suddenly the sound of an explosion provided her with the excuse to shake off the pretense of sleep.
Sitting up in a flash, she summoned her familiars and sent them, with the exception of Zero-chan who she kept close, to scout out what had happened.
Seeing through the eyes of the Slime Sisters, she could see the Amazons running around to put out fires and fight against avian humanoids as the latter attacked ruthlessly.
Kě Lún however was upon the scene in a flash. Throwing her hands into the air, she shot dozens of ki needles at the attackers all of which suddenly turned on their comrades, using their weapons to attack each other. Was that the Rénlèi Kuǐlěi (Human Puppet) technique that Ranma had read about once?
I'm definitely picking that up when I get the chance. It looks like fun.
Using the birdmen she'd suborned, Kě Lún began to have them herd a large group of their fellows into a spiraling pattern even as she used her ki to manipulate the temperature around them, alternating between flaring an aura of icy cold and blazing warmth and in the process slowing but surely building up a powerful difference in air pressure. Something which she brought to a head with a powerful freezing ki infused uppercut and a cry of this elaborate technique's name.
"Shēngtiān Pò (Heaven Blast of the Dragon)!"
The resulting tornado of ki infused elemental fury obliterated the whole group of birdmen. Of the two dozen or so she'd caught in her trap, not even ashes remained.
"Argh! Curse you witch! We did not come here to fight you!" Some guy in elaborate armor that looked straight out of a period film, presumably their commander, exclaimed as he flew onto the scene and threw a fireball at Kě Lún. "Just tell us where it is and we'll leave. Where is this Demon Lord that would dare intrude on we, the Phoenix People's, domain!?"
Rushing out of her chosen room in the guest house she was staying in, Ranma glowered in annoyance. Last she checked, no one really had 'ownership' of this section of China. Her annoyance was put on pause though as upon stepping out of her bedroom, she almost ran straight into her barely dressed parents. Considering their state of undress, her Okaasan was only wearing an oversized shirt and her Otouchan was sporting nothing more than his boxers, she really didn't want to know what they'd been doing when the attack had started.
"Ranma, what's going on?" Okaasan demanded despite her situation, even as she tied her messy hair into a quick ponytail. "You've sent your familiars out haven't you? Did they figure out what's happening?"
"The village is under attack by a bunch of bird people." Ranma informed her parents, blushing and looking away from them. "They are, uh, looking for me apparently."
"Well that ruins our vacation plans." Otouchan frowned in annoyance. "Are we safe here? Can the Joketsuzoku handle this on their own?"
Ranma checked in with the Slime Sisters again, and saw through their eyes how they had managed to down at least a dozen of these so-called Phoenix People on their own and were piling up their corpses up into a pyramid for consumption later.
Gluttons. Ranma chided them goodnaturedly. Any updates on the battle?
Sorry, Mistress, but nothing's changed since you last looked through our eyes. Ameko reported. The oldest ghoul lady is still fighting with the birdman in the armor and the other Amazons are scrambling to put up a defense.
Well, they're doing slightly better now. Suramui chimed in. Their other Elders have joined in the fight too. And some of their warriors too. It looks like they'll manage.
Pudding's response was to helpfully glance in the direction of a squad of hastily dressed Amazons hurling techniques and firing arrows at a squad of fireball slinging Phoenix People somewhere near wherever the Slime Sisters had chosen to set up their larder.
Okay girls, got it. Thanks for the update.
"They were caught off guard," Ranma said, as she began to explain the situation to her parents. "But they seem to be responding well. They're forming up into squads and are fighting back."
Otouchan and Okaasan exchanged a look.
"We'll go help them." Otouchan declared as he rushed back into their room, Okaasan hot on his heels. "I'll go throw on some proper clothes."
"Ranma, stay here and wait for us." Okaasan ordered as she slammed the door to their room closed, muffling her followup. "Rin-chan where did you throw my panties?"
Zero-chan snickered but Ranma was too embarrassed to join in what she knew objectively was probably a fairly amusing scene. She couldn't find it so though, not when the stars of it were her parents! So instead, she just got rid of her ears so she couldn't hear any more salacious stuff and waited patiently for her parents like her Okaasan ordered.
"Stupid birdbrained fools. Are you ready to die for annoying me?" Ranma shouted angrily as she stepped out of the guest house, her thankfully fully dressed parents following behind her. "You want to know where the Demon Lord you're looking for is? Well, here I am!"
Immediately, all of the hundreds of the birdmen snapped their heads towards Ranma's position. For some this cost them dearly as the Amazons they were fighting took advantage of their distraction to end them, but most survived and flapping their massive avian wings, they shot through the air towards the Saotomes.
"Dumbasses," Ranma snorted dismissively as she cast a spell. "Pluvia Acida (Acid Rain)."
At her invocation, hundreds of lances of entropic energy fell from the sky in a deadly rain that impaled the majority of the blindly charging birdmen and killing them. The majority of the remainder were subsequently picked off by the Slime Sisters and the grasping pseudopods they reached up into the air to pull them to their doom. A handful, amazingly, still made it past this gauntlet but that just got them into the real teeth of Ranma's trap.
"Sagitta Magica, Series Fulguralis (Magic Arrow, Lightning Series)!" Otouchan cast, blasting three of them out of the sky with his lightning arrows.
"Lapis Inspiratione (Stone Blast)!" Okaasan cast, sending a dozen decent sized boulders flying that crushed another two more.
"Go get them!" The lead birdman shouted at his dwindling men as they neared, even as Ranma's own Sagitta Magica, Series Obscuri took down another five of them and Zero-chan took down another as the redhead tossed the Doll at it.
Through sheer weight of numbers, three of the birdmen managed to weather the deadly gauntlet and make it to the Saotomes. Instead of immediately attacking like they'd expected however, they instead lowered their taloned feet and grabbed onto all three of their shoulders and began to carry them up into the sky.
"W-What!?" Ranma cried out in shock even as she lashed out instinctively at the violation of her personal space and pseudopods erupted from her body. One of which lanced right through the head of the birdmen carrying her, killing him and causing him to drop her.
She fell to the ground in a wet splat and was reduced to a puddle but hastily reformed herself. It was unfortunately too late, by the time she'd reformed her body to sufficiently regain her bearings the two birdmen carrying her parents were mere pinpricks on the horizon.
"No!" Ranma cried as she unleashed a Radius Mordax Tempestate (Corrosive Ray Storm) at them anyways, even though she knew they were too far away for her entropic beams to hit them.
"I-If you want them back," one of the surviving birdmen that had been downed earlier wheezed from nearby, causing Ranma to twist her head unnaturally around to glare at him. "Y-You'll need to go to Mount Fènghuáng and defeat Lord Zàng Hóng. Not that y-you'll manage that, d-demonspawn."
Ranma's only reply was to smash him into bloody paste with an oversized pseudopod.
Standing there, her parents taken, the Demon Lord could only feel a mounting rage unlike any other she'd ever felt before. Even fighting her sperm donor couldn't invoke these emotions.
I'm going to genocide their entire species. Ranma affirmed to herself as she turned to the other surviving birdmen. Starting with this lot.
Mount Fènghuáng, home to the Phoenix People, was a mountain with sheer looking sides that made it look like nothing more, in Ranma's opinion, than a middle finger pointed to the heavens. There was a single set of stairs hewn into the sheer cliffs of the imposing mountain that she could've climbed to reach the peak where the birdmen who had kidnapped her parents resided but she was in no mood to do so. Besides, it was probably riddled with booby traps to attempt to kill her or at least slow her ascent. So she instead chose another option when assaulting the mountain in her rescue attempt.
"You idiots want to tempt the wrath of a Demon Lord?" Ranma growled as she looked up at the mountain angrily. "Well, time to reap what you've sown you birdbrains!"
With that angry declaration, Ranma let loose the restraints she'd held in regards to her power and body since she'd first learned to assume a human form. In response, her body literally exploded out of the limiting humanoid shape she usually kept it in and spread out into a massive, growing amorphous mass. Within seconds she was the size of half a dozen city blocks. By the time one minute had passed and her growth pittered off, she occupied the footprint of a small town and the height of a modest skyscraper.
"Feel my wrath!" Ranma roared as she charged Mount Fènghuáng, intent on melting the entire mountain into non-existence.
The Phoenix People sentries panicked as Ranma's massive mass surged towards their home like a tsunami of slime. They shrieked out an alarm and threw flaming attacks at her advancing mass. It was futile on their part though, their petty fireballs and burning lances were so small in contrast to her bulk that she barely even noticed it as they left her with slight burns that she quickly regenerated and her mass smothered any lingering flames the attacks caused. More and more of the birdmen surged out of their mountain to add their weight to its defense but it wasn't like a few dozen, or even a few hundred, more gnats made any more of a difference to a giant like her.
They were a nuisance though, so she grew a forest of pseudopods out of her mass and started swatting them out of the air. Occasionally throwing in the odd spell here or there when she felt like it. As a result, the birdmen dropped out of the sky in droves but even then they still defiantly kept surging out of their mountain to fight the clearing losing battle.
Unable to stop her, they could do little as Ranma wrapped herself around the foot of Mount Fènghuáng and began corroding the mountain at its very root. At the same time, she kept blasting the birdmen out of the sky by the dozens and detached hundreds of humanoid bodies from her main mass to invade the mountain's warrens directly.
"Otouchan, Okaasan! I'll find you!" Ranma shouted from the hundred mouths of her various Ranma-bodies as they rushed into the maze-like caves inside Mount Fènghuáng. "And I'll kill everyone who stands in my way of doing so."
"She is destroying us! How is this a good idea!?" Zàng Hóng, God-king of the Phoenix People, shouted at his chief advisor, the Hierophant of the Dawn God.
The mysterious being dressed in robes that hid everything about his body had appeared at Mount Fènghuáng a year ago and through offering gifts from his god, the Mage of the Beginning, in the form of a host of magical trinkets, like armor and weapons, had greatly strengthened the Phoenix People. Through that it had gained his trust and quickly became his chief advisor.
"You knew this would be the cost of facing a Demon Lord," the mysterious being replied mockingly. "If you were not ready to pay the price of doing such, you should not have chosen to do so."
"You were the one who suggested we do so!"
"No, I did not." The Hierophant said with a shake of his head. "You were the one who sought to attack the Demon Lord the Joketsuzoku invited into Jusenkyo. I merely offered you a suggested plan of action on how to do so."
"But it was you who pointed out that it was a threat!"
"And she is, but there are other ways to deal with such threats rather than confronting it directly. You were the one who chose to attack it."
"Y-You-"
"Lord Zàng Hóng!" Kiema, his second in command, shouted in alarm as she rushed into the throne room. "She has breached into the main residential area and is massacring us!"
"The main residential area?" Zàng Hóng said, his face paling. "That's almost here! How did she get so far into the mountain!?"
"She is a Demon Lord," the Hierophant said with a chuckle. "Did you expect anything less?"
"Enough with your mockery!" Zàng Hóng growled at the damnable robed figure. "Go secure the prisoners! Kiema, with me! It is time we show this supposed Demon Lord what it means to face a god!"
"Go for it, Lord Zàng Hóng!" The Hierophant said tauntingly as he left to go do as he was ordered.
Zàng Hóng was tempted to set him ablaze for his insolence but now was not the time for it. He had a Demon Lord to kill.
"Kiema, come!" The God-king of the Phoenix People said as he swept out of his throne room to face the invading Slime Lord.
"Halt, you monstrous demon!" A haughty and arrogant voice called out to Ranma's lead most body as she ripped a birdman warrior in half with her pseudopods. She grew an extra eye on a stalk to swivel and look at this newcomer that felt the need to call her out during her genociding.
How rude.
"What do you want, fried chicken?! I'm trying to end your species here!"
"I won't let you, monster!"
"You started this fight. You took my parents! You fuck with me, I fuck with you, moron!" Ranma exclaimed in a thousand voices that shuddered the air.
The red, orange and yellow bird man nearly fell out of the sky while the rest of his vanguard collapsed to the ground in a heap.
"Y-You dare give me orders, the ruler of this domain?!" The blonde haired fowl demanded as it started to radiate heat.
Was that supposed to be impressive? To be honest, she barely felt it. At best it was comparable to holding her hand too close to a lit match or candle. Basically, practically nothing.
A dozen pseudopods twisted out of her body and she swung them at him and his entourage at blinding speeds. The birdman managed to dodge, but his escorts did not and were promptly bisected. Impressive as that was, he failed to see the back swing of another pseudopod whipping out just after her first batch and was hit hard by it.
"Gah!" He cried out as he went flying through the air, missing a leg as he spread his wings to catch himself in the air.
"Do you think this injury will defeat me!? I am Zàng Hóng, a Phoenix! The God-king of the Phoenix People!" He shouted proudly as fire flowed from the stump of his severed leg and reformed into a new limb.
"Huh? So you regenerate?" Ranma noted with a shrug. "I suppose that means I'll need to up my game a little."
"You will not get the chance!" The birdmen's leader shouted defiantly as he summoned a short staff that was crowned by a large ring and had a pair of L-shaped struts along its shaft and charged her, holding it like a sword.
Parrying his attacks with her pseudopods, Ranma yawned.
"Is this really the best you can do?" She asked, an eyebrow corked disbelievingly.
"How is the Kinjakan not cutting through your tentacles!? It's hot enough to cut through lead!"
"It's hot, I guess." Ranma said with a shrug. "But it's not really that hot."
"Y-You!" The arrogant birdman sputtered in anger and fluttered back as Ranma tried to lash out at him with her pseudopods. "Not hot!? Let me show you hot!"
Removing the ring at the top of his staff, he channeled his flames into it and tossed it at Ranma like a chakram. The supercharged bladed boomerang cut through a dozen of the pseudopods that she tried to use to catch it but as it reached the main mass of the Ranma body it was targeting, she casually reached out and grabbed the blade out of the air.
"Guess this is a little hotter," Ranma said as she gripped the ring with both hands. "But still not hot enough to be more than a little uncomfortable."
With that she snapped the ring in half like so much trash.
"The Kinjakan!" The idiot birdmen's leader shouted in disbelief as his precious staff crumbled into ash in sympathy as its ring component was destroyed.
"Was that piece of trash important to you?"
"That was one of our people's greatest treasures, you demon!" Zàng Hóng said with a growl. "You will pay for that! Ránshāo Huángdì Yì (Blazing Emperor's Wing)!"
With that he ripped his wings off, one at a time as the other regenerated, and setting them ablaze threw them at Ranma. The things weren't even close to being as hot as that chakram thing he'd thrown at her earlier so Ranma just absently batted them out of the way.
They had however distracted her enough for him to start prepping what must've been his ultimate technique.
"That's it, I'll end you, demon. I swear you will DIE!" He roared and raised his arms to the sky, a ball of flame growing between his palms. It continued to grow, larger and larger, until it almost filled the entirety of the cavern they were fighting in.
To be honest, Ranma could have quite easily interrupted him whilst he was building up his power but she was curious about what the technique did so patiently gave him the time he needed.
"Jíshí Yānmiè Fánrén Bàozhà (Instant-Annihilation-of-all-Mortals-Blast)!" He shouted as he aimed the miniature sun at Ranma, laughing like a maniac as a beam of fiery destruction shot out of the roiling sphere of flames, sorching everything in its path as it hurtled at the Demon Lord.
Not bothering to evade the attack, Ranma allowed herself to be enveloped in the phoenix flame that glassed the earth around her.
Zàng Hóng laughed and laughed as the flames soon pittered out after several long agonizing minutes. And Ranma let him.
It was worth it to see the look of abject horror on his face when the flames died down enough to reveal her standing amidst the glassy hellscape his technique had created looking hardly bothered at all.
"Was that it?" Ranma asked dryly, leaving the Phoenix leader speechless.
The winged man fluttered back in the air with shock on his face. "T-This is a joke, no one could take that attack. It could end a mortal in a second?!"
"I'm an immortal, idiot."
The leader of the Phoenix raised his hands again, the fire starting to grow once more. "Jísh-Jíshí Yānmiè-!"
His technique was interrupted by the flash of the black and green beam of one of Ranma's Erugo Radior slicing through the air. It shot through Zàng Hóng's forearms severing them even as it consumed his growing attack, snuffing it out in an instant.
Silence filled the area, but was broken by the arrogant fowl.
Zàng Hóng released a manic chuckle, eyes large and actual fright seeping into them as he looked at the stumps where his arms had been. He shook them frantically, but nothing happened. Ranma's ambient entropic magic hadn't just dealt physical damage when she'd cut the limbs off, they'd made sure the wound transcended down to the spiritual level. At least when she wanted it to and that was definitely the case this time. With his relatively weak regenerative powers, the self-styled 'god-king' had no hope of repairing that kind of damage.
"Regrow! Why won't they come back to me?! I am a phoenix! Why am I not regenerating?!"
At his cries, Ranma let out a cruel laugh.
"What can a simple creature like you do against a Demon Lord of Entropy? Even your regeneration would falter when I apply my far greater might against it, mortal."
The term mortal struck Zàng Hóng like a death blow and he staggered back, falling on his butt as sweat ran down his face. His fear was so potent, Ranma could taste it. How pathetic! It was like he'd never faced the fear of death before and was now overwhelmed by the sudden immensity of it.
"You're pathetic," she informed him. "Even simple peasants have faced and overcome the fear of their mortality. But you, oh vaunted 'god' of the Phoenix People, cannot? Truly you are trash."
"Y-You can't kill me. I am a phoenix, I will be reborn!"
"Like I couldn't destroy your precious staff?" Ranma told him with a snort. "Oh wait! I snapped it like a twig!"
Zàng Hóng flinched at the reminder of how casually she'd destroyed one of what had presumably been the greatest treasures of his people. Despite that though, he managed - Despite Ranma's expectations. - to maintain his dignity.
"Kill me if you must," the so-called 'god' said pleadingly. "But spare my people. They do not deserve annihilation for my folly."
Ranma stared at him, long and hard as a dark and twisted feeling wormed its way out as she spoke.
"No." She declared, eyes boring into the worm before her and lanced a pseudopod through his chest so she could toss him into a cavern wall. "I'm ending you and your people. A fate for which you only have your arrogance to blame. You'll be my mark to show the world not to mess with me and mine. Ever."
"Y-You d-demon." Zàng Hóng sputtered out as he crumpled at the side of the wall, coughing out blood as he did so.
"I am a Demon Lord." Ranma said with a roll of her eyes. "Now, tell me where. ARE. MY. PARENTS!?"
"G-Go to hell!" The defeated God-king of the Phoenix People spat.
"I will find them." Ranma promised. "And if there is even so much of a scratch on them… I will resurrect every last one of your people, torture them, kill them and do it over, over and over again until I am satisfied. So you better hope they are unharmed. Now TELL. ME. WHERE. THEY. ARE!"
"T-The p-prison." Zàng Hóng said, his eyes wide in shock.
"Thank you," Ranma said as she wrapped a pseudopod around the broken birdman's head and promptly ripped it off, finally ending him. Granting him the mercy of a quick death.
"Otouchan, Okaasan, I'm coming!" Ranma promised to herself as she tossed the severed head aside and ran towards the Phoenix People's prison. She didn't need directions for it, not when the idiots had helpful signs indicating directions all over their warrens.
"Let my parents go!" Ranma shouted as one of her bodies ran into the Phoenix People's prison and saw Otouchan and Okaasan being carried around on the shoulders of a robed figure at the far side of the long hallway.
"Greetings Saotome Ranma-dono. It is a pleasure to meet you." The figure said as he tapped his foot and caused a wall of stone to shoot out of the ground between them.
Ranma just used a dozen or so pseudopods to shatter it, rushing towards the figure.
"I am the Hierophant of the Dawn God." The figure said with a bow, even as it tapped the ground once more, this time causing a field of stone spikes to shoot out of the earth.
Not that it slowed Ranma down at all, ignoring the razor sharp spikes even as they pierced her body, she exploited her Slime nature to flow and slither around them.
"Farewell, Saotome Ranma-dono." The Hierophant said tauntingly.
"You won't get away!" Ranma roared as she tried to rush towards the robed figure only for a stream of black flames to shoot out of its hood and create a wall between them.
Ranma charged right through the black flames. She had thought it was just normal magically charged fire but she deeply underestimated it. And as the pitch black fire touched her, it burned her in ways like she'd never imagined possible. The pain was one thing but the fire was even burning her down to her very soul.
"Argh!" Ranma screamed as she collapsed to the ground in agony and rolled around desperately trying to use the ground and her own slimy mass to smother the flames.
"The Amaterasu of the Mangekyō Sharingan is not so easily smothered, Ranma-dono." The Hierophant said with a chuckle even as a portal that looked like nothing more than a spiraling black hole or tear in reality formed next to it. "I do hope that you will survive it though. My Master has put so much faith into you, it would be a shame to see it be wasted."
"Y-You won't g-get away!" Ranma growled out through her pain, dragging herself toward the Hierophant despite the almost debilitating agony the flames were causing her.
The robed figure just chuckled and leapt into the portal.
"No!" Ranma shouted in denial as the portal began to close. "You're not getting away!"
Summoning all her mass to her, causing the immense slime mass to surge into Mount Fènghuáng and sweeping away the precious few Phoenix People survivors as it did, it flooded back into her humanoid body closest to the portal. With the flood of her mass and the magical energy it contained, it finally smothered the black flames and more importantly threw her forward through the closing portal.
The portal shuddered at Ranma's immense magical energy surging through its closing aperture, and the magic that sustained it warped and bolts of rainbow colored lightning arced erratically from it as the huge mass of slime flowed into it. Only as all the immense bulk that was Ranma's body fully passed through it did the portal close with a popping sound. Not that there was anyone there to hear it. Due to the Demon Lord's rampage, Mount Fènghuáng had been wholly depopulated and was collapsing.
Thus no one knew what had happened to the new Demon Lord Saotome Ranma for weeks. It was not until she made her dramatic return in Mundus Magicus that records of her actions reemerged.
No one that is but Saotome Ranma herself...
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Nameless: If anyone is wondering why Ranma so utterly humiliated Shampoo in their duel, it's because she wanted a little payback for all the annoyance she's caused her. At least that's the in-story reason. On a more meta note, it's simply because E4E hates her. Don't you, my friend?
Very much so, yes. It's just she rubs me in all the wrong ways. Of course I hate Akane more, but her clingliness and aggressiveness irked me somehow. I don't know, it's been a while, but she and Akane were just on my bottom list for Ranma. Ukyo ftw!
And no, this is not a three-way crossover with Naruto. We are just using elements for plot reasons and ideas. You'll see later on.
Nameless: To be fair, if you squint you could say it's crossing over with Naruto too. But only in the sense that our version of the Mage of Beginnings originally comes from an iteration of the Narutoverse. - And let me say, I think our version is a little more interesting than UQ Holder's canon version. To be honest, her whole schtick (wanting to end all suffering) has been played out way too many times already. And in much, much better ways than Akamatsu-sensei did. Evangelion or Code Geass anyone? To me at least, it reeked of attempting to be all philosophical but lacking the chops to deliver. The only vaguely newish bit was that she was tied to the pain of all things, but we've seen that done better elsewhere too. - We honestly thought of being coy about the Naruto influence and just describing Naruto jutsu without actually naming them, but well… I honestly cannot see why the Mage would bother doing so, so we decided to be upfront about it. Not every use of Naruto characters/jutsu of course, but the occasional name will be dropped here or there. Anything else? Well, you guys will have to guess. Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering, no we have no plans to fully flesh out the Mage's origins at this point in time. We don't want to be definitive about it but we're unlikely to ever do so. Some things are best left to the imagination. It builds mystery.
We had this planned out far in advance as an idea for the MoB before UQ Holder went into the details of their backstory. And gender. So this isn't really an intentional divergence from canon on our part. It just worked out that way.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!