Ch. 5 Irony
Monday morning.
Sesshon West (the current name by which Sessho-maru was known), head of The West Corporation, steepled his fingers together in thought as his limousine left the Tokyo airport. His phone call with the Kuno Industries representative had gone well. However, the vice president had indicated that the Kuno family themselves were more than a bit eccentric. Not that it mattered much. Most humans were morons to one degree or another. He just hoped that they could get him the information that he needed without too much interference.
He did have other resources as well. He'd made it a point to keep track of his son from time to time over the years and knew some of the situation. He knew, for example, that the idiot of a step-father of his had dragged him around in the wilderness most of the boy's life. This had taught Ranma fighting prowess to a certain degree but had sorely neglected his education. Also, Sessho-maru being abreast in the current events of the supernatural world, he'd heard of the Saffron incident. Quite a stunt for the pup with his demon powers locked away. In fact, that was quite an accomplishment period. This incident had heightened his interest in his son and he'd kept closer tabs the last several months. A strategic visit seemed imminent, the release of Ranma's youkai powers had only increased the time table.
The Kuno family apparently affiliated with a local high school and he was to meet the oldest son of the family there before school started. As this was the school his son was attending, he hoped that Kuno-san would be able to give him a heads-up.
Arriving in the private parking behind the school premises, Sesshon's white limo pulled up next to a black one. Standing to one side was a young man in a blue hakama and gi. Next to the samurai wannabe was a rather short retainer in Ninja gear holding up a sign proclaiming "Welcome to Nerima West Corp". Oh dear.
Kuno watched the white limo come to a stop. A rather stiff looking young man in a starched white uniform stepped out to open the passenger side door. Kuno straightened up to his full height to greet the man. The passenger was wearing kaki slacks and a white buttoned down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His silver white hair was pulled back into a loose pony tail and silver sunglasses hid his eyes. The ensemble was completed by dark brown leather sandal Doc's.
"Come and be welcome, great sir. I, Tatewaki Kuno, am privileged to make your acquaintance.
"Did you receive my message?"
"I did indeed. Thou would'st know information about the talented martial artists in the area. Although, I can tell you will all humility that there are none greater than I."
"All the same, I'd like you to introduce me to a few of them. I hear that several attend this school."
"Indeed," Kuno stated grimacing. "Although I understand not why thou would'st soil thyself with their presence, it is my duty as a Kuno to do my Lord's bidding."
"Good. You can point them out to me as they arrive." Sesshon stated while flicking one hand at the pompous boy indicating that he should lead the way.
* * * *
Ranma and Akane were running. They were late for school, again. While this was by no means an unusual occurrence, what was surprising was that it was actually Ranma's fault today. After bashing his panda father into the koi pond and heading for breakfast, he'd stopped to check on the homework assignment for the day and found that he had to rewrite it. Now that his soul was once again intact, he found that he seemed to be able to think more clearly then he used to.
Leaping over the ladle lady, he pulled back on his pony tail in frustration. Yep, that was a change too. The pig tail had gotten too tight with the thicker silver demon hair, and since the dragon's whisker curse wasn't in effect anymore he could wear his hair looser.
Akane ran on in through the gate and Ranma could hear Kuno's usual rant about his "fierce tigress Akane Tendo" as he went up over the wall. Pushing off the top he leaped towards his usual morning spring board - Kuno's head.
* * * *
Sessho-maru watched as the Kuno boy stiffly greeted some girl in a boy's uniform carrying a large spatula on her back. Following that a short- haired girl by the name of Tendo was praised as she stormed in, fists ready to pound anybody that got in her way. A flicker out of the corner of his eye confirmed his son's presence, who was reported to be living with the Tendos. In a second a boy in black pants and a red Chinese style shirt bounded off of Kuno's head and flipped towards the school.
"Gotta run, moron."
That voice.
"Ranma Saotome, foul demon. Come back here and take your punishment."
Ranma, who had nearly reached the school doors, tripped and choked, and suddenly began to laugh. All this time he's been calling me that. Who'd of thought he'd ever turn out to be right. Ranma's laughter continued to escalate until he was rolling around on the ground.
Sessho-maru pulled off his sun glasses and walked up to where the boy lay panting. "It wasn't that funny."
Ranma turned and blinked, catching his breath. Then he blinked again. "Sess? Sessho-maru?"
A few floors above them Nabiki leaned out her classroom window with a greedy look in her eyes. Fresh meat.
* * * *
Inside principle Kuno's office Ranma was looking rather wide eyed at the person in front of him. This was the last thing he had expected. Meeting his former brother here - at this time - was more than weird. Not only that, but he had no idea how much danger Sessho-maru now represented in the new scheme of things.
"What are you doing here?" Ranma hissed. "If you're after the Tetsu-Saiga I ain't got it."
Sessho-maru flinched slightly at the boy's poor grammar even as he sat and marveled. This young man, his son, not only had the voice of his long dead brother, but seemed to carry some of his memories as well. Giving Ranma a thoughtful look, he decided to cut to the chase.
"Do you know who your real parents are?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course I know who they are," Ranma stated defensively, even though he had only found out about his mother recently.
"Maybe it would be better to do this with them here," Sessho-maru murmured.
"Why?" Ranma bristled.
Walking to the door, Sessho-maru pulled it open swiftly, dumping Principle Kuno out onto the floor where he had been leaning on the door jamb. "I want Ranma Saotome's parents notified and brought here immediately. Both of them. Do you understand?"
"Why you wanna drag the keiki's parents to school, huh? What did he do this time?"
"Are you questioning my orders?" Sessho-maru's tone turned to ice.
"No, no. I be doing it," Principle Kuno stated hustling off.
Shutting the door, Sessho-maru walked back to sit in front of Ranma. "You are my son."
Ranma promptly fainted.
* * * *
Overload, system failure, shutting down.
Ranma slowly began to wake up. What a wacked out dream. As he became aware of his surroundings he discovered that he was lying on the floor, next to a large desk, with his head in someone's lap. He rumbled slightly with pleasure as he felt his head being stroked and fingers trailing down through his hair. Then reality set in as he opened his eyes to see Sessho- maru above him. Letting out a yipe, Ranma swiftly tried to distance himself from him, but found himself caught and pulled back by a pair of very strong arms. Struggling, Ranma switched to hanyo form to give him more power. It was a losing battle. Not only did Sessho-maru have him at a positional disadvantage, but he seemed to be using some kind of magic that wrapped around Ranma and tucked him in like a large blanket.
Sessho-maru clicked his tongue as one would with an errant child. "Hold still pup. I'm not going to hurt you."
Ranma, acknowledging the futility of his movements, stopped and looked up to glare at Sessho-maru.
Sessho-maru's expression in turn was highly amused and more than a bit thoughtful. "What's in your head, little one?" he was now stoking the hanyo's ears.
"I - I don't understand."
"Well, hopefully the Saotomes will be here to explain the father part. What I want to know is how did you know my name? And what do you know of the Tetsu-Saiga?"
Ranma opened his mouth but was stopped by Sessho-maru's finger on his lips.
"Maybe it would be better if you explained what exactly happened when your demon powers were released."
His father? But he had to be half demon this time somehow, right? And half dog demon at that. Whoah. Well, it's not like Sessho-maru wouldn't have guessed the important parts already due to his earlier outbursts.
"Well it all started when Pop took me to this cave in the mountains." He paused and grimaced, not wanting to explain the Neko-ken, but Sessho-maru's golden eyes seemed to draw him in and he found himself blurting out the whole story. When he finished Ranma began to shiver. Sessho-maru's eyes had gone hard and the temperature in the room seemed to visibly drop. Is it just my imagination, or is he using the soul-of-ice technique? Sessho- maru's eyes refocused on him and he sensed tightly controlled anger.
"He tried to teach you the Neko-ken?"
Ranma nodded sharply.
"I'll have to talk with Genma about that later. For now, I want to see how much you can remember about the past as well as how you've been living your life this time around." He put a hand across Ranma's head and whispered a few quick words before the boy could protest.
And then Ranma's world went black.
Authors note:
For those of you who have been asking, yes this will be a Ranma X Kagome fic but I probably won't get to that till toward the end. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve format for easier reading let me know.
To answer a few questions: Now that he is half demon his hair will grow faster but it doesn't automatically grow long when he transforms. As far as his foot wear goes he still wears the slippers unless in half- demon (hanyo) form. Despite the fact that he is Inu-Yasha's reincarnation he is still Ranma and will act accordingly most of the time. In other words he does understand and follow modern customs such as wearing shoes. Lastly, with the Neko-ken I think Sessho-maru is more upset about the cat demon influence than the actual method of teaching (ie dumping a kid in a pit of starving cats with fish sausage tied to them) and his "talk" with Genma will go accordingly.
Monday morning.
Sesshon West (the current name by which Sessho-maru was known), head of The West Corporation, steepled his fingers together in thought as his limousine left the Tokyo airport. His phone call with the Kuno Industries representative had gone well. However, the vice president had indicated that the Kuno family themselves were more than a bit eccentric. Not that it mattered much. Most humans were morons to one degree or another. He just hoped that they could get him the information that he needed without too much interference.
He did have other resources as well. He'd made it a point to keep track of his son from time to time over the years and knew some of the situation. He knew, for example, that the idiot of a step-father of his had dragged him around in the wilderness most of the boy's life. This had taught Ranma fighting prowess to a certain degree but had sorely neglected his education. Also, Sessho-maru being abreast in the current events of the supernatural world, he'd heard of the Saffron incident. Quite a stunt for the pup with his demon powers locked away. In fact, that was quite an accomplishment period. This incident had heightened his interest in his son and he'd kept closer tabs the last several months. A strategic visit seemed imminent, the release of Ranma's youkai powers had only increased the time table.
The Kuno family apparently affiliated with a local high school and he was to meet the oldest son of the family there before school started. As this was the school his son was attending, he hoped that Kuno-san would be able to give him a heads-up.
Arriving in the private parking behind the school premises, Sesshon's white limo pulled up next to a black one. Standing to one side was a young man in a blue hakama and gi. Next to the samurai wannabe was a rather short retainer in Ninja gear holding up a sign proclaiming "Welcome to Nerima West Corp". Oh dear.
Kuno watched the white limo come to a stop. A rather stiff looking young man in a starched white uniform stepped out to open the passenger side door. Kuno straightened up to his full height to greet the man. The passenger was wearing kaki slacks and a white buttoned down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His silver white hair was pulled back into a loose pony tail and silver sunglasses hid his eyes. The ensemble was completed by dark brown leather sandal Doc's.
"Come and be welcome, great sir. I, Tatewaki Kuno, am privileged to make your acquaintance.
"Did you receive my message?"
"I did indeed. Thou would'st know information about the talented martial artists in the area. Although, I can tell you will all humility that there are none greater than I."
"All the same, I'd like you to introduce me to a few of them. I hear that several attend this school."
"Indeed," Kuno stated grimacing. "Although I understand not why thou would'st soil thyself with their presence, it is my duty as a Kuno to do my Lord's bidding."
"Good. You can point them out to me as they arrive." Sesshon stated while flicking one hand at the pompous boy indicating that he should lead the way.
* * * *
Ranma and Akane were running. They were late for school, again. While this was by no means an unusual occurrence, what was surprising was that it was actually Ranma's fault today. After bashing his panda father into the koi pond and heading for breakfast, he'd stopped to check on the homework assignment for the day and found that he had to rewrite it. Now that his soul was once again intact, he found that he seemed to be able to think more clearly then he used to.
Leaping over the ladle lady, he pulled back on his pony tail in frustration. Yep, that was a change too. The pig tail had gotten too tight with the thicker silver demon hair, and since the dragon's whisker curse wasn't in effect anymore he could wear his hair looser.
Akane ran on in through the gate and Ranma could hear Kuno's usual rant about his "fierce tigress Akane Tendo" as he went up over the wall. Pushing off the top he leaped towards his usual morning spring board - Kuno's head.
* * * *
Sessho-maru watched as the Kuno boy stiffly greeted some girl in a boy's uniform carrying a large spatula on her back. Following that a short- haired girl by the name of Tendo was praised as she stormed in, fists ready to pound anybody that got in her way. A flicker out of the corner of his eye confirmed his son's presence, who was reported to be living with the Tendos. In a second a boy in black pants and a red Chinese style shirt bounded off of Kuno's head and flipped towards the school.
"Gotta run, moron."
That voice.
"Ranma Saotome, foul demon. Come back here and take your punishment."
Ranma, who had nearly reached the school doors, tripped and choked, and suddenly began to laugh. All this time he's been calling me that. Who'd of thought he'd ever turn out to be right. Ranma's laughter continued to escalate until he was rolling around on the ground.
Sessho-maru pulled off his sun glasses and walked up to where the boy lay panting. "It wasn't that funny."
Ranma turned and blinked, catching his breath. Then he blinked again. "Sess? Sessho-maru?"
A few floors above them Nabiki leaned out her classroom window with a greedy look in her eyes. Fresh meat.
* * * *
Inside principle Kuno's office Ranma was looking rather wide eyed at the person in front of him. This was the last thing he had expected. Meeting his former brother here - at this time - was more than weird. Not only that, but he had no idea how much danger Sessho-maru now represented in the new scheme of things.
"What are you doing here?" Ranma hissed. "If you're after the Tetsu-Saiga I ain't got it."
Sessho-maru flinched slightly at the boy's poor grammar even as he sat and marveled. This young man, his son, not only had the voice of his long dead brother, but seemed to carry some of his memories as well. Giving Ranma a thoughtful look, he decided to cut to the chase.
"Do you know who your real parents are?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course I know who they are," Ranma stated defensively, even though he had only found out about his mother recently.
"Maybe it would be better to do this with them here," Sessho-maru murmured.
"Why?" Ranma bristled.
Walking to the door, Sessho-maru pulled it open swiftly, dumping Principle Kuno out onto the floor where he had been leaning on the door jamb. "I want Ranma Saotome's parents notified and brought here immediately. Both of them. Do you understand?"
"Why you wanna drag the keiki's parents to school, huh? What did he do this time?"
"Are you questioning my orders?" Sessho-maru's tone turned to ice.
"No, no. I be doing it," Principle Kuno stated hustling off.
Shutting the door, Sessho-maru walked back to sit in front of Ranma. "You are my son."
Ranma promptly fainted.
* * * *
Overload, system failure, shutting down.
Ranma slowly began to wake up. What a wacked out dream. As he became aware of his surroundings he discovered that he was lying on the floor, next to a large desk, with his head in someone's lap. He rumbled slightly with pleasure as he felt his head being stroked and fingers trailing down through his hair. Then reality set in as he opened his eyes to see Sessho- maru above him. Letting out a yipe, Ranma swiftly tried to distance himself from him, but found himself caught and pulled back by a pair of very strong arms. Struggling, Ranma switched to hanyo form to give him more power. It was a losing battle. Not only did Sessho-maru have him at a positional disadvantage, but he seemed to be using some kind of magic that wrapped around Ranma and tucked him in like a large blanket.
Sessho-maru clicked his tongue as one would with an errant child. "Hold still pup. I'm not going to hurt you."
Ranma, acknowledging the futility of his movements, stopped and looked up to glare at Sessho-maru.
Sessho-maru's expression in turn was highly amused and more than a bit thoughtful. "What's in your head, little one?" he was now stoking the hanyo's ears.
"I - I don't understand."
"Well, hopefully the Saotomes will be here to explain the father part. What I want to know is how did you know my name? And what do you know of the Tetsu-Saiga?"
Ranma opened his mouth but was stopped by Sessho-maru's finger on his lips.
"Maybe it would be better if you explained what exactly happened when your demon powers were released."
His father? But he had to be half demon this time somehow, right? And half dog demon at that. Whoah. Well, it's not like Sessho-maru wouldn't have guessed the important parts already due to his earlier outbursts.
"Well it all started when Pop took me to this cave in the mountains." He paused and grimaced, not wanting to explain the Neko-ken, but Sessho-maru's golden eyes seemed to draw him in and he found himself blurting out the whole story. When he finished Ranma began to shiver. Sessho-maru's eyes had gone hard and the temperature in the room seemed to visibly drop. Is it just my imagination, or is he using the soul-of-ice technique? Sessho- maru's eyes refocused on him and he sensed tightly controlled anger.
"He tried to teach you the Neko-ken?"
Ranma nodded sharply.
"I'll have to talk with Genma about that later. For now, I want to see how much you can remember about the past as well as how you've been living your life this time around." He put a hand across Ranma's head and whispered a few quick words before the boy could protest.
And then Ranma's world went black.
Authors note:
For those of you who have been asking, yes this will be a Ranma X Kagome fic but I probably won't get to that till toward the end. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve format for easier reading let me know.
To answer a few questions: Now that he is half demon his hair will grow faster but it doesn't automatically grow long when he transforms. As far as his foot wear goes he still wears the slippers unless in half- demon (hanyo) form. Despite the fact that he is Inu-Yasha's reincarnation he is still Ranma and will act accordingly most of the time. In other words he does understand and follow modern customs such as wearing shoes. Lastly, with the Neko-ken I think Sessho-maru is more upset about the cat demon influence than the actual method of teaching (ie dumping a kid in a pit of starving cats with fish sausage tied to them) and his "talk" with Genma will go accordingly.