Insertion: Reflux
Part 5
The Hong Kong job.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma Saotome was naked under the sheets of his bed. He was still in the hotel room and had a little over an hour and a half to make it to his meeting. It was roughly five blocks away. He wasn't in any hurry to move.
Sai was curled up on top of his chest with an absolutely petrified look on her face. It had been horrible, the most awful thing imaginable had happened to her. She had loved it. Surely, she would be punished for centuries. She so wanted to stay quiet, but the master must know of it.
"Master, Sai is sorry."
"Huh?" said the boy as he glanced down at the top of her head. He wasn't really all there at that moment.
"She did not mean too, but she had fun," she rolled onto her knees and looked at him with the biggest saddest eyes he'd ever seen.
"It's okay," he muttered sleepily.
"But...what shall Sai's punishment be?" She glanced away from him fearfully and shivered.
The boy was simply looking at her in absolute confusion. "Um, do that pleasure thing again? Try not to enjoy it so much this time?"
"Very well Master," said Sai as her voice changed. Her form had changed and she appeared as a very attractive Chinese woman. She still wasn't clothed and reached under the sheets slowly.
"Ranma!" cried Amelia in shock.
"What happened?" asked Gai. His brain wasn't working entirely at the moment. "Great idea kid."
Sesshoumaru was relatively indifferent, but remained mostly silent during the events following the bathroom incident. Ranma was so petrified that Gai had actually had to ask Sai to take them to the bed. He did speak up to answer the question. "Sai is a servant. I believe she is only permitted to use her current form when following his commands. She seems unaware of our condition and will follow any instruction given to her. However, only Ranma may command this form." He chuckled at the surprised gasps the two women gave. "An interesting way to discover this isn't it?"
"I feel weird," grumbled Amelia.
Faye seemed to be enjoying herself. "Ooh. I like it when she does that though."
"What!?" cried the girl uncomfortably. She had passed out at first, but it was pretty much out of her system now. She had little choice but to ride it out, and though she wouldn't admit it, it wasn't really a bad feeling. "It's a demon! She's not even human!"
"Close enough!" grumbled Guy.
"Hello? Ranma? Anyone there?" chimed Faye. "Are you having fun?"
"I'm busy," he grumbled irritably.
"Right," she said cheerfully. "This is nice, but our way is better."
"Even I am not aware of that experience. Odd that you are able to have anything over me," commented Sesshoumaru.
"Jerk," growled Faye.
"Look, unless the two of you want running commentary while you do your business, shut the hell up," growled Gai. "I feel like I'm bein videotaped!"
Sai was trying her best to look pathetic and unhappy, but she was failing miserably.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma stood in front of the full-length mirror on the door and buttoned up a blue Hawaiian shirt as he put his sunglasses on. Sai was standing behind him in her cute demon form again. She looked worried and pensive, but was now wearing her tight leather dress. She didn't look particularly winded or ruffled by the last hour or so of activity. Ranma was relatively fresh looking himself as he glanced back at her. His gaze was particularly glassy though, the original occupant hadn't said much of anything. The rest of him was functioning actively and normally.
"Sai is sorry she failed master, what shall she do to herself while we're out?" she shuffled her feet pathetically.
Ranma sighed and stared at her for a moment. "You can't come. I've got to meet other people, they won't like someone else around."
"Sai must remain with the master. She is not safe without him near. Sai knows to remain hidden, she is very good at it."
"She cannot venture far from our side without specific instruction," said Sesshoumaru. "She is correct, it would be dangerous for her if we left her here alone. She will present her uses, the bond is more than just obeying commands. You may use her eyes if you wish, or her ears. If you focus enough, you will be able to control her completely if you desire to do so. Commands do not always have to be verbal ones either. As she is bonded to you, only you may use this power."
"You were going to try and take off with her body weren't you?" snarled Faye.
"Yes. What of it?" replied the demon coldly. "I would have been merciful in killing you. It wouldn't have taken me more than a year or so to do it."
"You'd have met the business end of those guns if you'd tried," replied Ranma calmly. He put his hand up in front of their face and smirked as a green glow formed around his fingers. "May not be much, but I remember that stuff you've been teachin me real good. Sooner or later, we won't need you around anymore."
The demon growled angrily. "Your power is pathetic compared to my own. Don't even begin to imagine you might ever become as strong as I. It is laughably pathetic to even begin to imagine you could match Sesshoumaru's power." His voice changed quickly into a sort of amused arrogance.
"I know enough about this attack to realize that if I can use it, you can't use it against me," replied the boy calmly. "I may not be smart, but I ain't stupid. If you try anything like that, I'm gonna kick your ass Fluffy."
"You would fail miserably," growled Sesshoumaru.
"What are we going to do about her? We're gonna be late, and that's not a good idea with these people," said Faye irritably.
"All right, you can come along, but you'd better stay out of trouble. I don't want any interruptions because of you," the boy's face was almost angry looking as he said this. He looked quite intimidating.
She nodded fearfully. "What about Sai's punishment?"
"No time for that, I'll be late," replied the boy as he opened the door to the room and stepped out into the lobby. It was late night and things were relatively quiet in the hallways of the hotel. The streets outside would not be much different.
Sai sulked after him as her wings, horns, and tail vanished from sight. She appeared human at least and quietly strolled behind him. "Where are we going Master? What should Sai do when we get there?" She had been especially vocal as of late. She kept asking questions and complaining in the hopes of punishment for being so insolent. Her master appeared to be very tolerant of her, she would have to work very hard to invoke his wrath. It wasn't going very well at all.
"Find a quiet place to hang out outside this place. I'm not sure how long I'll be, so stay out of trouble and don't bother anyone. Don't go anywhere either."
She nodded at her instruction and sulked behind him.
"Try to look normal, people will stare if you keep sulkin that way," said Ranma.
"All right," she said as she stood up straight and tried to look even tempered. She didn't want to look like she was having fun, or the master might be angry.
Ranma's various occupants decided that she'd received enough warning and instruction to make the trip relatively painless. They turned away and started walking outside.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma Saotome walked down the street towards his destination. He was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt yet again. It was bright yellow with green palm trees blowing in the wind printed across the torso. Sai followed behind him, appearing as nothing more than a cute girl of about the same age that was with the boy. Even if she was dressed somewhat like a prostitute from America. She was also wearing high heels, and was moving quite nimbly as she kept up with him easily. It didn't take more than a few minutes to reach their destination.
They stood in front of the restaurant and he glanced around. Sai had gone missing, but somehow, Ranma knew she was right beside him still. She waved at him as she slipped away. The others could see her when she moved, but only because the light bent slightly different around her when she wasn't motionless.
"Cool," muttered the boy dumbly.
"She appears to be much more useful than I anticipated. We should leave her inside once we exit. Ranma, order her to do it now, before we meet them."
The boy nodded and turned to look at Sai. "Sai. I want you to stay hidden like that and hang around inside for a little while. Listen in and see what you can hear after I leave the room."
"Sai is to wait outside," reminded the demon.
"I didn't know you could do that. Now you're coming inside."
"Well, all the master has to do is ask and Sai can tell him what she can do."
"Worry about it later," grumbled Faye. She strolled into the room and opened the doors. The place was empty, except for his meeting.
Two old men sat at one of the tables, eating calmly and ignoring each other's presence for the most part. They glanced up at the boy who walked into the room as he frowned at them both.
"Five minutes early, I win," said Li Shao.
Mao Sheng frowned and grumbled something under his breath as he passed a few coins over to the man sitting across from him.
"What do you want?" asked the boy simply.
"To the point then," said Li Shao as his face fell slightly and he returned the money into Mao Sheng's waiting palm.
"You are a demon hunter?" The man tossed the coins in his palm a few times before placing them into his pocket. Li Shao wasn't very upset by it, they had ended up even in the end after all.
"Why do you care?" replied the boy. "Stop skirting around the subject. I think I've got the basic terms of this deal already. Tell me what I have to do, so that you will leave me alone."
"A temple. It is a cursed place."
"I suspect this involves those Black Lotus friends of yours."
"Indeed it does. Occasionally, one of our kind will fall prey to the darkness. Their weaknesses force them to turn to dark paths to save themselves from their enemies, and gain domination over their allies."
"And you want me to clean it up?" said the boy coolly. "I should destroy you both for such impertinence."
Both men turned their heads to stare at him as he frowned at them both. They were quite surprised to hear it from him.
The boy promptly punched himself in the face and shook his head. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget to stop him from talking."
Both of the old men nodded and settled down in their chairs a bit. It was obvious they hadn't fully understood that.
"What's this place you're telling me about?"
"It is his home, a perverted place he bought after we discovered his...condition. He has defiled a temple in southern Hong Kong. It has made the streets there a very dark and dangerous place. No one ventures very far into that cursed place of tortured souls. I have heard some very serious tales of it in recent times." Mao Sheng stared at the boy calmly. "My men will kill him if he doesn't go, if he speaks the truth and is the man he says he is..."
"Your men would die," responded the boy coldly.
"I think you're mistaken," said Li Shao. "Even for one who hunts demons. I do feel I should warn you, the place we ask you to go, it is a very dangerous place. He may be destroyed either way. We must be prepared for that."
"You'd be wrong," replied the boy as he stared the man dead in the eyes. "What am I after?"
"We will be prepared for your failure. A great many people would die to contain such evil. They suffer already, it would be like ending their misery to us. You are their last hope."
"A task only a legendary hunter could accomplish," agreed Mao Sheng.
"You'll know where to find the temple once you reach Southern Hong Kong. My reports have told me that the farther in you go, the worse it gets."
"You have forty eight hours."
The boy turned his head and looked towards the south. He remained motionless for a moment. After a short time, a slight smirk formed on his face. "I'll be back in a few hours." He strolled out the doors dramatically and promptly ducked around the corner.
++++++++++++++++++++
Sai was hanging off one of the corners on the ceiling and watching the room below as her master commanded her. The two old men were doing nothing more than eating. "How long is Sai supposed to stay for?" she wondered for a moment. Her master was still outside waiting on her. He hadn't called her yet, but if she came back without being called she would be punished, of course, she'd be punished anyway for taking so long. She felt like her life was so predictable sometimes, but her former master had been quite creative in his torments. Now her new master was downright confusing. It was awful, she had been allowed to experience pleasure, and her master hadn't even tried to punish her yet. She was growing worried, perhaps he was just saving up enough anger to destroy her completely. "Ooooh, that would be horrible," she muttered as she shivered. Neither one of the men heard her over their own eating. The two old men eating dinner was quite boring even for her.
"What do you think?" asked Li Shao.
"I cannot turn back. Even if he succeeds, he must be destroyed. I have already accepted the contract."
"If he succeeds, what makes you think you can kill him?" asked Li Shao calmly.
The man glared at him and frowned. "I will consult with the Amazons. I suspect they are as unaware as I was. It can wait until after he is finished, it will do much to the boy's credit. I should also have time to verify the contract with those women."
"I suspect it is pointless to discuss at this point," snorted Mao Sheng.
"Better now, than after it has already happened."
"I should be leaving. I'm sure the both of us have business to attend too."
"Agreed," said Mao Sheng calmly.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma squealed down the street on his bike. Traffic sped past him in either direction as he opened up the bike all the way. Everything around him was a blur of red and white light tracers.
"What the hell are you doing!?" screamed Ranma in horror as they shifted sideways on the bike and slid under the back of a large semi truck to the other side of the street.
"Relax, I got this," said Gai.
"Now without my help you klutz!" snapped the boy angrily. "It's hard enough keeping balance on this thing as it is!"
They shifted sideways on a small bridge and shot through the air over traffic on the street below into oncoming traffic. They passed the front of a small delivery truck narrowly missing both the truck and a concrete barrier that nearly blocked them from the correct lanes.
"Stop that you asshole!" cried Ranma in horror.
"Hey. You need me to steer right? Quit whining, you can handle it. Our skills must be in top form, if we're ever to become a true hero!"
"So this is training then?" asked Amelia with a small cheer in her voice. She was starting to look at their speed as merely thrilling as opposed too scary.
"But of course!" said Gai.
"Training?" muttered Ranma dumbly. "Hey. Think we can make that jump?"
"Now you're talkin like a true Cruzin 1987 fan!"
"What the heck is that again?"
"Never mind."
"What jump?" asked Faye. The street in front of them appeared clear, and they should have long since passed anything they might have seen.
Ranma smirked. "That one."
The stretch of highway they were on was raised off the ground. Jutting up from below one of the barriers on a turn ahead, was a large crane. "Oh shit. No!"
"Aw, we can make it," said Gai cheerfully.
Sai was clinging to their back silently and hadn't said anything the whole trip. She wasn't bothered by the imminent danger that surrounded her, and was hoping her master would toss her off the bike soon. Moving at the speed they were going now, it would probably hurt quite a bit. It would leave rather nasty marks.
She noticed their direction and nodded. Her master wished to splatter himself and her onto the ground. That would be quite unpleasant. She nodded firmly as she steeled herself. She did deserve it after all.
"You crazy assholes!" screamed Faye. The men were holding her back to keep her from stopping. Fluffy was helping them stay the course. She could see the rooftops of the city's southern quarter. A dark and ominous cloud rumbled in the sky above as they passed through traffic and jumped the concrete barrier. The bike landed on the left edge of the crane and climbed the massive steel beam well over four hundred feet above the ground.
"Quit whinin, I can do this no problem," said Ranma calmly. "Uh, I think."
"What!?" cried Amelia.
The bike flew over rooftops across several city blocks and shattered into the side of a high rise building through one of the windows. He hit the brakes and shifted sideways as he slid across the fourth floor of a rather large skyscraper. Shattered glass and crushed desks littered the area around his entry as he revved the engine a few times. "Oops."
"You're gonna get us all killed!" screamed Faye. She passed out cold.
"Wow," gasped Amelia.
"Man. I thought nuthin could shut her up," commented Gai.
"Let us enjoy the silence. This is where we were told to go?"
"I think so, he said this guy runs things in the south part of town. I'm pretty sure this isn't exactly the right place though," said Ranma.
Gai glanced around. "Um, it's some sort of office. Good thing it's so late, we might have hurt someone."
"We are expected then," said Sesshoumaru coolly.
"Master, Sai doesn't think we should be here. A very dangerous demon controls this area. It is better if we do not remain." The little demon looked quite nervous as she gripped him a little tighter from behind. "His time grows near, a great rise in power will come to him from his plans. We shouldn't upset him."
"What do you know about this thing? I heard it was some sort of Triad boss gone bad."
"It is old and powerful, and has tempted the leader of the Black Lotus organization. It now owns his soul, and will make him rule Hong Kong for him. Those men you met earlier, the ones who still might want to kill you. They said they hadn't decided yet. They will be destroyed by this demon if you do not kill them first. Sai will be happy to dispatch of them for you master. She will make sure to kill them horribly and consume their evil souls."
"Uh..." The boy looked quite unsure how to respond to that. "I think I can handle that on my own thanks."
"Very well master."
Ranma found it somewhat hard to talk to her. She was insanely cute, but always had the most serious look on her face when she spoke to him. It looked out of place, almost disturbingly so. "We can take this guy right?"
"We have little choice. As disgusting as it sounds, given my limitations thanks to you, we are better off appeasing the Triads. The demon would hunt for us anyway once it learned of us. Your insistence on not harming the pathetic human cows will severely limit us in dealing with them."
"I ain't killin nobody!" snapped the boy.
"Well, not with out a good reason anyway," added Faye diplomatically.
"I was wondering how long you'd be out," said Gai.
"You shut up! I almost died!"
"Um, I'm not so sure about this place," muttered Amelia.
"You should feel that way. We are being hunted as we speak. Our task is a bit more difficult than I expected. We cannot overpower our opponent, we must outclass them."
"Why do you say that?" asked Ranma.
"He is far more powerful than we are. Not so strong that we cannot accomplish this task. It will be difficult though. It is better to get it over with as quickly as possible. He has control of this area, and everything within it. If we do not strike, his forces will overwhelm us. The only way to stop them is to destroy him, or find safety outside of this area. You are not willing to turn back, and I am not willing to move forward yet. So, we find ourselves trapped."
They wheeled the bike up to a window on the other side of the room and peered down into the city below. Sai jumped off and walked along beside him.
"My god," muttered Faye in horror.
Dozens of vaguely human zombies were stumbling up the stairs that lead to the entrance to the building. The streets were in ruins, cars burned on the street and trash covered the ground. It was complete chaos. Shots could be heard in the distance, along with cries of pain and horror that echoed through the streets. The glass in the window they were standing in was gone. From a distance the area of the city didn't look that bad.
"Magic. Humans who enter this far into this place do not venture out of it. It is disguised from the world around it." Sesshoumaru seemed quite impressed.
"What? How could anyone not notice this?!" cried Faye.
"No! This is horrible! We have to do something!" cried Amelia. Below them the zombies were making their way slowly up to the center of the marble staircase that lead up to the building. There were dozens of them now, flooding towards them slowly as they crawled out of the surrounding area.
"There is little we can do. You'd be surprised what can be hidden from the human world. I imagine this is nothing more than a bad side of town to the rest of the city. Demons can have a firm hold in communities if they wish to manipulate humans. Seems like a waste of time to me. They are better destroyed and removed from the way."
"Seems like a lot of missing people, too many for this to be ignored," said Gai.
"Ignored? Why do you think they sent us here?" commented Fluffy.
"So they wouldn't have to bother killing us," said Faye flatly.
"We'll discuss it with them when we meet them again," replied Sesshoumaru.
"So now what? What the heck are those things? They'd better not sticking their heads in their crotches again!" Ranma seemed more annoyed than anything else.
"Come on," said Gai. "We'll take the shortcut."
"No!" screamed Faye. Alas, it was too late, the bike was already rocketing towards the open window.
They came down in a graceful arc that landed the bike sideways with them standing on top of it on the stair rail. Both weapons were drawn as sparks flew off the surface of the bike as they slid down the railing towards the street firing in both directions. The rail ended and they flipped into the air as the bike came crashing into a mess of the undead things. They were rotten and burned corpses that screamed in agony and rage as they tried to turn and chase the boy.
The bike exploded in a ball of flames from the damage it had suffered and Ranma casually kept walking down the road with his weapons ready. All of the zombies on the stairwell were lying motionless on the stairs.
"These creatures will present no problems," said Sesshoumaru. "Weak magic meant to capture and destroy humans."
"Cool," said Ranma. "Anyone know where this place is?"
"That would be a good guess," said Amelia as she turned them towards a large skyscraper in the center of the infected area. A sickly purple light seemed to light the darkness around it. Dark clouds had formed overhead and thunder and lighting was centered on the building.
"Good call," said Gai as he shot down two more of the zombie monsters.
Unfortunately, it was quite a ways away. There was a lot of debris and places for nasty things to hide away or crawl up from in their path as well.
"Thanks for blowing up our ride Guy," grumbled Ranma.
"How was I supposed to know it would explode? That wasn't in the game!"
"You asshole!" screamed Faye angrily.
"I'm still dizzy," muttered Amelia.
"Where is Sai?" asked Sesshoumaru. "She would be very useful right now."
"Master, you should have told Sai to stay on the bike, so she could have been mangled." The demoness landed beside him and folded her wings up.
Ranma frowned at her. "You want punishment? Fine, fight those things and keep them away from us."
Sai bowed as she grew into her adult form. Her clothes did not grow, but simply became skimpier. "Yes master." She didn't think it was a very good punishment. "Sai is allowed to enjoy killing!"
"Really?" asked Ranma in surprise.
"Yes. Sai's master encouraged it."
"Well, have fun." He shrugged and turned to start walking.
Sai looked absolutely petrified with horror. Her tail fell limp and her wings drooped down as she simply stared at him slack jawed. "Huh?"
"Sai, I can see some of them up ahead. I don't want to waste power fighting them."
Her wings spread wide and she blasted forward towards the things that would dare annoy her master.
Ranma simply watched as a green flame burned around her body. She landed and howled angrily before the undead things. They paused their forward motion for the briefest of moments.
"My master has sent me to destroy you," she hissed with an inhumanly evil grin on her lips. Her tail snapped back and fourth behind her like a whip. Vicious looking claws had grown out of her fingers and toes. Two foot-long horns protruded from her head and her teeth were now razor points.
"WOAH!" cried Gai.
"Holy shit," muttered Ranma.
"You made us sleep with it!" screamed Amelia. She promptly fainted.
"Wasn't so bad," replied Ranma with a small shrug. "I guess we won't have any problems then."
A huge ball of flames erupted up ahead of them as Sai planted her claws into the ground and became enveloped in a bubble of fire. She tore through the half-destroyed remains with her claws and ripped chunks of meat off with her teeth. She swallowed it greedily and put her foot through the crotch of the one behind her. It did nothing more than stand there twitching as she arced her leg up and cut it cleanly in two.
"She's brushing her teeth and taking a bath before we let her touch us again," said Faye.
"We need to find some mouthwash too," added Gai. "They got that stuff that kills anything."
"That's a good idea," agreed Ranma.
"I would be helping her," grumbled Sesshoumaru. Their stomach growled a little.
"No one say anything," said Ranma firmly. "Just forget about it all right?"
++++++++++++++++++++
"He definitely knows how to make an entrance," grumbled Shu ho as she stared up the length of the crane. The place was crawling with police, and she had heard of the stunt from them. No one had been sent in to find him either.
She remembered spotting the briefest glimpse of him while walking through the streets. He was turning onto the road she was standing on now. It had been about a half-hour since she had spotted him. She wasn't sure why she followed him at all, especially on foot. Her hunch had been right, she knew where he was. "What's in Southern Hong Kong?" She was already moving in that direction when everyone in the street jumped suddenly. A loud explosion sounded somewhere in the near distance. From inside the city streets. "What the?"
Everyone had reacted instinctively. None of them seemed to notice anything after that but her. "What's going on here?" She glared down at the road firmly as she walked. "It seems I'm on the hunt again." She needed to talk with him before she was willing to go to Cologne and stop the hunt. She had to be sure he wasn't dangerous. She still wanted that, but apparently it would require her to work a bit.
She pulled a rolled up sword from her back and carefully removed the cloth covering it. She folded it up and put it into her pocket. She was dressed for walking around the city unnoticed. A T-shirt and blue jeans with a denim jacket. She also had a red and worn looking backpack on her shoulder. She tossed it into the bushes along the side of the road. It would probably be there when she came back for it. "If I come back for it," she muttered grumpily. Dark magic was becoming more and more apparent around her. "Something is hidden here." She continued to move forward towards the sound of the explosion.
Her grip on her sword had grown firmer as she continued forward. There was no sound around her she could hear her own breathing quite clearly. There was also no light from anywhere but the sky. The moonlight gave everything an eerie black and white look.
"This is nuts! I'm in the middle of Hong Kong," she whispered fearfully. She turned around and a bright and hot orange light suddenly appeared all around her. Flames burned on the sides of buildings and in the middle of the street. They appeared to have no fuel at all, but simply burned.
"Oh man," she gasped as sound suddenly returned to her. Horrible screaming and suffering hit her like a tidal wave of sound. She fell to her knees and closed her eyes. "NO! This can't be!" She quickly regained herself and forced herself to her feet with her sword in her hand. "I cannot allow this!"
She took the cloth from her pocket and wrapped it around her wrist. Flicking her arm back she laid it across her shoulder by holding that arm across her chest. The other arm held the blade ready. "I can't afford to lose again."
++++++++++++++++++++
Genma Saotome sat back with a smile on his face. He had a pillow behind his head and headphones over his ears. His minions had insisted on him flying first class and even paid for his ticket. Once he had finished at the customs office at the dock, his lead minion had asked him about flying home.
The nerdy minion burst into tears.
He and his minions then had a bonding moment as they laughed at him. Genma was quite pleased with himself. Such a profitable venture, if only he could find the boy. He'd check around a few old haunts and see if his son had returned yet. If he hadn't, well, he would return to Japan. He knew where to find his son within a month of his return.
As it was, he found his grin fading somewhat as an angry looking flight attendant glared at him and tapped her foot.
"What is it stewardess?" he grumbled.
Her eye twitched, she had a nametag that was no more than two feet from his eyes. Still, she continued to smile. "I'm sorry sir. You're going to have to come back to coach to keep your minions under control."
"Huh?" he replied in confusion.
"They stole the complimentary peanuts of half the passengers, and there isn't any more on the food cart. Half of our sodas have vanished as well. We even tried confining them to the seats. We couldn't even let them go to the bathroom. They've flushed all the toilet paper away."
"Hmmm. Perhaps the toilet paper was a bit too much," said Genma with a serious nod. "What if I have to go to the bathroom later?"
Her grin cracked as she stared at him through what remained of her smile. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stood up straight slowly. "This way...sir."
She opened the door and Genma rushed into the rear cabin at what his eyes met. "What the hell are you doing?!"
The minions were standing in the middle of the plane around a lone little boy. They were simply standing around him smiling darkly as they glared at him.
Everyone else was cowering around the edge of the plane and the child's parents were huddled fearfully away.
The boy was clutching a stuffed Pikachu fearfully.
"We are worshiping the dark god!" The lead minion pointed at the stuffed animal. "The lord of evil!"
"That kid?" said Genma dumbly.
"No master, the effigy of him the child carries in his arms," replied the minion coldly. He poked the creature in the eye with his finger. "Most horrible indeed."
"Stop that! I command you to sit quietly and share those peanuts and sodas you stole with me!"
The lead minion sighed. "Very well. Let us hope that we have given this boy nightmares at least."
The plane relaxed, but gave Genma and his minions plenty of clearance. The mother of the child had the boy firmly in her grip and was shaking her finger angrily at her husband.
The man was white as he simply nodded. His wife had seen so insane when she told him that Pokemon was the devil. He had just assumed his son's interest was a normal phase of childhood, something he would grow out of. She was pointing at the glaring minions in her rant and was using one of her hands to cover her son's ears. His stuffed toy was sitting in the trashcan nearby, and he simply stared at it in a sort of horrified awe.
"Pikachu is Satan? Mom was right? Awesome!"
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma was getting rather disturbed by his demon. He had told her to have fun, and she had taken it in a most interesting manner. The excessive force and vicious animal like behavior she was displaying was quite entertaining to watch. So far, they were halfway to the building and had yet to encounter anything else. They lumbered towards them out of alleyways and streets. Sometimes popping up from debris, or from under the street through exposed manholes. None of the streets had any sort of covers over the holes. Sometimes he could see the twisted remains of gratings in the near distance from some of the larger drainage tunnels. "This is a nasty place."
"I wonder how long it's been this way? Nobody noticed?" muttered Faye in wonder. "Look at this place. Do you know what it would take to do something like this?"
"Yes. Someone like me," replied Sesshoumaru calmly. "She is quite interesting. Perhaps we should ask her just how much she is capable of. I admit, her power level in her other form is miniscule. This form, is quite impressive."
"Still think you could do better?" Faye laughed as she said this.
"Of course," replied the demon calmly.
"Did she just eat that dead thing's..." gasped Ranma in horror.
"Turn away kid," said Gai as he forced them to look in another direction. "Some things you just don't want to know about a woman."
"That isn't a woman." Amelia seemed quite angry. "I can't believe you two. You're going to do it again aren't you?"
"Yeah. Later tonight."
"Oh no you don't! It's our turn!" said Faye. "We're going out after this."
"Fine, but you have to take Sai too," said Ranma. "We can't just leave her around you know."
"Ranma you putz, that will only make things easier." Amelia seemed somewhat nervous again. "After last night, I guess there's no point in waiting anyway."
"Good goin kid," grumbled Gai.
"What?! Your turn?" Ranma went pale.
"That's right. You wanna do that thing again? Well that means you've got to give something up, or us girls will turn something fun off for good. Don't think we can't either."
"Leave me out of this!" snapped Amelia.
"That ain't fair! This is my body!" he cried.
"We talked about this already Ranma," said Faye irritably. "It's a deal? Remember?"
"I..." He glared at the ground. "I know. I just... This isn't fair."
"No, it isn't." Faye seemed somewhat sympathetic and it showed in her tone. "It's not fair for any of us."
"I could care less," replied Sesshoumaru.
"Yeah? Well I'm sure Gai cares, I know Amelia cares."
"Not that much," she replied honestly. "I'm sure it will come up though, if we're really stuck like this."
Ranma nodded. "Um. Is there a way we can talk about this later? This isn't the best of places, and I'd rather not talk about this kind of stuff while I'm watching the demon I slept with last night eat rotten human nads like oysters."
"Oh god," muttered Gai. "Ranma. Don't ever tell her to have fun again. Please."
"You're tellin me? I'm glad I didn't tell her to have fun last night! She coulda killed us!"
"No. She cannot harm you." Fluffy was growing rather bored himself. "Not much of interest. That surprises me. Surely he didn't think he could remove us with just these pathetic creatures. I imagine we'll find a rather nasty trap up ahead somewhere."
"Maybe he wants to meet us?" asked Ranma with a small shrug.
"Doubtful. We must kill this human he has in his hold. Then and only then can we send him away from this world. Such contracts are dangerous, I have a feeling there is something going on with the Yokai of this world, that my kind have not faced.
"What's that?" asked Faye.
"A war with the gods, on a level I have never before seen." He seemed thoughtful and stared down at the dirt for a long time. "It puzzles me."
"Wow. You're admitting you don't understand something?" Faye was impressed.
"Lack of knowledge can be corrected, stupidity obviously cannot."
"What was that?"
"An old family saying," replied the demon calmly.
Faye growled. "Well let's hurry up and find this stupid trap. I want to shoot something."
"Sai! Take that out of your mouth damn it! Gross!" cried Ranma.
The demon turned around and blinked as the offending objects fell to the ground in a fatty splatter. "Yes Master?"
"Sai. Stop eating them, it's driving me nuts."
"Very well. If Sai has done something wrong..."
"Yeah. Maybe I'll punish you later. Do you really have to eat them? I mean, it's gross."
"Sai does not get hungry master," replied the demon cheerfully. "Shall Sai continue to kill?"
"Sure, go ahead. Just...never mind. Just stop eating them all right? I can't watch that anymore."
"Very well." The demoness snapped her arm back and grabbed the one lumbering up behind her by its neck. She popped the head off and punched a large hole in his chest with her other arm. She shook it off onto the dirt and smiled as she started gasping.
Ranma shook his head. He had never seen such a satisfied looking grin on her face before. "Where the hell is this trap anyway? Do you know Fluffy?"
"My name is Sesshoumaru. No, I do not know where the trap is. If I did, I would have told you already. It is better for me, if we are all ready. I suggest you keep your eyes open."
"All right. Jeez."
"Hey. This must be it," said Gai as he glanced around. Sai was standing just in front of them and several large yellow eyes peered at them from the black shadows of the alleys.
Six lumbering beasts lurched forward. They had reptilian heads and skin, but an apelike body. Each one was easily ten feet tall. They hissed at the pair and began to spread out as they surrounded them from both sides of the street.
"Wow!" cried Amelia fearfully. "This is bad!"
"Not really," snorted Sesshoumaru. "Sai. Stand back for a moment. I grow weary of watching a battle take place around me."
The demoness vanished from sight and took to the air. The reptiles hissed at this, but quickly focused their attention on the boy in front of them.
"What are we gonna do?"
Ranma had already taken the pole off of his back and twirled it skillfully around his left wrist as he spun around and pointed the blue handgun at the lizard behind him. "We're gonna kick their asses, that's what."
++++++++++++++++++++
Shu ho frowned as she spun around skillfully brandishing her sword as she hacked through the last remains of the zombie hoard that had ambushed her.
The cloth in her free hand whipped about around her, hiding her movements and keeping them back. She glared at the five remaining monsters around her. They were circling in around her. She growled angrily and began twirling around hacking and slashing at them with both the sword and the cloth. Pieces of Zombie fell away squirming on the ground from both weapons.
They were disgusting looking creatures that were all charred and burned. They were clearly made from human remains. "What the hell is this?" she cried angrily as the last one's head rolled across the street in front of her as she stopped her attacks. The street was now littered with about twenty of the fallen creatures.
"This is impossible!" She stared at the dark ominous building above her. The glow from inside made it the most likely place to find the evil causing the disturbance. "I'm not strong enough," she muttered as she glared at it hatefully. She knew moving forward would probably destroy her, but maybe she could find a way to take it with her.
Tears fell down her face as she pulled a white headband she'd had in her pocket around her forehead. "I must move forward. I do not have a choice."
An angry sounding roar from something far bigger and more powerful sounded from a few streets away. She turned her head towards the sound and stepped back as it was joined by loud reptilian hissing from more than one source.
What she heard next got her legs pumping immediately, gunfire.
++++++++++++++++++++
The dark tower loomed over them in the near distance, they were standing in the tall shadow it created as the things slithered out from the darkness around them. "What should we do with them?"
"Got me kid," said Gai with a small shrug.
"I'm in the mood for a workout, we'll use the staff," said Sesshoumaru calmly.
"Good call," agreed Ranma as he spun the weapon around his wrist. Flames started to burn from his clothing as he shifted his leg back and waited with the staff pointed at the ground. "Ready when you are," he said to the beast in front of him.
They converged on him, seven of the monsters charged from the shadows leaping at him with claws bared. The boy merely chuckled as he began to swat them out of the air, sending them crashing into the buildings, and bringing large portions of the structures down on top of them.
The boy stood calmly in the center of the street untouched by the first assault. "You're gonna have to do better than that."
One of the things roared and crouched low to circle around them, the others followed suit and prepared to lunge forward as one.
"Again? Are they that stupid?" grumbled Ranma irritably.
"Well, I'm tired of this. I'm using the guns!" snapped Faye.
"Oh all right," muttered Ranma as he put the weapon back on his back and pulled out his handguns. "Here they come."
The creatures charged forward towards the boy, this time moving in groups of two or three. "They're trying to wear us down. Pathetic creatures."
Ranma shot one of them in the face. It thundered down beside them like a gigantic boulder that forced them to shift aside. The remaining two landed opposite him and turned, hoping to catch him against the side of their fallen comrade. The boy kicked back up over the creature and jumped off of its side just as both of them slammed into it. He fired a few dozen rounds as he came down into both of them. Neither one moved much after that, well, one of them twitched its finger. Another bullet after they had landed put an end to that though.
He glanced around at the remaining beasts. "Seems like they want to try again."
"Dying here is better than going back to their master as failures," replied Sesshoumaru.
"So now what?" asked Amelia. She didn't sound particularly worried anymore.
"We finish them off," said Sesshoumaru coldly. "Ready boy?"
"No. I said I wanted a work out!" Ranma growled angrily and flipped off the side of a burning car as one of the creatures lunged at him. He spun over the creature's head and fired at the apex of his leap. It stumbled into the vehicle in its death throes and landed half in the fire.
The other monsters started rushing towards them in mass again, this time without coordination of any type. They simply moved mindlessly towards them.
"This is more like it," said Ranma with a smirk on his face.
"Our way is easier," said Amelia. She didn't sound particularly impressed.
"Being a hero is an art, you have to know when to make the fights look cool!" said Gai. "That's pretty much all the time."
++++++++++++++++++++
Shu ho simply stared with her jaw down. Dozens of monsters were rushing around the boy, slashing, biting, and clawing. He danced around them with two firearms in his hands, firearms that could hurt demons. His body moved fluidly along walls, bouncing around the street like a superball. "Wow."
He landed in front of the last remaining monster and actually shoved his hand into the creature's jaws, blowing its brain out the back of its skull before it could even think about biting down. He twirled the weapons around his fingers and put them away. "That was easy."
"That was nothing," corrected Sesshoumaru. "The fight that awaits us will not be an easy one. What we have faced before now, pales in comparison. This demon isn't even that strong, but his power is far greater than ours. We must use our skill to destroy him."
"That's what martial arts is for," said Ranma cheerfully.
"If that is your answer, then we surely go to our doom boy," replied the demon calmly. "You cannot fight an opponent like this, with something so weak as a human body. Even one like ours. No boy, for this we shall need our weapons, and all of our cunning."
"You hunt demons then?"
The boy turned to see the Chinese demon hunter standing about ten yards away. "What? What the heck are you doin here?" He looked annoyed.
"It is my duty to be here!" she snapped. "Listen you little punk..."
"Get out of here, you'll just get in the way, and I'm not saving your ass. I'll handle it."
The woman seethed angrily at him. "Look you jerk. I'm not about to take orders from you."
"Sai! Come on!" he called over his shoulder.
The demoness appeared out of the shadows and rushed up beside him.
"What the fuck?" said the woman as she stared at the creature dumbly.
"What is it master? Should Sai keep killing minions for you now?"
"Yeah. Whatever," he muttered as he started walking.
"What the hell is that?!" screamed Shu ho as she pointed at it.
"It's my pet demon," he replied calmly. "Look. I'm sure there's a haunted house or something that needs you somewhere. You should probably head back and start looking for it."
"You arrogant son of a bitch! What makes you think I can leave?"
"Well just don't go in there." He pointed at the building. "Keep yourself busy out here or something. I ain't draggin no stupid girl into a place like that."
The woman was gripping her sword as her eyes twitched. "You...you...You're a demon!"
"I am not," he replied as he looked up at the skyscraper. He was now standing in front of the front doors and peering up at it. "Jeez. Look at the size of this place. I thought that old guy said a temple?"
"There is probably one located somewhere inside," replied Sesshoumaru.
"Stop ignoring me!" snapped Shu Ho as she walked up beside him.
"Get lost," he said without looking at her.
"No. We've got things to talk about."
"Yeah? Like what?" he replied as he glanced back at her.
"Like getting me to help you get those Amazons off your back. I can do that, but I need proof that you're a demon hunter."
The boy pointed back at one of the lizard things body. "I'm pretty sure that's heavy. I'm guessin you're gonna have to drag it pretty far right?"
"Look. I'm gonna need a bit more than that all right?" She looked like she was trying very hard to control her temper.
"Like what?" the boy was starting to look even more irate.
"I'm going with you. I'll help you kill this demon and watch you. When you're done, I'll go back, tell them about it, and you'll be free of them, and me. I'm really looking forward to that."
"Great. I guess I should just hope you survive then." He glanced back at Sai. "Keep her out of my way. Don't hurt her either, that's not what I'm talking about. Try and keep her alive all right?"
Sai looked somewhat downcast at this and nodded glumly.
"What?!" screamed the woman as she stared at Sai. "No! Absolutely not!"
"You'll do it, or you're not coming. This thing is too strong for me to get distracted by you."
"Huh? What do you know about this?!" she snapped.
"I don't even want you along. Keep quiet and stay out of my way. You can watch if you want. It'll be pretty cool."
The woman looked like she wanted to strangle him. She kept quiet and glared at Sai angrily. "How am I supposed to trust a demon? How do I know this isn't some trap?"
"You're the one who said you wanted to come along," he replied as he pushed open the front doors as if no magic had sealed them. Sesshoumaru had found a way around it while the others were talking with Shu ho. "An artful silence before the storm."
The place was empty, devoid of life. A receptionist's desk sat on the other side of a large open floor. A hazy purple light lit everything in the building, giving just enough light to barely see by.
An elevator door opened in a hallway behind the desk.
"Looks like I've been expected," said the boy calmly.
"We did kill many of his minions already," pointed out Sai.
"So, you're just going to ride up and see him?" asked Shu ho dumbly.
"Nah. I'm gonna walk. There's stairs." He pointed at the stairwell.
The woman didn't look much happier, but seemed slightly relieved.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma somehow knew this would get annoying. "You know. This is why I didn't want you to come."
Shu ho was gasping for breath as she stared down twenty flights of stairs. "What kind of guy are you?"
"This? This is nuthin." He glanced down at what she was staring at. "We're being followed. "More of those stupid zombies."
"Great," muttered the woman.
"Should Sai kill them?" asked the demoness hopefully.
"No. You make sure she lives through this," said the boy as he continued climbing. They were nearing the top.
The boy stopped and sighed. "Of course."
"Now what?" snapped the Chinese woman.
"There's some of them above us too. A lot of them actually. They're trying to sandwich us here. He pulled the weapons from his sides.
"What do we do now?" asked the woman a little fearfully.
"What else?" he asked as he glanced at her. He looked like he couldn't believe she'd even bothered asking.
"Great." She pulled her sword out and readied herself again.
Sai stepped in front of her. "Don't bother. None of them will get by me."
The first groan was ended by a gunshot as Ranma charged forward. "Wait!" cried Shu ho as he sprinted upwards. He was knocking zombies off the stairs and into the seemingly bottomless depths of the stairwell as he charged through them above the Demon Hunter and her only real chance. The demoness that was smiling darkly as she shifted her weight forward. "Master said not to eat them in front of him. I'm sure he won't mind now."
"What?" said the woman as she felt sick suddenly.
Sai snagged one of the falling monsters from the pit and ripped its throat open with her teeth. She drank the blood greedily and tossed the creature away in two pieces as she ripped it in half. "Sai is allowed to have fun."
"Oh shit," muttered the Hunter.
"Don't worry, Sai will protect you," said the demon as it glanced over its shoulder. The zombies were closing in and Shu Ho staggered back away from them with her sword ready.
Sai merely spread her wings and hissed. "Weaklings! Sai will feast on your entrails!" She really meant it too.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma stood in front of two massive wooden doors that lead into some sort of large chamber on the rooftop of the building. A few zombies were still milling after him slowly. Hundreds of them littered the ground behind them that weren't moving. They were little threat. "I think my fingers are getting cramped."
"This is what we are looking for," said Sesshoumaru. "Come." They pushed the doors aside easily, a crackling energy arced across them as the spell holding them sealed struggled to hold. He grunted and pushed them forward forcefully as he strained to keep himself from being forced back. Finally, he strolled onto a deep red carpet. A massive fireplace stood before an altar of some sort in front of them.
"You are strong to have made it this far." The man sitting behind a wooden desk in the center of the room watched them calmly as they strolled in. He seemed unafraid and mostly uninterested in them. "Hong Kong is mine. You cannot stop it." He was young, and had slicked back black hair.
"I was expectin someone older," said the boy in front of him as he stepped in front of the desk. "Guess you made out pretty good on that deal you made huh?"
"I will be the ruler of Hong Kong for thousands of years. You are nothing..."
"Pathetic human, flapping your lips as if you had any power of your own." The boy had his two fingers pointed towards the ceiling over his shoulder now. A string of light was wrapped around the man's neck that lifted him up from his seat. The man struggled to free himself and pushed his palms against the desk trying to force himself out of it.
"You...you can't do this!"
"Who's going to stop me? You?" The boy frowned at him and jerked his hand in a wide arc. The slim and attractive man was thrown against the wall and came crashing through the top of a table.
Ranma merely pointed his clawed and glowing fingers towards him. "Dokkasou." Power shot from his hand like a cloud of mist that enveloped the man. His skin began to melt away along with the rest of him as he screamed in pain. "Worm."
Ranma turned towards the altar. "Now, we need only to destroy this. The demons power over this place will be broken."
"What?" said Ranma. "Look, that guy was a dick and deserved to die. I thought there was some demon here or somethin though."
"I had thought he might try and protect his investment. I have seen nothing of what has given him all this power. It seems that worm has been abandoned. Once we destroy the demon's seal within this temple he will lose his hold here. His power will fade, and if he does not acquire another to take his place, vanish."
"I've got a better way," said Amelia firmly. "We don't need to destroy anything to do it either."
"Huh?" asked Ranma dumbly.
"What do you think will happen to you if you keep using his power like this?" snapped the girl angrily. "You need to find other ways to do things. That was why we got those weapons. We shouldn't rely on him. He's not trustworthy."
"What are you talking about though?" asked Gai.
"I can purify this place. I can use that altar as a focal point. I'd only need a few stones with some runes in them. She started ripping up chunks of floor and set them on the desk. She smiled as she grabbed a pen and then stopped.
"This is a pen right?" she asked.
"It's a permanent marker," said Gai as they stared at it.
"How...um. Is this it?" She twisted off the top and promptly drew a long line down their wrist. "Oops."
"Just draw the stupid runes!" snapped Ranma irritably.
"All right. I'm doing it," she grumbled as she started to scrawl.
Sesshoumaru remained silent through this. "I am not familiar with this magic."
"Demons can't use it," she replied simply. "It's for purification. It removes darkness from things. I had to make them pretty big because of the size of this place." She lifted the chunks of floor into her arms and carted them towards the altar. There were five of them; each one was about a foot wide and long. They were only an inch or so deep though. She set them up around the altar in a circle and stood behind it. "I'm going to need your help Ranma."
"Right," said the boy. They raised their hands over their heads and closed their eyes. The runes began to glow with a white light. "This might be a little tricky, try and stay with me."
The boy kept up admirably as the girl started to recite some sort of spell. "Spirits of darkness! Be gone from this place!"
A bright white light shined. It grew into an ever-larger sphere of power. It expanded around them and spread through the walls of the building as it steadily grew brighter.
Finally engulfing a large portion of the streets and consuming the building completely, beams shot out of it in every direction, giving one final and super bright flash.
"That wasn't so bad," said Ranma. He looked around and shrugged as he headed for the doors. The evil Triad boss was nothing but a puddle of sticky and smoking goo on the floor. "Guess that means those Triad guys will leave us alone. Bet that chick doesn't bother us either."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sai chewed on a slimy looking piece of intestine as Shu Ho simply stared at her. She wasn't sure what to think, but she'd never been able to simply watch one before.
Once the white light enveloped them, the monsters simply fell over. Nothing had moved in the hallway, and it was now littered with all sorts of messy fluids and body parts. All of it was below her though, as promised, she hadn't inflicted a single blow against them. None of them ever got close enough.
Sai glanced back at her and grumbled irritably. It was clear the demoness didn't really like her watch duty. "I guess I can't blame her. I kill things like her."
A few footsteps behind her alerted her to the presence of the boy as he casually strolled downward.
He glanced at Sai. The creature spit what she had in her mouth out immediately.
"That's just gross you know that?" he said to her as he shook his head. "Come on. We're done here."
Shu Ho didn't like his attitude, she didn't like his arrogance, and she had to go back and tell the Amazons they had to leave him alone. She thought about it for a moment. "You know. I didn't see you actually do anything. I still don't have any proof. You were supposed to take me with you."
The boy glared at her. "I only said you could come inside with me. I held up my part of the bargain, you keep yours."
The woman seemed conflicted for a moment. "All right. I'll try and stop them, but without seeing anything for myself, they'll be skeptical at least. They aren't very trusting."
The boy frowned at her and kept going. "So what? It's not like they can hurt me anyway."
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The trio stepped out into the street. The stars could clearly be seen in the sky above. The streets were quiet, but still destroyed. Flames still burned from the buildings, but they seemed to be dying down slowly.
Sai's skin was now bright pink, but she wasn't complaining. She would slap herself on the leg from time to time and wince painfully. Ranma decided to ignore this, as she seemed to keep herself busy with finding ways to use it to cause herself pain.
"Well. I guess this is where you leave." Ranma looked back at the woman and she nodded.
"I guess so." She shrugged and started walking down a different street.
Both of them froze and turned to look at each other.
"Master. Sai thinks it is a very good idea for us to leave very quickly." The demoness didn't seem too interested in the ground rumbling under them. She was occupied by sticking her hand into one of the fires in the street. She turned and hopped into it letting it burn around her body. Quite painful with her skin as sensitive as it was at the moment.
"What was that?" asked Ranma.
"I suspect the demon is not pleased with our interference." They turned their head up to look calmly at what tore up through the concrete in a pillar of flame and magma. All of the fires around them flared to life again as they became ten times larger.
A massive centipede like creature loomed over them. It towered hundreds of feet into the air with most of its body still underground. The exoskeleton of the monster appeared to be made of pulsating and boiling magma. Its jaws billowed smoke and a sulfur stink filled the air as it roared. The air in front of its face shimmered with heat as it did this. Insect like appendages crashed lined its sides as its head turned down towards them.
"Oh shit!" said Gai.
"We must focus," said Sesshoumaru.
The creature roared as it dove for them ,forcing them to jump over it as it ripped into the ground and vanished beneath the street. Ranma spun around to face the hole with his handguns held ready.
The ground under them exploded as the monster came up from below them in the street. The asphalt below them melted away as they pushed off and dove back down while firing into it with both weapons. The jaws shattered the heated remains of the pavement just as their feet left it.
They hit the ground on their shoulder and rolled to the side firing into it with little result. The beast crashed its face into the street again and crawled beneath the concrete ignoring the gunfire.
"Shit! We need a bigger gun!" cried Gai.
"What about those bullets?" asked Faye.
"I would not waste one against its hide," replied Sesshoumaru. "We must find a weakness first."
"Weakness?!" cried Ranma angrily. "On that thing?!" The ground under them began to roll and crack as it shook violently and began to form waves. Three of the creatures legs shot up from the concrete and slammed into them.
Ranma was thrown into the air and twisted as the monster's head tried to snap him up in mid air. He spun around and the magma plate that protected its head tossed him into the side of a building and through a wall.
He stood shakily and turned to look through the hole. The thing was watching him from just outside. "Oh shit." He turned and ran towards a window on the opposite side of the building. The demon charged into the building headfirst. Rather than chase him, it began twisting itself into the structure and actually ground it up in its coils.
It wrapped itself around the boy, pummeling him with debris from the building as it ground itself around him.
The boy clutched the surface of the monster as it wrapped around him. He could feel the heat as his hands became submerged in the magma surface. The monster glared down at him with its jaws dripping with flames. It opened its jaws and roared at him.
"Now what?" asked Faye. They were in quite a pinch.
"Too late!" cried Gai fearfully as the monster swooped down to bite them in half.
Ranma grunted as he tossed the black staff into the creature's open jaws. He dropped the red handgun and it plummeted to the ground below. He felt the coils loosen as the surprised monster put it's mouth down over them, but found itself unable to bite down.
The boy was squirming desperately as he managed to free his hips. He could see the staff bending slowly as sweat poured off his body. The heat within the creature's jaws was intense. He growled as he loaded the magazine into the weapon and cocked it. "You wanna eat something, I got somethin for ya!" He fired the shot into the creature's throat as it squeezed tighter and started to crush his legs.
The beast roared angrily as the force of the shot threw its head back. Ranma watched as the power seemed to eat away at parts of the creature's head.
"What kind of bullet was that?" asked Amelia.
"Um, water I think," replied the boy.
"You idiot!" screamed the princess.
"Looks like it worked pretty good to me," commented Gai.
That was when the noticed the swelling that was starting all over the creature's body.
"Aw, man," muttered the boy as he stared at it.
The beast exploded in a violent cloud of steam and fire.
A huge cloud rose high into the air above them as they plummeted down after the explosion. The pavement rushed up to meet them, and then there was only darkness.
++++++++++++++++++++
"So. You are finally awake?"
Ranma opened his eyes and glanced around. "Where?" He was in a bed and his wounds were dressed neatly in clean bandages.
Sai was sitting above his bed staring down at him. "Hello master."
Shu ho was sitting across from him with a book in her lap. "That was quite a battle. The amazon tribe will no longer attempt to kill you. You are free of them. One of the elders is waiting to speak with you."
The boy blinked in confusion as he glanced around. "So. Where am I anyway?"
"A safe place for those like us. There is someone else who wants to meet you here as well. I do hope you're polite to her." The woman narrowed her eyes at him and frowned for a moment. "I suppose I should thank you. What you have done..."
"I ain't through yet," he growled at her irritably.
"We have nothing to discuss. I've fulfilled my part of this deal. Now, I shall walk out of your life." She smiled at him and stood up. "You are a guest here. Please try and be polite to your host."
"That was weird," said Ranma as he scratched his head.
"That was close," muttered Faye.
"I told you it would be difficult," said Sesshoumaru.
"We did it though," offered Amelia. "That's something."
"Now what?" asked Gai. "I mean, we can't just lie here can we?"
"Now, we go find something for us girls. No more jobs until we find a man." Faye cheerfully hopped out of the bed and walked towards the door. They had to grab their shirt from a nearby chair, and roll their pant legs down. "I'm surprised this stuff survived that." Ranma looked down at his clothes in surprise.
"I hope these people don't keep us too long. I want to get this over with," grumbled Gai.
"Come on Sai. We're gonna go see what these people want us for and leave," said Ranma as he glanced at his demon.
"Yes Master. Will Sai be punished when we return?"
"Maybe tomorrow night," said the boy a little wearily.
"Definitely not until she's had a decent bath!" snapped Faye.
"I can't believe you're still going to do that!" cried Amelia.
They walked up to the door and found their weapons sitting on a dresser top right next to it. They collected them and strolled out into the home.
++++++++++++++++++++
TBC...
Part 5
The Hong Kong job.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma Saotome was naked under the sheets of his bed. He was still in the hotel room and had a little over an hour and a half to make it to his meeting. It was roughly five blocks away. He wasn't in any hurry to move.
Sai was curled up on top of his chest with an absolutely petrified look on her face. It had been horrible, the most awful thing imaginable had happened to her. She had loved it. Surely, she would be punished for centuries. She so wanted to stay quiet, but the master must know of it.
"Master, Sai is sorry."
"Huh?" said the boy as he glanced down at the top of her head. He wasn't really all there at that moment.
"She did not mean too, but she had fun," she rolled onto her knees and looked at him with the biggest saddest eyes he'd ever seen.
"It's okay," he muttered sleepily.
"But...what shall Sai's punishment be?" She glanced away from him fearfully and shivered.
The boy was simply looking at her in absolute confusion. "Um, do that pleasure thing again? Try not to enjoy it so much this time?"
"Very well Master," said Sai as her voice changed. Her form had changed and she appeared as a very attractive Chinese woman. She still wasn't clothed and reached under the sheets slowly.
"Ranma!" cried Amelia in shock.
"What happened?" asked Gai. His brain wasn't working entirely at the moment. "Great idea kid."
Sesshoumaru was relatively indifferent, but remained mostly silent during the events following the bathroom incident. Ranma was so petrified that Gai had actually had to ask Sai to take them to the bed. He did speak up to answer the question. "Sai is a servant. I believe she is only permitted to use her current form when following his commands. She seems unaware of our condition and will follow any instruction given to her. However, only Ranma may command this form." He chuckled at the surprised gasps the two women gave. "An interesting way to discover this isn't it?"
"I feel weird," grumbled Amelia.
Faye seemed to be enjoying herself. "Ooh. I like it when she does that though."
"What!?" cried the girl uncomfortably. She had passed out at first, but it was pretty much out of her system now. She had little choice but to ride it out, and though she wouldn't admit it, it wasn't really a bad feeling. "It's a demon! She's not even human!"
"Close enough!" grumbled Guy.
"Hello? Ranma? Anyone there?" chimed Faye. "Are you having fun?"
"I'm busy," he grumbled irritably.
"Right," she said cheerfully. "This is nice, but our way is better."
"Even I am not aware of that experience. Odd that you are able to have anything over me," commented Sesshoumaru.
"Jerk," growled Faye.
"Look, unless the two of you want running commentary while you do your business, shut the hell up," growled Gai. "I feel like I'm bein videotaped!"
Sai was trying her best to look pathetic and unhappy, but she was failing miserably.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma stood in front of the full-length mirror on the door and buttoned up a blue Hawaiian shirt as he put his sunglasses on. Sai was standing behind him in her cute demon form again. She looked worried and pensive, but was now wearing her tight leather dress. She didn't look particularly winded or ruffled by the last hour or so of activity. Ranma was relatively fresh looking himself as he glanced back at her. His gaze was particularly glassy though, the original occupant hadn't said much of anything. The rest of him was functioning actively and normally.
"Sai is sorry she failed master, what shall she do to herself while we're out?" she shuffled her feet pathetically.
Ranma sighed and stared at her for a moment. "You can't come. I've got to meet other people, they won't like someone else around."
"Sai must remain with the master. She is not safe without him near. Sai knows to remain hidden, she is very good at it."
"She cannot venture far from our side without specific instruction," said Sesshoumaru. "She is correct, it would be dangerous for her if we left her here alone. She will present her uses, the bond is more than just obeying commands. You may use her eyes if you wish, or her ears. If you focus enough, you will be able to control her completely if you desire to do so. Commands do not always have to be verbal ones either. As she is bonded to you, only you may use this power."
"You were going to try and take off with her body weren't you?" snarled Faye.
"Yes. What of it?" replied the demon coldly. "I would have been merciful in killing you. It wouldn't have taken me more than a year or so to do it."
"You'd have met the business end of those guns if you'd tried," replied Ranma calmly. He put his hand up in front of their face and smirked as a green glow formed around his fingers. "May not be much, but I remember that stuff you've been teachin me real good. Sooner or later, we won't need you around anymore."
The demon growled angrily. "Your power is pathetic compared to my own. Don't even begin to imagine you might ever become as strong as I. It is laughably pathetic to even begin to imagine you could match Sesshoumaru's power." His voice changed quickly into a sort of amused arrogance.
"I know enough about this attack to realize that if I can use it, you can't use it against me," replied the boy calmly. "I may not be smart, but I ain't stupid. If you try anything like that, I'm gonna kick your ass Fluffy."
"You would fail miserably," growled Sesshoumaru.
"What are we going to do about her? We're gonna be late, and that's not a good idea with these people," said Faye irritably.
"All right, you can come along, but you'd better stay out of trouble. I don't want any interruptions because of you," the boy's face was almost angry looking as he said this. He looked quite intimidating.
She nodded fearfully. "What about Sai's punishment?"
"No time for that, I'll be late," replied the boy as he opened the door to the room and stepped out into the lobby. It was late night and things were relatively quiet in the hallways of the hotel. The streets outside would not be much different.
Sai sulked after him as her wings, horns, and tail vanished from sight. She appeared human at least and quietly strolled behind him. "Where are we going Master? What should Sai do when we get there?" She had been especially vocal as of late. She kept asking questions and complaining in the hopes of punishment for being so insolent. Her master appeared to be very tolerant of her, she would have to work very hard to invoke his wrath. It wasn't going very well at all.
"Find a quiet place to hang out outside this place. I'm not sure how long I'll be, so stay out of trouble and don't bother anyone. Don't go anywhere either."
She nodded at her instruction and sulked behind him.
"Try to look normal, people will stare if you keep sulkin that way," said Ranma.
"All right," she said as she stood up straight and tried to look even tempered. She didn't want to look like she was having fun, or the master might be angry.
Ranma's various occupants decided that she'd received enough warning and instruction to make the trip relatively painless. They turned away and started walking outside.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma Saotome walked down the street towards his destination. He was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt yet again. It was bright yellow with green palm trees blowing in the wind printed across the torso. Sai followed behind him, appearing as nothing more than a cute girl of about the same age that was with the boy. Even if she was dressed somewhat like a prostitute from America. She was also wearing high heels, and was moving quite nimbly as she kept up with him easily. It didn't take more than a few minutes to reach their destination.
They stood in front of the restaurant and he glanced around. Sai had gone missing, but somehow, Ranma knew she was right beside him still. She waved at him as she slipped away. The others could see her when she moved, but only because the light bent slightly different around her when she wasn't motionless.
"Cool," muttered the boy dumbly.
"She appears to be much more useful than I anticipated. We should leave her inside once we exit. Ranma, order her to do it now, before we meet them."
The boy nodded and turned to look at Sai. "Sai. I want you to stay hidden like that and hang around inside for a little while. Listen in and see what you can hear after I leave the room."
"Sai is to wait outside," reminded the demon.
"I didn't know you could do that. Now you're coming inside."
"Well, all the master has to do is ask and Sai can tell him what she can do."
"Worry about it later," grumbled Faye. She strolled into the room and opened the doors. The place was empty, except for his meeting.
Two old men sat at one of the tables, eating calmly and ignoring each other's presence for the most part. They glanced up at the boy who walked into the room as he frowned at them both.
"Five minutes early, I win," said Li Shao.
Mao Sheng frowned and grumbled something under his breath as he passed a few coins over to the man sitting across from him.
"What do you want?" asked the boy simply.
"To the point then," said Li Shao as his face fell slightly and he returned the money into Mao Sheng's waiting palm.
"You are a demon hunter?" The man tossed the coins in his palm a few times before placing them into his pocket. Li Shao wasn't very upset by it, they had ended up even in the end after all.
"Why do you care?" replied the boy. "Stop skirting around the subject. I think I've got the basic terms of this deal already. Tell me what I have to do, so that you will leave me alone."
"A temple. It is a cursed place."
"I suspect this involves those Black Lotus friends of yours."
"Indeed it does. Occasionally, one of our kind will fall prey to the darkness. Their weaknesses force them to turn to dark paths to save themselves from their enemies, and gain domination over their allies."
"And you want me to clean it up?" said the boy coolly. "I should destroy you both for such impertinence."
Both men turned their heads to stare at him as he frowned at them both. They were quite surprised to hear it from him.
The boy promptly punched himself in the face and shook his head. "Sorry. Sometimes I forget to stop him from talking."
Both of the old men nodded and settled down in their chairs a bit. It was obvious they hadn't fully understood that.
"What's this place you're telling me about?"
"It is his home, a perverted place he bought after we discovered his...condition. He has defiled a temple in southern Hong Kong. It has made the streets there a very dark and dangerous place. No one ventures very far into that cursed place of tortured souls. I have heard some very serious tales of it in recent times." Mao Sheng stared at the boy calmly. "My men will kill him if he doesn't go, if he speaks the truth and is the man he says he is..."
"Your men would die," responded the boy coldly.
"I think you're mistaken," said Li Shao. "Even for one who hunts demons. I do feel I should warn you, the place we ask you to go, it is a very dangerous place. He may be destroyed either way. We must be prepared for that."
"You'd be wrong," replied the boy as he stared the man dead in the eyes. "What am I after?"
"We will be prepared for your failure. A great many people would die to contain such evil. They suffer already, it would be like ending their misery to us. You are their last hope."
"A task only a legendary hunter could accomplish," agreed Mao Sheng.
"You'll know where to find the temple once you reach Southern Hong Kong. My reports have told me that the farther in you go, the worse it gets."
"You have forty eight hours."
The boy turned his head and looked towards the south. He remained motionless for a moment. After a short time, a slight smirk formed on his face. "I'll be back in a few hours." He strolled out the doors dramatically and promptly ducked around the corner.
++++++++++++++++++++
Sai was hanging off one of the corners on the ceiling and watching the room below as her master commanded her. The two old men were doing nothing more than eating. "How long is Sai supposed to stay for?" she wondered for a moment. Her master was still outside waiting on her. He hadn't called her yet, but if she came back without being called she would be punished, of course, she'd be punished anyway for taking so long. She felt like her life was so predictable sometimes, but her former master had been quite creative in his torments. Now her new master was downright confusing. It was awful, she had been allowed to experience pleasure, and her master hadn't even tried to punish her yet. She was growing worried, perhaps he was just saving up enough anger to destroy her completely. "Ooooh, that would be horrible," she muttered as she shivered. Neither one of the men heard her over their own eating. The two old men eating dinner was quite boring even for her.
"What do you think?" asked Li Shao.
"I cannot turn back. Even if he succeeds, he must be destroyed. I have already accepted the contract."
"If he succeeds, what makes you think you can kill him?" asked Li Shao calmly.
The man glared at him and frowned. "I will consult with the Amazons. I suspect they are as unaware as I was. It can wait until after he is finished, it will do much to the boy's credit. I should also have time to verify the contract with those women."
"I suspect it is pointless to discuss at this point," snorted Mao Sheng.
"Better now, than after it has already happened."
"I should be leaving. I'm sure the both of us have business to attend too."
"Agreed," said Mao Sheng calmly.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma squealed down the street on his bike. Traffic sped past him in either direction as he opened up the bike all the way. Everything around him was a blur of red and white light tracers.
"What the hell are you doing!?" screamed Ranma in horror as they shifted sideways on the bike and slid under the back of a large semi truck to the other side of the street.
"Relax, I got this," said Gai.
"Now without my help you klutz!" snapped the boy angrily. "It's hard enough keeping balance on this thing as it is!"
They shifted sideways on a small bridge and shot through the air over traffic on the street below into oncoming traffic. They passed the front of a small delivery truck narrowly missing both the truck and a concrete barrier that nearly blocked them from the correct lanes.
"Stop that you asshole!" cried Ranma in horror.
"Hey. You need me to steer right? Quit whining, you can handle it. Our skills must be in top form, if we're ever to become a true hero!"
"So this is training then?" asked Amelia with a small cheer in her voice. She was starting to look at their speed as merely thrilling as opposed too scary.
"But of course!" said Gai.
"Training?" muttered Ranma dumbly. "Hey. Think we can make that jump?"
"Now you're talkin like a true Cruzin 1987 fan!"
"What the heck is that again?"
"Never mind."
"What jump?" asked Faye. The street in front of them appeared clear, and they should have long since passed anything they might have seen.
Ranma smirked. "That one."
The stretch of highway they were on was raised off the ground. Jutting up from below one of the barriers on a turn ahead, was a large crane. "Oh shit. No!"
"Aw, we can make it," said Gai cheerfully.
Sai was clinging to their back silently and hadn't said anything the whole trip. She wasn't bothered by the imminent danger that surrounded her, and was hoping her master would toss her off the bike soon. Moving at the speed they were going now, it would probably hurt quite a bit. It would leave rather nasty marks.
She noticed their direction and nodded. Her master wished to splatter himself and her onto the ground. That would be quite unpleasant. She nodded firmly as she steeled herself. She did deserve it after all.
"You crazy assholes!" screamed Faye. The men were holding her back to keep her from stopping. Fluffy was helping them stay the course. She could see the rooftops of the city's southern quarter. A dark and ominous cloud rumbled in the sky above as they passed through traffic and jumped the concrete barrier. The bike landed on the left edge of the crane and climbed the massive steel beam well over four hundred feet above the ground.
"Quit whinin, I can do this no problem," said Ranma calmly. "Uh, I think."
"What!?" cried Amelia.
The bike flew over rooftops across several city blocks and shattered into the side of a high rise building through one of the windows. He hit the brakes and shifted sideways as he slid across the fourth floor of a rather large skyscraper. Shattered glass and crushed desks littered the area around his entry as he revved the engine a few times. "Oops."
"You're gonna get us all killed!" screamed Faye. She passed out cold.
"Wow," gasped Amelia.
"Man. I thought nuthin could shut her up," commented Gai.
"Let us enjoy the silence. This is where we were told to go?"
"I think so, he said this guy runs things in the south part of town. I'm pretty sure this isn't exactly the right place though," said Ranma.
Gai glanced around. "Um, it's some sort of office. Good thing it's so late, we might have hurt someone."
"We are expected then," said Sesshoumaru coolly.
"Master, Sai doesn't think we should be here. A very dangerous demon controls this area. It is better if we do not remain." The little demon looked quite nervous as she gripped him a little tighter from behind. "His time grows near, a great rise in power will come to him from his plans. We shouldn't upset him."
"What do you know about this thing? I heard it was some sort of Triad boss gone bad."
"It is old and powerful, and has tempted the leader of the Black Lotus organization. It now owns his soul, and will make him rule Hong Kong for him. Those men you met earlier, the ones who still might want to kill you. They said they hadn't decided yet. They will be destroyed by this demon if you do not kill them first. Sai will be happy to dispatch of them for you master. She will make sure to kill them horribly and consume their evil souls."
"Uh..." The boy looked quite unsure how to respond to that. "I think I can handle that on my own thanks."
"Very well master."
Ranma found it somewhat hard to talk to her. She was insanely cute, but always had the most serious look on her face when she spoke to him. It looked out of place, almost disturbingly so. "We can take this guy right?"
"We have little choice. As disgusting as it sounds, given my limitations thanks to you, we are better off appeasing the Triads. The demon would hunt for us anyway once it learned of us. Your insistence on not harming the pathetic human cows will severely limit us in dealing with them."
"I ain't killin nobody!" snapped the boy.
"Well, not with out a good reason anyway," added Faye diplomatically.
"I was wondering how long you'd be out," said Gai.
"You shut up! I almost died!"
"Um, I'm not so sure about this place," muttered Amelia.
"You should feel that way. We are being hunted as we speak. Our task is a bit more difficult than I expected. We cannot overpower our opponent, we must outclass them."
"Why do you say that?" asked Ranma.
"He is far more powerful than we are. Not so strong that we cannot accomplish this task. It will be difficult though. It is better to get it over with as quickly as possible. He has control of this area, and everything within it. If we do not strike, his forces will overwhelm us. The only way to stop them is to destroy him, or find safety outside of this area. You are not willing to turn back, and I am not willing to move forward yet. So, we find ourselves trapped."
They wheeled the bike up to a window on the other side of the room and peered down into the city below. Sai jumped off and walked along beside him.
"My god," muttered Faye in horror.
Dozens of vaguely human zombies were stumbling up the stairs that lead to the entrance to the building. The streets were in ruins, cars burned on the street and trash covered the ground. It was complete chaos. Shots could be heard in the distance, along with cries of pain and horror that echoed through the streets. The glass in the window they were standing in was gone. From a distance the area of the city didn't look that bad.
"Magic. Humans who enter this far into this place do not venture out of it. It is disguised from the world around it." Sesshoumaru seemed quite impressed.
"What? How could anyone not notice this?!" cried Faye.
"No! This is horrible! We have to do something!" cried Amelia. Below them the zombies were making their way slowly up to the center of the marble staircase that lead up to the building. There were dozens of them now, flooding towards them slowly as they crawled out of the surrounding area.
"There is little we can do. You'd be surprised what can be hidden from the human world. I imagine this is nothing more than a bad side of town to the rest of the city. Demons can have a firm hold in communities if they wish to manipulate humans. Seems like a waste of time to me. They are better destroyed and removed from the way."
"Seems like a lot of missing people, too many for this to be ignored," said Gai.
"Ignored? Why do you think they sent us here?" commented Fluffy.
"So they wouldn't have to bother killing us," said Faye flatly.
"We'll discuss it with them when we meet them again," replied Sesshoumaru.
"So now what? What the heck are those things? They'd better not sticking their heads in their crotches again!" Ranma seemed more annoyed than anything else.
"Come on," said Gai. "We'll take the shortcut."
"No!" screamed Faye. Alas, it was too late, the bike was already rocketing towards the open window.
They came down in a graceful arc that landed the bike sideways with them standing on top of it on the stair rail. Both weapons were drawn as sparks flew off the surface of the bike as they slid down the railing towards the street firing in both directions. The rail ended and they flipped into the air as the bike came crashing into a mess of the undead things. They were rotten and burned corpses that screamed in agony and rage as they tried to turn and chase the boy.
The bike exploded in a ball of flames from the damage it had suffered and Ranma casually kept walking down the road with his weapons ready. All of the zombies on the stairwell were lying motionless on the stairs.
"These creatures will present no problems," said Sesshoumaru. "Weak magic meant to capture and destroy humans."
"Cool," said Ranma. "Anyone know where this place is?"
"That would be a good guess," said Amelia as she turned them towards a large skyscraper in the center of the infected area. A sickly purple light seemed to light the darkness around it. Dark clouds had formed overhead and thunder and lighting was centered on the building.
"Good call," said Gai as he shot down two more of the zombie monsters.
Unfortunately, it was quite a ways away. There was a lot of debris and places for nasty things to hide away or crawl up from in their path as well.
"Thanks for blowing up our ride Guy," grumbled Ranma.
"How was I supposed to know it would explode? That wasn't in the game!"
"You asshole!" screamed Faye angrily.
"I'm still dizzy," muttered Amelia.
"Where is Sai?" asked Sesshoumaru. "She would be very useful right now."
"Master, you should have told Sai to stay on the bike, so she could have been mangled." The demoness landed beside him and folded her wings up.
Ranma frowned at her. "You want punishment? Fine, fight those things and keep them away from us."
Sai bowed as she grew into her adult form. Her clothes did not grow, but simply became skimpier. "Yes master." She didn't think it was a very good punishment. "Sai is allowed to enjoy killing!"
"Really?" asked Ranma in surprise.
"Yes. Sai's master encouraged it."
"Well, have fun." He shrugged and turned to start walking.
Sai looked absolutely petrified with horror. Her tail fell limp and her wings drooped down as she simply stared at him slack jawed. "Huh?"
"Sai, I can see some of them up ahead. I don't want to waste power fighting them."
Her wings spread wide and she blasted forward towards the things that would dare annoy her master.
Ranma simply watched as a green flame burned around her body. She landed and howled angrily before the undead things. They paused their forward motion for the briefest of moments.
"My master has sent me to destroy you," she hissed with an inhumanly evil grin on her lips. Her tail snapped back and fourth behind her like a whip. Vicious looking claws had grown out of her fingers and toes. Two foot-long horns protruded from her head and her teeth were now razor points.
"WOAH!" cried Gai.
"Holy shit," muttered Ranma.
"You made us sleep with it!" screamed Amelia. She promptly fainted.
"Wasn't so bad," replied Ranma with a small shrug. "I guess we won't have any problems then."
A huge ball of flames erupted up ahead of them as Sai planted her claws into the ground and became enveloped in a bubble of fire. She tore through the half-destroyed remains with her claws and ripped chunks of meat off with her teeth. She swallowed it greedily and put her foot through the crotch of the one behind her. It did nothing more than stand there twitching as she arced her leg up and cut it cleanly in two.
"She's brushing her teeth and taking a bath before we let her touch us again," said Faye.
"We need to find some mouthwash too," added Gai. "They got that stuff that kills anything."
"That's a good idea," agreed Ranma.
"I would be helping her," grumbled Sesshoumaru. Their stomach growled a little.
"No one say anything," said Ranma firmly. "Just forget about it all right?"
++++++++++++++++++++
"He definitely knows how to make an entrance," grumbled Shu ho as she stared up the length of the crane. The place was crawling with police, and she had heard of the stunt from them. No one had been sent in to find him either.
She remembered spotting the briefest glimpse of him while walking through the streets. He was turning onto the road she was standing on now. It had been about a half-hour since she had spotted him. She wasn't sure why she followed him at all, especially on foot. Her hunch had been right, she knew where he was. "What's in Southern Hong Kong?" She was already moving in that direction when everyone in the street jumped suddenly. A loud explosion sounded somewhere in the near distance. From inside the city streets. "What the?"
Everyone had reacted instinctively. None of them seemed to notice anything after that but her. "What's going on here?" She glared down at the road firmly as she walked. "It seems I'm on the hunt again." She needed to talk with him before she was willing to go to Cologne and stop the hunt. She had to be sure he wasn't dangerous. She still wanted that, but apparently it would require her to work a bit.
She pulled a rolled up sword from her back and carefully removed the cloth covering it. She folded it up and put it into her pocket. She was dressed for walking around the city unnoticed. A T-shirt and blue jeans with a denim jacket. She also had a red and worn looking backpack on her shoulder. She tossed it into the bushes along the side of the road. It would probably be there when she came back for it. "If I come back for it," she muttered grumpily. Dark magic was becoming more and more apparent around her. "Something is hidden here." She continued to move forward towards the sound of the explosion.
Her grip on her sword had grown firmer as she continued forward. There was no sound around her she could hear her own breathing quite clearly. There was also no light from anywhere but the sky. The moonlight gave everything an eerie black and white look.
"This is nuts! I'm in the middle of Hong Kong," she whispered fearfully. She turned around and a bright and hot orange light suddenly appeared all around her. Flames burned on the sides of buildings and in the middle of the street. They appeared to have no fuel at all, but simply burned.
"Oh man," she gasped as sound suddenly returned to her. Horrible screaming and suffering hit her like a tidal wave of sound. She fell to her knees and closed her eyes. "NO! This can't be!" She quickly regained herself and forced herself to her feet with her sword in her hand. "I cannot allow this!"
She took the cloth from her pocket and wrapped it around her wrist. Flicking her arm back she laid it across her shoulder by holding that arm across her chest. The other arm held the blade ready. "I can't afford to lose again."
++++++++++++++++++++
Genma Saotome sat back with a smile on his face. He had a pillow behind his head and headphones over his ears. His minions had insisted on him flying first class and even paid for his ticket. Once he had finished at the customs office at the dock, his lead minion had asked him about flying home.
The nerdy minion burst into tears.
He and his minions then had a bonding moment as they laughed at him. Genma was quite pleased with himself. Such a profitable venture, if only he could find the boy. He'd check around a few old haunts and see if his son had returned yet. If he hadn't, well, he would return to Japan. He knew where to find his son within a month of his return.
As it was, he found his grin fading somewhat as an angry looking flight attendant glared at him and tapped her foot.
"What is it stewardess?" he grumbled.
Her eye twitched, she had a nametag that was no more than two feet from his eyes. Still, she continued to smile. "I'm sorry sir. You're going to have to come back to coach to keep your minions under control."
"Huh?" he replied in confusion.
"They stole the complimentary peanuts of half the passengers, and there isn't any more on the food cart. Half of our sodas have vanished as well. We even tried confining them to the seats. We couldn't even let them go to the bathroom. They've flushed all the toilet paper away."
"Hmmm. Perhaps the toilet paper was a bit too much," said Genma with a serious nod. "What if I have to go to the bathroom later?"
Her grin cracked as she stared at him through what remained of her smile. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stood up straight slowly. "This way...sir."
She opened the door and Genma rushed into the rear cabin at what his eyes met. "What the hell are you doing?!"
The minions were standing in the middle of the plane around a lone little boy. They were simply standing around him smiling darkly as they glared at him.
Everyone else was cowering around the edge of the plane and the child's parents were huddled fearfully away.
The boy was clutching a stuffed Pikachu fearfully.
"We are worshiping the dark god!" The lead minion pointed at the stuffed animal. "The lord of evil!"
"That kid?" said Genma dumbly.
"No master, the effigy of him the child carries in his arms," replied the minion coldly. He poked the creature in the eye with his finger. "Most horrible indeed."
"Stop that! I command you to sit quietly and share those peanuts and sodas you stole with me!"
The lead minion sighed. "Very well. Let us hope that we have given this boy nightmares at least."
The plane relaxed, but gave Genma and his minions plenty of clearance. The mother of the child had the boy firmly in her grip and was shaking her finger angrily at her husband.
The man was white as he simply nodded. His wife had seen so insane when she told him that Pokemon was the devil. He had just assumed his son's interest was a normal phase of childhood, something he would grow out of. She was pointing at the glaring minions in her rant and was using one of her hands to cover her son's ears. His stuffed toy was sitting in the trashcan nearby, and he simply stared at it in a sort of horrified awe.
"Pikachu is Satan? Mom was right? Awesome!"
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma was getting rather disturbed by his demon. He had told her to have fun, and she had taken it in a most interesting manner. The excessive force and vicious animal like behavior she was displaying was quite entertaining to watch. So far, they were halfway to the building and had yet to encounter anything else. They lumbered towards them out of alleyways and streets. Sometimes popping up from debris, or from under the street through exposed manholes. None of the streets had any sort of covers over the holes. Sometimes he could see the twisted remains of gratings in the near distance from some of the larger drainage tunnels. "This is a nasty place."
"I wonder how long it's been this way? Nobody noticed?" muttered Faye in wonder. "Look at this place. Do you know what it would take to do something like this?"
"Yes. Someone like me," replied Sesshoumaru calmly. "She is quite interesting. Perhaps we should ask her just how much she is capable of. I admit, her power level in her other form is miniscule. This form, is quite impressive."
"Still think you could do better?" Faye laughed as she said this.
"Of course," replied the demon calmly.
"Did she just eat that dead thing's..." gasped Ranma in horror.
"Turn away kid," said Gai as he forced them to look in another direction. "Some things you just don't want to know about a woman."
"That isn't a woman." Amelia seemed quite angry. "I can't believe you two. You're going to do it again aren't you?"
"Yeah. Later tonight."
"Oh no you don't! It's our turn!" said Faye. "We're going out after this."
"Fine, but you have to take Sai too," said Ranma. "We can't just leave her around you know."
"Ranma you putz, that will only make things easier." Amelia seemed somewhat nervous again. "After last night, I guess there's no point in waiting anyway."
"Good goin kid," grumbled Gai.
"What?! Your turn?" Ranma went pale.
"That's right. You wanna do that thing again? Well that means you've got to give something up, or us girls will turn something fun off for good. Don't think we can't either."
"Leave me out of this!" snapped Amelia.
"That ain't fair! This is my body!" he cried.
"We talked about this already Ranma," said Faye irritably. "It's a deal? Remember?"
"I..." He glared at the ground. "I know. I just... This isn't fair."
"No, it isn't." Faye seemed somewhat sympathetic and it showed in her tone. "It's not fair for any of us."
"I could care less," replied Sesshoumaru.
"Yeah? Well I'm sure Gai cares, I know Amelia cares."
"Not that much," she replied honestly. "I'm sure it will come up though, if we're really stuck like this."
Ranma nodded. "Um. Is there a way we can talk about this later? This isn't the best of places, and I'd rather not talk about this kind of stuff while I'm watching the demon I slept with last night eat rotten human nads like oysters."
"Oh god," muttered Gai. "Ranma. Don't ever tell her to have fun again. Please."
"You're tellin me? I'm glad I didn't tell her to have fun last night! She coulda killed us!"
"No. She cannot harm you." Fluffy was growing rather bored himself. "Not much of interest. That surprises me. Surely he didn't think he could remove us with just these pathetic creatures. I imagine we'll find a rather nasty trap up ahead somewhere."
"Maybe he wants to meet us?" asked Ranma with a small shrug.
"Doubtful. We must kill this human he has in his hold. Then and only then can we send him away from this world. Such contracts are dangerous, I have a feeling there is something going on with the Yokai of this world, that my kind have not faced.
"What's that?" asked Faye.
"A war with the gods, on a level I have never before seen." He seemed thoughtful and stared down at the dirt for a long time. "It puzzles me."
"Wow. You're admitting you don't understand something?" Faye was impressed.
"Lack of knowledge can be corrected, stupidity obviously cannot."
"What was that?"
"An old family saying," replied the demon calmly.
Faye growled. "Well let's hurry up and find this stupid trap. I want to shoot something."
"Sai! Take that out of your mouth damn it! Gross!" cried Ranma.
The demon turned around and blinked as the offending objects fell to the ground in a fatty splatter. "Yes Master?"
"Sai. Stop eating them, it's driving me nuts."
"Very well. If Sai has done something wrong..."
"Yeah. Maybe I'll punish you later. Do you really have to eat them? I mean, it's gross."
"Sai does not get hungry master," replied the demon cheerfully. "Shall Sai continue to kill?"
"Sure, go ahead. Just...never mind. Just stop eating them all right? I can't watch that anymore."
"Very well." The demoness snapped her arm back and grabbed the one lumbering up behind her by its neck. She popped the head off and punched a large hole in his chest with her other arm. She shook it off onto the dirt and smiled as she started gasping.
Ranma shook his head. He had never seen such a satisfied looking grin on her face before. "Where the hell is this trap anyway? Do you know Fluffy?"
"My name is Sesshoumaru. No, I do not know where the trap is. If I did, I would have told you already. It is better for me, if we are all ready. I suggest you keep your eyes open."
"All right. Jeez."
"Hey. This must be it," said Gai as he glanced around. Sai was standing just in front of them and several large yellow eyes peered at them from the black shadows of the alleys.
Six lumbering beasts lurched forward. They had reptilian heads and skin, but an apelike body. Each one was easily ten feet tall. They hissed at the pair and began to spread out as they surrounded them from both sides of the street.
"Wow!" cried Amelia fearfully. "This is bad!"
"Not really," snorted Sesshoumaru. "Sai. Stand back for a moment. I grow weary of watching a battle take place around me."
The demoness vanished from sight and took to the air. The reptiles hissed at this, but quickly focused their attention on the boy in front of them.
"What are we gonna do?"
Ranma had already taken the pole off of his back and twirled it skillfully around his left wrist as he spun around and pointed the blue handgun at the lizard behind him. "We're gonna kick their asses, that's what."
++++++++++++++++++++
Shu ho frowned as she spun around skillfully brandishing her sword as she hacked through the last remains of the zombie hoard that had ambushed her.
The cloth in her free hand whipped about around her, hiding her movements and keeping them back. She glared at the five remaining monsters around her. They were circling in around her. She growled angrily and began twirling around hacking and slashing at them with both the sword and the cloth. Pieces of Zombie fell away squirming on the ground from both weapons.
They were disgusting looking creatures that were all charred and burned. They were clearly made from human remains. "What the hell is this?" she cried angrily as the last one's head rolled across the street in front of her as she stopped her attacks. The street was now littered with about twenty of the fallen creatures.
"This is impossible!" She stared at the dark ominous building above her. The glow from inside made it the most likely place to find the evil causing the disturbance. "I'm not strong enough," she muttered as she glared at it hatefully. She knew moving forward would probably destroy her, but maybe she could find a way to take it with her.
Tears fell down her face as she pulled a white headband she'd had in her pocket around her forehead. "I must move forward. I do not have a choice."
An angry sounding roar from something far bigger and more powerful sounded from a few streets away. She turned her head towards the sound and stepped back as it was joined by loud reptilian hissing from more than one source.
What she heard next got her legs pumping immediately, gunfire.
++++++++++++++++++++
The dark tower loomed over them in the near distance, they were standing in the tall shadow it created as the things slithered out from the darkness around them. "What should we do with them?"
"Got me kid," said Gai with a small shrug.
"I'm in the mood for a workout, we'll use the staff," said Sesshoumaru calmly.
"Good call," agreed Ranma as he spun the weapon around his wrist. Flames started to burn from his clothing as he shifted his leg back and waited with the staff pointed at the ground. "Ready when you are," he said to the beast in front of him.
They converged on him, seven of the monsters charged from the shadows leaping at him with claws bared. The boy merely chuckled as he began to swat them out of the air, sending them crashing into the buildings, and bringing large portions of the structures down on top of them.
The boy stood calmly in the center of the street untouched by the first assault. "You're gonna have to do better than that."
One of the things roared and crouched low to circle around them, the others followed suit and prepared to lunge forward as one.
"Again? Are they that stupid?" grumbled Ranma irritably.
"Well, I'm tired of this. I'm using the guns!" snapped Faye.
"Oh all right," muttered Ranma as he put the weapon back on his back and pulled out his handguns. "Here they come."
The creatures charged forward towards the boy, this time moving in groups of two or three. "They're trying to wear us down. Pathetic creatures."
Ranma shot one of them in the face. It thundered down beside them like a gigantic boulder that forced them to shift aside. The remaining two landed opposite him and turned, hoping to catch him against the side of their fallen comrade. The boy kicked back up over the creature and jumped off of its side just as both of them slammed into it. He fired a few dozen rounds as he came down into both of them. Neither one moved much after that, well, one of them twitched its finger. Another bullet after they had landed put an end to that though.
He glanced around at the remaining beasts. "Seems like they want to try again."
"Dying here is better than going back to their master as failures," replied Sesshoumaru.
"So now what?" asked Amelia. She didn't sound particularly worried anymore.
"We finish them off," said Sesshoumaru coldly. "Ready boy?"
"No. I said I wanted a work out!" Ranma growled angrily and flipped off the side of a burning car as one of the creatures lunged at him. He spun over the creature's head and fired at the apex of his leap. It stumbled into the vehicle in its death throes and landed half in the fire.
The other monsters started rushing towards them in mass again, this time without coordination of any type. They simply moved mindlessly towards them.
"This is more like it," said Ranma with a smirk on his face.
"Our way is easier," said Amelia. She didn't sound particularly impressed.
"Being a hero is an art, you have to know when to make the fights look cool!" said Gai. "That's pretty much all the time."
++++++++++++++++++++
Shu ho simply stared with her jaw down. Dozens of monsters were rushing around the boy, slashing, biting, and clawing. He danced around them with two firearms in his hands, firearms that could hurt demons. His body moved fluidly along walls, bouncing around the street like a superball. "Wow."
He landed in front of the last remaining monster and actually shoved his hand into the creature's jaws, blowing its brain out the back of its skull before it could even think about biting down. He twirled the weapons around his fingers and put them away. "That was easy."
"That was nothing," corrected Sesshoumaru. "The fight that awaits us will not be an easy one. What we have faced before now, pales in comparison. This demon isn't even that strong, but his power is far greater than ours. We must use our skill to destroy him."
"That's what martial arts is for," said Ranma cheerfully.
"If that is your answer, then we surely go to our doom boy," replied the demon calmly. "You cannot fight an opponent like this, with something so weak as a human body. Even one like ours. No boy, for this we shall need our weapons, and all of our cunning."
"You hunt demons then?"
The boy turned to see the Chinese demon hunter standing about ten yards away. "What? What the heck are you doin here?" He looked annoyed.
"It is my duty to be here!" she snapped. "Listen you little punk..."
"Get out of here, you'll just get in the way, and I'm not saving your ass. I'll handle it."
The woman seethed angrily at him. "Look you jerk. I'm not about to take orders from you."
"Sai! Come on!" he called over his shoulder.
The demoness appeared out of the shadows and rushed up beside him.
"What the fuck?" said the woman as she stared at the creature dumbly.
"What is it master? Should Sai keep killing minions for you now?"
"Yeah. Whatever," he muttered as he started walking.
"What the hell is that?!" screamed Shu ho as she pointed at it.
"It's my pet demon," he replied calmly. "Look. I'm sure there's a haunted house or something that needs you somewhere. You should probably head back and start looking for it."
"You arrogant son of a bitch! What makes you think I can leave?"
"Well just don't go in there." He pointed at the building. "Keep yourself busy out here or something. I ain't draggin no stupid girl into a place like that."
The woman was gripping her sword as her eyes twitched. "You...you...You're a demon!"
"I am not," he replied as he looked up at the skyscraper. He was now standing in front of the front doors and peering up at it. "Jeez. Look at the size of this place. I thought that old guy said a temple?"
"There is probably one located somewhere inside," replied Sesshoumaru.
"Stop ignoring me!" snapped Shu Ho as she walked up beside him.
"Get lost," he said without looking at her.
"No. We've got things to talk about."
"Yeah? Like what?" he replied as he glanced back at her.
"Like getting me to help you get those Amazons off your back. I can do that, but I need proof that you're a demon hunter."
The boy pointed back at one of the lizard things body. "I'm pretty sure that's heavy. I'm guessin you're gonna have to drag it pretty far right?"
"Look. I'm gonna need a bit more than that all right?" She looked like she was trying very hard to control her temper.
"Like what?" the boy was starting to look even more irate.
"I'm going with you. I'll help you kill this demon and watch you. When you're done, I'll go back, tell them about it, and you'll be free of them, and me. I'm really looking forward to that."
"Great. I guess I should just hope you survive then." He glanced back at Sai. "Keep her out of my way. Don't hurt her either, that's not what I'm talking about. Try and keep her alive all right?"
Sai looked somewhat downcast at this and nodded glumly.
"What?!" screamed the woman as she stared at Sai. "No! Absolutely not!"
"You'll do it, or you're not coming. This thing is too strong for me to get distracted by you."
"Huh? What do you know about this?!" she snapped.
"I don't even want you along. Keep quiet and stay out of my way. You can watch if you want. It'll be pretty cool."
The woman looked like she wanted to strangle him. She kept quiet and glared at Sai angrily. "How am I supposed to trust a demon? How do I know this isn't some trap?"
"You're the one who said you wanted to come along," he replied as he pushed open the front doors as if no magic had sealed them. Sesshoumaru had found a way around it while the others were talking with Shu ho. "An artful silence before the storm."
The place was empty, devoid of life. A receptionist's desk sat on the other side of a large open floor. A hazy purple light lit everything in the building, giving just enough light to barely see by.
An elevator door opened in a hallway behind the desk.
"Looks like I've been expected," said the boy calmly.
"We did kill many of his minions already," pointed out Sai.
"So, you're just going to ride up and see him?" asked Shu ho dumbly.
"Nah. I'm gonna walk. There's stairs." He pointed at the stairwell.
The woman didn't look much happier, but seemed slightly relieved.
++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma somehow knew this would get annoying. "You know. This is why I didn't want you to come."
Shu ho was gasping for breath as she stared down twenty flights of stairs. "What kind of guy are you?"
"This? This is nuthin." He glanced down at what she was staring at. "We're being followed. "More of those stupid zombies."
"Great," muttered the woman.
"Should Sai kill them?" asked the demoness hopefully.
"No. You make sure she lives through this," said the boy as he continued climbing. They were nearing the top.
The boy stopped and sighed. "Of course."
"Now what?" snapped the Chinese woman.
"There's some of them above us too. A lot of them actually. They're trying to sandwich us here. He pulled the weapons from his sides.
"What do we do now?" asked the woman a little fearfully.
"What else?" he asked as he glanced at her. He looked like he couldn't believe she'd even bothered asking.
"Great." She pulled her sword out and readied herself again.
Sai stepped in front of her. "Don't bother. None of them will get by me."
The first groan was ended by a gunshot as Ranma charged forward. "Wait!" cried Shu ho as he sprinted upwards. He was knocking zombies off the stairs and into the seemingly bottomless depths of the stairwell as he charged through them above the Demon Hunter and her only real chance. The demoness that was smiling darkly as she shifted her weight forward. "Master said not to eat them in front of him. I'm sure he won't mind now."
"What?" said the woman as she felt sick suddenly.
Sai snagged one of the falling monsters from the pit and ripped its throat open with her teeth. She drank the blood greedily and tossed the creature away in two pieces as she ripped it in half. "Sai is allowed to have fun."
"Oh shit," muttered the Hunter.
"Don't worry, Sai will protect you," said the demon as it glanced over its shoulder. The zombies were closing in and Shu Ho staggered back away from them with her sword ready.
Sai merely spread her wings and hissed. "Weaklings! Sai will feast on your entrails!" She really meant it too.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma stood in front of two massive wooden doors that lead into some sort of large chamber on the rooftop of the building. A few zombies were still milling after him slowly. Hundreds of them littered the ground behind them that weren't moving. They were little threat. "I think my fingers are getting cramped."
"This is what we are looking for," said Sesshoumaru. "Come." They pushed the doors aside easily, a crackling energy arced across them as the spell holding them sealed struggled to hold. He grunted and pushed them forward forcefully as he strained to keep himself from being forced back. Finally, he strolled onto a deep red carpet. A massive fireplace stood before an altar of some sort in front of them.
"You are strong to have made it this far." The man sitting behind a wooden desk in the center of the room watched them calmly as they strolled in. He seemed unafraid and mostly uninterested in them. "Hong Kong is mine. You cannot stop it." He was young, and had slicked back black hair.
"I was expectin someone older," said the boy in front of him as he stepped in front of the desk. "Guess you made out pretty good on that deal you made huh?"
"I will be the ruler of Hong Kong for thousands of years. You are nothing..."
"Pathetic human, flapping your lips as if you had any power of your own." The boy had his two fingers pointed towards the ceiling over his shoulder now. A string of light was wrapped around the man's neck that lifted him up from his seat. The man struggled to free himself and pushed his palms against the desk trying to force himself out of it.
"You...you can't do this!"
"Who's going to stop me? You?" The boy frowned at him and jerked his hand in a wide arc. The slim and attractive man was thrown against the wall and came crashing through the top of a table.
Ranma merely pointed his clawed and glowing fingers towards him. "Dokkasou." Power shot from his hand like a cloud of mist that enveloped the man. His skin began to melt away along with the rest of him as he screamed in pain. "Worm."
Ranma turned towards the altar. "Now, we need only to destroy this. The demons power over this place will be broken."
"What?" said Ranma. "Look, that guy was a dick and deserved to die. I thought there was some demon here or somethin though."
"I had thought he might try and protect his investment. I have seen nothing of what has given him all this power. It seems that worm has been abandoned. Once we destroy the demon's seal within this temple he will lose his hold here. His power will fade, and if he does not acquire another to take his place, vanish."
"I've got a better way," said Amelia firmly. "We don't need to destroy anything to do it either."
"Huh?" asked Ranma dumbly.
"What do you think will happen to you if you keep using his power like this?" snapped the girl angrily. "You need to find other ways to do things. That was why we got those weapons. We shouldn't rely on him. He's not trustworthy."
"What are you talking about though?" asked Gai.
"I can purify this place. I can use that altar as a focal point. I'd only need a few stones with some runes in them. She started ripping up chunks of floor and set them on the desk. She smiled as she grabbed a pen and then stopped.
"This is a pen right?" she asked.
"It's a permanent marker," said Gai as they stared at it.
"How...um. Is this it?" She twisted off the top and promptly drew a long line down their wrist. "Oops."
"Just draw the stupid runes!" snapped Ranma irritably.
"All right. I'm doing it," she grumbled as she started to scrawl.
Sesshoumaru remained silent through this. "I am not familiar with this magic."
"Demons can't use it," she replied simply. "It's for purification. It removes darkness from things. I had to make them pretty big because of the size of this place." She lifted the chunks of floor into her arms and carted them towards the altar. There were five of them; each one was about a foot wide and long. They were only an inch or so deep though. She set them up around the altar in a circle and stood behind it. "I'm going to need your help Ranma."
"Right," said the boy. They raised their hands over their heads and closed their eyes. The runes began to glow with a white light. "This might be a little tricky, try and stay with me."
The boy kept up admirably as the girl started to recite some sort of spell. "Spirits of darkness! Be gone from this place!"
A bright white light shined. It grew into an ever-larger sphere of power. It expanded around them and spread through the walls of the building as it steadily grew brighter.
Finally engulfing a large portion of the streets and consuming the building completely, beams shot out of it in every direction, giving one final and super bright flash.
"That wasn't so bad," said Ranma. He looked around and shrugged as he headed for the doors. The evil Triad boss was nothing but a puddle of sticky and smoking goo on the floor. "Guess that means those Triad guys will leave us alone. Bet that chick doesn't bother us either."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sai chewed on a slimy looking piece of intestine as Shu Ho simply stared at her. She wasn't sure what to think, but she'd never been able to simply watch one before.
Once the white light enveloped them, the monsters simply fell over. Nothing had moved in the hallway, and it was now littered with all sorts of messy fluids and body parts. All of it was below her though, as promised, she hadn't inflicted a single blow against them. None of them ever got close enough.
Sai glanced back at her and grumbled irritably. It was clear the demoness didn't really like her watch duty. "I guess I can't blame her. I kill things like her."
A few footsteps behind her alerted her to the presence of the boy as he casually strolled downward.
He glanced at Sai. The creature spit what she had in her mouth out immediately.
"That's just gross you know that?" he said to her as he shook his head. "Come on. We're done here."
Shu Ho didn't like his attitude, she didn't like his arrogance, and she had to go back and tell the Amazons they had to leave him alone. She thought about it for a moment. "You know. I didn't see you actually do anything. I still don't have any proof. You were supposed to take me with you."
The boy glared at her. "I only said you could come inside with me. I held up my part of the bargain, you keep yours."
The woman seemed conflicted for a moment. "All right. I'll try and stop them, but without seeing anything for myself, they'll be skeptical at least. They aren't very trusting."
The boy frowned at her and kept going. "So what? It's not like they can hurt me anyway."
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The trio stepped out into the street. The stars could clearly be seen in the sky above. The streets were quiet, but still destroyed. Flames still burned from the buildings, but they seemed to be dying down slowly.
Sai's skin was now bright pink, but she wasn't complaining. She would slap herself on the leg from time to time and wince painfully. Ranma decided to ignore this, as she seemed to keep herself busy with finding ways to use it to cause herself pain.
"Well. I guess this is where you leave." Ranma looked back at the woman and she nodded.
"I guess so." She shrugged and started walking down a different street.
Both of them froze and turned to look at each other.
"Master. Sai thinks it is a very good idea for us to leave very quickly." The demoness didn't seem too interested in the ground rumbling under them. She was occupied by sticking her hand into one of the fires in the street. She turned and hopped into it letting it burn around her body. Quite painful with her skin as sensitive as it was at the moment.
"What was that?" asked Ranma.
"I suspect the demon is not pleased with our interference." They turned their head up to look calmly at what tore up through the concrete in a pillar of flame and magma. All of the fires around them flared to life again as they became ten times larger.
A massive centipede like creature loomed over them. It towered hundreds of feet into the air with most of its body still underground. The exoskeleton of the monster appeared to be made of pulsating and boiling magma. Its jaws billowed smoke and a sulfur stink filled the air as it roared. The air in front of its face shimmered with heat as it did this. Insect like appendages crashed lined its sides as its head turned down towards them.
"Oh shit!" said Gai.
"We must focus," said Sesshoumaru.
The creature roared as it dove for them ,forcing them to jump over it as it ripped into the ground and vanished beneath the street. Ranma spun around to face the hole with his handguns held ready.
The ground under them exploded as the monster came up from below them in the street. The asphalt below them melted away as they pushed off and dove back down while firing into it with both weapons. The jaws shattered the heated remains of the pavement just as their feet left it.
They hit the ground on their shoulder and rolled to the side firing into it with little result. The beast crashed its face into the street again and crawled beneath the concrete ignoring the gunfire.
"Shit! We need a bigger gun!" cried Gai.
"What about those bullets?" asked Faye.
"I would not waste one against its hide," replied Sesshoumaru. "We must find a weakness first."
"Weakness?!" cried Ranma angrily. "On that thing?!" The ground under them began to roll and crack as it shook violently and began to form waves. Three of the creatures legs shot up from the concrete and slammed into them.
Ranma was thrown into the air and twisted as the monster's head tried to snap him up in mid air. He spun around and the magma plate that protected its head tossed him into the side of a building and through a wall.
He stood shakily and turned to look through the hole. The thing was watching him from just outside. "Oh shit." He turned and ran towards a window on the opposite side of the building. The demon charged into the building headfirst. Rather than chase him, it began twisting itself into the structure and actually ground it up in its coils.
It wrapped itself around the boy, pummeling him with debris from the building as it ground itself around him.
The boy clutched the surface of the monster as it wrapped around him. He could feel the heat as his hands became submerged in the magma surface. The monster glared down at him with its jaws dripping with flames. It opened its jaws and roared at him.
"Now what?" asked Faye. They were in quite a pinch.
"Too late!" cried Gai fearfully as the monster swooped down to bite them in half.
Ranma grunted as he tossed the black staff into the creature's open jaws. He dropped the red handgun and it plummeted to the ground below. He felt the coils loosen as the surprised monster put it's mouth down over them, but found itself unable to bite down.
The boy was squirming desperately as he managed to free his hips. He could see the staff bending slowly as sweat poured off his body. The heat within the creature's jaws was intense. He growled as he loaded the magazine into the weapon and cocked it. "You wanna eat something, I got somethin for ya!" He fired the shot into the creature's throat as it squeezed tighter and started to crush his legs.
The beast roared angrily as the force of the shot threw its head back. Ranma watched as the power seemed to eat away at parts of the creature's head.
"What kind of bullet was that?" asked Amelia.
"Um, water I think," replied the boy.
"You idiot!" screamed the princess.
"Looks like it worked pretty good to me," commented Gai.
That was when the noticed the swelling that was starting all over the creature's body.
"Aw, man," muttered the boy as he stared at it.
The beast exploded in a violent cloud of steam and fire.
A huge cloud rose high into the air above them as they plummeted down after the explosion. The pavement rushed up to meet them, and then there was only darkness.
++++++++++++++++++++
"So. You are finally awake?"
Ranma opened his eyes and glanced around. "Where?" He was in a bed and his wounds were dressed neatly in clean bandages.
Sai was sitting above his bed staring down at him. "Hello master."
Shu ho was sitting across from him with a book in her lap. "That was quite a battle. The amazon tribe will no longer attempt to kill you. You are free of them. One of the elders is waiting to speak with you."
The boy blinked in confusion as he glanced around. "So. Where am I anyway?"
"A safe place for those like us. There is someone else who wants to meet you here as well. I do hope you're polite to her." The woman narrowed her eyes at him and frowned for a moment. "I suppose I should thank you. What you have done..."
"I ain't through yet," he growled at her irritably.
"We have nothing to discuss. I've fulfilled my part of this deal. Now, I shall walk out of your life." She smiled at him and stood up. "You are a guest here. Please try and be polite to your host."
"That was weird," said Ranma as he scratched his head.
"That was close," muttered Faye.
"I told you it would be difficult," said Sesshoumaru.
"We did it though," offered Amelia. "That's something."
"Now what?" asked Gai. "I mean, we can't just lie here can we?"
"Now, we go find something for us girls. No more jobs until we find a man." Faye cheerfully hopped out of the bed and walked towards the door. They had to grab their shirt from a nearby chair, and roll their pant legs down. "I'm surprised this stuff survived that." Ranma looked down at his clothes in surprise.
"I hope these people don't keep us too long. I want to get this over with," grumbled Gai.
"Come on Sai. We're gonna go see what these people want us for and leave," said Ranma as he glanced at his demon.
"Yes Master. Will Sai be punished when we return?"
"Maybe tomorrow night," said the boy a little wearily.
"Definitely not until she's had a decent bath!" snapped Faye.
"I can't believe you're still going to do that!" cried Amelia.
They walked up to the door and found their weapons sitting on a dresser top right next to it. They collected them and strolled out into the home.
++++++++++++++++++++
TBC...