Disclaimer: I can't believe they're actually making me do this. I do not now own Ranma 1/2 OR Yu Yu Hakusho. Nor will I ever. And in light of these two facts, I will no longer be placing a disclaimer at the beginning of each chapter. This is the last, final, and terminal disclaimer.
O.O You know what? Right now, one clock says 9:48, one says 9:38, and the third says 9:28. Yes, I have three clocks in my room. X_x
Also, I would like to say... Wow! I almost can't believe that someone noticed! And just for those who didn't, what was noticed was that the Amazons did not attend Ranma's wedding! Believe it or not, this was on purpose and comes into play later on, but for now, just know that I'm glad someone noticed. ;P And as for Akane... well, read on.
Anyway, now that that's out of the way.
~Recap~
Last time on Ranma of Spirit World:
[Annoying, deep voice] In a final act of retribution for the death of his fiancée and future wife Akane, Ranma committed the one act he never thought himself capable of... After unlocking every ounce of his energy, he unloaded it on the demon Shinji, fulfilling his unspoken wish of death.
But in the process, Ranma lost all the energies necessary for him to live, and thus, his heart stopped, broken.
And now, we continue...
~~~~~~*** DEATHLY EXPERIENCE ***~~~~~~
Annoyed, Ranma was now standing on what seemed to be a stone pathway suspended in mid-air, totally surrounded by blue sky and puffy clouds. He was now dealing with the banter of a peculiar woman riding an oar, the one who had taken him to this place. She had blue hair, blue eyes, and a big mouth.
"Okay, look. Botan, was it?" Botan nodded silently. "What the heck are you talking about? And why the heck is that guy here, but not Akane?" Ranma pointed over his shoulder at Shinji, who had accompanied the two of them.
Botan cringed, and then tried to smile pleasantly. "Oh that! Well, please don't yell at me, but the truth is... she's not dead." Botan hid her face behind a clipboard she was carrying.
Ranma blinked, and then turned around. "What!? ...I thought you killed her?"
Shinji shook his head no with a large smile on his face. "No! Paralyze, sleep, stop heart! Wake up after five minutes! Work to make you mad!"
~ On Earth ~
Nabiki and Ukyo were about to help carry off Akane's lifeless body when she suddenly stretched out and yawned like she was just waking up after a long nap. "Aauuugghhh... *blink* Hey guys. What's wrong? Did Ranma win?"
The two girls fell to the ground in rather miraculous fashion.
"What?"
~ Back with Ranma ~
Ranma's annoyed gaze leveled on the demon standing so near him. "And I suppose, since you're here, that means you're dead too?" 'At least that worked...'
Shinji nodded. "Thank you human! For now, Shinji can get reward from little blue hat man!"
"...? Uh, what's he talking about?"
Botan sighed. "Well, I suppose I have to take you to see him anyway, so I may as well take you there." Botan had her clipboard held across her lap as she led the two toward a gigantic palace in the distance. (A/N: When I say gigantic, I mean it seems gigantic from several miles away. And that's saying something for up close... Yu Yu Hakusho veterans will know what I'm talking about. ;P)
~~
Some time later, Ranma found himself standing in front of a gargantuan door. As he stared at its gigantic giganticness, all sorts of strange creatures, all of them humanoid, ran around the halls in a huff. Many of them were carrying any odd number or style of papers, files, boxes, and other odd objects that Ranma wasn't sure he recognized.
Botan turned around to look Ranma in the eye. "Now listen to me, Ranma. You are about to meet the ruler of Spirit World and my boss. So please, mind your manners, and if you feel that foot-in-mouth thing coming on, just hold your tongue!"
Ranma smirked. "With my toes?"
Botan looked surprised for a moment, then sighed. "Not funny, Ranma."
"What? I tried!"
Botan turned around and knocked on the door. From the other side Ranma heard a bit of shuffling, and then someone spoke out. "Enter."
The three of them did so, and Ranma finally got to see this great ruler of Spirit World. It took all his might... all his power... and all his training to keep from breaking out in powerful laughter.
Shinji immediately went over to the desk, atop which was a pile of papers; beside it there was a bored-looking ogre with a horn coming out of his head, and behind it in a chair that was way too big, there was what looked like a toddler with 'Jr.' painted on his forehead.
Ranma leaned over to Botan. "Is this the great Ruler of Spirit World?"
Botan nodded. "Well, technically no. This is his son, Koenma. But they basically hold the same office. Don't judge him by his looks, he's actually more than one hundred years your senior!" After Shinji was finished talking to Koenma, he got a piece of paper stamped and walked victoriously out of the room.
After that, Ranma was asked to approach Koenma's desk, and Botan was asked to accompany him.
"Ranma Saotome, let's see. Ah, here we are!" Koenma seemed to be putting on an act, as he had actually had Ranma's file in his hand the entire time. "Let's see. Very honorable, very strong, and very strong of will. You realize that the world is not all roses and puppies, and yet are not put down by it. And besides that, you are strong enough to have killed the god Saffron. I must say that this alone is impressive enough."
Ranma's head began to swim. He never would have guessed that his reputation would follow him to the afterlife!
"To go beyond that, there seems to be a kind of chaos that follows you. For some reason, the entire world seems to want to make things hard on you. Does this ring any bells?" Ranma nodded silently. "I thought it might. Well, Ranma... I'll get right to the chase, just because I don't really like beating around the bush. I can, right here and right now, give you a trial that would most likely give you your life back. But in return, I would only ask that you do me a favor."
Ranma thought for a moment. "What kind of favor?"
Koenma seemed to smile, although the pacifier in his mouth masked it fairly well. "I want you to become Spirit Detective for the Planet Earth!"
Ranma blinked. "Um... okay. Nice title." He then frowned at the toddler-sized ruler, "What's that?"
Koenma shook his head slowly. "It's not just a title Yu- er, Ranma." (A/N: That's my fault. I just thought it would be funny. ^.^) "You will be fighting demons and acting as the Avatar for Spirit World on Earth, in the Living World."
Ranma smiled. "Fighting demons? If they're anything like Shinji... hey wait a minute! Why did he need to talk to you anyway!?"
Koenma sighed. "Shinji was a special case. Believe it or not, demons as strong as he is are fairly rare, and yet he was not really proud of it. For reasons I have yet to fully grasp, he desired to be human."
Ranma smirked as he crossed his arms. "Maybe he got picked on in demon school... hehe."
Koenma tried his best not to notice Ranma's comment and went on. "Even now, he is being prepared to be reincarnated in the Living World, much like you. Except he will be given a human body with a human life span, rather than redeeming his own life." Koenma reached into a drawer in his desk, pulling out a golden egg, which he then put on the table. "If you accept this task, just take this egg, as it is the trial."
Ranma looked curiously down at the egg, then back at Koenma. "One more question. Are you sure I won't be fighting anyone any stronger than Shinji?"
Koenma smiled again, making an odd effect through his pacifier. "As I said, Shinji is a special case, but he is only one of billions of demons that Spirit World deals with, many of which have access, one way or another, to the Living World. Which is why I was desperate enough to send him in order to bring you here..." Koenma leaned forward. "To be perfectly honest, Ranma. I was expecting Shinji to outright kill you. I never expected you to kill yourself! Let alone for the both of you to die!"
Ranma developed a large number of sweatdrops on the back of his head. 'Oh man! What kind of ruler is he!?' "Well, that's... nice."
"Please don't think me morose, Ranma. I am not cruel, I merely needed a way to get you here."
Ranma looked to Botan, who only shrugged. He then rolled his eyes, "Oh alright. I may as well! Seeing as how I died for no real reason..." Ranma picked up the golden egg, which immediately pulsed a yellow color. "Huh? What was that about?"
Koenma stood up from his chair and pointed at the ogre. "Ogre, watch my office and make sure everyone knows where I am. I'm going to go explain a few things to my new Spirit Detective, making arrangements and such."
George the ogre gasped. "But sir! You already have all this paperwork to go through! If you leave, it will only pile up more!"
"Quiet, ogre! I won't be gone that long, and besides that, I have more important matters to attend to. Please come with me Ranma, Botan."
The two of them followed Koenma as he walked out of the room.
Five minutes later, George found himself accompanied by a young girl with almost glowing blue hair and eyes that seemed to glow with the light of the moon. She wore a small blue dress of Chinese design, and her hair was done in a double braid. "Huh? Where Junior go?"
George just sighed. "I'm afraid you're going to have to wait here for a while..."
~~
As they walked, Koenma explained some of the rules. "The egg absorbs the energy you put out, both the positive and the negative. If I were you, I would avoid having negative thoughts and generally being a negative person, if only until you get your life back."
"Why's that?"
"Because, if you feed it more negative than positive energy, then it will turn into a monster that will probably bite your head off, consuming your soul and leaving you without an existence. And beyond that, you will be forever remembered as one who was a monster inside, and was eventually killed by the monster you harbored in your heart."
Ranma sweatdropped. The first reason was enough for him, but that second one made him decide to watch his every step that much more closely.
"But, if you give it enough positive energy, it will become a powerful Spirit Guide that will lead you back to your life. Indeed, it will then also be able to accompany you in life during your trials as Spirit Detective."
Ranma looked at the egg in his hand. "Alright, that sounds simple enough... but tell me. You made it sound like it was pretty certain that I would succeed. Just how sure are you that I'll be able to do this right, and not screw it up somehow."
Koenma thought for a moment. "Well, considering your track record, I think that you probably won't be too negative unless someone were to jump you. Normally, we would get someone like you a guard, so that your defeated opponents couldn't get to you, but none of you're opponents ever made it here, which is yet another point for you. Ah, here we are!" Koenma had gotten out a small ladder and was now holding a pair of blue wrist-cuffs. He had pulled them from one of the many file-cabinets in the 'Confiscated and Purchased Inventories' room.
Hopping down, he handed them to Ranma. "Here, I want you to wear these until further notice."
Ranma looked them over. "Okay, but what are they?"
Koenma turned back to the door. "Chi restraints."
Ranma suddenly looked at the cuffs as if they might bite. "Huh? What for?"
Koenma went on. "I am giving them to you so that you might better learn to use your Spirit Energy, and thus not come to depend solely on your chi."
Ranma put them on, he was never one to depend solely on anything. "Okay... I guess. How does it work?"
Koenma smiled. "Honestly, so long as you're dead, they won't really be doing anything, as you don't actually have any chi. Right now, since you are pure Spirit, all you have is Spirit Energy. However, in life, having one on would limit your chi to within your body, allowing you to hit harder and faster, but not to fire it as you are used to. Putting them both on would limit that as well. When you remove them, they allow you full use of your chi once again."
Ranma flexed his hand. Koenma was right, he didn't really feel any different. "Um, okay. What about this Spirit Energy stuff?"
When Koenma kept his mouth shut, Botan answered instead. "Spirit Energy is the term given to something you would probably call 'ki'. It's basically the spirit's version of chi. Since they are both usually highly dependent on the body for growth and use, most just say that they're the same thing. But since you use chi, and we use Spirit Energy, Koenma thought it would be a good idea if you would learn to use it as well. I suppose, if nothing else, it would give you more abilities..."
Ranma smiled brightly. "Great! I'm always up to learning new techniques!" Ranma then looked at Botan curiously, as if he was a detective looking through a magnifying glass at something interesting. "Which reminds me! Why are you still here? You made it sound like you would be pretty busy?"
Botan laughed nervously. "Oh! Well, I have an idea, but until Koenma tells me, I just do as he says! Haha!"
Koenma sighed from his place in the front of the group. "Yes, Botan, you're going to be his Detective's assistant." Koenma turned his attention to Ranma. "I can't do it all myself, and I'm usually stuck cramped in that office of mine, so I have Botan or one of the others helping accompany my Spirit Detectives.
"Now listen to me Ranma, and listen well. I know that you don't like killing, and I commend you for that. But as Spirit Detective, there may be times when it will be necessary to do just that. I don't want you to be unprepared for that, so I'm telling you now."
Ranma frowned as he looked at the egg. "Demons?"
"Yes. Demons mostly. Much like Saffron, there will be times when your opponent will give you no other choice." Koenma stopped just in front of the door to his office. "Trust me, Ranma. I don't want to have to order you to kill, but if I have to I will. And besides that, if I didn't think that you would ever face that kind of a situation, then I wouldn't even bring it up." Ranma held his egg just a little tighter as Koenma turned to Botan. "Oh, and Botan, I trust you will be able to help Ranma while he waits? I understand there may be a few things that he will need to have taken care of." Botan nodded with a shallow bow as Koenma went into his office, leaving the two of them behind.
With a sigh and a smile, Botan turned to Ranma. "Well, let's get going! We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in!"
Ranma followed the suddenly bouncy girl down the hall. "Okay..."
~~ Koenma's office ~~
"Sir, someone is here for you."
Koenma looked at the girl. "Oh, of course. I wouldn't have expected you to be ready quite so quickly. Are you ready now to go to Living World?"
The girl nodded exuberantly. "I ready!"
~~~~~~*** End Chapter 1 ***~~~~~~
That is the end of that chapter.
Notes: First, I would like to thank Psycho King for pre-reading this for me and generally being a big help. Second, just as an interesting note, I looked up the characters of Yu Yu Hakusho, and it seems as if someone misled me! Yusuke's last name does not have a 'Y' at the beginning (which might just be an American version thing)! I got that little (useless) tidbit straight from the official home-page (© 2004 Yoshihiro Togashi/Shueisha . FUJI TV . PIERROT. Licensed by FUNimation Productions, Ltd), which just happens to be yuyuhakusho.com ;P.
I did get a comment saying that Botan should switch to decaf. Hehe, and I have to agree. About the only time when she's sullen is when there's either a super-dire situation at hand, or when she's in Koenma's presence. (Her boss.) The rest of the time, even when she's serious, she's serious in an over-expressive way! That's why I like her so much. ^.^
With that said, I close connection. Review me, okay?
Alex Ultra: Creator of Eternal Realm
LATER