A Ranma ½ / Yu Yu Hakusho / Sakura Wars / Inu Yasha / Darkstalkers / Devil May Cry / Multi-crossover

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ and Yu Yu Hakusho or any other anime/game titles for that matter. Though I sometimes wish I was a class-S youkai…heh.

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Fata-Morgana glared at the white-haired man standing just a few feet in front of her. She was chained to a wall, hands, feet, legs, you name it. She was even gagged, that man must've known about her abilities as a dark songstress. What pissed her off the most was that this demon now had control over her Kamui parasites, and of course, all of the Kamui golems around the realm. How he did that, maybe she'd never now…

She looked to her side and glared even more when the giant snake warrior was still staring intently at her. It was a huge snake demon, who had a height of at least a ten storey building, had armor around its gigantic body, and it even had a gigantic sword and shield on its hands. That white-haired demon said that this was his guardian, and guardian was right. The raw power this snake demon was producing was simply astounding.

It didn't take her long to figure out just who the white-haired demon was. The Legendary Sword Kisin responded to that man's call the minute he ordered it to come to him. Since the Legendary Swords were named after their masters, this demon must be one of the two Legendary Devils, Kisin.

Fata-Morgana snapped out of her thoughts when Kisin began to say something in a strange tongue, seconds before a large gate ominously opened in front of them. Her eyes widened in horror at what she saw.

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Dark Ascension

By Insane Blight

Otherworldly Reunion I: Mother and Son

Blurry, blurry, his vision was blurry. Nothing, he could see nothing, but he did hear someone call his name, telling him to hang on. A voice of someone so familiar, but at the same time, it wasn't…

The next time he opened his still blurry eyes, he saw several people in white lab coats talking about an operation, then, he heard that voice again, that soft, caring voice before everything went black…

The third time it happened, a woman immediately came into view. He couldn't quite see her face, but he knew that she was yelling something as she frantically shook him, something about living, and then… nothing…

The fourth time he regained consciousness, he saw the same woman through blurry eyes. She was listening to a nurse about something, and then he heard her squeal of joy as she quickly grabbed said nurse in a hug before running up to him and telling him he was going to be alright…

'Ugh… how many times do I have to go through this?' Ranma thought as he regained consciousness for who knows how many times. He tiredly opened his eyes and was glad that at least he could see better, but he wasn't glad that the first thing he saw was the bane of his life, the cause of his painful childhood, one of the reasons for his never-ending hatred for humans and the like, his mother, Nodoka Saotome. Groaning once, he instinctively asked the one thing he thought was appropriate in this kind of situation.

"......... Am I in hell?"

Nodoka blinked twice, before smiling at her son, "No, of course not dear. You're in our house."

"......... Is there difference?"

Nodoka frowned, and then placed a hand on Ranma's forehead. "I was sure the doctors said that your delirium has subsided, maybe I need to call them again." She smiled as she leaned in and gave her sick child a light peck on the forehead, "Rest for now son, we'll talk tomorrow morning, alright?"

Blinking for the tenth time, Ranma watched as his 'mother' gave him one last joyous smile before going outside and closing the door. A moment later, he coughed slightly as he said, "That was… cough… odd…"

Ranma sat up from his futon, suppressing another cough so as not to get that woman's attention. He looked down and for the first time, he noticed that his energy-induced clothes were gone, he had several bandages wrapped around his chest and stomach, and he was wearing… brrr… white pants. He shuddered a bit. These things really weren't his type of clothing, spending time with his brother's multiple personalities gave him a dislike for such things. 'Sigh, my clothes must've vanished when I lost consciousness.'

Shaking his head, he looked down again and snorted at the bandages. He felt that they had operated on him, stitched him up pretty good too, but his wound won't fully heal by any normal means, that much he knew. His wounds were made by Raizen's unusual ability, applying a frightening amount of Dark Force on his physical attack so his opponent won't completely heal up by any normal means.

Dark Force, Itsuki told him about it, but he never thought he'd see it in person much less experience it first hand. Only a handful of demons had such ability, it enhances your strengths for a short period of time. Heh, it was so much like a human territory except for one thing, its power surpasses that of the territories quite easily. Ranma smiled slightly as he shook his head. Fortunately, there wasn't anything normal about his assimilation abilities, so he hoped that assimilating demonic souls would do the trick.

"Well, time to get healed up," he muttered as he got up with a wince, slowly made his way to the bedroom window, and silently opened it. Concentrating for a moment, he summoned his metallic wings, along with his black coat energy-induced clothing. Concentrating once more, he sighed a little in relief when he sensed that his 'mother' was already fast asleep. He flapped his wings once and proceeded to fly out of the house, time for some demon hunting.

Ranma looked back at the house for a second before shaking his head. If he found something powerful to assimilate, he won't be coming back there again, especially since that woman was freaking him out with the whole change of attitude bit, was that really his mother back there? Was she the woman that was always by his side each time he woke up?

He'll worry about it later. Right now, he had to find a few demons…

Considering this was Ningenkai, his options were rather limited. He expected that Reikai would've sealed the Makai door by now, so Mushiyori City was definitely out of the question. Hmm, where else, Juuban maybe? Nah, his brother said that the demons there were nothing more than pests. It probably would take him forever to fully recover if he went demon hunting there. Well, there was always Yohko-chan, she was a nice demon hunter, but he really hated her family. It was a good thing Yohko-chan was always there with him or else he'd have ripped her family's heads off back then.

"Hmm… that leaves me with," he paused when he sensed something, something he needed so badly, an extremely powerful aura that was moving very fast just east of where he was at. He snapped out of it and quickly went after the source. "This is it, if I could assimilate something that powerful, then I can leave this hellish realm and go back to Makai."

After a while of playing catch-up, Ranma cursed silently when the presence seemingly winked out of existence. He flew down and cursed again, how did he lose it? How did it completely hide its presence from him? Where did it go off to? Looking up, he saw a shrine not too far from where he was at. "There's no way I'm going in there, shrines are definitely not for someone like me."

Sighing, he flapped his wings and flew up. Well, it didn't turn out like he hoped, and dawn would be coming soon. Damn, his wound was acting up, and he really had no strength to go anywhere except for that woman's house. As much as he hated it, he had to go back there and get some rest, no matter how weird his mother was acting. Well, if she did try anything, he'd just crush her soul anyway. No, wait… first he'd rip her heart out, shove it down her throat, then he'd crush her soul.

However, when morning came…

"Say ah…"

Hiding his disgust with an innocent smile, Ranma timidly opened his mouth as Nodoka continued to spoon-feed him. This was hell. It was quite unnerving seeing this weird side of his mother. So far, from chatting with this Nodoka, he deduced that he somehow wound up in an alternate world, and he was unconscious for about five days now. Well, for one thing, she clearly stated that he had been gone for only ten years, but he remembered that it was eleven years before he met and tried to kill his mother again.

Next, he finally took note of this Nodoka's spiritual powers, they were low, and he did mean low. The potential was still there, but as far as he could tell, it had not been used, period. It looked like she wasn't recruited by Koenma in this world. Lastly, as much as he didn't want to believe it, this Nodoka carried with her an innocence that was similar to his. With his abilities and his experience regarding these things, he could easily tell if she was lying or not, and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew that this Nodoka hadn't lied to him ever since he woke up.

But the biggest question going on in his mind was… where was this Nodoka's real son? Where was the Ranma of this world? Hmm, dead maybe? Maybe Genma accidentally killed him? So many possibilities, most of which would definitely lead to his alternate's painful demise.

"Son?" Nodoka called out.

Ranma blinked, before being startled upon seeing Nodoka's worried face. "Ah, uh, what is it… um… mom?" he asked with an innocent smile.

"I asked what could have caused your injuries… they looked a lot like claw marks," Nodoka said, eyeing her son's bandages with a concerned look.

Great… well, he could just say that he fought a demon and barely made it out alive or he could play along for a little while longer. Ah, what the hell. "Ahaha… well… I saved a beautiful lady from being attacked by a… bear! Yeah, that's it! A couple of bears!" Part of it was true, he did save that nice cat lady from one of the Kamui golems, and he was attacked by Raizen which could easily be counted as an animal attack.

Seeing Nodoka rush up to him, Ranma snarled, his eyes turned demonic as he quickly held up a hand behind Nodoka's head, ready to kill her for that unexpected attack. His dimensional fingers were inches away from tearing a hole into the woman's head when Nodoka suddenly began to sob on his shoulder. After a few seconds of being frozen in shock, he looked down and his demonic look disappeared somewhat at the sight of his mother hugging him around the waist as she cried. He removed his hand from behind Nodoka's head as he hesitantly asked, "What's the matter mom?"

Nodoka sobbed a little more before shaking her head, "It's nothing, I'm just glad that you're safe… I'm just glad that you're alive and here with me…"

Ranma raised an eyebrow as he stared impassively at the woman's sobbing face. He stayed that way for a little while until he frowned and slowly began to turn away from the sight.

The rest of the day was spent mostly in silence, neither mother nor son could say anything to each other, though Ranma had a smile most of the time in contrast to the small frown that Nodoka always had whenever she was not with her son. The only time they had a nice long conversation was during their dinner, when Nodoka asked about Genma's whereabouts.

Ranma didn't need to lie to Nodoka because, to be honest, he found it quite fun telling her the entire truth about his past in his home world. He told her that Genma was shot to death when two men saw that he was dropping him into a pit of starving cats, not caring about his safety or his sanity at all. He was quite impressed with the deep anger and hatred this Nodoka was producing after telling her that story, but it was still too weak compared to his real mother.

One thing that surprised him was her rather quick dismissal of the subject, which was Genma's death. On the outside, it would appear that she really didn't seem to care as to whether or not the bastard was dead, with the small curses she kept muttering under her breath, but an observant person would eventually notice the distant look Nodoka's eyes had after hearing the news.

The pigtailed boy inwardly smirked. Even with the anger she was currently producing, he could tell that this Nodoka still cared for that fat bastard, something his real mother would never, ever do. He didn't even think his real mother was capable of caring for a person, much less love them. In any case, he loved being the bearer of bad news, even if it wasn't true in this world. Seeing his mother, his alternate's mother, have mixed emotions regarding that man was truly a joy to see.

Though he held a small, very small, guilt at what he said when he heard a few muffled sobs inside Nodoka's room later that night. He held that guilt for around… oh, three seconds before shrugging the whole thing off with a dark chuckle.

The hybrid flew out of the house for the second night in a row. Like before, he looked over his shoulder and glanced back at the house. Shaking his head, he went on to search for a vacant spot to try something out. After searching for quite awhile, hours to be exact, he decided to go to the place where he first woke up, the small clearing in the forest with the lake. Sure enough, it was vacant, and he sensed that no one had come to this place since he was teleported here.

"Well, let's get started…" he mumbled as he started to carve something on the ground with his dimensional fingers. He let out a chuckle as he said, "If I can't find powerful demons in this world, I'll just summon them. Itsuki-niichan said that the level depends on the caster's current strength, I wonder if I'm strong enough to summon a few powerful ones."

A few moments later, blue light emanated from the ground in the form of some kind of ancient writing that no human could possibly understand. Ranma stared at it for a second before he began chanting in a strange dialect.

"…Kazbiel… Ophis… Camael… Daeva…" were the only words that he said aloud, the rest were too faint to hear. Gusts of wind soon swirled around his body as a pentagram appeared underneath him. It wasn't long until a portal opened up in front of him, making him smile as he chanted the last few words of the spell. He immediately readied himself as he took a defensive stance, expecting that someone or something was going to come out of the swirling black mass.

The portal didn't disappoint.

Around fifteen menacing, winged demons jumped out of the portal as it began to close. Ranma wasted no time in getting acquainted with these high level demons. He quickly killed and assimilated the souls of five of the demons before they could even land, but the remaining ten proved to be a lot harder to deal with. Most of them flew up and attacked the pigtailed boy with long range blasts while the rest were a little more direct, bashing Ranma on the head with the enormous physical strength from their bulky arms.

It was indeed a smart move to assimilate a few of them before they even got the chance to defend themselves or else Ranma would be dead by now because he would not have the energy to create a barrier around himself. The creatures' blows proved ineffective as Ranma's barrier easily repelled them back, giving the pigtailed boy just enough time to kill the ones on the ground before jumping back to avoid the blasts from the winged demons above.

He flew up and sliced a couple of demons in two, absorbing their souls as he did so. He then went for the rest as soon as he felt that his wounds closed up to an extent. When he got to the last demon though, something happened. He elbowed the demon on the head, stunning it a little as it went down, then he held a palm to the creature's direction and shot him with a small, concentrated projectile that right went through its chest. His eyes widened at what he saw, as he did the same thing to a certain someone not to long ago.

Flying down to assimilate the rest of the demonic souls, he stopped and gazed at his right hand as soon as he was finished, he didn't move, he didn't blink, he simply stared at his hand. Finally, for what seemed like an eternity, Ranma clenched his hand and looked up, his eyes had gone cold and hard, and his face held none of the innocence he usually had.

"Different… but still the same…" he whispered as he vanished into the darkness.

Nodoka tussled and turned in her sleep. She did that for much of the night, fearing that something was wrong. With an anxious groan, she sat up from her futon and placed a hand on her tired face. She breathed deeply for a few moments, then got up and walked out of her room. Slowly, she made her way down the corridor and towards Ranma's room. She didn't know why, but she felt that something had happened to her son.

She stood outside her son's room for a few minutes, obviously hesitating on whether to open the door or not. Finally, she let off a heavy sigh as she opened the door slightly, just enough so that she could take a peek at her son. She smiled when she saw that Ranma was sleeping soundly on his futon, as her worries were put to rest, it was just a nightmare after all.

The auburn-haired woman whispered a goodnight as she quietly closed the door but after she did that, 'Ranma' immediately melted into a red liquid before vanishing completely.

Nodoka easily went to sleep after that, but as soon as she did that, a figure stepped out of the darkness and silently glided towards her. Ranma kneeled beside his mother's sleeping form, his eyes still cold and hard. He caressed her cheek with his hand, to which the sleeping Nodoka unconsciously responded with a smile as she mumbled her son's name in her sleep.

Then, without further indecision on his part, the hybrid swiftly placed his other hand just above his mother's chest as he began to pull out her soul using the slow and painful method Lilith taught him. Blue light surrounded him and his mother as he started to forcefully pull out her soul. He snarled as the light intensified, signifying the power he was putting behind the assimilation technique.

However, surprise was evident on his face when he involuntarily winced upon hearing his still sleeping mother frantically gasp for air. He was even more surprised when he suddenly had the urge to stop the assimilation as soon as his mother began twisting and turning on her bed, obviously in a great deal of pain. He shook his head and pressed on, but the more he did that, the more the urge grew. With a frustrated growl, he grudgingly pulled out his hand and stood up, stopping the assimilation.

The demonic hybrid looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes as he stepped right back into the darkness.

Ranma wandered around aimlessly later that night. He didn't care where his feet took him, as his eyes were fixed on his hands that were in front of him. He didn't notice that he was producing a visible, massive, dark aura that scared the crap out of anyone who saw it, though he somehow managed to hide it moments later.

..........Why?

His thoughts were unfortunately cut rather short when he bumped into someone, but he didn't even bother to see who he bumped into as he kept staring at his hands. The person shouted a couple of profanities as he shoved the pigtailed boy back to which Ranma didn't resist at all. Then, a second person stepped up and punched the hybrid a few times in the face but the pigtailed boy still had his eyes fixed on his hands.

"Hey kid, this place isn't for you. Go back to your mama, lil' boy," the first one sneered, ignoring the slight widening of the pigtailed boy's eyes when he heard the last part.

"Yeah, something bad is likely to happen to you… like this," the second one said as he stepped forward and slashed Ranma's right arm with a small pocket knife but to their extreme shock and surprise, the blood that came out of it was blue.

Majin Ranma stood in place for a few moments as he gazed not at the wound, but at the same hand he was staring at earlier. He then turned towards the two thugs with a crazed, maniacal look, even though his eyes held a noticeable confusion in them. He smiled a manic smile as he chuckled out, "You'll do… you'll do…"

…In other news, two people were found dead yesterday in a small alleyway in downtown Tokyo. Police reports say that the victims' bodies were… mutilated. The residents in the area say that it could have been a monster, it might as well be true, as both of the victims' hearts were ripped out and as of this time, there were still no signs of it anywhere…

"Oh dear, a monster attack?" Nodoka gasped out as she watched the news. "Oh my, that's horrible, and that's just a few miles from here too. I hope that they capture it soon…"

Ranma, who had his back turned to his mother as he washed the dishes, smiled a bit. "A monster? That's not good, and you're right mom, I hope they capture the monster before it attacks any more people. I'd do it myself, but you said that I should rest for the time being, right?" He gazed at his reflection from the plate in his hand before looking over his shoulder, "Anyway, did you like the meal I made, mom?"

Nodoka turned and beamed at her son. He volunteered to cook for today because quite frankly she was in no condition to do anything right now. She didn't know why, but she just felt so weak today. "Oh my, yes, that was an excellent cuisine! I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life! I'd bet you'd even beat my friends in a cooking contest. Who taught you to cook like that son? And what was that unique, succulent taste in your dish? I couldn't quite tell what it was…"

"I learned to cook by myself," he paused as he wiped his hands with a towel, "Oh, that. It was just a secret ingredient of mine…" he finished with a soft, mirthful laughter. "I hope you'll let me cook for you every once in awhile mom."

"Oh son, that'd be wonderful! You're such a caring son," she gushed. She had such a wonderful son. He wanted to take care of his mother… that was so manly! He showed that last night when she was having yet another one of those strange nightmares, he was so sweet, singing a beautiful hymn to her so she could go back to sleep.

Ranma grinned, "Thanks mom. Maybe one day, I'll show you just what my secret ingredient is."

Nodoka could only smile at that.

That night, Ranma flew towards the spot he used to summon demons in order to repeat what he did yesterday. Those demons were powerful alright. A couple more rituals like that and he'd surely recover from his injury, but doing such a ritual every night would certainly take its toll on his body. How did he know that? Well, Itsuki sure did look like he died a hundred times over when he summoned demon after demon for five nights in a row during an incident in a sleepy little town three years ago.

In any case, he had no choice but to summon them since he couldn't find demons in this part of the city, and he was still too weak to travel far. But as fate would have it, he snapped his head up when he sensed a familiar presence from a couple of nights before. "It's back…"

He flapped his wings a few times before flying towards the energy signature at high speed. "I won't loose it again. I will assimilate you this time…" That was his resolve. However, once again, after several minutes of flying towards the source, it still proved to be too fast for him as it winked out of existence.

Luckily for him, he wound up at the same place as last time, a shrine. "So does this mean that it goes here every time it appears?" He walked a few feet and noticed something to his side. It was an old well, a well that reeked of demon aura, and… what? Is this divine ki? If he recalled correctly, his brother said that the ones who can use this had been wiped out years ago. Anyway, the trail stopped right in this well…

"Hello? Is somebody there?" a young female voice called out.

'…Time to go.' Ranma dashed out of the shrine before flying up and back to his mother's house. 'Sooo… I'm a demon summoner and a demon hunter now? I wonder what mister will say about that.'

Majin Ranma's Home World

Speaking of the Devil Hunter…

"God… I can hear that wolf boy now, laughing and saying 'I told you so'… Dante, you stupid SOB…" the Devil Hunter grumbled as he climbed up a very steep mountain. As far as he could tell, he was sent back into the past, WAY back into the past, around the late 1930's maybe, oh and that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that he landed in fucking Germany, right in the middle of a Nazi convention.

Dammit, he refused to kill humans, but what else could he do? He certainly wouldn't just allow them to shoot him to a bloody pulp. So, with great reluctance, he fought back while he made his escape. That was before, but now that he found out the hard way that these Nazis were controlling demons under most of their bases, it was time to kick ass, especially when said demons were possessing human soldiers at an alarming pace.

Now that he thought about it, these demons were eerily similar to those damned Kamui parasites. They force themselves into a host and then they take over their bodies to do as they please… not to mention that they become faster, stronger, and uglier too.

Well, now that he got himself into this mess, might as well do a little history alteration while he was at it, if he hadn't done that already. He did blow up several of their bases already so why not blow up a few more? He flipped up as he reached the top, with him landing on his feet, but a frown immediately made its way to his face when something fast was coming towards him. With lightning speed, he pulled out his favorite guns and quickly pointed it to the figure, making it gasp in surprise.

"Who the hell are you?!" he yelled, looking at the figure in front of him with a very, no, extremely interested eyebrow. Daaaammmnnnn… a tall, busty, leather-clad, redheaded woman, maybe his luck was changing, then again, maybe not. Those long sharp blades attached to the woman's wrists could be trouble.

The redhead sneered and in a blur, she pulled out a gun of her own and pointed it to a mildly impressed Dante, "I should ask you the same thing, who the fuck are you? You don't seem to be one of those Nazi bastards. Did the Brimstone Society sent you here to watch me?"

Dante looked at her oddly before responding, "The Brim-what? What the hell are you talking about lady, or should I say, vampire?" he finished coldly, finally sensing the aura that she hid so well.

"Like I said, I should ask you the same thing, fellow half-breed," the woman replied with a smirk that showed her fangs. Well, she was kinda thirsty, and the demon in front of her was just what the doctor ordered. Not too bad, tall, fairly muscular, a powerful one too, the fact that he seemed to have a thing for leather was also a good thing. "I'll ask again buttercup. Who are you? For that fucking matter, who sent you?"

'Does this woman like to swear or what?' he thought with a smirk of his own. Wait… did she just call him buttercup? The hell? Slowly, he brought down his guns and he sighed a little when the redhead did the same. "I'm not with this Brima-whatever-the-hell-you-call-it society alright? I'm just someone who was dumb enough to go into a stupid out of control vortex and in doing so, got sent into this time and place, okay? I know it sounds crazy but it's the whole damn truth!"

Hmm, it was possible, considering she herself had come into contact with a few artifacts that dealt with time travel, but she was so damn thirsty… and he would do for a very hefty snack. The redheaded half-vampire just nodded her head, but inwardly, she was licking her lips. "Okay, let's say I believe some of what you said, can you at least identify yourself?"

"The name's Dante… and you are?"

"…Rayne,"

Isis ring, the proof of the master of the Aensland family…

Morrigan gazed at the Isis ring she was wearing on her left hand for Hades' knows how many times already. Just why in blazes did she get the urge to wear this infernal thing? Sure, it was amusing seeing her servants faint one after another upon seeing her wear the ring, however, it got boring real fast. If she remembered correctly, she really had no intention of wearing it ever since Berial died but now, she felt that there was a need, no, a desire to wear this, and wear it proudly.

It was the least of her concerns though, as she was having these dreams ever since going back to her castle. One dream mainly was of that girl, that succubus she fought at that dimension. She was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't quite understand her. The next dream was of Berial, something about a secret beneath the castle. Well, she had ordered her servants to search for any hidden rooms and whatnot but they found absolutely nothing. She figured that it was nothing more than a freaky dream, it was always freaky whenever Berial was involved, him and his blasted hobbies.

The last one was the one that really bothered her. It was simply about a young man… smiling widely at her. She somehow felt that it was connected to her first dream, but she didn't know for sure, and it frustrated her to no end. This dream was even worse than her headaches, which by the way, had gone up and disappeared ever since her time in that dimension. She had told Felicia about it and she said that her descriptions matched that of the young man who was forcefully sucked into the middle portal.

That brought another question to mind, namely her desire to go into the portal shortly after recovering from Demitri's attack. If Felicia wasn't there, she didn't know if she could stop herself from going into that portal at that point in time. Smiling slightly, she began to laugh a bit. What was she saying? She could barely even stop herself now. The most interesting part was that she really didn't want to stop herself, no matter what she said to the others.

Well, there was one thing she was sure of… this had been one strange week.

Slowly, she walked towards an open castle window. As she neared it, her eyes had suddenly become distant, as well as the odd gleam in her eyes seemed to have somehow returned.

"I must be out of my mind…" she muttered as she called out her wings, changed into her 'normal' attire, and flew away, towards the direction of Gilala Gila. She wanted answers, and she felt that the young man was the one who had them…

Botan and Jorge walked down the corridor leading to Enma-Daioh's private chambers, oh yeah… they were dragging a very scared Koenma along with them. When Botan heard that Meikai was active again, she freaked, remembering the time that fateful event happened. The puzzling part about the reemergence of Meikai was that the five shrines were all intact and there were no signs of them being tampered with. Plus the purple energy ball, Meikai's source of power, was back with Enma-Daioh so how was it possible?

Hopefully, Enma-Daioh knew the answer, but he said that he'd only talk when his son returned to Reikai. It took roughly around a week to find Koenma. It took that long because he somehow had gotten word that he was personally being ordered to go back to Reikai by his father, plus almost all the Reikai forces were asked to look for him, so he hid inside a small, secluded temple.

Botan sighed as she continued to drag Koenma. Koenma must've thought that he was being hunted down to be punished for aiding the one with tainted blood, the Majin, Urameshi Yusuke, and for defying his father's orders. The spirit girl looked over her shoulder and tried to suppress a giggle. From the scared look on Koenma's face, her guess seemed to hit home. Oh well, they would know soon enough.

Jorge pushed the large, double doors open and the three hesitantly went inside. Koenma had regained some of his composure as he stood in the middle, looking up to Enma-Daioh with a serious face. His two assistants just stood back and watched the proceedings with a lot of nervousness.

There was uncomfortable silence in the room, until Enma-Daioh finally said, "I know what you three are thinking right now. My answer is simply this: No, it is not Yakumo."

Botan and Jorge gasped.

Koenma sighed inwardly when Enma-Daioh did not talk about his punishment. On the outside though, he was frowning, fully understanding the severity of the situation. "Who is responsible for it then?"

Enma-Daioh sighed loudly, "Simple… the creator of the realm himself. He has somehow been freed from his eternal banishment to the forbidden realm," he paused for a bit, "And I am sure that he will come looking for revenge on the people responsible for his banishment."

By this time, Koenma's body was shaking again. He had seen the archive about the creator of Meikai hundreds of years ago, and he could tell that the guy emitted pure, unadulterated evil. Swallowing hard, he looked up again and hesitantly asked, "…And who exactly are the ones responsible for it?"

"None other than the people of Reikai…"

Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei arrived at Mukuro and Raizen's new fortress just a few days ago. Well, they did arrive, but everyone ignored them, including Mukuro herself. It wasn't until Hiei practically screamed at her face that she finally noticed that they were there. When the ruler told them the reason why everyone was so busy, the trio immediately understood the situation.

They were at war, not with the soul stealers as previously mentioned in Mukuro's messages, but with thousands of parasitic demons. These parasites first appeared when they were about to retreat from their war with the soul stealers on Gilala Gila. These things popped out from the ground and quickly went inside the bodies of those who died from the war, then, the bodies immediately began to change into these gigantic unstoppable demonic monstrosities. Needless to say, they ran like hell when nothing they did seemed to slow the creatures down.

However, Mukuro and Raizen's armies were caught by surprise when they got back. Upon arriving to their respective lands, the servants guarding Raizen and Mukuro's surrounding land had all been turned into those monstrosities. With the Wargod injured, his comrades and his remaining army of Monks were forced to run away. What happened to Mukuro was pretty much the same.

They built a new place a couple of hundred miles from their former domains, and right at this very moment, they were thinking of ways to actually destroy one of these things, weapons, spells, techniques, whatever, just as long as they could destroy them before they completely take over Makai.

Raizen was severely wounded from his attack on Gilala Gila, but he still refused to eat human flesh to recover his health. Yusuke's visit certainly didn't help the Wargod at all since the teen quickly jumped at him and blasted him several times in his wounded stomach. It took just about all of Raizen's remaining comrades to take down the very angry teen. The hybrid's level of power unexpectedly rose when he saw his ancestor.

Hiei had a little talk with Mukuro and her general, Shigure, in private, which ended up with a dying Hiei. Fortunately, Mukuro had the right equipment to treat the Jaganshi. It only took a few days before he could walk again. Kurama on the other hand, had asked several of Raizen's monks regarding the whereabouts of Yomi. So far, he had come up with nothing. No one knew where he was or what happened to him. Until now…

Both Hiei and Kurama were outside the new fortress when, to their surprise, the former ruler came into view as he limply walked towards them. Yomi was a bloody mess, he was dragging one of his legs as he walked, and he had suffered a very nasty injury that covers half of his face. He looked as if he just came back from hell. Just what in the world happened to him?

"Yomi!" Kurama yelled, rushing towards his old friend while Hiei just followed the redhead with a small frown. Yomi fell into the redhead's hands but it was for only a brief moment.

"Move," Hiei immediately ordered.

Kurama instinctively jumped back when Hiei drove his sword to Yomi's side, causing the former ruler to scream out loud. The redhead watched, wide-eyed, as the Jaganshi twisted his sword before pulling it out. He gasped when he saw that a strange parasitic creature was impaled at the tip. Kurama quickly snapped out of it, kneeled down, and checked Yomi's life signs.

"…He's alive… barely…" Kurama whispered, looking at the wound that Hiei made on Yomi's body, then at the small parasite that the Jaganshi forcefully pulled out. He looked up to Hiei and said, "This is bad, we need to get inside the fortress at once. We have to warn them about this."

"Too late," Hiei said seriously, snarling at the ground. "They're already here."

Kamui heads popped out of the ground, growling at Hiei and Kurama as they pulled themselves out of the ground.

Kurama supported the unconscious Yomi with one arm while he summoned his whip with his other hand, "So these are the things Mukuro was talking about." This was not good, there were roughly around a hundred of them, and he didn't know if they could even kill one of them if what Mukuro said was true.

Hiei smirked and called out his black flame, "…And here I thought I'd be bored by staying here a minute longer…"

The Other World…

Majin Ranma hopped inside his room with a sigh, turned around, and gazed outside. He missed it again, and he cursed again when he saw that it was already dawn. Even with all the minor demons that he had assimilated, he was still not fast enough to catch up to it. 'Grr… damn… it'll probably take a few more days for me to get back to full strength with the ritual method, especially since this is a Dark Force wound…'

He jerked up, eyes wide, when he heard his mother's voice just before the door opened. Fortunately, he had willed his wings inside his body. Unfortunately, he was still wearing his energy-induced clothes when his mother opened the door.

Nodoka asked, "Ranma dear? Oh good, you're already up. I'm sorry about this but I forgot to tell you that I'm going to our family's ancestral grave today. I was wondering if you're feeling well enough to accompany me there…" she paused and blinked several times when she saw the dark clothing her son was wearing, "Son? Those clothes…"

Ranma had an evil look while he still had his back turned to his mother, however it quickly changed to a joyous, innocent one when he turned around and faced Nodoka, "Hmm? What about these clothes mom?"

"…You look so manly!"

Blink. Blink. "I do?" the pigtailed boy asked, dumfounded by her reaction. He blinked even more when he noticed the dreamy expression on Nodoka's face. He coughed slightly as he said, "Erm… uh, anyway, what was that about visiting a grave?" Nodoka didn't move as she simply remained in place with a frozen smile. ".........Hello? Anyone home? Earth to mom?"

He waved a hand in front of her numerous times but received no response. Sighing, Ranma held out a hand and applied a little bit of reiki to his fingertips before snapping them together, causing a thunderous sound that finally shook the auburn-haired woman out of her stupor.

"Huh? Oh, what is it, my manly son?"

"......Right...... ahem, what was that about a grave?"

Nodoka blinked, "Oh! I said that I'll be going to our ancestral grave today and I was wondering if you could come along with me… that is if you're up to it."

Ranma shrugged, "Sure, no problem. I'm getting tired spending the day inside the house anyway." He'd love to see just what kind of ancestral grave it was, maybe he'll find some clues to what Raizen was hinting at back at Gilala Gila. 'Besides, what's the worse that could happen? After all, we're only visiting a grave, right? It's not like we're going to get into trouble or something…'

AN: Finally have my connection back. I still have an annoying headache that comes and goes but I can write now. At the beginning, Ranma didn't know that he was in an Alternate Universe, he thought that he only wound up in Ningenkai. Canon Nodoka's behavior (All in all, she was just plain nice in this one) shall be cleared up in the next two chapters of the Other World arc.

Oh, the breakfast scene? Well…

Kazbiel, Ophis, Camael, and Daeva were all fallen angels.

Bloodrayne crossover, the game, not the so-called 'movie'… don't get me started on that… shudders

Anyhow, the next chapter will be the one where the all too familiar chaos ensues, as Majin Ranma will be introduced to a few NWC members as he and Nodoka visit the Saotome Ancestral Grave. (Nodoka was going to visit this place at Vol. 36 of the manga, so the timeline for this world is just before Nodoka's discovery of Ranko/Ranma being one and the same and of course, the Saffron arc) Heh, yup, Majin Ranma now knows the energy signature of a certain hanyou. Ja!

Next: Otherworldly Reunion II: Ranma and 'Ranko'