Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Ranma ½, Ah! My Goddess, or any other trademarked/copyrighted product in this fanfiction. They were created by people a lot more imaginative than me. I am also not making any money off of this. This is merely for entertainment purposes.

Note: This story takes place after the Jusendo incident. Ranma is about to enter his junior year of high school. This story starts towards the end of the summer break.

Pursuing a New Path

by ranmafan1

Chapter 2: Business and Pleasure

Along the streets of Nifelheim, two figures could be seen walking. One was a beautiful woman that appeared to be in her early to mid twenties with white-blond hair and who was wearing a leather outfit deemed more appropriate for an S&M video rather than casual wear. The other person was a handsome young man with a pigtail who was wearing a shear black silk outfit. They seemed to be engaging in some conversation while walking through the cobblestone streets.

"So, where are we going again?"

Mara managed not to grimace at the question. For someone with such a high martial arts learning curve, he could sure be dense sometimes. "For the last time, we are going where the Boss told us to, and that is legal. We have to get you to fill out some paperwork and get a fake fiancée contract made up."

"I don't see why we couldn't use those arches to teleport, though. I mean, it would be easier."

"Easier it may be, but since I am going to be staying with you and not on the job, I'm in no hurry to go back. Besides, I thought that you might as well get a short tour of the place."

"I don't see why I gotta. It's not like I wanna be here anyway. I saw how to get to Hi-ur the Boss' office. All I gotta do is learn the teleport thing."

Shaking her head in exasperation, "Ranma, Ranma, Ranma. You do realize that you won't be going to her office all the time. Nifelheim is a very big place, and there are many and varied departments that you might have to work with from time to time. It's all about networking, Ranma."

Ranma stared blankly at her with the unfamiliar term, which caused Mara to sigh. "In other words, you need to know a lot of people who might have to help you and who might need yours."

"Oh…well, I guess." Another passerby greeted Mara. "Boy, you sure are popular around here."

Mara snorted in amusement. "Of course, what else do you expect from the premier agent on Midgard?"

Ranma dryly added, "And modest too?"

Mara cast the young man a withering glare. "Oh, and who are you to talk, Mr. 'Best Martial Artist.'"

Ranma had the decency to blush a little at the comeback. "Oh, um, right."

"Honestly, Ranma, you can be such a hypocrite sometimes?"

"Hey! What do ya mean by that?"

Mara abruptly stopped and turned to face the pigtailed martial artist. Putting her hands on her hips, she responded, "Come off it, Ranma. When you were talking to the Boss about being the best of your martial art school, you acted like you were some selfless saint compared to everyone." Mara walked closer and leaned towards Ranma, who blushed a little on the invasion of space. Her eyes seemed to bore into Ranma's. "You think that you're so different than the rest of them. Let's face facts here, shall we? The others may not practice martial arts with the same dedication that you do because they're too busy being a pervert, lazy, emotional, or angry, but your devotion is not based solely for the 'Art's sake.'"

At his confused face, she rolled her eyes and backed away to her normal posture. "Being the best feeds your little ego, just like my accomplishments do to mine. It's only because the others cause more damage that it seems like you are a better person." Her glare returns, "So, don't preach to me about how you are some saint while the rest of us are trash."

Ranma slightly bowed his head in shame. Tentatively, he spoke. "I'm, uh, sorry, Mara."

Mara waved off the apology and started to walk forward. "Whatever. Let's just keep going."

Ranma did not answer, but gained a thoughtful look to him as he walked near the demoness. 'Am I that different? Is my ego that bad? I know I have a pretty big one, but I didn't think it went this far.'

The rest of the walk was taken in silence.

A few minutes later, the two were standing in front of a building, whose architecture was the same castle type that he had noted throughout the walk. What set it apart from the others, however, was a large and familiar statue he had seen pictured in some courts of law in the United States. It was a large female statue holding a scale in one hand. There were two notable differences, the first being the lack of a blindfold, and the second was how the scale was noticeably unbalanced. "Hey, Mara, isn't that statue a little off?"

Smirking in reply, "For some things, we in Nifelheim tend to be a bit more realistic, justice being one of them…Heh, in some courts on Midgard, there are juries of peers that are supposed to decide whether someone is guilty of a crime or not, and they are to be objective about it." Scoffing at the thought, "Yeah right, as if…people all have their preconceived notions about everything and that destroys their fairness, hence," pointing towards the statue, "justice is not really blind."

Ranma scratched his head at the speech. "Man, I never thought of it like that." Frowning a little, "That's also a pretty gloomy look on things."

Shrugging her shoulders, "Yeah, well, most people don't like to think about it that way, mostly because they want to believe their world is nice and orderly…In any case, we're here. Let's get all this damn paperwork out of the way."

The two trekked up the stone stairs and past the statue into the building. He saw that the lobby was similar to the other one he was in, but far less decorated. As before, the two walked into the elevator, which opened upon their arrival at it. After closing, Mara stated, "Registrar." The doors opened, revealing a much more hectic scene than the last time he and Mara did this. Inside the room were rows upon rows of cubicles with…people of various shapes, sizes, and colors, seemingly hard at work on those weird hologram computers that Hild was using, though they were not typing nearly as fast as she was.

As before, Ranma hesitantly followed Mara through the rows of workers, who seemed oblivious to the two. They eventually stopped in front of a plain-looking door that simply had odd markings on the front door. Oddly enough, even though he had never seen the language before, he knew that it said "Supervisor." Unlike Hild, who ever was here did not have a secretary. Mara knocked on the door.

A few moments later, a gruff voice was heard. "Yeah, come in."

Upon entering the office, Ranma observed that it was nowhere near as breathtaking as Hild's. In fact, it was just plain, dull, and small (only about 10 feet by 10 feet). Taking notice of the person sitting at the desk, Ranma simply stared. The first time Ranma entered an office in Nifelheim, Ranma was eventually greeted with the site of Hild, a breathtaking and beautiful woman that would make supermodels weep with envy. Now, he saw a short, overweight, and green-skinned…man with two horns on his head.

The imp at the desk took his attention away from various paperwork and focused on Mara. "Ah, Mara, good to see you."

Mara nodded in response. "Same here, Harold."

Ranma could only think, 'Harold?'

Harold turned his attention towards the newcomer. "And you must be, Ranma?…Boy, you sure have been giving us all a big headache around here. Ascensions have been banned for millennia and here you have to find a loophole around it. Now, not only do we have to handle all the damn paperwork for that, but also for the system administrators who had to make some changes to the system to prevent it from happening again…" His tirade ends in muttering about know-it-all brats.

Dumbly, Ranma replied, "Um, sorry."

Harold waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, don't worry about. It may be a pain, but at least it's better than the same old, same old that we're used to around here." He leaned further back into his chair. "So, I guess you're here to fill out the paperwork."

Ranma turned to Mara, who nodded to him. "Uh, yes."

The short imp pressed a button, and seemingly out of nowhere, a huge stack of paperwork fell onto the desk in front of Ranma, whose eyes bulge at the sight. It was at least two feet tall!

"Oh, it looks a lot worse than it actually is. Make sure you read over everything carefully. Then sign and date were the X's are marked. Better get hopping. If you got any questions, just ask."

Ranma glanced at the stack, then looked pleadingly at Mara, who smirked in response. She merely sat down at one of the chairs at the side. After crossing her legs, she surprisingly took a flask from the cleavage of her leather outfit, unscrewed the cap, and took a swing of it. "Well, get to it."

Sighing his head in resignation, he simply asked Harold, "Do you gotta pen?"

Three hours later…

As he read through, wrote his signature, and dated the last form, Ranma collapsed against the back of the chair he was sitting on and let out a sigh of relief. Even with all of his martial arts conditioning, his hand was aching from continuous use. More importantly, however, was how tired he was starting to feel. Oddly enough, he did not feel a hunger in his stomach, just felt low on energy.

Throughout the whole deal, Mara was sitting on her chair and playing with a Gameboy, and from her scowls and random mutterings, he got the impression that she wasn't doing too well. Meanwhile, Harold was typing on his holographic computer and would occasionally take a quick glance at the forms Ranma completed.

"Everything looks in order. You can go now," Ranma sighed gratefully, "but before you do, here's your pager." A small black one appears out of nowhere in Harold's hand, which he subsequently handed to a dumbstruck Ranma.

"A pager?"

Harold gave a shrug towards his expression. "Well, this isn't Kami-sama's office, so we don't have access to lightning bolts."

Ranma looked at Harold, then to the pager, and back to Harold again. He finally shook his head and sighed. "Whatever."

Mara got up and stretched, which made Ranma hastily look away as certain parts of her body became prominent in doing so. "We all got one, Ranma. See…" She put the Gameboy down her front and pulled out a pager to show him.

Ranma sweatdropped at the act. 'Geez, how much stuff does she hide in there. Granted, she has a lot of room with her…' Ranma stopped that train of thought and blushed. He quickly placed the device in his pants' pocket. "Um, okay, so if that's, uh, it I guess we'll get going."

"Sure, sure, whatever. Just make sure to stop off at the Library to pick up a rule book."

Blinking at the statement, Ranma asked his thoughts. "Uh…Rule Book?"

Harold chuckled a bit. "Of course, we do have rules to follow around here you know…In fact, one of your requirements to get your full license is to finish reading it."

Ranma grumbled out. "Great. Just great. I'm a demon and I'm still getting homework."

"Oh, don't be so lazy, young man. A little reading can't hurt you." His somewhat evil snicker at the end did not ease Ranma's nerves.

Mara decided to interrupt their conversation. "Anyway, I'll be needing some Japanese money transferred to my account for expenses."

Harold nodded his head in agreement. "Of course." After typing a few commands, he was all done. "Now you have about 100 million yen to start off with. If you need more, you know what to do…Oh, and here is that fiancée contract I was told to give you."

While the two conversed, Ranma gaped at the sheer amount of money that was casually distributed. "Um, excuse me?" Once he had the two's attention, he continued, "Uh, 100 million, don't you think that's a little overboard. I mean, that's, well, that's a fortune!"

Both Mara and Harold glanced at each other and then laughed at his comments, which irritated him to no end. He had been out of the loop many times before, but it seemed to be a constant occurrence around here. Harold decided to explain things further. "Don't worry about it, Ranma. That's only chump change to us. Nifelheim, as well as Asgard, both have investments in many companies throughout Midgard. Not only that, but we get commissions on various patents we have. In simple terms, Nifelheim has more money that you can imagine."

"What so, you just don't make the money?"

Harold scoffed at the notion. "Of course, not. We can't simply create the money since that would have drastic effects on the economic conditions on Midgard, ones that are beyond our boundaries."

"Ok, whatever." He was starting to get a headache with a lot of his perceptions being tossed out the window. "Can we get going now?" As an afterthought, he replied to the shorter imp, "Oh, and, uh, thanks."

"Sure. No problem. See you around. See you later, Mara."

The demoness nodded in response. "Later, Harold." The two exited the office and returned towards the elevator. Turning to Ranma while continuing her pace, she remarked, "Just one more stop, kid."

Ranma scowled at her. "Would you stop calling me 'kid'? You don't look that much older than me."

Mara's response was a brief bout of laughter. "Well, 'kid', every mortal… or in your case, former mortal, are kids to me in terms of age."

Ranma's scowl lessened at that. "Yeah, whatever. Look can we get something to eat before we get this rulebook. I feel really tired."

Slipping out her flask, she handed it towards Ranma. "Here, have some."

Remembering where the object came from, Ranma was very hesitant to take it. In fact, he was near panicking looking at it. "Um, no thanks."

Sighing, Mara reminded him, "Ranma, remember what the Boss said, your secondary energy source is alcohol. You can eat all the food you want, but it simply isn't going to do all that much for you."

Blinking in realization, Ranma sighed. "I guess." Hesitantly he grabbed the container, and opened it. Gulping a bit of air, he gathered up some courage and quickly took a swing from it, which is followed by a coughing fit from the taste.

Mara patted him a bit on the back until he got himself under control. "Better?"

Surprisingly, he did feel better. After taking a look at the flask and handing it back to Mara, he replied, "Actually, yeah…Man, that's weird. That stuff usually puts ya out, not wakes ya up."

The blond demoness shrugged indifferently. "Well, it will if ya drink enough of it, just like mortals. Don't worry, you'll get a high enough tolerance eventually." By now, the pair have exited the building and are on the streets of Nifelheim again. "So, do you still want to go somewhere to eat. I know a few good places around."

Ranma looked at her uncertainly. "Um, I guess. I ain't gonna stop eating just because I don't have to now."

"Of course not. That would be pretty damn stupid." Putting a finger to her chin in concentration, she thought over the various places that they could visit. She wanted a place with good drinks, good food, and would be embarrassing as hell for Ranma. All in good fun, of course. Or perhaps it would be 'bad' fun for him. After a few moments of thought, she snapped her fingers as a place comes to mind. Putting on a smile that didn't show too much cheer, but something more menacing, she exclaimed, "I've got the perfect place in mind!" Mara added after a moment's thought, "My treat," and chuckled to some joke only she understood.

Suddenly, Ranma did not feel so eager for food. "On second thought, why don't we just go that library."

Looping her arm around his, "Now, now. None of that. Let's get going, 'dear.'"

The anxiety Ranma was feeling just jumped several levels. He looked up at the sky and was about to pray to any god that was listening, but winced a moment later when realizing how useless that would be now.

A few minutes later…

Still arm-in-arm, Ranma and Mara were standing outside of the chosen restaurant. Two large bonfires, one on each side of the front entrance, were lit for decoration. Flashing above the entrance in large neon lights were the words…

"Hell's Paradise," deadpanned Ranma.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I didn't name it. Let's get going." Mara dragged a reluctant and nervous Ranma through the front entrance.

Upon entering the establishment, Ranma's eyes bulged, almost to the point of falling out of their sockets. If he were Ryoga, he would have passed out with a massive nosebleed.

Now one must understand that Ranma had been put through more compromising situations with the opposite sex (when he's male) for the past couple years than the rest of the males of Nerima combined, excluding Happosai. As such, he had seen enough female flesh so that, if need be, he could have a mental resistance equivalent to the physical ones obtained through the Bakusai Tengetsu training. However, what he currently saw crumbled those mental constraints into dust quite easily.

Now the restaurant was not per se a strip club since all of the staff was wearing clothing. What was still disconcerting for Ranma, however, was the fact the uniforms, if you could call them that, were basically skimpy two-piece swimsuit ensembles, which reflected their various hair colors. The most disturbing part of the whole scenario was how beautiful all the women were, all of them paling Miss Hinako's adult body in figure. All of them sported the bat wings on their back and head as he saw with Hild's secretary. There was only one logical thought that was able to process through Ranma's mind now. 'My god, I'm in Happosai's version of heaven.' Kind of ironic the more he thought of it.

A small part of his brain not entranced by the staff noted how nice the interior looked. Coinciding with its name, torches seemed to give the place lighting in addition to the strange glowing ball lamps, similar to the ones out in the streets. Oddly enough, there were various fountains around as well, including a waterfall one in the center of the room. What was also strange about the setup was that the area was much larger than how it appeared on the outside.

After a few moments of simply gawking at the place, Ranma was able to find his voice. He turned to Mara and asked bluntly, "You have got to be kidding?"

Mara herself was already having a blast by simply seeing the incredulous expression on Ranma's face. Hey, if she was going to be stuck with this job, she was going to do it her way! "Of course not." Gripping his arm a bit tighter, she talked in a ultra-cutesy voice (which was really disturbing coming from Mara), "Now aren't I a great fiancée, taking my man to be surrounded by such beautiful women. I bet your other fiancées wouldn't do this for you."

Trying to ignore the tone of her voice, Ranma had to admit, she was right about that one. If any of the other fiancées knew he was in somewhere like this, he would probably get beaten to a pulp. "W-well, yeah, I guess you're right about that."

Mara decided that Ranma was teased enough…for now. "Enough of that, let's gets some grub." One thing that escaped Mara's notice, however, was that she did not let go of his arm.

Still unsure of the situation, Ranma resolved to play along. He was getting food. "Um, okay."

They walked towards the stand were the hostess was waiting. Like the rest of the staff working, she was amazingly stunning with hair color similar to Shampoo's. Even so, the Amazon princess would probably kill for a body like the one standing in front of them. "Welcome to Hell's Paradise. Table for two." She flashed Ranma a predatory smile while slowly undressing him from head to toe. The hostess made no effort to conceal her actions, and it was becoming quite unnerving.

Mara smirked at Ranma's antics. This was exactly the kind of reaction she wanted to get out of the pigtailed demon. It was just too easy to get him embarrassed like this. 'Besides,' she noted internally, 'He's pretty cute all flustered.' She shook her head to clear those thoughts away. Seeing how Ranma was unable to speak at the moment, Mara interjected on their behalf. "Yep. Table for two would be fine."

"Right this way." Reluctantly, the hostess turned her view away from Ranma.

As the two made their way to a table, Ranma felt the eyes of many people on him, hungry eyes that saw something that they wanted to taste. Taking a few nervous glances around him, he noted many of the waitresses looking directly at him, licking their lips in suggestive fashions. He was also aware now of other patrons giving him the evil eye for taking the workers' attention from them. All in all, it was not something Ranma was unaccustomed to since it had happened before at Furinken, but it had not been at this level.

Therefore, it was with no small amount of relief that their table was not so much in the open. At least this way, he could avoid the various stares he was receiving. As Mara let go of his arm (to Ranma's relief), he was about to go over to his chair when he heard Mara clearing her throat. Turning back, he looked back at her questioningly. With a bit of impatience, she folded her arms under her chest and tapped her foot. Remembering some of the etiquette manners his mother had been drilling into him, Ranma sheepishly pulled out Mara's chair for her and helped push it in when she seated herself.

After seating himself, the hostess announced, "Enjoy your meals." Giving a final grin and wink to Ranma, the hostess excused herself with a bit more sway in her hips, causing Ranma to sweatdrop, though his eyes involuntarily looked at the sight.

"Do you like the view?" The dry-toned voice interrupted his gaze.

He smacked his head, trying to force away the imagery. 'Geez, maybe Akane's right. Maybe I am a pervert.' Ranma then noticed that Mara was staring at him with an expressionless face. "Uhhh…"

"Yes?" Mara asked with the same dead voice. Externally, she seemed to be mad at Ranma's lack of attention, but on the inside, she was having so much fun. Who would have thought he would be this easy to manipulate? 'Probably would do anything if I faked a few tears.' If she was going to be his teacher, she had to break him out of these habits. They would get him into big trouble in the future, especially when talking with other demons. Heh, if he was going to be her pupil, then a failure on his part would reflect badly on her. That's why she was going to do this. Not like she was starting to like him or nothing. Right? 'Right,' she answered herself.

Ranma was starting to sweat under her gaze. What did he do? Okay, he knew what he did, but that wasn't the point. They're not really fiancées, so why should she care? The realization struck him like one of Akane's mallets. She's just pretending wasn't she! 'Damn'it. Stupid, oyaji! It's all your damn fault I act this way.' His expression turned from one of nervousness to dry humor. "Ha. Ha. Very funny, Mara."

Losing her facial mask, Mara pouted out, "Oh, poo, your no fun." She was tempted to continue with the charade, but decided that was enough for one day. Besides, manipulating people through faking her emotions was not her forte, although it seemed easier around Ranma. She tended towards the grandiose plans that brought lots of suffering.

Anyway, it's not like she couldn't do this some other time since the reaction seemed to be highly ingrained within him. Mara briefly wondered what she can get him to do with the cute puppy dog look. 'Eh, I'll save that for a rainy day.'

In her peripheral vision, she noticed a waitress was walking towards their table, wearing the same ravenous expression towards her companion. She was a little surprised by all the attention Ranma was getting. Looking at the martial artist, she could clearly see how handsome he was. Hell, she would had to be blind in not noticing it, but this was ridiculous. Taking a closer look, Mara revised her opinion. 'Okay, maybe not so ridiculous.'

"Good evening and welcome to Hell's Paradise. Would you like something to drink?"

Before Ranma could utter a word, Mara spoke for them. "We'll have two Devil's Sunrises with a lemon twist."

The waitress nodded in acceptance. "Good choice. I'll be back in a minute with your drinks."

Puzzled, Ranma was about to question Mara about the choice in drinks when she interrupted him. "Remember, you need to drink alcohol from now on. You'd better get used to it. That shot you had before won't last forever."

Blinking a few times, Ranma simply muttered, "Oh…"

"You should really think about getting a flask for yourself you know. You'll need a drink every now and then."

Ranma squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. "I guess so." He didn't really like the idea that he had to drink for energy now. Usually, he avoided the stuff since it impaired reflexes and such. Giving a sigh, he thought, 'I guess I'll have to get over that too. Well, at least there won't be any shortage at the dojo the way Pops and Mr. Tendo drink."

After a few moments, the waitress returned with their drinks. She took out a small electronic notpad. "So what will it be?"

A little confused, Ranma asked, "Wait, um, we didn't get any menus?"

Looking quite smug at the moment, Mara smirked and explained to him, "Just order anything you want and they'll get it for you."

"But we won't know how much it costs!"

Grinning a bit wider, she elaborated, "Well, it doesn't cost anything, of course."

"Huh!?!" stated an incredulous Ranma, his eyes wide in disbelief.

Mara only shrugged indifferently. "When you work for Nifelheim, you do get certain privileges. This is just one of them."

In an eerily calm voice, Ranma lowered his head until his bangs covered his eyes and asked her, "So, you are saying that I can eat and drink anything without having to pay for it?"

"Um, yes," tentatively answered Mara.

Ranma suddenly lifted his face. In his eyes, small sparkles seemed to appear within, giving a nauseatingly sweet picture. It also looked as if repressed tears are forming. The overall effect was quite disturbing and caused both Mara and the waitress to sweatdrop at the sight. The other workers and patrons glancing at the interaction also sweatdropped.

"I-It's like a dream come true. M-maybe this is really heaven."

By now, Mara was pretty freaked out by Ranma's abnormal behavior (at least in respect to what she had seen so far). "Um, Ranma?"

Ranma's expression settled upon a grin. Now this smile was not an ordinary one. Oh, no, this smile was one more appropriate on Mara when she had some insidious plot in mind for the Norns. The waitress took one look at his grin and knew she was going to be earning her keep tonight. Mara was starting to think that this was a big mistake.

"Well, in that case, I'll have a 12 ounce T-bone steak, 10-ounce lobster tail,…," and so for the next half a minute, Ranma rambled off various foods to the poor waitress, who was frantically scribbling them down. "…oh, and don't forget a side order of fries."

"Would that be all, sir?" the waitress asked Ranma dryly.

After a moment's consideration, "On second thought, I'll also have a garden salad with Italian dressing." Mara and the waitress resisted the urge to facefault with the answer to the sarcastic question.

The waitress turned to Mara and wryly asked, "And you, miss?"

Mara looked at the worker dazedly. "I'll have…a chicken salad, no dressing."

"I'll be back with your orders…in a bit."

After the waitress leaves, Mara looked back to Ranma and asked, "You know it's not polite to waste all that food even if it is free (not that politeness is a top priority around here)."

Ranma looked blankly at her for a moment before realization kicked in. He smirked arrogantly, "Oh, it won't go to waste."

Mara's left eye twitched. "You can't possibly expect me to believe that you can eat all of that food by yourself."

"Why not? It's not like I would have ordered all that food and not eat it."

After a moment's thought, an idea came to Mara and made her smile. "Care to make a bet?"

Now this made Ranma nervous, reminding him of previous dealings with Nabiki. "What kind of bet?"

"Oh nothing much. I bet that you can't eat all of that food by yourself."

Ranma snorted, his confidence returning with the certainty of his victory, but nonetheless a bit cautious. "Yeah, well, what do you want out of it?"

Giving a seductive smile, Mara leaned forward and practically purred out, "A romantic evening…just the two of us…my choice what we do."

Not expecting this answer, Ranma locked up. He was only able to mumble out incoherent responses. "Um..ur…uh."

Internally, Mara was glad she was in control of the situation again. His unexpected food order temporarily threw her off her game, but now she was back into it. Besides, it's incredibly funny to get him embarrassed this easily. "What is it, Ranma?…You're not…scared…are you?"

Being in familiar territory, namely challenging his courage, Ranma got out of his stupor and regained his bearings. "Ranma Saotome ain't afraid of nothing!"

Mara raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't that mean you're afraid of something?" She was tempted to mention cats, but thought that might be a bit cruel, even for her. She herself had weaknesses that were beyond her control. Even though she did not know the specifics of what the Neko-ken training involved, she had heard that it created a fear of cats.

Ranma growled a little, but before he could protest the interpretation of his words, Mara continued, "Okay Ranma, if you win I'll even teach you a couple of 'special' spells. Do we have a deal?"

Had Ranma been thinking clearly, he would have asked for specifics, but thinking outside of martial arts had never been Ranma's strong point. Mara knew Ranma was not stupid, far from it from the brief descriptions of what she had read in his profile, but he tended not to think outside a physical confrontation. If he was going to make it in Nifelheim, Mara knew Ranma needed to start thinking differently.

"Fine," Ranma gruffly answered.

And, apparently, it was going to take a while for it to sink in.

After several minutes of silence, Ranma was able to cool down a bit. He tentatively took a sip of his drink, to which he was surprised in finding it quite delicious. "Hey this stuff's pretty good. A lot better than that other stuff you gave me."

"Well it is a mixed drink. That other 'stuff' was straight liquor."

After taking a few more sips of the drink, he was finding himself more refreshed and less tired than before. Ranma found it exceptionally weird that he could feel more energetic from drinking something that is supposed to do the opposite. He was careful, however, not to get too careless when consuming the beverage since he had no desire to be drunk off his ass for the rest of the evening.

So while the two were waiting for their food, which was taking so long due to Ranma's large order, Ranma kept taking in the layout of the restaurant. He also noted that as various waitresses passed by they would give him long, hungry stares and put an extra sway in their hips. It was quite disconcerting.

Mara was content on seeing the various blushes and embarrassment expressions that relayed on Ranma's face when the workers would walk by them, most of whom did not really need to go in their direction.

Of course, her fun was ruined because of Ranma's next comment. "Why are all these women staring at me like that?"

'He can't be that clueless!' was the prevalent thought going through a shocked Mara's mind.

Ranma was not actually being as clueless as Mara believed. He was well aware of what those stares mean, mostly due to past experiences with several unwanted fiancées. "I mean, I got those looks before, but not by this amount of people at one time."

'Okay, he's not that dense, he's just got one of the biggest egos I've ever seen.' Out loud she stated matter-of-factly, "Well, they are succubae, Ranma."

Ranma looked blankly at her, not comprehending the unusual term.

"Sex demons."

This made Ranma's eyes widen considerably, nearly saucer size. As if one of Akane's mallets was about to knock him into orbit, he became extremely nervous and apprehensively looked around at the workers that were staring at him. Suddenly, everything fell into place, though this did nothing to calm his nerves.

Mara raised an eyebrow at Ranma's reaction. The young demon seemed ready to bolt at a pin-drop. She was not too surprised by his response since, despite his experience with mythical creatures, he most likely had never met any succubae. "Don't worry about it. They won't jump you here." The tension apparent in his muscles relaxed. She smirked. "Unless you ask them to." Poof, instant tension again. After waiting a little bit, Mara decided he has done enough sweating for now. "Oh, don't worry, Ranma. This is just a part-time job for them. Just as we need alcohol for secondary energy reserves, lust vibrations do the same for succubae. They don't always need sex to replenish their energy."

"Um, right, okay, yeah, that's fine," babbled out Ranma.

Mara shook her head at Ranma's naivety. It was quite astounding considering his life so far.

Ranma eventually got himself under some measure of control. "Lust vibrations, huh? Sounds sort of like Happosai to me."

Mara's features puzzled at the name. "Happosai? You mentioned that name when speaking to the Boss. How is this similar to him?…He's the pervert, right."

The pigtailed demon scratched his head in awkwardness on how to explain the grandmaster's pastime. "Yeah, somehow Happosai has learned to drain female ki from, um, their undergarments, and, well, groping them," sheepishly replied Ranma.

With more time to contemplate the current conversation than at Hild's office, Mara thought carefully over the name. 'Happosai. Happosai. Where have I heard that name before?'

"Mara?" asked Ranma, interrupting said person's thoughts.

"Oh, just something on my mind. No big deal." 'Probably isn't important, anyway.'

"Actually I was just going to say that the food is coming." Ranma timidly pointed a finger. Following the line of direction, she sweatdropped slightly at seeing a small procession of tray carts heading towards them, with their waitress in the lead.

Wordlessly the employee grabbed a small plate off her cart and hands the dinner to Mara. After which, the waitress announced, "Enjoy your meal." Turning to Ranma, she tentatively added, "And…um, there you go."

Looking at Ranma, Mara's sweatdrop increased upon noting how the young Saotome was scanning through the various carts like a kid in a candy store. "Could you…just choose something?"

Not bothering to reply, Ranma merely nodded and grabs the lobster tail plate and placed it in front of him. For a few instants, he stared at the meal in front of him as if he was going to figure out a big puzzle.

Getting a little impatient from him not doing anything, Mara asked, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Uh…how do I eat it?"

Once again, through remarkable self-control, Mara was able to prevent herself from facefaulting. It was much easier to do since she is sitting down. The various waitresses who were covertly watching the proceedings had no such aid and thus found their faces firmly implanted on the ground, which caused many of the patrons to sweatdrop.

With strained patience, Mara was able to manage out, "You mean to tell me you ordered all of that food and have never used the appropriate utensils to eat them with."

Sheepishly, Ranma answered, "Um, yeah."

Mara had a slight twitch in her left eye. "Then, pray tell how you knew about all of these meals in the first place."

"TV, of course."

"Of…course…Well…you just take that one utensil there and use it to crack it open. Simple, ne?"

"Um, yeah, you know I only ever had to use chopsticks, a fork, and knife before?"

"Let's…just eat."

And so the meal commenced, at least it did for Ranma. For once the infamous Saotome stomach started to digest delicacies that it never consumed before, it craved more and more. Mara could only watch with wide eyes at the spectacle. She was so absorbed in the show that she temporarily forget about her fork, which was frozen in place on its way up to her mouth with a piece of chicken on it. Ranma would have been impressed even with himself at the speed at which he was consuming the food. However, he was too busy stuffing his face to realize now he was combining Saotome-eating style with demon-enhanced speed. The results were quite impressive.

Had it the been several months ago, Mara would had been embarrassed as possible since Ranma's manners were nearly non-existent. This was before his mother insisted upon instructing her son in proper eating habits, which required generally threatening a certain part-time panda with a certain family katana. Surprisingly enough, due to his mother's patient and steadfast influence, she was able to instill within him the basics. The food speed-eating training, however, still had a long way to go to get rid of due to it being so thoroughly ingrained within Ranma's psyche. So what was basically occurring was a refined version of the Saotome eating ryu, one with the trained reflexes and speed techniques, but also with a certain class necessary to maintain some measure of manners, namely all of the food ending in the mouth and chewing with one's mouth closed.

After about twenty minutes into the meal, Mara was pondering of why this was not mentioned in the short version of the file she was given. It certainly was impressive enough. Absently, she also noted that she had yet to touch her own food. Glancing at Ranma again, Mara became aware of the fact that he did not seem ready to be slowing down anytime soon. Taking a brief scan of the room, she observed how all of the people in the restaurant, both the staff and patrons had paused in their activities to watch the martial artist devour his meals. She shrugged then. 'Oh well, so it looks like I'll lose the bet. Not that big of a deal on my part.' She smirked at the thought. 'I wonder how long it will take for him to figure it out.'

Time seemed to just flow by as everyone continued to be amazed by Ranma's eating ability. Mara had long ago finished her meal and was simply entertaining herself with seeing the various gawking and exclamations of disbelief circulating through the establishment. But all good things must come to an end, and it happened here with Ranma finishing his last meal.

"Ah, that was great." Off hand, Ranma could not remember anytime he had actually had so much food. His contemplation were cut short upon hearing a round of applause resound throughout. Not knowing what else to do, he timidly waved at crowd in recognition. Apparently, his eating performance became an enjoyable spectacle for everyone. Unknown to him, the show he unwittingly gave today will drastically increase the business for the restaurant since rumors will quickly spread of what happened. People around Nifelheim will come there to see if they could catch the "pigtailed eating machine." This will cause the various managers and employees of "Hell's Paradise" to believe they are indebted to Ranma. Of course, they will subsequently feel the need to show their gratitude to the handsome, I mean, nice young demon.

But Ranma was not thinking along those lines now. The icing on the cake was how he actually won a bet. He had always been terrible with his dealings with Nabiki, and he could not really play poker too well. For Ranma, this was quite a monumental event. "So, what are these special spells that you're going to teach me?"

Mara looked at him innocently. "Why Ranma all of the spells I am supposed to teach you are special."

Ranma blinked a few times in disbelief. After comprehension kicks in, Ranma put his right hand on his head and groaned. He had been duped again. After dealing with Nabiki for so long, he thought he could at least have had some hang to this. In retrospect, he realized that his pride and ego had gotten in the way as always. He was too excited by the prospect of winning to clearly understand the details to the wording of what Mara's deal was. 'Damn.'

"Consider this a lesson, Ranma. When making deals, always look for loopholes within the wordings."

"I kinda figured that out already," Ranma replied dryly.

Mara simply looked smug . "Well, good. We'll have to see how much you learned next time. So are you ready to go?"

Ranma blinked a few times. "What are you talking about? We haven't had dessert yet."

The staff facefaulted again, which was quite the show for some of patrons, while everyone else, including Mara, heavily sweatdropped.

After another round of eating, Ranma was finally full, an accomplishment seen few times since going into his teenage years. "Okay, I'm done now…Geez, Mara, are you sure you ate enough. I mean, you only had that salad and a cup of ice cream."

"I…wasn't that hungry." 'And I actually ate a normal amount compared with everyone else here,' she added mentally.

Ranma shrugged indifferently. He was full and that was making him happy. Knowing that he did not have to pay a yen for it made him even happier. 'This whole demon thing might not be too bad after all.'

"Excuse us, young man."

The duo turn and are greeted with the cooking staff of "Hell's Paradise." As with all the employees of the restaurant, the five chefs were incredibly beautiful women with no flaws on their bodies. As with the rest of the staff, they also wore the skimpy uniforms. The only distinctions between them and the other employees were the white chef hats they adorned in addition to the transparent aprons.

Hesitantly, Ranma asked, "Uh, yes?"

Putting on a killer smile, the head chef asked, "We were told that you were the one who had that large order before. Is that true?"

Her and her subordinates' expressions did not put Ranma at ease. They were like tigresses that had found their prey, though the more suitable analogy would be tigresses in heat.

With even more anxiety, Ranma tentatively replied, "Yes."

This made the cooking staff's hormones surge even higher. The hungry expression became even more pronounced. Some of them were even licking their lips with anticipation.

"Mara?" squeaked out Ranma.

The blond demoness was barely able to keep her laughter in check at the latest development. She should have realized it sooner that this would happen, but she had temporarily forgotten the rumors. Apparently, they were true.

Out of the hearing range of the succubae, Mara whispered to Ranma, "You see, Ranma, rumor is that the cooking staff here have various food fetishes," Ranma's eyes widened and Mara smirked, "It's also said that they get incredibly turned on by good-looking men that appreciate food as much as them." Her smirk turned a little sinister. "It seems that they want you to have them for dessert too."

Indeed. The cooking staff for "Hell's Paradise" was very interested in the pigtailed demon. They were quite surprised to have been given such a large order by one of the waitresses. At first, they had thought that there was an unexpected party that decided to drop by. Then they learned that the order besides one dish was for a single person! The very thought made them tingle with anticipation. However, the chefs were not going to put all their hopes into an unknown. For all they knew, he could have been someone who was just fat and hungry. They may be succubae, but they had their standards too!

Then the opportunity arose to see the person in question after his meal was completed. Sneaking a glance outside the kitchen, their heart rates accelerated drastically when their hopes and dreams were answered. Finally someone who loved food as much as they do and was as handsome as they were beautiful. It almost made them cry in sheer joy. Having worked together for so long and having so similar interests, the cooking staff could practically read each other's minds, and they had no qualms about sharing the man of their dreams.

Mara's latest information kicked the Saotome's brain into hyperdrive rather than shutting it down. When in this state, the martial artist had been able to devise many techniques and revisions of techniques to beat powerful foes. The brilliant survival strategy that his mind came up with to get out of this situation was…to run really fast and really far away. Yes, the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts Final Attack struck again.

Ranma babbled out, "Thankyouforthedeliciousfoodbutwereallyhavetobegoinggoodbye!" He bowed quickly, grabbed Mara's hand, and zipped past everyone with Mara flapping helplessly in the air. The two were outside of the entrance before anyone could blink.

When the cooking staff finally understood what had happened, they looked longingly at the entry with pleading expressions. Then their faces changed from ones of yearning to ones of determination. They were not going to let this one get away! As if thinking of one mind, the five chefs looked towards one another and nodded. They'll find the pigtailed man wherever he may be! Curiously, they could not recall having seen him in the establishment before. Maybe he's generally stationed on Midgard. That would make sense then. If that was the case, then maybe it was time for an extended vacation.

End Chapter 2.

Author's Notes: I don't really have anything to say about this chapter. It was a little longer than usual, but I would not expect all of them to be this lengthy. The chapter also took a little longer since there were a couple of scenes in it that were not previously going to be there. Comments and criticism are appreciated. E-mail address is

-ranmafan1