Holy crap, I ain't even gonna bother tallying the results. Jeez, I didn't know you people liked this story THAT much....-head spins- This chapter's going to be a good deal shorter than the others, mainly because I don't want to go too fast. And that's what I've been doing.
That's a lotta reviews...and from a lotta people I respect as writers, too. -bows to you- I thank you, everyone. I'd like to apologize to the admins and readers for my...author's note.
Oh, and people...I KNOW SOME PEOPLE ARE OOC!!!! COME ON, IF EVERYONE STAYED COMPLETELY IN CHARACTER, YOU'D BE READING ABOUT RANMA DYING FROM AKANE'S FOOD POISONING RIGHT NOW!!
Evil yelling rant over. Now, to your chapterly dose of evil and insanity.
--------------Dreamscape-------------
The tall man walked slowly, purposefully down the hall. Doors lined the walls, and a gentle, almost radiant light pulsed from where he knew not. The man peeked in one door, curious. Within, he saw a younger man bouncing around the yard, tossing a fat, balding martial artist around like a sack of rice, an almost mercurial expression on his face. The man shook his head and closed that door, continuing on down the hall. Sounds of fighting came through another door, and the man opened it, curiousity again getting the better of him. Before him stood the same young man in a white tuxedo, beside him a young woman in a wedding dress. The man smiled, he recognized his daughter. Then, before his eyes, the wedding turned sour. A group of people, a young man with katana, a girl in a black wedding dress, a girl with violet hair, -shudder- the...the...the master, and a girl with a giant spatula slowly, but surely, began to destroy the wedding. After they were finished, the young woman in the white wedding dress pounded the young man with the tuxedo into the ground, blaming him for ruining HER wedding. The man watching this gasped as he saw the conflict from a new perspective, saw the look of hate and disregard on his daughter's face. He looked down at the boy, whom he now recognized as Ranma, and gasped again. He knew, from his memories, that Ranma had awakened hours later, and now Soun saw why. Ranma had a large, bloody gash in his head and blood was leaking slowly from his mouth. Worse injuries than he'd had when fighting for Akane.
Soun shuddered and continued down the hall. This time, yet another door opened itself. And before Soun was a terrible scene. A six-year-old boy, wrapped in sausages and anchovies, lay huddled on the ground, hundreds of cats biting, clawing, and slashing at the food. Soun stared in horror as the boy was lifted, unconscious, from the pit by his best friend and beaten awake before being dropped right back in, Genma insulting his child again and again. Soun's anger began to boil.
Another door, showing Jusenkyo. Another one, showing the Amazon village. And a last one, showing Akane beating Ranma mercilessly behind closed doors after she'd gained his trust by simply asking to be Ranma's friend. Soun's anger began to know no bounds. How could anyone harm that child so? His very family, his own flesh and blood, had beaten him and betrayed him. His own DAUGHTER had betrayed the boy. Soun began to tremble violently as....
----------------Tendo Household---------------
....he was shaken awake by Nodoka Saotome. Soun almost started before his ire took over and he pushed the woman back. It was time for Soun to take hold of his family once more, for Kimiko's sake. Soun first stared at Genma, a cold rage replacing the old love he'd once had for his friend. Genma, foo that he was, didn't notice.
"So, Shendo, ee 'ust 'o asher by 'ish-on'able boy?"
Genma was having trouble talking through the splinters in his mouth. Good, thought Soun. Slowly, Soun stood and walked over to Genma, slowly, oh so slowly did he walk.He grasped the poor, fat, balding excuse for a man by the shoulders and launched him into the wall. Genma stared. As soon as his eyes uncrossed from the pain the pipe brought his groin.
"No. Out of my house. All the beatings your son took, all the torture. All the betrayals he withstood. His own MOTHER betrayed him. Why don't you tell her about the neko-ken, Genma!? Why don't you tell her that all of the multiple engagements were made by you in order to fill you stomach?"
Genma stood, quivering. This was a side of his old buddy he'd never seen before.
"B..but-"
Soun cut him off with a very withering glare.
"No, Saotome-SAN, I do not believe I want a traitorous child abuser in my home. You and your wife out. Only Ranma shall be welcome in this house."
Genma didn't even try to resist. He and his wife were too shocked as they exited the Tendo home. As they left, Soun shot a glare at Akane and Nabiki.
"Well, girls, it seems it's time we had a little talk....about how your mother would feel about you."
Akane and Nabiki gulped.
-------------Meanwhile....------------
"I asked you first!"
"No way in hell! I asked you first!"
"ARGH! You know what, lady, I'm just gonna go with it. I live here!"
Ranma was getting frustrated. He needed some time to work things out, and time was just what he didn't have.
"What do you mean you live here?! I live here!"
Ranma growled, an incredibly feline sound.
"Look, lady, I'm payin' rent, I live here!"
At this, Mara visibly wilted. A long, penetrating sigh escaped her lips.
"Damnit. Ya should have said so earlier. Now I gotta go find another place to stay."
Aw, crap. Not a sad girl, Ranma hates sad girls....
"Erm..well...uh....you don't....HAVE..ta leave, I guess. Ya could..uh...stay here, I guess."
Mara visibly brightened even as Ranma shook his head. He'd been had. Again. Her triumphant grin dimmed somewhat, however.
Something was wrong. Ranma lurched to his knees, a coughing fit wracking his body. Trembling, Ranma barely stood, limping his way to the door in the hall marked "bathroom" and knelt down in front of the toilet, heaving rapidly. Mara was about to rush out to find help before she saw his back arch in pain, his shirt rippling like crazy. And she gasped when an angel burst from Ranma's body. Without even tearing the material.
Mara was a demoness. She had seen a great many things. She'd seen Barbara Streisand confuse the hell out of every plastic surgeon to ever attempt a nose job. She'd seen demons playing snowball in Nifleheim. She'd even seen Arnold Schwarzenegger give birth. But she'd never seen an angel burst forth from a man's back.
Since it was an angel, and since it had come from Ranma, though, Mara came to the inevitable conclusion. Ranma was the junior god she'd been assigned to watch. And she was living with him. And he was a drop-dead gorgeous hunk. And she'd accidentally allowed her demon markings to flare in anticipation in front of the angel. Who noticed and knew what she was.
Ranma immediately tried to stand ramrod straight as a voice invaded his head. He stared around, cathcing sight of a short, redheaded and blue-eyed girl hovering about two feet over the bathroom tile. Ranma's eyes widened in fear, the last time he'd seen his cursed form, "she" had been trying to kill him. Now, however, Ranma noted differences in the creature's appearance.
This girl, Ranma saw, was quite a good deal smaller, much like a Chibi-Ranko he'd once seen Kasumi draw of him. She had a small pair of black feathered wings, though each of the feathers had a brilliant crimson tip, and she wore clothes similar to Ranma's old tangs. Her hair also was done up in a cute little pigtail, and her bust size was almost non-existant. She tilted her head, smiled, and Ranma answered.
"You're my angel?"
The angel tilited her head to the other side and grinned.
"So...uh....yer name's Hotaru? Nice name...but uh.....why do you look like my cursed side?"
What the hell? Firefly? Cursed side? Mara stared as the angel shrugged. This was getting to be territory she wouldn't be able to handle. In the brief instant that Mara closed her eyes to clear her head, Ranma had turned and saw the markings on Mara's head. And charged up his magic.
"DEMON!!"
The angel coughed into her hand as if to say "I told you so...". Ranma frowned and dropped the magic charge.
"Hey, c'mon! I thought she was kinda cute. She kinda reminds me of Urd like.....that....oh, crap! I forgot about dinner! Belldandy's gonna kill me!
Mara gasped audibly as Ranma ran towards her suddenly, at full tilt, and disappeared right when he hit the doorway. She was just puzzling things out when Ranma's head reappeared right in front of her.
"Oh, yeah, if ya don't mind, could ya not go anywhere? My offer still stands, even if ya are a demon. Ya can never have too many friends."
With that, Ranma's head vanished. Leaving a thoroughly confused Mara behind. The demoness simply looked at her bottle of whiskey, took a long pull, rested it against her hip, stared at the door, looked at her whiskey bottle, and took another long pull.
"I'm gonna need another few bottles for this....like maybe a hundred."
She took another pull. And another. And another.....
-----------------The Temple------------
Ranma ran right into the dining room just as dinner was starting, his angel trailing behind him. Kasumi, of course, couldn't hold back a squeal of delight at the kawaii angel and grabbed her from the air, fussing over her hair and asking if she was getting enough to eat. Keiichi, Megumi, Urd, Raiden, Fujin, Sekhmet, Bast, and Skuld all stared. Ranma just grinned from ear-to-ear. Hotaru liked getting fussed over, and the feeling carried over to Ranma. Belldandy, of course, had her own cute creature to fuss over, a recent addition to the temple.
Ranma scanned the room, sensing something wrong. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the air felt familiar, felt...out of place at the moment. Ranma shrugged and sat down to eat between Skuld and Belldandy when he caught sight of the cause of his discomfort.
There, in Belldandy's lap, sat the singular thing that could cause Ranma trouble at this point. It's black hide, its beady green eyes, its horribly long fangs. Weighing it at approximately five pounds sat Ryouga Hibiki, who was currently squealing up a storm.
"Bwee! Bwee bwee bee bweeeee!!!"
Of course, one thing Ryouga did not know was that he was in a room full of gods and goddesses. And if he did, he did not know that they would be able to understand every language spoken or written. No, he did not know that. So, he gave out his identity to everyone present.
Including a very, very vengeful Urd. She was very protective of her younger brother. Though it really was a shame he was her brother. I mean, come ON, look at those muscles, and those abs, and the way that tight t-shirt just MOLDS to his skin, and...
Urd shook her head, trying (rather unsuccessfully) to get the ecchi out of her head. She focused on the little pig who had just called out "RANMA SAOTOME! BECAUSE OF YOU, I HAVE SEEN HELL! I, RYOUGA HBIKI, SHALL DESTROY YOU FOR THE DEMON YOU ARE!!!!". Don't ask how he said that with only five "bwees", even I don't know. Of course, Urd had to "accidentally" spill her warm, very, very warm sake on the offending piglet.
Bast and Sekhmet were met with the sight of a nude young man they come to hate very, very much in their lifetimes. You see, you don't just make a vendetta vow without good reason, because a vendetta vow requires the blessing of the Goddess of War to be anywhere NEAR successful. And Ryouga had made a very, very hefty amount of those. Without good reason. And what made Sekhmet angry made Bast angry. Sekhmet just wasn't as good in bed when she was focused on something else!
But Ryouga did not know this as he dressed quickly in clothes he pulled from where nobody wanted to know. All he knew was that his mortal enemy was in front of him, calmly sitting down to eat with the lovely goddesses Belldandy, Urd, and even the runty, insane one named Skuld.
Ryouga didn't know he was speaking aloud and found himself debugged rather quickly. There were a lot of things he didn't know. But he did know that when he woke up, vengeance would finally be his, oh, yes! Vengeance would be his. Now...if only....ah, yes, there we are. Blessed unconsciousness.
Ranma shrugged and began to eat, ignoring the glare Kasumi was shooting the hole in the floor. Everyone else soon followed suit. After all, if nothing chaotic happened, they'd start to get worried. VERY worried. Ranma looked up.
"Hey...wait...that wasn't as...chaotic....as usual..."
Urd looked up and nodded, knowing what Ranma was getting at. A hole in the floor was nothing, buildings were usually destroyed.
Everyone in the room, save Kasumi, Keiichi, and Megumi could almost SWEAR to hearing the Ultimate Force snicker....
-----------Nifleheim----------
Mara was sweating bullets before Hild-sama's desk. The platinum haired woman had har hands resting on her neck behind her head, and she was staring Mara down...down...down....
With her eyes closed. Mara sweatdropped. Hild-sama was asleep. Mara coughed slightly, waking the woman up. A disapproving glare made her lock up as the demoness queen stretched and popped her neck.
"Sorry about that, Mara-chan, but its been so LONG since we had a good snowball war down here. Anyway, what's up? And why are you back so soon?"
And so, Mara spun her tale about the new god living with her, describing in detail his rather muscular frame, the way those tight jeans just molded to his tight...
Hild glared. Mara was living with her assignment. Hild cross-referenced all the new gods and their affiliations and cocked an eyebrow. God of Martial Arts, Rain, and Cats. A Talon Claw for a weapon, she hadn't seen that since the days of the Three Kingdoms. And...he was Urd's brother. How did Urd get a brother without Hild giving birth to him?
HIld grinned. She's need to look into this. Personally.
It wouldn't hurt to get a good look at this new god either. Not if Mara's description was any indication.