Chapter 5
Ascension
Disclaimer: I don't own this series or any other series. I am just floating an idea. I am making no money, nor plan to, off this venture. If you think of suing me over this, then grow up.
I would like to first personally thank all of those reviewing my stories. I enjoy reading your comments, and try to correct the grammatical errors I miss with my final read-through as well as my spell checkers. The suggestions you all make will help make this story better for everyone to enjoy, as well as allow my to fix some plot holes I may unintentionally leave. If you find any, let me know, and I will correct them and repost the chapters.
Please feel free to review, and make comments. If you find a spelling or wordage mistake, feel free to let me know. Thank you.
Also, please check out my other stories. I try to keep a constant level of dedication to all of them.
Nine years ago…
Kenosuke looked at his daughter, watching as she summoned little demons and proceeded to play with them. He had often been amazed at the gentleness his only child had shown with the creatures they summoned. Her progress was astounding, far surpassing the speed any of his line had ever shown.
She was destined to be the best.
She was destined to be the pinnacle of their talent, of their school.
She takes so much from her mother: her hair, her pale skin, her gentle nature. She reminds me so much of Nagira.
He felt a small pang of pain in his heart. Despite what most people would assume, not all demonic summoners were heartless bastards sacrificing baby seals on an altar drenched in blood.
That is not to say that people like that didn't exist. But those elements were taken care of by their own. This group monitored itself.
But many people incorrectly assumed that if one summoned demons and other like creatures, then one must be evil.
Far from the truth.
In reality, it was just another side of the coin. While it was true that some demons could be very troublesome, and looked for nothing more than creating mischief and strife, the summoners themselves often had no such desires. They viewed the demons as most people viewed animals and other weapons: it wasn't the weapon or animal that was bad, it just depended on how one used them.
His clan used them for protection and occasionally for retribution. Several Yakuza leaders had "mysteriously" disappeared after they tried to take family assets or pressure his clan's friends with protection rackets. Several burglars had found a horrifying end after trying to sneak into their lands. This, in their minds, was a funny thing, despite the casualties incurred. Even the Triads stayed clear of their kind.
Yet there was always some upstart believing they could succeed where others had failed. One such upstart learned it after kidnapping Kito. He was quickly torn apart by several imps while still preparing to make a phone call for ransom.
Their family was safe, nothing could hurt them.
But that still didn't stop Nagira from leaving them, from leaving this life.
For the—
No, I will not go down that path. I will not lose myself in old pains! My daughter needs me now!
He forced himself to move beyond the grief. True, it was the one thing that could get to him, but he would not let it be his weakness. He had Kito to think about now.
And her future to think about, as well.
He remembered the words of a seer who came to visit on clan business. The poor old woman nearly had a heart attack when she touched his little girl.
So did he, when he learned what she had seen. His daughter had the greatest potential of anyone this century for being able to pass the Ascension.
The Ascension was what gave their clan such power. It wasn't something that could be passed down, cheated into, or taken. It had to be a special person who underwent a special ceremony.
In short, it was a ceremony that could multiply a summoner's power exponentially. They could go from controlling small demons like his daughter could now—something most clan members spent decades perfecting—to summoning creatures that would make grown men soil themselves in fear, creatures often spoken of with fear and trepidation. If she could call upon these creatures, nothing short of a black hole would snuff out her power…or her life.
From that moment on, all in her line would inherit more power than the predecessors, and be much more likely to have an Ascension of their own. Last millennia, the Ascension had granted their line the ability to summon physical demons without effort. Five hundred years ago, they had gained the ability to summon things larger than imps. The last one—which occurred one hundred and fifteen years ago—had allowed them to summon demons of pure legend; stuff people imagined roaming the Earth on Judgment Day.
Who knew what they new Ascension would grant them.
As such, no one in the clan—let alone from outside of it—would interfere in such a thing. If not for the immediate hope of gaining favor and perhaps kinship with that family, they would do it for the potential future benefits. Imagine, having your line strengthened because your child or descendent fell in mutual love with the line of a person who had passed through the Ascension.
Patience was a virtue their clans had.
And even if his daughter did not pass the Ascension, even if she wasn't granted amplified gifts, she would still be a prize. Just last year, she cursed a boy who willfully ticked her and everyone else off.
The boy—Ryoga Hibiki if he remembered correctly—had been a major bully. The guy—a descendent of an oni—had used his inherited strength to pick on those weaker than himself, claiming that he was the greatest. He even went as far as to attack his daughter, and nearly killed the three imps she had protecting her.
Rather than kill the child and his family for their arrogance, as they saw fit to allow their boy to do such things, she simply cursed them. She made them blind to the obvious, as they had so willingly done beforehand, but to an extreme measure. Never again, until they learned true humility and atoned for their grievous actions, would they be able to walk a path. She had cursed them to be forever wanderers: never able to follow a line, a map; never able to find their way out of a room with one door; and no longer able to stay anchored to this plane. From what he knew of the curse, they could turn a corner in New York City and wind up somewhere in Australia.
He had to give it to her; she had used her mind, instead of her fury, to deal with the boy. The boy, his family, and their line from them onward would be wanderers until they faced their own troubles. He had to wonder how long it would be before they figured that out. He had high hopes for the mother, she seemed more willing to grow up and accept responsibility. Maybe she would tell her son or husband, maybe not. It wasn't for him to decide.
It may sound petty.
It may sound cruel.
But it was what needed to be done. Nobody messed with their family, with their clan. You could no more let off a small offence than you could a large one. The penalties were the same all across the board, only how they were administered differed.
But he had other things to worry about than some pigheaded boy unable to see beyond his own ego.
He had to find a boy for his daughter; he had to find the other half needed for the Ascension.
It would require a pure soul, a soul untainted by the harsh views of reality.
He would find him, for his daughter...for her future.
All the while, Kito Okari played with her imps, bounding around and wrestling with creatures many would fear of slashing them apart.
"Hi, I'm Ranma. Wanna be friends?"
The girl looked up from the flowers she was holding to see a small boy in a white gi, his hand extended. He had a smile on his face that made her blush slightly, but with no idea why. "Why do you wish to be my friend?"
The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?"
The girl shrugged her shoulders as well. He has a point. Plus he seems much nicer than that idiot fanged boy. "Okay. I'm Kito."
He watched as the two children sparred against each other, Kito matching him with her own speed and strength gathered from the imps, Ranma's skill keeping him slightly ahead.
He didn't need to wonder where Ranma's old man was. His Wisp had informed him that Genma was currently passed out in a trash pile behind a bar ten kilometers away. Bastard spends more time worried about his own desires than the needs of his child. I swear I should eliminate him, but I don't have a reason…yet.
He, himself, had taken over the boy's training: teaching him weapons, much to the hatred of Genma. It seemed Genma was foolish enough to believe that weapons of the flesh were the ultimate form of combat. In a way, it was true. If you mastered the weapon of flesh, it was exceedingly difficult for you to be defeated. But if you met someone just as good who had also mastered the weapons of steel and wood, then you were basically screwed.
The father did not want to accept that.
The boy did, especially when shown a creature who's touch was poison, who literally drained the life from you as you punched it.
The child's mind was truly remarkable. Despite the boy's initial ambivalence to learn anything outside of fighting, the child had shown great abilities to learn. He could copy a move after seeing it performed a few times, and counter it within one more use. He was able—when properly motivated with food—to breeze through his studies of science, language, math, and magic. The boy would be a prodigy of all things he could put his mind to.
If only his father would see that.
Perhaps Genma does see that. It is obvious the fool wishes to use his son. He must sense the boy's potential, and either hates him for being better than himself, or wishes to leave the boy able to be controlled.
The latter makes the most sense. Genma strikes me as a lazy man, who would rather be taken care of than do anything for himself. The way he tried to manipulate Ranma into doing what he wanted by calling him a weak girl…
Well, I hope a few days as a woman himself, going through the worst phase of PMS any woman on Earth has gone through, will teach him better.
The training methods—if they could be called such—that Genma put Ranma through were appalling. Kenosuke barely contained himself from eliminating Genma then and there, but it wasn't their place to kill simply because of desire or convenience. They only did such things to protect themselves. Until Ranma—Great Spirit willing—asked for their help or joined their family, there was nothing they could do but teach the boy and hope for the best.
"Daddy, look!"
Kenosuke turned from his internal musings to watch them. His eyes expanded to their widest at the sight before him. Ranma was laughing …playing with Kito's imps. Such a thing shouldn't be possible. The imps, by the very nature and the commands of the magic to summon them, were extremely protective of Kito. Ranma shouldn't be able to get near them without making them consider him a threat.
But there the boy was, playing with…laughing imps.
He's the one! He's the other half of the Ascension! He will allow Kito to reach her full potential!
Incredible joy filled his heart. The only way the imps would respond like that to Ranma was if his soul shared the necessary frequencies with Kito's for the imps to see him as part of the spell.
He had been so worried about finding the boy, and he just…walked right up to them.
Damn, this means I have to keep Genma around.
Kito wasn't going to be happy about that. The young child had expressed a strong desire—almost as strong as his—to wipe Genma off the face of the world.
But a fool like Genma didn't matter now. He would be made to understand what was going to occur.
And if he interfered, may Kami-sama help him...because no one else ever would.
Two days ago…
"I haven't seen her cry this much since he left. Correction, since Genma took him away."
It was never easy for a father to watch his daughter cry. It tore at his heart for what had happened to her. She had held the steady faith that Ranma would return. After all, the boy had given his word.
He didn't return.
He never even wrote.
Between the two of them, as well as with what clan resources and spells they could use, they tried to find the boy, or determine if he even still lived. But nothing came of it. Whenever they got close to finding out, it was as if something shifted the spell away.
Something was hiding him, protecting him from being found.
They both suspected Genma was doing it, but he lacked the mental skills to think of such a plan. They were content to believe that an outside force was trying to disrupt their will, disrupt the Ascension.
But who, and why, remained a mystery.
Then she saw him, on the news from a ward of Tokyo. It seemed he had fought some monster which looked like some weird chimera. It had wings, octopus tentacles, a bull's body, a furry human torso, and other things. They had never before seen such a creature, but could tell magic played a part in it.
It had been Ranma, of that they were certain. So they tracked him down, discovering he was staying at a place called the Tendo Dojo. They learned that, like them, that family had also lost their mother, but had nearly fallen apart. Kenosuke was quite proud that he had continued to live for his daughter, as his wife would have wanted. He had not fallen apart and decided that without Nagira, there was no reason to do anything, like Soun Tendo had.
And they discovered more about the treachery that was Genma Saotome. He had pissed off the Amazons, gotten Ranma a Jusenkyo curse, and engaged him multiple times.
True, he had no such deal with the Okari clan—though Genma certainly stole enough when he ran to equal a dowry. Kito would have liked the idea, and it was certainly true that those who went through the Ascension often did decide to become eternal mates with their partner; it was not something for him to push on her, even if she wanted it at the time.
So they bided their time, waiting for him, trying to contact him.
Spells revealed that their letters were destroyed by Genma, Soun, or a small pervert called Happosai. Phone calls were always blocked, or the ringer shut off. They had even tried to show up once to demand an explanation as to why Ranma and Genma had failed to arrive as promised. Instead, they were constantly unanchored and ended up in another ward all together.
Finally, their rage got to them, and the clan elders demanded payment due for the betrayal.
They had everything set up in a nearby warehouse that had been empty for a few months. By now, Kito was strong enough to teleport them away after their part of the ritual was complete.
Then the demon would rise, and get their vengeance on the Saotomes: Ranma and Genma.
He felt a little bad for doing this. It was almost certainly Genma's fault that Ranma hadn't arrived, no doubt the result of the worthless bastard damaging his son's mind to further his own goals.
But no offense could be forgiven. Justice had to be done. And for the crime of disrupting an Ascension, there was only one judgment.
Ranma Saotome must die.
Today...
Kenosuke stood before a wall-mounted television screen that was showing the faces of three members of the ruling council. Two more were also present via teleconferences. His own video and audio were being transmitted by a wireless microphone and a web cam. "I take it you have gone over my findings."
The one in the middle of the screen, the current council head, nodded in agreement. "It would seem we had only one target, and even failed to get that right. Are we to assume you still wish to forge ahead with plans for the Ascension?"
"Yes." Kenosuke made no movement, no way to betray any possible doubt in his decision.
There couldn't be. This was too important.
The only woman on the council spoke. "What of the women hurt by the demon? Would the boy's soul be affected by his new circumstances? Would it present a risk to the Ascension?"
"No, Chairmen Mao. In fact, all indications show that they may provide a magnification effect to my daughter's Ascension."
One of the teleconference members intruded, represented by the voice bar on the bottom left of the screen. "I myself am still worried about this force that blocked it the first time. I do not have to tell any of the Council the true power of the Nekoken. We can safely assume it will try to stop this next effort as it did the first one."
"I already have my clan looking into blocking spells to eradicate the Nekoken's influence." Kenosuke had spent hours pouring over his library to determine how best to solve that. Even Kito was currently looking at it. "It may have stopped the first attempt, but its presence has also given us a second chance. But I conclude it would be foolish to assume it was solely responsible for the first failure."
"Are you suggesting that another influence is afoot?"
"Yes, Councilman Seto. The Nekoken is merely a low-level demon; too low to do what has been done, even if it managed to fully bond with Ranma's soul. Someone else is interfering with our business. We need to find out whom, and quickly. We estimate only three months remain before the viability of this Ascension will be compromised."
"What of the second, Ranma Saotome? Will he still participate willingly?"
Kenosuke lowered his head. "Does it matter?"
If I messed anything up, then let me know including typos.
Any suggestions on how I should continue the story or improve it would also be accepted.
Also, if you have any suggestions for how this should go, let me know. My own imagination, while vast, always enjoys a new thought. Also, catch me if you don't think I am making the characters true to form, or a way to make them better.
