Chapter 5:

Sullivan's eye twitched, "No, Aleph is not a good rank for you. It is the absolute lowest rank possible outside of having no rank at all."

Ranma glared critically at the little badge, "Meaning that it doesn't accurately show my abilities."

Sullivan shook his head, "Not at all."

Ranma scratched his head, "Maybe it is cause I have no magic?"

Sabnock growled, "Bull-Crap! You just beat up two teachers and the Security Demon of the Principle! You can't do that without magic!"

Az waved him down before Iruma could, "While I also find it hard to believe, Lord Sullivan seems to believe him, so maybe we should give him a chance to explain."

Sabnock backed away slightly and Sullivan raised an eyebrow at Ranma, "Would you like to explain?"

Ranma nodded, "Sure."

He stepped forwards, closer to them and his testers behind him groggily got off the ground, with Kalego saying, "That did not feel good at all."

Before Ranma could fire back with something Sullivan beat him to it, "It wasn't meant to."

Ranma smirked and the teens of the misfit class snickered at their teacher's misfortune, and then Ranma smirked, "I didn't beat them up with magic. Outside of what you could consider my bloodline ability I don't have any magic."

Ranma ignited his blue battle aura around him, "Nope, what I have is my Ki as my energy-source for fighting."

Balam's eyes widened, "Did you just say ki?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah...?"

Sullivan smirked, "Is there something you would like to share with the rest of us Professor Balam?"

Balam was suddenly checking Ranma over, "Ki is the mythical life-force that is said to exist in all things that live, but the concentration of it is said to be higher in humans than in demons, which is what my predecessor theorized to be the reason why demons would eat humans... And... And... And, you have control over this power? Where did you learn it? When did you learn it? How good are you at using it?"

Ranma backed away slightly and pleadingly looked at Sullivan, who smirked and put a hand on Balam's shoulder, "Easy there. Try not to crowd the poor child. The simple answer is that Ranma is a peculiar kind of demon that was thought extinct long ago, and I have taken him under my wing for his unique talents."

The Misfit Class asked as one, "A peculiar kind of demon?"

Sullivan nodded, "He is a kind of Were-demon."

Balam's eyes widened and everyone there knew that if it weren't for Sullivan's restraining hand then he would be all over Ranma, again, "A Were-demon!?"

Sullivan nodded and at the Misfit Class' looks of confusion, he sighed, "Were-demons were a group of demon's with shapeshifting capabilities. The forms they could take varied from demon to demon but among demons they were physically the best demons in existence. Many were without magic..."

Balam nodded and gave Ranma a crazed look of excitement, "It was also said that their bloodline ability of shapeshifting was a curse that they could pass on to others by biting them. It was also said in old legends that their bloodline also made them immune to all curses."

Sullivan nodded, "What those legends don't tell you is that they were hunted almost to extinction in the distant past by our ancestors and the remnants of their race hid away in the human world where some of them were capable of blending in with the native humans."

Balam's eyes widened, "Why? How could...?"

Sullivan sighed sadly, "You have to remember that this was the time before Demon Lord Derkila and everything strength wise was based on how much magic power you had and how cruelly you could use it. Their bloodline ability was also considered an infectious disease. It was also potentially a manufactured bloodline made through a powerful curse, add that to the fact that they are immune to curses which at the time made up almost all demonic magic schools, and..."

At Sullivan's shrug everyone shuddered and Sabnock finished the statement, "And they had no chance to thrive in an underworld like that."

Az raised his eyebrow, "How did you find out about Ranma then?"

Clara grinned, "And what can he turn into?"

Sullivan chuckled, "I was alerted to Ranma's existence by a contact of mine who keeps an eye out for illegal demon activity in the human realm. As for what he turns into... I'll leave that up to him to tell you."

Ranma stepped back slightly at all their questioning looks, "Are you sure you want to know what I turn into?"

They all nodded, except for Iruma who was looking on with some slight trepidation, "U-huh."

Ranma nodded and almost instantaneously his proportions became her proportions and she shrugged at them, "Tada?"

A couple of the more girl crazy guys were rubbing their eyes and having a hard time with squaring the beautiful red-head before them with the black-haired boy she had been just a moment ago. Most of the class' reactions though were initially disappointment. They were hoping for Ranma to turn into a massive beast of some sort, but instead he went through a simple gender-swap.

The three girls in particular though quickly got over their initial disappointment and they quickly shifted their brains into wondering just how complete the change was, and Ranma sighed, "If you are wondering how complete the change is, cause that is usually one of the first questions I am asked; yes, it is one hundred percent complete."

Ix Elizabetta slowly smiled, "So we are having another girl joining the class then?"

Ranma blinked, unused to that reaction, "More or less?"

Kalego grimaced in slight pain still and pulled Sullivan aside as the Misfit Class gathered around Ranma and asked her many different questions, most of the time moving on to a new one before Ranma had a chance to answer the previous one, "Unlike you and my friend, I hadn't heard of were-demons before, but if what you two said is true..."

Sullivan interrupted him, "I can assure you it is, and..."

Kalego interrupted him, "Did you think for even a moment what kind of danger you were putting both your charges into by admitting that one was essentially a species of myth in the modern underworld whose bloodline ability could act like a plague? Not forgetting you also admitting where you got said charge from. I respect your position and power, Lord Sullivan, and I recognize that any demon would have to be a fool to challenge you openly, but this right here is why I despise you as a demon. You are eccentric to the extremes and have the social sensitivity of a cliff-face."

Sullivan smirked, "You are wrong, young Kalego, it is precisely for the reasons you are fearful that I do what I do. You and many others never realize that I am following the example and dictates of my former master. In my younger days I was exactly like you are now, but my former master had a vision for the underworld that inspired me, and that vision has not yet been achieved. Everything I do is for that vision, and of course I will have as much fun as I can in achieving it.

"You forget, Kalego, that I was born and raised in the days when the underworld was a realm of monsters who would laugh as they ate still living humans and demons alike with reckless abandon and who killed and destroyed whatever they wanted to whenever they wanted to. I was born in the twilight years of the Were-demon's time in the Underworld and watched as many were brutally burnt to a crisp while still living in the purges.

"I lived through what many call the Old Ways, and I have every intention of guiding the Underworld towards the better and brighter future that my former master believed could be achieved."

Kalego sighed, "I am sorry, Lord Sullivan, but we must agree to disagree that the way of achieving that dream, that you are taking, is the best way. I am concerned for the safety of my students first and foremost, and due to how connected they are, if one comes under fire then they all will. Especially if that one is their trouble-making leader, Iruma."

Sullivan smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant one, "Be glad we are not under the Old Ways, Kalego, because for what you just said I would have been perfectly within my rights as the greater demon to do with you whatever I wished."

Kalego stared back at him impassively, "I am well aware of that fact, Lord Sullivan."

Sullivan suddenly popped into his egg-shaped form and patted Kalego on the head, "So long as we are both on the same page, Eggy."

Kalego growled, but didn't get to retort before Sullivan was bouncing over to the teens, and Ranma was giving him a pleading look and mouthed, "Save me."

Sullivan chuckled, but right as he was about to intervene, Ranma sneezed and was almost instantaneously a male right after. The Misfits blinked almost in unison at the unexpectedness of the transformation and Ranma himself had a complicated look on his face. He didn't say anything but Sullivan could guess what was going through his head, "Huh? Outside of when you were asleep, this was the first time that has happe..."

Ranma directed his deadpan stare at the principle, and the rest of the class just gave him looks that helped him to realize, he probably shouldn't have said that out loud.

Iruma desperately thought of a way to try and get the conversation away from his Grandfather's helicoptering and blinked when something previously said finally registered, "Wait a second. Elizabetta, what makes you think Ranma will be joining our class?"

Elizabetta blinked, "The Principal doesn't strike me as someone willing to neglect a child's education, and we are the only class small enough and crazy enough to accept another misfit demon."

The class and Ranma nodded along with her assessment of the situation, and then something else occurred to Iruma, "Hold up. Ranma, you were agreeing with her, weren't you?"

Ranma raised one eyebrow, "Hey! Gramps talked about it first, remember."

Iruma blinked, "Huh… I guess he did… I was still busy trying to process the fact that you beat Opera, Professor Kalego, and Professor Balam into the ground at the same time."

Sullivan chuckled, "That was certainly a spectacle to remember to be sure, but you should not dwell on it for too long. After all, Ranma's plan is to train all of you to be able to do that."

Ranma blinked when a tall blonde demon was kneeling before him, "Please teach me your ways, Master!"

Az rolled his eyes, "Sabnock, Lord Sullivan literally just said he was going to be teaching us."

Ranma stepped back at the sparkles that had no business being in the eyes of a demon, "Is he usually like this?"

Sullivan grinned, "Yes, demons don't do things by halves, as you well know."

Ranma raised one eyebrow and dryly commented, "Neither do a lot of humans."

Jazz gave Ranma a curious look, "You met a lot of humans?"

Ranma nodded, and grinned slyly when he saw Sullivan looking a little worried as to how he would respond, "Yup, and fought quite a few of them too. Toughest person was a guy with dragon blood in his veins. Only beat him by gathering up the excess ki he was throwing around and shoving back at him. Most humans I have fought though were only a little weaker than your teacher over there or they were strong enough to bat him around with ease."

The entire Misfit Class' jaws dropped, and Sullivan chuckled, "Humans are neither as one dimensional or weak as the legends depict them as. Granted, those Ranma fought against and alongside were far above average as far as humans go, not including those with non-human ancestry, but even the weakest humans have access to weapons that could kill even the strongest Demon."

Sabnock shook momentarily, "What sorceries have they been cooking up in the human world that they are able to kill high-ranked Demons? Why do we even sing about them being our FOOD?!"

Sullivan grinned, "Not sorcery, technology, and the song is due to tradition and instinct."

Az blinked and tilted his head, "Technology?"

Ranma nodded, "Even for the high-powered martial artists that I knew, a sniper-round to the head was capable of killing them… Except for Saffron… But he wasn't really a martial artist."

All the demons there except for Sullivan and Opera paused and shouted, "Did you say, Saffron?!"

Ranma blinked, "Yeah, guy was a real piece of work, but I managed to kick his tail using the Gekkaja."

Sullivan openly laughed at the dumbstruck looks on the kids faces, "Ranma, Saffron is considered a Tet level threat on his own and a Yodh level threat if he is wielding either one of his key weapons."

Ranma scratched his head, "And that means?"

Sullivan's laughed calmed to a chuckle, "That in terms of pure power, only someone as strong as or stronger than me should have been able to take him on, and yet you, a young demon with no magic, managed to not only wield one of his weapons without being destroyed by it but also defeat him."

Ranma blinked, "Errrr… He had me beat in pure power, though. The only reason I was able to beat him was cause I used the Gekkaja to enhance a technique that turned his own power back against him."

Sullivan raised one eyebrow, "Oh, what technique was this?"

Ranma grinned, "One I learned from a three hundred year old mummy with access to three thousand years of Chinese Amazon history, based on her constant boasts anyways."

The Misfit Class was stumped and Az asked, "I thought humans could only live to little over a hundred years old at the most."

Sullivan nodded, "Generally speaking, yes. But there are exceptions to that rule." At this point he looked meaningfully at both Ranma and Iruma, "Masters of Ki can extend their lifespans, though not indefinitely, and their lifespans can also be increased using magic and magical items. There was actually a human wizard who was said to have been around since the first generation of demons, and as far as I am aware, he is still alive today."

Ranma blinked, "Eh, who would that be?"

Sullivan blinked and tilted his head, "You know… Off the top of my head, I can't remember his name…" He then shrugged airily, "Oh well, probably wasn't that important anyways. Let us go quickly to the summoning area."

The Misfits and teachers watched him start to walk away, and Jazz voiced what everyone was thinking, "Is he seriously going to leave something so mind-breaking at that?"

Iruma and Opera both sighed as they moved to follow him and the former said, "That's Grandpa for yah."