Spirit Hunter

Chapter Two

Disorganized Organization.

Revised 10th July 2006

Revised 9th September 2006 by Hiryo

Pre-read by Hiryo.

Author Note:

This is a fast update because

A. I have too much time on my hands and

B. If I don't write something, I'll lose the idea.

Do not expect any other updates to come out this quickly, I am really a very lazy person and hate typing. There is a more complete rant . . . I mean note at the end of the story including a surprise for all those readers who get to the bottom of the page.

Disclaimer:

Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi any other strange reference to books, movies, magazines, comics, songs, or folk dance doesn't belong to me so please I am small and insignificant being don't sue me.

Enjoy!

Mia wasn't an idiot she knew it was stupid to go out by herself at night in Tokyo.

It wasn't the gangs and criminals one had to worry about. The big problem for any one was the monsters and uberpowerful Martial Artists. Friendly fire wasn't an accurate description for what could happen if one were caught in the middle of one of their battles. A more accurate idea was 'overly possessive stalker, nuclear meltdown'. If it wasn't the fights then it was a creature raised by the 'unholy powers of darkness'tm wanting to feed off your soul.

'I wonder what my soul tastes like,' Mia thought to herself, 'probably like chicken then again maybe not. If I hadn't run out of paper for my printer and if I hadn't procrastinated about my assignment, due tomorrow,' looking at her watch she rethought that, 'due today, then I wouldn't have left the house for anything less than a Godzilla attack.'

Luckily, most of the paths to the all-night store were well lit and people were walking prominently in-groups. There hadn't been a monster attack in this district for a few weeks and everyone was feeling more or less safe. The restaurants were open and the nightclubs had reopened after repairs from the last fight. The streets were filled with bright light and laughter as the crowds spilled out onto the streets.

Mia had pushed her way through them to get to the store she knew sold paper. 'I swear to myself that I will never leave an assignment to the last second again,' easily forgetting that she said this every time she left an assignment to the last second.

After buying the printer paper, Mia grabbed a frozen coffee from an all night place, open to catch the drinkers at the end of the night and other forced insomniacs like herself. It was cold and sweet and the cream on top was perfect. It was just the thing to get her back on track with the assignment.

Sipping from the plastic cup, Mia walked back to her house and tried to think of the next part of her essay; she had the points written down it was just being a pain to find the information to back them up. Contemplating letter bombing the course lecturer for setting the question Mia hadn't noticed that part of the walk home was darker than it had been before.

The restaurant that was along this street had closed up while she had been gone and the street was empty. The streetlights hadn't been fixed yet from the last uber Martial Artist fight and Mia couldn't see everything on the street.

This was not good, dropping the coffee cup into a public bin, Mia speed up her walk and hurried down the footpath.

From an open alley, Mia could suddenly hear a child crying. As has been stated earlier Mia is not stupid, the first thing she did was walk faster.

The crying child changed into a kitten mewling.

As she dashed by the alley as fast as she could an arm reached out, grasping her shoulder.

Mia spun around; the hand she had had in her pack came up with a can of Chemical Mace and she brought her knee up in a clean swing.

The very large neon green horned monster, which had tried to grab her, was caught in his monster jewels and started to roll around on the ground, alternating between rubbing his eyes and clutching his groin.

Mia put her boot into its huge green gut and sprinted down the street. Her bag banging against her side. Next time no matter what, she'd hand the assignment in late.

The Oni are traditional Japanese creatures, similar to European trolls or ogre, they are brightly colored big, have horns, and have been hard hit by urbanization. While it can be easy to hide if you look almost human, it is hard to adapt when you're three meters tall, bright green, and have horns a stag would be proud of. While some traditional creatures had adapted, Oni were traditionalists and drew the line at working for Disneyland. You still have to eat and some how the ability to make a persons blood boil is not what an employer looks at on your Resume.

Ben, that's the Oni's name, what? It's a traditional Oni name like Bruce. Ben was new to Tokyo, and had yet to meet the many dangers facing a monster in the big city.

Magical girls were the least of his problems when he had to deal with human street gangs who could be much nastier.

Ben slowly got up from his agonized crouch, even though he was a three-meter tall monster that didn't mean he liked being kicked in the family jewels. His eyes were still bleary and watering. Girls had changed from the good old days, he thought to himself as he made his way back into the alley, they didn't use fight back, or use weapons.

If you took a good look at Ben, okay the first things you would see would be his horns and that he was bright green. However, the second thing was that set against this he was wearing a relatively new red t-shirt with a coke logo, which now had a dirty tear along one side.

He groaned it is very difficult to find clothes to fit his frame, and tail. Wondered, 'can I repair the tear with my sewing kit?'

The Oni did not hear a sharp sliding noise from within the darkness of the alley.

Ben stared at the tear in his shirt and it took him a moment to notice the sharp point that was now digging into the middle of his back. Spinning around, he only realized his mistake when it was too late.

A second sword had been placed at exactly the right angle to catch him in his turn, and he had managed to cut his own throat. The only thing Ben could now see was a bleary dark figure stepping up to his now kneeling body, the little light of the alleyway caught the bright edge of a blade as it is brought back then before Ben could react forward and around. The last thing the Oni saw was his headless body being dismembered.

sxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsxsx

Ranma in his girl form and Nabiki were walking along a busy footpath underneath a bright sky, to the meeting with Ger. They had had to catch a train to reach Ger's district. Nabiki drew the line at being carried half way across Tokyo in Ranma's arms.

After a quick talk with Ranma, the night before Nabiki had agreed on helping the guy for a reasonable price. The two teens were discussing what Nabiki had discovered in her quick search the night before.

"So you're telling me that there have been strange attacks going on for the past six months. You'd think one of the magical vigilante groups would have handled it by now."

Nabiki has got Ranma to carry her portable laptop, which he was balancing on his head. Making damn sure he didn't drop it.

Nabiki's precise words were. "You break it; I take it out of your hide with a razor blade and vinegar."

She reached over her shoulder and to grab a piece of paper that had been sticking out the top. "I've a theory that those magical type fighters usually have an agenda of their own and tend to stick to the big flashy monster attacks. They tend to leave the boring tedious jobs to other people." Nabiki passed the paper she had grabbed to Ranma. "Now I've plotted on a map where all the reported attacks have happened. Considering the period and the large area, I'm surprised more hasn't been done to stop them. It looks like everyone is handing the job off to some one else."

The red dots were many but they seemed to stay in a 10-km radius of Ger's district.

Folding the paper up Ranma brought Nabiki to a halt and pulled the lap top off his head. "We're here."

The empty coffee shop that Ger had shown Ranma yesterday was reasonably busy, a steady stream of customers were going through its open door. Most of the tables inside were full, and a radio playing some techno-punk could be heard outside the shop. Written on the glass front window were the words "Cenare Deorum"

Passing through the door Ranma raised a hand to catch the Rokurokubi's attention; he got a quick nod from a busy Ger, and a gesture to sit at one of the free tables. The attention of a portion of the male customers followed the entry of the two girls and then dropped off as Ranma glared at those staring.

Once they were both seated, it only took a few minutes for most of the customer's to leave with their orders. Nabiki was looking at a poster for a local band when Ger arrived at their table with a couple of slices of mud cake.

"Hi, I'm Ger I don't know what Ranma's told you about me but if you can help stop what ever is attacking people I would be really grateful."

The slices of mud cake Ger placed in front of the two were extremely thick and dark, it looked like it was practically fudge, the icing was a creamy white, chocolate-sliced almond were scattered lightly over the top. "I don't know if you liked the gateau that I sent with Ranma last night but I don't have any left so I though you might want to try this."

Nabiki who has been staring at the mud cake since Ger walked over looked up when he mentions a gateau. She takes a hard stare at Ranma. "What gateau?"

Ger looked at Ranma who innocently looked up in the air staring at nothing. "I sent a piece of this Black Forest gateau and some biscuits with Ranma to see if you wouldn't mind payment in cake."

Nabiki just shook her head; Ranma's stomach had struck again and had denied her a piece of rich chocolate cake. "No, I never saw any cake."

Ranma has started to sweat until Ger pokes his shoulder. "It was an accident I was attacked by Ryoga and he made me drop the box, they were kind of squished and I know how much Nabiki likes every thing perfect so I though I would save you the trouble of throwing them out if I ate it. I was helping really."

Nabiki developed a sweat drop but still managed amazingly to stop Ranma from taking her piece of mud cake.

There is nothing faster than a girl around a chocolate cake, no matter what training you have done.

Ger got the two teens a mocha and flat white while they ate their cakes. When the last of the crowd had left, Ger flipped the sign over and shut the door. He hadn't expected a late rush when he had set up the meeting with Ranma. While he finished bussing tables and making a quick clean Ranma got a glass of hot water and helped to speed up the cleaning process.

Once everything was clean and cleared, Ger led them up to his flat.

Nabiki had been very quiet since she had eaten the mud cake.

Ger's main room now had several city newspapers laid out on it. An article had been highlighted on the inside front page. The sound system underneath the television was turned on to a local rock station and a popular new song could be heard.

Ger picked up the file he had given Ranma that Nabiki placed on the table.

Nabiki then placed her laptop on the table and turned it on.

Ranma just imagined what he would do if he had a Gateau and mud cake to himself.

Nabiki coughed when Ranma started to drool.

"Ranma hasn't told me much outside that file, of what has been going on he just said you would fill me in. He mentioned the attacks and for some reason asked if I could look up monsters from our local legends. I hope you can explain this."

Ger grinned worriedly at Ranma who had emerged from his chocolate induced trance and shook his head, he hadn't told Nabiki about the Rokurokubi. Scratching his head, Ger dragged his fingers through his hair and sighed.

"Okay, my family is known for being weird around here and part of it's true you see there has always been a bit of ummm ESP in my family tree and I really think there is something freaky going on with the attacks."

Nabiki kept a straight face you don't laugh at some one who is paying you, especially when they are supply cake like the one she just ate. "If you say so, I have pointed out to Ranma that the attacks have reportedly been going on for six months and are all located with ten km of your district."

Ger pointed out what he had spotted in the photos with the suddenness of the attack. Nabiki sighed at the photos.

"Not the best work I ever did, but photos of murder vics makes a nice bit of change on the Internet."

Ranma and Ger sweat drop.

"Why are you taking photos of dead bodies?" Ranma asked for the both of them.

"Well I suppose because it gets me out of the house and makes me money, and after you've seen Kuno naked nothing is scary."

"What!"

"Well after one of your fights the idiot had managed to incinerate his outfit and since I helped him to the nurses' office my delicate sensibilities were subjected to a sight, I don't think I will recover from." Nabiki sniffs and pretends to wipe a tear from her eye. Ger is confused and just shots a questioning glance at Ranma, in return he gets the 'don't ask' face.

"Do you have any idea what is hurting and killing these people?" Ranma asks Ger.

"There are several cultural creatures, which are quite happy killing humans. Some have really specific methods of death but others are just general. They all have magic and so it's hard to tell who exactly could be hurting people."

Nabiki smiles, and pulls out a wad of paper from her back pack. "I did a five-minute search on Google and come up with a few monsters. But you are right a lot of them are picky eaters or don't leave any particularly unusual mark that distinguishes that they are the killer. I think we need to know more about what has been happening before we can even guess at what as been attacking anyone." Nabiki has put her two cents in and watches as both the boys agree.

"We have pieces of the puzzle but we can't even start making it up until we get a corner piece."

Nabiki looks at Ranma. "Since when did you ever do puzzles?"

Ranma scratches the back of his head. "Oh remember that time I had a multiple fracture of my femur, Kasumi got out some of your old puzzles while I healed."

Nabiki pulled up a web site she had saved on to her laptop and pointed to the information about the spirits. "The guy that seems to pop up most often in my search was a Kappa, these guys are kind of hard to miss with webbed toes and hands, but the big clue is that they have a turtle shell and a hollow head with water resting in it. They are water based and tend to stick to their local river or well. These guys can be tricksters but are known for, pulling horse and humans into the water and eating their blood and entrails. The thing which completely knocks them out of the running for being our killer and this is true he feeds via the anus."

Ranma blinks and his eyes water as he thinks of all the times on his training trips he had been forced to take a bath in a spring or stream, now he knows these things exist he's glad he didn't run into any as a kid.

Pointing further down the screen Nabiki brings up another. "The Yuki Onna is a female spirit who can be found in the mountains, she is a nasty one. She turns up in front of travelers with a baby, she'll start crying and weeping asking the walker to hold the kid . . . a real guilt trip. As soon as that happens, he's an ice cube. Again I think her method of death puts her out of the running"

"Here's a likely choice for a random attacker the Oni. These guys are incarnations of anger. They look like the Hulk on steroids with the same sort of color code as well usually being bright colors. Another distinguishing mark is large horns. Though it does say here that they can have animal attributes or extra eyes and fingers, they don't have a specific method of killing."

"Okay, here's another one it looks like it's just a trickster spirits the Rokurokubi. A long neck goblin. They are almost always women." A snort is heard and Nabiki looked up from the computer screen to see Ranma silently laughing and a red faced Ger. "Whatever, they have long stretchable necks and are know for marrying into human families. Now here's the bit, they don't kill they tend to just frighten people, another to cross off the list."

"This is a spirit that could go either way, also a trickster the Tengu are shape shifters with bird like attributes, a long nose. They can be harmful and are known to be skilled with swordsmanship. It doesn't say if it has a special way to kill people."

Scrolling down the computer screen Nabiki stops. "Now this is a nasty one, the Nukekubi. A floating vampire head. It separates from the body during the night to feed and has to return before dawn. The only way to tell if someone is one is by red markings on the lower part of its neck. They don't have a particular method of killing mentioned."

In everyone's mind is the mental image of a floating head bobbing along like a helium-filled balloon, killing people.

"That is most of the more well known spirits but after a better look I'm sure I could find more."

Pulling the papers, she had taken out of her bag back towards her; Nabiki separated some, which had been stapled together. "I was doodling in class today, and I thought of an idea about how we could find out something about the attacker. That is if Ranma is willing to be bait."

Ranma perks up at the mention of some how being able to fight some one.

"All we need to do is making Ranma look useless; I mean helpless and bait the monster with a spare magic artifact and then put him right here," Nabiki points to a spot on the map she had made up of the attacks. "It's the exact centre of what ever is happening. I trust that Ranma is strong enough to face what ever is hurting people with out trouble. It can't be any worse than some of the insanely strong idiots that have challenged him. We can both follow at a safe distance with radio contact and then we just wait and see. It's the best plan I can think up at the moment."

Ranma looks excited to be able to beat up what ever has been attacking humans but Ger looks worried.

"What about Ranma's aura it's kind of noticeable?"

Nabiki pulled a small clip on badge of a little green frog, from her backpack and passed it to Ranma. "This is a little something I picked up a few years ago, once you put it on and it's good for five hours to hide your own personal aura. It's very helpful for sneaking around high-powered Martial Artists. However, before we settle this plan, I need to confirm my fee. For this work I am happy to work for 8000 yen as well as both a Black Forest Gateau and one mud cake."

Ger was impressed by the amount of info the girl has got over such a short time. "Sure, Mum will be happy to do that if you help stop these attacks."

Nabiki smiles she can already taste the chocolate.

Ranma's forced to jog her shoulder as she starts to drool.

The plan had been made up quickly; they would meet again that Saturday night and set up operation Ranma bait. Ranma would have an earpiece supplied by Nabiki, wear the aura-cloaking badge he would then walk slowly through the park were a lot of the attacks happened, and try to look harmless. Nabiki and Ger would follow behind and wait to see what would happen. In the mean time they would all be in their own ways trying to find anything out about what has be going on.

Walking back to the train station Nabiki had firmly clasped to her chest a take away box from "Cenare Deorum."

Ranma had been warned away from the box and had to carry Nabiki's laptop.

"Please can I have a piece, please, please, please, please?" Ranma did the puppy dog eyes and bounced around her while he begged. Well some people would call it whined.

Nabiki's heart was made of sterner stuff and she ignored Ranma's pleading, though by the time they had gotten home Nabiki was ready to smash a mallet into his head just to get him to shut up.

Thus occupied neither noticed the figure who had been watching Ger's shop follow them.

That night after Ranma had recovered from a case of foot in mouth after trying to explain to Akane what he was doing late out with Nabiki, which Nabiki putting her sly comments in, getting her revenge for the Black Forest incident hadn't helped.

Everyone finally settled down for the night. The watcher who had been waiting for this moment moved silently through an open upstairs window. Managing to avoid Akane's violent movements as she slept, he missed the piggy, and the watcher glided soundlessly down the hallway. Two of the auras that were in the house he could recognize, but it was only one that he was interested in.

Reaching the Tendo's guestroom the watcher carefully opened the door and entered. The room was almost bare all that could be seen were two sleeping figures. At one end of the room, two large hiking packs were leaning against the wall. A small photo frame sat next to the smaller sleeping body.

The larger sleeper was snoring away, while the smaller was fighting his blanket and mumbling some thing. "Stupid tomboy . . . . No not the mallet . . . Ahhh dad don't chuck me in the koi pond."

The watcher crept closer so as to gauge the power he had seen before, it was uncertain what this boy was, but the watcher knew it wasn't human. No human could have that much power or be able to change its shape. He didn't know what it was but it was strange and it had been in contact with the Rokurokubi.

It was too powerful for him to just capture and question. Pulling a needle thin dagger carefully shaded black from a hidden pocket; the dark figure leant over the sleeping body of Ranma and placed it at the back of his neck.

Author Note:

Revised 10th July 2006

I'll leave it on that Cliff-Hanger, I have written a bit more but to me this felt like the right moment to cut off so your going to have to wait for the next update to see what happens.

If anyone knows some good websites with info on Japanese folklore, I would be really grateful, as my searches haven't turned up as much as I had hoped. There are some really freaky creatures in Japanese myths and I would like for them to pop up as much as I can. It will probably be in a few future chapters before any fiancée problems are dealt with though so sorry about that. If any one has a suggestion, I am interested.

8000 yen as of 28th Jan 2005 is worth roughly 100 Australian dollars if any one is willing to proofread for my stories, I would be really grateful. Please.

The name of the coffee shop is 'Dine with the Gods' . . . maybe?

Reviews:

Wonderbee31: thanks for reminding me about the fiancées, I hadn't really thought about that but now a really nasty idea umm I mean sweet idea has come to mind.

Tsuki Yomi: Thanks for reviewing,

SURPRISE:

PHORCYS' SIMPLE CHOCOLATE SAUCE

After writing about the food in these stories, I started craving chocolate. I make a note the craving for cake in the story will not replace slapstick sex jokes . . . those will turn up later. This is my own recipe for a sauce you can use for anything including dip, cake icing, pancakes, ice cream, and body paint.

100 grams of any solid chocolate, I once melted chocolate scorched almonds, to make it for a friend.

100 ml of any sort of cream.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave how long depends on what chocolate you use over 40 secs is just a starting guide. Make sure it is all melted. Don't worry if it forms lumps. Mix the chocolate together with the cream 'till it is fully combined and all lumps should be gone. It is now ready. If you want to get creative after making it the first time try adding essences such as mint or orange to the mix or what ever you want.

What ever you do under the influence of this sauce and what ever you use it for it is your own responsibility.