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Chapter 5
"Ok, so, who are these people again?" Nabiki asked. She sat at the kotatsu table in the family room. Several "guests" had arrived when Ranma, her sister, and the two vampires returned home. She glanced over at the young man in glasses, he was only a few years older than her. The young girl next to him looked like she was 14 or maybe younger, but she was unspeakably beautiful. Beside Sanangi sat a woman who was unmistakably foreign in her features and spoke with a heavy Russian accent yet her Japanese was almost flawless.
"This is Baron, exiled king of the vila-fey of Glenmora," Sanangi gestured. "Beside him is the child goddess of the vila-fey, Aria of the Silver Fire." Nabiki was startled when she heard that, first vampires, now she was in the presence of a goddess.
"Oh my," Kasumi gushed, looking at the young lolita goth goddess with adoration.
Sanangi clasped the hands of the woman next to her and said, "And this is Sasha, a werewolf of the Moon Clan and someone who has been a good friend of mine for a long time." Sasha smiled and clasped Sanangi's hand in turn. Nabiki suspected their relationship went beyond friendship, Sanangi was bisexual after all.
"Da, moi vozlyublennyye." Sasha smiled.
"Thank you for having us." Aria bowed respectfully.
"We are honored to welcome friends of Ranma's friends to our home." Kasumi gushed, bowing respectfully in return.
Baron gestured to the vampires, "Actually, this is the first time we've met. It was Aria's idea that we come along."
The child goddess elbowed the young man in the side, and said with a smile, "Please excuse him, he's very overprotective of me. He worried some other lolicon will try to steal me away."
"I am not a lolicon, stop telling strangers things like that!" Baron flustered which made the young goddess laugh.
"Alrighty then," Nabiki smirked, she knew having those two around was going to be interesting. She saw Akane giving the young man her typical "I hate perverts" death stare.
"Excuse me, may I ask, what is a vila-fey?" Kasumi asked politely. Nabiki was about to ask the same thing.
Baron pushed his glasses up on his nose, "We are an ancient people who originally come from the realm of Glenmora, a pocket dimension connected to Midgard that has been our home for countless millennia." Nabiki looked around the table to read everyone's expressions. It was clear that Ranma and his friends already knew this.
"In your myths and legends your people call us fairies," Baron explained further. This surprised her, Nabiki thought fairies were smaller and had wings.
"Truth be told, vila-fey are more closely related to elves," Aria added to his explanation. "Humans often mistake pixies for fairies. True fairies or vila-fey are as tall as humans."
Nabiki asked, "What about the wings?"
"We have them," Baron answered. "Most of the time you don't see them, they are manifestations of our soul and only appear when we need them." Nabiki thought that was rather convenient, sleeping with a pair of wings permanent stuck to your back was probably uncomfortable.
"What brings you here to our world?" Kasumi asked. Nabiki was curious about that too, also there was the fact that this guy was introduced as the king in exile. Whatever that meant.
"More than two decades ago we were betrayed by one of our own," Baron replied, taking on a serious expression. "He gave information to our mortal enemies, the Trolls, which allowed them to launch a coordinated surprise attack on our settlements. We were forced to abandon Glenmora and have been living in exile here on Midgard ever since."
"Oh my, how terrible." Kasumi gasped.
Nabiki heard Ranma clear his throat, and he said, "We need to discuss this whole Dracula thing, if he's sending out corrupted gargoyles he needs to be dealt with." She gaped at him, did she just hear him right?
"What?" he asked, he was looking directly at her. He noticed her expression.
"Dracula is real?" Nabiki knew vampires were real but she didn't know the most famous mythical vampire was actually real too.
"Blimey, this is going to get complicated." John commented.
"Hush you!" Sanangi scolded him, smiling.
Nabiki had a sudden feeling she was about to get hit with more heavy revelations, she guessed that Ranma had been holding things back. Maybe out of some desire not to freak her out, but she was sure she could handle it. She hoped she could. Ranma pinched his nose, then looked her straight in the eye.
"There are different races of vampire," he explained, she was about to say something to that but he raised his hand so she stopped to hear him out. "Vlad Dracula is from a race called the vampyr, they are ancient. We call them primordial vampires because they date back to the dawn of human history."
"Oh, they're much older than that," Aria said. "Much, much older."
"I don't know much more than that about him though," Ranma admitted looking towards Sanangi.
"I know a great deal, Dracula is an outcast among his own kind," Sanangi explained. "The tensions of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation convinced him that humans needed to be controlled, so he proposed a plan to take over every aspect of human civilization. The queen of the vampyr, his wife, rejected his plan. He conspired against her, plotted an assassination which succeeded but he was caught in the act by the royal guard and fled. Their daughter Mina took the throne, declared her father a traitor, and he's been on the run ever since."
"Holy shit," Nabiki murmured.
"It is worse than that," Sasha added. "At some point he tried delving into primal magic and it did something to him. He isn't a vampyr anymore, he's something evil and twisted beyond recognition." Something about the way she said that made Nabiki shiver.
"Primal magic, bloody hell." John gasped.
"I heard it was bad, I didn't realize it was that bad," Ranma scowled angrily. "Well, that explains how he was able to corrupt gargoyles." said Ranma.
"I take it this primal magic is bad juju." Nabiki spoke up.
"That's the understatement of the century, love." Sanangi replied.
"It is the raw untempered magic of the multiverse," Aria explained in a soft, slow, serious tone. "Only the foolish or the insane delve into it. Those who try either die, or end up becoming its puppet. Very few have succeeded. Dracula's fate, however, was much worse. He sits between a corporeal and incorporeal state and his mind is twisted beyond redemption. His very existence is an abomination." Nabiki shuddered.
"So he obviously didn't turn into something like a Nospherat like Cain did." said Ranma. Nabiki looked at him questioningly then look to Aria who shook her head.
"No, he didn't," Aria replied. "Cain, or Canithelon as he was originally called, also dared to delve into primal magic but fate dealt him a very different hand. Your kind exists because of the cataclysm he triggered."
"What does she mean by that?" Nabiki asked.
She heard him sigh and he said, "I'll explain later when we have more time."
"Dracula's beliefs about humans drew the attention of the worst dregs of the underworld," Sasha interjected, changing the subject. "They form a fanatically loyal army. Their numbers have been diminished of late, but they will still be a formidable obstacle."
"Well, we can't let him run amok in Tokyo," said Ranma. "We'll have to go after him. That won't be a problem for your clan will it?" Nabiki looked to the beautiful werewolf holding Sanangi's hand.
Sasha shook her head, "A few might complain, but I'd be honored to have my dearest friend fight by my side again. The Moon Clan has always been a friend to the Crimson Circle." Nabiki wondered if Sanangi's "friendship" with the Russian werewolf maybe went a lot further. The way the African princess squeezed the Russian's hand spoke volumes.
"I suppose you're going to say we need to get involved too." said Baron to the goddess next to him. Nabiki looked him up and down. The so-called fairy king didn't look all that kingly, he looked more like a nerd with his glasses and small build. He was sort of attractive if you liked that kind of guy. His eyes though, they were old, the eyes of someone who had seen far too much.
Aria nodded, "His presence is problematic for us. He disturbs the natural flow of aether wherever he goes, he must be put down. The longer he is allowed to exist the more unstable he will become. Not mentally unstable, that he already is, but unstable on a more fundamentally metaphysical level. Dracula is in a literal sense a kind of walking bomb, and when he blows the detrimental effects on the natural aetheric flow of this world will be catastrophic. It could disrupt the aether of this world to such an extreme that it could lose the ability to support life for millennia."
"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped in horror.
"If he's a bomb, wouldn't killing him make him blow up sooner?" Nabiki was about to ask that when Akane beat her to it. This was getting serious, they were talking about an extinction level event here.
"No, destroying him would cause his energies to disperse in a more controlled manner." said Aria. That put Nabiki more at ease, a little bit.
However, what Aria said next made her feel uneasy, "That isn't to say there wouldn't be any adverse effects. Releasing that much negative energy into the environment will cause strange weather patterns and aetheric anomalies for centuries. The entire Tokyo area could become like another Bermuda Triangle."
"We'll need a sorcerer," said Sanangi. "Dracula has a considerable command of powerful magic in addition to other unique abilities stemming from his current form."
"Crikey, that's gonna be a problem." John sighed.
Nabiki asked, "But, don't you know magic? I mean, I've seen you and Ranma use it a few times."
"Most of our magic is learned," Ranma told her. "There are some magical powers that are innate to what we are, but the rest we had to study. Like the wards we put up around the house. Basic elemental magic, commanding the five elements, comes natural to us but anything beyond that we had to learn it." She didn't know that.
"We can check with the Yokai Hospital," Sasha said. "The Library, they run a hospital for non-humans right here in Nerima." Nabiki stared at her in surprise, there was a hospital for what in Nerima, and she didn't know about it? Almost nothing happened in Nerima she didn't know about. Well, almost nothing.
"Wait, what, there aren't any hospitals in Nerima, the nearest is in Jubaan-ku." Akane said incredulously.
"It is underground," Sasha corrected her. "I'm told the entrance looks like a mundane chiropractor's office."
"Doctor Tofu's?" Nabiki and her sisters exclaimed, shocked at hearing this.
"Would that be a Dr. Ono Tofu?" Sanangi asked, Nabiki nodded.
"Yes, he runs the clinic down the street." Ranma said. Nabiki remembered the day not long ago when they went there to get Ranma some hot water after he'd been splashed by the old lady down the street.
Sanangi continued, "I've never met him, but I've heard about him. There are twelve sorcerers who hold the rank of Grandmaster in the Library, they form what is called the Circle of Knowing the council that runs the guild. I'm personally acquainted with three of them."
"We know one of them," Baron said. "But, she is currently unavailable."
"She's guarding something of great importance," Aria explained.
"Aria." Baron's tone told Nabiki he probably thought the little goddess had maybe said a little too much.
"Oh do please lighten up a little Baron, you've been uptight ever since we left Hinata Sou." Aria groused at him.
Nabiki noticed a slight blush on the fairy king's face, "I'm just trying to protect you."
"I'm not powerless," Aria put a hand on his arm, this seemed to calm him. "Despite the current situation, I am still quite capable of protecting myself."
Sanangi cleared her thought, "If this local doctor is indeed Dr. Tofu of the Library we need to approach him soon."
"Wait, so Dr. Tofu is some kind of magician?" Akane asked almost wistfully, Nabiki knew her little sister had the hots for him, but his heart belonged to someone else. Nabiki knew exactly who that was.
"He's a sorcerer," Sanangi corrected her. "They are born with the ability to control magic by will alone without the need to recite spells or use wands or canes. Of all the magic users in the world they are the most feared."
"Oh my, Dr. Tofu is always ever so kind." said Kasumi. Nabiki knew that Kasumi had feelings for the good doctor, but both of them were so shy with each other they've been unable to confess. Kasumi is too old fashioned and traditional, a fault she picked up from their father, and Dr. Tofu goes to pieces whenever her name is dropped or her hears her voice.
Ranma said, "We have to be at school tomorrow, for appearances sake. I can drop by the clinic on the way back to have a chat with him. Funny, we went to his clinic some time ago to get me some hot water. I didn't sense any magic coming from him, and he didn't seem to react to me at all. If he is a sorcerer he should have sensed what I am."
"He likely saw your ring," said Sanangi. "The Library knows of the Order, we aren't exactly friends but we're not enemies either. They sort of tolerate us, we've worked together before so their members know our signs. There has never been any open hostility between us, so his lack of action probably means he didn't consider you a threat. If he had, and he truly is Grandmaster Tofu, you'd be a pile of ashes right now."
"Probably, well, I'll talk to him tomorrow." Ranma shrugged.
"I want to come too!" Akane said excitedly, displaying a little too much eagerness.
Ranma frowned, "This isn't going to be a social call, I'm going to be talking important business with him."
"I'll be there too," Nabiki told him. "I'll make sure she doesn't get in the way." She winked at him and he nodded. He sighed. The angry, pouty look on Akane's face almost made her laugh.
"Fine."
"Oh my, look at the time," Kasumi gasped. "With all the excitement I forgot about making dinner, and it is so late."
Baron started to get up but Aria put a hand on his shoulder and he sat back down. "Would you mind terribly if I helped you in the kitchen, Kasumi-san?"
Nabiki knew what Kasumi was going to say. "Oh, but you're a guest Aria-sama, I couldn't possibly ask…"
The little goddess stood up. She passed her hands over her beautiful gothic lolita dress and before Nabiki's eyes it transformed into a simple informal grey kimono and white kitchen apron. She even had a head wrap that bundled up her long snowy white hair. The little goddess looked for all the world like a young lady getting ready to do household chores.
"I insist," she smiled. "I am very good in the kitchen, what are you planning on making?"
Kasumi blushed intensely, "I had planned on simple rice and curry croquettes."
"Hmmm, how about we step that up a notch and make it chicken curry," Aria held out her hand and a tray with a platter of fresh chicken breasts appeared out of thin air.
"Wow." Nabiki gasped.
Baron sighed, "She always does this, once people find out she is a real goddess she starts showing off."
"I do not." Aria frowned at him.
"That time in the kitchen with Shinobu, Naru, and Motoko." The suddenly bright red glow on Aria's cheeks told Nabiki there must be one hell of story to that. She'd love to hear it someday.
"I was just helping." Aria looked away, her look her face was adorable.
"Besides, you showed off a lot to Naru and Mutsumi." now the little goddess looked smug and it was Baron's turn to glow red. It was at that moment Nabiki decided she liked these two, they had a real chemistry together.
Nabiki couldn't help it and laughed, "I think I'm going to like having them around."
"Yes, it's going to be so late by the time we finish, why not stay the night." Kasumi offered right on cue.
"We couldn't…" Baron began but Aria interrupted him.
"We'd love to, if we're not imposing."
"Oh my, not at all Aria-sama." Kasumi blushed.
"Just Aria, thank you, sama is just so formal," the goddess shook her head.
Kasumi gave one of her patented eyes shut smiles, "Aria-chan then?"
"Oh gods, don't baby her she'll be insufferable." Baron dropped his head to the table.
Aria gave him a redeye raspberry then turned to Kasumi, "Lets get started on dinner, Kasumi-san. We'll leave the boring people here to talk boring stuff." Baron grumbled something about goddesses who never grew up as Nabiki watched her sister and Aria disappear into the kitchen.
The next morning they went to school. Kuno was there but he just watched with an angry, brooding expression. Nabiki touched base with her girls. Kuno was up to something but they didn't know what. Gosunkugi watched them too, nothing strange there. She and Ranma met Ukyo for lunch, she happily told Ranma that everything was working out well with her new "helper" at the restaurant.
Things were going too well at school. Since Ranma's arrival Nabiki's life has been "interesting" to say the least. She has had her eyes opened to a world she never knew existed. A world she only dreamed about or read about in manga, and learned things about her family. Specifically, things about her mother she never knew. Given all of this, a rather uneventful day at school had her on edge. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and she didn't have to wait long.
"I thought this day was never going to end." she yawned as she retrieved her shoes at her locker. Ranma never changed his, in fact, he never worse a Furinken boy's uniform.
"Tell me about it, maybe we should have skipped and went straight to the clinic." Ranma shrugged.
Nabiki shook her head, "Not while I have a record to maintain, I do still plan to get into a good college or university you know." She had her life planned out, or at least she did until Ranma became a part of it. Nabiki was still "tweaking" things to work him into those plans.
"I could arrange to get you into any school you want," Ranma told her. "Hell, I could get you into MIT if you wanted." She gave him "that look" but the look he returned told her he was dead serious.
"Seriously," he added. "You are from a Watcher family, we can get you into any school anywhere in the world all expenses paid. We've been around a long time, the order has deep pockets and lots of connections. Watchers play a very important role, one that's sometimes dangerous, so we take good care of them and their families."
She stood there, thinking, to him it probably looked like her mind has locked up. But, in Nabiki's head the gears were spinning wildly. "For years, I've had plans." she said as she slipped her school shoes into her locker and slipped on her outdoor shoes.
"Now, I've been working on figuring out how to factor you into them." she continued.
Ranma pointed at himself, "Me?"
She cocked her head at him and smirked, "We are supposed to get married, Saotome. Or did you forget the whole family honor part?" Family honor or not she wasn't about to let him slip away.
"Even if I am," he looked around nervously. "'Mortally challenged' and can't ever give you children?" She had thought of that possibility, that him being a vampire meant he could never give her kids, but she never really factored children into her "plans" before. Oh, she considered marriage at some point, but actually starting a family wasn't on her docket. She originally planned on someone who was rich, like a CEO or billionaire, someone she could use to climb the social ladder to that golden prize at the top. But, in Ranma, she found something she didn't know she wanted...a loving companionship. Yes, their relationship started out physical but in that short timespan something happened that Nabiki never factored into her plans.
She fell in love.
She smiled, "We can always adopt." It was a joke, but part of her wasn't so sure. The idea of being a mom frightened the hell out of her, but at the same time she pictured herself with Ranma holding a little boy in her arms and she could feel a warmth flow through her. In her mind, the Ice Queen shreaked, recoiled, but Nabiki didn't move and let the warmth cover her.
"Well, I guess that means it's a done deal then." Ranma said, smiling.
She returned the smile, "Yep, no backing out of it now."
They were both suddenly distracted by retching sounds. Akane stood at the end of the row of lockers with her finger in mouth. "I think I'm going to be sick" she groused.
Nabiki smirked, knowing just the right buttons to push, "You could have just as easily had been his fiance instead of me, you know." As expected, Akane's face turned bright red.
"There...there...there's no way I could marry a pervert like that!" she said that while pointing at Ranma, flushed with anger, but Nabiki knew her little sister better than she knew herself.
Nabiki grabbed Ranma's arm and began to lead him out of the school. "Good, get your own pervert, this one is mine."
"Wait, what?" she found the bewildered look on Ranma's face adorable. Akane followed behind, brooding but still blushing. Of course, Nabiki knew Akane's "attraction" wasn't for Ranma-kun, but instead Ranma-chan. She knew her sister very well.
The school yard was crowded with students all gathering to either go home, meet up with friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, or assembling for after school clubs. "First stop, Dr. Tofu's clinic, right?" Ranma nodded. Everyone was looking at them, Nabiki didn't hide her affection despite her reputation and how long it took her to build up the Ice Queen persona. She was asserting her dominance. Ranma was one of the better looking guys at school. Kuno was kinda hot, if you can overlook the fact that he was insane, but he didn't hold a candle to Ranma and the other girls were taking notice.
"I still can't believe, all this time he was some kind of magician." said Akane.
"Sorcerer," Ranma corrected her. "Calling a sorcerer a magician is a grave insult, remember that." Nabiki wondered if it was because magicians didn't really do magic, but just subtle slight of hand and called it magic.
"I'd never insult Dr. Tofu!" Akane frowned then smiled impishly.
"She's got the hots for him." Nabiki smirked.
Akane turned candy apple red, "NABIKI!" Nabiki started to laugh, but an enraged cry interrupted her.
"RANMA SAOTOME PREPARE TO DIE!"
What came next happened so fast it was just a big blur. One second she was hanging off Ranma's arm leaving the school, then the next she was in his arms and in front of them was this sound like an explosion. The sidewalk where they'd been walking had exploded forming a crater, in the center kneeled a young man of high school age. He had bushy black hair held back by a yellow, tiger striped bandana. In his hand was an old fashioned bamboo umbrella, and he was wearing a large backpack similar to the one Ranma had when he came to their home.
Nabiki could feel Ranma's entire body tense up, he was like a coiled spring, ready to let loose with all of his energy. She'd never seen him fight for real before, only in sparring matches, and some of those had been incredibly intense. This boy in front of them was in dangerous of becoming a greasy smear on the sidewalk, assuming he was even human.
"At last, I found you." the look the boy gave Ranma promised death.
"Oh look, another person who wants you dead," Akane smirked. "It must be great being so popular." Nabiki glared daggers at her. She then felt Ranma move, she was suddenly on her feet and he had positioned himself in front of her protectively.
"So, who is this guy?" she asked him.
"Because of you," the boy stood brandishing his umbrella like a weapon. "I've seen hell, Saotome. Tell me Ranma...tell me...why did you run out on our fight!?"
"Oh good grief." Ranma muttered pinching his nose.
"Do you know him or not?" she questioned him again. The boy was more than pissed off, he was barely controlling his rage. Here she thought her sister had anger management issues.
"What the hell is your problem Ryoga?" that answered her question, now for the most obvious one. Was this guy human or vampire. If he was human this was going to be a very one-sided fight, assuming it ended in one. Ranma might glamour his brains out, but he did say there were limits to that.
Ryoga snarled, "I'm here to finish our fight, a fight you ran out on!"
"Uh, Ryoga, I wanted for you for three days." Nabiki's jaw dropped.
"Three days?" Akane looked stunned.
"Don't patronize me," Ryoga pointed the umbrella in Ranma's face. "You don't know what I went through, the hardships I endured, and when I arrived on the fourth day you'd already run off like a coward."
She had heard enough, "You show up four days late to a fight and you expect him to stick around while you go off doing whatever, who the hell do you think you are?" She pushed passed Ranma and yelled right into the boy's face. This bold move made him stagger back in surprise.
"You have a girl doing their fighting now, Saotome?" the glare of death she gave him made the boy stagger back a little more, he almost looked afraid.
"Dude, seriously, I'm sorry about the bread get over it." said Ranma.
"What?" Nabiki looked back at him not believing what she just heard. Was this really over bread, like really?
"We went to an all boy's junior high," he shrugged. "Lunchtime was pretty cut throat. We were vicious little bastards back then."
Akane scratched the back of her head, "Uh, exactly what kind of school was this?"
"Bread...BREAD!" Nabiki was about to whirl on Ryoga to tell him off when Ranma pulled her back. Ryoga had popped open the umbrella and was preparing to spin and throw it like some kind of top.
"You think this is about bread...this is REVENGE!" students scattered like rats to avoid the umbrella as it went sailing by and whirled back around like it was a boomerang. Ranma didn't move except to keep her close to him.
"Revenge for what?" Ranma demanded. "I stayed in that empty lot waiting for you, the one behind your house, and on the fourth day pops came and dragged me off to China. It isn't my fault you get lost in a room with one exit!"
Akane countered, "Nobody is that stupid, Ranma." But, Ranma simply pointed to Ryoga.
"Akane Tendo, meet Nobody."
"His sense of direction was so awful, his mom had me walk him to school and back again every day." Ranma added. Nabiki had heard of people lacking direction but this was ridiculous.
She tapped Ranma on the shoulder and whispered, "Why not give him his fight, it might calm him down. Just don't beat him too badly."
He whispered back, "Something isn't right, I don't know if this is something recent or he's always been this way, but I don't think he's human."
"How can you tell?" she asked him.
"The smell, he doesn't have human blood," he said. "It almost smells like...demon."
She almost shouted, "Demon!"
The look of shock and shame on Ryoga's face spoke volumes. "How...how do you know?" Apparently none of the other students had heard them as they were all still standing around watching. Nabiki knew at some point they'd have to get out of here and finish this somewhere more private. Ranma apparently sensed her thoughts, she was quickly scooped up into his arms and an instant later they were airborne.
"If you want to finish this Ryoga, follow me!" he shouted. Nabiki didn't mind being held in his arms, she liked the feeling.
"Wait up!" she heard Akane behind them. A few moments of blurred motion later they were far away from the school and in a large empty lot. Nabiki recognized it, they weren't far from Dr. Tofu's clinic but it was a good distance from the school. They traveled at least six city blocks in just a couple of heartbeats.
"Trying to run away again?" Ryoga came to a landing and right behind him came her sister.
"No, I wanted to talk to you without all those humans overhearing us." said Ranma. Ryoga's eyes bulged with surprise.
"Wait, but aren't you...no...hold on...you aren't human either." Ryoga pointed at him, still surprised.
"No shit Sherlock," Ranma groused. "Wondered when you'd figure that out."
There was that look of shame again, "I don't recognize your smell, have you always been this way. Mom said you were an ordinary human." Nabiki looked back and forth between them. It looked like Ranma was taking this revelation about his "old friend" rather well, but it affected Ryoga a lot more to learn Ranma wasn't human either. She wondered what was the story behind that.
"It doesn't matter," Ryoga started pulling his bandana off revealing another underneath it. "I'm going to make you pay for everything I've suffered. You don't know the hell I've been through, the humiliation...I'm going to kill you!" Nabiki felt a sudden wave of heat hit her. Ranma jumped in front of her and he had his sheathed Slayer in his hand.
"Akane, grab Nabiki and get back away from here, now!" he ordered in a tone that brokered no objections.
"Wait, what's going on, what is he?" Nabiki cried out as Akane grabbed her and carrier her away to a nearby rooftop.
Ryoga's body had turned to a charcoal color, his dark hair was now red and gave off a glow like hot magma. Glowing red patterns formed on his skin like runes. His legs reversed, his feet turned into hooves, and on his head grew a pair of spiral ram's horns. His eyes were like two hot coals, the air rippled around his body as if he were giving off an intense heat. Sure enough, Nabiki could see flames burning by his hooved feet and some of the grass was withering and turning brown.
"Oh...my...god." she gasped.
"What the hell is that?" she head Akane, she had a look of horror on her face.
Ranma had called Ryoga a demon and that was no exaggeration. The boy was clearly not human. He and Ranma faced off, neither making a single move except Nabiki could see Ranma's hand slowly moving to the hilt of his sword. She remembered what was said about that weapon, she didn't like it that Ranma was going to have to kill someone he knew with it, but this Ryoga boy didn't seem like the kind who would listen to reason. He was clearly pissed off at Ranma for something, it had to be more than just him not being there on the fourth day for their fight. There had to be more to it.
Neither opponent was given a chance to make a move when a clear, authoritative voice rang out over the lot. "RYOGA HIBIKI WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT TRANSFORMING IN PUBLIC!"
With a thunderous pop, a blue magic circle appeared over the burning demon and from it came of torrent of water that instantly turned to steam. Billowing thick clouds obscured Nabiki's view of the empty lot. She made Akane take her down there to where Ranma stood and she didn't take no for an answer. It didn't take them long to find him, she couldn't see but Akane had her vampiric senses. Ranma was fine, he still had his sheathed Slayer but he didn't appear to be in a ready combat stance anymore. Then, a fierce wind came that nearly knocked her off her feet had Ranma not caught her. It blew away the steam revealing a very wet Ryoga standing in a steaming puddle of hot water.
He was looking across the lot, his face a mask of terror. Nabiki turned and there stood the most ravishingly beautiful woman she'd never seen in her entire life. Her hair was black and it flowed in long locks down to ankle length. Her breasts were easily bigger than Ranma's female form, and Ranma-chan had the biggest cup size in the Tendo household. The woman wore something that was a mix between a kimono and a doctor's smock. She also had a badge like a doctor or nurse clipped to her outfit.
"M...M...Mon?" Nabiki almost didn't believe it. That creature of unspeakable beauty was this demon boy's mother?
"I don't see you for almost three years and all you can say is 'm...m...mom'?" she put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot angrily.
"I...I...I...I...argh!" Ryoga stammered, then he flew into the air and slammed into the ground with enough force to make the ground shake.
Nabiki couldn't take her eyes off the woman as she approached, her grace was so otherworldly. "What am I going to do with you, you're so much like your father it's scary." the woman said, then she noticed them and her eyes widened.
"Ranma-chan, is that you?" she moved in a blur, grabbed Ranma, and pulled him into a hug that smashed his head dead center between her massive assets. Something in Nabiki rose up from the depths, burning away the unquestioning adoration she felt for this woman and replaced it with an intense burning jealousy.
"Oh, it's been ages sweetness," Ryoga's mom gushed. "And look at you, how you've grown into such a hunky young man and…" She paused, looked him up and down, and even sniffed him a little.
She looked at him with a shocked expression, "You're a vampire? A revenant actually, when did this happen? What about your father? Is he a vampire too?"
Ranma extracted his head from between her ample pillows and replied, "It's a long story, Hibiki-san. No, pops is still stupid, and human."
Nabiki moved forward and grabbed Ranma's arm asserting her position again. "Ranma, why don't you introduce me." She smiled but her eyes were burning holes in the woman's mountainous chest.
She seemed to notice and gave her a knowing smirk, "Nabs, this is Tomoe Hibiki, Ryoga's mom. Hibiki-san, this is my fiance Nabiki Tendo."
The woman seemed to recognize the name, "Tendo, are you by any chance related to an Akane Tendo?"
"That's me." Akane said waving politely.
Tomoe nodded, "Yes, you're the young lady who's been visiting Ono-san's clinic for a long time."
"I've never seen you there." Akane said, looking puzzled. Nabiki never remembered seeing her there either.
"That's because I was invisible." Tomoe winked demurely. Ryoga finally started moving, he groaned as he stood up, his clothes covered in mud.
Tomoe rolled her eyes, "Always getting dirty." She waved her hand and the mud instantly dried and then crumbled to the ground leaving not a trace on Ryoga's clothes or skin.
"You're a sorceress," Ranma said. "And, something more I suspect."
Ryoga's mom gave him a smile that seemed rather hungry and Nabiki gripped his arm a little tighter. "A sorceress and a succubus, as well was a doctor." she said.
"That means his father isn't human, since male children born to succubi are always human if the father is human too." Ranma said a matter of factly.
Tomoe nodded, then her eyes strayed down to what he was holding in his hand. "Is that what I think it is? Were you going to use that on my son?" She didn't seem angry, Nabiki wasn't sure how to read this woman.
Ranma shook his head, "Only as a last resort." He slipped the Slayer out of sight into hammerspace. Nabiki filed that away for later, she was going to get him to teach her how to do that. Assuming it was even possible for her to do that.
Tomoe sighed with visible relief, "Good, I'd hate to have to trapes all the way down to Hell every time I wanted to visit my boy until he was able to reconstitute himself back here on Midgard again."
"So he is part Infernal Lord." Ranma said. Was that what she saw, an Infernal Lord?
"What's an Infernal Lord?" Akane asked.
Ranma gestured towards Ryoga, "They look like what you saw, only bigger, though they can take on human form. Infernal Lords are the highest ranking demons of the Void plain called Hell. That's not Hell in the Christian, Biblical sense, but a realm that resembles it. There are many other realms in the Void where demons reside."
"He must be one of the outcasts, I can't see an Infernal Lord fanatical to the teachings of Lucifer shacking up with a succubus." Nabiki didn't understand what he was saying but Tomoe nodded with a sad expression.
Ryoga growled, "What do you know about it, Saotome!?"
"Quite a bit brimstone breath!" he shot back and Nabiki almost laughed.
Tomoe held up her hands, "Boys, boys, no fighting now. You are right dear, he is one of the outcasts. Akira rejected the teachings of Lucifer and he was expelled from Hell for it. I met him about two hundred years ago and we've been together since, though I don't see him that often. I'm afraid he was given a curse that confuses his direction sense, and our son inherited it unfortunately."
"You said, you're a doctor so that means you work at the Youkai Hospital?" Nabiki asked her. She seemed surprised that she knew about it then nodded.
Tomoe replied, "Yes, dear. I'm one of the resident doctors on staff under Ono-san who is the director."
"I need to talk to him," Ranma said. "I'm with the Order of the Crimson Circle, we need his help." Tomoe was surprised by this then Ranma showed her his ring identifying him as a member of the order.
"Of course," she nodded. "He's down in the hospital, but I'll take you to him. What is the problem you need his help with?"
Ranma sighed and said, "I need his talent as a Grandmaster Sorcerer of the Library, the renegade vampire Vlad Dracula is in Tokyo and we're going after him." Tomoe gasped, clasped a hand over her mouth.
"Oh my god!"
To be continued...