The timeline of this chapter is about 11 hours post Ranma's death. And if you were to count it up, the timeline of this fic will only be a matter of days, as opposed to weeks, months or years as in so many other fanfictions, once it's complete.
Props go to deathgeonous for pre-reading, and the fine folks at Fukufics for ideas and help.
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7:00 am:
It was still the very early morning as the first light of the day revealed grey bleak skies promising rain as Sayuri stifled a yawn shuffling from her room to the kitchen-main room in her family's relatively small apartment in her blue school uniform. Just yet another day in the remaining school year at Furinken High, then off to collage for the graduating class.
With absent minded ease she clicked on the kitchen TV to the news, then as she began to pour herself some coffee she saw the news anchorwoman with a side-by-side image of both of Ranma's forms in the upper corner of the screen flash up, thinking in bemusement that it was some new set of Ranma inspired high jinks she raised the volume…
"…this breaking news. At this time investigators are still processing the Tendo Dojo for any possible clues as to how this tragedy may have occurred. When questioned, the Detectives said that they are following up all potential leads, but are not ruling out foul-play; before commenting on how he'd shove the camera our crew on site was using up the cameraman's posterior if he didn't stop filming the scene…" at that she paused to show a muted clip of a grizzled man in a rumpled cheap brown suit just outside the Tendo Dojo wall yelling something and making fist gestures at the camera, then it clicked back over the Ranma shot as she continued. "… Once again, Ranma Saotome aka Ranko Saotome aka "pig-tailed-girl", student at Furinken high school, is dead at age 19. A loss for all of Tokyo, I'm sure, and now onto weather…"
Her face pale and eyes wide, Sayuri swallowed the knot that formed in her thoat, then slowly brought her free hand to her face till just her fingers were barely covering her mouth as she whispered out "oh… my… god…" as her cup fell from the lifelessly numb fingers of her other hand to crash on the floor.
This scene repeated itself many times throughout greater Tokyo that morning…
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7:00 am:
In Nekomi, Urd clad only in a violet "naughty nighty" was on her side, head propped up by her hand and fast asleep in front of the static screened TV from staying up to watch the late night adult entertainment, when then the static flickered, once, then twice, and then the TV came to life with the morning news.
With the new sounds and sights flickering on the TV mere inches from her face, Urd raised a single eyelid revealing a horribly bloodshot eye with matching deep bags under it, to glare at the device that disturbed her slumber. Seeing that is was the MorningNews, the other bloodshot eyelid rose, and on some level she decided to adjourn to her bedroom till at least breakfast.
Reaching forward to click off the TV, she couldn't help but to see the anchorwoman announcing the "major breaking news" about the death of Ranma Saotome. "poor kid…" Urd though to herself as she clicked off the TV, then stood to shamble her way to her room for a few more wonderful hours of sleep.
When she was almost to her room, she stretched her arms above her head, drawing her lace nighty taught across her body, and yawned, then spoke through her yawn "I wonder why that name Lanma seems important…"
Then she climbed into her bed, pulled up the blanket smacked her lips sleepily and mumbled, "… whatever it is… no matter…" then she was off in dreamland once more as she smiled happily, almost smirking, and mumbled in her sleep as though it were a great joke, "hmmm… kitty cats…"
Just moments after this, when all the residents of the Temple were once again in the land of Nod, a deeply tanned pre-pubescent girl with shocked-white hair in small ponytails, with a red star shape on her forehead and matching marks on her cheeks, and dressed in a tight vinyl pink jumper mini-skirt outfit slowly faded into existence just at the foot of Urd's bed smiling softly.
Then, as if not trusting her 1/1000 ratio weakened child-form powers telling her that only she was awake, chibi-Hild looked in several directions to make certain, then went to Urd's side, pulled the blanket in tighter, really tucking Urd in, and lightly kissed Urd on her blue diamond forehead mark. Then backed away and whispered with a devious smile, "because soon Urd you'll have a little "baby" sister…" then with that just faded out of the room without flourish.
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In his dimly fluorescent lit and terribly messy and overworked office in the Central Tokyo Police Headquarters building, Detective Hiro Takajitsu rubbed his tired weary eyes to reread a few lines of text in the folder that was in his hands, then lifted his gaze to look over the veritable mountains of papers on his desk to glare at the two Imperial Agents opposite him; Agent Mr. Kasewagi a well built man with a buzz-cut hair style and in his clean well pressed black on black business suit, and Agent Mrs. Fujito in her equally impeccable black on black business skirt suit, with her hair in a bun on the back and black glasses, though her most distinguishing feature was her shelf-like bust line…
'Drones…' Hiro grumbled silently to himself in disgust, then addressed the agents waving the folder lightly, "So… this is for real, the Tendo's, the Satome's, the Kuongi girl, and the Hibiki boy are going to be personal guests of the Emperor…" he paused to catch his breath, and continued in incredulity, "… AND the Emperor wants to preside over the funeral services PERSONALLY?"
To this, Agent Kasewagi just nodded curtly.
Leaning back into his chair and dragging his hand over his eleventh hour facial stubble, Hiro sighed out, "Well, guess I can understand that much… not everyday a friggin' national hero dies… but I'm on the list too… why?"
For a moment the agents share looks, then Mrs. Fujito spoke, "So far you're the only official representative of the government to have any sustained contact with the listed parties, it is felt that they may feel more at ease with a familiar person, and also you do lend a unique perspective on these individuals…"
'Jeez, I wouldn't exactly think questioning them about a suspicious death would make 'em feel any more "at ease" around me…' Hiro thought lamely to himself.
"… and their respective fighting abilities, yourself being a detective of this division of the police force…" she then paused to look at the wall clock behind her, then at her wrist-watch "… in fact, I think it best we go now and make contact with them at the hotel they were sent to last evening, and tell them of the plans the Emperor has set aside for them, would you not agree?"
Muttering an absent, "yeah", Detective Takajitsu stood and tried in vain to make his rumpled brown suit and bedraggled necktie more presentable as the trio walked from the detective offices, to the elevators for the parking garage.
Once in the underground parking area, Detective Takajitsu automatically headed for his 1970's brown and severely rusted Toyota-Mini hatchback, that he affectionately calls "shit on wheels", when Agent Kasewagi puts a hand on his shoulder, turning Hiro around and saying, "We've already arranged for transportation…" and with that two gleaming black Limousines both bearing the National Flag of the Rising Sun, and the Imperial Chrysanthemum Flag pull up into the garage.
With one last look back at his "car", Detective Takajitsu's shoulders slump in defeat as he shuffles to get in the vehicles that cost more than he'll see in a lifetime…
The ride to the non-descript witness hotel through the early morning streets of Tokyo was uneventful and companionably silent, with the two agents sitting side-by-side and across from Detective Takajitsu, who was staring out the window and desperately trying to keep from dozing off. All too soon though they were at the unassuming concrete 1970's era modernist styled building, and without fanfare proceeded to their destination…
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Soun was confused and lost in thought, ignoring the muted 7:00 am newscast that just came on and just sitting at the table absently stroking his mustache… as absolutely nothing seemed "real" anymore, in his ponderings he realized that things certainly went weird when Genma and his son showed up in their house those few years ago, and from that was all sorts of new and exciting craziness… But now it seemed as though anything and everything was crashing around him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it damn-it!
With a look over at Lizasa Lenaoko-Dono who'd been masquerading as the dreaded master Happosai then a gaze around the table of all the gathered faces, Soun couldn't help but to think 'Have I really been so week and blind?' He didn't want to answer his thought…
When suddenly Lizasa Lenaoko-Dono said in a surprised voice, "We have guests!" then suddenly in a puff of white smoke the tall grey haired spirit was replaced once more by the short perverted Master Happosai just as there was a knocking at the hotel suit's door. Seeing Kasumi about to get up to answer, Soun waved her off as he raised up to answer the door at this early hour. Were he to turn around he'd of seen the greatly surprised and almost relieved look of Kasumi at his uncharacteristic behavior.
Opening the door, Soun first saw the Detective from last night and two people in black suits he didn't know standing behind. Addressing the man in the disheveled brown suit, Soun asked, "Detective, what do we owe for the purpose of this morning visit?"
At the mention of detective, several people in the room tried to look past Soun's brown Gi garbed backside to see through the door.
Detective Takajitsu quickly greeted Soun, and explained the purpose of the early visit, which then prompted Soun to offer the trio inside where they took seats in front of the assembled Tendo's, Saotome's, and respective Hibiki and Kuongi.
After the traditional bows and greetings are out of the way, Agent Fujitsu turned to the Saotome's and bowed once more saying, "On behalf of the Emperor, he and his family are deeply saddened by this tragedy and wishes you his blessings in this trying time..." at this Nodoka nearly choked, as her tentative temporary control over her earlier outburst threatened to break, "… and with your permission Nodoka Saotome-san, Genma Saotome-san, the Emperor would request that he preside over the funeral personally at the Imperial Palace in full State Honors for heroism to be granted posthumously to Ranma Saotome-san…"
With that said and before the Agent could finish, eyes widened, and all those gathered except the Agents, the Detective, Soun and the faux-Happosai fainted for various reasons… but mostly Shock, Shocked anger, Shocked sadness, Shocked remorse, Shocked bitterness… basically shock du-jour…
Seeing as how this might take awhile for them to wake up to tell them the rest of the plans… Mrs. Fujitsu took a sip of her tea and said "Hmm, good tea…" where Mr. Kasewagi just murmured "Quite so…" taking his own sips, and Detective Takajitsu just rolled his eyes at the "drones"…
The three highly trained government agents after this didn't even notice the faux-Happosai sneak off as he thought, 'I –REALLY- need to speak with those goddesses…'
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Ranma was confused as many minutes ago she had agreed to the pact… then Hild just said with a smile "Follow me." and now they were traipsing through the dim and dank Halls of the Infernal Palace, then Hild swung open some closed doors ahead of them… without touching them, and as Ranma entered, what she saw took her breath away…
Lining both walls of the relatively narrow but very very long corridor were at first glance mirrors, until she noticed that behind her reflections were small blocks of ghostly movies playing in the background of the mirroring where the room –should- of been reflected but was not…
Turning to face Hild, Ranma asked, "What is this place?"
With her gaze at a particular panel Hild replied, "This is your last chance… to REALLY see what may have to be done… this is the Revealing Hall…" with that she made a gesture with her hand and the panel she stood in front of cleared and enlarged into a movie picture quality, as red lines of text scrolled vertically along the right edge. Hild, now seeing Ranma's attention was on the very literal looking glass she continued, "… look closely at this man's life and learn…" again she paused as several images of this man flashed by, some flashed with him beating a crying young woman, others of him "touching" boy-children as he held them down, and lastly all there was, was his grinning face, his madly glinting glasses, and the rapid flashes of a bloodied knife all passing soundlessly. "… that man is in fact a Priest, a supposed man of God… but his sinning actions are all too human…" she paused again, this time the glass showed an apparent trial in a courtroom, then obviously a not-guilty verdict as he jumped from his chair to hug his lawyer and rather distraught looking wife.
Hild spoke, "…there are sometimes when mortal justice fails, even under the face of horrendous crimes, this happens too many times to count, and then sometimes we intervene…" Ranma gasped at what is shown next, as the man obviously working late in his office looked up in fright as a swirling angry red glowing miasma starts to flow off the wall in a door shape, then there's a form of a man in tattered grey robes showing the centuries of wear, the only distinguishing features were his bony hands with mere scraps of desiccated flesh hanging from the bone, and twin glowing red pools of hate for eyes as the figure approached the man. "… an Enforcer, a soul cursed by the Nidhogg system to wander in death to make penance for horrendous actions in life…" Hild muttered and Ranma could tell that now the man was blubbering and begging for his life, for mercy, and even though there was no sound in the image shown, she could tell that the robed walking horror was sneering and asking the man where was his compassion, where was his mercy for his victims of his crimes!?
And then with a negligent swipe of his bony hand the Enforcer violently pulled the mans soul from his body without so-much as a mark, leaving his now lifeless body to drop to the floor, as the Enforcer grabbed the mans lifelessly colored soul, and drags him screaming in terror and begging through the doorway shape of red mist pouring from the wall, and then the man, the Enforcer, and the mist are all gone as if they never were there, all that remained was cooling corpse on the floor, a look on the dead mans face said it all, he was scared to death… and then the looking glass faded back into a hazed partial mirror.
Still looking at the glass Ranma asked Hild in a choking voice, "Why did you show me… that?"
"To make you understand…" Hild says somberly, then asked, "Do you?".
Moments tick by and Ranma's shoulders start to quake slightly, then she nods her head almost mechanically, but what she says next surprises and amuses Hild greatly, "But… that man… he got off easy! I mean he did all those awful things and that's all he's getting!? Why I'd…" Ranma was then cut off by Hild abruptly 'Shushing' her, meaning her mouth still moved, but no sound came forth.
Ranma then looked to Hild with annoyance to which Hild chuckles and said, "Really Ranma, all you saw was his death… after all as you well know, Death is only the Beginning, trust me, souls such as thus are paid back ten fold what they have cost."
Hild seeing that that though was rolling around Ranma's mind and placating her from her outburst Hild said, "Ranma, last chance, what say you, care to make it all final?"
Ranma didn't even think as she nodded her head enthusiastically. After that display in the mirror… the thought of being a part of bringing a sort of supreme infernal justice just resonated in her, and seemed right somehow.
Seeing Ranma's quick nodding just made Hild all that much more excited as she clapped her hands together and said gleefully; "Wonderful! Then let's begin!..." and with that Ranma didn't even have time to blink as darkness enveloped her once more, obscuring the Revealing Hall… next she knew they were standing in a place… Ranma wasn't certain how to describe it other than an endless empty void… no, not a complete void… there was a massive column of light a short distance away. It was simply breathtaking, every imaginable shade and color of light possible all in flowing twisting bands, interspersed with spinning reflective disk-like objects that either bent bands of colored light into new directions or had ropes of multi-hued neon light pass through the serrations in the disks to change colors and pitch. It had no bottom, it had no top, it had no definitive edge… it just –WAS-. Just looking at it made Ranma feel so small, so insignificant, she even noticed a few tears slide down her cheeks slightly from the shear presence it emitted.
"Impressive isn't it?" Hild said sliding up next to Ranma.
"Wh-what is it?" Ranma mumbled out through her… awe.
"That… that is the Yggdrassil/Nidhogg Systems Central Core Construct." Hild said with pride in her voice as she too looked at the device that ran all of creation.
"Why are we here?" Ranma asked moments later. To this Hild just giggled and said back playfully, "Why are any of us here?". She of course was joking with the question she got asked the most… what was the meaning of life?… Ranma just stared vacantly at her, the kind of look that says 'are you insane?'.
Hild just looked to Ranma for a second before her gaze is drawn back to the Systems Core again, watching it intently she said to Ranma. "Really Ranma, you can be so dense… tsk tsk… why we're here is simple…" she paused and Ranma didn't even blink as Hild's simple pink dress melted away and was instantly replaced by a skin revealing parody of a nurses white uniform, even with a cap and little red-crosses and latex gloves as she then cackled out, "… we're here to cure death! Muwahahah!!"
With very wide eyes Ranma started to say, "But… but I though you'd…" then Hild cut her off saying, "What? That's I'd just snap my fingers and it's all be done Puh-lease!..." truth was Hild –could- do it that way, but this was more fun, "… I mean as you are now, you're a ghost! Persona non Corpus! I can't have my heir be a ghost! I mean the demonic power alone… ever see a water-balloon burst?" Hild paused as Ranma nodded, remembering those awful things that the hentai-horde had tried to hit 'Him' with several times to get a free peep show, she growled in rememberance, "…Well, as you are now, you're like the water balloon, too much power and you'll –pop- as it were. This is why you need a body! And not just anybody, no, you need your living demonic body!"
"But I'm dead! How can you do that?!" Ranma almost shouted in surprise.
Hild just looked at her for a moment with half-lidded eyes and spoke in a bored voice, "What's life as you know it other than a quirk of biology and electrical impulses? Now watch."
With that Hild made a hand gesture, and a large grey stone slab came from… somewhere, and floated just in front of the two of them, then a swirling black vortex formed at one end and Ranma began to see a bit of red through the vortex…
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Deep in the bowels of the earth under the Tokyo Central Medical complex there was a series of dimly lit and flickering dark corridors, all tiled in an old puce colored tile, many of the corridors had along one wall or another a series of gurney's with either white sheets, or large black body bags on them to cover obvious human remains. Leading down corridor 3-E there is a large set of double stainless steel doors simply marked "Autopsy" in english. Within the first thing that would be seen would be the two green garbed technicians, ever so carefully stitching angry purple wounds, but obvious dead flesh back together on a once beautiful red-headed girl who was spared no modesty in death as she was naked on the steel table. The technician on the right, obviously a man, was carefully cross-stitching around the shoulder to reconnect it with the body, while the other technician a woman was working on the leg.
Off to the other side of the room was an Agent, the non-descript man in a black suit was trying valiantly to not be sick as he watched and listened, and failing miserably.
The only other person in the spartan room was an old grizzled looking chief Coroner in a bloodied green frock, hobbling around the body on the gurney with a cane in one bloodied hand, and a voice recorder in the other as he continued to speak, "… after reviewing, it's more a question to what DIDN'T kill the girl. Each wound of its own accord is fatal, most notably the decapitation of the head at the third vertebrae and the complete bisection of the torso from the hips in a total hemicorporectomy, and the lesser of the shoulder disarticulation and the transfemoral disarticulation…" at this he paused the recorder to hobble over to a desk, and on the desk was a bloodied unsheathed katana, spatu-ken and bloodied bandana-ken, but the coroner went for a manila file and resumed his narration "…but other than that this girl is quite possibly in the best physical condition I've ever seen. I think I'll even write a thesis on her organs…" a speculative look crossed his face as he scratched at the stubble on his face, leaving a bloody smear, "…As I was saying, the report from the preliminary on the rushed blood toxicology panel analysis is… odd to say the least, there were no known pharmacological drugs present, but countless numbers of herbs, primarily Chinese herbs, some known for libido enhancement, others were stimulants while others are thought to be for submission of free will or complete compliance to other individuals commands… truly baffling…" he paused again, this time to lift his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose, uncaring of the death-blood smears left behind "… to conclude my audio report, and with no doubt in my mind, I'm officially signing off this case as homicide with the cause of death being exsanguination via massive dismemberment trauma, at 7:23am and will be handing my findings over to the Imperial Prosecutors Office shortly."
With that all said, he just leaned back into the uncomfortable steel chair, causing his spine to crackle, then just watched as his two technicians finished the mundane piece-work. Then there was a gasp from the woman, the coroners gaze snapped up to where she was looking, and he gaped at what he saw. There was a swirling black… vertical disk thing at the head of the girl… then it began to slide down the girl headfirst. His jaw then dropped as he witnessed that nothing of the corpse is being left behind in the wake of the vortex!
Then as quickly as it had started, it was over, and four people were left staring in shock at the now vacant stainless steel slab that was occupied moments ago…
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As soon as Ranma had seen the bit of red color, the vortex moved from one end of the floating stone slab to the other, and what was left behind it as the vortex vanished made Ranma gasp out is shock and horror… it was her on the slab… or at least it –was- her. With a sense of detachment Ranma walked over and just stared at her dead body from an angle she didn't think possible again after the mirror-clone incident… that being as an outsider. What she saw though maked her sick… seeing lines upon lines of black thread practically covering her body through purpled wounds on her neck, arm, leg and belly… not to mention the Y type stitch work that started above her breasts and went down between them to the navel.
Just as she feels like her stomach was about to bottom out from the sight, she quickly turned around to face Hild, gulping down the knot in her throat and with a shuddering breath asked, "Wh-what now?"
Smiling at the red-head, Hild just says cryptically, "This!" and with that a massive purple glowing magic array of lines, swirling shapes and overlapping stars, just snapped into being in the non-floor under them centered around the slab, as Hild casually walks over to the body, looks at it for a moment, then held out her hand as a glowing ball of light of no real color or definition formed, Hild then looked at the body once more, then to the ball of light and energy as if confirming something, then just held the ball of light over the corpse and let it fall… where it just sank into the skin of the belly without fanfare.
Moments tick by, and just as Ranma was about to say something, she noticed something out with her corpse… it was as if it were blurring, like her vision was out-of focus, then the air around the cold body on the table wavered… once… then twice… then it's unlike anything Ranma had ever seen before, her corpse split apart… but no… not quite… it was now TWO identical corpses on the slab. But it wasn't finished yet as Ranma watched with rapt fascination, also missing Hild's eyes glowing red, as the corpse on the right… the copy maybe? Was taken away by the same type of vortex as before… and the other corpse, at how slowly a dark indigo light began to seep through all the stitched wounds, the stitches then were pushed out of the skin as the skin knitted and healed at an astonishing supernatural speed. What happened next was just as astonishing as the chest of the corpse rose slightly drawing air in through the nose, and the eyes opened slightly revealing milky white and lifeless eyes. Ranma unconsciously pulled the little purple robe she was wearing tighter around her at the sight.
Next Ranma is surprised almost out of her spirit-skin as Hild's voice, quiet but more resonate and ethereal slams though her saying, "Now Ranma, I can't do this part for you, the choice is yours."
Ranma just stared at her own body as it took another small tentative breath, and as if she was being pulled by an unseen force, she walked to the body, and then reached out to touch… but as she does make contact, Ranma's existence flares into whole new definitions of pain as her sight fades into a nothing blank white, and as soon as it started it stopped, leaving Ranma feeling like she ran through a meat grinder. Then there was feeling, and pain, and with a jerking suddenness Ranma bolted upright from the stone slab, ignoring the disorientation of being in a different perception of location, as she coughed and wheezed long shuddering breaths, each one like fire shooting through her and copious amounts of phlegm fly from her nose and mouth, next she's aware of a snare drum going full blast in her head. She was about to cry out in shock and sensory over-load when she realized that the snare drum… was her heart, her –beating- heart. With a few more little coughs, she dragged the back of her hand to clean her face of the yuck there, and then blink-blinked, taking in her sight, first she noticed the small purple robe and slippers were empty on the floor next to the –very- cold slab… meaning she was naked… to this she scrambles off the slab to stand on unsteady feet and reties the robe around her… then glares at Hild who had been giggling.
"There now, that wasn't so bad now was it?" Hild asked with a soothing voice, but despite the process… or her embarrassment, Ranma had to agree… she was already forgetting about it and feeling stronger by the second.
"Well now that you're living and breathing again, would you like to rest for a moment before ascending into a demoness and then linked to the Nidhogg power-tie?" Hild asked her calmly.
Even though Ranma didn't understand the last bit, she nodded and sniffling once she said in a voice of struggling confidence, "Why put off what can be done now?"
Hild smirked at that, then turned to face the Nidhogg systems core again, then spoke in a language older than time that was more like a darkly beautiful song than actual words… then a single point in the massive column of light flared red, and suddenly Ranma had to back away from a young girl that popped into being and was now standing in front of her, scrutinizing her. Only then did Ranma realize that the girl was more like… a red tinted 3-D render or line-art sketch of what a young, maybe 12 year old girl should look like… her features were all there… but just lines of red light and bands of characters of text… and she was hollow, transparent around those lines. Frankly Ranma was freaked out by this girls emptiness, and red tinted gaze. (see A.n. 1.)
"Ranma meet Lilith, the Nidhogg/Yggrdassil Central Systems Core A.I." Hild said reassuringly.
Before Ranma could say anything, the named girl, Lilith, faced Hild, and with a voice lacking almost any inflection spoke resonantly, "I approve. Your command Hild-sama?"
Smirking Hild says to Lilith, "I knew you would… let's see…" she spares a glance at Ranma "…execute capitol priority, Dimakoujo protocols, limited gradual access release to Ranma."
To this Lilith, smirks a ghostly red tinged smirk, and says mechanically, "Compliance." as she faded away.
Hild then faced Ranma and says simply, "Sing."
"What?" Ranma asked confused.
"I said sing, it really doesn't matter what, just sing with me and Lilith. We need your voice." With that Hild turned away from Ranma to face the Central Core, closed her eyes, drew a hand to her chest and sung in deep low tones as haunting melody began, soon there was another voice, Lilith's, Ranma realized. So with an unsure start Ranma just began to hum along trying to match the duet of ethereal sounds as she too closed her eyes.
Minutes pass, the trio of voices filling the void with the sounds of creation itself, dark and haunting, fast and meaningful. Then slowly at first a glowing ring of glyphs and text formed under Ranma, and from this ring hundreds of double-helixes of scrolling text in an array of colors springs up almost like a cage around her. Next the song takes a new turn, as sound like drums and thunder, mixed with trumpets flare are in the mix making an even more dramatic cacophony as the cocoon of light and magical text is struck by a whip of blue lightning directly and continuously fed from the Nidhogg core.
Though for Ranma at this point, everything suddenly stops. No sound. No light. Nothing. Opening her eyes she was greeted to the sigh of nothingness… but slowly the column of light of the Nidhogg faded back into view… but it's different… Ranma realizes why. Before she was outside looking at it… now she was inside the core looking out! Then the dark song slammed back into her with a vengeance.
Then dozens of small spheres of light broke away from the column of light to float lazily around her, then in the din she noticed a whispering of voices, then again it was louder, and louder, finally she could hear it say, "Ranma… Open your mind…" it kept repeating that, a little louder each time, and with it the lights came closer… then the song reached a crescendo, and with banging thunder the voices slam into her, "OPEN YOUR MIND!", and seconds latter each sphere of light smashed into and through her. Each one passing was like a punch to the gut doubling her over, or knocking her back like a rag doll.
With each new ball of light, she began to see flashes and images in her mind.
–FLASH-
A shapeless being of dark and a being of light… it was before the time of the universe itself.
–FLASH-
Hydrogen coalesced. Stars were born.
–FLASH-
Hild with a Man of undistinguishable features, holding a small baby with shocked white hair in a massive golden room filled with strange beings.
–FLASH-
Two armies; one dark and one light battling… all for a Coup D'Etat over creation.
–FLASH-
Hild and the man, and a treaty, the Doublit System. And the greatest sacrifice, Hild having to leave Urd… to Freya, mother of Belldandy and Skuld.
–FLASH-
The son of a carpenter leading prayer in a temple.
–FLASH-
Armies of man marching, and bombs dropping bringing senseless death.
–FLASH-
A black haired boy in Nerima ward of Japan is born.
–FLASH-
A mother almost eagerly singing away her child to lift her burden, unawares of the future pain…
–FLASH-
Stars.
–FLASH-
Lives.
–FLASH-
An image of Ranma herself within the column of light, being struck by dark light... changed.
–FLASH-
Akane pouring a kettle of water over a piglet with a smile… then kissing the man…
–FLASH-
A blond haired woman with haunted red eyes and a manic smile tearing into a corpse with her bare hands.
–FLASH-
Power!
–FLASH-
Infinite knowledge.
–FLASH-
The flashes kept getting faster, and faster. As soon as they came, they were gone, leaving Ranma to only vaguely remember.
–FLASH-
Stars… moving so fast, stars so fast.
–FLASH-
She was moving so fast in the stars, the sights, a horizontal line… it was stars… blurs of light… so much… too much… then There Was Light all encompassing!
Then as suddenly as a snapping of a rubber-band, it stopped. Once more in the void in front of the Nidhogg… then she stumbles in anguish at the loss… of everything… the feeling… she could feel the things she saw slipping away from her mind…
She reached up with her hand to clutch at her head… but stopped. Her hand… was blue… no it was on fire… no, it was flames in every imaginable shade of blue, all roiling chaotically just under her skin. 'What I wouldn't give for a mirror" was an absent thought… but shockingly a large frameless mirror came into being and floated in front of her, and what was reflected was shocking. It was her… but more like her skin was transparent and barely containing a raging inferno of blue hell-fire… and her eyes made her gasp as they were dark swirling motes of light of infinite depth… Then there's another reflection in the mirror. Ranma whirled around to face it, and is even more shocked… it's Hild… but not Hild. It's as if it was just an outline of Hild, a shape cut-out from reality, then filled with the night sky, as she was black and empty, save for small points of twinkling stars filling the outlined void of darkness in the shape of Hild… and the horrendous spinning red galaxies of her eyes boring into Ranma's soul… literally.
Reality as Ranma knew it suddenly snapped again, and she was looking at Hild… plain… though eccentric Hild, who smiled at her, and just pointed back to the mirror. Turning slowly, weary of what she might see, Ranma looked in the mirror again… and gasped, as she's looking at herself, loose red hair falling dramatically on her shoulders framing her face that now sported a bright red inverted six pointed starburst shape on her forehead and smaller 5 pointed stars on her cheeks, but then her gaze travels lower to see her revived body in a shimmering red Chinese inspired high collar dress… but a dress with slits up to the hips on both sides revealing a great amount of toned leg and the knee high laced leather boots, and an opening at the chest in the shape of an acute star-shape revealing a luscious, almost indecent amount of obviously bra-less cleavage, and the lowest tail of the opening showing off her belly-button, much like what Hild is now wearing.
"Oh my…" were Ranma's final words, after being imbued with Infinite Infernal Cosmic power… she fainted with a slight nose-bleed due from her own reflection.
"Well… that was unexpected…" Hild muttered lamely as she opened a gateway back to the Palace, as she poignantly ignored the sniggering of a certain A.I. program…
- - -
- - -
Back in the Tokyo Coroners office, they didn't know how long ago, the corpse of the red-headed girl just fazed back into being on the steel table via a similar black vortex. They'd all been silent at the sight.
Finally the chief Coroner pulled a flask from his desk and took a good long drag, then said, "I'm 3 months from pension, I did NOT see a magic vortex take a body, and then bring it back… did any of you see a magic vortex take a body then bring it back?"
The other three in the room shared a look then shook their heads 'No'.
"Good…" the coroner mumbled as he took another drag from the flask, then shouted, "… get back to work!."
It was just going to be one of those days…
- - -
- - -
Th'rignal paused to raise his hand at the massive golden door as he took in a deep breath to calm his nerves, then leaned in to knock… but they opened for him. But as they opened there was a pressure change as hot green tinged gas bellowed out, Th'rignal just about gagged to death from the stench of concentrated death in the gas as he then swallowed the vomit that threatened to rise in his throat.
Gasping in one more breath of almost fresh air, Th'rignal strode proudly into the chambers of his master Prince Sith. The first thing he noticed once his eyes stopped watering, was the absolute lacking of light, even with the doors open to the torch lit corridor, light just wouldn't come in… until a faint red glow began at the far wall, revealing a large golden throne… and the wall of body parts just behind it… some parts were even still juicy… or twitching… But the red glow did nothing to really illuminate the room.
He then stopped walking as he heard something, like something sliding, then there was a soft feminine laugh from somewhere in the darkness, then silence again except for the sound of sliding.
Kneeling in the middle of the chamber and gulping down the knot in his throat, Th'rignal speaks in a wavering voice, "Y-you w-wished to see me, M-my Lady?"
There was again that soft feminine almost insane laughter, then Sith spoke, her voice a true sirens call of amused laughing madness, "Yes… oh yes dear Th'rignal-chan… rumor has it Hild herself paid you a visit yesterday… why's that pray-tell?"
At hearing her, Th'rignal just cursed himself… she already knew everything… but was going to toy with him. At least he had his affairs in order.
Gulping once again he spoke, "Y-yes Sith-sama… Hild came for a soul I had… err… um… procured from Midgard… and well…" he was cut off by her command of, "Silence!"
There was that sliding sound in the distance of the dark again, as Sith spoke again, "And tell me Th'rignal-chan… was there something… special… about this soul that Hild herself would take heed… much less go to the chambers of a pathetic disgusting thing such as yourself?"
Th'rignal almost had enough courage to glower at her belittling him… but not quite as he responded, "N-no My Lady Prince Sith… nothing too peculiar… other than Jusenkyo's touch of the Nyannichuan and an above the board level of Martial fighting skill…" he stopped as he heard Sith mutter to herself, "I wonder…" then she muttered, "She wouldn't…" then she growled, "She would actually…" she paused, "To think she'd make a human…" she all but spat the word, "… her heiress… the outrage!"
Then there was silence once more, aside from the sound of sliding.
"Maybe… just maybe it's time…" Sith spoke to herself, ignoring Th'rignal's presence, "… yes, old contingency plans may just be useful after all… just need to convince the others and…" she paused again, then shouted jubilantly, "YES! We WILL finally do it!" with that the chamber was flooded with golden light revealing to Th'rignal the horrors told in red blood splattered on every surface in the room, and Prince Sith herself in all her terrible glory, iridescent gold hair, her golden pupilless eyes, gold tinted bare breasted skin and the coils of her golden and black scaled snakes body bellow her waist, and her talon like hands glinting in the light.
Suddenly a mad laugh escaped her throat, and before Th'rignal can blink, she has traveled the room, and has coiled herself around him in a crushing grip!
"Yes… yes Th'rignal-chan!..." she paused to run the backside of a talon up his chest and lick an ear lobe with her forked tongue, "… it'll be wonderful! To finish what we all started so long ago!" Th'rignal's eyes widened at that, 'she can mean what I think she means!? Can she?!' he though franticly as he struggled against her coils.
Suddenly Sith released Th'rignal as she again laughs madly, then she speaks to him, freezing him in his trek to escape, "Oh thank you Th'rignal-chan, you've been such a help! And I don't think I'll kill you as a reward!..." he breathed a sigh of relief and was about to thank her when she again spoke, "…but you let Hild go with that soul far too easily, and did not tell me, so there must be punishment!"
And with that said and before he could scream, she'd used a talon and had severed two of his tentacles from his groin. He bit back the worst of the screaming to just whimpering at the shear amount of pain from the brutal severing of sensitive flesh. Through gasping pain and blood-loss Th'rignal said to Sith in a breaking voice, "T-thank you… S-sith-sama… for your…g-generosity… you're…t-too k-kind!" and with that he began his limp out of the room, but not missing Sith beam a mad smile at him and say happily, "I know!" as she began to chew on the bloodied ends of his two precious severed tentacles with her needlelike teeth… as she though happily to herself all the ways possible to torture the gods and most importantly Kami-Sama…
- - - - - -
A.n. 1 – I was trying to describe The Red Queen holographic A.I. of Umbrella Corp. from the film "Resident Evil".
A.n. 2 – I did the very base of Ranma's costume off of that in Devil Hunter Yohko.
T/B/C!