AN: Some of you are going to have some questions on how and why I did something in this chapter. See the Ending Author's Note for the details.

AN2: Seeing as this chapter disappeared from this site a few hours after I put it up, but before any of you saw it, I'm reposting. Also this site ate my last review of the last chapter, before I ever saw it. If the person who made review number thirty five reads this, I never saw your review and I would appreciate it if you had something to say beyond 'Good Job, Update Soon' or 'This Sucks Rocks' for you to say it in your review of this chapter. Thank you.

A BLACK HEART STILL BEATS

CHAPTER TWO

THE BLACK AND THE WHITE MEET THE GREY

Midgard: Nerima Japan: the Tendo house: moments latter

Ranma was waiting by the closed door as Kasumi led the group of heavenly and hellish beings that he had let in to the living room table, saying "Oh, you're just in time for dinner. Every one else is out of the house, but Ranma's friends are always welcome to stay. Won't you please join us while we eat?"

While Ranma stayed by the door waiting for the last two guests for this little impromptu dinner party, the representatives from Asgard and Niflheim, especially Urd and Skuld, were looking between the serenely smiling Kasumi and the equally serenely smiling Belldandy, noticing the almost identical looks and aura of peace and tranquility coming from them, while Belldandy said "Of course we will accept."

While they were shaking their heads at the sight of two beings that seemed so similar in soul, Ranma was answering the knocking door while saying "Ghoul, Leech, so good of you to finally join us. Kasumi's got dinner ready, and every one else is out of the house for reasons that are easily guessable, so why don't you come on in and join us for dinner?"

"Sure my boy." Happosai answered first.

"I'd be honored to son in law." Cologne then answered.

"Good. Well come on in." Ranma replied, stepping aside to let them in.

As Kasumi was carrying in the first part of the first course of dinner, she saw the two diminutive old elders and said "Grandpa, Matriarch Cologne are you joining us for dinner as well? I better set another two places then."

Ranma then said "Nah, why don't you just bring out the next part of this course while I do that?"

"Thank you Ranma dear." Kasumi said in reply with a warm smile.

After Ranma and Kasumi left the room for the kitchen, Urd whispered to Skuld "She's so like Bell, it's creepy." Skuld just nodded in reply. All the others present heard it as well, but it took Cologne and Happosai a moment to just sense out exactly who this 'Bell' was. After they did so, they too found them selves agreeing with every one else present. Every one else except Belldandy, whom just looked surprised.

As Ranma came back in ahead of Kasumi holding Happosai's and Cologne's eating supplies, he set them out in front of the two old ones, while Kasumi laid out the second and last part of the first course of dinner.

Ranma helped Kasumi serve the table, and then Kasumi said "Eat up everyone!" in a high and cheerful voice.

After they started to eat, Ranma then looked at Hild, determining her to be the leader of this group by the three factors of power, presence and her obvious skill and experience, and asked her "So what do a bunch of Demonesses and Goddesses want with me?"

Hild looked up at Ranma while eating and seemed to think about just how to answer that for a moment. "First Ranma, let me introduce you to all of us, and then I will try to answer you question. This is my daughter Urd." She said, gesturing to the divine source of power that Ranma felt was the second strongest power level in the group after Hild.

Urd looked up and said "Hiya!"

"And that's my other daughter Marller." She said gesturing to power level number three that Ranma had previously felt. Marller said "Hello." In a cool voice.

"These are Urd's half sisters Belldandy and Skuld." Giving names to power levels four and five that Ranma had felt out. As they greeted him, he had to double check just whom had said hello when Belldandy spoke.

"And this is Pandora. She is a Demoness I had assigned to watch your life." As Ranma looked surprised, Pandora smiled and said "So nice to finally meet you in person Ranma."

"And I am Hild. I rule Niflheim, or hell if you prefer." Hild finished up with her introductions.

Ranma and all the other mortals at the table looked completely un-nonplused at the statements coming from Hild. They saw stranger while they showered in this ward.

Seeing their looks of obvious acceptance of the facts and their resigned looks Hild started up. "It started twenty three years ago Ranma, six years before your birth. Your father Genma had watched a Goddess grant a mortal a wish. He wanted one as well, but he knew from his observations that he would never qualify for a Heavenly wish. So he looked up the opposite side. He soon discovered that he would never qualify for a free hellish wish either, but he could do something else. Sell a soul for a wish. Now he had summoned a Demoness to sell his own soul, but we would not take it. For why buy what you already own?" Hild said with a slight chuckle. "As soon as the Demoness informed him that we would not take his soul for that exact reason, he decided to, after a moment's shock, to sell his first born child's soul for a wish. The Demoness punted the request up the ladder and it was approved. So Genma got his wish for your soul Ranma." Hild said tonelessly while Ranma and the other mortals looked on in shock. Seeing that she was not going to be interrupted by screams of outrage, or anything else for that matter, Hild Continued.

"Now as to why we accepted your soul instead of his, it is as I said. His soul was already ours by his actions in life. We do not buy the souls of the wicked, no matter what you may hear in popular myth. No, we only buy the souls of the pure, and you can't get much purer than not even born yet. Now when you were born, I was informed and checked up on you, as per normal procedure. Seeing that you were born with the blessing or cures as you prefer to see it 'May you live in interesting times', I decided to keep my eye on you, for entertainment purposes if nothing else." Hild took a breath and then continued after a second.

"I sadly got more attached to you then I should have and developed a slight soft spot where you were concerned." Hild chuckled and said "You were such a cute child. Now after I got back from a month long business trip around my realms, I discovered that Genma had trained you in the Neko-Ken. I was not pleased." Hild said coldly. "It had been banned for a reason from the mortal realm for a reason, and that reason is it is one of my realms lower level torture techniques that had been modified by an evil cat cult. We don't like being stole from, and what they did with it was criminal even to our eyes." Hild said in a still cold voice. Warming up her voice, she then said

"So after I found that out, I assigned Pandora to watch over you when I was busy. As the years went by, I found my soft spot for you changing a little. A little after you arrived here in Nerima, I became slightly attracted to you. But I thought very little of it at first, for I knew it could go nowhere in the long run. Then, after you defeated Saffron, I was in a panic, for I thought that Asgard would want retribution for your act. When in my panic I realized I was willing to go to war with Asgard if they went after you Ranma, I realized that it was more then just a 'slight attraction' on my part for you." As Hild said this, everyone in the room, Goddesses Demonesses and Mortals alike were shocked. The Goddesses because they did not truly believe Hild was in love with Ranma until she admitted her willingness to go to war with them over his welfare. The way she said it let them know she was telling the truth all along, for they could finally detect no lie coming from that statement. Urd looked at Ranma in shock, wondering just what her mother saw in him.

The Demonesses however were shocked because, while they knew that Hild was in love with Ranma, they had no idea that she cared about him enough to start a war that could tear reality it's self apart over him. Mara decided to keep a closer, much closer eye on her mother's potential boyfriend, for even if she did not get along too well with her mother due to her mother being the Queen and her working for her, she still loved her and wanted her to be happy. Pandora on the other hand finally saw just how important her current job was, and got very nervous about all the time she almost screwed up on the job. Vowing to be much more careful and watchful, she schooled the look of shock and horror on her face.

The mortals in the room were just shocked period. To think that the Queen of Hell itself was so in love with Ranma as to be willing to start a war with Heaven over his welfare… well it was a shock to them, Ranma even thought, after he could think that is, 'Nobody has ever cared for me that much.'

After everyone got out of their shocked state, Hild continued with "So I then set up a meeting with Kami-Sama, to see what was going on about you Ranma and some other things. He eased my concern by stating that Asgard itself owes you a slight debt Ranma." Seeing the look of slight shock starting to reappear on the mortals faces, Hild explained before they got more anything "You see Ranma, Saffron is a Sixth Class Limited Deity. You would call him a Demi-God. His domain of influence is Self Powered Rebirth. Thing that are reborn over and over again by their own power, for example a Phoenix, are under his domain. To better understand his domain, he is occasionally reborn as well. Well the last time he went through his rebirthing, he went a little crazy. Unfortunately Asgard did not notice this little fact, and you had to deal with him. By killing him and restarting his current rebirthing process, you restored his metal faculties to normal, thus Kami-Sama feels that Asgard owes you a very slight debt, for a crazy Demi-God can do some serious damage while on Midgard, or earth as you call it." Taking a slightly deep breath, Hild continued with "And then he gave me permission to see you to tell you these things, and to talk to you about something else. I would like to talk to you about it in private if I may."

As Hild fell silent, Ranma thought he knew just what she wanted to talk to him about. Wondering 'Just why all these girls want me so much?' He said aloud "Well how about after dinner? We're letting all of this good food get cold by just letting it sit while we talk, and I for one am hungry."

"It would be a shame to let such a wonderfully prepared meal get ruined like that." Hild conceded, and then they resumed eating. All were silent with their own thoughts as the dinner continued.

Midgard: Nerima Japan: the Tendo dojo: shortly after dinner

Ranma was on the ball for once concerning a possible relationship coming his way, and said to start off with, before he got into big trouble with everyone "Hild, as flattering as it is that you are interested in me, I think I will have to decline. Not out of none interest, but out of too many previous engagements. It's a shame because you seem really nice, a lot nicer then most of the stories told about you, and you seem even nicer then the other girls after me most of the time, but I am engaged to three women at this point in time. And I can't even marry one of them with out ruining the other two's honor. Not that I even want to marry any of them." Ranma said shaking his head. "I see no way out of this for me other then to never marry anyone of them. I must wait until they decide I'm not worth the trouble and the wait. I can not get into a relationship with you at this point in time without tarnishing my and their honor as well."

"Ranma," Hild began "I'm glad you see me as not being the evil bitch that everyone else, even my daughters, see me as." Hild shook her head and said "I am evil though, but I am a necessary evil."

"How so?" Ranma asked, intrigued. Even if he could not have a relationship with her, he still thought he could like her, and maybe be friends with her.

"Well Ranma, think about it. I am the Queen of Hell. It is my duty to be evil because of that. I was not always an evil Demonic Queen, but once I took the position, I knew I would have to be evil and do evil to do my job and my duty to this universe correctly. So I became evil. But even if I had to be evil, I decided that I, personally, would only practice necessary evil. Evil for the good of the universe in a way." Hild said with a chuckle.

"Just how did you become the Queen of Hell?" Ranma asked curiously.

Hild looked sad and just said in a soft and morose tone of voice "That is a story for another day Ranma."

Seeing the look of utter sadness displayed upon Hild's face, Ranma just nodded for his reply.

Wiping the sad look off Ranma's face, Hild grinned a manic grin which made Ranma nervous "Ranma, you know I'm famous for my deal making right?" Ranma just nodded, wondering where she was going with this. She had seemed so nice before, but now, she seemed utterly scary. "Well what if I said I want to make one with you?" Hild asked.

"Gulping, Ranma asked nervously "What sorta deal?"

Hild noticed his nervousness and said softly "I'm sorry Ranma, I didn't mean to make you nervous with that statement, I was just trying to be funny while I told you of an idea I had."

Ranma nodded, feeling that she was telling him the truth and then asked "What was this idea?"

Hild then told him of her idea "Well I'll help you get out of all your unwanted engagements, honorably and with-in mortal means," Hild began, then clarifying that for Ranma when he frowned "I mean by that, it will all be by what a mortal can do. No Divine or Demonic intervention stating 'He's not yours' or anything like that. I'll just be helping you get out of your unwanted engagements by ways you could do, if you knew of them."

"And since this is a deal, what would I have to do?" Ranma asked.

"Try out a relationship with me afterwards. No promise of undying love or marriage, no strings attached, just a stab at a relation ship to see if we could work out."

"You mean like a few dates like normal people start off their relation ships with? Just trying to be in a normal relation ship, and if it doesn't work out too bad maybe we can stay friends kind of thing?" Ranma asked in shock.

"Yep. That's about right." Hild said lightly.

"And you'll be helping me get out of them, not doing all the work yourself or doing otherworldly intervention or nothing?" Ranma asked, making sure of that part.

"Correct. I know you'd prefer it that way." Hild replied.

"You got that right." Ranma said in response to Hild's reply. Then he said "I don't really see a down side to this, so sure, why not?"

Hild smiled and said "You won't be sorry Ranma. Now who should we go after first?" She asked Ranma.

EAN: As to just why I ranked the Goddesses and Demonesses power levels like I did, it's simple. Hild is number one for obvious reasons. Urd is number two for a few reasons. One, she is both Urd and Kami-Sama's child, thus in reality, purely power wise, the third most powerful being in that reality. She just is limited by being a second class Goddess on the usage of her power, not the amount of power she truly has. Ranma could not sense the limitations, only the pure power level. Reason two is in this fic only. She is on of the few survivors of Ragnorok, even if she can not remember it. And the older Gods and Demons that survived from that time are more powerful then the ones born in this present time.

As to Marller be stronger then Belldandy and Skuld, those three have about equal power potential due to their parentage, at least in this fic they do, but Marller uses more of it as a higher ranking being. She is a Demon First Class Unlimited, while Belldandy is a Goddess First Class Limited, for as soon as Belldandy granted Keiichi's wish, she became a Limited First Class Goddess. Again at least in this fic. And Ranma just sensed that Marller puts out slightly more power then Belldandy. The rest of the group is obvious as to why I ranked them just where I did.

So who is going to be first to be cut off Ranma Fiancée list? See in the next chapter.