Chapter 2: The Recruitment and the Heist
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Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ or Yu Yu Hakusho.
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Ranma was beginning to feel on edge, much like a cornered animal. Nearly two weeks ago the red-haired demon boy had issued a challenge and a threat. He was hunting her, and she, in turn, hunted him. He had allowed her to follow him to his school, where he blended in seamlessly with the human students. One day, at lunch, a smaller demon boy with spiky black hair appeared near him as well. Both had looked directly at her before the small one vanished and the redhead got up and walked away. Ranma turned to leave but noticed a rose, with its stem imbedded in the concrete right next to where her head had been from her vantage point on the ledge of the school building.
But today was different as he had seemingly insulted her in front of his human peers. Nothing specific, but it seemed like he was mocking her with subtle glances and stinging comments, but her pride refused to let her take it lying down. Her pride as a martial artist was one of the very few things she had left.
Ranma decided to confront him as he left the school. She leapt off of the school roof, twisting to land on her feet and a single flat palm in a wide spread tri-point landing in front of her fellow redhead. He seemed calm and ready for a fight, and with a small smile he spoke up, "It seems as if I have a challenger. From the Nerima ward no less."
This revelation sent murmurs through the crowd.
"Shuichi can fight?"
"Of course he can! I bet he does it to stay in shape. But who's the girl?"
"That's Ranma from Nerima! I heard she had disappeared though!"
"Why is she here then?"
Ranma ignored the banter of the crowd, glaring at Kurama, "So fox boy, where are the other two, the giant and the midget?"
"Hiei wanders around and Gouki has some business to take care of today." Kurama replied evenly.
"Why did you challenge me?"
"We have a job that needs to be done, but we need one more to fill the roster. Hiei has been watching you for nearly a year, ever since your final fight in Nerima, as brutal as it was."
Ranma scoffed. At one point in time, the reminder of that fight would have weighed on her conscious. But over the long months she had grown cynical and bitter in regards to the morons in Nerima. Hell, all the morons in the world in general. She could now look back and get some dark satisfaction from the pain she had caused that day. Something had awoken at Ryoga's words all those months ago, and it, through her, craved battle and blood.
"Follow me if you can..." Ranma said in a low hiss, causing the boy's eyes to narrow. Ranma flipped backwards onto the wall before dashing off.
"You won't get away from me!" Kurama shouted taking off after her on street level. It was a good thing it was a half-day for the school. Kurama quickly used a few boxes and a vendor's stand to level himself on the wall. Ranma was running low and fast along the wall, and Kurama had to catch up. Suddenly Ranma's foot slipped and she cried out in surprise.
"Get her Shuichi!" one of the students yell, they were following the running fighters. Kurama wasted no time in leaping after her spinning to connect a kick to her ribs, only for him to catch a menacing grin on her face.
'A trick!' he thought as Ranma blurred away.
"Behind you," she whispered, both of her feet smashing into his back. Kurama flew across the intersection, crashing through the open door of a super market and landing in a pile of fresh fruits.
'I won't be able to use my plants with my classmates watching us,' Kurama thought as he looked at his bag, 'Looks like it was a good idea to buy a backup.'
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"What's wrong Fox-boy?" Ranma jeered, standing on top of a street light, ignoring the shouts of anger from the students below her, "You picked this fight, now come out here and finish it!"
With a crack, Ranma's cheek was sliced open.
"Tch, a weapon user." Ranma snarled as Kurama landed on a tree branch behind her.
"Yes, though I favor a slightly different kind of whip, this will have to do." In Kurama's hand was a standard nine foot bullwhip. Strengthened with some type of energy Ranma didn't recognize, "You won't go far."
Kurama started into a combo that had Ranma flipping and dodging from streetlight to streetlight. He was able to wrap it around her arm, but she grabbed the whip with both hands and yanked. Kurama decided to let go instead of being pulled along with it and rushed her while she was off balance. As he lashed out with his left leg he noticed something, 'When did she lose her shoes?'
Ranma allowed herself to fall backwards to avoid the kick, gripping the steel support bar of the streetlight with her toes, and used the momentum to flip herself over the wall of the local park. Kurama gave chase.
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"Seems like Kurama is having a good bit of fun down there," Gouki said, watching from his and Hiei's perch. The two fighters had moved into the park with Ranma diving in and out of the foliage to get glance strikes against Kurama, and Kurama himself had been luring her to a clearing that even those human classmates couldn't follow them. Hiei removed his headband, using the power behind it to hypnotize the humans to believe the two fighters had run to the other side of the park.
"Now we shall see her true power." Hiei stated as he re-wrapped the headband around his forehead.
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'It seems Hiei wants me to draw out her true power,' Kurama thought as he sensed his classmates rush off in a different direction.
"Tell me, Ranma. How did you figure out that I'm part fox?" Kurama asked, "I was sure I disguised my scent well."
"You can't hide your aura. It reeks of a Yoko fox." she chuckled darkly.
"And you bear the scent of a nekomata." Kurama said softly, pulling a rose from his hair. Ranma's sinister grin turned feral.
"You've figured me out. Maybe... you should know what happened to me." Ranma slowly began to stalk around the clearing, circling Kurama, "When I was a child, my father found a training manual. Dig a pit ten meters deep and five meters wide. Make sure the walls straight and smooth. Fill the pit with cats of all sizes and variety, preferably feral or stray, and leave them down there until the start to starve, but not so long enough that they would start to kill each other for food. Next, take a child, under ten, the younger the better. Tie them with some sort of fish product and throw them into the pit, sealing it up after them."
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As Kurama felt the presence of Ranma's inner demon coming to the fore, so did Hiei.
"Gouki, be ready to step in. This is the power she used that drew my attention. That of a nekomata..."
"Aw, sounds like the little guy has a crush," Gouki teased as he and Hiei hit the ground running.
"Shut up you fool."
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As Ranma had told her story, her stalking became more of a prowl, leading her to gain a distinctly feline gait. A strange mix of energy pour out of her, one had the feel of demon energy, but the other was denser than human spirit energy. Comparing the two, most human Spirit energy was like a blade, while this energy was blunt and deadly, like an oni's club. The energy was taking shape around her, shifting and roiling. It had taken a reddish-orange hue as it finish forming around her.
'Demonic Shadow Cloak, this is less of a possession or merging of souls, and more of a binding of the demon to her soul.' Kurama readied the rose grasped between his fingers, 'Hiei and Gouki are on their way to interfere if need be. This is a fight in which I can no longer hold back.'
"Pops, the bastard, thought it didn't work the first time. So he kept throwing me back into the pit. A day became a week, and a week became two weeks. I soon lost track of time. One day I burst out of the pit, mauling the old man. The Neko-ken was partially successful." The aura had taken the shape of a human sized Nekomata, surrounding her slouched form, "But then, nearly a year ago, something woke up. I, and everyone else, thought the Neko-ken was a martial arts technique. But it's not. It's a ritual, to summon and bind a demon to one's soul. The one in me, she only ever protected me, even if I hated her. She told me what I am, what I would become. All I wanted was to be left alone! But no, you and your friends had to irritate me, you three are even worse than that ghost boy that was hanging around me! Just leave me alone and DIE!"
Ranma leapt forward, swinging with her right. Kurama noticed she was nearly in a complete berserker state, the aura moved as she did, but with a slight delay. If she hit, it would hit as well scoring two hits. He had to gain distance and fast.
"Rose Whip!"
The two combatants threw themselves at each other, the red haired girl dodging or countering the thorny whip wielded by the red haired boy. They began to blur in and out of existence while exchanging blows or slashes. The two fighters suddenly disengaged and jumped apart, in order to observe each other.
"Well now Ranma, it seems as if we are both near our end. One final attack and this match will be over," Kurama spoke, almost as if promising what he said was the truth. Ranma crouched low as Kurama readied his whip, waiting for a mutual signal. Suddenly leaping forward, Ranma sent both of her cloak's front paws towards her opponent, the legs of the cloak stretching impossibly as the attack rushed forward, as his whip seemed to weave around her attacks. Both attacks struck home as the two fighters failed to dodge.
For a moment, both stood still before Kurama asked, "Would you be of some assistance Hiei? Both of us are going to need medical attention."
As both redheads started to fall forward, two blurs appeared out of the bush to catch them. The two blurs turned into Hiei and Gouki
"Kurama, I thought I asked you to test her, not get yourself killed," Hiei said as he propped the fox demon against a nearby tree.
"It was necessary. Anyone who has even partial mastery of the Neko-ken is deadly."
"Cat Fist? What's that?" Gouki asked, having never heard of such a style or attack in his considerable life.
"We'll discuss this later Gouki. Do you want me to bring a demon healer that's been hiding nearby, or take you to those human doctors to keep up your facade?" Hiei asked with a slight sneer on his face.
"Human doctors, we don't want to scare off our new partner now, do we?" Kurama said, wiping some of the blood of his forehead, "Most of our wounds are superficial, but I tipped my whip's thorns with a sedative from demon world. That should keep her under for the next half hour or so, long enough to reach the hospital."
Making their way out of the woods, with only a short pause to retrieve the normal whip Kurama had abandoned halfway to the clearing, Kurama's classmates surrounded them.
"Hey Shuichi, what happened? It looks like you got mauled." One of the few boys not staring at the redhead on Gouki's back asked.
"It may look bad, but it's only superficial damage. If she hadn't underestimated my skill with my whip, she would have won." Even as they tried to get an answer out of him, Kurama said no more as he leaned on Hiei's shoulder.
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"Hello mother." Kurama said, allowing his bedridden mother to take in her son's bandaged appearance and the whip coiled in his hand.
"What happened to you, Shuichi?" Shiori asked, placing her hand on the bandage that wrapped around his left forearm.
"I did not wish to tell you before, to keep you from worrying, but I have been learning how to fight. Between the street gangs and lone punks like the boy, Urameshi I believe, the streets have gotten dangerous." Kurama sighed as he sat down, "These are from a challenge match with another Martial Artist. I picked the fight mother, having heard that the girl was one of the best. I barely won. At the moment she's a floor down getting checked over, so I decided to explain it all now."
Shiori gazed at her son's down cast face, fully expecting her to be angry or disappointed. He was a growing man, learning to stand on his own two feet. She was just surprised that her scholarly son had got into a fight, much less be the one that picked it. With a knock on the door, a short boy entered.
"What is it Hiei?" Kurama asked, looking away from his mother.
"Ranma's up, and we need you to take her home. Gouki has work to do and I'm needed somewhere else." With that the spiky haired boy vanished once more, leaving Shiori with her son.
"Who was that Shuichi?"
"A friend and a coworker, from that security company I told you about. I go on my first job here soon. Hiei and his partner Gouki are part of the teams that test the security of the buildings for the hiring firms, and I sit with the owners while the two of them get to us."
Shiori understood that something within that was a lie. She knew that her son would work with that boy by breaking into the buildings with him. He was such a caring boy, trying to keep her from worrying. Once she got better, she would try to get him to open up more. He hid away too much trying to be less of a burden on her, trying to be to mature for his age. Another knock on the door lead to her first sight of the girl her son had fought.
"My, Shuichi, maybe you should stop fighting girls and try to know them instead. She's much prettier than the ones that normally follow you around." Shiori teased, producing a questioning glance from the girl, and a sudden blush from her son. He had let go of his mask of maturity for a second and looked every bit of the embarrassed teenager he was.
"Mother!" Kurama cried softly. She never acted like this before!
"I'm just teasing you, my son. Don't worry Shuichi, I'm not angry with you. You never showed any interest in fighting before, so it surprised me. Just please, let your poor mother know when you get into these fights, so I can have the bandages ready when you come home."
Kurama nodded, before helping Shiori get comfortable in her bed.
"Let's go, Ranma-san. We have much to discuss."
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Ranma watched the three men uneasily. The small one with spiky hair, Hiei, had explained their plan and the Artifacts of Darkness. These three were to take the Artifacts for themselves while she retrieved a fourth one. When she asked what would happen if she refused, the big guy, Gouki, revealed himself to be a Kyukonki, or a soul sucking demon.
"You die here little Missy," the red skinned demon growled out. Ranma's eyes narrowed as the demon took a step back, clutching his cheek after Ranma disappeared.
"Don't think I'm the little girl that would scream in fright dumb-ass. After all, a half-dragon princess I happen to know is a lot scarier than you." The redhead said as she blurred back into existence behind the large demon.
Gouki moved his hand from his face, revealing that his cheek had been completely sliced through from lip to jaw bone.
'But my skin is harder than rock when I'm in this form!' Gouki cried out mentally as he held the two sides of the cut together and letting them heal back to normal while Hiei took over for him.
"Ignore the fool. The treasure you will be going after is held in a different part of the castle. Koenma himself holds it at his desk, though he can only use it to prevent any foreseen, and sometimes unforeseen, collapses of Spirit World itself, or his father, the mighty King Enma, will punish him severely. Think of it as a counter to the three treasures we will take, and if we try to do something you don't like, you can stop us from using the items to do so. It's like creating universal rules that everyone has to obey. What do you say?"
Ranma clenched her fists. The runt drove a hard bargain. A sacred artifact that could solve her problems, help her destroy her enemies, restore her honor, her manhood! That sealed the deal for her, and her savage and cruel smirk said it all.
"We go tonight, while Koenma is busy making sure that runt demon Jyaki doesn't escape again."
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It had been pathetically easy for Ranma to penetrate the security around Koenma's office. While Hiei, Kurama, and Gouki were causing a ruckus on the lower levels, Ranma was to find the Journal. Slipping through the doors at the back of the cubical like office that the ogres were supposed to work, she noticed some one was still there.
"Who are you, Ogre?" Ranma asked, looking at the large blue Ogre leaning against the desk with a spiked metal club at his side. The balding Ogre looked up, his glare sending her a disappointed look that caused her to sneer.
"Jorge Saotome, your Ogre." He said standing up, towering two feet taller than her.
"Explain, what do you mean my Ogre?" Ranma asked, her eyes narrowing at the Ogre's family name.
"Whenever a human or demon of exceptional power or destiny is born, an Ogre is born as well so Spirit World Administrations can track them, in a way. Such as when you die, I die. As you turn into a demon, I get stronger and more brutish, while I gain more intelligence and other such traits when you do something exceptionally heroic, bordering a divine action. It's all cumulative you see. As your demonic side has been emerging over the past few months, I've gotten crankier, getting into more fights with Lord Koenma. Before I was his right hand Ogre, now I'm on the verge of losing my job here and being relegated to guard duty." Jorge stepped pass her heading towards the door, "I won't tell you what to do, you shouldn't even know I exist. I'm going against several laws and a direct order in order just to talk to you. These past months as well as the ones ahead are your ordeal, your obstacles to overcome. Koenma will be sending the Spirit Detective after you and the three downstairs. We probably won't meet again anytime soon. Goodbye Ranma, follow your soul to the path best for you."
Ranma let the Ogre, Jorge, walk away. She didn't know why, but she did. His life was tied to hers, and perhaps her to his. They were so different, yet she could see her former courage blazing in his eyes. Looking down at the desk, the Journal was sitting in the center of the desktop, turned towards her. He knew she was coming, and he left it out for her.
"Sorry Jorge, but right now I need this notebook more than your boss does," Ranma said softly to herself before grinning a decidedly cold and cynical grin as she flipped it open, seeing that something had happened with the Ghost-boy, and he had tried to fix it with the Journal, "But when people like your boss play by the rules others set, its only because they're too scared to be caught cheating the rules set by others."
Ranma dashed out of the offices to the entrance of Spirit Kurama used to sneak them in. They were waiting for her. As Hiei and Gouki left, Kurama spoke to her.
"It seems fate has smiled on you, Ranma. You got your Artifact with the least amount of trouble." Kurama said, his voice taking the friendly monotone that he had begun using around Hiei and Gouki when the two of them had met the two pure demons in the warehouse after they had left the Hospital.
"I don't believe in fate, everything is just... a simple coincidence. Even you can't sense the life energies that still linger around you because you're so enamored with your demonic and spirit energies. You are a living, breathing human just as I am. Yet we sided with demons to get what we want. It doesn't matter who you were before, Shuichi Kurama, because everything you were is gone." Turning to face him directly, Ranma sneered, "Do we have an understanding, Yoko Minamino?"
'What an interesting, if not troubling, line of thought. But it's not like I have questioned myself along those lines before.' Kurama thought. Ranma stepped through the portal to the Living World, and he followed her quickly.
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"Ogre, Are you sure that it was for the best that we let her take the real Journal?" Koenma asked, watching a replay of his employee confronting, and revealing everything that connected the two of them, Ranma.
"Yes sir, Lord Koenma. Ranma may be going through rough times, but as I said, it is her ordeal to overcome. I assume you put Yusuke on the case?"
"I just got back from doing so."
"Then, sir, we should watch."
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As Yusuke approached the clearing that contained the fugitives, Hiei was speeding around it, turn the trees into imp demons.
"Oh yes, this is just perfect!" Hiei exclaimed as he continued to dash around the clearing, "It this sword can make demons so easily from dead trees, imagine what it will do to humans. I say we go to the human city and carve out a thousand of them. Imagine raising a new demon army!"
"I like the way you think, Hiei. If we teach them to feed on human souls I even know how we'll feed them all, The Orb of Baast!" Gouki laughed along with Hiei.
"And once the moon becomes full, we can use Kurama's mirror to gain complete control of them, and Ranma can use that Journal to sniff out and prevent meddling well doers from interfering with our plans, isn't that right you two?" Hiei called out to the other side of the clearing.
Kurama stepped out of the shadows while Ranma remained sitting on her tree branch.
"I'm sorry," Kurama began, "But I must withdraw from this alliance."
Gouki and Hiei questioned him out of shock, while Ranma looked on, not surprised that the boy would withdraw from the two demon's presence. Her deliberate questioning of his human nature had told her as much.
"Surely you're not dropping out of the game when we've come this far!" Hiei demanded, angry that his recruitment of the infamous Yoko Kurama was already beginning to bite him in the ass.
"Well, yes."
"Coward! Years of hiding yourself among them have made you just like them, spineless and foolish! What about you Ranma?" Hiei was furious by this point.
"I will be where I always am, watching and waiting. I will know when to strike." Ranma said, not looking away from the Ki signature making its way towards them through the rain. It seemed as if the ghost boy that had been following her around had managed to find a way to regain his life.
"At least she's got some manners. He can walk away, but he's got no right to the loot." Gouki said, stashing the Orb in his pocket, "Now, give us that pretty little mirror."
"I can't. I have a great need for it myself first."
Gouki grinned, "Alright then, I'll beat it out of you!"
As he swung his fist a voice called out, causing Gouki to stop and turn around.
"Howdy there, neighbors. Couldn't help but notice you got no rain falling down over here." Yusuke said as he walked into the clearing, taking account of everyone there, 'There's Gouki, the bastard with the Orb. He took that kid's soul earlier. Short stuff must be Hiei, and the third guy must be Kurama. Seems he wants out. Where's the fourth one?'
"Maybe next time you guys go stealing some ancient and powerful toys, you shouldn't hide where ever it's so obviously sunny." he said as he located Ranma on the far side of the clearing, 'Damn, Koenma was right, she really did join these demons. Mom and Keiko are looking all over the city for her and here she is, having stepped up from a 'snatch and grab to feed myself' thief all the way to 'I plunder the magical booty' thief.'
"And just when I was looking up to you. So why'd ya do it?" Yusuke smirked as Ranma landed lightly on the ground.
"Well Ghost-boy, hatred is a much underestimated emotion. I hate everyone equally, the problem is getting me to like you. This world is full of bigots that would use me to their own ends, so why disappoint myself thinking everyone is always going to speak the truth around me? It's better to accept that even my former family and friends would prefer to lie to my face. It makes it all the better to beat the truth out of them now that I have this Journal."
"So who are you?" Hiei asked, having not sensed the human boys approach.
"Yeah, what's your name?" Gouki followed up
"Well I hoped you'd ask me that," Yusuke said tossing away the tree branch he used to shelter himself from the rain, "The name's Yusuke Urameshi, Spirit Detective."
"Tch, Spirit World must be grasping at straws to retrieve these artifacts, his Spirit Energy is rather low."
"But his Life Energy, Ki, is nearly equal to those twice his age," Ranma cut in, "With sixty times his martial training."
"What got you in such a cheery mood? Got a monkey brat on your back?" Yusuke asked, gesturing to Hiei.
Ranma smiled a cold smile. With a small leap backwards into the shadows of the forest, she vanished from the clearing leaving an echoing whisper, "Remember Hiei, I will know when to strike."
"Sorry, but I must be going. I have no time to be arrested," with that Kurama walked off as well, completely disappearing once he hit the rain line.
Hiei gave chase, yelling, "Kurama, you just can't walk out on our plan!"
"Well, that was rude," Yusuke said looking at the spot Hiei had disappeared from.
"The girl has more manners than the other two, but something's been weigh on her mind since before we recruited her. I don't pretend to know. I'm also more polite than the other guys, I'll turn myself in nice and neat if I can't rip off your head." Gouki said, reaching into his pocket.
"Sounds like a plan to me, just don't pull my hair," Yusuke shot back.
As Gouki declared he needed a snack and pulled out the little boy's soul from earlier, Yusuke watched him swallow it. As he beat the soul out of him, Gouki chuckled. When he stood back up and transformed, Yusuke freaked.
"Aw man, after this I need to get Koenma to show me how to fight monsters."
"That's easy kid," Gouki ground out, ripping a tree out of the ground to beat the puny human boy around with, "You run away!"
After a brief tussle, and Yusuke remembering he had already used the Spirit Gun for the day Gouki chuckled once again, "Do you know what the best spices for a soul are? Some fear and a dash of pain!"
'Crap, I can't believe I'm going to die... AGAIN!' Yusuke thought as the demon closed in on him.
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Author's Note: And that's the wrap for the first part of the rewrite of the original chapter two. I decided since I was going in a completely of the wall direction from the original. So I'll be working on said next chapter next. Yusuke is still interested of bringing Ranma around to the Urameshi family, but there are closer ties between them than just a couple of stories of being kicked out of the clans, so what could it be? Also, Jyaki was the tiny little demon that Yusuke catches on his first day after being revived, called him a tape worm. This is Dingo, signing off!