Disclaimer: Out of Order
A/N: Maybe I'll think of something by the end of this chapter.
Laharl stood in the center of a small clearing where Ranma could feel a high magic signature.
"Scotty! Beam us up!"
A telepathic voice spoke into everyone's minds.
"Damnit Laharl! My name isn't Scotty!"
In a flash all 4 of them disappeared.
The party reappeared in a hallway and landed gently on their feet, well except Laharl who was set down none to gently on his head.
"Home sweet home." Mumbled Laharl from his position on the floor. Looking up angrily at the female cleric that was in charge of the gate.
"Laharl!" Flonne chided, "It isn't nice to tease people! Demons have feelings to you know…"
Laharl stood up in indignantly, "How many times do I have to tell you? Demons don't have feelings!"
"You know," commented Ranma offhandedly, "For someone who claims he doesn't have any feelings you sure are quick to feel angry."
"…You stay out of this."
Etna came up behind him and grabbed his arm making Ranma involuntarily shiver, "Come one Ranma these guys are gonna be at it all day. I'll give you the tour."
"But don't you think…?"
She didn't even look back at the two as she led Ranma away, "Don't worry, they never get beyond hair pulling."
"This happen often?"
"Ever since she came here."
Ranma was led out of the dark hallway and into a room filled with swords, axes, spears and all kinds of other weapons.
"The armory." Said Etna simply; "It hasn't seen much use since the kings humanoid vassals left. Come to think of it, I think you're the first human the Netherworld has seen in almost a thousand years."
Looking over the equipment Ranma saw that most of the equipment was obsolete. The swords had many cracks in them and the spears looked like their heads would break if any pressure was applied to them.
"The merchants come by about once a week to sell their wares." She explained.
Just then, Laharl came running past them and out another door with Flonne hot on his heels. Flonne had a scythe in her hand and a look on her face that would rival any demon. Ranma and Etna wisely stepped out of her way as she pursued the errant overlord.
Etna slapped a hand to her forehead, "That kid will never learn." She mumbled quietly to herself.
"What just happened?"
"He probably called her a 'flat chest' again."
'Man, I guess that comment even gets angels riled. It figures that even divinity is concerned about their figure.' Thought Ranma to himself.
Somewhere in Nerima…
"I suddenly have the urge to slap someone." Akane said out loud suddenly.
"Oh my!" said Kasumi sweetly, "I hope you don't get these urges often."
"Bweeeee!" agreed bacon butt er… I mean P-Chan.
"This is Laharl's room." Said Etna simply.
The room was dark, the only lights coming from candles. Devoid of decoration, the only thing in the room was a small coffin in the center.
"I wont be sleeping in one of those will I?"
"Nah we have guest quarters too. Unless of course you'd prefer the coffin."
"So is there anyone else in this castle besides the gatekeeper and us?"
"Oh yeah, Laharl does have a few vassals. Come on, I'll introduce you to them."
Etna led Ranma to a large room where a few people were practicing various exercises and forms. As soon as Ranma entered the training stopped. Ranma had to quickly focus his chi sight to keep himself from being blinded. Every monster there had aura's that easily dwarfed his own.
A zombie came up first, "Hmm, it looks like the prince has picked up another stray. Human this time." Despite being rotting bone and flesh the words came out perfectly.
Ranma didn't even flinch as the smell or appearance, a credit to his time in Nerima, "Ranma Saotome, and you are…"
"Zommie. One of the late kings vassals." He provided.
An animal, one-third lion, one-third dragon, and one third human approached him next. Ranma recognized him as a manticore. Ever since that one incident with the Musk Dynasty he had gone out of his way to read up on mythical beasts in case he ever fought one again.
The beast walked in a slow circle around Ranma, sniffing at him occasionally. Finally in a deep baritone voice he spoke, "This one has an inner strength about him. Not like those other fleas he has brought. Tell us mortal, have you ever been called the chaos bringer before?"
Ranma thought for a minute, "No…that would be a new one to me."
"I see then." He retreated back into line and a red dragon stepped forward. It looked more like a raptor than a real dragon. Its front claws were more like a predators and it walked on its hind legs like a human.
This time the voice was female, "Ah…I can see what the manticore means. It seems as though things are going to get interesting again."
"Well I personally don't have a problem with that." Commented another one of the monsters. This one, a huge golem, had an enormous body structure made of stone standing at least 8 feet from the ground.
"Tell me, your all the king's vassals right?" asked Ranma.
The last monster in line that hadn't introduced himself spoke up, "Technically. We do not believe that Laharl has proved himself to be a worthy king yet. He is too immature and young to assume the true position of overlord."
The one who had spoken was a ghoul in gray robes. The only part that could be seen of his body was a white face poking out of the hood.
"Until we believe him worthy of our power," the ghoul continued, "We will let him make his own way as overlord." The other creatures nodded confirmation.
Ranma shrugged, "Fair enough. Now," he looked briefly around the room, "Anyone up for a spar?"
His response was as expected. The manticore gave a low growl; the golem pounded its massive fists together while the dragon merely gave him a toothy grin. However the zombie held up his hand.
"I shall be the one to test this human."
"My name is Ranma Saotome," he provided, "And don't forget it."
The zombie only smiled, a hideous effect on his face, "Very well Ranma, prepare yourself."
All of the monsters backed to the sidelines while Ranma and Zommie got into their battle stances at opposite ends of the room.
"Watch out for his bandages," whispered Etna before giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. She then retreated to the sidelines to watch the fight.
"BEGIN!" growled the manticore, and the fight was on.
For a moment no one moved, then suddenly at an unseen single both fighters rushed eachother. Zommie moved at a surprising speed for a rotting corpse and both fighters met in the center.
Ranma started with a few basic punches and kicks to test his opponent's defense and was surprised when Zommie merely stood there and took them. His hits landed on the zombie with little effect.
"You're gonna have to do better than that," he commented before beginning his attack. The bandages around his arms unfurled and lashed out at him with lightning speed much like Kodachi's ribbon attack. Fortunately Ranma had been expecting an attack like that and escaped with a few shaved hairs.
Dancing back out of range Ranma summoned his inner energies and let his aura spring up about him, coating his hands and feet with his confidence. He moved in again.
This time Zommie was ready. He dodged the kick and ducked under the punch countering with his own combo. Ranma flipped over his head and executed a midair kick, using the undead's body as a springboard to get some room.
"That was better," said Zommie, "Now lets up the ante!"
Ranma could immediately tell that the Zombie had released more of his demonic energy as the zombie was now glowing with a faint black aura.
"Zombie Gatling Gun!" he cried out as Ranma approached him again.
There was a common misconception about the move. Anyone who heard it for the first time would think that the zombie was using bullets. This was not so however. The Zombie Gatling Gun is actually hundreds of small ki blasts thrown at an extremely rapid rate from ones fingertips, thus creating the 'machine gun like' effect.
Ranma barely had time to raise his aura before the blasts impacted him, sending him crashing to the floor. Unfortunately Zommie did not give Ranma time to recover but brought his bandages back into play, forcing Ranma to perform a series of rolls to get back to his feet.
"Moko Takabisha!" The blue-gold blast of confidence blasted towards the undead creature who simply ducked. Too bad he wasn't prepared for the follow up.
"Rapid Fire!" Suddenly Zommie found himself on the receiving end of his own technique as several smaller lion shots impacted his body. He was in pain for a few brief seconds but then his regeneration powers kicked in.
"So, you're a fast healer huh?" commented Ranma, "Great. That means I wont have to hold back!"
"Then neither will I!"
Zommie took in a deep breath and let loose a cloud of poison, but non-lethal, gas. At most it would have paralyzed him. What he did not consider was that Ranma had been on the receiving end of countless poisons from Akane and Kodachi so he had built quite a resistance to it.
Coughing slightly Ranma extended his senses to find the zombie. While Zommie didn't have a ki signature he was giving off power and that was enough to find where he was amidst the gas.
Finally sensing his power, Ranma attacked the undead creature.
Zommie was feeling pain, that in itself was unusual seeing as how he was undead and had no nerves. Then he realized that the human was somehow attacking his ki flows directly. Seeing as how the gas was doing more harm that good he dissipated it. This turned out to be a mistake.
Just as the cloud disappeared Zommie heard a shout, "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!"
Ranma watched with satisfaction as the Zombie reeled back from the blow, impacting one of the walls. Breathing heavily he panted, "Did I get him?"
"Oh you got me alright."
The zombie was still standing, his wounds regenerating before Ranma's eyes.
"No way! There's no way you could just shake off something like that!"
"I didn't. Do you have any idea how hard it was to regenerate that wound?"
Ranma suddenly seemed to regain his confidence, "So you aren't invincible after all. That's good."
"Consider yourself honored that you even got to see this move. ZOMBIE SWARM!"
There was only a bright flash of light and then all traces of Zommie disappeared, ki signature and all. Ranma only sensed the ki for a second before hundreds of replicas of Zommie burst from the ground.
As one they all jumped at Ranma.
He tried to defend himself, he really did. However once one of the zombies hit him once, it disappeared spreading its power among the remaining images. Ranma found himself on the receiving end of hundreds of blows, progressively more powerful, until finally only one was remaining.
The last strike sent him tumbling to his back.
From his position on the floor Ranma looked up at Zommie with respect, "That was…some tech…nique." His breathing was a bit labored, the multiple injuries he had sustained not helping much.
"It was a revised technique of the original. The original technique involved replicating myself into several hundred weak duplicates that all attacked in a group. The revised allowed me to dispel my replicas right after they hit you once, allowing them to spread out their power over the others."
"That's all fine and dandy but I really think that he needs some medical attention right now." Etna had stepped up after the fighting had finished and was helping Ranma to his feet.
"You did well Ranma," the Zombie said as Ranma was carried away by Etna, "Give it a couple more years and you might be able to beat me."
Zommie waited until Ranma was out of the room before he fell to his knees in sheer exhaustion.
"Looks like he was a little tougher than you thought." Commented the female dragon.
"…"
"Admit it. He was a good fighter."
"…"
"You know I'm right."
"…Sigh. All right I admit it. He was a very good challenge."
"See? Told you so."
"Rub it in why don't you?"
"See? Told you so."
"…Shut up."
"That wasn't too shabby." Commented Etna as she supported Ranma on his way to the hospital.
Ranma, who was trying his hardest not to notice how close his hand was to the demon's cleavage, responded quickly, "I lost. How was that impressive?"
"Oh come on. Those demons were the most loyal servants of Kircheskvoy himself. You know, the ruler of the Netherworld? Not even Laharl can take them on. Think about it."
Ranma thought about it, and they walked in silence a little longer.
"Where are we going anyway?"
"We have a little hospital set up in the castle for situations like these. They are some of the few that haven't disbanded because their loyalty to the late king was so strong. Personally I think the doc's just a workaholic."
"So what's his name?"
"Dr. Paine. He works there with his assistants Dr. Deth, Nurse Hurt, and Ms. Coffin."
'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?' Ranma thought to no one in particular.
A/N: And you thought I was never going to update. So there! I came up with a new years resolution 30 days ago to update at least 3 fanfics a month, and this is number three so Boo Yah.
Anyway, I admit this chapter wasn't as good as some of the others but I needed to show just where Ranma stood in the pecking order here. Anyway, I don't plan to abandon any of my stories and expect an update soon all you SSBR fans.
