“Oh fucking son of a bitch.” 

The sound of five pairs of chopsticks snapping could be heard for several blocks around.

“Well this is certainly interesting.”

 

Two months ago

 

            Ranma Saotome was walking home on the fence.  His fiancée Akane was on the ground beside him scowling.  Today had not been a good day for her.  It started in the morning when Kuno had inadvertently grabbed her after being punted by Ranma.  She had crashed down onto the ground with him ontop of her grabbing her in places that even Ranma wouldn’t touch her.  Of course it was all Ranma’s fault after all, if that pervert hadn’t kicked Kuno onto her she wouldn’t have gotten groped.  Ever since the moxibustion incident the two of them had gone back to fighting. 

           

            Akane steamed a bit.  Sure she may like Ranma a bit but that pervert was always running off to his other fiancées because they were better looking and could cook better than her. As she continued thinking she remembered lunch today when Ukyo had practically shoved a whole okonomiyaki down his throat.  Then there was Shampoo who seemed to teleport to his side with a bowl of takeout Ramen and the jerk actually ate it!  When she tried to give him the lunch she worked so hard to make the pervert actually said that he’d rather eat the grass clippings because he knew that at least they wouldn’t move under their own power!

 

            Ranma glanced down at his fuming fiancée on the sidwalk.  It had been a terrible day.  First Kuno had attacked him as he came in the school gates.  He pounded him as usual but his aim was a bit off since Akane had cooked breakfast.  Instead of hitting him over the school wall he’d hit him towards Akane.  The stupid tomboy just stood there and let herself get hit, then she had the nerve to blame him.  She’s always going on about how she’s a martial artist too and wants to be treated like one.  Hell if she can’t even avoid a slow flying Kuno then against a real martial artist or even some street trash she’d get creamed. 

 

            He sighed a bit.  It really was his fault this time.  Ever since he’d arrived at the Tendo Dojo he’d been defending her from almost everything and as a result her skills meager as they were had degraded further.  Hell the thick thighs comments were actually starting to be true.  Since the only training she did was some light jogging and breaking bricks she’d begun to get a little chunky. 

           

            She was still cute though, although he’d rather have pulled out his own teeth with a pair of rusty pliers than admit that, it’s just that her temper had gotten much worse.  Couldn’t she see that he didn’t want any of the other girls?  Of course not, she was always in her own little spoiled princess mood.  I’m right and you’re wrong, was her motto and come hell or high water nothing was going to make her budge an inch.  Still with what happened today he couldn’t understand why she was still mad at him.  It was pretty much what happened every day.  Ukyo and Shampoo would come by and feed him while trying to get into his pants and Akane would misunderstand and get all mad at him then punt him into the stratosphere. 

           

            Now most people would think that being chased by several beautiful girls would be any guy’s fantasy, but most people don’t have several highly violent beautiful girls after you trying to get you to marry them.  Most guy’s also don’t have high powered martial artist coming out of the woodwork trying to make your face one with the pavement either.  For everyone there comes a breaking point.  For Ranma Saotome that breaking point had almost been reached.

 

He just wanted to kill somebody.

 

            Suddenly Akane caught a hint of purple to her left and decided to get this over with before Shampoo could glomp onto Ranma.

 

“Ranma you jerk how dare you grab onto Shampoo!”  Akane screamed at the top of her lungs and brought out her trusty mallet.

 

            Ranma didn’t know what to do as a familiar cycle repeated itself for the thousandth time.  Akane jumps to a conclusion and it’s always his fault.  The last thought that ran through his mind before the impact was where exactly Shampoo was and why Akane was blaming him for grabbing her.

           

            As Ranma was disappearing over the horizon Akane turned towards the purple and saw a girl with purple dyed hair and lots of pierceings just staring at her in a sort of dumbfounded expression.  Akane looked sheepish for a second then stalked off.  Surely Ranma deserved the pounding for something.  Right?

 

            Ranma wished he had an Air miles card since he got so many frequent flyer miles from Akane Air.  The one nice thing was that he found flying was peaceful and relaxing.  From up here he could see everything and since his school specialized in aerial combat he was in his element.  The only downside was…

 

Crunch

 

            Landings sucked.  Oh did they ever blow.  Luckily he was a martial artist so it didn’t take much for him to just get up and shake off the damage.  Just as he was brushing off some pieces of concrete from his clothing he noticed  a man watching him from a few feet away. 

           

            The man was in his early twenties with dark black hair done up in a ponytail  that hung down to the middle of his back.  His face was roguishly handsome and reminded him of something but he couldn’t put his finger on it at the moment. His body was well muscled like a dancer crossed with a boxer.  When he moved it was with a fluid grace that immediately put his danger sense on Defcon 4.  This man was a warrior obviously well trained and highly dangerous.  The next thing that he noticed was his eyes.  They were a slightly darker shade of blue than his own.

 

The thing that really drew him in though were the strange markings on the man’s face.  There were two blood red triangles under each eye and a red V type slash mark on his forehead.  For some reason he thought he should know what those marks meant but for the life of him he couldn’t.  Then the man spoke.

 

“Are you alright?  You took a nasty spill there.”  He extened his hand a bit just in case.

 

“Yeah I’m fine.  Stupid tomboy.”  Ranma muttered.

 

“You’re Ranma Saotome aren’t you?”  The man asked with a twinkle in his eye.

 

If Ranma’s danger senses were screaming at him before they were literally warning him of an impending tactical thermonuclear strike now.

 

“What’s it to you?”  Ranma asked warily getting into a loose stance.

 

“My name is Kenshiro Tamayako.  Settle down I’m not here to fight you, you’re old man didn’t do anything to me, and I’ve got no daughters that are trying to get you as a husband.”  He said calmly raising his hands in a peace gesture.

 

Ranma did the only thing he could do in this situation.  “Huh?” 

 

“Call me Ken if you like.  No I was looking for you because I’ve got something to tell you.  I’m not sure how you’re going to take this but it’s for your own good.  Do you know anyplace where we could go that we won’t be disturbed?”  He asked looking at Ranma.

 

“Uhh yeah sure there’s this tower close to here that I go to if I don’t want nobody disturbin me or anything.” 

 

“Good enough lead the way.”  He motioned for Ranma to proceed.

 

            Ranma ran off in the direction of the tower taking to the roofs as soon as possible.  Then remembering that he was supposed to be leading Ken he spared a look back only to see that Ken was exactly two paces behind him.  He decided to up the pace a bit since he wanted to test himself and this Ken person.  He poured on the speed and as he finally got to the top of the tower he looked around only to find Ken calmly sitting on one of the many metal boxes that were scattered across the top of the tower.

 

“So what did you want to talk to me about that was so god damned important.”  Ranma was losing control over his temper.

 

“Sit down.  Now before I begin I want you to promise on your family honor and ancestors graves that you will sit and listen to ALL I have to say before you run off.”

 

That was some pretty heavy promising there.  This just peaked his curiosity even further.

 

“Yeah sure I promise that I won’t run off and that I’ll listen to what you have to say.”

 

Ken smiled a bit then cleared his throat and began.

 

“Well first off Tamayako is just a name I made up.  Kenshiro is my real name though.  I noticed that you were staring at these markings on my face earlier.  I’ll bet you’re dying to know what they are.”

 

“Well I was a bit curious, they sure are strange.”

 

“These Ranma are demon markings.  I am Kenshiro Demon Class 1 Category 1 Unlimited.”

 

“You’re a demon!!”  Ranma yelled.  He looked ready to bolt when Ken laid his hand on his shoulder.

 

“You promised remember.  I’m not here to steal your soul or anything like that I don’t work that way.  Now sit down and shut up!”  Kenshiro forced Ranma to sit back down and to his amazement Ranma just glared at him but did not move.

 

“Ok now that that’s over with let’s get down to the real story here.  It started about seventeen years ago I was wandering around Japan causing little bits of chaos where I went.  One day I saw this beautiful woman in the park crying.  Being the soft heart that I am I went over to her to see what was the matter.  I talked to her for a while and finally found out that her husband and her had been trying to have a child for almost a year now with no luck.  We talked some more and I felt pity on her and decided to help her.

 

After I left her I went and found her good for nothing husband and decided to scan him and surprise surprise the guy was sterile, probably due to drinking too much or some weird potion or other.  Anyway I go up to him and congratulate him on winning a lottery.  Of course he didn’t remember entering a lottery but as soon as I slapped all that cash in his hand he forgot logic.  I knew he was going to go blow it on booze and that’s what I had planned. 

 

That night I went to her home and using some disguise magic made myself look like her husband…”  Ken trailed off for a few seconds.  Ranma could have sworn that he heard ‘such a sweet piece of ass too.’ But that couldn’t have been right.

 

“Anyway a little fertility potion some wham bam thank you mam and I was off to retrieve her husband and get him cleaned up and home so that she wouldn’t suspect a thing.  To make a long story short nine months later the baby was born.”

 

Ranma by this time was freaking.  Something was absolutely wrong with this story and he had a sinking feeling he knew what it was.

 

“That baby was me wasn’t it?”  He asked with a little hesitation.

 

“Just call me dad.”  Ken laughed a little while slapping Ranma on the back.

 

“But… But…. But….”  Ranma stuttered.

 

“That means you’re a demon too.  See you’re not stupid.”

 

“I can’t be a demon, I mean sure I’ve wanted to kill and slaughter before but that’s normal right?”

 

Ken reached behind his back and pulled out a mirror.  He held it out infront of Ranma’s face.  Ranma grabbed the mirror and stared intently into it’s reflective surface.  He saw his face adorned by the same blood red markings that were on Ken’s face.  Demon markings.  It was true wasn’t it.  ‘Sigh, the god’s must hate me.  Oh wait that’s right they really do hate me.  Heh at least there’s a silver lining in this.’

 

“I don’t have to honor any of the fat panda’s promises do I?”  Ranma said with a smile on his face.

 

“Nope that’s why I’m here now.  You’re starting to come into your powers and without somebody to teach you you’re just going to go on a massive killing spree and as fun as that sounds the paperwork to fill out afterwards is just not worth it anymore.”

 

“But isn’t that what demons do?  Kill, maim, and generally cause suffering among the people?”

 

“That’s a good question.  Tell you what, before I begin your training I’m going to let you in on a little secret not even most demons know.  Son,” Ranma flinched a bit “do you know why demons exist?”

 

“To cause pain and suffering and make mortal’s lives miserable.”

 

“Yup that’s it in a nutshell.  No you know that Kami sama has the power to wipe us all out, yet he doesn’t why?”

 

Ranma had no answer for this one.  The problem of suffering and evil.  If suffering and evil are bad and god is good and god has the power to eliminate suffering and evil why doesn’t he. 

 

“Because we’re not worth his time?” 

 

Ken laughed.  “I wish.  No the reason he does nothing is for another reason entirely.  Long ago an angel by the name of Lucifer disagreed with god and decided that the nurturing goody two shoes approach to humanity wasn’t working.  God cast Lucifer and his followers out of heaven to hell.  You see Ranma Lucifer and Kami sama had the same idea that humanity needed to grow and better itself.  Kami sama thought that by nurturing and protecting humanity it would learn peace and love.  Lucifer believed that humanity would only grow through struggling and pain.  Kami sama doesn’t do anything about us demons because we serve a necessary purpose in the function of the course of human development.”

 

“So you’re saying that Kami sama was wrong?”

 

“No no I’m saying that they were both right.  For humans to grow there must be conflict and nurturing.  Hmm to give an example think of the arts.  When you’re working on your defense and somebody sees a hole in it they hit you and it hurts.  You then learn to close that hole and grow from the experience.  It’s the same thing with us.  Or as the old saying goes, ‘ Without the darkness there can be no light.’”

 

“Sooo demons are good?”

 

“Pretty much.”  Ken looked off into the distance.  “It’s getting late.  Why don’t you think about what I’ve said.  I’ll meet you tomorrow on the roof of Furinkan to begin your training.”

 

“Training what training?”  Ranma was perked up instantly.  Training = good.

 

“Why your demon training of course.  I’ll also be training you in some martial arts as well.  I’ve got the entire library of hell to call upon.”

 

Martial arts techniques that had been forgotten for centuries started dancing through his head.  He gave a low evil laugh that eventually escalated into a full blown maniacle laughter.

 

“That’s my boy.  Oh and one more thing.”  Ken walked over to where Ranma was laughing and put his hand around the back of Ranma’s neck and concentrated for a few seconds.  There was a brief flash of his demon markings and then they seemed to fade away.

 

Ranma felt strange for a second like someone had crammed something into his brain.  As the seconds ticked by he was finally able to sort out the information.  It seemed like some kind of disguise spell.

 

“What the?”  Intelligent responses were something he was going to have to work on.

 

“Well it won’t do for you to go around with those demon markings shining all the time.  Raises too many questions.” 

 

“Heh thanks ‘POP’ I’ll see you tomorrow then.”  Ranma said in a mocking yet friendly tone as he jumped off the tower.

 

Ken narrowed his eyes.  “Insolent child.”  Then his face bloomed into a smile.  “But I wouldn’t have him any other way.”

 

            Ranma raced along the rooftops of Nerima heading in a beeline direction for the Tendo Dojo.  It was strange today he’d learned that he was in fact a demon from the lower pits of hell and strange as that fact sounded he wasn’t the least bit disturbed by the news.  That should worry him but it didn’t.  The fact that Kuno was right every time he called him a foul demon was strangely discomforting though. Right now his mind was on food, specifically Kasumi’s food.  Demon or not he was hungry.

           

            As he jumped over the perimeter wall his senses seemed to go crazy for a second it was as if someone shifted reality for a couple of seconds then shifted it back.  Curious he decided to see what it was.  He walked over to the wall and was about to look at it when something caught his eye.  It was a badly decaying demon ward.  Apparently the wards on the house had not been kept up in at least a decade.  Ranma reached out and touched the ward.  It promptly disintegrated. 

 

“I’d hate to see what that would have done at full power.”  Ranma shuddered reflexively.  His stomach stifled this small bit of introspection signaling that he was still not immune to its power.

 

            As Ranma entered the house he could see the rest of the household already seated at the table.  He rushed over to his seat beside his… well Genma.  It was strange that after all the crap he put him through that the man didn’t even have the audacity to be his real father.  How worse off would he have been if his real father had raised him?  Sure his real old man was a demon but hey nobody’s perfect.  It was then that he noticed that half his food had mysteriously gone missing. 

 

“Hey what’s the big idea!”  Ranma yelled and decked his father. 

 

            Now usually the momentum thing was in effect since a large object ‘Genma’ tended to stay at rest unless sufficient force was imparted on him to start him in motion.  Now usually from a sitting position Ranma didn’t normally have enough strength to move the old man too much.  This time however Genma was sent spiraling towards the nearest wall at ridiculously high speeds.  Everyone just turned to look at Ranma who tried, unsucssessfully, to look nonchalant and failed miserably.

 

“Ranma how did you do that?”  Asked Soun as he looked to where his friend had hit the wall.

 

“New technique.”  He said simply.  “Think I’ll call it Hell’s Vengence Fist or something.”   He shrugged then proceeded to polish off the rest of his and Genma’s suppers.

 

            The next day dawned bright and early and as usual the koi in the pond got to practice some of their higher evasion tactics, as a fat balding martial artist was propelled from the second story guest room into the depths of the pond.

 

“Ha you’re getting slow old man.” Ranma shouted as he jumped from the second story window onto Genma’s fat head.  Needless to say with his newly awakened demonic strength and speed Genma was severely outclassed in seconds.  Ranma seemed to be taking pleasure in the severe beating of his once father.

 

            Breakfast likewise was an interesting affair.  Ranma would insult Akane like he usually did however when she tried to clobber him, he would somehow avoid all of her strikes.  This confused and frustrated her to no end.  By the time breakfast was finished there were several mallet marks on the floor, walls, and ceiling but none on Ranma himself.

 

“Thanks Kasumi, that was great.” Ranma said over his shoulder as he grabbed his bento and bookbag and rushed out the door. 

 

“Why wasn’t that nice.”  Kasumi exclaimed with her normal vapid smile while the rest of the family just sat there trying to ignore the whole altercation. 

 

“That JERK!  How dare he leave me behind!”  Screamed Akane as she too grabbed her bento and bookbag and tore off after her fiancée intending to do severe harm.

 

            Akane caught up with Ranma after a few minutes of hard running.  Ranma was as usual on the fence humming something to himself.  He was not skipping, martial artists do NOT skip.  Along the rest of the way to school Akane tried repeatedly to bash his skull in with her mallet only to either be turned aside or avoided altogether.  Once he reached the gates to the school he was met by Kuno as usual.

 

“Hold foul demon!  Today shall be the day I finally send you to hell where you belong and claim my two true loves, the fierce tigress Akane Tendo and the Pigtailed Girl.”  Kuno said while gesturing with his bokken.  It was meant to be awe inspiring to the mere peasent folk.  It wasn’t.

 

“You know Kuno those speeches of yours could use some work.  Hmm let’s try this.”

 

Ranma got into a menacing pose.

 

“I am the darkness before the light,  I am the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.  Die.”

 

            As he finished he shot forward at an astounding speed and simply kicked Kuno in the center of his chest.  He was sent skidding backwards until he collided with the school.   He collapsed into unconsciousness before he even got to utter his ‘I fight on’ phrase.  As Ranma calmly walked into the school the majority of the students were left gawking at the sheer brutality that he displayed.  Nobody really cared, well almost nobody.  Those that had bet on today as the day Ranma finally snapped went to collect their winnings from Nabiki.

 

            School was boring as usual with the exception that both Akane and Ukyo were giving him weird looks all day, and some people asking him if he was OK.  It was a little weird to have to constantly reassure people that no he was not going to go postal on them.

 

            By the end of the day he was pretty frustrated and looking forward to getting to know his real father better.