Chapter 10 Demons wishes, and mallets of angels.

Disclaimers, ad nausium.

Shadows move through the void as he is awakened, the great lord of hell, Typhonis. He has been “requested” to grant a mortal a special kind of punishment. He absorbs the request, consuming it. This one is not even from his side, but theirs. Some mortal has offended the stars of misery. Now that is a perversion he can appreciate. ‘I shall examine this mortal myself’ he thinks to himself, ignoring the “Meet with me now, Hild” part of the awakening spell. Its not like he was afraid of Hild after all, and she was always so cute when she was pissed off.

Through the layers of reality he went, and partially through time, to see how this boy became this man whom the wrath of hell was to descend on. What he saw amused him greatly, the pain and agony that followed Ranma around. Throughout his entire life, Typhonis watched, and waited, till the moment he was awoken officially. Then looking at the scene before him, and masking himself from the two little goddess’s he pondered his actions in this drama. Hells judgment must be sure, else how would hell be a deterrent. He has not forgotten this.

After a time, he nods to himself, and makes his decision.

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Ranma looks at her, Nabiki, in silence. She bows to him and starts to greet him, but he just turns his back and walks outside. Leaving everyone behind, he walks, into town. Looking for something. Eventually he finds what he seeks, a bridge, to sit under. For some reason he feels like home sitting silently under a bridge, right then.

Back at the inn, Skuld looks at Nabiki, and glares at her. “I sincerely hope you are here to ask him to be your second, and not to try and do anything stupid like mention a Tendo-Saotome union, because if that were the case I would have to act as your second, with this mallet” Skuld lifted Mallet-sama 9000 to reinforce her point.

Nabiki looked at the dark haired girl and just feels on the edge of tears. She gets all of it now, what her “new job” is. How impossible its going to be. The one person who would never forgive her, is the one person she is to serve. She bows to everyone assembled. Tears forming in her eyes. “I am Satou Nabiki, assistant to Kagurazaki-san. I apologize for any problems I have caused”. She stayed in the bowed position, until she was lightly touched on the shoulder, by Aoi-chan. “Satou-san, I apologize for my cousin’s actions. He has had extreme pain in his life, and I am afraid he is not as polite as he could be”

Nabiki bowed again, “no, I must apologize, for I once was part of his pain…”

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‘Nabiki. Why did she have to be the one to follow me.’ Ranma sat under the bridge, ‘I am not a Saotome now, so it cant be any agreement. So why is she here?’ he did not really want to find out at present, being glad just to sit here, and try and absorb the experiences, and changes that had happened. He thought about his fears, his dreams, how real Ranko seemed, and watched the clouds pass by. Folks walked over the bridge, and across the way from him he saw a younger boy, and a girl sitting near the river under the bridge as well. The girl Idly swung a bat, while the boy say and appeared to play some video game. Ranma watched them, while he thought about his own problems.

While he sat there, a shadow fell on him, and he looked up at a dark haired girl, who was all to familiar to him. “mind if I join you?”

“Nah Skuld you can if you like. Just trying to think yah know?”

She pointed at her own head and said “trust me I know, I feel your thoughts remember”

“Yeah, almost forgot”

“So Ranma, what are you going to do? About Nabiki I mean?”

“I don’t know. Depends on why she is here I guess”

“She told everyone she had been placed there, as the Managers assistant, apparently she is there to help the manager with her operations, and I think, to serve your family. She is not there to date you I know that much”

Ranma pondered this a moment. The image of Skuld acting as Nabiki’s second with a mallet played briefly in his head. ‘That’s an unneeded image, Nabiki was self centered, but not delusional, like the others.’ He thought. “I wasn’t going to REALLY do that” she looked at him with a sheepish look on her face.

On the bridge above them, they watched as the boy from before was hit by a speeding motorbike, but had gotten up apparently ok. Ranma could have sworn that the girl on the bike had a guitar she had hit him with, but none of this apparently had any effect on the boy who got back up and yelled at the girl.

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Deep in the recess’s of Ranma’s mind, Ranko brooded. She had more freedom now, that he was not afraid of her. But it only gave substance to the utter lack of life she currently possessed. She wanted to live. Maybe to jump Ranma, but definitely to live, on her own. She had done a lot, put up with a lot, as much as anyone else had, why couldn’t she make a wish too.

She sighed, looking back into the darkness, and realized that she was just a dream, and shadow of a real person, and never could have her own life.

Also in the shadows of Ranma’s mind, a demon sat and watched Ranko’s depression, and smiled. ‘life is what she wants. That part I can arrange. But will it help, hurt, or Kill them both?...”

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Ranma continued to look out at the bridge above him. Skuld had left at his request. He knew she was near by, he could FEEL that anyway. She still wanted him to make that wish, but he did not trust anything to do with magic ‘What’s to say her magic is any different than the amazons, or anything else?’ the clouds moved by slowly as he continued to digest his dreams, and memories of the vision he had shared with the raven haired goddess. the afternoon passed this way, until a faint scent in the air made him realize something that for a great many months he had not felt, he was Actually, and truthfully famished. A very distinct scent, something he loved eating long ago. It was faint, but there. It was. Idly he searched through his pockets and found he had money, Taeko-chan prob put it there for him. So he got up, dusted himself off, nad started following his nose.

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“Akane Kiriakis, for the murder of your husband Philip Robert Kiriakis, by beating him to death, you are being deported to the justice of your home country, Japan. However, it is with our courts recommendation that you be considered to no less than life imprisonment, and if the law allows for it, Death.” The bound, Gagged shackled and prostrate Akane screamed in her mind ‘RANMA this is all your fault’.

In the court, watching over the proceedings was the victims father, Victor. Calm exterior, of course, as one would expect from him, but inside he was fuming. He would not only get revenge on the bitch, but someone in her family as well. He must think on this. Investigate who is best to blame for her upbringing. A mother perhaps.

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Hild fumed. He ignored her summons all together. He was dangerous, no one, not even Kami-sama could predict what one of his kind would do. Typhonis is an old spirit, one who remembered the beginning of the gods, and demons. His methods sometimes were a bit, Odd. To say the least. He did help create the balance, and requested to be put asleep, to be held in case of need. She half expected him to go back to sleep. Instead he violated the compact by traveling back in time, to watch his “victim” then rather than take any sort of action at all, just kept watching. Something inside of the boy seemed to especially interest Typhonis.

Typhonis knew she was thinking of him. He got that warm, sickly feeling he felt whenever the lord of hell thought of him. But while he could go make her life even more of a hell than it usually was, he had something that interested him in front of him. An Angry, bitter soul, bound by an extreme sense of honor and justice. Locked inside of this boy, who shared many common traits. The boy is refusing heavens wish. Perhaps he should become acquainted with the girl, and see if she will accept Hells wish. Might make for some interesting amusement, and confuse the Ultimate Force to no end.

His whole existence was to confound that Force. Ranko may be able to help him in that.

Edited to add a couple of ending sections,

Thanks for all of the reviews. I will start mentioning specific ones next chapter, other than to specifically thank Innortal who’s dedication to his own stories makes me want to work on mine ;)