Ranmazoku
Chapter 1
By PansutoTarou5925
DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I own the rights to Ranma �. Long live the rightful owners of these two fine anime. This work is non-commercial and is done only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi and Hajime Kanzaka. Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights owned by Viz and Software Sculptors.
Author's Note: The original fanfic idea came from some guy named NesTea and was posted on NighthawkTM's geocities page; it isn't mine. If you write traditional C&C, I will thank you. If you send MST me, I will ignore you. If you send me hate mail, I will smile. And if you ask me when the next chapter comes out, I will cheerfully lie. If you want to ask me why I write the way I do or anything else, I would, however, be happy to answer your questions.
ALTAVERSE WARNING! This fic is an ALTAVERSE. Do not assume canon situations or a canon Ranma. People who complain about this should stick to the shallow end of the pool and read fics that don't challenge their expectations of the characters.
Chapter 1 - Ranma Metallium (incomplete)
Well, now that I look back at it, I'd have to say I first noted that I was different shortly after entering Nerima with Pop. Why didn't I notice before, you ask? Well, it wasn't like I really had the chance to watch other people before. We were always on the move, hopping from one place to the next, two steps ahead of an angry mob of shopkeepers and dojo masters. When everyone is always angry at you and your Pop, you get to feeling that that's the way things ought to be, like it's all natural and stuff. You think I'm shittin' you? No, it really does feel great to have people hate me. The most natural thing in the world. It isn't so suprising now that I know what I am, I guess. What, you mean you don't know what I am? You aren't real social, are you? The other students, they usually tell the transfers all about me. Either that or they send you to Nabiki to make a quick yen - I hear she's been giving bonuses to anyone who sends someone to her for information.
You don't know Nabiki? Man, you're living dangerously. I'll tell you about Nabiki, she's considered the most manipulative, dangerous, and well informed person in Nerima. They say she knows almost everything and everyone in this town and what she doesn't she can find out fast enough. She certainly charges enough to do it though. Anyhow, I'll save you some yen and just tell you. You'll need the yen to pay Nabiki off sooner or later anyhow. Or you'll need it to repair your house or something. This place is really rough.
Anyhow, I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Never heard of the Anything Goes School? Yeah, well, I'm not really suprised you haven't. It's only practiced by two families. Three if you count the Freak, but I don't and no one else does. The Freak? He's the town perv - you're no girl, so you're safe. He's always stealing the girls' underwear and raising hell. As for the other martial artists in town, well, most of them either want me dead or just plain want me. Yeah, there are a bunch of really pretty girl martial artists around here. See here? This one's Shampoo. She's a Chinese Amazon. I beat her in a tournament a while back and she's been trying to marry me ever since. Turns out they have this crazy law dealing with outsider men who beat their warriors. Yeah, it's crazy. No, she doesn't have any sisters here! They'd be kind of out of your league. What, you're a second dan in kenpo? That isn't even close to good enough. Anyhow, this girl here is Ukyo. She sells okonomiyaki a few blocks over thataway. She's also trying to marry me. Don't ask - my father is an idiot. He engaged me to this girl too, Akane Tendo. You want these photos? Hey, go right ahead. Here, here's some more, you can start a collection or something, maybe sell them to the other students or something. This one's Ranko, another student of Anything Goes; this here is Ryouga Hibiki, the eternally lost boy; this is Kodachi Kuno, a crazy gymnast, yes, she's also after me; this is Mousse, another Chinese Amazon. There's some other people you should know about as well if you want to avoid becoming a bloody smear in a fight, but I don't have photos of them. No, you can have all the photos. Yes, really - well, just give them away if you don't want them. I'm sure the other students will be glad to take any photos you don't like. They'll probably even buy them off of you, actually. Oh, don't mention it. It's not like I really need the photos. Naaah, don't worry. Get in trouble? The principal won't care.
Well, I've got to go to class. Maybe I'll see you around, OK? Just be careful around here, it's dangerous.
'That was pretty easy' I thought with a smirk. Nabiki had been selling photos of my girl side again to Kuno, and, while it wasn't that annoying having her always taking those photos of me, not getting paid was what really pissed me off the most. It wasn't that hard to get her pay me, though. Nabiki always was a sucker to manipulate, because she always believed herself to be beyond manipulation. She didn't realize that her need for control made it easy for me to play her like a marionette. As soon as her factors saw photos of the girls floating around that weren't sold through them, Nabiki would come to me and ask for my help in making some more cheesecake photos to sell. Photos that I would get money from, unlike the candid shots, as Nabiki's instinct would be to get pictures the other supplier couldn't get, and she'd need my cooperation.
I assumed a well rehearsed look of utter boredom as Hinako-sensei started to drone on and on about the complexities of the English language. Akane's angry visage was visible out of the corner of my eye, but she wasn't yet in that finely honed rage that was such sweet nectar to my inhuman senses. This would not stand. "Wow, Akane, you really look uncute today." I said, adopting a blank look that said 'I have no idea how rude I really am'. That look never failed to bring out...
...ah. There we go. The sweet feeling of all her unbalanced rage and anger washed over my soul like water from the freshest mountain spring, as she glowed an intensely bright blue. Her aura dominated our section of the room and added the sharp taste of fear to the mix, as the terrified students had every hair on their necks standing on end from the sheer power of Akane's rage. Best of all, none of them could act on their emotions, as Miss Hinako would suck the battle aura of the offender until they were as weak and limp as a wet dishrag. It was shaping up to be a great day to be a mazoku.
In retrospect, it probably wasn't that great an idea to get that stupid, condescending smirk on my face. No matter how good I felt at the moment, it was no excuse. I knew that doing it would break Akane's fragile control over her temper, I knew! I shouldn't be waking up in the nurse's office, with weak, wobbly kness and feeling like I got into Happousai's sake again. Ugh. It is with extreme force of will that I'm able to get up and lurch unsteadily to Akane's side. She too is showing all the signs of a close encounter of the Hinako kind, looking like death warmed over. Speaking of people who look like death warmed over, I see Gosunkugi is in here too. He's probably passed out from those fainting fits he's been having lately. Of course, both Gosunkugi and I knew the real reason he was passing out, but it was unlikely anyone would really believe us if we were to tell them. It's really his fault, after all, that I found out the truth of my heritage, and I really don't know whether to thank him or kill him.
I mean, on the one hand, I know for sure that that stupid panda and his flaky wife had no say in my genetic mix. While I had suspected that for a while, well, at least with regards to my father, having it proven was a real relief. I no longer had to worry about polluting the gene pool if I ever had kids.
On the other hand, finding out you weren't human really sort of shakes your world. It might explain why I always reveled in chaos, hatred, and anger that has always swirled around me, might explain why Kasumi's cheery demeanor always frightened me, but I hardly expected these things to be my birthright, my destiny. I was human, and yet not. It was an uncomfortable place to be, and I think, if it weren't for Jusenkyo, I wouldn't have been able to accept it. But if I could cope with being part girl, I could cope with being a mazoku, too, despite the big changes it had already made in my life. Like picking up my first student in the Art, and we're not talking Anything-Goes, here.
Hmph. The tomboy's not going to be going anywhere for awhile, at this rate. Looks like the fact that she ate her own breakfast this morning really lowered her resistance. Looking at Gosunkugi, who also had severely depleted reserves, I frowned. To think that Gosunkugi would manage to mess up my life even worse than it already was just with a simple spellbook. He had used a spell, one that, oddly enough, had worked for him. The spell was supposed to summon a powerful demon. Instead, it summoned a certain purple haired trickster instead. Little did he know that he had just changed the course of two timelines.
I had been lazily running through my kata that day, idly wondering why Ryouga's attack was so ineffective against me. I mean, the Moko Takabisha really hurt Ryouga, and he's had the benefit of that Bakusai Tenketsu training. He should be able to just shrug off my blasts, given that his own ki-blasts hurt me a little, but are nothing special. Yet each blast shook Porky right down to the bone. I dismissed it as an unsolvable mystery - maybe the training P-chan had gone through wasn't effective against ki blasts, maybe the 'soul of ice' training left me resistant to the blasts, who knew - and concentrated on the wooden post in front of me. Although it would be impossible to do for most people, I had taken to using the Amaguriken to lightly tap the post. If I timed it just right, the post would vibrate more and more until it snapped. I think the sensei called it resonance in science class. Anyway, it was a good way to work on coordination, as it required perfect timing to strike the post at just the right moment. I had just heard the post make a sharp crack as the wood bent just a little too far when a stranger stepped into the yard. "Ranma Saotome, I presume?" he said,with a familiar smug smile on his face.I had seen it on Nabiki before, and it had never presaged anything good for me before.
"Who the heck are you?" I asked, annoyed that my training had received yet another unwanted visitor with a ridiculous power level. Sometimes, I wondered why Nabiki didn't have a bunch of T-shirts printed up that said 'I Got My Ass Kicked At The Tendo Dojo, Nerima-ku, Tokyo!'., or maybe 'I survived Ranma', and sell them to the challengers. She'd probably make more than what she got from her naughty photos of my girl side. This purple haired clown was wearing something that looked like a wizard's version of Ryouga's traveling outfit or something, except he had a staff instead of an umbrella. "Are you here to challenge the dojo in mortal combat? If so, you should have used the rear door." Not that anyone actually bothered to read the sign. Well, the Dojo destroyer might have, but I wasn't there at the time, was I?
"Actually, I'm here to see you.," he said, "if, indeed, you are Ranma Saotome." He seemed amused by something, smiling in that annoying fashion, eyes almost closed from the force of the grin. "You see, I have information that might prove useful to you." I wasn't stupid enough to ask anything right then; long experience with Nabiki had taught me that much. I leaned on the broken practice post, chin propped on hand, and assumed a half lidded gaze, trying to wait him out. Though I was vaguely curious what knowledge the guy might have, I knew if I answered him he'd have the upper hand in the negotiations. He finally stepped back, leaning against the wall of the Tendo house. "I may be able to show you the means by which you can cure your curse."
"Really?" I asked excitedly. No! It was too good to be true!
"Yes... I've been keeping an eye on you, actually. You certainly have the potential to be a powerful mage." He smiled knowingly at me, opening one purple eye to look into mine. "And the best way to counter magic is with more magic."I gave the stranger another baleful stare before disinterestedly turning back to my practice. The post might have been snapped, but it wasn't like I was going to waste my time on some charlatan.
"Yeah, right, magic. Sure. Well, I might train with you, but I need proof." I said, still trying my very best to appear disinterested, bored even, that this guy was wasting his time. I had just jumped into the air to give this guy a good look at the elegance of the aerial fighting techniques of the Saotome ryu when a big fireball (?) slammed me through the wall of the dojo. Quickly rolling to put out the fires it had set on my clothes, I got up and prepared to beat the hell out of the guy. Even Ryouga didn't attack me without... well, actually he did, but no one else was that rude! "What the hell are you doing?"
He raised one eyebrow in false shock. "Why, didn't you ask for a demonstration of my magic? Oh, well, I must have been mistaken." He turned around and began walking towards the front gate.
"No, wait! I'm sorry I didn't believe me!" This guy was for real. This gave me the best shot at ditching my curse that I had gotten in a long time. I wasn't going to just let oppritunity walk away. Besides, that fireball might be useful in a fight. Heh. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to use them against Kuno, because that would make him right about something, which just might herald the end of the world or something. "Listen, I'd be happy to learn magic from you, Mr. , ah..?"
"Xellos Metallium, at your service." he said, with a small bow.
That was how I ended up visiting another world to begin my studies in the arcane. Every single day, I vanished into thin air, having been careful to ditch any of my relentless pursuers back in Nerima. Every day, I ended up training in the various magical arts under the most sadistic seven year old the worlds have ever seen. Of course, he really wasn't seven, but it was difficult to think of him as anything other than a kid, even when he revealed himself as being some kind of ageless demon lord or something. Hellmaster Phibrizzo, loyal servant of the Lord of Nightmares. Strange to think that such a terrifying personality would occupy such a harmless looking body, but he had a point that no one really expected any trouble from a kid. I had used the same principle with my girl body plenty of times, after all.
I had taken to the study of black magic like Mousse does to water, which actually kinda annoyed me. I mean, my cure was most likely to be found in the realm of white magic. But it was hard to disagree with the sort of offensive firepower I was accumulating. I could level half a city block without breaking a sweat. And it wasn't like I would use this Art to corrupt the other one I study - I was fighting all my battles the old fashioned way back in Nerima. I'd never let my hand to hand skills die, even if I could take Happousai three falls of four with these spells.
It was also at this time that I studied the art of intrigue under Phibrizzo, of taking the game of trickery to a plane even Nabiki couldn't comprehend. How to control without even looking like you were doing anything. Not that Phibrizzo actually sat down and lectured me, like he did on magic, constantly drilling me on magical theory and the role of the mazoku and the dragons in the world, but instead I learned it from the way Phibrizzo would subtly manipulate the local merchants and town guards into never bothering what appeared to be a homeless street urchin and his older friend. Phibrizzo would always gloat about his mental superiority over them, and let slip a few tricks of the trade. And from time to time, Xellos would drop by. Apparently, Phibrizzo had ordered him to help some people looking for a "Claire Bible" which supposedly contained magical knowledge lost to the ages. I had been all hot to go after it myself and see if it had any hope for curing my curse, but Xellos and Phibrizzo had told me it was mostly about the war fought between the mazoku and the dragons a thousand years ago and some information on black magic.
It was after a month of this study that I went to Phibrizzo and made my request. Sure, I had been his student for a while now, but I wanted to make it official. I owed him. Besides, I had some suspicions I needed confirmed. The two of us were returning from the market, where we had cadged free eats by posing as a cute girl and her adorable little brother. "Hellmaster?" I asked.
"Yeah?" he replied, taking a lick of his ice cream cone. It was kinda ridiculous to imagine one of the most powerful, evil mazoku lords as a young kid with an ice cream cone, but there it was. "What is it, Ranma?"
"I would like to, um..." I searched for words. How should I make my request? "I would like to become your student. Officially." He stopped licking his ice cream cone and stared me in the eyes.
"I could take you on as a true student, but the other mazoku would look askance if they knew I was training a human in the secrets of the mazoku." he said, getting the hard, cold set to his eyes that told me this was truly the Hellmaster Phibrizzo, mastermind of the War of the Resurrection of the Demon King. I had to steel myself for my next question. It had been one which I had long feared, given all that I had gone through in my short life.
"I'm not human, am I?" I asked boldly. Phibrizzo jerked as if stung. He dropped his ice cream, forgotten as he stared at me. "I've suspected for a while now. The way I'm drawn to anger and fear like a moth to the flame, the chills I felt when this town held its festival. I've seen you react much the same way. I'm not human, am I?" He looked down at the melting dessert, then shook his head.
"No you aren't. Come on." However, my suspicions confirmed, I went further in my musings.
"Xellos. Xellos is my father." Phibrizzo turned around, his eyes as large as dinner plates, shock plainly written on his face.
"How did you figure THAT out?" he asked, incredulous.
"He said he had been watching me for a long time. Why else? I fell in the Jusenkyo pools not even a year ago, and that was my first experience with magic. He wouldn't have had any other reason to link me and magic." I looked Phibrizzo in the eye, trying to put the same iron in them as he could. "Unless he was my father, and knew magic ran through my veins."
"You are correct, as usual." He walked off in the direction of the beat up hovel he used as a base while slumming as a human. "You're more than worthy of being my student."
"So you'll accept me?" I asked. Despite the fact that I had known the man for only a month, there was a bond between Phibrizzo and I. My father... Genma.. had never acted so pleased as I mastered the martial arts as Phibrizzo and Xellos had as I picked up the art of black magic. In the back of my mind, I knew why they were so happy; they wished to mold me into another powerful ally of the mazoku, there to bring chaos and pain into the world. But that was overruled by the need to fit in somewhere. No one in Nerima had ever accepted me, and my father had maintained a certain seperation from me after Jusenkyo, as if I were some kind of horrible failure. "You'll take me on as an official student?"
"We'll see. You're going to be very, very busy for the next few week, my young friend." he said, with a cruel smile etched into his youthful face.
I was snapped out of my daydreaming by Akane sitting up on the cot in the nurse's office. "Jeez, Akane, why'd you have to be so violent? Miss Hinako really did a number on the class because of you." And, likely as not, was still adult after the ten minutes or so that had passed since we were dragged in here. There had been a heck of a lot of ki in the air, and that Happo 50-Yen Satsu had drained Akane and I worse than usual. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I was absorbing the power of all the anger and fear in that room or something. Gos had been knocked out too, but that was to be expected. Akane was giving be a hateful glare, as was usual after I did this to her.
"Why do you have to be such a jerk, Ranma?" she said, as I adopted a 'Who, me?' look. Just for a quick recharge, really, but she wasn't rising to the bait. Pity. I watched her leave as she stomped off back to class. I turned to my apprentice.
"So, Gos, the usual place for your lessons?" I asked. "Oh, and I might need a few more pictures of Akane, Shampoo and I if Nabiki isn't sufficiently worried about her little buisness empire." I smiled, remembering what I did to that transfer student, and thinking of Nabiki's likely reaction.
"Why don't you just sell them yourself and make more money, Master Ranma?" he asked, slightly fearful and resentful. He was angrier at me now that he knew I pissed Akane off on purpose, but more fearful of me now that he knew my true nature. He was also rather obsessed with magic, and had willingly gone to his worst enemy and begged me to teach him. I accepted him; after all, it served my needs to have a lackey.
"Well now, that is a secret." I said, with the wink and finger that humans found so annoying. It was, of course, blatant theft of my true father's routine, but sometimes the simple ways worked best. The real reason I worked with Naibiki was that it gave me a hold on her, and she was the only adversary I worried about. That, and it was fun. "Oh, and what have I said about calling me Master Ranma?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.
Gosunkugi looked at his feet and mumbled something. "What was that?" I asked, wanting to end this and get back to class.
"I'm sorry... Master Metallium." he grumbled, scooting toward the door and then fleeing toward Hinako's English class. I placed my hands on the back of my head and took my time walking back to class.
Ranma Metallium.
Has a nice ring to it, ne?
OK. I'm done with the first, introductory chapter. For now, anyways, as people will probably send me dozens of emails telling me I misspelled something somewhere that the word processor didn't catch. Well, the life of a fanfic author is fraught with peril. If later chapters are longer in coming, that's because I have RL stuff to do. Plus, I tend to write while inspired to do so. C&C, MSTs, random comments, irrelevant statements, and other email welcome. Flames too, they keep me warm and toasty, and it's damn cold out.