Tatewaki and Kodachi had to turn their heads as they saw one of the walls literally bowled over. "DAUGHTER?!!"
Mara groaned and shook her head. "So much for the element of surprise..."
Kodachi was so surprised by the sudden arrival that she loosened her hold on her brother's form. "Ranma-sama?"
Kuno was able to loosen himself free. He would have started reprimanding the demon sorcerer, but instead settled for scooting back from the coils. He placed his hand on his chest as he tried to steady his breathing.
Ranma ignored Kuno, for the moment, and continued to stare at Kodachi. "Dachi... you... I mean we... Do we have a daughter?"
Kodachi looked at Ranma in the eye and averted her eyes, then mutely nodded.
"That's what she said, didn't she?" Mara said in a huff. Damn. Ranma was a father figure already.
The pigtailed demon glared at Mara out of the corner of his eyes. "What was that, tomboy?"
"Just re-affirming what Kodachi said to you," Mara said, sounding completely and utterly innocent... So you knew she had to be up to something.
That of course went completely over Ranma's head as he turned to glare at Kuno. Kodachi, on the other hand, gave the demoness a cautious look.
Raising a shaking hand, Kuno spoke wordlessly; his jaw flapping. No way. This couldn't be! He saw the damn corpse! He personally saw Saotome cremated!! Hell, he even replaced Ranma's ashes with cigarette butts in the urn just so he could piss on them!!!
The pigtailed demon took a menacing step towards the downed kendoist. "So I have a daughter, Kuno. I daughter you separated from her mother!"
That was probably one of the worst things that could be done in Ranma's book, even considering his latest experience.
"T-this is a trick!!!" Kuno managed to shout with what little oxygen he regained into his lungs. "I SAW YOUR CORPSE, FOUL DEMON!!!"
Mara smirked a little bit. "Hey, he's actually right for once," Mara joked with Ranma. "Does this mean it's time for Ragnarok?"
Ranma couldn't help but smirk a little at that. "What do you know? He IS right!" The pigtailed demon raised a hand forward and summoned a ball of black hellfire.
Staring in unbridled fear at the black flame that was held in Ranma's hand, Kuno started scooting back away, following the length of the room. "Demon! DEMON! I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!" He accused as he tried to get away. While he knew Ranma was a demon from before, the pigtailed martial artist never used such direct dark magic’s.
Ranma let loose with a laugh. "I became a demon AFTER I was betrayed and murdered, Kuno." His features hardened. "Now... Where is my daughter?"
Kuno growled and spat out, "I'LL NEVER TELL YOU! THAT LITTLE BASTARD CAN BURN IN HELL WITH YOU!"
Kodachi's eyes narrowed in anger. "Have you forgotten my promise to you so soon, brother dear?"
Kuno's face paled.
Really paled.
As if he was more scared of Kodachi then a demon.
And in truth, he was!
Demons were something that samurai always dealt with in fairytales. Twisted sisters they did not.
They were usually poisoned and/or killed by them.
"...What do you want to know?" Kuno finally relented.
Slapping herself on the face Mara said, "HELL-O! Haven't you been listening!?"
"Where is my daughter?" Kodachi asked coldly. So coldly even Ranma shuddered slightly at her tone.
Nodding her head, Mara mumbled, "She's make a good yuki-onna..."
"China!" Kuno spat out. "The bastard's in China!"
Ranma narrowed his eyes. "What the heaven is she doing in China?"
"The gaijin trash took her!" Kuno said seriously. "Took her back to her barbaric village."
Both Ranma and Kodachi stared at Kuno in shock. They could barely believe what he'd just said.
But as they thought it over it made sense. A twisted kind of sense. Cologne and the Amazons wanted Ranma's blood in their tribe.
Kuno stood shakily. "As much as I dislike little bastards, I do no kill children."
"Kuno..." Ranma started dangerously. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand."
Kuno had a strange moment of clarity and groaned... "I cannot give you a reason... We are enemies. And if our situations were reversed, I'd kill you," he said honestly.
The demon nodded resolutely and was about to blast Kuno into oblivion, or so he thought since the restrictions wouldn't allow him to, when Kodachi spoke up. "Death is too good for you, brother dear."
Kuno paled at that. He looked wearily over at Kodachi.
"What you've done to me, I'll gladly return to you." The Black Rose glared at the Blue Thunder.
Mara raised an eyebrow. The anger and evil in Kodachi's tone of voice... What did that girl have in mind?
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!" The insane laughter was heard even outside on the streets.
---
Nabiki took another sip from her coffee with her eyes glued to the computer screen. The information she'd been able to gather since being abandoned here by the demons turned out to be enlightening.
Just as enlightening as having a motel room be made 'el fresco' style. She just hoped it didn't rain soon.
For some reason people were avoiding this part of the hotel. Maybe because the demons on television were seen here.
"Honey! We're home!" Came the call of Mara as she opened the door to the room...
...Which soon fell off of its hinge.
Nabiki didn't even flinch this time. She just looked up in annoyance at the demoness. "Do you have any idea how much trouble I had fixing that door?"
"But is that not the place of such a work about person as you, Tendo-san?" Came a VERY familiar high-and-mighty voice.
That voice DID break Nabiki out of her cool, especially when she saw the Black Rose walk into the room clad in one of her infamous black kimonos. "What the fuck is she doing here?!" She demanded of Mara just as Ranma entered the room.
"She's Ranma plaything," Mara said to Nabiki as she walked over to the couch and sat down. "Deal with it."
The couch then gave way under Mara, causing the demoness to fall onto the ground.
Ranma chuckled. "You gaining weight, tomboy?"
Mara frowned. "Hardly." She stood up. "That thing was more beat up than I would have guessed."
"I would beg to differ," Kodachi said, her arm wrapping possessively around her Ranma-sama's waist.
The demon smirked that very same annoying smirk that gained him so many enemies, which only made Nabiki roll her eyes. "Will you two quit it already?! I swear! It's the Akane thing all over again."
That earned Nabiki a twin glare from Kodachi and Ranma, which she studiously ignored.
Mara raised her eyebrow, quite curious to what THAT meant. She really needed to catch up on Ranma's file.
"Now that I have your attention," Nabiki said after recovering from Kodachi's appearance, "We can get onto business. Fact is... I found something interesting about our lovely flower."
Kodachi raised her eyebrow curiously. "What do you know, Tendo mercenary?"
"She disappeared two days after Ranma-kun was killed. As if in she doesn't exist anymore," Nabiki finished with a frown. Such a thing shouldn't be possible.
Kodachi raised an eyebrow. "Strange... But that just proves more that the conceited wretch had a hand in this."
Ranma remained silent, the subject affecting him more than he'd like to admit.
"Ranma-sama?" Kodachi asked lightly as she rubbed Ranma's shoulder.
"Sorry, Dachi.... I just..." Ranma trailed off and clenched his fists tightly. That betrayal hurt worse than all the others. He was actually fighting with himself right now not to start blowing things up.
Nabiki stared at Kodachi. "If she did she wouldn't need to hide. None would suspect her if it wasn't for Ranma-kun's return."
"Still, it does leave a new question..." Kodachi said slowly. "If that IS the case, then why leave at all?"
"She didn't just leave. She vanished," Nabiki stressed the final word.
"Maybe there's a bigger player involved," Mara suggested.
"Who could manipulate Ukyo, Tofu and..." She shook her head. "It doesn't make sense. Ukyo and Tofu I can understand, in a sick kind of way, but her? I don't buy it."
Mara smirked. "It's an unknown wrapped within a mystery, and locked in an enigma..." The Demoness said in amusement. "I'm sure our dear silver-tongue Nabiki here can figure it out while we go and get Ranma and Kodachi's love-child."
Nabiki was in the process of taking a sip of her coffee when Mara let out that little piece of information. She spewed the substance all over the demoness. "WHAT?!!!"
Mara pouted a little. "Ask them," she said as she pointed towards the happy, fucked-up couple.
Kodachi frowned, but shook her head. She knew it was going to come out sooner or later.
Nabiki turned unbelieving eyes on Ranma, who just shrugged and scratched the back of his head, and turned to Kodachi. "When?" Whenever she thought she couldn't be shocked again Ranma went ahead and proved her wrong.
"Before my Ranma-sama was murdered he and I consummated our love," Kodachi said. "Love that bore fruit... Which was taken away by those Chinese gaijin whores!"
The middle Tendo sister understood then. "The Amazons. They wanted Ranma's blood in their tribe, and the only way to get it after he died was taking in his child." Nabiki shook her head. "It won't be easy to get the child from them."
"Of course it will!" Mara snorted. "After all, you got hell power on your side!"
Nabiki looked at Mara seriously. "The Amazons are not foes you want to underestimate, saggy."
The nickname made Ranma's eyes widen slightly before he burst out laughing.
Kodachi lifted the back of her hand to her mouth and...
"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOO!"
Mara sputtered wordlessly as she pointed at Nabiki.
"What?" Nabiki innocently asked.
Frowning, Mara soon smirked. "It's all right... I'll get my vengeance fifty or so years from now..." She chuckled darkly. "I can't wait to see you in the fourth level, Tendo..."
Nabiki smirked. "That means I should make your life a living hell while I can then? Believe me; I know how to do that."
Mara still held her smile. "Sure. Have your fun while it lasts..." Mara laughed. "Because when it's my turn, it'll be my turn for eternity!"
Nabiki winked at Mara. "I don't think so. Right, Ranma-kun?" If there was one thing Nabiki knew it was that Ranma, no matter how changed he was, always repaid his depts. He wouldn't allow Mara to give her any grief if she helped him like she was doing right now.
"Right," Ranma said with a smirk, mostly to spite the demoness.
Mara frowned. "For a demon, you sure suck, Saotome. You're supposed to be torturing humans, not your fellow demons."
Nabiki couldn't help jibing Mara a little more. "Maybe that's why he makes a better demon than you do." She wanted to piss Mara off. People usually revealed a lot more when they lost control of themselves. Mara was too in control for her tastes.
Still Mara refused to budge. She didn't say anything yet, but she knew if she filed the right paperwork to Hild, that Nabiki's ass would be hers. "Anyway," she said to change the subject and turned back to Ranma. "You want to go to China and save your daughter or what?"
At hearing mention of her daughter, Kodachi turned to her beloved, hoping he would say yes. It would be dangerous, no doubt, but she would give anything to be with her daughter once more.
Anything.
Ranma turned to stare at Mara seriously. "Do you even have to ask?"
Mara smirked. "Then let’s go, Ranma!"
"Wait," Nabiki said before the demons could get out of the room.
Rolling her eyes, Mara asked, "What is it now, Silver?"
Nabiki didn't allow the nickname to offend her as she was too busy being serious. "Are you just going to burst in, guns blazing, without knowing what to expect?"
Ranma looked like that was exactly what he was about to do.
Mara nodded her head. "The battle may be bloody, but that kind of works for me..."
Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Are all demons brain-dead?"
Mara pouted... Rather cutely, but it was still a pout. "Then what do YOU suggest, Silver?"
"That you don't risk the baby's life, at least," Nabiki said dryly. "In their village they are dangerous. Why not draw them out?"
Mara blinked her eyes once, twice, thrice.
"That is a positively splendid idea, Silver," Kodachi said, agreeing with the new nickname.
Nabiki turned to Kodachi and frowned. "The least you can do is call me by my name, Kodachi. I'm helping you get your child back, after all."
Ranma smirked. "I don't know. I kind of like the new nicknames, right saggy tomboy?"
Mara's eye twitched irritably, but she still smirked. "If I can call her 'Silver', I'll put up with that. Got it?"
"Agreed, Saggy Tomboy," Kodachi said with a nod of her head. "Wouldn't you say so, Silver?"
Nabiki's eyebrow twitched before she slowly started to smirk. "This might work out, after all."
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(Posted Wed, 01 Sep 2004 03:49)
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