“Nothing much,” the evil lawyer said as he relaxed back in a posh leather chair which had appeared from out of nowhere. “I’m looking for an individual who sold their soul using one of standardized contracts some time ago and hasn’t made their payments. The name of the debtor is Kasumi Tendo.”
His arms and jaw dropping, Ranma gawked in shock at the proclamation of one of hell's many lawyers. “K-Kah-KASUMI!?”
“WHAAAAAAAAT?” Everyone else gathered (sans Kasumi) exclaimed.
“Now, now, don’t give me that look,” Damien said slowly as he thumbed at the eldest Tendo daughter. “SHE is the one who sold her soul so she’d no longer be a horrendous cook or be so destructive when she cleaned. We've kept our end of the bargain, now it’s time she paid up; which was to be when her sisters were all grown up and her father was no longer a lethargic slug and so those three could fend for themselves.”
“WAAAHHHHHH! MY BABY GIRL’S GOING TO HELL!” Soun wailed as he started to cry like a baby.
“K-Kasumi? Is that true?” Akane asked, her eyes pleading that this was some sort of screw up.
“Sis...you didn’t...” Nabiki’s cold facade hardly cracked, but the thought of losing her older sister threw that out the window.
Grabbing at the hem of her skirt, Kasumi looked down. “Well... eh-everything was falling apart, and I had to do something...” she bit on her lower lip. “I didn’t want to lose my family.”
Damien nodded his head. “Hence, why when she prayed that night back when she was sweet and tender eight years of age, she made it an open prayer, calling for, and I quote, ‘someone, anyone, please help me be like mommy’.”
“I think she meant an angel or someone good, ya’ demon!” Ranma exclaimed.
Raising her hand, Nabiki face-palmed. “Ranma, can it....” She eyed Damien slowly with a critical eye. “Go on.”
“She may have meant it to be for those of ‘good’, but, A. It was an open prayer, and B. Nothing of celestial origin answered, probably thinking the heart-felt wish of a pure, innocent child wasn’t anything worthwhile, simply unimportant...” he smiled. “But of course, those of us in the Infernal Revenue Service are ALWAYS willing to help. It was on that night my predecessor, a Mr. Lucian Darke, (who’s retired to a NICE beach-side condo in Boca) came and offered little Kasumi here a deal. Of course, being that she was a child, he explained everything out to her piece by piece, and we even had adult supervision from her father.”
“I don’t remember anything like that!” Soun shouted.
“Ahem, do you remember ANYTHING of the past decade or so after your wife died.... Anything BEFORE Ranma visited?” Damien asked.
Puffing his chest out, Soun raised his hand and opened his mouth...
...Right before he physically deflated.
Akane and Nabiki both glared daggers at their father, who shrank to the size of a gnat from their fiery gazes.
Genma, who had been quiet, gulped nervously before he spoke. “Surely there must be a way Kasumi can pay the debt without her soul?”
“Oh no, no, it’s quite specific. Here, see for yourself...” Damien said as he reached his arm completely into the suitcase, bits of flame rising up and a bat flying out. Pulling his amazingly okay arm out, he held a hard copy of contract on golden-gilded paper.
Slowly, Genma eyed the contact, (he’d seen PLENTY in his life). Yup, poor Kasumi was, for lack of better terms, ‘boned’.
“Hey I can’t let’cha just take her like that... it’s Kasumi... she’s nice to all of us!” Ranma exclaimed, trying to find some way in his line of logic to keep a girl safe, as was his, (admittedly odd and sexist) code of honor.
“Ranma’s right! I’m not letting anyone take Kasumi away!” Akane stood next to Ranma looking fiercely adamant.
Nabiki took a look at the contract, eyeing with quick super-human reading speed gained from years of practice... And sighed. “Forget it you two... only the devil can undo this contract.”
“Correct, dear child,” Damien said to Nabiki. “I’m afraid it’s all here clearly in black and white.”
Managing to get some of his strength back, Soun turned to his daughter. “Kasumi!” He cried. “How could you do such a thing?”
“Oh, it was so horrible!” Kasumi began, until she was interrupted by Damien.
“Wait, hold on one second,” he said, before snapping his fingers. Hellfire sprouted out from the ground a foot away, leaving behind scorched hardwood and an imp wearing a ruffled shirt and carrying a violin. The demon lifted the instrument to his chin and ran the bow across the strings, creating a soothing yet irritating melody. “All right, continue,” the lawyer said to the housekeeper.
Nodding her head, Kasumi turned back to her family. “It was so horrible. My father had seemingly died, if not in body, then in soul when mother left... Akane couldn’t grasp at the concept of why mother died, or frankly even what death was, and lashed out at everyone. And Nabiki, POOR Nabiki, becoming so withdrawn, feeling that she couldn’t depend on anyone. I... I had to stop all of it, ease everyone’s suffering... only I didn’t have the skills to do it, no matter how hard I tried.”
“Hence, you sold your soul to us so you could care properly for your loved ones. End of story,” Damien finished for her as he snapped his fingers, causing the imp’s head to explode. The headless body fell over, bursting into flame as it hit the floor and leaving yet ANOTHER scorch-mark.
“Oh dear, I’ll have a hard time getting that out.” Kasumi said out of force of habit.
“St-still.... There has to be something!” Akane said desperately.
Looking back and forth between her sister and the contract for a moment, Nabiki looked down and sighed. “I looked this over sis. Unless one of us offered a soul to compensate or got the big man downstairs to rip the contract... nothing we have can stop this.”
Akane became frantic. She turned to Ranma grabbing onto the front of his shirt and shaking him. “Ranma, you have to do something!”
Ranma just looked over at Akane and said:
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(Posted Thu, 13 Jul 2006 04:25)
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