As a child, he'd been feared for his glowing red eyes. No human had eyes like that, so he had lived a life of constant battle. No one had seen fit to just let him live in peace. His original parents had been killed when he was fairly young. After a few years of wandering around, he'd been taken in by a nice woman that had issues of her own.
She'd been killed just for being near him. He'd the cut the bastards down himself. After that he hadn't been a particularly sociable person.
That was when they learned to fear him for his skill in battle, and not merely his demon eyes. As a boy he was already taking on bandits and samurai alike as they crossed his path.
The government however had a use for him, as an assassin. Not that he particularly minded, as long as those government dogs remembered their places. In their service he'd come to be known as the 'Battousai' and his fearsome reputation had only grown.
Eventually he had been betrayed. Trapped at Honnoji Temple they had banished him to the depths of the netherworld.
Much to his surprise, he'd found the realm of spirits and demons to be fairly hospitable. The inhabits there were completely capable of respecting him for his power. Also, unlike the fools that had banished him for being a demon, the demons there didn't place much value on looks. Ironically he was mostly snubbed for being a 'mere human', though that was a mistake he was all to happy to correct.
In his time there, he's amassed power, weapons, followers, allies, and even something akin to close companions.
Even if that dark and treacherous realm suited him, that still didn't forgive the fools that had banished him. As he was actually human and a native of his birth land of Nippon, the return trip had been fairly easy.
Why, he'd even brought along friends to help him celebrate his return.
They had celebrated by storming Honnoji temple and subjugating the place. In return for one prime virginal miko to be his personal pet and information on who had betrayed him, he'd spared that pitiful place.
From there, he'd started carving a bloody trail through the traitors and all who had opposed him. They had called him the Demon King, returned from hell with his army of foul creatures to blight the land.
Feh, they even had the nerve to call him Oda Nobunaga returned from hell for his revenge.
Like he gave a rat's ass about that kind of stuff.
Still suffering from a severe headache, Ranma tried to keep the groaning to a minimum. While scowling and grimacing was totally expected of this guy, showing pain and weakness wasn't.
As bad as it sounded, Ranma wasn't too upset with this life. It wasn't something the common folk knew of, but the person they called 'The Demon King' was actually pretty fair and didn't just kill when the mood struck him. In a way it sort of reminded him of how Ryouga and other people would go around shouting about all the evils he'd 'done' in Nerima.
He'd actually have a bit of trouble settling into this role, as despite knowing the guy's moves, he needed to get healed and actually practice them to integrate them into his style.
It was also more than martial arts. His weapons were in individual weapon boxes which were sealed with holy wards lest the blood and demonic energies soaking them peeled the paint off the walls. He even had a suit of samurai style armor forged in the demon realm, though it was fairly light armor that kept only certain pieces so as to not restrict his freedom of movement. Then there were the magical talismans, which meant he had to learn magic which was pretty much an entirely new deal for him.
Even then he had his allies and 'friends' to consider. Unfortunately summoning them into a 'holy' kingdom would be tantamount to an act of war, and he wanted to at least be out of bed and standing on his feet before doing so. Apparently they both shared a 'devil may care' attitude when dealing with life.
Of course, even with the threat to the world gone, he still had all of his old problems to deal with. There were many, human and demon alike that would want to fight him for any number of reasons: to steal his weapons, to take his power, to prove themselves strong, or just attempt to take his title in cold blood. Then there were the old fashioned fools that would fight him just for looking like he'd walked straight out of hell.
There was also the simple matter of how this thing with being engaged to a princess was going to work out.
Of course, as she was shyly peeking into his part of the bedroom from around the corner, he figured he'd be finding out if that was a bad thing or not.
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(Posted Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:42)
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