[Episode 179539] [Episode 179539]When questioned about events in his Inner World, Ranma had talked about the meadow that was half-lively and half-desolate, and the two voices, one coming from each side. How when forced to choose a path, he had gotten back at the two voices by opening both boxes at the same time.
It was decided that the two differing landscapes must represent the two sets of powers that Ranma now possessed in full measure: Hollow, and Shinigami.
Yoruichi had fretted over him the entire time. In fact, this was the fifty-seventh time she had asked that very same question. (Or was it the fifty-eighth?) Kisuke Urahara could have taken offense at the implied would-be mistrust of his skills, but he knew better. In fact it rather amused him to see his friend's unused and otherwise unknown maternal instincts finally coming to the fore. To see the former Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukidô acting like a mother hen, worrying needlessly as if over her child who had only just gone off to their very first day of school…
Of course, there was no way Kisuke was ever going to say that out loud to her. Uh-uh. No way. Absolutely not. Old friends or not, Kisuke happened to like having his body parts located exactly where they were, thank you very much.
What he did say out loud was, "Well, there don't seem to be any negative side-effects from whatever happened. In fact, I'd say he's better than ever!"
Yoruichi gave him a flat stare. "Kisuke, be serious."
"I am serious. Whatever it was that happened, the boy is now able to transform between his now-perfectly normal human body and his spiritual form without leaving an empty body behind. Instant kishi-to-reishi conversion, much like a Reishi Henkan-ki, only Ranma is able to do it naturally through sheer willpower. In fact, if he really wanted to, Ranma could probably even manifest his Hollow features or his shihakushô and zanpakutô on top of his physical body."
The dark-skinned part-time feline sighed. "And just what about those 'Hollow features', anyway? Is he some kind of semi-arrancar now, or a vizard?"
Urahara just shrugged. "Hard to say, really. Technically speaking, you can't really consider Ranma an arrancar or a vizard. Arrancars, after all, are Hollows that somehow managed to gain the powers of a Shinigami, on top of whatever abilities they already have. Likewise, a vizard is a Shinigami who also acquired the powers of a Hollow. Despite that fact, in the end they are still just Hollows and Shinigami, just with something extra added on afterward.
"Ranma, on the other hand, didn't start out as either a Shinigami or a Hollow, but as a human soul, and he received both sets of powers equally at the same time. I honestly don't think the Soul Society even has a word to describe him properly right now."
Yoruichi blinked. That made sense.
Pluto blinked, watching their conversation. That made an almost disturbing amount of sense.
So to recap: In trying to separate the destinies of one Ranma Saotome from those of the Senshi, she had not only not succeeded in doing so, but had inadvertently caused a Hollow, a once-human soul that had instead become a soul-devouring monster, to become fused to his soul instead. That Ranma in this new state did not immediately go out hunting for other souls to devour, and in fact fought against other Hollows to prevent them from doing same, was a good sign, but it couldn't possibly last, and would only get worse as time went by.
Thankfully, it didn't have to. Undergoing the Broken Shaft test seemed to have cured whatever Hollow tendencies might have developed, and made Ranma into a Shinigami. That in and of itself would not have been so bad; Shinigami performed a task not entirely unlike that of the Senshi (i.e. monster-busting), just in different spheres of influence.
But no. The boy just had to go and put a whole new spin on things again, didn't he? Not only did he become a Shinigami, but he also kept all of the %$#@*# powers he had as a Hollow as well! Now he was like something out of a fantasy romance novel, a magic-wielding swordsman who wielded the powers of light and darkness equally. Add in the fact that by the time the Dark Kingdom were to awaken, his growth in power would put him on par with the Dark Generals, maybe even Beryl herself, and the Inner Senshi would be flocking to his side like moths to a flame. Or more correctly, like sappy, lovesick schoolgirls to a bishonen, demon-slaying warrior.
"Rei is either going to piss herself the first time she senses his spiritual presence," Setsuna remarked flatly to herself even as she thought of it, "or else she's going to try and jump his bones right then and there.
"...Knowing Ranma, probably both!"
The Senshi of Time sighed. Such incredible chaos in Ranma Saotome's life could only be the work of the Gods. But which one, or ones, was it?
Elsewhere in Existence, a certain mischief god currently in the form of a small black cat sneezed, before turning back to the images playing out in the well before it.
"What about his father? Genma Saotome?" Yoruichi asked, wanting desperately to get off the topic of Ranma's 'darker half'. "What were you able to find out about him?"
Kisuke smirked, "Quite a lot, actually. And at the same time, very little. It seems our Mr. Saotome was once a student under a certain martial arts master by the name of Happôsai."
Yoruichi shuddered in disgust at the mention of that name. Happôsai was well-known among the females of the Seireitai. True, he had very little to do with the Soul Society - in fact, the only time the diminutive lecher ever came in contact with Shinigami at all was when a Hollow just happened to be assaulting a young woman of a certain... aesthetic quality while he was in the area. (In other words, the Hollow was attacking a pretty lady he happened to be ogling, either a human girl or a female Shinigami dispatched to deal with the Hollow.) The old man, unlike others, was able to see and know exactly what had happening, both from having enough spiritual energy to perceive Hollows, and just from being who he was.
True, Happôsai always tried to assist with defeating the Hollow, but the operative word was 'try', and the 'cure' always turned out to be far worse than the 'disease'. The collateral damage in and of itself was bad enough on its own, to say absolutely nothing of his fondling and groping any and all of the involved females afterward, plus the fact that they were never able to catch him long enough to use a kikanshinki memory-replacer to alter his recollection of the event. Suffice it to say, Happôsai was not a welcome name among members of the Shinigami Women's Association.
Kisuke went on, "While Happôsai himself seems to have dropped out of sight for the last four or so years, though not actually killed or else he would be taking up residence in Rukongai," -- Thank Enma-sama, Yoruichi thought gratefully to herself -- "it seems Mr. Saotome has developed a reputation for being just as bad as his unlamented teacher. There are a large number of outstanding incidents of petty thievery among the human authorities that match Genma's description, usually involving food. Anything that he can't steal outright, he usually offers his son in exchange, either as collateral or as a potential husband to the other party's daughter. Then once they've agreed to the exchange, he takes his son and flees to the next town. By my figures, Ranma should be engaged to at least seven different girls by now."
Yoruichi couldn't help herself, she saw red. What kind of sick person used his own son as a reusable bargaining chip?! Selling him off like a piece of furniture like that?! Soul Society's laws be damned, Yoruichi swore to herself that the next time she saw Genma Saotome, that fat slob would get the beating of a lifetime he so rightly deserved!
"There you are, boy!"
There was an instant of pause as Ranma reacted to the sound of the familiar voice, seeming to hang in the air as he froze in mid-kata. Then gravity reasserted itself, and he came to a landing lightly on the park grass on the balls of his feet.
There was also an uncharacteristic amount of anger, simmering, surging upward in Ranma's chest even as he fought to push it back down again. For as long as he could remember, it had always been like this. Whenever Oyaji managed to really piss somebody off badly, the old man would run for the hills and leave Ranma behind to take the blame, then come back days or weeks later, often in the middle of the night to steal him back. Before, he had always been glad to see his father again; it had meant a new place to have adventures, and new martial arts moves to learn. Ranma as he was back then simply hadn't known any better.
Not anymore. He knew now. He had friends at the Urahara Shôten, real friends. People who listened to him, who respected him, who didn't steal his food, who didn't yell at him and say he was 'acting like a little girl' just because he didn't understand something, who liked him for who he was instead of making him turn into something he didn't want to be. Those were real friends. His father... Genma... as hard as it was to admit it, was not his friend. His father just wanted to use him, like a meal ticket, or a slave.
"Oyaji," Ranma ground out, silently thanking the lessons Kisuke-san and Yoruichi-san had been teaching him so that he could learn control over his new powers. Without that control, he probably would have attacked the stupid old man as soon as he had heard his voice. "Whadda you want?"
The portly martial artist stomped up to the ten-year-old with the airs of someone who was being forced to suffer needlessly for someone else's actions. (And to Genma's extremely limited mind, he was. That his cowardly son was too weak to learn the true Cat Fist, and allowed himself to be possessed by a demon, thereby forcing Genma to execute the Saotome Secret Maneuver, was no fault of his, after all!)
"Foolish boy!" he thundered. "What do you think you're doing? Bad enough you failed to learn the Neko-ken, but to let yourself be taken over by a demon? Oh, how could I be cursed with such a cowardly and dishonorable son?" he wailed theatrically as if to the heavens.
"Yer hardly one to talk 'bout bein' a coward, Oyaji. I wasn't the one who ran away, screamin' and pissin' his pants, after all," Ranma growled. It was taking almost all of his willpower just to keep from beating the old man into the ground right then and there. Better to stick to words and insults; as pissed off as he was, Ranma didn't want to kill his own father. No matter how much of an idiot he was.
"Show some respect, boy! I'm your father! You'll do what I tell you to do, and know that you'll be better off because of i--"
"Shut up."
Genma's self-important grandstanding was cut off by the blade of a katana, suddenly appearing mere centimeters away from carving open his throat. Face paling with the sight of that all-too-familiar and dreaded condition, Genma's eyes tracked down the line of the blade, to its dragon's head-carved hilt, to the almost deathly-pale hand holding it. From there could he see Ranma was wearing keikogi and hakama that he hadn't been wearing before. Strangely the clothing was colored both black and white simultaneously - the two colors of the cloth seemed to be fighting each other, eddies and currents of light and darkness swirling over and around and through each other in patterns the likes of which that would make M.C. Escher delirious with jealousy.
Tearing his eyes away from that dizzying image, Genma forced his gaze to look at his son’s face... and promptly pissed in his pants. Ranma's skin had become unnaturally pale, and his pigtail had become bleached bone-white. The lower half of his face was covered by a white mask, with black markings like a grinning demon. But it was the eyes... Ranma's eyes remained their blue-gray color, but the whites beneath them had turned black as pitch, glaring at him from the abyss like the frozen flames of Hell.
Pinned by that unholy gaze, a drop of sweat slowly trickled down Genma's face, and dripped off his chin, the yellowing spot on his crotch spreading. Belatedly, he noticed a second katana, gripped in Ranma's other hand.
"You don't have the right to claim you think you know what's best for me, old man! Not after what you did to me!" the white-haired half-Hollow snarled behind his mask. He hadn't wanted to go this far, but something had snapped inside of him listening to his father's boasting. He couldn't hold back his anger, but he could control how it emerged.
"Look at me, Oyaji! See this?" he jabbed his thumb at his face, still holding onto the one zanpakutô that wasn't threatening to give Genma a very close shave. "This is what yer stupid idea fer the Neko-ken did ta me! Thanks ta you, I got turned inta a monster! It's only thanks ta other people -- people who actually cared 'bout more than just their own damn hides -- that I wuz able ta fix it even this far!!"
Watching the fat man tremble and whimper like a scared little girl, Ranma snorted contemptuously. With a flick of his wrist, the zanpakutô was removed from Genma's throat.
"Go away, Oyaj… no, Genma Saotome. Yer not my father anymore, an' I ain't yer son. Go away, and take yer stupid schemes someplace else." With that Ranma, formerly of the Saotome clan, turned and walked away without a second glance. The mask and pale features faded away, his hair, skin, and eyes resuming their natural coloration, but the two-color shihakushô and twin zanpakutô remained.
Genma just stood there, stunned at what he had just witnessed, unable to react. His son, his own flesh and blood, his meal ticket has just disowned him? No more heir to sell for food, to marry a Tendo and unite the Anything-Goes schools, thereby securing his well-deserved retirement? No more boy to keep Nodoka's sword away from his head?!
"Bo--!" he started to yell, but then something suddenly struck him from behind, and Genma's world went black.
Yoruichi stood, her hand held in a knife-hand chop, behind where the unconscious Genma had been standing. "Pathetic," she sneered, then reached down to hoist the portly man over her shoulder.
Kisuke Urahara blinked at seeing her do so. "What are you doing?" The two of them had heard Genma's initial shout and rush over, just in time to see Ranma superimpose both the Hollow and Shinigami features over his physical human body, holding the zanpakutô to his neck. Kisuke's smirk at seeing his theories proven had been insufferable.
Yoruichi sneered again. "Dumping this fat fool outside of town. If we're lucky, Ranma disowning him like that'll make him give up whatever idiotic plans he has for Ranma. But I doubt it, so it's better to put as much distance from his as possible before he can try anything else."
Kisuke smirked, as Yoruichi detonated a kikanshinki burst into Genma's face.
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(Posted Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:31)
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