Ranma ½ Divine Blood

[Thrythlind]

Ranma stepped back and watched as her "assistants" took up the more active part of the matter and allowing her to just watch as she took a sip from the water bottle.

For added fun, she'd shaken up things a little.

Mao was pressing Kaname, she was holding back a little or not at all in random intervals as they had discussed, keeping the untrained girl ping-ponging from paranoid anticipation to panicked reaction and back.

Meanwhile, Sousuke was being quizzed on classical Japanese literature and poetry by Kyoko while Mizuki was engaged in an attempt to tickle him. At least that's what it looked like to Ranma.

The instructions had been for Sousuke not to touch Mizuki and not to let her touch him. Without breaking the steps he had to take of course. As well as a reminder that the focus of this exercise was to take control of one's own emotions and thoughts. To maintain, simultaneously, the energy of passion and the objectivity of rational thought.

She set her thoughts aside a moment and swiftly stepped forward, appearing to walk at a casual pace, and snatched Mizuki firmly out of Sousuke's spiral moments before a burst of wind ripped upward from the center of the spiral and tossed Sousuke almost straight into the ceiling before he crashed down again.

Kaname winced and glanced over cautiously for just a moment, but did not otherwise react visibly.

Are you all ri-!? Kaname asked before she had to quickly dodge underneath Mao's punch.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough to do it completely and the closed fist opened up and gently smacked into her head pushing her over and triggering the electricity of the spiral to flow through Kaname's body.

It is not a problem, Sousuke gasped. You?

I'm fine, Kaname responded as she twitched and tried to sit up again.

"I warned you to keep your body temperature down," Ranma said casually before glancing toward Mao.

"Yeah, there was a bit of telepathic note-passing too," Mao noted as Ranma nodded.

"That's fine as long as it doesn't distract you," Ranma noted.

"That's easy for you to say," the blue-haired girl protested as she tried to straighten her hair again.

It was a lost cause until she found a shower.

"Might I ask if you've undergone this training, Director Satomi?" Sousuke asked.

"I would think that would be obvious if I hadn't been raised by my father," Ranma muttered, confusing many of the people there. "Yeah, I did this. And I had my father showing baby pictures to two girls while a grandmaster level martial artist of the Amazons kept thwacking me on the head and I was operating under a curse that stole all my strength."

"Wow, that sounds like it was stressful," Kyoko noted sagely.

"Just a little," Ranma noted squeezing her fingers together and taking a sip of water. "But there's always worse things."

She frowned as she thought back to such worse things.

*****************

Getting out of the hospital was easy. Even when they tried to sedate her and move her on towards the psychiatric ward when she'd tried to explain what her natural gender was.

That had left her on the streets of a foreign country, no idea where in the world, unable to speak the language and confused, sore and more than a little unstable.

"They say I'm Greece," Ranma said hollowly into the phone and she waited a bit before looking around to see if anybody was watching. "I was in the hospital."

She glanced down at her arm and the stitches there from where the...shark had bitten and held down on her during...

"I was...attacked," she said quietly. "No...No I didn't win. I..."

Ranma didn't know the word for this just at the moment. Maybe she did in an intellectual sense, but it wasn't coming to her. It was so far away from the idea of what she thought of as possible.

"Something was...inside me...and I can't change back," she continued quietly. "No. Yes, Mom. Yes....I need hel...Mom? What do you mean? Mom...?"

She held the phone waiting for a response from the other end until it clicked over to the annoying off-the-hook sound. Slowly, she hung up the receiver and picked up the public phone again before mechanically dialing out.

"Japanese...collect call for Nodoka Saotome, Tokyo?" Ranma said quietly thinking that they must have been cut off. "The connection is denied?"

The operator disconnected and Ranma held the phone there a long time before that same off-the-hook sound returned and she clumsily hung it up.

She hadn't heard the noise or felt the phone in her hand. Her body acting on some instinct connected to the physical senses that her own mind couldn't process right now.

For her own part, everything was fragmented, chaotic. It was just a swirling mix of sensation and memory and nightmare all mixed up incoherently.

Very slowly, she lifted her hand up to her throat and held it there, just lightly gripping around the slender meeting of her head to her body as she breathed in and out and tried to focus past the lingering physical and mental confusion from Zeus's assault followed swiftly by Hecate and Poseidon.

There was no Katana, so this would have to do, but she couldn't do it right just yet. Her hand wasn't doing what she wanted it to do.

The Soul of Ice crept it, pushing the objectivity of thought to mesh over the raging and confused emotions she felt within her.

Humiliation.

Rage.

Pain.

Forced pleasure.

Helplessness

Shame

And, now, into the mix.

Betrayal.

The process was slower than she was used to, because there were so many emotions and the emotions were so much stronger than she had ever felt save once, at Jusendo, when she'd thought Akane had died.

As usual, she began considering the myriad of possibilities that could stretch from this point and, to her surprise, her death by her own hand was not the only path the rational part of her had.

Her hand twitched around her throat.

And then stopped as her eyes widened and every sequence forward she could see...children were a part of it.

Three children.

Did one of the doctor's tell her she was pregnant?

What was...

She lowered her hand, or didn't. She stood up. Or stayed standing.

She turned to the phone. No, she didn't. She did so many things at once that couldn't all be done.

She...

"Hello, would like some tea?"

**************

Ranma frowned because trying to clearly remember what she'd seen in that meditation was always taxing. All she knew, and was relieved for, was that she'd known about her kids.

Then all thoughts of suicide had become moot.

The Soul of Ice had very literally saved her life through its granting of rational thought on top of everything else.

"All right," she said, setting down her water bottle. "That's enough of a break, let's get started seriously."

"I think you're the only one who had a break, Satomi-san," Kaname noted.

 

[Thrythlind]

A burst of smoke erupted in the midst of the devastated landscape and Vanth appeared out of the fading sulphurous cloud. Almost immediately her wings and the eyes in them furled out of her back, growing into existence, as she looked about nervously.

There was a big difference between being a death seer and actually being a death seer and going off on her own away from the various humans and Gods and Ainur did not seem a particularly...smart idea.

Of course, then her task wasn't one many of those would appreciate.

They found her pretty quickly. First one then another and then a quickly growing lot of them. The eyes in Vanth's wings blinked erratically as the numbers grew around her. The fact that their were clearly Demons and Gods in the mix underscored the fact that, as a category three Demon, she was...vulnerable.

"Listen..." she said.

"Who are you?" one of the ghosts asked.

"I'm Vanth Demoness of the Deathbed," she said. "My superiors have sent me to make an...offer."

"Can you give me my life back," one of the ghosts demanded.

"No, but..."

"Why couldn't you stop this!" another demanded. "Why!?"

"I can offer you..."

"You can offer us what?!" someone shouted, in Russian, punctuating the fact that the sight was starting to draw ghosts from other zones of death.

"I can..." she stopped and felt something cold drawing a gasp and a brief thrill of terror before her emotions started muting. When she spoke again it was with a calm, somewhat dazed tone. "I can offer you vengeance."

That seemed to get attention.

"We need you to use your power to help us." She found herself easily remembering the offer she had planned to come in with as the ghosts huddled around her.

"We should listen to this one," a whispering voice said at her side. "Don't listen to those others around here about crossing over."

"No," Vanth said in a daze shaking her head.

"We can..." the whispering ceased with a growl and the chill, damping sensation left Vanth swiftly.

"You need to leave," a firm woman's voice said as the demoness shook her head clear.

A glance to the side and Vanth saw the stern expression of a human woman walking forward as her other eyes caught sight of a shadowy presence that had moved back into the crowd of ghosts. Behind the human was a young Goddess Vanth recognized as Eija Satomi.

"Why should I have to leave," the shadowy figure asked with a smile. "I was merely helping this young Demon give her speech."

"You can't act in vengeance," Melinda told everyone. "You need to move on. Staying here will just prolong your suffering."

"Where'd you come from?" Vanth demanded, a combination of anger and nervousness.

"A novice death seer shouldn't be alone in such a place," Eija said coming to Vanth's side. "Ghosts like that one love to...make use of us when we're weak or young."

"Move on?" the dark ghost said with a smile. "Move on to what? Have you ever seen what's beyond? What happens when someone 'crosses over'? For all you know they just cease to be."

"That is not the case," Melinda said. "I've spoken with ghosts that have been over there. I've seen what happens when people go on."

"As have I," Eija said, whispering to the older Demoness. "Stay in between us."

"Should an immortal move on to heaven?" the dark spirit asked curiously. "And if they can remain behind, then what about the rest of you? There are ways."

He turned to look at Melinda with a dark smile.

"Ask her formerly dead husband," he noted.

Eija glanced toward Melinda briefly in confusion. Was that dark spirit implying that Melinda had brought someone back from the dead.

"She knows how her husband pulled that off," the dark one said.

"For that to happen, someone else has to die," Melinda said.

"Better them than us, right?" the dark one asked.

There was some muttering amongst the ghosts.

"And when they try the same with you?" Eija asked outloud as Melinda held her tongue briefly. "That would just create a mass of terror and confusion. Some will succeed without sin, certainly. But others? They'll fail go insane or simply become some undead thing."

Melinda nodded at Eija and looked around.

"There is a better way," Melinda said. "Your time here may be over, but there are people waiting for all of you in Light. Don't stay here, it'll just stretch your suffering. And your loved ones will be waiting for you until you come."

"You shouldn't listen to her, into the light there is only..."

"Judgment and punishment for our sins?" Eija asked, nodding toward Melinda. "I have heard this lie before."

"Any death-seer that's been unfortunate enough to meet one of these has heard it many times before," Melinda said. "Beyond that is love and forgiveness."

"Are you going to let these ghost-whisperers and mediums who have never even been dead, much less crossed over tell you how to do things?" the dark spirit demanded.

"What would you come back to, all your loved ones are waiting for you in the Light?" Melinda said. "Most of the people that died have already crossed over, to come back to us would be to move away from the people you want to be with."

"We can't just leave without setting things right," a ghost demanded angrily. "We need revenge."

"Revenge I can help you with," the dark spirit said. "I can teach..."

He stopped talking as Eija raised her hand.

"You do not need his help," she said quietly. "The Demoness and I can help you find justice. It won't be revenge perhaps, but it will...inconvenience those behind this war. If you need that to crossover, I can help. But if you take his path...you will be just as bad as these others. If you start hurting people...then I will have to do something else."

She sounded hesitant and quiet as she said it, but there was no doubt that she could do 'something else' by the slight trace of buried steel in her voice.

"Is it all right to offer such?" she asked Melinda hopefully. "I shall not force such a thing."

"They might prove useful in taking Nifelheim," Vanth offered hopefully. "I want my homeland back. I want my family back. I'm not dead. I'm just a nurse, a medic. I want to go home. They can help with that."

"Indeed, we can," the dark one said.

Melinda glanced toward Eija. She'd heard how the Gods kept the long dead in seals and periodically tried to get them to cross over, like long term mental patients and trying to coax them into recovery. But Eija was human trained. And she wasn't used to presenting one of three choices instead of just two.

Though, come to think of it. All Eija was offering was something like what the Watchers offered.

"We don't need your help," Melinda firmly told the dark spirit. "I remind you again, your loved ones are waiting for in the Light. All are welcome there. I'm certain they're waiting for you."

"I...I can see it," a ghost said in rapture.

As he spoke the dark ghost ahead of them started writhing in pain as other ghosts started repeating the same sort of statement. Repeated several times over, the ghost drove backwards into the surrounding shadows, and Melinda and Eija watched darkly as a handful of spirits moved with him.

And when it was done, there were still many left standing and watching.

"And you're not going to cross over?" Melinda asked as the situation calmed down.

"Not yet," one of the ghosts said, pointing to Vanth and Eija. "We'll help them."

Melinda looked over to Eija who shuffled about nervously and glanced to Vanth.

"Do you have an idea what to do with them," the older ghost-whisperer asked with a hint of discomfort.

"I think I might be able to provide accommodations," Eija said quietly.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Been meaning to reply to this for a while... here are some more comments on the episodes that were released since my last post:

248152

...Rossa Mansion...

I had to look that one up. Is he really in an assassin guilds mansion?

"Though...I think I actually do have a code name around here...haven't been told what it is though."

So... she still does not know. I wonder if that will blow up in their faces at some point.

Now, if this weren't war going on around right now,

'weren't war' s/b 'war weren't'

"A Soul of Ice, even," she said.

Personally, I'm of the opinion Kaname should not be on the level needed for a hiryu shoten ha... It is not the emotional balance or mental needs, but the physical stress it would place on her body doing it.

On the other hand, she has enough power she could likely simulate it with the connection she has.

248191

Peorth shook her head as she recalled that Kami-Sama had moved the tree away in less than half an hour.

Yeah, well, the most powerful on both sides were what mostly prevented the war for as long as they did... It was Hild after all that took out some 1/2 the demon forces single handedly...

"Offer them reincarnation, and if they refuse. Take their minds away, they can find a new identity."

It is interesting to see just how much the war must be stressing everyone, for someone like her to be making a call like that.

One oddity, this ending conversation, while good as a status update, is puzzling a bit in that she cannot really be as in the dark as she seems as we know she was on earth for at least some of the Tokyo situation.

248246

Jim Clancy

Not a huge fan of Ghost Whisperer, but I thought it ok. My brother and mother love it though. Ionteresting series, they were most upset it was cancelled.

"That's stating the obvious," Professor Rick Payne said with a smirk.

Cute. Nicely done.

"She is not any danger of dying," Eija noted.

'not any' s/b 'not in any'

248494

"I didn't misspeak," the exorcist said with a smirk. "Though she's learning the look part now at least."

Sniggers... since you are so into the innuendo and double meanings... I always thought Naiki was a looker...

248583

"They say I'm Greece

'I'm Greece' s/b 'I'm in Greece'

Also, I'm glad you finally had a flashback to this conversation.

"Hello, would like some tea?"

I'm curious as to whom this was.

"I think you're the only one who had a break, Satomi-san," Kaname noted.

Thats gratitude for you.

248815

There was a big difference between being a death seer and actually being a death seer and going off on her own away from the various humans and Gods and Ainur did not seem a particularly...smart idea.

This has been bugging me... where are all these demonic death seers coming from? I have to ask since it was stated quite clearly at one point a list was being shown to Mara with Hel being the only remaining demonic death seer since the others were all killed off. Eija and Hel were the only 2 targets and they knew he would pick Eija due to Naiki owning him a favor.

So again, how are they alive? If they are from the Abyss I thought that had not been freed yet.

"I think I might be able to provide accommodations," Eija said quietly.

I wonder what Ranma will say to that...

248883

Discussion of Thought

I'll have to try rereading this, as it made little sense to me, I know they were discussin how the demonic brain works on base4, beyond that, I'm half of the belief Melinda was being misled on some points as a cover up to the fact the demons were going to recruit fromt he dead.

 

[Thrythlind]

Been meaning to reply to this for a while... here are some more comments on the episodes that were released since my last post:

248152

QUOTE
...Rossa Mansion...

I had to look that one up. Is he really in an assassin guilds mansion?

QUOTE
"Though...I think I actually do have a code name around here...haven't been told what it is though."

So... she still does not know. I wonder if that will blow up in their faces at some point.

QUOTE
Now, if this weren't war going on around right now,

'weren't war' s/b 'war weren't'

QUOTE
"A Soul of Ice, even," she said.

Personally, I'm of the opinion Kaname should not be on the level needed for a hiryu shoten ha... It is not the emotional balance or mental needs, but the physical stress it would place on her body doing it.

On the other hand, she has enough power she could likely simulate it with the connection she has.

248191

QUOTE
Peorth shook her head as she recalled that Kami-Sama had moved the tree away in less than half an hour.

Yeah, well, the most powerful on both sides were what mostly prevented the war for as long as they did... It was Hild after all that took out some 1/2 the demon forces single handedly...

QUOTE
"Offer them reincarnation, and if they refuse. Take their minds away, they can find a new identity."

It is interesting to see just how much the war must be stressing everyone, for someone like her to be making a call like that.

One oddity, this ending conversation, while good as a status update, is puzzling a bit in that she cannot really be as in the dark as she seems as we know she was on earth for at least some of the Tokyo situation.

248246

QUOTE
Jim Clancy

Not a huge fan of Ghost Whisperer, but I thought it ok. My brother and mother love it though. Ionteresting series, they were most upset it was cancelled.

QUOTE
"That's stating the obvious," Professor Rick Payne said with a smirk.

Cute. Nicely done.

QUOTE
"She is not any danger of dying," Eija noted.

'not any' s/b 'not in any'

248494

QUOTE
"I didn't misspeak," the exorcist said with a smirk. "Though she's learning the look part now at least."

Sniggers... since you are so into the innuendo and double meanings... I always thought Naiki was a looker...

248583

QUOTE
"They say I'm Greece

'I'm Greece' s/b 'I'm in Greece'

Also, I'm glad you finally had a flashback to this conversation.

QUOTE
"Hello, would like some tea?"

I'm curious as to whom this was.

QUOTE
"I think you're the only one who had a break, Satomi-san," Kaname noted.

Thats gratitude for you.

248815

QUOTE
There was a big difference between being a death seer and actually being a death seer and going off on her own away from the various humans and Gods and Ainur did not seem a particularly...smart idea.

This has been bugging me... where are all these demonic death seers coming from? I have to ask since it was stated quite clearly at one point a list was being shown to Mara with Hel being the only remaining demonic death seer since the others were all killed off. Eija and Hel were the only 2 targets and they knew he would pick Eija due to Naiki owning him a favor.

So again, how are they alive? If they are from the Abyss I thought that had not been freed yet.

********************

Vanth was in the Canada sequence, other than that, I'd say maybe between 4 and 7 death seers, including Vanth and Hel, are on Earth and got out ahead of Balor...

meaning, yes, Mara told an almost literal handful to go look into things....

a bit of a stretch there...but eh...mostly to set up something for Eija

********************

QUOTE
"I think I might be able to provide accommodations," Eija said quietly.

I wonder what Ranma will say to that...

248883

QUOTE
Discussion of Thought

I'll have to try rereading this, as it made little sense to me, I know they were discussin how the demonic brain works on base4, beyond that, I'm half of the belief Melinda was being misled on some points as a cover up to the fact the demons were going to recruit fromt he dead.

************************

It was mostly a concept development piece for me, I'll admit

 

[Thrythlind]

ignoring the previous segment

**********************************************************
"Bored," Naiki said with a sigh as she sat down and looked out the window towards the waters surrounding Atlantis. Is there anything you need me to do? Tessa?

I apologize, Naiki, but I am a little busy at the moment, she said. Unfortunately, I don't think it's anything you can help me with just yet. Have you seen Moloch?

Moloch just wants me to be ready, Naiki responded. You know maybe I should have paid more attention in classes so that there was something I could do with papers.

Something to consider for later, Tessa said.

"Naiki," Deimosu's voice said behind her, drawing the green-haired girl to look around, glancing back over her shoulder. "We need to have a talk now. Tell Testarossa you've got to go."

"Ummm...yeah, I'm sure that'd be great," Naiki said. I think I can leave you alone now, need me to stay quiet?

Don't bother, Tessa said. I doubt you'll be saying anything too distracting around your brother.

"Are you ready to talk?" Deimosu asked.

"What's the matter?" she asked, twisting around to face her brother.

"What is going on with that Demoness," he asked.

Naiki blinked, put a finger up to her mouth and looked past her brother toward where she could see people walking around further into the compound.

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific," she responded.

"Lusca," he said.

"Uhh, you're not about to try and treat me like you do, Eija, are you?" she asked. "I don't really like it when you're doing the big brother thing to her, and you know I don't take that."

"If you're having trouble with her, maybe I can help," he said.

"You know, maybe if you had offered like a month ago or before that..." Naiki said. "You know, when I was asking people to help me avoid her and everybody pretty much ignored me?"

Deimosu grimaced and moved to lean against the wall as she pointed that out.

"I didn't know how dangerous she was at the time," he said.

"Oh, she's not dangerous," Naiki said laughing out loud. "She's just crazy and powerful-ish."

"That generally means dangerous when you put that together," Deimosu said.

A burst of smoke appeared above them and Lusca appeared out of it, uniform skirt twirling as she dropped to the ground with a laugh brandishing an egg of some sort.

"Dangerous is relative," she said with a wide smile as Deimosu got into stance. "I mean, you could probably pop my skull like an egg and I couldn't do anyth..." she looked down at the egg in her hands. "...umm...don't pop the egg, it's for Naiki!"

"What?" Deimosu asked.

"No, you can't pop the egg!" Lusca said, pulling the mentioned object behind her protectively.

"I'm not going to..." Deimosu started.

"You can't pop it!"

"Wait...the egg is for me?" Naiki asked.

"Oh!" Lusca said twirling around so that her braids whipped out and forced Deimosu to duck aside out of the way.

She handed the egg over to the green-haired girl with a broad smile before twisting again to face Deimosu such that her arms were twisted back in a posture that both Satomis were surprised was possible without shapeshifting.

"Why were you here again?" she asked.

"I was..."

"Oh, right, you wanted to pop my egg!" Lusca responded quickly. "Sorry but I don't have an egg."

She whipped her hands around so that Naiki had to move quickly to catch the egg before it dropped and then showed the empty hands to Deimosu.

"See! No egg!"

"Are you doing this on purpose?" Deimosu asked.

Lusca paused with a thoughtful expression, putting her finger to her chin.

"I...might be..." she said. "Sometimes I forget. Too many different memories to sort I guess. Anyway, crazy means never having to explain yourself! Isn't it great?"

She whipped around and reared her hand back to face Naiki so quickly and aggressively that both brother and sister shifted instinctively into stance, their vitae and chi respectively flaring into a defensive aura.

Which is when they realized that despite an intense look of concentration that Lusca was barely producing a candle flame of vitae. And she was looking at her hand much more than either Naiki or Deimosu before smiling broadly and pulling her hand back behind her and laughing.

"Don't do that, Lusca!" Naiki said with a sigh of relief as she gasped and leaned over.

"See! I'm not dangerous at all!" she said.

"Didn't you tear apart a giant robot?" Deimosu asked.

"But I had to do that," Lusca said, waving aside the comment with casual dismissiveness.

Meanwhile, Naiki wondered why there was still a soft red glow even as she let her aura ease off. Blinking she glanced down to her hands where the egg was glowing softly.

"Uh....Lusca, is this...something surprising?" she asked.

"Mmhmm," the brunette said.

"I'm not supposed to eat this, am I?" she asked nervously, remembering Tessa's warning.

"What?! No, it wouldn't work then!"

This is...concerning, Tessa's voice said nervously in Naiki's head as the leathery egg started pulsating.

"Lusca, this isn't going to try to put some sort of egg down my throat, is it?" Naiki asked.

"I haven't seen those movies, so I don't know what you're talking about," Lusca responded calmly.

"Just put the egg down," Deimosu snapped quickly as the egg finished hatching and something pushed itself out into the air.

Deimosu and Naiki flinched a moment before they realized that whatever the...creature was currently flapping harmlessly in circles between Naiki and Lusca, who was beaming something like the cat that had just brought its owner a dead rodent.

Or in this case...

"Is that...a shark with wings?" Naiki asked.

"Surprise!"

***************************************************************
First book of the reboot is out for $1 at kindle and $16.95 at Lulu (they have a coupon code for 20% off books until Dec 30 though)

<a href='http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Blood-Semester-Start-ebook/dp/B006ESG092/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322905113&sr=1-3' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Blood-Semeste...22905113&sr=1-3</a>

<a href='http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/divine-blood-semester-start/18709886?productTrackingContext=author_spotlight_1090523_' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/divi...tlight_1090523_</a>

The plot is already diverging, so I doubt even the counterpart to the Behemoth arch will run the same save for some things that need to happen

I guess this means I'm officially making a crossover/fusion fanfic with my own book retro-actively.........confusing......

anyway, with both stories going in at least slightly different directions....I'm still looking at running both if for no other reason than for the possibility of developing "alternate campaigns" for the RPG supplement....which I need to work on more....

 

[blackkyuubi]

I am so confused right now.......... shark with wings? Did ranma become a grand...... um some one help me out here?

 

[Thrythlind]

I am so confused right now.......... shark with wings? Did ranma become a grand...... um some one help me out here?

Lusca made her a familiar