The Imperial Servant.

[TattooTheDL]

This fic is based on an issue I've seen in some recent Ranma fics, for why Ranma has so many problems with his harem.

SPOILER - Show Spoiler

Ranma is under the effect of a pressure point that effectively shut down his sex-drive.

The bit that puts a knot in my scivvies, is that this fairly important and major plot point is used in the most minor of ways, and I intend to use this fic to explore the things that other author's who've used this idea didn't even bother to address:

A, this Fic isn't going to turn into a bash-fest, not even on Genma, who's usually the primary cause for this.
B, Ranma isn't finding out after saying "F-ck this sh-t I'm out!" to Nerima and thus isn't OOC by acting normally around a girl who isn't a part of the Wrecking Crew.
C, We actually get the REACTIONS of the damn wrecking crew, because I've only seen one story where this was acknowledged and it's only manifested as occassional flashes of "Wow, Genma is an asshole." and nothing else.

So, mysteriousness aside, let's kick this mule!

The Imperial Servant
Prologue

OOOOOO

Hikaru Gosunkugi, voodoo novice of Nerima Tokyo, steeled his wits as he prepared to enact the ritual. Unlike every other ritual he’d performed...okay, JUST like every other ritual he’d performed in his life, he knew in his heart that this would work and prove his abilities as a powerful sorcerer.

In the equipment shed just off of Furinkan high school’s soccerfield/arena, (which didn’t say much because if you think about it, ALL of Furinkan can be considered an arena) a pentagram enclosed in a circle had been painted on the floor with a red, viscous fluid, each of the 5 corner points were lit by 5 candles of varying make and lengths. Eyeing the smallest of the candles apprehensively and praying that that fact that the wax had been shaped into the number 3 wouldn't disrupt the arcane energies involved, the pale boy stood up and swallowed loudly before bringing out the twice folded piece of printer paper with a series of hiragana and katakana on it. Steeling his nerves, he began to recite in a slightly quavering voice:

“I, Gosunkugi Hikaru, master of the sorcerous arts, do call into the astral plane!”

“I call the attention of those who dwell beyond, to grant me that which I desire!”

“I send my voice into the next world, to summon the one who would grant my wish!”

“I summon the succubus, Xuriel Tanthalas!”

He paused, his eyes flicking from left to right without moving out of his ‘Royal herald with an announcement’ pose, before slowly looking from side-to-side. After a few moments of silence, he gave a heartfelt, disappointed sigh that seemed to come from his toes as he visibly sagged.

“Dammit...I was sure that would work…” the despondent boy said as he slowly turned around and made to leave the shed. “Guess I’ll have to go back to researching…”

Before he’d gone a few steps, Hikaru stopped, as the shadow of his thin frame was backlit against the closed door of the shed, from a red light coming from somewhere behind him. Very slowly, he turned back around, his jaw and eyes widening comically to find a 6-foot tall swirling portal of flame, which darkened as it flowed inwards until there was only a 3 foot spot of black that seemed to drink in not only the ambient light of both the deep orange fire surrounding it, but the faint flickering of the candles and the sunlight streaming in through a window above the rack of basketballs on the wall to his left.

Before the thought that he’d managed to succeed in performing a magic spell truly sank in, the darkness parted, and Hikaru’s jaw all but fell off his head as a demon stepped through.

While the creature was rather tall, looking to be a few inches taller than the portal it had emerged from, the most prominent of it’s features besides being undoubtedly female was its light purple skin, with numerous blue horizontal stripes circling her body, including her four well-muscled arms and the smooth, shapely thighs which ended in a pair of cloven hooves. Her hair was a deep blue, while her heterochromatic eyes were blue and green, and a small pair of ram’s horns peaked out from her temples, somehow framed by green ‘antenna’ protruding from her eyebrows, which ended in two fan-like ears.

While undoubtedly strange in appearance, the demon’s body was curvaceous and titillating in a way that drew the eye towards her generous assets, fitting with her status as a succubus.

As the demoness caught sight of him and smiled in a way that almost brought the weedy boy to the lands of cloud and rain by sight alone, he realized that the she was completely and utterly naked. The fleeting wonder of how he hadn't noticed that before, as well as the fact that she was a natural bluenette flew through his mind seconds before he did the only logical thing available to him at that moment.

Xuriel blinked at the sight of the ghoulish-looking boy who’d summoned her, flat on his back with twin streams of blood flowing out of his nose. While wondering how the unlit candles strapped to his head hadn't been dislodged when he collapsed, she took stock of her surroundings, and looked incredulously at the assorted sports equipment before muttering, “Wow...either this guy was really desperate, or he’s got some kinda kink.”

Then she looked down and did a double-take as she saw the platform of her arrival. Looking incredulously from the open paintcan to the messily painted pentagram on the floor, and finally to the wide assortment of candles ringing her. Xuriel’s eye twitched at the sight of a slightly runny birthday candle and muttered, “Definitely desperate…” Before looking at the unconscious boy and musing, “There’s gotta be a story here…”

After saying a few words in a language that Hikaru would have willingly killed to learn a single word of, Xuriel was clad in a pink halter-top and matching booty shorts, and strolled over to the collapsed teenager. Her hooves clip-clopping across the cement as she walked to him, the succubus grabbed the lapels of his shirt and lifted him up before giving him a few light slaps across the face and declared, “Wake up, skinny boy! Your demon has arrived!”

Awareness returned rather quickly to Gosunkugi once he realized he was floating in the air, and he groggily stared at the demon he’d summoned. After a few moments, tears began pouring down his face, prompting her to sweatdrop and look worried as she said, “Hey, don’t worry, I’m not gonna-”

“It worked.” Hikaru sniffled. “It worked! I finally did it! I used a magic spell!” A low wail of relieved joy escaped his throat. “I cast a spell! I’m not a failure of a wizard!”

Understanding, if not an insignificant amount of pity, came to Xuriel and her smile turned warmer as she set him down and patted his shoulder. “That you did, kid. Congratulations.” after a few awkward moments of him sniffling in silence, the succubus put her two lower hands on her hips and laced the upper hands behind her head, calling attention to her ample bosom as she cocked her hip suggestively and purred, “So, you wanted me, now you got me, skinny boy. What’s your pleasure?”

His crying over, Hikaru wiped his face on a handkerchief before looking at her quizzically. “My pleasure?”

Xuriel’s eye twitched, but she otherwise didn’t lose her pose. “What did you summon me for?”

While it would have occurred to a more observant man, Hikaru was blissfully unaware of the neon sign proclaiming that she was expecting him to demand she ‘service’ him as any demon summoner would normally have a succubus do. Even if he had noticed, he would have turned her down (after waking up from more blood loss), as he had a more important and noble task for her to accomplish.

Straightening up, Hikaru’s face set in a grim expression as he declared, “I summoned you to destroy Saotome Ranma.”

Xuriel blinked, her hands coming away from her head as she offered a confused, “Wait, what?”

“There’s a boy here, named Saotome Ranma.” Hikaru’s expression turned even more serious as he declared, “And I want you to destroy him.”

The succubus regarded him for several moments, a slow frown spreading across her face while her eyes narrowed and she crossed both pairs of arms. “Let me tell you something, whatever-your-name-is,”

“Gosunkugi Hikaru.”

“Gesundheit. If you want some kind of bully taken care of, you could have taken care of it yourself with some pushups or some kind of poltergeist. Succubus’ usually aren’t built for this sort of thing.”

“I know, but I don’t want you to destroy Ranma physically. I want you to ruin his rep.”

One of Xuriel’s eyebrow/ear-tenna quirked up. “Oh?”

“He’s a violent thug, who’s rude to everyone he meets, and that goes double for Tendo Akane, his fiancee!” Hikaru’s voice choked on rage and sorrow as he lowered his eyes. “She’s so pure and innocent...but he treats her like dirt! And he’s a master martial artist who has all kinds of girls chasing after him, and they’re all martial artists too, and if I summon something to fight him, he’ll just beat it somehow!”

As the boy went on, Xuriel’s scowl deepened and she internally mused, (What kind of guy is so strong this kid couldn't even risk calling a kyton or a cornugon to take this guy out? Then again, I wouldn't even have showed up if I wasn't curious how this guy knew my true name, so he might not have the mojo to call on heavy hitters like those…)

Her mind made up, the demon said, “Okay, I'll help you.”

Hikaru stopped mid-rant, staring at the purple-hued creature in shock. “Y-you will?”

“Yeah, this Ranma sounds like a major asshole, and I don't mind knocking him down a few pegs.” Xuriel ruffled Gosunkugi’s hair gently. “So, I’ll call this a freebie, if for nothing else than a good deed and an interesting story.”

“Interesting story?”

“You summoned a succubus for something besides a roll-in-the-hay, so that makes this more interesting than the usual ‘decadent orgy’ job.” She smiled as Hikaru blushed at that, before asking, “So, what's this guy look like and where is he?”

“Umm, he’s got black-hair and a pigtail, and he’s wearing a red shirt and black pants, both Chinese styled, and last I saw him, he was eating lunch with Tendo Akane near a big tree around that way.” the voodoo wielder gestured somewhere behind him to the right.

“Thanks, I’ll get right on it.” Xuriel offered before walking past him towards the door of the shed.

“W-where are you going!?” Gosunkugi turned around, already dreading the panic that would ensue from a 6 foot purple demon strolling across campus. “You can’t go out like that!”

The demoness stopped and gave the wannabe sorcerer an incredulous look before making a strange, waving gesture with her hands and saying something in a language he couldn’t identify. In a moment, Hikaru gaped at a picture perfect copy of himself, down to the wrinkles in his shirt and the candles on his head. The disguised succubus declared, “This isn’t my first rodeo, kid. I know what I’m doing.” before opening the door to the shed and stepping into the sunlight.

OOOOOO

Cologne’s eyes narrowed as she set the wok pan down on the kitchen countertop next to the oven. She’d been preparing for the afternoon rush in lieu of waiting for her great-granddaughter and the part-timer to return from visiting the matriarch’s son-in-law, though Shampoo was going for a visit, while Mousse was following along to protect his beloved from the ‘enemy of women’.

As the elder Amazon turned and cast her gaze towards the spike of arcane power which had flared from Furinkan high school moments ago, she mused, “Hopefully the part-timer can do something useful for once, and keep whatever abomination that was summoned away from Shampoo until I get there.” as she reached for her staff.

------

Fair warning, I've already submitted this much on ff dot net, but I'll be uploading later chapters on here first for whatever help people can offer. Depending on how things go, I'll probably throw up Chapter 1 by the weekend.

[TattooTheDL]

Remember how I said I'd be putting up the next chapters on here before FF.net? Well here's chapter 2 and I'd love y'all's help before I put it there to make sure it flows properly.

Imperial Servant
Chapter 1: Reputation

Xuriel wondered how her life had come to this.

Shortly after leaving behind the skinny boy who’d called on her for some noble quest, (seriously, how often do succubus get summoned for those?) she’d glamoured up an alluring combination features in what passed for a girls uniform around here and went looking for her target. She’d homed in on him immediately, noting he was sitting with a girl who had short-cut blue hair and presumed her to be the beleaguered fiancee to the philanderer she was there to ruin. Choosing to sacrifice subtlety for expedience, she’d almost immediately fell upon Ranma and sat in his lap, snuggling against him while purring about how wonderful he’d been the night before.

What she’d expected was stammering objections from the boy, his fiancee to start asking questions about what was going on as the seeds of suspicion took root, and for the other students nearby start whispering and taking notes so rumors could finish the job she’d started without needing to get her hands dirty. (Not that she’d mind too much, as the pig-tailed boy was very fit and handsome, despite being a cheating thug.)

Instead, all hell had broken loose as Ranma didn’t have a chance to do more than gape in shock before the bluenette was on her feet with a wooden hammer in hand, and a look of pure feminine rage on her face as she screamed, “RANMA! YOU PERVERT!”

Xuriel barely manage to leap out of the way with a startled yipe before the hammer was brought down where she and her ‘victim’ had been sitting, the boy himself up and dodging around his fianceé’s wild swings with panicked shouts of “I’ve never seen her before! Stop it, ya tomboy!”

“A likely story, you lech! Take your punishment like a man!”

The succubus had a second to wonder of the two’s relationship was a good deal rougher, and perhaps kinkier, than her summoner realized when three boys had charged out of nowhere. One was a tall kendoist with brown hair, who screamed ‘Foul sorcerer!’ At the top of his lungs while another with a waist-length ponytail and a giant spatula of all things, shouted something about ‘Ranchan getting another fiancee’ and made a beeline for the bouncing lothario. The third had come from an unexpected quarter, bursting up and out of the ground wearing a yellow and black speckled bandana, and asking whether or not he was in Okinawa. While he looked peaceful at first, that ended the moment the yellow-clad tunneler spotted Ranma and shouted something about ‘seeing hell’ before joining the fray with a bamboo umbrella at the ready.

As the fight amped up, the crowd she’d been expecting had formed, but instead of idle whispering, most of the students were commenting on the possible sources of the brawl, the likelihood of the three challengers to hit her intended victim, and a myriad of other possibilities, all of which were being recorded and marked down by a coldly amused brunette in a pageboy cut who was taking bets from the assembled throng.

Despite all logic, things somehow got even worse when a man in a hawaiian shirt jumped out of a trapdoor in the ground, shouting something about ‘bad wahini’s needing discipline’, which was soon topped by a lilac-haired girl in a chinese pantsuit sailing over a nearby wall on a bicycle, followed swiftly by a duck wearing coke-bottle thick glasses. The fracas had only grown more frantic with angry shouts of ‘Airen find new hussy?!’ While incensed quacks signaled flurries of throwing knives literally being winged at the pigtailed boy as he bounced across the landscape like a superball on speed.

As the melee hit a fever pitch, Xuriel could only stare slackjawed at the kung fu moshpit she’d provoked with a few words, and murmured, “What...have I done?”

With all that in mind, it was understandable that she was caught completely flat-footed by what happened next.

OOOOOO

Ranma swore as he evaded another of Kuno’s strikes while springing over a wild swing from Shampoo, wondering what he, or more than likely his old man, had done this time to net him yet another girl who was throwing herself at him.

Glancing at the source of this mayhem, Ranma’s eyes widened as he saw Cologne cautiously approaching the wide-eye’d brunette, her narrowed eyes and thinly suppressed killing intent making it clear she was about to permanently remove yet another obstacle between him and Shampoo. With a quick flip, he used a branch from a nearby tree to launch himself at the startled girl, grabbing her before Cologne could attack and skidding to a halt several yards away from the now angrily scowling matriarch, holding the shocked student in a bridal carry while he glared furiously at the old woman.

Outraged at her unprovoked sneak-attack, the pig-tailed boy shouted, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, ya old ghoul!?” and completely missed the deceptively heavy girl he was holding staring at him in even greater surprise.

“Saving your life, son-in-law.” Cologne replied as she turned her stick with a quick hop, with the rest of the Wrecking Crew marshalling themselves quickly and coming up behind her, where they either looked quizzically at the old woman or glared at Ranma and readied themselves to renew the fight. “Now, get away from that thing.”

Torn from her confusion as to how a ‘selfish thug’ could pull a BDH moment, Xuriel’s eyes narrowed and she muttered, “Thing? Rude…” while Ranma set her down and quickly stepped between her and the half-mummified goblin.

“Airen! What you doing with girl!?” Shampoo growled as she twirled her bonbori.

“Saving her life!” He shot back without taking his eyes off of the old woman. “Cause Cologne was going to kill her!”

“A likely story, sorcerer.” Kuno snorted dismissively. “Why would this wizened crone harm yet another woeful victim of your dark arts?”

Ranma growled in irritation and Xuriel did a double-take, her attention temporarily caught by the ludicrous statement from the long-winded swordsman. Then the demon found all her focus drawn to the green-clad woman who cut her eyes at the boy who insulted her and snapped, “Be quiet, fool! If you knew anything about real magic, you’d realize I’m trying to save everyone here from that abomination my idiot son-in-law is protecting!”

Kuno paused at that statement, looking back and forth between the old woman and the brunette as Ranma shouted, “What the hell are you talking about, old ghoul?”

“That ‘girl’ you’re saving is not a girl at all, son-in-law.” Cologne replied seriously. “That is a demon, and one of the most powerful ones I’ve ever sensed in my life.”

Ranma scoffed, and readied a retort when a disbelieving laugh came from behind him and a mockingly amused voice declared, “Wow, you must not get out much, huh granny?” His denials of Cologne’s statement dying on his lips, Ranma turned to look confused at the girl who was shaking her head and smiling pityingly at the snarling Amazon.

“Nani?” Ranma offered intelligently. “What’d you say?”

“I’m the most powerful demon she’s ever seen?” The brunette shook her head ruefully. “I think the old woman’s spent most of her life in a cave if the strongest she’s ever seen is me. Then again,” the girl smiled thinly. “Old as she is, her ticker probably couldn’t handle it if she ran into some really powerful demons.”

Ranma blinked rapidly as he considered that, hearing the sound of Cologne’s teeth grinding in front of him while he offered, “Wait...are you really a-”

“Demon, fiend, abomination, hell-spawn, denizen of the pit, yadda yadda yadda,” The girl rolled her wrist and her eyes as she groaned, “Just get it all out of your system now so we can move on, alright?” While a low murmur rolled through the crowd and the assembled fighters tensed up, tightening their grips on their chosen death dealers, the brunette adopted a friendly smile and reached her hand out to Ranma. “Call me Dabbler. Nice to meet you.”

Caught completely flat-footed by the supposed demon’s demeanor, Ranma offered a hesitant, “Umm...hi?” as he started to accept the girl’s handshake.

“Son-in-law, STOP!” Cologne’s harsh bark surprised Ranma and brought his gaze to her as she shouted, “Get away from that thing!”

Xuriel, giving Cologne an annoyed glare, immediately grabbed Ranma’s hand and pumped it a few times in an exaggerated handshake. Satisfied that the social obligation for a standard greeting had been fulfilled, she then turned that same hand on the old woman and flipped her off. “Screw you, you old bitch! I’m just trying to be polite!”

Ranma looked down at his hand and back up to the girl, relaxing out of his ready stance as he asked, “Polite?”

“Yeah, I figure we got off on the wrong foot with the whole ‘falling all over you thing.” The brunette admitted as she turned to him and grimaced apologetically. “Sorry about that, by the way. No hard feelings?”

While Ranma was struggling to articulate a response in the face of yet another change in tone, Akane stalked forward, carrying her hammer in both hands as she growled, “Hard feelings? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Looking between the bluenette’s scowl and the weapon she’d apparently pulled from some kind of dimensional pocket, Xuriel pursed her lips and replied cattily, “It’s an apology? You know, something you say to someone when they make a mistake? You should try it sometime, it’d probably help your mood, miss bitchy.”

While Akane snarled angrily, Nabiki stepped out from the crowd, satisfied that further violence had stalled out enough to make it safe for a civilian to approach. Eyeing the stranger up and down, the middle Tendo sister gave her an appraising look and offered, “You’ll have to excuse my little sister, Dabbler-san. She has a bit of a temper.”

“No shit.”

Nabiki ignored the flare of a battle-aura from her sibling as she went on. “But she does have a point. Why are you here and why are you apologizing to Ranma?”

At that, the brunette gave a deep, disgusted sigh. “I’m here, because some idiot did a summoning ritual using my true name and it piqued my curiosity. Once I got here, he told me that a ‘horrible thug named Ranma mistreats his pure and innocent fiancee’ and he wanted me to destroy his reputation. Since demons are almost never summoned for noble deeds, I figured I'd indulge him before I went back.”

The group took several moments to digest that, with Kuno being the first to ask quizzically, “True name?”

“Curiosity?” Cologne offered suspiciously.

“Horrible thug!?” Ranma spat angrily.

“Pure and innocent!?” Shampoo and Ukyo declared in simultaneous disbelief, prompting Akane to glare furiously at the two of them.

Ignoring those questions in favor of the far more pertinent one, Nabiki asked, “Who’s this ‘idiot’ who summoned you?”

“That will do you no good, Nabiki Tendo.” Cologne declared without taking her eyes off the girl with an inhuman aura. “Demon summoning 101 is to bind the creatures so they cannot speak the name of those who called them, as slaying the summoner will banish the fiends they are commanding.”

“Normally, you’d be right, even if you are a racist bitch.” Xuriel said casually. “But in this case, the guy who called me forgot that part of the ritual, so I can say his name just fine.”

Cologne’s jaw dropped, her mind spinning as she considered the idiocy of forgetting such an elementary step in trafficking with devils. “H-he didn’t bind your voice!?”

“Or tether his life to my ‘manifestation’.” Dabbler sighed. “Not that it would have done any good, but…”

Cologne was nearly knocked from her perch in shock at that, and not-quite-screeched, “He didn’t life-bind you either!?! Merciful ancestors, what in Gods name was that fool thinking?!?”

“Nothing, if I had my guess.” Xuriel offered dryly.

“Was the guy who called you the one who said I was some kinda thug!?” Ranma growled.

“Yeah. He wanted me to ruin your reputation so miss ‘pure and innocent’,” Xuriel gestured to Akane and studiously ignored the disbelieving chuckles and angry grumbling as she went on. “Wouldn’t be forced to marry a cheating lothario like you.”

Nabiki gave a rude snort and Ranma glowered darkly as he asked, “Why’d you change your mind?”

“Considering I didn't even get to first base before these whacko’s attacked you, I’d say your reputation is shitty enough without my help.” the demon now ignored the guilty twitching and irritated glares that resulted from that statement as she met Nabiki’s eyes. “Hey, you want to go get my summoner and bring him here? I’m calling this job a wash and getting out of here before I miss happy hour.”

“They have ‘happy hour’ in hell?” Ukyo’s eye twitched as she tried to process that.

“No, they have happy hour at the 5-star, clothing-optional resort I was staying at when I got summoned.” Xuriel explained before muttering to herself, “Last time I do someone a favor…”

A few female students blushed at that, while several surrounding boy’s smiled dopily or started drooling at the mental images and Akane spat, “Hentai!” under her breath.

“Case in point of why I want to get out of here, being around people who are way to sexually repressed.” The demon’s dry look at Akane made the bluenette sputter indignantly before she turned her attention back to Nabiki and declared, “He was in the equipment shed by the soccer field last I checked. Skinny kid with candles strapped to his head named Hikaru Go-something, can’t miss him.”

At that description, the Furinkan high students all groaned in disgust, being very familiar with the wannabe sorceror on campus as Nabiki nodded to two of her underlings. The two girls took off immediately, while Cologne continued to eye the demon quizzically, though not without a healthy dose of wary suspicion. “If this boy was so incompetent that he forgot even the most basic of seals, how on Earth did he learn your true name?”

“Search me.” Dabbler shrugged. “I was going to ask him after I outed the supposed ‘cheater’ here.” She thumbed at Ranma, who looked offended. “Cause his ritual magic was so weak that even if I DID need to manifest, he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. I back-traced the aura cause the whole situation piqued my curiosity, and when he fed me the sob story about needing me for a good cause, well…”

Further questions were halted as sounds of distress came from the back of the ‘audience’ that had yet to leave the spectacle, all of them wondering what new madness had been brought into their lives thanks to the insanity surrounding Saotome Ranma. As the crowd parted, the two deceptively muscular girl’s reappeared, each of them holding a whimpering Hikaru by the scruff of his neck, dangling him several inches off the ground. Gosunkugi had all of a moment to register the shriveled ape perched on a staff in front of him when it reached out and pinched his chin very hard, making him whine piteously as the mummy commanded, “Banish this creature, NOW!”

“W-what!? Why!?!” Gosunkugi whimpered as he looked at the non-plused brunette. “Xuriel-san, what happened!?”

The demoness’ eye twitched and she growled, “Okay, first off, don’t use my real name, moron. Secondly, your little comment about Saotome Ranma being some kind of hyper-sexual thug was way off the mark! Granted, he did have some sweet kung fu moves, but-”

“B-b-but you said you’d stop him, Xuri-!”

The brunette’s wrist snapped out as she made a quick gesture, and Nabiki’s enforcers dropped Hikaru with a startled gasp as a golden band encircled the boy’s head, a brief flash of black runes appearing within the light before the entire thing winked out. Those watching gaped in shock as Hikaru’s mouth moved, but absolutely no sound came out. Even the sound of him breathing had been silenced as he frantically tried to talk, shout, scream, or anything else.

“I repeat, stop using my God-damned name!” Xuriel snapped harshly. “I don’t want someone who isn’t an idiot learning it and using it to their advantage! Now, are you going to listen, or do I have to make this spell permanent?”

Gosunkugi frantically nodded in agreement, prompting a mocking chirp of “Good boy.” from the demoness as she snapped her fingers. The band reappeared, mysterious runes and all, only to splinter into motes of light which quickly winked out as the sound of Hikaru’s panicked gasping returned.

“Wow. Don’t suppose you’d be willing to teach me that?” Nabiki offered with an appreciative grin.

“Maybe when my vacation’s done.”

Nabiki did a double-take, while several people paled at the thought of the Ice Queen having the power to silence anyone at will. While that horror show ran through their minds, Xuriel repeated her wrist roll, ‘get on with it’ gesture and said, “I haven’t got all day, skinny boy. Hurry up and un-summon me.”

“W-why!?” The pale boy blubbered in a way that brought a slight amount of pity from those watching, except for Ranma, who simply grew angrier as Hikaru moaned, “You said you would help me! Saotome’s so mean to Akane, and he doesn’t even hide the fact that all these girls are chasing him!”

“They’re chasing me cause I keep running away from them, you jackass!” Ranma fired out. “I’m not a lothario!”

“Bull.”

“Lies and heresy.”

“Quack.”

“Sure, Ranchan.”

“Airen should be more honest.”

“Jerk.”

Ranma’s eye twitched at the disbelieving scoffs and comments from the wrecking crew, while Xuriel gestured to him. “And that’s why I’m leaving! If this guy had a rep worth ruining, these people would be defending him, not tearing him a new ass!” shaking her head, she said in a displeased tone, “So thanks a lot for taking advantage of my generosity, jerk. Now, use the banishment anchor so I can get back to the mai-tais.”

There was silence for several moments, before Hikaru looked quizzically at Dabbler and asked, “Banishment anchor?”

Shampoo cried out in shock as her Great-Grandmother hit the ground, which prompted a few other worried looks from those around the old woman who had fallen off of her staff. Thankfully, this greater shock hadn’t been enough to do anything more damaging to the Amazon Matriarch, while Dabbler reacted to Gosunkugi’s nervous question like a cheerleader in a slasher flick who just heard a floorboard creak behind her. Her body stiff and eyes wide in horror, the disguised succubus whispered, “Oh no...no no no, do not tell me you forgot the banishing anchor, you complete and utter moron.”

“Umm,” Ryoga asked hesitantly, “Banishing anchor, Dabbler-san?”

“The safety catch above all safety catches,” The brunette answered without taking her eyes off Gosunkugi, her eye starting to twitch as she went on in an emotionally dead tone. “A code phrase that any summoner will put into their summoning incantation, so if something goes wrong and they need to send the demon they called back where it came from as fast as possible, they can banish it in seconds! Every single book on exorcising demons starts with examples of banishing anchors, so when some yokel moves on to summoning demons, he doesn’t accidentally set loose a goddamn tarrasque with no way to get rid of it! This isn’t even demon-summoning 101! It’s pre-school grade, and I refuse to believe this idiot actually forgot something so simple that a child could do it!”

As the demon’s words sank in, everyone turned to look at the nervously sweating Hikaru. After clearing his throat with an audible gulp, the voodoo wannabe asked nervously, “B-books on exorcising demons have those anchors in them?”

“All of them.” Dabbler intoned, her eye spasming at the rate of a hummingbird's wings. “In triplicate.”

“Umm...I don’t have any of those.”

The demon froze, her eye caught in mid twitch as she let out a flat “What.”

“I wanted to learn how to summon demons, not banish them.” Hikaru gave a nervous, stress induced laugh as he took a half-step back from the irate girl. “I thought those books were for people who wanted to become exorcists, and well...”

Ranma had doubts, with how normal and jovial the strange girl had been behaving, that she was truly a demon.

Those doubts disappeared the instant a red light flared next to her, and suddenly the ‘pretty yet ordinary’ japanese schoolgirl was holding a 2 meter long claymore which looked like it was forged out of some kind of volcanic glass. Almost pitch black, with jagged spikes running along both edges and the hilt covered in glowing red, nearly incomprehensible script; the weapon practically screamed ‘tool for slaughter’ and he wasn’t the only one who was stunned into near paralysis by it’s appearance. In the silence of the blade’s summoning, Dabbler’s eyes met Hikaru’s, and she intoned one word.

“DIE.”

-----

So, anything jump out at y'all? I'll admit I'm having a bit of trouble on the last bit with the 'banishing/summoning' thing because I'm trying to explain the headcanon logic of just how dumb Hikaru was being. (Like a guy who buys a rocket-launcher and says, "Why do I need a safety manual? I'm going to be the one shooting it!")

[J. St.C. Patrick]

A good start to the story.

Here are a few things I spotted

She’d homed in on him immediately, noting he was sitting with a girl who had short-cut blue hair and presumed her to be the beleaguered fiancee to the philanderer she was there to ruin.

Xuriel barely manage to leap out of the way with a startled yipe before the hammer was brought down where she and her ‘victim’ had been sitting, the boy himself up and dodging around his fianceé’s wild swings with panicked shouts of “I’ve never seen her before! Stop it, ya tomboy!”

You have fiancée without the accent and with the accent (and the accent on the wrong letter - goes on the penultimate - run a spell check for other instances and choose one version or the other.

One was a tall kendoist with brown hair, who screamed ‘Foul sorcerer!’ At the top of his lungs while another with a waist-length ponytail and a giant spatula of all things, shouted something about ‘Ranchan getting another fiancee’ and made a beeline for the bouncing lothario.

at - no need for the capital A as it is not a new sentence
lungs, while
spatuala, of

The third had come from an unexpected quarter, bursting up and out of the ground wearing a yellow and black speckled bandana, and asking whether or not he was in Okinawa.

is that all he’s wearing ? and where is he wearing it? ( I know we all know from the manga and anime, but you should spell it out.)

While he looked peaceful at first, that ended the moment the yellow-clad tunneler spotted Ranma and shouted something about ‘seeing hell’ before joining the fray with a bamboo umbrella at the ready.

see note above – is the yellow his shirt or his bandana?

As the melee hit a fever pitch, Xuriel could only stare slackjawed at the kung fu moshpit she’d provoked with a few words, and murmured, “What...have I done?”

heh.

[Torn from her confusion as to how a ‘selfish thug’ could pull a BDH moment, Xuriel’s eyes narrowed and she muttered, “Thing? Rude…” while Ranma set her down and quickly stepped between her and the half-mummified goblin.

perhaps either spell BDH out in the sentence or put an asterix after it and put a footnote at the bottom as not everyone who is going to read this knows that BDH is Big Damn Hero.

Looking between the bluenette’s scowl and the weapon she’d apparently pulled from some kind of dimensional pocket, Xuriel pursed her lips and replied cattily, “It’s an apology? You know, something you say to someone when they make a mistake? You should try it sometime, it’d probably help your mood, miss bitchy.”

Miss Bitchy ( capitalized as it is a title, however uncomplimentary and mocking)

Cologne was nearly knocked from her perch in shock at that, and not-quite-screeched, “He didn’t life-bind you either!?! Merciful ancestors, what in Gods name was that fool thinking?!?”

God’s

“Yeah. He wanted me to ruin your reputation so miss ‘pure and innocent’,” Xuriel gestured to Akane and studiously ignored the disbelieving chuckles and angry grumbling as she went on.

Miss ‘Pure and Innocent’

“Case in point of why I want to get out of here, being around people who are way to sexually repressed.”

too

At that description, the Furinkan high students all groaned in disgust, being very familiar with the wannabe sorceror on campus as Nabiki nodded to two of her underlings.

sorcerer

I back-traced the aura cause the whole situation piqued my curiosity, and when he fed me the sob story about needing me for a good cause, well…”

‘cause ( as she is dropping the be of because)

As the crowd parted, the two deceptively muscular girl’s reappeared, each of them holding a whimpering Hikaru by the scruff of his neck, dangling him several inches off the ground.

girls ( no need for the apostrophe)

“W-what!? Why!?!” Gosunkugi whimpered as he looked at the non-plused brunette. “Xuriel-san, what happened!?”

nonplused or nonplussed

Almost pitch black, with jagged spikes running along both edges and the hilt covered in glowing red, nearly incomprehensible script; the weapon practically screamed ‘tool for slaughter’ and he wasn’t the only one who was stunned into near paralysis by it’s appearance.

its

Keep up the good work.

[Spica75]

spatuala, of

"Spatula, of".

perhaps either spell BDH out in the sentence or put an asterix after it and put a footnote at the bottom as not everyone who is going to read this knows that BDH is Big Damn Hero.

First time i saw it.

Miss ‘Pure and Innocent’

Capitalisation?? It´s not an actual name.

[ckosacranoid]

Leave it to gos to really screw things up. Now the poor demon is stuck dealing with all the nut jobs insteadcof sitting on a nude beach somewhere.....the pains that peaple deal and the wreaking crew...

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

.....the pains that peaple deal and the wreaking crew...

It traditionally should be "wrecking crew" but "wreaking crew" comes close to being an improvement.

[TattooTheDL]

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the help. A lot of these errors happened because I've got an app on my phone that let's me add notes and such to GoogleDrive and I use it a lot when I'm out on walks around town.

Funny enough, it's easier to add accents when using that then it is in Word.

Thanks for the encouragement too, I'll throw this chapter onto FF sometime later. As a final piece though.

The third was a teenage boy with a backpack, wearing a weather-beaten yellow shirt, brown pants and a yellow and black speckled bandana. The bit that made him stand out more in the succubus’ mind is that he’d come from a rather unexpected quarter, by bursting up and out of the ground and immediately asking her if he was in Okinawa. While he seemed peaceful at first, that ended the moment the yellow-clad tunneler spotted Ranma and shouted something about ‘seeing hell’ before joining the fray with a bamboo umbrella at the ready.

[Spica75]

It traditionally should be "wrecking crew" but "wreaking crew" comes close to being an improvement.

[TattooTheDL]

Alright, here's the next piece.

Again, any assistance y'all can give me will be greatly appreciated, especially because the first few paragraphs in the beginning don't really flow right to me and I'd love some help with that.


Imperial Servant: Chapter 2

Binding

OOOOOO

Hinako-sensei swung her feet under her chair, bored out of her mind as she waited for lunch to end. Sitting in the teacher's lounge was so dull, and even the lollipop she was sucking on couldn’t alleviate her desire to get back to class and teaching her eager students. She’d almost settled on going out to see what her charges were up to, when the sound of screaming came from outside.

The teacher was on her feet in an instant with a giddy squeal of “Delinquents!” as she ran to the open window. Her eyes narrowed as she watched a boy sprint across the football field, her curiosity piqued as several other teachers offered their opinions on the boy’s athletic ability.

Their conversations ceased when a girl holding a VERY mean-looking sword appeared from the same direction the boy was running from, screaming and swearing violently as she swung her weapon down into the astroturf. Jaw’s dropped, and Hinako’s lollipop clattered to the floor, completely forgotten as a small tornado of flame burst from the ground and tore it’s way across the field, leaving a trench of charred earth and glass as it zeroed in on the object of the girl’s fury. A lucky dive to the side prevented the boy from being immolated, though it was a close shave and the girl was obviously intent on finishing the job as she continued her pursuit.

With a student in danger, it was easy for Hinako to recover from her shock and issue a warcry of, “I’ll discipline you, you evil delinquent!” before hoisting her four-foot frame out the window and effortlessly dropping to the ground 2 stories below. Looking up, she caught sight of a mob of students headed by familiar sight of her ‘favorite’ delinquent catching up to the girl and her attempted victim, and she tore off running. As she watched, several girls she recognized dogpiled the howling brunette and restrained her, while Ranma snatched up the fear-stricken boy she now recognized as Hikaru Gosunkugi. While the threat of death had abated, that did not mean the students were without need of a stern talking to at the bare minimum, which became more apparent as she came closer and could make out what the outraged girl was saying.

“LET ME GO! I’M GONNA KILL HIM!” the brunette screeched as she kicked her feet, trying to pull herself out from under the three girls who had her pinned to the ground. “NOTHING THAT F**KING STUPID SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BREATHE! IF YOU DON’T LET ME GUT THAT ASS-SLAPPING MORON, HE’S GONNA DOOM THE HUMAN RACE!!!”

“Dabbler-san, calm down!” cried out the unusually shaken Akane Tendo, who was holding the brunette’s left arm in both hands.

“F**K CALM! THAT IDIOT DIDN’T LEARN HOW TO BANISH DEMON’S BEFORE HE F**KING SUMMONED ONE! WHAT IF HE’D SUMMONED NYARLATHOTEP!? WHAT IF HE’D AWAKENED AZATHOTH!?! IF I HADN’T SHOWN UP, HE WOULD HAVE TRIED SUMMONING SOMEONE ELSE, AND THIS CITY WOULD BE A GODDAMN CRATER RIGHT NOW!!!”

“Saotome-san!” Hinako-sensei shouted as she approached, watching as 3 of the strongest girl’s she knew struggled to pin down the pretty stranger, while a very old woman on a stick cautiously observed the too-large sword that was forming a blackened ash-print in the grass where it had fallen. Turning to see Ranma restraining a white-faced and terrified Hikaru Gosunkugi, the lolita-shapeshifter demanded, “What’s going on here!?”

“Long story teach!” Ranma replied in a frustrated tone as he held onto the skinny and surprisingly wriggly boy. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!”

“Really, Ranma!?” Akane snapped at her fiancee, while she still clung tightly to the flailing limb. “We’re in Nerima, you baka! This is practically normal!”

“Yeah, which means she ain’t gonna believe a word I say, tomboy!”

“WHAT WAS THAT, JERK!?!”

“SILENCE!!!”

All sound immediately ceased as everyone winced from the powerful shout that had somehow come from an all-too-tiny pair of lungs. Huffing angrily, Hinako demanded, “Somebody tell me why this girl was attacking Gosunkugi-kun right now, or I will put everyone in detention!”

“It’s seemple, Hinako-chan,” principal Kuno declared as he strummed his ukelele absently. “Dah new wahini’s some kinda daymon who was supposed to teach da disrespectful Saotome boy a lesson, and-”

Hinako blinked as a ring of light suddenly surrounded the Principal’s head and his voice disappeared immediately. The Hawaiian obsessed man turned to glare at the pinned brunette, while many others sighed in relief or offered grateful ‘thank you’s’ to her.

“Trust me, it was my pleasure.” She offered in a far calmer and more amicable tone. “Now, can you let me up?”

“That depends,” Ukyo said with a suspicious look. “Are you gonna try to kill Gosunkugi again?”

“That depends on whether or not I can get my claws into that skinny little-”

Stopping a renewed outburst before it began, Hinako-sensei waved her arms and asked, “What's going on? Something about a demon?”

“Here, I’ll simplify it for you, sensei.” Nabiki Tendo offered coolly as she approached the professor. Once she was at Hinako’s side, the middle Tendo daughter gestured to the pinned brunette.

“That's Dabbler. She's a demon.”

“Hello.” The girl offered with a small wave of her hand.

“Gosunkugi summoned her,” Nabiki pointed to the boy in question. “Because he wanted her to ruin Ranma’s reputation,” The middle Tendo smirked as she added, “Since he's such a lothario and a violent thug.”

Ranma growled and tightened his grip on Hikaru’s arms, prompting the reedy boy to give a sharp squeak of “Ite!”

“But Dabbler disagreed, and when she told Hikaru to send her back, he couldn't, because he never studied some kind of spell to keep her under control.”

“It's not about control,” the demon groused. “It's about goddamn safety! I swear to-”

“She is correct, Tendo Nabiki.”

The mercenary queen blinked as she turned to look at Kuno, who explained in an even tone, “Dabbler is upset because while she is...far less odious than one would expect of demonkind, there are others who are exactly as we’ve been lead to believe regarding her species.” Kuno narrowed his eyes at Gosunkugi, fixing the boy with a harsh, disapproving glare. “What Gosunkugi-san has done is the equivalent of a poisoner who did not create an antidote for the foul concoction he devised; thus putting himself and countless others at risk should he accidentally envenomate something which he did not intend to.”

Nabiki’s jaw was among the many that had dropped following Kuno’s observation, while Hikaru blinked rapidly as understanding dawned, and Dabbler sighed in relief. “Finally! Somebody around here is talking sense!”

“K-Kuno-chan,” Nabiki swallowed nervously. “How did you figure that out?!”

The swordsman cocked an eyebrow incredulously. “You’re forgetting who my sister is, Tendo Nabiki.”

Nabiki blinked. Then she closed her eyes and visibly grimaced, obviously struggling with herself before offering a simple, “You...you’re right, Kuno-chan.”

“...wow, how much did that hurt to say?”

“Too much.” Nabiki admitted to Ranma’s question.

Satisfied that the people surrounding her had gotten a clue, Dabbler grunted, “Now do you understand why I'm so pissed!?”

“Indeed we do, Dabbler-san.” Kuno offered amicably. “But that does not excuse your attempt to slay the ignoramus, even if it is because you believe it is for our safety.”

“Speaking of which, why are you so concerned with protecting us?” Cologne turned her gaze from the still smoking blade that Dabbler had dropped. “I’d think a demon would relish in the pain and terror of an unbound summoning.”

The brunette fixed Cologne with an irate look. “You are really starting to piss me off with those generalizations, you racist witch! I’ll have you know there’s a LOT of different kinds of demons, and less than a quarter of them hate humans! I happen to like humans, or at least most of them!”

The matriarch narrowed her eyes at the slight, while Shampoo looked curiously at the girl whose back she was sitting on. “Demon-girl like people? Why?”

“I’m a succubus,” Dabbler replied in a frustrated tone. “And liking people kind of comes with the territory, capisce?”

Shampoo wasn’t the only one who was staring openly at the restrained girl now. Hinako, trying to get some semblance of order in this anarchic situation, stepped closer to the supposed demon and crouched down, cocking her head quizzically as she asked, “You’re what kind of demon?”

“A succubus.” Dabbler repeated in annoyance. “What, don’t you people have those in Japan?” Turning her head towards Hinako-sensei, Dabbler considered the details of her lifestyle and the seemingly 11-year-old girl asking the question. Choosing not to scar the kid too badly, she offered an apologetic smile and said gently, “Listen, sweetie? This is kind of a grown-up discussion, so could you go back to class?”

Hinako stood up immediately, incensed by the demon’s words as well as the muffled snorts and giggles from the surrounding students. Stamping her feet in a way that only amplified her childlike appearance, she declared, “I’m not a student! I’m a teacher here! Don’t make me discipline you!”

Dabbler blinked and looked at Akane out of the corner of one eye. “Is she serious?”

“Yeah, Hinako-sensei is our homeroom teacher.” Akane affirmed with a nod.

“Huh...some kind of child prodigy?”

“I’m 27!!” Hinako shouted angrily, sounding more and more like a girl who’d just been denied a candy bar as she stomped her foot again.

Dabbler blinked again, but before she could speak up, Cologne’s voice brought her attention back to the old woman, who was looking between her and her sword with an incredulous expression. “You expect us to believe that, when you were swinging around a weapon like this?”

Dabbler growled, thoroughly done dealing with the old woman’s continual suspicion, especially when she’d only tried to kill a single person and it was totally justifiable in her eyes. “If I was any other type of demon, I wouldn’t be pinned down by 3 teenagers, and I’d have turned everything within 6 square blocks into slaughterhouse or a sea of molten glass! I got that sword cause I’m not made for hand-to-hand combat and I needed a personal defense weapon!”

Cologne slowly turned to look at the undoubtedly evil blade and said, “That’s for defense?”

“Beats the crap out of a can of mace.” Dabbler replied with a dark chuckle, before taking advantage of the old woman being distracted and reached up with her un-pinned, still glamoured-to-invisibility lower arms to pinch Akane and Ukyo’s backsides as hard as she could. Both girl’s leapt away with a shriek and a scream of “Who touched me!?” while Dabbler grabbed Shampoo and tossed her off her back. The Amazon squawked in surprise and shock as she landed on the astroturf, while Dabbler got to her feet.
However, she didn’t have a chance to do anything more than catch her balance when she felt the deceptively sharp point of Cologne’s staff pressed against the base of her throat, while the old woman herself was standing in front of her and looking like an albino, pissed-to-hell-and-back Yoda.

“You try something like that again, demon.” Cologne spat frostily. “And hell will seem like a vacation compared to what I’ll do to you.”

The surrounding students and members of the wrecking crew shivered at the absolutely frigid tone in the Amazon matriarch's voice. Privately hoping she never heard something like that again, Nabiki rubbed down the goosebumps that suddenly formed on her arm and asked dryly, “Is it bad that I’m suddenly more scared of her than I am of Dabbler-san?”

“No.”

“Quack.”

“Not really.”

“Nay, Tendo Nabiki.”

“Hiba-chan scary…”

“You ain’t alone, Nabs.”

Cologne’s eye twitched as she resisted the temptation to really show the loudmouthed whelps around her how scary she could be, which was made easier as their statements ended up helping her intimidate the demon who she had dead-to-rights. Dabbler gulped audibly and raised her hands in surrender as she intoned calmly, “I wasn’t going to do anything. I just wanted to get off the ground. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, you know.”

“I can imagine.”

A bead of sweat ran down the back of Xuriel’s neck. While the old woman was technically jabbing the narrow end of her pogo-stick against her sternum, the demoness wasn’t willing to find out if the old biddy could cause severe damage in spite of the relatively sturdy bone she was targeting. As she slowly extended one of her visible hands to the side, Dabbler gestured with one of her invisible hands and said carefully, “Alright, I’m not going to attack the kid again, and I’m gonna put my sword back.”

Cologne narrowed her eyes, but made no move to stop her captive. Sighing in relief, Xuriel snapped her fingers (and secretly completed the sigil) which recalled her blade back into the pocket dimension she’d pulled it from. The mood noticeably eased at that, though Cologne didn’t relax her guard for an instant. Much as the old woman grated her, Xuriel couldn’t help but respect that even as she fixed Hikaru with a glare that made him whimper in fear. “Also, I’m gonna make sure something like this NEVER happens again by black-listing this moron the first chance I get.”

“B-Blacklisted?!” Gosunkugi shrank back against Ranma, feeling rather like he was pressing into a steel girder as he whined, “What’s that mean!?”

“You may have summoned me using my true name,” Dabbler snarled angrily. “But that’s only cause I was curious how desperate someone had to be in order to summon a demon with such cheap freaking ritual components! Seriously, birthday candles and a pentagram in housepaint!? How the hell did you pull that off, anyway?!”

“Umm...the ritual said the sigil had to be written in blood, but it didn’t say whose or how much…” the pale boy nervously offered as he held up a bandaged finger. “So I...improvised?”

Xuriel’s eye twitched. “Sweet Jesus on a bicycle, no wonder I was felt like something was yanking at my neck when I went through the portal. I’m actually glad you’re an absolute failure of a wizard right now, you know that?”

Hikaru’s vision blurred with tears as his words from earlier were thrown back in his face. “B-But Dabbler-san, why-”

“Summoner’s don’t use blood from living creatures, especially themselves, because then whatever they’re summoning can possess them, you idiot!” Dabbler snapped. “If you’d used anymore than however many drops you managed to squeeze into that paint bucket, we would have been fused together, permanently!”

Nabiki looked between Gosunkugi and the irate succubus. “What, like, your mind in his body?”

“That would have been if I was astrally projecting.” Dabbler side-eye’d the page cut brunette. “But true names make it easier for demons to manifest physically, which means we’d have fused physically and turned into conjoined not-twins, at best.”

Nabiki gulped audibly, noting that even Cologne’s cheeks had taken a green-tint at that little nugget of information.

“But that’s not happening now, or ever again.” Xuriel growled as she focused on Hikaru again. “Cause my bestie happens to be a secretary to one of the big guys downstairs, and once I tell her about this absolute cluster-fuck of a summoning, you aren’t gonna be calling anyone, or anything, ever again!”

Cologne blinked, her staff dropping away from Dabbler’s neck, if only by a few millimeters. “That’s what blacklisting means?”

“Oh yeah.” Xuriel affirmed without taking her eyes off her summoner. “It won’t matter if he makes an altar out of the stones of Atlantis, sacrifices an entire city with his bare-hands, AND uses their true name; this idiot will never summon another demon for as long as he lives! And we’re gonna make sure you don’t try calling on other things either!”

A strange sort of confused calm came over the assembled mass of people as they puzzled over the...rather odd punishment. “Not that I’m complainin’,” Ranma intoned as his grip loosened around his captive. “But that sounds like a slap on the wrist.”

“Depending on how dedicated Mr. summoner is to his craft, it can be pretty damn hellish as all his knowledge has just gotten flushed down the drain.” Dabbler replied dryly. “Getting blacklisted is one of the few times the boy’s downstairs will do something that’s for the ‘greater-good’, as opposed to dragging someone off and showing him how badly he screwed up with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.”

Hikaru flinched as that mental image played merry hell across the landscape of his mind, while Cologne finally withdrew her staff from it’s threatening position, satisfied that the demoness wasn’t going to enact more hostility and confident that she could stop it in case she was wrong. “I wouldn't think you would care if he tried to call a servant from some other plane.”

Xuriel looked askance at Cologne. “I wasn't exaggerating when I said he might have called upon the Old Ones if he screwed up badly enough. That's pretty much an instant game over for everyone. Or worse, he could catch the attention of a Sidhe.”

“A...She? The old woman cocked an eyebrow, “I’m not sure how ‘she’ could be worse than an Old One.”

Xuriel pursed her lips and studied the old woman for a moment. “Ever read Shakespeare, granny?”

Cologne nodded and said, “I have.”

“Me too.” Akane added.

“You know the play, A Mid-Summer Nights Dream?”

Cologne stiffened while Akane’s brow furrowed, each of them getting the reference, but only the matriarch understanding the context as Akane asked, “A ‘she’ is a fairy? Why would a fairy be scary?”

“The original myths surrounding fairies are nothing like the stories told today, Tendo Akane.” Cologne intoned as she held her staff in a cold, clammy grip. “Do you recall when Oberon used a love potion on his own wife, so she would bed the first creature she saw and he could use that to blackmail her into giving up a child servant to him?”

“Yes, I remember. And what does...” Akane’s eyes widened the scene in question came to her mind, filtered through a less rose-colored, comedic lens and she swallowed heavily. “Wait, are you saying-”

“Compared to a real Sidhe, that’s practically cuddly.” Xuriel rubbed her arm and shuddered violently, her eyes a thousand miles away as a chill swept through the surrounding students. “While some demon’s don’t like people, we at least acknowledge them in some way or another. The Sidhe are uber-magical narcissistic sociopaths who can’t care about anyone but themselves, and not even we would do the stuff that they consider pranks. Thankfully they’re a little weaker on Earth than in their own realm, but I still wouldn’t go near one without one of the big guys from downstairs and an archangel as back-up.”

The fearful reaction and her caveat regarding the creature she was describing made Kuno look at her with surprise. “An angel would work alongside a demon?”

“If a Sidhe showed up?” Xuriel gave the swordsman a haunted look. “Hell yes.”

The silence following that answer stretched on for quite awhile, and was eventually broken by Hikaru quietly murmuring, “I...don’t feel so bad about being blacklisted anymore…”

Being reminded of the reason for their conversation taking a turn down a decidedly scary road brought Xuriel’s attention back to her summoner, who grimaced at the stern glare she was giving him. “Good.” She stated coldly. “Then you can focus on some kind of magic that’s less likely to blow up in your face.”

While still hurt by the disapproval in her voice, Hikaru lowered his eyes and gave a solemn, meek nod.

Xuriel, satisfied that her point had been made, turned around and addressed the crowd at large. “Okay people, anybody feel like giving me a hand? I've got a long walk home and I need about a dozen volunteers for a game of ‘Who’s in my mouth’ so I can recharge.”

It took a few seconds for that to sink in, but when it did, a nearly unanimous shriek of “NANIII?!?” rang out of the crowd as nearly every face flushed bright crimson. While most of the students seemed taken aback and embarrassed by the frankly crude phrase Dabbler had used, some of the boys looked like they were about to volunteer their services, though they immediately wilted when the girls around them fixed them with looks that were nothing short of acidic.

“Y-you want to what?!” Akane sputtered in disbelief, so shocked by the blatantly perverted statement that her usual response of ‘smash’ had been bypassed completely. “Wh-why would you do that?!?”

“Because she is a succubus,” Cologne replied with a narrow-eye’d look at Dabbler, ironically not giving a fuck about discussing sex in front of numerous teenagers including her great-granddaughter. “Which means she feeds off of the life energy of her human lovers.”

“Oh dammit, are you people still spreading that story around?” Dabbler glared at the old woman. “It’s tantric energy we feed off of, not life energy! Big difference!”

“Oh? How so?”

With a disgusted groan and a roll of her eyes, Xuriel pointed to Akane, Ukyo, and Shampoo. “These three like him,” She then turned and pointed to Ranma, “Because I can sense their attraction to him, or their tantric energy. Love, lust, arousal, desire, or even schoolyard crushes are a the energy that succubus can feel, and draw power from.”

The three girls blushed at that as a few whispers broke out among the crowd, while Nabiki smirked at her little sister and asked aloud, “Is that how you know Akane-chan is repressed, Dabbler-san?”

“Nabiki!”

Ignoring the bluenettes offended and embarrassed shout, Xuriel nodded. “Yeah, it’s like there’s some kind of dam holding back her desires, and that’s really not healthy for her. On the plus side,” The succubus smiled teasingly at Akane. “If she finally lets her hair down a little, every succubus in a hundred miles is gonna get a nice boost off of her.”

Akane’s eye twitched violently, her fingers digging into the wooden haft of her mallet while several girls giggled, including her sister and rivals. Cologne, still not buying what Dabbler was selling, fixed the succubus with a pointed look. “If you do not drain life energy, how did that story get started?”

“While Mr. Blacklist can get away with his creepy stuff nowadays,” Xuriel thumbed over her shoulder at Gosunkugi, who shrank away from her with nervous look. “People burned demon summoners alive in the old days. The ones who managed to perform any rituals back then did it because they were careful and spent years if not decades making sure they got it right.” Turning to Cologne, the brunette smiled widely. “You’d be surprised how many of those old summoners keeled over from heart failure before they got a past foreplay.”

Cologne chuckled at that. “I don’t believe I would, actually. So when the friends and family found the summoner’s bodies and their demon lovers, they assumed the creature they summoned devoured their souls.”

“Uh-huh.” Xuriel pursed her lips in annoyance. “Which is another reason this whole thing ended up being a waste of my time.” She cut her eyes back to Ranma and Hikaru, the latter of whom was looking shamefacedly away from the demon he’d called as she snapped, “Just curious, Mr. Wizard. Did you think I’d end up killing the supposed lothario if I fucked him too?”

Gosunkugi winced and lowered his eyes. “Umm...kinda?”

Dabbler snorted while Ranma looked ready to pound the voodoo wannabe into a paste. “Well, kudos on not telling me just to drag him off to a shady spot and screw his brains out, or you’d really be in trouble. Not that it would have worked anyway.”

“Huh?” Hikaru looked at Dabbler, his head tilted quizzically. “Why not?”

“Sorry to tell you, skinny boy, but your plan was doomed to failure from the start.” Dabbler replied as she gave Ranma an annoyed, pitying look. “Because the supposed lothario you wanted me to seduce is asexual.”

----

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated, thanks.

[TattooTheDL]

Here's chapter 3,once again y'all are getting this before anyone else does, and I hope you enjoy!

-----

Imperial Servant: Chapter 3
Passive

OOOOOO

Silence.

The entire field stilled, save for the distant caw of a crow flying overhead.

Almost as one, the wrecking crew and others turned to stare at the utterly thunderstruck Ranma Saotome, who stammered, “N-N-NANI!? I’m what!?!”

“Asexual. Completely lacking in sexual desires.” Xuriel offered with a shrug. “Ever since I got here, the most I’ve ever sensed from you is passive tantric energy. I’d have more luck seducing a tree than you.”

“P...passive energy?” Ukyo whispered in shock.

“Yeah, which is object appreciation levels of desire. The horniest he’s gotten since I showed up is about as much as the average person gets from looking at a pretty girl in a painting or a statue.”

Akane’s hammer slipped from her suddenly nerveless fingers and she swayed slightly as Nabiki gasped, “Oh my God, it all makes sense!”

“Airen...he have no lust?” Shampoo whimpered, her vision blurring as she looked at the man she was as good as married to in the eyes of her tribe. “He no find Shampoo sexy?”

“He doesn’t find anyone sexy,” Xuriel corrected her sympathetically. “As far as his hormones are concerned, he might as well be standing in an art gallery.”

Two heart-broken wails came from the crowd, and suddenly a pair of boys had rushed past the surprised succubus, one blond and the other a brunette, both of whom were looking at the shocked Ranma with teary eyes. “Ranma! Tell me it’s not true!” blubbered the blonde.

“Come on buddy!” the brunette sobbed. “It’s gotta be a mistake, right!? Here!” He pulled a magazine out of his pocket and frantically waved it in front of the pig-tailed teen. “Come on, you gotta feel something as a man, don’t you!?”

Ranma, catching a glimpse of the imagery within the pages, blushed furiously and shouted, “Hiroshi!? Daisuke!? What the hell are you doing!? Get that away from me!!”

It wasn’t too hard for those observing to surmise the contents of the magazine being waved in front of Ranma’s face, as Gosunkugi glanced at the reading material and after a moment of gaping in shock, promptly collapsed with a fountain of blood streaming from both nostrils. While there was a low swell of growling from the two perverts waving a dirty magazine around, that they’d brought to school no less, the two boy’s sobbing in dismay at their buddies reaction to the ecchi material only solidified the demonesses claim and the tide of irritation slowly morphed into a wave of horror and mourning.

“Ranchan…” Ukyo sniffled as she recalled how happy she’d been when he’d called her cute, now seeing it in another, and far more painful light as Xuriel walked up behind the boy’s and deftly swiped their magazine.

The demon gave an appreciative whistle as she thumbed through the porno mag, which was definitely not designed with articles in mind. “Wow, you guy’s got good taste! Very erotic, and surprisingly tasteful…” she blinked and peered closely at a particular image before a wide smile spread across her face. “Oh my God, Mercy!?”

“Huh?” Hiroshi looked quizzically at the demoness, sniffling pathetically as he asked, “Mercy what?”

“See the redhead here?” Xuriel flashed the image in question to the two boy’s, whose faces reddened all the way to the tips of their ears while Ranma immediately turned away with a lighter blush and a frustrated grumble. “She’s a friend of mine, and a total sweetheart. You guys like her?”

The two shared a look before mumbling something sheepishly about her being ‘a favorite’.

“Aww, she’ll be flattered to hear that.” Xuriel smiled happily at the pair. “Tell you what, I’ll tell her to look you guys up the next time she’s in town, she’d probably love to meet you.”

Hiroshi and Daisuke’s tears disappeared immediately, and the pair swore they could hear a choir of angels singing as the otherworldly creature in front of them was bathed in a halo of golden light. In unison, the boy’s began thanking every divine creature they could for the wonderful girl who was about to make all their dreams come true.

“Plus, she totally loves two-guys-one-girl three-ways like this, so you can consider this little fantasy as good as fulfilled.”

In an instant, the choir silenced and the light disappeared as a wave of killing intent washed over the boy’s, making their knees shake as they were suddenly under the eyes of several dozen very angry women, and one absolutely livid kendoist who had (somehow) made the connection between the two boy’s appreciation for a crimson-locked beauty and the redheaded object of his own desires. The only thing more frightening than the outrage coming from in front of them, was the murderous aura at their back, and the two turned to look fearfully at their best friend who was looking at them with the hooded eyes that promised a painful death. “You have to the count of 5.” Ranma intoned quietly. “Ichi...Ni…”

While not martial artists, in that instant, the two boys moved fast enough to leave behind a pair of terrified afterimages as they vacated the premises. Xuriel could only blink quizzically as those mirage-like figures faded and mused aloud, “What the heck was that about?”

“Nevermind, Dabbler-san.” Cologne grumbled as she took a grim sort of satisfaction in imagining the fate that awaited the two boys the next time they showed their faces around her son-in-law again...assuming he was able to be a son-in-law. With that in mind, the Amazon Matriarch looked intently at Ranma and asked aloud, “Are you quite certain of your...findings?”

“Oh yeah, shame as it is.” the demon replied as she idly flipped through the magazine, while sending a pitying look at Ranma. “A friend of mine once dubbed it as ‘porno-sense’ and it’s very accurate.”

“Accurate my ass!” Ranma shouted angrily, finding himself growing more irritated at the increasingly pitying looks he was receiving from those around him as he snapped, “I just got better willpower than to go chasing every girl in sight!”

Xuriel, looking up from her magazine, smirked at Ranma and offered a disbelieving, “Sure you do.” which prompted a growl from the boy. Tossing the magazine to the side, she admitted, “Okay then, how about we check to be sure?”

“How’s that?”

“Succubi are specialists in illusions, or glamour. One of the first we learn is how to make ourselves look like the ultimate sexual fantasy of whoever we meet.”

A bout of whispering and blushing broke out at that, with Nabiki eyeing the ordinary looking girl up and down before cutting her eyes at the still insensate Gosunkugi. “This is his ultimate fantasy?”

“Nope. This is just a disguise.” Xuriel replied as she turned around and cast her eyes among the crowd. Settling her gaze on the palm-tree and hawaiian shirt wearing principal, she grinned wickedly and proclaimed, “Oh, you look like fun!” before waving her wrists and whispering something under her breath.

There was a very brief shimmer, and suddenly there was someone else was standing in front of Ranma, bringing spontaneous nosebleeds from almost every boy and more than a few girls present, while the rest gasped in shock. Ryoga was among those who fainted dead away, while the target of the spell had frozen stock-still. However, the heir to the Kuno family went deathly pale and immediately spun on his heel before the tanlines were burned into his brain.

Said tanlines were across the exposed chest of the gorgeous, 30-something brunette who was standing where the pretty highschooler had been a moment ago. With her luxuriant hair long enough to pass her waistline and the skimpy yellow bikini bottoms, while the lack of a top emphasized the creamy white of her natural skintone against her dark tan, the woman looked everything like a surf-and-sand obsessed hawaiian fanatic would dream about on the cold and lonely nights.

Xuriel looked down, blinking at the slight increase in her already impressive bust-size as well as the overall change and chuckled. “Wow. Guess I should have seen that coming, eh?”

Cologne looked interestedly at the ‘glamoured’ succubus. “You didn’t know what you were going to look like before you used the spell?”

“Nope.” Xuriel replied airily. “Spontaneity is the spice of life, and thinking on your feet makes things more fun-”

She was interrupted by Principal Kuno, who had managed to shake himself out of his shocked stupor and screamed rapturously, “ALOHA NUI LOA!” before running full tilt towards the demon, who shouted, “OH SHIT!” in a far less joyful tone as he leapt towards her...

Only to hit Cologne’s walking stick as she batted him out of the air and sent him skidding across the ground to rest at the feet of Hinako-sensei some 12 feet away. The loli-sized teacher, noting the similarities between her adult form and the apparition borne of the principal’s fantasies, particularly the long brown hair, took a step back and slowly reached into her pocket for a 5 yen coin while Ukyo approached with the two adult with her spatula held aloft. Both girls wore identical expression of disgust and horror as the teacher stammered, “Th-this deviant was fantasizing about us!?”

“Nay, sensei.” Kuno denied solemnly without turning around. “Tis not a phantasmal projection of you that my patriarch desires so.” The kendoist’s fists clenched as he added grimly. “That woman is my mother.”

Taking a deep breath to steady herself following the shock of almost being glomped, Xuriel tossed out nervously, “Well, your mom was a smoking hottie, so I don’t really blame him for his reaction.”

Kuno scowled and snarled over his shoulder, “My mother would never have dressed in so brazen a manner as you have, wench!”

By serendipitous coincidence, the nearly insensate principal murmured dazedly, “Kyoko, nui loa...second honeymoon...was da best idea…” before giving a soft groan and slipping away into a realm of sandy beaches and ukeleles.

Noting Kuno’s reddened cheeks, Nabiki couldn’t help but give a small half-smile and cheekily said, “Guess your mom did dress like that...once, anyway.”

“Right…” Xuriel said as she turned around and looked back to Ranma, smirking as she noted his absolute concentration on a nearby stand of trees rather than her body and offered, “Well, I’m in a flat ten out of ten for hotness and the stud here still ain’t giving me anything, so-”

“That’s cause I’m not looking at you!” Ranma shot back angrily.

Xuriel gave a somewhat disgusted, pitying groan before saying, “Oh would you relax? It’s not the end of the world, you know! It’s just a little bit of self-discovery.” Seeing that didn’t have the desired effect, the succubus sighed and shrugged. “Alright, if you insist, let’s find out if you’re just picky.”

Ranma’s eyes bugged and he quickly shouted, “DON’T!” but it was too late as Xuriel was already mid-incantation.

Despite the decidedly harrowing and rather mournful day so far, fiancé’s and rivals alike found themselves curious to see what sort of fetishes could be lurking in the mind of Saotome Ranma.

Their curiosity was satisfied and then some as the crowd let out shrieks and shouts of shock and horror, none of which were louder than Ranma as he leapt away from a four-armed, 6 foot tall creature which was now staring at him in complete stupefication. Kuno, having turned around just in time to see his deceased matriarch replaced by something utterly alien, slowly grew redder and redder as he whispered in horror, “S-Saotome…To think you had such...deviancies.”

“Delinquent.” Hinako said mechanically as she fished three 5-yen coins from her pocket, determined to drain every ounce of chi from what had formerly been her ‘favorite student’.

“Ran-chan,” Ukyo urped, looking slightly green as she backed away from the frozen demon. “That...that’s just not right.”

Shampoo’s lip curled in disgust as she looked between her airen and the monster his mind had summoned.

Akane’s mallet was in her hand again, and was glowing with a golden, flame-like aura. Contrary to her normal state, her face was completely calm as she channeled all of her outrage at Ranma’s deeply hidden perversions into what would come to be known as the legendary Super-Hammer.

Well aware of the rising battle auras surrounding him, Ranma stammered, “W-wh-what the hell are you playing at!?!” as he pointed at Xuriel, who was looking at her four hands in complete shock. “That’s not my fantasy! I don’t even know what the hell that thing IS!”

Too lost in their outrage to even vocalize their disbelief at Ranma’s assertion, the wrecking crew slowly approached him and the demon who’d been summoned to destroy his reputation, who had apparently succeeded at the task without meaning to. Before they’d taken more than a few steps however, a soft whisper gave them pause.

“This...is me…”

Blinking as she came out of her battle haze, prepared to smite her former son-in-law for holding such twisted desires, Cologne looked over her shoulder at the wide-eyed demon and called, “What’s that, Dabbler-san?”

“This is me…” She repeated, slightly louder this time and catching the attention of the rest of the wrecking crew as she went on in the same, utterly flabbergasted tone.

“This is what I really look like…” After a moment, her eyes widened even further and she declared, “He shut it off!”

“He what?” Cologne queried, a rising feeling of dread stymieing her slight irritation at the lewd phrase, [Who needs big tits?] displayed across the demon’s too-tight halter top.

“He shut off my glamour!” Xuriel answered as she slowly raised her eyes to stare at Ranma. “The magic couldn't find anything to manifest, and the backlash dispelled it!”

“Does...does that mean, Ranchan really is asexual?” Ukyo asked nervously, while a small part of her mind wondered what kind of joke she was missing out on from the words, [When you have an ass like this?] displayed across the back of the demon’s pink booty shorts.

“No! If he was asexual, nothing should have happened!” Xuriel proclaimed, her voice rising slowly as she took a shaky step back from Ranma, clearly frightened to her core. “One girl wouldn't matter from any other, and the glamour wouldn't have changed! He doesn't have no sex drive! He has negative sex drive!”

The group fell silent at that, with Nabiki offering a quiet, “How can someone have a negative sex drive?” In a voice that made a commendable attempt to hide her own trepidation.

“The same way you divide by zero! You can't!!” Xuriel not-quite screamed in reply. Looking around quickly with a panicked expression, her eyes settled on Ukyo and she moaned, “God, I hope he didn't break something!” Before activating her glamour.

The succubus immediately gave a relieved sigh when the familiar tingle of an active illusion flowed across her body, while the cross-dressing chef flushed completely crimson and more than a few girlish shrieks and giggles rang out from the crowd. “Oh thank God, it still works.”

“I NOTICED!!!” She and Ranma shouted in unison, only to both meet each other's eyes and then quickly look away with thoroughly embarrassed expressions.

The reason for their embarrassment was the fact that Ukyo’s fantasy was the pigtailed boy in question, clad only in an apron that had [PLEASE KISS THE] written across the chest, while in the center of the lowest edge of the apron, directly over the faux-Ranma’s groin was the word [COOK]. The only thing more humiliating was the reaction of the rest of the wrecking crew, as Akane’s face was glowing like a space-heater and Nabiki looked like she was about to start drooling, while Shampoo was biting her bottom-lip and giving an almost indecent whimper and Mousse gave a grumbling sort of quack as he wrestled with the urge to peck the form before him. Worse still for Ranma in particular, was the very Happosai-like expression of indecent glee on Cologne’s face.

“Dabbler-san, could you please not do that?” Kuno offered stiffly, with one eye twitching indignantly.

“Just checking,” the faux-Ranma replied breathlessly before turning to look at the kendoist. “But better safe than sorry…”

Kuno blinked, but before he could realize what she was saying, he was suddenly confronted by a wondrous creature borne of Aphrodite's grace itself, and it was only the snoring form of his father serving as an example that prevented him from imitating the maddened principal and similarly being rendered unconscious.

Akane’s eye-twitched and Ranma sputtered indignantly at the sight of something that looked like a mix of Ranma’s cursed form and Akane; a petite yet buxom girl with red and blue streaked hair ending in a pigtail, wearing a pair of karate pants and a black belt, and too-small wife-beater shirt.

While Nabiki chuckled wickedly, “Wow, you really can’t choose between them, can you, Kuno-chan?” Xuriel’s breathing eased even more, before she cast a worried look at Ranma.

The demon’s tremulous murmur of, “I think I’m gonna regret this…” sapped what little humor had come into the situation as she dropped her illusion and returned to her natural appearance. With a hesitant grimace, she stated, “Let’s try starting from scratch.” Before casting her glamour spell again.

While nothing happened to her appearance, though that could have been taken as evidence of Ranma’s deviant desires or possibly his status as having all the erotic fantasies of your average boulder, the fact that Xuriel suddenly collapsed, whey-faced and trembling as she whispered, ‘th-the void...the void…’ only amplified the pervading aura of unease to the point of low-yield terror. Despite his denial over the current circumstances, Ranma couldn’t stop himself from coming to the demon’s aid as he immediately crouched down and gently lifted the traumatized demon back to her feet, not noticing the way she subtly recoiled from his touch as he asked, “What happened, Dabbler-san?”

“Oh, just a gigantic wave of existential dread, thank you.” The demon offered in a marginal attempt at glibness, though it was obvious to all present that her comment was a flustered attempt at gallows humor as she gave Ranma a drawn, pale look.

“Look, Ranma, was it?” She said hesitantly, “I’m really really sorry that I was gonna make you out to be some kind of skirt-chaser, but I need you to do me a really big favor right now.”

“Umm…” The pigtailed boy looked hesitantly at her as he offered, “What is it?”

“Am I the only demon that’s ever been sicced on you?”

Ranma blinked at that. “What?”

“Has there ever been a time where another demon has come around and attacked you?!” Xuriel cried out, her thin mask of restraint cracking as she grabbed his arms in all four of her hands and shook him desperately. “Anything! An imp, a kappa, a boogeyman, I don’t care! Just tell me if you’ve ever met a demon before today!!!”

“While son-in-law has run afoul of supernatural creatures, Dabbler-san,” Cologne’s soft, serious voice brought the demon’s wide-eyes to her as she intoned, “I have sensed nothing with as much power as you have before today, and nothing before than has been ‘demonic’, as you put it.”

“There must be something!” The demon insisted, “Cause this is some kind of black magic I've never seen befo-”

Xuriel suddenly stopped, her words dying on her lips as she found herself lost in thought. Seeing that the demon had apparently gotten a brainwave of some kind, Shampoo called hopefully, “Sexy-demon think of something?”

“Maybe…” Xuriel murmured, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully before she looked at Cologne and said, “You want to do me a favor and run interference, granny?”

“Interference for what?”

“I need to give this guy an ‘acid test’ and I don’t want the trigger-happy brigade attacking me before I’m done.” Xuriel replied as she cast her eyes among the assembled teenagers.

Cologne’s eyes narrowed in response. “That depends on what exactly you’re planning to do.”

“Yeah, what are you-” Ranma’s somewhat irritated question, having come from his reacquired courage now that the demon holding him wasn’t freaking out, was silenced as Xuriel suddenly pressed her lips against his, his eyes widening in shock as the demon’s tongue ran across his teeth when a very unwelcome and otherwise alien sensation from his manhood brought a renewed surge of panic through him.

Shampoo’s outraged scream of “I KILL!” was almost made into a prophecy, save that Cologne understood the necessity of Xuriel suddenly kissing her son-in-law and knocked her great-grand daughter back before she could bring her bonbori to bear on the creature’s horned head. Granted, it took everything Cologne had to stop herself from smacking the demon aside when she flagrantly groped Ranma’s crotch, which brought more than a few shocked gasps and shrieks of ‘How bold!’ from the crowd, but considering how the succubus’ ear-tenna had changed color from sea-green to a very pale pink, the matriarch could only imagine that whatever Xuriel was doing was having an effect.

Akane was nearly lost in the same familiar feeling of outrage that came from watching Ranma flaunt his usual lechery right in front of her, but today she was finding it easier to ignore the keening wails of the thoughts that insisted she demand penance from her fiance in the form of blood and bruises. Instead, she was running through all the times she’d punished him for being a pervert and taking it into account with the...strange circumstances of today, and while it was a struggle to stop herself from smashing him into a paste, the fact that he never lost the look of complete horror on finding himself in a game of tonsil hockey with a demon did quite a lot to assuage the bluenette’s outrage.

When they broke apart, Xuriel let go of Ranma with a grimly satisfied, “Just as I thought.”

“What, exactly, did you think, Dabbler-san?” Cologne asked pointedly, noting that Ranma was acting with his usual social graces and was spitting violently off to the side following he and the demon’s passionate embrace.

Xuriel’s eye twitched in irritation at the pigtailed boy’s response to her kiss and snapped, “I think this ingrate should be grateful that I’m willing to help him! As for what was supposed to happen…”

Without warning, Xuriel reached out and grabbed Akane’s wrist, and before anyone could stop her, the demon soon had the bluenette in the same situation a her fiance a moment earlier. Unlike Ranma however, the effect was almost immediate as Akane’s shocked look faded into a half-lidded, dull gaze before her eyes closed and she began returning the demon’s affections with a muffled moan.

Shocked outcries of “No way!” and “Not Akane-chan!” and “I knew it all along!” were lost among the laughter of Cologne and Nabiki and the shocked gasps from Shampoo and Ukyo, while Ranma stared slackjawed at the display and Kuno went stone-faced as a thin trickle of blood flowed across his upper lip.

After a few moments, Xuriel pulled back and Akane whispered, “Sugoi…” with a slightly goofy grin on her face.

“Huh, not bad, girly.” the demon offered lightly as she licked her lips with a smile. “You’ve got good instincts, even if you need a bit of practice.”

“That’s good…”

“Now, I need to help your boyfriend, but in the meantime, can you do me a favor?”

“Mmm?”

“Can you stop being so repressed?” Xuriel patted Akane’s cheek fondly. “It’s not healthy for you. Can you do that for me?”

“Hai, Dabbler-chan.” Akane replied breezily as she rubbed her cheek against the demon’s palm. “I promise…”

“Good girl.” Xuriel turned and gave Ranma a mischievous grin. “How about you let the stud keep an eye on you until this wears off, okay?”

Akane gave a quiet, “Okay…” as she slowly walked away from Xuriel, almost tripping over her own feet before falling into Ranma’s arms, who looked quite taken aback and decidedly wrongfooted to find his fiancee acting decidedly ‘clingy’ towards him.

Still chuckling a bit at the impromptu make-out session, Nabiki mused, “Wow, whatever that was is really effective.”

“Guaranteed charm spell, last upwards of 12 hours with all sorts of little extras to prevent any residual resentment.” Xuriel offered by way of explanation.

“I wouldn’t say guaranteed, considering son-in-law didn’t fall for it.” Cologne offered with a studious look at the strangely giggly and thoroughly brain-drained Akane. “Was that all you were testing?”

“No.” Xuriel denied with a shake of her head, a grim frown spreading across her face as she declared, “I was also checking to see if his resistance was because he was some kind of eunuch-”

She rolled her eyes and ignored the multitude of horrified gasps and one high-pitched scream of ‘NANI!?!’ from the boy she’d been frenching a second ago.

“-But everything’s fine in that regard. In fact…” Xuriel hefted her lower-right hand with a thoughtful expression on her face as she mused, “He’s more than fine...damn, what a waste.”

Ukyo flushed at that, her imagination firing on all cylinders as scenarios flitted across her mind involving her Ranchan in various lewd poses. Unfortunately, her musings were interrupted by a very giggly, “I could have told you that~.” from the high-as-a-kite Akane, and the chef turned her furious gaze onto the bluenette and her suddenly-very-pale fiancé.

“And how would you know that?!” Ukyo hissed, fingering her spatula meaningfully while a small battle-aura rose around Shampoo.

“Uh, Akane.” Ranma whispered fearfully, seeing the outrage starting to form and hearing the low grumbles and envious whispers of how far the two of them had gone from the greater mob. “Maybe you should-”

“I walked in on him in the bath when he first showed up.” the bluenette sighed contentedly as she sagged against Ranma with one arm around his neck and his arms wrapped around her waist. “He got a good look at me, and I saw aaaaaaalllllll of him!” Completely unconcerned with the outraged fires she was stoking, Akane giggled lightly before laying her head against Ranma’s shoulder and saying, “Neh, Ranma-kun? Sorry about threatening to drown you in the bathtub back then. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

“Uhh...okay?” Ranma offered weakly, taking a small step backwards from the two very angry fiancee’s and Kuno, who was looking downright murderous as he gripped the hilt of his bokken with white knuckles. “That’s fine, apology accepted, Akane!”

“That’s really sweet and all,” Xuriel interrupted with a foul look at the horde and the wrecking crew. “But we got bigger fish to fry at the moment, and I can’t make the call to find out what’s going on if you start a riot.”

That made Ukyo and Shampoo back off, although it was with obvious hesitation and mutinous grumbling as Nabiki returned her attention to Xuriel and asked, “Who are you going to call?”

“My bestie, Carrie.” Xuriel replied coolly. “Cause this whole situation sounds very familiar to something that happened to her a long time ago, and I need to compare notes.”

Without another word, Xuriel turned and took a few steps away from the group, gesturing with one of her hands and seemingly pulling a sextet of golf-ball sized stones out of thin air. The rocks were tossed in front of her, where they immediately started hovering, and began floating up to form a circle in front of the demon’s face. Thin beams of blue lightning crackled between the rocks, bringing a few impressed whistles from those watching while Xuriel impatiently tapped one of her hooves against the dirt and muttered darkly under her breath. In moments, the space between the stones suddenly emptied out into a black void, which was quickly replaced by a face.

While not necessarily prejudiced, it was still something of a relief to those present as the ‘Carrie’ whom Xuriel had contacted was more human-looking than the one who’d called her, with only a small pair of golden horns rising out of her short-cut green hair signifying that the beautiful woman wasn’t actually a human, though the smarter ones among the group remained wary as it was possible that the succubus was under the effects of her own glamour as she called with dramatic cheeriness, “So summoned, I appeeeeaaarrrr!”

“Can it, Carrie.” Xuriel snapped angrily. “I’m in no mood, and I need to talk to you about that freak who tricked you a couple of decades ago.”

Carrie blanched and quickly looked over both her shoulders before leaning close to the display and stage-whispering, “Xury, I told you that in confidence! You promised you wouldn’t tell any...one…” The green-haired succubus blinked as she noticed the ‘audience’ surrounding her friend. “Umm...Xury? What’s going on?”

“That’s what I want to know.” Xuriel replied grimly as she thumbed over her right shoulder to Ranma and Akane, the latter of whom seemed to be trying to snuggle against the former in a manner similar to a cat, which Ranma was obviously less-than-happy about. “Someone got my true name and asked me to do a whitehat job by destroying this guy’s rep.”

Carrie squinted at the nervous looking Ranma. “O-kaaayyyy...why does he need his reputation trashed, exactly?”

“He doesn’t.” Xuriel replied dryly. “Cause the idiot who summoned me claimed this guy was a skirt-chasing lady-killer, except the moment I said hi to him,” She turned and gestured to the horde with her upper-left arm while her lower arms remained crossed in front of her. “These whacko’s showed up out of nowhere and tried to murder him.”

Some shuffling and grumbles of embarrassment followed that, while Carrie blinked rapidly. “Wow...sounds like your job was mostly done already.”

“Except, complications have come up, which necessitated Dabbler contacting you.” Cologne stated seriously as she pogoed next to the purple-hued succubus. Her voice drew Carrie’s attention down to her as the matriarch went on. “According to her, that boy, who is my son-in-law by the laws of our tribe, is completely lacking in sexual desires and was thus immune to Dabbler’s charms.”

“...excuse me?!”

“It’s true, Carrie.” Xuriel affirmed at her friends shocked outburst. “The poor sap’s been giving off passive tantric energy since I showed up, even when I was glamoured to look like a fine-ass beach bunny-”

Kuno violently twitched at that.

“-and when I tried to glamour him, the illusion disappeared. When I tried it again from scratch…” Xuriel got a thousand-yard stare for a moment before shuddering violently. “I am NOT making that mistake again!”

“X-Xury, that sounds bad and all,” Carrie bit her lip and gave another nervous look over her shoulders. “But what does that have to do with...you know?”

“You don’t remember?” Xuriel narrowed her eyes. “You told me that when you tried to glamour the freak who tricked-”

“SHH!”

Xuriel rolled her eyes. “When you tried to glamour him, it was shut off and gave you the heebie-jeebies something fierce.”

Carrie thought to herself for a moment, an upset expression on her face as she replied, “Well...that is true, but there’s a big difference between the willies and whatever happened to you.”

“Maybe.” Xuriel admitted with a scowl. “Except I kissed him, and the second I stopped, he started acting like I had cooties.”

Carrie paused and looked wide-eye’d at her friend. “He wasn’t charmed? At all?!”

“Not even a little.”

“But that’s your thing!” the green-haired demoness proclaimed in utter shock. “How could he resist that!?”

“The same way his meat and two-veg didn’t even twitch while I was doing it. And yes,” Xuriel snapped as Carrie opened her mouth. “I checked!”

Ranma wondered if his cheeks were going to be bruised from how hard he was blushing, listening to the two demons discussing his...manhood in decidedly unflattering terms, which was only making his face even more red from the rising anger. He’d taken a lot of insults in his life, and the worst slight he’d ever had to his pride as a man had been Pantyhose Tarou referring to him as a ‘tranny’. But this current situation was tearing deeper strips off of him than he’d ever endured before, and it was made all the worse by how...blasé everyone was being about it. He could handle hate and anger, that was just from people who were jealous of how much better he was then them.

But now he was being pitied.

That was a weak spot in his psyche that his father hadn’t been able to armor over. Being looked down on from a position of superiority was one thing, as all he did was push himself harder and knock the arrogant jackass off his pedestal. But being regarded as weak, over something that was normal? Or at least, what everyone else saw as normal, while he was certain he was perfectly fine because he had a lot of good reasons he didn’t think of girls the same way as other people.

His rising temper and embarrassment only grew when the too-clingy Akane got a faraway look in her eyes and stated with a slight frown, “Oh yeah...you didn’t get hard when we walked in on each other, either...that was kind of insulting, now that I think about it…”

“Jeez, this is sounding bad.” Carrie admitted as her eyes darted back and forth, clearly lost in thought. “But it doesn’t make sense! I never told anyone except you about that, and that was only because I was at the bottom of a bottle of Cuervo at the time.”

“Miss sexy demon?” Shampoo asked hesitantly, taking a step forward and catching Carrie’s eye as she asked plaintively. “Can you help Shampoo’s Airen? This…” thin streams of tears ran down the lilac-haired amazon’s face as she choked out, “This too-too sad!”

Carrie grimaced sympathetically, though after a moment, her eyes narrowed in thought and she focused her attention on the sniffling Amazon. “S’cuse me, Shampoo was it? Have we met before?”

“What?” Shampoo blinked curiously at the sudden question. “No...Shampoo never meet sexy demon before.”

“You sure about that?” Ukyo offered snidely. “With how often you try to use magic on Ranma, I wouldn’t be surprised if you crossed her path once or twice.”

Shampoo snarled at the chef, but before she could attack, she and Ukyo were both bonked by Cologne’s staff. As the two of them rubbed their heads and moaned in pain, the Amazon Matriarch huffed, “Can you put a hold on you childish quarrel for a moment?! We have more important problems!”

“Finally, she starts talking some sense.” Xuriel admitted before turning back to her display, only to cock her head quizzically as Carrie was still staring at the lilac-haired girl. “Yo, Earth to Carrie? What’re you doing?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.” the green-haired succubus looked away from the Amazon with some difficulty. “It’s just...weird, cause I swear I’ve seen her before, or someone who looks a lot like her.”

“Fascinating.” Xuriel offered dryly. “Now, what can you tell me about the guy who tricked you, ‘cause my memory’s a little rusty.”

After a moment of hesitation, Carrie groaned and said, “Fine, fine. About a hundred years ago, some old codger out in the middle of nowhere summoned me. He told me he wanted to learn how to survive off of tantric energy the way we do, and I told him no dice.” the green-haired succubus’ head drooped. “But then he made a deal that if I couldn’t seduce him in 30 days, then I’d teach him what I knew.”

Not having heard this part of the story before, Xuriel face-palmed and groaned, “God dammit Carrie, we’ve been over this!”

“Hey, it was a sure thing!!!” Carrie’s head snapped up and she shouted angrily at her friend. “That lech’s name is written in almost EVERY record on level 4, and the mere idea that he could resist a succubus for more than a minute was ludicrous!”

A sudden chill swept through Cologne, an ill omen, or a warning of some great event stiffened the Amazon Matriarch’s spine. Turning away from her great-granddaughter and Ukyo, she looked seriously at the green-haired succubus and asked, “What’s level 4?”

“It’s where we keep records of all the people who committed sins of lust.” Carrie offered with a frown, obviously still thinking about that deal she’d lost and very annoyed by it. “Perverted old freak is on just about every ‘mild’ record we have, but what he lacks in severity, he’s more than made up for it in volume!” The green-haired succubus grimaced. “And it’s only gotten worse since that day...”

“The day you taught him how to survive off of ‘tantric energy’.” Cologne stated grimly as she hopped forward. “Tell me, this ‘lust’ energy your people feed on, is it vampiric in nature, or environmental?”

“A little mix of both, but more the latter than the former.” Xuriel replied as she cocked an ear-tenna curiously. “We do get a big dose out of sex, but the aura’s radiating from people is more than enough to survive off of, though that’s kinda like living off bread and water.”

“Except to humans, cause you don't need as much as we do.” Carrie offered. “The old freak got plenty to work with just off of sympathetic objects, believe it or not.”

“No way!” Xuriel stared at her friend. “He got powered up from being around sex toys!?”

More blushing and quiet murmur’s broke out from the crowd at that, while the percolating suspicion in Cologne’s mind was slowly turning into a full rolling boil of outrage.

“No, that was just to sustain himself,” Carrie’s lip curled in disgust. “And he went for sexy lingerie instead of dildos.”

The blushing faded as the mob fell silent. When the red faces returned, it was for a far different reason as a low roar of outrage was building among the women of Furinkan Highschool. Ukyo’s eye began to twitch as the pieces connected and she snarled, “Oh...that son of a bitch.”

Noticing the ugly and disgusted expressions through the mystical channel, Carrie asked out of the corner of her mouth, “Umm, what am I missing here?” Which was decidedly ineffective as far as subtlety went due to everyone seeing her try to whisper to Xuriel.

“I have no idea.” Xuriel admitted in a neutral tone, never taking her wide, fearful eyes from the fledgling angry mob in front of her. “But it’s scaring the piss out of me…”

“Carrie-san.” Cologne stated grimly, giving off a small bonfire’s worth of battle aura as she spat, “Was the ‘old freak’ who tricked you named Happosai?”

Carrie, while aware that the crowd was upset, didn't have a real clear idea of just how large the powder keg she’d accidentally built up was, since she couldn't feel the heat of many battle auras or the insane pressure from a small armie’s worth of killing intent. Which is why she all-too thoughtlessly chucked a road-flare at the highly explosive pure estrogen by cocking her head quizzically and replying, “Oh, you know him?”

OOOOOO

Happosai awoke with a start, looking off into the distance towards the spike of outraged feminine Ki that had woken him from his slumber.

“Wow...Normally pretty girlies don’t get that angry unless I’m involved…” The ancient founder of Anything-Goes mused. Then the old lech shrugged and said, “Whatever it is, it ain’t my fault. This is my siesta day!” before turning over and re-burying himself into the pile of silkie darlings that made up his bedding at the moment.

------

What'cha think?

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

What do I think? I think you're doing a fine job of storytelling. And I think, on your Fukufics personal page, that you should link to your FFNet identity. Fortunately, "Imperial Servant" is the title of only three stories; but you're using a different pen name there, and it's almost always easier to find an author than a story.

So I went there, and downloaded everything. And as Tom Lehrer said, More, more, I'm still not satisfied! In context, that would be a good hat-tip to Happosai, by the way.

[PCHeintz72]

The writing quality is pretty good. I'll grant, but this last bit was a little too slapstick to me...

Personally, I was originally leaning toward the cause simply being Ranmas internal control being more than most... not only because of any form of energy manipulation, but the fact he has been able to hold all these girls off as long as he has and not make a move despite everything that has been done against him to make him do so.

[TattooTheDL]

The writing quality is pretty good. I'll grant, but this last bit was a little too slapstick to me...

Personally, I was originally leaning toward the cause simply being Ranmas internal control being more than most... not only because of any form of energy manipulation, but the fact he has been able to hold all these girls off as long as he has and not make a move despite everything that has been done against him to make him do so.

Canonically, I agree with that, plus the added "benefit" of not being around anyone other than his dad for most of his life has left Ranma with something of a "How the f*ck does?" regarding social situations.

But like I've said, I didn't come up with the "Ranma was made into a eunuch" somehow off the top of my head. It's a plot thing that's been used in some stories I've read, and has been done to DEATH with the Author Vimesenthusiast, but always as a reason why Ranma showing interest in girls and this time accepting having a harem.

He and some others who've done it haven't really given the idea a fair shake except as an excuse, and it's something that could/should be given a bit more weight. As well as finding out what the Wrecking Crew would make of that information.

SPOILER - Show Spoiler

Akane's gonna get a HELL of a Shakabuku once the charm spell wears off. That's a "Swift spiritual kick-to-the-head which alters your perceptions forever".

Also, Happosai isn't responsible for what happened. And again, despite the precedent set by everyone ELSE who's written about this, the usual culprit isn't responsible either...
...
...and yes, I found a legitimate way/reason that she/he didn't turn Ranma into a eunuch, as weird as that sounds, lol.

[ckosacranoid]

Very amusing chapters. Ranma turning offvher lust trick and draing it. Thats amusing.

[PCHeintz72]

Canonically, I agree with that, plus the added "benefit" of not being around anyone other than his dad for most of his life has left Ranma with something of a "How the f*ck does?" regarding social situations.

But like I've said, I didn't come up with the "Ranma was made into a eunuch" somehow off the top of my head. It's a plot thing that's been used in some stories I've read, and has been done to DEATH with the Author Vimesenthusiast, but always as a reason why Ranma showing interest in girls and this time accepting having a harem.

He and some others who've done it haven't really given the idea a fair shake except as an excuse, and it's something that could/should be given a bit more weight. As well as finding out what the Wrecking Crew would make of that information.

SPOILER - Show Spoiler

Akane's gonna get a HELL of a Shakabuku once the charm spell wears off. That's a "Swift spiritual kick-to-the-head which alters your perceptions forever".

Also, Happosai isn't responsible for what happened. And again, despite the precedent set by everyone ELSE who's written about this, the usual culprit isn't responsible either...
...
...and yes, I found a legitimate way/reason that she/he didn't turn Ranma into a eunuch, as weird as that sounds, lol.

Oh, it is not a knock on the story, or telling you to change anything, I merely was noting my own take on it.

The general idea of Ranma being a eunuch is as you said hardly unique in and of itself, I've seen stories from even as far back as the 90's with the general concept in various forms... either a distortion of the training, a deliberate shihatu/ki/moxibustion point or some other reason like the curse or a training accident or brain damage... even seen where it was deliberate on his part and he could turn it on or off.


Oh... as a FYI, the spoiler tag does not work depending upon which forum theme you are using... so I get nothing when I click them unless I go to the trouble to switch themes, click it, read it, then switch themes back.