On the war ravaged continent of Nerima, the Demon Lord Happosai has risen
into power. As his minions increased he began to take over kingdom after
kingdom until only one remained free of his rule. This kingdom, the Tendou
Kingdom, had remained free from peril until recently, when guards reported
seeing the Demon Lord's "Dragon Scouts" flying over city walls. Not long
after, Lady Tendou was kidnapped and murdered by Happosai's Orc troops.
All hope for remaining out of Happosai's control was lost, until two
mysterious warriors appeared...
Lord of Demons
A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Akane-Chan
Akane sighed. It had been an entire month since her mother disappeared.
Her father kept telling her to keep her hopes up, but she knew in her
heart that her mother was never coming back. She stood in the middle of a
field and swung her broad sword in various patterns. The walls of the city
were visible in the background.
"Dammit!" she screamed as she shoved the blade of her sword into the trunk
of a nearby tree. "How am I supposed to train like this?" She began to
cry. She was too preoccupied to notice two men on horseback ride up.
"Hey there. Macho warrior chicks ain't supposed to cry," the one with his
hair tied back offered as the two dismounted.
Akane spun around, pulling her sword from the tree. "Who goes there?"
The same young man put his hands up in defense. "Whoa! Easy there, ya
might hurt someone with that thing. I didn't mean to startle ya or
nothin'. My name's Ranma." He motioned to the shy, silent guy to his left,
"and that's Ryouga."
"Umm, hi." The short haired guy replied as he nervously scratched the
back of his head.
Akane sheathed her sword and slung her long raven hair over her shoulder.
She slowly looked the guys over. They seemed harmless enough. Both wore
standard mercenary attire; a shirt of chain-mail and a light travelling
cloak: nothing special. She smirked. 'I could take them both blind-folded,'
she thought. The one called Ryouga did have a funny looking bandana on his
head though, but nothing of the marked armor that Happosai's human
warriors wore. 'Never can be too careful though.' She stepped forward
slowly, keeping her eyes on the two unarmed travellers.
"Nice to meet you both. My name is Tendou Akane. What brings you to my
father's land?"
The pig-tailed boy cringed, while the other laughed. Ryouga slapped Ranma
on the back of the head then bent over laughing.
"You really blew it this time, Ranma! You called the daughter of Lord
Tendou a macho chick!" Ryouga spit out between fits of laughter.
Ranma blushed and bowed. "Forgive me, my lady."
Akane rolled her eyes and took off her gauntlets. "Akane is fine, if you
will." 'What a strange pair...' Her thoughts were interrupted by Ryouga.
"Lady Akane, we wish to see your father. Would you be so kind as to show
us to him?" He bowed, awaiting a response. He looked over to Ranma then
pulled him down into a bow as well, and was rewarded with a deep growl.
Akane couldn't help but laugh. 'These two are no harm. Maybe they could
teach that pompous Kuno a few things about addressing ladies of the
court.' "Very well. I'll show you to the stable where you can rest your
mounts. You may wait there while I see if my father will accept your
audience. If you try anything, you can count on being full of arrows
before you can snap a finger. Most of the guards are on edge lately.
Unlike this one..." Akane kicked her bodyguard, who had fell asleep under
a tree, awake. "Get up you idiot!" The guard stood quickly and bowed.
Akane rolled her eyes, then followed the guard back towards the city.
"Thanks!" Ranma replied standing up. He waited until Akane was out
of hearing range then slugged Ryouga in the shoulder. He then grabbed
the reins of his horse.
"Ow! What was that for?" Ryouga grumbled, rubbing his injury.
"For embarrassing me like that. You're lucky that's all I did."
Ryouga shrugged. "Yeah, she was pretty cute, wasn't she?"
"I never said that!"
Ryouga rolled his eyes and the two led their horses in the direction Akane
had left.
As the group approached the gates around the city, two guards rushed out
of their hut and bowed. Akane nodded in recognition, and the guards
pulled the bar off the gate, then pushed the huge doors inward.
"Hiroshi, please show these gentlemen to the stables." Akane said over
her shoulder as she and he personal guard turned to walk down the path
leading to the castle.
"As you wish, Lady Akane," Hiroshi replied, bowing. "If you would, sirs,"
he waved them on, following a path along the city walls.
They soon came upon a rather modest looking structure, which was made
entirely from wood. There were a total of five stalls, two unoccupied by
horses. Two young boys, in plain-looking, brown clothes, ran out and took
the horses from Ryouga and Ranma. They led the horses to the remaining
stalls and strapped a feedbag to their muzzles. Ranma dug around in the
satchel on his hip and pulled out two silver pieces. He handed one to
each boy, who quickly stuck it in their pockets and raced off.
"So, Hiroshi was it?" Ranma asked.
"Yes," Hiroshi replied, fidgeting with the hilt of his standard issue
Tendou Elite Guard katana. "What brings you here? We do not get many
visitors any more, save for unwelcome ones. You are lucky that Lady Akane
trusts you for some reason. I should gut you where you stand." Hiroshi
spit at Ranma's feet and smirked.
Ranma started to get rather mad. Hiroshi stepped towards him, but Ryouga
quickly stepped in to avoid any conflict that may get them thrown out of
the city.
"Ryouga..." Ranma growled.
"Ranma, it's not worth it. He just a trying to protect the city, it's his
job."
"But he's challenging my honor." Ranma glared at Hiroshi.
"He's just testing you."
Ranma calmed down and sighed. "You're right."
"Assuming you two are honest, where are you from?" Hiroshi
inquired.
"It's a long story," Ranma said, hoisting himself up onto the waist-high
wall of the stables.
"Humor me. As of right now, I'm off duty anyway." Hiroshi said, pointing
towards the guard post. Two men were walking towards the post, dressed
like Hiroshi.
"Okay then, ya asked for it." Ranma cracked his knuckles.
(-\*/-)
Akane stepped before her father and bowed. "Father, two men wish to speak
with you."
"Is that so? What do that want?"
"I'm not sure, but I think they may be here to fight. They look like
mercenaries."
"I see. I will humor them. Send Daisuke to get them."
"Please father, allow me to do it."
Lord Tendou started to protest but took one look at his daughter's eyes
and waved a hand dismissively. "Very well."
Akane smiled and bowed. "Thank you."
(-\*/-)
Ranma scratched the back of his head, thinking. "My father and I left home
so he could turn me into a great fighter. The only way I would become
eligible for knighthood was to prove myself better than everyone, since I
was not of noble blood. My Mom wouldn't settle for me bein' just a guard."
Ranma yawned as if he was bored with the story.
Hiroshi winced slightly.
"So we left when I was little and he started training me. We travelled a
lot; saw pretty much every section of Neriman continent. We ended up
findin' Ryouga here along the way somewhere. He had gotten lost or
somethin'."
"Ranma!" Ryouga growled, interrupting.
"What? I'm just tellin' the guy what he wanted to hear."
"But you didn't have to include that part!"
"Anyway, Ryouga joined us for his own reasons. Better?"
Ryouga nodded.
"So where is your father?" Hiroshi asked.
"Well about two moons ago, Pops had this 'great' idea, I should go
challenge one of the Mage faction. So he picked what he thought was the
weakest one. Pops was always one to underestimate, the jerk." Ranma
laughed slightly. "This little old lady. She had to be older than dirt.
Took all of us ta fend her off, but she cursed every one of us in the
process. Pops, however, didn't take it too well. He took one look at
himself and took off. A few days later, we found out the curse was kind of
turned on and off by hot and cold water. Too bad the old man didn't stick
around to find that out. He's probably still some where eating some
bamboo."
"Bamboo?" Hiroshi looked a little perplexed.
"He turned into a panda," Ryouga added nonchalantly.
Hiroshi raised an eyebrow. "What do you two turn into?"
Ranma placed a hand behind his back, while Ryouga looked about ready to
explode.
"Well..." Ranma started to stall but was interrupted.
"Ranma, Ryouga! My father will see you!" Akane shouted, walking down the
path.
Hiroshi quickly bowed low. It took a moment, but Ryouga and Ranma caught
on and bowed as well.
"Come on, cut that out," Akane said taking, Ranma's hand and dragging him
down the path. Ryouga followed.
'Okay, maybe she's a little cute - for a macho warrior princess.' Ranma
thought.
'Damn that Ranma. He gets everything!' Ryouga kicked a pebble. He looked
up and his jaw dropped. "Ranma! We can't go in there!" He yelled pointing
to the castle.
"Why not?" Ranma shouted, still being dragged along by Akane.
"You jerk! You know I'll get lost in there!" Ryouga whispered forcefully.
"Just take a hold of my cloak."
Ryouga grabbed Ranma's tattered black cloak with both hands. The three
crossed the bridge into the castle, past four heavily armed guards. Akane
led the boys through the castle and up a few flights of stairs. Ranma lost
count of the floors due to being dragged along by a girl, Ryouga lost
count because, well, he's Ryouga. At the top of the stairs, Akane led
them to a small room where they could wash up. She then led them down a
long hallway, lined with various tapestries and paintings. They stopped in
front of a set of large wooden doors embedded with colorful jewels. Two
guards stood at attention at either side of the doors, armed with
crossbows.
"Wow," Ryouga said.
"Yeah," Ranma agreed. "Never can be too careful I guess."
"Idiot, I'm talking about the doors."
Ranma shrugged. Akane stepped forward and the guards bowed then unlocked
the doors. A loud, metallic click was heard before the doors slowly swung
inward, being pulled by two guards, dressed exactly liked the two guarding
from the outside.
Akane stepped inside, then turned and waved Ranma and Ryouga in. They
gulped and entered, stopping at Akane's side. She noticed their reluctance
to step forward, and shoved them. The two stumbled to a stop in front of
two golden thrones. In one, there sat a man with long flowing dark hair,
dressed in dark blue and black ceremonial robes. He looked strong yet
frail at the same time. The smaller throne sat unoccupied.
Ranma and Ryouga bowed low as Lord Tendou cleared his throat to speak.
"Well, state your business."
_____
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