Chapter 3: The Great Hunt

 

As soon as she walked in, all of the girls stared at her. Ranma held up her arms in a gesture of peace. “I’m looking for a pervert called Happosai. I saw him coming in here.”

 

One of the girls shrieked. Another girl brought a mallet out of thin air. “Want to join the hunting party?”

 

Ranma smiled. “You bet. Uh.. I have a Jusenkyo curse and I’m not really a girl..”

 

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. The girl with the mallet smiled. “That’s okay, but try anything and you meet Mallet-sama.”

 

Ranma nodded and scanned the locker room. “We better find him before he powers up too much. If worse comes to worst, then this whole place will go kaboom.”

 

The girls nodded and went on the warpath. Ranma joined up with two other girls, one with a mallet and one with some bonboris.

 

“I am Perfume of the Amazon tribe. Who are you?” Perfume asked cautiously.

 

Ranma was too busy reading chi signatures and absentmindedly replied, “Ranma Sao.. just Ranma. Wait,” she motioned for them to pause. “I sense.. HYAHH!!” She slammed a fist into a very startled Happosai who went flying out of the roof. Ranma swore and flew after him.

 

Perfume looked at Ranko and shrugged. “It’s Nerima, what do you expect?”

 

Ranma saw Happosai retreating and growled. “This does it!! SILENCE!!!”

 

Happosai ran into an invisible barrier and narrowed his eyes. There wasn’t any options except to face Ranma. He turned around and saw his old student who was gazing calmly at him. “You will never take me alive..”

“WHAT!! You attacked me first, I wasn’t going to send you back!!” Ranma protested. “If I wanted to destroy you, I would have done it at the mall.”

 

Happosai nodded grudgingly. “Okay, so why are you here?”

 

Ranma scoffed and landed on the roof of a building. “This is my realm, I was born here. I spent over twenty years in the Abyss and I need to get over it. And I want to be a normal human being. Hell, I didn’t even finish high school. I’ll make you a deal..”

 

“I’m listening.”

 

“Don’t tell anyone about what I am and I won’t send you to the Abyssal Plane. Deal?” Ranma held out her hand.

 

Happosai nodded and shook her hand. “Very well.” Then he tried to glomp her but he saw a very scary looking sword in her hands.

 

“Try and die.” Ranma warned him. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have to get my stuff from the mall.” She disappeared into thin air, leaving behind a very scared Happosai.

 

Ranma appeared in the mall and picked up her bags.. Then she left the mall through the proper way.

 

Cologne saw Happosai sitting on the roof of the Tendo dojo and motioned for the others to stand down. “I’ll handle this. Why don’t we wait for Ranma to come to us?”

 

Akane frowned. “He has a lot of explaining to do.” The others nodded in agreement.

 

Ranma stopped at the Saotome house, it had been nearly twenty years and he still missed her. I hope she still lives here. He walked up to the front door and knocked. An older woman answered the door, Ranma recognized her as his mother.

 

Nodoka looked at the young girl on her porch and frowned. She looked familiar but she couldn’t quite place her. “May I help you?”

 

“Mrs. Saotome?” Seeing the older woman nod, Ranma smiled. “My name is Ranma Saotome..” The rest of his words were cut off by a loss of air. Nodoka just cried and held her son…daughter and thank the gods for bringing him home.

 

“Oh my, excuse my behavior..” Nodoka wiped a tear off her face. “All that time and I never knew..”

 

Ranma hugged her in relief. “It’s okay mom, I’m home again.”

 

“Let’s get you inside and we’ll talk.” Nodoka led her son into the house, for a while, things were right with the world.

 

After a long warm bath and a big meal, Ranma felt controlled enough to talk to his mother again. He sipped the tea and put the cup down gently. “I imagine that you have a lot of questions.”

 

Nodoka nodded. “Yes, I do. Why don’t you start when you disappeared.”

 

Ranma lowered his eyes and shook his head. “It’s complicated, but I will try to explain.”

 

“You are aware that Father made several deals, using me as a bargaining chip?” Seeing Nodoka’s nod, Ranma continued. “One of his deals involved a demon, in return for the power to do chi attacks, he would give the demon the soul of his first born son….I was taken to Hell, and I fought my way out.” An echo of hatred and fear entered his eyes. “At first, I thought that there was nothing, no hope, no hate, only despair. Than I learned that if I defeated the demon who had my soul, I could return. So I’ve been fighting my way here. And I made it.”

 

Nodoka knew that there were some places that Ranma didn’t want to elaborate on so she didn’t press him.  But she had to uphold family honor. “Ranma.. son, your father died a honorless dog and I have been making reparations. Two still stand.. the engagements between the Kuonji family and the Tendo family.  Now that you are back, we must fulfill our vows…”

 

Ranma nearly choked on the tea. “Well, what options do we have?”

 

“That’s why we are going to visit the Tendo dojo after tea.” Nodoka pauses, seeing her son bleached. “Is something wrong?”

 

“No, no..” Ranma said hurriedly. Kuso, she’s that last person I want to see…