Many of the characters used are not mine. They are owned by famous, rich people who get paid for doing stuff like this. Some of the characters in this are mine, but I still don't get paid for it. What's up with that?

Nexus
Chapter 1
Rise of the Demon Slayer
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Genma Saotome could be described in many ways. Despite the fact that the most agreed upon ways involved such words as 'lazy, greedy, selfish,' and the ever-popular 'stupid', not all of his traits were negative.

However, today was not the day for Genma Saotome's selfless, heroic nature to shine through. In fact, he was partaking in one of the most dishonorable, if not most vital (in his opinion) acts: stealing.
The fact that he was stealing from a holy temple did not help his karma any. He was currently sneaking in through a side door, his eyes nervously jumping from one side of the room to the other. It was a fairly large temple, and it probably contained a fair amount of treasure; there had been numerous armed guards around the shrine. The odd part was that though the guards never actually saw him, they seemed to notice his presence, as if an alarm had gone off in their minds whenever he was nearby. But alas, they were obviously lacking in martial prowess, and Genma had easily evaded them, even as their mysterious sixth sense led them in the right direction.

The temple was large, painted elegantly in colors of gold and red. The temple also belonged to a religion that Genma had never heard of before: the White Star. Genma had assumed that it was some kind of cult.

Genma felt a mild sense of uneasiness as he entered, but tried to push the thought aside as some kind of superstitious nervousness. Certainly taking a few coins wouldn't call down the wrath of whatever gods these guys worshipped, right?

Genma proceeded into the temple, and arrived in some sort of hallway leading up to a set of huge doors. The hallway was adorned with armor and weapons, all seeming to be composed of strange materials, like ivory or gold. Genma contemplated taking the weapons, but decided against it. Those would be awkward and hard to carry, and besides, there was sure to be greater treasure behind the main doors up ahead.

The doors opened, and Genma was treated to a sight he would never forget, though not for the reasons he first imagined.

The room was filled with floating crystal spheres. As if that wasn't bizarre enough, in the center of the room was a huge golden ring, which, like the spheres, was floating in midair, slowly bobbing up and down, as if gravity couldn't decide if it should take effect or not. What attracted his attention, however, was the small objects on the ring. 10 small blue gems were embedded in the golden monument, glittering with an unnatural light.

Genma's sense of uneasiness increased tenfold, but it was quickly drowned out by the thought of what he could get for these crystals.
Genma stepped forward, between two of the spheres, and was promptly electrocuted.

Genma recovered quickly, and scratched his chin in thought. He reached out to touch one of the orbs, and a thin ribbon of supernatural electricity leapt out at his finger.
Genma once again looked thoughtful. Then he snapped his fingers as a plan formed in his mind.
He ran back into the hallway, and returned a moment later with a diamond-tipped spear.

Genma thrust the spear into one of the gems on the floating ring. The gem fell off, clattering to the floor. Genma mentally congratulated himself on his genius as he prepared another thrust with the spear.
Genma failed to note that the strange glow of the gem had faded as soon as it parted with the ring.
*Chink* *chink*
Two more gems joined the first one on the floor.
Genma was about to contine, when the remaining jewels started pulsing with light. Genma stared as they got brighter and brighter, and then, one by one, shattered.
The ones already on the ground soon turned to dust after the rest were gone.
The floating spheres around him trembled, and then, just like the jewels, glowed and shattered into little tiny fragments.

Genma blinked, then visibly sagged. That great plan, wasted. Oh well.
Genma snapped the diamond spearhead off the spear, and was about to go back for the other weapons as well, when a small sparkle of light from the center of the golden ring caught his eye. Genma slowly backed up against the wall as the sparkle grew and turned black, expanding to the fill the ring with some sort of black energy field.
Genma had guessed what it was. It didn't take much imagination to figure out that it was a portal, nor did it take someone with Genma's intellect to figure out that he had made a big mistake.

This was confirmed when a thick,clawed arm made its way out of the portal. It was soon followed by a vaguely humanoid creature, with lava-like red & black skin. It was twice the size of Genma, which made him pause for a moment to wonder how the creature had passed through a portal less than the diameter of its body.
He only paused for a moment though. Then he ran.

The guards that had before been chasing the intruder had been alerted to the shrine by the sound of shattering glass. They each prayed it didn't mean what they thought it meant. Their prayers were not answered.

A white blur passed by, and one of the guards was just barely able to make out what the person who passed by looked like.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on who you asked (most would say it was quite unfortunate) several demons fromt the portal room chose that moment to burst through the door.
The guards of the White Star fought bravely, and used what little magic abilities they possessed, but the priests were ill-suited for direct combat, and had been out of practice. There had not been adequate need to use such magic for quite a few centuries, and though the teachings remained, such spells had only been used in practice situations, never in actual battle.
The guards didn't last very long.
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Ranma Saotome, age ten, poked mechanically at the small fire with a stick, prompting the flames to spread. He was bored, he was depressed, and he was lonely. It always seemed like every time he made a friend (or in Ryoga's case, a rival/unwilling and ungrateful friend), his father would just cart him off to somewhere else. It just got so tiresome, being all alone out in the woods. Well, technically, he wasn't alone, but his father wasn't the best of company.

'Speaking of the old man, here he comes,' Ranma thought off-handedly.
Muttering a "Yo, Pop," and returning his gaze to the fire, Ranma was nearly caught off-guard by the backpack that was thrown at him. As it was, it was thrown with such force that he fell over backward.

"Pop? What the-"
"No time for talk, boy! We've got to get out of here!"
Ranma blinked as Genma tore down camp in record speed, then scowled.
"Pop, you didn't get the police after you again, did you? Wait, there aren't any police out here."
"Just hurry up! We're leaving!"
"But why? It's almost nightfall! You can't seriously expect to walk all the way to China without sleeping!"

Before Genma could reply, something else answered his question for him.
The creature that stepped out (let's call it a "racid", for simplicity) had a large body shaped like an egg, only in the front the shell seemed to be broken up into three long spikes, covering its head and rendering the monster's face invisible. It's brown shell sported two thick, taloned legs, and a long tail with a wicked-looking blade on the end.
Red eyes peered out from the shell. More racids stepped out of the woods.

"Er... okay Pop, let's go."
Genma nodded in agreement, and soon joined his son in an activity he was well versed in: running for his life.
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Ranma and Genma panted in exhaustion as they crawled up the unnecessarily long stairway leading to the monastary.

They had managed to evade the ridiculously persistent racids, each of them possessing stamina that even managed to outdo the hunter demons. Adrenaline is an amazing thing, huh?
They had been forced to run the whole way, after Genma had found out that hiding in trees didn't deter them a bit. The creatures could knock down the strongest trees, it seemed, and had some kind of unnatural sense to stay on their trail.

But now they were safe. Surely they had made it far enough to get away from most of the demons, at least for the night, and they could surely get food and board at the............ Church of the White Star?
'Oh %!^!@,' thought Genma.

Ranma, however, did not hesitate, and was already at the front door. Genma tried to stop the boy.
"Wait son, maybe there's some other place we can stay for the night!"
Ranma turned and looked at him like he was crazy.
"What's wrong with you? It's the middle of the night, there're monsters out there wait'in to kill us, and you want to be picky about where we stay?"
Ranma shook his head and walked up to the doors, knocking loudly, and hoping the people inside would be sympathetic enough to forgive being woken up at such an hour.

The door opened, and a fairly old man stepped out, clad in long flowing white robes adorned with a gold trim. He looked down to the boy and raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, hey, sorry to bother you at this time of night, but could we trouble you for a place to stay tonight? There are a bunch of monsters out there!"

The priest's eyes widened briefly at the mention of monsters, and then he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. Ranma wondered what the heck he was doing. Genma wondered if there was any chance of being recognized as the one that defiled the White Star's temple.

The priest opened his eyes after doing a passive scan of the child. There was no doubt that he was telling the truth. Which meant two things, the first being rather trivial, and the second being quite the opposite.
'Damn! Who could've released the seal on the portal?'
Ranma spoke up when he noticed the guy's eyes had opened again. "Um, excuse me?"
The priest nodded, and gestured for both of them to enter.
"Of course, we will take care of you for the night. Come in, and we'll get you a hot meal. My name is Tomen."
Ranma blinked, rather surprised. After he had just blurted out the story, he realized how ridiculous he must have sounded, saying that they were being chased by demons. Lucky thing this guy believed him.

Inside the temple, was rather like the inside, simple, without decoration other than the crest of a white star, which seemed to be portrayed everywhere. A few other robed men and women, these ones with silver lining on their robes or no lining at all, were kneeling in prayer before an altar, which held a single large crystal shard, clear as glass.
Ranma was rather awed by the expanse of the church, while Genma was still contemplating what would happen if these people found out what he had done.

Ranma and Genma were led to a room filled with tables, and served bowls of hot soup. It was nothing special, but better than Genma's cooking, which was more than enough incentive for Ranma to eat even more than he usually did.
Tomen left to speak to the others. Before long the two martial artists heard several shouts and loud arguments, muffled to incomprehensibility by the wall between the two rooms.
Several of the other priests filled the room suddenly, and Genma and Ranma suddenly felt several dark gazes upon them. Genma gulped.

"Tell us what happened. Did you really see demons?" one of the priest with the silver lining asked.
"Yeah, they had legs like birds but they had these weird shells over their heads. They also had tails with a knife on it." Ranma relayed his description of the creatures, and the woman who asked paled slightly.
"Racids..." she whispered, "my God, it's true."
Ranma blinked. "What's true?"
"Never mind that!" A male priest, this one with no lining, spoke up. "What were you doing out in the woods?"
"We're martial artists," Ranma replied cautiously, "we're on a training trip, and those monsters just attacked us out of the blue."
They all were quiet for a moment, then their expressions turned somber. They had all scanned the boys thoughts, for they all possessed some semblance of telepathy, and found everything he said to be completely true. They would have scanned Genma, but it was much easier to do to a person who is speaking or is very young, and not good at hiding their emotions. Ranma had fit both those categories.
A few of them had briefly scanned Genma, and retrieved emotions of guilt. They had assumed that as a martial artist, the man had some guilty feelings about freeloading, especially since he and his son had such healthy appetites.

It should be noted that even the wisest of telepathic priests can make incredibly bad judgement calls.
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Ranma yawned as he stood up from the small cot he was given to sleep in. It was actually rather comfortable, not having to deal with rocks and insects all night, and the young boy felt better rested than usual.

Seeing that his father had not yet risen, Ranma left his bed to explore the building he had spent the night in.

Ranma came to an immediate and complete stop when he heard the sounds of combat coming from somewhere nearby. He homed in on the sound, and came to what looked like an arena-like dojo. Inside, a few of the priests were watching a fight from a small set of wooden bleachers.
In the center were two opponents, both unarmed. Both of them looked to be about 4 years older than he was. One of them, the one that caught his attention, was wrapped up in a brown tunic. He was rather tall, and was foreign, from what Ranma could tell. He had mussy, light brown hair with streaks of blond hair running through it and gray eyes. He was muscular, especially compared to the thin, seemingly underfed priests walking around the rest of the church.

The other boy charged. He aimed a punch at the taller boy's head, but it was blocked, as was his follow-up kick. The smaller opponent aimed another punch, and this one connected with his foe's shoulder.
The taller boy barely noticed, however, and used the attack to get in a clean hit to the his opponent's left side, sending him sprawling across the mat.

The fallen boy let out a cry of pain and clutched his left arm.
The winner's expression quickly became worried, and he ran over to his opponent.
"Oh geez, I didn't hurt you too bad, did I? I'm really sorry, I didn't know I hit you that hard..."
The winner of the match continued to spout apologies, while the loser looked like he just wanted to shrivel up and die from the humiliation. Eventually the priests stood up, and one walked over to the fallen fighter. Another one addressed the winner.

"Very good, Rayden. I'm pleased to see that you're making progress with your abilities, but you must learn to control your strength."
"Not to mention work on your defense. I could point out about a hundred holes back there."
Everyone turned with surprise to regard the newcomer. Ranma leaned back on the dojo wall and smirked confidently. This guy had obviously won most of his fights with superior strength and constitution, like Ryoga did. Except Ryoga was better; this guy barely had the actual skill of an average Karate black belt.
"You. What are you doing here?" one of the priests he recognized from before asked.
"I'm just wandering around. I could give your champ here a few tips if you want, though."
One of the priests smiled. "You think you could defeat him?"
Ranma nodded. "Absolutely."
Rayden raised an eyebrow at that, and silently gestured for Ranma to enter the arena part of the dojo.

Ranma was about to step up onto the platform that was used as the fighting area, when a bright glow caught his eye. He turned his head to the side and saw the priest that had walked up to the fallen boy was now standing over him, his hands glowing a bright yellow. After a moment his hands stopped glowing, and the boy stood up, and flexed his arm. Assured that it was healed, the boy sat down to watch the fight.
Ranma stared. "Uh........... "
Rayden spoke up. "Don't worry about that. They do that all the time."
Ranma nodded silently and stepped onto the platform.
One of the priests spoke. "Begin."

Ranma didn't move.
Neither did Rayden.
It was quickly decided who had more patience as Rayden suddenly charged, only to find his opponent wasn't there when he reached him.
He recieved a foot in the back.
To say the fight went downhill for Rayden would be an understatement. Ranma was totally slaughtering him. The older boy barely had time to punch into the air before he had been hit eight times. Ranma moved like a ghost, and didn't hold anything back, either. Somehow, he felt that he needed to show the spectators what he could really do, and not that he could just jump around his opponent without getting hit.
Finally, Ranma stopped, and stood behind Rayden.
"Give up yet?"
"..........................................................."
Ranma poked him in the back. Rayden fell to the mat with a *thud*.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'."

Ranma lifted his head to the sound of whispers among the 'judges'. One of them stepped up, and started to heal Rayden.
"Well, uh, what is your name?"
"Ranma Saotome, of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts."
"Well then Ranma, we are very impressed with your skill. You see, our masters are themselves more inept when it comes to unarmed fighting than some of our students. It would appear that you have beaten Rayden, who was our best, I'm afraid."
"What? That guy was your best?"
"Hey, lay off, all right?"

Ranma watched as Rayden got up, just as if he had never been bruised in his life.
"So you ready for a rematch already?"
"All right, but this time, we fight my way."
Ranma blinked. "Huh? What do you mean by that?"
As if on cue, a large sword was thrown toward Rayden, who caught it effortlessly, and brought it to bear against Ranma. It was a very large sword, and not of Japanese origin. It was a double-edged blade, and a very ornate one at that. It had a deep blue handle, with a farily large purple gem centered just below the hilt of the blade. It was about as tall as Ranma himself, and the blade itself had a light bluish tint.
"Whoa, you gonna use that? Isn't it kind of heavy?"
Rayden waved it around a couple of times in the air, dispelling any illusions that he couldn't use the weapon as it was intended.
Ranma smirked and took a ready stance. "All right then, maybe you're not a total loss, even if you do need a weapon."
Rayden stared. "Don't you want a sword?"
Ranma smirked again. "Nope, don't need one."
One of the priests coughed, then spoke. "Rayden is quite adept at the weapon he holds, and I'm sure he wants no harm to come to you..."
Ranma waved away the man's comment. "Hey, don't worry. The better he is, the better this fight will be."
"Very well, if you insist. But be warned, only a few priests here are able to heal vital organs in time to save someone's life, and no one here can heal a decapitation. Begin!"

Ranma smirked yet again as Rayden came at him faster than expected, and Ranma was forced to really work to get out of the way. Ranma wasn't used to fighting someone with the kind of reach that Rayden had with his sword, and Ranma was forced to put forth every effort to avoid being sliced to pieces.
True, Genma had better reach than he did, but so did this guy, even without the blade.
This was what he lived for. The challenge. The thrill of finding a worthy opponent, and then defeating him.
And soon it was over. Ranma, while having been put totally on the defensive, finished analyzing Rayden's attacks and located a pattern. He ducked under the next horizontal strike, grabbed the arm, and smashed his knee against the older boy's wrist.
The sword fell to the mat. Ranma flipped it up with his foot, then grabbed it and held the blade against the neck of his opponent.

Rayden gulped.
The whispers once again started amongst the priests. After a few seconds, the one who spoke earlier stood.
"Ranma Saotome, you have beaten our greatest student, fair and square. May I be so bold as to ask who trained you?"
"It was my Pop. He's still sleeping."
"I see. Congratulations on your victory."

The priest bowed, and then left. He was soon followed by the other priests, who all gave him strange looks as they passed by. Some were of admiration, others were of disgust or annoyance, and a few of them even showed fear.
Ranma felt a tap on his shoulder.

Rayden smiled at him, and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Hey, can I have my sword back now?"
Ranma gave him back the weapon, and the larger boy sheathed it, then strapped the blade to his back.
"You were awesome back there, by the way."
Ranma grinned. "So were you. Just not awesome enough."
"All right, all right, no gloating. Just to show that I'm not a sore loser, how 'bout I show you around the place? My name's Rayden Shikodan."
Ranma grinned. Maybe this wasn't such a bad turn of events after all.
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"You see, what you saw before being used on me was basic healing magic. It's pretty powerful stuff, and can seal up large cuts, mend broken bones, and heal bruises almost instantly."
Ranma just nodded, prompting the older boy to continue.
"All the priests around here can do that, along with some other stuff, although the healing magic is kinda mandatory. The rest of the stuff is sort of specialized, and only certain people can used certain skills."
"What's the 'other stuff'?"
"Well, there's a bunch of white magic spells that I don't know much about, and then there's shielding, telekinesis, telepathy, and warding."
Seeing Ranma's blank look, Rayden elaborated.
"Like I said, I don't know much about the other white magic stuff, but shielding involves making energy shields out of thin air, telekinesis is making things float with your mind, telepathy is reading someone's thoughts, and warding involves making spirit wards which have a bunch of different effects."
One of those items caught Ranma's attention. "Read someone's mind? What am I thinking right now?"
Rayden turned toward him and blinked. "No, no, no. I can't do any of that stuff. Only the priests can."
Ranma looked disappointed. "But aren't you training to become a priest?"
"Nope, I can't. To become a White Star priest, you gotta be able to do at least some of the stuff I told you about. All the elder priests say that I can't learn to do that stuff, though, so I just train in fighting."
"Why can't you learn that stuff?"
Rayden shrugged. "Don't know. I think it's genetic or something, since most of the priests around here spend their entire lives in the church, and have their families here, too. I'm an orphan."
Ranma looked sympathetic. "Oh. I'm sorry. How did your parents die?"
Rayden shrugged again. "Don't know. I don't even know if I have any. The priests just found me in the woods one day. Weird huh?"
Ranma didn't speak, but nodded.
"Anyway, we're getting off the topic. How would you like to see some of the stuff I told you about?"
Ranma nodded eagerly.

The two boys continued through the church, and soon came to a staging area of sorts, like the arena, but with a much bigger field.
Ranma's eyes widened as he saw what was going on in the middle of the field.
A boy, about Rayden's age, with long, silvery white hair and wearing a smaller size of the standard white robes, was in the middle of the area, being pelted with rocks that were thrown by the other priests in training at the sidelines.
The odd thing was that the rocks weren't hitting the boy, but bouncing off the nearly transparent bubble that stood in front of him. The shield glowed softly, letting out ripples throughout the glassy dome wherever a rock struck.

"Yo, Kaze!"
The boy, apparently named Kaze, turned suddenly at his name being called, and lost the concentration necessary to hold the shield up.
*Thwack* *thwack* *thwack*
The other students stopped tossing their projectiles when they realized that the rocks were actually getting through. Kaze fell face first onto the ground, sporting three noticable lumps on his head.
"Ouch. You okay, Kaze?"
Rayden walked up to his friend as Ranma sweatdropped. The other young priests quickly apologized for not stopping sooner, and left.

"Master Shikodan, why did you interrupt me?" Kaze stood up with Rayden's help, and quickly casted a healing spell on himself. He glowed yellow briefly, and the three bumps retracted themselves into his skull.
"I want you to meet Ranma Saotome. He totally crushed me in martial arts training."
Kaze bowed to Ranma. "Good day, master Saotome. I'm impressed. Beating down master Shikodan is no small feat."
Ranma scratched the back of his head self-consciously. "Ah, it was nothing. And just call me Ranma, please."
Rayden shook his head. "You may as well forget it. He does that with everyone."
Kaze stood up. "My name is Kaze Toren. When were you taken in?"
"I wasn't. Me and my Pop were just crashing here from the night after a bunch of demons chased us."
Rayden and Kaze's eyes widened. "Demons?"
Ranma grinned. "Yeah, real ugly ones too. Tell you what, you show me some of that tele-whatsit stuff, and I'll tell you all about them."
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"Mr. Saotome."
"Gack!" Genma jumped and nearly spit out his soup at the sudden appearance of Tomen, the high priest. Ever since he had woken up, he had been intending to get out of the church as quickly as possible, but found that Ranma had wandered off. He had been so distracted thinking, he didn't sense the priest's approach.
Genma composed himself before he turned around. "Yes, what is it?"
Tomen looked around at all the others currently in the dining area, then gestured for Genma to follow him.
"I'm afraid we must speak of this in private. Come."
Genma felt a deep chill down his back. 'They know! They know I released the seal! They're going to execute me, or purify me, or make me a virgin sacrifice! ............. Wait, I'm not a virgin.' Genma was so busy thinking about the different fates that lied in wait for him, that he actually followed Tomen into a small part of the church.
When he realized he was somewhere else, he looked around. The walls were covered in parchments, and there were several bookcases filled with scrolls.
Tomen took out one of the scrolls, and dusted it off. Then he spoke.

"Mr. Saotome, I have seen your son's skill in the Art, and frankly, I'm astounded."
Genma blinked. He had not expected that.
"He defeated Rayden, our best fighter, and four years his elder, without taking a scratch, even when he was at a disadvantage. This shows definite talent on your part as an instructor."
Genma smiled, his pride overcoming his current fear and guilt. "Yes, the boy's really something, eh?"
"Yes he is. I would be so bold as to ask if you would take on two more apprentices?"
Genma stopped smiling and stared blankly at the priest. "Huh?"
"Now before you refuse, hear me out. I know that you probably have enough trouble feeding your own child, and taking on two more will be no small burden, but listen first to what I have to say."
The priest opened up the scroll he held, and looked it over as he continued.
"Like most other religions, the White Star has its beliefs and prophecies. One such prophecy is that when the seal on the dark gate is broken, a great warrior shall arise to help fight the creatures that come from within. That warrior will be the protector of his people, the Guardian of the White Star."
The priest closed up the scroll. "It is my belief that our best fighter, Rayden, is that warrior, and now that the gate has been opened, demons are even as we speak pouring into our world. However, we are not suited to raise such a person."
Tomen turned toward Genma, a somber look in his eyes. "We are by no means weak, but our foundation lies in the times of peace, and the ways of battle have been all but forgotten by our people. However, you seem more than adept at such practices."
The priest sighed. "Which is why I beg of you. Take Rayden, and our best training priest Kaze. Teach Shikodan the ways of combat, so that he may one day be able to fulfill his legacy. Kaze Toren is our finest acolyte, and is fully able to develop his own unique skills on his own. His abilities will serve you well."

Genma stared at the man before him for a moment, before speaking cautiously.
"Not that I'm not sympathetic to your cause, but I do in fact have trouble feeding my own child, and training another one will not be easy. Heck, it might well be impossible. Besides, won't their parents mind?"
Tomen shook his head. "Both are orphans. Rayden was found as a baby crawling through the woods one day by an envoy, while Kaze's father died before he was born. His mother died giving birth."
Genma lowered his head and gave a nod of sympathy.
Tomen took out a bag from a chest near the back of the room. It was fairly large, and the priest obviously had difficulty lifting it.
"As for feeding them, I think this shall be adequate to help for quite a few years, with plenty left over to pay for other small luxuries."
The priest opened the bag to reveal gold coins and gems of all sorts. Genma's eyes seemed to momentarily glaze over.
"Of course, it would be rude to refuse such a responsibility, especially after you showed us such hospitality."
Tomen smiled, assured that his students were in good hands.

Once again, even a high priest can make mistakes.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Rayden and Kaze waved goodbye to the people that had provided for them for as long as they could remember. Kaze was somber, while Rayden just let the tears flow unabashedly. Soon they had left the church, and were on their way.

Ranma looked at his new friends happily. He'd never be lonely again!
"Hey Kaze, how 'bout you show Pop some of that stuff you showed me!"
Genma looked at his son as they left the last flight of stairs down into the valley.
"What is it?"
Ranma smiled. "Just watch. All right Kaze, what am I thinking?"
Kaze closed his eyes for a moment, then lifted his head. "You are hoping that we do not encounter those demons while on the road."
Ranma grinned. "Right! Kaze can read your mind, Pop! Isn't that cool? Pop?"
The three boys looked toward Genma, who had a wild, wide-eyed look and appeared to be panicking.
"Y-yo-you c-can read m-minds?"
Kaze thought for a moment before answering. "Not really, as of yet, anyway. I can read certain thoughts at the surface of the mind, but I must have the full mental consent of the subject, and I cannot do a reading without the subject noticing."
Rayden smirked. "In other words, he can only read your thoughts if you let him."
Genma let out a breath of relief.
"Why Pop? You got something to hide?"
Genma returned to his panicked state. "NO!! I just, uh, was surprised, that's all. What other things can you do?"
Kaze thought for a moment. "Well, I can do a passive mind scan, which can only detect emotions and deceit. For example, right now you're feeling...... fear?"
Genma flinched, but slowly nodded. Kaze just shrugged. Many people feared what they did not understand.
Ranma piped up again. "He can also make things float in the air and make this really cool shield!"
Genma blinked, then shook his head. He needed an aspirin.
"Whatever. We need to get to a town and buy some supplies. Then we'll head for China."
Ranma nodded. "All right, Pop!"
Rayden blinked. "All the way to China?"
Kaze nodded. "Of course, elder Saotome."

End Chapter 1
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Authors notes:
Well, what do you think?
Where am I going with this? Well, it's not just a new character fic, where you get to see a bunch of new guys interact with the normal Ranma cast. It's more than that. Due to the demons getting loose, there'll be much bigger problems than who Ranma will eventually marry.
No, the demons will not go on a rampage across the countryside, destroying everything in their path. They end up taking residence in forests and dens, and tend to avoid masses of people, like cities and towns. Many of the demons and demon clans, however, will take a definite interest in everyone's favorite martial artist.
Crossovers with Urusei Yatsura and a few others are to be expected.
Why didn't Genma just leave Rayden and Kaze on the side of the road and leave them? Maybe he figured that he had been given enough gold to actually take care of them. Maybe he felt guilty for opening the dark gate and getting many White Star priests killed, and thought that in some way, his taking on the two boys would make up for it. Or maybe he was just so creeped out by Kaze's abilities that he really didn't want any experienced priests coming after him.