Demonic Language [Momo, Ranma]

Mid-to-high 70s… yeah, Ranma wasn’t casting any Kidō over- what was it, 32? 33? Yeah, around that number was his limit up until now. You’d have to really specialize in Kidō in order to cast higher-leveled spells, whether Hadō or Bakudō. He made sure to pay attention in classes. He wasn’t an idiot!

A little phrenetic, maybe, but not a lost cause.

“I-I-I mean, if I tried hard enough, maybe… I could… squeeze out between the bars?” he uttered in disbelief of even himself, certainly obvious by his tone and body language. It was a really neat spell, either way, but this Incantation Abandonment sounded even cooler and covered a wider range. Therefore, he’d have to focus on that first, before he stepped foot into completely new spells. He was already stuck on mastering Morikawa-sensei’s new armor spell, and that sucker took a WHILE now. He was still unable to make the armor cover his entire body or even last longer than 10 seconds, and that was when he was able to completely focus without interruption. Totally useless in fatal combat.

Oh, but if he could get better at Incantation Abandonment… would that make it easier to learn higher-leveled Kidō? Or… would that make it harder to learn higher-leveled Kidō? He’d have to ask about that later – focusing on more than one thing at a time could screw him over.

Based on her explanation, he’d do well starting from scratch – abandoning chants for lower-ranked spells and just go from there. He was able to do it before, so he should be able to do it again, and if he started from the first spell, then… arguably, that should be smooth! “Mhm, just like back then…” Ranma uttered in remembrance, praying that this wouldn’t take nearly as long as learning Morikawa-sensei’s spell.

Wait, shit, that spell could end up backfiring hard if he was both in a haste and tried to abandon chants. He should be mindful of that, even if being mindful wasn’t common. He didn’t want to invoke Morikawa-sensei’s anger any more, for despite her petite exterior, she was really passionate with Kidō… and something made him feel like she was wary of his antics, or maybe a bit annoyed by him. Honestly, lately, it’d been a bit awkward to meet up at Squad 2 – hopefully, that’d change soon.

Hinamori-sensei quickly grabbed his attention away when she performed a quick, chant-less Hadō spell – the very first one, Shō – to lift the wheel of a cart up from a divot in the road. “Bet, lemme try,” he confidently replied, throwing his gaze around the road again to find a target… but it wasn’t just every hour that a cart got stuck in the road, and he didn’t want to shoot some random person!

It took him a few minutes to lose hope and light on his face. “I-I’ll just wait ‘till we get to your place…”

”’Scuse me, house-chan,” Ranma mumbled before entering Hinamori-sensei’s abode, already triggered by the fragrant smell of flowers nearby. He almost thought that Erica was here, too- wait, fuck, he should’ve invited Erica!!! She would’ve loved to see all these new spells too, he couldn’t just hog all the teachings and nuggets to himself! Bad Ranma!

S-Sorry, sorry, sorryyyyyyyyyy, Erica! I promise, I’ll take you with me next time!

Looking at the garden he was led to further made it clear how much he fumbled not taking Erica with him. She would’ve loved this place… yup, it’s a promise! He kinda just wanted to take a bottle and relax, lay on the grass and let the pleasant breeze carry his thoughts away… but he came here for a little bit of training, didn’t he?! So he could further expand his competences, right?! Just like Morikawa-sensei and Erica practiced day and night, he too needed much more… what could you call it, discipline?

At least, he needed much more than what he had escaped the Academy with. One step at a time, Ranma… just like Morikawa-sensei taught you.

“Oh, you got other gue- those aren’t guests,” Ranma commented, swiftly correcting himself once he realized that some of the practice targets on the fence were moving around as if alive! “H-How… wait, is that some Bakudō spell going on there? But… you’re not even- how- was it moving all this time? Did you just cast it? But I didn’t see you…”

He had to grab his head before it’d fall off his shoulders from overheating. Hinamori-sensei did something devious to make these targets move, and he hadn’t the patience to figure out here and now, neither did he have the deductive capabilities to hit the nail anyway.

“… Some funny-looking Hollows ya got here,” he joked about, poking some of the still targets that seemed to resemble the masked soul-eaters. He could’ve sworn that one of them looked like a floating eyeball, but he must’ve been fooling himself. Not to mention the two most charred ones… looked like Shinigami with Captain outfits. “… These aren’t real Captains, right? Who even are they?” he felt the need to ask, poking the small guy’s dumb face first, “Even I’m taller than this dude. Imagine that… and who’s the nerd with the glasses? Actually, you know what, nevermind…”

Almost ousted himself for forgetting what felt like history… of some sorts. Argh, listen, who cared?!?!?!!?

Okay, she gave the green lights to go all out, firstly demonstrating his best spell – with incantation. That… was a brainwrecker, for while Ranma liked Bakudō, he didn’t know that many spells in that category. Not nearly enough to justify calling himself a Bakudō specialist, not one bit. He’d tried out Enkōsen before, and… Sekienton, and Seki too. Ah, that sounded more like stuff for another day – let’s just stick to Hadō today, shall we?

“… Alrighto,” he finally signaled, lifting both hands up to his chest in order to channel his Reishi to the space between them. From there, a crimson light emerged, turning bright in the center and heating up until flares manifested. Now that I think about it, Shura kept launching these in our fight like it was nothing…

"Ye Lord, Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south," he chanted deeply, his chant visibly increasing the intensity of the flares amidst his palms that grew into an orb large enough to press against his hands, licking blood-red flames trickling between his fingers. Once the orb was the size of a cantaloupe, he declared: “Hadō #31: Shakkahō!”

The orb was fired forward towards the charred dummy with the glasses, nailing it right on the face and spreading a wave of fire out on impact. “Holy shit! That might just be my best Shakkahō yet…” he patted himself on his own shoulder, rubbing his nose in a little sense of pride. “So, whatcha think?”

Why was it reverting back to its previous form?! What sorcery was this?! Ranma’s bulging eyes were fixated on that damn dummy now, intent to unveil Hinamori-sensei’s secret Kidō- fuck, was it Hadō or Bakudō- whatever she was using! But he saw nothing out of the ordinary – just waves of Spiritual Energy outlining the dummy until it was sufficiently repaired!

No fair! It was like Kaidō, but on an inanimate object! Like reversing time on a thing… wait, shit, maybe Ranma could do that with Hōkamaru… no, it only slows down things. Maybe its Bankai would be able to? Aww, he couldn’t wait to convince Hōkamaru to manifest in the outer world for him… a glorious day to behold.

So now… he was going to cast the same spell without the chant. Should be entirely possible, since he knew how it felt to cast Shakkahō, and… it was simple to imagine. It was a red flare, a ball of energy that manifested as red fire. He wasn’t an artist, but he was imaginative. “Got it. Shouldn’t take so loooooooooooooooo-“ Ranma spoke up cockily, his confidence taking a blow to the groin when the dummy was obliterated by Hinamori-sensei’s own, chant-less Shakkahō.

“… Fuck…”

Ah yes, classic profanity in the garden – Ranma could feel his soul getting heavier with guilt and karma. Better try this out before Hinamori-sensei would pinch him or anything. Red flare, red ball, red blast. Red, red, red, red, red, red, red- his brain began repeating that image over and over again. Such a linear spell. “Hadō #31: Shakkahō!”

And from his palm, an orb half the size of a cantaloupe shot out, notably dealing way less damage to the dummy than he was able to prior. “… Oh, wait, maybe I got to use both hands,” he corrected himself before trying again, balling his hands up, “Hadō #31: Shakkahō!” Thrusting both palms forward, he released another red ball of Spiritual Energy flaring up like a foxfire, but… it did the exact same thing-

Even he could see that it was weaker than before! “… Am… am I not using it enough?”

”Say wh- oh- reeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-”

Ranma’s cracked impatience kicked in again – how long would he have to practice this, then?! A year? Two? Ten? A hundred? He could never tell with their lifespans, and he knew people who just learned shit on the fly! It wasn’t fair…

“… Okay,” he answered diligently. She didn’t want him to give up so quickly, and he couldn’t make his sensei worry now, could he? If anything, she gave him a genius suggestion – try out one of his trusty Bakudō spells with this method! He was good with a few Bakudō spells already, so…

“Oh, say no less, sensei! Okay… chant first, I can’t keep up with all these details,” Ranma expressed, already drawing in the air with a red blitz escaping his fingers. Since the moving Hollow targets were… well, moving, he decided he didn’t want them to do that anymore. The dummies wouldn’t fight back, so this spell could actually work pretty well this time – only the Soul King would know how many times Ranma had gotten his spell broken by Hollows before.

“Disintegrate, you black dog! Look upon yourself with horror and claw out your own throat!”

Red energy surrounded Ranma’s form and further emitted around the dummy’s frame, slowing it down in its tracks. “Bakudō #9: Geki!” As the entire spell’s name was ushered, its full power was exerted, and the dummy braked in its tracks, only nudging a bit to the direction it was going. So this was the extent of a full-force Bakudō… so how would it look without Incantations?

“Zanjutsu’s my thing, sensei,” Ranma revealed to her, suddenly pulling a grimace at remembering the process of… strengthening his bond with Hōkamaru, “My Zanpakutō’s… fuck, I wanna say weird, grumpy, overall just a troll, but something tells me I’d be talking about myself in the end…” I mean, he and his Zanpakutō… weren’t they the same? Both intolerant of certain people in life, not even giving them the time of day or night. Both fiending for the easy and the peace that ease brought. Both… internally distrusting of people.

But Ranma had changed! So wouldn’t Hōkamaru change, too?! If only the damn spirit would talk more with him… all he gave was his name. And with that, a Shikai was born.

“It’s as if he still doesn’t trust me… but he gave me his name. Hōkamaru. He should trust me to some extent, right? So why won’t he talk to me? Is this supposed to tell me something about… myself? I don’t even fucking know, it’s bothered me for years!”

Understanding… hmh, but it was difficult to understand quiet spirits, though! And Ranma was never a people-person… it took a great deal to get along with others. He hadn’t been the most cooperative in the beginning. And it was considered a world wonder how he got together with Erica… but he’d changed.

Hōkamaru, too, could change! Right? It wasn’t just all up to him, this was a two-man effort! So why…

Hinamori-sensei insisted that he shouldn’t treat Hōkamaru as a pain in the ass – fixed that for you – which Ranma had done for quite a while now. It was moreso a coping mechanism, so he wouldn’t keep beating himself around the bush for not having the best relations with his Zanpakutō. But this… her words gave him courage. I mean, Hōkamaru must’ve had a reason to give him his name, after all. There had to be some sort of lesson to learn. Maybe Hōkamaru did expect something from him…

And until he realized that, he’d be stuck.

“Hmmmmmmh, I’m tryiiiiiiiiing… it’s like a murder mystery,” he groaned, drilling his fingers into his head in order to think better, “Even if he doesn’t like to talk to me… Hōkamaru’s saved my butt so many times. But I’m not a detective – I’m not really a big fan of big brain mysteries like these! I should’ve read more of those novels instead of the ones C- y-you know what, forget you heard that last part…”

Alright, back to today’s training! Great! He could move on smoothly, immediately, without Hinamori-sensei asking any further questions regarding the part he was so close to uttering. He needed to cast Geki again... Geki simply halted a target’s movement. It did so with his Spiritual Energy. Like a Spiritual Energy straightjacket. He could imagine that in his head, clearly. A reddish, Spiritual Energy straightjacket that locked itself around the dummy.

“Bakudō #9: Geki,” he casted, one palm thrusted forward towards the target’s location. His Spiritual Energy emitted the same aura and effect as before, grabbing hold of the dummy and braking its movement around the fence. It looked like a horse being towed by a dude whose feet were sliding off the ground. Like a car whose motor was breaking down mid-drive.

C’moooooon… n-no, what am I doing? This is enough! Enough![/i] he alerted himself, simply lessening the strain he was putting on the spell, It’s just a straightjacket… can’t lose my shit over something so simpl- huh?

He starkly imagined a straightjacket wrapping itself around the target at all times, so once he lessened his strain, he noticed that the target was slowing down a bit before breaking off his grab fully. Such a small effect, but-

“D-Did you see that?! Process! Not much, but process! I’m thirsty…”

Time for a break. He’d fling up his gourd, spin it around, flick the prop open, and… nothing was falling to his tongue and mouth. What the fuck? “But… you’re always full, what shittery is this…?”