Welcome, one and all, to a relatively short fic that I'd like to share with you as a very belated Christmas present. I'll admit that I might be jumping the gun a bit, (not as much as I did on Reformations though. Shouldn't have let off that second chapter so early…) because this story is not FINISHED at the moment. It's rather short though, and I've got quite a few pieces down pat, so there shouldn't be as much of a problem regarding 'the writer was beaten into a coma with a block'.

This story, is based on an idea I've seen only recently regarding Ranma's 'attitude' towards women. Early fics I grew up reading like Shampoo ½, Girl Days, and others never brought up this idea and I think it makes a bit of sense…

Except it gets used as a cheap excuse for why Ranma isn't acting OOC by acting like a semi-suave ladies man around girls, and it's always around girls who aren't members of the NWC.

I know I'm being mysterious, but those who've read the same fics I have will know what I'm talking about before the 'big reveal', which will be in a later chapter.

Point is, I think something that is rather serious deserves more than a half-assed excuse for OOC behavior, heavy bashing of the Wrecking Crew, and never shows their reactions to the…thing.

Again, apologize for the vagueness, but I'm trying to build some suspense here, lol.

Anyway, let's see what's wrong with Ranma Saotome's love life, and how it all started with a well-meaning idiot who was willing to perform a malevolent act against what he believed to be a far greater evil.

I do not own Ranma ½ or the characters from that series in any way, shape or form.

Also, while this isn't a crossover per se, I take no credit for the character "Dabbler" from the webcomic Grrlpower, who I have shamelessly borrowed for this story. (Go read it and worship the Pimp-Hand of Doom that is Maxima Leander.)

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…actually pretty much exactly like every other ritual he'd performed in his life, the occult-obsessed teenager 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 soccer field/arena, because any location in Nerima was a potential arena, the preparations for his summoning ceremony were completed. A pentagram enclosed in a circle had been painted on the floor with a red, viscous fluid and 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 the wax being in the shape of the number 3 wouldn't disrupt the arcane energies involved, Hikaru 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 while looking like a royal herald making an announcement, before he slowly turned his head to look around the interior of the shed. After a few moments of silence, he gave a heartfelt, disappointed sigh that seemed to come from his toes and visibly sagged.

"Dammit…I was sure that would work…" Hikaru said despondently 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 flickering 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 hovering over his amateurish altar. The fires darkened as they flowed towards the interior of the oval, until there was a 3 foot tall spot of pure darkness which seemed to drink in the ambient light of both the deep orange fire surrounding it, as well as 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 succeeded in performing a magic spell truly sank in, the darkness parted, and Hikaru's jaw all but fell off his head as a creature stepped through.

The being before him was rather tall, looking to be a few inches taller than the portal it had emerged from and had a curvy, feminine body. Its skin was light purple, with small blue bands running horizontally across its body, legs, and arms roughly every 4-5 inches. Her arms appeared normal in shape, save that there were four of them, while her shapely thighs and calves ended in a pair of cloven hooves in place of feet. Her hair was deep blue and her eyes were heterochromatic, one blue and one green, and there were a 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'.

In a moment, Hikaru took the tableau in before the demoness noticed him and smiled sunnily. While that was almost enough to make the affection-deficient boy swear eternal gratitude, he suddenly realized that he'd summoned a succubus.

Said realization was because it finally clicked that the demon's body was curvaceous and titillating in a way that drew his eyes towards her generous assets, and it was very easy for him to take stock of said assets because she was stark-freaking-naked.

The fleeting question of why he didn't notice that before, along with the fact that her hair color was natural, flew through his mind seconds before he did the only logical thing he could do in this situation.

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. Wondering how the unlit candles strapped to his head hadn't been dislodged when he collapsed, the succubus took stock of her surroundings, and looked incredulously at the assorted sports equipment before muttering, "Wow…either he's 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 paint can to the messy 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 amended her previous statement by adding, "Definitely desperate," Before returning her attention to her unconscious summoner and musing aloud, "Bet there's a hell of a story behind this."

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 reached him, the succubus grabbed the lapels of his shirt and lifted him up off the ground, his toes dangling over the floor as she gave 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 Xuriel to sweatdrop worriedly and say, "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 joyful relief leapt out of him as he cried out, "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 placed her two lower hands on her hips and laced her 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 didn't lose her pose. "What did you summon me for?"

Not being the most observant mole to poke his head out of the astroturf and into the path of a lawnmower, Hikaru missed 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 once he'd woken up from a second nosebleed, as he had a more important and noble task for her.

Straightening up, Hikaru's face set in a grim expression and he declared in what was almost an authoritative tone, "I summoned you to destroy Saotome Ranma."

Xuriel blinked, her hands coming away from her head as she said quizzically, "Wait, what?"

"There's a boy here, named Saotome Ranma, and I want you to destroy him."

The succubus regarded him for several moments, a frown slowly spreading across her face as 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," Gosunkugi nodded in agreement. "But I don't want you to destroy Ranma physically. I want you to destroy his reputation."

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 fiancée!" 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! If I summoned something to fight him, he'd just beat it somehow!"

As the reedy boy moaned piteously at the injustice of it all, Xuriel's scowl deepened and she silently wondered, (What kind of guy is so strong this kid couldn't even risk calling a kyton or a cornugon to take this Sato-whoever out?) She pursed her lips and took in her summoner again. (Then again, his mojo might be too weak to call on a heavy-hitter, since I wouldn't have shown up if he hadn't used my true name. And if he's so desperate he didn't even put in a life or voice-binding clause in the ritual, it's a good thing he had enough sense to call a succubus rather than one of them.)

"Okay, I'll help you."

Hikaru stopped mid-tale of woe, and looked up at the succubus in wide-eyed surprise. "Y-you will?"

Xuriel nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, this Ron guy sounds like a major asshole, and I don't mind knocking him down a few pegs." She then ruffled Gosunkugi's hair gently and smiled. "Besides, it's rare to get called on for a good deed rather than a roll-in-the-hay or a decadent orgy, so I'll call this a freebie. What's this guy look like, and where is he?"

Hikaru was blushing brightly at the 'decadent orgy' bit of Xuriel's last statement and stammered, "Ahh, he's got black-hair and a pigtail…and he's wearing a red shirt and black pants, and last I saw, he was with Tendo Akane near a big tree around that way." he gestured somewhere behind him and to the right.

"Alright then," Xuriel replied before walking past him towards the door of the shed and adding, "I'll get right on it."

The sudden thought of Xuriel strolling around Furinkan High made Hikaru seize in fear. Insane asylum or not, the residents of Nerima would definitely notice a 6-foot, four-armed demon with purple skin, and he spun on his heel as he shouted, "Where are you going!? You can't go out like that?!"

Xuriel 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. The air around her wavered like in a high heat for a moment, then Hikaru gaped at what looked like a picture perfect copy of himself, down to the wrinkles in his shirt and the candles on his head. The disguised succubus declared, in his voice no less, "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 her son-in-law, though Shampoo was going for a visit, while Mousse was following along to 'protect' his beloved from the amazon's rightful husband.

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." And reached for her staff.

-AN-

So, have I lost anyone yet? Didn't think so, just thought I'd check to make sure.

The reason for Dabbler being in this is as a direct homage to Grrl Power, as her powerset was what gave me the idea for this story, especially the hilarifying scene that will be occurring later. (Hilariously horrifying. Yes, it's a word!…shut up…) For all intents and purposes though, she's JUST a succubus, and not connected to any sort of superhero group.

Also, kyton and cornugon are D&D demons, the former being the ultimate S in S&M and wears nothing but chains, while the other is akin to a flesh-and-blood a Balrog. And no, I have no idea if Ranma could beat either in a fight.

This series will be in SHORT chapters, just to keep from overloading too much into one scene or one setting, and it gives me plenty of padding to update at a reasonable pace.

The explanation for this madness, and Xuriel's encounters with the Nerima Wrecking Crew to follow soon…