Serafall Leviathan had an uncharacteristically serious look on her face as she sat in her office in a surprisingly prim outfit. The Magical Girl Levi-tan guise she so loved was pushed aside in favor of Serafall Leviathan the Mother. Being a mother wasn't something that Serafall had honestly expected to happen for centuries. She still had little So-tan to look after like a good big sister. She was also still very young by devil standards and unmarried. Being a single mother wasn't that big of a shocker for a devil, even for one in the limelight and high ranking like herself. The usual reaction devils had to the announcement that some high ranking unmarried lady devil getting pregnant was 'looks like she had a good time'.

However, the birth of Serafall's son 15 years ago had caused a massive uproar that was still the talk among noble circles. Normally, such uproar over a pregnancy would occur if a devil was an adulteress and the child was the result of infidelity. That wasn't the case for Serafall. Her betrothed had died centuries ago in the Great War and no one wanted to make marriage arrangements then because devils were dropping like flies. Immediately after the Great War there was the Devil Civil War which resulted in Serafall becoming the new Leviathan. Who Serafall married was completely up to her as the Leviathan and she had never bothered to arrange another marriage contract for herself. Sirzechs-chan was honestly the only being that could potentially be fit to be her husband. That wasn't going to happen as Serafall had zero desire to play second string to Grayfia.

The uproar over Serafall's child was because he was half human. His father was a human, not a reincarnated devil, but a human. Her one night stand partner wasn't a pure human only by the merest of technicalities; a distant ancestor from the Sengoku-Jidai was a hanyo who sealed her yokai blood away to trap an enemy. Getting utterly drunk at a seedy human bar to blow off some steam because her parents had been nagging at her to get a husband was not the smartest idea she ever had. Bad news was that she ended up sleeping with a rather pudgy martial artist. Even worse news, at least to some devils, was the fact that she got pregnant.

However, the good news as far as Serafall was concerned was that she had her adorable son Ranma. Her son was the only being more precious to Serafall than her sister Sona. Serafall had originally wanted to give Ranma the last name of Leviathan since he was her son and that was her clan name ever since she had been made into the Leviathan. The outrage some elders felt in the Conclave of Pillars over the idea of a mere half breed having the name of one of Four Satans was legendary. It resulted in a law being passed that caused any child of any elected Satan to revert to the Satan's former clan. Serafall's parents were actually happy that their grandson was a member of the Sitri Clan.

Serafall herself didn't really care that her son was Ranma Sitri instead of Ranma Leviathan. The complaints over the issue allowed her and Sirzechs-chan to erode many pillars of the Aristocratic Faction's power within the Conclave of Pillars without them ever realizing it. Besides, Ranma rarely used his real name and mostly referred to himself as Ranma Saotome when he was among mortals. It was irritating for Serafall that Ranma preferred to spend his time up on Earth instead of down in the Underworld. Why did the people she was most concerned about keeping safe insist on constantly risking their necks?

At least Son-tan stayed put and had a good collection of servants in her peerage. She and Sirzechs-chan had been able to ward Kuoh to the point that most possible threats would take one look at the town and say not worth the hassle. Ranma kept on moving from town to town with his father like some sort of vagrant as he learned martial arts. There was also the fact that Ranma had a knack for finding trouble or was it that trouble had a knack for finding him? Bless it, last time she tried to have one of her friends watch Ranma for a day he ended up getting mixed up in state secrets!

What made things even more nerve-wracking for Serafall was the fact that Ranma only had a single servant in his peerage and a pawn at that! At least Genma wasn't the pawn. Thank the Abyss for small blessings. It wasn't anything personal against Genma. He was a decent enough man. She just didn't want to have to put up with him for the next couple thousand years.

Now, Ryu Kumon was a good lad and he was a marvelous fighter. As a sparring partner and companion for Ranma the boy was almost perfect. His drive to master the martial arts was only a step behind Ranma's own almost unreal drive. Thanks to years of training Ryu's power was far beyond what most pawns and even a fair number of high ranked pieces. It's just that Serafall wanted Ranma to have more protection.

Serafall sighed as she looked at the folder on her desk giving an initial recon on the town Ranma was currently in. Was it really too much to ask for her son to listen to her for a change? As soon as Serafall had that thought she got the distinct feeling that her parents were laughing at her.

While Serafall was reviewing her son's new town, Ranma and Ryu were given a rather abrupt and unpleasant wakeup. "Burn in Hell Pops/Saotome, which church did you steal the holy water from?!" Both teenage devils screamed out in furry and pain as they felt the burning effects of holy water on their skin.

Genma looked down on the futons were his two idiot students were sleeping with a frown on his face and an empty buck in his hand. "You two are wasting predawn cover! Now I want both of you up on the roof in five minutes to get your flight drills in before it gets too bright. You two are the ones who forgot to set your alarms. No pain no, gain remember? Now move it before I break out the crosses!" Genma watched on as his son and his other student scrambled to get changed so they could head to the roof. The older Saotome followed the duo to make sure that they headed up to the roof of the new apartment complex like he told them.

The boys made it onto the roof and launched themselves into the air with a few seconds to spare. Genma watched to duo like a hawk looking for the slightest flaw in Ranma and Ryu's aerial manures while they practiced speed and turning techniques. Both boys needed the be pushed to their limits if they were going to take the Saotome Anything Goes School he had created and transform it into the Infernal Anything Goes School.

Both boys also had destines that required them to be the best. Ranma had been marked at birth to take the Master's place as the Grandmaster of Anything Goes. Genma had tried to defeat the Master in combat before he and Soun resorted to trickery. He had come far closer than Soun so it would make sense that his own heir would beat the master. Besides, Ranma had an ace in the hole compared to Genma for that future battle. Whatever dark powers the Master had aligned himself with would stand no chance against having the blood of Satan herself flowing through one's veins.

As for Ryu, Genma could see a grand destiny for the orphan he had taken in after Ryu's father had killed himself trying to master the Yamasenken in an idiotic manner. Ryu would be one of the future masters of Anything Goes under Ranma. He'd be second only to Ranma in the future since he had been trained by Genma. He and Ranma were also going to be lifelong friends much like Genma and Soun were.

This wasn't exactly how Genma had imagined his life going all those years ago when he was younger. He had been in an engagement arraigned by his parents when he was a teenager. However, nothing came of that because his fiancée Nodoka had died in a car accident shortly after his parents died. Only Soun and the Art helped him pull through that dark time. Dating never seemed important to Genma so for years he expected to become a martial arts sage. He and Soun had even talked about him taking on Soun's second son as a student during Soun's bachelor party.

Then came that fateful night alone at the bar where he met Serafall. Genma's shock at waking up naked in bed with an unearthly beautiful and equally naked young woman was topped only by when he found out Serafall was pregnant and one of the Satans of Hell. Finding out that the supernatural existed and that he was going to be a father all at once would shock anyone. Ranma's birth was what had driven Genma to get rid of the Master. Genma hadn't wanted to subject Ranma to the Master when his son got older. Part of Genma was still mystified why Soun hadn't asked him for help in getting rid of the Master years prior to that since Soun's wife was pregnant at that point with their third daughter.

Genma snapped out of his half musing about the past as the sun started to rise. He bellowed out, "Get down here now boys and give me 60!" The boys gracefully and lightly landed on the roof, caught the training weights tossed at them, put the weights on, and proceeded to exercise on the roof. Genma also joined in wearing his one weights as he designed the aerobic workout regime to keep everyone's conditioning up on "light" days. Most people would assume that Genma meant 60 repetitions whatever exercise he was telling the boys to do. Fact was Genma meant 60 minutes of constant exercise at a constant tempo.

Ranma and Ryu were hustled off to the shower after their morning exercise while Genma headed to the kitchen to prep some breakfast pastries for everyone. The boys had just enough time to eat their breakfast and grab their book bags before they headed off to their new school. Genma took a brief shower after his breakfast and headed off to work at a local construction site. The Sitri Clan had established a bank account to take care of Ranma and his peerage, but Genma didn't want to touch that money. Part of Genma wanted to use the money since it would make things much easier for him. However, it seemed to Genma that using literal money from hell in the living world just screamed I want bad luck. You can't enjoy being lazy if you're plagued by bad luck.

"Man Ranma, Sensei needs to learn what a light exercise is. Doesn't he know how much holy water takes out of us and then he throws those exercises on us. That's not counting the fact that both of us were up until midnight fulfilling contracts for clients." Ryu groused as he walked behind Ranma on a chain linked fence carrying his weighted backpack.

Ranma quickly shot back, "He knows. Remember a couple of years ago when we caught him diluting the holy water with tap water?"

"Yes."

"Well unfortunately for us, Pop's crazy resistance training has paid off. We're getting it straight from the baptismal pool. Judging from the strength, I'd say the water was blessed by either a believing bishop or a fanatical priest."

"I don't know whether to be thankful or curse that fact Ranma."

"I'll let you know when I figure out how I feel about that fact Ryu."

The devil duo walked the rest of the way to school in silence. They then went through the very familiar routine of having themselves introduced to the class as the new students. Both devils took their seats at the back of the classroom allowing them to look for potential clients. They also made sure to pay attention to the teacher and what he was covering in class. Serafall had been completely clear to both boys that they both would be restricted to the Sitri mansion if either of their grades fell below a B.

Both boys had earmarked several dozen new potential customers by the time lunch rolled around. Lunchtime came with a surprise when they observed the lunch ladies throwing the last servings of bread into a crowd of boys. Ranma thought that the contest was interesting and was thinking of joining it in a few days. He just wanted to see what the rules were and how he could limit himself enough to make the contest fun. Ryu just rolled his eyes knowing that his king's competitive side was acting up again.

However, something happened that caught both devils by utter surprise. A boy suddenly appeared at the end of the crowd of students looking at a map. Both devils turned to each other and said at the same time, "Did you see that?"

The duo paused for a second and then Ranma spoke in a hushed whisper, "I didn't feel any sort of energy that should be put off for a teleportation."

Ryu nodded his head, "I know. It had to be a teleportation since there were none of the signs that would be there if that boy just moved super-fast. There weren't any signs that he was using some sort of cloaking ability that I'm aware of."

A frown appeared on Ranma's face. "This isn't making any sense. There's no normal way to hide a teleportation. They're magically noisy, visually flashy, and take a fair amount of time to occur. You can cut those factors down tremendously with an engraved sealing array, but it doesn't hide everything and we both can see that there is no such array on floor."

Both devils looked around at the nearby students and noticed that the students seemed to recognize the mysteriously appearing boy. Ranma and Ryu gave each other a look, nodded their heads, and left their table to talk with the other students.

Ranma approached a group of students and turned up the charm. Years of etiquette classes required by his mother and time on the job speaking to a variety of potential clients made it easy for him to insert himself into the conversation. He spoke in a friendly manner, "Good afternoon everyone. I'm Ranma Saotome and I was hoping one of you would be generous enough to answer a question I have about one of our classmates."

One of the guys at the table replied, "Maybe. It depends who you're talking about and what you want to know."

The devil teen pointed over to the group of students trying to get the bread. "Who's that guy with the tiger striped bandana and oversized backpack?"

All of the students at the table turned to look at where Ranma was pointing. A different person spoke up and said, "Looks like Ryoga's back in town. I wonder how long he'll stay before he wanders off again."

Ranma turned to that student and asked, "Really? Does Ryoga have a habit of being truant from school?" The tone of his voice was set in such a way as to imply that Ranma wasn't sure it was good to be around Ryoga.

Yet a third student at the table spoke up to talk to Ranma with amusement in his voice. "Not by choice. Poor fool can't follow the simplest of directions and gets lost so easily it isn't even funny. I heard that his whole family is the same way, but that Ryoga's got it the worst in that clan's history. He shows up every couple of days in the strangest of places in school. Supposedly, he's got some sort of correspondence deal with the school. Only other thing to know is that he's super strong."

Ranma bowed slightly and said, "Thank you all for your time and for answering my questions." Being polite was always annoying to Ranma since he personally felt it was unnecessary excess. A person should say exactly what they want or need and nothing more. However, his tutors and mother had beaten a filter between his brain and his mouth. It wasn't like he could just relax his speech whenever he wanted to because he never knew when his mom's familiar was observing him. Having his mouth literally washed with the foulest soap his mom could find hammered that lesson home.

Ryu and Ranma waited until after school was over to talk about their findings. Both of them talked about what they had stumbled across on the way home. Ryu had just finished confirming that everything he had heard matched Ranma's information when an idea came to him. "Hey Ranma, what if that boy Ryoga has a Sacred Gear? Many Sacred Gears break the normal rules of magic."

Ranma paused in mid step as he considered the idea. "That might explain things Ryu. Let me pull out my DevilBerry and check." Ranma pulled out his smart phone and started to do some research as he continued to walk.

A smirk appeared on Ranma's face about three blocks from where he started his search. He put the phone away in his magical storage space and spoke up. "There is a recorded Sacred Gear that might explain Ryoga's ability to appear in thin air. Sinbad's Astrolabe is supposed to have allowed the user to travel vast distances very quickly. There's not too much information on that gear since it's technically a low powered support-type Sacred Gear without direct combat applications. It hasn't been seen since its last known wielder Juan Sebastián Elcano died in the 1500s."

Ryu jumped overhead, flipped himself around mid-air, and landed on the fence in front of Ranma. "That doesn't make any sense to me, Ranma. We saw Ryoga appear out of proverbial thin air. There was no normal sign of him teleporting. Being able to do that is huge. Why by all that is infernal would something like that not be examined thoroughly?"

A cat got the canary grin appeared on Ranma's face. "It was the 1500s Ryu. Most devils in power from that time period were egotistical fools. Sacred Gear research back then was primarily focused on possible threats to Devilkind. Remember, the Devil Civil War occurred in the 1650s and Ajuka Beelzebub didn't create the first Evil Pieces until the 1750s. Every devil could teleport and fly back then. Why should they care about a sacred gear that can let a human teleport? It wasn't a threat to them."

Ranma then leap frogged over Ryu and continued on his way. If his suspicions were correct, then Ranma might have to consider offering Ryoga a chance to join his peerage. It didn't matter if Ryoga actually had a Sacred Gear or not. The boy showed signs of being a protégé of martial arts and that was the important thing to Ranma. Any potential Sacred Gear was just a bonus to add to a person's value. Ranma wasn't too concerned about completing his peerage and was perfectly fine with waiting until he found potential recruits whose personal traits matched what he was looking for.

It was a radical idea that was almost counter intuitive to how his peers formed their peerages. They typically looked at what a potential recruit could do now or any obvious potential growth such as a Sacred Gear. Only his rival Sairaorg shared Ranma's perspective that it was the person being added that mattered. Strength could be gained by anyone who had the will to train themselves for the strength. Ryu was a perfect example since he was only worth one pawn as human with no special talents, but last month Ryu had taken down most of Sona's peerage in a spar.

Sairaorg's and Ranma's outlook probably came from the fact that both devils were the outcasts among the young high ranking devils. Sairaorg was looked down upon for not inheriting the Power of Destruction that made his clan famous. He had been disinherited because he lacked that power and had only reclaimed his rightful position through fighting for it. Ranma was shunned because of his human blood. It was rather idiotic in Ranma's opinion since all devils besides the original Satans are descended from humans, but facts never got in the way of idiocy.

Now, in the pureblood devils' defense, the fact that the devil race is effectively an offshoot of humanity was a pretty well hidden secret. Lucifer, Beelzebub, Leviathan, and Asmodeus were all seraphim who fled Heaven out of jealousy because of humanity being created. Somehow, as Ranma had not learned how, the four former angels transformed their light based powers into dark based powers becoming the first devils. They then formed an alliance with the descendants of Cain and through a series of rituals transformed them into devils. The first 72 men who made the pact and their wives became the founding devils of the 72 pillars and given special powers for their 'bravery' of accepting the Satans' offer. The next two batches of humans to be transformed became the founders of the extra devils and the common devils.

Ranma knew because he had accidentally stumbled across some of Ajuka's notes about Lucifer's Damnation Ritual a few years ago when Serafall had Ajuka babysit Ranma. That misadventure resulted in Ranma being pulled into a quiet meeting with all four Satans where Ranma learned three important facts. 1) Ajuka had used Lucifer's Damnation Ritual as the starting point to create the Evil Pieces. 2) There was no biological difference between 'pure' devils and 'reincarnated' devils. 3) He'd be sealed in Cocytus for a century if he shared facts 1 or 2 before they were declassified. If those facts got out now it would probably cause a second Devil Civil War.

Ryu stood on the fence surprised by what Ranma had told him. He still forgot from time to time just how long a devil's lifespan was. A couple of centuries might as well be a couple of years or a decade ago to a devil depending on just how old a devil was. He quickly shook that surprise off when he remembered the look on Ranma's face. That look spelt trouble and the question was who was going to end up in trouble because of whatever was going through Ranma's mind. Ryu ran after his king and called out, "What are you planning Ranma?"

"It's simple Ryu; I'm going to test Ryoga."

Ryoga was so happy. He had been able to get to school two days in a row! To make things even better the lunch ladies were tossing out his favorite bread for free and it was just within his grasp. Suddenly, everything came literally crashing down on Ryoga as something forced him to kiss the floor.

That something happened to be Ranma who used the fanged lost boy as a spring board to snatch the bread. Ranma hopped off of Ryoga and stood there with the bread in one hand and a grin on his face. Ryoga looked up from his spot on the ground and saw Ranma grinning. The grin was just perfect for getting someone's temper up and Ryoga rose to the bait. "Hey! That's my bread!"

Ranma leapt up to grab another slice of bread with his other hand. "It's first come, first served. I got it so both of these breads are mine." Several of the students noticed what was going on and started to back away. They remembered the last time Ryoga was goaded into a fight. One of the students was kind enough to offer up a prayer for the dumb smuck who was about to be sent to the emergency room.

Ryoga was simmering with rage. He had to go weeks between having a warm home cooked meal. Most days he had to satisfy himself with cheap canned food occasionally supplemented by some wild animal he caught. The free bread from school was a dear delicacy to Ryoga and now someone was trying to take that away from him. "How dare you! Do you know what I've suffered to try and get that bread?"

The young devil replied in a deliberately cheerful manner, "Nope. I honestly don't care about your supposed sufferings. However, I'm willing to make a deal with you. Give me a good martial arts spar and you get both breads. If I think you're a lousy fighter then I'll eat both breads in front of you after I've knocked your block off. Do we have a deal?"

Ryoga's response to Ranma's offer was to throw a haymaker at the grinning devil. Ranma dodged the attack and smiled as he said, "I'll take that as you accepting my offer Ryoga. Now, defend yourself!" Ranma threw the bread up in the air, unleashed three quick punches of his own, and caught the bread as it started to fall. The devil then back flipped away from Ryoga to get some more distance. There was a slight of hand during the backflip to place the bread in Ranma's personal storage space. No sense risking good bread during a fight.

A crowd started to gather as the students saw that someone was actually fighting Ryoga and not just getting beat down by him. The crowd kept getting larger and more animated as the fight continued. Usually, a punk would show up once a month or so thinking he was hot stuff and would end up getting brutally beaten down by Ryoga. Here they saw Ryoga getting just as good as he gave.

Ranma lead the spar towards the sports field mostly dodging and occasionally blocking Ryoga's attacks. A small smirk was on his face that was slowly, but steadily turning into a grin. Ryoga was good for a human. There were high class devils that would be knocked out from some of the punches Ryoga was throwing at him. Now granted, many of the devils on that list were high class only because of their birth. However, that didn't change the fact that Ryoga's strength was well beyond what any normal human could pull off without some extremely advanced training. His endurance was incredible as the fanged boy soaked up stone shattering punches and kicks from Ranma.

The two fighters weren't even by a long shot. While Ryoga was extremely powerful for a human, Ranma was powerful for a devil. Ranma had the power and skill to back up his status as a high class devil. It wouldn't be too difficult for him to destroy the Greater Tokyo Area with a single attack. This fact annoyed the young devil because there was still a massive gap in power between him and his mother who could destroy all of Japan in a single attack no sweat. He understood that he was still growing and that his mother had centuries of training behind her. However, was it really asking too much to be able to destroy Honshu or at least Hokkaido?

Ranma was making sure to keep his attacks and general abilities just a little above what Ryoga was showing. The young devil dodged a punch aimed at his head from Ryoga's fist that hit the basketball pole behind him. Said basketball pole was forced into a 90 degree angle from where Ryoga's fist hit it. Ranma jumped backwards, grabbed the bent pole, and used it to swing into a kick against Ryoga. The force of both of Ranma's feet hitting Ryoga with that momentum behind them forced the fanged boy into the air. Ryoga flew back a few feet and landed on his back after crashing into the bleachers.

Ryoga found himself in a daze that he was having trouble shaking off. He had withstood harder blows before, but Ranma's attack caught him by surprise and he had been unable to properly brace himself for the fall. Two objects landed on Ryoga's chest just as his vision returned to him. Ryoga looked down and was shocked to see two breads in their packaging gently resting on his chest.

"I'm calling the match now. I don't want to risk a good sparring partner getting a long term injury." Ryoga turned his head to see Ranma casually sitting on the bent basketball pole. There was a friendly grin on Ranma's face as he looked at Ryoga, eyed the bread, and returned to looking at the lost boy. "What? I said that if you gave me a good martial arts spar that I'd give both breads. You're one of the best martial artists in our age group living in Japan that I've met and gave a great spar. I'm not about to try and weasel out of paying my dues using a quibble."

The human boy blinked his eyes several times as his brain processed what just happened. On the one hand, the jerk in front of him had taken his hard earned bread and didn't care about the suffering he had endured. On the other hand, the jerk had given him back the bread with an extra one after a rather enjoyable fight. It had been months since Ryoga had gotten a good fight in to really let off some steam. Ryoga finally decided to accept Ranma's offer and started to eat the bread.

Once Ryoga was eating, Ranma pulled out a flyer from his storage space. The devil waited until Ryoga had finished eating one of the breads to speak up. "Ryoga, I've got a little trinket for you. It's something that my family likes to hand out to those we think are worthy." Ranma paused to hold the flyer out in front of Ryoga. "It's said that if you receive one of these flyers and have a wish you really want that the flyer will provide you a means to fulfill that wish."

Ryoga looked at the flyer and then looked at Ranma. He had a questioning look on his face as he inquired. "Why are you giving this to me? Don't you want your wish fulfilled?"

With a shrug Ranma replied, "It doesn't work like that. A member of my mother's clan made this flyer so it won't fulfill any of my wishes. Distributing these flyers is a side business for most of my mother's family and I help out now and then. If you want the possibility of a wish being granted the flyer's yours."

There was a second of hesitation and then Ryoga took the flyer from Ranma.