Not Japanese, and can't draw.

For the small story polls, this month's first place winner was GDWHOM. It brought in 1186 votes total from here and over on patty r on. In second place was Stallion, with 886 total votes. But because I had two scenes of it already written, I was able to get it out on time (or close enough to count LOL.) In third place nipping at Stallion's heels was Fate Touched. With the votes here on fanfic and my own votes added in it brought in 875! So freaking close. In a distant fourth was Semblance bringing in only 341 total votes total. Which is a pity, considering I think of all my fics it and Anything Goes Game Changer are the two fics I can bring to an end most quickly.

I realize this is two days later than it should be for being a December release, LOL. However, I would like to point out that I lost the last weekend nearly entirely due to family time taking precedence (darn it) and got FILFy back from both my editors Monday, so was only able to work on this for the past two days.

many of the mistakes within have now been caught thanks to Hiryo, Tomon, and a unnamed guest. Hopefully the chapter will read a little better now.

Chapter 10: Mixed Priorities

Serafall was utterly furious. She had listened in growing shock and rage as Rias and Akeno explained their findings, and questioned them closely on every point, starting from what had started the two young women wondering about whether or not they had such spells on them, to how they had discovered, analyzed and removed them. She then walked them through the process they had gone through to decide on the fact that it had been Rias's parents who had placed spells on them in the first place.

Not once had she been able to find fault in their conclusions. Motivation, time, and ability all pointed to it being Rias's own parents who had done this to her. They basically created a situation rather where she couldn't save herself from the unwanted marriage with Riser! Only the chaos of Nerima in the form of one of its denizens had saved them from that fate.

The question is... "Why?" She said aloud. "I understand how, I understand who. There really is no other person who could have done this to you, except maybe Sirzechs, and…"

"And the very idea is so laughable I might die laughing," Rias said with a nod while Akeno did giggle in the background er traditional 'fufufu' hidden behind her hand. The three of them had been sitting there around the dining table for a while speaking seriously about what had been done to Akeno and Rias.

"I have been wrestling with that same question, why would my parents do this? The only reasons I came up with is either they were terrified with the idea of diluting our family's blood with non-pureblood Devils or perhaps they have reason to believe that a merger between the Gremory Clan's perfect magical control, the Bael Clan's Power of Destruction, and the Phenex Clan's regeneration will create an Ultimate Devil to dwarf my brother." Rias went on. "Having such in the family would guarantee the Clan's political and social primacy into the next several generations."

"That and perhaps a bit of arrogance, thinking that their scheme would never see the light of day," Akeno said with a sigh. "It was after all pure chance Rias-chan even began to question such things.

"That… makes sense maybe. But I suppose the why of it really won't matter for a time." Serafall sighed, looking at both girls in concern. "The problem is, this is an internal family issue."

Rias blinked at that, opening her mouth and Akeno gasped, but Serafall held up and calming hand. "There are no laws that forbid anything like this when done by the head of the family. The rule of thumb has always been that anything that goes on within a clan stays within that clan, and the laws of hell in general just don't have any say. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is."

While Akeno was still gaping, Rias nodded. She had known but wanted to share this with a neutral party. "That is true, and I didn't share all this information with you in the hope that you would step in and protect me or something. No, I want you, as a neutral party, to know what has been done to me and then inform my brother of it. Then, I want you to do so in public forum."

Serafall laughed evilly. The Gremory clan prided itself on how it treated its servants as clan. The idea that heads of the clan would then turn around and treat their own flesh and blood like this would ruin the clan socially with the new Devils Faction, the faction Sirzechs and the other three Maou had lead and still championed. Even those most allied with them on the concept of pureblood marriage to their clans would not let this stand. And if it was the neutral Maou Serafall who made the accusation, who had seen the evidence Rias it collected, as well as talked to her and Akeno, it would be a very nasty blow to the clan. That in and of itself might force Lord Gremory and his wife to step down.

"That's not bad, but then there is Millicas," Serafall said with a chuckle.

Seeing Rias blink, she explained. "Well, you know that since Millicas showed the perfect magical control of clan Gremory he's seen as being the heir now?"

"Of course I know that, he only proved his perfect control of his magic this past summer!" Rias huffed. "I thought at the time it might make my parents think twice about this idea of marrying me off, but it just made them more determined since it removed me fromthe heir position. Ugh. I almost blamed Millicas for that, but I got over it quickly."

"Right!" Serafall said happily, wondering internally if Rias had gotten over that quickly on her own, or if the spells placed on her had…helped that process along. "But because of that, you can ask him as the clan heir to intercede with the current Lord and Lady in these moves against you."

Rias winced. "That would lead to war within the clan." My word, Serafall really can play politics nasty as any of the devil. Our clan would still be ruined internally, but not as badly socially. "Especially since as a minor, Millicas could ask anyone who is part of the clan to stand in as his champion. And would naturally pick his father," she said aloud

"Who would tear both your mother and father into tiny bits and pieces," Serafall said gleefully, her smile now so evil that it would have proven to anyone who had been in doubt as to whether or not she was a Devil that she truly was. But then she frowned. "I still don't understand why they did this though. Yes, the reasons you mentioned are…worthy goals I guess, and I know that your father and mother are both more traditionalists then their political stance would normally show. But this was a big gamble, a gamble that will now ruin either them or your clan as a whole."

"I don't think you understand how well hidden these spells were," Rias said dryly. "Trust me, it really wasn't that big of a gamble."

"It was still a gamble," Serafall retorted. "The first rule of politics is never gamble if you can't afford to lose." She shrugged setting that question aside once more. "Still, we can ask them that question when we have them in chains, or your brother standing over them having just beaten the ever living ***** out of them. Either or."

"Ara, did you just say 'bleep'? That's so cute Leviathan-sama," Akeno teased.

Serafall stuck her tongue out at Akeno blowing a raspberry. "Hush you Sadist Queen. For now, I, Serafall Leviathan put you under my protection until we can get you in touch with Millicas. Meanwhile, I will prepare a public announcement, we can hold that over their heads."

"We can also hold Ranma and his wounding of Riser over both my parents heads and the Lord and Lady Phenex can't we?" Rias asked.

"For a time, but I think that it would be better to separate that from this issue. We can use that to force the Phenex clan to cancel the arrangement between you, say that Ranma won't hand over the weapon until they do. That will separate your parents from any exterior support, and then we can handle them alone. Will Ranma go for that?" Serafall asked.

"If we ask him to wait, he'll wait," Rias said confidently. They hadn't been friends for very long, but Rias knew that Ranma would cheerfully do that for her and Akeno. He was the type of person who would do nearly anything for friends it was one of the things she liked about him.

Nodding at that Serafall stood up and after stretching and groaning irritably for having been sitting that long, led the way into the ORC clubroom, where she activated the teleportation sphere which would take them down to hell. Almost instantly she ran into the lock Sirzechs had put on it, feeling the magic of his seal telling her who it had been, and smiling grimly. "Huh, it looks like your brother has already moved to stop this whole Ranma/Riser thing from escalating further. That helps us."

As a Maou herself Serafall could override it, and did so now, holding her hands out to Akeno and Rias. "Come on, let's get this over with. I want to be back by tomorrow so I can make my challenge with Gabby and spent time with my sister! You two are wrecking my night but, I refuse to let you wreck more of my time."

Akeno and Rias laughed, but Rias held up a hand holding a cellphone and a second later she was calling Kiba and Koneko. Kiba had not returned from his sparring with the two exorcists, and Rias was gravely certain that he had not performed very well due to his anger at them. I hope he's learned something, if only how to control his own anger.

Rias paused, remembering suddenly there were other things going on beyond her own personal issues. "Um, are you sure it's all right for me to leave my territory right now? We do have representatives of the church here, and they are following disruptive elements which may or may not be trust trying to start a conflict between the three factions."

"Are you saying my little sister can't handle it!?" Serafall growled, suddenly getting in Rias's face, looming over her in a way that the shorter girl should never have been able to do.

"N, no," Rias stammered, I don't think that at all, I just thought I should be here too as co-ruler of the territory."

"Good," Serafall said hopping away with a bright sunny smile on her face. "As for being here, Sona can handle that with your friend Ranma's help. Besides, you're only going to be away for the rest of the night. There's no way that anything is going to go horribly wrong in the next 12 hours. That's just silly."

"Why did I just suddenly feel a shiver going down my spine?" Akeno asked, looking around quizzically. "Did someone leave that window open?"

Serafall ignored that, activating the circle as soon as Rias was off the phone, dragging them all down to her office in hell. The sooner we get this over with, the better. Now… how to get in touch with Millicas without tipping off anyone about why?

OOOOOOO

Ranma and Saeko had been patrolling the city to look around for anything unusual for about two hours, but had slowly stopped looking for trouble in favor or simply enjoying the night air, the lights of the city below them as they raced along the rooftop side by side. After another hour the two of them stopped, sitting on top of a radio tower staring out a little over the city, seeing the twinkling lights, feeling the breeze over their bodies.

"I have to thank you for teaching me how to roofhop," Saeko said with a sigh and a faint smile, leaning her head against Ranma's shoulder, her hand finding his and squeezing. "If you had not helped me in any other way to become a better martial artist, teaching me that would have been enough to…."

She finished in a mumble and Ranma looked at her to find Saeko blushing and looking down. "Sorry, I didn't hear that?" he asked.

"Enough to make me fall for you," Saeko said nudging him hard in the ribs with an elbow looking away with a heavy blush on her face.

Now it was Ranma's turn to blush and he too looked away for a moment. The two of them were silent, both of them lost in their own hell of embarrassment. And this time it was Ranma who spoke up. "I am not good at this romance stuff," he confessed, although he knew that he had said something similar. "I mean how to explain my own feelings and stuff like that. But yeah this, I like this," He said, thumping his shoulder against Saeko's. And then moving his arm around her waist, holding her against him.

Saeko nuzzled into his neck, kissing there briefly, before pulling back slightly to look at him in the face. "What about Rias?"

"What about her?" Ranma asked. Saeko gave him a look that needed no translation, and Ranma sighed. "She's just a friend, and that's all there's going to be there. I'll not deny I'm attracted to her, but that's a purely, you know physical thing, hell, towards both Rias and Akeno. But that kind of thing doesn't matter. I was attracted to Shampoo, at least after Asia cleared those points on me. But I'd no sooner stay with her than I would a rattlesnake. I think Rias is a good friend, and I'm kind of protective of those," he said dryly, causing Saeko to giggle. "But I don't think we'd work out romantically, not when you and are, you know… together like this."

"Oh, are we together then?" Saeko asked coquettishly. As Ranma blushed and stammered she smiled widely. "Well, that sounds just fine by me." With that, she leaned in kissing him quickly before pulling back slightly then kissing him again.

She pulled away once more, biting her lip and looking at him and Ranma had by this point learned this was a que and took it. He leaned in kissing her hard, his mouth opening quickly, tongue out and questing for hers drawing a moan from Saeko. At the same time he pulled her sideways into his lap, where their lips locked together, their hands traveling along with others backs.

Saeko was a little irritated that she couldn't reach Ranma's rear having wanted to give that perfect male rear a squeeze, but settled for holding him by the neck with one hand, the fingers of her other hand feeling his hair. In reply, Ranma slowly pulled away from the kiss to lean down, kissing Saeko's chin, her jugular, and then down into her plunging neckline, leaving little hickeys here and there before licking at them, his hands on her back slowly pulling up at her blouse.

Feeling Ranma's bare hands on her back, Saeko arched her back and let out a guttural groan, pulling her own arms away from him and stretching above him before reaching behind her to unclasp her bra. She paused however right before doing so as she stared over Ranma's head. He was busy in her plunging neckline at the moment, nipping and sucking and trying to go down further without ruining her shirt, something she appreciated.

However more important was what Saeko was seeing several dozen blocks away. There was a parked car, and a woman had just gotten out of it, glaring around her, with a very large handgun in one hand strapped to her side and a cellphone in the other, shouting into it. Every so often she would turn to try to stare down the street she was on at something at the far end only to instantly twist away.

She didn't look like an exorcist or anything of that nature. In point of fact, now that Saeko was looking that car looked like an unmarked police car. Then she looked in the direction the woman was trying to look at, looking away every time he tried and frowned as her senses, which Ranma had helped train, told her there was something there.

With that Saeko groaned for an entirely different reason, and gently pulled on Ranma's pigtail. "Ranma, I think something is going on."

Ranma was about to say there'd damn well better be something going on, since little Ranma had woken up by this point under Saeko's slowly rising and falling rear. But he twisted around to look to where Saeko was looking and thought the woman that Saeko had a moment before. He also saw the direction she was looking at, and could actually tell what was in that direction a lot better than Saeko.

"Someone put up some one of those don't notice me spells that Devils and the rest of 'em use," he said, groaning and slowly pushing Saeko out of his lap to one side turning around on their perch to look fully in that direction, reluctantly getting his feet under him. "Looks to be situated around… it might be a music studio, over a ballet dancing hall of some kind going from the signs outside."

He crouched there for a moment, staring up at the nighttime sky muttering, "Think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts…Happosai wearing some of his stash…gah too far!" Ranma groaned, slapping his forehead. "Right, brain bleach needs to be a thing, seriously."

Saeko giggled, pulling at her sword and placing it on her waist once more from where she had put in her ki space before saying teasingly, "Well, if there is something going on at least one way or another I'll be getting my rocks off tonight."

At that Ranma growled. "I swear to God I will rock your world more than any fight! That's a promise."

"I'll hold you to that," Saeko said with a giggle, kissing him on the side of the mouth, before hopping away.

OOOOOOO

"…and I'm telling you, there's something that is, I don't know, it's weird! We lost him like he just walked past a line in the ground or something. It's not as if he disappeared or anything, it's as if as if we can't think about what we were doing or why we should go forward after him. Every time we do it's like we find other reasons to turn around. Rika said into her microphone.

The individual in question was a middle-aged man with a very Italian look to him, who all of their computers - national, international, local, wireless and non - said had no paperwork whatsoever. On top of that, there wasn't even a single record of him coming into the country. The only thing they had on him was a picture from a single camera the man had missed which had placed him at the scene of a crime several districts over.

A crime whose bloody details matched others that had been linked to what Rika had been told was done by an 'excommunicated exorcist'. The idea that the Illuminati or whatever really existed in the church had been a weird one to Rika, a staunch atheist, but the idea there were exorcists no longer answering to them was worse.

Her partner, Tajima didn't bother getting out of the car, slumping over the steering wheel and shaking his head. It was his car since Rika's was rather noticeable. This was not something SAT trained tactical teams would be doing but, Rika and Tajima had been chosen from the SAT to join a new paramilitary group to deal with occult issues. As part of this they had been assigned to try to trail the man into this territory, where a lot of other issues had seemingly happened in the past months, though according to the local police chief they were already being handled by local experts.

"I don't know what it is," Rika shouted into her cell at a question from the other side, causing Tajima to wince. ,"All I know is there's something there. And if it is, then there might be more than one sick psycho here!"

"The term's bounded field from what I've been told," a male voice said conversationally. Rika turned, her hand flashing down to her handgun as she gaped at the young man who had some seemingly alighted on top of her car out of nowhere, reaching automatically for her gun only to find her gun missing.

The young man held it in his hand, smiling impishly at her. Rika estimated his age at nineteen, maybe twenty, fit, limber, no big muscles or anything but a frame built for speed, with no hint of excess fat anywhere. He also had dark blue eyes visible in the light of a nearby lamppost, dominating a somewhat handsome face. "Don't you know these things are dangerous?"

Rika glared at him. "That's kind of the idea kid. I don't suppose I could convince you to hand that back to me without a fight? I am a policewoman, you could be put up on charges for assault you know." She'd figure out how he had gotten her gun in the first place once Tajima got off his ass and exited the car and had this punk with his gun.

"That's not a very nice way of asking for a favor," said a new female voice, and Rika looked over her car at the other side, where a younger woman was standing, seemingly at ease on the driver's side of the car. She too was young, with long, straight dark purple hair, a decent sized chest around Rika's own size, and a good-looking face too.

But when Rika glanced inside the car to look at her partner, she had to blink in surprise because Tajima was now trying to stare down at his neck. There Rika saw where a sword had been thrust through the side of the car, resting directly in front of where it would've cut into his neck.

"Catch," the young man said, and Rika turned, fumbling to catch the pistol he tossed her such was her surprise. She checked, and he hadn't even remove the magazine. "Are you talking to the Kuoh police chief?" the young man went on. "If so, tell 'em that Ranma is here, and I'll explain to you what you might've just found. Oh, and that's Saeko over there."

Looking at the young man quizzically, Rika did so, and was astonished when the man on the other side said "oh thank God, at least he understands all this mumbo-jumbo!"

"You mean to say this youngster's some kind of expert on the occult?" Rika asked quizzically.

"The closest we have to one at any rate. He is from Nerima, I'm sure you've heard rumors about that mad district.

"Rumors," Rika scoffed, then paused, staring up at Ranma. "Wait, are you saying those rumors are real?"

"Probably," Ranma said cheerfully hopping off the car.

Across from him Saeko stepped back, easily pulling her blade out from the solid metal plate of the car bowing politely to the officer within. "I am sorry," she said not sounding sorry at all, "but I thought that would be best to stop things from escalating, or at the very least from becoming noisy. At the moment, our presence here at the outer edge of the bounded field might not have been noticed, or at least might not have been recognized as a threat. "If you started shouting or worse, shooting, that could have changed."

"All right," Rika said, palming her cell phone and putting in her pocket, checking her handgun again for any damages then down at her side to her equally pristine holster before glaring up at Ranma. "First, how the hell did you get my gun off me?!"

"You weren't exactly aware of your surroundings," Ranma said, shaking his head. "I was on top of that streetlight you were walking under and just flipped down and took it."

"That easily?" Rika asked, half incredulously, and half with real honest fear. The monster woman they dealt with, that she could understand, but someone moving that quickly and that silently, was very freaking scary.

"I think you couldn't hear me because of how loud you were shouting into your cellphone," Ranma said with a smirk, causing the older woman to growl.

As she did, Ranma took in the woman's looks, smirking in amusement at the snapping of her eyes in the lamplight. The policewoman was a short thing at 5 feet five inches, but was toned and almost ripped in her SAT uniform, with curly purple hair and dark tanned skin, almost like a ganguro girl without any of the makeup and purple eyes to match her hair.

A portion of Ranma really enjoyed the flash of anger in her eyes, and the look on her face. But he had more important things to concentrate on right now.

"You two have run into a magic field, a kind of spell that covers an area and forces people who aren't magical, or even sometimes those who are, away from the area. You can get through it if you've trained your mind hard enough to notice things that aren't really physical, but for normal people, it's kind of hard to get around." Ranma went on.

Saeko giggled, and Ranma turned and pointed to her with a mock-scowl on his face. "You're a special case Saeko."

It had after all taken Saeko barely under a week to figure out how to sense whether or not similar spells were being used around her. That was quite a bit faster than Ranma had figured it out. Ranma was almost certainly the fastest kinesthetic learner currently alive in the world, but when it came to the mental side of things he was a good bit slower.

Rika smiled at them both now, that bit of interplay added to the more important information having helped Rika get her equilibrium back. "I take it you two are together?"

She glanced from Ranma, then back to Saeko, looking them both up and down in the light of the lamp. "Damn," she said simply shaking her head. For some reason that one word caused Ranma to blush, and Saeko to look away, flushing slightly.

"If you're done embarrassing the kids, can we get on with this? Why is that magic field up, is it normal for people in the supernatural world to do that kind of thing?" Tajima asked from where he still sat at the driver's seat of the car.

"Not unless they're doing something supernatural, or at least something they don't want anyone to find," Ranma said. "This is a particularly strong field too," he muttered, staring not directly into the field, but away from it as if he too was affected. "I'm going to do something that if you have any kind of sixth sense you might be able to feel. If you do it might feel weird maybe, but hold on for second."

With that Ranma closed his eyes and sent out a brief ki pulse, like a single blip of a radar pulse. It was hopefully so fast it wouldn't be detected by anyone who could sense such things, but it would be enough to tell Ranma more about what they were dealing with.

He blinked in shock a second later shaking his head. "There are at least fifty people in that complex."

Rika frowned, then tried to look back at the building in question, only to fail again. Saeko however was able to look and she asked the question on her mind and those of the two policemen. "That building doesn't look like it could contain fifty people. Are you sure?"

"Positive," Ranma said "I'm not going to check again though. I don't want them to know we're out here. I'm going to head up onto the roofs," he said, looking over at Saeko. "I want to see how wide this bounded field is. That might give me an idea of what kind of power we are dealing with and then I think we should call Rias and the others."

Saeko nodded, moving around the car to bow formally to Rika. "Busujima Saeko. A pleasure to work with you tonight."

"Rika Mikogami," Rika replied with a faint smile at the sudden formality of the younger girl. "And that's Tajima We should probably get our gear out if we're going to do this."

The man nodded, and stood up, getting out of his car and then turning to look down at the side of it where Saeko had pushed her blade through. He whistled at the small, neat hole there then looked at her sword. "Can I look at that sword for a second?"

"That is a rather impertinent question to ask a swordswoman," Saeko said with a scowl, "but I will allow it this once."

She handed the sword over, and the man stared at it, then walked back around the car to stare at the side, then down at the sword. Then back up at Saeko "how'd you do that?" he asked simply.

She laughed and took the katana back. An instant later it started to glow along the blade and she whipped it through the air, in an intricate display of skill that neither of the policemen had ever seen matched by anyone. The two of them were SAT. They had seen swordsman before, very good ones too, and knife users whose skill were incredible. Indeed, both of them were highly rated in hand-to-hand, you had to be to be on a SAT team. But the two young people before them made them question their own abilities.

Their abilities, but not their firepower. "So if we've got fifty people to deal with, I think we need to break out the big guns. Assuming they're all hostile anyway." Rika said, moving around the car to the back.

"That would be a good assumption," Saeko said dryly. "If they put up a magical field in this territory without either of the occult 'owners' of Kuoh knowledge, then it is almost a certainty that they are working against the peace of the Three Factions."

"So that really is a big thing then? That this territory is owned by these two supposedly young devil girls or whatever?" Rika asked with a scowl. She'd been rather ambivalent about that, kind of irritated by any nonhuman thinking that they owned an area of Japan. But so long as they didn't abuse the privilege, or demand rent or something like that, she was okay with it as long as it meant protecting those who lived there from other occult threats.

"Exactly yes." Ranma said with a growl. "I've run into several issues here in Kuoh though and it looks like someone is really pushing hard right to break the Three Factions' peace,thinking this place a weak point of the Devil faction thanks to the ages of the gals who are in charge here. If that happens it'll boil over onto humans sooner or later."

At that Tajima began to unload the back of the truck, pulling out two large fully automatic rifles of some kind, two Kevlar body vests, knives and other things of that nature. Rika moved to join him then paused having just gotten a close-up glimpse of Saeko's lips. Then she smirked, nudging the younger girl with her shoulder. "We interrupt something?"

"Oh," Saeko said with a smirk of her own as she finished her calls. "I fully intend to go right back to what we were doing after this is over with. If anything, it will simply add a bit of spice to the evening."

Rika chuckled at that, and joined Tajima. By that point Ranma returned, hopping down off of the roof and landing easily, not even bending his knees as he did. "There're two lookouts on the roof kind of hidden but not so much. I think I can get to them before they know I'm there, but I doubt anyone else should come with me."

Saeko nodded, stuffing her phone into ki space. "Koneko and Kiba are on the way. But unfortunately they are not in contact with the two exorcists, who unfortunately again did not leave any forwarding address or phone."

Ranma shrugged. "This is probably what they were here for, but if so, they snooze they lose. We have the drop on them right now, and from what I was able to sense from my brief pulse, I think this group is going to move on soon if we don't move on them quick."

With that, and despite Rika and Tajima being policemen, he took charge. "I'm going to head in and take those guards out. Whether Koneko and Kiba arrive or don't, we're going to move on them the next few minutes."

Without another word Ranma returned to the position where he had been able to spot the two guards. He waited there for a few minutes, then, as the one guard nearest him turned his attention away, Ranma moved quickly. A quick chop to the neck, and the man was out, with Ranma dragging him back into hiding quickly. Before the second guard could realize what had happened, Ranma was in his face, hand clamping over his mouth and a hard blow to the chest knocking him out with ease.

Ranma searched their bodies, finding no ID but a few weapons like the exorcists he had seen during the incident with Raynare and her attempt to take attention away from her attack on Issei. He palmed one of the daggers, took the guns figuring the police could use them, and then put the two bodies up in a corner of the apparent dance studio's rooftop, making it seem as if they were leaning over the side looking at something on the street. He even put a cigarette from a packet he'd found in one of the guard's pockets into one man's hand to try and add a bit more to the image. It wasn't perfect, but it would make anyone who saw them hesitate, wondering what they were actually seeing, and Ranma could do a lot with that hesitation.

Turning to return to the others he paused and blinked at the sight of Gabriel standing watching him and the studio like a hawk from a deep shadow of a slightly taller building to one side. Waving lightly, he got her attention then motioned her to follow him. She quickly caught up to him, moving even faster over the rooftops than Ranma could, which he noted absentmindedly as he asked, "So, what brought ya to this neck of the woods? Were ya following that trail you told us all about?"

"Something of that nature. I had spotted a person of interest earlier today, and then trailed him via a small tracking spell to this place." Gabriel said with a smile. "But why are you here Ranma?"

At that Ranma explained about the police, which caused Gabriel to blink in surprise then sigh. "I should probably try to organize a few divisions of the Church's best memory modifiers to erase the memories of every normal human who knows about this, but I suppose that in modern times there are just too many ways and means that people can come into contact with the supernatural. If you're certain that these policemen and women won't make it become common knowledge? The Church believes, as do the other powers, that humanity as a whole becoming aware of the supernatural would cause quite a lot of harm, chaos and confusion." Though it pained her to admit that, even the Church moved better in the shadows then they would if the world became aware of the supernatural and their dealings.

"They'll keep it a secret, though maybe not in the same way you lot seem to, with all those memory modifying spells a yours." Ranma said. A second later he leaped down to land next to Saeko and the others, including Kiba and Koneko who had arrived quickly after Saeko's call. She smiled at him and the newcomer, whose appearance and arrival made both Rika and her partner stare.

Rika was not used to feeling like she was unattractive in comparison to another woman. Oh, she knew in certain physical parts she couldn't stack up to other women. Her girlfriend Shizuka for damn sure had her beat in the boobs department, though to be fair she had every other woman Rika had ever met or seen even in pictures beat in that area. But in overall looks, it was very rare for Rika to feel she was playing second fiddle.

The woman who dropped to the street with Ranma made Rika feel almost frumpy. She was utterly gorgeous, with curves that put Rika's to shame, legs that were long, perfectly formed and svelte, and a waist that Rika knew her own could barely come within spitting distance of after a lifetime of exercise and watching what she ate. Her face was so perfect, it put any carving, painting or model Rika had ever seen to shame, and her eyes, and the intense blue of them, took her breath away even more than Ranma's had an hour before.

And her hair! Rika thought with a surprising amount of envy. Long blonde locks falling in loose ringlets down to mid-chest, the entire look appearing as if it was the unholy mating of hours spent in a salon and just being thrown together. And not a hint of makeup or actual care given to anything either. Damn, if this is what magic can do for you, sign me up!

Beside her, her partner dropped the shotgun he'd been loading, which the younger man who'd been introduced as Kiba grabbed out of the air before it could hit the street below them. Not that Tajima noticed, too busy gaping at the blonde, blood rushing to his face and down below in equal measure. "H, who, um…"

"Rika, Tajima this is Gabriel. She'll be leading two other foreigners with us tonight. Kiba…" Ranma paused, looking at the swordsman, his eyes narrowing. "You gonna keep it together?"

"Given what we are facing, I will," Kiba growled in return. He was tense, and he wasn't looking at any of them, even Koneko, instead opting to stare down the street towards their target. "Let's go, we can't wait any longer."

"I have already sent for Xenovia and Irina," Gabriel soothed. "They should arrive soon."

"Actually… I'm with Kiba on this one." Ranma said, shaking his head. "The police gal and her partner here might have been spotted tailing the exorcist that led them here, and I'd bet anything that whoever is in there has some way to know about the other powers moving around Kuoh. That means they might be running scared given you being here along with Serafall." Whatever she had looked like, Ranma knew Serafall was powerful, way more powerful than any of the other Devils he'd yet met.

"Plus, I already took out their two guards, and I got the impression they were trying to move out when I used a ki pulse earlier. So I think we need to move in now."

"Um, wait, are you saying this fox, um this lovely lady is a combatant?" Tajima asked, still not having pulled his eyes off Gabriel.

Gabriel did not look at him, feeling the emotions coming off the man towards her and feeling rather uncomfortable and sad that she had caused them. Such a poor soul, he must be very lonely to latch on so to a woman he has just met. Gabriel was not aware of the impact she could have on the men around her. "I assure you sir that I am a most accomplished fighter."

"Gabriel…" Rika mused, having gotten over her own reaction to the blonde's arrival by that point. "Sounds weirdly familiar, but whatever. If you think we should go in now Ranma, let's do it."

This wasn't going to be her normal routine, as a sniper she was supposed to stay back and kill at range. But there weren't any windows in the target building, and they didn't have enough people to leave her or her partner outside. Still, the battle against the demon snake bitch hadn't been the first time she had gotten up close and nasty.

"Koneko with me. Gabriel and Saeko, you're another team, get in position in the alleyway behind the target building. Koneko and I will attack from the roof down."

Koneko nodded at that, moving to Ranma's side, fighting back the urge to nuzzle into the Sunshine Boy's side, the urge to continue her positive reinforcement to offset his Neko-ken training rather strong. But this wasn't the time for it.

"And me?" Kiba asked intently, a sword already in his hand, the blade a simple longsword in appearance. But both martial artists could tell it was more than that, and Gabriel had sighed and moved away the moment he had pulled it out.

"You get to go through the front door with Rika and Tajima," Ranma said definitively, nothing in his tone or body language saying that there was even a hint of anything else happening. "Just keep control Kiba. Remember these might be exorcists, and there might be these stolen holy swords in there, but you're part of a team now, got it?"

Koneko nodded, moving over and hugging the knight so hard he winced and began to tap out on her arms. "Please senpai, keep control."

"Gah, yes, yes, Koneko-chan I'll try, just let me go!"

If anything Koneko gripped him tighter. "Promise?"

"I promise I won't fly off the handle, no please, need, to, breath!" Kiba gasped.

After a moment seeming to think about it, Koneko released him, and stepped back. Grumbling Kiba righted his spine and tried to scoop up the bits and pieces of his dignity while the others snickered at him.

Kiba was still trying to regain his dignity when Ranma took to the rooftops with Koneko leaping up after him, heading straight towards their target. Gabriel and Saeko moved off in another way to come at the building from the back.

Sighing Kiba moved down the street with the two police, nodding at the two of them. With him in the lead they moved into the shadows of a doorway, then from that to the next and so forth.

Gabriel and Saeko were in place first, with Koneko and Ranma following landing on the rooftop silently. Ranma moved to the center of the rooftop, watching the maintenance door, and murmuring, "Why in the world are there always these derelict houses all over the place anyway? I mean, I know why they are in Nerima, so martial arts fights can happen there without doing any real damage to anything currently in use, but here?"

"It's a mystery," Koneko replied with a nod.

Down below, Gabriel rested a hand on the wall of the target building, musing, "Now, if I were a room or hallway, where would I put it?" Saeko blinked at that, and somehow Gabriel sensed her confusion and the blond angel, her hair still visible in the darkness of the alleyway smiled over at her. "I'm just wondering how best to cut our way in."

"… There is a perfectly normal door right over there you know," Saeko said, a sweatdrop appearing on her head. Even she wouldn't think about cutting her way into a building when there were other means to get in.

Despite the somewhat bantering tone of these discussions however, the moment Kiba reached the building, the attack started to go sideways. Because Kiba didn't wait for any kind of signal. Instead the instant he was within sprinting distance he dashed forward, his sword flashing out at the front doorway, which was sliced in two, each half showing signs of ice particles on it before Kiba hit it hard with a shoulder, shattering the remaining pieces. Then he was inside out of sight

Up on the rooftop Ranma had seen this and groaned. "Dammit, I suppose we should've expected that whatever he said earlier."

Koneko scowled shaking her head. "He broke his promise" she muttered, then looked on in confusion as Ranma raised a fist, winking at Koneko, and gesturing downwards. Getting it, Koneko did the same, and together they brought their fists down.

The double blow hammered the top of the rooftop, shattering it and creating a large hole. The rubble had barely begun to fall before the two of them leaped inside after it.

To the other side of the building, Saeko also scowled. "I'm going to have to give that young man a stern talking to."

"'Do not let hate cloud thy judgment or thy mind, lest thee fall to sin in turn, so said our father," Gabriel said with a sigh of her own. She then gestured at the far wall of the alleyway the two women were in and a broad-bladed claymore appeared in her hand. It was a soldier's weapon, without filigree or gold, yet for all of that it was a magnificent, one could almost say perfect, example of its type.

The next instant Gabriel cut into the way like it was butter, creating a square doorway. As her current partner finished her work, Saeko kicked the cut out piece of wall inside, and then smiled at Gabriel. "Shall we?"

Gabriel giggled, and between one second and the next was covered from head to shoulder in gleaming silver armor, which left her head bare, her blonde hair now falling down her back. Her blue eyes too had hardened dangerously as she lifted her claymore in a single hand. "Let's."

"Wait, wait Gabriel-sama we're here!" Shouted two voices, but Gabriel was already inside.

Saeko however took a brief moment to stick her head out of the cut open entranceway, the exorcists she could now see racing towards them down from the rooftops. I wonder how they knew Gabriel was in this alleyway? Shrugging aside that thought in favor of tweaking the two irritating foreign girls, Saeko waving at them both mock cheerfully. Follow us in if you wish, we might leave a few of them alive for you afterward."

With the two policemen following Kiba in, he ascended the stairs quickly, finding nothing and no one on the first floor, or so he thought. However when he ascended the steps, he quickly became came under fire from several people above him and below the small office door to one side of the entrance he had missed opened. The man moving out of it died from a single blast from Rika's Ithaca rifle (or was it a shotgun, Kiba hadn't been paying attention) but that didn't help Kiba at all.

"Shoot him, shoot him! He is one of the local Devils, we're not ready, we can't let him survive to report back!" shouted someone from ahead,

Kiba had a moment to think that Ranma's initial concerns about the group attempting to get away had been spot on. But then he was too busy deflecting bullets with his sword and dodging this way and that, trying to hide just enough to throw off the excommunicated exorcists attacking him.

He was currently facing at least several dozen people with handguns, and Kiba's forward progress halted. He couldn't move forward while also deflecting the holy bullets that were flashing towards them. Those bullets, which had been blessed or anointed in holy oils, Kiba wasn't certain of the how of it, were even impacting the reality of the demonic sword his Sacred Gear, Sword Birth, had created. The holy power embedded in the bullets was having an impact. Considering it was a demonic blade and he quickly summoned up a second blade, using that while he replaced the first.

There was a brief stop in the firing as there was a thunderous crash from elsewhere in the building, but Kiba couldn't take advantage of it until it was joined by the sounds of two rifles speaking as one behind him. The two SAT police had cleared out the one room on the first floor and were now firing over Kiba's head on full auto. There were screams and shouts, and the bullet hell racing towards Kiba cut off.

"This is where you say 'thank you for saving me' you stupid ass," Rika shouted, reaching to grab Kiba by the back of the neck.

But Kiba was already moving, racing up the stairs without even looking behind him. "Dammit! We should've asked more about why the others were so concerned about his self-control," Rika muttered.

"He's going full berserker," Tajima said with a nod following the younger man up the stairs, guarding his back as Kiba led the way. "Gonna need to teach him some tactics too, you can't always just charge straight in.

Elsewhere, Gabriel and Saeko found themselves in a hallway, obviously the back end of the dance studio and music store this building had been. There, twelve exorcists were packing up large boxes, but the moment Gabriel started to cut their way through, one of them threw the box he'd been holding down and reached in to pull out a sword.

It was an odd-looking sword, the blade almost like a kris in shape but with a diamond shaped gap through the blade and spikes on both edges. It didn't look particularly holy, but Gabriel could feel the Light power radiating off it.

The man roared and shot forward to the two women, faster than Saeko could track despite training with Ranma, but Gabriel met the blade calmly with her own. "Ara, Excalibur Rapidly is it? I do believe you are not exactly qualified for that blade," she said coolly. "Nor are you skilled enough to do it justice. Here, let me show you."

With that she attacked, driving the man back as others grabbed up similar blades. They were almost identical save for the color of the blade, and the fact Gabriel could not feel nearly as much Light magic from them as she could from the original. Despite that, they added to their wielder's speed, giving each of them the speed of a Knight.

Saeko however met them with her own speed, her skill such she was able to batter all three off-balance, ducking around them to attack a fourth, cutting him down before he could get his sword out of the packing crate. She then danced around, her blade swinging this way and that, going not just for her opponent's body, but their legs and arms, and in particular hands, forcing them to back away, defending themselves. Some attacks got through though and they started to bleed from numerous cuts, a sight that caused Saeko to smile sadistically.

At that smile, one of them reached to his waist and grabbed a flask of water from there, tossing it at Saeko. He seemed to blink in shock as she simply cut it in two and showed no ill effects when it splashed her. "Holy water? Really? I'm hurt," Saeko said with a pout, her blade coming up in an arc that stabbed the man in the forearm, causing him to drop his blade, opening him up to a slash that took him across the chest.

A second later the two of them were joined by Irina and Xenovia. Both of them too wielded blades with magic in them, as shown by Irina shouting Excalibur Mimic shift!" the sword in her hand, a short sword, elongated into a lance, the tip of which slammed into the exorcist nearest their entrance-way.

A second later, Xenovia struck the ground in front of another man who was then flung into the air as he tried to duck out that way to escape, hurling him aside. The blue haired girl's sword was a two-handed sword with a grip long enough that it could be held by both hands with a cross situated in the pommel, an ax-like guard the blade itself being a large claymore that ended with three tips jutting like teeth from the blade. This was Excalibur Destruction, and every time she hit someone with it, there was a small explosion.

For their part, Ranma and Koneko found themselves in what had been the dance studio part of the building: a large spare room, lined with mirrors on one side, and a wooden floor, currently cracked here and there from the debris of their attacks on the rooftop above, the windows to one side covered with wooden slats. To one side was a double door that led out beyond this room into the rest of the dance studio.

The two of them look were a little disgruntled about not having just fallen directly onto the majority of their opponents, but that ended when those double doors swung open, and 12 men marched forward. They each wore heavy plate armor complete with bucket-shaped helmets and wore white tabards with red crosses on them. From within their armor came lout hymns to the glory of the Lord, belted out from several speakers rather than the people themselves, one of whom shouted. "Avaunt Devil, for your time is nigh!"

Koneko backed away quickly, staring at them as she felt her demonic powers receding, leaving her as weak as a kitten. "Not regular exorcists," she muttered. "They wouldn't be getting any power from God even if they were praying to him. These are real believers."

"Thou wilt feel the power of the Lords light, may it banish you forever Vile demon!" one of the other armored men shouted,

While Koneko grunted and went to one knee, nearly overcome by the assault of the hymns, Ranma was unaffected. "Right, that's about enough!"

He raced forward, smashing two of them aside with ease into several of the others, catching a third's blade between his hands and wrenching it out of his grip, before twisting it around and grabbing the hilt. In his grip the blade flashed out, the flat of it smashing into several other people, denting their armor and sending them flying.

"If this is the best you lot can come up with, that's pretty damn sad!""

"How about this then!" Shouted someone from behind them, and Ranma turned, seeing another man in armor coming at him.

"Er, not much better dude," Ranma replied before he dodged to one side only his sixth sense warning him in enough time to dodge some unseen attack which cut his shirt as it passed. "What the?!"

Ranma barely dodged the next attack, feeling the air move to that side. The blade still cut across his forehead, sending blood dripping into his eyes and blinding him on that side for a moment. But Ranma's ki healing kicked in, healing the wounds slowly, even as Ranma closed his eyes, and began to try to visualize where the attack was coming from.

He barely dodged another few at strikes feeling out his enemy's movements through the air, then heard a groan to one side, twisting around and wiping the blood free from his eyes to stare. Two of the armored attackers had bypassed the fight going on around him entirely moving towards Koneko. Their blades were raised, and she was helpless against their sound assault.

Dodging backwards from a strike that would've taken his head clean off, Ranma kicked off the ground, landing on that attackers shoulders, then kicked off further, straight over the heads of two other men, and maybe whoever was trying to attack him from under some kind of invisibility spell. Ranma smashed bodily into one of them, hurling him sideways, then used the momentum of that to flip himself over and backwards, grabbing at the head of the second one, which he twisted violently, shattering his spine and neck in one go before he landed behind him and kicked the dead man's body towards the others.

His hope that would take out the person with the invisibility spell failed. The next instant a cut came at him from nowhere to one side, slicing deeply into his shoulder and bicep even as Ranma dodged at the last instant, leaving him vulnerable to their charge.

Luckily for him, Koneko pushed herself to her feet. The music of the Templars had gone off note, some of their speakers having been shattered, and was now creating a lot of garbled noise to blot out the few that still had operable speakers.

"Payback time!" she roared, charging into them, smashing sword, armor, and men alike with her powerful Rook-aided hits. She still had to worry about their Light-weapons, but those she could dodge at least.

Behind Koneko another cut however got through Ranma's defenses as he reeled away, slicing his chest open from one bicep to the other and he growled angrily, but grabbed that the blood on his chest and slung it around, trying to hit the individual. He was then nearly stabbed in the back, only his sixth sense again defending him as he rolled forward, taking a light gash down his back rather than a stab.

"You think you're the first person to think of splashing blood on someone invisible?! Give Holy Weapons a little more credit than that," said a voice that seemed to be coming from everywhere, the spell hiding the man even hiding where his voice was coming from as he spoke.

Seeing Koneko dealing with the last few Templars however, Ranma turned his complete attention to the one attacking invisibly. Closing his eyes, Ranma concentrated and sent out a ki pulse, which allowed him to not only see where the individual was, but also that over half of the people in the building had already been taken out by the others downstairs. The majority of the remainder had retreated into a room elsewhere on the second floor, while a few attempted to hold up Kiba and the two policemen.

He also felt someone that could only be Gabriel going after them. Her two fellows and Saeko, a bright, purple flare of ki to his senses, were still embroiled in a fight on the floor below against seven people. Kiba and the two policeman were battling it through a hallway of other exorcists, who were fighting a delaying action, but Kiba's ki, or whatever it was Devils had in terms of life energy, was flickering a lot.

Ranma took all of that in in a single moment and then leaped into the air kicking out hard backwards a mule kick that caught the invisible man straight in the face, flinging him backwards with a cry of agony. He released the sword that he had been holding in his hand, which must have been what had been giving him his ability to become invisible, since he became visible the moment he let it go.

Ranma was on him in the next instant, but the man recovered, twisting away and grabbing at two Light Daggers at his waist, wielding them with a surprising degree of skill in comparison to most of the other exorcists Ranma had dealt with. That just meant though that he held Ranma back for a brief second, before Ranma grabbed his wrist as the blade passed through where his stomach had been a moment ago, snapping it before dodging backwards very slightly to avoid the slashing attack from the other dagger.

A second later he kicked out hard catching the man in the sternum, knocking the wind out of him and maybe breaking a rib. Before the man could recover, Ranma hit him with a spinning kick which carried the man over and into the far wall, knocking him out or breaking his neck. At this point Ranma didn't care which.

"And that was that," he muttered, shaking his head. "Tough ass hole with that sword in his hand, but after that…"

"Not just a sword," Koneko asked, stated, from where she had moved to the far side of the room from the blade. "That thing is not just any normal sword. Think that's one of the Excalibur blades that the exorcists are looking for."

"Speaking of let's get going." Ranma said, grabbing up the blade and stuffing it into his ki space. After all, what good is punching idiots out if they can't see you coming?

The two of them raced out of the room heading to the room where the ten remaining un-engaged enemies were clustering. Koneko looked at the thin doorway, then the wall next to it, and Smashed through the doorway as Ranma did the same to the other side.

Unfortunately, this did not stop them from getting caught in the trap the remaining false exorcists or whatever they were had set up. Instantly from on high several dozen buckets of holy water upended down onto the area facing the interior wall, drenching both Ranma and Koneko.

"NYYYAAAAAAAAA!" Koneko screamed, feeling as if she had just been electrocuted, as she collapsed, the pain ongoing, her entire nervous system going haywire as she keened in pain. Between one step and the next she collapsed like a doll with its strings cut, her whole body spasming uncontrollably.

Ranma didn't feel anything, simply changing into his female form and charging through it. She was then engaged by three men wielding twin swords equally as well as the man who had originally owned the invisible sword. In their hands they each held two of the blades that Saeko and the others had been dealing with below. Their speed was such that they were keeping up with Ranma for the moment.

"Hmmpf, well I suppose the one Excalibur type that we've been able to mass produce should be enough to hold these twoooo… what in the world?"

Ranma glared at the man who was standing behind the exorcists, as he stared back at her avidly, three other men between him and the one speaking beyond those he was already engaging. He looked almost like the very image of a priest that young children had when they were young, somewhat overweight, a kindly face, with a frizz of gray hair. But his eyes, his eyes were the most freakish things Ranma had ever seen. They were black and nearly dead save for a bit of fear and some interest from somewhere as he looked at Ranma.

"Interesting so that other form is some Devil magic-based curse? Else why would our holy water cancel it…" The man mused.

"You. When I get through these guys, I'm going to beat on you, and I might keep at it until Koneko dries off." Ranma growled, grunting between each word. With their speed double that of a Knight piece of Kiba's level, even Ranma was finding it hard to face three enemies at once. Still, in return her aerial style was giving them conniptions and she was able to keep between them and Koneko.

"Valper Galilei!" Kiba's voice resounded from behind Ranma, and the next instant the world was swords.

Ranma had known that Kiba had a Sacred Gear, she'd even seen Kiba create a few different Demonic Blades before this. But now Ranma watched as Kiba flashed forward, his hands containing Demonic blades, smashing them against Ranma's opponents with enough force to shatter them, hurling the men out of the way though their blades were undamaged. Each swing was accompanied by a different Demonic blade so as to empower each attack with as much energy as he could.

Then Kiba was past them racing forward. "For my fallen friends, for all those boys and girls you slaughtered, I will have my vengeance!"

"How tiresome. Yuuto Kiba, a member of that failed experiment." Sighing Valper pulled out a super soaker of all things and fired a blast of holy water at Kiba who barely blocked the attack with one of his Demonic blades, the blade a strange creation of intermingle squares radiating cold. Some of the water froze, but the water practically acted like acid, destroying his blade. And when the rest of the wave hit Kiba he screamed and fell forward just like Koneko had a moment before.

"FUCK Kiba!" Ranma shouted, kicking out hard at the head of one of the ex-exorcists using the man's block to flip backwards over the heads of the other two, punching out hard at both in passing to land next to Kiba. As the three exorcists recovered from having blocked her attacks Ranma kicked a groaning Kiba over to land next to Koneko.

Just as Ranma was about to follow in an effort to protect them until they could get their feet under them, Gabriel arrived, followed by the two policemen who she had rescued from several exorcists who had them pinned in place after Kiba had rushed past them. The two SAT members were looking a little angry, and they let loose with a wild blast of unaimed fire towards the ex-exorcists. While the x-exorcist's speed had been enhanced by their weapons and their training had made them a bit more than human, that didn't mean they were bullet proof.

Gabriel however ignored them all zooming past and smashing the flat of her sword into Valper's head, sending the man out like a light. "Ah, that makes me feel quite good, though it pains me to say it. This man's soul is about as foul a thing as I have ever encountered."

She looked behind her as Saeko and the two exorcists joined them, each exorcist carrying not only their own weapons, but another blade, the real Excalibur Rapidity. "I apologize Gabriel-sama, but I am afraid we were not able to find any-more real Excalibur's in those crates below."

Ranma wordlessly reached into her ki space and tossed the blade he'd found on the invisible man above to her then, grimacing slightly, knelt down next to Koneko. Lifting her in his arms he moved her to sit on a bit of rubble. "Anyone know anyway to dry these two off, or can we just dunk them in normal water for a bit? And Kiba, the moment you recover from your impromptu dunking, I'm going to have a long sit-down with you boyo about being a team player and why being a revenge-controlled asshole is both suicidal and wrong."

A whimper from Koneko was answered by a groan from Kiba, but that was all that either of them said and Ranma sighed, turning back to the others. "Despite that though, I'd say that went pretty well. We all got out of it alive, we have prisoners, and you lot found your missing swords."

Gabriel sighed, then held up a hand over Kiba and Koneko, heating the air above them to better dry them off as Saeko turned away to go and find some water. She leaned over, exchanging a heated kiss with Ranma despite her being in her female form, before whispering something in his ear that caused the pigtailed redhead to blush almost as rosily as her hair. Gabriel blinked at that, wondering why ever humans changed colors like that before going answering Ranma's earlier question, staring distastefully at the old man. "True, but I had hoped to wait until this tainted soul had returned to his master. I don't know if we'll ever get any actual answers out of this one," she said, pointing to the unconscious priest.

"Can't you memory charm Valper so he leads us right there?" Ranma asked.

"I'm afraid I'm not that good at mental control." Gabriel said, although her face had hardened at the man's name, her eyes flicking over to Kiba and turning sad.

"Well then we go the old-fashioned route." When the others looked at her, Ranma shrugged. "Get him good and drunk, then start asking him questions when he's drunk off his ass." As the others all laughed, she looked at them. "Um, guys I'm serious. It works, trust me."

"That could work I suppose, although I think that first, Kiba will need to deal with his issues with this one, if he is Valper Galilei. This is the man who created the Holy Sword Project."

"We should execute him now for tainting the church with that abomination!" Xenovia hissed, with Irina agreeing next to him.

"No." Saeko said, coming back with a bucket of water from somewhere and going to her knees next to Koneko. She began to wipe off the holy water, scowling as she did. "Kiba needs to work through this, deal with the instigator of his grief and hatred."

Even the two exorcists could only nod at that, and Ranma did the same before frowning. "Why do I get the feeling I'm forgetting something?"

"Perhaps because you didn't check in with either of this area's owners before launching this attack," Sona Sitri said angrily, as she strode through the rubble to one side of the room, glaring around at them all followed by her peerage. "If not for me and my peerage, a lot of people would've noticed what was going on here tonight. And I don't think any of you even noticed we were putting up a bounded field around the area."

Ranma and the others, even Gabriel had the grace to look sheepish at that, and Sona went on irritably. "Now, please inform me of what happened here, and what kind of information you want out of your prisoner, and what it could mean for my territory here."

OOOOOOO

Down in Hell, Rias looked up to stare at the wall from where they had just finished the message Serafall would send to Millicas to get him to come here to the Sitri estate ostensibly to ask his opinion on Serafall's newest anime show. "Did anyone else get the impression that something is going on somewhere else you should be involved with?"

"Oh hush, I'm nearly done with this public announcement speech, then we can skive off back to Earth tomorrow," Serafall groused. "What could possibly be more important than dealing with your parents anyway?"

"Right," Rias said firmly. Still, I think I'll send Akeno back after we're sent the message to Millicas. I think something's going on back in Kuoh, and I'd guess the more firepower we have on hand, the better.

End Chapter

Short, I know. But hey, it's something anyway LOL. And I will say again, I've only been able to work on it for the past two days.