Genma came in the door and saw Ranma at the kitchen table typing on his laptop. He huffed and spoke to his son. "I take it you're writing a report about all of the craziness that happened recently?"
Ranma looked up from his computer screen revealing the bags under his eyes. "It's been a really long day pops. I just want to finish this report and go to sleep."
The older Saotome nodded his head and stated, "Just answer me one thing Ranma. This kind of craziness won't happen again right?" Genma had seen the Makai insects infecting others and the carnage the infected unleashed on the city. It was not something he wanted Ranma or the boy's peerage to be around. Unexpected challenges and tough martial arts training was one thing. That had been something entirely else and was not healthy for growing boys.
There was a haunted look in Ranma's eyes as he replied, "It better not happen again. We might not be so lucky next time." So many factions had barely been able to keep the supernatural a secret from humanity at large. Almost four centuries of haphazardly coordinated efforts to hide the supernatural had nearly been undone.
This would have been a massive blow to all supernatural entities. Almost every group had their own reasons why they wanted to keep themselves secret. Devils hid because it made their customer base less hostile, less likely to effectively attack them, and less likely to support heaven. The jackass in the sky powered Heaven with the faith of humans. That faith was much more potent and powerful if they didn't have solid proof of the jackass's existence. Only a few fringed groups would try to upend the current arrangements the supernatural had with the natural.
Said groups were given an object lesson on why they shouldn't mess with the status quo. Demon City had been obliterated by Sirzechs once it was confirmed that Ryoga had the Makai Whistle and was out of the city. That was not hyperbole. Sirzechs used his power of destruction to wipe out Demon City with a blast the equivalent of the most powerful nuclear bomb ever tested by humans. The only disagreements the leaders of the other factions involved in the Demon City mess had with Sirzechs wiping out the city was that they didn't get to wipe it out first.
As for Ranma peerage members, their actions in Demon City had earned them some accolades. They used Ryoga's Sacred Gear to sneak into the city. They also used it to sneak around any threats. Anything that couldn't be avoided was quickly dispatched by Hiei with a quick killing blow. Grandstanding had no place in the operations and the boys remembered that fact. Only one of the four leaders of Demon City had been encountered. That had been their leader with the Makai Whistle.
The trio handled that situation like pros. They didn't run in like some shonen heroes and change Suzaku for the Makai Whistle. Instead, they hid in the shadows until Suzaku put the whistle down and had Hiei dash to snag it. Hiei already had the whistle and was halfway back to Ryoga before Suzaku even knew there was someone in the room. The instant Hiei was touching Ryoga again the trio was out of the city and giving the clear to fire message.
Ranma gave his after action review one last look over and then submitted it. He shut down his laptop and said, "Just so you know Pops, Botan is now my pawn so she'll be around more often. I'm going to hit the hay and get some sleep."
Genma nodded in agreement and watched his son head to his bedroom. It would be okay to let the boys have one morning off from practice tomorrow. They had done a major public service after all. That would be enough of an award.
Part of Genma was surprised to hear that Botan was now part of his son's peerage. The boy seemed to have been focusing on fighters. Genma just shrugged off the news after a moment of thought. Having a support member or two couldn't hurt. Besides, Botan could be a bodyguard and friend for Ranma's future wife. Soun might have a problem with the arraignment at first. However, Genma didn't see the problem. It wasn't like Botan was going to become Ranma's girlfriend.
Something jolted Ranma awake around 3 am in the morning. He looked around and tried to sense what woke him. There wasn't anything out of place in the room. Ryu was sleeping soundly in the nearby futon. None of the wards were sounding any alarms. Ranma couldn't recall having unsetting dreams. There were no calls from his peerage.
It was as a switch flipped in Ranma's mind as realization hit him. He closed his eyes and focused on his connection to his Evil Pieces. Every devil with a peerage was connected to their Evil Pieces. The connection was part of what made the Evil Pieces work as they should. Most devils ignored the connection and forgot it even existed. However, those who focused on controlling their inner energies could draw more insights on their peerages through that connection.
Ranma wasn't a master when it came to understanding his peerage through the Evil Piece connection. He could only get the vaguest of impressions. The fact that he could sense even that put him centuries ahead of his peers. The impressions Ranma got from Ryu were the strongest and the clearest. No surprise there, given Ryu's physical proximity and the length of time Ryu had been in the peerage. The connection with the boys basically said that they were okay. With Botan Ranma was just able to tell that she was in his peerage. It was the same with his queen.
When the heaven did a queen join his peerage?! It made no sense what so ever. Ranma immediately summoned his free Evil Pieces to do a tally. 6 pawns appeared on a summoned chess table along with a knight and a bishop. The queen piece did not appear like it should have. Ranma snarled, "Like heaven I have time for this shit! Can't I have one Satan blessed week off before the shenanigans start?"
The young king quickly considered everything he knew about Evil Pieces and how this could have happened. The simple fact was it shouldn't. Ranma's Evil Pieces were stored is a subspace pocket and those could only be opened by those keyed to them. Moreover, Evil Pieces needed the free consent of the king to activate. No one could turn themselves into a devil just by grabbing a piece. The king tied to the piece had to be present to channel their power along with saying their activation phrase for the piece to work.
Trying to force the devil into using or unknowingly activating an Evil Piece wouldn't work as well. It was a closely guarded secret as to the mechanics. However, every devil knew that an Evil Piece required deliberate and freely chosen choice to work. Drugs and spells were useless in changing a devil's mind to manipulate the system. It was also tied into the trade system which was why no one could force a devil to trade a member of their peerage.
Ranma proceeded to cast some self-diagnostic spells. He had to have turned someone into his queen and for some reason couldn't recall that person. Why he'd do that or when he would have had the time wasn't something to consider yet. Ranma first needed see where he had altered his memories and when it happened.
Test result after test result from the self-diagnostic spells came back negative. Now Ranma was really starting to get worried. How could his queen piece be used without his knowledge or signs of memory alteration? Ranma could think of several valid reasons why he might have his memory of his queen erased. They might have been assigned a covert mission or they were working on a project that was of paramount secrecy. Having a spell on him to keep himself from thinking about the erased memories would have been reasonably standard. People tend not to go hunting for answers to memory gabs if they don't realize they have them.
However, those self-diagnostic spells would have told Ranma that he was under such spells. He could have rest easily at that point since it would have meant everything was under control. Being aware of a memory gap would have sucked. But, Ranma was sure he could have dealt with that situation reasonably. In such a situation he would at least have the comfort of knowing that his memory would be restored once whatever required the memory to be sealed was handled.
Now Ranma was stuck with an unknown queen and no explanation as to how this happened. This was going to be a nightmare once the news got out. Having a rogue queen was a massive hit against any clan's prestige. Then there would be the panic caused because someone figured out how to hack the evil pieces. Calling it a panic would be understating things. Bedlam, in both uses of the word, would be more accurate.
This news could not get out at all. Ranma couldn't even risk letting his own peerage members know about this catastrophe. He had to find the mysterious queen, deal with the individual, and privately give the information to Ajuka. The Beelzebub could then handle the error without letting everything go to heaven.
A small flash of light grabbed Ranma's attention and he saw an envelope appear next to him. Ranma grabbed the envelope and cast a diagnostic spell on it. He bit back the urge to curse and cast several more diagnostic spells. What the heaven was it about tonight and impossible things happening to him?
The envelope was sealed with the seal of the 7th Prince Sitri. Grandfather was the 5th Prince Sitri and he still had centuries to go before stepping down so that Sona could become the 6th Princess Sitri. Such a seal should have just been a bad forgery. However, there was magic woven into the signet rings of all clan heads to let everyone know that something sealed by them was authentic. Palatini and Comitatenses clan head signet rings had an extra set of authentication magic embedded in them. This seal had all the proper magic proving it was real.
Trying not to freak out, Ranma nervously broke the seal and opened the envelope. Ranma pulled out a piece of paper and felt his stomach lurch as his nose smelled blood on the paper. A scan of the paper revealed that it was his blood on the paper. Blood was a very uncommon ink for devils despite what folklore and stories might claim. It was only used on the most important documents to seal the document from alteration as the magic required the writer's own blood. Even then, it was typically only someone's signature. Very rarely was a boarder used for added protection.
A whimper of fear and disbelief escaped Ranma's mouth. He dropped the paper like it was piece of a hand written bible penned by a saint. Ranma muttered to himself. "I want to wake up now. This is a very terrible and disturbing dream." Ranma prayed that this was all a dream. The divinely caused headache proved Ranma was awake. While nursing his headache, Ranma picked up the paper. He read the letter impossibly sent from himself.
'Myself,
If you are reading this then our queen has successfully traveled back in time to before we reincarnated her as our queen. This particular note means that the queen piece from your time has reacted to its uptime counterpart and merged with our queen. She will be out for an indeterminate amount of time as she adapts to having two queen pieces. Do not go looking for her. There are tasks that she needs to accomplish before you and everyone else can enter the picture. Another prepared message will be sent if her convalescence takes too long. Follow any instructions you get in said letter exactly.
I acquired our queen just before a series of events started that have led to the destruction of the world. A plan is in the works to stop that chain of events. Trust in the plan; I helped to create it. If you cannot trust yourself than who can you trust? Until the next phase of the plan is ready to start go about your life normally. I've only brought you in on the plan now because of your queen piece reacting like it did.
7th Prince of Sitri and last member of the Conclave,
Yourself'
Ranma sealed the letter and stored it in his personal magical storage pocket. It was official, his life could not get more bizarre then it was right now. His unknown queen which he hadn't chosen was already chosen for him in the future. The world will apparently be destroyed in the indeterminate future, but he shouldn't care at all.
Finally, Ranma decided that his only good course of action was to get some sleep. There was no way that he could make a good decision now. He had too many concerns and too little rest. The note heavily implied that he had time to think so he should take that time. Besides, training until he and his peerage dropped was normal life for him. It just so happened to be a wonderful way to prepare for the unknown.
Botan was slightly nervous as she walked into Ranma's chambers in the Sitri Manson. The boys didn't have school due to the 'mass shooting' and resulting riot that occurred yesterday. Ranma had sent a message to everyone to take the day to relax. However, they were to do some light exercise and expect a full training regime tomorrow.
What made Botan nervous was the fact that Ranma had sent her a second request to see him roughly a half hour after he sent her the general notification. She was worried that he was summoning her to claim his "rights" as her king. Part of her was hoping that was the case to her own mortification. The fact that the premade wardrobe she had been gifted upon waking up in the morning was full of clothes that accented her figure only made things more confusing.
Botan spotted Ranma sitting in an office section of his room working at a desk. Ranma glanced up at Botan and motioned for her to sit down next to him. She sat down as indicated and waited for Ranma to finish up his paperwork. A minute later he finished and turned to look at Botan.
Ranma smiled at Botan and said, "It's good to see you looking well today Botan. According to my grandmother's report, the reincarnation process seems to have been a complete success. There were some concerns about possible complications since you're the first spirit guide to be reincarnated. The risks were minimal, but we couldn't afford to take chances."
Botan nodded her head grateful to hear that news. She hadn't really given her new situation much thought at the moment. Hell, er, heaven, she was still trying to comprehend that her new room was five times bigger than her old apartment. "That's good to hear Ranma."
Her king continued, "A new bank account for you has been opened at the Sheol Central Bank and your old account's assets are being transferred to the main Clan Sitri account. Your new account is being issued shekels from the main Clan Sitri account equal to your old account's kobans per a currency exchange agreement. This was done because the exchange agreement won't happen for several months and I wanted you to have access to your funds ASAP. The exact details will be with your bank paperwork that should be delivered to your room sometime today."
"Your personal assets are supposed to be shipped over in a week. However, with customs it might take a little longer. Information on the moving company will be forwarded to your room once I get it. Your discharge papers form Koenma will also be forwarded when they arrive. A notice to forward your mail here has also been sent out to the Reikai post office. A general notice to all of your monthly subscriptions was sent to transfer them to your new residence. You should be getting a list later today of what subscriptions will transfer and what if any cannot be transferred."
Ranma paused for a second as started to tap his fingers mentally checking things off of a list. He paused for a second as something teased his memory. Ranma smiled as he recalled something. "Oh yes, a letter was mailed out to your family letting them know where you were and how to contact you in the future. That should be everything regarding your move at the moment. Can you think of anything I might have missed?"
Botan shook her head and replied, "No. That's honestly more than I thought about needing to happen since I'm now your pawn. It's still sort of sinking in for me at the moment." It made sense that there would be plenty of paperwork involved with someone moving from one supernatural faction to another. Botan had just never given it any thought before.
A comfortable silence reigned for a minute. Botan used this time to observe her king. She had seen Ranma plenty of times before, but never in quiet work handling the day to day tasks his position involved. Ranma did not rush through his paperwork. He seemingly read over everything and considered what he had read before making a decision.
It was almost a contradiction to the image Botan had of Ranma in her mind. Ranma was a driven individual. His pride could only tolerate not being the best at what he set his mind to if he was working his hardest to be the best. Botan knew that Ranma had set his mind towards physical training and fighting. Ranma repeatedly pushed his peerage to the edge of their abilities during training. That was not something Botan was happy about with her future. However, she at least could take comfort in the fact that Ranma through himself to the edge of his abilities as well.
Ranma glanced up from the paperwork and realized Botan was still sitting near him. He put his pen down and asked, "Is there something else you need Botan?"
A blush appeared on Botan's face and she looked down at her lap for a moment. She took a deep breath and then looked up at Ranma. "Yes, there is something I need to know. Are you expecting me to sleep with you?"
Botan looked back down at her lap and missed the shocked look on Ranma's face. She hurriedly continued. "It's well known that most reincarnated devils tend to end up sexually servicing their kings if they happen to fit the king's preferences. I want to know if that will be the case for us."
Ranma was mentally blessing himself for not thinking about this question coming up. Sairaorg was pretty much the only devil under a century old who didn't dress the girls in his peerage up like pinup models. This wasn't something he had thought about before!
On the one hand, Ranma didn't have time to just sleep around. There were his duties he had to prepare for as Sona's future enforcer. That wasn't considering that blessed letter he got from himself last night. Who has time for sex when the world might end soon?
On the other hand, Ranma was a teenager and curious. He was also half devil which meant that he felt the effects of the 7 mortal sins more intensely than mortals. Pride might be his principal sin, but that didn't insulate Ranma from the other sins. Botan was beautiful and thought of her in the throes of passion caused Ranma's blood to sing.
Ranma took a deep breath and said, "Six months. We won't talk about this again for six months Botan. You need time to adjust to all the changes your life is going through right now. I'm not about to take advantage of my friend and peerage member while you're in a vulnerable state."
Botan was touched that Ranma thought so highly of her. She didn't want to think the worst of Ranma or give the wrong impression. It was just that Botan expected this meeting to involve an erotic workout. She could feel the increased pull towards sin that was not part of her nature. There were a thousand and one ways that Ranma and her passions could have gotten the better of them.
The time limit Ranma gave Botan made her wonder. "What happens after six months are over Ranma?"
A faint blush appeared on Ranma's face for a second as he replied. "That depends on you Botan. If you want to date someone else or stay single that's your prerogative. If you want to pursue something with me I'll be open to it. However, I want something to be very clear to you Botan. If you and I become lovers there will be some restrictions. First and most importantly, you'll never be able to become my wife. That position belongs to whoever my grandfather or perhaps even my aunt if it takes that long decides I'll marry. Sucks, but that's noble politics for you. The other thing to consider is that I won't let you go once your mine. If we ever have sex I'm making you my permanent concubine."
Botan bowed her head and said, "Thank you for being honest with me. I'll think about what we talked about. May I be excused?"
Ranma nodded his head and watched as Botan walked out of the room. He found himself staring at her ass as she walked. Ranma smacked his face with both hands once Botan closed the door. Great, just great, his hormones acting up were the last thing Ranma needed.
Ajuka Beelzebub looked up from the security report on his desk simmering with rage and fear. Somehow, the SSCA's facilities had been infiltrated and upgraded. Someone had entered the facility and done 1000s of hours of work updating hardware and software. This had all occurred within a single day without anyone noticing. Heaven, the security footage showed some rooms being upgraded while people were in them!
This was a security breach of unimaginable proportions. Whoever did this could have stolen or altered who knows how much information. It would take days to cross reference everything with offsite backups. Then there was the potential for sabotage. Everything had to be examined for traps, spyware, and malware. This was the last thing the SSCA needed after dealing with the Demon City Incident which they were still trying to wrap up.
Ajuka was enraged at all the extra work this put on him and his subordinates. Heaven, it looked like he wasn't going to get to sleep for a week thanks to this workload. Whoever did this had better hope that he never got his hands on them. They were going to pay for making him take so much time away from his research.
Underneath Ajuka's rage was a pit of fear over the upgrades. Every single upgrade had been one that had been planned for the SSCA to undergo over the next 5 years. All the software upgrades installed were supposed to be in development. There was at least one that Ajuka knew was still in the Alpha stage because he had been working on the code yesterday.
Ajuka knew in his heart what had to be the cause of this. Time manipulation was the only way these upgrades could exist. The only way the installation could be done without someone noticing was if the installer drastically altered their personal frame of reference for time allowing hours to go by in the blink of a second. They also had to be able to view the future or travel back in time. It was the only explanation on how they could have gotten the software written by him that he hadn't written yet.
Time manipulation on that magnitude and without massive magical traces was mind boggling. Such a thing might be theoretically possible, but it should be impossible outside of thought experiments. Forbidden Balor View was the most powerful form of time manipulation that Ajuka knew of and it couldn't do something like this. The form of time manipulation used by that sacred gear just wouldn't create the results he had seen.
Could there be a hidden sacred gear that was being used? Possible, but that was extremely unlikely. It had been a long time since the biblical god died and all known sacred gears had recycled through at least one new user since then. Most had been recycled multiple times to new users. Sacred gears weren't something that could be hidden for long. Circumstances always happened to their bearers that exposed them to the supernatural. Either it was an inherent quality of the sacred gears or it intrinsic to the souls selected to bear them.
Now, not every sacred gear was well known. Ajuka knew that this couldn't be the case with his infiltrating upgrader. All sacred gears relating to time were deemed high priority by all factions all the time. Temporal magic was the trickiest and most energy intensive magic to use currently known. It was also one of the most dangerous magics known. Whatever sacred gear had been used had to be near longinius tier. There should be hundreds of reference books on it.
The only other possibility was the existence of a previously unknown chronomancer who had reached hereto unknown levels of mastery with temporal magic. Even that possibility was more unlikely than an unknown sacred gear of such power. Anyone with half a brain kept a careful eye on all mage associations that dabbled in temporal magic. Ajuka knew that the best research of any association was nowhere near the level of development for the kind of magic that had been at work in the SSCA. The idea of a lone genius discovering all of that was a nice fantasy.
Ajuka didn't deal in fantasies. He dealt in facts. Science did not progress through sudden leaps of brilliance shooting into the unknown at speeds rivaling his fellow satans rushing to look after their little sisters. It progressed methodically building on what had come before. Sometimes that pace was faster and at other times slower depending on the quality and quantity of the scientists along with their facilities.
This truth was especially evident to a genius like himself. It had taken Ajuka several decades of hard work to create the Evil Piece system which was hailed as one of the high points of modern magic. Moreover, the reason it took only decades instead of centuries was thanks to all of the reference material of hundreds of mages past and a virtually unlimited supply of resources for experimentation.
The collection of such reference material and resources also made it impossible to hide one's research for long. Oh the details of what one researched could be kept hidden. One could even throw off spies suspicions for a time if one had enough resources to buy unneeded material. However, just ploys only worked for a short time. Ajuka knew this because he had general ideas about what all the other factions were researching. He also knew that they were aware of what his scientists were currently researching.
All of these thoughts came to halt when a piece of paper suddenly appeared on Ajuka's desk. There was no sign of any sort of teleportation. It just appeared there one second like it had always been there. Ajuka's blood froze in his veins. He quickly cast a specialized detection spell and found faint traces of temporal magic. The temporal manipulator had been in this very room and he never even noticed it. He could have been killed if the unknown person was so inclined.
Ajuka picked up the paper and opened it. There was no need to check if it had any traps on it. What would be the point? He would already be dead if the sender meant him harm. The paper had a report of the upgrades to the SSCA. Towards the bottom of the paper the contents shifted throwing Ajuka for a loop. Integration of queen pieces made no sense. Who would be dumb enough to try and reincarnate someone that was already the queen of another peerage?
Ajuka reread that section of the report trying to make sense of the nonsense. The integration had to do with the same evil piece from two different time periods merging together. That put things in a very different perspective. Ajuka couldn't find any sign of whoever had developed the temporal magic used in the SSCA because they hadn't developed it yet.
There must be a mage out there who will develop the art of temporal magic. It's possible that the person in question wasn't even born yet given the subject matter. Whatever the case, the mage was sent backwards in time for some drastic reason. Ajuka couldn't see why else someone would risk meddling with time by going backwards. The SSCA upgrades must have been ordered by whoever sent the time traveler back. Why do that? Was something about to happen that would have been preventable if the SSCA could detect it earlier?