So, everyone enjoy themselves and looking forward to the next installment of Imperial Servant?

Well, tough shit, you're getting it anyway!

Also, to the Guest/First reviewer: Ranma isn't shagging anyone in this story—

(Maybe, MUWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!)

—but he has in other stories I've read, and while those situations can be written well, I haven't seen one yet which mixed the fairly important plot point of this fic, with a girl who isn't a member of the NWC, without bashing Nerima and it's inhabitants with a 30lbs club.

As for whether it's a story worth telling, you'll have to see for yourself.

[EDIT 2/5/2018] Made some re-writes/revamped a few parts. See if you notice the difference!

Imperial Servant: Chapter 1
Reputation

OOOOOO

Xuriel Tanthalas wondered how her life had come to this.

Shortly after leaving behind the skinny boy who'd called on her for some noble quest, which she intended to take very seriously as succubi are rarely summoned for those and her success could open a whole new avenue for demonesses like her, Xuriel had glamoured up an alluring combination features in what passed for a girl's uniform around here and went looking for her target. She'd homed in on Ranma immediately thanks to Hikaru's description, and assumed that the girl with short-cut blue hair he was sitting with was his fiancée. AKA, the damsel in distress that she was supposed to 'rescue' by dragging the pigtailed boy's name through the mud. With her summoner's heartbroken moans echoing in her ears, Xuriel chose to sacrifice subtlety in favor of expedience and playfully jumped into Ranma's lap before snuggling against him and purring about how wonderful he'd been last night.

What she'd expected, was stammering objections and pointed questions as the seeds of suspicion take root while the other students around them would spread the word, letting rumors finish the job without needing to get her hands dirty. Not that she would have minded too much, because violent cheater or not, her target was quite fit and rather handsome.

Instead, all hell had broken loose as Ranma didn't have a chance to do more than gape in shock before his 'kind and gentle' fiancée was on her feet, a wooden hammer appearing in her hand from out of nowhere as she swung back and shouted, "Ranma! You pervert!"

Xuriel barely manage to leap out of the way with a startled 'yipe!' before the hammer was brought down where she and her victim had been sitting, while the boy himself was up and dodging around his fiancée's wild swings as he shouted in a panic, "I've never seen her before! Stop it, ya tomboy!"

"A likely story, you lech! Take your punishment like a man!"

The succubus had a second to wonder of the pair's relationship was a good deal rougher and possibly kinkier than her summoner realized when three boys joined in on the fracas. One was a tall brunette wearing a dark blue hakama and wielding a bokuto, who shouted, 'Foul sorcerer!' at the top of his lungs as he started jabbing his stick at the pigtailed teen. The second also had brown hair, save it was long enough to be tied in a waist-length ponytail and he was wearing a typical boy's uniform. Also, he was armed with what looked like a giant spatula, which he swung around like a polearm at the bouncing lothario while shouting, 'How could you get another fiance?!' The third boy startled Xuriel by bursting out of the ground a few feet away from her, his backpack, weatherbeaten yellow shirt and speckled bandana smudged with dirt as he asked if they were in Okinawa. Before she could answer, or even process his sudden appearance, the newcomer noticed the melee. After a moment of staring, a few choice phrases from Ranma's three attackers reached their ears and the mystery tunneler snarled angrily before shouting, 'Ranma! I'll make you see hell!' and pulled a red bamboo umbrella from his pack before joining in.

As the fight amped up, the crowd she'd been expecting had formed. But instead of idle whispering, most of the students were commenting on the possible sources of the brawl, the likelihood of the three challengers to land a hit on her target and a myriad of other possibilities. All of which were being recorded and marked down by a coldly amused brunette in a pageboy cut who was taking bets from the assembled throng.

While Xuriel hadn't expected logic to return anytime soon, she was still dumbstruck when things somehow became even more insane, due to a man wearing a hawaiian shirt with a small palm tree sticking out of the top of his hair jumping out of a trapdoor in the ground, and shouting something about, 'bad wahinis needing discipline!' And he was followed, metaphorically speaking, by a lilac-haired girl in a chinese pantsuit sailing over a nearby wall on a bicycle and a duck wearing coke-bottle thick glasses. The former added more fuel to the fire by shouting 'Airen find new hussy?!' and pulling what looked like a beachball on a stick out from nowhere, while her pet quacked furiously and literally started winging throwing knives at the pigtailed boy, who continued to ricochet across the landscape like a superball on speed.

As the melee hit a fever pitch, Xuriel could only stare slack-jawed at the kung fu moshpit she'd provoked with a few words and quietly breathed, "What…have I done?"

With all that in mind, it was understandable that she was off her guard and caught completely flat-footed by what happened next.

-O-

Ranma swore as he evaded another of Kuno's strikes by springing over a wild swing from Shampoo, and wondered what his old man had done this time that brought yet another girl around who threw herself at him the moment she saw him.

As his thoughts turned towards the source of the current mayhem, Ranma's eyes flicked towards same and his blood ran cold. Behind the wide-eyed brunette who was gaping at him like a landed fish, Shampoo's great-grandmother Cologne was approaching the newcomer with a dark scowl and very thinly suppressed killing intent. Realizing the old biddy was about to permanently remove a possible obstacle between him and Shampoo, Ranma flipped backwards and braced his feet on the branch of a nearby tree, using it as a launchpad to rocket at the startled girl and grab her before Cologne made her move.

Swinging the girl into a bridal carry, Ranma skidded to a halt several yards away from Cologne and glared furiously at her, his outrage at the attempted assassination blinding him to the look of pure bewilderment the strangely heavy girl was giving him as he shouted, "The hell do you think you're doin', you old ghoul!?"

"Saving your life, son-in-law," Cologne replied as she turned her stick with a quick hop to face him, while the rest of the Wrecking Crew marshalled themselves and came up behind her, either looking at her quizzically or glaring at Ranma as she added grimly, "Now get away from that thing."

Xuriel's musings on how a 'selfish thug' could pull off a daring rescue were rudely interrupted by that, and she narrowed her eyes at the old crone as she muttered, "Thing?" in a gravely offended tone while Ranma set her down and quickly stepped between the disguised succubus and what looked like a half-mummified goblin.

Seeing her husband's protective posture, Shampoo's knuckles whitened on the handles of her bonbori as she growled, "Airen, what you doing with new hussy?!"

"Saving her life!" Ranma snapped at the younger of the two amazons without taking his eyes off the older. "Cologne was going to kill her!"

"A likely story, sorcerer." Kuno snorted dismissively. "Why would this wizened crone harm yet another woeful victim of your dark arts?"

Ranma growled in irritation while Xuriel did a double-take, her attention temporarily caught by the ludicrous statement from the swordsman with an archaic speech impediment. Then the succubus found her attention drawn to Cologne as the old woman snapped, "Be quiet, fool! If you knew anything about real magic, you'd realize I'm trying to save everyone here from that abomination my idiot son-in-law is protecting!"

Kuno paused at that statement, looking back and forth between the old woman and the brunette as Ranma shouted, "What the hell are you talking about?!"

"That 'girl' behind you is not a girl at all, son-in-law," Cologne replied seriously. "Its possibly the most powerful demon I've ever sensed in my life."

Ranma scoffed and opened his mouth.

"Wow, you must not get out much, huh granny?"

Ranma's retort, which was going to be far less eloquent than the sardonically amused one that came from behind him, died on his lips as he looked over his shoulder at the girl he was protecting. Confused by the odd rebuttal to Cologne's statement and why the girl was smiling pityingly at scowling amazon matriarch, the pigtailed boy asked, "Nani? What did you say?"

Xuriel shook her head ruefully and rolled her eyes. "If I'm the most powerful demon she's ever seen, the old biddy must have spent most of her life in a cave somewhere. Then again," The succubus gave her newly appointed nemesis the thinnest, most backpfeifengesicht smirk she could manage. "That might be a good thing, 'cause the old bat's ticker probably couldn't handle it if she ever met a really powerful demon."

Noting and ignoring the sound of grinding teeth in front of him, Ranma kept his attention focused on the pretty but otherwise ordinary looking girl as he processed that. "Wait…are you really a—"

"Yeah yeah, I'm a demon, hellspawn, foul abomination," The girl rolled her wrists and groaned wearily. "Let's just pretend you had the standard freakout and move on, please?"

A low murmur rolled through the crowd, the assembled fighters and audience tensing up at that admission while the brunette adopted a friendly smile and held her hand out to her target-cum-savior. "The name's Dabbler. Nice to meet you."

Caught completely flat-footed by the supposed demon's cheerful demeanor, Ranma hesitantly returned, "Umm…hi?" and reached out to accept Dabbler's handshake.

"Son-in-law, STOP!" Cologne's harsh bark surprised Ranma and brought his attention to her as she shouted, "Get away from that thing!"

Xuriel shot Cologne and annoyed glare as she grabbed Ranma's hand and pumped it a few times in an exaggerated handshake. Satisfied that the social obligation for a standard greeting had been fulfilled, she let go and then used the same hand to flip old woman off. "Screw you, you old bitch! I'm just trying to be polite!"

Ranma looked down at his hand and back up to the girl. While not nearly to the same scale as Ryoga, the pigtailed boy was definitely lost as he repeated, "Polite?"

"Yeah, I figure we got off on the wrong foot with the whole falling-all-over-you thing," The brunette admitted with an apologetic grimace. "Sorry about that, by the way. No hard feelings?"

While Ranma tried to articulate a response to her apology, which was a once-in-a-blue-moon event to him, Akane took a few steps forward and snapped, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Looking between the bluenette's scowl and the weapon she'd apparently pulled from some kind of dimensional pocket, Xuriel pursed her lips and replied cattily, "It's an apology? You know, something you say to someone when you screw up? You should try it sometime, it'd probably help your mood, Miss Bitchy."

While Akane let out an angry growl at the insult, Nabiki stepped out of the crowd of 'civilians'. Confident that the violence had been stalled long enough that there'd be ample warning before a renewed brawl, the middle Tendo sister gave the strange girl an appraising look as she said, "You'll have to excuse my little sister, Dabbler-san. She has a bit of a temper—"

"No shit."

The 'demons' interruption and the flare from her irate sibling's battle-aura were ignored as Nabiki went on. "—but she does have a point. Why are you apologizing to Ranma?"

Xuriel heaved a deep sigh, personally disgusted by what she was now realizing had been either a scam by a jilted lover, or a delusional fantasy created by a voyeur from afar. "Some idiot used a half-assed summoning ritual to call me up and asked me to trash his rep because, 'Ranma's a horrible thug who mistreats his pure and innocent fiance'. Needless to say, I'm really regretting indulging him right now since this is not the noble deed I signed on for."

Silence descended for a few moments as the group digested that, with Kuno being the first to break the silence by asking, "Noble deed?"

"Indulging him?" Cologne added suspiciously.

"Horrible thug!?" Ranma spat angrily.

"Pure and innocent?!" Shampoo and Ukyo repeated simultaneously in disbelief, which earned the pair a furious glare from Akane.

Ignoring those questions in favor of the far more pertinent one, Nabiki asked, "Who's the 'idiot' who summoned you?"

"That will do you no good, Tendo Nabiki," Cologne warned while keeping her eyes on the brunette with an utterly inhuman aura. "Demons are forbidden from speaking the name of those who called them, since the surest way to banish the creature is to slay it's summoner."

"Well, even if you are a racist witch, you got that right at least." Xuriel returned indifferently. "Which is more than I can say for my summoner, because he didn't put either of those bindings on me."

Cologne's brain stalled out and her eyes bugged as she gaped in shock at the blasé demon. "He…he didn't bind your voice?! Or your manifestation to his life!?"

"No and technically no," Xuriel affirmed and hedged with equal casualness. "I can say his name and I'm not manifesting right now, because he used my True Name for the ritual."

The information that there was someone stupid enough to both summon a demon without any restraints and with access to their full power nearly knocked the old woman off her perch as she screeched, "He WHAT!? Merciful ancestors, what in god's name was that fool thinking?!"

"Nothing, if I had to guess," Xuriel replied dryly. "I just thought he was in a hurry to stop Miss Pure and Innocent from marrying a cheating lothario, but obviously that isn't the case."

Ranma and Akane's irritation spiked at that, the latter because of her sister's rude snort and the disbelieving chuckles from her rivals, and the former at the crack on his integrity as he snidely asked, "Yeah? How'd you figure that out?"

"Hey, I apologized, remember?" Xuriel replied defensively, bringing one hand up in a placating gesture while the other waved at the assembled martial artists. "And considering I barely got two words out before these whackos jumped you, it was obvious that your rep is crappy enough without me throwing more fuel on the fire."

A wave of irritated mumbling and guilty looks spread among the Wrecking Crew at the demoness' admission, save for Nabiki, who politely prodded Dabbler by saying, "So, if you can say your summoner's name…"

Xuriel pursed her lips momentarily, before sighing and thumbing over her shoulder, "Skinny kid with candles strapped to his head named Hikaru Go-something. He's was in the equipment shed next to the soccer field the last I checked, but bring him here before you paste him so he can send me back. I don't want to miss out on happy hour."

A collective groan came from the students who were familiar with campus' creepy voodoo practitioner, while Nabiki nodded to two underlings who immediately left to fetch the cause of today's recent oddities. Cologne, curious and suspicious of how calm and collected Dabbler was at the idea of returning to the pit, asked pointedly, "They have 'happy hour' in Hell?"

"No, they have happy hour at the 5-star, clothing-optional resort I was staying at when I got summoned." Xuriel answered, crossing her arms in front of her and huffing angrily, "No good deed goes unpunished, I swear to Lucy…"

Several of the surrounding students blushed, smiled dopily, or started drooling at the mental images that statement conjured, while Akane's cheeks reddened and she spat, "Hentai!" under her breath.

"And exhibit two for why I want out of here, being around people who are way too repressed."

Akane's indignant sputtering was ignored by Cologne, who continued to pump the deceptively honest hellspawn for information, and/or wait for creature to slip up and reveal it's true nature. "You really want to leave? When you're here in your physical body and there's nothing to stop you from rampaging indiscriminately?"

Xuriel narrowed her eyes at the Cologne and snapped, "I'm not that kind of demon, you old witch. And you've got a funny idea of 'nothing', considering…"

As the demon somehow managed to convey thick sarcasm with nothing but a slow, meaningful look at the collateral damage left by the earlier brawl, Cologne snorted, but kept silent. Her mind turned over several reasons for Dabbler's behavior, with the two most likely options being that she really did want to leave, or she was going to try and kill the idiot who called her before she could be banished. While hoping for the former and preparing for the latter, the amazon matriarch caught sounds of distress approaching from the back of the 'audience' that had yet to leave the spectacle. The crowd parted, the two girls who'd been sent away by Nabiki returned, each of them holding a pale, reedy boy by the back of his collar, who was trying to curl himself into a ball and whimpered fearfully while his feet dangled a few inches over the ground.

Gosunkugi, worried about what could have gone wrong and if he'd have to call up another demon when he got the chance, didn't register the presence of the shriveled ape perched on a staff before there was a blur of motion and said ape was in his face and scowling darkly. He flinched back, only to be yanked forward again with a pained 'ite!' when the mummy pinched his chin hard and shouted, "Banish this creature now!"

"W-what!? What creature?!"

"Me, dippy." Xuriel answered, hands on her hips and posture radiating disapproval. "And don't bother playing dumb, they all know what you called me for."

"How!?" Hikaru cried out desperately. "What happened, Xuriel-san?!"

A small part of Cologne was elated to hear a demon's true name, as it was something of an occult grand prize, even for those who had no interest in trafficking with devils.

But her excitement was far outstripped by stunned outrage as the incompetent boy had blurted the name out in front of dozens of people, and her eye twitched in unison with the demoness' as the latter growled, "Don't use my real name, idiot! It's Dabbler right now, and they know because I told them!"

Gosunkugi gaped as his dream of glorious victory was utterly crushed and he wailed, "You told them?! Why!?"

"Because you lied to me about this guy being some kind of hyper-sexual maniac!" Xuriel snapped with a gesture to Ranma. "The only part you said that wasn't total BS was about him knowing kung-fu! But if today was any indication, he can't wink at a girl without someone trying to gouge his eyes out!"

"B-but, you said you'd stop him, Xuri—"

The fact that Cologne was stopping herself from braining the foolish teenager was the only reason she didn't react in time to stop Dabbler from snapping her wrist out and spitting out a string of unintelligible syllables. The two girls holding Gosunkugi promptly dropped him with shocked gasps as a golden band of light encircled his head, the briefest flash of black runes appearing before the entire display winked out. Stunned and cursing herself for such a screwup, Cologne watched the summoner frantically open and close his mouth, doubtlessly trying to break through the spell that had stolen any chance of removing the demon he'd summoned through non-violent means.

"I repeat," Xuriel snapped furiously. "Stop using my goddamned name! If you don't start calling me Dabbler, I'll make this spell permanent! Got it?!"

Gosunkugi nodded frantically, and Dabbler sarcastically chirped, "Good boy!" as she snapped her fingers. Cologne blinked in surprise as the band re-appeared and splintered into motes of light that quickly winked out and let the inept summoner's terrified whimpers fill the air again. Since the demon had thrown away the perfect opportunity to run wild, the matriarch lent more credence to the idea that Dabbler honestly wanted to leave Nerima ASAP.

Nabiki, considering the utility of being able to silence anyone who annoyed her, smiled slyly and asked half-seriously, "Wow, don't suppose you'd be willing to teach me that?"

"Maybe when my vacation's done."

The brunette did a double-take, while several people within earshot paled as they considered the same idea that had flicked through the Ice Queen's head a moment ago. While that mental horror show was going on, Xuriel rolled her wrist in a get-on-with-it gesture and said, "I haven't got all day, skinny boy. Hurry up and un-summon me."

Devastated at the betrayal, Hikaru blubbered sorrowfully, "W-why!? You said you'd help me! Saotome's so mean to Akane, and he doesn't even try to hide all these girls chasing after him!"

"That's 'cause I'm too busy tryin' to hide from them, you jackass!" Ranma fired out angrily. "And they're chasin' me cause I keep runnin' away from 'em! I'm not a damn lothario!"

"Bull."

"Lies and heresy."

"Quack."

"Sure, Ranchan."

"Airen should be more honest."

"Jerk."

While Ranma twitched angrily at the comments from the Wrecking Crew and the disbelieving scoffs among the students, Xuriel gestured to him and snapped at Hikaru. "And that is why I'm done here! You made him sound like a golden boy who tricks people into thinking he walks on water, not someone who's got a dozen people waiting to tear him a new ass!" Frowning in displeasure due to her attempted noble deed being a pipedream, she finished sullenly, "So thanks for nothing, but you can consider this favor revoked. Now, use the banishing anchor so I can get back to the mai-tais."

Hikaru's sniffles slowly ended, his sadness replaced by the quick acceptance that yet another attempt to save his beloved had failed, before his demon's request sank in and he gave her a blank look. "Banishment anchor?"

Shampoo let out a shocked, 'Hiba-chan!?' when her great-grandmother hit the ground, prompting startled and worried looks towards the old woman who'd fallen off her staff. Thankfully, it was only because of pure surprise that Cologne had fallen rather than something more serious, though her spiking blood-pressure could change that at any moment. At the same time, Xuriel reacted to Gosunkugi's question like a cheerleader in a slasher flick who just heard a floorboard creak nearby, her body going rigid and eyes widening in horror as she breathed, "Oh no. No, no, no, do not tell me you forgot the banishing anchor, you complete and utter moron."

"Anno…banishing anchor, Dabbler-san?" Nabiki asked hesitantly, taking a half-step back since it looked like Hikaru had triggered another wave of violence.

"The lynchpin to any summoning ritual," Xuriel answered in quiet, flat-to-the-point-of-dead tone, a tic developing in the corner of her eye as she processed the fact that her summoner had done the sorcerous equivalent using yellow-cake uranium to make a potato clock. "A way that keeps a demon summoning stable and a phrase that can send it back to where it came from in seconds. It's the ultimate safety catch, and every book on summoning demons starts with those so some yokel doesn't unleash a goddamn tarrasque without a way to get rid of it! It's pre-school grade sorcery and I refuse to believe this idiot forgot something that even a child could remember!"

The demoness' voice didn't quite reach the level of a screech as her rant finished, but it was definitely loud enough to get her point across to the whole of the group. As every eye turned onto Hikaru, the nervously sweating summoner got to his feet and cleared his throat with an audible gulp before asking, "A-are you sure about that? I didn't read anything about those in my books."

"Then you shouldn't have been able to call me," Xuriel intoned in a low voice. "Because in any legitimate summoning tome, the first half-a-dozen chapters are entirely devoted to making them!"

"Oh…that's why…"

Xuriek froze mid-twitch as Hikaru's abashed statement locked down her higher brain functions. "What."

"I…I thought those chapters were for people who wanted to be exorcists, not summoners," Hikaru gave a nervous, stress-induced laugh as he slowly backed away from the group. "So I kinda…skipped them?"

Up until this point, Ranma had doubts about Dabbler's claims of being a demon, as she seemed pretty normal and levelheaded regarding recent events. Magic circles around jackass wannabe wizards notwithstanding.

Said doubts were dispelled when a red light flared next to the brunette, and suddenly the 'normal' girl was holding a black, vicious-looking double-edged sword. Similar to a claymore in shape, the blade was black and shining like it had been forged out of volcanic glass rather than metal, with jagged spikes running intermittently along both edges. With all that thrown together with the glowing red runes adorning the hilt, it was clear that he wasn't looking at a weapon as much as a tool for slaughter.

The mass of people were stunned into near paralysis by the blade's appearance, and in the utter silence that drifted through the schoolyard, Xuriel's eyes met Hikaru's and she intoned one word with perfectly composed calm.

"DIE."

-AN-

Thanks to those who helped me spellcheck and clean up this chapter, so I didn't embarrass myself regarding typos and other amateurish mistakes.

backpfeifengesicht = "A face in dire need of a fist". One reason why German can be a goddamn vünderful language. ("We found a fucking word for that. You're welcome.")

Speaking of amateurish; now that I've made a serious rewrite of this chapter, Gosunkugi's slightly valid excuse for why he didn't use a banishing anchor has gone kaput. Honestly, I'm a bit frustrated with myself for not thinking of that the first time around, because 'not buying certain books' isn't that dumb at first blush. At least, not compared to 'I skipped the first dozen chapters to get to the important stuff'. (For comparison, Genma was an idiot with the Neko-ken, but he was reading a manual that had been written by someone even more stupid for not putting the warnings on the very first page. And yes, that means Hikaru Gosunkugi surpassed Genma Saotome for sheer idiocy.)