Dance With the Devil

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own none of the series involved.

Chapter 7

It was dark outside, lightning crashing and rain falling in sheets so heavy that one would be lucky if they could see more than a couple of feet in any direction.

"Been a long time since there was rain like this." An old male voice said from inside a small building. "Oh well, it's nice to see things like this from time to..." A knocking at his door, caused the man to turn and give an angry look at the door. "Whatever you want, go away, I'm in no mood to do anything today."

Another knock came at the door and the man grumbled as he stood up and walked to the door. "What do you want? I don't imagine you need any...thing?" He trailed off as he opened the door in time to see lightning flash across the sky, revealing a two pair of glowing eyes and a red armor.

"ArE yOu GoInG tO jUsT sTaNd ThErE lIkE aN iDiOt Or CaN wE cOmE iN?" A distorted male voice spoke.

"...Hannya."

"It HaS bEeN a LoNg TiMe." The armor said as it walked in when the old man let him in.

"What do you want? I'm retired now."

"Let me speak, Hannya." A female voice came from the mouth of the armor.

"A new host? And one that's not consumed yet?"

"I'm a special circumstance." The woman giggled softly before pulling out a small lasso. "Do you know what this is?"

"A rope?" The man answered, before narrowing his eyes. "But what's with the power I'm feeling from it?"

"It's a Pasha. I collected it today from India." Bishamon pulled out a sword that had an unsettling feeling in it. "This is the Murasame."

"Lovely, that cursed thing again." He sighed and cupped his chin. "Hannya, or should I say, Bishamon, I don't know what you want from me, I've long since retired."

"You still have your skills, do you not?" The old man snorted as if it was an insult to him. "Then I wish for you to turn the Pasha into a sword similar to the Murasame."

"...A rope into a sword?" He could do it, but he knew it wouldn't be easy. "Is there a reason for it?"

"This is a holy artifact used by Hindu gods themselves." The voice giggled softly. "I wish to use its powers and properties in a sword, that's all."

"Bah! I'm a spirit blacksmith, not a holy blacksmith, I don't get why you'd come to me."

"Because you're not watched like the holy blacksmiths are."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "That may be true, which is also why I was asked by that blasted Devil Jedah Dohma to make this armor in the first place." He sneered at the Murasame. "A foolish amateur who had no idea what he was making when he made this thing."

"Was there anything else you needed besides the sword? That alone will take me some time to do, unless you just want a new sword that emulates whatever this Pasha can do?"

"No, I need the Pasha itself as a sword, oh, you made this armor, huh?"

"It was supposed to be a living armor that could be used as a guard, but Jedah took it and twisted it." The man narrowed his eyes. "Even if I wanted to, the armor itself no longer can be restored to its original state."

"ToO bAd, I lIkE mYsElF lIkE tHiS."

Lightning and thunder crashed across the sky, temporarily lighting everything up. "In addition, I need you to do some work on Hannya here." The female voice said.

"If YoU rEmOvE mE, yOu WiLl DiSaPpEaR."

"Only if I remove you completely, if I leave part of you on, I'll remain in this world."

"True, what do you need done?" He raised an eyebrow as she told him. "Well, fine, I guess, but can you..?" He blinked as the armor, except for the helmet, fell to the ground in a heap, leaving a naked female ghost in front of him. "I guess so." Grabbing the armor, he tilted his head as he looked at her. "If I was a couple of centuries younger and you weren't a ghost I would do so much to you."

She giggled and sat in mid-air, hovering with her legs crossed and spread. "I imagine that I could have fun with you, but for now..."

"Of course." It was a real shame she was dead, the woman was a real looker. It was another shame that being a ghost made it impossible for any sort of naughty fun even if he was a couple of centuries younger. "This might take a few months, for everything you want done."

"Don't worry, I'm dead, all I've got is time."

Sighing, the man wondered why he had to be the best spirit blacksmith in the world. If only his ancestor hadn't been the personal blacksmith of the great Demon of the Western Lands so many centuries ago, he might have not had to do this.

"Oh well, I do love a challenge." Still, what was the purpose of a Pasha anyway?

(-)

Months later...

Ranma looked at the calendar and blinked a few times. "Huh, interesting." He was honestly surprised when he saw that he had been living at the Tendo Dojo for two months now. "Surprised we've been here so long."

Other than Ryoga's challenges and Bulleta's attempts to kill him, which was fine, since she agreed to not attack at the school anymore, though why, he wasn't sure, it was pretty peaceful in Nerima.

Peaceful in that morning sparring matches were used by the neighbors as alarm clocks, crashing helicopters all over the district was often used by scavengers looking to get scrap metal for one reason or another, the random martial arts fight that happened all the time. "Seriously, Martial Arts Takeout and that stupid Parley De Fois Gras technique." He honestly was more embarrassed by the fact that he had nearly gotten engaged to Picolette Chardin.

Thankfully Lilith helped him cheat in that last one. She had been disgusted by those bozos and she knew ACTUAL demons!

"Speaking of, where is she?" He hadn't seen her in a few hours and he wasn't feeling that she was in danger, mentally shrugging, he decided to just ignore it.

(-)

"I knew there was something unusual about you, Nabiki." Lilith, in the living room, narrowed her eyes at the middle Tendo girl.

"...What?" Nabiki had a cool face as she looked at the succubus. "What did you find out?"

"It took me some time, but I finally discovered why things felt off with you!" Lilith slammed her hand on the table and pulled something out from behind her. "How the heck did you get these limited edition manga signed by the authors?!"

Nabiki face-faulted as she saw some of her rarest manga spread across the table. "That's what you found out?!" Honestly, she was more surprised that Lilith hadn't found out something more serious than that.

"Oh, and those pictures of me." Lilith giggled as Nabiki twitched. "If you wanted to get a few naughty pictures of me, you could just ask." A naughty grin came over her face and her eyes started to shine. "Or maybe you want a naughty dream? If you're interested in Master, I can give you a dream that won't disappoint."

"No, that's fine, I've already..." Nabiki slapped her hands on her mouth and Lilith's eyes started to glow as her grin widened.

"Oh! Been sneaking in on Master when I'm not around, huh?"

Nabiki sweat-dropped heavily. "Well, I've spied on you two having sex a few times, so I had a toy made and..." Nabiki hoped that the succubus bought it, because getting things special ordered to this house was a near impossibility.

"Bah!" Lilith snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. "That's not as much fun. Tell you what, you can sleep with Master tonight."

Nabiki's face turned red at hearing that. "Well, I can't say that I'm against it, but if I did that, daddy would say that I'm engaged to him in an instant and we just went through that whole..."

"BLEAH!" Lilith shuddered. "That was horrible, and I've met Zombies that tried to seduce Master."

"...Eww..."

"Very eww!" Lilith nodded in agreement.

(-)

Munching on a cookie, Cologne narrowed her eyes at the fool in front of her. "So, you actually managed to come all the way here, huh, Mousse?"

The long-haired boy with baggy robes stood in front of her, his eyes narrowed. "You know that nothing will stop me from being with my Shampoo, you old bat."

There was a cracking sound and Mousse found himself on his back, rubbing his head.

"Show me some respect, boy. I let you get away with a lot, if I was more of a hardliner I would have had you tied up in the central square of the village, naked so everyone could watch as we castrate you." She rolled her eyes as Mousse turned blue and grabbed his crotch in an attempt to shield it. "Fool, we haven't done that since I was your age." Cologne was honestly glad for it, a little spirit among the men of the village made for a stronger village.

"And dinosaurs roamed the lands too." Mousse muttered as he got up, only to get smacked on the top of his head by Cologne's staff again. "GAH!"

"Mind your manners, dinosaurs existed when my great-great grandmother was your age, obviously." Cologne cackled, remembering the bruises she had gotten in her youth for saying that same line to her great-great grandmother.

"So..." Mousse stood up and pulled out an envelope from his sleeve. "The other elders actually asked me to deliver this to you."

"Hmm?" She took the letter and opened it up, reading it. "Interesting."

"What?"

"Oh nothing." Cologne shook her head. "Anyway, if you're going to be living here, you're going to work here, and I can't trust your eyesight boy." She pointed to the back. "So you'll be dishwasher and stocker, you don't need very good eyesight for that."

"Fine fine," Mousse grumbled as he walked into the kitchen. "...Are you worried about that Hanyou?"

"Hmm, the half-breed may be an interesting person, but so far he's been rather restrained." She would need to test him some time. "Anyway, get to work!"

"Sure, sure." He muttered and rolled up his sleeves.

Privately Cologne was worried, if the letter that she got was true and those with power were moving, she wondered what was going to happen to her village in the future.

(-)

The next morning Ranma was heading to school with Lilith, Akane and Shampoo, the latter two were talking about various things. Ranma looked back and smiled softly, for some reason seeing the two of them being friendly with each other felt off, no matter how much he saw them. "Oh, Akane!" Ranma just remembered something. "Didn't you have a date with Kodachi today or something?"

"It's not a date!" Akane yelled, her face turning red before she coughed and cleared her throat. "We're going to hang out and see that new magical girl movie that came out."

"Totally a date." Lilith muttered, mentally laughing as Akane glared at the two of them. "Well, whatever floats your boat, I encourage you to get out there and experiment while you're young!"

Akane scoffed at that. "Look, Kodachi's actually changed a lot since that match. She's not attacking people before the match anymore and isn't doing anything lethal." She had seen a few of Kodachi's matches over the past couple of months, the girl was still sneaky, dirty and twisted as they came, but at least she fought fair. Well, as fair as anyone with a ribbon that could be used to slice boulders apart could fight at least.

"Shampoo agrees, is not a date, if was a date, Akane would do kissy dinner."

"Your Japanese has gotten a lot better." Lilith commented, making Shampoo blush.

"Thank you, Shampoo trying but still get wrong answers." Shampoo frowned, that sounded wrong even to her.

"I think you mean you still get it wrong sometimes." Akane smiled at the Chinese girl. The girl was fairly nice and bubbly, though she could admit that the Amazon was far more skilled than she was in combat, since she had actually had the chance to spar against Shampoo once.

It had been so one-sided that she didn't last more than a few seconds.

"Shampoo would love to go, but has work and training with great-grandmother tonight."

Akane nodded, she knew Shampoo had her own circumstances and even staying in Japan seemed to be a tricky thing for her.

"Well, Master, I wonder if we'll see Kuno, Ryoga or Bulleta today."

Ranma rubbed his forehead in annoyance. Sure, Ryoga was actually a bit of a challenge these days, he could take a few blasts without going down and Kuno had gotten a lot better after his training trip but Bulleta...

"I hate fighting her." He grumbled, not because he didn't like to hit women or fighting women in general, but because Bulleta honestly didn't feel like a bad person to him.

Of course Ranma had no idea that if any of the other Darkstalkers heard him say that they would have beaten him stupid for even thinking that.

"What the heck?" Ranma stared in surprise as he saw the school coming up. "What's with the crowd?"

"Yahoo!" A female voice screamed from the middle and jumped out of the crowd and landed in front of the group. Before the dust settled, a figure ran up and hugged Ranma tightly. "Friend Ranma! Nuku Nuku is now a student here too!"

"ACK! Nuku!" Ranma gasped and kicked his legs wildly as she lifted him up in the hug. "GRK!"

"Nuku, please put Master down before I zap you with enough lightning to overload your circuits." Lilith twitched, causing Nuku Nuku to drop Ranma into a heap. "Thank you."

"Nuku Nuku sorry, but Nuku is so happy!"

Shampoo sweat-dropped as she listened to the excitable girl. "Shampoo wonder if that what Shampoo sounds like."

"What about your family? Aren't you worried about your mother coming for your brother?"

Nuku Nuku grinned at Akane. "Mama-san and Papa-san worked that out finally!"

Everyone blinked in surprise.

*Flash*

"Seriously!" Kyusaku yelled at his estranged wife, who, for some reason, had come down to try and capture their son personally. "Do you have ANY idea how stupid this was?!"

"Not like you to get upset." Akiko coughed, her short brown hair dirty and her business suit in tatters.

"Of course not! I don't care what you do normally." He walked up to her and pulled her from the wreckage of the helicopter she and her minions were in and held her up. "But what makes you think I want you to do something that could get you killed?!"

"You dare talk to me like that after stealing the NK-1124 prototype and kidnapping our son?!"

"I didn't kidnap him." Kyusaku sighed and put his wife down. "He came with me willingly. Don't you think that you're being too demanding?"

"I'm not being demanding wanting the best for my son! I'll stop at nothing for that!" She threw her arm back. "I want him to have the best education, the best foods, the best future, everything!"

"But are you willing to let him be a kid?" Kyusaku asked her sharply, getting a gasp from his wife. "Look, Akiko, Ryuunosuke's smart, really smart, if he wanted, he could take over your company tomorrow and there wouldn't be a problem." He turned and looked at Ryuunosuke and Nuku Nuku, the latter of whom was pulling out a small girl and Akiko's two personal secretaries from being buried under some nearby rubble. "Don't you think it's time to stop?"

"...What do you know about what our son wants?"

Kyusaku shrugged and helped his wife get to the street, clear of the debris. "Have you ever asked him?"

"No, but beyond that, I can't forgive you for stealing the NK-1124 prototype!"

"I told you! I made that for saving people, not for war!" He yelled, before sighing. "What would it take for you to NOT turn her into a weapon of war?"

"Do you know how much money can be made by making weapons?!" She screamed as he sighed and shook his head. "The only people who make more are those who manipulate governments or work for the largest of large banks!"

"Akiko..." Kyusaku shook his head. "The world is becoming more peaceful. All you're doing is creating weapons that will lead to slaughters."

"So what? When the fighting's over you just discard the weapons, they're just tools."

Kyusaku growled and did something he never thought he'd ever do in his life.

He slapped his wife so hard she fell onto her butt, staring up at him in shock.

"YOU COMPLETE IDIOT!" He yelled, his temper finally lost. "LOOK AT THOSE TWO!" He pointed at Nuku and the little girl who were both staring in shock. "They're androids and both have their own personalities, feelings and lives!"

"That's just the A.I., they aren't..."

"Aren't real?! What determines if something's real or not? If it was created naturally?" He snorted at her. "Whether or not you were born naturally or created artificially, experiences and memories that you make are unique to you! Don't you ever think of the ethical ramifications of what you do!?"

"So what?!" The little girl yelled at him, her short, bushy orange hair swaying in the wind as her tattered outfit was barely holding itself together. "Who cares about that?! I might be an android, but I know that I'm not going to last much longer!"

"Eimi-chan..." Nuku frowned softly as the girl spun on her and glared at her.

"You! Miss perfect android, if I had your body I wouldn't have to worry about blowing up because of overheating!"

"Oh, is that all?" Kyusaku asked, scratching his head. "I could fix your body up no problem, fix all the problems you have."

"You can?!" Eimi spun around, her eyes wide. "HOW?!"

"It's simple, but I need to have access to my lab again." He turned to look at his wife, who was still looking up at him in shock. "Of course, that depends if someone's going to be trying to make more weapons of war, I won't come back."

"But..." Akiko looked at him. "The company needs to make money or it will cease to exist!"

"Hey mom," Ryuunosuke spoke up and tapped his fingers together, "there's another way to make money."

Akiko blinked in surprise. When her son explained the ideas to her, she cupped her chin. "Using Mishima Heavy Industries to make figures, robo maids, collectibles and other stuff? I'm not sure."

"There are plenty of lonely people out there." Kyusaku mused, "I'm sure that the thought of coming home to a lonely apartment isn't fun, but if someone was there to greet them warmly every day..."

Akiko sighed and stood up. "Fine... I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, but what am I going to do about my weapons division?"

"I can help you with that!" A new voice spoke up and the group blinked as they saw Bulleta walking forward with a grin on her face. "Let's just say that while wars may be dying down, there's always things to deal with in the world, I could use more fun toys."

*End Flash*

"So now Papa-san and Mama-san are back together, Mama-san is only making weapons to hunt things that go bump in the night, Eimi-chan's getting fixed up and Nuku Nuku is going to school here!" Nuku summarized, grinning wildly. "Yay! I get to go to school with friend Ranma and Ryuunosuke won't get attacked anymore!"

Everyone blinked several times as they tried to absorb everything that she said.

"So... Everything's good then?" Ranma asked, getting a nod from Nuku Nuku. "So, no more breaking helicopters then?" That actually made him sad, it was a lot of fun to break those things.

"Nope! Nuku Nuku wonders what to do now."

"Well..." Akane smiled at her. "How about just try to be a normal girl? Or you could turn into a lunk-head like the lolicon."

"Who's a lolicon?" Ranma muttered before grinning. "Well, either way, we'll support you, Nuku."

"YAY!" Nuku Nuku jumped and threw her arms up in the air, causing an interesting reaction to happen to her chest. "I can't wait!"

Lilith sweat-dropped heavily. "I wonder if she speaks in first person just out of habit and doesn't really need to."

"Nyu?" Nuku tilted her head to the side in confusion.

(-)

Hours later...

"Ah! Akane!" Kodachi smiled as she saw her friend walking up to greet her. "You're right on time!"

Akane, dressed in casual pants and top, smiled at Kodachi, who was, much to her surprise, wearing form-fitting jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. "I'm surprised you're not wearing your school uniform or a leotard."

"Ohohohohohoho!" She put her hand over her mouth. "Perish the thought, I do have other outfits after all."

"Well, shall we?" Akane smiled as they walked towards the theater to see the movie. As they got close, they were surprised to see a girl of average height, wearing a magical girl outfit with her long black hair done up in twin pigtails looking somewhat sad.

"Oh, pooh! I had hoped my sister and her friend would come with, but 'no, I'm sorry, I'm busy', and I worked *SO* hard to get today off too! And finding a theater that sold the figurines was even harder! What am I supposed to do now? I have three tickets and I don't want to go alone, but going home would be so boring and too much work!" She crouched down and scratched her head. "ARRRGH! If only little Sona had decided to come here! I could have had so much fun and we could watch the movie and just forget about our duties for a few hours!"

"Um..." Akane spoke up, getting the girl to look up at her and Akane was surprised by the bright pink colored eyes that the girl had. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yes!" The girl immediately hopped to her feet. "I'm just so sad," she pouted and looked down like a small child, "I finally get a day off from work and I wanted to spend it with my baby sister and her best friend but they said no. I sometimes think that my little sister is embarrassed to be with me."

"Nonsense!" Kodachi snapped, causing the girl and Akane to look at her in surprise. "Even though siblings may argue, fight and sometimes be at each other's throats, you are still family and I'm sure that your younger sister loves you deeply but is at a stage where she wants to be her own person!"

The girl's eyes sparkled in delight. "You mean it?!" Her naturally high pitched voice squealed in delight. "You think that my little sister loves me?"

"Of course!" Kodachi nodded at the girl. "Why, my father and brother, as much as I disagree and argue with them on various things, are still my family and I still care about the two of them." After all, without her brother, she wouldn't have anyone to test some of her powders on and her father... Well, he was a loon and she was glad he was out of the country.

"I'm so glad I heard that. My name is Serafall Leviathan and I was wondering, are you going to see the magical girl movie too?"

"Well, yes." Akane smiled at her. "You just looked so sad that I had to see if you were okay."

Taking a pose, Serafall winked and Akane swore she saw a heart come out of the girl's eye. "I'm fine now! Come on! Let's go in! I want to get those limited edition magical girl figures before they sell out!" She wanted to hurry, after all, everywhere else in Japan had already sold out their stock of figurines and only this theater had extras.

Serafall wasn't sure why and she wasn't going to complain! If there were extras maybe she could get the whole set with one ticket?

(-)

Meanwhile at the Neko-Haten...

"So..." Ranma looked up from his spot at the counter and out to the city. "You felt that, right?"

"Of course, Master." Lilith muttered as she took a bite of her meal. "To make it worse, that's a Devil, a really high ranking one."

"What would a Devil want in Nerima, I wonder?"

"I hope you two aren't thinking of facing that Devil in a fight." Cologne said to them, thankful that there was no dinner rush yet. "From what I can tell this one's power far exceeds the two of you together."

"Yeah, that much is obvious." Ranma muttered as he turned to look at the old woman. "This feels way stronger than anything I've felt before, but..."

"It's not active." Cologne nodded to him. "In fact, none of us would know about this Devil if not for those wards you two put up across Nerima."

"We'll have to keep an eye on it, but this one doesn't seem hostile." Of course, if this one became hostile there was nothing any of them could do.

"Mousse..." Cologne turned to look at the boy. "How many sacred weapons do you have?"

"Around fifteen." He answered and Cologne nodded to him.

"Sacred weapons?" Ranma asked. "What are those?"

"Weapons that were gifted to humans by the gods to protect us." Cologne narrowed her eyes. "In terms of classification, they're weaker than Holy Weapons but stronger than Spirit Weapons."

"Spirit Weapons are mostly useless pieces of junk, except against spirit creatures such as Ghosts, Lesser Vampires or Zombies." Lilith supplied. "They can be useful for warding off low to mid-level magical attacks, but aren't really effective against Demons, Hanyou, Devils or the like."

"Sacred Weapons were made to protect humanity from Monsters and Demons," Cologne offered to him, "perhaps you've heard of the legend of Medusa?"

"Wasn't she turned to stone by looking at her own reflection?" Lilith asked, getting a nod from Cologne.

"The truth is, the shield used to turn her into stone had special properties to reflect magic, and that's why she was turned to stone." Cologne smiled, glad that they weren't totally ignorant of the legends of the world.

"And I guess Holy Weapons are the strongest of all?"

"Yes and no." Cologne admitted to him. "They're extremely effective against the likes of Devils, Demons and Fallen Angels, but are just powerful magical weapons against anything else." Of course, that was a very simplistic answer, but explaining everything would require an actual Holy Weapon or Longinus and she didn't have either one laying around.

"I take it even if you had a Holy Weapon you probably wouldn't take this one on, huh?" Ranma asked, getting a laugh from Cologne.

"Only if I was insane. No, I would need at least a hundred warriors with Holy Weapons to try and face this one down."

"Good to know."

"So we're just going to sit here and wait, huh?" Lilith sighed and went back to eating. "Well then, what did you want from us anyway?"

"I was wondering something, in all your travels, have you ever met a group of warriors with skill and power far beyond that of yourselves?"

"Other than the occasional Magical Girl or Devil Hunter, not really." Ranma shook his head. "None of them would be what I would call very skilled either. Why?"

"No real reason, just curious. There are fighters out there far stronger than I am after all." Cologne chuckled, causing Ranma to raise an eyebrow. "You seem unimpressed."

"Not really that, but I've been curious about how skilled you really are. Your aura's pretty compact."

"I, unfortunately, have to use my aura to keep myself going, so using high level techniques like crazy isn't something that's available to me like it was when I was in my prime." Cologne shook her head and sighed. "Oh well, if you wanted to challenge me, sonny, feel free to do so at any time."

Ranma gave her a grin and stood up. "Well, if you're free..."

Lilith rolled her eyes as Ranma and Cologne went outside. She knew her Master was strong, but she wondered just how good Cologne really was. Oh well, she'd find out later.

Still, something had been bothering her for some time and she really needed to get a handle on it sooner or later.

"We're going to have to have a talk sooner or later..."

(-)

Sitting in the dojo at his mansion, Tatewaki Kuno was in deep thought. "Hmm, original recipe or extra crispy? Which would be best to order for tonight?"

Or not.

"Ugh, really?" A female voice groused, causing Kuno to look up in surprise. Adjusting her hood, Bulleta's had a severe eye-twitch. "Couldn't you order something that isn't so greasy that I'd rather wash my hands in a river of blood than eat it."

"But it is delicious."

"Not denying it! Now where is that idiot, Ryoga?" She blinked as Kuno jerked a thumb into the corner and saw Ryoga looking at the wall in confusion. "HEY! RYOGA!"

"Huh?" The Lost Boy turned and blinked in surprise. "Kuno? Bulleta? Why are you two in Hiroshima?"

"He walked in a few minutes ago." Kuno supplied for Bulleta.

"Well, that explains why the crazy girl in the power armor and that redhead aren't fighting over that blonde loli anymore." Ryoga scratched the back of his head and laughed softly.

"Lovely, well I'm glad you're both here. I actually got a hold of one of my Devil Hunter contacts and he should..." She trailed off as she felt a presence enter the building. "Be here right now actually."

Walking in, both Ryoga and Kuno stared at the tall, dark skinned man in a robe with one arm exposed, as he walked in. The sense of power coming from the man was intense, as was his focus. But what really drew their attention was the large sword on his back.

Or maybe the little girl on his shoulder, they weren't sure which.

"These are the two you wanted me to look at, B.B. Hood?"

"Yeah, Donovan, they're the ones."

"Interesting," he looked them over as Kuno stood up. "They're far too weak to do anything."

"And that's why I called you."

Popping his neck, Donovan took a stance in front of them. "Both of you, attack me at once. We'll go until I say stop, or if you make me use this Sacred Sword on my back." The girl on his shoulder jumped off and ran off to the side. "Now come, let's see what I've got to work with."

The two charged him, Ryoga reaching him first. Throwing a punch at Donovan's mid-section, he was shocked when the man grabbed it with his right hand and squeezed, spinning around and throwing his left hand up to grab Kuno's wooden sword between his index and middle finger. "Is this really all you two have?"

"Not even close!" Ryoga didn't even bother pulling his hand back, he jumped at Donovan and sent a kick towards the taller man's head, but Donovan let go of his hand and moved his suddenly free hand up and redirected the blow away from him, sending Ryoga sailing off to the side.

As he tumbled through the air, Ryoga let out a yell and fired a Chi blast at the man, catching him by surprise.

Kuno was even more surprised when Donovan swung him in front of the blast and used him to stop the attack. Letting go of his sword, he fell to the ground with a thud, whimpering out a pained "owwie".

Flipping Kuno's sword around, Donovan held it by the hilt as he watched Ryoga flip in mid-air, land on the wall and bound right back at him. Seeing the sword in Donovan's hands, Ryoga snorted and pulled off a bandanna, and another, and another, before spinning them around and throwing them at the man. "Take this!"

"Interesting, so you can use Chi for more than just energy blasts, I'm impressed." Donovan could admit that much at least. "However!" A blue glow covered the wooden sword, much to Ryoga's shock and with a quick flick of his wrists, the bandannas turned into scraps of cloth. "The weakness of powering anything with Chi or other energy is that someone who knows how to do the same can counter it with a touch." It was useless against a living body as the energy flows were chaotic and always moving, but in any non-living object, such as a belt, sword or even bandanna, the amount of energy they could hold was limited and set for what the user wanted out of it.

"Good to know!" Ryoga grabbed at the back of his bandanna with both hands and pulled to the side, revealing a bandanna between each of his fingers, eight in total. "Now eat this!"

"Fool." Donovan muttered and stiffened as he felt something wrap around his legs. Looking down, he was surprised Kuno was looking up at him.

"That... Did... Not... Hurt!"

"Feh!" Donovan threw his arm in an arc, slicing through the bandannas with ease. "What was..." He let out a grunt as Ryoga barreled into him, both feet extended and sending him crashing into the floor and across the dojo.

"Did we get him?"

"Impressive teamwork." Donovan stood up, dusting himself off. "You two have more potential than I thought." He gave them a small grin. "This might be somewhat fun." He tossed the sword back to Kuno and turned his back on them. "Very well, I shall help you two realize your real potential."

This could be... Fun.

(-)

"Master?" Lilith, completely naked, asked as she rubbed his back down. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ranma groaned as she found a tense spot. "That old ghoul's pretty good. That punching technique was kind of neat." He'd have to practice, but he already figured out the basics just from having it used on him, besides, he was pretty fast already, he'd just have to find a training method to increase his speed. "But that tornado attack. She punched my aura, I have no clue how, but it was like they clashed and the tornado was just a by-product of it."

"And you said it felt like she turned your aura against you?" Lilith asked, getting a nod from her Master. "Hmm, not something I know much about, you're probably going to need to get hit by it again."

"Yeah... Right."

"Master?" Lilith pouted as she realized he was asleep. "Well, if he's asleep, he can't say no, and I'm a bit hungry right now." She grinned, got off of him and rolled him over. "Time to eat!" She cheered as she undid his pants.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"It's finished." The old blacksmith looked at Bishamon. The armor had been finished for over a month now, but the Pasha sword he had been working on had taken some time. "I still have no idea what you can use this for. There are plenty of cursed swords that can cut a person's soul instead of their body out there."

The woman spirit in the armor giggled as she took the sword. It was a firangi in design, with a three foot double-edged blade. People who didn't know better would confuse it with European or American Calvary swords.

"Excellent." Bishamon took the sheath that was offered and put the sword away. "I would have liked a smaller sword, but this will work for what I need for now." Turning and walking to the door, the armor stopped and turned to look back at the old man. "Just one question, do you know where one might find a sword that can cut anything?"

"Not at all, if there was one, it's probably being held by the Church."

"Very well, thank you anyway." Walking out the door, the armor disappeared into the morning mists.

Shivering, the old man wondered just what the armor was doing gathering up swords. "Oh well, it's not my place to know."

Serafall Leviathan comes from the anime High School DxD.

Yes, that's the next crossover.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you figured it out before getting here.

As for the blacksmith... Distantly related to but completely distinct from a certain blacksmith that served a certain dog Demon and his two sons.