Dance With the Devil

After Prologue

Disclaimer: I own none of the series involved, for if I did there would be a lot more sex.

Arc is named "After" because it's After Kyoto.

I REALLY should have named this one better.

Review answer time:

Mr. Haziq: Yes

Holyknight5: If not for Lilith's intervention on this, well... There'd be more than a few brats running around. XD

TheB: ...Yes.

Armiture: Well, why not have so many orgasms? XD

spiracus: That would be scary.

Prologue

"Hey, what do you got there?" Ranma asked as he and Kunou walked into the Occult Research Club. Sitting at the desk, Azazel was looking at some sort of large knife. "I didn't think weapons were allowed on campus."

"Yet we allow you, Issei, Rias, Akeno, Saji and Lilith to come here." Azazel smirked at him. "Anyway, this is my perfected Artificial Sacred Gear." He was a little disappointed that it wouldn't work with his Downfall Dragon Spear, but he just needed to do some tweaks and his original artificial Sacred Gear would be a proper Sacred Gear. "Unlike the Downfall Dragon Spear, this doesn't put excessive wear and tear on the body and doesn't wear the user out simply for using it. Sadly, right now it's just a fancy paperweight. Well, more like fancy letter opener."

"Unless you needed to go hunting." Ranma looked at it. "I think some American army guys once showed me one of their hunting knives, it looked a lot like that." From what he could remember, those knives were useful for stabbing, cleaning scales off of fish, gutting dead animals, skinning their fur, cutting away small branches and more.

"Oh?" Azazel raised an eyebrow and looked at it. "A hunting knife, huh?"

"Yeah, useful for a lot, can be used for skinning and cleaning animals, cooking and other stuff."

"Neat!" Azazel smiled, he'd have to try it the next time he went fishing. "Anyway, that's all it is, without a spirit or something, it's not very useful outside of being a knife."

"...ng it w..."

Ranma blinked, wondering why he heard that voice again before suddenly remembering he needed to ask Nabiki to look at Nepal for him. "Well, if you're not going to use it, can I have it?" Azazel gave him a surprised look. "...What? Everyone else has a fancy Sacred Gear these days, why can't I have one? Besides, you said it yourself, it's kind of useless right now."

"A little jealous of Issei, are we?" Azazel chuckled in amusement as Ranma scratched his cheek.

"Not really, I don't like power that's just handed to me. I only took on that King's piece because Nabiki needed help, I even sealed it away."

"So..."

Ranma sighed and shook his head. "It's not like I need it, but after the debacle in Kyoto, it feels like there's a Sacred Gear Balance Breaker Bargain Sale going on. I'm shocked that neither Asia nor Gasper have Balance Breakers yet."

Azazel shrugged at that. "Each Sacred Gear is different. Saji hasn't unlocked his true Balance Breaker yet, if that makes you feel better. But trust me, I get the desire to have one. It's part of the reason why I started researching them." Flipping the knife over, he held it by its blade. "Tell you what, if you want this, catch it." Ignoring Kunou's yell of shock, Azazel threw it at Ranma, who simply held up his hand and caught it between his index and middle fingers. "...If you had dodged, I wouldn't have let you have it."

"And if I got hurt?" Ranma asked as he flipped the blade over. "Got a sheath for this?"

"Nope." Azazel chuckled as Ranma rolled his eyes and made the Artificial Sacred Gear disappear. "But I knew you could do that, so I wasn't worried about it. After all, can't you catch rotten fruit and throw it without breaking it?"

"Kiba told you, huh?" Ranma asked, getting a nod from Azazel. "Anyway, how do you like your first day of school, kiddo?" He asked Kunou, who's eyes suddenly lit up happily.

"It was great! Some of the kids were a bit pushy, but I had lots of fun in class."

"That's good." Ranma looked up as Irina walked into the room. "Ah, you're here."

She smiled at him and held up a pile of notes. "Well, if we're going to get you caught up I thought I'd hurry here and help you out."

Ranma shrugged, he had no problem with that. "Alright, sure, I was a bit confused in math class today."

Azazel smiled as he watched Irina and Ranma compare notes and go over stuff that had been learned in class while Kunou pulled out some of her own homework. He had never had kids, despite having over a thousand harems in all of his life, so seeing this was rather relaxing for him. 'It's probably why I pick up strays like Vali all the time.' Privately he wondered what his adopted son was up to.

(-)

"ACHOO!" Vali shook his head and sniffled. "Sorry about that, but are you sure, Le Fay?"

"Uh huh!" The blonde witch pouted and scuffed her foot on the ground. "My poor widdle Goggy Woggy got stolen away from me in Kyoto and I can't find it."

Vali frowned. Le Fay was a very skilled magic user, he knew of only a few, Georg and Mephisto both came to mind quickly as being in her league, that could surpass her in ability. To have her say that she couldn't find the Gogmagog he had dug up was... Disconcerting. "Hmm, you said it was Jedah?" When she nodded, he sighed. "I guess it's time to talk to our benefactor then. I'm getting a little worried about Ophis, I haven't seen her in awhile."

"So that's what's going to happen now, huh?" Kuroka said as she walked up to the two of them, with Bikou and Arthur following behind her. "You think that Jedah has done something untoward Ophis or something?"

Vali scoffed, that Devil was strong, easily on par with any of the four Devil Kings, but he was nothing compared to the likes of Ophis. "I'm more interested in why he took Gogmagog myself, or why he finally made himself public in Kyoto."

"Should we just show up out of nowhere?" Arthur asked as he adjusted his glasses. "Even with my abilities it might be hard to bypass his defenses, and as much as it pains me to admit it, I have no idea where Makai is in relation to our world, so getting there is next to impossible."

"We could ask the Vampires." Bikou suggested. "They might know. Or perhaps we can head to England and see if B.B. Hood is in, she's been to Makai."

The entire group grimaced at the thought of dealing with B.B. Hood, but as one of the few people that had managed to get to Makai and come back alive, she was a solid bet for getting to the Demon Realm.

"I think I'll just see if I can't contact him first." Vali muttered, not wanting to deal with B.B. Hood. He had met her once in his life and the resulting fallout from that meeting had him deciding that he never wanted to be on the same continent as the blonde gun nut.

(-)

"Hmm?" Jedah blinked as a screen popped up showing Vali, Bikou, Kuroka, La Fey and Arthur. "Ah, White Dragon Emperor, what do I owe the honor of this call?" He asked and leaned back in his chair.

"Where's my poor widdle Goggy Woggy!?" Le Fay yelled, pouting in such a way that Jedah actually found her adorable.

"Goggy..." Jedah muttered softly before his eyes lit up. "Oh! You mean that weapon I took from Kyoto? I'm simply studying it. It's just fascinating what the Ancient Gods created to fight for them." Sadly, as big as it was, he couldn't have Akane make a copy of it. That was actually pretty sad. "I have no problem returning it right now, but I'd like to have a chance to look it over more fully.

"I, however, am curious about where Ophis is." Vali narrowed his eyes at the blue Devil. "We've lost contact with her sometime ago and that's not like her."

"She's simply visiting Makai, saying that she wanted to see what the Demon Realm was like." Jedah gave him a disarming smile. "She'll be back when she's done with her tour." A beeping sound caught his attention and he looked to the side. "Well, as much as I would love to continue this conversation, White Dragon Emperor, I have a call that I can't ignore, have a good day." Before he cut the call off, he gave a small grin. "Just so you know, I've heard that someone of great interest to you will be in Eastern Europe in a little over a month from now." Vali raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you want to know, you'll have to wait until then to find out, won't you?"

The screen cut off and Jedah had a nasty smirk on his face. "Well then, that's one more piece to this game. I wonder what you'll do next, oh son of Satan." Chuckling, he pressed the button and watched as a new screen lit up with a message on it. "Excellent. Time for part two." Oh he still had things he had to do, but things were getting interesting now.

In a black flash, he was gone.

(-)

Back in Kuoh City...

"I can't believe a new food place opened up a few days ago." Rias said as she, Koneko and Akeno walked into the club room.

"What's this about a food place?" Kunou asked.

"Some new place opened up, I went there a couple of days ago with Akeno and Issei, they serve really delicious food." Koneko said. "It's run by two people, but they're able to keep up with lots of orders at once."

"Oh?" Azazel's eyes lit up. "I've been getting tired of instant cup ramen lately, so what food do they serve?"

"Okonomiyaki."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"They're all gone..." A young woman wearing a badly torn red dress that was holding on by threads but doing nothing to cover her torn bra and panties held a black sword with an axe blade near the hilt slumped to her knees. 'Damn Youkai.' She couldn't believe it, even after everything they had gone though, everything she had trained for in her life, what good was it now? She looked up and saw her best friend, her cousin, her mother, her grandmother and a couple of others, all frozen as stone statues. "Now what?" The attack had come out of nowhere when her cousin had come to visit. She hadn't thought much of the Youkai at first, seeing as it wasn't that strong, but then it revealed a frightening power. "So why aren't they turning back?!"

"Simple." A male voice spoke up and she jumped up, her body trembling from how tired she was, and pointed the sword in her hands at the person who appeared behind her. "Lower your weapon, hunter." The tall, blue-skinned creature in front of her said as he held his hands up in a non-threatening manner. "Had I wished to kill you, I could have done so when you were on your knees." Seeing her glare intensify, he chuckled. "There's no doubt that you could kill me with that sword. Ages of your family slaying Devils, Demons and Youkai has given you tremendous affinity for doing such."

She snarled at him. "Even if it won't bring them back, one less Devil in this world is always a good thing!" Squeezing her hands around the hilt, she charged forward.

"But I know who's responsible for your family being frozen." He smirked as she practically stumbled to stop herself. "And I know how to undo the curse."

"You do?" She asked, looking at him wearily.

"Another Devil, one who, I admit, is far more dangerous than I care to like, plus his power goes beyond mine, is the culprit responsible for this." The Devil sighed and shook his head. "The truth is, he's a threat to myself and the rest of the world the longer that he walks freely."

"And why should I believe you? And who are you?"

The Devil grinned at her. "My name is Jedah Dohma. The Devil responsible for this is known as Rizevim Lucifer, the son of Satan himself. He cares nothing for anything but his own selfish desires of carnage and destruction. To him," Jedah looked at the frozen statues, "this was simply fun because he could do it."

"Thank you for telling me, now where can I find him?" When Jedah chuckled, she glared at him. "What?"

"The instant I tell you that, you would kill me. And, no," he held up a hand to stop her protests, "as you are now, he would sense you coming and strike you down before you could get close." Snapping his fingers, a red and black hooded cloak and a red hockey mask with black lines under the eye sockets appeared. "These will hide your power and any sort of killing intent you would have towards him."

Smirking as he turned to leave, Jedah threw a piece of paper on top of the mask. "That flyer will let you contact me if you want to find him."

"Tell me something, Devil." The hunter narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you get out of this?"

"If you kill him, that's one less powerful enemy that I have to deal with. If he kills you, well, that's one less powerful enemy that I have to deal with." Jedah looked back at her, chuckling. "Either way, I win. If you want to stop him, you best make up your mind. You have two weeks, afterwords I assume that you've given up."

Watching him disappear in a black flash while laughing, the Devil Hunter slumped to her knees and trembled. 'What should I do?' Working with Jedah would get her what she wanted, but he was a Devil, how could she work with them on this? He even admitted that he would prefer if she died.

"This sucks."

Sadly my writing took a HUGE hit in the past month. My car broke down (transmission), the weather's been really crappy and my grandmother had a mild stroke (she's okay for going through that though and is at home, thank god!) So, life sucks.

I have, however, gotten over most of it and am getting back to writing again.