Dance With the Devil
I don't own anything, tis a shame.
Tentacle Trouble
Chapter 7
Groaning as he walked to school, Issei rubbed his forehead and fought back a yawn. "Can we just skip today?"
"The house is completely destroyed," Rias, who was looking exhausted, muttered. "Beyond the fight there was the fact that..."
"Best sex ever." Akeno said, a larger grin than usual on her face. If not for the stray hairs sticking out at various places, no one would be able to tell anything was wrong with her. "Koneko, are you okay?" She asked as she looked at the smallest member, who was walking next to her.
Koneko walked next to Akeno and gave the taller girl a brief nod. "Y-mrew-yes." She answered after a few moments and twitched. "...I'm skipping gym."
"I don't blame you there." Xenovia muttered as she fought back a yawn. "I know some stretches you can do to help you with any cramps." Koneko nodded and Xenovia turned to Asia, who had a dreamy smile on her face even if she looked like she was about to pass out at any moment. "Can't believe how long it took to work that stuff through our systems."
"I think I understand why Lilith didn't want to go to the Shikima realm now. Or why we were warned not to go with." Rias muttered and twitched. "And why Bulleta gave us that warning about that stuff." She shrugged at Issei's confused look. "It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Lilith, Bulleta and Ranma go to a realm with tentacle monsters, suddenly demonic rats with tentacles attack and Diodora somehow had come back to life with tentacle powers."
"...Good point." Issei nodded and stumbled as his legs trembled and nearly gave out on him. "I think I need a couple of days to fully recharge." As pleasurable as the orgy was, it did start to hurt after a while, and he really felt drained and numb.
"So do we." The girls all said at the same time.
"No offense, Issei," Asia smiled at him as he looked at her. "If you tried again tonight, I'd have to say no. I'm really sore."
"Told you boosting to keep going was a bad idea." D'raig grumbled from Issei's left hand. "It's probably a good idea for all of you to take the rest of the week to recover. And don't use me for such perverted things ever again!"
Issei twitched and nodded. "...I can agree to that."
"Perv alert." Koneko muttered and pointed ahead as they came across Motohama and Matsuda. "Keep the lolicon away from me." It wasn't that she couldn't beat him up if she had to, but she wasn't sure that she could get away if he tried to grab her that morning.
"I'll see what I can do." Issei muttered as he walked up to his two oldest friends at the school. "Hey guys, what's..." He trailed off as they turned to look at him. "...What happened to you? Peep on the volleyball team?" The two had some bad bruises on their faces and they looked completely drained.
"I don't know." Motohama groaned as he adjusted his glasses. "I feel like something weird happened last night. I remember going outside and then, nothing. It's like I had a bad dream or something."
"I swear, I heard something crazy going on outside." Matsuda said as he frowned. "I go outside and look around and then..."
"...Maybe you should lay off fast food before you go to bed." Issei suggested. "Maybe you had some sort of bad dream, woke up in a hurry and crashed into your nightstand or something?"
"Maybe." Motohama groaned as he scratched his head. "But I swear something was going on. Anyway, I'm going to go get some bandages from the new nurse."
Issei and the girls tilted their heads as the two started to grin. "...New school nurse?" Rias asked in confusion, and they nodded. "We'll have to check it out later, would you two be so kind as to let us pass?" The two nodded and let them pass. "We need to talk to Azazel in the club room." She said in a low tone that only her peerage could hear, getting nods from the others. "I'll give..." Rias trailed off as she saw Kiba walking into the school. "Never mind, there he is. Akeno, could you make sure to get Sona, we're going to need to talk to her as well."
"Of course." Akeno said while her smile never left her face.
(-)
Later...
"So that's what happened last night." Azazel said as he, Sona and Tsubaki listened to the events that happened the night before. "That would explain a few things."
"I'm worried that there are still those tentacle rats running around." Rias said, getting a nod from Azazel.
"Don't worry, princess." The Fallen Angel smiled at her. "I've been doing this for a long time now, I've already contacted some sweepers to go around the city to make sure that none of the little bastards are still around." He looked to the door as someone knocked before it opened to reveal Nabiki. "Well, maybe we don't need to do much in terms of sweeping if miss Tendo is here."
"I'm exhausted from the trip back from Nerima." Nabiki yawned, thankful for teleportation magic, but that didn't make it any less tiring. "I think you're either talking about those Shikima rats that appeared last night, the slimes that appeared right around dawn or the onion people." Nabiki, who looked extremely exhausted, muttered in annoyance. "Don't ask about the onion people. Someone was practicing alchemy in an apartment and somehow brought ten onions to life."
"...How?" Sona asked, utter befuddlement on her face.
"There are lots of idiots who find random magic artifacts that barely do anything and somehow manage to make them into dangerous super weapons." Azazel said, rubbing his forehead. "Please tell me that the onion people were taken care of."
"Yes, but Yohko, Atsuko and Kunou are going to be at home most of the day cleaning themselves to kill the stench." Nabiki informed him. "As for the slimes... It's someone's idea of a prank." She rolled her eyes at the confused looks. "The guy who taught Ranma magic, he likes to do weird things as pranks and dropped off some slimes. They've been taken care of." Ravel, Leonardo and Mittelt were pretty good at keeping those slimes from touching them, which was the only reason Nabiki had them deal with the slimes.
"Slimes as pranks?" Sona asked with disbelief in her voice.
"At least he didn't make it rain random food." Nabiki quipped while giggling at their expressions. "Anyway, so what's the problem in town?"
"These things." Azazel said as he held up a clear box that had a rat inside of it. The rat looked around, squealed loudly and launched several tentacles at the box, only to have them bounce off it harmlessly. "This was captured by Gasper last night."
"Is Gaspy okay?" Koneko asked and looked to the door as it opened, showing a tired Gasper walking in. "Gaspy. Are you okay?"
"I stayed up until five in the morning trying to capture that rat." Gasper said as he walked to the back of the club room and pulled down the wall bed before crawling in. "Can I skip school today?"
"No, but you can get a couple of hours of sleep." Rias told him.
"Thank you." Gasper yawned as he curled up on the blankets and started to lightly snore.
After it was obvious that Gasper was completely out of it, Azazel chuckled, drawing attention to him. "He's going to be out for the rest of the day." The Fallen Angel smirked at Rias, who nodded. "Why tell him only a couple of hours then?"
"Wanted to make sure he was really tired and not just trying to get a day off from school." Rias answered him.
"You mean like you tried once when you were a little girl?" Akeno asked, giggling in amusement, much to Rias's annoyance. "You stayed up one night, all night, and then when your servants came to get you, you were like "I don't feel good" and got to stay home and all you did was sleep in the morning and play games all afternoon."
Rias crossed her arms under her breasts and huffed as the others looked at her in amusement. "I'll have you know that I was sufficiently punished for that little stunt, and I've never done it again."
Issei just gave Rias a look of bewildered amusement. "...And here I thought you were a perfect girl growing up." He looked at Akeno as she laughed. "Akeno?"
"I can tell you all sorts of silly things that Rias did when we were children." She winked at Issei, causing Rias to spin and give Akeno a glare. "Oh? What's wrong, Rias?"
"Don't you dare!" Rias looked like she was about to pounce on Akeno when Nabiki stepped in front of her. "Nabiki?"
"I've seen enough catfights to know that this won't be pretty." The brunette looked back at Gasper, who had rolled over and was mumbling something about not wanting garlic bread. "And we've got a sleepy kid, how about you two keep your spat in check until you're wearing white t-shirts and bikini bottoms and are at the pool?"
More than one person perked up at the thought of Rias and Akeno in white t-shirts fighting in the pool.
While Issei openly grinned at the thought, Sona rolled her eyes while Azazel coughed into his fist. "Well, that's enough of that. If you're wondering about Miss Rossweisse, she was in the teacher's lounge drinking three pots of coffee when I came in." Everyone gave him a surprised look. "After the third pot, she turned into a jittery mess and the last time I saw her, she was doing cartwheels in the gym."
"I hope she's okay." Kiba muttered.
(-)
In the gym...
"ATATATATATA!" Rossweisse, dressed in spandex shorts and a tank top, yelled as she punched a full body punching bag.
Many times, in rapid succession.
Several of the volleyball team watched on in awe.
"...How many times has she hit that thing?" One of them, a girl with brown pigtails asked another one.
The other girl shook her head. "I lost count after the twenty-second punch."
There was a tearing sound as the bag broke apart and the stuffing fell out, covering the floor.
"ANOTHER!" Rossweisse yelled as she yanked the bag off and threw it into a pile of four other bags while grabbing another punching bag and putting it up.
"The janitors are not going to be happy today." A third girl muttered.
"At least the weather's nice for outdoor gym." A fourth girl said as Rossweisse got back to punching the bags.
(-)
"I'm sure she'll be fine." Azazel reassured Kiba. He cupped his chin and looked at the rat in the box. "So, what do you know about these things, Miss Tendo?"
"They're basically the lowest form of life in the Shikima Realm." Nabiki answered him. "Sadly, that's all I know." She shrugged at the looks she got. "I may have omniscience, but I need to turn it on to see things and you know what happens if I leave it on for too long."
"I thought the Grigori took care of that?" Issei asked her.
"What they did was keep me from being overwhelmed quickly." Nabiki clarified for him. "Doesn't stop information overload if it's on for too long. Fortunately, all it does is make me sleep for half a day." She rolled her eyes at the confusion Issei gave her. "Omniscience, remember? God's Eye can tell me anything I want to know, even all its little secrets, tricks and drawbacks. I can leave it on for a good length of time, but it's best to use in small bursts. Anything else you want to know?"
"...Is Irina okay?" Issei asked, genuine concern in his voice. "She had to go to Heaven because of the attack last night."
"Well, that I don't need to use my Balance Break for." Nabiki said as her eyes flashed for a moment. "Well, she's currently naked in some sort of bath with a bunch of healing energy around it."
"Purification chambers." Azazel offered for the others. "Back when I was still in Heaven, there were purification chambers to stop thoughts of lust, anger and other thoughts from bothering you, cleanse your spirit of corruption magic and other things that could get you to turn against your role in the universe." A serious look came to his face and he sighed. "If Miss Irina needs to be in one of those, I'm worried that she may be losing herself to whatever that slime was that affected all of you last night."
A flash and several screens appeared in front of Nabiki as she tapped on some holographic keys. "What? My Balance Break can be used in other ways. I just thought we should talk to someone who can get us more direct knowledge." She shrugged as a monstrous male figure in bandages appeared in front of them. "King Sekima, I assume?"
"Hmm?" The Shikima King blinked in surprise. "Who might you be?"
"I'm Nabiki Tendo, speaking on behalf of Lilith Aensland, who was sent to your realm a bit ago."
The large, muscular Demon's face showed clarity as he heard that. "Ah, yes, the Succubus Queen was here a bit ago, along with a couple of other people." He nodded and showed discomfort on his face. "What do I owe the privilege of this call?"
"Why did she say she was speaking on behalf of Lilith?" Issei whispered to Azazel.
"The Aensland family is one of the three rulers of Makai." Azazel whispered back to him. "Even if King Sekima knew Ranma's name, the Aensland name carries a lot more weight with Demons." Issei nodded, that made sense to him.
"I'll leave that to you, Azazel." Nabiki said as she directed the screen over to the Fallen Angel leader.
"Gee, thanks." Azazel rolled his eyes. "King Sekima, my name is Azazel, former leader of the Fallen Angels and an adviser to Lilith Aensland among others. After Lilith Aensland and the two others who went with her, went to your realm, myself and several others were attacked by rats with tentacles and I have it on good authority that they're Shikima rats."
"Shikima rats?" Sekima asked and he nodded as he saw the box in Azazel's hand. "Ah yes, those things. Annoying creatures, useful for very little other than cleaning up after we're done with women." He tilted his head in confusion at the raised eyebrow from Azazel. "I take it that you don't believe me?"
"Considering that many people who were attacked last night were women, many of whom complained about losing their strength while tentacles felt their bodies and apparently tried to rape them..." Azazel trailed off, his eyes narrowing. "King Sekima, I am many things, but allowing my charges to suffer through that without some sort of..." He trailed off as Sekima started to chuckle. "What's so funny?"
"Well, for one, Shikima rats can't actually penetrate anyone." If there had been music playing, a record scratch would have been heard as it stopped. "While it is true that they sap your strength while grappling you, they're merely going for your body fluids. Sweat, cum, urine, saliva, they want it all."
"What do you mean they can't penetrate anyone?" Azazel asked in confusion. "You'd think they'd be able to with all those tentacles?"
"They're closer to octopi from Earth than a Shikima, really." Nabiki spoke up as she looked at a separate screen. A large sweat-drop appeared on her head as her head slumped down in disbelief. "...They barely have any intelligence and only look to feed on fluids?"
"It's... Quite a disappointment." King Sekima said somberly. "The fact that they are tentacle monsters and can't actually figure out how to penetrate anything!" His somber expression melted as he showed true despair and threw his good arm over his eyes. "It's enough to make a grown Shikima cry!"
"...Then how were there so many?" Akeno asked Nabiki as she and the others all had completely bewildered looks on their faces.
"Apparently they were created by a magic user in Europe in 1352 as a way to try and end the Black Plague." Nabiki said as she looked over the data and tilted her head. "They reproduce by simply absorbing enough fluids?!"
"They're supposed to be a waste disposal unit?!" More than one person yelled at the same time, causing Gasper to groan and roll over on the bed, grabbing blankets and rolling over and turning himself into a blanket burrito.
"And the reason they have tentacles is probably because they're in the Shikima realm, huh?" Azazel asked King Sekima, who nodded as he pulled his arm down. "That's... One of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard."
"About par for the course for my life." Nabiki shook her head. "We had a ghost cat, there's the giant animals my sister almost got killed by as a child and other silliness where I lived." She ignored the looks of amusement she got and glanced at a small screen. "Looks like Ranma and the others are back."
"Hmm?" Sekima looked up as he saw several people walk in. "Ah, my wife, you weren't too bothered, I hope."
Maria sighed and ran a hand through her blue hair. "Oh, you know how it goes, honey. Captured by some bastard, tied up, tentacles and lots of sex followed. Just another Wednesday."
Sekima nodded while Yaku, who was walking in with a fresh change of bandages, nearly fell over in surprise while the others sweat-dropped.
"I'd make a snarky comment about how normal that is for her," Bulleta sighed, "but we did just have an orgy outdoors with a bunch of dead Shikima demons laying around us." She looked behind her as Lilith walked behind them. "Where are...?"
"While you were distracted by limping while your body healed, I sent Ukyou and Konastu back to Japan." Lilith told her. Only reason that Ukyou isn't dead is out of respect for the girl's previous relationship with Master and Konastu probably needs to work out a few things..." After all, she couldn't imagine it was easy for someone who just turned into a girl to be introduced to sex like that. 'Then again, she was trained in sexcraft, so I'm sure that she'll be fine.'
(-)
In Japan...
Ukyou sweat-dropped as she watched Konastu fondling herself. "Um, Konastu, honey, please stop that."
"But Ukyou-sama!" The transformed ninja pouted. "I have boobs! Real boobs! ...What am I supposed to do with my boobie bombs now?"
Ukyou sweat-dropped as she remembered that Konastu always wore those exploding fake breasts on her when she was a guy. "Um... We'll have to figure something out."
"Hmm, perhaps instead of dangerous powder, I can have poisoned senbon needles explode from my chest when I'm grabbed inappropriately?" Konastu hummed while she squeezed her own boobs. "What do you think, Ukyou-sama?"
Ukyou sighed and let out of mushroom puff. "I'm more worried about the fact that you were just turned into a girl, almost got tentacle raped, partook in an orgy with a guy that I almost killed a short while ago and now you're contemplating what kinds of weapons you should hide in your bra."
"Ooooh!" The genderswapped ninja's eyes lit up. "I can finally shop for a bra for my boobs instead of one to hold exploding powder bombs!" She stopped playing with her breasts as she clasped her hands in front of her. "Can we go clothes shopping together? I'd love to get some really cute bra and panties."
Ukyou was about to comment but she just smiled and nodded. "Sure, anything to take my mind off of what's going on."
"YAY!" Konastu suddenly glomped Ukyou. "You're the best, Ukyou-sama!" Letting go of the hug, she pointed in a random direction and started marching. "Onwards! For cute underwear!"
Ukyou could only smile in bemusement. 'Still, this day is weird, I guess having some normal things to do isn't bad.'
(-)
"So..." Ranma looked at the screens where Azazel and Nabiki's faces were showing. "Did something happen?"
"Oh, you know," Azazel smiled at him. "Just an invasion of tentacle rats from the realm you're currently in, a dead enemy coming back to life, lots of slime. A typical Wednesday, really."
"Ah, that makes sense." Ranma nodded in agreement.
"Actually, I have a question," Issei appeared on screen where Azazel was at, "my friend, Irina Shidou, was apparently slimed by those Shikima rats. She's an Angel..." He trailed off at Sekima's disturbed look. "What?"
"Well, I hope she's prepared to become a Fallen Angel then." Sekima told Issei. "Even if those rats can't penetrate anyone, the slime is still like what we Shikima have. And for Angels, it'll be a toxic poison that will rot and corrupt her."
"I'm sure that she'll be fine." Azazel spoke up. "Those purification chambers should be more than enough to get the lust out of her system."
"I won't argue with you." Sekima said, "I just hope for her sake that they can neutralize it."
Nabiki tilted her head as her eyes seemed to flash purple. "...Ranma... What did you do? You seem different to me." She furrowed her eyes as she looked at him in confusion. "I should have looked into what was going on, but what happened to you?"
"Oh, you know," Ranma brushed it off, "got caught by tentacles while in my female form, decided that I wanted to end things early, so I used my Sacred Gear and..." He trailed off at the look Nabiki gave him. "Hey, it's not my fault, the thing had several Twice Criticals on it! Like twenty of those things."
Nabiki's eye twitched as she realized exactly what Ranma was talking about. "You used... THAT Sacred Gear?!" Ranma nodded and Nabiki let out a scream. "YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU KNOW THAT THING IS DANGEROUS!"
"Well, I tried using some of my spells, but it used..." Ranma sighed at the look that Nabiki was giving him. "Yeah, it doesn't make it better, does it?"
"No, it doesn't." Nabiki said as she calmed down. "Please tell me that you didn't go on a complete rampage."
"For those of us who don't know," Azazel spoke up as he looked behind him and chuckled, "which is most of us, what's so scary about his Sacred Gear, and I assume it's his Irregular Sacred Gear?"
"It's linked to the original Asmodeus. You know, the Devil that thought a good time in bed involved candles, firecrackers, light fixtures, a fish and poisoned needles." Nabiki said while most everyone around her gave her a confused look.
"...I don't want to know what the fish was for, do I?" Azazel asked and Nabiki shook her head. "Okay, so I can see how that could be..."
"I'm also bonded to Lilith." Ranma interrupted Azazel. "So, what happens if the Great Devil King known for perversion meets a Succubus and melds together?"
"Oh dear," Sekima stroked his chin. "I assume that's why you were in an orgy with him, my dear?"
"He reminded me of when you were younger. Just with less penetration everywhere." Maria giggled softly by his side. "But don't worry, even if he reminded me of you, I'm not leaving you."
"I wasn't worried about that." Sekima chuckled in amusement as he pulled her up and kissed her.
"Ignoring the lovebirds..." Azazel said as he looked at Nabiki. "How dangerous is that?"
"An out-of-control Succubus... Or Incubus, depending on which gender he's in." Nabiki explained. "Able to drain a person's life or soul with a kiss, hypnosis and everything that powerful Succubi can do."
"Only reason I don't drain people," Lilith spoke up, "is because of Master. Something I had no clue about, but his Sacred Gear protects him from my draining powers. According to Genma, even his master, Happosai, is terrified of creatures like me, simply because I could turn him or anyone into a dried-out husk with a kiss."
"And ever since the bonding," Ranma shrugged, "apparently my Sacred Gear bleeds into her. Soul merging is fun!" He said sarcastically while giving a thumbs up. "Look, I wanted to end things fast and most of what I had wasn't useful against tentacle monsters, okay?"
Nabiki sighed and nodded. She hated to admit it, but there was some truth to that statement. Since Ranma didn't specialize in dealing with tentacle monsters, most of his powers and attacks wouldn't be as effective as they could have been. "It's not like they're invincible outside of sexcraft, you know that."
"True, but combine being in their realm plus a bunch of Twice Critical Sacred Gears, all of which were in Balance Break..." Ranma trailed off, shaking his head. He couldn't believe anyone thought that Twice Critical was a weak Sacred Gear. Sure, it was common and didn't match up to some of the better ones out there, but the fact remained that doubling one's power was a hell of an increase.
Really, the whole situation painted Issei and his Boosted Gear in a whole new light. Not to mention how powerful some of the beings that existed out there really were if they weren't the least bit intimidated by him. 'Stupid reality manipulating Deities.'
"Anyway, I assume that everything's been settled where you are?" Azazel asked and Ranma shook his head. "Oh? Is something wrong?"
"Apparently Jedah kidnapped their daughter." Ranma jerked a thumb at Maria and Sekima. "And he was long gone with her by the time we showed up."
"Miko is still missing?" Sekima asked as he tried to get up, only to groan as his body refused to let him.
"Calm down, your majesty." Yaku said as she helped him sit back down. "I'm sure Miko is fine. There must be a reason she was captured and not killed, right?"
"Gee, I wonder why." Both Ranma and Nabiki deadpanned. Ranma motioned for Nabiki to explain.
"Ukyou was trained by the same person who trained Miko in Sexcraft." Nabiki rolled her eyes at the perverted grin on Issei's face. "Yes, lots of sex in that fighting style. Anyway, Miko's even better at Sexcraft than Ukyou is and has an advantage of having Shikima blood in her veins, giving her even more powerful techniques than what a normal practitioner has access to."
"...Oh, so he's going to use her against Ranma?" Azazel asked, getting a nod from Nabiki. He suddenly chuckled. "Well, that's a heck of a way to go out, huh?"
"Not funny." More than one person said at the same time.
"Anyway," Azazel shook his head. "King Sekima, I apologize for what happened and I hope you recover, but I do need those three to come back here."
"Of course." Sekima nodded to Azazel. "Don't worry about us, we'll recover. But if you do find my daughter..."
"Of course," Azazel nodded to him, "we'll save her and send her back."
As a portal opened for them to leave the Shikima realm, Lilith rolled her eyes. "I wasn't going to worry about them anyway." She groaned as Ranma bopped her on the head. "Maaaaster!" She whined.
Ranma rolled his eyes. "At least wait until we're out of earshot to be snippy."
(-)
Back at Kuoh Academy, Nabiki was about to shut off her Sacred Gear before frowning as she saw a panel flashing with some sort of message. "What's this? Who knows how to send me a text message?" She shrugged and walked out of the room with most of the screens shut off, save for that one as she read the message. "...Well, that explains a few things." She pursed her lips and thought about the implications of what she was seeing. "...Might be fun to find out exactly what's going on."
After Nabiki left, Azazel looked at Issei, Rias and the others and smirked lightly. "Well, that was fun, huh?"
"How did we not know of all this..." Rias tried to think of a good word to explain what she had seen and found out.
"Insanity?" Akeno offered, getting a nod from Rias.
"Yes, insanity. How did we not know of it before?"
"It slipped our notice for a couple of reasons." Azazel told her. "One, we were more focused on each other than other powers that existed. Two, the other powers we were focused on were the likes of Gods and other world-changing things. Things that didn't affect the world at large or weren't Sacred Gears weren't something that were on our radars." The Fallen Angel sighed and shook his head. "If we hadn't been at each other's throats, we may have paid more attention to things beyond just the other pantheons and been more prepared for stuff like this."
"Remember when I first met Lilith?" Xenovia asked as she had a thoughtful look on her face. "I dismissed her because she was a Demon, not a Devil. Demons aren't seen as a real threat by most of us."
"Which is why various Magical Girls and Devil Hunters appeared in Japan and elsewhere in the world." Azazel summarized. "Because we didn't step up to deal with lesser creatures while fighting each other, they were able to flourish and become real threats."
Kiba bit his lip and stood up, drawing attention to him. "My apologies, I have some stuff to do before class." The others nodded and Kiba walked to the door before pausing and looking at Issei, who gave him a confused look. The blond boy shook his head and left.
"What was that about?" Issei asked as he thought about the look on Kiba's face.
For some reason, he swore he saw a look of confusion and longing on Kiba's face for just a moment before he left.
'...Things are going to get complicated, aren't they?' Issei asked himself.
End Chapter 7
Told you that this would be better than the last chapter.
Legit did not mean for this chapter to be so meaty. Oh well.
This arc is almost done, as is the next arc. I have it outlined even, just need to write it out fully.
Just a reminder that I only drop a new chapter when I get the chapter of the next arc finished. Again, it's so that the delay for me posting is much smaller than before in case I'm not done with the next arc when I'm done with this one.