Dance in Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own thoughts.

Chapter 5

It was the middle of the afternoon when Chloe, after getting cleaned up from training, found herself, Kunou and Morrigan, in a room with bookshelves along the walls. It wasn't a big room, mostly taken up by one large table and while there was enough room to get around the table without issue, there wasn't a lot of room for other things.

Walking into the room after those three had sat down, a blonde teenager with her hair in drill-style pigtails and wearing a red and gold dress walked in. Her breasts were rather impressive, considering that she wasn't very tall, they looked even bigger on her. On her face was glasses and she pulled a white board behind her. "Good day, class. I am your teacher, Ravel Phenex." She looked at the three of them, all of whom were staring at her stupidly. "Hey! Come on! I wanted to try the elder teacher look on three brats!"

"You're... Still in high school though." Kunou said. "In fact, you graduate this year."

Ravel sighed and took off her glasses before tossing them behind her. "Hmph! I just wanted to role play, no one wants to have any fun. Okay, but seriously," her features smoothed over as she looked at the three seriously, "while Kunou has been trained to be a princess and has proper etiquette, you two," she gestured to Chloe and Morrigan, "need lessons and I asked Kunou to be here so that you wouldn't have to hear me drone on and on." The two nodded and Ravel smiled. "Now!" She held up her right index finger and closed her eyes, "even though many Devils are very casual in private settings, there's plenty of older Devils who are uptight about proper respect and etiquette and will get upset at the smallest slights. In addition, whether you are part of Ranma's peerage, a spouse or one of his children, you represent him and the entirety of Clan Saotome."

"That's... A lot of pressure." Chloe said with a sweat-drop and Ravel nodded as she opened her eyes.

"Indeed. Which is why you have to watch your figurative step. Not only with Devils, but some Fallen Angels are entirely too uptight about being shown proper respect. I don't even want to get into some of the Gods that exist in the world."

"Wait, Gods exist here?" Chloe asked, her pupils shrinking as Ravel nodded. "...The Age of the Gods never ended?" She blushed at the looks she got. "I don't know if you know, but I'm from another world before Master turned me into a Devil. In my world, the Gods are either all dead and gone or have just disappeared from the world. We called that time the "Age of the Gods", when they roamed the world freely. I guess they never ended here." Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect circle as a sudden realization hit her. "...That's why there's so much free floating mana and why my magic seems so strong even though I swear I got weaker!"

"Ah, that might be the reason." Ravel said with a nod. "But that's something to work out later. For now, let's get back to the lessons on how to properly interact with the Supernatural Societies." Chloe, Kunou and Morrigan all nodded. "Now, as I said, Kunou, being the princess of the Youkai association, doesn't need this as much as you two do."

"I'm just here to help explain things and fill in any gaps that you two have." Kunou said, to which Ravel nodded.

"And don't worry about being perfect." Ravel said with a smile. "Just get as good as you can and most people will forgive any faux paux you have if it's minor since you are part of Clan Saotome."

Chloe blinked in surprise while Kunou and Morrigan nodded. "Um, is this clan really that big of a deal?" She blinked at the surprised looks she got back. "...Um..."

"Sorry, forgot, you're not from this world." Ravel said as she calmed down. "Clan Saotome is headed by Ranma, your master, and he's the King of Makai, or rather, the Demon King for short. Plus having one of the Four Devil Kings as one of his wives gives him a lot of standing he would not otherwise have. Not to mention Kunou's mother, the leader of the East Youkai faction of Kyoto, as one of his wives gives him a lot of clout as well, plus there's the fact that he's..."

"I get it, I get it," Chloe interrupted, "he has important wives and is the ruler of Makai, but is that all?"

"Well, he did help save the world from someone who wanted to reset time." Kunou said. "He, Lilith, Issei and Vali all worked together to stop Jedah Dohma from gaining the power of Yahweh and restarting the universe."

"Who..?" Chloe asked and Ravel smiled softly.

"The God of the Bible." Ravel said and Chloe's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah, His name isn't known by a large amount of people. And it's only recently that we Devils can even say or hear His name without agonizing pain."

And that was only as long as His name wasn't said in vain. Cursing with His name or invoking His name for any reason only caused pain to anyone who said or heard His name.

'At the very least, politicians aren't using His name anymore.' Ravel thought with a mental smirk. It only took a few of them getting struck by lightning on a clear day for them to stop it.

"Anyway, let's continue your lesson." The three nodded and Ravel started to explain how things worked between the different Devil families and how reincarnated Devils were automatically put as low-ranking Devils and how pure-blooded devils worked.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"This has been one of the most annoying things I have ever gone through." A female voice panted as two figures sat on large rocks. She was a petite girl that had blonde hair that went to her shoulders, blue eyes and was wearing a black and white gothic dress that had seen better days. "Atsuko, the next time someone steals from your mother's company, make sure that they don't hook up with someone who knows magic."

"Noted, Mittelt." Atsuko, a buxom young woman with long, maroon-colored hair, green eyes and was wearing a full-body black body suit with blue-green trim on it, groaned. The two of them were covered in dirt, bruises, scrapes and cuts, their clothing was in tatters and their hair hung loose as everything that held their hair in their preferred styles was destroyed. "What kind of crazy runic magic was that?"

"I have no fucking clue!" Mittelt snapped. Her dress was ruined, she was sore as hell and even her panties were completely destroyed. If not for a few conveniently placed strips of fabric, everyone would be able to see her bare ass and crotch.

Thankfully it was just Atsuko around, but that didn't make things better.

Atsuko's outfit wasn't any better, being nothing more than strings. "We should make an effort to check in on Pantyhose Tarou to make sure that he's still okay and wasn't captured by someone."

"Yeah, no kidding," Mittelt agreed as she leaned forward, "those animals were way too big, plus the runes on their foreheads made them really dangerous. But what were those bodysuits that the humans had on?"

"Power suits based on the NK-1124 android body."

"...That was what you were before being turned into a Devil, wasn't it?" Mittelt asked and Atsuko nodded. "But your dad had the only one, so..."

"Somehow," Atsuko shook her head, "someone managed to find enough data on my old body and create power suits based on it. These had to be proto-types."

Mittelt grimaced as she thought about mass-produced versions of those suits. "Lovely, I bet they used Ecuador as a testing ground."

"And we're less than two hundred kilometers from Piura on top of that." Atsuko said as she shook her head. "I'm going to call up Rossweisse. She knows more about magic than anyone that I know of."

Mittelt gave her a flat stare. "It's like five in the morning over there."

Atsuko blinked a few times and groaned. "Forgot about the time difference."

"Well, knowing you, you took images in your brain and have already sent them to her email, right?" Mittelt asked and Atsuko nodded.

"Thank goodness for military satellites." Atsuko shook her head. "Though I wonder how many people would enjoy knowing that the government knows as much as they do?"

"Meh, most people would gladly lock themselves in a small room if their government told them to do so." Mittelt said with an annoyed expression on her face. "It's partially why I never cared for humans while I was part of the Grigori."

Atsuko nodded and blinked a few times. "Oh, hey, I got mail from Nabiki." Mittelt raised an eyebrow. "Looks like Ranma has a new peerage member."

Mittelt stood up and stretched. "Then let's get back already! We haven't been home in over two weeks." She let out a yawn and several wings erupted from her back, two Devil wings in the center of her back and six black feathered wings while two more appeared on her head."

"Still can't believe that you were able to increase your power that much through a sex ritual."

Mittelt just smirked as she made her wings disappear. "Hey, if it works, it works, let's get out of here."

"Right." Atsuko nodded and the two disappeared in a flash.

After a few minutes, the rocks that the two had been on shifted to the side, revealing a door in the ground that opened up, revealing two men dressed in lab coats. "Finally," the taller man said as he adjusted his glasses, "I thought they would never leave."

"It is a shame that our first test didn't get the results we had hoped for." The shorter, mostly-bald man said as he scratched the hair on the side of his head. "But that was promising at least, Dr. Kiryu."

Kiryu narrowed his eyes. "Ever since that day in Tokyo... When those flying girls, the magical girls, the tentacle monsters, that man in the red armor, the woman with the large sword and that other woman with those white wings appeared, everything was turned on its head." He growled and stomped the ground while the other man sweat-dropped. "IT MAKES NO SENSE! MAGIC! GODS! DEMONS! MONSTERS!" He screamed to the heavens. "I am a man of science! I became a scientist because science answers all there is in life! I was part of an online community of free-thinking collectivists! And it was all a FUCKING LIE!" He screamed as he stomped the ground again, kicking up dust and panting.

"Well, if you hadn't discovered that mineral that these caves have in the walls that protects us from supernatural spying, we would have been found out sooner." The shorter man said. "And for someone who always followed the science, you seem adept at using magic."

"It's nothing more than a fancy energy source." Kiryu said with a huff as he adjusted his glasses. "Besides, that woman that we managed to capture was quite useful."

"...Speaking of which, what should we do with her?" The second man asked and Kiryu grinned. "Uh, Dr. Kiryu?"

"We need to experiment more, both on those power suits and her so-called magic." The scientist said as they walked back into the tunnel, which closed behind them and the rocks slid back into place, as though they had never been moved in the first place.

Deep inside a lab, a woman with short, magenta hair was strapped to a table and was completely nude, save for a metal tube over her large breasts and crotch, while her arms and legs were pinned down. Over her face was a visor that had scan lines covering it. A look of distress was on her face as she tried to squirm out of the way.

The only other thing notable about her was the small mole under her left eye, which the visor did not cover.

End Chapter 5

Hmm, I wonder who that woman is...

Dr. Kiryu is from a rather... Famous hentai series involving ninja girls.

I'm also using him to represent the more annoying "follow the science, chud" types that you see on Reddit and other places online. If you get offended by him, well, too bad.