Dance in Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own thoughts.

Chapter 6

The days passed relatively quickly as Chloe found herself settling into a routine of working out all morning, studying in the afternoon and having the evenings off. Outside of her once-a-week evening streaming sessions, it was a rather quiet and peaceful way to spend her time.

Well, other than when she ran into Lillie when she was walking around nude and Chloe found herself making out with the Dragon.

Lillie tilted her head after Chloe broke the kiss on their most recent make-out session. "Why do you like to kiss me so much?"

Chloe's face was red as she fidgeted. "I don't know why! But when I see you, I just want to kiss you."

Lillie tapped her chin. "You said you needed mana before and you got it from kissing, right?" Chloe nodded and Lillie made a humming sound. "I see, maybe it's because I'm a Dragon? I have lots of mana, you just react to it?"

"...Maybe." Chloe said and fidgeted. "I know you get mad at Morrigan when she tries to kiss you."

"She wants more than kisses." Lillie said and walked off.

"Makes sense." Chloe muttered to herself and turned, only to run face-first into someone. "Oooof!" She winced and stepped back, looking up as she saw her master giving her an amused look. "When did you get here?"

"Since you said that you liked kissing Lillie." Ranma said with a chuckle.

"She really should wear something." Chloe muttered.

"I'm working on it." Ranma shook his head. "Anyway, get ready, we're going to Earth." Chloe looked confused and Ranma just smirked at her. "School starts tomorrow."

"ACK!" Chloe's eyes went white and blank. "I forgot!" She turned and ran off to get some clothes to look around the school. At least something that was better than biker shorts and the t-shirt she used for training.

Ranma chuckled and shook his head. "I wonder if I would have been like that if my old man didn't drag me all over Japan when I was her age?" He then thought about when he met Nanoha and sweat-dropped. "Ah, right, I was fighting Jewel Seeds with Nanoha at that time while Lilith was trying to help Fate."

Ranma shook his head as Chloe came back, dressed as the cute school girl that she was. "You ready?" He asked and she nodded and the two of them disappeared in a black flash of energy.

(-)

Appearing on Earth, the two looked around and Ranma smiled as the two appeared at his old living location. "I just remembered, you haven't met my parents yet."

Chloe tilted her head as Ranma walked over to the door and knocked on it. After a few moments, the door opened and an older woman with red hair and blue eyes opened the door with a smile. "SON!" She let out a cheer and hugged Ranma tightly. "MMMM! How is my manly son? Have you dominated Makai fully? Do I have more grand-children on the way? Why haven't you shown up in such a long time?"

Ranma winced slightly and hugged her back. "Sorry, mom, I have most of Makai under my control now, but there's still various Demons that hate it. That's partly why I haven't shown up in so long. But..." He managed to get out of the hug and motioned towards Chloe. "This is Chloe Saotome, my newest peerage member and adopted daughter."

Chloe gave him a pouty look. "I still like my original name, Chloe von Einzbern, even if I have to go by Saotome while I'm not on official business and..."

There was a squealing noise and suddenly Chloe found herself hugged by the elder woman. "OH! She's so cute! Her tanned skin and pinkish-blonde hair are so cute. I've never seen anyone with gold eyes before! Oh! I should introduce myself, I'm Nodoka Saotome, but you can call me grandmother and..."

Ranma put a hand on Nodoka's shoulder and squeezed it. "Mom, I think she passed out."

"Huh?" Nodoka blinked and loosened up the hug, looking down to see Chloe's eyes spinning and foam forming in her mouth. "Oh no!"

'She's... Just like mama?!' Chloe was able to think before darkness claimed her.

Ranma chuckled and picked up Chloe and carried her inside to put on the couch while he pulled out a small folding fan and fanned her. "So..." He looked more closely at Nodoka. "Why didn't you tell me that you're pregnant?" She hadn't started to show, but he could tell.

Nodoka blushed and fidgeted. "I wasn't sure. I missed my period the last couple of months and I only just confirmed yesterday. Um, you wouldn't be able to tell..."

"Sorry," Ranma shook his head, "at this stage, it's too soon to know what gender your baby will be. Heck, I can only control my fertility, not what gender my babies are. Does dad know?"

Nodoka shook her head. "No, not yet. It was..."

"I get it." Ranma told her with a smile. "I get that it was an accident, but do take care."

Nodoka gave Ranma a small smirk. "I'll have you know that I can have children safely all the way into my fifties and sixties." Ranma gawked at her and she laughed at him. "You think that the sliver of demon blood in me doesn't have some good benefits? My mother had me when she was fifty after all."

"...I really should meet my grandparents." Ranma shook his head. "Unless..."

"Sadly my parents both passed away before you were born." Nodoka sighed softly. "I can take you to their grave if you'd like to see where they are."

"It's fine." Ranma said as he saw the sad look on her face. "I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories." Nodoka waved him off. "So, what were your parents like?"

Nodoka smiled as she thought about her parents. "They were quite strict, but they both loved all their children. I haven't talked to my siblings since I married your father, none of them approved of him."

"I can't imagine why." Ranma said dryly before shaking his head. "Dad's not the worst person, but I can easily see why people didn't like him."

Chloe groaned as she regained consciousness. "What happened? It feels like that time that one crazy person punched Illya and woke me..." She blinked as she looked around. "Oh, now I remember, you hugged me!" Chloe gave Ranma a weird look. "Master, is your mother related to some sort of hero with super strength?"

Ranma chuckled as he stopped fanning Chloe and helped her stand up off the couch. "Nah, she just gets really happy whenever she meets any of my wives or children for the first time." Chloe nodded and gave Nodoka a slightly nervous look. "Don't worry, she'll behave." Ranma looked at Nodoka, "anyway, mom, we're not going to stay long, I have to take Chloe to school and show her around. Azazel said he'd meet me there."

"Oh, okay." Nodoka smiled at him. "If you stick around, I'll make a large lunch."

"...Might not be a bad thing." Ranma said with a smile. "Come on, Chloe, we need to get you registered for classes and everything." She nodded and followed after Ranma.

(-)

"So that's your mother, huh?" Chloe said as she walked next to Ranma with her arms crossed behind her head. "She seems nice."

"She mostly is." Ranma told her. "Mostly, because she gets weird ideas in her head some days."

"Like what?" Chloe asked with curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

Ranma chuckled. "Well, when she found out that Lilith was pregnant, she wanted to ensure that we had garlic-flavored pickles on hand." Chloe sweat-dropped at hearing that. "Oh, and she wanted to ensure that we didn't have any sharks in the pool."

"...Why would she say that?" Chloe asked with question marks in her eyes.

"Because when we took over the castle, there were sharks in the pool, why else?" Ranma said as Chloe face-faulted, causing her skirt to flutter up, revealing pink panties. "Are you okay? That looked like it hurt."

"I'm fine." Chloe said as she got up and dusted herself off. "I don't know why I'm surprised, I've lived in Makai for several weeks now, but somehow that still surprised me."

"Did I ever tell you about the time the cheese came to life?" Ranma asked and Chloe gave him a confused look. "I was... I think fourteen and got my hands on some cursed cheese and..."

(-)

"Seriously?!" Chloe asked as she giggled while Ranma wrapped up the story. "The cheese merged with sewing equipment and you had to fight against living yarn?"

"Hey, it was horrible!" Ranma protested. "Especially when all the cats came out of nowhere and thought the monster was a giant play toy."

Chloe grabbed a pole as she started laughing so hard that she doubled over. "Bwahahahaha! You and Lilith were all wrapped up and then these cats... Hahahahahaha!"

"Hey, it wasn't funny for me. I had an extreme fear of cats at the time." Ranma huffed as he looked up. "Ah, that's Azazel."

Chloe continued to laugh for a few more moments before finally calming down and wiping the tears out of her eyes. She looked up to see a tall man wearing a business suit with hair that was mostly brown, other than his blonde bangs. "...Sir, I think there's a monster on your head trying to eat you."

The man broke out laughing upon hearing that. "Oh my, your newest peerage member has quite the sharp tongue, huh?" He asked, his deep voice dripping with amusement. "My name is Azazel, former Governor-General of the Grigori. You must be Chloe von Einzbern, huh?" Azazel smirked at Chloe's shocked expression. "Don't look so surprised, girl, I was a teacher at this school while your master went here."

"It's not that..." Chloe said with a small gulp. "I feel like you're something that should be destroyed. I don't know why."

"Hmm," Azazel cupped his chin and stroked his chin, "kind of a rude thing to say, but I'm sure that there's a reason for it."

"Probably that Class Card that you mentioned." Ranma said to Chloe. "Azazel is one of the original Fallen Angels after all. He's met plenty of historical people. I wouldn't be surprised if the hero that was in the Class Card that helped make your body met your version of him at one point or another."

"That might be true." Azazel nodded as he thought about it. "You know that some of Father's earlier Angels were basically Eldrich Abominations, right?" Ranma and Chloe both gave him a confused look and Azazel smirked. "They're all dead by now, but I can imagine that if Angels existed in miss Einzbern's world and I was there, then I must have looked pretty much like a complete abomination."

"...That might be." Chloe nodded. "I don't know anymore."

"Well, it's not important." Ranma told her. "You're you, not the Hero who was in the card that gave you your body. Just remember that."

Chloe blinked a few times and gave him a smirk. "What? You got a bunch of cloned people running around in this world or something?"

"One of my best female friends is dating a girl who was cloned from her nearly dead sister, who was recently revived and they were able to meet."

Chloe gawked at what she heard. "...Master, your life is weird."

Ranma smirked. "Come on, Azazel will show you around. Have any of the teacher's changed?"

"The music teacher retired." Azazel told him, "and the teacher that had a class that Lilith hijacked moved to another school district. Some of your old classmates are teacher-aides and want to become teachers themselves."

"Well, that's good." Ranma smiled as Azazel led them through the school to show Chloe where the cafeteria, bathrooms, her class and the offices were at.

(-)

"And this," Azazel said as he, Ranma and Chloe walked into the old school building, "is where the Occult Research Club is located at. You'll be joining when school starts."

"I will?" Chloe looked confused.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, originally it was for Rias and her peerage to hang out after school and talk about Devil business, it's become the place for all the non-humans to hang out after school for a few hours."

Azazel chuckled as they walked up the stairs. "I know you graduated a couple of years ago, but we turned one of the other old classrooms into a game room. Pool tables, some video game consoles."

Ranma gave Azazel a wry smirk. "You just wanted a place to store your old consoles, right?" Azazel laughed and didn't argue the point. When they got up the stairs and walked towards the club room, there was a thump and all three jumped to see someone falling off of the wall. "Huh?"

"Oh jeez." A female voice said as the person sat up and rubbed their head. "Dang it, I got tired and was sleeping." The woman was fairly tall, lanky and had large C-cup breasts while she was wearing shorts and a tank top that clung to her tightly. Her hair was short and blonde and her eyes were red.

"Miss Valerie, what happened?" Azazel asked and the girl gave him a sleepy look.

"I was cleaning up in here with Gasper and got tired. He was in the old club room and I crawled into the wall bed and fell asleep. The next thing I know, I'm flying up and crashing out here."

"Well, we did design the bed to drop its occupant into the hallway if someone pushed it up without realizing someone was in there." Azazel chuckled as they heard a door open and some feet padding their way down the hallway.

There were two people that came around the corner. "Oh no! I'm sorry!" The first, a young boy with red hair that was starting to get a little long and was tied up behind him and blue-green eyes, who was wearing a black outfit with white trim, bowed to them. "Please forgive me, Miss Tepes, I did not realize that you were in there when I was helping cleaning the room."

"It's fine, Millicas." Valerie said while rubbing her head. "I know you didn't mean any harm in it."

"Wow," Ranma looked at Millicas, who gave him a delighted look. "You've gotten big, kid. Soon you'll be taller than me."

"Cousin Ranma!" Millicas smiled brightly. "Welcome, I did not know you were coming."

"Oh please," Ranma waved him off. "I bet the only reason you're here is to have fun."

"Oh no." Millicas shook his head. "I am actually joining Kuoh Academy starting tomorrow. I managed to convince mother and grandmother to let me come to the same school that big sister Rias went to." He tilted his head as he saw the third person, who was looking at him intently. "Oh! My apologies. I am Millicas Gremory, son of Sirzechs Lucifer and Grayfia Lucifuge."

Chloe had a flummoxed expression on her face as her eyes screwed shut and she held up her left hand. "I have several questions."

"Originally," Azazel answered her, "Sirzechs was part of the Gremory clan and ended up meeting Grayfia Lucifuge and the two fell in love and married. However, during their courtship and marriage, Devil society was entrenched in a civil war that ended with Sirzechs as the new Lucifer. Grayfia, for whatever reason, ended up as the maid of Sirzechs and the Gremory clan and kept her old family name while Millicas, here, was placed in the Gremory clan and took the Gremory name."

"...That sounds complicated." Chloe said before giving Ranma a dirty look. "Then why do I have to be known as Chloe Saotome by everyone if his mother can have a different name from her husband?"

"It's your name for dealing with humans and when you're not doing Devil duties." Ranma told her. "Sona Sitri, current head of the Sitri clan, went by Sona Shitori when she was in school."

"Oh, okay." Chloe blinked a few times.

"This is your newest peerage member then?" The last one, a tall man with blonde hair that was mostly short, other than the the single braid behind his head. His eyes were red and he was dressed in a male school uniform. "Hello, my name is Gasper Vladi."

"What the heck?!" Ranma gasped in surprise. "Holy hell, dude, when did you get so tall?"

Gasper laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "If you think I'm surprising, you should see Koneko. She doesn't even go by that name anymore."

Before Ranma could ask, something hit Gasper in the back of the head. "Gaspy, I told you before, my name is now Shirone." A tired voice said as a girl that looked like Koneko in the face walked into view.

Well, if Koneko was as tall as Xenovia, had large D-cup breasts, which looked even bigger on her thin, toned body. Her hips were fairly wide and her hair was long and fluffy.

"...Puberty hit you two like Truck-kun hits Japanese teenagers." Ranma muttered as he looked over Koneko. "Koneko?"

"Shirone." She corrected him. "I was finally able to forgive Onee-chan over everything." Shirone then smirked in amusement. "And, yes, puberty hit me and Gaspy really hard. The lolicons cried for weeks. Their cries turned into howls of rage when I told them that I was married to Issei." Ranma blinked in surprise. "We got married last year, we kept the ceremony small."

"Sheesh, the only one of his weddings I've gone to was his and Xenovia's." Ranma shook his head. "And I would have gone to his wedding with Akeno but there were lava Demons that got out of Makai and almost destroyed the Philippines when it was happening."

"No one blames you over that one." Shirone told him. "Issei forgave you since Lilith popped up during the honeymoon and made sure that Akeno got pregnant."

"She did that for Xenovia as well." Ranma shook his head. "So, how is home life?"

"Loud." She shook her head. "I love everyone, but their babies are so loud. And at least two of us have to skip out on having fun with Issei to watch the babies when the others want to get laid."

"Actually, I've been wondering something." Azazel said as he looked at Ranma. "That fight was out in the open, how did the locals handle it?"

"Surprisingly..." Ranma sweat-dropped heavily. "When it was over, they were all drinking hot coffee." The others all stared at him and he nodded. "Yes. And then they complained the temperatures were too cold when we beat the lava monsters."

"Well, the islands WERE covered in four centimeters of snow." Azazel said with a chuckle. "You really can't help but change weather patterns, can you?"

"The snow lasted for two hours." Ranma threw his hands up. "It's not my fault that Issei gave Atsuko enough power to change global weather patterns or the best way to deal with lava monsters was to freeze them solid."

The others chuckled at his frustration, except for Chloe, who was looking at Gasper and Valerie tilted her head. "So..." She pointed between the two of them. "Are you two dating?"

"What?" Both of them asked at the same time and shook their heads violently.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" Valerie said violently.

"Yeah, we're not dating." Gasper shook his head. "She's basically my big sister."

"Gasper's sweet and really manly, but we grew up together." Valerie told her. "So, not interested."

Chloe blinked a few times. "But if you're not related by blood, then incest isn't..."

"EWWW!" Both Gasper and Valerie screamed and looked like they ate something absolutely disgusting.

"No offense, kid." Valerie smiled a little sickly. "I don't have a problem with anyone who wants to bang their family members, but it doesn't interest me in the slightest."

"Same." Gasper said with a small smile.

"I feel insulted." Chloe muttered. "But, whatever, it's your life." She shrugged and walked past the group. She was followed by Shirone, Azazel and Valerie.

Ranma looked at Gasper. "Is there something you want?"

"Actually, I wanted to tell you something." He said to Ranma. "Nabiki called me yesterday and asked me to move to America. Something about keeping morale up. I was wondering if I should accept."

Ranma sighed softly. "What Nabiki has planned is very risky and dangerous, Gasper. And I don't mean working with those magical girls or trying to integrate regular people with Demons, Devils and others in Las Vegas. I'm talking about the fact that if you do go, you're going to have girls who have the hardest time getting dates and keeping boyfriends. They might actually fight over you." He looked Gasper up and down and nodded. "Correction, they will fight over you like Rias and Akeno fought over Issei."

"...But they're magical girls." Gasper pointed out and Ranma smirked at him.

"Magical girls who sacrificed a regular life, their futures and a lot more to save the world." Ranma corrected Gasper. "And you? Being a Devil means you'll live a long time and won't die easily. Just be yourself and you'll probably have one or two of those girls who want you." He patted Gasper on the shoulder as he walked past him. "Plus, you can admit to being envious of Issei for all the pussy he's getting."

"Tell me about it." Gasper groaned and hung his head. "And just so you know, if I do take the job, I'm not going just to get a girlfriend."

"Never said you were." Ranma chuckled and walked past the taller man. "What you do is up to you, Gasper. But make sure that whatever you choose, you do what's best for you, okay?" Ranma looked back and smiled at Gasper.

"...If I was into guys, I'd want to kiss you right now." Gasper said and Ranma had a nervous look on his face.

"Is that your way of getting back at me for all the "seduce the shota" comments that Lilith made when you were small and cute?"

"I'm not cute now?"

"More handsome than cute." Ranma admitted to Gasper, who looked bewildered. "What? You're a handsome man, I can admit that."

Gasper blushed softly and rubbed the back of his head before smirking at Ranma. "Maybe I did want to get back at you for all those comments Lilith made." His smirk turned into a grin before he laughed. "But, seriously, thanks. I think I'll take the job. I always wanted to see America. But first, I need to graduate."

Ranma nodded and walked into the club room.

Gasper grimaced as he realized something important. "Urgh, Las Vegas is in a desert, isn't it? That's going to suck."

End Chapter 6

Yes, people in the Philippians will bust out hot coffee to drink when it's hot. I actually talk to someone who lives there and he told me that's what's common for people in his country. There's your fun fact for today.