Dance in Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own thoughts.

Chapter 7

It was a beautiful morning in Nerima. The sun was creeping over the horizon, birds were chirping, the martial arts night dancing match had wrapped up with only three fences being badly damaged.

"You're up early, father." Kasumi said as she looked at Soun while she finished breakfast. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." Soun nodded, a content look on his face. "Kasumi, I must apologize, I was thinking how you are in your twenties and still unwed."

Kasumi gave him a soft smile. "Well, with Nabiki and Akane both moved out, I have spent more time out of the house and interacting with people."

Soun nodded again. "I am glad to hear it. I was worried that I would have to find a young man who was unmarried and introduce you to him."

"Just because it worked out for Nabiki doesn't mean it would work out for me." Kasumi said as she turned back and walked into the kitchen.

Soun nodded and looked outside.

"Father," Kasumi spoke up suddenly and he looked at her as she had a look of confusion on her face, "there's something that I have been meaning to ask you for some time, but I never got around to asking, but..." She gestured to the weapon holder cabinet. "From what I was able to gather from your friend, his style of Anything Goes is mostly unarmed, though he has nothing against using weapons. But you are very skilled with the naginata, and I thought you and Uncle Genma both learned from the same master."

"Well," Soun looked at the Naginata and stood up, walking over to it and running his hand over the glass. "It was your mother who taught me how to use weapons. She was very skilled with both katanas and naginatas. But, surprisingly, the master also knew how to use a spear." Even to this day, Soun was surprised that Happosai not only knew how to use a spear, but had various exercises to help Soun improve his skill with the spear.

"Even if it's not the same spears that I know, the basic concept is the same. Besides, with the way the blade is designed, it allows you to add more cutting motions."

"Now that I think about it, he did use a spear against me once when I tried to stop him from stealing your mother's panties." Soun had a solemn look on his face as he remembered those days. Suddenly tears fell out of his eyes in a river as he clenched a fist. "Your mother took the role of the man for several days after that, Kasumi. Please don't turn into her like that for the sake of your future husband."

Kasumi just tilted her head to the side. "Huh? Role of the man? ...Did mother used... a certain under..." She blushed and looked away while poking her fingers together. "T-tool on you, father?"

"What?! No!" Soun's face was pale and he shook his head. "Your mother would never have such a thing! And how do you know about it?!"

Kasumi just gave Soun a sweet smile. "Why, there are ladies in the market who talk about doing that stuff to their husbands and boyfriends. Plus the internet exists on our phones, father."

Soun hung his head. "I have failed as a father! My sweet, sweet Kasumi knows naughty stuff!" He sniffled and started sobbing.

Kasumi just giggled in amusement. "I do wonder how everyone's doing today."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Chloe..." A familiar female voice spoke and the tanned girl looked around in confusion. For some reason, she found herself in a familiar-looking park.

"Where am I?" She asked softly. "I know this place, but..." She frowned in confusion. "Why isn't the name coming to me?" She walked around for a few moments before gasping as she saw two familiar people ahead of her. "Illya! Miyu!" She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. "Hey!" She waved at them. "It's me! Chloe! I'm alive!"

The two girls, one with white hair and one with dark hair, turned to look at her, both with flat expressions on their faces. "Oh, it's you." The one with black hair said.

"Huh?" Chloe was confused as she looked at them. "Why are you like that, Miyu? I thought you'd be happy to see that I'm alive."

"Are you really alive?" The other girl asked her.

"Illya?" Chloe asked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You're nothing more than an accident after all." Illya continued and, for some reason, the light got darker while Miyu and Illya got taller while Chloe could only watch them grow in size. "You couldn't exist without that class card in you and my mana."

Suddenly Chloe felt hands on her shoulders and her eyes widened as she looked at her right shoulder, where Miyu was standing. "And, besides, are you sure you're alive? With that hole in your chest?"

"Huh?" Chloe asked, her pupils shrinking as she looked down and saw that her chest had a large hole in it with a horse-shaped chess piece hovering just in front of her.

"In fact," Illya said as she walked in front of Chloe and grabbed the Knight piece. "This is what's keeping you alive. Like the class card before."

Suddenly both Illya and Miyu transformed into magical girls while holding magic sticks in their hands, both sticks having a star at the end of it.

"Then maybe we should smash it!" The stick in Illya's hands said enthusiastically while Illya nodded and threw the piece into the air.

"After all," the blue stick in Miyu's hands said in a more monotone voice spoke up, "you're nothing more than a fake. No one really cares if you just..."

"DISAPPEAR!" Miyu, Illya and the two sticks said at the same time as energy blasts erupted from the sticks and rushed towards the chess piece.

"NOOOOO!" Chloe yelled as she reached out to stop it.

The next thing Chloe knew, she was sitting up in her bed, her eyes wide, sweat pouring down her face as she panted. Her blankets fell off to reveal that she was just sleeping in lime-green colored panties. "J...Just a dream?" Even as her breathing calmed down, and the vividness of her nightmare faded, the sensations didn't. "S...Sis wouldn't be like that, would she?"

Chloe pulled her legs up as her eyes teared up, her lips trembled and she buried her face into her legs and started crying. "Don't... Don't leave me... Please... Illya... Miyu..."

She didn't know how long she was sitting there, sobbing into her legs. The next thing she felt was someone sitting down on the bed next to her and pulling her into a hug, which she desperately grabbed the person, which caused her to start crying anew as she sobbed into the person's chest while they rubbed her back and whispered sweet nothings into her ears.

After finally calming down, Chloe raised a trembling head up to see who she had been crying on, only to see a smiling Lilith looking at her. "Hey," Lilith said softly as she reached up and wiped the tears out of Chloe's eyes, "bad dream?" Chloe nodded and Lilith leaned in, giving Chloe a kiss on the forehead. "Relax." She said softly as she hugged Chloe against her chest and rocked the trembling girl back and forth.

Chloe continued to tremble, even though no more tears were coming. '...Is that what they really think of me? And why can't I remember the name of those sticks or that park?'

Eventually the trembling came to a stop and Chloe sniffled as she moved to get off of Lilith. "Th-thank you."

Lilith nodded and pulled out a box of tissue paper. "Here."

Chloe took it and blew her nose. "S-sorry." Lilith waved her off and stood up. "Um, why are you here?"

"Well, it's time to get ready for breakfast before you go to school." Lilith told her. "But you weren't answering the door and I heard you crying." She motioned for Chloe to follow her. "So I came in. Come on, let's get you washed up so you can be presentable for your first day."

Chloe nodded and followed after Lilith. "Um... Do you want to know..?"

Lilith gave her a neutral look. "If you want to tell me what you dreamed of, you can. I won't make you though. Sometimes these are just one-time things."

"...And if it's not?" Chloe asked, trembling slightly as she hoped that was the last nightmare like that.

"Well, if it happens again, let me know." Lilith told her. "If it's okay with you, I'll have Morrigan help regulate your dreams so you can sleep easier." Chloe looked confused and Lilith smiled in amusement. "She doesn't get to practice all her succubus powers, and one of those is being able to manipulate dreams. So she can help make the bad dreams go away and let you rest easy."

Chloe nodded as the two got to the baths, where they were greeted by Atsuko, Mittelt, Lillie and Kunou. Chloe found the fact that none of the four had any clothes on to be almost normal. "...When did I start thinking nudity is normal?"

Kunou laughed at that. "Mother would be so upset with me, but in the morning when we're all going to the baths? It's easier to just go naked or with a towel and get clean and then go back to our rooms to get clothes for the day."

Atsuko yawned and scratched her side. "I couldn't find my panties this morning."

"Don't blame you." Mittelt said with a yawn. "The room was a mess after that threesome last night."

Chloe looked confused for a moment before her face turned red. "O...Oh." She idly noticed that Kunou was blushing as well while Lillie was looking at Mittelt curiously.

"Oh, sorry." Mittelt said with another yawn. "I'm too tired and my brain didn't put any filters in the way."

"I'm used to it." Lillie said and Kunou nodded while blushing.

"So, um, details?" Kunou asked with a hopeful smile on her face.

A mallet of light energy bonked her on the head as a response. The bonk did no real damage, but it did sting Kunou enough that she had to rub the small bump that was forming.

"No." Mittelt said as she dissipated the mallet and the group got into the baths to get cleaned up.

(-)

It was more than twenty minutes later that Chloe, now cleaned up and changed into the Kuoh school uniform, found herself at the breakfast table eating on either side of Kunou and Morrigan. The latter of whom was looking sad.

"I still say I should get to go to school." Morrigan pouted.

"I don't want to take the risk of you getting hungry in the middle of school, walking up to some one and accidentally killing them." Lilith told her.

"But I can handle it!" Morrigan slammed the palms of her hands onto the table as she stood up. "Mom! You're being unreasonable!"

Lilith pursed her lips and nodded. "Alright, if you think so... Kiss your father on the lips. If you can do that without trying to suck his soul out, then you can go next week."

Morrigan's eyes lit up and she ran over to where Ranma was, who rolled his eyes, slid his chair back after wiping his lips and leaned back as Morrigan crawled onto his lap and kissed him on the lips.

Chloe blushed as she watched and looked at Kunou, who was blushing hard and practically leering. She leaned over to Kunou and spoke in a low tone. "Um, I know that she's a succubus, but... Isn't it weird to kiss your father?"

Kunou leaned in to whisper back. "Succubi will do lewd things to anything that moves. Male, female, their siblings, their parents, their grandparents, it doesn't matter to them. They just don't think like the rest of us."

Lilith, however, was watching with narrowed eyes. 'So far, so good...' She thought to herself and nodded. "Okay, Morri..."

Suddenly Morrigan broke the kiss, her eyes wide as she stared at her father, who gave her a raised eyebrow in return. Morrigan started to tremble. "F...Father, I...I'm sorry, I..."

Ranma sighed and hugged her. "It's okay." He rubbed her back as she trembled against him and he looked at Lilith. "She was doing pretty good, but when you spoke, it startled her and her instincts took over."

Lilith nodded with a grim expression on her face. "And that's why, Morrigan, you can't go to school." Morrigan nodded and Lilith continued. "We'll work on your control today. But, if it helps, you did a lot better than I was expecting."

"Um..." Chloe raised her hand and drew attention to her. "What happened?"

"When mom spoke, I accidentally tried to suck out father's soul." Morrigan said in a soft, trembling voice.

Chloe scratched her head. "Oh... Um, Master," she stood up and Ranma looked at her, "I know that I have to go to school today, but last night, I had a bad dream and..."

"You can't stay home from school." Ranma said with a smirk on his face while he rubbed Morrigan's back.

Chloe's eyes went white and blank. "Ack?! What?! No! That's not what I mean!" She took a deep breath and continued. "I... I was thinking that part of the reason I ended up in this world is because I didn't get straight answers from people when I asked." Everyone, even Morrigan, gave her a confused look and she clarified. "I don't know why, but it feels like when I asked questions in my past world that I was never given a straight answer. Everything was cryptic."

"Well..." Ranma dragged it out. "Alright, fine." He nodded and Chloe's eyes widened slightly. "If there is something that I can't tell you, I'll let you know why. But if you need answers on something and I know what's going on, I'll tell you."

Chloe smiled and bowed to him. "Thank you, Master."

Ranma was about to say something when he saw Lillie, dressed in her school outfit, walk in. "Chloe, time to go." Chloe blinked as she looked up and saw Lillie. "If she's willing to wear clothes, it's time to go. You too, Kunou." The fox girl nodded as she got up from the table.

Chloe likewise got up from the table and walked over to Lillie, stopping only to grab her school bag. "We're off." She said as the three of them disappeared in a flash of light.

"Where's Leonardo?" Ranma asked and looked at Lilith.

"He had to leave for school a bit earlier." Lilith told him. "Remember? He was helping set up the club rooms for the semester."

"Oh, right." Ranma nodded as Morrigan got off of his lap. "Alright, we have stuff to do for this weekend."

"I know." Lilith smiled as they got up and left the table, followed by Morrigan.

After they left, Cologne and Jackie walked into the main dining area and started cleaning up. "Might I ask..." Jackie began and Cologne looked at her curiously. "Why are you a maid? You said you were a leader to a village of warriors for centuries, so..."

"A change of pace." Cologne told her. "Besides, what's a decade for me? I have enough control over my Ki that I won't be aging anywhere like I used to. And helping the Demon King be a good ruler and a good parent for his children seems like a worthy goal. Besides, I'm getting paid and when I think he's become a good enough ruler and parent, I'll leave. Unlike you, I don't have to be here."

"Thanks for reminding me." Jackie muttered as her tails swished behind her.

"You're welcome." Cologne smiled.

End Chapter 7

Well, thought I'd give you all a Christmas present.

Also, setting up plot points for the future.