Dance in Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own thoughts.

Chapter 4

Chloe wasn't sure what to expect for breakfast for Devils. The fact that it was just normal food and drinks that she could find anywhere in the human world wasn't something that she would have predicted.

She was thankful that the food was normal and rather tasty.

"So," Kunou spoke up after finishing her food, "what's the agenda today, daddy?"

"Simple," Ranma grinned at her. "All of you, that includes you, Leonardo, are going to train until lunch." He smirked at the groans he heard, "well, I suppose if you don't want to train with Cologne or Yohko for the next few hours, I can give you some special training."

Everyone but Chloe immediately vacated the table.

"Uh..?" The tanned girl blinked a few times in confusion. "Should I go out there too?"

"Actually," Ranma told her, "I'm glad you stuck around. I wanted to talk to you." She nodded and he continued on. "School is currently on summer break for another three weeks. You'll be going to Kuoh Academy."

"You want me to go to school?" Chloe asked and Ranma nodded his head. "...Thanks." She said with a smile on her face.

Ranma was slightly taken aback by how adorably cute Chloe's smile was, but mentally shook his head and continued, "that said, when you're going to school, you'll have to take on a different last name." Chloe frowned in confusion as Ranma continued. "When you're on Devil business, you can use your current last name. But when going to school, you'll have to go as Chloe Saotome."

"Why?"

"Bulleta pointed out that von Einzbern is German nobility." Ranma answered her. "All it would take is someone being curious about you and doing an internet search to see that you don't exist. Before you ask, I did a search myself, there's no Einzbern family in this world."

Chloe didn't need to know that it was Nabiki that had did the searching, which was why he had to have this conversation with her.

"Oh." The tanned girl said softly. "So..." She reached up and twirled her hair. "What's the cover story then?"

"I was taking a trip to Europe about six months ago when there was a terror attack that caused a massive explosion and fire in Germany due to some religious fanatics. With how bad things have gotten in Europe in the past decade, it's believable." Chloe nodded as Ranma continued. "While I was there, I ran into the fire to try and save any survivors and all I found was you, surrounded by fire and looking like you were dying. I took you to the hospital and you don't remember much about your life before, so I adopted you and brought you home."

"...For some reason," Chloe muttered, "this story feels familiar to me. I don't know why."

"Any questions?"

Chloe shook her head. "Not for this, but I have to ask, why does Morrigan want to go to school?"

"She gets bored when she's forced to stay home." Ranma told her. "Succubi age differently than other species. They stay as infants and age somewhat normally for the first year, but then they jump straight to ten or eleven on their first birthday and stay that way until they turn ten when they go through puberty and end up fully grown. And she can't go to school yet, since she can't control her Succubus instincts yet."

"Why not put a seal on her?"

"When she's five and can control her instincts better we will." Ranma told her. "It's just better for her to go to school when she's only five years away from hitting her puberty, she'll look like she's ten from when others are ten until they're fifteen and then she'll suddenly go through puberty and be fully grown. If she went now, she'd be a loli until just before she graduated. I don't want her to deal with extreme teasing."

"Oh." Chloe rubbed the back of her head, that made sense to her. "Um... I have another question." Ranma nodded and Chloe fidgeted in her seat. "Since I got her, I got into that sparring session with your maid and... For some reason, I don't feel really drained like I was expecting and I feel a little... Weaker, I think, than I used to be. But why?"

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked and Chloe looked uncomfortable. "Please, Chloe, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."

Chloe sighed and slumped down. "I was an accident. And I don't mean that mama didn't plan for me. I was born when Illya and her friend Miyu were trying to repair the leylines of the city they were in. Illya had the Archer class card and due to an accident that happened, I was born, with a body that looked like Illya's and the power of the Archer card." Her eyes smoldered with a mix of disgust and sadness. "...I wasn't real. I needed to constantly drain mana from someone to keep myself going. I kissed them and drained their mana, but I haven't had to do that since I got here."

"...What's a class card?" Ranma asked as he frowned in confusion.

"...Do you know what a Heroic Spirit is?"

"I think the old man said something about a legendary person or something."

Chloe nodded at him. "Yes. People who did great things in life and are remembered are called Heroic Spirits. In our world, we can use the Class Cards to get the power of a Heroic Spirit that could be that Heroic Spirit. So, my body is a copy of Illya's body and a magical construct. Without an influx of magic, I break down and disappear."

Suddenly Chloe grasped her chest and gasped. The image of a woman with big breasts and a stern expression flooded her mind and she shook her head. "S-sorry, just a flash of a memory." She smiled at Ranma, who was next to her and looking concerned. "I'm okay, just a memory, that's all."

Ranma nodded. "Well, that's good. As for why you haven't needed mana, it's simple." He stood up and stretched his arms above his head. "When I used the Evil Piece to turn you into a Devil, your body went from a magical construct to a flesh and blood body." Chloe stared in shock. "You aren't the first person that wasn't a real girl that I turned into one." He smirked at her. "So now, you don't need to worry about disappearing because your mana runs out."

The next thing he knew, Chloe was hugging him and burying her face into his stomach, thanking him.

Ranma smiled and patted her back. "Alright, you need to get out there and train with the others. Otherwise I'll have to make you go through my own training." He said while he continued to pat her on the back. "Go on and have fun."

"Yes!" Chloe nodded and ran off, stopping to ask a maid for directions.

Ranma watched her leave with a smile on his face.

"Really, boyo..." A female voice said from above as a miniature girl, about thirty centimeters tall, floated down from the ceiling. "Making a creature like that into a Devil?" Ranma gave her a flat stare and she sighed. "I have no problem with you turning anyone you want into a Devil, naturally, and I won't interact with any of your kids since you don't trust me."

When she landed on the table, Ranma shook his head. "Asmodeus, you tried to seduce Rein Zwei, tried to steal Kunou's panties while she was still wearing them and I don't even want to mention what you did when Lilith went into labor."

"...I wanted a really good look, okay?" She sweat-dropped as he pulled out a flyswatter and she waved her hands. "Sorry, sorry, I only did it once. I didn't do it for anyone else, did I?"

Ranma sighed and put the flyswatter away. "No, you've been pretty well behaved, for you, since then."

Asmodeus sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Listen, Master, I won't do anything to any of your children, I promise."

Ranma narrowed his eyes at her. "Listen, it's not about you doing anything directly to them, but you put out an aura that affects most people just by being around them." He rolled his eyes at how she was pouting at him. "Listen, if you're good today, you can fuse with me when I'm with Yohko tonight."

Asmodeus perked up and grinned. "Fucking a pregnant woman is awesome. Especially when we're sharing senses!"

Ranma just shook his head and stood up. "Anyway, I'm going to need you to do something for me. A couple of guests are showing up in a couple of hours."

"Who?"

Ranma smirked at her. "Sairaorg and Vali."

Asmodeus sighed and hung her head. "I'll help get the barriers ready in that case." When Ranma put his hand on her head, she leaned into it, closed her eyes and practically started purring. "If you ever find a way to go back in time to meet me when I was in charge, I'd want you to dominate me." She cracked an eye open and smirked, "and remember, I don't care what gender you are. And neither do you, if what Miko does to you is any indication."

"You know that we don't have sex that often." Ranma told her and walked off.

Asmodeus giggled into her hand. "I know, I just like to tease you." She said out-loud, even though she was alone. After giggling for several more moments, she calmed down and narrowed her eyes. "That girl... She's not like the others you saved, boyo, something about her feels off."

Asmodeus then suddenly grinned and crossed her arms behind her head. "Oh well! Even if she feels off, she still feels like a good girl." Her grin turned savage as she leaned back. "And if she's not a good girl, then I get to break my promise with boyo and do lewd things to her. Fufufufufufufufufu..."

She rolled over onto her stomach and pushed herself up. "But, that's for later. I'll just enjoy watching the kids from a distance for now. I better get going if I want to help set up that barrier."

Asmodeus nodded and flew off.

(-)

Chloe found Leonardo's ability to create anything he wanted from his mind to be really neat. It reminded her of her trace ability, but she couldn't sense that there was any downside to it, other than needing to have an imagination. "It's a good thing these Sacred Gears don't exist in my old world." Chloe said as she created two swords to block an attack from what looked like a monkey wielding a staff.

"Why?" Leonardo asked her as he had his creation spar with Chloe.

"Well, if my sister had it, she might use it to create a bunch of copies of our brother." Chloe started to blush as she thought about what she could do with such an ability. "And then, heh heh, OOOOPH!" She gasped as the staff slammed her in the stomach and sent her flying onto her back.

"Don't get distracted." Yohko said and smacked Chloe on the head with a shinai, causing the small girl to tear up and rub her head. "Fantasize about people all you want on your free time, but when you're training, you have to treat this like it's a life or death fight."

"Bully." Chloe said as she got up, rubbing her head and yelped as the Shinai struck her on the butt. "Oww!"

"No backtalking." Yohko said with a stern look on her face. "Now get back in there."

"Fine." Chloe muttered and traced her favorite two swords, only to blink in surprise as they weren't normal, but rather splintered into feather-like shapes. "Uh... I didn't put that much power into it."

"I take it that it's not supposed to look like that?" Yohko asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No, this is the more powerful broken version of them." She explained and dismissed them. "They're really strong, but fragile and will blow up when they hit something." She re-created them and gawked as they, again, formed with feather shards rather than being simple blades. "What's going on?!"

Yohko frowned as she saw that. "Try again, but use less magic." Chloe nodded and tried again, this time, they were only partially feathered. "...I think you need to practice more."

"But..." Chloe had a scared look on her face. "I don't understand! If I use any less mana, they won't form! What's going on?!"

"Maybe our world has more mana than yours?" Leonardo suggested and Chloe looked at him, her eyes sparkling with hope. "Big brother once told me that some worlds have lots of mana and it's easy to do magic and other worlds have hardly any mana and it's really hard to do anything but the most basic spells."

"Why don't you spend the rest of the day practicing creating your weapons?" Yohko suggested to Chloe, who nodded. "Train until you get used to it. The last thing we need is you to accidentally blow someone up in training."

"G-good idea." Chloe said as she started to walk off to the side.

"You don't need to go." Leonardo said as several training dummies appeared. "I can help you with this."

Chloe gave him a grateful look. "Thank you."

Yohko has a small smirk on her face as she saw that. "Working on being a big brother, huh?" Leonardo just blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I think it's sweet."

As she watched Leonardo and Chloe work through their training, Yohko could only smile and nod. Chloe seemed like she needed someone to act as her elder sibling and Leonardo was good at being a big brother for the younger kids.

She was jerked out of her thoughts as Chloe created a large, black bow and jumped back, creating a sword that took on a weird, spiral shape, before she fired it. The explosion that happened had her wincing and looking away.

"I'm sorry." Chloe said as she landed and bowed. "I barely put anything into that."

"Barely for you," Yohko said as she thought about it. "But it feels like you're trying to pour a bucket of water into a thimble."

"...I'm not used to using less power."

"Well, we can work with that." Yohko said with a smile as she walked over to the girl. "You did create swords that didn't change or blow up. Can you create simple arrows to shoot?"

Chloe closed her eyes and suddenly fifty arrows appeared in front of her. "Oh!"

"I think I get what's going on now." Yohko said. "Your original world has lower mana than this world, so you have to put more effort into making stuff. You're used to putting forth all that effort and in this world, it causes you problems. For now, just stick to simpler stuff when sparring and you can work on creating the more complicated stuff as you get used to it, okay?"

Chloe nodded and hoped that she got control over this sooner rather than later.

End Chapter 4

Kind of a breather and set-up chapter.