Dance in Time

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own thoughts.

I have had a lousy couple of weeks. Here's a new chapter.

Chapter 13

While the adults were talking, Millicas walked around the Lucifer grounds with Morrigan and Chloe, showing them places that he knew.

"So you live here?" Morrigan asked and Millicas shook his head. "But he is your father, right?"

"Yeah," Millicas smiled at her, "but for political reasons, my last name is Gremory and I live with my grandmother and big sister."

"You have an older sister?" Chloe asked, curious about the redhead.

"Oh!" Millicas laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "I mean Big Sister Rias. She's actually father's little sister, but she and I are close in age, so I call her my big sister. I have younger sisters."

"I guess when you're basically eternal, she would be a big sister to you." Chloe said as she rubbed the back of her head.

Morrigan pouted and glomped onto Chloe. "Am I not your big sister?"

"But aren't you a big sister, Morri?" Chloe asked while giving Morrigan a weird look.

"NNNNGH! SUCH A CUTE NICKNAME!" Morrigan squealed as she hugged Chloe tightly. "But, no." She pouted and let go of the hug. "Not yet. Leonardo, Kunou, Tama, Mae, Lillie, Tenma and Daidama are all older than me. I just look older." She gave Chloe a pleading look. "So, please? Can't I be your big sister?"

"What about Saito?" Millicas asked Morrigan. "Don't you have a younger brother?"

"Yeah, but he's still young and all he does is poop in his diapers right now." Morrigan grimaced as she knew that if not for the size of her family that she'd be stuck changing those same poopy diapers.

"Oh?" A male voice spoke up and Millicas's eyes widened in delight as he spun around and saw someone who looked to be in their early twenties with sandy-blonde hair and dark eyes with Japanese features, who was wearing a blue-sleeved kimono with a white vest over their chest and a black scarf around their neck, they were wearing black hakama pants and had a katana on their side while they walked up to the three children with a pleasant smile on their face. "Young master Millicas and young mistress Morrigan and..."

"Oh," Morrigan smiled at the person. "This is," she gestured towards Chloe, "Chloe von Einzbern. My father's newest peerage member." She then gestured towards the person. "Chloe, this is..."

"Okita Soji, right?" Chloe asked, much to Soji's surprise. "One of Japan's most skilled swordsman to ever live, who was a captain of the Shisengumi, right? Your sword is Kikuichimonji Norimune and the blade's been shattered and replaced at least twice since becoming a Devil."

"...That's rather impressive." Soji said with a nod. "Please don't tell me that others are spilling everything about me."

Chloe chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "Ah, no, your sword told me. You replaced the blade with European metal after the first time it was broken."

Soji raised an eyebrow and nodded as he looked down at his sword. "Yes, sadly my sword did need to be repaired a few times and while I love my homeland, Japanese iron is very low quality compared to European iron. Thankfully my blade hasn't broken in almost thirty-five years."

"Ah, no offense..." Chloe said with a smile. "But I thought you were a girl when I first saw you."

Soji laughed and shook his head. "No, no, it's fine. But if you thought I was a girl, you should have seen some of the people I fought against back when I was human. One of them was a redheaded swordsman that could pass as a woman if he ever put on a dress without much problem."

He thought back to those days and smiled fondly. "Enough reminiscing, I must ask, young miss Einzbern, how did you get that information?"

"I..." Chloe fidgeted and shook her head. "I don't know. All I know is that when I saw your sword everything about you snapped into focus."

Seeing the dark-skinned girl looking flustered, Soji just smiled and nodded. "I see, would you care for a spar?" He waved a hand to dismiss the concerns that came out of Chloe's mouth. "As the Knight of the current Devil King, Sirzechs Lucifer, I am more than capable of handling myself. Or are you perhaps worried that I might hurt you?"

"Ah," Chloe rubbed the back of her head and smiled meekly. "Sorry, I'm not used to fighting people who aren't out to kill me other than Master's peerage and his maid."

Soji nodded as he heard that. "I can understand, but please, rest assured, I taught many of the Shisengumi personally and I have trained young master Millicas and other Devils."

Chloe thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay then," she smiled and bowed, "please take care of me."

Soji nodded and rested his hand on his sword as Morrigan was led out of the area by Millicas. "Whenever you're ready."

Chloe nodded as a pair of swords formed in her hands. Soji merely kept smiling as Chloe took a rather unorthodox stance with the black sword held above her head and the white sword held in front of her. It came across as an aggressive stance, not that Soji cared, he had seen two-handed styles before after all.

Suddenly Chloe disappeared. It wasn't speed, she disappeared and Soji couldn't feel her anymore. However that didn't stop him from spinning and unsheathing his sword to parry an over-head strike from Chloe, who appeared behind him. While Chloe's black sword was pushed to the side, she spun with the attack and slashed with her white sword.

"Interesting." Soji smiled as he parried a few more strikes, before increasing the speed of his strikes as she sped up to match his speed. He narrowed his eyes while his smile never left his face before making a move and striking at what looked like an obvious gap in her defenses when she suddenly twisted and parried out of the way. "Leaving intentional gaps in your defense like that?" Soji asked before he took a step forward and in a move that Chloe didn't see coming, sliced through her weapons like they were just sheets of paper.

Chloe didn't look the least bit preturbed as she created a simple long sword and jumped at him, their swords clashing as she swung down and he swung to the side. "You're really good." Chloe said with a smile on her face.

Soji nodded while smiling at her. 'So you feel free when fighting, huh?' Maybe she was a battle maniac like some of his superiors had been.

After all, despite his genius in combat, there were those that were his superior even after he became the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi. "An interesting trick, miss Chloe, is this a Sacred Gear of some sort?" After all, he had trained Yukiko back when she was known as Kiba he had used his Sacred Gear to create multiple blades.

'I really should start thinking of that kid as a girl now, huh?' Despite being years since the gender change, Yukiko was still female and, in some ways, pretty happy about it.

Other than sometimes complaining about how annoying it was to use the toilet as a girl compared to how it was as a guy.

Off to the side, Morrigan and Millicas watched with rapt attention as Soji's strikes were getting faster and sharper while Chloe was parrying at the last second and trying to strike back, only to find him stepping out of the way or blocking shortly before the attack got to him. "They're good, huh?" Millicas asked, though he could tell Soji was holding back a lot.

Morrigan nodded, though when Chloe's sword shattered, her sister jumped back and formed a white lance with golden prongs on it. It looked odd, like a jousting weapon rather than something to spar with. "It sure is pretty though."

Soji might have agreed, but he found that Chloe's entire fighting style had changed, which he approved of, as lances were different from swords, but she was striking at his arms and legs. "Attempting to cripple me?"

"Well, if you were a ghost of some sort, then you'd lose your leg." Chloe said with a smile on her face.

"Sadly for you I'm not a ghost." Soji suddenly rushed in as Chloe over-extended herself on a thrust. He grabbed her wrist and gave it a twist, causing her to let out a small cry of pain as she dropped the lance, which disappeared. "Against most people, that would have worked, just be more careful with over-extending yourself."

Chloe nodded before she turned her whole body with the twist, spinning out of his grasp as several swords formed above her and were launched down at him.

"Interesting way to fight." He admitted as he dodged or struck back against the flying blades.

Chloe saw one of her swords flying to the back of Soji's head while he was blocking another one. Before it got too close, a snake-like creature came out of nowhere and grabbed it between its teeth. "What the?" She then noticed that the creature a woman's head with a third eye and a shell of some sort was connected to Soji's shoulder.

"A Hitokai," Soji answered her. "A youkai that, as you can see, has a snake-like body, a human head and a conch shell to house the body." Chloe gave him a disturbed look and Soji smiled while rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I did summon Sirzechs by accident when I was still human, so after becoming a Devil, I made deals with various Youkai and can summon them to aid me in my fights." He dismissed the Hitokai.

Chloe nodded and let out a soft sigh. "I get it, you're way better than me. But, I wanted to try something." She dismissed her lance and held out her right hand as energy crackled in the air. "I've never been able to lift this back when I was still human, so I wonder if I can do it as a Devil."

"Hmm?" Soji wondered what was going to happen when a huge slab of stone appeared in Chloe's hands. It looked like someone had taken a chunk of granite and made a very crude sword-axe hybrid out of it. "Oh dear, are you making the same mistake that Yukiko made with her destruction sword?" Thankfully the blonde had given up on the sword as she could barely use it anymore.

Chloe didn't answer as she found that she could, in fact lift the weapon. "Man," she grimaced as she found that even if she could lift it, she was entirely too small to keep her balance. "Too bad I'm not over two meters tall and have super strength."

But the fact that she could even move it off the ground was something she could never do before. "I wonder..." Chloe muttered as she extended her wings and actually flew into the air.

She wasn't able to get more than a few feet off the ground and it was slower than she would have liked, but she was forming ideas in her head. "Alright, try this!" Chloe actually flipped backwards when she was close to Soji and dive-bombed him.

"Really?" Soji asked as he shifted his stance. "This won't..."

"Nine Lives... BLADE WORKS!"

"Nine, what?" Soji asked as suddenly Chloe zipped down, an unusual look in her eyes as her arms were glowing black with gold lines running down them and to her finger-tips as she swung the comically over-sized weapon nine times in an instant before the sword shattered and she fell on her face after stumbling out of the attack.

"Oww..."

"CHLOE!" Morrigan and Millicas yelled as they ran to the two, who weren't moving.

Chloe grimaced as her whole body throbbed in pain. "That was stupid, why did I try that?"

A sudden groan had her lifting her head up and she gaped in surprise as several wounds appeared on Soji's arms, legs and even stomach as blood rushed out and he even coughed as blood came out of his mouth. "Well... That hasn't happened since I was still human." He slumped to his knees and the sword in his hand fell to the ground with a dull clang.

Chloe idly noted that his sword was shattered. "I..."

"It's okay," Soji said with a pained smile while Millicas used his magic to call for some servants, who quickly appeared. "I'll be fine. You should rest."

"Y-yeah." Chloe groaned as she felt herself being picked up by powerful arms. Her eyes closed and the last thing she saw was the concerned look of her master.

Chloe felt herself relaxing as she was pressed against his chest. She couldn't recall the last time she felt that safe. It felt...

Nice.

Ranma just sighed as he held Chloe in his arms and looked at Soji, who was being helped up by Sirzechs. "I'm going to take Chloe home so she can rest."

"Of course," Sirzechs said with a nod. "Next time, don't blow up my windows trying to get to her." He then smiled at Ranma. "I would do the same for my children though, so I understand."

Ranma nodded as Morrigan and Lilith came over to him and the group disappeared in a black flash of light.

"So..." Grayfia had a disappointed look on her face. "What happened, Soji?"

Soji just smiled despite the blood coming out of his mouth. "If Surtr needs a new sword, I know who to ask."

Grayfia sighed softly. "Lord Sirzechs, please attend to your knight and I shall clean up the mess out here." Sirzechs nodded and carried Soji inside to help him heal while Grayfia started to clean up. "Millicas," she looked at her son, "could you tell me what happened?"

"Sure, mother."

Grayfia listened as Millicas explained what happened. "Hmm, a sparring match that got out of control?" Well, at least it was just Soji, since she knew that he wouldn't die from those wounds and that he wouldn't hold a grudge against Chloe for doing that to him.

"Well, she'll be fine in the morning." Grayfia said to Millicas, who looked concerned.

(-)

The next morning...

Chloe groaned as she felt herself slowly waking up. "Did Truck-kun kill me?"

A male chuckle caused her to gasp and she sat up, revealing that she was in bed, naked, with her master, who was nearly naked as he was wearing boxers that covered his privates, which Chloe was thankful for. "Ah! M-master! Wh-what happened?"

"You were hurting and low on magic." Ranma told her as he gently helped her off of him and got out of bed. "So to help you recharge, I spent the night in here with you." He rolled his eyes at how she was blushing and fidgeting. "I didn't touch you any more than I had to in order to get you naked. Devils recharge faster if they're cuddling naked with other Devils."

"Ah..." Chloe poked her fingers together. "I still haven't slept with a boy before and..."

Ranma chuckled and put his hand on her forehead and pushed her hair up, giving her a chaste kiss on the forehead. "It's okay. Now get dressed, school starts in an hour and Morrigan's going to be tackling you when she sees you this morning."

Chloe blushed more as Ranma left her behind. "Thanks... Master." She smiled softly and proceeded to get dressed and hoped that he was exaggerating.

When she was tackled to the ground upon stepping out of her room by a crying green-haired succubus, she determined that, no, Ranma had not been exaggerating.

Chloe still smiled. After all, this was nicer than having a sister who got irritated at her for small things.

Like kissing her friends, trying to seduce her brother and kissing her all the time.

But none of that was a real reason to get mad, was it?

End Chapter 13

Since there's an Okita Soji in Rurouni Kenshin, Fate/Grand Order (another Saber face), and High School DxD (he taught Kiba), why not?

Nine Lives Blade Works is the attack Shirou uses in the Heaven's Feel Movie/Route when using Heracles's club-sword.