Ranma looked down from the hotel balcony to see the teenagers moving down to the beach again Kurz and Sousuke were both there. She smelled a burst of sulfur and turned to look over at Mara appearing on the balcony.
"How long have you been here?" Ranma asked.
"Off and on," Mara said carefully. "Naiki's spoiling to go off hunting Hecate."
"I know," Ranma said, bitterly. "My kids are funny that way."
"That's why I'm here," Mara said. "A lightning storm wiped a military base in Korea off the map a few days ago. I understand your children were held there a few months ago."
Ranma sat down on the balcony railing.
"He attacked that base?" Ranma asked disappointed. "They don't present a threat. He has no reason to attack them."
"There's one reason," Mara said. "Your human carapaces, these machines you use to enhance your chi. We haven't used such weapons since the Doublet System was put into place. With such a thing, even a third category God or Demon can challenge the first category."
"And he saw one there," Ranma noted. "Thank you, Mara. And your reason for doing this?"
"Because I'm a little tired of walking on eggshells around you," Mara said honestly.
A knock came on the door and Ranma looked toward it, standing up from the balcony and walking across the room.
"Company calling?" Mara asked casually.
"I need to explain some things to some people," Ranma said, opening the door to reveal Akane and Ryuu.
Akane looked past Ranma to the blonde in the balcony and frowned.
"Are we interrupting something?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"I already have enough Satomi attention. Speaking of which," Mara said. "Is there a way to get your daughter to stop grabbing my butt? I'm supposed to be her teacher. not her squeeze toy."
"Dye your hair," Ranma said over her shoulder. "Akane, Ryuu, this is Mara."
"Ranma," Akane said. "She reeks of black magic."
"That's because she's a demon," the red-head said. "Mara, do you mind, this is private."
"Right, going," Mara said swiftly before vanishing in a puff of smoke. "I think Naiki's planning on visiting Persephone today, I'll go with her to make sure she comes right back."
"Thank you again," Ranma said.
"Why are you dealing with demons?" Akane demanded stepping forward.
"Naiki's a demon, isn't she," Ryuu said. "She has somewhat the same sort of aura."
"And Eija's a goddess," Ranma said. "I meant to tell you this before there was any issue. Things have...gotten in the way."
Ranma gestured for them to come and sit down.
Akane looked around and immediately noticed the paper charms on the wall securing privacy against eavesdropping. She moved to sit on one of the couches, Ryuu sitting beside her.
"I learned about all this a few weeks after we had dinner at Kasumi's," Ranma said. "So that's why I didn't tell you anything. I just didn't know."
"Didn't know what?" Akane asked.
"Who the fathers of my children were," Ranma said.
<HR>
Naiki paced a bit as she waited. Eija had given her the telephone number for the Temple of Fates, but she wanted to talk to Persephone face to face.
Mara had said she could help Naiki teleport there, especially since the young demoness needed to practice that anyway, but she hadn't told Naiki how yet. So she was stuck wasting her time with waiting.
Of course she knew why Mara was doing it this way. Her mentor didn't want her running off after Hecate when she got the information. Mara was as bad as her mother in that way.
The burst of smoke next to her announced the arrival of her mentor.
"Okay," Mara said. "We're ready to go."
"So, you're going to teach me how to teleport?" Naiki asked.
"Not yet," the older demoness said. "I'm just going to teleport you over there, so you know what it's like. I'll teach you later."
Naiki crossed her arms and pouted.
"Doesn't work kid," Mara said with a smirk. "Now, take my hand...and just my hand."
Mara gingerly held out her hand and arched the rest of her body away from it.
With a disappointed look, Naiki reached out to take Mara's hand. The martial artist opened her senses up and watched carefully how the other demon was about to work the pishogue.
"Here we go," Mara said.
The demonic energy twisted out, like it had when they'd come from Nifelheim to Earth. Only this time, instead of moving in a spiral through the barrier between the two realms, Mara and Naiki's energy twisted across the edge, skipping like a stone over a lake.
For a brief moment, she smelled the comfortable scent of Nifelheim's sulfurous air and then they were coming back into the thinner air of Earth. As smoke cleared the scene of a Tokyo street came into view around them.
Standing up above them was a hill with a walled compound carrying a shrine on top.
"This is the Temple of the Fates," Mara said. "It's not a place you and I can just walk into. There are wards, luck charms and a damn annoying robot."
"So we just sit out here and wait?" Naiki asked.
"There's a phone over there," Mara said, pointing down the street. "You have the number, call and tell them you're here."
That didn't seem necessary as the door opened and a tall, tanned woman with platinum hair walked out and froze on seeing Mara standing there.
"Mara, what in Kami-Sama's name are you doin...gack!" Urd declared as the other demon slipped up close to her.
"Mmmm, that scent," Naiki said. "You're related to Hild-sama aren't you."
"Urd is Hild's daughter," Mara said with a smirk as she watched Naiki inspect the confused goddess.
"Would you like a virgin sacrifice, Urd-sama?" Naiki asked sweetly.
"Passionate...little thing isn't she," Urd noted.
"Hild-sama said exactly the same thing," Naiki responded excitedly.
"Urd!" a childish voice declared. "What are you doing in the middle of the..."
Skuld stopped as she noticed Mara and immediately backed away reaching for a hammer.
"What are you doing here?" Skuld demanded.
Urd pushed Naiki away, or tried at least, finding the green-haired demoness somewhat flexible.
"I'm here with her," Mara said, pointing to Naiki. "She needs to talk to Persephone."
The last bit was emphasized loudly, bringing a sudden dawning expression to Naiki's face. Reluctantly, she stepped away from Urd and looked toward the little kid with the mechanical hammer.
"Well, later, Urd-san," Naiki said with a longing smile then turning toward Skuld. "Hey, kid, is Persephone here?"
Urd sidled over toward Mara and whispered toward her childhood friend turned rival agent.
"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Urd accused.
"I'm looking at thirty minutes or more of her not pawing me," Mara said.
She frowned at that comment and started to work it out, she was a little bit behind Urd on that thought.
"That means you think I'm more attractive than you are," Urd said with a smirk.
Meanwhile, Skuld was trying to shift her hammer forward or back as Naiki held it solid in her hand and continued to talk to her.
Keiichi walked out to see what the disruption was about and sighed in frustration as he saw two demons standing past the gate.
"It's going to be one of those days," he said.
<HR>
Deimosu stepped out of the gate, alone this time. Yonjuu had stayed back to make sure Yaku was safe and opened the gate on time. Deimosu had to admit that he could actually have used her this time.
The factory in front of him was small compared to others he'd found himself sneaking through in the past. Abandoned factories were a favorite place for cultists to congregate and carry out their rituals.
It was almost familiar territory.
Deimosu doubted that this particular factory was on any address lists. It was rather deep in the mountains somewhere in Russia, next to a quarry or mine of some sort, another favorite of fanatics-r-we.
Like his mother, they had banked primarily on being unnoticed. There was security, but not much. From what he could tell, they probably ran a skeleton crew to keep the number of people that knew about this place to a minimum.
Which was just perfect for him.
He slipped down through the trees into the small valley, moving through the shadows.
<HR>
"Gods and demons," Akane said shaking her head. "Only you, Ranma."
"I think the problem is that it isn't only me," Ranma told them. "When it was Nerima, I was the focus. This time, I was just a stepping stone. I'm already discarded and forgotten."
She took a deep breath.
"There were times I hoped it would stay that way," Ranma muttered.
"Everybody who's ignored you has a tendency to lose," Ryuu reminded her.
Ranma nodded to that with a slight smile.
"That's still mostly true," she agreed. "And we'll see about that later."
"Eija's a goddess, Naiki's a demoness," Akane said. "What about Deimosu?"
Ranma leaned back.
"Deimosu's gone looking to avenge me," Ranma said. "He found out somehow. You can't find him with magic, though I still tried, and he's been trained to survive in the wild, so he's not going to show up on the grid."
"At least he can't get off the island without..." Akane started to say before stopping herself. "Wait, what am I saying. I'll bet he can swim across the Sea of Japan, can't he?"
"Possibly," Ranma noted.
"Are you just waiting then?" Ryuu asked. "If it was me..."
"Tell, me Ryuu," Ranma said. "You do work for Psyche, don't you?"
"I've freelanced a couple of times for them," Ryuu said. "Last thing I got from them was just to keep an eye out for..."
"A six-foot tall Greek-Japanese boy, about seventeen years old," Ranma said. "Right, I put that out."
"You're Psych?" Akane asked.
"Yeah, I handle the requests for this region now," Ranma said. "Moving up in the world. I've had some leads, but so far it's either been nothing or too late. He was in a town fair getting chased by some girls that ended up being Kodachi's daughters, then he vanished."
Ranma glanced toward where Mara had vanished.
"Mara told me that something that sounded like it could be him happened in North Korea a couple of days ago," Ranma said. "I'll be putting together a mission for that just now, but he'll probably be gone already."
Ranma sighed.
"I might be able to find him if I picked up and left," she said. "But I can't just pick up and leave anymore."
"I'll see if anybody has heard anything strange," Akane said. "I have decent clearance. I can get a look at some reports for you."
"Do that, please," Ranma said.
<HR>
Persephone vaguely remembered what a teenager was like. It had been more than fifty years since any of her children had been through that phase, but she was currently having less than fond memories of that time.
Naiki was here, on an important errand. An errand with personal importance to Naiki. And yet, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Urd.
"So, I understand you have an interest in Miss Tokiwa," Persephone said.
Attention was instantly off Urd. Persephone smiled knowingly. That would be a somewhat touchy situation.
"Who s...umm, what are you talking about?" Naiki asked.
Mara produced a notebook and started writing something down.
"Oh," Belldandy said. "Kyoko-chan? She was very nice."
The other goddess smiled as she passed out cups of tea to everybody at the table.
"Now, before we go on to the important information," Persephone said. "Naiki, do you have a telepathic link with someone the way Eija does."
"Yeah," the sea demoness said.
"Is she listening right now?" the Queen of the Dead asked.
"Let me check," Naiki said.
<HR>
TESSA! TESSA! I NEED YOU TO PAY ATTENTION TO SOMETHING! ARE YOU THERE?
Captain Testarossa picked up her head from her desk and rolled her eyes.
Naiki, remember what I said about volume control?
<HR>
"Nope, she's not listening," Naiki said bold-facedly.
Ah the youth who thought they could fool their elders.
"Well then," Persephone said, "I suppose it's safe to start dealing with your business then."
"That's it?" Naiki said. "You're just going to turn it over, just because I ask?"
The various goddesses at the table held an embarrassed silence and even Mara pretended not to here the question.
"Nifelheim and Asgard do not share information," Belldandy said with clear regret for the situation.
"But that's not what's happening here," Persephone said. "Right now, I'm sharing information with my granddaughter and her teacher."
"But, I'm a..." Naiki stopped as several people cleared their throats. "Could someone explain this to me?"
"Perhaps later," Persephone said, looking over toward Mara.
<HR>
Deimosu had been right about the security measures. And most, if not all, the security and workers were unconscious now. He had free run of the factory.
There were several papers and files about how the Arm-Slaves being put together in the factory. There were only two or three in the process of being completed right now. And it didn't look like assembly went quickly with the small group of techs and workers.
He saw some of the components for the lambda driver ready to place onto one of the ASes, great spikes of metal that were at least ten feet in length. He wasn't about to get those out of here.
Frowning, Deimosu looked to the schematics he found.
"I'll have to settle for these," he said frowning. "Though, I think I can spend some time on those..."