As any Initiate knows, the ranks of demonkind are legion. They are invariably powerful, malicious, and powerhungry. The wise Initiate fears them, but not to excess. Excessive fear is a weakness, easily fatal. The absence of fear is simply arrogance. Remember, even the mightiest of demons fear something...Excerpt from A Primer on Demonology by RT Calwey the Third.
That task complete, she sat down at her desk and performed her usual routine of triage. Tokyo was her specialty, but at her rank reports from a few different star systems crossed her desk for rubberstamping. It was hard to get properly motivated signing off on a plague to wipe out a people she didn't know to revenge a summoner she had never heard of on a planet she had never seen, but apparently the demon in charge of the operation fell under her net. "I bet those goddesses don't have to deal with this crap."
Mara silently thanked Urd as she accessed the F&D archives. The Norns were the ones that wove Fate in the first place, after all, and after spending so much time getting blown up by them Mara had a pretty good idea what she was looking at. Oh sure any demon could recognize a locus, but the subtle stuff of a simple human Sleeper martial artist? That took skill.
Mara would be remembering that thought for eons to come. Ranma wasn't simple. He might not even be a Sleeper. And his Fate was about as subtle as...well as Urd. Mara stared at the starburst layered on a vortex and whimpered involuntarily. All her plans for Nabiki were moot, that much was clear. Even if it was possible to separate the two, Nabiki would never be the same person. The Ice Queen that was so delicious as a possible lieutenant would break under the strain.
Mara turned her attention from the disturbing weave of fate and pulled out the imps' reports. They couldn't risk breaking Nabiki, but Ranma...
That idea died stillborn. Naive, young, inexperienced, throwing around enough martial power that anyone shy of a third class demon wouldn't stand a chance, and the report on Nabiki's wards dismissed any chance of a magical assault that wouldn't be traced back to...them...
Mara smiled maliciously and called up the reports on Gosunkugi Hikaru. She had enjoyed using the boy to get a hook into his family, but the reality was that none of them were really throwing around any interesting power anymore. Nabiki was a more interesting catch, and with Ranma as desert the pair were a better prize than an entire generation of Gosunkugis. No, she'd expend that marker on the boy.
"GORASH!" she bellowed, waving at one of her summoning circles. The imp appeared in a blaze of fire, his expression startled at the raw power behind the summoning.
"Mistress?"
"Pull your imps back. There are to be no demons watching Nabiki or Ranma at all. When you're done with that, get back here. I'm drafting a memo that needs to go to all First Class Demons. Anyone related to Tendo Nabiki or Saotome Ranma is to be unmolested by any agency of Hell. Following the orders of a mortal, fine, but nothing can be traced back to our agenda."
The imp's mind whirled as he tried to figure exactly what Mara was planning. "We can't give up," he whined, confused.
Mara ignored him. "Then you are to return to me. I think your friend Gosunkugi needs to repay his debt."
Gorash blinked and processed that. He smiled, uncertain but malicious. "As you command, Mistress," he said with a bow, then vanished.
Mara leaned back as she drafted her memos. One to the demons, one to Hild. She'd have to deliver that one personally.
Life was about to get interesting for Nabiki. And that was the problem. You don't play politics with disaster. Mara muttered as she wrote. "We cannot take advantage of the troubles Ranma causes. We cannot even appear to take advantage. If Nabiki views us as an ally against the chaos Ranma attracts, she will see Hell as a place of refuge. We must therefor cease any activities that could engender Tendo Nabiki against our agenda."
Mara considered the proposal as she sealed it with her blood. Other than Saotome Nodoka and the Gosunkugi clan, there were no assets of hers that would be affected by her proposal. If there were other operations in Nerima they'd have a problem, but really, how many demons could have business in Tokyo without it being under her purview? No, the plan was sound. And it might even lighten up her paperwork!
Mara blanched as she realized less paperwork meant more getting blown up by Skuld's robot pets. She hastily tried to rewrite her proposal, then screamed as the blood seal 'objected' to her attempt.
Well, there were worse things than Skuld's robots.
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