I know, I know, long time coming. I had to get my life in order and figure out what the crap was going on with this universe now that it is confirmed there is no Sly 5, and what order things have to go in. I should be set up now. This episode is complete. Chapters update on Sunday.

Standard disclaimers apply, I don't own Sly (if I did, we'd have more games).


Return of the Ninja…Sorta


The van slid across a dirt road meant for wagons, not motor vehicles. This was the country, more forests and hills, and at night, with no street lights. It was a miracle they didn't crash…or just the skill of a very good driver. It went down the curvy road until it reached a bamboo patch heavy enough to disguise the van from obvious sight. It slid to a bouncy halt and all was silent, until even the crickets and other night creatures started to make noise…mostly to get away from the strange contraption that had wrecked their home.

Sly Cooper, the only surviving member of the famous Cooper family, opened the back door of the van, carefully making sure no one was going to stumble on their temporary hiding place. It was far too easy to slip into the paranoid mindset time travel required. The male raccoon was in the prime of his life, in his mid-twenties and physically fit. But he was a little too strained, too fine tuned to an outside observer. Something had put him through a ringer one time too many.

He held his hand out to the seemingly empty door. "It's clear. Let's go take a look around."

There was dead silence, and no sign of movement from inside the van.

Scowling, Sly dropped his hand in an annoyed jerk. "Lady!" It was obviously a name, not a title.

"No need to yell, sugah," a female voice admonished from the depths of the van. It was a little husky, with a flirtatious edge. "Why do yah need me to help scope out 'Feudal Japan'?" The air quotes were audible.

"Because I don't trust you to stay out of trouble, and you'd be gone before Bentley or Murray could catch you." Sly paused. "No offense, guys."

"None taken!" Murray called back.

Lady sighed. A brown glove and an arm covered in an ivory shirt extended out of the van expectantly.

Rolling his eyes, Sly reluctantly took it and helped her step out.

Lady delicately stepped out of the van to stand beside him, tossing her braid over her shoulder and brushing at her green tunic like a fine lady would a skirt. Another raccoon, her fur was a series of pale blondes—the mark of an albino. Curiously though, she wore a white masquerade mask decorated in gold designs and amethyst insets that completely hid her face. Whereas Sly was in his prime, Lady was in the cusps of youth in her late teens. She moved with a deceptive, elegant grace, and seemed to enjoy staying too close in Sly's personal bubble.

She also carried a Cooper cane, despite having no familial ties to the Clan. How remained a little mystery she refused to divulge to the gang.

Her head twisted from side to side, taking in her surroundings. "I smell salt water," she said in disbelief. Lady was also the only member of the ragtag group who still disbelieved in time travel.

"Karin Coopergiwa lived in a small, seaside village," Bentley rattled off from inside the van, staring at a computer screen. "Her childhood home was further inland—"

"Coopergiwa Karin," Lady interrupted.

"What?" Bentley squawked in obvious offense.

Lady shrugged, waving one hand absently. "Japanese names go surname first, cher. And unless ya'll already got permission, she's Coopergiwa, not Karin." She over pronounced the ancestor's first name as well, so rather than it sounding like the English name Karen, like Bentley was saying, it was more like "kah-reen."

Sly was a little skeptical. Rioichi had never corrected any of them. But then, there was also the question as to how a ninja and sushi chef had learned English in the first place. He had never thought to ask his Japanese ancestor, and it was too late now. Hopefully this even more backdated ancestress would speak it as well. If not, it seemed his tentative ally knew something about Japan.

Shaking his head, Sly grabbed Lady's wrist before Bentley could go into full, insulted genius mode. "We'll look through the village for where she is living now," he said firmly. He could only hope they'd find Karin Coopergiwa—before Bentley and Lady killed each other.


Lady was still living in the land of logical disbelief. She hadn't bought into this time travel business at all. There were other explanations for what she had seen so far. Bamboo was grown outside of Asia nowadays, and they easily could have knocked her out until they reached the coast of France.

She just wasn't sure of the point. Why con her into believing their time travel malarkey? What was the end game? There was always an end game. She just couldn't put her finger on it.

Using the cover of bamboo, the two raccoons scaled a tree and kept among the branches. Lady didn't even know where they were going until she almost ran straight into Sly. "Problem, sugah?" she asked as she found a safe perch on another branch.

He gave her a slight, cocky smile. "Just deciding where to start," he said, gesturing in front of him. Lady obliged him and took a glance. She about fell out of the tree, only catching herself with a steadying hand on the trunk.

A small seaside village spread out in front of them in a dip between hills. Fields flooded for rice, small huts with bamboo mats for doors. The small harbor was filled with shipping boats. A fancier house was set in the middle of town—the headman's house, if Lady were to guess. It was the very image of a feudal, Asian town.

"Nous… We…" Lady stammered a little, belatedly switching from French to English in her shock.

"Yep," Sly said with a slightly smug smirk, leaning against the tree trunk just to pose rather than to keep a solid grip on reality like her. "Time travel. It's real." He leaned down and over, pressing underneath her mask on her real chin to force her mouth closed, sensing somehow that it was hanging open. "Now, can we find my ancestress?"

She clicked her teeth shut. Oh, she couldn't leave them like this. Behind her mask, Lady smiled a sweet, vindictive, Southern Belle smile. Twisting her cane, she whacked Sly upside the head. "Don' be an ass," she said tartly, taking a little bit of joy in his hiss of pain. She left him to catch up with her as she started for the town. Surely someone would know where Coopergiwa lived.


Sly carefully walked on the rope stretched over several of the small huts, his tail whipping along behind him for balance. It was weird to adjust to a second weight on the wire. He hadn't been with a partner who could do what he did since he was first training as a thief under his parents. But Lady was right behind him, and he refused to just leave her somewhere. She was too much trouble to leave wandering around.

Especially in this environment. Sly stopped in the middle of the rope as a bear warrior walked under them in an ambling patrol. It wasn't the first they had seen, either. They were all less heavily armored than the boar samurai Sly saw last time he was in Japan. Poorer, less quality. And not all of them liked each other, as judged by one of them spitting at their companions. It was a mix of bears and salamanders… Sly didn't like sharing the roofs with the lizards, but the idea of facing off against another bear without Murray around was even scarier.

A housewife—a serow—came outside to check her clothesline, only to shriek. All her clean clothes were in the mud, ruining her day's work. Grabbing one article, she stalked off for the same warrior that has just walked under Sly.

"Sugah?"

"Shh," Sly hissed. "I want to hear this." His thief instincts were tingling that this was important, somehow. Lady huffed, but stayed still.

"Look at this!" the grey and black goat scolded, shaking the garment right under the warrior's nose. For a villager, she showed little fear. "Again! Are you not supposed to be watching for that Coopergiwa sow and her brats? Then why are these tiresome pranks still happening?"

The warrior sneered, slapping the muddy cloth away from him. "Look, doe. You were told to keep anything of value inside, or it was your risk."

"Then how are we supposed to live our lives?" she snapped, putting her hands on her hips. She ignored the mud now streaking her own apron and clothes. "You should be out at that cursed compound of hers, the one south of town. Not here!"

"Take it up with your headman," he dismissed her. "Something about no real proof, and not daring to bring in the daughter of a samurai without real evidence against her." He turned to resume his patrol.

"She gave up special treatment when she married a merchant and not in her own class!" the woman cried, chasing after him. "And what about my laundry?"

Sly turned his head to look over his shoulder at Lady. "Well, we know where she is."

Lady's ears laid back, almost flat against her skull. "Sounds like she might be in a bit of trouble among the neighbors, though. We sure about this?"

"Depends." Sly finished crossing the roof with a casual jump. He immediately whipped around, resting his foot on the end and blocking her path to do the same. The male raccoon crossed his arms. "You want to risk going back to our time and facing more assassination attempts?" He decided he owed her some of her own sass back and raised one brow at her.

She stared at him, possibly making an expression behind that mask. He smirked a little…and missed the swing of her hook, grabbing his ankles and knocking them out from underneath him. The male thief landed on the thatch roof with a huffing grunt. To add to his indignity, Lady used him as a little bridge to get up and over to the next roof ahead of him. Swearing, Sly scrambled back up to his feet and took off after her. At least she was going in the right direction…


The compound was far more impressive than the village huts. Shoji screens served as the doors out on to the wrap around porch. Heavy wood served as the other walls, and the roof was shingled with more wood. It was set around the foot of a mountain, leaving Sly to assume it had an irregular shape. There was a second floor, with all the windows curiously thrown open.

Karin had done something curious in her hideout's layout, though. Normally, Cooper HQs were hidden, with easy exits and entrances. But this compound had been set, either by nature or by creation, far away from the tree lines and other foliage for at least twenty feet. Even the garden set in the curve of the house wasn't helpful, being a rock garden meant for meditation rather than growing anything.

Sly could not see an easy approach. He scowled and gestured to Lady. She slinked closer, leaning on his shoulder. His scowl deepened. That wasn't what he intended for her to do. Sly put it aside to discuss later. "Circle around and see if there's a back way in," he ordered.

"Bossy, bossy," she chided, flicking his nose with her tail. But she did stalk off to the side with a brief rustle of bamboo.

For a moment, Sly wondered if letting her out of his sight was a good idea. Echoing his feelings, Bentley chimed in over his earpiece, "Are you sure it's a good idea to send her on her own, Sly?"

Strangely, Bentley's doubt erased Sly's. "It's not like she can go anywhere," he pointed out reasonably. "And if she gets in trouble, it shouldn't be any more of a hassle to get her out of it."

"But Sly—"

"Ya'll know I can hear yah, right?" Lady's voice crackled over the earpiece. Belated, Sly remembered that Bentley had set one in her ear before they had left modern Paris.

Bentley sniffed. "Don't you have something else to do besides eavesdropping?"

"I ain't droppin' no eaves!" she protested. "Ya'll are natterin' in my ear!"

"What have you pulled out of the Thievius Raccoonus about Karin?" Sly interrupted the quarrel before it could escalate.

Bentley grumbled, staying quiet for a second too long.

"Bentley…?" Sly drawled in warning.

"Well…" the turtle stalled a little longer, and then finally gave up. "There isn't much in her section at all. I mean, there is a section, mostly a history and then a description of her coin magnetism technique, but once I translated all of the old kanji, there just… isn't much here."

Sly frowned. That was odd. Usually, the Raccoonus was thorough, sometimes amazingly so, about each of the ancestors. For there to be little detail concerning the attempt on one of their lives, well, it was more than a little strange. But his brain caught up with him at last. He hadn't excelled at history, but he knew the basics. Including the fact it was highly likely that Karin wasn't able to write herself. Most women weren't educated, if he remembered right, especially at this time. So it was most likely a son or maybe even grandson recording after the fact. And the Raccoonus was a merging of several different branches of the family—it could be something didn't make it over from the Japanese script.

"Just keep looking," he said instead of voicing those thoughts, "Check the physical book instead of just scans." He barely heard Bentley agree. Sly began inching his way through the forest, doing his own casing of the Coopergiwa compound. Maybe if he could count bodies… He didn't see any guards, and it was impossible for them to have anything like Bentley's high tech security systems. It should be easy as pie to get in, find Karin, and introduce himself before she had time to even raise her fur.

There was one set of lights on, but he couldn't see a good silhouette to know who was in there. He dared to leave the safety of the depths of the foliage to the very edge of the tree line. There was definitely something moving, but it looked tiny, barely Bentley's size…

He was hit from behind.

Sly tried to roll with the force of it, but his opponent tangled his weapon in Sly's feet. He hit the ground—hard—and lost his breath. And his cane. He had to give this mysterious attacker credit. Sly couldn't even see him against the dark of the trees and night sky. He kicked out with his hind feet anyway, preventing him from getting pinned. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the bronze of his cane. Rolling before his mysterious opponent could take up the attack again, he scrambled to get a grip on the cane.

His hands were barely wrapped around the familiar wood before a blade pressed against the side of his throat—a real threat this time. Sly froze rather than risk getting his head chopped off. The one holding that blade chattered something at him in a hiss he didn't understand. He couldn't even tell if it was male or female. "Um… English please?" he asked, crossing his fingers and praying that they even spoke it.

There was a long, dreadful pause. And then… "What are you doing sneaking outside my home?" a voice carefully asked. This time, under the thick accent, Sly could tell it was female.

"Ka—Coopergiwa," he said, correcting himself just in case. Trust his luck that his ancestress would find him before he could talk to her. "Look, I can explain."

"Speak," she ordered, pressing the blade tighter against Sly's skin.

"I'm your cousin," he said quickly. "A…very distant cousin, but a cousin." Sort of… Sly wasn't entirely sure how far back his relation went to Rioichi, or even which side of the family it was. For all he knew, he was descended from the European Coopers and wasn't related much at all to the ones here in Japan.

"You are lying," Karin said factually, dashing any hopes he had. "If you were any relation of mine, you would be able to lie better."

"He is awful, but in his defense, chere, he did have to figure out his family business without the family part," a more familiar voice added to the conversation.

Sly closed his eyes and couldn't help but whimper quietly. He wanted to bang his head against something, but didn't dare with the blade where it was. "Lady. Not. Helping," he managed to grit at her from between his teeth.

The albino appeared in front of him, swinging her cane in a lazy circle. "Awww, did poor little Sly-ikins get caught?" she cooed at him like he was a toddler. "Yah should've gone the direct way for once, Cooper."

He growled, but didn't try to comment on it right now. He'd strangle her later. Meanwhile, Karin's blade moved a little away from Sly's neck, no longer putting pressure there. "Cooper?" she repeated, her accent adding a soft ah sound after the r.

If the strange pronunciation threw Lady off, she didn't physically show it in a way Sly could see. She set her cane down on the ground, leaning on it casually. "Yep," she said. "Well, he is anyway. I'm of a different family. Doubt you'd have heard of them, ain't that important." She paused and then added, "Yah know, I can understand wantin' to kill him, I really can, but yah think yah could give him a more dignified death?"

Sly felt the pressure at his throat leave, and finally managed to pull himself up to his feet. "Thanks," he said sarcastically to the blonde, before turning to look at his ancestress.

Coopergiwa Karin was a good deal like a female Rioichi, he supposed. Her fur was the same russet-brown, just lighter, and she had the same golden eyes. Rather than the kimono he was expecting, she was in the special wrap shirt and billowy pants that Sly had learned were called a haori and hakama, the top in pale lilac and the lower darker of the same hue. Her mask was the same dark purple, tied around her hair, which was severely parted down the middle and then folded in a bun at the back of her head. The blade she'd been holding at Sly's throat was her actual Cooper cane, hers some kind of fancy glaive, the blade made of bronze and the shaft a darkly stained wood that had various nicks from blocking other weapons.

She was between Lady and Sly in height, the top of her head about even with Sly's nose.

It was soft pressure under his jaw that alerted him to the fact that his jaw was hanging open. He snapped it shut and managed a half-hearted glare at Lady. She tweaked his nose before lowering her hand from where she had shut his mouth for him. "Is that blush for me, sugah?" she asked, leaning into the curve of his body.

Sly held his body completely stiff, though inside he was swearing. "No," he told her hotly. He didn't want to admit why he was flushing, but he grumbled anyway, "She beat me." It was embarrassing. He'd thought he was doing so well, especially with Egypt making him all sorts of paranoid.

Lady snorted, interrupting his pity party. "Sugah, I beat yah, and I might point out I'm both shorter than you and younger. At least you can put her sneaking up on yah on the fact she has more experience than yah… I think." She eyed Karin. "Yer age is hard to guess. Congrats on that, by the by."

Karin's stern face couldn't completely suppress the twitch of her lips, indicating she was trying not to laugh. "I am twenty-six winters," she answered placidly.

"There yah go, she's two years older, and apparently it makes a world of difference," Lady said with a firm nod.

His brain finally untangled what Lady was talking about. "When did you beat me?" he demanded, pride stung. She was some young snit of a thing. There was no way she had beaten him.

Lady held her fisted hand up to where it was right in front Sly's nose. His instinct was to jerk back, but he had a feeling that's what she wanted. He instead focused on seeing the brown-gloved hand without appearing crossed eyed.

She unbent one finger in front of him. "The night we first met," she listed, then raised another finger. "The night yer ex decided to shoot at us, seein' as I don' think yah noticed me leavin'."

Sly had ignored the first one (since she was right), and swore the second time. No, he hadn't. He'd been too busy arguing with Carmelita. "She isn't my ex," he argued instead.

The blonde didn't take the bait. She raised a third finger. "The night of the ballet, since neither yah or Monsieur Bossy Shell could sneak in a camera on yer ownsomes."

"And then you had to be saved when someone tried to kidnap you," Sly interjected.

"Because they wanted to keep us from breedin', which again, yer fault." Lady held up another finger. "The ballet again, or did yah forget that yer little fox friend decided to try and make a scene?" Sly didn't have a response to that one. Lady had defused the situation, especially after Carmelita slapped him for daring to show up with a date, despite turning him down to come with him. "And let's not forget on the way here when you decided to sass me." She raised the last finger on her hand.

"You sass me all the time!" Sly protested. "What, you can dish it out but you can't take it?"

Lady snorted again. "Sugah, I sass everyone. Yer the one who takes it all personal-like."

"Are you certain the two of you are not married?"

Karin's interruption killed Sly's response before he could think of it. The two modern-day raccoon thieves looked to the Japanese noble, who appeared mildly amused, and then at each other. Lady and Sly quickly took several steps away from each other, pointedly facing opposite directions. "I have a girlfriend," Sly quickly explained.

"Couldn' make me marry a Cooper with a knife to my throat," Lady said, equally derisive.

Before that could start another fight, Karin touched Sly on the shoulder. "Very well then. Any Cooper is a relation of mine," she said with a small smile. "Even if the relation is by marriage. Come, you must meet your other cousins."

By marriage? Sly was mentally sputtering, but he quickly followed the two female raccoons in the direction of the manor. He grabbed them both by the elbows. When Lady tilted her head to the side, he said simply, "Murray and Bentley."

"Thanks for finally remembering us," the turtle grumbled over the ear pieces.

Lady whined, throwing her head back. "Fine, let's go get them," she said with a sigh. "I'm guessing the van is coming too?"

Sly looked to Karin. She was frowning a little. "What is a…van?" she repeated the word awkwardly, once again a vowel sound after the end of the word, this time an eh sound.

"A horseless cart," Sly quickly thought of a decent explanation. "One that is probably best kept out of sight."


"Well, what were yah expectin'?" Lady hissed at him as they waited at the front door. Bentley and Murray were still situating the van in its new hiding place in the small vegetable garden hidden between the house and the mountain, leaving the two raccoons to meet the family first, as it were.

"I don't know, but not this," Sly whispered back. Karin was walking in front of them, carefully navigating a floor to get inside through a side door so she could open the front door for them. He had explained to Lady how he hadn't been expecting Karin to be married into the Cooper family, rather than the name "Cooper" being taken from her name by her descendants, on the drive back, Karin leading the way down several side roads. "I mean, Rioichi's time isn't too far from now, and he's a Cooper. And he had her coin magnet. I just assumed…"

"Yah know what they say about assumin' things, Cooper," Lady scolded, though her face was still facing towards Karin. "At least we found her inside instead of bein' caught sneakin' in here."

"What makes you think we would have been caught?" Sly asked indignantly.

Lady gestured to the floor in front of her. "Notice how there ain't a single board even creakin'?" she asked rhetorically, just as Karin very carefully balanced on her feet and slid open the screen, ducking inside. "She isn't worried about makin' a single squeak or groan. I'd bet yah good money that those are nightingale floors."

"Nightingale floors?" Sly repeated in confusion.

There was a slight thump beside them, and then the screen there opened, revealing Karin, just now minus the dark leather ankle boots her hakama had been tucked into. "Hai, Sly-san," she said politely, stepping out of the way so they could enter her home. "Your companion is correct. Outside of the front and back doors, all entrances have nightingale floors in front of them."

Sly and Lady entered the house. At first, he noticed the crisp smell of herbs keeping the stale air fresh, as well as the smell of the lanterns hanging from the roof, very dimly lighting the way. The first room was a pounded ground floor under a straw mat, with a basket holding a few parasols and hooks holding cloaks along one of the walls. There was a high step up on to the wooden floors of the house hallway. Sly almost walked straight in, until Lady poked him in the back with her cane. He turned around in annoyance, and saw her taking off her own boots to set next to what were obviously Karin's, alongside a handful of other shoes that Sly didn't take the time to count. He quickly slipped off his own to put there as well.

If Karin noticed his almost-faux-pas, she ignored it. She had already stepped up on to the smooth floor, and continued her explanation, "They are designed to make noise if someone puts weight on them aside from very small, key pressure points. It sounds similar to their namesake bird's chirping."

Sly nodded, and could feel his ears getting warmed as he flushed again. So much for there being no security systems in this era…

Once the two other raccoons joined her in the hallway, Karin slid open another screen. Instantly, Sly could taste the fresh air, and noticed that this was the room the side door she had opened outside led into. It was a simple Japanese sitting room, with a low table in the center of the room and surrounded by soft pillows to sit on. Tatami mats covered the floor rather than hard wood, and a lantern hung from the ceiling, though it was currently dark.

Karin changed that first. She grabbed a nearby pole and used it to lower the lamp down to where she could comfortably light it, filling the room with its warm, golden glow before she raised it back up to hang over the table. "There," she said. "That is better. I will leave the door to the porch open so your friends can find you and I can bolt the front door shut again." She turned back to them, lost in thought for a moment, before reaching a decision. "My kits and husband should all still be up. It would be best if they meet you now and then go to bed, rather than wait till morning. My son can be…impetuous."

She didn't wait to hear their response, quickly darting out of the room and shutting the door behind her. Sly was left standing in the middle of the room, turned towards the door as he tried to process all of that. He was starting to miss being on his own…

Sly heard the wooden thump again—the bolt, he assumed—and then nothing.

"Who is Rioichi, anyway?" Lady asked. He turned and fought down the urge to be amused. She had perched herself on the floor, rolled on her stomach with her chest and chin on one of the pillows. It was not how they were supposed to be used, but then, he imagined Lady couldn't stand to be conventional. He couldn't help noticing that her cane was lying next to her, still in very easy reach. She let him finish appraisal before adding, "Another ancestor, I'm guessin'?"

He nodded, finally moving himself. Sly sat on a cushion in a more conventional manner, folding his legs underneath him and stretching his cane along his lap. "He was a ninja," he explained, deciding to keep to the bare basics. She didn't deserve the full story. "That spire hopping move you are trying to learn just by watching me? He invented that. It's one of the greatest moves in our history." He glared at her. "So quit trying to steal it."

"Might as well ask me to stop breathin' too," she quipped back.

Sly opened his mouth, but was cut off by possibly the most obnoxious squeaking he'd ever heard in his life. Jerking his head up, he saw that Murray was standing in the open doorway, looking down at the floor underneath his feet in absolute puzzlement. Sly's immediate thought came out of his mouth before he could think about it, "That is what is supposed to resemble the chirping of a nightingale?"

"Well, the uguisu at least," Lady said in amusement. "They have pretty songs, but yes, their chirpin' can get a little annoyin'."

"The ugi-what?" Murray said, thankfully asking it so Sly didn't have to.

"Japanese Wabler," Bentley said, though he was eyeing Lady speculatively. Adjusting his glasses, he added, "Though I would be curious where the Cajun Lady Masque learned of them by their Japanese name, not to mention all the other tidbits of Japanese culture she seems to have at her disposal."

Lady shrugged, turning her head so she could face Bentley. "My old teacher brought in a friend of hers once to teach me Japanese manners, should I ever find myself needin' them."

"A friend?" Sly raised one brow. Was he reading too much into that (showing that Lady was already corrupting him), or was she not saying something?

Humming a non-answer, Lady laid her head down on the pillow. "I know it's still an hour 'fore dawn, but I'm gettin' tired," she complained with a yawn that Sly could tell was sincere. "Time travel wears yah out, huh?"

Sly snorted. "You have no idea."

The door didn't so much slide open as it did clatter as one very excited little raccoon kit darted into the room. "Can't catch me, can't catch me!" he taunted, his thin little tail that hadn't really had a chance to grow in yet waving behind him like a banner. His English was much better than Karin's. "Can't catch me! I'm the ninja master!"

He couldn't be more than six, Sly guessed. The little squirt was barely the same size as Bentley. That had to have been what Sly saw bouncing around in the rooms before Karin nabbed him. He was darker than Karin though still the russet brown rather than grey like Sly, with her honey eyes and dressed in a plain, undyed cotton yukata that came only to his knees. His hair was short, barely long enough to be pulled into a short ponytail at the top of his head.

And Sly knew exactly how klutzy little raccoon kits could be. He'd gotten into more than his fair share of scrapes. Someone had to make the kit stop running around like that. Using his cane, Sly snagged him by the waist.

Lady saw what he was doing, and straightened up to sit on the cushion properly, though she tucked her feet neatly underneath her in a more lady-like style. Sly took the unspoken invitation and very gently swung the little brat into her lap, where she quickly wrapped her arms around him before he could squirm away.

"Awwww, no fair, no fair!" he yelped, pouting in protest. He directed big, pleading eyes up to his captor first, only to curl up a little. "Scary…" he whispered, his tail tucking up between his legs a little.

"A big, brave raccoon like you, scared of a little mask?" Lady quipped back.

The kit's tail immediately bottle-brushed and he straightened up in his hold. "'m not scared!" he protested. "Don't say that!" He tilted his head back down to glare at Sly, as if daring him to argue that he was indeed scared.

Finally seeing the kit still, Sly bit the inside of his cheek to keep from swearing. "Rioichi?" he managed to say incredulously.


Masque—French, mask
cher(e)—French, dear
samurai—Japanese, an elite type of warrior and swordsman, they were trained within specific families
kimono—Japanese, robe-like garment (women), traditional clothing with varying rules and formality depending on situation, class, marital status, and season
haori—Japanese, traditional shirt
hakama—Japanese, traditional pants
Monseiur—French, Mister/Master, formal title for a man
hai—Japanese, yes
-san—Japanese, Japanese, Mister/Miss/Missus, everyday level title for a person (gender neutral)
tatami—Japanese, a particular style of grass weaving, mats in this style are traditional floor coverings
uguisu—Japanese, native name for the Japanese Wabler
yukata—Japanese, a light weight robe garment (unisex), used as traditional summer festival clothing, bathing, or sleeping

Pictures of Karin and our enemy are available on my deviant art account.