Note: I don't own Shakugan no Shana.
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"And this is where Yuji and I tend to go after school when either one of us isn't on patrol in the city." Yutaro spoke as he gave Leanan-sidhe, who was wearing a female school uniform instead of her summer dress, a tour around the underground warehouse where huge jugs of bootleg liquor and other alcoholic beverages were made that Friday afternoon after the school day ended.
"So you two are the ones that have been making all those wines." Leanan-sidhe replied in an accusing but playful tone. "I've seen some of your beverages for sale in Europe and never would have I imagine that all of them came from here."
"I crafted a timer Unrestricted Spell called the Parabolic Exponential that isolates the inanimate object in a ward and accelerates the time passing rate within it. For example, a full ten days outside is equivalent to twenty-seven years within the ward if I set the base for ten days and placed the power at number four." Yutaro explained. "Thanks to it, Yuji and I managed to brew a lot of wine that can sometimes be several hundred years old, though selling it had to be severely regulated in order to avoid suspicion."
"It sounds like you two are holding all of the cards in regards to supply and demand." Leanan-sidhe remarked.
"It helps when it comes to negotiating prices and allowing the buyers to taste a sip from the very bottles we sell to them gives them confidence and trust to pay a hefty but reasonable sum." Yutaro replied. "Anyways, I'm usually spending time here and at least you'll know the familiar spots that my siblings and mother are aware of."
"Alright then." Leanan-sidhe replied before catching sight of a table with several papers. Her eyes widened when she saw that they were paintings and the images of various landscapes were so well done. "Yutaro, did you paint these?"
"Yeah but that's only out of boredom." Yutaro replied as he turned away from a nearby apparatus. "Usually when I'm waiting for the distillation process on certain commodities to finish, I would kill time by painting whatever comes to mind or do homework from school."
"I see." Leanan-sidhe replied while thinking. 'Yutaro paints so well almost like him!'
The Guze Queen smiled as a deep sense of confidence rose within her. She didn't know whether it was coincidence or destiny yet but Leanan-sidhe had time to discover things for herself while in Misaki.
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Chigusa may have been a carefree woman in nature but she wasn't an airhead as the normal would think, considering on how friendly and cheerful she was. While it would seem that having two twin sons and a surrogate daughter would have been a handful for the young housewife, the opposite was the actual truth. With Yutaro, Yuji, and Yukari living with her, Chigusa had no problems with it economic-wise, though the only worry she had was losing them to the war for existence. Everyday during the school year, the three of them would set out to Misaki Municipal High School. Once classes ended, either one of the three would return home while the other two would be keeping an eye out on things. It was usually Yukari that would return home. Yuji would only head back if he needed to buy or sell various commodities eBay. If there was one thing she didn't like, it was the fact that Yuji AND Yutaro were engaging in illicit alcohol bootlegging while abusing their Shadow-Walk abilities. While Yuji's buying and selling on eBay bought some income through the profits reaped, it was pocket change compared to the income that their bootlegging/rum-running business brought in, only trailing Kantaro's yearly income overseas by a narrow margin. Chigusa didn't find it necessary for her two sons to help in the household income but then, that was the only issue that she virtually had no sway over. Due to their nearly frugal lifestyle, the Sakai household had an immense source of capital funds from the alcohol bootlegging alone at their disposal. In Japan, high incomes meant everything in regards to meeting and even exceeding the standard costs of living.
As Chigusa was cooking at the stove, she thought about the new addition into Sakai household, one Guze Queen named Leanan-sidhe. With her journey completed and the door to a personal issue of her past closed, Chigusa invited the Spiral Organ to stay with her and the latter actually accepted. Perhaps it was due to Lamies passing away in this very city or it was due to Yutaro actually achieving success in helping Leanan-sidhe in regards to the painting or both.
"Until Kantaro returns home, there won't be any deadlocks." Chigusa spoke happily to herself, feeling content that her two sons would be somewhat marginalized by the presence of three women in the house. It felt good to the young housewife to be on the side that held the numerical advantage in the battle of the sexes in regards to making collective decisions.
"I wonder on how Leanan-sidhe's first day in high school went?" she asked, voicing a curious thought.
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Shaking her head a bit and taking the headphones off her ears, having listened to a few tracks from Linkin Park. The music shop she was visiting was in Akihabara, which was considerably far from Misaki. Since the music shop in Misaki didn't have a certain album from the United States, Yukari had Shadow-Walked over a hundred miles from Misaki to Akihibara to see if she could find her target. She didn't go alone as Yuji tagged along on the reason that a cosplay convention was being held there and he wanted to check something out.
"Knowing him, he's probably DOING something instead of checking something." Yukari muttered to herself before catching sight of a CD album called Angels and Demons by the music band Fuel. After listening to a few track samples, Yukari smiled before taking it off the shelf and heading to the counter to make her purchase.
After leaving the shop, Yukari followed a number of costume-dressed people that were heading to the convention, hoping to find Yuji and see what he was up to when she bumped into a young man.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." Yukari apologized to the stranger. But the moment she got a good look at him, the Mystes of the Seiren Maigo immediately detected a familiar Hougu within the young man that was a dead giveaway to his identity.
"Yuji?!" Yukari asked incredulously.
"How do I look?" Yuji asked as Yukari checked him out. The Mystes of the Reiji Maigo had his hair dyed a purple-blue color and his face painted white with his eye corners dark as well as the sides of his mouth. His attire consisted of a sleeveless shirt over a long-sleeve turtleneck and black bagging slacks with a long strip of cloth dangling off the left side of the belt.
"Um, so what are you suppose to be?" Yukari inquired questioningly.
"Just stuff that someone extended the decoration upon when working on me just a minute ago." Yuji replied.
"Hey, it's a Jeff Hardy cosplayer!" a voice shouted out and Yuji turned to see several photographers take snapshots of him while Yukari quickly moved out of the way.
'Well, come to think of it, he actually does look like him in a way.' Yukari thought to herself with amusement and it wasn't long before the photography directed at Yuji stopped.
"Yuji, I question on whether you're capable of being a quick-change artist once your new look isn't needed after a fight." Yukari spoke as they made their way through the crowds. "When you left home while wearing those clothes, I had a feeling that you were up to something. By the way, who painted your face?"
"Yukari, it was just a coincidence. Regarding my face, it was some clown with a make up kit that she was using to paint the faces of little kids." Yuji replied with a grin. "I kind of like the idea of a painted face in combat so I asked her to paint my face in a particular format."
"What about the hair dye and the dangling cloth hanging off your belt's left side?" Yukari asked.
"Same person. She was rather convincing and I couldn't say no to her." Yuji admitted sheepishly. "Anyways, I prepaid a purchase of a new hard drive with a faster processing speed and a memory capacity that is twenty fold over the memory capacity of the computer at home. It seems that the advertised discount was true and taking place at the computer shops here."
"That's good to hear. By the way, let's see what mom says of your new appearance." Yukari replied while thinking. 'Looks like I was wrong about you doing something out of the ordinary today.'
Yuji's expression turned to one of surprise at Yukari's suggestion. It was such that as they were making their way through the crowds, the back of Yuji's right hand made contact with the hand of another person. Immediately, a vortex of winds erupted and both Mystes felt the activation of an Unrestricted Method.
'Damage control!' Yukari thought as she quickly activated a Fuzetsu before feeling the arrival of a powerful Guze no Ou within the amber-colored tornado. Yukari tried to breech through the vortex but the winds were too strong that she was thrown back.
Inside the vortex, Yuji looked upwards as a beautiful young woman with long green hair, a voluptuous figure, and wearing a tan-and-brown form-fitting leather suit and high heels appeared. The facial expression on the newcomer's face seemed cold.
'Oh hell, she's a Guze no Ou! Is this who I think it is?' Yuji thought to himself before feeling the Reiji Maigo resonate that he thought with resignation and tension. 'Pheles.'
'The Reiji Maigo ended up with this punk?' Pheles thought to herself.
Indeed, it seemed that potential sparks were about to erupt between the Mystes and the Guze Queen, sparks that weren't the type involving pyrotechnics.
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Back in Misaki City…
Margery continued to cast multiple Unrestricted Methods as she scanned the pendent that Yuji gave her and which contained one of the Psalms of the Grand Order. Nearby Keisaku watched the Interpreter of Condolences at work. Ever since he retrieved her with his motorcycle, the youth wasn't able to find out as to what had happened other than the fact that Margery took a beating. The Flame Haze and her contractor didn't talk about it in the week that followed after the battle.
"You seem rather focused on this instead of looking for the Corpse Retriever." Keisaku remarked. "What made you change targets?"
"The Corpse Retriever has become a trivial matter, especially when he's only going after Torches that are about to burn out." Margery replied with a hint of annoyance. "Besides, it was that fight that changed my mind when I was given this, a valuable clue along with information leading to an enemy that I have hunted most of my life."
Seeing that she wasn't going to talk further on the issue, Keisaku looked at the Grimoire. "Care to enlighten me?"
"The revelations given to my goblet were too shocking. Even between the two of us, we're not comfortable in talking about it." Marcosius replied.
Keisaku sighed. "Who was the enemy that she fought and what happened to him or her?"
"A Mystes named Yuji. He's probably a student at your school." Margery replied offhandedly, not catching the look of surprise on Keisaku's face.
"Yuji? Sakai Yuji?" Keisaku asked in astonishment.
"You know him?" Marcosius asked.
"He, along with his brother Yutaro and his adoptive sister Yukari Hirai, are in a different class section." Keisaku replied, thinking about the distantness that the three had become last year despite being on friendly terms with him, Tanaka, Matake, Ike, and Kazumi. "I don't see them as much I used to. Yuji is a nice character."
"Nice?! You should hear the language he used when I fought him!" Margery suddenly snapped.
Keisaku took a step back amid Margery's outburst. It was only after Margery realized on who she was talking to did she take a deep breath to calm herself.
"Sorry." The Flame Haze muttered before going back to work on her project.
'I wonder what Sakai said to have humbled Margery like this.' Keisaku thought to himself.
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It was a staring contest the moment Pheles landed on the ground. Yuji merely held his ground as he looked at the Beautiful Whim, oblivious to her rather sexy appearance. Both of them were the same height, though Pheles looked to be five years older than Yuji.
'I better find a way to escape.' Yuji thought to himself.
Despite her cold exterior, Pheles was inwardly amused in regards to the person that the Reiji Maigo ended up with. Looking past the get-up that the Mystes was in, she had to admit that he was a handsome one, though a bit too young for her tastes.
'You're a cute one, kid. Still, I'll take Reiji Maigo from you.' Pheles thought to herself.
With that, the Guze Queen began to walk towards Yuji with an apologetic expression. But the Mystes, having seen the hidden intent from a mile away, narrowed his eyes before jumping several feet away and landing in a combative stance.
"I'm not that ignorant, Pheles." Yuji spoke.
Pheles's eyes widened. 'He knows who I am?! How?!'
From outside the tornado, Yukari was in a meditative trance, mentally seeing what was going on within the eye of the storm. She could definitely sense Yuji along with Pheles, though there was something different about the latter.
'Kaze no Tenrin? Ah, the Unrestricted Method to create an avatar of herself when the target is found.' The Mystes of the Seiren Maigo thought to herself. 'But Yutaro said that Pheles was a very powerful Guze no Ou, a few levels above even Friagne in terms of power. Don't die in there, Yuji.'
Yukari shifted her attention to the tornado, hoping to find a small opening that she could exploit. She could only hope that Yuji could hold out until she herself could assist him.
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Well, I couldn't help but have Leanan-sidhe join Yuji and the others in high school after her journey ends.
Might as well start the chain of events here.
Read and review and give suggestions if you wish.
