'I will leave you to your city,' Nightingale promised. 'But what I said earlier is going to come true. The Sorcerer will never rest until you serve him entirely.'

'Wait.' Randy raised his hand. He did not recall much, but it involved a lot of shrieking and singing chickens. That was a weird experience. 'You mean to tell me that I was under his control.'

'That's,' Howard grouched, 'a mild way to put it. But yeah. What she said. Now could you like, leave? You are one creepy lady.'

'Howard,' Randy scolded. 'Sorry for that, he's just stupid everyday. Do you want to hang out, or—?'

Nightingale's expression was still a dead line. Whatever the girl's thinking, she did an excellent job at hiding it.

'I don't "hang out,"' she said. 'I protect from the shadows.'

'Yeah, that was my job too, but where's the fun in that?'

She melted into the darkness as a response, sending a shiver up Howard and Randy's spine.

'Holy Cheese. Does that happen often? I hope not,' Howard whispered not so subtly. 'Seriously, what's her problem?'

Randy frowned. He'd heard stories from the Nomicon, but it seemed too wild and tragic to be reality. Yet legend had stood before him, rendering him aside.

It's not the time to dwell on pasts. It was the time to protect.

'A lot.' Randy glimpsed at the debris. Most of them caused by him fighting that Nightingale.

Howard grinned smugly. 'That's true. Now you owe me lunch and a huge bag of popcorn at the movie you're gonna pay for me later for saving your life.'

'Howard, what exactly happened when I was out—' Randy was cut off by a pink mist surrounding the Tengu stone. Just as he thought the battle was over, a wave of monsters crashed into the clearing through a wall. 'Now's not the time. Smoke Bomb!'

'You don't say?' Howard ran out of the school.

The monsters didn't seem like the ones he'd fought usually. No, in fact, they looked exactly like their normal selves, but they could honkin' use Stank and magic. Just what the cheese is going on? Why are their eyes pink instead of yellow?

'Let's hope this Stank works the same,' he prayed as he slashed Flute Girl's flute into two, but she seemed more agitated than any sign of turning back into her own dorky self. 'No, no it doesn't!'

Another student shot a fireball at him from his fists. He dodged by jumping om to the ceiling, standing upside down from the spikes on his boots.

Why were there so many Stanks all of a sudden? They just dealt with the friggin' Sorcerer!

Then a cold voice said behind him, 'You are not the girl. Where is the girl?'

He turned instantly, and found a dazzling woman glowering at him. He recognized her — Amanda. The Sorceress, the one who'd seduced every boy in school last time.

'What girl?' he dared.

She hissed at him. 'Why are you here?'

'Because this is my school,' he declared. 'And I'm not letting you destroy it.'

Then someone tugged at his scarf and he was thrown onto the second floor, into a locker. 'Stay out of this, Ninja,' Nightingale yelled. 'This is my fight.'

'But this is my school!' He poked his head out of the locker and watched over the edge of the railing. 'I protect it!'

'Then protect it, not go on a war,' she spat. 'You're eight hundred years old. Learn to turn away.'

Nightingale summoned her scythe and glared at the Sorceress. Suffice to say she was less than pleased. The monsters parted a perfect circle for their mistress and enemy to fight as they searched for more students to stank.

Randy did the most logical thing as the girls fought. He jumped into the monster crowd and distracted them from the epic battle they're having.

'GIVE ME THE NECKLACE!' bellowed the Sorceress. 'YOU THINK YOU CAN HARNESS ITS POWER? IT WILL DESTROY YOU, FOOLISH GIRL!'

Nightingale gripped the crystal necklace on her neck. 'I'd sooner destroy my own soul.'

'ARGH!' The Sorceress wafted her arms in the air. 'Why must you be so difficult? Give me my necklace, child. Your mind will be at peace, your sentence of torture will end. All you have to do is give me it.'

Nightingale summoned her scythe. 'I chose this path for the greater good, Mother, you chose power and it blinded you.'

'YOU HAVE A CHILD?' Randy cried from the monster mob, who ignored him. 'That's just sh'nasty.'

'Give it to me,' the Sorceress insisted.

'Never.'

'Then I will take it from your corpse'

Amanda — ahem, the Sorceress — thrust her hands out and a pink aura surrounded them. Debris began to collapse on Nightingale, who easily destroyed each of the concrete with her scythe. Then she took the offense. She melted into the shadows and appeared right behind Amanda, holding her neck by the interior of the scythe.

'Leave,' she commanded. 'I will not say this again.'

'Will you be so kind into letting me go? Do it or I'll destroy the Ninja of Norrisville!' The crowd of monsters started to circle Randy, who still have no clue on de-Stanking them. Then he was restrained by a pink aura, rendering immobile.

'Um, a little help?' he called out as the monsters closed in.

He cursed. Why did he always act before he think! Half the monsters are always caused by him, the other half is stupid Stevens flirting on every girl he sees making Flute Girl jealous.

'You're on your own, Ninja. If you could defeat the Sorcerer, you could take this.' Nightingale did not waste her oh-so precious time saving him. Oh, the villany!

'Ha! If the Ninja perishes, you'll have double the work! You will surely collapse from exhaustion!'

Nightingale rolled her eyes. 'Don't forget,' she whispered. 'I am still your daughter.'

She raised her free fist and all the Stanked students glowed. With a shriek, they all released the pink stank from their mouths as if they were hurling. The stank circled her finger and she sang at full scream.

This time, the song was so intense the the windows broke and the entire building Shook, threatening to collapse. Amanda clasped her ears, shrieking from the pain.

If it wasn't for the suit, Randy might have gone deaf. But it still hurt his ears.

Then he realized that this wasn't just a shriek. It was a lullaby that he'd heard centuries ago — the forgotten song that every mother would song to their child every night before they slept.

Only her version was full of pain and pure agony. They all felt her grief and hatred towards the unfair world. It was killing him.

'Stop it!' Amanda cried, her voice drowned put by the song. 'STOP!'

And she did. She didn't look any different, but the pink aura had receeded to black.

'LEAVE,' she ordered. Amanda whimpered and retreated in a pink stank.

Whatever did that lady experience, it was nothing like Randy'd seen before.

That legend...

Nightingale offered a hand. 'Good fight.'

He took it reluctantly. 'WHAT DID YOU SAY?'

His ears were buzzing from that volume. How could she sing that loud, she probably had years of practice of screaming.

'Sorry,' she muttered. Luckily he could read lip-sync or it's going to be annoying. 'It was that one way to purge her stank. You should've seen it in America.'

'That hurt,' he complained, 'a lot.'

'Be a man.' And she disappeared into the darkness once more.