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Her arms were too full. Michal kicked the door of the garage up, dove under it as careful as she could and rammed it back down with her foot. She allowed herself four seconds to catch her breath, then set leprechauns in the car and reached for her keys. Outside, the footsteps approached. Quickly, she seatbelted the trembling creature on the passenger seat. They didn't all fit, so she said, "Hold onto each other."

Then she ran to the back of the car, brushed a hand across the license plate to apply an illusion. Then back the driver's seat. Michal slammed the door shut, flipped on the player and flipped in the first CD she could get her hands on. Accompanied by inappropriate Beethoven music, she drove the now magic-fueled limo through the garage door. The unhinged door sailed with physics defying grace towards the mob, flattened them all without death — but not without blood, Michal didn't feel very nice right now — and off they were.

The town wooshed by. At the town's edge, she saw her two bodyguards still dealing with the remainder of the mob. She halted close by and threw open the door.

"Get in!"

The barely closed the doors behind them or the pursuing mob assaulted the car with pikes and bars. Michal wonders whether if she involved people into the movement of the car, they'd be affected by her magic like the door, but dismissed the idea. If they weren't, she didn't want to run anyone over. So she focused her magic on their weaponry of choice, making them springy while threateningly stepping on the gas a few times. The mob moved back quick enough.

Just as they left town, the street lights turned on. Michal looked aside to the leprechauns, who had become a lot more relaxed now. A quick glance backward told her the two men also had gotten away with nothing more than a few bruises. That, or they were good at hiding pain. She started to feel at ease herself.

At least until sirens started blazing behind them.

"The police? What the heck are they thinking? We're the victims! I'm not even above the speed limit!"

"The villagers may have told another story," one of the men said.

"Blasted! When's the nearest crossing?"

"What?"

"If we go onto to the other lane, they can't follow. They might give up if they know they won't have a chance soon to cross over and just go back to report our license plate. The one that currently reads a non existent number."

One of the guards googled the route.

"None for out least fifty miles, with plenty of chances for us to turn from the road altogether. But how do you plan to get to the other lane?"

"If the ability to move underwater with all the benefits and none of the drawbacks of H02 can be illogical in the sea, then that ability can just as well be illogical on land. Here we go."

She stepped on the gas, working up the Water Is Air magic in tandem. The car somehow leaped into the sky, crossed the railing and continued on at the other side as if nothing crash worthy had happened. Well, mostly. The car creaked dangerously, but Michal forced it to stay in one piece. All that happened till they arrived at the citadel was a wave of pretty sparkles in their trail. The moment she stepped out, all the logical consequences of the car's abuse took effect and it crumbled to piece.

Michal carefully gathered up the leprechauns and left the car to be dealt with by her bodyguards. The organization probably had a magical way to cover up all that mess from their guests. Though seriously, they should get an official name.

The current residence of the small Amagi family was the unmasked Poienari Citadel. Drawn out of its subspace, the place was a lot more impressive despite its odd look; the local 'vampires' had gone a little too far in decorating it for their human guests. She wasn't complaining though, the pink frill on the windows were a small price compared to all the benefits of settling here.

All countries on the world had yet to fully work out personhood laws to include sapient creatures other than humans, most had no idea where to start, some bluntly refused to. Romania was having a little problem with the concept of vampires and whether anything "undead" could be qualified for citizenship at all. The faux-vampires here weren't actually dead, but functioned biologically so differently that once stripped of their magic, they might as well be.

When Romania had called to inform her brother that the citadel he'd been interested in was "invested with vampires, perhaps he would like another location?", they hadn't wasted any time on deciding the concert would most definitely be held here. In fact, there would not only be a concert, there would be a festival to promote understanding between the two worlds. Along with arranging that, the Amagis had as good as settled here, at least for the time being.

The vampires, sleepy as they were, had yawned and agreed easily. It took them a while to understand what was going on, but once they did, they'd thrown a premature party. Getting them to accept the organization as friendly was a lot more difficult. According to them, the Men In Black were going to randomly wipe them all out.

The "men in black" in question had known something had been in the citadel, but since whatever had initially caused the rumors of disturbance was gone, they'd left them in peace. Unfortunately, now there were more than awake, the not-vampires didn't leave them in peace. Fortunately, they were still tiny and weak, so any of the childish surprise attacks were easily brushed off by the bodyguards and other secret organization staff.

That was it, one thought too many about vaguely defined organizations. Things needed a name, dangit. Men In Shady Colors it was.

"Where are we going?" one of the leprechauns whispered, the first coherent thing she heard from them ever since scooping them out of that farmhouse.

"To a sanctuary. It's a bit crowded, but it's safe. How did you get in Romania anyway?"

"Couldn't live in Ireland anymore. We had relatives here. Say ... we have to find them ... find them ... find them ... find them ..."

"I'll look into it."

One of the vampires opened a tacky magenta door for her, and she started wandering the castle. Over their short time here, a number of local mythical creatures had taken refuge. She and her brother were one of the few people who had both the understanding and the finances to give them a safe location, so it was packed.

It hadn't taken long before someone got their hands on magic that allowed the presence of other magic to be detected, so magical creatures could no longer use public transport unnoticed. Calls for pick ups were frequent, which is what she'd been doing two days ago, before everything went haywire in that town.

When she noticed Michel arrive out of nowhere, she was pretty peeved that he hadn't shown up a little earlier. He could handle Garuda, he would have had an easy time in that town. He should have gotten off of the Panthalassa deal early, right? Then again, something had upset him, perhaps that was why he had been off the map enough to not notice her being ... well, just annoyed actually. Monster and mob fights weren't all that mentally jarring anymore to her.

She found him in one of the living rooms. Michel almost turned, then remembered Michal wasn't fond of being looked in the eye. It was redundant anyway, as neither needed a hint to know what the other felt.

"Hey. You here for any reason related to whatever startling realization you had in the last day?"

Ah, yes he was. Michel was a little better with this telepathy 101 thing, apparently. Off course, if he could implant emotions, something as simple as 'affirmative' should be easy.

He looked at her arm full of Leprechauns, curious.

"More guests. I was just heading towards the kitchens to see whether there's some room there."

Michel opened the doors for her. Along the way, they met her brother, who shook his head when he saw Michal's arms full of leprechaun.

"We're going to have huge debts over this," Licht said with a chuckle.

"What, you want us to just shut the doors?"

"That wasn't a serious accusation, sister. Don't forget to warn the staff, they're terribly small," he said with a chuckle. Then to Michel, not unfriendly, "Michal doesn't like the crowds, but she tell me you enjoy my music. You're welcome to come to the concert hall if you wear something decent."

Michel was impatient and not interested, and let it know with a gruff, "No thanks." He walked ahead to where he guessed the kitchens were, based on Michal's knowledge. She was a little envious he was so good at this link thing. Then she noticed her brother frowning. She was no master at body language, but that she knew.

"It's not you, he's irritated about something and wants to talk to me about it."

"Oh. Seira related?" Licht whispered.

Michal tested the idea for a moment on what emotions she got from Michel and said, "Definitely involves her." That came out more misleading than she had thought, since Licht started smirking in a weird way.

"Well, I'm off. You go talk to him."

"Good art," Michal said. It was her substitute for good luck, which didn't make sense to wish someone over something that wasn't dependent on chance.

Continuing to the kitchen, she wondered how much of Licht's changed attitude towards Michel was an act and what was genuine. Her guess was as good as any, that was to say, none. Oh well. Better stick to what she could unearth.

Michal had indeed found the kitchen, and Michal took a moment to install them in the storage room, which had a lockable door. Small as they were, some of the bigger guests might want to eat them, so a lock was important.

She drew some magic from the wall, pointed out which food they could take and warned them not to leave. They bowed repeatedly in overt gratitude and she left them to get settled.

"Now tell me why you are feeling so unpleasant," she said the moment she was out of the storage room. Michel was leaning against one of the kitchen cabinets and looked very brooding. He should pose for a depressed painter some time.

"Gackto and Sara have let me know that they're going to take drastic measures when it comes to protecting the princesses. They expect me to do so as well."

That wasn't it, she felt it. "Not much we can do about it. It's not like mermaids have any legal system more complex than let's seal anyone and their offspring eternally just to be sure. They're either out of the seal or in the seal."

"That was not a decision of any mermaids, but of the old Aqua Regina."

"Whom the mermaids supported unfailingly. Honestly, I'm surprised that the Panthalassans are so nice about it. Do they even know it was Kaito who convinced Lucia to keep them down there for so long?" She wasn't sure why, but they were now edging towards the real topic. Life would be easier if she could share spirit links with everyone.

"Do they really support her unfailingly?"

"Under most reasonable laws, children cannot be held accountable for crimes. When it came to releasing Yuri a couple of years ago, there was this huge debate between Lucia and the other princesses about whether this was responsible. Can you imagine that? They'll forgive you and Michal for destroying the world, but not underage Yuri. Not even Hippo, despite loving Yuri so much, argued in favor of releasing her. Lucia only did it after she became the new Aqua Regina. They support the old one unfailingly, but not the new one."

Startled, Michel looked up. "You're knowing awfully well what direction I'm heading with the conversation."

"Ah, I am? The naga I recently spoke to, back in those ruins, had me really think about it. The princesses are too passive despite their good will, save for Seira recently. Are mermaids really immune go the effects of mermaid magic? Sara certainly wasn't."

"I gave Seira one of my earrings," Michel said. "And today, we we saw just in what state the Panthalassa Clan was. Seira is now fully aware, and while it's a stretch, I think Sara and Gackto are also aware that when it comes to indirect problems, the other mermaids are going to be too ... too blindly benevolent to deal with it."

Michal noted with a detached curiosity that when Michel really felt about something, she was getting some of his memories associated with his emotions. These memories prominently features Fuku, her father as a flame and some sort of medicine. Probably had something to do with the brainwashing theme there were getting onto ...

Michel had once used actual emotionwashing magic to convince the former Michal that life was worthless to the point that she'd been willing to destroy the world over a boy. Michal of the now revolved her life around being nothing like that Michal and hating her deeply, but somewhere in a far away box in her mind, she realized that Michal might just have been as emotionally sabotaged as Michel himself. Thinking that she herself was this vulnerable was not a pleasant truth, but it was better to focus on that than surrender to Michel's little inner storm.

"Mermaid songs can invoke true feelings and bring out the best ones. How one feels about something has a lot to cause for how one judges, what justifications one makes and even how clear one thinks. If unconditional faith in the Aqua Regina is the given feeling, one never really gets around to questioning her actions. It's actually really obvious."

"For how long was it obvious to you?"

"Ever since my brother told me of the past and all the little details of it. My brother agrees with Kaito about not surfacing them, and for the most part, I agreed with them too. You see what dropping the masquerade leads to. What I found weird was that none of the mermaid kingdoms offered the obvious alternative of just taking small groups of Panthalassans as custody citizens."

"We need to free the mermaids," Michel said. "I can't let her brainwash her people, not even if she thinks she has good reasons to."

Well, that was it. Michel was slowly adapting to the idea of the Aqua Regina, whom he had once held a good opinion of, as a brainwasher. For Michal, that wasn't new. It was as clear as her brother conducting his magic through the orchestra into the audience.

Nothing she could change, nothing she could convince others of. Her own mind was already influenced by chemicals, stimuli overload and other things that chipped away at her free will. Explaining that to ordinary people was already nigh impossible, let alone suggesting the mermaids they weren't quite themselves. Not worth it, especially if said free will led to dropping the masquerade in Lucia's way.

"Is that worth changing? Did you know that by merely being here and so in stress, you're at risk of emotionwiping me? I'm trying my damnest to not fall into your explosive state right now. Face it, with the magic we're dealing with in our daily life, complete free will never is a possibility. So what if the Aqua Regine stifled the princesses to be a bit passive?"

"A bit?!" Michel's wings flared out and the halo at his belt glowed fiercer, in turn causing the lights in the room to flicker. "So passive that after ten thousands of years, they are still devoid of technology and barely have any culture of their own! So passive that they let an entire nation rot in misery for crimes they didn't commit!"

"You weren't complaining when they used that magic to bring out your hidden goodness." Actually, he had a good point, but she really needed to disarm his rage right now. Cold, logical questions were the best way.

"That was different, doing that was stopping me from doing things far worse than—"

"That's probably what the Aqua Regina thought too, if she's indeed the one behind this. For all we know it's an innate side effect of their own magic."

"It's not. Sara and Seira were both out of the influence for different reasons at some point, and you know how strong they are."

Huh, she had not thought of it like that yet. Storing info for later use ...

"Okay. So what do you want to do about, hmm? Let the millions of mermaids below the surface all leech on your power so they are a bit more proactive and less blind?"

That finally did the trick of getting him to calm down and think. Michal noticed her own clenched hands relax in tandem to him sitting down.

"I don't know. I can't even find Lady Bat, let alone any lead on what causes this. They're proactive enough in the face of immediate danger, how would we explain them the difference between that kind of proactivity and their ability to reason? Even princess Coco feels horrible about the actions that got her expelled from her kingdom, yet doesn't wonder why she reasoned as she did."

"Say what?"

"Princess Coco was rejected by her kingdom and turned into a black mermaid. You didn't hear yet?"

"I spent the past two days in a backwater town stopping lynching parties. No, I haven't."

Well, wonderful. There were so many things that could mean for future and past it was just ridiculous. She needed to get data, perhaps she could sneak some time out and visit the yellow kingdom. If anything, she could learn by investigating people's opinions. Where better to start than that?

Wait a second.

Now neither of them were speaking, she noticed the storage room was too silent. Especially for people who should logically be asking her to just hurry up and find their relatives already. They hadn't mentioned it aside of when she'd specifically asked for why they'd come all the way here.

Suddenly ill at ease, she opened the storage room again and looked around. Nothing. She lifted some sacks and opened a few closets.

No leprechauns.

"Where did they go?" Was there some sort of secret exit? Could be, the castle was space warped enough for that, but then again, maybe they weren't leprechauns. Shapeshifters were not out of the question.

Michal pulled out her phone and dialed her bodyguards to tell them to look at for any mischievous leprechaun shaped things. However, none of them answered.

"Michel, do you know any reason my phone would be jammed?"

No need to answer. They had the same sense of danger.

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