Kusano was asleep on the couch, her big brother still not back from the hospital.

Kazehana had arrived home without Musubi or Minato, much to the worry of her inn-mates. She assured everyone that Ku's big brother was going to be okay, that she had every confidence in his safe return. They'd gotten him to the hospital and the doctors were going to fix him right up, so there was nothing to worry about. If anything, his recovery just gave one more reason to throw that party.

Matsu had suggested taking a nap if Kusano wanted to be nice and awake for the whole affair, since it was expected that Minato's other Sekirei (particularly his two single-numbered ones) would keep Minato up until he passed out from exhaustion. So Ku had curled up on the couch and willed herself asleep, and there she'd stayed all afternoon.

She was awakened by a knock on the door, the sound of Matsu and Kazehana giggling and murmuring to upstairs the only sign of life in the inn. Eagerly, she hopped off the couch and ran up to the front entrance.

But looking around, she noticed that the Inn wasn't quite the Inn. The chip in one of the hallway floorboards was fixed, and the paint on the wall was completely smooth, with all the little bumps it usually had now gone. The curly phone cord wasn't tangled up like it always had been, but it didn't matter. He big brother was home! She was about to let him in when suddenly the light in the hall flickered off. Kazehana and Matsu's voices were cut off in an instant, and a black light began to shine through the cracks around the door. And then, it spoke.

"Kusanooooo…" came the wispy call. "I know you're there somewhere."

She froze, her blood turning to ice in terror. She knew right away she was caught in another nightmare. Panicking, she let go of the knob and clicked the deadbolt into its slot, locking it firmly in place, and braced herself against the door. Ha! Now The Eyes were locked out of the house, forever! She wasn't going to let it in, so they could stay out there and… Do whatever you do when someone locks you out! But then, she had to wonder. Every time The Yellow Eyes appeared in her dreams, they were always the ones in control. This was her dream, her head! She'd make them go away.

She closed her dream-eyes and concentrated really hard, just like she'd done when she'd made the phone ring that day. She felt a shift, not really something she could say specifically, but she just knew something had changed. Opening her dream-eyes and looking around, the lights were still off, the Inn was a little more Inny, but the black light from under the door was gone. She breathed a sigh of relief and was about to figure out the lighting situation when she realized, looking around, that all the light switches had disappeared off the walls.

"You know, it's rude to keep someone waiting on the front step," the outside lurker jeered.

Kusano felt a tingling in her back and instinctively dove behind the phone table, beneath the stairs. Cowering behind it, she saw a black mass ooze out from the crack under the door, its liquid shadow spilling up along the wood until it had swirled itself into its bulky humanoid shape. She wanted to run, but she was afraid that if she didn't keep watching it, it might creep up and pounce on her. At least here, it was on the wall, and she could run from it if it did come after her.

As if it could sense her thoughts, that was when the shadow began pushing out from the door. Its hand reached for her, the wall stretching like rubber as it tried to hold it back. As it peeled itself free, its inky self became outlined in violet, its eyebrows and mouth now visible features. As it completed its step into the third dimension, it stretched its arms and curled its fingers, flexing its new muscles and feeling the vigor within them.

"Yhaaaaaah… It feels good to move around," it rumbled. It then noticed she had seized up. One of those hairless eyebrows curled itself upward.

"Why so afraid, Kusano?" it asked. Its smug look told her that it already knew the answer; it just wanted to hear her say it. "I've done nothing to harm you, so why cower?"

"You're a bad man," she squeaked, her body finally unwinding enough to let her move. "I won't let you hurt my big brother!"

The potted plant on the table sprung to life like she asked, and it grew into a huge vine to swat away the intruder. The plant sent it back into the wall, splattering it into mush before it began to pull itself together. She asked the flower to hit it again, but when the vine touched the wall, The Eyes slithered their way up the side and sprung out in front of her. It reached out with tendrils of darkness and ensnared her in its fingers, hoisting her off the ground until she was face-to-face with it.

"Three mistakes were made," it said, its tone having gone from humorous to chastising. "The first was assuming that simple tactic would hinder me, the second was assuming I was ever human-"

"Go away!" she squeaked.

"Oh, yes, I'm sure that would stop an intruder," it sneered sarcastically. "In a pig's eye."

"Just go away!" she bawled, starting to cry from the fear she felt, huddled in a corner.

She felt its smirk calm to a simple smile, and it stood over her stoically, like a general inspecting a captured prisoner. She scrunched her eyes shut and started to whimper out for her big brother to come in and beat the mean man up.

And then, completely ridiculous as it seemed, she felt its hand stroke the top of her head.

"There there, child," it whispered, its sympathy marred by some hidden secret its tone said it was keeping. "I'll be gone soon enough, and then you'll neeever have to see me in your dreams again."

If not for the delight it took in tormenting her, she might think it was trying to be nice.

Kusano heard the rumble of thunder, and the hand lifted off of her head. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the shadow was no longer there, but back near the door, looking up at the ceiling. Cracks started forming along the walls of the Inn, and they crumbled upward to be sucked into a howling overhead vortex. Night had fallen in her dream, and black lightning, outlined with violet just as the monster was, crackled overhead.

"Right now, actually!" it gleefully cried.

The lightning descended, snatching up the figure and carrying it into the void that awaited above. As it was swallowed up, Kusano finally jolted herself awake.

Her head wasn't resting on a pillow, but on a meaty leg, one that wore loose, wrinkly black pants. Ku looked up and saw a towering black-clad form looming over her, his calm yet caring expression a welcome sight to greet her.

"Bad dream?" Kagedansu asked. "You kept telling someone to go away. I hope you didn't mean me."

Her nerves shot, she unloaded all of her nightmares onto the large Sekirei: the Yellow Eyes, her dreams, what they said to her, all the way up to when they'd grown a body and disappeared into the black lightning bolt.

"Well, he sounds like a real jerk, just letting himself in like that," the large Sekirei sneered. "And tearing up Asama-dono's nice Inn! He better not try that for real, because if he does, the landlady's gonna fold, spindle and mutilate him."

Kusano felt a little better at this, and not just from Kagedansu's casual dismissal of the figure. Kagedansu was right: those eyes wouldn't bother her. She had everyone else to watch out for them: Kazehana, Musubi, Matsu, Miya-dono, Uzume (hopefully), and, of course, Kagedansu and Big Brother. If it came poking around here, oh boy oh boy, would they ever be sorry.

But its parting words still bugged her; not what it said, but how. Why would it be happy to leave, especially after it spent so long haunting her?

There was a knock on the door, but this time all the little scratches and smears of the room, things that even Miya's diligent cleaning couldn't get rid of, were all present and accounted for.

"What you waiting for?" Kagedansu playfully scolded, pushing Kusano off the couch. "Get over there, you lazy bum!"

She crawled to her feet and shot Kagedansu an adorably angry look which forced him to choke back a rising fit of chortling. It wouldn't do for Ku to think he was bullying her.

She inched her way over the front, reassured when Musubi walked past the door to the living room. Kusano gathered her courage and rounded the corner, and there he was.

"Big brother!" she tearfully cried, running up to him and hugging him about the waist. After what she'd just gone through, he was exactly who she wanted to see.

"Hey! He is mine, thou brat!" objected the woman next to him.

Ku's tears dried themselves in an instant, and there stood something she didn't want to see: that lady from the other day in the alley, standing next to Minato. She had her hands clenched at her sides and the snakes in her hair were all agitated. Who did she think she was? To give her a better idea, Ku blew her a raspberry.

"Now, guys, I don't want to end up in the hospital again just after getting home!" Minato nervously said. His plea fell upon deaf ears.

"Then tell her to share!" Ku piped up.

"A wife does not 'share' her husband with a child!" Tsukiumi chided.

"I'm his wife, too, ya know!" Musubi called, leaning back to peek around the corner of the hall.

"Dost thou even know what being a wife entails?"

"Sure I do!" Musubi enthusiastically shot back. "Well, maybe I don't… But whatever it is, I know I can do whatever it means I have to do!"

Big brother's face did an impression of a tomato, and Kusano didn't know why.

"Enough of this!" Tsukiumi declared, water beginning to materialize around her. "Let us settle this matter as Sekirei!"

"Me first! Me first!" Musubi called. She came running into the hall and quickly set herself into a combat stance. If there was a fight, she was going to be in on it.

"5, 4, 3…" Matsu's countdown was matched by each step she took down the stairs, smirking in anticipation of what was to come.

Right on cue, the budding battle was interrupted by a spatula appearing out of nowhere and smacking both women on the head.

"That's quite enough out of you two!" Miya snapped, her disapproval shaming the two women into submission. "Violence will not be tolerated in my inn as long as I run it."

"Okay, Miya-sama…" Musubi whimpered.

"And you?" Miya asked, casting her hanyo mask at Tsukiumi. For the first time since meeting her husband, Tsukiumi's nerve wavered.

"Well, tis said that when in Rome, doeth as the Romans," Tsukiumi said, closing her eyes when she failed to maintain eye contact. "I shall abide by thy laws, landlady-dono."

"Wonderful," Miya beamed, her hanyo mask replaced by a warm, welcoming smile. She moved past the emerging form of Izanagi, coming out of the bathroom, and back into the kitchen.

"Huh," the younger Ashikabi grunted. "Did I miss something?"

"Nah," Kagedansu answered. "Just another reminder that Miya's terrifying."

The gathered members of Minato's group, Tsukiumi included, all nodded in agreement.

"Wait a second," Minato asked as the six moved into the living room. "Where's Kazehana?"

"Hmph, she did not see fit to remain by thy side," Tsukiumi said, folding her arms beneath her chest. "She returned here once thou wert receiving proper care."

Maybe she'd been waiting for the right moment or it was just sheer coincidence, but at that moment a nubile female form vaulted over the bannister and landed in front of the stairs, clad in an apron and literally nothing else.

"I wanted to wear something special to welcome my husband home!" Kazehana said.

Blood exploded from Minato's nose and he collapsed in a heap.

"Wow! That outfit is super sexy!" Matsu said, noting the areas that accentuated The Wind Sekirei's figure. This was something she could use when she got around to experimenting with Minato.

"What outfit?!" Tsukiumi cried, shocked and dismayed at both Kazehana's shamelessness as well as her proclamation. "She's practically naked!"

"So, what do you think, Mina-kun?" she asked, standing over him.

Kagedansu, his eyes somehow able to tear themselves from the sight of Kazehana's display, leaned over and mumbled something to his Ashikabi. Izanagi closed his eyes and nodded in agreement. But their opinion wasn't the one being asked for.

With Ku and Musubi kneeling beside him and ask if he was okay, along with the silent sound of Tsukiumi's teeth grinding, Minato knew he had to choose his next words carefully.

"Well, I'm not exactly the best judge of fashion," he stammered.

"Oh, really?" Kazehana insincerely sulked. "If you don't like it, I could always…"

She knelt down and straddled his legs.

"Take."

Her barely-contained breasts pressed against his chest.

"It."

The lustful heat in her breath caressed his face.

"Off."

CLONK!

Minato thanked his lucky stars for Miya's timing, because he was afraid that Kazehana might've stripped him down right there and rocked his world with everyone (including Ku) watching.

Miya smiled dangerously at her amorous tenant and the hanyo mask returned. "Lewd acts are not to be committed at The Izumo Inn."

"Um, Miya? I got the message, loud and clear," Kazehana stammered. This was enough to satisfy the landlady, who commanded that Kazehana change into something less suggestive, lest Minato get lustful urges again. Minato demanded to know what she meant by "again", as did Tsukiumi, but Miya kept her silence.

"Hey, speaking of girls who'd look great in naked aprons," Kagedansu asked, leaning back and resting his hands behind his head, "where's Uzume?"

This provoked teasing smirks from several parties (including his smaller brother, surprisingly enough); Kagedansu returned them with a puzzled look of his own. He was just stating the obvious.