Chapter 8

Chapter 2
Intermediate Spells, Potions, Charms, Amulets, Hexes, & Transformations
Part 1
Hexes & Curses: A Comparative Study

Maria groaned in agony, wondering when she was going to get past this and delve into what she needed to learn to relieve her friends of what she firmly believed she was the cause of. She didn't care about the differences between a hex and a curse. Of course it would be nice to learn more advanced spells and potion formulae, but it wasn't what she needed at the moment and she was wondering exactly when she would get to learning about transformations. Although, she did find it interesting that hexes were always evil and made to cause harm through witchcraft, but curses weren't necessarily always evil and could be implemented by anyone.

She sat and wondered if their transformations would be considered a spell, hex, or curse. Was it even a transformation spell? From what she understood of spells, they were chanted when they were cast, so wouldn't that mean that what had happened might fall under the category of curse? If that were the case, then the cursed item would have to be removed, or certain conditions would have to be met in order for the curse to be nullified. That then led to an even bigger problem, how to remove their costumes when they were no longer costumes. These strange costumes, from what she understood now, were actually a part of them.

She leaned back in her seat on the comfortable little sofa she had in her room, rubbed her temples, and sighed out. If she couldn't get her mind off of this, there would be no progress and that was not what she needed right now. What she needed to do was to plow through all of this until she reached the right information so she could help her Onee-sama and friends. She wanted to find a way to quickly resolve all of this before they traced it back to her and she lost them as her nearest and dearest.

The moment she felt that everything was getting more and more hopeless, she felt the gentle massage of eight tiny spider feet on her scalp. All of the tension in her small body was gradually fading away. Her small friend knew exactly what to do and when to do it. She wondered if all familiars were as perceptive as Tsuki. She smiled and decided that that wasn't the case and he was very specially uniquely tailored to her needs and preferences. After all, that is what the last chapter in her book did imply. That each familiar was just as unique as their master.

Bits and pieces of the prior evening eked out of her sub-conscience and into her waking memory. Up to this point, she had firmly believed that her visions had been parts of dreams she was having, but the more that leaked through, the more she found that there was too much of a coincidence in regards to Ren or Kuon and the blond lion she was spending her evenings with. Yes, she had been putting two and two together and not ending up with FAIRY, and it was irritating her to no end when she had control during the day. Did he ever plan on telling her or was it that he just didn't trust her that much, and thought of her as just another fangirl that he couldn't trust?

The many thoughts along the lines of trust and real love were actually depressing her more than she'd initially thought. When he confessed to her, she never thought that it would hurt as much as it did right now. Maybe she was hopeless, a woman with nothing but love on her mind, plain, boring, and without sex-appeal. Perhaps that was why everything was the way it was now. He wasn't ashamed to be with her in secret, but didn't dare let anyone see those feelings during the day. She couldn't help but think that it was time to break free and spread her wings, find more jobs that took her further away from Japan and the things that made her heart hurt so much. She and Ren really weren't going to acknowledge each other and she sure as hell didn't want to be around Sho when he came back from his tour. She needed time to get her head back in the right frame of mind and make her heart line up to where it should be, instead of being steeped in this mire she was in. What she needed most was time to figure out this predicament she was in, how to cope with it, and how to accept it. She was pretty sure that her new animal form was going to be with her for a long time, and she refused to panic over it.

Eyes wide open and mind full of the new memories greeted him when he awakened. For him, there was no mistaking it as a silly dream, this was his reality, and it terrified yet excited him. All those nights he had spent with her. All of those moments they shared and she didn't respond in the way she normally did. It was a shame that he was unaware of her thoughts on the matter. He wasn't ashamed of her, he was thinking of her safety when not revealing their relationship to each other. He wasn't necessarily lying to her about being Corn, he just didn't want to ruin that part of her childhood just yet, and wanted to break it to her gently. He honestly didn't see the problem in how he was handling things, and it really didn't matter anyway since he planned on telling her everything on her birthday anyway.

What did frighten him the most, and worry him, was this new predicament that they were in. How did it happen? Did magic really exist? If so, then who did this to them? He knew for certain that it wasn't just him that had a strangely realistic costume that night. There was Kyoko, Yukihito, and Kyoko's best friend, Kanae. Had they realized the same as him yet? He truly wanted to call Kyoko at this point, so he picked up his phone and dialed their manager. He wanted to make sure that she was somewhere where this subject wouldn't cause her an inconvenience or distract her from something important that she was doing, like in the middle of a shoot or something.

Maybe he should ask her to lunch or something. It had been awhile since they actually sat down together and just talked. Completely his fault and he knew it. He didn't mean to avoid her, he just didn't want for his crazy fans to gang up on her if they found out. Was that really what it was or was he afraid that they could truly be something more than silent lovers? He couldn't help but think he was being a little selfish about it all. Would she hate him if she found out that he was a mess in private? Would her image of him be destroyed? Could he handle it if said image was destroyed? If anyone that they knew had even an inkling of what his thoughts were, he would have never been able to live through the ridicule. Kyoko had known for quite awhile that he wasn't Mr. Perfect. He'd flushed that image down the toilet around her during the filming of Dark Moon many times without realizing it, and if he wanted to get technical about it, he'd completely burned it to ashes as Cain Heel.

He swallowed his thoughts as the phone was ringing, and nearly jumped out of his skin when the other party answered. "Hello Yukihito? Do you have Kyoko's schedule for the day? There's something I need to talk to her about."