Author's Note: Believe it or not, but this chapter will actually be primarily humor based. A nice change of pace neh?

Chapter Twenty-Three: Lusts of the Immortal

Hikari stretched out her back, glad to finally be free from the confines of the plane. It was fairly spacious, but it was still cramped enough to make her muscles stiff. "Glad to be back on my feet again, although the break from walking was nice."

Dalin nodded and slung a duffel bag over his shoulder, walking down the steps from the plane behind Hikari. "We should check in to the hotel while we wait for Isis' group to arrive. Before making any further moves in this city it would be best to gather together."

His companion just continued to stretch her body out as they headed for the waiting car that they had rented over the phone. It was turning out that the money Dalin had won in various types of competitions was coming in handy. "They said they'd be here around two, so we won't have to wait that long, just an hour and a half."

They got into the car, and Dalin started it up, moving out onto the road as quickly as possible. It was obvious to Hikari that he had memorized the route they were supposed to take, which really didn't surprise her. 'Although he's an impressive person, hours on a plane with this guy when he barely talks can just get annoying…'

Since there was nothing to do about it she just relaxed and waited through the car ride. After what seemed an eternity of silence they pulled up to the small hotel that they had rented a room at. She followed Dalin in, ignoring the process of getting themselves checked in, and then finally followed him up to the room. 'Remember, just an hour and a half before we meet up with people who can actually hold a normal conversation.'

Once they reached the room she plopped down on the bed and flicked on the TV, hoping to see something interesting on. Most of the channels were showing shows or movies she didn't recognize and that didn't look very interesting. 'Then again, I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for. I get enough action in duels, but I'm not in the mood for something slow-paced either.'

When there was nothing to see she turned the TV off and dropped her head back against the pillow. Dalin was quietly sitting in a chair near the window, staring out at the city line, leaving her alone to relax. And slowly she began to drift away. 'Maybe the right show is playing in my dreams…'

The world around her shifted, and she found herself lying down on a solid sheet of some pitch black material. It felt amazingly soft against her back, like she would sink into it and be lost forever. "Death."

She started to jerk upright at the sound of the word, but found that she was sliding back into the darkness that she was lying on and couldn't move. Above her an indistinct face appeared, the only obvious feature being the eyes. They were hollow white eyes that seemed dead to the world. "Death Is Coming."

The eyes and face faded away, only to be replaced by a pair of emerald green eyes with slitted irises. Those eyes seemed to bore into her own, seething and burning with a deep inner…something. It was beyond even hatred. "Hatred will consume the world."

Those eyes faded away, quickly replaced by a pair of deep pools of black that substituted as eyes. They seemed to be dragging her into them with each and every moment, even though she was sinking into the darkness. "The last song of the world will play."

Again the eyes changed, this time becoming a deep blue color that faintly she remembered having seen. But she couldn't place where she had ever seen eyes of such a deep and piercing blue before. "One becomes All."

Finally an eerie set of eyes replaced those dark ones. One of the eyes was a deep purple color, with flecks of red spinning through it. The other was bigger, and seemed to move at its own whim. Looking closer she saw that instead of a pupil the eye had a slobbering set of teeth. "Die by my hand!"

The darkness pulled her completely into it, and she found herself spinning around in the darkness. She could feel hands reaching out for her, cold fingers just barely touching her skin, and an endless number of eyes staring her direction. And then the same terrible cruel voice that had said it would kill her spoke again. "Become my sacrifice and die a thousand deaths!"

She jerked awake, her skin flushed with sweat as she breathed heavily, trying to recover from the intensity of the dream. She looked over at Dalin, and saw that he was still staring out the window as if nothing had happened. "They're at the ground floor, they'll be coming up shortly. You've been asleep for most of the past hour."

Unable to speak she just nodded, even though he couldn't see it while facing the other direction. 'Was I really completely silent even while having that dream? What was that about anyways…maybe I'm just letting this whole 'apocalypse' thing get to me.'

When finally the knock came at the door she unsteadily stood and walked to it. The instant she pulled it open something zipped past her, spinning her around. There was a shriek of joy, and when Hikai managed to refocused she was surprised at what she saw. What looked to be about a twenty year old blonde girl was latched onto Dalin's arm, grinning like an idiot.

"Senpai! I won the duel against that guardian, just like you expected me to!" Dalin looked down at her, his usual blank face there, but still the girl seemed excited. The big man reached down and patted her on the head, a shadow of a smile on his face.

"Good work Alice. I assume you all got what you went for?" Alice nodded happily, but before she was able to say anything the other two people who had come with her stepped into the room. Hikari moved away to give Isis and Rishid room to move.

Isis and Dalin looked at each other, similar quiet and focused looks on their faces. Hikari was reminded once again that these two at one point had been involved in some way, but to what degree she wasn't certain. "I have much to tell you about Dalin. In private."

Dalin stood immediately, removing Alice's hand from his arm. "I want you and Rishid to fill in Hikari on what you have learned. I will talk with Isis in the other room while you do that."

"Of course senapi, just as you say!" She saluted him, and kept the salute the whole time as he walked into the adjacent room with Isis. Once the door was closed and they were out of sight she dropped her arm and flopped down on the bed.

"I need TV. Desperately I need some sort of civilization." She grabbed the controller and turned the TV on and started flipping through channels, just like Hikari had been earlier. Hikari suppressed a laugh, feeling better already with just seeing someone as lighthearted as Alice. Yes, Dalin's presence was oppressive.

Rishid scowled at the back of Alice's head, obviously not happy that she was leaving the explanations to him. "Very well Ihachi-san, I'll explain. We went to Egypt to investigate an ancient tome that housed an evil monster. We were going to use a pool of memories to unlock the secret to destroying the Dark Spirit once and for all."

Hikari leaned in, intrigued by that chance. She didn't really know anything about the strange spirit except for what she had heard from others. According to both Daisuke and Kirani it appeared to be essentially immortal since it had no true form, but Kirani said it had been given a personalized body, making it a threat again. "And what did you learn? How do we kill it?"

"We don't. According to the Well of Lost Memories since the Avatar of Apep is just that, a fragment of Apep, we can't destroy it without destroying Apep. And Apep is a dark god that is stronger than most single gods, and neigh unkillable. Isis also learned something she wouldn't tell us, saying it was only for Dalin's ears." Hikari sighed, having feared it was something like that. There was never good news when it came to defeating the bad guys.

"Hey Hikari, I didn't know you were famous." Alice's voice caught both her and Rishid off guard, and they nearly fell off the bed from the shock. Once they managed to recover themselves they turned their attention on the young woman.

"I'm not famous at all. What gave you that impression?" Alice just pointed at the TV, which appeared to be showing some sort of movie celebration going on. One of the movie's stars was walking down the red carpet with a beautiful woman at his arm, wearing a slinky red dress with quite a bit of cleavage showing.

That wasn't unusual for movie stars and dates of movie stars. What was surprising was that this woman was…different. Hikari simply couldn't believe her eyes. "She…looks just like me!"

Indeed, the woman had long russet-brown hair the same shade as Hikari's, the only difference being that Hikari let hers remain fairly wild and it went down to her shoulders, while this woman's hair was done in curl's and went down to her mid-back. The woman on the television screen also had a pair of brilliant violet eyes, and a bright smile as she waved to the camera. "Yeah, that's what I thought to. Guess you've got a look-a-like out there. Pretty cool huh?"

Hikari shook her head, not quite sure what to make of it. Something about this concept seemed familiar though, like she had heard something about it before. "No…she doesn't look just like me. She looks like I looked around when I was sixteen or seventeen."

Alice shot an incredulous stare over her shoulder at Hikari. "You're kidding right? That woman can't possibly be sixteen; she's got to at least be in her early twenties. Did you really like that when you were sixteen?"

To Alice's surprise Hikari nodded without hesitation, and somehow, seeing the shocked look in Hikari's eyes, Alice was able to believe it. "Lucky…but I still wonder how there's someone out there who looks just like you do."

Hikari turned back to the program, thinking about it very carefully. She reached back to the past few days, and began to remember something in conjunction with a tidbit of information her brother had told her at one point. "Ah, yes, it's simple. To learn the location of the Puppeteer you must first speak to the immortal girl. She is the Avatar of Set in this plane of existence. Once coaxed she will give you the next piece of information. She is in Kyoto at this very moment. Please, make haste."

"Oh hell no…" Pema Khandro's words, this girl, they were starting to match up with what her brother had told her.

"It's true, I swear. Honest to goodness she looked just like you, only a little younger. Three and a half thousand years old though and trapped in the disc. Believe me, you don't want to know how she became immortal."

Hikari groaned and dropped her head into her hands. Rishid and Alice stared at her questioningly and finally she looked back up at them. "Rishid, the Egyptian god Set, he had red hair didn't he?"

The Egyptian man frowned, curious as to why she brought this up. "Yes. In Egypt red was considered to be an evil color. For an Egyptian virtually all people have dark brown or black hair, so deviance from that was usually viewed as a sign of evil. Foreigners with reddish hair, such as yours, would have been viewed as servants of evil, or Set."

"Just like I feared. Rishid, would you mind knocking on the door and getting Dalin and Isis? I just found out exactly who we need to talk to. The immortal female avatar of Set, who can tell us how to find the Puppeteer." Rishid glanced at the TV screen, and his eyes widened in comprehension.

Hikari watched him walk to the door and knock on it. Shortly after it cracked open and he stuck his head in. Whatever he said was muffled by the wall and the door, so Hikari was unsure. Whatever was said it worked, as Dalin and Isis soon exited. 'Is it just me, or are those two looking more serious than normal? Kind of hard to tell though…'

Dalin took one look at the screen, sighed, and then grabbed a white button up shirt and slid his arms into it. Once it was on, but still unbuttoned, he grabbed his duel disk off the counter and attached to his arms. "That's what I was afraid of. Coaxing her is going to be difficult."

Hikari, Isis, and Rishid all picked up their own duel disks and started for the door after Dalin. Alice on the other hand just stared at their backs in confusion. "Umm…what's going on? I don't get it."

Dalin looked over his shoulder, looked her in the eye, and then gave her a very succinct answer. "We're going to crash a movie premier."

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Simply saying that they were going to crash the movie premier didn't make it any easier though. Violence was out of the question, at least according to Dalin, and they had no way to get in. With traffic as it was they got their after the movie itself had started, forcing them to wait outside.

An hour and a half after they had arrived the people began to pour out of the theater. It was seemingly impossible to spot a single specific person in that mess. Yet Dalin and Rishid, taller than everyone else by at least a head each, were able to spot their target. "Let's move."

When Dalin and Rishid moved into a crowd, it sort of naturally parted. Rishid was not as large as Dalin was, but his intimidating glower made up for it, and people scattered in their wake. In a short time they reached the movie star, a five and a half foot handsome man with jet black hair, who smiled at them eagerly. "Yes, can I help you? I'm not doing autographs right now, I apologize."

Their target looked around her date's shoulder, and blanched at what she saw. It was obvious she recognized them. Dalin was about to speak, but Isis laid a hand on his shoulder. Dalin stopped and stepped aside, allowing the much smaller Egyptian woman to step forward. The actor smiled brightly at her, obviously finding her good looks and bronzed skin appealing. "Yes miss, what can I do for a beautiful lady such as yourself?"

"Are you aware that your date is underage?" Now it was the actor's turn to blanch, and look back at his date. She scowled, and his eyes widened in horror.

Now it was Hikari's turn to take action, and when the actor saw her he seemed even more surprised. "That's my younger sister you have there. She's still just sixteen, so I'd appreciate it if you just leave her with us, and we won't press charges."

"Ah, yes, right. Absolutely! I'll just be going along then!" He rushed away, leaving them standing in a circle around the young looking immortal girl. She scowled at each of them in turn, and then got right up in Isis' face.

"You know, you ruined a great chance for me. It took some work to get that date, and I was going to have him tonight as well. My first time in this modern day world would have been with a celebrity. That would have been fun. But you ruined it. Are you going to make up for it?" Isis nearly choked on her tongue when their target's scowl turned into a seductive sultry look, and she began to lean in farther towards Isis, till their lips were just an inch apart.

Hikari grabbed the younger looking girl by the arm and dragged her away, the rest of the group following after. Isis was last, still looking like a deer caught in the headlights. Hikari turned on the young immortal and gritted her teeth. "What is wrong with you! You were coming on to her?"

In response the girl waved her hand dismissively, acting like she hadn't a care in the world. "Don't get so worked up about it. We weren't as uptight back in my day. Besides, I haven't gotten laid in three and a half thousand years. That's probably the world's longest dry spell. The only way I could be hornier is if I up and sprouted horns on top of my head." She demonstrated by curling two fingers over her head like horns.

Hikari groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose, unable to believe that somebody who acted like that looked just like her. Rishid and Dalin were stone faced as usual, but Alice was trying to hold back laughter. Dalin shook his head. "Ihachi, we've come for a reason."

Again the girl waved her hand dismissively, her bright violet eyes gazing up at Dalin's intense green ones. The sultry smile once again returned to her pretty face, and she leaned in close to Dalin, despite the height difference. "It's Ihami big guy. You're a bit on the cold side, but I'm sure a big guy like you makes up for it with…other attributes."

Once again Ihami was yanked away from her intended target, this time by a furious looking Alice. "Don't lay your filthy hands on senpai! Somebody like you doesn't deserve him!"

Ihami laid a dainty manicured hand on Alice's shoulder, and then moved it up to the back of the older looking girl's neck. Alice immediately tensed, and adopted the same 'deer in headlights' look that Isis had been sporting less than a minute earlier. "Aww…how sweet. You all brought me something special as a treat. A virgin, how nice."

Dalin stood behind Ihami, towering over her, and spoke without looking at her. "We came to ask you the location of the Puppeteer, and that is all. However you got out of your prison I don't know, but that is unimportant. You will tell us what we want to know."

Ihami craned her neck backwards and grinned up at Dalin, fully aware that she was giving him a perfect view down the front of her dress. Hikari continued to massage her temples, still not quite sure she could believe this was happening. "On one condition. I get to break in the virgin, and then I'll tell you how to find the Puppeteer."

Rishid watched Dalin's face very carefully, but as usual the man gave nothing away. Rishid himself was very tempted to simply accept the offer, as it would probably make the girl less annoying. 'Perhaps he'll say yes and we won't have to deal with Alice any longer.'

Unfortunately Rishid's hopes of ditching Alice were dashed against the rocks when Alice herself ripped away from Ihami and pointed a finger right in the immortal's face, red in the face and looking like a volcano about to go off. "You can't proposition for me like that! You….how dare you! I challenge you to a Darkness Game!"

A collective sigh came from the rest of the group, but to their surprise Ihami snickered and seconds later they were surrounded by darkness, cutting them off from the crowd that had been milling around. "I'd love to my little pure angel. Of course, you do realize that if you lose to me, I'm free to inflict any Punishment Game on you. And that a Punishment Game isn't necessarily a bad thing. They can be…pleasurable."

Alice's face was as bright red as a tomato, which seemed to make Ihami even more amused. The other two women simply weren't sure what to believe, while Dalin and Rishid remained placid. "Yeah…well if you lose you have to tell us about the Puppeteer, no strings attached! And this'll be a duel, so I hope you can figure out how to even use a duel disk!" (ALP: 4000)

Ihami chuckled and snapped her fingers. Instantly five cards appeared in her hand out of nowhere, and a brilliant crystalline duel disk formed on her arm. "Girl, I'm three and a half thousand years old. I may look sixteen, but that's only because I became immortal at sixteen. I've got nearly a hundred more lifetimes experience in Darkness Games than you have. This'll be fun." (ILP: 4000)

Alice drew and slapped the card down. The monster that formed had very little shape, aside from being a black blob of goo with an inner green glow. "Nuclear Sludge(700/700) in attack mode! When this monster is summoned and I have no cards on my field I draw twice!"

She slid two cards off her deck, then placed them into her hand. "My preparations are nearly done, so for the moment I set one card face down and end my turn."

Ihami plucked a card off the top of her deck with two fingers, an amused smile on her face. Alice found it strangely disconcerting to be dueling someone wearing such a fancy dress. "Well, it seems that my soul has produced these cards again. That's certainly useful. And such a pity for you…"

The blonde girl tensed as the immortal looked over her hand. She had rushed into this without a second thought, and had no idea what Ihami was capable of. She also had no idea about her opponent's strategy. "Get on with it."

"Right you are. Activate magic card, Choosers of the Slain! At a cost of a thousand life points I can add two Valkyries from my deck to my hand!" Two cards popped out of her deck and she gratefully accepted them into her hand. Alice tensed, realizing that she knew little about this deck type. Valkyrie Decks were a mystery to her. (ILP: 3000)

Ihami smirked and a slot at the side of her crystal duel disk flipped open. "Oh, I see you think this is just a simple Valkyrie Deck. Well, this deck is a creation of my soul, and I had something of a goddess complex for a thousand years or so. Recent defeats have obliterated that, but I'm back and ready for some physical action. I'm not good or evil, I'm not really much of anything besides myself. So this deck reflects my multi-faceted nature. Prepare to face some brute strength!"

She slapped one of her seven cards into the slot, which Alice was certain was a field card. "Field magic card activate, Jotunheim! Here there be giants…"

The area around them warped, and soon they stood in a huge valley with giant rocky mountains on each side. A river wound past them, and the ground shook occasionally with what Alice could only guess were footfalls. Up at the peak of one of the mountains was a foreboding castle. "In this realm the levels of all giants are reduced by one, and they all gain two hundred attack and defense points. That's not all, but it's a great start for my first giant!"

She gracefully placed the card down on her duel disk, and something emerged from the dense forests. Standing easily twenty or thirty feet in height and with a deformed body structure, Ihami's monster could be described as nothing else but a giant. "Jotun Thrudgelmir(3000 +200/2700 +200) emerges, son of the giant father!"

Alice gulped as the huge dark skinned creature glared down at her with big bug-like eyes, each one ice blue in color. The ground around the giant's feet was also frosting over. "How can you summon a monster like that so easily?"

"Oh it's easy. I can reduce the level of all Jotuns, or giants, in my hand by three if I discard a Valkyrie from my hand. So I discarded Valkyrie Dritt(1000/1600) in order to drop Thrudgelmir's level down to five. Jotunheim lowered him by another level, making him a level four. And now that he's here, he's going to crush you. Attack!" The giant raised one hand and shards of ice flew from it, streaking towards Alice's sludge monster.

"Hold it! Activate set trap card, Atomic Strike! This destroys your attacking monster if I've got a monster with 'atomic', 'nuclear', or 'radioactive' in its name on my field. Then you take three hundred damage!" A wave of green energy smashed into the giant, but to Alice's surprise it merely roared and shook off the attack.

"Thrudgelmir is a Jotun, and they were on par with the gods of Asgard! Thrudgelmir is far too powerful to be defeated by any destruction effect, and as such he is immune to trap cards completely!" Alice braced herself as the shards ripped apart her monster. It cost her as well. (ALP: 1500)

Ihami smirked and slid a card from her hand onto her duel disk, and it appeared behind her giant monster. Then she placed her hands on her hips and began tapping her foot. "Well, you going to take your turn, or are we going to sit here for the next thousand years. I can do that, but I don't think you can."

Alice gritted her teeth and drew. "Okay, I think I can counter your monster. To do it I'll have to form a monster of greater strength. So, it's time I activate Polymerization!"

She held up the magic card as well as three monster cards and a vortex appeared in front of her. "I fuse Atomic Soldier, Nuclear Soldier, and Radioactive Soldier together! United as one they form Supreme Energy Formation-Soldier(3500/2500)!"

A vaguely humanoid form was what came out of the vortex. But this monster's features couldn't be discerned, as its body was forged entirely from a pure form of energy. "This monster is rather lacking in effects. But his one effect is a deadly one. When summoned he automatically halves the opponent's life points!"

Now it was Ihami's turn to grit her teeth and bear it as a dark purple glow surrounded her, leeching energy from her body. "That's a good effect, and he's also more powerful than Thrudgelmir. You're better than I guessed." (ILP: 1500)

"I'm better than just good, I'm fantastic! I was trained by Dalin-senpai, the greatest duelist on the face of the Earth! Thanks to that training there aren't many duelists I can't beat. I'll prove it by stomping you into the dirt! Attack my soldier!" The soldier didn't move, instead a glob of pure energy shot out of its body straight at the giant.

"Reverse card open, Wrath of the Vanir! This trap card destroys one monster on the opponent's field and removes it from the game. In exchange I can call out a monster from the grave. So, return to my Valkyrie Dritt(1000/1600)!" The pure energy form was ripped apart, and as it faded a woman in fanciful gold armor riding a white horse appeared, bearing a sword in one hand.

"Valkyre Dritt gains one hundred attack for each card that is removed from play, so I thank you for that. Is there anything else you'd like to fail to do, or can we move along to the part where I win and take you to bed?" Alice's entire body was shaking, and suddenly she exploded.

"Shut up! I'm not going to sleep with you! Damn it, they said you were some sort of religious leader in Ancient Egypt, and I was under the impression that women in Egyptian religion ended up being sworn virgin priestesses. Sheesh!" Ihami rolled her eyes at Alice, which only made the blonde angrier.

"You know, that's a bit inaccurate actually. When I was born I was designated to be the Head Priestess to one of the few remaining sects that worshipped Set. Yes, I would have been a sworn virgin. Of course I wasn't much up for that once I rolled around to puberty, and so I had a little fun with some of the priests and those coming to pray. After that well…they kicked me out and my true purpose was discovered." She tapped a finger against her chin, looking thoughtful as she called up ancient memories.

"It boils down to the fact that I was chosen to be Set's chosen avatar, who would convey his will to the mortals below. Which was fine with me, as sworn virginity just didn't appeal to me. Heh, it didn't take long before my talents became legendary amongst the upper echelons of Egyptian society of the time. You have no idea how useful sexual wiles were. In such a dry harsh world as that, the tongue is an amazing organ, did you know that?" Alice blushed fiercely as Ihami ran a tongue along her bright red lips.

"Okay okay, I get the picture! Just…stop talking, okay? I set a monster face down and one card behind it. End turn." She shuddered at the thought of what losing this duel might cost her. So there was absolutely no choice but to win, she couldn't accept anything else.

Ihami laughed, the sound almost as crystalline as her duel disk. She drew again, and seemed oddly satisfied by whatever she had. "Well, this duel is nearly done I suppose. I sacrifice Valkyrie Dritt in order to summon Valkyrie Sovite(1600/1600) whose summon effect destroys one monster on your field."

The gray haired Dritt was replaced by the larger pink haired Sovite, who pointed her sword at the face down monster. The set card was blown apart, and Alice felt more worried than before. "Next I activate my magic card, Loki's Betrayal! This lets me name a magic card in your deck and if I named it right you must activate it. I name Cyclone!"

Alice blinked in surprise as the card popped out of her deck. She took it, still confused about the move. "Okay, so you're going to force me to destroy your field card? What's the point of that?"

"Don't take me lightly. I discard Bifrost Bridge, which lets me prevent my field from being targeted in any way this turn. Since Cyclone has to activate, and since my field is immune, your card's only target is your set card!" Ihami snickered as a whirling miniature tornado emerged from the magic card and flew straight at the face down card.

"Hold it right there! Activate trap card, Nuclear Lockdown! If I have a monster on my field or in my grave then during this turn I cannot be attacked." Heavy metal doors appeared out of nowhere and slammed shut in front of Alice, keeping Ihami away from her.

"Well that protects you for this turn. I'll just have to prepare for my next turn by playing Gifts of the Esir, which allows me to draw until I'm holding six cards at no cost whatsoever. Pretty sweet isn't it?" She drew six times, and looked absolutely delighted at whatever she saw.

"Ooo, I set one card face down and end my turn." Alice eyed the ageless beauty as she drew, worried about the way this duel was going. She was holding on, but Ihami was so casually smashing her efforts that it was disheartening. She was definitely a very good duelist.

Alice drew, her determination to not become this freaky immortal's sexual toy keeping her going. "Alright, I play Monster Reincarnation. I discard the last card in my hand to pick up a monster from my grave. And I summon Nuclear Sludge(700/1000) in defense mode, whose effect lets me draw twice."

She drew two more times, worried by how excited Ihami looks. 'Somehow I get the feeling that I'm being…toyed with? But I'm a duelist on par with some of the highest caliber duelists in the world. Only duelists like Dalin and the few close to his level can beat me. So how could this girl…'

"Oh Alice….I activate my counter trap card, Rule of the Esir, which lets me negate one action of the opponent's. And in this case I'm negating your draw." As Alice grudgingly placed the two cards back onto her deck before getting to see them she realized she had been right. Ihami was toying with her, because she could have easily stopped Alice from picking up Nuclear Sludge at all.

"Now, it's my turn, and it's time to claim my victory. Valkyrie Sovite, attack Nuclear Sludge!" The valkyrie rode out across the field and slashed the goo monster in half with her sword. The monster faded away, leaving Alice completely open.

"Juten Thrudgelmir, attack Alice directly!" A wave of icicles shot out of the giant's massive hand, stabbing down all around Alice. She fell to the ground, supporting herself on her hands, unable to believe how easily she had been crushed. She still couldn't believe it even as the darkness faded, returning them to her friends. (ALP: 0)

She heard footsteps coming towards her, and braced herself for the worst. But to her surprise the footsteps went past her, so she lifted her head to see what was happening. From what she could see Ihami had approached Dalin and the others. "Well, that was good enough fun for me tonight. I'll lead you guys to the Puppeteer tomorrow afternoon, but you'll have to pay my expenses. Which includes new clothes, food, and one of you is going to have to explain to me what in the name of Set a tampon is."

Dalin paused, and then pointed over at his female Egyptian companion. "Isis will assist you with that. I'm not equipped for that specific item."

Isis flinched, while Rishid and Hikari stared at Dalin in abject horror. Hikari pointed a finger at the giant of a man and gawked at him. "Did…did you just make a joke!"

He looked over at her, his green eyes set like stone and his face unmoving as normal. Then he turned away. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Come, let's return to the hotel until morning."

They started to walk away, and finally, unable to hold it in, Alice burst. "But…what about the Punishment Game?"

Ihami looked back over at her, and tapped a finger against the side of her head. "Psychological really. As much as some men seem to say otherwise, there's not actually anything exciting about a virgin, in fact it's plenty annoying. Anyways, I don't need to use a Darkness Game to get laid; I'll just pick a bell hop or something for tonight, no need to worry."

"So…you were just teasing me because you thought it was fun?" Alice found that somewhat hard to believe, but then again she didn't really know much about this strange immortal woman.

"Well, not just because it was fun. You are pretty; I wouldn't have teased you if it were otherwise. But honestly, I'd prefer my first time in the past three and half thousand years to be with a man if I can. No offense meant, but while women are fun in their own way, they usually want to cuddle afterwards, and I'm not up to dealing with that tonight. Now come on, I've got to go find me a bell hop." As the immortal began to walk after the group again, Alice just stood there.

Several seconds later she came to her senses and started chasing after them to catch up. 'Somehow that woman has assimilated herself into the group as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She's unique, that's for sure. Yet despite that, she seems to be pretty simple anyways. I expected an immortal to be so complex and dangerous but…she's not that different from me. A normal girl with normal urges, albeit a bit flamboyant about it. I guess that's what it's like being sixteen for all eternity. Endless hormones.'

Her thought processes froze for a moment as she caught up with Ihami and looked at the woman carefully. "You ever wish you became immortal at just a little bit later of an age?"

"You have no idea."

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Isis sat up in her bed in separate room she had gotten in the hotel. Someone was standing in her doorway, features obscured by the lack of light. "I was expecting you sooner than this. I had been starting to think I was wrong."

"No, not wrong. I apologize." Isis shook her head as the figure approached her, relaxing against her pillows.

"No, there's no need to apologize. I knew this was coming and I perfectly understand." The figure stood over her bed, staring down at her for the next few moments. There was perfect silence between them.

"Goodnight Isis. And goodbye."

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Alice hopped out of bed in her pajamas, fully awake and happy to be so. Her night had been long and restful, and she felt much better than she had after her loss. "Now that was a restful sleep. And after those weird dreams, it's time to get a little bit of info on our new resident immortal. And I know exactly who to ask!"

She put on a pair of slippers and slipped out the door. Quickly she crossed the hall to the other room, and put the extra keycard she had taken into the reader. The door unlocked and she pushed it open quietly just in case the resident was sleeping. "Oh Isis…you awake?"

She approached the bed, where she could vaguely tell Isis was still sleeping thanks to the strands of long black hair that hung out over the sheets. After tiptoeing up to it, Alice felt a sudden evil streak and reached for the cover. 'I hope she doesn't scream too loudly at being woken up by me, but it'll be funny either way.'

Alice grabbed the cover and threw it back. She stared at Isis good and long, and then stumbled backwards. She hit the wall, unable to go any farther backwards, and screamed bloody murder.

Isis' eyes were open and staring blankly up at the ceiling. She wasn't breathing or moving either. Alice repeated the concept in her mind, unable to comprehend it fully no matter how many times she tried to. But no matter how much she wished it wasn't so, there was no changing it.

Isis Ishtar was dead.

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Author's Notes: Nothing much to say. Especially on the end of the chapter. However, I will say this. Ihami is one of my favorite characters I've ever created. For some reason writing her is just a lot of fun for me.

Next Time: Tragedy has befallen the group in Kyoto in the form of Isis Ishtar's mysterious death. With few signs of the cause, their only choice is to move onwards towards the Puppeteer. While they do so Kirani concludes her confrontation with her brother, and must come to terms with what being a Kajika means.

See it all in, Burdens of the Family!