Disclaimer: I don't own any IPs that might appear in the story
The Council of Thirteen
Book Eight: The Third Lord
The Lillian Lord
One Shot
Beta:
Sixteen year old Fukuzawa Yumi, second year high school student at Japan's prestigious Lillian Girls' Academy and Third Lord of the Council of Thirteen, was in Yurakucho enjoying a day out with her best friends and yearmates, Tōdō Shimako and Shimazu Yoshino. It was a pleasant day and the three girls were enjoying the time together as they window shopped after having just grabbed lunch.
"Ah, getting a chance to just hang out like this is wonderful." Yumi declared as they walked out of a bookshop which Yoshino-san had insisted on popping into to check if any new books had been released for her favourite series - which despite her delicate feminine appearance and counter to what one might expect, were all of the samurai genre - and they returned to their aimlessly wandering. "Life has been insane lately."
"Has Sachiko-sama been giving you too much Yamayurikai business to handle?" Shimako-san asked with a frown, referencing the student council of which all three of them were a part.
"A little," Yumi hedged. And all the other madness besides.
"I feel you, Yumi-san." Yoshino said with a frustrated sigh. "I know we're more than likely to take over as the Rosas soon, but really can't Rei and Sachiko-sama ease off just a little?"
"A little of it is my fault too," Shimako-san said in her fellow senior councillors' defense. For she, unlike Yumi and Yoshino-san, was already serving the role of a senior councillor or Rosa of the Yamayurikai. "Since I am only a second year, Rei-sama and Sachiko-sama took on a portion of my share of the work too."
"It's not their fault," Yumi added. "Their university entrance exams are coming up. That they need to offload some of their Yamayurikai duties so they can focus on them is only natural."
"And letting us take them on while they're still around will help us build experience in handling the duties when they can still step in to help if we need it." Yoshino-san conceded with another sigh. "But it's still so much work!"
"It totally is." Yumi agreed with a smile even as Shimako-san giggled at their friend's energy.
"Anyways, let's not talk about work!" Yoshino-san declared firmly after a moment. "We're here to enjoy ourselves. So let's do that."
Both Yumi and Shimako-san nodded in agreement with that, even as the spirited Yoshino-san continued.
"Anyone have ideas on what we should do next?"
Shimako-san put a finger to her chin as she thought over the question, for her part though Yumi was unable to do the same. For as Yoshino-san finished speaking, she'd caught something in the corner of her eye that had her full attention.
Standing in the shadows of an alley branching off the main street just ahead of the three friends was a little redheaded boy in a blue sashinuki hakama, a turquoise happi coat patterned with leaves, and a tan fur vest. His traditional garb would have made him out of place enough for modern Tokyo but what really set him apart were his inhuman features such as his narrow, pointed ears and his canine feet, but most especially the cream-colored, fluffy tail that swung behind him in a come hither gesture.
A kitsune? And one calling me over? Yumi thought, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. The local yokai know better than to call on me in public like this. This must be important.
"Shimako-san, Yoshino-san," Yumi said urgently even as she offered her friends an apologetic smile. "Apologies but I need to use the ladies. I'll be back in a minute."
"No worries," Shimako-san said with that gentle smile of hers, even as Yoshino-san nodded. "We'll wait here for you."
Smiling her thanks for their understanding, Yumi quickly glanced around and spotting a nearby public restroom hurried inside. Trying to look as casual as she could, Yumi raced into the lone empty stall. Yurakucho wasn't particularly crowded today, but so easily finding an empty stall in a public restroom still wasn't always this easy. Which was why as she locked the stall door, Yumi was unsurprised by the traces of magic that lingered over it.
"A public restroom?" Yumi said incredulously as she added a few more privacy wards to the stall herself, just as in a puff of smoke the kitsune from earlier teleported into the small space. "And you're a boy aren't you? Isn't entering a woman's restroom like this illegal?"
"Apologies, Fukuzawa-sama," the fox boy said as he bowed his head in apology. "My name is Shippo and I apologize again but this was the best I could set up on short notice. If it was not, I would not even imagine interrupting your time with your friends, much less asking you to meet me in such a way."
"And what exactly is so urgent that would make you resort to something like this, Shippo-san?" Yumi said with a sigh. Kitsune were pranksters yes, but this did not feel like a prank. Besides pranking a Lord of the Thirteen wasn't a good idea - though Yumi privately felt at least some of her colleagues would benefit from it - and the fox yokai were usually smart enough not to attempt it.
"We, the local yokai of Yurakucho, have a problem, Fukuzawa-sama. One that we implore you to assist us with." The kitsune said, his head still bowed.
"What kind of problem?"
"A Jorōgumo has moved into the area lately, we humbly ask that you help us deal with it before it can kill too many people. It has already devoured a handful of yokai, but it is only a matter of time before it attacks a human and brings unnecessary attention to the local supernatural community."
Yumi frowned. A man eating Jorōgumo was indeed a great threat.
"I understand," Yumi said as she thought through the logistics of what she needed to do to deal with this. "I'll return tonight to help deal with it. Is that satisfactory?"
"You will handle this personally?" The kitsune asked, looking at her with shock.
"Yes," Yumi confirmed. "Mobilizing a response force will take at least a day or two. It'll be quicker if I just dealt with this myself."
And the more quickly the Jorōgumo is dealt with, the less victims it will have time to rack up.
"You have our thanks," Shippo-san said with yet another bow.
"Just doing my duty," Yumi told him with a smile. "Now if you don't mind leaving, I would like to actually use the restroom."
"O-Of course," the kitsune said as he blushed brilliantly and teleported away in a cloud of smoke, taking his magic with him.
Giggling, Yumi double checked that he hadn't left anything behind - It never hurt to double-check when dealing with kitsune. - and finding none, she relaxed and turned to use the restroom for its intended purpose.
"I'm back," Yumi announced a short while later as she walked back to join Shimako-san and Yoshino-san. "Sorry to keep you two waiting."
"It's alright," Shimako-san reassured her. "Was the restroom crowded? You took longer than we expected."
"Oh no," Yumi said, shaking her head. "I just took the chance to freshen up a little is all."
"Freshen up?" Yoshino-san asked, shooting her a skeptical look.
I should have come up with a better excuse. Yumi thought frantically as she scrambled to come up with something to say to cover her tardiness. After all, Shimako-san might be too nice to bring it up but both her and Yoshino-san know me well enough to realise that I don't wear much makeup and definitely not anything that would really need 'freshening up'.
The necessity for a better cover was eliminated though when Yoshino-san shrugged.
"Like Shimako-san said, it's fine. We didn't wait long."
"That's good to hear," Yumi said with barely concealed relief. "So did you two decide on what to do whilst I was in the ladies?"
"Well, we thought we might go watch a movie." Shimako-san suggested. "That is, if you wouldn't mind."
"Sounds good," Yumi agreed with a nod and looked pointedly at Yoshino-san. "The new samurai film?"
The samurai enthusiast just nodded. "I'm been wanting to watch it since it come out and since we couldn't think of what to do next-"
"Just window shopping is a little boring," Shimako-san continued when Yoshino-san looked towards her meaningfully.
"Exactly," the most energetic of the trio said with a nod. "So let's go watch that movie."
"Sure, why not." Yumi said with a shrug.
Yoshino-san pumped her arm in victory at that and Yumi-san and Shimako-san shared a smile at her behaviour.
"The cinema's this way," the excitable girl said as she grabbed both her friends' arms lightly and turned them in the movie house's direction. "Let's go!"
"Rei," Yoshino said, as she leaned into her cousin and grande sœur, or mentor under their school's relatively unique system of patronage between the older and younger students. "What do you think Yumi-san is doing going out so late?"
"That is a good question," Rei whispered back as they huddled in their seats on the last train out of Tokyo station and eyed their fellow Yamayurikai member as she sat at the other end of the train car. "But more importantly what are we doing following her?"
"To find out what she's doing of course," Yoshino whispered back. "How else would we know whether she's gotten caught up in something dangerous?"
"Ask her?" Rei suggested helplessly.
"You have no sense of adventure at all," Yoshino said with a roll of her eyes.
"There is being adventurous and spying on your friends, Yoshino." Rei said chidingly. "How did you know Yumi would be doing this anyways?"
"She texted me a couple hours ago and forgot to disable the location display." Yoshino explained with a shrug, brushing off Rei's criticism with the ease or practice. "It said she was outside her house, so I was curious."
"And your curiosity led you to stalking her?"
"Hey, this is Yumi-san we're talking about here. Her being out of her house late at night, don't you find that strange? Of course, I'm worried."
"And your response is to stalk her?" Rei insisted with an exasperated frown.
"This is Yumi-san." Yoshino repeated. "If I just asked her what she was doing she'd deflect. You know how good she's gotten with that lately. And how tight lipped about things she can be at times."
"Sachiko is a bad influence on both those fronts." Rei said with a sigh.
"Yeah," Rei agreed non-comittantly, unwilling to disparage her senior and Yumi-san's beloved grande sœur.
"So you're following her to catch her in the act of whatever she's doing?" Rei asked as the train pulled into Yurakucho Station.
"Yup, you know it's the only way to get her to admit to whatever secret thing she's up to." Yoshino insisted even as she saw Yumi-san stand up. "Oh, she's getting off the train. Let's follow her."
Oblivious to her tails, Yumi walked off the train and headed to the station entrance and closed her eyes, expanding her magical senses in a bid to locate the spider yokai that was causing so much trouble in the district. She was saved from the trouble though when she sensed the familiar presence of the kitsune from the afternoon as he teleported nearby.
"Good evening, Shippo-san," she greeted the boy with a nod as he walked around a corner sans his fox-like features but still dressed in his anachronistic clothing. "I take it you're here to play guide?"
"Good evening, Fukuzawa-sama." The fox yokai greeted her with a bow. "And that is indeed my purpose here tonight."
"Thank you for that," Yumi told him graciously. "Lead the way."
The fox offered her another bow before turning and leading her through the surprisingly bustling district. It was late at night after all, well past the opening hours of the area's mundane stores but then again the stores and the shoppers that now occupied the area were far from mundane as supernaturals of various types crowded the streets. Though they all gave her and her guide a respectful berth, quite a few bowing and muttering greetings to "Fukuzawa-sama" as they passed.
Even as Yumi returned as many of the greetings as she could whilst keeping pace with Shippo-san, she idly wondered what kind of reaction her friends at Lillian would have if they saw all this. The images her mind conjured were amusing and brought a smile to her face, but she quickly dismissed the notion. Now wasn't the time for levity. She had a man eating spider yokai to kill.
"It's well past midnight. Why is this place so crowded?" Yoshino asked as Rei helped guide them both through the surprisingly thick crowds of Yurakucho as they followed after Yumi-chan. "I didn't hear that there was a night market here. Did you Rei?"
"No," Rei said with a shake of her head as she continued to warily eye the crowds that surrounded them and moved from one stall of the unscheduled night market to another.
Crowds that for some reason made her skin crawl. She was probably imagining things but Rei was sure she'd spotted some people in the crowd with tails and other inhuman appendages. She would've just chalked that up to them cosplaying but when combined with the strange atmosphere of the place, she couldn't help but doubt that conclusion. She honestly couldn't quite say why, not entirely, but the whole of Yurakucho right now seemed otherworldly.
"Yoshino, are you finding this strange?"
"Hmm, not really." Yoshino said with a shake of her head. "I mean having a night market isn't that strange. I guess that it's not publicised kinda is, but I'm thinking it's probably kept secret for some reason or the other."
"And that's not strange?"
"I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it."
Rei just nodded uncertainly.
"Oh, Yumi-san is turning onto the side street ahead." Yoshino said suddenly and pulled Rei along as she followed after their friend. "Come on Rei! We don't want to lose her."
"This is the place?" Yumi asked Shippo-san as they came to a stop in front of a seedy looking massage parlor.
"It is, Fukuzawa-sama." The kitsune agreed with a nod. "This is where the Jorōgumo has set up its lair."
"I see," Yumi nodded back. "I'll take it from here, Shippo-san."
"I shall stay out here and ensure none get in your way, Fukuzawa-sama."
"Thank you," Yumi said, offering him a grateful smile before opening the door to the store.
The sight that greeted her as she looked inside was something out of nightmares. Inside the reception area immediately inside the parlor's glass frontage was the Jorōgumo in all its monstrous glory. It was a creature with the lower body of a spider roughly the size of a small car but with a human woman's upper body growing out of the arachnid's head. Its whole body was covered in a chitinous exoskeleton, even most of the humanoid portion of it, save for its head which was otherwise indistinguishable from that of an attractive woman with glowing raven hair that ran down to the point where the arachnoid portion of its body began.
Its appearance was nightmarish enough but Yumi had caught it in the act of wrapping a poor man that it had paralyzed with its venom in a silken cocoon. Though her sudden appearance seemed to have startled the yokai and it had paused in this grisly endeavour to look at the Third Lord in shock.
An opening that a furious Yumi happily exploited to summon her Mystic Codes, a pair of large tessens (Japanese war fans), and attack.
"Fūjin no mai (風刃の舞, Dance of the Wind Blades)!" Yumi incanted as she waved her tessens at the spider yokai, sending a wind gust hurtling towards it that morphed as it traveled through the air into a plethora of crescent-shaped wind blades.
Tossing its helpless victim behind the front counter of its lair, the Jorōgumo crossed its arms to protect its vulnerable humanoid face but otherwise let the wind blades scrap across her chitinous body and deal it little to no damage.
Most infuriating, it had the gall to chuckle.
"My, my," the spider yokai said as it lowered its arms and offered Yumi a taunting smile. "I am honored that I warrant the attention of the Third Lord herself."
"Don't flatter yourself." Yumi said, calling on all the confidence and bravado she'd nurtured in recent years to banter with her opponent, as she waved her fans at the monster once more and cast another spell. "Tsurara Mai (Icicle Dance)!"
Dozens of razor sharp icicles formed out of the water vapour in the air and flew at the Jorōgumo. Once more it simply crossed its arms to shield its unarmored head, apparently planning to simply let the attack be deflected by its otherwise armored body. However, Yumi had learned from her first probing attack and had pumped a little more power into her second spell. Thus empowered, the icicles punctured the creature's chitin with little difficulty.
"I was just in the neighbourhood and thought to do my civic duty by doing some pest control." Yumi taunted even as the spider yokai collapsed with a howl of pain, the joints of its eight legs thoroughly punctured by the Third Lord's icicles and no longer able to support its weight.
"Y-You presumptuous brat!" The Jorōgumo roared defiantly as it threw its still functional humanoid arms towards Yumi, shooting from the spinnerets built into their wrists streams of silk that glistened with what the Third Lord could only guess was its venom.
Fortunately, Yumi had used Koku Shundō (虚空瞬動, Void Instant Movement) to teleport herself behind the spider woman and out of the way of the attack. Doubly so as she saw the way the silk stands cut deeply into the ground where they made contact.
"Who are you calling a brat?" Yumi said with a frown. She might be young but she was a well-mannered young lady! Her membership in the prestigious Yamayurikai of the Lillian Girls Academy was proof of that! "Ryūja no mai (竜蛇の舞, Dance of the Dragon and Serpent)!"
At a wave of her tessens, a single horizontal tornado shot at the Jorōgumo and carried her out of the shop it was using as its lair, smashing through the glass storefront in the process. Not that Yumi thought the yokai felt it considering its armored exoskeleton.
Good, now that it's outside. Yumi thought as she prepared the spell to finish this, too preoccupied doing so to hear the scream from the street outside at her sudden eviction of the monster from its lair.
"Honōryū no mai (炎竜の舞, Dance of the Flame Dragon)!" Yumi incanted, sending a single tongue of flame shaped into the form of a roaring Eastern dragon shooting through the air to coil around the disorientated Jorōgumo and set her alight.
"And that's how you finish off a man-eating monster." Yumi said with a tired sigh as she made her way out of the store, careful to avoid the mess of shattered glass she'd created earlier. Sure, her defensive wards would've kept her safe but there was no point in testing them if she could avoid it. "Now, to make sure that it's dead."
She'd faced monsters who hadn't had the decency to stay dead after she'd killed them the first time in the past and needed to be put down a second - or third! - time, so it paid to be sure.
"Yumi!" A familiar voice called out just as the aforementioned Third Lord stepped onto the street and she spun towards it, startled to find two of her best friends staring at her and the charred, thankfully dead, body of the Jorōgumo in shock.
"R-Rei-sama, Y-Yoshino-san?" Yumi startled out as she froze like a deer in the highlights.
"What is going on here?" Rei-sama asked as she hugged a pale faced Yoshino to her chest, trying and failing to shield her cousin from the sight of the spider yokai's remains. "What did you just do?"
"Uh-" Yumi began helplessly only to, thankfully, be interrupted by a familiar lyrical voice.
"Why don't we handle this, Yumi-chan?" The idol worthy voice of Tomoyo-sama said as Yumi spun around and saw her and Sakura-sama walking hurriedly towards the scene.
"Thank you," Yumi said, bowing to the Kinomoto-Daidouji couple.
"Don't mention it," Sakura-sama said as she used the power of her magical The Sleep card to knock Rei-sama and Yoshino unconscious even as she used The Float to catch them and gently lower them to the ground.
"Yes, don't." Tomoyo-sama said, shooting Yumi a disapproving look. "Because we'll be having words about what you did wrong tonight."
Yumi gulped at her fellow Lord of the Thirteen's tone and nodded sheepishly.
"But in the meantime," the Seventh Lord said, her voice stern. "We have a fight to clean up."
"You trusted a kitsune to handle crowd control?" Tomoyo-sama said with a disappointed frown. "Honestly, Yumi-chan you should have known better."
"Well, Shippo-san had proven himself trustworthy till then." Yumi said half-heartedly as she tried to hide behind the cup of tea that Sakura-sama had just poured for her.
"Only mostly so," the aforementioned First Lord reminded her. "He did hide the fact you were being followed by your friends from you."
"I didn't notice that at the time."
"No, you didn't." Tomoyo-sama said with a sigh. "Which is the problem. You were sloppy about the entire secrecy side of things when it came to this incident, Yumi-chan."
"You were," Sakura-sama agreed. "You need to do better."
"Starting by not falling for a kitsune's pranks." Tomoyo-sama told her sternly. "You know that Shippo-san set up the whole part where your friends walked in on you killing that Jorōgumo, correct?"
"In hindsight? Yes."
"Never fully trust a kitsune, Yumi-chan." Sakura-sama told her in a tone of gentle sternness. "Even when doing good, they often find it difficult to not attempt to pull a prank. It's in their nature."
Yumi just nodded. They were right. She'd screwed up.
"I promise to be more careful next time."
The two older Lords of the Thirteen nodded in satisfaction and for a short while they enjoyed the tea and snacks that had been laid out on the table they were sharing in the gardens of Kinomoto-Daidouji mansion. That it was in the wee hours of the morning, before sunrise, didn't matter to the three magicians as they enjoyed their tea session.
"So, uh, what happened to Yoshino-san and Rei-sama?" Yumi asked, once she was sure the couple weren't likely to continue lecturing her.
"I modified their memories and had a couple of my apprentices send them home." Tomoyo-sama informed her. "They reached home safely a couple hours ago."
Yumi breathed a sigh of relief. It was her fault they somehow got caught up in things, she was under no illusions that the only reason they'd been in Yurakucho at that hour was to follow her, so she couldn't help but feel guilty that they did. So hearing they were safe was a great relief to her.
"By the way, Yumi-chan, I don't think we've congratulated you on your ascension to the ranks of the Thirteen yet, have we?" Sakura-sama asked suddenly, changing the topic.
"Don't forget her assumption of the role of Head of her clan and the mantle of the Chief Imperial Mage as well, Sakura."
"Those two as well," Sakura-sama agreed. "We haven't have we?"
"No," Yumi said with a shake of her head.
"Then congratulations!" Both older women said in unison.
Yumi offered them a half-hearted smile, too polite to be honest about what she really thought about her new positions.
"You're not happy with your new titles are you?" Tomoyo-sama said knowingly.
"No," Yumi confessed. "I don't feel up to the responsibilities they entail. I am barely able to keep my status as a magician a secret from my friends and now I'm expected to take on all the responsibilities of these lofty titles as well?"
"That's a valid worry," Sakura-sama allowed.
"Then maybe someone else could have at least taken up the role of Chief Imperial Mage?" Yumi suggested, looking pointedly at the First Lord.
In response, Sakura-sama just smiled and shook her head.
"You know that wouldn't work. The title was granted to you by the Emperor himself as a sign of trust. It is a show of respect for the service that you and your clan have provided the Imperial family through the generations. A service that surpasses that of any other mages. I might have power, but neither I nor any other magician in Japan commands the Emperor's trust enough to be worthy of the title."
"His Majesty trusts me because I'm a Fukuzawa." Yumi reasoned with a pout. "I don't see why His Majesty couldn't have picked someone else from the clan."
"None of your relatives are Lords of the Thirteen," Tomoyo-sama reminded her. "The title is a reflection of both power and trust."
"If you truly are worried about failing to meet the responsibilities your titles bring then rest easy." Sakura-sama said reassuringly. "For now at least, they are mostly symbolic. Your grandfather is still alive after all and will run your clan's affairs in your stead until you are ready and the duties of the Chief Imperial Mage are, as I understand it, merely ceremonial. Both titles are being granted to you mainly in recognition of your ascension as the Third Lord of the Council, not so you can assume your duties immediately."
"I don't feel ready to be a Lord of the Thirteen either."
"No one ever is." Tomoyo-sama told her with a giggle. "Did you know I didn't even know how to use magic when I became a Lord?"
"What!? Really?" Yumi gasped.
"Really," Tomoyo-sama confirmed with a giggle. "Well, it's like this-"
"Why are we even here?" Yumi complained to her younger brother Yuuki as they both stood in a corner of a ballroom in the Tokyo Imperial Palace.
"We're here because as Chief Imperial Mage, you are a ranking member of the Imperial Court." Yuuki reminded her.
"But my post is secret." Yumi emphasized. "There is no need for me to actually be here."
"It is a secret," Yuuki agreed. "Which is why His Majesty isn't publicising your ascension even if that is the reason why he chose to throw this ball."
"I could do without it."
"Which?" Yuuki asked, trying to be playful. "The rank or the ball."
"Both," Yumi told him grumpily.
"Well, you might not, but our family definitely appreciates it." Yuuki said, gesturing to their parents who were basking in the chance to attend a ball in the Imperial Palace where their daughter was the secret guest of honor.
Yumi huffed in annoyance.
"It's not like this is the first time we've been in the Palace. Our family has served the Imperial family as its premiere magicians since the Edo period."
"And before you, none of us have ever been elevated to Chief Imperial Mage."
"That's only because the post had been vacant since before we entered into the service of the Imperial family."
"All the more your ascension is a cause for celebration, no?"
"As if," Yumi scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "It's all just politics. I was given the post because of my ascension as a Lord of the Thirteen, no more than that. And before you say anything, I got that only because I was lucky and just happened to be the most powerful Elementalist alive when my predecessor died of old age."
Yuuki sighed.
"At least she can acknowledge that she is the most powerful Elemenalist alive." He muttered under his breath softly enough that he probably fancied she could not.
"Must you always be so self-deprecating?" Yuuki chided her in a more normal tone of voice. "Honestly, if you hadn't met Sachiko-san and your friends in the Yamayurikai, you'd be such a mess."
Yumi shrugged.
"You, of all people, should know that I've always been like that." She said before sighing. "And yes, my friends have helped me in appreciating myself immensely."
"And that you've improved on that front is the only reason why I'm letting you get away with hiding in a corner under a invisibility spell whining for so long instead of mingling like a proper guest of honor should."
"My time's up isn't it?" Yumi asked with a pout.
"Yup," Yuuki said with a smirk. "You're either going out there on your own power or I'm dragging you."
Rolling her eyes at her brother, Yumi dismissed the spell and stepped out of the corner.
"I have enough sense of dignity to be able to do this on my own, thank you very much, otōto."
Ogasawara Sachiko was bored out of her mind as she was forced to maintain her ojou-sama poise as she mingled with her fellow guests at a ball in the Imperial Palace. Usually this wouldn't be difficult. She had attended such events all her life after all. However, today's event was different.
The whole thing was thrown suddenly and despite her enquiries, she could not find out the cause for the event. Her father alone among her family apparently did, but he was not sharing. This secrecy was very strange indeed. As was the suddenness of it all. Imperial events were usually planned out well in advance.
She was thus plagued with a nagging curiosity at the reason behind all this. A curiosity which had only grown throughout the night as she realized that she wasn't the only one kept out of the loop. She had met some acquaintances at the ball and casually asked if they knew anything but had been met with as much confusion as she herself felt.
With her mind awhirl with possibilities and the desire to somehow figure out the truth, she was only able to pay half a mind to maintaining her poise. Thankfully, she was so well trained that even in her distraction this was more than enough
"O-Onee-sama!?" A pleasantly familiar voice squeaked out in alarm nearby and Sachiko spun around to see her petite sœur from Lilian and beloved friend, Fukuzawa Yumi, standing before her.
"Yumi? What are you doing here?" Sachiko asked, genuinely shocked.
While Yumi's family was one of relative means, they were definitely not of the social standing to be invited to events at the Imperial Court. So seeing her here was something wholly unexpected.
Yumi opened her mouth to answer but before she could her brother appeared out of the crowd and put her hand over her mouth.
"Sorry Ogasawara-san, but that's actually a state secret." The boy said as he began to quite literally drag his sister away.
"That's a jo-" Sachiko began as she followed after him but was cut off as her father stepped into her way.
"Sachiko, stop." He said looking at her sternly. "Yumi-chan cannot tell you what you want to know without authorization. And I am fairly sure she would rather not lie to you."
Authorization!?
Sachiko could only frown in confusion as she nodded.
Yumi, what in the world have you gotten yourself into?
It was only after dragging his sister to the whole other side of the ballroom from Ogasawara-san before Yuuki allowed himself the luxury of breathing a sigh of relief.
"How could they forget to make sure none of my friends were attending the ball?" Yumi groaned. "That's like basic operational security."
"Says the girl who let Hasekura-san and Yoshino-san see her kill a Jorōgumo." He muttered, only for Yumi to hear him - Curse her affinity for wind magic, and elemental magic in general, and the exceptional hearing it granted her. - and glare at him.
"Anyways!" He said quickly in a bid to course correct. "This ball was very hastily put together. So someone probably just used the standard guest list and forgot to exclude the Ogasawaras or at least Sachiko-san."
Yumi, thankfully, nodded in acceptance of that excuse. If she hadn't… He pitied the fool that she'd have gone to have words for this debacle. His sister was usually very mild mannered but get her worked up about something and she could be a right monster. A side of her that was increasingly making an appearance since she'd gotten to know Satō-san.
"More importantly, Yumi, what are you going to tell your Onee-sama? You know you'll have to explain things to her."
Instead of a verbal reply, or much of one at all, Yumi frowned and began to search the crowd.
"Who are you looking for?" Yuuki asked with a frown of his own.
"Someone who can get me an audience with the Emperor." She said, sounding as if he should have already known that.
"I would approach him directly, he's just over there." She pointed to where the Imperial family were surrounded by guests trying to give them their well wishes or more likely attempting to curry favour with them. "But I don't want to draw more attention to myself. I need to ask His Majesty's permission to tell Onee-sama and my friends the truth."
"Or you could lie." Yuuki told her with a shrug.
"No," Yumi told him sternly. "Lying by omission is one thing but outright lying to my friends is not something I am willing to do."
"Yumi, this is reckless."
Yumi shrugged. "I am a Lord of the Thirteen. We do crazy things all the time. This is tame in comparison."
And the only reason you have the confidence in yourself to do any of that is because your Onee-sama and your friends in Lilian helped you develop it and that lying to them would be a betrayal of all that assistance.
Yuuki really wished his sister was more honest with herself at times. Then again, she was loads better than she had been in the past so he had hope that she'd improve on this front too.
"Ah! There's the Vice-Grand Chamberlain." Yumi said with a triumphant grin as she walked off to talk to the man.
Seeing her go, Yuuki just hoped that Yumi's plan to tell her friends the truth didn't backfire on her.
If they reject her because of her magic… Yuuki shuddered to think what would happen to his sister if that happened. And that's not even accounting for what would happen if that petite sœur of hers responded negatively. He wasn't sure if Yumi herself was aware of it yet but by just how often she gushed over Matsudaira-san…
Let's just hope my prospective sister-in-law isn't an idiot.
It took Yumi a week to actually get a proper audience with the Emperor and his permission to reveal her identity to her friends. Rather nicely the day afterwards, the Yamayurikai, the student council of which she and all her friends were a part, was holding a meeting in the Rose Mansion, the old building on Lilian's campus which had been set aside as the council's headquarters.
"Yumi-san's late?" Yumi heard Yoshino-san ask, sounding surprised, as she climbed the last few stairs to reach the second floor meeting room. "I think this is the first time she's ever been late. She's always here early, helping to prepare tea for everyone."
"Something probably held her up." Shimako-san offered in Yumi's defense.
"Most likely," Onee-sama agreed, just as Yumi opened the door to the meeting room.
"Sorry for being late!" Yumi said nervously.
"It's quite alright," Rei-sama said with a smile. "It's only a few minutes."
"Thank you!" Yumi said with a smile as she hurried to her seat, very aware of the concerned looks the rest of the Yamayurikai were shooting her.
Aware but unsurprised. She knows she looked extremely flustered. But could she be blamed for that? She was about to drop a bombshell on everyone today and was anxious about how they might react, of course she'd be a little out of sorts. Though maybe walking around the greenhouse fretting about it until she'd been late for the meeting was a little much.
"Here's some tea, Onee-sama." Tōko-chan, her petite sœur, said putting a cup of the steaming beverage in front of her and took the opportunity to lean in to add in a whisper. "And hopefully drinking some will help you calm your nerves a little."
Blushing, for more than just being called out on her nervousness, Yumi nodded and took a sip of the offered tea which was prepared, as always, just like she liked it by the ever attentive Tōko-chan.
"Before we begin today's meeting," Noriko-chan, Shimako-san's petite sœur, said, shooting Yumi a worried look. "Yumi-sama, what's wrong?"
"Yes, Yumi," Onee-sama added, looking at Yumi from the head of the meeting room table with concern. "What has you so flustered?"
"Yes, Yumi-san." Shimako-san asked, offering her a reassuring look. "Whatever it is, you can share it with us."
"Is someone giving you trouble?" Yoshino-san asked, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "If it is-"
"We'll inform the proper authorities for you," Rei-sama said cutting in before Yoshino-san could promise anything, causing Yumi to smile.
"Yes, Onee-sama, please do share your worries with us." Tōko-chan insisted. "Whatever had you pacing in the greenhouse for a whole hour is something that I am sure you should let off your chest."
"You knew?" Yumi asked, looking at Tōko-chan in surprise.
"Of course," Tōko said with a shrug. "You weren't here when I arrived at the Rose Mansion, which was out of character for you, so I went looking for you. I found you at the greenhouse. I would have called out to you, but you looked like you were working through something so I thought to give you some space."
This girl… Yumi thought, staring at Tōko-chan in awe at how well she knew her. That the Academy's greenhouse was something of a sanctuary for her was a secret that few knew. Onee-sama did of course, but that was mostly because she had introduced it to her as a place to be used as such in the first place. Tōko-chan on the other hand had figured it out on her own. Just how well does this girl know me!?
"But since it almost caused you to be late for the meet-"
"It is past time you talked about it, Yumi." Onee-sama finished for her cousin who nodded in agreement. "So what is it?"
Despite, or perhaps because of, being put on the spot like this, Yumi couldn't help but smile. That her friends were so concerned with her well being truly touched her.
"Okay, okay," Yumi said, smiling reassuringly at her concerned friends. "It's actually something I want to confess to you all anyways. What had me so worked up anyways, I mean. That is to say-"
"Onee-sama," Tōko-chan said, taking Yumi's hand and giving it a calming squeeze. "Take your time."
Blushing and offering Tōko-chan a grateful smile, Yumi took a deep breath to calm her nerves and raised the hand not clutching her petite sœur's for reassurance up, palm first.
"Magic is real," Yumi said without preamble and conjuring a small flickering flame in her raised palm. "And I'm a magician."
There were gasps from everyone in the room but none of disbelief, something that buoyed Yumi as she barreled ahead in her confession.
"In fact, my whole family are magicians. Onee-sama," Yumi said suddenly, turning to look at her grande sœur even as she dismissed the flame and replaced it with a swirling vortex of water she'd condensed out of the air. "You remember running into me at the ball in the Imperial Palace the other day?"
Everyone looked between Onee-sama and Yumi at this, and Yumi was sure she saw Yoshino-san mutter 'Imperial Palace' in surprise.
"Yes," Onee-sama confirmed. "I take it this has to do with you and your family being magicians? The Fukuzawas are in service to the Imperial Household, I presume?"
"Yes," Yumi admitted with a nod, swapping the whirlpool floating over her palm with a crackling orb of lightning. "We've served the Emperor for generations. But I mention that ball because it was about me."
"How so?" Yoshino-san asked, excitedly. If Yumi was to guess, her friend's mind was likely awhirl with possibilities.
And she wouldn't be too far off the mark either.
"It was to celebrate my ascension to the rank of Head of the Fukuzawa Clan and more importantly for my being awarded the title of Chief Imperial Mage."
"That's-" Rei-sama said, eyeing the mass of hovering gravel that had replaced the lightning floating over Yumi's palm.
"Amazing," Shimako-san and Noriko-chan said in unison as they too eyed the proof of Yumi's magic and both Yoshino-san and Onee-sama nodded.
Yumi smiled and replaced the floating chunks of earth with a small tornado.
"Onee-sama is incredible." Tōko-chan whispered so softly that Yumi almost missed it, even as she stared at her with reverence.
The room settled into stunned silence after that as everyone gazed awestruck by the small demonstration of her magic that Yumi was putting on for everyone.
Yumi patiently waited for someone to break the silence when suddenly a bright orange glare from the windows of the meeting room had her reacting instinctively.
"Kaze toppū (風突風, Wind Gust)!" She shouted summoning her tessen Mystic Codes and waving them at the Rose Mansion second floor meeting room's windows just in time to send a gust of wind to disperse the incoming fireball that had been about to burn them alive.
"Everyone stay behind me!" Yumi shouted as she leapt out of her chair and to the blown out windows to search for their attacker.
It wasn't a hard search. The man was standing just below the windows dressed in hooded, white robes decorated by spider web filigree and glaring up at her.
"For Shiro Evileye!" The man said, declaring himself a cultist in service to the aforementioned Outsider as he drew an athame from his robes and promptly slit his throat.
Yumi grimaced in disgust even as behind her she heard some of her friends react even more violently. She didn't have time to comfort them however or really process what the fanatic had done herself as with his sacrifice, instead of collapsing to the ground, the cultist's body started to distort and reshape itself even as magical energy poured into it from nowhere.
No, not nowhere. From outside our universe. Yumi thought as she tried to counter whatever spell the madman had invoked. "Iyashino kyūryū (癒しの急流, Healing Torrent)!"
Her spell conjured a stream of golden water infused with as much cleansing energy as she could pump into it that streamed through the air at the transforming corpse, in a desperate bid to wash away the alien magic that the dead cultist's Outsider patron was pumping into it. Unfortunately, Yumi was no healer or anti-magic caster and her efforts were in vain as in an explosion of sickly white magic that sent her healing waters falling throughout the area like rain, a gross monstrosity emerged from the fanatic's dead body.
The creature had a passing resemblance to the Jorōgumo that Yumi had fought recently, in that it was a fusion of spider and human. Like the yokai it possessed the body of a spider with the addition of a humanoid body growing from its arachnid head and was covered in a chitinous exoskeleton. Unlike the black carapace of the yokai however, this monster was a stark white. Even the hair falling from its humanoid head was an inhuman shade of bone white. Its humanoid body was also covered all over in disturbingly human looking eyes and most disturbingly its face was entirely replaced by a single massive eye though this was distinctly inhuman owing to the multiple irises that seemed to float around in random patterns within the sclera.
"I̶̳̖͒ ̴̳̬͑a̴͎͐m̶̱̋ ̶̳̎Ë̵͉́͐v̶͉̗̑i̷̱̝͐́ĺ̵̘͍ẻ̸͎͗ÿ̵̝e̸̜͆̋ ̸̞͔̋A̷͕͑͜r̶̬̻͛͝ả̴̖̓c̷̗̋̄ḩ̸̂n̴͂̿͜ë̸̡̞́,̷̜̍̄ ̴̛̩̅h̶̖͙̉̂e̶̠͝r̴̦̿̚á̶̪̿l̶̯͌̅ḏ̴̺̈ ̴̠͗͂͜ǒ̶̭̻f̶̧̞̎ ̵͈̓̆ṯ̵̂̓ḫ̷̛e̷̻̜̔̀ ̵͗͒͜g̷̯͑͆ő̵̰̼̀ḏ̴̎d̵̪̓e̸͙̥̍͌s̸͎̎ś̶̺ ̶̥̥̏Ş̴̑h̸͇͋ȋ̷̭r̴̰̊͠o̶̓͆͜ ̵̬̫̿E̵̛̟̤̕v̴͖̐͘í̵͖͌l̴̯͖̑̉e̸͙̟͊y̷͛̃͜e̴̩͚̿̈́!̸̞̑" The creature spoke despite lacking a mouth capable of properly articulating the words. "A̶̼͕̓n̶̫̖͑̚d̵͓͚͂ ̸̤̅I̷͙͛̂ ̵̡̠̍͋h̴͙̱̃͑ạ̵̃̓ṽ̷͉ë̵̞͇͠ ̶̞̀c̴͎̣̾͂ǒ̴̖͝m̷̡̛͓ẻ̶̬̬ ̵̝̭̒̃t̵̻̹͂̈o̵̟̳̎͝ ̷̤͆̂d̷̰̤̈̀e̶̟͗s̷̝͍͌̄t̸͈͚̊r̵͔͋ȯ̶̯̗y̶̘̆͛ ̶̟̕y̴͇̅ŏ̶̘͔u̵͇͒̄͜ ̷̨̛̟͛T̶͉́̎h̸͈̼̾͠í̷̮̐r̵̞̔ḋ̴̼ ̵̛̪͓̽L̴̘̇̒o̵͕͋͝r̵̮̓d̴̘̅ ̷̦̞̓ŏ̸̹̀f̶̪͔͗̚ ̷̛̣̠͊Ť̸̟̙h̵̯̜̎̿i̶̤͗̕r̵̘͕̓́t̶̗̩͋̈́ę̸̺̎e̵͍͐̐͜n̶͓̈̃!̵̖͗͐"
This is bad. Very, very bad! Yumi thought as she glanced worriedly at her friends in the Yamayurikai who were all cowering away from the monstrosity. Fighting a servant of the Outsiders is tough enough on a good day, but doing so whilst having to keep my friends safe!? How in the world am I going to pull this off!?
"Don't worry," Yumi reassured her friends despite her own fear. "Stay here. I'll keep all of you safe."
Despite how shaken all her friends looked, they nevertheless all gave her gestures of acknowledgement. A fact that fueled Yumi's determination. In spite of just learning that magic existed at all, that she was a magician and had been keeping that a secret and then suddenly being attacked by an extradimensional horror, they still trusted her to protect them. She wasn't about to let their faith in her go to waste.
I will keep them safe. The Third Lord promised to herself as she went on the offensive.
"Deiryū ryū no mai (泥流竜の舞, Dance of the Mudflow Dragon)!"
Her spell caused a dragon of mud to surge into existence on the ground below, wrecking the well appointed cobbled footpath and well tended plants that lined it, that proceeded to charge the creature calling itself Evileye Arachne.
Yumi had intended to use the sheer mass of earth her spell brought into motion to force the abomination back. However, to her shock the creature just turned a dozen or so of its many wandering eyes onto the mud dragon the spell had created and with a cry of S̷̞̦͒͛t̸̨̡̄a̸̝̿s̸̝̝̽̆ḯ̶̡͍s̴̩͐̈ ̴̧͚̐̔Ě̷̦̩v̷̞͕͋ĩ̸̙l̵̘̓̕ ̴̼͘E̵̦̪̽̋ỳ̸͚̍e̴̻͝ froze it in its tracks.
Even as it did so, it launched an attack of its own as it let out another inhuman cry of L̸̖͕̓͆a̴͍͌́s̶̜͕̀͘e̵̥̔͑r̸̯͑ ̷͎̈̈́Ḙ̶̡̌͝v̵͕̙͗͋i̶̬͗̔ḷ̶̤̂̚ ̶͔̍̆E̷͛̒͜ỵ̶̰͋̚ḛ̸̀ and beams of burning light shot out from the remainder of its many, many eyes as they continued their chaotic wanderings, sending the deadly beams cutting around the area.
"Ryūja no mai!" Yumi cast, calling down a half dozen tornadoes from the sky whose magically charged winds successfully deflected the lasers away from anyone even as they picked up the Arachne at last and tossed it away from the Rose Mansion.
Yumi was about to use Koku Shundō to follow when she sensed the abomination disappear from the grasp of her winds.
It teleported! She thought absently as acting on her ingrained training for just such a situation, she reached out with her magic to divine its destination and spun towards it. To her horror, she was turning back towards her friends or more specifically-
"Tōko!" Yumi shouted in horror as she used Koku Shundō to teleport herself in between the Arachne and her beloved petite sœur. The bond between grande and petite sœur, between mentor upperclassmen and underclassmen, at Lillian was scared. Especially for Yumi. She was thus not about to let this assassin hurt her precious petite sœur, not when she held out hopes for more from their relationship.
"Kaze toppū!"
The gust of wind created by her spell parried the arm the Arahnce had been about to thrust straight through Tōko-chan and now with Yumi in the way, her as well, but that was not the only attack the monster had prepared.
"E̵̻͓̅x̷̝́p̴̤̓͜ļ̷̠̿o̶̙͕͛š̶̠ǐ̸̙͂o̶͇͆͝n̷͚̦̄͠ ̶̭̱͂E̴̡͠v̸͈̩̇̐i̵̭͂̑l̷̞̉͒ ̴̡̉̏É̴̱y̸̻̐ë̶̳́̈"
With that cry, a powerful explosion spontaneously detonated around Yumi. With no time to react, all she could do was pour the bulk of her magic into the still active Kaze toppū to redirect the blast away from Tōko-chan and the rest of her friends. In that moment, she did not even stop to think of herself, focusing all her effort in keeping the rest of the Yamayurikai safe and hoping that her defensive wards would be enough to keep her alive.
As the last embers of the blast faded, Yumi fell to her knees, using her tessens to keep herself from collapsing on her face, on the remarkably still intact floor of the Rose Mansion meeting room and glared at the abomination, even as the tattered remnants of her defensive wards fell off her body to shatter like panes of glass after having done their job and blocked most of the fury of the monster's attack.
"I-I won't l-let you hurt Tōko!" Yumi roared as she felt a second wind fill her at her declaration and she leapt to her feet. "Tsuranaru Hebi (Icicle-formed Snake)!"
Her spell sent a large snake made of ice and with razor sharp icicles sticking out like spines along its length shooting forth from her tessens as she waved them at the monster, hitting it with such speed and force that it could not pull off the same trick it had earlier and freeze it in place. Instead, it was sent flying straight through a wall and out of the Rose Mansion by the icy serpent.
"I will not let you harm a hair on her head!" Yumi roared even as she continued her assault. "Narukami (落雷, Thunderbolt)!"
A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and shocked the disorientated monster, causing it to spasm uncontrollably and leaving it open for the brace of wind blades that Yumi sent its way courtesy of a Fūjin no mai.
"Tōko is mine!" Yumi roared, half delirious and not fully conscious of what she was saying as a result of the growing sense of magical exhaustion eating at the edges of her being from her earlier desperate attempt to redirect the explosion. "My petite sœur! And if she'll have me, my girlfriend! So hands off, you extradimensional interloper!"
Yumi was dimly aware of someone gasping somewhere behind her - Or was it more than one person? - but she was too out of it to be sure. Especially as the monster teleported and Yumi followed it with Koku Shundō. This startled the creature whose many eyes widened in surprise as they both materialized in the air above the Rose Mansion, interrupting whatever attack it was planning and leaving it open to one of Yumi's own.
"Gogyō no mai (五行の舞, Dance of the Five Elements)!"
At her invocation, a tornado fell from the sky and swallowed the Arachne even as a bolt of lightning did the same. The two elemental forces proceeding to wrap themselves around it in a sphere. From the ground, boulders shot into the air and were picked up by the howling winds and slammed into the trapped abomination within even as twin dragons of fire and water leapt from Yumi's tessens and joined the elemental fury that was being unleashed. With all five elements now combined into the attack, the sphere began to steadily shrink even as more and more of the elements flowed into the attack from all directions. Gusts shot through the sky, lightning flashed through the clouds, earth leapt into the air, flames burned into existence from the aether and water condensed from the air, all surging in a spiraling pattern to the rapidly shrinking sphere that contained the monster.
Yumi watched, remaining in the air on a cushion of wind she'd subconsciously called into existence, and continued to pump the remaining dregs of her waning magical energies into the spell, until the sphere and the abomination it contained finally faded from existence. Only once she was absolutely sure that the enemy was defeated did she use Koku Shundō to teleport back to her friends.
Unfortunately, as she rematerialized the last of her strength left her. Thus even as she reappeared in front of the rest of the Yamayurikai, she lost her balance and fell.
She would have had a rather unpleasant meeting with the hardwood floor of the meeting room if Tōko hadn't caught her.
"Onee-sama!" Her beautiful petite sœur cried out worriedly, tears streaming down her perfect face. "Are you alright?"
"T-Tōko," Yumi stuttered out, her vision fading as the exhaustion finally caught up with her. "I love you."
With this confession made, something she'd only done in the face of being half-mad thanks to the magical exhaustion and how that stripped away her sense of self-consciousness, Yumi at long last let herself pass out.
"Yumi-chan!" Sakura cried out in alarm as she and Tomoyo teleported onto the scene of the latest attack by the servants of the Sapphic Circle on the Lords of the Thirteen the moment the wards around it fell, to find their newest member unmoving and surrounded by her friends.
"Girls, step aside." Tomoyo ordered the group of clearly flustered girls. "We need to tend to Yumi-chan."
"And how do we know you're not more enemies?" A beautiful girl with mid-back length dark-purple hair that had bangs hanging on the right side and dark-purple eyes demanded as she and a tall, boyish blonde bared their way.
"We don't have time for this." Sakura decided. If Yumi-chan had been seriously injured, there was no time to waste. "Tomoyo!"
"Freeze and don't move." Her wife commanded, channeling her magic into her alluring voice and creating a hypnotic effect that the girls were unable to resist.
Without a word and barely a thought, The Move teleported the girls in the way to stand to the side to allow Sakura access to Yumi-chan. As she knelt down beside the still but thankfully breathing Third Lord, the girl with brown haired tied up in a pair of spiraling twintails glared at her. An impressive feat indeed since she was moving, if only her eyes, in order to do so, thus defying Tomoyo's powerful hypnotic suggestion.
She either has significant latent magical potential and/or has remarkable willpower.
That was a matter to consider later though. For now, she had to check on Yumi-chan. So even as Tomoyo was busy layering wards to replace the one the assassin had thrown up and had fallen thanks to its death, so as to prevent curious mundanes from stumbling onto the scene and using her phone to call in reinforcements, Sakura cast a suite of diagnostic spells to ascertain what was wrong with the young Third Lord. She would have used The Light, whose broad abilities included healing magic but powerful though the Card was, she was also imprecise. A tradeoff Clow had made in her creation when making her abilities as broad as he had.
"She's just suffering from magical exhaustion." Sakura said with a sigh of relief as the input of the spells came in. "It's pretty serious but not life threatening. The Power, lend Yumi-chan some of your strength please."
The Card in her skirt pocket glowed bright pink as a beam of energy shot from it and into the weakened Yumi-chan, restoring her depleted reserves of magical energy a little.
"The level of exhaustion was extreme." Sakura noted with a frown as she glanced around the surrounding scene of the fight and reached out with her magical senses. "It doesn't seem like Yumi-chan could've spent all of it just to defeat a single- Wait! Why did she pump so much of her magic into a single spell?"
"S-She w-was trying to save us." The girl with the twintails stuttered out, defying Tomoyo's hypnotic command even further. "S-She d-deflected an e-explosion w-with h-her w-wind."
"That's very inefficient," Tomoyo noted with a frown. "A barrier would've been better."
"I was desperate," Yumi-chan said quietly as her eyes fluttered open. "The monster caught me by surprise. I dumped most of my magic into the best option I had at the time."
"I see," Sakura said with a frown. "Still, to be forced into the situation… I'm thinking you need more training Yumi-chan."
The Third Lord winced but nodded.
"Okay, now that you're better-"
"I feel like my entire body is in pain."
"Mostly better," Tomoyo corrected herself. "Then we can get going and bring you to a proper healer. Just let me wipe your friend's memo-"
"Stop!" Yumi-chan said fiercely as she hugged the girl with the twintails protectively. "Don't."
"Yumi-chan, wiping the memory of the supernatural from the minds of mundanes is standard procedure." Sakura reminded the girl.
"I got permission for my friends to know," Yumi-chan said defiantly. "And I vouch for them as a Lord of the Thirteen."
Tomoyo shot Sakura a look and the First Lord sighed.
"Well, if you insist." Sakura said, to which Yumi-chan nodded. "Then it's fine. But they'll be your responsibility Yumi-chan."
"I understand."
"Good," Sakura said, as she picked up the younger girl in a princess carry, helped along just a little by The Power channeling some strength to her. "Then let's get you to the healers."
"My friends?"
"I'll take them," Tomoyo reassured her. "Just let me give the clean up crew their orders and I'll bring them over."
"Thank you," Yumi-chan said, offering Tomoyo a grateful smile.
"Enough dallying," Sakura said firmly as she called on The Move's power. "Time to go."
With a flash of pink light, they teleported away to the magical hospital that she and Tomoyo had founded in Tomoeda.
A couple of weeks after her fight with the Evileye Arachne and on a long weekend thanks to a holiday, Yumi and her friends in the Yamayurikai found themselves in a large SUV (sport utility vehicle) that sat ten as it was driven by one of her shikigami taking the form of a generic sunglasses wearing man in a black suit as it made its way to her family estate in the mountains.
"Yumi, is he really just a construct?" Onee-sama asked, eying the shikigami with fascination. "It seems unreal."
"It is," Yumi confirmed. "Don't ask me how it works. Shikigami aren't really my speciality. They're more Yuuki's kind of thing. This one is just an off-the-shelf generic driver/bodyguard type he made for me. I'm really just animating it. As long as I supply it with magical energy, it'll do the tasks it's been programmed to do. But even then, shikigami aren't really very impressive. They're very basic magic. I could probably whip up a simple one if I wanted."
"Simple? How simple?" Yoshino asked, looking intrigued.
"Hmm…" Yumi hummed as she considered the matter. Shikigami really wasn't her forte, so what exactly could she manage on short notice? "I guess making a leaf or piece of paper stand up and spin around or kinda dance around? Not much more than that."
"That's still amazing Yumi-san." Shimako-san said with an encouraging smile.
"Is it?" Yumi said with an embarrassed chuckle. It seemed pathetic to her to be honest.
"You're forgetting that all magic is new to us, Onee-sama." Tōko said from her shoulder where she'd been resting her head, the furthest her new girlfriend was willing to push their public display of affections so far, with a wry grin. "So of course, we'd find even the simplest examples of such amazing."
"I guess so," Yumi said with an embarrassed blush, earning giggles from her friends.
"So Yumi-sama," Noriko said as she looked out the windows of the SUV curiously. "What is your family estate like? Besides being in the mountains?"
"Well, it's pretty much just a traditional Japanese manor." Yumi said with a shrug, that jostled Tōko's head and earned her a poke to her side in protest. "Hmm… The only special thing I guess is that it's located inside what I'd say is a magical forest."
"A magical forest?" Rei-sama asked, her eyes wide.
"Yeah, that's what I called it in my head when I was a little girl." Yumi said with a nod. "Really, it's just a place where the local kami and yokai don't need to bother hiding from the mundanes because it's protected by a magical barrier that keeps them away. It's kinda like a sanctuary for them."
"You're downplaying things again, Onee-sama." Tōko chided and even Onee-sama shot her a frown.
"Sorry," Yumi said with a chuckle. "Force of habit. Anyways~! We're here, so you'll be able to see what I mean soon."
Gesturing out the windscreen as the car turned onto a side road and through a pair of gates that swung open ahead of them, Yumi turned away from what she knew was coming to see her friends' reactions.
As they passed the gate, it was as if they entered an entirely new world as suddenly the previously mundane woods on either side of the road became filled with a huge crowd of various kami and yokai of all stripes. There were the familiar tanuki, kitsune, all kinds of other animal spirits and even a few tengu. But also ame-warashi rain spirits, beautiful girls that floated in the air wearing the fancy lolita dresses they so fancied, and kodama tree spirits with their doll-like appearance. Alongside these were numerous other spirits in all kinds of shapes and sizes that Yumi did not immediately recognize. All of which happily expressed their welcome for Yumi.
"Welcome home Yumi-chan!" The many spirits chorused as they threw rice and other symbols of welcome and good fortune at her as the SUV drove past them.
"That's-" Shimako-san began, only for Yoshino-san to interrupt her.
"Amazing!" Yoshino-san shouted, giving voice to the Yamayurikai's collective amazement.
Yumi just smiled, glad that her friends accepted her.
"And that's how it's done." Viola said with a smile as she clinked her flute of champagne against the one in Shiro's hand as the Sapphic Circle enjoyed their latest victory in the Witch's House. "We pushed the Third Lord to do what she'd otherwise hesitated to do thus bringing us ever closer to our goal all whilst also throwing off the Twelfth Lord in regards to our motives."
Shiro smiles, happy to hear the praise. She would admit it to no one but Midori but she loved being praised. It made her feel like existence was worthwhile. She might not have been as bad as she had been eons ago when she'd first become a god and learned that her whole existence had been little more than an amusing distraction for the Evil God D, but she still had her moments of existential angst. Even if since then she'd far surpassed her kin's strength, that she had been life by nothing more than someone else's whim still ate at her at times. And when it did… Well, that's when she sought Midori out for some time between the sheets. Without or without said sheets. Sex always made her forget her fears. Midori did too, but sex with her was doubly effective! Thankfully, at this gathering she's not felt the need. Not yet anyways.
Praise did too, but it was hardly as effective but she took it in regardless.
"Yes, well done, Shiro, your latest move has quite effectively killed two birds with one stone."
"Yes, though I wonder if we're as successful in the latter as the former." Ellen said thoughtfully as she sipped from her own flute of bubbly goodness pensively.
'You worry too much Ellen," Frenda said as she poured herself and Azathoth a refill. "It's not like the old man figuring it out, if he hasn't already, will change anything. He won't tell the others without proof and he doesn't have any."
"Plus the more we deliberately disguise our goal, the less likely the others will listen to him." Azathoth added. "Especially since he's keeping his suspicions to his chest."
"It makes him look suspicious," Midori chimed in. "Which drives a wedge between the Thirteen which will just make things easier for us."
Shiro nodded in agreement with her wife. "The less they trust him, the easier it will be for us to manipulate them."
"Exactly," Viola agreed, shooting her wife a look. "So stop being a sourpuss Ellen and enjoy our victory."
"Fine, fine," Ellen conceded at last. "Anything you say, Viola."
"Whipped!" Frenda teased, only to squeak in alarm as Azathoth had a portion of her hair grow into a tendril and whip the blonde's behind.
"Ruiko~!" The Reaper whined as she rubbed her tender behind.
Azathoth just smirked, prompting everyone else to burst into laughter at the couple's antics.
Done!
Yes, this is a crossover with Maria-sama ga Miteru of all things. What can I say? My plot bunnies are weird. That said, I do very much enjoy taking slice of life/romance IPs like Mariamite and giving them a whole new coat of paint like what I've done here. Whether you guys think it's a good idea and/or well done, is up to you readers to decide. If you don't mind, let me know your opinions. Just try to be civil about it.
Well till next time, ja ne!