[The Museum of Cryptozoology (and their rescue mission) belongs to Claidheamh Mohr]

(Chapter 2)

Kobayashi's apartment, a few minutes earlier:

Kobayashi, Tohru, Ilulu and Kanna were having breakfast, when they heard voices coming from in front of Mrs Sasakibe's apartment, thought Kobayashi. One of them sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

While they were eating, Kobayashi discussed the plans for the day.

"School starts in a few days, so we'll have to get everything ready. Kanna-chan starts grade four this year . That means they'll start allowing students to 'graduate' from pencils to pens."

"Ohhh," replied Kanna.

"We've also been talking with the principal of the local high school," said Kobayashi. "You can attend school too, Ilulu. We've explained about the difficulty of finding a uniform that fits and, apparently, two other new students are having similar issues. They've made arrangements for you to be fitted for a custom uniform."

"Yaaay! I can be with Take-kun all day!" Ilulu exclaimed.

"Just don't press up against him too much," said Tohru. "You could end up in trouble with the Principal."

Or end up gravid, thought Kobayashi.

Kobayashi then heard the vaguely familiar voice call out "Hey, Mizuchi-chan! Get back here!"

No, it can't be. Kobayashi thought, her mind flashing back to when she was five.

She then heard a young girl's voice a few minutes later "Mama-Erika! Mrs Sasakibe's neighbours have the same last name as you do!"

"Erika-kun? When did she get back to Japan!?" Kobayashi nearly shouted, as she jumped out of her chair and ran for the front door, worried looks forming on the three dragons' faces.

Back outside

Hikari noticed Erika's face go pale as the front door of the neighbouring apartment burst open, revealing a very similar-looking woman.

I didn't think that reaction was even possible for her, Hikari thought.

"Hikari," Erika said with a shaky voice. "Allow me to introduce my cousin, Mizuchi."

Sometimes having the same integrated comms system as Mother is a pain, thought Hikari, as the equivalent of a HUD suddenly activated in her field of vision.

++VF-NXprototype-DREADWING: what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do?

++MechaFaerie1337: Erika, please calm down. You'll cause your Remote Projection Unit to glitch.

++VF-NXprototype-DREADWING: what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? what do I do? Sorry, Hikari. I'm not ready to confront my relatives about my situation.

++IceQueen001: You don't have to give her full-disclosure. The only information you have no choice about is being married, and having stepchildren.

++MechaFaerie1337: Have you even told your parents about that? Your cousin is obviously in a similar-looking situation, with less kids, but your parents haven't said anything to you about that.

++VF-NXprototype-DREADWING: Hikari, Astrid, you're both right. Even after twelve years, I still cannot figure out what to classify myself as. Am I a variation of haunted armour, or was I reincarnated as a mecha, with all of my memories intact?

++MechaFaerie1337: We'll save that philosophical debate for another time. Meanwhile, just talk to her.

"Erika-kun, I was told you were working for a R&D company in America," said Kobayashi.

"...yeah... about that..." hesitated Erika. "The company's CEO decided to move operations to Japan, to be closer to her wife's family, and to push her into informing them about their relationship."

"That still doesn't explain- ...oh..." said Kobayashi, as Erika's face got redder and redder.

Kobayashi's jaw dropped. How long has she been keeping quiet about her relationship? she thought. Then again, it took me a year to tell my parents I was dating a woman. They still don't know about the dragon thing yet.

"Yeah," said Erika. "...this is my sister-in-law, Astrid. She turns twelve next month."

Astrid was just under five feet tall, had red hair and blue-green eyes, and was obviously an 'early bloomer' with the same figure as the average 15 year old.

"This is my eldest stepdaughter, Hikari and her twin, Kuroko, they're 16."

Why couldn't nature have given me a quarter of that, thought Kobayashi, while staring enviously at their curves.

"This is Hiroshi, he just turned ten."

Kobayashi greeted the young redhead. He was about the same height as Kanna and Ilulu, and had the same green eyes as the older two girls.

"This little one, trying to hide behind her aunt, is my youngest stepdaughter, Midori," said Erika.

Kobayashi could just see a little face, framed by red hair, peering from behind Astrid's dress.

"My other daughter seems to be extra hyperactive today, and has run off somewhere," said Erika.

Kobayashi then introduced the three girls that were eyeing their group with a mixture of suspicion and uncertainty.

"This is my girlfriend, Tohru, our stepdaughter, Kanna, and Tohru's sister, Ilulu."

The blonde, Tohru, blushed at being referred to as Kobayashi's girlfriend.

While Kobayashi and Erika started to catch up with each other, Mrs Sasakibe took her leave, and Astrid lifted Midori, saying she was going to go find Mizuchi.

Meanwhile, while Tohru was gushing over Kobayashi's compliments, Hikari could hear Ilulu and Kanna whispering. They were too quiet for humans to hear. However, they didn't notice Hikari wasn't human.

"Something doesn't seem right," whispered Ilulu. "This Erika person has no smell."

"I can also smell another dragon nearby," replied Kanna, her voice beginning to growl.

Oh, smeg! Thought Hikari. They can't smell Erika, because that's only a remote projection ….wait... ANOTHER dragon? ...Mizuchi?... ...what the...?

++MechaFaerie1337: Mizuchi-chan, I think you might need to come back here.

++CryoDragonPrime: What's up Hikari-nee?

++MechaFaerie1337: We're about to have a situation only you can diffuse.

++CryoDragonPrime: What am I? An EOD officer?

++MechaFaerie1337: Just get out here, please. Astrid, yellow alert! Keep Midori safe. She's too young to defend herself. Kuroko, be ready to get Hiroshi out of here, if this gets out of hand.

++IceQueen001: Got it.

++WebWeaver101: I hope you know what you're doing, big sister.

++VF-NXprototype-DREADWING: What happened to taking things slowly?!

++MechaFaerie1337: No choice. We've been rumbled!

Just as Kanna and Ilulu were about to go medieval on the 'intruders' that were talking to the closest thing they both had for a mother, a girl with bright red hair, and green eyes, dropped down from the upstairs balcony. She looked to be Kanna's size and age (well, the age Kanna's human shape appeared to be).

"Ah, Mizuchi-chan," said Erika. "This is my cousin. Your mother and I named you after her."

Kobayashi looked at the small redhead in front of her. She then noticed the tips of her hair were a pale blue colour.

...and she also had horns...

"Rooftop! Now!" Kobayashi commanded.

…...

Tokyo, around the same time.

Kuroko Smith was on her third cup of coffee

The new government Act was in planning for months. Months, dammit! And only now, with only a few days before its official announcement, do they finally authorise us to start finding suitable locations for accommodating cultural exchange visitors.

Some of the laws to be introduced, while important, were clumsily worded. Do they even realise the ramifications of the 'no sex' part of the laws? Sure, it is to protect liminals and humans from taking advantage of cultural ignorance, etc. However it means that it is going to become illegal for single-gender races to procreate. It's almost as if someone wants this important milestone in history to fail.

Tokyo will be out of the question due to cost of living, she thought, and it's too crowded. We're going to have to consider smaller 'satellite' cities, such as Asaka.

"Hey, Smith," one of her subordinates called out.

"Yes, Manako?"

"We've almost finished preparing a list of the first dozen or so potential sites, but Doppel just found an issue."

"What kind of issue?"

"The town of Oborozuka. The information we've got is either incorrect, or someone has doctored the crime statistics."

"Let me see that," Kuroko said, as she looked at the page in Doppel's hand.

The sheet of paper clearly showed almost no serious crimes in the last twelve months, not even juvenile crime. Even with Japan's low crime rate, this was an anomaly. "It says right here that, until last year, most of the incidents were caused by the 'Dragon Busters' gang. Then, they suddenly stopped."

"Yes," said Doppel. "Literally, all of their activities ceased overnight. The local hospital received a spike in their emergency department one night, with their leader, Joichiro 'Dragon-san The Destroyer' Tomo, in critical condition. He is currently undergoing rehabilitation in a local mental clinic. It seems that he has developed an extreme phobia of maids. Not one of the gang members has been arrested since that night. Even their probation officers have commented on how they are on the fast-track to becoming pillars of society."

"Meido-phobia. In Japan. That's gotta suck," called out a red-haired girl, at the other end of the office. "Maybe they picked a fight with another gang."

"Dressed as maids? Unlikely," said Kuroko. "Besides, no other gang-related incidents have been reported."

Kuroko grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair. "Looks like we're going on a road trip. Tio, you'll have to keep that horn hidden under a hat."