(Chapter 20)

Oborozuka, the rooftop of the apartment complex

The Nakaharas were having a shared dinner with the 'extended family' of the top two floors of the apartment. There were three barbecues in use, with Tohru, Kuroko, and Georgie cooking, while Harmony and Mrs Sasakibe were ferrying the cooked food to the serving area.

Mrs Nakahara couldn't help but notice how all of the children interacted with each other. The two young dragons were the most active, although Kanna regularly took time out of playing, to prioritise interacting with the younger of the Saikawa sisters. Mizuchi, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to get an extra-shy harpy and cat-girl to join in with the others. They seemed to be extra skittish around humans for some reason.

A voice behind her answered her unasked question. "Those two were rescued from an unpleasant situation. Same goes for the older sister of the nekomata. She's over there, with the two dragonewts."

Mrs Nakahara turned to face the woman who had just addressed her. She appeared to be some variation of harpy, except she had horns and an additional pair of 'normal' arms. She was holding a plate of food in one hand, a glass in the other, and was using one of her 'harpy wings' to pour herself a drink. "From what my husband has told me, I'm guessing you're Calliope. I'm Shizuka Nakahara."

"Pleased to meet you, Mrs Nakahara," said Kahl'ryleh-hophiit. "Are you as surprised as I was to see how easily almost everybody on the building was getting along?"

"There were still quite a few that refused to join us," she replied.

"Yeah," said the Psyren. "However, it had nothing to do with liminals being in the group. It was because they don't approve of the 'lifestyle choices' of some of the people here."

"I don't understand."

"Well, what was your initial reaction to how Fiora interacts with Astrid?"

"They make a really nice couple. Ohhh. I get it now."

"Human society can handle some changes really easily, but will fight, kicking and screaming, against others. Every society has its taboos, what it accepts as normal, and what it considers abnormal. Oh! Now we know what species of harpy Hitomi-chan is."

Mrs Nakahara turned around to see Mizuchi extinguishing a small fire. The young harpy was looking completely surprised. "Didn't anyone know she was a firebird?"

"Looks like she didn't even know she was a firebird."

===/===

Okinawa

Dinner was mostly going well. It was slightly awkward, with Luke picking at his food, and being unable to form a coherent sentence whenever Freya spoke to him. The family was also not used to Erika no longer being able to eat, but this was counterbalanced by Freya easily eating enough to make up for the difference. Smith had left earlier in the afternoon to stay with her parents.

"That's a neat trick, being able to hide your wings like that," said Shiro. "I guess that's how you're able to run an engineering firm without having to use intermediaries. My boss is a Kobold, and his family have had to do that for years."

"Something like that," replied Freya. "When I was younger, I worked for the United Nations. One of our jobs was to investigate companies that could potentially be fronts for illegal organisations. My company was originally set up so we were able to do those investigations while diverting any potential counter-investigations from tracking it back to the UN. We found four potentially-suspicious organisations during the first six years of operation, three of which were fronts for non-humans to be able to trade between themselves and humans. We left them alone, and just added notes to our files. The fourth one, International Electromatics, required a special UN intervention. When our department was shut down, I was able to keep the company running, as it was set up in my name, as I was paying for its operation anyway."

"What exactly does your company do?" asked Maria.

"Mostly salvage and repairs of damaged vessels, these days." Freya replied. "My eldest is a bit of a mecha-otaku, and started researching how to make a lot of the things she saw in anime into real things. Out of those two mecha Luke saw, she built the black one. One of my relatives took inspiration from her designs and borrowed some of her anime collection. He gifted me with the other one."

"Wait? Those were mecha?" said Luke, finally working out how to speak again. "Your company makes mecha?"

"And the mecha-otaku part of my twin brother finally overrides his need to fit in with his delinquent friends," said Lucy.

"I can do you one better, little brother," said Erika. "I am a mecha."

"What?" reacted the twins together.

"I said I was haunted armour," replied Erika. "My soul was bonded to the battle computer of that black mecha that Luke saw."

===/===

Oborozuka

Everyone was eating now, even the children had stopped running around.

The elevator door opened, to reveal a young man with with green and yellow hair.

"Good evening Mr Yana," greeted Tohru. "I see you've finally got some nights off."

"They finally found a part-timer," he replied. "She's an owl-harpy. I spent the past few nights training her. The short-term memory issues seem to only affect diurnal harpies, so she's on her first unsupervised night tonight."

"That's good to hear," said Mr Nakahara. "I'll have to check in with your store's owner some time. Where are my manners. I'm Roshi Nakahara. I'm with the Interspecies Cultural Exchange Program."

"Good evening Mr Nakahara," replied Yana. "I'm Tetsuo Yana."

Kuroko stood up from where she was sitting. "Mr Yana, our mothers had put aside presents, as thank you gifts, for helping us move into the apartments, We decided to wait until you had time off from your busy schedule, before giving you yours. Could everyone excuse me for a moment?"

A few minutes later, Kuroko returned with a guitar case. "Personally, I think its bad form to regift items, but Mama-Freya said you'd appreciate this." She handed the case to Mr Yana.

He opened the case, and passed out. Kuroko rushed in and caught him, before he hit the ground.

While some of the others were checking to make sure Mr Yana was okay, Mizuchi had a look at the contents of the guitar case.

"Wooaah!" she whispered, almost reverentially. "I hope this isn't damaged. Mr Yana would have a heart attack."

"What's so important about what's in the case?" asked Mr Nakahara. "Kuroko didn't seem too impressed."

"She's from a parallel earth, so she has no idea about what this represents," Mizuchi replied.

"Oh," said Mrs Nakahara. "It's a Stratocaster. They're pretty valuable."

"Valuable doesn't describe it." said Mizuchi. "This is a Legendary Holy Relic."

"I don't see how an electric guitar could ...be... ...described... oh my," Mr Nakahara's voice slowly became reverent, as he got a better look at the item. "Is that genuine?"

"Knowing my mother," said Hikari, as she joined the group. "Very much so."

The four of them were staring at a Stratocaster guitar. It was signed by Jimi Hendrix.

===/===

Dragons' Homeworld, Leviathan Beach

Clemene and a few squadrons of paladins were lying in wait. This was the place that the Emperor of Demise was rumoured to be meeting with the permanent ambassador of that green-winged angel's country. The nobles he had sent to Red Lake may have been idiots, but at least they managed to stop the Chaos faction and the beasts from setting up near the city. He just didn't count on there being a back-up location, deeper in the Emperor's territories. Standing on the shoreline were three figures, one male and two females. They were dressed in strange armour, and the female on the right was leaning on some sort of ornate trident.

"Should we take them, my Lord?" asked one of the paladins. "There are only three of them."

"Not yet," said Clemene. "They'll be less alert when the others come to greet them."

"How did they even arrive?" asked another paladin. "There are no footprints, and I cannot see a boat."

"That's because they've obviously used dark magic," said the first paladin.

"Quiet," commanded Clemene. "The Emperor comes." He pointed towards a red shape flying towards the rendezvous point.

===/===

The Emperor of Demise changed to his 'human' form, and walked up to the group at the shoreline.

On the left was a dark-skinned woman with golden hair. She had a similar size and build to his daughter. She had black wings, and looked similar to a succubus. In the middle was a tall male. His size and build was similar to the Northern raider tribesmen. On the right was a woman with pale blue skin, and dark blue hair. She was of a similar build to the other woman, but looked like a water-nymph.

"Which one of you is Ouroboros?" he asked.

"I'm Ouroboros Sturmdrachen," said the male. "These are my wives and Generals." He indicated towards the dark-skinned woman. "This is my Air commander, Essar-Ennex Thunderwing." He then indicated towards the other woman. "This is my Naval commander, Siviyei Enterprise. When are the rest of the people coming?"

"He probably asked them to stay in a safer area," said Essar. "There are a few hundred knights stationed to try an ambush. Siviyei should probably make her 'dramatic entrance' a bit earlier than planned."

Siviyei looked like she was concentrating on something. "Preparing for atmospheric entry. Retro-thrusters activating. Entry in ...3 ...2 ...1."

===/===

BOOM!

The paladins felt, more than heard the noise from above them. The horses panicked, and ran.

Clemene looked towards the sky, and saw something incomprehensible to him. "How much mana is that thing consuming?" It was clearly some sort of enchanted ship, but it was the size of a city and made out of metal. Instead of staying aloft with wind magic, and being steered by sails, his eyes could see a mixture of fire and gravity-manipulation. What 'sails' it did have were made of metal, and looked to be ornamental, similar to the wings on a water-dragon. Towards it bow was the vessel's name CVA Enterprise.

"Dragons!" called one of the Paladins, pointing further towards the bow of the vessel. Several winged, flying objects were deploying from the ...deck?... of the vessel. At first glance, they looked like adolescent dragons.

"Over there!" called another paladin. Where he was indicating, a black flying object, easily twice the size or the 'metal dragons' dropped whatever concealment magic it was using. It reconfigured itself into a metal giant, the word Thunderwing picked out on its arm. "Retreat or surrender!" boomed a woman's voice from the giant.

Everyone, including Clemene, ran.