Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Dresden Files. If I did, Moon would not be so useless, and fans would burn me at the stake for destroying Harry's awesomeness

The Senshi Files: Silver Warden
File 02: Thunder Blitz
By Irritus185/Raithe

Parents just don't get enough appreciation for all the work they do. They cook, clean, educate, protect, love, and raise their children for no reason other than wanting them to grow up healthy and happy. Often, it's a thankless job, with the children not caring about all the trouble they put their parents through.

Temper tantrums, teenage rebellion, whining, disobeying rules, demanding things they can't or shouldn't have, parent-teacher conferences, even calls from the local police - each of these is an obstacle which makes it so much harder than it needs to be for a parent to make their child's life productive and beneficial.

My mother died shortly after giving birth to me, and my father died when I was still a kid. I don't know how good a mom mine might have been, but I'm certain that my dad was the best he could've possibly been given our circumstances. We might have moved around a lot, and it certainly wasn't easy, but he still tried and it showed. I lived, I learned, and I'm still here today.

It was hard, but I'm sure that almost any parent can say that it was worth it.

At the moment, though, I was having problems thinking on the positive side while also being confronted by a police officer for being 'suspicious.' Again.

'Suspicious' here means that I was obviously foreign and was wearing an outfit that belonged more in a film noir flic than out on the street with the 'normal' people.

Hurray for having to deal with xenophobic people thanks to my darling daughter! She was going to get snarked at so badly when I saw her again, both for unintentionally forcing me into situations like this and for that little prank she pulled when we separated earlier in the morning.

My frustration must've shown on my face because the policeman frowned and narrowed his eyes at me. "And what, exactly, are you doing here again?"

I somehow resisted the urge to roll my eyes, though it was a close call. I had been talking to the man for the past ten or so minutes, explaining where I was going and that no, I wasn't going to cause any trouble. I threw him off a bit when I responded to his choppy English with my nearly flawless Japanese, but I honestly think that just frazzled him even more.

The big, dumb American was not supposed to be speaking their language.

Alright, maybe I was being a bit hard on the man, but I had very little patience for people who automatically assumed the worst about others with no real basis other than cultural belief and gossip. I got enough of that from the members of the White Council who assumed I was just a dark wizard bomb, waiting to explode and shatter all the laws of magic at a moment's notice. It didn't help that the officer had basically taken one look at me as I was looking over the directions to my destination and had immediately pulled me off the sidewalk to have a chat.

It's funny, but I didn't know 'chat' and 'interrogation' were interchangeable.

I sighed, for what must've been the fifth time in this conversation alone, and scratched the back of my head. "Look, I'm just trying to find a coworker's home to discuss a business transaction we're working on."

The officer crossed his arms. "A coworker, you say? Funny, I didn't know we had many foreign businesses in the neighborhood."

I bit my tongue at the caustic remark about to escape and swallowed it back. "It's an international firm. I'm from the central USA branch, and he's from Japan's." Well, that was true enough. Though I doubted most people would consider the world's magical government to be a business of any sort.

His eyes roamed over my duster. "Rather informal clothing for such a big-sounding firm."

"We love our casual Fridays," I said.

He set his jaw at that. Ha! Current score? Me: 1, Racist jerk: 0.

"Let me look at that address again."

I handed over the slip of paper with the safehouse's address. It's not like I was really trying to keep the place a secret. There was nothing special about the place; it was just a smallish, older apartment complex in the residential district. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it... Well, unless you counted the people who live there.

Though I doubt he could find a reason to arrest magic users beyond the whole, 'magic doesn't exist so some kind of fraud must be involved' idea.

The officer looked over the address meticulously, as if trying to will into existence some form of wrongdoing that he could pin on me, but unless he could spontaneously change the numbers and letters on the paper to some kind of launch code for a nuclear weapon he wasn't going to find anything. When he didn't discover evidence of nefarious intent, he reluctantly handed it back with an almost inaudible grumble.

"So..." I tried, I really did, but I couldn't help myself. A smirk made its way to my face and my tone took on a hint of a lilt. "Anything else I can do for you? Anything else you need to ask?"

I could almost hear his teeth grinding at the smug sound of my voice. "No, that will be all. Enjoy your stay here, and I hope your meeting goes as planned."

"Thank you very much. It was a pleasure talking to you, officer." Before he could get the last word in, I spun around and walked off, my long gait quickly leaving him behind in the crowd of people.

"You seem rather pleased with yourself."

I jumped at the sudden voice and feeling of someone entwining an arm with mine. I instinctively turned to look where both had come from, and my self-satisfied countenance immediately began to slip. Where before there had been no one, there was now an extremely beautiful blond woman wearing a Greco-Roman toga and looking at me with an extremely amused cant to her eyes.

No, some random cosplayer had not just grabbed me out of the blue. What was currently holding onto me like it was the most natural thing in the world was much, much more terrible and insidious than that.

"What do you want, Lasciel?" I asked. The venom I put in her name could kill a basilisk.

She pursed her lips. On her face, it was more than a little cute, making her seem like the girl-next-door who had just been turned down for milkshakes. For anyone else, it would've been a natural reaction; for her, it was completely artificial. "Can I not just have a friendly conversation with you, my host?"

"Sorry," I said. "I'm all out of friendly when it comes to fallen angels trying to buy my soul."

Lasciel, aka The Seducer, aka The Temptress, aka The Webweaver, aka The Hallucination That Wouldn't Leave, was a bonafide, black-as-pitch, fallen-from-grace, end-of-days, former angel. One of the original that had rebelled against God and had been cast down as punishment, she was part of an organization of fallen angels known as the Order of the Blackened Denarius that were bound to thirty silver coins - possibly the very same coins which Judas Iscariot had betrayed the son of God for.

The Denarians were beings that sought to bond with human hosts in order to have an actual existence outside of a cut and imprinted piece of metal. The benefits were incredible, beyond human comprehension - ancient knowledge, functional immortality, improved physiology, supernatural powers, even the ability to transform into a literal hellspawn to rend your foes' flesh from bone.

The payment? Just a small, miniscule thing - a timeshare on your soul. For every boost you get, that timeshare grows... until you're more demon than man and your vacation is more lake of sulfur than the Bahamas.

I had come across the Denarians before, and it was not an event I wanted to relive. Their ultimate goal was to cause as much suffering and pain as possible, and as someone whose job is to fight against people like that, we didn't exactly get along that well. The fact that they had tortured me and then killed a man much better than I by using me as bait also failed to endear me to them much.

So why did I have a fallen angel taking up space in the vast, empty corridors of my brain? Well, it wasn't really all that intentional, and I hadn't quite reached the point where I'd sell my soul for a few impressive parlor tricks.

Being sneaky, backhanded, and all-together hateful bastards, the Denarians had tricked me into making contact with one of their silver soul prisons, the denarius. I'm sure I could have handled the situation better, but when you're faced with either you grabbing the hell-coin or letting the youngest son of your best friend do so, you tend not to think about consequences and snatch that sucker up before a very young, very innocent, very impressionable, and very grabby kid does.

Of course, the first thing I did after that was bury the thing under several dozen pounds of concrete in my sub-cellar so that it would take a chisel, jackhammer, and five pounds of dynamite to unearth it. Unfortunately, the small bit of contact I had made was enough for the real Lasciel to photocopy a shadow of herself into my mind

Copy-Lasciel couldn't do much to me other than the classic Faustian temptation, but her ability to appear before me, create any illusion she wanted, see and hear what I did, and even dig into my memories didn't make it any easier to ignore the huge danger that she represented.

And then, of course, there was the knowledge that deep inside, I wanted what she was offering.

I'm only human. Lasciel promised untold power and knowledge, the ability to protect those close to me and make sure that nothing bad ever happened to them again. I would be a fool not to take advantage of any boon granted to me. Of course, every monster that I banished would end up taking residence in my soul, and I'd be damned (pun totally intended) if I was going to become that which I fought.

And then Lasciel made it even harder by appearing as one of the most drop-dead gorgeous babes I'd ever seen. She could appear as anything she wanted, but she chose a form that triggered the primordial ugga-ugga in me. The bitch.

I shook her arm off of mine. "Don't hold onto me like that in public; it's annoying. Besides, I'd thought we'd agreed you wouldn't pop up out of nowhere."

"My host, you're the one making a scene by shaking like you're having a seizure." She grabbed my arm again and looked up at me. "In case you've forgotten, no one can see or hear me but you."

"Great, so I'm talking to thin air, too. That's going to help these people think I'm less weird."

"Without me, you wouldn't even understand the snide comments they're saying about you," she said. "Is that not a point in my favor?"

Ok, so I have a bit of a confession to make. I'm not really, completely, totally, all the way fluent in Japanese. Honestly, I sound like a caveman and my accent is as thick as a cab driver's. The huge secret to my success was Lasciel. Her illusion powers did more than make me see whatever it was she wanted; it also made me hear and say whatever she wanted. If she wanted me to hear English when someone was talking not-English, I'd do so. If she wanted me to speak a foreign language when I couldn't even think it, she'd just cross some wires in the attic and voila - instant universal translator.

Just one more perk in a long line of them, and Lasciel never failed to bring up what future prizes could be mine if I just opened up door number one. Do you see why so many others fell to temptation? It becomes hard after a while to resist ultimate power, especially when the person offering it is someone you'd take on a date instead of a black-armored villain with a breathing problem.

Still, if there was one thing I was famous (or infamous) for, it was being as stubborn as a pitbull. "It's not like I asked you to do that," I said warily. "I was perfectly alright learning my daughter's moon language at a leisurely and acceptable pace."

"But you wished for it to be easier," Lasciel countered. "And I exist to make life easier for you, my host. Anything you wish for, I will hand it to you."

"And all it takes is the low, low price of my soul?"

"I prefer to think of it as symbiosis. You provide my true self with something it desires, and you gain something in return."

I stopped. The small stream of people moved around me, sparing only a glance at the strange, absurdly tall gaijin who was parked in the middle of the street. I looked down at the fake angel, my eyes beginning to blaze with anger. "You know what else exists in symbiosis? A parasite. A creature that lives only to consume and then move on to the next host to consume again."

"A parasite can't offer you what I can," she smiled. "A way to protect your daughter."

I froze. I knew that Lasciel knew about Makoto; there was no way she couldn't have. Still, the idea that the bitch was trying to get on my good side by appealing to my parental love both froze and boiled my blood.

"Think about it," she continued, ignoring the stony look on my face. "There's no need to send her off into the care of another. With what I can give you, you never need worry about those that would harm her again. Any that threaten to would fall underneath your fury like wheat from the harvest."

"Don't you..."

"Don't what, mortal?" she asked, a sharp bite to her words. "Don't present you with a gift very few of your kind will ever have? Don't grant you the power needed to make sure that those beloved by you will never be harmed again?" Her grip tightened on my arm. "I know what you want, deep down, much deeper than you want to admit. You're afraid, afraid of what can be done to the ones close to you because of what you yourself have done in turn."

Her words, while infuriating, were true. I had made a fair amount of enemies in my life, and there were more than a few times that people were harmed simply because they knew me.

Sensing my resolve weakening, Lasciel pushed on. "You know what I offer. Everlasting life, eternal power, the chance to never again worry about the pitiful fools that hound you. Your precious ones will forever be under your wing, and thus will never want again." She smiled, the sweetest thing I'd ever seen, as thick as honey, and as venomous as a viper. "All it would take is for you to take up the coin and proclaim the covenant. Nothing more...and nothing less."

It would be so easy to agree. So easy... it'd be a sin.

I wrenched my arm away, not caring that I would look like a freak to those around me. Frankly, I wished that Lasciel really was solid, if only so I could strike her, my feelings about hitting women be damned. She'd brought up my inadequacies, my inferiorities, and my inabilities. She'd shown how I could be a far better shield for Makoto than I was now. She'd promised everything I'd ever wanted or could ever want...and I hated her for it.

"I can't do much to you considering you're pretty much melded to my brain, but I'm sure I can find a deep, dark hole to throw you in until I can come up with something worse."

An adorable pout appeared on her face. "Really, my host, there's no need for such threats. You should know I'm only trying to help."

"A really deep pit, with lions and tigers and bears."

"Oh my." Lasciel crossed her arms. "Very well, I suppose it would be best to let you think on my proposal. You know where to find me should you wish to discuss this matter further."

And just as suddenly as she'd appeared, she was gone. Hell's bells, that never stopped being creepy. Though really, what else could it be when you had a shadow of a literal pseudo-deity renting out your mindscape?

I shook my head. Now wasn't the time to dwell on matters like that. Right now, I had to go meet with the Japanese regional warden and hammer out all the details for Makoto's stay before I returned to Chicago. I couldn't leave the place in Ramirez's hands for too long. He was a good kid, but I owed him enough beer as it was.

Setting off, it was another hour or so before I finally navigated the maze that was Azabu-Juuban's street system and arrived at the White Council's safehouse. It looked like just what I expected it to be - a simple and somewhat ramshackle mansion that looked like it had been built back in the 80s. The rest of the neighborhood fit the same motif, so it was camouflaged extremely well and could easily be looked over by any wandering eyes. The building was three stories tall and vaguely cube-shaped, with a single wing extending towards the back. The front garden was well-cared for, with an iron gate connecting the stone walls that wrapped around the property.

As I placed my hand on the gate, a small thrum of power went through my body. So, they'd placed a small ward on the area, did they? It wasn't anything big, simply an early-alert system that would warn anyone inside that someone was entering the premises - the magical equivalent of a doorbell. It was extremely basic, but it was also simple enough to make maintenance easy.

Still, it meant that whoever was expecting me now knew I'd arrived. At least I wouldn't have to wait that long at the door. Crossing the yard, I approached the door and knocked on it, not seeing any doorbell. Almost immediately after doing so, the door swung inward, revealing a young woman.

She was probably in her early-twenties. She had black hair, pale skin, and was what the locals referred to as 'fox-faced' - narrow face with close-set eyes, thin eyebrows, and high cheekbones. That particular look was considered to be aesthetically pleasing to the Japanese, though I preferred my women to have a rounder face. Funnily enough, that kind of look was originally thought to only belong to women that were actually kitsune, or mystical fox creatures, pretending to be human in disguise so that they could fool or seduce people. In actual fact, that wasn't too far off from the truth - kitsune were apparently youkai, the eastern equivalent of the fae, and the look was an inherited trait from unions between youkai and humans - changelings, if you would. The girl probably had some youkai blood in her from some distant ancestor.

Her long hair was done up in an ornate bun, with a variety of hairpins in the shape of a fan keeping the whole thing together. She was wearing that weird, wraparound dress the Japanese were so fond of, though it was too fancy for a yukata and too plain for a kimono. I didn't know what this variety was called, and I was proud enough just to know the difference between the two I mentioned.

The girl looked at me with an emotionless expression, her closed eyes enhancing the effect. "You would be Sir Dresden, yes?" Her monotone voice added to the stony visage.

I smiled and gave a polite bow. "Indeed I am. I'm guessing I'm easy to recognize?"

"Sir Arashimaru gave me a description," she said. She glanced me up and down. "He did not quite fully describe just how tall you are."

"That's us Americans, we like things big and bulky."

Her expression didn't change at all at my joke. Ouch, tough crowd. After a moment, she spoke again, "Indeed. Oh, but where are my manners? I have been informed of you, Sir Dresden, but not you of me." She gave a bow back, deeper than my first one. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tamako Mae, the proprietress of this establishment."

"Charmed."

She nodded back. "Please, come in. I will retrieve Sir Arashimaru for you. He has been awaiting your arrival."

Opening the door wider, she beckoned me forth. I took a step in and found the invisible force of a threshold parting around me before it snapped back into place. Huh, that was strange. Thresholds were spiritual barriers, and were the main line of defense to stop supernatural creatures from just invading people's homes; if they could even pass through it in the first place, a large chunk of any invader's power would be left behind if they weren't specifically invited past it, like a magical filter. However, thresholds weren't something you could just create - they were natural collections of will built up in areas that were considered to be a safe home - the saying 'a man's home is his castle' applied literally in this regard. I didn't expect to find a threshold, even one as weak as this, to be somewhere that people used as a place of business. Still, it only added to my approval of the safehouse. Any extra protection for Makoto was good.

Tamako led me to a communal kitchen, explaining that she would go get the warden. Disappearing quickly around the corner, I was left to my own devices. I took the time to look around, examining the room. It wasn't anything fancy, but I was happy to note that every appliance and storage unit was pre-Industrial era; there wasn't going to be anything frying in this place anytime soon. In fact...

I stepped over to the stove. Holy crud, this was a traditional firepit. It wasn't even made of metal, but was carved out of stone and clay. Around the stove were a variety of clay pots, and I resisted the urge to snoop further. If my knowledge of traditional Japanese cooking was accurate (and what I knew was only thanks to Makoto drilling it into my head when she became the de facto family chef), they were probably full of the classic ingredients - miso, salt, sugar, rice, pickles, and the like.

Satisfied with my amateur investigation, I turned around and nearly jumped out of my skin. Tamako was standing not even three feet away, her stoic gaze locked on to me. I let out a wheezy laugh. "Stars and stones, you startled me."

"You seemed preoccupied, so I did not want to disturb you, sir." Ok, the whole blank-face shtick was starting to get creepy now. "I informed Sir Arashimaru, and he said he'd be down to speak with you in a short while."

"Oh, that's good... good." I trailed off. It was people like Tamako who I had the hardest time dealing with. I was used to individuals that were larger than life and had the emotional spectrum of the rainbow. Talking with someone who had less an emotional rainbow and more an emotional block of graphite threw me off-balance.

"Ah." I refocused on her. "Forgive my rudeness again, Sir Dresden. I did not offer you any refreshments while you waited."

I waved her off. "Don't worry about it. I'm not particularly in the mood for anything."

"That will not do," she said. Her voice held a bit more force than before. A little color bled in. "As the hostess, it is improper to not at least attempt to make you feel comfortable. Please, allow me to serve you something."

Ah, so she was the kind pf person who stood at salute and hated anything that was out of protocol. Heh, well, it was nice to see some form of personality. Now, if she'd only smile, her looks would blow any Average Joe out of the water. "Well, if you insist."

She nodded. "Thank you."

There was a small clattering and I turned to see the icebox in the corner had opened. I raised an eyebrow when a single can of soda floated out and over to me, settling next to my hand. There was a hiss of escaped carbonation as the pop-tab flicked open.

I picked up the can, examining it briefly before taking a sip. The sweet taste of coke flooded my mouth. I smirked. "Looks like I've been researched."

"It is only proper for a hostess to know ahead of time what her guests would enjoy. I asked Sir Arashimaru, and he said that you had a penchant for this beverage."

Was my appreciation for the drink really that widespread? Well, I did give it to my cat and dog as a common substitute for water, but that was beside the point. I raised the can in mock salute. "I give your sources thanks."

Tamako bowed and stood in place, watching me as I sipped on the drink. I pretended to ignore her while I enjoyed it.

It was a bit odd how she'd gone out of her way to show her abilities. Kinetomancy, if I wasn't mistaken. One that was very low on the power scale; I saw how the can wavered around in her magical grasp. That small amount of weight was probably the limit of what she could carry. However, what she lacked in power she made up for in control; evocation being of the 'wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am' branch of magic, not many could carefully levitate an item of that size without turning it into a projectile weapon by accident.

Thomas still didn't think my response to his 'toss it here' request was all that hilarious.

More important than the what and how, though, was the why. Most magic users tended to avoid using their powers unless it was absolutely necessary or because they thought it would advance their standing (for your information, the latter usually ended up badly - like under the silver blade badly). Tamako using her powers just to get a can of coke seemed at odds with what little personality I had managed to glean from her.

I mentally shrugged. Tamako didn't seem like the type of power-hungry person I had come across. Maybe she had done it to prove to me that Makoto would be that much safer here. She did take her position as runner of this place very seriously.

It wasn't long before the person who I'd come to see walked in. Yamato Arashimaru was also a young man, in his early-to-mid twenties, with short, black hair, kind eyes, and an average Japanese build. Like most of the wardens, his youth was attributed to the ongoing, full-scale war we had going on with the Red Court; a lot of ours had been killed-in-action, so conscription rates had gone through the roof and they were shoved into whatever positions they could fill.

Hell, I, the black sheep of the organization, was actually given regional command of central USA last Halloween, and one of the people who offered it hated my guts with the kind of passion usually only seen in religious fundamentalists.

Yeah, the situation was that bad.

Arashimaru, however, had a much brighter slate when he was offered the job - for both his abilities and his accomplishments. The closest I could approximate his powers to was that of a 'weather mage.' His specializations were air and water, and combinations thereof. Like Tamako, his power levels were on the low-end, especially compared to magical brutes like myself, but his control over his magic was nothing to sneeze at. He might not have been able to summon huge gales of wind or shoot high-pressure water spouts, but the man could create actual clouds, mini-tornados, and even alter weather conditions entirely if he had enough time and preparation.

Never underestimate a man who could turn your fun summer relaxation into a hellish landscape of rain and lightning at a moment's notice.

While his magic was held in high regard, it was what he'd done without it that really clinched the role of Japan's regional commander for him. He'd done what no one else had - made contact with the secretive Jade Court. Of course, he'd only met with peons, the lowest rung of their society, but the fact that he'd reached out to them and they responded at all was a miracle in and of itself. Thanks to him, there was finally verification of their existence beyond rumors and fifth-hand information.

It would take a while for any real cooperation between the Jades and Council to come into being, but any little bit helped, and the chance to have an ally against the Reds was too valuable for words.

Arashimaru smiled widely when he saw me and walked over, grabbing my hand and giving it an energetic shake. "Warden Dresden, it's a pleasure to meet you again."

I returned the shake as heartily as I could. "You too, Warden Arashimaru."

He grinned again. The man had a face that would blend into any crowd, but his smile lit up the room like the sun. It was the kind of open, honest smile I could appreciate. "Well, we have a lot to discuss and hopefully enough time to do so." He released my hand and looked over at Tamako. "Tamako, you're excused if there's anything else you wanted to do."

"As you wish, Sir Arashimaru." She bowed one last time and ghosted out of the room, her feet making no sound as she left.

Arashimaru moved back to me. "Well then, Dresden, shall we begin the tour?"

"Lead the way."

And so he did, giving me a detailed tour of the entire building. It had separate rooms for each of the boarders, but used a communal format for the kitchen, bath, toilet, and recreational and dining quarters. From what he told me, the history of the building was quite old, ranging all the way back into the Meiji era. It was originally an inn that had been gradually converted over time, and had been in Tamako's family since it was first constructed, which finally explained why the place had a threshold, limited though it may be.

"Yes, Tamako's family had been running the place for a long time now. She's been born and raised to run it ever since she was a child, and I'm guessing she plans on teaching her own children to keep running it for a long time after."

"So you've been living here a while then?"

"For the last several years," he said. "I helped Tamako out when I was younger and she repaid the debt by letting me live here, and I eventually set it up as a base for the council." He shrugged. "We've had a few council members and wardens rotate in and out over the years, but it's mostly been the two of us."

"She seems like the kind of person who wields formality like a weapon, so I'm surprised she just let you convert it into a magical fortress."

Arashimaru laughed. "Believe me, it was no easy task to convince her, but I think she understood just what it meant to have a safe place to return to. She's been running the place ever since her parents retired to Kyoto, so I think she knows exactly what it means to have a haven."

The corners of my mouth quirked up at the fond hint to his voice. "You two get along well."

If he heard the teasing tone in my voice, he either ignored it or was too oblivious to recognize what it meant. "She's a good girl. She confuses a lot of people by not showing her emotions that well, but once you get to know her she can be quite kind. She'll be a positive influence on your daughter, I promise."

"Makoto could certainly use some of Tamako's properness rubbing off on her. The girl takes much too after me for her own good."

A small chuckle escaped from Arashimaru's mouth. "Indeed. Well, I'm sure we can hammer some old fashioned Japanese politeness into your daughter." We both had a laugh at that. Arashimaru cleared his throat before continuing. "In any case, what is your evaluation of the place, Dresden? Does it come up to code?"

I gave it a brief moment's thought. The place looked safe and protected enough. There were a variety of small-time wards planted all over the place; nothing close to the defensive strength of the ones I had back home, but the amount and variety made up for that. The mansion wasn't designed to withstand a zombie horde (no, I won't get into that now), but it did have enough support to warn and protect those inside from minor danger.

If moving halfway across the world and residing in the boogieman's backyard didn't deter lurkers, I doubted having the magical equivalent of a ballista looking you right in the face would. Insane tended to not take that kind of thing into consideration.

"What about the threshold? I noticed there was one, but it's not exactly up to snuff."

"You have no need to worry about that," Arashimaru said. "The main threshold may be weak but the ones for each individual room are much stronger. If need be, your daughter can take refuge in Tamako's or my room until the danger passes."

That made sense. The communal and professional aspect of the whole building would reduce the efficacy of the main threshold, but the personal ones should be more powerful in comparison. Still, wouldn't hurt to check. "You don't mind if I...?"

"Not at all. Please, come with me." He led me to a room in the rear of the first floor. "This is the manager's room. It belongs to Tamako, so it should be the stronger one." He rapped his knuckles on the side of the doorframe, careful not to rip the rice-paper of the sliding door.

A moment passed before it slid open, revealing Tamako. "Oh, Sir Arashimaru, Sir Dresden, what can I do for you?"

"Warden Dresden was just asking about the personal thresholds, so I came to ask if he could test yours in case his daughter needed to hide here."

"Of course. Sir Dresden?" She turned to the side and moved backwards to let me in.

I nodded in thanks and took a step in. Immediately it felt like I was walking through cellophane or the icky skin left on jello and pudding, and I could sense a good portion of my magic power being left behind. This threshold was tens of times stronger than the one on the main entrance and would undoubtedly stop any malcontent trying to force their way in in their tracks. Satisfied with what I found, I stepped back out of the doorframe, the feeling of pressure all over my body retreating as I did.

I turned to Arashimaru. "That's perfect. Thank you." I turned to Tamako. "You, too, Tamako. That just took a lot off of my shoulders."

"I'm glad to be of help, sir." With that, she bowed to the both of us and slid the door shut, leaving me and Arashimaru back to our devices.

Arashimaru beckoned me to follow and we made our way back to the main entrance. "So, I assume everything is in order now?"

"Yeah, everything's good. Thank you again for offering your help. I was on my last leg trying to find a safe place for Makoto to stay while things died down back home."

"It's no problem at all. Any fellow members of the White Council, let alone Wardens, should help each other in their times of need."

"Well, thanks all the same," I reiterated.

We made final checks on the agreement. Makoto would stay in the place for the next school year and then return back home after that. I would stay around for the next couple of days while she settled in and then go back home to resume my duties as regional commander. I couldn't stay that long, after all; Chicago seemed to be attracting a frightening frequency of magical disasters and insane supernatural creatures and warlocks over the last several years. Even without my assistance, things were bound erupt in flames before too long, and I didn't want Murphy, Thomas, Michael, or the rest to be holding the short end of the stick while I was off gallivanting around in a foreign country.

Repeating my thanks, I said goodbye to Arashimaru and left the safehouse. I had checked the clock before I left and saw it was shortly after noon. Considering today was a Saturday, that should mean that school only had a half-day. Leave it to the Japanese to hold school on the weekend and then only make it partially open so as not to cause a mutiny. Might as well swing by Makoto's school and embarrass her by picking her up. Payback for how we left that morning.

Whistling a jaunty tune, I walked out of the yard and towards where I knew Makoto's school to be. However, it wasn't long before I heard someone coughing to get my attention. Turning towards the sound, I saw another police officer coming towards me to ask me some 'questions'.

Stars and stones, really?

"So, Mako, is it really true that your dad's a wizard?"

"Yup, name in the yellow pages and everything."

"...the what?"

"Um... paper Google?"

"Oh! ...neat?"

"Yeah, that's what most people say when they hear about it." I gave a dramatic sigh and hung my head. "My papa's a bit of a technophobe, so things like the internet are kinda out of his comfort zone." Well, mine too, but I wasn't about to get into that. "But besides that, you're really not all that skeptical about me claiming papa's a wizard? Most people just kinda give me a funny look and pat me on the head like I ate paste as a kid."

"Why wouldn't I believe you?" Usagi asked innocently. "I mean, even I'm a-I mean, why wouldn't your dad be a wizard? I'm sure lots of people can do magic if they tried!" She put a hand behind her head and broke out into a fit of uncomfortable laughter.

My eyebrow arched. "Suuurree..."

Fun fact: Usagi is a horrible liar. The girl has two modes when it comes to lying - blurt something out and then backtrack, or awkwardly try to change the topic and fail hilariously. I had only known her for a couple hours and she'd slipped enough times that it didn't even take my magic radar to pick up that she was a magic user.

Yeah, the electro radar I have? It doubles as a magic one as well. The limitations still apply - I have to be close enough to the person and focused on them for it to work, but unlike papa, who needs to touch a person to see if they're magical if they're not actively channeling, I can 'sense' the overall power and type of my target.

Usagi was low on the totem pole - a minor talent probably. Her power was a bit different from what I'd seen before, being focused in a small node near her heart while most people had their power spread throughout their entire body, but the intensity of that node wasn't all that impressive compared to papa's aura or even my own.

Also, with all the random occurrences I'd heard that happened in Azabu-Juuban recently, most courtesy of Usagi's babbling, the neighborhood seemed like a hotspot for supernatural activity. So I'd be right at home here, then. Could probably get some good ol' fashioned superheroing in if I could dodge my new guardians' watchful eyes.

Shaking those thoughts off, I looked at Usagi. We were walking out to the school's front entrance, class having let out early for the day. It was going to take some time getting used to going to school on Saturdays again, especially when the blessed lax American education had spoiled me so, but I think I could survive if we left so early in the day. And I think it would be that much easier with a friend like Usagi at my side.

At least my first thoughts hadn't been wrong when I assumed that Usagi was the kind who didn't let go of something that interested her. The girl had quite literally tackled me as soon as the bell rang and dragged me out of class, babbling about everything and nothing the entire way. I almost considered checking the girl to see if she had a slot for the nuclear-powered battery she had to be running on.

I briefly mused on whether or not I should tell Usagi I could use magic as well, but decided to hold off until she was more comfortable with talking about her abilities. When I didn't hear Usagi respond, I looked to see that she was staring at me and realized I'd drifted off in thought again. Dang it, I had to stop doing that! I was turning into an internal monologuer! The worst kind!

"Well, dad may advertise and everything, but he's not exactly all that huge. He mostly just acts as a private eye, finding stuff for people." That's right, downplay papa's awesomeness so that when she does see him work, she'll be blown away by it all.

"No, I'm sure your dad's awesome! My daddy is just an editor at some paper, so he doesn't really do anything that exciting."

"Hey, you turned out to be pretty nice, so I'm sure he does an alright job."

Usagi paused, blushed, and giggled in embarrassment. Eenngh! My heart! The cuteness overload! I resisted the urge to grab at my chest with dramatic flair, and in my hesitation she twirled around and pumped her fists. "Oh! Right! You have to meet the rest of my friends! Ami's really smart and Rei's a bit of a meanie but she's kinda cool, too! I'm sure they'd love to meet you!"

I smiled at her boundless enthusiasm. "That sounds like fun. I'd like to meet them, too."

"Really?" She squealed and put her fists underneath her chin in a gesture I thought was reserved only for shoujo heroines. "I'm meeting them at the arcade today. You should totally come with me!"

"Um, the arcade?"

Usagi's face fell. No! Not the puppy-dog eyes! Not after the cuteness beam! My heart was going to implode! "You don't like the arcade?"

Visions of arcade boxes exploding and yen coins showering down like painful confetti dashed through my head. This was soon followed by people trying to flee the ruins of a once glorious and renowned game center, now turned into a burnt-out husk of its former self. A great disturbance was felt by all, as if millions of video game characters cried out and were suddenly silenced.

"Not really my thing," I said. "Too much noise and flashy lights. I prefer a more quiet atmosphere, ya know?" Bullshit, thy name is Makoto!

"Oh, that's too bad." Usagi seemed a little downtrodden but perked up after a moment. "But maybe some other time?"

"Sure, that sounds great." I thought for a bit and then said, "Actually, you said your friend Ami's kinda smart, right?"

The mention of her friend brought Usagi's glee reserves back up to full capacity. "The smartest! She ranked number one on the practice exams for middle-schoolers last year!"

"For the city?"

"For the whole country!"

I whistled. "Impressive. Is she any good at kanji?"

"Uh-huh!" She nodded her head with all the ferocity of a bobble-head toy. "She helps tutor me all the time!"

"Think she can help me out, too, then?" I laughed weakly and scratched my cheek in embarrassment. "Living in America has gotten my kanji skills a bit rusty. I barely recognized half the ones used in class today."

"Oh, that's fine," Usagi said, waving a hand at me. "I can barely recognize half of those kanji on my best day!" We have a bubbly ditz for the win here folks. "But I'm sure Ami can help you out. I'll even help figure out when we can all get together for a study session!"

"Sounds like a date," I nodded.

Usagi popped a foot and gave a small cry of glee before swinging her head to look at something ahead of us. She shrank down upon herself and zipped behind me to hide. Confused by her sudden attitude change, I looked to see what the commotion was. My eyes widened at the sight.

The guidance counselor, a big, beefy man who wore a track suit similar to my own and wielded a bamboo sword was shaking said weapon in an even taller man's face. From the teacher's body language, I could tell he was trying to intimidate the taller man. From the other's look of exasperation, I could tell he was having none of that.

Typical.

"Mako, maybe we should hurry by while Mr. Jougyuu is distracting that man. I've never seen him before and, I mean, he's foreign, too! Why would someone like that be at our school?"

The grin on my face would've made a shark jealous. "Nah, he's nothing big. Guys like that are full of hot air and total softies when the chips are down. Here, I'll show you."

"Mako, wait-" Usagi's protestations trailed off as I stomped off to face off against the intruder.

Well, not so much 'stomping' as flat-out running, and not so much 'facing off against' as a running tackle that nearly swept the man off his feet. "Papa!"

"Oof, dang it, kiddo, did you gain weight since I last saw you? I think you bruised a rib with that."

I slugged him in the arm. "Papa, how could you speak to a lady like that?"

"I'll tell you when I see one."

I gasped in mock shock. The guidance counselor, Mr. Jougyuu, looked at me with a questioning glance. "Do you know this guy, transfer student?" Yup, I was just known as 'the mysterious transfer student' to the faculty. Had to change that soon - maybe 'ultimate transfer hero?' ...okay, so it was a work in progress.

"This is my papa," I explained. "Sorry, was he bothering you? I try to keep him on a leash but he just keeps chewing through the darn things."

There was a throaty chuckle as a large, calloused hand placed itself on my head and began to roughly tousle my hair. "What my daughter is trying to say is that I was just waiting for her to finish school so that I could escort her home." He grinned, showing his teeth. "Well, that was before you tried to chase me off with that wooden stick, anyway."

Mr. Jougyuu frowned. "You're a foreigner. Forgive me if I don't believe you when you say you have a child that comes here."

With a synchronized sigh and proclamation of, "I'm/She's adopted," the teacher went back to pretending he was ignoring us while shooting the occasional glance our way as he watched the other students leave the premises, all of them being careful to edge their way around the two of us.

"Umm...Mako?" I was broken from my fun by the somewhat timid voice of Usagi. She was looking between me and papa with a guarded but interested expression on her face. "Is this your dad? The one you were talking about?"

Papa looked at Usagi, then at me, and then at Usagi again. "Kiddo, you made a friend? Why didn't you tell me? Wait..." He leaned forward, not even close to putting himself on eye level with the blonde. It was then I noticed just how tall papa really was compared to most other people, especially others my age. The top of my head barely cleared papa's sternum, and Usagi could easily tuck her head underneath my chin. Comparing the two was like putting King Kong next to his unwilling love interest.

Papa was much less civilized than a giant ape, though.

"Tell me right now, did she kidnap you? You don't seem like the type of girl my daughter hangs around with. You're much more the type who gets mugged instead of doing the mugging." Ouch, papa, right in the heart. "Quick! Blink twice if you're being held against your will!"

Usagi just stood ramrod straight at his sudden order.

Papa stroked his chin. "Ok, so either you're here of your own free will or you're blinking so quickly you look like you're not blinking at all. Let's try again. The safe word is 'peaches'."

I slugged papa again in the same spot I'd hit before. He winced and rubbed at it. Good, maybe it'd leave bruises. "Papa, stop scaring my new friend."

He grinned. "Payback for what you did before."

"Then I'll just retaliate in turn."

"My dear, I have only begun to fight."

We were almost nose-to-nose when snort-giggling broke us out of our faceoff. We both turned to face Usagi, who was blushing and holding a hand to her mouth at her unladylike behavior. When she saw were both focused on her, she smiled cheekily. "You're odd," she said to papa. "But the funny type of odd!" she waved off. "And so tall!" Usagi leaned forward and placed her hands underneath her chin.

"I ate my vegetables as a kid," papa said flatly.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Please, the only green things you ate before I started feeding you were gummi bears and bread mold."

"They had all the nutrients a growing boy like me needs!" he responded in indignation. "I'll have you know green mold is especially medicinal."

"That's blue mold, and it's penicillin."

Papa paused. "Oh, so that would explain the hand-powered stomach pump Charity got for me my last birthday."

Usagi laughed again, much louder and more freely this time. "There's no way you two aren't related. You're both so funny, and you look exactly alike!"

"Oh, please don't say that," papa begged. "I don't need an amazon for a daughter. I have enough trouble with her, I don't need her lassoing supervillains off the street."

"Darn it, papa! Stop embarrassing me!"

"Papa's prerogative," he teased, ruffling my hair again. He pulled his hand away from my attempt to slap it and returned it to his side. "Anyway, I just came to pick her up and take her to a meal as a reward for surviving her first day in Japan's public education. You're welcome to join us if you wish, Ms...?" He offered a hand to her.

"Oh! I'm Usagi Tsukino! Pleased to meet you." She took his hand and gave it an enthusiastic shake.

"Harry Dresden. Now, would you like to join us, Usagi? I'd be happy to shell out a bit more if my daughter's friend wants to hang out for a bit. I saw a few good cafes on the way here."

"Actually, papa, Usagi said she was meeting some friends and-"

"Food? Sure! I'll come! Lead the way!"

Papa looked at Usagi's bouncing form, a trickle of drool trailing down her chin, and then at me. "You were saying?" His eyebrow was quirked ever so slightly. I sighed. Usagi's appetite to the rescue, it seemed.

Papa took that as my agreement and the three of us walked out into the street and into downtown Juuban. As we walked, Usagi attacked papa with a barrage of questions, all having to do with either magic (which he looked at me with a wry eye for) or what I was like as a kid (which he gladly provided any and all humiliating childhood stories for.) After a short time, we finally arrived at a small cafe on street level a couple blocks from the arcade Usagi had mentioned going to at her suggestion.

The waitress seated us and quickly took our orders - papa had a coke float; I, a selection from the place's cake set; and Usagi, a jumbo parfait. I noticed papa wince a bit at the prices, but he took it all in manly stride. We continued our conversation until the food arrived, and both papa and my eyes bulged out at the size and complexity of Usagi's parfait. It looked like the desert cart had exploded over the ice cream bar and then drizzled a confectioner's workshop on top. The sugar content alone made the back of my mouth sour.

Usagi tore into the mammoth treat like a voracious beast. Oh heavens, it was like watching an anaconda swallow a suckling pig! Papa diverted his glance from the havoc in front of him.

"Stars and stones, little lady, didn't you just eat lunch? Where are you putting it all?"

Usagi licked her lips clean of cream and smiled brightly. "Oh, didn't you know? Girls have a second stomach for dessert!"

Papa looked at her incredulously, and then at me. "You do? Why didn't you tell me this? Five years of living with a female and I'm still finding out new things! This is why men can't figure you women out - you're an entirely separate species!"

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my tiramisu. "You dork."

A series of beeps broke our jovial conversation. Usagi glanced up at us and then down at her schoolbag. Pulling out a small compact, she flipped it open before stiffening and looked back at us. She let out a fake laugh. "Uh, if you'll excuse me, I have to go tinkle!" With that announcement, she zoomed out of her seat and into the cafe's bathroom.

Papa blinked. "First time I've heard someone use a euphemism for powdering their nose. Although..." He laughed at my cross look. "Alright, alright, uncle, uncle."

"Uncle Tom has nothing to do with this," I pouted. He shrugged his shoulders and took a noisy sip of his float. "But it's a good thing she's gone, there's something I wanted to talk to you about." He raised an eyebrow and took another noisy sip. I frowned and yanked the straw out of his mouth. He laughed. I gave a helpless smirk. "I think you probably already know this, but I'm pretty sure Usagi can use magic."

"You mean like how she pretty much went along with all the things I said about me being a wizard?" papa asked rhetorically. I nodded. "Yeah, shaking her hand pretty much clinched that. Got a nice static cling from her. Nothing too powerful, but it's there, and powerful enough that she should be aware of it."

I idly poked at my cake. "Soo...I was maybe thinking... I could tell her I use magic, too."

Papa stared at me for a good several seconds, and I began to fidget anxiously underneath it. Finally he let up and gave a resigned smile. "Fine, just don't push her too hard to reveal it if she doesn't want to." He flicked some droplets of condensation from his glass at my nose. "And try not to rope her into any hero shenanigans while you're at it."

"No promises," I said sternly. He rolled his eyes and I giggled.

It wasn't long before Usagi returned, straightening out her skirt. She gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I kinda got stuck talking to my friends. You know, the ones I mentioned to you?"

"I thought you went to go tinkle?" I looked at papa with an open-mouthed gape of horror, and Usagi responded by getting more flustered and started to stammer.

"Uh... I did! But then, uh, my friends called and I had to answer!"

"In the toilet? I still don't get you women." I pinched papa's arm and he relented, holding his hands up in submission.

"Ignore papa. For all his dashing good looks, his social skills leave much to be desired. So, were they worried about you? We did just sort of spirit you away without you being able to tell them anything."

"Oh, don't worry," Usagi chirped. Her flush had lessened, but there was still a rosy tint to her cheeks. "This kind of stuff happens all the time! Rei says if I didn't have my head screwed on, I'd lose it!"

Now that I could believe. "So, what was it about?"

"Oh, nothing big, just this side-job the three of us have."

Papa leaned forward. "Really? I'm surprised they'd let girls your age work. What kind of job is it?"

Usagi's eyes widened and her stammer came back in full force. "Oh! You know! Nothing big! Just this little thing. Y'know, the kinda job where you fix dem-I mean, mon-I mean, things! Yeah, that kind of job! Ahahaha..." And cue the awkward, forced laughter!

Papa was obviously about to push further, and I had to admit I was curious about just what Usagi was so adamantly trying to hide, myself. But his investigation was interrupted by a distraction in the form of an obviously magical cat.

Story of my life.

How the heck did a cat just wander into a bustling cafe with either no one noticing or no one caring? I smell tomfoolery afoot! No, but really, there were red flags for supernatural origins written all over the feline that had just jumped into Usagi's lap and started pawing at her outfit with a necessity that triggered all the 'problems abound' switches in my brain.

"So, who's your friend?" I asked.

The cat jumped at my voice and turned around slowly, as if just realizing there were others beside the girl in the booth with it. It gave me one brief, almost instantaneous worried glance before its features relaxed and a film of dumb animal intelligence wrapped over its face. Which was another black mark on its behalf; cats are not nearly as dumb as it attempted to look. Live with a feline like Mister and you begin to see that.

This cat was not nearly as...hearty as the master of my household, being of a more natural size. Its coat was a luxurious and silky shade of black, looking almost bluish in the light, and there was a bald spot in the shape of a crescent moon on its forehead, the curved edge facing downward.

Usagi was shaken from her surprise and grasped at the first straw in front of her (or first cat, as it were.) "Oh, her! This is Luna!" She picked the cat up and presented to us. Yup, that was definitely a girl cat. There was another short, human look of exasperation on the cat's face at its disgraceful position before it slipped back into its feigned role.

My daughter took the whole ordeal in much better stride. Then again, she always dealt with magical-girlish situation with a handful more glee than I ever did. "Oh, she's adorable!" She leaned over and scratched the cat under her chin. Luna meowed in appreciation, her eyes closing and her body going limp. "Mister would just eat you up if he ever saw you!"

"Our cat back home," I explained at Usagi's confused expression. She lit up. "She means that both ways, actually. The dwindling local dog population is a problem we're trying to deal with but are failing miserably at."

"He's joking," Makoto assured Usagi, her stricken face spelling out her feelings on that. "I think." Makoto forged on ahead when Usagi's expression began to slip back. "So, where'd you find her? Never figured you for much of a cat person."

"Oh, some little kids were picking on her and I rescued her. We've been together ever since. The two of us meeting was almost fate, like magic!" She yelped when Luna accidentally scratched her arm with one of her rear claws as the cat tried to escape and find a more comfortable position.

...ok, I don't know whether or not she was feigning her innocence and sheer, palatable stupidity, but if she wasn't, I was objectively terrified for the girl. People with that complete lack of survival and lying skills got gobbled up back in Chicago. Still, I was growing less and less worried about what kind of potential danger the cat might pose. Judging from its attitude and the way Usagi treated it, it was probably some sort of bonded animal.

Usagi's skills most likely revolved around animal empathy, and the cat apparently resonated closely with her. Heck, it wouldn't be the first time I came across animals with a surprising amount of human-like intelligence. Mouse was a temple dog, supposedly with Foo Dog ancestry. At times he easily surpassed my pitiful amount of common sense and wisdom, and he had several supernatural abilities that put him far outside the range of any normal breed. Usagi's cat was probably something along the same lines.

Makoto and Usagi cooed and giggled over Luna's animal antics, and I settled into a lethargic state. This was good. Only one day into Makoto's move and she'd already made a friend, and with someone she could connect to at that. I never thought it would be easy to raise a fledging magic user, but I doubted I fully took into account the social upbringing needed for a young girl who could shoot lightning from her hands.

My musings ended when Luna proceeded to flip the hell out, pawing at Usagi even more intensely then she had before. Usagi held the cat down, asking what was wrong, but it refused to say or do more than meow frantically and jab to the side. I looked over and saw a young man collapse into the booth next to us. He seemed pretty normal, the only thing different being the backwards baseball cap and slightly askew pair of glasses on his face.

True, he seemed to be wheezing and was occasionally grasping at his chest, but for all I knew he could have just sprinted here. He did look a little sweaty and out of breath.

"Luna, what is wrong with you?" Usagi asked in exasperation.

I took a quick look at the cat, trying to figure out on my own the reason behind its sudden shift in behavior, and then back at the young man. He sighed deeply, placing his elbow on the table to rest. Still a bit shaken, his elbow slipped and he pushed the ashtray on the table off. I awaited the inevitable sound of shattering ceramics, but it never came.

Instead, my magic senses flared minutely and I noticed the ashtray suddenly wobble and decelerate long enough for the boy to grab it and place it on the table. He looked around, seeing if anyone had caught him in the act, and nearly fell out of his seat upon locking eyes with me. He froze at my gaze, then slowly pushed his glasses back up his nose, scootched further into the booth, and started to ignore me.

I acted in kind. Another weak kinetomancer, though even weaker and less skilled than Tamako had been. I had the feeling that even the ashtray had been straining him. Well, at least that partially explained why Luna had been freaking out. She was likely reacting to the man's use of magic. Odd that she hadn't had such an over-the-top reaction to either me or Makoto, but sensing passive magical ability was much harder to do than when it was actually in use.

Like right now. Another ping went off and I turned to see what the boy was doing, but stopped in my tracks when a person who had definitely not been there before, or even in the cafe at all, was looming over the kid.

"Sorry, child," the individual said, his (I think it was a he) voice oozing with pompous superiority. "But I believe our game of cat and mouse is at an end, and it's time to take what's mine."

Wow, that wasn't ominous at all. Even less ominous was the blast of force that erupted from the man's outstretched hand and knocked the kid head-over-heels out of the booth, and blasted the booth, too. And now we officially had a mad warlock going magic crazy in the middle of a packed cafe. Just what I needed.

As the cafe fell into bedlam and people started to run away from the attack, I made my way out of the booth and attempted to make a sneak attack on the guy. Hey, just because I wasn't about to use magic as recklessly as him didn't mean I was locked out of smashing the guy over the head with my staff; its hard, wooden structure doubled as a handy bad-guy whacker.

Almost at the same time I moved, a small voice close by cried out, "Zoicite!" I didn't recognize the voice, but it was proper and cultured and a little high-pitched.

The warlock did recognize it, however, and turned towards the voice - and thus me. His eyes lit up in recognition. "Ah, the meddlesome senshi's babysitter. Where are your annoying troublemakers?" He raised an eyebrow at my crouched position. "And what do you think you're doing, worm?"

I paused. "Well, I was kinda hoping to crack you over the head then drag your butt to the wardens to deal with you, but then, I really don't feel like dragging you anywhere. So...beat you to a bloody pulp?"

He frowned. "How droll. Well, I have ways of dealing with people who don't respect their betters. Zoi!"

Instinctively I dove to the side as another rocket of force came at me. The glass window behind shattered underneath the assault. I spared a glance to see if Makoto and Usagi were ok, and from what I could tell, they were both fine, having dodged the other way. Strangely, Usagi seemed much more at ease than the other civilians. Did she deal with this kind of thing often?

That was a disturbing thought.

The warlock - his name was Zoicite according to the mystery voice, though I'd already decided that I was going to call him Zoe - pursed his lips at my tactical retreat. "Well dodged, monkey, but I don't have time for you now." He bent his legs and leapt through the now broken window. "I have a crystal to retrieve."

I didn't relax for even a moment before getting to my feet. Hell's bells, why couldn't anything be easy? I was just supposed to come here, drop off Makoto, and then return home to where things like this still happened, but at least I could deal with it and not have to worry about my daughter. Now I had to chase some reject from the communist mage regime (going by his drab, charcoal outfit) before he did horribly bad things to some Average Joe.

This day was looking to be fun.

I slowly tried to get up, processing what had just happened. An obviously evil sorcerer had literally just exploded the inside of the cafe and tried to do some obviously evil sorcery things to some random guy. Papa had tried to stop him, but the megalomaniacal moron had used evocation, the sloppiest and least subtle form of magic, to fend him off.

In a cafe. Where dozens of normal human witnesses could see.

If papa didn't kick the dude's ass, the White Council was going to have a field day with someone who so flagrantly violated the laws of magic – and not just the official ones, but also the unofficial rule of not breaking the masquerade.

Papa dashed out of the cafe's exit, quickly following after both the sorcerer and the young man he was chasing. "Stay here, you two!" he barked, and took off faster than a blue-winged pegasus, quickly running out of sight.

I stared after him for a moment before muttering, "The hell I am." I took a few moments to check on Usagi and make sure none of the shattered glass or wood had injured her. Seeing that she was shaken, but with only a few bruises and minor cuts, I took her by the shoulders. "Stay here, Usagi," I said. "Make sure that everyone else is alright. Just leave that jerk to papa and me."

"Wait, Mako, what are you-"

"Hey, don't worry!" I grinned, though my heart wasn't exactly into the expression. "It's all in a day's work for a hero. I'll catch that bad guy and bring him to justice!" With that, I leapt to my feet and vaulted out the busted window, looking totally badass in the process. Usagi called out to me again, but I didn't catch what she said. Hopefully, she wouldn't decide to follow, too.

I mean, I had told her to stay after all. What was she going to do - ignore my stern warning and dive headfirst into danger with nary a thought?

...Hey, heroes can be hypocritical, too!

Luckily, papa was still in my sight when I made it to the street. He was running to the nearby park's entrance, which a part of me noted was the same one we had jumped into through the Nevernever.

Before I could call out to him, papa jumped through some bushes, and I heard a smug voice call out, "Ah, you don't learn quickly, I see. Have fun with him, then!" I shouldered my way through the bushes as well, just in time to see the villain du jour vanish, with only a distortion in the air to mark where he'd been. A split-second later, a blast of force from one of papa's rings tore a few of the branches off of the trees behind where he had been.

Papa turned to me as I caught up, and his angry glare brought me up short. He made an exasperated sound that I just knew meant I'd be getting a lecture later, but closed his eyes in that way he did when he was reading the magical energy of the area. After a few seconds, he focused on one direction and nodded.

"Stay with him, Sparky," he ordered, fixing me with another glare for emphasis, and gestured at the sorcerer's recent victim, who was lying in a crumpled pile on the ground near where the man had disappeared from. I nodded in quick agreement and started over to him as Papa dashed off again.

There were times when you had to rush off and take out the villain, and there were times when you had to stay and run damage control to make sure that things didn't get worse; this was one of the latter. Papa could take care of that Palpatine-wannabe on his own. Right now, I had to make sure that the most likely horribly-magicked dude was going to be alright long enough for someone with the proper knowledge and skills to come around and fix him. My lightning powers weren't exactly fit for the situation, but papa and big sis had drilled some basic first aid into me for situations like this.

Situations where someone was injured, I mean, not for when rogue magic users were terrorizing random innocent civilians. Although the one did tend to coincide with the other.

…Wow, my life had gotten strange since papa adopted me.

I ran over to the man and knelt down next to him, noting that he was conscious, but clutching his chest and taking short, gasping breaths. That could indicate anything from simple shock to body alteration. I was really hoping it was the former. I put a comforting hand on his shoulder and rolled him over onto his side. "It'll be OK, sir, just try to stay calm." Not for the first time, I wished that I could carry a cellphone, but hopefully someone was close enough to hear me if I yelled.

I was about to do just that when an idiot in a mini-skirt burst into the clearing and started posing dramatically. Instinctively, my right arm and hand tensed as power flowed through, ready to be unleashed on the would-be ambusher.

"In the name of the Moon, I will… uh… Hey, where'd everyone go?" The blonde girl glanced around before fixating on the two of us. "Hey, what happened here?"

I rolled my eyes, letting the energy I had been about to zap the cosplayer with drain into the earth. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, I guess. "Look, this guy's been hurt, I need you to call an ambulance for him." Wait, why was my arm still tingling? And why was my electro-radar acting on the fritz? It felt like a friggin' storm was building up in the area. Was papa getting into some huge mage clash or something?

"Huh? But he-"

"Right now! Get to it!"

"But Mako…"

My eyebrows shot up, and I started gathering more power. Small arcs of blue lightning began to dance between my fingers like a Jacob's ladder, though if she noticed she didn't react. "How do you know who I am?" I fixed her with a piercing glare.

"Uh, well, that's… Look! Get away from him, already!" She wildly jabbing her gloved finger towards the injured man next to me.

I spared him a glance, then did a double-take. A dark aura, clearly visible, was coming out of him like some kind of evil fire. Even as I watched, it burned even darker, and the man began to scream, contort, and grow. My brain screamed and screeched like a broken radio, and the feeling of a growing storm increased in intensity.

Before I could wrap my head around what I was seeing, he started thrashing around, knocking me onto my back. I scrambled away and back to my feet as he… it… came up to its full height, looming over me. The weird girl yelled something as a mallet – an actual friggin' whack-a-mole mallet – formed on its arm, and it lunged at me with murderous intent.

Had it not been for my self-defense lessons, I probably would have been dead right then and there. As it was, I barely threw myself out of the way of its lightning-fast swing and I realized that, as the crater it left in the ground attested to, even ridiculous-looking weapons can still be lethal. I think I caught sight of some glowing golden thing whizzing past its head, but I was too focused on my own survival to wonder at it.

And surviving was going to be hard - the monster was too close for me to safely use my long-ranged spells, too far to channel electricity into directly, and too fast to either safely run away from or try to close the gap. Normally I'd break out my pair of (highly-illegal) collapsible batons for situations like this, but unfortunately I didn't have them with me because I didn't feel like explaining them if and when the school found them on me. This left me with no real choice but to try to avoid its assault and pray for a miracle.

Another high-speed swing clipped me and sent me tumbling to the ground, and I thought that was the end… until that golden disk came back and smashed into the side of its head before returning to the hands of the strange blonde girl. As I got back to my feet, I thought the thing would charge her, but instead its arm simply extended towards her, and now she was on the defensive as it swung wildly.

Taking the opportunity to put some distance between us and no longer in immediate danger, a part of me finally took the chance to note its appearance – a humanoid the color of dried blood, with metallic, machine-like white armor on its head, hands, and feet. It looked like one of those cheap toys you get from a street toy-vending machine. You know, the one where you put in some change, crank the knob, and a random ball pops out? Gatchapon! That's what they're called.

However, even if the creature looked like it belonged in the minion squad of a sentai episode, it still posed a threat to both me and the crazy cosplayer. Even as I charged up a lightning bolt, the weird mallet-thing turned itself into a two-pronged claw, snatching the strange girl out of the air and holding her fast.

"Damn it!" I muttered to myself. Now that it was in contact with the girl, I couldn't just zap it or I'd hit her, too. Someone at my side started saying something, but I blocked it out as I concentrated on the fight. I'd have to hit them with a low-voltage attack; it'd still get her, but the worst it would do is knock her out, and hopefully the monster would let her go. Most supernatural creatures tended to stop focusing on their prey if a larger threat attacked them. I was effectively going to use myself as bait so that the mob monster didn't squeeze or bash the girl into the ground, but hey, self-sacrifice is what a hero's all about.

Had papa been here, he'd have doped-slapped me to Hell and back for that thought process. And then done the exact same thing. See? Heroes are totally allowed to be hypocritical.

I groped at my side for my baton out of habit as I prepared the spell… and grabbed something distinctly rod-like. Sonuvabitch, had I actually had it the whole time and just not realized it?

I brought up the baton, thrust it towards the monster, and yelled "Étincelle Paroi," intending to trap the thing within a spider web of low-voltage arcs. Even as I cast the spell, however, I noticed a few details I'd missed before:

First, that wasn't my baton I was holding, but rather one of the most girly-looking pens I had ever seen.

Second, the person that had been trying to talk to me was actually Usagi's pet cat.

And third, as the pen began to glow, electricity began coursing around my body, and my electro-sense reached a crescendo with the roar of thunder in my ears and skull, I realized that I had most likely just been tricked into killing myself.

After instructing my daughter to care for the victim (and hoping she'd actually listen this time), I started off in the direction I had felt energy gathering in. The guy may have fled into the Nevernever, but that much energy gathering that soon afterwards couldn't be a coincidence; most likely he'd just taken a few steps and popped back out somewhere else in the park.

He certainly couldn't have simply teleported – I'd never even heard of that being possible without some sort of potion involved.

A few minutes of running later, I reached my destination: a secluded clearing in the park with the villain-of-the-week loitering in the middle. His back was to me, and he was fiddling with something I couldn't see while muttering to himself. This would usually be the point where I pull out my .357 revolver, shoot the bad guy in the head, and call it a day.

…Don't look at me like that. Hunting down warlocks may be one of the Wardens' duties, but it wasn't one I particularly enjoyed. Most warlocks are just kids who made some bad mistakes because there was no one around to teach them otherwise, and I wanted as little to do with putting them down as possible.

This warlock, on the other hand, had gone far enough into the deep end of the evil-and-crazy pool that even I had to acknowledge the necessity. And that's assuming he was even human in the first place.

But back to the matter at hand. Like I said, this would usually be the point where I shoot him while his back is turned. Unfortunately, Japan's strict gun-control laws and tendency towards xenophobia meant I'd left it in my apartment back home – a decision I was regretting immensely at the moment. Then again, with all the times I was accosted by the local police force just for being dark and 'foreign' in the last several hours alone, perhaps it really was a good thing I wasn't packing heat. Still, it was a problem; until I knew whether or not this bozo qualified as human, I couldn't risk killing him with magic.

Well, if guns were out and magic was out, that just left my fists, feet, and absurdly long limbs. And, of course, my big stick.

I crept forward as silently as I could, doing my best impression of a hunter stalking his prey. Actually, scratch that; I was in Japan now, so I was doing my best impression of a ninja, which is way better. I got into striking range without the idiot noticing me, and a grin spread across my face. I had the perfect opportunity to do something I just couldn't resist.

I took careful aim, channeled a bit of force into my staff (enough to hurt like hell and send him flying a few feet without actually killing him) and swung in an arc.

"FOOOOOOOOOOORE!"

The end of my staff caught Zoe on the crack of his ass with one of the meatiest and most satisfying smacks I'd ever had the pleasure of hearing.

"…zare."

The resounding blow launched him forward, and I winced as he smashed face-first into a tree with a sickening snap; I'd definitely broken his nose with that attack. Still, I hadn't meant to send him that far. A pair of crystals flew from his hands, the larger black one hitting a rock with the sound of cracking glass, a shower of sparks coming from it.

I dashed towards him as Zoe pushed himself to his feet, one hand clutching his nose, blood dribbling between and staining his white-gloved fingers. "You stubid abe! You'll bay for dat!"

Hmm… Dressed in ominous and pretentious dark-colored clothing? Check. A face that would cause most people to question their sexuality and looked like it belonged in one of Makoto's moon books? Check. An extremely arrogant attitude that switched to cartoonish rage at the smallest slight? Check. And, finally, shouting out vague, clichéd threats at the first sign of resistance? Oh so very check.

Ladies and gentleman, I was officially fighting a comic-book villain.

I smirked and brought my staff down in a sudden strike to his head, but he flew – literally flew – to the side with surprising speed. He didn't move far enough, though, and I turned the over-head blow into a horizontal swipe, catching his side and sending him a few more yards through the air.

I mean meters. Japan uses meters.

I was about to start after him again when my magic sense screamed at me to stop, and I dug my heels into the ground. Between us, an arcane circle flashed into existence, glowing dark blue and spinning as multiple lines and symbols meshed with one another like cogs in a clock. At the same time, Mr. Comic Book Villain sneered haughtily and pulled out another crystal, crushing it to dust in his hands. The circle flashed again, and, before I had a chance to break it, a creature from humanity's nightmares slowly but surely began to rise out of the ground.

Granted, once you've seen one demon summoning, you've seen them all. Hell's bells, I've even performed a few back in my days when I didn't quite realize how utterly stupid I was being. Still, what bothered me most wasn't the fact that the bozo had brought forth a demon in the middle of a public avenue, but rather that I hadn't seen him prepare the circle ahead of time. Summoning and binding creatures, demons or not, was a touchy and meticulous process that required the utmost care and preparation so that the summoned being didn't immediately eat your face off once it appeared.

To that effect, the circle had to be religiously crafted and maintained, lest your first summoning also be your last. Even something as simple as a chalk outline could work in a pinch, but the man hadn't made anything of the sort in my sight, and I refused to believe that he had enough time before I caught him or that he'd actually foreseen that someone would chase after him.

Guys like Zoe tended to think they were ahead of the curve, and thus never expected anyone to really try to foil their nefarious plans.

Back to reality, though. A sadistic smirk found its way to his face and he pointed a bloodied finger at me. Smooth. "Kill him!" he ordered the demon, before grabbing the crystals and escaping the same way he had last time, vanishing out of sight and leaving only a flurry of cherry blossoms in his wake.

The thing before me looked like a pale-blue, half-naked mockery of a woman. It had knives for fingers and hair like hundreds of pairs of scissors, and as it smiled it revealed rows of shark teeth. Its many serrated edges clacked together with a hungering madness, and a forked, snake-like tongue flicked out of its mouth, tasting the air. Faced with such a sight, I could really only react one way.

"Meh, I've seen worse. Fuego!"

"Wha-"

And then it was on fire.

I kept the heat on for a few more seconds, until cinders started to drift through the air, blown by the air currents my flames were creating. Hells bells, I hadn't made it that hot, had I?

I took a moment to inspect my handiwork; there was no trace left of the demon except for the cinders. I cast out my senses to try to locate the moron who'd summoned it again, but couldn't sense anything – either Zoe'd fled farther this time, or he was smart enough not to draw my attention again. The latter seemed rather far-fetched, but my paranoia made me go with it for the time being.

After taking a minute to scatter the demon's ashes around the park with a wind spell (better to assume it could pull itself together and look foolish than to assume it couldn't and bite me in the ass... sometimes literally), I started hurrying back to where I'd left Makoto and the injured man.

A few seconds that felt like an eternity later, the energy subsided, leaving me surprisingly not-dead. If anything, I actually felt stronger. Even as I tried to fathom what had happened, the energy I had gathered released itself in an over-powered blast of lightning and smashed into the monster.

The monster was sent flying through the air at the force of it, and yet, counter to everything I know about electricity (which is a lot), the other girl was completely unharmed. The worst that happened to her was that she landed on her butt when the monster dropped her, leaving her pouting and rubbing a sore spot on her rear. I stared at the thing lying in a heap on the ground, completely stunned, until I noticed something.

My extended hand now had a white, elbow-length glove covering it. I glanced down at myself, and saw that I was wearing a stylized version of a school fuku, with a very short skirt. In fact, it looked a lot like a green version of the ridiculous outfit Usagi was wearing…

Wait. I turned to look at the other girl – now in conversation with her cat – and saw that she was, indeed, my friend from school. How had I not recognized her?! The hair alone should have been a dead give-away! It's not like anyone else had poor enough fashion-sense to try and rock the dango look!

As I watched, Luna jumped and pulled off a mid-air flip, materializing a pink, crescent-moon adorned rod out of thin air. Usagi grabbed it before I could warn her not to – you never, ever, accept gifts from the fey.

...Shut up, I didn't even know that it was Usagi's cat that had given me the pet. It wasn't like I'd intentionally accepted the thing.

I started wracking my brain for some way, any way, to pull my friend out of the fire she was in – and myself as well. It was notoriously difficult to break deals with the fae once they had been made, and breaches in contract usually had much harsher consequences than the original price. However, my brainstorming was interrupted when I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and saw the demon starting to lurch back to its feet.

I tried to charge up another spell, only for the energy to go wild just as it had before, ready to launch itself out in another massive bolt of lightning. Just before it could release, though, a pair of paws kicked me in the head, making the spell fizzle.

"Hey! Weren't you listening?!" the faerie-cat yelled at me as it landed. "I said Sailor Moon can heal him!"

My attempts at a reply were cut off when Usagi started waving around that wand-thing and incanted, in horrific Engrish, "Moon Healing Escalation!" After a brief light-show and a bit of screaming on the part of the demon, it seemed to simply disintegrate. Its body melted away like it was being burned off, and soon all that was left of it was the man it used to be, who slumped to the ground like a sack of rice.

With everything I had just seen and done, and all that it implied, I had a few billion questions. After a brief moment to collect my thoughts, however, one in particular came to the forefront of my mind.

"What the fuck just happened?!" I screamed at Usagi, slipping back into English out of frustration and confusion.

"Did… did Jupiter just turn into a Yankee?"

"You… and he, and Luna, you…" I grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her, still spouting random English obscenities. "What the hell?!"

"Allow me to explain." I snapped my bloodshot eyes to the faerie-cat. Luna took a step back at the mad look I was giving her and coughed. "Er, right. We didn't want to reveal it to you like this, but you have a great destiny ahead for you." She sat on her haunches and held her head up high. Had I not known what she really was or been in the middle of a major meltdown, I'd have thought her attempt to look imperial was downright adorable.

"You are part of an elite and noble fighting force meant to protect both the Earth and the Sol system from all outside dangers that would dare threaten it. Reincarnated after millennia of sleep, you are tasked to find, serve, and protect the princess of the moon and help her lead all of humanity into a brighter and better future."

Luna pointed a paw at me, her eyes shimmering with pride and fondness. "Avatar of the storm of souls, senshi of the forest, bringer of thunder, guardian of the planet Jupiter. You are she that brings all to their knees with a flash of lightning, the sailor senshi, Sailor Jupiter!"

With her epic speech done, I only had one clear rebuttal to express all that I felt about her and her doctrine.

"FFFFUUUUUUUU-"

The next couple of hours were a stupid and annoying blur. After returning to check on the victim, I was pleased to see that he seemed alright. Well, as alright as having a crystal the size of a golfball ripped out of his chest could leave you, but he didn't seem the worse for wear for it, physically or spiritually. It took a while for the police to arrive, but when they did they took all of our statements on what had transgressed and called in an ambulance to take the guy in. Things were neat and orderly and moving along nicely until the main officer took one look at me and then asked for me to follow him to the police box for 'further questioning.'

It took the combined efforts of Makoto and Usagi to both explain to the officer that I was the good guy in the scenario and prevent me from bashing the ignorant buffoon's head in. No good deed goes unpunished when you have prejudiced asshats like that around, huh? Thankfully, my suffering ended eventually, though not nearly soon enough for my liking, and Makoto and I escorted Usagi back home.

The entire way to Usagi's house and back, Makoto was strangely listless. Usagi kept trying to engage her in conversation, taking quick glances between her and me, but Makoto just responded with monosyllabic answers or indifferent grunts. Something was clearly wrong, and Usagi knew what was going on, but neither were willing to explain it to me. Even the bloody cat seemed to have a clue, and I was left completely in the dark.

Eventually, we made it back to the apartment and entered. Makoto removed her shoes before entering, as customary for her, and I followed suit, if only to make her feel more at ease. We walked to the center of the room and Makoto plopped down onto the floor, like a marionette with its strings cut.

Hesitantly, I placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. She turned to face me, her eyes blank. "Hey," I murmured. "What's up? You've been acting funny since that warlock showed up. Is anything wrong?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing. I-"

"Kiddo," I interrupted. "You know you can tell me if something's bothering you. I'm your dad. It's kinda what I'm here for."

Makoto looked down. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked back up at me. Tears were glistening in her eyes, unshed through pure will. "Papa, I think I'm in big trouble."

A lump began to form in the pit of my stomach. "...what happened?"

She told me. She told me everything. How the victim had suddenly transformed into a demon, how Usagi had appeared dressed up like some rabid cosplayer, how she herself had transformed, and the boost to her powers that followed it, that Luna was actually some kind of Nevernever creature, how she was supposedly some great magic soldier, reincarnated from the past.

With every piece she explained, the lump grew bigger, my blood ran colder, and my soul burned hotter. I knew why she was so worried. She had made a deal with the fae, or something similar. You don't walk away from something like that, and you never finished a deal without losing something essential about yourself in the process. My fairy godmother, the Leanansidhe, drilled that concept into my head quite well.

Something had tricked my daughter into fighting its battles for it. Something had subverted her free will. Something had taken something from her without her consent. Something was going to pay for that.

I had remained silent throughout Makoto's explanation, and she must've taken my silence as some form of rejection for her perceived foolishness, because she tried to shy away from me, wiping her eyes clean of tears.

"I'm sorry, papa, I didn't know what I was-"

I didn't let her finish, pulling her towards me and hugging her tight. "It's alright, Makoto. Papa's here. Papa'll take care of it," I shushed her gently, rubbing the back of her head. She shivered for a couple seconds before flinging her arms around me and burying her face into my chest, hot tears freely flooding from her eyes.

Makoto was a smart girl, and with that intelligence came fear. She might act like a foolhardy hero, but she knew when she was in over her head, and she knew when she was stuck in a situation where she had no chance of digging herself out alone. She was in trouble, she was backed up against a wall, she knew it, and it terrified her.

Something had made my baby girl cry.

Azabu-Juuban was about to be bathed in flames.

And this time, it was absolutely going to be my fault.

A/N (Irritus): Second chapter is done! Man, this one was a lot more of a emotional roller coaster for me than the first. Originally, this and chapter one were to be a single installment, but you can see that the result would have been way too huge for one chapter. As for the wait? Yeah, no real excuse for that. I could say finals struck me, but it's different when you're making the finals rather than taking them. Yeah, I'm an educator. Fear for the children of America, people.

In any case, a lot of stuff happened, and not all of it was happy. For those who thought Makoto and Harry would be pleased at Makoto's transformation, remember this - in the Dresdenverse, everything comes at a price, and the contractor is usually something more akin to Kyuubey than a genie (though traditionally, djinn are real assholes.) Don't believe me? Fairy court knights, Denarians, black magic, Darkhallow, hexenwolves... Yeah, kinda speaks for itself.

Well, until next time.

A/N (Raithe): I am honestly shocked that no one in the comments section called this reaction. Gonna be even more fun when something else gets Jossed a few chapters from now.

As for the chapter itself, we didn't really have a way to make this clear, so in a (most likely futile) effort to stop people from commenting about it: The crane game guy was saved from his first encounter with Zoicite by Ami and Rei, who had left the arcade in search of Usagi.