Chapter Twelve

Everyone else was outside in the courtyard when Kalin and Radley dressed and went downstairs. Scotch stood up and waved. "Hey! The food's epic!"

Radley chuckled. "After last night, I'm not surprised."

Valentina looked to them hopefully as they settled in at one of the long tables. "How are you both today?" she asked.

"We're alright," Kalin said.

"Grandmama, did you and Grandpapa know about the idea that the Ramon kingdom is near the villa?" Radley asked.

"We've heard it being suggested, but we really don't think it's true," Antonio said. "There's no village! And of course, neither the villa or here has a castle."

"So you really figure it's along that castle road then?" Radley frowned.

"It might be," Valentina said. "Or perhaps the solution is different than what we're thinking. For all we know, maybe they're right and the kingdoms were where they say. But it doesn't explain the missing castles. Or the missing people in our 'kingdom.'"

". . . Could the castles have been sealed away with the monster?" Radley decided to ask. The thought had stayed with him and it seemed worth suggesting despite how outlandish it was.

Antonio looked intrigued. "We never heard of such a thing, but it would solve the problem, wouldn't it?"

"So would the monster destroying the castles," Kalin grunted.

"Both of those things sound really Sailor Moon-ish!" Scotch volunteered.

Radley had to chuckle. "This is real-life, though."

But in spite of his words, the thought stayed with Radley as they continued to eat and afterwards, as they cleaned up. Like it or not, the parallels were there and it was eerie. He almost wondered if the manga-ka had heard of the legend and had been inspired to write Sailor Moon because of it. The more he thought about it, the more impossible it was not to wonder. Why had he just dismissed it? They wanted answers. For all they knew, there could be some to be had there.

He looked up when Scotch approached. For once, he actually looked serious and that gave Radley pause. A serious Scotch was usually a matter of concern.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Well . . ." Scotch shifted his weight before speaking again. "I realized. . . . With your pendant and all, you're a magical guy. I know that must be really weird for you, Radley, and I just wondered if you'd like to talk. . . ."

Radley leaned back with a touched smile. "To be honest, I haven't even thought a whole lot about that aspect of things. I've been too caught up in trying to cope with the idea of reincarnation being real and worrying about this battle with the monster. I guess I am like the male counterpart of Sailor Moon, huh? And that would make Kalin Tuxedo Mask?"

Scotch nodded. "Your pendant is like the Silver Crystal. It can do awesome things, but it hurts you when you use it. If you push it too hard, it could even kill you . . . like the Crystal killed Queen Serenity." He looked down.

Radley laid a hand on Scotch's shoulder. "You've been comparing this mess to Sailor Moon all along and no one really listened," he said. "Maybe you're more right than any of us thought. You suggested before we even left that maybe we should watch some to help us figure things out. Why don't we do that now?"

Scotch perked up. "I saved all the relevant episodes on my phone before we left!" he said.

Radley had to chuckle. "Of course you did. I'll get Kalin and maybe we can hook your phone up to the TV in our hotel room so we can watch on a bigger screen."

Scotch beamed, thrilled to be able to be helpful. "Okay!"

Kalin was still more skeptical, in spite of the number of parallels. Having overheard the conversation, he walked over once Scotch had gone inside to set up. "Do you really think watching a magical girl anime will help us?" he said in disbelief.

Radley laughed. "Honestly, I don't know. But would it hurt to try? You've gotta admit, the similarities are there in droves."

"Even if it's true, would she have had access to any more information than we have?" Kalin folded his arms.

"Maybe not," Radley said. "And she no doubt would have embellished and made up a lot. But I think it's worth checking out with an open mind." He sighed. "Like it or not, Scotch is right. I'm a magical guy. I can't transform and I can't do wacky attacks with cutesy cheesy names, but I have a magical object that allows me to protect at the cost of my own safety."

Kalin's eyes darkened at that description. "Alright," he said at last. "Let's try it."

Most of the Bunch was also lukewarm about theidea, especially Billy. But they were willing to go along with Radley and all went into the hotel room to watch.

"Where's your great-great-grandparents, Radley?" Jimmy asked.

"I'm not sure," Radley admitted. "They acted like they wanted us to soak in this village, so I kinda figured they were going to stay back for a while to let us figure out what we think of it."

Scotch was just finishing getting everything hooked up with the room's widescreen TV. "Okay!" he announced. "Let's do this!"

And for the next couple of hours, they all watched and took notes. Radley noticed that Billy scoffed noticeably less as time wore on, and Kalin grew more and more solemn. When they finally took a break, Radley looked down at the list he had been making.

"So," he said, "what does everyone think now?"

"This is just wild," Virgil grunted.

"There's too many similarities to ignore," Kalin said. "Either she knew about the legend or this was fate for her to be so inspired on something so much like it."

Radley drew a shaking breath. "Yeah. Well, let's see if we can make sense of anything. We'll talk about everything we noticed that could potentially fit."

"Princess Serenity was the princess of the Moon Kingdom, while Prince Endymion was the prince of Earth," Billy said. "The two planets didn't trust each other, or at least, Earth sure didn't trust the Moon. In the Crystal version, it was so long ago that the two of them were a thing that when Earth attacked the Moon Kingdom, it ended with Earth actually having to start over building their civilization."

"That almost sounds like it could have been at the time of Noah's Ark," Radley mused. "The people were so wicked that they were destroyed almost down to the last man. Only Noah's family escaped. I'm pretty sure the princes didn't live that long ago, and that their problem only affected this area in Spain, so that's probably the manga-ka's own invention. Still, we'll keep it in mind just in case. If the people of those kingdoms slaughtered each other, it sadly could explain the lack of kingdoms now."

"The people were brainwashed or mind-controlled or something," Scotch said. "Queen Metallia or Queen Beryl had enough power to actually make almost all of Earth fall under their control!"

"That is terrifying," Radley said. "Here, we've got the kingdoms in Spain distrusting each other and fighting so much that they created the evil monster the princes had to fight."

"Princess Serenity was fascinated with Earth and kept sneaking down to see it," Scotch said. "Then she saw Endymion and got fascinated with him!"

Radley smiled a bit. "That was reversed here, with Prince Kalin, the Endymion counterpart, feeling a strong connection with Prince Ramon and sneaking off to watch him a lot." He sobered as he continued, "Ramon was the heir to the family's pendant and was trying to learn how to properly use it, but he could never fully seem to get it under his control until the very end. Apparently love was the key to making it work, and his love and strong desire to protect everyone from the monster enabled him to finally use its strongest power."

"The Silver Crystal ran on love too, and Queen Serenity used it to seal Metallia away and end the war," Virgil said. "It looked like it was also the Crystal that let her send everybody to the present-day to live again. But then she died, because using the Crystal's full power was fatal."

"In the legend, it was God that granted the princes and their loved ones a second chance," Radley said.

"Queen Serenity is supposed to be a god herself," Scotch said. "She's an incarnation of Selene, the Moon Goddess."

"Well, I hope we're not going to uncover that part of the legend is that Ramon's mom was a goddess," Radley said. "That's getting too out there for me. It's hard enough for me to have to think that mythological beings such as the Egyptian Gods were real in some form."

Kalin grunted, opting not to admit that the Earthbound Immortals were at least considered gods by the Dark Signers. In his right mind, he wasn't sure what to think of that unless they were evil gods. They certainly weren't benevolent.

Billy sighed. "But so what have we really uncovered? It doesn't sound like we've unearthed anything that earth-shattering unless we follow up on the Noah's Ark idea."

"Wait a minute." Radley waved a hand at him. "We're not done yet. So, in both the legend and Sailor Moon, everyone gets restored to a new life in the present-day. Queen Beryl remembers about Metallia being sealed away and goes to find her, kicking off the whole mess all over again."

"Where's our parallel for that?" Billy scowled. "Would anyone be that stupid?"

Radley opened his mouth to respond when suddenly something hit him like a ton of bricks. ". . . I just remembered what Anastasius means," he said in dismay. "Resurrection."

Kalin stared at him. "It might not have anything to do with this."

"Or it might," Radley said. "He's so interested in the legend, almost to the point of obsession. His loco powers . . . what if they're courtesy of the evil force? What if Anastasius is the Queen Beryl of our story and he's trying to release the evil force all over again?"

"Why would he do that?" Billy frowned.

Kalin scowled. "Beryl apparently wanted Endymion for her own, even if she had to destroy the world to get him. I hope Anastasius doesn't have any such insane ideas about me or Radley."

"I kinda doubt it," Radley said. "He seems more like he's into the legend as a whole as well as the relationship between the princes. Weirdly, he seems more like he supports it rather than being against it."

"Yeah!" Scotch said. "So why would he want to release the evil thing?!"

Radley pondered. "There's also how he acted like he really didn't know what happened when he flipped out. What if he's an unknowing or unwilling vessel for the force?"

"Then he's a victim we need to save!" Scotch said.

Radley grimaced but nodded. "How, though?" He sighed. "Do we try to use the pendant to push it out of him? If we just banish the thing again, it'll get out someday. And just banishing it rather than destroying it was enough to kill the princes. How . . . how can we really be sure we'll live through the battle this time?" He trembled a bit. He didn't want to die. And he most certainly didn't want Kalin to die.

"Maybe it's like in the Crystal series, where everyone helped destroy the evil!" Scotch said.

Radley didn't want all the Bunch in danger either. But it was something to think about. "If love is the way to work the pendant, maybe all of us pouring our love into it will make it strong enough without it being fatal," he consented.

". . . What seemed to be the final ingredient needed was prayer," Kalin noted. "Sailor Moon and Luna were praying and then things finally got fully fixed."

Radley smiled a bit. "You can bet there'll be prayers," he said.

"So what are we going to do?" Billy asked uncertainly. "Go confront the guy?"

Radley sighed. "There's not much choice at this point," he said. "We need to confront him before we leave. I just wish we were better suited to fighting him if it turns out we're right."

"What about bringing in Yugi's taskforce?" Kalin suggested. "They're supposed to be equipped to handle magical crimes, so maybe they still have access to white magic objects that could help."

Radley perked up. "That's a good point," he said in noticeable relief. "I didn't even think of that because I thought we were supposed to fight on our own, but there's nothing that says we can't have help."

"I'll call right now." Kalin took out his phone.

Marty, however, was soon on the university's website. "Anastasius is not teaching today," he announced. "He's probably not there."

"Great," Radley groaned. "I'll have to call the dean and get his home address."

"Then he'll literally have a home court advantage," Kalin remarked. "Who knows what tricks he'll come up with if we go to his house." His eyes narrowed. "But there's not much choice. He's really our only possible lead right now and we need to know what he's up to."

Radley nodded. "Yeah." He reached for his phone. "We'll have to do it."

The dean was still shaken by the scene in his office and not terribly eager to give Radley any information. "He'll figure out that I told you," he worried. "And I'm sure you'll all get hurt!"

"We've still got to talk to him," Radley said. "We won't tell how we got his address."

At last the dean sighed in resignation. "Alright." He gave the address, which Radley immediately typed into the Maps application on his phone.

"Thanks," Radley said as he hung up.

Kalin was hanging up too. "Yugi says he'll let everyone know. Atem, Yami Bakura, Kaiba, and the Big Five are the ones with magic objects," he reported. "The Big Five happen to be in Europe on business and will probably be able to get out here by later today. Meanwhile, we could check the village here and the Ramon property for any clues to the kingdoms like we were also thinking of doing."

Radley relaxed some. "That's great," he said, the relief shining in his eyes that they wouldn't have to face this possible menace alone.

"It sure is," Billy said.

". . . I wonder, though, if we need to check out his house right away anyway," Radley frowned. "If he possibly is planning something, he should probably be watched."

"Some of us could stake it out," Clint said. "We wouldn't act unless he really is doing something now."

"That might be really dangerous," Radley said in concern. "I'm hoping we're overreacting here, but it's possible we're right on the money."

Virgil nodded. "You can't trust a guy who acts like he does," he said. "He's either looney or evil or possessed."

"Let's look around here first," Kalin said. "Then we can drive by his place on our way to the villa."

Radley nodded. "We probably won't be here long," he said. "I'm sure these guys have gone over every part of this place many times over."

"What about your great-great-grandparents?" Kalin asked. "You surely don't want them along when we face Anastasius."

"No, I don't," Radley said. "I'll try to convince them not to come. And . . . I wonder if you should see your mom before we go." He sighed.

Kalin picked up on what Radley was not saying. "You mean in case something still goes wrong," he said.

Radley nodded. "Yeah."

"I don't know about that, but I am going to call Yusei," Kalin said. "If we need everyone's love and prayers, we should have his and the others' too." He took out his phone again. Yusei had left a text message to reach him by a video-calling app they sometimes used rather than a regular phone call, so Kalin hastened to comply and soon they were connected.

Yusei was alarmed to learn the full story of what had been happening there. There was no time to even process what Kalin's mother had said, not in light of the rest of the tale. He couldn't say he was convinced the similarities with Sailor Moon were anything more than bizarre coincidence, but he could see why they would think otherwise. And stopping Anastasius was a problem he could definitely get behind.

"We're coming out there to help you," he admitted. "I don't know if we'll make it in time, but we're on our way now. We're already on the plane."

"You are?" Kalin said in touched surprise. "But you have so much to do there. . . ."

"It's fine," Yusei said. "I want to be there for you."

Kalin smiled. "Thank you, Yusei. I can always count on you."

"That was why I said to use the app instead of a phone call," Yusei said. "The plane has Wi-Fi, so the app still works in flight. If we don't make it in time, you'll have all our support and good thoughts. Prayers too."

"Yeah, we probably shouldn't wait too long to try to solve Anastasius's part in this mess," Kalin said. "He's not teaching today, so it's possible he might be coming up with something we'll need to fix. There's so much we don't know or understand about him."

Yusei nodded. "Be careful, all of you," he implored.

"We certainly will be as much as we can," Radley said with a wan smile. "Thank you, Yusei."

"Thank you," Kalin echoed. "We'll see you soon."

He leaned back in moved surprise as he hung up. "Yusei's coming. . . ."

Radley smiled. "It sounds like the gang will all be here—everyone who was part of the legend as well as newer friends like the Big Five."

Kalin nodded. "I hope we'll be enough."

Radley sighed. He certainly did too. "Let's go find Grandmama and Grandpapa and let them know what we're doing," he said. "We should get started."

Kalin nodded. "Let's."

Valentina and Antonio were outside, talking with some of the townspeople in the square. Valentina especially beamed at them as they approached. "Hello! What have you been up to today?" she greeted.

"We were watching anime, believe it or not," Radley chuckled awkwardly. "Scotch has been saying all along how much this legend is like Sailor Moon. We finally took him up on it and watched. And honestly, it really is."

"It's impossible to believe it's a coincidence," Kalin added.

Valentina looked intrigued. "We will have to watch this Sailor Moon ourselves," she said. "The legend is so beautiful, it doesn't surprise me in the least that it could have inspired others to write their own stories."

Radley smiled a bit, but it soon turned sad. "Well, right now we're going to look around the village a while and then maybe go back to the villa," he said. "Later today, some friends are coming and we're going to go find Anastasius and try to get to the bottom of his part in this. He's not teaching, so we're going to his house."

Valentina looked worried, as did Antonio. "Please be careful when you do that," she implored.

"Should we come with you?" Antonio asked.

Worry flickered in Radley's eyes at that suggestion. "We might have to fight with him," he said. "I'd hate for you two to get hurt."

Antonio frowned and nodded. "We certainly don't want to be in the way. We will stay back if that is best."

"I think it would be," Radley said kindly. "But we'll keep you posted as much as we can."

Valentina hugged him close. "You will be safe," she said. "We will wait for you either here or back home."

Radley returned the hug. ". . . We're thinking there's a possibility that this will be the battle with the evil force, but we're not sure," he said.

Valentina drew back, staring at him in shock. "What would make you think this?"

"It's a long story," Radley admitted. "But we're wondering if there's a chance that Anastasius' powers are coming from the evil force."

Valentina and Antonio exchanged a worried look.

"If this is true, you are going into a highly dangerous situation," Antonio said unnecessarily. "We will pray for you constantly until you return."

Radley managed a smile. "Thanks, Grandpapa. There isn't anything in any version of the legend about the force possessing a mortal or something like that?"

"Not that I am aware," Antonio said.

Radley sighed. "Maybe we're off-base. In one way, I hope we are. In another way, I'd like to face this battle and get it over with."

"We'll soon know," Kalin said. "Maybe."

Kristopher was all too happy to take the entire group around the village. He had already been showing Valentina and Antonio around, but they were delighted to go again and share it with all the others.

Scotch was delighted by everything. He happily took picture after picture and several videos. Radley just smiled, happy to see him finding enjoyment on their trip even with the grim task ahead of them.

Kalin, on the other hand, was very tense. He looked at every building and even the stone walkways with a suspicious eye, clearly trying to determine if clues to the missing kingdoms could be hidden in them. Every business was part of the tour, and Kristopher added his house to it as well. It was all very enlightening and fun, a quintessential European village frozen in time, but nothing seemed to jump out as a solution to the mystery.

The townspeople were just as friendly and welcoming as they had been the past night and soon were showering Radley and Kalin with gifts ranging from baked goods to accessories. Radley was very gracious and Kalin nodded awkwardly with half-mumbled "Thank yous." Were they going to have room for everything?

Radley wasn't too worried about that. He was sure it would all fit on his family's private jet.

"So," he said at last as they came to the end of the main business district, "this is a real lovely place. We were told your tradition is that this is Prince Kalin's kingdom, but nobody seems to know what happened to the castle."

Kristopher sighed. "We believe it was destroyed in the battle," he said. "Most of the stones in the walkways and buildings are supposedly the stones from the castle. The Kesslers felt that Prince Kalin would have wanted it used to rebuild the village."

Radley blinked. It was certainly a reasonable explanation, and yet . . .

"Kalin's mother didn't mention anything like that," he said.

"It is our tradition," Kristopher said, "but we have no written proof of it."

"I believe it!" Scotch said.

"I wonder why she didn't mention it anyway," Radley said. "She didn't say anything when the topic of the missing castles was brought up."

"Something about the idea bothered her," Kristopher said, "but she never said what. Perhaps it was because of how your home in Domino City was destroyed. She suffered much because of that and knowing she could never go home to you, Kalin."

Kalin frowned. "Where is she?" he asked.

"She should be back at her room," Kristopher said. "She has a permanent room at the inn."

". . . I'd like to see her again," Kalin said.

Kristopher nodded. "We will go back."

"We also wondered if there's been anything said about the evil force possessing a mortal," Radley said as they started to walk.

Kristopher's brow furrowed in his concern. "No, there hasn't," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Someone unusually interested in the legend seems to have dark magic powers," Radley said vaguely.

"That is certainly a matter of concern," Kristopher said. "I wish I could be of help."

"You've helped," Kalin said.

At the inn, Mrs. Kessler answered on the first knock. "Hello." Her eyes brightened to see Kalin. "I thought you would have left by now."

"We're going back to the city," Kalin said. "I don't know that we'll get back to this place before we leave Spain altogether. Have you decided yet what you're going to do?"

Mrs. Kessler left the door open and half-turned away, walking into the room. "I haven't," she said. "I know leaving would be logical, but this has been my home for over 19 years. If I go back with you, Kalin, how will I make a living? Will it be easy to get a job? I have one here."

"Is that really your reason?" Kalin frowned. "You wouldn't even have to go to the City. You could come back to Satisfaction Town with us. I'd see that you got a job, a good one."

Mrs. Kessler smiled a bit, but didn't turn back. "Do you really want me there?" she asked. "Even knowing the truth, it must be hard to erase a lifetime of believing I'm a home-wrecker and a witch."

". . . It is," Kalin said, seeing no reason to deny it. "But it's not true. I was still upset last night. Today I can think more clearly. I . . ." He took a deep breath. "I forgive you, but now I have even more reason to despise my father. I don't know if I can forgive him."

Mrs. Kessler turned back with a sad smile. "Try, Kalin," she encouraged. "Hate is a powerful weapon and poison. I don't want you to fall to it again . . . even if the man is arguably deserving of it." She sighed. "In the end, it's my fault he became the way he is. It was my leaving that changed him. He really wasn't a bad person until then."

"You had no idea you wouldn't be able to get back," Kalin objected. "He made his own choice to turn out the way he has. He could have decided instead to bond with me since I was all he had left. I've heard of parents like that, who use tragedy as a way to grow closer to their children. He could never comprehend it."

"No, he probably couldn't," she sighed.

"And maybe you want to stay behind because you still blame yourself and you think you're deserving of the punishment," Kalin said. "I felt the exact same way. But Mother . . ." He clenched a fist. "What I didn't realize—what you don't realize—is that we're hurting other people when we hurt ourselves. I hurt my first best friend as well as my newer best friend. I nearly got them both killed! I never want to be so narrow-minded again."

Radley had to smile. "Well?" he asked her.

Mrs. Kessler was smiling now too. "While you do whatever else you need to, I will think," she said. "Let me know when you are going to leave for home and I will have my decision by then."

"Ideally, it will be in a few hours," Kalin said. "Hopefully by nightfall if not sooner."

"I will think fast," she promised.

"We're going to talk to someone who's very interested in the legend," Kalin said. "We're not sure if he's an enemy. Do you know if any version of the legend mentions the evil force possessing a mortal?"

"I don't," Mrs. Kessler said, clearly worried now. "Please be careful if you think this!"

"We will," Radley promised.

Kalin nodded agreement. "And one other thing," he said. "Why didn't you tell us about the tradition of the Kessler castle being destroyed and then used to rebuild the town?"

Her eyes flickered. "I don't like that story. I don't want to think that every stone in this village was from a structure where you used to live in your previous life . . . a structure that was destroyed when you were killed. It's too haunting, too horrible. I don't think I could stand to live here if I really believed it."

Kalin slowly nodded. ". . . I understand." And he truly did. He could imagine feeling that way about Radley.

She smiled a bit sadly. "I know I should have mentioned it, but I didn't really think it was relevant, and I thought Kristopher would tell you."

"I wonder why he didn't tell us last night," Radley mused.

"He wanted a celebration then," Mrs. Kessler said. "He didn't want it marred by anything grim or sad."

"I get that," Radley said.

Kalin stepped back. "We need to go," he said. "But we should be checking in again later."

"Alright, my son," Mrs. Kessler agreed. "Be careful, both of you."

Radley looked a little skeptical as they left. "Whatever her deal is, she might decide to stay here," he warned.

"I know," Kalin said. "But I had to at least try."

Radley nodded and put an arm around his shoulders. "So now we head back to the villa," he said. "And Anastasius. I hope we can handle whatever we find."

Kalin stared ahead. "We'll soon find out."