AN: So, I love interacting with you guys, it's fun, but recently I've been getting fewer and fewer reviews which in turn leaves me with less chances to interact with you guys. Which leads me to a question, is my writing quality degrading? Anyway, As I'm sure you guys noticed, this chapter was nearly late. Last week I said it was a good opportunity to get ahead, and I am glad I chose to cut the chapter, because life got in the way and without that half chapter head start you guys wouldn't get a chapter at all this week, even if it is a few minutes late, but with how hectic my week's been, I'm not going to let a couple minutes get to me.

Review Responses:

HolyKnight5- Well, it was established in chapter ten via Marzanna's half of the flashbacks of the twins' lives that Mike killed the Basilisk, so…. It's a possibility.

Tenzo51- We'll start seeing more of the war stuff soon.

orion0905- That is true. I didn't cut it entirely though, just cut it from the previous chapter, it's still in the story in general as the first half of this chapter.

February 19th, 2025

Her mate continues to stare out the window as he contemplates all the information she'd given him on just how much was in his mind, "... I've got a lot of work ahead of me, don't I? How am I supposed to even begin to make a dent in two hours, hell even if I had two weeks!"

She laughs lightly, "It's a lot to go through, but thankfully reviewing it doesn't actually happen in real time. For instance, if you are reviewing a memory in your own mind and that memory was of, say, an hour long game you once played, it won't actually take an hour. It's not the same for others though, though it still isn't usually a one to one by the second equivalent, it does take far longer to go through someone else's memories, barring a few exceptions, like if the memory is particularly emotionally charged. If you think emotions can make things monstrously complicated in your day to day life, just wait until you see what they can do to your mind, memories, and Occlumency. Mind you, while I know your own morals would stop you from doing so without good reason, I feel like now would be a good time to mention that even entering someone's mind without permission, much less going through it is highly illegal. It's international law too, which means every country in the magical world is required to follow it or they could get in major fucking trouble."

He frowns, "In what way? Like war or something?"

She gives a bitter laugh, "They wish it was just the threat of being attacked by other countries. Here's the thing, the International Confederation of Wizards, a rough magical equivalent to the United Nations, was founded in 1687(1) in response to the witch hunts. After five years of attempting different approaches to the problem, they eventually signed the Statute of Secrecy in 1692. Here's the thing though, they made and signed it as a magical contract. Magical contracts are usually merely given between a small number of people, usually just two actually, and they're usually given verbally. Normally in a magical contact, you state your name, whatever you're vowing to do, be it anything from keeping someone's secret to a Healer taking their Hippocratic Oath, then verbalize what you will lose if you knowingly and willingly break your oath, for instance with Healers it's their magic itself on the line, then all parties seal it in the eyes of magic with 'So Mote It Be'. Or at least, that's the standard today."

She takes a deep breath, then pulls him over to sit down on the bed with her, knowing it'll be a bit longer before they head over to his mind, "However though there had certainly been cases of people not naming what they were putting on the line and misfortune falling upon them for breaking their contract anyway, the International Confederation of Wizards didn't name a price. They basically just wrote out that the people signing the Statute of Secrecy were not only representatives chosen by their governments and therefore had the power to make decisions for them, but that by signing the Statute of Secrecy they were swearing that their entire government would do everything in their power to uphold that law. The problem with not naming a price to breaking a magical contract, is that magic itself will decide what your punishment should be."

She bites her lip, "To be honest, considering any government is prone to corruption, no matter how upstanding and respectable the country as a whole is, it's honestly almost a miracle that it took so long for someone to ignore their duty to the Statute of Secrecy and just do what they wanted, but in 1887 that's exactly what happened. There was this man in China, a huge business owner, that had been careless in how his business operated, before they realized it was his fault, he'd managed to reveal the magical world to over twenty thousand non-magicals that subsequently had to have the memories of the witnesses and anyone they'd managed to tell altered. The problem was, China is a big country, so on the magical side of things instead of a single court for the entirety of it or something, it was broken into segments and there was just one person judging the crimes of whatever area they were given, and he was very good friends with the man who should've been his judge. So when they finally did realize it was him, a little bit of money to his old friend had all the charges dropped and the evidence destroyed."

She grimaces, "Of course, magic did not like that that judge, a local representative of the government by nature of his very job, had knowing and willfully broken the contract to uphold the Statute of Secrecy, leading to an additional fifteen thousand non-magicals finding out the truth in the time between the judge breaking the contract and magic's punishment. And in September of 1887, it very much punished the people of China because those two men uncaringly broke the Statute of Secrecy, with the Yellow River Flood(2). It claimed the lives of an estimated nine hundred thousand people. Innocent people that had nothing to do with what those men had done."

She sighs tiredly, "Magic… It isn't a sentient thing. Semi-sentient, sure, but it isn't fully sentient. Because of this, it can sometimes seem cruel, what it deems fair being anything but. All it saw... was that a representative of China's magical government had knowingly and willingly allowed a man to get away with breaking the Statute of Secrecy more than thirty-five thousand times. It didn't see that only that one judge and the man who actually broke the law knew, and it didn't see those people as innocent, because while both the man who signed the Statute of Secrecy and the judge were representatives of the government, and what is a government, but a representation of its people? Sure, that government is sometimes unwillingly followed or even outright fought, but unwilling or not, if you belong to that government then in the eyes of magic, you are just as responsible for your government as they are of you. Which, when there's a magical contract in play like the Statute of Secrecy, is wholly and utterly."

She gives him a solemn look, "As terrible as the disastrous flood was though, we're lucky that a clause was added earlier that basically boiled down to 'While the International Confederation of Wizards as a whole will uphold the Statute of Secrecy, it's up to each individual country to deal with everything in their borders as they see fit', otherwise, the whole damned world would have suffered for the actions of those two men. However, it also meant that individuals could break the Statute of Secrecy, but if their government caught them they had to be properly prosecuted by their laws. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the circumstances."

She tilts her head thoughtfully, "The only reason that the immediate non-magical family members of magicals are allowed to be told is because of another clause basically states that if magic directly pertains to their lives in a permanent or semi-permanent way, like for instance having a immediate family member or if they're in danger, then they may be told. Which is why my family basically has an international free pass. We respect the idea of the Statute of Secrecy, which is why we loosely follow it, but we also don't really try that hard to hide the existence of demons from people seeing as everyone is in constant danger from them."

"And again, that also why we can get away with it, because demons fall into the category of magicals, so technically speaking, you could tell just about anyone about magic if it's in the frame of warning them about demons, or any other such that for that matter. Well, that's part of the reason anyway, the other being that while we've made America and Japan our home, we aren't technically citizens in any country. Not that anyone is going to make any sort of deal about it, big or small, seeing as the specific way it was done allows us to do our job freely, side stepping any borders or political agenda or anything of the sort."

He looks at her incredulously, "How on earth can you not be a citizen of any country?!"

She grins, "Up until about eight years ago, we actually were citizens of the US, however that could make our job difficult. While it's not technically impossible, especially for someone like my dad, due to relations between countries, being a citizen of the US could make it rather hard to get into some countries. Considering we don't really give a damn about what the political climate between countries is, and since there are are a lot of people in every non-magical governments that are informed of magic so that they can do their job right, including the United Nations representatives, my dad started pushing for both the United Nations and the International Confederation of Wizards to make it so that Demon Hunters, like ourselves, could travel and therefore do their jobs freely."

"Eventually they made the ruling that anyone who is a registered Demon Hunter is no longer tied to any country, and registration was automatically given to anyone that was on record to have taken a Demon Hunting contract for any government within the previous year, whereas anyone can apply for it so long as they have proof of taking and completing a minimum of either five smaller Demon Hunting contracts, even if they were just between the Hunter and a single client, or one large government contract but either had to be within a year prior to application."

"Once registered, a Demon Hunter needs to either continue to produce the five smaller or one larger a year, or they need to be hired by a Demon Hunting business that completes a certain number of contracts a year, with the number being based on how many Demon Hunters they have on their payroll. Otherwise, they're automatically re-absorbed as a citizen of whatever country they were last registered with. Other than the fact that the immediate family of Demon Hunters are given the same liberties as their officially registered family members, it's how I'm still not considered a US citizen even though I haven't completed a contract since before Aincrad. Because technically speaking, Devil May Cry may be my dad's business, but I am registered as on its payroll."

She sighs, "Of course, it took more than that to give us the travel freedom we need, like legally issued passports from basically every country in the world, and they've got to cover for us, so that should we say, get questioned by local law enforcement we don't get arrested because we're not registered anywhere, but technically speaking, even if we're registered in various ways in various countries, some even putting us down as citizens, we really aren't. If we actually do break any laws and the charges don't end up getting dropped, we have to answer to the United Nations or the International Confederation of Wizards. Not that that's happened even once since they pushed it through."

He nods slowly in thought before something seems to occur to him, "Hold on a second. That book said fully bonding is legally acknowledged as a form of marriage by the government." She nods to indicate it's true, "And immediate family is defined as your spouse, parents and grandparents, children and grandchildren, siblings, mother and father in law, siblings in law, children in law, adopted, half, and step family, right? So than, technically speaking, doesn't that mean-"

She nods, "That as soon as we bounded you technically ceased to be a citizen of Japan. Don't worry though, they'll probably just make a notation that will tell anyone that knows about magical that you really aren't a citizen, but otherwise leave the file on your citizenship as is. So it's not going to cause any problems."

She waves a hand vaguely, "When we wake up, there should be a letter for both of us acknowledging our bonding and marriage as well as an additional notice for you about no longer technically being a citizen, the exact details of it, and even basic information in case your magical spouse didn't tell you the basics you'll need to know and where you can find additional information and where shopping centers and the like are as well as how to access them. A summary of 'Hi! You're a magical now! Here's the information you'll need just in case, and how you go about interacting with the world you're now part of.' sort of thing."

He nods slowly, "That's a relief." He's silent for a moment, just staring at the floor, "... It's actually really weird, you know? I was born and raised here, and the only time I've ever even given a thought to possibly moving to another country was after we got together, since you are, or at least I thought that you were, American. So to just suddenly not be a citizen of Japan anymore… Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, just… Strange…"

She nods in understanding, then smiles at him as she stands up, "Well! That's enough of that. We had something we were supposed to be doing."

She extends her hand to him. As soon as it enters his vision he lifts his gaze to look at her and immediately returns her smile as he reaches up to take her hand, "Right. Let's go then."

Leading him over to the door he glances out the window again and finally seems to notice the balcony outside and his brow furrows, "Why are you taking me out to the balcony? Shouldn't we be going over to my mind?"

She grins teasingly, "Why do you think I'm taking you out there? To push you off of course." He rolls his eyes, but does look a bit amused by her joke, "Just kidding of course. I'd never push you off a balcony. Actually, only the door on the other side of the bed leads to the balcony, and only if you want it to." He gives her an absolutely blank look, but she can feel his waves of confusion and bafflement and she can't stop her grin from widening even if she wants to, "How many times do I have to say it. This is a mindscape if you can imagine it in your mind, it's easily possible."

And with that she opens the door and pulls him through, not stepping onto the balcony, but out of a door neither had seen from Kazuto's side of the room in his mind because it was located on one the back of one of the free standing bookshelves on her side. He once again gives her, and the bookshelf, that blank look and she can't help but giggle, "Admittedly, while what I've been saying about anything you can imagine being possible in your mind, I have been told that my mind, and therefore this part of your mind since it's also mine, can be a very strange place. Because my brother is my twin, we also have a telepathic connection, but apparently for him stepping from his mind to mine isn't like the door we just went to, but rather gravity seems to shift ninety degrees and he falls-slash-steps through a mirror with the viscosity of syrup, only without any sort of liquid actually clinging to him, and then the shimmering mirror like object puddles and evaporates. To be honest, I think the only reason it's a regular door that leads between our minds is because of you. The balcony to bookshelf thing is definitely me though."

He shakes his head in bemusement, then lets her tug him over to his nexus point and settle on the edge of the bed, "First things first, let's get you some basic defenses."

He glances at her, then frowns, "This is probably going to take the whole two hours isn't it?" She nods, more than a bit confused. Picking up on it he shakes his head, "To be honest, while it is my mind, I really don't have any idea how things are supposed to function like yours does, where you can actually experience anything again. I mean, it's gotta just be lines of text or images, so the only thing I can think of is if I somehow had some sort of super 3D printer that didn't need any materials to work with to recreate something from my memories."

They're both startled by a bang, and looking over they see that a sizable machine seems to have just dropped out of nowhere. She shrugs at the look he gives her, "Nexus point. There's a reason I brought you here to start on basic defenses."

Kazuto looks unsure, "Err… Ok? Handy I guess, but not what I was getting at. What I was trying to say was that I was planning on changing it from everything being stored on regular computers to being stored on a server in the form of a VR. Well, not technically VR since it's all in my head, but I'm sure you get what I'm saying. If the mystical 3D printer is any indication, it'd work even if I don't know all the ins and outs of how to make a VR irl, which is the only thing I was worried about."

He's barely finished talking before servers appear around the room at the same time the computers disappear, even as that happens, two AmuSpheres appear on either side of the table. Kazuto twitches slightly, but she just smiles widely, "Actually, that works as a great first line of defense as well. I doubt there's many people that could hack into something as complicated as a VR system, which they'd have to do to get inside. Actually, considering the fact magicals are so vastly outnumbered by non-magicals that we only make up about three percent of the total population, and yes that's including all magical beings though not the magical beasts and creatures. With the current global population at eight point one billion(3), that means the global magical population is two hundred and forty three million.

She tilts her head, "While there are plenty of people who never report learning Legilimency because while it's not illegal to know it's illegal to use it on anyone without permission, it's estimated that there are only about three times the registered number of people that know it in total. Even with that though, that still leaves the estimate at only twenty-eight percent of the magical population, or roughly… sixty-eight million. Which sounds like a lot, but given how complicated VR programming undoubtedly is, given how few people know how to do it, and that you'd also need to know Legilimency as well, it serves as a pretty damn good first defense."

His mouth is gaping again, this time she gets the vague idea from him that it's partially due to how low the magical population is, and partially due to just how many people there are in the world that can legitimately read minds, "Now, plenty of these people that don't register are mostly good people who are just nervous at basically telling the government that they know how to do that thing that's illegal to do without permission, and I say mostly, because most of these people do read people's minds without permission, but they just use it for things like telling if the person they're talking is actually into the conversation or if their significant other is cheating. Small stuff. Still illegal and unethical, but they generally don't mean any harm by it."

She sighs, "That said there are also plenty of people who will try to use it to take advantage of you. They often use it to dig up blackmail, credit card and bank account information, or to find out things like when your house will be empty so they can rob you blind without worry. Now admittedly, there's a pattern amongst criminals of this nature, they're known to prefer non-magical targets that can't protect themselves. Because of that there are plenty of them that absolutely don't know how to handle a defended mind and what to do when they happen across someone they thought was a non-magical but turns out not to be. Don't think they're harmless just because they can't get past your defenses though. Like I've said multiple times, using Legilimency on someone without permission is highly illegal. Criminals of this nature that accidentally stumble across a magical tend to attack, usually in the hopes of killing their victims so that they can't report them."

She smiles bitterly, "After all, anyone who's in the process of learning or an active practitioner could easily describe or identify them, seeing as you have to make eye contact and therefore they know exactly who was trying to illegally enter their mind." Then she sighs, "And while all this is important and you definitely need to know it, it wasn't my point. My point was that with roughly sixty-eight million practitioners of Legilimency on the entire planet combined with how monstrously complex a VR is, it's highly unlikely anyone would be able to break past that defense. Not that you should leave it as your only one. Better safe than sorry, yeah?"

He nods absently, clearly thinking about what she'd told him. She gives him a bit of time, but after a few minutes, clears her throat and gestures to the AmuSpheres once she has his attention, "That said, I believe I explained earlier about being unable to move nexus points and how they could be a target of attack?" He nods lightly, "I realize you probably didn't give any actual thought to it, seeing as they just appeared right after you finished explaining your idea, but what I'm getting at is that your nexus point should be inside your VR defense, not part of the hub to get inside."

He tilts his head, his eyes narrowing in concentration. After a few moments, the servers and everything barring the bed and her side of the room disappear. She can't help but smile slightly when she realizes they're now inside their house in Aincrad, though their bed has been replaced by the one that served as his nexus point and the wall that their window looking outside had been had disappeared in favor of expanding the room to fit that piece of his mind that was hers. It was a bit of a pity actually. The window had a wide window seat that she'd quite enjoyed curling up on with Kirito and a blanket.

Her mate turns a warm smile towards her, clearly having picked up on the thought. Then his brow furrows, and he gestures towards her area, "Can I… Or do you have to?"

She smiles at him, "Either actually. That's one of those things about being fully bonded. We have the same level of ability to change each other's mind to our liking, no matter who's mind we're in. Of course all couples have their own ground rules, but for me, I'm quite happy to let you change either my mindscape or that piece of yours that's mine to your heart's content, so long as you don't outright get rid of or break anything. It's actually one of the only times I know of that you don't need explicit permission to enter someone's mind, given how closely their minds are tied together already and that between soulmates it's always a yes when it comes to deepening the connection in any way, no matter how temporary."

He nods in acceptance, then pauses, "I feel the same you know. About what you were saying earlier. You're more than welcome to change whatever you want, barring the same restrictions you set."

She smiles, then leans over to press a kiss to his cheek. He grins at her briefly before turning his attention back to her area and narrowing his eyes again. Technically, now that she had Kazuto's permission, she could change it to include that window she'd liked herself, but she was curious as to exactly what changes he'd make and content to let him get the hang of altering his mindscape.

It's unsurprising that the first thing he does is get rid of the bed, that was only there because of him anyway, on her side and use the wall space for her window. They didn't need two beds and while it may have been perfectly reasonable before they got together, now the idea of sleeping in separate beds just made them both feel uncomfortable, and it felt ridiculously formal as well. Some of their wall space in their old room had been taken up, but mostly it was just from the bed and bedside tables being pushed up against it. So it's also unsurprising that he unknowingly mimics her on bringing the nexus point and connection closer together by moving all of her decorations and bookshelves barring the freestanding ones to be along the walls of their room from Aincrad.

Next, he moves the door from the back of the bookshelf to the wall. She pouts a bit at that, so he smiles at her and moves it over next to the window, though he's clearly just humoring her. It does settle her though. Door that should go outside but leads to somewhere else entirely may not be original, it was how it was on her side as well, but at least it no longer looked like it was leading into the rest of the house. With the door dealt with, the free standing ones move to bracket their nightstands. As the final touch, the entire room shrinks until there's still a bit of room along the walls for later decorations, but most of it is taken up by her stuff.

She smiles lightly, then stands up and stretches, "Well. I think the VR setup will suffice as your defenses for now, so you should start going through your memories and figuring out how you want to sort everything. I'd help if I could, but you literally have to go through your memories and sort them yourself. Sorry."

He smiles lightly, "No, it's alright. It makes total sense that I'd have to do that myself."

She grins at him, "You say it doesn't bother you now, and I even know you're telling the truth, but I don't think you realize just how much you'll have to go through. I'm almost certain that while the house is probably neat and tidy and exactly how you remember it last, there's probably a humongous pile of stuff outside. It's probably all at the front of the house, seeing as I don't see anything out the window and it looks over the backyard."

He gives her a bemused look, "I doubt it's that bad."

She simply shrugs at his disbelief and offers him her hand. He accepts it without hesitation and lets her lead him towards the front door without protest. Once they're on the porch though, he stops in his tracks upon seeing the small mountain of stuff outside in the snow. He gapes for a few minutes, then faintly says, "You're right. I retract my previous level of how ok I am at doing this entirely by myself."

She laughs then pushes him towards it, "Still can't help you, whether you change your mind at how ok you are about it or not, and that pile isn't going to sort itself, so I suggest you get started, and while you're doing that I'll pop back up to the server room, send all the memories up there down here for sorting, tidy it up, and put up a couple more defenses.

He gives her a pitiful look, "You're so mean."

She shakes her head with a grin, "If it makes you feel better, the faster you get everything sorted, the sooner I can show you how to make the process automatic so that every second isn't adding more you'll need to sort later. And before you ask, no, I literally can't show you how to do that first because you have to have a sorting system already and you won't figure out how you want to do that until you get started, not to mention you have to accept every single memory's absolute truth, rather than continue to delude yourself about them, and you can't do that automatically to old memories. You can accept new memories in such a way automatically even if you don't necessarily like that truth, like say for instance what happened with Laughing Coffin, but not old ones. It's why you have to view every single one of them."

He originally perks up at the idea of automatic sorting, then slumps slightly when she nips his hope at the bud. He slumps further, already looking defeated despite not having even actually started, when a significantly smaller figurine of the pile and a glowing orb pop into existence a foot above the pile then tumble down it before stopping about halfway down. They were undoubtedly representations of the memory of what just happened in general along with the knowledge on Occlumency he'd gained during their conversation specifically.

Then he musters up his determination and makes his way over to the pile, immediately pulling a little figurine of Pina of the pile. His eyes unfocus as he reviews the memory of what she's rather confident was their little mission to retrieve the Pneuma Flower with Silica.

She shakes her head as he emerges from the memory and moves away from the pile to place it on its own. Sorting the pile itself would certainly be a start and she really did want to help but she just can't. All she can do to help is to use her experience with Occlumency to keep track of time so that he doesn't accidentally strain himself too much and to do exactly as she'd said she'd do while he's working on the pile.

Clearly picking up on it, her mate shoots her a smile and sends a wave of reassurance that despite their joking he really did understand along with appreciation for her willingness to help him with such a monstrous task if she could as well as for what help she can give him. She smiles back at him, then waves her hand to pull up the logout menu so she can return to the server room. She had her own work to do.

February 22nd, 2025

She lingers in the doorway just watching her mate train for a few moments. He'd only just gotten his Nephilim blade forged and was slicing the air with deliberate slowness, trying to get his muscles used to both their newfound Nephilim abilities and the weight of the heavy dual straight swords that had unsurprisingly been its primary neutral form. Even less surprising was that it had taken the forms of Elucidator and Dark Repulser.

That said, while he'd received plenty of training with them from her in Aincrad and his mind was accustomed to his beloved weapons, his muscles didn't have the same familiarity in wielding them. He'd also still need more training with them, seeing as she was one of the worst fighters in her family. She was roughly tied with her twin, but in his defense, he hadn't been at it long. With her, she was just bad in comparison to her family. Good compared to anyone else, really good in fact, but when compared with her family? Not so much. Mostly because while she had made the discovery in VRs that she enjoyed a good fight, she was still more of a scholar than a fighter.

After a few minutes he sheaths the weapons and begins stretching. She slowly approaches him, causing him to glance at her with a small smile, "I was wondering if you'd just loiter around, or if you were gonna come over."

She shrugs, "I wasn't trying to hide my presence from you. I was just thinking."

Her mate tilts his head at her, "What about?"

She looks away, "You becoming a Demon Hunter. You don't have to, you know. No one would've been upset if you chose not to. You actually surprised my family quite a bit when you decided you would."

Kazuto grins at her a bit, "But not you. You weren't surprised in the slightest, were you?"

She smiles a bit at that, "No. I may not know the reason why, but I had a feeling you would. That's... what I was wondering though. Your reason. I know that you usually feel like you have to help if you have the ability to, but you don't Kazuto. I know that the Nephilim abilities you gained with our bonding gives you the skills to be an amazing Demon Hunter, but that doesn't-"

He cuts her off, "That's not why." He pauses for a moment, briefly looking at the ground in thought, before returning his gaze to her, "Yes, it's true that I feel like those with the ability to help should do everything in their power, but that's not why I made this decision." Seeing that she was still confused he smiles at her. Stepping closer, he runs his fingers through her bangs, then trails them down until he's cupping her cheek, "Marzanna... You're my partner in more ways than one. I know you can take care of yourself, that you don't need protection, you're my beautiful badass after all, but I want to. I want to take care of you, to protect you. Like I said, you're my partner. I'm going to be there if you ever need me, no matter the circumstances."

She blushes lightly, then nuzzles the hand pressed to her cheek, "... Yeah. You too. I'll always be there. I love you."

He kisses her briefly, then with his forehead pressed against her own murmurs quietly, "I love you too."

Outside the door Dante scowls at the ground while Kat and Trish grin at him. Trish chuckles, "You look like you're having daddy issues." He glares at her, but she just laughs at him, "You've tried your absolute hardest to hate that kid just because he's your little girl's boyfriend, but it's impossible isn't it? Especially after hearing all that. Can't hate a kid when he's devoted enough to literally follow your little girl into hell on a regular basis just to make sure she's safe."

Dante growls lowly, "Shut up..." He glares when Kat gives him an expectant look, but caves a few seconds later, "Alright, alright, enough already. I'll accept he's her mate and stop glaring at him, but that doesn't mean I have to like the brat."

March 1st, 2025

She gives her mate a hesitant look, "Are you sure about this?"

Kazuto sighs lightly, then smiles reassuringly, "Marzanna, we've been over this at least twenty times. Yes, I am sure of this. You and your brother want to see each other, Hermione and I want to meet, and I want to see a purely wizard town. Yes, I'm fully aware that Britain isn't the best place to get my first look at wizarding culture, you've told me repeatedly about how behind the times they are, both by non-magical standards and the majority of magicals world wide, and there's also how prevalent the pureblood superiority belief is there, especially with the war. As I said though, along with the other reasons, if this is going to be my world from now on, I want to see all of it, the good and the bad. I understand why you'd want to protect me, I've experienced how overprotective people get of their mates myself, but you know I'm not the type to pretend everything is perfect in the world."

It's her turn to sigh now. They had in fact gone over this multiple times, but it still didn't make her feel any better. She'd been exchanging a lot of letters with her brother since she woke up, and quite a few with Hermione since they'd met. Kazuto hadn't actually sent any letters of his own, but he knew her brother and he knew how close they were to each other. With that being said, being in similar positions of knowing both twins and being the significant other to one of them, it wasn't surprising in the slightest that Kazuto and Hermione had rather quickly reached a mutual desire to meet.

However, she hadn't wanted to get in the way of her brother and Hermione's new relationship and Mike hadn't wanted to interfere with her and Kazuto's new bond. Hermione's solution had been a double date. Initially she'd been as enthusiastic as the others at the solution. However, since Kazuto also wanted to see a wizard town and the other two were still in school, their plans had quickly reached the next logical conclusion that they should meet in Hogsmeade. The SAO survivor school wasn't due to start until next month, so it made perfect sense for her and Kazuto to use an international portkey to Hogsmeade.

That was when she started having issues with this idea. While it was technically impossible to tell by just looking that Kazuto was a Switch, the term used for someone who wasn't born with magic but gained it later, anyone who did believe in blood purity would draw terrible conclusions purely due to Kazuto choosing to wear regular clothes rather than robes and the like. Of course, she was wearing regular clothes as well, but with her and Mike being twins, and basically identical as well, their relation was obvious, and with the Sparda's having officially claimed the title of being an Ancient and Royal family, it wouldn't be as much of an issue.

Those who held those beliefs would certainly look down on her for her 'poor taste' and for being a 'muggle lover', but she was still pretty much a known factor at a glance. With Kazuto, he was obviously not related and Japanese to boot, a country which was known to care so little about blood purity that the only time it was brought up in any way was if it actually mattered. For instance, they only officially labeled non-magical borns as such in their files so that they could make sure that they were given a proper orientation to magic, or like with Kikuoka informing them that he was a Squib so that they knew they could speak freely.

The point being that anyone who held even a tiny bit of the prejudices that plagued that country would think the absolute worst of her mate almost immediately. And while those who might want to wait for confirmation might give him the benefit of the doubt and possibly assume that he was merely of Japanese descent rather than actually from there, his accent and the fact he wasn't totally fluent in English would only add to the evidence against him. And all that was before taking into account that it was an active war zone.

In her opinion her concerns were well founded, but Kazuto kept reassuring her that this was what he wanted. She really needed to figure out if it was possible to rebuild her ability to say no to him because the number of things he'd been able to get her to agree to since bonding were frankly ridiculous. Though to be fair, he seemed to suffer the same problem since they'd bonded. He's not the one who was convinced to try frog legs just to prove a point about a certain incident in Aincrad though. It didn't matter if they hadn't actually tasted that bad, they were still gross. Thankfully, while she'd known she'd inevitably give in, she had been able to hold her ground long enough to get him to promise not to make her try anything she thought was gross again.

Shaking off the wayward thought, she holds out the fist sized plastic disc that had been issued to them as their portkey, "Alright, alright. Ready to go then? The portkey is activated by a keyword so we can leave whenever you're ready "

For the first time since they started making these plans, her mate looks dubious. For a brief second she feels a flash of relief at the possibility that they might be able to cancel after all, along with the tiniest shred of guilt at her lack of guilt at canceling on her brother and friend at the last minute. It's dispelled when her mate sighs, "I guess. Your mom told me that portkey travel is pretty uncomfortable though…"

She grimaces, "It is. Out of the three common ways of long distance travel amongst magicals however, portkeys are the most comfortable and have the most reliable possible distance you can go. Apparition is based on magical power and mental fortitude, so if you've got both of those in spades, you can technically go pretty damn far with it, but it feels like being squeezed through a tube that lacks air. Floo travel is the most limited and also the hardest to get used to, so I've honestly never seen much of a point to it. Portkeys though, they've already got the magic and destination in them, so it doesn't matter how much power or fortitude you've got. That said, it does feel like getting hooked behind your navel and dragged through the air at high speeds and you have to be careful about letting go soon enough or you'll find yourself being slammed into the ground."

Now it's her mate's turn to grimace, "Sounds… fun…." Then he gains a concerned look, "What happens if you let go too soon though?"

She hums, "Technically, you'd be thrown out someplace random between your departure and arrival destinations, despite the fact it's technically a form of teleportation, but the spell itself was tweaked almost as soon as it was made to include a variant of the sticking charm that makes it impossible to let go once it's been activated until you reach your destination."

He nods, then tilts his head in curiosity, "Oh. That's good then… Why plastic though? I've read those books on magical theory and I thought it wasn't very good as a magical conduit."

She shakes her head, "It isn't, but portkeys actually don't require enough magic for it to matter. It's just what they issue them as so they don't have to worry about anyone stealing it, which from my understanding was a problem back when they used metal discs. Actually, Mike told me that they use actual junk in the UK, like old soda cans or boots, but I'm not sure if I believe that."

His face scrunches up, "I sincerely hope he's just pulling your leg because otherwise that's completely unsanitary and a massive health risk, more so for some items than others but still…"

She huffs, "You're telling me. I want to say it's why I'm sure he's just messing with me, but considering the British Ministry of Magic as a whole seems to lack sense…." She shakes her head, "Anyway, we're going to be late if we procrastinate any more, so grab on."

He nods, then reaches out and takes hold of the portkey. After checking that they've both got a firm grip so that they aren't thrown off the second the sticking charm deactivates she nods, "Alright, when I tell you to let go, do so immediately, I wasn't joking about slamming into the ground. After you do, be ready for a rough landing." Her mate nods, so with one last sigh at how stupid of an idea this was, she activates the portkey, with the standard location based keyword, "Japan to Hogsmeade."

Immediately she feels the tell tale hook behind her navel and her feet leave the ground as they're whisked away. There's the usual rush of color and the wind that makes it seem like they're floating in the eye of a tornado. Her mate grimaces and she gives him a smile tinged with discomfort.

A moment later she feels the charm release her hand and shouts at her mate to be heard over the wind, "Let go!"

She only waits a second to make sure he had before following her own advice. Landing harshly on her feet she sees her mate stumble a couple steps forward before he rights himself. Once he has, he takes a deep breath, "That… was even more unpleasant than I thought it'd be."

She grimaces at him, "Wait until you start learning how to apparate. It's not uncommon to throw up the first few times. Or splinch yourself."

Her mate gives her a weary look, "Do I even want to know what splinching is?"

She gives him a weary look, "Splinching occurs when a magical apparates unsuccessfully, usually due to insufficient determination, causing the magical to leave part of themselves behind. This can range from clothing and minor things, like some of your hair, to more serious things, like a limb. Thankfully, even if you do leave a limb or something of that nature behind, it's merely a matter of the two pieces not quite leaving at the same time, so it'll only be a couple minutes at most before the missing part appears, and it's easy to fix splinching so long as you have a medical professional at hand, and classes or examinations for apparation always have a medical professional on hand, just in case. And seeing as you'll be denied your apparation license unless you can perform it perfectly, it's a perfectly safe method of travel. Assuming you aren't illegally apparating around without a license of course."

Her mate looks horrified, "Safe?! What the hell are any number of medical professionals supposed to do if I lose an organ?! Like, I don't know, my heart?! What about if my head and body separate?"

She smiles lightly, "Hun, first of all, they're magical medical professionals, putting an organ back in is a hell of a lot easier for them than it is for non-magicals. In fact, when it comes to fixing splinching, so long as you have a medical professional there's never any permanent damage, not even a scar. Second, it's impossible to leave an organ behind. Do you remember how I described how it felt earlier? The reason it feels like you're being squeezed through a tunnel is because your magic contracts in on itself. You grow subconsciously used to feeling it flow through your body freely, so when it all gathers into your head and chest and constricts like that it feels like you're being squeezed. The increased density of magic in those areas inadvertently protects your organs and keeps your head and body attached to one another."

That seems to have calmed him down considerably, but he still looks weary, "Oh… Still not sure if I want to risk even temporary loss of limb for that."

She tilts her head, "Alright, but I'll definitely be going for my license. Apparation is really useful, not to mention convenient." Seeing her mate still look unsure she gives a thoughtful hum before continuing, "You remember when I first woke up? When we were attacked by that harpy demon? The way my parents just popped in was via apparation."

Her mate tilts his head in thought, "Alright. I concede that it can be useful and that I should probably learn how to do it and get my license, but don't expect me to be particularly happy about it."

She laughs lightly, "Fair enough."

Her mate glances around, then frowns, "Where are we?"

She glances at the rundown shack her mate was staring at that she'd absently taken note of when they arrived, "No idea. Not really anyway. Supposedly the portkey was supposed to drop us off at someplace called the Shrieking Shack. Considering they don't want people just popping in on top of someone else though, it's probably just someplace just outside of Hogsmeade."

His frown deepens and grows tinged with worry, "... Are you sure we're in the right place?"

She turns to him, "Yes. While it does rarely happen that you end up in the wrong place with a portkey, that's always an error on the part of the maker or distribution. However, since I can sense Mike and can tell that he's really close by, we're definitely in the right spot."

Before her mate can reply her brother speaks up from behind them, "Right here actually."

They turn to see him and Hermione standing behind them, and Hermione smiles lightly at Kazuto, "To answer your earlier question, this is in fact the Shrieking Shack. It's said to be the most haunted place in Britain, but in all actually the shrieking that used to be heard from the building was from a werewolf transforming. Since said werewolf was a student and this place was built before the invention of the Wolfsbane potion, he'd be brought here every full moon and locked inside so there wasn't worry of him hurting anyone. He's long since graduated though, and with the Wolfsbane potion having been invented, it hasn't seen use since. Still, the residents of Hogsmeade and the students of Hogwarts don't know all that, so it remains something of a tourist location because of its reputation, despite the famous shrieking not having been heard in sixteen years."

Her mate smiles lightly, "Hermione I presume?"

She smiles back and extends her hand to shake, "Of course. And you'd be Kazuto, it's nice to finally meet you."

Her mate grins, "You as well. I must admit, despite Marzanna being how she is, I've been looking forward to meeting someone else these two describe as a nerd."

She laughs, "I'm glad it wasn't just me then!"

He tilts his head, "So, if no one else knows all that about the Shrieking Shack, how do you?"

She grins lightly, "Because the werewolf in question is a pseudo uncle to Marzanna and Mike."

He grins lightly, "Ah, that would explain it."

She tilts her head at her brother, "We weren't late were we?"

Mike gives an aggravated sigh, "No, but we almost were."

She raises an eyebrow, "What happened?"

Her brother grimaces, "One of the Gryffindor fourth years tried to give me these chocolates spiked with love potion a while ago. I wasn't stupid enough to eat them considering how pushy she had been about them. I was busy though, so I just dropped them on my nightstand while I picked up the books I needed for mine and Hermione's study session. They fell onto the floor and ended up near Ron's bed. Despite the fact the idiot didn't see them amongst his presents at all, because it's his birthday he assumed they were his when he found them near his bed. He started growing paranoid and eventually became violent when the other guys in my dorm were trying to convince him to go to the hospital wing."

He growls, "We ended up having to stun the idiot and send someone to get McGonagall. She tried to get onto me after we worked out what had happened. I eventually managed to shut her up when I pointed out that while I'd suspected the chocolates were spiked, she was the one that told us all that our houses were supposed to become like our family, and that I should therefore be able to trust something given to me by a housemate, but by that point she'd kept me so long that Hermione and I had to nearly run the whole way just to get here in time. Even then, we only arrived just in time to see you guys portkey in. We would've spoken up sooner, but I wasn't joking about damn near running here, we were back a bit catching our breaths."

She smiles lightly at her brother, "That's quite alright, and hey, you might've had a bit of a bad day so far, but there's no reason to let that drag our double date down, yeah?"

He grins lightly, "No, I suppose not. Well, come on then. We can start by giving you two a tour of Hogsmeade if you like."

Kazuto glances at her, then grins, "That sounds lovely. Lead on then."

(1): This admittedly might not be entirely accurate, but I can't remember if we're ever actually given a date in the books and the only thing I could find online was that it was 'before the 1690's'.

(2): I would just like to point out for those of you that don't know, that yes, the Yellow River Flood was a real event that happened. I am not in any way, shape, or form trying to make light of the subject. It was one of the biggest catastrophes in history. I fully acknowledge that. Especially since from what I was seeing 900,000 was the more conservative estimate to how many people died in the flood. However, I would like to point out that in fanfiction, or even just writing that takes place on earth in general people do use real life events in the stories. I mean, due to the Statute of Secrecy, many Harry Potter fics make mention of the Witch Hunts often, and while there isn't an exact number most historians think it were around 40,000 to 100,000 deaths based on public records. About 12,000 executions have been confirmed in existing records. The Yellow River Flood was larger, killing an estimated 900,000 people, but I'm no more making light of it than any other writer is of the Witch Hunts.

(3): No, this is not a mistake on my part, I'm aware the global population is 7.6 billion. This is the official estimate from the United Nations of what the world population will be in 2025. Which is when the story takes place.