"Come on, Mittens, where are you…" Emira kept repeating as she looked behind practically every bush around the rugby field. Behind her Edric and Hunter were following her; after Amity had run away, the rest of the team had divided into various groups to go look for her... except Luz, who obviously after hearing Willow say 'let's split up' had waited no longer and ran to look for her on her own; and so Hunter had ended up with the twins, with Flapjack acting as their spokesperson with the others.

While Emira was busy rummaging through the bushes, Hunter turned to Edric: "Look, it's none of my business, so feel free not to answer me if you don't want to... but is your mother always... well... like this?"

"You mean she's a manipulator obsessed with perfection? Of course she is" Edric answered with a note of disgust. "She was like that with us too... although much less intensely. She forced us to be a certain type of people by playing on our sense of guilt. But after years we got tired of it and reached the breaking point, and so we completely stopped fitting in with the lifestyle that was imposed on us... you know, we started skipping school, making trouble... the classic nonsense of rebellious teenagers. Even if... well, even if we act bold, when she scolds us we still feel a lot of shame even if we know that her reasons are wrong... at least, almost always. I admit that sometimes we actually exaggerate"

"Wow, now I understand why you are so lazy and spiteful" Hunter commented.

"Thanks for the compliment" Edric replied proudly, then his face turned dark again. "With Mittens... it's worse. Our mother manipulated her much more intensely than us. Ever since she was little she gave her a lot more attention. I don't know why, it's as if for her the mere fact that Mittens isn't perfect represents a taboo. With us she just looks at us badly and lets us know that she doesn't approve of our behavior, but she doesn't really seem to care, at least not so much like she says; with her... it's different. That's why Mittens can't even think that what she is imposing her to do doing is wrong... no, she can't even understand that she is imposing something on her. She is completely under the thumb of our mother"

"If it helps, I know how much it sucks to grow up with someone who treats you like shit" Hunter commented with a sigh. Even though his childhood had been far worse than theirs as it consisted solely of physical pain and verbal abuse, he couldn't deny that the Blight siblings had had some tough times as well.

Edric smiled slightly. "Thank you. You're a friend"

Hunter nodded, then his gaze became much more intense: "Look... can I ask how well you know your mother?"

"Huh? Well... pretty well, I guess... I mean, she's my mother... although she has some secrets, but that's normal for a parent..." Edric replied confused.

"Secrets, hm?" Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, have you ever seen her handle herbs? Hold an object of dubious shape in her hand? Maybe utter some strange words?"

"Huh? What are you saying, man?" Edric exclaimed more and more confused. "Anyway, no, I've never seen her do certain things..."

"Does she sometimes disappear without an explanation?" Hunter asked again.

"Um... yes, sometimes she locks herself in her study or goes out of the house for a few hours... but she's a businesswoman, I assume that's part of her job..." Edric replied.

"Does she have any aversion to having her hair touched?" Hunter asked again while his gaze became more inquisitive.

Edric thought about it. "Well... I've never seen anyone do that. And when we were little and I, Emira or Amity occasionally tried to grab it, she moved away. But I guess it's just because she cares a lot about her hair, she always pays a lot of attention to it"

"Has she ever cut it? The hair, I mean" Hunter asked with an increasingly strange look.

"Well... not that I know of" Edric admitted, then he said: "But why are you asking me these absurd questions?"

"It's just an instinct" Hunter replied. "When you spend your whole life hunting the most dangerous creatures in the world... you start to develop a certain intuition for certain things"

Edric raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand you" he admitted.

Hunter was silent for a second, then he shook his head vehemently. "Forget it, it's just my paranoia" he said, and before Edric could ask for further explanations he noticed a little bird coming towards them; he reached out his hand and made him rest on it. "Oh, look, Flapjack is back! What do you say? Oh, good. Apparently Luz found Amity again, they're waiting for us at the field"

Although Edric was not at all convinced by Hunter's hasty response, his attention was immediately caught by what Flapjack said; he right away called loudly to Emira, who rushed away so quickly that it seemed as if she had grown wings. Edric sighed; between the two of them, Emira had always been the more emotional one when it came to Amity. Not that he didn't love her, but compared to his sister he was much better at maintaining mental clarity, since he knew that in certain cases it was more useful than letting himself be governed by emotions. Whenever something happened to Amity, Emira was the one who freaked out, while he was the one who had to stay calm for both of them. However, this aforementioned calm didn't stop him from running with all his might towards the playing field. When they arrived, they found Amity sitting next to Luz with all their friends already present around them, and as soon as they were close enough Emira almost threw herself on top of her: "Mittens, is everything okay? Are you hurt? Look, I'm sorry about before, we shouldn't..."

But to her surprise Amity giggled and smiled. Edric and Emira looked at each other confused: that wasn't a forced smile, they could see it clearly. And now that they looked at her better, they realized that Amity wasn't wearing her captain's uniform, but rather a uniform very similar to Luz's, except for the pink shirt and the red gem-shaped decoration. "No, guys, I'm the one who should apologize to you. You were right, I... I wasn't fine"

Emira and Edric's jaws dropped, and Boscha, Skara, Amelia, and Cat also widened their eyes in surprise. It was the first time they had heard Amity admit that something was wrong. "Well… I'm glad you understood it, Mittens" Edric murmured. "Now what do you mean..."

"Don't worry. Luz managed to... well, I don't know what she did either. She used that ability of hers to enter the hearts of others, which I love... I mean, which we all love!". For some reason Amity felt the urge to correct herself on that last part. "Anyway, what I'm saying is… you were right, and I was wrong. And… I'm sorry for pushing you too far"

There was a moment of silence, then Boscha let out a laugh: "Apologies accepted... but only if you buy us everything I ask for an entire month. You're rich anyway, you don't have to care about money"

Amity blushed slightly. "Okay" she agreed, glad that her friends had forgiven her so quickly, then she became serious again. "Anyway, you were also right that we can't keep playing like this. And it's true, I'm too tired right now, although not as tired as the three of them. So..." and she tossed the captain's uniform to Willow, "Here. The team is yours"

"What!?" the ex-cricket exclaimed as she grabbed it. "Um... shouldn't we at least talk about it a little?"

"No, I don't think there's a need. I believe that everyone here agrees that you're the best fit" Amity replied, and everyone nodded. Even Boscha gave a nod; normally she would have fought to take over the captain position, but right now she was too tired to fulfill that role and she knew it. "The captain must be a strong, agile, resistant person with a strong focus on the rest of the team. At the moment I don't meet these requirements, but you do. I will be content to play in the same role as Luz". She paused briefly, then said: "And then... I discovered that today I don't want to be the captain. I don't want to be in charge or have responsibilities, I just want to play rugby and have fun"

Edric and Emira didn't know what sort of magic Luz had performed on Amity, and they both had a strong suspicion that the puppet had hit her on the head, but either way they looked at her with eyes full of gratitude. Luz had managed to work a real miracle if she had been able to convince Amity to take a step back and even think about having fun instead of shining, even under the careful and judging gaze of their mother.

Willow looked quite conflicted, and it was clear from her gaze that she would rather be anywhere but here; but after seeing that everyone was looking at her encouragingly, she let out a deep sigh and put on the captain's uniform. "Okay" she said.

Hunter couldn't suppress a chuckle. "I'm really going to have to call you 'captain' now" he said, remembering the brief exchange of words they'd had on the pirate ship months ago.

Willow blushed visibly. Even though she knew she was good at rugby, she definitely didn't think she had the qualities of a captain. But after all the others were all okay with it, so there wasn't much she could do about it. Maybe it was worth a try... after all it was just a game. "Mh. So, we still have a few minutes of time, so let's take this opportunity to change the formation. Amelia, Cat and Boscha, as I said before, you stay in the back, so you can..."

Willow quickly outlined the new game plan. Amity felt a little annoyed to see someone else take the leadership role instead of her, but a much larger part of her felt strangely relieved. It was as if a huge boulder had been lifted from her shoulders. She enjoyed being the team captain, but in that moment she was still happy to be able to hand the role over to someone else.

Within minutes, all the new roles had been established and the team was back on the field, ready to play again. Amity instinctively felt her mother's gaze on her, and for a moment she felt the fear and anxiety return, but all she had to do was look at Luz's smiling face as she cheered on their teammates for those feelings to vanish; animated by a courage she didn't know she had, she put herself in her new position and didn't look at the stands even once. The opponents were quite surprised by the sudden change of roles in the team, and probably took it as a sign that they were now weaker (not without reason since this change had been due to tiredness), because they charged immediately; particularly against Willow; even though she was now wearing the captain's uniform, they had probably assumed that she was the weakest in close combat due to her physique, as up until now she had remained relatively out of the more powerful melee. Too bad they had counted the chicken befor they hatched.

Willow wasn't intimidated at all; without any fear she in turn charged towards her adversaries, and as soon as they touched her at least a couple of them flew with their legs in the air. It was then that the Glandus team realized that she wasn't a pushover at all, but they didn't have time to think about it before she took a leap and hurled the ball at full speed into the enemy goal; the opposing goalkeeper managed to save it, but the force was such that he was thrown back, effectively causing him to fall into the goal with the ball in his hands. Result? The referee blew the score for Hexside. In practice, to add insult to injury. The opponents didn't take this turn of events well and immediately charged at their opponents, this time with a much more elaborate strategy, but as usual they found themselves faced with an impenetrable wall in human form that bore the name of Hunter; the few who managed to get past him were promptly thwarted by Amity and Luz, who acting together at the back managed to snatch the ball from them and throw it back to Willow.

Then something unexpected happened: Willow completely changed her behavior. Suddenly she was no longer insecure and unconvinced about her new role; instead, her expression changed to a jovial and determined one, showing that she was actually enjoying what she was doing. Her strategy became more confident and aggressive, and numerous points were scored in the opponent's goal. Within a few minutes any trace of insecurity had completely disappeared, leaving behind only a Willow who looked like a real war machine and who cheered and laughed heartily every time she scored, and she also commanded the rest of the team in an almost natural way, to the point that almost no one thought to oppose her orders.

Soon, inspired by her fighting spirit, the rest of the team also began to regain confidence and fight back with the same intensity as before, if not more. As she played Amity realized she was smiling without meaning to; she was having more fun than she ever had. Every time her mother's face would pop into the back of her mind, immediately making her heart pound with anxiety, it would immediately be drowned out by all the joy, gaiety, fun, and all the other dozens of great emotions she was feeling. It seemed to her that until that moment she had had a chain with an iron ball tied to her foot, and suddenly it had come loose, leaving her free to really run and jump. It was a wonderful feeling.

Although Willow stated that she was not interested in scoring many new points, her leadership and fighting spirit meant that the team continued to widen the gap with their opponents, and when the referee finally blew the whistle for the end of the game, the final score was 48-13. They all burst into ovation as they realized what a landslide victory they had won, and almost grabbed Willow and lifted her into the air... which they couldn't do because their arms were too tired for that, so they managed to lift her only a few centimeters from the ground, and then very cunningly they gave up and dropped her into the arms of the only one who actually still had the strength to support her weight, meaning Hunter, who lifted her up almost like a princess before realizing what she was actually doing. Needless to say, they both tensed up and their faces turned red, but nevertheless they still remained in that pose for almost a minute looking into each other's eyes before stopping to do that. When she had finally recovered from the tornado of emotions that had been unleashed inside her, Willow handed the captain's uniform to Amity: "Thank you for choosing me. I admit I really enjoyed myself"

But to her surprise Amity shook her head. "You can keep that uniform. I've discovered that I don't want to be captain anymore" she said with a smile. "From today, I don't want any more responsibilities. I just want to play rugby"

Willow was a little taken aback. "Uh... well..." she stammered, looking at the uniform. "There's no problem if you don't want to be captain anymore... but we should definitely discuss this choice..."

It wasn't difficult to understand what she was referring to: her gaze was undoubtedly pointing towards Boscha. The magenta-haired girl loved rugby and everyone knew how competitive she was and also that she had serious problems managing emotions, so they wouldn't have been surprised if she hadn't taken well Amity's decision to entrust Willow and not her with the role of new captain. But to everyone's surprise, Boscha shrugged and said: "You can keep that uniform for today. You deserved it". Then she pointed her finger at her: "But know that from tomorrow we will compete for that place! From today, you are my rival, remember that!"

Willow was amazed and also a little scared by the girl's sudden change in personality; she was taking it strangely well... too well. She silently approached Luz and whispered: "Is it just me, or is Boscha nicer than usual?"

Luz nodded. "I'm pretty sure she smiled at me before… it's creepy, right?"

"Do you remember that I'm two meters away from you!? I can hear you, you know!?" Boscha growled, but instead of intimidating Luz and Willow she only made them breathe a sigh of relief. Okay, she was still the same Boscha.

Any arguments were stopped by the arrival of Lilith and Eda; as soon as the latter was within their reach, she launched herself at Luz and grabbed her, spinning her in the air: "Oh, kiddo! You were phenomenal today! Congratulations, you reminded me of me when I was younger... ouch!" she exclaimed as soon as she felt a pain in her back that forced her to put the puppet down and bend over.

Lilith laughed heartily at that scene. "Eda, take it easy. We're not twenty anymore" she said, then she looked at Amity. Neither the girl nor the fairy said anything, but their looks spoke for themselves.

"I'm proud of you, Amity"

"Thank you for everything, fairy godmother"

Lilith also glanced at Luz, who was helping Eda get up and was also looking into her bag, clearly having a conversation with King. She felt an extremely strong surge of gratitude for that puppet, and she knew Amity felt it too. Although in reality it seemed to her that there was something else in her pupil's heart when she looked at the young puppet... but for that specific case, it wasn't her duty to intervene. After all, accepting that Amity was growing up even in 'that' was part of her role as her fairy godmother.

The joyful atmosphere, however, was broken when they saw Odalia approaching; Lilith and Eda immediately snapped to attention, as they could feel the maelstrom of anger and fury radiating from the woman's soul. She clearly didn't like that Amity had backed out and even left her role to someone else. But to Lilith's surprise, Amity stepped forward and spoke before her mother: "Mom, I'm sorry. I guess I let you down, and I know I should be ashamed of it; but I can't. I apologize in advance, but I don't regret my choices at all"

Although Odalia had a lot of anger in her heart, her face remained impassive. Instead of throwing a tantrum she asked in a soft voice: "What are you saying, Mittens?"

Amity sighed deeply; she grabbed the hems of her dress to keep from shaking. She was nervous, but then Luz's smiling face and her fairy godmother's words appeared in her mind and gave her courage. "I know you wanted me to be the captain of the team, because as a Blight I should always be at the top... but I couldn't. I wasn't the right person for that role. I entrusted it to Willow because, unlike me, she understood the needs of the team. And I... I think I don't want to be the captain anymore. I just want to play rugby. I know this will be a disappointment to you, and I ask you to forgive me... but please, accept my decision"

Odalia remained silent for a moment, and her heart seemed to radiate pure fury, to the point that Eda and Lilith instinctively moved their hands towards their wands hidden under their clothes... but then something strange happened: the two fairies did not they only felt anger coming from Odalia's heart... there was also another emotion... fear? It was as if she was angry at Amity's actions but was also scared of them, as the fact that the daughter chose to not be at the top would hurt her own life, and was looking for a way to resolve the situation. And then Odalia put her hand on Amity's shoulder and said in a hurt voice: "Mittens, what are you saying? I'm your mother, I could never be disappointed in you. The reason I pushed you to always be on top is because I know your potential, and I would like you to realize it. But if you don't want to, or if you don't like it... that's fine. I care that you're happy, not that you meet my standards"

Amity let out a smile. "R-Really? So... you're okay with me not being captain anymore?"

"If you don't want to be captain, you're free not to. Don't feel like you have to do something just because you know I'd like it" Odalia replied, then asked, "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Amity looked undecided, then she answered: "My hair... I don't like it that way. I like to dye it, but... not green. It makes me look too much like you, and even though you're the person I admire most at the world... I want to be me"

This time Odalia couldn't hide a slight hint of irritation on her face, but she quickly made it disappear. "If you don't like dying your hair green, then don't do it. I don't care what color your hair is if you like it. Just... don't keep it at your natural color" she said. "Mittens... how many other things don't you like?"

Amity bit her lip, then she steeled herself. If she had to have a confrontation with her mother, then she might as well bring it all out. "Mom, I... I've been not fine for a while now. I can't keep up with... certain things. I know you wanted me to behave in a certain way and so I did it, but now. .. I can't do it anymore. I'm tired, I feel... I feel overwhelmed. And personally... I think your standard of perfection is wrong". She looked her in the eyes: "I don't want to be little miss perfect anymore. I just want to be Amity"

Odalia looked shocked. "Oh, Mittens... I didn't know you felt this way" she said, her voice cracking. "Listen... if you really feel that bad... then we'll deal with it, okay? If my attitudes and my words cause you problems, then we'll solve them. Let's both change. Let's try to talk to each other more, okay? And don't think anymore that you might disappoint me, and don't do something anymore because you think I would like it. I chose to have you, you don't owe me anything; just think about being happy. If you are happy, I'm happy too"

Amity smiled, then she grabbed her mother and pulled her into a hug; the woman was dumbfounded for a moment, as if she didn't understand what was happening, but then, even if reluctantly, she forced herself to return the hug. Eda and Lilith, on the sidelines, were frowning as they looked at the falsehood in Odalia's heart, which fully demonstrated that she didn't believe what she said in the slightest; she was almost certainly just changing her strategy to manipulate Amity after she realized that the previous one wasn't working anymore. Even if for a brief fraction of a second when Amity had hugged her a small flash of affection had shone in Odalia's heart, even if it had gone out after less than three seconds. However, both Eda and Lilith avoided intervening: there were still too many strange things about the woman's behavior, and before trying to do anything they wanted to know why she seemed to be afraid that Amity was giving up her standard of perfection. Something told them that the situation could prove to be much more problematic than they had initially imagined.

When Amity broke the hug she asked: "Mom... do you mind if I invite my friends to sleep over at our house tonight to celebrate the victory?"

Normally Odalia would have said absolutely no, as it wasn't in their standard to accept the common people into their home, much less after dinner time; Amity knew this well, but since her mother had just promised to change their relationship, she had decided to make that small request. She had always wanted to invite someone to her house, after all. Odalia seemed to weigh her options carefully, but ultimately nodded. "Okay, no problem. Feel free to invite them as many times as you want"

Amity's smile widened: "Thanks, mom! Did you guys hear that? You all sleep at my place tonight!"

"Yay! I've always wanted to visit Blight Manor!" Skara exclaimed joyfully, and all her friends did the same.

Odalia scratched her head doubtfully; she wasn't convinced she wanted so many brats in her house, since the twins were already annoying enough, but she couldn't risk antagonizing Amity, so for the moment it was better to be compliant; she knew very well that in some cases it was better to wait before making any move. But as she thought this she heard a small bang next to her and instinctively her body tensed, and she ducked out of the way just in time before a small waterfall fell on her. She looked up and saw that next to her one of Amity's friends, who she thought was called Caleb (and who unbeknownst to her was actually Hunter) had just crushed a canteen of water to the point of exploding. "Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am!" he exclaimed mortified. "That wasn't my intention... I'm such an idiot!"

"N-No problem!" Odalia said with a small gulp. But despite trying to appear calm and indifferent, she moved away from the pool of water and even when she was far away she gave it some frightened looks. That behavior was so well disguised that it was practically imperceptible to everyone... except to Hunter's watchful eyes.

Willow approached him: "Why did you do that?"

Hunter shrugged. "It was just an accident. I didn't measure my strength well"

But Willow didn't buy it. "I know for sure that you would never make such a mistake, you are the one who taught me self-control. You did it on purpose. Why?"

Hunter sighed. He wished Willow didn't know him so well. "I just wanted to test a hypothesis of mine" he replied. "You know, when you spend your life traveling around the world hunting monsters, and fighting them in their lairs where they can attack you from everywhere, or even having to track them down while they're pretending to be something they're not... you start to develop a certain... intuition towards certain types of people". "And also when you live with a real monster" he added mentally.

Willow raised an eyebrow. "I'm not understanding what you mean"

"It's better this way, believe me" Hunter replied, than he looked at her with a serious face. "Willow, do you trust me?"

"Of course yes" the ex-cricket replied without a moment's hesitation.

"So this time, just think about having fun and celebrating the victory" Hunter said with a serious look. "Everything else... leave it to me"


What? Did you expect to see Odalia pissed off and Amity telling her to go to hell? Not at all. This Odalia is not like the one in the canon, which was just a Karen in constant hysterics; this Odalia, as can be seen from the first chapters in which she appeared, is cunning and manipulative, and knows very well that to make Amity obey her the best thing to do is to make Amity consider her a reference figure. And she is skilled at reading the situation and acting accordingly, just like a real businesswoman, adapting to changes to her advantage and using logic. And in such a context, screaming and scolding Amity would have been the stupidest choice and Odalia knew it well, and in fact she once again positioned herself as a loving and understanding mother in order to manipulate her daughter in a different way. Furthermore, Amity also sees her mother differently than in canon; in canon she obeyed her because she was forced, and in fact she has no qualms about sending her to hell, while in this story, as we have already seen, she idealizes her mother and therefore even if she has taken the first step towards her freedom she still has a long way to go, and in fact she immediately falls for Odalia's deception and becomes convinced that her mother has just made a mistake and that she really doesn't care if she no longer behaves like the perfect girl. The relationship between the two of them is very complex in this story, unlike in canon where it was practically flat.