It's not exactly a BAD thing if you sound your age for once, and if that proves to be too much of an obstacle, you can always cast the Spell of Tongues later, whether on yourself or on the Muhlfelds.
Thinking on it a bit, you might end up having to do that regardless. Nicolau spoke some English when you met him, but he wasn't much better at it than you currently are at Portuguese. You're not sure where the rest of his family stands in that regard, and the state of their Japanese never came up. By a similar token, you aren't sure how well any of the New York Quincy speak Japanese OR Portuguese, if at all, or what secondary languages most of the Japanese contingent have access to.
You DO know that Ishida Ryuken is fluent in English, which is something. Hopefully at least one of the Muhlfelds does as well.
While you're thinking that over, the raised voices on the other end of the line die down. Not that they got that loud or particularly acrimonious; mostly you heard confusion, some more-or-less good-natured teasing, and the sort of general "Goddesses, why do you test me?" tone that only ever seems to come up in relation to family.
Then Nicolau picks up the phone, and you start sorting things out.
Once the call is done, you put away your phone and begin a Ritual of Teleportation. While you're doing that, Shadow Alex performs a ritual of his own, scouring the surrounding area with Dispel Magic, just as he (or you) did with the other three Private Sanctums you used after leaving the house.
Rituals or not, you channeled a LOT of mana in these no-scry zones, and you weren't and aren't about to leave their signatures to be picked up by any potential passersby or snooping scryers. And you couldn't leave the Sanctums up until the lingering energies faded, not when you're going to be on another plane entirely.
Plus, you've already gotten a lesson in how much attention free-standing fogbanks in the middle of the desert can attract. Maybe if you knew a nice rainforest or misty valley somewhere...
Anyway, Shadow Alex finishes his spellwork first, but you complete your own only a couple of minutes later-
-and then you're in Brazil. Specifically, you're in a coastal city called Recife, which you honestly hadn't heard of before Elder Tiriaq told you it was where his old Quincy friend lived, even though it's one of the largest urban centers in the country.
Gained Local Knowledge (Recife) F
Given your extremely limited familiarity with the region, and Mr. Muhlfeld's perfectly natural concern about handing out his family address to a complete stranger - even with the word of an old friend supporting you, there's still such a thing as too much trust too soon - you agreed to meet in the same area you spoke with Nicolau before.
There's no sign of the Muhlfelds just yet - nor does there seem to be anyone else in the immediate area, which tallies with your last visit - so you park yourself on a nearby bench and settle in to wait.
A few minutes later, the sound of an approaching engine draws your attention down a particular street, where a family-sized van is coming your way at a modest pace. The vehicle slows as it approaches and finally halts a few feet shy of your position, though you can't help but notice that the driver - a man with a good decade of age over your parents - doesn't kill the engine.
There appear to be seven people in the van. The front passenger seat is occupied by a woman of about the same age as the driver, whose features have enough in common with Nicolau for you to suspect she's his daughter - which would imply that the driver is her husband. Sitting behind them are Nicolau, a young woman around twenty, and a girl in her mid-teens, all of whom have a clear resemblance to each other and the woman in the front. And then, wedged in the small seats in the back, you see a couple of young men, one not yet twenty and obviously a brother, son, or grandson to the other members of the assembled Muhlfeld lineage, while the other is a couple of years past twenty, and most likely the significant other of Nicolau's oldest granddaughter.
After looking you and Shadow Alex over for a moment, the matron of the family leans out the passenger-side window - rolled down in deference to the heat and humidity - and says, / Good afternoon. You are the boy my father mentioned? The... sorcerer? /
And she's not just a bit doubtful about that.
/ Yes, ma'am, / you reply with a polite nod. / Alex Harris. /
She turns to Shadow Alex. / And you are? /
There is a beat, during which you repress the urge to snicker at your currently larger dark side's cheekily literal remark.
Shadow Briar is not so restrained.
Briar just facepalms.
/ Is that a family tradition? / You sense no reaction to the antics of the fairies, but the lady is a shade more hesitant than she was a moment ago. Not worryingly so; you would venture that she's just a bit surprised at meeting two obviously closely related individuals who share the same given name.
You know it's hardly unheard of - Seniors, Juniors, and "the Third"s are a thing, after al - it's just that, off the top of your head, you can't think of anyone YOU know who shares a name with a relative that's within a single generation of them.
/ It is a magic thing, / comes the reply.
/ ...ah. / She doesn't seem to know quite what to make of that, but forges ahead admirably. / Well, then. Speaking of magic, I don't mean to be rude, but can you prove your abilities, much less any of the things you told my father? /
Ah, here we go; the reasonable doubt portion of the meeting.
/ The first, yes, / you state easily, before performing a simple Prestidigitation and pulling a somewhat wilted handful of pale flower petals out of thin air. Slowly, so as not to spook the people with soul-destroying spirit arrows, you let the petals spill out of your hand and set them to whisking around you, propelled by weak but obviously supernatural currents of air. / A small trick. I am saving... power?... for later. /
/ Father did mention you had a busy day planned, / is the response from Missus... actually, IS "Muhlfeld" still her family name, or did she take her husband's when she got married? You don't think Nicolau ever mentioned it, and you know you didn't ask. Anyway, Nicolau's daughter - that works - is visibly taken aback by how the "adult" member of your group is hanging back and allowing the "child" to take the lead, but she rallies.
/ As to other proof, / you say slowly, frowning partly at the limits of your vocabulary, and partly in contemplation, / I have names of Quincy in America and Japan, and your father met with one of the Japanese Quincy, Ishida Ryuken. /
/ I did mention that already, Luiza, / Nicolau notes.
/ Yes, father, you did, but you also never introduced him. It is a bit difficult to trust the word of a man you have never met in person, hm? /
Nicolau spares you a glance and a mildly apologetic shrug, but not much of one. His daughter does have a point.
/ The only other proof I can offer, / you press on, after consulting your inner clock and comparing it against the different time zones, / is to take you to meet the other Quincy. The Americans will not be coming to the... place? For another hour or so, but I could get some of the Japanese. /
/ But we'd have to go with you, first, / Mister- Nicolau's son-in-law says then.
/ Yes, / you admit. / There is that. /
Gained Portuguese E (Plus)
Given that they've turned up with the entire family in a car, you think the chances are good that the (maybe) Muhlfelds are inclined to believe you. Though you suppose they could also be planning to make a hasty departure - whether just from here, or from Recife entirely - if they decide not to take you at your word.
/ Would mentioning that Elder Tiriaq knows about this, and helped me get in touch with your father in the first place, be at all helpful? / you venture.
From what you've heard, the old shaman is apparently a friend of the family, although neither he nor Nicolau went into a great amount of detail. He might be Luiza's honorary uncle, and so have significant weight attached to his word, or he might just be "that weird guy Father knows," and... well, not.
/ Father mentioned that, as well, / Luiza replies. / But the old dog didn't stop by to vouch for you personally, and you DID just prove that you can use magic, so who's to say that my father only THINKS he met Tiriaq? /
...you would say she's being paranoid, but that IS an entirely valid possibility when dealing with someone who has access to the degree of Enchantment Magic, Illusion Magic, and/or Transformation Magic that you do. Also, your enhanced senses aren't picking up signs of that sort of jittery, all-encompassing fear from Nicolau's daughter as she mentioned all of that; she IS concerned, but it's a very practical sort of caution, the kind of reaction you'd expected and hope to see from a woman who's been told her family is in danger.
In other words, she's just trying to verify the information and make sure her family stays safe.
On a side note, the title Luiza hung on Tiriaq and her wry tone while speaking it suggests that the shaman falls somewhat shy of "adopted family member" on her personal meter, although at the same time, he seems to rank above "Father's disreputable acquaintance."
You consider this for a moment, then shrug and ask, / In that case, how would YOU like me to prove my sincerity to you? /
Luiza ponders your offer.
/ How about a truth spell? / her youngest offers from the other side of the van.
Luiza looks at her daughter for a moment. / 'Truth spell'? /
/ It's exactly what it sounds like, Mom: a spell that makes people tell the truth. I mean, I've only read about them in books that are SUPPOSED to be fantasy, but vampires are supposed to be fiction, too, so... /
/ Truth spells are real, / you confirm, / and I actually do know one. It doesn't force people to tell the truth, though, it's more about stopping lies. If you're inside the... um, place? /
/ Zone? / the teenager offers.
/ Thank you. If you're inside the zone, you can choose not to speak, you can say only PART of truth, and you can say what you THINK is true, but you can't say something that you KNOW is a lie. /
There is a moment of discussion inside the family van.
/ Then let's try that, / Luiza says, before she gets out of vehicle. In the process, you notice a starburst-shaped silver bangle at her wrist, slightly different from the Quincy Crosses you've seen the Ishidas use or the symbols that were etched into the wards on the Archers' house, but bearing a distinct similarity.
The door behind hers slides open as well, Nicolau stepping down to join his daughter in approaching you.
/ Can I have a few minutes to cast the spell? / you ask, as the two Quincy approach. / It lets me save power, and like I said, I am trying to do that. /
/ Take your time, / Nicolau offers.
/ Thank you. / You make to start the ritual, then think of something and stop. / Oh, if I cast the spell here, the zone will cover your van, too. Is that okay? /
Father and daughter trade glances, look back at the rest of the family, and then turn back to you.
/ It only prevents lying? / Luiza asks, something thoughtful and ever so slightly mischievous in her tone and bearing.
/ Yes...? /
/ Then it's fine, / Nicolau concludes.
All right, then.
With that, you cast the Spell to Create a Zone of Truth. Fortunately, while the spell will AFFECT you, it won't specifically be ON you, so there's no real risk of it interfering with your existing set of buffs.
Three minutes of ritual-casting later, unseen energy ripples outwards from the point on the sidewalk you've designated as the "center" of the Zone, expanding to a radius of twenty feet - which, as you said, is enough for the spell to affect those inside the van as well.
/ Oh, hey, did you feel that? / the teenaged girl exclaims. / It tingled! /
/ That was... weird, / her older brother comments from the back seat.
/ Hey, hey, someone try to say a lie! /
/ Why would- /
/ Because I want to see if it works! Anybody? Nobody? Fine, I'll go first. Quick check: my name is Andreia; I'm fifteen years old; my favorite color is blue- /
/ You sound like you're introducing yourself in first grade, / her brother snidely remarks.
/ I'm testing the spell, duuuummmm-! /
/ Andreia? / the older sister asks, slightly concerned.
/ ...I-I'm okay, Sis. Really. I just... couldn't get the word out. Man, that was a little scary... /
/ You were trying to call me a dumbass again, weren't you? / her brother observes.
/ I was nnnn-! /
/ You were! And you COULDN'T say it, so that means it was a lie! Hahaha! /
/ ...so, Andreia, / the older sister asks, / what do you REALLY think of your big brother Eneas, hm? /
/ I would like to know this as well, / Big Brother Eneas asks smugly.
/ I do not have to answer that, / comes the quick reply.
And it's true, she doesn't. But that doesn't stop her siblings from trying to prod or trick her into doing so.
Anyway, with the power of a magical anti-lying effect on your side, it doesn't take long to sort things out to Luiza's satisfaction, at which point the rest of the family - who, incidentally, DO use the Muhlfeld name, although no mention is made of why Luiza's husband took her family name when they married - starts to get out of the van.
Even as seatbelts are unbuckled and doors opened, it occurs to you that a Gate could be made wide enough to accommodate this van, so the whole family could just drive through at once. You say as much-
/ Wait, SERIOUSLY? /
Seriously.
-and then explain that, while the ground on the other side of the Gate isn't paved, it's pretty flat and easy terrain.
And so it is, that when you open the portal a few minutes later, the Muhlfeld family become the first people - that you know of - since the Youkai Academy Bus Driver to drive a modern motor vehicle through a hole in the fabric of space and time.
/ This is SO cool! /
You take a little time to get the family settled in, showing them to one of the Mansions that you previously set up in the demiplane. While doing so, you briefly reflect that the timeless nature of the place was VERY helpful in setting up for your guests, as even without your presence and support, those doors in space (and the chambers beyond) are still going strong.
When all is said and done, you only needed about half an hour to get the Muhlfelds out of harm's way, which leaves you as long again before you need to go meet Balthazar - although you suppose you could do so early. Then again, there's the matter of the Spell Immunities and Death Wards you were planning to cast on the Quincy as your backup, in case their sleepy god-king wakes up and can find them in spite of your precautions.
There's no real benefit in putting off until later what you have the time and resources to do right now. With that in mind, once the Muhlfelds have finished moving their modest amount of luggage into the Mansion they've claimed as their own, you approach them about getting the next of your defensive measures put into place.
Explaining just what sort of spells you want to cast on them, and why, proves too great a hurdle for your limited grasp of Portuguese to overcome. Fortunately, it turns out that most of the family do indeed speak English, if to varying degrees, so you're able to give them a more precise breakdown of what the magic you have in mind actually does. Of course, some of the terminology you use runs up against the limits of the Brazilians' understanding, whether of language or of the idea of magic, so the whole thing ends up with you talking to Andreia - who has read enough modern fantasy to have at least a passing familiarity with some of the general concepts involved, if not the specific details - and letting her translate.
Being told that something out there wants to kill them and take their souls is understandably upsetting to the family, so when you explain that you think you can probably prevent that, there aren't many objections.
There are some further small bits of good fortune. Even if the older granddaughter is pregnant, expecting mothers and their unborn children are in a situation not entirely dissimilar from magic-users and familiars, and can count as one being for mystical purposes if the mystic in question knows what they're doing; you do. Furthermore, while the extended Muhlfeld family numbers seven in all, only five of them are Quincy or Quincy-descended. Neither Nicolau's son-in-law or grandson-in-law NEED the protections in question, so you could just cast Communal versions of Spell Immunity, Death Ward, and maybe Mind Blank, and call this group protected.
Objective explained and permission granted, you cast the spells.
While you're doing that, Shadow Alex goes ahead and starts a ritual to open up a Gate to New York. He times it well, finishing the spell a couple of minutes after you're done warding the Muhlfelds, and you and Briar step through into the Big Apple.
Shadow Alex and Shadow Briar will be staying in the demiplane, so that the Muhlfelds don't feel abandoned or imprisoned or anything like that, but there was some discussion among the Brazilian Quincy about whether or not one of them should come with you to meet their distant American cousins. And by "one of them," it was fairly clear that Nicolau meant to go himself, as he was the Elder and so the one whose word would carry the most weight if the Archers or any of their relatives needed convincing of your good faith. Plus he's the only member of the family that knows how to carry themselves like an Echt Quincy - even if he is decades out of practice at it - and hence the only one any traditionalist types would take seriously regardless.
You were a little reluctant to take a man being targeted for his life and soul by an immortal god-king back into the line of fire after you've just pulled him out, but Nicolau does have a point about the advantages of having a Quincy Elder in your corner to address concerns about your and Balthazar's motives and methods in this whole affair.
You just got out of a situation where the people you're trying to help needed some reassurances before they were willing to let you go ahead with your plan, so the idea of taking a Quincy Elder along to vouch for you to the Archers does have a certain appeal - enough to overcome your reluctance to bring Nicolau along.
Since the old man will be accompanying you to New York, he'd lose the protection of your modified Spells of Death Ward and Spell Resistance within a couple of minutes of leaving the timeless demiplane, making it kind of a waste of energy to include him in these particular castings. And because that leaves a spot open that you can fit another individual into, you can pit both of the two non-Quincy gentlemen under those spells now.
You notice a certain air of relief among the Muhlfeld family when you explain that, although it's marred a bit by the worried glances some of the family - mostly the grandkids and the grandson-in-law - send Nicolau's way.
Rather than get into family drama, you get on with your spellcasting, and make the younger man the extra recipient. Then it's off to the Big Apple.
Nicolau looks around with some interest as the Gate closes behind the two of you (and Briar), leaving you in the usual alley.
/ I have never been to New York before, / he says absently, lapsing into his mother tongue out of what seems to be habit as much as anything else. / This should be interesting... so! Where are we headed? /
/ There. / You indicate the Arcana Cabana with a word and a finger. / I'm here to meet up with another magic-user who is my contact with the Archers. He'll be the one moving them to the place we just left. /
/ Lead the way, then. /
You cross the street without incident, and notice that the sign on the door has today's hours marked as ending at a quarter to three. If your internal clock is accurate, you've arrived with a few minutes to spare, and so you let yourself and your companions in to the familiar ringing of the doorbell.
For once, it's not Dave's weary cashier routine that greets you. Instead, Balthazar appears, a somewhat foreboding frown on his usually stoically amused face. You get the distinct impression he's gearing up to say something, but the moment he sees you, whatever he had in mind clearly goes by the wayside.
"How did I describe your Goddesses before leaving your birthday party?" he asks you instead.
"'Awesome in the classic sense of the word'," you answer after a moment's recollection. "Right after that, what did I say I might do the next time I visited?"
"Wear the old man shoes," is Balthazar's reply, as his face relaxes to something approaching its usual look. "Which I will note you didn't do," he adds, "and still aren't. Shame on you, Alex." Balthazar greets Briar, and then turns to Nicolau. "Welcome to the Arcana Cabana, sir. I am Balthazar Blake, the proprietor."
"Nicolau Muhlfeld," the Quincy responds, nodding.
"From Brazil, I take it?" Balthazar asks without missing a beat.
As you enter the store, the older men talking over your head, you look for Dave, but there is no sign of him. It makes sense: Balthazar's going to be busy performing some top-tier spellcasting before too long; and there's really nothing an apprentice of Dave's modest experience can contribute to a casting of the Gate Spell except to stay out of the way.
With that curiosity sated, you turn and give Balthazar a quick summary of events in Brazil, and the purpose of Nicolau's presence. The Merlinean Master agrees that having another Elder visibly on board with the plan would be helpful.
"Especially when you turn up imperceptible to most supernatural detection methods," he adds, giving you a look.
...hm. That IS a potential issue you might not have considered. Might have contributed to Luiza's reaction, too.
Yeah, no. If it's causing some suspicions among the Quincy you're here to help, that's unfortunate, but even so, you will NOT be dropping Mind Blank, thank you very much. That's a bad idea in general, let alone hours before getting involved-by-proxy in a war against a being that is purported to be able to see the future.
You'll just have to deal with the social complications as they arise. That is, after all, why you agreed to bring Nicolau along.
Balthazar was just closing up shop when you arrived, and now that he's assured you are who you appear to be and that Nicolau isn't a Wandenreich agent, he gets on with that. When the four of you exit the shop a minute later, your fellow sorcerer's car is just pulling up.
Nicolau expresses his appreciation for the classic car as you pile in.
The drive to the Archers' home is mostly uneventful, although given the time of day, New York's afternoon traffic is starting to pick up. Balthazar navigates with the air of a veteran, honking the horn a few times when another driver - or one pedestrian - is being an idiot. The other cars thin out a bit as you move into the neighborhood where Alice and Miles Archer live, but when their townhouse pulls into sight, you do a double-take.
The Archer residence includes a garage. It was closed on your first visit, but you figured it was large enough to hold a couple of cars, and it has enough of a driveway in front of it for two more vehicles to be parked on without backing out into the street - though their tires might end up on the patches of grass growing alongside the concrete, depending on how big the vehicles in question were.
The garage is currently open, revealing two cars as expected, and there are two more vehicles - one of them an SUV - parked a little awkwardly in front of it, side-by-side and spilling out on either side. There are also four more vehicles lined up along the street in front of the property, posing a bit of an issue for local traffic.
The Archer home itself doesn't feel any different to your mystical senses, but you can glimpse movement through several of the windows at once, and if you listen, you can make out voices within. A couple of those are young and raised excitedly, while one of the older voices seems to be shouting for them to be quiet in that counter-productive manner older family members sometimes resort to when younger ones have driven them to the limits of their patience.
Not that you would know anything about that.
"My goodness," Nicolau murmurs. "How many people are we here to pick up, again?"
"Twenty-three, at last count," Balthazar replies. "Two Elders, their two sons and daughters-in-law, five grandchildren, two more in-laws, and one great-grandchild. Also a couple of nephews, one of whom is married with kids himself, an adult cousin with a wife and kid, and one other young cousin from a different branch of the family tree."
"And how many of them are trained?"
"All but the three youngest grandchildren and grand-nephew, the great-grandchild, and a couple of the in-laws."
For a moment, an expression of old pain crosses the Brazilian man's face. Considering what you know of his family circumstances, this could be the largest gathering of Quincy he's been to since before his daughter was born. That has to sting.
You exit the Rolls-Royce, which Balthazar sends on its way with the Phantom driver behind the wheel, and head up to the Archers' front door. The sight, sound, and simple feel of human activity increase as you approach, and someone inside clearly sees you coming in turn, because the door swings open while your small party is only halfway up the walk.
You don't recognize the man standing in the doorway, but he's got a certain familial resemblance to Miles Archer. Somewhat more urgently, he's dressed in a variant of the traditional Quincy uniform you've seen Souken and Uryuu wear - though unlike the Ishidas, he isn't wearing glasses.
"What are you doing here, Blake?" the man asks flatly.
"Nice to see you again, too, Henry," Balthazar replies. "I'm mainly here to provide transport. This is Elder Nicolau Muhlfeld, by the way, from Brazil."
The traditionalist American Quincy straightens up a bit at that, regarding Nicolau more closely for a moment before nodding. "Elder."
"Young Master Archer," Nicolau replies, suddenly acting more formal than you've seen him before. "May my companions and I enter? There are things that need to be said which are not for public hearing."
Henry Archer glances around as if expecting to see someone eavesdropping, but as far as you can tell, there's no one in earshot. He reaches the same conclusion swiftly, and invites you in - albeit with a grudging, warning glance at Balthazar, and a puzzled one for you.
Briar he ignores entirely, in the usual manner of someone who isn't aware of her presence at all. Fortunately, having received a previous invitation from the master of the home and not having done anything to get it formally rescinded, your partner doesn't need to be asked in a second time.
"Who is it, Henry?" a woman calls.
"An Elder Muhlfeld from Brazil, Balthazar Blake, and...?"
You raise your voice enough to carry: "Alex Harris."
Henry's expression says that the name means nothing to him.
"Wow!" a kid a bit younger than you exclaims from the top of the stairs, where you see him and two other kids around the same age looking over and through the railing. "Is that a firefly?"
Henry Archer frowns up the stairs. "What are you talking about, Will?"
The boy points at you. "He's got a little glowing thing following him!"
"I am not a 'thing'," Briar says. "I am a fairy."
Will's eyes bug out, as do those of the kids beside him. "Whoa."
Henry is looking at you suspiciously, but you can also see Miles coming out of the living room.
"Mr. Archer. Good to see you again."
"Welcome back," Miles says.
"You know this kid, Uncle?" Henry Archer inquires. To a stranger, the question would sound neutral at worst, perhaps even just honestly curious, but your heightened senses catch hints of suspicion and disapproval in his tone.
If the frown that appears on Miles' face is any indication, familiarity allows him to recognize his nephew's unspoken judgment.
"I do, Henry," Miles replies. "See the Elder to a seat, would you?"
Henry briefly makes a face of his own, but turns to Nicolau. "If you'll follow me, sir?"
Playing the Distinguished Visiting Elder role to the hilt, Nicolau nods. "Lead the way, Young Master."
Henry seems to perk up at that title, and does as requested.
When the younger man's back is turned, Nicolau glances at Miles, and winks.
The older Archer allows himself a lopsided smirk.
"Briar, do you want to show yourself?"
As one of the potential points of trouble leaves the front hall, you turn to your partner and make an inquiry.
"Honestly, with this many people in the house, I think it'd be better if I stayed small for a while."
That's fair. If you count the three kids at the top of the stairs, the number of people in this room alone equals the total that there were in the entire house on your previous visit - and you know that this is only about a third of the total number of occupants the Archer residence currently holds. Footsteps, the murmur of conversation, the muffled bump of furniture being moved on a carpeted floor, the fridge door closing in the kitchen; the house is alive with a tide of noise, to say nothing of the number of vital and spiritual auras you can pick up now that you're inside the wards.
You haven't been around this many spiritually strong humans since the World Tournament, and you find yourself reflexively dialing down your senses to compensate, before you consciously realize that you don't need to suppress your awareness nearly as far as you used to.
Part of that is the fact that you aren't about to witness a few old masters going at it without holding back, but mostly, it's the explosive growth you've undergone in the year and more since that fateful first trip to Japan.
While you're getting a handle on that, Briar flies up the stairs to investigate the three Archer kids.
"Whoa!"
"Cool!"
"A real fairy?!"
"Yup! A real fairy, that's me!"
"Are you from Neverland?"
"Did Tinkerbell ever talk?"
"She did in Hook."
"...true."
Seeing that none of the Archer kids are trying to grab your partner, and trusting her to be able to look after herself even if it comes to that, you turn your attention to your host.
"Everyone's here, then?" you ask in a voice that just carries over the background noise of the house.
"Everyone." The look on Miles' face is half-relieved, half-wry, and just tired in general. "Mind you, I've had to do some fast talking to keep the peace. The general chaos helped keep certain questions unanswered, but now that you and Balthazar AND another Elder have turned up..."
"...they're going to insist on answers," you conclude.
Miles nods. "Everyone other than Henry, his brother James, James' wife, May, and the kids know what's up-"
Good to know.
"-but at this point, I don't think anyone except the two youngest HASN'T realized that something IS up," he continues, glancing at the top of the stairs, where the trio are heading off to one of the upstairs rooms with a thunder of little feet and a chorus of cheering, on the trail of a certain fairy. Bringing his attention back to you, Miles asks, "So how are we playing this?"
"It's your house, sir, and your family," you say. "I'll follow your lead."
Miles snorts. "Thanks for that."
"But I'll have a Sleep Spell ready to go, just in case anyone gets too agitated," you add. "If that's alright with you, that is?"
Miles clearly feels some reluctance about resorting to rendering any of his kinsmen unconscious, even if it will save lives (including their own), but you did mention this possibility when you originally spoke with him, and you don't doubt that Balthazar has brought it or similar options up since then.
So you aren't surprised when the Archer Elder nods. "If it comes to that," he says, "can you get both of them at once?"
You consider that. You didn't probe Henry too closely, so as to avoid making him suspicious, but what you passively picked up from him suggests that he's got a fairly strong and well-trained soul. If his brother's at all similar-
You inquire after that point.
"He is," Miles says.
-then, no, you probably can't get them both with the same Sleep Spell. With that in mind, you spare a questioning glance at Balthazar.
He nods. "You focus on Henry, I'll handle James."
You bow your head in unspoken thanks, and ready the spell.
Frustratingly enough, all three of the sleep-inducing spells that you actually know are ill-suited to your purpose here. The basic Spell of Sleep and its enhanced form, Deep Slumber, are both designed to affect a group of targets, and have an annoying habit of only affecting the weakest members of said group; the only time you can make these spells reliably affect a single target is if you manage to catch said creature off by itself, such as a night watchman making his rounds.
The Symbol of Sleep, meanwhile, can't be cast without ten minutes of work and some rather expensive material components. Even then, that just creates the Symbol; it doesn't actually go off until someone other than you looks at it, and when they DO, it puts everyone that's in or that later enters the area of effect out like a light.
Seriously, why does the School of Enchantment not have a standard spell for reliably rendering one creature safely unconscious?
Grumbling against the baffling decisions of ancient archmages, sorcerers supreme, and god(desse)s of magic aside, Deep Slumber DOES provide the basis of the magic you mean to use. You simply try to limit the spell's usual effects to a single target, rather than letting it hit everything in a circle twenty feet across.
It might be a more certain thing if you could just recalculate the target area, but that would require you to figure out the circumference with a highly exacting degree of precision, IN YOUR HEAD. That level of math is beyond you.
With your hopefully prepared spell primed and ready, you follow Miles into the living room.
As a visiting Elder, Nicolau has been afforded the chair that Miles was using the last time you visited, and is currently listening with an air of interest as Henry describes what sounds like his progress in mastering a particular Quincy technique. The name isn't mentioned in your hearing, and too much of the terminology is outside your understanding for you to make much sense of it, but Mr. Muhlfeld follows along easily enough.
Unabashedly listening in are four other adults and a teenager - idly, you note that your prediction of "standing room only" has been proven true, as even with extra chairs pulled into the room, they're out of space. One member of the audience is a man several years younger than Henry, but with enough similarities of appearance that you suspect he is the other troublesome nephew, James; he is, however, more casually dressed than his sibling, in a way that reminds you of Ishida Ryuuken's "Quincy hidden in plain sight" light suits and cross-patterned ties, as done with a sweater and slacks. The last man in the room, in between the brothers in age, more plainly clad, and bearing a distinct resemblance to Alice Archer, is likely to be one of her and Miles' sons. He sits on the end of the couch farthest from Nicolau's borrowed seat, next to a woman you figure to be his wife, while the last place is occupied by another lady who would have to be his sister-in-law, the one cousin by marriage, or maybe the OTHER cosuin that Miles mentioned. You'll have to wait and see.
The teenager, meanwhile, is standing next to the door, across from the TV. It's a position about as far as possible from the adults while still being in the room with them, and speaks eloquently of the uncertainty that runs through the older boy's entire person. Part of him very much wants to be in the room, even in the conversation, but another part is obviously nervous about being the youngest person there. Or maybe he's just worried that he'll say or do something to make himself look bad; he has that sort of nervous energy and gangly awkwardness about him.
When Miles enters the room, heads turn - the teenager's with a particular jerky motion, which is followed by his eyes widening slightly as he catches sight of you. He looks like he's about to say something, but Miles speaks first.
"Eric-"
The teenager jumps in place.
"-do an old man a favor and go let your parents and grandmother know they're needed?"
Miles makes it sound like a casual question, but it's pretty clearly not. Whether for that reason or just because being given an opportunity to escape the room is too great a temptation for young Eric's nerves to resist, he nods, stammers an affirmative, and nearly stumbles over you leaving the room. Balthazar catches him before it turns into an outright tumble, voicing a word of caution as he does so; Eric just makes a wordless sound of embarrassment and flees the room, heading for the kitchen.
You watch him go with a sympathetic wince. You've never been particularly bothered by being the center of attention, yourself, but that guy's discomfort would have been obvious even without your various enhancement spells in place. As is, it was almost painful to watch.
As agreed, Miles takes the lead, introducing you and Balthazar to the room at large, and then to the three late arrivals. It turns out that your fellow sorcerer actually hasn't encountered all of the Archers before, having managed to miss meeting the lady sitting at the far end of the couch, who turns out to be James Archer's wife, May. Seeing as how James is about as displeased by Balthazar's presence as his brother was, you can see how that might have happened.
By the time the opening bit is done, the Archers' living room is feeling almost claustrophobic. Even with Alice, her oldest son, and his wife standing halfway into the hall, ten adults and one larger-than-average boy is a bit much for a single room.
Thankfully, Eric didn't try to get back in...
"Alright, Dad," John Archer says from the doorway, arms folded in a manner that echoes his father just as much as the shared facial features. "What's up?"
He's doing a pretty good job of hiding that he already knows, but the awareness-heightening spells on your person call your attention to the tension in the man's fingers as they grip his arms, the glint of silver under one palm, and the way he's standing in the center of the doorway, wife to one side and mother to the other, positioned to shield them from the rest of the room.
Looks like you're not the only one expecting trouble - and a glance at Henry Archer confirms you also aren't the only one to notice the implications of his cousin's posture.
You spare a moment to pray to the Goddesses that this meeting isn't going to erupt into Holy Arrows...
Miles clears his throat and begins explaining the course of events from his point of view, beginning with Balthazar's initial warning to him and Alice of a possible danger to their family and the Quincy population in general, then moving on to the meeting he and Alice had with you and Ishida Ryuuken (and Balthazar, Briar, and Lanora). You note that Miles doesn't mention Ryuuken by name - either personal or familial - only identifying him as "one of our distant Japanese cousins"; he's similarly careful to avoid calling out Yhwach or the Wandenreich as the source of the danger.
As their Elder speaks, you observe the reactions of the Archer family. Henry, James, and May are all clearly hearing this for the first time, and their expressions of surprise, concern, and anger are absolutely genuine as far as you can determine. This suggests that the two Wandenreich sympathizers are in the dark as to Auswahlen's true purpose, and perhaps its existence as well - though the latter might be reading too much into things just yet.
That said, you are interested to note that, with the exception of John, the other members of the middle generation of the Quincy clan are exhibiting similar reactions at certain points in Miles' recounting. Several of those points have to do with explaining your current presence and overall involvement in the situation, and come in company with some disbelieving looks when Miles describes the "evidence" you provided in support of your abilities and testimony to the danger.
It would seem that Miles and Alice decided only to tell their oldest son the full details before this afternoon. Whether that was for the sake of preserving the secret, to ensure authentic reactions from the other adults and so avoid tipping Henry or James off, or for another reason, you aren't sure.
While you're considering that thought, Henry turns to Nicolau.
"I take it you're here because of this... unnamed threat, sir?" And he's not at all suspicious about his uncle's evasiveness on that point, no sir.
"I am," the Brazilian Quincy replies firmly. "Young Alex contacted me some weeks ago regarding the matter, bringing along an old friend I have trusted with my life along to vouch for him, and to provide information of his own on the matter."
Henry frowns. "Another sorcerer?"
"No. Tiriaq is a shaman, from a native tribe that lives some distance to the south of me and mine. He deals with the Spirit World in another manner than we do, speaking with entities both great and small that Quincy do not often come into contact with. The old dog tells me the spirits find our powers a bit unsettling."
"What sort of spirits?" The woman who speaks was introduced as Leanne, John's sister-in-law.
"A shaman can communicate with almost any non-sapient natural creature or force," you reply, ticking off a list of the usual suspects. "At least in theory. In practice, it depends a lot on their training and personal experience. Elder Tiriaq mostly deals with ancestral spirits, animal spirits, and spirits of water, wind, and ice due to where and how his tribe chooses to live, but I've seen him talk to the spirit of a volcano face-to-face."
None of the Archers seem to know how to respond to that.
"Granted," Balthazar chimes in, "the volcano spirit in question was walking around in more or less human form at the time."
"Well, yeah, but you weren't there for their first meeting," you retort mildly. "Tiriaq spotted Kahine for what she was the second he laid eyes on her, and he went straight to the formalities - bowing, formal address, knocking Sokka over the head, the works. And she was just as formal right back at him, at least long enough to tell him to loosen up for the party."
Balthazar nods, accepting that.
Once again, the assembled Quincy appear speechless.
"...do you, uh, attend parties thrown by volcanoes often?" May Archer manages to ask, with a look on her face that says she can't believe the words that are coming out of her own mouth.
"It was actually MY party," you admit, "but it wouldn't have done to NOT invite her to a party being held on her island."
"I... I see," May Archer replies, in a slow, stunned tone of voice that casts some doubt on her claim. "You were, uh, just being polite, then?"
Okay, maybe she does get it.
"Basically," you agree.
"From what Tiriaq has said over the years, being polite is a rather significant portion of a shaman's duties," Nicolau adds. "Especially when dealing with spirits of such significance, though he considers it a good idea for even the littlest ones. It encourages them to be polite in return, and makes them more likely to seek him out if they have a complaint against a member of his tribe, rather than going straight to vengeance. More relevantly to us," the Elder says then, leading into his main point, "it's also useful for when things start happening in the Spirit World that aren't readily apparent to we mere mortals, but could affect us - such as the reason we're here today. A shaman who is on good terms with the local spirits is more likely to warned about such things, simply as their equivalent of a neighborly courtesy."
"My apologies if I'm being blunt to an Elder and a guest," Henry speaks up, somewhat pointedly leaving off the plural, "but what exactly IS this dread threat that you and my uncle have been dancing around?"
"Henry," Alice chides.
"I think I'd like to know the answer to that as well," James adds in support of his brother.
"They do have a point, Mom," John's younger brother, Doug, says.
Nicolau turns to you, silently asking if you wish for him to handle this part of the explanation, although you also catch indications that the Brazilian Elder does not feel he would do a particularly good job of it. Which is fair, since everything he knows about the situation is based on secondhand accounts, however trusted those might be.
Mindful of your promise to follow Miles' lead, you glance his way, seeing if he wants you to take over here or if he would rather answer his nephew himself.
The Archer Elder nods, giving you permission and even an invitation to say your piece.
"I would like an answer," Henry presses, looking around.
Rude, but fine.
You consider how to explain it, and rule out simply name-dropping Yhwach, as that seems like the approach most likely to set off one or both of the traditionalist nephews in an explosion of denial, anger, and/or other unproductive emotional responses. A brief summary of the chain of events that led up to your discovery of the Sealed King's existence and intentions, then.
One issue immediately comes to mind: namely, how you explain Masaki's involvement in things. You kind of can't NOT mention her, because the state of her soul and your attempts to treat it were what forced Yhwach's proxy hand and kicked off your investigation into and attempts to thwart Auswahlen in the first place. The question is, how much DETAIL should you go into about this?
The simplest approach, and the one least likely to cause an immediate explosion, would be to say that Masaki suffered an undefined, lingering spiritual wound, that a local spiritualist was able to stabilize her, and you and the Goddesses offered to repair the damage. All true, and it leaves out the troubling parts about Hollow poisoning (which is supposed to be invariably and very rapidly fatal to Quincies) and Shinigami involvement, which are almost certain to cause a ruckus with some of your current audience. That said, you fully expect Urahara and especially Isshin's natures to be revealed at some point: there are about thirty Quincy in Karakura right now, and you wouldn't care to wager against at least one of them having noticed something odd about the crew at Urahara Shop or Masaki's husband; and if you stash Isshin with them for an extended period in a relatively confined space, they're even MORE likely to notice what he really is, shielded spiritual bindings or no.
The other option would be to get ahead of the curve and let the Archers know that Masaki was treated by a Shinigami, with the self-sacrifice of another Shinigami. You're prepared to deal with the two most likely troublemakers, at least three of the Quincy in the room already know the full facts and are inclined to help you keep the rest calm, and if you play up Urahara and Isshin's exile, the fact that they've been helping Masaki hide her kids from the local Hollow population AND the Soul Society, and generally NOT been overbearing genocidally-inclined enforcers of the balance between worlds, you might be able to release enough pressure to minimize this explosion and prevent a future one.
You will, however, NOT be bringing up the part where Masaki married a Shinigami. That feels like it would definitely be entirely too much. The Archers - or any of the other assembled Quincy, for that matter - might notice the non-human aspects of Isshin's soul on their own, but that's a problem for Future You, Future Masaki, and Future Isshin to deal with.
Mostly Future Isshin, though.
...
Thinking of just how many Quincy there will be stashed away in your demiplane, and how emotionally wrought the situation is likely to have them, maybe it might be a better idea to leave Isshin in Karakura? Or stash him in the OTHER demiplane?
Something else for Future You to worry about, you suppose.
You decide to make explaining the involvement of the Shinigami exiles a problem for Future Alex to deal with, and instead keep to the basic elements of the situation.
With that in mind, you explain your friendship with the Kurosakis and how you invited them to your birthday party, how Isshin had an odd reaction to the form of magical travel used to transport his family to the island, and how your follow-up examination of him led you to see the mildly horrifying state Masaki's soul was in.
You leave out the part where Isshin's soul was mystically bound to his wife's, instead making it sound like you just happened to see Masaki through the lens of the analytical spell you were using on her husband.
"At that point," you continue, "I called in some more practiced and capable healers who actually had experience dealing with wounds to the soul."
"Who?" Henry sounds honestly interested, which, considering how uncommon healers with that level of power and proficiency must be in the modern world, you can understand.
"One of them is a firebird, and the other one was a Great Fairy."
For the third time since coming into the room, you've managed to leave the uninformed Archers speechless.
"What's this about fairies?" a confused voice comes from the hallway.
Looking over your should, you see that a few more adults joined Alice and John's wife Kelly at some point while you were speaking. One woman feels like a Quincy, but the other lady and the man that came with them both feel pretty ordinary - spiritually stronger than most humans, but not empowered as far as you can tell.
"Leaving aside the part where you claim to have summoned a phoenix-" Henry Archer begins.
"A firebird, sir," you interrupt firmly. "The phoenix is something else entirely."
He pauses, looking both annoyed by the interruption and curious about your statement. "How so?"
"Firebirds are mortal creatures - intelligent, magical ones, but still mortal, and only moderately powerful in the big scheme of things. The phoenix is a divine entity, basically the living embodiment of the IDEAL of a firebird, and there's only one in the entire world at any time."
"...I see. Well, leaving that aside, what, exactly, is a 'Great Fairy'?"
With Balthazar chiming in, you quickly summarize the fairy life-cycle, focusing on how, if they live long enough and choose to grow up enough, little fairies like your partner can eventually become what are, for all intents and purposes, minor nature goddesses.
"And you just happen to know such a being," James Archer states with more than a touch of disbelief.
"My partner is one of her daughters," you return bluntly. "She got stuck on Earth twenty years ago, and after we teamed up, I helped her get back in touch with her family. Her mom's been keeping an eye on us ever since" - for all kinds of reasons you aren't going to get into - "and I invited her and the rest of her kids to the party."
Meanwhile, Doug's wife, Leanne, has started grinning in delight. "So fairies are really real?"
"They are, ma'am."
Getting back to the matter at hand, you recount how the Kurosakis wanted to consult with the spiritual expert who'd originally treated Masaki's injury before they accepted aid from a third party, and how that led to you, Rho, and Navi visiting them in Karakura later on to try treating Masaki under Urahara's watchful, scientific eye and various gizmos.
"I could call my partner in here to prove that," you add, "but-"
As if on cue, there is a rumble of several small feet stomping around in one of the second-floor rooms.
You aren't the only one whose attention is drawn to the noise.
"-they'd probably follow her," you finish, looking back down.
Leanne's expression has turned wry. "Yeah, let's not get the kids in here."
You nod, but feel compelled to include a warning. "One thing to be aware of, though. Fairies like my partner and her mother aren't the only kind of Fae out there, and calling one of the other sorts a 'fairy' is a bad idea."
"How bad?" Miles wonders.
"Have you ever read the Brothers Grimm?" you ask.
"Can't say as I- May?" Miles adds abruptly, looking at his suddenly pale-faced niece-in-law.
"I've read some of their stories, Elder," the woman replies uneasily. "The original versions can get... pretty gruesome."
"How bad?" her husband wonders.
"Snow White originally ends with the prince forcing the Evil Queen to wear red-hot shoes and dance until she dies."
Yet again, the Archers collectively fall silent.
"That's... awful," James Archer manages after a moment. "But that was a human, right?"
"Actually," Balthazar says mildly, "there's a very good chance that the original story did involve the Fae. The Grimm version says that Snow White was seven when her stepmother tried to have her killed, and that she spent ten years with the dwarves before the Queen asked her Mirror who the fairest one of all was again. Yet the first part of the story implies that the Queen was vain enough to ask the Mirror that question on a regular basis. There's no reason for her to suddenly stop, just because her greatest perceived rival was dead; if anything, she should have gone right to the Mirror to confirm Snow White's death."
"...I hadn't considered that before," May Archer admits with a puzzled frown. "Why WOULD the story have been written that way, then?"
"It makes sense once you know a little more about the Fae realm," you interject, taking up the explanation from your fellow sorcerer. "There are parts of it where time moves differently than it does on Earth. Faster, slower, not at all; if Snow White were spirited away to one of those places, then the 'ten years' that she spent with the dwarves" - who probably WEREN'T dwarves, then - "could have been a matter of hours or days for the Queen." Then it's your turn to frown, as you consider how that changes the rest of the narrative. "That would mean that the 'prince' was probably a Fae lord, which does a lot to explain the nature of the Queen's punishment."
It also has concerning implications for Snow White's ultimate fate, but you try not to think too hard about that. It's an old story, whatever girl inspired it is probably long since dead, and you're attempting to AVOID the notice of Fae lords right now.
In the future, though...
Once again, you decide that full disclosure is better off left to Future Alex, and just say that while you were doing follow-up Divinations on Masaki's condition, you discovered that a force unrelated to your healing efforts or her original injury was going to try and kill her in the near future.
"And while I was investigating the cause, I found out that it's not just Mrs. Kurosaki who's in danger, or her family, or the Quincy in Karakura, or even the ones living in Japan; every Quincy on Earth is at risk, and if nothing's done, nine hundred and ninety-nine of you are going to die. Tomorrow."
For an instant, you almost think you've stunned the Archers into silence again. But then-
"That's ridiculous," Henry Archer says dismissively. "There's no way-
"Attacked on the anniversary of the King's fall?" his brother James almost spits. "That's-"
"Is it the Shinigami again?" Doug Archer demands to know. "Son of a-"
"Douglas!" his wife and mother scold in unison.
"-only telling us NOW-"
"This is a joke, right?"
"-would have been warned-"
"Somebody tell me this a joke."
"-get out of town-"
"Seriously, where's the camera?"
"-never trust a reaper-"
-it gets noisy.
Miles is trying to call and signal for everyone's attention and silence, but the rest of the family are not really paying attention to him.
Should you assist him? And if so, how? You're currently holding a modified Spell of Deep Slumber at the ready, so you'd have to let it go before you could cast another spell; that could be an issue if Henry Archer tries something. If you'd rather not take that risk, ki is an option. Using Ki Shout to raise your voice or a Ki Shot modified for maximum light and minimal force could work, or you could try to shock everyone into paying attention by forcefully expressing your aura.
The last time you had to deal with a room full of alarmed and angry adults who were all talking over one another too loudly to think, you resolved the situation with a good book.
And the Archers just so happen to have a couple of bookshelves set up in the corners of the living room. Thinking back, you're fairly sure one of them had a set of encyclopedias or something...
It takes you a moment to navigate the crowded room to get to the shelf in question, but once you're there, you find that your recollection was correct; there is indeed a set of large, hardcover books taking up the bottom shelf and a bit of the next one up. You reach out and take down the nearest of the volumes - Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th Edition, you note - and start channeling your ki as you open the book up.
"What are you-?" Miles asks from behind you.
Turning around, you slam the book shut-
*WHOOMP*
-and let that speak for you.
As with the last time you called for attention this way, you're still not getting the cannon-blast hand-clap that you've witnessed Shuzen Issa use - which is honestly just as well, given you're in a much smaller room with a bunch of people who'd be actively pained or even injured by a noise that loud going off just a few feet away from them. You think that you might have managed a "slammed door" level of sound, though some of that might be a trick of the acoustics as opposed to pure volume.
Either way, it's enough to momentarily silence the Archers.
Gained Ki Shout F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Thunder Clap F
"...was that a spell?" Henry wonders, looking at the book in your hands with some disbelief.
"Doesn't magic take a bunch of chanting and gestures?" his brother asks, equally confused.
You catch a soft huff of amusement coming from Balthazar's general direction.
Actually, given the Law of Sympathy - and the precedent of the Spell of Shouting, which just requires the caster to yell to activate - it would be entirely possible for you to devise a sound-based spell whose primary somatic component was clapping your hands, slamming a book, or otherwise generating a mundane level of noise.
"That wasn't magic," you reply, "that was a ki technique."
A few of the expressions of puzzlement scattered around the room deepen at your remark, but Miles' oldest nephew visibly recognizes the term, and responds to your use of it by looking you over again - no doubt paying more attention to your greater-than-average size and athleticism - and then nodding.
"I can see it," he admits.
"Was that really necessary, Alex?" Miles grumbles. "And did you blow out the bindings on that book?"
"The book's fine," you reply, holding it up for him to see. "And maybe it wasn't necessary, but neither was all the shouting."
"...are we being scolded for making noise by a twelve-year-old?" Douglas asks of no one in particular.
Before the Archers can get over their latest surprise and start building up volume again, you quickly explain that the whole reason you and Balthazar are here is to evacuate them to a refuge that should be beyond the reach of the danger-
"How can you be sure of that?" James interrupts. "You just said that every Quincy on Earth was going to... oh."
"Dear?" May asks.
"I think," James says slowly, "he's suggesting taking us somewhere OFF of Earth."
"I am," you say simply.
"Where?" Henry says flatly.
"I made a deal with the Great Fairy I mentioned earlier." May Archer sits up straight at that. "I ran some errands for her, she made me what's basically a flying island in another dimension, with as many natural barriers between it and the source of the danger as possible. Though I'm planning to cast a few more spells to help hide you all, and actively shield you if all the other precautions fail."
"An island. In another dimension. Made by a fairy." Doug sighs. "I... is this really happening?"
"I was just there not half an hour again, young Archer," Nicolau replies mildly. "My family ARE there as we speak, and god only knows what sort of trouble Andreia is getting into..." He trails off, frowning suddenly, and turns to you. "I didn't notice any animals, but-"
"There aren't any," you assure him. "No spirits, either, just a comfortable atmosphere and enough ordinary plants to make the place more welcoming than, say, your average asteroid. And the apartments," you add, lest the Archers get the impression that you're expecting them to rough it for the foreseeable future.
"What was the deal?" May Archer interjects.
"I'm sorry?"
"You said you made a deal with the Great Fairy," she repeats. "I'm not an expert on the subject, but I didn't ONLY read the Brothers Grimm back in university; that library had a whole bunch of odd books, and some of them had things to say about making deals with 'Fair Folk.'"
You can guess what she's getting at.
"I'm nine."
"And yes."
Doug Archer blinks in surprise, looks you up and down, and finally rebuts, "The hell you're nine."
"Douglas," his mother scolds him. For being rude to a guest, swearing in front of a child, or both?
You're going to say both.
He isn't the only member of the family staring at you, though.
"I know, I know," you reply, waving one hand as if to dismiss the looks. "I'm large for my age and I talk like an old man."
"Speaking as an old man," Miles Archer interjects wryly, "I don't sound like that."
"Speaking as another old man," Nicolau adds, "I don't either. Or at least I try not to."
"And speaking as a much older man," Balthazar comments with a certain dry amusement, "I freely admit that I do sound like that a lot of the time."
"Is it a magic thing, then?" the New York Quincy Elder guesses, looking at the other two old men in the room.
"The lad does remind me a bit of Tiriaq," his Brazilian counterpart says with a nod, "and of a few other magic-users I've met over the years. Very... verbose individuals, at times."
"It's an occupational hazard," the sorcerer agrees. "Being skilled in the use of language can be the difference between life and death, or fates worse than death, in certain fields of magical study. That tends to carry over to everyday conversation."
In different company, you might add that dealing with the Fae is one of those fields of study, and that Briar's position as your first magical tutor - in this lifetime - has had something of a formative effect. But you decide not to bring that up here and now.
Of course, the REAL source of your old man voice is Ganondorf's influence. But you're not going to mention that, either.
"Could I get the address of that library from you? For research purposes."
Your curiosity and interest in new sources of knowledge briefly gets the better of you.
"I, um, went to Columbia?" May Archer replies with some confusion.
The name is vaguely familiar to you, though you can't quite pin it down. Making a note to look it up later, you get back on topic.
"Right, so, the deal I made was to help the Great Fairy's oldest son out with a project he was working on. He's a smith, he needed some ores, and I spent a few days basically working as hired labor, prospecting and mining."
"'Prospecting'," the lady repeats. "You mean to say you actually went out looking for deposits. In the earth."
"I did, and I found them."
"...how?"
"I'm particularly skilled in the field of magic that involves finding things; it's what led to my involvement in THIS situation, after all," you add, gesturing at the Quincy around you. Then you shrug. "Anyway, since I am her daughter's partner and DID help them get back in touch after a long separation, it's fair to say that the Great Fairy was inclined to give me a lighter task to perform, compared to what she could have demanded in payment. The job still had a few surprises even so, but as I'm still here, still breathing, and still myself, they weren't anything beyond my ability to handle."
As you say the words, it occurs to you that they might be coming across as a bit boastful. Certainly, a few of the Quincies - nearly all of whom in this room are parents, you recall - are giving you the sort of looks normally reserved for a kid telling tall tales.
"What was the project?" James wonders.
"What was that?"
"The smith. What did he need the ores for?"
"He's building a magical robot."
Miles' youngest nephew blinks at you. "Magic. Robot."
"Probably something closer to clockwork than electronic, from what I saw of his plans," you reply, "but metallic humanoid form, capable of independent movement, and limited to pre-programmed behavior? Yeah, basically a robot."
"...and fairies do this sort of thing?"
"People in the nation this particular family of fairies have the most contact with do this sort of thing," you clarify, "and they've been doing it for a really long time. The fairies just sort of picked it up." You shake your head. "Anyway, we've gotten off-topic."
You give the adult Archers a description of the demiplane, and how the "natural barriers" you mentioned should interfere with any attempts to detect them: how crossing even one planar boundary imposes a non-zero chance of error or outright failure on all but the most powerful magic; how attempting to cross multiple such borders in one go can compound the issue, particularly when they are "closed" as opposed to "open"; and of course, that it's much easier to go somewhere you've been before than it is to find a location you don't even know exists.
It's mostly for the benefit of the non-Quincy spouses in the room; those born into the tradition, trained to deal with unfriendly spirits as they are and further educated about where some of those spirits normally reside, have no trouble with the idea.
Then, admitting that a sufficiently powerful being could overcome all of those obstacles, you describe the spells you're planning to cast to ward the Archers and the other Quincy families from harm.
First, you bring up the Spell of Mind Blank, which you explain to Miles and Alice you'd been working on when you first approached them, but only mastered very recently - hence why it wasn't part of your original agreement. Before anybody can accuse you of Darth Vadering them, you add that you can't in good conscience charge them for that late addition, and so won't be.
"Wait, you're CHARGING us for this?" Doug Archer blurts out.
You don't even need to look around to see that he's merely expressing a thought shared by others in the room. Henry, in particular, looks disgusted, though he's visibly restraining himself from speaking for the moment.
"If I did it for free, you'd owe me one," you explain, "and not just in the emotional sense. I know I may make it sound casual, but magic, especially high-level magic like I'm talking about using, always has a price - and sooner or later, the bill comes due."
"Think about fairy tales again," Balthazar recommends, "and consider that they were largely based on real-life, where people generally want to solve their problems as quickly and cleanly as possible. So why doesn't the good witch ever just fix the issues confronting the hero? Why does the hero always have to go on a drawn-out, dangerous quest to find whatever magical item they need to resolve the original problem? Conversely, why does the evil witch always suffer when her curse is unravelled? Why all the warnings against making deals with the Fair Folk? It's not for the sake of the narrative, or to teach any moral lessons. Like Alex said, the price for magic has to be paid, and the greater the price and the longer it's put off, the worse it is in the end."
Finally losing that battle of self-control, Henry scoffs. "That's rich, coming from you."
Balthazar isn't the only one who frowns, though he's less put out than others.
"Henry," Alice chides.
"No, Aunt Alice," her nephew replies firmly. "I don't want to hear about 'debts' and 'prices' from a man who's managed to cheat death by old age for longer than our family has had its name."
"Wait, what?" several of the people in the room exclaim in unison.
"Oh, yes. Mister Blake, here, claims to be somewhere over a thousand years old. Whether that's true or not, I can't say, but I can confirm he hasn't visibly aged since I first met him over thirty years ago - and my father said that had been true when HE was a boy, and when HIS father was as well."
"I don't suppose he also told you what drove Henry the Elder to try shooting me on our second face-to-face meeting?" Balthazar asks, mildly curious. "I never did get a straight answer about that."
"He didn't, and I could care less," Henry - the Younger, you suppose, or perhaps the Second - replies flatly.
Balthazar just nods. "It was worth a shot. But to answer the question you haven't asked, Henry, the same one that your grandfather's generation put to me, my longevity isn't of my own doing. It was my master's final spell, cast as he lay dying. He could have tried to heal himself; it might not have worked, but he chose not to make the attempt. He could have let me try to heal him; it probably wouldn't have worked, but he stopped me from even trying. Rather than save his own life, my master accepted that it was his time, and used that sacrifice - all the years he'd lived and the things he'd done, all the years he could have had ahead of him - to ensure that I'd live on and see to his tasks in his stead. And then I had to watch him finish bleeding out from a wound dealt by the first and greatest student he'd ever had, after being betrayed by his last apprentice - people that had once been as good as family."
To a less keen eye, there would be nothing behind Balthazar's words but patient solemnity. Your heavily enhanced senses pick up more, though, hints of pain and anger and grief, so old and borne for so long that you have to wonder if Balthazar is even entirely aware of them anymore.
You're not sure if Henry Archer's senses are keen enough to notice that, but either he does see something, or something in the tale hits home for him, because he doesn't follow up on his previous line of unspoken accusation.
There is a brief, awkward pause, after which you clear your throat and get on with your account of what Mind Blank does. Interruption aside, it goes over well enough, although you suspect that's partly because most of your audience are trying to put the tension of Henry and Balthazar's little confrontation aside.
Your explanation of Spell Immunity is straightforward. "This spell makes you immune to other spells" is a pretty simple concept, you just have to clarify that the magic works better if the person casting Spell Immunity has encountered the threat they're trying to protect against before - which you admit that you haven't, and that while you've done your best to gather as much information as possible, there's no substitute for firsthand experience.
Which leads to the Spell of Death Ward. Again "this spell stops supernatural effects from killing you" isn't difficult to grasp, it's just that the specifics of what effects it works against, and which it doesn't, take some elaborating upon.
You finish up by saying that you've already cast all three spells on the Muhlfeld family, which leads into having to explain why Nicolau isn't currently under such protection-
"YOU STOPPED TIME?!"
"I didn't do it, and it isn't really 'stopped,' it's just... not passing."
"How does that even work!?"
-and an inquiry as to whether or not the Brazilians, and indeed, the Japanese Quincy, are paying you for your services as well.
Nicolau confirms that, saying that he has enough saved up to cover the cost for his family, and considers it money well-spent - though he somewhat ruefully admits, it helps that there aren't that many of them.
Isshin and Masaki will be covering their family's debt to you, although that's kind of tied up in the other debt, regarding Masaki's healing. As for the Ishidas, some of what's owed to you is already covered through Souken's assistance in your preparations, and Ryuuken's volunteering to help you convince the other Quincy groups; the doctor evidently had Words with his father on the subject, but is also willing to handle the cost for aiding their closer extended relations, if it proves necessary.
Which it might. Having lived in Soul Society's nominal territory and hence under a suspended sentence for the last two hundred years, the Japanese Quincy are apt to be more suspicious on average than their American or Brazilian cousins... but you'll have to wait and see how that goes.
For now, you finish up by saying that the trip to the demiplane shouldn't take more than a few minutes, and the Archers can bring their vehicles if they'd prefer, though you do caution them that there are no roads in your pocket realm. Finally, you describe the awaiting accommodations, rooms, food, and mysterious servants, which Miles and Alice support by describing their own observations of the Mansion you briefly conjured here before.
Although part of you wants to try and make one final argument, you have to concede that there isn't much more you can say that wouldn't just be belaboring the points you've already made, or that wouldn't risk revealing the precise nature of the threat - as well as the fact that the Shinigami are mobilizing to take out the problem at its source.
Besides, you've given the Archers quite a bit to chew on already; best to let them get on with that and make their decision.
The next quarter of an hour or so involves quite a bit of said "chewing," as one member or another of the family says something and gets answered, accoladed, or shouted down by three or four more, while a number of relatively quiet, two- or three-person conversations take place around them.
One of those involves James turning to Henry and quietly bringing up the possibility of going to "the others" for help, only to have the elder brother reject the idea out of hand. Your astonishment at that is resolved almost immediately when Henry explains that "their" first reaction would be to try and verify the threat - and "they" wouldn't give much credence to claims made by a couple of sorcerers. Assuming "they" did manage to find something, the next step would be to evacuate all local Quincy to one of several warded safehouses.
"But the active defenses on those places are aimed at keeping out local threats, not stopping something that can track and attack us from another plane of existence and who knows how many thousands of miles away besides," Henry explains sourly. "The resources that would take are beyond anything we've had for centuries - I don't know that ANYONE outside of the damn Reapers has had them, at least not on an organizational level. We'd have to rely on the wards meant for concealment and misdirection, and those aren't really any different functionally than the ones on our homes."
"They're stronger," James argues.
"And if the boy's telling the truth, whatever's coming after us is powerful enough to kill every Quincy on Earth in one day. Do you really want to gamble your life and May's on being able to hide from something like that? Your kids' lives?"
James winces at that and reaches for his wife's hand, almost without thinking about it.
Henry nods, looking weary. "The best way forward I can see is to take the offer, get our families out of the line of fire, and get everything we can from these two about the exact nature of the threat - because there's still a lot about this they're deliberately not telling us."
"Noticed that, did you?"
"Yeah. Maybe it's another magic thing; I know there are some beings out there that can 'hear' their names being used, but then why not just SAY that...?" Henry shakes his head. "Anyway, we get that intel, then I go to the others and warn them." He shrugs. "Maybe they'll be able to do something about it. At the very least, they can spread the word, get more of our people under cover when whatever it is finally hits."
It's your turn to wince, or rather, to hide such an expression from the room at large, lest somebody realize you're intentionally listening in on one of the various conversations. THERE'S the stirring of trouble you were expecting to encounter, and now that it has turned up, the worst part about it is that you can see Henry genuinely thinks his "mysterious contacts" would try to help.
Based on what you've learned about the Wandenreich from Souken, even if the threat WASN'T coming from their ancient god-king himself, you're not convinced that they'd take action. Maybe for those members of the Archer bloodline that still qualify as Echt Quincy, but the Gemischt members? The more or less ordinary humans who've married into the lineage?
And yet...
All of your planning and preparation, your reaching out through your small global network of contacts, has amounted to perhaps seventy Quincy lives saved, out of just under a thousand that were and are in mortal danger. Limits on time and resources and prior commitments prevented you from finding more of them, and while some would say that what you've done and will be doing is enough - and more than enough, especially for a nine-year-old - it still bothers you that nine hundred plus people are being left out in the open.
Could you, perhaps, take advantage of Henry's plan to warn the Earth-side Wandenreich agents, and hope that they have enough of a sense of responsibility, or kinship, or SOME kind of positive feeling towards their "lesser" kinsmen that they move to protect them?
It frustrates you to think of all the people whose lives and souls are being left unprotected against the coming threat.
It galls you to admit that for all your power and allies and the combined effort you've put forward, you can't save them all - no more than a small fraction, in fact.
And yet, when presented with an opportunity to potentially spread the warning to other Quincy communities you weren't able to locate, you force yourself to hold your tongue and turn away.
You do it by reminding yourself that yours is fundamentally a back-up plan, a precaution in case the Shinigami assault fails to prevent Yhwach from opening his eyes.
Not for the first time, and likely not for the last, you tell the worried little voice in your head that operational security is key, for if the local Wandenreich agents learn that an unknown party is vanishing members of the Earth-dwelling Quincy population on the very eve of their King's awakening, they will undoubtedly raise the alarm within their organization, and potentially Silbern itself. The timing alone is too suspicious for them to do any less; if any of them actually HEAR the warning you've given the Archers, they will know that somehow, someway, someone has caught on to their King's imminent awakening and is trying to undermine it.
True, it's a bit of a stretch to go from "two mortal sorcerers know about Auswahlen and are working against it" to "the Shinigami are coming!" but the Shinigami are expecting to have complete surprise. You doubt that it's a critical element of their assault plan - at least, not if they have any kind of military experience at all - and it certainly won't last long, but they ARE expecting it. If they go in with that mindset and find the Wandenreich on ALERT instead...
There's a phrase that bubbled up from Ganondorf's memories once that seems appropriate: "There's nothing messier than an ambushed ambush."
And if the Shinigami raid is thwarted, or even just slowed down too much, then a lot of innocent people will die.
And that is exactly what you're trying to avoid.
With that in mind, you make your choice.
And not too long after that, the Archers make theirs.
Several of the parents make their way out of the living room, heading across the front hall or up the stairs at paces slightly faster than a walk as they seek out their children. Those that remain behind rise from their seats and start gathering coats and shoes.
"Do we have time to go back and pack a few extra things?"
"-traffic's going to be lousy-"
"-you to bring what we needed-"
"-thought it was just a sleepover for the kids-"
"-got some extra clothes here-"
"-time to make a few phonecalls-"
"-forgot to lock the door-"
"-forget your head if it wasn't attached."
Why are you thinking of a flock of Cuccoos all of a sudden?
Amid the confusion, Miles finds you, and asks where you're going to be setting up the Gates that you mentioned.
You think on that. The easiest way would be to open the portal in the street outside, as that would give you the most space and allow for two cars to pass through at a time. If the Archers were all in their vehicles and ready to go, you could be out of here within a matter of seconds. Of course, that would let half the neighborhood see what was going on, so you tend to disregard the idea.
A better option would be to open the Gate inside the garage, and let the cars drive through that way. Gates are normally circular in shape, and you doubt your ability to alter that aspect of such a powerful and (more importantly) recently learned spell, so you'd have to keep the portal relatively small. One vehicle at a time, then, which would be time-consuming enough that you'd probably need a second Gate, maybe even a third. While this would be less obvious than just tearing open a hole in space-time for everyone on the block to see, some of the Archers' neighbors still might notice and wonder what the heck was going on with all these cars going into the garage and not coming back out.
There's always the option of leaving the cars, opening the Gate inside the house, and having everyone walk through that way. This would have the advantage of keeping the portal completely hidden and letting you borrow the effects of the Archers' wards.
The only other option that comes to mind is forming a little family caravan and trying to find a place where you can all get out of sight for a bit - maybe a parking garage, or something? You'd have to ask if any of the New Yorkers know of a suitable place, though, and it would likely take a while to get there.
"I'm thinking inside your garage," you reply. "It's mostly out of sight of the rest of the neighborhood, and if you want to bring some of those cars along, instead of leaving them parked on the curb...?"
"Probably the best thing," Miles admits. "Alice and I do still have to live with our neighbors when this is all said and done."
You nod. It's going to be a day or two at best before the Archers get back, possibly a week or more if the aftermath of Auswahlen plays out poorly, and the other folks living around here might not be too thrilled about having to deal with a partial traffic jam for all that time - and that's without getting into the local arrangements for trash collection.
"Then it'll take a little parking ballet to sort everything out, but it should still be faster and less inconvenient than having to drive somewhere else," you conclude.
"At this time of day?" Miles replies with a dry laugh. "Almost certainly."
As the New York Quincy Elder moves off to start getting that arranged, you turn to Balthazar and inquire if he could encourage people to ignore the implications of a few cars disappearing into a garage too small to hold them all - or at least hide the fact that it was happening from them.
"The latter would be more practical," he replies. "Straightforward Illusion Magic, say, the Spell to Create a Minor Image? A lot easier to hide, too." He glances out into the hallway as Henry moves past, then back at you, nodding his head in the other man's direction. "What about our two problem children?"
"They were talking about trying to get more information from us about all this," you reply. "If I go into the garage while you're out in the yard, we both cast our spells the long way and make like we need to concentrate on them, so we can't spare time to talk..."
The senior sorcerer nods. "Buys us time, avoids making a scene, hopefully gets some of the family out of the way in case they DO decide to make themselves an issue. Very neat."
"Thank you. Shall we?"
With a pulse down your familiar bond to let Briar know you're moving, you head into the hall and start making your way to the garage. There's some crowding, pushing both accidental and with intent, and a few words exchanged as you leave the house - Alice Archer tags along briefly, to let you know which of the two cars properly inside the garage will be driven "out," and hence needs the Gate positioned to accommodate it. Once you've sorted that out, she heads back into the house proper, leaving you to consider the interior of the garage.
Aside from the two cars, there's the usual odds and ends you'd expect to see in a middle-class household's private parking space. Shelves and racks line the two walls that adjoin the main residence, covered with various tools for home repair, gardening, and of course, automotive maintenance: some of the smaller pieces are packed away into boxes; others occupy spots on the racks; and a few have been left laying out. There's a garden hose wound up on a wheeled reel, a lawnmower parked in the inner rear corner, some paint cans piled in the outer rear corner, and a dusty greyish tarp spattered with white paint hanging up on the outer wall. An automatic door opener hangs from the ceiling, not far from an exposed lightbulb.
No obvious Quincy stuff, but considering how the garage would be visible to the neighbors and random passersby on a regular basis, that makes sense.
You take a minute to mentally measure off the space in front of the car Alice pointed out, calculating distances and making sure there's nothing sticking out into what will be the plane of the portal. The Gate Spell includes safeguards to prevent its seemingly two-dimensional, technically many-dimensional edge from slashing through anything it comes into contact with, but as a consequence of that, if something IS in the way while it's opening, the portal must either push it aside, stop expanding in that direction, or else designate that as the "bottom" of the circle - because perfectly rounded indents in the ground just don't happen in nature, and some unrecorded archmage helpfully tweaked the spell's formula so that the bottom of a new-made Gate would conform to the local geography.
You have to admit, it's more practical for quick passage by a relatively large number of people and things that can't fly. Less chance of tripping, too.
Seeing nothing that would pose a problem, you commence with the ritual.
A few minutes into it, several of the Archers enter the garage. You glance their way, and see Miles, Alice, and a girl a few years older than Eric, with Nicolau trailing behind them.
The girl - more of a young woman, really - is openly staring at the half-formed array and still-gathering motes of power around you. "What the-?"
"Shhh," Nicolau cautions her, one hand raised for attention. "Never interrupt a friendly magic-user while he's casting, my dear."
"And if he's not friendly, Elder?"
"Then be as loud as you need to, preferably from range."
Good advice on all counts.
To keep up your act for Henry and James, who you can sense not too far away, you signal for Briar. A moment later, she zips into the garage.
"Problem, partner?"
/ Need an interpreter, / you send, leveraging your bond and rudimentary telepathy.
"Right. One Sorcery-to-English translator, coming up!" Briar's magic flares. "Hi!"
The lady starts in your partner's direction. "What the-?"
"More of a 'who the-', dear," Alice interrupts. "That's Alex's partner, the fairy girl. It was Briar, wasn't it?"
"That's me! Anyway, I'm just speaking up to let you know that Alex is a few minutes-"
/ Four. /
"-make that four minutes, from finishing the spell and opening the Gate. When he's done, that big glowing circle taking shape in front of the car will sort of open up, and you'll be able to drive the car straight ahead through it. The Gate will only stay open for about a minute and a half, maybe a little more, so please don't waste any time."
Miles looks at the Gate for a moment, then glances over his shoulder, and THEN down at the wheels of his car, frowning thoughtfully all the while. "And there's no road on the other side?" he asks of Briar.
"No."
"...better have a word with the boys," he decides, before heading back out of the garage.
You've got a few minutes, a telepathic chatline to your partner, and three Quincy in easy speaking distance. Is there anything you want to say?
You've said all that needs to be said, and so the next few minutes pass in relative quiet, broken only by your low chanting, the sound of the Quincy getting into the cars, and the growling of the engines.
Idly, you cock an ear at the noise, noting that one of the Archer family vehicles sounds like it might be in need of a trip to the shop.
Finally, you reach the end of the spell - and hold it there, turning to check on the situation.
"Is everybody ready?" you ask over the low, steady rumble of the nearest car.
"As ready as we can be," Miles replies from the front passenger's seat.
"Alright. I've placed the other side of the Gate away from the camp, so you should be fine to just drive through, but please keep an eye open in case somebody went for a walk."
"Don't worry," Alice says with a confident smile from behind the wheel. "After almost forty years on New York streets, I think I can handle this."
Fingers crossed, knock on wood.
"Then here. We. GO."
Gained Summoning A (Plus) (Plus)
The glow of the Gate briefly intensifies as space and time begin to unfold. The center of the luminous construct goes dim as it opens up, the face of the energy disk retracting towards its edge and revealing the fog-wreathed, plant-strewn earth and stone of your dimly lit demiplane. As you'd hoped, there's no one in sight.
Despite Miles' reply to your previous question, Alice doesn't start driving immediately. Indeed, you can see that she, her husband, and the young lady sitting in the back seat are all staring at the portal with varying amounts of surprise (mostly the older girl whose name you still haven't gotten) and interest (the older couple, who've seen you warp space in a not completely dissimilar manner before).
Then Alice remembers herself, lets up on the brake, and begins moving the car forward. She doesn't drive too quickly, and even so, there's a distinct loss of speed as the car moves through the Gate and trades the relatively good traction of the garage's concrete flooring for the unpaved soil beyond. Alice compensates well enough, and after about twenty seconds, has moved far enough that you feel safe in signaling for the next vehicle - the SUV, as it happens - to start forward.
You catch some admiring exclamations of "Look at that!" and "Cool!" from a few of the passengers.
John Archer is driving this time, and whether because of the difference in vehicles or because he's got less experience on (or off) the road than his mother, it takes him longer to adjust to the difference in driving surfaces. There's enough time left after that for a third vehicle to move up and into the portal, but you wave off the fourth as it comes up behind that one, because the Gate is starting to slowly close.
"This Gate's going to close in a few more seconds," you call out for everyone to hear. "I'll open the next one in the same spot shortly. Don't worry about anyone getting caught in it, it's got safeties to prevent that; just make sure there's room for the remaining cars."
You get an affirmative reply, and a few seconds after that, the collapse of the Gate accelerates, going from just fast enough to be noticed to almost too quick to follow.
You notice some wide-eyed looks from the next car, and someone inside asks, "What would happen if we were inside that thing when it closed?"
"Like I said, there's safeties," you reply. "Most likely the car would get pushed back out, which could get a little rough, given..." You gesture around at the limited space of the garage. You wouldn't exactly call it crowded in here, but it's small enough that having a mid-sized car forcefully ejected from a collapsing portal in a potentially random direction could be problematic.
"You said 'most likely,'" a different someone comments. "What else could happen?"
"If enough of the car was through the Gate, you could get forced through in the other direction," you answer thoughtfully, as you gather your magic for the next casting. "Failing that... the car would be, well..."
"Cut in half?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
Granted, it's technically possible that the vehicle and its passengers could get shunted to the Ethereal Plane proper by the force of the collapsing Gate - getting "halfway" to the demiplane, as it were - that they'd be redirected into the adjacent Astral Plane, or that they'd be bounced to an entirely random plane, but those outcomes tend to only come into play when something with enough magical protections and/or innate power to resist the forces involved in a collapsing planar portal is in play. Purely mundane matter just can't hold up under the strain long enough for such possibilities to be remotely realistic.
And with that cheerful thought in mind, you go and do it again!
One question: do you want to keep using rituals to re-open the Gate, or would you prefer to use the normal method? You went with a ritual the first time to enhance your power and ensure the stability of the portal, but having done that successfully and gotten a feel for the process, you're satisfied that you don't need the extra boost. You could still use the ritual method to save some mana, but the first Gate would have created quite a powerful disturbance, locally; if anyone's noticed that, speed would serve you better, especially when you may have to open two or even three more Gates.
You're pretty sure you can get the remaining Archers and their vehicles through with this next one, but that still leaves you, Briar, and Balthazar - and Henry Archer, you note, who's stayed behind.
You just cast a spell ritually boosted to the tenth circle, and got another round of golden light radiating from the manifested energies - specifically, the portal when it opened up. If THAT didn't turn some magically sensitive heads your way, then New Yorkers are even more jaded than you ever suspected.
You doubt that is the case, though, which means you could have scrying devices, bound spies, and teleportation spells all winging their way in your general direction at this very moment. You're not particularly worried about being spotted yourself - between Mind Blank, the Archers' wards, and Balthazar's illusion, you're pretty well covered - but that just leaves more concern for everybody else.
Driven by that feeling, you decide to skip the act and just open the next Gate as quickly as possible.
And you do.
Some of the occupants in the car that's currently idling next to you blink in surprise.
"That was a lot faster than the last one," Kelly Archer observes lightly.
"Some things get easier with practice," you reply, as you signal for her husband to drive through.
Like his mother before him, Doug hesitates for a moment before putting his foot to the gas pedal - and like his brother, he proves to have more trouble when the car goes off-road than Alice did. But as with the three previous vehicles, this one gets through without a problem.
You send the fifth load of Quincies on, followed by a sixth, and then you realize that the last car pulling up only has one of the non-Quincy in-laws inside of it, and she seems to be parking rather than preparing to drive through. Henry is still standing in the door of the garage, and Balthazar is coming up the driveway at a quick walk, an aura of active magic still emanating from his person. Everybody else is through.
By the time the lady whose name you think was Erin has parked, turned off the car, gotten out, and closed the door behind her, your second Gate has reached the point where you have to shut it down.
"Sorry to make extra work for you," she apologizes.
"Don't worry about it," you reply. "Between getting Balthazar and Mister Henry through, doing one quick sweep of the area, and making sure the garage door was closed, I would have needed to open another Gate anyway. Speaking of checking on things," you add, before moving past the woman to stick your head out and look around.
"Do you really think someone's going to show up and try to blow up the house?" Erin asks from behind you.
"And who or what is it that we're running from, if I might be so bold?" Henry finally speaks up from rather closer. Even as he says that, he's emulating your study of the neighborhood.
With the man's eyes turned away, you start gathering mana and reviewing the formula for the Spell of Deep Slumber again.
Silver linings; now that there's only four other people in the potential blast radius, you can use it a lot more easily.
"To the former," you say aloud, "the house should be fine. I was more concerned that someone or something magically sensitive was close enough to pick up on the Gates - they use way too much energy to hide. That said, if no one's shown up by now..." You pause to check the skyline, reaching out with your Mage Sight and Mage Sense to look for sensor probes. Finding none, you nod. "I think we might have gotten lucky."
"Will having a portal to another dimension opened up in their garage be an issue for my aunt and uncle?" Henry asks. He reminds you a bit of Ryuuken just now: practical; kind of annoyed towards the people he's talking about; but not without some positive feeling.
"It could take a few days for the lingering energies of the first Gate to fade," you admit. "I can cast another spell to clean that up before we go, and while that won't get rid of the traces the NEXT Gate leaves behind, they'll dissipate in a few hours on their own. Plus, closing the garage door would almost be enough to block some of the standard detection spells by itself; add in the wards on this place, and I'd give it fair odds against some of the more advanced methods."
"Good to know."
"To answer your other question," you continue.
"We're hiding from the Wandenreich."
Several possible responses occur to you, misdirections, evasions, and stonewalls all.
After a moment's thought, you dismiss them.
Right here and now, the risk in doing so is minimal. The rest of the Archers with Quincy blood are safely away. At this very moment, Shadow Alex should be greeting the new arrivals and giving them all a surreptitious once-over, to make sure no one's carrying items that could be used to guide others to the demiplane without his, your, Balthazar's, or Navi's agreement - though on that note, you doubt he'll find anything. While you didn't exactly have everyone turn out their pockets before you sent them through the Gate, you kept your assorted and magically boosted senses open the entire time you were talking, looking and feeling for telltale auras with the correct magical and/or spiritual natures to reach across planes, or even just for regular pieces of equipment being carried in concealment.
For the majority, the only things of significance that you picked up on were their Quincy Crosses, most of which were being worn as bangles, although a few of the Archers had them as pendants or necklaces instead. The only exception was Henry, and then only when you passed him on your way out of the house, while he was putting on a white overcoat whose various pockets are obviously carrying a few odds and ends. What, exactly, you can't say; their auras were and are being suppressed by something, quite likely the coat itself.
Some sort of spiritual concealment? Anti-ghost armoring, perhaps? Or even both? Any of those would make sense for the Quincy to use, if they had the skills to manufacture them.
Leaving that aside, about the only things Henry could do to make trouble for you at this point would be to attack you, or to try and run for it and alert the Wandenreich. But Quincy, as you've been told, traditionally favor ranged combat, and you're almost right next to the man, with a spell primed and ready to knock him out the moment it looks like he's about to attempt either course of action. There will still be consequences if he takes the truth badly, but they're a lot less severe than they COULD have been just a few minutes earlier.
More than any of that, though, you just feel that the Young Master Archer has a right to hear the full truth from you. While Henry has made it clear that he doesn't completely trust you, doesn't get along with his uncle, and DEFINITELY doesn't like Balthazar, he didn't let his personal feelings or prior history with the two older men get in the way of his good judgment; when you told him there was a threat to his family and that you had a way to get them out of danger, he listened to the facts, considered them fairly, argued far less than he could have, and even helped convince his younger brother to go along with it. Surely that's earned some consideration, hasn't it?
Or maybe it's just your compulsive honesty shining through again.
Either way, you give Henry the truth.
"To answer your other question, we're hiding from the Wandenreich."
Right between the eyes, as it were.
You're watching for it, and you're close enough that even without your current suite of enhancements, you doubt you'd have missed the full-body twitch that shoots through the man. Right after that, his head slowly turns in your direction - and his right arm, hidden from your direct line of sight by his body, shifts in a manner that your augmented awareness still picks up on, suggesting that Henry just slid a Quincy Cross or other dangerous device out of his sleeve.
His expression is curiously dull, save for his eyes, which have focused on you with the intensity of a laser.
"What."
"Isn't that..." Erin says slowly.
"We're hiding from the Wandenreich," you repeat steadily.
"...what."
...
Did you break something in his head? You hope not, it would make the ideal resolution of this situation a LOT harder to achieve.
Restraining a sigh, you say, "Would you like me to explain?"
"Please. Do."
You go back to the healing of Kurosaki Masaki's spiritual wounds, this time mentioning how the part of her soul responsible for her Quincy abilities exhibited an unexpected reaction to the process - a process, you note, that has a very long and proven history of being entirely benign to the recipient, and which you've used on yourself several times with no ill effect. And when you investigated what happened and why...
"'A song'," Henry repeats.
"One I think you might recognize," you tell him, glad to see that he's starting to talk normally again.
"Oh?"
"Kaiser Gesang."
Once again, there is that twitch, and the blank mask of Henry's expression falters, revealing shock, recognition, suspicion, and anger in rapid succession.
What he says, though, is, "Your accent's terrible."
"I speak American English natively, the title's derived from old German, and I learned it from a Japanese man. There were bound to be problems."
"Well, yes, but even so-" Henry stops short and shakes his head.
"Skip the linguistics lesson, Henry," Erin interrupts, coming forward. "What's this Kaiser-whatever, and why is it important?"
You wait a moment to see what Henry has to say.
"It's... 'Kaiser Gesang' is the title of a very old Quincy song. It foretells the rebirth of the Sealed King..." He trails off abruptly, eyes widening. "No."
Oh?
"That's not-"
Has he, by chance, put it together?
"We can't- you aren't seriously suggesting-!"
Erin reaches out and puts a hand on her probably-a-cousin-in-law's shoulder. "Henry. Stop talking, put your head down, and start taking slow, deep breaths before you pass out."
The proud Quincy warrior stares at the younger woman, who is just about the right age to be his daughter.
Then he takes her advice, leaning back against the frame of the garage door as he bends forward, breathing deeply.
"Now," Erin continues, turning to face you, "start explaining. Please."
"Kaiser Gesang isn't just a song, it's a prophecy," you state, while keeping one eye and your spiritual awareness on the hopefully not hyperventilating Henry. "It was created at some point after the ruler of the Quincy, the Sealed King, was defeated and presumed killed in battle, almost exactly a thousand years ago, and it tells how he would gradually regain his life and his power, before taking over the world and going on to beat down everyone that ever did the Quincy wrong." A thought occurs. "I think I've actually got a copy on me, if you want to read it?"
"Sure, why not?"
You reach into your pocket and pull out the Conjured Book-
"What the-!?"
-and flip through the pages. You're pretty sure you didn't erase the words transcribed by your last use of the Spell of Literary Vision, but- aha! There it is.
You turn the Book around and hold it out for Erin. She hesitates for a moment, looking from the Book to you and then back again, but in the end, she takes it and quickly reads through the verses.
Then she looks up again, frowning. "Okay. So, the part where some dead guy-"
Henry makes a funny noise at that, probably reflexively protesting the description of Yhwach as 'some dead guy'.
"-comes back to life is a little creepy, and I'm not exactly sold on the part where he takes over the world, even if it IS for my husband and kids. But I don't see why Henry is panicking."
"Reread the first lines of the third verse," you advise her.
Erin does that.
Her frown deepens to a scowl, and she looks up again. "What, exactly, is an 'impure life'?"
And there you go.
"At the time when the Sealed King was in power," you state, "the old Quincy empire divided its citizens into two classes. There were the Echt, the pureblood or 'real' Quincy, who were born of an unbroken Quincy lineage on both sides; and there were the Gemischt, the 'mixed' Quincy, who weren't. The Echt were first-class citizens. The Gemischt were second."
Erin says nothing for a moment, but then turns to Henry and says, in the mildest of voices, "This is why Kelly's hag of a mother was always such a bitch to me, isn't it?"
Henry winces. "To be fair, I don't think that old witch was ever nice to anybody."
"Oh, Kelly has STORIES..." Erin shakes her head as she trails off. "So, what you're saying is, because I can't make a fancy glowing bow and arrows, my kids don't meet some ancient Nazi's standard of racial purity."
"It's not like that!" Henry protests.
"Are you sure about that, Henry? Really, really sure? Because it sure SOUNDS like it!"
Okay, this is about to derail into a potentially nasty little familial argument.
"Can this wait until we're in the demiplane?"
"Sorry to interrupt," you say, "but can this wait until we're in the demiplane?"
Erin sends a sharp glance your way, then nods. "Sure."
Henry doesn't appear to know whether he ought to thank you or flee - and when you consider that the demiplane is a finite space from which he'll almost certainly be unable to escape under his own power, and that at least one angry woman who means to have Words with him will be in there...
Yeah, if he's clear-headed enough to think of all that, flight would be looking pretty attractive right about now.
Just in case Henry hasn't thought things through to that extent yet, you decide to keep him a little off-balance, and while you're gathering the mana for the third and final Gate, you say aloud, "Before we head through, please remove any Gate keys, interplanar communications devices, or similar objects you may have in your spiritually shielded coat."
Henry blinks, the hand that isn't holding his Quincy Cross moving to partially cover the large outer pocket on the left side of his coat. "How did you notice-"
"I have really good senses," you say shortly. "And not just for magic."
"Why do you want him to turn out his pockets?" Erin wonders.
"I'm concerned that he might be carrying something that the Wandenreich could use to track him, and by extension, the rest of the family."
What little of her expression had relaxed goes flat once more, as she turns back to her in-law. "Pockets, Henry."
"Ah-"
"I have a five-year-old, Henry," she warns. "If I have to help you, I will treat you the same way I do him."
You and Henry wince in unison at that threat.
"There's no need for that," the Quincy protests, but even as he does so, he's undoing the snap-button holding that one pocket shut.
What Henry pulls out isn't a Key of the Sun like Souken had, or any kind of Gate key at all, but a cellphone, one of those boxy models that look a bit like a walkie-talkie. While a bit larger than the mundane phone Cordelia got you last year, it's still small enough to fit into that oversized coat pocket without the need for any spatial expansion enhancements. Poking at it with your spiritual senses, you can just make out hints of some sort of modification, though like Henry's coat, the phone's boxy casing appears to have been shielded.
You wonder if the local branch of the Wandenreich saw the relative ruggedness of the older, larger model phones as an asset, or if they're just on a budget.
Perhaps mistaking your observation of the device for an unspoken question, Henry says, "It's supposed to be able to get a signal anywhere on Earth, and it has a tracking device for... emergencies. I-I don't KNOW that either of those would work from the spirit plane, but..."
"But you don't know that they wouldn't," you conclude, as Henry sets the device down on the nearest shelf. "Best to be safe, then. Got anything else?"
Moving at first with a certain mechanical stiffness, which slowly smooths out into something more natural, Henry opens up various pockets and then the coat itself, taking out assorted odds and ends: his Quincy Cross; his wallet, with the usual assortment of billfolds, loose change, credit cards, and personal identification; a set of keys with a spare Cross mixed in; a small case holding a thin-framed pair of reading glasses; a barebones first aid kit containing a roll of bandages, two small plastic jars of ointment, and a couple of cards, one with medical information, the other a list of phone numbers and addresses; and half a dozen silver capsules a bit like flat-tipped bullets, each five centimeters long and about as thick as a finger.
You pick up one of those tubes from where Henry set it next to the phone and immediately feel its weight shift, as if the interior were full of some kind of liquid. It, and the others like it, have by far the strongest spiritual signature of the lot, though as with the coat and the phone, the containers make it difficult to get a read on. Whatever medication is in the first aid kit has a weaker aura, though at the same time, it's more noticeable, as the jars seem to be just ordinary plastic, relying entirely on the shielding of the coat to hide them. The keychain-slash-Cross is the only other item with a spiritual aura, and that so weak as to be almost unnoticeable, even with it out in the open like this; Henry must hardly ever use it.
The phone will be staying, and there's no harm in letting Henry keep the ordinary bits. He's used his regular Quincy Cross often enough that it would have a fairly strong connection to him, so that shouldn't be left laying around; that said, do you trust him to keep it, or should somebody else hold on to it?
You look over everything Henry has laid out.
"Okay, one- actually, make that two questions. First" - and here, you hold up the bullet-like object - "what are these?"
"The Silberrohren? They're containers for condensed spiritual energy. I always keep a few on hand, just in case I need some extra firepower in a hurry, or I run into something nasty enough that it could be fouling the local energies."
You nod, and set the... Silver Tube, was it? It's a descriptive name, at least, if a bit... dull.
Gained German E (Plus)
Anyway, you set it down next to its companions, and then gesture at all of them and everything else that Henry laid out on the shelf. "So, second question, then: aside from the phone, was any of this issued to you by the Wandenreich, modified by them, or otherwise sourced from them?"
"Just... this," Henry replies slowly, touching one hand to his coat. "I made my primary Cross myself, and the backup is an heirloom from my mother. So are the Silberrohren; the... the others don't use them, they're considered obsolete."
You're tempted to ask what the Wandenreich use instead, because these Tubes have some obvious parallels to your Mana Crystals and Potions, and you'd love to see what a large organization with manpower, resources, and the better part of a thousand years to throw at the problem of energy supplements and storage devices might have come up with.
Still, time and place.
"Alright, leave the coat here with the phone, just in case. Everything else should be fine to bring along."
He blinks slowly. "All of it? The Crosses? The Tubes?"
"Well, we can't really leave your first Cross here," you reply frankly. "Your aura's infused pretty deeply into it - which makes sense, now that I know you're the one who made it - so any scryer who got their hands on it would be able to use it to track you without much issue."
True, the Spell of Mind Blank you're planning to cast on him and the rest of the Archers would shut down any such divination, but there would still be ways to leverage the connection to get at him.
Mind Blank doesn't block curses, after all.
"I might have suggested leaving the backup Cross," you continue, "but you mentioned it's a heirloom? And the Tubes?"
He nods.
"Then we probably shouldn't leave those here, either. The connection's not as direct - although the energy INSIDE the Tubes WOULD be - but there's still enough of an association there to be a potential danger."
Technically, the coat and the phone could be used to track and/or target him, too, but the ties between them and their owner would be much weaker than those between him and anything that's been directly infused with his spiritual energy.
Henry regards you keenly. "You're... not at all worried I might use them against you?"
With that sorted out, you open the last Gate, and everyone piles through - except for Balthazar.
"You seem to have the situation in hand," the Merlinean Master says from the Earth side of the portal. "I thought I'd stay behind, dispel the lingering energies of both our spellwork, and then head back to the Arcana Cabana and Gate to you from there."
Oh. Oh! Yeah, that would be helpful for breaking your trail on the New York end of things, although... you pause and compare time zones. It's getting on towards four o'clock in New York, which would be... okay, five in the morning in Japan. Yeah, even if he gets held up in late afternoon/early evening traffic, he'll get there with time to spare before you need to leave to get the Ishidas and Kurosakis.
"I'll see you when you get here, then," you reply, sparing Balthazar a farewell nod and then closing the Gate.
Aside from making sure everyone is settled and getting those spells cast on the Archers - namely, Death Ward, Greater Spell Immunity, and Mind Blank - is there anything else you want to do in regards to the Quincy you've rescued thus far?
"Not anymore, no. You've made it pretty clear your family comes first."
Henry wants to save his family. YOU want to save his family. You laid out most of the methods you'll be using, and neither he nor any of his relatives balked at them. You stated the price for your help and the reasons for it, and while there was a bit of a debate over it, the matter was settled without incident. In a turn of good fortune, Henry has at least acknowledged the possibility that the organization which held his loyalty - and the prophesied once and future god-king sitting at its head - are the source of the threat to his family, and agreed to take measures to minimize the damage they might do. And once you're all through the Gate, you can get on with casting those spells to finish safeguarding the Archers.
What else needs to be said?
Henry seems to accept your reasoning, as he proceeds to pocket his possessions, or at least those he can find room for. The wallet and keys disappear into one pants pocket, the Silberrohren into another, and the case with the glasses is tucked most of the way in after them. He takes hold of his main Cross and stares at it for a long moment, before tucking it into the same pocket as his keys and the backup Cross that went with them; that leaves the first aid kit, and small as it is, it's still big enough that he has to carry it.
...okay, maybe there's one more thing that needs to be discussed.
After passing through the portal and sealing it behind you, you turn to Henry - who is, along with Erin, staring off into the mist that surrounds the demiplane - and ask him if he wants to get his brother up to speed on the matter of the Wandenreich, or if he'd rather you take care of that.
Speaking of James, you look around to see if you can spot him, but it seems that most of the other Archers have disembarked from their vehicles - which are parked a bit awkwardly off to one side of the space where the Gate opened - and moved off to investigate the Mansions and meet the Muhlfelds. The only one still hanging around is Alice, and that might have more to do with the suitcase she was fetching from her car.
"I..." Henry begins, before trailing off for a moment. "I'm not sure, actually. Still trying to get my head around that... and where is the light here coming from?"
"It's just... there?" you reply uncertainly as you look around again yourself. "I mean, there's no natural light source, no sun or stars or even an aurora; the illumination is all produced from magic. Unless Navi snuck in a few bioluminescent plants or fungi that I hadn't noticed," you add, glancing at Briar.
"She might have," your partner admits. "There are some species that grow in the Lost Woods and Faerie that should be mundane enough for the Spell to Create A Demiplane to conjure... I think. I didn't see any of those on our previous visits, but they could have just needed a while to grow."
"Henry?" Alice calls, as she walks closer, frowning at her nephew-by-marriage. "Are you alright?"
Moving as if on reflex, the younger Archer opens his mouth, looking like he's about to deny any problems. But then he stops, face falling and shoulders slumping.
"No, Aunt Alice," he sighs. "I... don't think I am."
She regards him for a moment. "Alex told you his supicions about the Wandenreich, then."
"You knew?!"
"Yes, I knew - and before you ask, so did Miles and John."
"And you didn't think to tell the rest of us, Grandmother?" Erin asks tersely, some of the anger she was directing at Henry a minute ago finding a possible new target.
"Oh, I certainly thought about it," Alice grumbles. "Goodness knows I wasn't pleased to find out Miles had been keeping secrets this serious from me for all these years, and I didn't care to be doing something similar to the rest of the family once I DID know, even if it was just for a couple of weeks."
"But you still did it," the younger woman says flatly.
"I did," Alice agrees. "John's the only one of my boys that's ever been able to keep a secret without letting on that he HAS a secret; Kelly's a sweetheart, but she hates lying, especially to family; and the second Leanne thought Doug was trying to hide something from her, she'd have been after him to give it up - and then she'd have turned around and lorded the knowledge over the rest of you until somebody snapped."
"...probably Trisha," Erin says.
"Probably," Alice concurs wryly. "At which point the rest of the family and half the neighbors besides would have known they were at it again, and started asking why." She shakes her head. "That's no way to keep a secret, and this one HAD to be kept, until we were sure how Henry and James would take it. I'm sorry, Henry, but if your uncle or I had tried to tell you the people you've been working for all these years, that your father died for, were planning to kill half the family-"
"I'd... have taken it badly," Henry reluctantly admits. "I want to say that I wouldn't have done something stupid, but... if I thought Blake was slandering the Wandenreich's good name, and that Uncle was buying it..."
"On that subject," you interject cautiously, "how do you suppose James is likely to react if he learns the truth now, Mrs. Archer?"
Alice considers it. "We should probably tell him before you try casting spells on him, May, or their kids," she says after a moment.
You'll take her advice, then.
You decide to let the Archers deal with James, as you've got spells to cast and places to be.
From the point of view of pure efficiency, it would be ideal if you could get the whole family to stand in one spot for half an hour or so, while you cast Mass versions of Death Ward, Greater Spell Immunity, and Mind Blank on them. Sadly, it's not an ideal multiverse; between the matter of people-wrangling (and not just the excited kids, although they certainly delay things a bit), following Alice's advice not to cast spells on James or his immediate family just yet, and the still-extant limits of your not-inconsiderable skills in Abjuration and Necromancy, you'll have to go with Communal Death Ward and Greater Spell Immunity.
Silver linings, though: the time it takes you to perform all the ritual castings - with Shadow Alex providing support to speed things up - gives Henry a good twenty minutes to talk to his brother, with Alice backing him up after she's had a word with Miles and John. Even better, no violence erupts in the process.
There is SHOUTING from the Mansion that particular branch of the Archer family have claimed as their own for this stay, and one of the kids you saw on the stairs back at Miles and Alice's place comes running out the door with a girl in her early teens not far behind, both of them looking startled and concerned. But there are no spiritual surges or soul-destroying arrows, and the raised voices eventually quiet down.
"What's that about?" several people wonder.
Miles handles the curious members of the family, explaining that there was concerning news about some of the people Henry and James work with, that he, Alice, and John were aware of it, and that they didn't bring it up before now specifically because they were worried that there'd be an argument.
He also tells everybody to keep their noses out of the matter until his nephews bring it up themselves.
Glancing around, you spot a few disgruntled or overly curious looks that have you wondering how long Miles's authority as an Elder will be respected.
With some assistance from Miles and Nicolau, as well as encouraging words from the other Muhlfelds - who've already had all these spells cast on them - you and Shadow Alex get a good rhythm going. You start by casting Communal Death Ward on a group of six Archers, and he matches that with Communal Greater Spell Immunity; you finish ahead of him, gather a second group, and start casting Spell Immunity on them, and Shadow Alex catches up and starts casting Death Ward; and so on.
After finishing with the third group, you've got eighteen of twenty-three Archers as well-protected as you can manage. You let the remainder - and Nicolau, who volunteered to wait until all the younger Quincy were safeguarded - know that you're just waiting on James and May to finish their "discussion" with Alice and Henry before you apply the spells to them.
And so you wait.
And wait.
You're going over the parameters of Mind Blank in your head for the third time, and have concluded that you can, in fact, cast a Mass version of the spell without compromising its effectiveness, when another Gate opens up in the same location as the previous ones. Some of the Quincy cast cautious glances in the direction of the lightshow, but as you can sense Balthazar's by-now familiar magical signature running through the opening portal, you make a deliberate show of casualness as you head over to greet him.
"All clear?" you ask the Merlinean Master as he steps through the Gate. A quick once-over gives you no reason to suspect there have been any problematic developments on his end - the man himself seems as nonchalant as ever, his coat's undamaged, and perhaps most tellingly, he's still wearing his hat - but it seems a good idea to ask.
"Oh, hardly," comes the reply, as Balthazar shuts the portal. "I picked up five different scrying spells on my way out of the Archers' neighborhood, and I passed four cars with obvious magical signatures that DIDN'T match any of those spells headed in that direction."
So, in other words, at least nine different parties picked up on your magical evacuation and looked into it.
Let's hear it for Mind Blank, huh?
You also make a point of thanking Balthazar for staying back to dispel the traces of your spellcraft.
"You're welcome," he replies, before looking around. "So, how have things been here?"
"Henry and James were shouting at each other for a bit earlier," you tell him, glancing in the direction of that particular Mansion. "I'm just waiting on them to finish talking so I can cast the last few spells on the family."
Balthazar nods. "I noticed that the ambient energy was starting to drop, here. Think there'll be enough left to ward all the Ishidas and Kurosakis?"
"Maybe not the entire group," you admit, "but I've still got most of a tank left myself, a few restoratives besides, and no other plans for the next few days."
"Knock on wood, then." And he follows up by reaching out and rapping his knuckles on a nearby tree.
"...does that actually do anything?" you wonder.
"Depends on whether or not the tree is sacred to a god or has a resident spirit of some sort, and what they think of you," Balthazar says. "And since these plants were conjured up by a Great Fairy..."
At that, you eye the tree suspiciously, almost expecting to see a Deku-like face emerge from the trunk.
But no, as far as you can tell, it's just a tree.
The possibility of further discussion is forestalled, as Balthazar calls your attention back to the Mansion everyone's been keeping a distance from. Turning, you see Alice, May, and James coming out - the latter stops and meets your gaze with a glare, and no, it's not directed at Balthazar. The anger on the younger nephew's face is only for you, which is somewhat concerning, particularly given the fact that his brother is not in evidence.
To be fair, you HAD thought you were getting off a bit too lightly...
Whatever his personal feelings, James consents to having you cast your spells on him and his family. Alice and Nicolau round out that group, at which point all of your current crop of Quincy refugees have been protected by Death Ward and Greater Spell Immunity.
You start casting Mass Mind Blank after that, with Shadow Alex and Balthazar gathering up the "targets" and cautioning them not to panic when the spell takes effect and they lose all spiritual sense of each other.
Again, the Muhlfelds provide helpful testimony and evidence to the effect that the spell is nothing to worry about.
"It's just really weird, is all," Andreia notes, semi-helpfully.
Regardless, it requires a little crowding, but you get that spell cast on all of the Archers (and Nicolau).
As soon as it's done, James turns and walks away.
You feel kind of bad that you're going to be leaving Balthazar to deal with that, when James already doesn't like him, but it doesn't require your suite of enhancement spells to tell that if you go after the man right now, there's going to be trouble. And by the time he's calmed down enough to maybe not blow up in your face, you'll be in Karakura.
On that note...
When the clock in your head reaches a suitable time, you tap into the diminished ambient energies of the demiplane and begin opening another Gate. As you work, Shadow Alex tells the Quincy that you and he (and your partners) have an appointment in Japan, and will be heading there momentarily. He expects it could take anywhere from half an hour to several hours for you to return, and notes that he, himself, will most likely not be returning until sometime tomorrow at the earliest. In the meantime, Balthazar has agreed to stay in the demiplane, answer questions they might have, and just generally keep a lid on things while you're gone.
You are pleased to note that nobody seems put out by the announcement. Most of the adult Archers already knew this from your discussion in Miles and Alice's living room, but Shadow Alex wasn't present for that, and the younger members of the clan could use the update.
And it's just polite to let everybody know where you're going.
A few minutes later, the Gate to Karakura opens, revealing Urahara's secret underground training facility. While you generally don't come here when traveling, you'd spoken with him on your latest visit, and both of you agreed that today should be an exception to your usual habit; there's a pretty good chance of Shinigami being in the area again, possibly in large numbers, and the odds of them noticing a planar portal opening up in the Kurosakis' backyard are a little too high for you to feel comfortable with.
No matter WHAT magical tradition somebody is working from, holes in the fabric of reality are kind of noticeable.
Some of the assembled Quincy are visibly confused by the desert-like interior of Urahara's training and testing ground, particularly when a little alarm goes off - not the loud siren you heard once before, when you over-strained the wards on the Shop, but more like a doorbell signaling a guest has arrived.
Figuring you can leave the explanations to Balthazar, you and your shadow step through the portal, partners flying along beside you. On the other side, you pause, check to be sure that the way is clear, and spare your audience a final gesture of farewell before closing the Gate.
"Hey, there!" Urahara belatedly greets you, calling down from the top of the ladder. "You know, we're not usually open this early in the morning-"
"You're a real comedian, Mr. Urahara."
"I am a man of many talents," he agrees sagely. "Would you like me to send the elevator down, or would you rather climb up?"
"So, how is your plan to save the Quincy working out?" the shopkeeper inquires.
"Better than expected, so far," you reply. "I've got all the Brazilian and New York Quincy that I knew of to my demiplane and under wards, including both of the Wandenreich sympathizers."
"Oh, you got them out as well? How'd you manage it?"
"Actually, the older brother turned out to be helpful. I mean, he didn't trust me because I'm a sorcerer and a kid, and ESPECIALLY because I showed up with Balthazar - there's some history, there - and he didn't miss the fact that I kept avoiding names when I was describing the threat, but once he was convinced that his family was genuinely in danger, he actually convinced his brother to go along with my plan to get them all out." You pause. "Of course, he ALSO planned to wait until everyone else was safely away and then grill me about those names, so he could taken them to his Wandenreich contacts and get them to warn all the other Quincy they could reach."
"How'd you deal with that?"
"I told him the Wandenreich were the threat I was trying to hide his family from, and dropped the title of Kaiser Gesang on him," you admit. "He put it together FAST."
You happen to be looking up at the right moment to catch Urahara's wince. "How'd he take it?"
"He had a little panic attack, got over that, agreed to evacuate with us and leave some of his stuff that might have been bugged behind, and then helped break the news to his brother. There was... yelling, at that point, and he's been holed up in one of the Mansions I set up for them since."
You catch a murmured, "Oh, I know that feeling..." In a louder voice, Urahara asks, "And how did the younger brother take the news?"
"On the one hand, he let me cast the spells I needed to on him and his immediate family. On the other hand, he stormed off immediately afterwards. Pretty sure I haven't heard the last of that yet."
You're going to ask Urahara about the situation in Karakura and with the Shinigami before you leave, but are there any specifics you'd like to inquire after?
You tell Urahara you'll climb.
Shadow Alex regards you for a moment, then the ladder. "...sure, you have fun with that." Then he starts performing a ritual; looks like the Spell of Levitation, though shortened a bit for efficiency's sake.
"Not keen on going climbing in that suit, huh?" Briar asks him.
"Not really, no."
...eh, fair.
You turn and start making your way up the ladder. The idea of using an overcharged ki-powered jump to clear as much distance as possible comes to mind, but you dismiss it and instead focus on trying to scale the ladder quickly.
You climb out of the hole in Urahara Shop's floor, make room for Shadow Alex to float up after you, and take a look around while he's doing that.
Urahara is alone in the front of the store, which is decidedly not open - hardly surprising, given the hour or everything that's going down today. The shutters on the windows haven't been opened, that traditional Japanese-style sliding front door which is usually left wide during business hours is still closed, and there's no sign of Tessai or the kids. Yoruichi doesn't seem to be around, either.
"So what's the local situation like?" you ask Urahara.
"A bit tense," he replies frankly. "From what I've heard, Souken managed to convince most if not all of his relatives to turn up, and while a number of them either barely knew Masaki or stopped talking to her after she married Isshin, her aunt apparently insisted on seeing her and meeting her kids. Isshin wasn't sure if he was invited or not, and with the local Shinigami patrol reinforced-"
"What's that?" you interrupt.
"Most places in Japan only see daily patrols," the shopkeeper explains. "Spiritual hotspots like Karakura have a Shinigami stationed on them at all times, usually for a week to a month, depending on local activity and the abilities of the individual who catches the assignment. Part of the reason the always-charming Captain Sui-Feng stopped by was to inform me that the local patrol was going to be stepped up to a four-man team for the immediate and foreseeable future, and that I had better keep my nose out of trouble."
Once again, you are glad you've mastered Mind Blank.
"As I was saying, with the number of extra watchers in town, Isshin wasn't sure if he should be out walking around right now, much less visiting his Quincy in-laws who don't particularly like him. In the end, he figured that turning up to the extended family reunion would get him into less hot water than NOT making an appearance, and decided to trust that my seal would keep his spiritual signature hidden."
You can follow that reasoning. "Did it?"
"If it were anybody else asking that, I might be offended," Urahara tells you dryly, "but yes, the seal worked just fine. As far as any Shinigami who's never met him is concerned, Isshin's just a human with above-average spiritual strength, and I passed him the names and faces of the local team to make sure he didn't recognize any of them."
Okay, so Isshin wasn't spotted. That's one possible source of tension ruled out... which leaves the question of whether or not the Quincy and Shinigami are aware of each other's presence.
You voice that thought, and Urahara nods. "The first group of Quincy rolled into town two days ago, and from what Isshin tells me, the first words out of their mouth on seeing Souken were to demand to know why he hadn't warned them about the oddly high number of local Shinigami."
You sigh. It figures.
"Oh, it gets better. Yesterday, a couple of the Shinigami decided to spend their lunch break at one of the local restaurants, just to see what the fuss about modern food was. So while they're trying out their first hamburgers ever, who should walk in but a small family of Quincy talking about getting lunch before they meet up with the rest of their relatives?"
And THAT figures, too. "Did they at least manage to avoid trying to kill each other?"
"Both sides appear to have limited themselves to glaring and sharp language," Urahara assures you. "Although from what one of the Shinigami let slip when they stopped by to ask me what I knew about the local Quincy population, at least some of the trouble came about because he decided to hit on a pretty girl in front of her parents."
...okay, you aren't sure how to respond to that.
Regardless, the extended Ishida family and the Shinigami on patrol know about each other. That has the potential to be an issue, though at the same time, if you leverage the matter correctly when you meet the Ishidas, you could probably use it to help convince them to let you get them out of town.
Heck, when this is all over, you wouldn't even have to bring them back to Karakura; you can just open a Gate from your demiplane to Tokyo and let them head home from there. If you do it right, the Soul Society won't even know how their men on the ground lost the trail.
It does occur to you that if the Ishidas are twitchy about the extra Shinigami in the area, you should probably call ahead before you show up on their doorstep. Likewise the Kurosakis.
Considering how many people are likely to be holed up in the Ishida residence right now, the fact that most of them would be complete strangers to you, and how twitchy they may all be now that they know a team of Shinigami is in town, it seems wiser to get in touch with the Kurosakis first.
Of course, given the hour, you're going to wait on that a bit longer.
You get a few more details out of Urahara about the not-quite-a-standoff situation in Karakura. The good news is that yesterday's accidental lunch meeting is the only face-to-face between the Ishidas and the Shinigami that the shopkeeper is aware of having happened. He was also able to confirm that the patrolmen didn't think the encounter was worth reporting to their supervisor, since nobody got hurt and the Quincy weren't doing anything wrong.
Urahara adds he thinks the guy who tried to flirt with "the young Miss Ishida" felt kind of bad about the whole thing, and was trying to make up for it in a roundabout manner.
The less-good news is that the Shinigami DO send periodic reports back to the Soul Society, and they'll probably mention the encounter the next time they check in. So it would be great if all the Ishidas' relatives could be out of town before that happens, just in case some junior officer on edge about the imminent invasion takes a report about "heightened Quincy activity in Karakura" the wrong way.
You really can't disagree with that recommendation.
Deciding to change the subject, you inquire if Urahara's had any interesting developments from the scientific samples and data you've provided him, whether personally or by proxy.
"Oh, I've had all KINDS of interesting ideas," the scientist replies with a curiously dejected sigh. "The data I got from watching Masaki absorb that Heart Container gave me pointers on refining my treatment for Hollow reiatsu poisoning in Quincy, and what I got from YOU showed it was possible to directly augment the spiritual strength of a developing soul with no negative consequences. Then there's that space-time magic of yours. Summoning isn't really something Shinigami DO, and our grasp on true teleportation is kind of limited; changing that would be..." He pauses, and shakes his head. "Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell YOU what kind of a tactical or strategic advantage those sorts of abilities are."
Considering how you've been exploiting the heck out of those forms of Summoning Magic to keep in touch with the friends you met at the World Tournament, bootstrap your magical education, and call up Hyrulean beasties as battle-buddies and test subjects? He really doesn't.
As to the source of Urahara's apparent discontent, you venture a guess: "Too many ideas, and not enough time to pursue them all, huh?"
Because you know how THAT feels.
"Time, I've got," Urahara replies, "at least once this latest mess blows over and a certain SOMEONE goes and has an overdue talk with their borderline homicidal admirer."
...huh?
"The real problem is materials," the man continues. "Like I said, shoring up the stress-damage you and Lady Navi caused to the wards took up most of the available budget, and what's left is tied up fulfilling outstanding orders - not to mention how I'm going to have to do maintenance on four more gigai in the not-too-distant future." He shakes his head. "I suppose it could be worse, though. The patrol unit's made up of members of Squad Thirteen, they're generally pretty considerate of other people's property. If it had been Squad Eleven, I'd be out a gigai or three by the time all was said and done."
Ah, resource constraints. ALSO a matter you have experience with.
"While we're on the subject of gigai," you mention, "how's the one I commissioned doing?"
"It's coming together nicely," is the prompt reply. "Tessai and I actually might have had it done by now, if not for recent developments, but give us another week, two at the outside once the matter of the Wandenreich is settled, and your little vampire girl will have a new body."
Good to know. You'll let the family know about that the next time you talk to them, and see about setting a date for the, uh, "installation."
"...incidentally," you wonder, "is that a particularly involved process?"
"No, it's pretty automatic. All the soul has to do is lie down inside of the gigai. Granted, since this girl isn't conscious, we'll have to bring the body to her instead of the other way around, but that shouldn't be too difficult."
You picture Jasmine's slumbering spirit, specifically how she's basically riding piggyback on Akua.
...eh, Akua's a vampire. Carrying the weight of a little girl several years physically younger than she is won't be an issue for her, and you really, seriously doubt she'll complain about it.
Having satisfied your curiosity, you check the time. It's still shy of six-thirty, but time is somewhat of the essence today, and the Kurosakis HAVE been forewarned to expect you to show up earlier than usual.
With that in mind, you ask Urahara if you can borrow his phone.
You dial the number for the Kurosaki residence into Urahara's phone.
*Ring*
*Ring*
*Ri-*
"Kurohhhhsaki residence, Ichigo speaking," a familiar and rather sleepy voice yawns.
"Hey, Ichigo."
"Oh, hey, Alex. You coming ohhhh- gah, sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it."
"Thanks. So, you coming over, then?"
"In a little bit. Mind if I talk to one of your folks, first?"
"Sure, hang on a sec." This is followed by a somewhat less clear, "Mom, do you have a minute? It's Alex."
"Hello?" the Kurosaki matriarch greets you a moment later.
"Hello, Mrs. Kurosaki. I'm down at Urahara Shop at the moment, and I thought I should call ahead to let you know."
"Did Kisuke fill you in on what's been going on around here?" Masaki asks promptly.
"He did, or at least as much as he could," you reply. "That's the other reason I'm calling ahead. It sounds like your extended family are a bit... twitchy... at the moment, and calling or turning up unannounced at the Ishida place didn't seem like the best idea."
There is a sigh. "That's one way of putting it, yes - and you're right, showing up on your own might have gone badly. I take it you're using that spell that makes you impossible to sense directly?"
"Mind Blank, and yes."
"Definitely would have gone badly," she murmurs. "Alright. I take it you'll be coming to our place first, and all of us heading over to Kanae and Ryuuken's place after?"
"That's the plan."
"Then I'll call to let them know to expect us."
"When you do," you add quickly, "you might want to let them know that I got all the Quincy I was able to locate in New York and Brazil to safety."
"Oh?" She sounds quite interested at this. "How many did that work out to in the end?"
"Twenty-three from New York, seven from one city in Brazil you... might not have heard of," you recap. "Although that's counting the non-Quincy in-laws."
"I look forward to meeting them all," Masaki says earnestly, "and I'll pass that along."
As you see little point in keeping her on the line longer than you have to, the call ends shortly thereafter.
"Heading out, then?" Urahara inquires rhetorically, as you return the receiver to its cradle. Not waiting for the obvious answer, he continues, "If you're hoping to avoid the Soul Society knowing what you really look like, I might recommend a visual disguise to go with the aura-blanking."
"Do you think they're watching this place?"
"I wouldn't put it past a few of them to have eyes of some sort on my humble shop," the man tells you. "Not that we've FOUND any so far when we've had time to look, but you never really know with Second Division."
"Spies?"
"Ninjas, but yes."
Hmmm. Shadow Alex should be fine, as he's technically "in disguise" already thanks to the Spell of the Threefold Aspect, but you've got enough spells on you at the moment that you'd have to cancel one of them to avoid disrupting any new additions - and while the danger of any of the Archers running off to the Wandenreich has passed, you'd kind of like to keep the spells you currently have going in place when you meet the rest of the Japanese Quincy.
Rather than directly disguising yourself, you could instead cast a Spell of Illusion on the area outside Urahara Shop and extending partway down the block - say, a hundred and sixty feet or so? That would let you make it so that anybody looking in from outside that area wouldn't see your real appearance.
Or you could try to disguise yourself physically, with a long coat and a hat of some sort. You DO have the Black Mage's Outfit Ayane and Kasumi got you for your birthday still tucked in your pocket, and it would be amusingly appropriate to use a costume given to you by a pair of friendly ninjas to thwart a bunch of potentially unfriendly ones. Of course, it would weird the heck out of any regular people you passed, but it's six-thirty in the morning on a weekend, so pedestrian traffic in Karakura is apt to be about as non-existent as it gets. And if that still seems like too much, Major Creation gives you many, many options.
The last alternative is to just go as you are, trust that the inhabitants of Urahara Shop found all there was to find (and not find) when they looked around, and that your Mind Blank will take care of any spiritual scrying equivalents.
Although it belatedly occurs to you that short-range teleportation would be an option, you find you like the idea of a physical disguise a little too much to let it go. As such, you reach into your pocket and start taking out the Black Mage's Outfit.
"What are you doing?" Urahara wonders.
"I have too many spells up and running right now to be comfortable about adding one to hide or alter my appearance, and I'd rather keep the spells I have going for the time being. And since I don't want to take risks teleporting around town any more than I have to right now," you add, spouting off the first reasonable-sounding excuse that comes to mind, "that means I need a disguise."
"And this is your idea of a disguise?" He waves one hand at the blue robe and yellow hat you've laid out on the counter. "A Black Mage costume?"
A Shinigami who follows Final Fantasy closely enough to recognize one of the recurring Job Classes. Will wonders never cease?
You wonder if anybody else knows.
"If it helps any," you say, "it was your mention of Shinigami ninjas that gave me the idea. I got this outfit as a joint birthday present from a couple of young ninja girls, and using a gift from one set of ninjas to thwart another bunch seemed appropriate."
"That's... well, no, I can definitely see the appeal," Urahara admits. "But you know you're going to stick out like a sore thumb out there, right?"
"Ah, but no matter what I LOOK like, I still have my Spell of Mind Blank going. That means any theoretical Shinigami watchers, ninjas or otherwise, won't be able to pick up a spiritual signature, so I should just look like a short human with a weird dress sense, and thus, not something worth their time."
Urahara considers that, and you can sense a portion of his spiritual energy projecting towards you.
"...that could actually work," he says after a moment. He sounds surprised, reluctant, and vaguely dismayed by his own words - you think it may be due to the fact that your plan is basically to dress up and dance around in front of the Shinigami, and that it's likely to succeed. "As long as you don't let on that you can perceive any Shinigami that cross your path," Urahara belatedly adds.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm a pretty good actor, I don't easily lose my cool under pressure, and most of those spells I mentioned just now will help me sell the act or avoid trouble."
Really, between them, Bestow Insight, Greater Heroism, Perceive Cues, and Tears to Wine have improved your overall awareness of your surroundings to the point where you think even centuries-old ghost ninjas would have trouble evading your notice, and that's if they knew they needed to or were professional enough to be always stealthy, all the time. Foresight just reinforces the unlikeliness of you being caught off-guard, and Bestow Insight and Greater Heroism ALSO boost your skill at dissembling.
"This knowledge somehow fails to reassure me," Urahara sighs.
Still, he has no further objections.
He MIGHT be developing a headache, though. Little twitches about the eyes, a certain tension at the temples - you've seen the signs before, mainly in Ambrose when you've driven him up a wall.
Leaving that for now, you pull on the loose blue robe, take a minute to adjust the fit and check to make sure you aren't catching the hem when you walk, and then pick up the yellow hat and set it on your head.
"How do I look?"
"Your face isn't hidden behind an impenetrable shadow, and your eyes aren't glowing yellow," Urahara answers critically. "Aside from that? Like a cosplayer."
Nothing you can do about the former without resorting to magic, but after thinking for a moment, you suppose you could cycle mana through your eyes as if using Mage Sight, without projecting the energy outward - try to stir up that golden glow Kahlua has mentioned a time or two before.
You have mentally taken hold of your mana when another thought occurs to you. You could, in fact, make this disguise even MORE accurate without resorting to magic, if you've still got your Antarctic Weather Gear in your pocket...?
Rooting around, you pull out your ski mask, which conveniently happens to be black.
Doffing the hat for a moment, you pull on the balaclava, put the hat back on, and then make sure the high collar of the robe is suitably raised. At the same time, you go ahead and cycle mana in your eyes, holding it back from triggering your Mage Sight and potentially interfering with your buffs.
Looking up at Urahara, you ask, "What about now?"
"Now you look halfway authentic," comes the weary admission. Urahara then turns to your companions, and ducks his head in your direction. "Are the rest of you seriously okay with this?"
"When you hang out with a sorcerer," Briar remarks in what's meant to be a sagely tone, "you either learn to take the little peculiarities in stride, or you develop unhealthy coping mechanisms."
"Besides," Shadow Briar giggles, "this is kind of funny."
"That, too," your partner admits.
Urahara glances at Shadow Alex.
"Personally, I would have just popped us over to the Kurosaki place with a short-range ritual teleport and been done with it," your ever-practical dark side admits. "But as you can see, I'm outvoted."
"It IS probably for the better that we don't go teleporting around Karakura, though," you comment at that. "Even if the Shinigami can't sense the magic at work-"
"We generally can't," Urahara interjects. "Not without certain gadgetry that would have to be requisitioned and custom-built by Twelfth Division for the job."
"Chances of that?" you ask.
"Pretty small. Twelfth Division's where most of the scientifically minded sorts end up, unless they're into medicine and join the Fourth, so it's a bit unpopular with the more mainstream Shinigami. And the current Captain doesn't really help their reputation; he's got the whole mad scientist thing going on."
"Says the mad scientist," Briar notes dryly.
"And if I'm commenting on it, that should tell you something."
Point.
"Anyway," you continue, "as I was saying, even if the Shinigami can't sense the magic of the Spell of Teleportation at work, they might still notice the space-time distortion."
Granted, it's a bit unlikely. One of the benefits of becoming a master of Summoning Magic is that you eventually move past the phase where you're punching holes in the space-time continuum every time you conjure or banish something, and are more... opening and closing doors and passageways. A TRUE master reaches the point where they're basically folding reality over on itself like a piece of paper, so that two separate points meet, and somebody from one can just step across to the other without damaging anything at all - but you're not there yet.
Getting close, but not quite all the way.
Anyway, given the safety of some forty people may depend on not provoking a response from the reapers running around, you feel it's better to be safe than sorry.
And if it gives you an opportunity for a little good, harmless fun? That's a bonus.
"Fair enough," Shadow Alex agrees. "Objections withdrawn. You ready to go?"
You adjust your pointy hat one more time. "Let's go."
And with that, the four of you leave Urahara Shop.
As you walk away from the building, you let your spiritual senses open up a bit, trying to get a read on Karakura. At six-thirty on a Saturday morning, there's very little traffic, but you can still make out the sound of a few cars moving around somewhere out of sight - not too close, but not overly far away, either. There's not a pedestrian in sight, human, Shinigami, or otherwise, and you can't sense anything in your immediate vicinity that suggests a spiritually powerful being other than the residents of Urahara Shop has been through recently.
Then again, if you were a ghost ninja, that's the sort of thing you'd make a point of learning how to hide.
"So by my count," Shadow Alex says conversationally, when you're a couple minutes down the street, "of the eight spells you'd planned to cast on yourself, you currently only have seven active."
You pause and run through the list of buffs, and are a bit abashed to realize he's correct; you never got around to casting the Spell to Seek Thoughts, due to needing to keep a Sleep Spell on standby in case Henry and/or James became an issue.
Well, then. Is there a particular spell you'd like to weave, while you make your way to the Kurosaki place?
For a moment, you consider casting the Spell of General Augmentation, to raise all your parameters even higher than they already are. But almost as quickly as the idea comes to you, you dismiss it; that particular spell is sixth-circle magic even in its base form, which puts it beyond your ability to conceal even without taking into account the level increase required to extend its duration to a useful degree. And while Urahara did say it was unlikely that the Shinigami in town would be unable to sense magic themselves or have devices capable of doing the job for them, he didn't entirely rule it out.
More to the point, though, even when cast in ritual format - sometimes especially then - unsuppressed spells tend to create a bit of a light show, as the array forms and fills in with the formulas. It's nothing that you couldn't hide by ducking into a convenient garage, to use a certain recent example, but walking down the street in broad daylight? Yeah, a bit too obvious.
It also occurs to you that, Akkiko aside, you don't know much about Karakura's magical community, or even if one really exists.
Might be something to look into, in the future.
Your train of thought on the matter takes a detour as that by-now familiar sense of quasi-divine energy registers to your passive Spiritual Sense. From what you can tell, it feels like two- no, three- make that four Shinigami are approaching your general area at a rapid clip. They appear to have paired off for their patrols, with one team coming your way from the south, the other from the east, and neither group is making much of an effort to hide.
Actually, judging by the level of energy one of them is giving off and the feel of it, you'd say they're a bit ticked off about something.
Sensing the reapers gathering atop a nearby building, you make a point of not obviously looking in that direction, or extending your esoteric senses - even if Mind Blank would stop them tracking a probe back to you directly, they'd still notice BEING scanned, and you and Shadow Alex are the only obvious sources on this street.
But you do try your best to LISTEN.
"-picking a fight," a not-unpleasant male voice is saying.
"I wasn't the one picking a fight," a young woman replies. "It was that ass from the Second Division! Where does he get off, thinking he can tell members of another Division what to do? He wasn't even a Seated Officer!"
"What's this about the Second Division?" another man inquires.
"We ran into one of the ninjas a mile or so to the south," the first male Shinigami replies. "He was... well, pretty typically Second."
"The whole 'that information is classified, stay out of our way, we never had this conversation' thing?" a third man says in disgust. "I hate it when they do that."
"Yeah, it's irritating," the second man agrees, "but right now I'm a little more concerned about what could be going on in this town that made the Captains feel the need for a full patrol squad AND a detachment from Second on top of it. Do you any of you have any ideas?"
"It's got to have SOMETHING to do with that big operation that's got everybody Tenth Seat and up freaking out," the third one replies.
"You don't think there's going to be full-force deployment here, do you?" the woman wonders.
"Nah, not here," her partner replies. "Sure, local reishi levels are high, and there's that weirdo in the shop besides, but nothing like-"
"Speaking of weirdos," the second man interrupts, "would the rest of you mind taking a look and telling me what the hell I'm seeing down there?"
There is a pause.
"Um," the woman says.
"The hell is that kid wearing?" the third man asks of no one in particular. "...actually, is it a kid?"
"Probably?" his partner replies. "I can't really think of a reason why a kid would be dressed like... some kind of a witch, I guess, but then, I can't think of a reason why ANY human would be dressed like that."
"You know, unless he's actually a witch," the first guy points out.
"Aren't witches girls?" the woman asks.
"That's a stereotype," her partner answers.
"And how would you know?" the third inquires.
"There was a series in Seireitei Communication a few years back, giving pointers on the culture of different magical traditions. Male witches were mentioned."
"Did they mention anything about a group that wears pointy yellow hats and dark blue robes in public?"
"Not that I recall-"
And then you've moved too far past them to keep following the conversation.
Gained Listening B (Plus) (Plus)
"Interesting discussion," Shadow Alex muses.
"The things people will say when they think there's nobody that can hear them," Briar observes from her spot on your right shoulder, under the shadow of your hat.
"Amen, sister," Shadow Briar says from your other shoulder.
As you move along, you realize that two of the Shinigami appear to have broken off to follow your little band.
Hmmm. What to do about this?
You're far enough away from the Kurosaki and Ishida residences that having a couple of nosy spirit samurai on your tail isn't a big deal - yet - so you decide to keep on as you were. With a little luck and a lack of any interesting developments, you should be able to shake these two before you lead them to anyone you'd rather they didn't see.
Not going to lie, though, the idea of making like you were a regular kid acting like he was a Black Mage is tempting.
Maybe later, if your minders haven't given up.
In the meantime, you keep your ears open for any further enlightening conversation from the Shinigami on your tail.
...
Come on, guys. If you're going to tail a suspect, you have to give the audience some exposition. That's how it works in all the cop movies... which, now that you think about it, the Shinigami probably haven't seen.
Blast it, television. Why must you continue to-
"Do we really need to be doing this?"
-never mind, television, you're great and we love you.
"Are you going to tell me you aren't curious?" the female Shinigami says to her partner.
"Of course I'm curious, but we're on duty."
"And part of our duty is keeping a look-out for unusual spiritual activity, right?"
"Unusual...? The kid's got the reiatsu of a gnat!"
"Unusually low reiatsu is still unusual."
"Yeah, but not in a way that's a problem! Seriously, a soul that weak's not going to get a second glance from the hungriest Hollow - probably not even a FIRST glance - and it's not going to be able to resist moving on when its time comes, either."
"But what if he encounters a Hollow?" the woman asks, her previous, mostly professional tone giving way to one of honest concern. "There's enough of them in this town that the weaker ones get pushed to hunting at hours like this, and with reiatsu that low, I doubt the kid could fend off the pressure of even a weak Hollow passing at a distance."
"...okay, that could actually happen," her partner concedes. "But we're here to patrol the city, not to play bodyguard for one kid - and let's be honest, Sumi. If a weak Hollow could knock him over at a distance, being exposed too closely to OUR reiatsu wouldn't exactly do him any favors, either."
You're... not sure if the male reaper is being cocky or realistic with that assessment of his and his partner's power compared to the theoretical weak Hollow, but at least he's being considerate about the "weak human" you appear to be.
Sumi the Shinigami doesn't say anything for a moment. Then: "I just want to make sure he gets where he's going safely. Is that too much to ask?"
You allow yourself a sigh, which happens to come in tandem with one from Sumi's partner.
Goddesses save you from well-intentioned meddlers.
Pot, meet kettle.
At least when you stick your nose into other people's business, they actually need the help!
The male Shinigami agrees to tail you for a while, a decision that leaves you half-wishing for a Hollow to pop up and distract the two of them-
!
Huh. Good timing.
-you. Were. KIDDING.
But the cold, predatory aura that appears a couple of streets off to your left and... hmmm, probably five or six stories up in the air besides, is definitely that of a Hollow.
"SHINIGAMI!" the warped soul shrieks.
"Wait, one actually showed up?!" Sumi's partner blurts out.
"Never mind that!" Sumi barks at him, over the sound of a blade being drawn. "I'll intercept and distract, you circle around!"
"Right, on it!"
And then they take off.
"That would seem to be our cue to make a run for it," Shadow Alex notes.
Although you do experience a brief urge to hike up your robe and run while your unwanted escorts are otherwise occupied, you refrain, reminding yourself that you're currently playing the role of a spiritually blind person. You shouldn't be able to perceive anything about the unfolding engagement between tormented soul and spirit samurai, much less desire to run away from it.
But you might walk a little faster.
"Are we not running, then?" Shadow Alex muses.
"Too suspicious," you return.
"Ah."
Further discussion is cut short as shouting and monstrous bellowing ensue from off to your left, and chosen role or no, you find you can't quite resist the temptation to sneak a peek in that direction.
At a glance, the Shinigami appear to have run into the old adage about plans and first contact. The Hollow is approximately humanoid in form, only about ten feet tall, dark purple in color, and with a neck and arms perhaps three times longer than they need to be. It legs are only half so stretched out - and some of that is because they're digitigrade, rather than plantigrade - but all four limbs end in similarly oversized claws. Its mask is a hideous, leering thing of chalky white, looking almost like the flesh has been peeled back to expose the creature's skull, the features of which are at once decidedly monstrous and yet all too human.
And then there's the hole in its chest, which almost looks large enough for you to climb into.
Sumi - who proves to be a woman of average height with shoulder-length dark hair gathered up in a ponytail - is parrying one of those overlong sets of claws with her sword, but her partner's attempt to hit the Hollow from behind has run into its other hand, swung around to intercept the attack. The male Shinigami - who you note is not at as tall as his partner, but is significantly more broadly built, with dark brown hair mostly kept short apart from some oversized sideburns - managed to get his own weapon into a guard before he got slashed or impaled, but now he's flying away from the Hollow, cursing as he goes.
With its head turned towards its would-be ambusher, the Hollow can't see or stop Sumi from adjusting the angle of her blade-
!
-and then slicing along the inner edge of her opponent's claws, up into the flesh of its fingers and down across its palm.
Your own fingers clench in sympathy as the monster howls and yanks back its leading arm, bringing the other around in a wide, telegraphed slash that the female Shinigami easily spots and evades.
"Hado Number Four: Byakurai!"
And then the Hollow staggers as it gets hit from behind by a thin bolt of lightning, which punches clean through its left shoulder and causes that arm to spasm and go limp.
You would have liked to have gotten a better look at that, but the combatants are far enough away that it's only your various enhancements which are allowing you to see and hear even this much. You'd have to resort to active scans to get any serious pointers on pure spiritual energy manipulation, and that would be a dead giveaway that you're not the powerless weirdo you appear to be.
Plus, there's a hungry Hollow right there. You're not about to make yourself into bait.
"You missed!" Sumi calls out.
"You try shooting from this angle!" retorts her ally, who is upside-down and at the high point of his Hollow-assisted flight arc.
"SHINIGAMI!" the Hollow howls. "KILL YOU! EAT YOU!"
Neither of the reapers bothers to respond to that, focusing their energies on killing their opponent.
It takes a while. The Hollow's size and gangly arms give it the reach advantage, and while the Shinigami's blades can definitely hurt it, its greater-than-human size means they have to cut that much deeper to inflict real damage - that, and overcome the resistance of the monster's spiritual flesh, which you get the impression is somewhat tougher than it really ought to be.
At one point, Sumi casts a spell of her own-
"Bakudo Number Four: Hainawa!"
-and manages to snare the Hollow's right arm with a twisting rope-like length of spiritual energy. From the way the bind started snaking up the trapped limb, there was probably meant to be more to the technique, but the Hollow bends its long neck down and bites through the manifested energy, freeing its good arm and causing the rest of the construct to collapse.
Between your steady retreat and the movements of the combatants, you eventually lose sight of them behind some taller buildings.
As you turn away, you wish the pair of Shinigami luck.
The rest of the trek to the Kurosaki household is uneventful. A few cars pass you - at least one of the drivers slows down to stare bemusedly at your costume - and you cross paths with one early morning jogger in his twenties, who laughs in honest delight and asks if you've come from Cornelia or Mysidia.
Not too long after that - and after making sure you can't see, hear, or otherwise sense any inconvenient spiritual presences in the area - you are knocking on the front door to the Kurosaki residence.
A moment later, Ichigo opens the door.
And stares.
"What."
The guy nods, as if expecting that answer. "Now, second question: Ultima or Meteor?"
Hm.
You smile behind your mask and make your eyes glow again as you say, "Black Mage Interdimensional Taxi Service, here to pick up a party of five. May we enter?"
Ichigo stares at you a moment longer, then scowls. It's a surprisingly natural look on his usually cheerful face. "That's your birthday present from the ninja girl, right?"
You nod.
"Why are you wearing it today?" he wonders.
"I found out from Urahara that there are some people running around town who I don't want to know what I actually look like," you explain. "And I've got enough magic already on me that I didn't want to chance any more. Fortunately, it turns out it's surprisingly easy to walk around town when everyone just thinks you're cosplaying - though the hour might have something to do with that."
At the mention of unwanted attention, Ichigo nods and backs up into the house, allowing you to enter.
"Ichigo, is that Alex?" his mother calls from upstairs.
"Yeah, Mom, although he's a Black Mage at the moment."
"...I see."
"Say what?" Isshin wonders from the kitchen. A moment later, he leans out into the hall, wearing a loud pink apron with frills and "Kiss the Cook" written on it in English. "...huh. So he is. Well, don't just stand there; take your shoes off, hang up your pointy hat, and grab a seat."
That's two Shinigami who recognize the source of your attire, although it's rather less surprising with Isshin than it was with Urahara. After all, he's actually seen this outfit before, and he's a parent to a boy you know has played some of the Final Fantasy games.
As it turns out, the three oldest Kurosakis have had breakfast and are packed and ready to go. The twins, however, proved a bit reluctant to get up so early, even for such an important day, and are just being chased out of bed by their mother.
While you do slip your shoes off, you refrain from divesting yourself of your disguise until the girls have had a chance to see it.
When Karin and Yuzu thunder down the stairs a moment later - Masaki's warning for them not to do that trailing vainly in their wake - Karin, who's closer to you, comes to a stop about halfway down as she catches sight of you, grabbing hold of the banister to keep herself from stumbling. Yuzu gets most of the way to the bottom before she notices her twin has stopped moving, at which point she slows, stops, and looks back the way she came, before following Karin's line of sight to you.
"Huh," Yuzu proclaims.
"Weird," Karin declares.
Erk.
Then they both shrug and resume their race to the kitchen.
"Wait up!"
"Too slow!"
To have your costume passed over in favor of breakfast... that hurts you, right in your dark little magical heart. But the girls did just get up, and you certainly won't begrudge them their first meal of the day.
Hanging up your hat, you also pull off the balaclava, which honestly got a bit too warm for comfort a couple of blocks back. It IS the middle of June, after all. That said, the weather's distinctly overcast, and feeling like it'll rain later, so it's not as warm as it could have been. Again, the early hour helped.
It's around a quarter to seven, and you'd say you've got half an hour at the outside before the twins finish breakfast and are cleaned up and ready to go. Isshin's wrangling the two of them, and Masaki's still upstairs, probably making sure their things for the next few days are packed. Ichigo's just kind of hanging around, though you notice him glancing out the front window at one point, a look of absent-minded expectation on his face.
You'll be giving the Kurosakis a quick review of the day's events to date, as well as your plan going forward, but is there anything else you'd like to discuss with them before heading out to meet the extended Ishida clan?
"For me, it has to be Meteor," you reply.
Again, the young man nods in agreement and approval. "Nothing quite like a rain of meteors to make you feel like you're really ruining the bad guy's day, is there?"
It's up there, to be sure, though the real reason you gave that answer is because you're pretty sure that you could cast a spell with a similar effect. You haven't studied the Spell of Meteor Swarm yet, of course, but from what you've heard Batreaux say about it and based on your understanding of Elemental Magic in general, it pretty much is the real-world equivalent of the Final Fantasy spell that occasionally gets called "the Ultimate Black Magic."
Besides, it's a spell that mixes the elements of Earth and Fire - and probably a bit of Summoning Magic, besides - so as a faithful follower of Din, you're almost obligated to look into it at some point.
But not today.
The Final Fantasy fan goes on his way, and you go on yours.
You wait a few minutes while Isshin serves the twins their breakfast-
There is a certain amount of complaining that, "Mommy cooks better."
-and Masaki finishes packing, or whatever it is that she's doing upstairs. Once the girls are taken care of and the lady of the house has come down, however, you take the parents aside near the foot of the stairs and catch them up on recent developments on your end. Ichigo shamelessly listens in on the entire discussion from a little ways down the hall.
Recounting the events in Brazil goes over without a hitch - and your earlier guess proves to have been correct, as none of your audience have the slightest idea where the city of Recife is. The three oldest Kurosakis just nod along, make a few light remarks, and let it go at that.
Summarizing your meeting with the Archers prompts a less sanguine response. Isshin, for one, really isn't thrilled to learn that there are a couple of confirmed Wandenreich agents now hanging out in your extra-dimensional refuge, as even if they HAVE agreed not to go to their allies, their presence, (former) allegiance, and likely more militaristic training has the potential to be just a bit problematic for him, personally, if they happen to see through Urahara's sealing work.
"Urahara mentioned that you managed to visit the Ishidas the other day, though?" you say leadingly.
"Yeah, but from what Souken said, none of them are working with the Wandenreich," Isshin replies, "and he's admitted he was never much more than a grunt himself, which was decades ago. I'm worried that things might have changed enough since then for one or both of these guys you've mentioned to have been taught better sensory tricks than Souken learned."
That's not an invalid fear, admittedly, but you think dropping a Mind Blank on him should solve the problem.
"How long will that last, though?"
"As long as nobody throws around dispelling effects? Basically indefinitely," you reply. "I arranged things with Navi so that time in the demiplane doesn't really work the same way it does out here. It's difficult to wrap your head around, but the upshot of it is, I can cast most spells cheap and have them last as long as I need them to."
Isshin stares at you. "You can STOP TIME, now?"
"I'm actually still learning that spell."
"If you're trying to reassure me, it's not really working," Isshin sighs.
"So, wait," Ichigo interrupts. "You're saying that The World is actually a real thing?"
"...the what, now?" you wonder, having caught the subtle emphasis denoting a title.
He blinks, and frowns. "Did... we never get around to talking about Jojo?"
It's not a name that rings any bells, and you say as much.
"...right, going to have to do something about that."
Before he can continue, the doorbell rings. Ichigo looks over his shoulder, and glances back at you and his folks for a second.
"That's probably Tatsuki and her mom," he says, before turning and heading up the hall.
Sure enough, when he opens the door, the Arisawas are standing there - not carrying any luggage that you can see, but given Akkiko is a magic-user, that doesn't rule out the possibility that one or both of them are planning on tagging along.
"Hey, Tatsuki, Mrs. Arisawa," Ichigo greets them.
"Hi, Ichigo."
"Hey, Strawberry," Akkiko replies. "Are we late, early, or more or less on time?"
"Well," he answers, stepping aside to let the two of them get a better look down the hall at you, "Alex got here about ten minutes ago, and the twins are just finishing breakfast, so... more or less on time, I guess?"
Tatsuki blinks at your dark blue robe, glances at the pointy hat hanging not too far away from her, and then points from it to you with a wordless expression of faint bafflement.
"I'm in disguise," you explain.
"This have anything to do with the little team of Shinigami that's been running around town the last couple of days?" Akkiko guesses, as she nudges her daughter inside.
You nod, and quickly explain your decisions in that regard.
"...should WE be wearing disguises?" Tatsuki wonders, looking around. She shifts uncomfortably when everybody looks back at her, but presses on. "I mean, if Alex needs to keep the Shinigami from knowing what he looks like, wouldn't being seen walking around with the rest of us kind of be a problem? Because WE all live here, and the Shinigami could just watch us and the people we hang out with, until they find someone who's got his build."
"That is a fair point," Isshin admits, looking troubled.
"If you like, I know a spell for creating temporary disguises," you offer. You'd have to modify the Spell to Disguise One's Self to affect other people, of course, but that's a fairly trivial effort, and you could expand it to affect up to six people at once while still keeping it concealable - just in case. You wouldn't quite be able to give everybody a disguise, now that the Arisawas are here, but maybe there's a costume or something in the Kurosaki house that could get put to use?
Ichigo and Masaki probably shouldn't use their outfits from Halloween, though. Fake-Shinigami Mom and fake-Quincy Son would NOT be good looks right now.
Another option would be to just teleport everybody to a spot just outside the Ishida residence, but you're a bit leery of trying that. Not only is there the small but non-zero chance the Shinigami might notice the spatial warping, you could spook the already nervous Quincy by having half a dozen spiritual signatures just pop up on their proverbial doorstep.
Your other option would be for everyone to just go as they are, and hope you either don't cross paths with the Shinigami again, or they don't take an interest.
Incidentally, do you want to try obscuring the Kurosaki and Arisawa's auras with Abjuration Magic? Casting Mind Blank on this many would people be rather expensive, whether in terms of mana or time, but the Communal Spell of Nondetection ought to be sufficient for this job, and more affordable besides - though you'd still need to raise a Private Sanctum to be sure you weren't alerting any nearby magic-users, due to the moderate material costs you'd be working around.
You make a few suggestions to help disguise the two families and protect your own identity. This leads to there being a cloud of fog that extends through the main hall, part of the kitchen, and along the top of the stairs inside the Kurosaki residence.
While there was some argument about which Jobs you'd chosen to apply to which people, most of it had less to do with the Jobs themselves and more about what they ought to look like. The Final Fantasy artwork you're most familiar with is either the in-game graphics - which are a bit limited, particularly in the older games - or comes from the American versions of the box and instruction manual artwork. As there are a couple of games in the series that still haven't seen an official release back home, to say nothing of the various supplementary materials that haven't made it overseas, you've apparently missed out on a few things.
Besides, it's not like you've spent THAT much time playing these games.
Not too long after that, a double-strength party of Final Fantasy characters files out of the building.
"I still don't see why I had to be the White Mage," Isshin grumbles, trying (and failing) to adjust his illusory white robe, while hauling a suitcase in one hand. You've got another packed in your dimensional pocket, and Shadow Alex is carrying two more that way, plus a third manually.
"It's the best healer class, and you're a doctor," you reply calmly. "It seemed appropriate. Besides, the hood helps hide your face."
Which, you leave unspoken, could be very helpful if the exiled Shinigami runs into any former colleagues that might potentially recognize him.
Isshin makes a sound of reluctant agreement.
That turned out to be a consideration with several of the Jobs, and as a result, while Masaki and Ichigo are dressed as a Hunter and a Warrior, respectively, the Kurosaki matriarch is wearing a green hat with a rather wider brim than the archery-focused Job is normally shown with - something that, aside from color, would look at home on a Red Mage's head - while her firstborn is wearing a helmet with two forward-pointing curved horns instead of walking around with his distinctive hair on display.
The twins were all for dressing up as Moogles, especially when they realized that your "magic disguises" wouldn't get hot and itchy like mundane costumes. One of the little advantages of Illusion Magic. Tatsuki almost turned down dressing up as a Black Belt, on account of how it was a little too on the nose for her and would leave her face exposed besides - at least until you explained that the Spell to Disguise One's Self lets you alter the target's physical build and features as well as what they're wearing. So her hair is now brown instead of black, and instead of being spiky, it's long enough to be pulled back into a single thick braid that reaches halfway down her back. That plus some editing of her features makes her mildly unrecognizable.
Akkiko was fine with wearing the image of a Summoner, once she got over laughing about the horn. This Job doesn't normally conceal a character's face, either, but she just had you make some of the same changes you gave Tatsuki's features, meaning the two of them still look like mother and daughter, just not like Arisawas.
The three older members of the Kurosaki family have been likewise modified as an extra bit of insurance against recognition, whether today or in the future. So long as you remember to dismiss these spells when you get to the Ishida residence, and none of the Shinigami patrollers are around, it should be fine.
There were a few attempts to get Shadow Alex to join the fun, but between having a full suite of enhancements already in place and technically being in disguise already, he managed to avoid being badgered into it.
Shadow Briar had to pass on a disguise of her own for similar reasons, but - after talking with those more knowledgeable in the series - she turned around and made YOUR fairy partner take on her human form, wearing a Blue Mage costume conjured up from her own magic.
You hope that particular choice was based on the fact that Blue Mages wear masks, and blue is a decent color for Briar, as opposed to some comment by your partner's shadow-self. Blue Mages kind of have it rough in the lore of the games...
In any case, once the disguises were in place, you cast Communal Nondetection over the Kurosakis and Tatsuki, followed by a single-target, shortened duration version on Akkiko. Given that time is a bit of an issue, you drew on your reserves for this, after which you dismissed the Sanctum. Akkiko did you a solid by dispelling the lingering traces of your spellwork, after which you all left the house and headed out for the Ishida residence.
As it's now past quarter after seven, there are a few more people out and about than there were while you were making your way across town from Urahara Shop. Between that and the fact that you've got nine people in fantastical costumes and one big guy in a nice suit walking around, you draw considerably more attention.
You also cross paths with that jogger again, who is honestly delighted by the whole affair, and compliments you all on your costumes.
He also glances at the clouds gathering above and earnestly wishes you luck in avoiding the rain that's been forecast for today, because it would be a waste for your outfits to get wrecked by bad weather.
You assure him you'll all be safely indoors by the time it starts raining.
Karin and Yuzu, meanwhile, seem to have been rendered a bit fearless by having their identities concealed, as they have entirely too much fun saying, "Kupo!" and variations thereof at the young man.
He clearly thinks it's adorable.
Gained Disguise E
You keep your spiritual senses peeled as you cross town to the Ishida residence, but there's no further sign of the four Shinigami you spotted earlier, nor of any Hollows. You also can't detect any lurking ghost ninjas, and while that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't one around somewhere, everybody else in the party with spiritual awareness worth speaking of agrees that you seem to be in the clear.
You had plenty of time to talk with the Kurosakis (mostly Masaki) about how to handle their extended family. Were there any particular questions you wanted to ask?
While you do ask a few obvious questions of Masaki during the walk, you don't go into too much detail, preferring to come at this latest batch of Quincy with a minimal amount of bias. It's an approach that has worked out reasonably well for you in the day's previous first meetings, so it keeping it going just seems like the right call.
That said, you do make a point of confirming whether or not any of the gathered Ishidas might be troublemakers, and if so, of what sort. You also seek clarification about whether or not ALL of the Japanese Quincy showed up for this little reunion, or if there were some who chose not to attend - not that you think Urahara's information was bad, but it was secondhand.
As it happens, there were a few cousins that hadn't turned up as of yesterday, but while you were covering the distance from Urahara Shop to the Kurosaki Clinic, Masaki put in that phonecall to let the Ishidas know you'd be along and learned that some of the absentees had turned up after she and her family left the reunion. As it now stands, to the best of Masaki's knowledge, there are only four members of the Ishida lineage not currently in Karakura.
One of the absentees is an Elder who's close to celebrating her ninety-third birthday, but has been going downhill physically and mentally for the last decade or so, ever since her husband passed. According to her relatives that turned up for the reunion - a daughter-in-law, a grandson, his wife, and their kids - the old woman is simply too frail to have made the journey, and wasn't really cognizant that it was ever an option.
The second missing Quincy is the Elder's granddaughter, who volunteered to stay behind and look after her. The family has a nurse to handle the Elder's medical needs, but there are some dangers that even the best mundane medical expert can't deal with - and it's not even the outside chance of a Hollow turning up that's the most realistic concern. Mental decline and mystical powers can make for a dangerous combination, both for the ailing individual and those around them.
The third Quincy not to show up is a young man who graduated high school just a few months ago and then disappeared with a girlfriend shortly after the graduation ceremony. He sent his folks an email declaring his intention to take a year off before going to university - something of a sore point with them, Masaki mentions - and has been moving around the country ever since, sending postcards every so often to let them know what he's been up to and where he's been, but never where he's planning to go next or when he'll be home.
The last Ishida relation that didn't appear is a girl a few years younger than the "ronin," who's living with her paternal aunt's family - none of whom are Quincy - and apparently wants nothing to do with spirits, archery, or anything of that nature. Masaki doesn't go into detail about the matter, just saying that the girl has her reasons.
As far as potential troublemakers go, you've got five or six Wandenreich sympathizers similar to Henry Archer, though no actual members of the organization like Henry. Souken's "dismissal" all those years ago has left the extended Ishida clan in a position of some disgrace with the Hidden Empire, a status which hasn't been helped by the subsequent passing of most of the other Ishidas who were their affiliates. The absent Elder is actually the only other living member of the family besides Souken with any direct personal ties to the organization, and those have fallen by the wayside since the passing of her husband (another agent) and her decline. Evidently their son DID try to follow in his parents' footsteps, only to die rather young as a result; his wife and children have had a rather poor opinion of the Wandenreich ever since.
Even with Shadow Alex and the fairies pitching in, five or six people is a few too many for you to be confident of magically knocking out if the need arises.
Masaki also notes that some of her relatives are going to be unpleasant towards you just because you're not a Quincy or a relative. That group overlaps a bit with the handful of identified individuals with problematic loyalties, but it's not exclusive to them.
"How unpleasant are we talking here, Masaki?" Akkiko pipes up, frowning. "'Cause if some stuck-up cousin's cousin of yours starts giving me attitude-"
"Oh, Haruto definitely will," Masaki replies shortly. "So feel free to break his face."
Akkiko blinks. "What, seriously?"
"He's a jerk," Ichigo scowls. "He made Yuzu cry."
Akkiko pauses and looks down at one of the little Moogles.
Yuzu looks away. "He was mean, because I don't really see spirits."
"...well, then," the part-oni priestess declares, cracking her knuckles. "One of Auntie Akkiko's Face-Wrecker Specials, coming up."
This is... probably not going to be conducive to your efforts.
"I'll do my best," Akkiko replies, "but I make no promises beyond that. Sometimes" - she brings her hands together with a 'smack,' fist to palm - "you just have to smack a bi-uh, berk."
"...the heck is a 'berk'?" Tatsuki wonders.
"It's English slang - like, British English," comes the answer. "It means 'idiot'."
Visibly dubious, Tatsuki glances at you, one of the native English speakers in the group, for confirmation.
"It's not a word used in America," you note, "but I think that's correct. I mean, I've never heard Altria or her folks use it - they don't really swear, as a rule, unless there's all kinds of violence going on - but I've met her cousin Kenneth a few times, and he's more... vulgar. And then there's Ambrose," you add.
Everybody who's conversed with the wizard nods at that statement, entirely unsurprised.
Still somewhat suspicious in spite of your words, the karate girl turns back to her priestess progenitor. "And when exactly did you become an expert on foreign insults?"
Drawing herself up proudly, Akkiko declares, "Kiddo, I have history you don't even know."
"Also," Masaki chimes in, "I'm fairly certain she's just naturally fluent in curses and profanity."
You could make a joke about being "fluent in curses" yourself, but you won't. Your Shadow and the Briars are the only ones who'd really get it, and you doubt any of them would laugh.
Also, you've arrived.
Much like the Archer house, the Ishida residence has a number of vehicles parked in its driveway and along the street out front which weren't here the last time you visited. Also like the Archer family fleet, the cars are mostly middle-class family vehicles, though on the whole, they seem to tend towards the upper end of the price range - and there are a couple of cars that edge over into downright expensive, if still shy of the really high-class stuff the Shuzens or Drakes have on call. You count ten vehicles in all, not counting the Karakura Ishidas' own vehicle.
Based on how things went in New York, you'd need four Gates to get everyone through, assuming they were all driving. That's going to be tricky, given your concerns about the group of Shinigami running around potentially being able to pick up on major disturbances in local space-time, regardless of the source. Setting up a Private Sanctum should help, but might not completely obscure that golden glow you got when you opened up a full power Gate - so you should probably look into speeding things up, whether by asking Shadow Alex to open a couple of Gates simultaneous with yours, trying to make the Gates you do open large enough and accessible enough to handle two cars at once, or both.
But that's a problem for Future Alex; Present Alex just makes a note of it.
As your not-so-little band troops across the lawn, Masaki moves up to the head of the group and rings the Ishidas' doorbell. When the door opens a few moments later, the maid gives only a single blink at the sight of so many costumed individuals, before voicing a professional, "How may I help you?"
"Hi, Yuuko," Masaki greets her.
Professionalism slips a bit as the maid does a double-take. "Masaki? Why do you-" She catches herself, coughs daintily into a white-gloved fist, and tries again. "That is, I didn't recognize you."
"That was the idea," the Kurosaki matriarch agrees. "Although now that we're here, we should probably ditch the disguises." She aims that last bit at you.
You have no issue with dismissing the Spells of Nondetection, at least once everybody affected by the communal version is inside. Not that you sense any Shinigami around, but no sense tempting Fate as you're about to cross the finish line. As for the illusion-based disguises...
You suggest leaving the disguises active for a little while longer.
Masaki frowns in puzzlement. "You already created a bunch of space-warping apartments upstairs. Are they not enough proof?"
"It depends on whether or not your relatives believed that a nine-year-old could do all that," you reply. Looking from her to the maid and then back again, you add, "So, do they?"
Masaki and Yuuko trade glances.
"That looks like a 'no' to me," Briar notes dryly.
"Let's just say, there are doubters," Masaki replies evenly.
"Some of them rather vocal," the maid adds with understated disapproval.
Right, so for the moment, the disguises stay.
But as everybody enters the house, you start dismissing the Spells of Nondetection, because there's proving your credentials, and then there's putting your "clients" at risk.
Besides, if you need to prove your ability to jam Divination Magic and sensory techniques, you've got your own Spell of Mind Blank to prove your bona fides.
Once everyone has taken their outdoor shoes are off - a slightly trickier process than usual, given they have to work through your illusions; the twins in particular are a bit baffled by the prospect of taking off shoes from what appear to be bare Moogle paws, until Briar helps them feel through the disguises - the maid shows you to the downstairs living room. This chamber is rather larger than the one where you had tea and snacks with Souken and Kanae the day you set up the Magnificent Mansions, with enough seats for everyone in your current group, and standing room for that many again without getting really crowded.
It's also occupied by half a dozen women, whose ages range from early twenties to late sixties. You recognize only Kanae, though there are some hints of resemblance to the various Karakura Quincy.
"Well, now," the oldest woman in the room says as she peers at your party through a pair of thin-rimmed glasses. "This is something I wasn't expecting to see when I woke up this morning. What on Earth are you wearing, Masaki, and who are your friends?"
"Did- did you seriously walk across town dressed as a mob of Final Fantasy characters?" the youngest woman in the group asks in disbelief.
She gets a few curious looks from some of her companions at that.
"THAT's where I know those outfits from," one mutters.
"It was pointed out that some disguises might be in order, given the Shinigami that are in town," Masaki replies to two of the questions posed to her. "And since our costumer already had a particular theme for HIS disguise, it just made sense to pick matching ones."
Some of the women look confused at that, their gazes going to Shadow Alex, who rather obviously stands out from the rest of the group. Kanae, on the other hand, looks straight at you, and the Elder follows suit, dark eyes narrowing behind glass lenses.
You shrug. "Maybe it's not the most conventional choice, but I wanted something that would keep the Shinigami patrol from seeing my face. And it worked."
"Ran into the busybodies on the way here, did you?" the Elder inquires.
"Actually, ma'am, it was on the way to the Kurosaki residence - but yes."
"And they didn't find the fact that you, your overly large friend, and the young lady in blue have all the spiritual pressure of a bag of rocks to be noteworthy?"
"Oh, they noticed," you reply. "One of them compared me to a gnat, actually, and his partner was concerned enough by how weak we appeared to be that she dragged him along to make sure we got where we were going, without being accidentally knocked out by any passing Hollows."
"How very kind of them," one of the other women murmurs sourly.
"You were followed?" another says sharply.
"Only for a block or so," you answer. "A Hollow actually DID show up, and we took the opportunity to slip away while our minders were distracted."
"What's this about Hollows?" a man's voice comes from behind you.
Turning around, you see that three of the Ishida menfolk have wandered in from wherever they'd been. Again, you don't recognize any of them - but one's got a pronounced black eye, about a day old.
Akkiko's gaze locks on to that one, but she spares an approving wink and thumbs up for Masaki, who looks just a bit pleased with herself.
"Who in the world are you people, and what are you wearing?" one of the two uninjured men asks in confusion.
"Black Mage, White Mage, Fighter, Black Belt, Moogles..." the second member of the trio counts off.
"Kupo-po!" the twins chorus.
"Oh, that's just precious," one of the ladies coos.
This goes on for a bit. While Yuuko excuses herself to fetch the other adult members of the extended family, introductions and explanations begin, get interrupted, resume, digress, and then have to start over as more people turn up, whether because the maid reached them or in response to the increasing levels of mundane noise and spiritual energy in this one room.
Eventually, however, the introductions are made and the phantom disguises dismissed in a suitably dramatic fashion to support your claim of wielding magic. There is still some doubt about the level of power you profess to wield, due in part to your complete lack of discernible spiritual energy. While wizards, sorcerers, and other magic-users don't harness such power as directly as Quincy do, working magic does tend to require and cultivate a certain amount of spiritual strength, which only increases as the practitioner advances in their art.
Telling them that you're using the Spell of Mind Blank doesn't seem to settle those uncertainties, even with Souken, Ryuuken, and Masaki weighing in with what they've seen you do and Akkiko providing her own expert testimony.
Comparing it to how things went with the Archers is almost like comparing night and day. Miles and Alice had their arguments with certain members of the family, but even Henry still respected his uncle as an Elder. Souken's position among the extended Ishida clan is a lot shakier, and some of that spills over onto his son and semi-adopted niece. Then there's Masaki's own position within the family, which can be summed up as a large question mark. Several of the Ishidas are clearly still forming their opinions of her, while others are just generally disapproving or otherwise unfriendly - Black-Eyed Haruto being one of those.
Akkiko is somewhere between offending people just by existing, and getting along with the Elder - who turns out to be that aunt of Masaki's that Urahara mentioned - too well for anybody's peace of mind.
Shadow Alex's looming presence, meanwhile, is clearly giving some people the idea that he's the one who actually created the upstairs Mansions. Granted, you haven't gotten around to explaining your particular relationship, beyond, "it's a magic thing"; if you actually explained he's your summoned (and aged-up) twin, that might settle things. Assuming, of course, they believe you.
Oh, and incidentally, are you still wearing your Black Mage Outfit? Because that might be affecting people's judgment of you, just a little bit.
It was with a certain regret that you removed your robe and wizard hat, but the need for the disguise was past, and the looks some of the Ishidas were giving you once you were the only person still wearing such a costume made you think its continued presence might be counter-productive.
It's one thing to dress like a wizard, and another to dress like a wizard from a modern fantasy franchise. The former can make it look like you know what you're talking about, provided you can pull it off; the latter, not so much.
From what you've seen and sensed of their presence thus far, none of the adult Ishidas possess any particular aptitude for magic, let alone have cultivated that potential to the point of a practical ability. So even if you were inclined to drop the Spell of Mind Blank - and you're really not - there's only so much they'd be able to learn.
Besides, there's another way to prove your magical credentials, one which will be slightly quicker and less costly - not to mention much less of a security risk - than dropping and renewing your concealing ward.
After getting permission from the owners of the house, you walk over to the nearest wall, touch one hand to the surface, and create a Magnificent Mansion. For the sake of security, you've minimized the range and pulled most of the duration, bringing the normally seventh circle spell all the way down to the fourth. While this spell does involve some manipulation of space-time, the effect is much more contained than a teleport, and has a rather gentler effect on the local continuum; combined with the wards on the Ishida residence, you're willing to bet that the Shinigami won't notice.
The presence of half a dozen such Mansions upstairs and the lack of anyone having come knocking on the Ishidas' door in the last couple of days is pretty good evidence of that fact.
In any case, the sight of- Gothic castle chambers, with eerie pipe organ musicsettles most of the doubters. A few have to explore the rooms to make sure they aren't being tricked by an illusion, and there are a couple that are reluctant to believe you even then, but the majority trust their eyes.
With that out of the way, you get on to the actual purpose of this meeting. You're spared from having to repeat everything you told the Archers earlier, as Masaki told you on the way over that she, Souken, and Ryuuken have already had to explain most of the situation for their relatives over the last couple of days. Just recounting her healing and the reason it was necessary led to a fairly heated argument about working with Shinigami; from what Masaki said, while they admitted to Urahara's involvement and identity, Isshin hasn't officially been singled out as the reaper who gave up his powers to save Masaki's life. She was pretty sure her aunt figured it out - something about scary old women being way too good at reading people? - but she's kept her peace on the matter thus far.
Part of the debate centered on what Masaki's injury and Urahara's original treatment of it had done to her kids' potential for the Quincy Arts - and for that matter, what effect the addition of the Heart Container might have on any future kids she and Isshin might have. Even Ichigo's crazy capacity drew some criticism, because raw personal power isn't as important to the Quincy as control, and the orange-haired boy is still pretty lacking in the latter. Karin's more modest talent passed mostly unremarked, although her lack of training earned her parents some disapproval, but it was Yuzu's next to nonexistent spiritual awareness that caused the real problems, which led to Cousin Haruto mouthing off and getting punched in the face, and the Kurosakis cutting their previous visit short.
From what Masaki learned during this morning's phone call, Souken and Ryuuken laid out most of the rest of the details over the intervening day, with the younger man recounting his trip to Brazil and New York and the discussions he took part in there. Yhwach's involvement and intentions finally came out in the evening, and there was another argument, which you can see the lingering tensions of in the room right now. It was late enough by then that nobody stormed off - Karakura's Hollow infestation and the increased presence of the Shinigami probably helped there, ironically - but you suspect that if you'd arrived much later, some of the out-of-towners would have already left; as it is, a couple of them are fidgeting nervously, as if they mean to depart as soon as they can come up with an excuse.
Whether they'd try to warn the Wandenreich, attempt to deal with the whole matter themselves, or just bury their heads in the sand and hope the danger passed them by, you can't say. You don't, however, get the impression that any of them are expecting a bunch of Soldats and/or Sternritter to come knocking.
Masaki did say that Kanae told her Souken had extracted a promise from his guests to hear you out before they left or called anyone, and so far, it appears to have been honored.
These people do take their honor pretty seriously.
Taking a breath, you set aside that lingering worry and start laying out your plan.
As soon as the door to the Mansion opens up, allowing the groaning notes of that familiar tune to escape into the living room, Kanae gives you a look of exasperation, while Souken covers an undignified snicker.
"I never did get the chance to ask," Ryuuken says after a moment, "but what on Earth gave you the idea to... decorate the room upstairs that way?"
"This isn't the first time I've put together some temporary lodgings for people," you reply. "The last batch included some vampires-"
There are looks and exclamations of surprise at that.
"-and Masaki happened to see where they were staying and comment on it to Elder Souken." You pause and turn to the Kurosaki matriarch. "Speaking of which, when DID you see the Shuzens' suite?"
"The second day of your party," she replies. "They invited all the ladies on the island to afternoon tea. It was... an experience."
Ah.
"You had tea. With vampires?" Masaki's aunt asks her slowly.
"Well, it would have been rude to turn down the offer," comes the reply, "and it was very good tea."
"Can confirm," Akkiko agrees. "And for the record, it was three vampires - four, if you count Issa standing in for one of the servers-"
Huh?
"-a Great Fairy, the avatar of a volcano, a fish-lady from another world, a few kitsune, one Muromachi-period lady's ghost, an Italian fashionista who married an honest-to-kami British knight, an American granny with a fire-breathing shotgun, and Alex's mom," Akkiko concludes.
The entire room stares at the priestess, their silence broken only by the sound of the organ continuing to play within the Mansion.
The Ishida garage looked large enough to have two cars driven into it and through a Gate inside of it at one time, and since you do want to get everyone out of here as quickly as possible to minimize the odds of Shinigami interference, it seems like an asset that should be exploited.
Also, by limiting the operation to one Gate at a time, Shadow Alex will be free to take on the job Balthazar did back in New York, setting up an illusion to hide the fact that cars and people are going into that garage and not coming back out. He can also dispel the traces after you and Briar have gone through with the last of the Quincy.
There is some concern about the idea of driving two cars into the garage at the same time, and at a certain speed besides, but various Ishidas seem confident they could manage it, even when you mention they'd be going off-road as soon as they're through the portal.
You also note that "simply" hiding the Quincy on another plane of existence is only the first step in your plan to keep them alive. Mind Blank, Spell Immunity, Death Ward-
Someone brings up the members of the family that didn't or couldn't attend, and ask what your plans are regarding them.
The Elder who was absent due to her age, as well as the granddaughter who stayed behind to look after her, you can potentially do something about. They have direct blood relations here, so you'd be able to scry their location and then pop over to pick them up. Moving the old woman might be an issue, but you do know the Spell of Age Resistance, so you could at least lessen the physical complications. Mentally is another matter. The Spell of Restoration should be able to treat the symptoms of her senility, but not the underlying cause; that would take either the Heal Spell, which you haven't learned, or the Greater Spell of Restoration, which you don't have the material resources to cast and can't substitute enough mana to perform in spite of that. It might be easier and kinder to just cast a Sleep Spell on her and move her while she's napping.
The young man taking a year off before college could likewise be tracked down in short order, since both of his parents are present.
The girl with no direct living Quincy relatives, on the other hand, is a bit of a problem. Even leaving aside her apparent desire to have nothing to do with the supernatural, unless someone's got a picture or possession of hers, the odds of you being able to find her are distinctly not great.
Of course, every separate person or group of people you have to track down is at least two or three more spells in need of casting - Scrying and at least one Gate, more realistically two - and your reserves won't last forever. Counting the Kurosakis and the Karakura Ishidas, you've already got 36 people to cast spells on, which works out to... carry the two... 61% of your maximum mana - or about two-thirds of what you've got left in the tank. Assuming you need to cast Greater Scrying and two Gates to find and retrieve each of the absent Quincy (or the one pair), that's another 32% or so.
So it's doable, especially if you were to offload some of the cost to rituals.
Of course, that's just the mana. There's still the matter of how the Japanese supernatural community is liable to react when unscheduled portals start opening and closing, especially if that any of the people you'd be going to get are in unshielded locations, which you think two of them are pretty much certain to be.
"Mrs. Blaisdell IS pretty cool, isn't she?"
"Anybody who knows that much about guns and explosives is alright in my book," Akkiko agrees.
"She bakes cookies, too."
"Your friend is lucky in his grandparents."
"I know, right?"
Seeing as how you're getting off-topic - and because the stunned looks everyone was giving Akkiko are starting to spill over to YOU - you decide to let that line of conversation go.
That said, you can't quite resist the temptation to get in one last line: "So who won the Most Troublesome Child Contest?"
Akkiko throws back her head, cackling.
"We almost gave that one to your mother by default," Masaki chimes in, "but there were some contenders. Lady Takara had stories about the sort of trouble a young sorcerer raised by a kitsune could find, while the Hayashis and Lady Navi weighed in with what THEIR respective troublemakers got up to; none of those stories were nearly as bad alone, but the sheer NUMBER of them, especially when Navi's kids literally haven't grown up for hundreds of years..." The Kurosaki matriarch shakes her head. "Kahine topped everybody, though."
"Oh?"
"Mm. Partly, it was how she claimed everybody that had ever lived on the island as hers, but when she got talking about how nightmares used to come to life on her island? Even Takara gave her the win."
...and there goes your good mood.
The notion of leaving the last four members of the Ishida clan wandering around unshielded and ignorant of their peril doesn't sit right with you, so you lay out two rough plans for the rest of the clan, both of which involve getting everyone here safely into your demiplane and under wards before doing anything else. From there, you can scry out the absentee Quincies' locations as needed, and exploit the Spell of Scrying's compatibility with the Message Spell to explain the situation to them.
The split in your plans depends on what happens after that. If the Quincy take your information well, you can Gate somewhere out of the way on Earth where the locals won't be bothered - Bali Ha'i comes to mind - then teleport between locations to pick everyone up before returning to your point of arrival to Gate out.
If somebody DOESN'T take contact with you well, or if there are complications that would require an immediate evacuation or just result in too many people for you to conveniently teleport, you may have to open up a Gate back to the demiplane on the spot, regardless of the fallout. Sleep Spells may or may not be involved as well.
A few of the Ishidas are visibly disgruntled by the idea of putting one of their Elders to sleep and then hauling her around without her consent, but her immediate relatives aren't among them; if anything, her daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter-in-law look understanding and relieved by that part of the plan.
Both of the parents of the young ronin just kind of assume that they'll be coming with you to meet him, which you respond to by explaining that you can't teleport more than six people at a time - not counting yourself and Briar. Since you're going to be picking up at LEAST four people, ideally, you'd bring along only one other person, who would be recognizable to and trusted by all three parties.
Some discussion and a bit of outright argument ensues among the Ishidas, before Masaki's aunt finally puts her foot down and says she'll go.
"Aunt/Elder Asuka-!" the parents protest.
"Enough, both of you," Elder Asuka says sharply. "You weren't exactly close to Michiko before she started getting vague; you've never even MET Rika's girl; and the second either of you lay eyes on your son, there's going to be another shouting match. He'll at least hear me out without rejecting what I have to say out of hand."
"He's our son!"
"And you did such a wonderful job of raising him that he walked away the first chance he got," somebody mutters.
The shouting gets VERY loud after that.
You're very tempted to cut the yelling short by casting a Spell of Silence, but even if you technically have permission to cast certain spells on the Ishida family property today, that's hardly a blank check to use whatever magic you want.
Besides, you have another tried and true method for quelling arguments among adults and getting their attention. And after using it at the Archers' place earlier, it seems only fitting that you do so with this group of Quincy as well.
With that in mind, you take your Conjured Book out of your pocket, open it up, and channel a little ki around the tome.
Akkiko glanced your way when you started moving. As your energy moves, recognition flashes across her face, and you obligingly give her enough time to cover her ears and mouth a warning to Masaki - who looks from her friend to you, and then gets a look of a different sort of recognition, as only a parent with experience wrangling energetic and occasionally trouble-prone children can.
You hold your ki at the ready, but Masaki's gaze slides towards her quarreling relatives, and she sighs and covers her ears as well.
Maternal intervention averted, you close the book.
*WHOOMP*
The shouting abruptly halts, as heads turn in your direction.
Gained Thunder Clap F (Plus)
"What was that?" someone in the back asks, unable to see you.
"That was a nine-year-old breaking up an argument among a group of adults for the second time today," you reply frankly, while keeping your voice level. You're not sure if it's something specific to the Quincy, if it's a natural consequence of family get-togethers reaching a certain critical mass, or if it's more an artifact of having a lot of people in close quarters and in fear for their lives, but you're starting to see a pattern in people's behavior, and it's just a little frustrating. "And before anybody asks," you add, thinking of a comment that arose from near-identical circumstances, "no, it wasn't a spell."
Out of the corner of one eye, you see a mouth close.
"Now then," you continue, "at the risk of repeating myself, it will take me about twenty minutes to make all the preparations I need to open the first Gate. My associate" - you nod at Shadow Alex - "will be hiding this property under a large-scale illusion, to keep the neighbors and passers-by from seeing anything they shouldn't, and my own measures should prevent the local Shinigami from noticing the Gate - but we can't completely guarantee that, so once I start opening the Gate, there's no stopping, and we'll all have to move quickly. With that in mind..."
"You have twenty minutes to get ready."
Your ultimatum is met by widespread surprise, with several offended expressions thrown in for good measure - although most of those, you note, glance at either the two Elders, or Shadow Alex's looming presence by the door, and hesitate about responding.
"Now, if you'll excuse us," you conclude, turning to leave, "we'll be in the garage."
"Don't be late," Shadow Alex adds. "Ladies. Gentlemen."
"See them out, Yuuko," Kanae says then.
"Of course, ma'am." The maid - who took up a position across from your counterpart - bows to her employer, then turns to you. "This way, gentlemen."
Behind you, there is another outburst-
"Who does he think-"
"He can't just-"
"-quite enough of your-"
"-told off by a pre-teen-"
-but you ignore it and follow the maid out into the hall.
As Yuuko leads you past the front door and towards the indoor access to the garage, Briar turns up. She's still in her human-sized form, Tatsuki and the Kurosaki kids are with her, and Uryuu and a couple of his cousins are following along, alternately looking curiously at you and casting mildly concerned glances in the direction of the noisy living room.
You give your partner an inquiring look at the little parade she's leading.
"We heard shouting, and then I noticed you started moving," she says in response to your brief look, while gesturing at the twins, Ichigo and Tatsuki, and then the three Ishidas to explain the rest. "What happened?"
"Adults," you grumble. "There was a question about what I planned to do regarding the members of the family that couldn't make it to this reunion. I said I didn't have a problem with going to get them, but the parents of the guy who took off with his girlfriend just assumed they'd be coming along, that turned into an argument about who actually was going, and then somebody just HAD to make a snide comment on their parenting skills, at which point the whole thing blew up."
"On the upside," Shadow Alex interjects, his rumbling voice causing one of Uryuu's relatives to start, "he's almost made a technique out of shutting people up by slamming books at them."
"Huh," Briar replies. "Twice in one day. Go figure."
"What was that?" Tatsuki inquires.
"The family I visited before this got into an argument, too," you tell her. "I got them to quiet down by doing the same thing."
Uryuu adjusts his glasses. "And a slammed book stopped so many adults from yelling at each other?" He sounds partly suspicious, partly curious.
"It did, young master," Yuuko murmurs. "The sound was remarkably loud, but evidently non-magical."
"Basic rule of being a ki adept," you explain. "Anything a human being can already do, they can do more effectively with ki, even when it involves tools or props. I'm not sure how well that carries over to purely spiritual techniques..."
"There should be some overlap," Uryuu replies absently, as he trades thoughtful glances with his cousins and the family maid.
"You're serious?" Ichigo wonders, giving them all odd looks.
"There has been more shouting in my home in the last two days than I can remember happening in the last few years, Kurosaki," the dark-haired boy says sourly. "And that is counting the blow-up my father and grandfather had over my training. Some of our relatives could clearly use a reminder to mind their manners in other people's homes."
Ichigo scowls and nods at that, undoubtedly recalling a certain black-eyed jerk who makes little sisters cry.
"Not just in other people's homes, either," one of the cousins adds. While she doesn't really look that much like Uryuu, her tone is almost identical. "Haruto's a jerk no matter where he is - though he's been REALLY quiet since Masaki decked him." The slightly older girl looks at once admiring and rueful about that. If you're reading her correctly, she'd kind of like to apply the Masaki Solution to Haruto on a regular basis, but she's not tall enough to reliably sock him one when he deserves it.
You reach the garage shortly after that, and start performing the Spell of the Private Sanctum. While you work, Briar fields questions from your small audience. The twins are boundlessly curious as only small children can be, and the three Ishidas either haven't seen you work your magic before, or just aren't as familiar with it as the other Karakurans.
As you're setting up, Shadow Alex strolls over to the open garage door and takes a good long look at the Ishida residence's driveway and front yard, as well as the sidewalk and street beyond, and the cars parked therein. Then he, too, starts to make with the magic, prompting more questions.
The maid interrupts, advising her young master and his guests that they should gather their things and be ready to leave within the next twenty minutes. Briar supports that by pointing out that you're going to be casting this particular spell for the next ten minutes without anything really interesting to show for it, whereas Shadow Alex's spell, while it will need less than half the time to complete, is all about making things look completely ordinary.
That convinces most of the kids to go get their luggage, such as it is.
Tatsuki notes that her mom has all her stuff anyway, but goes along to help Ichigo and the twins carry their stuff.
"You let a girl carry things for you?" the other male Ishida asks, giving his cousin a suspicious look.
"Considering she could carry ME along with all the luggage?" Ichigo replies dryly. "Yeah, I do."
His cousin doesn't seem to buy that.
Ichigo sighs and turns to his friend. "Tatsuki, you want to take it from here?"
The part-oni girl grins, and the young Ishida must have caught sight of her fangs, because he blanches and backs up a step. "Uh, no, wait, I believe you, I be- OH CRAP put me down, put me down!"
"Wow," the other cousin says, watching as Tatsuki hauls her kinsman back inside with no more difficulty than she might cart around a large schoolbag. "Can I learn how to do that? Haruto would NEVER be a problem again..."
Although the differences between channeling ki and channeling spiritual energy are sufficient that you can't guarantee your ability to convert a technique utilizing the former to running on the latter, let alone successfully teaching it to others who lack your essential YOU-ness, you will nonetheless gladly share your knowledge of adult wrangling with fellow sufferers of older person foolishness.
Worst-case scenario, you give them a goal to strive towards.
That said, the aforementioned lessons will have to wait until everyone's safely settled in on the demiplane, and possibly until you've had a few hours to meditate and recover expended mana on the time-accelerated demiplane.
"We shall hold you to that, Harris," Uryuu notes, adjusting his glasses again.
After that, you get on with your spellcasting, and the other kids head back inside to fetch their luggage, the maid tagging along to assist or go see to some other task. Briar, meanwhile, simply stays put.
Considering that most of the Ishidas are here from out of town, and that the Kurosakis already had all their stuff packed, it's not too surprising that the kids are back within a few minutes of leaving. Tatsuki has exchange Uryuu's cousin for three separate suitcases, two of which are small enough and have long enough handles that she can carry them both with one hand without any real inconvenience - not that they or the third, larger piece of luggage slow her down at all.
She's also got Yuzu riding on her back, because why not?
Ichigo has Karin, while the other three have their own things. They're also accompanied by a few older kids, proper teenagers rather than the tweens and under-tens crowd, who are collectively regarding Tatsuki with some disbelief - at least until they catch sight of you, and the not quite complete spell matrix that hangs in the air around you.
"What the-?"
"I think... he's the sorcerer?"
"But he's a kid!"
Ignoring them for the moment, you finish your spell, filling the Ishida garage with the dark grey mist of a Private Sanctum.
"Ooooh!" Karin and Yuzu obligingly chorus. They were still having breakfast when you cast this spell in their downstairs hallway earlier, so this is the first time they've seen it properly manifest, as opposed to walked into it after the fact.
"You were saying?"
"...okay, so he's a kid sorcerer. But what's with the fog?"
While Briar explains that, you get started on the Gate Spell.
A couple of minutes into your work, the adult Ishidas and Kurosakis start to enter the garage or head for the cars parked in the driveway.
There is some consternation when they discover the particular properties of the Private Sanctum, but Briar once again steps in to keep people from distracting you, backed up by Shadow Alex and those who've witnessed the magic at work before. Even without that intervention, a field of mist that allows neither sight nor sound to escape it and is similarly opaque to supernatural detection methods does appear to reassure some people.
By the same token, though, there is some legitimate concern from those who are going to have to drive into an impenetrable wall of fog at some speed. Fortunately for everyone involved, the Ishida garage is fairly large and very neatly kept.
Your audience of kids continue to make amusing sounds of interest and excitement as the matrix of the Gate takes shape, even after they've been corralled by their respective parents and herded into waiting cars.
Finally, the spell is complete, awaiting only one last push for the Gate to open. You hold it there for a moment as you turn to regard the Quincy convoy.
"Is everyone ready?"
"As ready as they can be, at least," Souken replies from the nearest car. He was one of the last to get into any of the vehicles, having wandered down to the end of the driveway for a word with Shadow Alex - and also to discreetly hand off the Gate Key - before coming back to take the passenger-side seat across from his son.
"Ready for launch!" Isshin says from behind the wheel of the van that his family and Tatsuki have piled into. A rental, as you were informed earlier.
The two families of Karakura residents (plus one) will be going through the Gate first, partly as a show of trust in you and your plan to encourage the rest, and partly because they're the people you're most personally invested in getting to safety.
Nodding at the replies, you turn to the Gate-
"And here. We. Go. AGAIN!"
-and with a flash of golden light, you once again rip the space-time continuum a new one.
Did the ghost police notice that?
The local patrol and the spy didn't, but some of Urahara's machines went "bing" at the same time. And if he was able to pick it up-
-somebody similarly crazy smart monitoring from their Soul Society might have been able to as well. Gotcha.
"Onward to another dimension!" Isshin cries, to cheering from his kids (plus one) and an indulgent sigh from his wife. He doesn't floor the gas pedal, but the van does move forward somewhat faster than the perfectly reasonable pace Ryuken chooses for his car.
You get the next pair of cars through without an issue, but as happened back in New York, the third set take long enough to get through that the Gate is visibly shrinking in their wake. The way the drivers slowed down as they drove through the edge of your Private Sanctum didn't help there, and you make a mental note for future occasions.
Because you never know when you might need to evacuate a lot of people through a Gate in the future.
The Gate has barely finished closing when you gather your mana and re-open it. Two cars drive by, then four, then six- and then you and Briar step through after them, leaving the garage to Akkiko and Shadow Alex.
Is there anything you want to say to your not-evil not-currently-a-twin before the portal shuts? Or for that matter, the part-oni priestess?
You watch as your original/lightside/creator and his partner pass through the Gate, which is already beginning to slide shut. Turning about to face you, Alex says, "Remember: Pillage, THEN burn."
His Briar sighs.
Your Briar chuckles.
Akkiko snorts.
"I'll keep it in mind," you reply dryly. "You know, between trying to stay alive and save the world."
He nods. "All I can ask for. Goddesses go with you, Other Me."
"Goddesses stay with you, Other Me."
One of the nice things about divinity is that you can be present at, follow events in, or extend your power to multiple places at the same time without an issue.
Of course, SOME of us are overachievers at the ancient art of multitasking.
I am not going to apologize.
Then the Gate slides shut, and its matrix begins breaking down into motes of loose energy, which quickly dissipate into the environment. As that's happening, you release your mental hold on the Spell of Illusion you cast to cover the movement of the Ishida's vehicles.
As the mental weight of the spell is removed from your mind, you reflect that Balthazar made the task of hiding a house under illusions look a lot easier than it actually is.
While you aren't unskilled at Illusion Magic, it's not one of your preferred schools, either - it could, in fact, be said to be the field of sorcery in which you're least capable overall, unless one counts your limitations in specific fields of Elementalism. Which is somewhat ironic, given your own existence as a construct-creature of Shadow gives you a strong tie to that very school...
The point is, of the Spells of Illusion you know, none were exactly ideal for this particular situation. The spells from the Image chain are figments, meaning they're strictly additive in nature, and can't alter the appearance of things that already exist - and they're largely single-target in nature besides. You know a variety of glamers as well, capable of changing appearances or even rendering things invisible, but a lot of those are single-target as well, or else sufficiently limited in what they could and couldn't affect to make them useless for this particular purpose.
You ended up creating a kind of "Mass Silent Image" along the front of the Ishida property, essentially raising a wall that blocked the view, while at the same time showing anyone looking in its direction a bunch of people getting into cars and then driving off, instead of driving into the garage. Sort of like a movie theater projection screen. Given the sheer number of targets you had to manage and the fact that you'd only just met most of them today, you doubt anyone who interacted with your imagery would have been fooled, especially if they'd walked through the "wall" - which, being a figment, was in no way solid - and gotten a look at the reality behind the screen.
Still, that doesn't appear to have happened. At the very least, no pedestrians walked by, the one car that drove past didn't suddenly stop or slow its already casual pace, and none of the neighbors came running out of their homes.
Now that you no longer need to concentrate on maintaining the Illusion, you take a moment to catch your breath - magically speaking - and then start shaping a Spell to Dispel Magic. The Original Alex's Private Sanctum has a few more minutes in it before it collapses, so you can take the time to make this a ritual and still be able to clean up the residual traces of the Gate Spell before that Divination-blocking ward comes down.
"So," Akkiko says, "after clean-up duty, I take it you two are off to Urahara's?"
Your partner makes a sound of affirmation, and then adds, "The plan is to meet up with Ambrose there, then signal the Shinigami. Not quite clear if WE'RE going to go to wherever they're mustering, or if they're coming HERE to use the Gate my partner opens, though."
"Knowing them? Probably the latter. They don't like mortals wandering around the Soul Society at the best of times, and I can't imagine they'd be thrilled about it when they're on high alert. I actually kind of agree with them on that; it IS an afterlife, after all, people aren't supposed to just go walking in and out of those places as they please."
"What about you, then?" Briar asks. "Were you thinking about tagging along for the fight?"
"Once upon a time, you would have had to chain me down to stop me from showing up," Akkiko agrees with a faint grin, "and to hell with what the Shinigami would say about it. But these days, I've got three kids to think about, a husband who worries and gets depressed if I get into fights he can't help out with, and a shrine to keep an eye on. Responsibility's a bitch like that, but what can you do?"
"Never grow up?"
Akkiko pauses and gives your partner a sidelong glance. "...that's right, you fairies can do that, can't you?"
Is there anything you feel the need to speak with Akkiko about, before you go your separate ways?
Once all magical phenomenon and traces thereof have been removed from the outside of the Ishida property, you take a moment to review your assets. The various spells cast on yourself, your partner, and your weapon are all still going strong, most having at least ten more hours of operation in them, or else being indefinite in nature. You've got the various restoratives Original Alex handed off to you, as well as that jar of ointment in case you need to cast True Seeing.
Incidentally, do you want to use a restorative to top off your mana?
Aside from your version of the Blessed Blade - which you can summon to you more or less at will - the shadows of the Boots of Air Walking and Vambrace of Force Shielding that you've been wearing all this time (the latter a bit awkwardly under the sleeve of your suit jacket), and the similarly copied Memorian Warmage's Robe which you've been keeping in your pocket to avoid standing out even more than you already do, you've also got echoes of the Fairy Slingshot and the Bag of Deku Nuts, the Augury Sticks, and the Red Suit that Lucia gave him for his birthday. Plus some ACTUAL Gold Incense.
The spell components make perfect sense, as Augury is a relatively quick and dirty Divination spell. True, it's not fast enough to be useful for an individual fight, but an ongoing invasion is likely to bring up multiple situations where being able to ask the Goddesses something like, "Which path leads to danger?" would be beneficial.
You know, as long as all roads don't lead to certain death.
You're not entirely certain what Original Alex was thinking when he decided to give you the Fairy Slingshot, and you say this as an entity created with pretty close to an exact copy of his thoughts at the time up to your summoning. Despite being fairy-crafted, it's non-magical, which means it doesn't have that convenient "one size fits all" property common to magic items. This leaves thing looking positively tiny in your larger-than-average adult hands, and while you suppose you could take a few minutes and crib notes from the Spell to Shrink An Item and the Spell to Enlarge A Person to re-size the thing, taking a slingshot up against an army of archers still seems like a bit of a mismatch. Particularly when you don't have much in the way of practice with the thing.
Maybe more of Ganondorf's multiple lifetimes of Link-related trauma bled through than you expected?
The Deku Nuts could be useful, though. They're natural flash-bangs, and the value of an instant distraction is not to be underestimated.
As for the Red Suit, while it would make a bit more of a statement than your Spider-Silk Suit - Lucia does outstanding work, and the Suit is in Din's colors besides - the garment is non-magical and meant for Original Alex's underage frame, so it, too, would need to be magically re-sized to fit you.
All things considered, you honestly don't see the point of using the Shadow Fairy Slingshot in the upcoming engagement. With that in mind, you forego trying to make it more conveniently sized and instead just tuck it back in your pocket, making a mental note to ask the Original what exactly he was thinking when he gave you this.
The Red Suit, on the other hand, does offer some potential benefits, so you set it down on a clear spot on one of the shelves in the garage and work a little magic to adjust it.
Then you chase Akkiko out of the garage-
"Aw, you're shy? That's adorable."
-pull the door closed, and quickly change outfits, putting your version of the Spider-Silk Suit in your pocket.
The short ritual consumed a little more mana, but not so much that you can't recover that and everything else you've spent so far today by downing one of your recovery potions. Given how critical your mana supply is to your continued existence, you go ahead and do that now.
*GLUG*
*GLUG*
*GLUG*
Used one Spring Dew
Gained Clay Bottle (Empty)
You take a moment to consider how the potion goes down and how it reacts to your own essence, comparing both sensations to Alex's memory of them and noting the subtle similarities and differences. Then you tuck away the empty bottle - more out of habit than anything expectation you'll find a use for it, admittedly - and slide the Ishida garage door open.
Akkiko is leaning against the wall to the right of the door, and straightens up to give you a once-over.
"Nice," she approves. "Lucia does good work."
"She does," you agree, as you shut the garage door again.
"Just always remember to wear it buttoned up, don't get any tattoos, and avoid jewelry," the priestess advises seriously. "It'd be too easy for you to come across as a yakuza otherwise, and the local boys might take offense. Not that I doubt your ability to deal with them, but why go borrowing trouble if you don't have to?"
You nod slowly. Your own sense of style and etiquette tends to reject the first idea out of hand, as if you're going to go to the trouble and expense of getting a good suit to wear, it behooves you to wear it properly; otherwise the effort is just wasted. You hadn't been planning on getting any tattoos - not even magical ones, which you know are a thing, but aren't entirely sure how to create - but magical jewelry IS something you're capable of making, and useful enough that your Original will undoubtedly get around to making himself a few pieces before much longer.
Something to keep in mind.
With that, and after checking with Akkiko to see if the Ishidas' front door was properly locked - it is - you leave their property and begin the return trip to Urahara Shop.
