You return home just in time for lunch, which comes in company with questions about where you'd been all morning and warnings not to just take off like that without talking to your folks first. You make your apologies and answer the questions as best you can, trying to work around to the somewhat urgent need to keep the extended family away from the cabin, without making TOO much out of the invisible undead spy in the area.
You're sort of in luck on that front. Your father hasn't forgotten about the hellhound you saw (and talked to), or that it has a pack hanging out somewhere in the woods. He and Rory have been spreading the word about the "wild dogs" as best they can, but it's been slow going; not all of the family is actually "in" on the truth about monsters and demons and magic, and there are intra-family squabbles that mean some people might ignore the warnings just because of who's giving them.
That said, Rory's efforts to recover his taxidermic presents have been going pretty well.
Anyhow, the fact that someone - or something - noticed your "crazy magic lightshow" doesn't really surprise your father. With the way the supernatural goes out of its way to stay hidden, at least during the daytime, he admits he'd have been amazed if there hadn't been eyes on the cabin after you lit off like a Roman candle. Which is not to say that he's happy to have his suspicions borne out. Neither is your mother.
This might be a good time to tell them about your recent appropriation of a large mirror, and what it will allow you to do in terms of magic...
In the days that follow, you learn that having your Blessed Sword stowed in your spatially-expanded pocket doesn't confer any special benefit upon you; only when the sword is physically on your person or in your hand do you feel its aura-suppressing power at work. In hindsight, this makes perfect sense, as most everything else tucked away in that pocket was put there because the dimensional warping protects them from the Hellmouth. It's also frankly a good thing that the sword stops eating your aura when it's stowed, because otherwise it would consume the magical energy maintaining that pocket and potentially cause a breach.
On a related note, you no longer keep your cellphone in that pocket. Some quick testing with help from Amy and Larry has confirmed that your phone gets no bars in or from other dimensions.
And finally, on Monday afternoon, your parents call you down to the kitchen table to discuss your invitation to Kahlua's birthday.
"Your Mom and I have talked it over, Alex," your father says. "Several times, actually. And I hope you understand that we are not comfortable with the idea of you going to a house full of vampires."
That doesn't sound hopeful, but you nod slowly.
"If you'd asked to go by yourself, or even just with Briar, we'd have said no. But," your father continues, "if your teacher is going as well... then we'll allow it."
Your mother doesn't bother to hide that she's unhappy about this.
Telling your parents that you have just acquired a way to practice magic in your home - except not ACTUALLY in the house, you're quick to clarify - without fear of being detected by the locals, goes over about as well as could be expected.
Which is to say, they grill you on what's involved, and then have you set the security mirror up in the basement rather than your bedroom. The basement door has a lock, which your parents don't use now, but make clear that they will employ in the future, if you've done something that requires a grounding, or if they feel you've simply been spending too much time playing around with Forces Beyond Human Ken, and not enough on things like family time, homework, friends, and exercise.
Like any of THAT could ever happen.
Your folks are well aware that you could use magic to unlock the door, regardless of what they say or do to the contrary - and not aware that you could probably manage it without even casting a cantrip - but that's the trick. If it comes to a punishment, you'll be on the honor system.
It's not all parental doom and gloom, though. Your mother looks around at the seldom-visited basement, scowls at the boxes, dust, and assorted junk, and heads back upstairs to fetch some cleaning implements. While she's gone, your father takes the opportunity to question you about how the presence of this "requisitioned" mirror and your walk-in-mirror spell will affect your plans to decontaminate Rory's remaining animals, or carry out your longer-term plan to restore car parts.
Your hasty explanation brings a happy smile to Tony's face.
What else is there to say in this situation but, "Thank you?"
Except perhaps, "Thank you so much, this is awesome, you guys are the best parents EVER!"
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Alex," your father warns through a grin. "There's still the problem of paying for this girl's present."
You blink.
"Actually, Dad," you interrupt, "I've got the present angle covered already."
Your parents blink. "You do?"
"Yeah. I mean, I've had since I got Kahlua's original invitation to think about it, and given what I knew about her family, it seemed like she'd be really difficult to shop for without breaking the bank, getting her something she already has, or just coming off badly to her folks. And since I have all this magic, I thought, why not use it to make something? That way, I could around the whole expense and potential repeat gift issue by making the present something personal."
"That could work," your mother muses. "What did you choose?"
"Have a look."
You pull the Princess Gauntlets out of your dimensional pocket and set them on the table.
Your parents stare.
"Neat!" Zelda exclaims - wait, when did she get in here, again?
"These are... um..." Your mother struggles to find the words.
"They're metal gloves, Alex," your Dad says bluntly. "They're really girly metal gloves."
"Tony," your mother objects, but only half-heartedly.
"I was going for the 'warrior-princess' theme," you reply. "Kahlua competed while dressed like she was attending a beauty pageant, including gloves that looked more than a bit like this, only made of fabric instead of metal. And however small and girly she may have looked, she hit as hard as I did when I was using my power-up technique."
"Alex," your father says slowly. "Are you telling me that you almost got beaten up by a little princess? In the prelims?"
"What'th wrong with princetheth?" Zelda wonders.
"Uh..." Your father casts a beseeching glance at your mother, who merely smirks and gestures for him to carry on as he's begun. "Nothing, sweetie. It's just... princesses aren't supposed to be the ones doing the fighting."
Your sister tilts her head curiously. "Why not? They do it all the time on TV."
"Yeah, but you can't believe everything you see on TV."
Zelda frowns. "But if TV ithn't telling the truth, then why doeth Daddy get tho upthet watching football gameth?"
...you really shouldn't be taking enjoyment in your father's suffering. But it's just so much fun to watch.
Fatherly fumbles and reservations about your taste in gift-giving aside, your parents seem willing to go with the Princess Gauntlets as Kahlua's birthday present. You still have to get a card, wrapping paper, and maybe a box, but given your ready access to a Mirror Hideaway, permanent Spells of Transformation, and loose paper and cardboard from around the house, you're basically golden in that regard.
With the pre-party issues basically resolved, all that remains is to send off your RSVP, courtesy of the Postman. He's mildly surprised by the change of venue when you summon him into your mini-mirror-realm, and if the yelping is any indication, passage through the portal is no more enjoyable for him than it is for you - but he shrugs it off as "one more hazard of the job," and takes off with your letter to the Shuzens, hidden from possible prying eyes by a Spell of Invisibility in addition to the usual Spell of Nondetection as he leaves your house.
Is there anything else you'd like to take care of in town, in the time remaining before your return to Japan?
It's only after the Postman is on his way that you think of Altria, and consider that you ought to let her know you will be going to Kahlua's party after all. And just as you're pondering whether to phone your British friend with the news or put it in another letter, you realize that maybe you'd better talk to Lu-sensei and let HIM know that you've finally got your parents' approval to go to the party, so that he can make his own preparations.
Since you have a class the next day, you simply show up early and tell the old man.
"Next Tuesday to next Saturday, is it?" he asks.
"Yes, Sensei."
"Hmmm... give me a moment, would you, Alex? I need to check something."
Lu-sensei heads to the staircase at the side of the hall, and goes up. You and Briar remain where you are, quietly waiting - there is a ring of bells as Amy arrives with her mother.
"Um, Alex?" the younger Madison asks. "Where's Sensei?"
"Hi, Amy. Mrs. Madison. Sensei's just upstairs," you explain, pointing at the ceiling.
"Is something wrong?" Catherine Madison asks.
You consider how to answer.
Also, with regards to contacting Altria...
"You'd have to ask Lu-sensei that, Mrs. Madison," you answer. "As far as I know, nothing's wrong, but..." You trail off with a shrug, doing your best to project an air of, I'm Just the Student Here, What Do I Know?
Catherine nods, apparently buying your act.
Amy has a slight frown which says she knows you well enough to suspect that you're not being entirely truthful on this subject. But she doesn't call you on it in front of her mother, which is fine by you.
Further discussion on the matter is rendered unnecessary as Lu-sensei reappears on the stairs, descending with silent steps.
"Ah, I thought I heard the door. Good afternoon, ladies."
"Mr. Tze."
"Lu-sensei."
As smalltalk ensues between the adults, you and Amy are allowed to slip away to prepare for class. Mostly this is just Amy setting her shoes on one of the racks in the entry hall, and some mutual warm-up exercises. Larry and his dad show up, resulting in an impromptu parent-teacher conference for the last few minutes before your lesson officially begins. Lu-sensei excuses himself from the discussion with a minute or so to spare, invites the parents to stay and observe the class if they have time, and then calls the three of you to attention.
As it happens, Mrs. Madison and Mr. Blaisdell stick around for about ten minutes before quietly excusing themselves and going about their business. Lu-sensei keeps the training to normal kung fu for that time, then kicks into mystical gear after giving the adults time to make tracks.
Nothing particularly out of the ordinary takes place until the end of class, when Lu-sensei explains what was behind his quick dash upstairs. He was simply checking his schedule for next week, to see if he had any major plans - and it turns out that there is, in fact, an Important Date coming up for him next Saturday. He doesn't go into detail, merely referring to it as, "a private matter," but what it boils down to for you is that while Lu-sensei can chaperone you for the first three days of the trip, including Kahlua's party, he'll have to leave on Friday if he's to make his own appointment.
"And with all due respect to Briar, the Shuzens' regard for the laws of hospitality, and your own talents, Alex, I am not keen on you spending two days alone with a vampire clan without a parental stand-in."
"That's fine by me, Lu-sensei," you answer. "All I really wanted out of this was to be able to go to the party; everything else is gravy. And hey, who knows? Maybe when we get there, one of the other guests will have brought along a trustworthy chaperone who can fill in for you."
Your teacher gives you a dry look. "I wouldn't hold my breath on that account if I were you."
"I wasn't planning to, sir."
And that is that.
As you walk home from class, you consider calling up Altria with the good news about your attendance at Kahlua's party, but then you recall the approximately eight-hour time difference, and decide that you really shouldn't be bugging your overseas friends at one in the morning - not unless it's VERY urgent, like it was the last time Ambrose got in touch.
Remembering that, you wonder how the wizard's one-man war on that hell dimension is progressing. Then you shrug, figuring you might as well ask Altria about it tomorrow.
On that note, you hurry home for supper, and spend an hour after that getting in some magic practice in your Basement Mirror Hideaway - mostly purifying a batch of animals that Uncle Rory has recovered from other members of the family. There's only five of them, which is fine by you, as you weren't keen on burning a huge amount of time or mana in the process. You carry each one into the mirror on its own, lock it down in its very own, resized-to-fit magic circle, and then patiently exorcise the proto-demons forming within. Being split up by a dimensional boundary seems to considerably weaken the nascent entities, as the individual exorcisms are both easier and quieter than the mass-purges you were performing out in the woods.
Still not completely silent, mind you, but you can deal with a few growls and yelps better than a whole chorus of rage and pain.
The next day, you get up, go through your morning exercises, have a quick shower, change your spiritual bandages, and then - right around seven-thirty - get out your cellphone and dial Altria's number. It takes three rings before someone picks up.
"Drake residence," an unfamiliar male voice answers. In the background, you can make out something that isn't quite the ring of steel that you recall from Ganondorf's memories. "How may I help you?"
"Good m- afternoon," you say politely, catching yourself and compensating for the time zones. "My name is Alexander Harris. I was hoping to speak with Altria. Is she available?"
"One moment, sir."
The line goes quiet, and you wait for the better part of a minute.
"Alex?"
"Hey, Altria," you say. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"Afternoon sparring practice," she replies, a bit breathlessly. "I'm afraid I can't talk long; my swordmaster does not appreciate interruptions."
"That's fine, I was just calling to let you know that my folks said I could go to Kahlua's party, and Lu-sensei's agreed to chaperone me."
"Oh, that's good to hear. I was just about to send a letter with my apologies." There is a hint of a playful scowl in her voice as she adds, "Did you have to cut it so close to the deadline to decide? It's rather rude not to answer an RSVP within a couple of days, you know, and I've been sitting on my answer long enough to be pushing things."
"Hey, I had to get a straight answer from my folks, first," you defend yourself. "They're not keen on the whole 'vampire' issue. Too much experience with the local sort."
"Fair enough. Well, hopefully I'll see you at Kahlua's. If not... enjoy the party, and try not pick any more fights with enemies out of your weight class."
You snort at that.
Is there something you'd like to ask Altria, while you've got her on the line?
Also, is there anything else you'd like to do at home, between now and the party?
"I'm tempted to say something here about how, out of the two of us, I'm not the one that should be worried about fighting outside of my weight class," you admit. "However, I think I'm just going to ignore the implication about my threat-assessment skills, take the advice, and let you get back to your practice."
"That would be appreciated."
"Enjoy your sparring, then, Altria."
With that, you end the call.
With your other commitments met - or, as in the case of cleansing Uncle Rory's remaining creations, ongoing - you have a fair amount of free time over the next week. You opt to spend a portion of it exploiting the crap out of your new secure spellcasting chamber, by fetching a blank notebook and then casting the Spell of Page-Bound Epiphany over and over and over again. Although the information gleaned by each casting of the spell is temporary, with a couple of additional spells layered on for improved comprehension and retention, you're able to progress in your chosen field of study. Not by a huge amount, mind, but enough to make an expenditure of about twenty percent of your mana per day seem like a reasonable investment. You're wary of going further than that, as thirty percent is about the limit of what a good night's sleep will recoup, and you do have some other tasks to attend to that require magic.
Gained Mechanical Knowledge (Cars) E (Plus)
When you aren't brushing up on automotive repair, you spend a lot of your free time with Zelda. It's one part apology for not taking her to the party with you, and one part stocking up on Brother-Sister Bonding before your impending absence. Zelda spends most of the first day in a major sulk, upset with you and your parents for not letting her go to Japan - again - but after that, she does her best to monopolize your time. She coerces you into letting her see your "magic room," though only the once; after experiencing a round-trip through the mirror, Zelda expresses exactly zero further interest in the place, despite the literal magic show you put on for her while inside.
Gained Elder King F (Plus) (Plus)
The week passes, followed by the weekend, and finally, Monday evening finds you packing for the trip. There was some concern about what sort of clothes you ought to take with you, which led to you packing that formal kimono Cordelia bought you on your last trip, but your mother seemed to think that wasn't good enough, and was pushing for a mini-suit.
You...
The last first suit you'll ever wear (or make).
When your mother first broached the subject of a suit, you actually had a momentary urge to call Cordelia for advice. You're not sure if that's a good sign or not, though Cordy would doubtlessly say that it was. For better or worse, however, the Chases are still out of town, you don't have the number for wherever they're staying, and you're pretty sure Cordelia's cellphone doesn't get service out of state or internationally.
True, now that you've got the Mirror Hideaway to cast from, you could use a Spell of Sending to ask Cordelia for help; the dimensional barrier wouldn't really be an issue, even if you had to cast the spell a couple of times to work around it. But in the end, you figure that Cordy wouldn't appreciate learning of your newfound expansion in magical security by having your voice come out of thin air. Especially if she happens to be in public at the time, or just with her folks. A Spell of Scrying would go over just as poorly, even if you had a proper high-quality mirror to serve as the focus.
On a related note, the substance of the mirror-plane doesn't qualify for some reason. You suspect it's because the spell specifically calls for a mirror made of silver, as opposed to whatever the heavy, crystalline material that makes up the surfaces of your spellcasting safe-room actually is.
So you let that idea go, and tried to talk your mother into letting you make a suit, as an inexpensive alternative to taking another bite out of the family finances. This led to you asking Briar to track down a spider and convince it to spin some of its very finest silk, and while she was off wrangling arachnids, you were casting the Spell of Page-Bound Epiphany to brush up on your (previously non-existent) tailoring skills.
Gained Scholar's Soul E
Gained Tailoring E
The end result was... kind of meh, to be honest. Yes, you did conjure a suit, yes, it appears to be permanent, and no, it's not radiating your magical signature for any opportunistic voodoo witch doctors to see and exploit. It's even made of spider-silk, for whatever the silk of a common house-spider is worth. It also fits. But as you stand in your spellcasting chamber, regarding yourself in one reflective wall, your suit just doesn't look or feel right. True, you did pattern it after one of your Dad's suits, and Tony's wardrobe is not exactly the height of fashion. And it was your first attempt, with very little magic supplementing your skill, so you could certainly do better. But there's just something else wrong with it that you can't quite put into words.
Gained Formal Spider-Silk Suit (Tacky)
You decide to try again - this time, using your best effort. As such, you remove the suit, lay it out on the floor of the mirror-chamber, and begin casting the same array of spells you used to aid your re-forging of the Guardian's Gauntlet a week ago.
As you build up the image of "a good suit" in your mind's eye, that feeling that what you've chosen to wear is somehow wrong comes back, stronger than before. For a moment, you start to see a garment that has more in common with your kimono than a Western suit, a kind of dark robe with a long, billowing cloak... or maybe a nice suit of armor...
Then you shake your head, dismissing the image as a distraction. Once you are fully-focused on the idea of your desired outfit, you ready the final spell. Rather than attempt to create a new suit from nothing, you've opted to try and transform the cheap-looking outfit you already have into something of better quality.
It worked with the gauntlets, so why not?
Gained Transformation D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
As the light of your last spell fades, you find that you might have been just a little bit influenced by that pushed-aside image of a robe after all. Rather than the unrelieved black of your first effort, you're now looking at a black coat and pants with a dark red or maroon interior lining, and a vest of the same color. There's also one of those fancy black wraparound things that isn't a belt, which has unusual, somewhat mystical-looking symbols and patterns in brown across its length.
On the whole, though, this does look like a good suit, certainly much better than what you started with. And there's not a hint of armor.
You pick up the pants, turn them around a couple of times to make sure there aren't any further surprises in the design, and then tug them on.
They fit, and more comfortably than their original incarnation.
The vest is a bit awkward, and you've no idea if you're properly wearing the not-a-belt - what do they call it, a cummerbund? - but the jacket fits, and also lacks any unplanned symbols.
You're still getting that sense of dissatisfaction when you look at the suit; there's a part of you that simply thinks royal, sorcerous robes or full body armor are where it's at for formal occasions.
You cheerfully ignore that part of yourself and leave the mirror-plane to get some advice on how to properly wear a tux from your Dad.
Upgraded Formal Spider-Silk Suit (Tacky) to Formal Spider-Silk Suit (Nice)
What now, fancypants?
Eh, you've gone this far. May as well go for broke.
After renewing a couple of your skill-honing spells that lapsed during the refinement of the suit, you proceed to cast the Spell of Masterwork Transformation. The fact that the entire outfit is made from spider-silk should give it sufficient material worth - and thus, mystical "value" - to satisfy the terms of the magic.
You didn't bother to remove the suit for this particular spell; the feel of how it fits - or doesn't - is rather helpful in figuring out what parts of the outfit need to be tightened, loosened, or left as-is. It is a bit odd to feel the garments moving around you, and then there's the whole issue of standing around for an hour feeling awkward and impatient. True, it's probably a lot like what anybody else being fitted for a suit goes through, but you have magic; shouldn't that make this less uncomfortable?
Regardless, as the spell fades, you study your reflection once more.
Upgraded Formal Spider-Silk Suit (Nice) to Formal Spider-Silk Suit (Excellent)
...yeah, that does look better.
Since you can think of nothing else to be done to improve the look of your outfit, you leave the mirror-realm to present yourself to your folks for inspection.
"What do you think?"
"Looking good, Alex," your father compliments you.
"It's not too much?"
"Oh, if you were wearing it at one of the family formal events, it'd absolutely be too much. But for this high-class party you're going to, I think it ought to pass muster. Right, Jess?"
"I think I'm going to be looking into patterns in the future," your mother muses, her eyes bright with an unfamiliar emotion. "Patterns and fabrics..."
You and your father trade wary looks.
"Ooookaaaay," Tony says after a minute. "Alex, why don't you go finish packing and get to bed. You've got a busy day tomorrow."
Nodding, you back slowly out of the room until you've broken eye contact with your mother, then hurry up to your room. As you shut your door firmly behind you, the thought comes that while you did manage to save some money and avoid being taken clothes shopping by your Mom, the price you paid in exchange may yet prove to have been too high.
Time will tell.
The next morning, rested, pre-packed, and at full power, you rise with the sun, shower, and dress.
Because of the Shuzens' stance on minimizing contact with the Hellmouth, you, Briar, and Lu-sensei are going to be picked up by car and driven to L.A., where a private jet will be waiting. Your previous encounter with a Shuzen employee has left you a bit concerned about the nature of this "car" and its driver, but you're more worried about avoiding local attention. Not many people get picked up by fancy cars, and there's nothing like a local taxi service.
With that in mind, your RSVP stated a preference for being picked up...
...at Lu-sensei's place.
You figured that since Lu-sensei was letting his students know that he'd be out of town for a few days, it'd draw somewhat less comment if a car showed up at his place than if it pulled up in front of Casa de Harris. After all, Lu Tze is an old kung fu master who didn't always live in Sunnydale, has taught dozens of students in his time here, and occasionally leaves town to travel to parts unknown. Who can say who he might know and be owed a favor or show of respect by?
Lu-sensei had no issue with meeting the Shuzen's hired driver at the dojo, but for all the advantages of stealth, he refused to get up in the small hours of the morning just to avoid notice by the neighbors.
"I am an old man who needs his rest," he said, somewhat petulantly. "The only reason I get up at the crack of dawn each day is a lifetime of habit, and a nagging suspicion that my old master's shade would return from beyond to roust me out of bed and laugh if I tried to have a lay-in." He frowned. "If you're that worried about being seen, get here early and turn yourself invisible or something."
The issue of stealth aside, you show up early for another reason, that being a desire to get Lu-sensei's opinion about formal attire. You pop open your suitcase, take the carefully folded suit out of the protective cloth bag your mother found for it (somewhere), and present it for your teacher's inspection. For once, Lu-sensei seems honestly and unreservedly impressed by the results of your magic.
"For all that they live in Japan and have acclimated to its customs, the Shuzens are still a European family at heart," he tells you. "The suit should do just fine. Bringing the kimono along isn't a bad idea, though - just in case. And while we're on the subject of clothes," the old man continues brightly, "my birthday is coming up in a few months, and I find I could use a new gi or three."
"How do you feel about Hawaiian prints?" you reply, before dodging the half-hearted head-slap.
As you carefully put the suit away, you glance at your kimono and consider giving it the same master-level tailoring touch-up. Then you remember that the place Cordelia bought it was not only very traditionally appointed and made a great deal of fuss about craftsmanship and authenticity, but also charged through the nose - all of this without so much as a peep from Ayame, whose preferred mode of dress you took as a good indication that she'd know more about high-quality traditional Japanese fashion than you and Cordelia combined.
A quick magical probe reveals that your kimono does indeed carry that sense of "value" that indicates a top-quality item. So there's really no point in trying to improve it further - it's already about as good as it can get, short of being enchanted outright.
...and no, you can't do that yet. But it is tempting.
"So, Alex," your master says as you re-pack your suit. "We're about forty-five minutes from the scheduled pick-up time. Last chance to make sure you haven't forgotten anything, or to suddenly remember a conveniently-timed and completely unavoidable prior commitment."
You think on it.
Counting what you're wearing, you've got enough changes of clothes to go for six days - plenty for the four you actually expect to be gone, with a couple spare sets of everyday things in case of emergency. And that's before taking the tux, kimono, and your training clothes into account. Toothbrush, comb, and sundries are likewise covered.
You've already eaten, thanks to a large brunch your mother threw together and your family - joined by Uncle Rory for once - spent about two hours packing away.
You've said your goodbyes to friends (yesterday) and family (most of the morning).
Briar is with you, and what few things she needs are tucked into your spatial pocket so that they stay neat, unrumpled, and not full of boy-stank. Among these is a dress suitable for the occasion, one that you have yet to see despite having provided the silk and several skill-boosting spells for her to make the thing after you finished touching up your own outfit the previous day.
And of course, taking up some of the space-outside-space in that pocket, you have Kahlua's present, neatly boxed and wrapped.
You dismiss the idea of using magic to prevent people seeing you enter whatever vehicle shows up to collect your little group for the trip. It might send the wrong message to the Shuzens or someone in their employ - a lack of confidence in your hosts' ability to see you safely to your destination, or your own ability to handle life on the Hellmouth.
Besides, there's not that much foot traffic in this part of town after noon. As long as the lunch crowd doesn't spot you, odds are good that nobody who knows you will see you.
You mentally review your list of party preparations a couple of times, and check with Briar to make sure, but as far as either of you can tell, you haven't left anything out. Certainly nothing so important that it can't wait until you get back from Japan.
Speaking of the trip, your ride arrives a little after one, immediately making you glad that you didn't choose to be picked up from your house.
They sent a freaking limousine.
It's not one of the "stretched" varieties, or those crazy novelty versions that, supposedly, have everything including the kitchen sink and a swimming pool fitted into the back; nor is it one of the classic models that would stand out by dint of being half a century older than anything else on the road. It's a modern design, but while you don't follow luxury cars closely enough to pin down the exact model, you definitely recognize the Rolls-Royce figurine perched atop the radiator.
Gained Mechanical Knowledge (Cars) E (Plus) (Plus)
Sheesh. You're starting to feel like you should have put the suit on just to go to the airport.
The vehicle parks, and its well-dressed driver emerges. Peering around the lowered drapes at Lu-sensei's front window, you get no hint of supernatural activity from the guy. He could be exactly what he seems to be.
The driver looks around for a moment as if getting his bearings, and then moves towards the dojo. You withdraw from the window to get your suitcase.
There is a ring from the door.
"Good afternoon," Lu-sensei greets the man.
"Good afternoon," he replies in kind, looking at the two of you - and missing Briar. "Mr. Lu Tze and Mr. Alexander Harris?" He doesn't even hesitate over the pronunciation of your teacher's name.
"That would be us."
"Your ride, gentlemen. Shall I get your bags?"
You mentally shrug and pass your sole piece of luggage to the driver. It's part of his job, and it'd be both rude and unproductive to interfere with that. Besides, you notice that Lu-sensei has no hesitation about handing over his travel bag.
The driver leads the way outside, holding both bags with one hand while he opens the limo door to usher you and Lu-sensei inside. You look to your teacher, who gestures for you to go ahead, at which point you climb inside.
Roomy is your first thought. You could fit your family in the passenger compartment, Moblin included, and still have enough room for Uncle Rory to grab a seat.
Clean is your second impression. The vehicle doesn't have the legendary "new car smell," but it also doesn't have that fine coating of dust in the corners that seems to have built up in every regular car you've ever been in. The upholstery also shines like it's fresh from a wash-and-wax, which may even be the case.
As you take one of the seats, your third impression is a mix of comfortable and bouncy.
Really, this is easily the nicest car you've ever been in.
"Grab a seat, Alex," Lu-sensei advises, as the door shuts quietly but firmly behind him.
The driver takes a minute to stow your luggage in the trunk, and shortly after that, you're on the road.
The novelty of riding in a limo doesn't exactly wear off, but not too long after you've left the "Come Back Soon" sign in the dust and passed the old gas station, you find yourself itching to do something. The idea of magically-monitoring the workings of this high-class machine while they're in operation appeals to you, but even with the glass partition between you and the driver, you're a bit wary of using magic around someone who may not be in the know - and even if he is aware of the supernatural, you're also concerned about what sort of message it would send to his employers. Failing that, you have Lu-sensei and Briar at hand for conversation, or you could find ways to amuse yourself. Perhaps investigating the special features of the car appeals? Or maybe you'd rather get out a blank book and use Page-Bound Epiphany again?
You consider your options.
You proceed to cheerfully investigate the various buttons and compartments spread about the passengers' section of the limo.
There's a fairly elaborate air-conditioning system, which appears to grant each passenger a good degree of climate-control over their preferred seat. Briar isn't too amused when you turn the first fan on, while Lu-sensei takes note of what you're doing and fiddles with the panel near his seat until he has a soft, slightly cool breeze going. Considering that you're in an enclosed vehicle traveling through a desert on a sunny afternoon in the middle of summer, you can understand your master's preference.
Another set of buttons activates the TV screen built into the back of the driver's compartment. From the look of it, this limo has a satellite service package, and gets about three times as many channels as your family's cable subscription. For all of that, there's nothing on that catches your eye - middle of the day programming is dull like that, at least on the channels that you recognize. None of the movie channels are offering anything you'd care to watch, either, and as for the stations you aren't familiar with... well, you aren't familiar with them, and the listings don't tell you much beyond the name of the program and its rating.
There's also a phone built into one of the armrests. Is there anyone you'd care to call, just for the heck of it?
Aside from the electronics, you also find a small fridge stocked with bottled drinks whose brand-names you don't recognize, and an adjacent compartment with an assortment of packaged snacks - again, most of the names and logos on the packaging are unfamiliar to you.
It's only been an hour or so since your last meal, which was fairly significant, so you're neither hungry nor particularly thirsty. Briar is similarly-sated, and when you offer to get something for Lu-sensei, he thanks you but politely refuses. As such, you go ahead and close the limo's mini-fridge and snack bar with all their tempting offerings still inside. The presence of the phone likewise fails to hold your interest for long; you made a point of saying all your goodbyes before leaving town, and you don't see the point of calling up any of your overseas friends whose numbers you have, at least not until you have a better idea as to which of them will be showing up for Kahlua's party.
With the various distractions presented by the limo's interior explored and dismissed, you decide to get on with that meditation you were planning earlier. Leaning back against the plush, warm seat with the fan humming quietly above you - and making a note not to get TOO comfortable, because that is a definite possibility in this scenario - you close your eyes and clear your mind.
Gained Meditation D (Plus) (Plus)
For a time, you drift in the stillness of your mind. You're not quite sure what leads you to open your eyes when you do, but a quick look out the window shows that the low, empty terrain of the desert has been replaced by streets, cars, buildings, and people, with the semi-familiar skyline of LA's tallest skyscrapers looming above them all through the mid-afternoon haze.
"Welcome back," Lu-sensei greets you. "According to the driver, we're about ten minutes from our destination."
The driver's estimate is a little low - it actually takes you twelve minutes, thanks to local traffic. Still, from what you've heard the adults say, that's pretty good time for driving through LA. It may have helped that you weren't heading to the airport, which is a major traffic hub; instead, the limo comes to a stop on a wide open paved space, with a single hangar and mini-flight tower standing off to one side, and a jet parked on the runway.
Three figures stand near the base of the stair that folds down from the side of the craft. Two of them are dressed like ground crew you've seen at airports before, and they quickly approach the limo, speaking briefly with the driver before fetching your luggage from the trunk and carrying it towards the plane. As the driver holds the door for you and Lu-sensei to exit, your attention is drawn to the person who hasn't moved from the foot of the airstair, an unfamiliar, rather tall woman with short but messy dark hair who wears a long white jacket over a black blouse and knee-length green skirt - by no means business-formal attire, but the cut of the garments still looks to be a cut or three above your casual maroon shirt and khaki pants.
You find yourself glad you didn't go with jeans and a t-shirt today.
The woman notices your attention and raises her right hand, the first two fingers extended to push a pair of thin-framed glasses up so that they sit neatly across the bridge of her nose.
For some reason, the way the lenses momentarily gleam with reflected light makes you... nervous.
Shrugging off the momentary chill of apprehension, you follow Lu-sensei out of the car and over to the plane. He's the adult and the teacher here - the universally visible one, anyway - so it's best to let him take the lead in social matters for the moment.
The woman - whose features, you note as you draw closer, are Japanese - bows respectfully at your approach, more to your teacher than to you. You respond in kind, aiming for, "well-behaved child being polite to an unknown adult."
"Good afternoon, Master Lu, Miss Briar, Mister Harris," the woman says. "My name is Shirogane Keiko. I have been assigned by the Lady Shuzen to serve as your escort for this trip. If at any time you have a request or concern, please, do not hesitate to inform me."
"Thank you, Miss Shirogane," Lu-sensei answers. "I will keep that in mind."
"Likewise, Miss," you add.
"May I ask if there were any issues with your ride here?"
"You may, and there were not," Lu-sensei replies. "At least, none that I noticed."
"None by me, either," Briar adds.
"And you, Mister Harris?"
"It was a quiet, comfortable ride, and we got through the traffic here in L.A. a lot faster than I was expecting," you admit.
Miss Shirogane smiles slightly at that. "Excellent. Mister Lynch," she says then, turning to the driver, who has just approached, "you'll be wired a bonus for your services today."
"Thank you, Miss," the man says with a rough but serviceable bow. "Is there anything else you have need of me for?"
"No, thank you, that will be all. You and your employers have my thanks and my lady's for your prompt and efficient assistance."
Lynch nods, tips his hat to the lot of you with a neutral farewell, and then turns and walks back to the limo.
Miss Shirogane turns back to your little group. "Well, then. Shall we board, and be on our way?"
"By all means." Lu-sensei gestures at the airstair. "Ladies first."
"Before my lady's invited guests? That would be rude."
"Please, Miss Shirogane, humor an old man's chivalrous impulses."
Your eyebrow twitches at that. There are many words you could associate with Lu-sensei, but you're not sure if "chivalry" is among them.
The dark-haired woman chuckles softly. "Well, if you insist."
She's just put one foot on the lowest stair when your senses register a sudden pulse of magic. It doesn't feel like an attack - rather than one of the "aggressive" schools like Elementalism or Necromancy, it's a straightforward burst of Divination, faint but fairly complex.
The magical signal causes Miss Shirogane to momentarily tense, but then she proceeds up the airstairs as if it never happened.
You step forward and wave one hand, signalling Lu-sensei to wait. He obliges your unspoken request, but gives you a curious look.
"Excuse me, Miss Shirogane," you call out, "but was that magic just now anything we should be concerned about?"
The woman gives a more pronounced start and stops where she is, about halfway up the stairs, turning to give you a look of surprise. She looks like she's about to blurt something out, but she catches herself, calms down, and then speaks normally.
"That was a message from some associates, Mister Harris. At my request, they've been running interference with... certain troublesome groups in the city, who might otherwise have made a nuisance of themselves."
"Is there anything we should be concerned about?" Lu-sensei asks.
"Not at the moment, Master Lu, but it would be less troublesome for everyone if we were to depart as soon as possible."
You trade looks with Lu-sensei and Briar.
"That sounds fine by us," you say, before following Miss Shirogane into the plane.
At a glance, the aircraft's interior appears to be set up to accomodate eight passengers. The space and amenities provided are just about on par with those you saw in the limousine, but there's also a curious tint to the material of the windows, kind of like the lenses of sunglasses writ large. Considering that this plane is operated by a family of vampires, you can guess the reasons for that.
Shrugging, you grab a seat on the left side of the cabin, right around the middle of the craft. They're all window seats. Lu-sensei settles down across the aisle from you, and Briar gives the empty chairs a long look before shrugging and taking her usual place on your shoulder. Miss Shirogane makes sure you're all comfortable before excusing herself to speak with the pilots.
The takeoff is mostly uneventful. There's a moment, when the plane is parked on the runway and just waiting the green light from the tower, where you glance out the window and spot an unmarked black car pulling up to the airstrip's gate. It's not a limo, but it's definitely a high-end vehicle, like you've seen big business and government types use on TV. As it happens, the gate was closed when Mister Lynch drove away some minutes earlier, and the guard seems disinclined to open it for whoever's in the newly-arrived car.
Out of the corner of your eye, you spot Miss Shirogane, back from the cabin and looking through a different window at the scene. She smirks and pushes her glasses up again - and that gleam is really no less creepy when you aren't on the receiving end, is it?
Then the plane begins to move, leaving the car, the gate, and then the runway, the city, and the country behind.
From what Miss Shirogane says, you have about ten hours until you reach Tokyo. After taking a moment to mentally cheer about not returning to Hawaii and tempting Fate to throw another life-threatening incident at you, you wonder how to pass the time?
You wait until the plane is well on its way before unbuckling your seatbelt and getting up.
"Problem, Alex?" Lu-sensei inquires.
"No, no problem, Sensei. I was just thinking that, since we've got a private space and some time to kill, I should go ahead and get started on clearing the Hellmouth gunk out of my system."
"'Hellmouth... gunk?'" Miss Shirogane muses faintly. "That's... an interesting term, Mister Harris."
"I also call it taint, corruption, hoodoo-voodoo, bad juju..." You trail off with a shrug. "It depends on my mood, really."
"...I see." You suspect she may not, entirely, but the woman in glasses presses on regardless. "Well, if it's a mystical cleansing you're after, I could call ahead and have the necessary preparations made for when we land."
You consider that for a moment.
"If you think it would make everybody feel better to have us looked over by experts after we've landed, Miss Shirogane, then that's fine," you answer. "But I am still going to make an attempt on my own, if that's all the same with you."
"That will be fine, Mister Harris. I'll get out of your way and make the call." And she rises from her seat.
"Before you go," you speak up, an idea coming to you abruptly, "would there by any chance happen to be a large quantity of salt available?"
Miss Shirogane blinks at you in silence. "I... don't know," she admits. "There should be some in the kitchenette, but... you're planning on setting up a ritual diagram, yes?"
"A circle, yes."
She looks you over with a frown, and continues, "I'm not sure if we have THAT much salt aboard, Mister Harris. But if you would wait a moment while I check...?"
"Sure, go ahead."
The young woman strides over to one of the cabinets lining the compartment, opens it, frowns, closes it again, and opens up the next one. Her frown intensifies, but this time she takes something off of one of the shelves she's look at - several somethings, in fact, and ones that clink.
Salt shakers. Five of them in total, made of glass and about three inches high (not counting the metal cap), with a base that is very approximately one-inch-square. Basically, the upscale cousins of the condiment dispensers you'd find in one of the restaurants back in the 'Dale.
That really isn't a lot of salt, at least for the purposes of a magical ritual, and you do some quick mental math. The conclusion you reach is that, using this salt alone, you could lay out a basic, unadorned magic circle large enough to enclose your body. It would be sufficient for your purposes, although not the best possible set-up, and the purification would reflect that.
Of course, you could just conjure or summon whatever additional salt you require - or all the salt you need, for that matter. Or you could skip the salt entirely and just draw another diagram out of semi-solidified mana, like you've been doing for your summoning rituals. After all, the last time you perform a purification on yourself, you sketched the ritual diagram into the dirt with a stick; it doesn't NEED the added material component, it'd just be nice to get the extra pinch of power.
You thank Miss Shirogane and take one of the salt shakers, giving it and its contents a quick magical once-over. While not nearly abundant enough for your needs, they're clean. That's fine; you can conjure more, using this stuff as the base, and it ought to be almost as good in terms of quality. Certainly enough for what you have planned.
Satisfied with the material components, you look around at the cabin. It's not so spacious that you can plunk down in the middle of the craft without presenting an obstacle to foot-traffic, but if you move off to one side, between a couple of the chairs and the hull... yeah, there ought to be room for a one-person ritual circle, as long as you're careful.
Unscrewing the top of one of the dispensers, you murmur the words of a Spell of Conjuration and begin to pour. And pour. And POUR.
You can feel Miss Shirogane's eyes on your back as the seemingly-endless stream of salt continues to fall from the tiny vessel in your hand, gradually forming a complex ritual diagram. Default inner circle, runic array around that, enclosing circle around THAT, stabilizing elements attached to THAT...
You briefly consider adding a third circle of pure, coherent mana to the ritual, just for the spectacle, but there isn't room on the floor to lay it out, and you'd rather not try to work out what the three-dimensional equivalent for a two-dimensional purification circle looks like on the fly.
After a couple of minutes, you tilt the salt shaker upright, give everything thorough looking-over, and deem the diagram done.
"Sorry about the mess," you apologize, as you hand the dispenser back to Miss Shirogane. "I'll clean it up when I'm finished."
"That isn't necessary, Mister Harris," she replies, pulling her gaze from the circle. "We can have the staff handle it once we've landed."
Stepping carefully over the glittering, powdery lines and characters, you take your place in the circle. Due to the space limitations, it isn't big enough for you to sit down in, but standing room only is fine as long as you don't fall asleep or get tipped over by the plane running into turbulence.
Closing your eyes, you gather your power - mana, ki, and otherwise - and begin to repeatedly cycle it through your body, looking for foreign contaminants.
The outermost layer of Hellmouth funk is easy enough to remove. You don't even have to probe for it; the directed light of your power causes the clinging demonic residue to evaporate, like polluted water turning into a grungy mist and then fading away under a rising sun. The deeper taint is harder to deal with; you actually have to look for it, and once you've found it, the encrusted layer of reddish-black filth you envision proves resistant to cleansing. It's not until you've cycled your power several more times, focusing specifically on these corrupted areas and forcing energy over, around, and through them, wearing, soaking, chipping, and burning away, that bits and pieces begin to break off and dissolve.
Gained Abjuration C (Plus)
Gained Corruption Resistance E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mage Sense C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mental Control E
Gained Necromancy D (Plus)
As one of the more obvious areas of Hellmouth infection - an ugly, scab-like mass clustered around the half-healed wound in your spirit - falls apart, you sense something... somewhere... shift.
"Sorry, Miss Shirogane," you apologize. "But my mother would be cross with me if she heard I was deliberately making a mess and not cleaning it up myself, let alone that it was on somebody else's property."
The woman in glasses considers that. "Yes, well..."
"Besides," you add, "considering where I live, the habit of cleaning up the evidence of any mystical activity I've performed or gotten involved in is one I'd really rather not break."
That gives her pause.
"I can see how you would feel that way, Mister Harris," Miss Shirogane agrees. "Very well, then."
"Thank you. Now, that said, after I'm done with all this" - you gesture at the circle of salt - "if there's anything you could tell me about how to express my preference without stepping on people's toes? I'd appreciate hearing it."
At this, she smiles, and nods.
Gained Manners C (Plus)
Sudden and mysterious impulses from within have caused you issues in the past, and you'd really rather not let such a thing pass unchallenged if you can help it. Consequently, you relax your mental hold on your aura and turn your attention deeper within your own being, seeking the source of this latest eerie feeling from nowhere.
Since it appears to have been touched off by the break-up of the Hellmouth contamination near your spiritual wound, you decide to start your search there. If nothing else, you'll get a chance to do a more detailed observation of the injury and how well it's healed up - or not, as the case may be.
When you went seeking the source of your life-energy some time back, you envisioned it as a distant point of light, with a current of nebulous energized matter radiating outward in all directions, not quite flame, vapor, liquid, or solid. This time around, you come at things from a different angle, regarding your "self" as a whole, as if from a distance. The source of your life is a tiny point of light within a much larger, distinctly Alex-shaped form made out of the same stuff as your aura, which incidentally trails from and shines all around it. A mote of bright gold glimmers within your right hand... but that's not what you're interested in.
Right now, you're concerned about the dull red mark on your spiritual body's chest. It lines up pretty well with where one of the thicker quills of the Raging Boar's mane pierced you when your totem spirit jumped on you all those weeks ago - and thinking of that, you see the "wound" fade as numerous lesser points of injury appear across the glowing figure's arms and torso. These minor wounds vanish a moment later, as the angry red line of the main wound regains its original intensity.
You figure it to be a little clash between perception and reality. You remember being smashed and stabbed by the Boar, and in that sense, you SHOULD have lots of wounds, even if Navi's help and your ongoing treatment healed the worst of the damage. But what you experienced in that encounter wasn't necessarily what was actually happening, it was just the best way your mind could find to explain what was going on. You really do only have one wound.
Gained Spiritual Knowledge E
Focusing on that injury, you see that the red light is not some kind of shining spiritual blood or blazing vital essence leaking away from your person. Neither is it the hot, angry red of an infection being fought off. Rather, it's more like an old scab, smoothed-down, shiny, and tight around the edges. The healing seems to be proceeding properly, despite the Hellmouth's influence.
Speaking of which, you drift a bit closer to the surface of your soul-body and lever a kick against a nasty black mass clinging to what would be the skin. It shifts and cracks from the blow, but doesn't break up or release whatever grip it has on your being. A look around reveals other clumps of such nastiness scattered across your spiritual form, some of them penetrating the outermost layer and moving deeper within.
While it's far from a pretty picture, there doesn't seem to be anything here that would explain the odd feeling you had a moment ago.
Nothing seems obviously out of the ordinary here, which makes you think that the disturbance you sensed might have an external origin after all. That decided, you end your soul-searching trance as quickly as possible and redirect your attention to the outside world.
As your consciousness returns to its typical orientation, you direct your various sensory gifts to investigate your surroundings. Through the slight interference of your ritual circle, you immediately pick up Briar's presence, followed by Lu-sensei's. Miss Shirogane is not in the passenger cabin at the moment, but a second later you sense her near the front of the plane - not in the cockpit, as far as your spatial awareness can tell, but in a small compartment between it and the one you're in.
As it happens, her aura's one part human and one part... not. The latter element reminds you of the Shuzen girls, although the "color" is less vivid than it was for any of them, and is next to nothing compared to Miss Akasha's presence. Can their sort of vampire turn humans as well, or are you looking at a case of inter-species breeding?
Gained Ki Sense C (Plus)
That aside, you're also picking up the aura of a magical practitioner from your escort, mostly Necromancy and Summoning, and pretty well-controlled. She doesn't noticably react to your passive scans, so either she missed it or is good enough to hide that she's sensed you.
You can't get any sense of whoever's in the cockpit - too much metal between there and here - there are no other presences within the craft as far as you can tell, so you try to scan outs-
Hello.
The plane is warded. Pretty heavily, too, though not to the extent that Lu-sensei's dojo is. Then again, this is an aircraft, not a place of residence; not only is it incapable of forming a threshold and anchoring wards to it for greater power and stability, it can't even rely on the earth as a ground for any mystical forces it comes into contact with while it's in flight. As such, it has to disperse unwanted forces in a different manner.
Gained Arcanology D
Gained Item Crafting D (Plus)
And that's what you sensed. There's a shockwave of sorts rippling up, down, and around the fuselage and outward into the other parts of the jet, as if something collided with the plane - but only in the non-physical sense. The point of contact is down towards the tail of the jet, and the aura - which you note is being rapidly eroded by the wards - is one of strong Divination.
It looks like someone tried to scry the plane and may have even managed to locate it, only for whatever spell they were using to fail when it encountered the craft's built-in defenses.
Well.
"Done already, Alex?" Lu-sensei inquires, having noticed you looking about.
"No, sir, I was just getting down to some serious work when I felt something change out here."
"The magical disturbance outside the plane?" Briar asks.
"Yeah. I only caught the tail end of it, though; did you get a better read on what happened?"
"Not really," Briar sighs. "The wards they have set up on this big metal bird give me a headache if I try to probe them."
"Too much power?" you guess.
"That, and the way they had to twist the magic around to get the warding to work on a flying machine. This is a pretty seriously unnatural construct, Alex."
"I'm missing something here, aren't I?" your teacher notes.
"Sorry, Sensei," you apologize. "Just talking with Briar about the wards."
Lu-sensei's eyebrows lift in surprise. "The plane is warded?"
"Pretty heavily, too. It's a really impressive piece of work for an aircraft." You break off. "Anyway, somebody tried to scry the jet, but it looks like their spell failed when it tried to cross the wards. Kind of like a bug hitting a windshield, really."
"I resemble that remark, mister."
"...sorry, bad choice of words." You cough and look away from your glowering fairy companion, glancing towards the front of the jet. "Did Miss Shirogane mention anything like that?"
Lu-sensei frowns. "No, she did not."
"She did head for the cockpit right after the wards pinged, though," Briar admits.
You nod, repeat that for your teacher's benefit, and ask him to check with Miss Shirogane to make sure she's aware of what you picked up. You provide a description of what the residue of the Divination spell looked like to your magical senses, just in case she wants something to compare to her own impression of the incident, or to put down on record.
Since your guide hasn't returned by the time you're finished, and you don't want to disrupt your ritual circle by leaving it to seek her out, you close your eyes once again and return to your inner world.
The image of your soul reappears before your mind's eye in short order, its steady, comforting glow obscured here and there by the dark, scabrous masses of Hellmouth corruption. Whether it's because you've gotten more experience in this soul-scape, or because you came here with the intention of tracking down and eradicating the stuff, you can see a lot more of it from this perspective than you did just a few minutes ago.
You study your soul for a moment, and then shrug. If the depiction of this demonic corruption is anything like the representation of your spiritual wound, then it doesn't really matter where you start cleaning; it's all one and the same. That said, the type of energy you use for this effort may make a difference.
Given the spread of the corruption and the depth to which it's sunk into your soul in certain places, you figure that this is no time for half-hearted efforts. You're going to hit this ghastly gunk with everything you've got.
You start with your magic, weaving Abjuration and Necromancy into the form of a dozen chisel-like energy constructs. At a word from you, these luminous tools scatter across the surface of your soul to hover over the largest points of corruption, where they begin to chip, chip, chip away, slowly and with great force each time, as if being driven home by the blows of heavy hammers.
You can almost see the ingrown masses of corruption flinching under the impacts.
As the spell unfolds, you reach into the river of your ki and redirect its flow, recreating the swirling stream that you previously had scrubbing down your soul. Now that there's a visual element to the process, you feel like it's going better than before; rather than just blasting ki around at random, you're able to focus it at the problem spots, sweeping away the debris created by your spell, wearing at fractures the chisels are creating, and seeping into those same cracks to wear away at the interior of the concentrated contamination. Periodically, you let the flow of ki ebb in favor of a focused blast of pure spiritual energy, trying to shake the Hellmouth energy loose from within, and a couple of times you even give pure mental power a go - to little effect, unfortunately.
Even with all this, the process is by no means a quick one, and somewhere along the way, you find yourself singing under your breath.
"Workin' at the car wash, yeah..."
Gained Words of Power D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
After an indeterminate amount of time - and several repeats of the song whose lyrics you don't even entirely know - your sorcerous soul-scraping chisels fade away, and you pause to inspect your work. The results are... less than stellar. Oh, you've definitely made SOME progress at getting this crap off your soul; the outer layer, which is what most aura-sensitive creatures are likely to notice, is shining bright and clear all over, except for those areas where the ingrown demonic taint breaches the surface, eclipsing the light within. And those are the problem spots. For all the little scabrous bits and slimy pieces of black crud you broke off and dissolved in the whirling tide of your life-force, a hundred times more remains.
The last time you went poking around in your soul on your own, you ended up getting gored by your totem animal because you couldn't or wouldn't recognize that it was trying to warn you off from something dangerous. It's a lesson well-learned, and one that has left you... cautious... about taking significant soul-related actions just because they seem like a good idea at the time.
Scrubbing the Hellmouth's clinging energy out of your aura is one thing; going after the stuff that's built-up within the deeper layers of your soul is another. The more so since the ingrown masses either survived Navi's purification, or have accumulated since then. You're not sure which is the more disturbing option, and you'd really like to know - but that would require asking someone who's actually been trained to deal with souls.
Conveniently enough, your earlier exchange with Miss Shirogane has ensured just such a meeting in the near future.
Satisfied that you'll be able to learn more - and more safely - from whoever the Shuzens have on retainer for purification-related matters than by fumbling around on your own, you let the vision of your soul fade away. Calling upon your magic, you cast a Spell of Haste, setting aside the physical elements to exclusively accelerate your thought processes. Then you reach for your mana directly.
What appears before you is a shining, star-like mass of incandescent energy, its surface shifting and roiling and occasionally erupting in short-lived plumes of power. For all that it resembles recordings you've seen of the Sun, you don't feel uncomfortable looking upon it, or even being close - you actually reach out and trail a hand along the surface, not quite touching it, and feel no pain whatsoever, not even a hint of such. All you really detect is the teeming, infinite potential of the mana.
Carefully, you extend one finger, lightly pressing the very tip against the surface of your concentrated magic. A ripple radiates out from the point of contact across the entire surface of the star-like mass, and in its wake, the shifting, seething power goes still and flat. You sense... anticipation? You know that mana by itself isn't sapient or even sentient, but once in contact with a living will, it starts to take on some of the properties of that will - enough to fake a semblance of life.
And right now, that "life" is waiting to be given an order. It WANTS to be used.
You oblige it. Without calling upon the structured, restricted methods of spell and ritual, you try to will a portion of your mana to remain calm, while the rest resumes its original activity.
The smooth sphere of mana seems to shiver once, but then it goes still again.
Frowning - at least in your mind - you push your hand through the warm, vaguely fluid, semi-solid surface of your mana pool, cup your fingers, and then pull back, trying to separate part of the whole from the rest. You find disappointment when, instead of lying in the curve of your palm like water or grains of earth would, the mana instead boils away into the darkness beyond, behaving more like fire or a gas. The greater mass, meanwhile, has returned to its state of random activity.
For the sake of comparison, you decide to cast a simple cantrip. Without really thinking about it, your hand touches the surface of the pool, causing it to grow still once more, and an instant later, you see points, lines, and vertices forming within the glowing mana, coming together rapidly to form the familiar matrix of a simple Spell of Light. When you cast it, the complete matrix rises out of the pool, its various components accounting for an amount of mana two, perhaps three times greater than what you held in your hand a moment ago.
You're not sure if your failure to separate part of your mana from the rest without forming it into a spell was because your control is insufficient for the task, because you were trying to use too little mana, or because it's something that just can't be done.
You envision the matrix for a Spell of Prying Eyes, and it obligingly takes shape within your mana pool. You do not cast the spell, but rather hold it in place while working out how to adjust some of the parameters. You don't need a dozen long-range scouts, just a recording device.
Then comes the hard part. Still keeping the modified spellcraft in mind, you simultaneously envision a Spell of Mage Sight, and once it's taken shape - after a long minute of mental effort - begin comparing and contrasting the two in an attempt to unite their functions. It takes a while, but eventually, you believe you've got what you wanted. Then you call another spell to mind, this one a Necromantic technique for observing souls. It's the closest thing to a Spell of Ki Sight in your repertoire, and it takes about as much modification to fit into the Eye as the Mage Sight did. You're leery of trying to pack any more special vision modes into the construct after that, however; the spell is right on the edge of your ability to cast as is, even with the ritual method, and the matrix of your cobbled-together "spell" looks kind of unstable compared to its three components.
Gained Divination C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mage Sight C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
As there's nothing more you can add, you spend the next ten minutes imbuing mana into the spell, and then let it take effect. The matrix wavers a bit as it flows out of your mana pool, but it holds, and as far as you can tell, the magic functions as intended.
You wonder how Lu-sensei and Miss Shrogane will react to an eye appearing out of nowhere to stare at you. Hopefully Briar will be able to tell the lady that it's something of your own creation, before she or your teacher decide it's unfriendly and in need of being squashed.
Phase One complete, you remove your hand from your mana pool and settle in to meditate and wait for it to start recovering.
For the longest time, nothing seems to happen. You were aware that it takes most of an hour for you to recover any really meaningful amount of mana, so you were prepared for something of a wait, but it's over twenty minutes before you can confirm that yes, the star of power hovering before you is just a little bit bigger than it was after you cast your latest spell. You've been regenerating mana constantly, but the amounts per minute are minute enough that you can't really track them - never mind the amount per SECOND.
And this is what it looks like when you've got a mostly-full tank of gas, and your mana recovery rate is at its peak.
Mentally shaking your head, you cast a cantrip, this time a Spell of Shadow to counteract the conjured light that's probably still hovering over or radiating from your body in the waking world. And then you wait again, watching your mana.
It's another twenty minutes or so before you can confirm that it's resumed regenerating. That suggests the amount of mana you put into a spell has less of an impact on the recovery process than what's left in the greater pool after the spell is cast, and what state it's in. You consider that for a moment before "touching" the roiling ocean of potential again. You wait for it to smooth over, form the structure of another cantrip, and then, without actually casting the spell, you break contact and observe.
Twenty minutes later, the star has once again grown incrementally larger. You briefly touch it again, this time not even calling a spell matrix to mind, and observe the results.
Another twenty minutes pass, and the recovery rate appears constant.
It would appear that it's the contact between your mana and your mind, and the way your magical energy condenses into a seemingly-perfect, relatively inert sphere as a result, that is what truly short-circuits the recharge rate. Interesting.
Leaving that little discovery aside for now, you once again reach into the pool and try to separate a portion of the contents from the greater whole. You use both hands this time - or at least, that's what your mind pictures - and focus your thoughts on keeping the mana together in the shape of yet another Spell of Light, but as soon as you envision a matrix, you feel that distinctive ingathering of power that comes with spellcasting, and that's not what you want. You try a couple of variations on the process, and each time, as soon as you call upon one of the established methods you've learned for shaping mana, it starts acting like a spell. Eventually you give up and just try to drag the raw mana from the pool with your hands, willing it to stay together.
Once again, the energy evaporates into the darkness - but it DOES take longer this time. Whether that's because there was more mana involved or because it was trying to obey your will is hard to say.
Gained Mana Control C (Plus)
There's an unexpected side-effect to this success, however. The imaginary world around you gives a sudden lurch, and at the limits of your consciousness - or maybe sub-consciousness? - you sense a magical signature abruptly collapsing.
From your "location," you can't reliably identify the spell that just crashed in the real world, but you have good reason to suspect that it was one of yours. After all, to the best of your knowledge, there were only four active magical effects in the passengers' cabin, and of those, three were of your own making. So the odds are definitely in favor of one of them being the spell that just got disrupted.
And frankly speaking, you're okay with that, when Option Number Four is that you somehow managed to take out the anti-scrying wards on the Shuzens' private jet. Losing your Prying Eye, your purification ritual circle, or your expanded pocket would be inconvenient, but nothing that you couldn't fix up with some time and effort. The wards, on the other hand... well.
Pulling out of the mindscape, you open your eyes, extend your senses, and look around.
Bad news first. Your circle of salt looks like a strong breeze blew through, scattering the crystals across half of the cabin. Lu-sensei is just lowering his arms from a defensive position before his face, revealing the startled expression that was hidden behind them. The glow coming from behind your chair says that Briar is hiding back there, and is in no hurry to come out.
You can't blame her. At her size, a single grain of wind-blown salt is less an irritant and more of a hazard to life and limb. Especially her wings.
The good news is that your dimensional pocket wasn't disturbed at all by your attempt to draw pure mana from your reserves. The eye-shaped construct you call up appears to have been a bit less fortunate, but the mere fact that it's still intact tells you it wasn't actually damaged by the incident. Blown around like the salt, sure, but not hit by anything. That's a relief.
The best news is that the wards on the plane's airframe are still there, doing their job, as strong as they were the last time you poked at them.
"Mister Harris?" You look towards the front of the cabin, where Miss Shirogane is sitting in one of the other chairs, apparently having re-entered the chamber at some point during your extended meditation. "What just happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure," you admit, looking around at your ruined circle. "What did it look like out here?"
"Well," Lu-sensei replies, "after you advised me about the disturbance to the wards, there was a span of perhaps half an hour where I could feel your ki moving, and Miss Shirogane told me that she and Briar were aware of you using magic - they assumed that was your attempt at purification."
He pauses.
You nod.
"After that, you stopped using your ki, glowed for another half-hour, created a disembodied floating eyeball for some reason that proceeded to STARE at you in a manner I personally would have found extremely disconcerting, stopped glowing, and finally were at the center of a sudden blast of golden light and a mildly-violent, entirely uncontrolled displacement of air."
"That was actually a burst of mana, Master Lu," Miss Shirogane notes. "Not a spell, just raw magical energy. If I may ask, Mister Harris," she continues, turning to you, "what sort of purification were you performing that required such a thing?"
You consider your response.
"I actually stopped my purification effort about a third of the way through that," you admit. "I cleared out as much of the surface Hellmouth corruption as I could, but there was a lot of it that was more deeply-ingrained, and I didn't think that messing with it would be a good idea. At least not until I've had a chance to talk to someone who actually has practical experience with in-depth spiritual cleansing."
Miss Shirogane nods. "That would be a good idea, yes. And the mana burst?"
"I've been meaning to take a more detailed look how my mana behaves in a relatively clean environment for a while now," you answer. "Since there wasn't much more I could realistically do about the evil gunk in my system and I had hours to kill, this seemed like a good opportunity to be getting on with that. That's why I created the Eye; I wanted an external perspective of what my experiments were doing, rather than just going with what my mind was telling itself was happening." You rub the back of your neck and grin sheepishly. "I'm sorry about the mess; in my defense, I wasn't expecting a release of such a tiny quantity of raw mana to be so... energetic, let alone for it to disrupt my circle. I'll clean up the mess, and it won't happen again."
"I would appreciate that, Mister Harris," Miss Shirogane thanks you. "But could I prevail upon you to avoid any further... experimentation? At least until after we've landed? Energetic magical reactions in confined spaces at high altitudes are... rather nerve-wracking."
"Amen, sister," Briar mutters from behind the chair.
You look around at the salt-sprayed cabin, absently invoking a cantrip to gather up the countless glittering grains. You can certainly see where the two females are coming from with that request. On the other hand, you were just beginning to make some progress in understanding how unstructured mana behaves.
You nod at Miss Shirogane's rather reasonable request.
"Is it alright with you if I cast a few Divinations and mental-boosting spells to help me analyze what the Eye recorded?" you ask then. "If you'd rather I didn't cast any more spells, I'll understand, and it's not like I absolutely need to, but I would kind of like to get the most benefit possible out of this little mess."
"I have no objection to that," your escort admits.
"Briar?"
"Sure, go nuts. Just keep any more airborne mineral fragments away from me."
You glance at the cloud of magically-saturated salt crystals you've been telekinetically collecting from all over the cabin, then search around for a bin or a bag to dump them in. Miss Shirogane directs you to a flat panel with a recessed handle that, when pulled, opens to reveal a small funnel with a white trash bag pulled across the mouth. A gesture from you has the salt-cloud swirling across the cabin and down into the garbage chute.
Snapping the drawer-like lid shut, you return to your seat and make with the mind-enhancing magic, heightening your perception, enhancing your retention, sharpening your recall, and accelerating the overall operation of your brain. Then you reach for the Eye, gently tapping the top of the construct as you will it to download its recorded contents to your waiting consciousness.
Information flows past your mind's eye. When you compare and contrast it with what you "saw" in your mindscape, you're able to pin down some commonalities. Each time you touched your mana pool and caused it to go still, the Eye saw a similar shift in your magical aura, and when you formed a spell matrix, even if you didn't truly cast the spell in question, there was a hint of tension and effort to your aura, be it ever so small.
Releasing raw mana directly didn't cause the tension that you saw with spell matrices; it just kind of happened. The first discharge was very minor, producing no visual, audible, or tangible phenomenon - nothing at all that a normal, non-magical person would have sensed, unless they were in direct physical contact with you at the moment the mana escaped your system. Even then, it wouldn't have been more than a faint, fleeting pressure.
The second burst is much more impressive - and also surprisingly familiar.
It's positively tiny in comparision, not to mention pale, quiet, short-lived, and more purely golden energy than a tinted fiery red, but that one surge of raw magical energy looks a heck of a lot like the technique you saw Altria using to enhance her speed and striking power, back in the tournament.
Gained Mana Burst F
You must say, you feel rather pleased with yourself at this discovery.
Letting your spells lapse, you check the time and find that you've still got most of eight hours before you arrive in Tokyo.
You're briefly torn between being thorough with the disposal of your garbage, and declaring the job "good enough" and closing the bin. Then you recall what you said to Miss Shirogane earlier about maintaining good habits when it comes to cleaning up magical evidence, and decide to match actions to words.
The Spell to Dispel Magic is hardly that big a drain on your time or reserves, after all. It's really a bargain, when one considers the benefits. And who knows? Maybe dispelling the magical energy absorbed by the salt crystals will speed up the breakdown of any Hellmouth crud that yet survives amidst their glittering edges and the remnant purifying energies.
You take stock of your remaining magical energy. The spells you've cast and your foray into raw mana manipulation have left you with about 82% of your maximum. There's time enough in the flight for you to recover what you've spent, but as you're sitting back and preparing to meditate for the next eight hours, a thought occurs to you.
You're en route to a gathering hosted by a family of vampires, with good odds of there being other "monsters" in attendance. While you don't anticipate treachery, your past encounters with Kahlua, her sisters, and Miss Akasha suggest that a certain amount of violence is not out of the question. You have every confidence in your abilities, of course, but some added insurance would not be unwelcome.
Summoning a supernatural bodyguard would be in poor taste, of course, and strolling up to the Shuzens' front door at the heart of a self-sustaining, multi-layered array of battle-magic would go over even worse. Besides, no guardian you can call upon is likely to be as effective as Lu-sensei - and at that point, you get the idea of casting a Spell of Age Resistance on your old master. You can't actually restore the man's youth, but if you could buffer his body with magic so that all the aches and pains of advanced age were addressed, and the strength, speed, and vigor of bygone years restored... well, the idea of an old kung fu master's skill and experience in a young master's body definitely has its appeal.
You'd have to modify the Spell of Age Resistance to affect someone other than yourself, as the basic form that you acquired from Ganondorf's memories appears to have been designed by a rather self-centered sorcerer, making no consideration for use on anyone but the caster. That much is certainly doable, but the added cost in mana and the increased complexity of the spell... unfortunately, it looks like the more advanced versions of the spell will end up entirely beyond your means, even with ritual casting to add extra power and focus. That just leaves the basic form, and while it's not useless, for a man of Lu-sensei's considerable years, it would really just be "taking the edge off." There might be no real benefit at all.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
"I have a question for you, Lu-sensei."
"Oh?"
"Let's say that there was a spell that reduced the physical drawbacks of advanced age," you begin.
"I'm with you so far."
"There are no special costs to the spell," you continue. "No blood sacrifice, no reagents made from precious stones or exotic, nearly impossible to acquire materials, and absolutely no offerings of life-force or soul to anyone or anything. The caster just does the magic, and the effects last for a day."
Ganondorf never actually cast the Spell of Age Resistance: he wasn't that old when he laid hands on the Triforce of Power; and the divine relic preserved his youth, strength, and dashing good looks far more effectively than any mortal magic could. On the other hand, he had many opportunities to see the spell in action, as Koume and Kotake were almost religious in their daily performance of it - and for very good reason.
The Gerudo Desert was not kind to those who slowed down as they got old.
"I'm still following," you teacher says.
You let out a breath. "Would you be interested in having such a spell cast on you?"
Lu-sensei leans back in his chair, stroking his chin thoughtfully. After a long silence, he admits, "I would be tempted. Is this a purely theoretical exercise, or...?"
"I can cast the spell if you want."
"Hmmm. Why now?"
"Well, I didn't have enough skill in the right schools until relatively recently, and it's a pretty powerful spell. The dojo wards wouldn't have hidden it."
Lu-sensei nods absently. "A day, you say?"
"As long as it isn't dispelled or anything."
"...well, why not?" He sits up in his chair and thumps one fist to his chest. "Take your best shot, student."
Rising from your seat, you quietly chant the words of the spell as you walk over to your teacher, and then touch a glowing gold hand to his shoulder. The energy spreads across Lu-sensei's body in a flash before fading from view; while it's doing that, you take the opportunity to add a simple Spell to Mask Dweomers as well.
Gained Augmentation C (Plus)
"What was that second spell?" your teacher inquires.
"Just something to hide the magical signature of the first spell, so you don't set off anybody's senses more than you normally would." You take a couple steps back. "Well? How do you feel?"
The old man rises from his chair and does a few slow stretches. "I see that you were being truthful about the spell 'reducing' issues, as opposed to getting rid of them entirely," he says almost immediately.
"There ARE more advanced forms of the spell that can do that," you admit, "but I can't cast them."
"I see. Still..." Lu-sensei stops and punches at the air. "It IS a little easier to move this way. I'll have to do some more complete exercises after we've landed to see what the full extent of the difference is."
You smile. "Glad you like it, Sensei."
"Yes, thank you, Alex." He smiles back. "Just don't expect to get out of your training or anything like that."
"The thought never even occurred to me, sir."
"Hmmm..."
You quickly return to your seat and make like you're meditating for the rest of the trip. Just in case.
There's a brief, half-hour interruption for lunch, during which Miss Shirogane informs you that a priest has been retained to perform the purification ritual you requested. A slight detour has thus been added to your itinerary, so that you can stop by the shrine where the priest in question works. Knowing as you do that cleansing rituals which employ divine methods work best in places of divine power, you have no objections to this, even though it'll add a couple of hours of travel time.
Jet lag is only an issue for people who don't have access to Spells of Sleep or their wakefulness-inducing counterparts. You know both, and you have a fairy besides.
As the chartered jet makes its final approach towards Tokyo some hours later, the pilot speaks over the intercom, announcing that due to a delay imposed by mid-air traffic conflicts, you're about twenty minutes behind schedule. Apparently there are limits as to just how much priority the Shuzens are able to purchase from the airlines, or at least to how much of that they're willing to spend on guests.
The plane touches down at another private airstrip that could almost be the twin of the one you left behind in California, complete with a black luxury car waiting to take you on the next leg of your journey. You note, however, that there is no second vehicle attempting to enter the airfield, nor is the gate barred against entry. Considering Miss Shirogane's reaction to the one that turned up back in L.A., this is probably a good thing.
Your escort leads you off of the plane and down to the waiting car, while your luggage is handled. This time around, you decide to take advantage of the limo's supply of drinks and snacks; meditation is not exactly an energy-intensive activity, but eight hours of anything is going to leave a person hungry and thirsty by the end of it.
The drive to the shrine where you're to meet this priest isn't too long, perhaps forty minutes all told. It proves to be another of those places built on a hill, with a ridiculous number of stairs waiting to be climbed, but you can tell at a glance that it isn't the Higure Shrine.
"Welcome to the Hakuba Shrine, gentlemen," Miss Shirogane says, after you have all exited the car. "Shall we proceed?"
Your legs ache at the prospect. Nine hours of basically nothing, and now a marathon stair-climbing?
"By all means, let's," you reply to Miss Shirogane, walking forward and taking your first of many, many steps up the hill. Your feet and legs continue to protest this decision for several additional stairs, but you force yourself to keep going, and soon enough, the atavistic anticipation of discomfort and fatigue fades away.
You climb, and climb, and climb some more, and you're still only half way up the hill, but you keep going, pushing yourself to maintain a steady pace, if not an overly quick one. You've covered far greater distances than this with your running all over Sunnydale, and Lu-sensei has put you through more intense workouts in the dojo - and more to the point, he would undoubtedly be delighted to step up your training if he got the impression that these stairs were too much for you.
Eventually, you crest the top of the stairs and get an unobstructed look at the Hakuba Shrine proper. There are certain similarities to the Higurashi Shrine, such as the tall torii, the stone courtyard, and the charm-laden rope "fences" that mark certain important areas. There is no Sacred Tree, nor anything that looks or feels like an ancient mystical well-house, but as if to compensate for that absence, the actual shrine building is a fair bit bigger than the one at Kagome's place. The family residence covers a larger area as well, but has maintained the traditional Japanese architectural style - at least outwardly - and so lacks a second floor.
While the Hakuba Shrine lacks the overwhelming presence of the Higurashi Shrine's ancient tree, it maintains an aura of spiritual power nonetheless. Indeed, even without opening up your senses, you can make out an active, well-maintained set of wards surrounding the place, implying that the family who maintain this holy place have had rather more success at preserving the skills of their ancestors than Kagome's grandfather.
As if summoned by your thoughts, a brown-haired man in his early to mid-twenties emerges from the shrine. He wears what you believe to be the garments of a priest, and holds one of those bamboo sticks with several long paper tassels attached to the end. Once again, you sense a strong, well-controlled spiritual force, both from the man and the implement he holds.
He gives you a wary look, then blinks and bows politely to Miss Shirogane as she comes up the hill behind you.
"Welcome back, Miss Keiko," he greets her familiarly. "I take it these two gentlemen are the ones you retained our services to assist?"
"That's correct, Ichirou. Master Lu, Mister Harris, may I present Hakuba Ichirou, the son and heir of the shrine's head priest? And Ichirou, these are Lu Tze and Alexander Harris, of the School of Five Elements."
"An honor, gentlemen," Ichirou replies with another, more formal bow.
"The honor is mine, Mister Hakuba," Lu-sensei answers. "It is always good to see a young person working to preserve the old ways."
You feel you should say something. But what?
You are quick to echo your teacher, bowing in what you believe to be an appropriate show of respect for the situation.
"Thank you for agreeing to see us, Mister Hakuba, especially on such short notice."
He smiles slightly. "Don't worry about it, young man. Ten hours is actually far from the least amount of preparation time I've ever been given for a purification. More to the point, I would be a shameful excuse for a priest if I turned down an honest request for spiritual assistance."
"On that topic," Miss Shirogane says then, "how are the preparations going?"
"Your timing is quite good; we finished readying the room about five minutes ago. Father and Uncle will just need another ten minutes or so to rest themselves for the 'main event,' as it were, and while they're doing that, I can assist you whenever you're ready to begin."
From the way Hakuba looks from Lu-sensei to you and back again, you get the impression that he's subtly asking which of you will be going first, or if this is to be a joint purification rite.
Lu-sensei looks at you, silently questioning.
You meet his gaze in kind, trying to hint that, while you have a definite preference in this instance, you're perfectly willing to follow his lead.
The old man rolls his eyes, his expression thanking you for your generous decision and projecting the full irony of the thought without the utterance of a single syllable. Truly, he is a master.
Then he turns to the young priest.
"My familiarity with the particulars of spiritual cleansing is not what it could be, young Hakuba," he admits. "Probably not even what it should be, given my choice of residence... so tell me; am I correct in assuming that such rites take as much of a toll on those involved as a more physical activity would?"
"It varies with the individuals involved, Master Lu, but yes, there is a definite effort in these ceremonies. And in this particular instance," Ichirou adds, meaningfully not looking at you, "I can say with confidence that it will be a significant effort, at that."
Lu-sensei nods. "Very well, then. Let's get the boy sorted first, and see where we all stand afterwards."
Ichirou bows and ushers you towards an open-aired fountain. With ritual slowness, steady chanting, and an ongoing flow of clean, bright spiritual energy channeled in every movement, he takes up a long-handled wooden ladle from the stone bowl and proceeds to wash his hands - first left, then right - followed by taking a drink, rinsing his mouth, and spitting the water into a stone grate. Lastly, he washes the handle of the ladle itself before returning it to its original resting place. Then he turns to you, still chanting, and bows in a manner that tells you to do as you just saw.
You follow the man's example, moving more slowly, leaving off the chanting, and not trying to actively do anything with your spiritual power. He doesn't appear to mind, and simply carries on chanting, waving the wand in his hand at you a few times for good measure. As silly as the paper tassles on the thing look, you can sense Mister Hakuba's energy focusing within them and radiating outwards with each shake.
After you've finished, there is a brief wait while Lu-sensei follows the example. You can't help but notice that he's faster than you.
Interestingly, Miss Shirogane does not move to join you. She simply bows respectfully, turns, and walks away. She only goes as far as the shrine's gate, stopping just outside the boundary of the wards; here, she pulls out a cellphone, dials, and begins to speak quietly to whoever is on the other end.
You wonder what's up there, but your curiosity will have to wait. Mister Hakuba leads you towards the main shrine building, opening one of the old-fashioned sliding doors seemingly at random to reveal a large room with a decidedly ceremonial air to it. The wooden floor is highly polished and bare of any rugs or obvious seats, but has several tall wooden frames arranged around it, each one bearing various objects that give off the feel of purifying power. Sticks of burning incense, small cut branches covered with flowers, paper wards that look like the very grown-up and professional equivalent to the ofuda Kagome made for you, and other things besides. There's also a low-burning fire at the far end of the room, something which is a little unsettling given the abundance of combustibles in the architecture and decor; a girl several years younger than Ichirou is tending the flame, her garments once again reminding you of what Kagome wore during your visit to her family's shrine.
Following Ichirou's unspoken instructions, you take a seat on the floor near the center of the room, while Lu-sensei claims a spot by one wall, out of the way. As you wait, you become more keenly aware of the assorted energies filling the room, and how they are reacting to your aura. You're very, VERY tempted to pull up your magical and spiritual senses right now, just to see what's going on, but is that really a good idea? You're in the opening stages of a mystical ceremony, and you know you'd be less than thrilled if you were in Ichirou's place and the guy you were going to such lengths to help started poking at the fabric of the ritual.
On the other hand, this is EXACTLY the kind of professional spiritual activity you've been on the lookout for all these months. And while you can - and fully intend to - watch closely when it's Lu-sensei's turn to have the evil spirits driven out, when are you going to get a chance to see such a thing from the inside again?
Slowly and cautiously, you bring your mystical senses from their everyday "standby" mode to a greater level of alertness. Conscious of the possibility of interfering with the sometimes-delicate, sometimes simply taxing energies that make up any sort of ritual - let alone one aimed at casting out evil and cleansing corruption without doing harm to the tainted vessel - you're careful not to send out active scans of magical, spiritual, or vital energy. You simply intensify the natural cycling of power through your body, letting it flow where and when it will, and sit back to take advantage of the increased sensory receptivity this affords you.
The room and its contents glow in your mind's eye. Nothing in here is enchanted or otherwise gives off a sense of active magical energy, apart from you and Briar - the fairy, you notice, is hovering just inside the sliding screen door - but there's an impressive amount of spiritual energy invested in the assorted implements and relics. The two shrine workers are no slouches themselves in that regard; Ichirou's soul isn't as potent as Kagome's or Ichigo's, but it's much better controlled, and the young woman assisting him is even stronger, though not as skilled in the use of her power. Probably because she's younger and doesn't have as much experience as he does.
The girl, incidentally, glances at you when you raise your energies, her expression telling you that she's about to say or do something. But her response never comes; instead, when your power levels off, she gives you a more direct, thoughtful look, then brings her attention back to the fire after it crackles a bit more loudly.
Mister Hakuba simply continues to pray.
You're familiar enough with cleansing rituals to know that lowering your defenses is the next step. It's not an easy one, especially for you, who's been on guard against supernatural predation and poisoning almost constantly since you first became conscious of the threats, so it really comes as little surprise to you that you're still enhancing your calm when the door slides open again.
Two men enter, both dressed in more elaborate, formal-looking robes. One of them is older than your father by several years, wearing his age in the form of stern lines on his face and streaks of steely gray hair about his temples. His spiritual signature is strong - still not at the frankly excessive levels of some of your peers, true, but greater than any adult of his age you can recall meeting, and his control over that energy is simply masterful. The other man is closer to Lu-sensei's age, his hair entirely grey and his body much more visibly worn down by his advanced years than your teacher, though his eyes remain clear and his movements purposeful. He, too, has a powerful spiritual presence, and while he isn't be the match of his companion in raw strength, his control might as well be perfect as far as you're concerned.
It doesn't take a genealogist to trace the paternal lineage from elder to younger to Ichirou.
The older Hakuba priests cross the room and are greeted with ritual formality by their juniors. Then they turn to you, all four holy people collectively looking you over in a way that makes your skin tingle.
"Well," the eldest finally says, "it's not the WORST case of spiritual poisoning I've ever seen, but it's definitely the worst I've ever seen in someone under thirty. What have you been doing, boy, living on an uncleansed battlefield your entire life?"
You open your mouth to reply, then pause and consider his remark. "...you could put it that way, sir," you admit.
He raises an eyebrow. "I could, eh? And how would you put it?"
You think on it.
"I live on a Hellmouth," you reply with a shrug. What more needs to be said? The name alone tells a person pretty much everything they could ever want to know, and plenty that they don't - and from the way the eldest and youngest of the Hakuba priests wince at your statement, they know.
You're not completely surprised when the shrine maiden looks puzzled by your use of the term, but the blank look of incomprehension on Ichirou's father's face is a bit startling.
"If I may ask," the girl says, "what exactly is a... 'Hellmouth?'" She pronounces the word in broken English.
"I would like to know that myself," the middle-aged priest notes, giving his father and son suspicious looks. "As well as why I have never heard the term before, and yet you two both appear to recognize it."
"A Hellmouth is a place where the borders between our world and other worlds - really nasty ones, at that - are weakened," you answer the junior attendant.
As you speak, you notice the priests giving you their attention as well, Ichirou with a short nod towards his father and a quick, hidden series of gestures that appear to say, 'Thank you, please keep talking, we need time for him to cool off!'
"The result is that the laws of our reality and those of the worlds on the other side of the Hellmouth are kind of inter-mixed," you continue. "The whole enviroment is supercharged with demonic power when compared to any regular spot on Earth, and that makes it a haven for demons and a dangerous place for humans."
The girl stares at you. She doesn't appear to know what to say.
"As for why I did not tell you of such places, son," the eldest priest adds then, "the last Hellmouth in Japan was sealed during the Warring States Period, and the purification of the afflicted areas was judged to be complete during my grandfather's tenure. Such places were never the focus of our family's duty in any case, so there was no real reason TO tell you."
The man looks from his father to his son, who bows his head.
"I learned of the term when I was in Rome, father. The libraries there are... quite expansive, and our friends overseas ensured I had access."
The middle Hakuba considers that, and then shakes his head. "I suppose that's what I get for letting you study abroad, instead of insisting you go to Todai." After a moment, he grunts. "Alright, then. How does this young man's residence on a Hellmouth affect our work?"
"It depends," the elder states, before turning back to you. "Were you born there?"
"Yes sir. My family's lived there pretty much continuously for the last eighty or ninety years."
Hakuba Senior winces at that, and begins asking more detailed questions. Have you ever left the Hellmouth before? For how long? Were you baptized? Have you ever undergone a purification ritual in the past? Do you practice magic? Is there a history of non-human ancestry in your family line? Stuff like that.
You answer truthfully, going into detail where it doesn't give away any of your deep, personal secrets, and getting some astounded looks from the holy people as a result. They actually have you demonstrate a few simple cantrips to verify the difference in your magic style and the traditions they know of. Briar ends up getting introduced, though once again, you have to use a Spell of Illusion to let the adults truly see her - even the two youngest don't appear to have the correct frame of mind to see fairies on their own, whatever their spiritual abilities. And the mention of Navi's involvement leads into a brief, anxious debate about whether there's anything the priests can really do for you that a "nature kami" of her level couldn't.
Briar's helpful in clearing that up. She says that her mother was focused on dealing with "a nasty possessing spirit" at the time, which was a clear and present danger to you, as opposed to the more long-term issue of the Hellmouth corruption.
"Plus, you know, she only owed Alex the ONE favor, and dealing with the nasty bad dead guy was what he spent it on. Any other sort of purification that happened as a result would have been entirely incidental."
On a personal note, you don't regret that decision.
Although the head priest doesn't ask about it, you go the extra mile and make mention of your rather aggressive totem spirit, and how it actually went so far as to spiritually gore you when you tried to confront it a while back.
The Hakuba men respond to that with a collective look that clearly says, "Are you KIDDING me?!"
Eventually, however, all the questions that come to mind have been answered to the fullest extent that you feel safe doing so, and the priests have made those additional preparations they feel are needed. The miko steps out a couple of times, informing Miss Shirogane of the delay and fetching additional materials for the ritual - including a sheathed sword with a long beaded tassle attached to the hilt and heavy wards plastered up and down the sheathe and over the guard.
You really hope they aren't going to draw that.
Finally, the purification begins. Prayers are chanted. Incense is burned. Paper-tassled wands are swung lightly about. The sword is NOT unsheathed, but it remains at the side of the elder priest, lying on the floor with what you believe to be the sharp side turned in. Energy builds around you on all sides, pressing in upon you uncomfortably - the more so with your defenses lowered.
Gained Spirit Resistance F (Plus) (Plus)
You sense the exact instant when the collective power of the assembled holy people begins to go to work on your Hellmouth-stained soul. It's like being very firmly scrubbed with a brush of stiff bristles, only they're alternately very hot and very cold.
The urge to yelp, flinch, and slam all of your supernatural defenses back into place at full strength - with interest - is significant, but you grit your teeth and fight to keep that impulse in check. You asked for help clearing the evil crud out of your soul, after all, and these are the people that the Shuzens' organization picked for the job. More than that, you saw and heard enough from talking to them to consider their knowledge and skills to be the real deal - certainly better than your own, or what Briar brings to the table in the field of spiritual matters.
And so you do something that is perhaps even more impressive than holding your power in check: you trust a group of effective strangers to know what they're doing.
Gained Ki Control C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Control D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Strength Control E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
With your mental, spiritual, and magical barriers down, the only resistance that the holy people encounter in their work is the resiliency of the filth that has dug its way into your soul. That is clearly enough to be getting on with, as you feel their efforts to purge the contamination shift from "bristly brushes" to "rasping files" and "piercing picks." It's beyond simple discomfort at this point, but you force yourself to remain still in every sense of the word. If it feels this bad when they're focused on breaking down and clearing away foreign substances lodged in your soul, how bad would it be if you were to squirm and make someone miss their target?
Gained Pain Threshold D
You're not sure how long it takes, precisely, but all of a sudden, from within your mindscape, you see one of the deeply-ingrown masses of Hellmouth energy crack and shudder, sending a spray of broken fragments flying up into a radiant funnel cloud that is your mental representation of the Hakuba priests' focused energies. The entirety of your soul resonates in response.
And from a deeper level of your being, there comes an angry, bestial grunt, followed by a slow-building but thunderous clatter of steely cloven hooves.
They have awakened the Boar.
The notion of trying to stop the Raging Boar's charge is one you dismiss instantly. You've been there, tried that, and learned the very pointed lesson that it's a Bad Idea - at least at your current level of spiritual enlightenment.
At the same time, you aren't willing to simply stand aside and let your totem animal do whatever it pleases. That's not how one builds a proper working relationship with a powerful spirit or an animal, let alone a powerful animal spirit. The Boar has already walked all over you once; you don't need to reinforce that behavior any further.
You almost consider joining the Boar in its charge, but decide that this approach yields too much of the initiative to the beast. And while your previous experience proved that the spirit is both intelligent and entirely capable of comprehending human language, in its current tusks-down-and-charging state, you have your doubts that trying to talk is going to work.
So be it. If you can't stop the Boar, you can at least try to direct its power constructively.
Sparing enough of your awareness to keep your defenses in their lowered state, you descend deeper into your mindscape, seeking the Boar. It's not difficult to find; you just have to follow the sound of the four-legged avalanche and the red glow of angry spiritual power.
The Boar thunders into view on the spiritual plane, distant and yet still huge, closing the distance between itself and you slowly even as it drives forward like the shaggiest runaway freight train in history.
Cupping your mouth with both hands, you give diplomacy a try.
"You know the holy people aren't the enemy, right? They're trying to help us get rid of the corruption! What do you say to helping them? Please?"
The Boar's only response is a steam-whistle squeal.
You pause. "Is that 'bwee, yes?' 'Bwee, no?' Come on, give me something to work with!"
You get another squeal. All you can really discern is that the Boar is angry - big surprise, there - and intent on doing something about the source of its current rage.
Alright, then. Diplomacy doesn't seem to be working, but it wasn't your main goal to begin with. Time to get sneaky.
Pulling back a bit, you call on your spiritual energies. A tremor runs through your soul as the additional split in not only your awareness but your active effort causes your concentration to waver, slightly, but you manage to recover and keep your proverbial walls down. Setting to work, you try to shape your soul-scape, seeking not to impede the Raging Boar, but to guide it towards an acceptable target.
The ground-that-isn't-ground spread out before you shifts from a smooth, glowing plain to something more rugged - everywhere except where the Boar is, where it's going to be very shortly, and where you want it to go in the slightly longer term. At the same time, a bright red light appears behind you, illuminating the dark, twisted hulk that represents the loosened mass of Hellmouth contamination.
...it looks exactly like a giant bullseye.
Gained Spiritual Power D (Plus)
Shaking your head at the peculiar workings of your own brain, you focus on keeping this constructed environment intact. It's not easy; the Boar's mere presence causes the illusion to waver despite your best efforts, and each long stride it takes tears another chunk of the deception away.
For all of that, though, it doesn't take long for you to see that the Raging Boar has its bleary, bloodshot, angry little eyes fixed on the scabrous purple-black mass that is slowly being pulled loose from your soul and torn apart by the efforts of the Hakuba priests. Whether it's due to your choice of lure or because this was the Boar's intention all along, you have no way of knowing, but it's an outcome you're entirely willing to accept.
Gained King of Beasts D
As the bulk of your soul comes into alignment with the purpose of your totem spirit, the distance between the Raging Boar and the Hellmouth taint shrinks to nothing almost instantly. Their collision is literally explosive, sending shockwaves rebounding over and through your spiritual world; the changes you made to lead the Boar to its target are instantly destroyed, and your consciousness is sent wheeling away on what feels like the blast wave of a castle-wrecking detonation.
Even through the chaos of light and thunder, however, you can hear the Boar's bellow of ferocious triumph.
The next thing you know, you're back in the waking world, lying face-up on the floor and staring at an unfamiliar wooden ceiling. You feel a bit like you've been run over, and note that this is becoming a theme where the Boar is concerned, but this time around, you don't feel HURT. At least, not any worse than you were when you started.
Then again, you could just be numb.
Okay, you've woken up after a spiritually violent episode. First order of business is to make sure you're still in one piece, and then to see what, if anything, the priests' efforts and that assist from the Boar managed to accomplish. You raise your spiritual senses-
OW.
-and promptly shut them down again, wincing at the singular throb of pain that resonates through your entire being. It's a spiritual ache rather than a physical one, and it's more along the lines of "accidentally looking into the sun when you wake up" or "trying to use an overworked muscle" than, for example, being impaled by the bristles of a giant porcine entity.
It still hurts.
The pain is faint and fleeting, but you make a note not to try that again for a bit. Instead, you turn your head slowly, looking about at the room. There were other people in here, after all...
...and there still are, although it's clear at a glance that you aren't the only one with a headache thanks to the Boar's enthusiastic assistance. The eldest of the Hakuba priests and the young miko are both lying on the floor, the former talking very quietly to his son, the latter actually smiling as the youngest of the three men hovers over her with a worried expression. Most of the sacred paraphernalia they were using for the purification has been knocked out of their original places or onto the floor, leaving a couple of black marks where lit incense or errant embers from the sacred flame were very hastily stamped out.
The sheathed sword that the Hakubas brought in, incidentally, is now entirely out of its scabbard, but has also been driven into the ceiling about halfway up to the guard.
You're not sure you even want to know.
Briar, on the other hand, appears curious, as she's hovering near the - presumably holy - weapon in that way she does when something gets her attention.
There's no immediate sign of Lu-sensei, but from the way everyone else is behaving, you suspect he's alright. Probably better off than the rest of you, come to that; a lack of spiritual awareness is occasionally beneficial.
Sighing, you wonder how long you were unconscious this time. Warned by the overwrought state of your soul, you decide not to work any time-telling cantrips; instead, you pull your cellphone out from your mundane pocket, flip it open, and check the time on the display.
Less than five minutes. Well, that's better than losing several hours.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mister Harris," the middle Hakuba priest says then, walking over as you gingerly sit up. "I realize this is probably a foolish question, but how do you feel?"
"Like I got blown up, only spiritually instead of physically," you reply honestly.
He nods. "On behalf of myself and the Hakuba Shrine, let me be the first to apologize, and to assure you that blowing up the people we are hired to assist is NOT how we normally do things."
"No, that part's all Alex," Briar mutters overhead.
"Thank you," you reply. "So, unplanned mystical pyrotechnics and interior renovation aside, how did the actual purification go?"
"Well, as to that... I have good news, and bad news."
You sigh and get to your feet. "We may as well get the bad news out of the way, sir."
"Very well. I regret to inform you, Mister Harris, that we were not entirely successful in clearing the corruption from your soul."
You wince. "By any chance, was that because my spirit animal took a hoof in things and knocked us all silly, or...?"
"Actually, if your totem had not acted when and how it did, we would not have done this well," Hakuba Jr. answers in a serious tone. "The taint was deeply-rooted and heavily built up; just prying it loose and preventing it from re-establishing a grip on your spirit took an unsettling amount of effort." He inclines his head towards the sword in the ceiling. "That blade is meant to serve as a focus for the final act of separation between the taint and its host vessel, but my father was seriously considering using it just to trim away some of the upper layers of the corruption."
In simpler terms, the priests were pushed to the point of using their secret spiritual finishing move, just to break even. Yeah, that's pretty bad.
"I think I'd like to hear the good news, now," you admit.
The priest smiles faintly. "The good news is, while we weren't completely successful, I would say we've managed to remove seventy percent of the taint from your soul, and with no side-effects more serious than temporary stress and fatigue."
Gained Corruption F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"I noticed that last part just now," you reply. "How long will that take to pass?"
"As long as you don't try to exert yourself spiritually, or undergo any further cleansing rituals, I'd say a couple of days of rest will see you right." His smile fades. "Though, you were wearing a type of spiritual bandage when you entered... will your teacher or your fairy companion be able to reapply that for you?"
Overhead, Briar stops in her inspection of the imbedded holy sword and turns towards the priest.
"That won't be a problem," you assure the man, before your little friend can express her displeasure about having her abilities questioned by a guy who just had a ritual blow up in his face. "Briar's been helping me with that for weeks."
The middle Hakuba nods, appearing satisfied with that answer.
Briar is still glaring at him, though
You're about to ask Mr. Hakuba if he has any advice about improving your spiritual cleanliness when something occurs to you, making you look up.
"Hey, Briar?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think a Spell of Restoration might fix me up?"
The fairy thinks it over. "Maybe, but the version you'd need is beyond me, and we're fresh out of diamond dust besides. And before you suggest casting the Spell of Blood Money," she continues, "please recall what I said the LAST time you suggested letting yourself bleed for an extended period of time as part of a spell."
You recall a formal teacher's opinion that you weren't ready to work magic while dealing with blood-loss, a friend's promise to knock you on your ass for your own good, and an additional threat to inform Cordy after the fact.
"Leaving that aside," you say, turning to Mr. Hakuba, "once I've recovered, do you have any advice for how I ought to try to keep myself from getting all spiritually mucked-up again?"
The priest's expression, which had been mildly frustrated by your one-sided conversation with the fairy he once again can't perceive, now shifts to one of firm resolve.
"Convince your parents to move away from this 'Hellmouth' at the earliest opportunity," he says bluntly.
"And if that's not currently an option?" you press, not wanting to get into issues of family finance, or a debate about the pros and cons of living on a dimensional rift.
The middle-aged man considers that, but finally shakes his head. "I cannot see it working, young man. Purification rituals in an environment that tainted will, at best, be stunted, and are much more likely to simply fail - and if the place is as demon-haunted as you say, anything powerful enough to have a useful effect will almost certainly attract more immediate threats to you."
You frown. You know that your daily cleansing practices were having SOME result, but based on your experiences today, it's highly likely that they were just skimming away the surface layer of crap you picked up from living near the Hellmouth each day. The deeper stuff you'd absorbed from the years before you began purifying yourself each day wasn't being touched, and more serious cases of exposure, above whatever counts as the "daily average" in Sunnydale, might not have been cleared away either. The ritual you used to burn the evil spirits out of Uncle Rory's taxidermal creations definitely worked, but as Mr. Hakuba says, it also drew hazardous attention.
However...
"But the Spell of Restoration would heal the b- er, physical damage, too, wouldn't it?" you ask Briar. At the last moment, you consider that talking about blood loss in front of adults is very unlikely to be a good idea.
"But it wouldn't do anything to prevent the pain of the wound," the fairy shoots back, "let alone the massive distraction that a serious injury creates when you're trying to cast a spell!"
"But there's also a Spell to Delay Pain," you remind her without missing a beat. "Heck, it's not even a difficult spell. I cast that, then transmute the components I need-"
"Which only last a few seconds, and will be GONE by the time you finish the Spell of Restoration!"
Okay, that's a valid point. But not an unsurmountable one. "I can rework the spell so that it lasts longer. Second, maybe third circle ought to be plenty." That's also about the limit of your skill with Transformation magic. Convenient how that works out.
Briar makes a sound halfway between a growl and a sigh. "Fine!" she bursts out. "But you are not to attempt this AT ALL without my supervision! Am I clear?"
"Crystal."
Mr. Hakuba looks at you as, from his point of view, you argue with empty air. "...should I even ask?"
"Probably not, sir," you admit.
"I actually do have access to a clean environment, sir," you tell Mr. Hakuba. "One of the spells I know creates a temporary room on the other side of a mirror. I've been using it as a place to cast more sensitive spells without having to worry about the Hellmouth's influence, or about being noticed by the locals."
The priest stares at you for a moment. "...how big a room?" he asks.
"Smaller than this one," you admit, looking around. "Maybe... a third this size? It's pretty much a perfect cube, and the walls, floor, and ceiling are all made out of this sort of thick, reflective glass, with no furnishings that I don't bring in or create on the spot."
Hakuba blinks several times, then shakes his head and appears to recover. "That would still be an issue, then. The methods of purification I am familiar with require implements, which must themselves be uncontaminated. If, as you say, this... created room... is only temporary, then-"
"I have a dimensional pocket."
"...of course you do." The man looks like he very much wants to facepalm, and is only prevented from doing so by a sense of priestly dignity. "Dare I ask?"
"I've been hauling around ritual reagents in it for a few months, now." You draw out the xenolith you picked up in Hawaii to demonstrate. "They're as clean as the day they went in."
The discussion goes from there. You go into detail about the properties of your Mirror Hideaway and how it interacts (and doesn't) with reality and the Hellmouth, and Hakuba Jr. soon leads you over to his father to seek a somewhat more informed opinion on the topic of dimensional rifts.
There's still a major stumbling block. You're not a member of their shrine, or even their faith in general. There are some things the Hakubas just can't teach you without at least a few years of training on your part, and others they won't teach you, simply because you're an outsider. But you still learn a few things about the ins and outs of cleansing rituals.
Gained Spiritual Knowledge E (Plus)
Lu-sensei returns while you're discussing the topic. Evidently, he volunteered to inform Miss Shirogane of the... unexpected consequences of your purification, as well as talking her down from any drastic action she might have been considering.
After a bit, the holy people have collectively recovered enough to get on with purifying your teacher. Being mindful of your spiritual fatigue, how will you observe this ritual?
As you move to one side of the room, you ask the holy people if they would object to you using magic to observe their ritual purification. There is a brief debate, which leads to the youngest Hakuba taking you out of the shrine for a moment to observe while you cast the spells you have in mind.
While shaping the first spell, you feel a tension that's never accompanied one of your workings of magic before. You suspect that this is because the recent strain on your soul has left it more sensitive to the mana flowing through and resonating with the fragments of the golden power that cling to your soul. The sensation isn't painful, at least for the first spell, but as you cast two and then three of them, it starts to become a strain.
Not wanting to give anyone an excuse to chew you out for stressing your soul when you were expressly told not to, you cut short the list of planned magics. One Necromantically-attuned Divination spell and a couple of general mental boosters isn't ideal, but it's better than trying to watch spiritual energy with your third eye closed.
Ichirou regards you closely for a moment after you finish casting, and then nods. "That will be acceptable, Mister Harris. Just be sure to keep your energy contained while we work."
You nod and return to the main room, taking your place along the wall.
Not surprisingly, the purification of Lu-sensei is both quicker and far less eventful than your own was. This isn't to say that your teacher is somehow unmarked by his time in Sunnydale, but as he speaks with Hakuba Sr., it comes to light that in addition to the protective capabilities of the wards on his dojo and residence, Lu-sensei takes regular sabbaticals for his health - spiritual as well as physical. In addition, his age and mastery of ki are such that he is inherently more resistant to contamination than a child like yourself, whose body, mind, and soul are all still growing, and are therefore less "fixed" in their form and more susceptible to external influences.
Questions aside, the actual ritual takes maybe ten minutes, and it's not until the very end that the elder priest's hand even reaches for the sacred sword - drawn from the wooden beam overhead by means of a human ladder consisting of Ichirou, his father, and yourself, while the two old men stood around offering "helpful" advice and the miko restored the toppled incense burners and stands to some degree of order and effectiveness. You have to avert your magically-enhanced gaze when the blade is drawn with Intent, as the power that was previously only a dim aura blazes forth with dazzling strength, and so you miss the finishing stroke of the ritual.
Even so, you still learn a great deal.
Gained Arcanology D (Plus)
Gained Corruption Sense C
Gained Spiritual Knowledge E (Plus) (Plus)
You figure there's nothing urgent that you need to talk with the Hakubas about, now that they've driven the worst of the Hellmouth's taint from your soul. Yeah, arranging for Kagome to get in touch with them would probably be a wonderful present for her, but that's something you can do through your letters - and besides, you shouldn't be going around handing out other people's names, addresses, and mystical inclinations without their permission. The Hakuba Shrine is open to the public; if Kagome decides she wants to visit or seek lessons after you've asked her about the possibility, you can direct her to the place.
Thanking the holy people - and apologizing again for your unintentional interior redecorating of their shrine - you say your goodbyes and make your way back to the shrine gate, where Miss Shirogane is waiting patiently. Has she been there the entire time...?
Shaking your head, you follow your escort back down the stairs. From the top of the hill, you're able to see that the limo has been moved, suggesting that there is no parking at the base of the stairs, but a quick call from Miss Shirogane has the vehicle returning when you're a mere ten steps from the street. You pile in and are on your way.
The drive to the Shuzen residence takes the better part of three hours. Most of the first hour is spent just getting clear of the city, after which it's a long, relatively quiet trip down the highway for another seventy or eighty minutes. Then the limo takes a turn off the main thoroughfare and begins navigating an increasingly little-traveled and maze-like series of roads. You spend the time discussing spell theory with Briar, working out a variant form of Blood Money that will produce longer-lived components.
Miss Shirogane has been quiet for most of the trip, but now a faint ringtone has her fetching her cellphone. "Yes? I see. Thank you."
Closing the phone, she turns to you. "We're approaching the Shuzen estate, gentlemen. Given the day's events, I feel I should caution you that it's hidden behind a barrier, which we'll be passing through shortly."
You nod, and wonder if you should try to analyze this barrier, or if that would be considered rude. It also occurs to you that, if you're going to cast a spell that requires the shedding of blood, perhaps you ought to stop the car and get it out of the way before you enter the domain of a family of vampires. Then again, that also might be taken as a slight against their hospitality.
As far as fixing up your weary soul goes...
As for the barrier...
Although you do have honest reservations about the wisdom of using blood sorcery around blood-drinking predators, you decide to put your trust in your hosts and their sense of hospitality - as well as their self-control - and wait until you're at the Shuzen manor proper before you try to cast the Spell of Blood Money.
It's because of those concerns, however, that you decide to keep the ritual bloodletting as "Plan B," and first see what, if anything, a night's worth of sleep does for your condition. Assuming the Shuzens' guest rooms have silk pillows - and you're willing to bet that they do - you'll be able to slip in a Spell of Nap Stacking, turning a single night into the equivalent of half a week's uninterrupted rest. If something like that doesn't help your soul recover, you figure even Briar will have to bow to the urgency of the situation and withdraw any remaining protests to the use of Blood Money.
After all, as friendly as some of them have proven to be, you'd really rather be at full power in a house of vampires, as opposed to... well, not. It just seems like a good idea.
Based on everything you've heard from and about the residents, you figure that Kahlua and her family live in a very large home, whether it's a sprawling modern mansion or something more classical in nature, like a Victorian manor house or a full-blown gothic castle. Given that Miss Shirogane just called it an "estate," whatever the form the main house takes, there's also evidently some exterior grounds - and this barrier must surround most of that, if not all of it in its entirety.
You can't imagine why you would ever pass up an opportunity to observe magic like that. Even if it's just a relatively simple Illusion to hide the place or an Enchantment to encourage uninvited guests to be elsewhere, the sheer scale of the working would make it well worth your attention. And if it's something more complex, like a Summoning-based warping of reality that shunts the entire estate into its own private sub-dimension, or the big brother to Lu-sensei's ward schema, the barrier only becomes that much more appealing.
That said, however, you decide not to pry too closely. You're not exactly in the best of shape for it, for one thing, and for another, actively poking at your hosts' private security measures could be taken as anything from rudeness to hostility - but nobody can fault you for what you notice when you pass through the barrier's plane of effect, right?
Right.
You sit back, relax, and wait-
!
-and between one moment and the next, several things happen. The sky outside turns from the familiar blue of a summer afternoon to a deep shade of red you don't think you've ever seen in the atmosphere before, except perhaps at sunrise or sunset - and then only in far lesser amounts than what you're seeing. The few clouds are still there, but have turned from puffy white to deep, ominous grey, and the sun is no longer a brilliant light heading towards the horizon, but a bloody smear so dark it's almost black. Grass can still be found on both sides of the road, but it's more visibly tended now, and much darker than it was just a second ago, though whether that's an inherent property or just due to the change in ambient light is hard to tell. You were half-expecting the trees to turn withered and skeletal, if they were still present at all, but the ones you can see through your window all look remarkably healthy.
Honestly, that just makes you suspect that they're carnivorous or something.
As for the barrier, you did get a momentary sense of its workings when the limo carried you through it. The school of Abjuration was predominant, naturally, but it was almost matched by the aura of Transmutation - probably aimed at making the interior more vampire-friendly - and another of Summoning - suggesting that the Shuzens do indeed prefer the privacy of their own personal reality. Despite your awareness of its overall effect, however, you couldn't really get a sense of the barrier's workings, save that it's FAR beyond your current ability to recreate at its current scale.
A sky the color of blood, a black sun, the very air tingling with power and a sense of otherworldly menace... honestly, it's almost like coming home. The only difference is that, for all that this place LOOKS like it ought to be sitting on the Hellmouth, it lacks the overwhelming aura of corruption. In fact, there's not a trace of demonic energy that you can detect, and considering the amount of power that must be going into that barrier, that's really saying something.
You don't mind the absence. If anything, it just makes the Shuzen estate that much more welcoming.
Familiar, even.
Gained Dark Affinity E (Plus) (Plus)
The car spends the next ten minutes crossing the grounds, pausing about a third of the way along at a security checkpoint that looks like a perfectly-recreated - or perhaps transplanted - old European-style fortified wall and gate, complete with massive doors and (currently raised) portcullis. The stop is brief; a well-dressed guard armed with short sword and gun emerges from a lesser door, speaks briefly with the driver, and then looks into the passenger compartment. He nods respectfully to Miss Shirogane, who has lowered the tinted window, and extends a similiar gesture of respect to Lu-sensei. Both adults respond in kind.
The guard glances at Briar, appears to dismiss her, then looks at you.
His eyes, you note, are very large, very dark, and project an almost physical weight. You're immediately aware that that you're being observed and assessed on a mystical level, and it feels a bit intrusive.
Judging by Miss Shirogane's reaction, as well as Lu-sensei's, this fellow with the spooky, penetrating gaze is an expected, relatively normal part of the Shuzens' home security. As such, it falls on you, as a guest, to display a certain level of tolerance for your hosts' employee - even if the way he seems to be looking into your SOUL is one of the creepier things you've run into, at least since the meeting with the Mothman.
That said, since it DOES feel a bit like this guy is looking at you on the spiritual plane, and because there are things of that very nature which you'd like to keep secret, you go ahead and raise your defenses. Not firmly enough to completely block out whatever form of probe the guard is using, or so quickly as to startle him; just enough to let him know that you know that he's poking around, and that you're willing to allow it up to a point.
The guard blinks at you once, then nods graciously - if not as deeply as he did to either of the adults - and withdraws from the window as he activates and speaks into a small headset. A moment later, there is a deep, groaning creak from the gate, which swings towards you as it opens, the two doors booming heavily as they come to rest against the interior of the thick stone archway.
Your driver directs the car forward, and you formally enter the Shuzen territory.
The road winds a bit after that, but maintains a fairly straight course for a set of rocky hills at what appear to be the center of the estate. As your vehicle takes the long way around the base of the hills, you glimpse a single turret - and then another, and then a high, sloped roof. Finally, you move out from behind the concealing landscape and are able to see the Shuzen house directly.
"House" is a bit of a misnomer, though. Standing atop its own little mountain of reinforced concrete is a European castle, a massive central structure with - at a glance - at least half a dozen towers looming up from behind an intact curtain wall. The gate is every bit as grandiose as the one you passed through a few minutes earlier, and is not only shut but has its portcullis lowered; with the tall, darkened arches of the windows above it, the front of the complex gives the impression of a watchful beast, fangs bared in unspoken threat against any intruders. The black sun and blood sky cast the stones into red-tinted shadow, and as if to complete the ominous image, a cloud of tiny winged creatures flutters over the topmost turrets, just far enough away that you can't tell if they're birds or not.
You're guessing not. Just a hunch.
Despite the intimidating appearance of the place, part of your mind notes that the outer wall is really too low to adequately shield the inner buildings against siege weaponry, and there are too many windows in the overall design for the place to serve as a proper fortress. This is definitely one of those latter-day castles, built to be lived in as a symbol of status and power, rather than a dedicated military site. In other words, it looks more impressive than it truly is - but it does look very impressive, all the same.
Gained Knowledge (Architecture) F
This time, when the limo rumbles to a halt outside the gate, the engine cuts out entirely.
"Your hosts await, gentlemen," Miss Shirogane says. "Shall we?"
"After you, Miss Shirogane."
She nods and is the first to exit the car when a servant opens the door a moment later. You follow her, with Briar fluttering along in your wake, and Lu-sensei emerges last, stretching slightly after the long ride.
You weren't entirely sure what to expect when you exited the air-conditioned environment of the limo, but in contrast to its dark and menacing appearance, the weather of this pocket realm proves to be quite pleasant. It's warm without being hot, the air is neither cloyingly humid nor annoyingly dry, and the mild breeze carries nothing beyond the scent of blooming flowers.
Miss Shirogane leads you onward, two more unremarkable individuals in livery attaching themselves to the back of your group with your luggage in their arms. After another, less-invasive inspection and theatrically-ominous opening of the gates, you're ushered across the main courtyard, past a couple watchful guard dogs, and into the front door of the house proper.
You experience a mild sense of disappointment when the doorman turns out to be a greying gentleman of average height and eloquent greetings, rather than a lurching, largely nonverbal figure of Frankensteinian proportions.
The entrance hall is precisely that: a long room big enough to hold most of your house, elegantly appointed with plush carpets over gleaming white stone floor, several portraits and sculptures on display along the walls, and many, many candelabras to provide illumination. A broad stair dominates the opposite end of the room, leading up to a balcony that rings most of the chamber, and standing at the top of the stairs are your hosts.
To the left stands Miss Akasha, wearing another antique gown and making it look just as good as she did the one at the tournament. Across from her stands a woman whose appearance is the direct opposite of the Lady Bloodriver's in almost every respect: deeply tanned skin instead of pale; dark red eyes rather than green; and a very modern sleeveless black dress, contrasting Akasha's full gown. Her blonde hair is shorter than Akasha's and held back by a cross-like clip, and she also wears several cross-shaped pendants about her neck.
This has to be Kahlua and Kokoa's mother, Gyokuro.
Standing between the women is a tall man with an aristocratic bearing and attire - a formal, European-style suit, neither as modern as Gyokuro's dress nor quite so old-fashioned as Akasha's. This is contrasted by his wild, dark hair, worn somewhat long for a man, and a short beard and mustache that are just full enough to pass out of "unshaven" territory. He is a touch pale, though not enough to appear unhealthy by human standards, and also has red eyes.
That'll be the girls' father, Issa. You really hope he doesn't have a Dracula accent, because that and a cape are just about the only ways he could be any more obviously a vampire in this situation.
Surprisingly, there is a third woman with the group, standing to Akasha's left and projecting an air of not exactly being with the rest of the group. It could be how her features and attire are obviously Japanese, where the rest look either wholly or partly European, or it might be how her tiger-striped kimono and heavy beaded necklace, despite being of good quality, are still shy of the standard set by what the vampires are wearing. Mostly, it's the air of dishevelled scruffiness about the woman, the way her outfit looks as if she just pulled it on without a care, or how her hair is even spikier and wilder than Issa's, less like an actual style and more like something she rolled out of bed with.
You're surprised to realize that this woman looks like Tatsuki, plus about twenty years.
"Master Lu, Mister Harris, Miss Briar," Miss Shirogane says formally. "I present Shuzen Gyokuro, Shuzen Issa, Akasha Bloodriver, and Arisawa Akkiko. Sir, ladies, I give you Master Lu Tze, of the School of Five Elements, Alexander Harris, and Briar."
"Welcome to our home," Issa declaims, with a clear enunciation of the "w."
Akasha smiles brightly. Gyokuro regards you neutrally. And Tatsuki's mom grins widely, revealing unsettlingly sharp teeth.
You hesitate for a moment, glancing sidelong at Lu-sensei to see if he's going to respond, and then step forward slightly and bow respectfully. As you do so, you sense Briar matching your movements.
"Thank you for inviting us, sir," you say in response to Issa's greeting. "It's an honor to be here."
It feels... okay for you to do this. You were the one to whom the official invitation was addressed, and you and Briar were the ones specifically named as expected guests in it. While that doesn't precisely trump Lu-sensei's superior social status as an elder, your teacher, and a Name in his own right, it should put you more or less on equal footing in this specific situation.
"The honor is ours," Issa replies with ritual formality, hinting that you either made the correct choice, or at least haven't screwed up irreparably. There is less etiquette and slightly more genuine feeling in the Shuzen patriarch's voice as he continues. "Kahlua has been looking forward to your arrival with rare enthusiasm, young Harris. It's been quite some time since she invited a friend over, let alone one she spoke of as highly as yourself."
He doesn't quite frown at that, and you feel wary for reasons you can't quite explain, yet which you're sure have little or nothing to do with the fact that Issa is a slightly grumpy-looking vampire.
"Indeed," Gyokuro says. "Between the girls' account and what Akasha has said, my husband and I have been rather curious to meet you ourselves. And you as well, Miss Briar, Master Lu."
"I can only hope to prove worthy of your expectations, Lady Shuzen," Lu-sensei replies.
She smiles, but doesn't answer.
"Man," Tatsuki's mom groans then. "You people really DO act like this with everybody, don't you?"
"Only with invited guests," Gyokuro replies smoothly. Her smile seems a bit colder, somehow, than a moment ago. "And only the human and... more delicate monsters, at that."
"Don't feel you have to hold back on my account, Kuro-chan."
And there goes the smile. "Don't call me that, Arisawa."
"Why not? I think it's cute. Don't you, 'Kasha-chan?"
Akasha looks back and forth between the other women, smiling, and at the same time looking a bit strained. "Um..."
Issa says nothing, but the way he is carefully NOT looking at his wife or their guest speaks for itself.
You glance at your companions. Lu-sensei's watching the proceedings with polite interest, and a sense of hidden amusement. Briar radiates a mix of humor and caution, while Miss Shirogane is trying to appear detatched and disinterested, yet can't completely hide a wish to be very much elsewhere.
You decide to offer your host an out from the impending quarrel.
"Speaking of invited guests," you say, getting the adults' attention, "I should probably go and let Kahlua know I'm here. You know, before she finds out and hunts me down on her own."
"Of course," Issa says, managing not to sound at all like he's jumping on the first solution offered. "She's entertaining her sisters and other guests in the West Hall. Keiko, if you would show the young man the way?"
It's not actually a question, and Miss Shirogane bows. "Of course, sir. This way, Mister Harris."
"Just a minute!" Briar says suddenly.
You turn and find her flying up the stairs, where her tiny, luminous form bobs in what you assume is either a bow or a curtsey. Words you can't pick up at this distance are exchanged, and Issa holds out one hand, palm up, to receive a very small bag that appears in a burst of light. He does not move to open it, merely nodding in acknowledgement as Briar bobs again before flying back to join you.
"Okay. Now we can go."
You look at Lu-sensei, who wordlessly nods and tells you to shoo with a wave of one hand, and then follow Miss Shirogane from the entrance hall.
"So what was that all about?" you inquire of your fairy companion.
"A guest is supposed to provide a small gift, to show their gratitude for the offer of hospitality," she replies. "And don't worry about not knowing to bring something, it's mostly an old tradition, and an adult-ish thing anyway."
"Can I ask what you gave them?"
"You may, and the answer is poppy seeds."
Miss Shirogane makes a choking sound that almost sounds like a suppressed laugh.
You look at her, then at Briar, then back at your escort. Neither of them says anything.
You're pretty sure you're missing something here, and there is a part of you that just wants to let the matter lie and hurry on to meeting the other kids.
On the other hand, you're honestly curious to know why Briar chose poppies as a gift - not to mention when and where she got them - as well as what could be so amusing about them that Miss Shirogane would have to struggle not to break her professional facade.
"Okay," you admit, "what am I missing about poppy seeds?"
The two older females trade glances. Then Miss Shirogane adjusts her glasses.
"In some of the older lore concerning European vampires, it was believed that one could either prevent a vampire from rising from its grave or distract it from pursuit by placing sand, millet, or poppy seeds on the ground, forcing it to stop and spend all night counting the grains," she explains, mostly (but not entirely) recovered from her moment of amusement. "There's a similar belief throughout much of mainland Asia involving rice."
You have a sudden mental image of Count von Count.
"Is it true?" you inquire.
"Some vampires do suffer from a mental disorder that causes them to behave in that manner," your escort admits. "However, the condition also afflicts humans, and it's no more common in one species than the other. Additionally, individuals who exhibit it feel compelled to count almost anything they encounter or do, not just specific items."
You wince. "Is Mister Shuzen going to get upset?"
Miss Shirogane shakes her head. "No, for three reasons. First of all, the old superstition is generally considered an example of the foolishness of humans, rather than the weakness of vampires - except for those individuals who actually do have that problem, of course. To the best of my knowledge, it's never occurred in the Shuzen line. Secondly, the reason poppy seeds are specifically named in the lore is that they're mystically associated with sleep, peace, blood, and death, and vampires actually enjoy them as... a snack, of sorts. And thirdly... well, Miss Briar IS fey. Jokes and pranks come with the territory, and one shouldn't invite a fairy into one's house without being prepared for the consequences."
"Huh." You're not the only one to say it, and you turn to Briar. "I didn't know... most of that," she admits at your look. "I just asked around about a decent gift, and that was the most reasonable suggestion that came up."
"Who did you ask?" you inquire.
"Do you remember Prim?"
Ambrose's messenger fairy. "She's... memorable."
"Yeah. Anyway, after that time she showed up, other fairies have been coming around every so often to say 'hi.' Some of them even have enough of an attention span to hold a conversation with, or give advice that won't completely backfire."
You frown. "Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?"
"Hey, I actually do have a life outside of keeping you out of trouble, you know!"
"Sorry, sorry," you apologize. "What I meant is, why haven't I noticed you were getting visitors?"
"Oh, that." Briar shrugs. "It's the Hellmouth; the smart ones have been going out of their way to avoid notice, and beating Prim and the others over the head with safety lectures until they follow suit. Active spells of invisibility and aura concealment, no going indoors - not that they've been invited in anyway - that kind of thing. Some of the girls WERE coming around to the idea of introducing themselves, but then you started hanging around with your uncle and his creepy collection."
You can sense the shudder.
"I did purify those."
"Yeah, but that was only a week ago. And you were kind of noisy and scary doing it."
You'd rather say that you were Awesome doing it, but you can see how that might spook tiny people who don't know you.
Any impulse to further discuss this topic is derailed when you suddenly pick up on an unleashed aura coming from somewhere up ahead and off to your left. The walls muffle it, obscuring the details, but it's definitely there.
An instant later, you hear a girl's yell, followed almost immediately by a loud metallic crash and clatter.
The sound of battle has your instincts stirring, but Miss Shirogane's distinct lack of a concerned reaction tells you not to worry.
Your guide strides over to a large, heavy-looking door and knocks, firmly, three times. The sounds coming from the other side of the portal cut off almost immediately.
"Yes?" Kahlua's voice inquires.
Miss Shirogane opens the door and steps inside. You and Briar follow, and find yourselves in a room about the same size as the entrance hall, but minus the grand staircase at the back and with a fair-sized window set into the wall in its place. Well-maintained weapons and several suits of armor line the walls, save where various banners and coats-of-arms hang, all of them visibly tattered or stained to one degree or another. The second-floor balcony has been done over with chairs, those little fancy couches, and small tables, and you can see Kahlua, her sisters, and an unfamiliar dark-haired girl who looks to be around Kahlua's age sitting up there, all apparently having been watching the spectacle below - said spectacle being a fight between an unfamiliar boy and Tatsuki, the latter of whom is in the middle of picking herself out of the pieces of a knocked-over suit of armor.
Kahlua and Moka look unconcerned - although Kahlua immediately starts to smile when she notices your presence - but every other kid in the room is regarding Miss Shirogane with trepidation. They've clearly been caught doing something they aren't supposed to be doing.
"Hey there," you announce, waving at the room in general. "Sorry to interrupt the fun and games, Kahlua, but I thought I should let you know that I was here, and say thanks for the invitation and for your family's generous offer of hospitality."
Kahlua nods. "It's good to see you again, Alex, Briar. How was your trip?"
"Long and mostly peaceful," you reply. "Moka, Kokoa, nice to see you again."
Moka nods slightly in acknowledgement. Kokoa just huffs.
"Hey, Tatsuki," you add. "Having fun, I see."
She scowls at you as she finishes pulling herself up out of the heap of armor, but there's no real heat in it.
"And for those I haven't met before," you continue, looking from the boy to the girl, "my name's Alex Harris, and it's a pleasure. If you can see her, the little person of light next to me is Briar - and if you can't, she's my sort-of invisible but definitely not imaginary friend."
The boy blinks blue eyes that are rather distinctive against his brown skin, squints, and even tilts his head a bit, before turning to Tatsuki and asking suspiciously, "Is he serious?"
"Yeah. Don't worry about it, though. I couldn't see her either." Tatsuki glances in Briar's direction with a mild squint of her own. "Still kind of fuzzy, but she's definitely there."
The boy looks around. "...are you all having me on?"
The unnamed girl rolls her eyes at this - eyes which are the same shade as the boy's, you note, something that along with other similar features makes you think they may be related. Her hair is much longer, though, worn in an... interesting style that involves these odd loops hanging down from her bangs to frame her face.
"No, Briar's very real," Kahlua assures him. "Oh yes, Alex? These are Sokka and Katara, of the Water Tribe."
"Southern Water Tribe," Sokka adds, with emphasis.
"It's nice to meet you, Mister Harris," Katara says, bowing from her seat.
"Likewise," you answer. "And please, call me Alex."
She nods.
"So, Alex," Kahlua continues, beaming. "What did you bring me?"
"You mean this?" you say, producing the wrapped box holding the Princess Gauntlets as if from thin air.
Kahlua's eyes gleam with pure childish delight. And a bit of avarice, but hey, it's HER present. She's entitled.
"It's nothing too much, I hope."
"That would depend on what it is," Miss Shirogane notes.
"But that would be telling," you innocently point out, as you vanish the gift back to your subspace pocket. "And while I'll admit I'm not completely up to date on local traditions, I'm pretty sure birthday presents are still supposed to be opened on the day of one's birth."
Gained Trolling E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
"True enough."
Kahlua visibly - if briefly - sulks, then reaffixes her smile. "I suppose I can wait a little longer to find out," she admits. "In the meantime, Alex, why don't you join us? Tatsuki and Sokka were just demonstrating some techniques."
"I'm sure they were, Miss Kahlua," Miss Shirogane says dryly, adjusting her eyeware with another of those ominous flashes.
"Don't mind if I do," you say. You take a step forward, then stop and look a bit closer at the hall. There are no stairs, no obvious doors, and no apparent way to or from the balcony short of jumping. "...where are the stairs, though?"
Sokka shakes his head. "Might as well save your air, Big Guy; I've been trying to get them to tell me that since yesterday, and they're-"
"Over on the wall to your right, Alex, next to the banner with the red horse emblem," Kahlua replies cheerily. "Look for a round black stone, and press it."
The other boy pauses, mouth open, and looks at the indicated patch of wall for a moment - as do you, taking note of how the stonework there forms a faint door-shaped outline. Then Sokka sighs and turns to scowl up at the birthday girl.
"This is more revenge for me saying I didn't want to fight you at the tournament, isn't it?"
"Mmmm-hmmm." Kahlua nods, smiling brightly.
"...I should have gone ice-fishing with Hahn," Sokka mutters.
You file away the information that Sokka was at the tournament as you walk across the hall. If memory serves, the one who said he didn't want to fight a girl was Kahlua's first opponent in the prelims - one of the ones she didn't think much of, which begs the question of why Sokka's attending her birthday party. Maybe it's because his sister was invited? Politics between their families?
Puzzling over it, you focus on the wall. The hidden door is easier to see now that you're right in front of it, and there's the round black stone, right where a doorknob would be. You give it a push, and there is a faint "click" as this section of wall swings backwards like an ordinary door, revealing a small spiraling stairwell.
You have to shake your head.
"Something wrong, Alex?" Briar asks, as the door swings shut behind you.
"Not 'wrong,' exactly. It's just the whole 'hidden passage in the Dark Lord's castle' thing."
"Ah. Yeah, I heard a little about that from Mom. Brings back memories, I guess?"
"Nothing in specific, but yeah, I'm definitely getting that old familiar feeling."
You follow the stairs up to another door, this one a normal wooden specimen which opens smoothly. Stepping out onto the balcony, you find yourself a couch, a table, and a couple feet of empty space down from where the girls have congregated. You also discover, with some surprise, that where the Shuzen sisters occupy a fairly normal, if expensive-looking sitting chair (Kahlua, on the far end) and one of those small fancy couches (Moka and Kokoa, in the middle), the other girl, Katara, is sitting in a wheelchair and has her legs wrapped up in a furry white blanket with interestingly wavy blue patterns.
You try not to stare, but she's the first person you've ever seen in a wheelchair in person, and it's kind of hard not to.
Also, where are you going to sit? There's no room on the couch Moka and Kokoa have claimed, and you doubt that the littlest sister would care for you to make the attempt, but there's an unoccupied chair past Kahlua, and that empty couch next to Katara.
With an effort, you keep your eyes from lingering on Katara's wrapped legs or chair, instead doing your best to turn the startled stare into a brief nod as you pass the girl on your way to the empty chair beyond Kahlua. You add brief gestures of acknowledgement and apology for temporarily blocking the view to the younger Shuzen sisters as you move by.
While Moka accepts your words with a gracious nod, Kokoa favors you with a grumpy look as she gives the furry object in her arms a tight squeeze. The sudden display of bulging eyes, fluttering wings, and squeaky cries of "Chuu! Chuu!" - which to your ears, carry an unmistakable overtone of "Mercy! Mercy!" - reveals that the fuzzy thing wasn't a doll, but another unusually large bat.
You wonder if Shinshi's likely to make an appearance during your stay, or if it would be appropriate for you to track him down just to say hello.
Kahlua smiles and gestures to the chair on her right, and you sit, taking a moment to get comfortable. It's not difficult; for all that it's a hardwood chair, the upholstery is just soft enough to be pleasant without making you feel like the chair is going to suck you in and never let go.
On the floor below, Tatsuki and Sokka have taken places near the center of the hall and are looking to Miss Shirogane, who raises one hand and drops it sharply with a barked exclamation of, "Fight!"
Tatsuki closes the distance to Sokka faster than you ever saw her move at the tournament, but the older boy sidesteps her charge, turning and using his moment to strike at her flank. Arisawa's arm snaps up to intercept, her elbow locking around her opponent's hand as she turns into him and sends a punch at his ribs, only for Sokka to twist and lean so that the blow goes skittering across his sucked-in stomach.
"So how was your trip, Alex?" Kahlua inquires, as the sparring match below rapidly turns into a grapple.
"Long," you answer honestly, and without hesitation. "But the send-off was exciting. A private jet, mysterious uninvited sedans, a thwarted scrying spell - I was kind of feeling like a supernatural secret agent there for a bit."
"'Mysterious sedans?'" Kahlua repeats, blinking. "What happened?"
You give her a quick recount of your departure from L.A.: the covert magical message received by Miss Shirogane about "troublesome parties"; the dark car that showed up and was stymied by the gate-guard as you were taxiing out; Miss Shirogane's unsettling, eyewear-adjusting smirk of victory at that moment; and the scrying spell that was taken out by the plane's privacy wards.
As you talk, you manage to keep one eye more or less on Tatsuki and Sokka's match. Despite being smaller and younger, Tatsuki appears to be getting the better of her opponent in the grapple. Sokka realizes it, and manages to snake one foot around the girl's ankle, tripping her - only to yelp as she seizes his shirt, defies his hasty attempt to break her grip, and drags him down to the floor with her. It degenerates into a vicious little knot of tangled limbs and snarled challenges from there; after about thirty seconds in which no real progress is made by either party, Miss Shirogane calls it a draw and has them break it up.
Neither fighter seems entirely thrilled with the outcome, but once they're back on their feet, they bow to one another in respect.
Then Tatsuki offers to go again. Sokka takes her up on it without a moment's pause.
You think you hear a sisterly sigh come from farther down the row of spectators.
"I see," Kahlua says, as you wind down. "Well, you're right. That does sound like it would have been fairly interesting at the time."
"So," you continue, most of your attention turning to the floor as you try to focus your mental senses on Sokka and Tatsuki. "What have you been up to since last we wrote? And can any of it match or top that particular incident?"
You frown, as your attempt at a mental probe fails to turn up anything beyond an indistinct sense of aggression, which you were already picking up through ki sense. Is it the distance? Interference from the fighters' ki, or the aura of the house? Or are you just not good enough to pick up more than blurry mental impressions at this point?
Kahlua hums in consideration. "Nothing out of the ordinary, to be honest. Sparring practice has been routine, lessons are as dull as ever, and while I think playing with Kokoa and exploring the estate are fun and interesting, I'll admit that what you went through sounds more exciting."
You look at Kahlua, attention caught by something she said about a third of the way through.
"You have lessons during the summer? At home?" You try not to sound pitying, but it's not easy.
Red eyes blink back, surprised. "You don't?"
"Public school student," you point out. "And I don't know about schools in Japan, but the one I attend lets out in late May, and doesn't start up again until the end of August."
A prickling sensation on the back of your neck has you glancing over your shoulder, to find the other two Shuzen girls staring at you.
"You get three months off from classes for the summer?" Moka asks.
You nod.
"...I think I hate you, Harris."
Kokoa grins and hugs her second-oldest sister, giving you a triumphant smirk.
"That really doesn't seem fair," Kahlua admits with a frown. "Even less so, considering that you live on the Hellmouth. Shouldn't that... make things worse? Somehow?"
You consider how to respond to that.
d
"I think that's more of an American thing than a Hellmouth thing," you answer. "I mean, over the last couple of years since I started learning magic and ki control, I've noticed that the Hellmouth gets kind of quiet over the summer months. I'm not sure why, but the level of mystical gunk drifting around Sunnydale starts going downhill in June, hits an annual low around the middle of July, and then starts clawing its way back up to normal levels... which it hits right around the time school reopens. Huh. I never really thought about it that way before."
You pause to consider the implications. The vampire girls and their blue-eyed guest regard you silently, none of them seeming to have anything to say.
"So yeah, maybe there is a connection between the length of my summer holidays and the Hellmouth after all," you admit. "Only in the sense that this is the time of year when the bad stuff has to stop happening. The rest of the year, though... well, I already told you girls about the demon that was with the Department of Education, and that can't possibly be a good thing for my academic career."
The two elder Shuzens nod.
"Aside from that, the Hellmouth has plenty of other ways to make life miserable. Creepy possessed stuffed animal zombie-demon things, feral hellhounds, and invisible undead stalkers all come to mind."
"'Stalkers?'" Kahlua repeats sharply.
"Stuffed animals?" Kokoa asks, perking up slightly.
"Puppies?"
You can't quite avoid gaping at Moka's uncharacteristically bright outburst. She actually blushes.
"I like dogs," she says defensively, sounding much more like a little girl than usual.
You recall seeing a few guard-type dogs walking the perimeter and the courtyard of the Shuzen residence when you came in, some with handlers, some without.
Since each of the Shuzen sisters reacted to a different part of your statement, you figure you might as well go ahead and tell them the whole story of your adventures in demon-possessed taxidermy. It'll explain your comments about stuffed animals, hellhounds, and unfriendly watchers, and give you a chance to explain to each girl in turn why the topic in question is not what she seems to think it is.
Well, except in Kahlua's case. She appears to have recognized the threat potential of an undead invisible stalker for exactly what it is.
Gained Elder King F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Right around the point where you're explaining to Kahlua just what your uncle's "stuffed animals" really are, what was wrong with them, and the plan you came up with to address the issue, you notice Katara signalling to her brother. He gives her an odd look, but after a moment of wordless back-and-forth gestures, Sokka turns to Tatsuki and - with some effort - calls off the sparring match. This is followed by the pair of them taking the hidden stairs up to the balcony, where they shamelessly listen in to your tale-in-progress.
Miss Shirogane trails along after them, her expression intent.
Now that you've got an adult listening in, how detailed do you wish your tale to be?
You decide to keep your storytelling factual, with just enough embellishment to keep your audience engaged. The idea of pulling out some illusions for a more complete presentation occurs to you, but given how the spells you've cast since that purification ritual have pulled at your spirit, you opt against it, and stick with words, tone, and body language.
You speak of dead animals, preserved and mounted by your uncle as a hobby, unknowingly contaminated by the Hellmouth over many years until the concentrated evil energy threatened to give birth to a mob of tiny demonic spirits.
Kokoa blanches and hugs her bat even tighter. The poor critter squeaks and flails frantically.
Sokka mutters something about evil having no respect for the sanctity of a hunter's trophies.
You tell of your efforts to perform a purification ritual to drive out the proto-demons, without destroying your uncle's creations - and of how your use of Light-based magic attracted the attention of a local pack of hellhounds, who sent their lowest-ranking member to investigate the cause.
Moka... actually doesn't look all that discouraged. You hope she's not planning to ask her parents to give her a hellhound for her next birthday, or something like that.
Katara seems saddened by your description of the beast's many old injuries, but also relieved that you didn't do anything worse than scare it.
You talk of success in your endeavor, but also how it came back to bite you when you returned to the cabin to find some manner of undead creature, dressed as a soldier and hidden under a spell or item that grants invisibility, staking out the site.
Kahlua appears relieved when you explain that you managed to avoid the watcher's notice and get the heck out of there. But she still looks upset that it was there at all.
Tatsuki's disappointed that you didn't beat the crap out of the thing.
All in all, it takes maybe half an hour for you to finish your tale. There are few interruptions, most of them questions about places, creatures, or events that came up in the story. Miss Shirogane doesn't say a word, but you have the distinct impression that she's committed everything you've said to memory - most likely so she can recount it for her employers later. It makes you glad that you didn't go completely over the top in your retelling of the incident(s).
And if this abbreviated story hour gives the Shuzens a better idea of what you're capable of, magically, and what you're willing to do with that power? Well, that's a situation with as many positives and negatives.
In any case, once you've finished talking, you find that - in addition to the expected, mildly hoarse throat - you're also feeling rather more tired than you thought you'd be. It would seem that the jet lag is catching up.
You shake off the first symptoms of weariness, resolving to stay up long enough to make an appearance at the dinner table. It can't be very far away, after all, and your knowledge of polite society (mostly absorbed from Cordelia) and good manners (mostly picked up elsewhere) tells you that the evening meal is generally the last social event of the day at which a kid your age would be expected to make an appearance.
All you have to do, then, is show up to the table in good condition, eat enough not to appear impolite (but not so much as to trouble your sleep or seem gluttonous), enagage in some polite conversation, and then make your apologies and, as you believe the saying goes, "retire for the evening."
You consider that plan, make a quick, generous estimate of the effort would cost you to pull it off, and compare the result to your fatigue-bitten stamina. It seems very doable; you probably won't even need to use magic.
Although your tale has concluded, none of your audience appear terribly interested in resuming the impromptu sparring matches, or the observing thereof. Kahlua and Moka both have something on their minds, though from the difference in their thoughtful expressions - more of a frown on the elder sibling's part - you suspect the topics being considered are different in each case. You could probably guess what. Kokoa has either gotten over or repressed her fear of the OTHER sort of stuffed animals, and is back to giving you a scowly look; your fluency in Little Sister tells you it's because her favorite sister has been distracted by what you said and cannot pay proper attention to her. Sokka and Katara are quiet, the former with his eyes half-closed beneath furrowed brows, arms folded, and chin propped up on one hand in an... expressive... pose of contemplation, the latter looking around at the rest of your group with a hint of expectation. Waiting for someone else to speak, maybe? You don't really know these two well enough to say, at least not yet.
As for Tatsuki, she is... rubbing her stomach? Which is growling just loudly enough for most of the rest of the group who aren't deep in thought to glance at her.
She smiles weakly. "Sorry. I probably should have had a bigger lunch."
"You ate almost as much as Sokka as it was," Katara states. "I didn't think that was possible."
"'Almost as much?'" Sokka repeats, before snorting. "Come on, Katara. She ate a flounder's weight in sushi, and enough bits and bobs of chicken to account for one bird. A small one. Not including the bones. Which is impressive for a girl her size, no question." There is an air of gracious smugness about the older boy as he makes that concession. The grace quickly fades as he goes on. "I, on the other hand, ate two whole superbly smoked salmon, an eel grilled to perfection, a LARGE chicken and the drumsticks of a second - bones included, thank you, thank you."
He ate all that? Including the bones? You're not actually sure if eels even have bones, but fish and chickens definitely do...
"And your point is?" Katara asks.
"I was clearly in the lead!"
The girl sighs, sounding older than her years.
"First of all," she says as she raises one finger, "regular meals are not a contest to see how much you can eat. Secondly, Tatsuki also ate four large bowls of rice-"
"Which is probably why she's hungry again already."
"-and a healthy assortment of vegetables-"
"Green stuff doesn't count! It's just roughage!"
"-and all of that plus the chicken and fish is almost as much as what you stuffed down," Katara continues. "And thirdly, no matter what you say, veggies totally count."
"Yeah, right. Come on, Katara. Everybody knows that when it comes to a meal, meat is what matters." He looks around. "Am I right?" He turns to you, grinning expectantly. "I'm totally right, aren't I?"
"Meat has its place," you admit.
Sokka's grin starts to widen-
"Often on some sort of bread," you continue.
-and then stops, shifting to a very slight frown. He looks like he's considering your addendum-
"With pickles and lettuce and tomatoes and onions," you further clarify, visions of burgers dancing in your head. "Or corn salsa and hot peppers and..." And you have to stop there, because the conga line of tacos, burritos, and nachos has your stomach growling considerably louder than Tatsuki's, and you fear you may start drooling. It occurs to you that you haven't eaten since you were on the plane, and you honestly don't recall much about the meal in question, except that it was unquestionably too small and/or too long ago.
"So, uh, yeah," you conclude, with everyone staring at you. "Not to sound rude, but when is dinner again?"
"Hungry man," Sokka says, nodding sagely. "I can respect that, even if I find your taste somewhat... un-meaty."
"Not too much longer," Kahlua replies, ignoring Sokka's commentary. "Another half an hour or so. Though if you're absolutely starving, I could ask Keiko to pass on a request for an early appetizer to the cooks."
You consider the offer.
Figuring that you can hold the hungry beast at bay until the regularly-scheduled meal, you thank Kahlua for her consideration, but turn down the offer of an early snack.
"So, I have a few questions, if I may ask them?"
"You may."
"I've gathered from some of things you've said that Sokka was one of the guys you beat before we faced off in the preliminaries," you begin, "but how did that lead to you inviting him and his sister to your birthday?"
"Oh, it didn't. I extended the invitation entirely because Katara really impressed me in her matches, and how she handled her oafish older brother."
"I'd like to think I'm rather more sophisticated than average, thank you," Sokka notes.
Kahlua smiles. "It's always good to have dreams."
You, meanwhile, are looking at Katara and trying to figure out how to express your response to Kahlua's statement, without coming off as offensive. Fortunately, the blue-eyed girl seems to have experience with this issue, as she smiles gently at you, reaches down, and folds back the lower part of her blanket, revealing her lower legs.
Katara's fur-lined dress stops a bit below the knee, and her legs below that are rather different from what you were expecting. The skin looks tougher and smoother than than any you've ever seen on a human, and is either black - not just dark brown, but literally black - or white, the colors distributed in an irregular pattern that appears to be fairly equally divided between them. Her toes are webbed, and there are long fins trailing down the outer sides of her legs from just about where the skirt ends to the level of her ankles. There's also quite a lot of water beading along Katara's skin, and you note that the interior of her "blanket" is lined with a dark material that doesn't appear to have absorbed any of that water.
"Zora?" you and Briar mutter in unison.
Katara blinks. "Okay, that's a new reaction."
"Yeah, most people just scream 'mermaid,'" Sokka notes.
"Mermaids have tails, not legs," you point out. "Well, not unless there's magic involved."
"See, that's what I always say!"
"Well, thank you for not screaming," Katara says wryly, as she re-covers her legs. "I'm curious, though. Who or what is 'Zora?'"
"Zora are a kind of amphibious fish-people," you tell Katara. "Emphasis on the 'fish.' They have two main branches, one of which is humanoid, with very fine scales - usually light blue - fins and frills instead of hair, and a small but fairly well-developed society. Kings and queens, soldiers, sages, musicians. Kind of reclusive and tend towards the snobbish, but decent people. The other sort are basically feral, with much heavier scales, fangs, claws, and a tendency to attack anything they think is intruding on their territory. Oh, and they can spit hard enough to stun a strong man."
Sokka looks intrigued by this.
"Don't even think about it," Katara admonishes him.
"But you could totally do that!"
"That's besides the point!"
"I don't think I've heard of these creatures before," Kahlua muses. "Several that are similar, but nothing that quite matches up - and certainly not by that name."
"I'd be surprised if you had," you admit. "Zora aren't native to Earth, and as far as I'm aware, they don't travel between worlds."
"Then how do you know about them?"
"They're indirectly connected to my magical tradition. I've discussed them with Briar once or twice in passing, mostly about whether or not it'd be worth summoning one if I was in trouble in the water."
"The answer to that is 'maybe,' by the way," Briar comments. "Not that a friendly Zora isn't all kinds of useful if you end up going for an unplanned swim, it's getting them to act friendly in the first place that's the trick."
You nod, then change the subject. "While we're on the subject of people some of us have never heard of before - the Water Tribe?"
"Southern Water Tribe," Sokka once again emphasizes.
"We're descended from the Moon and the Ocean," Katara explains. "A long time ago, they took mortal forms, married, and had all sorts of children, who took their own husbands and wives from among the spirits of the Earth and Sky. The bloodlines spread out and changed over time-"
"Yeah, Gran-Gran says we're related to the werewolves," Sokka says in an aside. "The monster race, I mean, not the cursed humans." He makes something that is probably meant to be a warding gesture. "Some seriously bad juju, there."
"-but those of us who stayed close to the oceans, lakes, and rivers became the Water Tribes."
"I see," you say. "But why the wheelchair?"
Katara blushes at that. "My feet aren't the best for walking around on land, and I'm not all that good at taking human form yet. I can manage a few minutes here and there, which is how I was able to take part in the tournament, but it's tiring, and there's always a chance I'll end up tripping and falling on my face, or that someone will notice something's off. Not to mention how dry it is," she adds, with a distinct note of 'I don't know HOW you people stand this weather.' "The chair is just easier."
You nod.
Finding your current level of knowledge about the siblings and their origins to be satisfactory, you let the matter drop and allow the conversation to go where it will.
This turns out to be the topic of mermaids, about whom Tatsuki is mildly curious. You learn that such creatures do exist, but aren't considered members of the Water Tribes, whose animal aspects are diverse but primarily mammalian in nature, with a few lineages that trace back to bird spirits. Merfolk, on the other hand, are definitely fish people, able to breathe underwater and easily as they do in air. In the old days, merfolk and the Water Tribes were rivals for various aquatic territories, though they would also occasionally ally against other threats - land-dwellers, various sea monsters, and creatures that the siblings call "sea devils" and refuse to speak further about.
Dinner is announced not too long after that, and Katara demonstrates her limited ability to adopt a complete human form in order to descend the stairs, while her brother carries the empty wheelchair down behind her. After the girl has re-seated herself, Miss Shirogane leads the lot of you to the dining hall, with a brief stopover at a washroom so everyone can clean their hands and fix their clothes prior to the meal.
It's about as extravagant as you were expecting, with multiple chandeliers, expensive hardwood furniture, shining silverware, fine china, and fancy crystal goblets. The Shuzens have foregone the use of a table the length of the entire hall for something more sensible, though it's still huge by your standards, easily able to seat twenty adult-sized people.
At the moment, fourteen places at the table are set, and five of them occupied. Issa sits at the head of the table, Gyokuro to his right and Akasha to his left, with Lu-sensei four seats down from Gyokuro and Tatsuki's mother across from him, in the third seat. A man and woman you haven't seen before are just entering the hall by another door, their darker features and blue, fur-trimmed attire implying their relationship to Katara and Sokka. The man is athletically-built and fairly tall, with shaggy brown hair pulled back into a tail and a short beard, while the woman wears her hair in a style similar to Katara's but without the hair loops, and appears a bit heavy around the middle.
The table is currently bare of food, unless you count the wine in some of the glasses, but some very delicious aromas are drifting through the hall from somewhere nearby.
"Ah, Keiko," Issa says. "Excellent. We were just about to send someone to fetch the children. Kahlua, will you show your guests to their places?"
"Yes, Father."
In short order, everyone is at their assigned place. Moka sits next to Akasha, with Tatsuki next to her, while Kahlua, Kokoa, and you fill the places between Gyokuro and Lu-sensei - with a small spot between you and Kokoa set aside for Briar, which you didn't notice until you were closer. Sokka and Katara's parents - introduced as Hakoda and Kya - sit next to Akikko, with their children down from them.
Once everyone is seated, a train of servants begin bringing in the meal.
You don't have any previous experience with multi-course dining, so you're a bit surprised when the servants bring forth four tureens and several large fancy jugs. The former are set down at intervals along the table and the lids removed, revealing different soups: one red and cloudy; one white and creamy; one white and, unlike the rest, not visibly steaming; and one faintly golden. The jugs, meanwhile, prove to contain water, milk, and some sort of reddish-purple juice.
"Which would you like, sir?" the serving lady standing to your left inquires politely. "Tomato, mushroom, fish, or chicken and onion?"
As you're being served, you notice that Sokka doesn't hesitate to ask for the fish soup, and that Katara and her parents exchange wry glances before doing likewise. Lu-sensei opts for the mushroom soup, while Akkiko goes for tomato and Tatsuki picks chicken and onion. The Shuzens, to a one, choose tomato. Briar decides on the mushroom, and the server has a slightly awkward moment when she considers how to fill the fairy-sized bowl - the provided ladle being large enough to fit Briar herself.
Hungry as you are, you'd prefer to focus on your meal and leave the conversation to others. However, mindful of your company, you pace your eating so that you'll have an opening to talk if someone calls on you - as, after a few minutes to enjoy the soup, someone does.
"So, Harris," Akkiko says. "What's this I hear about you blowing up a shrine?"
"What?" Tatsuki blurts out, looking from her mother to you in surprise.
"Yeah, apparently he laid out a bunch of priests and wrecked the main shrine room in the middle of a purification ritual," the elder Arisawa states.
You glance at Lu-sensei, who rolls his eyes and nods, admitting that he may have mentioned the day's previous incident in your absence. You're pretty certain that he phrased it differently, though.
"That was an accident, ma'am," you answer. "My spirit animal saw an opportunity to get rid of a lot of the crud years of life on the Hellmouth had left behind, and was... very enthusiastic about lending its support to what the priests were doing."
"And you just let it do that?"
You wince.
"No, I encouraged it," you admit.
You pause to take a spoonful of soup. Although it lacks in noodles like the canned and "instant" varieties you're used to, the broth's warmth and chicken flavor are familiar comforts. The onion adds a touch of something new, without being strong enough or strange enough to upset your palate.
"You... encouraged it."
"Mmmm." You swallow, before clarifying. "I've learned from experience that my totem is rather stubborn, powerful, and aggressive, and once it gets an idea in its head, there's no stopping it. I saw that it was already set on charging at something, and since I wasn't entirely sure if it was planing to attack the priests or if it just saw an opportunity to eject a mass of built-up evil out of my spirit, I decided my best bet was to make the second option look as appealing as possible." You shrug. "I'd say it worked out rather well."
Akkiko blinks. "A trashed room and a bunch of bowled-over priests is rather well?"
You slurp your soup and nod. After all, nobody got spiritually-gored or trampled this time around.
"...I'm not sure I want to know what your example of a bad outcome is, kiddo."
You briefly consider Ganon on a rampage, and silently agree with Akkiko. She probably doesn't want to know.
"You've already met your spirit guide?" Katara asks, sounding excited. "At your age? Wow, that's incredible! Have you been a vision quest already?"
"Only if a period of ordinary meditation followed by a meeting with my totem counts," you reply.
Katara blinks and looks at her parents.
"I'm not sure that it does, Katara," her father says, before looking at you. "When you say 'ordinary meditation,' I take it you weren't specifically trying to get in touch with your totem?"
You shake your head, swallowing another mouthful of soup.
"And you didn't use anything to help focus the vision? No incense or prayer, no medicine pouch?"
You consider it. "I had a meal and a workout with a sword beforehand, but I don't think that counts."
"You might eat something of ritual significance before or during a vision quest," Hakoda replies, "but in general, you're right. Fasting beforehand is much more common."
A couple seats down, Sokka makes a face.
"And unless this was a purely ritual weapon with spiritual significance-" Hakoda pauses to regard you.
You have to shake your head. Oh, your Goddess-given doubtlessly has LOADS of spiritual importance, but it's also definitely meant to be USED. You prayed for a weapon, after all, not a spiritual focus that just happened to take the form of one.
"-then no, practicing with it wouldn't be part of a proper vision quest."
"What would be?" you ask.
"Aside from specifically seeking out your animal guide?" Hakoda shakes his head. "You'd have to talk to a shaman to be certain, young one. I'm just a hunter, a father, and occasionally a leader; I prefer to leave spirit business to spirits, and I'd hate to give you bad advice."
Hakoda's answer is a bit disappointing, but you nod your acceptance, sensing that he's unlikely to budge.
"So, Kahlua," you say then.
"Yes, Alex?"
"I'm curious about who else you've invited to your party. Is anyone else I've met likely to show up?"
"Altria should be here tomorrow," Kahlua replies, stirring what's left of her soup, "but she's the only other person from the tournament who will be coming. I did invite those adorable little twins to come along with Tatsuki, but apparently their parents said no."
"Isshin and Masaki couldn't really get away from the clinic during the week, Princess," Akkiko explains. "I offered to take the girls off their hands for a few days, but Masaki just laughed in my face." She sighs. "I swear, it's like she doesn't trust me to be responsible or something."
Every other adult at the table seems to have to restrain themselves from speaking at that point.
Tatsuki, meanwhile, just snorts into her soup.
Speaking of which, you've just about finished your first bowl. Would you care to try for a second one, or would you prefer to wait for the next course?
The chicken and onion soup was pretty good, but seeing as how this dinner is looking to be a multi-course meal, you figure it's best if you save some room for what comes later.
As you polish off what remains of your bowl, you consider taking the opportunity to ask someone a question. Following up on Hakoda's comment about "finding a shaman" with questions of where and how to go about doing that is somewhat appealing, but it occurs to you that, since he is - by his own account - not deeply involved in spiritual matters, Hakoda's knowledge of where to seek a shaman and what to look for is probably limited to wherever and whatever suits the Southern Water Tribe. And you're not exactly a member of that group, which makes the value of anything he could tell you... questionable, at best.
Setting that aside for now, you glance around the table and wonder if it'd be appropriate to express your respect for and interest in the technical details of the field that maintains the Shuzens' private pocket dimension. After some thought, you decide to leave these thoughts unvoiced. The barrier keeping the Shuzen estate separate from the rest of the world is a high-level work of magic, and mages don't exactly go around giving away the secrets of such things to anyone who asks - at least, not without being compensated in equal (or greater) measure for their time and information. On top of that, the barrier is pretty obviously part of the family's security measures, protecting them against exposure to sunlight or discovery by wandering humans - and if it doesn't also prevent monsters, planes, or satellites that pass over the region from spotting the house and the grounds, you'll be very surprised. That's several excellent reasons for the Shuzens not to discuss how the barrier works with an outsider, no matter how young, polite, or willing to exchange information he might be, and you can't really think of anything you could offer to tell them that might have them considering otherwise.
At least, nothing that it'd be SAFE for you to part with.
The next course of dinner comes along as you're lost in thought, the remaining soup being cleared away for - ergh - salad. You notice Sokka regarding his plate of greens and croutons with decided displeasure, at least until his mother and sister give him identical looks that say, "Eat your veggies."
Briar is giving you a similar look.
Trying not to sigh too audibly, you glance around to make sure which of the forks you're supposed to be using for this part of the meal, then reach for the correct one, spear some leafy green stuff, and take a bite.
...about all you can say for your first mouthful is that the salad has texture.
"Try adding a bit of dressing, Alex," Lu-sensei advises quietly, as he points towards the assortment of small bottles and dispensers that came with the salad.
Heeding your teacher's advice, you add some salt and pepper, then a bit of a light golden oil - and then you do the same for Briar, just in much smaller portions.
Your next bite of salad is more tolerable. It's still not your favorite thing ever, but at least it's got some sort of flavor now. Though that could be because you got a few of the sliced veggies and breaded bits this time, as opposed to pure lettuce leaf.
As you dig in to the second course, you notice Sokka giving you a sorrowful, vaguely betrayed look. Doing your best to ignore it, you buckle down and do your best to clear your plate.
There isn't much conversation during this course, as most of the adults are keeping an eye on their respective kids, making sure that the least-popular course gets eaten without complaint. None of the Shuzen sisters appears thrilled by their salads: Kokoa is the worst of the three, pushing bits of radish around her plate until her mother gives her a stern glance; but even Kahlua is only eating slowly; and Moka tries to put down her fork a couple of times, getting a look from Akasha in each instance that makes her sigh, pick up the utensil, and start eating again. Katara and Tatsuki, on the other hand, almost look like they're enjoying the veggies, though in Katara's case, her good behavior is more than made up for by her brother's exaggerated dislike.
Briar cleans her tiny plate three times.
Finally, you clear your plate.
"Care for some more?" Lu-sensei suggests.
"No, thank you, sir."
"Are you sure?" he presses. "It's good for you."
"I'm fine, Sensei. Really."
It's not that you have anything against vegetables, really. You just prefer to have them in company with other food groups, rather than as a dish unto themselves. A big, juicy burger with all the toppings, a deep-dish pizza with the works... yum.
Thinking of such fare makes you wonder what the main course of this dinner will be. A few minutes later, you find out.
Steaks. Thick, juicy, sizzling slabs of meat, served alongside boiled potatoes and a mix of peas, corn, and carrots. And there's also chicken with a side of white rice, and some sort of pink fish that is announced as salmon - you'll have to take the servant's word for it.
Sokka suddenly looks very happy.
"Though if you're that concerned that I need more green stuff in my diet, Sensei," you note, as you begin filling your plate with a bit of each of the presented main dishes, "then next time, I'll remember to make the salad bacon-flavored."
There is a jarring squeal of cutlery scraping together, and when you look across the table at the source, you find Sokka staring at you, fork and knife having slid in the middle of carving off a... considerable chunk of fish.
"You can DO that?" he demands.
"Do what?" you inquire innocently.
"Make something that isn't meat taste like meat!"
Katara facepalms. Her mother looks like she wants to do the same, while her father... actually looks a bit interested himself.
"Yes, there's a very simple, general-purpose spell for minor effects like that."
"'Minor,' he calls it," Sokka mumbles to himself, before shaking his head. "If you can do that, why didn't you?"
"Because it would have been rude to cast spells at the table without permission from our hosts," you reply, as if it were obvious.
"You could have asked!"
"Sokka," his father says then, chiding his boy for the sudden shout. Sokka winces and promptly bows his head.
"Sorry, Dad. Mr. Shuzen. Alex."
Issa makes a gesture of forgiveness, or at least, acknowledgement of the apology.
"...still can't believe..." Sokka mutters faintly, as he goes back to carving fish. "...taste like meat! Why wouldn't..."
Being careful not to smile, you resume filling your plate.
"The young hunter does raise a point of some interest," Issa notes after a moment. "Significant magical ability in one your age is quite rare, young Harris, let alone the breadth of talent you have demonstrated. I find myself quite curious as to what you're capable of."
...and maybe you shouldn't have teased Sokka after all.
You take a moment to chew a piece of steak as you consider how to answer. Swallowing, you speak.
"When it comes to magic, sir, my capabilities are pretty broad. I have a working understanding of the ten major schools, but I'd only consider my talents in Divination and Summoning to be really outstanding. Even then, my age and practical experience are working against me; most adult practitioners would still rate my technical skills at the level of a novice. Maybe an unusually gifted one."
"And then again, maybe not," Briar notes. "It depends on which type of magic he's using."
As your magical tutor, she'd know better than most.
The three Shuzen adults trade glances. It's Akasha who speaks.
"I don't think I've ever run into someone who considered teleportation to be a novice's ability, Alex."
"The girls mentioned the Dimension Door I used back at the tournament?" you guess, with a glance at Kahlua.
Akasha nods, and Kahlua shrugs unapologetically. You shrug, unable to blame her; she and her sisters didn't and still don't really know you that well, and you'd just displayed the ability to open a portal across maybe a hundred feet of space on little more than a whim. That's the sort of thing they really SHOULD tell their parents about. And it isn't like you asked them to keep it a secret or anything.
"Teleportation's actually easier than it looks. There's a lot of fiddly details to work out, kind of like math, but the main stumbling block is power; most people don't have enough to move more than a few feet at a time until they've developed the control or the reserves of a master."
"But you do," Gyokuro concludes.
"In any case," you continue, turning back to Issa, "if you really want to know what I can do, sir, I wouldn't mind giving a demonstration. I would like to ask for a couple days' grace on that, though."
Issa raises one eyebrow. "Oh?"
You cough, a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, uh... after the mess my totem made of that purification, Mr. Hakuba - I don't think I actually caught his name; the father, not the grandfather? - anyway, he said I should avoid spiritually-exerting myself for a couple of days. I'd kind of like to respect that advice."
The Shuzen patriarch considers that.
"Yes, ma'am," you respond to Gyokuro, "I can. But I'm awesome that way."
She blinks, clearly not having expected that.
Somebody sitting across the table from you - male, name starts with an "S" - snorts.
Briar facepalms.
Akkiko laughs out loud. "Good answer!"
"...I do know some spells that could speed up my recovery," you tell Issa frankly. "But I'd need to, uh, 'permanently borrow' a silk pillow to get one of them to work."
You don't feel comfortable about asking the Shuzen patriarch to provide you with a diamond, however small. This seems much more reasonable.
Even so, you can feel the collective blink.
"'A silk pillow,'" Akkiko repeats slowly. "That's... interesting. I always thought that Western magic used stuff like eye of newt, wing of bat, and other nasty bits and pieces."
You stop and think about that for a second. Do you even know any spells that require "eye of newt?" You don't think- oh, wait, yes you do. The Spell to See Alignment. Not that you've ever used it, or would need the material component, but that IS the default requirement for that particular spell. You can't think of any spells that would require a bat's wing, but bat guano is the standard reagent for the classic Fireball Spell - one you're very happy to be able to do without.
"There are all sorts of Western magical styles," you reply. "Just as there are all kinds of Asian, Middle Eastern, and African ones. And the components they use are all over the place. I mean, I'm no expert, but as far as I know, you're no more likely to catch a Kabbalist using eye of newt than you are to find a Shinto priest doing the same. If Ambrose shows up with Altria tomorrow, I could ask him to confirm how widely used some of the more... 'classic' reagents are, if you're curious."
"Nah, I've been meaning to have a talk with that guy about poking his nose into family business anyway," Akkiko replies, waving off your offer. "If he's still in one piece afterwards, I'll just ask him myself."
Um. You wonder if you should say something to that, or just keep your mouth shut and hope that Akkiko doesn't mean to have a talk with YOU. After all, you were the one who got Ambrose mixed up in "Arisawa family business," back at the tournament...
While you've been talking with Akkiko, Issa, Gyokuro, and Akasha have been exchanging bemused looks.
"Silk pillows?" Gyokuro notes.
"It's certainly a... unique... request," Issa admits, looking like he isn't sure whether to laugh or get very suspicious.
"Nothing like a sorcerer's traditional asking price," Akasha agrees.
The other two vampires look at her. "Gold?" they guess, in unison.
"Gold." The strawberry-blonde nods. "Or jewels. Or something equally precious but immaterial, like your voice, your name, or a favor to be named later - those were ALWAYS the worst, except for the ones that wanted your firstborn child." She pauses, thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, the fairies did that a lot, too..."
Trying to keep your voice light, you reply to Akkiko's offhanded remark about Ambrose's potential future incapacitation.
"I'm sure he'll survive, ma'am, if only to spite everyone who'd wish otherwise."
Akkiko snorts. "Yeah, from what I've heard about the guy, I could see that."
"Before you wail on the old wizard, though?" you add. "Please let me say that I am... kind-of-sort-of reponsible for that whole affair."
Akkiko looks at you directly, and with a rather more serious expression than you've seen on her thus far. "I'm aware of that, too, young man, and we WILL be talking about it."
Maybe it's the Mom Factor, but Mrs. Arisawa suddenly seems every bit as scary as the three adult vampires you're sharing the table with.
"Even if it is sort of traditional, Miss Akasha," you note dryly, "I think the firstborn child might have objected to that sort of arrangement."
"Actually," Issa muses, idly swirling his wineglass, "Akua might well enjoy the chance to spend some time on the Hellmouth..." He pauses, as every eye other than Sokka's - the boy being focused on his meal - turns to him, some of them more intently than others. The Shuzen patriarch winces and glances at his drink, muttering something about pacing himself.
"Who's Akua, Daddy?" Kahlua asks, curious.
"I'm quite interested in that myself, dear," Gyokuro says in a too-calm tone of voice. "Aren't you, Akasha?"
"Oh my, yes, Gyokuro," Akasha replies, in much the same tone. "I'm just dying to hear what darling has to say."
Well. That joke appears to have backfired. Somehow.
Nothing more needs to be said on this matter, at least for now.
As the tension builds at the head of the table, you can't help but sigh and rub the bridge of your nose.
"I just wanted a pillow," you mumble. "Really. That's all. Just one reagent for a single spell. How did that lead to this?"
"Most likely-" Lu-sensei starts in a low tone.
"I'm going to say-" Briar begins at almost the same time.
"-alcohol," they finish in near-unison.
Issa is talking to Gyokuro and Akasha, quickly and yet quietly enough that you can't quite make it out. Kahlua and Moka appear to be trying to listen in, whereas Kokoa is taking advantage of the distraction to load her plate up with the better-looking pieces of chicken. Akkiko is shamelessly eavesdropping - or trying to, as Tatsuki prods her mother and hisses for her to behave herself - but the remaining guests are more or less politely ignoring the sudden Shuzen family issue.
You look at the table, and note that between Sokka's ongoing attempt to eat his own weight in meat and the more restrained eating habits of the other diners, the platters and bowls the servants laid out are starting to look a little bare. You've mostly cleaned your plate, and while everything you tried was excellent, you'd have to say that you favored the steak and potatoes, if only for the familiarity.
Since it would be rude to eavesdrop on your hosts while they're discussing a private matter, you do your best to ignore the head of the table, and instead focus on filling your plate with more of that excellent steak and the side of vegetables. This is how greens should be eaten, you reflect; not as a dish unto themselves, but in company with the rich flavor of well-cooked and expertly-seasoned meat. You think the potatoes would have been better baked - mainly because that would have let you slather them in butter, cheese, bacon bits, salt, and pepper, with crispy skins for added texture and flavor - but they're quite good even boiled.
As you're transfering one of the steaks from its platter to your plate, Sokka catches your eye, winks, and gives you a quick thumbs up, wholeheartedly approving of your selection.
You focus on your food after that, and have finished most of two mid-sized steaks and three small potatoes when you feel you should stop, leaving room for any following courses. As you set your utensils down, you glance around the table and find that something resembling peace and harmony has been restored in the Shuzen household, although there's a lingering tension - mostly radiating from the two women of the family - which says that Issa isn't off the hook yet.
"Hungry, were we?" Briar comments with a glance at your plate.
"Apparently," you reply.
Servants clear the table shortly after that - Sokka quickly shovels down a few last pieces of meat when he sees them coming - and follow up by bringing out the final course: dessert.
There's a large bowl of pale green pudding with tiny grated nuts in it, another of what appears to be vanilla ice cream, a platter of fruit salad, and some sort of red jelly with what you presume are small fruits suspended in it.
There's no particular pattern to who takes what. Kahlua, Akkiko, and Hakoda go for the jelly, while Akasha, Moka, Tatsuki, and Sokka all favor the ice cream. Gyokuro, Briar, and Katara take some of the fruit salad, leaving the pudding to Issa and Lu-sensei. Kya politely begs off.
You figure that after a big meal, it's probably best to keep dessert simple - and what could be simpler than vanilla ice cream?
Though when you take your first spoonful of your chosen dish, it turns out not to be quite so simple after all. Rather than what you'd consider "normal" vanilla ice cream, there's an added hint of... something, you're not sure what. Maybe this is that so-called French vanilla? Something a little fancier than the plainest of plain ice creams, as befits the setting?
Well, whatever. It's still good.
The final course passes with little conversation. You, the rest of the preteen set, and Briar are too busy enjoying dessert, none of the Shuzen adults are talking, and the remaining adult guests are still being politely oblivious to what happened earlier. Even Akkiko isn't saying anything, though that appears to be because she's too busy savoring that jelly to spare the time or effort.
Glancing sideways, you note that Kahlua is behaving a lot like Akkiko, while a look across the table shows that Hakoda is taking more of a considering approach to the dish, like he's never had it before and is still making up his mind. After a moment, though, he nods, and quickly polishes off what he's already taken.
You're quite satisfied with your fancy vanilla ice cream, but you're also sufficiently curious about the jelly that you take a single, wobbling spoonful of the stuff and give it a try.
While your mouth certainly doesn't curdle at the flavor - which is mostly some sort of tart fruit you don't recognize - there's a very mild taste that makes you think of nothing so much as medicated cough drops, or the scent of an open bottle of fine wine, though it's far fainter than any such bouquet from Ganondorf's memories. It's not precisely offensive, but it's also definitely not something you'd have picked for a dessert course.
Must be an adult thing. Or maybe a monster thing.
You proceed to wash away the lingering aftertaste of the jelly with your ice cream.
After the unexpected fallout from your last, humorous attempt at conversation, you're kind of nervous about saying anything else. It seems to be a feeling shared by most at the table, as dessert passes in silence, and there is a definite sense of awkwardness when the last course is cleared away.
"Well then," Issa says. "I hope that your first meal in our home was to your liking, Master Lu, Miss Briar, young Harris."
"It was, sir. My compliments to your chef."
"Likewise," Briar adds. "And thank you also for the thoughtful consideration." She taps her tiny, fairy-sized wineglass, the last piece of tableware left to her.
"It was a most pleasant dinner, sir."
You're about to add more when Issa speaks, and good manners compel you to pause and listen.
"Excellent. And thank you all for your discretion." He looks around at the rest of the table, before adopting an expression like a man about to face judgement and pushing his chair back from the table. "Now, if you will excuse us," Issa says, as he rises to his feet, "my wife and I have an overdue conversation to attend to."
Gyokuro's smile as she rises from her chair is scary. "Akasha, dear," she says to the other vampire lady, "you'll mind our guests and the children while I talk to Issa?"
Akasha's smile is bright, happy, and just as frightening. "Of course, Gyokuro."
Despite standing between the alarming pair, Issa somehow manages not to pale or flinch. Instead, he smoothly offers an arm to Gyokuro, who accepts it - taking hold with such force that you swear you hear bones creaking, though Issa's expression doesn't change in the least - before the pair sweep out of the dining hall, leaving a moment of silence in their wake.
"Daddy's in trouble," Kokoa announces, her tone faintly amused.
"Hush, Kokoa," Akasha gently chides. "Not in front of our guests."
The youngest girl ducks her head and goes back to her dessert, a mix of ice cream and fruit.
"Now, then," Akasha continues, "once everyone's finished with dessert, and assuming the weather is cooperative, I was thinking we'd adjourn to the garden. The night-blooms should just be waking up, and there are fountain pools in case anyone would like to soothe their feet."
Akkiko and Tatsuki both surprise you by looking interested at the mention of night-blooms - some sort of flower, you're assuming - while the Water Tribe family collectively perk up at the mention of the pools. Briar also appears curious about this garden, while the Shuzen sisters don't really react. Kokoa's focused on her dessert, Kahlua appears lost in thought - her glances at the door through which her parents departed make it easy to guess what she's puzzling over - and Mokoa is her usual composed self. As for yourself...
"Actually, Miss Akasha," you start, before pausing.
"Yes, Alex?"
"It's been a long day, and I was hoping to get to bed soon. Hopefully with a nice, soft pillow."
That gets glances from all directions.
Briar sighs. "Subtle, Alex. Real subtle."
What?
Akasha smiles. "Of course. I'll have Keiko see you to your room. Will you be calling it an early night as well, Master Lu? Briar?"
You opt to keep quiet.
Lu-sensei strokes his chin thoughtfully - a gesture that would be more impressive if he had a beard - and then nods, half to himself.
"I believe I will turn in early tonight," he admits. "I'm not as young as I used to be, and besides, the teacher should set a good example for the student, would you not agree, Lady Akasha?"
Akasha inclines her head.
"Yeah, I guess I'll call it a night, too," Briar sighs. "If only so I can be rested and ready for whatever trouble this one" - she gestures at you - "gets into tomorrow."
The four Shuzen ladies, Katara, and Akkiko alternately giggle or snicker at Briar's remark and the put-upon expression you don in response. Tatsuki seems mildly frustrated that she missed the joke, while Sokka and his parents just look around in puzzlement.
In short order, you've said your goodnights and been wished pleasant dreams by most of the table, with Kahlua adding that she has a "full day" planned for tomorrow, "so you'd better be ready!" After that, Miss Shirogane reappears in response to Akasha's summons, and escorts your small group to the guest wing.
"This one is yours, Master Lu," the aide says, pointing to a door on the left side of the hall. "And that one," she continues, indicating the door directly across from your teacher's, "is for Mister Harris and Miss Briar. Each has its own bathroom."
Thanking her, you enter your room and look around. It turns out to be part of a suite, the sitting room in which you're standing having two doors in opposite ends of the far wall. The one to your right leads into the bathroom, which has the usual assortment of plumbing - done in tasteful style, all white marble and pale blue seashell tiles - including a modestly-sized tub. Backing out of the washroom, you check behind the other door and find the bedroom, complete with dresser, wardrobe, and queen-sized bed. The overall color scheme here is mahogany, with dark red carpet, comforter, and drapes over the window.
Looking at the bed, you have to laugh. There are no less than four small pillows laid out across the head of the mattress, each of them with the distinctive sheen of silk.
Somebody's showing off here, and it isn't you.
Briar squeals in delight and abandons your shoulder to investigate what you'd swear was a dollhouse, set up on a low chest at the foot of the bed. She disappears inside for a moment, and...
...good lord, is that running water you hear?
From the additional gleeful exclamation, you'd say it is.
Somebody is DEFINITELY showing off.
Your bags have been deposited near the wardrobe and look like they've already been emptied - a quick check confirms that someone has indeed moved your clothes to the appropriate drawers and clothes-hangers. After making sure that you know where everything is, you return to the hall, where Miss Shirogane has been waiting. Lu-sensei is already back from checking his rooms as well.
The woman adjusts her glasses again, looking expectant. "I trust everything is to your liking, gentlemen?"
"It is," Lu-sensei agrees.
"I'm good."
"I LOVE the house!" Briar cheers. "Thank whoever thought of that for me, will you?"
Miss Shirogane smiles. "I'll pass on your compliments. Well, then. Good night, all."
And with that, she walks off.
Is there anything else you want to say or do before undertaking your usual pre-bedtime routine, casting Nap Stack, and hitting the hay?