You have no problem agreeing to your teacher's request. The slowly easing sting in your throat and chest is a very convincing argument.

That settled, you turn to your sparring partner.

"Sorry if I scared you there, Altria."

"The apology is appreciated, Alex," the blonde replies formally. "And I must also apologize, for-"

You raise a hand. "You didn't do anything wrong. You've-" You pause and turn your head to cough again, gesturing silently for her not to say anything until your throat is clear and eased. "Sorry about that. Now, like I was saying, you've used that mana burst skill right in front of people before. Heck, you've used it right in front of ME before. Has anyone else ever started choking on it?"

Altria considers your words, clearly thinking back. "No, I do not believe they have."

"And I'd be willing to bet that's because nobody was ever dumb enough to try to absorb the energy given off by the technique before. Which means the only person at fault here, is me."

"There, you see?" Lucia says, nudging her daughter. "Just like I said. You have nothing to worry about; it's all the boy's fault."

You give the woman a look, unsure whether to protest her words or thank her for supporting yours. Altria just sort of hangs her head and refuses to look at either of you.

You're pretty sure you catch a smile that she's trying to hide.

That's it as far as the fights go. You and Altria return the training weapons and practice gear you were using, and after Briar hands down her assessment of your "injury" - which boils down to minor irritation of the lungs and an equally mild disturbance in your aura, both of which should heal up just fine overnight, as long as you don't do anything to make them worse in the meantime - everyone leaves the sparring room.

The group splits up at that point. The Water Tribe kids join their father in escorting their mother back to their room for a lie-down, while the Drakes head for one of the sitting rooms, apparently to discuss Altria's performance during the various sparring matches. Tatsuki half-carries her mother away for parts unknown, Akkiko saluting everyone with her still-not-completely-drained bowl of whatever before she's pulled out of sight, and when Akasha sees Kokoa trying to hide a yawn, she nudges the smallest Shuzen towards the stairs, promising her that Moka will read her a story if she agrees to take a nap. Moka sighs but dutifully trails along after her mother and sister, leaving you, Lu-sensei, and Briar with Kahlua and Ms. Hayashi.

It's a somewhat subdued vampire princess who shows you back to the library, where you end up spending the next few hours reading through parts of several books. One is a collection of familiar fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but generally told from the point of view of the non-humans and with rather different outcomes. Not always the ones you'd expect, either. You're not at all surprised when the Giant proves hardy enough to survive his fall, and goes on to grind Jack's bones - as well as those of a number of other humans - to make his bread, while waiting for a new beanstalk to grow so he can go back home. The Wolf turns out to be the hero of his story, saving Red - who wore the hood to hide her own wolf ears and tail - from the evil Hunter that had killed her Grandmother for sheltering her. The Tale of the Three Bears is the same right up to the point where the furry protagonists discover Goldilocks sleeping in one of their beds - at which point she wakes up, beats the lot of them senseless for disturbing her, and goes on her way.

You're not sure what the moral of that one's supposed to be. Humans make bad houseguests, maybe?

Dinner rolls around and is fairly quiet, although Issa and Ambrose are both present and some answers regarding the intrusive necromancer acquired. It turns out that what Ambrose was called out to help identify was the remains of a kind of portal, which the necromancer was using to move to and from the Shuzen Estate unnoticed. Exactly HOW such a thing got set up without triggering the demiplane's wards is something Issa would very much like to know, and he, Ambrose, and Mr. Drake spend a good part of the meal discussing terms for the wizard's assistance in divining the truth of that matter.

You stay up for a few hours after that, visiting the night-blooming garden that you missed out on the previous evening and briefly getting sort-of lost in the maze of rosebushes with the rest of the kids in a game of hide and seek. Even so, you still end up going to bed around eight o'clock - it's been a long, tiring day.

Before you tuck yourself in, you ask Briar to heal you up. She obliges, though not without muttering to herself things like "NOW he asks" and "should have done this earlier."

The night passes without incident, and you wake up at a more reasonable hour. It's only six-thirty in the morning, but at least the sun is up. Laying there in bed, you take stock of your condition.

The irritation in your throat is basically gone, although there's a very slight tickle when you breathe in particularly deeply. Nothing to be concerned about, just something to keep in mind when you're being particularly active. Your ki is at full capacity, and your mana is at 87% - pretty close to full, with the drain of your subspace pockets taken into account.

You ought to have no trouble keeping your promise to Kahlua of a full-power spar.

Speaking of Kahlua, today is July 1st. It is officially her birthday. Perhaps you should dress accordingly?

You unpack your spidersilk suit and lay it out on the bed, inspecting it for wrinkles and casting a cantrip to smooth out the few that you notice. Then you hit the shower. By the time you return and begin to dress, Briar has awoken.

"What's with the monkey suit?" she inquires.

"It's Kahlua's birthday," you reply, slipping the shirt on. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

"If you say so," comes Briar's response, with a hint of a shrug. "So, Alex. How do your lungs feel this morning?"

You inform her of the "tickle" when you breathe deeply, and ask if that's normal.

"Sounds about right."

"And you healing me last night didn't repair that?"

"Mana burn's tricky to heal with magic," Briar answers you seriously. "After all, you're throwing MORE of the stuff that hurt you in the first place at the area that was wounded, and if you don't do everything exactly right, you can end up making it worse. On top of that, the serious cases don't just affect the body - they screw with the mind and the soul, too."

That's an unpleasant thought. "But I was just burned in the physical sense, right?"

"Yeah, that was just the 'skinned knee' version. Leave it alone for another day or so, and it'll clear up all by itself." Briar pauses. "You know, as long as you don't inhale any more clouds of dragon mana or anything like that."

"Wasn't planning to, really." You adjust the jacket on your shoulders. "How do I look?"

"Pretty good," Briar admits. "Don't ask me to help you with that tie, though, I have NO idea how those work."

You glance at the necktie, resting on the comforter where you left it. Yeah, you're not really sure how that's supposed to work, either. Your mother showed you a couple of times before you left - your father mostly gave you sympathetic looks - but even leaving aside those ridiculous knots, the idea of tying a length of material around your own throat is kind of unsettling. Ganondorf saw too many fellow thieves swung from the gallows for it to be otherwise.

Still, tradition states that formal wear for men involves one of these... torture devices.

You shake your head to dispel the lingering feeling of danger. It's just a tie, a silly piece of cloth. It is in no way a threat to you, save perhaps as a social faux pas if you end up wearing it wrong - and given your age and lack of prior experience, you think you can be forgiven one such minor fashion failure.

You take a minute to go over what your mother showed you, tying and untying the cloth several times over until you're reasonably sure you have it right. You then slip the tie under your shirt collar and repeat the process.

Gained Dexterity F (Plus)

Success!

And you didn't even put it on backwards!

Gained Style E

You're about to leave the room when it occurs to you that you were never actually asked to dress up all formal-like for today, whether by your hosts or by your teacher. Perhaps it's not required? Or at least, not yet?

You puzzle over that for a moment, then decide you might as well call for some help from the help, just to make sure you're not overdressed - and that you got the tie correct, while you're at it. Now, where was that bell-pull...?

Ah. Giving the rope in question a light tug, you feel something shift and hear a low, clear, rather quiet tone from somewhere nearby. You wait a moment, then another, then a few more-

There is a knock at the door of your suite. "Mister Harris?"

"Come in," you call out, stepping out of your bedroom. The door opens to reveal the maid from the other night, Mio, who bows smartly.

"Good morning, sir. How may I be of assistance?"

"Good morning, Miss Mio. And I have two questions for you."

"Ask away, sir."

"Right. Well, first of all, I was just wondering if formal wear was required today, or at least, this early? No one actually said anything to me either way, you see."

Mio nods. "Formalwear will indeed be expected for Miss Kahlua's birthday party, Mister Harris. And while that isn't actually scheduled to begin until eleven o'clock, additional guests will be arriving throughout the morning, so formal attire would not be inappropriate."

"Alright, then. Second, how's my tie?"

The maid blinks at that, steps closer and leans forward to regard you intently for a moment, and then blinks again.

"You appear to have everything well in hand, Mister Harris." She straightens up. "Will that be all?"

"Yes, and thank you."

The maid departs as quickly and smoothly as she arrived.

Problem solved, you consider your next move. A glance at the clock shows it to currently be nine minutes to seven, and breakfast isn't until eight.

A thought occurs, and you return to the bedroom.

"Hey, Briar?"

"Yeah?" comes the reply from inside the little guest-house.

"I've been thinking on the subject of the familiar ritual, and I had some ideas I wanted to run past you."

There's a brief pause. "Alright. Give me a chance to get cleaned up, and we'll talk."

You excuse yourself from the room, hearing the sound of a tiny shower turning on.

Rather than just cool your heels for however long it takes Briar to ready herself to face the day, you decide to give meditation a go. You get into the zen zone easily enough, but when you sense Briar's presence approaching and return to full consciousness, you find that you were only under for maybe five minutes - not enough time to yield any sort of benefit, at your current level of skill.

Oh well.

"So," the fairy inquires, dropping onto her usual spot on your shoulder. "What've you got?"

You proceed to outline your idea of deliberately "balancing" the upcoming ritual in favor of one or more elements, in the hope of granting Briar an increased affinity for the force(s) in question.

Her response?

"Honestly, I'd rather not. I like me fine the way I am, and me with a shot of, let's say elemental Fire in my veins? Would be somebody else." She pauses. "Also, Mom would object. Strenuously."

"Because of me?" you ask.

"Partly, but also to the whole idea in general. 'Respect your aura,' 'power comes at a price,' 'no daughter of mine will be an elemental' - that kind of thing."

Huh. Well, then.

"Alright, but while we're on the subject, are there any other modifications you might want made to the ritual? I mean, as I understand it, this thing is usually used on mundane animals."

"That's true," Briar agrees, "but the familiar ritual was designed to be as flexible as possible, so that any spellcaster could use it and get SOMETHING, regardless of their particular elemental affinities or fields of specialization. The basic ritual calls up an animal, gives it half a brain, draws out its lifespan to match the summoner's, forms the bond, and tacks on a few utility powers as a bonus - and you're right, that form wouldn't work on a fairy. The version of the ritual we've been planning is more involved. It has the same basic structure, but it's simplified in some ways, and expanded in others. It gives up the mental and physical boosts and shunts the power they would have taken into strengthening the summons and the bond, so you can call up and partner with something more impressive than just a toad or a rat."

"But you're already here," you note. "Could we drop the part where the ritual 'summons' you, and get more power out of that?"

Briar considers that. "Yeah, that might work. Bring up the summoning circle, will you?"

With a simple cantrip, you sketch the ritual diagram on the surface of the largest table in the room in lines and curves of pale white light. You and Briar spend the next half hour and more going over the different sections of the circle, suggesting modifications and "drawing" new circles that incorporate them to compare and contrast with the existing diagram.

Gained Scholar's Soul E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Eventually, you produce a group of ritual circles that drop the "summoning" aspect of the ritual in favor of strengthening one part of the familiar bond, and through it, the familiar herself. That said, neither you nor Briar have enough experience with rituals of this sort to precisely determine how the magic would manifest; the best you can do is determine that one circle would provide some sort of boost to Briar's general magical potential, another to her mental abilities, and the third to her physical prowess.

"Speaking as the one who'd be on the receiving end of this," Briar notes, "I'd rather avoid anything that mucks with my head. I'm kind of split on the other two. Yeah, having more magic on tap would be useful, but the prospect of being less squishy definitely has its appeal, too."

OMAKE: Natal Chart Horoscope of Alexander Lavelle Harris, Semi-Reformed Ex-King of Evil.

Born: 11/4/1991 [11th April 1991]
Time: 5:16:45, Sunrise (5:28)

Ascendant Sign:

Pisces (Instinct)

Sun Sign:

Aries (Outward)

Moon Sign:

Pisces, Waning Moon (Core)

Sun

Aries, 21°07', I

Moon

Pisces, 9°07', I

Mercury

Aries, 26°43', XII

Venus

Taurus, 28°14', II

Mars

Cancer, 4°32', IV

Jupiter

Leo, 3°46', V

Saturn

Aquarius, 5°46', XI

Uranus

Capricorn, 13°48', Midheaven (X)

Neptune

Capricorn, 16°45', XI

Pluto

Scorpio, 19°53' VIII

Chinese Zodiac: Sheep (Metal)

As an Aries with Moon in Pisces and Ascendant you always at the edge of something new, your adventurous spirit leading the way. No matter the goals set for you or by yourself, you'll always pursue them with enthusiasm and without shying away from risk. This spirit makes you a strong leader that can help others face these same challenges with the knowledge that you won't leave them abandoned.

This is perhaps your saving graces as otherwise your craving for the new and the extraordinary and aversion to the ordinary and mundane can leave you abandoning projects part way through. Watching out for others can be a break on your hasty decision making and general impatience when things don't move fast enough for you.

Be careful that you do not let the competitive spirit flare up into meaningless arguments as you may find yourself responding with cruel words or violence without thought. Mercury grants an innocent sincerity which may make it easier for others to forgive your quick words but your enthusiasm will frequently become aggressive when defending what you hold important. Pisces influence on your life makes this rare however as your Moon Sign fills you with sympathy and compassion for those around you making you quick to forgive slights against you. This may be a weakness in and of itself as you forgive without always considering if you should or not giving openings for others to betray or simply drag you down under the weight of their problems.

The influence of Pisces also takes the edge off your tendency to be without a plan but without someone or something to ground you such plans may often be at odds with your capability or otherwise impractical. They'll never lack for creativity however, successful or not they'll have style and imagination as you refuse the common path to forge your own way. Sagittarius works hard to counter this tendency but is swamped by the other influences in your life. It is not without hope however as you may with effort learn better planning skills as time passes.

Even when by yourself you're always on the look out for what's ahead and preparing for what maybe but this can lead to frustration when things don't go as expected this can leave you uncertain of your choices leaving you discouraged or uncertain of the rightness of your path. Be aware as well that a strong attunement to the psychic realms may set challenges that others would not have to face or even be aware of.

The Ascendancy of Pisces at your birth synergises well with your inner and outer selves. Your creative and confident nature combined with your willingness to explore and risk will stand you in good stead in many creative endeavours such as acting and dance or other arts and sports involving danger, conflict or competition.
Mercury's guidance means you'll always have the right words ready when needed and while others may find your humour odd those close to you will be able to see the wit in it with ease.

You are not one to ignore the less physical however as you have a strong affinity for knowledge and an equal admiration for those who educate themselves regardless of the field. You would make an excellent teacher with your own affinities leading you to excel in matters of philosophy, spirituality, the arts and the more ephemeral arts where your links to the psychic realms stand you in good stead.
Mercury and Venus are your ally in this as they prompts you to always be aware of your surroundings, expanding your horizons and seek new sensation. You are quick to debate any topic, even with yourself, if it brings new knowledge and interpretations to the fore.
Neptune will also support success and fulfilment when sharing the works of your creative endeavours with others especially those including dance or poetry.

There isn't an obstacle you can't work around your as flexible approach to life means that any approach from the direct to the subtle is within your grasp and your explorations give you many tools to use as you ply charm, imagination and passion to any problem.

Still be wary as the newest fad or point of interest to take your fancy might well not to be in your best interest so seek those of a more considering nature to help ground you from excess. Such companions will be ever helpful to you when you find yourself faced with choosing which of the many paths available to you to take. They will also provide council when your own beliefs are colouring your perception of reality before such things bring harsh reality down upon you and yours.

In your relationships Aries and Venus drive you to seek you new friends and companions while Saturn has you hold fast to those who have proven themselves. To you there is nothing more valuable that a boon companion of many years frequently surprising those who would expect you to act as with other aspects of your life. Your ability to feel the needs of groups leaves you capable in such circumstances but where such groups are in conflict with themselves you prefer to be the wolf looking in from outside but forging on alone to solve what problems rear their head.
Neptune's influence means many of those that you bind yourself to will be strong in spiritual matters or realms.

Mars' influence on your life is weak meaning that what conflict finds you will often have been self generated either by deliberate action, negligence or by setting yourself against what is real and taking on the conflicts of others as your own of your own will. It's position in Fourth House means what direction it does have on you urges you to fight to defend your family and those Saturn has you hold close from all without and even yourself if needed.
Your battles are not something ordained by the Heavens but stem purely from your morals and sense of ethics but be wary of Neptune driving you to martyrdom.

Pluto's mark on you as having deep conflict within and without, perhaps with your inner self. Sometimes this will leave you finding yourself to be a stranger to your country or even to the world itself as impulses you deny seek to make themselves known.
With this in your core you may find your thinking and priorities to be different from those around you driven by your inner conflict's need for an ending and an inner need to make a mark on the life of others as Pluto has with you.
While your inner conflict can be won you must strive forward under the influence of your sun sign and seek empowerment. In this Pluto may boost the affinities your Moon and Rising sign of Pisces bequeaths you further strengthening your aptitude for the Psychic and spiritual matters and ability.

Your inclination to travel will cause the East to have a strong influence on your growth. Born under the auspices of the Sheep and in the cycle of Metal your respect for others will grow as will your desire for virtue over vice.
In life you will find your accomplishments standing on their own merit. While you are happy to have them known glory is not your goal in life to find fame and recognition finding bragging to be a waste of time better used otherwise. Like everything else your occasional indulgence is to be expected but it is for the sake of novelty alone.

Metal is the Element of the west and the alloying of these principles within you with help you on the path of inner strength and success while reinforcing your native confidence and determination. Beware unreasoning stubbornness and becoming isolated by your own flaws and self-reliance.

The Sheep in the Years of Metal carries strong correspondence to those presented above as influenced by Aries and Pisces, with strong connotations of success being high but fickle in financial matters, and reinforcing a propensity to wear masks over your emotions and feeling for the sake of others and yourself.

With hard work good will come with any situation. Triangle alone or in threes and Death will bring luck but two triangles together and hexagons beget misfortune.

Mars weaken influence does little to support you Sun Sign to counter the strong feminine aspect of your Moon and Ascendant Signs given the support of Venus so you may find that you draw female company over male while finding traditionally female pastimes and crafts bring unexpected pleasure. You will find deep and long term romantic relationships hard to come by but those that do finally come to fruition will be tales told long after.

The Moon's Waning aspect during your birth suggests that your inner conflict involves letting go of the past to let something new begin, that in some way your conflict is the chrysalis from which the new will be born in you or through you.

Chart Ruled by: Neptune

Dominant Planets: Venus, Saturn and Pluto

Planets in Fall: Mars

Auspicious Time: 1pm to 3pm

Auspicious Elements: Fire and Water (Western), Earth and Metal (Eastern)

Beneficial (Eastern): Generates Metal, Generates Water

Destructive (Eastern): Cuts Wood, Swallows Water

Hostile (Eastern): Hates Water, Hates Wood

Auspicious Colours: Reds especially Scarlet, Fiery & Ruby, Sky Blue, Ocean Green, Purple and White

Inauspicious Colours: Green, Black, Golden and Coffee

Lucky Animal: Horses and Snakes (including to a lesser extent Dragons)

Unlucky Animal: Crabs

Lucky Numbers: 3, 4 & 9

Unlucky Numbers: 6 & 7

Yin/Yang: Yin

Virtues: Integrity, Cleanliness

Hardest Virtue: Patience

Common Failings: Assumptions, Denial of what is and Unthinking cruelty.

You consider the options, and then nod to yourself.

"Well, if we're taking votes on this, magic gets mine," you reply. "More power to the healer is never a bad thing. And besides, magical enhancements and defenses can go a long way towards making up for a lack of physical ability."

"The voice of experience," Briar notes dryly.

"Yes, yes, ha ha, very funny. But seriously, if I need to be stronger, I can cast a Spell of Bull's Strength or turn myself into a giant or something. I can't really turn that around and produce magical effects with physical power. Ki helps a bit, but generating personal armor and shooting energy blasts is a long way from, oh, turning people into ducks by punching them."

The fairy stares at you. "Alex, that may be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Where did you even-?"

"I don't know, it just... popped in there." You shake your head. "My point is, it's a lot easier to fake physical power using magic than it is to fake magic using physical power. And it's not like you were planning on taking up a sword and charging into battle any time soon, right?"

"No," Briar agrees cheerfully, "I have you for that."

You scowl at the fairy.

There are some other things you'd like to talk to Briar about - potential effects the ritual could have on her growth - but a knock at the door distracts you.

"Yes?"

"Alex?" Lu-sensei's voice comes through the door. "It's almost time for breakfast."

You glance at the clock, and realize it's twelve minutes to eight. Huh. You hadn't realized that much time had gone by while you were talking shop with Briar. Your stomach promptly lodges a protest against your absent-mindedness.

"Just a minute, Sensei!"

Making a mental note to come back to the matter of the modified ritual circle later, when you have more time to pick at its workings, you dismiss the glowing images, rise from your chair, and straighten your clothes before heading for the door.

As you step into the hall, Lu-sensei gives you a once-over, arching one eyebrow. You note in turn that he isn't wearing his usual martial arts master's robe, but a slightly fancier and more formal-looking example of the style.

"I must admit, I am both surprised and pleased at this particular initiative, Alex," he says. "You even got the tie right."

"Mom showed me a few times before we left," you admit.

Your master nods, and the pair of you fall into step as you head downstairs, Briar still sitting easily on your shoulder.

"So tell me, Alex, how do you feel this morning?"

"Well-rested and almost entirely back to normal," you answer honestly. "There's a bit of a tickle at the back of my throat if I breathe in very deeply, but Briar says that'll be gone within another day or so. Apart from that, I'm great."

"Good, good. But while we're on the subject - and forgive me for putting it so bluntly, but I want to be sure you understand me when I say that you are NOT to do any more experimenting like that today."

Lu-sensei appears VERY insistent about this.

When you stop and think about it, you have a pretty good guess as to why Lu-sensei is making such a quietly insistent request of you.

"This has to do with the other guests the Shuzens have invited, doesn't it, Lu-sensei?" Your master gives you a quizzical look, and you add, "I spoke with one of the maids earlier, about the dress-code for the day. She mentioned that other people would be showing up throughout the morning, and that formal attire would be a good idea."

The old man nods. "I haven't seen the guest list or anything like that, but I would be greatly surprised if it didn't include a relatively large number of vampires, monsters, and other local members of the Moonlit World. And while the rules of hospitality will compel them to mind their manners as long as you and they are guests of the Shuzens, once the party's over... well. Let's just say that first impressions are going to be important, especially for anyone who doesn't have a child you've managed to make friends with."

"And looking reckless or weak would be a bad impression to give," you conclude. "At least in front of the kind of crowd we're expecting."

"To say the least."

Gained Cryptozoology D (Plus)
Gained Dark Affinity D
Gained King of Monsters E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

You take a deep breath, and stand a bit straighter than before. "Alright, Sensei. I'll take extra care today."

That settled, the two of you - and Briar - head down to the dining room. When you arrive, you're not too surprised to find that Hakoda and Kya are absent again, but it comes as something of a shock that Akkiko, Lucia, and Akasha are nowhere in sight, even though the rest of their respective families are at the table. Issa and Mr. Drake both look a touch unwell, and are glaring blearily at one another over steaming cups of coffee, with the occasional dark glance spared for Ambrose, who appears much the same as always.

"Master Lu, Alexander, Briar," Gyokuro greets you as you enter. "Good morning. We were just about to send someone to find you." She give you and your teacher a quick, assessing look, and appears to approve of your choice in clothes.

Looking around quickly, you note that - with the exception of Ambrose - the adults who are present are all looking particularly well-dressed this morning. The two elder Shuzen sisters and Altria have followed suit, and Katara is wearing a fancier grade of furs than she had on yesterday. Sokka and Kokoa are dressed the same as they were yesterday, and Tatsuki is wearing a very plain robe that you're tempted to classify as a housecoat.

It would seem your choice to dress up was a good one.

As you take your seat, you remind yourself to eat slowly to avoid spills - cantrips can remove stains readily enough, but the social gaffe involved is not so easily dealt with.

None of the absent adults have shown up by the time the food arrives, and as the morning meal goes on, you get the feeling they're not going to show up.

You have to admit, you're curious as to why the three ladies aren't here... but this may not be the place or time to ask.

Considering the state Issa and Mr. Drake are in, and Ambrose's general... Ambrose-ness... you decide it's probably better not to ask what's holding up the three absent ladies.

Instead, you take a few minutes to eat, and stare bleakly at the eating competition that has apparently sprung up between Altria and Sokka. You, Tatsuki, and the Shuzen girls all knew from that post-division championship lunch at the tournament that Altria can really pack it away, but Sokka and Katara weren't present for that meal - probably because Sokka had been knocked out of the running in preliminaries - and the two of them are visibly surprised by Altria's eating habits.

True, she ate like this at lunch and dinner yesterday, but that was after she'd been throwing around large amounts of energy during your morning adventure and the afternoon spars. Almost all of you other than Katara were eating more than normal because of those events, so Altria's feat of clearing out generous helpings, seconds, thirds, fourths, and even fifths in short order didn't stand out too much. Now, though...

Well. Suffice it to say, Sokka seems to feel the need to test himself against this rival devourer of all things foody, and while he's keeping up with Altria in terms of quantity, he's having rather more trouble maintaining his table manners in the process.

Shaking your head, you pull your eyes away from the gluttonous spectacle and turn to the resident wizard.

"Ambrose?"

"Hmmm?" he replies, around a mouthful of fluffy pancakes.

"What do you know about familiar rituals?"

The old man swallows. "A fair bit. It's not one of the fields of magic that I specialize in, but it IS a rather popular one, and some of the principles are interesting enough to be worth a look now and then. Why do you ask?"

You proceed to explain the situation regarding you, Briar, the Hellmouth's clumsy attempt at binding the two of you, and your own intention of breaking that sloppily-formed, corruption-tainted link, clearing out the crud, and replacing it with the genuine article.

Ambrose listens, frowning at first as you describe the unnatural not-quite-a-familiar-bond, then nodding in approval of your intent to get rid of it, and finally just looking interested as you get on with describing the ritual you were planning to use.

"Do you have a diagram?" he asks after a certain point.

You pause. You could easily recreate the illusory image you were using back in your room, but talking about magic at the breakfast table is one thing - actually WORKING magic feels like it might be a bit inappropriate.

"I do, but- could you hang on a second?" You turn away from Ambrose and look to Gyokuro, who - in Akasha's absence and Issa's less-than-ideal-for-dealing-with-people state - has taken over the role of hostess. "Ma'am? Do you mind if I cast a minor spell at the table?"

Gyokuro regards you for a moment. "Only to show Ambrose what you're discussing?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very well. I'll allow it. But try to keep the distraction down."

"I will, thank you." You half-bow from your seat, and then turn back to Ambrose and cast the cantrip you were using upstairs. The diagram you and Briar had settled, and which you were careful to commit to memory, appears on the table next to Ambrose's right hand.

He moves some of the silverware aside and begins studying it intently.

Some of the other kids try to stretch their necks and peer around the breakfast spread to get a better look at the little glowing circle, at least until the adults chide them with looks and utterances of disapproval.

"I see... I see... that's interesting. And would that... yes, it would. So that means... ah, right then."

Ambrose goes on like that for a while, muttering to himself while continuing to eat - at a much slower pace than before, admittedly. You take the opportunity to down the remainder of a half-eaten pancake, as well as a sausage and some fresh sliced apple. That cleans your plate, but after a moment's consideration, you decide to fill it up again. You've got another long day ahead of you, and you'll need the energy.

You're perhaps a fifth of the way through your second helping of breakfast when Ambrose finally looks up.

"Trying to give Briar access to more power in case of emergencies, I presume?" he inquires.

Swallowing a crispy piece of bacon, you reply, "That was the idea, but we weren't sure how that extra power would manifest."

"Yes, I noticed that the terms outlined in the circle were a bit... loose, in that regard. I can show you how to tighten things up so you don't get any unpleasant surprises." He dismisses your diagram with a wave of his hand and a small, focused burst of mana. "But after breakfast."

That's fine by you.

The meal lasts another fifteen minutes or so. You clean your plate for a second time, and feel sufficiently full not to bother with thirds. Sokka and Altria, meanwhile, have concluded their breakfast battle; Sokka put up a valiant effort, but in the end, five meat-heavy servings proved to be his limit, and left him holding his belly with an air of mild unwellness. Altria, meanwhile, managed a sixth round, and doesn't seem discomfitted in the least.

You feel a mometary impulse to conjure a medal, trophy, or tiny crown for her, but dismiss it.

With breakfast officially over, you spare a moment to listen in on what Kahlua and the other kids are going to be doing. Given that you all just finished eating, it's a bit too soon for anything as physically-demanding as yesterday's activities, to say nothing of the possibility of ruining your good clothes. So instead, Kahlua decides that you should all pay a visit to the Children's Game Room.

"I'll catch up," you tell her. "I just want to finish talking shop with Ambrose first."

Kahlua nods, and leads the rest of the group away - Sokka trailing along at the rear, moving slowly and somewhat awkwardly.

You turn to the wizard and re-create the glowing ritual circle on a handy stretch of wall. "Now, where were we?"

"Let's start with this part, here," Ambrose says, pointing at the upper right-hand section of the runic diagram.

What follows is a twenty-minute discussion in which Ambrose breaks down the workings of the circle as he sees them, and describes the likely effects of a ritual employing said circle to form a familiar link with a fairy.

"Using this ritual diagram," Ambrose says, "I'd expect to see Miss Briar's maximum magical capacity increase by fifty percent or so over the first year you were bonded, and to keep increasing over time as your capacity grew. Her tolerance for channeling greater amounts of mana could then be increased with practice, but from what I can tell, mana recovery would stay about the same."

"So, she'd have more power to work with up front, and could learn to use more advanced spells," you muse, "but she'd need longer to recover her full power after running dry."

"That certainly sounds familiar," Briar notes.

"It does, doesn't it?" you agree. "What about the part of the bond that alters the familiar's lifespan? Could we change that?"

"Not really, but there's no real point in doing so," Ambrose says, before explaining in more detail.

It's true that normal animals bound to a relatively long-lived human have their lifespans affected, but that's at least partly because of the similarities between master, familiar, and their respective life-forces. After all, humans are technically animals, too, and not just in the taxonomical sense - they're mortal creatures native to the Earth, born of a chain of lives that goes back billions of years on this little ball of rock, and thoroughly adapted to all the unique quirks their environment has thrown at said chain in that time. Which isn't even getting into all the spiritual links between humans and animals - predators and prey, rivals and partners, opportunists and companions, totems, and more.

When you get right down to it, the life force of an animal has very little difference from the essence of a human, and since master and familiar share a measure of their vitality through magic, it's not surprising that the weaker of the two would start to synch up with the greater. Hence familiar animals being smarter, longer-lived, and tougher than their completely mundane cousins.

When a spellcaster chooses a familiar with more esoteric origins, their lack of a similar sympathetic nature means that the shared life-force has far less pronounced effects. For that matter, the energies often can't be mixed directly or in the same kind of quantity without one side or the other of the bond getting sick; instead, some of that animating energy is drawn off and consumed by the bond in order to fuel a purification matrix, neutralizing the "alien" elements of one side's essence and leaving only a purified, mostly neutral vital force behind.

"That is, unless you've bound an undead spirit, a minor demon, or something of a similar nature," Ambrose adds offhandedly. "Those sorts of creatures tend to eat life-force, regardless of its source, so you don't really need a filter on their end of the bond - but then you have to seriously shore up YOUR side, so it balances out."

"And fairies?" you inquire.

"Significantly closer to humans than demons, but still much further from us than animals," comes the reply. "Someone who had fey ancestry could get away with making some modifications to the transferrence element of the bond, but I'd strongly recommend that you two leave that part of things alone." He pauses. "Well, unless YOU want to start growing wings, or Miss Briar is comfortable with the idea of adding a couple feet of height in short order."

You and Briar trade looks. "Yeah, no."

"I didn't think so. But as I said, there are a few areas in this diagram where I can see room for improvements."

Ambrose proceeds to show you two revised circles, each of which sacrifices some of the potential expansion of Briar's reserves in order to shore up her mana recovery rate. The first circle would grant Briar only a 25% increase in her magical capacity over the course of the first year you were bonded, but would increase her mana regeneration proportionally, so that she'd always be able to return to full power with a good night's rest - mainly by drawing off your life-force and excess mana. Ambrose's second circle is something of a compromise between his first and the one you're currently using, granting a 37% increase in capacity and a 13% increase in recovery.

Well, that was enlightening.

Gained Abjuration C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Arcanology D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

But speaking of mana recovery...

"While we're on the subject," you say leadingly, "do you have any tips on how a person could improve their mana regeneration?"

"Besides NOT trying to eat other people's auras?" Ambrose responds dryly.

Oh good. He heard about yesterday.

"Truth be told, lad, most practitioners will never have the kind of power you do, and they either learn to accept their limits, or stock up on various artificial supplements. Granted, there's always going to be people idiotic enough to make ill-advised deals for more power, but I'm pretty sure you can guess my opinion of THAT approach."

Considering that this is the man who put a seal on you specifically to prevent you from drawing on external magical sources? Yeah, you've got a pretty good idea that Ambrose Does Not Approve of that kind of thing.

"Now, that said," he continues, "there's a couple types of meditation that can help speed one's recovery, but I suspect your kung fu teacher has already taught you an equivalent to the basic form that I know. As for the advanced version, well, that's something I can't in good conscience teach to anybody who lives on the Hellmouth."

And that sounds almost exactly like what Lu-sensei said yesterday. Coincidence? Maybe, and then again, maybe not. Either way, you have the impression Ambrose has nothing else to say on that front.

"Well," the wizard says. "This was a diverting discussion, Alex, but I'm afraid I have an appointment with the lord of the manor, and he's in a foul enough mood that I probably shouldn't be late. If you'll excuse me..."

And Ambrose sweeps off down the hall, leaving you and Briar by yourself.

After a moment, you shrug, and head off in search of Kahlua and the others. You were shown the Game Room as part of yesterday's tour, and while it takes you a few minutes, you eventually find your way back there without having to ask directions.

However, the room in question turns out to be empty.

"Um, Alex?"

"Yeah, Briar?"

"Kahlua called it the Children's Game Room, didn't she?"

You think back, considering the emphasis Briar put on the extra word, and sigh. "Yeah, she did. So there's another Game Room in the castle."

"Do we have any idea where it is?"

...good question. You don't recall it being part of yesterday's tour.

You find yourself divided between using your circle, and using the first of Ambrose's suggested revisions. As such, you turn to your trusty fairy companion.

"I like our original option, and the first one Ambrose gave us," you admit, "but you're the one who'll be most affected by this, Briar. So which do you prefer?"

"Definitely Ambrose's first one," Briar says without hesitation.

"Moderately increased mana capacity, and a proportionate boost to mana recovery," Ambrose notes. "May I ask why that one?"

"Well, the LAST time I got a major power boost, I also grew about an inch," Briar admits. "And even with this familiar ritual being designed to NOT cause any physical transformations in and of itself, I'm still kind of nervous that it might happen again."

"That's not an entirely unreasonable concern," Ambrose agrees. "The familiar bond won't speed up your normal growth, but it won't SLOW it, either, and if I recall, fairy maturation is rather closely tied to the quality and quantity of magical energy in the environment." He pauses, looking thoughtful. "Although since you've been residing on a Hellmouth..."

"...having a proper bond with Alex would actually be healthier for me in the long run than just leaving things as they are." Briar nods. "Not that it's BAD, now. Daily purification keeps out the hell-crud, a warded room with a higher-than-average level of non-demonic magic makes for a safe place to sleep, I've got a bunch of kids to look out for, and Lu Tze's place is a literal breath of fresh air, especially that garden. Still, as good as all of that is, it'd be BETTER if I had a steady flow of purified mana backing me up. That said, it's possible to have TOO much of a good thing."

"And hence your preference for the ritual diagram with the lowest power boost," Ambrose concludes. "Less power overall means less chance of... unwanted side-effects, but greater recovery means more opportunity each day to practice with and get accustomed to your increased magical capacity."

You clear your throat to catch the pair's attention. "So then. Ambrose Ritual Circle, Version One, is a go?"

"Please and thank you," Briar says.

"You're welcome," Ambrose adds.

Gained Familiar Ritual Circle: Ambrose Version 1.0

You briefly consider casting a spell to track down your friends, or even just using your supernatural senses to follow their trail. Altria's aura is pretty distinctive, and the vampire girls' not much less so. But while you're confident in your ability to eventually locate the others, you're not entirely certain you could do so in a timely manner, thanks to the stone walls and heavy wards of Castle Shuzen.

And you did tell Kahlua that you'd catch up.

So you turn to the servants that emerged to clean up the dining room table, and ask for directions. They're perfectly helpful, and you head off down the hall, take the second turn on your left until you reach the stairs, then head up to second floor - where you hear the sound of young voices raised in excitement, accompanied by a confusing yet familiar welter of electronic sounds, before you've even cleared the stairs. Following the noise more than your directions at this point, you head for the third door on the right, and open it.

And here, you have to stop and stare.

The Shuzen Children's Game Room is a private arcade. At a glance, you count some three dozen machines lined up within, many with four-player control consoles. Fighting titles and beat 'em ups make up a significant part of the collection, but platformers, rail shooters, and driving sims are represented, and one of those flashy dance machines appears to have a place of honor at the middle of the room. There's even a couple of pinball machines that appear to see regular use.

At the moment, Altria is getting her head handed to her by Moka at a game of King of Fighters, while Sokka is on the verge of WEEPING as Kokoa demolishes him at Darkstalkers - this despite her having to use a footstool to even reach the controls. Kahlua and Katara, meanwhile, are exterminating an endless legion of zombies in a light-gun shooter title that you don't recognize; from the look of it, being in a wheelchair does absolutely nothing to hinder Katara's aim, which if her rapidly-mounting score is any indication, is better than Kahlua's. Tatsuki, meanwhile, has gravitated over to one of those digitally-dressed up punching machines - albeit a model that has been reinforced to hell and back - and seems to be in the middle of beating the snot out of a smug, flashily-dressed superheroic type.

Even as the sounds of fierce (digital) hand-to-hand combat, brutal undead slaying, and the collective chaos of dozens of other displays locked in looping demos sweep over you, you find your gaze turning towards the dance machine. Perhaps it's the placement of the game at the center of the room. Perhaps it's the size of the two-person stage and the console, compared to the other machines. It may even be the words of the title, glowing above the display:

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION

Whatever it is, it calls you forward, daring you to challenge the machine and test your skills.

Let it not be said that Alex Harris is one to refuse a challenge.

You step forward, rolling your shoulders and loosening up a bit.

"Briar," you advise your companion, "you might want to move."

The music of the demo cuts out as you step upon the stage, and the screen flashes to the opening menu. Although you can read the text just fine, you don't really recognize any of the songs listed. After going through the list, you shrug and pick one that's marked as "Basic" difficulty. The screen clears, and you take your position as a moment of brief silence falls.

Then the music begins.

Arrows begin to scroll past.

And you?

You MOVE.

The song is not the loudest or the most energetic you've ever heard, and the words fly out of your mind almost as quickly as they enter, but it's got a good beat going for it and catchy rhythm. That's all you really need, right?

Well, that and timing.

And good footwork.

And possibly a lighter, cooler, less confining set of clothes?

...and practice. Lots of practice.

Still, you don't think you did THAT badly.

Gained Agility F (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Dancing F (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Reflexes E (Plus)

Then again, the fat, glowing "D" that the machine rates your performance as suggests otherwise.

You're considering having another go to wipe out the slur against your honor and ability when someone steps up on stage next to you.

"That was terrible," Moka says flatly, as she calls up a song labelled as "Manic" difficulty. "THIS is how you dance. Pay attention."

Given your... lacklustre showing on the game's entry-level difficulty, you don't hesitate to hop down from the stage and back away as Moka gears up for a high-end challenge. You also don't hesitate to awaken your active senses - if Moka's going to show you how to dance, it's only natural that you should pay her your full attention and learn the lesson correctly, the first time. Right?

Gained Mental Sight F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Right.

Most of the other kids have gathered around you, except for Sokka, who has taken over zombie extermination for his sister after she and Kahlua had their attention diverted.

"Is she any good?" you murmur to Kahlua.

"Very," comes the amused reply. "She LOVES that game."

The screen clears.

Moka takes a deep breath.

The music begins, and almost immediately, it's clear that the rhythm of Moka's selected song is faster than the relatively simple tune you chose. The arrows on the screen are flying past at dizzying speeds, in sequences you barely have time to wrap your head around before they're gone.

And Moka?

She's FLYING through the dance.

Your size has its uses, but it does you no real favors when it comes to finesse. You have a tendency to thump when going up or down stairs, unless you're actively trying to avoid such a thing, which generally requires you to slow down - or use magic - and when you're moving as fast as this game requires, trying to follow unfamiliar patterns... well, you make a lot of noise that isn't strictly necessary.

Moka, despite moving considerably faster than you were and almost leaping her way through the steps, is much quieter, to the point where you'd think she might not be hitting the pressure sensors on the stage hard enough to trigger them. But the continuous flashes of the "cleared" arrows on the screen, the repeated outcries of "awesome!" from the machine's sound files, show that she's in no danger of that.

And as fast and furious as the song and dance are, Moka maintains an element of grace that you will - grudgingly - admit you didn't feel in your own performance.

Your attention sharpens, as you try to commit some of Moka's movements to memory. Balance, posture, footwork - you take note of everything you can see, and try to work out how to adjust it for your build.

Gained Agility E
Gained Dancing E
Gained Reflexes E (Plus) (Plus)

Deep in concentration as you are, you're caught slightly off-guard when Moka comes to a sudden stop.

The music has ended, and the DDR machine is talling her score. Letters flash by from D to A, and then pluses start being added - and after the third one, a huge red S slams down atop the ranking, as a canned voice proclaims, "Sensational!"

Moka regards the screen with a smile.

Looking around at your companions, you easily foresee a keen collective interest in DDR in the immediate future.

Moka's performance has definitely earned a round of applause, and you oblige - as do the rest of the group.

It appears to catch her off-guard, as she turns and regards the lot of you for a long moment, before letting a genuine smile show through and taking a bow.

"Clearly," you note, as the clapping dies down, "I have a long way to go before I can challenge the Dancing Queen."

That gets you a laugh from Kahlua and a snicker from Altria, both of whom apparently got the reference. Kokoa frowns, while Tatsuki and Katara give you puzzled looks - apparently none of them are familiar with ABBA. Fair enough; the band DID break up a decade before any of you were born, and you only really know of them from your parents' music collection and the odd movie soundtrack.

Moka seems to recognize the title as well, but merely rolls her eyes at your use of it.

"So," you say then. "Who's up for a group dance battle?"

Off in the back, Sokka groans. It's almost drowned out by the girls' response, even though Katara and Altria both appear somewhat hesitant.

Kahlua addresses that by dragging the British blonde up to the stage with her as Moka steps aside. They spend a moment in discussion, Kahlua demonstrating the basic objective of the game while Altria studies the lighted arrows in the stage intently, and then the eldest Shuzen brings up a song. With two bodies in the way, you can't get a good look at the screen, but as the song begins, the slower pace of the music tells you Kahlua picked an easy one for her guest's sake.

It's a good thing, too, because Altria is far from the best at this style of dance. She's hitting most of the arrows on cue, but you're hearing the buzzer that indicates a misstep a lot more often from Altria's side of the machine than Kahlua's - and more than in your own performance. The errors grow fewer over time, however, and towards the end of the song, Altria is getting into it. Not enough to catch up with Kahlua's score, but enough that she's having fun rather than stumbling through the entire number.

Kokoa goes next, and to your surprise, Katara accompanies her. The Water Tribe girl makes immediate use of the rails at the back of the stage, supporting herself with her arms and giving the arrows a few experimental pokes with her feet while Kokoa chooses the tune. Neither of the pair proves to be particularly good: Katara's clearly never played this game before, and her position is both awkward and tiring to maintain; and while Kokoa is better-practiced, she's also small enough that she almost has to jump across her side of the stage at times. They end up with "E" rank scores.

Finally, Tatsuki drags a protesting Sokka away from zombie-killing, makes him stand next to her on the stage, and picks a song. Tatsuki's dance style learns more towards your style of heavy footwork, though she's faster and moves with the ease of considerable prior experience. Sokka... surprises you. At first, he's almost as bad at this as his sister, but he catches on quickly and gets faster, more accurate, and just plain better as the song progresses. By the end, he's matching Tatsuki almost move for move, but he's working hard to do so, while she's moving easily and just having fun.

You watch it all, keeping up your basic mental augmentation-

Gained Mental Sight E

-and activating your ki sight and spiritual awareness on top of that. Not that either proves terribly helpful; for all the emotional energy that might be invested in it, this particular kind of dancing doesn't appear to have anything in the way of a true spiritual aspect to it. It's just a bunch of kids having fun, not an attempt to invoke the Dark Spirits of Disco or something. The ki boost to your awareness is a bit more helpful, adding additional mental energy that helps expand and clarify your awareness of what the dancers are doing and how, with some bonus insight from watching how their auras behave.

You might have learned more if you weren't splitting your attention between two dancers at a time, but it's not like this round was unproductive.

As a grinning Tatsuki - "B" rank - and a weary Sokka - "C (Plus)" rank - step down from the machine, you glance at Moka. Everybody else has had their go, so it would appear to be time for the two of you to have another turn - that is, if you feel confident in taking on the reigning champ of the Dance Dance Revolution.

You study Moka.

She looks back in kind.

You tap yourself on the chest, point at her, and indicate the DDR machine with one thumb.

Moka follows your gestures and then turns back to you, one silver eyebrow rising inquiringly.

You nod.

She smiles again, and this time, it's pure predatory anticipation.

Despite the unspoken menace, you find yourself returning the shark-like grin.

The other kids step aside as they see you coming, surprise and interest apparent all around.

Almost in unison, you step up onto the stage, and Moka generously offers to let you pick the song. You do so after a moment's consideration, picking out another Basic-ranked song. Choice made, you take a deep breath and roll your shoulders, readying yourself for the contest.

Four arrows.

Three minutes.

Two dancers.

One outcome.

...and probably zero chance for you to win, you admit to yourself, but that's no reason to give up without even trying. With that in mind, you cheat just a little, running a low-level surge of ki through your system to help you limber up and move faster. At the same time, you focus your mental energy and carefully, lightly extend your awareness towards Moka, in the hopes of obtaining hints from her about the upcoming dance.

Gained Mental Concealment F
Gained Mental Sense D

The machine blares a buzzer. The song begins.

And as your friends cheer you on from behind-

"Stomp him into the ground, Big Sister!" Kokoa cries gleefully.

-you dance like you've never danced before.

You quickly find that trying to psychically crib moves from Moka is an exercise in futility. It's not that you can't sense her or that she's blocking you, it's just that she knows this song well enough that she doesn't HAVE to think about it. Her body is flying through the steps almost on autopilot, and all you can get from her head is a fierce competitive urge, the pure will to win, and a simple, uncomplicated joy in the dance itself.

With a mental shrug, you let your telepathic scan lapse, and redirect the mental energy towards quickening your reflexes.

As the song winds down most of three minutes later, you see that the outcome is much as you had expected going in. Moka's scored a "SSS" rank, blowing the previous high score out of the water by two whole grades, and leaving you in the dust.

But you're not too unhappy. Your own "B" rank is a significant improvement, one you're quite sure you could not have pulled off without sneaking in the ki boost.

Gained Agility E (Plus)
Gained Dancing E (Plus)
Gained Reflexes E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Speed D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Moka studies your score for a moment, and gives you a considering look.

"Alas," you sigh dramatically, "despite my efforts, I am defeated. Again." Then you smile, and offer Moka a respectful bow, vanquished to victor. "Not that there was ever any doubt as to the outcome, right?"

"True." Moka's smirk softens as she goes on. "But thank you for the company, Alexander. It's... become a bit difficult to find anyone willing to dance with me of late."

You glance sidelong at her crushing score on the screen, and dryly murmur, "I can't imagine why."

Then you step down from the stage, to let someone else have their turn. This time, it's Tatsuki and Kahlua.

Although the sounds of the rest of the Game Room call out to you, you prefer to ignore them for the time being and keep your attention on the impromptu dance battle. Despite his relative success, Sokka seems to have opted out of any further dancing on grounds of fatigue - though he says that since Tatsuki outscored him, he's been "knocked out." Katara has made a similar claim, and Altria seems to have decided to follow their reasoning, and join them for a three-player round of the latest Ninja Turtles beat 'em up.

Although you most certainly lost your "match" with Moka, you decide to stick with the dancing a bit longer, figuring that you owe the birthday girl at least one round. You pass the time until then observing the remaining dancers and taking further mental notes on their movements, and how you could adapt their styles to improve your own.

Kahlua and Tatsuki both end their round with B (Plus) rank, though when they go to the actual score, Tatsuki is ahead by a hundred points or so. Moka dances with Kokoa next, and you note that the older girl doesn't put nearly as much effort into her movements this time around, nor does she seem to take quite as much enjoyment out of the dance. She ends up with a score that's "merely" A ranked, but this is more than enough to crush her little sister's D (Plus). Despite that, Kokoa doesn't seem truly upset by her loss; she just swears to do better next time.

"May I cut in, ladies?"

The girls look at you, and Moka half-smiles. "If you're looking to be defeated again, Alex-"

"I was thinking more that I'd offer you a chance to catch your breath before you and Tatsuki went at it," you reply, even though Moka isn't even breathing hard to begin with. "Besides, I figure I owe the birthday girl a dance."

"You danced with her yesterday," Kokoa points out.

"Yes, but that WAS yesterday," Kahlua says, smiling. "And thank you, Alex. I think I would like that." She hops up on the stage, then gives you a sharp look as you climb up next to her. "But don't think that this is getting you out of dancing later."

"The thought never occurred to me," you reply smoothly.

Kahlua gives you a suspicious, searching glance, but then nods, apparently satisfied that you're telling the truth. Which makes sense, since you are.

You're tempted to add something to your statement, but visions of teasing Kahlua about her glare or proclaiming yourself the Chosen of the Dance go out of your head when the DDR machine asks you if you are "READY?"

You are.

Once again, you move through the music, tracking the arrows on the screen before you with your eyes and tapping the ones beneath you. Your size gives you a slight advantage in that your closer-to-adult proportions make it easier to reach your targets, but this is at least matched by Kahlua's natural speed, which is formidable even under her seals. Your ongoing low-end ki boost makes up some of the difference, but as the song plays on and the error buzzer goes off again and again, you begin to think it won't be enough.

Gained Agility E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Dancing E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Reflexes D

When the music comes to an end, you look at the scoreboard.

Your rank, once again, is a solid "B".

Kahlua, as before, has scored a "B (Plus)." She smiles brightly at that, more so than her younger sister, as she turns to you.

"That's two wins to me, Alex," she teases.

"Third time's a charm," you say in response to Kahlua's jab.

"Well, maybe," she admits, as she steps off of the stage. The vampire pauses, then turns back with a mischievous smile. "But then again, THIS was technically our third match."

For some reason, Kahlua's statement and expression provoke a sudden swell of uncertainty in you, bordering on fear.

Then it's gone, leaving you to hop down to the floor and wonder what the heck just happened.

Moka and Tatsuki replace you and Kahlua at the DDR machine, and after a brief, hushed discussion between them, Moka selects a song whose fast beat leads you to suspect that it's another "Maniac"-difficulty tune. The two girls proceed to tear up the stage - not QUITE literally, but you think that's just because this machine, like the punching game, was custom-built to handle vampire-level strength.

You maintain your vigil, and as the song proceeds, you realize that somehow, Tatsuki is actually keeping up with Moka. Maybe it's because she asked for a song she knew, or one that Moka didn't? Either way, it's something none of the rest of you have managed, and from the quick glances you see Moka shooting the other girl, she's definitely noticed it.

Moka speeds up, trying to outdo her opponent.

And seconds later, a buzzer goes off, indicating a mistake.

On Moka's side.

For the briefest instant, the silver-haired vampire freezes in place - provoking another harsh buzz, at which point she explodes back into movement.

You spare a moment to look around. Kahlua and Kokoa are both visibly shocked by this development, but their reactions after that differ sharply; where the youngest Shuzen scowls, doubtlessly at Tatsuki's presumption for daring to keep up with Moka, Kahlua clasps her hands together before a hopeful smile.

The song reaches its climax not long after that, and as the final notes trail off and the girls stop dancing, you lean to one side, trying to peer past Tatsuki to see the scoreboard.

Tatsuki's been ranked A (Plus) (Plus) for this round. She DEFINITELY must have known this song.

Moka ALSO got an A (Plus) (Plus).

And she's staring at Tatsuki blankly.

The Arisawa, meanwhile, is peering at the screen. "Huh," she muses. "Even our scores are tied. Don't think I've ever seen that happen at DDR before." She turns to the younger girl. "Want to have a tie-breaker?"

"...yes," Moka replies at once. "Yes, I do."

"Good, me too."

And they're off again, to a song that is, if anything, even FASTER than the first one.

Three minutes later...

"Again?" Tatsuki bursts out. "How is that even-"

"One more round?" Moka asks.

"You're on."

Three minutes later...

"OH, COME ON!"

You look at Kahlua as her sister and Tatsuki begin a THIRD tie-breaker match. "Do you think they've broken the machine?"

"I think they've broken something," she tells you, grinning. "And I also think that our little dance tournament is over."

You would have to agree with her there. Still, it was fun and enlightening while it lasted.

Gained Agility E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Dancing E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Speed C

You take a moment to cast a minor cantrip, removing the wrinkles and sweat your participation in the dance battle unavoidably added to your clothes. Kahlua notices and asks what you're doing, and when informed, immediately asks you to do the same for her and Kokoa. You oblige, and take a moment to offer your cleaning services to Altria and the Water Tribe siblings. The two girls take you up on it, but Sokka notes that he's going to change outfits before the party anyway, thanks you for the offer, and refuses.

As for Tatsuki and Moka...

"This time for sure!"

"I will put you in your place!"

...yeah, maybe later.

You spend most of an hour in the Game Room, and in that time, you try your hand at perhaps a quarter of the machines, sometimes playing cooperatively with your companions, other times competitively, and a couple of times just playing by yourself. Men, mutants, monsters, and machines fall before your avatars in a flurry of digital violence - explosions abound, even in games where it's just a couple of guys trying to beat each other senseless in a back alley somewhere - and a good time is had by most. You particularly enjoy the opportunity to play games that are still new releases in Japan, as they probably won't get to the Sunnydale arcade for years yet, if ever.

Gained Dexterity F (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Knowledge (Video Games) F

Tatsuki and Moka go through ten rounds of DDR before giving up, though this is mostly because fatigue and frustration have them both making so many mistakes by the end that the machine is scoring them at C-rank. You give the girls a chance to cool off and rehydrate with some drinks from a conveniently-placed vending machine - the contents being various natural juices and sport drinks, with not a single bottle of water or carbonated beverage to be seen - before offering to magically-clean their outfits.

Moka looks down at herself, makes a face as she notes the clingy, perspiration-stained state of her shirt, and thanks you for the offer, but says she'd prefer to bathe and change clothes regardless. Tatsuki is likewise about due to return to her room, clean up, and start putting on her formal outfit for the party - something she does NOT appear to be looking forward to, you note.

Seeing the other girls depart, Katara decides that now would be a good time for her to drag her brother back to their parents to get ready for the party as well. She does this rather literally, catching Sokka by one ear and hauling him away from the console where he was busily shooting down invading aliens, protesting every step of the way.

You, Altria, Kahlua, and Kokoa trade glances, agree to have one last four-player game, and then call an end to your morning's fun a bit after ten. Kahlua is just shutting everything down when a servant appears to advise her that the first of the day's guests have been reported arriving at the estate entrance.

This leads to an unrushed but very deliberate relocation. Kahlua, as the birthday girl, is expected to be on hand with her parents to greet the new arrivals - something she confides in the rest of you is likely to go on for most of the next two hours. The rest of you will join the other already-present guests on the garden-side patio just off of the main ballroom, where Miss Akasha will be entertaining the guests until the party proper begins.

When you're ushered to the patio in question, you find that most of the people you've met over the last couple days are already there, though Tatsuki and her mother appear to be running a bit late. Kokoa makes a beeline for Moka - who has exchanged her previous blouse and skirt for a black dress - while Altria joins her parents. You, in turn, head over to Lu-sensei.

You recall advice given by your parents, about how - given the obvious upper-class leanings of your hosts - there would almost certainly be a large part of the "party" devoted to giving the adults a chance to meet and talk business, politics, and other "boring adult stuff." Your Ganondorf memories provide glimpses of similar events going on in Hyrule Castle at different points in history, with international diplomacy, military posturing, and frank discussions of recent magical and monstrous activities being added to the debate pile - and given how deep you are in the Moonlit World right now, you can probably expect a fair bit of that to happen as well.

As you stand there, waiting, you momentarily consider casting the Spell of Cultural Adaptation to help shore up any remaining... weak-spots in your ability to communicate. Lu-sensei cautioned you about showing weakness in front of the people you're going to be spending the day with, and accidentally insulting someone because you don't know the social cues probably qualifies.

But after some thought, you decide that using the spell could be seen as a weakness in itself - specifically, a lack of confidence in your social abilities, or your ability to handle the consequences if you have a faux pas. Everybody you've spent the last couple of days with would notice the sudden shift in your language and behavior, and one ill-timed curious comment about the difference could have nasty repercussions.

Ambrose would probably do it deliberately, the troll.

That's not even getting into the fact that Gyokuro is almost guaranteed to notice if you use magic again - without permission, even - or that if any of the guests are vampires or other monsters possessed of similarly keen senses, they might pick up on the spell's presence.

All in all, using magic here just seems like a bad idea, so you decide to set it aside for the time being.

That mental debate leads you to another decision: if you want to avoid showing weakness, you can't spend the party hanging off of Lu-sensei's robe. You'll have to mingle, at least with the other kids around your age, and you won't be able to get away with hiding in Kahlua's social shadow - she's the birthday girl, EVERYBODY is going to want to talk to her at least once. Isn't it fortunate, then, that you've spent two whole days getting to know the other guests? Or that you were on good terms with Altria before that? You have lots of options for safe company, should you feel the need to call upon them.

And there's always Briar.

Satisifed with your decisions, you settle in to wait.

Six, perhaps seven minutes later, Kahlua and her parents appear at the patio door, accompanied by a quartet of dark-haired, darkly-dressed, pale-skinned people. The newcomers' features and attire are high-class European, and at first glance, you'd say you're looking at a classic nuclear family, although the parents only look to be in their early thirties at the latest, while the son is in his late teens, and the daughter around Moka's age. Kahlua is talking with the latter, while Issa speaks with the man of the family.

The read you get on the newcomers' auras immediately makes you think, "more vampires."

"Everyone," Issa announces to the room at large, "I present, the Drachenbluts."

Introductions ensue: Akasha, Moka, and Kokoa first; then the Drakes and Ambrose; next the Water Tribe family; and finally, Lu-sensei, Briar, and yourself. The Arisawas are definitely running late.

The Drachenbluts and your hosts speak to each other with the ease of long aquaintance and social equality, or something near to it. The new arrivals' reaction to the Drakes, on the other hand... well, they certainly KNOW each other, but the parents' reaction to Arthur Drake is very similar to how Issa greeted him yesterday, all unspoken threat and not-remotely-friendly smiles.

The man clearly has a reputation among those who walk the night.

The rest of the introductions go much more smoothly, and with no obvious recognition of any of the parties involved, at least until the newcomers get around to greeting your teacher. None of the Drachenbluts reacted to Lu-sensei's name or his appearance as if he were anything special, but your master appears to know of them, as he mentions having met a member of their clan during World War II - something about "jackbooted idiots meddling with power beyond their understanding," a castle overrun by demonic forces, and copious amounts of violence. THAT clearly strikes a chord with the man of the family, who asks if Lu-sensei would mind set aside some time for a more in-depth discussion of the matter later on.

Your teacher agrees.

Two more groups have arrived by this point: the first another well-dressed, undoubtedly vampire family, this time parents and a daughter in her early teens; the second an obviously middle-aged woman with half a dozen kids ranging from near-twenty to around Kokoa's age, whose auras don't feel vampiric but also aren't human. And you're not even halfway through greeting these when another batch of new arrivals turns up.

From there, you quickly lose track of names and faces, and just focus on doing your best to be polite.

It seems to go well. At the very least, nobody glares at you.

Gained Manners C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Young King C (Plus)

The "mingling" phase of the party is now in full swing. Lu-sensei speaks with you briefly and, after you've assured him that you'll be fine on your own for a bit - and on your best behavior, besides - he heads off to meet with Mr. Drachenblut.

Although you're tempted to investigate the girl in the fancy outfit, the chance to talk to a bonafide magic-user around your own age is just too tempting. Up until now, the closest you've been to meeting such a person would be Beryl - who is several years older, and a girl besides - and the ninja girls - whose particular approach to magic is rather different from your own, and who, again, are girls.

Really, you've been meaning to make more male friends for a while now. If you can add one who also has magical ability to the list, you'll be a happy camper.

That decided, you cross the floor, weaving through the crowd with a few polite requests and apologies to the adults around you. At one point, you lose sight of your objective and have to resort to tracking his aura. It's a good thing you decided to go after somebody with magic, because the sheer number of monstrous auras in here would seriously jam your ki-based radar. As it stands, even your mage sense has been rendered a bit fuzzy from all the energy floating around - to say nothing of the presence of various individuals who possess magical potential, magic items, or a mix of the two - but it's not nearly as bad as the what you expect you'd see if you opened up your life-sensing ability under these conditions.

Your pursuit takes you off the patio, out onto the lawn, and to the edge of the garden. Here, you find the object of your interest leaning against a tree, half-hidden against detection from the main mass of partygoers by its trunk.

You take a moment to study the person before you. His robes aren't tailored in what you'd consider to be a "traditional" magical style - which is to say, a shapeless mass of cloth with voluminous sleeves and hood, perhaps with a mantle, belt, and/or cloak pulled over the main garment, and magical symbols abounding. Instead, it's kind of like a modern re-interpretation of such. What looked like a robe at a distance proves, up close, to be a long coat - not a trenchcoat, the cut and soft, velvety-looking black material are much too fancy for that even without the gold and silver threads, but the similarity is strong enough that a weak glamor is all it would take to convince most people that's what they were seeing. The hood isn't actually part of the coat at all, but fits the attached cloak - dark green with more gold threading along the edges - and doesn't so much cast the wearer's face into obscuring darkness as it does provide a comfortable shade. The front of the coat is closed, but you can see the collar of a formal white dress shirt at one end and the hems of matching dark blue pants at the other, and with the latter, a kid-sized pair of old man shoes, not unlike the ones your folks insisted on getting you to wear for today.

This close and with the crowd at a distance, you're able to get a clearer read on the young spellcaster's aura. It's not especially powerful or differentiated between the schools, which suggests you're looking at someone who's either relatively new to practicing the art and hasn't yet found their specializations, or alternately, somebody who's equally-capable in all the common fields of sorcery.

The stranger's hood is still up, but from his posture and how he's leaning rather pronouncedly against the tree, you'd guess that he has a thing about crowds - or at least, this particular crowd - and is rather relieved to be out of the crush. He's shorter than you are, although only by a couple of inches, but he's also much skinnier, a good example of the classic studious magic-user.

He also doesn't appear to have noticed your approach.

Taking in the other boy's lack of awareness, you force yourself to get a bit less light on your feet as you approach. Startling magic-users, even young ones, tends to be a bad idea all around, and you suspect that having one guest firing spells at another would spoil Kahlua's party.

Unless it was part of a formal duel or an exhibition spar or something like that.

The rustle of grass beneath your feet draws the hooded figure's attention, and he half-turns. "Hello?"

"Good morning," you reply. "It's a nice garden, isn't it?"

The hood shifts slightly towards the flowers and hedges. "...I suppose. I'm afraid I don't really know much about gardening. Some things about plants and their uses, yes, but nothing about... arranging them." He pauses, and leans towards the nearest row of blossoms slightly. "Though I don't recognize that species at all. Are they supposed to be closed? At this hour?"

"Night-blooming lillies," you say, recalling Kahlua's description from the other day. "Our hosts prefer the night, so they decorate accordingly."

"I should have thought of that." The young spellcaster turns his attention fully back to you. "And you are...?"

Being the one who kicked off this conversation, you're obliged to introduce yourself first.

"I'm Alex," you reply easily, bowing politely. "Kung fu sorcerer."

"Ah, I'm Dave. Sorcerer-in-training." He says that part with the sound of a rote response, and gives an awkward, mechanical bow, all the while staring at you. Then he straightens up, and, in a more normal tone, adds, "Is there really a kung fu branch of sorcery? I mean, I'm pretty new to... well, this" - he gestures at his outfit - "but my teacher's been making sure I hit the books, and he and they haven't mentioned anything of the sort yet."

"That's more of an in-joke than a serious title," you admit. "I study kung fu, and I study magic, but I have different teachers for both, and neither of them practices the other art."

"Ohhh." Dave nods, looking a bit disappointed.

"Though I do know of one guy about our age who could throw fire around just by making with martial arts," you add, thinking back to the tournament. "Plus several different groups of ninjas with actual ninja magic, and one grandmaster-level fighter who's also a skilled sorcerer - so who knows?"

Dave takes that in, wide-eyed, and then grins. "That is so cool."

You can't escape a grin of your own. You quite agree.

Having found a point of common interest, you proceed to bond with Dave over how cool magic is. You don't get too far into technicalities, you just offer examples of the neatest spells you've ever seen or heard of, and let Dave reciprocate. He seems to have a fondness for electricity in all its forms, from simple carpet-born static shocks all the way up to thunderbolts.

As Dave waxes eloquent on the subject of lightning, you give him a sidelong glance. "You know," you comment, stroking your chin thoughtfully, "in that robe, you could pull off a pretty good Emperor Palpatine impression."

Dave snickers. "I know, right?" He then strikes a pose, one hand pointing forwards. "'If you will not be turned" - and then his other arm comes up, the fingers on both hands spreading wide - "you will be DESTROYED!'"

He matches the tone so well, you half-expect to see writhing bolts of dark force erupt from his fingertips and reduce a triumphant young Jedi to a screaming wreck on the floor.

"You practiced that," you accuse.

"Can you blame me? Look at this get-up! The guys in the school sci-fi club would never speak to me again if I didn't! And they'd be totally right to!"

"Oh, I don't know," you reply. "Obvious Sith influences aside, I think it's a pretty sweet outfit. I know I'd be more comfortable in that than what I'm actually wearing - but my Mom insisted I wear this." You gesture at your suit with a sigh. "Granted, I think I'm pulling it off alright, but this necktie? Ugh. And the shoes-"

"Oh, don't get me started on the old man shoes," Dave groans. Though naturally, having just said that, he immediately goes on a small rant on the subject. "'Rubber's an insulator, Dave,' like I didn't already KNOW that. 'Wearing it interferes with your ability to channel magic.' Yeah, and sometimes that's a GOOD thing, like if you DON'T want to shoot sparks everywhere when the school bullies give you a swirlie. 'Don't use magic in public, Dave.' News flash, if I wasn't wearing the shoes - or the ring! - I wouldn't have people trying to beat me up for dressing weird OR be able to use magic in public, and it wouldn't be a problem!" He rubs his face. "God, I swear, sometimes it seems like he ENJOYS my suffering..."

"Your teacher?" you guess.

"Yeah, Balthazar. Well, 'Balthazar Blake, Sorcerer of the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seventh Degree,'" Dave corrects himself, once again sounding like he's quoting somebody. "He's got this whole introductory speech, with the longcoat and a magic circle of fire and everything. It's kind of awesome. And then he turns around and makes me wear stuff that gets me in trouble at school." Dave turns to you, his expression somewhere between mournful and hopeful. "Does your magic teacher do that kind of thing to you?"

You spare a second to consider how to answer Dave's earnest inquiry.

"Not my magic teacher, no," you admit. "But my kung fu teacher thumps me plenty, both in sparring and when he thinks I've made a mistake outside of actual class time, so that probably makes up for it."

Judging from Dave's almost tearful smile, he agrees, and is glad to have found a comrade in suffering.

"I have to ask, though," you add. "What does 'Sorcerer of the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seventh Degree' even mean?"

"I wondered about that myself," Dave replies. "At first, I thought it was just something he said to make himself seem impressive. It WORKED, but it also got me curious, so I did some reading, and well..." He pauses. "It has to do with the seven domains of the Merlin Circle, and how well you understand and can manipulate the type of magic each one represents. Like, just being able to enter the Circle technically makes you a Sorcerer of the Seventh Degree - one degree for each domain - and with every spell you master - not just learn, but understand inside out and backwards, so that you could cast it in your sleep, underwater, and with the lights off - you gain another degree."

You consider that. "So in other words, your teacher was saying that he'd mastered over seven hundred spells."

"More or less, yeah." Dave scowls abruptly. "Of course, when I found that out, I ALSO learned that there are plenty of people with magical talent who can't use a Circle. I mean, they can still learn spells, and they can be every bit as capable in those fields of magic that fit their talents as a sorcerer would be - more so, because they can focus on what they're good at and leave the rest of it alone - but they're also limited to those fields, and attempts to combine their magic with the other types don't work out so well. And since a Merlin Circle channels the magic of ALL the domains to help a sorcerer avoid exhausting himself, if someone who CAN'T access all seven domains steps inside one, it can get... messy."

Dave turns slightly green when he says the word "messy," which conjures decidedly unpleasant images. And from the way he phrased everything...

"Your teacher didn't tell you any of this before he had you walk into the Circle, did he."

It's not a question.

"No! Not even a hint! Okay, yeah, if he HAD told me, I probably would have freaked out, but who wouldn't?"

You sense another magical aura headed your way at this point. It's very well-contained and controlled, making it difficult for you to get a clear reading on anything besides its existence, but you do get the impression of a similarity to Dave's aura.

"He'd just met me for maybe ten minutes, and all of a week before! How could he be SURE I was a sorcerer, and not just a kid with a bit of magic? Because his RING liked me?"

The aura draws closer, and a man enters your field of view. Six feet tall if he's an inch, the man is wearing a dark, heavy duster, the surface of which is inscribed with more tiny silver runes than you can count. A quick downward glance confirms that, like Dave, he's wearing a pair of "old man shoes," but he's clearly far more accustomed to such footwear than the boy. Despite the formal setting, the man looks more than a bit scruffy, with uneven, jaw-length hair and stubble that could both use a trim.

The elder magic-user meets your gaze for a moment, one eyebrow silently quirking up, then glances towards your shoulder, noting Briar's presence, and finally turns his attention to Dave - who still hasn't noticed his presence.

"A piece of shiny jewelry gets stuck on my finger, and that makes it okay to toss me into a circle of magical fire that could blow me to atoms? What kind of basis is that for a responsible system of education?"

"One that's worked out pretty well for the past thirteen centuries or so," the scruffy man says dryly from behind Dave.

"Erk." The boy blanches beneath his hood, turns, and looks up. "Balthazar. Hi."

"Carrying tales, Dave?" the senior sorcerer inquires.

"Um... well, you know how it is, right?"

"Oh, yes. I remember. Meeting up with fellow apprentices to complain about the master's unfair and unreasonable teaching methods."

"Yeah, that."

"Comparing increasingly-outrageous experiences in a game of one-upsmanship, to figure out who among you truly has it worse."

"Yeah, exactly."

"Getting caught telling unflattering anecdotes of the master, and assigned mountains of extra work as punishment."

"Yea- wait, no, you can't!"

Balthazar tilts his head. "Can't I?"

"You wouldn't!"

Now the man smirks. "Wouldn't I?"

"...oh, hell."

"So, apprentice. Are you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Um... yeah. This is, uh, Alex... wait, is there somebody else here, too?"

Balthazar doesn't quite sigh as Dave starts glancing around. But you get the impression that he wants to.

You clear your throat.

"Actually, yes, Dave; there is somebody else here." You raise your left hand towards Briar's perch on your right shoulder. "This is my fairy partner, Briar. Briar, this is Dave."

"Hi, Dave!" Briar says cheerfully, waving.

You're watching the other boy closely, and don't miss it when - between two slow, wary blinks - his expression abruptly shifts and he begins to stare, as if a veil had suddenly been lifted from his eyes. You also sense a faint shift in the magic around him, the color of his normal, unaspected aura taking on something of the hue of Divination.

"Um," Dave says, waving back with the slow, mechanical awkwardness of somebody whose brain isn't currently firing on all cylinders. "Hi, Briar... where did you come from?" He looks at you and his master in turn. "Where did she come from?"

"I was always here," Briar replies. "Just naturally sort-of invisible."

"Oh. Okay." Dave pauses, and then frowns. "Wait, how do you be 'sort-of' invisible? Something's either visible or it's not. That's how it works. Right?" Again, he looks to Balthazar.

"Not necessarily," the sorcerer replies. "There are plenty of spells for hiding a person, an object, or even an entire area that affect the mind rather than the eye - or any of the other senses, for that matter. It's easier to make people ignore something than to completely conceal it, and not just in terms of personal effort. Going for a walk while invisible means you have to be really careful to keep out of other people's way, or they'll walk right into you. Going for a walk while unremarkable, though? They'll step out of your way and go about their business, never giving you a second thought."

"...huh." Dave looks back to Briar. "Is that what you're doing?"

"Partly," she admits. "Though I wouldn't show up on an ordinary camera, either."

Dave frowns. You get the feeling that he's going to press for details.

You decide not to interrupt Dave in his quest for knowledge, and, as expected, he asks a very simple question:

"How does that work?"

"How else?" Briar replies, laughing. "Magic!"

Balthazar smirks.

"...I walked into that one," Dave admits in an undertone. "Okay, but seriously, if people can see you but a camera can't..."

"Actually, most people can't see me at all," Briar says in a more serious tone. "Even among magic-users, it's rare to find someone that can see fairies like me without resorting to spells. Magic talent makes it more likely that somebody can see me, but to borrow a phrase, if they don't believe in fairies? I'd be almost undetectable to them. And most cameras don't have magic OR belief."

"So there's a mental component, like Balthazar described, but it's not about encouraging people to ignore you, it's more like... a built-in weak-point in the spell?"

"If it were a spell," Balthazar puts in. "Minor fairies are naturally imperceptible, except under certain conditions. 'Seen out of the corner of the eye, through a natural hole in a standing stone, at dawn or dusk, or by an innocent child.'" His words sound as if he's quoting something. "It's just the way they are, like how gargoyles turn to stone by day, or dragons breathe pure magic so intense that it appears to burn non-dragons."

"Or how sorcerers channel energy?"

"That, too." Balthazar stands a bit straighter. "Speaking of which, while I hate to cut a lesson short, there are some folks here I'd like you meet, Dave."

The other boy sighs. "Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Yay, more creepy monster people and crazy old magic-users. Fun, fun, fun." Despite his grumbles, Dave doesn't seem like he's going to put up much of a fight over the matter. Instead, he turns to you - and Briar - and starts to speak. "Sorry about this, but..."

OMAKE INTERRUPT

"Let's deal with this annoying boy, he's only eight, the hell can he be able to do?"

"Listen you former brain donor, read that." *hands over business card*

"Alexander L. Harris, Sunnydale, California, USA? So what? I know the brat lives in the States."

"And what is in Sunnydale?"

"...a lot of sun?"

"The Hellmouth, you utter imbecile. That 'brat' as you put it is a good sorcerer at the age of fucking eight, won the tournament, flaunts it, travels to a Dark Lord of the orient's kids birthday party, deals with Ambrose and whatever else. And he doesn't reek of hell. Either he is one of the bigwigs on the Hellmouth, in which case we stand no chance, or one of them protects him, which means the same. So if you want to stay living as a human or at all, we stay the fuck away from him and mess with people in our league!"

INTERRUPT END

You hold up a hand, cutting Dave's apology short.

"I get it," you say earnestly. "Really. When the master calls, the apprentice goes. No hard feelings."

Dave blinks, and smiles.

"But I would like a chance to talk again later," you add. "We young American sorcerers need to stick together in foreign lands."

"Particularly when surrounded by monsters that don't exactly like us," Dave notes. "Totally with you on that one. Later, Alex. Briar."

"Mister Harris. Miss Briar." Balthazar adds.

"Mister Blake. Dave."

As the pair of sorcerers depart, you frown. How, exactly, did Balthazar know your last name?

"Briar, did I at any point mention my family name to either of those two?"

"...no, you didn't."

"...well, that's... unsettling." You mutter to yourself, "Stupid sorcerers, ALWAYS having to show off..."

Briar starts laughing so hard that she falls over sideways, fetching up against your neck.

"Gah! Briar! What is so funny?"

"P-p-pot, mee-hee-heet k-k-kettle!"

"...oh, shut up."

Shaking your head and grumbling, you walk back towards the party, seeking out other interesting people in the hope of drowning out the nerve-jangling realization that a major practitioner knew your name without being told. That girl in the fancy kimono immediately comes to mind, mostly because she ought to be easy to spot by eye. You can't exactly rely on your ki sense in this crowd - it's packed with too many strong monsters for the passive stuff to work, and an active search would probably ruffle a lot of feathers.

Quite possibly literally, if there are any harpies, tengu, or other bird monsters in attendance.

It takes you a couple minutes of walking the edges of the party, occasionally craning your neck, before you catch sight of the soft pink kimono you remember glimpsing before. You then spend at least twice that much time and ten times the effort to navigate the constantly-shifting crowd and reach your person of interest.

And when you get to her, you stop and blink.

"Uh, hi, Tatsuki."

"Hello, Alex," the girl in question replies, through a smile that you can't help but notice bares ALL her teeth, which appear to be clenched. It's rather disconcerting, given how she otherwise looks like a small porcelain princess doll - which is, in itself, quite a contrast with what you know of the girl in question. "Are you enjoying the party?"

"I, uh, had a nice talk with a fellow American sorcerer," you reply absently, while still studying the very unexpected kimono, hairstyle, and is that MAKEUP? combination. "So that was nice." You pause, and then have to shake your head. "Your mother really went through with it, huh?"

"Yes," Tatsuki agrees, still growling through her smile. "She really did."

"Well, if it's any consolation, you're rocking that kimono."

An aura of doom that has nothing to do with magic or ki fills the air.

"Alex?" the girl before you says, in a voice of sweetness, light, and deadly venom.

"Yeah, Tatsuki?"

"Shut up about the damn dress."

You blink at Tatsuki's response, and then mentally shrug. According to your grasp of etiquette - and more directly, according to your mother and your female friends - you're supposed to compliment a girl when she wears nice things. And you did try to do just that. But Tatsuki really, REALLY seems to dislike her current outfit, and has asked-slash-told you to drop it as a conversational piece. Good manners and well-developed survival instincts have you willing to do just that.

You're about to inquire after the well-being of the Kurosaki siblings - the first safe topic that comes to mind - when you register that someone nearby has just made one of those airy, hoity-toity sounds of disapproval.

"What a coarse child," a female voice says from off to one side, just loud enough to carry over the constant hum of the party. It sounds like the owner is a few years older than you or Tatsuki. "The boy was merely trying to be polite."

"Emphasis on 'trying,'" another girl notes snidely.

"Well, he IS American. Points for effort, if nothing else," a third chimes in.

"Still," the first girl notes, "she could have handled that much better. Shame to see such a lovely outfit wasted on one so... classless."

...you can hear Tatsuki's teeth grinding.

Gained Listening C (Plus)

Glancing sidelong at the source of the unexpected commentary, you spot four girls standing together in a group about seven feet away. All are brunettes - one with black hair, another with blue-toned black, and the last two with differing shades of brown - all appear to be Japanese and right on the edge of their teen years, and all are dressed a cut above what appears to be the already-high standards of the guests - though their modern-style dresses are still a few cuts below Tatsuki's elaborate kimono. For starters, not one of them appears to be wearing anything made of silk, as far as your admittedly inexperienced eye can tell.

You're not sure which of the quartet are the ones who just threw in their two cents' worth, but you'd be willing to bet that the girl with the pageboy hairstyle and embarassed expression, who's currently hissing something at the other three, wasn't one of them.

Having decided that you don't much like these three girls, you carefully open up your extrasensory abilities, trying to get a read on them via a passive sweep, while filtering out the "clutter" of the crowd's energies.

Gained Ki Sight B

It takes some effort, and the results aren't nearly as clear as you might like, but they're enough to make it evident that all four of the girls are monsters. The trio you've pegged as the source of the biting commentary share certain qualities in their auras that make you think they're all members of the same race, though you can't be entirely sure what that is. Something feline, you think. Their life-energies aren't particularly strong, as far as monsters go - some of Lu-sensei's older students could probably take these girls in a fight - but you do pick up magical and even spiritual potential from each of them. Two are at the level of minor talents that haven't been particularly well-honed and probably won't amount to much in the future, but the third potential - belonging to the girl with the blue-toned hair - is somewhat stronger and much better developed in both fields than her associates.

That's a small point in her favor, anyway. Not nearly enough of one to raise your opinion of her, though.

You also can't help but notice how all three girls' hairstyles happen to feature two triangular protrusions atop their heads. The sight makes you want to roll your eyes; if it was just one girl alone, the trait could be excused as a personal quirk or a trick of the mind, but all three of them standing together like that makes it too obvious that they're trying to hide cat ears under a weak illusion or transformation.

The feline trio's embarrassed companion is of a completely different type - and one that's actually vaguely familiar to you, though you can't quite place it at the moment. Her aura actually feels more like that of a canine, though it's definitely not like a dog or hellhound, and almost certainly not a wolf, either. In terms of strength, her youki is a bit stronger and considerably better-trained than any of the... catgirls, you suppose... and she, too, has magical and spiritual talent. Magically, she's weaker than the strongest of the other girls, but her ability extremely well-developed, to the point where it gives you a clear sense of Enchantment and Illusion, as well as hints of Transformation and Fire Elementalism. Her spiritual power, meanwhile, is stronger than all three of the catgirls' combined - though still not even close to Kagome or Ichigo's incredible spiritual potency.

Thinking back to your copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide, you suspect that you might be looking at a young kitsune. Which makes you wonder when and where, exactly, you ran into a member of that notorious race before... well, it'll come to you.

Feeling a bit more sure of yourself now that you've got a bead on your opponents - because that's what they are, nobody takes a shot at one of your friends while you're around to hear them and gets away with it - you turn your attention back to Tatsuki.

"Sorry about that, Tatsuki," you say aloud, raising your voice just far enough so that you're sure it'll reach the catty trio and their companion. "You know what they say about us Americans - not only are we rude, we're so thoughtlessly loud, we might as well be deaf."

Tatsuki gives you an odd look, like she's not following you at all.

Behind you, out of sight, you sense auras shift. Three of them give off a feeling you'd associate with the interested pricking of ears. The fourth feels like someone who's just buried her face in her hands and asked why the earth never opens up to swallow you when you want it to.

It's actually THAT distinctive.

Gained Spiritual Sense C (Plus)

"But hey, it could be worse, right? I mean, at least I have Mom, Briar, and Lu-sensei to hammer 'good behavior' into me. If I were a normal American, I'm pretty sure I'd be shouting insults across the room, offending people I didn't even know!"

NOW Tatsuki catches on to what you're doing. She relaxes a bit, smile becoming more natural - though no less fierce.

Wariness is creeping into those three cat-like auras. The fourth, foxy presence, feels like she's trying to slip away.

"Anyway, shall we go and see if Kahlua's finished greeting all her guests? Believe it or not, I managed to forget to wish her a happy birthday at breakfast this morning, and I really should go correct that."

Wariness has just spiked into sudden alarm. Even the fox-girl's aura radiates unexpected surprise - and hard on its heels, one heck of a lot of worry.

Gained Threat E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Mission accomplished.

Going for full theatrical points, you half-bow and offer Tatsuki your arm, which she accepts with a typical young girl's attempt at ladylike grace - not the unconscious elegance of one born to such status, but respectable for the effort she's put into upholding her role. You make a point of sweeping past the three catgirls, and you have to struggle not to laugh at the sight of their "hair," which is trying to stand up straight in fear.

The kitsune has indeed taken a couple of steps back from her companions, and while she isn't giving away any outward indications of fright, you can sense that she is, if anything, even more nervous than the other girls. You decide to do something about that.

"Hello, miss," you greet her, ignoring the feline females to one side. "Alex Harris. The young lady on my arm is Arisawa Tatsuki, and the tiny lady on my other shoulder is Briar."

"Hello," Tatsuki says, slightly curt.

"Hi," Briar chimes in.

"Ah. Um... hello. My name is Hayashi Emiko." She bows hastily. "Pleasure to meet you all."

You blink at her family name, the mention of which causes that hazy sense of recognition to suddenly slam into place. "Any relation to Kahlua's tutor, Hayashi Hanabi?"

"She's my aunt," Emiko admits. She can't stop her increased worry from showing through. "You've met?"

"Mostly in passing over the last couple of days," you reply. One of those times being when she acted as referree during yesterday's sparring matches. At the time, you weren't paying much attention to the older woman - fox-woman, apparently - but you did register her aura on the edge of your awareness whenever you probed your opponents. "She seems nice, if... vaguely intimidating, at times."

Emiko smiles weakly. "That's Auntie."

"Anyhow, we were just on our way to find Kahlua. Would you care to join us?"

"I would love to." You're pretty sure she's lying about that, but you let it pass as your expanded group moves away.

Once the frightened feline trio are well behind you, you turn to Emiko. "Sorry if I spooked you back there," you apologize. "I was aiming at those three... catty witches."

Emiko surprises you with a faint laugh. "I think everyone in earshot noticed that."

There is a moment of silence. None of your current companions seem inclined to speak.

Since no-one else seems inclined to start filling the slightly-awkward silence surrounding your group with conversation, you decide to take the initiative.

Turning to Emiko, you say, "I have to ask: what's it like growing up as part of the Moonlit World?"

The kitsune blinks. "How do you mean?"

"Tatsuki and I were both raised in more or less 'normal' communities," you clarify, raising your free hand to make the appropriate air quotes. "And I know that I didn't have more than a passing involvement in the supernatural until the Martial Arts World Tournament."

You pause and glance at Tatsuki, wordlessly questioning.

"It was the same for me," she agrees. "Although based on some of the stuff Kahlua said the other day, before you arrived, Alex? I don't think I've gotten in even half as much trouble as you have these last few months."

"I'd be worried if you had." Although that said, less than half of everything you've been up to since the Tournament could add up to a fair bit of excitement.

Emiko regards you both with a sudden interest, and for a moment, you'd swear that you saw fox ears popping up from her hair. The image fades almost as quickly as it appeared, as the girl appears to get control of herself.

"I'd like to answer that question, but my parents chose to live in one of the hidden communities, and that's the life I've always known." The fox-girl shrugs. "I don't really know how it differs from life in the outer world."

"Well, let's take this party, for starters." You make a sweeping gesture that takes in the patio, garden, and ballroom, the fancily-dressed guests standing or moving about, and the music of what sounds like a pocket orchestra coming from indoors. "Are social events in the Moonlit World usually this formal?"

"It depends on who's throwing them. This?" Emiko makes her own all-encompassing gesture. "This is the sort of party you get from old money, hereditary nobility, vampires, and elders. My great-great-great-grandmother's parties have the same sort of atmosphere, though they're smaller and a lot more traditionally Japanese, and my last birthday party was just me, my family, and a dozen of my friends getting together at my house."

"Mine was pretty much the same," Tatsuki says.

"Going to the World Tournament more or less WAS my birthday, this year," you admit. "The timing meant it was either pay for a party and presents, or pay for the plane tickets and attendance fees."

"Somehow," Tatsuki notes dryly, "I can't find it in me to feel sorry for you, Mister Under Tens Division Champion."

*POP*

There's a sudden burst of faint, sweet-smelling smoke from Emiko, and when you look her way, you find that this time, you absolutely CAN see her ears, which have gone rigid with shock - as has the brown, fluffy, white-tipped tail you can just glimpse behind her.

"Wait, you're THAT Alex Harris?! The one who turned into a giant and beat the Mohra demon in the semifinal? Who fought the dragon-girl to a draw, and then won by knockout?! The one who they say beat Kahlua in the preliminaries?!"

The way Emiko is looking at you is rather scary. You're not sure if she's going to faint, run away, or - potentially worse - squeal.

Emiko responds to your slightly hesitant acknowledgement with the squeal of girlish delight you were half-expecting (and dreading), albeit at a lower and less ear-grating pitch. Then again, she IS a fox, and canines are supposed to have keener hearing than humans, so the sort of noise you find unpleasant would probably be physically painful for them.

"I can't believe it's really you! Everybody's been talking about you, your fights were so AWESOME! I mean, half this year's qualifying fighters were just SPECTACULAR - the ring almost never gets damaged in the junior divisions, but you guys wrecked it FOUR TIMES - but YOU! You were taking out ninja and ON FIRE and turning into a GIANT and going toe-to-toe with a DRAGON and then there were the rumors about you fighting Kahlua and MORE ninja-"

Emiko's clear enthusiasm on the topic of How Cool You Are is making it a little difficult for you to keep up with her stream-of-consciousness chatter, but you manage.

"Seems like you have a fan, Alex." Briar's tone is one of clear amusement.

"Apparently," you agree, watching as Emiko goes into a play-by-play of your match with the dark-skinned non-human girl, Amae. It's very accurate. A bit unsettlingly so, actually.

"It's funny," Briar continues. "As much as she obviously enjoyed watching you fight, she didn't even recognize you at first."

You frown at that. "Point." Turning to Tatsuki, you ask, "Do I look that different in a suit? Or is it something else?"

"Kind of? The suit's definitely part of it, and if Emiko here was in the crowd and only saw you at a distance-"

"I did," the kitsune interrupts. "I mean, I was. I mean, yes, I was in the crowd at the tournament. But I bought a copy of the tapes, and I must've watched them a hundred times - and you DO look pretty different in formalwear, Mr. Harris, but I think-"

"Just call me Alex, please."

Emiko blushes. "Oh, I couldn't possibly-!"

"I insist. Really."

"Eeee!"

Oh, boy.

After the second excited squeal in as many minutes, you decide that you need to try to take control of the conversation and calm Emiko down - without being obvious about it - before she completely steamrolls you with her, um, "enthusiasm."

"So, Emiko. You were saying something about how I look different in a suit, BUT...?" you trail off.

"Huh? Oh, right." She takes a deep breath and visibly tries to calm herself. The broad, bright grin and persistent ears-and-tail combo make you doubt her success in this effort. "I was saying that, even after taking the change of clothing and behavior into account, Alex..."

Emiko pauses as she uses your given name, ears and tail waving excitedly, and for a moment, you're not sure if she'll be able to keep talking normally or succumb to the urge to squeal again. Fortunately, it proves to be the former.

"Even then, you still look a bit different from how you appeared on the tapes. Your skin tone's lighter, and your hair seems to be a darker brown than before. Then again," Emiko continues, glancing towards the dark red sky beyond the covered section of the patio, "you're not the only one that looks odd under this... sky."

"You have a point," Tatsuki admits, with an upwards glance of her own.

You're not entirely satisfied with that answer. Navi mentioned that, in the wake of her purifying you of a significant portion of Ganondorf's influence, your appearance ought to gradually revert to something more Cali Boy and less Gerudo Boy. This might be evidence of it finally happening, and then again, it might just be the somewhat abnormal lighting in the Shuzen domain. Lu-sensei and your family and friends haven't said anything, but then, they see you almost every day; if the change were gradual, as Briar's mom implied, it might sneak past their notice.

A concering thought occurs to you then: if your appearance has changed enough since the Tournament for the differences to be noticeable, has anyone else here recognized that fact? And if so, how many of them? Just how well-known in the Moonlit World ARE you, anyway?

You inquire about this, somewhat dreading Emiko's answer.

Her response is... not exactly doom and gloom, but it stings your pride anyway.

"About as well-known as the latest J-Pop group is to humans or monsters, I'd say."

Ow.

"There's a lot of monsters that don't pay attention to the World Tournament because they don't like the idea of mingling with humans," Emiko explains, "let alone competing against them. Others just go for the fights, and aren't interested in the fightERS beyond the show they put on - and even among people who DO pay attention, most adults aren't interested in the underage divisions. Still," the kitsune continues, sliding a loose strand of hair back from her face, "when somebody no-one's ever heard of before registers as a student of a well-known fighter like Master Lu, then sweeps his division in his first-ever competition appearance, word gets around."

To sum up, your name may, in fact, be better-known than you realized. And odds are that after all these guests go home and start talking to their friends about who they saw at Shuzen Kahlua's birthday party, you'll be that much more a topic of interest.

Yay?

Gained Publicity E (Plus)

Looking around for something to distract you from the feeling of encroaching doom, you spot Akasha's rather distinctive hair color in the crowd off to your left. She'd probably know where Kahlua is, but you're hesitant about approaching her when she's in the middle of talking with some people you don't recognize - particularly when they all appear to be big, stone-faced men in suits and sunglasses, each one radiating more and better-controlled youki than the average party-goer. As you debate the merits of intruding on that intimidating-looking conversation, you hear Lucia laughing somewhere more or less directly ahead of you. Altria's mother is less likely to know where Kahlua is, but what you can see and sense of the crowd in that direction doesn't suggest that a group of particularly scary fellows is hanging around near the Drake matriarch.

You don't think it'd be the best idea to interrupt Akasha right now, and while you give serious consideration to approaching Lucia, in the end, you decide not to pester her, either. Instead, you look around for one of the servants, and soon spot a young man with a tray of drinks moving through the crowd.

"Come on," you tell your companions, as you start walking.

"Miss Akasha's right over there, Alex," Tatsuki points out.

"I noticed, but don't you think she looks a bit busy?"

Tatsuki turns her head to look back in that direction. "Yeah, she does." Once again looking forward, she inquires, "So, where are we going?"

"To ask directions."

The waiter, or whatever his actual title is, turns out not to know where Kahlua is - though he is able to inform you that she's no longer in the front hall waiting to greet people, implying that all the invited guests have arrived. He suggests that you check the ballroom, specifically, near the main door. One of the senior castle servants is supposed to be positioned there, so that the lower-ranking attendants can seek him out in case of unexpected developments. If anyone's likely to know where the young lady of the house is right now, it'll be that gentleman.

Thanking the servant for his time and trouble, you and the girls turn about and start making your way indoors. As you slowly cross the patio, it occurs to you that the delay you're experiencing in getting around doesn't arise from the crowd being so thick that nobody can move, but rather in how, unless they've decided to approach one another and form pairs or small groups for conversation and company, everybody seems to be keeping a certain distance from one another. Even then, most of the groups are strictly temporary, the members drifting apart after a time to search out other guests to chat with, or else to wander about by themselves at the heart of another of those socially-respected zones of privacy.

You're not sure if this is an adult thing, a monster thing, or an adult monster thing, but it makes for a very different experience from the parties you're used to. Still, you take note of the distance being afforded to individual guests, and do your best to respect it as your group moves along.

Gained King of Monsters D
Gained Local Knowledge (Moonlit World) D (Plus)

Eventually, you arrive at your destination. The "gentleman" that the waiter described to you is present, an older fellow whose hair and short but full beard are both dark, but lined with silver - not like Moka's, just the mundane loss of color associated with age. It gives him a rather distinguished look, which his slightly old-fashioned suit further supports. He's reading a small, hardcovered book, holding it neatly with one gloved hand and occasionally making notes in it with the pen held in the other, but when your group approaches, the senior servant pauses and looks up.

"Ah. Miss Briar, Mister Harris, Miss Arisawa, and Miss Hayashi." He gives you a polite servant's bow. "How may I be of assistance to you?"

"Hello again, Mr. Smith," Emiko replies. "We were trying to find Kahlua. Would you happen to know where she is?"

"Miss Kahlua opted to take a breather after she finished greeting the last of the guests," Mr. Smith answers. "If you wouldn't mind waiting a few minutes, I could send someone to let her know you were asking after her."

You personally have no problem with waiting a few more minutes to speak with Kahlua, and a quick check with your companions turns up no real objection to the idea, either.

That said, you take a moment to ask Mr. Smith if there's somewhere that the four of you could wait for Kahlua's arrival, where you wouldn't be underfoot of any of the guests or the servants.

He promptly suggests that you wait in the hall just outside the ballroom. There's a modestly-appointed seating area there, for the comfort of guests who've found the usual noise and crowding of social events such as this to be a bit much, and need a few minutes by themselves to maintain presentability. As far as Mr. Smith knows, no one's currently using the seats - it's still rather early in the party for that, especially when so much of the festivities are currently taking place out of doors - so you'll have a measure of privacy while you wait.

That honestly suits you just fine.

Thanking the gentleman, your little band slips out the doors and starts picking out seats. You end up in the middle of the group again, with Tatsuki in a chair to your right, Emiko curled up on a divan to your left, and Briar - for once having given up using you as her own personal piece of mobile furniture - sitting on a cushioned footstool that you pulled out to where everybody else can easily see her.

For a minute or so, the lot of you just sit and wait for Kahlua, listening to the murmur of the party. One of the female servants leaves the ballroom almost right on your heels, curtseying as she passes your group and heads towards the residential wing - probably to inform Kahlua that you're looking for her - and a busboy with an empty tray tucked under one arm wanders past not long afterwards, en route to the kitchens. Neither returns, and no one else intrudes on you.

Tatsuki's the first to crack under the quiet.

"How long do you suppose Kahlua will be?" she asks.

"No idea," you admit.

"Probably not too long," Emiko says. "Five, ten minutes at the most. It'd be rude, otherwise. Unless of course something unexpected happened while she was greeting the guests, but I think we'd have heard the uproar if that were the case."

You, Briar, and Tatsuki trade looks, and the girls silently gesture for you to speak.

"'Something unexpected'?" you inquire, turning back to Emiko. "Like what?"

"Oh, anything that Kahlua would need a few minutes to compose herself after. A clumsy servant spilling a tray of drinks on the birthday girl, one of the guests saying or doing something that really upset her, a surprise attack by ninja - that kind of unexpected."

Again, you, the fairy, and the part-oni girl exchange glances.

"Do ninja attacks really happen that often?" Tatsuki asks. "I mean, I heard that some of them bombed the World Tournament after I left, but I got the impression that was a really unusual situation."

"It was, but that's because of just how many ninja were involved, and because the Tournament's considered neutral ground by the various groups that support and compete in it. Breaking that neutrality is..." Emiko hesitates.

"A bad idea?" you suggest.

"Very bad," she agrees. "Especially since they got the mundane authorities involved. But aside from incidents like that, yes, ninja attacks do happen. They have a pretty long history of being monster hunters, whether professionally or just out of sheer self-preservation, and I'm told that there are a LOT of old grudges on both sides. Then again, plenty of ninja work for hire, so sometimes you'll see a rich monster with a ninja bodyguard, or sending ninja to spy on or attack a rival - but like I said, if that had happened today, we'd have heard the explosions already."

Having fought both ninja and a vampire before, you can attest to the fact that Emiko isn't speaking metaphorically. If an adult ninja from Kasumi and Ayane's family and a vampire of Kahlua's line were to fight, explosions would definitely be involved at some point.

After that instructive discussion, you try to turn the conversation to the matter of spiritual powers. Tatsuki's from a shrine family, and you can sense that Emiko has both power and training in that field, and you're hoping to pick up some tips on the subject - particularly with regards to warding off and uprooting corruption, though you're careful not to use that term. Tips on meditation wouldn't go remiss, either.

Tatsuki isn't much help on the matter. Perhaps as a side-effect of the seal she was under for most of her life, she never had much interest in "shrine stuff" - and given the outfit that she's now wearing under protest, courtesy of her mother, you suspect that Akkiko has tried to dress the girl up as a miko in the past, which wouldn't have helped to endear her to the practices. That MIGHT change, now that the seal's off and Tatsuki knows that there's a lot of truth to the stories of the supernatural, but at the moment, she probably knows less than you.

She's lousy at meditation, too. Not enough patience, and too much of a temper, even under the seal.

Emiko, on the other hand, clearly knows plenty about the topic, but she's not giving anything away. Oh, she lets you ask questions to your heart's content, but she answers with inquiries of her own, and as you consider how to respond, you realize that to do so would have you revealing more of what you know, without really learning much of what SHE knows.

As you puzzle over Emiko's cryptic words, you feel the mischievous impulse to try your hand at responding in kind. And why not? You probably have a few minutes to kill before Kahlua presents herself, and it could be a fun way to pass the time, both for you and Emiko - and isn't part of making friends making sure that they have a good time with you?

Your course decided, you take a moment to consider how to phrase your responses so that they're cryptic enough to require some thought on Emiko's part to untangle, without being completely impenetrable or just plain silly.

Your first attempt involves a metaphor about a desert oasis, which begins as water quietly seeping up through the sands from hidden depths, and may be discovered with careful attention or by merest chance. If cultivated with patience and care, the water can help to enrich the parched dunes, sustaining life amidst the harsh wastes and even bringing it to new places. If exploited recklessly, however, the spring will inevitably be fouled, spent, or both, causing life to diminish. The trick is to know how much you CAN do, how much you SHOULD do, and the best methods with which to do so.

Emiko easily guesses that you're talking about the spirit, and alluding to your use of meditation to cultivate your own spiritual power, but also your relative lack of knowledge on how to progress further.

Then, acting all serious and grown-up, she recites a five-stanza poem about a flower, and how it appears differently when seen, smelled, touched, or "heard," and how it can be cultivated or left to grow wild.

You're about to say that you've never heard a flower make a sound unless the wind was involved, but then you think of Deku Babas, Kokiri, the Great Deku Tree, and other such creatures, and reconsider both what you were about to say, and what Emiko's little bout of alliteration might mean.

If you assume that the "flower" in Emiko's poem is meant to be the spirit and its inherent power, then seeing it would be your spiritual sight, and touching it would be manipulating its energies. Those are both pretty clear, and the part about choosing to direct the flower's development or let it grow naturally is an equally-obvious nod to your control, though you suspect the bit about "the prize-winning bloom" and "the humble wildflower" is also a more subtle reference to concealment. Hearing or smelling the soul, now... both could be equivalent to your non-visual spritual sense, but if Emiko went to the trouble of distinguishing between the two, it implies that they're separate capabilities. One of the two would be spirit sense, then, while the other would be... what?

Gained Nayru's Favor D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Scholar's Soul D
Gained Wise King F

Despite your best efforts, you're drawing a blank, and it quickly becomes clear to Emiko. She smiles, partly triumphant and partly sympathetic, and tells you to think about it.

Shortly thereafter, you see Kahlua coming down the hall, wearing a different dress than before and with the servant-girl that passed by earlier following in her wake.

"Hello, everyone!" she says, waving. "I hear you were looking for me. I hope it's nothing serious...?"

"Not as far as I'm aware," you reply. "As Emiko noted earlier - have you two met?"

You pause, as the vampire and the kitsune nod to one another. "We have," Kahlua confirms. "Nice to see you again, Emiko."

"You as well, Kahlua. Thank you for the invitation."

"You're welcome. So, Alex, you were saying?"

"Right. As Emiko noted earlier, if something unexpected had come up, like ninja, we'd have heard the explosions by now."

"True," Kahlua agrees.

"I just realized that I hadn't wished you a happy birthday this morning, and I thought I ought to do something about that."

Kahlua nods sombrely. "Yes, Alex. You really ought to."

"So, then. Happy birthday, Kahlua."

"Thank you, Alex."

There's a beat.

"I also thought you might enjoy spending a little time talking to some of your friends, after the whole meet-and-greet for people you possibly didn't know or like quite as much," you continue.

"Alex!" Kahlua adopts a scandalized expression. "What a thing to say! Why in the world would you assume I didn't like any of them?"

"I didn't say you didn't like ANY of them," you correct her. "I just said there was a chance you didn't like them as much as you did your friends. Was I wrong?"

Kahlua lets out a breath. "No, you weren't. Some of these people are alright, but as you said, I don't KNOW them very well, not well enough to say for sure whether I'd call them friends. And some of the ones I DO know, I'd be just as happy to never see again. Except, possibly, if they were on fire."

You're momentarily at a loss for words. Tatsuki appears similarly affected, and Emiko... is just nodding in understanding.

"Makes polite conversation tricky, huh?" Briar chimes in.

"And taxing," Kahlua sighs.

You spend the next ten minutes or so engaged in idle conversation, letting Kahlua dictate the course of the discussion so that she has a chance to vent an issue or two in friendly company. There's a bit of reserve on the young vampire's part, directed at Emiko, which makes you think the two of them fall into that grey area between acquaintances and actual friends, but as time passes, Kahlua relaxes and begins to act a bit more like the girl you've seen over the last couple of days, rather than the young hostess ensnared by the unspoken rules of polite society.

Inevitably, time catches up with you - or perhaps gets away from you; it depends on how you look at it - and Mr. Smith clears his throat, apologizing for the interruption as he informs the young lady of the house that her mother is expecting her.

Kahlua nods, says her goodbyes, and sweeps into the ballroom, donning the mask-like smile of the hostess as she goes.

You turn to your remaining companions. "Well, I've got nothing in particular in mind until lunch comes up. Do either of you have somewhere to be, or anyone you'd like to meet?"

"I should probably find my mom," Tatsuki sighs. "Dropping her in a party with this many drinks and good-looking guys around is just asking for trouble, but like you said, we haven't heard a thing."

"It's too quiet?" you guess.

"Oh yeah."

"I have relatives like that," Emiko says, giving Tatsuki a sympathetic glance. "Fortunately, they're not here. But I should speak to Aunt Hanabi at some point, preferably before my friends have a chance to make it sound like I ditched them."

"Isn't that what you did?" Briar points out.

"Well, yes, but they were being idiots in public. I don't think they'll mention that, do you?"

"Probably not, no."

All things considered, you're inclined to help Emiko find her aunt and prevent those troublesome cat-girls from causing more issues. Not that you're against helping Tatsuki run damage control with her mother, but based on your experience with the woman over the last couple of days, Akkiko seems like an ongoing problem, akin to Japan's long relationship with earthquakes - something that can't be prevented or avoided, and must instead be endured and recovered from.

The same isn't true of the cats.

With that in mind, you ask Tatsuki if she'd object to the lot of you going to find Hayashi Hanabi first, being sure to explain your reasoning. As you speak, it occurs to you that there might be another good reason for sticking together. Even at your age, one boy and one girl walking around together are likely to get people talking; having a "chaperone" of sorts - one that everybody can actually SEE, unlike Briar - would cut down on the gossip considerably. You make a point of mentioning this as well.

Tatsuki snickers, briefly, at your assessment of her mother as akin to a natural disaster.

"That sounds about right, really," she admits with a sigh. Then she straightens up, looking resolute. "And you know what? I'm tired of being Mom's minder. She's the adult; if she's made a mess, SHE can clean it up."

"You're still going to find her after this, though, right?" Briar asks.

"Yeah. If only so I can laugh at her when she gets into trouble."

That matter addressed, the four of you re-enter the ballroom. You briefly consider asking Mr. Smith if he knows where Ms. Hayashi is, but the older gentleman is not at his post. A quick look around shows him across the chamber, speaking quietly to Issa while the lord of the house watches his eldest daughter socialize with a small crowd of ostensible well-wishers.

Just as you didn't want to interrupt Akasha before, you don't want to intrude on Issa's conversation now, so you turn to Emiko and ask where she thinks her aunt would be.

"Well," the kitsune says slowly, with a quick glance at Kahlua, "if she's not with Kahlua, she'll probably be out on the patio. Aside from that... excuse me, sir?" She reaches out to flag down a passing waiter.

"Yes, miss?"

"Do you happen to know where I could find Hayashi Hanabi?"

"Miss Kahlua's tutor?"

"The same."

"I'm afraid I haven't seen her," the man apologizes. "You might try asking Mr. Smith-"

Emiko points out the senior servant. The younger man blinks.

"-ah. Yes, that might be a problem with that idea. I'm afraid the only other suggestion I can offer is to mingle and keep asking people." His expression says he knows what an unhelpful idea that is, and he bows. "I'm sorry that I can't be more useful."

"It's fine," Emiko assures him.

"Have you seen an older woman dressed like me?" Tatsuki inquires.

"Ms. Arisawa? Oh, yes. I saw her out on the patio just a few minutes ago. She was speaking with the Yama Brothers - two very tall men, all shoulders and muscle, near-identical features. You can't miss them."

Tatsuki's left eye seems to twitch for an instant, before she smiles at the waiter. "Thank you for your help."

"Glad to be of service, Miss Arisawa." The servant moves along.

You, Emiko, and Briar give Tatsuki considering looks.

"You know, Tatsuki," Emiko says, "we could go find your mother first."

"Thank you for offering, but it's fine. I meant what I said earlier."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure. Two guys isn't anything to worry about, no matter how big they are. It's when she collects four or five men, or a woman or two, that the trouble always starts..."

You stare, and you're not the only one.

"Never mind," Tatsuki adds hastily. "We were looking for your aunt."

"Um... yes." Emiko makes a visual sweep of the ballroom, and doesn't appear to find anything suggesting Ms. Hayashi is present. You do the same, once again letting your enhanced senses open up enough to get a passive read on the crowd. In terms of ki, youki, and spiritual energy, your results are about as confused as before, although you do manage to get a semi-legible reading on Kahlua and Issa - it helps that you're familiar enough with them to recognize their auras. Your mage sense is clearer, due to the relative lack of magical talents in the crowd, but you don't detect anything like the older kitsune's aura.

You say as much aloud, and Emiko nods. "Me neither. Let's try the patio, then."

Once again, your group begins to navigate the crowd. It proves harder this time, as there's a steady flow of people trying to get into the ballroom - you suspect Kahlua's return is the cause - but the difficulties are more in the nature of a delay than any sort of impassable obstacle. And once you're out on the patio, the increased foot traffic actually works in your favor, as it's thinning out the crowd in this area, and making it easier for you to read the auras of the people who remain.

You spot Tatsuki's mother easily enough. The two guys who must be the Yama Brothers are visually distinctive, being head-and-shoulders taller than the majority of the crowd, and their auras are just as obvious to you. Definitely fighters, the both of them, and with faces that you wouldn't care to meet in a dark alley - or even a well-lit street. Their voices are equally impressive, deep and rumbling and carrying over the murmur of the crowd, even though neither is speaking above a normal tone.

Akkiko, who's wearing a scaled-up version of Tatsuki's fancy kimono, looks as small and fragile next to the almost larger-than-life Yama Brothers as her daughter did when you first spotted Tatsuki in the crowd. But where the younger Arisawa was tense under all the attention she was receiving, Akkiko seems to be having no trouble handling her oversized admirers. She can't match the massive siblings for effortless volume, but though her words are inaudible to you, the way the Yama Brothers are hanging on each and every one makes it clear that Akkiko has control of the conversation. Akkiko's posture, and the coy look you glimpse her shooting at one of the brothers over the silk rim and sharp-looking ribs of a lightly-fluttering fan, suggest that words are the least element of her influence over the two men.

It reminds you of a Gerudo, charming an unwary mark just long enough to get into range to empty his pockets, or slide a knife between his ribs.

"Oh, look," Tatsuki says then, rather deliberately NOT looking in her mother's direction, even though the way her grip on your arm tightens makes it clear that she did see the woman. "I think I see your aunt, Emiko."

And so she does.

"Hello, Emiko," Hayashi Hanabi greets her neice, as the lot of you approach. Perhaps in deference to her employers' more European tastes, she's wearing a Western-style dress in dark green, with shades of brown and gold. "And I see that you've met Mr. Harris, Miss Arisawa, and Miss Briar. I hope my neice has been treating you all well."

"She has," you reply, earning a quick, grateful, beaming smile from Emiko. "Though there were a few others who were... less considerate."

"Oh?" the tutor inquires mildly.

Emiko sighs and straightens up, but doesn't answer right away. You recognize the expression of someone trying to find the proper words to express a slightly difficult matter, and for a moment, Emiko's hidden ears flicker into very, very faint view.

From behind you, there is a sudden outburst of laughter - two voices that are deep and booming, and a third that is much fainter, unexpectedly ladylike, and just a bit wicked.

Tatsuki's grip on your arm intensifies.

In the moment of silence between aunt and neice, you consider stepping in. You already have a statement in mind, a fairly neutral remark that "things were said" without due consideration, and that you made Emiko's acquaintance as part of a rebuke to the responsible party, a deliberate move to separate her from said individuals and absolve her of their foolishness. You think it will work, without coming across as rude or naming names that would make you enemies when word of this gets back to the cat-girls - as you're almost certain it will, eventually.

But you hold your tongue, giving Emiko a chance to get her thoughts in order and speak to her elder. Instead of speaking, you focus on trying to break the somewhat-painful grip Tatsuki has established on your arm. You could just use a hold-breaker, but all the ones you know for situations like this are too obvious - Lu-sensei's primary concern has been effectiveness, not stealth, and considering some of the people and things you KNOW are running around in the world, you completely understand why. It's just a bit inconvenient right now.

Instead of forcing yourself free and making a scene, you try to modify the least-overt of the moves that you'd normally use in such a situation, hoping to sacrificing effectiveness for a measure of subtlety. If you do it right, twisting your arm like so and bringing your wrist about thusly, your suit jacket should conceal the movements from anyone nearby...

Tatsuki gives a start and glances down at where she has a bruising grip on your arm, then up at your face, and then, blushing, away. Although she doesn't truly let go - retaining enough presence of mind not to spoil her own "ladylike" act - the pressure on your limb immediately eases.

Gained Grappling F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

You'll call it a win. But just to be safe, you try to reposition yourself and your partner slightly, so that Tatsuki can't easily look in her mother's direction.

She doesn't need the stress, and you don't need the circulation in your arm cut off.

Emiko has already started speaking by then, explaining how she was with the cat-girls - Aoko, Eri, and Karen, by name - when they noticed Tatsuki in the crowd. Aoko, evidently the leader of the feline trio, was jealous of the younger girl's dress, and when she noticed that Tatsuki apeared to be alone and uncomfortable in the crowd, she decided to make herself feel better by picking on the girl. The other two went along with it, but then Alex showed up, Eri insulted him, and he turned the whole thing around by making it pretty clear that the trio were being, "as Alex put it," catty witches, and moreover, had just insulted two of Kahlua's personal guests.

Emiko admits that when she saw the trainwreck coming, she gave up trying to stop her companions from making a scene and instead attempted to slip away before she got caught up in their mess. She'd only gotten about three steps when Alex, in the middle of escorting Tatsuki away from the incident, decided to introduce himself and his companions, and make it clear that he didn't blame her for her friends being idiots.

"And when he realized you were my aunt, he invited me along to find Kahlua," Emiko says. "Which we did, with some help from Mr. Smith. And after Kahlua had to rejoin the party, Alex, Tatsuki, and Briar were nice enough to help me find you so I could explain everything in person before you heard about it second-hand."

"I see." Hanabi regards her niece for a moment. "Well, I suppose I'll have to be ready for a few words with those girls' parents. Thank you for letting me know in advance, Emiko. And thank you, all," she adds, giving the rest of you a slight nod, "for being considerate of my niece - even when she was fangirling over you, Mr. Harris."

"Auntie!" Emiko protests, her cheeks red.

"It was no trouble, Ms. Hayashi," you reply. "Emiko's been good company, and our conversation was informative."

You don't call attention to the younger kitsune's blush, or the familial teasing which provoked it. Manners maketh the man, after all.

"I'm glad to hear that," Hanabi says. "Still, don't encourage her too much. She might get ideas."

"We're leaving now," Emiko cuts in abruptly, taking your free arm. "Bye, Auntie. Alex, Tatsuki, Briar, let's go."

The force the young fox-girl is using to drag you in her direction isn't so much as to be painful, but it's clear that she's intent on getting away from her aunt's teasing as quickly as possible, and taking you with her.

You glance at Tatsuki, who seems a bit amused by this development, but isn't making any particular sign of whether she'd prefer to stay or go.

Emiko's very abrupt decision to quit this conversation and take you with her leaves you quite literally off-balance, mentally as well as physically. But it's only for a moment; taking a step in her direction to ease the pressure on your arm and correct your stance, you set your feet so that you can properly resist the fox-girl's physically-expressed desire to be elsewhere.

Emiko voices a startled little "Yip!" as she's pulled to a stop, and turns to regard you with slightly wide eyes.

You're looking elsewhere, nodding to Ms. Hayashi. "Thank you for your time, ma'am. We'll just be on our way."

"You're welcome, Mr. Harris. You and the ladies enjoy the party," the fox-woman replies. After a brief pause, she adds, "But not TOO much, Emiko."

"Auntie!"

Taking advantage of your companion's renewed embarrassment, you attempt to steal control over the direction your group is moving in. You succeed, with Emiko making another of those distinctly canine noises of surprise as you pull her in the direction of the garden.

Gained Crowd Control E (Plus)

Tatsuki follows much more smoothly to your other side, her earlier amusement increased to an open smile - though that falters, slightly, as she turns her head towards her mother, who you're leaving behind. You don't allow that to dissuade you, however. Tatsuki did say she was tired of being Akkiko's minder; you're just acting on that, and taking her somewhere that she doesn't have to look at - or hopefully, hear - her mother for a bit.

"Um, Alex...?" Emiko wonders. She doesn't seem to know how to respond to your sudden march into the garden.

"You did both want to be away from... embarrassing relatives," you say in response to Emiko. It's not a rebuke for her attempt to drag you out of there, nor an apology for your own similar behavior; it's just an acknowledgement of your motives.

Emiko blinks again. "Ah. Well, yes, that's true..."

"Though I would have preferred it to be a bit less quick," Tatsuki murmurs, without any real heat. "It's not easy to move in this thing, you know?"

"I'll keep that in mind. So then," you continue, "now that we're out here, what strikes your fancy? The pond might be a good spot to relax for a bit, or perhaps take a boat ride, but exploring the maze could be a lot more interesting. And stopping to smell the flowers might give me some inspiration for solving that riddle from earlier."

At that last addition, Emiko smiles and stands a bit straighter, obviously happy to have "stumped" you.

"Any one of those is fine by me," Briar says. "Though I think I'd prefer the pond."

You're not too surprised by that. Fairies do like to congregate near small, pure bodies of water.

"I don't really have any preference," Tatsuki notes. "I've seen them all before. Though I'd probably have to say no to boats," she adds, looking down at her clothes. "Can't risk this outfit."

An understandable concern.

"Given the choice," Emiko muses, "I think I'd prefer to visit the maze."

That rather conveniently tallies with your own preferences. Quite apart from the intellectual challenge presented by the hedge-maze and the potential satisfaction in overcoming it, you appreciate an opportunity to further distinguish yourself from Ganondorf, even in this small way. Mazes didn't cause the man to suffer the same crippling lack of confidence that afflicted him in regards to complex puzzles, he just considered them a waste of time, and preferred to use brute force to either bull straight through or bypass them entirely.

For all that Emiko's preference is in-line with your own, you can't resist a clever remark. "You just don't want me to get any clues from the flowers."

The kitsune smiles and hums, neither confirming nor denying.

You shake your head. "Well, let's go, then."

It doesn't take more than a minute to reach the entrance to the maze. The hedges are a good seven feet high, built up over who knows how many years by the gardeners, and feature an assortment of small blooming flowers in decorative positions along the walls of green and brown. Looking closer, you notice dark thorns amidst the leaves, and a glance at the ground shows that the "trunks" of the hedges - if that's the proper term for plants of this size - are fairly thick at the base. Together, these features suggest an attempt to deter stronger visitors from simply shoving aside the plants to make a way.

The main entrance features two slender trees, about ten feet high, whose upper branches have been carefully cultivated to form a "natural" archway, which has since been colonized by ivy and flowering plants. The whole thing gives the impression of an ancient gateway, and even the lack of proper doors or gates to bar the portal doesn't diminish that feeling.

There is a T-junction directly inside the gateway. Each arm runs for a fair distance - the two upper arms along the outer hedge, the third, "downward" bar deeper into the maze - before reaching another intersection.

You've already decided not to use magic to navigate the maze - at least, not YET - and in the spirit of that personal challenge, you feel you should eschew other supernatural methods for the time being.

Considering that you're in the middle of a big social event for denizens of the Moonlit World, it would be foolish, rude, and potentially hazardous to risk anyone getting lost by themselves in the maze. Plus, there's your personal history to take into account; bad things tend to happen when you go off alone, their severity ranging from merely annoying to actively life-threatening.

All in all, you much prefer to keep everybody together as you explore. That way, if you DO manage to get yourselves turned around, Briar can guide you from the air - or, in the worst-case scenario, you can just levitate yourself and the girls out. And if, by some chance, you manage to have Yet Another Random Encounter, you'll at least have company to help you deal with it.

When you state your preference to the girls, they agree that exploring the maze as a group makes more sense than splitting up.

Your choice of routes doesn't go over as smoothly. Where you'd rather go left to investigate the virtually unused path, Tatsuki prefers to follow the well-traveled route that leads towards the heart of the maze, and Emiko is curious about the recent trail to the right, and who might have made it.

Briar breaks the tie in your favor, to suspicious looks from the other two, but they follow you down the left-hand path with no more complaint than that.

There's no trail to follow in this direction, whether physical or mystical - a brief check with your heightened senses confirms this - and you soon end up wandering the maze almost randomly. You say "almost" because, keeping in mind the old solution for solving mazes, whenever you're presented with a choice of different routes, you always take the left-most path. This helps you to keep a simple mental map, in case you need to backtrack to the entrance in a hurry.

You spend perhaps fifteen minutes going on like this. Your steady pace carries you past a leaf-dusted stone bench here, an ivy-wrapped stone pillar there, and a few other bits of assorted architecture that don't seem to serve any purpose beyond enhancing the leafy labyrinth's aura of age and mystery. And then you walk out of a short hedge-walled corridor and find yourself in an open space large enough to hold a modestly-sized house. There's a stone fountain at the center, surrounded by a ring of stone benches that's broken up into sixths by half a dozen short pillars, placed at equidistant points around the circumference of the fountain. Unlike the works you passed earlier, these are clear of any debris or encroaching growth, and the curious figures adorning the fountain - which are alternately human, humanoid, or monstrous, though almost all of them have bat-wings and fangs - don't appear to have been eroded by weather in the slightest.

"Is this the center of the maze?" Tatsuki asks, looking around.

"It is," Emiko confirms. "You know, I've been here several times before, and I don't think I've ever heard of someone getting this far as quickly as we did. Do you suppose that might be why nobody takes the left-handed path? Because it's too easy to get this far?"

"That might be it," you reply neutrally. "It could be something else, though. We'd have to ask to be sure."

Emiko nods.

Well, that was a surprisingly unevent-

*CRAAAACKLE*

-oh, Din damn it.

The air around you hums with awakening power as mystical glyphs begin to glow on the pillars and in certain places within the hedges that ring the center of the maze. Looking quickly in the direction from which the sound of cracking, crumbling stone came, you see that several of the statues within the fountain have turned their heads in your group's direction. One is mostly human, the second humanoid, and the last, out-and-out monstrous.

Their eyes are glowing red.

"Are they... supposed to do that?" Tatsuki asks slowly.

Judging by Emiko's shocked stare, exposed and now ramrod-straight ears and tail, and nervous whimper, you're going to say, no.

Given that the awakening of these statues has scared Emiko stiff, it seems pretty clear that what's going on in front of you is NOT supposed to be happening - at least, not right now. With that in mind, you activate all of your enhanced senses, physical, magical, mental, and spiritual, taking in everything you can "see" in the hopes of finding out what actually IS going on here, and how you should or shouldn't react to it.

When your brain registers the sudden spike in incoming information that accompanies a jump from zero (okay, ten, maybe fifteen) to one hundred percent reception, across no less than nine different senses, it gives you an impression somewhat similar to running headfirst into a brick wall - albeit a brick wall lined with fluffy pillows. None of the individual senses reveal anything that would be overwhelming, but all of them taken together at once are a BIT much.

Luckily for you, the objects of your attention offer little to nothing for almost half of those senses to pick up on. The glowing-eyed statues give off no spiritual or mental auras, and accordingly, no ki, nor do they owe their animation to demonic corruption. You also don't pick up any interesting scents from them, though that could be due to the distance and the number of blooming flowers in the area. Really, it's background clutter like that which accounts for most of what these senses are picking up, and once you get over your brief disorientation, you quickly shut them off, clearing out the glut of useless information cluttering up your consciousness and allowing your attention to focus on the magical energy that remains.

Gained Concentration B (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mage Sight B

Augmentation is evident in the auras of the three moving statues, Abjuration and Divination less so, but still there. First and foremost, however, is the presence of Earth Elementalism. It seems quite clear to you that these are purely magical constructs, and from the similarities between the forces animating them and the wards you've seen around Castle Shuzen since your arrival, you'd venture that they're a part of the in-house security system.

Which you appear to have tripped. Somehow.

You don't know how or why, and under the circumstances - with the glowing-eyed grotesques climbing down from their pedestals with much creaking of unnaturally-flexible stone, their posture and movements distinctly predatory and focused on your little group, and a large surge of Abjuration-based magic coming from every direction at once as pale red barriers blur into existence along the hedges and across the pathways that lead into and out of this area - you're not keen on sticking around to find out.

After all, with everything that happened yesterday, you're already on thin ice with Lu-sensei as it is. Plus, you promised no more than an hour ago that you'd "take extra care" today. Granted, your teacher was thinking about making first impressions on the other guests - but you suspect that "got mauled by the guards" would count as the sort of impression you really, really ought to avoid.

Just a theory.

"Ladies," you say, "I think we ought to be going."

"I think you're right," Tatsuki agrees.

Emiko just whimpers.

"Those red barriers look like variants on the Wall of Force," Briar says quickly.

Well of COURSE they are. If you're going to throw powerful but relatively slow-moving stone guardians against intruders, you don't give your targets room to run away.

"What about above? Could we fly out?"

"There doesn't seem to be anything warding it, so... maybe?"

You think quickly. The statues have wings, but they're made of rock, and as far as the look you got at their auras goes, they didn't appear to have anything in the way of magically-assisted flight. The odds of their being able to get off the ground are very small, which means that a modified Spell of Flight, powered up to accomodate your two companions as well as yourself, is probably the quickest and surest way out of this mess. Assuming, of course, that the security system doesn't have any other surprises to throw at you.

Alternately, you could try to blast through the barrier directly behind you, and run back the way you came. Walls of Force are tough, but not indestructible, and while you don't think you have time to hammer away at this one, you ARE capable of casting a Spell of Disintegration, which would instantly collapse the wall that stands in your way. That said, you've never cast that particular spell before, and your understanding of it is... fuzzy. Without access to Ganondorf's full store of magical knowledge, you may not be able to make it work.

Failing that, you could theoretically bypass the barrier with a Dimension Door. Assuming you're comfortable with casting a Spell of the School of Summoning while inside the Shuzen family's personal demiplane.

All your other options involve fighting the moving statues.

You're seriously tempted to ask for divine guidance in this matter: getting a straight "yes" or "no" answer to the question, "can we fly out of here safely?" would be very, very helpful right now.

Unfortunately, the spell that comes to mind requires a full minute to cast, as well as relatively expensive reagents that you don't have on you. You could spend extra mana to compensate for the lack of proper materials OR speed up the casting, but you can't afford to do both at the same time - so the spell's no good to you.

You'll just have to trust to luck, then.

(On what you're sure is a completely unrelated note, your sense of impending doom is rising.)

You cast a Spell of Flight, modified so that the effect will be split between yourself and any creatures you touch. You then reinforce your hold on Tatsuki and Emiko as you cycle your ki in preparation for an enhanced upwards leap.

Emiko grabs right back, with both hands.

"Alex, what-!" Tatsuki protests. She was getting ready to receive the three not-too-quickly incoming stone guardians, and your grip on her arm is understandably interfering.

"Hang on!"

"To whaaaa-!"

"Yiiii-!"

You kick off from the ground as hard as you can, physical effort amplified explosively by Ki Enhancement on top of a Body Flicker, with your flight spell taking over and pulling you further upwards just as the ki technique reaches its maximum duration. Although you can't recall ever trying to Body Flicker straight up before, you still get the feeling that you've lost a bit of height due to your two passengers.

Gained Body Flicker C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

The gargoyles break into a run, trying to catch you, but they're not that fast even going all-out - and certainly not a patch on you when you're moving at Body Flicker-aided speeds - nor are they so tall that you have any real trouble getting out of range of their grasping claws. Even the long skirt of Tatsuki's outfit escapes unscratched.

The same cannot be said for your person. Not that the gargoyles lay so much as a claw on you, but you've suddenly got a startled part-oni girl and one very spooked fox-girl grabbing onto you with all their might. With Tatsuki, that's enough to make your bones creak. Emiko isn't nearly as strong, but her fingernails, you learn, are very sharp.

Gained Endurance C

It's a good thing you're not unfamiliar with pain of this level, because otherwise you might have lost control of your flight spell - and at the moment, you seem to be the only one who's both aware of the magic and in a state of mind to give it the necessary mental instructions to keep your group aloft, out of reach of the rocky talons waiting below.

Gained Flight (Magical) E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

"What the hell was that?!" Tatsuki bursts out, dragging you face-to-face with her.

"Don't drop me don't drop me don't drop me!" Emiko babbles, clawing at you while staring fearfully at the the three prowling guardians below.

"Arrgh! Both of you, calm down and stop-"

"INCOMING!" Briar yells, as loudly as she can.

At the edge of your senses, you pick up the impression of FIRE.

Fortunately, you were expecting something of this nature. Having to deal with a faceful of angry oni and freaked-out fox wasn't in the original plan, but with a burst of ki-enhanced strength and an even greater effort of will, you force them aside and focus on your spell.

An upturned hemisphere of translucent force snaps into place around your small group, just barely wide enough across to to accomodate all four of you. An instant later, a rain of energy bolts begins to batter against the curved shell, each impact flaring with red, raw heat and a measure of kinetic energy. At a guess, you'd say each blast carries about as much destructive power as the spell you know as Scorching Ray, though they appear to have split the "payload," as it were, between force and flame. It makes the bolts more effective against your barrier than if they were purely made of fire, but even so, the sheer resilience of the force-sphere means that it'll probably collapse due to its own limited duration well before it breaks under the assault.

One of the bolts explodes with particular violence, and a spiderweb of greyish cracks briefly appears along the inverted dome.

Okay, maybe they're more powerful than you were giving them credit for. Just a bit.

Peering past your suddenly-quiet companions and through the reddish-grey haze of spellfire, you can see that the rays are being launched from atop the six pillars that ring the fountain. They fire in an alternating sequence, three pillars discharging one after the other, then building up to their next burst while the other three pillars fire. It's not a bad firing program; instead of going off all at once and giving the enemy time to seek cover or counterattack while the array is recharging, this method keeps a certain amount of pressure on.

Incidentally, from your new vantage point of about thirty feet in the air, you have a pretty clear view of the patio. While you can't make out specifics at this distance or through the visual interference of the magical barrage from below, the outdoor crowd seems a fair bit larger than it was a few minutes ago, and several members have broken off and begun heading your way at considerable speed. Several men in suits, a few women in dresses - and unless your eyes are playing tricks on you, Akasha, Akkiko, and Lu-sensei are at the head of the group.

You're about to send them a Message when another of those red-hot force beams explodes against your defensive barrier. The spell you cast is the appropriately-named Emergency Force Sphere, and is effectively a short-lived but MUCH faster-cast version of the more common Resilient Sphere. Normally, it manifests with the flat side of the hemisphere along the ground, but that would have left you rather dangerously open, as the dome has no proper floor. Fortunately, it's fairly trivial to invert the orientation of the protective hemisphere when it manifests.

One of the Emergency Force Sphere's other drawbacks is that it's simply not as tough as its more stable counterpart. You were initially confident that it could hold out under this ongoing attack, but it seems that whoever did the Shuzen's enchanting didn't believe in going light on trespassers; the beams are hitting harder than you'd like, and if too many more of them EXPLODE-

BANG!

-like THAT, you're going to have a problem.

All things considered, you decide to raise a proper Resilient Sphere before doing anything else.

As you begin gathering your mana, however, it occurs to you that, for all its potential defensive applications, the spell in question was originally meant to contain an enemy. Thus, in this situation, the "proper" way to cast the Spell of Resilient Sphere would be to surround the fountain and its force-and-flame shooting pillars, keeping the latter from hitting you - if not indefinitely, then at least long enough for you to fly out of the line of fire.

You assess your position and the dimensions of your target, and then compare it to the parameters of the spell in your mind. Range is good. Area of effect... not so good, but you can burn another couple levels' worth of mana to ensure you get the entire enchanted structure "under glass." That just leaves the shape of the barrier you're going to conjure. You can't really enclose the entire fountain and its attendant stoneworks in a sphere. A hemisphere, on the other hand, would be perfect - and wouldn't you know it? The Spell of Emergency Force Sphere provides exactly the right set of formulas to describe that shape.

Making the necessary adjustments, you run the completed form of the modified spell in your mind, and then nod once, satisfied that it will do what you desire.

Now you just need to cast it. And with the Emergency Force Sphere still between you and your target, this will require you to fly to the edge of the "bowl," reach one hand outside its protective curve, and release the spell thusly. You can cast the spell even with the girls having their own respective death-grips on your arms, but you need at least one arm free to aim properly - that's non-negotiable.

You briefly consider asking one of the girls to let go of you, but dismiss the thought almost as quickly as it comes. As far as you know, neither of them are familiar with flight spells, and you don't really have the time to teach them how to control the magic right now. Not to mention that Emiko is probably going to maintain her death-grip on you until there's solid ground beneath her feet and no hostile statues in sight.

"Tatsuki, can you move around and hold on to my back?"

The part-oni regards you warily. "Why?"

"I need one hand free to cast another spell," you reply, as you hover towards the edge of the hemisphere, which is beginning to waver under the spell-fire from the concealed security emplacements.

Tatsuki notices the distortion and licks her lips nervously, then proceeds to "climb" hand-over-hand up your arm and onto your shoulder. That's as far as she goes, but it's enough.

Mana surges through you as you cast your modified spell, reaching out at the last moment to make a slightly-awkward gesture with your free hand.

There is a hiss and low-pitched boom of displaced air as the fountain, the pillars, the benches, and - in a lucky shot - one of the three prowling gargoyle statues are sealed off within a much larger, upright dome of force. The spell arrays within the six pillars do not stop trying to shoot at you, but their attacks explode upon the interior rim of the dome, and through the glare, you can see that this "Resilient Hemisphere" is weathering the assault much better than its immediate predecessor.

You study the scene for a moment, then nod and dismiss your first force-barrier.

"What do you say we get out of here?"

"No argument here," Tatsuki admits.

Emiko makes a wordless, nervous sound of agreement, nodding repeatedly with her face pressed against your arm.

"It's okay, Emiko," you say, as you will your flight spell to carry all of you towards the adults at the best speed it can manage. Since you're the only one actively using their portion of the group magic, and so effectively carrying the other two, this works out to a bit faster than a quick walk. "The adults are coming, the statues can't reach us up here, and the pillars can't hit us anymore."

She makes a noise that you think might be, "Too high."

...is she afraid of heights? Is that it? If so, there's... well, not really much you can do about it except land. Even within the two still-free statues trapped within the Wall of Force that came up around the central part of the maze, you're a bit leery of touching down inside the hedges again. Not that you've picked up any indication of further security measures about to go off, but as the saying goes, once bitten, twice shy.

Speaking of being bitten, and creatures with fangs, Miss Akasha has just reached the entrance to the maze and begun making her way towards the center. You feel slightly vindicated when she takes the first left turn, and then keeps turning left after that, following the same path that you did.

Lu-sensei foregoes running the labyrinth in favor of scrambling up the outer hedge and running along the top of it, treating the upper branches as if they were as solid and stable as the paths below. When he comes to a gap that he must cross to reach you, you're not quite sure if he's jumping across or running on empty air - though if it's the latter, you DEFINITELY want to learn how to do the same thing.

From the frustrated female cursing you can hear near the entrance, Akkiko seems to lack a similar means of getting through the maze. Or perhaps her dress is just getting in the way?

"What happened?" your teacher says, as soon as you're in easy speaking range.

You waste no time telling your teacher what happened.

You went for a walk in the maze with the girls.

You made left turns only, and reached the center fairly quickly, with no encounters of any sort along the way.

Then the security system activated, in the form of stone statues coming to life with unfriendly expressions and (presumably) similarly unwelcome intentions. Your response, of getting your group into the air and out of reach of the gargoyle-like golems, was greeted with some sort of magical weapons emplacement hidden in the fountain opening up on you. Fortunately, you have force-field spells for just an emergency, and were able to shield the first couple waves, then lock the armed and dangerous fountain under a second, much larger and stronger dome, before exiting the area at your best speed.

At no point during your quick, factual recounting of events do you try to emphasize your innocence; after everything that Lu-sensei KNOWS has happened to you, particularly yesterday, you suspect that it might make him think you were protesting too hard. Likewise, you don't go to any special lengths to point out that you were obey your master's command to stay out of trouble. That much ought to be self-evident from your testimony.

And from the way a certain tension goes out of your teacher's posture and presence as he listens to you speak, it would seem you made the right choice.

"I see," Lu-sensei murmurs, stroking his beard as he walks along beside you, atop the hedges. You'd thought that his previous speed was a necessary part of how he was doing that, but, apparently not.

You REALLY want to know how he's doing that.

As you've been speaking, you've maintained a steady course for the edge of the maze. Tatsuki seems to be relaxing a bit, now that you're all out of the line of fire and the adults have arrived, but Emiko is still a trembling bundle of tightly-wound nerves and clenching fingernails.

Said girl yelps and grips you even harder as MASSIVE, familiar, and rather angry youki suddenly surges behind you. An instant later, the air is filled with a curiously musical note, somewhere between the ringing of a bell and the shattering of a massive pane of glass. Hard on the heels of that comes one gunshot-like crack, and then another, both somewhat familiar to you as the sound of masses of stone being explosively shattered.

Miss Akasha appears to have reached the center of the maze - and by the sound of things, either the security system failed to identify her as one of the people in charge, or it just didn't do so quickly enough to appease her.

Couldn't she have waited a few seconds more? At least long enough for you to get out of the maze and put Emiko back on the ground? You're worried the girl may have drawn blood with that latest grab...

In any event, your flight spell carries you over the rim of the outer wall of the maze, and into plain view of the small but growing crowd gathered near the entrance, as well as the larger group building up on the patio.

Akkiko gives her daughter a quick look, and then grins. "Couldn't wait to be alone together, I see?"

You can FEEL Tatsuki's blush through the back of your neck.

You glance at Lu-sensei's feet, as he casually-traverses the top of a hedge that, while thick and healthy, really shouldn't be able to bear the weight of a grown man. Even one as, ah, "diminished" by age as your teacher.

"Um, Sensei?"

"Yes, Alex?"

"How are you doing that?" And then, because it's an interesting ability you haven't seen before, you add, "And would you mind if I took a closer look? Ki-wise, I mean?"

"As to the how, a mix of very good balance, ki control, and a great deal of practice. As to the rest... you're welcome to try, but this is a somewhat-advanced application of the basic skill."

That's not a no. It sounds like an "I don't think you're quite ready for this," but it's not an outright no. And as far as you're concerned, "not a no" is as good as a yes. Accordingly, you wake up your ki sight and take a look at what Lu-sensei is doing with his energy and his feet.

...

Well. Lu-sensei's estimate wasn't completely accurate, but it's still closer to the mark than you might have liked. You manage to see through his efforts to conceal his ki from casual notice, but you get the impression that's only because he's letting you - and even then, your master's control over his life-force is so practiced and precise that you know you couldn't reproduce it. By his own admission, however, you don't NEED to - you just have to ape the general form and flow of ki.

And possibly, run very fast.

Gained Ki Step F (Plus)

You stare at Akkiko for a moment, as you cross the outer wall of the maze and descend to the ground beyond. You honestly can't think of anything you could say that the woman wouldn't be able - or willing - to turn around and make sound bad in some way?

So you don't even bother trying. Instead, you take a page from Tatsuki's recently-reworked playbook, ignore Akkiko, and focus on calming-down your freaked-out kitsune companion.

"Hey, Emiko?"

"Mmmm?" she responds, face still pressed against your arm.

You sense something from Akkiko's direction you can best describe as a double-take.

"D-did he just ignore me?"

You did, and you continue to do so. "We're out of the maze, we're on the ground, and Miss Akasha wrecked the only gargoyles that could have followed us."

"...mmmm."

"He did! Tatsuki! What have you been teaching your friends?!"

Gained Trolling D (Plus)

Behind you, Tatsuki - who has let go of you and taken a step back to a polite distance - facepalms. "Damn it, Mom..."

"You can, uh, let go?" you offer, partly unsure of what to say to Emiko, and partly distracted by the Arisawa family circus.

There's a brief silence.

"...yiiii!"

And then Emiko not only lets go, but virtually JUMPS away from you, red-faced, waving her arms frantically, and babbling a mile a minute.

"I'msorryI'msorryIdidn'tmeantobuttherewerebigscarystonethingsandwewereINTHEAIRandIHATEheightsandthentherewereEXPLOSIONSandohInariyourarmI'msosorryIdidn'tmeantoandImustsoundlikesuchanidiotsomebodyshootmenowPLEASEdon'ttellAuntie-"

Gwah.

You can't repress a smile at Emiko's antics. She's kind of adorable when she's freaking out - not that you WANT to freak people out, as a rule, let alone someone you're starting to consider a friend.

"It's okay, Emiko," you say, raising both hands in a reassuring gesture, while restraining an urge to reach out and hug the fox-girl or pat her on the head. You're not sure how kitsune regard physical contact in public, so you're defaulting to the Japanese custom.

She stops babbling and grasps her tail with both hands, ruffling the fur while her ears droop. "B-but I was- and you were- and your arm-"

"We were in a dangerous, unexpected situation," you say easily, projecting calm and patience. "You had every right to be scared. And I'm tough enough to handle a few scratches."

"But-"

"The important thing is, we all got out in one piece. Right?"

Emiko hesitates, then nods. She still looks fairly miserable, and a part of you is sorely tempted to skritch those ears or something - but you refrain, instead seeking something else you could do or say that might cheer her up.

"Seriously, Emiko, the arm isn't a problem." You shift the arm in question around, showing that despite having been pinched by her fingernails almost to the point of piercing wounds and blood loss, you've suffered no decrease in range or ease of movement. "It'll be better in no time, and the fact that you kept a good, strong grip made it easier to get us out."

This is enough to get Emiko to stop wringing her tail, but her ears remain lowered and her expression uncertain.

"You didn't do anything wrong," you continue. "You were afraid, but you didn't run around in a blind panic or do anything else stupid - which, speaking frankly? Puts you two steps ahead of ME in my first serious fight."

The young kitsune blinks. "Wha-?"

"Yeah, there was this stupid electric squid..."

You proceed to recount the incident with Arrogante, not leaving out your less-than-brilliant decision to stick a piece of iron into the body of an electrified entity while you were still holding onto it. You don't raise your voice too far, nor do you recount the subsequent meeting with the squid's extremely troublesome summoner - you're trying to calm Emiko down, not freak her out about brushes with death you may or may not have had in the past, and you don't want to reveal too much of your history to the small crowd of mostly-strangers gathered about.

The blow-by-blow retelling of your fight with the many-armed, electromagnetic cephalopod seems to have the desired effect, as Emiko's ears perk up and she starts to look curious about and even a little excited by your take. Tatsuki is also listening in, clearly interested in a story of great and terrible violence wrought upon a deserving target.

Gained King of Women C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Protective C (Plus)

Akkiko is shamelessly eavesdropping, and the nearer guards - those who haven't spread around to secure the perimeter of the hedge-maze, or ventured inside after their employer - seem to be torn between standing watch in full professional mode, and listening in. Lu-sensei, having heard it all before, just shakes his head.

Partway through your tale, you consider breaking out a few of the drinks from yesterday; storytelling is thirsty work, and you could use some liquid refreshment after your earlier scare with the malfunctioning Fountain of Death. When you reach into your dimensional pocket, however, you discover that there are no drinks remaining. What-?

Oh, right. You handed the remaining cans and drink-boxes over to the staff when you and the rest of the little adventuring party returned to the castle. It was such a minor thing, you barely noticed at the time, let alone recalled it later.

Oh, well. You're at a party, right? Fully catered, and with lots of attendants? Thirst is easily quenched.

In your mind, the opportunity to obtain information about the current incident takes precedence over mere physical thirst. And really, you can always find something to drink later; it's not like a few minutes with a slightly dry mouth and throat is going to hurt you.

So you wait. As you do so, you think to consult your internal clock. By your estimate, it's been about three minutes since you cast that hemisphere of force over and around the Shuzens' abnormally heavily-armed fountain. Assuming those concealed emplacements don't manage to blast it down - an unlikely outcome, from what you saw before getting the heck out of there, but not an entirely impossible one - the barrier has another seven minutes, eight at the outside, before it runs out of energy and fades away. At that point, anybody in the center of the maze will potentially be in danger again.

You should probably mention that.

"Uh, Lu-sensei?"

"Yes, Alex?"

"Somebody should probably tell Miss Akasha and the guards who went in after her that the forcefield I put up around the fountain will give out in another seven minutes or so."

"Yes," your teacher agrees, one eyebrow arching up, "somebody probably should." He glances at one of the nearby guards, whose hand is already going to a little concealed earpiece, then turns back to you as the security operative begins speaking quietly to someone on the other side of the wireless connection. "Is there anything else you think they should know?"

You consider that. Only one detail really comes to mind.

"If it helps any, I didn't pick up any other people besides the four of us in or near the middle of the maze when the statues started moving," you say. "Or any magic that felt like it wasn't supposed to be there."

"Me, neither," Briar adds.

"Briar didn't notice anything, either," you add, just in case Sensei or the guard didn't hear her. "Aside from that, though, I can't think of anything that might be important."

The guard nods, politely, but doesn't mention that to whoever he was speaking to.

"You should make sure Lady Bloodriver hears that," Lu-sensei advises the man dryly. "She has some idea of Alexander and Miss Briar's sensory capabilities."

Behind his dark glasses, the guard blinks, and you sense him looking from your master, to you, and then back again. A wordless "Really?" hangs in the air, to which Lu-sensei merely nods. At that point, the guard shrugs and passes on the addendum.

Then he blinks again, clearly surprised by whatever the response is, and turns to you. "Mister Harris, Lady Bloodriver would like to know if you can dismiss the barrier that's surrounding the fountain, or if it would cause you any inconvenience if it was to be brought down by force."

You consider those two questions. You can dismiss the Resilient Hemisphere, but you'll need to be closer to it than you currently are - say, within fifty feet or so. You don't need line of sight or anything, just proximity, but you realize that the adults might prefer not to have you getting even that close to the malfunctioning security devices. Having someone break down your barrier through raw force won't hurt you or anything, but it feels a bit inconsiderate to your hosts to let them waste time and personal effort dealing with something you could handle with a word.

You COULD always mention that a Resilient Sphere (or variations thereof) is vulnerable to dispelling, but part of you is wary of giving away such a key weakness to an otherwise highly effective spell.

You tell the guard that you can dismiss the spell, but you'd need to be closer to do so.

"How close?" Lu-sensei says at once, surprising you not in the least.

"Within about fifty feet or so."

Your teacher mulls that over. His frown says he's clearly not pleased at the idea of letting you get near the malfunctioning security system again, but he hasn't rejected the notion out of hand.

"If it makes you feel any better, Lu-sensei, I don't need line of sight or anything like that. I just need to be closer to the barrier than I am now. And if you'd rather I not go back in there, that's fine; it won't cause me any problems if Miss Akasha breaks down the sphere - although unless it's urgent that she get to the fountain, I'd really recommend that she just wait out the clock. That sphere is VERY tough."

The guard seems amused by your addendum, but passes along your words. A moment later, he speaks aloud. "Lady Bloodriver sends her thanks, Mister Harris, and would prefer that you stay clear of the area until she has the matter under control."

You nod. No skin off your nose. Lu-sensei is visibly pleased as well, as are Emiko and Tatsuki. You get a similar sense from Briar.

A moment later, there's a deep, bell-like rining sound from the heart of the hedge-maze. It's similar to the one you heard earlier, which you attributed to Miss Akasha battering her way through the Wall of Force that was blocking the entrance to the center of the maze, but lacks the "shattering glass" aspect.

Right after that, you hear a woman shouting something in a pained voice. Distance and the walls of the leafy labyrinth muffle whatever is said, but it doesn't sound at all polite, and it goes on for a while.

The guard flinches at whatever he hears over his earpiece, and gives you a look of frank astonishment.

"Lady Akasha has, er, decided to let the barrier come down on its own."

...you hope you aren't going to get in trouble for this.

You also find yourself remembering Briar's earlier statement about the red hued barriers at the center of the maze, and how they were variants of the spell you know as the Wall of Force. You're curious as to what sort of variations were made, because you didn't get the impression that those barriers were any less physically- or magically-powerful than yours. Even so, Miss Akasha was able to break through one of them with a single strike and no apparent harm to herself, when a similar attempt at battering through YOUR barrier seems to have resulted in her hurting her hand, so there must be SOME kind of difference...

Leaving all that aside, it's going to be a few more minutes before that Resilient Hemisphere exhausts its remaining mana and discorporates back into the ether.

Some people, upon hearing a powerful and usually very well-mannered lady vampire cursing like a sailor because she hurt her hand or foot on a magical barrier of their creation, might have tried to slip away from the scene of the incident and disappear into the crowd.

You are not some people. You're not trying to go anywhere, because you have no reason to. You've done nothing wrong; you warned Miss Akasha that your Resilient Hemisphere was very tough and should be left to run down on its own, and she chose to ignore your advice and hit it anyway. She's an adult; she can take responsibility for her own actions.

Speaking of things you've done or have not done, you wonder for a moment if you ought to mention the relatively recent trail you noticed when you entered the garden maze, the one that went down the right-hand path just inside the gate. After a moment, you mentally shrug and dismiss the idea. Speaking frankly, without your magic, you're really no kind of tracker, and if YOU could notice those prints, Akasha and all the guards who followed her into the maze MUST have seen them as well. On top of that, you gave that part of the maze a quick once-over with your augmented senses when you were trying to decide which route to follow, and you didn't pick up anything noteworthy - no magical aura, no lingering youki, no demonic taint, nothing. You really have nothing to say about the tracks that hasn't already been noticed.

Pulling your attention away from the hedge-maze for the moment, you turn to your companions. Emiko is looking from the guard with the squawking earpiece to the center of the maze to you, her eyes wide and her ears sticking straight up in surprise. You decide to let her come to terms with this latest event on her own, and turn to Briar.

"Are you okay, Briar?"

"Should I not be?" she returns.

"Well, there was a lot of magic being thrown around in there, and things were happening fast enough that I thought I might have missed something."

"Thank you for thinking of me, but I'm fine." Briar radiates mischievous amusement. "Can't say the same for Akasha, now can we?"

Ignoring that last part, you turn to Tatsuki. "How about you, Tatsuki?"

"I'm fine. I don't think I even wrinkled my outfit." She seems a bit torn about that, but shakes her head and dismisses her concerns, instead regarding you curiously. "Exactly how hard was that force-field dome-thing you left out there, anyway?"

You glance around. Everybody in earshot appears to be listening in, some - like Akkiko - more obviously than others - such as the guard.

Your succinct reply provokes a snort of amusement from Tatsuki. "I suppose that's true."

She doesn't appear entirely satisfied with your answer, but you'd rather keep the specific tolerances of the Resilient Hemisphere and its related spells to yourself. You might need to use them again, and if some random bad guy gets stuck on the inconvenient side of a barrier that he knows withstood a blow from the Dark Lady of the Orient, he's a lot more likely to give up on trying to breach it than he would be if he knew it was "only" three times harder than steel and about as durable as six or seven inches of the stuff. To say nothing of some of the specific vulnerabilities of this type of magic.

The conversation, such as it was, dies down after that, and you pass a minute or two in relative quiet. Even the murmurs of the crowd on the veranda fade, probably due to the lack of explosions, screaming, and other signs of great violence from the hedge-maze. You spare a moment to wonder how the guests are taking this development. In a human residence, having part of your security system compromised like this would be a major problem, reflecting a direct threat to the household and the guests, as well as a loss of face. Is it similar for monsters, or do they have different opinions regarding such an event? And if so, what are they?

Your musings are interrupted by a theatrical yawn from Akkiko.

"Well, this has gotten all boring," she complains. Then she turns to you. "Since we've got some time left before anything else happens, Harris, do you mind if we have a word? In private?"

Tatsuki gives her mother a suspicious look.

"Mrs. Arisawa-" the guard begins.

"What? I'm not going to steal the boy or anything. We'll just be over there." She gestures absently towards a bench beyond a cluster of rosebushes, the latter just tall enough to provide a certain degree of concealment from the entrance to the maze. "Right in plain sight and everything."

The guard doesn't seem reassured, but neither does he attempt to protest again.

Looks like it's your call.

There is a part of you saying that going anywhere with Akkiko is just asking for trouble. You only got OUT of your latest encounter with trouble a few minutes ago, do you really need to court its attention again this soon?

"Sure!" you reply, ignoring that sub-section of your consciousness and its perfectly reasonable concerns. "But do you mind if I bring Briar along? She'd probably come anyway."

Akkiko looks from you to the fairy. She appears to struggle with something for a moment.

"Sorry," she says then, "but I just have to ask: do you really go everywhere the kid does?" She's not making it sound teasing or angry or anything, just openly curious.

"More or less." Briar settles on your shoulder, and gives a motion you interpret as a shrug. "It's a guardian fairy thing. Hard to guard anything if you aren't there when it needs guarding."

"Doesn't that get... awkward?" There's just a hint of teasing in there, but again, Akkiko's tone is mostly one of honest inquiry.

"Considering that the alternate is each of us trying to go it alone on the Hellmouth?" Briar returns. "Not really."

Akkiko considers that, and nods. Tatsuki and Emiko give her, Briar, and you puzzled looks.

"I've heard that word a couple times, now," Tatsuki notes. "What is a Hellmouth, exactly, and how bad is it?"

"And if it's that bad, why are you even living there?" Emiko adds.

Um. That's... a pretty involved discussion right there, to be honest, and one you're not sure you have time for just now: Akkiko has "first dibs" on your company right now, even if she isn't pressing the matter at the moment. On the other hand, it'd be a little rude to just take off without giving Tatsuki and Emiko some kind of answer. And really, not only is knowing what a Hellmouth is and why it's a Bad Thing a fairly important piece of knowledge purely on its own merits, the inhabitants of the Moonlit World that you've met have tended to take it even more seriously than that.

You consider the girls' questions, and then nod. It IS a pretty important topic, at least in your opinion, and if they don't already know what a Hellmouth is and the sort of danger it represents, they really should be informed before they have a chance to make any mistakes.

"What a Hellmouth is, is a long story," you begin. "But let me explain..."

You pause abruptly, mouth open, as you consider everything you know about Hellmouths.

You promptly shake your head. "No, there's too much. Let me sum up..."

Dimensional rift between this world and one or more places that could be Hell (or are close enough to fit the bill)? Check. Gateway in question mostly sealed? Also check. Spiritual equivalent of a open cesspool? Check, with an impulse to mention your stop at the Hakuba shrine, so as to explain just how bad that kind of thing is. Attracts demons and other nasties, and is generally dangerous to live on? Four for four. Has the very slight advantage of interfering with methods of detecting magic and other supernatural activity in the area, as long as the source isn't too obvious? Check, and done.

All in all, even the short, short version takes about five minutes. What can you say? It's a topic that's near and dear to your heart.

It also leaves the girls staring at you, shocked and a little spooked.

"Alex," Tatsuki says slowly, "are you saying that your family lives on top of a portal to Hell, on PURPOSE?"

"...yes?" you answer. The word is no sooner out of your mouth when you realize how uncertain it sounds, and you quickly add, "I mean, it's not ENTIRELY on purpose, but..."

You trail off, struggling mentally to find a way to explain your family's situation, without actually saying anything that you shouldn't. Revealing that the vast majority of your relatives are mostly-ordinary humans who live in Sunnydale because their personal finances and the whims of fate make it really hard to move elsewhere is NOT something you're prepared to discuss when you're in public and surrounded by strange monsters like this. Heck, a good portion of that is stuff you wouldn't be entirely comfortable talking about in private, with close friends who can't grow fangs and claws at a moment's notice.

"There are a lot of reasons involved," you finally say, picking your words carefully. "Probably a big part of it is that the Harrises have lived in Sunnydale since it was founded. It's... tradition. Maybe not the safest or sanest one ever, but it's there, and it's ours. I'd really rather not go into more detail than that about family matters. At least, not in public."

Out of the corner of one eye, you catch a short nod from Lu-sensei.

Tatsuki winces at that. "Right. Sorry, I, um, hadn't considered that."

"It's fine," you answer, shrugging off the whole brief sideline.

Really, Tatsuki's eight, and oni heritage or not, as far as you know, she doesn't have any pre-incarnation memories OR much, if anything, in the way of experience at a high-class get-together like this to call on for guidance. Of COURSE she's going to put a foot wrong, it's just your bad luck to have been the one that got tripped up.

"Anyway," you continue, turning to Akkiko in the hopes of steering the conversation to somewhat safer ground, "you wanted to speak privately, Mrs. Arisawa?"

"Yeah, I guess I did." She waves at the guard. "We'll just be over there."

Leaving the somewhat embarrassed-looking Tatsuki, the still-nervous Emiko, and the quietly patient Lu-sensei behind, you follow the Arisawa matron a short distance from the group, circling the bed of rosebushes to reach the bench. Akkiko promptly drops onto the seat, managing to sprawl over the thing and look as comfortable as a cat on a plush couch.

She gestures at the other end of the bench. "Pull up a rock, and let's talk."

Akkiko waits until you're seated, hooking her hands about one knee.

"What did you want to talk about, ma'am?" you ask.

"Well, for starters, I really have to ask: how often crap like THAT" - she points one manicured finger over and past the rosebushes, in the direction of the maze - "happen to you?"

You walk past Akkiko and settle yourself on the far end of the bench. Even though there's several inches of space between you, the way the woman is sprawled over her side of the seat gives you a feeling of being crowded. You also have to wonder just how in the world she's managing to sit like that in such an elaborate garment, let alone doing so without tearing or displacing some element of the whole outfit.

"This is honestly the first time I've ever been attacked by sculpture," you admit.

Akkiko snorts. "You need to get out more. Animated statues and things that disguise themselves as statues are pretty common."

The Hylians' fondness for loading their temples and other ruins-to-be with Armos Statues, Ironknuckles, and the like would certainly seem to support that claim.

"For that matter," she adds, "there are plenty of thugs that'll just throw whatever comes to hand at you."

And now you're thinking of Link, and his tendency to use empty jars and bits of masonry as impromptu projectiles.

On a side note, the idea of calling Link a thug amuses you.

"But, that's not really what I wanted to talk about," Akkiko says then. She straightens up a bit, suddenly looking serious. "I had a chance to talk with the old wizard last night, about his take on events from the tournament. He mentioned that, even if you were able to see the seal on my girl, you didn't seem to know what it was for, or even where it came from. Is that true?"

...she's talking about the black chains, right? And how they're associated with Hell? You think that must be it.

You find yourself reluctant to respond to Akkiko. It's nothing against her - not really - it's just that the venue she's chosen for this chat is only a few rosebushes away from being out in the open. And knowing what you do about monster senses and magic, you're not convinced that this is anywhere near as "private" as you'd prefer it to be.

"Are you sure we should be discussing this right now, ma'am?" you ask. "I mean, I've probably attracted a fair bit of attention because of what just happened, and this particular topic doesn't strike me as one that should be discussed in public."

Gained Guarded C

Akkiko cocks her head at an angle. "A little bit paranoid, are we?"

"I prefer to think of it as being reasonably cautious."

"And even paranoids have enemies," Briar notes.

"Heh. Well, if it'll make you feel better, I can do something about that."

Akkiko reaches into her robe - and a dimensional pocket, you sense - and pulls out a satchel big enough to fit over your head, with a string of heavy beads dangling from the tightly-shut flap and unfamiliar symbols stitched into the sides. Its arcane appearance doesn't quite fit with Akkiko's formal attire, but it doesn't entirely clash, either.

"What's that?" you ask cautiously. Your passive senses aren't picking anything up from the object, but...

"A six demon bag," Akkiko replies idly, as she starts loosening the string.

Well, THAT's not an unsettling name at all.

"Terrific," Briar mutters. "A six demon bag. SENsational."

You look from Mrs. Arisawa to your companion. "What's in it?"

"Wind, fire, all that kind of thing," Akkiko replies.

"Are you sure you should be opening that here?" Briar asks.

"It's fine," Akkiko answers, giving the bag a pat. "The boys know I'll kick all their asses if any one of 'em acts up."

It may be your imagination, but the material of the bag appears to shift away from Akkiko's hand, as if something inside it just flinched.

"Actually," Briar says, "I was thinking more about our hosts."

Akkiko waves that off. "Like I said, it's fine."

That's... not the most reassuring reaction.

It's fair to say that you have... misgivings... about Akkiko's decision to pull out a new source of magic under the current circumstances. At least part of the Shuzens' security system has been tampered with, and the rest has probably gone on high alert after your stroll through the live-fire exercise at the center of the garden labyrinth. You can't help but worry that working more magic right now would draw attention from said security system and the people who are part of it - unamused attention, at that.

Still. You ARE concerned about privacy issues, Akkiko IS (nominally) the grown-up here, and she SEEMS to have cleared possession and use of her "Six Demon Bag" with your hosts. So it SHOULD be alright. Right?

And if it turns out not to be... well, like you just thought, Akkiko IS (supposedly) the adult in this situation. Let her take responsibility for her actions.

Said actions consist of reaching into the satchel and rooting through the contents - which you can see pressing against the fabric of the bag as they're shifted around, but which give off no light, sound, or supernatural auras that you can pick up, even with your senses cranked up to active. When Akkiko withdraws her hand a moment later, she's grasping a strange orb that appears to be made entirely of thin white vapor, which shifts about before your eyes as if caught in a light breeze, yet doesn't break the bounds of its spherical form. The object radiates a strong aura of Abjuration and Wind Elementalism, but also gives off a certain amount of necromantic power - in the shades that deal with life and living souls, as opposed to the dead and undead sorts.

This would appear to be one of the "demons" that give Akkiko's bag its name, but looking at it, you have to ask: "Is that a magic item, or a magic creature?"

"Yes," Akkiko replies with a grin. Then she raises the sphere close to her mouth, and begins murmuring to it in some language you don't recognize.

"That's a bound wind elemental, Alex," Briar informs you. "A fairly powerful one, too, if the strength of the binding is any indication."

You take a moment to consider that. Your own skills at Wind Elementalism aren't quite up to the task of channeling that much power, but you could probably recreate the binding Abjuration - you'd have to use a seventh-circle spell, mind, but you could do it.

Then you think about the sort of things seventh-circle wind spells can do.

Like summoning a thirty-foot tall elemental capable of out-flying any natural airborne creature (and most supernatural ones), transforming into a whirlwind, or just huffing, puffing, and blowing some poor sucker's house down.

Or casting a dozen individuals aloft on the wings of a Spell of Flight, all at once.

Or taking control of the weather in a two-mile radius for anywhere up to two days.

With such visions of massive overkill dancing in your head, you're about to suggest to Akkiko that maybe you should be the one to handle the privacy spells instead when she raises her hand and lets go of the cloudy orb. It hovers above the three of you, and gives off a single, surprisingly faint pulse of magical energy - not hidden, by any means, just considerably weaker than what the elemental "demon" ought to be capable of. A second-circle spell, third-circle at the outside, and extremely well-controlled.

Gained Mana Control C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Wind Elementalism D (Plus)

In response to that pulse, the air around you tingles, and for a moment you feel ever so slightly slower, heavier, and weighed down. Then the feeling passes, taking with it the already-faint murmurs coming from the direction of the veranda. Looking around, you can see and sense that you, Akkiko, and Briar are now sitting in the middle of a neat sphere, not even twenty feet across. The outer layer is thin and translucent, cloudy enough to obscure fine details of the garden around you without actually hiding anything. If someone were to look in from the outside, they'd be able to see you and Akkiko clearly enough to recognize you (assuming they already knew who you were), but any attempt at lip-reading would be shot. The lack of noise tells you that simply listening in on your conversation is also off the list.

"There we go," Akkiko says, sitting back on the bench once more. She doesn't close her bag or set it aside. "That's about as private as we can get, without tweaking noses out of joint." She smiles at you. "Feel safer, now?"

You take one final look around at the "bubble" of privacy Akkiko has created, then turn back to her.

"That seems fine to me. So, just to clarify, you were asking me if I knew any about black chains and their association with Hell before Ambrose said so?"

Akkiko nods.

"Okay. Well, the answer is, no, I didn't. I was able to see that Tatsuki had some kind of seal on her, and when I took a closer look at it, I got an idea of the types of magic involved and that they were affecting her physically, mentally, and spiritually. But I couldn't read the language inscribed on the chains, and I didn't pick up anything that made me think of Hell - or the Hellmouth, come to that."

"Yeeaah," Akkiko drawls, grimacing at your words. "Quick bit of advice, Harris: in the future, don't ever associate Hellmouths or the demon dimensions with any of the actual spiritual Hells. It's sloppy, and it really pisses those guys off."

"...alright," you agree slowly. "I take it that means they're actually NOT the same?"

"Nope. I mean, sure, a lot of demon dimensions have terrain that's as nasty as anything you'll find in the Hells, sometimes even in the same ways, the natives can be every bit as ugly and vicious, and they all deal with souls. The thing is, demons steal, torment, and corrupt souls for their own amusement, and as a source of power. The genuine Hells, on the other hand, are places of divine punishment. Sinners get sent there in order to have the evil they did in life rooted out of their souls and destroyed, so that they don't further corrupt other souls when they're sent back into the cycle of reincarnation." She pauses. "I know you're American, so you might not be familiar with the concept-"

Ha!

"-but have you ever heard the belief about how people who are virtuous in life are likely to come back as humans, whereas sinners come back as animals?"

You nod.

"Well, that's due to the stopover in Hell. Getting the crud of a corrupt life cleared out isn't exactly a painless process, and a soul's always weaker once it finally gets out of Hell than it was going in - sometimes a LOT weaker. Plus it's not uncommon for a sinful soul to... well, LOSE parts of itself during the purification." Akkiko shrugs. "And if your soul doesn't have the shape and strength of a human's, you don't get to be a human. At least not in that lifetime."

Gained Parazoology E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Akkiko shakes her head. "Anyway, back on topic. So you didn't know the seal was related to Hell. Okay, I can accept that. But you still SAW it. That worries me."

"...I wasn't supposed to be able to see it," you conclude.

The Arisawa matron nods. "Our family's been hiding the fact that we've got oni blood for centuries, and we wouldn't have been able to do that if any random onmyoji could see the blood-seals. So we hid them. Humans, animals, monsters, demons, and the dead - no spirit native to this world should be able to see them."

Akkiko's dark eyes suddenly start to glow, like embers in a fireplace sparking to life, and her pupils seem to elongate at the top and bottom.

Very quietly, she asks, "So why can you, Alexander Harris?"

Uh-oh.

"I'm just awesome that way."
There is a moment of silence in the wake of your response, broken only by the faint smack of Briar's hand meeting its old friend, her face.

Akkiko stares at you, glowing eyes blinking once in a decidedly neutral manner.

You look back, trying your best to appear relaxed and self-assured.

Then the woman snorts, bows her head in a snicker, and finally succumbs and throws her head back in an unrestrained bout of laughter. She goes on like that for half a minute or so before getting a hold of herself.

"Whoo. Ha," Akkiko exclaims, wiping tears from her eyes. "You- heh. You don't lack for self-confidence, do you, boyo?"

"Not really," you admit.

You're an eight year old armed with magical abilities that rival those of practitioners five times your age, a recognized world champion in the field of hand-to-hand combat, and a burgeoning spiritual adept. You've got a lot to be confident about.

"But still," Akkiko continues, trying to recover her original seriousness, "as fun as it might be, I think we all know that's not REALLY an answer I can accept."

Well, it was worth a try.

"I can think of several possible reasons for why I was able to see the seal," you tell Akkiko frankly. "One is that I learned a lot of what I knew at the time, at least in terms of magic, from Briar, and she's not native to this world. Actually," you add, "the basis of our magic style is pretty different from how people on this world normally use magic, so that might've let me sneak past the protections on Tatsuki's seal, too."

"And how is it different?" Akkiko inquires.

"From what Briar's told me, and what I've picked up from a few other spellcasters I've met, including Ambrose, most Earth-native magic-users draw their power from external sources." You glance up at the glowing spirit that's maintaining Akkiko's barrier of privacy, then look back at her and continue. "I come at things from the other direction. My power is internal."

"Having met you in person and seen some of the stunts you've pulled off, I can actually believe that," Akkiko admits. "I have to say, though, if your ability to see through the concealment spells that are part of the blood-seal really was because you were using your own power? I'd be a heck of a lot more inclined to believe it was because the source of that power was some THING from out of this world, pretending to be an eight-year-old boy, rather than a native boy who happened to win the cosmic jackpot in terms of personal magical potential. If only because it's by FAR the more likely explanation."

"...that's a good point," you concede. Scratching the back of your head, you sigh. "Would it help if I said that I've also got a weird sort-of familiar bond with Briar, thanks to the two of us living on the Hellmouth?"

Akkiko looks between the two of you. "Define 'weird sort-of familiar bond' for me."

You do so, hoping that your kludged connection with a being who IS from another world might help satisfy Akkiko's suspicions.

The woman taps her chin thoughtfully, but doesn't say anything one way or the other. That... makes you a bit nervous.

There are a few other things you could say to try and convince her that you aren't the otherworldly creature in human clothes that she seems to be worried about, but do you really want to?

You've revealed as much about yourself as you're really comfortable with, under the current circumstances. Maybe if you weren't caught in the immediate fallout of an incident, with all eyes aimed in your direction, you might be willing to say more, but as it stands...

"I suppose a screwed-up familiar bond MIGHT account for something," Akkiko sighs, interrupting your train of thought. "And when I grilled the old wizard, he mentioned that you used your own soul's power as the basis of magic, but that you were definitely not a demon or anything like that. Something about foreign but very genuine Goddesses having your back, although he didn't go into detail." She looks at you inquisitively. "Any reason why you left that out?"

You consider it.

And incidentally, what's your response to Ambrose having mentioned your divine patrons to Akkiko?

You're honestly surprised that Ambrose didn't tell Akkiko more of what you told him, especially concerning the whole "reincarnation of a soul from another world" bit. You hadn't really extracted any promises from the old man to keep your secret, and he wasn't obliged to do so beyond common courtesy - which, as you've seen, is something Ambrose has a rather mocking relationship with.

Unexpected though it might be, you really do appreciate the old man's keeping mum on the more sensitive topics you revealed, and for vouching for your humanity. It seems to have eased Akkiko's concerns about your nature, at least slightly.

You may have to find Ambrose and thank him for that service. But later, later...

"I honestly didn't think of it," you admit. "Mainly because I really doubt the Goddesses were responsible for me being able to see Tatsuki's seal."

"What makes you say that?" Akkiko asks.

"Well, Din - that's the Goddess I most identify with - has this sort of 'do it yourself' attitude towards her faithful. She's not the sort to hand out divine guidance when somebody prays to her, much less when they're just walking around doing their own thing."

The older woman considers that. "More of an example to aspire to than an authority to obey?"

You nod. It's not a bad assessment.

"Anyway," you continue, "even leaving that aside, my association with the Goddesses was much weaker back at the tournament; I hadn't really, uh, 'gotten religion' until more recently." And even then, you're not a recognized follower of any (or all) of the three sisters, you're just the kid that happens to be carrying around a soul they're all interested in to one degree or another.

An impulse strikes you then.

"If you'd like to know more about the Golden Goddesses, I'd be more than happy to share the holy word with you..."

"I may take you up on that," Akkiko replies, surprising you a bit. "But it'll have to wait; it looks like we're out of time."

With that, she reaches up with one hand and silently summons her demon wind-elemental spell-ball thing back. As the privacy barrier comes down, you look around and spot that guard standing just outside the perimeter of Akkiko's magic.

"I apologize for the interruption, Mrs. Arisawa, Mister Harris, Miss Briar," he says, "but Lady Bloodriver would like to speak with you."

"No problem," Akkiko answers, as she stuffs the pale smokey orb back into her bag and then begins re-sealing it. "We were just finishing up. Oh, wait," she tacks on abruptly. "Before I forget, Alex?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

Akkiko smiles, and suddenly looks a lot less wild and troublesome. "Thanks for pulling Tatsuki out of harm's way."

You smile back. "You're wel-"

"Even if it WAS kind of your fault she was there in the first place."

Oh, come ON.

Akkiko's tacked-on comment leaves you sputtering for a moment, torn between protesting her statement and just flatly ignoring her. You KNOW that you're being trolled here, and you know from experience that ignoring such remarks from the saltier members of the peanut gallery is often the best course of action, but you can't quite clamp down on the sudden swell of aggravation.

Yes, you have a history of walking into dangerous situations without really trying, but there was no need for Akkiko to call attention to it like that!

Gained Rage F (Plus) (Plus)

You clamp down on your anger and force yourself to ignore Akkiko, walking back to where you left Lu-sensei and the girls without a word or even a harsh look.

Gained Acting C (Plus) (Plus)

From behind you, there's a very slightly embarrassed chuckle. "Okay," Akkiko admits to nobody in particular. "Maybe that WAS a bit much."

You think?!

Silently and invisibly steaming, you rejoin the group. Tatsuki and Emiko don't appear to notice your concealed irritation with Akkiko, and none of the half-dozen guards visibly react to it, but Lu-sensei and Akasha both give you brief, searching glances.

Right after that, Akasha relaxes her right hand, which she'd been holding gingerly at her side, as though it were injured. It looks perfectly fine, and you get the impression she was going to poke at you about leaving near-indestructible forcefields lying around for innocent vampires to break their fingers on, or something to that effect.

You're rather grateful that she's decided to do otherwise. After Akkiko, you're not really in the mood.

"Alexander, Briar," Akasha greets you. "I've already spoken with Tatsuki and Emiko, but I'd like to hear your accounts of what happened in the maze, if that's alright with you."

You nod at Akasha's request, and following a quick round of "after you; no, after you" with Briar, you start recounting your experiences in the hedge-maze. As befits a story, you go back to the beginning, reviewing everything that happened since you entered the vine-covered gate.

Your trek through the "outer" part of the maze boils down to, "We always turned left, and I didn't see or sense anything unusual," because that's pretty much what happened. You do take a moment to mention the tracks you saw from the entrance, how they revealed nothing unusual to you at the time, and how, in hindsight, you've wondered if maybe whoever messed with the security system wasn't responsible for one of those tracks.

"We have people looking into that," Akasha replies at that point. "For the moment, however, it seems that the tracks going off to the right are just the result of a strong family preference."

Meaning that the Shuzens, collectively, have gone into their own maze by that path often enough to leave a semi-permanent trail in the turf. Huh.

You resume your narrative, going into more detail about your arrival at the center and what you saw - and sensed - there. Akasha and Lu-sensei both start paying closer attention to you at this point - not that they were ignoring you before - and as you're describing what you felt when the security system apparently ID'd your group as intruders, you note that Tatsuki, Emiko, and those of the guards in your line of sight are all staring at you to one degree or another. Tatsuki seems the least surprised, but Emiko and the guards are all looking rather startled.

"Uh, Emiko?" you ask.

"Yipe!" comes her response, in company with another ear- and tail-popping start. It's followed by a hasty, "I-I mean, y-yes, Alex?"

"Is something wrong?" you inquire slowly.

"...no?"

You're not the only one that gives the fox-girl a disbelieving look at that claim. Her vulpine appendages visibly droop as she takes in the reaction, and she sighs.

"It's not that anything is WRONG," Emiko states, in a firmer tone of voice. "It's just... really, really surprising that you noticed... well, everything that you did."

One of the guards forgets his professional dignity enough to nod vigorously, evidently in full support of the kitsune's remark. A couple others appear tempted to follow suit.

"How DID you do all that?" Emiko asks, honestly curious.

This time, the guards turn to you as a united group, even the most professional of their number looking interested. Tatsuki and Akasha are also visibly eager for your reply, and the way the hairs on the back of your neck are prickling tells you that you have Akkiko's undivided attention as well.

"Natural talent," you answer promptly. "Backed up by LOTS of practice."

Emiko nods slowly, appearing thoughtful but mostly convinced.

One of the guards turns his head and coughs into his fist. A couple others just don't look like they're buying your explanation.

Well, too bad for them. You were asked by Emiko, and you answered her. If they want a more detailed breakdown of your sensory skills, they can ask you themselves. You might even tell them.

Probably not - these guys may work for the Shuzens and all, but you don't know them from Adam - but it wouldn't be the first time you revealed sensitive personal information to effective strangers, so you can't COMPLETELY rule out the possibility.

Leaving that aside for now, you return to the matter at hand, and continue your report to Akasha. You experience a momentary frission of concern about revealing details of the security system in a less-than-entirely secure venue - talking in front of the guards is one thing, but there are several guests right here, and the patio isn't so far away that you'd bet against some of the monsters there being able to eavesdrop.

You decide to leave your concerns about being overheard unvoiced. After all, Akasha has been dealing with this society and its individual members a lot longer than you have. If she was at all concerned about people potentially eavesdropping on this conversation and picking up details about her family's home security, she wouldn't have you talking about what you saw out in the open like this, now would she?

That matter tabled, you proceed to give your report, in full detail. It helps that everything noteworthy that you saw at the center of the maze was magical in nature, with no spiritual or mental presences aside from yourself and your three companions, and no ki beyond yours, the flora of the garden, and the ambient energy produced by the partygoers. Even the three moving statues were just animated bits of rock - very well-carved and -enchanted rock, to be sure, but still less perceptive than proper golems, and less self-aware than even the so-called "mindless" undead.

All in all, it takes you no more than six, maybe seven minutes to disclose all the details of your latest troublesome encounter to Akasha.

When you're finished, she nods. "Thank you, Alex. That was very thorough."

"I hope it'll be of help, Miss Akasha."

She smiles. "Oh, don't worry about that. It's already been VERY helpful."

You give her a curious glance, not quite following.

"Your assessment of the security measures didn't mention anything that shouldn't have been there," Akasha explains. "Which means, from a certain point of view, the system was functioning exactly as it should have."

"It was supposed to attack us?" Tatsuki asks flatly.

"Oh, heavens, no. That area was SUPPOSED to have been shut down for the duration of the party, as were the rest of the castle's more... serious... security measures. But, assuming for the moment that Alex's observations were completely accurate, and the maze's systems haven't been tampered with in and of themselves, then it would have been a simple matter for someone to turn them on from the control room."

Your ki sense picks up a sudden, massive surge of youki from somewhere inside the castle. You can't quite pin down the location - too distant, and too many reinforced and enchanted walls in the way - but the aura has that distinct air of blood and violence that you're coming to recognize from your time around Kahlua and her family.

Actually, when you stop and consider the nature of the aura, it has a certain similarity to Kahlua's, albeit stronger and ol- er, more mature.

Gained Ki Sense C (Plus) (Plus)

"And that told Gyokuro exactly where to look for the reponsible party, without ever having to scan for them herself," Akasha finishes with a certain grim satisfaction. She adjusts the collar of her dress, and you notice, for the first time, a small device like the security guards are wearing hidden among the lacy folds. "Do remember to take them alive, Gyokuro."

"I know what I'm doing, Akasha," comes the faint, slightly crackly response.

A moment later, there's a muted explosion from... well, again, SOMEWHERE inside.

"BASTARDS!" Gyokuro howls over the radio. "THIS WAS A NEW DRESS!"

"Oh, dear," Akasha murmurs. She thumbs the device, cutting off Gyokuro's voice in the middle of a rather graphic threat about reaching down someone's throat to rip their heart out, and then starts talking. "Issa, you heard? Yes. Yes. Of course, dear. Take all the time you need." Akasha taps her miniaturized radio again, and then turns back to you and your companions. "My apologies, but I'm afraid I'm needed to mind the guests. Alex, Briar, Tatsuki, Emiko; I am so terribly sorry this happened to you. You have my promise that we WILL be making this up to you, just as soon as we've made sure that it isn't going to happen again."

Tatsuki nods, looking a bit embarrassed by the attention.

Emiko smiles nervously, ears down and tail grasped in her hands. "I-it's fine, milady. W-whatever you decide. Is fine."

"What Emiko said," you reply.

You'd considered being more formal than that, but with Bad Guys in the castle and the other two hosts absent from the party to deal with that problem, it's clear that Akasha is needed elsewhere. No sense taking up any more of her valuable time than you need to.

"What Alex said," Briar adds, evidently taking her cue from you.

Tatsuki snickers at the two of you. Emiko looks away, blushing and smiling.

Akasha nods to your group, gives the apparent leader of the guards a look that has him issuing orders to his fellows, and then turns and walks away. She does not hurry, precisely, but there is a certain sense of... implacability in the way she crosses the lawn, like anything that tries to get in her way will be trampled underfoot.

"Well," Akkiko says cheerfully. "This party's certainly turning out to be a lot more interesting than I was expecting! And on that note, I think I need a drink. Tatsuki?"

"...I could probably use a glass of that punch they were serving," the younger Arisawa reluctantly admits.

Akkiko glances at the guard. "That alright with you, Shades?"

"That would be fine, Mrs. Arisawa. But please remain with the other guests until the intruders have been dealt with."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell an old woman how to suck eggs." Akkiko makes an absent waving motion with one hand, while gathering Tatsuki alongside her under her other arm. "Go be all secure, or whatever it is you guys do. We'll be good, won't we, Tatsuki?"

Tatsuki gives her mother a disbelieving look.

Her expression is reflected in the guard's mirrored glasses, and also by the way he silently and blank-facedly stares at the Arisawa matron for a moment. Then, with a sigh, the man turns to his responsibilities.

Akkiko smirks and begins to usher Tatsuki back towards the party. After just a few steps, however, she stops and looks over her shoulder.

"Are you lot coming, or what?"

You consider Akkiko's words for a moment, then turn to your kitsune companion.

"Emiko, would you mind going with them?" At her surprised look, you add, "I kind of need to speak with Lu-sensei. That may take a bit, and your aunt would probably like to make sure you're alright."

Emiko's eyes widen. "Oh, dear. I forgot about Auntie! You're right, I really should get going."

She dashes away, then stops abruptly, slowly turns, and hestitates for a long moment before rushing back to stand within arm's length of you.

"Um..." Emiko mumbles, fidgeting nervously.

"Yes?" you inquire, puzzled.

She takes a deep breath, straightens up with resolve, and then...

!

...and then she's hugging you.

"Th-thank you for saving me, Alexander," Emiko mumbles.

Though you are startled, you manage to respond to the kitsune's gratitude with proper politeness, and a tentative return hug.

She squeaks slightly and tenses for a moment when your right arm comes around to pat her on the back, but then relaxes.

Lu-sensei asked you not to do anything reckless or magically-experimental today, and you haven't. You've minded your manners, helped a friend out of an unpleasant social situation without making a scene, and, when you finally DID run into serious trouble, you called for the adults and got the heck out of harm's way. And without taking a scratch, at that.

Lu-sensei also advised you not to do anything that would make you look weak, and again, you believe you haven't. If anything, surviving a run-in with and then getting away from the Shuzens' maliciously-activated security system untouched, let alone with two other people in tow, has done exactly the OPPOSITE of make you seem weak.

So all in all, you don't think you have anything you really need to apologize for.

That said, hearing Lu-sensei's opinon on how you could have done better in the situation you and your companions found yourselves would be helpful. Just in case anything like it ever comes up again.

Because knowing your luck, it probably will.

"How'd I do, sir?" you ask.

"On the whole, I'd say you did quite well," Lu-sensei replies. "Aside from the part where you managed to get attacked, again - but that's more on our hosts and their uninvited visitors." He pauses. "There is one area, however, where you might want to consider doing things differently."

"And that is?"

"Stop wandering off by yourself," your teacher says dryly.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Briar's protest lacks the growl it might have held. You get the feeling she's in agreement with Lu-sensei on this, in spirit if not in word.

"But I wasn't alone at all, Lu-Sensei," you reply at once. "I had three other people with me!"

He gives you a dry look. "I'm fairly sure you know what I mean, Alex."

...yeah, you do. "No wandering away from the adults," you sigh.

Lu-sensei nods. "So. Do we have an accord?"

You consider it, and finally, nod. "Alright, yeah - at least when I'm in monster country." You look around before adding, in a lower voice, "Nothing against them, but this place seems to be bad luck."

Your teacher makes a sound that was clearly trying to be a laugh. "I suppose that will do for the time being."

You give your master a blank look.

"...no, Sensei, I asked for advice with GIRLS. WOMEN are different. For one thing, they're taller."

"Ah ha ha ha ha." This time, Lu-sensei is definitely not laughing. He's just pronouncing the syllables in a slow, empty tone. "You're a real comedian, Alex."

"I try," you answer with a smile. It falls away as you continue. "The thing is, I don't get why Emiko was turning red so often. Is that a girl thing, a kitsune thing, a Japanese thing, or what? Was she sick? Or was I just missing something entirely?"

Lu-sensei presses his hands against his face and mumbles something that sounds like, "Dear ancestors, this is actually happening. He's actually asking this."

You ignore that and go on. "I mean, I know that acting that way with guys is a pickpocketing trick girls use, but there seems to be more to it, because Emiko didn't even reach for my pockets the entire time."

...aaaand now your teacher is regarding you strangely.

"'Pickpocketing,'" he repeats.

"...yes?"

On the plus side, Lu-sensei doesn't have that spooky manic expression anymore. On the down side, he appears kind of lost.

"I think I can safely say Emiko was not trying to steal anything from you, Alex," Lu-sensei finally says. "And also, you should never mention that line of thought to any of the girls you know, or any that you meet in the future, unless they really DO try to rob you."

"Okay..."

"As for the rest of it... perhaps you should talk to Briar."

"Oh, no," Briar pipes up. "You are NOT dumping THAT on me, old man!"

Lu-sensei appears to have heard her this time, because he sighs. "Yes, I thought that might be your answer. How about Mrs. Harris, then?"

"Works for me," Briar says. "Alex?"

"...fine," you sigh. "I'll ask Mom when I get home."

Lu-sensei and Briar attempt to hide their sighs of relief. For that alone, you're tempted to change your mind and press for an answer now; you're curious at the best of times, and when people are actively hiding things and changing topics on you, you start wanting to know WHY at least as much as you do WHAT.

But if your older companions' reactions are any indication, the answers to your questions weren't actually dangerous, just uncomfortable in some manner, at least for them. And since you're in the middle of a big social event with a lot of strangers - monster strangers, at that - you're willing to let your inquiries pass unanswered for now, so that you don't cause your teacher and friend to come off as looking vulnerable when surrounded by a bunch of supernatural predators.

Gained Young King C (Plus) (Plus)

Besides, there's another matter at hand that you're just as interested in talking about, and it's not dangerous at all.

"Hey, Sensei. Did you notice?"

"...notice what?" your teacher inquires cautiously.

You smile. "You heard Briar that time."

"Huh." The old man blinks. "So I did. That's been happening a lot more often recently, hasn't it?"

"It has," Briar answers. She sounds pleased.

"Can you see her yet?" you ask.

"Not yet," Lu-sensei admits. "At least, not without resorting to ki sight. Although..." He looks your way, eyes clear of the telltale glow of active aura vision. "...right shoulder?"

"Got it," Briar replies from her spot on the shoulder in question. "Now, was that just a lucky guess?"

"Call it a well-informed suspicion," comes the answer. "Your voice is slightly muffled, which suggests there's a head in the way."

The two of them chat the rest of the way back to the patio. You don't see the Arisawas or the Hayashis anywhere in the outdoor portion of the party, nor is Miss Akasha's distinctive hair visible. On the other hand, you DO see a lot of glances sent your way, some quick, others lingering, some casual, and a few appearing very, very interested.

You take a second, closer look at the crowd, trying to see if any of your other friends are around.

You don't see Kahlua, but that's no surprise; given recent events elsewhere in the castle, you suspect her father would have moved her and her sisters inside at the least, so as not to give any OTHER intruders an easy opening.

The Water Tribe family are... actually, that's them over by the pond. There are a dozen other guests out there as well, none that you recognize, and the way they're placed - most standing or sitting so that tall bushes, trees, or bits of statuary are between them and the castle - suggests that the adults, at least, are all keeping one eye open for any further unfriendly developments, while their respective second eyes (and possibly a few others besides) watch the immediate vicinity. In any case, they're a bit farther off from the patio than you feel like walking.

Your new friend Dave and his master Balthazar don't appear to be with the crowd on the patio, either. You're sure you'd notice if they were; Dave's more traditional magical garb and Balthazar's height would stand out, even in this crowd.

There's no sign of the Drakes, either, which frustrates you, because you feel like talking to them.

Momentarily stymied, you decide to fall back on a secondary choice.

"Do you mind if we visit the buffet tables, Sensei? I could use a drink and a bite after the earlier excitement."

"I might do well with a glass of punch myself," your teacher agrees. "Are you sure you're up to navigating the crowd, though?"

You consider that, and shrug. "I can deal with it. But let me know if you spot the Drakes, would you?"

"You know," Briar cuts in. "You DO have a fairy with you. You COULD ask me to look for them."

There's a thought.

And then you remember that going off alone and getting into trouble is NOT a phenomenon unique to yourself. Briar's managed it a couple of times herself, and in rather spectacular fashion, given that one of those occasions had her being corralled by the giant electric squid, while another put her in the sights of an excessively-armed lizard-man-thing.

"Hey, listen Briar," you say instead. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I can manage."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. Altria's aura is pretty distinctive."

"Okay. No dust off my wings."

And with that, she sits back on your shoulder, as you carefully open up your ki sense and being sweeping the area for signs of Altria's distinctive and familiar presence.

It doesn't even take you a minute to find what you were looking for. Even surrounded by what has to be a couple hundred monsters, many of them adults, and with her aura dialled down to what you'd classify as "socially-acceptable" levels, Altria still glows like a small golden sun in your enhanced vision. You indicate her location to Lu-sensei, who begins making his way through the crowd, following a curious path that doesn't try to go directly towards the English girl, and yet makes rapid progress in getting to that very destination.

You follow in your master's wake, taking mental notes not only on the way he moves, but also the manner in which he acts. Inquisitive expressions are not so much ignored as they are not answered, the more appraising looks are met with brief glances that are warning but not quite challenging, and the odd verbal hail is acknowledged with a brief nod that conveys recognition and unspoken apology.

You do your best to emulate this attitude. You have somewhere you'd like to be, and would prefer not to get sidetracked from your intended course, but you also don't wish to appear rude or rushed.

Gained Crowd Control E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained King of Monsters D (Plus)
Gained Local Knowledge (Moonlit World) D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Manners C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Totem of the Raging Boar C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

It seems to work, as you're able to cross the patio and enter the ballroom without issue. Here, you find more evidence that you and Altria are on a similar mental wavelength, because her dragon-touched presence is concentrated over by the buffet table. You can't tell if one or both of her parents are there, and Ambrose either isn't within your sensory range or has decided to hide himself against casual supernatural scrutiny.

Fair enough, you suppose, taking a step-

"Pardon my intrusion, Master Lu," an unfamiliar voice says then. "Might I trouble you for a few moments of your time?"

Lu-sensei, you note, has stopped his advance. That suggests that, whoever this person addressing him is - and it sounds like a grown man with a weird, echoing quality to his words - it's someone your teacher can't afford to simply brush off.

Glancing past your elder, you spot some of the large, suited figures Miss Akasha was talking to earlier. You don't believe any of them were the one who spoke just now. No, that honor goes to the man standing in the middle of the group, wearing a decidedly religious-looking hooded white robe, belted at the waist by a plain, unadorned strip of cloth. The headpiece casts its wearer's face into shadow, and yet fails to hide the bright, eerie gleam of his eyes; at the other end of the garment, sandalled feet are just visible beneath the hem of the robe. A single rosary and crucifix hang about the stranger's neck, and another, larger set of beads has been gathered up at his left hip.

He looks every inch the humble priest, but his aura gives off nothing like the sense of divinity you've picked up from your fleeting invocations of the Golden Goddesses, nor even the lesser air of sanctity and serenity you've gleaned from some of Ganondorf's encounters with genuine holy men. In fact, the man in white gives off no aura at all, at least as far as your passive senses can determine, and this combined with his presence at a party full of monsters, hosted by vampires, is setting off warning bells.

"It would be no trouble at all, Honored Mikogami," Lu-sensei replies with a short but very real and respectful bow. "If I may introduce my student, Alexander Harris, and his companion, Briar? Alex, Briar, this is Mikogami Tenmei, also known as the Exorcist, one of Lady Bloodriver's two peers as Dark Lord of the East."

"A pleasure," the robed man, Mikogami, replies with a broad smile, his eyes shining brightly in your direction.

Oh, boy.

"Likewise, sir," you answer with a formal bow.

"The same," Briar adds, shifting on your shoulder.

"Ah, young people with manners." The Exorcist sighs, his voice echoing eerily. "I see them all too rarely, let alone among those who have the will and ability to fight so well. You are a fortunate teacher indeed, Master Lu."

"I have been afforded an interesting choice of students," Lu-sensei admits.

"And capable ones," Mikogami returns. "Two first-generation martial artists reaching the finals of the youngest age bracket in the World Tournament is quite an achievement, both for master and student."

"Thank you, sir," you put in politely. "I'll be sure to pass that on to Cordelia."

"Please do." Another of those broad grins appears briefly beneath the hood. "While we are on the subject of teachers and students, Master Lu..."

Your sensei raises one hand. "If you are going to offer me a position at your school, Honored One, I'm afraid I must decline."

"Oh? Might I inquire as to why?"

"I would be a poor teacher if I simply abandoned my current students, would I not? And I would be abandoning them; there simply are no other teachers of the Five Elements School within convenient travel distance for any of them, nor do any of the potential instructors in that area possess the necessary skills to take over the training of my better students." Lu-sensei states that as simple fact, with not a hint of excess pride in his tone. "Beyond that, the majority of my trainees do not meet the selection criteria for your academy, nor would I expect most of them to be interested in attending."

The Exorcist's hooded head nods. "Unfortunate, but understandable."

"Besides," Lu-sensei adds, "if I knew that I was going to be away from Sunnydale for ten months out of the year, I would be obligated to bring the Jade Dragon with me. And quite aside from the... shall we say, inadvisability of bringing that particular blade into a community of monsters? Its movement would draw attention from a number of interested parties, most of whom are quite rude."

At this, Mikogami smiles. "Master Lu, as far as I am concerned, those are some of the SELLING points of recruiting you!"

...are you hearing this right? Creepy probably-not-a-priest guy runs a school for monsters, wants to hire Lu-sensei to teach there, and thinks that your master's ownership of a magic sword which apparently has bad history with monsters AND would have Bad People after it is a GOOD thing?