"Not unless Mom says so," you tell Zelda firmly.
Zelda looks to your mother, and sees the answer written on her face.
"Awww..."
"And we'd need to find you a fairy partner first, anyway," you add.
Zelda perks up at that.
Your mother frowns, but doesn't dismiss the idea out of hand.
Even if she can't normally see Briar herself, your mother HAS had plenty of opportunity to see the effects of your partner's influence on you and Zelda. So, maybe...?
You decide not to push on the subject for the time being.
You ended up visiting both Cordelia and Larry. More accurately, after a brief round of telephone tag, you and Cordelia both went to Larry's house.
It feels like it's been forever since you last saw Cordy, but aside from a deeper tan, somewhat longer hair, and a new outfit, she doesn't look any different. Given your personal history of magically-induced changes of appearance, you take the time to confirm that your friend's new look really is just the result of being out in the sun a lot - which it is.
In the process of observing Cordelia, you notice that her ki level is a little on the low side, as if she'd spent a significant amount of energy recently, and was still getting back up to full strength.
When you inquire about this, Cordelia tells you the mermaids she ran into on her vacation.
The first group were perfectly nice girls, and traded her some tips on swimming and cosmetics that can handle a salt-water environment, in exchange for advice on "dry-land" fashion.
The second group were not nice, even before they grew fangs, scales, and claws, and tried to eat Cordy and her new gossip-buddies.
So Cordy got some practice in fighting on a beach, which she mentions makes footing an issue. She also notes that, while a mermaid in her natural form fights about as well on dry land as the proverbial fish out of water, you DON'T want to try matching them in their own element.
"They were fast, even in the shallowest part of the surf zone and with the waves pulling on them," she says seriously. "I wouldn't have cared to try fighting one of them by myself like that. And you can just forget about taking them on in deeper water; that idea has 'Jaws' written all over it."
Larry, in contrast, has had no excitement or surprises over the last few days, except of course for the fire downtown - and he wasn't anywhere near that.
When the question and answer session comes around to you, you naturally tell your friends about your shiny new Familiar Bond. Cordelia asks if that's why your ears are pointy now, at which point Larry does that double-take you were expecting SOMEBODY around here to do.
Did you tell your friends about the other things that happened at Altria's?
After spending a few hours with your friends, you return home, where you dodge Zelda and make your way down to your Mirror Hideaway for some magical communication. You call up Navi, and ask her what sort of reactions you should expect from the Fae due to your new look.
The Great Fairy takes one look at your ears, and then falls over laughing.
Fairies are amused by the smallest things sometimes.
This does not fill you with hope for the future.
Eventually, Navi gets her amusement under control and says that she doesn't think the... visible side-effects of your familiar bond should be too problematic. Some Fae will take it as a sign you've declared your affiliation or even outright allegiance with them, and others might take offense, but either sort would likely have seized on the existence of your bond as an excuse for such behavior regardless.
Once you had ended your contact with Navi, you glance around at the hollowed-out portion of the Mirror Plane, and briefly consider taking the opportunity to practice your Power skills. The prospect of mucking around with an energy that has repeatedly degraded active spells, while you're inside the extra-dimensional manifestation of an active spell, strikes you as... risky.
But maybe, if you just released you Power for an instant, it'd be okay...?
You see no reason not to tell your closest human friends about your most recent adventure, especially not after Cordelia admitting to encountering mermaids on her vacation. And indeed, just as Cordelia's experience provided a useful lesson against the foolhardiness of trying to fight a mermaid in the water, the events you went through - or at least observed - while at the Drakes' are also fertile ground for important lessons.
So you tell them everything.
The story of the Memorian Map seems to interest Larry more because of all that you went through to acquire it, as opposed to anything you might do with it in the future. Cordelia is a bit more thoughtful in that regard, but mostly reacts with relief - and a touch of exaggerated surprise - that you went to some adults for help with your latest quest.
Hearing that you took part in a mini-tournament with Altria, her cousin, and their friend comes as exactly zero surprise to Larry or Cordelia, though they are startled when you admit that Altria beat you - at least until you explain the "no magic" handicap you were under that day.
That you fought, and won, a magically-powered rematch two days later surprises them not in the least.
Learning that Dracula not only existed, but was resurrected during the eclipse, openly alarms both your friends, and when you explain how the "riots" that took place all over Europe that day were one of the consequences of the Dark Lord's revival, Cordelia notes aloud that she is suddenly VERY happy that her parents decided not to vacation in Europe this year.
That's Cordy for you.
Given that you just told them an entire continent was briefly invaded by the Forces of Darkness, the news of the attack on the Drake Estate doesn't surprise your friends one whit.
"Because really," Cordelia says. "They stormed the bad guy's castle, killed a bunch of his minions, wrecked part of his plan to take over the world, and then high-tailed it out of there before the grand finale. Of COURSE he came after them."
Once again, Cordelia and Larry react more to the fact that you kept out of things and left the siege to the adults, than the fact it was happening in the first place.
When you mention that you were able to speak with Khamsin and learn his name, Cordelia insists on meeting him again at some point in the not-too-distant future. This gets Larry curious enough to ask if he could tag along for that, which leads into suggesting that you bring Amy as well, whenever she gets home.
You'd rather not summon Khamsin to the Hellmouth, but maybe your Mirror Hideaway would do? Failing that, it'd have to be a "field trip" of some kind, probably with Lu-sensei along to chaperone - just in case.
You decide not to mess around with your Power inside your Mirror Hideaway, at least not until you've had the chance to do some investigation into how the golden energy interacts with such constructs of space-time magic.
The next day is Saturday, and you spend the morning watching cartoons with Zelda. Your mother had to work a shift at the hospital today, so after lunch - barbeque-grilled burgers - you let your father know you have an appointment to keep in Japan.
"Checking in with your business partner?" Tony guesses.
...actually, you could do that while you were there, too, but you clarify with your father that your first order of business is meeting up with a nine-tailed fox and her adopted human daughter, who's now a ghost.
It's a measure of the strangeness that is your life, and which others must learn to deal with by mere association, that your father's reaction to this is a brief, "Huh," followed by a shrug. "Well, that's important, too. Don't keep the ladies waiting on my account! Just be back by dinner."
That shouldn't be a problem at all.
Half an hour later, you are once again standing outside the gate of the Hakuba Shrine-
!
-and you immediately go on your guard, because the aura of the place feels VERY different than it did when you last visited. Something intensely powerful and almost overwhelmingly dark was here very recently, a presence that instantly reminds you of the evil power you sensed during the eclipse, and has you hardening your aura against the lingering corruption.
You knew the Hakubas were involved with the preparations to fight Dracula, but what the heck?
You regard the shrine's front gate - closed, for the first time in your experience with this place - and ponder how to proceed. The easiest way would be to go inside and find someone to talk to, but the current situation has you wary of venturing onto the shrine grounds uninvited, particularly before you know more about how and why Dracula's power seems to be lingering here. Seeking your answers via magic is an option, of course, and so is leaving - you don't think Lady Takara or Lady Akemi would care to meet here, given the current state of things, and arranging to meet them elsewhere will be the work of a minor spell or two.
Almost no one else you've shown your Mirror Hideaway to has enjoyed the experience, so why would Khamsin be any different? Especially considering how small the extra-dimensional room is, in absolute terms.
You're quite certain the energetic young horse would prefer to be summoned somewhere outdoors, if given the opportunity. Fresh air, open skies, grass to roll around on, a chance to run...
Yeah. The Mirror Hideaway is definitely the inferior option here.
You'll have to see about scheduling something with Lu-sensei. Maybe you could hold the trip in place of one of your usual classes...?
Cordelia and Larry like this idea, even if it does end up enforcing a delay of a few days or weeks before they get to meet Khamsin.
You opt to hold off on magically poking at the unexpected demonic aura until you know a little more. Instead, you reach out and knock on the wooden gate.
"Hello?" you say, raising your voice. "It's Alex Harris. Is anyone in?"
There should be someone here, unless the whole family has temporarily relocated - which, in light of the oppressive and unnatural aura hanging over the grounds, you will admit is entirely probable.
You set your speculations aside when, after a brief pause, you sense a familiar human aura moving towards the gate from further inside the grounds.
"Just a moment!" Miss Suzuka calls back through the gate.
The requested moment passes in silence, and is followed by the click of some sort of metal lock, and then a slight rasping of wood sliding against wood. Right after that, one half of the gate swings inward.
The miko is dressed in the normal uniform of her calling, but her face is shadowed by fatigue, and the redness of her eyes make it obvious that she's been crying recently.
"Hello, Alex," she murmurs. "What brings you by today?"
"I was supposed to meet Lady Akemi here, to send her back," you say carefully.
Suzuka blinks, slowly. "That was today?"
"It was," you affirm.
Privately, you think you're going to have to get in touch with the ghost and her adoptive mother and arrange to hold Lady Akemi's return to the hereafter elsewhere. The dark aura marking the Hakuba Shrine would not be at all conducive to a peaceful farewell, and if Miss Suzuka's state is any indication, the residents aren't much better off.
"If you would prefer, I can arrange to meet Lady Akemi and Lady Takara elsewhere," you offer.
Miss Suzuka musters a relieved smile. "It wouldn't be an inconvenience?"
"Honestly," you admit, looking around, "with the way the local aura has... changed... since my last visit, I think it would save everyone some trouble."
The miko winces. "Ah," she sighs. "You... noticed that, then."
"It's difficult to miss. If you don't mind my asking...?"
"I'm not really supposed to talk about it, but... you were aware that the Hakuba Shrine was contracted to assist in dealing with the events of the eclipse?"
You nod. "I was. And I know what those events were. I didn't get directly involved, myself, but I was visiting a friend in Britain, and, well..." You pause, and then shrug. "We caught a news report that showed Big Ben being taken over by the Grim Reaper on national television, before the feeds cut out."
Miss Suzuka just nods, completely unsurprised by your remark.
"Master Ginta and Ichirou were in Romania, conducting one part of the ritual, when... when everything happened," she says tightly. "We... haven't heard back from them. Yet. And Master Koujiro..." She stops, closes her eyes, and takes a moment to steady her breathing. "I was assisting him with the ritual on this end. We succeeded, but... he collapsed, afterwards. He hasn't woken up since. And the shrine has been" - she waves one hand in the air, indicating the general aura of unholy darkness - "as you see, since then."
...
Well, that's not going to do. Not at all.
What do you want to do about the unpleasant aura contaminating the shrine?
"I'd be perfectly willing to help you purify the shrine, Miss Suzuka," you offer.
"I appreciate that, Alex, but I don't know if it would be a good idea." The miko runs one hand through her hair in a nervous gesture, pulling an errant lock back from her face. "I don't have any experience with something this BIG - I've never even heard of it being DONE before - and I really, really need to talk to someone with more experience before I go... poking at it."
Fair enough, though you wonder why she hasn't just asked the kami of the shrine.
...then again, she IS a miko, not a priest. The duties of the two callings are rather different, and based on what you've learned of the rules governing mortal interactions with the divine, Miss Suzuka may not be ALLOWED to ask the resident kami for the answers she needs. And he, in turn, may not be permitted to simply give them to her, thanks to that strict non-interference rule the Japanese pantheon has to deal with.
Gained Knowledge (Shinto) D
"That sound reasonable," you grudgingly admit. "But after you've spoken with someone, if it turns out you could use some assistance..."
"You'll be the first one I ask," she promises.
You nod. "Alright, then. Now, you said Mister Koujiro collapsed. Is he being cared for at home, or-"
"The hospital," Miss Suzuka interrupts. "I didn't think it would be good for him to stay in this oppressive atmosphere, and Kanna" - that would be Mrs. Hakuba to you - "agreed. Besides, his wife always insists on getting the best medical care anyway; she would have been... displeased... if we didn't let the paramedics take him."
"-right. And which way is the hospital?"
Miss Suzuka blinks at you slowly, appearing a bit lost.
"I thought I'd take a look at Mister Koujiro and see if there's anything Briar or I could do to help," you explain. By way of emphasis, you raise your right hand, letting a little mana glimmer around your fingertips.
In rapid succession, the miko's expression shifts from confusion to surprise, then realization, and finally a mixture of chagrin and hope.
"Do you think you could?" she asks quietly.
"It will depend on what's wrong," you say. "Most of the healing spells I can personally cast are meant for combat healing, but there are a couple that could still be useful. If they don't work, Briar's got a very potent general-purpose healing spell she can cast, and if THAT doesn't work, I can summon help."
Miss Suzuka considers that, and then raises one hand. "Wait right there."
She turns and hurries towards the house.
It turns out that Mrs. Hakuba was home, and that she was planning on spending part of the day visiting her father-in-law. She has absolutely no problem with taking you along, though she advises you that it will be an hour or so yet before the hospital starts allowing visitors.
That's fine by you, as it leaves you time to handle some other things - the first of which will be scrying for Ginta and Ichirou.
When you say as much, the ladies quietly but firmly insist on being present for the spell. Evidently, the men of the family mentioned the scrying-globe you called up while tracking down Lady Takara.
Is this okay with you? You're hoping that your two priestly allies are unharmed, but the fact that they were right in the middle of the Dark Lord's resurrection means that there is a very good chance that they're not alright. It might go easier on Miss Suzuka and Ms. Kanna if they weren't present when you call up Ginta and Ichirou's images.
The other matter is the question of where to cast your spell. Under normal circumstances, doing so on the grounds of the Hakuba Shrine would be just about ideal, as both father and son have strong ties to the place, and their divine patron would likely be able to lend you a measure of support - even if it was just by being there as one of the focal elements.
The lingering aura of Dracula's power, combined with Miss Suzuka's stated concern about "poking" whatever was done here, makes you a bit hesitant to start casting powerful magic on the grounds.
You don't actually NEED any kind of material focus to find the two missing priests. Your personal familiarity with them is quite sufficient, and if Ms. Kanna does happen to accompany you, you'd have a strong connection anyway. A bit less so, if Miss Suzuka was present, though as their co-worker, her presence certainly wouldn't hurt anything.
Ms. Kanna and Miss Suzuka are both old enough to appreciate that, if they haven't heard from Ginta and Ichirou by now, something must have happened during the eclipse or in the aftermath that is KEEPING the pair from checking in. They must also have realized that, given how father and son went off to take part in war with the Prince of Darkness, the delay is likely to be of a very unpleasant nature.
Taking all of that into account, if the ladies still want to be present when you try to locate their missing menfolk, then they've either accepted the likelihood that they're not going to like what your magic has to show them, or they're hoping against hope, to the point of self-delusion.
Either way, they're adults, they're well-informed of the situation, and they've made their decision. You're not about to gainsay them.
If it was one of YOUR family missing, you'd want to know, too.
You consult with Miss Suzuka about the spread of the dark aura, and what nearby locations you could use for spellcasting that wouldn't risk disturbing the results of the ritual she helped Koujiro with, and would also provide the necessary privacy.
As it happens, the ritual was focused on the front gate of the shrine, which is a big part of the reason WHY the aura of Dracula's power struck you so intensely when you stepped out of a teleport on the top stair. If you'd chosen a more distant landing zone and walked in, you would have had time to adjust to the aura, instead of getting it shoved in your face all at once.
The good news is, that chilling sense of death and darkness drops off rapidly as you move away from the charm-laden torii. Miss Suzuka reports that, once you've reached the far side of the cobblestone-covered area that makes up the shrine proper, it's barely noticeable.
It's for this reason - as well as not wanting to walk up and down those blasted stairs any more than you absolutely MUST - that you adjourn to the wooded area behind the shrine, using the trees and your elevation over the largely-residential neighborhood as your screen against curious eyes.
After all, calling up a Private Sanctum in the middle of Tokyo wouldn't be a good idea. Even if you made it as small as possible, an immobile, immutable, and visually-impenetrable fog-bank would just draw too much attention.
Once you've filled part of the small wood with the Divination-defeating grey vapors, you make with your own Divination Magic, creating a scrying globe that hovers between you, Ms. Kanna, and Miss Suzuka, near the heart of the triangle whose points your locations define.
The invisible, intangible magical sensor that is the other "end" of your spell has formed just outside the grounds of an old European church, all stone walls, time-worn statuary, and creeping ivy. It's not the largest or fanciest example of its kind that you've ever seen, and the prevailing darkness of its location makes details hard to determine, but the aura of spiritual sanctity you can sense through your spell is evidence enough that the building is still hallowed ground, and thus still cared for, despite their obvious age.
You will your sensor forward, following the "pull" that indicates the location of the two Hakubas-
!
-and the instant your sensor crosses under the stone archway that pierces the outer wall of the grounds, you reflexively draw it back, having sensed an aura similar to, yet distinct from the general air of solemn purity hanging over the church.
Someone has placed a ward over the entire grounds - specifically, a ward against scrying. If it was meant to block attempts by seers and far-scriers to peer into the church, it failed against your spell, which really comes as no surprise.
No, what concerns you are the small globes of white-gold energy shimmering into view at various locations around the church. At a glance, you count a dozen, easily, each one reminding you of the friendly little Light Elemental you summoned when working with Gen.
Less familiar, and rather more concerning, is the man-like figure that has just phased into view before the front door of the church. A long, hooded robe of plain white conceals the finer details, yet it is clear to see that he - or it? - is tall and broad-shouldered, with a face that could easily have been carved by one of the great sculptors of antiquity, such is the perfection of the pale features that you can glimpse beneath the raised hood.
Oooo, Mother Nature LIKES...
Still, the powerful aura of Light, Spirit, and divine essence you detect make it clear this entity is something so much more than any statue.
I see someone around here has VERY nice taste in messengers.
And it's looking straight at you.
Not the time, Farore.
You get the sense of one eyebrow quirking up, possibly a question, possibly for... some other reason.
Ignore her, handsome. She's a total stick-in-the-mud.
Quickly, you cast a Spell of Message.
"Good evening," you say, bowing enough to be polite, but not so much as to break eye contact. "My apologies for the intrusion; it wasn't my intention to trespass. I'm seeking information about two Japanese priests, Hakuba Ginta and Hakuba Ichirou, and my spell indicated they were here."
The robed and hooded figure regards you for a moment longer, and then wordlessly nods, stepping aside and gesturing for you - well, your sensor - to proceed into the church. He also raises his right hand, pressing his index finger to his lips in a classic request for silence.
It must still be a few hours before dawn in whatever part of Europe you're looking at, so you don't hesitate to nod your agreement.
Your sensor passes through the open stone arch and follows the main path to the door of the church. Some of the Light Elementals hover towards your spell-construct, which they poke at with tiny beams of light in apparent curiosity. You soon leave them behind, nodding to the supernatural warden one more time as you cross the threshold and enter the main building.
Call me sometime!
There's no missing the eyebrow-quirk this time.
The interior of the church is mostly dark, but a few candles have been lit near the altar, providing enough light for you to see that the pews which should be filling the nave have been pushed aside to make room for a dozen bedrolls, their occupants, and the personal effects thereof. One shadowed figure bundled up in bedding is much the same as the next, but your spell is tugging you towards two in particular that look like they're about the right size to be Ginta and Ichirou.
You hesitate to approach them, however, because the candlelight also reveals a number of people who are awake, and - like the entity outside - now watching your scrying globe.
You don't know who the brunette in blue and white sitting in a chair near the altar is, but she has the aura of a strong magic-user, which makes her apparent age - a good decade past your mother's, you'd guess - a little suspect.
The pale-skinned, dark-haired gentleman in the fine suit standing behind the woman, with his back to the wall, you have only seen one time before now, but Amelia Reinhart's grandfather Adrian is rather memorable.
...wait, isn't he a vampire? Because I know-
And you have no trouble recognizing Miss Akasha, even if she is wearing a battered suit of armor several centuries out of date instead of one of her usual dresses, and looking decidedly paler than usual.
-she definitely is. Are they even allowed to be in there?
Do you have anything in particular to say to, or ask of, Miss Akasha and her companions, aside from asking about the Hakubas and what the heck HAPPENED in Romania?
Quietly, so as not to disturb those still asleep, you say, "Hello, Miss Akasha. It's me, Alex."
She blinks, and then frowns suspiciously at your sensor. "Prove it."
Huh. Well, you suppose that IS a fair request, but how to fulfill it...?
...
...oh, that could work.
"Kahlua's birthday party," you say. "You hurt your hand on a Wall of Force I conjured in the hedge-maze."
It's a good thing Akasha has removed her armor's gauntlets and helm, because otherwise her facepalm could have been noisy.
"Is THAT what happened?" Amelia's grandfather asks after a moment, sending a curious glance and the mildest of smirks Akasha's way.
"I miscalculated," Akasha grumbles. "And you can stop smirking any time, Adrian."
"Indeed," he agrees.
Not that he DOES.
With a quiet huff, Akasha ignores her fellow vampire and turns back to you. "Why are you looking in on us, Alex? And how did you get past the wards?"
"I'm at the Hakuba Shrine right now," you explain. "Mrs. Hakuba and Miss Suzuka were worried that Ginta and Ichirou hadn't checked in. How are they doing, by the way?"
"They're alive," Akasha replies. "Ichirou's left arm is broken, and Ginta was briefly... absorbed... by some form of giant slime."
You think of the various slime creatures found in Hyrule - Zols; Chuchus; Like-Likes; and more - and what it means when they engulf something.
It's usually a prelude to digestion.
"He'll have some scars from the acid," Akasha continues, "but nothing severe. Aside from that, neither of them was suffering from anything worse than fatigue, bad dreams, and an honest desire to go home and forget the last few days ever happened."
Nothing out of the ordinary, then.
Ms. Kanna and Miss Suzuka are both visibly relieved by Akasha's words.
"Thank you, ma'am," you say. "As for your question about the wards... did Ms. Gyokuro tell you about how I found the Nine-tails?"
The other two members of your small audience are visibly startled by that.
"She did," Akasha answers slowly. "Are you saying you just ignored the wards on the church, then?"
The brunette blinks. "What."
"Sort of?" you offer. "I mean, the Light Elementals didn't start showing up until after I tried to send my sensor onto the grounds, and tripped whatever alarm was there. And the... I'm guessing that was an angel guarding the door? I only saw him then, too, but after I apologized for intruding and asked after the Hakubas, he agreed to let me pass, as long as I was quiet."
The witch sputters. "But that's not... you can't just..."
Akasha smiles sympathetically at the other woman. "If it makes you feel better, dear, he did the same thing to Ambrose."
The brunette stops to consider that, her expression brightening.
Having navigated that hurdle, you proceed to ask Akasha why she and the rest of her companions are taking refuge in a church, instead of, saying, calling in helicopters or some form of land transportation.
The explanation you receive is that, while Dracula has been defeated and his power broken, the legion of darkness that he unleashed upon Romania is still present. Maybe it's a consequence of just how often the Dark Lord ravaged this part of the world over the centuries, or perhaps it's a final "gift" from Dracula for his vanquishers, but the monsters that would normally disperse or vanish in the wake of their master's fall are instead continuing to roam the countryside, killing, looting, and burning as they go.
Matters aren't being helped by the sheer number of humans that were present for the battle.
Dracula has always commanded the loyalty - or at least, the fear - of certain elements of humanity, and assorted cultists and dark magic users have always turned up for his various resurrections down through the centuries. More often than not, they've been directly responsible for them. Various mortals of a more mundane nature have also traditionally answered the Dark Lord's call, compelled by greed, bloodlust, oaths of vengeance, or even loyalty to ill-chosen masters.
In past eras, the human population was much smaller than it is today, and only a small percentage of that lesser whole were both under Dracula's sway and possessed of the means to reach his stronghold and serve him directly, when the time came. Most of those who managed to make the trek tended to be consumed by the Dark Lord's power in one manner or another, falling to the claws of his more overtly monstrous minions or transforming into beasts themselves as their defenses were exhausted.
The modern world, however, has over five billion humans.
And planes.
And guns.
And Frequent Flier Miles.
Suffice it to say, when the Dark Lord's human followers turned up THIS time, they had the numbers and the firepower to give even the demons pause.
Then the international force ostensibly on the side of the good guys arrived, crowding the field even further.
And THEN Dracula's resurrection actually started.
From there, it got messy.
A LOT of people have died since then, and many of the survivors are not doing well, be it mentally, physically, or spiritually. It's not just the humans that broke, either: Akasha has seen strong, proud monsters throw themselves on her mercy, too shaken by their recent experiences to even try to fight; and she's been shot by men that were fighting at her side when the sky went dark, yet now can't see anything that isn't human as other than an enemy.
She doesn't blame them for that.
"Even in the years before its master's hatred of humanity took root, Castle Dracula was not a place for the weak of heart," Lady Bloodriver sighs.
"Truly," Adrian agrees in a murmur. His eyes are distant, seeing something far different than the darkened church nave. Then he shakes himself and comes back to the present. "But now, there is the hope for that grudge to finally be put to rest."
In any event, you're told that the group wasn't planning on leaving Romania just yet, and not just because of how dangerous (verging on impossible) travel currently is. The country is in a terrible state, and as some of those who were responsible for making the mess, it falls to them to help clean it up. You get the impression there's some old European-influenced Moonlit World customs at work as well, victorious lords taking responsibility for the territory and vassals they've won in fair combat, or something of that nature.
And politics. Always, the politics.
That said, the trio keeping watch over their allies agree that the opportunity to evacuate some of their injured or "combat-stressed" associates would be a boon, if it could be arranged. It's almost five hours until sunrise, however, and they'd prefer not to wake anyone up before then if it could be avoided.
You frown. You'll have to be home by then, and while you could probably convince your parents to let you make a quick trip - as long as you were home before dark - you don't think they'd care for the idea of you visiting a literal war zone. Akasha certainly doesn't like it, and neither of her companions approves, either.
Between the obvious disapproval of the adults on the other side of your scrying spell - not to mention that of the two women standing next to you - and the prospect of trying to explain to your parents why you want to visit a literal war-zone, you can't really muster any enthusiasm for teleporting to Romania yourself.
That said, you don't want to just abandon three of your allies and their companions in the middle of that mess. You have the power to help, and the wisdom of Uncle Ben would seem to apply.
Maybe you could summon some help...?
Yes, that sounds like a much better idea. That way, you'll be able to appease your conscience by assisting your friend, and you won't have to upset any adults by putting yourself in danger to do it.
Still, that leaves the question of who to send.
The firebird Rho immediately comes to mind. He isn't capable of teleportation or anything of that nature, but his healing powers would be very helpful for the Hakubas, as well as any of their companions who are also injured.
You can rule out sending Bando the Goron. He's no more capable of casting traveling magic than Rho, and the duration of a typical summoning spell wouldn't leave him enough time to provide any meaningful assistance in other regards - at least, not in any way the members of the group couldn't do at least as well on their own.
You're DEFINITELY not sending that Like-Like.
Calling on Archer's assistance probably isn't the best idea, either. Heroic Spirit or not, that guy has been a pain to deal with every time you've called him, and shining personality aside, he hasn't ever hinted at possessing abilities that your allies are particularly lacking in.
It's a shame Khamsin isn't older, because the capability to move between planes that he roundaboutly implied his kind possess is almost exactly the sort of thing you need...
...hmmm. Perhaps you should try contacting the adults of Khamsin's herd, to see if they might be willing to help you out? Say, for some fresh apples?
That could work. Of course, riding horses isn't an effortless task, especially for people who may never have done it before, much less are injured. There's also the matter of how OFTEN Khamsin's kind can travel between planes, but that's something you can easily ask if and when you call them. As for the wounded, if you summoned Rho and sent him to patch up and would-be riders before dispatching the shadow-horses, it would go easier.
Only two other options really come to mind at this point. The first is to send out a general summons for transportation-capable beings willing to help move some injured and fatigued humans to safety, and see what answers. The other would be to call on the Goddesses directly, and see if they'd be willing to loan you any of their servitors for the task.
I would!
The idea of summoning members of Khamsin's herd for aid was appealing, but something tells you that invoking the assistance of the Goddesses is the superior option.
Yes!
Gained Farore's Favor C (Plus) (Plus)
For one thing, despite all his youthful innocence and the friendliness he's shown towards you, Khamsin and his kind are creatures of Shadow, while the silent angel guarding the church is a being of Light. If you sent any of the extraplanar horses to pick up your allies, odds are the angel would not be entirely happy to see them.
Now, who should I send...? Hmmm...
Granted, this angel was willing to allow a witch, a couple of vampires, and two priests of a different religion to take refuge in a church, and so has demonstrated some serious tolerance and compassion. But even so, why go inviting potential problems?
...have to make the right impression, but still get the job done...
Not that dispatching one or more servants of a different divine Power to a church isn't without issues of its own, at least based on your understanding of the particulars of Christian theology and the more general state of affairs involving divine entities on Earth, but at the same time, if there are rules for limiting the amount of contact deities can have with their followers, there almost HAVE to be other rules governing interactions between different faiths. And sending one divine servitor to speak with another would at least put them on common ground.
"Alex?"
"Ah, sorry about that, Miss Akasha," you apologize, bringing your awareness back to the present. "I was just thinking over what sort of assistance to send to you. I have an idea - if you wouldn't mind waiting a few minutes?"
Akasha looks around at the church, and says dryly, "We're not going anywhere."
Heh.
You conjure powdered silver and lay out a summoning diagram, then start casting the most powerful Spell of Planar Binding you can manage, inserting invocations to the Golden Goddesses at particular points in the spell-chant. It's less an attempt to ape the Spell of the Planar Ally - which you can't cast to nearly the same level of potency, even if you had the necessary materials - and more a precaution against unwanted responses to your summoning.
I got it! Din, lend me a hand, will you?
This way, only beings aligned with the Goddesses should turn up.
Heh, this could be funny. Here you go, Farore.
And then, with a flash of lightning, a crack of thunder, and a VERY unexpected surge of mana from the OTHER end of your summoning spell, such a being appears.
You sent HIM?!
You find yourself looking up - and UP - at a figure whose sheer height, already twice or even three times that of a grown man, is reinforced by the fact that it is floating several feet off the ground. Most of it is covered by an enormous ornate robe of a most curious style, crimson fabric decked with feathers, gem-like beads, and small, chain-linked plates of what could be silver and gold. The hands that emerge from the voluminous sleeves are covered with fine white fluff and end in talons rather than humanoid fingernails, and the head beneath the heavy headdress is similarly avian in its features, with a great, fierce break and sharp, aggressive eyes. Completing the image are the great wings that rise from the entity's back, though they do not beat, its airborne state evidently the result of some form of magic - or possibly electromagnetism. The air around this thing is THICK with energy, like the air just before a great storm.
Honestly, you two!
The bird-man's head looks upwards for a long moment, peering at the sparse canopy overhead and the morning sky beyond. Then, in a deafening voice, it begins to speak.
"EVEN FOREWARNED BY OUR LADY OF THE WINDS AND THE WILDS, STRANGE INDEED DO MINE EYES FIND THE SKIES AND STORMS OF THIS WORLD. WHAT MANNER OF WINGLESS FOLK BUILDS THEIR NESTS SO TALL, AND HOW IS IT THAT I SENSE THE PULSE OF LIGHTNING RUNNING THROUGH THEM, AS WATER THROUGH A STREAMBED? WHAT FIRE COULD BURN SO LONG THAT EVEN THE CLEAREST AIR TASTES OF SMOKE, YET THE DOMICILES OF MEN ARE NOT CONSUMED? AND HOW IS IT THAT A HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS YET STANDS, AN ISLAND OF NATURE'S PURITY SURROUNDED BY THE WORKS OF WHAT MUST BE MORE ALCHEMISTS AND SORCERERS AND ENGINEERS THAN HAVE LIVED IN AN ENTIRE AGE OF HYRULE?"
Gained Thunder Resistance E
...whoops.
...sweet DIN, this guy is LOUD. Briar and the two human women with you have all covered their ears with their hands, and out of the corner of your eye, you can see Miss Akasha and her two associates flinching back and glancing worriedly at their other companions.
Uh, yeah that's my fault - don't look at me like that, Nayru! Let me just...
Fortunately, it appears that either your summon's booming voice isn't being conveyed through your scrying spell at its normal volume, or else the people sleeping in the church are too weary to be wakened by such a minor thing.
And safe! Whew!
"BUT I FORGET MYSELF."
Some days, sister. Some. Days.
And then that fierce head lowers, turning its sharp gaze upon you, and you realize that the creature you summoned was speaking in the absent-minded manner of those voicing their thoughts aloud - because now that he's addressing you, he gets even LOUDER.
"HAIL, SCION OF POWER AND FAVORED OF THE LADY DIN, SHE OF THE FLAMING HAIR, WHOSE ARMS SHAPE THE EARTH. I BRING THEE GREETINGS FROM THE GREEN LADY OF COURAGE, WHO LOOKS UPON THINE VENTURE THIS DAY WITH FAVOR. KNOW THAT I AM HER LOYAL SERVANT, THUNDERBIRD, AND I STAND READY TO AID THEE IN MY MISTRESS'S STEAD."
...
...he's who, now?
"Merciful Nayru," Briar groans. "Make him STOP."
Well, you've got your divine servant. And his mere presence is... causing the weave of your most powerful summoning spell to twist and writhe in ways you've never seen before, like he's too powerful for the magic to "hold."
The old, old summoner's wisdom comes back to you: Do not call up what you cannot put down.
Well, you cast out a line, and hauled in a marlin. So... what do you do with him? Aside from explaining your request and hoping this "Thunderbird" character doesn't burst your eardrums, that is?
Ask him to turn it down.
You're not Nayru, but you'll gladly act in her stead in this instance.
"Thank you for coming, Great Thunderbird," you say, trying to match the entity for formality, if not sheer volume. "Your aid in this endeavor is most welcome. Before we begin, however, might I ask you to lower your mighty voice? I ask this because it is causing some distress to my fairy companion, and risks disturbing the hard-earned rest of my allies on the other end of my scrying spell."
The raptor's gaze regards you for a moment, then shifts to Briar, then to your scrying globe, and finally back to you.
Belatedly, it occurs to you that asking a Spirit of Thunder - as this one so clearly is - to be quiet could be taken poorly.
Fortunately, that's not what happens.
Thunderbird raises one taloned hand to his beak, coughs in the manner of a rather embarrassed human - and with a sound like a shotgun - and then speaks anew.
"MY-" He stops, clears his throat, and then tries again. "My apologies, Scion. I am somewhat unaccustomed to direct dealings with mortal kind, outside of expressions of My Lady's righteous fury, or the testings of heroes. I had forgotten the effect that the splendor of my full voice might have upon the frailer of creatures."
Thunderbird's words still carry the signs of his size and power, but they're no louder now than, say, a very large man who's raised his voice to carry over the murmurs of a crowded room.
...this is probably his equivalent of whispering, isn't it?
Well, whatever. It'll do.
You thank Thunderbird for his consideration of "frailer creatures," and then get down to business, asking him if he has any questions about the situation.
As it turns out, no, he doesn't. Farore informed him that you had a number of allies in need of transport out of a dangerous region, where the remnant forces of the local and recently-fallen Dark Lord were still running rampant and making more conventional means of travel hazardous at best, where they were still possible at all. Although this is not the sort of service that Thunderbird normally provides, such transportation is well within his power, and since FARORE is the one asking, well...
There is one point that comes up, and that's with regards to your allies' injuries. Thunderbird is very much NOT a healer.
Fortunately, you were already planning to summon Ro.
"A FIRE- I mean, a firebird, you say?" Farore's emissary echoes like distant thunder, after you mention this. "An excellent choice. I look forward to working with him."
As there's nothing else in need of clarification, and because you don't really want to test what might happen if you let Thunderbird's presence wear through the already-fraying weave of your summoning spell, you move along to summoning Ro.
When the firebird appears within your second summoning circle a few minutes later, his small, glowing form materializes out of empty air and settles to the forest floor as if landing from a flight - only to abruptly loose all sense of grace and decorum as Ro's head suddenly jerks in the direction of your first circle, and the creature hovering within it.
"HAIL, COUSIN," Thunderbird booms, raising one taloned hand in salute.
After a moment of shocked, open-beaked staring, Ro recovers himself enough to return the greeting with one wing and a feeble, "H-hail, great one."
Then he gives you a wordless, wild-eyed look that asks what the HELL you've gotten him mixed up in.
Mindful of the strain Thunderbird's presence is causing your first spell, you quickly summarize events for the firebird, and ask if he would object to accompanying... his "cousin"... to Romania to heal your allies.
Ro hastily answers that he would be DELIGHTED to assist you in this noble venture.
You get the impression Thunderbird's presence is even MORE overwhelming for the firebird than it is for you.
You also wonder if you should do something nice for Ro later on, to make up for dropping him into a face-to-face meeting like this without any warning.
It's a thought.
In any case, you have secured the assistance of the two otherworldly avians in healing Ginta and Ichirou, and bringing them and a few of their companions back to Japan. It's still five hours until sunrise in Romania, of course, and since you don't want to... ahem... ruffle any feathers by leaving Thunderbird at loose ends on Earth, you send him and Ro back to where they came from, to await your next call.
The idea appears to amuse Thunderbird, who notes, "Though neither Fire nor Light are my true elements, there is yet something most fitting in the idea of having two celestial wind-riders bearing tidings of divine mercy arrive with the rising of the sun. I shall look forward to it, young Scion. Until then! I GO!"
And then he vanishes with another dazzling detonation.
For a moment, all is BLESSEDLY quiet in his wake.
"Well," Ms. Kanna remarks with a breath. "He was quite something, wasn't he?"
"He was something, alright," Briar replies.
"Indeed," Ro groans. "Oh, that was NOT the kind of meeting I expected to have today - or EVER." He casts you a wounded look. "You could not have warned me, first?"
You suppose that for Ro, being summoned into the presence of an entity like Thunderbird without prior warning must be something like what you'd feel, if you were just going about your daily business and suddenly came face-to-face with the Goddesses, in all their divine splendor. No magic, no prayers, just you turning a corner, and bam! Godly panoply, right there.
And here's you, not at all expecting or prepared for the occasion, dressed in casual daywear, and probably in need of a shower or a haircut or something.
You try to picture that moment, to imagine how you'd feel, what you'd do in response...
...
...actually, you'd be pretty cool with that.
So it was a bad example. Or at least, YOU'RE a bad example.
Regardless, it's pretty clear that to Ro, Thunderbird's presence was a Big Deal, and meeting him is the sort of thing the firebird would have much rather had time to psyche himself up for.
In the interests of maintaining a good working relationship, you decide to offer to do something nice for Ro as an apology for calling him into such a meeting without prior notice of what - and who - would be involved.
Ro considers that. "Actually... one of my elders has started building a funerary nest. It's customary for members of the immediate flock and close friends to offer a bit of building material as a show of respect. We usually make do with one of our own feathers, but sweet-smelling herbs, incenses, and prayer strips are also added. If I could get something like that from you...?"
You consider that.
Your current inventory includes three items that you think might suit Ro's request.
The first, obviously, is the Gold Incense you bought months ago, during the World Tournament. You've used some of the sticks yourself, but as your Conjuration Magic improved, you've taken to creating the stuff as needed. You could easily afford to give Ro a few of the remaining genuine sticks.
The second are the Fairy Leaves that the Mirror of Shadows was wrapped in when it was returned to you. While you wouldn't describe them as sweet-smelling, they do carry a fair amount of magical potential, which might make them a reasonable gift regardless.
The only other item in your dimensional pocket that might work for this is the charm you got from the Hakubas, bearing a prayer for success in your studies. Honestly, though, you doubt that this would have been an acceptable offering even when it was new.
Of course, Miss Suzuka is standing right next to you, and Ro IS going to go heal Ginta and Ichirou later. It would be very fitting if you were to ask her to produce a prayer strip with a more appropriate message for the firebird's purpose.
On the other hand, you were thinking about stopping by Gen's later, and you do have some store credit and cash saved up. Maybe he's got something in stock you could buy or trade for?
Or you could just cast a Spell of Creation and conjure something on the spot - like, for instance, some of that incense. The only problem here is that you'd be giving away something that had your magical signature on it - but what are the chances that a being of Light and goodness like Ro would use that against you? Right? Right?
After Ro has departed, you turn back to the still-active scrying globe.
"Alex," Akasha says, before you can speak, "while I appreciate the assistance, I'm fairly certain that Gyokuro said you'd agreed NOT to summon any more legendary monsters."
You think back to that request, conveyed to you from the Lady Bloodriver by the Lady Shuzen.
"Actually, Miss Akasha, what I promised was to avoid summoning as much as possible prior to the eclipse, and to direct any summoning spells I HAD to cast towards the Goddesses and their servants. And since the eclipse is over..." You trail off with a shrug.
Akasha blinks. "That... is true, but..."
"We can expect your two avian associates to arrive at dawn, then?" Adrian interjects.
"Yes, sir."
He nods. "We will be ready to receive them, then."
There's a sense of polite finality and dismissal in his manner.
You reach into your dimensional pocket, take out the box of Gold Incense, and remove four of the plastic-wrapped sticks. After a quick check with Ro - who readily admits that talons are perhaps not the best suited for removing such wrappings without damaging the item beneath - you strip off the plastic and hand over the incense, which the firebird collects with his beak rather than his feet.
With a wordless nod of acceptance and gratitude, Ro departs.
Incidentally, this still leaves you with almost a dozen individual pieces of incense in that box. That's plenty for practical purposes, but you have to admit that, having used up so much of the original contents, the Gold Incense's value as a reagent has been rather heavily compromised.
That's okay, though. You weren't planning any more major rituals for the foreseeable future, and the incense has paid for itself in other respects.
Taking Mr. Reinhardt's unspoken dismissal as your cue, you wish him, Miss Akasha, and the brunette witch a quiet evening - or should that be morning? - and then end the Spell of Scrying.
That done, you check the time, and discover that it's been about forty minutes since you arrived. When you speak with Ms. Kanna about how long it takes to get to the hospital where Koujiro is staying, she admits that if you were to leave in the next few minutes, you'd probably get there at quarter past eight.
"Morning traffic?" you matron and the shrine maiden both nod.
Ms. Kanna takes about five minutes to put together "a few things" that she was planning on taking with her to the hospital: two packed lunches; a thick paperback; a large file folder, holding a small book's worth of pages; and a few other things besides. She carefully packs all of this away into a bag that's entirely too large to be considered a purse, dons a long, light coat, and then slings the satchel over one shoulder and changes into a different pair of shoes.
You join Mrs. Hakuba in wishing Miss Suzuka good-bye - the miko will be remaining here to mind the shrine - and then follow the matron of the family out through the front gate and down the stairs.
As it happens, either the Hakubas don't have a car, or Ms. Kanna is used to not using it to get around. Either way, you end up walking to the traffic isn't as bad as you were fearing, based on past encounters with Tokyo in the morning, but then, it IS a weekend. Even this city has to slow down sometime, right?
That's not to say there's no traffic at all, but the streets and sidewalks are merely crowded today, rather than jammed. And figuring out how to navigate the flow of pedestrians while keeping close to your guide, not running into anyone, and not using supernatural abilities to "cheat" on the pure physical and sensory aspects, is good practice.
Gained Crowd Control D (Plus)
As Ms. Kanna said, it's getting on towards eight-fifteen when you arrive at the hospital, which you notice in passing is a rather more modern-looking building than Sunnydale General, where your mother works.
Getting in to see Koujiro is no problem. Ms. Kanna is already known to the staff, and introduces you as a friend of the family wishing to pay his respects and well-wishes for Koujiro's recovery in person. The receptionist gives you an approving smile, misses Briar completely, and lets you all pass.
As you're riding the elevator to the third floor, Ms. Kanna takes a moment to advise you that her mother-in-law is likely to be present.
"Is she aware of magic, ma'am?" you ask.
"She is, but she doesn't have much patience with it," Kanna replies. "Less so, now that Father-in-Law's gotten himself hurt because of it."
...given the circumstances, you must admit that is a pretty normal reaction. Maybe a little inconvenient for you, but normal.
Koujiro's hospital room is... normal, you guess. Your mother may be a nurse, but your familiarity with hospitals is no greater than any other healthy eight year-old's, so your idea of patient rooms is based more on what you've seen on TV than anything else. Still, by that standard, the two-bed room (of which only one is currently occupied) seems pleasant enough. Clean, organized, well-lit, good air flow. There's even a window, which is currently closed.
The bed nearest to that window is where Hakuba Koujiro is currently resting. This is your first time seeing the old man out of the traditional garments of his priestly office, and he looks smaller without them - the customary hospital gown does him no favors in that regard. His left arm lies on top of the bedsheets, an IV inserted, but aside from that, there's no medical the mystical side, you don't sense anything that immediately screams wrongness to you, but you're only able to give Koujiro's aura a relatively light inspection without drawing the attention of the people who were already in the room when you arrived.
One of these is a woman about Ms. Kanna's age, wearing the same plain, pale blue clothes as a majority of the hospital staff you passed on your way up here, and which - for all the differences in style - are too similar to the uniforms you've seen your mother wear to be anything else.
The room's other occupant is a woman near Koujiro's age, who wears her years in the iron-grey of her hair and the fine lines on her face, but otherwise carries herself as if she doesn't notice. The dark red track suit and running shoes she's wearing definitely add to that impression; looking at her, you get the feeling the lady in question is probably in better shape than your parents, despite being twenty years or more their senior.
Not HUGELY so, but enough for it to be noticeable.
Maybe you should get the folks to take up cardio, or something?
"Good morning, Mother Atsuko," Kanna greets the woman.
She receives a small smile and a quiet, "Good morning, Kanna." Then the older woman's gaze turns to you.
"Alexander Harris, ma'am," you introduce yourself with a casually polite bow."Hakuba Atsuko," she replies, matching your manners. She frowns. "Forgive me for saying so, but I don't believe we've met, and I'm fairly certain I'd remember someone of your... distinctive appearance."
"This is our first meeting, ma'am," you confirm. "I've been visiting your family's shrine for a few months, now, and they've been of great help to me in a number of spiritual matters. When I heard about Mr. Koujiro's condition, I wanted to offer my best wishes in person."
She nods you've been talking, Briar has drifted across the room - unnoticed by the two women - to hover over Koujiro's bed. You feel her magic moving, whispering of Divination.
Whatever the results of that first casting are, Briar pauses a moment before casting a second, more potent spell of analysis...that she didn't immediately attempt a healing spell is either good news, or worrying. Good, in that Koujiro's condition is apparently stable - something the nurse is saying she was just telling Ms. Atsuko before you, Ms. Kanna, and Briar arrived - but not good, in that Briar thinks taking a deeper look at the old man's condition is required.
Given the presence of a witness who may not be aware of the existence of the supernatural, you decide to hold off on doing anything out of the ordinary for the moment.
Besides, as much as you exceed Briar in raw magical power, she still has far more experience than you do when it comes to matters of magical healing. That particular state of affairs is not going to change any time soon.
After giving a summary of Koujiro's condition, the nurse reminds everyone - but mostly you - of the hospital's policy on visitations, which mostly boils down to the hours, requests not to disturb other patients or interfere with the hospital staff, and a list of items that either aren't allowed in the building or have limits on their use.
You make a mental note not to take your cellphone or any of the other items you've got stashed in your dimensional pocket out of there. At least not while any of the staff are present to see it.
Once everyone has acknowledged the warnings, the nurses excuses herself.
"Alright, then," Atsuko says, looking from you to her daughter-in-law. "Now that she's off, Kanna, would you mind explaining to me why you're the one escorting a strange foreign boy to see Koujiro, instead of one of his parents?"
"Well, for one thing, I believe Alexander's parents are back in the United States," Kanna says with a smile.
"They are," you agree.
Atsuko folds her arms across her chest and waits, one eyebrow rising in silent question.
"As for why Alex is here," the younger of the two Mrs. Hakubas continues, "he really does want to extend his well-wishes for Father-in-Law's recovery. It's just that Alexander's well-wishes involve magic."
Atsuko frowns. "Magic," she repeats.
"He's done a number of things around the shrine and in the wider community over the last few weeks," Kanna says, calmly yet firmly. "A number of Father-in-Law's peers can vouch for him."
The older woman glances at you, then nods.
"Most recently, he was able to get in touch with Ginta and Ichirou's traveling companions. And they're alright," Kanna adds, as the older woman regards her and you with a new interest. "Not completely unharmed, but much better off than we'd worried they might be. Arrangements have been made to bring them home later today..." She pauses and looks at you. "Around lunchtime, do you think?"
You do some quick mental math, and nod. "Around then. They'll also be getting some help healing at that time," you helpfully supply.
Atsuko regards you keenly. "And what are you getting out of all this, young sir? I'm no miko or onmyouji myself, but I've picked up enough from Koujiro's family business to know that this kind of help never comes for free."
She's not wrong. Even in the extremely unlikely event that there's nothing you or Briar can do for Koujiro - or the far more probably but still unlikely chance that there's nothing you NEED to do, and he can recover fully on his own - you've already done the Hakubas a small service this morning, just confirming that Ginta and Ichirou are alive. Once Ro has patched them up and Thunderbird has brought them home, the family will be in your debt in a very real and significant way.
Traditionally, being in a sorcerer's debt is not a good idea, and as much as you're trying to avoid being THAT kind of sorcerer, determining the consequences of your actions is not entirely up to you. Other people involved in the Moonlit World are going to know that you did the Hakubas a major service using rather powerful magic - indeed, some of them already do - and that's going to color their interactions with the family going forward.
After all, being too close to someone that's in a sorcerer's debt is not a good idea, either. Traditionally.
There's a lot of reasons for you to help the Hakubas.
From a purely mercenary - and perhaps, purely sorcerous? - point of view, the priests' skills of purification rituals are a valuable resource that you're not yet able to match on your own. Miss Suzuka directed you towards a number of situations that allowed you to discharge an obligation of your own, and which turned out to have additional benefits besides. And when you needed support for a hazardous expedition, Ginta and Ichirou provided.
It makes sense to invest in the well-being of such tested and proven allies, because it's almost a given that you're going to need help like theirs again in the future.
From a slightly different point of view, the priests and the miko just helped to save the world from Dracula. As someone who lives in the world and has friends and family there, the argument could very easily be made that YOU owe THEM, and that healing Koujiro and seeing Ginta and Ichirou safely home is just your way of repaying that debt.
On a more social front, a small but significant portion of the Japanese Moonlit World is aware of both your power, and your association with the Hakuba Shrine. While your age certainly grants you some leeway here, especially given the ongoing and dangerous state of affairs in Romania, it wouldn't have done you any favors to be seen to be uncaring of the fate of your associates.
Ultimately, though, it all boils down to three points, which you state for Atsuko.
"Your husband, son, and grandson have done a lot to help me, ma'am, and I consider them friends. I do my best to look out for my friends."
The grey-haired woman considers your reply for a moment, and then nods.
"That's a good stance to have," she approves. "Not the easiest one to keep, though. Too many people these days are willing to get ahead by taking advantage, and then never repaying the debt. Be careful about who you trust, hm?"
You were already doing that, but you nod anyway.
"Well," Atsuko sighs, "I suppose after that talk about friendship and trust, I'd look like an ungrateful hypocrite if I turned down your offer of help. But for the sake of an old woman's nerves, what exactly are you planning to do to Koujiro?"
"That depends on what's wrong with him," you answer. You look towards the old man's bed, using the motion to cover for the fact that you're also looking at Briar.
"Part of this is severe magical exhaustion," the fairy tells you. "Not much either of us can do about that, under the circumstances, but it's recoverable."
"And the other part?"
Briar lets out a breath. "I don't know what they were doing, but it must have been a seriously high-powered ritual, because I'm seeing signs of stress on his SOUL. Not contamination, but... do you remember that time you wrestled with the Boar?"
You wince at the memory of being stabbed by bristly hairs. "Painfully so, yes. It's like that?"
"Yeah, but a lot worse. Whatever the old man was working against, it was bigger, meaner, and a lot less friendly than the Boar. This... isn't the sort of thing people heal from."
...considering that your totem is the RAGING Boar, and that you didn't have the best of relationships at the time, this is rather worrying news.
Still, there's a silver lining to this particular cloud, in that you know how to treat precisely this sort of soul-strain. All you need to do is cast a Spell of Restoration.
Of course, that's divine magic, which makes an already non-trivial spell that extra bit more difficult to cast. It's still within your abilities, but the sticking point is the material component. If Koujiro was just physically injured, you could substitute the required mass of diamond dust with mana - it would be close, but your skills have advanced enough since the last time you cast this spell that it would probably work.
Sadly, the level of damage Briar is describing is rather worse than that. It's still treatable, but it raises the casting cost of the spell even higher, beyond your ability to compensate for with mana alone.
This leaves you with three options.
The first is to cast the Spell of Blood Money. Briar is on record as not liking this particular piece of magic, especially in conjunction with ritual spellcasting - which the Spell of Restoration is - and you doubt it will go over any better with the two women in the room with you.
The second option is to find yourself a diamond you can afford to throw away. Simply conjuring a replacement won't be possible, unfortunately; while gems are small, the concept of "value" so strongly associated with them makes them disproportionately difficult to magically produce, even more so than many precious metals. Conjuring a permanent and "true" diamond is simply beyond you, even if you had a real one to base the work off of, which you... don't...
Oh, duh.
There are two married women in the room with you. If either of them has a diamond ring - engagement ring, anniversary ring - and was willing to sacrifice it, the added value of them being part of Koujiro's family would be enough to make up for any shortfall in quantity or quality.
Atsuko's would be the more ideal, since she IS his wife, and there's that whole "for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health" thing, or whatever the precise vows are in Japan.
You're going to ask, but on the off-chance the ladies don't have a diamond available, do you want to suggest the Spell of Blood Money as a second option?
Wait, wait, stop. You're overthinking this.
Why are you performing mental gymnastics over how to best acquire a magical reagent, when you can simply call up a creature who's able to cast the very same spell you have it in mind to cast, but with no reagent required?
An entity, moreover, that you just got through talking to about helping the Hakuba family (in general) not half an hour ago, and who has previously asked you to keep him in mind if "circumstances conspired against you?"
Granted, Ro was saying that in reference to the time you got slashed by an undead goblin, but you don't think he or Farore would object to you bringing him here to help Koujiro.
You think right.
You look to Briar. "What do you think? Ro?"
The fairy nods. "Ro."
"Oh!" Kanna exclaims.
"What is 'Ro'?" Atsuko asks. "And who or what are you talking to?"
You take a minute to explain to the older woman that you have an invisible friend who is one hundred percent real helping you to investigate Koujiro's condition - Briar shortens that explanation by casting a minor Illusion that creates an overlay of her appearance and movements - and then provide a quick summary of what is wrong with the priest. You assure both of the Hakuba women that the problem is within your ability to fix, you just need to bring in some outside assistance.
With Kanna having met the firebird earlier - if only in passing, and while under the much more impressive shadow of Thunderbird - and heard you talking about his role in your plan to bring Ginta and Ichirou home, unharmed, she's already clearly in support of your idea. Atsuko takes a little more convincing, but you get the feeling it's more of a token resistance.
Regardless, you gather your mana, create a summoning circle, and cast the Spell of Planar Binding once again.
"I just left you half an hour ago!" Ro exclaims as he appears before you on the unoccupied bed, incense sticks still clutched in his beak. "Don't tell me you managed to get hurt- oh!" Then he takes in the rest of the hospital room. "Hello again, Mrs. Hakuba. And greetings to you, madam...?"
"...also Hakuba," Atsuko replies after a moment. "Hakuba Atsuko."
"A pleasure." The firebird glances at Koujiro. "Would I be correct in guessing that this is the other Mr. Hakuba, then?"
"You are," you say. "And I called you to ask you to help him."
"Let me have a look at him, then. If I may borrow your arm for a moment?"
You extend your right arm, and adjust your balance as Ro hops up to perch there with a flutter of his wings. For all his otherworldly grace and avian build, the firebird has a very real weight to him, probably around twenty pounds, so you aren't exactly keeping him casually.
Still, it's a burden within your abilities to bear.
You turn around and hold Ro in place while he leans forward to inspect Koujiro, magic passing from his eyes and then back again.
"...I see," the firebird says after a moment. "Near-total magical exhaustion, combined with a downright vicious attack on the soul. The best treatment for the former is letting him recover in his own time, and making sure he doesn't mess about with magic until then."
Atsuko makes a sound of amusement. "I can certainly do that."
"Good, good. As for the latter, I can treat that immediately."
And with that, Ro lightly taps Koujiro's chest with his beak, releasing a wave of soothing, sanctified magic.
If you were expecting the old man to immediately wake up, your hopes are dashed. However, once the light of the spell has faded, Koujiro does look considerably better.
"I'm afraid I'm not powerful enough to heal all the damage in one go," Ro apologizes as he straightens up. "Whatever he was fighting against, it tried very hard to kill him, and his soul can only take so much additional stress, even for the most well-intentioned reasons. Still, give him a week to recover, and I can have another go. I do so hate to leave a patient untreated."
You look to the two ladies, both of whom nod, and then turn to your extraplanar ally. "I'll do that, then."
Ro bows. "If you'll excuse me, then, I was just delivering a certain regard gift. Until later today!"
"Until then," you agree, ending the spell.
And with that, Ro disappears.
After Ro has departed, you spend a short time "visiting" Koujiro, much of which is spent alternating with Kanna in explaining your association with the Hakuba Shrine. Ginta's wife only knows the broad strokes, and you don't go into too much detail, leaving out most of the uncomfortable bits.
You do have to explain the whole business with Lady Takara, however, as Kanna had met Hayashi Asamu, Elder Mitsuki, and Uncle, and was aware of the objective that brought them to visit the shrine and work with the rest of you.
Speaking of which...
Given the dark aura that's lingering about the Hakuba Shrine, you'd already opted not to meet Lady Takara and Lady Akemi there again. Moving a bit apart from the Hakuba ladies, you cast a Spell of Sending, letting the Nine-Tailed Fox know you're back in Japan, and need a place to meet other than the shrine.
Not long after you've sent the message, an answer comes, telling you to meet them at "what's left of the house."
Well, there's only one place that could be.
With your business with the Hakubas complete for the time being, you bid Atsuko and Kanna a good day and leave Koujiro's room. Rather than waste time walking all the way back to the shrine or running around the neighborhood seeking an equally out-of-the-way place to work your magic, you head up to the hospital roof, using a simple Spell of Illusion to make yourself unremarkable to the adults you pass. That's the only bit of magic you need to do, since as it turns out, the hospital has a rooftop garden open to the staff and the more mobile patients. You just take the elevator all the way up, and then duck out of sight and begin your ritual teleportation.
When you arrive in the backyard of the house where Lady Takara and Mai were living, all is quiet, leading you to wonder for a moment if you're the first one here.
You spend a minute reaching out with your senses, then peering into the windows, and finally calling out, but you sense nothing and receive no reply.
Then again, this house was warded, at least before your group and Lady Takara's shadow-self wrecked the front end fighting. Even if the wards got trashed, what's left of them could still be interfering with your attempts to scan the place.
Maybe you should investigate inside the house?
Just to make sure the ladies aren't already inside and you're not wasting their time hanging around in the backyard, that is.
It has nothing at all to do with wanting to sneak a look at wards created by a nine-hundred year-old kitsune.
...
Not in the least.
...
Oh, who are you kidding.
Of COURSE you want to go inside and sneak a look at the warding scheme Lady Takara set up. You crib techniques, spells, and magical item design from everybody; why would you pass up this opportunity to learn something from a serious master?
You move over to the door and lightly rattle the knob.
Locked.
Well, that's no problem. The Spell of Unlocking was created for just such an occasion...
"So, why are we magically breaking and entering into the abandoned lair of a nine-tailed fox?" Briar asks, as you cast.
"Well, first off, we're not breaking in," you reply, as the door unlatches itself and easily swings open under your hand. "Secondly, you said it yourself; Lady Takara told us she was going to abandon this place. And third, I really want a look at whatever is left of her wards."
The fairy considers that, and then nods. "Right. Just making sure we have our stories straight for when we get caught."
You enter the kitchen and dining area at the rear of the house, senses peeled, but in the week and change since your last visit, the auras of the building's previous occupants have faded considerably. Even Lady Takara's powerful youki is little more than a dull glow or pressure in the background, and even that level of distinction is due more to the traces that built up over all the time she and Mai resided her. Of the girl herself, there's no trace at all, and the auras of you and your allies have long since faded beyond the point of notice, at least by this level of detection. An active Spell of Divination might do better, depending on its power and sensitivity...
Anyway, the point is, the house is empty, and has been for days. If anybody's been here since your last visit, it either wasn't Lady Takara, or she went back within a day or two of that incident. You also don't sense any active magic or strong, latent energy.
Based on your knowledge of wards and what you saw of this place the last time, the arrays seemed to be built right into the building, so short of digging up the yard - which you'd rather avoid; it's entirely too obvious - your best bet is to find a section of the interior walls that hasn't been covered by drywall, paneling, and/or paint.
For that, you're thinking the attic or the basement. The other option is to start pulling out the walls, which, again, offends your sensibilities.
Seeing as how time is likely to be an issue, which part of the house do you want to check out FIRST?
"Briar," you sigh, "you really should have more faith in your partner's abilities."
"Uh-huh. Because sneaking around in the former home of what might as well be a minor goddess, when she's coming to meet us here in a few minutes, is going to end SO well."
"Because," you continue calmly, "it occurs to me that we can check out the wards and any other stuff about this place AFTER we're done talking with Lady Takara."
Briar considers that. "Okay," she says slowly, "but we did already enter the house uninvited."
"And that's because I'm going to play host."
There's another pause.
"What."
Without further ado, you cast the Spell of Cultural Adaptation, putting yourself in a somewhat more Japanese frame of mind. The linguistic benefits are relatively minor; in all honesty, you've been speaking Japanese often enough over the last half a year or so that, when combined with the magical assistance you used to learn the language in the first place, your accent has seen a lot of improvement. You still wouldn't pass as a native speaker on your own, but you're much closer to it than you were starting out. Cultural Adaptation just smoothes the remaining edges in that regard, as it were.
None of which is why you cast the spell.
Checking the drawers and cupboards, you find that the plain dishes and cutlery are still present, and set up the dining room table for four. Then, focusing on the idea of a traditional Japanese meal, you gather your mana and begin casting a variation on the Spell to Conjure Food and Drink.
You don't need to feed a small army for an entire day, only a few people for a single meal, and at the same time, the simple, bland foodstuffs and plain water normally conjured by the spell are too humble for what you have in mind. As such, the mana conserved by stripping out the former parameters is directed towards expanding those elements of the formula that deal with the latter.
The result of your efforts, after ten minutes of chanting, is a modest bounty of steaming white rice, hot miso soup, grilled fish, salad, and sliced pickles, all arranged neatly in separate bowls and plates.
Still a bit "plain" in absolute terms, but on the other hand, that IS the traditional Japanese meal, and it all looks very well-prepared.
Gained Knowledge (Magesmithing) D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Briar looks at the table, and then turns to you. "Are you telling me we broke into this house so you could make a late lunch? Or brunch? Whichever."
"We didn't break anything," you remind her, again, "but otherwise, yes."
The fairy says nothing for a moment.
Then she looks past you. "What do you think, ladies?"
...
Right, nine-tailed fox who is REALLY GOOD at going unnoticed when she wants to be.
"I'm curious to know if you're TRYING to get yourself kidnapped or engaged, young man," Lady Takara asks, half-amused and half-serious. "Because breaking into a youkai girl's house to make her a nice meal? There's pushing your luck, and then there's just ASKING for sudden additions to the family tree. Don't you think so, Akemi dear?"
Lady Akemi giggles behind her sleeve. "Oh my, yes, Mother. A man who can cook? Girls of all ages would be very interested, even without the conjuring food from nowhere."
You look up at the two amused women, and answer, "I think my biggest problem is overdoing things. That's how I end up in these situations."
"Oh?" Lady Takara inquires. "How so?"
You start to answer, then pause, and gesture towards the table. "May we discuss it over a meal?"
"...I suppose it would be impolite to let the food go to waste," the kitsune admits.
Seeing as how you're playing the role of host - despite the fact that the building you're in is, or was, Takara's house - you use a cantrip to pull out two of the chairs for your guests. Lady Takara takes her seat with effortless grace and a nod of acknowledgment, and while Lady Akemi's response mirrors her foster-mother's in most respects, there is a certain discomfort in her manner. It's not just the fact that she's a ghost sitting down to a meal she can't partake in; she doesn't seem to be used to Western-style chairs.
Fair enough. There's not much you can do about the latter, but as to the former...
Before the meal begins, you ask the ladies for a moment's indulgence, and then cast one more spell.
Well, you CALL it a spell, but there is no spell in your extensive mental library meant for the purpose you have in mind. The closest thing you have to a spell meant to allow a ghost to "eat" mortal food is the Spell of Blinking, which temporarily (and randomly) shunts material objects into the Ethereal Plane, where ghosts and other phantoms normally reside. The magic you work incorporates elements of that magic, but also includes bits from the School of Necromancy, as well as an infusion of Elemental Spirit and Shadow.
The setting before Lady Akemi glows faintly purple, and then sort of fades out, taking on the kind of misty translucence you've seen in unquiet souls like the Poes.
Mother and daughter regard the plates and bowls of ethereal food with frank astonishment.
"Go ahead," you say.
"...Itadakimasu?" Lady Akemi murmurs. Moving very slowly, she reaches for the chopsticks you set out, blinking as she finds she can pick them up. Manipulating the wooden stalks with an awkwardness born of surprise, the spirit gathers a small clump of rice, and lifts it to her lips.
...
Akemi makes a sound of shock and delight, swallows, and quickly moves to try some of the salad. That's followed by a piece of fish.
Lady Takara watches this in silence, and then brings her hands down on the table while simultaneously leaping to her feet.
"Tofu!" she exclaims, as you, Akemi, and Briar all stare at her in shock. "You forgot the tofu!"
"I'm sorry about that," you begin.
"No! Don't apologize!" the kitsune says, turning to you with an expression of almost manic delight. "I didn't clean out the kitchen when we left! I can make some!"
And in a flurry of fox-tails, she scrambles for the kitchen, bent on doing exactly that. Cupboards slam open almost before her hands reach them, a frying pan virtually FLIES to the stove-top, and so much in general goes on in such a short span of time that you half-suspect Lady Takara is using her tails as extra "hands."
Then again, she's had the better part of a millennium to hone her talents in the culinary arts. The speed with which everything is happening could just be the result of skill and experience.
Either way, you are one hundred percent certain that any offer to help in the preparation process would be taken as an intrusion on your part - because when was the last time Takara got to cook for Akemi?
So, no, you're definitely not going to stick your nose in THERE.
Aside from eating your own serving of this second lunch, how do you want to pass the time while Lady Takara is cooking up a storm?
You could make smalltalk with Lady Akemi, perhaps about what she and her foster-mother have been up to over the last ten days or so, and how things went with Mai's parents. The girl's absence doesn't tell you much by itself, although from the light and easy manner in which Takara and Akemi were poking fun at you earlier, you think the family reunion at least went over well.
Another option is to try and engage Lady Takara in that discussion you were about to have over lunch, but do you really want to distract her while she's so busy?
Alternately, you could keep quiet, eat your meal, and take the time to observe a master at work in her element, to try and improve your Japanese cooking.
Although this would be a good time for you to discuss recent events with Lady Akemi, the frantic energy Lady Takara is displaying in the kitchen has you reluctant to broach that particular topic.
After all, it wasn't that long ago that the nine-tailed fox was dangerously crazy, as opposed to... hmmm... charmingly eccentric. While you did take her madness out of the equation in your previous encounter, you were also cautioned that she'd be a bit fragile in the aftermath - and she IS a top-class youkai, besides.
It just seems best to leave her be for now, is what you're thinking.
As such, you cast a minor cantrip over Takara's serving and the remaining, as-yet unclaimed food, to keep it warm. Then you turn to your meal.
Under different circumstances, you'd be inclined to wait until Lady Takara was finished in the kitchen before you started eating, as is only polite, but Lady Akemi certainly isn't waiting, and her mother is showing no hint of objection or disapproval to that - rather the opposite.
With a mental shrug, you clap your hands together, announce your intention to partake, and suit actions to words.
Briar flutters down to the table next to you, stealing a bit of your meal for herself with a tiny pair of chopsticks she picked up... somewhere.
As you dine on the modest but tasty conjured fare, you keep one eye on Takara's efforts in the kitchen. Her initial wild flurry of activity has slowed down a bit, now that she has everything she needs to prepare whatever dish she has in mind out on the counter. A shot of cooking oil goes into the frying pan, a block of tofu is laid out on a cutting board and rapidly divided into thin strips, and the strips are then dropped into a bowl of water to absorb the liquid for a time, before going into the by-now quietly sizzling pan.
Takara isn't doing anything fancy, it seems, just preparing simple fried tofu to go with the meal you'd already conjured.
Still, that's a dish you hadn't previously known how to prepare.
Gained Cooking E (Plus) (Plus)
All the while as she cooks, Takara smiles, shooting the occasional glance at Akemi - who hasn't stopped eating, though she is taking the time to savor each piece of the meal - before humming happily to herself and turning her attention back to the task before her.
Whether by chance or design, when Lady Akemi finishes her first serving and shyly asks for seconds, Lady Takara asks you both to hold off for just a few minutes while she finishes the tofu.
Those few minutes pass, and Takara presents a small plate of a dozen or so strips of fried tofu.
"There we go," she murmurs, setting the plate down with a soft clink. "Now it's a meal!" She takes her place at the table and gestures for you and Akemi to eat, while incidentally claiming almost half of the tofu for herself.
You serve Akemi most of the remaining food, slipping in an explanation that it's only been a couple of hours since you last ate, before casting your new "spirit food" spell over the hefty serving.
Which isn't to say that you - and Briar - don't take some of the conjured meal to enjoy alongside Lady Takara's contribution to the meal.
Speaking of which, isn't tofu supposed to be bland? Because this stuff definitely isn't.
In any case, the next few minutes are spent in relative silence, the two ladies enjoying the food, and Lady Takara in particular enjoying watching Lady Akemi eat the first "home-cooked" meal they've shared in centuries.
"I used illusions to try and include her at meal-times this past week," Takara tells you, "but there really is no substitute for a meal prepared with love."
An image of Tamamo-no-Mae appears in the back of your mind, fingers raised in a victory sign as she crows, "Another triumph for the Power of Love!"
"Which is not to suggest that your, ah, 'cooking,' is somehow unpalatable, Alexander," Lady Akemi adds.
"Oh, no," Lady Takara agrees quickly. "This is the second-best steamed rice prepared by anyone other than myself I've had all year."
You consider that, and then ask, "Mai?"
Takara nods. "And I've been teaching her how to cook, so it's hardly a FAIR comparison."
This seems like a good point to ask after the girl and her parents, so you do.
Takara winces, her ears and tail drooping. "There was yelling," she admits. "And tears, and quite a lot of unpleasantness. If it hadn't happened at the shrine, with the priests and the young miko to intercede, things would have gone much worse." She laughs faintly. "On the positive side, Mai now knows for sure that her parents love her enough to stand between her and a nine-tailed fox."
"And they did not forbid her to see you for lessons, Mother," Akemi adds.
"No, they just forbade me to set foot on their property, to come within sight of Mai anywhere other than the shrine, or to ever be alone with her there for any reason," Takara sighs. "Which is... fair. And more than fair, really."
Well. You didn't exactly think reintroducing Mai to her parents was going to be EASY...
"So, not to completely change the subject or anything," you say ironically, while lifting a bit of rice from your bowl, "but I did offer you ladies an explanation of what I meant when I said I have a tendency to overdo things."
As one, Lady Takara and Lady Akemi look at you, then down at Akemi's spectral meal, and then back at you.
"Case in point," you admit. "And of course, you're both already aware of how I managed to accidentally summon Lady Tamamo."
Takara shivers. "Yes, Akemi gave me the details of that particular... event, at least as she knew them. She mentioned that a foreign goddess was involved on your behalf?"
That leads you into a brief discussion about the Golden Goddesses, their general roles, and some of the things they've gotten up to involving this world's deities - in particular, the members of the Japanese pantheon.
...Din damn it, this counts as sharing gossip, doesn't it?
In any case, the ladies are amused and impressed to hear that Din evidently beat Susanoo in a dance contest.
He'd have done better if he hadn't already had a few. I still would have won, though.
They're also amused when you tell them that Nayru drank Tsukuyomi under the table, although there's a touch of vindictiveness to their smiles. Evidently the Moon God is not terribly popular, at least with this small family.
He did come across as the unpleasant sort.
When you get around to admitting that Farore and Amaterasu disappeared together for a week, and that the first thing the sun goddess did upon returning to the public eye was to punch out her husband, Lady Akemi's reaction is a scandalized blush.
Oh, for Our sakes, woman. Did you never have a girls' night out?
Lady Takara, on the other hand, just about falls out of her chair, howling with laughter.
See, THAT'S the proper reaction.
"S-s-so it's not just you?" the kitsune stammers gleefully. "You... heh... get it from your goddesses?"
Shifting back to the topic at hand, you recount a few of your other exploits where you went overboard - either in the eyes of others, or by your own admission.
The entire business with the Familiar Binding Ritual immediately springs to mind. Creating a functional bond didn't require anything like the lengths you went to in collecting reagents and making "improvements" to the ritual; even accounting for your previous friendship with Briar, and the desire to make the ceremony special because of it, you probably could have established an acceptable bond with much simpler materials in general, and one significant sacrifice.
Merely "acceptable" was simply not good enough to your mind.
Takara and Akemi seem to find this admission on your part rather sweet.
You hasten to your next example, which was your participation in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Having a first-time competitor not only place, but take the title spot in their age bracket, isn't automatically an example of that person overdoing their efforts, of course but the way you did it? The more-than-human opponents you faced, even in the preliminaries? The methods you used? Everything that happened OUT of the ring, and later on in the tournament, besides?
Yeah, that definitely counts.
Your account of the event leaves Lady Akemi blinking in surprise, while Lady Takara muses that maybe she ought to start attending the tournament. Martial arts aren't normally her thing, but if there's THAT much going on behind the scenes...
Another example of your tendency to overdo things that readily comes to mind is the time you set out to purify Uncle Rory's taxidermy collection, and attracted a hellhound with your use of cleansing magic.
In hindsight, you could and probably SHOULD have had Briar put the dog to sleep, or let your father and uncle try to cow it - they WERE armed at the time, and by his own admission, Runt was a coward - but being a natural follower of Din, you opted to throw your Power into the ring to put the mutt in his place.
You succeeded, but in the process, you accidentally overloaded the purification ritual you had going, burning - and bleaching - the demon-taint out of a portion of Rory's collection, while also making the entire demonic population of the Hellmouth give a collective flinch.
You pause at this point, silently pondering if you should check on whether or not that ghoul is still hanging around spying on the cabin - and, if it turns out to have left, if anything has taken its place. You don't need to use the cabin for a spell-casting haven anymore, now that you've got Ambrose's wards on your house AND your Mirror Hideaway in the basement, but the idea of something actively monitoring your family's property still does not appeal.
Nothing has come of the observation, as far as you're aware, but if it's still going on, steps may need to be taken.
As for the ladies, Akemi is politely puzzled as to what a Hellmouth is and represents. Takara explains it to her - prompting an expression of considerable distaste - while giving you thoughtful glances.
Would you like to keep discussing your tendency to overdo things, or do you feel that you've made your point, and can move on to something else? Based on the rate at which the conjured food has been disappearing, you could probably manage one more round of conversation before the meal ends by default.
You consider Lady Takara's question.
While there is a slight temptation to bla- er, uh, credit the Goddesses for your... enthusiastic nature, honesty compels you to admit the truth.
"No," you tell her, "I had this habit before I ever started praying to the Goddesses. It's just that I was less powerful then, so the consequences were less obvious. And I can't really blame anyone else for it, either. My parents are pretty laid-back, all things considered, and Briar's usually the one trying to keep me from going overboard."
"Emphasis on 'trying,'" your partner sighs.
"The same goes for my martial arts master," you continue. "And he's had more influence on me than anybody outside the immediate family."
You do not, of course, mention Ganondorf.
Gained Honest C (Plus)
You are very curious about what, exactly, Lady Takara is or will be teaching Mai, but considering how the topic of the girl's family and their reactions to her so clearly dismayed the kitsune, you decide to leave it alone for now.
After all, if Takara is only being allowed to see Mai at the Hakuba Shrine, odds are you'll run into them there at some point, or at least be in a position to hear things from the priests.
Assuming you keep visiting, which at this point, you have every intention of doing, provided you can find the time going forward. It's going to be problematic, once autumn sets in and the sun starts going down earlier...
In any case, having established your personal tendency to overdo things as the topic of lunch conversation, you opt to stick with it for the rest of the meal.
This leads you into talking about Kahlua's birthday party, and what you got her for a present. Even in monstrous circles, most people would not have picked out something like war-gauntlets for a young girl's ninth birthday - and you have empirical evidence of that - but you went a couple of steps above and beyond, first by making the things yourself, then by using part of the remains of a defeated enemy, and finally, by summoning an Heroic Spirit for tips on metalworking.
This series of admissions has both ladies STARING at you, and that's before you even admit to calling up Archer for advice. In fact, that part doesn't really seem to register to either of them.
"You gave a vampire girl your own age practical weapons, made out of the body of an enemy you killed yourself, as a birthday gift," Takara says slowly.
"Technically, I didn't 'kill' it," you correct. "It was a kind of ghost wearing, or maybe possessing a suit of armor."
"But you did defeat it in single combat," the kitsune presses.
Well, Briar WAS there and lending what support she could, but since she was acting as your familiar - even then, when it was unofficial - she basically counts as you in this context. So...
"Basically, yes," you admit.
"...do you do this for all your friends?" Lady Akemi asks carefully. "Or is Miss Shuzen a... special exception?"
You consider that.
Kahlua IS the first person you ever made a gift for, but she's also the first out-of-town friend to invite you to her birthday. Not to mention that a good part of the reason why you went to such effort to make her gift special was because her family holds a much higher social and financial status than most of your friends, save for the Drakes.
On the other hand, now that you've set that particular bar of gift-giving, there's going to be some level of expectation for you to match it in the future. Not that most of your friends are going to WANT gifts made from things you've hunted down, killed, and rendered into new and interesting shapes, but SOME of them probably would - you think Sokka, at least, would really appreciate that sort of thing - and even the ones that don't would hope to receive presents that show a certain level of personal effort was involved in the getting.
Unless, as Lady Akemi noted, Kahlua is a special case.
Which is it?
While there is a certain impulse to classify your relationship with Kahlua as a special case, if pressed on the matter, you would have to admit that you don't consider the two of you to be THAT close as yet.
Yes, you gave her a rather impressive birthday present, which apparently had... implications you weren't wholly aware of. And yes, you've kind of seen into her soul, and vice-versa, which is a VERY significant level of intimacy. And YES, your stance on the relationship is entirely YOUR perspective of how things are, and may or may not match up to Kahlua's opinion on the matter.
Still, the point must be made that you've known the elder Shuzen sister for less than half a year - and in that time, you could count the occasions where the two of you have met in person on a single hand, with fingers to spare: the World Tournament; and Kahlua's birthday party. That's it.
A lot happened during those two events, giving you a level of insight into the vampire princess's personality, thoughts, and feelings that you wouldn't have obtained under different circumstances - at least not in such a short span of time - and you've gleaned a few more details from your ongoing correspondence.
For all of that, though, the fact remains that you don't know Kahlua much better than you do, say, Altria. If anything, you may actually have a better grasp on the younger Drake daughter's character and motivations, if only by dint of your shared humanity making certain modes of thought and action a given, rather than an informed assumption.
And even then, you don't know either girl nearly as well as you do Briar, Cordelia, Amy, or Larry. At the very least, you can't claim to be closer to Kahlua or Altria than you are to Briar and Cordy.
Trusting a person in a fight is one thing, but trusting them in your day-to-day life is another - and trusting them with your deepest personal secrets, another thing again.
Of all your acquaintances, Briar alone has your COMPLETE trust, though Lu-sensei and Ambrose aren't too far behind her, with your teacher obviously the closer; Ambrose needs a LOT of work before you'd trust him in your regular life.
Of those your age, Cordelia, Kahlua, and Altria are arguably closest to having a similar level of trust, if in different areas - and you certainly wouldn't say you're closer to Kahlua than you are to Cordy.
And so you admit to Lady Takara and Lady Akemi that you do intend to put a similar level of thought and effort into your gift-giving among close friends in the future, though you likely won't go to the length of hunting things down so you can process their body parts into presents. That really wasn't INTENTIONAL with the Princess Gauntlets, it's just that you needed a source of good steel for the gift you had in mind to give Kahlua, and the Guardian's Gauntlets were what you had to work with.
Once again, you've said something that's left the ladies staring at you.
Then Akemi turns to her mother. "Clueless, or just young?"
"The latter, I think," the nine-tails replies.
"Ah. So, a natural, then?"
"I would say so."
"In other words, doomed?"
Takara grins like the fox she is. "Oh my, yes."
Her daughter's spirit sighs. "And I am going to miss it."
"Talk to Lady Tamamo, with my blessing," Takara says promptly.
And now Akemi is smiling in a way which makes it clear that, adopted human or no, she IS a kitsune's daughter.
"Briar," you say flatly, "stop laughing and tell me what's going on."
"Nope!" your partner gasps between giggles.
You have a bad feeling that you know what the females in the room find so amusing, but it's clear that none of them are going to spoil their entertainment by talking, and your only other recourse for confirmation would be to delve into Ganondorf's memories, which is something you don't want to do.
For once, it's NOT the possibility of giving up a little more of yourself to your past life that is your primary concern. No, you're afraid that the feeling of encroaching doom from the darker corners of your soul has nothing to do with Demon Kings or dying curses, and is instead merely a subconscious admission that whatever Ganondorf has to say on this matter involving girls, friendships, and gift-giving will merely reinforce your own nascent fears.
On that worrying note, the meal comes to an end.
From there, all that's left for this meeting is for you to send Lady Akemi back to the afterlife. It's a far simpler matter than the original summoning, requiring no rituals or offerings or even any magical exertion on your part. All you need to do is acknowledge that the spirit has fulfilled the contract between the two of you, and the magic holding her in this world will end, instantly returning her to her proper place in the afterlife.
Although it's clear that there is some reluctance on the part of both mother and daughter to separate again, there's also the unspoken admission that this is the right and necessary thing to do. For your part, what you've learned from Arisawa Akkiko about the local state of affairs in the afterlife makes you inclined to agree that Lady Akemi should go back, for her own safety and peace of mind as much as any other reason.
You don't doubt that Lady Takara could defend her adopted daughter's soul from a few Hollows, but there's always the fleeting chance that something will slip past even the strongest and most watchful guardian. And then too, she has Mai's safety to think about.
You have no idea how the Shinigami would react to a soul being pulled out of the afterlife and kept on Earth, save that whatever form their reaction might take, it would involve more heat than you want to deal with right now.
So, keeping in mind that Lady Akemi IS going back to the afterlife, is there anything else you want to say to her and/or Lady Takara, before this meeting ends?
You have an idea.
"Before I send you back, Lady Akemi," you say, "I was wondering something."
"Yes?"
"If the two of you" - you look from Akemi to Takara, and back - "were interested in... keeping in touch...? I know a Postman that might help."
"Explain," Takara says shortly.
You can do better than that.
Not wanting to make the ladies wait with a full-length calling ritual, you instead cast a relatively simple Spell of Summoning, and with a burst of showmanship, declare, "I summon you - POSTMAN!"
Briar facepalms.
There is a burst of light and smoke, and the Postman appears, in all his radiant running-suit clad, hat-wearing, banner-waving glory.
"Huh," the celestial says, looking down at himself and patting his chest. "This is different from usual... hello, young sir! How can Iiiiyaiyaiyaiyaiyai!"
Having noticed Lady Takara, the Postman LEAPS away from his point of arrival, putting you between him and the kitsune, while flailing his arms about over your head in something that might be meant to be a display of martial arts skill, but is mostly just wild flailing.
"Keaton!" he exclaims. "Away, terrible fox! You'll never get my letters!"
...
Slowly, Lady Takara smiles.
"You say that with such resolve," the fox-woman muses, "it makes me wonder what you must be carrying..."
Her ears and tail flick in a manner that reminds you of a cat, one that's just seen something that might be worth getting up from a comfortable nap to chase.
Apparently recognizing the look, the Postman flinches.
Okay, this is not quite what you had in mind.
Clearing your throat and drawing the attention of the adults back to you - and away from each other - you make with the introductions and an explanation.
Even with the extra mana you put into it, the Spell to Summon Monsters doesn't last more than a few minutes. But that's all you really need to float the idea of having the Postman carry correspondence between Takara and Akemi.
The ladies are all for this idea, and Takara has enough actual gold stashed away to meet the Postman's price without blinking. The Postman is... less enthusiastic about it, but he IS getting the price he asked for, and it's a fair one, at least compared to what he's asking you for the letters he delivers on your behalf.
Also, Takara agreed to leave his deliveries alone. He was very insistent about getting that in the agreement.
You note that it doesn't appear to occur to the Postman to get AKEMI'S agreement not to mess with the mail, which strikes you as a bit of an oversight. The woman was all quiet smiles and demure, downcast glances whenever the Postman's attention was directed at her, but when he looked away - blushing and adjusting his hat, you note - her gaze went straight to his mailbag.
Do you want to say anything about that?
You feel compelled to speak up, and warn the Postman to get Lady Akemi's agreement not to meddle with his deliveries before finalizing any agreements.
The lady in question gives you a pouty look, as does her mother.
"Spoilsport," Takara murmurs.
"Sorry, ladies," you say, without any real sense of apology, "but I've known the Postman longer than I've known either of you. Not only do we have shared history, we follow the same Goddesses."
"Indeed we do," the Postman smiles.
"Besides, some of that mail he's going to be carrying when he meets either of you is likely to be mine and my friends'."
To this, the two women can only nod, silently conceding the point.
After all, you do have a right to protect what's yours, as well as an obligation to look out for those you call friends.
An agreement is reached without further attempts at trickery, or at least, none that you notice. Takara being a nine-tailed fox, you cannot and will not say with one hundred percent certainty that you caught EVERY possible way that she could derive some amusement from this, but you're eighty percent confident that her arrangement with the Postman is made in good faith.
With that done, the Postman tips his hat and disappears, the Spell of Summoning lapsing.
As there's nothing else that you feel needs discussion here and now, you send Lady Akemi on her way with a quiet thanks for her assistance, and well-wishes for a pleasant rest.
She, in turn, thanks you again for allowing her this opportunity to aid and reconnect with her mother, and then - with one last smile for Takara - vanishes back into the afterlife.
The kitsune stands there, silent and still, gazing at the empty space that was just occupied by her daughter's spirit.
Then she, too, is gone, vanishing between one moment and the next. In the wake of her departure, the house around you feels empty in a way it didn't when you first arrived.
You poke around with your senses, but as far as you can tell, nothing has changed.
Maybe it's just the moment getting to you?
Regardless, since Takara has left and didn't say anything to discourage your presence in her former home, you go ahead and investigate the basement and the attic for signs of ward-work.
You don't learn quite as much as you might have hoped, but that's because your own grasp of Abjuration Magic - the basis of all wards - is so advanced already. It doesn't help that much of the warding is, as you expected, quite literally built into the structure of the house. In fact, when you take a mental step back and look at the design of the house, you realize that the entire building is, to some extent, a ward unto itself.
Architectural magic, if you will.
While you're not unused to thinking of magic items being built on that scale - even if most of them go in the opposite direction entirely - your understanding of mundane architecture and feng shui principles aren't nearly developed enough to grasp everything that went into making this house what it was.
But you do learn a bit.
Gained Feng Shui E (Plus)
Deciding that you've learned all you can from Takara and Mai's abandoned house, you leave, remembering to close and lock the door behind you.
You've still got some time before you have to head home, so you decide to stop by Gen's and see how business is going.
As it turns out, your senior partner has made a couple of sales involving goods you either acquired or magically-appraised for him. Nothing huge, but it's more money in your pocket, so to speak.
Gained $40 of Unspent Credit at Gen's
You don't really have the time for a session of calling up and bargaining with extraplanar beings right now, so instead, you pass twenty minutes or so going over more of the old merchant's extensive stockpile.
While you're at Gen's, is there anything you'd like to spend some of your credit on, assuming he's got it in stock? Or perhaps an order you'd like to place? Or might you be inclined to sell him one of the magical reagents you've picked up, and not yet used?
As you appraise some of Gen's wares, you engage him in a bit of good old-fashioned haggling, revealing a few of the items that have been taking up space in your dimensional pocket for his assessment.
First off the docket, so to speak, are those empty Clay Bottles that used to contain doses of Spring Dew and Smoke Water. Gen is rather surprised to see that you bothered to keep the containers; most of his clients don't, and none have ever brought them back to him.
Once you've assured your partner that you kept the Bottles in your pocket the entire time you had them, except for the moments where you drank their contents, and thus shielded them against supernatural contamination, Gen is willing to take them off your hands for $5 apiece, either in cash (though it would be paid with yen rather than dollars) or store credit. He also agrees to pay you in kind for any future returns of this nature, so long as the bottles are intact and mystically clean.
The next item you bring out is the Cold Lava Club you picked up in Hawaii. Your suspicion that it wouldn't be worth very much turns out to be accurate, as Gen has no clients who'd be interested in such a crude stone weapon. If it were a knife, now, the obsidian that makes up part of the Club would find some interested buyers.
How convenient, then, that you know the Spell of Fabrication and have some skill at magical craftsmanship, moreso when it comes to blades. There isn't time for you to perform the ritual just now, but it would be no trouble at all to do the work after you've returned home for dinner, and then swing back by Gen's to drop off your craftwork, before going on to your meeting at the Hakuba Shrine.
Gen has a few examples of Obsidian Ritual Knives in stock, with prices ranging from one to five hundred dollars, American, depending on the craftsmanship. There's only six of them in total, and based on their size and the size of the Cold Lava Club, you figure you could Fabricate between two and four more, depending on just how much actual obsidian there is in the rock.
The last item you decide to offer up for inspection is the Xenolith that you also acquired in Hawaii. Once again, your private estimation of an item's worth turns out to be pretty accurate; Gen is willing to pay you $200 on the spot for it, though as with the Clay Bottles, it'll have to be yen or store credit.
Following your bout of trade negotiations, you turn your attention to Gen's stock once again, this time with an eye towards items of interest, aside from the usual - if diminished - collection of mana potions. There were some books here in the past that looked interesting, but which you didn't or couldn't purchase for various reasons...
As it turns out, the book written by Shang Tsung is no longer in stock. When asked, Gen mentions that he sold it to a gentleman who has an eye for unusual books, and comes in once or twice a year to see if there's anything available.
You also don't find any scrolls or other writings dealing with the School of Illusion Magic, save for a single primer meant for beginning students.
You're not very good at Illusion Magic, but you're not a beginner, either. Leafing through the pages of the small booklet tells you that it holds nothing of value for you.
A search for books on psychic matters also returns nothing of use. The only book Gen currently has in stock which covers that topic is that same copy of Awakening the Third Eye you bought, read, and returned to him a while back.
As for your other interests, you do find a few books that claim to offer insights into traditional medicines, feng shui, spiritual awakening, and related topics, but they all seem to be of the same grade as Mistress Ching's... less-than-stellar work.
That Necromancer's Diary is still available, though, so that's... something.
Considering the number of potions you've obtained from Gen in the past, the fresh batch you mean to purchase today, and the strong likelihood that you're going to pick up more magical restoratives from him in the future, it only makes sense to return the bottles for a small fee.
And while there is something to be said for additional in-store credit - particularly when it involves the one type of product that you've been consistently buying from the old man - the versatility of actual currency holds a greater appeal.
Now, and in the future, Gen will pay you the equivalent of five dollars American, in yen, for every Empty Clay Bottle you return to him in good order.
Your partner also muses about the practicality of encouraging his other clients to take up a similar practice as the one you've just started. It's not like he takes a huge loss whenever he has to order a new batch of Clay Bottles, but a small expense is still an expense, especially when he has to keep paying it over and over.
"Something to think about," he admits.
Sold Empty Clay Bottles (x3)
Gained $15 in yen
Grin grins at your offer. "I was hoping you'd say something like that!"
He also notes that the payment you'll receive for the knives will naturally depend on their quality, and how much of a demand there is.
You could use the Spell of Masterwork Transformation on the knives you create to improve their apparent craftsmanship, and thus their asking price. It would add an hour to the production time, per blade, and that means you'd have to stop by Gen's tomorrow instead of later today, but that much is no real difficulty for either of you.
Gen does note, however, that while high-quality Obsidian Knives would sell for more, they wouldn't sell as FAST. The market for ritual blades isn't huge, and the demand for masterwork blades is smaller still - not every practitioner can afford such works, and even among those who can pay, there are plenty who simply don't want to.
In short, a full set of masterwork Obsidian Knives could end up sitting on Gen's shelf for quite some time before they got sold. Less-expensive blades will sell faster.
Something to keep in mind when you get down to fabricating the ritual tools.
As with the Clay Bottles, you're tempted to sell the Xenolith to Gen for cash. However, since this is a one-time sale, and you intend to do some buying before you leave the store, you decide to stick with credit, effectively trading the shiny cluster of crystals for a portion of your order.
Sold Xenolith
Gained $200 in store credit
With your purchasing power improved, you start picking your purchases off the shelves.
Seeing as how one book you were interested in was already bought, your first purchase is the Necromancer's Diary that's been sitting in the store since your first visit.
Next, you buy both of Gen's remaining bottles of Spring Dew.
And then you have to stop and think carefully.
Part of you wants to add one of Gen's Smoke Water potions to your purchases, but doing so will wipe out all the credit you've earned with Gen since walking in his door today, leaving you with only the $20 credit you had previously - or rather, with $5 in credit, and $15 in yen.
Another part of you wants to ask Gen if he can acquire another copy of Shang Tsung's book, "Flawless Victory," but seeing as how your partner would have to pay the normal price to do so, he'd likely pass the cost on to you - and the book was going for over thirty dollars, which means you couldn't afford it and the Smoke Water together.
You're also tempted to pick up the New Age Spiritualism books, if only for a few likely laughs and pointers on what NOT to do. You could buy all of them and the Smoke Water, at the cost of wiping out your store credit and yen, or you could buy them and order Shang Tsung's book, but once again, you can't do both.
Gained Necromancer's Diary
Gained Spring Dew x2
Spent $105 of Store Credit at Gen's
Finally - and perhaps because you've been trying to get an in for trading with the Church of Hyrule, to frustratingly little result - you find yourself pondering the possibility of selling conjured spices through Gen's. A look around the store shows that he does have a few brands of different spices for sale, but your hopes of using this as an outlet for something like conjured saffron are dashed. All of the spices Gen has in stock are sealed under glass, plastic, or both, with numerous signs of authentication and approval.
The spices, you could conjure. Likewise for the glass containers, maybe the plastic - it depends on how complex the stuff actually is - and the physical mediums of the seals. But the legal authority behind those marks isn't something you can fake. You'd be breaking the law, and there would be consequences, of which the mundane legal ones would likely be the least of your worries.
Ganondorf was never a smuggler, but he broke all kinds of laws, quite often by using magic.
That's the kind of behavior you've been trying to avoid emulating.
On second thought, you have enough restoratives for the time being.
You go ahead and add the collection of books on New Age Spiritualism to your shopping basket, and while Gen is tallying everything up, you inquire about the possibility of ordering a copy of Shang Tsung's book, "Flawless Victory."
The merchant nods. "I can certainly put an order in with my usual suppliers. It might take a few weeks or even a few months before a copy turns up, though."
Inconvenient, but not unexpected. You tell Gen to go ahead and make the order, and to add $35 to your bill to cover the cost.
He does so cheerfully.
Gained New Age Spiritualism Books (x4)
Gained Flawless Victory Mail Order
Spent $55 in store credit
That more or less concludes your business for the day, and so you bid your partner farewell, head outside and around the back of the building, and make with the teleportation magic.
Your trip home is once again uneventful, glimpses of the green entity in the Astral Plane and all. When you reach your house, you find that your mother is still at work, and will be until later in the evening, so your father takes you and Zelda out for dinner - an event rare enough to be worth mentioning, even if you're only going to the local fried chicken place.
Over dinner, you quietly inform your father of your plan to briefly return to Japan. Given the later hour involved, he asks why, and you explain that you've agreed to help some people you know who are currently stuck in a war zone in a different part of the world to get out and come back home. You make a point of emphasizing that you yourself are not going anywhere near said area of conflict, you're just using magic to call up someone who can go there in your stead and return your Japanese compatriots to their homeland.
Thunderbird's name comes up in the conversation, and your father starts snickering. Something about "international rescue?"
Anyway, you have his permission to go, as long as you're home before dark - and preferably, before your mother gets back from work.
You have no problem agreeing to that.
As you have some time to kill before you're expected for the summoning at the Hakuba Shrine, you duck into the basement on your return to the house, heading into your Mirror Hideaway to do a little magical crafting. Since you have the Cold Lava Club on your person, it only takes a few minutes to transmute the obsidian from its unprocessed form into the shape of... two knives.
Huh. Looks like there was less of the glassy black mineral than you were hoping.
Cold Lava Club becomes Cold Stone Club
Gained Obsidian Knives (x2)
Still, that disappointment aside, the additional skill-boosting spells you cast before making the crafting attempt have ensured that the basic quality of the two blades is just fine.
Gained Knowledge (Swords) E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Stoneworking E (Plus)
There isn't time enough to improve both Obsidian Knives before you have to leave for your return trip to Japan, but if you wanted to, you could cast the Spell of Masterwork Transformation on one of them. Or you could just leave them both as-is.
You decide that, since you have only two Obsidian Knives, you might as well leave one as-is, so that it will be more likely to sell soon, while buffing up the second blade so that it fetches a better price, even if takes longer for Gen to make the sale.
That choice made, you proceed with casting the Spell of Masterwork Transformation. You've used this particular magic on a number of previous occasions, and each time, you've had to sacrifice some of the raw material you were working with to fuel the spell. You don't think you have enough obsidian left to do that, and you don't care to sacrifice one of your newly-crafted knives - assuming it would be valuable enough to qualify - so instead you have to devote additional mana to the spell, raising it from a modest second-tier ritual to a much more significant-spell.
Over the course of the next hour, energy flows into the Obsidian Knife, honing its edge, altering its balance, and polishing the facets of the black stone blade until they gleam in the faint light of the Mirror Plane.
And then the work is done.
Obsidian Knife becomes Masterwork Obsidian Knife
Gained Knowledge (Crafts) E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
You follow up the ritual with a focused casting of the Spell to Dispel Magic, shaped to disperse as much of your magical signature from the newly enhanced ritual knife as possible. Then you tuck it away alongside its more ordinary counterpart, leave your extra-dimensional spellcasting chamber, and go upstairs to spend a little time with Zelda and Moblin.
Perhaps half an hour later, you leave the house and make your way out of Sunnydale once again. In short order, you've returned to Gen's and dropped off the fruits of your magical stoneworking labors; he is most pleased, and immediately assigns a pricetag of $100 to the simpler blade. Gen studies the masterwork knife for a time, testing its heft and balance in a surprising show of natural dexterity and practiced skill, before nodding and revealing the price he expects it to bring.
Obsidian Knife and Masterwork Obsidian Knife given to Gen for sale
Even though you won't actually be paid until one or both of the ritual blades has sold, you're still quite satisfied with your work.
Seeing the time, you excuse yourself from Gen's shop for the second time today, and teleport back to the Hakuba Shrine. Ms. Kanna and Miss Suzuka are both present, as expected, but you're a little surprised to see that Ms. Atsuko has joined them.
Didn't Kanna say her mother-in-law had little patience for magic?
...then again, you DID help her husband out with magic earlier, and you ARE about to send a rescue party to fetch her son and grandson from a warzone.
As soon as it's polite to do so, you relocate to the back of the shrine and begin recreating the summoning circle you previously used to call up Thunderbird and Ro. In light of the clear difficulty this morning's circle was having holding Farore's chosen messenger, you are careful to leave out NONE of the steps you used while casting that calling spell.
You also make a point of summoning Ro first this time.
He appreciates the warning.
As you finish your second summoning spell, everybody present covers their ears - INCLUDING the firebird and Atsuko. The latter does give the rest of you a look like you're a bunch of lunatics, but between the quiet encouragement of her daughter-in-law and the clear example of the supernatural entity already present, she follows suit.
And just in time.
"I RETURN!"
One question: After sending Thunderbird and Ro on their way, are you going to cast that Spell of Scrying to watch what happens on the other end?
Since Thunderbird and Ro have already been briefed on their mission, you don't have to recap everything again.
But as Farore's agent proclaims, "LET IT- ahem. Let it not be said of Thunderbird that he is ungracious towards his hosts. Greetings, madam," he says, offering a formal inclination of his feathered head to Atsuko. "As thou may have gathered, I am called Thunderbird. Wouldst I be correct in presuming that thou art also of the Hakuba lineage?"
"You would," Atsuko manages to say. "My name is Hakuba Atsuko, and if I understand everything correctly, you're about to go haul my son and grandson out of a difficult spot." She pauses, and adds, "Thank you for that."
"Thou are most welcome, Lady Atsuko. Though, speaking of which..." The towering, hovering figure turns to Ro. "Art thou prepared, honored kinsman?"
"I am, great one," the firebird replies.
"Then let us not delay."
Thunderbird extends his right talon, and Ro hops into the air, gracefully maneuvering to perch on the celestial's hand.
With a surge of mana, Thunderbird proclaims, "WE GO!"
*FLASH!*
*BOOM!*
And the pair of them are gone.
Well, at least he remembered to tone it down for you mere mortals, and fairies.
You immediately start casting your scrying globe spell, because you really want to see what happens when Thunderbird meets... well, everyone at that little Romanian church.
In part, it's because you want to see the looks on their faces, but there's also the concern about the consequences of letting such a powerful agent of the Golden Goddesses roam the planet.
The Postman was one thing. Despite being a celestial, he's not that much more powerful than a normal human being, and you've both been taking measures to ensure that his presence remained hidden from all those that would - for whatever reason - object to having a divine messenger running around.
Thunderbird is on an entirely different level, and his presence is in no way concealed. You honestly doubt that any of your typical aura-disguising tricks would WORK on the guy, even if he allowed you to use them - and if you're being completely honest with yourself, you don't think that he would.
No, he really wouldn't.
"Subtle," Thunderbird is NOT.
No, he really isn't.
Your magic takes effect, the scrying globe forms, and the grounds of the church appear before you once again. As planned, dawn is just breaking over the area, and you have to say, the addition of sunlight has a pronounced effect on the area.
The stone wall that appeared half-ruined in the dark is shown to be quite a bit better maintained - old and weathered, certainly, but still loved and preserved. Statues that were eerie and just a little menacing by moonlight are revealed as figures of beauty, mourning, remembrance, and hope. The church itself exposes unexpected artistry, the colors of its modest stained glass windows - previously bleached to shades of white, grey, and black under the moon's pale light - now shine in the light of the day-star as it rises over the mountains. Now that you know the Light Elementals are there, you can faintly sense their presence through your spell, scattered about the grounds and growing a little stronger as they bask in the radiance of the new dawn. The greater guardian is there as well, standing just within the front gate, while Thunderbird and Ro...
Wait, what?
...are nowhere in sight.
Oh, for Our sakes, where is...
Wait, no, there they are.
...oh, good grief.
Flying in from the east, as if emerging from the rising sun.
Thunderbird has a proper sense of drama, anyway.
Soaring grandly on wings of magic as much as on his own wide-spread pinions, Thunderbird leads Ro - also in flight - down from the sunlit sky to a graceful landing on the rough old road before the church. Again, he holds up a hand for the smaller avian being to use as a perch, and once Ro has settled, both of them formally bow to the hooded spirit.
Here we go.
"HAIL TO THEE, O GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD," Thunderbird proclaims in his usual tone. "I AM THUNDERBIRD, SERVANT OF MY LADY FARORE, GREEN LADY OF COURAGE, MISTRESS OF THE LIVING WOODS, THE LAUGHING WINDS, AND THE SHADOWS THAT LINGER. MINE COMPANION IS RO, AN HONORABLE HEALER AND SCION OF THE NOBLE FIREBIRD CLAN."
There is a pause, and then:
"HAIL TO THEE, MIGHTY THUNDERBIRD, AND HONORABLE RO," the angel responds. "I AM KARAEL, BANISHER OF DEMONS AND SERVANT OF MY LORD YHWH, EL ELYON, WHOSE HOUSE IN THIS SORROWFUL AND BENIGHTED LAND IT HAS BEEN MY TASK AND HONOR TO GUARD AGAINST THE DARKNESS."
Bwahahahaha!
...oh, Din. Not ANOTHER one.
I can't deal with this.
You... you think you're going to...
Steeling yourself against the dramatic tone, the flowery language, the... honestly stunning volume and pure absurdity... you keep the scrying spell going.
Movement within the globe catches your eye, and you look past the angel to where the door of the church has just opened, revealing Miss Akasha's armored form, and behind her, Amelia's grandfather Adrian. You can't quite make out the gentleman's expression with Miss Akasha in the way, but HER face is an open book to you.
It says: What. The. Hell?
"WHAT PURPOSE OF YOUR LADY IS IT, THAT BRINGS YOU TO THE DOOR OF THIS, MY LORD'S HOUSE ON EARTH, ON THIS DAY?" Karael continues.
No. Really. What. The. Hell?
"MINE COMPANION HAS COME TO OFFER HIS SKILLS OF HEALING TO THOSE TO WHOM YOU AND YOUR LORD HAVE SO GRACIOUSLY GRANTED SHELTER, SHOULD THEY BE IN NEED AND WILLING TO ACCEPT HIS AID," Thunderbird replies.
Ro, meanwhile, appears to have noticed the small audience gathering in the church doorway - a couple of indistinct figures have come up alongside Mr. Reinhart - and in response to their presence, has tucked his head under one wing.
You get the impression that he's performing the avian equivalent of a facepalm.
"I MYSELF HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH RETURNING THE HONORABLE SCIONS OF THE PRIESTLY LINE OF HAKUBA TO THEIR HOME," Thunderbird continues. "THEY HAVE BEEN STEADFAST ALLIES OF ONE FAVORED BY MY LADY AND HER SHINING SISTERS, AND HE WOULD SEE THEM SAFELY RETURNED TO THEIR OWN DOMAIN, WITHOUT DELAY. ANY OF THEIR COMPANIONS WHO WOULD NOT OBJECT TO ACCOMPANYING THEM ARE ALSO WELCOME."
"A HUMBLE TASK, FOR ONE OF THY STATURE," Karael notes.
"HUMBLE OR GRAND, IT IS A TASK GIVEN TO ME BY MY LADY, AND AS SUCH, I SHALL DEVOTE ALL MINE EFFORTS TO ITS COMPLETION."
"A PRAISEWORTHY STANCE," Karael affirms. "LET IT NOT BE SAID THAT KARAEL WOULD INTERFERE WITH ANOTHER'S PERFORMANCE OF THEIR APPOINTED DUTIES. BE THOU BOTH WELCOME IN THIS, THE HOUSE OF MY LORD, O MIGHTY THUNDERBIRD AND HONORABLE RO. IN HIS NAME, I INVITE THEE IN."
Thunderbird nods, slowly and with great formality. "IN FARORE'S NAME, I THANK THEE MOST KINDLY FOR THINE INVITATION, AND SHALL ENDEAVOR TO BE A MOST CONSIDERATE GUEST IN THIS, THE HOUSE OF THY LORD."
"As shall I, O Messenger," Ro says, recovering enough from his embarrassment over this entire situation to execute an avian bow, wings spreading out for both balance and show as he inclines his head.
Karael returns the respectful acknowledgments, and then vanishes from sight.
Thunderbird hovers lower until his robe is whispering along the ground, ducks his head, and floats through the stone archway. Even so, the feathers of his elaborate headdress are briefly bent back by their passage through the gate.
Farore's messenger takes a moment on the other side of the arch to resume his usual elevation and straighten his attire out, then turns his attention to Akasha, Adrian, and the others who have joined them.
"GREETINGS TO THEE, LADY BLOODRIVER AND LORD TEPES," Thunderbird booms as he floats forward. "AND TO THINE BRAVE COMPANIONS, AS WELL. AS AGREED, MINE HONORED KINSMAN AND I COME ON BEHALF OF OUR LADY, AT THE BEST OF THE YOUNG SCION OF POWER, TO OFFER OUR ASSISTANCE."
"...thank you?" someone in the group manages.
"THOU ART MOST WELCOME."
Gained Oratory E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Thunder Resistance E (Plus)
Everyone seems a little too stunned by Thunderbird's presence - and speech - to cause any fuss. In short order, they have withdrawn into the church, where Ro looks over the assembled group.
Miss Akasha and Adrian Tepes - and isn't THAT an interesting name? - are both either unharmed, or perhaps more accurately, have already healed any injuries thanks to their supernatural lineage. The witch you saw last night, a Ms. Charlotte Aulin, is also free of harm.
Their eight companions, however, have a rather extensive list of injuries shared between them. Ginta's acid burns and Ichirou's broken arm aren't the worst of it, and while no one's actually dying, there were a few members of the party who were badly enough off to make moving them risky.
Ro has enough healing magic in him to get everyone stable for transport, though this comes at the cost of not having anything left to heal the two Hakubas.
They don't object to this, though.
Once the healing has concluded, everyone packs up their belongings, having heard Thunderbird's offer of travel - how could they not? - and apparently finding the prospect of traveling all the way to Japan to be entirely preferable to staying in Romania.
They form a circle, with Akasha and Adrian flanking Thunderbird - everyone else seems a little too awed to get that close to the celestial being, much less lay hands on him - and Farore's messenger gathers his power, making a brief, booming thanks to Karael and YHWH for their shelter, protection, and forbearance.
Then, with another, "WE GO!" the group disappears from the church, and reappears not ten feet away, the air around them surging with the residual magic of a mass teleport, performed at a level beyond even your skills.
"IT IS DONE," Thunderbird proclaims, as his traveling companions look around in the usual manner of those who have just been translocated across a vast distance, and a need a few seconds to adjust to the change in surroundings. "WITH THIS, YOUNG SCION, MY TASK IS AT AN END."
You bow. "Thank you, Thunderbird, and you as well, Ro, for your help today. And my thanks to the Goddesses, as well."
You're welcome!
"THOU ART MOST WELCOME, YOUNG SCION."
"Likewise, Young Master," Ro says.
"UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN, THEN. I GO!"
*FLASH*
*BOOM*
And both avian entities vanish.
Is there anything you urgently need or want to say to anyone at this point?
"So," you say, looking around at the new arrivals. "How would you all rate the services of THE MIGHTY THUNDERBIRD?"
You raise your voice in your best imitation of Farore's agent, but the result is, unfortunately, lacking; Thunderbird is just too much larger than you, with too much active magic behind his every action, for you to truly pull off that booming tone without resorting to magical means.
Despite that shortcoming, you do manage to make most of the crowd jump.
Lady Bloodriver just looks at you, entirely unimpressed.
"Please don't look at me like that, Miss Akasha," you say. "After all, you did agree to let me summon help, even though you knew I have a history with that particular magical discipline."
The Dark Lady maintains her stern gaze a moment longer, then sighs. "Honestly, Alex? I was prepared for your associate's... dramatics. What I WASN'T ready for was to hear the ANGEL responding to him in kind." She glances at Ms. Aulin.
"It was a new experience for me, as well," the witch admits. "Then again, I do believe this is the first time I've seen one of the Lord's angels making peaceful contact with the servant of another deity." She frowns, and adds, "I do have a rather biased history in that regard, though."
"Indeed," Amelia's grandfather agrees.
You take a few minutes after that to offer further magical healing to anyone that's still in need. Now that their previously most seriously injured allies are stable enough to be mobile, however, the majority of the party politely decline the offer.
Ginta and Ichirou, on the other hand, are quite happy to accept your help. A Spell to Cure Wounds accelerates the healing of Ginta's acid burns, although to prevent - or in this case, remove - the likelihood of scarring, you'll need to summon Ro to have a look. You were planning to stop by the shrine tomorrow anyway, and Ginta is content to wait a few hours for what works out to magical cosmetic surgery.
As for Ichirou's arm, a couple of castings of the Lesser Spell of Restoration take away the ache of the broken bone. His companions had already set the break properly, and your spell is designed to prevent complications like a bone healing crookedly, but Briar - after giving the arm a once-over and proclaiming it "basically healed" - suggests that he avoid using that arm for anything tonight, and join his father for another round of healing by Ro tomorrow. Just to be safe.
Gained First Aid E (Plus)
With that, you've accomplished all that you can for the time being, and decide that you should be on your way. You ask Miss Akasha to say hello to Kahlua and her sisters for you, then make your farewells and depart the Hakuba Shrine, returning home.
And as a bonus, you make it back with more than an hour to spare before your mother pulls into the driveway.
You spend a portion of the next day reading your newest purchases. As you'd expected, the books on New Age Spiritualism you picked up from Gen's are not exactly the works of great scholars; like Mistress Ching's "Awakening the Third Eye," they use an excessive amount of overly-dramatic mystical terminology that, in your magically-trained and supernaturally-experienced opinion, amounts to so much bunk.
That said, the books are like Mistress Ching's work in another manner, that being the presence of tidbits of actual useful information, hidden among all the nonsense. Some of it is beginner-level guidance on meditation, which benefits you nothing at this point. Some of it is similarly introductory material on feng shui, which actually IS helpful. There are also a few pointers on basic herbal remedies - teas, mostly - which Briar says wouldn't do you any harm, although she has her own doubts as to how beneficial they'd be.
Gained Herbalism F (Plus)
You don't find anything regarding alchemy or psychic powers, unless you count the instructions on tea-brewing and meditation - but then, you've only had time to read two of the books.
After lunch, your parents decide to take you, Zelda, and Moblin out to the park for part of the afternoon. Seeing as how you still had a few hours to kill before going back to Japan, and were getting a little tired of reading New Age gobbledegook, you go along without an argument.
This little family outing ends with you giving a sleepy Zelda a piggyback ride back to the house, where your mother puts her down for a nap. Checking the time, you see that it's now past three, which would make this a good time for you to head out.
And after letting your folks know your plans and getting their consent, you do so.
Upon your return to the Hakuba Shrine, you notice that the dark aura has diminished since yesterday - not tremendously so, but enough for it to be noticeable. Looks like Ginta and Ichirou started taking steps to clean up the aftermath of their ritual.
You're still wondering just what it was they did, but considering the toll it took on Koujiro and Miss Suzuka's evasiveness on the topic, you have the impression that it's too soon to ask - if indeed, you should ask at all.
Deciding to leave the matter alone for now, you proceed inside the shrine. Miss Suzuka greets you, much more cheerful than yesterday, and ushers you to the Hakuba residence to meet your "patients."
The timing of your arrival proves fortuitous, as you find Ginta and Ichirou in regular clothes for once, being fussed over by Kanna in preparation for a visit to the hospital to see Koujiro. Ginta is wearing a long-sleeved, high-necked shirt that doesn't completely hide the light scars left by the healed-over acid burns, and while Ichirou's arm is basically healed, his mother appears to have taken Briar's precautionary instructions for him to relax and rest the arm as an opportunity to mother him.
Both men are visibly relieved to see you.
Without preamble, you summon Ro to have a look at their mostly-healed injuries, and the firebird taps each priest once, working his equivalent of the Spell of Restoration. Unlike when he tried to remove the sword-scar on your side, Ro's healing of the Hakuba men goes without incident, with Ginta's already-faint acid scars disappearing completely.
Ichirou seems no different after the firebird has worked his magic, and is rather dismayed when his mother continues to insist that he should rest his arm and let her look after him.
How much of that is because he's a grown man, and how much of it is because Miss Suzuka is in the room, giggling softly into her sleeve, is open to question.
"Unless you'd rather have Suzuka take care of you?" Kanna offers innocently.
Both younger people immediately blush.
"That would- wait, I mean- er..."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly- I mean, I have to show Alex to the Watanabe house!" Suzuka exclaims.
"There's no rush," Briar says, grinning.
"No, no, we really should be on our way!" the miko insists, grabbing your arm and pulling you towards the door.
You could resist, or point out that Miss Suzuka already gave you the address in question, but you decide to hold your peace, issuing a hasty farewell to the Hakubas over your shoulder as you're led away.
You're out of the house and halfway across the shrine grounds when Suzuka releases her grip and apologizes, explaining that Kanna has been "scarily supportive" and "much too helpful," ever since she heard about what happened when you tested the Mirror of Shadows on Ichirou.
...oops?
Then you hit the morning foot-traffic - it's Monday on this side of the date line - and there's no more opportunity for conversation.
The Watanabe residence is less than three blocks from the shrine, and turns out to be one among many modest two-story homes, each with a very small yard - positively cramped to your American sensibilities. There's little to distinguish one house from the next, save for differences in paint and the fact that some of the homes have a single compact car - also rather small to your mind - parked out front.
When you turn your enhanced senses on the house Miss Suzuka has guided you to, you detect nothing remotely out of the ordinary. No magic or spiritual activity has touched this place that you can discern, and the life-energies you catch glimpses of through the windows are all well within the range of mundane human auras. It looks like two adults around your parents' age, three kids, and one older presence. One of the adult auras and all three of the youngest ones are moving around rather frantically, and there's quite a lot of rapid footfalls and muffled shouting to go with it.
Then the front door bursts open, revealing a thin, middle-aged man wearing MOST of a business suit, a piece of plain toast hanging precariously from between his clenched teeth as he hastens to finish pulling on his jacket, while rushing for the street.
"Good morning, Mister Watanabe!" Suzuka greets him with a wave.
"'ood 'ornin', 'ith 'uzuka!" the man replies, waving dangerously with the hand holding his briefcase. "'orry I 'an't 'ay an' 'alk, bu' I' 'a'e!"
"Of course, of course. Don't mind us, and have a pleasant day!"
"'ou 'oo!"
And then he's past you.
"...I take it he's the grandson of the man with the box?" you ask, watching Mr. Watanabe as he hurries along, weaving around other pedestrians with unclear calls of apology, never slowing down.
Idly, you wonder if you're ever going to meet any NORMAL people in Japan.
"Yes," Suzuka replies, as she walks up and knocks on the door.
"I GOT IT!" three voices yell in chorus.
This is followed by a not-so-muffled crash, and fresh yelling.
"Get off, you jerk!"
"Let go of me!"
"Get your hand out of my-!"
...
Somehow, you have the feeling that the Goddesses are laughing at you.
Considering that all three children of the Watanabe household are caught up in the ruckus you're hearing, it comes as no surprise when the one who opens the door is their mother. She looks rather ordinary, or would, if she wasn't so obviously frazzled.
Despite Mrs. Watanabe's clear fatigue, she summons up a warm smile for your companion. "Good morning, Suzuka. What brings you by today?"
Miss Suzuka introduces you, and explains that you're here to investigate Grandfather Watanabe's mysterious box.
The lady of the house seems... politely disbelieving.
"Seriously?" a decidedly IMpolite teenaged male voice says from behind her. "Someone else's been suckered into looking at that old junk box, AGAIN?" The scowling face of a boy of fifteen or so appears in the hall and looks you over. "Che. And it's some foreign brat, this time."
Okay, you dislike him already.
Before you can say or do anything, a hand comes out of nowhere to smack the rude older boy in the back of the head.
"Shut up and stop being rude to a guest, you jerk!" a girl the same age exclaims angrily. "You're making Mom look bad!"
...
Pot, meet kettle.
Maybe the Goddesses aren't laughing, but BRIAR certainly is.
Should you... say something?
Even as part of you idly wonders if it would have been more efficient for you to come to this meeting wearing the adult form you used while dealing with the Buddhist monks, the remainder decides to let Miss Suzuka handle the introductions. She knows these people, and is one of the local authorities on mystical matters - authorities that are aware of and have previously investigated the matter of this mysterious sealed box, with the full knowledge and invitation of its current owner.
There's a level of respect and trust there that you don't yet have, and which simply pulling magic out of your hat wouldn't earn. Potentially the opposite, really.
So you ignore the impulse to say or do something in response to the rude older boy, and let Miss Suzuka speak without interruption.
At least, without any interruption from you.
"Damn it, Haruna!" the teenage boy snaps, as he whirls around to confront his sister. "Stop hitting me, already!"
"I will when you stop acting like a brat!"
"Who's a brat?!"
The lady of the house summons up a smile for you and Miss Suzuka, trying to affect ignorance of the behavior of her two children, but the way her left eyebrow is twitching rather ruins the attempt.
"Busy morning?" Suzuka asks in an undertone of pure sympathy.
"No more so than usual," Mrs. Watanabe groans. "I will be SO glad when the fall semester starts. Just... two more weeks..."
"Fight on, Auntie Risa," Suzuka murmurs encouragingly. Then, speaking more briskly but without raising her voice, she asks, "Is Grandfather Watanabe taking his usual morning pipe in the backyard? If he is, Alexander and I could go around the back to meet him."
Mrs. Watanabe smiles. "You're a treasure, dear. And yes, he is. Go right ahead."
Suzuka nods politely, and you take that as your cue to bow.
Watanabe Risa blinks in surprise at your gesture, and returns the acknowledgment, murmuring about what a polite boy you are - and then adding a half-despairing, "Why can't my kids be this well-behaved?"
Briar starts snickering again. "Oh, if she ONLY knew..."
You move to follow Miss Suzuka as she leads the way around the right-hand side of the house, only to nearly miss a step as - behind you - the closing of the front door is punctuated by the abrupt upwelling of an aura of Maternal Doom, and a sudden silence from the previously-quarreling Watanabe siblings.
Leaving those two to their well-earned fate, you hurry after your guide.
The back yard of the Watanabe household is a bit larger than the front, but once again, it strikes you as too small for a house of this size, much less one occupied by three... energetic... young people. There's no trees or bushes, nor is there any kind of porch. There's just the back door, a couple of steps down to the lawn, and a small garden tucked into the near corner.
Hunkered down on the top step is a withered figure blowing wisps of pale smoke from its nose and mouth. In his current position, the top of the old man's head is no higher off the ground than yours, and his small size and hunched posture suggest he wouldn't be much taller even if he were to stand up. There's not a hair on his head, beyond wispy eyebrows, and he has more wrinkles than you've ever seen outside of a box of raisins.
In short, he is the littlest, baldest, wrinkliest old man you've ever laid eyes on in person. Only one or two dream-memories of certain Hyrulean Sages can compare.
The almost caricatured figure turns slightly at your approach, and his mouth breaks into a crinkly smile around the long stem of his pipe.
"Little Suzuka!" he says cheerfully. "You're a lovely sight for these old eyes, as ever!"
"Hello, Grandfather Kenta," Suzuka says. "It's good to see you again. Have you been well?"
"Oh, dear child," the old man sighs. "My doctor has been trying to rob an old man of what little joy life has left to offer, by trying to make me take all these pills, give up my precious pipe, and change my diet."
"You've been ignoring him, I take it," Suzuka says, rather than asks.
"And how!" the ancient one grins, revealing a mouth full of tobacco-stained but otherwise intact teeth. You were half-expecting to see only gums, or at least dentures. "I keep telling the boy, 'If I got to be this old, doing all the things your modern medicine says are bad for me, clearly, your modern medicine doesn't know what it's talking about!' He makes the most amusing faces..."
The small talk continues in that vein for a minute or so before Old Man Watanabe turns his attention in your direction, aged but still clear eyes squinting as he looks you over from head to toe.
"Watanabe Kenta is my name, young man," he says after a moment. "What's yours?"
"Alexander Harris, sir."
"Hmmm. And what brings you with Little Suzuka to see me, Young Mister Harris?"
"Miss Suzuka has told me that you have a box that no one can open, and whose contents are a mystery, Mister Watanabe."
"I might indeed have such a box," the old man admits. "If I did, what would be your interest in it?"
"The box originally came to my attention when I asked Miss Suzuka for help finding ways to discharge a debt of gratitude to Lord Raiden," you admit.
The old man almost drops his pipe in surprise.
"And if he finds the results of my investigation favorable, I'm certainly not going to complain," you continue. "But honestly, that's not really why I'm here. Your box is a magical mystery, and I'm a sorcerer. I sort of HAVE to try and find out what's inside, just to see if I can do it."
Mister Watanabe takes a pull on his pipe. "Intellectual and professional curiosity, then?"
You nod. "And a side of wanting to make sure that whatever's in there isn't dangerous, or IN danger. Not that I'm questioning your ability to keep it safe, sir, but..." You trail off, with a meaningful look at the little old man's... well, everything.
Fortunately, Kenta seems to entirely agree with your unspoken thought, as he completes it: "...but I'm not getting any younger." He sighs, blowing smoke. "Truth be told, I've been wondering what to do with the thing for a while now. It's supposed to stay in the family until we find someone that can open it, but... well."
He gestures over his shoulder at the house, within which you can once again hear the sounds of three energetic young people who don't really get along.
"Probably not the most suitable guardians for a mysterious magical item?" you offer.
"Probably not," the old man chuckles. "Oh, not the worst, by any means; if I left it to them, they'd treasure it as an heirloom, and never sell it. But they might put it into the attic and forget it was there, or break it by accident, or just not take the story seriously." He pauses to knock his pipe against the concrete stairs, dislodging the smouldering ash onto the lowest step. "Give me a minute, will you?"
"Of course, sir."
Old Man Watanabe disappears into the house, and a minute later, returns with something tucked behind one of his long, wide sleeves.
"Well, then, young man. Let's see what you make of my little mystery."
And with that, he unveils the box.
The Dark Lord in your soul groans.
The box is wooden, and small enough that the old man only needs the one hand to hold it - Briar could fit inside, assuming no spatial shenanigans are present, but she'd have to mind her wings. Mister Watanabe slowly turns the box around and then on to one side, revealing that all six faces have been carved to display a complex grid of elevated lines, each of which connects with two of its neighbors at either ninety or forty-five degree angles. There is no obvious pattern to how the lines are placed, nor to their coloration - faded white, rich brown, soft black, and the pale hue of unstained wood can all be seen - and when you look closely, you can see tiny symbols painted into each of the recessed spaces, one character per depression.
Looking at it with your supernatural senses, the box seems completely mundane. When you ask to hold it and switch your Mage Sight over to active, however, you start registering a fairly powerful magical aura, which has the equivalent of a Spell of Nondetection wrapped around it. What you can see of the enchantments below that standard defense against scrying is a mix of Abjuration and Divination Magic, in a style you've not encountered before now, but which certainly feels like mortal sorcery.
Incidentally, the box doesn't magically open up now that it's in the hands of a sorcerer, so there must be something you're supposed to say or do to get it open.
Although you're sorely tempted to ignore Ganondorf's whining - or perhaps more accurately, act in spite of it - and try to solve the puzzle, you restrain yourself from poking at the sliding panels for the moment, and instead reach into your dimensional pocket for a few sheets of paper.
This may just be your paranoia speaking, but it seems better to get as much information about the puzzle-box and its contents as possible, before you make a serious attempt to open it up.
You set the box down on the lawn, atop the three pieces of paper you took out. Then you reach into your pocket a second time, producing four sticks from your dwindling supply of Gold Incense - you make a mental note to consider buying another box or two of the stuff from Gen's at some point. Even though you're able to conjure it, having a ready supply like this saves you the time and mana it would take to actually create the stuff from scratch.
It's one thing to spend your own time on producing supplies, and quite another to make other people wait on you.
On a related note, you should probably look into acquiring a few pieces of ivory that would make suitable focuses for casting the Spell of Literary Vision. Conjuring them works, but you haven't forgotten how channeling so much magic through conjured focuses strains the material, and risks the magic collapsing.
Not that this happens today, any more than it did the last couple of times, but it IS a potential issue.
With all your pieces set - incense sticks and ivory Triforce emblems planted at the corners of a square, with the box and paper at the center - you call upon your magic, to see what it can learn.
The mana you have summoned up moves over you, around you, and through you, but as is usually the case with Divination Magic, there is very little fanfare. The slight breeze that makes the sweet-smelling smoke of the lit incense sticks dance about; the reddish glow and faint hiss that comes from the ivory triangles; the silent scrawling of words upon the topmost sheet of paper; these, and the tangible aura of power at work, are the only signs of the magic you have invoked.
Once the spell has concluded, you pick up the box and the paper, handing the former back to Mister Watanabe for the moment while you read.
Nine decades have passed, if I recall right,
since that which I carry has seen the light.
Nine years more, there were yet to be,
before what I hold was to be set free.
Early, it is, yet, for my watch to end,
but ever has Fate mocked the plans of men.
Magic I sense, that can unlock me,
and free my ward - but if so, take heed.
Nine months longer, you still must wait,
while hunger to grow my charge seeks to sate.
Nine days on from then, at last,
you'll see the results of my maker's task.
If it seems at all lacking, this prize that you've claimed,
then your own impatience you have only to blame.
A century's span was chosen not on a whim,
though my master's reasons, you'd have to ask him.
All that I know, I've told you here now,
and nothing more will I say, save how
the action you take next is all up to you.
To take it or leave it - so what will you do?
"Why is it always poetry?" Briar mutters, as she reads from her place on your right shoulder.
You're sure you don't know. Maybe it amuses the gods, or the collective unconsciousness of mankind? Or maybe whoever came up with the Spell of Legend Lore - from which your Spell of Literary Vision is ultimately derived - was some kind of frustrated poet, and took his vengeance on an unappreciative world by forcing generations of sages and knowledge-seekers to put up with this kind of thing?
If nothing else, you've learned that whoever made the box didn't intend for it to be opened for another nine years, and that forcing it open now would have a detrimental effect on whatever is inside. The written-out vision also implies that, whether at full strength or not, the box's contents won't be usable for another nine months after they've been taken out - they'll need that time to finish "growing," whatever that means.
You look at Old Man Watanabe, and ask, "How's your English, sir?"
"Eh," he replies, waggling his left hand back and forth. "I get by. Why do you ask?"
Without a word, you hand over the page with the "vision" inscribed on it.
Mr. Watanabe takes the page and squints at it for a minute. When he's finished reading, he says nothing, and instead hands the sheet over to Miss Suzuka - who quickly reads the contents herself.
When the miko has finished, the old man asks her, "Do you suppose the box-maker was worried about his creation becoming a tsukumogami?"
"That does seem to be a distinct possibility," Suzuka admits. She glances at you, and asks if you're familiar with the term.
You think back to your copy of Tobin's Spirit Guide, and the various entities of Japan, Korea, China, and other nations of the Far East that were mentioned therein. The "ninety-nine year spirits" had an entry, and now that the name's been mentioned, the contents come back to you - such as they were. It WAS a fairly modest article, just enough to give you the basic idea of what a tsukumogami is, and how one is created.
Magical or mundane, a box that's been in use for a hundred years would be due to transform into one of the item-spirits.
You say as much, and then ask what kind of effect such a transformation might have on the contents of the box.
Miss Suzuka admits that she isn't sure. "It could be harmless, or the newborn spirit might devour whatever it was holding. The maker seems to have wanted to avoid finding out... though if that's the case, leaving it for ninety-nine years would be cutting things rather close." She looks at Mr. Watanabe. "Especially if the box's guardians didn't know about the deadline...?"
"I didn't," Kenta admits, frowning down at the box. "Then again, I inherited the box from my uncle, and HE picked it up under... less than ideal circumstances."
The old man explains that his father's younger brother was something of a professional wanderer, having left home at seventeen to "see the world," making his way however he could from then on. Loans from friends and family, gambling, odd jobs, con games, treasure hunting, theft, busking; if there was an opportunity to make money that didn't involve working regular hours or open violence, odds are the man tried his hand at it at least once. He had a spark of magic as well, just enough to learn a few convenient tricks like moving small objects at a distance, creating a small light, and sensing the presence of magic.
Every couple of years, the younger Watanabe brother's travels would lead him back to Japan, and he'd look up his family, bringing with him stories of far-off places he'd visited, the interesting people he'd met there, and a handful of exotic gifts he'd picked up along the way.
The box was one of these, given to Kenta as a (belated) sixteenth birthday present.
"He told my parents that he'd won it gambling," Kenta recalls, "but later on, he told ME that the man he won it from was a magician, who claimed he'd been looking for the right person to keep the box safe." The old man winces. "My uncle admitted he'd had a bit too much to drink that night, so he didn't remember everything he was told about the box, except that it could only be opened by magic, and that he should pass it down through his family until the time came to open it. Since Uncle didn't have any kids of his own, he gave the box to me."
"Did he ever try to go back to the magician for answers?" you ask.
"He did, but he never managed to find the man again."
How inconvenient.
"And you've kept it all this time?" Miss Suzuka asks.
Mr. Watanabe nods. "My uncle was my only real window into the Moonlit World, and he was only involved with it on the edges - he always held that getting any deeper was inviting trouble. After he passed, I made a point of keeping my eyes open and my head down whenever something that looked like it might have been supernatural came up." At this point, the old man scowls. "Unfortunately, that meant I had no means of proving that the box was magical, at least not to the satisfaction of any of my children, and if they wouldn't accept that, I couldn't rightly entrust the box to them."
"What made you bring it to the attention of the Hakuba Shrine, then?" you ask, curious.
"After all my children refused the box, I tried convincing my grandchildren, to basically the same result - and then I tried with THEIR children, to no better effect. I knew the odds were against me living long enough to see the next generation born and grown up to the point where they could be entrusted with this sort of responsibility, so I decided I'd have to find outside assistance." He grins, and shrugs. "And who can you go to for advice in supernatural affairs, if not your priest?"
You suppose that is reasonable.
"Would you be comfortable with entrusting the box to the Hakuba Shrine, if it proved necessary?" you suggest.
"I was leaning that way before you worked your magic," the old man admits. "And now that I know there's a schedule involved for opening this thing, I'm even more inclined. That said, I would like to hold on to it a little longer, and give the family a chance to change their minds." The wizened figure faces Miss Suzuka and hunches down a little more in an apologetic bow. "Not to slight you or young Koujiro and his boys, Little Suzuka, but I've carried this responsibility most of my life, now; I'd like to at least TRY to see it through."
The miko smiles and nods. "I understand, Grandfather Kenta."
It would appear that Watanabe Kenta and the Hakuba Shrine have reached an agreement regarding the future of the magical puzzle-box, and whatever lies inside.
Perhaps because of your experiences during the most recent total eclipse, you make a mental note to work out whether or not there are any notable prophecies or astrological events due in nine years' time, or in nine years, nine months, and nine days' time.
It's unlikely that this little box could be the seed of anything so problematic as the resurrection of Dracula, but that doesn't mean it's impossible, and it certainly doesn't rule out the potential for whatever the box contains to spark off a disaster of lesser scale.
That work is going to have to wait until you have the time to do the research, spellcasting, and calculations involved, but there is something you can do while you're here.
You cast the Spell of Minor Creation, adding extra mana so that the half-dozen rune-marked pieces of wood which appear will be more stable and suitable as magical focuses.
"Oh-ho!" Kenta chortles, as the augury sticks fall to the ground in a neat little pile. "I haven't seen one of these performed for a while. What question are you going to ask?"
"I'm still curious about what's inside the box," you reply, as you gather up the sticks.
And here, you pause, considering the items in your hand. You conjured sticks like this the last time you performed an Augury, too, but they were still impermanent, only stable enough to survive a few castings of the spell. These ones... feel different. Heck, they LOOK different. The wood is darker, richer, and slightly polished, while the characters "carved" into the surface are more precise.
Gained Knowledge (Magesmithing) C
Gained Augury Sticks (Simple Wood)
You think that, as long as these sticks aren't physically damaged or exposed to some form of anti-magic, they should persist indefinitely.
Well, then. There's a nice little bonus you weren't expecting today.
"I have access to a spell that could allow me to see what it is," you continue belatedly. "The only problem is that it's... kind of aggressive. I don't want to risk damaging the box or its contents, so I'm going to ask if using the spell I have in mind would be safe for them."
Technically, Power Sight isn't a spell, but it's easier to explain things as if it was.
With no objections forthcoming from your companions, you proceed to perform the Augury, letting the sticks fall as you release the gathered mana.
...
Based on the characters you can see, the Augury seems to be saying that using Power Sight on the box would be a bad idea.
Alright, then. You won't do that.
"No good?" Miss Suzuka asks.
"No good," you admit, packing the sticks away into your dimensional pocket. "Well, Mr. Watanabe, that's about all I can do for you - unless you want me to give your family some evidence of magic?"
The old man considers that for a moment.
As if on cue, from inside the house, there comes a thunder of footsteps, an impact, yelling, and then the sound of something shattering.
"Ka. Tsu. Hi. Ro!" Mrs. Watanabe yells.
"It was Shouhei!" a voice you hadn't heard yet exclaims.
"The hell it was, brat!"
"Language, Shouhei!"
The girl, Haruna, just laughs at her brothers.
Kenta takes all this in with an expression of resigned amusement, and shakes his head. "Maybe another time."
...yeah, maybe.
Having done all you can here for the time being, you make your farewells to Mr. Watanabe, thanking him for his patience. Kenta in turn thanks you for your efforts at uncovering the truth of his mystery box; even if there are still plenty of unanswered questions surrounding it, he's learned more about the box in these few minutes than... ever, really.
You and Miss Suzuka return to the Hakuba Shrine, where you find that the Hakuba family have departed for the hospital, leaving the gate closed and locked. It's no issue for the miko, who took a key with her when she left, and as she opens the gate and steps inside, she asks if you'll be staying for a time or going on your way.
As you don't really have anything else to do in Japan today, you make your excuses, and return home.
You spend the rest of the afternoon doing those astronomical calculations. According to some pages you call up by magic - thank you, Page-Bound Epiphany - there's going to be a total solar eclipse on August 1st, 2008, and another on July 22nd, 2009. Depending on when, exactly, Old Man Watanabe's box ends up being opened, either of those could be significant.
You suppose you'll have to wait and see.
Gained Astronomy E
Monday passes without incident. You manage to finish reading the New Age Spiritualism books in the morning, and get a start on the Necromancer's Diary after lunch. The latter proves to be a diary in the literal sense, with the tidbits of actual magical lore spread out amongst months' worth of commentary about the life and times of a practitioner of the Black Art who was, by his own account, more than a little frustrated to find himself "stuck" in Japan. Exactly why and how this happened isn't mentioned, at least in the pages you've read; maybe there's another diary before this one?
Towards three o'clock that afternoon, you head for your usual lesson at Lu-sensei's. Amy still isn't back - leading you to wonder where, exactly, her mother sent her - but a couple of the other students have returned from their family vacations with tales of what they did this summer.
Unlike you or Cordelia, neither of them found cause to use their martial arts training, at least not that they'll admit to.
Disappointing, but you suppose not everybody is set up to have adventures.
You linger a short time after class to speak with your teacher about that demon-tainted cave at the beach. It's a bit too late in the day for you to go poking around, and you're set to visit Karakura tomorrow afternoon and evening, but if you really wanted to, you could take the morning to investigate the cave. Alternately, you could leave it until later, although your teacher feels the matter shouldn't be left longer than a week from now.
Thinking it over, you'd prefer to have as much time as possible to devote to dealing with whatever is in that cave. It's not just because the actual spelunking and demon-slaying may end up taking awhile, but also because you want to make sure you can attend to the necessary preparations and the subsequent cleanup, without running into any deadlines or curfews.
Really, you have an opportunity here to investigate the location and its denizens, research their strengths and weaknesses, and then come up with a battle-plan that takes full account of your magic and the time you'd need to throw together an ideal suite of protective and enhancing spells. Why WOULDN'T you take it?
Lu-sensei agrees, and makes a note on his calendar.
Seeing as how you're not only going in with Lu-sensei, but also taking the time to remotely investigate the cave and come up with a suitable plan of attack, you decide to bring up the subject of taking Cordelia and Larry along - or at least, of giving them the option to be present and decide whether they want to come with.
Lu-sensei considers that. He agrees with you that Cordelia's skills are likely up to the task, at least when his own presence and magical support from you and Briar are all on the table. Larry's readiness for the challenge is more questionable, but your master agrees to at least invite your oldest male friend to the planning session. More informed decisions about Larry's participation can be made once you've determined exactly what you'll be dealing with.
You make a note on your own calendar when you get home, as a reminder for you to get plenty of rest and avoid major magical depletion between now and then.
You spend a good portion of Tuesday morning continuing to read the Necromancer's Diary. By the time you break for lunch, you're only about halfway through the book, a slow pace made necessary by the poor condition of the text and the scattered nature of the information you're most interested in. You've had to go back and re-read a few earlier portions of the book to put later entries into the proper context, and there are plenty of tangential details you're still missing, references to people, objects, locations, and events that the diary's author encountered before he started keeping this record.
Still, you have made progress. In the latest entries, the Necromancer was talking about how his research into adapting his art for a land largely devoid of buried bodies had started to bear fruit. Some of it's conventional spirit-calling - although with interesting notes on how Necromancy interacts with "chained spirits" and the local divine powers - but there was also speculation about using ash and bone fragments as the basis for something... more tangible.
On a side note, reading the Diary is turning out to be a lot more exciting than you were expecting. It's less dry research, and more like reading a scary story.
...you wonder how it ends?
After lunch, you spend the better part of two hours playing with Zelda, to make up for the fact that you'll be out of the house the rest of the afternoon and all evening. Your parents have agreed to give you a pass on tonight's dinner and to extend your usual curfew, so you'll be able to have lunch with Tatsuki and Ichigo. You'll have to leave Karakura right after that, though, in order to make it home before it gets completely dark.
Once Zelda is down for her nap, you get in a walk for Moblin, after which you have a quick shower and change clothes. You're not going to attend a formal event or anything, but considering what happened the last time you hopped over to Karakura, you figure you should try to make a better impression for this visit.
It's a quarter to three when you bid your parents good-bye, and start making your way out of Sunnydale.
Not quite half an hour later, you emerge from your inter-continental teleportation on the sidewalk in front of the Arisawa Shrine. The sun is already well up, and seeing as how it's Wednesday morning here - as opposed to Tuesday afternoon in Sunnydale - there's a fair amount of traffic. Fortunately, you anticipated this, and took the precaution of concealing yourself with a Spell of Invisibility before making the jump.
You still have to take a minute to adjust to the greater spiritual pressure in the local environment. It feels less ominous, now, than it did in the pre-dawn hours of your last visit, but even so, going from the unfriendly atmosphere of the region just outside the Hellmouth to the far purer but equally potent energies of Karakura in the blink of an eye requires some adjustment.
Once you've gotten over the transition, you head up the short staircase and into the shrine, allowing your invisibility to lapse once you're out of sight of the street.
You're about to head over to the front door when you notice Tatsuki's older sister - Mio, wasn't it? - once again wearing the colors of a miko, and hauling a large bundle of something towards one of the lesser shrine buildings.
When you stopped by the shrine to conclude your spell-trade with Akkiko, you spoke with Mio briefly, and she made an incorrect assumption about your age that left her rather embarrassed when the truth came out - no thanks to her mother.
Between Miss Suzuka and Kagome, you think you can say that you're on good to excellent terms with the OTHER shrine maidens of your acquaintance.
You didn't really set a specific deadline by which you had to meet up with Tatsuki and Ichigo, so you could certainly afford to delay a few minutes more - and it's not like the world is going to end if you do.
Besides, you've sort of gotten into the habit of being helpful to mikos, and it's repaid you quite handsomely. You see no reason to change that particular behavior now.
"Good morning, Miss Mio!" you call out.
Arisawa Mio pauses and looks your way.
You smile and raise one hand in greeting.
The older girl's face turns red, and she briefly bows under her burden, as if its weight had suddenly increased. Then she gets ahold of herself, and turns the motion into a polite bow of acknowledgment.
"G-good morning, Alex," Mio replies. "Ah... were you looking for Tatsuki?"
She sounds vaguely hopeful.
"Yes, I am," you admit, "but I was wondering if you needed a hand...?"
"Oh, no! No, I have this!"
"Are you sure? It looks rather heavy."
"It's not," she assures you. In support of her statement, Mio swings the bundle off of her back. It's large enough that the miko could almost have been hauling her little sister around, but the ease with which Mio manuevers the thing indicates that it's not as heavy as it first appeared. "I'm just putting a bunch of old clothes into storage, until Mom figures out what she wants to do with them."
Oh. Well, then. "If you're sure?"
"I am. Go on; Tatsuki was up early, and she already finished breakfast." Mio smiles. "You shouldn't keep a girl waiting."
"You really shouldn't," Briar agrees.
Seeing as how your aid isn't required here, and your brief conversation at least managed to get Mio to stop blushing in embarrassment just looking at you, you decide to take her advice and head for the house.
Your subsequent knock is answered by a loud, "I got it!" and a rumble of bare feet on wooden floorboards.
A moment later, Tatsuki opens the door, much more alert than the last time you met her here, and wearing a dark blue track suit rather than the sleeping robe she had on that time.
"Seven in the morning, Alex?" she greets you with a smirk.
"Three in the afternoon, by my clock," you reply. "And hey, at least it's not five in the morning."
Tatsuki nods. "Yes. Definitely an improvement there. One thing, though?"
"And that is?"
"Masaki totally spoils Ichigo on weekends and vacation days," Tatsuki informs you. "He's probably not even awake yet, and could take as much as an hour to actually get up, get dressed, and eat - unless we go over there and drag his lazy butt out of bed." She grins at that.
"Would his parents object?"
Tatsuki snickers. "Nah, I do it all the time. Isshin just laughs and points at him, and Masaki and the twins think Ichigo's adorable when he's all grumpy and offended. But," she goes on, "if you'd rather not do that, you could come in and wait until the Strawberry joins the land of the living on his own. We can kick my brother off the Famicom or something."
"Oi!" said brother calls from the living room. "You and what army, pipsqueak?"
Hmmm. Tatsuki seems perfectly fine with either idea, and you have to admit, you are tempted to go annoy- that is, you're curious to see the Kurosaki house. On the other hand, Ichigo would doubtlessly prefer it if you let him get up in his own time, and kept Tatsuki from pestering him. Plus, you could take the opportunity to officially meet Tatsuki's brother, and maybe her father as well - assuming he isn't already off to work.
You feel sympathetic towards Ichigo. You know that, if circumstances were reversed, you'd prefer it if he were to let you sleep until you finished waking up in your own good time, rather than proverbially - or, given it's Tatsuki, potentially literally - kicking down your door and dragging you out of bed. Your sense of manners and a certain urge to stand up on behalf of male solidarity are also weighing in on the matter.
In the end, though, the opportunity for entertainment is just too tempting. If Tatsuki wasn't here to handle the actual waking-up - or to be so clearly amused by the prospect of doing so - you might have decided differently, but as it stands?
You meet the oni-girl's gaze, and nod. "Let's go wake up Ichigo."
Gained Pranking F (Plus) (Plus)
Tatsuki grins, and turns around to yell, "Hey, Mom!"
"What?" Akkiko calls back from upstairs.
"Alex is here, and we're going over to Ichigo's!"
"Alright. You kids have fun, and try not to laugh too much at Ichigo's expense!"
"That poor kid," Tatsuki's brother sighs from the living room.
Tatsuki just snickers as she puts her shoes on.
The walk to the Kurosaki residence isn't very long. Tatsuki leads you down the block from the shrine, then across the street and up the next block, to a two-story building located on the corner. The place is visibly larger than all the residences around it, with an attached wing and a modestly-sized parking lot almost doubling the footprint of the actual house; when you ask Tatsuki about it, she explains that the Kurosakis run a clinic out of their home, with Isshin as the doctor-in-residence, Masaki as the acting nurse, and Ichigo occasionally being drafted to provide an extra pair of hands. The twins, of course, are much too young to do any real work, but they help out by providing emotional support - by which Tatsuki says they hang around looking adorable, and forcing various teenagers and adults who'd otherwise raise a huge fuss over minor problems to suck it up and not act like babies in front of the kids.
There's a brief pause after Tatsuki raps on the front door, before you hear Isshin call out, "We've got enough noisy kids already, thank you! We don't need any more!"
"Could I interest you in trading a total mama's boy for a superior model?" Tatsuki replies.
"You could," Isshin admits, "but then my wife would kill me."
"With a smile," you hear Masaki say cheerfully, from further inside the house. "Isshin, stop trying to be funny and open the door already."
"Your command is my wish, O Beauteous One."
The lock clicks, and the door swings open to reveal Isshin's grinning, unshaven visage.
"Good morning, Unofficial Daughter Number Three! What brings you-ohhh, gods, not you again," he says, face falling as he catches sight of you.
You meet Isshin's gaze, mime being stabbed through the heart, and deadpan, "I'm hurt. Truly. In fact-"
And then you give your ki a little push, causing a Doppelganger to pop into appearance next to you.
"-I'm beside myself."
Tatsuki blinks.
Isshin snorts.
"Nice trick," he says, "but your less-evil twin could use some work."
You pause and turn to inspect your clone.
...yeah, Isshin's not exactly wrong. The Doppelganger's good enough to fool a casual observer at first glance, but after the initial shock wore off, they'd start noticing the imperfections. It's minor things, mostly, like the cheekbones being a few millimeters too high, the dispersal of those points of faint green in your eyes being off, and a certain rigidity in the fake's expression. Add them all up, and only a truly unobservant or distracted individual would be fooled for any length of time. Nobody who knows you well would be deceived for a moment.
You suppose that's only fair, though. You haven't exactly used this technique much.
With a shrug, you dismiss the Doppelganger. "May we come in?"
Isshin looks from you to Tatsuki, who has already pushed past him on her way inside. "Do you need an engraved invitation?"
"No, but a formal invitation would help my fairy partner feel comfortable in your home."
The light of recollection and embarrassment dawn in Isshin's eyes. "Oh, right. I, uh, forgot about her." And then he straightens up out of his customary slouch and bows in as formal a manner as a man wearing a rumpled shirt and five days' worth of beard can. "Please be welcome in our home... um..."
"Briar," you supply helpfully.
"Miss Briar," Isshin concludes.
"She says thank you," you inform the man, after Briar has done so.
Then you join her in going inside, and kick off your shoes.
Tatsuki is already in the kitchen, where she's being swarmed by the twins - as much as two tiny girls can constitute a "swarm," anyway - and turning down an offer of breakfast from Masaki.
"Mom actually cooked this morning," Tatsuki says.
"Really?" Masaki replies, smirking. "And I'll bet she got all defensive when everyone asked her what the occasion was, didn't she?"
Tatsuki just snickers.
"Good morning, Alex," the Kurosaki matron says then. "Welcome to our home."
"Thank you, ma'am." You pause and wave at the girls.
The one with the pale hair - Yuzu, if you remember correctly - shrinks behind Tatsuki, while her sister, Karin, stands her ground and squints up at you.
Both of them immediately forget about you and start smiling as Briar flies down to say hi.
"Can I interest you in something to eat, Alex?" Masaki offers, with a gesture at the kitchen table, where a typical Japanese breakfast spread rests, the various dishes half-eaten.
Tatsuki, meanwhile, is shaking the twins off, saying she has to go wake up Ichigo.
You've heard it said that kids your age are always hungry, and you'd be the first to admit that - at least in your case - there's an element of truth to that. It certainly doesn't hurt that it's been a couple of hours since you ate lunch, or that Masaki's cooking smells really, really good.
Though you are tempted mightily to accept Masaki's invitation, in the end, you politely decline the offer.
"If I'm going to help with kicking Ichigo out of his bed," you say, "I figure the least I can do to make up for it is leave him his share of breakfast."
Masaki smiles. "That's very thoughtful of you, Alex. Thank you."
"Besides," Tatsuki says then, "if we ate first, Ichigo would just whine about it. This way, we can hold his food hostage."
Behind you, Isshin starts to laugh.
"Yes!" the ostensible man of the house exclaims. "Tactics! Going for your opponent's weakness, to make him do what you want! Well done, Unofficial Daughter Number Three!"
"Yay!" The twins cheer. "Big Sis Tatsuki!"
She has her own tiny cheer section? That's... adorable.
You have to try and get Zelda to do that for you sometime.
In response to the antics of her family, Masaki merely rolls her eyes. "Normally, this is where I'd say you were your mother's daughter, Tatsuki - except that in this kind of situation, Akkiko would have sat down and started eating without waiting for an invitation."
Tatsuki merely nods, taking zero offense and making even less protest at this assessment of her mother's character.
"No," Masaki goes on with a dramatic sigh, "this is something you got entirely from your father."
At that, Tatsuki smiles almost shyly, simultaneously pleased and embarrassed. She hides the latter emotion as best she can, by turning to the stairs and mumbling, "Let's go, Alex."
You glance at Briar, and seeing her still engaged with the little ones, say nothing as you follow Tatsuki to the second floor of the Kurosaki household. In one room, you see two small mattresses, a row of dolls and stuffed animals on one shelf, and some other toys scattered around - obviously, the twins' room. What you see of the room directly across from theirs has enough of an adult atmosphere to mark it as the master bedroom, while a third room down the hall is clearly a bathroom.
That leaves the closed door, on which hang two signs. One is a wooden plaque, with the number "15" carved into the surface and then painted in bright blue. The other sign is a piece of paper tacked to the door with a piece of clear tape, which hangs at a slight angle; written on it in crayon are the poorly-drawn but recognizable Japanese characters for "one, two, three."
It takes you a second to register the puns, but when you do, you just have to laugh.
Gained Japanese C (Plus) (Plus)
"So how are we doing this?" you ask Tatsuki, keeping your voice low. Your guide paused at the top of the stairs, and you're a couple of steps back; the distance, combined with the closed door and your hushed words, should make you difficult for Ichigo to hear.
"Normally, I go loud," Tatsuki replies in the same tone, slightly above a whisper. "You know, kick the door open, yell at him to get his lazy bones up, drag off the sheets when he tries to hide under them, and finally haul him out." The spiky-haired girl grins, her expression pure oni. "It's fun. For me, anyway."
"But...?"
"But," she admits, "I've done that a lot, and Ichigo's kind of getting used to it. He even expects it, for all his complaining about it. He wouldn't be expecting sneakiness. So if we went in really quiet," and here, Tatsuki gives you a questioning look, adding, "or maybe even invisibly...?"
Hmmm. That IS an amusing possibility.
You consider your options, and then nod.
To Tatsuki, you say, "Let's do this thing. Magical ninja-style."
She grins, and gestures for you to make with the sorcery - which, after a brief, hushed discussion to explain the spells you intend to cast and how you should exploit them, you do.
This is an entirely frivolous use of magic, of course, but come on. You're eight years old, you've got a full tank of mana, you're in safe territory, and you're entirely capable of hiding the magical signature of the spells you want to perform. If you can't use magic for fun under circumstances like these, when can you? And if you NEVER use magic to have fun, well, quite frankly, you're doing it wrong.
You cast two simple spells. The first is a near-standard Spell of Invisibility, augmented just enough so that you can affect yourself and Tatsuki with the same casting.
The youngest Arisawa holds up her hands, staring in wide-eyed wonder as points of light spread out along her skin and clothes, sparkling like tiny stars, even as all color - and seemingly, all substance - fades from her being. As she disappears from mundane sight, the pinpoints of mana also fade, leaving nothing that the naked eye can perceive.
Of course, your own enhanced vision makes it a simple matter for you to tell where Tatsuki is, and it's possible that her unsealed oni blood gives her the ability to track your location as well, but you keep one hand on her shoulder anyway, just to be certain.
Your next spell is a derivative of the Spell of Silence. This one's heavily modified, trading range and area of effect for greater duration, and as it takes effect, the noise of the world around you fades to nothing.
Once all about you is quiet, you squeeze Tatsuki's shoulder and give her a slight push towards the top of the staircase.
She takes the hint and starts moving, slowly at first, then with greater speed as she gets used to walking around invisibly and inaudibly.
Caught in the field of your Spell of Silence, Ichigo's bedroom door opens without so much as a squeak from a hinge or a rattle from the doorknob. You and Tatsuki slip inside, in the process confirming that she can, if not properly "see" you, then at least sense your location with reasonable accuracy.
Your infiltration of Ichigo's room is aided by the fact that the room is very neat, with no toys, books, or clothes left laying around on the floor to trip up an unwary intruder - with the curtains closed, it's shadowy enough in here that such could have been a real concern. The boy himself is sprawled out on his back in a tangle of arms, legs, and blankets, his Mega Man themed pajama shirt half pulled up and his mouth hanging open as he lies there, dead to the world.
While Tatsuki goes around to the far side of the bed, you take a position on the left-hand side, near the head. Once you're both in place, you let your two spells lapse, which has the immediate result of you being able to hear Ichigo's snoring.
Moving together, you and Tatsuki lean forward.
"GOOD MORNING, ICHIGO!"
"WAH!"
Mattress springs squeak as the orange-haired boy half-leaps up from his sleeping position, flailing in all directions. The sudden wild flurry of limbs makes your proximity a little hazardous, but your training and experience in the martial arts sees you through un-hit.
From downstairs, you hear Isshin laughing.
Gained Pranking F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
The initial force of his abrupt awakening spent, Ichigo collapses back on his bed, now wide awake and staring around.
"AGAIN, Tatsuki?" he groans, upon seeing her. "Why do- wait, is that ALEX? What the- why are you in my room, what time is it even- SEVEN IN THE MORNING-!?"
"Up and at 'em, lazybones," Tatsuki crows, as she grabs Ichigo's arm and hauls him back upright.
"Tatsuki! Let go!" Ichigo turns to you, pleading through the still-lingering haze of interrupted sleep. "Alex, help! Get her off of me!"
You regard the pair for a moment. Tatsuki is clearly having too much fun to just let Ichigo get away; you'd probably have to wrestle her away from him.
Seeing as how you ARE a guest in the Kurosaki house, you suppose that you should make up for your part in Ichigo's unasked-for wake-up call. With that in mind, you lean forward - half-kneeling on the mattress for balance - take hold of Ichigo's shoulder with one hand, and grab Tatsuki's nearest arm with the other.
"Hey, what-!" the spiky-haired girl exclaims.
"Sorry, Tatsuki," you apologize. "But he did ask for help."
"Oh yeah? Then help this!"
"That makes no seeeense!"
In hindsight, it's pretty clear that Ichigo did not think things through when he asked you for help. After all, he should know well by now that Tatsuki is quite a bit stronger than her size and martial arts training would normally allow - a point she demonstrates by grabbing your arm and hauling back, pulling you onto the mattress.
"Wait, whaaa-!"
In fairness to the strawberry, he DID just wake up. He's probably not firing on all cylinders at the moment.
What starts out as a loose alliance between you and Ichigo against Tatsuki quickly breaks down into a three-way wrestling match, the "Boys Versus Girl" united front falling apart under pressure from the "Get Out of My Bed, You Crazy People!" movement.
During the scrum, Ichigo's excessively-large spirit-heavy aura surges up, and in brief glimpses amidst arm-locks, attempted pins to the soft mattress, and reversals made awkward by that same pleasant springiness, you see that the spiritual seal the boy was under back at the World Tournament has either been altered or outright replaced. The new binding doesn't constrain the boy's soul the way the old one did, but that's about all you're able to discern before your attention is diverted to preventing Tatsuki from getting you into a submission hold.
Well, that and the disturbance in your own aura, whenever Ichigo lays hands - or foot - upon you, in an effort to clear his bed of its unwanted invaders.
You harden your soul, and fight on!
Gained Grappling D (Plus)
Gained Spirit Resistance F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
In the end, the limited amount of spiritual power that Ichigo's able to focus into his movements doesn't come close to making up for his lack of skill in the clinch. Nor does he have the raw physical power to stand up to you or Tatsuki, much less both of you together. He ends up on the proverbial and literal bottom of the heap, with you half-sitting on him-
Gained Strength Control D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
-grumbling in irritation, while Tatsuki all but stands triumphant atop the pair of you.
Still, you made her work for her win. At least a little.
Gained Strength B
"Didn't you beat a vampire princess in a fight?" Ichigo accuses grouchily, looking back over his shoulder at you from where you've got him pinned, face-down on his bed.
"Yes, I did," you agree. "But that was with ki and magic. If I pulled out those tricks now, Tatsuki could have done the same - and then you'd probably be out a room."
Ichigo pales at that.
"Hey!" Tatsuki protests, tightening the faux-neck-choke she has you in, while glaring down at her longtime friend-slash-punching bag. "I'm getting better at not wrecking stuff I don't mean to!"
This declaration visibly fails to fill Ichigo with confidence.
"Anyway," you continue. "Do you yield, Ichigo?"
"Yeah, yeah," he sighs. "Just get off of me, already - and give me some privacy to change, will you?"
"Sure." You slide sideways, getting off of the boy's back and his bed in the same motion.
Tatsuki is hanging off your back the entire time, and aside from adjusting her grip on you so that it's no longer a literal strangle-hold and instead just a way of keeping balance, she shows no inclination of moving.
"We'll be downstairs," you tell the suddenly wide-eyed Ichigo. "Your mother has breakfast waiting - so don't take too long, hmmm?"
"Yeah," Tatsuki laughs. "After all, we might get hungry."
You and your passenger exit the room to a plaintive cry of, "Leave my food alone!"
As the door closes behind you, cutting off that despairing call, you "look up" at Tatsuki as much as your relative positions will allow.
"Are you going to get off any time soon?"
"I don't know. I'm starting to see why Briar likes to ride around on your shoulder all the time. The view from up here is quite good."
Questions of passengers aside, what are your plans for the morning? You figure Ichigo will need about half an hour to finish breakfast and his morning ablutions, by which point it should be about eight o'clock, local time. That gives you four hours in Karakura, before you break for lunch.
Intellectually, you know that Tatsuki is your age. You're also quite certain that the two of you are in no way related, outside of the fact of your shared humanity and residence on the planet Earth.
That said, Tatsuki is a girl, she has older siblings, and she's smaller than you are by a fair margin.
As far as your fraternal instincts are concerned, that's close enough.
Gained Big Brother D (Plus)
Rather than try to dislodge your passenger, you hook your arms back around her legs to provide some additional support, before you start down the stairs.
"Low bridge!" Tatsuki exclaims, getting into the spirit of things by ducking - completely unnecessarily - to avoid the ceiling.
"What's all the stomping about?" you hear Isshin wondering, just as you clear the bottom step and come into view of the kitchen.
Echoing the response of their firstborn - and thereby proving beyond any doubt that they are, indeed, Ichigo's parents - Isshin and Masaki stare wordlessly at you and Tatsuki. Where the lady of the house is clearly taken aback by your casual display of strength, Isshin gets over his surprise unusually quickly, his expression shifting to one of fond, slightly melancholy remembrance.
The twins, on the other hand, take one look and then SWARM you, all fear of the strange-looking big boy who beat up their brother months early forgotten as they laugh at and with Tatsuki, and hop about with their arms outstretched, asking to be picked up and taken for rides of their own.
While that's going on, Briar flies over to land on Tatsuki's shoulder.
"You took my spot," you hear your partner say in a warning tone.
"It's a good spot," Tatsuki replies, unrepentantly.
"...it is, isn't it? Very commanding."
Seeing as how you've established the precedent with Tatsuki, you go ahead and give Karin and Yuzu piggyback rides as well. When Ichigo comes downstairs a few minutes later, he finds you, Tatsuki, and the twins engaged in a lighter, no-ramming version of chicken fighting, with Tatsuki holding up Karin and you supporting Yuzu.
Gained Elder King D (Plus)
The lighter-haired twin, who's always been the shyer of the pair in your brief interactions, surprises you with how aggressive she can be towards her sister.
Then again, Briar IS cheering her on.
Of course, as soon as the twins catch sight of their ACTUAL brother, they immediately start clamoring for his attention.
"Look, Big Brother!" Yuzu cheers. "I'm winning!"
"Nuh-uh!" her sister protests.
"Uh-huh!"
Ichigo gapes at the pair of them, and then gives you and Tatsuki a pointed look. "I blame you two for this."
You and Tatsuki trade glances.
Although you initially declined Masaki's offer of food, the tempting smells proved too much to resist when you came back downstairs. Fortunately - at least for Ichigo - your little segue into chicken-fighting gave Masaki time to prepare a couple of extra servings, as well as roust her husband from the table.
"Honey, what-"
"We have to make room for the children and the fairy, Isshin."
"But I'm not done yet!"
"You can finish your coffee in the clinic. Go on, shoo!"
Once everyone's settled and breakfast is underway, you inquire after the possibility of a tour of Karakura, with extra time taken to see any of the local landmarks. Tatsuki finds the prospect of just wandering around town all day a little dull, but the inclusion of a trip to the nearest playground - or wherever it is the local kids go to have fun - quickly appeases her. Ichigo has no problem with any of it.
The twins are too busy watching in wonder as Briar eats off the tiny dishes you conjured for her to really follow the conversation. Otherwise, they'd probably have raised a fuss about the pretty fairy lady having to leave so soon.
With a plan in place and allowances made for any distractions or diversions that come up, you turn to a more general conversation, asking Ichigo and Tatsuki about things that have been going on in their lives which DIDN'T make it into the letters they've sent you.
Specifically, you ask about Ichigo's new seal.
From down the hall in the "clinic" part of the building, you hear Isshin's hand meeting his face.
"You can still notice that?" Ichigo asks in surprise.
"When I'm looking for it, yes," you admit.
Ichigo turns to his mother, wordlessly asking for guidance.
Masaki shakes her head. "And here Kisuke and Tessai were, so certain they'd managed to hide it this time, too." She laughs softly. "They're going to be SO annoyed when I tell them otherwise. Thank you, Alex."
"...you're welcome?"
You have time enough, in between eating, to discuss three topics. What would you like these to be?
A hush falls over the room in response to your question, and then:
"I do! I do!" Yuzu exclaims.
"Me first!" Karin protests.
"No, me!"
And like that, the twins are off, with first words, then shoves, and then flailing slaps at outstretched hands and empty air flying back and forth between them.
Ichigo stares at you in silent judgment, his flat expression telling you to look at what you just did, and feel ashamed of yourself.
You shrug - incidentally giving Yuzu more of a height advantage over her sister - quite unrepentant.
You are naturally curious about Ichigo's replacement spiritual seal, as well as the individuals who are responsible for its creation, and so you ask for further details on the related topic.
Regarding the seal itself, Masaki explains that, after they came home from the World Tournament, they took Ichigo to meet this Kisuke person-
"This weirdo blond with a bucket hat and clogs," Ichigo supplies. "And he kept waving this old fan around, hiding his face while he talked."
-so that he and his associate, Tessei-
"A REALLY big guy with glasses, a pointy mustache, and an apron."
-could investigate what you'd said about the seal acting as "resistance training" for Ichigo's soul. Because that wasn't what it was supposed to do, at all.
After some tests-
"I don't know WHAT he could have learned from putting that wired-up noodle-strainer on my head," Ichigo grumbles. Then he admits, "At least there weren't any needles."
-the pair of mad scientists (Ichigo's word, but Masaki just nods when he uses it) verified your findings, and explained what had gone wrong.
"The soul grows along with the body and the mind," Masaki says. "It doesn't grow nearly as much as they do between the time when you're born and the time you reach adulthood, not unless you or the people responsible for you are doing some Very Stupid Things, but there is SOME increase. Everyone's soul is a little different, of course - some develop faster, others slower - but Kisuke knew that, and designed the first seal so that it could accommodate and adapt to a high level of spiritual growth." She gives her firstborn a wry smile. "It just so happens that my little guardian grew even faster than that."
Ichigo blushes and drops his eyes to his bowl.
"Kisuke did some calculations, and he thinks he's figured out how far Ichigo's spiritual power is likely to develop before he finally stops growing," Masaki continues. "The new seal is designed based on those findings. But, just to be safe, we'll be checking in once a month."
You blink. "That often?"
"Kisuke likes his research projects," Masaki says, rolling her eyes. "We had to argue him DOWN from daily check-ups."
At that, Ichigo shivers. "He had this look in his eyes... this crazy, scary, INTERESTED gleam..."
You try to get a few more concrete details out of your hosts - like a visual description of these two men, or where they live or work - but you're interrupted by Isshin wailing "Doooomed," from the clinic.
The twins giggle at their father's silliness.
Although Masaki chides her husband for eavesdropping, interrupting, and being a worrywart, she admits that she does agree with the underlying sentiment that you and Kisuke shouldn't meet - at least, not today.
"He was very curious about you, Alex," she explains. "Speaking as someone who's been the subject of Kisuke's particular brand of scientific curiosity, it is a somewhat alarming place to be."
Ichigo nods firmly, wholly in agreement with his mother.
"Frankly, I don't think ANY of you should meet him without a parent or guardian present-"
Mouth still full, Briar looks up from her second breakfast and makes an inquiring sound.
"-someone a little taller than your fairy friend," Masaki adds, sparing an apologetic glance in the direction of Briar's tiny place setting.
The fairy considers that, swallows, and says, "She has a point, Alex. If this person knows as much about souls, spirits, and magic as he'd have to, in order to make that seal, tall help would be a good idea."
"But if you want," the Kurosaki matriarch says then, a little reluctantly, "I could let Kisuke know that you'd like to arrange a meeting at a better time?"
"Please do," you tell Masaki.
Although you'll most likely end up bringing Lu-sensei to the eventual meeting with this Kisuke person, you're very tempted to see if you can convince Ambrose to tag along as well, regardless of the time zone-induced difficulties. Odds are you'd end up owing the wizard another, not-insignificant favor in the process, but he's the closest thing in this world to an expert on the condition of your soul; introducing him to another expert who appears to specialize in spiritual phenomenon seems like a sensible course of action.
Granted, given what the Kurosakis have said about their local contact, and what you know of Ambrose's character, there may be some... difficulties, in getting the two to get along - or, conversely, in preventing them from getting along TOO well.
But you can burn that bridge when you come to it.
"While we're on the subject of shady characters who are involved with local spiritual matters," you continue, "where is that completely ordinary and totally not suspicious cat, anyway?"
For some reason, your inquiry sends Masaki into a laughing fit.
The other kids and Briar all stare at the woman for a moment, before Ichigo turns to glare at you. He's surprisingly good at it.
"Alex," he says seriously, "did you break my mom?"
"Mom is fine, sweetie," Masaki says, with a few final giggles. "I was just imagining a certain someone's reaction when I tell them they got lumped together with Kisuke as a 'shady character.' By an eight-year-old."
Tatsuki frowns at you. "Are you still eight?"
"Yes. Going to the World Tournament was actually my eighth birthday present."
"...so you were JUST eight at the time," Tatsuki says flatly.
"Pretty much."
The spiky-haired girl looks you over from head to toe, and then hunches over what's left of her meal, muttering, "...so unfair."
Ichigo looks a little put out himself.
"To answer your question, Alex," Masaki continues, "the cat wanders around a lot, but more or less lives at Kisuke's place when in town."
You nod. "So when I implied the cat was a 'shady character'..."
"...you were even more on-the-nose than you realized," Masaki concludes, grinning.
You can never go wrong by quoting the Princess Bride, right?
Right.
Pitching your voice deliberately low, you utter a translation of the words of the Giant, Fezzik (as portrayed by the Giant, Andre): "It's not my fault being the biggest and the strongest."
Your dazzling wit is greeted by a table full of blank looks, and a dry, monotone, "Ha. Ha," from Briar.
Oh, come on. The twins, you can understand, but has nobody else here seen the movie?
From down the hall, Isshin cries out, "Inkonshibabu!" in very bad Engrish.
At that point, Masaki gets a look of recognition.
Vindication!
Also, just how good ARE that man's ears?
Gained Comedy D
"Oh, gods," Ichigo groans. "He's speaking Dad's language."
Philistine.
With your attempted humor having fallen just shy of flat, you turn to Tatsuki and ask her what she and her family have been up to since your last visit, which didn't make it into her most recent letters - of which there have been a grand total of one.
Tatsuki's answer is, "Not a whole heck of a lot."
Karakura is kind of dead during the summer months, if you'll forgive the pun, especially after school lets out in July. Not unlike Sunnydale, a lot of locals take that as their cue to leave town on vacations of one sort or another, squeezing in a week or two away from it all - or as much of "it" as can be managed - before returning for the Obon Festival.
Speaking of which, said celebration was just three days ago - in fact, it's three days long, so you JUST missed it - and like most years, it was the highlight of the summer break. You also learn something interesting regarding it.
On your first visit to Karakura, you somewhat carelessly showed up outside the Arisawa shrine at five in the morning, well-placed to hear the hunting cry of a nocturnal Hollow, and so get a heads-up from Akkiko on what those unfortunate creatures are and how you ought to handle them.
The Obon Festival has a lot of night-time activities, and in a region like Karakura when Hollows prowl after dark, that would normally be cause for concern.
But nothing happened.
Tatsuki asked her mother about it, and it turns out that, while the modern Obon Festival is mostly a secular event, its origins as a religious festival - particularly as a memorial for the dead - have given it an interesting effect on unquiet spirits of all sorts. They don't suddenly become benign, run away in fear, or anything so convenient, but for those three nights, Hollows and other restless souls are... quieter. Less aggressive, and less prone to roaming.
They'll still attack a human that crosses their path, but they don't go out of their way to hunt anyone.
"Not unless they're a really tempting target, anyway," Tatsuki finishes with a frustrated frown. "Mom didn't explain what she meant by that."
"Basically?" Masaki interjects. "Unless you're taking part in one of the traditional rituals, you shouldn't go throwing around large amounts of spiritual power during Obon, especially at night."
Gained Knowledge (Buddhism) F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Local Knowledge (Karakura) F (Plus) (Plus)
You'll keep that in mind, in case it ever comes up.
The Kurosaki family (plus three) breakfast doesn't last much longer than that. You offer to help clean up the dishes, but Masaki shoos you, Tatsuki, and Ichigo (and by implication, Briar) away and out of the house, telling you to go have fun.
You spend the next fifty minutes or so walking the streets - they're quieter, now that the morning traffic rush has passed - getting the fifty-yen tour from your two friends. One of the first things they show you is a bridge a few blocks from either of their houses, built across slightly steep but otherwise quite nice little grassy riverbanks, where they both admit to coming sometimes just to lie down and watch the clouds go by.
After that, you're guided along the river - the Karasu - for some distance, until you reach the shopping district. Here, Tatsuki proudly shows off Furin Hall, the karate dojo that she and Ichigo both attend, and where she currently reigns as the undefeated sparring champ in their age group - and a bit above.
You wonder if you should ask Tatsuki - or Ichigo, for that matter - for a spar. Using magic is out of the question, but your control over your ki is good enough that - as long as you forewent Ki Overload, Ki Blasts, and other blatant giveaways, and kept your Body Flickers to merely "very fast" - you could probably keep up with Tatsuki's greater-than-human strength without alarming a mundane audience.
You certainly budgeted enough time in your visit to spend a quarter to a half an hour on this.
For a moment, you seriously consider not making the challenge.
Tatsuki did admit earlier that she was still having a little trouble controlling her supernatural strength, which would make sparring with her more dangerous than it really should be. Then, too, you've seen Tatsuki fight. She was good enough to make it to the second round of the World Tournament's Under Tens Division Finals on pure skill and human-level ability; the only reason she didn't advance beyond that is because she was up against a young demon assassin.
Based on what you've seen since then - namely, throwing and being thrown around by Sokka quite casually, and later, fighting Altria going all-out on pretty close to even footing for five minutes at Kahlua's birthday - if Tatsuki hadn't been under that blood-seal when she faced off with Gorn, she could well have taken his place in that fourth round random draw.
From that perspective, it might be said that you owe her a match, without the handicap of the seal.
Mostly, though, you just want to fight her.
It's practically a tradition with you at this point. Travel to distant lands, meet up with your strange and interesting local friends, and then fight them.
Why change that now?
"Undefeated, huh?" you ask in an offhanded manner.
Ichigo groans. "Oh, no."
"Here we go," Briar sighs.
"Yes," Tatsuki drawls, glancing at you from the corner of her eye.
"Best in your age group, and a little above that, huh?"
"I want NO part of this, you guys."
"Good luck with that, Strawberry."
Tatsuki ignores Ichigo, grinning widely as she nods. "Uh-huh."
You raise your right hand, and point at Tatsuki dramatically. "Arisawa Tatsuki, I challenge you."
"Seriously, leave me-GRRK!"
"Told ya."
"Challenge ACCEPTED," Tatsuki says with glee, as she grabs Ichigo by his shirt and drags him towards the dojo door.
You follow along, loosening up your shoulders as you go.
As it happens, there's a class about to get underway - not quite a dozen students, most of them either your age or within a few years of it. The two exceptions, you peg as student-instructors. The sensei is a man in his thirties, tall, well-built, with a full head of hair, and wearing casual workout clothes rather than a uniform - in short, about as unlike Lu-sensei as it's possible to get.
He moves like a martial artist, though. Not as refined as some of the masters and monsters you saw at the World Tournament, who'd probably been training since they could walk, maybe not even good enough to get into the Finals, but still definitely a cut above the average practitioner.
One thing of note, though: the man doesn't have much in the way of ki ability. He has ki itself, of course, and it's trained, but only to the extent that you'd expect to see from lots of intensive mundane exercise. There are no indications that Tatsuki's dojo master has ever been taught how to consciously access and manipulate ki.
The same can be said for his students.
It's kind of a shame. The head instructor - who Tatsuki introduces as Dojima-sensei - one of the student-instructors, and several of the younger members of the class all have enough ki that they just need that one last push to break through and start using it directly.
You should probably make a point of being extra-careful to restrain your ki while you're here. Otherwise, you might accidentally spark a few people's auras.
You doubt that Lu-sensei would be amused.
In any event, Tatsuki's entrance - with an unwilling Ichigo in tow, your own clearly foreign self following along, and the eager, energetic cry of, "Hey, Sensei!" that she opens up with - draws every eye in the place, and as soon as she mentions that she's got a challenger, they clear the mats. Some of the class are grinning eagerly, others muttering half-hearted complaints, and all of them - up to and including the sensei - are giving you considering looks.
It would seem that the phenomenon of martial artists walking in off the street to challenge members of the dojo is not unheard of at Furin Hall.
Gained Local Knowledge (Karakura) F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
You'd only heard about this sort of thing from Lu-sensei. It's never actually come up in Sunnydale.
One more thing to blame the Hellmouth for, you suppose.
Leaving your shoes by the door, you join Tatsuki on the mats, while Ichigo falls into line with the class, quietly greeting Doujima-sensei and a couple of the kids.
Speaking of the sensei, he's taken this opportunity to remind his students about dojo etiquette, and in particular, how it relates to challenges. Today's match is an informal one, done out of friendship and a mutual desire to compare and test skills, rather than for any gain in rank or reputation.
On the matter of reptutation, you haven't yet introduced yourself to the hall at large, and none of the class have reacted as if they recognize you - reasonable evidence that none of them were at the World Tournament, or saw the tapes. Mr. Doujima's reaction is more guarded, but you did catch a flicker of recognition, so HE at least knows who you are.
Also, what's your opening plan for facing Tatsuki? You've seen that she favors an aggressive fighting style, mixing open-handed strikes, grappling, and a willingness to fight dirty, yet at the same time, she's entirely capable of thinking tactically.
And not only are you going to be down your magic and your preferred Body Flicker-enabled high-speed assault for this match, Tatsuki has seen YOU fight at least as often as you've watched her.
When Doujima-sensei finally asks you to introduce yourself to the class, you give them your name and your affiliation with Lu-sensei's school of martial arts badassery. This much is simply proper manners and simple, well-earned pride in your training. You leave off any mention of the World Martial Arts Tournament, as that would just be bragging.
The sensei, at least, already knows of your victory there. If he wants to inform his students, he can do so later - those that haven't figured it out for themselves in the meantime, as you think one of the student instructors just did.
The way his eyes bugged out mid-introduction seems a good indication that he's recognized you.
Gained Publicity D
As you and Tatsuki bow to one another, you awaken your supernatural senses. Ki Sight, Mental Sight, and Spiritual Sight all focus on your opponent, to try and read her upcoming moves - and in the case of spiritual perception, perhaps to get some pointers on using that particular energy form better.
Since these abilities are in their passive modes, receiving rather than broadcasting, you don't have to worry about affecting your audience with them.
The same cannot quite be said for your Ki Enhancement and Spiritual Enhancement, as despite being internally-focused, those techniques use so much of their respective energies, over such a large area, that there can't help but be some spillover.
That's where your control and concealment skills come into play.
Your Spiritual Enhancement technique is relatively weak, which simply makes it easier to keep tamped down; it does not hurt that your Spiritual Control and Spiritual Concealment are better-developed.
You are FAR more adept at Ki Enhancement, but your Ki Control and Ki Concealment skills are equally well-honed, and thus, even allowing yourself a margin of error in case of accident or over-enthusiasm, you're able to use that skill at something approaching its maximum performance.
As a bonus, in working out how to boost your body's performance to such a high level while keeping your ki aura from spilling over to affect others, you've made your Ki Enhancement that tiny bit more effective.
Slipping in Ki Armor as well isn't a challenge.
Across the mats, you can sense Tatsuki's aura of mingled human ki and oni youki rising up in a similar manner as your own vital energies. Like you, she isn't going all-out, and is taking steps to avoid exposing her classmates to too much of her supernatural power.
Clearly, somebody warned the girl about the risks of accidentally pushing an otherwise normal person into an awakening, and managed to make it stick.
Good to know.
LITTLE DEMON OF FURIN HALL: ARISAWA TATSUKI
The sensei signals for the match to begin, but in contrast to most of your previous sparring matches, neither you nor Tatsuki move to attack right away. Instead, you begin circling one another in a slow, clockwise orbit that carries you around the mats.
You're hoping to use your size, reach, and agility to control the pace and positioning of the fight, and moreover, are planning to let Tatsuki take the lead regarding just how much of your superhuman skills you should reveal.
"Come on, Tatsuki!" one of the kids calls out. "Kick his butt!"
What starts as one voice quickly swells to two, then four, and in short order, there's a low but persistent murmur of encouragement from the fight-happy class.
It's not the roar of the crowd from back at the Tournament, by any means, but these kids definitely make for a more outspoken audience than any you've had since then. There were a lot more people watching when you fought Kahlua last month, but they were all being quiet - or maybe you were just too focused on your opponent and/or making too much noise to hear them.
Tatsuki, who paused for a moment when her "fans" started cheering, laughs quietly to herself and gives you a look that's half-apology, half-eagerness.
"What can you do?" she asks.
And then, without changing expression, she takes one step forward and opens up with a right side kick that - due to the difference in your respective heights - comes in at about the level of your stomach.
Even with Ki Armor active and backed by Ki Enhancement, you don't really feel like getting kicked in the gut, and lean back to let Tatsuki's opening move go whistling past - and then bringing your hands across to guard as she channels the momentum of that missed blow into a follow-up open-handed strike.
The two attacks give you a better idea of just how much of her full speed and strength Tatsuki is using right now. Pound for pound, she's stronger than you are, but not to an insurmountable degree - and you've got a lot more pounds to work with. In terms of speed, she's a little ahead, but again, not so much that you can't spare the fractions of a second to try and get creative in your offense.
Which you do, striking for a pressure-point on her right shoulder, in a bid to start reducing the strength she has to work with.
Tatsuki sees the strike coming, but rather than try to block or evade, she pushes forward, taking the hit in exchange for getting closer, arms opening wide-
She's about to try and grab you around the waist.
Tatsuki is coming straight in. On the one hand, this is a correct course of action for her, since closing to grappling range will not only eliminate your reach advantage, it will also put the match on more favorable footing for Tatsuki. She's already beaten you in one wrestling match today, thus demonstrating a superior level of skill in the clinch; getting back into it as soon as possible is simply good judgment.
On the other hand, in her rush to close the distance between you, Tatsuki has left herself open. Maybe not to a normal fighter - it takes a certain amount of room and a few fractions of a second to get a limb in position to strike, and she's close enough that you have little of either - but to someone with a high level of ki running through their system, it's time and space enough for one quick strike.
Your arms are long enough to overcome the height difference between you and your opponent, allowing you to take a shot at Tatsuki that will demonstrate why head-on charges against a prepared opponent are a bad idea.
Your right hand slides back and shoots forward, going for the solar plexus-
!
-and then Tatsuki's arms scissor shut around yours as her feet leave the floor, coming up, curling towards the chest-
You can see where there is going, and you want no part of it, but Tatsuki is all but hugging your extended forearm to her torso, both arms wrapped around it and her entire weight now pulling on that limb. A normal fighter would have been dragged down, forward, and right into the double heel kick the girl has chambered. Even an exceptional fighter, with the mundane advantages of size and strength that you have over Tatsuki - or would, if she were a normal human - would be toppling forward right about now.
Fortunately, you also have ki surging through your body, augmenting your not-inconsiderable strength to literally monstrous levels. You're actually able to support Tatsuki's weight with one arm.
And to the astounded cries of the watching class, you do so, while simultaneously wrenching that arm about in her grasp and bending it upwards at the elbow, in an attempt to throw off Tatsuki's aim - or maybe just throw the girl herself - even as you bring your left hand down to guard your ribs and stomach.
Gained Agility D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Pain Threshold C
Gained Reflexes C (Plus) (Plus)
WHUMP!
You're mostly successful. Tatsuki reflexively compensates for your sudden movement, and what started as a double heel kick turns into a double knee-strike, but you take the hit on your left arm.
Tatsuki, meanwhile, is left hanging off your right arm, high enough off the floor that the two of you are face-to-face.
She blinks, and says into the sudden silence of the training hall, "Alex... are you actually holding me up with ONE ARM?"
"...yes," you admit, through effort-clenched teeth.
Ki Enhancement or no, this isn't exactly EASY.
Then again, making it look HARD kind of helps pass this off as something a big, strong, well-trained, but otherwise "normal" martial artist might actually be able to do. Right?
Gained Acting B (Plus)
Right.
"...okay, that's kind of awesome," Tatsuki replies.
Then she relaxes her own arms slightly, letting herself fall to the floor while not actually letting GO of you.
You can see where she's going with this. Touch down, renew the hold, turn around to put her back to your chest and make it into a classic over-the-shoulder throw...
Yeah, no.
There's just barely enough room between you and Tatsuki for you to bring your right leg up, bent at the knee - and as you do so, her head abruptly turns to the left, so she can stare at you over her shoulder with one wide eye.
"You wouldn't."
You would.
Using your leg to push Tatsuki forward with as much force as you can muster isn't a kick in the usual sense of putting boot to... well, whatever... but with the way she goes flying across the mats - naturally losing her grip on your right arm in the process - and how you wind up standing in the aftermath, leaning back slightly with your right leg and foot at full extension, the difference is academic at best.
Someone in the crowd - not Ichigo, you'd recognize his voice - laughs in a disbelieving manner. "Oh, wow! He actually kicked her butt!"
"He is so dead," Ichigo says faintly.
Tatsuki lands easily, bending at the knees and bringing her hands down to the mats to help disperse the impact, and then whirls around, still crouched, to regard you with a flat glare.
In that instant, you have the distinct impression of facing off against an angry animal predator, and in response, the Boar stirs.
You're half-expecting Tatsuki to come scrambling at you on all fours, but instead she stands up, absently rotating her right arm while keeping her gaze fixed on you.
Seeing the arm that you previously struck a pressure point on moving about freely and with no indication that it pains its owner to do so, it occurs to you that some monsters heal from ordinary physical trauma a lot faster than humans do. You aren't sure if oni are one of those, but if they ARE, then combined with your comparatively limited ability to use pressure point strikes...
Your train of thought skips tracks as Tatsuki begins to advance once more. This time, instead of a seemingly reckless head-on charge, she's coming in at an angle, one cautious step at a time, with her guard up.
You match your opponent's movements, and for the next half a minute or so, the fight stays at this slow burning pace. Once again, you're circling one another, only this time there are probing attacks, aborted feints, and the rare attempt at a two-part combo as you test the limits of each others' defenses.
Gained Dexterity E (Plus) (Plus)
For anyone who didn't already realize it, it's quickly made clear that your greater height and longer limbs give you a considerable advantage in this situation. Tatsuki simply can't reach past your arms to hit any of the genuinely vulnerable spots on your torso, at least not without using a kick - which would weaken her stance - or closing the distance enough to put herself at risk. And she doesn't appear inclined to attempt either, at least not yet.
Yet you can see that you don't hold ALL the cards here. Being smaller grants a few advantages of its own, among them being harder to hit at all (much less where it really counts), and requiring fractionally less time and effort to complete any particular movement. The normal drawback of reduced striking power is more than compensated for by the inhuman strength that Tatsuki's mixed heritage grants her, which also makes her that much faster - though as you already noted, your Ki Enhancement still gives you a slight lead in the former category, and minimizes just how much of an advantage Tatsuki has in the latter.
And then there's her recovery from or resistance to pressure point strikes to consider. If Tatsuki really does have some form of accelerated healing, then you can't outlast her - indeed, the longer the match goes on, the more of a disadvantage you'll be at, as all those little aches and bruises and simple muscle fatigue start to add up. And if nerve shots and the like aren't going to affect her as long as they would a human opponent, your offensive options are... weakened, if not automatically reduced.
In any case, Tatsuki seems content to let you make the next move of the match, so what will you do?
You have a slight strength advantage. You could use it, and try to break through your opponent's guard using a mix of technique and main force. Such an exchange would be more equal than you might like, however, and would rely on you finding or forcing a weakness in Tatsuki's defense, and then dealing enough damage through it to outweigh whatever injury she'd be doing to you in return.
You could also forego technique entirely, embrace the Spirit of the Boar, and rush Tatsuki in an all-out attack. You don't think she'd be expecting that from you at this point, and there's enough distance between you for you to build up some steam, though not so much that you think Tatsuki could easily get out of the way. And if you added a low-powered Body Flicker to the charge, it would be that much more effective in both respects.
Speaking of the Body Flicker, there is always your favored technique of circling your opponent and striking from behind before they can react. This would be quite a bit harder to pull off under the circumstances, but even a weak Body Flicker is still a fairly impressive boost of speed, so it COULD work.
The other option that comes to mind is to keep up your guard and try to wait Tatsuki out. For all that she's shown the ability to think and behave tactically, her natural tendency is to ACT.
You feel the urge to embrace the Spirit of the Boar and rush Tatsuki in an overwhelming charge, but you clamp down on that impulse to throw caution to the winds, and instead force yourself to be patient and think about your next move.
You continue to circle Tatsuki, fending off her probing strikes while making quick, controlled, testing attacks of your own - nothing that weakens your guard beyond the minimum amount necessary to prompt a response from your opponent, and thereby grant you additional points of reference about her fighting style. As you do so, you bring up your Mental Enhancement technique, focused on your brain to accelerate your ability to absorb and break down information, beyond the modest level of mental improvement already granted by your Ki Enhancement.
In passing, you note that one of these days, you're going to have to figure out what it is that the Mental Enhancement technique does when it's augmenting your body, as opposed to focusing on your mind.
Gained Mental Enhancement E (Plus) (Plus)
As the seconds tick by, your attempts to read Tatsuki's stance and movements start to yield dividends. You spot a weakness in her guard, shift your stance a hair in preparation to strike at it-
!
-and then switch back to a more wholly-defensive posture, as Tatsuki reads your attempt to read her.
A few seconds later, you see her reading for a kick, shift your balance to catch the attack, and find her standing down.
These exchanges quickly make it clear that Tatsuki can also use Battle Awareness, or some ability comparable to it, and at a level comparable to your own skills. It also illustrates a failing in your technique arsenal, this being a lack of practice at HIDING the physical tells in your stance from an opponent.
It doesn't take a genius to see how this happened.
You've long since developed a preference for fighting using as many different compatible forms of self-enhancement as you can, giving yourself a level of physical performance that is quite frankly absurd for anyone your age and/or size. While you haven't utterly overpowered every opponent you've faced in this manner - Kahlua and Altria are crazy powerful themselves, never mind Dark Link - you've usually had enough of an edge in speed that attempts to read your stance and movements would have been of limited aid at best.
Especially when you and your best sparring partners end up glowing like tiny suns, flying around like you had rockets strapped to yourselves, and rearranging small portions of the landscape.
Under circumstances like that, Battle Awareness is really only helpful for tracking gross movements and broad intent.
Here and now, it's a different story, and you try to exercise better control over your stance, erasing what tells you can and minimizing the rest.
Even as you correct your movements, it occurs to you that this skill has a lot in common with the practice of hiding mundane strength, and that mastering one is much the same as mastering the other.
Strength Concealment becomes Martial Concealment
Gained Martial Concealment E
On a different note, you were thinking about casting a spell to even out Tatsuki's advantage of accelerated healing, but now that you're aware of just how well she's able to read your movements, you have to discard that option. The Spell of Celestial Healing takes six whole seconds of uninterrupted casting, and you know now that Tatsuki would notice what you were doing.
Beyond the distinct possibility of getting punched in the face and losing the spell, it feels a little... questionable... to bring magic into what has been a pure martial arts fight so far. At least without agreeing on it beforehand.
After a few more inconclusive passes with Tatsuki, you find yourself once again considering going on the offensive, Boar style, if only to break the stalemate...
...and then it occurs to you that there might be a way to use that same approach, AND your inability to hide all your physical tells from Tatsuki, to win.
You delay a few seconds more, waiting until you and Tatsuki no longer have the corners of the mats at your backs. Then, redirecting a portion of your Ki Enhancement, you move as quickly as you can, snapping from a guarded stance into the beginnings of a charge.
Tatsuki reads your obvious intent, her eyes going wide as she realizes that there's less space on the mat behind her now than there was just a moment earlier. If you hit her hard enough here, or just manage to pick her up and carry her along - which you've shown is well within your abilities - you could score a ring-out.
It might not have the hard-fought, well-earned glory of beating her hand-to-hand or dragging her to the ground in a pin, but it'd be a technical victory all the same.
The girl's stance shifts, weaving to the left, either as a prelude to dodging in that direction or a feint to pushing off hard to the right.
You kick off, beginning your charge-
Tatsuki's leg shifts, and you can see that she's about to go right!
-and then you trigger a low-end Body Flicker, sharply increasing your acceleration.
You aren't very good at hiding your physical tells yet.
Your Ki Concealment, on the other hand, is VERY good - and not only does Tatsuki not see the Body Flicker coming, she jumps right into it.
Gained Hand-to-Hand (Five Elements Style) C (Plus)
WHOOMPH!
"Wha-!"
And she goes flying backwards.
"Gah!"
...into a few of her classmates.
Whoops?
"HOLD!" Doujima-sensei calls.
You freeze, just one step away from leaving the mats yourself, while what looks like four young martial artists go down in a pile. Fortunately, there's no wall or exercise equipment behind them, and from their movements, their teacher has already covered how to break falls - even when you've got the weight of a (partly) human body coming down on top of you.
...that's a lesson you might want to brush up on yourself, come to think of it.
"That's a point to Mr. Harris," Doujima-sensei declares. Eyeing his piled-up students, he chuckles, "Actually, it looks like it might be four points."
Someone still on their feet groans. "Don't say that, Sensei. You'll give Tatsuki IDEAS."
Indeed, from the way the girl's spiky-haired head just popped up from the heap, it may be too late on that account.
You wonder if you should say something here. To the teacher, to Tatsuki, to the crowd?
"That was a good match, Tatsuki," you say. "Thank you. And I'm sorry about the whole ballistic karate girl bit, Mr. Doujima, everyone," you add, bowing to the sensei and the cluster of... very inconvenienced students, while keeping the smile off your face and the chuckle out of your voice. "That wasn't QUITE what I had in mind for the finisher. I'll be more aware of my surroundings in the future."
"I'm pleased to hear that, Mr. Harris," Doujima-sensei says with a nod, before glancing at his students. "Although it should also serve as a good reminder to some people that it's never safe to get too close to a fight, and you should ALWAYS be on your guard if you choose to do so."
"Yes, sensei," the fallen students groan in chorus.
Tatsuki, for her part, just grins as she untangles herself from the heap and recovers her footing.
"I'll get you next time, Alex," she says, pointing at you in a friendly warning. "Next time."
...why do you have the urge to yowl at her like an angry cat?
You shake that off. "I'll be waiting."
Although you're tempted to take your win over Tatsuki and enjoy it, you had one other purpose in visiting Furin Hall today.
"Thank you for the use of your dojo, and for putting up with the interruption to your class, Mr. Doujima," you say. "But if I could lean on your generosity a bit longer...?"
"Oh?"
"I fought Kurosaki Ichigo in the Tournament preliminaries," you offer as a brief explanation.
You're not even looking in Ichigo's direction, but you can FEEL his eyes bugging out even before he starts to protest.
"Alex, no. I already said-"
"And I was hoping to see how far he'd advanced his skills since then," you continue, ignoring the strawberry's arguments.
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Doujima-sensei agrees. "Ichigo! Front and center!"
Ichigo moans like a Gibdo or some other damned soul, but he does as his teacher instructs.
"I hate you so much right now," he informs you with a sulky glare.
"Come on, Ichigo!" Tatsuki cheers. "Take your beating like a man!"
"...hate her, too," the boy mutters.
You resume your opening stance, dialling your Ki Enhancement down a few notches so that you're a better match for Ichigo's observed capabilities. Spiritual wonkiness aside, he fought like a pretty normal kid back at the Tournament, and his aura hasn't changed so much to make you think he's improved anything LIKE as much as you or Tatsuki have since then.
Just because he hasn't surged ahead by leaps and bounds like certain freaks of (super)nature, though, it doesn't mean that the boy hasn't improved at all.
As Ichigo takes his own stance, his abnormally strong, spiritually-attuned aura gains a degree of focus and stability that was lacking in your first match, even when he set aside his self-doubt and fought seriously. At the core of the soul-cloud, the boy's ki shines a little more brightly and evenly than you recall, and then, of course, there's the new seal. Though the function of those ghostly ropes and paper wards doesn't change that you can discern, they nonetheless become a little more noticeable to you as the aura behind them condenses.
You refocus the energy in your Spiritual Enhancement technique. Using it against Tatsuki didn't accomplish anything, but you have the distinct impression you won't be saying the same after THIS match is over.
NASCENT SPIRITUAL NEXUS: KUROSAKI ICHIGO
Doujima-sensei signals for the match to begin, and Ichigo immediately goes on the attack. Unlike Tatsuki, he doesn't charge straight in, either because he's learned from her match with you that such an approach won't work, or else because he simply lacks his friend's sheer self-confidence.
Which isn't to say that Ichigo lacks confidence. You had that argument with him back at the tournament, and he seems to have kept your little inspirational speech about winners and losers in mind. It's apparent in his stance, his ki, and his soul that the other boy is giving this match his all from the outset, and he comes in at an angle, fists flying.
It's an obvious attack, and you block it easily, but when Ichigo's knife-hand connects with your forearm, you have to work to avoid betraying just how much that STUNG.
Not physically, mind you. In terms of pure muscle power, your little wrestling match this morning showed that you're head and shoulders above Ichigo even without resorting to ki use, and you're more than capable of taking a hit like that.
You're not quite so hardened against spiritual attacks, and you find yourself very glad indeed that you had Spiritual Enhancement up and running already. Without it, Ichigo's half-trained blow might have actually HURT.
Gained Spiritual Enhancement E (Plus)
Gained Spirit Resistance E
Now that you have a better appreciation for how hard Ichigo can hit on the spiritual level, you adjust tactics slightly, dodging and deflecting his blows rather than blocking them.
It's not that difficult. Ichigo's learned a bit about focusing his will and his inherent power since the last time your fists met, and his physical technique has improved by a similar amount - but it's simply not enough to pose a challenge to you, even with your considerable self-imposed handicap.
The other boy realizes it, too, but to his credit, he doesn't seem at all inclined to give up.
Your pep talk definitely had an impact, there.