Wordlessly, you send a signal down your familiar bond to get Briar's attention from where she is commiserating with Lu Tze, and when the fairy turns and asks - a little snappishly - what you want, you use another aspect of your bond to speak with her in a manner none of the others here, or observing from elsewhere, can readily understand, asking her not to heal you.

"...is he speaking in tongues, now?" Dave asks warily, giving your master a nervous glance.

Briar's response to this is to stare at you in silence for a moment, before flying close to your face again.

"Maybe Grack hit you harder than I thought," she says.

Still using the bond, you quickly explain your concern about security. Briar considers that, and agrees that you have a valid point.

She seems a little torn about whether to be pleased with this arrangement or not.

It is reassuring to know that, however annoyed your partner currently is with you, it's not to the point where she actually wants to see you in pain.

That done, you explain to your audience - minus the still-snickering troll - that you were just speaking with Briar in the private not-quite-a-language that your bond allows. As you're doing that, you take the opportunity to dismiss the Spell to Enlarge A Person and - slowly, gingerly - start picking yourself up off the October grass.

It's late enough in the day that any morning dew has since evaporated, and the ground seems dry otherwise, but it's still kind of cold to just be laying there.

Dave once again displays an interest regarding familiars and related topics, but you have to leave off on further discussion of such subjects, as Grack is finally ready to talk to you.

With actual words, you mean.

Other than pre-fight banter and post-fight humor.

"So," the troll says with a final huff of amusement. "What Alex want to say to Grack about Beanie Meanies?"

With your credentials as an honorary monster fully established, you don't hesitate to explain to Grack your reasoning for intruding upon his fight with the four thugs, and how you were concerned that if he'd killed or just seriously injured them, he might have ended up making things worse for himself.

Grack scowls when you mention that the Bronx sorcerer has been watching this whole time.

"Sorcerers," the troll mutters, in a way that makes the word a curse. "Always poking noses in where not wanted."

...you might be professionally and personally offended by that remark, if it weren't perfectly accurate, both as a general assessment and in your case specifically.

Despite his obvious opinions about magic and those who wield it, Grack does not appear at all eager to provoke an encounter with the Bronx sorcerer. He won't confirm whether or not he's met the man in question before-

"Grack need his scent before Grack say that for sure."

-but the troll does agree that the Beanie Meanies having a sorcerer behind them would explain how things went in their previous encounters. The way Grack tells it, the gang, chivalrous organization, or whatever they like to call themselves have been harassing him for a few weeks, on and off.

Normally, a full-grown Faerie troll wouldn't be bothered by such things, his sheer physical advantage over regular humans being such that he could handle a dozen of them at a time with fair odds of winning, even if they came armed with iron weapons. On the other claw, when those same humans show up armed with fire and magic in addition to iron, a smart troll starts considering his options very carefully indeed.

"Grack still new in town, so first time Beanie Meanies attack Grack, Grack thought Grack was in Beanie Meanies' place uninvited. Grack try to be polite and go to different place, but Beanie Meanies follow. Grack try to apologize, Beanie Meanies attack Grack. Grack try to hide, Beanie Meanies find Grack AGAIN." He glares at the four punks and rumbles, "Grack was VERY frustrated."

The quartet flinch.

"Beanie Meanies not just make trouble for Grack, either. Beanie Meanies attack other Fae and some monsters Grack knows." Grack pauses, and adds, "Beanie Meanies also kill puny demons and push around other humans, but Grack really not see problem with killing demons, and human herd business is human herd business, not Grack's."

"And then you ended up in the park," you conclude.

Grack nods, looking around at the trees with clear fondness. "Reminds Grack of home. Also close to Grack's place of work, so is good that way."

"You have a job?!"

The troll frowns and turns to regard the disbelieving spokesman with a glare.

"Grack need to eat," he says with forced patience, as if speaking to a small, stubborn, and perhaps slightly dim-witted child. "Big flaw of city is nowhere to hunt, unless for humans, and Grack know that just cause trouble for Grack. Stealing food not much better. So, yes, Grack get job." He rolls his eyes, and adds, "Grack wonder if Beanie Meanies can say as much, or still nursing from mothers."

"Hey, I work!" one of the four protests.

"I got school, man!" the guy in the sweater says at the same time. "I mean... troll..."

The other two, including the spokesman, just kind of look embarrassed.

Okay, now you just have to know.

"What do you do for a living, Grack?" you ask, before adding, "That is, if you don't mind talking about it in front of our audience."

"Grack not mind," the troll replies. "And Grack work in security. Grack not talk about details - sign contract with boss - but mostly, Grack stand around and look big and scary, so monsters and humans think twice about making trouble in Grack's boss's place. Boss say if clients not take hint to behave, Grack can throw them out, but Grack not had to do that yet." He smirks, looking pleased with himself. "Grack good at being big and scary."

You can't say you're terribly surprised by the nature of Grack's employment. The role of hired muscle just suits a troll's natural abilities so well.

You do wonder what his "boss" does, that involves both monsters and humans AND pays well enough that he or she can afford to keep a troll on retainer, but as Grack just said he can't talk about the details, you make an effort to quash your natural inquisitiveness. At least regarding that topic.

Though you do make a point of noting that further trouble between Grack and the beanie boys could result in problems for his employer, too.

"Or Beanie Meanies could make trouble for boss and boss's clients anyway," Grack points out, sparing a baleful glance for the quartet. "Grack not hear of it happening yet, but Grack new at work, and not told everything. With Beanie Meanies pushing monsters and humans around on streets, it seems to Grack like it only matter of time until they get one of boss's clients."

That's not an unreasonable assessment.

"I suppose that would depend on where your boss and your boss's clients fit into the agenda of this association of concerned citizens," Balthazar notes, looking at the four young men himself. "Care to offer any insights in that regard, gentlemen?"

The spokesman licks his lips, "Look, Mr. Blake, it's like I said before. We're just trying to make the city safer."

"By which you mean, safer from monsters," Balthazar says.

"...yeah. Half our members join up 'cause they've lost somebody, or they're scared they will." He pauses to look at his companions, and as they nod, the leader gestures between himself, his fellow in unemployment, and the student in the sweater. "We ran with a couple more guys back in high school. Then we ran into vampires. Our buddies didn't walk away from that."

You find yourself recalling your father's tale of how he first learned about Sunnydale's nightlife, when he and half a dozen of his football buddies ran into a pair of vampires. Your dad said he and his friends all made it out that night, but the beanie boys don't appear to have been as lucky.

"My sister spent a month being stalked by some way-too-pretty, pointy-eared escapee from a fantasy novel," the last member of the group is saying. "The creep didn't exist as far as the cops were concerned, he wouldn't take no for an answer even when it came in company with a can of mace, and you do NOT want to know what he did to her best friend's dog when they wouldn't let him in."

"And when you met people who understood what you'd gone through, and offered you a way to get back at the nightmares hiding in the dark, you took it," Balthazar sums up.

"Basically," the spokesman admits.

You're caught up in a dispute between parties in the Moonlit World - or whatever the accepted American term is for the supernatural side of things; you make a mental note to look into that - and it's one that's been happening on Balthazar's turf. It's only good manners for you to let the senior sorcerer handle things without interruption.

"For what it's worth," he says to the three bereaved members of the quartet, "you have my condolences for your losses, and my respect for trying to do something to keep similar tragedies from happening again. And speaking as someone who's had to deal with unwanted Fae admirers," he adds to the fourth man, "both on my account and on behalf of others, your sister has my sympathies, my respect, and an offer for mystical assistance to chase off unwelcome suitors. Assuming her experience hasn't put her off the supernatural entirely, which I would completely understand."

The beanie boy looks surprised at this. "Uh... thanks, Mr. Blake. I'll... let her know."

Balthazar nods. "That having been said, I have to ask: who came up with this insane plan to antagonize and assault members of every non-human species in the city? And I'm including you in this inquiry as well, sir," he goes on, fixing the scrying sensor with one of those intense looks that isn't quite a glare. "Because either there are some well-meaning idiots about to start a race war in my backyard through ignorance, or someone who very well ought to know better is trying to do it deliberately. Whichever is the case, I mean to have words with the ones responsible."

You're a little surprised when the sensor doesn't immediately wink out. Instead, you hear the Bronx sorcerer speak.

"It's because of wanting to avoid issues like this that my associates and I have been trying to get in touch with you, Mr. Blake."

"You have my address, and I'm listed in the phonebook," Balthazar says simply.

"And your address and phone are being monitored," the other sorcerer replies. "As is your student's home. We're not prepared to cross Horvath openly."

Balthazar scowls. "And just how is my old friend mixed up in this?"

"Some of our older members had dealings with the man, before you made him disappear all those years ago. He's renewed ties since his return, and while he isn't directly involved in our organization, his cronies have considerable influence." A chagrined note enters the sorcerer's tone. "I think that might be the reason why our attempt to extend an invitation to you came across so... problematically."

"That, and it's New York," Balthazar sighs.

The beanie boys were visibly startled to hear the Bronx sorcerer speak, and in a way that tells you they both recognize the voice, and respect its owner. Now that he and Balthazar have paused in their conversation, the spokesman of the quartet raises a hand, reminding you of one of your classmates.

"Uh, chief?" he ventures cautiously. "Sorry for speaking out of turn, but from what I'm hearing, it sounds like you're saying that the boys and I were set up to fail in this particular endeavor."

"It's quite possible that you were," the Bronx sorcerer admits.

"...I see." The spokesman scowls, and clenches his fists. "It also sounds like you're agreeing with Mr. Blake, and suggesting that the ones responsible for this specific set up are doing wrong by the association as a whole."

"I am."

"...I think I'd like to hear some names, boss-man. Just to make sure we know who to listen to, going forward, and who to WATCH."

"I've got a meeting to get to in the next twenty minutes," the sorcerer replies, "but I'm free after four. If you've got time then, stop by my place. We'll talk."

"We'll be there." The spokesman pauses, glances up at Grack, and winces. "Er... that is, assuming we're allowed to go?"

"Grack wonder about that," the troll grumbles, folding his arms. "Grack get feeling Beanie Meanies cause MORE trouble if allowed to wander around without supervision."

Ouch.

By the conventions you're familiar with as a martial artist, an honorary monster, and to some extent even as a sorcerer, since Grack was the offended party and beat the four young men in a straight fight, he has the greater say in what should be done with them. Under different circumstances, you'd be worried about that, as the trollish sense of justice leans more towards the strong doing what they want, while the weak get eaten, but Grack has already agreed not to eat the quartet.

More or less.

By implication.

...

...maybe you should say something, after all?

Better to err on the side of caution, you reason.

"What if they apologized?" you suggest aloud.

"Talk is cheap," Grack says bluntly.

"Well, yeah, just saying 'sorry we attacked you a bunch of times' doesn't make it better, but admitting they did wrong would be good... or rather, BETTER manners than what they've shown so far. And they could promise not to pick fights with monsters again. At least," you add, when the quartet look like they're about to object to that, "not until they have a better idea of which monsters are the bad guys."

Grack considers your words. The beanie boys do likewise, but with far more obvious reluctance.

"I'm not saying that you need to stop defending yourselves, your families, and your friends from creatures that attack you first," you elaborate. "Just that you not start anything." You pause. "Unless it's with corpse-demons. Feel free to set those things on fire."

Grack snorts. "Grack have no argument with THAT."

Given the trollish relationship with fire, this says a lot.

The spokesman looks between you and the troll for a moment, and then warily asks, "'Corpse-demons?'"

"Vampires," the Bronx sorcerer explains, for the benefit of his junior associates.

"The undead kind, anyway," Balthazar adds.

"...there's more than one kind," the spokeman says flatly.

"Only a couple of books' worth," Dave sighs.

Balthazar gives his apprentice a look, before turning back to the waiting young men. "It's a long story, but to sum up, there are a lot of supernatural races that drink blood and have one or more of the physical or mystical traits you'll hear about in the movies. The corpse-demon variety is just the most numerous, widespread, and despised - especially by other vampires. Nobody's going to have an issue with you dusting them."

This seems to please and confuse three of the young men in about equal measure. The one whose sister had the Fae stalker is still a little dubious, but takes in his companions' reactions and swallows any further objections he might have been about to make.

The beanie boys' general acceptance of your suggested terms is enough to shift Grack's opinion over to full agreement, and in short order, the quartet have apologized for their actions towards him, made their promises, and made themselves scarce as quickly as they could without actually appearing to be in a hurry to leave.

The Bronx Sorcerer, meanwhile, discusses the possibility of a future meeting with Balthazar. Given how this whole incident went, he doesn't try to insist on time, place, or terms, beyond that he would like to meet sooner rather than later, and somewhere that Horvath and his associates aren't actively monitoring. He also gives Balthazar a number to call - from public phones only - in case things change on his end. Then his scrying spell ends, dismissed from his side.

After the beanie boys are gone and their sorcerous superior's scrying spell has ended, you take a minute more to probe the area with your senses, making sure that no surprises were left behind, and that nobody else was lured in by the noise and magic of the back-to-back troll-versus-human(s) fights.

Once you've satisfied yourself that the area is clear of any lurkers, you turn to Briar. "Now that nobody's spying on us... Briar, I would very much appreciate some of that healing magic."

"Yeah, yeah. Hold still."

Glowing more brightly than usual, Briar whirls around you in a climbing spiral, glittering particles of fairy dust scattering in her wake. As the motes of magic settle upon your skin, they are absorbed, and you feel the very welcome rush of energy, as well as the rapid decline of your assorted aches.

Dave stares at the process. "What the-?"

"Fairy healing," Balthazar replies, one eyebrow raised. "Haven't seen that in a while."

"Ambrose?" you and Briar guess in unison.

Balthazar chuckles. "Yeah, Ambrose. The Little Folk always did like the old man. It was the High Fae he had issues with."

"In fairness to him, a lot of the Big Folk are jerks," Briar notes.

"Grack agree wholeheartedly."

With that taken care of, you start saying your good-byes to Grack. As has become a habit for you by now, you try to get the troll's contact information, but while Grack doesn't object to the idea of staying in touch, it turns out that he doesn't have a phone number, and probably won't get one for a while.

"Phones not built in Grack's size," the troll explains, holding out one of his huge clawed hands for emphasis. "They break too easy, and Grack not dial numbers well. Boss have client who can get custom phone built for Grack, but Grack not able to pay for that yet. Grack have big food budget."

Grack does have a mailing address, after a fashion, but from the way he describes it, it's more of a drop-off for his boss's business, and using it for personal correspondence would be bad for his job.

Still, Grack does invite you to stop by Central Park any time you're up for another fight.

Yay?

Leaving the park, you get on with your interrupted guided tour of New York. Along the way, you pass a few souvenir stands, and find yourself wanting to get something for Zelda.

Price won't be too much of an issue. Thanks to Lily Blaisdell's efforts and input from Kahlua and Altria (and through them, their parents), you've worked out an arrangement with a fence in Sunnydale for converting some of the treasure you acquired from the tidehounds' lair into modern currency. After taxes and expenses, and taking into account the fact that you can purify the loot of not only demonic taint but curses and other problematic supernatural influences, you're looking at a profit margin of about 25% of the stuff's full value - better than double what you would have gotten if you'd just sold it directly.

That said, the fence can only move so much precious metal and so many jewels at one time without disrupting the market or drawing too much attention to himself, and it's only been about a month since he was able to confirm to his own satisfaction that the goods you were trying to move through him had been genuinely cleansed.

And then, of course, there's the question of how much of the spoils you were planning on converting to cash. The Drakes and the Shuzens both recommended leaving the greater part of your not-so-ill-gotten gains in their current form, as there are plenty of individuals and organizations within the Moonlit World that are happy to take payment in silver, gold, and jewels. Ambrose also noted that, as a sorcerer, you'd get far more mileage out of using the treasure in your deals with called entities and various item-crafting rituals than you would from its equivalent value in paper money, much less the one-quarter amount you were looking at.

As for the matter of Zelda's souvenir, you have a few options. The idea of getting her a more normally-sized version of Grack's novelty t-shirt comes to mind, as does the possibility of a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty (though you didn't visit it yourself), or one of the city's other landmark structures.

On the other hand, you have spent this day in the company of a pair of sorcerers, the senior of whom is a professional dealer in occult curios. Maybe there's something back at the Arcana Cabana that caught your eye, or that Balthazar would recommend for a little girl?

For the time being, you've decided not to liquidate any of your plunder. While this does limit your assets in the "real" world, the fact of the matter is that you can get considerably more mileage out of the coins, trinkets, and gems you took from the beach-stalking demons if you spend them in the Moonlit World and your magical deals.

You don't know exactly how the mundane and supernatural economies are interconnected, but it's a given that they ARE, somewhere. That means that gold and other treasure is likely still not going to get its full value by weight, even in the Moonlit World, but the very fact that you don't have to pay a middleman - or a series of such - for the hassle of converting it to cash easily doubles its purchasing power. Even if that's the limit of your "profits" in this arrangement, it's significant enough to be well worth it.

Besides, if something comes up that requires a sudden injection of funds on the mundane side, you'll still have the option of converting your loot at that time.

You know, as long as you haven't spent it all.

The temptation to buy Zelda a novelty t-shirt or similar inexpensive touristy items is one that you're easily able to suppress.

It helps that Balthazar has much more interesting stuff available, and that because he's part of the supernatural community, you can pay him by means other than cash. Even if he wasn't willing to accept gold or silver for some reason - and when you check, he's quite okay with both, as well as trading worked pieces and unmounted gems - as a fellow sorcerer, paying him with arcane lore or items of your own making would still be on the table.

And yes, you confirmed that as well. Though it does bear mentioning that, as a master sorcerer and professional dealer in occult paraphernalia, Balthazar has certain standards of craftsmanship and performance that any magic item would have to meet, before he'd accept it as something he could re-sell or pass along in kind. He's also willing to buy an item or two of your making purely for his own use, which you suspect would involve intense, possibly destructive analysis of said items, solely for the sake of getting a better handle on your capabilities.

As for the matter of souvenirs for a little girl, Balthazar thinks on it as he drives you all back to the Arcana Cabana later in the afternoon, before simply saying, "I might have a few things."

Upon your return to the shop, Balthazar begins moving from shelf to rack to display case and then back again, muttering to himself all the while.

"No... no... that could work... definitely not... maybe when she's older... why do I even have this?"

You're a bit reminded of how you've seen Gen behave when he's collecting items to fill a client's order. The main difference is that, instead of gathering everything up in a basket, Balthazar casts a minor Spell of Telekinesis on the items that earn his tentative approval, sending them floating over to the main counter.

In this fashion, the master sorcerer has soon gathered half a dozen objects of a decidedly eclectic nature, which he proceeds to give you a run-down on.

First is an old-fashioned princess doll, about six inches tall, carved from wood, and clad in a pretty blue dress that Balthazar informs you was hand-stitched. Minor spells have been woven into the figurine to preserve it against wear and tear, allow it to change the color of its hair, eyes, and gown - he demonstrates by shifting the doll from its default brunette to blonde and then redhead, and the gown from blue to green to gold - and to "sing" a sweet, simple, wordless tune.

Next is a half-handful of tiny crystals, the largest barely the size of your smallest fingernail, all set in a wire lattice. When Balthazar holds it up by the topmost wire, the crystals begin to turn slowly about, casting a tiny kaleidoscope of fractured reflections all about while sighing like tiny windchimes or a particularly bubbly stream.

As if to deliberately contrast with the first two objects, the third is one of those pin-back buttons with the "I New York" slogan on it. What sets this particular item apart from its peers is the enchantment worked into it, which causes the thing to play an instrumental rendition of "New York, New York" when it's worn and pressed.

After that comes a rather literal whiteboard, the central portion of which is twelve inches to a side, with a border two inches thick at the top, a quarter that to either side, and four inches wide at the bottom. The bottom of the board is taken up by an extensive color pallette, dozens of tiny squares an eighth of an inch across, each one a subtly different shade from its neighbors in the same row. The companion marker, clipped to the top of the board and attached by means of an elastic cord, is able to take on any of these colors simply by being tapped to them, and the board can erase itself.

Balthazar's last two selections are of a decidedly more practical nature, despite their forms. The first of these is a metal bangle set with glittery faux-crystal stones, the sort of thing regularly found in toy jewelry, except that it bears a Spell of Mage Armor. The other is a necklace strung with more of the sparkly crystals, and has a Spell of Protection From Evil.

"You do live on the Hellmouth," Balthazar says, when you identify those particular magics.

Considering how free you are with your use of sensory effects, and that you've personally examined various individuals' magic items as a means of acquiring valuable information in the past, you'd be quite the little hypocrite to condemn Balthazar for doing the exact same thing.

Especially when he's willing to PAY you for the privilege.

Only two of Balthazar's suggested items really catch your attention, these being the colorful whiteboard and the warding necklace. Of the two, the Illusion-infused pad and attached marker are by far the more attractive option. They're the kind of gift that Zelda would be able to have fun with, as opposed to something that, while pretty - in the cutesy manner of toy jewelry - doesn't really DO anything as far as your average two-going-on-three year-old is concerned.

Plus, you're a little worried by how easy it is to read the necklace's magical signature; even taking your own excellent Mage Sight into account, the enchantments don't appear to have been suppressed. That's actually true for all of this stuff, but the whiteboard, at least, could be left at home without diminishing its value as a present. Zelda would need to wear the necklace everywhere she went for it to be of any use, and that could easily lead to the visible magical aura drawing attention to her.

So, yeah. You'll go with the magical coloring board.

That brings you to the matter of payment, which has Balthazar putting away the rest of the items, and getting out an old-fashioned set of scales, a worn booklet, a copy of this morning's newspaper, and several small tools you don't know the technical names for. The scales and the tools are imbued with strong Divination Magic, and weaker levels of Abjuration Magic - probably simple spells to reduce wear and tear.

As the elder sorcerer explains, pointing to the business section of the paper, the current value of silver is about $5 to the ounce, while gold is around $300 per ounce. When you produce some of your looted coins, Balthazar weighs them on the scale, measures them with some of his tools, and says that they're about a third of an ounce each. So that's $5 for every three silver coins, and $100 per gold coin. More than enough to pay for Zelda's present, if you wanted to.

Another option would be to pay Balthazar with some of the jewelry you recovered from the tidehounds. None of what you found was enchanted, but there's a display case behind the Arcana Cabana's main counter that holds an assortment of similar pieces. Given the theme of the shop, each one likely has a suitably-supernatural story attached to it, like "worn by a sorcerer," "crafted by a Fae artisan," or "fashioned from gold stolen from a dragon."

You expect that "recovered from the lair of a pack of amphibious demons" would fit in just fine in such company, and when you bring up the idea, along with a silver ring set with a small blue stone, Balthazar agrees. He does mention that he'd need a few days to properly assess the pieces, before he could give you fair value for them.

And then, of course, there's the option of paying Balthazar with one or more magic items of your own making. Seeing as how he's a sorcerer himself, you'd be served just fine by making some minor trinket that only a fellow magic-user would be able to activate, saving yourself time and money.

The idea of exchanging a magic item of your own making for one of Balthazar's wares holds some appeal, but honestly, you'd rather pay for your purchase here and now, and be done with it.

With that in mind, you reach into your dimensional pocket and start counting out coins.

Spent 45 silver coins
Gained Colorful Whiteboard

Now that your transaction is complete, it's time for you, Briar, and Lu-sensei to return to Sunnydale. Balthazar plays the role of a good guide to the end, driving your group back to the car park where he'd originally had his Phantom waiting, and then escorting you - along with Dave - back up to the roof of the skyscraper where you first arrived.

"You might want to avoid New York for a few weeks, while I sort out the matter of our supernatural vigilantes," Balthazar advises. "Once that's been cleared up, though, we'd be delighted to have you visit again."

"Yeah, we could do another round of touring the city," Dave says. "Or maybe take a day-trip to the Natural History Museum or the Smithsonian. Lots of stuff to see, people to meet..."

"Monsters to have fights with," Briar interjects.

"...yeah, that, too..."

After saying your goodbyes, you cast the Spell of Teleportation, and return to Sunnydale.

Zelda is delighted by her gift, and promptly starts making good use of it.

Your parents don't object to the spontaneous present, but they are a little startled to hear that you spent seventy-five dollars on it - and also that you have another thousand dollars worth of silver and gold left to spend, and that only counting the coinage.

They agree that it IS your money to spend, they just want you not to get carried away with doing so.

No sooner is your trip to New York over with, than you receive another invitation from Kahlua. This time, she's asking you if you'd like to attend a Hallowe'en party.

As Kahlua explains in her attached letter, All Hallows' Eve isn't typically celebrated in Japan, except among resident Westerners, but it's moderately popular on the supernatural side. Some of this is due to European monster families like the Shuzens, who brought their holidays with them when they emigrated and have kept the practices going since, but a fair share of the credit has to be given to kitsune, tanuki, and other such youkai, who - to absolutely no one's surprise, including yours - latched on to the practice of trick-or-treating right from the start.

Because why wouldn't they? It's a standing invitation to show up and play pranks on people if they don't give you free snacks. What trickster worth the name could turn that down?

The older customs have also caught on in some quarters, but Kahlua doesn't go into detail about those, beyond mentioning that they exist. You get the impression that she doesn't really know or care all that much about them herself - which, given she's your age and there is free candy to consider, you can understand.

Interestingly enough, the party will not be held at Castle Shuzen, but in a community center that's been rented and outfitted for the occasion, and which is far more conveniently placed for "the genuine trick-or-treating experience." Said experience would begin around six, with the party running in tandem and people showing up for it when they feel they've got enough candy, have played enough pranks, or need to take a breather and rest their feet for a bit.

Hallowe'en falls on a Sunday this year, and Kahlua's party would start at about two am, Sunnydale time. Given the time difference, Kahlua is offering to put you up at Castle Shuzen again the day before. She also mentions that if there's anyone you'd like to bring to the party-

"Such as, for example, a little redheaded sister, or even that Cordelia girl," the letter not-so-subtly hints.

-she can make rooms available. For that matter, if there's anyone in Japan you'd like to see again-

"I've already written to Tatsuki."

-you could invite them to show up at the party.

You consider this invitation.

What Kahlua's letter describes of the Japanese Moonlit World's take on Hallowe'en is very similar to the mundane observance of the holiday you're used to, with a little foreign flavor. This makes it sound like a good opportunity to bring your family, in-the-know human friends, and monster friends together on common ground.

First thing's first, however. You need to check with your parents and see if you'll be allowed to go, and you need to do so without tipping Zelda off about it - if only for the sake of peace in the house.

It's somewhat convenient, then, that Zelda has started attending daycare, two or three days a week. Your parents broached the subject with you towards the end of summer, wanting you to check and make sure the place they had in mind would be safe, and you were pleased to report that it is. Building and staff alike came up clean of demonic corruption or magical influence, aside from the "normal" levels of such that arise from living in Sunnydale. Zelda's taken to the change of routine well enough - the opportunity to play with other kids her age more often helped there - and once it was clear that she was comfortable with the new arrangement, your mother started picking up a few more day shifts at the hospital, with the intention of going back to work full-time, once Zelda is fully settled into daycare.

As it happens, your mother doesn't have any shifts on the Monday immediately following the Postman's latest delivery, and you're able to show her the invitation after you get home from school.

"A Hallowe'en party in Japan, with monsters," she says, giving you one of those confounded looks after she's read the invitation. "Starting at two in the morning, when you have school the next day."

You do have the means to deal with sleep-deprivation, you note.

"...it would be a chance for your father or I to meet some of your friends and their families face-to-face," your mother muses. "I don't think it would be a good idea to take Zelda, though."

Even though she was invited?

"Partly," your mother admits. "But that and the time difference aside, I think I'd like Zelda to be a few years older before we start asking her to keep secrets that involve breaking I don't know how many laws."

...fair point.

After class at Lu-sensei's and dinner, you and Briar take over Zelda-watching for a bit, helping her to draw a picture on her new magic board while your parents are in the other room, discussing the latest party that you've been invited to.

You give them a few days to think on it, and by Wednesday night, you have your answer. Your father is willing to go along as your chaperone and one of your guests.

With that decided, you call up the Postman to deliver letters to Emiko and Kagome, giving them a heads-up on the party and that you'll be attending. After some consideration, you send a similar letter to Lady Takara, in case Mai would like to attend.

The next day at school, you gather Amy, Cordy, and Larry up at first break and fill them in.

Amy immediately wants to go, then almost as immediately starts worrying about how she's supposed to convince her parents to let her.

Larry points out that he doesn't speak a word of Japanese, but as soon as you tell him about the Spell to Comprehend Languages and its relatives, he says he'd like to go, and that he'll see if he can get his grandmother to help him deal with his parents.

Cordelia makes you repeat the exact words Kahlua used to "invite" her in the letter, and when you pull out the letter to read off the section in question, the glare she sends at it is intense enough that you wonder if Cordy is trying to invent ki-based heat vision - and how likely it is that she'd succeed.

Despite this obvious animosity towards Kahlua, Cordelia agrees to attend.

As for your other friends in the know, you invite:

You also write a letter to Kahlua, confirming that you, your father, and Briar will be attending, and listing off the people that you've asked about accompanying you or showing up themselves.

This leaves you with a most critical matter: what are you going to wear? And by "you," do you just mean yourself, you and Briar going as a pair, or your entire party dressing to fit a theme?

A few names among your globe-spanning list of friendly contacts earn a moment's consideration, but are dismissed almost as quickly as they come. Counting yourself and Briar, you've already got six people who are at least strongly inclined to join you for the Hallowe'en party, and inviting too many more could be infringing on the Shuzens' hospitality.

Just because they have a whole castle available, it doesn't mean you HAVE to bring a small army along. Even if it is only for one night.

As for people your age that you're on good terms with, who live in Japan, are in the know about the supernatural, and could show up at the party on their own, Kahlua has already invited Tatsuki, which covers her family, Ichigo, and his family. You've written to Kagome, Emiko, and (through Lady Takara) Mai; that just leaves Ayane and Kasumi.

After a more extensive period of consideration, you decide that it's probably for the better that you not mention the costume party to the ninja girls. Not that you think the two of them would do anything untoward, but as Kahlua noted, a big part of the reason why they and their clan didn't receive an invitation to attend her birthday party, when other open enemies like the Drakes did, is that they ARE ninjas.

Besides, from your handful of in-person meetings and the ongoing letters you've been exchanging with the two girls, you get the impression that they're more traditionally Japanese. Hallowe'en probably doesn't mean anything to them, which would leave them with an invitation to a party made up mostly of disguised monsters.

You'd rather not tempt fate, is what you're saying.

All of that having been said, you do broach the topic of the party with Lu-sensei, letting him know your (tentative) plan and asking if he'd be interested in tagging along.

"You say your father is going with you?" your masters says to you, before turning to Amy, Cordelia, and Larry. "And all three of you are interested in accompanying him?"

As one, the four of you nod.

Lu-sensei considers that. "I see. Well, then; assuming that any of you can get permission to accompany Alex, it would probably be for the best that I attend this party as well. Asking Mr. Harris to take responsibility for all of you might be a bit much, and you ARE my students."

After Briar shoots down a half-hearted suggestion about the two of you dressing up as Link and Navi-

"I don't care HOW much candy there is at this thing, Alex; I am NOT going as my Mom."
Nuts.
-as well as the follow-up offer for HER to be Link and YOU to be the fairy, you decide not to go with any group themes for your Hallowe'en costumes.

Instead, you get out one of your comic books for a visual reference, withdraw into your Mirror Hideaway, and start conjuring up pieces of armor. In this task, you are guided far more by your Divination Magic than by your own knowledge of metalwork and armorsmithing, but you don't let that discourage you, and simply take notes while allowing the flow of information to direct your magic.

Gained Knowledge (Armor) F (Plus) (Plus)

Once the armor is complete, you conjure a green tunic and matching robe, and then set about donning each piece in turn.

Feet and legs slide into sabatons and greaves. Poleyns fitted about the knees, and cuisses to cover the thighs. Cuirass over the torso, faulds over the waist and hips, and then the tunic over those, before donning the vambraces on the arms, the pauldrons atop the shoulders, and an open-faced helm for the head. Then the cloak, with its hood raised, and next-to-last, the gauntlets on each hand.

Finally, near fully-attired, you conjure the final piece of the costume - an iron mask, covering the full face but for the eyes. This, you don last, before regarding your reflection in the mirrored walls.

...

"This pleases Doom," you proclaim, voice echoing within steel.

Gained Armor Proficiency E (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Doctor Doom Hallowe'en Costume

"Can you even see through that mask?" Briar wonders. "Heck, can you breathe?"

You turn to regard the fairy, and note as you do so that yes, the mask's eye-slits DO limit your field of vision. You'll have to keep that in mind when you're wearing this thing. As for breathing, the armor is hardly air-tight, and the mask's shapeless "mouth" is large enough that you should have plenty of direct air flow there. That said, you might want to test it out, maybe widen the mouth or add some "nostrils" to the mask...

"This is but a prototype. Doom shall refine his works."

"Aaaand here we go with the hammy acting," Briar sighs. Her voice is just quiet enough that she could claim she didn't say anything, or at least that you weren't supposed to hear it, while also being loud enough to make it apparent that you WERE supposed to hear it.

"Your tone implies doubt in and disagreement with Doom, minion." Looming menacingly, you lower your tone to a growl. "Doom finds your lack of faith... disturbing."

"Oi, stop stealing lines from other franchises!"

"Doom shall do as Doom pleases! And Doom does not 'steal lines'! Doom grants those that are worthy the honor of being recited by Doom!"

While you and Briar bicker over your method, you get on with testing and refining your armor. A few minutes of walking around and performing katas reveals that, despite your use of the Spell of the Masterwork Transformation during the spell-forging process, several pieces of your armor are flawed. More precisely, each part is well-crafted individually, but now that you're wearing them as a complete set, this one proves to be too long, that one too wide, and these too thick, clanking and grinding against their neighbors where they should smoothly overlap.

You sort that out, reshaping the offending portions of your costume until they work together properly, and then polishing the rough edges.

Gained Knowledge (Armor) F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

You briefly consider adding enchantments to the armor, but decide that this would be going entirely too far for a simple costume. Instead, you widen the eyes of the mask a bit, and test out a Spell of Wind Elementalism for the proper aesthetic.

Your first casting is a bit of a misfire. The cape doesn't billow menacingly, so much as it's blown up over your head.

"Treacherous garment! Serve the will of Doom, or be destroyed!"

Eventually, you work out how much force to use - and not to use - for the desired effect. It's not a new spell or anything, just a precise application of an existing one.

...

"You're wondering if there's a secret book of cosmetic spells for Dark Lords, aren't you?" Briar observes.

"...perhaps."

You have to admit to a certain lack of inspiration when it comes to costumes for your partner, father, friends, and teacher. So you simply ask them what they'd like to wear to the party, and let it be known that you're willing to fabricate costumes and accessories.

After seeing your Doctor Doom outfit, your father is easily convinced to "commission" an outfit. His choice of costume is a classic hard-bitten film noir gumshoe, with a rumpled suit, weatherbeaten trench coat, battered fedora, and scuffed shoes. Combined with his own once-athletic, now somewhat worn-down physique, Tony carries the look off rather well.

Cordelia is next on the list, coming over after a couple of days of what she tersely describes as "research" with an image of what appears to be a woman in a manga you haven't read. She goes with a black blazer and matching dress pants, a white buttoned shirt, black shoes, a red cravat, a pair of circular wire-rimmed glasses, and a dark green trench coat - MUCH nicer than the one your father asked for. You also conjure up a long, pale blonde wig. The character in question is darker-skinned than Cordelia, but she says she can manage that with cosmetics.

You're still working on getting Cordelia's costume done to her satisfaction when Larry and Lily Blaisdell turn up. Having convinced his parents to let him attend the party, with the caveat that his grandmother has to go along to keep him out of trouble, Larry's got his heart set on attending as a Jedi - thank you, Phantom Menace. Lily goes along with that by asking for a costume based on a character from the Original Trilogy, the Rebel leader Mon Mothma, who is (or will be) a Republic Senator during the period depicted in the new film and its planned sequels.

The robes and such are easy. The lightsaber, on the other hand...

Lu-sensei passes on the offer of a costume, saying that he's got a few things laying around that he can use.

Briar dithers with her choice of costume, complaining about the lack of good options for little people, and how she is SO not going as Tinkerbell. In the end, she asks you to create a white dress, a tiny harp, and a little gold halo.

Hearing the request, you ask your partner if she wouldn't prefer a red outfit, pitchfork, and horns instead.

"Brat, I will hex you."

"Just making my point for me, Briar."

And of course, once it becomes clear that you're making costumes, Zelda is very insistent about getting one for herself. You don't mind, of course, but your little sister has a hard time making up her mind about whether she wants to dress up as a princess, a fairy, a pro wrestler, a superhero, a fuzzy cat person - the list goes on for quite a while.

Gained Tailoring D

As for Amy, she shows up on your doorstep one day with a nervous expression, and a tale of woe about how her mother is willing to let her go to the party, but only if she goes along to chaperone.

You have to admit, the prospect of building your own magic laser-swords is a genuinely tempting one, even if they would just be perfectly harmless Illusion-based replicas, rather than full-fledged "cut through almost anything and deflect energy bolts" lightsabers.

Because really, who's seen Star Wars and HASN'T wanted one of those things for their very own? Even just for a few minutes?

Still, you have to be realistic about this. Imbuing a prop hilt with a permanent Spell of Illusion that a normal person could control wouldn't exactly be cheap, especially since the specific piece of magic you'd need to use would probably be the Spell of Persistent Image, or perhaps even the Spell of Programmed Image, so that you could set various parameters like "make THAT sound when turned on," "make THESE sounds when swung in such-and-such a way," or "make THIS noise and DON'T cross through another lightsaber if you hit it." At a minimum, you'd be looking at a pricetag of a thousand dollars - and while there are probably people who'd be willing and even eager to pay that much for a "working" lightsaber, it really is too much for a Hallowe'en costume.
It's as if a million fanboys cried out in protest, and were suddenly silenced.
Instead, you conjure a lightsaber hilt for Larry to wear with his costume as a prop, and let him know that if he wants to put on a bit of a show at the party, you're willing to oblige him by casting a Spell of Illusion to give him a temporary lightsaber - and perhaps a temporary Sith to use it on.

Larry's eyes go momentarily distant as he clutches the hilt, a great, goofy grin forming on his lips.

Looks like he may just be taking you up on that offer.

Gained Knowledge (Swords) D
Gained Pop Culture D

You're torn between bringing Catherine Madison along, and trying to get the other adults who've already volunteered to go to talk her out of it. Part of it is that ingrained habit of not being too free with the revelation of your magical abilities in Sunnydale or with people who live there, and part is just honestly thinking that you don't REALLY need one adult tagging along for every kid.

In the end, you decide to leave it up to the adults about how to arrange things. You let your father, teacher, and Larry's grandmother know about Mrs. Madison's conditional approval of letting Amy go to the party, and ask them to see if they can't talk her out of it. If she still insists on going, that's fine with you; you make sure to send another letter to Kahlua, letting her know just how many people might be accompanying you this time, whether Catherine Madison joins the group or not.

Then you ask Amy what she decided on for a costume, and if her mother needs one of her own.

As it turns out, even after talking with the other three adults, Catherine Madison still wants to come along - actually, to hear your father, Lu-sensei, and Amy talk, she just got MORE interested in going.

Given the limits of your teleportation, you're going to have to make an extra trip to get everybody to Japan, but that was already going to be necessary - and at least you won't need to make ANOTHER trip. One of these days, you may need to look into mass teleportation spells... but not today.

Also, Amy and her mother were planning to dress up as witches this year. You conjure a twig broom, large floppy-brimmed hat, poufy white blouse, and long, dark dress for Amy, and she takes it home to show her mother, to let her see the quality of your work and make a properly informed decision about whether or not she wants to outsource her costume needs to you.

A few days later, after Catherine Madison has spoken with the other adults, she and Amy turn up on your doorstep. At first glance, they're a perfectly normal pair, mother and daughter out for a visit. But if you look closer - and your senses being what they are, it's kind of hard NOT to - you notice that Catherine Madison looks really nervous about something. She's trying to hide it, but there's a tension in her stance, as if she's fighting the desire to turn around and run away, and from how she's standing slightly ahead of Amy, one hand resting on her daughter's shoulder in a perfect position to drag her away from you...

You wrack your brain for an explanation of why the more athletic than average, cheerleading-obsessed, rather strict, but otherwise ordinary mother of one of your closest human friends would be borderline terrified of you, when she's never even hinted at the like in your occasional meetings before this, but nothing comes to mind.

Amy, meanwhile, looks briefly alarmed by her mother's reaction, and then chagrined and guilty.

"...I give up. What did I do?"

There's only so long you can leave invited guests standing outside your house after you've opened the front door, without saying anything, and before you start coming across as rude. Having reached the ends of that brief, socially-acceptable delay without managing to think of some plausible explanation for why Mrs. Madison would be so spooked by your presence, you decide to just get it over with and ask directly.

"...okay," you sigh, slowly raising your hands so that they're in plain sight, clearly empty, and not shaping mana. "I give up. What did I do?"

Catherine Madison blinks, as if she wasn't expecting that.

"Uh... it's not so much what YOU did, Alex," Amy says, before stopping herself. "Well, no, it IS, but it's also the fact that I kind of... didn't exactly tell Mom about it?"

"What 'it' would that be?" you ask.

"...all of it?"

You regard her in silence for a moment, before deciding that this is going to be the kind of conversation that should not be held out-of-doors, wards or no. That decided, you step away from the door, delivering the standard Sunnydale invitation.

When her mother doesn't move, Amy reaches up to place her left hand over the hand gripping her right shoulder.

"It'll be fine, Mom," she says soothingly. "I can explain every..." She pauses. "I mean, I can explain some things. But I'm not even going to try to explain Alex."
Smart girl.
Catherine gives her daughter a wry look. "That's not the most reassuring opening, Amy."

She does, however, allow herself to be guided into your house, only flinching slightly when she crosses the threshold proper - and then, at least half the fear falls away, replaced by surprise and wonder as she looks around at the interior of your house.

"It's so clean," Catherine murmurs.

You look around, see the usual loosely-organized disarray of shoes and jackets, as well as the front hall carpet that could honestly stand to be deep-cleaned, and get the distinct impression that it's not your family's collective housekeeping skills that Mrs. Madison is referring to.

The story that eventually comes out, over fruit juice in the living room, is that Catherine Madison is actually a practicing witch - a follower of the Goddess Hecate, to be precise. She proves this by drawing a necklace chain out from under her blouse, revealing a small silver pendant that displays two upright torches, about which swirl smoke or phantoms. When Catherine murmurs a word in a language you don't recognize, the seemingly-mundane pendant flashes with mana - and suddenly, you can see an entirely different aura about it and its owner.

Dark, is your first thought. The mystical energy that runs through and clings to Catherine is that indeed, whispering of the sort of divinity that you'd prefer to avoid dealing with where possible, and would definitely rather not cross. Divination, Necromancy, and Transformation are foremost and quite potent, with Abjuration and Enchantment not far behind.
Hail, Lady Hecate.
There's also a worrying streak of corruption in Mrs. Madison's system. It's not as strong as yours was, before the Hakubas cleaned the worst of the crud out of your system, but it's getting there, and it's been there for a while.
Greetings, Golden Sisters.
The good news is that the corruption is standard-issue Hellmouth crud, and isn't specifically arising from Mrs. Madison's use of magic. If anything, having a genuine goddess fueling her magic - even a scary one like Hecate - seems to have helped Catherine Madison hold the demonic taint at bay. Just... not perfectly.

Now that you're aware of Mrs. Madison's magical talent, the rest of the story quickly falls into place. She's been using that medallion - which is enchanted with the Spell to Mask Auras - to conceal herself from the denizens of the Hellmouth, which technically includes you. And it worked, at least against your passive senses. If you'd ever tried to directly and actively scan the woman, things would have changed, but you don't exactly run into Mrs. Madison that often, and after your first meeting with Navi, you've tried to avoid doing deep scans on your friends' family members.

For her part, Catherine was aware that you had some magical talent, and were practicing with Amy. Since you were just working off of your native reserves, and not calling on any gods, demons, or other entities for power, she didn't have a problem with it, and left you to it. But as a result, she kind of badly underestimated just how fast and how far your capabilities had grown.

"And then Amy brought home a costume made entirely of conjured cloth," you say, with a nod. "Which she told you I made for her."

"Exactly. Not that I couldn't do something similar, but it would take me a lot more effort than it seems to take you, and the work wouldn't even last half a day."

Finding out that her daughter had been gifted an outfit made of permanent magically-conjured materials was enough to get Catherine's suspicions going, so she had a Spell to Detect Magic running when she approached your house. Ambrose's wards slipped by unnoticed, as they were designed to, but once you opened the door...

Your Mana Concealment and other aura suppression techniques are good, but you can't use them at full strength all the time. It's a lot like exercising a muscle; no matter how minor the exertion or how capable you are of maintaining it, sooner or later, you simply have to rest. And if you can't relax a little even when you're in the privacy of your own home, where can you?

Besides, those suppression techniques aren't fully effective against actual Divination Magic, especially when the magic is being used by someone who has a few decades of experience on you. At least in this lifetime. If you were channeling more of Ganondorf's experience in such matters, it'd be a different story, but that would raise a whole host of other problems, which really wouldn't be worth it.

And then there's all the other stuff BESIDES magic that's present in your aura these days. Getting a clear, magically-assisted look at divine favor, intensive ki training, growing Fae influence, on top of the raging bonfire that is your magic...

Yeah. You can see why Mrs. Madison might have flinched when she laid eyes on you.

Anyway, there is a silver lining in all of this, and it's that Amy has shown herself to be pretty good at keeping people's secrets. She just needs to work on how she goes about revealing those secrets.

Like, a lot.

As your dialogue with Catherine Madison progresses, you hunt around for a polite way to bring up the less-than-sterling state of her soul.

Then an idea occurs to you.

"Before we get on with the fitting," you say, "I think I should bring you up to speed on the party and, well, everything regarding it, just so that there aren't any more surprises..."

You proceed to explain that the people hosting the party are a family of living vampires who reside in Japan, that your group would be spending the night before the party at their residence, and that you were personally handling the travel arrangements, using magic.

As it happens, Catherine Madison knows of Kahlua's type of vampire, albeit from books and hearsay rather than personal experience. She is not exactly thrilled at the idea of being their guest, but is somewhat comforted to hear that this would be the second time you've stayed over at the Shuzens', and that the first visit passed without any of your hosts trying to eat you.

The key point comes when you explain how, the last time you visited the Shuzens, they requested that you stop by an affiliated shrine, in order to undergo a purification ritual that would clear the worst of the spiritual corruption that comes from living on top of the Hellmouth out of your system. You phrase things in such a way as to play up your own failure to keep yourself sufficiently cleansed, as well as just how seriously the Shuzens take the security and health of their family - that thought-exercise of curses traveling over phonelines makes a reappearance here - without making it sound like a personal attack on anyone involved.

Catherine accepts your explanation. In fact, she sounds honestly curious to meet the Hakubas and see how they do things when it comes to purification rituals.

"I've never traveled farther than Hawaii," she explains, "much less had a chance to watch another magical tradition in action. This could be really educational."

When you try to conclude your conversation by explaining that you'll be teleporting your party to Japan, however, Catherine spends a long moment staring at you, before launching into a thorough quiz on Summoning Magic in general, the specific mechanics of teleportation in particular, and whether or not you've had any "accidents."

You answer her questions to the best of your ability, and after about fifteen minutes of intense discussion, during which Amy and Briar have started to look bored and fidget while you and Mrs. Madison talk shop, the housewitch has shifted gears from "concerned authority" to "interested peer."

Another quarter of an hour on, and Amy and Briar have left you to your debate in favor of finding something more interesting to do. Catherine, meanwhile, has borrowed a pencil and paper and started taking notes, as she moves into "eager student" territory.

This is the scene to which your mother returns home from work and picking up Zelda.

"Ah... hello, Catherine," she says, looking between the two of you with honest confusion. "What brings you over?"

"Hello, Jessica," Mrs. Madison replies. "I'm just here to confirm some things about the party Alex has invited Amy to join him at, and to pick up a costume for myself."

"Oh. So, you know about... everything?"

"The vampires, the magic, and all that? Yes."

"And you're okay with it?"

Catherine smiles, and summons up a little sparking ball of magic over her palm. "Witch, dear."

"Cool!" Zelda exclaims.

Your mother blinks. "For how long?"

"I started learning in junior high."

"...huh." Then your mother frowns. "Wait a minute. Does that mean that time David broke up with you, and then-" Your mother waves one hand in front of her face, indicating... something.

"Actually, that was my grandmother." Catherine glances at you and Zelda, and then looks back at your mother. "Let's just say, she didn't approve of him."

"And the mice in Julie's desk?"

"Okay, that WAS me, but can you blame me?"

Your mother shakes her head. "She was an awful bi-rat."

You perk up at that, and raise a hand. "Does that mean-"

"No casting hexes on your classmates, Alex," your mother says firmly.

Darn.

Anyway, with your major concern addressed, you get on with the matter of fitting Catherine for her costume. It's basically just a scaled-up version of Amy's costume, with a few different cuts here and there to account for the obvious differences between a girl of nine and a grown woman.

And that, as they say, is that.

Yeah, this is probably not the best time to bring that up. Not just because it would be a little unfair to Kahlua - who was ONLY tempted, and then only when you were actually bleeding - but also because you prefer not to bring up how you got slashed by something as pathetic as a skeleton.

After seeing the Madisons off, you run down a mental checklist of things that need to get done for the Shuzens' Hallowe'en party.

You've just finished making sure that you and all your fellow guests have costumes, and ones that look better than the average outfit available from Party Town, if you do say so yourself. As a nice bonus, making them didn't cost you a thing except for time and mana.

That's one down.

The next thing you need to do is send off a final head count for the people who will be accompanying you. You get on that right away, calling up the Postman for a rush delivery, and get a swift reply back from Kahlua that arrangements have been made with the Hakubas, cars will be waiting to pick you up outside the shrine, and she'll have rooms ready for everyone at the castle.

That's two down.

The travel arrangements are already covered. Fortunately, it's just an overnight stay, so nobody needs to bring more than a single piece of luggage, and consequently, no one will even begin to be pushing the carry-on limits of your teleportation magic. They're pretty generous, really.

That's three down, and that leaves...

...ah, yes.

Language.

You, Briar, Cordelia, and Lu-sensei all speak Japanese. Larry and Amy have picked up a few words over the last half a year or so, but they aren't really at a conversational level, and while you're uncertain how much - if any - of the language that Lily Baisdell and Catherine Madison comprehend, you know that your dad's grasp of Japanese is next to non-existent.

That just won't do.

Fortunately, you have the spells necessary to address this problem.

As it happens, so does Mrs. Madison. While she can't cast them quite so casually as you are able to, she's still able to spend a couple of hours each day for the week leading up to October 31st testing herself and Amy at home, building up their natural grasp of the language for the party to come. From what Amy tells you at school, her father got dragged into the magically-assisted lessons as well, and has been walking around looking mildly dazed and rather thoughtful ever since they started, while her mother manages to seem simultaneously smug and embarrassed.

Amy has no idea what's going on there, and you have to confess to puzzlement yourself.

Your own family also gets in on the daily practice, filling up the late afternoons and evenings with chatter - not that Zelda wouldn't do that anyway, but the prospect of "helping Daddy do his lessons and get smart!" appeals to her.

Your mother seems to be taking a slightly longer view of things, preparing for the day when she ends up meeting your friends overseas.

When you point out that the fluency provided by your magic is temporary at best, unless backed up by regular use, your mother says that she can spare a couple of hours a night, especially for the sake of helping the rest of the family to broaden their horizons.

That just leaves the Blaisdells. For her part, Lily just plain isn't interested in learning a new language at her age, no matter how easy you can make the process.

Larry does want to learn, and you do your best to oblige him: you, Briar, and Cordelia use your existing fluency and some carefully-suppressed spellcasting at school; Lu-sensei obligingly allows the use of Japanese in his classes, with some of your fellow students getting in on it; and Larry visits your house a few times over the week to join in your ongoing lessons.

It helps, but at the end of things, there's a decided gap between Larry's grasp of Japanese and the level of fluency that the Madisons and your father have managed to achieve in the same timeframe. It's conversation-level for a kid about his age, but a little slower and rather less natural sounding.

Maybe you should just cast a translation spell for him and his grandmother and be done with it?

On Saturday, October 30th, at around three in the afternoon, a couple of cars leave different houses in Sunnydale and begin making their way out of town, heading for the abandoned gas station. You, Briar, and Lu-sensei are there ahead of the others, both to make sure nothing's decided to nest in the run-down building since your last visit - nothing has - and also because the cars were getting a little crowded, and it was just easier for you head out here on foot.

Your folks, Zelda, and the two Blaisdells exit from your family car, which your mother will be driving home with Zelda once the rest of you are safely on your way. Similarly, Cordelia hitched a ride with the Madisons in THEIR sedan, which Mr. Madison will be taking on to L.A.

Once everyone is prepared, you have Cordelia, Lu-sensei, and your dad form a circle with you: the first two, because they've traveled with you via teleportation before; and your father because he knows your mom has done this herself, and he trusts you. Plus, this way will let Catherine Madison see what you're doing ahead of time, giving her the chance to change her mind.

One general spell of "not going mad from the revelation" later, you have everyone in the circle join hands, make sure Briar is firmly in her place on your shoulder, and then gather your mana and begin the Ritual of Teleportation-

-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near/distant green energy/presence hey he's new-

-which drops you just outside the front gate of the Hakuba Shrine. The handful of weekend morning pedestrians seem to be mostly politely ignoring the presence of the fine vehicles, although you think you catch a curious or envious look here and there.

"Huh," your father says. "Well, that was... very green."

"And none of us went nuts this time," Cordelia observes brightly. "Progress."

"...what."

You give your friend an annoyed look.

As Kahlua promised, a couple of cars are parked and waiting down at the foot of the long stair, along with drivers.

Standing just outside the gate, with Hakuba Ichirou to one side as if they'd just been speaking, is a man you think you recognize from your last visit to the Shuzens' - one of their security people.

He looks your group over, frowns slightly, and says, "Welcome back to Japan, Mr. Harris, Master Lu, Miss Briar. I was informed there would be nine guests in total. Has there been a change of plans?"

"No, sir," you answer. "I just need to make a second trip to get the others."

And you get on with that promptly. Since you don't want to hold things up any longer than you absolutely have to, you skip the ritual format and just cast the Spell of Teleportation directly. Also, as it's just you and Briar making the trans-oceanic trip this time, you remove the parameters of the spell that allow for passengers, saving a little energy-

-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near/distant green energy/presence back again?-

-by effectively making it a Spell of Self-Teleportation.

Self and Familiar, if you wanted to be picky.

And seven minutes later-

-flying/falling/sinking through a strange space/medium/awareness filled with familiar shapes/alien geometries and faint/loud chorus/discordance and a near/distant green energy/presence even more new ones-

-you're back with the rest of your party.

Catherine Madison blinks several times, and then turns to face you. "I'm far from an expert on teleportation," she acknowledges slowly, "but I never read or heard anything about green voices in the aether being part of it."

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh," you say hesitantly. "That's... kind of a thing."

"A thing," she repeats.

Before teleporting back to Tokyo with the Blaisdells and the Madisons, you ask Lily and Larry if they'd like you to cast a translation spell to smoothe over their interactions with the people you're about to go meet.

Lily has no argument with that-

"Just because I'm old and set in my ways doesn't mean I can't still recognize a good thing when I see it."

-and after some consideration, neither does Larry.

As you don't need the polyglotism granted by the Spell of Tongues, you're able to adjust the spell for a more focused and much longer-lasting effect - at a guess, you'd say that a single casting should run for a good sixteen hours. In other words, a full normal day of activity. You cast the resulting modified magic on Lily, then Larry, and then proceed to cast your pre-teleport sanity-preservation spell.

Keeping it brief, you explain to Mrs. Madison that your personal magic has a few quirks, one of which is that you and your passengers are more aware of the other-dimensional space that teleportation magic accesses, than would normally be the case. You emphasize that you've spoken with a professional wizard about this, and his conclusion was that it's not the spells themselves that are the problem, but something about your personal metaphysical make-up.

Also, based on the fact that the green entity appears to be native to the Astral Side and has yet to take any action you'd even remotely consider hostile, his recommendation was to do what you've been doing, and take sensible, mind-protecting precautions whenever you make use of large-scale, long-range teleports.

You're leaving out quite a bit, of course, but you only became aware that Catherine Madison knew about the supernatural a week ago. Amy's mother or not, seasoned witch or not, you're not going to trust her with all your secrets right off the mark.

Which isn't to say that Catherine doesn't make a good effort to wrangle some more detailed answers out of you, but between your own conversational skills and the distraction of being at the Hakuba Shrine, you manage to avoid giving anything away, or even letting on that there is more TO give away.

Gained Young King B (Plus)

Speaking of the shrine, it looks and feels much better after a couple of months' worth of cleansing rituals than it did in the wake of the eclipse of doom. You're still not sure what the Hakubas' contribution to Dracula's defeat actually was - friends or not, they've not volunteered anything on the subject, and you've avoided pressing - but the lingering shadows their efforts cast all over the shrine are vastly reduced now. You can still sense the darkness, faintly, but you're ridiculous when it comes to sensory skills, and the priests are still working on it anyway.

As for the Hakubas themselves, Ginta and Ichirou were already completely recovered from the physical injuries they sustained at Castle Dracula, thanks to the assistance of Ro the Firebird and THUNDERBIRD. The spiritual stress they endured took a bit longer to clear up - even with the best of intentions, you can only poke at a soul so much before you start doing more harm than good - and as for the emotional fallout...

Ichirou seems quieter than he was before, more sure of himself in some ways and yet prone to checking his surroundings - though the latter trait has faded as the aura of evil power lingering around the shrine grounds has diminished. He's also been spending more time with Miss Suzuka, enough that several of your visits have found neither of them on-site, even though previously, you were pretty much guaranteed to see at least one of them here.

Ginta was also affected. By and large, he's still the somewhat gruff man you originally met, but there was one day when you saw him talking earnestly with another man, a few years his junior, who looked enough like him that they almost had to be brothers - the "uncle" you recall Ichirou mentioning once, as someone his father didn't get along with very well.

Even Koujiro, who was left comatose as a result of whatever ritual the priests worked on that day, has made a complete recovery. Your regular visits the Rho were a great help there, speeding up the old man's recovery so much that he was released from hospital after about three weeks, when previously, the doctors weren't sure if he'd ever wake up. Spiritually, the old man has likewise recovered - or at least, he's recovered as much as he can.

Soul-deep wounds are frightening things. Even when fully healed, they leave marks.

Not that Koujiro has been crippled in any way, but he's an old man, and you think that he's much more keenly aware of that fact now than he was before the eclipse. In any case, he's been handing more of his duties around the shrine over to Ginta - who has likewise passed some of his previous responsibilities down to Ichirou - in an obvious preparation for eventual retirement.

But for now, at least, Koujiro is still the head priest of the Hakuba Shrine, and he, his son, his grandson, and Miss Suzuka are once again all in attendance for this series of purification rituals.

Koujiro gives you a look, and waggles the family's sheathed heirloom sword at you once, in silent, teasing warning.

No explosions, he's half-saying, half-asking.

You wonder if you should volunteer to go first, so that everyone else can see how these purifications are done, or if you should hold off for a bit. You're not PLANNING to have another spiritual explosion or anything, and between your Corruption Resistance, strict - dare you say, religious? - observance of regular purification rituals, and the removal of that warped and tainted false bond with Briar and its replacement with a genuine familiar bond, it's extremely unlikely that it would happen anyway.

Still. "Extremely unlikely" is not the same thing as "completely impossible."

You decide to go first.

After all, a King leads.

Also, if there IS going to be another complication when the Hakubas attempt to purify you, it's for the best that you get it out of the way now, while the priests are fresh and best-able to deal with it.

Right?

Right.

You proceed to demonstrate for your father, friends, and other guests how to prepare for the purification ritual, and then enter the front room of the shrine.

As you do, your gaze is drawn to the notch in the ceiling, where the Hakubas' heirloom blade ended up the last time you did this.

The three priests follow your gaze.

"Round two?" Ichirou suggests.

You reach out and knock on the nearest of the wooden columns for good luck, before taking your place.

The ritual begins.

Unlike last time, where the sensation of cleansing magic sweeping through your metaphysical being started out akin to being scrubbed by hard, bristly brushes and quickly escalated to being worked over by rasping files and mining picks, this application of the Hakubas' purification never goes beyond the "vigorous brushing" stage. It's also devoid of the spiritual visions you endured the last time, and the Raging Boar doesn't so much as grunt the entire time.

And then Koujiro draws the sword with an air of ceremonial gravity, raises it above his head, and slowly brings it down towards you, stopping the "cut" about halfway.

With a final rush of holy power that you envisage as a quick, cool flow of water, carrying away the detritus, the ritual ends.

"...is that it?" you venture cautiously.

"Yes," the head priest says, looking pleased. "And for the record, Alexander, THAT is how a purification ritual is SUPPOSED to go."

Good to know.

You question the priests about your overall condition, and learn that your own efforts at warding off and cleansing the Hellmouth's taint have more or less broken even over the months since your eventful first visit to the Hakuba Shrine. You have to give some of the credit to Ambrose's wards, of course, which have been maintaining your house as a taint-free environment - or as close to it as anywhere in Sunnydale can become - but it's good to know that as long as you continue to take reasonable precautions, you're in no danger of picking up another massive layer of demonic crud on your soul.

That still leaves the deep-rooted taint the Hakubas couldn't get at the last time, and which they didn't attempt to purge on this occasion. That stuff is sunk deep enough that getting it out would require another round of prolonged and intense purification, and given how it worked out before, the priests are... mildly reluctant to make the attempt.

They DO have a full morning of work ahead of them as it is, and you're just as happy not to experience something digging into your soul like that again.

Speaking of the rest of your group, once your purification is over, Larry steps forward to be the next to undergo the ritual. He's cleansed with no issue, and is followed by his grandmother, who's in there with the priests somewhat longer than either you or her grandson were, but who also emerges without any mystical fireworks.

Maybe it's your imagination, but Lily Blaisdell seems to stand a little straighter on her way out of the shrine building than she did going in. Certainly, her aura is brighter than it was, over half a century of life on the Hellmouth having taken its toll.

The Madisons both regard the older woman with surprise, and in Catherine's case, some worry.

Your father goes next, and like Mrs. Blaisdell, he comes out looking better than you think you've ever seen him - or he would, if not for the concerned frown he's wearing.

"What's wrong, Dad?" you ask.

"...I feel good, Alex," he says, with none of the enthusiasm that should accompany such a statement. "I mean, I feel GREAT. Better than I have in years. And... the reason I didn't before now is because of where we live. That's... I knew Sunnydale was bad news, but there's knowing something in your head, and then there's... KNOWING it." He thumps his chest, just over the heart. "Right here. You get what I mean?"

Sad to say, but you do.

Part of you - the part that's been speculating about getting your family the heck OFF the Hellmouth - really wants to take the chance to pursue this line of thought with your father.

Another thinks it might be a good idea to let him come to terms with his little revelation, before pressing him about it.

And a third part notices that Cordelia is next in line to take part in the ritual, and recalls that she's under a divine curse.

...did you ever tell the Hakubas about that?

...

You don't think you did.

Rather than get into a discussion about the risks of living in Sunnydale and the prospects of moving elsewhere, you opt to let your father think privately on the matter for the time being.

You can always talk to him about it later. It's not like you'd be able to take action immediately anyway, regardless of what - if any - conclusions or decisions the two of you might reach, especially since your mother would still have to weigh in on the matter.

Speaking of whom, you make a mental note to see about bringing your mother to the Hakuba Shrine for a purification ritual one of these days. If the reactions of Mrs. Blaisdell and your father are any indication, she'd really benefit from it.

Zelda is young enough and benefits enough from your home's defenses that she can probably go without a purification for a few more years. By that time, she ought to have enough self-control to sit still for the duration of the ritual, which is something you're honestly not sure she's capable of right now.

Getting back to the matter at hand, talking with your father about your family's living conditions and possible changes thereof isn't likely to result in explosions or other nastiness if you leave it unaddressed for the next little while.

Cordelia's situation, on the other hand...

Leaving your father to his thoughts, you make your way over to where Cordelia is just finishing up with the washing ritual. The other members of your group who've undergone the purification so far are gathering over by a table near the house, where Hakuba Kanna and her mother-in-law Atsuko are laying out a breakfast buffet.

Having just lifted the ladle of well-water to her lips, Cordelia looks at you over the rim of the bowl, her expression curious.

"I should have considered this sooner," you begin, half-apologetically, "but there's a chance that the priests will detect your spiritual problem while they're performing the ritual."

Sloshing water around in her mouth, Cordelia gives you a flat look, asking if you thought she hadn't thought of that little wrinkle herself.

You raise your hands. "I'm just saying, the last time I saw the Hakubas run into an unexpected spiritual presence during a purification, it ended in an explosion."

Cordelia rolls her eyes, completely unsurprised by your admission, and then spits out the water. As she proceeds to rinse the handle of the ladle, she says, "Well, come on. Let's talk to the holy men about my unholy problem."

And so you do.

Koujiro and Ginta are able to restrain their reactions to this new information to heartfelt sighs and resigned glances - aimed entirely at you, incidentally. Ichirou, being younger and a little less restrained than his elders, goes ahead and facepalms.

Then the six of you - counting Briar as well - sit down to talk curses.

As you already knew, the Hakuba's purification ritual is aimed at cleansing spiritual corruption, not breaking a divine curse. If the curse were active, and its purpose was malevolent enough, or involved demons or something just as vile, the purification could potentially reduce or suppress its effects. It wouldn't touch the curse itself, however, and would essentially be a case of treating the symptoms rather than the disease. Seeing as how the curse is still inactive, the Hakuba's purification is highly unlikely to interfere with it in any way. The main danger was that, with how closely the priests would have been looking at Cordelia's soul, they might have noticed the curse and either triggered its passive defenses - the same ones that flung Briar across a room when she first detected the thing, back at the World Tournament - or else invoked additional power from their kami to go after it directly.

Thanks to your warning, that's been avoided. That leaves the matter of how to proceed from here.

Now that you've alerted the Hakubas to the existence of Cordelia's curse, they're willing to help you deal with it. This wouldn't just be a matter of throwing the Spell to Remove Curses at her and calling it a day; rather, Koujiro proposes to research the curse first, to determine when it'll go off, what it's meant to do, how and why it came to be in the first place, and - most critically - who is responsible for its existence. The more that's known about the particulars of the curse and the Power behind it, the more likely it is that the ultimate attempt to break the curse will succeed.

There is the question of who ends up making that attempt. The Hakubas have the advantage of professional experience, multiple casters, a locally-established faith, and being able to perform the ritual right in the heart of their patron's power. Weighing against those factors are the strictures that you know Earth's native divinities must operate under, the fact that Cordelia isn't a Shintoist, and your own personal power and prior plans to bring the Goddesses in on this.

In the end, you encouraged Cordelia to...

...ask the Hakubas for help researching her curse.

It's a rare situation where having more help is a bad thing, and this isn't one of those times. You have enough things on your plate this year that the prospect of investigating Cordelia's curse on your own kind of fell by the wayside. If the Hakubas are willing and able to help pick up the slack, at no real cost to you, why would you deny their offer of assistance?

Cordelia very much agrees with that sentiment, enough so that you think she probably would have taken the Hakubas up on their offer even if you'd recommended against it.

You're glad you didn't, then.

That having been said, you don't go as far as suggesting that she ask the priests to attempt to break the curse. You figure that a decision regarding that matter can wait until you have more information about who or what is responsible for the malignant magic, what it would take to successfully oppose them, and what would be required to SAFELY oppose them.

As you respectfully point out to the room, the Hakubas paid a price for throwing down with the Dark Lord, and that was when they had help. Picking a metaphysical fight with a deity isn't likely to be any easier.

Besides, you haven't given up on convincing Cordelia to convert to the Hyrulean faith. And you ARE planning to step up your studies in that area this year...

With all of that settled for now, you withdraw from the shrine, leaving the Hakubas to get on with cleansing Cordelia of the Hellmouth's taint.

"You were in there a while," Larry notes, as you join the outdoor buffet. "Everything going alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

No explosions follow your exit from the central shrine, and no one is blown through one of the thin walls by poking at the sleeping curse. Cordelia emerges a couple of minutes later, aura brighter than before, and is replaced by Lu-sensei, who also undergoes purification without incident. Due to his previous visit to the Hakuba Shrine and the wards over his place of business and residence, your master doesn't exhibit the kind of drastic change that your father or Lily Blaisdell did, but if nothing else, his aura still exhibits that clear, freshly-cleansed glow.

Then it's Amy's turn to go in. You don't mind admitting that you're a little worried for her.

After all, Amy is the only one of your friends to practice magic, and you yourself are proof that just because a spellcaster practices the internally-driven Hyrulean style of sorcery, as opposed to one of Earth's native, externally-sourced styles, it doesn't make one immune to demonic corruption. Amy also doesn't have your raw, divinely-influenced Power on her side, although conversely, neither does she have to worry about a King of Evil and a dormant demonic death-curse lurking in the depths of her soul, potential vectors for corruption.

As it happens, your peer-slash-student is in with the Hakubas longer than you, Cordelia, Larry, or Lu-sensei were, but not quite so long as your father or Larry's grandmother were. When she does come out of the shrine, the difference in her aura does not appear to be any more pronounced than Larry's was - but that could just be because you're only giving her a cursory examination, not an in-depth one.

For her part, Amy looks a little worried by whatever happened while she was in with the priests. She's also looking from you to her mother - who's preparing to enter the shrine - as if wanting to speak with you both and uncertain who to approach first.

What passed between you, Briar, Cordelia, and the three Hakubas just now is not something that you're overly inclined to share, even among friends. At least not without Cordy's permission. It's HER business, after all. You told the priests because the current situation made them very likely to find out regardless, and there could have been Consequences if they walked into it blindly - but even then, you checked with Cordy first, to make sure she was okay with sharing her secret.

Larry either takes the unspoken hint that you don't want to discuss the matter any further right now, or else wasn't that interested in it after all. Regardless, he nods and drops the subject.

Curiosity is a trait popularly associated with cats, but while your animal guide is a boar, you have no shortage of that trait yourself, and Amy's obvious concern and indecision has not only drawn your attention, but your interest.

As such, you excuse yourself from the buffet and venture over to the Madisons.

Amy sees you coming, and promptly looks relieved.

"What's wrong, dear?" Catherine asks as she washes her hands, having noticed her daughter's behavior as well.

"I just had the unpleasant experience of getting the black crud of evil scraped off of my soul, Mom," Amy replies, running her hands up and down her arms as she shivers.

Catherine pauses in mid-cleansing to regard her daughter. "'Black crud of evil?'"

"Hellmouth corruption, Mrs. Madison," you explain, as you join the pair. "I had a similar experience on my first visit here, back near the start of summer. I'm guessing Amy had the same kind of spontaneous vision that I did when the Hakubas were performing the purification."

You glance at your friend for confirmation, and she nods.

"What kind of vision?" Catherine asks quickly.

You describe your own experience, of seeing the bright, shining "surface" of your soul marred by spots of darkness, where it was as if the miasma of the Hellmouth had seeped in, solidified, and then built up into thick, twisted growths of dark crud that reached into the "sky" as if to grasp at more of the taint, while simultaneously digging and spreading deeper.

Amy nods along at every fifth or sixth word.

"I think it's a side-effect of how in-tune we are with our internal energies," you explain. "The Hakubas had to metaphysically dig in to get the gunk out of our systems, and we were sensitive enough to perceive what they were doing on the spiritual level, beyond the physical sensation of being worked over by files and picks."

"It was like getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist," Amy groans.

Sounds like she got off lighter than you did after all. Your experience was more of a minor demolitions project, even before the Boar took a hoof in things.

Catherine frowns. "Amy, you told me that you've been performing daily purification rituals since you started practicing magic."

"I have, Mom! They just... weren't working as well as I thought."

"I ran into that problem as well," you affirm. "Hakuba Senior said that the Hellmouth's corruption is just so pervasive that it interferes with purification rituals, either stunting them or making them completely ineffective. Especially if whatever tools or reagents you use in the process were tainted themselves."

Catherine blinks, and then winces. "That makes entirely too much sense, now that I stop to think about it." In an undertone, she adds, "Why did I never...?" Then Catherine shakes her head, raises her voice, and goes on, "So, you'd need a spiritually clean room, warded to he-eck and back to keep out the contamination."

You nod. "And the problem with using magic that powerful in Sunnydale is that it'd draw attention. Which is something I've been trying to avoid."

At least since the incident with the possessed stuffed animals.

"Then how is it that your house is so clean?" Catherine wonders.

"Right. Well, then."

Catherine Madison pauses to finish up with her interrupted cleansing, rinsing out her mouth and then washing off the ladle.

"I get the distinct impression that this next bit is going to be a lot worse than I was expecting," she says briskly. "Any advice before I go in and face the music?"

"Someone who had the skill to quietly set up and hide a purification ward owed me a favor," you tell Catherine. "I called it in."

There's a brief pause as she digests that.

"I don't suppose that this person would happen to owe you another favor?" Mrs. Madison ventures.

Her tone says that she expects the answer to her question to be a no, so she doesn't look at all surprised or disappointed when you shake your head and confirm her belief.

You consider Mrs. Madison's offhanded remark for a moment, and then shake your head.

"There isn't a whole lot you can do to prepare yourself, ma'am," you admit. "As long as you go in with the understanding that it might be unpleasant, you'll get through just fine."

Catherine nods, and heads into the shrine.

Once her mother is gone, Amy turns to give you a searching glance. "No funny remarks?"

"The first one that came to mind was 'Don't die,'" you admit. "It didn't seem like it would be appreciated, under the circumstances."

After all, nobody's come close to getting hurt in this batch of cleansing rituals. Your own experience all those weeks ago was by far the worst, and even that one ended with nothing worse than a round of bruises and a single instance of minor structural damage.

"Gee, you think?" Amy mutters, shaking her head. "The inside of your head is a weird place, Alex."

Oh, if she only knew.

Despite the beckoning presence of the buffet, Amy doesn't move from her spot by the well, keeping her attention on the main shrine building. You and Briar stay put to provide moral support.

Several minutes pass, and as they do, you sense the aura of divinely-backed purification within the shrine rising to a degree it hasn't yet attained on this visit.

You cross your fingers, and resist the impulse to pray for good luck, knowing that invoking more godly favor during a somewhat delicate procedure already in progress wouldn't be wise. Maybe if you'd suggested it before the ritual started...?

Something to think about in the future.

The energy hits a peak, and then suddenly cuts out - with a distinct and very welcome lack of explosions, you are relieved to note.

That will be the sword coming into play, you expect.

Another minute or so passes, and then the door slides open, revealing Mrs. Madison and the Hakubas on their way out of the shrine.

As with the other two adult family members to go through the cleansing ritual today, Amy's mother looks better exiting the shrine than she did entering it. Like your father and Larry's grandmother, she carries herself as if a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders, or a hundred minor aches and pains that she was hardly conscious of individually are now healed.

Her aura is still dark, reflecting Lady Hecate's touch and influence upon her adherent, but with the Hellmouth's demonic taint burned away, the menace and burgeoning malice have vanished. The difference between then and now is like that between being outside on a dark night when you can hear some unknown animal growling menacingly all too close by, and being out in your backyard at night with Moblin at your side.

Catherine is in deep discussion with Hakuba Ginta, but spares a moment from the conversation to raise her head and smile reassuringly at Amy.

Although all the needed purifications are over and done with, your party doesn't leave the Hakuba Shrine right away. Mrs. Madison is still earnestly discussing cleansing rituals with Ginta, while Koujiro offers his own insights every so often. Ichirou seems content to stay out of his elders' conversation, in favor of sitting quietly next to Miss Suzuka and not-talking in a very expressive way, but you and Briar quickly get dragged into the debate. Amy doesn't contribute a word to the debate, but is paying very close attention, and when Lu-sensei is called on to explain how he's managed to reside on the Hellmouth for all these years, while still keeping his spiritual contamination down to a less-unhealthy level, EVERYBODY listens in.

Also, there's the breakfast buffet. It'd be rude not to have some of the food Kanna and Atsuko went to the trouble of preparing.

All in all, it's another half-hour before you finally get on your way. The Shuzens' security guard and drivers don't object to the delay, but then, they're just here to make sure you lot arrive safely; as long as that gets done, they'll get paid all the same.

You DO catch the guy-in-charge stepping away from the group to pull out a cellphone, though. He's far enough away that you can't hear anything over the voices gathered around the buffet, and he also has his back to you.

That was almost certainly deliberate.

In any case, once Catherine Madison has gathered as much information regarding purification as the Hakubas are willing to share over a late breakfast, and the food has been mostly consumed, you get on with the thanks, the goodbyes, and the trip down the stairs to the waiting limos.

On a related note, riding through mid-morning Tokyo traffic in high-class luxury cars proves to be a new experience for most of your companions - or at least for Amy, Cordelia, and Larry, who are riding with you in the lead car, leaving the second vehicle to the adults.

Although Catherine Madison did seem like she wanted to keep talking about anti-corruption methods with you, she seemed just as happy as the rest of the grown-ups not to be faced with several hours in a car with a bunch of kids.

Speaking of which, the trip from the Hakuba Shrine to the Shuzen estate took three hours the last time you made it. Maybe it's the lower level of traffic or because you have different drivers, but your travel time today is cut down by a modest amount, with the intercom in your car crackling to life to inform you that you're coming up on the barrier, a good twenty minutes sooner than you were expecting.

You spend the next couple of minutes and most of the subsequent drive through the demiplane explaining to your fellow passengers just what the barrier entailed, and why the terrain you can see through the shaded windows abruptly goes from ordinary-looking countryside to something out of a Hammer horror flick.

Or as Cordelia puts it, on seeing the approach to Castle Shuzen, "What is this, Dracula's overseas villa?"

You think about how the Shuzens had Dracula's monstrous form locked up in a crypt under the castle for most of two centuries, and are careful not to say anything. It was a secret, after all, and even if the Dark Lord is now permanently dead, you think the Shuzens would be just as happy to keep that little piece of knowledge out of general circulation.

As you exit your limousine and look around the castle courtyard, with its assortment of not-obviously-armed guards and large, fierce-looking dogs, a familiar face catches your eye. It's not one of the Shuzens, but rather, Miss Shirogane Keiko, the woman in glasses who previously accompanied you, Briar, and Lu-sensei from L.A. to the Shuzen estate.

She notices you noticing her, and her glasses flash in that slightly-ominous manner as she adjusts them once, before smiling and greeting you with a bow.

"Welcome back to Castle Shuzen, Mister Harris."

"It's good to be back, Miss Shirogane," you return the greeting. "I hope you've been well since our last meeting?"

"I have been well enough, thank you," she replies. "And yourself?"

"I've had a few... interesting experiences over the last few months," you admit. "On the whole, I'd say they worked out for the better."

The look you receive from the sharp eyes behind those glasses makes it clear that Miss Shirogane would like to say a few things about that. Her reaction makes you wonder just how much the Shuzens' assistant knows about your, ah, exploits, but further polite conversation has to be put on hold, as the second car has come to a halt and begun unloading its passengers.

You spend the next several minutes making introductions all around, while also taking in the reactions of your fellow guests to the Shuzen estate. Seeing it from inside a car is one thing; being out in the open, exposed to the youki-rich environment, is something else.

Her earlier snark aside, Cordelia is acting like she finds the Shuzen estate to be no big deal. However, you can sense that she's running a small amount of active ki through her system, just high enough to act as a light ward against the wild, aggressive energy in the air. Amy is doing something similar, albeit with magic, and is being much more unguarded about the fact that she finds Castle Shuzen very impressive, a little scary, and downright interesting.

Larry looks around, wide-eyed, mutters, "Fear is the path to the Dark Side," and gives himself a physical and mental shake. While he's outwardly controlled thereafter, he is obviously not calm: his eyes move from place to place; his fingers tap nervously; and his ki is, for lack of a better term, jittery. The ambient youki isn't focused enough to shock Larry's ki into full manifestation, but you think if Larry were to get into a good sparring match here, that would be enough to tip him over the edge.

You should probably talk to Lu-sensei about that, and maybe offer Larry a magical ward to take the edge off this place's influence. The chance to see how a youki-rich environment influences the awakening of a novice ki adept makes for an interesting intellectual exercise, but you'd rather not have one of your friends be the test subject.

Your father's reaction to the pocket realm surprises you. You were expecting something similar to Larry's nervousness, tempered by the extra decades of life experience and practiced self-control your father has over your friend. Instead, your father is downright composed. Not calm, no, but as he looks around at the courtyard, the dark earth below, and the red sky above, your father seems to find his surroundings... familiar.

Lily Blaisdell's reaction is similar, but even more chill.

As for Mrs. Madison, she emerges from the second limousine without a hint of fear, or any of the magical "hardening" her daughter is using. In fact, Catherine is actively reaching out with her magic, probing at the environment - though not any of the creatures in it, you note, nor Castle Shuzen itself. She only keeps it up for a short time before ending the spell.

And then Catherine Madison does something very odd. She relaxes her control over her magic and lowers all the defenses that magic-users learn to maintain about themselves, revealing the essence of her power to all those able to perceive it.

As one, the half-dozen security dogs in the courtyard stop and turn to regard the witch.
Good boys.
The guards do likewise. For most, it's just a delayed reaction to the dogs' unusual behavior, but you're able to see that Miss Shirogane noticed what Mrs. Madison was doing at least as quickly as the animals did.

And from the way you can sense magic, youki, and other energies moving, something else seems to have noticed as well. Something large, and slow, and powerful, and-

-and whatever it is, it's right behind you.

And beside you.

And beneath you.

And... above you?

As you open your senses up from their usual "standby" state, you get a clearer read on the source of the large, slow-building presence. A part of you was expecting it to be the manifestation of a place-spirit, most likely the awareness of Castle Shuzen itself, and to be fair, the distinctive energies of Kahlua's family domicile are bound up in what you're detecting.

But there's more to what you feel than just the enchantments laid down when the castle was constructed or the residual youki of its occupants. Earth and sky and other elemental forces are also responding to whatever it is that Catherine Madison is doing, as are spiritual energies from beyond the walls. At the same time that these raw, unshaped powers are moving about, you can also sense other forces at work, energies that you can't help but picture as moving along straight lines, sharp angles, and precise curves, like a massive magical array.

On the physical plane, nothing changes. But on the mystical side of things, your multiply-augmented vision sees a shape slowly coalescing from the stuff of cliff-top earth, stone walls, and youki-tainted atmosphere. It reminds you of the elementals you've dealt with, in that it has the very vague shape of a humanoid - or should that be vampiric? - torso, rising from the soil. The arms are so long that they also sink into the ground, and there is no neck or head, just a lumpy suggestion of a visage between the shoulders. Sections of worked stone cover it like scales or crude armor, vapors wreathe it like a mantle, some elements of that magical array you envisioned overlay its body like tattoos, and pits of pure red youki serve it as eyes.

It would be a lot more impressive if it weren't about a foot tall.
That? Is adorable.
"Awww," Briar coos. "Look at the cute little place-spirit!" She leaves your shoulder and flies over to where the spirit has chosen to manifest itself, circling it as she fusses. "Who's an adorable embodiment of the land, huh?"

The spirit raises its right limb from the earth, high enough that you can see its ha- no, on second thought, you can't call that a hand. More like a three-pronged... pseudopod. The... limb... waves.

"That's right, you are!" Briar says encouragingly. "Yes, you are!"

...

...you're honestly not sure if the little spirit is declaring itself, or trying to swat your partner.
Sometimes it seems like fairies consider that a sign of affection.
Either way, now that you know that the Shuzens' private realm has its own consciousness - and when did THAT happen, you wonder? - you can grasp what Catherine Madison was doing. Lowering her defenses to allow the spirit to see her in approximately as much detail as her probes let her see it would be the polite thing to do. Arguably the safer approach, as well.

With that in mind, you decide that you probably should do the same thing that Mrs. Madison is doing. Just... more slowly, so that you don't accidentally spook the spirit or your hosts.

You carefully relax your hold on your power, allowing it to flow more freely and unconcealed.

At once, the spirit of the demiplane stops waving at Briar and turns to look at you.
Hello, little one.
So do Mrs. Madison, Amy, and Miss Shirogane.

Then the spirit throws up both arms and surges towards you, eyes shining orange.
Wait, is that-?
You don't sense any malice in the movement, just the usual wild aggression of youki. Still, do you really want to get bodychecked by an elemental? Even if it is a tiny one that's only manifested on the spiritual plane? Like certain Jedi Masters, you know you can't judge such creatures by their size alone; even if it is only a foot tall, this spirit is still the embodiment of the entire demiplane. It represents quite a lot of power.

As the little genius loci rushes towards you, you go down on one knee and spread your arms.

Its eyes flash a brighter shade of orange. Almost golden, in fact.
Huh. So it is.
"Alex, what-?"

*GLOMP!*

And just like that, you have a tiny elemental person-thing wrapped about your foreleg, hugging you for all it's worth.
So. Cute!
Which, as your bones creak and your flesh aches under the pseudo-physical force, is proven to be quite a lot.

You reinforce your leg with Spiritual Armor to ease the pressure, and bring one hand down to pat the little spirit on the he- er, wait, it doesn't have a head.

After an uncertain pause, you pat it on the back instead. "Good little... thing."

It rumbles like the happiest, tiniest landslide in the world.
Awww...
Gained Nayru's Favor C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Pain Threshold C (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Spiritual Armor E

By this point, everyone in the courtyard is looking at you. The majority, unable to look into the spiritual plane, can only see you kneeling on the ground, patting empty air, and so are regarding you with blank incomprehension. There is some of that going on amongst those with the necessary enhanced senses to perceive the place-spirit, as well, but Lu-sensei, Amy, and Cordelia's reactions are less, "What's going on?" and more, "What did he do THIS time?"

Catherine Madison just looks fascinated by all of this, while Briar is fluttering about, giggling happily.

That leaves Miss Shirogane, who has pushed up her glasses just far enough so that she can pinch the bridge of her nose.

Probably not surprisingly, it's Cordy who breaks the silence. "Alright, Alex," she sighs. "What did you do THIS time?"

Called it.

As for your answer: now that you're in direct contact with the quasi-manifested spirit, you're able to sense the faint flicker of golden Power that lurks within it. It's not at the heart of the entity; that particular honor is reserved for the energies of the Shuzen estate, from natural elements to accumulated youki to spiritual traces, all built up and concentrated over the centuries since the pocket realm was created. Instead, your lingering Power is spread throughout the tiny entity, seemingly acting like one-part catalyst and one-part binding agent for all the other forces involved.

You know that if mystical energies reach a certain level of potency, and maintain it for a sufficient period of time, they can give rise to all sorts of spiritual entities, ranging from Japan's tsukumogami to the genius loci of the West. For that matter, land spirits like Japanese kami could be considered part of the same phenomenon, just with a touch of divine power added to the process.

From what you've been told, Castle Shuzen is almost two centuries old, which is time enough that it could have been and likely was starting to form its own spiritual identity. The innate enchantments, the ongoing residence of a family of living vampires, and the presence of Dracula's sealed body would all have helped things along, and now it's looking like your use of Power during your last visit was the final push needed to send the whole mix of magic, spirit, and monstrous life-force over the edge into awakening.

You really, REALLY had no idea whatsoever that you could do something like that.

Live and learn, then.

Gained Geomancy E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Parazoology C (Plus) (Plus)

It takes you a handful of seconds to think about your reply, and deal with your own shocked realization of the implications.

When a giggly fairy is involved, that's far too much time to leave her alone.

"Oh, I know! I know!" Briar says gleefully.

Before you can cut your partner off, she casts a Spell of Illusion, causing herself and the tiny elemental to become "visible" to those who couldn't previously see them.

Sensing the magic, the spirit stops hugging you and looks around. Finding two-score eyes staring down at it, the little being flinches and ducks as far behind your leg as it can for cover.

Briar, meanwhile, has flown over to face your father.

You know, in that moment, that your partner is about to say something that is going to lead to embarrassing misunderstandings all over the place.

By this point in your relationship, you know enough about fairies in general and Briar in particular to know that unspoken cues, even up to the level of strongly emphatic impulses sent through the Familiar Bond, might not be sufficient to keep Briar quiet.

You don't think you have enough time to throw a Spell of Silence at her, and while you COULD run over there to catch her, chase her off, or just make it really, REALLY clear that you want her NOT to say whatever it is she's about to say, you have a decidedly crowd-shy little place-spirit looking to you for comfort.

It makes your elder sibling instincts twinge.

And so, you decide to let Briar have her fun, and instead focus your efforts on soothing the young spirit.

Gained Elder King D (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained King of Spirits D (Plus)

If it were older (at least in terms of behavior), mortal, and/or more corporeal in nature, you might pick the little guy up for a hug. As it is, separating a genius loci's spiritual avatar from its body seems like the kind of thing that might make a young spirit uncomfortable, or perhaps even actually harm it. You're... not entirely certain if that is the case, but in your defense, you don't have any information about the "infancy" of such entities. If anybody has ever encountered a spirit like this at this phase in its development before now, you certainly haven't heard of it.

Better safe than sorry, you suppose, and so instead of picking the spirit up, you settle for stroking its back, speaking to it in soothing tones, and making like the living shield it was already using you as.

While you're doing that, Briar gives the rest of your group a quick heads-up on how place-spirits form, as specific forms of supernatural power gather in the same location over an extended period of time. Then she adds that this particular little spirit, which has undoubtedly been forming at least since the Shuzens first built their home here, has a bit of your magical energy in it.

You can see everyone leaping to the wrong conclusions, and Briar goes with it, facing your father and grinning so hugely that you can feel it through the bond.

"Congratulations, Grandpa Harris. It's an elemental."

...

The look on your father's face is indescribable.

Miss Shirogane, you note, is just about the only person in earshot who doesn't appear shocked, surprised, or... whatever it is that your father is feeling.

She just looks resigned, like someone who's heard this joke already and is getting a little tired of it, but is too polite to interrupt.

"Are you done, Briar?" you ask.

Your partner looks around, taking in the general air of shock, and nods. "Yup. I'm satisfied."

"Good."

You proceed to explain, calmly but emphatically, that you are not ACTUALLY the spirit's father, even in the metaphysical sense. It already existed before you ever visited the Shuzen estate - probably before you were even born, come to that - it just wasn't conscious. Some people might try to equate you with a doctor delivering a child, but even that isn't accurate - you weren't here when the spirit woke up, and you're pretty sure doctors aren't supposed to set off bright, loud disturbances next to pregnant women.

Honestly, it would be more accurate to compare the spirit to a sleeping baby, and you to some sort of brightly-colored noise-making toy - or perhaps an alarm clock - that some thoughtless person left laying near or even in the cradle.

This explanation PROFOUNDLY relieves to your father, who lets out a long, sighing laugh, mimes clutching his heart, and shoots dirty looks at your completely unrepentant familiar.

Miss Shirogane also looks greatly relieved by your assessment of your own involvement, and proceeds to get on with showing your group inside.

The elemental follows, holding on to your right leg with one long arm. Glancing down, you confirm that its movements aren't impeded by the worked materials of the castle proper, although as its earthy body moves from grassy turf to flagstone, its rich brown form shifts to slate grey around the base.

Not interfering, but influencing.

And then you're in the front hall. As before, members of the family proper are here to greet you, although this time, it's Miss Akasha and the girls rather than the three adults.

All four of them stare at the little entity holding your pant leg.

Unlike the last time a bunch of people gawped at its presence, the elemental's eyes shine brightly like they did when it saw you - more red than orange, this time - and it sinks its free hand into the floor, to emerge over by Akasha's feet and grab the hem of her dress.

...and now that you're all here to compare auras, the tiny spirit DOES have about as much of Miss Akasha's distinctive youki in its system as it does your golden Power, doesn't it?

The vampire lady very deliberately does NOT look down at the tiny appendage, but the way she goes red in the face, while also refusing to meet your gaze, says a lot.

Kahlua buries her face in her hands, but you can clearly hear the giggles she is failing to hide.

Moka just looks embarrassed by all of this, and Kokoa is turning her head back and forth with a pouty scowl, clearly not getting the joke and just as clearly wishing someone would let her in on it.

The reactions of your hostesses make it clear that this isn't the first they're hearing about the existence of the demiplane's little incarnation, or that certain individuals appear to have had recent and relatively pronounced influence on its manifestation.

Thinking on it, that's probably at least part of the reason why the other two adults of the family aren't here to greet your party.

Miss Shirogane's reaction to Briar's antics implies that SOMEBODY around here has been making similar jokes of late, in sufficient quantity to wear away the patience and composure of the woman in glasses. While you wouldn't exactly have pegged Gyokuro as one for that sort of humor - certainly not to the extent Miss Shirogane's behavior indicates - she IS the one with the extra-supernatural sensory powers, making her by far the most likely candidate to have noticed the elemental in its purely spiritually-manifested state. In addition, from what you've seen of Gyokuro's relationship with Akasha, you believe it's safe to say that she would find considerable amusement in this... situation.

Issa, not so much.

...then again, there WAS that little dinner-conversation incident about his OTHER daughter - Akua, wasn't it? Akasha hadn't been any happier to hear about her than Gyokuro was, so... payback, maybe?

Either way, you know what you're going to do in response to all of this, and that is to simply ignore it.

You proceed to greet the ladies and make all the appropriate introductions - given the size of your group and the fact that only Cordelia and Lu-sensei have met any of the Shuzens before, this takes a while. Acting as the hostess appears to help Akasha recover her composure, though it also leads to her and Moka sending brief but grateful looks your way.

Kahlua gets her giggling under control, but her smile is still brighter than usual, with the occasional twitch at the corners.

As for Kokoa, her adorable frustration vanishes in an instant when Briar zips over to ask her how she's been doing.

Once the polite nothings are out of the way, you inquire if any of the other invitees have arrived, or are expected to.

Kahlua replies that the Arisawas and the Kurosakis should arrive some time this afternoon. Tatsuki was all for visiting the Castle again, as expected, and while there was apparently some grumbling from her mother about it, Akkiko agreed to tag along once again, both to keep an eye on her youngest and to provide a familiar face for Mrs. Masaki, who will be coming with Ichigo.

Not unlike yourself, the Kurosakis appear to have decided to hold off on introducing their younger children to the Moonlit World until they're older. Kahlua is a bit disappointed by that - and by Zelda's absence - but she does get the reasoning.

Lady Takara and Mai will be at the party, but won't be coming to the Castle. There was simply no way Mai's parents were going to allow it; that they're willing to let her attend a monster party is an honest to gods miracle, or possibly just a result of nobody telling them that most of the other attendees will BE monsters.

...it occurs to you to wonder who, exactly, is going to be Mai's chaperone for that party. You don't see her parents entrusting the task to Lady Takara, and if one or both of them go themselves, it could get... awkward.

Maybe one of the Hakubas is handling it? You're not sure; it didn't come up in the letters or during your earlier visit to the shrine.

While the absence of Mai and Takara is slightly disappointing, you have to admit, now that you're aware of the existence of Castle Shuzen's genius loci, it's probably for the best. Goddesses only know what kind of mischief a nine-tailed kitsune could or would get up to around a newborn land-spirit.

More disappointing is Kagome's absence. She lives close enough to where the party is being held that there was no need for her to spend the night at Castle Shuzen on that account. Her mother and grandfather didn't have any objections to her going anyway, just for the experience, but somehow the name "Shuzen" got said in the hearing of one of her instructors, and, well...

She's still coming to the party, but the Postman mentioned something about "doors and windows lined with paper tags" when he picked up her reply. He didn't actually take the letter from Kagome herself, but rather, from her mother, who met him outside the house with a bright smile and an air of maternal irritation. There was a lot of yelling going on inside the house between an old man and a young girl, and your celestial messenger neither asked about it nor hung around long enough to risk getting more deeply involved.

Wise of him.

Emiko will be along in a few hours, though. Kahlua also notes that, while the only other member of the Hayashi Clan that's going to be at the Castle is Miss Hanabi, she wouldn't bet against the rest of them turning up at the party.

In fact, she's fully expecting that they WILL show up.

Take that as you will.

So, you've got three hours or so until lunchtime, and another or two after that before the rest of the guests turn up.

With most of one day already behind you, and most of another day still to come, fatigue is going to start being an issue before too much longer. As such, you decide to take this opportunity to address the matter before it can become a problem, casting a scaled-up Spell of Panacea to eliminate fatigue for the remainder of this day. Once the spell wears off - which should be in another ten hours or so, by your calculations - you're going to crash, but that lines up pretty well with your preferred bedtime anyway.

You check with the rest of your group to see who's willing to accept the spell themselves, in lieu of dealing with their impending jet lag via napping, coffee, and/or just toughing it out.

The answer turns out to be "everybody," and rather than wasting a chunk of mana or spending the next half-hour repeating the same ritual over and over, you just scale up the spell some more so that it can affect your entire group in one go.

As you do so, you can see Catherine Madison taking mental notes, trying to work out the underlying elements of the spell and determine how to cast it herself.

With that item crossed off your to-do list, and the prospect of another tour of the castle tabled until the rest of the "new" guests have arrived to join in, you decide to challenge Kahlua to another round in the Children's Game Room. Not with the DDR machine, mind. You kind of got distracted by that one on your previous visit, and Moka ruled the dance floor anyway-

The middle sister smirks at your admission.

-at least until Tatsuki took her on, Briar adds-

Moka's smirk freezes in place.

-and this time you're curious about the sort of games Kahlua likes to play when she isn't taking part in an impromptu dance-off.

Kahlua nods, asks Akasha if you may be excused, and after receiving a nod, leads the way to the Game Room. Her sisters follow along without delay, and the mention of video games was all it took to get Larry's interest. Amy and Cordelia are not as enthusiastic, but mention of your previous Dance Dance Revolution does seem to have gotten them a little curious.

The elemental continues to tag along.

When you arrive at the Game Room, you find it dark and quiet, all the machines turned off when not in use. Kahlua fixes that without delay, and as the cabinets hum, beep, whistle, and wail to life, you compare the sight before you to your last memory of this place, checking to see if any of the games that were here last time have been switched out for new titles.

You only played about one in four of the games, so you're not sure, but you think there might have been a few replacements since your last visit.

That suspicion aside, the games you distinctly recall playing are all still here. Moka would probably actively fight any attempt to remove the DDR machine, unless a new one was getting installed in its place, and the zombie-hunting light-gun game you recall Kahlua and Katara playing is also still here, as are the Darkstalkers game Kokoa was schooling Sokka at, the heavily-reinforced punching machine that Tatsuki spent some time at - before getting dragged into a personal dance-off with Moka - and the King of Fighters machine that Altria and Moka were playing.

While Moka, Cordelia, and Amy head for the DDR machine with varying degrees of interest, and Larry accepts Kokoa's challenge to a game of Darkstalkers, Kahlua takes a minute to look over the other cabinets, considering her options.

She admits that she has a few "favorites" among the various titles, but in the end, you wind up playing-

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara

After discussing the options, you cast your vote to give one of the Game Room's older occupants a go. Side-scrolling beat 'em ups aren't too difficult to play, and you're rather curious about how the "role-playing" element works.

Kahlua nods and asks you if you've ever played this game before.

When you admit you haven't, she tells you one thing: "Pick the Fighter."

...okay?

The two of you take your places at the console, and when the character selection screen comes up, you take Kahlua's advice and pick the Fighter. For her part, Kahlua goes with the Elf.

The game begins with a brief introduction which establishes that the six characters are already heroes, having defeated "the arch-lich Deimos" two years ago, and now journeyed to a new land in search of further adventures. Kahlua explains that Shadow is a sequel to an older title she hasn't played, as she was only four when it was released, and the current incarnation of the Children's Game Room only goes back a couple of years.

Having cleared that up, you get on with the first stage, which has your Fighter beating up some Goblins-

How remarkably true-to-life.

-who drop small coins that you can pick up, while also giving up experience when slain. Makes sense so far. Oh, treasure chests! And more Goblins, but...

...and you just got run over by a runaway wagon full of goblins, loot, and... are those prisoners?

And here comes another one!

And... wait, Kahlua is doing something with her Elf... what's with those icons? Wait, your characters have an inventory?

Even more realism! Neat!

For all the fantasy elements, the gameplay is about as straightforward as you expected. Your character hits things with his weapons, you try not to get hit in return, and you grab power-ups and bonuses as they appear, while advancing steadily towards the right-hand side of the screen.

...and you just got run over by another wagon. Only this one is covered in spears, and goblins, and spear-wielding goblins, it's called the War Machine, and it appears to be the boss.

And Kahlua's Elf just threw a lightning bolt at it.

Aaaand you just died.

Come on, it's the first- okay, it's the second level, but it's the first boss! What kind of difficulty curve is this game set on?

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

You continue playing Shadow Over Mystara for another fifteen minutes, and in that time, you learn a few things. Mainly that, while the game's levels are manageable, as long as you don't get fixated on a single target and allow the other enemies to surround you, the bosses are just there to murder you, plain and simple. You spare a moment to be glad you're playing on the Shuzens' home edition of the arcade game, because otherwise, you'd be out a few dollars at this point.

Also, despite the simplicity of the plot, there's a lot of little details in the game that hint at the larger world in the background.

What's REALLY impressive is that a lot of those details FIT things you know about the world. The game's story and setting are clearly fictional, but once you account for the art style and the limitations of the graphics engine, the various monsters all look just about right. Likewise, the handful of spells and supernatural effects that you see in action are not far off from how they'd appear if you or another practitioner were to cast them in reality.

This has you asking Kahlua if she knows whether or not people in-the-know about the supernatural were involved in the creation of the game.

She honestly doesn't know. She was struck by the accuracy of the game herself - it's one of the reasons she likes it - but it never occurred to her to investigate the matter.

Curiosity and a certain amount of concern compel you to investigate how and why such remarkably true-to-life information made its way into a game - but not right now.

Right now, you'd much rather prefer to keep playing.

So you do.

Gained Dexterity D

Some time later, your Fighter gets flame-broiled by a dragon, which also manages to hand Kahlua's Elf her first death. That still leaves her at one life lost to your ten, a ratio which continues to increase in her favor as the game goes on. You start taking fewer hits as you get more comfortable with the controls and your character's attacks, as well as figuring out the enemy attack patterns, but you have some trouble keeping up with the increasing difficulty curve, meaning that every hit the monsters land hurts that much more.

Finally, after a solid hour of gameplay, you watch as a sorceress-turned-dragon is defeated, a giant demonic entity known simply as "the Fiend" is summoned into the world only to be bombed out of existence by a fleet of airships, and the game officially cleared.

Then your characters are rated on their performance. Kahlua's Elf receives what she tells you is the second-best ending for that character. Your Fighter, meanwhile, gets the next-to-worst ending.

Kahlua is unquestionably pleased by her victory.

You think you did alright, considering that it was the first time you ever played the game, but you don't want to consider how many quarters all those continues would have cost you.

By this time, your other friends have moved on from their original games. The DDR machine stands empty, Moka having apparently defended her title as Dancing Queen. She's currently taking Cordelia on at one of the racing games, and if the slight scowl and more obvious smirk you can see are any indication, Moka seems to be losing. Kokoa is trying her luck with the punching machine, Larry is hunting zombies, and Amy has gone over to one of the innumerable shooters that pits a single spacecraft against a swarm of alien invaders - something called "G-Darius," by the look of the box.

Not a title you're familiar with.

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

Regardless, after getting upstaged by Kahlua and the denizens of Mystara for an hour and change, you're definitely feeling up for a break. Or at least a change of titles.

...

Hang on a moment. Where's the elemental gotten to?

Last you recall, the little guy had been standing next to you, legs slowly hyper-extending as the body "climbed" up the side of the arcade machine, until it - he? - was tall enough to see what you were doing. After about three levels of watching with silent curiosity as you and Kahlua - but mostly Kahlua - laid waste to digital monsters, the young spirit seemed to lose interest in the game, after which it shrank back down to its normal height. You're... not sure where it went after that. In point of fact, you're not sure that the spirit actually went anywhere at all; it could have just de-manifested.

...

And on a possibly entirely unrelated but somewhat suspiciously timed note, Briar also disappeared at some point in the last hour. The familiar bond doesn't provide any sort of directional guidance unless you resort to specific spells, nor does it allow free mental or voice contact; a quick check reveals traces of Briar's energy forming a broad, vague trail along the floor and going out the door, motes of energy left to drift and settle in her wake as she went elsewhere.

Gained Fairy Sense D
Gained Fairy Sight D

Your scans can't penetrate the castle's stone walls, and when you focus on the emotional aspect of the familiar bond, you pick up a sense of warm, bubbly delight, similar to what Briar felt when the elemental revealed itself earlier. Between that and the energy-traces of the spirit that at least start out going in the same direction that Briar went, it seems a safe bet that they're together, and the elemental is doing something that your partner thinks is cute.

The genius loci has every right to go wandering around Castle Shuzen on its own if it wants to. This place is part of its body, after all, and the spirit isn't going to do anything to hurt itself.

Briar wandering around on her own is slightly more problematic. She's a guest, and she's considerably more sensible than common fairies, but even so, there are parts of the castle that it would be rude, suspicious, or potentially dangerous for her to enter un-escorted. Or even at all.

Of course, the REAL problem in this situation is that neither Briar nor the elemental ARE on their own. You know perfectly well that, as level-headed as she tends to be, Briar is still entirely capable of getting up to things broadly categorized as "fairy shenanigans," and she's got an innocent, impressionable little elemental that just so happens to have influence over the entire demiplane to work with. Who knows what kind of terrible trickery they could be brewing up together, with no one around to stop them?

You're having vague flashbacks of Hyrulean temples, their confusing, puzzle-laden interiors only made even more aggravating by the blurry medium of half-recalled dreams that you viewed them through.

Not that you think Briar and the elemental could actually do something like that right now, but the Shuzens have lived in this castle for two hundred years, and haven't given any indication of wanting to move. You think the current and/or future residents would be just a little put out if the place were to suddenly turn into one of those blasted mazes.

You turn to Kahlua. "Briar and the elemental seem to have snuck off together. Care to go find out what they're up to?"

Kahlua considers that, glancing around at the other children in the room. Then she turns back to you, smiling brightly. "Actually, yes. I would."

You lead the way, tracking the trail of Briar's lingering fairy essence. It helps that her energies, so attuned with the natural world, really stand out in the middle of the youki-laden castle.

Out the door, down the hall to your right, then hang a left, and follow the glittering motes up to a closed door. You can hear something metallic clanking around in there, albeit not particularly fast or forcefully.

You point out the chamber in question to Kahlua. "Briar went in there."

"That's the armor gallery," Kahlua informs you. "Why would they go in there, and how did they even get in?"

Fair questions. The former has you a bit stumped, as Briar has no use for a room full of armor, and indeed, given the high iron content, would be just as happy to stay away from such a place. As for the door, it's far too large for your two-inch-tall companion to open without a relatively tremendous magical effort, and is sufficiently-flush with the frame around it that she couldn't have just slipped through the cracks. That said...

"The spirit could have opened it for her," you say confidently.

Kahlua frowns. "It's not THAT much any bigger than she is."

"It's a genius loci. The castle- no, the entire demiplane is its body, and it can potentially control any part of that body as it likes." As you reach for the handle, you add, "Opening a door is nothing."

"...when you say 'as it likes-'" Kahlua ventures, before falling silent as you open the door, revealing the room on the other side and at least partly answering her question.

The elemental stands at the center of the gallery, glowing eyes furrowed in concentration as it holds its vaguely-shaped hands in the air, each twitch of a not-quite-finger causing the single suit of plate armor that stands before the spirit to take a step forward.

Briar hovers near the elemental's shoulder, and turns your way.

"Hey, Alex! Look how smart he is! He's already figured out how to make things walk!"

The elemental's torso turns in your direction, and then quickly back to the armor, which clanked, settled, and started to tip over sideways when the spirit's focus slipped. Waving its arms like a conductor before an orchestra, the tiny spirit causes the armor to straighten up, march a full circuit about the room, and then come to a stop, standing perfectly at attention before you, the pike in its right hand raised in salute.

Then the spirit looks up at you.

Kahlua applauds, but her expression as she does so is somewhat distracted.

As for yourself...

You straighten up and raise one hand to your brow, acknowledging the salute by returning it in kind. Then you loosen up and join Kahlua in applauding the castle's spirit for its efforts here.

"Well done!" you cheer encouragingly. "Very good effort for your first attempt."

The elemental hunches its shoulders and leans forward, staring at the floor with embarrassed pleasure.

Gained Big Brother D (Plus) (Plus)

It's adorable, and part of you would very much like to join in the "game" it's playing. You can't cast the Spell to Animate Objects, but you could likely manage a half-decent workaround using the Spell of Telekinesis, enough to "animate" one suit of armor and march it alongside - or against - the elemental's own.

As much as you think you'd enjoy that, however, you find your sense of good manners compelling you to add, "Just remember not to damage what you're playing with, and to put everything back where you found it when you're done."

After all, you're partially responsible for this little spirit being awake. The least you can do while you're here is try to teach it good manners, and not encourage it to get careless with its powers.

The elemental nods, and proceeds to "conduct" the armor back to its empty stand. The pieces of the suit separate and open up as they approach the wooden frame, floating semi-steadily about it before settling back into their proper places and latching closed once more.

While the spirit is putting away its toy, you turn to Kahlua and inquire what's on her mind.

"I was just thinking about some of Miss Akasha's friendlier stories about Castle Dracula," your friend replies absently. "Animated suits of armor walking around on their own, furniture levitating here and there, even the doors and entire rooms moving every so often..." As her words trail off, Kahlua turns to face you. "That's the kind of thing we have to look forward to now that this little one is awake, isn't it?"

You are compelled to answer honestly.

"Eventually, anyway," you admit. "If how he handled that suit of armor was any indication, I think it'll be a while yet before the little guy is up to mobilizing, say, all the armor in this room." You wave one hand about you, taking in all of the several dozen suits that line both sides of the gallery. "To say nothing of moving the room itself. But, yeah. One day, he'll definitely be able to do the kind of thing you're thinking about."

The small spirit, which has been unabashedly watching and listening to the two of you talk since it returned the armor to its proper place, enthusiastically punches the empty air above its head, as if declaring its agreement with your words and its firm determination to live up to your opinion of its capabilities.
So. Cute.
Kahlua catches the motion, and giggles quietly.

On a completely unrelated note, you were considering scolding Briar for wandering off on her own without letting somebody know where she was going. Your familiarity with your partner and the way her mind works dissuades you from doing this, however, as you realize that she would simply point out that the embodied spirit of Castle Shuzen was with her the entire time. As far as invitations and escorts go, the company of a manifested genius loci is pretty near the top of the list for significance and importance, both mystically and practically, and you know that as well as Briar does.

Is there anything else you want to say or do here?

You can't think of anything to say that would be constructive in this situation, so you decide to stay quiet and enjoy the cheerful mood.

Lunch proves interesting. You've barely entered the dining room when Gyokuro, already seated in her usual place, takes one look at the spirit tagging along at your heel and just about doubles over with laughter. Kahlua promptly starts giggling again, and for their amusement, mother and daughter earn a matched set of sour looks from the normally sweet-faced Miss Akasha.

When you glance Issa's way to see what he thinks of all of this, his expression is one of long-suffering resignation.

Your father doesn't seem to know whether he should find the idea of laughing vampire women to be a relief, or something that's even eerier than the atmosphere of the castle. Lu-sensei is coming over all Zen, and Lily Blaisdell has a similar attitude of an old person who has no care or interest for the antics of the young people - or at least, younger-looking people, since you know that Akasha at least is her elder by several centuries.

Catherine Madison, on the other hand, eyes Issa like he's somewhere between a devil incarnate and the scum of the earth.

Regardless, Gyokuro manages to get herself under control, and lunch passes without further incident - save for a collective wince among the adult Shuzens, when Kahlua brings up the elemental's foray into spontaneous redecorating.

Following the meal, Issa and Gyokuro head off to attend to other matters - at least some of which, you expect, involve making final arrangements for tomorrow's public party - and Akasha suggests that the rest of you take a stroll through the gardens. Her tone is part hostess, and part mother wanting to see the kids run around outdoors rather than hole up playing video games all afternoon.

Either way, everyone heeds her suggestion and heads out to the "backyard," where Larry takes one look at the hedge-maze and challenges the rest of you to a game of hide and seek inside the leafy labyrinth.

Something inside you winces at the idea of running a maze in opposition to one boy and (at least) one girl. Mazes aren't exactly puzzles, but they certainly share the brain-teasing element - not to mention that a maze like this is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to find inside or at least near one of the ancient Temples of Hyrule, security system, roaming monsters, and all. Probably the Forest Temple. And didn't Hyrule Castle have a hedge maze in at least one of its incarnations...?

You abandon that train of thought before it takes you to unpleasant places.

While you were doing that, Briar has turned to ask Akasha if the security system is fixed.

This time, your wince is more external.

On the one hand, tact, Briar. It's a thing, and you should use it.

But on the other hand, yes, this maze DID try to kill you the last time you ventured inside it.

As it happens, Miss Akasha replies that not only the security system but the maze itself have had some restoration work done since your... eventful previous visit to Castle Shuzen.

And if Lady Bloodriver glances at you while saying that, rubbing the knuckles of her right hand as if they suddenly ache, well, that's surely just a coincidence. Right?

Larry's suggestion meets with general approval from the other kids, and they huddle up to figure out the ground rules. No magic is the first, which is aimed at you, Amy, and Briar. Amy counters that if three of you can't use magic, the rest of the group can't use ki or youki. There is some grumbling from the two younger Shuzens and Cordelia at this, but Kahlua says that it sounds like a fair trade to her.

Technically - and you do not mention this part aloud - that would leave you with your mostly-rudimentary psychic and spiritual abilities to fall back on.

You tell yourself to get a grip on your fear of puzzles. You've already run the Shuzens' garden maze and come out unscathed, and THAT was when the security system was trying to kill you. This won't be anywhere near as bad.

Those of you who will be playing - which is everybody except the elemental, which hides behind you to watch the proceedings - form a circle and play a few quick rounds of rock-paper-scissors to see who will be It for the first round.

...

Everybody turns to regard Briar's tiny hand, just barely visible in the spread form of "paper" to Moka's "scissors."

"This is going to be fun," the fairy snickers.

"New rule," Kahlua suggests promptly. "No climbing, leaping, or flying over the hedges."

"Agreed," all but one of you say in chorus.

Briar considers that, and shrugs. "I can deal with it."

"Also, no going THROUGH the hedges," Cordelia adds. When some of your little circle turn to regard her curiously for that remark, she illustrates her reasoning by sliding one hand into the nearby hedge.

At that, there are nods, followed by another round of near-universal agreement.

"Oh, Deku Nuts!"

Everybody else enters the maze at a run while Briar loudly counts down from twenty, rapidly splitting up to follow this or that path. In short order, you find yourself more or less alone - after you explained the game to the elemental, it disappeared, dispersing its aura throughout the entire maze - and once again taking only left turns as you seek out the end of the maze. As you move, you keep your energies suppressed as far as they'll go, while simultaneously doing your best to minimize the Familiar Bond.

Your efforts do not appear to have helped - either that, or all those constant left turns took you somewhere really close to the entrance - because Briar flies around a corner AHEAD of you, sees you, and zips over at her top speed.

"Gotcha!" your partner cries.

"Never!" you refuse, trying to duck the incoming projectile person.

Gained Evasion B

You succeed.

"What the-?!" Briar exclaims, as she zips past you.

You stick out your tongue, give the obligatory, "Meep, meep!" and make a run for it.

Gained Speed B (Plus)

Even without supernatural enhancement, the combination of your long strides and natural fitness are enough to get you ahead of Briar. It might be a different story if you were out in the open, or even on a long straightaway where she could just accelerate, but you make full use of the maze's arboreal architecture, ducking around the first corner you see to break Briar's line of sight, and then taking another turn-

Moka does NOT yelp as you nearly run her over, but her eyes are wide in a way that tells you she was tempted.

"Fairy on my six!" you cry.

The middle sister immediately turns and goes back the way she came.

-and then taking ANOTHER turn.

In short order, you've achieved two, possibly three things.

One, you've avoided being tagged, and on a related note, managed to shake Briar off your trail. At least for now.

Two, on account of taking the FIRST turn you came to several times, and not sticking strictly to the LEFT turns, you've managed to get yourself a little lost in the maze. You don't think it could be helped, though; you had to break your trail as soon as possible, and for that, you needed distance from Briar and time to work.

Third-

"TAG!"

"Gah!"

-you may or may not have contributed to Cordelia being the first one to get caught.

When you come around a corner a minute later to find her at the far end of one leafy path, sizing you up, you quickly turn and dash back the way you came.

"Gotcha!"

"No!"

And there goes Amy.

In short order, you hear Kokoa, Larry, and Kahlua all caught, by Briar, Cordy, and Amy, respectively, unless your ears deceive you. That leaves you and Moka, wandering a maze with half a dozen taggers after you.

Hearing rustling behind you, you speed up and take the first corner you come to, only to find Amy there ahead of you. You turn back-

!

-good grief. Larry was the one behind you, but Cordy, Kokoa, and Kahlua are all right behind him, and you can just see the glow of Briar's presence coming out of a side passage a little farther on.

"GET HIM!" Kokoa cries.

They get you.

Oh, you give evasion your best effort, but the only route left open to you dead-ends, and without your more exotic tricks, you're just too big to dodge THAT many opponents who simply have to touch you to win, while in a confined space.

With the first round officially over, an exception is made for the "no superpowers" and "no clearing the hedges" rules, so that everyone can reassemble at the entrance.

Moka is suitably pleased by her victory.

The elemental reappears and gives you a consoling pat on the knee.

You spare a distasteful glance for the maze.

"Who's up for another round?" you ask.

Hands shoot into the air all around, making it a foregone conclusion.

"Okay, then. Since Cordy was the first one to be caught last time, she's It this time."

Cordelia considers that, and nods. "Alright. One thing though," she adds, before pointing at Briar. "Can we tag Briar without hurting her?"

You are not the only one to turn to your tiny partner.

"I appreciate the concern, Cordy," Briar says, "but don't judge me by my size. I'm tougher than I look."

"Yeah!" Kokoa exclaims, pumping her fists into the air. "Me, too!"

The elemental blinks, looks around at the rest of you tall people, and then makes the same gesture.

"Eeee!"

And the next thing you know, Kahlua has swept up her littlest sister AND the spirit of the castle, hugging them both fiercely.

"So cute!"

"Erk!" Kokoa protests.

The elemental, extended torso and legs still attached to the ground, goes very still for a moment, as if uncertain what to do in response to this sudden surprise embrace. Then, as it gets over its initial shock and realizes that Kahlua isn't trying to hurt it, the tension goes out of its tiny frame, and it shyly returns the hug.

Briar stares at the scene for a moment, before hastily adding, "On the other hand, my WINGS are a little delicate, and I am kind of an unfairly small target for the rest of you, so would anybody object if Alex wrapped me up in a little ball of force?"

Nobody does, and you soon have Briar enclosed in a tiny Resilient Sphere.

From there, Cordelia takes her place near the entrance and begins counting down, while the rest of you scatter among the hedge-walls and pathways.

A few minutes on, you hear Cordelia call out, "Come here!"

"Yipe!" Kokoa exclaims.

There's a brief pause, and then Cordy exclaims, "Gotcha!"

The two of them were concerningly close to you, and when you pass Amy a few seconds later, you quickly signal her not to speak or make any noise. Even holding back her youki as much as she can, Kokoa is still a vampire, and thus has excellent senses.

Gained Sign Language D (Plus) (Plus)

Amy catches your intent, nods silently, and begins walking silently towards a different passage.

And then your mutual attempts at stealth are rendered moot when Kokoa comes around the corner up ahead, blinks in surprise, and points at you.

"Ah-ha!" she declares.

"Ahhh!" Amy returns, pointing back at the littlest vampire.

"Ha-ha!" you declare in triumph, as you dash around the nearest corner, leaving the two of them in your proverbial dust.

"Ha-ah?!" Amy protests behind you.

"Ha!" Kokoa says, with a sound of finality that's emphasized by the noise of a slight collision.

Sorry, Amy.

You hurry through several turns, and then catch yourself and duck behind an overgrown outcropping as Larry goes running past, with Cordelia hot on his heels. Somewhere else, you hear Moka cry out in protest - looks like she won't be getting that second consecutive win.

As you lean out of your hiding place, Kahlua emerges from another path, glancing cautiously in the direction Cordy and Larry just went.

Through your link to your spell, you register the Resilient Sphere taking a harmless hit. It's accompanied by a brief surge of emotions from Briar - surprise, disappointment, and acceptance, all in rapid succession.

"Briar just got tagged," you inform Kahlua.

"It's down to the two of us, then," she muses.

"Not for long!" Larry exclaims, as he comes charging back the way he fled Cordelia just moments earlier.

You and Kahlua scramble to get moving before he catches one of you.

Then Amy appears on the path ahead of you. "Payback time, Alex!"

She leaps forward, reaching out for both of you - but going right down the middle of the path.

Moving almost as one, you and Kahlua dodge Amy's grasping hands by all but throwing yourselves into the hedges on opposite sides of the path, while still moving forward as fast as you can.

"Not today, Amy!" you declare, as twigs and leaves whip across your back.

Amy is not the fastest of your friends, and having to stop and turn herself completely around buys you a few more seconds to put distance between you - and then Larry, coming up behind her and trying to repeat your success of going around the girl, seems to slip on something and collide with her.

Neither of them look to be hurt by the impact, but the time they lose sorting themselves out lets you and Kahlua reach the end of the current path and duck around a corner - and then another one, seconds later.

"This way, Alex!" Kahlua says, going for a third turn.

While a part of you acknowledges that Kahlua may be asking you to follow her just to make sure that she'll have a convenient distraction to hand if and when the others catch up to you, the fact remains that she's more familiar with the layout of the hedge-maze than you and two-thirds of your pursuers are. Unless the rest of your companions have thought to form search parties and give the lead to Moka and Kokoa, the best they can do here is wander around at random, as appears to have been the method of choice thus far.

Granted, that approach has proven to be fairly effective, but you think an organized and informed pursuit would yield better results. Especially if one of Kahlua's younger sisters knows the maze well enough to put herself and any partners she has on the path ahead of you.

Besides, it's not like you object to having some company as you roam the labyrinth.

After all, you could use a decoy, too.

And then all thoughts of treachery - in either direction - flee your head, as Cordelia appears over to your left.

"Gotcha now!" she exclaims.

You waste no breath on words, and start running.

Kahlua has done likewise, and the next thirty seconds or so see a three-part pursuit: Kahlua blazing a trait through the twists and turns of the maze; you thundering along in her wake; and Cordelia bringing up the rear, yelling for the other hunters.

As you run, you notice Kahlua's aura wavering back and forth, her youki cycling from the lowest level you've ever sensed it at to something that almost approaches her normal sealed level. Her speed remains constant, fast for a human of her age, but hardly a patch on what she'd really be capable of if she allowed her energy to flow freely.

It seems that, however much vampire pride compels her to win this little game, Kahlua is trying VERY hard to honor the agreed-upon terms.

One sprint down a curving path later, and the world seems to open up around you. Kahlua has led you out of the enclosed spaces of the hedge and into the center of the maze.

Memories flash before your eyes, compared and contrasted with the reality now present. The stone fountain that you remember, with its ring of stone benches, short pillars, and variously human, humanoid, or monstrous grotesques, has been replaced in its entirety.

Now, there is a gazebo, wicker-style walls rising from the octagonal base, giving rise to eight pillars that hold up the turreted roof. Instead of stone, everything is made of rich, dark wood, with vines coiling about the lower frame and climbing the supports as if it and they had been there for decades. Small carved figures gambol in the eaves and along the roof, easily mistaken for playful cherubs from a distance, and only revealing their horns, claws, and the batlike webbing of their wings after a closer inspection.

For some reason, the picturesque scene fills you with mortal dread.

"Is it going to attack us?" you call out to Kahlua.

Your last visit to the center of the maze - and specifically, your encounter with elements of the Shuzens' then-compromised security system - may have left scars.

"Would you like it to?" she calls back in a teasing tone.

Your thoughts on THAT offer go unspoken, as Amy leaps out from behind the gazebo.

"Vengeance!" she cries, as she rushes towards you. "Ah-ha-ha-ha!"

Okay, Amy may be getting into this a little TOO much...

Kahlua spots the witch and immediately moves to circle around the gazebo away from her.

For a second, you waver between following in Kahlua's wake, away from Amy, or going the other way to try and psych out the oncoming vengeance-seeking girl.

Then you make tracks after Kahlua.

Under different circumstances, counter-charging Amy would be a reasonable plan. She wouldn't be expecting it, and with that surprise backed up by your superior physical abilities, you could push past her or run right over her with no real trouble. But when all she needs to do to beat you is touch you, getting that close to her feels a little too much like tempting fate.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Oh, yes you do.

Amy gets close enough to reach out and touch you, but you manage to dodge, and then the distance between you starts to open up, your longer legs and greater natural athleticism allowing you to pull ahead of and then away from your frustrated friend.

"Come back here, Alex!" Amy demands.

"Less talking, more running!" Cordelia snaps out as she starts to overtake the other girl.

"Catch us if you can, ladies!" you call back.

And then Kahlua leads you into a leafy arch, about a hundred and sixty degrees to the left of where you entered the heart of the maze. Kahlua takes a left a short distance on, and then a right, and then heads straight down a long stretch of green-walled corridor, ignoring various turns. By this point, she's slowed from the high-human-speed dash that carried her across the central clearing, and her aura has likewise settled to a low, constant level.

"Tired?" you venture playfully, even as you match velocities with your friend.

"Kind of," she glumly admits, much to your surprise. "Not physically, of course, but staying at human-level ability while trying to push like that... it's turning out to be a lot harder than I expected." Kahlua glances over her shoulder, smiles, and adds, "You make it look so easy."

"Years of practice," you answer.

And then Cordelia appears at the end of one of the side-passages, and conversation is set aside for more running.

The second round of maze-tag comes to an end after about twenty-five minutes, when you and Kahlua manage to exit the maze without being caught. While there is some good-natured grumbling from the other players, the general agreement is that you two won that round.

Gained Puzzling E (Plus) (Plus)

A third round is being discussed when a servant appears to inform you that more of "Miss Kahlua's guests" have just arrived at the gate.

It's the Hayashi Clan. Quite a few of them, from what the servant says.

"Who?" Cordelia asks.

"A family of kitsune," you explain. "One of them works for the Shuzens, her niece attended Kahlua's birthday party, and that girl's father and a couple of their older relatives helped me out when I was trying to find another kitsune." Frowning, you turn to Kahlua. "I thought only Emiko and Hanabi were going to be here."

"They're the only ones spending the night," Kahlua says with a frown of her own. "The others... may have tagged along for a visit."

Is it your imagination, or does the vampire princess sound a little worried about that?

...then again, the Hayashi Clan ARE all kitsune, and some of their members are old and powerful enough to have quite a few tails. That's reason enough for even a family of vampires to be concerned, even without the tendency for... ah... "energetic" behavior you've seen and heard from the family during various incidents.

As both the eldest of the Shuzen daughters in residence and Emiko's peer, it is appropriate for Kahlua to be present to greet her. Your presence is not strictly required, but as a friend of both of the girls, it would be a good idea, and the rest of your companions decide to tag along, mostly out of curiosity.

Consequently, it's a fairly large group that's assembled in the front hall to meet the new arrivals. All your adult minders are present, and even Gyokuro and Miss Shirogane turn up - the former's lips twitching when she sees you and the elemental again, the latter carefully not sighing in exasperation at her employer's amusement. The only one absent is Issa, whose business has apparently taken him away from the estate for the day.

Your arrival is well-timed. Hardly a minute has passed before the front door opens up, and a living tide sweeps into the hall on a wave of feminine chatter.

"-the decor, it's so-"

"-must get so cold-"

"-straight out of an old horror-"

"-studios stole it from-"

"Oooh, boys detected!"

"False alarm, they're just kids..."

"Which one do you think is-"

"Emi's boyfriend! Emi's boyfriend!"

"Whyyyy?!"

There's Emiko, struggling futilely to resist as she's half-pushed, half-carried, half-dragged along by her seven sisters - there are enough of them that the math works out - a bouncy older vixen who is clearly their mother, and Miss Hanabi, whose usual composure is nowhere to be seen. The girls range in age from a pair of twins who are probably around Kokoa's age, to four girls in their middle teens, virtually identical but for their dramatically different hairstyles - short, shoulder-length, back-length, and reaching almost to the floor - to a young woman who looks to be within a year or two of turning twenty.

Bringing up the rear are Asamu, his only son - who appears to be the same age as the oldest of the girls; fraternal twins, perhaps? - and rather surprisingly, Elder Mitsuki, who is regarding the antics of her younger kinswomen with much the same air of embarrassed resignation being displayed by the two males.

For a moment, no one on your side of the hall makes a move, too stunned by the arrival of the Hayashi Clan to respond, but then Gyokuro steps forward and clears her throat.

Maybe it's the movement, and maybe it's the tiny pulse of youki she added, but either way, all the fox-ears that the collected Hayashis didn't bother to hide react as one, perking up and swiveling towards the lady of the castle. In the same moment, all the chatter ceases.

"Welcome to Castle Shuzen," Gyokuro says to the group. Then she singles out her employee, adding, "And Hanabi?"

"Yes, my lady?"

"If they break anything, it's coming out of your salary."

"Hey!" most of the girls - and their mother - protest in unison. Only Emiko, her eldest sister, and the trio bringing up the rear don't join in, instead wincing collectively.

Hanabi just sighs. "Understood, ma'am."

"HEY!"

Why would you run from a bunch of strange monster girls? You walked into a great hall full of monsters, at least half of whom were adults, and you not only mingled, you danced, fought, and walked away grinning in the aftermath.

Half a dozen under-aged kitsune are no problem in comparison. Especially when you've got three of their elders to act as character references and checks on the youngsters' exuberance.

As Akasha steps in to handle the general introductions - and boy, are there ever a LOT of them to be made - you gather your resolve and prepare yourself to step into the social battlefield.

"-and this is Alexander Harris," Akasha says.

As one, eight pairs of eyes turn and lock on to you.

"Hello, Emiko," you greet your penpal. "Nice to see you in person, again."

While you have been trying to visit your overseas friends for the last few months, there have been some issues with that agenda. For one thing, you have so many tasks on your plate right now that you can generally only spare weekends to visit, and your friends and their families often have plans of their own that take precedence. In addition, you have so MANY friends, most of whom don't live within convenient distance of each other - at least by foot or car - that you're generally limited to seeing one or two familiar faces per visit. And then there's little matters like making sure to thoroughly purify yourself before visiting the Shuzen's private pocket plane, or the fact that you don't actually know where the ninja-girls and their families live, causing further issues.

What with one thing and another, you hadn't gotten around to visiting the Hayashi Clan yet, meaning that Emiko's mother and siblings have never met you in person, and only really know of you through what the other members of the family have been willing to tell them - or, in Emiko's case, been successfully bullied into revealing.

So you're not exactly surprised when someone - one of the four teen lookalikes, the one with the shoulder-length hair, whose name you think was Mina - says suddenly, "Holy Inari, he's an elf."

"A brawny elf," her shortest-haired sister, Hina, agrees.

"Where is my camera?!" their mother, Natsu, exclaims, while searching through her purse.

"It's no good," proclaims Nina, back-length hair waving like a banner as she shakes her head. "Everybody knows elves are bish!"

The longest-haired of the four sisters, Rina, sighs. "You and your soulless pretty-boys-"

"My kingdom for a camera!"

"Vixen, I will bite you!"

"Does anyone else smell magic?" the eldest sister, Shinju, says with a frown. "Because I smell magic."

"He has a fairy!" That's one of the littlest pair, her expression one of pure wonder as she points and stares at your partner.

"He does!" her twin agrees. They were introduced as Mio and Miu, but you honestly aren't sure which one is which.

Then both girls' expressions become thoughtful, and they turn to each other, saying in unison, "Or does SHE have HIM?"

"EMI!" all of the other girls chorus. "You didn't tell us about any of this!"

Through the scarlet mask of mortification and the hands that seem to want to take up full-time work and residence on it, Emiko's face manages to muster enough spare expression to say that there was a Very Good Reason for that lack of information.

Then, visibly summoning up all of her courage, she promptly ignores all her sisters. "I-it's nice to see you again, too, Alex. U-um... th-thank you for the picture?"

"Picture? What picture?"

"I smell a story!"

"Little Emi's keeping secrets?!"

"Pictures from a BOY?! Scandalous!"

"No, seriously, I smell a LOT of magic-"

...this could take a while.

You take your cue from Emiko, and mostly ignore the chatter.

"I'm glad you liked it," you tell her. "We had to take quite a few pictures before we got one that satisfied Lady Tamamo."

The chatter cuts out instantly, as all but two of the female foxes - namely, Emiko and Elder Mitsuki - turn their heads to stare at you in shock. They're joined in this by their big brother, whose eyes have bugged out to the extent that they look like they're about to fall out of his head.

Emiko, her father, and the Elder all just regard you with blank looks, asking WHY you felt the need to say what you just said.

"'Lady Tamamo?'" Natsu echoes faintly.

You nod. "Yes."

"As in Tamamo-no-Mae," her eldest daughter clarifies.

You nod again.

"You claim to have taken PHOTOGRAPHS... with Tamamo-no-Mae," long-haired Rina says.

"I did."

"The hell you say!" short-haired Hina bursts out.

"I actually have evidence-"

You bring Tamamo's Photo Collection out of your dimensional pocket, open the book to the first image, the formal side-by-side picture that Tamamo declared, "Boring!"

Your audience collectively lean forward to take a closer look. This includes Emiko, who hasn't seen these other pictures.

"-and before you say it's fake, Elder Mitsuki and Mr. Hayashi were both there; they can vouch for me."

All eyes other than Emiko's turn to Elder Mitsuki and Hayashi Asamu. The two of them trade glances, and the younger male bows gracefully to his elder, who spares him a scowl before she sighs in annoyance.

"Yes," Mitsuki says quickly, for the benefit of her younger kin, "it happened. No, we didn't tell you about it. And no, he's not doing it again."

Once more, heads turn your way, and you nod.

"It was pure chance that it happened the first time," you admit, "and Lady Tamamo warned me it wouldn't be safe to press my luck by trying again."

The reactions to that vary. About a quarter of the family - namely the mother, her two eldest, and Miss Hanabi - look honestly relieved by your admission, while an equal number - most of the quadruplets - appear disappointed. Hina and the youngest two frown suspiciously, as if unconvinced that you actually did what you claim to have done.

"...could we borrow the book for a little while?" Rina asks you.

Elder Mitsuki blinks, pales slightly, and then begins frantically - albeit silently - waving her hands while mouthing the word, "No!"

She appears to have recalled that Lady Tamamo literally dragged her into your spontaneous photoshoot.

You consider Rina's question and the assorted expressions of the Hayashi Clan, which range from eager interest to suspicion-tinged curiosity to ongoing, furtive requests for you to put the book and its dignity-compromising images away.

A thought occurs to you, and is put into action almost as quickly as it enters your head.

"I'd prefer to keep the book with me," you muse absently, "but it would be downright mean of me to tease you all with this knowledge, and then not let you see the pictures."

Asamu glances at you sharply, his greater age, personal familiarity with you, and prior experience with being on the receiving end of your sense of humor apparently allowing him to catch something in your tone that none of the others do, not even Elder Mitsuki or Miss Hanabi.

There is a wuff of escaping air as you close the book and magically tuck it away.

For a moment, a dozen kitsune jaws drop.

"Awww..."

"But, but, but-!"

"Why, you-!"

Asamu starts snickering at the collective surprise and dismay of his relatives.

"Fortunately," you go on, raising your voice just a bit, "I'm not that mean. But this isn't the best time or place for it." You turn to Kahlua, and ask, "Could I trouble you for the use of a sitting room, Kahlua?"

Your vampire friend nods. "I have one in mind."

That was remarkably quick and painless.

As if reading your expression, Kahlua smiles sheepishly and says, "I want to see the photos, too."

Ah. It seems that photos of a legendary monster have an appeal that transcends species boundaries.

Somewhere, you're sure that Lady Tamamo is pleased.

From that point, the remaining introductions proceed with a certain expeditious air.

As it turns out, the room Kahlua picked is large enough to accomodate everybody that wants to see Tamamo's Photo Collection - even when this number includes not only the entire Hayashi Clan, but also everyone who'd gathered to meet them.

Yes, even Gyokuro, Akasha, and Miss Shirogane.

Gyokuro's reaction is a more practiced and refined version of her oldest daughter's honest interest. Akasha just looks kind of excited, while Miss Shirogane wordlessly blushes, adjusts her glasses, and looks away, refusing to meet your inquiring gaze.

Even the adults from Sunnydale tag along, though of the four of them, Lu-sensei is the only one who recognized the name Tamamo-no-Mae - you heard him murmuring a quick explanation for your father and the ladies when your dad just as quietly asked what all the fuss was about.

Universal appeal. Tamamo must indeed be happy.

While the room is big enough to hold everyone without being too crowded, Miss Keiko does have to call in a few lower-ranking servants to fetch extra chairs. Once everyone's seated, the book makes the rounds prompting many looks of amazement, delight, and disbelief from the audience.

"She's so pretty," one of the twins says in wide-eyed wonder.

"Really pretty," her sister agrees.

"Prettier than me, girls?" their mother teases.

"Uh-huh," the twins reply in unison.

"Erk!"

"She doesn't look nearly as vicious as I thought she would," Rina murmurs.

That prompts an explanation of how the spirit you summoned was the incarnation of one of Tamamo's tails, and technically not the legendary fox herself, and how she warned you against trying to call her again, as some of her "wasn't nice."

The long-haired fox-haired nods at that, appearing appeased.

Hina, meanwhile, is having trouble accepting the authenticity of the images.

"Why is she dressed like a miko?!"

"Because she thought it was cute," you answer honestly.

"...'cute.' CUTE?! But that's- but she- wha- what kind of legendary monster is concerned with looking CUTE?!"

Across the room, Gyokuro turns her head to give Akasha a meaningful look. "What kind of legendary monster, indeed?"

Lady Bloodriver meets it with a frown that's half-pout. "I happen to LIKE cute things, thank you very much."

Moka seems rather embarrassed by her mother's declaration, but you notice that she doesn't say anything against it.

The short-haired kitsune, meanwhile, is looking between the two older females and the images of the cosplaying Tamamo as she mugs for the camera. Hina seems less angry about all of this than she does generally bewildered and dismayed.

In the distance, you think you can hear a pedestal shattering.

"Alex," Emiko inquires then. "Who's the woman in the traditional dress? And... why does she not have any feet?"

"Eh?!" several voices proclaim in unison.

And THAT sends you into an explanation about Lady Akemi and Lady Takara.

All in all, you spend a solid half-hour passing the photos around, and the exchange is really only ended when one of the servants approaches Gyokuro and Akasha to announce that another group of guests are approaching the castle.

With a patience and skill born of much practice-

"Come along now, girls, or I'll ask Alexander to take his book back for the rest of our visit."

"But, Daddy/Dearest-"

"Now, girls."

"Awww..."

-Asamu chivvies his wife and daughters into joining the rest of you in greeting the incoming Arisawa/Kurosaki party.

Looking around the front hall, you idly muse that it's a very good thing this room is as big as it is. This many bodies would have choked the entryway at your house, and most of your friends' homes as well. Even Casa de Chase would be feeling cramped with twenty-eight people gathered in one place.

And then the door opens, and there are thirty-two people in the hall.

The number of individuals assembled to meet them appears to startle Ichigo and Tatsuki, while Masaki regards the crowd of humans and monsters - and one fairy - with a calmer disposition, verging on a tactical analysis. As for Akkiko, who you note is wearing slacks and a messily buttoned-up dress shirt instead of the fancier and vaguely traditional stuff you usually see her in, she idly inspects your oversized party for a moment before doing a double-take and raising an accusing finger.

"YOU!"

Somewhat surprisingly, she's not pointing at Gyokuro or Akasha, but at Elder Mitsuki.

"YOU!"

Who is doing almost exactly the same thing.

"You have some nerve showing your face in front of me, you sneaky bitch," Akkiko growls.

"I could say the same about you, oni," Mitsuki returns.

"Are you ready to pay up?"

"Bring it on."

The air between the two of them begins to crackle, youki and other forces whirling.

A quick look around shows that just about everyone else in the room is stepping or reeling back from the two unexpectedly antagonistic females. The only exceptions are Masaki and Gyokuro, who both wear near-identical expressions of flat annoyance, and Akasha, who hasn't budged from her spot, but is nonetheless looking quite surprised by this development.

While everyone was moving between rooms, you stepped aside for a minute and did some careful editing of Tamamo's Photo Collection, removing the handful of photos that Elder Mitsuki got dragged into and wasn't able to pull herself out of.

Literally, in the former case, but only metaphorically in the latter. The seven-tailed elder female managed to very politely, somewhat desperately, but most importantly, successfully argue the merits of single- and double-person images against group photos with Lady Tamamo. This gave Mitsuki some breathing space at the time, and it provides enough extra images now that you still have a good-sized collection when you've finished pulling all the pictures that Mitsuki appears in.

You ARE left with a fair number of blank spaces amidst the pages of the book, but there isn't much you can do about that except cross your fingers and pray that nobody gets suspicious enough to call you on it.

As it happens, Emiko, Hina, Shinju, Shinta, and Hanabi all send looks that carry varying degrees and flavors of suspicion your way when they notice the empty spots, but none of them speak up about it.

Asamu just looks amused, while Elder Mitsuki is at once relieved and nervous.

Doubtless she's realized, as you have, that Emiko is probably going to ask you about the missing photos after the rest of the family has left. Her aunt might get in on it as well, and of course, Asamu already knows the truth. The very fact that you bothered to remove all those pictures suggests that SOMEONE considers them valuable and/or threatening enough to merit all the extra trouble of hiding them, which in turn makes them that much more interesting and valuable, especially in the eyes of habitual pranksters.

In short, the Elder may not have thought her request through.

You suspect that this, too, is pleasing to Tamamo.

Between your personal experience with the ladies in question, the rules of hospitality in force among the supernatural side, and the fact that there is a room full of innocent bystanders to think about - as well as two extremely powerful vampire women - you have your doubts that Akkiko and Elder Mitsuki are going to throw down right here and now.

However, you're not entirely SURE.

Better safe than sorry, right?

Right.

You gather your mana, calculating the parameters of a Spell to Create a Wall of Force that will barricade your side of the hall and everyone there from harm - you'd like to cover Tatsuki, Ichigo, and Masaki, too, but they're just too far away; you're going to have to trust Mrs. Kurosaki to get those two out of harm's way if the fur starts flying - and there, you halt, holding the spell at the ready.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Gyokuro glancing your way. There's also a faint rustle from Akasha's direction as she notices either what you were doing, or Gyokuro's reaction to it.

Nobody else does anything, their attention fixed on the spectacle before you.

Akkiko and Mitsuki have moved apart from their respective families, squaring off across the hall. Akkiko stands bowed slightly forward, arms out and hands hanging just off of her hips, fingers flexing slowly - almost like a gunslinger in the Old West. Mitsuki, on the other hand, has adopted a stance that reminds you of a swordsman about to draw.
Ayi-ayi-aye!
At an unseen signal, the two women move, hands blurring as they draw-
Oh, for goodness's sake...
-oversized clay jugs and matching drinking bowls, as if from out of nowhere.

"For the honor of my family name, I challenge you to a drinking contest!" Mitsuki declares.

"Challenge accepted!" Akkiko responds. "And WHEN I catch you cheating this time, I'll thrash you all over again!"

"You've NEVER caught me, you thug of a priestess!"

"The hell I haven't, you sorry excuse for an illusionist!"

...

Tatsuki wordlessly introduces her face to her palm.

"EHHH?!" the Hayashi girls exclaim en masse.

...you let your mana disperse, and wonder why you were ever worried.

"Ladies, please," Asamu says, stepping forward with his hands raised.

There's a brief pause as they look at him.

He smirks. "...continue..."

Mitsuki glares at the younger fox. You suspect that if she was standing close enough, she'd swat him across the back of the head for that one - possibly with the jar of alcohol, possibly just with her one visible tail.

"Don't encourage them, Hayashi," Gyokuro says flatly.

Asamu raises his hands and bows his head in acknowledgment, and subsides.

With the seeming hostility between Akkiko and Elder Mitsuki having passed without incident, events progress swiftly.

The introductions are made, and as soon as everyone knows who the Arisawas and Kurosakis are - and vice versa - Gyokuro quite firmly puts her foot down on the matter of drinking challenges - which is to say, she is not having any of that under her roof.

Something about Akkiko and Lucia causing more than enough trouble just drinking recreationally, and how Gyokuro is NOT paying for the damages that ensue when a part-oni and a seven-tailed kitsune go on a competitive bender.

Akasha is fully in her corner on this, so Akkiko and Mitsuki agree to postpone their "rematch" until tomorrow night.

The Hayashi Clan hang around for another couple of hours after that decision, during which time Kahlua takes everyone on that tour of the castle. It's largely a repeat of the look around you were given on your previous visit - the Hall of Allies, the Hall of Enemies, the library, and so on - and you end up spending a fair part of the time listening to the intermittent chatter of the rest of the crowd.

Tatsuki fields a number of questions-

"I am NOT responsible for my mom's crazy."

"I know EXACTLY how you feel," Shinta murmurs sympathetically.

-Ichigo gets fussed over by most of the girls-

"He's adorable!"

"I wanna take him home and snuggle him forever!"

"Tatsuki, help!"

-and Akkiko and Misaki mingle with the other adults.

"So you're the boya's father, huh?" Akkiko eyes your dad up and down, before glancing at Cathy. "And you are... not Mrs. Harris, are you?"

"No, I'm not," Mrs. Madison agrees. "Catherine Madison."

"Arisawa Akkiko. You the mistress, then?"

Sputtering ensues.

"I can't take you anywhere, can I?" Masaki sighs.

Once the tour has ended, Asamu thanks Kahlua and then declares that he and his should be getting on their way, as they have other plans to attend to and wouldn't want to overstay their welcome. It takes him some patient reminders, repeated cajoling, and one or two blatant threats-

"Should I just tell the Katsumoto boy that you aren't interested after all?"

"Daddy, don't you DARE!"

-but Asamu gets those of his family who aren't going to be spending the night over at Castle Shuzen moving along.

"Have a good time, Emi dear," Natsu advises her third youngest, as she gives her a smothering hug. "And remember to be on your best behavior."

"Or at least remember to not get caught misbehaving," Nina advises with a smirk.

"Yes, unlike some people," Rina muses.

"I will seriously bite you!"

And then the family of foxes are gone.

It would be mean of you to mention it out loud, but you can't help but notice how much quieter Castle Shuzen is in their absence.

Dinner is another hour or so after the tour, and Issa does not appear for the meal. Gyokuro extends an apology to all the guests on her husband's behalf, noting that his business will probably keep him away from home until tomorrow afternoon.

After the meal, you spend a couple of hours watching a movie in a private theatre that you missed on your previous visit. You find yourself comparing it to the similar facility Ambrose had set up in his private quarters at the Drakes', and spot a number of commonalities: a big projection screen; a top of the line sound system built into the room; a private bar's worth of snacks; and of course, the luxury-class seats. Really, the main difference is that the Shuzens' home theatre isn't obviously magical, where Ambrose's set-up included an illusory usher and floating crystals, among other things.

The movie, incidentally, is "The Mummy," which was released in theatres earlier this year.

The monsters in the audience spend a good part of the movie cheering on the titular character, Imhotep, as he wreaks vengeance and destruction upon the foolish mortals that released him from his ancient imprisonment, but they also give the human characters a fair shake whenever they manage to successfully fight back - or at least live to fight another time.

Also, the girls seem to approve of the romantic sub-plot.

All in all, it's an interesting experience.

By the time the movie is over, your anti-fatigue spell is starting to run low, and you and the rest of the Sunnydale contingent are definitely feeling the long hours that you've been up for. You make your excuses and retreat to your rooms to call it an early night.

You're a bit groggy when you wake up the next morning, having slept for almost eleven hours straight, but once you've had a shower, dressed, and fed the beast in your belly, you're starting to feel much more human.

Seeing as how you are scheduled to attend a monster party this evening, Kahlua agrees at breakfast that you should probably forego holding one of the high-powered tournaments of spars that have become something of a habit of yours whenever you visit your friends in the Moonlit World. It's not that Kahlua expects anyone at the party to cause trouble, but she has to admit that the possibility IS there, and that some reasonable precautions should be taken as a result.

One such precaution is making sure that your human friends from Sunnydale are prepared for trouble, just in case it finds them. None of the three are as powerful as you, and they can't afford to burn large amounts of energy as casually as you do, so...

Your day plan is a mix of other activities. Larry found out last night that the Shuzens have a copy of "The Phantom Menace" in their home theatre collection, and he's curious to see how the Japanese release of the movie compares to the American one - so that's a couple of hours there. A general consensus was reached about another few rounds of maze-tag to round out the morning.

Oh, yes. You DID want to take the time to speak with your master about the possible consequences of youki exposure on burgeoning young ki adepts, didn't you?

...you should probably get on with that as soon as possible.

Honestly, you should have taken care of it yesterday, but, well, things happened, and situations that could have involved ki use were thankfully avoided. But you were planning to spend more time in the maze again today, and there's the party this evening to consider as well - you'll be back in the city, where the ambient youki is nothing like as intense as the atmosphere of the Shuzens' domain, but you'll also be spending a lot of time around a lot of young monsters, some of whom like as not won't have the kind of natural control Kahlua and her sisters do.

Besides which, it's Hallowe'en. Who knows what kind of weirdness may ensue with all these youkai wandering around?

True, you've never noticed any strange incidents on this night in years past, but the very fact that you've BEEN trick-or-treating before is pretty bizarre in and of itself. Seriously, you've had a sunset-related curfew enforced on every other night of the year, and yet each October 31st since you were old enough to walk the distance, your parents have taken you out AFTER DARK on the HELLMOUTH to beg candy from strangers.

And it's not just your family, or even your neighborhood. The whole town is in on the practice, to such an extent that Sunnydale High routinely assigns student minders to escort groups of sugar-hyped preschoolers around town for a few hours. Knowing the kind of evil that lurks in the hearts of some teachers, that's probably a punishment detail for at least some of the older kids, but you've never heard of anything bad resulting from it.

That says a LOT.

Getting back to the matter at hand, you ask Lu-sensei for a few minutes of his time that morning, between breakfast and the scheduled screening of The Phantom Menace, and lay out your inquiry and your concerns.

Your teacher hears you out, strokes his beard, and admits that there is some reason to be cautious with Larry right now, if not precisely worried.

"It's one thing for a student at Larry's level to awaken his ki while in a fight with a youkai, or otherwise defending himself in this kind of environment," Lu-sensei explains. "In a life-or-death situation, the student's fear of and aggression towards whatever's threatening him, the fight-or-flight response kicking in, the sheer will to live and the rejection of the threat - while they may cause the ki to express itself in a violent and draining or even self-damaging manner, they also serve as a natural ward against youki contamination. And once the ki has been unlocked, even if the only thing the student can reliably do with it at first is shoot an overpowered ki blast that drains his reserves in one go, or essentially set himself on fire so that the monsters can't catch him, you can hammer greater breadth of skill into him with time."

"And when things are less aggressive?" you ask.

"The competition you kids had going yesterday would have been safe enough, if that's what you're worried about. Training in this atmosphere without the passive benefits of an awakened ki, on the other hand, could be a problem - which is one reason why I'm not after all four of you to practice. And speaking of which," you teacher adds, giving you a direct look, "no matter how friendly your little not-offspring is, DON'T try to adapt or attune yourself to this place until you have a LOT more practice with those skills." Lu-sensei makes a face. "Youki infections in humans can get very ugly if they aren't handled carefully, and with your personal circumstances, I think it would get a lot uglier than most."

...fair enough. You make a mental note to avoid using Environmental Adaptation or Spiritual Attunement here.

"That asides," your master goes on, "the best person I can think of to handle that kind of contamination would be the honored Mikogami, and he's the kind of guy you don't want to owe a favor to if you can help it."

You recall the creepy glowing-eyed priest-slash-principal, and have to agree with your teacher.

The rest of the day proceeds without incident.

An hour or so after lunch, the women collectively abandon you and the other menfolk to get cleaned up and have a final fitting for their respective costumes. You already know what Cordelia, Amy, Mrs. Madison, and Mrs. Blaisdell are going as, but the Shuzen ladies were being coyly evasive about their chosen outfits.

Trading glances, you, Larry, your father, and Lu-sensei collectively shrug and head back to your rooms to change.

A few minutes later, Doom exits his imperial suite, tiny angel riding on his shoulder, and encounters a young Jedi, a grubby gumshoe, and Lu-sensei in a much fancier outfit than you've ever seen him wear. It's similar to his customary robe, but with a dark green mantle covered in Oriental symbols draped over that. He's also got some kind of hat, a necklace and several matching bands of heavy beads wound about his arms and legs and across his chest, a few pouches crammed full of scrolls and assorted oddments hanging off his hips, and a large jug similar to the ones you've seen Akkiko pull out of nowhere.

"I am a Taoist alchemist and sorcerer," Lu-sensei says, in response to the inquiring looks.

"Gesundheit," your father replies.

Ichigo is the last to arrive, wearing a stark white tunic with some kind of short mantle or frock, matching pants, and a small, plain silver cross that's just a bit too short on one end to be a proper crucifix.

"A priest?" Larry wonders.

"Some kind of monk called a Quincy," Ichigo answers, giving his outfit a tug. "Dad wanted me to go as a samurai, but Mom liked this better." He looks Larry up and down, and gives him a thumbs up. "Sweet Jedi outfit, man."

Larry grins. "Thanks. Alex did all the work, though."

"Doom is pleased by your recognition, Jedi."

"...say what now?" Ichigo wonders.

"So," your father interjects, looking the three of you over. "Everything fits? It's all comfortable?"

"Doom would not describe armor as 'comfortable,' but it is, at least, tolerable to wear."

"Good, good. Now, think about this next question for a second before you answer it: would you rather wear your costumes for the ride to the party? Or would you prefer to wear regular clothes for the trip, and get changed at the community center?"

You consider that. Your armor isn't exactly going to get wrinkled if you wear it for the next few hours, but on the other hand, it would likely get unpleasantly stiff and hot after a while.

As it tends to, magic once again provides a potential solution for your minor problems. While there is no spell in your repertoire specifically for making armor comfortable to wear, your command over the Schools of Abjuration and Elementalism is more than sufficient for you to produce the desired effect with a little tweaking. A Spell to Endure Elements will handle any temperature issues, unless you do something reckless like walk into a fire, and the Spell of Panacea will take care of any soreness; as a bonus, you'll only need to scale it up by one tier to last until you go back to Sunnydale.

Trying to work out how to get the armor to "breathe" better does leave you at something of a loss, but since you have the temperature issue covered and are in good enough shape to wear the armor without exerting yourself, you can probably let it slide.

You go ahead and apply your chosen spells. This doesn't result in your costume suddenly feeling like a well-fitted suit of spider-silk or anything, but the weight and closeness of the enclosed helmet do register a bit less uncomfortably.

It occurs to you that your costume is technically incomplete, and that you could use a Spell of Illusion to create a tiny devil on the opposite shoulder from Briar. As you don't want your concentration tied up directing an Image for the rest of the day, the Spell of Persistent Image is the go-to answer. A fifth-level spell is a BIT much for the purposes of a simple costume, and it would only last about twelve minutes, besides, but if you were to strip down the range and scale of the effect...

A diminutive red-glowing figure with a tiny pitchfork, bat-like wings, and a spaded tail and horns that most people would have to squint to see appears on your left shoulder.

Then, leaving the pitchfork to hover in empty air, the fake devil pulls a pair of maracas out of nowhere and begins to dance and sing.

"I am Evil Bri-ar! I am Evil Bri-ar!"

Briar is silent for a moment. "Alex, I swear to Farore, that had BETTER be your magic acting screwy."
Hahahaha!
"Doom has no idea what you speak of, minion."

And you make with casting the Spell to Mask Dweomers to hide the active emanations of the spells.

Ichigo, meanwhile, is staring at your creation.

"...does she actually look like that?"

Your father - who needs the benefit of Illusion Magic to "see" Briar himself - studies the little devil for a moment.

"Briar glowed a lighter shade of red, not quite pink, the last time I saw her. And her wings were shaped like a butterfly's, only colorless and transparent."

"...huh."

One of the servants arrives then, and leads you to the chamber where you are to meet the ladies for a mutual showing-off of costumes. Not that they CALL it that, but that's what it amounts to.

The only ones present when you arrive are Miss Shirogane - who isn't wearing a costume - and Moka, who is wearing a suit of armor. Well, part of a suit, mostly the breastplate, pauldrons, and the bits in between. Her forearms are bound almost to the elbow by leather bracers, approximately matching her knee-high boots; aside from that, she wears an ankle-length divided skirt and a suitably dramatic cape. There's also a sword sheathed at her hip, a hand-and-a-half weapon scaled to Moka's size.

The two of you regard each other in silence.

"I have no idea who he's supposed to be, either," Ichigo admits.

Before Moka has a chance to reply, one of the doors opens, admitting Mrs. Blaisdell and Cordelia.

Moka does an honest to goodness double-take at Cordy's costume, while Miss Shirogane adjusts her glasses and smirks. Obviously, they both recognize the character.

Cordelia raises the little (and fake) cigarette-on-a-stick thing that was part of the outfit, and returns the smirk.

"No Alucard?" Keiko inquires.

"Alex gets into enough trouble without tempting Fate like that."

"Doom objects to that remark."

The Madisons are next to enter, mother and daughter both looking classically witchy, and are followed by Akasha. You have to say, the Dark Lord's chosen costume really suits her title; it's an elaborate black gown with a distinctive horned headdress, and includes a thin wooden staff with a green crystal at the tip.

When Akasha sees what Moka is wearing, she appears surprised, then oddly pensive - and then, when Moka blushes and looks away, her mother walks over and gives her a hug.

"You wear it well, Moka."

"...thank you, Mother."

You're missing something, you just know it.

Masaki enters the room next, wearing a black samurai-like outfit with a katana sheathed at her side, and Akkiko and Tatsuki aren't too far behind her. The Arisawa matron is dressed up like a vampire - and by that, you mean one of those cheesy low-budget movie vamps, with the excessively pale face and pointy-toothed overbite that look NOTHING like any of the vampires you've met. The slinky black Morticia Addams dress is not entirely inappropriate, but Akkiko also affects a really bad European accent when she greets you all in English.

Akasha's customary smile becomes a bit fixed, at that.

Tatsuki, who's gone with a red Power Rangers outfit, walks over to the older woman and bows low. "I tried to stop her, I really did."

"It's not your fault, dear."

The two remaining members of the Hayashi Clan are next to arrive. Emiko is wearing her own version of the cute shrine maiden's outfit Lady Tamamo had on in the photo, and Hanabi is dressed in the prim and proper style of a British nanny from the early part of the century, a large carpet-pattern bag in her left hand and a bird-headed umbrella in her right.

The remaining Shuzens enter as a group. Kokoa comes rushing in first, and eagerly shows off her fairy costume - frilly dress, sparkly wings, plant-like wand, and all - which earns Briar's immediate approval.

Kahlua, meanwhile, is wearing a costume that consists of an oddly plain yellow blouse, dark red leggings, and leather half-boots. Blood-red crystals that appear to be of a matched set glimmer in the belt around her waist - which also carries several pouches and arcane-looking accouterments - on the backs of the dark gloves that cover her hands, and about her throat. Larger crystals of a different cut and hue glint in the black pauldrons that are included for what appears to be purely stylistic reasons, and her hair has been tucked up into a very good wig of short red, which includes a headband. Rounding it all off are a short sword at one hip, a long black cloak, and a big, currently empty sack.

You can hear the words, "Dragon SLAAAAVE!" just looking at her.

Gyokuro is last, with a daringly-cut pale violet tunic, boots, assorted pieces of jewelry, and a sword and short cape of her own. Her hair is still the same color as ever, but appears straighter and longer than usual. In addition, she's wearing a pair of fake ears that stick out considerably.

Akkiko whistles. "Damn, woman. Looking good."

"Thank you. Would that I could say the same of you." Dismissing Akkiko from her thoughts, Gyokuro turns to you. "Hail, Doom."

"Hail, Lady Shuzen."

Gyokuro smirks. "Just for tonight, it's Pirotess."

"Doom is not familiar with that name," you admit.

"Not a problem; next time you visit, ask to watch 'The Record of the Lodoss War.'"

You make a note of that.

Some time is spent exchanging compliments, observations, and other remarks about the various costumes. Akasha and Hanabi both dressed as Disney characters, the former as the dark fairy Maleficent, from Sleeping Beauty - well before your time, and one you haven't caught on TV or rented - the latter as Mary Poppins. Masaki mentions that her outfit is something of a private joke, not going into detail otherwise, and Moka's armor turns out to be based on something her mother wore a couple centuries ago.

Of all the costumes worn by the Sunnydale party, yours proves the most difficult for most of your Japanese companions to identify. And why wouldn't it be?

The Madisons' witch costumes are standard Hallowe'en chic, Briar's angel outfit is at LEAST as much of a classic, and the image of the hard-boiled private eye has been in the public awareness for decades, across multiple genres. The lightsaber hilt hanging from Larry's belt would make it pretty obvious what he's supposed to be, even if The Phantom Menace hadn't been released a few months ago, and while his grandmother's costume is a bit more obscure, it took only a moment's explanation before eyes were lighting up in recognition of the character.

Cordelia went as a manga/anime character, one that the adult youkai ladies all appear to recognize and be amused by, though of the younger crowd, only Kahlua seems to know who Sir Integra is.

If you're reading Cordy right, she's perfectly satisfied by that.

As for Lu-sensei, while he didn't dress up as any specific character, the general theme of his outfit looks to be familiar enough that even Kokoa - the youngest of the group - and Ichigo - the most "normal" of the Japanese group, in upbringing if not in actual fact - aren't the least bit puzzled by it.

Doom's cloak, mask, and armor, though, have them mystified.

Gyokuro recognized the character, of course, but Kahlua did tell you once that her mother lived in New York before she married Issa, so it's not unthinkable that Lady Shuzen has some exposure to American comics in general, and Marvel in particular. Actually, the manner in which she greeted you suggested she has more than a passing familiarity with Doom and his mannerisms, but everyone else seems to fall short of even casual recognition.

This state of affairs is not pleasing to Doom, and cannot be allowed to stand.

And so, while it is a task that under normal circumstances would devolve to a minor functionary, in this instance, Doom deigns to personally enlighten the peasants of the greatness that is Doom.

Kokoa leaves the proceedings to change out of her costume for the trip to the city, as she doesn't want to risk crumpling the delicate wings in the car. Everyone else seems content to go as they are, although Tatsuki does crack open her helmet, confessing that having her head enclosed like that is unexpectedly uncomfortable.

"It's not just the heat, the close air, or having my hair crushed flat," she says. "The way it rubs against my forehead, right here" -she illustrates- "is just really annoying."

Akkiko nods. "That's fine, kiddo. It's just your horns."

On cue, everybody looks at Tatsuki's forehead, which furrows and turns red under the scrutiny.

"I don't SEE any horns," Ichigo points out.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Tatsuki mutters.

"Well, they haven't grown out yet, have they?" Akkiko retorts. "Which is assuming they do at all. Female oni tend to have smaller horns than the guys, and being mixed-blood, Tatsuki's would most likely be smaller than average, or even not present at all. But a part of her knows that it COULD have horns, and doesn't like wearing things that don't take them into account."

...

You can't help but wonder if Ganondorf ever had issues wearing clothes and equipment that didn't make allowances for his alter-ego's inhuman features. Because while the Great Demon King didn't have horns in most of his incarnations, he usually had a pretty spectacular pair of tusks.

Honestly, you don't recall anything on the subject.

At the very least, Doom's helm and mask haven't particularly bothered you since you put them on.

Once Kokoa is changed and her costume packed for travel, everyone heads down to the front yard, where a few cars are waiting.

You're informed that it's not quite as far from Castle Shuzen to the community center where the party is being held as it would be to the Hakuba Shrine. Depending on the traffic - which should be fairly light on a Sunday afternoon - it could be anywhere from ninety minutes to two hours.

You're not sure what it is that led you to make this decision, but as everyone begins picking out their preferred companions for the trip back to the city, you find yourself gravitating towards sharing a car with Kahlua and Cordelia.

The smiles your invitation is greeted with are... mildly unsettling, even to one such as Doom.

The vehicles are large enough to handle four or five occupants, and your initial impulse was to ask Amy along to round out your group, but when she notices you looking in her direction, she takes one look at the other two girls and excuses herself before you can even open your mouth.

Emiko was your next choice, and she joins you without a moment's hesitation.

...incidentally, she's wearing one of those smiles as well.

You are beginning to think you may have made a tactical error.

The other four members of the Shuzen family enter the lead car together - Akasha and Gyokuro sparing your group looks of pure amusement - while your father and Lu-sensei trade glances, shake their heads in resignation, and climb into the same vehicle as Tatsuki and the Kurosakis. Amy has already joined her mother and the Blaisdells in a third car, with Hayashi Hanabi pausing to shoot her niece a thumbs-up before getting in after them and closing the door.

In a confluence of events that you sinkingly suspect is no coincidence whatsoever, your group is left with Akkiko, who regards you all with a fangier-than-usual grin.

"Shall we?" she says, gesturing to the open door of the last empty car.

Having little choice at this point, you file into the car. Not entirely by your own will, you find yourself sitting in the very back seat, with Kahlua to your right and Emiko to your left. Cordelia regards the two of them for a moment, and then smiles brightly and gestures to the opposite seat.

"Care to join me, Briar?"

"I would, actually," your partner admits, leaving her usual place on your shoulder. "With all respect to Doom, I wasn't fancying the idea of sitting on an iron plate for the next couple of hours."

You glance at your pauldron, which the green mantle of Doom does not entirely cover, and certainly does not soften. A design oversight, perhaps?

Akkiko enters then, closing the door behind her and settling herself on the seat next to Cordelia. You half-expect to see her flop gracelessly into the plush leather, but the woman takes suitable care for the sake of her costume. She's just settled herself when the car rumbles to life and begins moving out.

For the next few minutes of the drive, the only sounds you hear are those of your vehicle - muted though they are by excellent maintenance and what you suspect are built-in noise-reduction systems - as it follows the other cars in this little caravan of costumed party-goers down the twisting road from Castle Shuzen.

Then Akkiko snorts. "Don't everyone speak at once, or anything."

Emiko giggles nervously at that, then immediately clams up, blushing, as the other girls look at her.

Taking Akkiko's unsubtle prompting, you look between Emiko and Kahlua and ask if there's anything you - and by "you," you mean yourself and the rest of your Sunnydale cohorts - should keep in mind while at the party.

"Most of the people there will be our age, or within a few years of it either way," Kahlua says. "Plenty of young monsters have trouble holding their human disguises, which is why Hallowe'en is so popular - we can go as ourselves, and pass for humans in really good costumes."

"One big trick, huh?" Cordelia asks.

Emiko nods. "The tricks are the other big reason why most monsters like Hallowe'en."

"Those, and the candy," Kahlua notes.

"But mostly the tricks," the kitsune emphasizes. "So don't be surprised if someone tries to catch you with a stink-bomb, or one of the other kids jumps at you in full monster face." She pauses. "And try not to punch them, either."

"Not unless they REALLY deserve it, of course," Kahlua adds.

Emiko nods. "Of course."

You're somewhat surprised when Akkiko speaks up next. "There's also a general ban on use of magic, youki, and other powers while the festivities are going on, unless you've got a good reason - say, finding a lost kid, pulling off a great prank, or heading off the serious troublemakers before they can get going."

Cordelia regards the older woman curiously. "You've been to this thing before?"

"A couple of times," Akkiko admits with a shrug. "Not this specific shindig, but other parties of the sort. Last one was before Tatsuki was born, but I don't think the rules have changed since then - unless they allow booze?" She glances hopefully at Kahlua and Emiko.

"They don't, as far as I know," Kahlua answers.

"Eh, figures."

You also inquire of Kahlua if anyone else you know, besides Emiko's family, those in your group, and the other people you invited to attend, is likely to show up.

She replies that you can rule out most of the people you met at her birthday. Most of the non-Japanese monsters and supernaturally-aware individuals can't travel internationally as quickly and casually as you do, much less trans-continentally, and the ones wealthy enough to afford plane tickets either had other plans, or wouldn't have dreamed of hobnobbing with the "commoners" that make up the majority of the guest list. Among the Japanese contingent, there are various traditionalists who reject this kind of "foreign nonsense" and "human foolishness," as well as more open-minded sorts who have parties of their own to attend tonight.

In short, Kahlua can't really think of anyone that is likely to appear who you'd know.

With that out of the way, you decide it's time for something completely different, and start talking about manga, comics, anime, and cartoons, like a vaguely normal kid.

It's not a bad topic of discussion. Half the people in this car are dressed as characters appearing in the mediums in question, and while you expounded upon the history and virtues of Doom earlier, you're curious about the woman Cordelia chose to dress as.

Akkiko laughs and volunteers-

"Oh, me! Let me!"

-to explain about Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing.

It doesn't take long for you to grasp why she and the other adult youkai were all amused by Cordelia's selection, or for that matter, some of the reasons why Cordy picked that particular costume.

You also find out who Alucard is, and you're rather glad that you weren't asked to dress up as him. It would have been... awkward.

Trying to keep things balanced, you then ask Kahlua what inspired HER decision to dress as Lina Inverse. You're familiar with the character, and the Bandit Killer, Dragon Spooker, and Enemy-of-All-Who-Live doesn't seem like the sort of individual Kahlua would chose to associate herself with.

"In real life, probably not," Kahlua admits. "But I like how Lina goes where she wants, takes what she wants, and blows up anybody who gets in her way. It's the kind of thing a monster would do."

...well, there is that.

You spend a little while discussing some of the finer points about The Slayers with Kahlua, who's not only seen the anime - including a third season you haven't been able to find at home yet - but also has the light novels it was based on, as well as a prequel series. Both are still ongoing, and while Kahlua doesn't spoil you on the details, she does say that the author is just about ready to conclude the main series.

You might have to look into getting copies of those books at some point. And you'll definitely be watching some of this "Slayers Try" the next time you visit Kahlua.

Gained Pop Culture D (Plus)

So as not to leave Emiko out, you inquire if there are any manga or anime she's into right now.

Emiko mentions she recently read the first issue of a series called Naruto, having heard it involved a demon fox. She's kind of disappointed that the fox in question was killed off in the backstory, and the main character is instead a loudmouthed, not overly bright ninja. While she's willing to stick with it for a few more issues, she thinks she's probably going to drop it.

Her favorite series is Oh My Goddess!, which you've heard the name of, but haven't seen.

After the way the conversation's gone, it's only natural that Emiko would ask you what YOUR favorite manga and/or comic book series are.

You've never been a hardcore fan of comics, manga, or their animated adaptations, having had other things to spend your time and money on - not infrequently, things that have contributed to the preservation of life and limb. But that doesn't mean you've never ever read comics at all. Every so often, you'll find yourself at one of Sunnydale's convenience stores with some extra cash in your pocket, and one of the colorful titles on the rack will catch your eye.

Your favorite comic is the Fantastic Four, as much because it's regularly available as anything else. There WAS a reason you picked Doctor Doom as your Hallowe'en costume, after all.

After Marvel's first family, you're most familiar with and fond of Spider-Man, while in the DC column, you've had the most exposure to Batman - less in the comic book format, and more from the animated series that ran a few years ago, and is still playing in syndication.

Emiko doesn't recognize any of these titles or characters, but Kahlua does know who Batman is.

Somehow, you're not surprised.

You're rather less familiar with manga and anime, but you have seen the first two seasons of Slayers, and it probably counts as your current favorite. Aside from that, you spent some time going through Ichigo's manga collection the last time you visited Karakura; of the titles you leafed through, the most enjoyable was One Piece.

The comic book discussion is still ongoing when you glance out a window and notice that you've left behind the quieter country roads and are now on a major thoroughfare, with the city visible up ahead.

Tokyo traffic doesn't appear to too bad this afternoon, and the drivers of your not-so-little convoy manage to keep all six cars together as they navigate the city streets. It doubtlessly helps that the community center you're heading to is located in an outlying residential district, rather than the heavily urbanized heart of the metropolis.

There are some minor issues with the caterers, as they've parked their trucks out in front of the building, and are in the middle of unloading when you arrive, but that is sorted without issue.

As you get out of the car and look around at the neighborhood, you are struck by the sight of some very distinctive contrasts. On the left-hand side of the street is the community center, a modern building with bright white and glass facade, covered in images of black cats, orange pumpkins, silhouetted witches and bats, and thick shroud-like webbing. Directly across the street is a small traditional shrine, little more than a single statue, which has a large, bright orange plastic bowl laid out before it.

And then, of course, there are the monsters.

Just from where you stand, you can see a good fifty or more individuals - not counting your own party - from at least a dozen different monstrous races. Cat-eared girls trade suspicious looks with dog-faced boys. Two scaled lizard-men - or maybe a lizard-man and a lizard-woman? - flicker their forked tongues in conversation with a woman whose body is snake from the waist down, while a group of lizard-children and a snake-bodied girl-child regard one another warily from behind their respective parents. A family of tanuki stroll past, and a small flock of female figures with bird wings for arms and talons for feet descend from the sky to perch atop the building - with at least one squawk of surprise and crash in the process. A graceful spider-woman clad all in silk struggles to ride herd on her dozen daughters, while a seven-foot-tall oni with a traditional tiger-skin loincloth and iron-banded club just reaches out to "tap" one of his get across the top of the head with one finger when he starts misbehaving, sending the kid reeling.

If this sample is any indication, there are going to be more monsters at this party than there were at Kahlua's birthday - and judging from the monstrous aura you can sense hanging over the building, you think that's going to be the case.

Youki doesn't run nearly as thickly in the air as it does back at Castle Shuzen, but it's stronger than anywhere else you've been. More to the point, most of the monsters at that party, months ago, were the upper-crust of Moonlit World, individuals and families who hold and are held to higher standards of behavior than the rest. Even the surliest and roughest looking of the Shuzens' guests were mindful of their auras, and even the youngest of Kahlua's peers had at least enough training to not leave their "scent" all over the place.

The monsters running around now are mostly kids, let out for one night where they don't have to hide what they are while in public, nor worry too much about letting their energies run free.

And yet despite that dark presence, which shades the occasional flash of a fang or claw or the glint of a blood-red eye with menace, and should be causing most humans to experience a creeping unease just looking at this place, your group doesn't include the only humans dressed up and looking eager to for this party to get started. The oni walks arm-in-arm with an unusually tall Japanese woman who's dressed up as a naginata-wielding samurai, and those tanuki were chatting with a family of three, the father dressed up as a staff-wielding Buddhist monk, the mother as a shrine maiden with bow and arrow slung over her shoulder, and their son, the retail kitsune. You can sense but not see a couple of genuine spiritual auras in the crowd, suggesting there are some priests present - not the Hakubas, though; after all this time, you'd recognize them even in this crowd - and there are some magic-users about as well.

Your party gathers as the Shuzens' cars pull away, and you're informed that it's about half an hour before the trick or treating is scheduled to begin in earnest.

The presence of humans and especially human children at this holiday get-together is a hopeful sign for the current state of monster/human relations - at least locally - but the cloud of accumulated youki hanging over much of the block is an issue all the same.

It takes a certain amount of talent and experience at sensing energies to pick out the differences between youki that's been unleashed with aggressive, even malicious intent, and that which is given off by monsters just being monsters, and not bothering to hide the fact.

At this point in your relationship with the Shuzens, the Arisawas, and the Hayashi Clan, among others, you're more than capable of making that distinction.

You also know perfectly well that many people wouldn't be able to do what you so casually - or, you know, AT ALL - and that to most minds, this wouldn't feel like a Hallowe'en-themed block party at a rented-out community center, but more like the beginnings of something you read about, briefly, in Tobin's Spirit Guide: the Hyakki Yagyo, the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

Also, while the youki really doesn't feel anything like the Hellmouth, beyond the innate wildness and inhuman nature of the energies involved, those traits alone should be enough to put any long-time resident of the 'Dale on guard.

You're not worried about Lu-sensei's reaction, and after two decades of practicing magic on the Hellmouth without going insane or worse, Mrs. Madison is clearly witch enough to handle herself in this crowd. That leaves Mrs. Blaisdell and your father.

And, well...

...it's your father.

Gained Filial Piety C
Gained King of Men C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Protective C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

Excusing yourself from your initial party, you head over to check on your father. As you half-expected and half-feared, he's giving the community center a guarded, suspicious squint from under the brim of his battered fedora.

It is, you must admit, an expression perfectly-suited to his costume. Something about the hard-bitten private investigator look is just made for it.

"Hey, Dad," you say, breaking character. "How are you handling everything so far?"

"Well, I haven't started drinking, yet." The words have the shape and delivery of a quip, but they ring hollow, causing the attempt at humor to fall flat. Your father recognizes this and scowls at himself.

"You're one-up on Akkiko, then," you reply, giving your old man an out by deliberately missing the subtext.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. She was drinking pretty much constantly on her first visit to Castle Shuzen - the atmosphere really disagreed with her. And I mean REALLY disagreed with her; I heard her get into an argument with Mrs. Gyokuro on the third day of that visit, and Akkiko said she'd had to drink herself unconscious to get any sleep."

Your father winces at that. "Okay, I have two- no, I have three things to say to that. First, ow. Second, Mrs. Arisawa is a bad influence, and you should tell your mother that I said so when she meets or otherwise finds out about that woman. Third, and for the record, I have done the whole 'blackout drunk' thing myself, a grand total of ONE time. I can verify that it sucks, and you should learn from my mistake and never do it yourself. Get it?"

You raise a hand in salute. "Got it."

"Good." With that said, your father reaches up to crook his fedora. "Right, then," he mutters, putting his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat and adopting a slovenly slouch. "Let's see how these monsters party."

Though it is not in-character for Doom, you follow your father's lead in this.

The interior of the community center have been redecorated in the same manner as the exterior, but to a greater extent. Where the building's facade is still clearly a modern design underneath the Hallowe'en imagery, great pains have been taken to make the rooms within look like they could have been pulled from a haunted house or abandoned inn. Wooden boards that seem on the verge of rotting creak and moan dramatically with every footstep, and the windows have alternately been boarded over or so dirtied as to be opaque. The only light comes from the candles that flicker feebly inside dirty lamps, and as a consequence, shadows creep along the walls by their dozens to lurk, en masse, in every corner.

The little spider-girls you spotted earlier are making use of some of the suspiciously authentic-looking spiderwebs hanging all over the place to scale the walls and scurry across the ceiling. Several other kids immediately want to give this a go, and end up with most of the young jorogumo laughing at them when they promptly get stuck. At least one of the arachnid children does seem to be making an earnest attempt to help the less fortunate learn how to climb - or at least, how not to blunder into the worst part of the web.

Speaking as someone who's faced down a nest of Gohma, you'll call that a potential life-saving skill.

Other details of the decor include spiders - some definitely stuffed, others... possibly not - trained bats that go fluttering through the rooms with the higher ceilings at random intervals, and quite a lot of skulls and bones. Of these, some are tastefully arranged as candlesticks, doorknockers, or other bits of furnishing; others have just been left laying around messily, with or without suggestive dark stains; and at least one full set is up and walking around under its own power, eyes aglow with necromantic potency.

You and Briar eye that one cautiously at first, but the animated skeleton lacks the weapons and armor of a Stalfos, and really isn't big enough to fit the role, either. Stalkin, maybe, but even then, there's something missing. A difference in the creation process, maybe? An artifact of Hyrule's general blessedness, and how that divine favor is darkened and warped when one of the land's children is raised in undeath? A bit of both? You'd need more experience with Hyrule- AND Earth-native corporeal undead - specifically, in their respective creation processes - to say for certain.

In any case, this skeleton isn't trying to hurt anybody, unless it's part of a dastardly plot to increase tooth decay and diabetes in the local population by serving sweet drinks.

...on the whole, you think, probably not.

You keep a proverbial eye out for any familiar auras, but between the size of the community center, the number of supernaturally-empowered individuals assembled inside it, and the fact that Kahlua and Emiko seem determined to introduce you to everybody they know and half the folks they don't - with Cordelia determined not to be left out - you don't pick up any of the expected or hoped-for presences until the announcement goes over - over speakers hidden amid the eerie decor - that it's time for the trick-or-treating to begin, and would everyone planning to take part please assemble in the front lobby in the next five minutes?

As you make your way back to the front of the building, you start picking up those signatures. Kagome's here, and she brought most of her family with her - the only one absent is her grandfather, for reasons you can guess at, based on the contents of your recent mail exchanges. Miss Takara and Mai are also present, but separate from one another. Mai appears to have been escorted by Hakuba Ichirou and Miss Suzuka, and is currently talking animated with a group of kitsune that includes the two youngest Hayashis, the human boy in the fox costume, and a few other individuals you've only met in passing, if that.

The nine-tails isn't in the lobby except as a watchful presence, faint enough that you doubt most of those in attendance besides yourself and Gyokuro would notice her.

Once it's clear that everyone who's going on the door-to-door quest for free candy is here, the adults start dividing up the army of eager sugar-seekers into - ostensibly - more manageable groups. They seem to be going for an average of five per adult, and are trying to make sure that any group which ends up heavy on the young youkai has an adult youkai to rein the brats in, or at least a couple of capable humans.

While you would prefer to stick with people you know for this event, and are particularly interested in getting some time to catch up with Kagome in person and introduce her to your friends and acquaintances in the Moonlit World, it has not escaped your attention that Kahlua, Cordelia, and Emiko have been maneuvering to take charge of your time, or head off the others' attempts to do so.

You would not be doing Kagome or yourself any favors if you dragged her into this situation, and there would be bad first impressions all around as a result.

Better, you think, to just go with the flow and let the adults decide who will be trick-or-treating with whom.

If nothing else, you'll be able to redirect any feminine irritation at parties other than yourself.

As it happens, the adults appear to have noticed the sparks flying between your three current companions, and opted to split them up for this evening's candy-collecting event. They achieve this by removing YOU from the group first and partnering you up with Amy - who gives you a look that says, "Oh Goddesses, why me?" - and then directing each of the less-than-friendly trio elsewhere.

Kahlua pouts, but does as instructed.

Cordelia looks grimly satisfied, and likewise heeds her marching orders.

And Emiko goes along with it all so meekly that you instantly suspect something is up.

Ichigo and Kagome join your group, and Larry arrives a moment later, with your dad slouching along in full P.I. Mode.

Jack O' Lantern-shaped plastic baskets are distributed for those who didn't bring their own, a large map of the neighborhood is literally conjured up on one wall, and smaller maps are distributed to the adults in each group. Looking over the map that's on display, you see two colored arrows detailing the planned routes.

Of these, the shortest is marked in ghoulish green, and is a straightforward "once around the block" deal, going east from the community center, then north, west, south, and finally east again. It's clearly intended for the youngest members of the crowd, or those who want to get back to the party as soon as possible. Although you know many of the monsters here and several of the humans besides could run that distance in very short order, this route is projected to take 45 minutes to walk.

The second route, marked in pumpkin orange, goes west at first, and circles around the block to the south for roughly the same distance as the "top" route, but instead of turning west to come back to the community center, it keeps going north instead, walking the same loop as the easy path. The idea here appears to be to get some of the older kids - your age group, you figure - off doing their own thing long enough so that the youngest ones can finish their fun. That route is estimated to take 2 hours; the south leg is more densely populated than the northern block, a good portion of which is taken up by the community center and its grounds.

There's also a bloody red line surrounding a much larger area, ten or twelve blocks by the look of it, which the adults and those kids "old enough" not to need supervision are told to keep in mind. Arrangements have been made with city officials to keep traffic in this area to a minimum for the rest of the evening, while the other local factions of the Moonlit World are keeping their own noses out of the area - for various reasons. The youkai haven't QUITE been given license to run wild, but as long as they avoid property damage, personal injury, and the like, the powers that be will keep looking the other way.

There's a check for safety decals on the youngest costumed individuals, an announcement regarding photos - running all evening, in solo, pairs, and group categories - and a reminder that the community bus will be running at seven, eight, and nine o'clock, with a final ride at midnight.

Then they turn you loose.

You voice your support for the longer path, and are greeted with a round of general agreement from your current companions.

Your group sets out at once, taking a little time to find your collective pace. You, Larry, and Amy have run around the neighborhood back home more than enough times for each of you to have a good idea of how you all move in relation to one another, and what pace you should set for a quick but comfortable walk. That tour of Karakura you took with Tatsuki and Ichigo gave you a good sense for the strawberry-head's native speed and endurance, and you've gone walking with your dad often enough - usually with Moblin along, and quite often with Zelda as well - to know what sort of pace he finds comfortable.

Kagome's a bit of a mystery to you in that regard, and your unfamiliarity is compounded by the matter of her costume, a generic magical girl outfit with a long, poofy skirt, an abundance of ruffled lace, and trailing gossamer ribbons. And cat ears and a tail, because why not? It looks like there are three layers to the whole thing, not including the clothes she's wearing for warmth underneath.

It's not an outfit made for speed, is what you're getting at, and it could get a little taxing for the small miko-in-training if you push her too hard.

So you start out a little on the slow side, waiting to see how Kagome handles the pace.

As your group makes its way down the street from the community center, it takes you no time at all to notice that you've picked up a stowaway. As she's trying to hide, however, you hold off on saying anything until all the trick-or-treating groups have spread out a bit more.

"You can come out now, Emiko."

*POP!*

"And here I was hoping I'd practiced enough to surprise you, Alex," the revealed kitsune sighs, as her Spell of Illusion falls away. "When did you notice me?"

"I knew something was up when you walked off without even a word," you answer. "I wasn't actively looking for you, but once we got away from the concentrated aura of the hall..."

Emiko nods, taking the unspoken cue to work on her aura concealment.

Good luck to her on that. It's not like you're going to stop working on your aura sensing skills...

While the two of you have been talking, Kagome has been studying the Suddenly Kitsune! with wide, startled eyes - but not a hint of gathered spiritual energy, you're pleased to note, even when Emiko first burst into view.

"Oh, right," you say. "Emiko, this is Higurashi Kagome. Kagome, this is Hayashi Emiko."

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Higurashi!" Emiko says brightly.

"Uh, pleased to meet you, too, Miss Hayashi," Kagome replies.

As the two of them study one another, you wonder if there's anything you could - or should - say to smooth this mutual introduction and first impression along.

Being composed almost entirely of humans, your group has fallen a bit behind some of the more monstrous and candy-eager trick-or-treaters. This isn't entirely a bad thing, as it gives you a chance to see how Japanese monsters take part in the signature event of this holiday.

A group of young youkai have lined up four abreast - tanuki, monkey, feather-haired humanoid, and bulging-eyed toad - in front of the gate of the first house on the route. The owner of the property has clearly gotten into the spirit of things, as the place looks like nearly as much of a run-down haunted wreck as the interior of the community center. They've even added gothic adornments to the property wall, looming shrouded figures and leering grotesques that make the stone structure appear like it came out of an ancient European graveyard.

The monkey-boy hits the button for the gate's intercom, and you hear a deep moan: "Trrrriiiick oooorrrr trrrreeeeaaaat?"

...okay, that's different.

You aren't close enough to hear the boy's reply to the familiar yet unexpectedly-aimed question, but the gate opens with a dramatic creak, and the four youkai trade excited glances before rushing onto the property. Only the tanuki actually goes in through the gate: the toad-boy leaps over the wall; the monkey scrambles atop it and scurries further down before dropping into the yard; and the feathered one levitates himself through the air in a neat, graceful arch.

The stone wall prevents you from seeing or sensing exactly what happens next, but the subsequent burst of youki is hard to miss, especially since it causes a plume of pumpkin-orange sparks to shoot ten feet into the air, and is accompanied by a startled and high-pitched croak.

Instantly, the front door of the house is kicked open by a size Sixteen-Large workboot, allowing the rest of the hulking hockey-masked figure attached to the foot wearing that massive clodhopper to storm out into the yard, roaring with laughter as he swings around an oversized machete.

You are not the only member of your party to turn to Emiko at this point.

She shrugs. "There's no rule that the people you're trying to play a trick on can't try to trick you back, right?"

Clearly, there is some cross-cultural confusion at work here. It takes a minute to get it sorted, but the end result is this: if you ask for a treat, you'll get a piece of candy. If you ask for a trick, you get the opportunity to play a prank on the house in question - which, for many monsters, is a treat unto itself. As Emiko said, there's no rule protecting the trick-or-treaters from being pranked in return, which is something else many monsters find fun.

Also, if you manage to pull off a prank without getting tricked in turn, you usually get an extra piece of candy.

Fortunately for your candy supply, Doom is a master of pranks, as he is of all things!

That just begs the question of what trick to play...

While trying to think of ways to ease Kagome and Emiko's first meeting, it occurs to you that they have something in common - namely, they're both older sisters. Perhaps they can bond over that?

...

"You are so lucky!" Kagome exclaims. "Two adorable little sisters to play with? I'd trade Souta with you in a heartbeat!"

"Oh, sure, they ACT adorable around adults and strangers," Emiko grumbles. "But it's all a lie! They're scheming little monsters - and they tag-team me! You don't know how good you have it, just having one to deal with..."

"Oh, don't even TRY to tell me that I have it good," Kagome retorts. "I may only have one younger sibling to worry about, but he's a BOY! And he's a total brat! Squirtguns! Water balloons! NOT water balloons!"

"You think THAT's bad? Try dealing with illusions! If I find another monster hunter in my closet, I swear-"

"At least you don't have to clean up the messes they make. I was washing Souta's last prank out of my favorite shirt for hours!"

...well, they're definitely bonding. Maybe not in the way you'd hoped, but it IS happening.

So, yay?

Larry and Amy have nothing to contribute to the... argument? Complaint fest? Discussion. Ichigo could speak up, but appears to have decided to count his blessings for having two well-behaved little sisters, and keep his mouth shut.

You're inclined to do the same.

You consider the challenge before you, and after a minute's thought, nod.

"Young Jedi," you proclaim, "your moment has come. Walk with Doom, if you will, and we shall know victory this night."

Larry regards you in silence for a moment, then tucks the handle of his empty candy bucket behind one of the nubs on his kitted-out belt, reaches up with both hands to flip up the hood of his Jedi robes, and folds his hands before him, lightsaber hidden beneath the long sleeves.

"May the Force be with us."

"Indeed."

Together, you advance. Perhaps it's the timing of your approach, the two of you stepping forward just as the four young youkai are leaving the yard, before anyone else has thought to move. Maybe it's the fact that both of you are entirely human, where the previous challengers were entirely not. It could be your size: human or monster, you're one of the biggest kids in this crowd, and Doom's armor only adds to that; and Larry isn't exactly small himself. It might even be that some of the monsters sense the mana moving about you, as you ready yourself to cast the minor spell you have in mind.

Whatever the reason, the crowd seems to melt out of your path, youkai young and old alike eyeing the pair of you with interest, expectation, and no small amount of anticipation.

"What do you think they're going to do?"

"Fall over and run screaming?"

"-seem pretty confident-"

"-nice armor, though-"

"-cool Jedi robes-"

Ignoring the commentary, you stop before the gate, and ring the buzzer.

"Trrrriiiick oooorrrr trrrreeeeaaaat?"

"Trick," you reply confidently.

The gate creaks open, and you lead Larry inside. Behind you, you hear and sense numerous youkai gathering around and climbing, leaping, or hovering just enough to see what's going on.

The small lawn and tiny path between you and the front door of the house are spotted with tiny, well-concealed youki constructs. No doubt the flare you saw earlier came when one of these was tripped.

It takes a minute to get the two of you into position, in the middle of the yard, without triggering any of the traps, but Larry heeds your directions well. Once you're both in place, you cast your spell.

Nothing appears to happen, but that is fine. The magic is under your direct control.

Satisfied, you extend one foot and very deliberately step on the nearest of the youki traps.

Immediately, another fountain of light shoots towards the sky, this time in a goblin-like green.

On cue, the door of the house bursts open, and the knife-wielding masked maniac comes charging forth, howling with laughter.

"BOO-HWAHAHAHAHAHA-!"

*SNAP-HISS!*

*VZSHOOM*

"-HAWHAT THE-?!"

And then trips over his own oversized footwear in shock, as a lightsaber ignites to greet him.

For a moment, all is silent, save for the distinctive, energized hum of Larry's weapon.

"Oh, wow," one of the monsters whispers. "He's got a real lightsaber."

"No way, it's gotta be an illusion!"

Out of the corner of your mask's eyeslit, you notice Larry glancing at you.

You nod. You've got this.

The burly madman hauls himself back to his knees, and reaches up to flip back his hockey mask, revealing a surprisingly normal face, with only small fangs to give away that he isn't human.

"Is that-?" he asks, staring at the lightsaber in pure amazement.

"Cross blades with the young Jedi, and find out," you offer.

After a moment's confused blinking, your host raises his knife to take that offer.

As the giant machete and the illusionary energy blade come into contact, you weave the Spell of the Major Image around them. In reality, the knife passes through the plasma blade without resistance or reaction, but to all those who fail to see through your spell, what "really" happens is that there is a snarling, crackling hiss, after which one half of the machete blade falls to the grass, its red-hot end trailing smoke, while the big man draws back the melted hilt.

Again, there is a moment of near-total silence.

"Holy SHIT," somebody breathes.

The big man's eyes, half-hidden in the shadow cast by his upraised mask, shoot from his "broken" knife to the crowd hanging on his wall. His lips twitch, and in that moment, you're certain that he's seen through the illusion.

"Well, I know when I'm beat," he says, dropping the knife and raising his hands. "I surrender, Master Jedi."

Oh, good. Somebody who knows how to play along.

Gained Pranking E
Gained Shadow Affinity E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)

You and Larry leave the yard a minute later, each of you three pieces of candy the richer.

"On account of I don't think ANYBODY'S going to top that stunt this year," the big man murmured as he handed over the extra prize, with a meaningful tilt of the head towards your flabbergasted audience.

"Doom thanks you for your generosity."

The two of you rejoin your group, who were standing in the open gate to watch the proceedings.

All around are the rest of the crowd, staring in shock, wonder, envy... and here and there, a bit of fear.

Hmmm. Maybe you should say something?