Ichigo was absolutely livid, there was no other word for it. Malleus didn't even question why she came to visit him the morning after their visit to the graveyard. He sensed she would explain her anger soon enough.

He simply made some tea and waited.

Once she had finished it, she happily vented.

Malleus was beyond appalled at what he heard.

"She intruded on an obvious private family affair and didn't leave once the situation was explained?" he said openly disgusted.

"Oh it gets worse. It turns out mom was taken out by a Seven-damned hollow, and some fragment of her spirit remained in that wretched thing," growled Ichigo. "I barely avoided getting eaten because of that protection amulet you gave me. Worse, there was another soul reaper there who was almost next to useless!"

Malleus was growling, as he understood completely why his mate was so enraged over the matter. This soul reaper was swiftly overstaying any welcome she might have had.

"What happened then?"

"I managed to chase the bastard off, but not before politely asking the other soul reaper to let her superiors know what was going on. I am not doing her damn job forever, and I get the feeling her bosses suspect something happened."

Rukia had not been happy with her, but Ichigo was openly fed up with her presence in her home. The 'older' girl was nothing more than a parasite who had been mooching off her family, and having an extra 'guest' was killing their family budget.

She wasn't doing anything to contribute to the home, and at this point Isshin looked the other way to the fact Ichigo was spending more time with her boyfriend then with her family. Mostly because it meant she was getting her own meals and letting Rukia eat her share to help expenses.

Malleus allowed his mate to rant, as it was clear Rukia had vastly overstepped herself with that stunt. Better to let Ichigo cool off in his apartment for now.

Noticing something in the corner of his eye, an idea occurred to him.

"Would destroyed spawned opponents center your rage?" he asked.

Ichigo saw where he was looking, and calmed slightly.

"Grinding on Albion sounds like fun right now. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll be on too," said Ichigo.

They being two of the better players on the server, Muscle Red and Gloomurai.

As the two logged on, Ichigo was relieved to notice that MuscleRed was on. She wondered where Gloomurai was, but decided to greet her online friend.

'Yo, Red! You ready to grind some levels today?'

'Mahou, you seem to be in fine form. It's good for young folks to be full of vitality! And I see Gargoyle is with you as well.'

'It's less vitality and more that I have a great deal of misplaced aggression to get out. That parasite really overstepped yesterday and I want to blow off some steam,' wrote Ichigo.

She could almost feel the wince on the other end.

'That bad?' asked MuscleRed

'From what MahouSamurai has told me, the unwanted boarder intruded on a private family gathering held at a graveyard,' wrote Malleus.

'She also didn't take the damn hint to leave after being told why we had all left the house as a family. Then some other pests showed up and we had to spend three hours cleaning up the damage caused. Worse, she had the gall to complain about being made to help.'

Malleus' eyes narrowed, as Ichigo had left that part out.

'Well the good news is that Gloomurai should be on shortly. If nothing else we can hit that bigger boss that was added in two weeks ago.'

'Great, I could really use a distraction like a boss raid right now,' wrote Ichigo.

Fifteen minutes passed, with Ichigo getting a drink from the fridge. She heard the laptop ding, and saw that Gloomurai had logged on.

After a brief conversation, he proved game to tackling the bigger boss with them. Even if he did feel the need to heckle "RoaringGargoyle" because he was still slow to respond in the chat.

So long as he didn't hold them back in the raid, he'd still party with the guy but he was so slow and was often confused by basic gamer terms.

The raid was intense, and Ichigo's anger with Rukia was replaced by her usual manic energy when gaming online. It was rather amusing to watch, in Malleus' opinion.

By the time dinner rolled around, she was a lot calmer about the whole ordeal, even if she was still annoyed with the soul reaper.

"That was an enjoyable bout," said Malleus.

"Agreed!" said MuscleRed. "Better than having to explain to a certain someone about why we haven't located her missing grandson."

"Still no luck with that, huh," said Ichigo.

MuscleRed had alluded to the fact he was high ranked with a certain family, though he was partially retired. Apparently the heir of the family had gone missing, and he was one of the main people searching for the guy. The heir had up and vanished nearly two years ago, and his grandmother was beyond upset about the matter as he left so abruptly.

The problem was there were no leads as to where he was. It was like he up and vanished.

"Maybe luck will favor us and he'll pop up at Night Raven. I know for a fact he got an invitation."

"Small world," commented Gloomurai. "I'll be attending there next year, mostly to get away from my parents for a while."

"Perhaps we should meet up and raid together sometime," said MuscleRed. "I know I still have that invite they sent me."

"What's Night Raven?" asked Ichigo.

Before the other two could answer, Malleus typed it into the private chat box.

"It's an exclusive magical college, one that primarily invites male mages, though there have been rare exceptions for female students. It has dorms that honor each of the Seven," said Malleus.

Ichigo perked up at that.

"Like Maleficent and Hades? I still say she had the most badass character design of the Disney Villains," said Ichigo. "And Hades was the coolest out of the entire Greek pantheon."

She could all but sense MuscleRed perk up at that, as did Gloomurai.

"You like Hades?" said Gloomurai.

"Are you kidding me? I swear pop culture has all but ruined his street cred, because if you read the actual mythology behind his name he's the most reasonable of the Greek pantheon. I mean the worst you actually hear about him was that he kidnapped his niece and married her, but he still treated her with a hell of a lot more respect than Zeus ever did Hera!"

She could hear MuscleRed chuckle through her headset.

"And what about the Thorn Fairy?" he asked.

"I completely understand why she lashed out, because that king was a dick," said Ichigo enthusiastically.

She sometimes had long conversations about the 'Seven' as Malleus called them, because she read the actual stories behind them. His particular favorite was unsurprisingly Maleficent, or the 'Thorn Fairy' as he called her.

"How do you figure?" asked Gloomurai. They were mostly mopping up the spawned minions, so they could chat while they mindlessly button mashed their keyboard.

"The king and his wife allowed three minor faeries to their daughter's christening, but completely snubbed a higher fae who could have given their kid a major boost in terms of a blessing. I'd be pissed at such blatant disrespect too if that happened," said Ichigo. "Also, why did no one explain to her about the curse beforehand or why she had to wait until the day after her sixteenth birthday to receive her inheritance?"

"Who knows, it's probably the same logic that had Oedipus' parents go to that oracle after he was born," said Gloomurai.

"Tell me about it! What morons go to a Seer to ask about their kid's future? They were practically asking for it," agreed Ichigo.

"Hey, I have to log out for the night. My parents want me to do some stupid test while they leave home for a bit," said Gloomurai.

"TTYL, Gloomy!" said Ichigo, as Gloomurai signed off. "So Red, you're a fan of Maleficent too?"

"You could say that," said MuscleRed. She definitely caught the amusement behind his writing.

"They're coming out with a live-action movie about her."

"Unfortunately, movie theaters are not as popular where I'm at. Besides, she would be most put out if I spent time in a theater when I'm supposed to be looking for her grandson."

"They made a movie out of the Thorn Fairy?" said Malleus confused.

"Supposedly she's the main character from what I read. I know they got a fairly famous American actress to play her, and I've seen some of her other work so it should be good," said Ichigo. "I was planning to bring it up as our next date night, but that stunt Rukia pulled made me almost forget. Plus you can pretend you're cosplaying as a male Maleficent again and no one will question your horns."

Malleus visibly perked up at that suggestion. He rather enjoyed the way humans mistook his true appearance as a costume of all things. They were far less afraid of him and simply mistook his aura as part of the act.

"Horns?" said MuscleRed. He seemed oddly intent on this particular tidbit.

"I swear RoaringGargoyle looks like a male Maleficent of all things when he's not hiding his true nature. Though with horns like that, I understand why he hides them...must be a pain to duck below doors to avoid hitting them against the frame," said Ichigo.

"It is...irksome," said Malleus.

There was a long pause, and for several seconds they almost thought MuscleRed had gone AFK. Then, very slowly, he began to type.

"Malleus?" he said on the chat board.

Malleus eyes widened, before he hastily logged off. Ichigo excused herself before doing the same.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"I believe MuscleRed is Lilia," said Malleus slowly.

Which meant it was only a matter of time before Lilia managed to finally track him down.

~*~*~*~*

Lilia looked at his computer in disbelief. Of all the places he could find a lead to where his prince had disappeared, it was on an online game.

RoaringGargoyle rarely spoke in chat, usually preferring to let MahouSamurai do the talking. Which made sense, as his speed during raids was somewhat slow. Almost as if he was unused to a keyboard. However his girlfriend was a powerful damage dealer, so most generally put up with it and he was polite enough to deal damage while staying in the back and out of the way.

He never complained about getting a lower cut from the raid bosses, as it was clear he was mostly online to support his girlfriend.

Lilia put his hand over his eyes...and let out a light laugh. MahouSamurai's comment had put a lot of things into perspective, and now it made sense why RoaringGargoyle was so familiar.

Clearly Mahou had made the username based off of Malleus' love of the Roaring Drago toy he had given him a while back, as well as his passion for Gargoyles. His speed on the computer made perfect sense too...Malleus had never been near such a device willingly and there were none in the castle. Hell, the only electrical outlets in the castle were all solar powers and kept near the towers, because the queen absolutely refused any modern renovations...outside of installing plumbing at least.

Still, he had found a potential lead to where his charge had vanished to, though not the how or more importantly why.

He was going to give that brat such an earful for his little vanishing act. His mother may have been extremely willful and temperamental, but even she wouldn't have pulled off such a brazen stunt. And Seven help him when the Queen was done with him...she was beyond upset at his disappearance.