"I set you to watch a simple sleepover party, and you go and get 
yourself possessed." Ki couldn't keep a vicious smirk off of his 
face as he spoke, although he tried. Some. A little.

"Shut up, Ki," Midori told him flatly. Within seconds of Amakusa's 
departure, she'd regained her usual outward composure. Inside, 
however, she was shaken. The vile creature had *tricked* her, but 
she would get her own back, oh yes.

Her cousin's eyes opened wide in a horrible mockery of innocence.
"I'm just making a simple observation, Midori. You know-"

In a flash of movement, Midori's hand dashed forward, contemptuously 
pushing aside Ki's hasty attempt to block, gripped his collar, and 
twisted it upwards to lift him slightly off of the ground, digging her 
knuckles into his throat. "You, *dear* cousin, have failed so many 
times in your clashes with that family that it is laughable. Don't even 
think that you can hold this one event over me. All right?"

Ki tried to look suave, or at least as suave as he could while dangling 
in midair and having his throat semi-crushed. "Whatever," he said, 
with his last remaining breath. It didn't quite manage to come out as 
insouciant.

Midori snorted and dropped him. "Good. Now, we need to go and find 
out as much as we can about that...abomination."

"We?" Ki protested, surreptitiously rubbing at his throat. "Why 
in the world do you expect me to help?"

"Clan unity." His cousin turned back to him, smiling not-sweetly. 
"And because bringing honor to our name by helping to defeat that 
arrogant monster just might wipe the slate of your recent 
failures as far as your parents are concerned."

Ki was getting better in his control, Midori noted. He did nothing 
so overt as a panicked gulp, although a corner of his mouth twitched 
at the mention of her uncle and aunt. "Well...I suppose I'll help,"
he muttered. "So, what about you? You made a deal with him, 
don't tell me you didn't get any information from him at all?"

"Of course I did," she snapped, but looked down and finished off her 
statement. "It is...insufficient."

Ki barely managed to keep his "sloppy work" comment under his 
breath, but Midori heard it anyway and whipped around, glaring 
at him. "Look. That was then. It was late, I was tired. This is 
now. My head is killing me and do you know, I'm about to share 
the feeling." She paused and took a deep, calming breath. "Unlike 
you, I like to *fix* my mistakes, thank you very much. Now 
shut up and let's get going."

He pondered, evidently flipping through several possible 
responses before deciding upon a prudent "Where?" After all, 
he could always make fun of her *later*.

"First, we're going to have a little talk with that Mikagami 
girl you're so fond of, see what she knows."

"I am *not* fond of her!"

"Whatever you say, cousin *dearest*."

*******************************************
Dark Heart High

Netherworld Educational Institution for the 
Universal Propagation of Evil

founded by Mads
*******************************************
Part Thirty: Considerations!
by Sharyna Tran
*******************************************

Leilei blinked at Yuri's question. "Didn't you say before 
that they were going to be gone for a week? It's only been about 
two or three days, right?"

Now it was Yuri's turn to blink. "It has, hasn't it? I guess 
so much has happened, that it seemed longer. That wasn't what 
I meant, though. I know when they're due back, but...well, no 
matter where we go on vacation, it seems we're never there for 
as long as we're supposed to be. Mom and Dad always have 
to leave early for some reason or other. And besides, I 
think they have some sort of an alarm set, so that whenever 
I touch something I'm not supposed to, they show up. It's 
odd that they haven't yet, after all the business with..."
Yuri flinched. "The basement."

Leilei tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Well, 
you didn't actually go down into the basement *yourself*, 
did you? So maybe it's only tailored to you. And since your 
parents didn't know that you were going to have people 
over," an additional wince flashed over Yuri's face at this, 
"They didn't think to set that for *anyone* who would step 
in."

Yuri nodded slowly. "I suppose that makes sense." She 
glanced at the seemingly oblivious figure walking beside 
her. "Ne, Bala?" she said tentatively.

No response. Yuri bit her lip and looked down, trying to 
think of things that would stop the tears threatening to 
well up in her eyes. Bunny rabbits, like the one she'd just 
petted a few minutes ago. Happy penguins. Fluffy kittens. 
Kittens...Yuri looked down at the cat-charm she wore around 
her wrist, then her gaze involuntarily shifted back to Bala, 
to the matching cat-earrings he wore, almost hidden under 
his newly-revealed scruffy hair. Yes, and why *did* she 
have the sudden urge to smooth it out for him? It wasn't as 
if he didn't know how to do it himself. Now that he was free, 
he was perfectly capable, in fact, of doing anything and 
everything he pleased by himself. Without her.

Yuri gulped and sighed quietly. Bunny rabbits. Happy 
penguins. Fluffy...puppies.

***

Ever since Craig had come upon them, Balabalalde had been doing 
some reflection of his own. Obviously, that irritating Angeleye 
girl had been wrong. He hadn't been anywhere near the slumber 
party, and Yuri had still managed to get into a dangerous situation. 
He stamped down, again, the flash of--concern, he'd decided it 
was--the same as he had felt when Leilei had called and told him 
that Yuri was in danger. He also pushed aside the anger that still 
lurked in the background, anger that he hadn't been there...

But why should he have, he told himself. He wasn't her bodyguard, 
and in any case she'd managed to do fairly well by herself, managing 
to, well, not defeat exactly, but hold her own, at least until the 
threat had left.

Temporarily, he reminded himself. According to Leilei's story, 
Yuri's mad uncle had promised to return and "deal" with her. 
Therefore, if he wanted to rip to pieces the...*thing* that had dared 
to hurt Yuri, he would have to stay near her. To make sure, of 
course, that when said *thing* came back, he would be ready to 
slaughter it. *Not* because he wanted to protect Yuri. Or because 
he was worried about her. Or because he'd missed not hanging out 
with her as much, ever since that idiotic, arrogant *magical girl* 
had spoken with him. Or because--

Beside him, Yuri laughed at something Leilei had said, and he looked 
at her, thinking for some reason of sunlight rippling on the waves.
Brushing the odd image aside, he looked down and prepared to 
continue brooding. As he did so, however, a breeze whirled past, 
and the almost-forgotten earrings he wore briefly touched his skin.
His glance down intercepted the matching cat-charm Yuri wore 
around her wrist, which winked at him in the sunlight, and 
an odd sort of feeling came over him as he remembered the 
day at the fair.

Angeleye had lied when she said that Yuri got into trouble 
because of him. He hadn't been at the party. *She* had, 
however...and hadn't it been because of her pitiful sake 
that Yuri had been forced to fight that Blood Duel, anyway? 
Sure, Yuri had been into a few tough scrapes when he was 
around, but he didn't think that he'd ever actually *caused* 
any of them. Amy, on the other hand...the more he thought 
about it, the more he was convinced that Amy had managed to 
trick him, at least about that. 

But what about her other claim, that Bala made Yuri sad? 
He glanced at her again, careful not to let her see him. She 
seemed happy enough, talking and laughing with Leilei, but 
something made him see her as...masked. He shook the thought 
off. Yuri almost never masked her emotions. It was ridiculous 
for him to think that she was only smiling and happy for Leilei's 
sake, but somehow lonely and hurt underneath. He was probably 
just projecting. Although Leilei *had* mentioned to him
earlier, sotto voce while Yuri was distracted by something 
or other, that for the past few days Yuri had been a little 
down, maybe because of a certain someone, and that she would 
have loved it if someone would be around her more often like 
someone used to...Bala hadn't understood a word the little girl 
had said, but he'd chalked it up to the fact that his 
caretaker/friend was weird, and said "Hai."

A wild rabbit, probably an escaped former house pet, 
hopped onto the path, sniffing the air. Yuri gasped in 
surprise and knelt down, cooing and holding her hand out 
to the little furry critter. It looked her over suspiciously, 
but hopped a little closer anyway, twitching its whiskers 
at her. Bala stilled his critter-kicking instincts, as he 
had ever since that day at the fair. Sure, it made him feel 
like he was missing a little something, but all the morons 
who tried to attack Yuri, as well as a few of his classmates 
who just *could not* take a hint, more than made up for 
it. So now, his urge to punt the little thing into lower earth 
orbit was easily stifled, and he watched it, and her, instead.

The little rabbit slowly came closer and closer, until 
finally Yuri was able to touch it, lightly, between the ears. It 
froze at this sudden contact--Bala felt an odd rush of 
understanding sympathy at the little thing--and stared up 
at her. Slowly and gently, she began to pet it as it sat there, 
twitching its whiskers nervously and looking up at the other 
two once in a while. Yuri paused for a moment and glanced up
at them, smiling brightly. "I think it likes me!"

The smile hit him in a way physical violence never had, and 
almost in spite of himself, Bala found the corners of his mouth 
moving upwards in response to it. Yuri, still smiling, looked 
at him, happily, unbelievingly, and things would have gotten 
even more cheesy if the rabbit hadn't chosen that moment to 
dash wildly into the bushes for no apparent reason.

Yuri's eyes flashed back to where it had been, then she 
withdrew her hand and stood up, somewhat self-consciously.
Although she didn't look at him again, the ghost of that 
smile stayed on her lips as she continued her animated 
conversation with Leilei.

Obviously, Angeleye had been lying. Again. And, remembering 
how grabby she always was around Yuri, it wasn't very hard 
for him to see why.

Abruptly, his reflections stopped as Yuri looked up at him 
hopefully, having just finished talking. Oh--she must have 
asked him something. He thought wildly, trying to remember 
what it might have been, but came up blank. He glanced at her, 
hoping that she would prompt him, but she was looking at the 
ground. He looked away, confused, but turned back at the 
sound of her sigh, worried. What was going on?

He caught Leilei's glance, and gestured her away. The little 
girl looked at him, surprised, then looked at Yuri, back at him, 
grinned, and nodded. "Hey guys, I just remembered that 
I...forgot something back there!" she said brightly. "Why 
don't you guys go on, and I'll catch up!" With that, she moved 
away, winking at him for some reason.

Yuri nodded mechanically, and only realized a step later that 
this would mean that she and Bala would be left alone. "Wait, 
Leilei, we'll go with--" She stopped at the touch of a 
surprisingly warm hand on her shoulder. Blinking, she 
gazed up into Bala's eyes, and went breathless.

"You okay?" he whispered softly, concerned.

Yuri stared at him. "I...um..." 

His worried look grew sharper, almost to the point where 
someone could actually see it, and he made what he hoped 
was an encouraging sort of noise in his throat.

Staring at him, Yuri whimpered, almost inaudibly, then 
without thinking hurled herself at him and sobbed into 
his arms.

Surprised and taking Yuri's tears as a sign that Angeleye 
had been right about at least one thing, Bala tried to push 
her away, but she clung to him, and he gave in, holding 
her close.

Which was how Ki and Midori found them.

***

"I see your plan of seduction's going well," Midori said 
blandly, as they watched Bala and Yuri from the roof of 
a house that overlooked the sidewalk. She glanced at her 
cousin and the angry twitch of his lip as he refused to 
respond to her baiting, and smiled. Her headache was 
getting better already.

"Leilei's over there," he noticed, gesturing curtly. 
"We may as well gather as much information as 
possible from her first."

"Sounds all right to me," Midori drawled. "After all, 
it looks like your...I mean, the Mikagami girl will be 
busy for a little while."

Ki glared at her, then strode off towards Leilei, not 
deigning to comment. A thin smile curved Midori's 
lips as she followed, murmuring. "You're getting 
better, cousin..."

***

"I-I'm sorry, Bala," Yuri sniffled, drawing back. "I 
didn't mean to, it's just...there's been a lot going on 
lately, and I...I..." She wiped her eyes on her sleeve 
and looked up at him. "Are you, are you mad at me?"

Bala looked back at her, completely confused. He had 
really nothing near what anyone would call experience 
with this kind of situation, but she'd asked a direct 
question, so...he shook his head, almost imperceptibly, 
and his eyes softened. "Do...you want to talk about it?"
he asked, hoping that it would help.

Just then, Leilei came running back to them, Ki and a 
third-year girl Bala couldn't quite recognize in tow.
"Ne, guys, Ki and his cousin Midori-sempai want to help with 
Yuri's uncle! Would it be okay if they asked you some 
questions, Yuri?"

Bala's jaw tightened. He still remembered what had happened only 
several days before, when he had seen Ki, with Yuri in his 
arms. Back then, he had still been bound, but now...now he 
was free. And the twerp would regret what he had done, oh yes.

"Sure," Yuri replied somewhat uncertainly, glancing up at 
Bala. The glance, and its implication that she sought his approval 
before speaking with Ki, was clearly seen by both Leilei and 
Midori, but somehow the boys missed it, probably because they 
were each glaring at the other with death in their respective eyes.

"You must be Balabalalde," Midori said, inserting herself 
smoothly between the two boys as they shifted their weight to 
move forward. "I've heard of you. I see you're ready for the 
sports meet." She gestured at his unbandaged self, and he nodded 
back in confirmation before continuing to glare at Ki.

Seeing that conversation wasn't going to be much of a distraction 
for the two boys, Midori shrugged and stepped out, turning to 
Yuri. "So, Yuri," she began, "How much did your parents ever tell 
you about your uncle?" As she spoke, she started to walk off, 
leading Yuri away so that the boys could kill each other in peace, 
so to speak.

***

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!" the 
dark form of...darkness screamed. Next to him, a pretty woman 
in a pink business suit whimpered and pressed herself closer to 
him.

"Aw, you don't want to give Mickey a hug? That's okay," the 
monstrosity smiled at them, which wasn't much of a surprise 
since the smile was part of its face, and ambled off.

Still clutching to each other, Mr. and Mrs. Mikagami slowly 
regained their breath. "You were right," his wife told Troi 
slowly. "This is quite a horrendous place."

"Horrendous?" Troi laughed, trying to make it sound casual. "I 
don't know what you're talking about."

"That was *you* screaming, dear," his wife reminded him.

"Ahhh...so, do you think we should call home and see how Yuri is 
doing?" Troi asked, changing the subject and wishing that they had 
stayed on the cruise ship.

"Excellent idea," she said, wandering off to the nearest pay phone.

As his wife pulled out their phone card and dialed, Troi Mikagami 
leaned back, looking around idly. Since the last time he had been 
here, there had been some changes made. The large gaping, smoking 
hole in the middle of Magic Kingdom was of course gone, but there 
were some more subtle differences, too. He had seen one of 
his...acquaintances manning a ticket booth, most likely to make sure 
no-one got into the secret labs again. He and his wife, being there 
as tourists this time, didn't have any trouble, but last night he 
was sure he'd seen a tentacle demon being shaken down in one of the 
security posts. It was good to know that the place was being kept 
safe, or at least as much so as possible.

His wife, returning from the phone, interrupted his reflections.
"Nobody picked up," she explained, a tint of worry in her voice.

"Don't worry," Troi assured her. "I'm sure she's just with her 
friends, like that nice Baal...Balalall...er..."

"Balabalalde?" she offered, with a mother's encyclopedic memory 
of her daughter's friends.

"Yes, him. Or maybe toying with the Steel Thorn boy or something."
He snorted. "I just hope she's not with those disgustingly *normal* 
girls again."

"Or that Amy girl." Yuri's mother frowned, uncharacteristically. 
"I can't help but think that there's something odd about that one."

"Perhaps the way she practically lives on our porch and pounces 
on our Yuri any chance she can get?"

"That might be it," she nodded. "And in any case, I think she used to 
go to...my old school. Have you ever thought that she might be some 
sort of a spy for them?"

"Working through Yuri?" Troi shook his head. "If Yuri could survive 
a Blood Duel against Amakusa, she can take care of an insolent little 
snot like that. And if she can't, then I'll eat the girl." He nodded, 
situation solved.

His wife smiled and leaned against him. "I suppose you're right. Our 
Yuri really is growing up, isn't she?"

***

Midori walked in silence for a bit, digesting the information that Yuri 
had just given her. Distressingly, it wasn't enough. There was really 
only one way, she realized, that she would get what she sought.

"Have you told your parents about this, Yuri?"

The younger girl gulped. "Well, no...if they found out that I'd opened 
the basement door when they'd told me not to, I'd get in the deepest 
trouble...and if I told them the truth, then I'd get into even deeper 
trouble than that, since I wasn't supposed to throw any parties." She 
frowned. "I still don't know why Mandy didn't listen to me, and went 
down there."

"Mandy?" Midori asked, puzzled.

"Yeah. It must've been her, because Ryuji said that he'd found her 
body in the basement. Uncle Melvin must have tricked her into 
letting him out, and then killed her."

Midori nodded slowly, not willing to disclose her part in that particular 
chain of events. "That makes sense. Ummm...maybe she was restless. 
You know how spiders can be."

"I guess so," Yuri sighed.

"You realize, however, that they'll have to be told about it," Midori 
pointed out. "If they were the ones who helped defeat him last time, and 
kept him captive, they're probably going to be the most able to defeat 
him again."

"You're probably right," Yuri nodded glumly.

Midori gazed at her, confused. "Why don't you just tell your parents 
that someone broke in and went to the basement--because it seemed 
intriguing--and freed him?" Since that's what happened, she added 
to herself.

"Oh, I couldn't do that!" Yuri protested. "My parents don't like it 
when I lie to them."

"Yes, but how would they know?"

"They'll know, trust me," Yuri bit her lip. "Although I guess I could 
say that I had Mandy over, and tell what happened...and just kind of 
leave out the whole "party" part of it..."

Midori stared at her. Of course, it was nice use of half-truth, but 
she still looked so *guilty* about it, and she hadn't even done it yet!
Did this Yuri not have a devious bone in her body? True, Ki had 
mentioned her innocence before, and she had noticed a certain 
naïvete in the girl, at least as far as romance was concerned, but she 
was young--it wasn't *too* surprising. This, though...this was 
something different. She felt almost sorry for the freshman. "That
sounds like a good idea," she said cautiously. "So, where did you say 
your parents were again?"

"Disneyworld, in Florida," Yuri replied absently.

"Ah, yes," Midori nodded. "Do you think we should be getting back to 
Ki or Bala now?"

Yuri started to nod, then looked at her quizzically. "Don't you mean 
Ki *and* Bala?"

Midori shrugged. "Well, whichever one's survived."

"What do you mean?" Yuri asked warily.

"If I read my signs right, there was a huge fight brewing when we 
left," Midori explained casually. "It should be finished by now, one 
way or the other, if I know my cousin and if what I've heard about 
Balabalalde is true."

"Wait, wait," Yuri stopped and blinked. "Let me see if I understand 
this. You're telling me that while we've been talking, Ki and Bala 
have been having a fight?"

"To the death, or more probably just severe injury," Midori 
confirmed. "It's all that testosterone, I think. I tend to stay out of 
little spats like that if I can. They can be so annoying..."

This last she said to empty air, as Yuri turned and pelted back 
toward the way they had come. Midori shrugged and followed, her 
fluid strides soon catching up to Yuri's desperate ones.

"It doesn't look like there's much to be afraid of," she noted, her 
calm breathing implying that the pace which stole Yuri's breath 
affected *her* not at all. "Look, the buildings around them are 
even still standing."

"How *gasp* can you be so *pant* casual about this?" Yuri 
demanded as she ran. "He's your *gaspgasp* cousin!"

Midori shrugged. "He can take care of himself."

And indeed, as they arrived back where they had left the others, 
it seemed that he had. Ki and Bala were leaning against opposite 
sides of the same tree, bodies tense, arms crossed angrily, and 
glaring venomously into the distance. Leilei, leaning against 
another tree, was watching them closely.

"Leilei!" Yuri called, as she skidded to a stop. "How...*puff* 
who-what?" she asked, catching her breath. Both boys turned 
and looked at her with concern, before catching the other at it 
and glaring.

"Who won?" Midori asked, looking at the boys.

"Neither," Leilei answered. She shot them a sharp glance. 
"Why, did you think they'd be fighting? They don't have a 
reason to...right?" This last was directed to Bala and Ki, who 
looked away and resumed their original positions.

Yuri blinked and looked at Midori, who shrugged innocently. 
She should have guessed that Balabalalde's caretaker would 
have some way to keep him in control, by emotional 
manipulation if not physical strength.

Her cousin pushed himself away from the tree and walked 
towards her. "So," he said, keeping his voice calm through 
supreme effort, "Did you get the information you wanted?"

"Yes," she answered. "If you don't have any more...business 
here, we can go now."

Ki sucked in his breath. "Well..." Leilei glared at him. 
"...whatever." He turned and stalked off angrily in a 
random direction. Midori gave Yuri, Leilei and Bala a 
cordial nod, then followed.

"If we didn't have a fairly urgent matter to attend to," she 
said as soon as they were out of earshot, "I might take the 
time to mention the fact that you seem to have left your 
romantic rival still standing."

Ki snarled at her, and she laughed under her breath before 
filling him in on the information Yuri had given her and the 
plan she had come up with. "So, how did she do it?" 
Midori asked curiously when she was finished.

"What?"

"How did Leilei stop you and Bala?"

"Ha! She didn't stop anything. I just decided that 
that...mummy-boy wasn't worth it."

Midori raised a relentless eyebrow at him.

Ki gave up. "She told us that if we fought, no matter what 
the outcome would have been, it would upset Yuri."

"And of course you don't want that," Midori said, 
not-quite mockingly.

"No. It would upset my plans."

"Right," his cousin looked at him, amused, then away, at 
the girl who had appeared before them. "Who are y-oh, 
that's right...Ramidra, isn't it? The Unscrupulous?"

Liza winced. "My friends--and my customers--call me 
Liza."

Midori's eyes narrowed. "Well, I'm neither. Please 
get out of my way."

"Now, now," Liza warned. "Don't be hasty. How do you 
know I don't have anything you want?"

"Simple," the upperclassman replied. "I don't want 
anything of yours."

"Wait, Midori," Ki interjected, stepping between them.
"We actually might want something...didn't I hear rumors 
that you've developed some sort of flying contraption?"

"Contraption? Oh, you mean my jet-powered flying 
carpet?" Liza grinned.

"Jet-powered...carpet," Midori said flatly.

"Yeah! Well, it's in its experimental stages right now," 
Liza added, with an unusual flash of honesty. "But it 
works like a charm! *And* it's equipped with a fully 
functional AI! You interested *now*?"

"A moment while I confer with my cousin," Midori 
told the young inventor, pulling Ki aside. "What the hell are you thinking?"
she hissed. "That girl's inventions are infamous, and 
not in the way that means we're getting the good end of the 
deal!"

"Look, we need to get to Florida quickly, right?" Ki said 
reasonably. 

"We also want to get *back*," Midori pointed out. "Even 
considering the possibility that this girl may provide us 
with a way to get there, how do you know that we'll be able 
to return? Do you know what kind of life expectancy her 
little trinkets have?"

"Don't worry," Ki told her, "I've picked up some interesting 
things about her that might prove useful."

Midori looked at him suspiciously, then drew back. "You 
had better know what you're doing this time."

Ki ignored that and turned to Liza. "We'll take it."

Liza beamed. "Excellent! That will be-"

"Your payment," he added, cutting her off, "Will of course 
be given to you after our *safe* return."

The girl's mouth dropped open. "WHAT?! And how do I know 
you won't run off without paying? I mean, we're at *Dark 
Heart High*, here!"

"Fine," Ki sighed. "I can give you a down payment of...1,000 
yen."

"1,000 yen?" Liza squinted at them. "With an extra...oh, about 
49,000 yen to come when you return, right?"

Ki yawned. "No, I don't think so." Before the inventor/walking 
vending machine could protest, he continued. "You see, we'll 
be stopping by Disneyworld..." 

Liza's eyes widened. "D-Disneyworld?" Drat it, how had this 
freshie learned of her weakness for the place?

"Yes," Ki smirked. "We'll try and bring you back a little 
something." He dug around in his pocket, and pulled out the 
1,000 yen. "The carpet?"

Liza handed it over without thinking, and snatched the money.

"Wait, how do you work this thing?" Midori asked.

***

Amy was sulking. Actually, "sulking" was an understatement. 
What she was actually doing was raging around her room, 
destroying things. It wasn't like it mattered; after all, she 
spent most of her time these days with Yuri-oneesama.

Yuri-oneesama....Amy gritted her teeth as she thought about 
what had happened. Shortly after that thing (Yuri's UNCLE? 
Impossible! How could such a sweet, kind, gentle, magnificent, 
wonderful, perfect person as her Yuri ever be related to such a 
twisted, insane being as that?!) had left, that...Bala-whatever, 
had come, and still weakened from the kickback her failed 
attempt at transformation had given her, all she did was watch 
as they carried off Craig, able merely to nod when they asked her 
if she would be all right. When she'd recovered enough to walk, 
she'd stalked out of her Yuri's house and to her rarely-frequented 
own, to destroy things.

She'd *told* him to stay away. She'd TOLD him. But he'd come 
anyway...her eyes narrowed. He'd soon know what it meant to 
get between an Angeleye and her loved one.

A trickle of bright laughter outside the window...could it be? Amy 
rushed over to her bedroom window, which, surprisingly enough, 
she hadn't broken yet, and looked out eagerly. It was! She sighed 
happily, the sight of her Yuri-chan sending sunbeams through her 
heart. Another figure soon came into view, however, and she 
clutched her windowsill tightly, gouging holes in it. It was that 
damned...mummy again! Granted, right now he wasn't *technically* 
a mummy, but who cared? She clenched her teeth. He was *really* 
starting to get on her nerves...

Amy smashed one last precious vase and stormed out of the house, 
hurrying to try and catch up to her Yuri, to rescue her from that 
foul, horrid monster, but a looming form blocked her way.

***

"Good morning!" the flying carpet's AI chirped. "Where would you 
like to go today?"

"Orlando, Florida. Disneyworld," Ki ordered.

"Ooooh, Disneyworld! I love Disneyworld! It's such a friendly 
cheerful happy place!"

"Just take us there already," Midori grumbled. This was definitely 
going to be a long day...

***

"Hello," Melvin Mikagami said as he grinned down at his next victim.
He had sensed the breaking of his hold over the other girl (yes, and 
how *had* she thrown him off? The only way that that had happened 
before was when...no, it couldn't be. Probably, he was just too weak 
still. Dammit, he needed to FEED...), but also sensed the fiery 
emotions of this one, *much* more susceptible to manipulation than 
the cold, calculating mind of the first girl.

Amy's eyes narrowed, and she backed up cautiously. "I know you. 
You tried to hurt Yuri-oneesama."

"That was...a misunderstanding," he said, trying to sound convincing.
"I had just been freed, I wasn't thinking very clearly. Of course I 
would never hurt my dear niece."

"You're lying," Amy stated flatly. "I can *see* that you're lying."

Melvin sighed inwardly. It looked like he was going to have to do this 
the *hard* way...great! 

***

Hamaji Amakusa looked around at his picked strike force and smiled. 
Surely, these would be more than sufficient to take down the insane 
Mikagami. And he wouldn't even have to call in the victim-to-be's 
brother, even more convenient. He turned at the sound of a slight 
beeping. "Ah, he is using his power again. Let us go."

Grinning at the thought of mayhem, his associates followed him.

***

Due to the wonder of time zones and the international date line, Mr. 
and Mrs. Mikagami's day was just wrapping up.

"I want to go on Space Mountain again," Troi said to his wife.

"Dear, they're closing soon," she pointed out. "Besides, wouldn't 
you rather go back to our room...?" She left it hanging promisingly.

The nuance was not lost on her husband, who grinned at her. "I 
suppose we can ride the rollercoasters again tomorrow..."

As they returned to their hotel room, however, they were greeted 
by the smashing of their balcony window, two rolling forms that 
just missed the bed and landed on the floor, and a...flying carpet 
that swooped in apologetically.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm usually very good at landings, I don't know 
what happened! It must be the air, yes, it's too damp! I don't 
like humid air, it frizzes up my tassels something awful, and-"

"Shut up," one of the previously rolling forms grumbled before 
sitting upright. "Oh," Ki said, recognizing the shocked woman 
who stood before them. "You must be Mrs. Mikagami."

"And you must be Troi "Hellstorm" Mikagami," Midori said, 
coming to the obvious conclusion. He certainly looked the part, 
except for the Disneyworld beanie he was proudly sporting.

"Yes, and within thirty seconds you two, and your glorified 
doily, will be dead unless you can give me a *very* good 
explanation of this!" Troi growled. His wife stood by him, 
a dangerous expression on her face.

"It's...about your brother, Mr. Mikagami," Midori said.

Troi blinked, and he sat down on the bed, his wife sinking 
down beside him. "What?!"

"He's freed," Ki explained. "And we...we need your help."

"Yuri?" her mother asked, worried. "Is Yuri all right?"

Ki nodded. "Your old sword, from what we heard, seems to 
have provided her with some protection."

"My...my sword? But she doesn't know how to use it," 
Yuri's mother protested.

"Perhaps not to its fullest extent. But it was enough to 
drive Mr. Hellstorm's brother away, at least temporarily."

"That's true," Troi mused. "He will be weak after first 
being freed...speaking of which, how did that happen?" His 
red eyes darkened to a threatening almost-black.

"Ahhh..." Midori hesitated, not meeting Ki's eyes. "From...what 
I've been told, it was an accident. It happened only last night 
though--by our time, of course."

"Of course." If Troi Mikagami had a lip, he would be biting it 
thoughtfully by now. "We need to get back there as soon as 
possible, then. Since he's just been freed, we have a few hours 
to seal him away again, before he grows too powerful and we 
have to...go through what happened last time all over again."
He and his wife winced in unison.

"So," he said, looking up at the two children of the Steel Thorn. 
"Can that throw rug carry four?"

***

With quick, purposeful strides, Amy caught up to Yuri, 
Bala and Leilei. "Balabalalde!" she shouted.

Bala stopped and turned slowly. Anger flashed in his 
brown eyes as he recognized just who had hailed him, 
and he stepped forward, violence etched into the very 
air around him. Leilei stepped back, worried.

Yuri turned around as well, not sensing the confrontational 
aura. "Oh, hi Amy. Where have you been?"

Amy ignored her. "I told you once already to stay away from 
my Yuri-oneesama! Why didn't you listen to me?!"

Bala glared at the girl contemptuously and snorted. Yuri 
looked wide-eyed from one to the other, clues starting to 
fall into place in her head like Tetris pieces.

Amy snarled. "Well, I'll take care of *you* easily enough. 
Yuri-oneesama, get out of the way!" She lifted her hands 
ominously, her hair almost seeming to float around her.

"Amy, *what* are you doing?" Yuri asked, amazed.

"I'm rescuing you from that...man!" Amy snapped, and 
let loose a ball of dark energy at Bala. 

With reflexes made even quicker by his lack of bindings, 
Bala dived to the side, pushing Yuri down with him. Then, 
after making sure that Yuri was all right, he got up and 
shot towards Amy. The girl howled and tried to form another 
energy ball, but Bala kicked her hands apart and pushed 
her to the ground. 

Yuri watched in shock, then ran over to them and wedged 
herself between the two.

"Stay down, Yuri!" Bala whispered to her.

"Get out of the way, Yuri-oneesama!" Amy screamed 
shrilly, her face taut with concentration. "This is between 
that scum and me! I'm not going to let him hurt you the 
way my father hurt my family!" She managed to free an 
arm and pushed Yuri away roughly, knocking her down 
to the turf.

At that moment, what would have seemed an odd group to 
anyone else ran up. As Yuri got up, she froze, recognizing 
Principal Amakusa among them. He took in the situation 
at a glance. "Melvin Mikagami!" he called, seemingly to 
thin air. "Are you so weak that you must work through 
children? Face your opponents!"

A mad cackle came from the trees beside Amy, and Melvin 
Mikagami slowly stepped out. "Hamaji Amakusa," he 
boomed sneeringly. "And look! You've brought some friends!"
He glanced at them. "But still polite enough to leave out my 
brother, apparently."

"Enough of this pointless banter!" a succubus shouted. 
"GET HIM!" With that, she rushed at him, followed by 
most of the rest of Amakusa's team. Those who didn't 
follow physically, followed with spells and ranged weapons.

Melvin merely grinned.

Yuri missed what happened next, because Amy had somehow 
managed to knock Bala down and was now running screaming 
at him, waving around a sword that crackled with dark energy.
She pushed herself off the ground to help, stumbling a bit as 
her foot caught on something. Looking down, Yuri recognized 
her mother's sword, which she had brought with her for a 
little added protection. She drew it and rushed towards the 
pair, blocking Amy's strikes. "Amy! Stop it! What's gotten 
*into* you?!"

"Out of the *way*, Yuri-oneesama!" Amy shrieked, trying to 
push Yuri and her sword aside. She swung her sword around 
violently, and Yuri barely managed to duck under it in time and 
bring up her mother's sword in a hasty parry. As the two 
swords made contact, Yuri's sword glowed briefly, and Amy 
was knocked back, her face contorted into a hideous snarl.

"I will *not* be foiled by that horrid sword *again*!" she 
growled, and leapt at Yuri, slashing wildly. By that time, 
however, Bala had managed to get up, and stepped into the 
fight again, giving Yuri time to think about what Amy had just 
said. Again? Then she realized, looking at the dark energy 
and the bloody fight going on almost next to her. "Amy! This 
isn't you! It's my uncle, he's controlling you somehow!"

"Don't lie to me, Yuri-oneesama!" Amy screamed, dodging 
a fierce kick. "I'm perfectly in control!"

***

In the other fight, things were going badly. Kanir'na and 
several others had already fallen to Melvin's dark blasts, 
and Naksumi and Jiru were barely standing. Amakusa 
himself had so far managed to escape death, but not by 
much. And, although he admitted it to no one but himself, 
he was getting tired. He drew his sword up anyway, though, 
determined to end this.

***

About a thousand feet above this scene, Liza's newest invention 
was following the traditions of its predecessors, i.e. slowly 
failing. The carpet's four riders clung onto it and held their 
breath as the shaky thing went into a swan-dive to the ground.

"So anyways, I was in...the...how are you doing today? I am 
fine, thank...I like...I...think...we're going do...w...n...." The 
carpet's AI shut off, and any semblance of control the carpet had 
was lost as the ground grew ever-closer.

The carpet's passengers shared a panicked glance, then when they 
judged the carpet was close enough, jumped off.

***

Mr. and Mrs. Mikagami had better aim than their younger flying 
companions; they landed on the turf, rolling to a stop near Amakusa.

Shaking their heads a bit, they stood up and took in the situation.

"Nice of you to drop by, General," Amakusa said, gritting his teeth 
as he fought.

Troi ignored him and focused on his brother, who had stopped 
attacking and was giving him a baleful glare. "Melvin, I-"

"Shut up, *brother*!" Melvin shouted, making the term an insult. 
He picked up one of his former attackers and set him aflame with 
dark energy, then threw him at Troi, who flicked the missile aside 
contemptuously. 

***

Amy, meanwhile, had managed to knock Bala down again, and was 
rushing towards him, flaming sword in hand and a berserker 
scream on her lips. Yuri made a wild dive in front of him, and 
stayed there.

"YU-RI!" Amy yelled through clenched teeth. 
"GET-OUT-OF-THE WAY!!!" She slowed down, and her sword 
stopped, just before it hit Yuri, who was standing before the 
dazed Bala, shaking like a leaf.

"Don't do this, Amy," she pleaded. "Please don't...."

Amy stood there, eyes squinched shut, her sword an inch away 
from Yuri's chest. "Please...move...can't stop it..."

Melvin looked aside from his own battle. "KILL her, you 
pathetic little puppet!" He was weakening too, slowly. Troi 
and Amakusa, between one and the other, were going at him 
with dark blasts and sword strikes, while Yuri's mother 
seemed like she was...missing something? With a flash, Yuri 
realized what it was. "Mom!" she yelled. "Here, take it! 
I don't know how to use it!" She tossed the sword to her mother, 
careful not to go forward too much.

"DAMN it!" Melvin and Amy shouted at the same time. Amy 
lunged, but by then Yuri had already fallen to the ground, Bala 
underneath her. Amy raised her sword to strike again, her 
wild eyes blind to anything else around her.

And at that point, Leilei gathered up all her strength and threw 
the brick she'd just found at Amy's head. The Angeleye girl 
gave a little sigh and sank down to the ground, the dark sword 
flickering out in her hands.

Yuri's mother had caught her sword, but Melvin was closing 
in, and she still seemed to be trying to summon or cast something 
with it. She interrupted what she was doing to slash a few times 
to try and drive him back, but had to start over again each time.

"Melvin Mikagami!" The strident call came from a boy in heavy 
black armor, recently polished, carrying an enormous sword. 
"You killed my father! Prepare to die!" Craig--who else?--rushed 
into the fight, brandishing his sword.

"Pathetic worm," Melvin sneered. "You think you can beat me, 
while these more powerful others have failed?" He gestured at 
the fallen corpses of Amakusa's confederates. "It is you who 
should prepare to die, boy."

The boy screamed and charged. Amakusa and Troi, seizing the 
opportunity afforded by this distraction, attacked from the 
other side. Melvin realized what they were doing and turned to 
face the more serious threat just before Craig got to him.
The Maimsworth scion began hacking and slashing at the dark 
mass, tears glimmering in the corners of his eyes, with no 
visible effect.

Relatively unnoticed in all the commotion, Yuri's mother 
had finished her spell. "Troi!" she called, showing him the 
now-brightly glowing sword. Her husband nodded at her and 
stepped back beside her, while Amakusa moved aside.

***

"Come on, Reika. We owe it to her."

"OWE it to her?" Reika stared at her friend. "Atsuko, we just 
got out of those horrible...cocoons, and you want to go *back* 
there?"

"It was probably just a prank one of her friends played," 
Atsuko said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself 
as well as Reika. "But you know that she wouldn't *really* 
do something like that."

"And before? You know how weird her friends are! She had 
a *giant spider* over!"

"Don't be silly. It was probably...umm...what did we have for 
dinner last night?"

"We went out for pizza, I think."

"Well, it must have been spoiled."

"They made it fresh!"

"Then...we probably shouldn't go back there again," Atsuko said.
"Now quit fussing, we're almost...at her...house?" They stopped 
and stared. Before them, several mangled bodies that could not 
possibly have ever been human lay smoking on the grass, and a 
dark mass, being attacked by a black-armored boy, was facing 
off against another dark mass and a woman with a flashing sword.

As they watched in disbelief, the woman and the dark mass 
yelled something in unison, and a glowing white ball shot out of 
the sword, merging with a ball of dark energy from the mass 
beside her, and slammed into the other dark form, which fell 
over. To the side, Yuri leaned worriedly over a fallen guy in 
a black-and-red school uniform, as the short girl who had 
been at the party looked on.

Reika and Atsuko exchanged a glance. "Let's visit her *tomorrow*," 
they agreed, and ran off.

***

Troi and his wife stood over his brother's fallen form, his wife chanting 
an incantation over a small bottle. Amakusa stood at Melvin's head, his 
sword ready to strike if the insane mass awakened. As Mrs. Mikagami 
chanted, a dark tendril of smoke came from Melvin and slowly trickled 
into the bottle, growing thicker and flowing faster as she continued. The 
small bottle glowed, holding it all.

Much more quickly than anyone expected, Melvin Mikagami was fully 
inside the glowing bottle, which Yuri's mother stopped up quickly and 
sealed with numerous ofuda and other holy markings, and Craig, on 
whom the errant Mikagami had fallen, was revealed, unconscious.

***

"Yuri, are you all right?" her mother asked, rushing to her side. Troi 
followed, equally concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Yuri replied. "But Bala's still unconscious..." 
She looked down worriedly at her friend, one hand running almost 
absently through his hair.

"We'll take him back to our house," her father said. "I know how 
to fix that. And then," he added, a steely eye on his daughter, "You 
can tell me just how your uncle got out of the basement."

Yuri gulped and nodded.

***

Back in his office, Amakusa pondered. So now, he and Troi were the 
only two surviving members of their high school class. Well, no 
matter. He'd always hated reunions anyway.

***

Ki clutched the bag he was still holding, which contained Liza's 
payment (a Mickey Mouse hat), and sat up. "My spleen hurts," he 
stated. "And I'm never flying again."

Beside him, Midori glared at her cousin. "I told you that buying 
something from that girl was a bad idea."

***********
Author Says:

Aaaaarg. Having only two days to write this before having to 
leave for vacation = stressed improwriter. @_@ Luckily, for 
once part of my writing mojo has returned, and I didn't 
procrastinate too much (koff koff), so I managed to get this 
done. ^^ If there's any puzzlement over the variety of 
things mentioned, that's because I'm pulling things 
mentioned-but-never-followed-upon or forgotten starting from 
way back in part 22 and trying to either wrap them up or at least 
remind people that they exist. I hope my feeble attempt to tie 
together a few of the loose plot strings hasn't given anyone a headache. ^^

Thanks go to Smlee, NinjaDebugger, Kenji, and NeremWorld for agreeing to 
preread, and to Mandoric, Demota, and SporkChan for helping with some 
details. ^-^; 

The only reasons that Midori has a larger part in this than she usually 
does is because Yuri can't be everywhere at once, and Midori's a little 
more sensible than Yasuko. Craig comes into the battle scene as a result of 
Smlee's reminding me of the vengeance issue he has, which is probably 
why his entry seems a little bit sudden.

Mr. and Mrs. Mikagami going to Disneyworld, which was the site of one 
of Troi's experiments, is from Kenji in part 24.
Amy's attempt to drive Bala away from Yuri happened in Mads' part 23.
Ki's little clash with Yuri, and Bala's reaction, were the ideas of Brian 
in part 22.
Liza also being known as Ramidra, the Unscrupulous, is from Mads 
waaay back in part 5.

All the rest should hopefully be self-explanatory, or at least recent 
enough so that people can remember their introduction. 

Oh, and sorry for the Princess Bride ref. Couldn't help it. ^^;

Good luck to the next author!

=====
Live well, eat chicken, and bye!

Sharyna

sharyna_t@swirve.com
Co-Moderator, Meek-Haiygn Press (http://meek-haiygn.relnor.com)

***

"A...dark mass?" the therapist asked, looking at his notebook.

Reika and Atsuko nodded. "With bat-wings," Reika added.

"And before that, you were...wrapped in cocoons by a giant 
spider," he continued.

"Yeah, and before that the bat-winged slut at the party tried 
to order me around. As if I'd do her work!"

"...right." On his notebook, the therapist wrote "DELUSIONAL", 
underlined it three times, and added beneath it "Drug tests 
recommended."