Fate is shaped funny. Like a harp. Or a triangle. Or a triangle that's shaped like a harp. ?yeah!

We couldn't quite understand how we were going to thrive in another plane. Shamanista is constructed in such a way that prevents damage to our shells. It's why we've managed to survive for what seems like eons without any trouble. But? without it?

?Well, I say "we" and "our". But I'm not really affected by that, am I? I mean, I came from a moon far away!

The Maiden seems to think that she can carry everybody's burden. I could understand one or two? but everybody? That's quite a stretch, even for her. I understand that she's transformed into the purest level of a maiden, but I don't think it's enough. They're all so evolved?

She said she has a plan. I'll trust her. Without faith, we're never going to pull through this mess we've made.

?heehee, a harp triangle.

Mayu inched the door of her apartment open, sighing in relief to have found its sanctuary awaiting her eventual return. The air was still with absence, devoid of life or warm welcomes. There was an eerie drought that left her heart dry, but the placement of such lacking nonexistence perplexed her. One knew when they required air, or when they sought nourishment to fill their disruptive belly.

This carried a resemblance, but the patters of wanting reminders were foreign to a mind full of gaping memories.

She parted with her concerns for what she could not understand, motioning inward for the gathering that was awaiting her invitation. "Please, make yourselves at ho-"

They did not wait, packing the doorway and filling her apartment instantaneously. Dejectedly, she followed in after them, closing the door quickly to prevent from being seen by any possible neighbors.

Little was the girl aware that her apartment, following Ria's excavation of souls, housed nobody.

Her bedroom was an immediate, heated argument over between Ria and Sophia, both finding points as to why they required slumber. Melissa was in the kitchen with Helen, Emma was reading what few notebooks Mayu still had strewn about the otherwise tidy apartment, Toby had taken to the nearby window for lookout, and Akiko was? where was Akiko?

A bobbing of Tracy's ears dragged Mayu form her disastrous thought process. She had accompanied the Maiden closely, if not attentively. "Maiden, if I may speak alone with you momentarily?"

As the many were already seeking to trench their paths to the future, her concerns over them were set to the back burners. "U-Um? if y-you would like, Tracy?"

The only known location away from the calamity taking place in her sanctuary was the hall. Tracy allowed to aid the burdened Maiden out the door. Tracy began immediately, "I would like to issue a formal apology for the actions that have transpired these past hours."

Encumbered with two sets of wings, as well as feeling the tethers of the many she was bound to weighing on her heart, Mayu quickly accepted the hallway floor as her bed. She laid out flat on her stomach, chin thumping into the rugged carpet. "I-It's? fine, Tracy. Yo-You're not at fault for another?"

A relieved look was given to the Maiden, moving to seat herself cross-legged before her. "I understand that. I was not under her influence the same way you or Lady Ria were," she explained, a finger tapping her nose as she thought silently. "How should I put this? Blackmail?"

Mayu lifted her eyes to Tracy, but much else was a considerable stretch under the current circumstances. Her head lolled, and it fit her reaction, but it was involuntary. "Oh??"

"As you may be aware, I am not from your world. I have not seen any other Lunar Rabbits of my stature," Tracy observed with a weak smile, casting her gaze to the floor between them. "Flora offered me asylum so long as I pledge myself to her. It has caused? damage," she continued, "To you and I, and everybody else."

Mayu listened intently, but carried difficulty providing her with any reassuring words of comfort. She found it more difficult to fathom why Tracy was saying much of anything at all to her concerning the happened events.

The rabbit scoffed at her own rambling. "I'm conditioned this way? to be the slave of another. It's what we're bred for," she finally admitted, her words oozing with shame and sorrow.

"Th-That's? something we'll h-have to work on, th-then?" Mayu weakly retorted, a smile meant to ease the grief of Tracy's guilt. It was the most she could consider in her current situation.

"That won't make up for all I've done, Maiden," Tracy quickly provided in rebuttal. "I injured you more than most. You're not at all mad at me for that?"

It was a question worth asking, Mayu knew. When wronging another, the girl knew the agony that burnt a compassionate heart. The pain was worse than any physical torture one could possibly endure, were it to fester and devour.

Lifting a frail, jagged hand, she pressed a finger against Tracy's thigh as a feeble means of contact. "I h-have no re-reason to be, Tracy? pl-please, just b-be yourself w-without concern o-or worry. I n-need you? W-We've g-got a lot to d-do if we-we're going to ma-make it through th-this?"

Tracy's features compacted. She couldn't believe her rigid ears. "N-Need me?! That's absurd! How do you know I'm not working for Flora right this instant?! I could turn you in at a moment's notice!"

A cough accompanied Mayu's tickled laugh. Tracy was a humorous rabbit. She spent no time considering her words before replying with a gracious smile, "Because you w-would have d-done it b-by now? F-Flora w-would mu-much prefer us dead a-as soon as s-she could handle s-such a thing?"

It wasn't all that Mayu felt when considering the rabbit. Such a conversation left her believing that it was a distant, unreachable possibility. Although her impressions of others have been vastly wrong in the past?

Tracy was at a lost of words, gaping with awe at the downed girl. Uncertain on her approach, her arms wrapped the air various times in careful consideration on how to hug her. She resorted to a grip weaker than a baby's first hold on a sprawled wing. "You're totally the best? I promise I won't disappoint you!"

Did the Maiden just enlist a rabbit as a secretary? A bodyguard? Toy? She winced to the limp hold, but held her smile firm. "I-If t-that's all? I'd l-like to e-explain my next i-idea?"

"Of course, Maiden! Let's get you inside and situated!" Tracy eagerly answered.

The rumble beneath his feet and the grind of stone on stone made him jump and dart off of the small platform that had taken both May and he to the plateau of a spire of land that jutted upward into the overcast sky. He hadn't been so far outside of the city since the day that Lisa had brought him to it two years ago, and he'd nearly forgotten there was actually a whole world outside of its borders. The platform groaned on its way back down to the ground how many stories below.

He could see the dark shadows of two towers in the distance that shot even further up into the sky. Hazy clouds drifted across them, blanketing their presence..he couldn't help but assume that they stretched much higher.

The ring of densely packed trees they were traveling through finally broke away to reveal their destination, a wide fanning staircase leading up to it. The building was even more massive up close, and he craned his neck to look.

It was like standing in front of a bigger, angrier version of the church; made out of dark grey stone and spanning twice as wide and tall as the marble building he was familiar with. Turrets made up two of the four corners he could see with open holes that looked down on the entrance from a good vantage point. A large, square stained glass window took up a great deal of the outside wall, its decoration an intricate black spade with ornate detail. Its base resembled the trunk and vast roots of a large, old tree. Tall, narrow windows with red curtains blocking the view of the inside dotted the rest of the wall with torches mounted above them, meant to light the perimeter, but their flames were suppressed by the daylight.

Directly beneath the stained glass was a massive, black iron door that had been carved in the shape of a sleeping beast. Even while asleep, its expression was a menacing grimace, and he stared at it curiously. He couldn't see a knocker or a knob to open it..and touching it didn't seem like a good idea at all.

******

"Sir, we've got company, two individuals. Base recognition scans reveal the smallest as Mayu Tsuzuki, returning Exorcist."

"Rrreeeaaally? Oh--! But wait, who's that with her? Is that a boy? It's kind of hard to tell at this distance and with all those bloody bandages." The man leaned forward, his body bent over the back of the couch that served as seating for the holographic display of the Congregation's front stoop. Blue light flashed across a pair of thin glasses hiding dangerously squinted purple eyes. "Well, whatever it is, go find someone to push it off."

"They're approaching the gate now, if he's any bit unsatisfactory, he'll be expelled."

"What do you *mean* any bit unsatisfactory, do you *see* the same screen that I see? Of *course* it's unsatisfactory!!"

"Sir, just wait ten seconds. Really.."

******

A fleeting look was given over a shoulder to Toby, motioning silently to the door with several fingers. She recalled that the door only allowed entry when it recognized somebody of the Congregation. A few steps brought her within plain sight of the behemoth doorway, standing tall and still for it to scan her as per protocol.

The beast's eyes that rest on the door's frame part wide, sending out a crosshatched, cerulean beam honed on Mayu's disfigured frame. Its warm, steady glow envelopes her from head to toe, satisfied by whom it was perusing. In accordance with its obligations, a heavy metallic snap fills the air, followed by the beast's bear trap maw parting to grant her entry.

A quiet sigh of relief deflates her lungs. She wasn't vocal in her concerns that it might consider her a foul monster, and now she didn't have to. She motioned once again to Toby, a curt smile akin to a hungry lioness aimed at him. "Let's go. I'm sure Conrad is already aware we're here," betokening up to the various Antigons that fill the air.

"They're like cameras, but sentient. They transmit data to Conrad. Say hello!" she teased, hurrying on inside.

He swallowed, rigidly watching the entire process. He didn't know how tense he had become until she had turned and smiled, and he felt unsteady from relief. He didn't even see her gnashing teeth and inhuman eyes.

His hands curled into tight, hard fists. He covered his right eye with his knuckles and forced himself forward. He didn't have to be nervous about being eaten.. She had gone through it just fine, and he didn't think a door could eat anyone anyway.

The moment both of his feet had passed over the threshold of the beast door's teeth, they slammed shut with an iron clang. "AH!!"

"Unknown. To be scanned," a rumbling, monotone voice boomed in the limited space. He stood hunched over as cold, golden light poured over him, stabbed through him. It felt like thin needles were being fitted into every pore on his skin.

"Failure. Demonic presence. To be expelled."

"What..?"

******

"Boss, the kid failed! Boss.. BOSS?!"

"Don't you dare go anywhere, my Mayu!" Conrad's singsong voice trailed off into the distance as he skipped toward the main foyer.

"Damn it. Penelope, go with him. See that he doesn't do something stupid, or kill anyone."

"Right!"

******

Air rushed into the tiny chamber from the outside, he banged his fists on the back of the iron door. Then the beast's mouth flew open. He hollered as he was blasted backward by an invisible tunnel of air, the stone building spiraling out of his line of sight. He crashed into the branches of the ring of trees surrounding the edge of the plateau, finally coming to a stop at the base of a large trunk. A shower of green leaves rained down quietly in his wake.

It wasn't so much the lacking presence of Toby following her as it was the reverberating sound of the door's metallic voice that concerned her. She hurriedly began to make her way toward the door to discover what foul behavior was taking place, subdued only by a firm grip that had her by the waist.

"Toby!" she shouted after him, legs kicking the air as she was hoisted up.

"Come along, my dear, we have much to discuss!" Conrad bellowed from down the hall. Mayu was in the grips of a mechanical robot of his, its thick, insulated cable arms retracting her.

She yelped at her capture, sneakers dragging across the polished floor in shrill squeals as she went. "Th-That's my friend! Y-You ha-have to let him in! H-He escorted me h-here!" she all but demanded.

"Oh?" Conrad questioned, piqued by her explanation. "He's your friend? That's quite embarrassing, I'd say," he continued, adjusting his glasses. "Marsden, shut down the door. Our dear Exorcist here says he's a friend," he requests very nonchalantly. His concern, truly, was not in the boy that was skyrocketed a mile away.

One bullet dodged, she still was wrapped up in the arms of a robotic companion. She turned to provide the Chief with a glower that was helpless deep down.

A mere moment later, Penelope rushed past the captured figure of Mayu as fast as her ballet flats would take her. She shot her left hand in the air and waved on her way through the open mouth of the beast door.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Mayu, I've got it under control! Welcome back!" She bounded daintily down the fanning staircase. It wasn't hard to spot Toby's path of destruction through the foliage, a neat empty tunnel through normally dense leaves, and her slight body disappeared into the trees in pursuit.

Conrad's office was more like a ransacked library of papers and miscellaneous books than a haven fitting only the leader of an Order would be. While the walls were tidy and shelved in an organized fashion any obsessive compulsive person could be awed by, the floor and desk were akin to a child's playroom. Where he seated himself was questionable in itself, the vague impression of fine, aged wood lost in the shambles of white, unraveled sheets spewing from its surface in frozen volcanic eruptions.

Nothing the back of a hand couldn't clean up for several minutes. "Ack!" Mayu could have sworn she heard the papers yelp.

The room seated atop the Spire of the Congregation was more circular than Mayu was used to in her years of square confinement. Between her years in a classroom, the Dean's office, the music room, her room, her house? well, everything was bland and square. It gave her head an empty feeling of vertigo, as there was no concrete sense of direction. The "tidy mess" as Conrad would deem it did not help matters, either.

The Chief, having nudged aside a stack of papers to the floor as if he'd done it all his life (and knowingly had), motioned for Mayu to take a seat in a chair her demonic, impressionable figure couldn't even dream of fitting in. "Please, my dear, take a seat. Let's see if we can't discover the root of this troublesome antic that's marred your beautiful self."

Gnashing teeth was meant to convey a smile, but Mayu's present condition couldn't fathom the idea of showing generosity. She refrained from sharing her emotions, how rampant they'd become. "I-I'll be fine, C-Chief? t-this condition is on ac-account of t-the Ru-Ruler's death b-back home?"

"Home?" Conrad questioned, looking up from his cluttered desk in surprise. "I wasn't aware you considered Shamanista home." He departed from the comment with disregard. "No matter. I'm not one to understand the wooboos and zizbits of another culture. I only care that I get my precious little Mayu back!"

He motioned, hand flourishing, to the side of his desk. "That's why I invited our Ambassador from Shamanista to help clue me in on everything."

A budding head of light blue, almost white, pierced through the stack of papers that Conrad threw aside. "Gaaah? I thought I was going to suffocate down there!"

Hovering in the air at barely three feet, four inches was a fairy of marginally confusing proportions. Her wide eyes matched her lively, luminescent hair. The dress she donned, which covered the bare essentials of her childish figure, was a deeper shade of blue. Translucent wings, which were not directly attached to her form, were in the form of icicles, shapely shafts that came to a pointed, deadly end. They didn't provide the fairy with any notable airlift, but sliced the air all the same.

It was a safe assumption that the Ambassador of Shamanista was a vibrant fan of blue.

"She has been crucial in updating me on the events that took place. Rest assured, I am well-informed of the incidents that took place," Conrad conveyed with reassurance. "My only concern is? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE GETTING MARRIED?!"

Mayu stumbled backward to Conrad's outburst, nearly toppling over were her quad-wings not prepared to catch her along the door she was standing near. "I-I?" the girl stammered excessively, her cracked skin unable to color appropriately in embarrassment.

"THIS IS OUTLANDISH! THIS IS REMARKABLY REMARKABLE THAT YOU WOULD DO SUCH A THING TO ME! MAAAAAAYU!" He was whining. Were she able to get a good look at him behind those narrow glasses of his, she would go so far to claim he was crying.

Damage control was in order. Marsden was often on the job to calm the Chief when he went into frantic outbursts. Which was quite often. But Marsden wasn't anywhere nearby to be on the call. Mayu lifted her mangled hands to soothe the flailing Conrad. "I-I'm so-sorry, C-Chief? a l-lot has g-gone on?"

The fairy exchanged glances between the two, lost on their engagement. Heeding the opportunity to divert probable disaster, she whisked herself over to Mayu. "We haven't properly introduced. My name is Aneira," she greeted with a hand held out. Realizing that wasn't the most prudent choice, seeing herself being gored on the girl's nails, she jerked it back just as quickly as it shot out.

"Aneira," Mayu repeated, oblivious to the jerking motions of worrisome introduction. "Snow?"

Aneira shook with glee, "That's right! I'm a snow fairy! You're smart!"

Teeth gnashed as Mayu failed to contain her shared excitement over the moment. The fairy, frightened by the display and accompanied sounds, flit back in fear. She hit a mound of papers and abruptly lost air. "G-Gah! I don't want to drown!"

She disappeared in the ocean of papers littering the floor, lost.

Conrad used his time to compose himself, rising to his feet. "Aneira has expressed her knowledge of this? form, if you will. She's explained that it's nothing more than a transformation."

A survey down at herself left much to the imagination. She had no knowledge of how to revert herself. A force of willpower? She closed her eyes, willing herself. She willed herself harder. She willed herself with every ounce of will she had.

Her stomach grumbled loudly, dark scarlet eyes flying open in shock.

In his examination of the young girl, he pressed his glasses up. "Not exactly what I had in mind, deary."

Fidgeting under the many pages, Aneira flailed like a child in a deep swimming pool. "Gah! Mess!" She struggled to pull herself out of the pages, laying out flat to catch her breath.

Conrad paid the shortest no mind, stepping around her to meet with the demonic Mayu. "You remember what I told you about Hildegard, yes?"

The grumbling fell quiet as Mayu's mind churned to other thoughts besides her will. "Th-That she's? some kind of? appraiser?"

"One way to look at her, yes," Conrad agreed. "She's able to assess, empower, and revoke abilities that are spiritual in nature."

The bashful girl kept her gaze aimed at the floor. "Do you? d-do you think she w-would be a-able to f-fix this ki-kind of problem?"

She jumped as Conrad rested a hand onto the narrow curve of her shoulder, giving it a compassionate squeeze. "Hildegard has never met a problem that she could not fix. She is our resident mechanic to these kinds of issues, deary. Let's go take a look, shall we?"

Into the bowels of the Order, as it would have to be explained, was something far more ominous in words than in reality. It wasn't nearly as influential as I would have expected. I mean, when you head down into the basement of some large facility, your first thoughts worry about what kind of creepy things they store. And you know a spiritual organization has creepy trinkets. Or lots and lots of dead bodies stored in coffins.

Or a vampire. It's always a vampire?

Conrad kept close to my left, Aneira, more like an armrest, kept to my right. We rode an elevator that was more like a cargo lift than something traditional you'd see back home in office buildings. There were no walls to the transport, and lighting was eerily lacking when we breached the ground floor to sink below the surface of reasoning, and instead, into utter discord with my logical ways of thinking.

Everyone ensured I'd be fine. Here's to? hoping?

Mayu was the first to step off the steel plating of the elevator, wobbly knees buckling beneath the swirls of vertigo, mixed with the weight of her transformation. She was never capable of maintaining balance when using those steel cages of devised death for a single floor, let alone thirty something plus. She wheezed a shallow breath, apprehension seizing her mind and declaring her D.O.A. Aneira's intentionally comforting touch was searing at first, her frigid hands having the demonic girl cry out in agony. Conrad quickly intervened.

"You should leave her for now," he suggested, ushering the girl down the hall straight ahead. "See that Hildegard is prepared for the exercise."

The fairy's brightly glowing aqua eyes broadened in surprise, solemnly tending to Conrad's suggestion without delay.

Kneeling beside the girl, his own touch met her matted set of ocean hair. "You've got this. You'll be back to normal in little time. Do you understand?"

Mayu's disfigured claws squealed as they raked the steel flooring of the underground installation. Dimly lit by flickers of florescent lighting, Hildegard's resting place was separate from the Order's prim and proper state of lifestyle. Carpeting was absent in place of the steel she shred; plywood and drywall with lavish paintings exchanged for crummy, rundown plating akin to an abandoned factory.

She were beneath the fingernail of a desecrated god. The burnished gleam of cleanliness was a distraction to the hollow tomb she rest within.

Conrad's arms were nudged away by the broad, thick ridges of her burdening wingspan. "I-I'll? be f-fine, C-Chief," she assured, her arduous rise evident in the gruff bursts of air that accompanied it.

Heed was taken by the charge of the Order, Aneira's presence heralded by a fleeting rush of cool air missed by the pair. "Miss Hildegard is prepared to begin immediately, sir," the small fairy wistfully exclaimed.

"Thank you, Aneira," Conrad acknowledged, urging Mayu ahead once she was acceptably on her own two legs. "This way now. Easy does it."

The dim luminescence that burned color into Mayu's gaze tapered off the further down the hall the three traveled. What felt like miles, but twenty meters in circumference, gave way to a gigantic hall better fit to house the Olympic games. A tremendous dome, etched in paint with the ancestors of the war hundreds of years prior, belittled any previous experience of feeling small and amounting to nothing, as its apex seemed as distant as the very moon she watched nearly every waking night.

Centered in the room of stadium size was a gargantuan stone statue that towered most Captial buildings, her features chiseled in the liking of an aged, tender woman with girlish curls. The fabric of the clothing and armor she donned, a vibrant green and gold stola centralized in an ancient Roman theme, was also stony in quality, a testament to her archaic time. The solid set of stone eyes, devoid of pupil or natural human characteristics, flared with the power of twin, miniature suns, burning their sturdy, devastating gaze onto the three that made their arrival through the thin slitted door to her chambers.

Aneria gasped outloud, slamming into the nearby wall in her retreat from the room. "I'm not dinnnnnner!" she yelped, down the hall with such speed that she flaked trails of ice as she did so.

Conrad adjusted his hat, watching the fairy make her escape. "That would be my mistake. I told her that Hildegard is usually in the mood for popsicles?" He excused himself from Mayu briefly, quickly taking position before the seated giant to offer his words of request. "The latest recruit has arrived as planned, Hildegard."

Eyes of dynamic opaque stared longingly at the demonic figure, crooking a finger with agile precision not often considered when seeing creatures of pure stone. "Come, young child of the Congregation," she requested, her voice melodic as it were staunch.

Mayu's eyes were wider than Aneira prior to her retreat from the titanic battlefield, but did as was requested of her, hurriedly making her way forward. Her top heavy figure was unable to keep up with her haste, tumbling to her hands and knees as she scurried.

Hildegard watched with unabashed empathy, reaching with her gigantic stretch of arm to arrest the girl from her own willpower, and into a grip capable of crushing any that were unfortunate to be seized by it.

A gasp of air fled Mayu's lungs as she felt the stony grasp takes her, fidgeting in fruitless hopes of breaking from the hold. She was fighting an one-sided battle that would easily end in the statue's favor were it a true battle of might. She yelped in unconditional fear.

"Still your antics, child. You will not be disturbed internally." Hildegard explained hollowly.

Conrad yelled from his meager positioning, "She's here to help you, angel! In two shakes of a lamb's puffy tail, you'll be a sparkling goddess of charismatic beauty once again!"

That only brought a minor slow to the girl's flailing attacks, but satisfied Hildegard enough to proceed with her initial scanning of Mayu's interstructure.

Condition: Normal
Attunement: One Hundred Percent.
Job: Shrine Maiden
Origin: Realm of Shamanista, Central Jurisdiction
Status: Yōkai.

Hildegard paused in her scan. In the far distant to the statue's own ears, a shrill shout of "WHAT!?" erupted like a ballistic volcano from Conrad.

"?abnormal. You are a shrine maiden but not a living human?" Her hand parted to provide Mayu with additional space, creating a movable platform for which the girl could lay out on. She did so readily.

"I'm? n-not technically a-alive, n-no?" she answered, her emptied lungs finding it difficult to regain precious oxygen. "W-When I w-was al-alive, a y-yōkai from S-Shamanista h-had g-gained c-control of my l-living b-body," she explained in vague detail, the very best of her capabilities under the circumstances.

Hildegard's opaque gaze leered at the girl. "My analysis predicts you carry a one-hundred percent affinity with this body. I have no doubts you are telling the truth, small one."

Conrad continued to spout incoherence from below. "Well put her back in! Put my Mayu back into Mayu so I have a Mayu with my Mayu!!!"

The girl winced as she peered wistfully to the spiritual titan. "I-Is that? g-good?? I m-mean, t-that I'm o-one h-hundred w-whatever?"

"Indeed. It means I can restore you to your natural state of being with minor difficulty."

Mayu heaved a sigh of relief. She relaxed from her state of tension far too soon for her own good.

"This comes at a price costly to your very nature of existence," she forebode, pulling the girl ever closer to that everlasting stare.

"P-Price?? W-What k-kind of pr-price??" the girl whimpered, disliking the sound of that. It wasn't going to be like how they set bones back in place, was it? She wasn't prepared to be reborn, die, only to be reborn again.

"For this procedure, I will be forced to strip this affinity of power from you so that the body may naturally accept your existence," Hildegard explained coldly. The process of explanation to her was typical; it done millions of times before this girl that rest before her. "You will be without the power of the shrine maiden of Shamanista, and revert to your natural state as a human being. No trace of it will exist within you."

Mayu's gaze hardened as she listened to what she would be forced to relinquish with. The power of a shrine maiden, and all it carried, rode with her on the cloud of dreams. Without it, as a human being, she would revert to nothing. Her goals would crumble then and there, without any means of retrieval. The sensations to heal the weak and sick, all spiraling from that central moment of watching Toby, her one and true friend of a natural origin as herself, would return to being nothing more than childish fantasy.

It was a price she wasn't so accepting to discard.

With those thoughts came a question, and one she spoke through grit rows of gnashing teeth. "W-Would you be a-able to r-reapply this p-power to m-me should I n-need to h-have it again sometime i-in the f-future? I-I'm under the i-impression t-that this is j-just a t-transformation? c-can't y-you t-transform m-me i-instead of r-removing it?"

Hildegard's head shifted to the side in consideration of the request. "I cannot not, little thing. As a natural human being, you will be incapable of becoming a vessel for this type of strength without the power shredding you in half in time. This alteration must be everlasting."

Tears welled in the corners of her scarlet eyes, pooling down the ridges of bone surrounding her nose and onto the gritty palm of Hildegard's hand. "E-Everything? I w-wished for in l-life c-came to h-happen th-through sheer m-miracle. ?t-this is all I h-have to l-live f-for, H-Hildegard?"

The statue had nothing to share, waiting solely on if she should proceed or refrain. Watching the girl cry was something she'd seen so often, it was nearly a natural occurrence in her life. She was unfazed by the display.

Quivers of utter sadness ravaged the girls shoulders, crumpling like a wilting flower into the titan's grip. It was selfish to want to revert to being a human being when others required her powers were she to assist in retaking Shamanista from Flora. But those spirits that came with her had a new future on the line. One that she knew she could help them create. Selfishly considered, selfishly wanting. It crushed her very soul, to know that she not only possessed a single, selfish thought, but that she was willing to allow it to consume her.

In the end, she wasn't as innocent as she let herself believe she was.

"?I h-hereby r-relinquish my p-powers as a s-shrine m-maiden of S-Shamanista, t-then?" she uttered under her breath to Hildegard, granting her the permission necessary to siphon Shamanista's power from the body, and destroy it. "?I'm s-sorry? e-everyone?"

A warm rush of purifying cherry light, igniting from opaque eyes, washed over the girl the very moment she spoke, prying her from Hildegard's palm. She lifted like a marionette, limply at the mercy of the titan's destructive energies. The warm rush numbed her senses, and her manner of reasoning and ability to discern right from wrong as it began to funnel the supernatural energies from Mayu's heart, pooling it like soda through a straw into a crumbling, parted stone mouth.

Weakness sank through the girl immediately as it began, and her consciousness shattered the second the procedure began, blacking out with the enigmatic force of a hammer blow to the head.

The shrine maiden's power was a miasma of sapphires and blacks, a contrast to their iconic carmine and whites, seen clearly from Conrad's point of view on the ground far below, who had watched the procedure occur as often as Hildegard had performed it. Over the many years since taking office, the transition never once failed to awe him, the flashy display of colors and catastrophic expulsion of power from one being a constant reminder to his psyche that everything, even the mightiest figure, was a fragile toy in the universe.

Mayu fell with a sickening thud within Hildegard's hand once the cycle was completed, the opaque scan of her eyes restarting. "Her human status is confirmed, Chief Conrad. Her power has been successfully removed, and destroyed."

Conrad dabbed the back of a sleeve across his eyes, nodding in understanding. "?you made the right choice, angel. I hope you know that," he murmured into his sleeve. He motioned for Hildegard to pass the girl down into his care.

She did so without delay, carefully setting the girl out on the floor for retrieval.

A mess of short, disheveled hair set atop a face so pure in inspection, it could be believed that it was dreamt up by a child in a whimsical dream. She had her delicate body that was prone to being broken were it not tended to carefully, and every aspect that made the girl human returned tenfold. Tears stained her face frozen in sadness, the stickiness of tear streaks soiling her cheeks even after her consciousness was ransacked by Hildegard's siphoning.

Conrad soaked up the streaks of wetness from her, motioned to Hildegard in quiet gratitude, and hoisted her up in his arms. Turning, he solemnly trekked from the auditorium sized chambers, and down the darkened hall in disheartening silence.

The girl awoke from her prolonged slumber with a sense of freshness. Her emotions, strangled by grief and succumbing to convulsive concerns of helplessness, were negated by the required need to recover from the events that took place days prior.

The Ruler's death, by her own hands, stained her memories. It was the only event that replayed itself in terrifying, earth shattering repetition. A movie that had no stop button. Only a pause; a crippling reminder of the final moments one person's life carried before her own actions disabled it.

Slender, exposed legs curled beneath her, her hands draping over her thighs. Her fingers ran semi-circular motions of self soothing comfort to no avail.

She was not a girl who voraciously wallowed. Actions came with consequence, and she was determined to face each and every repercussion for her actions. Even should they not be by her own determined wishes.

Aneira disturbed the flow of certitude the girl carried for justice. Her gaze snapped up as the snow fairy showed face. "All right, that's it, Queenie. Since you're so hell bent on sleeping, I'm going to give you until the count of three before I butter your hands with glue and feathers," she threatened, backing into the compact room with an open bottle of thick glue and an open bag of fluffy feathers.

An amused Mayu directed her amiable smile at the fairy. "I-I'm w-wide awake now, A-Aneira."

The fairy whirled around in a motion rivaling turbulent twisters, glue one direction, feathers the other. The thick substance splattered her face, dribbled her chin and speckled her jump dress, creating an absolute mess with the feathers. Having disturbed the currents of the room, those feathers whisked toward the opening of the door to make a retreat, colliding with the fairy and sticking with horrendous accuracy across nearly every section of her body.

The glue was fast acting, and quickly began to set in cool flesh.

"Craaap! Glue and cold don't mix well!" Aneira whimpered, clawing with the pointed tips of icy nails at the glued down feathers.

Mayu released a faint giggle of mirth, her weary disposition fading. "You r-remind me o-of w-what w-we call ahodori back home? an albatross i-is s-sometimes c-called a s-stupid bird." Her natural accent became easily perceptible when she spoke in her native tongue.

The white raised Mayu's claim to factual point, much to Aneira's dismay. "I resent that," she glowered at the girl, her hellish lashings hesitating. She lost her battle. "Eeegh, the glue's already setting in?" Once her body temperature could naturally lower the glue's structural integrity, it would become brittle enough for easy picking. But the damage had already been done.

Another giggle fled Mayu's throat, unabashed in her delight. "C-Clean u-up, silly, before it g-gets in t-the c-carpet," Mayu instructed, a blanket dressing her bare frame more intently before rising to her feet. A hand cast aside the pitiful curtain that barred view of the outside world, allowing a thin streak to seize the stagnant gloom of darkness and chase it clear out. "Ahh? m-much better."

Aneira grumbled from behind, her rivalry with the sun clear. The dropped bottle was collected, ushering puffs of feathers into it. "I almost forgot to mention," speaking up for her counterpart to hear her, "Chief Conrad asked me to send you his way should you be awake."

A hesitant glance was provided to the ambassador, a sentimental smile shaping. It was always like him to immediately, if not consistently, ensure her well-being. "Mm? O-Oh, t-thank you, Aneira."

The snow fairy's curiosity grew not only to her curt response, but her befuddling glance. There was something deep in the look that rattled her stomach. And not the kind that can be normally mistaken for hunger. "You like that he frets over you so much, don't you?"

The girl moved to retrieve her uniform, pressed and laid out on a chair near her bed. She spoke without so much as a thought over Aneira's query. "Maybe a l-little," still full of merriment.

Collecting what feathers she could, she turned to provide what slight privacy one could expect in a room where even the fairy felt claustrophobic. "Why is that? You don't have feelings for him, do you?"

It never failed that a conversation, when secluded, took a twist that abraded her sense of socialization. Romance seemed to be on the tongue of everyone she met. Were it not a way to keep silence from prevailing, she'd be well worn out by now. Both emotionally, and physically. "Of c-course not, A-Aneira," she admitted without restraint, losing the blanket in change of actual clothing.

A sigh of estranged relief shivered from the girl favoring blue. "That's good," she trailed off in her response, looking up to the clothing girl. "Say, Queen?"

Mayu paused in her motions, her mental reflexes kicking in sharply. Over the years she spent in school, Wakana always began her sentences, when imploring on a subject touchy to stereotype, "Hey, Mayu?" She sought to nip the awkwardness in the bud with razor sharp clippers. "Did the Chief h-have a-any orders to g-give me?"

A subject change was not subtle. It screamed her awareness. Aneira was not one to pick up on such aspects, but it did not diminish the girl's sense of guilt for having transposed their conversation.

"I don't think so," Aneira advised with her common uncertainty. "He only asked me to direct you to him."

Mayu nodded silently to herself, sliding clasps together for her high, atypical mini skirt, and tugging into place over the knee stockings. A fit trim of thigh was easily discerned, a style she often sought for when in uniform. She was covered to a level she was satisfied by; and it couldn't get much better than that. Fitting into the low, strappy heels conforming to her attire, she started for the door, clasping a hand of the glued snow fairy.

"Let's g-go see what he wants, s-shall we?" she insisted, opening the door for the two to make headway.

The ambassador followed with surprise at Mayu's shift of haste. "Sure!"

Chief Conrad's office saw no tidying since Mayu's previous encounter several days prior. It was, and would always be, a jungle of papers and books that gave no indication that a blue tiled floor rested beneath the stacks. For all intents and purposes, paper made terrific carpeting.

Three separate maps were sprawled out on the wall behind the mahogany desk Conrad sat at, various pink and yellow post-it notes littering the surface with important info amongst useless trivia on areas of particular interest. Fingers steepled under his chin, expectations on the door across the room. His stoic process of thought was interrupted with the sound of knocking. "Yes, come in," he invited, rising from his desk in a show of proper manners.

The Chief was eager to catch up with Mayu, who had undergone a life changing procedure. The normal recovery time was a day to two at most; she was at nearly a week. His concern grew as thick as the coating of papers lining his floor. However, no girl made her appearance. Instead, it was another; a gentleman he had also requested to entertain in presence. He was dressed in the standard uniform of the Order, a crisp button down jet black jacket with equally dark slacks. An elaborate spade, the symbol of the Congregation, made up of various metal alloys and with runes skittering across the surface of shiny steel, rested on the left breast. Very rarely, unless out on a mission, did this kind of attire be allowed to fall lax while under the Chief's eyes. And even then, it took guts to consider not being in uniform on vacationing days.

Even his precious Mayu was required to remain dressed as such. Only, replace those masculine slacks with a high rise skirt and thigh-high, heeled boots.

"Ahh, Mr. Wayne. Thank you for coming on such short notice," the Chief welcomed, an arm outstretched to request he seat himself at one plush chair opposite him.

Piercing sapphire eyes darted beneath a scraggy layer of chestnut bangs to the Chief, then down to the offered chairs. He refused gruffly with a look, sharp and rigid around the edges. "I'll stand," he declared, nudging the door closed behind him. His rough demeanor suggested that door should have fallen off its hinges long ago, yet there was a calm collection in his motion, deviating from the vast public opinion.

The Chief, himself, took careful note of the tall man, who was of similar height. Adjusting the collar of his white coat, a stark contrast to the Order's primary black, he rounded his cluttered desk. "I would like to wait for the other to arrive before I provide you with any clear cut information on your next mission."

Sigurd took lean against the wall beside the door, a worthy position to high tail it should things get weird. Which they often did where the Chief was concerned. "'The other'? You realize I prefer to work alone."

The Chief nodded, expecting such a reply, "I'm aware. This mission requires two, even with your experience on the field."

A rise of thick brows, intrigued by Conrad's brief explanation. "Heh. I take it that's the mission details on the map?"

Conrad offered another nod without looking to affirm what Sigurd spoke of. "It would be. You'll be heading to the province of Lacriosa. I've already sent word to a few Seekers. They will guide you the distance by boat."

The budding explanation was silenced at the sound of the door opening a second time. A sprout of green snaked in, entwined with a hint of cyan.

"You're here," Conrad observed warmly, gloved hands coming together in a pleased, solo clap. "Not any bit too soon, mind you. I hope you don't mind having to travel the distance so soon after waking."

Sigurd's curiosity got the better of him, sapphire slicing air to inspect whom his mentioned partner would be. His jaw might as well have broken in half when he gaped. "Hold on a friggin' minute," he protested, arms slithering from their cross. He pointed straight at the green haired girl plodding in the room. "She's my partner? Forget it. For. Get. It. You might as well send me alone, Chief."

The maiden's eyes were solemn at what she heard. "P-Partner??" She hadn't time to register what was being asked of her.

Conrad tilted his head to the two as he returned to his desk. "Duly noted, Mr. Wayne. However, she will make a better partner than most Exorcists not already on a job. That I can tell you." He plucked a pointer stick from his desk and stood beside the sprawled maps. "Please, Mayu, Ambassador Aneira, if you would take a seat, I would like to explain what I have in mind."

Sigurd leered at the girl with the intent to kill her with nothing more than a stare. Mayu, on the other hand, shied from the evil look and quickly moved to seat herself at Conrad's desk. Aneira remained out of the spotlight, tiptoeing along the wall.

The pointer stick slapped against the curl of paper, guiding their stares on the here and now. "As I was beginning to explain to Mr. Wayne, I will be sending you two to the province of Lacriosa, a port town that we often trade with for their fish and shellfish harvesting."

Sigurd snorted, "What, you sendin' the squirt and I over to pick up some salmon for a grilling spree?"

The ocean shaded girl lowered her head briefly, a swell of depression washing over her. She was being paired with somebody like him? What had she done to deserve such a person of brutal words? She chanced a glance to the side at him, who had yet to part that deathly stare from her person. In a snap, she returned forward, unwilling to consider another look.

The Chief offered no hesitation as he continued his explanation, "As you are both already aware, we are vigorous in our lookout for any Remnants that may exist outside our care. When one is discovered," his attention falling specifically on Mayu to elaborate, "We make every known effort to collect it before another might. It is crucial Remnants return to our care to prevent the balance from being upset."

Mayu's focus lifted to the Chief, "The balance??"

The tall man in the back rolled his eyes, in utter disbelief that somebody so ill-experienced and unintelligent would be traveling along side him. What, were they going to stop at every dress shop between here and Lacriosa?

A nod of Conrad's head answered Mayu's question. "All Exorcists possess Remnants. It is how they provide assistance to those that require it. It is the power that drives you. When one is lost, through its destruction or forgotten in fate's memory, all of you feel its demise. It weakens everyone as a whole. That balance, Angel, must be preserved."

The flow of knowledge was interrupted with Sigurd's gruff voice, "Hold on. You don't know any of this, squirt? Do you even have Remnants inside of you?"

Anxiety filled the girl, eyes flitting about like a busy bumble bee. She hadn't a clue how to answer Sigurd's question. The simplest answer of "No" fell from her lips.

The sharp end of the Chief's stick met his cluttered desk, attracting all three of their wavering attention. "Currently, she has had much on her plate, Mr. Wayne. If you have any issues with her situation, you have every liberty to bring it up with Official Zenny. I am certain she will discuss it with you in better detail."

A tremor of often steely blues brought to light the slightest touch of concern. He spoke no further.

"I had thought so," head lowering to glance at several notes scrawled out on his desk before continuing, "Remnants has been discovered in Lacriosa according to several Seeker parties. While it remains intact for now, there is reason to believe that it will not remain so indefinitely."

He paused to allow questioning before continuing, peering at the two every few moments above the glasses at the tip of his nose, "You two will head to Lacriosa in the coming weeks to collect the Remnants."

A question forced Sigurd's voice to be risen, only with his characteristic harshness replaced with something milder "What's the danger, Chief?"

He collapsed the pointer stick, tossing it to the desk of towering papers and mangled books absently. "The reports suggest there is a cult of fanatics that are eager to kill the one that houses the Remnants in fear for what it's doing. What that is, precisely, I cannot tell you. Enough to attract heavy attention is all I need to know to require action be taken." He lowered into his chair lazily, elbows out before him to gain support. "For now, I'm putting you two on standby. Once I hear the final verdict, I will send you two as collectors to retrieve it. Expect to hear from me no longer than a month from now."

Sigurd pushed off of the wall, having heard everything he needed to. Remain idle in the tower, wait for further news. He couldn't wait to waste his life away for a full month without anything to tide over the boredom. Trudging along, he left the office without additional word.

In turn, Mayu rose to her feet, fully prepared to do the exact same. Conrad's voice broke the silence, "How is everything with you, Angel? Feeling any better since the extraction?"

The maiden had barely any time to reflect on the removal of Shamanista's power. Looking down to her hands, she reflected on their disfigurement and how hideous everything seemed in her perspective. "I? f-for now, y-yes. I h-hadn't wished to b-be r-reverted, however?" She still had much to debate about the unavoidable transformation.

Conrad's head bobbed several times, glasses being nudged up with two fingers, "Had you not, you would have most certainly been in a bigger jam. That power was being released at an alarming rate. You would have most certainly died were it left unchecked."

So soon had she risen to her feet, the strength in her knees gave out, a metaphorical steel bar snapping into the dimple to force her back in the chair. With a heavy heart, she had no choice. Conrad's words told her such. A section of cheek was gnawed as she came to that begrudged conclusion. "Nothing's ever that e-easy, is it? I f-feel like I s-started at l-level one hundred and j-just dropped b-back down to level one. ?what a way to tease the player at the very start of the game?"

The Chief hadn't much understanding of her analogy, a consoling smile given to the maiden, "For now, I will have the science team whip up various Remnants that we have without hosts. Official Zenny should have several on her, as well. I'm expecting her return any day now. More than anybody, she'll know. Perhaps you can be this? 'Level One Hundred' again soon enough."

A fragile laugh emitted from the girl, a little nervous, a lot uncertain. "M-Maybe, C-Chief." Peering over a shoulder, she ensured Sigurd was gone before questioning the motives behind their built team, "A-Am I really g-going to be h-helpful to him? H-He seems?"

Aneira sprang up between the two of them, almost scaring the duo out of their chairs. "He stuffed trash in her bra and called her a Temple of Sexual Desire!" she shouted.

Scratch the 'almost' part. Mayu slid right out of her seat, bruising a nonexistent color of ruby red. Conrad, baffled, blinked repeatedly at the fairy. "I? see." He cleared his throat, leaning over the desk to get a better look at Mayu. A knowing smile was given to the girl. "He's rough, but he means well. You can use the experience on the field concerning collecting, and should anything go bad, I'm positive he'll keep you protected."

"'G-Go b-bad'?" the girl echoed, unwilling to clamber from her back just yet.

"Not everything is peaches and cream, Angel," he informed with a nod, "But if I had any concerns about you, I would not have considered you for this mission. For now, rest easy. Once Official Zenny returns, we will see that you are given Remnants suitable to your liking. Are you particular to any weaponry?"

Weaponry? The girl could barely utilize a bottle of water to drink. She shook her head, dreading what Conrad had stuffed up his sleeve. "I? u-used to use a gohei b-back at Shamanista? b-but it was m-more for ritual t-than a w-weapon?"

"One of those? stick/wand/paper things, hm? I might have an idea on how we can use that," foreshadowing a hair brained scheme in the workings. "Remnants have the ability to transform every day items of familiar use into powerful utensils. Something you're comfortable with is just the trick to allowing you to slip into field training without a sweat, Angel."

She had the brief image of her using a gigantic stick with paper streamers like a bladed whip. "?I-I'm not v-very good w-with w-whips?"

Conrad let out a boisterous laugh, noting she hit the nail on the head, "Oh, you're very good!" It took him several seconds to calm before he could continue, "The point is, you're comfortable with your wand, yes? The rest comes naturally once you're infused with Remnants and provided with a catalyst for a weapon. Trust me," rounding his desk to offer her a hand in aid, "You'll do just fine. You're not as helpless as you think, Mayu Tsuzuki. I have all the confidence in the world you'll be just fine."

She accepted the offered hand, rising. It was in that instant, that split second moment, that she wouldn't believe in herself, but instead in the person that had a belief in her. With Zenny's assistance, maybe? just maybe? her dream would find a shard of hope that she could clutch with both hands and hold high.