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[To Sophie-san: Oyasumi, Sophie-san! =^u^= Bad vibes?! This looks like a job for Itsuki-sensei! I always have time for my favorite senshi. I’ll be over in 20 minutes!]

Really, the fact that cats could not only talk, but text still amazed Themisto. One would think he’d have gotten used to it by now.

Bumming a ride from the aforementioned Themisto was easy enough - getting the cat out of the apartment meant a quiet date night for the two lovebirds. Itsuki himself was rather miffed that the two of them wanted to spend time alone. After all, two people meant twice the snuggling, but Sophie needed help and besides… she was capable of snuggling all the same.

Filling up his subspace pocket with handmade ofuda, a wooden cross he’d picked up from the Halloween store, and handmade (questionably) holy water, the cat thought himself an exorcist of sorts. Along with the exorcismal gear, the cat packed away bags of microwave popcorn for possible movies. Halloween was always a time for spooks and scares and since last year, the cat wasn’t taking any chances.

Arriving at the back sliding door, the lilac point did what any other cat might have done - stand up on his hind legs and paw at the door. “Sophie-san~” he chirped. “Sophie-san~”

Squeak squeak squeak went toebeans on glass. Squeak squeak squeak!

"Oyasumi, Sophie-san!" chirped the Mau, more than happy to be plucked from the ground for some wonderful snuggles and scratchings behind the ears. Like any cat, Itsuki bunted Sophie's chin with his head.

Upon hearing the explanation, the Mau went straight to work, furry ears swiveling this way and that. Sure enough, after a few moments of silence, footsteps could be heard upstairs. They were soft, but firm enough to describe someone of average build, possibly a man? It was difficult to tell, but whoever they were, they were heavy enough to make distinctive sounds on the floor. Ears flattening, the cat had one more function that put him above normal Earth cats - aura detection.

But, strangely...

"Hmm... Eh? Ie, Sophie-san." Itsuki's ears flattened. There was no sign of any powered individuals in the house, which was both good and bad. It simply removed a possibility from the list. "I can't detect anyone... Do you think... do you think it's a ghost Sophie-san!?"

From his perch in her arms, the lilac point pulled a long and narrow strip of paper from his subspace pocket and presented it to the air. Upon it was some foreign scribblings written in what appeared to be Sharpie marker. "If it's a ghost, do not worry! Exorcistsuki is on the job! I brought my own ofuda! They're talismans to drive away evil spirits!"

Flapping the talisman, not more than eight inches in length, Itsuki sought to protect the young senshi-in-training. How it stuck to his toebeans was a mystery for another day. "Let me at 'em, Sophie-san! I'll show them not to mess with my senshi!"

“Hai, do not worry, Sophie-san! It’s my job as guardian neko to keep my senshi safe! And now--”

Lifting one paw, ofuda tucked away in his subspace pocket, the lilac point made a booming (for a tiny cat of eight pounds when wet) declaration up the stairs and directed at the evil spectre haunting poor Sophie.

”Spirit! You face Itsuki-sensei, Guardian Neko! Prepare to be EXORCISED!”

With a dash and blur of lilac and white fur, Itsuki was off like a rocket up the stairs with a battlecry of banzai! He took the first right turn he came to, finding what could be Sophie’s parents’ master bedroom. Without pausing to stop, the cat zoomed around the room as if to chase the spirit haunting it and pin an ofuda to its ghastly countenance. Sailing over bed linens and turning corners around a wooden dresser, Itsuki’s claws dug into the carpet for traction. Being a cat and having practiced The Midnight Zoomies several times, this breakneck circuit was actually quite easy.

What wasn’t so easy was trying to find the ghost!

Having established (by his own internal metric) that the room was clear, Itsuki still didn’t wish to leave the ghost an opening. No ghost would get passed Itsuki-sensei! With a final huff, the lilac point stuck an ofuda to the master bedroom door. Since he was so small, the long paper talisman would drag on the carpet if the door moved, but that wasn’t important right now. What was important was that the ghost, in theory, could no longer enter that room.

“Whew.” With a shake of his fur, Itsuki sat down in front of the talisman. “Chasing ghosts is hard work, Sophie-san, but you’re worth it!”

"Ice cream!"

Itsuki lifted a paw to the sky to make a declaration.

"First, I must finish cleansing the upstairs, Sophie-san! Then we can go for ice cream!"

Whipping out another ofuda, the lilac point started on the next room - the bathroom. On the way into the linoleum-floored place where nature called, he placed a talisman on the small table upon which a lovely vase of flowers sat. One could never be too careful. Padding into the bathroom, he hopped up onto the closed toilet lid and made another proclamation.

"No haunting the toilet, or the bathtub, or this stack of magazines that Sophie-san's oto-san probably reads while he's pooping, and definitely no haunting the sink or the medicine cabinet!" Turning around, he planted a cleansing talisman on the back of the toilet.

That room being cleared meant only two rooms remained - one guest bedroom and one bedroom that was converted into an office space. In the larger rooms, the guardian cat zoomed at breakneck speeds as if to wrangle the ghost and chance it from the room. Once deemed clear, another ofuda was planted on the door to keep the offending specter from reentering to cause havoc.

Returning to Sophie at the top of the stairs, Itsuki sat back on his hind legs and gestured to her. "This house is clean, Sophie-san~"

Whether or not it actually worked was another story entirely, and how Sophie might explain the talismans to her parents, well... That was a problem for Future Sophie.