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“Oh yeah, sure, like I’m the one in this relationship with the dubious track record about behaving himself,” Yuki teased.

Strictly speaking, there were probably several places Yuki could have been right now that would have been much safer than sitting here, on this bench, where some of this town’s magical weirdos apparently liked to hang out. Given his druthers. Yuki would have preferred to be somewhere safer. In general, he chose to support ******** in all of his magical boy shenanigans—not least because ********, headstrong and feisty as he was, would go and get himself involved in them regardless of anybody’s approval, so it was overall better for Yuki to just support him and make sure ******** had somebody in his corner. But supporting ******** didn’t mean that Yuki wanted to be involved, himself.

Staying at this particular bench didn’t seem like a good plan for staying uninvolved……but as ******** apparently—swooped in to ruffle his hair, Yuki huffed good-naturedly. “You did say that,” he agreed, tilting his head back so he could look at ******** (even a ******** who seemed upside down from Yuki’s current perspective). “But your ‘good influence on you, your overall well-being, and your choices and behaviors’ magical girl friends have been cool and sweet while I’ve been telling them about how you got me to quit vaping. Plus, Cersei didn’t want to leave yet and she’s been behaving with Illyria-sama, so……” Yuki shrugged. “Here we are.”

Which would’ve been a perfectly nice place to leave things off on—except, even upside down, ******** seem completely on-kilter by his standards. While he wasn’t slouching, Yuki could tell more strain than usual was going into ******** keeping his posture decent, and the fondness in the look he gave Yuki didn’t cancel out how it looked like ******** was right on the brink of a crying meltdown. Considering tonight was supposed to be a happy occasion, Yuki could only imagine that this meant one thing: Something had transpired in between ******** and Haruhi going to Mirrorspace, and right now, this very moment.

“Okay,” he deadpanned, “what happened to get you here, and who do I have to kill?”

Maybe he’d only met Kerberos, Ida, and Illyria the Magical Cat tonight, but……Yuki hoped that his comment read as a joke and nothing more. It seemed obvious to him, given his status as a clearly non-magical video gaming journalist? But one never really knew how some people might take things.

Listening to this whole ******** Story, Yuki frowned sympathetically and wrinkled his nose. About halfway through, he took a quick look around them, searching the horizons for any potential trouble. Sure, the magical people around here seemed to have some kind of danger sense or something, which should have alerted them to any looming issues? But other magical people in town probably had similar senses, which meant that they could have felt the gathering of four magical humans and one magical cat. Taking too much time here to let ******** vent some of his dramatics would probably risk everybody getting in trouble. Like, what if ******** was wrong about Mirror Prince Remarque being a reasonable person who would just let him and Volterra go without trying to stop them?

Or what if ******** little It’s Complicated decided to show up tonight and cause problems on purpose, the way that most of ******** stories about General-King ******** seemed to involve him doing in some capacity?

Or what if one of the aggro White Moon assholes Yuki had heard about showed up instead and they wanted to make a mess of everything?

Too many potential interruptions. Too many potential dangers. Too many reasons why ******** needed to get cut off from going on too much longer. So, even though Yuki could tell that Reiki wanted him to lean into the story and give him more room to continue, as he tilted his head back again, what Yuki said instead was, “You’re right, but riddle me this: are you only being so effusive with the details about Mirrorspace because something else happened that you’re not telling us?”

The longer they all stood there, the more tension gathered in Ida’s shoulders and neck. She loved Muri deeply, but this was the one time his habit of showering everyone with words was not as charming as she usually found it.

“I would like to take us all to my asteroid.” Ida jumped into the break in the conversation between Muri and his friend, taking the questions as a springboard. “It's safer there, as we won’t draw unwanted attention and we won’t be interrupted. It's probably also easier for me… Ida shares energy more freely when I’m there, and we’re going to need a decent amount, I think.”

Yuki got an apologetic smile from her as she twisted her fingers together, then spread them and offered him one of her hands, palm up. The glowing lines in her palm traced the shape of an orchid.

“If you want to wait for Murikabushi to take you for the first time, then that’s okay. But we should really go. It's safer to talk there and the longer we stay here, the more likely someone uninvited is going to join us.” She said, unconsciously echoing his thoughts. “It was good to meet you, and thank you for being supportive. I know this transition is very difficult, and having someone there even just for emotional support is a lot of help.”

Poor Yuki… she had all of her fingers crossed that this purification went well and she was able to bring Muri back to him unscathed, but different. The nerves of what they were about to do, what she was going to have to do, had been eating her alive since they had set the date. She’d been unable to sleep last night for them, worried about probably stupid things. Could she do it? Would she do it right? Would she hurt Muri or Volterra? Would something else happen to ruin the whole thing? Then there was the added complication of Muri’s cousin. Did she had enough in her to help both of them? Iris had collapsed after her attempted purification, and she remembered those false memories of other purifications taking everything she had… It was only the presence of Kerberos and Illyria that kept her from visibly vibrating with the tumult of emotions behind this. The expression on Muri’s face when he arrived, and the way Yuki called it out, only added to her worries. She wanted this to work. She would make it work.

“Once we are there and ready, I will use my crystal’s power to purge the chaos from what you and Volterra brought, Muri. I believe once that’s done, it will release it’s hold on your own starseeds.”

Volterra didn't even want to admit it to nemself, but ne was… a little scared of what was going to happen. Of course, ne wanted to be purified. Ne wanted this to happen. But it was still a bit of an unknown, and going to someone's asteroid was placing a lot of trust in a stranger. Of course ne trusted nis cousin, but Murikabushi did have a tendency to just… trust people he shouldn't. But this… ne really hoped everything would work out okay. At least their family would know. Ne wasn't sure they'd be able to do anything, but at least they'd know.

Volterra patted Cersei gently, trying to calm nemself and remain cool on the outside. "Good girl," ne said softly to her.

Then ne turned to Ida. "I'm ready when you are." Not really, but ne had to be.

Yuki nodded, taking in everything that Ida and Kerberos had to say. He didn’t really understand……most of what was happening this? If he was honest? Sure, ******** had explained everything, multiple times at that, and Yuki understood the basic idea at the heart of this process? But many of the finer details either went over his head or crashed headlong into a feeling like This is not how reality works, though that sometimes still flared up, even after having ******** in his life for so long. He’d made certain notions of reality difficult to maintain, even before all of the magical girl whatsits had become real.

Whatever Yuki didn’t understand, though, fell quickly to the wayside as he looked up at his boy again.… Everything happening tonight was so important to ********, and that sort of faraway look in his face was concerning. Maybe it just meant that ******** was exhausted—like he’d hit his limit a while back and kept going anyway because he was Like That—and trying his best to process everything happening regardless? But in case it was something more than that, Yuki put his free hand (the one not currently holding Cersei’s leash) atop the hand of ******** that rested on Yuki’s shoulder. Tilting his head back again, he gave ******** hand a gentle squeeze.

“Hey,” he said softly, “you’re gonna be okay, remember? And Asher, Cersei, and I will be waiting at home when you and Volterra are done.”

Ida felt the warmth of Kerberos’ hand on her arm and the vibration of Illyria’s purr through her skin, sending their support wordlessly to her through their touch. She flashed a reassuring smile as she covered the senshi’s hand with her own. She could do this. She had to do this. These two depended on her, and she would break herself, if she had to, to set them free.

“Everyone needs to be touching. That thing in the subway was sort of a fluke with all the extra energy I had, so we need to be connected for the teleportation.” She said as she summoned her phone from subspace. Kerberos was already touching her and Illyria was safe where she lay across her shoulders. She offered her free hand, orchid glowing in her palm, to the other two. Thus secured, Ida pressed the button and let the power take her, the world about them blurring into a sense of motionless travel.

—--

When the world finally steadied about them, the darkness of D.C. in late winter was replaced with the gentle sunshine of the kind you find in spring. A soft breeze stirred about them to the rush of leaves and grasses, bringing with it the soft sound of hidden windchimes and the smell of a riot of flowers.

The group stood in a joyously chaotic garden, beaten dirt paths winding among beds filled with anything and everything that would grow there. There was enough order there to say it was well tended, but there was a relaxed sort of organization that seemed to embrace the way the plants wanted to grow, rather than forcing them into neatness. It could have been a garden on Earth behind some rural cottage, save for its great size and the wild splashes of colors that did not at all match what Earth plants would have produced. Tomatoes in their cages that shone a vibrant periwinkle, for example. And behind and around them, trees that loomed massive and towering, their tops dwarfing the tallest redwoods. All showed signs of ancient habitation with sweeping stairs coiling around their outsides, arching doors and windows cut into the sides to show interior spaces, hanging walkways connecting upper branches.

“Welcome to Ida.” It’s senshi said as she released her guests. She tilted her head back and glowing petals fell in a whirl around her as power suddenly exploded on inner senses, released now that they were finally in safety. The petals coalesced into sweeps of fabric and feathers as Ida’s fuku changed, growing into a long lavender dress that pooled at her feet. A drape settled over her arms as white wings unfurled behind her and in a moment, the magic cleared to reveal Ida in her regalia, jewelry around her neck and wrists and bare feet in the soil of her asteroid. All the tension had left her with their arrival, leaving her relaxed and smiling shyly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to bring you before, Muri, and while its not exactly the circumstance I’d have wanted, ideally, I’m glad you get to see Ida now.”

Volterra… actually felt breathless as ne looked around in wonderment at the completely different planet under nis feet. The air felt almost cleaner, here. It almost felt like an unbearably wonderful fairytale setting. The trees, the purple tomatoes, the…. Entire atmosphere of it felt like something from a 1980s fantasy movie, with almost even that "fantasy fog" quality a lot of those movies had to make it seem so dreamlike. Even Volterra was moved by it. Hurriedly, ne checked to make sure nobody was looking and wiped at nis eyes. Ugh, stupid.

… And Muri's comment, even stupider. Ne rolled nis eyes and gently smacked Muri's upper arm with the back of nis hand.

"We weren't even in Kansas when we left, you mega-dork," ne said affectionately. Ne turned to Princess Ida—who fit the theme Volterra had crafted in nis head about the place, with the fancy getup— and gave an awkward smile. "Thank you, Ida, for bringing us both here."