Zaria tore after him, leaping over the fallen gate without stopping. Just steps away from the opening, she nearly touched his cloak. With a determined leap, she tackled the fleeing figure, landing on top of it and pinning it to the ground.

"Stop struggling, or I will drag you back in a choke hold," she hissed, pulling him up using handfuls of his robe.

"Get off of me!" He yelled, twisting and wrenching his body to the side as he attempted to keep his skin away from hers.

"Be quiet, dumbass. This is a zombie world." Zaria let go with one hand and flicked him sharply on his forehead. It was not enough to absorb any of his magic, but he stared at her with frightened eyes and stopped moving. She grabbed his robe with both hands again and dragged him back inside of the walls. She was all too aware that his loud cries had gotten a half dozen of the corpses moving in their direction. "Can you fix the gate?" She whispered, pointing his body toward the twisted mess on the ground.

"Why would I waste my magic on that," he scoffed, his confidence returning a little when he realized that she had not tried to take his magic.

Zaria sighed. "Because if the dead come walking in here, I will give you a great big hug as I use you for a shield."

"Let go of me, and I will."

"Alright," she said, and did. A warning was added because it seemed prudent. "If you try to run, I will make sure that you end up looking like a freaking chibi again before you can finish your glyph."

He scowled at her but sent his scarlet magic out to the gate, twisting the bars back into their original shapes and setting it into the opening just as the first of the party goers arrived. When the glow faded, Gu Cheng stepped forward with the broom handle in hand. The handle was longer than his sword, so he chose to use that to drive into skull after skull until the road was quiet again, and nothing moved beyond their walls.

Safe again for the moment, Zaria sighed and brushed her hands across the knees of her pants, where they drug along the street outside. "So, how ya been? Gone anywhere nice, tried any good foods, screwed up anyone else's life recently?"

With an affronted sputter, and with the volume beginning to rise again, she chose to placate the mage. "I know, it was an accident. But you just dumped me in the next world alone, with no idea of what could happen. I am irked with you."

"What, you wanted me to follow you around until you made your way back home? Do you know how many worlds are connected to yours? It could have taken the rest of your life, and I didn't feel I needed to waste that time!"

"Whatever, we will deal with that later. Are you hungry? Let's go inside and grab something to eat. It's almost dinner time anyway."

The mage looked suspiciously at Zaria before nodding his head. "You can't poison me, you know."

"Why would I poison you? I can just squish those cute little cheeks of yours if I want you to suffer." Zaria smiled brightly at the disheveled man before leading the way back to the house. As they approached, the door opened a crack to reveal Saito-san's frightened eye. Zaria tried to tell the woman wordlessly that it was alright, and it appeared to work because the door opened the rest of the way.

"I told the others to lock their selves in their rooms. Was that okay?"

"It's alright, Saito-san. Could you ask sensei if he would come out a little early to watch the gate? I can give him a long break later..."

Bobbed hair swaying, Saito-san hurried up the stairs to check. Shining silver eyes squinted down at Zaria's chest. Her face grew warm, and she smacked his arm. "Watch the eyes there, buddy!"

"Oh, please," he snorted, rolling his eyes dismissively. "You were speaking English and we aren't in an english speaking country. I was seeing if you lost your pendant."

"You are still staring!"

The air around them grew cold, and his eyes snapped toward the well muscled figure approaching him from behind. His eyes narrowed more until the gleam of silver was just a thin line between lashes. "That is magic. He is not from this universe either. I've been to his universe before. Why is he here?"

"You know his universe? Can you send him back there?" Gu Cheng transferred his glare to the petite woman . "Oh, calm down, Gu Cheng."

"I have been to his universe before. They have magic, but not many can access it, and they don't realize they are using it. They create intimidation auras and manipulate possibilities for power. And this one..."the mage walked around Gu Cheng, looking him up and down, "This one has broken a barrier, punched right through the skin of his universe and into another. Recently. I can see bits of the barrier still clinging to him. Did this puppy follow you to a whole new universe?"

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"He's not a puppy, cotton candy head. Somehow, we developed a bond in his universe, and he unknowingly followed me. I thought at first that he was pulled over by someone in the next universe, but then he started showing other abilities..."

"Brrr," he gave an exaggerated shiver, then straightened his shoulders to show that he was not intimidated. "You would be talking about the ice powers, correct? A side effect of how they warp the magic of their universe to gain power. I can see he is trying to control it. He could learn to master it if he wanted to. Nobody else in his universe is aware enough to try."

"HE is right here, and HE can hear you," Gu Cheng rumbled in a low, irritated voice.

"Oh, and he speaks English too! No..." A ribbon of red energy flashed out and pulled at the cable tucked into the neck of Gu Cheng's top. "You gave him your pendant? Why would you do that, I made it for you!"

"I thought it was my fault he was stranded in the last world, and I wanted him to go home. But he grabbed a hold of me and took me with him to this universe, so I think it was still reading my energy." Zaria sighed and tugged at her curls, tangling them around her fingers. Sensing eyes on her from behind, she looked back toward the door. Everyone left in the house was standing in the doorway, staring at the blatant display of magic with eyes as large as saucers. "Well, I guess no more secrets..."

"Joseph-chan..." Saito-san bit her lip and pointed at the blue haired man. "Is he...what is he?"

Zaria smiled politely, holding her hands clasped in front of her waist. Her original plan to sneak in and deal with things without anyone the wiser was obviously out the window.

"Okay, everyone can sit with us when we talk about this inside, but we are making too much noise here. Can we go inside? If everyone feels comfortable, we can leave the gate unguarded for now so -"

A bright flash of light caused everyone in the door to cover their eyes quickly. Zaria turned her head back to face the mage, who was smirking as he finished putting a massive wall of red magic directly in front of the stone wall. "Nothing can get in now," he said, clapping his hands together.

"Great. If your little light show alerted the dinosaur and it comes here to see what's up, I will smack you so hard that you will wish I had fed you to it instead."

His face fell so quickly she worried he had broken it. "Dinosaur? I thought you said this was a zombie world?"

"Oh, you are going to love it here! There are TWO different things waiting to eat you!" Not bothering to check if someone wanted to wait at the wall, Zaria shooed everyone out of the doorway and asked them to go into the dining room. Saito-san rushed back to the kitchen to make some tea and grab a package of cookies for their guest. Once everyone was settled in their chairs, Zaria asked Gu Cheng if he would mind translating for her. A loud sigh came from the chair on the other side of her, the one at the head of the table. "Take off your shirt and put your arm on the table."

The temperature dropped so suddenly that frost formed on the shiny surface of the table. "Oh, do stop!" The irate mage barked at Gu Cheng. "You need to learn to control that."

Zaria rubbed her hands along the thin sleeves of her shirt. "Gu Cheng, please."

The room began to warm again, frost melting on the table and leaving small droplets of water behind. She reached to her other side and grabbed his hand. "It's alright." Turning her head back to the mage, "Are you naturally a dumbass or did you study for a millennia or two?"

"I am going to put a sigil on your arm that will do the same translation things as the pendant did. I want to put it on your upper arm, and I can't get to it. So take off your shirt."

"I swear I am going to bite you..." Zaria unbuttoned her shirt, exposing the t-shirt beneath. Once the short sleeve was rolled up to her shoulder, there was a bright flash of light and a burning pain shot through her arm. "You could have warned me it would hurt!"

The hard lines on the mage's face were gone, ten years lost by using his magic against the human black hole. "You threatened to bite me!"

Zaria jerked up from her chair and bared her teeth at him, causing the man to shrink back in his chair. A polite cough stopped their argument. "Excuse me, Miss Joseph? Why are you speaking Japanese now?"

Saito-san was the only one besides Gu Cheng, Zaria, and the mage not sitting with their mouth open wide enough to fit a teacup into. Zaria sat down again, apologizing to them all. "I'm sorry, I will explain, or we will. But could we have some of that tea, please? And do we have any more honey?"

Everyone waited quietly while the nurse finished preparing their snack. The mage sat with his arms crossed over his chest, studiously looking anywhere but at Zaria. Once teacups were sitting in hands, warming fingers after the sudden freeze, and a platter of cookies was in the middle of the table, Zaria thanked the nurse for their rare treat. Tea used too many dishes, and they did not have it often.

"Hello, I am Zaria Joseph. This man next to me is a mage-"

He interrupted her with a snort. "Mage's do magic tricks. I am a guardian."

"A guardian of what? You literally shoved me into another universe. What were you guarding?" The two began to squabble again, stopping only when Saito-san cleared her throat. Zaria apologized with a scowl. "I am sorry. Again. This man next to me is a GUARDIAN, and he can control magic. He has given me the ability to understand everyone and be understood in return. So, hello."

A chorus of small voices returned her greetings. The teenage boys were darting their eyes between the mage...guardian and the petite woman as though not sure which was more fantastical at the moment.

"I met this person when an accident pulled me out of my universe. He could not get me back to mine directly, so he used magic to make something that would help me get there eventually. That is why I didn't know what was happening here. I am not from this universe, and neither is Gu Cheng. He is from another one I passed through before." When nobody was able to form a question yet, she tilted her head back toward the mage...guardian again. "And this world is the one that inspired all or most of the zombie stories in mine. They had another outbreak about 6 months ago when someone used the virus to reanimate dinosaurs."