The first impression of the spirit town surrounding the bathhouse from Spirited Away was that it was quite underwhelming.

The entire region was exceptionally green with grass, trees, and moss growing everywhere. This was combined with the atmosphere of the town. Namely that the town looked simple and peaceful, but there was nothing here. Admittedly, Spirited Away wasn’t one of the movies that I had purchased or pirated on Earth Bet so we didn’t have ability to go back and watch it, and I only vaguely remembered this first arc of the movie.

However, soon enough I realized that only Sabah, Amy, and Taylor had seen the movie. I hadn’t expected the trio, Luna, or Ahri to have seen it, but Dinah hadn’t either. Taking a few steps back I shared what I could of the story while being a little vague on where I got this information. I didn’t want to explain their lives were a movie as well any time soon.

I started out explaining that the young girl who was the main character of the story was named Chihiro. She arrived through a forgotten tunnel in the late afternoon, following her parents as they explored what they thought were ruins.

Her parents hadn’t respected the spirits, eating their food without invitation or payment. The parents had planned on paying for it after eating, but that initial theft gets the two of them turned into pigs. Probably some sort of karmic justice being enacted for their gluttony and manners.

Chihiro doesn’t join in on stealing the food, probably feeling something wasn’t right, and lookes around getting more and more worried. This worry is redoubled by being alone when the spirits start to arrive in mysterious and monstrous shapes. Obviously, as she returns to the food stand and sees her parents turned into pigs, she is terrified but has to learn to overcome her fear to take care of herself in this alien world. In fact, perhapse the first quarter of the movie is her just overcoming her fear, step by step. Only then can she start to learn to be brave and decisive.

Finishing my explanation of the introduction to the movie I sat us down as we waited for nightfall. The peaceful silence gave me time to consider our group. My memories had almost all of the spirits wearing masks throughout their time here, so after some consideration I asked Amy to fashion some wooden masks out of a small tree on the outskirts of the town.

The girls were initially a little confused about wearing the masks, but my explanation that it was what most other spirits did and it would keep us a little more anonymous swayed their opinions. The masks that Amy made were made to be a little fox-like, probably due to our association with Ahri, but were overall fairly generic as we didn’t really know the implications of something more specialized.

Thankfully, our wait ended up being fairly short. As the sun went down we saw the red globe lanterns begin to light, one by one, and the shop doors begin to open. Then we watched as the shadows began to rise up and become spirits, ultimately within minutes the town was a lively market district again.

Smiling I lead my girls towards some of the now open shops. I wasn’t sure if it was true for us as well, but Chirio needed to eat a little of the food of this world or she would disappear. The problem was that other myths had eating food of the world as a way of making sure you could never leave.

Turning to Dinah and Luna, I asked. “Do we need to eat the food here or avoid it?”

Dinah frowned, obviously trying to get an answer, but Luna shrugged. “We are already involved with the weave, this world will not reject us. Plus, I want to eat some mochi.”

I blinked before I shrugged. “I guess being wizards and witches means we aren’t about to fade away like a Muggle but it is good to know we have options. Lets go see what we can get for dinner.”

However, even having said that, I wasn’t actually sure what sort of money the shop owner would accept and I would need to find that out first. I had no intention of being turned into a pig for stealing.

While we were negotiating how to pay I noticed that we seemed to be speaking something different from the Japanese used in the physical world. I probably wouldn’t have noticed on my own, but I noticed that the trio had seemed to understand a fair bit of what we were saying. It was true that they had learned a little Japanese while we were here, but that was way too fast for the amount I thought they were understanding. I wasn’t sure why they would suddenly get a little bit of our language ability here, but this world might operate under different rules. They hadn’t gotten anything when we had gone through my portals… did the spirit portkey do something instead?

I shook my head as we sat down and looked over the list of foods. In the end, I didn’t know how it worked and I currently didn’t know a way to find out. It was something we could experiment with later.

It ended up taking a little longer to figure out what, in the long list of dishes, everyone wanted. Yet maybe they got nervous at the listings for freshly roasted newt, so in the end almost all of the girls ended up ordering a beef ramen bowl. That was except for Luna who ordered a huge plate of dumplings, or Gyoza, and a small plate of mochi which she guarded almost as jealousy as she did her pudding. Meanwhile Ahri also decided on something else by ordering some sort of liver dish.

As we watched the various spirits and demons walk past the shop we had picked to eat at, I had to admit that being this close to the various spirits and Yokai made me a bit nervous. Yet, we weren’t powerless. Plus, Ryu wouldn’t have been able to swear he didn’t mean us harm if just being here would get us attacked. And if he had meant us harm then Luna or Dinah should have been able to pick it out.

Finally, I sighed and ordered my own bowl of beef ramen, but I also found Luna feeding me a few of her dumplings then blushing slightly at the indirect kiss from her chopsticks. I almost rolled my eyes, as I still wasn’t going to do anything until she was older. Yet, out of the corner of my eye I noticed Dinah frowning and I nearly rubbed my forehead at the drama this could turn into down the line.

Deciding not to try to address any issues right here in the street, I got up and lead our group towards the bathhouse.

Walking towards the massive building on the edge of the cliff made the entire region seem even more fantastical. Really, walking over the bridge almost gave me goosebumps in the same way that Diagon Alley had the first time we visited.

As we approached the entrance, I was surprised to see a variety of workers there to greet us.

“Honored Customers, what can we do for you today?”

Holding up the tokens, I smiled. “We have tokens here for a stay. We would also like to stay the night. Probably just two rooms, I think.”

If the workers seemed surprised at what was pretty obviously a group of mostly humans, albeit ones with magic, they didn’t say anything. The only exception was one of the ones to the side of the entrance, who looked familiar, suddenly did a double take as they spotted Ahri.

I didn’t have time to figure out what was going on as the attendant bowed again before speaking respectfully, “Please follow me.”

I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work, but it ended up being fairly simple. We were first each led into our own bath and allowed to strip down and enter the baths. I decided to keep my mask on as the spirits around us seemed to be doing the same. It was honestly a little strange to see naked or mostly naked spirits through gaps in the curtains but I wasn’t about to make a scene, when in Rome after all… Yet while the spirits around me kept wearing their masks, they easily removed all other clothing. Really I was willing to admit that while I could admit that seeing male, female, and various sorts of monstrous or nonbinary creatures was kinda distracting, I wasn’t really attracted to any of them. I just felt a little uncomfortable with this level of casual nudity with strangers. I supposed that this confirmed that I grew up in the USA, or equivalent, where nudity was much more taboo. It was interesting, but I pushed away the thought, so I could try to relax.

After a few minutes of scrubbing myself down using the soap I had been pointed to, my attendant came back. She then gave me a bucket to rinse off before filling the actual tub for my bath.

I had to admit that while it was also a little amusing to have this attendant girl who was a mix of a raccoon and human girl begin to scrub my back, my own insecurities almost made me ask her to leave. I had to remind myself again, that when in Rome, you do as the Romans do. Plus, it was clear she had absolutely no interest in my body and I didn’t really have any in hers. So in the end, as soon as she finished my back, I just sank deeper in the mineral water.

That was something I didn’t have any reservations about. Honestly, the feeling of the soak was amazing. I was fully aware that a large part of this feeling was just the decompression after fighting for our lives, but that wasn’t all of it. At the surface level it was like I could almost feel the aches and pains of my body slowly unraveling. But at a deeper level, I almost felt like my very soul started to feel lighter, cleaner.

That startled me hard enough that the racoon girl sqeaked as I splashed her from where she had been scrubbing my shoulders. After apologizing profusely, I opened up my soul sight to see what was going on.

Immediately, light seared into my eyes and I slammed them shut both physically and metaphorically even as I felt a small drop of blood run down from my nose.

Reaching up with my other hand, I tried to scrub my forehead at the sudden migraine. That was incredibly stupid. Yeah, the majority of the guests here were minor spirits or Yokai. Yet, there were also nature gods mixed into the group. Obviously I wasn’t strong enough to inspect their souls. Maybe eventually, but certainly not yet.

Yet even as I continued to kick myself, I felt my headache lessen and then dissipate. Looking down I realized the water really did have some sort of healing and soothing properties.

Shaking my head in amazement, I considered the possibilities. I would need to keep this bathhouse in mind for the future. A spa that could reduce the mental and possibly soul corruption was incredibly useful, but I also wanted to learn how to reproduce it myself. I would also need to look into purification rituals from other cultures. Maybe I would find useful methods there too.

I considered opening a portal to grab something to save a little of this water for future study, but before I did, I remembered where we were and what stealing from the spirits here had done to Chihiro’s parents. Yeah, stealing from a mountain witch spirit in her own home was pretty stupid.

Turning to my attendant, I asked, “Young Miss, would I be able to collect a little of the water here? And would I be able to purchase some of the secrets in creating it?”

The young raccoon girls looked startled before shaking her head vigorously. “I am terribly sorry, young Master. The Lady of the house has told us to decline all such offers.”

I shook my head, dismissing the request and waving away her apology. “It is alright. I understand the desire to keep such a wonderful product a secret.”

That wouldn’t stop me from speculating on the source and possibly purchasing the secret later.

In the end I just soaked as the attendant left. It gave me a little more time to consider our plans moving forward. We needed to help Holly and her friends. We needed to somehow collect more information about Lara’s future. We needed to get stronger after all.

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That gave me pause.

Why did we need to get stronger?

What did I really want to accomplish?

Why was I collecting women to add to our Family?

I was already enjoying my time with them and I really didn’t feel anything was lacking anything specific.

Was it because I was just greedy?

In a way, it also came back to my origins.

Why would someone have put a compulsion on me in the first place?

Suddenly, I felt a sharp jab in my forehead as something loosened, ever so slightly. Flashes of memory. Of shifting bodies. Of animalistic growls. Of terror. Ultimately an overwhelming and certain knowledge that I was going to die… Finally, a shutter as everything changed… as I felt my very soul start to…

I jerked myself upright, breathing ragged, head beginning to ache. That was enough sitting in these pools for now, I think.

Pulling myself out slowly, pushing those thoughts away for now. I dried myself off and slowly and carefully put on the Japanese styled bathhouse robe. I had to figure out which side of the shirt flaps folded on top of the other before I found the straps to keep it tied shut. They could only be done one way, so I guess that answered my questions.

As I opened up the curtain to the hallway, I noticed another Yokai I couldn’t identify perk up as they noticed me. “Are you done, young master?”

Nodding, I followed as the new attendant led me towards an upper floor. As I looked around, I noticed the various different spirits mingling around the bathhouse. I admit that even while being a little intimidated, I also found most of them were amusing to watch. I mean, most spirits seemed to remind me of either rowdy teenagers or extremely old grandparents. There was a lot of arguing and pushing back and forth, but it only seemed like jockeying for position, while the older ones just smiled and shook their heads.

Finally, I was led to a large room with a balcony. The room was nice and had the futon beds laid out for five of us. I supposed one of the girls must have mentioned how many people would be sleeping in this room with me while the five others were going to sleep in the other room.

Smiling at how nice the room was, I was about to walk into the room when I noticed what looked like a gigantic baby with the Japanese word for ‘boy’ on his apron heading down the hall behind me towards the elevator I had just stepped out of.

I blinked. Even coming here, I didn’t actually believe that I might meet any of the named characters. Oh, sure I had considered the possibility of somehow arriving while Chihiro was here, but she was only here for around a month. The idea that all of this lined up was pretty unlikely.

Yeah, we had seemed to arrive at the beginning of the story for most worlds, but not every time. We had missed the beginning of Harry Potter and the Runeterra story after all.

Hesitating for a few more moments as the giant baby approached I considered if I should put still more attention on ourselves. I kinda doubted that the masks would actually stop anyone here from finding us if we pissed anyone off. Yet I wanted to know.

I turned and bowed at the giant baby before speaking. “Master Boh, I was wondering if I could ask you about something.”

The baby turned to me and considered me for a moment. “I will listen for a moment, but if you do anything bad, I will get Mama.”

Considering he was the son of the master of this bathhouse who was, as I had said before, an extremely powerful witch, calling his mother was a serious threat. Then again, I wasn’t going to be hurting him regardless. In the movie he started out nearly cruel in his selfishness, but after spending some time as a mouse he was not only helpful but almost kind.

Pausing for a moment to remember the name that Chihiro used while she worked here I nodded in agreement and I asked, “May I ask if you have ever met a human child who worked here named Sen?”

The wary and mistrustful stare seemed to brighten. “Ah, yes, big sis Sen left to go home almost five years ago. Have you met her, is she doing OK?”

I blinked. That was actually more recent than I thought it would be, but it did make sense I supposed. We were certainly after her time here if Boh was walking around. He apparently hadn’t left his mother’s rooms until Chihiro stumbled across him.

I slowly shook my head. “I apologize, I have not met her personally, but I heard a tale of her time here. She was very glad to have made friends with you by the time she left.”

Boh grinned and I noticed that he had apparently grown up slightly. In the movie he started out looking like a 1 year old, but looked almost 2 by the time the movie ended. Now he was approaching the proportions of maybe a two and a half year old. Spirits aged really strangely…

Asking a few more questions, I was able to find out that the water dragon Haku had stopped working for the bathhouse owner immediately after Chihiro left, but almost everyone else had actually stayed as his mother had apparently become a lot less controlling and greedy.

It was good to hear, but soon enough Boh had to excuse himself as he was only helping his mother by checking on some of the workers.

That was interesting and all, but I was actually getting a little tired so I excused myself and returned to our room. Honestly, the peaceful, magical view of the lake’s mirror surface reflecting the moonlight and stars was almost as helpful as the bath itself. It was beautiful and slowly, carefully I could feel myself finally relaxing.

I had been so stressed for so long. Constantly running from one emergency to another. The Harry Potter world had looked idea from the outside, from the pages of a book, but while on the inside when you didn’t know what was going to happen… well, it was actually quite terrifying.

Shaking my head, I stared up at the moon a little harder.

Was I doing the right thing?

I had tried to help. Partially because I liked the women in question, but I wanted to believe that it was mostly because I didn’t want people to suffer.

Then again, if I was just going to try to limit suffering then I should probably just head to a poor tribe in Africa, the cartels of Mexico, or pretty much anywhere in North Korea… We had magic, albeit basic magic, but Amy could probably help. Taylor could remove disease carrying bugs. Dinah could even point us in the general direction of where we were needed. We hadn’t even done anything to help in Runeterra or Little Witch Academia.

Was the reason I stayed here because I knew these stories?

I shook my head. No… I couldn’t let myself believe we could solve every problem. Not only that, but if we wanted to help with some of those bigger issues then, we needed to be stronger, a lot stronger still.

Despite everything, we were still a group of inexperienced novice wizards with a few extra tricks.

If I really wanted to help… and I was starting to believe I did… we needed to be both stronger and better prepared. We had nearly failed to take down a 20-year-old Tom, even from ambush. We had even almost died while fighting a few low level spirits and a few wizard castaways while outnumbering them nearly three to one.

It was then that I felt a soft caress reach out and embrace me from behind.

I stiffened for a moment, not having realized anyone had come into the room, before I realized that it was Ahri who had come in and hugged me.

As I turned around, I saw her teary eyes and blinked in confusion. Yet Ahri didn’t wait as she smiled and softly pecked a kiss to my lips.

It was exceptionally pleasant, but didn’t really answer any of my questions so, seeing my confusion, Ahri explained. “I met another kitsune. I don’t think this is my original home and she isn’t exactly like me, she said she was a white fox, but it is the first time I have found anyone like me, so thank you… thank you.”

I blinked a few times before I smiled and nodded, pecking her lips back. “I am very glad you have found a little of your past and possible family.”

Turning around I noticed the other girls a few yards away smiling at the scene, but before I could do anything I felt Ahri turn and bite my ear a little before she said, “Tonight I want to talk with her, but tomorrow I don’t want to be able to stand when we are done.”

I felt my eyebrows raise at that. Surprising or not, Ahri was perhaps the most shy of my wives. Despite what someone might think, seeing as our group date nights involved all my adult women, those group dates didn’t devolve into orgies. Instead, we would talk, cuddle, and spend time together as I pulled individual girls aside for sex, well all except for Amy and Sabah who almost always stayed together. Ahri in particular rarely initiated intimacy of any kind, and only very rarely kissed me in front of others.

Really, to see her this excited must have meant she was truly thrilled to find someone else like her.

I looked out at the other girls, including the trio of Holly, Ginny, and Hermione and I smiled as I nodded back at Ahri. “I will see you tomorrow then, Ahri.”

She leaned in and gave me another small peck before nearly skipping out of the room, tails waving back and forth happily.

As the rest of the girls entered the room I noticed that Holly’s scar looked like it had burst a little and had actually started leaking a very small amount of black puss.

I felt my eyes widen in shock. Had the purifying springs really just removed the Horcrux, just like that?

Activating my soul sight I stared at her scar intently, but I was both disappointed but also encouraged. The soul fragment was not only smaller, but also had gone from looking like it was tearing into Holly’s soul with jagged claws to looking like it was just gently, limply, holding on.

It was actually enough that I was curious to see if I could just pull the soul fragment out. Yet, that was something I needed to consider. The threat was greatly reduced, but should I do it now?

Could I actually accomplish it, or would my attempt hurt Holly?

Was it a good idea to try in this spirit world?

Hell, was there something in the prophecy that would stop me? I had given them that speech about trying to learn from prophecies, but not to try too hard to counter them as it seemed to always rebound in some way.

But was I right? Despite all the changes we were making, some things seemed to remain stubbornly the same.

Holly ending up fighting the Basilisk in the chamber of secrets and being bitten before being healed by Fawkes. Despite our changes, Lara still ended up fighting on the peak of the mountain to destroy Himiko’s body.

Yet, did I actually want to stop helping? Was me seeing some similarities enough to abandon my attempts to help and trust everything will just… work out somehow?

I shook my head. No, that was stupid. Blindly trusting in fate was idiotic and led to a lot of dead kids across the multiverse.

Considering the possibilities a little longer, I decided I would rather just give her the options and let her choose.

Clearing my throat, I grimaced and gestured for Holly to sit down. Holly looked a little confused, but followed my instructions, followed by Ginny and Hermione. The rest of the girls ended up sitting down on the bamboo mats around the room, but were obviously watching.

“Holly, you know your scar gives you have a small connection to Tom, right?”

Holly looked confused at the sudden shift in tone but nodded. “Yeah, Dumbledore told me about it a little first year.”

I nodded slowly, “What did Dumbledore say about it, and did he say anything about removing it?”

“Yeah, said he didn’t think he could.”

I remembered in the books he said he wouldn’t, even if he could, but I didn’t remember if he said that to Holly, or to another person. I sighed. “I can actually see the connection a little. In fact, there is a chance I might be able to remove it myself. You will lose the connection with Tom and allow the scar to heal, but it might be dangerous to your health.”

Holly frowned, obviously a little dubious that I could actually do that when Dumbledore said he could not. Finally, she shook her head. “I will ask Dumbledore again, if he says nothing can be done, then I think I might give your way a try.”

Outwardly I nodded, but inwardly I grimaced. We were going to run into conflict with Dumbledore one way or another, but I wasn’t going to forbid her from talking to the man. It was her body and her life. I wasn’t going to control anyone I might recruit. I would just need to consider our escape plans.

Putting the topic of conversation to the side, I brought everyone out to look out over the balcony and together we watched the stars pass across the horizon.

It was beautiful and I had to admit that I was happy having met the three of them, even if I was beginning to suspect that the trio wouldn’t join us, or at least not any time soon and probably not all together, yet I was happy. We would just do our best to help them before we moved on if they didn’t want to join.

Eventually we were served a late dinner and we all ate in comfortable silence before the girls began to discuss some of the funniest or strangest spirits they had seen.

Eventually, I was pulled to the side by Amy and Sabah. Amy was the one to explain what was going on. “There is a private bath we can rent. I figure the three of us… girls… can go, just like you promised.”

I blinked before I chuckled, wiping a hand down my face. “Yeah, I will just have to get… changed then.”

Amy smirked. “I made something for just the occasion.”

Raising my eyebrow, I followed her into our home.

“A red head, huh… I was expecting blond…”

After the fun reward with my two girls, I followed the girls down to a game room.

As we entered, I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t sure if I was surprised or not to find a row of ping pong tables.

“I know that ping pong tables are really popular in Asian resorts, or as they like to call them, table tennis. Yet I guess I am still slightly surprised to find them here in the spirit world as well.”

Dinah smirked at Luna. “Best of 21 then?”

Luna’s grin turned a little predatory and she nodded. “We will fight the prize then…” I actually felt a little shiver as she glanced at me before turning back to Dinah.

Deciding to once again ignore that, I ended up playing doubles with Taylor against Sabah and Amy.

It was a wonderful end to the day.

When we returned to our room, we were a little surprised to see Ahri sitting with another humanoid fox spirit. This one with a single white tail.

Before I could get too confused, Ahri spoke up. “I have a request….”

Interlude Hermione:

Hermione couldn’t believe this all. Everything that she had seen here was overwhelming.

It was crazy.

It was insane.

It was so… fascinating.

Yet, she needed to focus. She had to help Holly.

An escaped convict who may be or may not be innocent was going to be hunting Holly down.

A prophecy hanging over her head.

It was enough to make her feel overwhelmed, even though it wasn’t directed at her specifically.

… Yeah, this little holiday was probably necessary.

Interlude Amy:

She had Max, she had Sabah, and her two lovers had her. The spa felt like it had unraveled a small knot of anger and frustration. Honestly, it felt amazing.

She had new powers that meant she no longer needed to sit in the back… where it was safe while everyone else risked their lives.

Things were better…

Amy was happy…

…wasn’t she?

She was away from her controlling foster family… she could admit it was emotionally abusive now.

They were controlling, dismissive, and often angry. Or at least her Mot… Carol was…

Her sister had probably loved her, but she had also been unintentionally encouraging her long term crush, via her aura.

… Yet… yet she was worried. She hadn’t heard anything in over a year.

Were they ok? Did anything happen?

… What would they think of her now?