Three days passed with Rikya popping in when she could. Ichi felt like he was finally making progress. Scenes played in his head. Memories of the last week he had felt like they were so long ago. Nostalgia crept in as he watched them play in his mind.

Myon's kendo match with him, holding him up with only one arm and her showing him her armory.

Syon's ladybug phone and her nonsensical idiocy, his right hand patting Syon's head, and shame creeped in as he saw himself running from her. Coward, Ichi called himself.

Renya crawling on top of him and whispering in his ear. The day after, where she showed up in the kimono and made a silent declaration of war.

Getting the stick from his Grandpa past the slime door. The promise that more lied behind there.

Meeting Rikya and the Fox with half possession. Rikya's decadent explanation of his abilities. The truth about his mother being a channeler. Learning of his father's will. The days of training afterward.

Ichi remembered slaying the Mountain Lord. That feeling of victory. The feeling that he'd won for once. To be free, of this.

Ichi opened his eyes, looked at the dark shrine walls, and thought that it was strange that the place he felt most free was where he was most cooped up. Hiding from Rikya's family and consorting with her in the nighttime as she and the Fox taught him how to use magic excited him. And, he was planning to break the seal on an ancient evil. Ichi's eyebrows went crooked.

"Fox?"

The Fox nodded in the shadows. Ichi couldn't see her, but he could feel her movements by now.

"You're not evil, are you?"

"Oh, of course I'm evil."

Ichi nodded.

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"Yeah, I figured. Just checking. Does Rikya know?"

The Fox nodded. Ichi nodded back.

Ichi turned his eyes to his stick as he rose. The black and white mirrored each other on it's long haft. He twirled it, imitating Renya's twirl he saw her do almost a week ago. Better, Ichi thought, but Renya's was clean looking. Ichi snapped the stick in two with practiced ease and slapped them against his wrists, akimbo. He felt energy thrum through his body. He guided it, then, he snapped the stick together with a whirl and heard a thick thrum of whooshing air.

"Better." Ichi said.

Rikya popped her head in from a hole that served as the entrance. She wore the clothing Ichi saw her wear at school, conservative, old, and boring, but cute, because Rikya.

"You ready, Ichi?"

"Sure." Ichi slung the stick across his shoulders. "Let's go."

Rikya skipped into the room, her clothes changing in an instant to her witch outfit. Ichi saw nothing. One of Rikya's eyes turned golden and a Fox ear popped out of her head. Rikya adjusted her hat, slotting the ear through a hole she prepared in advance. Golden tails flew out from under her skirt as she twirled a wand into existence with some black sparkles popping in the air.

"What's that?" Ichi pointed at her wand. It was white and black, like Ichi's stick of balance.

"I've learned a few things from training you, too." Rikya grinned.

Ichi patted her hat, grinning back.

The mansion from the outside was calm in the night. The overgrowth and cracked stone that would leave a traveler to believe that the place was abandoned wasn't helped by the lack of lighting. In the dark, if someone walked close, they would see the glass window, like a shopping mall built into a mansion. Looking further in, they would see a shrine with a massive rope around it. If they were there that night, they would see the escape which lasted only a couple seconds. It only would take a couple seconds, but they wouldn't be able to explain what they saw. It might as well have been a flying saucer that destroyed the shrine. But, to Ichi and Rikya, they knew what happened.

In the silence of that night, a white and black stick cut into the shrine door. It cracked apart, flying from the force and making light thuds as it skidded across the floor. Then, a boy put both his hands on the rope. He pulled it apart with his grip, fire sparking out as he did, then a girl behind him in a mass of gold and black encircled the boy with what looked like a tail and lifted him up. Then, black lightning exploded out blinding the surroundings and the glass pane blew off into the distance, still encircled by bits of the mansions construction glued on. The whole glass pane landed with a snap, cracking into a rain of shards as a black and golden ball shot through the shards scattering them around the forest.

The traveler who saw that scene that lasted three seconds would have to watch their step carefully as they left. The glass was everywhere.