Renya collected her fort and stuffed it inside the giant robot. She took down a large green pack off of the robot as well, and when Ichi asked what it was Renya said 'fuel'. It didn't have a smell to it. Ichi got suspicious as Rikya entered with Oni.

They decided to wait the night in the giant robot. Tama had gone on ahead to the Spirit Gate to scope out the situation there. Rikya told Ichi that she wanted to confirm the safety of her 'guests' in the Spirit World. A Lord would be hosting their stay where Satou stood guard over Myon and Syon.

Rikya was promptly lied to as well by Renya about where the giant robot came from. Ichi decided he'd correct Rikya's understand the truth later. He didn't want to risk upsetting Renya's scheme in front of her face. Rikya asked if there was a name for the robot. Ichi blurted out Avalon because it linked to a city built into the the cliffs of England. It was that evening when Renya left him to do some work and Rikya and Oni seperated that Ichi set to track Rikya down.

His sense of smell came into use even in the massive cavern hole inside Avalon. Ichi met Rikya near the palace in a garden, she wore a long somber black gown with no frills. Rikya sipped tea and scribbled in a notebook, a small pink notebook with a magical girl on the cover laid beside hers. She was doodling. The maids around her looked serene.

Ichi exchanged a wave with Rikya as he approached, watching the maids scatter from him as he did. A frown darkened Ichi's face as he watched them flutter away like doves. Ichi plopped down next to Rikya and put his legs onto a nearby chair, leaning back his head and closing his eyes as he did. He didn't say anything, and neither did Rikya as they spent the silence together.

"The maids don't seem to like you that much, 'my lord'." Rikya said.

Ichi lazily half pointed at her. "That's Renya's doing. That my lord thing. She's a handful."

"You walked to school with her for awhile, and then she shows up in a maid outfit. If I had to evaluate the relationship, I could only think of 'love'." Rikya continued doodling.

"I've known her for about a month. Then we get in a fight, and I kick her into a waterfall, and now she's all nice. I don't understand girls at all."

Rikya looked up from her drawing and smiled at Ichi. "I've known my brother all my life. About all I know is he seems unhealthily obsessed with me. Tama told me to 'use him', and when I asked what she meant, all I heard were lewd and improper acts. She went on about stuff like that a lot, so I grew tired of it."

"Deception?" Ichi inquired. He knew Tama was bad news, but felt relief that her corruption hadn't reached Rikya despite all the time they spent together.

Rikya's hand folded up the pink notebook with a magical girl on the cover, pushing it over to Ichi.

"Deception."

Ichi stared at the pink notebook like it was a bug.

"That's Syon's diary."

"Suggested reading." Rikya motioned to the pink journal.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Could you give me the gist of it?" Ichi said.

"'A girl in love'?"

"I don't like romance." Ichi thought of the tanuki plush and the revolver he got from Grandpa. "So, she was attachted to my dad, I guess. Since you said Syon wanted revenge on Genji, perhaps that's why?"

Rikya nodded as she got back to doodling.

"She's a great tactician. Her calculations and summaries of battles she underwent are harrowing. Downright self-destructive, too. In comparison, I lived a very easy life."

Ichi felt like changing the subject as he tore his eyes off that journal.

"I got called a druid."

Rikya went silent. Her hand went to her chin, then she hummed to herself as her eyebrows knit.

"And how does that make you feel?"

"It's not a matter of feeling. I don't know what a druid is in the first place. "

"So we have to start there..."

Rikya flipped to a blank page. She drew a large circle. She wrote imagination at the top, then she drew a circle inside the large circle. She wrote Ichi's name inside there. She picked it up and pointed out the small circle to him with her pen.

"You're this."

"So, I'm a piece of imagination?"

"Magic is all imposition of imagination on the world. I thought that you were just talented when I first met you, but if you are druid, then what happened a few nights ago with Satou's fiancee makes sense. It's not that you were able to use magic resonance with Scipio's sword, as a druid you directly interact with magic, as a being of magic itself."

"So all my abilities are likely..."

"Innate. It's strange for a druid to not know what a druid is, I've never read about anything like that. Druids mostly stay in the Dream, and manage the balance of imagination."

Balance? As in, the 'stick of balance'? Ichi pondered.

"That stick I was given, it was called the 'stick of balance'."

Rikya shrugged.

"Perhaps Genji fathered you as a druid. Which sounds impossible, but given what we know, it's the only thing that makes sense."

Ichi remembered what Renya said about druids near the waterfall when he woke her up.

"What does it mean to 'violate the laws of magic'?"

Rikya grew pensive.

"Who'd you hear that from?"

"Renya. She started taking a bet I said during our fight seriously, about serving me in a maid outfit and cat ears for the rest of her life, right after I talked about what happened with Scipio."

Rikya closed her head and leaned it to her side. She switched to the other side.

"She must know something. I've never heard of 'laws' where magic is concerned. Tama's really old, you'd be better off asking her than some strange girl who walks around half possessed."

Ichi groaned upon hearing that.

"I'll try Oni first. Rather not trust that woman. Or, rather not trust either of them."

"Didn't you agree to go to another world with them? Don't tell me you're sticking around just for me..."

Ichi grinned as he turned to face Rikya.

"I guess doing anything sensible is too boring for me."

Rikya looked over to the flowers in the garden, peeking at the robot maids who waited in the trees for Ichi to leave.

"Well... I want you to understand that as a druid, you really could be doing a whole lot more with your life."

Ichi muddled over that.

"Like what?"

"You're untrained, so, apprenticeship?"

"Sounds blue-collar. Too much work. I don't like it."

"You don't even know what it's like yet."

Ichi groaned.

"I'll figure it out, somehow. Either that, or end up getting used for my newly discovered druidic abilities by two beautiful girls. Win- win?"

Rikya frowned.

"Sounds unhealthy."