#it took everything Chapter 1 introduced and built off of it in a satisfying manner

[x-i-l-verify]

I hope you don't mind me jumping onto this post to add my 2 cents, because this sums up my feelings on the chapter pretty well. Not to say it was BAD per se, it did have some really good moments, but the pacing felt really padded with pointless puzzle sections that were poorly integrated into the larger narrative. It was always "go here, flip this switch, put the batteries in the slot" for the ENTIRE chapter. Hell, at least in chapter 2, there was considerable variety in the tasks the game forced you into, with the various minigames. Those minigames also served as ways for other secondary characters that were introduced in that chapter - Bunzo, PJ, and the mini Wuggies - a time to shine, even if they didn't get any real characterization beyond "trying to kill you." Heck, of the 5 characters introduced in the chapter, only two - Daddy and Baby Long Legs - didn't get any screen time whatsoever, and those two were in a single blink and you miss it poster.

Chapter 3, on the other hand, introduces not one, not two, but ten new characters. (Even if we assume "Ollie" is another character we've already seen, like the Prototype or Baby Long Legs, he's still presented as a new character, so my point still stands.) Of those ten new characters, only four get any screen time at all. And this is on top of all the characters introduced in chapters 1 and 2 that haven't gotten any screen time aside from being dead bodies littering the levels, like Boogie Bot, Bron, Catbee, Candy Cat, and Daisy (Daisy is on posters, she counts).

This is doubly baffling, because ever since November, Mob Games has been hyping the Smiling Critters up, advertising them alongside Catnap as the mean feature of the chapter. They're EVERYWHERE in chapter 3, but you never see them. Even Catnap's presence feels like an afterthought. I was expecting he'd be a constant looming threat, Huggy Wuggy on steroids, always just out of sight, ready to pounce if you stayed in one place for too long, maybe a couple big chase sequences before the finale to keep you on your toes. But no. He's just. Not a threat at all until the final set piece of the chapter. Like yeah, you see him a couple times just lurking here and there, but he doesn't feel like a sword hanging over your head just ready to fall.

In chapter 1, Mob Games holding Huggy Wuggy back until the final set piece is understandable, one, because the chapter is so short. and two, because the world of the factory is new to the player. Nobody knew what to expect from the place or from the game, which really helped in building tension. Chapter 3, however, is NOT chapter 1. The audience is now experienced with how the game works, and the chapter is nearly 4x longer than chapter 1. You cannot use the same tactics and expect them to work the same way.

And what was with them flat-out SAYING that Catnap could change his size in the supplementary material? This implied that he could fit into any nook and cranny, be around any corner, making him even more of a threat to the player, but no! He stays the same size the entire time except for when we're tripping balls at the end; we never see him size shift, we never see him be in places he shouldn't inexplicably, which would have built further dread in the player. Such a missed opportunity. Hell, as OP mentioned, Miss Delight - a character that was not advertised AT ALL and came out of nowhere like a freight train - turned out a better example of a predator than Catnap, the main villain of the chapter.

Speaking of which, though, and speaking of missed opportunities, let's talk about the other Smiling Critters. I felt certain that they would be the breakout characters of this new chapter. I theorized that Dogday would be the Big Good of the chapter, being diametrically opposed to Catnap in every way from design, to theming, to even their names, and then the other Critters would be split down the middle on whether they would be on Dogday's side or Catnap's, and try to aid or hinder the player during the chapter. Instead, all we got were a cutout of 6 out of 8 characters with about 4-5 lines of dialogue each, and the Bigger Bodies version of Dogday only gets less than a minute of screen before he's killed by the mini Critters. Hell, the mini Critters get more screen time than any Smiling Critter except Catnap. And Catnap doesn't eclipse them by much! Why does a random character like Miss Delight - who was in no advertising and got no buildup at all - get more screen time than any of the characters in this chapter outside of Catnap and maybe Ollie? Even Poppy and Kissy don't get as much time dedicated to them as her.

In general, Mob Games seems to have a problem with asset creation and utilization. Instead of using the characters they already have (and they have a lot of them) to their fullest potential, they'd rather come up with reams of new characters every chapter, and even then, most of them don't even get screen time. I get that Playtime Co. is a toy company, it makes sense that they'd have come up with a lot of toys in their time, but in a game about living toys, why are only some of them considered worthy of giving screen time to? Why are dead toys littering the factory Boogie Bots, Catbees, Candy Cats, Bunzos, Brons, and Huggys? Why have we only seen 1 dead PJ Pug-A-Piller? Why have we not seen ANY dead mini Critters except for the ones on CatNap's shrine? Or other Poppy Playtimes? Or Kissys? It just seems rather lazy on the part of the developers. You have the assets already modeled, so why not use them?

Poppy Playtime Chapter 3. (Spoilers)

Did anyone else feel that despite being given such individualised characteristics-the smiling critters were underutilised?

The fact that they only even showed up in the playhouse as small enemies aside from a VERY brief cameo from Dogday was annoying.

This leads me to MAJOR missed opportunity in the use of Dogday as an immediate opposing force to Catnap: having HIM be the one guiding us instead of this random kid named Ollie who we STILL know nothing about (Poppy apparently does but neglected to so much as give us a hint). I just feel that trying to get the lights on would have it perfectly into Dogdays element and worked against CatNaps sleep/night element. It would have at least given us more character to Dogday as a leader and how he goes about it.

Also we were NEVER even made aware there WERE bigger body versions of the other critters. They went on and ON about poor Theodore nearly dying and the protype saving him (by letting him be transferred in to a body anyway, which is the in game version of ‘my job here is done’ ‘but you didn’t do anything’) but we didn’t hear so much as a PEEP about DogDay or the other Bigger body versions of the critters he references. Massive missed chance for story and gameplay by not having them as antagonists, or even warring factions (half with catnap, half against etc) even a few notes detailing craftycorn painting with kids resulting in half a wall becoming a mural, Dogday being kind and bringing Stella coffee or being a general helper, hoppy stealing Stella’s coffee and going on a bender.

Catnap himself was pretty underutilised despite having creepy moments and the boss battle was just plain repetitive towards the end.

Hell, Miss Delight felt more like a ‘stalking in the night’ predator then Catnap.

There was a LOT more that could have been done with them, or even just Dogday.

[chilly-territory]

Uchouten Kazoku 2, chapter 1 (part 2 out of 3)

This part has more info on the Nidaime than the anime mentioned (which is basically my reason for taking up this novel lol)

The Eccentric Family: The Nidaime's Homecoming (Uchouten Kazoku: Nidaime no Kichou) by Morimi Tomihiko

Chapter 1 (part 2/3, pages 29-52)

〇

"Oh? It's rare to see an elephant in Nyoigadake."

The English gentleman descended to stand on the slope of Daimonji, putting a hand to his silk hat as he looked up at me.

When I shortened my body, returning to the form of a good-for-nothing college student, "As I thought, it was a tanuki's shapeshifting, huh. Quite splendid," he murmured and clapped soundlessly in a pretentious manner.

This Western-styled tengu was a chalk-white handsome man with an air of a foreigner, an old-fashioned returnee just back to Japan, conspicuous in the most extravagant way possible. A glossy silk hat, a black three-piece suit fitting his body to a nicety, a dress shirt so white it looked like plaster, a black bow tie and a cane held in slender leather-gloved hands were all parts of that. Tengu were creatures whose age was unidentifiable to begin with, but in human years he looked to be around his late thirties. One tremendously good-looking tengu, in short.

Picking up the travel suitcase, he called out to the Kurama tengu, who until then were only grunting inarticulately.

"Hello, my good sirs. What might you be playing at in these parts?"

The Kurama tengu got up and were now staring at the gentleman with dumb expressions.

Suddenly, Reizanbou tore off his sunglasses and exclaimed in astonishment, "If it isn't Yakushibou the Nidaime [*1]! Why have you come back now?" "Because I've seen everything that I needed to see. Is chief Kurama doing well? Once I've settled in, I plan to go greet him. By the way..." the Nidaime said smoothly, looking around in puzzlement, "I'm sure I had sent my other luggage here, as well, but..." "Aah, that," Reizanbou intoned coldly. "They were in the way, so we tossed them out." "...And why would you do such a thing? It's not like this mountain belongs to you."

Reizanbou winked to his companions, and the Kurama tengu spread out, encircling the Nidaime. The air of arrogance filled the space.

"You fell behind the times, Nidaime. We've taken over Nyoigadake."

For all intents and purposes, the situation seemed to have finally come down to a tengu fight, and I felt positively thrilled, my hair vibrating. For you see, these days tengu fights happened exceedingly rarely, and clashes like the battle between Akadama-sensei and the Kurama tengu in Mt.Atagoyama, the great tug of war between the tengu of Shiga and the tengu of Kyoto at the island of Chikubushima and the Ibukiyama Flyer Shootdown operation were stuff of legends anymore you only heard about in anecdotes. For tanuki, if you were lucky enough to witness a historic tengu battle, you would have enough bragging material for drinking parties for the rest of your life.

The Nidaime, however, remained utterly indifferent, as if the Kurama tengu's provocation fell on completely deaf ears.

"Oh, that's what's happened. Duly noted." "Don't you have anything else to say?" Reizanbou asked in a tone of complete let-down. "What a disgustingly heartless fellow. We kicked your father off this mountain, you know." "If that's the case, Nyoigadake rightfully belongs to you good sirs," the Nidaime said, making a disinterested face. "Or what, are you ashamed of your actions?" "Why would we be ashamed?!" "Then show more pride. After all, you gentlemen are almighty tengu, and if you get too caught up in the heat of a turf war, no one can complain... Speaking of which, where is my father?" "Behind the Demachi shopping arcade. Dependent on tanuki in a crummy little apartment." "Then I'll finish him myself. Now, gentlemen, if you'll excuse me."

The Nidaime gave a slight polite bow to the Kurama tengu and smoothly took off into the sky with grace and elegance, as if riding an invisible elevator.

The Kurama, dumbstruck, watched him depart.

Only when his form was no longer visible did they open their mouths to start a heated discussion and exchange commentary. Stamping their feet noisily on the scattered hanafuda cards of steel, they were saying in a chorus, "He's just as smartass as ever." "Who would've thought he'd come back now?" "Should we let the head family know?" "Does Atagoyama know?" They no longer spared any thought to the impertinent little tanuki who called them small timers, it seemed.

Taking advantage of the fact, I changed back into my tanuki form and broke into a run, heading toward the foot of the mountain.

As I dashed through the forest, my little brother who'd been hiding, jumped out of some bush at me. "Nii-chan, you're alive!" he exclaimed in delight. After a while spent rejoicing over the fact that we both were unharmed, I shapeshifted into my worthless college student form, while my brother into a little boy, and the two of us went down the slop in front of the gate to Ginkakuji temple that was crowded with tourists, then proceeded farther, running along a drainage canal under sakura trees that were already bloomless.

There was no time to worry about tsuchinoko or the tengu stone anymore. What had to take precedence was Akadama-sensei's safety.

I heard loud and clear with my own ears that the Nidaime said he would finish sensei himself, and when you took into account this tengu strife between the father and the son that had survived more than a hundred years, it was quite probable that he would visit sensei's place to settle the score in a violent and gory way. Still, Akadama-sensei was our honored mentor who provided guidance to us for generations, us four brothers, our father, his father and countless other furballs had studied under him. Even if as a tengu, sensei was no different from not being one at all anymore, I couldn't simply sit and watch as someone put an end to his tengu life without mounting some resistance.

As we were running along Imadegawa-doori street, I ordered my little brother to go back to the Tadasu forest.

"Go tell our big brother that the Nidaime's returned. We also need to let Yasaka-san know." "What are you going to do, nii-chan?" "I'm going to Demachiyanagi. The Nidaime resents sensei, so he's sure to come there to exact revenge. Before he does, I'll get sensei to escape somewhere."

And so, my little brother sped toward the Tadasu forest with the urgent message, while my destination was the apartment building Masugata just behind the Demachi shopping district.

〇

A certain retired tengu by the name of Iwayasan Kinkoubou-san ran a used camera store in the Nihonbashi neighborhood, and I'd been to his place frequently. Kinkoubou was one of Akadama-sensei's few friends, and it was he who told me some details regarding the Nidaime.

The Nidaime's birthplace was the city of Kiyou, that is, presently the city of Nagasaki.

When the Nidaime set foot on the Kyoto soil after being kidnapped from Nagasaki by Akadama-sensei, the time was the Meiji era, in the period of it where the multiple riots associated with the Meiji Restoration had already turned into a thing of the past.

"My son," was how Akadama-sensei introduced the Nidaime to Kinkoubou.

Kinkoubou remembered vividly what the Nidaime looked like when he first stepped in Kyoto. Although a beautiful boy with plump cheeks showing leftover childishness, he had a razor-sharp gaze and it was transparent to see that he was hiding some seriously hot temper. From just one look, it was clear that Akadama-sensei's blood flowed in his veins.

Japan’s booming development of the Meiji era had seemingly nothing to do with the boy receiving tengu education from Akadama-sensei. During Japan's westernization when the Biwako canal was finished, the municipal tram system developed and new buildings constructed, the boy spent all his time in the recesses of Nyoigadake undergoing tough training. But by no means did it mean the young Nidaime was satisfied with his circumstances. Evidently, the reason why he'd accepted his situation and worked hard at his tengu training was because in his heart he had decided to distinguish himself as quickly as possible and overthrow his detested father.

Time flowed by, marking the coming of a new century and a new Taishou era.

The Nidaime turned into a dazzling young man, and there was no keeping him secluded in Nyoigadake anymore. Together with the chief of Kurama, Kuramayama Soujoubou, with whom the Nidaime had become friends, he would sneak into high schools, pose as a student and go to party in the night town, taking tanuki along. Akadama-sensei frowned at the Nidaime's conduct; the Nidaime, for his part, kept steadily gaining strength as a tengu, competing with Akadama-sensei head-on. It was a precarious situation where both, the father and the son alike, eagerly searched for a chance to let loose and allow their tempers explode.

And that was where a certain woman came into play.

A western-style hotel with a clock tower appeared at Karasuma-doori street rather suddenly. She was the sheltered daughter of the owner of that '20th century hotel', a nouveau riche who built his fortune on war.

The Nidaime fell in ardent love at first sight, but Akadama-sensei meddled, saying that he needed to punish his negligent pupil who had lost his way. At the time, Akadama-sensei was still overflowing with vitality as a tengu, and the wicked deed of making passes at his son's first love was no big deal to him, it seemed.

That struggle over love, unfolding on the stage that was the brilliantly shining hotel, got more and more complicated until the Nidaime's patience that was being stretched thin ever since his being a young boy was finally overtaxed, his temper exploding in flames.

The father and the son clashed in what was a huge fight shaking all the 36 peaks of the Higashiyama mountains and lasting 3 days and 3 nights.

As the two battled without sleep or rest, riddled with wounds and reduced to savages, they ended up crawling up the main roof of the Minamiza theater [*2] that was still under reconstruction at the time. As bluish-white lightning tore through the dark skies and a downpour shrouded the city, they mustered the last of their strength and clashed. Seeing them stick their fingers in the opponent's nostrils, pull each other's hair and unintelligibly grunt was like watching a children's squabble instead of tengu's death struggle. Still, as per the saying, experience proved the best teacher in the end, and Akadama-sensei, going wild like a lion, kicked the Nidaime down from Minamiza's roof and to Shijou-doori street below, letting loose a triumphant roar. Under the beating rain, the defeated Nidaime escaped through the dark city and disappeared.

Since then, a hundred years had passed.

Nyoigadake Yakushibou the Nidaime, having set foot on his native land after returning from the British Empire, entered a luxury lodging, Kyoto Hotel Okura in Kawaramachi-oike, with appropriate grandeur and dignity.

While the Nidaime, having deposited his luggage in a comfortable guest room of the hotel, was carefully dressing, intending to visit his father and settle the score, Akadama-sensei, holed up in his cheap apartment behind the Demachi shopping arcade, hugged a daruma doll with one eye filled in [*3] close and prayed for Benten's return to Japan, chanting "BentenBentenBenten" all the while.

Why were these father and son as different as night and day?

It was a cruel story, just the tengu way.

〇

Luckily, when I burst into Akadama-sensei's apartment, the Nidaime wasn't there yet.

Through the openings in the curtain that more resembled an old rag, the spring sun streamed, illuminating the four and a half tatami mat room buried in junk. Akadama-sensei in yellowish underwear snored loudly on his permanently laid-out futon; in contrast to the overall pitiful sight that he presented, sensei's sleeping face was the height of happiness. He was probably dreaming of Benten's bottom. "Please wake up!" Even when I shook him, sensei just turned over, greedily clinging to his backside dream and even looking like he was diving ever deeper into its sweetness.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake. He just won't wake up."

Around the futon, all kinds of personal belongings were scattered such as tengu tobacco, the Fuujin-Raijin folding fan, a concise picture postcard from Benten and sensei's favorite towel, among others. I gathered them, wrapped them in a cloth, lifted sensei's body and deposited it on my own back. He probably wouldn't be happy to have been carried to the tanuki forest while asleep, but I had no time to wait for him to wake up comfortably on his own.

When I opened the door to the apartment and was about to leave, I saw the silhouette of an English gentleman behind the fence surrounding the building who was clearly out of place in the Demachiyanagi neighborhood.

"Uhyaa! It’s the Nidaime! He sure wastes no time."

With no other choice, I went back into the room.

The image of Akadama-sensei the Nidaime had in his head was that from a century ago, and there was no way he could've accurately predicted what sensei looked like in the present after his downfall. In which case, if I shapeshifted into sensei, I just might be able to deceive the Nidaime's eyes somehow. You never knew if maybe greeting the Nidaime warmly and giving him a hug as the fake Akadama-sensei would actually be enough to start thawing the ice of his hundred year old grudge. Oh, right, almost forgot.

I threw the junk out of the closet and shoved Akadama-sensei, who was still hugging the daruma doll, into it together with his futon. Just as I shut the sliding screen closed, the Nidaime knocked on the door.

"Is Nyoigadake Yakushibou in?"

I shapeshifted into Akadama-sensei and sat down in the center of the small room cross-legged.

"Come in," I said loudly.

After a few moments, the Nidaime opened the door and stepped inside, peering into the four and a half tatami mat room from where the small kitchen was. He was pressing a snow white handkerchief over his nose and mouth. It was no wonder: smoke from the tengu tobacco, the stench of Akadama port wine left on the bottom of several bottles mixed with that of food in bento boxes that had gone bad, yellow-smeared cotton swabs thrown carelessly after their duty of cleaning ears had been done, underwear stripped and left to lie around, Akadama-sensei's own old man body odor and the leftover smell and hair from the tanuki who visited quite often... This room, that was the height of disorder along with its stink, apparently completely overwhelmed the Nidaime as he stood at the threshold in mute amazement.

Using my best shapeshifting techniques, I managed to recreate the dignity typical of tengu.

"So good of you to come back, son! What happened in the past was all my fault. Will you forgive me?"

From the mouth of Nyoigadake Yakushibou, a tengu who carried his wicked ways to the extremes and spat on all creation, one after another fell accommodationist lines, and it was so blatantly contrived that I felt ashamed for myself.

When I opened my arms wide, the Nidaime approached cautiously, got down to one knee after carefully wiping the filth from the spot on the tatami where his knee would go and gingerly returned the embrace while paying scrupulous attention as not to get his jacket dirty in the process. With this, the books on the strife of a hundred years between the father and the son could be closed, it seemed.

Except, all of a sudden, the Nidaime whispered into my ear, "I see you've acquired quite the tanuki reek to you, father." "That'd be because the tanuki come here all the time. I'm rather sick of them myself." "You say that, but it is rather apparent that you're quite fond of tanuki." "Fool! What are you talking about?" "Why else would you grow a tail like a tanuki?"

The Nidaime then gave my lower back a slap, seizing the tail that popped out from that impact in a tight grip.

In the blink of an eye my transformation was unraveled, and I found myself hanging upside down, bitterly regretting my shallow and ill-conceived idea to fool a tengu by shapeshifting into a tengu. What could be a more humiliating and painful experience? Tanuki don't do upside down. And now, dangling precariously in the air with up and down switched, I mumbled barely coherently, begging the Nidaime for forgiveness, "I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!"

"Could it be that you're the tanuki who was in Nyoigadake earlier?" The Nidaime brought the bridge of his flawless nose closer to me, still holding me upside down. "If that's the case, then you must have inferred the circumstances and beat me to the punch, huh."

Having subdued his anger, the Nidaime put me back down on the tatami flooring.

Rubbing my aching butt, I looked up at him.

"Please forgive my foolish prank. I am the third son of Shimogamo Souichirou, Yasaburou. I would like to congratulate you on your safe return from abroad from the bottom of my heart, sir." "No need for such ceremonious greetings. Incidentally, where is my real father?" "Well, sir, that I know not myself. I wonder where could he possibly have gone?" "Hm-hmph," the Nidaime snorted under his breath and took a look around the small room, eyes taking notice of the sliding door to the closet that I had slid shut in a hurry just minutes earlier. Behind it, he was sure to find a drooling Akadama-sensei, hugging the daruma doll and dreaming of Benten's backside. I was on pins and needles, fearing that the Nidaime would see right through it any moment now, but he made no attempt to investigate the closet, just muttered, "Tanuki are such admirable little creatures," in an indescribable tone that could be one of admiration or one of exasperation.

"Tanuki are indeed admirable," I said. "If there is anything you need, simply say the word. I'm sure there must be some inconveniences after being gone for so long. And there is still the need to find your furniture and household belongings." "Yes, indeed. It appears those Kurama fools tossed them from Nyoigadake." "If you would, sir, may I suggest leaving this matter in the hands of this Yasaburou?"

Those household possessions flung from Daimonji by the Kurama tengu must have been picked up and hoarded by the tanuki dwelling in Kyoto. But if the Nidaime claimed ownership over them even at this late a date, it was not impossible to get his collection, that had been sucked into the tanuki's lairs, back.

When I informed him of that, "I would be very grateful," he replied, produced a gold coin from his pocket and tried to get me to take it. "I cannot allow you to work for free." "But tengu are made to drive tanuki to work hard. Tengu are greater than tanuki, after all." "I do not like being indebted to others, Yasaburou-kun," the Nidaime then said. "Besides, I'm not a tengu."

〇

The Nidaime's return to the country sent significant ripples through the tanuki world.

To the furballs with short lifespans, witnessing the arrival of a brand new tengu was a rarity that may or may not happen only once in a lifetime. So the ever curious tanuki, wanting to get a look at that new tengu, stalked Hotel Okura in Kawaramachi-oike. Among the stalkers were even elderly furballs with not much longer left to live who were supposed to stay in the seclusion of Tanukidani-Fudou temple. Before long, an irresponsible rumor went into circulation that stealing a look at the new tengu was sure to extend one's lifespan.

With the tanuki world clamoring on and on, I got summoned by the head of tanuki society, Yasaka Heitarou, and went to pay him a visit in Gion together with my eldest brother.

As we walked from the east end of Shijouoohashi bridge, heading to Yasaka temple, I kept grumbling under my breath how annoying all this was.

From my experience, nothing good was in store for you when you were summoned by the Nise-emon: it was either to lecture you to the accompaniment of a Hawaiian melody or to task you with some troublesome job.

As far as my brother explained it to me, at a meeting held the day before with him and Yasaka Heitarou presiding, the discussion on how to better deal with the Nidaime produced no real conclusion, except for a half-backed one along the lines of 'Let's ask Yasaburou's opinion, for starters' to evade the issue.

"You're the only who had any opportunity to hold a real conversation with the Nidaime," my brother stated. "Besides, you also excel at handling Akadama-sensei. That is, your name and tengu basically go hand in hand, you see." "I'm no tengu expert." "Stop complaining and make yourself useful to the tanuki world once in a while."

A big tanuki named Yasaka Heitarou was not only the head of the Yasaka clan that held the territory stretching from Maruyama Park to Gion, but also the Nise-emon governing all the tanuki of Kyoto. His office was located in a back alley of Gion-Nawate that was lined with tiny snack pubs and bars, in the building of a closed down proctology clinic. That clinic took care of Kyoto tanuki's behinds for many years, and I, too, was a patient there at one time when a mushroom grew out on my butt back when I was little.

The waiting room of the defunct clinic was crowded with tanuki who came to appeal to the Nise-emon, and me and my brother patiently waited for our turn, seated on an old leather-covered couch. At long last, we were escorted to the Hawaiian-styled examining room where Yasaka Heitarou, sprawling in a rattan chair and plucking at the strings of an ukulele, greeted us.

"Hi there, sorry for the trouble. Welcome to Fake Hawaii."

On the walls of the examining room a very Hawaiian blue sea and indigo sky were painted, in the corners there were planted a few fake palm trees, and the space on the walls was crammed with an assortment of Hawaii-related articles such as hula girl dolls, wreaths and aloha shirts. Hawaii had become Yasaka Heitarou's yearned-for paradise ever since he had gone on a recreation trip there in his youth, and he wanted nothing more than to push the position of the Nise-emon on my brother as soon as possible and escape to his southern land of dreams. It was his dearest wish to spend his time playing with coconuts on the Hawaiian beach after retiring.

"Nothing like thriving business, isn't it," said I.

"It's not profitable, but this flood of customers never stops. It's so aggravating, really."

Since as the head of the tanuki world, the Nise-emon was expected to bring the tanuki of Kyoto together, whenever there was a quarrel, he had to step in and arbitrate; during any big tanuki assembly he was to take charge, and it was also his duty to show the way to little tanuki who searched for the correct way to live as a tanuki. Sometimes, he even had to give advice on love affairs. That said, tanuki were creatures liable to easily overlook the bigger issue and lose themselves in pointless arguments over some minor stuff. Thus, the problems that visitors wanted Yasaka Heitarou to settle for them rarely required quick wit and mental gymnastics bordering on acrobatics, Oooka-style [*4], to solve. For that reason, when a complicated problem related to tengu fell in his lap, Yasaka Heitarou found himself at a loss.

Offering me and my brother chairs, Yasaka Heitarou produced a Mango Frappuccino from the fridge. The ukulele sang in staccato. The atmosphere of a southern island steadily filled the room.

"Well then, Yasaburou. I'm going to ask this because I regard you as an authority on the tengu world..."

Hearing such flattering words did make me feel better.

"The Nidaime... is he the real deal?"

If Yasaka Heitarou was asking whether or not the Nidaime was a genuine tengu or a legitimate heir of Akadama-sensei's, then it was probably for the sake of observing what was considered manners such as sending formal greetings from the tanuki world and holding an official welcome ceremony. After all, the Nidaime had set foot on his native land for the first time in a hundred years, that had to be celebrated with lavish. However, considering the big fight that, as everyone knew, had occurred that same century ago, there was tremendous strife between Akadama-sensei and the Nidaime. Not only had sensei not acknowledged the Nidaime in any shape or form, there were even suspicions that he thought of making Benten his successor. While there was nothing technically wrong with extending courtesy to the Nidaime on behalf of the tanuki world, it was out of question to incur Akadama-sensei and Benten's anger and irrational crackdown on tanuki right after, which was where the problem lay.

I was asked to relay the full particulars of my encounter with the Nidaime.

"As far as I can tell, he is a tengu through and through, no question about it. It is strange that the person in question insists he's not one though... Maybe it's because he somewhat lacks self-awareness as a tengu." "That spells trouble in dealing with him." "Things between the father and the son look as bad as ever, too, and when Benten-sama eventually returns, there will be a world of trouble, no doubt. If we recklessly get involved in this, fur on our butts is sure to catch fire." "Stop enjoying this, Yasaburou," my brother chided. "Well, it's fine," Heitarou remarked. "...So, what do you think, Yaichirou-kun?"

My brother folded his arms and frowned.

"I think my brother is an idiot. That said, I believe his judgement is correct."

Yasaka Heitarou seemed to be in thought as he plucked at his ukulele.

The reason why Yasaka Heitarou succeeded our father, the previous Nise-emon, after he had fallen into the Friday Fellows Club's pot, was because they were childhood friends. While tanuki society ran about in confusion, playing a desperate push-and-shove game of Oshikura Manju [*5] after losing their head, Heitarou, upset and dillydallying, was mercilessly pushed out of the circle as the fall guy. At the time, Ebisugawa Souun still lacked dignity to seize the Nise-emon position, and many tanuki were of the opinion that they'd be better off leaving it to almost anyone, even Heitarou, than Ebisugawa. Ever since, while not having produced achievements worthy of special mention to his name, neither had Yasaka Heitarou made many big blunders, the fact of his continuous service, decent if lacking passion, to the tanuki world in such an uncharacteristic role was quite admirable in and of itself.

"In the end, we're just tanuki. Haste makes waste." Before long, Yasaka Heitarou ended his musical performance and slapped his knees. "As a sly old tanuki that I'm supposed to be, I say we wait and see. We'll decide which side to wag our tails once the stance of the tengu world on the matter has been made clear. For the time being, look out for any movements in the tengu world."

〇

What I requested of Yasaka Heitarou was to spread the word as far as possible that the tengu stones that the tanuki had picked up and deep-pocketed belonged to the Nidaime, and appeal for their return.

I asked Kiyomizu Chiijitarou from the antique store on Teramachi-doori street to provide a corner for the tengu stone collection retrieval and inspected the articles that the tanuki had been bringing there. It was as heart-breaking as taking the knife to the flesh for the tanuki to have to part with the tengu stones they had painstakingly collected, and many of them made a dramatic scene in front of the secondhand store. Among them even were those who loathed and cursed me for going and sticking my nose where it didn't belong.

The assortment of articles that the Nidaime had brought back from England was astoundingly diverse.

A writing desk, western canes numbering ten-something, a few dozens of men's leather shoes, a wooden wardrobe, plenty of suitcases, a collection of distance glasses, devices for experiments such as magnifying glasses and microscopes, lots of indoor slippers, silverware and candlestands, a violin, a chessboard, a mysterious bundle of keys, 3 overcoats, lamps, a bathtub, Persian carpets, tweet caps, hundreds of Western books, scraps of newspaper articles... And that was only part of it. The chaise that my little brother and I had found at the foot of Nyoigadake was turned in, as well.

Thus, for about a week, I was being kept so busy that there was no time to even think about tsuchinoko.

Tsuchinoko represented the dream, but tengu were reality. During that period, the Nidaime lived at the hotel in Kawaramachi-oike. Those good looks of his and natural majestic air typical of tengu held the hotel staff captivated, and they treated him like a regular patron of many years. His appearance and mannerisms of an old-fashioned English gentleman fit nicely into the hotel's big solemn lobby and tea room, his honor and dignity as a tengu just returned home displayed amply. A walk about an hour long that he would take at 5 in the afternoon was his everyday routine, his path always the same, and it mattered not if it rained. In the crowd of Shinkyougako street the Nidaime's form was extremely conspicuous, unfailingly turning heads of every passerby. Upon returning to the hotel, he would always check the time at the front door, and his motions, from opening his pocket watch to the angle he tilted his chin at to confirm the dial was so unchanging it was like a picture on a stamp. The Napoléon gold coins that seemed to appear from the pockets of his coat one after another in an endless stream hinted at the Nidaime's outrageous financial assets, but unlike some, he didn't squander that wealth on extravagant night amusements, seemingly having a truly calm and peaceful lifestyle.

Everyday in the evening, I went to deliver the items that had been collected from the tanuki that day at about the time when, by my estimations, the Nidaime would be back after his walk.

"Hello, Yasaburou-kun. Much obliged to you today again."

With each my repeated visit, the hotel room was steadily being reworked into an orderly pseudo-Europe. The tengu in an impecably spotless white dress shirt recently back from abroad who welcomed me in looked quite comfortable surrounded by his favorite furniture. He repeatedly tried to push gold coins into my pocket, but having my pride as a tanuki, I turned him down every time one way or another.

"I don't like being indebted to people," the Nidaime would say. "Well, sir, I'm a tanuki." "Allow me to rephrase then. I don't like being indebted to tanuki." "To be honest, I'm planning on asking for a much bigger favor eventually, such that gold coins will not measure up adequately enough. I'm being kept so busy I cannot even go out to search for tsuchinoko." "And there you have it. I have a feeling I'll be tricked if I'm not careful." "Having enough leeway to allow yourself to be tricked is a wonderful thing." "Well said. Is that a pearl of tanuki wisdom?"

The Nidaime showed a wry smile, and I was off the hook for the time being while still staying true to my adamant refusal to accept gold coins.

Incidentally, there was something about his recovered collection that weighted on the Nidaime's mind, a thing called an air gun, of German make. Crafted by a German engineer in the 19th century, it was a mechanism equipped with a powerful pump that compressed the air to launch a lead bullet. Having passed though several hands on its way from the continent to the British Empire, the gun remained a prized possession of a certain aristocrat for many years before being auctioned off which was when the Nidaime bought it; from the photo of it, it looked as beautiful as any brass instrument. When I heard the words 'air gun', I imagined a toy that launched soft and fuzzy shells like hairballs, but "It's nothing that adorable," the Nidaime chuckled. With that gun rumored to have been used to assassinate a minister of a certain country, if they happened to be shot from it, a creature like tanuki would be Heaven-bound in no time, apparently.

"I assume you, my furball friends, don't like guns, do you?" "No, we most certainly don't. That said, I've never had a chance to see one upclose myself." "If you could find it with all due haste, I would be grateful. There is sure to be trouble if it were to be misused."

As a matter of fact, while I was frequenting the Nidaime in this fashion, Akadama-sensei still lived knowing nothing about the Nidaime's return to the country. Finding a tanuki who would want to be on the receiving end of a rage explosion over making such a report was impossible, and seeing as sensei stayed holed up in his apartment the whole time, he simply had no chances to hear the news in the first place.

When I dropped by at one time with a multi-compartment bento box in hand, I found sensei in the middle of his four and a half tatami mat room, seated at a low tea table as if clinging to it and writing another love letter to Benten he kept on sending.

Sensei is always the last to know, how pitiful, how lamentable.

Just when my thoughts trailed hazily along those lines, sensei suddenly sent a glare my way.

"Yasaburou." "What is it, sir?" "Are you hiding something from me?" "Bringing that up this late in the game, sir?" panicking, I spoke up jovially. "I do have a lot of secrets, I’ll have you know."

Sensei snorted, putting finishing touches to his love letter. "...Oh well, no matter. Your secrets must be silly trifling things either way."

〇

Akadama-sensei, left out of the loop about the Nidaime's homecoming, learned about everything when May had already reached its second half and it had been 2 weeks since the Nidaime's return.

The only ones who could tell sensei, nigh-permanently cooped up in his apartment, the truth were his few old tengu friends. When I heard the rumor that Iwayasan Kinkoubou was seen passing though the Demachi shopping district with a 1 sho bottle decorated with a mizuhiki cord [*6], I thought, 'The time has finally come'.

Apprehensively, I decided to drop by sensei's apartment, but by the time I did it had already been vacated.

Following that, Akadama-sensei had disappeared from Kyoto, and hasty tanuki made a fuss, jumping to a conclusion that he went into hiding fearing retaliation from the Nidaime. However, those of us who had actually studied under sensei, starting with me, objected, insistent that with him, of all people, such a thing was just impossible.

It was true that our former mentor had lost the ability to fly through the sky freely years too early, and for someone who became a good-for-nothing old geezer who was like a thorough collection of all the nasty and wicked traits tengu possessed despite his total inability to do anything tengu-like, he shamelessly remained a selfish leecher and an overbearing tanuki-bullying braggart, yet there was also no denying that his tengu pride was the only thing he had in such abundance that it could start dripping from his nose at any moment. That is, he was the kind of person who would rather die a ridiculous death by crashing into freeze-dried tofu than give the likes of tanuki a cause to point fingers and run their mouths about him running away in fear of the Nidaime.

'Mark our words, sensei will be back, without fail,' asserted the Akadama tanuki pupils.

And not even a few days later a tanuki came out and claimed that he saw sensei moving about the Kumogahata region.

The parts of Kumogahata, located to the north of Kyoto, that slipped deep into the Kitayamasugi cedar forest after you went north and upstream the Kamogawa river and left the urban area, were the turf of Iwayasan Kinkoubou since very long ago. To us, removing himself from the world below full of earthly affairs and tanuki hair and going into seclusion in a lofty place like that looked like proof of just how serious Akadama-sensei was being. There could be no doubt that our great teacher went to train his body and discipline his mind that had grown rusty and dull from his many years of reclusive life, fully intending to confront the Nidaime now that he had been back.

"That's Akadama-sensei for you. Even corrupt, he's still Nyoigadake Yakushibou."

After this news, in the tanuki world sensei's stocks seemed to have gone up somewhat.

T/N:

[*1] Nidaime (ニ代目) lit. the Second: make no mistake it's not a name, just a counter that serves as a convenient way to identify him, so everyone calls him that (similarly to the use of words like sensei, danna, kaichou, etc). His full tengu name would be Nyoigadake Yakushibou the Second. [*2] Minamiza theater (南座): one of the most famous and earliest kabuki theaters (wiki); its current building was built in 1929 which we could take as the year when the conflict between Akadama and the Nidaime took place. [*3] Daruma (達磨): I'm sure every anime or manga fan knows what a daruma is (wiki just in case), so here I'll just mention that when new, both its eyes are unfilled, and you fill in the left eye when you found a wish or an ambition you want to make reality and the right one after you've achieved it. [*4] Oooka judgement  (大岡裁き): originates from the decisions made by a legendary judge of the 17th century Oooka Tadasuke who is famous for making his decisions with exceptional wisdom, fair-mindedness and kindness (wiki) [*5] Oshikura Manju (押し競饅頭): a children's game where participants stand back-to back in a circle and try to push one of them out of it (wiki) [*6] 1 sho bottle ( 一升瓶 ): sho is a traditional Japanese unit for measuring volume equal to 1.8 liters; Mizuhiki (水引) is a decorative cord out of twisted rice paper (wiki)

[loubuggins]

Every King Needs a Queen

Chapter 1: The Raid

Titan's Secret Safe House, Location: Classified

The tall and dense clumps of the lush, green blades of Elephant Grass blew gently with the light breeze. Water from the nearby river acted like a natural mister, cooling down the visitors that stood nearby in a small clearing of Bermuda Grass. One was a middle-aged woman with pale-grey skin that reflected off the vicious sun's rays. Her long, violet hair fell well past her shoulders and bellowed at the ends due to the wind. Her long blue cloak whipped with the wind, exposing her leotard and long, black boots. Across from her stood a younger version of what could have been the same person, had it not been for the little girl's green chakra, cloak, and the specks of emerald invading her amethyst eyes.

The two faced each other, the youngest standing in a fighting position with her arms up in defense and her little legs standing firm in the soft grass, her dark green boots standing out against the lighter yellow green ground. The elder stood with her arms at her side, and her blank stare pointed towards the child.

"Are you ready, Arella?" The women asked in her typical, monotone voice.

The little girl nodded her head, some of her long, violet locks falling in her face, forcing her to blow them away with a huff. "Ready, Mother."

"Go!" A blast of obsidian magic was sent barreling towards the small child. The girl reacted instinctively, a black shield forming over her crossed arms. The blast was strong, strong enough to push the girl a couple steps back, but not enough to break her shield. A few heartbeats passed while Arella's mind tried to catch up with what was happening. With a grunt, she sent a pulse of her own magic back at her mother, breaking the stream of opposing magic and sending the women back a couple of feet.

. . . Rip her apart . . .

There it was again.

Arella shook the voice off, getting back to her training exercises.

Arella was about to send another blast at her mother, but she got her attention, "Use the items around you! You'll expend less energy that way!"

"Oh yeah," Arella retracted her magic, then re-extended her emotions over a few large rocks around her. They floated into the air and began dancing around her mother in an almost playful, teasing manner. At first, she thought Arella was simply playing with her powers, but that theory was shot to hell when the rocks began shooting at her one by one. Arella giggled a bit watching her mother deflect her attacks, so she sped up her attacks . . . faster . . . and faster . . .

"Arella!" Raven was beginning to become exhausted, the large rocks coming at her from every angle. "ARELLA!"

The young sorceress gasped, wrangling in her emotions, but not before a loose boulder hit Raven in the back of the head. "Mother!" Arella screamed in fear as she ran over to her fallen mother. She came close to jumping her mother, but changed her mind last second, and instead took a couple steps back. Her hands were held up to her chest as she anxiously fiddled with her fingers. Hot, fresh tears ran down her red cheeks, and her breath quickened and became shallow. The wind picked up again and began swirling around the child, sending mud, rocks, and sticks flying about. "Ma…Ma…Mama I'm…so sorry Mama, I…"

The mother sat back up with a loud groan. She was covered in mud and blades of grass stuck to her wet skin. She looked up to see her young daughter sobbing and hyperventilating. Her maternal instincts kicked in, and forgetting her own pain, she pushed herself up on her legs and walked up towards the panicking child. She used her own powers to block the flying objects that came her way.

When she was only a few inches away for the small girl, she bent down on her knees and took the child's head in her hands. The girl looked at her mother with frightened, tearful eyes. Her mother's face was emotionless as she leaned her head down, and touched their foreheads together, their chakra's glowing as they clicked together. An instant wave of calmness and security washed over the young girl. The last of her tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped into the earth. Her breathing became deeper and more even, and her arms fell to her sides.

Her mother, once satisfied with her daughter's condition, broke their connection by pulling away. She looked down at her daughter and gently rubbed her thumbs over the girl's hot cheeks, cleaning away the last of her tears. The girl's eyes were focused on the ground under her, too ashamed to meet her mother's gaze.

"I'm sorry, Mama." She whimpered sadly.

Her mother pulled the girl's small body into a loving embrace, one of her arms wrapping around the girl's thin waist and the other holding her head. Without hesitation, Arella wrapped her short arms around her mother's neck, her head burying itself into her mother's shoulder. Her mother stroked her daughter's long, silky hair as she whispered into her sensitive, pointy, little ears. "I love you, Arella. Never worry about me. You could never hurt me. I just need you to promise me something."

Arella nodded her head and her mother gently pushed the girl back, her hands now gripping the girl's shoulders. Arella met her mother's deep amethyst gaze. She could feel her mother's serious mood, and the deep rooted protective nature that she always felt off her mother.

"Promise me Arella, that you will do everything in your power to control your rage. That part of you is not the true part. You are not that monster, and I never want you to feel like you are, but you must learn to control that part of you, or else one day it may take control and never give it up. Promise me, you won't allow that to happen."

Arella searched her mother's eyes, seeing concern, worry, and worst of all, fear. What she could not decipher was rather that fear was for her safety or her mother's. A part of Arella told her not to make that promise. It was the scary voice that constantly whispered in her mind, telling her terrible things that would sometimes make her lash out or run to her parent's bedside in the middle of the night looking for sanctuary. Her mother once told her that the voice was not her friend, and that whatever the voice said was never true. She often tried to ignore the mysterious, deep-throated voice, but sometimes the ideas it came up with sounded so…good. Other times, she wouldn't even know she was obeying the voice until after the damage was done, and she was left to face the consequences. Now the voice was back, telling her that her mother was wrong, but if there was one lesson Arella learned, it was that Mother was never wrong.

"Okay, Mama, I promise." Her small voice squeaked as she nodded her head.

"That's my girl." Her mother's lips twitched up in a faint smile and she placed a brief kiss on top of Arella's head.

Suddenly, the warm air became chilling and the pressure dropped as well. A weird feeling built up in Arella's stomach, and her mother's smile quickly replaced itself with a frown.

"And here we have the elusive Raven. A solitary creature that prefers the company of books then to that of human contact. Highly intelligent, but drawn to all things green." Came the sarcastic, English voice of the demon king, dressed in his typical red Armani Collezioni three-button suit.

"What are you doing here, Landon?" The mother's gravelly voice was laced with suspicion and annoyance as she looked past Arella and stared pointedly at the nicely dressed demon. Instinctively she brought Arella closer to her.

"Now, Raven darling, is that any way to greet an old friend?" Landon pretended to be hurt by her sudden rudeness.

"It is if that friend only shows up when there is danger, you need a favor, or both." The women retorted, but he only shrugged.

"I suppose there is some truth in that." He said, then dropped his gaze to the little girl hiding under her mother's cloak.

A wicked grin crepted onto his face. "And who is this lovely young thing?" The demon king approached, Arella stayed at her mother's side, but she watched the king with curious eyes. Landon dropped down to the 10-year-old's height. His dark brown eyes meeting her purple-green ones.

"I believe we haven't had the pleasure of being properly introduced, little one." The king extended his hand, his smile never leaving his face. "Landon, King of Hell, at your service."

The girl eyed his open hand doubtfully.

"It's okay, Arella. He won't hurt you." Raven's last comment seemed directed more as a threat to the demon king than as comfort to the little girl.

Upon her mother's approval, Arella extended her tiny, pale hand and Landon instantly accepted it. He gripped the small hand and brought it to his lips, placing a polite kiss on her knuckles. The little girl blushed and quickly brought her hand back to the safety of mother's cloak.

"Now, darling, it's only polite to give your name after someone has introduced themselves to you. Honestly, has your mother taught you nothing?" He glanced up at Raven, who ignored his taunt.

"Arella Rita Logan." The girl recited like a line from a play she had to memorize.

"Alright, Arella, your training is over for today. Go teleport home, your father should be there." Her mother ordered. Arella immediately voiced her objections, but one stern glare from her mother was enough to make the child obey without another word. Once the young girl was swallowed up by a large black hole, Raven finally relaxed.

"Why did you come here, Landon?" She asked again, as she used her magic to begin removing the mud and debris from her person.

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop in on my favorite chromatically challenged family." With a snap of his fingers, all the dirt that had been on Raven vanished, and any cuts or bruises she had disappeared with it. Raven let out a sigh, but thanked the king anyway. "Anytime, darling. Now about your little training session."

"I knew it!" Raven interjected, raising a finger at the king. "This is a business trip."

Landon rolled his dark eyes at the women. "Of course, it's a business trip. All my trips are business trips. Now back to the topic at hand. I know what you have been teaching that girl, but it will never work."

"What are you talking about?" Raven growled at the overly-confident demon.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. The girl has a power inside her that could end us all, and all you are doing is adding fuel to the fire." Landon spoke calmly as he folded his hand together behind his back.

"I'm teaching her to suppress and control her demonic side, just as I was taught, and just as I taught my other two children." Raven explained, doing her best to suppress her own rage at the king's insult to her parenting.

"That may have worked for them, but for the girl, it's like fixing a leak with a band aid. It will not last forever, and when it fails, she'll drown."

The metaphor hung in the air as Raven allowed this warning to sink in.

"No." She objected. "You're wrong! My daughter will never fall to the darkness. Never!"

Landon simply blinked at her outburst. "So, what's the plan exactly? Tell her to stay away from the darkness and move on with life? That's not enough."

"Then what do you suggest?!" Raven's heart froze as she thought of her daughter being corrupted by her own rage. A vision of Arella covered in the Marks of Scath filled her mind, but she quickly pushed it away.

"You need to teach her about the darkness, show her the darkness, show her the consequences. You cannot hope to control something you suppress. That's not how it works." Landon implored. "That's exactly why you became Trigon's bloody portal! The only reason you survived is because of your friends were crazy enough to go to hell and find you."

"And Arella has even more friends and family than I had." Raven added.

"But what if that's not enough this time." The demon king challenged. "Trigon will try to return to this realm, and when that day comes, wouldn't you rather her be strong enough to resist him, rather than hope she'll come out the other end alive?"

Now this made Raven really think. Could this arrogant king of Hell, be right? Would giving into her demonic side, really protect Arella from her malevolent grandfather?

"Raven, please, all joking aside, let me help. I don't want her to be Trigon's plaything any more than you do. If you let her come with me, and learn how to properly use her demonic powers, spend some time in the darkness, she may just be strong enough to stop Trigon before he even knocks on the door." Landon was a lot of things, but she never would have pegged him as a beggar. Yet, here he was, practically pleading with her to give in to him. He had to feel strongly about this, if he was asking for her permission before he acted. However, no matter how important this was to the king of Hell, there was no way on Earth or Hell that she would let him take her daughter away from her.

This made Raven's answer easy. "No." She said meeting her scowling gaze. "I'm sorry, Landon, but she is my daughter. My responsibility. I will train her how I see fit, and use every last drop of my powers to make sure she is safe. My mother sent me away, because of my proclaimed prophecy, and I swore to myself that I would never do that to my own child. Keeping safe is important, but so is showing her love, kindness, and friendship. Those are what saved me in the end, and they will save her too."

Surprisingly Landon wasn't surprised by her answer. Memories of his own daughter being taken from him long ago helped him to understand her decision. That didn't mean he had to like it.

"While I respect your passion, and I understand your answer, darling, I must implore you to reconsider." He pushed one final time.

Raven narrowed her eyes at him, her own death glare rivaling his. "Read my lips, Landon. Not. Going. To. Happen."

"Very well. Can't say I didn't try." His eye darted from Raven to the thick brush of grass behind her, where a pair of amethyst/emerald eyes widened at being caught. "If you need me, you know the number."

Raven snorted, "Still 666?"

He smirked, A black cloud of smoke covered the demon king, and as quickly as he came, he vanished, leaving behind a confused Raven and a perplexed little girl.

Titan Tower West, Jump City, CA

Present Day

A lot changed over the years, that much is certain, and inevitable, but none more than the tower that stood guard in the bay of Jump City. The one shaped like a giant T. Though it had been there for years, it had gone through intensive remolding, and not just adding on rooms, or enlarging the ones they already had by putting their own bathrooms in them. No, the most impressive of these remodels was the enormous underground training facility, equipped with the latest and greatest in combat training, which was where the newest group of young heroes found themselves this morning.

With the combat simulation at the ready, the group of five teenage heroes began their training exercises to start the day. Of course, only one of them was excited to be up at five in the morning. A streak of gold zipped through the air fighting off her airborne opponents. Special armored bracelets helped her deflect the shots that were aimed at her.

Wonder Girl landed, while a red blur ran past her. "Gotta watch your back, Cassie." Impulse teased.

She rolled her blue eyes, removing a rope from her belt to lasso a hologram, and swinging it at another that stood behind the speedster. "How about we call it even."

He shrugged, "Works for me," and zipped off to help his teammates.

A young man stood surrounded by the computerized ninjas. With eyes glowing a fiery blue, large balls of fire shot from his hands and began consuming them. Once the way was clear the balls of fire shrank before merging to become one, then floated by his ear.

"Not bad," he told it, "still a bit slow on the afterburner though . . . whatdoya mean I don't know what I'm talking about?!"

"Reed . . . !" Instinctively Reed docked for cover just as a young woman with short spiked pink hair soared over him kicking away two of the ninjas in a splits kick. Once he hit the ground, she threw her arm at another group of charging ninja's, shards of crystal flying out of her arms and hitting each of them in the heads. " . . . watch out." She stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips in a sarcastic manner.

"Heh," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, ". . sorry." Chloe Daniels rolled her cobalt blue-eyes, before crystalizing her leg to send a spin kick to attacking ninja's behind her.

The holograms continued to come down on the team of Titans, well all but one who was safely floating in a meditative trance high above the training floor. She took a few deep breaths, the emerald chakra stone on her forehead acting as a third eye allowing her to see the battle field below her. With her eyes glowing a pale green she recited the spell.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Dark olive-green tendrils shot from the recesses of her cloak impaling each of the ninja warriors below turning them into digitized ash. Once the dust had settled (figuratively) the group of young heroes gathered in the center, the young sorceress floated into the midst of them.

"Nice shot, Ary." Reed complimented, the small fireball sitting calmly on his shoulder, twitching with hot energy.

With the hood of her dark green cloak hiding her face, she glared at him. "It's Arella."

"Wait, I thought Maria called you Ary?" Impulse asked.

Her eyes narrowed, "She's a unique circumstance that I shouldn't have to explain to you."

Impulse and Reed looked puzzled, "It means only her sister and brother can call her that." Chloe, with her arms folded and hip jutting out, informed them as she stood beside the cloaked girl, sending her a smirk, "And me on occasion."

"Only 'cuz my magic doesn't work on you," Arella grumbled.

A small aqua colored ruby sparked from her revealed midriff. "I still can't believe your dad allowed THAT." Reed gawked.

"Who said anything about him allowing it?" She grinned.

"That's enough." Wonder Girl stepped forward, but was specifically glaring at Arella. "I know you have the ability to wipe everything out in a single blast, but you were told NOT to use so much power."

The gothic sorceress scowled at her team leader. "Well sorry you all were taking too long." She mocked an apology. Wonder Girl narrowed her eyes even more at her sarcastic team mate.

"This is a training exercise. It's not about time, it's about endurance. What would happen if you used all your magic at once, and found yourself drained during the heat of battle?"

She scrunched her face, pretending to think. "I'd probably get the hell out of there."

Reed and Impulse shared a snicker, while Chole simply smirked at her best friend's comeback. Before Cassie could retort, another figure approached the group. She had light green skin, with dark emerald eyes and hair. Her ears came to a point and her nails were short and sharp like claws. She wore a tight spandex suit, sporting her family colors, purple and green. The suit hugged her hourglass frame perfectly, and when she spoke, her short fangs glistened in the light.

"And how do you suppose you'll do that?" Questioned the older new comer, known as Maria. If Arella was bothered by Cassie's annoying attempt at a lecture, she sure wasn't going to be in the mood for this.

"No one asked you." Her weak comeback made even herself cringe.

"No, no. I want to hear just how little miss 'all powerful sorceress' gets herself out of danger without the use of her powers." The green-haired women pushed, a knowing smirk spreading on her lips.

"Okay fine!" Arella finally gave in. "I'll…I'll…I'll hitch a ride with my pal Chloe over here." She said as she wrapped her arm over the pinkette's shoulders.

"Like hell you will." Chloe said as she shrugged Arella's arm off. "No one is riding me."

impulse and Reed glanced at each other. "Nope, to easy." smirked the speedster, but that only earned him an annoyed sort of smoke and tiny crystal flex from her nose.

"Oh, come Chlo!" Arella batted her big, purple-green eyes. "Not even for little ole' me?"

"Sorry Ary, but you gotta be at least this tall to ride this ride." The dragon knight lifted her hand a few inches over both their heads. "And that includes these two idiots." She said with another glare in the direction of the snickering boys.

"Alright," The oldest announced. "Arella, you know this already, but since you never seem to grasp the concept I guess I'll just have to repeat it again. Do. Not. Use. All. Your. Magic. In. One. Strike. Do I make myself clear?" The women stared the younger girl down.

Arella rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mom." She said with dripping sarcasm. Maria was not amused, but before she could scold the girl, the blaring sirens of the mission alert interrupted their little chat.

"Trouble. Titans Go!" Maria shouted as she quickly teleported out of the room. Cassie flew off in the direction of the exit, Impulse hot on her trail. Arella grabbed Chloe's arm and the two were swallowed up in her own portal, leaving an irritated Reed behind.

"Man, why am I the only one stuck getting around the old fashion way?" He asked as he threw his arms in the air in exaggeration, and begin the long trek to the common room. The fire ball on his shoulder flashed a few times, as if it were trying to speak.

"What do you mean, you can get there faster than this? You can't do anything without me telling you to."

Flash. Flash.

"Well I don't care if you were just stating a fact. It was a stupid fact." The brunette continued to banter with his pet fire ball as they were the last to exit the room.

"Well look who finally made it." Reed had finally made it to the common room in time for Impulses comment.

"I thought we agreed you weren't allowed comments like that since you get everywhere in two seconds anyway?" he growled, the ball of fire floating around him flashed in agreement. "You said it."

"Anyways," Maria got everyone's attention, "this is our bad guy for the day." With a couple commands typed into the computer, the round silver haired face of a man flashed across the screen. Everyone gave a collective gasp, then growls of rage. "I don't think I need to tell you just how important this mission is," Maria continued, "Marcus Cassidy is one if the worst sex traffickers in the world and he's setup shop in our own backyard. Now that he's surfaced again we CAN'T afford to lose him again." There was a silent wave of agreement amongst the group. Maria motioned for wonder girl to take over.

"Not only do we need to make sure we get Cassidy alive, but we also need the location of every one of his operations, and get any and all captives out a safe. Bart, you'll be responsible for hacking their computers. Arella, you and Maria will work on getting the innocent out of there, while Reed and Chloe will take care of any obstacles that we'll run into. And I'll make sure Cassidy is going nowhere. Sound good?"

Everyone gave a nod of agreement, including, to everyone's surprise, Arella. She had excepted a long time ago that she was essentially babysat during missions, especially by wonder girl, who still didn't fully trust her, and Maria when she was there. It was different when her older brother, and Maria's twin, Mark was around since Arella felt genuine love and concern when he was with them, plus he wasn't such a tight ass. Chloe, whose emotions Arella couldn't feel, was also genuinely concerned during missions, unlike the rest of her teammates, but again she stopped arguing a while ago.

"Alright then. Titans..."

"...GO!"

The group of young heroes took off into the construction site, Impulse zipping through to a nearby trailer, Reed, or the Fox, threw a slew of fire balls that began reducing the automatic weapons being fired at them to Ash, and any that planned on escaping were blocked in by a stream of red hot fire from above.

A pale green rhino charged towards a mobile home looking building, a bubble of dark green energy that helped to shield her from the gun fire. Rhino Maria smashed through the trailer, Arella continuing to shield them.

"Good job Maria, leaving a huge hole open for the bad guys!"

Maria shifted back, "Just keep that shield up!" was all she could say. Arella growled in frustration, but from the safety of her barrier, saw a blur of dark pink and sapphire scales land in front of the gunfire, and changed into solid diamonds, resulting in the bullets bouncing off her sold form.

Arella dropped the barrier, "Thanks Clo." and she took off down the trailer were Maria was already waiting for her.

Huddled around her was a group of malnourished, dehydrated, beaten and frightened young women, each giving off a mixture of fear, gratitude and uncertainty.

"Arella, you need to teleport them to the Jump City Police Station." Now Arella knew that the magical power that she inherited from their mother was stronger in her, and would make sense for her to teleport them to safety. However, since the two sisters never really got along, Arella didn't really think about the next words that came out of her mouth. "well why can't you do it?"

Maria gave a look of annoyance and disbelief as if Arella was only batting her into admitting that her younger sister was better than her in this regard. Before she could scold her, a rough explosion rocked the earth beneath them. "Arella just get them out of here!". Maria changed into a squirrel and scurried out of the trailer to join the battle outside. The group of women looked up at the young girl with confusion, not sure what was about to happen.

"Hang on," she advised. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Her dark green ethereal energy washed over the group and herself transporting them to somewhere safe.

It was a full thirty minutes later before Arella could get back to the battle. Once the women were situated, Arella informed the police department where they were and that they could use the backup. Once she emerged from her portal, she was met by a disturbing sight. A gentleman with a large blaster in his hands was shooting beans of green light at her teammates, a weapon she recognized as a power canceling gun. Fox, and Maria were already down, but Impulse, Wonder Girl and Chloe, still in her dragon form, were attempting to take out the gunman. Before Arella could help her friends, her pointed ears picked up the sound of a rocket launcher being fired and the projectile coming right at her. instinctively she threw up a shield around herself but the resulting explosion knocked her into a nearby Office trailer. she broke through the wall knocking around papers computers and documents but was unharmed. she quickly got to her feet and flew from the trailer to her teammates. out of the corner of her eye she saw Marcus Cassidy climbing in to an SUV to make his getaway.

Kill him now!

There is was. the deep guttural voice that had haunted her for years once again commanding her to kill, to rip, and to dominate. But a roar of her friends in peril got her attention.

DO IT!

Once again Arella fought the voice back, a practice that was becoming tiring, and done for her teammates. summoning all her remaining energy, she wrapped her team in her power and teleported them all to safety.

Arella, still dressed in her uniform, stared blankly at the ceiling of her bedroom, which just happened to be her mother's old room, a pair of large headphones covering her ears to drown out the conversation taking place down the hall. she had heard it all before. Maria and Wonder girl would argue that Arella screwed up while Chloe would stand up for her, and would most the time end up right. These arguments we're often likened to the fights between the former Doom Patrol leader, and her grandfather, Mento, and her dad. But Arella stopped participating in the fights years ago, some they always ended the same. "trying to protect you", "we're in charge" blah, blah, blah. Again, Arella stopped caring a long time ago.

Glancing at the clock on her nightstand she decided it was time for bed. She stood, keeping the headphones on, and undid her cloak and kicked off her boots, when something caught her eye. Within the folds of her cloak that she hadn't noticed till now, were loose pieces of paper that she didn't recognize. she scooped them up and began sifting through them, discovering that they came from the trailer that she was thrown into earlier. Looking through the stack she didn't see anything that Impulse wasn't able to download, but one stood out from the rest.

It was a photograph of a younger looking Marcus Cassidy with a woman and two kids taken in front of a sign that led to a campsite.

Huh, why would he have this with him? Is this a safe house? The deductive reasoning skills that had been hammered into her by Nightwing began to put the pieces together. This MUST be a safe house. Why else have this photo? Yes! this had to be it! I gotta tell Maria!

Why?

There it was again. That infernal voice that was with her twenty four seven. At first it was bothersome, but now...now it's presence brought something out in her.

A familiar...itch.

Taking the photo in her hand she headed for her closet rummaging for a trunk shoved into the back.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

She froze, extending her senses beyond her door.

She relaxed when she felt it wasn't her sister, her esteemed leader, or Chloe, but she still wasn't wanting company.

She floated to the door, opening it just a crack to peer at her visitor.

"Hey Arella," Reed greeted nervously. He was a slightly taller boy, with shaggy auburn hair that came down to eyebrows, forest green eyes, and a splash of freckles painted along his cheeks.

She waited a beat. "Um, hi?" She responded awkwardly. She could feel his anxiety and apprehension, it was practically chocking her, but perhaps the most unnerving emotion she felt from him was attraction. She was used to picking up unsavory feelings from guys, but this poor kid had it bad for her. It was somewhat flattering, and if she were a normal eighteen-year-old girl, she probably would have returned the feelings. Reed was, after all, one of the sweetest and most attractive guys she knew. He was honestly the only guy outside of her family that didn't make her want to send him to the pits of Hell. However, she was not a normal girl. She was Raven's daughter after all, and she certainly did not inherit her father's people skills.

"Hey!" He said with a sickenly sweet smile.

"You already said that." She deadpanned, hoping he would catch her disinterest and leave her be.

"Heh, heh. Right." He laughed anxiously as he rubbed the back of his neck in an old nervous habit, much like her father and brother. "So, um, I just thought I'd check in on ya. I know today didn't go quite as well as we wanted, but at least we got those girls out, right?"

Ugh, she should have known. Every time a mission went awry, she was to blame. Every time she was blamed, Reed would show up at her door to try and cheer her up. She supposed it was nice of him to care so much, but it honestly didn't bother her anymore. What was bothering her was this interruption.

"Thanks, Reed." She replied with a fake smile. "That helps. Now if you don't mind, I was just getting ready for bed." If the boy picked up on her lie, he didn't show it.

"Okay! Yeah, um, great! Okay, I'll, um, see you tomorrow?" He stuttered as an embarrassed blush creeped up his freckled cheeks.

The dark-haired demoness simply nodded her head. The lovesick boy waved goodbye as he stumbled down the hall to his room. Arella watched him go for a quick moment, making sure he was in fact going to his room. Once she was sure she was in the clear, she used her powers to slide the door shut.

Arella raced back to her closet and her trunk. She was already shaking with anticipation, but she had to calm her nerves, she couldn't afford to be jittery. This was a secret mission, after all, and blowing up things in her room or around the tower was not exactly stealthy. Opening the trunk, she proceeded to dress herself in its contents which consisted of a one-piece, skin tight, pitch black leotard and black sweater, with black leggings and boots. To finish the outfit, she placed a black mask with white mesh over her eyes just like Nightwing's.

She grabbed the picture that held the name of the campsite. Camp Catalina. She knew that campsite. It wasn't too far from here.

Stuffing the picture into her boot, she threw her hood up over her face, and with a flick of her wrist, a black portal grew out of thin air. Without looking back, Arella stepped through the portal, leaving her home behind.

She couldn't remember her first time. All she remembered were colors and shapes, the stench of metal and the feel of sticky hot liquid. Once the smoke cleared and she saw the after effects of what she had done, she vomited, she vomited so much there was blood tearing form her throat. There was one other thing she remembered about the experience though.

The pure, untamed, exhilaration. The feeling was... orgasmic. She had to do it again . . . and again . . . and again. And now she was here, washing the warm sticky liquid off her hands at the sink. She no longer blacked out. She no longer vomited. She no longer felt nervous. Now it came naturally to her, and she remembered every second of it.

She felt a chill run down her spine at the memory. Their cries for mercy, their pathetic attempts at pleading for their lives, just like the women they ripped from their homes. She felt it. She felt their delicious fear, their intoxicating pain, she felt every inch of it and GOD she had never felt so alive! The best part was justice had been served, justice for those women, and everyone in the future whose lives they would have ruined had they been allowed to live. She did a service, she did the right thing. She finished washing her hands and moved into the living room, taking count of the bloody corpses that were strewn across the floor. Marcus Cassidy and five of his men were dead by her small, delicate hands.

"Okay," she sighed, "Now it's time for the hard and boring part," she opened a portal to a pocket dimension and removed a few cleaning items. Bleach, gloves, towels, plastic wrap, and trash bags, "Cleaning." By the time she was done, there was no way on heaven or earth she would be found out.

It took her about two hours to clean the cabin of blood, "Note to self, put plastic wrap around everything to minimize cleaning." she told herself. She glanced back at the bodies, making sure they were all wrapped neatly in plastic bags. "Alright, time to go." She opened a portal and with another wave of her hands the bodies floated through the portal to their final resting place. She glanced around the cabin, and being satisfied with her work followed after the corpses.

She had done a perfect job.

Too bad she had forgotten the broken security camera.

Russia.

She enjoyed exotic places, the wind blowing through the trees, a babbling brook in the distance. It was peaceful, even though the earth was disturbed by several holes dug into the ground for Marcus and his friends. The last body was placed into the hole, and she began moving dirt to cover them up.

"The best part about these powers, no shovels." she said to herself.

"I agree,"

Arella jumped out of her skin, the body falling to the ground with a crash and dirt exploding in every direction. She spun around, not sure what to think of whoever had disturbed her . . . but she knew him.

"Hello darling," Landon greeted coolly, "Fancy a chat?"

Author's Notes:

So another jam-packed chapter! Arella has been a naughty girl. Will Landon set her straight? Find out in the next chapter!

Lot's of OC's being introduced in this story. Tell bearhow and I which one's your favorite in an ask or message!

Make sure to check out bearhow's latest drawling of Chloe Daniels! Find it here.

A big thank you to all who have reviewed so far! Y'all are the best! To those who are just now joining in on this story, please leave bearhow and I a review! We would both really appreciate it. So much time and energy is going into this story, so please, if you read, take 30 seconds to drop a review! It goes a long way! (You can do so in your message, reblog, or in the form of an ask. You can also go to FF.net and leave a review there!)

Until next time,

L.B.

Disclaimer: Landon and Chloe Daniels owned by bearhow. Arella Logan and Maria Logan owned by Lou Buggins. Reed owned by both of us. All other character's property of D.C. Comics.