It sparkled as it flew through the air, picking up the last gleams of the now dying light. Tiny pieces of its fractured red cat's eye jewel dripped from it like blood from an open wound.

When he grabbed it from the air, it cut the palm of his hand.

The wound healed within seconds.

Both were a gift…from her.

The bright light that had enveloped them all just seconds before had faded into the night sky just as her life had faded away with it.

The world, once spinning completely out of control, had finally come to a sudden and jarring stop.

Minato Mirai was finally silent.

The only sound that could be heard now in all the night covered rubble and devastation, was the sounds of his own sobbing.

She was gone now, forever; and his world would never be the same again.

Then out of nowhere, her arms surrounded him and he could smell her familiar scent. She laid her head on his back and she cried with him.

He then remembered how selfish he was being.

She had just lost a sister and her mother, again.

All he had lost was... nothing.

That was because for him there is only…

….and there has only ever been…..

.…one Moka.

He turned around inside her embrace and wrapped her in his own arms as she released all her pain into his chest through great sobs and muffled screams.

When she had finally exhausted herself, he tilted her chin up and they looked into each other's red and tearful eyes.

Together they shared their pain, and together, they would learn to live with it.

The world chose that very moment to begin spinning once more.

A flight of four fighter jets, with the red circle surrounded by white on the outer edge, emblazoned on their wings, screamed past their position several hundred meters overhead.

"Guys, we need to get out of here!"

They turned towards their companions at last with these rare words of wisdom from Ginei.

Akua added additional emphasis to the sudden urgency.

"Yeah, like yesterday!"

"Well, that might be a problem!"

Kurumu was pointing down one of only two clear paths from their current position. They could all see a group of heavily armed Self-Defense Forces men rapidly approaching their position.

"It's not much better over here either!"

From the direction Xia-Long was indicating, several well-armed all-terrain vehicles were approaching.

"First Monsters! Now human soldiers! What next?"

Kokoa's frustration was understandable.

"Moka, Ruby, Kurumu, San!"

All four turned their attention immediately to Tsukune.

"We five can fly, so we need to take the others to a safer location from which we all can successfully evacuate."

"Great idea! Too bad we can't!"

With Haiji's words, another flight of four Self-Defense Forces fighters buzzed them from above.

"Yeah, not without taking them out first!"

Fong-Fong was right. There was no way past either the ground forces or their air cover now without inflicting harm on the humans in some form.

"We can't fight them! That's the last thing the Dark Lords would have wanted us to do!"

Yukari had taken the words right out of Tsukune's mouth.

"There's no choice then."

He had barely spoken the words where even his own ears could hear them, but somehow everyone turned towards him in that instant with concern showing in their eyes.

Feeling the pressure of their anxiety and fear on him now, Tsukune braced himself and spoke out again.

"We have to split them up! So…"

He could feel Moka tense beside him in anticipation of his next words.

"…..I'll distract them, while you guys try to slip away. I'm the only one the human authorities could hope to…"

The pain of something hard slamming into the right side of his face made Tsukune stagger and drop down to his left knee. It took several seconds of head shaking for his vision to refocus. Once it did he looked up to see what sledgehammer had hit him.

Silver hair blowing in strands through the night wind and glowing angry red eyes looked down at him. A clenched fist hovered far too close to his face for his comfort.

"How dare you!"

Despite her anger, she was still crying, and still exquisitely beautiful.

"I will never leave your side! How could you even suggest it?"

"I live and die beside my Tsukune-kun!"

Kurumu was not one to let Moka one-up her on devotion to Tsukune, even in this tense of a situation.

"I am ready to die beside my love!"

Not to be outdone by either, Mizore added on as well.

"Guys, we can't….."

Tsukune's protest was cut off before he could finish his protest.

"There's a vehicle approaching!"

Ling-Ling directed everyone's attention to a set of headlights that appeared as if out of nowhere just meters away. Everyone immediately braced for combat.

"What the…."

The vehicle's tires made a resounding screech as it came to an abrupt stop just meters away.

The door swung open, and an all too familiar voice called out to them from beneath the darkness of a visor cap.

"You guys looking to make more new friends tonight, or would you just rather go home now?"

Multiple voices erupted in surprise and shock.

"BUS DRIVER!"

His normally devious smile was a bit more subdued than usual.

"Get a move on kids! Your new friends don't look like they want you to leave just yet!"

Everyone began piling onto the bus.

Tsukune immediately took up position guarding the bus door beside Gin and Haiji as the others rapidly piled into the bus.

As the last of them were preparing to enter, it was then they heard a piercing scream for help.

"Onee-SAMA!"

Turning, they could see that Kokoa was standing still and pulling at her own leg. She looked like she was having an issue removing her foot from something.

"KOKOA!"

Moka screamed from an open bus window and began to move to retrieve her imouto. At that moment the foot soldiers of the Self-Defense Forces stopped only meters from Kokoa position and leveled their rifles at the bus, with her right in the middle of their lines of fire.

Kokoa reflexively cringed.

"Oh God! This is going to hurt!"

As a vampire, she'd probably live through it, but a hail of bullets was going to be merriclously painful.

"Halt! Or we'll…"

Their leader never finished his statement.

A blinding flash of light reflecting off metal made them all squint their eyes. Only after blinking their eyes for a few seconds did they see that the barrels of their rifles now lay useless on the ground in before them.

"What the…."

Where before a teenage girl with orange twin pig-tail hair had stood, was now a metallic cone with a notch near the top.

Glaring from that notch in the cone were red eyes and silver-white hair.

Inside that protective metal cone, Kokoa looked up in amazement at the face of her rescuer.

Reaching down beside caught left leg with their own left arm, the rescuer took a hold of something and she could feel a powerful lurch freeing her trapped foot.

It wasn't her foot that had been moved through.

It was a steel I-beam of several hundred kilograms in weight.

The metallic cone split open as the soldiers flinched at the sight of a massive steel I-beam hurtling through the air over their heads, coming down in a crash behind them to their obvious amazement.

They barely had time to turn back around to see the sheets of protective metal spread outwards like great bat wings, completely covering the bus as the silver-haired owner of those wings flew backward with Kokoa secure in his arms.

"OH! Tsukune!"

Moka called out to him as he landed with Kokoa in his arms right beside the bus. She was already inside the bus's doorway waiting for them.

Kokoa looked up into Tsukune's face as he glared past her towards the stunned faces of the soldiers. Her hands were now resting lifelessly on his chest. The look of amazement in her eyes was plain for the witnesses to see. Not only had he jerked the I-beam free and tossed it like a toy, but he had pulled it free from under even heavier clumps of concrete and rebar to do so.

"….Tsukune?"

With her stunned one word question, he looked down at her at last with an awkward smile and a slight blush to his cheeks, but at that very moment he suddenly pulled up the left wing and braced himself and her.

A swarm of flame accompanied the hard metallic "thud" sound and the ear-splitting shriek of high explosives as a missile detonated against his left wing. They lurched half a meter to their right under the force of the explosion, but he never lost his footing or his protective posture.

"TSUKUNE!"

Having taken the full impact in stride, he lowered his wing just enough to see a military vehicle bearing down on the bus from behind with what looked like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher on top of it.

A soldier was furiously reloading the grenade launcher for the next assualt.

"Get on the bus."

With his calm and steady command, Moka, who now had the stunned Kokoa by the arm, pulled her still listless little sister into the doorway.

"Move it!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Bus Driver did as Moka commanded, shifted gears, and the bus started rolling forward.

"We can't just leave him!"

Kurumu, Mizori, Yukari, and Ruby all screamed out in unison at the Bus Driver.

"Don't worry ladies….."

He smirked at them in the rearview mirror as he maneuvered past the rubble in the roadway.

"….he won't be too long."

Just then they saw to their surprise a large grenade launcher flying past them on the left side. It was clear it had been wrenched from its mount on top of the vehicle it was previously attached to and flung through the air.

Suddenly the rear door of the bus opened and Tsukune walked through.

"TSUKUNE!"

As he walked in the great metallic wings seemed to melt away into the night air.

"I assume you have a plan to get us out of here?"

Bus Driver only smiled back in the rearview mirror at Tsukune and laughed.

"Well, kind of."

"KIND OF?"

Every voice on the bus rang out in stunned unison, which only made the Bus Driver's laugh become even more maniacal.

He shifted the gears and the bus lurched forward.

"I like to play it by ear, as they say."

A few seconds later, he turned the wheel hard to the right as a projectile of some sort screamed past within inches of the left side of the bus. Once everyone returned to an upright position, he asked a seemingly innocent question over his left shoulder.

"Sorry to impose Miss Ruby, but is there any way you can do something to keep the bus scratch free?"

Stunned at first to be called out, Ruby recovered quickly.

"OH! Of course!"

As she rose to stand in the aisle, her long staff-wand suddenly appeared in her hand. She planted the long end of the wand in the middle of the aisle and as she began to chant, a sudden energy wave seemed to emanate from her glowing wand orb and envelop the entire bus.

Not a moment too soon, as a similar projectile as the one before slammed into the front of the bus with blinding results.

"AWAWAWAW!"

The bright flames of its explosion radiated across the front of the bus, but never reached the interior.

"Holy…"

Haiji, sitting on the left side near the front, had covered his eyes with his arm like everyone else. Now he turned back with admiration showing on his face.

"Way to go Miss Ruby!"

Ruby, holding out her wand with the glowing sphere at the center of her radiating a purple-hued light, blushed slightly at the praise.

"Please, we're almost the same age, just Ruby is fine."

"Do you need help Ruby-chan?"

Her fellow witch Yukari asked with obvious concern on her face. It hadn't been too long before when Ruby had undergone the painfully ordeal of wearing the Iron Maiden.

"I just need someone to keep me upright as we turn hard."

"I've got you."

Tsukune rose and stood behind her. Then, after planting his feet securely between the benches next to them, he wrapped both his arms around Ruby's midsection.

She took a hard breath in at his sudden embrace of her, and no one towards the front of them could have helped but noticed how much she now blushed inside his steadying arms.

More than a few of the ladies on board looked a bit put off by the "help" Ruby was receiving from Tsukune.

None of them had more time for their jealousy to fester though, as the need for Tsukune's support was immediately justified.

More than a few tumbled from their seats as the Bus Driver made another hard right turn.

"What the hell you crazy old..."

Kokoa's angry question received an immediate answer as the road and rubble behind them exploded into a great fireball.

"These guys aren't playing!"

Akua was right. Another quick turn, this time to the left, was due to a much closer projectile detonation that sent a radiating explosion around Ruby's magic shield near the back of the bus.

"Are they really trying to kill us?"

Fong-Fong's question was answered as another missile slammed into the right side of the bus full on. The entire bus rolled over on its side and flipped over landing on its wheels again.

No one had fallen from their seats though.

From her position secure in Tsukune's arms, Ruby directed praise to the one responsible.

"Excellent Yukari!"

Yukari blushed with her glowing star shaped wand in her hands.

"Ah! It was nothing."

The Bus Driver never missed a beat and shifted gears again as the bus took off again in a new direction.

"You know kids, I think we need to find a place to park this big thing."

"WHAT?"

The tension inside the command center was high as uniformed officers raced from one station to another, talking into the ears of the technicians running the consoles that didn't have an earpiece already in it.

On the large screens in front of them all, various angles of the capture operation in Minato Mirai were being shown.

From the large center screen, a drone's eye view of the urban battlefield was projected for them.

Shown on that screen was a plain and slightly old looking school bus that seemed impervious to attack, flying around corners with a mobility no vehicle like that should be capable of by the Laws of Physics.

"Sir!"

A subordinate with a headset on approached and requested permission to speak.

The general nodded his head as an answer.

"Sector 2 commander reports that all exits in his sector have been secured. The targets are now trapped within a four square kilometer area. There's nowhere for them to escape to."

"Very good."

The general turned and looked at the live video feeds running before him. On one side was a display of the city map with the "target" shown in red and the Self-Defense Forces in green either following the target or waiting to catch them up ahead.

"Very good. Tell the sector commanders to pull back on the weaponry. Only use it to force them towards the park."

A large open space in the general direction the target was heading had already been designated as the place to end this chase, one way or another.

"As planned, we'll give them one chance to surrender and then we'll….."

"Sir!"

The voice of a young female officer, his assistant, interrupted him.

"Better be damned important for you to….."

"Sir."

She looked on in slight fear of his anger but pressed on.

"It is Sir."

She paused to collect herself and then delivered her information.

"It's a call for you Sir."

The general twisted his mouth in contempt, but her next words made his jaw go slack.

"It's from the Kantei Sir."

As his jaw slackened his eyes went a little wide. The young officer reporting to him beforehand joined him with an even more surprised expression.

"Are you sure?"

After asking such an obviously pointless question he shook his head in dismay at himself.

"Put it through."

The red light on the desk phone at his console began blinking a few seconds later. He took a deep breath to steady himself before picking up the receiver and pushing the red light to connect the call.

"This is General….."

He stopped speaking for a few seconds before talking again.

"Yes Sir, I recognize your voice."

Then as he listened some more, his face began to contort with obviously aggravated expressions.

"Sir, I wouldn't recommend…"

More than a few eyes in the room now looked back towards where the general was standing behind the command station.

"No Sir! I fully understand…"

You could feel the tension radiating from the general throughout the entire command center now.

"Sir, the situation on the ground…."

Then the general seemed to deflate at the orders he had apparently just received.

"Yes, Sir. Immediately Sir."

He hung up the phone and placed both his hands out on the console before him, hanging his head down between his now drooping shoulders. After a few steadying breathes he gave new orders.

"Effective immediately! Weapons hold! I repeat, weapons hold! Transmit to all field units and request confirmation!"

He seemed lost in his own world after speaking, but soon realized that with his new orders he had stunned his audience into confused inactivity.

"NOW PEOPLE!"

His anger had finally broken the spell on them and once again the commander center erupted into a hornets nest of activity.

"That's weird."

Everyone turned towards Fong-Fong when he said this. Realizing he had been overheard by everyone, he quickly explained himself.

"Just a minute ago we were under constant missile attack."

He turned back to look at the passing but silent city streets the bus was driving through.

"Now we're just being monitored by those helicopters."

It was true, outside of three helicopters following them all the military personnel had seemed to have pulled back.

"Somethings not right."

All eyes turned towards Mizore now.

"They're herding us somewhere."

"Up ahead!"

Gin's sudden outburst made them all look forward.

"TANKS!"

Two tanks lowered their barrels at the bus.

"Get ready Miss Ruby!"

At Bus Driver's sound advice Ruby intensified her protective barrier around the bus.

Nothing came.

"Why aren't they shooting?"

Kokoa's question had no answer.

"Not sure, but we aren't sticking around to find out."

Bus Driver threw the bus into a hard left turn, sending several of them careening towards the right side of the bus.

"Look there!"

Haiji's extended finger pointed in the direction of four all-terrain vehicles moving at high speed towards them from the road on their left.

Kurumu cried out next.

"Over here too!"

From the right, more all-terrain vehicles approached at high speed.

"Hold on!"

Another high-speed turn sent them slamming into the bus's left side.

"OH NO!"

Yukari's desperate cry was shared by all present. To the front, a third column of military assault vehicles was bearing down on them.

"We're trapped."

Moka's calm statement of fact belied her obvious inner turmoil.

"Don't worry kids."

Bus Driver just laughed off the tense situation.

"I finally found a good parking space."

"WHAT?"

His maniacal laughter returned, and then he made a sharp turn to the right….

…into an underground parking garage.

The entire command center was stunned by what they had just witnessed on the video feed.

"Did that thing really just turn into an underground parking garage?"

Even now the officers stared at the screen without full comprehension as the assault squad vehicles following close on the heels of the target, into the depths of the parking garage.

The young lady officer's question was understandable.

"Is there another exit to that parking garage?"

The general's question made the technicians at their console begin to furiously scroll through data on their screens.

"Sir!"

One young man popped up to answer a few moments later.

"No Sir! There are no other exits to that parking garage, Sir."

The general began to laugh.

"Well I have no idea what the driver is thinking, but they are as good as ours now."

He then turned to the technician at the communications board and barked out instructions.

"Remind everyone there's a weapons hold."

He then sat back down and smiled.

"We, apparently, want these things…alive."

"What the hell are you thinking?"

Kurumu's angry question was shared in the thoughts of all on board the bus, if not with as much vitriol.

All the Bus Driver did was give that creepy laugh of his and shift gears as the bus took another one hundred and eighty degrees turn further down into the underground parking structure.

"I hope you have a plan!"

Tsukune's statement only made the Bus Driver laugh some more.

"Whatever it is, these troops are still with us."

Ling-Ling was right. The headlights of several vehicles pursuing them at high speed down into the parking garage were only meters behind them.

The bus took another full turn then. It was at this point the gang finally saw a wall ahead of them.

"WHAT THE…."

In bright red kanji on the wall spelled out "STOP, no exit".

"BUS DRIVER!"

He began to laugh like a madman and shifted gears as the bus accelerated towards oblivion.

The last thing they heard before the coming impact was their own screams of terror, and a crazy man laughing.

"WHAT?"

Everyone turned at the sudden sound of the general screaming into a headset.

"They just DISAPPEARED?"

He was furious.

"Tunnel of light? Are you some kind of idiot? Buses don't just disappear! I swear you'll be watching Russians and scrubbing toilets in the emptiest northern reaches of Hokkaido for the rest of your career mister!"

All the nervous technicians could do was stare at each other with concern, and commiserate in their hearts with the poor guy on the other end of that phone call.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the bus came to a slow and steady stop.

They were on some darkened street somewhere in the human world that only God and Bus Driver knew of.

"You could have told us you were going to teleport the bus."

Akua said this in a surprisingly calm voice as Bus Driver smiled back at her in the rearview mirror.

"Sure, I could have."

Then his smile took on that same dangerous look he was now famous for.

"But that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun."

"Sadistic bastard!"

Kokoa's angry words only made him laugh more, as he relight his cigar.

"So glad you enjoyed yourself, young lady."

"Wait, is this…"

Xia-Long's stunned words elicited an immediate response from his companion Routier.

"It IS!"

The bus doors swung open then.

"I believe this is you two's stop."

Xia-Long nodded to Bus Driver as confirmation and they both stood up to leave.

"I can't tell you how much your help meant to us tonight."

Tsukune, still on his feet, extended his hand to a stunned Xia-Long, who took it after a few moments.

"Glad we could help, and, sorry for earlier."

Tsukune smiled and shook his head to indicate that he shouldn't worry about his part in Fairy Tale's operations before tonight.

Then Xia-Long turned to Fong-Fong and Ling-Ling at his side.

"Please tell your father that I look forward to having a discussion with him in the near future about the future of the Triads."

Fong-Fong extended his hand and Xia-Long shook it.

"I know he'll be looking forward to that."

"It might take a little while though."

Xia-Long looked away pensively as he continued to speak.

"I have to clean my own house up first."

"Don't worry Xia-Long dear."

Routier held up her chainsaw as she said these words.

"I've brought my 'broom' with me."

Everyone gulped in mild terror at the thought of Routier using her "broom" to clean out the House of Miao.

They said their goodbyes and as they exited the bus Routier turned around and brandished her chainsaw again.

"Cut you guys later!"

When she departed Xia-Long cast a spell, and they both disappeared into the night air.

Everyone made a rather loud sigh of relief.

"That's one scary girl!"

Everyone nodded to Yukari's pronouncement.

"Well…."

Akua stood up next.

"This is as good a place as any to also make my departure."

"Akua-nee!"

"Nee-san!"

Moka and Kokoa both were on their feet in surprise at their sister's unexpected announcement.

Akua put her hands on both their shoulders.

"He's out there, somewhere, and there's no time to waste."

That she was speaking of their still missing father was plain from the two younger sisters' sad reactions.

"Then we are going with you!"

Moka's bold pronouncement was followed by Kokoa's own.

"That's right! We'll find father together!"

"No, absolutely not."

They were stunned by Akua's calm denial.

"Your places are here, at school, with your friends."

Her eyes fell on Tsukune, who began to blush as Moka also looked back at him.

"He needs you now more than ever."

Then she smiled at Moka with a teasing look.

"And you need him now more than ever as well."

Moka had an angry and disappointed look on her face, but she couldn't seem to stop her own blushing.

"As for you!"

Kokoa tensed as Akua turned towards her.

"She needs you more than I do."

"But Akua-nee…."

Akua smiled indulgently at their youngest sister.

"That's final. Remember, as the eldest, in father's absence I am head of the Shuzen Clan."

Then her countenance took on a serious expression.

"Not only must I find Father, but I must also start rebuilding our once great house."

Then she smiled at them again.

"I can best accomplish both tasks knowing you two are safe in the protective embrace of our New Dark Lord."

Her eyes fell again on Tsukune who looked stunned to hear her words.

"New…Dark Lord?"

His stunned whisper was interrupted by Akua addressing him directly.

"I trust I can place my imoutos once again in your protective…..embrace."

She smiled deviously as she spoke the last words.

Tsukune nodded back emphatically.

"I will always protect them, with my life."

"Good."

Moka, again with an angry expression, blushed even more profusely. That Kokoa mysteriously mimicked her Onee-sama's reaction didn't go unnoticed by the other girls present.

"Alright then."

With these words, the three sisters embraced.

"I will find our father, this I promise you."

As she pulled back from them she smiled lovingly at her sisters.

"He would have been very proud of both of you tonight."

She then took a deep breath before finishing her statement.

"I promise you both that you will get to hear those words from his own mouth, soon."

To everyone but Moka and Kokoa's surprise, their sister vanished before their eyes.

"WOW! What a woman."

Haiji's admiring words were released as Kokoa sat back down beside him.

"So….."

Kokoa looked up at him with suspicion before he continued.

"…is your Nee-san…seeing anyone?"

She could only squint at him in angry disbelief as the bus pulled off once more.

"No general, I'm sure it was exactly as your subordinate said."

The middle aged man behind the desk nodded calmly as he replied into the hand receiver.

"I'm sure you will. I look forward to reading the full report."

With those words, he placed the receiver back in its cradle.

He then leaned back in his chair, throwing his head back and closing his eyes in exasperation.

"You know, less than a few hours ago I was having a nice quiet dinner alone with my wife. Do you know how rare that is for me?"

His dark-suited companion on the other side of his desk responded calmly.

"For a man in your position Sir, I imagine that is very rare."

Without moving his head back from its leaned position or reopening his eyes, he spoke again.

"At least she'll understand why our date night was interrupted, this time. It's not every evening all Hell breaks loose."

"Thank the spirits of our ancestors for that."

With these words, the man behind the desk tilted his head forward and again leveled an appraising look at his mysterious companion.

"First, my nice, quiet dinner was interrupted when my military adviser said a giant object, thought to be a meteor, had slammed into Minato Mirai. Then there were reports of strange creatures fighting each other at the disaster site. Then there were more reports of other strange creatures fighting in every major city in the nation. Then there's a report of a massive "Godzilla" type creature rampaging through downtown Yokohama. Then the mystery 'angel' popped out of the damn thing and a blinding light and then the creature is gone without a trace."

He sighed as he stood slowly and walked towards the wall of windows that dominated the right side of his large office.

His eyes contained concern and weariness as he looked out towards a world that this very night he knew had been changed forever.

"In the middle of all these unbelievable events His Majesty calls me out of the blue and tells me he's sending me a 'subject matter expert' to help me with the crisis, and that I should take his advice to avoid further exacerbating the situation."

He then turned skeptical eyes on his companion.

"And here you are."

"And here I am."

He slowly returned to his seat and relaxed again as his companion looked at him with what seemed like mild sympathy.

"And I took your advice and called off the military pursuit, and just as you said they would, they escaped."

"They did."

The man clenched his jaw muscles in response to the far too calm demeanor of this stranger.

"Which you insist is for the best."

"It is Sir. The Japanese people and the world have had enough put on their plate to digest this evening. Adding more now would just further destabilize the situation."

He again looked off at the windows to his right.

"Our military leaders are, very politely, letting me know they think I'm a fool."

His companion sighed lightly with a knowing smile on his lips as he responded.

"They are operating in darkness. Their instinct is to attack first and question later. That would only serve to exacerbate the crisis in this situation."

He cut his eyes back to his companion before replying.

"So you say."

He folded his arms across his chest in frustration before giving voice to his concerns.

"As we speak the Japanese people, the people of the world, are terrified. Every world leader is blowing up my phone lines asking questions I don't have answers for."

He indicated all the red lights flashing on his desk telephone.

Next, he used his right index finger to point at the door in the far wall that led to the reception area for this office.

"On the other side of that door, every minister of the government is demanding answers from me too."

He let out a long sigh of frustration before continuing.

"And I'm sitting in here taking direct advice from only one man who I only met less than half an hour ago, and who's only official function in our government is Head of the Antiquities Research Department, Section Y, of the Imperial Household Agency."

Now he directed a scornful look at his still mildly smiling and far too calm companion.

"Why am I doing that?"

His companion, never losing his mild smile, flicked up his eyebrows before replying.

"I would imagine it is because His Majesty asked you to do so, which is an extremely rare event in and of itself."

An understatement of epic proportions. Since the end of the Pacific War, the Emperor has been a virtual figurehead. The current Emperor was quite scrupulous in maintaining his distance from government affairs. For him to do so now was extraordinary and unexpected.

It was the only reason this man was even in this office right now.

"And because, in this situation, you have nowhere else to turn for relevant information."

His probing eyes again fell on his enigmatic companion. After a long silence, he asked the obvious of this man.

"So, you have information for me?"

Without answering the man picked up his dark leather briefcase and gently placed it on the desk between them. He took out a flat, dark-colored box the size to hold sheets of paper and sat it beside the briefcase on the desk.

"What is this?"

He asked this as his companion took the box lid off and took out a dark-colored folder. He spoke finally as he turned it around and handed it over.

"A secret international agreement between most of the world's major nation-states on how to deal in a coordinated manner with unexpected extraordinary events. Its codename is the Uranus Accords. "

He furrowed his brows at the folder now in his hands.

"I've never heard of such a thing."

"Nor had many of your counterparts across the world until an hour or so ago."

This statement drew his suspicious gaze right to his unflappable companion.

"There are certain things that world leaders and politicians, in general, don't need to know about until they become an issue. Men like my predecessors and myself have been entrusted by previously lawfully enacted governments with maintaining this knowledge and preparing responses for situations just like this so that men such as yourself can go about your normal daily responsibilities without unnecessary additional burdens weighing you down."

He could feel the look of contempt he was sending his nonplused companion at that moment straining his facial muscles.

"Unnecessary additional burdens? Secret international agreements? Hidden government agencies? I don't like the sound of any of that."

"Understandable Sir."

Seeing his words hadn't relieved his companions concerns, the mysterious advisor provided background information.

"Bureaucracy is a necessary evil. Elected leaders cannot be expected to be subject matter experts on all things they have to deal with, so the bureaucracy serves to provide the knowledge and know how that elected leaders need, but only at the moment, they need it. I imagine as we speak my counterparts in the other major world governments are having similar conversations with their own equally concerned leaders."

He then turned his head and shrugged with a look on his face best described as "it can't be helped".

"However, since this event happened in our country, per this agreement, we must take the lead in dealing with it."

"And do what?"

The mystery man smiled benignly back as he spoke with a reassuring tone.

"Tell the world the truth, while trying to calm their fears."

He could only shake his head in bewilderment at how this conversation had turned.

"The truth? And what is the truth?"

His companion again reached into the box and removed another dark folder to hand to him.

"This is?"

He looked down at the second folder as his companion answered.

"Uranus Y-4."

He flicked his stern eyes again on his suddenly taciturn conversation partner.

"And that is?"

"Uranus Y-4 is disguised as the internationally agreed situational plan should the presence of extraterrestrial aliens be discovered by a significant population. A situation where information containment is no longer possible on any level."

His eyes went wide as saucers in disbelief. After a few quiet moments looking at the documents in the folder, he turned an incredulous look back on the strange advisor.

"Aliens? Are you telling me these are 'little green men' from outer space?"

His companion laughed mildly and shook his head from side to side.

"No Sir. As I said before, this is a disguise. A semi-believable rouse for public consumption should part or all of the Uranus Accords reach the public domain."

"So if they aren't aliens, what are they?"

For what he said next, the mystery man was far too calm indeed.

"Yokai."

Silence hung in the room for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, in a stunned voice, he broke this awkward silence.

"Monsters? For real? I'm supposed to get on nation-wide…..hell, worldwide television and tell the human race…..'monsters', DO exist?"

"No Sir."

He sighed, relieved, as he again looked at the papers.

"Good."

A moment later, he regretted allowing himself to relax.

"They aren't ready to learn that truth just yet."

He again looked at the unbelievably calm man with disbelief as the incredible situation was explained to him.

"Better to let the media do what they do best and trickle that news slowly out to the public over weeks or months, to prevent a general panic."

Again he directed skeptical eyes at the man across from him.

"You are serious?"

The man simply nodded and kept speaking.

"The existence of yokai in this nation has been a known fact for thousands of years."

"Known…by whom?"

"In this day and age, by those humans that either live with or work with them. Some humans even marry yokai."

"…..what?"

He could hear the stress in his own voice now. His companion had the tact to ignore such emotions though.

"In an official capacity though, the members of my section of the Household Agency Antiquities Department that has been responsible up until now for suppressing the public knowledge and evidence of their existence."

He then looked off towards the windows with a thoughtful look.

"And of course His Majesty, who learned of their existence like his noble predecessors shortly after their ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne."

He then redirected his eyes across the desk and didn't like what he saw. He apparently decided his bewildered companion needed more information.

"Some background might be relevant for you."

He then began to speak again in his far too calm voice.

"Before Japan reopened to outside influences, the previous all-internal version of this Accord was known as the Imperial Edict Concerning Yokai and Other Mysterious Creatures. Only after we began formal relations with other nations were we invited to participate in the preexisting previous agreements that existed on this before the Uranus Accords were promulgated as a successor agreement in the 1950's."

He rubbed at the bridge of his nose to relieve his tension as he continued to listen to this man's truly unbelievable story.

"Yokai, having experienced varying degrees of success or failure integrating with human society, in general, decided about five to three hundred years ago in this nation to mostly withdraw from human life. For most other nations this trend occurred much earlier. They were so successful at retreating or blending in that by the time of the Industrial Revolution, humanity as a whole had completely forgotten the truth of their existence and consigned them to the level of myths, save for a few of us charged with keeping the peace between these two worlds."

The man again looked wistfully out the window as he continued his explanation.

"Most yokai are genetically indistinguishable from humans. The markers in DNA that indicate their particular human subspecies are not recognized as such distinctions by current science."

"Human….subspecies? You mean they look like humans?"

Another unbelievable fact had reached his ears like a piercingly high sound.

"Yes, yokai are, genetically, a derivation of the species Homo Sapien. Most are also able to hide their 'distinguishing' features until needed. It's a very interesting adaptation. A form of genetic camouflage."

"HUMANS? They are humans?"

The man nodded calm confirmation.

"Essentially, on a genetic level, yes."

"I….can't believe any of this."

He said this in exasperation as he rested his forehead in his right hand.

"It's one of the main reasons the Imperial Household Agency rather infamously denies almost all research requests into imperial burial sites. These places have considerable evidence of yokai existence associated with them, from a time when humans and yokai interacted much more frequently."

He used the fingers and thumb of the hand he was resting his forehead in to rub at his temples. After a few moments, he sat back up and sent the strange advisor from the Emperor a probing look.

"So….."

A long pause followed, but he soon found his words again.

"…..Uranus Y-4?"

The mysterious man smiled and nodded his understanding of the question asked of him.

"The plan for reintroducing the human race to the concept that yokai do still exist, they aren't a myth, and they aren't out to kill us all."

He shook his head when he heard this.

"After tonight's events, that's going to be a hard sell. I'm not sure they aren't out to kill us all, how can I convince the rest of the world of something I myself am unsure of?"

His companion didn't seem to ever be phased by anything.

"We have taken that into account."

He reached into the shallow box again and took out a piece of paper, which he promptly handed across the desk.

Reading it, he couldn't help but be surprised by its contents.

"Is this….a speech?"

His companion solemnly nodded.

"Crafted by representatives of various world governments over decades of research and collaboration."

His eyes widened as he reached the end of the words on the page.

"My God! It's…..brilliant!"

His companion nodded again.

"It is designed to be exactly what the people of the world need to hear, from you, tonight, to mollify their fears and reassure them that the Government of Japan has the situation under full control."

After a slight pause, he continued.

"If I may suggest Sir, you should deliver that as soon as possible. Added time without comment from you will only lead to further speculation and increased fear among the populus."

He was still utterly bewildered by all this himself. The people surely must be at the tipping point if he didn't act quickly to reassure them.

"There's so much I still don't understand."

His companion took on a sincere expression as he replied.

"Yes Sir, but I am here to help you understand. I am here to answer your questions Sir and provide you with my advice. My section of the Antiquities Department is also here to get you answers to the questions we don't have immediate answers for."

He took a long breath and looked out the window again. Thoughts raced through his mind. Consequences of his actions tonight could have a profound effect on the future of mankind. Even its very existence.

Inaction though, at this critical moment, was inexcusable and dangerous.

He took another steadying breath and pushed a button on his phone that wasn't blinking red.

"Are they ready in the press room?"

A lady's voice replied. His public relations chief.

"Yes, Sir."

He closed his eyes as he responded.

"Tell them to alert the media. I will be making my broadcast to the nation in five minutes. No followup questions at this time."

"Understood Sir."

As the line went dead he slowly rose from his seat and picked the speech up from the desk in front of him. His new, mysterious advisor also stood.

He stepped around the desk but stopped at its front edge.

"And after this speech is delivered?"

He never took his eyes off the doorway towards his front as he asked this.

"I'd suggest we speak with the ministers of the government next, followed by the other world leaders."

All he could do was nod agreement. It was as sound way to deal with the situation as he could have possibly thought of in that moment. The ministers had to know what they needed to do next, and his world counterparts had to be informed of the situation.

Then he turned and again looked his companion in the eyes.

"And how long do I have you for?"

The man bowed as he spoke.

"As long as you need me, Mr. Prime Minister."

"Good."

He turned towards the door, took another deep breath, and began walking again as he spoke.

"Alright, let's do this."

His new mysterious advisor bowed again and followed behind him, ready to be of service to the leader of the nation.